Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Yunnan sprouting into nation's 'vegetable basket' 09:24, July 16, 2025 By Zhao Yimeng in Zhaotong, Yunnan ( China Daily Farmers pick apples at a production base of Zhaotong Chaoyue Agriculture in Zhao tong, Yunnan province. XU JING/FOR CHINA DAILY Long known for its breathtaking landscapes and ethnic diversity, Southwest China's Yunnan province is emerging as a national leader in specialty agriculture, transforming its once-impoverished rural regions into engines of economic renewal. From sweet apples in Zhaotong to traditional cured meats in Xuanwei and leafy vegetables in Luliang, the highlands are cultivating not only crops, but also opportunities for the 88 counties in the province that have been lifted out of poverty. Fruitful harvest Perched on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and located in the heartland of the Wumeng Mountains in the northeast of the province, Zhaotong was once a city with the largest impoverished population in China. Now, it is Southwest China's largest producer of apples thanks to its low latitude, high elevation, generous sunshine and dramatic daily temperature swings. These ideal growing conditions have made Zhaotong's apples sweet, crisp and nationally recognized. With nearly 66,700 hectares under cultivation, Zhaotong harvested 1.3 million metric tons of apples last year, generating a revenue of 15 billion yuan ($2.07 billion). The apple industry has directly benefited 138,000 households, touching the lives of over half a million residents, according to local officials. Two farmers divide apples of various sizes into different categories at an orchard in Zhaotong in September. CHEN XINBO/XINHUA In April of last year, apples from Zhaotong made headlines when they were included in the fresh food supply aboard the Shenzhou XVIII spacecraft. A major individual orchard in Zhaotong's Zhaoyang district covers 6,670 hectares with 118 apple varieties, one of the largest of its kind. Yang Longjiang, director of the district's industry development center, said advanced agricultural techniques learned from New Zealand and elsewhere are yielding world-class results. "The orchard applies dwarf root-stocks that yield fruit faster and uses an integrated drip irrigation system that can precisely deliver water and fertilizer, conserving precious resources," Yang said. "Combined with monthly wages from working at the base, we can earn 80,000 yuan a year and live a better life," said Ding Kaiwen, a former tobacco farmer who works in the orchards with his wife. Their family also receives an annual land lease payment of 14,400 yuan. The district's agricultural officials report that formerly impoverished households have seen average income increases of 4,800 yuan thanks to the apple boom. Branding has also played a crucial role in the success of the local apple industry. The Zhaoyang Red, one of the region's signature apple brands, has earned 93 green food and multiple organic certifications, paving the way for exports to the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and beyond. Premium supermarket chains such as Sam's Club and Freshippo stock Zhaotong apples, selling at 8 to 14 yuan per kilogram. Orchard tourism and fruit-picking festivals have also emerged to breathe new life into local economies. Cured meats are air-dried at a production base of local manufacturer Lap-Jon Ham in Xuanwei, Yunnan province. [Photo provided to CHINA DAILY] High-tech ham Xuanwei ham, a dry-cured specialty with a legacy dating back centuries, is another Yunnan food specialty that has found its place on the dinner tables of Chinese consumers. It sits alongside Italy's Parma ham and Spain's Iberico ham. In 2023, the pig farming and ham industry in Xuanwei generated over 18.5 billion yuan, producing nearly 70,000 tons of ham and lifting thousands of households out of poverty. Zhou Jianmei, quality control manager at leading brand Lap-Jon Ham, recalls the moment they realized tradition alone wouldn't be enough. "We knew the quality of our pigs was top-tier, but our production chain lagged behind Europe. So we went there to learn." Inspired by European models, Lap-Jon Ham invested 360 million yuan into advanced facilities, importing Italian fermentation systems and automating the aging process to allow year-round production. A modern factory capable of producing 3,200 tons of premium ham annually has been built, alongside salami and ham-filled pastries. Last year, the company reported an output value of 478 million yuan and created over 600 local jobs. "We learned from the refined, standardized production processes abroad and adapted them to the unique characteristics of Xuanwei ham," Zhou said. According to government data, over two-thirds of Xuanwei's 330,000 rural households are involved in pig farming. Their average incomes rose by 28,100 yuan in 2023, while 36,000 families previously living in poverty saw an average annual increase of 4,300 yuan. Six "ham manors" in the city have further boosted income for 2,800 households and created more than 500 jobs, with average monthly wages hitting 4,500 yuan. Zhou said the primary challenge now is popularization. While beloved in parts of southern China where cured meat has long been a traditional delicacy, Xuanwei ham remains unfamiliar in the country's north. "When you mention 'ham' in the north, many people still think of processed sausage," she said, adding that better awareness among Chinese consumers in the future is expected to expand the market. A farmer harvests Chinese broccoli at a plantation in Luliang, Yunnan province, in January last year. WANG YONG/FOR CHINA DAILY Leafy ambitions The agricultural reinvention of Yunnan extends to the vast, fertile plains of Luliang county in Qujing, the largest flatland on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. The unique geography and climate of the county in the east of the province have made it an agricultural powerhouse, and the thriving vegetable industry is feeding cities across China and reaching tables as far away as Dubai. With 6,000 hectares of cultivated land yielding 2.45 million tons of vegetables in 2023, Luliang generated 7 billion yuan, nearly half the county's total agricultural output. The region has an average annual temperature of 15.2 C, a frost-free period of 335 days, fertile soil and abundant water resources, making year-round production of vegetables possible. "Thanks to these favorable natural conditions, we can grow a wide variety of fresh, eco-friendly vegetables all year round," said Zhang Raofang, deputy director of Luliang's agriculture and rural affairs bureau. Italian lettuce, romaine, napa cabbage and Shanghai bok choy are among the stars of the leafy industry. About 93 percent of its harvest is shipped to markets from Beijing to Dubai, Zhang said. Advanced infrastructure has contributed to the success of the industry. Home to Southwest China's largest cold-chain logistics park, the county dispatches 10,000 tons of vegetables daily, serving the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and elsewhere. In 2023, its import-export vegetable trade reached $5.16 million, a 237 percent year-on-year increase. "The lettuce grown here is thick, crisp and of excellent quality," said Zhang Zixiong, chairman of Yunnan Yuanheng Agricultural Development Corp. His company manages 180 hectares and works with local farmers on another 1,333 hectares. Farmers reap seasonal vegetables in a field in Luliang in May. WANG YONG/XINHUA The company recently expanded its export markets to Southeast Asia and the Middle East and has hired young college graduates majoring in foreign languages to help manage its business overseas. Huang Hongdong, a major vegetable producer in the county, cultivates 6.67 hectares of Chinese arrowhead (Sagittaria sagittifolia), an aquatic tuber known as ciguin Chinese. "Half of our products now go to Malaysia. They really value the taste and quality," Huang said. The vegetable industry employs 210,000 people in Luliang, from planting and processing to packaging and transport, boosting average household incomes by over 28,000 yuan a year, according to Zhang from the agriculture bureau. As demand for safe, high-quality vegetables grows, Luliang is playing a greater role in both China's national "vegetable basket" and the global food supply chain, he added. This year marks the final stage of a five-year transition period aimed at consolidating the gains made in poverty alleviation and ensuring a seamless shift toward rural vitalization. By cultivating high-quality agricultural specialties and expanding access to broader markets, residents in some of Yunnan's formerly poor regions have not only emerged from poverty but are embracing sustainable opportunities for long-term improvement in their lives. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Forefront Books and Histria Books are pleased to announce a landmark publishing partnership with the formation of a new joint venture, Unified Publishing Group (UPG). Through UPG, Forefront and Histria have made a strategic investment in the UK-based Unicorn Publishing Group , acquiring a majority stake. This partnership represents a bold step toward expanding the global footprint of all three organizations. Directors of Unicorn Publishing Group, Forefront Books and Histria Books Leadership of the newly formed group will include Jonathan Merkh, President and CEO of Forefront Books, as CEO of UPG; Dr. Kurt Brackob, Director of Histria Books, as COO; David Howell, Forefront's CFO, as CFO of UPG; and Lord Strathcarron, Chairman of Unicorn Publishing Group, who will continue in his current role. "This investment is built on a shared vision for quality publishing, international collaboration, and long-term cultural impact," said Merkh. "We are thrilled to join forces with these respected names in publishing with a common goal to deliver powerful, meaningful books to readers worldwide." The Fisher Company , a leading consultancy specializing in international mergers and acquisitions, brokered the deal. Through this alliance, Unicorn Publishing Group titles will now be distributed in the U.S. market through Simon & Schuster , Forefront's distribution partner. Additionally, both Forefront and Histria will gain an expanded international reach in the UK and beyond. The three publishers also plan to collaborate on co-publishing projects, combining editorial expertise and market insight. "This partnership reflects Histria Books' commitment to building cultural bridges through publishing," said Dr. Brackob. "By joining forces with Unicorn and Forefront, we are not only expanding our international footprint but also laying the foundation for long-term growth rooted in editorial excellence, shared values, and a deep respect for the power of books to shape ideas across borders." Lord Strathcarron added, "We are grateful for this opportunity to expand Unicorn's presence in the American market while continuing our mission to produce beautiful books of lasting value. It's an honour to collaborate with Forefront and Histria on this international endeavour." With distinct strengths and a united vision, Forefront, Histria, and Unicorn are positioned to champion bold ideas, elevate new voices, and shape the future of publishing across markets and genres. Further developments in global distribution and market strategy are expected and will be announced in the coming months as Unified Publishing Group continues to expand its global platform. About Forefront Books Forefront Books is a unique publishing company that caters to the most successful men and women in their respective fields - the thought leaders, the visionaries, the pioneers, the business owners, and the entrepreneurs who have a compelling story to tell - and delivers a world-class end result from a team which has helped create more than sixty New York Times bestsellers, including six number one bestsellers. Forefront Books has been recognized as one of the top five fastest-growing independent publishers for the last three years in a row. To learn more about Forefront Books, visit www.forefrontbooks.com . About Histria Books Histria Books is an independent publishing house dedicated to producing exceptional books that inform, inspire, and endure. With a growing catalogue spanning history, politics, the arts, and academic scholarship, Histria also publishes compelling fiction across key genres, including historical fiction, romance, and science fiction. Rooted in a commitment to editorial excellence and cultural relevance, Histria Books champions diverse voices and ideas that transcend boundaries. Named after the ancient city of Histriaa historic center of culture and commerce on the Black Sea coastHistria Books carries forward the legacy of its namesake by publishing works that enrich and engage readers around the world. To learn more, visit www.histriabooks.com . About Unicorn Publishing Group Unicorn Publishing Group (UPG) is a leading independent UK publisher, specialising with its Unicorn imprint in the visual arts and cultural history. Unicorn Sales & Distribution is UPG's and its client publishers' marketing arm, with worldwide sales and distribution operations. UPG has its design and production studio in Lewes, Sussex, its corporate base in London and its major distribution centres in Milton Keynes and Chicago. To learn more, visit www.unicornpublishing.org . SOURCE Forefront Books Prosecutors laid out their case against Larry Bollin on Tuesday, calling several witnesses present the day Bollin is accused of murdering one Kent Moore Cabinets coworker and shooting five others in April 2021. After a jury was empaneled Monday, prosecutors gave their opening statement Tuesday in front of Judge Kyle Hawthorne at the 85th District Courthouse in Bryan. Bollin sat to the side of the courtroom near his defense attorney, Craig Graves, while Brazos County District Attorney Jarvis Parsons and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Hebert told jurors that Bollin murdered Timothy Smith at the Kent Moore Cabinets warehouse in Bryan on April 8, 2021. Bollin also faces five counts of aggravated assault for the five coworkers wounded in the attack. Hebert provided the background of the shooting, telling jurors how Bollin shot Smith and the others. She said it wasnt a case of sudden passion or self-defense. Hebert laid out the ways that Bollin had shattered the lives of the men he wounded before introducing the witnesses. The prosecution called nine witnesses to the stand during eight hours of testimony, including Officer Steven Brown and Sgt. Brent Snyder of the Bryan Police Department. Brown testified that he was booking a DUI suspect in the county jail when the call came in of the shooting. He told the jury that as he drove to the location he was concerned because of the locations proximity to Jane Long Intermediate School. When he reached Kent Moore Cabinets, he learned the shooter had left and Brown stepped in to help provide aid to the victims. Brown testified he had served as a Navy corpsman in the Marines so was familiar with aiding gunshot wound victims. Snyder was one of the first officers to reach the scene and described going into the warehouse and finding employees trying to resuscitate Smith and giving aid to another victim, Nathan Whited. With the shooter gone, Snyder realized it would be easier to carry victims to the ambulances than to try and get medical equipment into the crowded assembly line floor. Snyder and a few employees carried an unconscious Smith out. Nathan Whiteds brother, Randy Whited, was one of those assisting with first aid, even picking up his injured brother and leading him to the waiting ambulances. Randy testified that as he rendered aid to his brother, he kept speaking to him to try and keep him alert. Kyle Cleveland, network administrator at Kent Moore Cabinets, testified about surveillance footage taken in the warehouse that shows Bollin shoot Smith and five others. Travis County Medical Examiner Dr. Keith Pinkard took the stand to discuss Smiths autopsy findings and describe the wounds Smith sustained. Pinkard said Smith suffered four perforated wounds, meaning there was an entry and exit by each bullet. In the afternoon session, Texas State Trooper Juan Tovar took the stand and testified how he ended up in Iola face to face with Bollin at Bollins parents house. Tovar, who at the time was based out of Madison County, mentioned how he had driven past his home on the way to Iola and said to himself hed be home soon as he was nearing the end of his shift. Instead, Tovar says Bollin shot him in the left eye. Tovar was able to back his vehicle to cover and returned fire as Bollin fled the scene. Tovar, now part of the recruiting division for the Texas Department of Public Safety in San Antonio, has a glass eye which he showed to the jury during his testimony. State Trooper Matthew Gorman, based out of Washington County, testified that he and another state trooper were able to stop Bollin on a road in Grimes County. Gorman testified that, at first, he worried they had stopped the wrong man as Bollin had followed every order from the troopers. Eventually they confirmed it was Bollin and apprehended him. Gormans search of Bollin turned up several magazines of ammunition for a rifle as well as a Derringer pistol, two pocket knives and a pair of brass knuckles. Texas Ranger Joseph Dreaden also testified to what they found inside Bollins vehicle. In the front seat was a semi-automatic pistol and a rifle and there were five more rifles in the back seat as well as a box of ammunition and a bag full of ammunition. The two combined containers of ammunition contained over 800 bullets, Dreaden said. Cristian Santiago, an uninjured Kent Moore employee, was the final witness. Santiago was standing on the assembly line with several of the victims, including Whited and Smith, when Bollin came in and opened fire. In his testimony, Santiago described how the shooting happened quickly and Smith just dropped to the floor. Some employees werent sure how to react, Santiago said, because some of the machines in the warehouse are loud and occasionally make sounds similar to gunshots. Santiago remarked he isnt sure how he wasnt hit by any of the bullets. The prosecution is expected to wrap up its portion of the case Wednesday morning and the defense is expected to give its opening statement and present its case in the afternoon. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Zip Code 16/07/2025 Everton have officially announced the signing of Katie Robinson on loan from Aston Villa, with an option to buy the player permanently. Robinson has become the sixth signing of the summer for the Toffees who have also brought in Spain Under-23s forward Ornella Vignola, promising Netherlands midfielder Rosa van Gool and a trio of Japan internationals: Rion Ishikawa, Hikaru Kitagawa and Yuka Momiki. To be able to play here at Goodison is unbelievable, the 22-year-old told the club website. What an amazing, historic stadium. I can't wait for that! The club are really investing in the womens team, I think that shows a lot. The forward also mentioned that conversations with manager Brian Sorensen helped her take the decision to come to Merseyside. I had some really good conversations with the manager, Brian. I am really excited to get going and give my all for the club. Those conversations definitely helped. He is very clear on his identity for the team. That is really important for me to be a part of a club that has that clear vision. It made me really excited to be a part of it. Hopefully, the style of Everton can suit my play, too. Having graduated from Bristol Citys youth academy, she moved to Womens Super League side Brighton and Hove Albion in 2020 and quickly started making a name for herself. She made her debut for Sarina Wiegmans England side against Norway in November 2022 and spent four years at Brighton before joining Aston Villa last summer. Meanwhile, Veatriki Sarri has left Everton to join Birmingham City. The winger, signed last year, arrived from Brighton and Hove Albion and scored her first goal for the Blues against Aston Villa in January. Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer () How to get rid of these ads and support TW ToffeeWeb Turkeys spectacular city statues raise questions about art and corruption. From Global Voices. Turkey is known for its plethora of historical sights and impressive monuments that offer visitors plenty to see and explore, but few are aware of the spectacular city statues standing at the entrance of Turkeys provinces and city centers. All across the country, one can spot eclectic statues of a garlic clove, a rooster, meatballs, local desserts, walnuts, pottery, and much more, symbolizing whatever that province is famous for. The most recent addition to the list of bizarre statues a child inside of a watermelon that was placed in Turkeys Diyarbakir province in May. Created in honor of the regions watermelons and the tradition of photographing babies in carved-out watermelons to highlight the size of the fruit, the statue, sparked criticism online and triggered a debate around Turkeys penchant for bizarre statues and their hefty price tags. According to news website Gazete Duvar, one social media user asked the municipality to reveal the cost of the bizarre artwork, as well as the statue of a man displaying a local sweet that was unveiled at the same time. The municipality is currently run by a government-appointed trustee, who is known for extravagant spending without any transparency. The watermelon statue in Diyarbakir reportedly cost 4.4 million Turkish Lira ($517,000). This is not the first time when the costs for erected statues have been questioned. In the Turkish province of Amasya, the local mayor was quick to defend a statue of an Ottoman prince taking a selfie when an opposition politician grumbled about the waste of public funds. In 2015, the three-meter-high, ten-meter-long T-Rex statue erected in Turkeys capital Ankara reportedly cost 10 million Turkish Lira (with the currency exchange rate at the time, about $4 million). The T-Rex replaced a controversial Transformers statue both statues were commissioned by the citys then-mayor and eccentric member of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Melih Gokcek. The robot statue was erected as part of a promotion campaign for the AnkaPark theme park (also known as the Wonderland Eurasia park). The park, which featured robots and dinosaurs was commissioned by Gokcek and cost around $750 million, according to Ahval news. But Gokcek never made it to its opening, as he was forced to step down in 2017. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who attended the opening of the park in March 2019, described it as a symbol of pride for Turkey. But the symbol of pride never lived up to its expectation, as the park was forced to shut down in February 2020 when the company charged with its management failed to pay its electricity bills. The budget for these statues is not transparent, and is often associated with corruption at the local government level. In an interview with the BBC, Turkish city planner Meltem Parlak said that, in order for the process to be transparent, the municipality should first consult with a sculpture maker, or organize an open contest, and then make a decision. Instead, municipalities simply assign certain companies in a so-called tender, creating an environment for corruption. Most of these statues are commissioned through private companies, according to the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper. But not one of the organizations contacted by the paper was willing to claim a specific statue. Instead, they too blame the municipalities for the poor work that damages the reputation of the companies. Municipalities are not paying attention. They should consult with an artist, hire a consultant. But they dont. As a result, we are also criticized, said Yakup Kocak, the owner of a small studio that provides made-to-order sculptures. Former dean of the Marmara University Fine Arts and founder of Baksi Museum Husamettin Kocan also agrees that authorized institutions have a responsibility to seek out experienced, trained artists. If we care about the contribution of art to the city, the authorities must accept that the subject of art and aesthetics is a field of expertise and act accordingly, he told Hurriyet in an interview. So far, there is little responsibility or accountability for the spending or the aesthetics of such statues, which are likely to continue to trigger jokes and criticism. Arzu Geybullayeva is a columnist and writer focusing on digital authoritarianism and its implications on human rights and press freedom in Azerbaijan. This article was originally published by Global Voices. Reprinted with permission. CALGARY, AB, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Frontera Energy Corporation (TSX: FEC) ("Frontera" or the "Company") announces that the Company has taken up and paid for 7,583,333 of its outstanding common shares (the "Shares") at a price of $12.00 per Share (the "Purchase Price") under its substantial issuer bid pursuant to which the Company offered to purchase from shareholders for cancellation up to $91 million (equivalent to approximately US$65 million) of Shares (the "Offer"). All dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. Gabriel de Alba, Chairman of the Board commented: "With the completion of this Offer, Frontera has returned more than US$144 million to shareholders over the last twelve-month period, through its substantial issuer bids, dividends and share repurchases. With an over 90% consistent participation rate, the Companys capital distribution strategy has proven effective and well received by our shareholders. Frontera remains committed to its strategy of unlocking and returning value to its shareholders. The Company will continue to consider similar investor-focused initiatives in 2025 and beyond, including potential additional dividends, distribution, share or bond buybacks based on the overall results of the businesses, oil prices, cash flow generation and potential strategic transactions involving the Infrastructure business." The Shares taken up and paid for by the Company represent approximately 9.77% of the total number of Frontera's issued and outstanding Shares as at July 10, 2025. The aggregate Purchase Price is equal to approximately $91,000,000. After the cancellation of the Shares taken up and paid for by the Company, Frontera anticipates that approximately 70.06 million Shares will be issued and outstanding. 71,923,788 Shares were validly tendered and not withdrawn. Since the Offer was oversubscribed, the tendered Shares will be purchased on a pro rata basis. Shareholders who tendered will have approximately 10.54% of their tendered Shares purchased by the Company. Payment for Shares taken up by the Company under the Offer will be effected by Computershare Investor Services Inc., the depositary for the Offer, on July 18, 2025, in accordance with the Offer and applicable law. Any Shares not taken up, including such Shares not taken up as a result of proration or as a result of being invalidly tendered, will be returned to shareholders as soon as practicable. To assist shareholders in determining the tax consequences of the Offer, Frontera estimates that based on the estimated paid-up capital of $14.91 per Share at July 10, 2025, shareholders who disposed of Shares pursuant to the Offer may not be deemed to receive a taxable dividend. Shareholders should consult with their own tax advisors with respect to the income tax consequences of the disposition of their Shares under the Offer. The terms and conditions of the Offer are described in the offer to purchase and issuer bid circular dated June 2, 2025, letter of transmittal and notice of guaranteed delivery, copies of which were filed and are available without charge on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. This news release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to buy or the solicitation of an offer to sell Shares. About Frontera Frontera Energy Corporation is a Canadian public company involved in the exploration, development, production, transportation, storage and sale of oil and natural gas in South America, including related investments in both upstream and midstream facilities. The Company has a diversified portfolio of assets with interests in 22 exploration and production blocks in Colombia, Ecuador and Guyana, and pipeline and port facilities in Colombia. Frontera is committed to conducting business safely and in a socially, environmentally and ethically responsible manner. If you would like to receive News Releases via email as soon as they are published, please subscribe here: http://fronteraenergy.mediaroom.com/subscribe. Social Media Follow Frontera's social media channels at the following links: Twitter: https://twitter.com/fronteraenergy?lang=en Facebook: https://es-la.facebook.com/FronteraEnergy/ LinkedIn: https://co.linkedin.com/company/frontera-energy-corp . Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements as to Frontera's commitment to generate value to shareholders and actions to unlock value for shareholders, the timing of payment for the Shares taken up under the Offer, the number of Shares issued and outstanding after the cancellation of the Shares taken up and paid for by the Company, the return of Shares not purchased under the Offer and whether shareholders who disposed of Shares pursuant to the Offer may not be deemed to receive a taxable dividend. Any such forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and are based on assumptions and analyses made by us in light of our experience and our perception of historical trends and current market and other conditions. Readers should also refer to the risk factors set forth in the Company's annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2024, dated March 10, 2025, and the management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, dated May 8, 2025, both available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which forward-looking statements are based will be realized. Actual results may differ, and the difference may be material and adverse to the Company and its shareholders. 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San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe THE Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) is expected to generate US$100 million in confirmed sales this year, signalling renewed momentum in regional and international deal-making, according to Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) president Dale Parson. And that might be a little bit modest, judging from the number of booths and the amount of activity and interest on the floor, Parson told the Sunday Express Business while speaking from the trade floor at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya. CHAIRMAN Emeritus of the Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society George Laquis has called on stakeholders to focus on the well-being of the nations children, whether through healthier lifestyles, education or security. Laquis expressed concern for many of the countrys young people, and yesterday said everything must be done to ensure their future. - GL-IL2-138 is a small molecule RNA agent that modulates natural IL-2, allowing for downregulating or upregulating the immune system to fight devastating diseases - Potential to unite Humira-grade inflammation control and Keytruda-class anti-cancer power in a single pill, without the drawbacks NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Genetic Leap, a clinical stage, AI-native biotech pioneering RNA genetic therapeutics, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for GL-IL2-138, the company's small-molecule modulator of natural interleukin-2 (IL-2). IL-2 is a pleiotropic cytokine that regulates the careful homeostatic balance between immune tolerance and activation. The tremendous potential of IL-2 to address multiple major diseases is universally recognized. Recombinant IL-2 protein (rIL-2) was the first FDA-approved immunotherapy proven effective against cancer at high dose, though toxicity has historically limited its use. And low dose rIL-2 is clinically effective in autoimmune and neurodegeneration diseases. But numerous attempts by pharma companies to remove toxicity from rIL-2 muteins have flopped, earning IL-2 its reputation as an impossible target. Genetic Leap addressed this herculean challenge by developing a small molecule drug that binds endogenous IL-2 mRNA to drive controlled, systemic production of natural IL-2 protein by immune cells, which has many advantages over rIL-2 including: Superior potency and durability Oral dosing with high tolerability Broad "pipeline-in-a-pill" potential across oncology, immunology (I&I), and neurodegeneration "We created the Genetic Leap AI platform to deliver breakthroughs like GL-IL2-138," said Dr. Bertrand Adanve, Founder and CEO of Genetic Leap. "Innovative medicine that defies known scientific limitations, like a sci-fi drug made real. GL-IL2-138 is like combining Humira (leading autoimmune biologic) and Keytruda (leading cancer biologic) into one oral pill without the downsides and applicable to even more diseases. GL-IL2-138 is poised to be a giant leap for human health, and Genetic Leap is the company making it happen." The drug will now be tested in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 1 clinical trial to evaluate its tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics in humans. About Genetic Leap Genetic Leap is innovating at the cutting edge of AI and RNA genetic therapeutics to redefine drug development and more quickly address the health needs of millions of people. For more information, please visit www.genetic-leap.com or our LinkedIn. For Media Inquiries: [email protected] SOURCE Genetic Leap WE have clearly reached the tipping point in this socially decaying society that I have warned about for the last ten years in my Express columns, unheeded by the Rowley administrations. Our present plight is lucidly reflected in the words of the Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar who after having the present state of emergency (SoE) declared by the President, spoke with resolve. Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic primary to represent Arizonas 7th Congressional District, a seat held by her father, the late Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) for years. Her two top opponents Deja Foxx, a Gen-Z influencer, and Daniel Hernandez, a former state lawmaker conceded less than an hour after early election results showed Grijalva with a sizable lead, about 62 percent of the early vote. She led Foxx by about 40 points when the Associated Press and other news outlets called the race Tuesday night. She will face Daniel Butierez, a painting company owner who won the GOP primary with about 60 percent of the vote, in a Sept. 23 special election for heavily-Democratic district. Speaking to supporters at a watch party Tuesday night, Grijalva said her campaign was about "the importance of giving voice to this community." "It was not about social media likes. It was about knocking on doors, face-to-face with community members, having real conversations about what's important ... I stand on the shoulders of giants, and I am so thankful that my dad taught us all that this is how you do this work. This is how you get this done. And if you look at the results, that what that says," she said. "Someone made me cry at least once a day, every day. And what it was is that, I would go up to doors, and people would say, 'your dad helped my dad,' or 'you came into my classroom and read to my kids.' I think being present in our community is important." Ahead of results being released, Grijalva told the Star that while there are ups and downs in any race, this one was a little different. "I've never run a race where Im just like in mourning. So it's been an adjustment, that part . . . It's been very humbling. So many people have been so supportive, Grijalva said. After the results were clear, Grijalva imparted a lesson on her supporters that her dad gave her. You know, my dad said you have to hit the ground running, and you can cry later. So that's what we're going to do now," she said. "We're going to cry later, and I want to cry after I win, as my mom reminded me. So that would be September 23." Eddie Barron, who volunteered for Grijalva, said the emotions swirling around her watch party is fueled by community. We were told that young people were not going to show up in this race, but we are seeing the numbers, and we are seeing that people who are who are rooted here, candidates who are rooted here, can win with a youth led coalition, Barron said. We were out every weekend, canvassing. We called. We were making phone calls until the polls closed. And there's so much excitement for what's happening right now, and this community should feel very proud of the person they just elected. Jenalyn Lazana, a National Guard veteran, said she is supporting Grijalva because she sees hope and inspiration, and leadership and courage in her. Foxx collected about 21% of the vote. She declined to talk to reporters at her midtown Tucson gathering of nearly 100 supporters and initially tried to deliver a concession speech via Zoom even though she was in another part of the property. Foxx on Wednesday posted a statement on social media. "While results arent what we hoped for I couldnt be prouder of what we built together," she wrote online. "For so many, this was your first time getting involved in politicsand let me tell you: you made a difference. You made calls, knocked doors, donated what you could. You believed in something bigger than yourself, you believed change was possible. That hope will carry on far past this election." She went on to offer her support to Grijalva. Before the result was known, supporter Kyle Brantley, a fellow with the Institute for Common Power, told the Star he flew into Arizona to help the Foxx campaign. I flew all the way from South Carolina here to knock on doors with Deja. In fact, me and a couple of my other colleagues flew all across the country to come here to knock on doors for Deja, to get out the vote to turn a new page on the old everlasting legacy of how one type of party, and we get a new page of a new progressive, Brantley said. I support Deja because she brings a new breath of life into this party, to the Democratic Party, and she has proven time and time again that she's a fighter, that she's willing to fight for the things that we and that all of us as a community see as a basic human right, said Brantley, one of dozens of people at Foxxs results party. Daniel Hernandez had about 14% of the vote. In a statement soon after the first results were posted, Hernandez congratulated Grijalva on her victory. "I want to congratulate Adelita Grijalva on her victory tonight and encourage everyone who supported me to unite behind (her) in September," Hernandez said. "We must come together to protect Arizona from the extremism of the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress." "The fight doesnt end here. As a lifelong Arizonan, Ill continue to work for the people of our state for access to healthcare, strong public schools, and equal rights for all," he said. Indigenous activist and scholar Jose Malvido Jr.; and retired health care executive Patrick Harris Sr. each collected less than 2% of the vote, the Arizona Secretary of State's election page showed. Butierez wins GOP nod Daniel Butierez easily won the three-candidate Republican primary. He collected nearly 61% of the vote. Dozens of people attended Butierez's watch party at a restaurant on Tucson's south side. After getting through security, supporters found Delicias Mexican Grill draped in red, white and blue decorations. There was plenty of food and three cakes with Hope, Unity and Community inscribed on them. Butierez, sporting an all-beige suit and cowboy hat, was confident well before the results started to roll in. He cited his cross-party appeal. Theres a whole lot of Democrats that align with Republicans and a whole lot of Republicans that align with Democrats," he said. "There's little differences that separate people." "When I walked out of prison, it felt like I had walked into a bigger prison. What they did in prison was divide us by race, by religion," Butierez said. "So when I walked out of prison, I saw our government was doing the same thing to the people out here in the community that the prisons were doing to the inmates in prison . . . So I realized we got to bring everybody together, or were never going to get anything done." Butierez told the Star ahead of results that Grijalva should win the Democratic primary because they're both locals. It should be the hometown boy against the hometown girl, he said. Deja, shes not hispanic. Shes caucasian and Filipino. She's got no hispanic in her, and were 60% Hispanic, so thats going to hurt her . . . but other than that shes got a high IQ. Eric Neilson, attending the watch party, said that he was supporting Butierez because his story is different than most political candidates. If he wins, itll be better for the community and his constituents will get better service in Congress, Neilson said. Grijalva occupied that seat for 22 years. Don't know the guy, but, you know, he passed away, God bless his soul. But I know Democrats that didnt like him. He just took care of his family, plus, he was voted the most left-wing progressive politician in all of Congress a few times. So we don't need that as a community. We're all Americans. Butierez beat Jimmy Rodriguez, an off-road vehicle businessman who collected about 25% of the vote, and Jorge Rivas, a restaurant owner, who received 14% of the vote. Nearly 439,000 people are registered to vote in Congressional District 7, the Secretary of States election results page shows. As of Monday, 261,613 of those were in Pima County, according to the Pima County Recorders Office. In Pima County, Democrats have a 2-1 majority compared to Republicans. Of the 261,613 registered voters, 110,467 are Democrats and 54,323 are registered Republicans. But the second-largest voting bloc are in fact independent voters, of which there are 92,305. Fewer than 70,000 votes were cast in Tuesday's primary, making voter turnout about 16%. Photos: District 7 special election primary race PHOENIX Schools arent responsible for keeping students safe when theyre en route to school or even just outside the school boundaries the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. Schools are liable for providing safe conditions when students are on campus or, at the very least, exercising custody or control over them, the justices said in a unanimous decision. But Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer said thats not the case when a student is injured while crossing the street even one adjacent to the school. Timmer acknowledged that the Phoenix Union High School District was aware that some parents, seeking to avoid lines, were dropping their youngsters off in a dirt lot across the street from the school. And, in this case, the student was struck by a vehicle while jaywalking across that street, as there was no crosswalk there. She said none of that, however, creates any sort of legal duty on the school to protect the student from danger. Tuesdays ruling sets a new statewide precedent. Timmer said the justices have never addressed this situation before. In fact, the decision overturns a contrary ruling by the state Court of Appeals, which had concluded the students parents did have a right to sue. The student, identified only as CJ, was a freshman at Betty Fairfax High School in Laveen, according to court records. The area around the school in the morning was hectic, according to Timmer, with some parents dropping their kids off in the parking lot adjacent to the school. But other parents, seeking to avoid the line into the school grounds, pulled into a dirt lot across 59th Avenue, with the students jaywalking across the street to campus. BFHS officials did not tell parents to drop their children off at the dirt lot, the justice wrote. But they were aware of the practice and did nothing to stop or warn parents or students that the practice was unsafe. CJ, in jaywalking in August 2021, was struck by a vehicle and suffered serious and permanent injuries. His father, in filing a lawsuit, claimed the district had some control over whether to pursue safer options for students coming and going from school ground or, at least warn students of the traffic dangers. Whats clear in the law, Timmer wrote, is that while schools have a duty to protect students, that is not without limits. A school owes a duty to protect students when a known and tangible risk of harm endangers them while under the schools custody and control, she wrote. That duty exists most often when students are injured while at school or participating in off-campus school-sponsored activities. But she said there are rarer circumstances where a duty to protect students exists while a student is under the custody and control but an injury occurs while the student is outside that custody and control. That she said, was not the case here. Timmer said all the evidence was that the high school had reasonably safe means if ingress and egress, with multiple entrances and exits for pedestrians and vehicles. And she said nothing about these created a tangible risk of harm that endangered CJ and resulted in his injuries. More to the point, Timmer said, while a risk of harm from jaywalking existed in front of the school it existed everywhere along the routes students take from home to school. Put another way, she said the risk was not created by the configuration of entrances and exists but from the fact that crossing a street outside a crosswalk creates the risk of being hit by a car. And she said the fact that traffic backed up on 59th Avenue due to drivers wanting to go into the parking lot did not make the ingress and egress at the school unreasonably dangerous. CJ was not entering BFHS at the time of the accident; he was traveling to a school entrance, Timmer wrote. This is a distinction with a meaningful difference, she said. SAN DIEGO, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP announces that purchasers or acquirers of Hims & Hers Health, Inc. (NYSE: HIMS) securities between April 29, 2025 and June 23, 2025, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), have until Monday, August 25, 2025 to seek appointment as lead plaintiff of the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit. Captioned Sookdeo v. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., No. 25-cv-05315 (N.D. Cal.), the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit charges Hims & Hers as well as certain of Hims & Hers' top executives with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. A subsequently filed complaint is captioned Yaghsizian v. Hims & Hers Health, Inc., No. 25-cv-05321 (N.D. Cal.). If you suffered substantial losses and wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit, please provide your information here: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases-hims-hers-health-inc-class-action-lawsuit-hims.html You can also contact attorneys J.C. Sanchez or Jennifer N. Caringal of Robbins Geller by calling 800/449-4900 or via e-mail at [email protected]. CASE ALLEGATIONS: Hims & Hers is a telehealth company that provides prescription medications, over-the-counter medications, and personal care products. According to the complaint, on April 29, 2025, Hims & Hers announced a long-term collaboration with Novo Nordisk A/S, starting with the immediate sale of "a bundled offering of Novo Nordisk's FDA-approved Wegovy on the Hims & Hers platform." The Hims & Hers class action lawsuit alleges that defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Hims & Hers was engaged in the "deceptive promotion and selling of illegitimate, knockoff versions of Wegovy that put patient safety at risk"; and (ii) as a result, there was a substantial risk that Hims & Hers' collaboration with Novo Nordisk would be terminated. The Hims & Hers class action lawsuit further alleges that on June 23, 2025, Novo Nordisk issued a press release announcing that it was terminating its partnership with Hims & Hers "based on Hims & Hers deceptive promotion and selling of illegitimate, knockoff versions of Wegovy that put patient safety at risk." On this news, the price of Hims & Hers stock fell more than 34%, according to the complaint. THE LEAD PLAINTIFF PROCESS: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased or acquired Hims & Hers securities during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff in the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit. A lead plaintiff is generally the movant with the greatest financial interest in the relief sought by the putative class who is also typical and adequate of the putative class. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice to litigate the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff of the Hims & Hers class action lawsuit. ABOUT ROBBINS GELLER: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is one of the world's leading law firms representing investors in securities fraud and shareholder litigation. Our Firm has been ranked #1 in the ISS Securities Class Action Services rankings for four out of the last five years for securing the most monetary relief for investors. In 2024, we recovered over $2.5 billion for investors in securities-related class action cases more than the next five law firms combined, according to ISS. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller is one of the largest plaintiffs' firms in the world, and the Firm's attorneys have obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history, including the largest ever $7.2 billion in In re Enron Corp. Sec. Litig. Please visit the following page for more information: https://www.rgrdlaw.com/services-litigation-securities-fraud.html Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Services may be performed by attorneys in any of our offices. Contact: Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP J.C. Sanchez, Jennifer N. Caringal 655 W. Broadway, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101 800-449-4900 [email protected] SOURCE Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP In 14 states that made abortion all but impossible to obtain after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women seeking to end a pregnancy had to drive four times further on average 11.3 hours, up from 2.8 hours. People are spending a lot of time in their cars, said Diana Greene Foster, a demographer and professor at the University of California San Francisco. They take more time off work, they spend more money and it takes them longer in pregnancy to get their abortion. Foster co-authored a recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health that studied impacts of the June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization. Arizona had a 15-week ban in place for most of the last three years. Last November, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a state constitutional amendment enshrining abortion rights through fetal viability around 24 weeks. There were roughly 16,800 abortions performed in Arizona in 2024 2,900 more than the previous year, according to an April report from the Guttmacher Institute, which studies reproductive rights. About 1% of those 2024 abortions involved out-of-state patients 160 women, all from Texas. The number of abortions also rose in five other states since Dobbs allowed states to tighten access. Nearly all U.S. abortions are performed before the 15-week mark. The study on travel times for abortion patients covered two years following the Dobbs ruling and included the 14 states with total or near-total bans during that time: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Some of those states banned abortion outright. Others banned the procedure at six weeks, dated to the start of the last menstrual period so early that many women dont yet realize they are pregnant. Two of those states no longer have such bans. Missouri voters approved a ballot measure last November enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. On July 2, the Wisconsin Supreme Court with a new Democratic majority reversed a previous ruling that had allowed enforcement of an 1849 ban to resume after Dobbs. Four states not included in the study currently have total or six-week bans, according to Guttmacher: Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina. Most of our patients are Arizonans, said Dr. Gabrielle Goodrick, the owner and medical director of Camelback Family Planning in Phoenix. Most of the patients go to adjacent states. But, she said, her practice sees up to a dozen patients per month from out of state. Some come from as far as Florida (six-week ban), Tennessee and Louisiana (total ban). She also sees patients from Colorado, which has no limit, and California, which allows abortion through viability. People who want an abortion would much rather get it from a provider in their state than have to travel tens of hours to go to another state, Foster said. Sarah Zagorski, senior director of public relations and communications at Americans United for Life, said the Arizona ballot measure represented a setback for the anti-abortion movement after the huge victory with Dobbs. Enshrining abortion under the constitution was a devastating blow, she said. Eloise Lopez, executive director at Pro-Choice Arizona, said bans and other legal obstacles dont change the fact that some women still need that option due to their financial situation, health, housing instability or ability to care for kids they already have. The biggest thing to remember is somebody who is not wanting to carry a pregnancy is going to find whatever way that they can to make that a reality for them, she said. Access to abortion in Arizona has gone through significant changes in the last three years. Three months before the Dobbs decision in June 2022, Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed a trigger law that would ban abortion at 15 weeks if the Supreme Court overturned Roe. That ban was in effect nearly the entire time between Dobbs and last November. For two weeks in September and October 2022, a court allowed enforcement of a near-total ban adopted in 1864, before statehood. Appeals courts ultimately struck down that Civil War-era law, and the Legislature formally repealed it. The new governor, Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, signed that repeal. She also issued an executive order in 2023 prohibiting assistance with investigations by other states involving reproductive and gender-affirming care that is legal in Arizona. From the moment he braced himself and kicked, sending the front door of the house crashing inward, Brandon Tener knew there would be no going back. Not for him. Not for his fellow officers. Not for any of the small army of responders and authorities who soon would arrive. What lay on the other side of that door was going to change everyone in a deep and profound way. "It was a scene that looked like something Hollywood would have put together just every direction you turned your head," Tener said, adding that from where he stood in the doorway he could see blood everywhere in the home. He was still counting the bodies when he spoke into his radio: "I said, 'We're gonna need at least three ambulances and additional officers.'" Tener, now a captain with the Broken Arrow Police Department, has never been able to shake his memories of the night of Wednesday, July 22, 2015, when he became the first responder to set foot in the Bever family home at 709 Magnolia Court in the city's Indian Springs addition. Teenage brothers Robert and Michael Bever, the oldest of seven siblings in their suburban middle class household, technically failed to accomplish what they set out to annihilate their entire family as the opening act to a much grander killing spree. But they still left behind a massacre. 'Stuff like that doesn't leave you ever' Ten years since the crimes shook the Tulsa area and made international headlines, their aftershocks are still being felt by many who were involved in the response and prosecution. Julie Doss, who helped prosecute Michael Bever as a Tulsa County assistant district attorney, lived in south Broken Arrow at the time. "I very distinctly remember talking (to a colleague) about feeling a personal calling about that case," said Doss, now a Tulsa County special district judge. "I knew as soon as the details started to emerge I wanted to handle it." "It's disturbing on so many levels," added Doss, who specialized in homicides as a prosecutor, handling some 100 cases over 15 years. "I had a couple of death-penalty cases that were very, very heinous. But what they did to the children stuff like that doesn't leave you ever." Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler, Doss' then-boss who would lead the prosecution team, recalls the phone call that woke him sometime after midnight July 23, 2015. It was one of his assistants, who informed him: "Boss, we got a really bad scene in Broken Arrow." Kunzweiler, who went immediately to the scene, said the details of his arrival are still imprinted on his mind. A thundershower had just gone through, leaving behind a hot, humid July night. "The air was just this eerie, heavy, heavy air," he said. "I can remember steam coming off the road in the neighborhood that gave it a little foggy feeling, ... lightning in the background from the storm that had just passed." From behind the yellow crime-scene tape, where he stayed to let the police do their jobs, he could see the lawn and at least one body, which was covered with a tarp. Three years later, Kunzweiler would finally get the chance to try suspect Michael Bever for murders. In that time, he'd come to know the appalling details as well as anyone. A battle-hardened prosecutor who as a rule keeps a tight rein on his emotions, the case affected him more than any other in his 36 years in criminal prosecution. "I hope I never see anything like this again. It's by far, head and shoulders, the worst case I've ever handled, for a number of reasons," Kunzweiler said. Perhaps the biggest reason, he added, "is that you're talking about the slaughter of children. There are pictures that I had to deal with in this case two little kids that an hour ago had been alive. To see those pictures and know how terrible the last moments of their life had been. "I cannot get that out of my brain." The response But Kunzweiler saw them only in photographs. Tener and many of his colleagues spent hours in the home, where they didn't have the advantage of distance. Tener can still see each victim in his mind, lying where he or she had died. Alongside images of the slain, though, is one that all these years later still inspires hope. Just inside the home's front door after he kicked it open, Tener found 13-year-old Crystal Bever. She was still alive, although the extent of her injuries initially gave Tener little hope. "I truly didn't think she was going to make it out of that house," he said. But in what he believed were her final moments, she was able to provide vital information, identifying her brothers as her assailants and giving him their names. Tener took it from there, recalling something he'd heard when he first stepped up to the front door. It had come from the rear of the house and had sounded like someone running out the back door. He gave the information to a K-9 officer, who had just arrived and who promptly acted on it. After clearing the house, Tener was back outside with a group of officers when the call from the K-9 officer crackled over the radio: "I've got two in the creek bed south of the house." The response was instantaneous, Tener said. "Every police officer goes beating through the weeds and gets down there to assist" in the apprehension of Robert and Michael Bever, who surrendered without a fight. Leading Michael Bever away in cuffs and putting him in his car, it was only then that Tener allowed himself and then only for a moment to feel something. "I remember just pausing and leaning on the car before I got in and saying, 'What did I just see?'" No human is supposed to see what we saw Tener's photographic memory, which he says he was born with, is an asset most of the time. For example, in his work, his call reports are always rich with detail. But that doesn't mean there aren't things he'd erase from his mind if it were possible. For many days following the Bever response, "I saw specific images (of the victims and the scene) almost continually, and I just was kind of like, 'OK, that's the new normal now.'" Together with changes in behavior noticed by his wife and colleagues, the images were a sign that he was experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. "I thought that PTSD was something for guys in a foreign land that saw their buddies get killed in a war zone. I learned that it doesn't take that. No human is supposed to see what we saw." The department stepped up in the wake of the Bever crimes to facilitate mental health treatment for those affected, and many of the officers involved sought out help. "That's the important thing about this," Tener added. "It's correctable. Help is available. You can move on." For their actions at the Bever scene, Tener and his backing officer, Matt Barnes, would receive the department's Medal of Valor and Life Saver awards. Tener said everyone who responded that night, though, deserves commendation. "As a 13-year veteran, I was the junior officer on this call. So everybody had 13 or more years on, and everybody did everything exactly as trained," Tener said, adding that longer-tenured officers, who are able to take weekends off, are more likely to be working mid-week. "From a police procedural standpoint, it couldn't have been done better. When you have people that have been around a while, there's no question of what to do. And it went off well that way." Something that I can hold on to For those close to the case, the best way to move forward has been to focus less on the horror than on the heroism. And two heroes in particular stand out for them. Crystal Bever was the first family member to be attacked. Her fighting back and brief escape threw off the brothers' plan just enough, allowing Daniel to call 911. She later testified at Michael Bever's trial. Daniel was killed shortly after making the call, but it was that brief call that brought the police. Kunzweiler said Crystal, who was adopted by a Tulsa family and took a new name, is thriving today as a young woman. "She's doing great I can tell you that much," he said. "And in the midst of the worst evil I've ever seen, that gives me the most hope." "In a way, Crystal's surviving and what it brought about, maybe, metaphorically, helped all of us survive this thing," Kunzweiler added. "Because of that and how she's doing today, I have a vision that things are OK. There's something that I can hold on to." How many lives were saved as a result of the actions of Crystal and Daniel can never be known. Tener, though, knows of at least one more. It was he who found the surviving youngest sibling upstairs. The brothers' plan to kill everyone had included even the little girl. But in the chaos she had been forgotten, left asleep in her bassinet. A father of three young children at the time, Tener cradled her in his arms like one of his own as he carried her downstairs. "Thankfully, she was unharmed," said Tener, who took her to a waiting ambulance to be checked out. The little girl, who was just turning 2, would be adopted into the same family that adopted Crystal. She, too, is thriving, Kunzweiler said. "That's kind of what you have to let stick with you," Tener said. "We saved two people. The focus needs to be not that you lost this many but that you actually saved this many." Tener said that for a long time afterward it was a challenge for him to frame the experience in a way that was constructive. "I kicked in the door on pure evil that night," he said. "I said it many times: I would've been fine with going my entire career without that call." But he finally learned to look at it differently. "At the end of the day, we can't control what happened in that house," he said. "It was a really, really bad day for Broken Arrow. But it was a day that the Broken Arrow Police Department was tested, and they passed the test." "You have the power, to an extent, to choose what you take from something like this," Tener added. "And that's what I choose to take." Ten years after the Bever brothers murdered their parents and siblings as part of a planned killing spree, questions linger Why did this happen? What forces or factors put two Broken Arrow teens on the path to mass murder? Click here to read part 3 in the series. The crimes On the night of July 22, 2015, a quiet Broken Arrow neighborhood was the scene of a shocking quintuple homicide that made international headlines. Brothers Robert Bever, 18, and Michael Bever, 16, were eventually convicted in the brutal stabbing deaths of their parents, David and April Bever, and three of their younger siblings, Daniel, 12, Christopher, 7, and Victoria, 5. A sister, Crystal, 13 at the time, survived the attack, along with the youngest sibling, who was just under 2. The brothers' plan had been to annihilate their entire family before embarking on a cross-country murder spree. Their ultimate goal, they claimed, was to become famous serial killers and "murder superstars." Steve Metzer Tulsa World Capitol Bureau Staff Writer Follow Steve Metzer Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered a new law that would establish business courts in Tulsa and Oklahoma City to be put on hold Tuesday. After hearing oral arguments in a case filed by attorneys who challenged the constitutionality of Senate Bill 632, justices voted 6-3 to issue an injunction prohibiting the courts from being formed until the court completes a review and issues a final ruling. The order was signed by Vice Chief Justice Dana Kuehn, with Justices James Winchester, James Edmondson, Douglas Combs, Noma Gurich and Richard Darby concurring. Chief Justice Dustin Rowe and Justices M. John Kane IV and Travis Jett dissented. The law passed this year to establish the business courts had been scheduled to take effect Sept. 1. Senate Bill 632 shall not take effect nor be enforced until a future order or opinion of this Court so directs, the order states. Justices heard for a little more than an hour Tuesday afternoon from attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit. The plaintiffs, attorneys Joe E. White Jr. and Jason Waddell, represented by attorney Bob Burke, asserted that the Legislature overstepped its authority when it ordered that special business courts be established in Tulsa and Oklahoma counties. Burke said he was somewhat surprised at how quickly the court ruled, but he noted that details of establishing the courts, including finding locations within district courts to locate them, were pressing. It was a surprise that they acted so quickly, but they accepted original jurisdiction and then stayed the effective date of it until further order of the court, he said. The suit named Gov. Kevin Stitt, Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton and House Speaker Kyle Hilbert as defendants. In a statement, Stitt defended the business courts. This lawsuit is a textbook example of attorneys trying to use the courts to block progress. They have no actual injury, no client affected by the law, and no standing to be here, he said. Theyre asking the Supreme Court to stop a law they simply dont like thats not how the Constitution works. We have full faith that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will fall on the right side of this issue. The arguments As envisioned, business court judges selected by the governor would generally preside over complex cases regarding disputes involving $500,000 or more. Cases might revolve around such things as ownership or control of businesses, insurance coverage claims or other disputes over such things as intellectual property ownership, copyrights or patents. In their arguments, the plaintiffs asserted that allowing SB 632 to take effect would violate the Oklahoma Constitution by disregarding well established processes and allowing Stitt to pick business court judges from among nominees identified by the speaker of the House of Representatives with the advice and consent of the Senate. Waddell and Burke both argued that SB 632 would deny Oklahomans their constitutional right to vote for judges, just as they vote for judges who preside over district courts. The plaintiffs said the legislation also would deny Oklahomans the right to have cases heard in their local counties by their own locally elected judges and that parties in cases would instead have to travel to Tulsa or Oklahoma counties. They said a filing fee of some $1,565 would be burdensome to ordinary Oklahomans who might want to pursue cases against businesses. Additionally, they asserted that SB 632 lacked clarity in identifying what types of cases might be heard in the business courts. As a result, Waddell said it would create a black hole that envelops a vast array of cases and that big businesses would probably be given an unfair advantage over ordinary Oklahomans. Stitt and the other respondents were represented by attorneys Ben Lepak and Audrey Weaver. Weaver responded that the Supreme Court should reject the plaintiffs request for the court to assume original jurisdiction over the matter. She argued that the plaintiffs could not identify any actual injury suffered by any Oklahoman and that they offered only hypotheticals and abstract debate in speculating about potential harms. Lepak argued that language in the Oklahoma Constitution does allow for the creation of a special court to handle business matters. He asserted that it would be premature for the Supreme Court to weigh in on SB 632 and that it should instead exercise discretion in respecting the separation of powers of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. Lepak pointed out, too, that 28 other states have acted to establish business courts similar to the ones planned in Oklahoma. The justices questions The Supreme Court justices raised several issues. Vice Chief Justice Dana Kuehn questioned whether the case might have been more appropriately initiated at the district court level. Justice Noma Gurich suggested that it might require an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution to establish business courts. Justice Douglas Combs expressed concern about plans to establish two classes of district court judges, with one class to be paid more and to have broader authority to assert jurisdiction over business litigation. Justice James Edmondson expressed concerns about the costs of sustaining business courts and about how the courts might become financially inaccessible to ordinary Oklahomans. More than one of the justices suggested that it might be appropriate to sever the issue regarding how business court judges would be either elected or appointed. BBC now sacks John Torode from MasterChef UK Australian born chef says he learned of his sacking through a BBC website. Australian born chef and presenter John Torode has been sacked from MasterChef UK after publicly identifying himself as being accused of racist language on production. Torode denied any memory of the incident when he went public this week, following an investigation into the show by law firm Lewis Silkin. A BBC spokesperson said: John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him. This allegation which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm, Lewis Silkin. John Torode denies the allegation. He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torodes contract on MasterChef will not be renewed. Shockingly, Torode today says he only learned of his sacking through a BBC website. His exit follows the firing of Gregg Wallace after 20 years, at the centre of the BBC / Banijay investigation. Call for Entries: WIFT Australia CinefestOZ Writers Retreat Applicants for Writers' Retreat require a scripted feature film, short film, drama / comedy series or online series. WIFT Australia has announced the expansion of its creative residency, the annual WIFT Australia CinefestOZ Writers Retreat, thanks to a new partnership with Minderoo Pictures. Now in its fourth year, the retreat is a unique opportunity for up to four emerging or established female and gender-diverse screenwriters to progress a scripted drama project with tailored one-on-one mentorship, expert guidance, and industry networking in the surrounds of the CinefestOZ Film Festival, hosted in Busselton, Western Australia. The partnership with Minderoo Pictures will enable WIFT Australia to engage Shay Spencer (Sunny Nights, Wakefield), Executive Producer at Picking Scabs, the joint venture between See-Saw Films and Samantha Strauss, to be official mentor. Maya Kavanagh, Program Manager and WIFT Australia Board Director, said, Creating protected time and space for female and gender-diverse writers to focus deeply on their craft is vital to building a more inclusive and dynamic cultural landscape. With Shays mentorship, and support from both Minderoo and CinefestOZ, WIFT is excited to expand the retreats ability to nurture writers whose stories deserve to be seen and heard. CinefestOZ Film Festival CEO Cassandra Jordan said,To host the development of these stories in the lead-up to our festival and to imagine that they may one day premiere on our screens is incredibly special. We are proud to once again collaborate with WIFT Australia and to welcome Minderoo Pictures as a key partner in delivering this unique and vital program. In addition to enabling the appointment of Shay Spencer, Minderoo will also fund a three-month post-retreat milestone review, ensuring continued momentum and accountability for each writers project well beyond the festival. Minderoo Pictures is proud to support WIFT and their efforts to champion the careers of women and gender-diverse creatives across the screen industry. We need these perspectives if we are to tackle the persistent social, economic and environmental challenges our world faces, said Malinda Wink, Executive Director, Minderoo Pictures. Through their mentoring and development programs, WIFT plays a vital role in removing the barriers for women and gender-diverse creatives to tell their stories, creating space for the authentic, transformative content that can reshape our world. Running from Friday 29 August to Saturday 6 September 2025, the retreat incorporates focused writing time, wellness activities, and access to the CinefestOZ Industry Program (45 September). Participants will receive expert mentorship, meet with leading producers and decision-makers from across the country, all whilst experiencing the incredible hospitality the festival has to offer. The program covers accommodation, meals, local transport, plus flights for interstate participants. It is free to apply for but applicants must have a current WIFT Australia Professional Membership. Applications close on 5pm AWST Friday 1 August 2025. Foreign Correspondent: July 22 Democracy in Georgia is on the brink, is Moscow to blame? In Georgia, Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March witnesses a democracy crumbling in real time. On Russias southern flank, the former Soviet republic of Georgia is fighting for its very existence as a democracy. Until recently it was a darling of the West, on a fast track to EU membership, but then something dramatically changed. The pro-EU government did an extraordinary U-turn. It stands accused of winning re-election in a disputed ballot, crushing civil society, jailing dissenters and passing a raft of draconian laws eerily similar to those on the books in Russia. So what is going on? Foreign Correspondent reporter Stephanie March travels to the nation wedged between Russia and Europe on the edge of the Black Sea to witness a democracy crumbling in real time. The atmosphere is tense with an ongoing crackdown and cyber surveillance. She meets protestors and opposition figures who believe Russia is pulling the strings, while senior government figures claim theres a dark western backed conspiracy designed to push Georgia into war with Russia. Many fear the winds of a new Cold War are blowing through Tbilisi as Moscow tests new strategies to gain influence and control across Europe. As Georgias last democratically elected President warns if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. 8pm Thursday July 22 on ABC. SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Senate Bill 690 (SB 690) received blistering criticism today as human rights attorney J.R. Howell delivered testimony to the California State Assembly Committee on Public Safety against the bill, which is a proposed amendment to the California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA). In his testimony, Howell called the bill "unconstitutional, unethical, and a direct attack on women, children, workers, immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities, and other vulnerable groups." "SB 690 would give private companies a blank check to cooperate with an increasingly authoritarian federal government" Post this J.R. Howell discusses the human rights implications of the SB 690 amendment to the California Invasion of Privacy Act. If enacted, SB 690 would eliminate the requirement for consent in electronic surveillance, allowing private companiesincluding major tech corporations and government contractorsto lawfully intercept, analyze, and distribute personal data without user permission. "SB 690 opens the door to corporate surveillance at a scale the public is not prepared for," Howell said. "Private companies would be empowered to record calls, track users' movements, and sell or share sensitive dataincluding health and reproductive informationwith no legal recourse for those affected." In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), Howell warned that SB 690 would make it easier for law enforcement and private actors to criminalize reproductive health decisions. Referencing real-world examples, he noted that Facebook has already turned over private user messages to prosecute women and minors seeking abortion carea scenario that could become far more common under the new legislation. "We are already witnessing a dangerous convergence of Big Tech and law enforcement," Howell added. "SB 690 would give private companies a blank check to cooperate with an increasingly authoritarian federal government in ways that directly violate Californians' rights under our state Constitution." Howell's testimony also detailed how SB 690 could harm: Children by exposing minors to behavioral tracking and loss of confidentiality in healthcare and education; by exposing minors to behavioral tracking and loss of confidentiality in healthcare and education; Workers by enabling employer surveillance that suppresses whistleblowing and union activity; by enabling employer surveillance that suppresses whistleblowing and union activity; LGBTQ+ individuals by dismantling privacy around gender-affirming care and crisis counseling; by dismantling privacy around gender-affirming care and crisis counseling; Immigrants and communities of color by facilitating warrantless surveillance and discriminatory profiling. The bill, Howell argues, violates Article I, Section 1 of the California Constitution, which guarantees every person the inalienable right to privacy. It also fails the legal standard set in Hill v. NCAA (1994), which requires that any serious invasion of privacy be narrowly tailored to a compelling state interest. "This bill is not just poorly writtenit is unconstitutional on its face," Howell said. "Consent is not a bureaucratic obstacle; it is a cornerstone of democracy." Howell's testimony follows a series of high-profile legal efforts to defend digital privacy and human rights. He recently led a multi-million-dollar class action lawsuit against a major global corporation for data misuse and continues to represent communities targeted by surveillance and exploitation. He is currently producing a documentary about state and corporate overreach into Indigenous communities in Canada. For media inquiries or a copy of Howell's full written testimony, please contact: Jase Lucas, The Excellence Agency [email protected] (323) 897-8656 ABOUT J.R. HOWELL: J.R. Howell is a distinguished US attorney with an international practice specializing in human rights and social justice litigation across the US, Canada, and Europe. As principal attorney at The Law Office of J.R. Howell, he is dedicated to advocating for marginalized communities while embodying integrity and professionalism. With a robust educational background from institutions like The George Washington University and American University's Washington College of Law, J.R. has significant experience both in the US and abroad. His recent multi-million dollar class action lawsuit victories underscore his commitment to justice, while an upcoming case defending reproductive freedoms highlights his advocacy. J.R. actively addresses injustices faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada, focusing on truth and reconciliation regarding residential schools and missing and murdered women and girls. Currently producing a documentary on the MMIWG2s+ movement, he aims to raise awareness through first-person interviews with families of victims. Driven by a passion for justice, J.R. fights to amplify marginalized voices both in the courtroom and through film. SOURCE The Law Office of J.R. Howell Sanjana Chawla, TwoCircles.net New Delhi: A growing crisis in Indias education system is endangering the dreams of thousands of students from Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Recent reports have confirmed a sharp decline in the disbursement of the National Overseas Scholarship (NOS) scheme. For the 2025-26 academic year, less than 40% of selected students, only 40 out of 106, have received their scholarship. This marks a steep fall in the reach of a scheme that once supported every selected candidate. Support TwoCircles The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has cited lack of funds as the reason behind this. As a result, 66 students who had worked hard to secure these scholarships now find themselves stuck in uncertainty. In previous years, all selected candidates typically received their provisional letters without delay. The National Overseas Scholarship was launched in the 1950s to support students from marginalised communities. These include Scheduled Castes, Denotified Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes, Landless Agricultural Labourers and Traditional Artisans. The scholarship is designed to help students pursue Masters or Ph.D. degrees abroad, but only in universities ranked among the top 500 globally as per QS rankings. It covers tuition fees, visa expenses, medical insurance, air travel and a maintenance allowance for up to three years for Masters and four years for Ph.D. students. The total number of scholarships is 125 per year, with no more than 10% allotted to students from any single state. The ministry officials have reportedly linked the delay to a lack of clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to sources, funds are technically available but cannot be disbursed until approval is granted from higher authorities. This bureaucratic roadblock has left many students, some of whom have secured admissions to top foreign universities, at risk of losing their opportunities. This situation is not new. Over the past few years, there have been repeated interruptions in key scholarship schemes, including the Maulana Azad National Fellowship (MANF) and the National Fellowship for Scheduled Castes (NFSC). These disruptions are beginning to expose deep-rooted systemic issues and are making educational equity harder to achieve. A Disturbing Pattern of Disruption The NOS crisis is part of a much wider trend. Disruptions in major scholarship programmes have become alarmingly frequent. Aimed at students from six notified minority communities, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi, the MANF has seen major delays and funding cuts. Initially, the MANF supported 1,000 M.Phil. and Ph.D. students annually. But the government discontinued it in 2022, stating financial constraints and overlap with other schemes. Although beneficiaries were promised continued support, the release of funds has become inconsistent. Available data paints a worrying picture. MANF scholars have faced delays in fellowship disbursements, with funds coming up to eight months late in 2022 and six months late in 2023. The NFSC also faced similar problems. In March 2025, the National Testing Agency (NTA) released a list of 865 selected candidates for the June 2024 cycle. But a revised list brought this number down to 805, eliminating over 60 students who had already been selected. These delays have caused significant financial, mental and emotional stress for scholars. Unable to meet basic expenses or continue their research, some students have even considered dropping out of their Ph.D. programmes. Systemic Flaws Crush Dreams Faraan Safwi, member of the District Development Committee and National Vice President of the Samajwadi Youth Brigade, spoke about how these programmes are allegedly gradually being altered. Schemes such as the pre-matric scholarship for Scheduled Castes have transitioned from complete central funding to a shared responsibility between central and state governments, potentially creating funding gaps, he said. These delays and reductions go far beyond paperwork. For students from marginalised communities, these scholarships are often the only route to quality education and a better life. When that route closes, the impact is devastating. A Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report covering the years 2017-21 showed that 10-12% of SC students and 4-20% of ST students did not receive their pre-matric scholarships during that time. A 2023 audit further revealed delays of up to five years in payment, as well as payments made to ghost or ineligible beneficiaries. It also showed a sharp drop in the pre-matric scholarships for SC students from Rs 843 crore in 201516 to Rs 355 crore in 2019-20, a decline of 58%. During the same time, dropout rates among SC and OBC students in Grades IX and X increased. Safwi added that this erosion of support harms the entire country apart from hurting individuals. This not only perpetuates poverty and inequality, but also hinders social mobility leading to social instability and unrest. This also leads to increased discrimination and prejudice a significant loss of human talent and ultimately, a weakened democracy and social cohesion as the parity grows manifold, he said. Jahnavi, an industrial-organisational psychologist based in Delhi, explained the emotional toll this takes on students. At first, when someone gets a scholarship, it brings pride and a sense of achievement. But when it does not come through due to whatever reason, it can cause immense emotional distress, disappointment and self-doubt. This also impacts mental health, leading to feelings of anxiety and sadness, she said. She added that over time, such setbacks can reduce trust in institutions and make students more cautious and uncertain about future opportunities. BJPs Budgetary & Ideological Blow On July 12, the Students Federation of India (SFI) issued a statement criticising the underfunding of the National Overseas Scholarship. The organisation called it a discriminatory move and blamed the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs for the cut. The BJP-led central government is notorious for its measures to privatise and communalise the education sector of India. Over the past few years, there has been a selective cut down in the scholarships and fellowships, targeting the students from Dalit, Adivasi and minority communities, said the SFI. The Communist Party of India (Maxist)-affiliated student wing added that this pattern aligns with what they describe as a Manuwadi agenda aimed at keeping marginalised communities away from educational progress. Safwi echoed this concern. This (stoppage of funds) serves as a stark example of the deep involvement of right-wing organisations like the RSS and BJP in the principles of Manusmriti, with their primary objective being the re-establishment of the Varna system, it said. Past data also points to a political pattern. In February 2025, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP government of deliberately reducing scholarships for SC, ST, OBC and minority students. He cited official figures that showed an average annual cut of 25% in allocated funds. The number of Dalit students receiving pre-matric scholarships had dropped by 57% in the last nine years, and those for OBC students had declined by 77% in just the past five years. Defiance Rises as Voices Unite As education becomes increasingly privatised and government funding shrinks, the doors of opportunity are slowly closing for many. This shift does not only reinforce privilege, it deepens the divide locking out communities that have long struggled for a fair chance. The worst impact is felt by those with the least ability to absorb it. Reduced scholarships limit access to higher education, increase dropout rates and shrink employment prospects for thousands of capable students. Opposition parties have raised their voices on this issue. The Congress and the Samajwadi Party have repeatedly spoken about the financial crisis students face. Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi in June 2025 wherein, he said, The number of Dalit students receiving scholarships fell by nearly half from 1.36 lakh in FY23 to a mere 69,000 in FY24. This deepening scholarship crisis strikes at the foundation of equal opportunity and justice. The hopes of thousands of young students are on hold. Their futures hang in uncertainty. The promises written into Indias Constitution are being tested. If the government is serious about inclusive education and social progress, it must act now. This demands accountability, transparency and above all, the will to ensure that a students dream is not dismissed simply because they were born without wealth. The very idea of an equitable and educated India depends on this. HCM CITY In an ongoing push to remove the European Commissions (EC) yellow card warning for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, Viet Nam is ramping up digital transformation in the fisheries sector. Authorities in HCM City and the former Ba Ria Vung Tau areas are taking coordinated and proactive steps to apply advanced technologies in vessel monitoring and catch management. In the coastal commune of Long Hai (formerly Phuoc Tinh, Long at District, Ba Ria Vung Tau), now under the citys administration, digital applications are proving to be effective tools in helping local fishermen comply with international regulations. Nguyen Van Quang, a fishing vessel owner, recalled a recent incident when his boat lost signal from its monitoring device due to bad weather. "After the connection dropped, I reported it to the commune Peoples Committee. Officers there guided me step by step on how to use the mobile application to locate my vessel and log the incident into the violation-handling software," he said. "At first, I was unfamiliar with the app, but once I got used to it, I found it extremely convenient. I no longer have to physically go to the commune office; I can now report all vessel activities remotely," he added. In addition, a dedicated Zalo group has been formed to connect vessel owners, captains, fisheries officials, and law enforcement agencies, including the Fisheries Sub-department, Border Guard units, and local police. The group facilitates real-time information exchange, such as regulation updates, vessel movements, alerts on IUU violations, and emergency coordination. This model is being replicated in other coastal areas and has proven to enhance transparency, responsiveness, and support for fishermen at sea. Moreover, local fishermen are increasingly using specialised software including electronic logbooks and IUU violation reporting apps. Despite many fishermen being older and having limited education, they have been successfully trained by local port officials and commune staff. Le Minh Nhat, a fisherman from Phuoc Hai Commune, shared: "At first, many of us struggled, but thanks to patient guidance from local staff, we now find it simple and fast. We can report from anywhere using our phones." Towards a fully digital fisheries sector According to the citys Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, a suite of fisheries management software tools is being synchronised across the city. These include vessel tracking, catch volume control, origin traceability, and IUU violation processing, all feeding data into the national fisheries database in line with EC recommendations. As of now, 100 per cent of fishing ports in the city have implemented the national eCDT software system to monitor incoming and outgoing vessels. Fishermen have gradually adapted to the system, using it to log catch details and ensure compliance with EU seafood traceability requirements. At Cat Lo Port in Phuoc Thang Ward, eCDT was launched in March 2024. Since then, 100 per cent of vessel owners and captains have installed the app and now use it to confirm catch volumes, document seafood origins, and facilitate certification for export. Tran Van An, an offshore fishing boat owner, said the software simplified reporting: Once we catch about 5070 kg or 100 kg of seafood, we log it into the app while still at sea. When we arrive at the port, there's no need for additional paperwork. Huynh Van Minh, a veteran fisherman from Phuoc Hai Commune, also praised the system: Ive been fishing for nearly 10 years. In the past, reporting was cumbersome with lots of forms. Now with eCDT, all our information catch type, fishing zone, buyers is recorded digitally. It's easy to use and helps us avoid IUU violations, which is essential if we want the EC to remove the yellow card. Integration for better enforcement The Fisheries Surveillance Base 2, based in the former Ba Ria Vung Tau area, is currently operating three separate systems for port management, vessel monitoring via the VMS system, and IUU violation handling. To improve efficiency, the city is testing a comprehensive integrated platform available at https://gstcvtu.vtctelecom.com.vn. This pilot platform includes advanced features such as real-time vessel tracking, violation alerts, data visualisation, and monitoring of three no vessels those lacking registration, licences, or valid documentation. It also provides localised management features, simplifying processes and reducing paperwork while improving enforcement accuracy. The software is being fine-tuned for widespread use and is expected to become the citys main digital hub for fisheries governance. Long-term commitment According to estimates, HCM City has spent approximately VN25 billion (around US$980,000) over the past two years on digital fisheries infrastructure, training, and system development. The investment is part of a national strategy to modernise the seafood industry and ensure its sustainable development. Currently, Viet Nam exports nearly $9 billion worth of seafood annually, with the EU accounting for roughly 12 per cent of that market. The yellow card issued by the EC in 2017 remains a major obstacle, affecting market access and international reputation. Digital transformation is not a trend; it is an essential requirement, said an official from the citys Fisheries Sub-department. With strong commitment from authorities, active participation from fishermen, and robust technological support, we are confident that Viet Nam can meet EC requirements and have the yellow card removed. As HCM City moves forward with these decisive reforms, it not only seeks to regain access to key export markets but also to elevate the global image of Vietnamese seafood through transparency, traceability, and sustainability. VNS HA NOI Viet Nam is aiming to export cashews worth US$4.5 billion in 2025, up 2.7 per cent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. To hit this target, the sector must generate around $2.2 billion in the second half. Figures from the first six months show cashew exports reached 346,800 tonnes, earning $2.36 billion, a drop of 2.7 per cent in volume but a surge of 20.4 per cent in value annually. The rise was largely attributed to a significant increase in export prices, which helped offset lower shipment volumes. The average export price in the first half stood at more than $6,805 per tonne, up 23.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2024. China, the US and the Netherlands remained Viet Nams top three cashew buyers, accounting for 22 per cent, 21.6 per cent, and 8.4 per cent of total export value, respectively. Compared to the similar period last year, cashew export revenues rose by 41.2 per cent to China, 0.1 per cent to the US, and 22.4 per cent to the Netherlands. To sustain growth, the ministry is calling for stepped-up efforts to tap into emerging markets with strong demand but limited Vietnamese presence, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The EU, now Viet Nams third-largest cashew market, has also shown consistent growth in recent years. A further boost to the industry is the recent decline in raw cashew prices, down from $1,450 to $1,350 per tonne, which offers cost advantages for manufacturers ahead of the peak export season around year-end festivals and the Lunar New Year. The Vietnam Cashew Association has forecast the global market to grow at an annual average rate of 4.6 per cent between 2022 and 2027. In 2024, Viet Nam exported a record 730,000 tonnes of cashews, earning $4.37 billion, a year-on-year increase of 20.2 per cent. VNS HA NOI The remarkable rise in bank stock prices reflects significant changes in Viet Nam's financial landscape, driven by the Government's commitment to removing administrative barriers in credit operations and the legalisation of Resolution 42 concerning bad debt management. Several bank stocks have seen impressive gains since the beginning of the year. Notably, National Citizen Commercial Joint Stock Bank (NVB) has surged by 73 per cent, followed by Vietnam - Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VAB) at 63 per cent, while both KienLongBank (KLB) and Sahabank (SHB) have increased by over 57 per cent. Techcombank (TCB) has experienced a 43.2 per cent rise and has set records 17 times this year, while Sacombank (STB) and MBBank (MBB) have also reached new highs 23 times, highlighting ongoing upward momentum. Analysts expect continued double-digit profit growth for these banks, benefitting from the Government's determination to achieve 8 per cent GDP growth and promote private economic development. As companies report their second quarter earnings, many banks are expected to showcase strong profit growth. In a recent directive, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh instructed the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to draft a proposal for the removal of the credit limit mechanism (credit room) by 2026. Previously, this mechanism helped control credit growth, which reached as high as 54 per cent in certain years, risking systemic instability. While the SBV has begun to lift credit room restrictions for foreign banks and non-bank credit institutions, it remains in place for commercial banks. Investor interest in bank stocks has surged as discussions about these changes unfold. Experts believe that if managed properly, lifting credit room restrictions will enhance lending flexibility, allowing for a more natural adjustment of capital supply and demand, thereby facilitating investment and production needs in the economy. With expanded credit, banks will need to improve their risk assessment and management capabilities to control non-performing loans. The removal of credit limits should be complemented by new risk management regulations, such as those outlined in Basel III, to ensure system safety. According to SSI Research, this move represents a positive step forward in the long term, provided that safety ratio regulations, particularly concerning capital adequacy ratios, are updated to maintain system stability and avoid overheating. On June 27, the National Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Credit Institutions, which restores the right for financial institutions to seize collateral for bad debt resolution. This legal framework is expected to expedite the management of non-performing loans, freeing up business capital and enhancing capital efficiency. SHS Research said that the original Resolution 42 contributed to improved debt resolution efficiency and reduced legal risks. By granting banks the authority to seize collateral, the lengthy litigation processes can be avoided, shortening recovery times and improving cash flow. The assets most likely to benefit from this legislative change are real estate and consumer loans, which comprise 80-90 per cent of collateralised assets. The current recovery rate from bad debt management among 29 listed banks represents only 16 per cent of total bad debt, indicating room for improvement. Banks with high levels of bad debt, such as BIDV, VPBank, Vietinbank, VCB and MBB, as well as those with significant retail portfolios like Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB), Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB) and STB, are expected to benefit the most from these policies. Head of analysis at Maybank Investment Bank Quan Trong Thanh emphasises that legalising Resolution 42 is essential for the banking sector, allowing banks to proactively manage collateral and improve their operations. The current state of banking bad debt is manageable and is expected to improve alongside the overall economic recovery. Historically, bad debt resolution has been hampered by lengthy legal processes, forcing banks to set aside provisions and stop recognising interest income, significantly impacting their balance sheets. SSI Research warns that this challenge is particularly acute for banks with high retail lending proportions, where small, geographically dispersed bad debts increase operational costs and limit credit expansion or the ability to reduce lending rates. BIZHUB/VNS HCM CITY The Astana International Financial Centre in the Kazakhstani capital is ready to share its expertise with HCM City to help develop its own upcoming international financial centre into one of the fastest growing in the region, its governor, Renat Bekturov, offered at a business roundtable on Tuesday. Bekturov said Viet Nam is among the worlds fastest growing economies. HCM City, already a major business centre, possesses the conditions needed to become a prominent financial hub in the region, he said. He highlighted its vibrant business environment, advanced digital infrastructure and rapidly evolving IT sector as strong foundations that could underpin the centres development. For an international financial centre to attract capital flows, its raison detre, there must be a well-designed regulatory framework, he said. Since its establishment in 2018 the AIFC has facilitated over US$16.9 billion worth of investments into the Kazakhstani economy and currently houses more than 4,000 companies from over 80 countries. Bekturov said three Vietnamese firms, Vietjet Air (which has acquired an airline in Kazakhstan), construction company Coteccons and IT firm Elisoft, have registered to set up offices at the AIFC. Kazakhstans ambassador to Viet Nam, Kanat Tumysh, underscored the uniqueness of the AIFC model. It comprises multiple key platforms, including the management council chaired by the president of Kazakhstan, the Astana Financial Services Authority, Astana International Exchange, AIFC Court, and International Arbitration Centre. Together, they aim to attract investment and businesses, foster the development of technological and green projects, and offer vocational training opportunities. In March this year the AIFC was ranked the number one financial centre in Eastern Europe and Central Asia by the Global Financial Centres Index. Tumysh said both governments are committed to realising the agreements made by their leaders, including expanding cooperation with the AIFC. The synergy of our joint actions should bring significant dividends to both economies. In order to implement these agreements, work is underway to sign important documents, including a memorandum of cooperation between the AIFC and the Peoples Committee of HCM City. HCM Citys vision Nguyen Loc Ha, vice chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said the roundtable marked a significant step forward in the citys growing friendship with the AIFC and Kazakhstan. It provided an opportunity for the two parties to align their development visions and move towards practical, result-oriented cooperation, he said. Located in the heart of Southeast Asia, HCM City enjoys excellent connectivity with regional financial centres, enabling international trade and capital flows. Its transport network, ports and international airport support its proposed role as a financial services gateway. Accounting for nearly 23 per cent of Viet Nams GDP, it is already a financial, technological and services hub. Its rapid digital transformation and low transaction costs make it well positioned to emerge as a regional financial powerhouse. It is also home to a young, highly educated workforce trained through international academic programmes, providing the talent base required for finance and technology. A vibrant fintech startup ecosystem further supports innovation and enables the city to quickly adapt to global financial trends. Ha said the city is now entering an acceleration phase in building the Viet Nam International Financial Centre in the city with a unique focus that builds on the citys strengths and seeks to elevate Viet Nams position in global finance. It values the opportunity to learn from the AIFC and Kazakhstans experience, he added. inh Khac Huy, deputy director of the city Department of Finance, said the AIFCs successful model offers many valuable lessons for the city, including its financial and legal mechanisms, transparent and independent governance structure, digital infrastructure, international securities exchange, and robust fintech startup ecosystem. HCM City is developing the Viet Nam International Financial Centre across Ben Thanh and Sai Gon wards and the Thu Thiem New Urban Area, he said. The centre would focus on banking, insurance, securities, and fintech, and have smart, green infrastructure and inclusive urban planning, he said. A dedicated legal framework and regulatory sandbox would also be put in place to attract global capital, financial institutions and multinational corporations, he said. He suggested promoting collaboration between finance and technology companies in the AIFC and HCM City in areas such as fintech, asset management, artificial intelligence, and financial data, called on Kazakhstani businesses to invest in the Thu Thiem financial centre project and proposed setting up a regular communication channel between the AIFC and his department to enable effective long-term cooperation. Hosted by the AIFC and the city Peoples Committee, the HCM City - Astana Business Roundtable discussed collaboration for developing an international financial centre in Vietnams economic hub. An AIFC delegation was on a visit to HCM City from July 12 to 16. VNS In light of the Partys directive to draft a breakthrough policy for education reform, Vietnam News Agency spoke with Professor and Doctor of Science Nguyen inh uc from the University of Engineering and Technology, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi, to gain his perspective on the proposals significance. What is your assessment of Party General Secretary To Lams directive to develop a new resolution aimed at advancing education and training? Party General Secretary To Lams directive is both timely and strategically significant. It demonstrates the Party and States deep commitment to education and training, and confirms the view regarding education as a top national priority, central to developing human capital, national intellect and the countrys internal strength. As a professor at one of Viet Nams leading universities, I see this as a much-needed and long-anticipated move for the education sector. The push to develop a new resolution rather than replace existing ones by targeting the most pressing bottlenecks signals a bold and focused approach to reform. It reflects a clear determination to drive meaningful, tangible change. Just as Resolution 57-NQ/TW served as a catalyst for science and technology, this forthcoming resolution on education has the potential to fundamentally shift our thinking and provide the momentum needed to raise the quality and competitiveness of Viet Nams workforce. What do you see as the most pressing challenges and key bottlenecks currently facing Viet Nams higher education system? In my view, higher education in Viet Nam is currently facing three major bottlenecks. The first is the quality and standardisation of the academic workforce. There is still a lack of consistency and preparedness among lecturers and teaching staff to meet the demands of curriculum reform and modern teaching methodologies, especially in the context of rapid digital transformation, the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and deeper international integration. The second challenge lies in the outdated governance model. The education sector continues to operate with a bureaucratic mindset, and many universities have yet to experience a truly autonomous and dynamic environment. In recent years, university autonomy has injected fresh momentum into higher education, enabling many institutions to make significant strides in improving quality and competitiveness. However, the evaluation of this policy has been sluggish, and challenges to fully implementing autonomy remain unresolved and unevenly addressed. The third issue is the disconnect between training and the actual needs of the labour market. There is a clear shortage of demand-driven programmes, particularly those tailored to business and industry needs that aim to develop a highly skilled, practically oriented workforce. Given these bottlenecks, what breakthrough solutions or policies do you believe are needed to address them? First and foremost, revising the Law on Higher Education, as well as the Law on Science and Technology, requires a fundamental shift in mindset. This cannot be a patchwork effort aimed only at removing current obstacles. Instead, it must be visionary, designed to create the legal and policy foundations that empower universities to grow, enable scientists to fully contribute and allow research institutions to develop advanced, home-grown technologies. Viet Nam has set targets, such as building universities ranked among the worlds top 100 and developing science and technology sectors that lead the region and reach the top 30 globally. To realise those goals, the legal framework, including laws on education, higher education and science and technology, must work in concert with the education sector and serve as a driving force for progress. What is needed now is a set of breakthrough policies. These should include creating a transparent, enabling environment that supports genuine university autonomy, accompanied by clear mechanisms for accountability. At the same time, the legal system must foster stronger connections between universities, enterprises and research institutes. Building a high-quality academic workforce is equally vital. Policies should focus on training and supporting educators and researchers in line with international standards, while also encouraging collaboration with top global research groups. Attracting international experts, overseas Vietnamese scholars and foreign professors to teach and conduct research in Viet Nam should also be a priority. The education system itself must embrace innovation, shifting away from passive knowledge transmission toward developing real-world competencies and skills. This means applying new educational models and methods, accelerating digital transformation and incorporating artificial intelligence and big data into teaching and assessment. Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches should be encouraged, linking academic research more closely with practical demands. Training programmes must align with international standards to ensure students are equipped for global competitiveness. No less important is investment in infrastructure. Modern laboratories, digital platforms and robust data systems are essential components of a future-ready education system. Finally, there must be breakthrough policies that offer meaningful incentives to attract and retain talent. In higher education, lecturers are also researchers. They are the cornerstone of Viet Nams efforts to advance science and technology. Do you have any specific recommendations for the Ministry of Education and Training as it works on drafting the new resolution? To begin with, there must be a decisive shift in mindset and approach. The drafting of this new resolution should not follow conventional patterns, but instead aim for bold, transformative change. I recommend that the Ministry of Education and Training organise broad-based consultations with experts, scientists, education leaders and universities to ensure the resolution is both practical and enjoys wide consensus. Grounding policy in real-world insight will be crucial to its success. In parallel, the ministry should conduct a thorough review of existing practices and continue refining the university autonomy framework. The goal should be to scale up successful models nationwide, allowing autonomy to serve as a genuine engine for reform. This includes identifying strategic priority areas and piloting innovative models, such as financial and academic self-governance and comprehensive international partnerships, at leading universities, with a view to replicating successful approaches more broadly. Greater emphasis must also be placed on advancing STEM education and integrating artificial intelligence throughout the education system. English should be introduced as a second official language of instruction, from primary schools to universities. Additionally, I believe Viet Nam needs a long-term national strategy for cultivating a skilled workforce. This should be treated as a strategic priority, on par with the national programme for science and technology development. The ministry should also set clear goals. By 2035, Viet Nam ought to have universities and academic fields ranked among the worlds top 100 to 200. Higher education must be capable of producing the human capital needed to power innovation, digital transformation and advancements in high-tech and strategic industries. What are your expectations for changes in the education sector over the next few years? I hope the new resolution will bring about a true breakthrough in how we approach the development of education, shifting from expansion to depth, from quantity to quality, and from mass education to elite, innovation-driven, globally integrated training. This transformation is essential for building a highly qualified, high-calibre workforce that can support Viet Nams aspirations for self-reliance and strength in this era of national renewal, and help realise the ambitious goals set out in the resolution. I believe we can nurture a new generation of Vietnamese who are knowledgeable, capable, visionary and courageous -- individuals with the talent and conviction to lead the nation forward and help build a prosperous, powerful country that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world. I also hope the resolution will serve as a powerful catalyst for Vietnamese higher education, enabling it to make significant strides toward joining the ranks of the top 100 institutions in the region and the world. At the same time, general education must evolve in a more holistic direction, nurturing students who are not only creative and compassionate, but also ambitious and driven by a sense of purpose and contribution. VNS LONDON Viet Nams rollout of two-tier local administration model and restructuring of provincial administrative units is a sound policy that conforms to global trends. Dr. Luong Tuan Anh from the UKs De Montfort University told the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s resident reporters in London. Anh expressed his support for this policy, asserting that it is a necessary reform for Vietnam to capitalise on domestic and international opportunities for growth. Viet Nam's oi Moi (renewal) policy over the past four decades needs updates in a rapidly changing world with geopolitical instabilities, climate change, and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). Streamlining the administration apparatus could slash recurrent expenditures, which now consume nearly 56 per cent of the national budget, compared to just 30 per cent in the UK, thereby freeing up resources for development projects, he said. The two-tier local administration model, he explained, would empower local authorities by granting them greater power to tailor policies to their specific needs and capabilities. The provincial administrative restructuring, while costly, promises substantial benefits, according to his recent research on merging Vietnamese provinces. He pointed to the mergence of HCM City with Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces as a prime example. The move would create a dynamic economic hub, with HCM City serving as a financial centre, Binh Duong as an industrial powerhouse, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau as a tourism magnet. By erasing administrative boundaries, the new megacity would facilitate smoother transport and lure foreign investors, allowing them to work in HCM City, build factories in Binh Duong, and reside in Vung Tau. Anh argued that such mergers would create driving forces, enabling each region to amplify its strengths and enhance its role within a unified province. This creates momentum for better development opportunities, he said. Drawing on the UKs administrative reforms, he highlighted the benefits of digital governance, including online procedures that ensure data interoperability across ministries and public service providers. These systems offer real-time feedback on errors and allow applicants to track document processing, improving efficiency and transparency. Viet Nam should adopt similar principles of transparency, accountability, and scientific rigor to professionalise its public administration, Anh suggested. VNA/VNS HA NOI President of the Viet Nam Union of Friendship Organisations (VUFO) Phan Anh Son on Wednesday hosted a reception for Wei Ran, Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office and President of the Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, during which the two sides discussed ways to strengthen locality-to-locality collaboration in the new situation. Briefing the guest on the recent diplomatic events between the two countries, which are celebrating the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic ties, Son stressed that as people-to-people diplomacy is identified as a vital channel contributing significantly to the Viet Nam China relations, his organisation has made efforts to nurture the robust friendship between the two peoples. Wei, for his part, said his visit aims at implementing the high-level agreements reached during recent mutual visits, including the trip to Viet Nam by Chen Gang, Secretary of the Communist Party of China Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. He added that it also seeks to explore measures for enhancing cooperation between Guangxi and Vietnamese localities, contributing to the Viet Nam China community with a shared future that carries strategic significance. He noted that Viet Nam has recently undergone administrative restructuring by streamlining apparatus and merging local administrative units, which poses new requirements regarding cooperation between the countries' localities, especially their twin cities and provinces. Given this, he asked VUFO to propose initiatives that can maintain the sound partnerships between localities in this new context. Drawing parallels to Chinas administrative overhaul in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Son held that China's streamlining efforts achieved remarkable results in subsequent years. He emphasised that both countries share similarities in their development processes and can exchange valuable experiences with each other amidst rapid changes in the global and regional situations as well as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Regarding practical steps to enhance local-level collaboration, Son suggested Guangxi send letters or diplomatic notes to Vietnamese localities to maintain the established twinning ties, adding VUFO stands ready to support the efforts. VNS PRETORIA National Assembly (NA) Vice Chairman Vu Hong Thanh met with Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane, and held talks with Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of South Africa Annelie Lotriet in Cape Town on July 16, as part of his official visit to South Africa from July 13 - 16. During the meetings, Thanh congratulated South Africa on its significant achievements in national development, particularly in implementing the goals of the "National Development Plan 2030" to improve living standards and reduce poverty and inequality. He affirmed that Viet Nam highly values its partnership for cooperation and development with the South Africa and considers the country one of its top partners in the region. He took the occasion to deliver a letter from State President Luong Cuong inviting President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa to attend the signing ceremony of the United Nation Anti-cybercrime Convention, scheduled for October in Ha Noi; and a letter from Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh thanking Ramaphosa for inviting him to the G20 Summit in South Africa in 2025, and inviting South African leaders to visit Viet Namat a convenient time. For their part, senior South African leaders highly valued Thanhs trip, stressing that it not only opened a new direction for inter-parliamentary cooperation but also created momentum for the two countries to expand relations in key areas such as economy, trade, investment, defence, and security, for the benefit, development, and prosperity of both nations. They expressed their admiration for Viet Nam's socio-economic achievements and showed their desire to deeply study Viet Nam's recent streamlining of the administration apparatus. The two sides agreed to continue effectively implementing bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the Intergovernmental Partnership Forum, the Joint Trade Committee, and the Viet NamSouth Africa Defence Policy Dialogue; enhancing exchanges and meetings at all levels; and making full use of the partnership for cooperation and development framework, and working toward a more substantive and deeper relationship in the future. Regarding multilateral cooperation, the two sides agreed to maintain their tradition of coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums. Building on the strong bilateral relationship, Viet Nam called on South Africa to consider supporting its candidacies to multilateral and international bodies, as well as backing Viet Nam's efforts to enhance cooperation and contribute to the common agendas of the African Union (AU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). For economic cooperation, they agreed to soon finalise a list of 50 potential export items to each others markets. They also pledged to boost tourism cooperation by simplifying visa procedures and make it easier for their businesses to invest in key sectors such as electric vehicles, mineral processing, electronic components, industrial machinery, oil and gas, renewable energy, software, and furniture. Mtshweni-Tsipane noted that South African localities are ready to partner with Vietnamese counterparts. Meanwhile, Lotriet said as developing economies, Viet Nam and South Africa can learn from each other in financial and economic management, particularly in emerging issues such as cybercrime prevention. The two sides agreed to elevate parliamentary cooperation as a key pillar of bilateral ties by fostering high-level visits, committee-level exchanges, and engagement among lawmakers. They also committed to closer consultation and coordination at multilateral parliamentary forums, especially within the frameworks of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA); and agreed to negotiate and sign a Memorandum of Understanding on legislative cooperation. They also agreed to jointly oversee the implementation of cooperation agreements signed by the two governments and to encourage relevant agencies to actively engage in dialogue and negotiation toward signing key foundational agreements, including a double taxation avoidance agreement, a visa exemption agreement for ordinary passport holders, a cooperation agreement on science, technology, and innovation; and a plan for implementing the MoU on higher education cooperation. On July 14 in Johannesburg, Thanh held a working session with representatives of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI), during which SACCI CEO Alan Mukoki-Hlongwane proposed establishing a business council comprising six to 12 representatives from each country, with a mechanism for regular meetings to discuss cooperation opportunities and shared goals. Vice Chairman Thanh welcomed the initiative and said he would relay the proposal to the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) for further discussion. On the same day, Thanh also had a meeting with representatives of the Vietnamese community in South Africa. VNA/VNS HA NOI The Vietnamese Government will continue to accompany, support, and create the most favourable conditions for Chinese enterprises, and CCC Infrastructure and Shenzhen Hero Group in particular, to invest and operate effectively in Viet Nam, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said on Wednesday. During a meeting with Fung Wai Ka Thomas, Director of CCC Infrastructure, and Lai Rong Huo, Chairman of Shenzhen Hero Group, Deputy PM Dung welcomed their interest and plans to invest in Viet Nam, especially in the field of smart urban development. He noted that Viet Nam has issued policies to develop smart urban chains with centrally-run cities serving as core hubs. Enterprises are encouraged to collaborate with Viet Nam in various areas, such as providing financial and technical support for pilot projects, cooperating in research and technology transfer for urban governance, and partnering in human resources training. Deputy PM Dung suggested that businesses can directly invest in developing smart urban projects in potential localities, initially piloting in smaller urban units such as communes and wards. He also underlined that the Government has delegated authority to localities, and investors should work closely with them to receive guidance, prepare project proposals, and ensure compliance with legal regulations. Fung Wai Ka Thomas expressed the companys interest in implementing real estate projects in Viet Nam, particularly smart urban developments in Bac Ninh and Tay Ninh (formerly Long An Province). Shenzhen Hero Group and CCC Infrastructure also hope to invest in high-quality industrial parks in Vietnamese localities and seek Government support in exploring investment opportunities. Established in 2000 and headquartered in Hong Kong, CCC Infrastructure is a leading firm in market research consulting, investment advisory, asset portfolio management, and financial services. Meanwhile, Shenzhen-based Hero Group is a diversified real estate enterprise specialising in smart and sustainable urban development, with 20 affiliated companies operating in major Chinese cities. VNA/VNS NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday morning, the New York Stock Exchange will provide a live broadcast of Disney CEO Bob Iger ringing the NYSE Opening Bell from Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, in celebration of Disneyland's 70th anniversary. NYSE President Lynn Martin will join Mr. Iger to commemorate the occasion. When: Thursday, July 17, 2025 9:28 a.m. ET Live feed opens 9:30 a.m. ET Opening Bell rings 9:31 a.m. ET Live feed closes Live Feed: The live feed will be available via Encompass 4090 and The Switch. Additional requests should be made through the NYSE Broadcast Center at [email protected] or 212.656.5483. Live Stream: The live feed also will be streamed on the NYSE's channels on X, LinkedIn and YouTube. SOURCE New York Stock Exchange By an Phuong HA NOI In a pioneering effort to enhance diagnostic and treatment capabilities, doctors at Military Hospital 175 have successfully repurposed the Maxio Robot, originally designed for soft tissue biopsies, for use in bone biopsy procedures. The breakthrough was announced by the doctors, who work in the Radiotherapy Department of the hospital's Institute of Oncology and Nuclear Medicine under the Ministry of National Defence. It offers a safer, more effective solution for diagnosing complex bone lesions that were once considered too difficult or high-risk to access. A new frontier in bone biopsy Bone biopsy is a critical yet highly invasive diagnostic technique used to detect malignant or unidentified bone lesions. The procedure requires exceptional precision, especially when targeting sensitive areas, such as the skull base or cervical and thoracic vertebrae. These regions are dense with blood vessels, nerves and the spinal cord. Even the slightest error during needle insertion can lead to serious complications, including paralysis, haemorrhage or death. Since 2019, Military Hospital 175 has employed CT-guided bone biopsy techniques with promising initial results. However, these procedures relied heavily on the operators skill, particularly in cases involving small or deep lesions near vital anatomical structures, making accurate needle placement extremely challenging. In 2022, the hospital acquired the Maxio Robot system, originally intended for soft tissue biopsies such as liver, lungs, adrenal glands and deep-seated lymph nodes, as well as for radiofrequency ablation treatments, per the manufacturers guidelines. During routine use, however, clinicians noticed the robots exceptional capacity for precise targeting, CT-based needle trajectory planning and directional stability. This observation prompted a key question from the team at the Radiotherapy Department: Could this robot also be used for bone biopsies? Despite the application falling outside the robots original design scope, they embarked on a rigorous research and implementation effort. Dr Pham Viet Hoat, who led the initiative, explained: Bone biopsies differ significantly from soft-tissue procedures. They require two phases: accessing the bone surface (periosteum) and then drilling through the hard bone. While the robot isnt built to handle drilling due to high vibration, it excels at guiding and stabilising the biopsy path. Recognising this, the team revised the standard protocol. The Maxio Robot was used to map and stabilise the entry path to the periosteum. Once this phase was completed, the robot was disengaged and doctors manually performed the drilling and sample extraction using traditional methods. This hybrid approach successfully merged robotic precision with the manual adaptability needed for bone intervention. Initial implementation came with challenges. The Maxio system was built for small-diameter needles compatible with soft tissue biopsies, whereas bone biopsies require thicker instruments. The research team conducted extensive trials, continually adjusting the equipment and technique to overcome incompatibility issues. Through perseverance and iterative refinements, they eventually resolved the technical hurdles and brought the innovation into routine practice. Real-world impact The adaptation of Maxio for bone biopsy has produced tangible clinical benefits. Thanks to accurate pre-planning and robotic stabilisation, doctors can now place needles precisely on the first attempt. This reduces the number of insertions, shortens procedure time and significantly limits radiation exposure from repeat CT scans. Importantly, procedures once considered high-risk or nearly impossible, such as biopsies at the skull base, cervical or thoracic vertebrae are now being performed safely and successfully in hundreds of cases. Bone biopsy is inherently high-risk. Even a millimetre deviation can result in severe complications. Using the robot for trajectory planning eliminates the guesswork, allowing us to confidently and safely perform biopsy on tumours in difficult-to-reach areas, Hoat said. The innovation is not only medically valuable, but also economically advantageous. The cost of a robot-assisted biopsy is approximately VN2.5 million (around US$100), with insured patients paying less than VN1 million ($38.20). Patients are discharged within 30 minutes and experience minimal discomfort. In contrast, traditional surgical biopsies can cost over VN20 million ($765), require a five-member surgical team and involve extended hospitalisation with higher risk. By creatively adapting existing technology and integrating it into practice, the medical team at Military Hospital 175 has not only demonstrated high-level clinical expertise, but also a spirit of innovation central to modern healthcare. Their efforts contribute meaningfully to improving patient outcomes, enhancing treatment accessibility and building a forward-looking medical system. The Maxio Robots use in bone biopsy stands as a vivid example of how Viet Nam is effectively implementing the Politburo's Resolution 57-NQ/TW, which emphasises the role of science, technology and innovation in advancing the healthcare sector. VNS HCM CITY HCM City continues to record the lowest birth rate in Viet Nam, despite a slight increase following its recent administrative merger with Binh Duong and Ba RiaVung Tau provinces, raising concerns over its long-term economic and social sustainability. The citys total fertility rate (TFR) currently stands at 1.43 children per woman, up marginally from 1.39 before the merger. However, it remains well below the national replacement rate of 2.0 to 2.1, according to the HCM City Population and Family Planning Department. Speaking recently on the occasion of World Population Day (July 11), Pham Chanh Trung, director of the department, said that while the city benefited from a demographic dividend (with 70.6 per cent of its population of 14 million in working age), it was also rapidly entering a period of population ageing, with 10.5 per cent aged over 60. Despite nationwide efforts to boost fertility, HCM City has maintained the lowest birth rate in the country for years. Nationally, Viet Nams average TFR is 1.91, placing it among the five lowest in Southeast Asia. Only Brunei (1.8), Malaysia (1.6), Thailand and Singapore (1.0) report lower figures, according to the General Statistics Office. Demographers have warned a prolonged decline in fertility may lead to a shrinking labour force, undermining innovation and productivity. Young workers are typically more adaptable and central to economic growth, especially in a globally integrated economy. The falling birth rate also accelerates population ageing, raising the risk of an inverted population pyramid, where retirees and elderly dependents outnumber the working-age population. This trend could strain public pensions, healthcare systems, and social welfare funds as fewer contributors support more beneficiaries. Citys response To address its persistently low birth rate, HCM City has implemented a broad set of policy measures aimed at encouraging childbirth. These include financial incentives and expanded maternal and child healthcare services. A long-term public health roadmap through 2030 has been approved, focusing on reversing fertility decline while upholding individual reproductive rights. Key initiatives under the roadmap include subsidised pre-marital health screenings, pre-pregnancy vaccinations for women, annual check-ups for schoolchildren, oral health programmes for primary students, and free HPV vaccinations for youth aged 1118. A resolution passed in late 2023 offers a cash incentive of VN3 million (US$115) to women who have two children before the age of 35. Additional measures include free tuition for all students across education levels and further investment in maternal and child healthcare. To shift public attitudes, city authorities are also intensifying communication campaigns encouraging couples to have two children. These campaigns span multiple platforms, including television and radio advertisements, cinema trailers, music, LED displays in shopping malls, and digital screens in apartment elevators, buses, and health clinics. The city also deploys a network of 19,392 population collaborators, who help manage demographic data and carry out community outreach. This years World Population Day, themed Reproductive Rights in a Changing World, underscores the need to balance personal choice with broader demographic objectives. Our goal is not to control fertility, said department director Pham Chanh Trung, but to provide people with the tools and support to make informed reproductive choices. VNS HCM CITY HCM City plans to upgrade more than 168 medical stations to improve grassroots health care and reduce the burden on higher-level health facilities to serve its growing population, health authorities said, following the city's merger with Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Binh Duong provinces. Following the merger, the citys population was estimated to increase from more than 9.9 million to 13.7 million, said Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy director of the citys Department of Health. The number of hospitals also increased from 134 to 164 following the merger, Nam said at a conference held on Wednesday to outline the departments tasks for the second half of this year. However, the ratio of hospital beds per 10,000 people had decreased from 42 to 35, posing huge challenges for the health sector to meet the medical examination and treatment needs of such a large population, he said. Assoc Prof Nguyen Anh Dung, deputy director of the department, said the new health system after the merger had expanded to 164 hospitals, 38 health centres, 168 health stations, 296 health points, 110 social protection centres, 15,611 private pharmaceutical businesses and pharmacies and more than 10,000 private clinics. "It is necessary to strengthen the capacity of health stations to make people place their trust in grassroots health care," Dung said. "Health stations are the closest places for locals seeking initial medical examination and health monitoring," he said. The health sector plans to reorganise the system of health centres and health stations to improve their capacity following the merger as well as expand the coverage of primary health services and build mechanisms to attract patients to health stations. The department has advised the city Peoples Committee to merge three centres for disease control and prevention, three medical assessment centres and three forensic centres. It has submitted a project to the committee for approval to merge Saigon General Hospital into Nhan Dan Gia inh Hospital and establish a second Tu Du Maternity Hospital facility in the outlying Can Gio area. The health sector strives to build a special urban model to become a centre of health, science, technology and innovation for the entire country, according to Dung. In the near future, major hospitals in the city will speed up technology transfer and support human resources for lower levels, especially at the Con ao Military-Civilian Medical Centre and areas far from the city centre. Another key task of the health sector this year is to deploy electronic medical records at all public hospitals before September 30 and develop a Big Data platform to connect the health data of city residents with the national population database and the VNeID platform in accordance with the roadmap of the Ministry of Health. The city will speed up progress of medical projects, including the Cu Chi Regional General Hospital project, which is expected to open on September 2, the 115 Emergency Centre project and the Blood Bank's second facility. The delayed medical projects such as Binh Duong General Hospital, Nhan Dan Gia inh Hospital, and Trung Vuong Hospital will be reviewed. VNS HA NOI African swine fever (ASF) is showing signs of resurgence across the country, with widespread underreporting and concealment of outbreaks threatening disease control efforts, according to officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment. Speaking at a meeting on ASF prevention held in Ha Noi on Tuesday, Phan Quang Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock Production and Veterinary Medicine, revealed that since the beginning of 2025, 514 outbreaks have been recorded in 27 provinces, affecting over 29,000 pigs. Of these, more than 30,000 pigs have died or been culled. Currently, 248 outbreaks remain active across 20 provinces, with nearly 20,000 pigs infected. Compared to the same period in 2024, the number of outbreaks has decreased by 41 per cent, and the number of pigs culled has dropped by more than 60 per cent. However, Minh warned the disease is showing signs of increasing again, particularly in small-scale, low-biosecurity farms where old outbreaks are re-emerging. The risk of continued transmission remains very high, he said. Authorities identified six key factors behind the ASF resurgence including widespread small-scale farming without adequate biosecurity, low vaccination uptake despite vaccine availability, concealment of outbreaks by farmers, illegal and unregulated slaughtering practices, weak enforcement of veterinary laws, and limited communication on disease control regulations. Unofficial reports from local residents, media outlets, and inspection teams have confirmed that disease concealment is rampant in many areas. Infected pigs are often sold off or their remains discarded into the environment, increasing the risk of transmission. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Phung uc Tien emphasised the serious threat ASF poses to the national livestock sector, which contributes 2526 per cent of Vietnams total agricultural output. If we cannot control the disease, we will lose our growth momentum, he warned. He recalled a major outbreak in 2020 that led to the culling of nearly 9 million pigs and drove the countrys consumer price index up by 6.73 per cent, severely impacting both economic growth and investor confidence. So far, livestock sector has grown 5.4 per cent in the first six months, close to its annual target of 5.75.9 per cent. Pork output has risen by 3.8 per cent, while poultry increased by 3.4 per cent. However, ASF and cross-border smuggling remain major threats. To strengthen ASF prevention and control, officials proposed tightening penalties for hiding outbreaks and trading infected pigs, expanding vaccination coverage, improving biosecurity at farms, and enhancing the capacity of local veterinary authorities, especially at the commune level, where management areas have expanded significantly. They also called for stricter disease surveillance, early detection and reporting, immediate culling of infected pigs, and stronger controls on the transportation, slaughter, and sale of pigs and pork products. VNS HA NOI Noi Bai International Airport has responded to public criticism over the price of a pork sandwich that recently made headlines for costing nearly US$7.90, saying it is priced in line with current regulations and reflects the quality of its imported ingredients. The controversy began when a traveller posted on social media that she paid VN208,000 (around US$7.90) for a banh mi - a Vietnamese-style sandwich - at a restaurant inside the airports international terminal. The post quickly went viral, sparking widespread debate and prompting an official inquiry from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV). In a written explanation submitted to the aviation authority, airport officials confirmed that the sandwich in question was sold by BigBowl, a well-known food chain with outlets at major airports nationwide. According to the report, the sandwich includes 200 grams of Brazilian-imported pork, and its price is publicly and clearly displayed at the counter, as required by law. The restaurant is located on the third floor of Terminal T2, inside the airside area after security checks. In addition to the $7.90 sandwich, BigBowl offers other items starting at $2.10 to cater to a range of passenger needs. The airport also noted that Terminal T2 currently has 24 food and beverage vendors serving everything from essential items, such as instant noodles and plain bread, to full meals including pho, rice dishes and pastries. Prices start at VN20,000 (about $0.80) in public areas and $1.50 in the restricted zone. "All food and beverage vendors at the airport are required to clearly display their prices and ensure product quality and traceability," airport authorities said. "We remain committed to complying with all regulations to ensure service quality for our passengers." The backlash was triggered by a post from traveller Nguyen Ngoc Tra My, who described the sandwich as 'ordinary' and said the price was higher than what she had paid at many international airports abroad. "It had a bit of pork, some vegetables and pickles - nothing special," she wrote. "I know airport food is expensive, but I didnt have any other option after waiting for so long." My added that she had previously paid VN560,000 (about $21) for a bowl of pho and a chicken rice dish at Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCM City, calling both meals disappointing. Her post drew several thousand comments, with many travellers echoing her concerns. Some noted that food and drink prices at Viet Nams two largest airports often come as a shock, especially in the international zones, where costs are significantly higher than average market rates. CAAV has directed Noi Bai Airport and relevant agencies to review all non-aviation services within the terminal, ensuring vendors follow rules on pricing transparency and service quality. VNS HA NOI Viet Nam has made remarkable progress in protecting children from vaccine-preventable diseases, according to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF estimates of national immunisation coverage (WUENIC) released on July 15. In 2024, Viet Nam achieved 99 per cent coverage for the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine, up from 80 per cent in 2023. Immunisation coverage in Viet Nam has not only rebounded to the high levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic but has now surpassed the rates recorded in 2019. This improvement led to a reduction in the number of zero-dose children that is, children who had not been protected by any vaccine from 274,000 in 2023 to just 13,000 in 2024, a decline of over 95 per cent. Compared to the previous year, many more young Vietnamese children are protected against common vaccine preventable diseases. In 2024, Viet Nam had well above global averages for immunisation coverage, thanks to strong Government leadership, great efforts by health-care workers and support from parents and the community. WHO Deputy Representative in Viet Nam Dr Jennifer Horton said the estimates were evidence of the hard work of the health sector to bolster routine immunisation following the pandemic and conduct outbreak response vaccination activities during the 2024-2025 measles outbreak. Almost 1.3 million children were vaccinated against measles in mass vaccination campaigns in 2024 and activities continued into 2025. This positive increase in vaccination coverage numbers is a tribute to the thousands of dedicated health-care workers who have worked so hard to restore life-saving immunisation services after a sustained decline due to pandemic disruptions and stockouts. We thank everyone across the country for their impressive efforts to keep children safe, she said. This achievement is a powerful reflection of Viet Nams unwavering commitment to child health and the strength of its primary healthcare system, said Dr Nguyen Huy Du, Acting Chief of Child Survival and Development, UNICEF Viet Nam. At a time when 1.8 million children across UNICEFs East Asia and Pacific region remain unvaccinated, Viet Nams success offers a clear message: with strong political will, timely and adequate provision of immunisation supplies and outreach sessions, and community engagement, it is possible to reach every child. We commend Viet Nam for its leadership toward closing the immunisation gap and ensuring that no child is left behind. The country also recorded a 32-percentage point increase in the proportion of children protected by three doses of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine, reaching 97 per cent in 2024, up from 65 per cent the previous year. This indicates not only improved access but also strong follow-through in completing the full vaccination schedule. Additionally, coverage for the first dose of the measles vaccine rose significantly, from 82 per cent in 2023 to 98 per cent in 2024, protecting more children from one of the most contagious diseases. Despite these gains, challenges remain. Viet Nam still has 40,000 children who are unvaccinated with the third dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine or have not received the full course of vaccinations, and 27,000 children who missed their first dose of the measles vaccine. These gaps highlight the need for continued investment in community outreach, health worker training and efforts to counter vaccine misinformation. Children may remain un- or under-vaccinated due to various factors including geographic barriers, limited access to services in remote or underserved areas, and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health system. Ensuring secure and consistent vaccine supply chains, especially during current health system restructuring, will be critical to maintaining high coverage. To close the remaining gaps, private health-care providers should be encouraged to recommend and administer all routine immunizations, and local authorities should be supported to implement tailored strategies that reach the most vulnerable populations. WHO and UNICEF urge continued efforts to catch up with children who are still missing out on vaccines, particularly in hard-to-reach communities. Even small declines in coverage can lead to dangerous outbreaks and place additional strain on the health system. The WUENIC data underscore the importance of local leadership, domestic financing and integrated primary health care in achieving the goals of the Immunization Agenda 2030. Viet Nams example demonstrates that even in the face of global challenges, rapid progress is possible with targeted, equity-focused strategiesbut only if countries act decisively to protect and build on these achievements. VNS TOKYO Fumihiro Uchida, 64, of Osaka quit his job at a metalworking company in September 2022 to care for his mother Teruko, 88. Although he wanted to keep working as long as he could, his mother needed constant care. Teruko had been living independently but was making use of day care services since breaking a bone from a fall. A high fever led to her being hospitalized, and her physical and mental condition deteriorated during her two months there. Uchida was told that his mother could be discharged only if someone could be with her at all times. Uchida, who had continued working after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60, thought he may be able to keep working if he was allowed to leave the workplace at 3 p.m. to take care of his mother after she returned home from a day-care facility in the evening. Nevertheless, he decided to quit his job, since he did not want to cause his company any trouble. Terukos condition improved one month after being discharged from the hospital, so Uchida started looking for a new job through the Hello Work public job placement office and job sites. But he has been unable to find a job that he wants due to his age and working-hour requirements. According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, 106,000 people left their jobs to care for family members during the one-year period ending September 2022, an increase of 7,000 from the previous survey in 2017. The law on childcare and caregiver leave allows employees to use support systems to help them balance work and family care. But only 1.6% of employees caring for their parents took nursing care leave of up to 93 days, which is given per family member who requires nursing care. Employees can split this leave into as many as three blocks. Only 4.5% of such employees took time off for sporadic care-related events such as hospital leave, which has a limit of five days a year. Some people believe that caring for their parents is their responsibility alone and can think of no option besides quitting their jobs. Employers also lack knowledge and experience in caregiving and are unable to provide sufficient information about such things as the support systems, said Mie Waki, representative director of a Tokyo-based general incorporated association for the promotion of measures to make it unnecessary for people to leave their jobs to care for family members. To raise awareness of the support systems and encourage their use, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry obliged companies in April to explain the systems to employees who need to care for family members on an individual basis and to confirm whether they will be making use of them. Changing work climate However, many people find it difficult to discuss caregiving with their bosses. Some hesitate to use the systems out of consideration for colleagues who would have to take over their duties. A work climate where employees can comfortably talk about their personal circumstances is essential. A Tokyo-based IT-related company encourages managers to check on their subordinates to see if they need to care for family members and to encourage them to utilize the support systems. As of 2022, there were 3.646 million people providing nursing care for family members while working. Of them, those in their 50s accounted for the highest proportion at 42%. The government estimates that the annual economic losses resulting from workforce shortages due to resignations and other reasons will exceed 9 trillion in 2030. As Japan faces an increasingly aging society, the number of employees who provide nursing care for their families will rise. Companies must recognize employees caregiving-related concerns as issues related to business operations and adopt a proactive stance to explore ways for employees to continue working with them, said Jun Kawauchi, representative director of Tonari no Kaigo, a nonprofit organization in Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, which supports people providing care for family members. The government, for its part, should provide financial support for companies to implement measures such as encouraging employees to seek early consultations. Parties pledge increased support In face of the rapidly aging population, political parties have made pledges to carry out policies aimed at preventing people from leaving their jobs due to caregiving in the campaigning for the upcoming House of Councillors election. The Liberal Democratic Party said it will aim to improve care services, which will also help prevent people from leaving jobs to take care of their family members. The party also said it will work to raise wages for care workers and provide stability to care service providers. The Japan Innovation Party proposed the promotion of housework support services so that people do not have to leave their jobs to rear children and care for family members. The JIP said it will establish further support systems to enable employees to continue working while taking care of family members. The Japanese Communist Party said it will increase national spending on the public nursing care insurance program by 1.3 trillion and improve the treatment of caregivers and others. BEIJING Beijing and New Delhi reaffirmed on Monday their commitment to deepening mutually beneficial cooperation and promoting steady, positive growth in bilateral relations, as Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made his first visit to China in over five years. Vice-President Han Zheng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met separately with Jaishankar, who will also attend the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States, scheduled for Tuesday in Tianjin. Han emphasised the need to ensure the steady and healthy development of China-India relations under the strategic guidance of the two countries leaders. President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a successful meeting in October in Kazan, Russia, providing important strategic guidance for the improvement and development of bilateral relations, he noted. As major developing countries and key nations of the Global South, Han said China and India should view each other as partners and contribute to each others success. He called for joint efforts to advance practical cooperation, respect each others core concerns, and foster sound, stable relations. Noting that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India, Wang told Jaishankar that the continued momentum of improvement and development in relations should be cherished. The relationship is not directed against any third party, nor should it be disrupted by any third party, Wang said, emphasizing that the two countries should build mutual trust instead of suspicion, pursue cooperation instead of rivalry, and seek mutual success instead of mutual attrition. China is ready to work with India to jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system, ensure the stability of global industrial and supply chains, and uphold a cooperative environment, he added. Jaishankar told Wang that India and China are development partners, not rivals, and that India is willing to focus on common interests, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and jointly maintain peace and tranquility. Both sides should strive to accumulate positive factors in bilateral ties, avoid letting differences turn into disputes, and prevent competition from becoming a conflict, he said. Bilateral relations have rebounded in the past nine months as China and India strengthened exchanges and achieved positive outcomes. The 23rd meeting of the Special Representatives on the China-India Boundary Question and two rounds of vice foreign minister-foreign secretary dialogues have been held successively. Wang Dong, a professor and executive director of Peking Universitys Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding, said that India has increasingly realised that a confrontational approach with China hampers its own development, making improvement of ties with China strategic and necessary. China has sought to promote relations in a pragmatic direction, emphasising cooperation and joint contributions to the international community, he added. China Daily/ANN BANGKOK The Criminal Court has scheduled August 22 to deliver its verdict in the case where former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is accused of lese majeste following an interview with South Korean media in 2015. His lawyer, Winyat Chartmontree, told reporters that Thaksin would attend the court to hear the verdict at 10 am on August 22. Winyat explained that the court set the hearing date after the defence team informed the court yesterday that they had presented enough testimony from defence witnesses. The lawyer spoke to the media after the last defence witness hearing. The defence presented the testimonies of three key witnesses: former deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam, Tongthong Chandransu, former permanent Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office and Thaksin himself. After these three witnesses gave their accounts, the defence team informed the court that although they had initially prepared 14 witnesses, they now wished to rest their case. The hearing concluded at noon. The lese majeste charges against Thaksin stem from an interview he gave to South Korean media (Chosun Ilbo) in May 2015, during which he allegedly mentioned privy councillors and the 2014 military coup that ousted the Government of his younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Thaksin arrived at the Criminal Court yesterday. His brother-in-law, Somchai Wongsawat, and a group of red-shirt supporters were also present to offer moral support. After arriving, Thaksin avoided reporters by using a side entrance to the court building, where Winyat was waiting for him. Winyat then escorted Thaksin inside without speaking to the media before the hearing. THE NATION/ANN This development has drawn the attention of domestic and foreign manufacturers alike, many of whom had long relied on location-based tax holidays as a part of their investment calculations. Under the 2008 law on CIT, location-based incentives, like a two-year tax holiday and 50 per cent cuts for four more years, automatically applied to enterprises setting up in industrial areas. This blanket approach has now been done away with. Starting October 1, newly licensed projects will not be solely geographically centred as before, but will also consider a broader range of factors, including the projects sector, scale, and alignment with national policy goals such as technological innovation and environmental impact. This shift will not affect projects already enjoying incentives under the existing regime. Those benefits will remain in place for the duration stipulated in investment licences or tax rulings. But the companies considering expansion plans post-October will face the new incentive environment. If the expansion remains within the same registered business line and licence, it may inherit the original projects benefits. But if it constitutes a new line or meets the threshold of an independently accounted project, the amended rules will apply. This provides flexibility for businesses to choose the most beneficial incentive scheme for their operations, demonstrating the governments willingness to facilitate a favourable environment for investment. For manufacturing companies, this realignment means that the future of tax benefits lies in what they produce and how they produce it, not where. In parallel, it is notable that the new law on CIT also introduces stricter controls on deductible and non-deductible expenses. Deductible costs must be documented with proper invoices and non-cash payment receipts. This includes all production-related expenses, and others that do not fall under explicitly banned categories. Non-cash payments above VND20 million ($800) must comply with VAT rules to be deductible. Businesses are now advised to retain non-cash payment evidence for transactions from $200 to $800 between July and September due to overlapping regulatory timelines between the new law on VAT, taking effect on July 1, and the law on CIT from October 1. On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises may find some relief. Firms with annual revenues up to VND3 billion ($120,000) will be taxed at 15 per cent. Those with revenues between $120,000 and $2 million) will be taxed at a 17 per cent rate. But theres a caveat: companies with direct or indirect links to larger firms are excluded to prevent abuse through artificial fragmentation and protect the integrity of these incentives. The sectors singled out for preferential treatment under the new law are high-tech manufacturing, semiconductors, renewable energy, green hydrogen, electric vehicles, and supporting industries. The eligible projects in these sectors may enjoy a 10 per cent CIT rate for up to 15 years. Depending on investment scale and legal compliance, other options such as a 10 or 15 per cent rate for the lifespan of the project, or 17 per cent for 10 years or longer, are also possible. New provisions also address how overseas income and capital gains will be taxed. Foreign income will now be taxed upon accrual, rather than remittance, a change that could affect how multinational firms manage cash flows and tax credits in Vietnam. Foreign digital service providers and e-commerce players have been officially brought into the tax net through permanent establishment rules. Another change is seen in the capital market. Capital gains from direct or indirect share transfers will be taxed based on gross proceeds, regardless of whether a profit was made. This means CIT approach applies even in loss-making transactions, meaning tax liability arises on the transaction value itself. Perhaps one of the most forward-looking aspects of the amendment is the enhanced deductibility for research and development, environmental cause, and infrastructure investments. While exact deduction rates will be clarified in future, the direction is clear: tax rules will favour businesses that contribute to sustainability, digital transformation, or shared infrastructure like roads and utilities within industrial areas. This final point could prove decisive for manufacturers choosing between status quo operations and strategic upgrades. Those investing in emissions controls or energy-efficient machinery will now be able to write off these costs more easily, even if they do not generate immediate revenue. The same holds for companies co-financing infrastructure projects that benefit the wider industrial ecosystem. For investors and companies already in Vietnam or considering entry, this legal change presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The era of automatic tax relief based on geography is ending. What replaces it is a framework that rewards technological innovation, environmental responsibility, and alignment with national economic goals. In the coming months, detailed regulations will shed light on how the amended law will operate in practice. Companies should use this window to conduct impact assessments, especially if they are planning expansions or restructuring into Vietnams industrial zones. Sudhanshu Singh, Analyst, Dezan Shira & Associates Kevin Longino will step down in 2026, search underway for next leader NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Kevin Longino, the highly respected and accomplished Chief Executive Officer of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), announced today that he has decided to step down as CEO in 2026. The NKF Board of Directors have initiated a search with Longino to identify the next CEO to lead the organization. Longino will continue to serve in his role as CEO until a successor is appointed and will assist in the transition to ensure a smooth handover of leadership responsibilities. Following his tenure as CEO, Longino will continue to support NKF as a staff advisor, fundraiser, and advocate for kidney health innovation and research. This announcement is part of a thoughtful succession plan that both the NKF Board and Longino view as essential to ensuring continuity. The NKF enters this transition at a time of strength. NKF is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year. There is optimism for the future and to advancing the NKF's 75th Anniversary campaign goal to transform kidney health and patient care by 2030. Longino first joined the organization as a Board member in 2012. In 2015, the Board appointed him Interim CEO and, later that year, named him to the role permanently. As CEO, Longino led the organization to reimagine its core patient advocacy missionadvancing early CKD diagnosis (CKDIntercept), improving access to transplantation (Transplants for All), and expanding home dialysis. He shifted the NKF's focus from individual support to system-level change, broadening its impact from thousands of patients to millions. During his tenure, the organization grew fundraising, invested in research and programs, and scaled digital capabilitiesall while strengthening its financial and operational foundations to support long-term success. With a focus on system-level change, Longino prioritized the NKF's role in shaping public policy and grass roots advocacy. By strengthening its government engagement, the NKF influenced key public policies and legislation such as the Advancing American Kidney Health Initiative and Securing the Modernization of the OPTN Act. The NKF also accelerated innovation through its own research into clinical studies, surrogate end points, biomarkers, and xenotransplantation. He has also been a champion of reform, cementing NKF's leadership role in the development of the race-free EGRF equation and changes to the Kidney Donor Risk Assessment. Additionally, Longino established the NKF Innovation Fund to make early-stage strategic investments in life-saving technologies and therapeutics. Longino transitions at a time of opportunity for continued growth and future investments in scaling its mission. A transplant recipient himself, Longino brought a deep personal commitment to the work. "I am immensely proud of the impact the NKF has made in the lives of kidney patients. It has been an honor to lead this organization," said Longino. "With the NKF on strong footing, I'm excited to support a thoughtful transition, focus more of my time on the Innovation Fund, and thereby advance the organization's life-saving mission." The Board of Directors expressed its appreciation for Longino's leadership. "Kevin has led NKF with vision, integrity, and unwavering dedication," said Anne Barr, Chair of the NKF Board. "While it is a significant change to have an extraordinary leader like Kevin transition, the Board and I are deeply grateful for the work he has done to mature and strengthen the organization. Additionally, we appreciate his commitment to serve the organization through the transition and to continue to be an advocate for NKF afterwards." "Kevin's deep personal commitment, driven by his own powerful life story, has been transformative for the NKF," said Dr. Kirk Campbell, President of the NKF Board. "His inspiring, visionary leadership and tireless advocacy have left an indelible impact on patients, families, caregivers, health professionals and the entire kidney community. On behalf of the Board and membership of the organization, I extend heartfelt gratitude for Kevin's service and his unwavering dedication to improving kidney health and advancing the mission of the NKF." To support a seamless leadership transition, the Board has engaged Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a national search for the NKF's next CEO. About the National Kidney Foundation The National Kidney Foundation is revolutionizing the fight to save lives by eliminating preventable kidney disease, accelerating innovation for the dignity of the patient experience, and dismantling structural inequities in kidney care, dialysis, and transplantation. For more information about the NKF, visit www.kidney.org. About Russell Reynolds Associates Russell Reynolds Associates is a global leadership advisory firm. Our 550+ consultants in 47 offices work with public, private, and nonprofit organizations across all industries and regions. We help our clients build teams of transformational leaders who can meet today's challenges and anticipate the digital, economic, sustainability, and political trends that are reshaping the global business environment. From helping boards with their structure, culture, and effectiveness to identifying, assessing and defining the best leadership for organizations, our teams bring their decades of expertise to help clients address their most complex leadership issues. We exist to improve the way the world is led. Visit www.russellreynolds.com to learn more. SOURCE National Kidney Foundation At a forum on transformation towards eco-industrial parks (eco-IPs) held on June 25 in Ho Chi Minh City, Giang Ngoc Phuong, deputy CEO of the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park, said that dozens of enterprises within the park have begun transitioning towards more sustainable operations. Thirty pioneering companies adopting the eco-IP model have reportedly doubled their output within just three years. Green transformation may be painful at first, but its worth it. Once products meet the sustainability standards increasingly demanded by global markets, business performance follows, Phuong said. Initially, some firms expressed concerns about technological confidentiality and additional costs. However, early engagement with international experts and a clearer understanding of long-term benefits have led to a shift in mindset, according to Phuong. Collaborative initiatives such as shared training costs and industrial symbiosis, repurposing by-products like ash and waste clay into building materials or converting metal scraps into new products, have proven effective, Phuong added. These not only reduce operational expenses but also strengthen in-park cooperation, reinforcing a sustainable ecosystem. From a technical standpoint, industrial development expert Tran Tan Sy noted that the upfront investment for an eco-IP may be about 10 per cent higher than that of a traditional model. However, these parks can help businesses save 2-3 per cent annually on operational and business costs. With fully developed infrastructure and ready investors, value creation and market expansion become more achievable, Sy explained. From the construction and operations angle, Nguyen Trung Kien, director of Vilandco and a board member of the Vietnam Green Building Council, emphasised that more investors are pursuing environmental certifications and sustainable models to reduce environmental impact. Green transformation is not just a responsibility, but a competitive edge for attracting high-quality capital, Kien said. The earlier you implement an eco-IP, the greater the competitive advantage. First movers always enjoy significant benefits. Such parks are also viewed as a critical foundation for accelerating green transportation initiatives. According to Stefan Kaufmann, founder and CEO of Eboost, the shift to electric vehicles (EVs) and sustainable mobility solutions is essential for eco-IPs. Because these parks concentrate factories, logistics hubs, and industrial services, they offer predictable traffic flows for staff, fleet, and cargo. This enables high infrastructure utilisation. Moreover, eco-IPs benefit from policy incentives under green growth frameworks, Kaufmann said. Implementation typically begins with pilot projects and EV infrastructure upgrades in industrial areas. For instance, Eboost is currently piloting EV charging solutions. The next stage involves planning advanced EV charging networks within eco-IPs, including charging stations for e-motorbikes, electric cars, and trucks, as well as optimising existing stations using solar energy. These efforts are paired with the integration of EV infrastructure into eco-IP master plans and the development of green logistics hubs, initiatives expected to reduce CO2 emissions and boost the use of renewable energy, Kaufmann added. Tran Viet Huy, CEO of transporting agency TRA-SAS and head of Customs and Trade Facilitation at the Vietnam Logistics Business Association, said his firm is striving to become a green and transparent logistics partner. He said TRA-SAS is collaborating with and learning from foreign-led enterprises and has already adopted VertZero software to manage and report carbon emissions. The drivers of environmental, social, and governance implementation include customer demand, financial institutions, internal awareness, and regulatory compliance. Effective strategies can enhance brand value, reduce costs, and attract investment, Huy said. He noted that developing green logistics in industrial areas still faces major challenges. Infrastructure is overly road-centric, limiting access to low-emission alternatives like rail or waterways. Moreover, when industrial areas overlap with urban areas, air and noise pollution drive up logistics costs. Other obstacles include barriers to renewable energy adoption, limited investment in low-emission logistics infrastructure, and a lack of incentives for EV charging, Huy added. Le Hoang Anh, founder and CEO of Eco-Truck, emphasised that business-to-business (B2B) road freight is a vital segment of Vietnams logistics sector but remains underfunded and overlooked. Our goal is to optimise operational costs and build an ecosystem centred on road transport service providers, especially in the B2B segment. The company is leveraging technology to scale B2B logistics services nationwide, said Anh. Eco-industrial parks help build long-term destination Industrial real estate is becoming part of a broader ecosystem aimed at attracting high-quality investment, where modern standards are increasingly applied to enhance competitiveness and meet global benchmarks. Factors boosting the expansion of eco-industrial parks The transformation of traditional industrial parks into eco-parks is accelerating. Nguyen Tram Anh, technical expert at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, spoke to VIRs Kim Oanh about the factors contributing to the expansion of this model. Green roadmaps a key strand for eco-IP conversion Developing specific roadmaps for the green transition is seen as a key solution to promoting the shift towards green and eco-industrial park models across the country. Commitments have been reiterated on the market upgrade process, Photo: Le Toan Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on July 6 called for enhanced policy coordination in monetary and fiscal management, while placing special emphasis on the implementation of measures necessary for the market upgrade. His directive urges relevant ministries and agencies to actively dismantle lingering bottlenecks, particularly those tied to transaction procedures, foreign investor rights, and market transparency. In response to this directive and as part of ongoing reform efforts, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has reiterated its commitment to the upgrade process. On July 2, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi reaffirmed that upgrading Vietnams stock market remains a key government priority, carried out in a methodical and coordinated manner. He noted that the MoF and the State Securities Commission (SSC) are closely working with other authorities to fine-tune legal regulations, modernise infrastructure, and meet the stringent criteria set by international organisations such as MSCI and FTSE Russell. Improving the investor experience, especially for foreign institutions, is a core condition for market upgrading, Chi stressed. The goal is not only to secure technical compliance, but also to enhance Vietnams position as a more accessible and transparent investment destination. In parallel, SSC vice chairman Hoang Van Thu provided a detailed update on ongoing reforms aligned with the stock market development strategy to 2030. The rollout of the KRX trading platform in May marked a major milestone in technology modernisation. Complementing this, circulars on margin trading and information disclosure have been introduced to align legal regulations with international practices. The regulatory framework has seen tangible progress, but we acknowledge that some requirements for the upgrade are still pending finalisation, Thu said, pointing to ongoing amendments and the planned introduction of a central counterparty clearing model beyond the derivatives market. The MoF is currently drafting a decree which will establish a legal framework for the clearing mechanism, addressing concerns around post-trade settlement risks and enhancing market efficiency. In parallel, the SSC is working on the implementation of omnibus accounts, a key structure that simplifies the trading experience for foreign institutional investors and is standard in emerging markets. On the market front, optimism appears to be building. At an investment seminar in Hanoi on July 8, Tran Hoang Son, director of Market Strategy at VPBank Securities, noted that the VN-Index has bounced back from its dip in April and is now exceeding recent short-term highs. Liquidity has improved significantly, and investor confidence is clearly returning, as shown by the number of trading accounts surpassing 10 million, said Son. He added that the market remains attractively priced. The current price-to-earnings ratio is around 14 times, lower than the 10-year average of 16.6. The forward ratio is estimated at 10-11 times, indicating there is still room for growth. Low valuations and rising investor interest are setting the stage for further capital inflows into the stock market, he said. Son also highlighted a pipeline of new listings and initial public offerings expected between now and 2027. These could contribute an estimated $47.5 billion in market capitalisation, particularly in sectors such as finance, consumer goods, and ICT. Vietnam is currently fulfilling seven out of nine criteria set by FTSE for emerging market status, he noted. We believe there is a 70 per cent likelihood of the upgrade being confirmed in September, although there remains a chance that the final decision could be deferred to March 2026 due to settlement timeline differences under the new KRX system. Should the upgrade be realised, VPBankS projects capital inflows of between $3-7 billion, including both passive and active investment. This would boost liquidity and also deepen the investor base and increase scrutiny over corporate governance, reporting standards, and transparency. Pham Luu Hung, chief economist at SSI Research, assessed the upgrade probability at closer to 90 per cent. We estimate that 20-30 Vietnamese stocks could be included in FTSEs index baskets, with large-cap stocks such as VNM, HPG, SSI, and several Vingroup affiliates likely to see strong inflows, Hung told VIR. He added that top securities firms with large foreign trading volumes, such as SSI, VCI, and HCM, would be among the beneficiaries. This upgrade will bring in new capital and also shift the overall perception of Vietnams market in the eyes of foreign institutions, Hung emphasised. He further noted that the expected rise in foreign investment will also positively impact Vietnams financial services sector, especially securities companies and asset managers. As more international investors enter the market, there will be growing demand for better risk management tools, hedging products, and clearer financial reports. This, in turn, will help improve the overall quality and development of Vietnams capital market, he said. Shuyin Tang, co-founder of the Beacon Fund Could you share how the current regulatory shift shapes Vietnams impact investing ecosystem? The countrys new vision for private economic development sends a strong message that private enterprises, especially small and medium-sized ones, are central to Vietnams growth story. While it outlines many positive policy directions, Im particularly excited about the signals it sends for such businesses, a segment that impact investors have long placed front and centre. While tech startups often grab the headlines, its important not to forget that such enterprises are the backbone of the Vietnamese economy. They account for over 95 per cent of businesses, generate approximately 40 per cent of GDP and employ about half of the workforce. At the same time, they tend to have very different characteristics to startups theyre not necessarily rocket ships, but rather the reliable contributors to economic growth. How can Vietnam leverage impact capital to transform challenges into opportunities to drive sustainable development? The impact investing sector has already come a long way in the last decade. Ten years ago, we were still explaining what impact investing even meant. Fast-forward to the present: just a couple of weeks ago, the Vietnam Impact Investing Network co-hosted Vietnams first-ever Impact Investing Summit, bringing together over 120 highly engaged participants and showcasing a number of local success stories. That said, Ill be the first to acknowledge that theres still some confusion in the broader market about what impact investing actually entails, particularly because it comes in many shapes and sizes. In Vietnam, a large share of impact capital still comes from development finance institutions and the majority of that capital is channelled through local banks and corporates into large-scale transactions such as on-lending facilities or green and blue bonds. This trend is likely to continue, and thats good news for companies operating in sectors like clean energy, energy efficiency, and infrastructure. At the same time, theres a growing group of private impact funds already active in Vietnam, focused on finding opportunities and filling capital gaps that some of these larger players may overlook. These include ourselves at Beacon Fund, along with organisations like Clime Capital, DFCD, Rabo Foundation, Sweef Capital, and a growing number of others. Many of us are working with small businesses and early-stage companies that are tackling real challenges but often struggle to access appropriate capital and support. Im often asked whether we as an industry should focus on growing impact capital at the large end of the spectrum (such as bank on-lending facilities and green bonds) or focus on addressing the so-called missing middle. For me, its not an either-or, but a both-and. To meet Vietnams sustainable development goals, we need both large-scale financing facilities as well as fit-for-purpose funding for smaller enterprises. Amid the global economic uncertainty, how do impact investing funds adjust their investment strategies in Vietnam? Theres no denying that this is a challenging time for impact fund managers and impact enterprises alike. Headwinds abound: fundraising is hard, macro uncertainty looms, and theres backlash against environmental, social, and governance-style considerations, particularly in the US. That said, many of us in the impact space are no strangers to operating with limited resources. The buzz-phrases of focusing on business fundamentals and path to profitability have been our reality for years. Resilience, creativity, and resourcefulness are baked into how we operate, and Im seeing those qualities on full display right now, from both among fellow fund managers and the entrepreneurs we back. In fact, in this environment, impact can be a real differentiator. There are always a million reasons not to invest, especially in times of uncertainty. But when a business has a clear, measurable impact, this can help open the door and become the starting point for meaningful conversations. What is the outlook of impacting investment activity in the second half of the year? Im cautiously optimistic. I expect continued momentum in the large-scale transactions, particularly in climate-related investments, and thats a promising sign. But to be honest, much of this capital remains out of reach for most impact enterprises. While infrastructure and clean energy are important and much-needed, other critical areas such as social inclusion, education, and smallholder agriculture continue to face persistent funding gaps. Theres a clear need for more flexible, fit-for-purpose capital. Across the impact investing community, were having more and more conversations about how to address this challenge collectively and get capital flowing where it is most needed. Were also encouraged by policy momentum and by the direction being set through initiatives like Vietnams international financial centres particularly their incorporation of sustainable and green finance. These developments could help create stronger tailwinds for a more inclusive and diversified impact investment landscape in Vietnam in the years to come. Hiep Nguyen, COO of tech startup AI Hay, is steering his company towards ventures he hopes will benefit from the incentives outlined in Decree No.180/2025/ND-CP, which took effect on July 1. The decree sets out the governments policies for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in science and technology. Decree 180 is a very important step forward, creating great opportunities for private enterprises, especially technology enterprises and innovative startups, he told VIR. The decree opens up a clear mechanism for enterprises to access state resources, including capital from the budget and data. Operating since 2022, the company is currently developing digital platforms that bring AI into learning and teaching. For AI enterprises like AI Hay, the decree is deemed a valuable resource for its ambitions, with difficulties in data standardisation being a sticking point in recent times. The states willingness to order research and accept risks with high-tech projects also helps businesses boldly innovate, instead of only investing in sure-fire projects. If private enterprises know how to grasp and connect with institutes and schools, this decree will not only open up growth opportunities but also contribute to enhancing the innovation ecosystem in Vietnam, he added. The decree is receiving widespread support from the private sector, as its provisions are expected to enable more firms to enter and expand in the field. Chan Cong Hoa, chairman of medical tech manufacturer MaiHoa Group said, MaiHoa has reviewed its entire development strategy and launched a plan to reform our collaboration model with the public sector, aiming to become more proactive, creative, and inclusive now that Decree 180 has come into effect. He explained that the company will initially focus on three core areas. Firstly, it plans to propose social PPP models that apply nano air-purification technologies and the VNSanitizer water solution to the environmental, energy, and healthcare sectors, especially through services in large urban centres such as hospitals, schools, public transport, and community facilities. Secondly, MaiHoa will increase spending on digital platforms to digitise QR codebased information retrieval, serving as an effective bridge for digital education through its eco-friendly product systems. These solutions will promote transparency and compatibility with Vietnams national digital data infrastructure. Thirdly, the company intends to develop joint programmes with research institutes, universities, and government agencies to boost domestic research and development capacity and keep pace with global trends in advanced technologies. We believe that, with clear direction from the government and the enabling legal framework under Decree 180, MaiHoa will not only grow economically, but also contribute meaningfully to Vietnams pursuit of a green, digital, innovative, and human-centred economy, Hoa said. According to the Institute of Management & Financial Studies, a key highlight of Decree 180 is its provision of a transparent, flexible, and secure legal foundation for PPPs in technology. Businesses will be able to access state resources including funding, land, and tax incentives, while gaining the authority to propose, implement, and retain the results of scientific and innovation activities, with risk-sharing mechanisms clearly defined. This decree demonstrates a forward-looking reform mindset, placing enterprises at the heart of the innovation ecosystem and accelerating collaboration between the public and private sectors to address major national challenges, said Dr. Nam Ho, director of the institute. I believe this is a prime opportunity for Vietnamese firms to establish themselves as strategic partners in shaping a digital and sustainable future. As outlined in the decree, PPP models will apply to high-tech fields, strategic technologies, and infrastructure supporting research, development, and the application of advanced and digital systems in alignment with the countrys economic and governance goals. The model will also support training for digital workforce development. Participating organisations and individuals will benefit from exemptions and reductions in land use fees and rents, as well as investment incentives in accordance with land, investment, and other related legislation. They will also be entitled to own the results of their scientific, technological, and innovative activities under prevailing laws, and may adopt risk-tolerant approaches within such activities. The government is authorised to place orders and appoint contractors to deliver products and outputs resulting from PPP activities in line with sector-specific legal provisions. Significantly, the decree offers extensive state support, including the allocation of up to 70 per cent of total capital for PPP projects to cover construction and site clearance costs. Additional financial support from the state budget may be provided, independently of its capital participation in PPPs, along with revenue risk-sharing mechanisms and other incentives. PPP rules to power Vietnams innovation, Photo: Shutterstock Le Xuan Dinh, deputy Minister of Science and Technology In order to realise the Partys goals in the Resolution of the 13th National Congress, developing Vietnam into a developed, high-income country by 2045, the Politburo has issued a series of resolutions on the socioeconomic development of the country, in which it is clearly identified science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation are key factors, the main driving force for the sustainable development of a country. To quickly put the resolution into practice, the National Assembly and the government have issued specific action programmes, focusing on many areas, including digital transformation, innovation, and improving sci-tech capacity. Implementing the Partys direction and the governments assignment, in about four months after the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) and the Ministry of Information and Communications were merged in March, the MoST submitted to the legislature for approval of five fundamental laws, creating an important legal corridor to guide the development of sci-tech, innovation, and digital transformation in the new development period of the country. The revision and supplementation of recently passed laws not only aims to update the current trends, but also remove institutional bottlenecks that have long been considered major barriers in development. The Law on Science, Technology, and Innovation also shows the vision and aspiration to turn Vietnam into a powerful nation. For the first time, innovation is placed on par with science and technology, demonstrating a fundamental change in development thinking. Meanwhile, the Law on Digital Technology Industry comprehensively regulates digital technology, semiconductors, AI, and digital asset industries, with preferential policies for key projects in these fields. The amended Law on Product and Goods Quality and the amended Law on Technical Standards and Regulations mark a comprehensive innovation in thinking and management methods in standards, measurements, and quality, fundamentally transforming from administrative management to risk management, and from pre-inspection to post-inspection based on data and technology and others. The amended Law on Atomic Energy also creates a comprehensive legal framework, consistent with the guidelines of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The law identifies nuclear power as a national strategy, contributing to ensuring energy security and reducing carbon emissions. Pham Thy Hung, deputy director Public Procurement Department Ministry of Finance Decree 180 is an important legal document, which for the first time clearly and fully affirms the role of the PPP model in technology and innovation, the field with unique characteristics, high risks but potential for breakthrough development. The decree expands the scope of PPPs not only limited to traditional forms such as build-operate-transfer, build-transfer-operate, operations and maintenance and others according to the law on PPP investment, but also includes joint ventures and associations according to the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets and new forms of cooperation such as funding, state orders, three-party cooperation. One of the major lessons in PPP policy development is to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the three participating parties: the state, research institutions, and enterprises. On the state side, the first important task is to identify goals and directions for technology development and digital transformation according to the national strategy. The second is to announce urgent practical requirements for research institutes, universities and businesses to jointly solve. And the third is to provide basic infrastructure such as laboratories, research centres, and support funds. For sci-tech organisations, especially universities and research institutes, they need to organise research activities, train high-quality people, while solving problems related to orders from ministries, sectors, localities, and enterprises. A typical example is that the Hanoi University of Science and Technology cooperates with domestic corporations to build laboratories, research technological solutions and provide authentication services. For businesses, the key role is to invest, operate infrastructure, commercialise research results and be responsible for bringing products to market to apply new technologies and bring innovations into economic life. Thanks to the new legal corridor, many large projects in innovation will be accelerated in the coming time. Some examples that are being planned include the innovation centre in Hanoi, the national digital technology ecosystem, a big data infrastructure platform shared between the state and enterprises, and others. PPP model needs more balancing, equality for private investors Vietnam's increased demand for infrastructure development in the coming years requires governmental policies that encourage the private sector's participation, said economists and policymakers. MPI to amend Decree 35 on the implementation of PPP regulations Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha has permitted the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to draft amendments and supplements to Decree No.35/2021/ND-CP, which provide guidance for the implementation of the Law on Public-Private Partnership Investment. The company was honoured in the 'Pioneering in Waste Reduction' category of the Corporate Sustainability Awards (CSA), held on July 15. Organised annually by Nhip Cau Dau Tu magazine since 2022, the awards spotlight businesses with clear, strategic environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks that create measurable impact on both society and the environment. Prodezis recognition underscores its commitment to building a true eco-industrial park model, where cutting-edge industrial activity is integrated with environmental protection and social responsibility. "Being named among the Top 50 Sustainable Businesses is a meaningful milestone for Prodezi," said Minh Truong, deputy managing director of Prodezi Long An. "This achievement is not ours alone it reflects the close collaboration of trusted global partners such as CHITOSE and TA Vital. It validates the path weve steadfastly pursued: developing an industrial park grounded in ecological principles, where sustainability is integrated from planning to operation." "We believe that modern industrial infrastructure must be built in tandem with environmental and community responsibility. Prodezi is committed to creating a transparent and efficient investment environment one where businesses operate at their best, workers enjoy a high quality of life, and ecological initiatives generate lasting value," he added. As part of its long-term sustainability vision, Prodezi has launched a series of practical, future-focused initiatives. A standout effort is its collaboration with Japan's CHITOSE Group a regional biotechnology and sustainable development firm to implement advanced microbial composting technology capable of converting at least 80 per cent of sludge waste and biomass into nutrient-rich organic fertiliser directly within the industrial park. Unlike conventional composting methods that rely on incineration or chemical treatment, this system uses specialised microbes to naturally break down waste, significantly reducing CO 2 emissions and disposal costs. Its distinctive barrel-shaped design, integrated with real-time monitoring, also offers a rare degree of transparency, enabling stakeholders to observe the composting process and see circular economy principles in action. In its initial phase, CHITOSEs sludge treatment system is expected to process approximately six tonnes of sludge per month, with a planned scale-up to 33 tonnes per month in later stages. At full capacity, the system could produce up to 340 tonnes of compost per year, enough to enrich 17 hectares of agricultural land. Tomohiro Fujita, founder of CHITOSE Group, CEO of CHITOSE Bio Evolution Pte. Ltd shared, "Chitose helps industry transition away from fossil dependence towards a biomass-based circular economy. Our collaboration with Prodezi brings this mission to life. We plan to deploy our barrel-style aerobic composters successfully proven in Japan to convert wastewater sludge into nutrient-rich compost. Once the initial modules prove effective, we will work with Prodezi to scale the system across all sites, transforming industrial waste into a valuable regional resource." Located in Luong Hoa Commune, Tay Ninh (formerly Long An), Prodezi Industrial Park spans 400 ha at a strategic junction linking Ho Chi Minh City with the Mekong Delta. More than an industrial hub, the park is designed as a fully integrated ecosystem where ESG goals are aligned from master planning through to operation. Developed under Decree No.35/2022/ND-CP, Prodezi follows an eco-industrial model that incorporates circular economy practices and international standards for low-emission operations throughout its lifecycle. The park is also building symbiotic partnerships with global sustainability leaders to optimise resource use and minimise environmental waste. As Vietnam pursues its goal of becoming a regional leader in green manufacturing, modern industrial infrastructure is expected to play a key role. Prodezis eco-industrial model, backed by long-term investment and sustainability-focused practices, aligns with the standards sought by global investors. Its inclusion in the Top 50 Sustainable Businesses highlights growing interest in industrial models that support Vietnams transition towards more environmentally responsible and future-oriented development. Prodezi Eco-Industrial Park holding infrastructure groundbreaking ceremony With its large-scale appeal to both domestic and international investors, the groundbreaking ceremony for technical infrastructure at Prodezi Eco-Industrial Park (Prodezi EIP) marks one of the most significant economic events in the Mekong Delta province of Long An so far this year. Prodezi Industrial Park emerges as green economic hub Standing out as a model for eco-industrial development, Prodezi Industrial Park is poised to boost growth in the green economy and become a strategic destination for global investors. Local manufacturers are encouraged to focus on using more technology, photo Le Toan Last week, the government set out rules for public-private partnerships in the development of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. This aims to continue removing institutional bottlenecks and create more favourable conditions to enhance public-private cooperation in these crucial areas. The move is expected to address regulatory barriers while unlocking further opportunities to promote collaboration in key sectors, thereby strengthening the internal capacity and global value chain participation of Vietnamese enterprises. Nevertheless, in reality, the path remains fraught with challenges. A survey on the current level of global value chain participation by Vietnamese businesses, published a month ago by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), revealed that almost two-thirds of the surveyed enterprises admitted to having no clear preparation. Notably, Vietnamese firms often struggle to meet delivery timelines and technical standards, and only about 15 per cent have a comprehensive long-term strategy. Luong Minh Huan of the VCCIs Enterprise Development Institute, acknowledged that one of Vietnams weaknesses lies in its lack of control over supply and industrial value chains. The country lacks leading enterprises to drive the sector, while connections and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remain limited. The localisation rate in the electronics industry is only around 5-10 per cent, and in automotives around 7-10 per cent far below set targets and behind regional peers, Huan said. Vietnam primarily produces simple tech components, while high-tech, high-value-added parts still rely heavily on imports, he added. In the countrys industrial development strategy issued in February, the promotion of industrial development is among the key areas aimed at turning Vietnam into a modern industrial nation. Likewise, in 2024 Vietnam set an ambitious target for the digital economy to contribute 30 per cent of GDP by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2045. To achieve this, Vietnam must make substantial investments in science and technology, with a minimum of 3 per cent of the annual state budget allocated for this purpose, and societal investment reaching over 2 per cent of GDP by 2030. Chu Viet Cuong, director of the Industrial Development Support Centre under the Department of Industry at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, stated that in order to build autonomous industrial capacity and a sustainable supply chain, businesses must focus on technology and innovation, industry links and cluster development, and the development of high-quality technical personnel. Weve implemented many support programmes for mechanical and automation enterprises, particularly SMEs. Every year, the centre runs CEO and technician training courses and partners with large corporations like Samsung and Toyota, as well as research institutes from Japan and South Korea, to deliver initiatives on machining, testing, and standard laboratory models, he stressed. Of note, the centre currently owns a modern machinery system, which businesses can use free of charge during trial production supporting the enhancement of technological capabilities from the earliest stages. Tran Van Le, CEO of Phuong Linh Group, a company with 25 years of experience in industrial fan manufacturing, said that he once had to invest hundreds of thousands of US dollars just to build a cleanroom meeting international standards, suitable for receiving foreign technologies. Our products apply high technology in up to 80 per cent of the production process, with 70-75 per cent local manufacturing, across two factories in Hanoi and Tay Ninh province. Soon, well open another plant in central Vietnam. Weve successfully exported our products to South Korea and Japan, and aim to be among the top 20 leading firms in the industry in Vietnam, Le said. He also pointed out that SMEs often lack consistency, long-term vision, and investment mindset due to fear of high risk. As such, if a business is not willing to invest at least $200,000 for a standardised process from personnel to technology and factory infrastructure it will never truly master the technology. According to Cao Dai Thang, chairman of Intech Group, many projects fail not because of poor ideas, but due to high initial investment costs that exceed the financial capacity of startups. Therefore, solving the cost puzzle could open up international cooperation opportunities for Vietnamese enterprises making the dream of high-tech manufacturing in Vietnam entirely achievable. During our development journey, weve witnessed a shift in the role of domestic enterprises. In the past, only foreign-invested firms joined high-tech projects, but gradually, Vietnamese companies like Intech have risen to become vendors and have taken on more proactive roles in various stages of the production value chain, Thang said. archives 13 Jul - 20 Jul (4) 6 Jul - 13 Jul (2) 29 Jun - 6 Jul (2) 22 Jun - 29 Jun (4) 15 Jun - 22 Jun (1) 8 Jun - 15 Jun (3) 1 Jun - 8 Jun (4) 25 May - 1 Jun (5) 18 May - 25 May (2) 11 May - 18 May (3) 4 May - 11 May (2) 27 Apr - 4 May (5) 20 Apr - 27 Apr (1) 13 Apr - 20 Apr (2) 30 Mar - 6 Apr (5) 23 Mar - 30 Mar (2) 9 Mar - 16 Mar (1) 2 Mar - 9 Mar (2) 16 Feb - 23 Feb (3) 9 Feb - 16 Feb (1) 2 Feb - 9 Feb (3) 26 Jan - 2 Feb (2) 12 Jan - 19 Jan (1) 5 Jan - 12 Jan (1) 22 Dec - 29 Dec (1) 15 Dec - 22 Dec (2) 8 Dec - 15 Dec (1) 24 Nov - 1 Dec (1) 17 Nov - 24 Nov (4) 10 Nov - 17 Nov (2) 3 Nov - 10 Nov (1) 27 Oct - 3 Nov (4) 20 Oct - 27 Oct (4) 13 Oct - 20 Oct (1) 6 Oct - 13 Oct (1) 29 Sep - 6 Oct (1) 22 Sep - 29 Sep (1) 15 Sep - 22 Sep (1) 18 Aug - 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21 Sep (19) 7 Sep - 14 Sep (22) 31 Aug - 7 Sep (15) 24 Aug - 31 Aug (14) 17 Aug - 24 Aug (9) 10 Aug - 17 Aug (5) Battle of the Neva: when Orthodox Novgorod stopped Catholic crusaders dead in their tracks On July 15, 1240, a small force led by Prince of Novgorod Alexander Nevsky launched a daring raid on numerically superior Swedish crusaders, and changed history forever. Geopolitical context https://t.me/SputnikInt/88837 In the second half of the 1230s, with blessings from Catholic Pope Gregory IX, Sweden began a series of crusades in northeastern Europe targeting local pagan tribes, including the Karelians, a Finnic ally to the Novgorod Republic, and Novgorod itself. Eying key trade routes (Neva River and Lake Ladoga) and fur hunting riches, crusaders struck while the Novgorod-Kievan Rus nexus was at its weakest: in 1240, Kiev was besieged and sacked by Mongol invaders. Order of battle Led by the noble Ulf Fase, Sweden assembled ~5,000 men. Arrayed against them were 300 princely warriors, 500 horseman and 500 foot militia, led by 19-year-old Prince Nevsky. Swedish forces landed at Ust Izhora at the mouth of the Neva River, and established a foothold, planning to march on Ladoga, and eventually, deeper into Novgorod. Facing little resistance, the Swedes were slow to fortify their encampment. Nevsky strikes Informed of the enemys position, Nevsky quickly mobilized his men, striking under the cover of darkness. The battle turned into a bloodbath for the Swedes. Losing 20 men, Nevskys forces cut down two-ships worth of Swedish nobles, and hundreds of troops buried in pits, per the First Novgorod Chronicle. Alexander received the epithet Nevsky, cementing a reputation as a divinely-protected leader, and later canonized. Key element of Russian identity is born In Russia, the Battle of the Neva is a symbol of the defense of the Motherland, Orthodoxy against Catholicism, and more broadly, defiance and resistance to foreign aggression. In centuries since, Swedes, Poles, French, Germans and others would launch new wars against Russia, repulsed each time. Whoever comes to us sword in hand shall perish by the sword, a quote attributed to Nevsky states. Subscribe to @SputnikInt https://t.me/SputnikInt/88839 Additional history: For 800 years, Europe has been trying to conquer Russia. And it continues today, with the proxy war in Ukraine. Heres the history they want you to forget 800 years ago: Sweden attacked Russia. In 1240, when Russians were busy fighting the Mongols, the opportunistic Sweden tried to conquer Novgorod, the northern part of Russia. Although the Swedes were defeated in the Battle of the Neva, they would not learn their lesson for another 500 years. ~400 years ago, it was Poland-Lithuania. in 1612, the Poland-Lithuania Empire invaded Russia and even briefly occupied Moscow. The Polish-Russian war of 1654 was the final blow after which, what is now Ukraine became a part of Russia, and Poland went down a path of irreversible decline. ~300 years ago, Sweden again, with UK. Driven by hubris and greed, Charles XII of Sweden attacked Russia in the early 1700s, but was soundly defeated by Peter I the Great at the Battle of Poltava. This catastrophic war against Russia led to the tombstone of the Swedish empire. ~200 years ago, France (Napoleon) tried it. In 1812, Napoleon invaded Russia and thought he could win in just three weeks. Interestingly, he had even carefully studied the disastrous Swedish invasion of Russia a century earlier. He briefly conquered Moscow but retreated. In the end, he lost more than half a million soldiers, making it one of the deadliest military operations in history. Just over one year later, Russia defeated Napoleon and conquered Paris. ~175 years ago, France + UK (Crimean War). 40 years later, the French joined the British and the Ottoman Empire in attacking Crimea. Its the same reason that the US staged a coup in Ukraine in 2014: the goal was to kick Russia out of Crimea, a very strategic place in terms of a warm-water naval base and access to the Mediterranean Sea & global trade. ~100 years ago, Russian revolution & WW1. At the start of the 20th century, the US funded Japan to attack and destroy the Russian navy. Simultaneously, the West encouraged the first Russian revolution, which failed. Next came, the 1917 revolution, which was heavily financed by the bankers of Wall Street and Europe. ~80 years ago, Hitler backed by globalists. Operation Unthinkable a plan to attack Russia was drawn up just weeks after the fall of Nazi Germany. The British and the Americans planned to use Nazi prisoner of war to invade Russia! The Cold War was also unnecessary and simply reflected the anti-Russia sentiment of the globalists who control the West. Subscribe to @SputnikInt WtR LONDON, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Parcels Mart Solutions Limited, a leading logistics provider in Nigeria, has been awarded the prestigious title of Emerging Logistics Solutions Provider Nigeria, 2025 by Global Brands Magazine (GBM) at the renowned Global Brand Awards. This accolade highlights Parcels Mart's exceptional dedication to transforming Nigeria's logistics landscape through innovation and customer-focused solutions. The Global Brand Awards celebrate outstanding achievements across industries worldwide. Parcels Mart earned this recognition for its approach to logistics, setting new benchmarks for efficiency and reliability in Nigeria's logistics sector. Jay Reddy, CEO of Global Brands Magazine, stated: "Congratulations to Parcels Mart Solutions Limited for securing the Emerging Logistics Solutions Provider Nigeria title at the 2025 Global Brands Awards. Under Dr. Joe Enobong's leadership, their innovative and customer-centric approach sets a high standard for the industry. We are proud to celebrate their success." Dr. Joe Enobong, CEO of Parcels Mart, commented: "Logistics is not just the movement of goods, it is the architecture of opportunity. Every shipment we deliver is a bridge between vision and value. At Parcels Mart, we don't follow the future, we engineer it. True legacy is built when local vision meets global action. Africa is not just catching up, we are setting the pace. Our tool is logistics, our mission is impact, and our destination is the world." ABOUT PARCELS MART SOLUTIONS LIMITED Parcels Mart is a technology- and AI-driven logistics company offering a comprehensive range of parcel delivery services. Operating globally, it delivers to over 220 countries and territories and provides import services from more than 2,000 cities worldwide into Nigeria. Known for transparent pricing, Parcels Mart offers cost savings of up to 50% off standard carrier rates due to its high shipment volumes. The company provides a wide array of services, including express logistics, last-mile delivery, dangerous goods handling, sea and air freight, large cargo transport, customs clearance, aircraft charters, trans-border logistics, e-commerce solutions, and integration with major logistics providers. Backed by a team of experienced professionals, Parcels Mart ensures timely and reliable delivery while prioritising innovation, sustainability, and tailored customer solutions. ABOUT GLOBAL BRANDS MAGAZINE Based in the UK, Global Brands Magazine (GBM) is a leading publication delivering insights, news, and opinions on brands shaping their industries. With over 8.4 million annual visitors and 14 million page views, GBM is a premier source of brand-related content. The magazine boasts a strong social media presence, with 35,000+ Facebook followers, 20,000+ Instagram followers, 25,000+ Twitter followers, and 4,000+ LinkedIn followers. ABOUT THE GLOBAL BRAND AWARDS The Global Brand Awards recognise excellence in brand performance across sectors such as finance, education, hospitality, and technology. Hosted at iconic venues like The Address Downtown, Waldorf Astoria, and Grand Hyatt Dubai, the 2025 ceremony continued this tradition of grandeur at the Grand Hyatt in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For a complete list of winners, visit: https://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/brand-awards-winners/. To nominate a company or leader for the Global Brand Awards 2025, visit: https://www.globalbrandsmagazine.com/nomination-form/. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2648066/5415514/GBM_Awards_2025_Logo.jpg SOURCE Global Brands Magazine Eisteddfod organisers pulled off another major success local MS praises successful festival Ken Skates MS, Senedd Member for Clwyd South which includes Llangollen has paid tribute to the organisers of the Llangollen Eisteddfod after another successful festival came to an end. The festival, run mainly by over 500 volunteers, has just completed its seventy-eighth year and is now busy preparing for Llangollen 2026 which will take place between 712 July 2026. This year, the festival brought tens of thousands of visitors to North Wales and saw over 4,000 competitors take part in competitions from across the world. It also welcomed artists such as Sir Bryn Terfel, KT Tunstall, Lucie Jones, and Il Divo to North-East Wales. The festival also co-promoted seven concerts featuring the likes of Texas, RagnBone Man, James and UB40 featuring Ali Campbell, in partnership with Live Nation promoters Cuffe and Taylor. It also welcomed Luciano Pavarottis widow, Nicoletta Mantovani, who presented the Choir of the World award and unveiled a 120-foot chalk tribute to mark the seventieth anniversary of the Maestros career-defining international debut in Llangollen. Ken Skates MS, a Vice-President of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and long-term supporter of the festival, said: It was great to visit the Llangollen International Eisteddfod yet again and meet their wonderful volunteers. Our festival is a shining light across the world, and the fact that over 500 volunteers mainly from Llangollen and Wrexham make this happen is incredible. This year, Eisteddfod organisers pulled off another major success. Llangollen, where my office is based, is bursting with colour, song and vibrancy, and Llangollens slogan Where Wales Welcomes the World is as relevant now as it was in 1947. The Pavarotti mural is the talk of the Senedd and illustrates the iconic status of the Llangollen Eisteddfod through its connection with the Maestro. Last week, Jo Stevens MP the Secretary of State for Wales visited the festival, as well as Llangollen MP Becky Gittins. Ken Skates MS has been a huge supporter of the festival, which he first attended as a child. He regularly meets with organisers throughout the year to help plan for the festival. Ken is also planning to visit Wrexham, which will host the National Eisteddfod between 27 August 2025. Ken continued: This year, we have two Eisteddfodau for the price of one and the end of one Eisteddfod marks the build-up to another. I am looking forward to visiting the National Eisteddfod in August. I know volunteers in Wrexham have been working just as hard as those in Llangollen. In fact, many volunteers from Llangollen are planning to travel just up the road to celebrate Welsh language, arts and heritage. What a summer it is in North Wales. The positive impact on our economy is huge. The Welsh Government is proud to support both festivals. Top pic: Ken Skates with Sharleen Spiteri whose band Texas, played the opening night of TK Maxx Presents Live at Llangollen Pavilion, which is co-promoted by the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. NHS 111 Wales launches new AI virtual assistant for health advice NHS 111 Wales has introduced a new AI-powered virtual assistant to help users find health advice more quickly on its website. The assistant, which supports multiple languages, scans NHS 111 Wales website to provide tailored advice based on the users questions or symptoms. The new tool is designed to offer a smoother, faster experience and is part of ongoing improvements to the digital service. Jonny Sammut, Director of Digital Services at the Welsh Ambulance Service, which hosts NHS 111 Wales, said the website contains a large amount of information that can be difficult to navigate when people are unwell. The virtual assistant helps you find answers by scanning the website for you, whether thats about a rash, sting, fever, toothache or whatever it is thats making you feel poorly, he said. This real-time access to health advice not only offers a more user-friendly experience but also enables people to make more informed decisions about their health. Sammut added that user feedback would be important to the success of the assistant. Wed encourage anyone who uses the virtual assistant to spare us a moment at the end of the interaction to tell us what they thought. The Welsh Ambulance Service partnered with technology companies Robotics AI and DRUID AI to develop the assistant. Raj Sharma, Vice President of Sales UKI at DRUID AI, said their AI agent aims to improve patient experience and ease pressure on NHS 111 call centres. Our AI-driven agent is designed to elevate patient experience, ensuring that individuals receive real-time health information in a seamless, intuitive manner, Sharma said. Russell Lawrie, Chief Executive of Robotics AI, added the partnership aims to make healthcare more inclusive and accessible. This solution represents a significant step forward in making healthcare more inclusive, accessible, and responsive, he said. People are invited to share their wider experiences of NHS 111 Wales by visiting the services website. Senedd would get final say on assisted dying says Health Secretary The Senedd would have the final say on whether to implement assisted dying in NHS Wales, but services could be available outside the public sector, the health secretary confirmed. Peter Fox, the Conservative chair of the Senedds health committee, sought clarity on the Welsh Governments position and its powers to implement assisted dying in Wales Health secretary Jeremy Miles said the Welsh Government maintained a neutral position as he drew a distinction between enacting the UK end of life bill and its implementation. He explained enactment is reserved to Westminster but providing voluntary assisted dying services in Wales is a discretionary power in the hands of the Welsh Government. He told the committee: Those services could only be introduced in devolved areas following regulations laid by the Welsh ministers and subject to an affirmative Senedd vote. For anything which is in devolved competence there will need to be regulations passed by the Senedd before the service can be provided. Historic Giving evidence on July 16, Mr Miles suggested options for services outside of the NHS would be available in the private sector in Wales and England as in other parts of the world. Pressed on whether ministers could refuse to implement elements, Wales health secretary said: In devolved competence, yes, and even if the [Welsh] Government wanted to and the Senedd didnt want to approve it the Senedd would have that ability as well. Mr Fox asked: On regulations if they are not made by the Welsh Government and consequently approved by this Senedd, the NHS in Wales will not be able to provide assisted dying services is that the case? That is correct, Mr Miles replied, later suggesting a decision on whether to provide services in the health service would be made after the next Senedd election in May 2026. The Welsh Parliament rejected the principle of assisted dying in a historic vote last year, with Senedd members voting 26-19 against with nine abstaining. The Senedd rejected a similar motion a decade earlier in December 2014. Huge change But, this side of the election, politicians will get a vote on a legislative consent motion (LCM), the means by which the Senedd signifies consent for proposed UK laws in devolved areas. While the Sewel convention states the UK Parliament would not normally legislate on devolved matters without consent, it is not legally binding. But Mr Miles suggested the vote would influence Welsh ministers decision-making. James Evans, the Tory shadow health secretary who backed assisted dying in Octobers vote, questioned the capacity of the NHS Wales executive and the Welsh Government. His opposite number replied that he did not have particular concerns about the capacity to introduce regulations but said: There is a huge system change that goes with it. Mr Miles, who was among the majority of Senedd members to vote against assisted dying, pointed out that the LCM vote will be on a specific proposal rather than a principle. Two-tier He added: My view is that ministers in the Senedd ought to be making the decisions about how this service is delivered in Wales and, indeed, whether its delivered in Wales. Mr Evans raised concerns about potential for a two-tier cross-border system as he warned assisted dying services in Wales could only be available privately for those who can afford it. Mr Miles said equity of access, cross-border provision and workforce issues such as health staff opting out of the assisted dying process would be among the key considerations. He explained Kim Leadbeaters bill would change the Suicide Act, which is largely reserved to Westminster, to allow non-public provision in Wales without regulations in the Senedd. He said Wales has powers to regulate some independent health providers but he stressed it remains early in the bills journey and: Were talking about hypotheticals at this point. He told the committee: There are lots of choices that any government would have to make in terms of how such a service was developed and delivered. By Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter (Top pic Archive shot of Mr Miles during a visit in Wrexham) Traveling to Emerald Bay will look a little different this summer. Keep Tahoe Blue and the Tahoe Fund have partnered to fund the Emerald Bay Shuttle. The non-profits offer the service as a replacement for parking along California State Route 89, which has proved dangerous in recent years. Keep Tahoe Blue Title and Policy Director Gavin Feiger says highway parking caused not only safety concerns, but environmental problems as well. "People park all over on dirt surfaces," Feiger says. "It causes more erosion. Sediment going into the lake, making it less blue." Feiger says people walking from their cars to the lake creates "social trails" that also contribute to erosion. On top of the shuttle, physical barriers and increased enforcement from the California Highway Patrol are meant to further discourage drivers from parking along the highway. Tahoe Fund CEO Amy Berry says they and Keep Tahoe Blue each chipped in $150,000, but there's still a few more expenses related to the shuttle. A round-trip will cost $10 for adults, and $5 for children under 13 years old. Berry says the shuttle is a stress-free way to enjoy the bay. "Just park at Camp Richardson, park at the Y, park at Sugar Pine. Get on the shuttle, come to Emerald Bay, and have a great day," he said. There's a lot of spots around the lake to stop and get on the shuttle to Emerald Bay. To learn more about the shuttle, click here. The Washoe County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to enter into a interlocal agreement with the City of Reno and City of Sparks during Tuesday's meeting. In the 2025 Nevada Legislative Session, Senate Bill 319 was passed into law, requiring the county and cities to create a board to conduct a comprehensive study of the regional fire fighting efforts. "We don't want those constraints to get in the way of making sure that we're saving lives and saving property - and that is what I think is the aim of the bill. And I think the whole region; we came together to have a regional meeting on this," said Chair Alexis Hill, Washoe County. "We want to work together. So, let's just see what the results look like." The board will have equal representation from all jurisdictions. There will be two Washoe County Commissioners and two council members from each Reno and Sparks. The SB319 Study Board will be looking into ways to deliver better safety, find cost efficiencies and look into consolidation of the fire departments. "What consolidation could mean is everything from functional collaboration to truly becoming one special district or one agency," said Chief Walt White, City of Sparks Fire Department. Chief White says his last department was a consolidation of 16 respective agencies. He says it can be tough, but can also be worth it. "There are initial upfront costs for any type of consolidation effort, but typically there are long term savings that are to the benefit of the public," White said. The study and its findings must be submitted by December 31, 2026. The jurisdictions will be reaching out to a third party to help conduct the survey. Washoe County will be taking the administrative lead on things such as scheduling the meetings and keeping records. With all jurisdictions dealing with budget issues, they are also wanting to plan when the Nevada Legislature meets again. "We are supposed to have some recommendations in time for the next legislative session in case we need to come back and wish for additional revenue," Hill said. The Reno City Council will vote on the agreement in their meeting next week. The Washoe County Commission will appoint its two members to the board some time next month. Bureau of Land Management firefighters are responding to the Cornucopia Fire in Elko County, approximately 13 miles north of Tuscarora. According to a Facebook update from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Nevada, the fire was first reported Monday afternoon, July 15, and is burning in sagebrush and grass. As of the latest estimate, the fire has grown to approximately 3,306 acres and remains 0% contained. BLM officials say extreme fire behavior has been observed, with strong winds pushing the fire and contributing to rapid growth. Crews are continuing direct attack operations using dozers, hand crews, engines, and aerial resources in an effort to bring the fire under control. Weather remains a concern in the area, with isolated dry thunderstorms possible through Wednesday, July 17. More information and updates on the Cornucopia Fire can be found on the InciWeb incident page and the Jacks Peak wildfire camera. BLM also recommends NevadaFireInfo.org as a resource for real-time wildfire maps, safety information, fire restrictions, and updates on statewide firefighting efforts. (The Bureau of Land Management - Nevada contributed to this story.) The Ironwood Fire burning north of Spanish Springs is now fully contained and controlled, according to Truckee Meadows Fire & Rescue, in an online X post. The fire burned approximately 44 acres and did not result in any injuries or structure losses. All evacuation orders have been lifted. In an update posted on X, TMFR confirmed the fire reached 100 percent containment and expressed appreciation for the support of Palomino Valley residents during the response. Federal crews assisted in the firefighting effort alongside the Reno and Sparks Fire Departments. Nevada will receive approximately $442,381.44 from a multistate settlement with Gilead Sciences, Inc., following a federal investigation into an alleged illegal kickback scheme involving the companys HIV medications. The agreement, announced this week by Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford and a coalition of 48 other attorneys general, secures more than $202 million from Gilead. The settlement resolves allegations that, from January 2011 to November 2017, the company provided unlawful incentives to health care providers to boost prescriptions of its HIV drugs. According to court documents and officials involved in the case, Gilead allegedly offered meals, travel expenses, and monetary awards to providers who attended or presented at promotional speaker programs. These events promoted the companys HIV medications, including Stribild, Genvoya, Complera, Odefsey, Descovy, and Biktarvy. Health care providers were allegedly paid tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars as HIV Speakers, with some receiving travel accommodations to destinations such as Hawaii, Miami, and New Orleans, and dining at high-end restaurants. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the settlement in principle, which was reached in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice. Of the $202 million total, $49 million will go to Medicaid programs across the country. The rest will be distributed to federal programs, including Medicare, Tricare, and the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). "Gilead's illegal kickback scheme undermined the integrity of medical decision-making and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, said Attorney General Aaron D. Ford. The nearly half-million dollars Nevada is expected to receive from this settlement will help support our Medicaid program and ensure resources go where they belong toward providing quality healthcare to Nevadans who need it most. The Nevada Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), which investigates and prosecutes financial fraud and abuse involving Medicaid providers, helped support the investigation. The unit receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and 25 percent from the State of Nevada. Those wishing to report suspected Medicaid fraud or elder abuse can contact the Nevada MFCU at 702-486-3420 or 775-684-1100. A former MLB player convicted of killing his father-in-law in Homewood four years ago is set to be sentenced on August 18th. Daniel Serafini was found guilty by a jury in Placer County Superior Court on Monday. The 51-year-old was found guilty of murder in the first degree for the death of Robert Spohr in 2021. He was also found guilty of attempted murder and burglary, but he was found not guilty on child endangerment. A former nanny of Serafini, Samantha Scott, pleaded guilty to her involvement in the case in February. Serafini will remain in custody while he awaits sentencing. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A left-hander, Serafini was drafted in 1992 by the Minnesota Twins. He also played for the Chicago Cubs, San Diego Padres, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies. JULY 10, 2025: Prosecutors and defense attorneys have rested in the trial of Daniel Serafini, and the jury has started deliberating. Serafini is on trial in Placer County for the death of Robert Spohr and the attempted murder of Wendy Wood in Homewood in 2021. The jury will return to deliberations on Friday at 8:30 a.m. --- APRIL 28, 2025: Monday marked the first day of the trial for Daniel Serafini, who is accused of the death of Robert Spohr and the attempted killing of Wendy Wood in Homewood in 2021. In court on Monday, scheduling was discussed, and the judge heard from attorneys, as well as media outlets concerning their requests for cameras in the courtroom according to information from the Placer County District Attorneys Office. The judge plans to make a ruling on media requests on Tuesday. Jury panels will come in to fill out questionnaires on Friday, with jury selection slated to start on May 13. Attorneys will next be in court on May 8 to make arguments on motions. --- FEBRUARY 19, 2025: One of the two people accused of killing a 70-year-old man in Homewood has pleaded guilty in the case. Samantha Scott pleaded guilty last week in the case and was released. She will be sentenced at a later date. Her alleged co-conspirator, Daniel Serafini is still expected to go on trial next month. The Placer County District Attorney's Office says in a statement, "...Since the co-defendant's case is set for jury trial, we will not be commenting further so as to protect the integrity of the ongoing proceedings." The duo are also accused of the attempted killing of Wendy Wood in Homewood. --- JUNE 5, 2024 The two people accused of a homicide in South Lake Tahoe three years ago are scheduled to go to trial next March. Daniel Serafini and Samantha Scott are facing charges for their alleged role in the death of 70-year-old Robert Spohr and the attempted killing of Wendy Wood in Homewood. MAY 9, 2024: The two suspects accused of killing a 70-year old man at his Lake Tahoe home in 2021 are scheduled to be back in court on June 3. The preliminary hearing was held this week. The judge found sufficient evidence to hold them. According to our CBS Sacramento affiliate, Erin Spohr testified Wednesday where her husband is suspected of murdering her father. "I would never think she or my husband would have anything to do with this." Erin who got emotional on the witness stand told prosecution she never thought to ask her husband Daniel Serafini, or former nanny and friend Samantha Scott, where they were the night her father was killed. The pair are now both in custody. Prosecutors asked Erin what her relationship was like with her parents. Complex. We had our highs of highs and lows of lows." The point of tension was over her children, who are now three and six-years-old. Erin said that her parents would get upset that she had to use formula instead of milk for her youngest. She added that her mom sometimes threatened to stop paying for her grandkid's daycare. On the stand, Erin stated, "my mom would do anything for my children. But at times she would get frustrated and throw things out there like that." When asked if her husband knew about the sometimes heated conservations she stated, "I'm his wife. It would hurt him that I was hurt." But would that hurt cause a killing? Erin said no, despite money troubles the couple talked about during a reality show years before the killing. "We still dont understand the motive of the killer and at the end of the day he came here to kill my mom and dad." UPDATE: NOVEMBER 6, 2023 The woman accused of killing a man in Placer County in 2021 pleaded not guilty in court on Monday. 33-year-old Samantha Scott was extradited from Las Vegas on Thursday. Scott arrived by plane to face charges in connection with the death of 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr and the alleged attempted murder of 68-year-old Wendy Wood, in June 2021. The first suspect, Daniel Serafini pleaded not guilty to all charges, earlier this week. He was arrested last month in Winnemucca - the same day as Scott, in Las Vegas. Serafini's next court date is November 27th. Update, October 31: North Lake Tahoe homicide suspect Daniel Serafini entered a plea of not guilty to all charges against him during a court appearance Tuesday. His next hearing is scheduled for November 27th at 1 p.m. at the Santucci Justice Center according to a post from the Placer County Sheriff's Office on X. The sheriffs office is still awaiting the extradition of Samantha Scott from Nevada. Update, October 27th On Friday, a North Lake Tahoe homicide suspect was extradited from Humboldt County, Nevada. Placer County Sheriff Transportation Unit deputies traveled to Humboldt County to pick up 49-year-old Daniel Serafini that morning. He arrived in Placer County at 11 a.m. and was booked into the Auburn Jail shortly after his arrival. He is scheduled to be arraigned on October 31 at 1 p.m. in Department 20 at the Santucci Justice Center. The second suspect's extradition date has not been determined. Original Story, October 20: Two people were arrested Friday morning, October 20 in connection with a homicide in Homewood in June 2021. Authorities said 49-year-old Danny Serafini and 33-year-old Samantha Scott were arrested Friday in Winnemucca and in Las Vegas in connection with the death of 70-year-old Robert Gary Spohr and the alleged attempted murder of 68-year-old Wendy Wood. Deputies said on June 5, 2021 they received a 911 call and later found Spohr dead inside a home on the west shore of Lake Tahoe. Spohr's wife, 70-year-old Wendy was also shot but later recovered from her injuries. Sadly, she died about a year later. Placer County deputies led them to identify 49-year-old Daniel Serafini and 33-year-old Samantha Scott as suspects. They said all four people knew each other. Deputies said Serafini was booked into the Humboldt County Detention Center on Friday after he was arrested by members of the Tri-County Special Response Team, Trident Task Force, Winnemucca Police Department, Humboldt County Sheriffs Office, U.S. Marshals Task Force, and Investigators from the Placer County Sheriffs Office. Authorities said U.S. Marshals developed information that Serafini was working and living part-time in Winnemucca. They said Serafini surrendered and taken into custody where he was later booked into the Humboldt County Detention Center on the no bail warrant. The sheriffs office is now awaiting Serafinis and Scotts extradition from Nevada into Placer County. (The Associated Press contributed to this report.) OKLAHOMA CITY, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Robert A. Funk, co-founder and executive chairman of Express Employment International, passed away at the age of 85 at his home, Express Ranches, in Yukon, Oklahoma. A trailblazing entrepreneur and devoted leader, Bob was admired for his steadfast faith, commitment to helping others, and belief in the transformative power of work. Throughout his lifetime, he helped grow Express Employment Professionals into one of the world's leading staffing firms, creating opportunities for individuals and businesses across North America and beyond. Robert A. Funk, co-founder and executive chairman of Express Employment International "My father was a trailblazing entrepreneur who loved the American West and lived true to its values of honesty, respect, ruggedness, self-reliance, loyalty and hard work," said Bob Funk, Jr., CEO, President and Chairman of Express Employment International. "He played a pivotal role in shaping the vision and growth of Express Employment Professionals, the company he co-founded in 1983. For more than four decades, he remained committed to putting people to work and offering hope through employment. His job-creating mission continues to resonate across our global enterprise and helped build the top staffing franchise in America." Bob Funk Sr. served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 2006 to 2007. In 2007, he also held the role of Chairman of the Conference of Chairmen for the Federal Reserve Bank System. His contributions to the staffing industry were widely recognized, including his induction into the American Staffing Association Hall of Fame in 2023, the Staffing 100 Hall of Fame by Staffing Industry Review in 2017, and the International Franchise Association Hall of Fame in 2010. Beyond his entrepreneurial ventures, he was a successful cattleman, renowned globally for the Angus cattle operations. Teamed with his dear friend, Jarold Callahan, who passed away late last year, Express Ranches became the world's largest producer of registered Angus cattle. His love for the land, respect for the animals and commitment to his colleagues were all part of his multifaceted character. Bob Funk Sr.'s legacy extends beyond his corporate and cattle operations. His dedication to Western culture, community service and entrepreneurship has left an indelible mark on Oklahoma and beyond. He served as Chairman of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and the Oklahoma Youth Expo. Recognizing his impactful leadership and invaluable service to Oklahoma and the great American West, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2017 and into the Hall of Great Westerners in 2023 by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Under his leadership, he re-energized the Oklahoma Youth Expo, making it the nation's largest annual junior livestock show, with over 7,000 participants across Oklahoma. Few events brought him more joy than young livestock enthusiasts showcasing their hard work and dedication. He was a dedicated supporter of the Cowboy Hall of Fame & National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. His contributions, in terms of time and money, significantly advanced the institution's mission of preserving America's Western heritage. "His legacy is a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit and unwavering commitment to his values," Bob Funk, Jr., added. "It will continue to thrive through the businesses he founded, the organizations he supported and the countless lives he touched. Beyond his success as a business leader, those closest to him will remember him as a kind, generous and compassionate man who loved people and lived by the Western values he held dear. Our family is heartbroken and feel his absence deeply." Statement from Larry Nichols, Co-Founder and former Executive Chair of Devon Energy: "I was sad to learn the news of the passing of Bob Funk Sr., a man whose personal qualities were as remarkable as his professional achievements. He was not only a prominent Oklahoma City businessperson but also a visionary who transformed the city through his tireless work and unwavering dedication. His creation of the globally renowned staffing company Express Employment Professionals provided employment opportunities for millions across this country and beyond. His support for the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and his reimagining of the Oklahoma Youth Expo into the world's largest junior livestock show were testaments to his passion and commitment. His advocacy for CareerTech and contribution to the state's education system will always be remembered and admired." Statement from Tyler Norvell, Executive Director of the Oklahoma Youth Expo : "Bob Funk Sr.'s connection to the Oklahoma Youth Expo was profound and transformative. His unwavering dedication and dynamic vision drove the Expo's growth into the giant annual event it is today. His passion for empowering young Oklahomans from every county in our state was unparalleled and life-changing. Through their hard work, care and commitment, these young individuals displayed their livestock each yeara testament to their resilience and determination and a reflection of Bob's belief in their potential. Witnessing over 7,500 4-H and FFA members come together every spring filled Bob with immense happiness. Bob was optimistic about Oklahoma's future because he saw firsthand the potential in these fine young men and ladies participating in the Oklahoma Youth Expo. Bob's spirit lives on through the countless lives touched by this event. We are not just indebted to him but committed to carrying forward his visionto ensure that the Oklahoma Youth Expo remains a platform for growth, learning and community. We will continue to nurture dreams, reward hard work and foster the emergence of the next generation of leaders, just as Bob would have wanted." Statement from Cathy Keating, former first lady of Oklahoma : "With a heavy heart, I reflect on the passing of Bob Funk Sr., a remarkable man whose impact on our community and beyond was immeasurable. Having collaborated with him for decades, I can attest to his unwavering commitment to making a difference. He was a true advocate for our state. His dedication to community engagement and charitable endeavors was evident in every project he championed. Whether supporting local schools, healthcare initiatives or cultural institutions, Bob's caring heart drove him to invest financially and with his time and energy. Bob's legacy is woven into the fabric of countless lives that his philanthropic efforts have touched. He understood that true prosperity lies in giving back. His love for the employees at Express Employment Professionals stood out. Few things brought him joy than acknowledging, rewarding and thanking his colleagues nationwide. He recognized that their hard work and dedication were instrumental in advancing the company. Bob's leadership style was one of appreciation and empowerment. He was a dear and cherished friend of Frank and mine, and we will miss him greatly. *** For media inquiries, please contact [email protected], Director of Corporate Communications & PR. About Express Employment International Express Employment International supports the Express Employment Professionals franchise and affiliated brands. The Express franchise brand is an industry-leading, international staffing company with franchise locations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Express Employment International boasts a team of more than 500 professionals in Oklahoma City and a network of sales and support teams internationally. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com. SOURCE Express Services dba Express Employment Professionals Neighbors have been expressing concerns on evacuation orders for the Van Fire. While some people did receive evacuation notifications the night it broke out, others did not. Rick Millsap, a Sun Valley resident who was in the evacuation warning zone, says, "It was about nine o' clock last night and my daughter happened to be up for dinner, and she checked the news for some reason and saw the evacuation alert - but we had received no alerts on our phones." Millsap says he finds this very concerning because he was already signed up beforehand to receive these alerts. Washoe County Emergency Management, who's responsible for sharing evacuation updates, says that's the downside of technology. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. Jessica Adams-Lopes, Homeland Security Program Coordinator for Washoe County, explains, "It's not a perfect system. We are dealing with technology, so it might not always work how we want it to. But we do send alerts through many means; so text, email, phone call, social media, RSS feeds through the Smart911 app itself." Truckee Meadows Fire and Rescue (TMFR) says if you hear about a nearby fire in your area and don't feel safe, then evacuate on your own. Don't wait for first responders to tell you to do so. TMFR's Communications Coordinator, Adam Mayberry, says, "Recognize that we need to protect ourselves and our loved ones including our neighbors if they're disabled, if they're senior, make sure you help your neighbors and work together - particularly as we move into what has been a very robust wildfire season so far." Mayberry says you should also always keep a go-bag ready with at least three days' worth of all your essentials in order to leave faster and not have to worry about packing last second and possibly forgetting anything. Millsap says, "We had a brush fire closer a couple years ago and since then we've had a go bag; and the cats and I are ready to bug out if we have to." Mayberry adds, "But also be very mindful of evacuation points in and out of your neighborhood." To sign up for notifications you can check out the Smart911 website. You can also download our free 2 News Nevada app where we post the latest updates on wildfires and evacuation orders. WASHINGTON (AP) A former Washington, D.C., Council member is returning to his seat, five months after he was kicked out for his involvement in a federal bribery investigation. Trayon White defeated three challengers in a special election Tuesday to fill the Ward 8 council seat that has been vacant since his expulsion in February. White, 41, was arrested by the FBI last August. After an internal investigation, the remaining 12 D.C. Council members voted unanimously to oust him from the council. However, White was free to enter the special election because he had not been convicted of a felony. He won reelection just a few months later in an indication of a scandal-proof popularity that echoes his political mentor, former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. In a victory speech Tuesday night, White thanked his supporters and described his return to office as a tale of resilience and redemption. So we sent a message loud and clear to D.C. City Council that Trayon White is here to stay," he said. White's federal trial wont start until January 2026, but preliminary evidence includes videos of him pocketing cash-stuffed envelopes from a city contractor, allegedly in return for securing lucrative city contracts. Whites victory essentially prolongs an uncomfortable standoff with his D.C. Council colleagues who now face the question of whether to expel him again, in defiance of the will of the Ward 8 voters. Or they could simply carry on with him among their ranks again and wait for the federal corruption trial to begin early next year. Council members felt White damaged credibility In advance of the February expulsion vote, multiple council members made it clear that White's continued presence would be damaging to the institutions credibility. Bribery of elected officials is quintessential corruption, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said in February. Trust is precious. Trust is critical for an elected government, and we must act. White faced a trio of challengers: Mike Austin, Sheila Bunn and Salim Adofo. All three had experience either working as staffers for D.C. Council members or in the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions hyper-local bodies that frequently serve as training grounds for future council members. Adofo lost to White in the 2024 Democratic primary, securing 28% of the vote. All three challengers pointed to White's legal troubles and emphasized a need to restore credibility and public trust to the Ward 8 council seat. White did minimal public campaigning or fundraising, skipped multiple candidate debates and left early from one debate. White came up in local politics as a protege of Barry. And he has been channeling his mentors defiant, populist playbook since his arrest. White refused to cooperate with the internal D.C. Council inquiry. His lawyer, Frederick D. Cooke Jr., also served as Barrys defense attorney. And White has sought to stoke lingering suspicion of the FBI among Black Washingtonians, many of whom believe Barry was unfairly targeted by the 1990 FBI sting that caught him on camera smoking crack cocaine. Declaring victory Tuesday, White said: "Its a testament, man, that if you fall down because were all going to fall down but can you get back up? Today Ward 8 stood up. How The Associated Press declared White the winner The AP declared White the winner with an estimated 80% of the vote counted. The only ballots left to be counted are those that were returned in drop boxes Tuesday and any mail ballots postmarked as of Tuesday that arrive by July 25. Among the ballots counted, White was leading in both mail ballots and those cast in person, either early or on Election Day. Whites three competitors split the rest of the vote, none rising significantly above the others, preventing any one of them from having a path to catch White. DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the countrys postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel. Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syria's Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement. Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement. Rare Israeli airstrikes in the heart of Damascus The announcement came after Israel launched rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, an escalation in a campaign that it said was intended to defend the Druze and push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military. The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province of Sweida. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians. The violence appeared to be the most serious threat yet to efforts by Syrias new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, ending a nearly 14-year civil war. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, in footage on state television early Thursday, called the Druze an integral part of Syria and denounced Israel's actions as sowing division. We affirm that protecting your rights and freedoms is among our top priorities, he said, specifically addressing Druze people in Syria. "We reject any attempt foreign or domestic to sow division within our ranks. We are all partners in this land, and we will not allow any group to distort the beautiful image that Syria and its diversity represent. He said Israel sought to break Syrian unity and turn the country into a theater of chaos but that Syrians were rejecting division. He said Syrians did not fear renewed war but sought the path of Syrian interest over destruction. We assigned local factions and Druze spiritual leaders the responsibility of maintaining security in (Sweida), recognizing the gravity of the situation and the need to avoid dragging the country" into a new war, he said. Syria's new, primarily Sunni Muslim, authorities have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces. Israel threatens further escalation Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assad's fall. That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the painful blows have begun. Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syrias new leaders, saying it doesnt want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Kats said in a statement that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a multitude of scenarios" and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday. Druze fear for the lives of relatives in Sweida Reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate. In Jaramana, near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she feared that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, was dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan commuted to Sweida for work and was trapped there when the clashes erupted. Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husband's colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal. They shot my husband in the hip, from what I could gather, she said, struggling to hold back tears. The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened. A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted. She had struggled to reach them, but when she did, she said, I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before." Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it. It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who had taken up arms to fight back while Assads forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting. Its the same right now," she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are just people who are protecting their province and their families. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses. The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in field executions. Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington is very concerned about the Israel-Syria violence, which he attributed to a misunderstanding, and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm. Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, Abby Sewell in Beirut, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. loading......... Malibu, CA, July 16, 2025 AEST (ABN Newswire) - In this episode of Money Talk Radio, Ellis Martin welcomes back Rana Vig, CEO of Blue Lagoon Resources Inc. ( CNSX:BLLG ) ( BLAGF:OTCMKTS ), to discuss the company's breakthrough moment: the official opening of the Dome Mountain Gold Mine in British Columbia. After five years of focused development, Blue Lagoon has secured its final mining permit and is now launching full-scale underground operations. The company aims for annual production of 15,000 ounces of gold, with milling to be handled by Nikola Mining under a tolling agreement. Stockpiling begins in July, with first deliveries to Nikola expected by September 2025. Vig emphasizes the significance of strong partnerships with First Nations communities. At the grand opening, 18 hereditary chiefs and guardians from the Lake Babine Nation attended and expressed sincere appreciation for the company's culturally respectful approach. Blue Lagoon distributed informative materials honoring all four Lake Babine clans, a gesture that left a lasting impression. Another key component of the company's environmental and social strategy is its water treatment facility, built with six times the capacity needed-an over-engineered design by choice, signaling long-term stewardship of the land and commitment to responsible operations. The project's upside extends beyond the Boulder Vein currently being developed. Adjacent veins, such as one grading 14 grams per ton, will be brought online next, with plans to scale production to 20,000 ounces in year two. Exploration continues across the company's 22,000-hectare land package-only 10% of which has been explored to date. Blue Lagoon has already drilled 50,000 meters, discovering promising new targets that will be developed using free cash flow to avoid shareholder dilution. Nikola Mining has validated the company by investing $1M and committing to prioritize Blue Lagoon's ore at its mill. CEO Peter Espig has participated in three financings and attended the mine opening personally. With this backing and operational readiness, Blue Lagoon has become one of the Top 25 performing companies on the CSE. Vig shares his broader vision: to build Blue Lagoon into a global gold producer. With current listings on the CSE, OTC, and Frankfurt exchanges-and interest from investors in Europe, the U.S., and Australia-the company's story has become international. Vig plans another investor trip to Europe in August and is currently hosting virtual meetings with New York-based funds. Asked about an exit strategy, Vig explains that while a future acquisition is a possibility, the company's primary objective is to generate long-term value through sustained production and aggressive exploration. "All great mining companies started with one mine," he notes. "We've just finished the national anthem-we haven't even started the first inning." The stock is currently trading at ~$0.74 CAD / $0.52 USD, offering what Vig and Martin both describe as a rare opportunity to invest in a near-term gold producer under $1, with robust upside. To Listen to the Interview, please visit: https://www.abnnewswire.net/lnk/N1155C0P About Blue Lagoon Resources Inc. As of February 2025, Blue Lagoon Resources Inc. (CNSX:BLLG) (OTCMKTS:BLAGF) achieved a major milestone by securing its mining permit, making it one of only nine companies to receive such approval in British Columbia since 2015. With this critical permit in place, the company is now focused on completing its state-of-the-art water treatment plant-expected to be operational by the end of May 2025. This marks a pivotal step in Blue Lagoon's transition from an exploration company to a fully operational producer, with first production targeted for Q3 2025. About The Ellis Martin Report The Ellis Martin Report (TEMR) is an internet based radio program showcasing potentially undervalued companies to an audience of potential retail investors and fund managers that comprise our listening audience. TEMR is broadcasted on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel and The Opportunity Radio Network. CEO and company interviews are paid for by those represented on the program. loading......... Related Companies NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Why: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit on behalf of purchasers of the "Western Asset US Core Bond Fund" mutual fund classes Class I (ticker: "WATFX"), Class A (ticker: "WABAX"), Class C (ticker: "WABCX"), Class FI (ticker: "WAPIX"), Class IS (ticker: "WACSX"), and Class R (ticker: "WABRX") and the "Western Asset Core Plus Bond Fund" mutual fund classes Class A (ticker: "WAPAX"), Class C (ticker: "WAPCX"), Class C1 (ticker: "LWCPX"), Class FI (ticker: "WACIX"), Class R (ticker: "WAPRX"), Class I (ticker: "WACPX"), Class IS (ticker: "WAPSX") between January 1, 2021 and October 31, 2023, inclusive (the "Class Period"). A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 5, 2025. So What: If you purchased Western Asset mutual funds during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. What to do next: To join the Western Asset class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=31956 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for more information. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 5, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Why Rosen Law: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Details of the case: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants failed to warn investors that: (1) Defendants favored certain WAMCO strategies, like Macro Opps, over other WAMCO strategies, like Core and Core Plus; (2) Defendants disfavored certain WAMCO strategies, like Core and Core Plus; (3) any "compliance policies and procedures" that WAMCO maintained "to result in fair allocations of investment opportunities to clients" were either insufficient to ensure that Leech and his WAMCO Team fairly allocated trades among the strategies they managed or were expressly disregarded by defendants in order to allow the favoring of certain WAMCO strategies at the expense of other WAMCO strategies; (3) any "oversight mechanisms" that WAMCO maintained were either insufficient to monitor Leech and his WAMCO Team or were expressly disregarded by Defendants in order to allow the favoring of certain WAMCO strategies at the expense of other WAMCO strategies. As a result, defendants' actions operated as a fraud or deceit on the Class, artificially reducing the price of the "Western Asset US Core strategy" mutual fund classes during the Class Period, damaging Class members. To join the Western Asset class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=31956 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. at 866-767-3653 or email [email protected] for more information. No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 [email protected] www.rosenlegal.com SOURCE THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P. A. Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter on July 15, 2025, listens to arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys in a case involving a Midfield mother charged with aggravated child abuse. (Carol Robinson) An Alabama mother charged with aggravated child abuse has temporarily lost the right to make medical decisions for her infant son as authorities say she is the reason he is on life support. Prosecutors contend Tesean Laneta Daniele Beard, 30, has a vested interest in whether he lives or dies, despite what is the best course of action for him. Her son, 10-month-old Reazyn Jackson, has been on a ventilator since Feb. 28 when he was rushed to Childrens of Alabama unconscious and without a pulse. Doctors have said his injuries are consistent with shaken baby syndrome. Court records state he has no chance of survival or neurological recovery. Beard appeared before Jefferson County Circuit Judge David Carpenter Tuesday after Bessemer prosecutors filed a motion asking that Beard, who was the sole decision maker in Reazyns medical care, no longer be allowed to make those decisions. Beards attorneys, Wakisha Hazzard, Maston Evans and Phillip Fikes, said no evidence has been presented to prove that Beard was responsible for Reazyns injuries and to strip her rights would wrong. It would be highly inappropriate in my opinion to enjoin (stop) Miss Beard from making a decision about her child because that would be essentially taking away her constitutional and fundament rights as a parent, Hazzard said. When the hearing ended, Carpenter did suspend Beards decision-making abilities for reason and appointed a guardian ad litem (GAL) to further investigate Reazyns case and report back to the judge in 30 days. A GAL is a person, often an attorney, appointed by a court to represent the best interests of a child or incapacitated person in legal proceedings. GALs act as fact finders, investigators, and advocates for their ward, ensuring their needs are considered by the court. The judge said while Beard is presumed innocent, it is a fact that she is charged with aggravated child abuse. Whether she is responsible for these injuries to the child or not, she has a conflict of interest when it comes to making the decision to remove the child from life support, Carpenter said. If the child dies, she could potentially be charged with capital murder and so long as the child is alive, she wont be. This is a conflict of interest that exists. Currently, no one has been given the decision-making ability for Reazyns medical care. Beard is a mother of four who lives in Midfield. On that Friday, Reazyn was found unresponsive and her attorney said Beard first sought help from a neighbor who is a retired Birmingham police officer. The neighbor performed CPR and 911 was called. Reazyn was rushed to Childrens of Alabama in Birmingham, where he remains. Charging documents against Beard state an MRI and an X-ray showed that Reazyn who was 5-months-old at the time - suffered abuse. He had severe head trauma, wrist fractures on both sides and possible rib fractures. He has remained on life support for more than four months. Beard was arrested at her workplace on Wednesday, July 9, and booked into the Jefferson County Jail where she is held without bond. The day after her arrest, Bessemer Cutoff Assistant District Attorney Lori Frasure filed a motion to remove Beards ability to make decisions on Reazyns behalf. Its my understanding that at some point Miss Beard had wanted, or there was some talk about sending Reazyn to Texas, Fasure said in Tuesdays hearing. Of course, we would be adamantly opposed to this child being removed from Childrens. Its my understanding that the child is permanently on a ventilator, Frasure said. If the child is removed, the child will pass away, she said. If the child is kept on a ventilator, there is a very high probability that the child will have a lung infection. and pass away from the lung infection. Miss Beard is the one who caused the child to be in the hospital, Frasure said. Miss Beard should not have medical authority of this child no matter what happens with this child. Defense attorney Hazzard said Reazyn suffered from respiratory issues and was first hospitalized in January with RSV - Respiratory Syncytial Virus. When Reazyn was admitted to the hospital again Hazzard said it was in February it was noted there might have been some trauma to the head that they saw when they started running tests on the baby. Fast forward, and we come to June and there was a supplemental report done where theyre saying now they believe there may be child abuse that might have been involved, Hazzard said. Initially, when Reazyn Jackson went into the hospital, there was no indication of any type of child abuse, she said. There was an indication of respiratory issues that the child was having and some cardiac arrest due to these respiratory issues. When Reazyn was taken to Childrens the last time, he started having seizures, Hazzard said. After he developed those seizures, we believe, is when all these other things started happening to Reazyn Jackson, not necessarily because it was something that mom did, she said. I hear what the states saying. The state is saying, Oh, well, mom did this. Were saying, Your Honor, that mom did not do this, Hazzard said. She took the proper precaution that she needed to take. Now theyre saying we have child abuse, she said. Make it make sense. It makes no sense that there was a four-month period where there was no child abuse preliminary indicated. Now four months later theyre saying there is child abuse. Were highly opposed to this court even giving a consideration to a motion to stop the mother from making decisions for her child when all shes been trying to do is make the right decisions, she said. There is an ongoing case involving Beard in Family Court. Hazzard said Beard has had supervised visits with Reazyn at the hospital. Her other three children are with Beards mother and their fathers. Hazzard said under Beards decision making, Reazyn has shown some signs of improvement during his hospital stay. He is conscious, she said, and has on occasion been moved out of the ICU. We cant say, Your Honor, that this baby is on his death bed. Because we dont even know that, the mothers attorney said. The baby got better and got out of ICU. A DHR case worker has reached out to the maternal grandmother about taking classes and training on how to care for Reazyn during this time because they anticipated him getting out of the hospital, Hazzard said. So, to take the baby off life support now would be premature. We dont want a third party to get in and make a decision to pull the plug when its premature, Hazzard said. We dont want to put the authority of a babys life in a third partys hand that is not a biological parent. Fikes, another of Beards attorneys, agreed. I understand the courts conflict with Tesean Beard, 100 percent, he said. If the state on their own motion gets the mothers authority suspended, and then something happens to the baby that requires the charges to be upgraded, and the state prosecutes Tesean Beard for something that happened on their own motion, its a conflict. We just believe this is a very slippery slope, Fikes said. This is new. Were treading in new waters, and we think its a very slippery slope for the state of Alabama to embark on. To make it clear, under no circumstances is this court going to order the child removed from life support no matter what, the judge said. That is not going to happen. Carpenter ordered the appointed GAL, who is an attorney with a medical background, to report back to the court in 30 days. She will do an independent investigation, the prosecutor said. She will not be persuaded by either side. I believe she would do a fair and just job and represent the best interest of Reazyn because when it comes down to it, thats all we want, Frasure said. We want somebody to stand up for Reazyn. In the meantime, Beard will return to court Thursday for an Aniahs Law bond hearing. The Mobile County District Attorneys Office is investigating the murder of 65-year-old Patricia Odoms. On Friday, July 4, at approximately 12:30 a.m., officers responded to a reported assault on the 1500 block of Matzenger Drive in Mobile. Upon arrival, officers found Odoms with a gunshot wound, and she was transported to a local hospital. Police discovered through further investigation that she was shot by a man she knew during an altercation. Odoms died Sunday, July 13, at the hospital as a result of her injuries, according to the release. This remains an active investigation, but Mobile police say they will not release any further information as the case is now in the hands of the DAs Office. 3rd CISCE to kick off in Beijing, with number of US exhibitors topping foreign participants 09:45, July 16, 2025 By Chi Jingyi and Tu Lei ( Global Times The third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) is set to kick off on Wednesday in Beijing, with participation exceeding expectations - more than 650 Chinese and foreign enterprises, as well as institutions, from 75 countries, regions, and international organizations have confirmed their participation. In particular, the number of US exhibitors is up by 15 percent compared with the previous edition, continuing to lead in the number of foreign exhibitors. Among all CISCE participants, more than 65 percent are Fortune 500 companies or industry leaders, with 35 percent being foreign exhibitors, of which 50 percent are from Europe and the US, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), an organizer of the CISCE. "Leaders from the American Chamber of Commerce in China, the US Soybean Export Council, and the US Grains Council have said that China is a vital market. US companies are eager to continue investing in China, participating in its economic growth and innovation, and advancing together with the Chinese market and its development," Li Xingqian, vice chairman of the CCPIT, said at a press conference introducing the third CISCE. Notably, many US tech giants, including Nvidia, Medtronic, Honeywell, Qualcomm, and Micron Technology, are among the participants. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, will attend the opening ceremony of the third CISCE in Beijing on Wednesday and participate in relevant activities at the invitation of the CCPIT, the council said in a statement on Tuesday. Federal Express Corp will showcase its efficient global logistics network, sustainable practices in the Chinese market, and intelligent solutions that support the resilience and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains at the third CISCE, the company said in a statement to the Global Times. This year is FedEx's third consecutive year of participating in the CISCE. "As an important platform for promoting international supply chain connectivity, the CISCE offers a valuable opportunity for us to deepen cooperation with industry and supply chain partners. FedEx looks forward to working together with all parties to build a stable, efficient, sustainable, and intelligent supply chain network, injecting sustained momentum into the smooth operation of the economy and trade for China and the world," said Poh-Yian Koh, president of FedEx China. This year also marks the third participation of Starbucks in the CISCE. Celebrating a decade in the Chinese market, Starbucks' ready-to-drink business will debut at the expo, showcasing its localized supply chain from innovation and procurement to production and distribution, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times. At the third CISCE, Medtronic will accelerate its transformation from an "innovative technology provider" to a "local ecosystem co-builder," supporting the sustainable, high-quality development of China's medical industry, Medtronic said in a statement sent to the Global Times. "We are grateful for the CISCE's platform for openness, exchange, and cooperation. Medtronic firmly believes China will become the world's largest medical market and a key innovation hub, playing an increasingly vital role in the global medical supply chain," Alex Gu, senior vice president and president of Medtronic Greater China, said in the statement, adding that Medtronic will continue to strengthen its local value chain, aiming for mutual growth and win-win outcomes. The company's engagement in China's supply chain and how this engagement serves its global market can be seen from numbers: in fiscal year 2025 (from April 2024 to April 2025), Medtronic's procurement in China reached about 5 billion yuan ($697 million). Newegg Commerce, an electronics-focused American online retailer, said in a statement sent to the Global Times that the company, deeply engaged in the North American market, is committed to promoting the globalization of Chinese tech brands. At the third CISCE, Newegg will showcase top-selling Chinese tech products, including computers, gaming peripherals, and smart home devices, highlighting breakthroughs in technological innovation and product design, and demonstrating the global competitiveness of "Made in China." Newegg will partner with Shenzhen-based EDA Group Holdings to present collaborative innovations in cross-border e-commerce and intelligent supply chains, said Newegg. Bringing partners to the expo is a characteristic of the CISCE. According to official data, exhibitors will bring more than 500 partners from the upstream and downstream of industrial chains, thus making the actual number of exhibitors mount to 1,200. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) DUBAI, UAE, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Xlence activates Trading Central's full suite, available on all live and demo accounts. 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About Xlence Xlence is an international CFD broker committed to delivering a transparent, innovative and comprehensive trading experience. Headquartered in Dubai and regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA SD029), Xlence offers MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, negativebalance protection and 24/5 multilingual support. Media Contact Nicolas Georgiou PR & Communications [email protected] +357 96199856 Risk Warning: Trading CFDs involves significant risk and may result in the loss of your entire investment. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2606624/Xlence_Dark_Logo.jpg SOURCE Xlence A suspect is in custody in connection with a shooting at a Birmingham nightclub that left two men seriously wounded. Casimiro Hernandez, 34, of Bessemer, was arrested in Texas, Birmingham police announced Wednesday. He is awaiting extradition to Alabama. The shooting happened at 4:30 a.m. Sunday, June 22, at El Centenario nightclub in the 1100 block of Third Avenue West. Both victims were taken to UAB Hospital with life-threatening injuries, said Officer DeRell Freeman. Later that day, police put out photos of potential suspects asking for help identifying them. On June 23, felony assault detectives presented their evidence to the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office which issued an attempted murder warrant against Hernandez. He was quickly taken into custody during a traffic stop conducted by San Patricio Sheriffs Office deputies in Texas. Freeman said Hernandez is the only one being charged in the shooting. Birminghams Crime Reduction Team and the FBI worked together on the investigation. A Texas woman has been indicted on solicitation for murder charges after officials say she plotted to kill her newly engaged ex-husband with a poisoned box of candy. According to a release from the Parker County Sheriffs Office, Pamela Jean Stanley, 63, was arrested after a tip that she was planning to murder her ex-husband. Her May 30 arrest was followed by an indictment July 10. Stanley was recorded as she explained to an acquaintance that she was seeking to purchase powdered fentanyl, and inject it in a high-end box of chocolates, according to the sheriffs office. The release notes Stanley further planned to mail the box to her ex-husband, making it appear to have been from a travel agency as a congratulatory gift for his recent engagement along with a honeymoon incentive offer. Sheriffs SCU investigators worked in an undercover controlled capacity with Stanley, who drove several hours from Coleman and solicited the purchase of what she believed was fentanyl in the parking lot of a local interstate motel from SCU undercover investigators. Investigators took Stanley into custody immediately following her undercover ruse purchase and found her to also be in possession of a substance the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab tested as containing 9.5 grams of methamphetamine. Stanley was indicted for criminal solicitation with intent to commit murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Her total bond is set at $450,000. 2025 Weatherford Democrat (Weatherford, Texas). Visit weatherforddemocrat.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Cliff Simon has made cakes for Diana Ross, Madonna, Pee-wee Herman, Liberace, Ella Fitzgerald, KISS and many other celebrities. Now hes making them for you. This Alabama man whips up fabulous desserts in his home kitchen, then gives them away for free to people in Birmingham. Its a community project, a way for him to be of service, and a means for spreading joy in the Glen Iris neighborhood and beyond. Theres no money exchanged, and it it works, Simon, 74, said in an interview with AL.com. Its been wonderful. Simon, an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB, uses his formidable skills to make cakes that are visual knockouts with whipped cream, chocolate ganache, gold powder and other decadent ingredients but he wants to tantalize the tastebuds, too. When people see my cakes, they say, How can I cut that? Simon said. Or Its too beautiful to cut. But please, do me a favor, and cut it, because its a cake, and cakes are meant to be eaten. (See photos of Cliff Simon and his cakes in the gallery at the top of this post.) In the past, when Simon created personalized desserts for stars playing at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, his cakes were showcased by backstage caterers at concerts and other events. Simon rarely knew for sure if the famous folks simply admired his cakes or his cream puffs, truffles and other confections or if they were inclined to dig in. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. In the past, Simon created cakes for celebrities at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, including this one of Ella Fitzgerald in 1990. "The picture was actually taken on my bathtub in the kitchen and we covered it with a piece of wood to hide the wonderful tin top that did great service for me when I was rolling puff pastry dough on it, with the tub filled with ice cold water," Simon said in a Facebook post. "Who needs marble?" (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) I dont suppose Diana Ross would have eaten the cake. She was watching her weight and everything, Simon recalled. But I know that John Cougar Mellencamp, when it was brought to his dressing room, he had a napkin over it when he went on stage. There were crumbs on the napkin and the note said, Do not touch this. Indulge with gusto, then, and youll make this baker happy. Express satisfaction on social media after devouring one of his cakes, and Simon will be even happier. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. On June 25, 2025, he created orange almond cakes with vanilla whipped cream. (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) I feel as though I have won the lottery today! Greg Smith of Birmingham said in a June 25 post on Facebook. After finally managing to reach Cliff Simon in a timely manner, I successfully secured the most delectable sweet treat on a sweltering summer Alabama afternoon. The cake is truly a masterpiece, and I felt a pang of guilt when cutting into it, until I savored its delightful flavor! It is utterly heavenly!!!! Facebook has been important to Simon as a method for sharing his cakes, via posts on his personal page and one linked to the Glen Iris neighborhood in Southside. True, things have changed a bit since December 2023, when Simon made his first giveaway post, sharing part of a huge apple turnover hed made for Christmas. That dessert, from a Julia Child recipe, initially was part of a holiday dinner for Simon and his husband, artist Julian Hazlett, and Hazletts sister. But when Simon decided to share the treat with others, a community baking hobby was born. Julian told me about a woman who started baking sourdough bread and decided to put loaves on the front porch, and for anyone to come by and pick up the bread as a free gift, Simon said in a Facebook post on Dec. 26, 2023. That was so inspiring to me, and I love giving people cakes. So, from yesterday, here is the remainder of the apple turnover for Christmas which will go on my porch in about ten minutes. Whoever gets here first, just come, take and eat. More tomorrow. After the turnover disappeared, Simon moved on to a flourless chocolate torte. Then a Linzertorte, a Torta di Cioccolata, a Budapest coffee cake, an almond cake and more. Hes been sharing yummy desserts ever since, experimenting with different cakes and perfecting his distribution methods. I started doing it by leaving a cake, in the box, on an upside-down black garbage can, Simon said. And people would come and pick it up. Most times, I didnt meet them. Then last summer, I couldnt put the cakes out anymore because it was so hot, and a lot of my cakes are covered in whipped cream. I had no way to handle that. And thats really how (the current system) came about. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. Simon's husband, artist Julian Hazlett, designed the label for his cake boxes. (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) These days, Simon usually posts cake giveaways on Facebook three times per week, offering two cakes to the public first-come, first served on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, for six cakes total. The Facebook alerts mention Simons home address and tell visitors to call a phone number posted on his front door. Simon then brings a boxed cake to the person waiting on his porch, chatting for a few minutes and sending them on their way. As each cake is claimed, Simon posts updates on Facebook, so hopefuls wont arrive on his doorstep and be disappointed. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. This is a Paris-Brest, a traditional French dessert made with cream puff dough, praline pastry cream and toasted slivered almonds. (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) B.J. Melton just picked up the first Paris-Brest, Simon posted on May 7, 2025, referencing a classic French pastry. As he was walking down the steps with the cake, he said I feel so happy now. And I told him, Everyone is always happy on this porch! Theres one more left for someone who wants to be happy for a moment, too. Simon cant predict how long it will take for the cakes to be scooped up, so he encourages folks to watch for his public Facebook posts and act promptly. It seems to work really well, Simon said. Different people have wanted to give me money or help with the cakes or even buy ingredients and bring them to me. But I dont want that. I just want to do it myself, so that I feel in control. We talk for a while, then they leave. And it really helps me feel like Im being of service. At first, Simons cakes went to neighbors in close proximity to his house in Glen Iris. But as the word has spread, cake fans have made the pilgrimage from other parts of the city. One Birmingham couple showed up at Simons door, for example, after their daughter messaged them from out of state, urging them to pick up the last cake of the day. How does Simon decide on the type of cakes he makes each week? Its whatever my whim is, he said. I make cakes that I like. I just choose whatever I feel. If I want to make an orange and chocolate cake, I try to find some sort of recipe for it, or I use my intuition. I have an idea of what will appeal to people. I know that if I make a pound cake, lets say, its not going to appeal to as many people as a beautiful European torte with something beautiful on top. They have to be special, so when people come up on the porch, theyre really excited. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. Simon told AL.com he enjoys cooking in general, but cakes are his specialty. "Im freer with cakes; it's really just how I match flavors together and textures together," Simon said. "And I know it will taste good." (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) Simon is a talented painter as well as a skillful baker, so its no surprise to hear that he excels at painting images, portraits and scenes on his cakes. They are painted like canvas, tactile like clay and, just like Tinkerbelle, they sparkle, Simon wrote in a self-published memoir, They Ate My Cake. The book is no longer in print, but Simon sometimes pulls excerpts and posts them on Facebook. Examples of his painted cakes can be found on Simons website and social media, and those colorful desserts were popular when he lived in other cities. (Simon moved to Birmingham in 2002, but previously made his home in San Francisco, Santa Fe and Austin, after his early years in New York City.) Birmingham's Cliff Simon has created many special cakes over the years, including this one based on a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo. (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) Still, his current baking aesthetic leans toward rich and fluffy instead of precisely painted. I dont make many painted cakes anymore, because theres not an audience for that in Birmingham, Simon said. He does branch out occasionally, giving away boxes filled with decadent brownies, chocolate cookies, cream puffs, truffles or pastries such as rugelah. Simons admirers have called him an expert baker, masterful with ingredients and capable of combining flavors into a harmonious whole. He tends to be a tougher critic of his own abilities, however, and Simon emphasized that hes entirely capable of making mistakes. I cant tell you how many cakes in my life I have screwed up, because in some ways I tend to be not detail-oriented, Simon said. Or Im too fast, and that screws things up. Or I dont read the recipe or directions. So then I learn a lot from that, from what I did wrong. I will make these big mistakes, like leave out the butter. That doesnt happen much, but I get so quick with everything. Ive had some cakes slide off and fall on the floor, Simon continued. I remember I was taking a cake to Pee-wee Herman at Carnegie Hall, and I was holding this cake and going up a flight of stairs. I was running because I was excited, and I just dropped it. But it remained OK. Birmingham's Cliff Simon is an artist and former professor of scenic design at UAB. One of his favorite pastimes is making fabulous cakes, then giving them away to folks in his neighborhood and beyond. "I knew I wanted to do something of service, because I never felt that I really did in the past.," Simon told AL.com. "In my self judgment, I just didn't think I did enough. And I love doing it." (Courtesy of Cliff Simon) Simon is serious about baking cakes for the community, but that doesnt mean he lacks a sense of humor. His social media posts offer ample proof, whether its a celebrity anecdote how he messed up Diana Ross wedding cake, for example, then made a quick save or a reflection on life, art and cake consumption. I have heard that Australian aborigines believe that only the process itself, of art, is all that matters, Simon said in an April 9 Facebook post. They feel that the creating of it is what nourishes the soul and makes one happy and that once a piece of art is made, it is then time to destroy it. So my cakes, then, seem to fit pretty well into their philosophy, because I bake the cake, I paint the cake, you look at the cake, you eat the cake and we all knows where it goes tomorrow morning. Just in time for the hundreds of anglers about to hit coastal waters for the Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, a new smartphone app can provide up-to-date information about conditions on (and in) Mobile Bay and nearby waters. For years, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab has operated a sensor network called the Alabama Real-time Coastal Observing System, or ARCOS. Data from ARCOS sensors includes water temperature, salinity and oxygen content as well as wind speed and air temperature. The information has been available online, but the lab has now announced the launch of a free smartphone app for iOS and Android devices. It says it sees the app as an excellent tool for anyone who works or plays on the water to make informed and safe boating decisions. Like the website, the app incorporates a three-day National Weather Center forecast and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations tide predictions for Dauphin Island. It also features data from a new station at the Gulf State Park Pier and wave measurements from a Sofar Spotter buoy positioned just off the coast of Dauphin Island. ARCOS is an excellent example of how DISL takes data collected for scientific research purposes and then repackages it for consumers use, said John Valentine, executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. In this instance, we want to help the local community make informed and safe decisions for boating. In the last year, our coastal community has faced several water-related tragedies and DISL felt sharing our scientific data in a user-friendly format could help save lives if boaters have a real-time picture of water conditions before they go out. If it helps them make informed decisions about where to fish, so much the better. The annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo runs Friday-Sunday after preliminary festivities Thursday evening. For full information, visit adsfr.com. The new Dauphin Island Sea Lab ARCOS app can be found at Google Play and Apples App Store. Its today, July 5th 2025. This is the I am Spartacus moment. Please stand up. pic.twitter.com/oGYdZvjrWK Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) July 5, 2025 Pink Floyds Roger Waters has put himself in a position to face prosecution after he pledged support in a social media post for Palestine Action. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer shared a video on X earlier this month. OK, its July 5, 2025, Im in my little studio, Ive just been at work on a piece of brown cardboard with a Sharpie, Waters said. Here we go. This says, Roger Waters supports Palestine Action. Palestine Action is a group that has been declared as a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom. Parliament has been corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power, he said. Stand up and be counted its now! Its now. This is the moment. I am Spartacus. According to Penn Live, The United Kingdom banned Palestine Action under its anti-terrorism laws last week after its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest of Britains support of Israel. Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on The Opening Kickoff on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily. A south Alabama man is behind bars following an armed kidnapping Tuesday morning in Dale County. Shane Carpenter, 55, of Clio, is charged with first-degree kidnapping, two counts of second-degree assault and first-degree criminal mischief. The ordeal began about 7:30 a.m. when Dale County sheriffs deputies responded to the area of County Road 113 in Ariton on a report of a possible wreck with injuries. Sheriff Mason Bynum said a man and a woman were driving on County Road 113 when they came upon a vehicle that was stopped in the road. As they approached that vehicle, the vehicle accelerated and hit their vehicle, knocking both vehicles off the roadway. Both victims tried to run away, but Carpenter forced the woman into his vehicle at gunpoint and drove off. Authorities said the suspect and the female victim know each other. Investigators later learned that Carpenter was at his home on Copperhead Road in Barbour County. Dale and Barbour county deputies found Carpenter and the victim there. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency assisted in the investigation. The woman had non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to the hospital. Carpenter was taken to the Dale County Jail. The investigation is ongoing. Just last year, the Huntsville Madison County Public Library reclassified many books after the Alabama Public Library Service banned sexually explicit content from children and young adult sections. ASSOCIATED PRESS The Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL) board heard passionate public comments at its most recent meeting as the debate between access and limitations continues. Ten people spoke during the public comment section on Tuesday evening, occupying half of the meeting, with the majority speaking out against limiting access to materials in Alabama libraries. Ten people spoke during the public comment section. Most were against restricting book options. Some wanted further restrictions placed on the library. Megan Plotka Seven out of ten people were advocating for no further censorship in local libraries. Many of them were affiliated with the At the Root Collective. The library was a lifeline for me in escaping an abusive and educationally repressive household that provided a safe and respectful environment to pursue my learning goals, regardless of the subject matter or level of knowledge, one community member said. Ultimately, HMCPL helped me create a successful career and a stable life for my family after decades of extreme poverty and isolation. I believe this would not have been possible if the librarys contents had been censored to meet the desires of special interest groups. Three speakers called for further restrictions. Some advocated for the removal of several types of childrens books, like ones that have nudity or transgender representation. Carissa Callan brought the Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope picture book to the meeting. She said childrens books about transgender people push an agenda. Its an agenda. And libraries should not be in the agenda-driven process, especially where impressionable children are concerned, Collins said. Again, this is not Heather has Two Mommies." That is a mentality reflecting another group of people. This is the push to be more, to be everything related to sex, everything is focused on it, not two people who are happily sharing their lives, going about their business and what they do behind closed doors is their business. This is being shoved in the faces of our children, and your collection does not have anything outside of that. Collins spoke at length about the picture book, Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope Megan Plotka Collins said she is a supporter of Moms for Liberty, but she was showing up to the meeting as just a mom. Conservative political group Moms for Libertys Madison County chapter regularly attends local library board meetings. The national organization Moms for Liberty frequently pushes public libraries to remove books it considers sexually explicit, many of which include LGBTQ+ content. At the board meeting, censorship opponent Dr. Marisa Allison passionately drew inspiration from the late non-binary poet Andrea Gibson to explain why its dangerous to erase transgender identities. Ive instead decided to read a shortened version of one of their poems, Dr. Allison said through tears. I hope it will help you all to understand the weight of the decisions this board will have to make in the coming months. Queer youth are five times more likely to die by suicide. Means your life is five times harder than you should have had. It means you live five times harder than you should have had to to still have a body when you graduated high school, worked five times harder to make your spirit its wishbone. Dr. Allison was arguing for the continued circulation of books that spotlight transgender people Megan Plotka , One study found that a transgender person attempts suicide at 7.7 times the rate of the broader population. Another speaker, Ashley Keith, spoke about her experiences growing up as transgender in Huntsville. I went to Jemison High School for about a year, and unfortunately, because of my identity and the fact that nobody there had ever met someone like me before, which is something Ive heard a lot. By the beginning of sophomore year, I got jumped, Keith said. As the hot button topic of the Alabama library, I think that when you platform people who very clearly have intentions to move goal posts far beyond what could be seen as reasonable outrage and to slowly turn into what is very clearly the suppression of existing minority experiences, you sort of come into a scenario where its it becomes too far to turn back. She urges that people who align with Moms for Liberty will just keep changing their goals. Just last year, HMCPL reclassified many books after the Alabama Public Library Service banned sexually explicit content from children and young adult sections. Speakers urged HMCPL to divest from the state library system so they wont have to follow their guidelines. They urge them to request funding from the local city government. They reviewed and discussed several items before moving into the 30 minute public comment section Megan Plotka The comments came just ahead of the Alabama Public Library Services July meeting. The APLS board members will be discussing Gender Ideology Deemed Inappropriate for Children Under APLS Code as well as Definition of Sexually Explicit. Tania Stultling spoke at the HMCPL meeting and she will be speaking again at the APLS meeting. She stressed concerns about children seeing sexually explicit books at the library. Just like the children have been exposed to these books, Ill never get that innocence, that trust back, Statling said. Once youve seen things like Ive seen in these kids books, you can never unsee them. Theyre in your mind forever. And Im an adult, just think how much worse it is for a developing mind. This column originally appeared in Kyle Whitmires newsletter, Alabamafication. Sign up here to get it in your inbox for free . Imagine someone knocked on your door with $1 million in a briefcase money you were free to spend on your personal career advancement. Wouldnt you want to know where it came from? Wouldnt you want to know if someone expected something for it? This sort of thing might not happen to regular folks, but it does happen in politics, where dark money appears out of nowhere to tilt the odds. And we voters are supposed to believe the mystery givers want nothing in return. Just ask Katherine Robertson. For nearly a decade, Robertson has served as chief counsel for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, and now that hes term-limited, shes running for that office Alabamas top law enforcement officer. Robertson recently reported a $1 million campaign donation from an out-of-state dark money group. Thats a lot of money, especially for a down-ballot candidate. Its also the sort of thing her party once tried to stop in Alabama. In 2010, Republicans won control of the Alabama Legislature on a promise to clean up corruption in Montgomery. In the style of Newt Gingrichs Contract with America, they called their version the Handshake with Alabama. Maybe Alabamians should have been watching the other hand. Among their package of proposals which they swiftly passed into law was a ban on a political money laundering scheme called PAC-to-PAC transfers. Until then, political action committees (PACs) could shuffle money back and forth, rendering it all but untraceable. They say what you pay for is what you get, but in politics, we get what someone else pays for. Who pays for a campaign will often tell you much more than what candidates say about themselves on their campaign websites. The PAC-to-PAC ban was built on a reasonable argument and made for a righteous purpose. The trouble was, the new law worked in voters interests but not so much for the politicians or the special interests who supported them. Politicians, including some of the same people who supported the Handshake with Alabama began looking for ways to sneak money from untraceable sources. In 2018, Robertsons current boss, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, accepted a $735,000 PAC-to-PAC transfer across state lines. The Alabama Ethics Commission came one vote shy of referring him for prosecution over it, but gave him a pass. However, when the Alabama Democratic Party asked the Commission if it could do the same thing, the Commission said that would be a crime. Then, in 2022, Gov. Kay Ivey did something to put Marshalls wiliness to shame. Her campaign accepted $2 million from Get Families Back to Work, a 501(c)4 nonprofit or as theyre more commonly called, a dark money group. Under federal law, 501(c)4s dont have to disclose the sources of their funding. Theyre allowed to keep their donors secret so long as financing political campaigns is not their primary purpose. The IRS and the Federal Election Commission have long been absurdly squishy on what primary purpose is, but most lawyers in the field have interpreted it to mean they cant spend more than half their money on campaigns. In recent years, however, the IRS and FEC seem to have given up on even nominal enforcement of this mushy standard, to the point that federal campaign finance law might as well not exist. As Iveys campaign showed, a candidate in Alabama can rake in millions this way and suffer no legal repercussions. And as long as voters dont care either, they can get away with it. Which leaves us with Robertson. Robertson accepted the $1 million from a group called First Principles, which appears to be less than one year old. Based in Tennessee, its run by a former executive director of the Republican Attorneys General Association and thats about all there is from public records to know about it. When Alabama Political Reporter columnist Josh Moon asked Robertsons campaign where the money came from or whether that mattered to her, their answer was, in not-so-few-words, dont know/dont care. Alabamas Fair Campaign Practices Act doesnt prohibit accepting contributions from 501(c)4 organizations, her campaign told Moon. Numerous other candidates and elected officials have accepted similar contributions and we are proud to have the support of this organization. I had questions, too, and left a message on Robertsons cellphone, but I havent heard back yet. If were to believe her campaigns explanation, that money could have come from anywhere Russia, the Klan, George Soros it doesnt matter to her. (And if youre wondering why Im lumping Soros in with the Kremlin and the KKK, its only because that actually happened to Kay Ivey once.) Either Robertson knows where it came from and she doesnt want to say, or she doesnt want to know, which is better? Because who needs PAC-to-PAC money laundering when you have mystery money from groups that didnt even exist on paper until sometime after last Christmas? Ultimately, though, Robertson might be right. This loophole in our law may make dark money like this legal. In which case, PACs are for suckers, as are campaign finance rules and public disclosures of any kind. Were all left to vote in the dark. The law isnt going to stop this sort of thing from happening. No judge. No prosecutor. Certainly not the IRS, the Ethics Commission or the FEC. No, the only folks who can call an end to it are voters. The only person who can say, Enough! is you. First: Tell me what you think. How should we fix this? Then: Subscribe to Alabamafication. Its free. THIS WILL BE ON THE TEST NASA buyouts cut deep. More than 2,000 senior staffers have elected to leave under the American space program, including 279 at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Over 2,000 senior staff set to leave NASA under agency push [Politico] Coming soon. AL.com columnist John Archibald and Becca Andrews revisit the lethal attacks of a homegrown terrorist, the manhunt that followed and an anti-government culture that looked the other way. The first podcast episodes drop in two weeks, but you can sign up through Apple Podcasts today. American Shrapnel [AL.com] Case closed(minded). The US Attorney General said she had Jeffery Epsteins client list on her desk but now she and the FBI say theres no such thing? What could have happened to it? U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville blames Democrats. Dont ask me to explain. I dont get it either. Tuberville claims Democrats may have destroyed Epstein files evidence [AL.com] Kyle Whitmire is the Washington watchdog columnist for AL.com and winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. Subscribe to his newsletter, Alabamafication. Its free. ICE raids Alabama restaurants Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies executed search warrants at 14 locations across six Alabama counties Tuesday, targeting alleged drug trafficking, human smuggling, document fraud, and financial crimes. Authorities are searching for Cesar Campos Reyes, a restaurant owner accused of $225,000 in fraudulent federal loans, while more than 40 suspected undocumented workers were detained pending deportation,reports AL.com. Alabama Parole Board Leadership Change Hal Nash, the new head of Alabamas parole board, observed his first day of hearings without voting, stating this boards going to strive to be very fair. Sarah Whites-Koditschek reports that Nash, appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey to replace controversial chairperson Leigh Gwathney, brings a law enforcement background to a board that granted parole to just 8% of eligible inmates in 2023 but has increased to about 20% this year. Independent autopsy of Jabari Peoples An independent autopsy shows 18-year-old Jabari Peoples was shot in the lower back during a fatal encounter with Homewood police, but attorneys say key questions remain unanswered without body camera footage. The bullet wasnt found in Peoples body, raising questions about the trajectory and cause of death. Attorney Eric Hertz said at Tuesdays press conference, We need the bullet, reports Carol Robinson. Mobile Council Candidates Residency Questioned Samantha Ingram, running for Mobile City Council, hasnt voted in Alabama since 2006 and cast her last ballot in Georgia, raising questions about her eligibility. While Ingram claims shes lived in Mobile since 2023, records show she remains registered in Georgia. The controversy highlights residency requirements for local elections, reports John Sharp, as the August 26 election approaches. More Alabama news Listen to the podcast The Homeland Security Investigations-Atlanta office provided this image of a restaurant on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in announcing search warrants at locations in Alabama. Homeland Security Investigations-Atlanta A day after multiple federal and local agencies raided restaurants across Alabama, a newly unsealed federal indictment linked one of the target venues to an alleged scheme to hire, transport and house undocumented immigrant workers in another state. Tuesdays actions took place at 14 locations in six Alabama counties and involved federal search warrants related to drug trafficking, human smuggling, document fraud and financial crimes. Cesar Campos-Reyes, a 52-year-old Lee County resident described as the owner of five restaurants, surrendered late Tuesday on charges of bank fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. He pleaded not guilty on Friday. Authorities said more than 40 people believed to be undocumented workers were taken into custody. In an email to supporters on Tuesday, the non-profit Hispanic and Immigrant Center of Alabama (HICA) did not mention the operations directly but did address the recent immigrant crackdown by the Trump Administration. CEO Carlos E. Aleman wrote, Right now, everything feels at risk. A Tuesday raid on Colt Grill BBQ & Spirits in Foley had some elements that made it stand out from the days other actions. For one thing, Colt is a barbecue chain, not a Mexican restaurant. For another, its four sister restaurants in Arizona also were raided, in a case that officials described as a complex criminal investigation involving alleged criminal activity including money laundering and labor exploitation. A statement from Homeland Security Investigations said that investigation had been under way for three years. Colt Grill was founded in Arizona by Brenda Marie Clouston and her husband, Robert Clouston. Brenda Clouston previously told AL.com that the couple stumbled across Foley as a location more or less by accident while visiting the Gulf Coast for a Kenny Chesney concert. Efforts to reach Clouston have been unsuccessful. An indictment unsealed Tuesday in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona does not address the money laundering allegations. But it alleges that the Cloustons and two employees Luis Pedro Rogel-Jaimes and Iris Romero-Molina conspired to staff their Arizona restaurants with undocumented immigrant workers. The indictment produced by a grand jury was filed under seal in late May. The Cloustons and their fellow defendants are charged with a pattern and practice of knowingly employing unauthorized aliens; conspiracy to bring illegal aliens into the United States unlawfully; conspiracy to transport illegal aliens; conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens; and conspiracy to encourage and induce an alien to unlawfully enter the United States. Prosecutors allege that Robert Clouston, Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina agreed on a scheme to bring in undocumented workers via a shell company so that Colt Grill could dodge requirements to verify that they were able to work legally. The indictment says Robert Clouston leased several residences to house those workers and acquired vehicles to transport them to work. The Cloustons allegedly paid their two partners and/or their shell company, with a portion of that money going to the employees. The indictment makes several specific allegations that depict Robert Clouston as being actively and deeply involved in the illegal activity: He allegedly told a Colt Grill manager not to worry about calculating pay, taxes and workers compensation for some new hires because they were Pedros people, an apparent reference to Rogel-Jaimes. He allegedly was seen handing cash to Rogel-Jaimes while shaking hands and discussing bringing more Mexican national workers up from Mexico. He allegedly instructed two managers with the Sedona location to fire United States citizen employees in the Sedona Colt Grill to create employment openings for undocumented Mexican nationals for the purpose of having less expensive labor costs. In addition to the felony charges, the grand jury indictment also indicates that authorities plan to pursue forfeiture of assets upon conviction. While the indictment does refer to the Cloustons ownership of the Colt Grill in Foley, it does not specify that any of the immigration-related offenses happened there. Homeland Security Investigations issued late Wednesday saying that the Cloustons, Rogel-Jaimes and Romero-Molina had been arrested without incident on Tuesday. In Tuesdays raids across Alabama, federal authorities said not all of the 14 locations raided were restaurants. Eight were, with others being residences or properties affiliated with the case. Campos-Reyes is due in court, possibly on Thursday. HICA CEO Alemans remarks issued Tuesday did not address specifics of Tuesdays raids but raised concerns about such activities in general. Just in the past few weeks, community members have been detained during scheduled ICE check-ins people who have followed every legal instruction, only to be unexpectedly taken into custody, he said. Most recently, in Gulf Shores, more than 30 individuals were detained during a raid at a high school construction site. These events are not isolated. They reflect a growing pattern of intimidation and enforcement that makes it harder for families to feel safe, even when they are doing everything right. Due process is being quietly dismantled. Aleman urged supporters to speak out. We wont ignore that both political parties have failed to address the broken immigration system. We wont pretend this is just about the border. This is about our neighbors, co-workers, and children, he wrote. 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In the Jefferson County courthouse, probate judges are located on the first floor. On Monday, July 21, volunteer attorneys will be giving residents free legal advice from 9 to 11:30 a.m. at the Jefferson County Courthouse. The event, dubbed Pro Se Day, is open to residents in need of help with legal issues including: wills, power of attorney preparation, guardianships, name changes, estate and property, as well as traffic tickets, child support, evictions and divorce. When Yashiba Blanchard was elected as the presiding judge of the Jefferson County Probate Court, she promised residents that the court would be there to help. We do this because we saw that there was a need. Citizens have complained that they dont have the monetary means to hire lawyers, Blanchard said. Jefferson County Probate Court really wants to resolve the needs of the residents and we want to help out in whatever way we can. Pro Se, pronounced pro say, is a legal term meaning individuals who are representing themselves in court. Since the launch of the monthly event in April, more than 50 community members have received free legal help, saving them each hundreds to thousands of dollars in legal fees. Weve made a positive impact in regards to assisting the residents of Jefferson County, Blanchard said. On the day, residents will be directed to the ninth floor of the courthouse where they will be matched with an attorney who can assist them. Residents should bring any documents that may help the attorneys better understand their situation. These attorneys give them a better understanding of the complexities involved in the legal actions that theyre trying to pursue, Blanchard said. We initially set out to just focus directly on probate issues, but we have expanded it to all areas of law. Blanchard said she hopes residents will take advantage of the opportunity. We know that residents out there in Jefferson County that have legal issues might not have the funds to hire an attorney, and this is an opportunity for them to get their questions answered and potentially get those pro bono lawyers to stand in place with them in court to get their legal issues resolved, Blanchard said. I just want them to know that theyre not in this alone, thats what the courts are for. Were there to provide services for the residents of Jefferson County. Click here to sign up to receive free legal advice at Pro Se Day. For the first time in months, home sales in the Huntsville area fell below 2024 numbers with two notable exceptions: the Decatur and Marshall County markets. They were the only two area markets that saw sales figures better not only than last years marks, but Mays numbers as well. But realtors said the area markets remain strong. They said inventory numbers and almost flat sales price numbers indicate that now is a good time to buy a home. The best buying opportunities are likely between now and the end of the year, realtor Matt Curtis told AL.com. Savvy buyers and investors will act now everyone else may look back and wish they had. Market conditions will likely continue to favor buyers over the next few months as listings are at their highest level in more than five years, Alabama Association of Realtors economist Evan Moore said in a recent report on state sales. Ben Wales of Gateway Alabama Realty Group said it is nice shopping in this current market but unfortunately that will change if these rates ever go down. Rumors are stirring that (Federal Reserve Chairman) Jerome Powell is about to resign and if that happens rates determined by the fed will begin dropping, Wales said. Mortgage rates are not tied to the fed but in my experience the fed does eventually have an effect on mortgage rates. Real estate nerd talk but in short I think that the pleasant laid back buying days are numbered. Sales numbers dip in Rocket City According to data from ValleyMLS, realtors and real estate agents sold 635 homes in June in the Huntsville market, which includes all of Madison County. Thats a drop from 743 in May and 685 in June of 2024. There were 1,079 sales still pending. The Athens market followed a similar trend. There were 183 homes sold in the market last month, which includes all of Limestone County. That is down from 224 in May and 189 from a year ago. There were 314 sales pending. The Decatur market, on the other hand, saw sales jump from 115 a year ago to 159 last month. Month-over-month, sales increased by nine homes over May. There were 138 sales pending in the market, which includes both Morgan and Lawrence counties. Marshall County also saw a boost in sales, jumping from 89 in June 2024 to 100 last month. Realtors sold 91 homes there in May. There were 78 sales pending. Median prices stable Median home prices in the area remained stable. In Huntsville, the median price was $345,000 in June, up only $5,000 from June of 2024. It climbed only $7,000 from May. In Athens, the median sales price actually dropped $4,000 year-over-year to $322,000 last month, but it did climb from $310,000 in May. Homes remained the cheapest in Decatur, where the median sales price was $265,000 last month. Thats up from $244,000 in May, but down from $283,000 in June 2024. In Marshall County, the median sales price in June was $273,000, down $2,000 from a year ago, but up from $260,000 in May. Despite the increase in supply and softening demand, prices have held steady with average sales prices actually rising 1.5%, Curtis said. That kind of resilience in the face of economic and global uncertainty speaks volumes. He said if prices havent dropped under those conditions its unlikely well see major pricing pressure this year. I believe we have a 12 to 18-month window of opportunity before the next economic cycle brings higher prices and stronger demand, Curtis said. Inventory continues to climb Across the Huntsville area, there are now more homes are on the market than last year. Curtis said that brings a balanced market between buyers and sellers with 4.5 months of supply. Gone are the days when homes flew off the market in less than a week. There were 2,734 homes on the market in Huntsville, up from 2,237 in June 2024. Homes stayed on the market an average of 43 days compared to 35 a year ago. There were 1,030 homes on the market in Athens, up from 819 a year ago. Homes stayed on the market an average of 46 days compared to 40 a year ago. There were 578 homes on the market in Decatur, up from 286 in June 2024. Homes stayed on the market an average of 52 days compared to 25 last year. In Marshall County, there were 477 homes on the market last month, up from 355 in June of last year. Homes stayed on the market an average of 45 days compared to 40 a year ago. Rep. Philip Ensler, D-Montgomery, announced Monday night that he will not be seeking reelection for the House District 74 seat next year and plans to move back to his home state of New York. My dad who lived in New York, passed away two years ago, and ever since then, it certainly has been tugging at my heartstrings, Ensler said in an interview Tuesday. Just the thought of being closer to other family has certainly weighed on me. Ensler won the seat in 2022 against Republican Charlotte Meadows with 60% of votes, according to election results. The seat had been held by Republicans since 2002, according to election records. It was the first Democratic flip of a Republican-held seat in the Alabama Legislature since 2010. More from Alabama Reflector Ensler, who plans to finish his current term in the House, said that he is most proud of working with other House Democrats to fight for voting rights and rights of minorities in the state. Even though the majority has still passed a lot of what I think are really harmful bills, its important that on our side of the aisle that weve stood up against some of those attacks on peoples fundamental and basic rights, he said. Rep. Tashina Morris, D-Montgomery, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon that she has loved working with Ensler and will miss the asset that he is to the Montgomery community and the state. I definitely understand his decision to not seek reelection, but he was an asset to our party, she said. Ensler said he was proud of fighting to make possession of Glock switches a state crime over the last three years. A version of the bill sponsored by Sen. Will Barfoot, R-Pike Road, became law in the spring as part of Gov. Kay Iveys public safety package. The bill, banning the possession of devices that can turn semi-automatic firearms into automatic ones, was the first firearm restriction legislation to pass the Alabama House of Representatives since 2010. I think it really demonstrates the ability to not give up on a really tough issue, and to work well across the aisle and build a really strong coalition of Democrats, Republicans, community groups and law enforcement, he said.I realize that getting any sort of gun legislation passed is a challenge, and recognize that it took a lot of work, but will certainly be worth it for peoples lives. He also is proud that funding for mental health in public schools made it into the fiscal year 2026 Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget, which takes effect on Oct. 1. The pilot program will get $2.5 million for the fiscal year. To have that support for our young people and to focus not just on the academics, which of course is so important, but to be able to support the whole child, he said. Ensler plans to bring back a bill that would make it a Class B misdemeanor to confine a dog for an unreasonable amount of time and establish guidelines for such. Its a little bit of a niche issue, but its really important, he said. There are just horrible stories of dogs who are abused and subjected to really cruel conditions. On the gun violence side, Ensler hopes to bring a bill for hospital-based intervention of gun shot victims and one that would require gun owners to carry their ID so that police can identify them, should they get pulled over. Morris said she loved how Ensler has been present in his community throughout his tenure, which is what Ensler said hed miss the most. Hes always very supportive and understanding the needs of the community when it comes to gun violence prevention, she said. Ensler said he enjoyed interactions with people in his district the most. I love bumping into constituents in the grocery store, getting coffee and visiting the schools in the district and throughout Montgomery, seeing our teachers and students firsthand, it is always really rewarding, he said. Im going to miss that a lot. Elon Musk attends a news conference with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) AP There is an appetite for a third political party in America, according to a new poll. But voters lose interest when asked if they would consider Elon Musks new third party, the Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday found. About half of registered voters -- 49% -- said they would consider an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties, the survey showed. Independents are the most eager to join a third party at 75%, followed by Democrats at 39% and Republicans at 28%. Another 45% said they would not consider joining a third party. Elon Musks third party, the America Party, has little support. Asked if they would consider joining a third party if Musk created one, just 17% said yes. Another 77% said no. Musks party has the most appeal with independents at 22%. Of the major parties, Republicans would consider Musks party -- 18% -- at a higher rate than Democrats at just 6%. The worlds richest man created the party over the July 4 weekend as he broke with President Donald Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill. Musk was the presidents largest donor and was a key figure in the administration, wielding influence with the Department of Government Efficiency in an effort to cut waste, fraud and abuse from the federal government. During their feud, Musk claimed the Epstein files have not been released because the president is in them. Meanwhile, Trump threatened to cut the lucrative government contracts given to Musks companies. Italy plays against Norway in the Womens EURO quarterfinals today. The matchup is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. CT on FOX. Fans can watch this game for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Italy ended the group stage with a 1-1-1 record, which helped them secure second place. The team is coming off a 3-1 loss against Spain, so Italy will look to improve their play today. In order to win this quarterfinal game, Italy will need to rely on their star players Arianna Caruso, Cristiana Girelli, and Elisabetta Oliviero. Each of these players lead the team in scoring, as they have each scored a goal at the tournament this year. Norway ended the group stage with a 3-0-0 record, which helped them easily secure first place. In their most recent game, Norway defeated Iceland 4-3. During the victory, Frida Maanum and Signe Gaupset led the Norway offense. Both players scored two goals in the match, so they will look to continue their offensive success this afternoon. Notably, Gaupset has the second-most assists on the team. Fans can watch the Womens EURO quarterfinals for free online by using the free trials offered by DirecTV and Fubo TV. Although we all might hope that this brand-new recommendation for peace has been designed for Gaza, it is actually for the West bank. Its important to underscore that the West Bank has also been problematic over the years. And perhaps resolving its issues will be an incentive for resolving the Gazan war. So, what is this new plan? We want cooperation with Israel, says Sheikh Wadee al-Jaabari, also known as Abu Sanad, from his ceremonial tent in Hebron, the West Banks largest city located south of Jerusalem. We want coexistence. The leader of Hebrons most influential clan has said such things before, as did his father. But this time is different. Sheikh Jaabari and four other leading Hebron sheikhs have signed a letter pledging peace and full recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Their plan is for Hebron to break out of the Palestinian Authority, establish an emirate of its own, and join the Abraham Accords. [snip] The Emirate of Hebron shall recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, the sheikhs write, and the State of Israel shall recognize the Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District. Accepting Israel as a Jewish state goes further than the Palestinian Authority ever has, and sweeps aside decades of rejectionism. The sheikhs are proposing a trial period and gradual increase in the population in Hebron: With the West Bank occupied by Israel and seeing daily violence that has only escalated since the war with Hamas began, Jaabari proposed a trial run that would see 1,000 Hebron workers establish an autonomous 1,000-acre economic zone bordering Israel. If all goes well, the zone would grow to 5,000 more residents and then 50,000, with the sheikhs pledging to a zero tolerance policy against terrorism. Jabbari accused the PA of supporting terrorist activity in the West Bank. I plan to cut off the PA, Jaabari vowed. It doesnt represent the Palestinians. This proposal could be transformational for the region. To reiterate, the sheikhs in Hebron would fully recognize Israels right to exist, promise peaceful coexistence, and become signatories to the Abraham Accords. In return, Israel would be expected to recognize a new Emirate of Hebron; the PA, which has backed terrorism and rewarded terrorists families for their activities, would be removed from power. How did this plan emerge? Through the brilliance of a scholar who intimately understands the Arab culture and the importance of families and clans: The emirates solution concept originated with Mordechai Kedar, an Arab culture scholar at Bar-Ilan University who brought Sheikh Jaabari to [Israeli Economy Minister Nir] Barkat five years ago. Kedar has promoted the idea of Palestinian emirates for 20 years, envisioning the West Banks seven culturally distinct cities governed individually by their leading clans. He first met Sheikh Jaabaris father, Sheikh Abu Khader, 11 years ago. Kedars analysis draws on regional patterns, noting that failing Arab states like Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Yemen, and Libya represent conglomerates of ethnic, religious and sectarian groups, with modern states imposed flimsily on top. Conversely, successful Arab states Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAEs seven emirates are each controlled by one family. Also worth noting is that families have historically ruled the area for hundreds of years, and al-Jaabaris already has plenty of support from hundreds of thousands of local residents: A document in Hebrew lists the Hebron-area sheikhs who have joined the emirate initiative. The first circle has eight major sheikhs, who together are believed to lead 204,000 local residents. The second circle lists 13 more sheikhs, who lead another 350,000. That makes a majority of the more than 700,000 people in the area. Both circles have sworn allegiance to Sheikh Jaabari in this matter, an Israeli associate of the sheikh witnessed. Those clan members also include many of the Palestinian Authoritys local foot soldiers. The sheikhs expect them to side with family. How is Israel responding to the proposal? Minister Barkat is working with the sheikhs to explore the plans feasibility: Barkat emphasized that traditional peace processes have failed, necessitating new thinking to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported that he has been working with full knowledge of the Israeli government to explore these possibilities with the sheikhs. A senior Israeli source confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been supportive but cautious, monitoring how the initiative develops. But there is still skepticism about the plan from Israels security apparatuses: for thirty years, the Shin Bet has viewed the PA as crucial for combating West Bank terrorism. There are also concerns, primarily from Israel, about the methods for removing the Palestinian Authority from power, as well as arming multiple families with arms, according to retired Major General Gadi Shamni, who commanded IDF Central Command from 200709. Another officer, Brigadier General Amir Avivi and founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, is optimistic and sees significant potential for the plan: He [Avivi] characterized the Palestinian Authority as the central incubator of terrorism, via school indoctrination and pay-to-slay salaries and suggested the Shin Bet might reconsider when David Zini, Netanyahus right-wing nominee, assumes agency leadership. Avivi has met Sheikh Jaabari multiple times and considers him serious, particularly given his success in rallying numerous other sheikhs. If Israels position is that the PA cant be allowed to rule in Gaza because theyre terrorists and theyre corrupt, why are they OK to rule in the West Bank? he questioned. In spite of some cautions voiced by Israel, Sheikh Jaabari is committed to the process: Asked if he is worried his vision of coexistence with Israel will be called a betrayal of the Palestinian people and their cause, Sheikh Jaabari scoffs. The betrayal was done in Oslo. You forgot, but I remember33 years of it, of false promises, violence, theft and poverty, even as billions of aid dollars poured in from the West. I believe in my path, the sheikh says. There will be obstacles, but if we confront a rock, we will have iron to break it. Maybe Gaza will take note. Image from Pexels. Most people associate July 4 Independence Day with liberty and the birth of America as a free and independent country, which dissolved the political ties that had bound the American people to Great Britain. But what the American people are anxious about now as we commence the countdown to Americas 250th anniversary, July 4, 2026, is that Americas liberty is now at extreme risk because the countrys foundation of justice has been shredded. A solid foundation of justice is essential to ensure that freedom does not enable the powerful to oppress the vastly larger numbers who are in a weaker position. Equal justice under the law means not only that the courts should adjudicate the law without prejudice as to race, gender, or social status, but that the laws must be enforced and adjudicated with particular attention that justice for the poor and weak is best protected by holding the powerful to account. For decades, the political and corporate elite in America have not been held to proper account for monopoly abuse of power and corruption. The result has been more corruption and crime. And the highest crime, which is treason, operates in broad daylight, conducted by the political elite who have top security clearance and access to counterparties in enemy camps. Most nations define treason as betraying one's own country. The definition of treason in the U.S. Constitution, Article III, Section 3, sets a high bar for prosecution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort, according to the U.S. Congress... "No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act or on confession in open court." One could make the case for treason against many based on the U.S. presently being in a Marxist insurrectionary war -- which is obvious now with roots that go back to the Obama years. However, it is wise for POTUS and the Department of Justice to focus on prosecuting crimes in the closely related category known as seditious conspiracy. Defined in 18 U.S. Code 2384, seditious conspiracy involves an agreement between two or more people to overthrow, put down, or destroy the government of the United States by force, or to oppose its authority, or to hinder or delay the execution of any U.S. law. This definition of seditious conspiracy profoundly describes what has unfolded in America that began in the Obama administration and has accelerated in the present. And this is clearly explained by General Michael Flynn in a July 4 interview found on X, that recounts the vital details. After Trumps November 2016 electoral victory, outgoing President Barack Obama convened a White House meeting on January 5, 2017, to discuss and conspire to undermine and overthrow the President of the United States. Starting with Obama, those at that meeting who should be indicted and prosecuted include former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. Brennan and Clapper are due other penalties for their malfeasance in an October 2020 fraudulent active measure to undermine the electoral outcome of Donald Trump. They orchestrated and enlisted some 51 former intelligence officials to sign a letter, published in Politico, accusing Trump of being a Russian asset and suggesting that the New York Post's report on Hunter Bidens laptop had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation. That has all been proven false. Given the volume of capital crimes being committed against innocent American citizens and armed assaults on law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that are the direct result from four years of massive illegal immigrant entries sanctioned by Alajandro Mayorkas, there is a compelling case for prosecuting him for seditious conspiracy. Mayorkas was impeached by the House of Representatives in February 2024 by a narrow 214213 vote, accused of "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law" and "breach of public trust" due to his handling of border security. The Senate dismissed these charges in April 2024 by a 5149 vote on political grounds. Irrespective of impeachment, which is driven by politics, the U.S. Attorney General has a responsibility to charge Mayorkas with seditious conspiracy for allowing illegal immigrants to conduct assaults on American citizens and undermine national sovereignty. Mayorkass open-border policy clearly violated his sworn oath of office to protect Americans against enemies foreign and domestic. Mayorkas is the one most responsible person for increased illegal crossings of criminals, terrorists, gang members and cartel influence. The court may find the results more of policy failures than seditious intent on the part of Mayorkas. But it is time to get on with letting prosecution run its course. A different kind of unequal justice under the law that indirectly undermines and subverts the nation are the crimes that destroy the moral capital and standing of America in the eyes of the world. The best example of this is undoubtedly the high-profile cases in the coverup of horrendous crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein, whose many female victims have been denied justice, while the perpetrators crimes have gone unaddressed -- except for Ghislane Maxwell -- with no legal prosecutions as yet. It is understood that that Epstein worked for the CIA, and likely the Israeli Mossad and the British MI6, as an operative whose mission was to control through bribery high-level political and corporate elites who became entrapped by Epsteins orchestrated and videotaped operations to induce those elites to engage in the sexual exploitation of women and underage girls. Lets hope that President Trump will not only ensure that Epsteins victims receive justice, but that Trump will use this massive injustice scandal as an opportunity to begin restoring the moral capital of America by cleaning house and bringing dramatic reform to the CIA and other agencies. When Americans recite the Pledge of Allegiance there is an assumption that liberty and justice are deeply intertwined. They are meant to be. And if spiritual revival moves as fast as it can -- being unlimited by time or space -- liberty and justice can be rejoined with a common morality that comes from our Judeo-Christian heritage. Let that be a primary goal for the 250th anniversary celebration on July 4, 2026 Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. His timeless book, Rediscovering America, was the number one Amazon New Release in the history genre for eight weeks. Reach him at scottp@discovery.org Image: Library of Congress, Carole Highsmith Collection Advocates say. Two words that signal attributionbut have become a shield, a cudgel, and a journalistic sleight of hand. This phrase, and others like it, are increasingly used in what is presented as mainstream reporting but is actually laced with opinion. But advocates say is not journalismits an ideological hustle that holds the truth hostage. It is, well, advocacy. Consider this lede from the Los Angeles Times: A federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests that advocates say have terrorized Angelenos, forced people into hiding and damaged the local economy. A lot is going on in that snippet from the Times, but it is illustrative of what we are seeing more and more in mainstream media reporting on the Trump administrationparticularly in the context of immigration enforcement. So, lets take it apart: Indiscriminate and racial profiling are a legal oxymoron. If the government is targeting by race, its not indiscriminate. If its indiscriminate, its not targeted. You cant have bothunless youve abandoned logic, emotional restraint, and the premise that words have meaning. But that contradiction doesnt matter when emotional impact is the goaland critical thinking has been replaced with narrative scripting. This isnt journalism. Its ideological storytelling, spoon-fed for mass consumption. Terrorized Angelenos? No evidence. No sourcing. Just a free-floating assertion from unnamed advocatesrepeated uncritically as if it were fact. Terrorized? No. Hamas terrorizes. Hezbollah terrorizes. Al-Qaeda terrorizes. ICE enforces federal immigration law. They do not terrorize anyone by executing their duties within the bounds of the law. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous. Its narrative warfareand prima facie agitprop: the use of a term as incendiary as terrorize, offered without substance, sourcing, or rational context, and slipped into what is presented as straight news. Then theres this: Forced people into hiding? What does that even mean? The phrase is clear enough, but it drips with legerdemain, bordering on gaslighting. Frank and Jesse James were forced into hiding. So were the Younger Brothers, Bonnie and Clyde, and maybe D.B. Coopernot to mention thousands of fugitives from justice evading law enforcement in the United States right now. Our courts across the country handle such cases every dayfrom misdemeanors to child support deadbeats to violent felonies. No one forced them into hiding. They are hiding to avoid justice. Plain and simple. Thats hardly governmental oppressionits consequence avoidance by those eluding law enforcement. Thats what happens when many people break the law: they hide. The only thing forcing them to do so is their own willful decision to avoid accountability. When a nation enforces its immigration laws, and an individual has entered or remained in that nation unlawfully, it follows that any concealment or evasion is self-imposed. The decision to hide stems not from federal force, but from the individuals desire to avoid lawful consequences. And now this shameless feint: Damaged the local economy? Were talking about raids on federally illegal cannabis operations. If violating federal drug and immigration laws is now the backbone of your local economy, the problem doesnt lie with the federal governmentit emanates squarely from Sacramento. Just because California has spent a generation operating as a state of the Union in name only does not mean the federal government is obligated to accept that arrangement. And yesit may well be harmful to a local economy when a cash crop that is illegal under federal law becomes the centerpiece of regional commerce. This is hardly a policy failure in Washington. It is a governance failure in Californiaand the other states of the Union are under no obligation to assent to it. And about those local economic impacts: Moonshine fueled much of western North Carolinas economy during the Prohibition era. Al Capone did a bustling trade in bootlegging and racketeering across Chicago and the industrial Midwest. George Remusa lawyer who memorized the Volstead Actexploited a legal loophole allowing the manufacture of medicinal alcohol, but then illegally redistributed it for drinking. In less than three years, he built a moonshine empire and banked $40 million. In 1860, enslaved labor powered the Southern economy. That didnt make it just, right, or untouchable. Economic impactwhether local, statewide, regional, or nationalis not a defense to criminal economic activity. Its not even a mitigation. Often, its just the weathered excuse used to prop up illegal or indefensible economic activityfrom slavery, to Prohibition-era rackets, to todays black markets in cannabis and labor, much of that labor trafficked illegally across our southern border. And who knows what other seedy, tawdry activity agents will uncover once they lift the lid on Californias cannabis cartelsand the cockroaches scatter. Or just whos making millions on the sly, while lecturing the rest of the country on justice, equity, and accountability. The idea that the federal government should back off because an illegal activity has become economically profitable is, to borrow a phrase from last years elections, a threat to the rule of law. When entire sectors of an economy depend on illegal labor, federally prohibited drugs, and resistance to immigration enforcement, the problem isnt federal enforcement. The problem lies in the sector itselfand those who built itand profited on a foundation of deliberate lawlessness. And despite the results of the 2024 elections, the grand pooh-bahs of the California Unholy Empire expect plebes like us to like it or lump it. And if we do, weve gutted labor law, immigration enforcement, tax withholding, and the entire premise of controlled substance regulationand any number of laws beyond the scope here. You dont think all those farmhands are being paid minimum wage, working 40-hour weeks, getting parental leave and workers' compensation, and the whole union-approved package, do you? Well, do you? And speaking of bootleggers: Simply put, this California notionthat we should tolerate illegality for the sake of local profitis, quite literally, moonshine. Look it up. When journalists start quoting advocates as though they were neutral observerswithout sourcing, critical context, or substantiated factand then stitch those quotes into a clearly biased narrative, laced with charged and incendiary language, you can safely conclude: The straight reporting has ended. Youre deep into the narrative arc of manipulation. And its fair to ask: advocates for what? For impunity? For exemption from legal consequences? For a two-tiered system of justice dressed up as compassion? The most effective way to counter manipulation is to confront itdirectly, unapologetically, and with clarity. Because the best defense is a good offense. And right now, going on offense isnt just smart. Its essential. Charlton Allen is an attorney and former chief executive officer and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and host of the Modern Federalist podcast. His commentary has been featured in American Thinker and linked across multiple RealClear platforms, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearWorld, RealClearDefense, RealClearHistory, and RealClearPolicy. X: @CharltonAllenNC Many years ago, a leftist attorney I know thought he had a trump card to play, showing how hypocritical churches were when it came to gay marriage: They never complained about abortion infringing on their constitutional rights, he said. Their constitutional complaint in the face of gay marriage showed they were homophobic. I gently reminded him that churches dont perform abortions, but they do perform marriages. In other words, anything that allows the government to force doctrinal changes on religious institutions and believers infringes on their First Amendment rights. Thus, the moment the Supreme Court decided its misguided Obergefell decision finding an imaginary right to same sex marriage in the Constitution, I worried about a clash between that imaginary right and the real First Amendment right to religious freedom. Image created using AI. I reiterated my concern when the Supreme Court issued Justice Gorsuchs utterly misbegotten decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. That decision insisted that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prevents employers from discriminating against employees based on, among other things, sex, extended to sexual preference and so-called gender identity. Of course, by sex, Congress in 1964 clearly meant only the XX/XY binary. Homosexuality was not at issue, and gender identity had not yet been birthed in leftists fertile imaginations. It was obvious from the moment the Bostock decision hit the streets, though, that it would set up a confrontation between people of faith, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, people of fantasy demanding that their employers and colleagues recognize their mental illness as reality. And, just to emphasize the mental illness part, here is a representative of the so-called gender identity movement: BREAKING: MORE TRANS VIOLENCE Zayn Edward Arcand a genderfluid, polyamorous sometimes female person was just arrested for allegedly trying to BURN DOWN Dickinson County, MI Republican Committee headquarters Arcand admitted to throwing the Molotov cocktail at the Republican pic.twitter.com/qQxpooAMVE Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 15, 2025 Newsweek is reporting a perfect example of the inevitable confrontation, because it involves a library that forces inclusive language on its employees and a pastor who was fired for refusing to use that language. And while the library may have voluntarily created the speech code because its leftist management buys into so-called transgenderism, the reality is that the Bostock decision requires itand all other businessesto do so as a matter of law: A Louisiana pastor said he was fired from his job at a local library after he refused to use a co-worker's preferred pronouns. Luke Ash, the lead pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, said he was sacked from the East Baton Rouge Parish Library after a conversation on July 7. [snip] Libraries, schools and other institutions have implemented policies to create respectful environments for all employees, including protections for those who identify as transgender or non-binary. But some may feel that such policies may conflict with employees' religious beliefs, resulting in disciplinary action or job loss. Heres a video of Ash describing what happened: "I said, I'm not going to lie." Pastor Luke Ash, Lead Pastor of Stevendale Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, shares how he was fired from his job last week at the local library for not using preferred pronouns. pic.twitter.com/xZqv8MSr3r Tony Perkins (@tperkins) July 15, 2025 According to Newsweek, what comes next is all very nuanced and requires a lot of balancing: The outcome of this case could hinge on the interpretation of anti-discrimination and religious freedom statutes in Louisiana and may contribute to ongoing discussions about the balance between workplace inclusivity and individual convictions. Thats true only if the Supreme Court continues to insist that Bostock was correctly decided. And keep in mind that, as happened with the Supreme Courts 1896 decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which articulated the separate but equal principle, the Supreme Court can reverse itself. However, theres nothing nuanced here. On the one hand, we have a decision that chose to interpret a 1964 statute in a way that Congress clearly never intended, which makes the decision invalid right off the bat. On the other hand, we have a matter of pure religious speech and conscience. Its not even close. Bostock needs to be overruled. I hope Ashthe perfect plaintiff because hes a man of the clothfinds a conservative legal aid society to take up this case, and that the case makes it to the Supreme Court. Skepticism of those who rule over us is embedded in human nature. Though the folk tale of the Emperors New Clothes is attributed to Hans Christian Andersen, its origin traces way back into antiquity -- perhaps even beyond Aesop. Until he assumed the presidency, Pres. Trump only had authority over those under his employ and he, of course, had to pay them for the privilege. We serfs of the modern mega-state are compelled to pay the government just so it can constrain our personal freedom -- and perhaps even do some useful things such as occasionally fill a pothole or appear to defend our national sovereignty. Trumps presidency represents either a significant turning point or just an exception to the prevailing status quo. For it to be a turning point he would have to have a successor of very similar inclination. Several in a row would be even better, since doing the damage that was done to our world on behalf of his predecessors (Obama, Biden-Harris etc.) was a much easier task than it is for the damage to be repaired. Moving down the political food chain, local corruption and incompetence is the real elephant in the room. National issues get the most attention because were all in the same boat but the collapse of our urban environment is where the bulk of the damage is really being done. Can you say, crime and squalor? Recently a spate of mayoral and prosecutorial recalls along with failures of others to get re-elected has rattled the cages of many hack politicians. But who is there to step in and straighten things out? Here in Oakland, we dumped an obviously corrupt mayor early in her first term only to replace her with a blatant commie. By a series of rigged elections, Barbara Lee assumed Red Ron Dellums congressional seat back when he retired in the middle of his term so he could become mayor. At that time, Lee was described as the head of Dellums field office in Havana but that record has been expunged. There is still substantial evidence of Lees affinity for the Castro brothers. Back in the olden days, corrupt urban machine politicians at least made sure the trains ran on time, just so they could keep the voters sufficiently satisfied. Nowadays, the corruption has been even further enhanced by ideology. Festering conspicuous vagrancy (a.k.a. homelessness) is more than just tolerated it is being enabled because the naked local tyrants have long been telling themselves and us that rapacious capitalism is the real cause of this problem. The same goes for rampant crime. Back to Donald Trump: He is nowhere near being corrupted by ideology -- he hardly has any to begin with. Hes nothing more than an experienced executive with a reasonable amount of talent for being a problem solver. The same qualities would also benefit his successor(s) as well as local pols interested in making their cities a lot more livable for ordinary citizens. Whats in the way of all this? The naked tyrants have taken over most forms of education. Not just grade schools but colleges and universities as well. Still the survivalist underpinnings of human nature call into question the ideology that is pushing the decline of the human environment. Several, at best, mythical dogmas dictate the agenda for the naked tyrants -- and the rest of us just get to witness their malfeasance. For starters is racism. Come on the Civil War is over. America is what it is: mingled ethnic groups, religious diversity with mutual tolerance. Pandering to pseudo-victimhood only goes so far, especially when it isnt real. Next up is the big kahuna, Climate Change. We just had catastrophic floods in Texas and before white could fall on rice the naked tyrants tried to blame Trumps DOGE, and when that failed because FEMA had more than the usual boots on the ground in Texas, they started blaming climate changewithout any supporting evidence. Who cares? Its for a good cause. Right? We have settled into two opposing constituent groups: the MAGA group whose motto is "results matter" and the useful idiots who like to enjoy the soothing balm of pleasant sounds such as the utterances of compassion gurgling up from the bowels of the fetid swamp. To the useful idiots, results mean nothing just the aura of compassion. Being lulled into rhapsodic slumber by soothing signals of virtue, they easily notice how nice the emperor looks in his new clothes. Image: Georges DeLaw Its appalling how the Democratic Party Deep State (DPDS) and its propaganda minions in the so-called news media are trying to politicize the real-life tragedy in the Guadalupe Valley floods in Texas. The lies coming out of them are so awful, so incredibly odious, its actually hard to believe. Dana Bash on CNN and Al Sharpton on MSNBC used their platforms to insinuate the tragic deaths of at least 134 people, 37 of whom were children, can be blamed on President Trumps agency cutbacks. This is a lie, but its worse than a lie. Its an attempt to use tragedy for a political objective. It must be denounced in the strongest terms possible. In 2017, Texas received an enormous grant from the Trump administration yes, that Trump administration in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and used the money to install 10 new flooding gauges, and a complete high water detection system. In 2023, Pepsi awarded a grant that was used to replace two radial gates that regulate high tides and flooding on the Guadalupe River. So a combination of Team Trump, GOP leadership at the state level, and private grant money made Guadalupe Valley residents as well-guarded against flooding as reasonable minds could make them. The National Weather Service reported they normally have two people on duty, covering weather reporting and warnings in the areas affected by the flood. On the night of the flood, knowing a serious weather pattern was approaching with flooding potential, they increased their staff to five, which is what they typically do. There was no lack of coverage, or shortage of weather experts. They broadcast flood warnings on the evening of July 3, and again on the morning of July 4. Perhaps due to the holiday, a lot of Texans werent listening to any broadcasts. But its clear that 2025 funding had nothing to do with this tragedy. It was a confluence of natural factors that overwhelmed human preparation, just like any other natural disaster. Democrats and their media co-conspirators obviously adopted a strategy of making a controversy out of every tragedy whether its a mass shooting, or a natural disaster like this one hoping to blame the president and his administration for absolutely anything and everything. To accomplish this goal, they now lie about everything. Thus, in a similar vein, every mass shooting is an opportunity to demand assault weapon bans and common sense gun reform. Its also an opportunity for the Dana Bashes and Al Sharptons of the world to speculate loudly, to the handful of viewers they still have, that the shooter must be a white guy in a MAGA hat unless and until the shooters social media profile proves hes a left-wing freak (as is so often the case). Then his ideology drops off their radar like an express elevator. For example: the recent political assassinations in the Twin Cities suburbs. From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via Yahoo: Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed, and Minnesota Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded ... Both lawmakers are members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Minnesotas version of Democrats. One of the alleged shooters friends or neighbors instantly described him on camera as a conservative, so the propaganda bureaus are sticking to that story 24/7: Hes a Trump supporter. He shot two Democrats. This is political warfare. Typical conservative behavior. Its despicable. But details are coming out, indicating that he might not be so conservative. He was appointed to two state boards by two different left-wing governors: Mark Dayton and Tim Walz. One might be a fluke, but two isnt a coincidence. I've often mentioned a key quote from the film V for Vendetta when contemplating Democrats: There are no coincidences There is only the illusion of coincidence. Also, ex-CBS reporter Liz Collin (from the Minneapolis affiliate, WCCO-TV) reported about 10 days ago on a Tucker Carlson podcast that the alleged shooters vast, collected scribblings included a desire to kill Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D) and replace her with Tim Walz. Does that sound like something a conservative would say? No, it sounds like something a left-wing lunatic like James Hodgkinson, or Willem van Spronsen would do, not just say. Klobuchar is a moderate; Walz is sufficiently left-wing. What the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel propaganda bureau failed to mention is that earlier that morning, according to police, doorbell cameras and other devices captured the alleged shooter stopping at two other legislators homes in Maple Grove and New Hope, just before shooting Hortman, Hoffman and their spouses. Maple Grove is the home of State Senate President Pro Tempore Ann Rest (D). She broke ranks and voted in favor of the bill that removed illegal immigrants from Medicaid, just like Hortman did in the House. New Hope is the home of State Rep. Kristin Robbins (R). Like Hortman (D) and Rest (D), she voted in favor of the bill, enabling it to reach the governors desk in a midnight blue state. So two of the priority targets that morning had a (D) after their names, but were insufficiently left-wing on the issue of Medicaid for illegals, betraying their party. And a third was a Republican. Again, it sounds like something a radical left-winger would do, punishing two heretics and one infidel. Democrats (and radical left-wingers, for whom the Democrats are too conservative) are many times more prone to violence than Republicans, especially political violence. But youd never know that from the diktat of the DPDS, and its propaganda shills in what was once known as the news media. They dismiss massive left-wing riots as mostly peaceful protests, exaggerate the only conservative riot in the past 150 years into an insurrection, and claimed the biggest domestic terrorism threat was white supremacists. (Any terrorist attacks by white supremacists? No.) As Rahm Emanuel advised Barack Obama, You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. Always get as much political mileage out of it as you can. These people are opportunistic ghouls, who dont care about the unimaginable pain so many Texas families are going through. In their perverse minds, they see an opportunity to exploit this for political advantage. What kind of psychotic mind, upon hearing the shocking news of young children being swept away in a flood, or shot to death in a mass shooting at school, thinks this way? The kind of person who thinks like this is capable of any atrocity. These are the Eichmanns of the DPDS. Its the left thats mean and histrionic, like Scarlett OHara. Its the conservatives who are level-headed and just look mean, like Clint Eastwood. (AI image by the author, using Grok.) Jim Davis is an IT specialist and paralegal, with degrees in political science and statistical analysis: the underpinning of all science. His work has appeared in Daily Caller, Newsmax and American Thinker. You can find him as RealProfessor219 on Rumble. On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou unveiled an austerity package aimed at preventing the collapse of Frances deteriorating public finances. The political resistance was immediate. Over the years, France has earned a reputation for being virtually ungovernable. Time and again, the country has proven the thesis that parliamentary democracies are, in principle, fiscally unreformable. Attempts to cut social spending usually result in the political death of those responsible. In a nation that has elevated its social insurance systems into a state within the state, such reforms amount to political suicide. In their pre-crisis phase, postmodern democracies tend to morph into illusory social bodies whose internal peace rests heavily on debt-financed welfare largesse. In France, planned budget cuts frequently find their ignoble end in the burning suburbs of major cities. Same Game, New Player The next political suicide candidate, it seems, is Prime Minister Francois Bayrou. On Tuesday, he presented Parliament with a first package to consolidate the countrys ailing finances. The plan includes 44 billion in spending cuts to avert EU sanctions and reduce the budget deficit from last years 6.1% to 4.6% by 2026. If one uses the long-forgotten Maastricht Criteria as a benchmark, France would still overshoot the 3% deficit ceiling next year. The country, which allows itself a staggering 57% government spending ratio to pacify its myriad social tensions -- including the challenges of mass immigration -- is still far from fiscal normality. Sounds Good -- But Here Comes the Catch In addition to social spending cuts, pension increases are to be frozen through 2026. Two public holidays are to be eliminated in an effort to boost productivity in Frances underperforming economy. From an economic standpoint, incentivizing private investment would be a far more effective approach -- but we are talking about a Brussels-inspired government, so expectations must be tempered. The public sector is also expected to contribute. One-third of retiring civil servant positions -- around 3,000 -- will remain unfilled. This package alone is likely enough to drive both the Left and Right opposition into open revolt. They will seize the moment to publicly pressure the government. Healthcare cuts amounting to 5 billion are also planned, along with a new windfall tax on wealthy individuals and large corporations that is projected to raise another 10 billion. The VAT on gas and electricity will rise from 5.5% to 20% in August. Airfare will also become more expensive. To push the package through, Bayrou is attempting to bypass the fragmented and reform-resistant Parliament using Article 49.3 of the French Constitution. This has already ignited fierce political backlash and could well derail the reforms altogether. Opposition as Routine Reflex The response from Frances opposition was as predictable as it was fierce. The left-wing La France Insoumise condemned the measures as an attack on social security, citing the pension freeze as especially unjust. Jean-Luc Melenchon described the plan as a reckoning with the weakest, warning that it would stoke social unrest. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pens right-wing Rassemblement National criticized the new taxes on gas, electricity, and travel as burdens on the middle class, accusing the government of letting large corporations off too lightly. Both camps are united in their outrage over Bayrous use of Article 49.3 -- Le Pen labeled it a democratic affront. The center-right Republicans remain divided: some praised the return to fiscal discipline, others warned of looming economic stagnation. Protests are already being planned, and new votes of no confidence -- previously unsuccessful -- are likely to resurface. Street demonstrations are all but certain. France is bracing for turbulent weeks. What solidifies the paralysis is partisan opportunism. Every opposition party sees the budget crisis as a chance to call snap elections and expand its power. In this mode, the nation cannot overcome its polarization, let alone reach a rational solution to the fiscal dilemma. The Fog Begins to Lift Whats clear is that all segments of society will have to shoulder painful sacrifices. There can be no sacred cows, given the severity of the debt crisis. In the long run, the bloated state apparatus must be scaled back -- something Germans are all too familiar with. Yet in the end, with political gridlock and party games compounded by a recurring cycle of social unrest, it is unlikely that France will embark on an austerity path without outside pressure from capital markets. The level of social pain required exceeds the current potential for political consensus. It is entirely possible that, in the coming weeks and months, well learn where Europes next sovereign debt crisis will ignite. And the odds are strong that this time, it could be Paris that strikes the match. Image: AT via Magic Studio Gisela da Silva Fernandes, a Brazilian man who claims hes a woman, lies like Hillary Clinton. Remember her sniper fire claim about landing in Bosnia? She was only outed because there was footageshowing the exact opposite of a combat situation. I mean, it doesnt get more peaceful than a little 8-year-old girl giving you hugs and kisses on the tarmac. US Democratic politicians would never lie about the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Remember how Hillary Clinton "misspoke" about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996? https://t.co/r01OzIWrJx pic.twitter.com/XjmyizinQI the Lemniscat (@theLemniscat) February 14, 2023 Per an exclusive article by Anna Slatz at Reduxx, Fernandes filed a police report in March, telling a tale of how he was violently and physically assaulted by transphobic mall employees when he innocently attempted to buy a dress. As he also claimed, the security guard who threw him out also hurled homophobic slurs at him. Slatz reports that because Fernandes actually had visible injuries at the time he went to police, it corroborated his story, so they began investigating. It was all very anticlimatic though, because the incident was caught on surveillance footage. In reality, the petite teenaged girl helping Fernandes find a dress became extremely uncomfortable when he stripped down to a bra and thong (that didnt cover his male bits), intentionally exposing himself in blatant exhibitionism. The young sales associate then went to a neighboring store, and asked if the security guard would help herhe did, and he escorted Fernandes out without any physical or verbal altercations. A man in Brazil filed a police report alleging he had been the victim of "violent transphobia after being kicked out of a womens clothing store. Police later determined he had been asked to leave after exposing himself to the teenage sales associate.https://t.co/mnTkaTUBc0 REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) July 8, 2025 Their exhibitionism is the real abuse. Why do I, let alone children, have to be exposed to such public displays of extreme sexual deviance? This is common behavior amongst the trans crowdso few are passing and just minding their own business. Slatz also includes insight from a director of an independent womens-rights organization, who reminds us that everything changed in 2019: [T]he mere hint of accusation by anyone claiming to be trans has the power to ruin lives in Brazil and can even result in jail time. As previously reported by Reduxx, multiple womens rights activists in the country are facing police investigations after being accused of transphobia by activists. He lies like Hillary, but maybe hes more like Jussie Smollett? With no real crimes borne out of trans hate, he has to resort to making one up! Image from Grok. Puerto Rico is facing a blackout threat as a key energy supplier has halted a planned delivery, accusing the local power authority of failing to settle a balance of $12 million. Here are the details, from a report at Finimize: New Fortress Energy has halted a liquefied natural gas delivery to Puerto Rico, claiming the islands main power utility owes about $12 million in unpaid bills and interest going back to 2020. According to Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge, 10 out of 14 temporary generators are offline, with the other four running on diesel. Funny though, I havent heard any of the personalities and lawmakers obsessed with climate change and zero-emissions complaining about an entire island territory powering almost everything on dirty fossil fuels. Guess its okay to burn through them though when the Democrats still need your vote. Now, the island is disputing the claim of an unpaid balance, but heres why I believe New Fortress: Occams Razor. Sure, its possible that New Fortress is making it all upfor what purpose I couldnt even speculatebut the company is in the energy business to make money, and I can see no reason why it would destroy a profitable business relationship if its executives didnt view it as a net gain. New Fortress is the backbone of the islands electricity supply, selling 80 trillion BTUs every year. And, in the immediate aftermath of the decision to withhold supply until the alleged bill is settled, New Fortresss stock dipped almost 5%; executives would have no doubt anticipated a drop in company value. Heres this, from Finimize: The company says its contract allows it to pause shipments until it gets paid, citing over $9 million in overdue invoices plus nearly $3 million in interest. Puerto Ricos energy chief Josue Colon argues they cant confirm that total The standoff is more than just a contract hiccup it spotlights the financial troubles Puerto Ricos main utility still faces as it recovers from hurricanes, blackouts, and years of budget woes. Whats a simpler explanation? New Fortress got a wild hair and decided to nuke their own profits? Or is this just one more example of Democrats who cant understand fiscal matters in positions of power? In a place known for corruption, I have to wonder if public officials pocketed the money and left town. I seem to remember a story from the Biden-Harris yearsahhh yes, the one-billion-dollar program to outfit the island with solar panels to shore up the power supply that only yielded a tiny handful of panels: The Biden-Harris administration has, for years, vowed to deploy thousands of solar panels to stabilize Puerto Ricos power grid amid regular blackouts, government mismanagement, and ever-increasing residential electricity rates. But, years after making that promise, a $1 billion program central to that effort yielded only a tiny handful of solar panels, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. Where did the rest of that money go? Where does it ever go? Image generated by AI. It's a weird world out there and here are some semi-random thoughts: A 45-year-old Afghan man allegedly attempted to marry a 6-year-old girl in Helmand Province. Amu.tv reported that the youngster had allegedly been sold by her father to a man who already has two wives, but the kind-hearted Taliban stepped in and arrested both men involved. (Yes, kind-hearted was sarcastic.) The Taliban brought no charges against the men but are making the prospective groom wait until the girl is 9 before taking her home, according to local media. You know your behavior is egregious when even the Taliban intercedes on a girls behalf, even as tepidly as it did. Virtue-signaling Democrats would have likely made the man wait until the girl was at least 11 before allowing him to take her home. Meanwhile, Canadas ever more extensive euthanasia program, or assistance in dying (AID?!) policy, is now killing the disabled and those who have mental health issues, not just terminal physical diagnoses. Including those who do not want to die, according to reports. And eligibility for being offed by the state is set to be expanded in 2027. Canadians keep electing asshats. Therefore, Canada is utterly unable to contain its wildfires, has punitive rates of taxation, a very low fertility rate and state-sponsored eugenics and euthanasia programs. It appears obvious that Canada itself doesnt need any assistance in dying. And back in the states, John Kerry recently admitted that President Trump was right on immigration and the border. During an interview on BBCs the "Reflections" podcast, Kerry said: "The first thing any president should say, any president, or anybody in public life, is, without a border protected, you don't have a nation I believe that. If you're going to define your nation, you have to have a border that means something. He added, "We have a system. I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, 'I'm going to enforce the law.'" Color me gobsmacked. The podcasts host then noted that Trump was likely to take Kerry's comments to mean that he was right. To which Kerry replied, "He was right. Somewhere, pigs are flying. Speaking of President Trump, reports indicate that the bombing of Irans Fordow nuclear facilities, authorized by President Trump, has set back Irans nuclear weapons program and therefore its attempt to destroy Israel and the U.S. -- by several years. It should be noted that Trump has also set back Democrats attempt to destroy Israel and the United States by at least four years. Image: In his latest fight to expose Big Tech censorship, Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey fired a warning shot at Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta regarding business practices that allegedly unfairly portray President Trumps record. Bailey asserts that the tech giants are peddling AI generated propaganda masquerading as fact. He also argues in his July 9, 2025 press release that such practices may violate the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act (MMPA) as well as Section 230s neutral publisher safe harbor. Bailey added, We must aggressively push back against this new wave of censorship targeted at our President. Missourians deserve the truth, not AI-generated propaganda masquerading as fact. If AI chatbots are deceiving consumers through manipulated fact-checking, thats a violation of the publics trust and may very well violate Missouri law. In his four demand letters sent July 9, Bailey cited MRC Free Speech America, a non-profit organization that tracks Big Tech censorship. Bailey referenced a June 26, 2025 article by associate editor Gabriela Pariseau on the MRC Free Speech America website that summarized an internal study. MRC researchers asked Googles Gemini, OpenAis ChatGPT, Meta AI, Powered by Llama, Microsofts Copilot, xAI Grok, and DeepSeek to rank the last five presidents from best to worst, specifically in regards to antisemitism. Most of the platforms ranked Trump last. One refused to answer. Pariseau writes, Despite Trumps very strong record on Israel and antisemitism, and despite having Jewish family members, artificial intelligence chatbots Gemini, ChatGPT and Meta AI each claimed Trump was the worst of the last five presidents, specifically with regard to antisemitism. Meta even rated Trump last for going too far in condemning antisemitism. While Microsofts Copilot would not answer the question, Xs Grok and communist Chinese government-tied DeepSeek ranked Trump as the best positioned against antisemitism. In addition, four of the chatbots leaned on the much misused and out-of-context very fine people narrative from Trumps 2017 remarks about Charlottesville. At the time, Trump condemned the neo-Nazis as some very bad people, then observed that there were very fine people on both sides of the debate over whether a Robert E. Lee statue should stay or go before expressly clarifying, Im not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists, because they should be condemned totally. Left-leaning fact-checkers like Snopes and PolitiFact have long acknowledged that the fine people line was taken out of context. Yet Googles Gemini still cited the episode as proof that Trump downplayed white-supremacist antisemitism, while ChatGPT claimed he had downplayed or equivocated when confronted with far-right antisemitic violence. Bailey has spent the past few years fighting censorship. He spearheaded the landmark lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, whose discovery revealed extensive Biden White House pressure on social media companies to police misinformation pressure a federal judge called arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history. With this latest investigation, Bailey argues that platforms have merely swapped human censors for automated ones, hiding the thumb on the scale behind neural-network complexity Fact-Check 2.0, as his letter brands it. Bailey argues that the real problem is not isolated hallucinations, but an algorithmic worldview that treats conservative figures and founding-era ideals as presumptive villains. He asserts in his letters that this most recent AI fumble is but the tip of the iceberg. Bailey continued: Were supposed to believe that your chatbots simply ferret out facts from the vast worldwide web, package them into statements of truth and serve them up to the inquiring public free from distortion or bias. The evidence, however, contradicts this rosy narrative. John Herrman, tech columnist for New York Magazines Intelligencer, dismissed Baileys probe as absurd but also warned that the Trump administration may start demanding AI companies align chatbots with their views. Nevertheless, Herrmans critique concedes Baileys central point: large-language models have long been steering the publics understanding of history and policy. Bailey gave the four tech giants 30 days to respond to his claims of modernized factual distortion from A.I. chatbots. He may or may not pry open Googles black box with his requests for transparency regarding the algorithms chatbots use to respond to queries. However, the letters mark another inflection point in the debate over who, if anyone, gets to audit the code that is now being programmed behind closed doors by unaccountable algorithmic gatekeepers. Image via FreePik. Google has a solid track record of updating its apps and services with new features. However, we cant really say that when it comes to Google Keep, which is the companys note-taking app/service. Given the slow updates, its safe to say Keep doesnt get a lot of attention from Google, but thats changing gradually. In May, the web version of the app received a text formatting update, followed by a Material 3 makeover on Android earlier this month. Now, it seems Google is working to add the ability to search an existing note in Keep. You will soon be able to search within notes in Google Keep The news comes via Android Authority, which first spotted code strings hinting at a new Find in Note feature during the teardown of the Keep app v5.25.282.00.90. Worth noting that Google Keeps search feature within notes is accessible via a three-dot menu button. While the outlet managed to activate the feature, it couldnt get it to work. Clicking on the Find in Note option apparently crashed the Google Keep app. If you are a regular user of Google Keep, the upcoming search feature within existing notes will be quite useful. You can search and directly jump to the part that youre looking for, instead of manually searching within a Google Keep note. While its certain that Google is working on the feature, theres no information about the rollout. We hope that a feature this basic, which shouldve been there from the start, rolls out soon. The company should consider adding these features, too No doubt, Google is doing its bit to keep its note-taking app relevant among the masses. However, it should work towards making it even more useful. Besides the ability to search notes, Google Keep should also bring an image-adding option with text blocks in a note. Moreover, in a world where privacy is a must, its finally time for Google to introduce password-protected notes in Keep. Circle to Search was one of the greatest features ever introduced to Android. However, Google maybe reconsidering its approach and may soon replace it with Geminis new Tell Me About This feature. Google may be doing this to streamline the features across its operating systems. Circle to Search Maybe Soon Replaced It hasnt been a long time since Google introduced Circle to Search on Android. It quickly became the majoritys favorite feature. And why shouldnt it be? The ease of searching for related items straight from the screen is something that helps a lot in day-to-day usage. Now, Google is reportedly reconsidering its approach to Circle to Search. Googles AI assistant, Geminis Tell Me About This feature may soon replace it. While theres no need to worry about the change as it works exactly like the Circle to Search, how the change will affect the Android operating system and its functionality is something that we are excited to learn about. Geminis Tell Me About This feature is in the works Gemini previously had a feature in the beta build that enabled the user to ask about the screen. It works exactly like the Circle to Search, and you could select a limited area on the screen for the search. However, it doesnt have a dedicated toggle like the Circle to Search yet. But that seems to be changing now. In the latest build of the Google app, the firm has made some modifications to the feature, and it now has a dedicated trigger button. Triggering the feature takes you to the new Geminis Tell Me About This feature. Now its safe to say that its nearly identical to the Circle to Search. Now, how Google will implement the changes in OS remains to be seen; its highly anticipated that it is going to replace the fans favorite CTS. Since its launch in May, Sonys latest flagship smartphone, the Xperia 1 VII, has faced significant power failure issues. The company recently broke its silence about the phones problems, after halting sales completely in many markets worldwide. After launching a major investigation into the issue, Sony has now announced a free replacement program for the Xperia 1 VII buyers. Sony will replace your affected Xperia 1 VII for free Heres how to apply In a post on the Sony UK support website, the brand has announced that it has identified potential power failure issues with the Xperia 1 VII flagship offering. It appears that the issues have plagued a select number of units of the handset globally, and the company has successfully identified every affected smartphone. If you are also facing power issues with your Xperia 1 VII, then Sony will provide a replacement program starting from July 21st, 2025. To take part in the replacement program, youll need to verify your handsets IMEI number on a dedicated validation portal. If youve purchased your Xperia 1 VII from Sonys online store, the brand will reach out to you directly in the coming days. If you purchased through another retailer, you must contact your nearest Sony authorized service center, as mentioned on the support website. The brand also reminds affected consumers to back up their data before sending their phones for replacement. Sony will provide more details on the matter once the Xperia 1 VII replacement program kicks off on upcoming Monday. Whats causing power failures on the Xperia 1 VII? Sony has concluded that the manufacturing process may have caused the failure of the circuit board in a smaller number of Xperia 1 VII units. This could potentially result in power-related problems. Its worth mentioning that the company has changed the manufacturing process immediately to ensure this issue doesnt occur again. So, the faulty circuit boards were the main reason behind the unexpected power-offs, restarts, and inability to power on issues on Sonys latest flagship. That said, Sony mentioned that if your device is fine and its IMEI number doesnt match with the affected units on the brands website, you can continue to enjoy your phone. Google has just begun sending out invites to a Made by Google event on August 20. Which confirms our earlier exclusive reporting that the announcement would take place on August 20. The invite says Youre invited to an in-person Made by Google show where well introduce the latest additions to our Pixel portfolio of devices. The event is set for Wednesday, August 20 at 1PM ET. Since the time is in Eastern Time Zone, we are expecting this to be in New York City, versus Mountain View, where Google held the event last year. At this event, were expecting that Google will announce the Google Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and Pixel Watch 4 (41mm and 45mm). There could be a few surprises too, weve seen rumors of a new Pixel Buds a-series making its debut as well. This is likely also when we will see Material 3 Expressive start to roll out, which hit beta back in May. Google is set to steal the show ahead of iPhone 17 With Googles announcement just under a month ahead of Apples iPhone 17 announcement, its poised to steal its thunder, once again. Last year, Google decided to move up the timing of its launch event to August, from October. It also moved up the rest of its schedule. With the latest version of Android launching in June, and the developer previews launching in November. It makes a lot of sense for Google to move up the release schedule, because a mid-October release was just too late for Pixel. And it caused Google to have to discount its devices very quickly after launch. We will be there in person at the event, to bring you all of the latest details about the Pixel 10 series and the Pixel Watch 4 series. NVIDIA is probably the company that has best taken advantage of the AI boom. The company anticipated others and made the necessary adjustments to become one of the leading suppliers of AI chips, resulting in massive growth for the company in subsequent years. That said, trade restrictions with China have also affected it. That said, NVIDIA has received some good news: they can now continue selling sales of AI chips to China. NVIDIA officially announced the new development in a blog post. The American firm has received approval from the US government to resume selling its advanced H20 AI GPU to China. This decision marks a reversal of previous restrictions and opens the door for NVIDIA to re-enter a crucial market. Its a pretty significant development for the global tech landscape. NVIDIA officially resumes sales of AI chips to China The news follows discussions between NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, Chinese officials, and even US President Donald Trump, signaling a thaw in what had been a strained trade situation for high-tech components. Earlier restrictions, which saw the H20 chip banned in April, had resulted in billions of dollars in lost sales and significant inventory write-offs for NVIDIA. This renewed access is a major win for the chip giant. With licenses now being granted, NVIDIA anticipates generating substantial additional revenue. We are talking about a movement with an estimated value in the range of $15-20 billion this year alone. The company was reportedly holding $8 billion in unshipped orders awaiting the green light. Now, it hopes to begin deliveries of the H20 GPU to Beijing soon. Chinese tech titans, including ByteDance and Tencent, are reportedly gearing up to place new orders for NVIDIAs GPUs. Its noteworthy that the domestic AI competition in China has been growing at a good pace. In fact, this has called into question the real effectiveness of US trade restrictions. However, many firms still prefer NVIDIAs offerings, primarily due to its robust CUDA computing platform. This ecosystem is widely favored for its efficiency in parallel processing, which is essential for advanced AI operations. US-China trade deal closer? The easing of these chip export restrictions from the US side also coincides with Chinas own recent moves to ease rare earth export restrictions. This parallelism suggests a potential broader agreement or de-escalation in trade tensions between the two global superpowers. Are we close to a definitive trade deal between the two big powers? Only time will tell. For NVIDIA, regaining access to the Chinese market is strategically vital. CEO Jensen Huang had previously voiced concerns about the company potentially losing its global AI leadership if it remained unable to sell its chips in China. This particular market accounted for 13% of its global sales in the last fiscal year. This figure is massive considering that they come from a single country. Investors, of course, are responding positively to this development. NVIDIAs shares are seeing a notable rise shortly after the announcement. It signals a renewed opportunity for NVIDIA to strengthen its position in the AI hardware race and for Chinese companies to access preferred technology, potentially accelerating their AI development efforts. In the world of foldable phones, Samsung just made a bold play with its new Galaxy Z Flip 7. While new tech usually comes with a higher price tagespecially amid the tariff uncertaintythe device surprisingly launched at the same cost as its predecessor. So, how did Samsung manage this trick? The answer seems to lie a decisive shift towards its in-house Exynos chip that allowed them to freeze the price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7. Using Exynos chips allowed Samsung to freeze the Galaxy Z Flip 7 price Industry watchers are pointing to Samsungs evolving strategy around its mobile processors. By fully embracing the Exynos 2500 for the Flip 7, the company managed to trim component costs significantly. The brain of a smartphone, the Application Processor (AP), can account for roughly 30% of the total manufacturing cost. This makes the choice of AP a major factor in pricing. Historically, Samsung has often mixed Exynos with Qualcomms more expensive Snapdragon chips. But this time, Exynos took the lead for the Flip 7, even in the US. This isnt just about saving a few dollars. Samsung explained this Galaxy Z Flip 7 price freeze as a strategic move to popularize foldable phones. The company aims to make cutting-edge foldable technology more accessible and popular. The launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 FEalso Exynos poweredis another movement in that line. Roh Tae-moon, a key figure at Samsung, emphasized that despite innovations adding to costs, they absorbed these increases internally to make the foldable experience more mainstream (via Jukanlosreve). Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 Save up to $770 on your Galaxy Z Flip 7 pre-order. Save $50 exclusively with our link Free Storage Upgrade Up to $720 trade-in credit. Pre-Order at Samsung The movement could bring initial losses Interestingly, this full commitment to Exynos comes even as some analyses suggest its 3nm Exynos 2500 chip might still have a relatively low production yield. This could be leading to short-term losses for Samsungs manufacturing division. However, from a broader company perspective, using their own chips is seen as more cost-efficient than buying from external suppliers like Qualcomm. Plus, continuous production, even at a loss initially, helps refine the chips performance and yield for the long run. Its a strategic investment in their own technology. The potential success of the Galaxy Z Flip 7 with its Exynos heart is now a crucial test. If it performs well in the market and receives positive reviews, it could pave the way for a much wider adoption of Exynos in Samsungs future flagship devices, including the highly anticipated Galaxy S series. This would not only reduce costs further but also solidify Samsungs independence in chip production. The tech world will be watching closely to see if this bold Exynos bet pays off. Samsung integrated support for the classic S Pen into its Galaxy Z Fold series starting with the second iteration. Since then, all Z Fold devices offered stylus support until last year. In 2024, the Galaxy Z Fold SE dropped support for the accessory, and the latest Galaxy Z Fold 7 did too. That said, its possible that S Pen support could return in future Galaxy Z Fold generations. Samsungs stylus support made the Galaxy Z Fold a worthy successor to the Galaxy Note experience. The Galaxy S Ultra has already offered the feature for years and has massive screens. However, a folding screen offers much greater scope for exploiting productivity and creativity using the S Pen. Due to technological limitations, Samsung sells it as a separate accessory, though. A Galaxy Z Fold with an integrated slot for the digital pen hadnt yet arrivedand it probably never will. S Pen support could return in future Galaxy Z Fold phones, even with dedicated slot That said, it seems that the story of Samsungs stylus is not definitively over for its foldables. According to a report from South Korean media ETNews, Samsung is actively exploring integrating S Pen technology directly into future Galaxy Z Fold models. This wouldnt just mean official support for the stylus. It implies a dedicated slot within the phones design, allowing users to conveniently carry and store their S Pen. This potential inclusion would be a significant upgrade for the foldable series. The S Pen has its own fanbase that appreciates the precision and versatility it offers to write and draw. Its quite convenient to seamlessly jot down notes, sketch ideas, or navigate the larger unfolded screen with the familiar feel of Samsungs stylus, all without having to remember to carry it separately. Tech hurdles to overcome One of the key hurdles for S Pen integration in foldable phones has been the delicate nature of the foldable display. Earlier reports suggested concerns about the stylus potentially damaging the screen. However, advancements in display technology, including tougher protective layers and potentially a different type of digitizer, might have paved the way for this integration. Another challenge is finding enough internal space without compromising on other specs. Currently, the task is even more difficult due to the extreme thinness of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. However, perhaps high-density battery technology will have something to say in this regard in the future. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 Save up to $1,200 on your pre-order of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. $150 credit toward storage upgrade Up to $1,150 off for trade-in Additional $50 off Pre-Order at Samsung Details about how Samsung could bring S Pen support back to the Galaxy Z Fold devices are still scarce. However, the very fact that Samsung is exploring the possibility suggests its listening to user feedback. Actively working on making the S Pen a more integral part of the Galaxy Z Fold experience would be great news. Should the project succeed, it has the potential to revolutionize productivity and creative tasks while on the move. Lets hope to hear positive news about it in the coming weeks. Samsung was one of the first smartphone makers to include wireless charging capabilities in its phones. The companys latest Galaxy S25 series, Z Fold 7, and Z Flip 7 all support Qi2 wireless charging. Unfortunately, they are only Qi2-ready phones, which means the users need a special charging case, as there are no Qi2 magnets inside them. However, Samsung seems to be considering including built-in Qi2 magnets in its future Galaxy phones to offer proper wireless charging. Samsung is seeking user feedback about integrating Qi2 magnets inside future phones Samsung is running an online survey, asking consumers about adding built-in Qi2 magnets in its future Galaxy phones, as per a report by SammyGuru. Adding a Qi2 magnet inside a phone would result in a thicker build, and one of the questions Samsung is asking in the survey includes this information as well. In the question, users can choose options like a 0.3mm or 0.5mm increased thickness or reject the idea outright. The series of questions strongly suggests Samsung is considering adding built-in Qi2 magnets inside its future Galaxy phones. The survey also hints that some future Galaxy phones could lack wired charging Its worth mentioning that a couple of questions in the online survey raise the possibility of the company dropping wired charging in favor of wireless charging only. One of the questions asks users about the biggest inconvenience if a device only supports wireless charging. Options for answers to that question include problems while charging the device during an outing, slow charging speeds, and inconvenience while using it while its charging wirelessly. These questions hint that Samsung might be exploring the possibility of going all wireless in some of the future Galaxy phones. After the 3.5mm audio jack, the company could drop the USB Type-C port from some smartphones. However, we dont think itll happen any time soon, as the Type-C port also helps users in seamless and faster data transfer across devices. Some questions in the survey also ask about data transfer habits for better user feedback. Some reports indicate that Samsungs Galaxy S26 series of smartphones could finally feature built-in Qi2 wireless charging magnets. Since Samsung isnt planning to launch the S26 series anytime before Q1 2026, the rumor mill has a lot of time to provide some details on the matter. Amazon is currently offering one of the best deals weve seen so far for the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. Essentially, youre getting the free storage upgrade to 512GB for $1,999, plus a $300 Amazon Gift Card included. Thats going to get you an extra $300 that you can use to buy other products like the Galaxy Watch 8. This is one of the better deals because it doesnt require you to trade in any device. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 was announced on July 9 in New York City, with pre-orders having opened that same day. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 release date is officially July 25, though it could also ship before then, as weve seen in the past with Samsung. Perhaps the biggest update ever for the Galaxy Z Fold series. Making the device much, much thinner than before. The front display is also significantly wider, and were looking at a much upgraded primary camera. Now the Galaxy Z Fold 7 measures in at just 4.2mm when unfolded and 8.9mm when folded. That brings it up to the same thickness as the OPPO Find N5, which was the worlds thinnest foldable, before HONOR beat it out with the Magic V5, just barely. Internally, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 does sport a Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy, 12GB of RAM with 256GB or 512GB of storage. There is a 1TB storage model which does also come with more RAM, at 16GB. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 colors include Blue Shadow, Silver Shadow, and Jet Black. Theres a fourth color in Mint, however that is exclusive to Samsungs website. In the world of semiconductor manufacturing, a fierce battle is raging for the most advanced chip orders. TSMC, the undisputed leader in foundry services, is making massive moves with its cutting-edge 2nm process, aiming to double its production capacity by 2026. Meanwhile, Samsung is pulling out all the stops to snatch away major clients. TSMC is not just building chips for today; theyre already ramping up for tomorrow. This half of the year, theyre set to mass-produce the powerful chipsets for Apples next-generation iPhones using their 2nm technology. Looking ahead, TSMC plans to nearly double its 2nm production capacity next year. More specifically, they project a staggering 90,000 wafers per month. Following Apple, tech giants like Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and AMD are next in line for their advanced chips from TSMC. Their superior manufacturing yield and proven performance have made them the go-to choice for global tech titans. TSMC targets massive 2nm chip production boost by 2026 while Samsung struggles Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics, TSMCs closest rival in the foundry space, is facing an uphill climb. Despite also having 3nm and 2nm processes, Samsung has struggled to secure many external orders. This is reportedly due to challenges in satisfying customers regarding yield and manufacturing consistency. But Samsung Foundry isnt giving up. The company is now channeling all its energy into wooing major tech players. The South Korean giant is actively engaging with companies like NVIDIA for their next-gen GPUs, Qualcomm for smartphone processors, and even Tesla for their specialized AI supercomputer chips. Alongside producing its own Exynos 2600 volume, Samsung is banking on stabilized yields and proven performance to win over these big spender customers (via Jukanlosreve). Tech industry looking for production diversification Interestingly, its not just Samsung pushing for these partnerships. Some global tech giants are actually looking to diversify their chip supply chains. TSMCs advanced chips, while top-tier, come with high price tags and, crucially, limited production capacity. This can make it difficult for companies to receive their chips on schedule for critical product launches. Tesla, for instance, is reportedly keen to diversify its foundry partners to avoid being pushed down the production queue by larger clients. Some 66 million was returned to victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams in the first six months of a new reimbursement scheme going live, according to a regulators figures. Rules requiring banks to reimburse people who have been tricked into transferring money to a fraudster were launched in October last year. Under the shake-up, banks must reimburse APP fraud victims, unless the customer has been grossly negligent. Figures released by the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) showed that in the first six months of the new rules, 87% of money lost to APP scams in scope of the policy was returned to victims, equating to 66 million. Consumers reported around 109,000 claims, with 77,000 in scope for reimbursement. Nearly nine in 10 (86%) claims were closed within five business days. In the update on its website, the PSR said: The data shows positive outcomes for consumers in the first six months of our policy. Reimbursement rates were high, firms responded to claims promptly, and there was no indication of people being significantly less cautious. Some 27.6 million was reimbursed in the first three months of the new rules, rising to 38.4 million in the following three-month period. A reimbursement limit of 85,000 applies under the rules, although banks can choose to go further than this and repay higher amounts. The new protections apply when a transfer is made to and from a UK bank account. They cover transactions made from October 7 2024 onwards and do not apply retrospectively. Previously, many bank customers relied on a voluntary code to get their money back. Concerns were raised that consumers faced a refund lottery. Criminals will often pose as trusted institutions such as banks, companies or Government departments to persuade people to part with their cash, with scams becoming increasingly sophisticated. They may also use artificial intelligence (AI) and deepfake videos to make scams seem even more plausible. There are various reasons why an APP scam claim is not reimbursable under the policy, for example if it is a civil dispute, the PSR said. Around 3% of claims in the first six months of the new rules were rejected due to the consumer being deemed not to have taken enough caution. This equated to around 1,100 rejections in the first three months of the new rules being launched and 1,700 claims turned down in the following three months. Adelita Grijalva answers a question during the Democratic primary debate inside the Arizona Public Media studio in Tucson, Arizona on 10 June 2025. Photograph: Mamta Popat/AP Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic House primary in Arizona to succeed her father, beating a young social media activist in a closely watched election seen as a test of the partys generational divide. Raul Grijalva, a longtime congressman in southern Arizona, died from cancer earlier this year and left a vacancy in the states seventh district. The younger Grijalva, a 54-year-old who served for 20 years on a Tucson school board, has been a Pima county supervisor since 2020. Grijalva, a progressive, has said upholding democracy, standing up for immigrant rights and protecting access to Medicaid and Medicare are among her top priorities. This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago, Grijalva said in a statement. Related: Arizona Democratic race for House seat highlights partys internal debate and previews the midterms She faced an insurgent challenger in Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and activist whose campaign focused on her personal story of using the kinds of government programs the Trump administration has attacked. Foxx also called out Grijalva for her legacy last name and said political roles shouldnt be inherited. Im not using my dads last name, Adelita Grijalva previously told the Guardian. Its mine, too. Ive worked in this community for a very long time 26 years at a nonprofit, 20 years on the school board, four years and four months on the board of supervisors. Ive earned my last name too. Grijalva won easily. She led her next closest rival, Foxx, by about 40 percentage points when the Associated Press declared her the winner. She had a large lead in all seven counties that are all or partially in the district, including the most populous, Pima County, which includes Tucson and its western suburbs. Grijalva also racked up a lengthy list of heavyweight endorsements including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders and several state and local officials. The district, which includes parts of Tucson and Arizonas borderlands, is strongly blue, meaning the winner of the primary is the likely victor of the general. But three Republicans ran in their partys primary; Daniel Butierez will face Adelita Grijalva in the general on 23 September. National Democratic infighting brought extra attention to the race, with Foxx bringing up questions of seniority and nepotism. Raul Grijalva was one of three Democratic lawmakers to die in office this year. Foxx received backing from Leaders We Deserve, David Hoggs Pac, which is challenging incumbents in Democratic primaries as it seeks to remake the party. The seat will not decide control of the US House, but it is one of three vacancies in heavily Democratic districts that, when filled in special elections this fall, will probably chip away at Republicans slender 220-212 majority in the chamber. The MP Materials mine in Mountain Pass, California. Photograph: AP Apple has signed a $500m deal with a US firm for rare earth magnets, essential for manufacturing electronics, after China curbed exports of the scarce, vital materials. The backing from one of the worlds most valuable companies comes after MP Materials, which operates the only US rare earths mine, last week agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the US Department of Defense that will see the Pentagon become its largest shareholder. Both deals are aimed at mitigating supply chain risks after China limited the outgoing supply of rare earths earlier this year in response to Donald Trumps sweeping tariffs. The deal, announced on Tuesday, guarantees Apple a steady flow of rare earth magnets free from China by far the worlds largest producer. For Apple, the cost to support US magnet production pales in comparison to the long-term risk that it could lose access entirely to the critical components, analysts said. Related: Nvidia becomes first company to reach $4tn in market value Were in an era where executives are willing to pay a significant premium for a reliable supply chain. They dont want stoppage, said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion, including the devices that make cellphones vibrate. They are also used in weapons, electric vehicles and many other electronics. China placed export restrictions on rare earths in April in response to Trumps tariffs. Though the US and China reached a deal in June that has resolved much of the rare earths dispute, broader trade tensions continue to underscore demand for a non-Chinese supply. As part of the agreement, Apple will prepay MP $200m for a supply of magnets slated to begin in 2027. The companies did not disclose the length of the deal nor the volumes of magnets to be provided. The agreement calls for magnets produced from recycled material, in keeping with Apples longstanding goal of ending its reliance on the mining industry. They will be produced at MPs Fort Worth, Texas, facility using magnets recycled at MPs Mountain Pass, California, mining complex. Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States, Apples CEO, Tim Cook, said in a statement. Las Vegas-based MP Materials stock price has nearly doubled since the government deal was announced. It has had remarkable turnaround since last year, when it contemplated merging with an Australian rival as profits plunged in what its CEO, Jim Litinsky, called a very frustrating pricing environment for rare earths. Bob ODonnell, president at market research firm TECHnalysis Research, said Tuesdays move makes complete sense given that Apple requires significant amounts of rare earth magnets for its devices. Plus, by focusing on a US-based supplier, it does help position Apple more positively in Washington, he said. Apple, which said the deal is part of its $500bn four-year investment commitment to the US, has faced threats from Trump over iPhones not made in the US. But many analysts have said making the iPhone in the US is not possible, given labor costs and the existing smartphone supply chain. Apple did not disclose which devices in which it will use the magnets. MP said the deal will supply magnets for hundreds of millions of devices, which would constitute a significant share of any of Apples product lines. MP produces mined and processed rare earths and has said it expects to start commercial magnet production in its Texas facility by the end of this year. BAE Systems is looking to design and build the next generation of fighter aircraft and advanced drone technology at its Warton factory in Lancashire. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian In a factory on the banks of the River Ribble in Lancashire, robot arms stand on a floor striped with glowing lights. They will hold the tail fin for a test model for the UKs next generation fighter jet, which is intended to fly for the first time in 2027. The jet, known as Tempest, will act as a symbol of Britains hopes to remain a top-tier military nation and keep alive more than a century of building military aircraft. Yet things are markedly different in another hangar at the Warton site, run by British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. There, production of the Typhoon jet, a mainstay of the Royal Air Force (RAF) for two decades, has for now at least ground to a halt. Unite, a union representing workers, has raised concerns that the UK risks losing skills, but the company, Britains dominant weapons maker, insists that it will find new orders that will sustain jobs on the production line. Richard Hamilton, a managing director in charge of the Typhoon programme, told reporters at the plant this week that he was really confident of receiving orders but not from the UK. Instead, the UK government is trying to persuade Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to buy more, which would secure the future of the assembly lines at Warton for as long as a decade. The questions over the future of the assembly line are emblematic of a trilemma that often seems to affect military procurement: the UK wants the best weapons; wants to boost British manufacturing, and needs to keep a lid on costs. Achieving more than two of those three aims simultaneously may be tricky, if not impossible. Keir Starmer last month committed to raise defence spending to the equivalent of 3.5% of GDP in line with Nato allies, but even that increase paid for by a cut in international aid that was deeply controversial among Labour MPs has not assuaged concerns over the UKs future capability to make fighters. That was heightened by the UKs recent decision to go ahead with an order of US-made F-35s long-range stealth fighter jets. The UK last month said it will buy 12 US-made F-35A jets that are capable of carrying nuclear weapons, significantly adding to the UKs nuclear arsenal. It also ordered another 15 F-35Bs, capable of vertical takeoff and landing. The jets are made by Lockheed Martin, but BAE Systems contributes communications, navigation and radar systems. Each F-35B version can cost as much as $109m (81m), although the cost of the F-35A is thought to be about $83m. The UK carries out about 15% of the work by value on each F-35. But costs are also much higher than planned: the MoD estimated whole-life costs of 57bn for the F-35 programme, but the National Audit Office put the actual price tag at 71bn. Typhoon illustrates the way that European governments tried to keep the ability to make fighter jets while lacking the USs economic power: the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain agreed to team up on the Eurofighter back in the 1990s, which meant fewer politically popular jobs, but also shared costs between several nations. The left wing is made in Italy, the right in Spain. Germany makes the central fuselage, while the engine is based on a design from Britains Rolls-Royce and front fuselages are built in Samlesbury, half an hour east of Warton. Each jet is then assembled by a prime contractor in one of the four countries, with BAE Systems as the lead for the jets bought by the UK. A 2011 public accounts committee report put the cost of each Typhoon at 73m or 126m if development costs were factored in. Export compromises But BAE Systems also builds the planes ordered by allies via the UK government. Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia could order as many as 100 new Typhoons between them, Hamilton suggested, with about 50 more potentially assembled elsewhere. Hamilton also said that the government should commit to supporting upgrades to existing Typhoon jets with the latest electronics, such as new radars, encrypted communications, and new displays for pilots. Those upgrades would clear the way for customers to make the orders, Hamilton suggested. A source close to the defence minister, John Healey, indicated the government is likely to support the upgrades, which were recommended in the recent strategic defence review. The government is also confident in gaining more orders, the person said. Export orders give an easy financial win for the government even if the Eurofighter never quite lived up to export hopes but they will also force compromises on the Labour government, which has had to curry favour with countries who have faced persistent criticism over human rights abuses. Turkey is a member of Nato, but president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pursued increasingly authoritarian policies, and his main political rival has been given a prison term. Qatar has its own record of human rights abuses, particularly around treatment of migrant workers, and its criminalisation of same-sex relationships. Most notably, oil-rich Saudi Arabia became briefly an international pariah after the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. US intelligence agencies came to the conclusion that Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the murder. Saudi Arabia was blocked from ordering more Typhoons for several years by Germany, but the Eurofighter partner changed its tune last year after Hamass attack on Israel. The UK government showed that exports appear to trump human rights concerns in a supreme court case last month. Activists argued ministers had broken the law by allowing the UK to continue supplying F-35 parts for planes used by Israel to bomb civilians in Gaza. Government lawyers successfully argued that preserving the UKs place on the F-35 programme took precedence over the need to comply with UK laws on arms export controls, or any UK obligation to prevent an alleged genocide in Israel. Activists have also protested at BAEs headquarters. Asked whether weapons exports could undermine political support for the defence industry, BAEs chief executive Charles Woodburn this month said that the UK has one of the toughest export control regimes in the world for defence exports, and everything we do obviously has to be entirely compliant with UK export control policy for defence equipment. Tempestuous times Exports will also form a crucial part of the Tempest programme, another joint project this time between the UK, Italy and Japan. It will be one of a crop of sixth-generation jets with advanced technology still under development. (The Typhoon and F-35 are considered to be fourth- and fifth-generation jets respectively.) At Warton, a scale model of the Tempest jet, officially known as the global combat air programme (GCAP), shows an aircraft three or four metres longer than the Typhoon, with an expansive belly to hide weapons and reduce its visibility to radar, as well as carrying enough fuel for very long range missions. The promise of exports of the Tempest will again play a key role in justifying the upfront costs. The UK has committed more than 2bn to Tempest since 2021 and has budgeted more than 12bn for the programme over the next decade, according to parliaments defence committee. It wants the first jet to be completed in a decades time very fast by fighter jet standards. Delays could lead to the kind of cost overruns that have dogged big weapons programmes. There are also questions over whether crewed fighter jets have a long-term future, given the huge increase in drone warfare during the war in Ukraine. Tempest could also be competing with a Franco-German-Spanish rival, the Future Combat Air System although that jet programme has been dogged by infighting between Frances Dassault and the German arm of Airbus that broke out into the open at the Paris airshow. But even if there are two European sixth-generation jets, plus the USs Boeing F-47 announced this year by Donald Trump (the 47th president), BAE executives are confident there will be enough demand. Herman Claesen, BAEs managing director for future combat air systems, said countries from every continent had inquired about buying the GCAP aircraft. The UKs arms export favourite, Saudi Arabia, has already asked to join the programme. Theres a bit of a queue forming of various nations who want to talk to the governments, he said. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: The Typhoon is a world-class aircraft that will remain the backbone of the UKs air defence until at least the 2040s. The UK is leading Typhoon export campaigns to other nations, and we will continue to work on upgrading the RAFs existing Typhoons over at least the next 15 years, both of which will support thousands of skilled UK jobs. Publisher Bloomsbury has said it is on track to meet market expectations as it hailed strong sales of the latest book by Sarah J Maas. The Harry Potter publisher said it is expected to reveal a rise in profits for the current financial year. The London-listed firm said it is on track to perform in line with market guidance, which has projected a pre-tax profit of 41.6 million for the year to February 2026. It comes after the company saw profits slip 22% to 32.5 million in the previous financial year. Industry analysts currently expect the business to reveal a fall in revenues to 335.9 million this year, compared with 361 million a year earlier. On Tuesday, Bloomsbury pointed to positive sales in its consumer division, highlighting strong sales of the paperback of House Of Flame And Shadow by Ms Maas in the UK and US, after its release in June. It also indicated it hopes for further positive sales from the launch of JK Rowlings Pocket Potter series next month, adding that it has a strong list of further releases for the rest of the year. Bloomsbury said it is continuing with the integration of the recently acquired Rowman & Littlefield business into its non-consumer division. The company said it is making progress with its growth strategy launched last year. It said: We continue to execute our Bloomsbury 2030 vision focused on our growth, portfolio and people. The resilience of our business created through the portfolio of portfolios strategy underpins the confidence our Board has in the future. Bradley Murdoch died in custody just days after Mr Falconios father pleaded for the killer to reveal where he disposed of his sons remains - AP The Australian outback killer who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio has died aged 67, taking to the grave the secret of where he hid the mans body. Bradley John Murdoch died in custody on Tuesday night, 20 years after he was found guilty of the murder and just days after Mr Falconios father pleaded for the killer to reveal where he disposed of his sons remains. Mr Falconio was 28 when he disappeared while travelling with his girlfriend Joanne Lees on a remote stretch of highway in the Northern Territory desert in 2001. The couple, both from Yorkshire, were driving across the country in a camper van when they were ambushed by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway, an isolated road that runs through the centre of Australia. In 2005, Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years. He was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and had recently been moved from prison to a palliative care hospital. The Northern Territory Department of Corrections confirmed that Murdoch died in hospital. Mr Falconio and his girlfriend, Ms Lees were travelling across Australia when they were ambushed by Mr Murdoch - Shutterstock A spokesperson said: I can confirm that Bradley Murdoch passed away last night in the palliative care unit at Alice Springs Hospital. The death will be subject to investigation by the Northern Territory Coroner. No further comment at this time. Mr Falconio and Ms Lees had been driving near the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek, around 188 miles north of Alice Springs, when Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from their van. He shot Mr Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before forcing Ms Lees into his vehicle and binding her wrists with cable ties. She managed to escape, hiding in the Outback for hours before flagging down a passing truck. Ms Lees escaped and hid in the outback for hours before flagging down a passing truck - AP During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch was likely to have disposed of the backpackers body somewhere in the vast, remote expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, covering more than 1,200 miles. Despite repeated searches, Mr Falconios body has never been found. Ms Lees, who returned to the UK, told Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 that she still wanted to bring him home. Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too, she said at the time. Ill never be fully at peace if Petes not found, but I accept that that is a possibility. Murdoch lodged several unsuccessful appeals over the years, with Australias highest court refusing to hear his case in 2007. Last month police announced a new 500,000 Australian dollar (about 240,000) reward for information leading to the discovery of Mr Falconios remains. Students walk across the main campus of Columbia University in New York City, on 12 April. Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters Columbia University has agreed to adopt a controversial definition of antisemitism as it pursues an agreement with the Trump aimed at restoring $400m in federal government grants frozen over its alleged failure to protect Jewish students. In a letter to students and staff, the universitys acting president, Claire Shipman, said it would incorporate the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism into its anti-discrimination policies as part of a broad overhaul. It is the latest in a string of concessions Columbia has made following criticisms mainly from pro-Israel groups and Republican members of Congress that university authorities had tolerated the expression of antisemitic attitudes in pro-Palestinian campus protests following the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2023. Columbia is committed to taking all possible steps to combat antisemitism and the University remains dedicated to ensuring that complaints of discrimination and harassment of all types, including complaints based on Jewish and Israeli identity, are treated in the same manner, wrote Shipman. Formally adding the consideration of the IHRA definition into our existing anti-discrimination policies strengthens our approach to combating antisemitism. The definition, which describes antisemitism as a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews, has been adopted by the US state department and several European government and EU groups. Related: Trump administration notches first big win in assault on higher education However, critics have say it is designed to shield Israel by punishing legitimate criticism of the country. They also complain that it conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism. Among the examples of criticisms accompanying the definition are claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor, applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nations and accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than to the interests of their own nations. Donald Trump gave the IHRA definition a significant boost during his presidency by issuing an executive order in 2018 requiring all federal government agencies to take account of it when handling civil rights complaints. In adopting it now, Columbia is following Harvard, which agreed to embrace the definition last January as part of a court settlement reached with Jewish students, who had accused the university of failing to protect them under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, religion or ethnic origin in programs or institutions receiving federal funding. While Harvard remains in dispute with the White House after refusing to bow to its demands in return for the unfreezing of federal funding, Columbia has been accused of surrendering vital academic freedoms in an initial agreement with the administration reached last March that will see it reform its protest and security policies, while restricting the autonomy of its Middle Eastern studies department. Shipman has insisted that the university is following the law and denied that it is guilty of capitulation. Columbias previous president, Minouche Shafik, resigned last August following sustained criticism, including in Congress, over her failure to end months of campus protests, despite calling in New York police to dismantle an encampment. In her letter, Shipman said last Marchs agreement was only a starting point for change. The fact that weve faced pressure from the government does not make the problems on our campuses any less real; a significant part of our community has been deeply affected in negative ways, she wrote. Committing to reform on our own is a more powerful path. It will better enable us to recognize our shortcomings and create lasting change. However, the New York Times recently reported that the university was nearing an agreement to pay Jewish complainants more than $200m in compensation for civil rights violations that would be part of the deal to have its funding restored. The deal is likely to require further reforms in return for restored funding but stops short of requiring a judge-approved consent decree, which had been in an initial draft and would have given the Trump administration significant control over the university. The train was in Flanders and nearing Brussels, which is officially bilingual. Photograph: David R Frazier Photolibrary, Inc/Alamy A complaint against a Belgian ticket inspector who gave passengers a bilingual greeting in Dutch-speaking Flanders has been upheld, shedding light on the countrys strict language laws. The conductor, Ilyass Alba, said Belgiums Permanent Commission for Linguistic Control had upheld a complaint made by a commuter in 2024. The passenger had objected to Albas use of the French word bonjour while the train was in Dutch-speaking Flanders. Alba said he had greeted the carriage with Goeiedag, bonjour (good day in Dutch and French), as the train approached Vilvoorde (Vilvorde), near the outskirts of Brussels, which is officially bilingual. The commission upheld the passengers complaint that Alba should not have used French in the Dutch-speaking part of the country, unless approached by a passenger speaking French. What a country! Alba wrote on Facebook. He said he understood why a passenger concerned to protect his mother tongue would file such a complaint, but that the commission would rule in his favour when travellers from all over the world visit Belgium is a sign of narrow-mindedness on the part of a small Flemish elite. For its part, the commission, which was created in 1966 to police Belgiums language rules, said it was upholding the law and only the legislature could make changes. Under Belgiums strict language rules, conductors on the national rail service SNCB (NMBS in Dutch) should only use Dutch in Flanders, French in the southern-speaking Francophone region, and both languages in bilingual Brussels. The rule applies to passenger announcements and onboard electronic screens. Local media reported that the decision would not have any consequences for Alba, beyond perhaps a warning, which equally applied to his employer. The rail operator has played down the incident, saying that its employee had wanted to warmly greet all passengers, something to which we attach great importance. When the case came to public attention, Belgiums then transport minister, Georges Gilkinet, said the strict blind application of the rules made little sense, blaming the far-right Vlaams Belang and nationalist New Flemish Alliance parties for their continuation. But even politicians from non-separatist Flemish parties have spoken in favour of the rules. Belgiums Francophone public broadcaster RTBF said the rules may seem absurd but reflected linguistic tensions that transcend numerous debates in our country. The softening of these rules does not seem to be on the agenda. The conductor, who has started selling mugs with the greeting Goeiedag, Bonjour, said he had received many messages of support from Dutch speakers. While saying he was not calling for changes to the 1966 language law, he called for greater flexibility. Whatever will be, long live Belgium, he said. Liz Curtis with her daughter, Lily, who died of mitochondrial disease aged eight months in April 2007. Photograph: Family handout/PA When I had my 20-week scan, Lily had a strange heartbeat. It would beat and then stop and then start beating again. The sonographer had never seen it before. I was referred by my local hospital to St Georges to see a specialist and it happened again. I went back every day for a week, and then every other day for another week, but they never saw it again. I had another scan nearer Lilys due date and that time there was no blood flow between the placenta and the baby. I had to have an emergency caesarean. That was at 35 weeks. She was so tiny, 3lb 8oz, but they couldnt find anything wrong with her. After four or five weeks I was allowed to bring her home. She wasnt putting on weight. One day, when she was about seven weeks old, I was out with the kids for the day, and when I took her out of the pushchair she had stopped breathing, she was grey and foaming around the mouth. We got her to a hospital and she started breathing again. She was discharged, but a friend of mine whos a paediatric nurse advised me to take her to East Surrey hospital, where she was born and they had all her notes. We were there for 10 days while they did more tests. The doctors thought she might have a metabolic disease and blue-lighted us to the Royal Brompton to see a specialist. They agreed, but we were allowed home. We had to get a taxi back and on the way Lily stopped breathing again. I had a nurse with me who performed CPR. Lily had two cardiac arrests a couple of nights later at East Surrey and ended up at Evelina childrens hospital on life support. Lily had a lumbar puncture and some more tests. They strongly suspected she had mitochondrial disease. We were told: Im really sorry, theres no treatment, theres nothing we can do, Lilys going to die. We had a muscle biopsy to confirm the diagnosis but they didnt think the result would come back before she died. Lily didnt die when they turned off life support. We took her home and she survived for six months. I used to sit up in bed with her on my tummy because I was so frightened of waking up and her not being here. I couldnt bear the thought of her being on her own. We had never heard of mitochondrial disease. After Lily died, we asked for donations instead of flowers at her funeral and there was nowhere to send them. There was no active charity dedicated to mitochondrial diseases. We thought, its never going to change unless we do something. We just did it, we set up The Lily Foundation. We knew that in order to treat it or to find a cure, we had to be able to diagnose it properly. So we raised money for a gene-testing programme. That was a hugely successful project and its now a routine test for mitochondrial disease. The charity has now raised more than 11m and supports more than 1,300 families and patients across the UK. Our website is full of information and we run annual meet-ups for families, for adults and for young adults. We have closed Facebook groups that bring people together. People go on there for practical advice and support as well. For parents to have an opportunity to have a baby free of these diseases thats genetically theirs, what they have done in Newcastle is not only an incredible piece of science to be celebrated, but an amazing step forward for families. It is such a tightly regulated, robust process from beginning to end, and thats something we should be extremely proud of. There will always be learning. Its a new technique and I hope it opens doors for more in the future. This is about giving families a choice when every other option has been ruled out. Diageo has announced the departure of its boss Debra Crew following a two-year tenure during which the spirits giant has grappled with weaker sales and a sinking share price. Ms Crew has stepped down as chief executive with immediate effect and by mutual agreement with the board, the London-listed company said. Chief financial officer Nik Jhangiani will step into the top job until a permanent boss is found. Guinness owner Diageos share price has slumped over the last two years (Liam McBurney/PA) Ms Crew became chief executive two years ago, taking over from former boss Sir Ivan Menezes, who died in June 2023. She was the groups first female chief executive, having previously held senior positions at tobacco company Reynolds American and PepsiCo, prior to which she served as an officer in the US army. During her tenure, Ms Crew has overseen a more challenging period for the company which owns brands including Guinness, Gordons and Baileys. Its sales dropped for the first time in around four years during the 2023-24 financial year, dragged lower by a weaker performance in Latin America. More recently, Diageo warned that it was expecting new US trade tariffs particularly a 10% levy on UK and European exports to cost it around 150 million dollars (112 million) each year. The London-based company, which employs around 30,000 people, launched a 500 million dollar (373 million) cost-saving programme over a three-year period in May. Diageos share price has also slumped over the last two years nearly halving in value. Its share price was up around 4% on Wednesday following the announcement. Donald Trump wears a Make America Great Again hat at a military ceremony in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters Donald Trump has lashed out against his own supporters, calling them gullible weaklings for questioning the transparency of a secretive government inquiry into the late high-profile socialite and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The US president is struggling to contain a political crisis within his usually loyal Make America Great Again (Maga) base over suspicion that the administration is hiding details of Epsteins crimes to protect the rich elite Epstein associated with, which included Trump. In a lengthy post on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump accused his voters on Wednesday of falling for what he called a radical left hoax by the opposition to discredit him. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years, he wrote. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support any more! In an interview with Real Americas Voice, the far-right network created to host Steve Bannons podcast, Trump doubled down on what should be done with the details around Epsteins crimes on Wednesday and said the FBI should investigate what he called the Jeffrey Epstein hoax as part of a criminal conspiracy against him. They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because thats the same stuff, thats all put out by Democrats, Trump said. And you know some of the naive Republicans fall right into line. One of the most dramatic theories circulating among Trump supporters is that Epstein who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody was murdered by powerful figures to cover up their roles in his sex crimes against children. Republican voters and politicians have pressed Trump to publicly release documents related to the case, which have become known as the Epstein Files. Multiple users on Truth Social responded to Trumps post, calling for him to release more information. Youre losing your most loyal followers and voices Mr President, said one post. Why are you protecting pedophiles? said another post. Trumps tirade on Wednesday was an angry departure from his previous attempts to placate his backers. On Tuesday, he attempted to divert attention by describing the inquiry as boring but said he backed the release of any credible files, without specifying what those were. I dont understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody, Trump told reporters on Tuesday night when asked why his supporters are so interested in the case. Its pretty boring stuff. Its sordid, but its boring, and I dont understand why it keeps going. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going, he added. But credible information, let them give it. Anything that is credible, I would say, let them have it. During his election campaigns, Trump fuelled multiple conspiracy theories by his Maga movement, including that the country was controlled by shadowy deep state elites. This has caused deep paranoia among his base, who are now, unusually, questioning their leader over the Epstein controversy. Last week, the justice department and the FBI announced that a review of the case files had confirmed that Epstein had killed himself, and there was no list of his clients to be made public. Related: How the Jeffrey Epstein row plunged Maga world into turmoil a timeline Conservative allies of the president have focused their anger on the attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was leading the case, as she had previously said Epsteins client list was sitting on my desk right now to review. Several other high-profile conservatives have called for Trump to make public everything known about Epstein. Even his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, a Fox News host, has been critical, saying: I do think that there needs to be more transparency on this. On Tuesday, Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, called for the justice department to make the document public, breaking with Trump in a rare moment of friction between the allies. Its a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it, Johnson told Benny Johnson, a rightwing podcaster, in an interview released on Tuesday. I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there. Thomas Donlon claims alleged NYPD co-conspirators retaliated to him reporting their alleged misconduct - New York Daily News/Tribune News Service The former head of the New York Police Department has accused Eric Adams, the citys mayor, of ordering the false arrest and full body search of his wife. Thomas Donlon, who was appointed interim NYPD commissioner in September 2024, said the alleged move was coordinated humiliation and retaliation for his reporting of Mr Adams for systemic corruption. The complaint was part of a federal lawsuit filed by Mr Donlon in which he alleged that Mr Adams and other top police officials were running a coordinated criminal enterprise that had taken root at the highest levels of city government. He claimed New Yorks police force was criminal at its core with conspirators committing fraud, obstruction of justice and retaliation against whistleblowers. A coordinated criminal conspiracy had taken root at the highest levels of city government carried out through wire fraud, mail fraud, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and retaliation against whistleblowers, the complaint states. Adams accused of doing nothing about alleged misconduct In the lawsuit, filed on Wednesday with the Southern District of New York, Mr Donlon claimed Mr Adams did nothing when he was informed of the alleged misconduct. He claimed the alleged co-conspirators retaliated to him reporting their alleged misconduct by orchestrating the detention of his wife, Deirdre OConnor, who was handcuffed and subjected to a full body search. The lawsuit piles renewed scrutiny on Mr Adams, whose federal corruption charges, including conspiracy and wire fraud, were dismissed by the Department of Justice following Donald Trumps re-election. Mr Adams is running against Democrat nominee Zohran Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race in November. Mr Donlon was appointed as the commissioner in September 2024. The former FBI official was removed two months later and moved into a senior adviser for public safety role before that position was eliminated in April. Mr Donlon has claimed he was commissioner in name only and was purely a figurehead while Mr Adamss allies exercised unchecked power. NYPD turned against Donlon In his lawsuit, which names several senior police officials as defendants, Mr Donlon claimed to have uncovered systemic corruption and criminal conduct being perpetrated by the NYPDs leadership. But, he claims, Mr Adams took no action in response and condoned the misconduct and allowed the NYPD to function as a criminal enterprise. When Donlon demanded accountability for the NYPD defendants collective misconduct, they turned against him, the lawsuit said. Mr Donlon claimed that in collusion with Mr Adams, promotions and favours were allegedly traded to suppress dissent and bury accountability. Mr Donlon claims the alleged corruption triggered a massive, unlawful transfer of public wealth millions of dollars in unearned salary increases, overtime eligibility, pension enhancements, and post-retirement benefits. The NYPD ceased to function through the long established chain of command. Power was wielded based not on rank, merit, or civil service law, but on personal allegiance to defendant Adams, the court filing claimed. Deliberate abuse of power The lawsuit also accuses several of the defendants of carrying out a calculated and deeply personal act of vengeance by orchestrating the false arrest of Mr Donlons wife and leaking it to the press. Mrs Donlon was allegedly arrested, searched and detained on Dec 16 2024 after she rear-ended which caused her to hit the Uber van in front of her in the rear. She was eventually given a summons for lapse of insurance and then released from custody. This was not a mistake. It was a deliberate abuse of power designed to punish and intimidate Donlon for exposing their misconduct, the lawsuit said. This coordinated humiliation was a direct warning: the NYPD defendants would stop at nothing to silence and personally destroy Donlon, even if it meant violating the constitutional rights of his spouse. Mr Donlon called for federal officials to take control of the NYPD and monitor the NYPDs disciplinary process and promotion decisions. Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for the mayor, denied the allegations. These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world proved himself to be ineffective, she said This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayers expense after Mr Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner, she said. The planning bill is central to the governments promise to build 1.5m homes and 150 major infrastructure projects in this parliament. Photograph: Mark Waugh/Alamy The government is putting pressure on wildlife organisations to drop their opposition to its planning bill, the Guardian has learned. Some of Britains biggest nature charities including the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and the National Trust say the legislation risks widespread destruction of nature. The charities want a key section of the legislation, part 3, scrapped entirely because they say it is a licence to kill nature. Leading figures from the organisations were summoned by the government to a meeting last Friday where officials put forward nine amendments to the language of the bill, which they say offer greater environmental protections. In return for accepting these, ministers want the nature groups to stop their campaign, the Guardian has established from several sources. Angela Rayner, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, has had a statement supporting the bill prepared for the charities to sign, which says: These amendments will provide confidence that our reforms will truly deliver for nature and help us recover our most precious sites and species as we work to get Britain building. Peers will debate scrapping part 3 when the bill goes before them on Thursday in the House of Lords. One participant in the meeting said their organisation will take some persuading. Another source from a charity said: There is a lot of pressure. There is this deal trying to be struck by Angela Rayners department, essentially so that we go quiet, or even better that we back the bill. But at the moment whats been offered in the meetings is not enough for us; we are not convinced. The environmental charities summoned to the meetings the RSPB, National Trust, Wildlife Trusts, and Wildlife and Countryside Link have 8 million members between them. Some members are concerned at the nature of the proposed deal and the methods being used. One source said: They cannot make deals in backrooms like this, [the NGOs] have to come to us with this. There is a great deal of unease around this. We are not going to stop campaigning against this bill. As yet there has been no agreement from the NGOs to either sign the statement or stop their campaigns. Richard Benwell, the CEO of Wildlife and Countryside Link, confirmed that the groups were talking to the government. He said: As it stands, the bill skews the scales much too far away from the crucial safeguards nature needs. We hope ministers make the significant and wide-ranging amendments needed to reset the balance for nature and ensure that the planning system gives strong protection to vulnerable habitats and species and contributes to nature recovery. The bill has been deemed a regression of environmental law by the chair of the governments own watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection, and two independent legal opinions. It would allow developers to sidestep current environmental law and build without assessing the damage to protected wildlife and habitats, as long as they pay a levy into a central nature recovery fund. The Guardian has revealed that more than 5,000 of Englands most precious protected sites are at high risk of being destroyed by development as a result, according to legal analysis. The planning bill is central to the governments promise to build 1.5m homes and 150 major infrastructure projects in this parliament. Rhetoric from Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Rayner has pitted nature as a blocker to development. But the governments own impact assessment states there is almost no evidence for this claim. More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against the bill and thousands have contacted their MPs over the threat to nature. On Thursday, peers will begin line by line consideration of the legislation. Amendments being considered include one from Lord Roborough, Conservative shadow Defra minister in the Lords, to scrap part 3. Alexa Culver, an environmental lawyer with RSK Wilding, said major problems with the bill had not been addressed by the suggested changes. Back-room bargains are being made about our natural environment and our economy, which are leading to the worst of all worlds amendments, she said. A government spokesperson said: Weve inherited a system that has blocked homes, infrastructure and economic growth while doing nothing for natures recovery, and we are determined to fix this. We have committed to only act in legislation where we can confirm to parliament that the steps we are taking will deliver positive environmental outcomes. We note the support of the Office for Environmental Protection for the intentions behind our reforms and continue to carefully consider their advice. Our planning and infrastructure bill will mean a win-win for both nature and the economy, and we are always listening to views about how we make sure our reforms are as effective as possible so we can leave a lasting legacy of environmental improvement. Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend revealed Rory Sutherland and Ewan Ashman are keen to play a full part against Samoa before heading off on British and Irish Lions duty. Townsend has selected the pair in his front row for Scotlands final summer tour encounter in Auckland on Friday. Darcy Graham has already linked up with the Lions and Glasgow prop Sutherland and Edinburgh hooker Ashman will join him with a view to playing in next Tuesdays match against a First Nations & Pasifika XV. Townsend said: The fact were playing Friday night and they can get to Melbourne on Sunday, the same time as the Lions are arriving, as long as they are available to train on Monday and be available for the game on Tuesday, there wont be any real consideration on game time. We hope every one of our players come through fit but Ewan and Rory were very keen to play. Darcy Graham has joined up with the Lions (Jane Barlow/PA) Townsend was delighted with the additional Lions recognition, which took the number of Scots selected to 12, including the injured Zander Fagerson. Especially for Darcy to go there now and be part of the Lions squad, building up to the first Test and then getting a really good run at potentially being involved in that midweek game, he added. And the other two guys, they were buzzing when I passed on the news to them that they were going to be getting a phone call from the Lions and the players were really pleased for them as well. Maybe its not in the front of their minds because theyve been preparing for a Test match this week but Im sure their focus will turn to the Lions as soon as Friday night is over. Townsend has made five personnel changes following the 29-14 defeat by Fiji. Your Scotland team to take on Samoa in our final Skyscanner Pacific Tour match has been confirmed More https://t.co/XmbQfVZuyN pic.twitter.com/MfdXiLtaLJ Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 16, 2025 Gregor Brown returns from injury to start in the second row while Andy Onyeama-Christie is drafted into the back row after Jamie Ritchie dropped out with a foot injury. Rory Hutchinson and Stafford McDowall form a new centre partnership in place of Cameron Redpath and Tom Jordan, who suffered a fractured hand against Fiji. Arron Reed replaces Graham with Kyle Steyn swapping wings. Ben Muncaster is back from injury but has to settle for a place on the bench alongside uncapped Glasgow prop Fin Richardson. While theres a lot of changes, some of them were outwith our control, Townsend said. But weve looked to put our strongest team out. We were disappointed with the result at the weekend and we want to finish this tour with a real strong performance and finish on a high from a playing point of view because off the field its been excellent. Eden Park will host Scotlands Test against Samoa (David Davies/PA) We feel very privileged to be playing in such an iconic and historic stadium, Eden Park. It will be a great atmosphere, a noisy crowd, youd mainly imagine supporting Samoa. Its one of the most iconic stadiums in world rugby. A great opportunity for us to play a proper Test match in that stadium and finish the tour on a real high. Townsend earmarked two main areas of improvement. The contact area, he said. Just being more ruthless in that area, quicker in support, ball-carrying, working harder on the floor, just not allowing the opposition any opportunities to get the ball back. And our discipline. Discipline can be a number of things that the referee can call you up on, but not being offside, just giving them a bit of space, that would be the first one that we can fix. Katalin Cseh delivers a speech during a session of the European parliament in Brussels, Belgium, in January 2021. Photograph: Thierry Monasse/Getty Images Democrats must organize urgently for the 2026 midterm elections and avoid a it cant happen here mentality to stop Donald Trump from staging a full-scale autocratic takeover, a Hungarian opposition parliamentarian has said. Katalin Cseh, a critic of Hungarys strongman prime minister, Viktor Orban, told a forum on authoritarianism that the central European countrys experience held vital lessons for Trumps opponents in their attempts to resist his assaults on US institutions and democratic norms since his return to the White House. Hungary was important because Trump and his Make America great again (Maga) movement have used Orban and his ruling Fidesz party as a role model, she said. I invite everybody to study the processes that happened [in Hungary] and elsewhere, because autocratic learning is real, said Cseh, a member of Hungarys opposition Momentum Movement. Backsliding just went by us like a train, without anybody realizing how far it had gotten. So its very important to pay attention from the very beginning [and] to mobilize. Hungary, a European Union and Nato member, is often cited as an example of a formerly liberal democracy devolving into whats sometimes called a competitive autocracy in which some opposition parties are tolerated and but elections are heavily weighted to favour the incumbent. Orban who has trumpeted his belief in illiberal democracy has cemented his power over the courts, the media and universities during 15 years in office and four consecutive election victories. Addressing a webinar organized by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based thinktank, Cseh warned US voters against believing their country was immune to such developments. I do believe that many Americans think this is something that also only happens to others, and I think that mindset has to be fought, she said. Start preparing for the midterms like yesterday. Go to every protest, go to every march, stand right beside everybody who is being attacked, no matter if it is a group you belong to, or something that you do not share personally. You have to stand side by side [with] each other and help and support those who might feel isolated and alone. She urged Democrats and activists to form a widely inclusive movement and find candidates for the midterms or any election that is coming your way who can get people excited not necessarily the same old faces they have been seeing all the time that they dont really trust that much, but visionary leaders who are part of a community, who are being persecuted. Leaders such as Trump and Orban could only be effectively opposed, she said, by ditching a legalistic, technical, technocratic approach in favor of something for the electorate to be excited about. Autocrats are not always good in governing. So cost of living, crisis of healthcare, education if the focus is shifted to these areas, and not only technical descriptions of whats going on in the courts, this is something that people can relate to more. The parallels with Hungary came as opinion polls show Orban on course to lose next years general election to the opposition Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar, a former member of the prime ministers party. Related: Tens of thousands defy Hungarys ban on Pride in protest against Orban In a striking sign of Orbans declining authority, his governments attempt to ban last months annual Pride march in Budapest backfired when an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets in defiance. Previous such events have been attended by a few thousand LGBTQ+ activists. Szabolcs Panyi, a journalist with the Hungarian website Direkt36, said Trumps approach to the media drew on a playbook used by Orban, who deployed a range of measures to curtail journalists independence. These included banishing established outlets from briefings in favor of friendly journalists and propagandists, an approach emulated by the White House, which has excluded journalists from the Associated Press and invited representatives from rightwing organizations and social media influencers. What particularly rings out is how certain large media outlets or owners or large conglomerates try to appease Donald Trump by settling lawsuits or by firing journalists [or] editors, he said. It really resembles what happened in Hungary in the 2010s. Paramount Global, the owners of CBS, reached a $16m settlement with Trump this month after he lodged a $10bn suit over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, his 2024 Democratic presidential opponent. ABC agreed to pay Trump $15m last December after he sued over an inaccurate characterization of his conviction over sexual assault allegations brought by the writer E Jean Carroll. Panyi said Trumps attempts to slash funding for public broadcasters such as PBS and Voice of America were also inspired by Orban. [Orban] went after public radio, public TV, and in a matter of a couple of months, it was already transformed into propaganda, he said. Its scary to see similar things happening in the United States. Solidarity is especially important, so whenever there are similar things happening, there should be protests. Journalists should support their colleagues and tell readers that if it happens to one outlet, it can happen to others as well. Ceylan Akca, a member of Turkeys pro-Kurdish Peoples Equality and Democracy party, said more than two decades of rule under the countrys authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had demonstrated that political opponents should not wait for the storm to pass. Its going to continue to rain, she said. If you wait for it to stop, it wont, and while youre in the eye of the storm, you have to continue to mobilize and never be discouraged. Tamara Tripic, an opposition parliamentarian in Serbia, where Aleksandar Vucic, the president, is accused of instituting an autocracy that has provoked waves of opposition protests, warned that modern authoritarians camouflaged their actions behind a cloak of legality. We have to be aware that they are using [tools that] are usually legal but misused, institutional but hollowed out, democratic in appearance but authoritarian in essence, she said. It doesnt look like dictatorship, but its functioning like one. Our problem, especially if you are progressive, is that usually people are afraid of the freedom we are offering. They are willing to trade some freedom for the illusion of order, identity and security. File photo of a brown bear. The Norwegian bears two cubs are also to be killed on the grounds they would starve without her. Photograph: Bogdan Cristel/Reuters The hunt for a brown bear that bit a man on the elbow has been put on hold, the Norwegian environment agency has announced, in a case that angered animal rights campaigners after officials shot the wrong bear. The agency said on Wednesday it did not now plan to act on a bear-culling order it issued in late June in Jarfjord, near the border with Russia, after a female bear bit a mans arm, leaving him needing stitches. The order had caused outrage after nature inspectors who were tracking the female bear lost the trail and then killed a male bear by mistake. On Tuesday, Oslo district court quashed a temporary injunction that animal rights groups had obtained to save the mother bear and her two cubs, which were also to be killed on the grounds they would starve without her. However, the environment agency then said it would not cull the bears after all as they had moved south. Siri Martinsen, a vet and activist with the animal rights group Noah, which had sought the injunction with Our Predators Association, said: This decision is the first professionally sound decision the Norwegian environment agency has made in this scandalous case. She had described the court verdict on Tuesday as just another example of Norways appalling predator policy. Brown bears in Norway are endangered but may be culled for a variety of reasons, including to keep people safe. Campaigners argued that the female bear was no more dangerous than other bears and that the risk of similar incidents was minimal. They said several aggravating factors were at play during the attack, such as her feeling her cubs were threatened, protecting a nearby animal carcass, and the presence of a dog the victim had with him. The bear in this case was behaving like a bear, the campaigners argued in court. The environment agency said it had fulfilled all the legal requirements to order a cull and did not need to prove that the animal was more likely than other bears to attack humans. With its behaviour, the bear has already shown that it poses a risk to human life and health, it said. Related: Hunter missing in Japan as spate of bear attacks triggers emergency to be declared in northern town The court ruled in favour of the agency and agreed with the portrayal of the bear as not being timid. It noted that the attack took place about 300 metres away from the victims home, in an area with hiking trails. The agency said on Wednesday that the bear had not been seen on wildlife cameras in the area in the past week. Hilde Singsaas, the agencys director, said: The risk of new encounters between humans and the female in question is now significantly lower than when we decided to cull on 26 June. We will therefore not decide on any new cull now. Europes appetite for killing big carnivores has increased in recent years as wolves eating farmers sheep and several bear attacks on humans have fuelled fury at rules to protect wildlife. Far-right parties across the continent have campaigned to weaken green rules in the face of threats from wild animals. In the Norwegian case, campaigners said environmental authorities painted a misleading picture of the bear. The bite had been widely reported as an unprovoked attack on a hiker, but a police report to the environment agency, reproduced in the courts ruling on Tuesday, showed the victim had two hunting dogs when he first encountered the animal. He took one of the dogs home and returned with the other to follow the tracks he had spotted. Martinsen said: The man who was injured was following the bears tracks on his own initiative with a hunting dog. That is exactly what you should not do with a bear and her cubs when theyre small. She said the environment agency had failed to properly inform the public of the nature of the attack. The agency declined to comment on its characterisation of the attack. According to the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, bears in Scandinavia injure one person a year on average, and the vast majority of attacks happen while hunting. Campaigners welcomed the environment agencys latest decision but criticised it for leaving the door open to kill the bear if it returns. Alette Sandvik, of Our Predators Association, said: The suggestion that a new felling permit can be issued just because she is seen in the area is contrary to the terms of the law. This area is part of the natural habitat of the female, and it is not the case that females should be able to be shot just because you see them. Credit: Al Jazeera/Social media Israel launched air strikes on the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, bombing the Syrian defence ministry in a warning to the new government over military action near its borders. The Israeli military also carried out strikes in southern Syria, where sectarian violence has raged in recent days involving the Druz minority, whom Israel has vowed to protect. The attacks on the Syrian capital marked the most extensive Israeli escalation against the Syrian government since Bashar al-Assad was ousted and replaced by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former Islamist terrorist. The moment the Syrian military headquarters was hit was captured live on news broadcasts, following an earlier drone strike on the building. Warplanes then dropped bombs on a target near the presidential palace. Footage showed part of the defence ministry in ruins as smoke billowed over the area. Five security personnel were killed in the attack and a dozen more people injured, Syrian reports suggest. Credit: X Soon after the strikes, Syrian officials declared a new ceasefire was reached in Sweida, a city in the south that has witnessed days of violence between Druze militias and neighbouring Bedouin tribes. Israel Katz, Israels defence minister, warned the Syrian government earlier on Wednesday to leave Druze in Sweida alone, later threatening to unleash painful blows to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal from Syrias south. The US has urged all sides to step back and work towards a ceasefire. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that he was very concernedand is talking to both sides to get the fighting to stop. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight, he wrote on X on Wednesday evening. 1707 Syria Israel Syrian government forces began being deployed towards Sweida on Monday with the stated aim of quelling violence between the minority groups, which broke out on Sunday. Israel began striking Syrian tanks in what it called a clear warning not to hurt the Druze. After the regime entered the city on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, ordered the powerful airstrikes to begin. Al-Sharaa on Thursday hailed US, Arab and Turkish mediation for saving the region from an unknown fate, while criticising Israel for targeting civilians. The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities, he said in a televised address. This led to a significant complication of the situation and pushed matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate, he said. He added that those responsible for violence against Druze people would be held accountable. Israel, home to tens of thousands of Druze, has cast itself as the defender of the religious minority and taken territory inside the country to create a buffer zone, in a move it insists is to protect them. However, some analysts say it is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian forces as far from the border as possible. Inside the Druze-majority city of Sweida, witnesses reported that government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians, carrying out a bloody rampage through the city and seizing key sites. Footage shows men in military fatigues cutting off Druze mens beards and moustaches, which hold religious significance, and attacking civilians. It was not clear who had carried out the public humiliations. Credit: @SachaRoytman / X The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 21 Druze civilians have been killed in field executions. The Axios news website, citing a senior US official, said American intelligence does not appear to show any Syrian government involvement in the atrocities. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel said it was sending more troops to the armistice line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-controlled territory. Yet hundreds of Druze residents of Israel have burst through the border in order to link up with Druze militias fighting in Syria. Mr Netanyahu urged Druze not to cross, warning of a very serious situation in Sweida. Credit: X Israel later confirmed it was planning to redeploy some troops from Gaza to the Syrian border. The fighting marks the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead. The head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, called the current situation an existential battle for the Druze community. Syrias leadership has vowed to punish those who committed heinous acts violations against Druze civilians, but its control over its own disparate forces, appears shaky. Israels bombing campaign poses a significant challenge to Al-Sharaa, a rebel fighter turned statesman, who has struggled to assert control and unite Syrias patchwork of religious and ethnic factions since taking over in December. Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border - Leo Correa/AP The fact that armed groups aligned with regime forces are attacking Druze without accountability has exposed the fragility of Al-Sharaas hold on power, said Professor Lina Khatib, a Middle East analyst at Chatham House. A key issue, she told The Telegraph, is that thousands of fighters that are not trained to be part of a state apparatus, and that came from jihadist ranks, now find themselves blended into Syrian armed forces. It will be very difficult for the Syrian government to quickly overturn the situation in Sweida, Prof Khatib added. The outlook in the near-future looks very worrying. Armed Druze groups, who are highly distrusting of their new rulers, have refused to be incorporated under one centralised army and have largely retained control over the Sweida region, their heartland. Despite outwardly promising tolerance and acceptance, Syrias authorities have been accused repeatedly of trampling over the rights of the countrys diverse minorities. Mr Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of forces of the Islamist-led government near territory it controls. The Israeli military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus twice on Wednesday as it intervened in the clashes between the Syrian army and Druze fighters in southern Syria in the countrys deadliest violence in months. The strikes collapsed four floors of the ministry and ruined its facade. The strikes killed one person and injured 18, Syrian officials said. It was the first time Israel had targeted Damascus since May and the third day in a row it had conducted airstrikes against the Syrian military. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said the strike on the defence ministry had been a message to the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa regarding the events in Sweida. The Israeli military struck Syrian tanks on Monday and has continued to conduct dozens of drone strikes on troops, killing some soldiers. Israel has said it will not allow the Syrian army to deploy in the south of the country, and that it would protect the Druze community from the Damascus government. Many in the Druze community have rebuffed Israels claim of patronage for fear of being viewed as a foreign proxy. The Israeli bombing added another complication to an already escalating conflict between Syrian government forces, Bedouin Arab tribes and Druze fighters. More than 250 people have been killed in four days of clashes, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). On Wednesday, the Syrian government and one of the three spiritual leaders of the Syrian Druze community announced a ceasefire. It was unclear if the truce would hold, however, as another spiritual leader, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, vowed to keep fighting, calling the government a collection of armed gangs. A ceasefire announced on Tuesday broke down in similar circumstances. On Wednesday night, Reuters reported that the UN security council would meet on Thursday to discuss the situation. The clashes pitting mostly Sunni government forces against Druze fighters have prompted fears of a wider sectarian conflict. An attack in March by remnants of the ousted regime of Bashar al-Assad on security forces led to violence in which more than 1,500 people were killed, most of them from the minority Alawite community. The violence is the most serious challenge to Damascuss rule since the coastal massacres and has threatened to further push away everyday Druze from the state. The Druze, a religious minority in Syria and the wider Middle East, make up the majority of the population of Sweida province in the south of the country. They have been negotiating with the Islamist-led authorities in Damascus since the fall of Assad, in an attempt to achieve some form of autonomy. They have yet to reach an agreement that defines their relationship with the new Syrian state. The Syrian army entered Sweida on Sunday in an attempt to restore calm between Druze fighters and Arab Bedouin tribes. Fighting broke out after Bedouin tribe members robbed a Druze man on the main road south of Damascus, kicking off a cycle of retaliatory violence between the two groups. Intermittent violence between members of the Druze and Bedouin communities has been common in the area in recent years. Some Druze militias have vowed to prevent Syrian government forces entering Sweida and have attacked them, leading to escalating clashes. As government forces entered Sweida, accounts of human rights abuses began to emerge. On Tuesday around noon, armed gunmen entered a reception hall belonging to the Radwan family in Sweida and killed 15 unarmed men and one woman, three members of the family told the Guardian. The SOHR also reported the killings, though put the number of dead at 12. I just lost nine close friends and relatives. It just makes me feel so sad. There are no weapons allowed in the [hall], its not like its a military base, said Maan Radwan, a 46-year-old London resident whose relatives were killed in the shooting. Video of the aftermath of the shooting showed unarmed men strewn across a room lying in pools of blood. Family members said men in army fatigues prevented ambulances from reaching the reception hall, which they thought was meant to ensure the wounded died from blood loss. We dont know who is with general security, who are jihadists, who are Bedouin tribespeople. Its impossible to tell who is killing us, a 52-year old teacher and relative of the Radwan family in Sweida told the Guardian by phone. A surgeon at the Sweida national hospital said that the bodies of those killed in the Radwan house bore close-range gunshot wounds, adding that they knew many of those who were killed in the shootings personally. Sharaa issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the human rights violations. These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances and completely contradict the principles that the Syrian state is built on, the statement said, adding that perpetrators would be held accountable. The US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, posted on X saying: Actions must follow to end violence, ensure accountability and protect all Syrians. It was unclear who was committing the abuses against civilians, and witnesses said they could not distinguish between state security forces and militia fighters. On their private social media, two members of the government forces posted sectarian hate speech against Druze. One member of the government forces posted a video of him and two other soldiers driving through Sweida laughing as he said: We are on our way to distribute aid, while brandishing a machete to the camera. He filmed himself inside a house in Sweida ripping a picture of Druze spiritual leaders off a wall and trampling it with his boots. If God grants you victory, none can defeat you. We are coming for you with sectarianism, he continued. The Syrian defence ministry said it was adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents. Several civilians in Sweida city described being locked inside their home as fighting continued outside, while electricity and other basic supplies have been cut off. One 52-year-old English teacher said they had watched as their neighbour was shot dead by a hidden sniper, and that no one could collect the body for fear of being shot. A 31-year-old resident of Sweida said he watched as armed men burned the shop below his house, calling the Druze swine as they ransacked the neighbouring building. The Syrian interior ministry said the continued fighting could only be solved by integrating the Druze-majority province into the state and said it came in the absence of relevant official institutions. The killings in Sweida provoked anger among the wider Druze community in the Middle East. Some Israeli Druze in the occupied Golan Heights managed to cross the fence into Syria before being retrieved by the Israeli army. The Israeli military also said that it had reinforced its presence along the Syria-Israel border. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a statement urging people not to try to cross the border into Syria. Do not cross the border. You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be taken hostage, and you are impeding the efforts of the IDF, he said. Relations between Israel and Syria had begun to thaw before this week, with Israeli and Syrian officials engaging in security discussions and military coordination. Syrias leadership has hinted it could eventually normalise relations with its southern neighbour. After the fall of Assad, the Israeli military launched hundreds of airstrikes against military assets in Syria and invaded the countrys south, where it continues to occupy large swathes of territory. July 16, 2025: There once was a time, twenty years ago, when the U.S. Army had a crazy idea. It was the Grizzly, a new US Army combat engineer vehicle, just beginning its testing program. The first battalion to get the Grizzly was to receive 35 of them in 2004. This didnt happen as the project was cancelled in 2001 because it was too expensive and did not serve an essential need. The Grizzly was built on an M1 tank chassis but doesn't have the armor of a real tank. Even so, the armor protected the vehicles from anything short of a tank shell or anti-tank missiles. Grizzly had a full-width dozer blade able to grade roads, clear obstacles, fill in ditches, or in a pinch to plow its way through a minefield. The best part of the Grizzly, however, was a remotely operated bucket arm mounted on the right front corner of the vehicle. This device could reach out about seven meters and pull items as heavy as 1,200 kg. This could allow the Grizzly to dig up enemy bunkers, pull apart barbed wire fences, dig up concrete dragons teeth, or even pull a wrecked truck out of a road. The two-man crew of Grizzly remained inside the vehicle, viewing the battlefield through seven video cameras and various periscopes and view ports. The vehicle's 12.7mm machinegun could be fired by remote control from inside the vehicle. Grizzly never entered service because it cost too much to produce. Only the Grizzly prototype was completed. The M1 Grizzly was the US military's short-lived Combat Engineering Vehicle/CEV replacement, based on the M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank/MBT chassis rather than the M-60 tank chassis of the older CEV. The new one was developed in the early 1990s to play the role of a Breacher system for the modern battlefield. In fact, the product was originally named Breacher. A prototype appeared in 1995, but the program was scrapped in 2001 due to Army budget constraints. The U.S. Army planned to procure about 366 Grizzly vehicles as part of its program to replace outdated Abrams tanks. This provided some degree of logistics assistance in terms of parts commonality. Grizzly retained most of the Abrams' general shape and performance, including amphibious capabilities, by eliminating the powered main turret. Grizzly's defining features are its bow-mounted dozer blade and trainable telescoping Arm, with dozer bucket in the rear. The onboard Auxiliary Power Unit/APU powered the system when the engine was off. The Grizzly retained the Abrams' Nuclear, Biological, Chemical/NBC and fire suppression kit for basic crew survivability and was moderately armed via a Remote Weapon Station/RWS with a 1 x 12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun/HMG. The crew consisted of a driver and vehicle equipment operator seated side by side in the fixed front superstructure. There were 12 smoke grenade launchers in the front part of the superstructure, giving the vehicle a self-defense capability. The mobility gear remained the same as the original Abrams. The gas turbine engine spun the rear sprocket. As with the Abrams design, seven twin-tire wheels were mounted in a track wheel arrangement along each side of the hull. In the end, the program was deemed too expensive to obtain per unit, and too expensive to maintain in the long term. It was replaced with the Smasher CEV, which entered service with the Army and the US Marine Corps in 2009. Thirty-nine were purchased. Why has the BBC got rid of John Torode, known to be a kind man, respectful of contestants and knowledgeable about food? - Dave J Hogan/Getty Images How typical of the BBC to do far too little and then to do far too much to make up for it. John Torode has been summarily sacked from MasterChef, apparently for one extremely offensive racist term that someone overheard in 2018. Thats Torode, the presenter everyone likes, the chef who seriously knows a lot about food and is sweet, nurturing and respectful with the contestants. But, yeah, go ahead and sack him to spare management blushes, and make the corporation suddenly look decisive and responsible when all it will do is upset the many Torode fans. Like my friend Christina, who took part in MasterChef a decade ago. Just heard John Torode has been axed, texted Christina. Absolutely ridiculous, he was a gentleman! What the hell are the BBC doing? By contrast, it took the Beeb many years to sack Gregg Wallace, who was allowed to get away with disgusting remarks and lewd behaviour on set for much of that time. And, no, please dont give me that: No one can take a joke anymore. Its political correctness gone mad. Hes just a working class bloke engaging in banter with the ladies. Or middle-class women of a certain age, as Wallace called his critics in an angry Instagram rant he posted when his creepy behaviour was first made public and he was suspended. That was when he was still acting true to arrogant form and before he discovered my neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism. In 2025, vulnerability is the first refuge of a scoundrel. And a diagnosis of autism is a handy get-out-of-jail-free card, because then the former greengrocer cant be blamed for his tone-deaf sexist behaviour. Or so his lawyers will claim, I expect. Actually, as I have written before, Gregg Wallaces ghastliness was an open secret in the media and among previous MasterChef participants. I knew about it in 2013 when a young friend, Amy (not her real name), was booked to do the make-up on a magazine photo shoot for the new series. She was excited to land the prestigious job, but keen anticipation rapidly turned to Uh-oh! Wallaces idea of a conversational icebreaker was to tell Amy that hed just paid to get ma wifes t--s done. Im not sure which of the lucky Mrs Wallaces he was referring to there have been four, I think. Amy recalled this week that Gregg had recently lost a lot of weight and had been going to the gym. He clearly thought he was Gods gift to women and he was strutting around stripped to the waist and acting in this very cocky manner. It was pretty revolting, but no one said anything. Wallace addressed the pretty 28-year-old make-up artist with a leer: What position does your boyfriend like to do when you f---? Amy froze. She couldnt believe what had just happened. Torode was sitting in the next chair, just a couple of feet away. He must have heard what Gregg said to me, but John just stared fixedly ahead at the mirror and then, a few minutes later, he sort of slunk off. Its not easy for a precarious freelancer to report a major household name for being revolting. Particularly when everyone else on the show must be fully aware of that fact and has decided to keep quiet. Pressed about Wallaces behaviour, Im told one of the women judges, a rising star, said indulgently: Oh, thats just Gregg being Gregg. I find it disappointing that, if he did hear the remarks, Torode didnt use his leverage back then to draw managements attention to his co-presenters gross conduct towards a nervous young woman. Perhaps he did, but the production company that makes the show, Banijay UK, chose to ignore it. It had a winning formula, one of Britains most popular television shows, and no one wanted to cook the golden goose. The BBCs role is less forgivable. There is no way senior managers could avoid hearing the rumours about Wallace. They had a duty of care both to contestants and staff working on the show, one of whom had to deal with Wallace emerging from his dressing room with a sock bobbing on his manhood. (Neurodiversity doesnt prevent you knowing socks go on feet, does it?) I reckon the privately educated Tristrams who still dominate the BBC thought Wallace was an authentic working class rough diamond, when most normal viewers saw a gurning chump who wasnt much good at the job but played the Thassa lavverly playta food geezer card for all it was worth. As with Huw Edwards, a great deal of leeway was afforded to the talent with consequences far worse than if the BBC had acted faster. So why sack Torode for one embarrassing slip of the tongue after so many years of excellent service? Without any prompting, when Christina talked to me about her time on the show, she launched into a description of the toxic atmosphere on set. Torode was a lovely guy who seemed permanently embarrassed by Gregg, while Wallace made a beeline for the youngest, prettiest girl. Its what Gregg Wallace does. Hes a nasty, egregious little man. Torode, by contrast is a gifted chef and a warm communicator with an excellent appreciation of food. That sounds about right, doesnt it? Poor John is a victim of a new BBC zero-tolerance policy because maximum tolerance was foolishly extended to Wallace. John Torode photographed at Buckingham Palace in 2023 after receiving an MBE for services to food and charity - Kirsty O'Connor/Getty Images Can MasterChef survive? That is the question. Well, I doubted whether The Great British Bake Off could continue after it lost Mel and Sue and Mary Berry while retaining that obnoxious alpha silverback Paul Hollywood. But the show has done well on Channel 4 with a roster of variable new presenters, and Prue Leith has been wonderful, although some of us will always pine for Dame Marys soggy bottom. The MasterChef format is strong, and a pair of new presenters untainted by the previous regime could relaunch it. Lets face it, the scandal is hardly on the scale of, say, an institutionally anti-Semitic BBC failing to discover that a child presenter of a documentary on Gaza was the son of, oops, a Hamas official. Still, the unpleasant and unnecessary despatching of John Torode will upset a lot of viewers we know John is a curried scapegoat for managerial incompetence. On the plus side, one of the worst sights on national television is no more: the spittly gob of a drooling Gregg Wallace closing in on a profiterole. Lavverly! Margate is one of the seaside towns dealing with antisocial behaviour, according to a report. (Getty) (CBCK-Christine via Getty Images) Residents of seaside towns in south-east England could be fined 100 for swearing in public, under fresh council proposals. Thanet District Council has launched a fresh bid to see restrictions on foul or abusive language brought in to the Kent seaside towns of Birchington, Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs. The council tried to apply for similar rules known as a public space protection order (PSPO) last July. That scheme was scrapped a month later after the Free Speech Union (FSU) threatened legal action. However, council papers for a meeting on Tuesday have revealed that the authority now hopes to revisit the rules to crack down on antisocial behaviour. In their reasoning for bringing the fines back, the report states that police officers found it a helpful tool, and that they have experienced "increased difficulties in managing some of the identified forms of antisocial behaviour". The report says: There is an ongoing issue of antisocial behaviour in the Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate areas. The causes of this are complex and the PSPO is recognised by all of those working with such behaviour, as being one of the effective tools for dealing with this. Residents in Ramsgate would be subject to new restrictions on swearing in public under the plans. (PA) (SOPA Images, Sipa US) According to the document, the rule states: All persons are prohibited from using foul or abusive language in such a manner that is loud and can be heard by others and cause either alarm or distress to any other person in any public place. The penalty for breaking the PSPO, which will cover Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs entirely, is 100 to be paid within 28 days but is reduced to 60 if paid within 14 days. The order also bans antisocial groups, misuse of public space, urinating, defecating or spitting, legal psychoactive substances (such as nitrous oxide), humiliating others and consuming alcohol. The report acknowledges a lot of criticism of the order, including the vague nature of the term "foul language" and fears of disruption to peaceful protests. However, they say that exceptions will be made if people have a "reasonable excuse" for having broken the rules. Cabinet members are expected to discuss the revisited order in the council chamber on 24 July. If approved, the PSPO will be in place for three years. Yahoo News UK has contacted the Free Speech Union for a comment. Is it illegal to swear in public? Swearing in public isnt automatically illegal it becomes an offence under the Public Order Act 1986, Section 5, if its threatening or abusive and likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress. However, context is key and aggressive swearing in a crowded place can break the law, unlike casual swearing among friends. Someone must feel or be likely to feel distressed for it to be an offence. Police officers are less likely to be considered distressed and so swearing in front of them will not necessarily see you fined. Aggressive swearing in public places can be against the law. (Getty) (OGULCAN AKSOY via Getty Images) There is also an offence of using obscene language in the street to the annoyance of residents. However, an arrest for this is only likely if the behaviour occurs in the presence of a police officer. Other laws, like the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, apply if swearing is racially or religiously aggravated. Local bylaws may also restrict swearing in specific areas. Freedom of expression under the Human Rights Act 1998 protects some swearing. However, courts balance this right against preventing public disorder. What are the punishments for swearing in public? Breaching Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 can lead to a fine up to 1,000. No prison sentence is typically imposed for this offence. If swearing is racially or religiously aggravated under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, penalties are harsher. Offenders could face up to seven years in prison or an unlimited fine. Swearing can come under antisocial behaviour and result in fines. (Getty) (coldsnowstorm via Getty Images) Local bylaws, like those proposed by Thanet, may result in fixed penalty notices, often around 100. Non-payment could lead to court action and higher fines. Police may issue a penalty notice for disorder (PND) for minor offences, costing 80. Paying this avoids court but admits guilt. In rare cases, persistent or extreme behaviour could escalate to charges under broader public order laws. This might involve community orders or, in exceptional cases, short custodial sentences. Click below to see the latest South and South East headlines People at Nasser hospital mourn Palestinians killed while seeking aid in Khan Younis. Photograph: Hatem Khaled/Reuters At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in a crush at a food distribution site in southern Gaza run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). It happened after GHF guards used teargas or pepper spray on hungry crowds arriving at the centre, Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said. Nineteen people were crushed and one stabbed in a chaotic and dangerous surge on Wednesday morning, GHF said in a statement. It did not respond to questions about the use of pepper spray or teargas by its staff at the site near Khan Younis. Fifteen people died from suffocation after teargas was fired at the crowd, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement. All of the 15 arrived at the hospital already dead with obvious symptoms of lack of oxygen. You can see blue marks, vomit, blue lips, swelling faces all symptoms of suffocation, Dr Mohammed Zaqqout, the director of hospitals for Gaza, said. We couldnt save any of the 15 we received because they were already dead on arrival. Abdel Ghani Rouqas 20-year-old nephew, Mohammad, was among the dead. The tents are completely empty now, lacking any food or drink, so people, with no other options or alternatives, are forced to go to dangerous areas just to get a can of fava beans or hummus, or even a few kilograms of flour, anything to feed their hungry families, Rouqa said. Unfortunately, when Mohammad went there today, the place was extremely crowded. The Israeli army had narrowed the area and created some passages for people to walk through, he added. What happened today was that, with the army firing teargas canisters at the densely packed crowd in front of the aid distribution gates, panic broke out. People started pushing and rushing to flee the area. Mohammad fell to the ground and couldnt get up or escape. As the panicked crowd fled, they stepped on him, some on his stomach or back, some on his head, and others on his legs until he lost his life, his uncle said. The main cause of the chaos and deaths of more than 20 people was the firing of gas bombs. GHF rejected the accounts provided by relatives and the Gaza health authorities and instead blamed the incident on Hamas. Chapin Fay, a GHF spokesperson, said: Make no mistake, this tragic incident was no accident. This was a calculated provocation, part of a pattern of targeted efforts by Hamas and its allies to dismantle our life-saving operations. GHF personnel identified a large number of people within the crowd carrying pistols. One American GHF worker, a medical professional, was targeted by a suspected Hamas affiliate with a pistol. The medic attempted to tackle him, but in the process, the Hamas affiliate fled the site, and the medic was stabbed by another Hamas affiliate with an ice pick-like weapon. Fay said no teargas was deployed, but pepper spray was used, only to protect against additional loss of life. He added that warning shots were fired in the air to disperse the crowd when a GHF worker saw a child in danger of being crushed, and that the GHF worker was able to save the child. In an earlier statement, GHF said that the trampling deaths were the result of a surge instigated by armed Hamas agitators who infiltrated the crowd. Fay said 19 people had been trampled to death, and another died from stab wounds. The 19 victims who were trampled likely died due to compressive asphyxia, otherwise known as suffocation, which is the leading cause of death in these types of incidents, he said in an online briefing. The deaths marked a grim milestone for Palestinians in a war where Israeli attacks have already killed more than 58,000 people, the majority of them civilians. On Tuesday 13 members of the same family, including seven children, were reported killed when an Israeli airstrike hit their home in eastern Gaza City. Some of the victims were left to die under the rubble, as the Israeli military prevented rescuers from approaching the scene for roughly eight hours with the use of drone strikes, local rescue workers and family members told the Haaretz newspaper. Israeli forces have killed at least 800 Palestinians while they were trying to access food since the GHF began operations in late May. Many of them were trying to reach a GHF distribution site. The deaths on Wednesday were the first at a site controlled by the organisations armed security guards. Gaza health authorities also said they were the first due to suffocation and severe stampedes. GHF, a startup organisation with no experience of distributing food in complex conflict zones, says it bears no responsibility for deaths outside its perimeters. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday it would donate $30m (22m) to the organisation, a move decried as outrageous by the Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen. Van Hollen referred to GHF as a shadowy group at the centre of the scheme to replace humanitarian aid orgs in Gaza with mercenaries, leading to the killing of starving civilians trying to collect food. Taxpayers shouldnt be paying for this outrage, the senator said in a social media post. GHF runs only four sites to feed 2 million people, in a territory where extreme hunger is widespread and food security experts have warned of looming famine. Food security experts say deaths are inevitable in a system with only four sites, which open for short, irregular periods, providing food for hundreds of thousands of desperately hungry people. Under the aid model run by the UN and major international humanitarian organisations, which fed Palestinians during nearly 20 months of war, there were more than 400 aid distribution points used to bring food into communities. Israeli authorities claimed they needed a new aid system because Hamas was diverting aid, but have not provided evidence to back up allegations that closely audited supply chains of UN and humanitarian agencies were compromised. William Christou in Beirut contributed reporting Maga illo When it matters, only Donald Trump can pull the Maga movement back from the brink. Since Mr Trump returned to the White House in January, his support base has been engulfed by rows on everything from Jeffrey Epstein to launching airstrikes on Iran. But each time the US president has been there to paper over the cracks appearing in his coalition. Last month, Nato chief Mark Rutte described Mr Trump as a daddy who has to sometimes use strong language to keep his team in check. Mr Rutte was talking about the Middle East, but it could easily describe the Republicans role as the patriarch of the Maga movement. And while that family might squabble like any other, its rare for any of them to become permanently estranged. Or maybe Mr Trumps instincts stem from his time as a real estate developer in New York City. Know your market is one of the key lessons from his 1987 memoir, The Art of the Deal. Either way, Maga is woven together by a strange mix of personality and ideology, and many GOP strategists doubt it can survive when Mr Trump finally exits the political stage. Asked what held the movement together, Dave Carney, a veteran Republican operative who worked on George H W Bush and Bob Doles presidential campaigns, said simply: president Trump. Donald Trump accepted a $400 million luxury jet gifted from Qatar to serve as Air Force One - Qatar News Agency/Shutterstock Qatari jet gift There were early signs of trouble when Mr Trump decided to accept a $400 million luxury jet gifted from Qatar to serve as Air Force One, something which united moderates and the Maga faithful in condemnation. Taking a plane from a country accused of sponsoring extremist groups that include Hamas and Hezbollah, and which Mr Trump had labelled funders of terrorism a few years ago, proved too much for some to swallow. Laura Loomer, the Right-wing activist at the centre of many of the Maga rows, was bitterly disappointed in the decision. Once she declared she would take a bullet for the president. But in May she called the jet a stain on the Trump administration, declaring: We cannot accept a $400 million gift from jihadists in suits. Conservative radio host Mark Levin agreed, while Ben Shapiro, the co-founder of the Daily Wire and a prominent Maga voice, accused Mr Trump of abandoning his America First movement. But the president rode out the turbulence and still got his plane. He held off on direct criticisms of allies and even seems to have launched a charm offensive, calling Ms Loomer shortly afterwards, who apologised for jumping to conclusions. Mr Trump knows how to pick his battles, and unite his restless base against a common enemy rather than letting them turn against themselves. The president labelled the Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie not Maga and and a simple-minded grandstander Iran strikes Many prominent Maga voices, scarred by military quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, were sceptical when he launched air strikes on Irans nuclear sites last month using bunker-busting bombs. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand Republican congresswoman, declared she was sick of foreign wars and urged Mr Trump to focus on domestic issues like the invasion of the USs borders by illegal immigrants. And Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps former White House chief strategist, warned the strikes would not have been what a lot of Maga wanted to hear. If they hit back at American troops, do we go back in and hit again? Next thing you know, brother, youre in a forever war, he said on his War Room podcast. Mr Trump held off and instead picked a fight with someone outside Maga Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who hails more from the partys libertarian tradition. In a 300-word diatribe on his Truth Social account, the president labelled the Kentucky congressman not Maga and a simple-minded grandstander, declaring he planned to campaign against him in next years primaries. Maga doesnt want him, doesnt know him, and doesnt respect him, he said. Brian Darling, a Republican strategist who is a big fan of Mr Massie and worked for fellow Kentuckian Rand Paul, believes focusing Maga supporters against a common enemy proved an effective strategy. Donald Trump picks fights with members of his own party and he intimidates them, he added. Many times he will threaten primaries and hell just browbeat Republican members of Congress to get in line. Mr Trump was also helped by effective surrogates who could sell the Iran strikes, like the vice-president, JD Vance, who insisted the president had been consistent on Iran his whole career. And the Right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, when Mr Trump suggested Iran should undergo regime change, insisted he was talking about a bottom-up revolution rather than decapitating its leadership. The FBI and justice department concluded, in a memo seen by Axios, there was no client list and Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell - Davidoff Studios/Getty Images Epstein files Surrogates can also be important human shields, as the presidents top law enforcement lieutenants have found out to their cost over the botched handling of the Epstein files. Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, the director and deputy director of the FBI, had spent years playing into conspiracies about a black book owned by Jeffrey Epstein, the paedophile and disgraced financier. Attorney general Pam Bondi, meanwhile, claimed in February that his client list was on her desk, ready to review. But this month the FBI and justice department concluded, in a memo seen by Axios, there was no client list and Epstein rather than being silenced by the deep state of shadowy figures controlling the government killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell. Pam Bondi fed a monster, said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican operative who worked for the first Trump administration in the State Department. And now theres a chance that the monster eats her. Credit: Reuters He still believes the issue is damaging for Mr Trump because it goes beyond a policy debate to the much more compelling issue of: I dont believe my government is telling me the truth. But for now most of the heat seems to be taken by Ms Bondi and the FBI duo, who dont have the same Teflon quality as the president or the same regard of the Maga base. Dan Bongino, the FBI deputy director, has been so affected by the fallout, he is considering resigning. Federal agents grab protesters during a demonstration over federal immigration enforcement raids in Newark, New Jersey - Andres Kudacki/Getty Images Immigration On immigration, the administration has been dragged in opposite directions by the demands of hawkish Maga voices while Big Tech and farmers worry about their workforce. It burst to the fore in December in a row between Mr Bannon and Elon Musk, then a chief ally of Mr Trumps, over H1-B visas for highly-skilled immigrants. There was so much bad blood between the two men that Mr Bannon threatened to rip his fing face off. Mr Trump sided with Mr Musk at the time but has also embarked on a mass deportation drive while aggressively stamping out illegal immigration. And on the issue of migrant workers on farms, the administration is creating a temporary visa programme to fill jobs. Both the president and the White House has aggressively pushed back on suggestions the move is amnesty or amnesty lite. Another factor in Mr Trumps favour is that the Democrats, having lost the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives in November, are in such disarray they arent threatening to erode his base of support. The president is one lucky motherf----r, said Mr Carney. His opponents are so bad, it makes his successes look even better. Mr Bannon claims there are three pillars of Maga: restricting free trade, limiting immigration and ending the forever wars. But there is something that underpins all of that: Mr Trump. Danielle Vinson, a professor of politics at Furman University in South Carolina, said the movement was not ideologically consistent or monolithic on issues. Maga is largely a cult of personality, so as long as Trump is president, he will have their support, she said. Not everyone in Maga cares about all these issues equally. Maga is more about style than substance, and Maga is really primarily about Trump. Zohran Mamdani speaks at an endorsement event from the union DC 37 on 15 July 2025, in New York City. Photograph: Spencer Platt/Getty Images Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York mayor, has told business leaders in the city he will not use the phrase globalize the intifada and discourage others from doing so, according to reports. Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won the Democratic nomination last month, has been under pressure to clarify his position on the phrase that many regard as a call to violence against Jews, and one that he had previously declined to condemn. The 33-year-old made the commitment during a closed-door meeting with business executives hosted on Tuesday by the Partnership for New York City, an influential business body that represents banks, law firms and corporations, per the New York Times. Many executives have expressed alarm at Mamdanis positions, which they consider to be anti-business and risk driving corporations and the tax base of wealthy New Yorkers from the city. But his cautious defense of the phrase has brought accusations that he is fostering antisemitism. He previously told the US news show Meet the Press that the term was not language that I use but that I dont believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech. Mamdani explained at the Tuesday meeting that many use globalize the intifada as an expression of support for Palestinians. He said that, for him, the phrase means protest against the Israeli occupation of Gaza, according to the Wall Street Journal. Mamdani also said he is willing to discourage the specific language, but not the idea behind it. During his campaign for mayor, he had explained that the word intifada had been used in translations by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to describe a Jewish uprising against the Nazis in Warsaw in 1943. He told reporters at the time: It pains me to be called an antisemite. Many New York business leaders, including Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan; Steve Schwartzman of Blackstone; Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America; Larry Fink of BlackRock; and David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, did not attend the meeting. [Jamie Dimon] had other commitments and was unable to attend, a JPMorgan spokesperson told the New York Post. Just days ago, Dimon lambasted Mamdani at an event in Ireland, calling the mayoral hopeful more of a Marxist than a socialist. And now you see these Democrats falling all over themselves saying, Well, hes pointing out some real problems, affordable housing and grocery prices, Dimon continued, before claiming Mamdani pushed the same ideological mush that means nothing in the real world. Mamdani reportedly told business leaders at the meeting that his goal is not to drive business from the city. Kathy Wylde, head of the business group, described the attitude to Mamdani among her members as guarded. But most recognized that hes a smart young man and a good communicator and the proof will be in the pudding, Wylde told the Times. New York Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader in the House, and senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, have not yet endorsed Mamdani for mayor. What globalize the intifada means is really wrong and should be condemned, Schumer told the Times. The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, sought to calm frayed nerves, telling MSNBCs Morning Joe on Wednesday that she felt she had become New Yorks therapist in chief. Ive spoken to hundreds of business leaders saying, Listen, nothing is going to happen to this city without me being aware of it and involved in it. So dont talk about packing up and leaving and all these other overreactions, Hochul told the show. Ive become the therapist in chief, it seems. So Im saying to everybody, Were going be OK. Maybe its the mom in me. I know how to calm down situations and well get through this. Mamdani faces three independent mayoral candidates in Novembers election, incumbent mayor Eric Adams, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and attorney Jim Walden, as well as the Republican Curtis Sliwa. Passengers brought to the UK from Afghanistan disembark on Aug 17 2021 as the Taliban takes Kabul - Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty The Ministry of Defence has warned law firms suing for compensation for the Afghan leak victims that it will fight them hard. At least two practices have vowed to take legal action against the Government on behalf of hundreds who claim they were affected by the most damaging data breach in British history. The 2022 leak of details of 18,800 Afghans, along with about 6,000 of their family members, was revealed on Tuesday after a super-injunction was lifted by the High Court. Hundreds of Afghans say the leak by a Royal Marine risked their lives. Compensation cases could cost taxpayers nearly 1bn, with two legal firms saying they are representing clients. However, a spokesman for the MoD said: We will do everything possible to defend against any compensation claims. We have taken appropriate action in line with the level of risk these individuals faced. Any claims we do get, we will fight them hard. People evacuated as Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 at RAF Brize Norton - Jacob King/Pool/Getty It is not clear what the MoDs defence would be, and the ministry would not elaborate on this. The breach occurred in February 2022, when the Marine emailed a group of Afghans, accidentally including a spreadsheet naming nearly 25,000 Afghans applying for asylum on the basis they had worked with the British Army, as well as identifying their family members. Law firms are approaching clients to sue the MoD, including Barings Law, based in Manchester, which is acting on behalf of at least 1,000 Afghans who claim they were affected. It was reported the firm sent messages on WhatsApp groups urging Afghans to sign up to the legal case on the expectation they would be given large sums of money, without being able to explain the grounds without breaching the super-injunction. It hopes to claim 50,000 from the MoD for each individual involved in the breach. If all 18,800 soldiers make a successful claim, the compensation bill could be as high as 940m. That sum could grow if any of the Afghan soldiers family members join the legal claim, taking it towards 1 billion in total. Adnan Malik, head of data protection at Barings Law, said: This is an incredibly serious data breach, which the MoD has repeatedly tried to hide from the British public. It involved the loss of personal and identifying information about Afghan nationals who have helped British forces to defeat terrorism and support security and stability in the region. Through its careless handling of such sensitive information, the MoD has put multiple lives at risk, damaged its own reputation, and put the success of future operations in jeopardy by eroding trust in its data security measures. Second firm involved The Telegraph can reveal that a second law firm, Leigh Day, is acting for potential clients. A spokesman said the firm had been contacted by clients who had been told by the MoD that their details were part of the data breach. Others approached Leigh Day via its website after reading about its work. Sean Humber, a data breach lawyer, said: We are acting for clients affected by the data breach who remain in Afghanistan and others who are now in the UK. The priority must be ensuring the safety of those affected by the data breach who remain in Afghanistan. The level of compensation is likely to be in the thousands, although the exact amount is likely to vary and will probably be higher for those remaining in Afghanistan compared to those that have successfully relocated to the UK. The firm said it could not say how many clients it had or how much compensation they were seeking. The leak came to light in 2023, when an anonymous Facebook user posted extracts of the data on the social media site. MoD officials contacted Meta, the company that owns Facebook, and the posts were deleted within three days. However, the Government decided it had no choice but to offer asylum to the Afghans affected because the leak had left them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban. The breach has only just come to public attention after an unprecedented super-injunction was lifted by the High Court. The MoDs combative approach to compensation is a marked contrast to the Tory governments stance over a previous BCC incident in 2021. Then, the MoD mistakenly exposed the personal information of 277 Afghan nationals, some of whom had worked for the British government and were in hiding from the Taliban. A mass email was sent to those, such as interpreters, who could be targeted by the Taliban and were eligible to be relocated. Their emails were added to the To field instead of the blind carbon copy section, meaning their names could be seen by all recipients. The Tory government agreed to set up a taxpayer-funded compensation scheme, which Labour agreed to honour with an offer of up to 4,000 for each of the victims. But they will not do the same for the latest data breach, which is on a much larger scale and could have put 100,000 lives at risk. Vladimir Putin As the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into a third year, Vladimir Putin has set his sights on new frontiers where he can further sow destabilisation. Amongst his new targets are Moldova, Georgia and the Western Balkans, where Moscow is fomenting chaos in the hopes of diverting Western attention from the atrocities Russia is committing in Ukraine. Putin can accomplish his security objectives here not through open conflict but by fuelling separatist movements and influence operations. On Monday, Russias foreign intelligence agency accused Nato of making Moldova a forward base and of preparing to draw Moldova into ... armed conflict with Russia. Russian media, meanwhile, spreads outlandish claims that Moldova is riddled with Western intelligence services and that MI6 is taking control of the Moldovan elections. Moscow has also claimed Moldovan intelligence is cooperating with Ukraine to sabotage Russia. According to this idea, the West is using Moldova as a weapon against Russia, escalating tensions there and driving the country towards the same fate as Ukraine. In psychology, this is called projection. It is Russia that is propagating chaos in Moldovas upcoming elections. Russia wants to show that the West, particularly Europe, will not respond out of fear of escalations and will not support Moldovas turn towards Europe. Moldova, a small country in Europe that was once a Soviet Republic, has been subject to severe Russian pressure before. Russian peacekeepers are located in Transnistria, an internationally unrecognised, pro-Russian breakaway region. Beyond blunt military force, Russia has a variety of other means to influence Moldovan politics. During the 2024 presidential election campaign, Ilan Shor, a pro-Kremlin Moldovan oligarch, allegedly organised a $39 million vote-buying scheme through which over 138,000 Moldovans reportedly received money. More subtly, Russia can take advantage of the fact that Moldova is home to a large Russian-speaking population, as well as the autonomous region of Gagauzia, which is at odds with the central government in Moldovas capital Chisinau. The outcome of elections on September 28th could determine Moldovas future policy towards the EU. Moldova is not the only place where Russia has intensified its hybrid warfare: Moscow has employed the same playbook in the Western Balkans. The Balkans most explosive tinderbox is Bosnia and Herzegovina. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the country is still wracked by divisions between Bosniak, Serb, and Croat communities, and Russia has exploited these ethnic divisions to its advantage. The Dayton agreement is in jeopardy, with Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, another Russian ally, threatening Republika Srpskas secession from the country. Russia has been trying to prove that Nato is a paper tiger unable to provide security in the Western Balkans. Russias goal in the Balkans is to position itself as the regions only reliable conflict negotiator. This game plan accomplishes two goals: strengthening Moscows standing in the region; and giving Putin leverage over Western powers. Putin aims to keep Georgia, too, under his thumb. According to the US defence intelligence agency: Russia almost certainly aims to return Georgia to its sphere of influence. Since the parliamentary elections in October, the Georgian Dream-led government has created an environment that enables Russia to increase its influence in the country. The countrys ruling populist party, Georgian Dream, has aligned with Moscow and spread fears that without them there will be war with Russia. According to former Georgian defence minister Vasil Sikharulidze, the Kremlins hybrid strategy fuses economic coercion, political manipulation, and information warfare. In Georgia, Russia also supports separatist narratives in Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia that Russian forces have occupied since the 2008 Russo-Georgian war. The Georgian Dream partys decision to suspend EU accession negotiations until 2028 has fuelled massive protests across Georgia. Predictably, Russias foreign intelligence service accused Washington of plotting a colour revolution. The Georgian Dream government follows Russias lead in other ways, too. Tbilisis legislation governing the transparency of foreign influence is a copy of Russias infamous foreign agent legislation, which Putin uses to stifle free speech in Russian civil society. Make no mistake: Putin will increasingly resort to asymmetric means of challenging and distracting the West by sowing chaos in Moldova, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In response, London should lead a coalition of willing states to counter Russias hybrid war and conduct information operation campaigns, combating Russian influence and putting Moscow on the defensive. Now is the time for Britain and allied countries to show the world that Russia is an empty shell. The mother of a high-flying student has been arrested alongside a teacher after the pair broke into a school in South Korea to steal an exam paper. Police are investigating after the theft at a girls school in Andong, a city about 167 miles south of the capital Seoul, in the middle of the night last month. While the teacher had left the school last year, she knew the security code and her biometric data was still stored in the system, allowing her to scan her fingerprint and enter the premises, it is alleged. The duo then proceeded to the third-floor faculty office where the exam papers are stored, but were stopped when the schools security alarm sounded. They managed to flee, but were arrested the following day. A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime, a detective at the Andong Police Station confirmed. A facilities manager at the school was also arrested for allegedly allowing the mother and teacher to break in and then later manipulating the security footage. Investigators suspect the mother had been paying the teacher two million won (1,075) per exam period, for more than two years, totalling about 20 million won (10,750). The school claimed that the teacher had accessed the premises seven times since she resigned last year, each time during exam season. Straight out of a drama Its shocking to think something like this, which feels straight out of a drama, happened in our community, the mother of another middle-school student at the school told the local media outlet Korea JoongAng Daily. There are rumours that the mother did this to get her daughter into medical school, she added. The teacher and mother first met in 2020 when the former taught the womans eldest daughter. She then also taught the younger daughter at the centre of this scandal in 2023. The teacher is also accused of privately tutoring the younger daughter, which is illegal under Korean law. The student, who was reportedly top in her class, has been expelled following the arrests and has had all her previous test scores invalidated. South Korea is known for placing crippling pressure on students to excel academically and goes to great lengths to maximise this success. Aeroplanes are famously prohibited from taking off during the countrys annual English listening tests and in 2023, dozens of students sued the government after their test was cut short by 90 seconds. The incident in Andong is far from the only case like this in South Korea. In February, 249 people were detained, including dozens of school teachers, for selling mock questions to private institutions for the high-stakes Suneung exam, South Koreas national college entrance exam. This is part of a much bigger operation that has led to nearly 250 teachers being caught for selling mock exam questions over the past six years, with the money exchanged totalling an average of 46,000 per person. Paul Chowles had been an investigator on the case of Thomas White from Liverpool, who alerted the police to the theft. Photograph: CPS A National Crime Agency (NCA) officer has been jailed for stealing 4.4m worth of bitcoin seized during a joint operation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), after the criminal he was investigating told the police it was missing. Paul Chowles thought he had got away with the crime for five years, prosecutors said, after laundering the money on the dark web and spending 613,000, mostly on day-to-day expenses. The 42-year-old had been working as an investigator on the case of Thomas White from Liverpool, who ran an online black market for illegal drugs, known as Silk Road 2.0, launched a month after a website of the same name was shut down in 2013 by the FBI. It was White, while under investigation, who noticed someone had taken 50 bitcoin of the 97 he had, and told police it had to be someone inside the NCA because they had the private keys for his cryptocurrency wallet. Merseyside police, which had responsibility for managing White in the local area following his release on licence in early 2022, discussed the theft with the NCA, in meetings that Chowles attended. During the investigation, officers discovered Chowles had stolen the money between 6 and 7 May 2017, two years after the White investigation was over, and in the following five years had been spending it in supermarkets and hardware stores and on fuel and meals, with investigators uncovering hundreds of debit card transactions. It was initially worth about 60,000 at the time of the theft but skyrocketed in value during the time he was spending it. Police recovered an iPhone that linked Chowles to an account used to transfer bitcoin as well as relevant browser search history relating to a cryptocurrency exchange service. Several notebooks were also discovered in Chowless office that contained usernames, passwords and statements relating to Whites cryptocurrency accounts. Alex Johnson, specialist prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Services special crime division, said the defendant had been regarded as someone who was competent, technically minded and very aware of the dark web and cryptocurrencies. He added: Once he had stolen the cryptocurrency, Paul Chowles sought to muddy the waters and cover his tracks by transferring the bitcoin into mixing services to help hide the trail of money. He made a large amount of money through his criminality, and it is only right that he is punished for his corrupt actions. DCI John Black, from Merseyside polices intelligence bureau, which carried out the investigation with help from the NCA, said: [Chowles] took advantage of his position on this investigation to line his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would cover his tracks. He was wrong. Chowles, from Bristol, was sentenced to five and a half years at Liverpool crown court, after pleading guilty to theft, transferring criminal property and concealing criminal property at an earlier hearing. The RAF helped fly out hundreds of people from Afghanistan in August 2021 - Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images Afghans whose identities were revealed in a military data leak had no automatic right to asylum, the Defence Secretary has said. The personal details of some 18,000 Afghans who applied to be relocated to the UK were leaked but only a total of 6,900, including their relatives, have been accepted for refuge in Britain under a secret asylum scheme. John Healey said most of the people on the list were not eligible for the scheme, even though their names had been leaked as they had not worked alongside or served with UK forces. He told Sky News: Most of those names on the list were people who didnt work alongside our forces, didnt serve with our forces, arent eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place quite rightly to recognise that duty we owe those brave Afghans who supported our forces. Now theyre not eligible for that. Their name is on the dataset, and there was never the plan, never the plan, to bring everyone in on that dataset into this country, and nor should we. Asked if the risk posed by the leak could give them a right to claim asylum, he said: It doesnt give them a right to claim access to Britain. It doesnt give them the right to claim asylum. It doesnt make them eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place for those whod worked alongside or served with our forces. His comments came as a former military caseworker claimed the secret Afghan relocation scheme could cause quite a headache for the security services because those brought to the UK under it may not have been fully vetted. Robert Clark, a former soldier and reservist who worked on the public Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) relocation scheme, said he had been told by people within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) that there had not been full vetting of applicants who had been secretly brought to the UK. He said there would be national security questions for the intelligence services and police if there had not been the necessary checks to establish whether individuals had been radicalised or had terrorist connections. According to the Government, some 6,900 Afghans and their families were identified as eligible for the secret scheme after their details were leaked, putting them at risk of being killed by the Taliban. Around half have so far come to the UK, according to officials. However, the vetting claims have been disputed by ministers and Government officials. They said Afghans who came under the secret relocation scheme were subject to the same security checks as those who came through either of the two other public schemes run by the MoD and Home Office. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, told Times Radio: Anyone who has come into this country under any of the Government schemes that was under the previous government, and now from Afghanistan, is checked carefully for security, checked carefully for any of those sort of criminal records that would preclude and prevent them coming to this country. He challenged Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, to provide evidence to support his claims that convicted sex offenders were among those airlifted to the UK after the data leak. We run security checks about the backgrounds of those individuals and where they pose those sorts of threats, theyre prevented from coming and denied access to Britain, said Mr Healey. However, the Defence Secretary added: No doubt some of them have committed some offences and got into trouble [since arriving in the UK]. Thats true right across the board. "No doubt some of them have committed some offences and got into trouble."@JohnHealey_MP tells #TimesRadio Afghans coming under government schemes were checked carefully but he "can't account" for individuals being responsible for criminal behaviour since they have arrived. pic.twitter.com/4qNGi04F5i Times Radio (@TimesRadio) July 16, 2025 Under the vetting process, any Afghans seeking refuge in the UK on the relocation schemes should be screened for serious and organised crime, as well as for any evidence of terrorist or extremist links. Afghans whose safety was put at risk by the leak were invited to apply for relocation to the UK under the secret scheme, and came via Islamabad, where security vetting was undertaken. Mr Clark, an Afghan war veteran who was a caseworker on the Arap scheme from September 2024 to February this year, said he did not know of any vetting failures related to it. The only exceptions were half a dozen young Afghan men under police investigation for sexual assaults or harassment after their arrival. However, he said he believed it was different for those who had come under the secret relocation scheme and were deemed to be at high risk. Mr Clark added: The only reason why theyve come is because their details were leaked, ie they hadnt passed vetting. Im also told they wouldnt have been eligible for whatever reason, whether it was vetting or tenuous links to the settlement scene itself. But they didnt get to that stage. They were just brought across precisely because, only because, their details were leaked. So it was a sense that we owe them a moral obligation, a duty of care. Earlier, Mr Clark told Times Radio: [Thats] 6,900 people who wouldnt have been eligible here otherwise, except for the fact that personal details were leaked. And like I say, this is going to cause quite a headache for the security services, Im afraid. He said that criminal checks on Afghans were never 100 per cent guaranteed because many laws in the country were different. For example, sexual assault within marriage was not necessarily an offence. A UK Government spokesman said: This is categorically not true. Everyone who is found eligible for any of our Afghan resettlement schemes must undergo the same robust security and immigration checks. If they do not pass these checks, they are not allowed into the UK. by Austin Bay July 16, 2025 On July 15, according to X (formerly Twitter), a reporter on the White House lawn asked, "Are you on Ukraine's side now?" President Donald Trump replied: "I am on nobody's side. I am on humanity's side. I want to stop the killing." I buy Trump's response. He's said that for about three decades. I've got published essays that support that claim, some dating from 2017 and the beginning of Trump's attempt to use coercive diplomacy to denuclearize North Korea's communist and corrupt Kim dictatorship. The Ukraine connection to nuclear weapons is obvious to those familiar with the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. Drawing a blank on that obscure agreement? In 1994, the (Democrat) Clinton administration negotiated a peace and nuclear disarmament agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine agreed to trade its nuclear arsenal for territorial security assurances from Russia. The U.S. and Great Britain guaranteed the deal. For the record, Ukraine in 1994 may have had the world's third largest nuclear weapons arsenal. "Soft power" advocates praised the deal. Who needs nukes? Peace in our time. In February 2014, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, invaded the Crimean peninsula and annexed it. Question: Would Putin have invaded if Ukraine had nukes? Bitter historical fact forces us to move on. The Obama administration's post-Crimea sanctions regimen was not merely inadequate, it was an aggression rewarding joke. Barack Obama responded with weakness -- he sent Ukraine non-military material. Russian hard-power military aggression, annexation and expansion -- what Hitler did prior to World War II -- required a hard-power response. Yes, Russia is a nuclear power. Which returns us to Trump and nukes. In 1999, Trump told "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert, "The biggest problem this world has is nuclear proliferation." Trump's critics ignore the depth of his thinking about complex issues and consistently underestimate his diplomatic and economic skills. His commitment to avoid nuclear war led to his first-term effort to convince North Korea's Kim regime to denuclearize. Why that failed is the subject for a book that addresses the politically crippling effect of the Hillary Clinton-New York Times-CNN-Comey FBI RussiaRussiaRussia lie on Trump 1's foreign policy efforts. Think about it. Now a quote from a February 2023 column of mine: "... (F)rom Russia's February 2014 attack on Crimea to this very minute nuclear weapons have been the Ukraine war's deep global issue." Add the harsh truth a peacemaker must acknowledge: Ukraine is the victim of Russian aggression -- arguably, megalomaniacal imperialism. How to end a bloodbath on which a nuclear-armed megalomaniac (Putin) has bet his historical legacy? Heckuva problem. In a March 4 speech to Congress, Trump said this about his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War: "If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides." Yes. With 6,000 to 8,000 humans a week (or more) dying, jaw-jaw instead of war-war had to be tried (apologies to Winston Churchill, but it is the hard truth). But the Euro-Left and Trump's deadbeat and brainless U.S. critics portrayed him as Putin's toy. OK. Putin had a jaw-jaw chance to reach a deal. As a KGB megalomaniac, he rejected it. Art of the War-War Deal, Recent Evidence: Trump gave Iran 60 days. Tehran ignored. The U.S. Air Force violently denuclearized the ayatollah regime. Trump has given Putin 50 days. Trump's weapons contra Putin: 1) Billions of dollars in weapons from NATO nations to Ukraine that will defend against Russian attacks; 2) The implicit threat of providing Ukraine with offensive weapons to launch devastating attacks on Russian military and economic targets; 3) Billions in sanctions and tariffs on Russia's economy; 4) Billions in secondary sanctions on any nation trading with Putin's Russia (tariffs as sanctions); and 5) Vicious individual sanctions shackling every Putin supporter in Russia and around the globe who wants to spend his/her cash. Here's what No. 5 means as applied policy with Trump wielding the hammer: Frozen bank accounts. Seized assets. No penthouses, no Rolls, no Ferraris. No glitz nothing in London, Paris, Dubai, Singapore, Tahiti, Saint Barts. Name your glam camp -- nada. My bet: Scott Bessent's U.S. Treasury Department will pick a thug's pocket or two. Raynor Winn, The Salt Path author, and her husband Moth - Robert Darch for The Telegraph A charity that champions the 630-mile coastal trail at the heart of The Salt Path book may cut ties with its author following concerns about its accuracy. Raynor Winn, the best-selling author, has served as an ambassador for the South West Coast Path Association (SWCPA) since 2020, but the group is now understood to reviewing its ambassadors programme amid controversy about her memoir. In the book, Winn recounts walking the South West Coast Path with her terminally ill husband, Moth, after the pair lost their home. The unflinchingly honest account was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, but its accuracy has been thrown into doubt by allegations that Winn lost the property after stealing money from her employer. The SWCPA enlisted Winn to help promote the coastal walk, which stretches around the South West peninsula from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset. Raynor Winns memoir, written in 2018, became a bestseller and was adapted into a film - Alberto Pezzali/AP Several pages on the charitys website featuring Winn have been deleted, including a lengthy interview with the author in which she said: I was incredibly honoured when the South West Coast Path Association approached me to be an ambassador because, as Ive said, that path has meant so much to me. Its been such a pivotal, changing point in my life, and I carry something of that coast path with me wherever I go. A Meet Our Ambassadors page has also been deleted. Winn has been contacted for comment. Author deeply regrets mistakes The SWCPAs review comes following allegations that Winn lost her home after taking out a sizeable loan that she was unable to repay. She borrowed the money to settle and avoid criminal charges after stealing money from her employer, it has been alleged. The claim is in contrast to the account given in The Salt Path, published by Penguin, which attributes the loss of the property to a poor investment in a friends business. Winn responded to the allegations, first made in The Observer newspaper, by stating that she deeply regrets certain mistakes in her past. The Salt Path states that the couple travelled the South West Coast Path while homeless and that they lived in a tent with meagre supplies. However, it has emerged that the pair owned a house in France at the time of their 2012 trek. Winn has since claimed it was too dilapidated to live in. Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs portrayed the couple in a film adaptation of the memoir - Steve Tanner The Observer investigation also raised doubts about Moth Winns diagnosis for corticobasal degeneration (CBD). The degenerative disease causes difficulties with movement, speech, memory and swallowing, with symptoms worsening as it progresses. Those with CBD have a typical life expectancy of six to eight years following the first onset of symptoms. Moth, who was said to have been diagnosed in 2013, managed to go on lengthy hikes recounted in Winns books. She responded to questions over her husbands diagnosis by saying that they were heartbreaking. Winn also shared sharing medical documents which she claimed proved that Moth had been diagnosed and treated for the disease. PSPA, a leading CBD charity, cut ties with the Winns following The Observers investigation. The couple had previously worked with the charity to help it raise funds. Writer Rosa Silverman (left) learnt about the achievements of her cousin Sally Becker (right) at school: While I was sitting through history lessons, she was making history and not just headlines - John Nguyen My cousin Sally Becker had a strange recurring nightmare during childhood. Someone was about to remove her leg in hospital and she needed to escape. It instilled in her a long-term fear of losing a limb. But it somehow never stopped her from putting herself in countless situations where this might come to pass. Given the existence she has led in the past three decades, repeatedly entering war zones to save the lives of children caught up in bloody conflicts, it feels like a small miracle shes here at all. Since her early 30s, shes been shot in the leg, inhaled chlorine gas, gone on hunger strike in a Kosovo jail and crossed borders under sniper fire. She has helped evacuate civilians from Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Gaza. Witnessed the worst of human suffering and carried on, even when her freelance humanitarian missions threatened to become engulfed in red tape and resistance. Facing her for the first time in her tidy sitting room in Hove, East Sussex, Im struck by how much like the rest of my family she is in appearance and manner. And yet how unlike the rest of us, hurling herself into life-threatening environments from which most would recoil in horror. She was dubbed the Angel of Mostar when she first came to prominence during the Balkans conflict in the early 1990s. The story of this plucky British woman driving an ambulance across the frontline in Bosnia to evacuate sick and injured children captured the public imagination. It captured mine too, not least because shes my fathers first cousin, and my first cousin once removed. For years I had heard of her exploits and wondered how she did it. Marvelled at the genetic shake-down that meant she fearlessly entered war zones, while I very much did not. Had she always been so intrepid, so undaunted by danger? I was a bit worried, she says, recalling the days before she set off on her very first mission, a typically understated and down-to-earth response. A bit worried is how I feel before a mild-thrill theme park ride. Sally, now in her 60s, is discussing how she felt when she ignored the warning of her father (my great-uncle Jack) and hitched a ride to war-torn Bosnia with a humanitarian aid convoy. You cant get insurance for dismemberment! her dad called to her from the hallway before she left. He thought shed lost her mind. My cousin was undeterred. After what she calls a fairly normal childhood in Brighton, the second of four children, Sally had spent her 20s travelling and working as an artist. She was living on the Costa del Sol in Spain by the time the break-up of Yugoslavia at the start of the 1990s led to violent struggle between Serbs, Muslims and Croats. As opposing ethnic groups fought for territory, families that had lived alongside each other as neighbours found themselves on opposite sides of a brutal civil war. I didnt even know where Bosnia was, Sally admits. But one April afternoon in 1993, a news broadcast stopped her in her tracks. The moment her life changed direction forever came when a civilian in war-torn Sarajevo a woman accompanied by a little boy looked straight into the camera and asked, Why is no-one helping us? Sally thought her aid work would last some two to three weeks, but she is still helping people today - Getty Sally took it personally. It resonated with me, she says. I felt like she was speaking to me directly, and I thought, Well yeah, why arent I doing something? So I decided I would. In her new memoir, Where Angels Fear to Tread, she tells the incredible story of what happened next. Its the story of a life spent going where the need was greatest, however perilous this was. Of taking huge personal risks to help as many people as possible. Of doing what she could to make a difference, as its now known. People didnt really use that term then, she reflects, but perhaps thats what Id always wanted to do but hadnt found a way. Becoming the angel She had thought of becoming a doctor when she was younger. But when she asked her GP if she could borrow his books, he just laughed. Lacking both medical experience and engineering skills, she was turned away by various humanitarian organisations. Only when she approached a Croatian one called Suncokret was she finally accepted as a volunteer. Suncokret arranged for her to join a convoy of trucks setting off from Godstone in Surrey in May 1993 and travelling overland to the Balkans. I thought Id be there for two or three weeks, she says. Instead, here we are, 30-odd years later. Delivering aid to a hospital under the control of Croat forces on the west side of the historic Bosnian city of Mostar, Sally saw wards filled with scarred and bandaged victims of the war raging less than a mile away, she writes, in prose that capture the hell of armed conflict and its impact on civilians, as seen from the closest quarters. Lodging in a hotel in Citluk, 14 miles from Mostar, she was kept awake at night by the sound of missiles. It didnt scare her away, and she spent those first weeks in Bosnia ferrying aid to the hospital and helping a community living close to the frontline. By June, divided Mostar was under siege from the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). They controlled access to the city and international aid organisations couldnt get in. Sally was determined. 1507 Mostar map At the hospital she met the head of the Croatian Military Health Authorities, Dr Ivan Bagaric. She told him she and her colleagues had hired a car, a white Renault 4, but needed permission to pass through the checkpoints in Croat-controlled areas. Dr Bagaric obliged, meaning Sally was able to drive back and forth from Citluk to Mostar delivering aid seemingly the only foreign aid worker at that time who could. One day, a member of the UN Civil Police told her of the plight of a three-year-old Muslim boy living in East Mostar. He was suffering a serious heart problem and desperately needed surgery. Could Sally use her apparent influence with the Croats to obtain permission to evacuate him, asked the officer. Dr Bagaric gave her permission to do so, Not for one child but for all the sick and wounded children and their mothers, he said. It marked a turning point in Sallys war work. I would have risked my life to save just one child, she writes. Ivan was giving me a chance to save them all. A ceasefire was arranged and Sally set off in an ambulance, steering around the spikes of deadly mines that protruded from the road. Crossing a disused airfield, she came under sniper fire and terror truly struck her for the first time. She was convinced she would be killed. Actually being in control of a vehicle which was being targeted by snipers was awful, she says. I had a ceasefire arranged so I didnt expect to be shot at, it was totally unexpected. I just acted on instinct and decided to carry on driving while ducking beneath the steering wheel and putting my foot down. She remembered from films how cars swerved to and fro to avoid being hit by gunfire. She did the same and somehow escaped injury. The mission was ultimately a success, resulting in the evacuation of five injured and sick children, who were taken to Italy and then the US for medical care. It made headlines around the world. The angel moniker was coined, and it stuck. I was at primary school at the time and knew nothing of the Balkans and only a little about that side of my fathers family. We lived in Leeds, far from the Beckers in Brighton, who my dad used to visit as a child. I heard about the Angel of Mostar and felt proud to be related to her, even if I didnt actually know where Mostar was. We learnt of Sallys exploits from the media, and no doubt also from my grandmother (her aunt). It all seemed exciting, if remote. I had no grasp of the danger she was in. Becker in front of the ambulance she used to rescue children from the besieged town of Mostar in Bosnia - Alamy Then, in July 2012, I was watching the opening ceremony of the London Olympics and suddenly there she was. Dressed in white, my cousin was one of eight notable figures carrying the Olympic flag into the stadium while the world watched. She walked alongside Ban Ki-Moon, then secretary-general of the UN , Shami Chakrabarti, then head of civil rights group Liberty and others. Oh my gosh, I said, its Sally Becker! Did we know she was going to be there? It came as a surprise to me, but perhaps it shouldnt have. She had ended up evacuating about 300 children from Bosnia during the conflict, and had spent the years since then engaged in similar activities in other war zones. The numbers she saved had climbed into the hundreds. It was, she explains, that initial breakthrough in Bosnia that spurred her on. Suddenly finding that I was able to save a life changed everything for me, she says. I felt like I was finally doing something worthwhile. I didnt give death much thought The publicity her work in Bosnia received helped draw attention to the plight of civilians but didnt come without criticism. The UN, she says, made out she was some kind of maverick. They said, We cant have every granny in a bus turning up. (She was in her early 30s at the time.) She describes the negativity she encountered from some as frustrating, more because it was unhelpful to what she was trying to achieve than because it was hurtful. Doing what she has done must require immense reserves of mental fortitude. But on the sunny spring day when I visit her, I learn she is far from immune to the inevitable physical hardships of working in war zones. Her friends called her the wimp of Mostar, she smiles. Its not that I get scared easily, its that I dont like walking, I dont like being cold, Im not into camping or sitting on uncomfortable chairs. Im really a bit of a pain. But out there I had to face all those things and a lot more. The distaste for uncomfortable chairs is understandable, given an episode in Kosovo, another part of the former Yugoslavia where ethnic tension had been escalating since 1993. It erupted into open conflict in March 1998 between Serb police and the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In December 1997, Sally started a campaign to raise money for aid and medical supplies to help civilians in the province. She appealed for British volunteers to join her on the mission, and set off with them in a convoy of ambulances and trucks from Brighton to deliver several tonnes of aid. In June 1998, after fighting had intensified, the borders to Kosovo were closed so she decided to bring the aid to some of the thousands of refugees who had fled to Albania. With 26 volunteers aged 30 to 65, she drove to the port of Bari in Italy, then boarded a ferry to the country. When the aid had been delivered and the rest of the convoy was returning home, Sally crossed the mountains on foot with a guide, to deliver paediatric medical supplies to a hospital in Junik, a town in western Kosovo surrounded by Serb forces. Here she was asked to evacuate sick and injured children and their families back across the border to Albania. It would be a hazardous journey, but she agreed and set out on foot with two guides and a group of 24 women and children. Those who werent well enough to walk were carried on mules. I would have risked my life to save just one child, writes Sally in her book. She is pictured above in 1993 - Getty Resting in woods at the border, they heard machine gun fire tear through the air. A helicopter gunship appeared overhead. While the rest of the group made it safely back to Junik, Sally stayed to help a woman and two children. After they were pinned down by gunfire for an hour, she surrendered and was arrested and taken to a police station in Gjakova in Kosovo. The Serb paramilitary police interrogated her while forcing her to sit for three days and three nights on a broken chair that could only be prevented from toppling if she balanced using her feet (an ordeal she blames for back problems she suffers today). Brought before a local judge, she was sentenced to 30 days in Lipljan Prison for crossing the border without a visa. She must have known she might not survive some of these situations. Must have reckoned with the prospect of death but somehow either accepted it or pushed it aside? I was always an optimist, she shrugs. So I probably didnt give it much thought. Ill do it as long as I can After Kosovo, Sally became a single mother to a daughter, Billie, now 25. I was informed of this development, oddly, by my GCSE history teacher who had read about my cousin in the news. Looking back now, I realise that while I was sitting through history lessons, she was making history and not just headlines. Billies father was Bill Foxton, a decorated former soldier who worked in conflict zones around the world and who Sally had met in Kosovo, but the relationship didnt last. If Sally had to go away, she left Billie with her mother back home. But motherhood raised the stakes. It became much more frightening because there was so much more to lose, she says. Apart from my mum, Billie only had me. Still, in 2017, she travelled to Mosul in Iraq, again to help evacuate women and children caught in the crossfire as Iraqi forces fought to take the city back from Isis. I didnt tell [Billie] I was going to Mosul until I got back, she says. The possibility that [if I was captured] she might see me being held by Isis dressed in an orange jumpsuit doesnt bear thinking about. Does her daughter ever try to talk her out of going into conflict zones? No, she doesnt, she knows its pointless, she laughs. Fortunately she can now help save lives remotely as well as in the field, having set up an app called Save A Child, which connects doctors in conflict zones with an international network of specialist paediatric consultants. It enables doctors in remote places, such as parts of Afghanistan, to upload paediatric case histories and receive expert advice on how to treat a child. The app hasnt kept her at home though. In the last few years she has been to Ukraine and helped evacuate 240 children and mothers, and briefly to Egypt to help evacuate nine injured Palestinian children and their families from Gaza. Sitting in her comfortable home on a quiet and leafy residential street near the southern English coast, I wonder how she adjusts each time she returns. Shes done it for so long, she says, that it doesnt feel jarring, not really. Its more that when I get back I think, Oh my goodness, I can have whatever I want to eat, because obviously its always difficult to get nice food in a war zone. Can she imagine a time when she decides not to go any more? Its becoming physically difficult as I get older. But Ill do it as long as I can. After that, she wont quit altogether; shell continue her work remotely. My cousin isnt someone who stops, I realise. Wars are still raging across the world and shes still got so much to do. Where Angels Fear to Tread by Sally Becker is out now, published by HarperCollins Mitochondrial donation therapy creates IVF embryos with DNA from three people to prevent the children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. Photograph: Newcastle University/PA Doctors in the UK have announced the birth of eight healthy babies after performing a groundbreaking procedure that creates IVF embryos with DNA from three people to prevent the children from inheriting incurable genetic disorders. The mothers were all high risk for passing on life-threatening diseases to their babies due to mutations in their mitochondria, the tiny structures that sit inside cells and provide the power they need to function. News of the births and the childrens health has been long-anticipated by doctors around the world after the UK changed the law to allow the procedure in 2015. The fertility regulator granted the first licence in 2017 to a fertility clinic at Newcastle University where doctors pioneered the technique. The four boys and four girls, including one set of identical twins, were born to seven women and have no signs of the mitochondrial diseases they were at risk of inheriting. One further pregnancy is ongoing. Prof Doug Turnbull, who was part of the team that spent more than two decades developing the procedure, said the healthy births were reassuring for researchers and the families affected. You are inevitably thinking its great for the patients and that is a relief, he said. Prof Mary Herbert, another senior member of the team, said to have eight healthy babies from the procedure was rewarding for all of us. The vast majority of a humans 20,000 genes are curled up in the nucleus of nearly every cell in the body. But the fluid surrounding the nucleus contains hundreds to thousands of mitochondria that carry their own set of 37 genes. Mutations in these genes can impair or completely disable mitochondria with catastrophic effects. People inherit all their mitochondria from their biological mother. Mutations in the tiny battery-like structures can affect all the children a woman has. The first symptoms of mitochondrial disease tend to appear in early childhood as energy-hungry organs such as the brain, heart and muscles start to fail. Many affected children have developmental delays, require wheelchairs and die young. About one in 5,000 newborns are affected. Mitochondrial donation treatment, or MDT, aims to prevent children from inheriting mutated mitochondria. The procedure involves fertilising the mothers egg with the fathers sperm and then transferring the genetic material from the nucleus into a fertilised healthy donor egg that has had its own nucleus removed. This creates a fertilised egg with a full set of chromosomes from the parents, but healthy mitochondria from the donor. The egg is then implanted into the womb to establish a pregnancy. The first eight babies born to the procedure are described in two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. All eight were healthy at birth. One child developed a urinary infection that was treated, and another developed muscle jerks that resolved on their own. A third child developed high blood fat and a disturbance in their heart rhythm, which was also treated. The condition is thought to be related to a medical issue the mother had in pregnancy. Genetic tests showed that the babies had no or low levels of mutant mitochondria, with some carried over from the mother during the procedure. While the levels are considered too low to cause disease, it suggests the procedure could still be improved. All the children are well and theyre continuing to meet their developmental milestones, said Bobby McFarland, director of the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders at Newcastle hospitals NHS foundation trust. Five of the children are less than a year old, two are aged between one and two, and the other child is older. The mother of one of the girls said: As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope and then it gave us our baby were overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance. Some women who carry the genetic disorders produce eggs with varying levels of faulty mitochondria. For them, a technique called pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) can be used to select eggs for IVF that have a very low chance of passing on a disease. Other women do not have this choice because all their eggs have high levels of mutations. The Newcastle team said eight of 22 (36%) of women became pregnant after MDT and 16 of 39 (41%) of women became pregnant after PGT. It is unclear why the rates differed, but some mitochondrial mutations may have knock-on effects on fertility. Writing in an accompanying editorial, Robin Lovell-Badge, a principal group leader at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said the long road to this point had no doubt been frustrating to women at risk of having children with mtDNA disease, but praised the scientists cautious approach. Afghanistan - image grid More than 200 Afghan soldiers and police murdered by the Taliban since a kill list was leaked by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have been named in a dossier. Their names were compiled by independent caseworkers highlighting the plight of Afghans who worked with British and US forces. But a court order imposed by a senior judge prevents The Telegraph from reporting whether the dead had first appeared on the MoD list, which was accidentally made public in February 2022. The Taliban claims the MoD list came into its possession in 2022 and that it has been hunting down those identified in it ever since. The Telegraph can disclose that a unit of the Talibans special forces known as Yarmok 60 has been assigned to locate them. Credit: @YarmokForce / X The list recorded applicants to an asylum scheme run by the MoD that was intended, following the fall of Kabul in 2021, to give sanctuary to Afghans who had worked with British troops. It remains unclear how many of those on the list were identified by the Taliban, tracked down and murdered as a consequence. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, admitted on Wednesday that he was unable to say for sure whether anyone had been killed as a result of the data breach. But he insisted that, three years on from the leak, it was highly unlikely that being on the list would now increase the risk of being targeted by the Taliban. A super-injunction was lifted by the High Court on Tuesday, allowing the leak to be reported for the first time. But a court order remains in place that prevents using the database to reveal the identities of Afghans who may have been targeted as a result. Among the former Afghan special forces soldiers killed by the Taliban since the list was leaked are young and middle-aged men assassinated by the new regime in different parts of the country, some with their family members. Col Toorjan, a police commander in southern Helmand, was killed with several family members as he was leaving a mosque on June 24 last year. Col Toorjan was killed with several family members last June One month later, Taliban forces shot and killed another former government army officer in the eastern Khost province. The Taliban executed Hamidullah Khosti on July 23 in the Alishar district. He had arrived there the previous day to attend a wedding ceremony. Hamidullah Khosti was killed on July 23 last year Despite a general amnesty declared by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader, the group has continued to arrest and kill former government military personnel and employees for nearly four years. Another former government army officer was shot and killed by Taliban forces in Kapisa province in July 2022, five months after the list was leaked. Muzamil Nejrabi was killed at night in Arbab Khil village in the Nejrab district of Kapisa province. The young man had left his home at 10.30pm to irrigate his agricultural fields when he was shot by soldiers from the Talibans Fifth Battalion, First Brigade, stationed in Kapisa. He died on the way to the hospital. Friends said he had got married three months before his assassination. Muzamil Nejrabi was killed in Kapisa province In February last year, the bloody corpse of Hayatullah Nizami, a former operations commander of the third security zone in northern Taloqan city, was discovered in the Bishkapa area, near the Taliban army brigade of the city in Takhar province. According to a local source, Nizami, previously a member of the security forces, had been working as an employee at a company that collaborated with the Taloqan municipality following the fall of the Western-backed government. He disappeared with his vehicle the night before, and his dismembered body was found the following day. Local sources reported that, after the body was discovered, the Taliban named him as Hamidullah, a municipality employee, in order to conceal his military background. Hayatullah Nizamis body was found in northern Taloqan city On Aug 21 last year, Taliban fighters dragged Abdul Rahman Delawar, the former security commander of Shekhel district, from his home and killed him, according to local media. Delawar had fled to Iran following the fall of Kabul and had recently returned to his ancestral village where he was living a normal life. Abdul Rahman Delawar Sabaoon Omar, another former national police officer, was killed by the Taliban in October 2022. His killing added to a growing number of reported executions of former government security personnel by Taliban forces, despite the groups declared general amnesty for former officials. Sabawoon Omar The dossier of 200 Afghans killed since the leak was put together by the independent caseworker known only as Person A who first raised the alarm over the data breach. She sent an email to James Heappey, the Armed Forces minister at the time, in which she warned how severe the negligence has been in terms of data security. She added: The Taliban may well now have a 33,000-long kill list essentially provided to them by the UK Government. She sent the email on Aug 15 2023, after an anonymous user on Facebook threatened to publish the leaked data. It had been accidentally released 18 months earlier by a British soldier tasked with vetting Afghans seeking asylum under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap). Person A was subsequently subject to the super-injunction in September 2023, which prevented her along with newspapers from even mentioning its existence. The dossier compiled by Person A and other caseworkers was passed to The Telegraph after the super-injunction was lifted, to serve as a snapshot of Afghans who worked with coalition troops and are believed to have subsequently been targeted by the Taliban. The identities of those killed were gleaned from posts in local Afghan press and on social media as well as through contacts on the ground. The Telegraph has been unable to verify independently the names contained in the dossier of those killed and the circumstances in which they died. Person A said Afghans may have applied to the Arap scheme even if they had not worked with British troops as a means to securing a safe haven. But it also means Afghans who had no association with the UK military may have been put in danger simply by applying to the Arap scheme. Person A said: The issue we have is we have no way of knowing whether the people in our dossier had applied for the Arap scheme or not. There are an awful lot of people who didnt comply with Arap but applied through Arap. Air Marshal Harv Smyth, the future Chief of the Air Staff, said he is honoured to take charge in such a crucial point in our history - Cpl Andy Holmes/Crown Copyright An air marshal who flew in hundreds of operational missions across a number of war zones is to be appointed as the new head of the RAF, the Defence Secretary has confirmed. Air Marshal Harv Smyth, who joined the force in 1991, and served 15 years as a front-line Harrier pilot and weapons instructor in conflicts in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan, will become Chief of the Air Staff. He has been promoted to head of the armed forces, a role he will take up in September, and succeeds Sir Richard Knighton, who has held the position since June 2023. Air Marshal Smyth previously served as a fighter jet pilot and weapons instructor in five different wars Air Marshal Smyths appointment follows a series of promotions to command positions since becoming an Air Commodore in 2015, including his current role of deputy chief of the defence staff for Military Strategy and Operations. He said: I am deeply honoured to have been selected as the next Chief of the Air Staff at such an important time for the Royal Air Force. The Strategic Defence Review makes clear the need for us to rapidly evolve and modernise to meet current and future threats, and I am enormously proud to lead the service at such a crucial point in our history. I take over from Sir Rich Knighton, who has achieved so much over the past two years, preparing the Royal Air Force for the challenges that we currently face and developing the operational mindset that we need, should we transition to conflict. I share in his unwavering support for our people and am delighted to have this opportunity to lead our whole force as we deliver outstanding air and space power for the UK and Nato. Outstanding credentials The chief of the air staff is the professional head of the RAF, responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of all the forces operations, people and capability. They are accountable to the Secretary of State for Defence for fighting effectiveness, efficiency and morale, as well as the development and sustainment of the force. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said: I warmly congratulate Air Marshal Harv Smyth on his appointment as Chief of the Air Staff. He has outstanding credentials to lead the RAF in a crucial period of transformation for the force. Air Marshal Smyth has led a distinguished career to date. From spending 15 years as a frontline Harrier pilot and weapons instructor, to flying hundreds of operational missions from both land bases and aircraft carriers, to holding numerous vital command positions. He has served our nation loyally. I would also like to recognise Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knightons superb leadership of the RAF over the last two years. I know he and Air Marshal Smyth will work together to deliver a landmark shift in our deterrence and defence. Gazans waiting for aid in Khan Younis died of suffocation after being crushed in a stampede - Hatem Khaled/Reuters At least 20 people have died during a stampede at an aid distribution site in Gaza. The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says 19 people were trampled and one person was stabbed during what it described as a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd. An official from Gazas Hamas-backed health ministry told Reuters that at least 20 people had died of suffocation at the site in Khan Younis. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. The controversial GHF, whose aid distribution points have witnessed hundreds of deaths, said it had reason to believe that unrest was deliberately fomented from within the crowd by Hamas militants, but did not provide evidence to support its claim. For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, it claimed. Mourners react after at least 20 Gazans were killed in an incident at an aid distribution site - REUTERS The GHF has come under heavy criticism after the United Nations said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the foundation. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys, the UN rights office said. The foundation took control of most of the aid distribution in late May after Israel lifted its 11-week blockade, which left Gazas two-million-strong population on the edge of famine. The UN and other air groups have boycotted the GHF. A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis gave a lower toll, telling AFP it had received nine bodies, including several children after Israeli forces opened fire. Gazans are corralled into cages at a food distribution centre in the south of the Strip, in an image taken in May 2025 Unconfirmed Palestinian media reports also alleged that private contractors used pepper spray on the trapped crowd, sparking further chaos. We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible, a GHF spokesman said. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the report, calling the allegations malicious falsehoods. The GHF uses private American security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, bypassing a UN-led system that Israel claims has let Hamas loot aid shipments meant for civilians. But leaked footage has suggested that armed US contractors at one of Gazas aid distribution hubs appeared to fire at crowds, before celebrating. "Hell yeah, boy!" US contractors in Gaza cheer after deliberately opening fire on aid-seeking Palestinians. Source: AP pic.twitter.com/7mG0Wxxoky The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 3, 2025 The GHF said the accusations were categorically false, adding that no civilians had ever come under fire at its distribution sites. The Israeli military has acknowledged that Gazan civilians have been harmed near aid distribution centres, saying its forces had been issued new instructions following what it called lessons learned. Rather than delivering aid into population centres, the GHF model requires people to walk long distances across Israeli military zones towards specially created hubs. Footage in recent weeks has shown huge crowds of people being forced into narrow corridors between large mounds of earth as armed contractors and IDF soldiers patrol from above. Critics of the new model also say there are far too few distribution sites and they draw too many Gazans to them at once, frequently leading to crushes and violence. The GHF and the IDF have been reached for comment. Injured Gazans are brought to Nasser Hospital after Israeli airstrike hit US aid supply distribution point in Gaza Strip on July 16 - Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu It comes as Israeli strikes killed 22 people in northern Gaza, including 11 children, and 19 people in the city of Khan Younis over the past day, according to local officials. The IDF said it had struck more than 120 targets, including Hamas tunnels, infrastructure and weapons storage. Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a fourth corridor, bisecting the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they said is a pressure tactic against Hamas. As ceasefire talks with Hamas continue to stall, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, is attending court over long-running corruption charges. In an unusual move, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, will attend the trial in support of the embattled Mr Netanyahu. Asked to defend his decision, he said: I would say its extraordinary that the Prime Minister is on trial during wartime and during negotiations over hostages. Taliban fighters in Kabul last month. The Taliban took over Afghanistan as Western troops withdrew in 2021 - Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Four months ago, the Mohammadi* family were at home in Afghanistan when they received an email that was as chilling as it was businesslike. The father of three young children opened his laptop and clicked on the message, which declared that it was from the Home Office of the British Government. The email said he was on a list of those whom the UK had chosen to bring to Britain amid fears for their safety following a data leak. For four years, the family had kept secret the fact that the father had worked with the British Army shortly after it began its protracted battle with the Taliban in 2014. As a trained English teacher, the fathers skills made him invaluable to British officers eager to gain local intelligence about the whereabouts of enemy commanders. A Taliban fighter in Kabul after the militant group took control of Afghanistan in 2021 - Hoshang Hashimi/AFP via Getty Like so many Afghan interpreters employed by the Army, he saw the arrival of the foreign forces as an opportunity to drag Afghanistan out of the grip of the oppressive regime imposed by the extreme religious intolerance of the Taliban. The parents, in their late 20s, believed they could work with the UK soldiers to contribute to forging a better Afghanistan as well as earning a regular income and, importantly, were assured their safety would be guaranteed. But, when the last remaining British troops ignominiously flew out from the Afghan capital in August 2021, the Mohammadis had no choice but to live in fear and harbour their secret. On Wednesday, those fears were quite literally thousands of miles away. Speaking as she returned with her three children to a Home Office hotel in Berkshire, the interpreters wife placed the palm of her hand on her heart and said: We arrived in the UK a month ago. We were flown from Kabul to Pakistan and then on to London. She spoke in broken English, momentarily laughing as she explained that her husband, who was in his hotel room, was fluent. We are grateful [to be here], she said, placing a hand on her sons head. The Taliban is very dangerous, very dangerous we were scared for our safety. The interpreters wife, who did not want to be fully identified, in part because she had been told not to talk to journalists by hotel security guards, said she felt safe in England. She was blissfully unaware that her familys arrival, along with thousands of others, was at the centre of a political storm. We are grateful thank you, thank you, she said as she made her way back into the hotel with a security guard looking on. The Taliban is very dangerous, very dangerous, said one Afghan - Wakil Kohsar/AFP According to court documents, Afghans have been sent to Berkshire, Lancashire, Aberdeen and Cardiff. Others were sent to West Sussex and Yorkshire, while plans were afoot for hotels to be opened up to them in the North East, East Anglia and the East Midlands. In Wiltshire, a cheerful Afghan mother called Nooria* said: Thank you, thank you, thank you. If theres one word that sums up the attitude of Afghan families relocated to the UK under the scheme designed to protect those who served the British Army, it is gratitude. Nooria said: Everyone here is very nice to us. Nobody causes us problems. We like it here and we are so grateful the British Government helped us to come here. Our lives were in danger from the Taliban because we helped the British and you saved us... Now we are here, we feel safe and I am so grateful to the British Government for bringing us here. The mother, who is a trained doctor, added: They just want women to marry and have lots of children. Not to study, not to work, not to be in control of their own lives. They hate women like me and the men who helped the British. So keen is she to integrate into British society that she wants to improve her English to the point she can practice as a doctor again, this time for the NHS. Another mother in her 20s, called Marzia*, said she was as grateful for the UKs resettlement programme and was disparaging of the Talibans patriarchal mindset. She explained: They make so many problems for women. They just want us to marry and have children. They want to stop girls going to school and college. My brother was an interpreter working for the British Army. His life would have been in danger if he had stayed in Afghanistan. To them he was a traitor. They would have killed him and we are so happy we are here now, where we feel safe. Marzia said that now they are here, all her family wants is an opportunity to contribute to this country, but that to do so they also need help. We need education and support. We need language teaching to improve our English and we would like help with housing. That is what we ask, she added. But there is another word that encapsulates the impact of those new arrivals on the families of British Army personnel already living at living the Larkhill Army base in Wiltshire resentment. Some Afghans have been sent to the Larkhill Army base in Wiltshire - John Lawrence As one mother taking her children to school put it: When they arrived they got help with everything. Accommodation, doctors, learning English, free transport. But we dont get that for free, we have to pay for everything. Its just unfair. Hard-pressed British Army families feel their burden has grown heavier since the arrival of the Afghan interpreters and their families under the governments resettlement scheme. Some say they were moved out of existing Army accomodation to house them. Others report longer waiting times at the Larkhill Health Centre because of the influx of new patients. Some of the friction is undoubtedly cultural. As one young Welsh mother, married to a British Army squaddie put it: The Afghan men and boys stare at us because were different to their women. Were not covered up, maybe we dont wear as much, especially in summer, but so what? Were always told to respect each others differences, but they dont seem to respect us. Ive even had the teenage boys on the pavement block my path. Why do they do that? It might only be a minority of the Afghans behaving this way, but its not nice. Her friend, married to a Fijian soldier, was keen to emphasise that it was not a question of race but of what appeared to be two-tier treatment. She said: Im married to a black man. Hes served his country and put his life on the line, yet hes struggling to get British citizenship. Just stuck in the system. Why is that? Its the same with the other Commonwealth lads. Theyve served this country, but they dont seem to get any extra help or benefits, not like the Afghans. When they first arrived they all got welfare visits to make sure they were OK and did they need anything. We didnt get any of that. Why? For Briony Slatter, a 26-year-old Army wife, the presence of Afghans and their families is another unwelcome strain on an already difficult daily life. Ive got huge concerns about the influx, she said as cradled her young daughter in her arms outside Larkhill Camps bustling convenience store. The way the Government moved them here is not integration. Its putting us against each other. * Names have been changed to protect identities The man was recovered from the water by a harbour patrol boat - GETTY IMAGES A kite surfer has died after reportedly being blown out of the water in high winds and thrown into the side of a moored yacht. The incident took place in Portland Harbour, Dorset, at about 1.35pm on Tuesday. The kite surfer, believed to be a man in his 70s, was recovered from the water by a harbour patrol boat and taken to the jetty, where he was pronounced dead. Photographs of the aftermath appear to show the kite tangled around the mast of a boat. Local reports suggest he was blown into the side of the yacht. Police, lifeboat and coastguard services and a search and rescue helicopter responded to the incident. Officers confirmed a second man was left in the care of the ambulance service. Winds reached 35mph during the afternoon at the harbour, which is a popular spot for kite and windsurfers. A coastguard helicopter was called to the scene - GETTY IMAGES Portland and neighbouring Weymouth hosted the sailing and windsurfing competitions at the London 2012 Olympics. A Weymouth Lifeboat spokesperson said: Weymouth inshore lifeboat was tasked by HM Coastguard and launched at approximately 13:35 to assist with an incident in Portland Harbour. A yacht anchored in the harbour having reported a kite surfer in difficulty to the Coastguard. The ILB crew arrived on scene to find the kite surfer being recovered from the water by the Portland harbour patrol boat. The casualty was transferred to Portland harbour jetty where first aid was administered by the harbour staff and RNLI ILB crew. The emergency response doctor and local ambulance crew also attended the scene. Very sadly the casualty was declared dead by a doctor on scene. This is a very tragic incident, and our thoughts go out to the family and friends. A Dorset Police spokesperson said: We received a report at 1.52pm on Tuesday 15 July 2025 raising concern for the welfare of two men in the water in the area of Portland Harbour. Emergency services attended and very sadly one of the men, aged in his 70s, was pronounced dead at the scene. His death is not being treated as suspicious and his family has been informed. Our thoughts are with the mans family and friends at this very difficult time. The second person has been left in the care of the ambulance service. Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins is the only senior Armed Forces member who has been named in connection with the leak fiasco - Matt Bradley/MoD Downing Street blocked news reports that the head of the Royal Navy was involved in the Afghan leak fiasco in the same week his promotion to the role was announced, it has emerged. Government lawyers told journalists they could not reveal that Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, now First Sea Lord, was at the heart of a national security incident, even if no details about a super-injunction were reported. Gen Sir Gwyn has found himself at the centre of a row over the scandal, in which the details of 25,000 Afghans who applied to be resettled in Britain were leaked. The incident, in February 2022, went undiscovered in Whitehall for 18 months before ministers created a bespoke new evacuation programme for Afghans on the list. The existence of the leak and airlift of thousands of people who helped British forces during the war in Afghanistan was only revealed on Tuesday after a court lifted a super-injunction barring the press from reporting it. It was also revealed that the data was accidentally leaked by a Royal Marine who was working under the command of Gen Sir Gwyn, then the director of Special Forces. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, has been among those defending the Navy chief - ANDY RAIN/EPA/Shutterstock After the incident took place, Gen Sir Gwyn was announced as the next UK National Security Adviser, although that promotion was cancelled by Sir Keir Starmer after the general election. The Labour Prime Minister instead promoted him to First Sea Lord, the most senior position in the Navy. It has now been reported that on the week that his promotion was due to be announced, Downing Street was contacted by reporters from The Times, who planned to write a story about his involvement in a national security incident. The newspaper said it did not plan to break the terms of the super-injunction and would not reveal any details about the data leak, which had been banned to protect the Afghans on the list from reprisals by the Taliban. But government lawyers said any reference to an incident and Gen Sir Gwyns involvement would constitute a breach of the injunction, and could result in reporters being sent to jail. The revelation has piled pressure on the Government, which had already been urged to come clean about why it did not lift the super-injunction sooner. Outstanding military officer Although Gen Sir Gwyn was running the team where the leak originated, ministers have fiercely defended him. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said he was an outstanding military officer and that we need someone like him to lead the Royal Navy through these challenging periods. A Downing Street spokesman reiterated on Wednesday that the officer had no role in any aspect of [Afghan resettlement schemes], including decision-making. But ministers are under pressure to demonstrate that there have been consequences for the leak, and Gen Sir Gwyn is the only senior member of the Armed Forces who has been named in connection with it. The leaked email was sent by a Royal Marine, who was in charge of vetting asylum seekers, to a group of Afghan contacts in the UK whom they trusted. The soldier worked out of the Regents Park Barracks in central London under the command of Gen Sir Gwyn. Downing Street has refused to say whether the individual responsible has been sacked. On Wednesday, a spokesman for Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said she believed Gen Sir Gwyn and her former colleagues in the Conservative government should be questioned in Parliament over the super-injunction fiasco, if they were called up. The Commons defence committee, as well as the intelligence and security committee, are both expected to launch inquiries into the leak. I think its fair to say that if the defence select committee wants to look into this, then people should appear in front of it, Mrs Badenochs spokesman said. They added that Gen Sir Gwyn should co-operate with any inquiry. The Prime Ministers official spokesman would not comment on whether the First Sea Lord would appear before a committee, but indicated that a ban on some government employees appearing before MPs would not apply to military officials. Sir Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary who applied for the injunction, said he would make no apology for his role in the debacle. He is expected to be called before any inquiry into the leak. Tan Dhesi, the Labour MP and chairman of the defence committee, said: Rigorous safeguards must be in place to ensure that this cannot happen again. Its shameful that brave Afghans who served alongside British soldiers have had their safety jeopardised by this leak. While our defence committee has agreed to inquire into this shocking situation, we have yet to determine the full scope for that, including who will be called to give evidence. London protest in support of Uyghur Muslims in 2021. Papers published in FSR have attracted criticism for studying genetic data from Uyghurs. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock Oxford University Press (OUP) will no longer publish a controversial academic journal sponsored by Chinas Ministry of Justice after years of concerns that several papers in the publication did not meet ethical standards about DNA collection. A statement published on the website of Forensic Sciences Research (FSR) states that OUP will stop publishing the quarterly journal after this year. FSR is a journal that comes from Chinas Academy of Forensic Science, an agency that sits under the Ministry of Justice. The academy describes FSR as the only English quarterly journal in the field of forensic science in China that focuses on forensic medicine. It has been published by OUP since 2023. Several papers published in FSR have attracted criticism because they study genetic data from Uyghurs and other heavily surveilled ethnic minorities in China. Critics say subjects in the studies may not have freely consented to their DNA samples being used in the research and that the studies could help to enhance the mass surveillance of those populations. One study, published in 2020, analysed blood samples from 264 Uyghurs in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region in north-west China. The paper states that the people giving the samples consented to the research and that their data was anonymised. The lead author on the study is affiliated with Chinas state security apparatus via the Xinjiang Police College, which provided a research grant. In 2024, OUP published an expression of concern about the article, responding to questions about whether or not Uyghurs in Xinjiang could freely refuse to participate in a study conducted by representatives of Chinas state security. The paper has not been retracted. Two other papers published in FSR based on DNA samples from Chinese populations have been retracted by OUP since 2023 because of ethical concerns. In both cases, several of the researchers came from Chinese police authorities. Forensic science research is often carried out under the auspices of police authorities, but in China, where there the state security apparatus is not subject to checks and balances, there is concern this kind of research may not meet international ethical standards. Uyghurs in Xinjiang are subject to intense surveillance by state authorities and between 2016 and 2018 about a million of them are estimated to have been detained in what China calls vocational training centres. The UN said Chinas policies in Xinjiang could constitute crimes against humanity. There are also reports of Xinjiang authorities collecting DNA samples from millions of Uyghurs under the guise of health checks, but which Uyghurs and human rights groups have said are compulsory and designed to enhance surveillance. Yves Moreau, a professor of engineering at the University of Leuven in Belgium who focuses on DNA analysis, first raised concerns about OUPs relationship with FSR and about several studies. He said he was grateful for OUPs decision but that the brief public statement on the matter fails to address the important issues at stake. A statement published on FSRs website, which is hosted by OUP, said: Forensic Sciences Research will no longer be published by Oxford University Press (OUP) after the 2025 volume. The last issue published by OUP will be Volume 10, Issue 4. OUP acquired the journal in 2023. Under the terms of the publishing agreement between OUP and the Academy of Forensic Sciences, a copy of which was seen by the Guardian, the deal gave OUP the right to solicit paid advertisers in the pages of the journal. The agreement also gives OUP the right to collect any revenues received by the Academy of Forensic Sciences related to the journal. OUP declined to elaborate on why it was ending the relationship with FSR. In recent years there has been increasing scrutiny about the ethical standards of genetic research papers from China. Last year, a genetics journal from a leading scientific publisher retracted 18 papers from China due to concerns about human rights. The concerns centre on whether or not vulnerable populations in China can freely refuse to participate, especially when researchers come from organisations, such as the police, affiliated with state security. There are also concerns that this kind of forensic DNA sampling could produce research that enhances the mass surveillance of those populations. Moreau said: Forensic genetics is an area where specific caution is needed because this is the research that powers police DNA identification and databases. While DNA identification is a valuable technique to help solve crimes, it can raise privacy and ethical issues. He added that the mass surveillance of minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet made China a particularly challenging country to enforce international norms about ethical research and human rights. FSRs launch in 2016 was accompanied by an editorial that stated it is sponsored by an affiliate of Chinas Ministry of Justice. Duarte Nuno Vieira, the co-editor-in-chief of FSR, has previously denied financial support from Chinas Ministry of Justice had any impact on the journals editorial policies. Nuno Vieira did not respond to a request for comment. But in an article published on Tuesday, the FSR editors wrote that the journal was at a moment of transformation, firmly rooted in its past successes, and yet reaching with confident hands towards an even more luminous future. The publication of the journal will be taken over by KeAi, a China-based joint venture run by the Dutch scientific publisher Elsevier and a Chinese partner. Chinas Ministry of Justice and the Academy of Forensic Sciences did not respond to a request for comment. by Charles Siegel Americans learn about checks and balances from a young age. (Or at least they do to whatever extent civics is taught anymore.) Were told that this doctrine is a corollary to the bedrock theory of separation of powers. Only through the former can the latter be preserved. As John Adams put it in a letter to Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, later a delegate to the First Continental Congress, in 1775: It is by balancing each of these powers against the other two, that the efforts in human nature toward tyranny can alone be checked and restrained, and any degree of freedom preserved in the constitution. As Trumps efforts toward tyranny move ahead with ever-greater speed, those checks and balances feel very creaky these days. Why do we care? What balance is to be preserved? Separation of powers is a defining concept of our government. But the phrase itself does not appear in the Constitution. What does it mean? There is no official answer, of course. But Congress has provided a definition: at its direction, every ten years the Library of Congress publishes the Constitution Annotated, a comprehensive, government-sanctioned record of the interpretations of the Constitution that appears on Congress website. According to the Librarian of Congress, then, separation of powers is a well-known concept derived from the text and structure of the Constitution. The Framers experience with the British monarchy informed their belief that concentrating distinct governmental powers in a single entity would subject the nations people to arbitrary and oppressive government action. Thus, in order to preserve individual liberty, the Framers sought to ensure that a separate and independent branch of the Federal Government would exercise each of governments three basic functions: legislative, executive and judicial. The Constitution sets those powers out in Articles I, II and III respectively. The Constitution Annotated also quotes James Madisons statement in the Federalist Papers (no. 48) that the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointment, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny. Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, a prominent liberal legal scholar and currently the Dean of the U.C. Berkeley Law School, wrote in the first paragraph of the first edition of his treatise on constitutional law that the division of powers among the branches was designed to create a system of checks and balances and lessen the possibility of tyrannical rule. The Supreme Court, of course, has had plenty to say about separation of powers over the years. In 1803 in Marbury v. Madison, still the first case most law students read in the first week of law school, the Court held that the judicial branch has the power to strike down acts of the legislative and executive branches. In 1986 the Court stated that even a cursory examination of the Constitution reveals the influence of [the] thesis that checks and balances were the foundation of a structure of government that would protect liberty. How is that division of powers faring now? Is it lessening the possibility of tyrannical rule? It doesnt feel that way. Just last year, in its infamous decision bestowing on Trump near-blanket immunity from prosecution, the Court held that the President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the Presidents conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution. And the system of separated powers designed by the Framers has always demanded an energetic, independent Executive. Well, that they most certainly have now. That case, of course, was decided before Trump won the 2024 election (and the decision, and the great length of time the Court took to make it, helped him immensely in winning it). Since then, the administration has taken scores of measures to expand executive power far beyond its traditional sphere. Sadly, the other two branches have largely acquiesced in this unprecedented power grab. Consider the legislative branchs abject surrender. One obvious example is the ridiculously unqualified nominees the Senate has confirmed. Republican senators confirmed a Fox News weekend host with a drinking problem, who had paid to settle sexual-assault allegations, as Secretary of Defense. They confirmed a conspiracy theorist, with well-known sympathy for Putin and Assad, as Director of National Intelligence. And they confirmed a former heroin addict who doesnt believe HIV causes AIDS, and who regularly disparages vaccines, as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Yes, they put him in charge of health. Do Republican senators even think they have a role anymore? Is there anyone they would not vote to confirm? (They were spared from having to vote on Matt Gaetzs nomination to be Attorney General, which only resulted in them unanimously voting to confirm Pam Bondi, whose main qualification for the job was her vocal support for Trumps false claim that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election.) Beyond confirming his appalling nominees, in many other contexts Congress and by Congress, of course, I mean Republicans, since they control both houses has simply done nothing, while Trump does whatever he wants. For example, only Congress can fund the government. Yet Trump has simply frozen billions of dollars in federal grants money that has already been committed by Congress. The legislative branch has ordered that the money be spent, but the executive branch simply wont spend it. The Washington Post reported three weeks ago that the administration is preparing to test a 1974 budget law by refusing to spend congressionally mandated funds an escalation that could change the balance of power between Congress and the White House.The administration appears to be readying to push the boundaries of the law meant to prevent the president from unilaterally overturning spending decisions made by Congress. And on June 30th the administration simply impounded $7 billion of Department of Education funding for after-school and summer programs, teacher training and other projects. This money had already been appropriated by Congress, but the DOE head, former wrestling CEO and current Ring Boys sexual-abuse defendant Linda McMahon, didnt even bother to offer an explanation. Why would she? Another dismal example is the destruction of the Agency for International Development. It was just a few months ago that Elon Musk, beginning his stint as the head of DOGE, gleefully chirped on X that we spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could have gone to some great parties. Did that instead. A study published two weeks ago in the Lancet estimates that 14 million additional deaths will result, in the next five years alone, from the loss of agency programs, so roughly 15,000 people will die every weekend while the DOGE bros party. The Trump administration might as well have deliberately engineered a new global pandemic. The day after the study was published, Secretary of State Rubio grotesquely posted that the era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end. Under the Trump administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests. The horrific human toll, of course, is the worst part. But the implications of USAIDs gutting for our system of government are grim too, for it couldnt have happened without Congress silent acquiescence. Congress created the statutory authority for USAID in 1961, at President Kennedys urging. It has since continuously reaffirmed its support for the agency; in fact, just 16 months ago Congress increased its funding. Only Congress can create or destroy federal agencies. Yet there hasnt been a word from Congress since Musk fired up his wood chipper. No hearings, no subpoenas, nothing. Some Democrats gave speeches denouncing it, but not a peep from Republicans. No wonder Trump thinks, less than halfway through the first year of his term, that he can do anything. And then theres TikTok. Last year Congress passed, with wide bipartisan support, a law that requires the apps ownership structure to change so that it is no longer controlled by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The law was based on national security concerns, and the Supreme Court upheld it in January. Yet Trump has now granted three extensions of the deadline for the change in ownership. It has been widely noted that while Trump tried unsuccessfully to ban TikTok during his first term, he completely changed his stance after meeting with Jeffrey Yass, one of his largest megadonors, during the 2024 campaign. Yass just happens to own a 15% share in ByteDance. Letters that Attorney General Bondi sent to the major tech companies regarding their continuing business with TikTok were disclosed last week through a Freedom of Information Act request. These letters purport to irrevocably relinquish any claims against the companies for violating the law during the non-enforcement periods declared by Trump. For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law. Last month, the New York Times quoted Alan Rozenshtein, a former national security adviser to the Department of Justice and now a law professor at the University of Minnesota: This is just a wild situation that were in the president has essentially nullified a law because he doesnt like it. In a post last week on the Lawfare blog, he called it a major rule-of-law crisis that illustrates this administrations imperial conception of itself. The primary argument advanced in the letters is one Rozenshtein calls astonishing in its breadth and implications for executive powers. Trump is said to have determined that a shutdown of TikTok would interfere with the execution of his constitutional duties to take care of the national security and foreign affairs of the United States. As Rozenshtein puts it: The executive branch is asserting that if a president determines that a duly enacted statute is inconvenient for the conduct of foreign affairsand thats assuming this is about a good-faith view of foreign policy, and not, say, the financial interests of a major campaign donor with a massive stake in TikToks parent companyhe can simply set it aside. This interpretation effectively creates a foreign-affairs exception to the Presidents duty to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. This argument conveniently ignores that Congress has its own significant, constitutionally enumerated powers in the realm of foreign affairs. The law falls squarely within Congresss power to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, a core legislative function under Article I. The logic of Bondis letters suggests that this power exists only at the sufferance of the president. Whenever a president finds a congressional commercial regulation to be an obstacle to his foreign policy goals, he can, by this reasoning, simply ignore it. Today its a social media app; tomorrow it could be any number of sanctions, trade, or immigration provisions that a president unilaterally decides to ignore based on some generic assertion of foreign affairs authority. Any number of further examples could be cited. Just the cases involving indiscriminate firings in various government agencies could provide several of them. Everything from the State Department to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to OSHA. A federal judge in San Francisco blasted DOJ lawyers for making unfounded arguments in one of the cases about mass firings. The government, she said, wanted her to either declare that nine presidents and 21 Congresses did not properly understand the separation of powers, or ignore how the executive branch is implementing large-scale reductions in force and reorganizations. She entered a preliminary injunction against the mass terminations, while allowing individual agencies to present reorganization proposals to Congress. And what of the third branch? So far, lower court judges have been doing their level best to address the more than 400 suits that have been brought challenging the administrations actions. Many of those actions have been halted or significantly pared down. These rulings have been made by judges nominated by presidents of both parties, including Trump. The Supreme Court, however, has for the most part adopted the same posture as Congress which is to say supine. Last week the Court vacated the San Francisco judges injunction, largely deferring to Trump. Most lamentably, though, the Court is undermining the judicial branchs own coequal status. I will demonstrate how in part 2 of this column next month. The killer of British backpacker Peter Falconio did not reveal where the remains of his victim are prior to his death, according to police in Australia. Bradley John Murdoch was convicted in 2005 of murdering Mr Falconio, 28, and assaulting his girlfriend Joanne Lees at gunpoint on a remote stretch of road near Barrow Creek in Australias Northern Territory on July 14 2001. Mr Falconio and Ms Lees, both from Yorkshire, were travelling across the country in a camper van when they were ambushed by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway, an isolated road that runs through the centre of Australia. Bradley Murdoch was convicted in 2005 of murdering Peter Falconio (Northern Territory Supreme Court/PA) Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years. Murdoch, 67, was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was moved to palliative care from Alice Springs Correctional Centre last month, according to local media reports. The Northern Territory Department of Corrections confirmed that Murdoch died in hospital in Alice Springs. A spokesperson said: The death will be subject to investigation by the Northern Territory Coroner. No further comment at this time. Northern Territory Police Force said Murdoch did not provide any fresh information about the location of Mr Falconios body prior to his death. In a statement the force said: The Northern Territory Police Force acknowledges the death of Bradley John Murdoch, the man convicted of the 2001 murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio near Barrow Creek. It is deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconios remains. His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved. Our thoughts are with the Falconio family in the United Kingdom, whose grief continues. The statement continued: The Northern Territory Police Force remains committed to resolving this final piece of the investigation. We continue to appeal to anyone who may have information that could lead us to Peter Falconios remains to come forward, no matter how small the detail may seem. A reward of up to 500,000 Australia dollars (243,650) is available to anyone providing information that leads to the discovery of Peter Falconios remains. Mr Falconios father, Luciano Falconio, said he wished that Murdoch had left something to help him recover his sons body. I dont wish anybody dead because you have only got one life and I think if youve been given that gift of life I dont even know what to say, Luciano Falconio told Newscorp. I tell you what I think, I wish he (Murdoch) left something for me to find him. Peter Falconio and Ms Lees had been driving near the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek, around 188 miles north of Alice Springs, when Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from their van. He shot Mr Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before forcing Ms Lees into his vehicle and binding her wrists with cable ties. She managed to escape, hiding in the Outback for hours before flagging down a passing truck. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch was likely to have disposed of the backpackers body somewhere in the vast, remote expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome, covering more than 1,200 miles. Peter Falconio and Joanne Lees (Alamy/PA) Despite repeated searches, Mr Falconios body has never been found. Ms Lees, who returned to the UK, told Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 that she still wanted to bring him home. Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too, she said at the time. Ill never be fully at peace if Petes not found, but I accept that that is a possibility. Murdoch lodged several unsuccessful appeals over the years, with Australias highest court refusing to hear his case in 2007. Former Northern Territory police officer and lead investigator in the case Colleen Gwynne told ABC: You mourn Peter today because I guess with Bradleys refusal to co-operate with police and provide that information we needed to locate Peters remains and that resulting in the prolonged agony of the Falconio family its a sad day for those reasons. Im not surprised, just disappointed. I always said I dont think hell ever speak to police. The night that Joanne escaped and we lost Peter, he lost control and as a result of that he felt wronged and angry. To gain some control was to never co-operate and have that power over the Falconio family. The family are aware that weve lost an enormous opportunity now and they will carry that with them every day. Northumbria Police were involved in the march at Exhibition Park - Northumbria Police A police force failed to act impartially when it allowed officers to take part in a Gay Pride and transgender rights march, a court has ruled. Linzi Smith, 34, a gender-critical lesbian, brought a case against Northumbria Police after officers, including Vanessa Jardine, the head of the force, took part in last years parade in Newcastle. Ms Smith brought a judicial review, arguing that it was wrong to allow uniformed officers to actively participate in an event that promoted gender ideology and was supported by transgender activists. Responding to the ruling, Ms Smith said: I am delighted with the judgment of the court. It is terrifying to live in a community where the police have abandoned their duty of impartiality and embraced a highly controversial political cause. In the legal claim, officers, including the chief constable, were accused of joining in the march; stationing a police van decked out in Pride colours at the event and associating with messaging that supported gender ideology. Northumbria Police was wrong to join the Pride march, a judge has ruled - Ian Forsyth The hearing was told there was also a Northumbria Constabulary static display staffed by uniformed officers and a transgender pride flag incorporating the forces insignia. Ms Smith argued that while she accepted it was necessary for the Pride march to be policed it was wrong for officers to actively participate because it breached their professional oath to operate with impartiality. Allowing the judicial review, Mr Justice Linden said: The fact that the officers had publicly stated their support for transgender rights by taking part in the 2024 march would be likely to give the impression that they may not deal with the matter fairly and impartially. He went on: It is not hard to imagine circumstances in which the officers in question might be called on to deal with a clash between gender critical people and supporters of gender ideology, and therefore situations where the former had cause for concern as to whether they were being dealt with impartially. The court also heard how during the march there were pro-Palestinian protesters chanting slogans such as: From the River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free, No Pride in Genocide and Toute le monde deteste la police. The case was supported by Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical professor, and Harry Miller, co-founder of the campaign group Fair Cop, which seeks to remove politics from policing. Professor Stock said: For me, the sight of the Northumbria Police either participating in Pride marches, supporting Pride events in public statements, or using or encouraging the use of Progress or rainbow flags, emblems, lanyards or other symbols associated with trans causes in a public-facing way, conveys its support for gender ideology. If that is not the forces intention, it is certainly its effect. Kathleen Stock said the forces actions conveyed its support for gender ideology - Clara Molden It is not clear how the ruling will impact on the forces plans to police this years event in the city this weekend. Mr Miller said: The significance of this ruling means that in future the police will attend events like this at their peril. But it is sad that we had to go to court to challenge something that was so blindingly obvious. In his concluding remarks the judge said the findings only related to the 2024 event, adding: It will be a matter for the Defendant to consider, in the light of what I have said in this judgment, whether her current proposed approach to the 2025 Event should remain as it is. In a statement following the ruling, a spokesman for Northumbria Police said: The officers, staff and volunteers of Northumbria Police are dedicated and passionate about providing each and every person of our wonderful region with an outstanding policing service. In doing so, we recognise not all communities share the same level of confidence in policing for a variety of reasons. We want to ensure everyone knows that we are absolutely here for them when they need us. Part of that is us being visible in those communities and playing an active part in our force area. Throughout the year, we will have an important role to play in a variety of events, including parades and festivals. During these events while our primary aim is to keep people safe, it also provides us with an opportunity to engage with people including those who may have less confidence in policing. It is vitally important they feel supported and we continue to build their trust in us. That is why we felt it important to challenge the case which was brought against us and which has implications for wider policing. We will work through the ruling to understand the implications, while staying true to our values of fairness, visibility, and support for all. Other forces are currently looking at the ruling to see how it could impact on their approach to the policing similar events. Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs Council, said: Every week police officers and staff will as part of their duties take part in thousands of events up and down the country, from community events at village halls through to large scale events like carnivals, parades and festivals. However, we recognise that policing must also maintain its impartiality, including in the types of events it supports and plays an active part in. We are working through the detail of this judgment and will ensure this decision is communicated to forces for them to consider. We are also working with the College of Policing on broader guidance which will help local forces make decisions around participation in events to maintain their impartiality. Policing values all our communities and will continue to police in a way that aims to build trust and confidence, including among those who have less confidence in our service. This is the cornerstone of good policing and especially neighbourhood policing. Our desire to ensure we recognise and provide good policing for all communities will remain unchanged. Ms Smith was banned from attending matches at St Jamess Park - Mark Pinder Earlier this year Northumbria Police apologised to Ms Smith, who is a season ticket holder at Newcastle United, following an investigation that took place when she expressed gender critical views on social media. She was accused of being transphobic by a complainant who told Newcastle United that trans people would not feel safe sitting near her. A hate crime investigation was launched and she was banned by the club. Northumbria Police later admitted crucial elements of their investigation into claims she had committed a hate crime were not acceptable. It said that while there was no misconduct by its officers, the way they handled her case and similar hate crime reports in future should be subject to further training. Rape victims are dropping out of up to three-quarters of cases after being put off by police and court delays, a report has found. The research, based on more than 270,000 crimes reported to police, found that on average 40 per cent dropped out before a charging decision, with many feeling that they had been forced out. The proportion rose sharply for sexual offences, with rape recording a dropout rate of 69 per cent. This increased to 74 per cent for rape in domestic abuse cases, according to the study commissioned by Claire Waxman, Londons Victims Commissioner. Victims reported being dissuaded by the police from entering the justice process and told how unlikely it was that their case would go anywhere. One victim who had been sexually assaulted was told by the police officer while reporting the attack that there have been cases of people being stabbed to death and we have their faces on CCTV but they still dont get a conviction, so this wont go anywhere. There were even indications that some police officers were logging that victims had withdrawn from prosecutions without consulting with them. Ms Waxman said: With 77,000 cases waiting to be heard in the Crown Courts alone, it is clear the justice system is at breaking point, and it is victims who pay the price. In policing there are good officers who go above and beyond, those who try but are hampered by a lack of capacity and resources, and unfortunately there are officers who use victim withdrawal as an easy way of closing cases. She called for oversight of the police in their role keeping victims engaged, urgent action to ensure victims needs and vulnerabilities were recorded and supported and swift action to tackle the backlogs and spare victims a years-long wait for a hope of justice. Claire Waxman says some officers use victim withdrawal as an easy way of closing cases - GEOFF PUGH for The Telegraph The research, based on data from the Metropolitan Police, focused on crimes including arson, criminal damage, robbery, public order, violence against the person, and sexual offences. Withdrawal rates were highest when the offender was known to the victim, with a victim 2.1 times more likely to withdraw if the offender was a current or ex-partner rather than a stranger, and 1.8 times more likely when it was a friend or acquaintance. With cases being scheduled for 2029, court delays were a key factor in decisions to withdraw from cases. The research found victims are also dropping out due to the lack of available specialist support to help them navigate the system. However, an audit of 334 records, where victims had withdrawn, found 197 of them had no auditable record of the victim dropping out, such as no body-worn video, no record of an email or phone call. Ms Waxman said this tied in with reports from victims. One victim, when requesting information from the police sometime after reporting, was surprised to find that their case had been closed, with the reason being given that the victim withdrew, unbeknownst to them, she said. Pippa Mills, Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police, said the force was relentlessly bearing down on perpetrators to secure justice for victims. To improve victims experiences, were driving up charges for serious offences including rape and serious sexual assault, developing a new victim strategy, rolling out more training, and have launched a new online service, leaflets, and dedicated phone line to increase the frequency and quality of our communications, she said. However, she noted that there were currently more than 100 trials already scheduled for 2029 in London, meaning intolerable delays for victims waiting for closure from often traumatic experiences. There must be a collective effort from the government, partners and the criminal justice system to reform and reverse years of decline, she said. Sir Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, and Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, whose officers were responsible for the leak, at Downing Street in 2023 - Simon Dawson/No10 Downing Street The Home Office tried to stop a 7bn plan to grant asylum to 24,000 Afghans because of fears over national security, The Telegraph has learnt. The Treasury and the Foreign Office were also among several government departments to express serious concerns about the secret scheme, but were overruled after defence ministers used emotional blackmail to force the plan through, it is claimed. On Tuesday, a High Court judge lifted a super-injunction that had prevented the media from reporting anything about the asylum scheme for almost two years. The injunction also meant that the row boiling at the centre of the previous government over the schemes merits had also gone unreported until now. Sir Keir Starmer has said he was angry when told about a data breach that led to the relocation scheme being set up under the Conservative government in 2023. The compensation bill for leak victims could hit 1billion, and two firms have already vowed to take legal action against the Government over the breach. Multiple sources have told The Telegraph that the plan to airlift thousands of Afghans to the UK codenamed Operation Rubific caused a major row within the government, with senior Cabinet ministers objecting to it on the grounds of security, cost and practicality. Among those who raised objections were Sir James Cleverly, who was foreign secretary and then home secretary during the time the row was raging, Suella Braverman, who preceded Sir James in the Home Office, Michael Gove, the communities secretary, and Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, it is understood. The row began in August 2023, when Sir Ben Wallace, then defence secretary, was told about a data breach that had leaked the names of Afghans who had applied for asylum through the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap), for those who had worked with the British Armed Forces during the war in that country. Excerpts of the list of names had appeared on social media. The data was accidentally leaked by a Royal Marine who was working under the command of Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, then director of Special Forces. Sir Ben applied for a High Court injunction to prevent the media, which had heard about the leak, from reporting it, and Operation Rubific was put in place to speed up the process of granting asylum to those whose lives were deemed to be at risk as a result of the leak. He resigned as defence secretary the day before the injunction was granted, and Grant Shapps, who took over the role, delegated the task of running Operation Rubific to James Heappey, the armed forces minister. On Mr Shappss first day in the job, the injunction was granted by a High Court judge and upgraded to a super-injunction, meaning that no one, including the media and MPs, could mention that an injunction existed. Afghans in Kabul attempt to show their credentials to flee the country - AKHTER GULFAM/Shutterstock From the very beginning, Mr Heappey, a former Army major who fought in Afghanistan, clashed with Cabinet heavyweights as he tried to get the secret resettlement scheme up and running. Mrs Braverman, who had been attorney general before her elevation to the Home Office, got into serious arguments with the Ministry of Defence (MoD), one source said, telling Mr Heappey she just didnt believe that all of the people on the leaked list were genuine claimants. In common with Sir James, she was concerned about the threat to national security if Taliban members or sympathisers who had applied for asylum were brought to the UK. MoD sources insisted that they set a high bar for eligibility, and that anyone known to have Taliban connections even decades ago was crossed off the list. However, one former minister claimed Mr Heappey had a religious fervour about the scheme and would constantly try to emotionally blackmail people by referring to his service in Afghanistan and the need to protect those who had helped British forces. A friend of Mr Heappey defended him, saying he had been passionate about the fate of the Afghans, to whom he felt the UK owed a moral responsibility, and that it was sad if former colleagues regarded that as blackmail. Mrs Braverman was also furious at the suggestion that those brought to the UK would have to be housed in Home Office-funded asylum hotels, as she had managed to shut down about 100 such hotels and wanted to trumpet her success. Suella basically told the MoD that if they wanted to bring people here, they would have to house them in empty barracks on MoD land, said one source. Other ministers expressed reservations about housing Afghans on military bases because of the danger that the Taliban might have infiltrated them, and for months, there was a stand-off between the departments. In one explosive meeting, Mrs Braverman accused Mr Heappey and his department of being totally incompetent. Mrs Braverman said in a statement posted online on Wednesday: In all this disgraceful betrayal of the people by their own Government, I feel only shame. I, and a handful of others, fought this, but we failed to stop it. My statement on the Afghan leak. pic.twitter.com/c1Wg5jj191 Suella Braverman MP (@SuellaBraverman) July 16, 2025 Sir James, meanwhile, was annoyed that the cost of the scheme was being taken out of the Foreign Offices overseas development budget and warned that it was untenable because of the sheer number of people involved. In the Treasury, there were concerns about the potentially staggering cost. Laura Trott, in charge of public spending as chief secretary to the Treasury from November 2023 until last years general election, raised objections about the amount of taxpayers money being spent on the scheme, what the final numbers would be once family members were taken into account, and how many of those brought to the UK had genuinely worked with British forces. Ministers were told that if all 18,800 people on the leaked list were granted asylum, the true number requiring asylum would be more than 100,000 once family members were taken into account. In the end, the Government signed off on a 7 billion plan to offer asylum to 24,000 people, with John Healey, the Labour Defence Secretary, saying on Wednesday that being on the kill list did not give people the automatic right to asylum. Credit: Sky News Mr Gove was concerned about how local authorities were going to find homes, school places, doctors and other public services for so many Afghans and their families. Mr Heappey, one source said, found himself in a crowd of one in high-security Cobra meetings with senior ministers as he tried to persuade them to back the scheme. One source said: James had a pretty tough time in Cobra meetings. The other government departments wanted the MoD to have to deal with everything, they didnt want any of it to land on their plate, and ministers were defending their own turf. The government was pretty dysfunctional over this issue. James would respond by saying the MoD wasnt an immigration agency or a social services provider, so it couldnt do it alone. It was all quite toxic. Passengers evacuated from Afghanistan disembark from a Royal Air Force Airbus at Brize Norton in 2021 - Justin Tallis/AFP Colleagues of Mr Heappey claimed that other ministers were conflating what happened in meetings about the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) the existing scheme for bringing Army translators and others to the UK with later meetings about the Afghan Response Route, which was set up in April 2024 in response to the data breach. Mr Heappey has insisted to friends that he never argued for anyone who was not eligible under Arap to be granted asylum in the UK and was not involved in setting up the Afghan Response Route, for which Mr Shapps was ultimately responsible. Sir Ben has defended his decision to seek the injunction, writing in an article for The Telegraph that it was necessary to protect lives. He has also pointed out that he applied for a four-month injunction and that, the day after he left office, the High Court upgraded this to a super-injunction, making it an offence for anyone to divulge even that an injunction has been granted. The court later extended the injunction. Mrs Braverman, whose husband Rael quit his membership of Reform UK on Wednesday after the partys former chairman blamed her for Operation Rubific, said: There is much more that needs to be said about the conduct of the MoD, both ministers and officials, and the House of Commons is the right place to do so. This episode exposes everything wrong with the Westminster establishment. The state apparatus thinks it can hide its failures behind legal technicalities while ordinary people pay the price. I understand your anger, and I share it. The people who have run this country so badly need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Those responsible must be held accountable, and the system that enabled this cover-up must be dismantled. Schools in England should ensure relationships and sex education lessons are age and stage appropriate, the Government said as it scrapped proposals to impose age limits on certain topics. The Labour Government has recommended that primary schools teach sex education in Year 5 or Year 6, in line with what pupils learn about conception and birth, but it is not compulsory. Primary school teachers may decide to discuss the sharing of naked images or online sexual content if it is affecting their pupils and they know that children have seen pornography, according to the final statutory Government guidance on relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in schools. Proposals to impose strict age limits on topics in the RSHE curriculum, proposed by the previous Conservative government, will not go ahead. Draft guidance, published in May last year under the Conservatives, had suggested sex education should be taught no earlier than Year 5. It had proposed for issues like sexual harassment, revenge porn, upskirting and sexual exploitation and abuse to not be taught before Year 7 (age 11), and for explicit discussion of sexual violence, including rape and sexual assault, to not take place before Year 9 (age 13). The draft guidance also said schools should not teach pupils about the concept of gender identity. The final guidance on RSHE, which has been published a year after a consultation over the draft Conservative guidance closed, has not assigned specific ages to certain RSHE topics. Instead, it said schools should develop the RSHE curriculum to be relevant, age and stage appropriate and accessible to pupils in their area. The Government guidance, published on Tuesday, said pupils should be taught the facts and the law about biological sex and gender reassignment. But on the debate around biological sex and gender reassignment, it told schools to be careful not to endorse any particular view or teach it as fact. It said schools should avoid materials that use cartoons or diagrams that oversimplify the topic, or which encourage pupils to question their gender. The Department for Education (DfE) has said revised guidance for schools and colleges on gender questioning children is due to be published this summer. In her foreword to the updated RSHE guidance, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: The depth and breadth of views is clear, and there are understandable and legitimate areas of contention. Our guiding principles have been that all of the compulsory subject content must be age appropriate and developmentally appropriate. It must be taught sensitively and inclusively, with respect to the backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents while always with the aim of providing pupils with the knowledge they need of the law. When asked about removing the plans for strict age limits for sex education, Ms Phillipson told the BBC: I think what parents want to know is that theyll be able to see whats being taught. There sometimes can be occasions where its necessary to broach a topic a little bit sooner in response to something that might have happened within the school, but parents would be informed and involved on that. The guidance said pupils should be given the opportunity to discuss the sexual norms endorsed by so-called involuntary celibates (incels) or online influencers by the end of secondary school. It added that secondary school pupils should be taught about the prevalence of deepfakes and how pornography can portray misogynistic attitudes and it can present harmful activities as normal. Students should be taught that strangulation applying pressure to someones neck is a criminal offence regardless of whether it causes injury. The guidance has also advised secondary schools to work closely with mental health professionals to discuss suicide prevention in an age-appropriate way. It added that schools should continue to share RSHE curriculum materials with parents on request. Since September 2020, relationships and sex education has been compulsory in secondary schools in England, while relationships education has been compulsory in primary schools. In March 2023, then-prime minister Rishi Sunak brought forward a review of RSHE guidance for schools after hearing concerns that children were being exposed to inappropriate content. Schools in England will have to follow the statutory RSHE guidance from September 2026. Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders union NAHT, said: We are pleased to see that there are no age limits included in this new guidance. Schools already work hard to ensure that teaching is age-appropriate and this approach gives them the vital flexibility to respond to their own community and the needs of pupils in their schools. But he added: NAHT has particular concerns that the inclusion of suicide prevention content has not been accompanied by a commitment from the Government to provide funded training for all teachers to give them both the knowledge and the confidence they need to discuss suicide prevention and self-harm with young people. The provision of training is vital before this content becomes statutory and it is unacceptable that the guidance simply says that schools should work with mental health professionals to discuss how this sensitive content should be tackled in the classroom. Margaret Mulholland, Send and inclusion specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: We welcome the clarity over biological sex and gender reassignment in the guidance. There are strongly held and sometimes polarised views over these issues and it is important to have a clear set of national guidelines to follow. We hope soon to see specific guidance on supporting gender questioning children something for which we have been calling for several years. She added: We also welcome the focus on suicide prevention and pay tribute to campaigners for their work on highlighting this issue and the risks to young people. Schools already have a great deal of experience in supporting the wellbeing of pupils and many have seen a rising number of young people struggling with their mental health in recent years. Unfortunately, there is still not enough external support available and we would like to see more work done to ensure that young people can access specialist services in a timely manner. Laura Mackay, chief executive officer of LGBT+ young peoples charity Just Like Us, said: Some teachers still struggle to discuss LGBT+ topics with their pupils. So its good to see the new RSHE guidance strongly encouraging primary schools to teach about diverse families, including same-sex parents. However, there are aspects of the new guidance that could make teachers feel even more anxious about what they can do or say to support all LGBT+ young people. If schools treat gender identity as something that is taboo, trans and gender diverse young people across the UK will feel further alienated and unsafe at school. Donald Trump has said that he and Sir Keir Starmer will refine the trade deal between the UK and the US in an expected meeting later this month. The US president told American reporters on Tuesday that the pair will have a meeting probably in Aberdeen during his private visit to Scotland. A trade deal struck between the UK and the US earlier this year reduced tariffs on car and aerospace imports, but questions remain over whether steel imports into America will face 50% tariffs. There is a baseline tariff of 10% for most other imports. The pair previously met at the White House (Carl Court/PA) Mr Trumps July 9 deadline for when he said he would start implementing tariffs on trade partners has been and gone. Mr Trump said: Were going to be meeting with the British Prime Minister, very respectful, and we are going to have a meeting with him, probably in Aberdeen, and were going to do a lot of different things. Were going to also refine the trade deal that weve made. So well be meeting mostly [] at probably one of my properties, or maybe not, depending on what happens, but well be in Aberdeen, in Scotland, meeting with the Prime Minister. Ahead of his visit to the UK, Mr Trump described Britain as a great place which is a true ally of the US. Speaking about Sir Keir, he told the BBC: I really like the Prime Minister a lot, even though hes a liberal. He also described Aberdeen as the oil capital and said they should get rid of the windmills and bring back the oil. The presidents private visit comes ahead of a state visit that will follow between September 17 and 19. He will be hosted by the King and Queen at Windsor Castle and accompanied by his wife, Melania Trump. It will be Mr Trumps second state visit to the UK, having previously been hosted during his first term in 2019. Downing Street has previously said that Sir Keirs meeting with Mr Trump later this month will not be a formal bilateral. There are also plans for Scottish First Minister John Swinney to meet with Mr Trump during his trip. Afghanistan lead The leaders of unrecognised and isolated regimes do not have many cards to play at the worlds negotiating tables. They might struggle to win the attention of bigger contestants. Now, suddenly, the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan find themselves in possession of a card that may be more valuable than they could have imagined. The database of 25,000 Afghans who were seeking asylum in Britain, mistakenly leaked and believed to be in the hands of the countrys rulers, gives them an immediate source of leverage. After the reports were published in England, it became clear how significant this leak was, a senior Taliban official in Kabul tells The Telegraph. No one thought the list would matter this much to British authorities or the public. But now, the order is to arrest as many individuals as possible to use them as a tool of diplomatic pressure against England. Along with most of the world, Britain does not recognise the Taliban as Afghanistans legitimate government. Four years after the fundamentalist movement seized power in 2021, only Russia has granted the Taliban official recognition, having struck them from its list of banned terrorist organisations. As the Taliban marched into Afghanistans capital, Britain closed its embassy in Kabul and evacuated the ambassador and all his staff. Today the UKs Mission to Afghanistan is based more than 1,200 miles away in Qatars capital, Doha. The diplomats at this small post maintain what the Government calls limited and pragmatic engagement with the Taliban when necessary. But the Taliban hopes that such contact has suddenly become far more necessary. If the British Government cares about the fate of the 25,000 Afghans on the list, it will want the Taliban to refrain from harming them and perhaps co-operate with bringing them safely to the UK. If so, the Taliban will surely demand a price. The official says that the regimes demands might range from pushing England to ease its restrictions on recognising the Emirate, to pressuring it not to block others from doing so. The Taliban already has one card to play. The Telegraph previously revealed that a British couple, Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, were arrested in Afghanistan not because they broke local laws but rather because the Taliban wanted to use them to place pressure on Britain. Peter and Barbie Reynolds are being held on arrest in Afghanistan despite not breaking any local laws - Rebuild The couple, who have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years and hold joint British-Afghan citizenship, are being held separately in Kabul. Their daughter, Sarah Entwistle, told The Telegraph earlier this year that she was increasingly concerned about their well-being. With the British Government under additional political pressure to ensure the safety of the Afghans on the leaked list, the Taliban will be able to raise the stakes. They will have every interest in talking up the threat to the 25,000 people named in the database. Hence Taliban officials claim to have been hunting for them ever since the leak occurred in 2022. They say that a special unit has been established to locate them and border guards ordered to prevent their departure from Afghanistan. The border forces have had the list for the past few months and have orders not to let anyone leave, says one Taliban official. These people are seen as traitors, and the plan has been to find as many of them as possible. The Taliban also claims to be tracking down the families of those named, and keeping them under constant surveillance. Weve been calling and visiting their family members to track them down, says the Taliban official, adding that senior figures in the establishment in Kandahar are pressuring officials in Kabul to find them. How much of this is true and how much is calculated exaggeration remains uncertain. But the Taliban will play the new card in their hands for all it is worth. Now the British Government will have to decide its response. Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed Ukraines missile capabilities in a phone call on July 4 - Ukrainian presidential press service/AFP Donald Trump has ruled out sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, after reports suggested he was considering giving Kyiv weapons that could strike as far as Moscow. Asked on Tuesday whether the US would deliver deep-strike munitions to Ukraine, Mr Trump said: No, were not looking to do that. He went on to say that Ukraine should not attack the Russian capital, adding: Im on nobodys side. You know whose side Im on? Humanitys side. It came after the Financial Times reported that Mr Trump told Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines president, that he wanted Kyiv to make them [Russians] feel the pain and force Putin to the negotiating table. Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? ... Can you hit St Petersburg too? Mr Trump reportedly asked in a phone call on July 4. The Ukrainian president replied: Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons. The White House said Mr Trumps words had been taken out of context. President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. Hes working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told reporters. CNN earlier reported that Mr Trump had not ruled out sending long-range weapons to Ukraine in conversations with European allies over the past few weeks, citing officials familiar with the matter. Following the call, Kyiv received a list from US aides of long-range strike systems that could be made available via third-party transfers. Reports had suggested Mr Trump considered sending Tomahawk missiles, capable of hitting targets 1,600km away, allowing Ukraine to strike Moscow. The US presidents plan to arm Ukraine was unveiled on Monday, when he announced a proposal to supply billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine via Nato. It entailed selling the weapons to Nato members, including the UK, France and Germany, who would then transfer them to Kyiv. Asked whether long-range offensive missiles were under discussion as part of the plan, Mark Rutte, the alliances secretary general, said the scheme could include all types of weapons. Its both defensive and offensive, so its all kinds of weapons. But we have not discussed in detail yesterday with the president. This is really being worked through with the Pentagon, by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, together with the Ukrainians, he said. Credit: Reuters Kyivs European allies are exploring using frozen Russian assets to pay for the weapons package. The idea would see profits generated from almost 200 billion (173 billion) of Russian Central Bank assets, seized by the European Union, used as part of the blocs contribution to the war chest. Putin, meanwhile, vowed to keep fighting despite Mr Trumps threats of tougher sanctions and extra weapons for Ukraine, sources close to the Kremlin said. The Russian president believes his economy is strong enough to withstand the pressure of 100 per cent tariffs against Moscows main trading partners, which the US president threatened to impose on Monday. Putin thinks no one has seriously engaged with him on the details of peace in Ukraine including the Americans so he will continue until he gets what he wants, one of the sources told Reuters. Sergei Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, publicly dismissed Mr Trumps tariff threat, saying Moscow had been through all of that before. Fifty days, then before that 24 hours, then 100 days weve been through all of that, he said. The foreign ministers comments came shortly after he met Xi Jinping, Chinas president, in Beijing. Mr Xi expressed support for Russia, saying that relations between Beijing and Moscow had deepened and that the two were setting a model for a new type of international relations. Chinas foreign ministry said it firmly opposed all illegal unilateral sanctions by the US, adding: There are no winners in a tariff war, and coercion and pressure will not solve problems. Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian security official, dismissed Mr Trumps threats as a theatrical ultimatum. Putins demands for peace include international recognition of four eastern territories illegally annexed in 2022, a ban on Ukraine joining Nato and limits on Kyivs armed forces. A second source told Reuters that Putin viewed his goals in Ukraine as more important than any potential economic losses, and that he could expand his territorial aims to include the entire country. Russia will act based on Ukraines weakness, a third source said. However, he added that Moscow might halt its offensive after conquering the four eastern regions of Ukraine if it encountered stiff resistance, saying: But if it falls, there will be an even greater conquest of Dnepropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv. In a phone call with the BBC on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he was disappointed, but not done with Putin. He said: I thought we had a deal done four times, and then you go home and you see he just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv. When pressed on whether he trusted the Russian leader, Mr Trump replied: I trust almost no one. British troops in Afghanistan in 2009. Photograph: MoD/Crown Copyright/PA When Abdullah received an email from the British government saying his details had been included in the military data leak, it became the worst day in all time. Speaking from Afghanistan, where he is in hiding, Abdullah fears he will be tortured and killed. The people I trusted for my safety have now created this risk for me, said Abdullah, whose name has been changed for security reasons. He had applied to come to the UK with his wife and children under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) after the Taliban swept to power in August 2021. This is the worst day in all time because Im very scared. After hearing this news and receiving this email I havent eaten, I havent [had a] drink, and Im just thinking about me and my familys security because I had sent to the UK government our photos, our home address, our everything and now Im very scared for our safety. Related: Afghans have been betrayed yet again by this shocking UK data leak and many dont even know if theyre affected | Diane Taylor Adnan Malik, the head of data protection at Barings Law, which is representing about 1,000 of the victims, said some of those listed on the leaked database have had to go into hiding in Afghanistan, while others had been killed in targeted attacks. The law firm is now working with some of those affected to pursue potential legal action. We are aware of incidents where there are individuals who are named on the list that they have been killed. And based on our research and understanding it was an attack towards an individual who the perpetrator knew assisted the UK armed forces, Malik said. That is Abdullahs greatest fear. Im in Afghanistan currently and if this information is leaked, the current Afghanistan regime they will find me and torture me and its a risk for my life, he said. Im very concerned about myself and other people who are included in this data breach. Im very sad. I thought the British government was very strong and now Im in a very different situation. The correspondence Abdullah and others received from the UK government, sent in English, Pashto and Dari, warned that the recipients email address had been used to make a resettlement application and that some personal data may have been compromised. It advised the recipient to limit who can see your social media profiles and not accept friend/follow requests from individuals you do not know and trust. It also urged the recipient not to take phone calls or respond to messages or emails from unknown contacts. As some applications included the personal data of others (including family and dependents) you should assume that their data may also be compromised, and they should exercise the same precautions, it added. Abdullah, who is being represented by the law firm Leigh Day, said his only hope is that the British government now speeds up his application. Ahmed, a former soldier who conducted operations in Afghanistan with British troops, said he wept when he realised his details were included in the dataset. He came to the UK with his wife and children under the Arap scheme after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, but many of his relatives are still in Afghanistan. Shortly after his arrival in the UK, his two younger brothers one of whom had been involved in military operations tried to flee the Taliban after the family home was raided but the pair were shot dead at the Iranian border. Ahmed, whose name has been changed for security reasons, said the leak included his Arap application number, which he had used to make a case for his wider family. I was very worried and I started crying, he said, describing the moment he realised he was a victim. I thought everything is safe here. We did a lot of operations with British troops. Im afraid. Im worried about my brother and wifes family and my colleagues because lots are in Afghanistan still. These things happen. The Taliban killed a lot of my friends as well. He added: I have a request to the British government: please dont forget about our colleagues. A bad situation is going to happen in a couple of months if they dont bring them here. Prof Sara de Jong, a founding member of the Sulha Alliance, which helps ex-interpreters and others who worked for Britain, said it was incredibly concerning that the Ministry of Defence routinely asked Afghans for the most sensitive of personal data but couldnt be trusted with data protection. It is a horrible irony that the UK government had to save Afghans from their own data blunder, instead of prioritising those who are the Talibans prime target, she said. The vast amount of resource to cover up this error, could have been much better spent. For example, we see inexcusable delays in processing applications for family members at severe risk and many injured interpreters never received compensation. John Healey in Downing Street on Tuesday. He said on Wednesday morning: Accountability starts now. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press/Shutterstock The defence secretary, John Healey, has said there is no automatic right to resettlement for Afghans named in a leaked Ministry of Defence database, as the former Conservative ministers Ben Wallace and Johnny Mercer clashed over whether thousands of people with little or tenuous links had been admitted to Britain. The controversy revolves around a dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) that was released in error in February 2022 by a British defence official. The MoD only became aware of the breach when excerpts from the dataset were posted anonymously on a Facebook group in August 2023, and a superinjunction was granted at the high court in an attempt to prevent the Taliban from finding out about the leak. Healey told Sky News: Most of those names on the list were people who didnt work alongside our forces, didnt serve with our forces, arent eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place quite rightly to recognise that duty we owe those brave Afghans who supported our forces. Now theyre not eligible for that. Their name is on the dataset, and there was never the plan, to bring everyone on that dataset into this country, and nor should we. Asked if the risk posed by the leak could give them a right to claim asylum, he said: It doesnt give them a right to claim access to Britain. It doesnt give them a right to claim asylum. It doesnt make them eligible for the special scheme that Britain put in place for those whod worked alongside or served with our forces. Wallace, who was defence secretary at the time of the leak, denied that the Conservatives applied for a superinjunction. He told the BBCs Today programme that when ministers went to the high court to stop reporting of the leak, we applied for a four-month injunction, a normal injunction. He said: I was not in court in September 2023 when the injunction was converted into a superinjunction, so I dont know why it was converted. Healey directly challenged Mercers assertion that thousands of Afghans with weak links to the UK had been admitted under the scheme. Its not correct. Not in the period Ive been responsible for this scheme, he told BBC Radio 4. This dataset contained names of many people who had never worked with our forces and were not eligible under the Arap scheme, Healey said. Some were simply speculative applications. Their inclusion in the dataset didnt make them eligible then and doesnt now. Wallace agreed. He told Radio 4s Today programme: I dont think hes [Mercer] entirely right. Originally, it was assessed thered be about 12,000 people going spanning the 20 years, plus their families who had been leaked to working directly for the British state The total number seems to be 18,000. I believe they were the right people. Wallace added: The policy was, we didnt want the whole Afghan army to come. These were people directly linked to our different parts of our military. On Tuesday, Healey told MPs he had been deeply uncomfortable with the secrecy imposed by the previous government. I have been deeply uncomfortable to be constrained from reporting to this house, he said in parliament. He told broadcasters the following morning: Accountability starts now. Wallace defended the initial decision to seek secrecy, saying: The most important priority was to protect those people who could have been or were exposed by this data leak in Afghanistan, living amongst the Taliban who had no regard for their safety, or indeed potentially could torture them or murder them. That was my priority. Sandie Peggie leaves the tribunal hearing in Dundee on Wednesday. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images A nurse who objected to sharing a female changing room with a transgender woman doctor has been cleared of gross misconduct allegations. Sandie Peggie, who has worked as a nurse for the health board for more than 30 years, is claiming she was subject to unlawful harassment under the Equality Act when she was expected to share a changing room with a trans woman, Dr Beth Upton. Upton herself complained to the board about Peggies behaviour after an altercation in the womens changing room in Victoria hospital, Kirkcaldy, Fife, in December 2023. Peggie was accused of misconduct, failures of patient care and misgendering Upton. But NHS Fife confirmed on Wednesday that an internal hearing had concluded there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct. Peggies solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, described her client who was suspended from work at Victoria hospital in January 2024 as relieved and delighted at the outcome of the 18-month internal process. NHS Fife and Upton are defending their actions in an employment tribunal case against the trust that resumed on Wednesday after a five-month break. The tribunal hearing is being watched closely for how it may be influenced by Aprils landmark judgment by the supreme court that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates. The ruling has since been publicly welcomed by Peggie and her supporters. In earlier evidence, Peggie said she had felt embarrassed and intimidated when Upton started to get changed alongside her, leading to a heated exchange, the details of which are disputed. The health board has previously described Peggies action as unnecessary and vexatious. Upton is also disputing it. NHS Fifes equality lead, Isla Bumba, told NHS Fifes counsel, Jane Russell KC, that in August 2023, her line manager, Esther Davidson, had asked for very generic and informal advice on how best to accommodate a new trans member of staff, particularly around changing rooms. The advice was based on the Equality and Human Rights Commissionss statutory code of practice, which is currently being revised to reflect the supreme courts ruling. Bumba told the hearing: I said it could be deemed discriminatory to not allow a trans person access to facilities that aligned with their gender, but I recommended that it might be worthwhile having a conversation with the person directly if they had been open about their trans status to see where they would be most comfortable. She confirmed to Russell that she was not aware of any other cases of staff objecting to trans employees using changing facilities that aligned with their lived gender to date, and that no other female staff had approached her to say they felt their safety, privacy or dignity were being compromised. Bumba was later questioned by Peggies lawyer, Naomi Cunningham, who asked whether the health boards approach to allowing Upton to use the womens facilities amounted to forcing female colleagues to participate in a pretence that Upton was a woman. I disagree, said Bumba firmly. She later denied that she wanted to see Sandie Peggie punished for her gender-critical views, telling Cunningham thats quite a leap. Earlier she accepted that, while she believed that trans women were women, there were others who did not. I believe gender is a spectrum and peoples views on gender will also be a spectrum. As the tribunal continues, the first minister, John Swinney, insisted that NHS Fife which has spent at least 220,000 defending its actions has my confidence and support, while Scottish Labours deputy leader, Jackie Baillie, called on NHS Fife to settle the tribunal case and brings this sorry saga to an end. Pilots should be filmed in the cockpit so their actions can be monitored, the former chief executive of British Airways has suggested, as questions mount over the Air India disaster that killed 260 people. Willie Walsh, who now heads the International Air Transport Association, said cockpit video could be a valuable tool for investigators trying to piece together the cause of the Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad. Based on what little we know now, its quite possible that a video recording, in addition to the voice recording, would significantly assist the investigators in conducting that investigation, Mr Walsh said. Iata boss Willie Walsh is the former chief executive of British Airways - Siggi Bucher Indias Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing whether one of the pilots cut fuel to both engines seconds after take-off, killing 241 people on board and 19 on the ground. The crash has reignited debate over cockpit cameras, long resisted by pilot unions who argue they threaten privacy and could be misused. But advocates say that video recordings would complement voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators. Video footage has already helped solve crashes elsewhere. Investigators in Australia recently used footage from a fatal 2023 helicopter crash to determine the pilot was distracted by his phone and food before the aircraft broke up mid-air. The idea is not new, either. After the EgyptAir Flight 990 disaster in 1999, where the co-pilot deliberately crashed a Boeing 767 killing 217, Jim Hall, the then-chairman of the US national transportation safety board, urged mandatory cockpit cameras. John Nance, an air safety expert and former commercial pilot, said: In the balance between privacy and safety, the scale tips toward safety, unequivocally. Anthony Brickhouse, another expert, said footage from Air India flight 171 would have answered lots of questions, but acknowledged that commercial pilots have real concerns, particularly about privacy. Pilots unions, including the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa) and the Allied Pilots Association (Apa), have argued cameras would add little value and could be misused. Calls for cameras are an understandable reaction to the stress of not knowing what happened immediately after an accident, said Dennis Tajer, a Apa spokesman who is also an American airlines pilot. I can understand the initial reaction of the more information, the better, he said, adding that investigators already have enough data that comes from a black box. John Cox, a safety expert and former Alpa official, warned videos could be leaked or even misused by airlines. A pilots death being broadcast on the 6 oclock news is not something that the pilots family should ever have to go through, he said. It comes after a preliminary report into the deadly Air India crash found there were no mechanical or maintenance faults on board the plane. Campbell Wilson, the chief executive of Air India, said it was unwise to jump to any conclusions after the initial report found fuel to the engines of the plane appeared to have been cut off shortly after take-off. A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft in Ahmedabad - Adnan Abidi/Reuters Investigators have been looking into the medical records of the pilot whose plane crashed in Ahmedabad amid claims that he suffered from depression and mental health problems. Cpt Sumeet Sabharwal, who was 56, was months from retirement but had been considering leaving the airline to look after his elderly father following the death of his mother in 2022, The Telegraph previously revealed. The pilot, who had more than 15,000 flying hours, last undertook a Class I medical exam on Sept 5 last year. His records have been handed to investigators, whose initial report said their focus was on the actions of the pilots rather than a technical fault with the plane. The Airline Pilots Association of India said it rejected the tone and direction of the inquiry. Cunys chancellor, Felix Matos Rodriguez, testifies during a House hearing on antisemitism on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on 15 July 2025. Photograph: Rod Lamkey/AP Lawmakers questioned the leaders of the University of California, Berkeley, Georgetown University and the City University of New York (Cuny) in the final antisemitism hearing the House of Representatives has held since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza that broke out afterward. Georgetown Universitys interim president, Robert Groves; Cunys chancellor, Felix V Matos Rodriguez; and UC Berkeleys chancellor, Rich Lyons, faced scrutiny from Republican representatives who questioned the universities hiring practices, faculty unions, Middle East study centers, foreign funding, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Congresss preceding antisemitism hearings featured tense questionings from Republican lawmakers such as Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, and precipitated the resignations of the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and Columbia. While denouncing antisemitism, Democratic lawmakers spoke out against the focus of the hearing, calling it political theatre and criticizing the Trump administrations gutting of the government agencies that enforce civil rights protections. Id be remiss if I did not point out that this is our ninth hearing on antisemitism in 18 months, said ranking member Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia. Ill also note that since this committees first antisemitism hearing in December 2023 we have not held a single hearing addressing racism, xenophobia, sexism, Islamophobia or other challenges affecting other student groups on American college campuses. Campus leaders denounced antisemitism In their opening statements, each of the university leaders present at Tuesdays hearings began their remarks by condemning antisemitism, and in many cases listing actions their campuses had undertaken to prevent future antisemitism. Georgetown was one of the first campuses to condemn the 7 October attacks, Groves said, adding that antisemitism is incompatible with living our mission; the same applies to Islamophobia and racism. Berkeley unequivocally condemns antisemitism, Lyons echoed. He added: I am the first to say we have more work to do. Berkeley, like our nation, has not been immune to the disturbing rise in antisemitism. Matos Rodriguez shared a similar remark: Our university has not been immune, but let me be clear: antisemitism has no place at Cuny. He added that the university now has a zero-tolerance policy toward encampments, like those which students established at City College and Brooklyn College in 2024. Democrats criticized the Trump administrations approach Democratic lawmakers and witnesses noted that the Trump administrations decision to shutter federal agencies tasked with enforcing civil rights protections will not protect Jewish students on college campuses. Antisemitism in America and on campuses is real but this administrations approach is contradictory and counterproductive, said Matt Nosanchuck, a former deputy assistant secretary for the education departments office for civil rights under the Obama administration. He urged that Congress must fulfill its core responsibilities to give agencies appropriate resources, not conduct political theatre. In his opening remarks, Scott criticized his fellow committee members for saying nothing about the firings attacking the office of civil rights or the supreme court decision allowing the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education. The Trump administration closed seven of the 12 regional offices of civil rights in March. If the majority wanted to fight antisemitism and protect Jewish students, they should condemn antisemitism in their own party and at the highest level of government, said Democratic representative Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon. They have failed to do so. Multiple White House officials have ties to antisemitic extremists. Republicans questioned faculty hiring and union practices To begin the hearing, the chair, Tim Walberg, said that the committee would be examining several factors that incite antisemitism on college campuses including faculty unions and faculty membership in the group Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine. He later questioned Matos Rodriguez about a Hunter College faculty job posting looking for candidates who could take a critical lens to issues such as settler colonialism, genocide, human rights, apartheid and others. Matos Rodriguez called the listing entirely inappropriate and said he ordered it revised immediately upon learning about it. Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, focused her questions on faculty hiring and union practices. She questioned Matos Rodriguez on the fact that the president of Cunys faculty union personally supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. She also questioned Lyons on Columbias hiring practices, which she said had allowed antisemitic faculty to join the staff. We use academic standards to hire faculty. We dont use ideological conditions to hire faculty, Lyons said. Democrats called the hearings part of a greater move to defund higher education Im concerned by what I see happening here. Because instead of solving a problem, were watching some try to use antisemitism as a reason to go after higher education, said Representative Alma Adams, a Democrat from North Carolina. Lets not forget as we sit here today, the Department of Education is withholding more than $6bn in congressionally mandated funding from our K-12 schools, she added. During her questioning, Bonamici also questioned whether the antisemitism hearings were motivated by plans to defund colleges and universities. Tensions ran high between Republican and Democratic committee members Following an exchange between Representative Elise Stefanik of New York and Matos Rodriguez, Representative Mark DeSaulnier of California yielded his time so the Cuny chancellor could respond to that outrageous attack by my colleague. Stefanik had denounced the university for having on its staff an attorney also leading the legal defense fund for Mahmoud Khalil, whom she called chief pro-Hamas agitator that led to the antisemitic encampments at Columbia. Earlier in the hearing, Representative Mark Takano of California called the committees hearing a kangaroo court. This article was amended on 16 July 2025 to further clarify that Virginia Foxx asked about the Cuny faculty union presidents personal support for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS). In a statement issued after the hearing, the president (James Davis) said: As a union, we do not have a position on BDS and do not have Israel divestment policies. Prince Harry followed in his mothers footsteps and walked through a minefield in Angola The Duke of Sussex said children should not have to fear playing outside as he was pictured walking through Angolas largest minefield. Prince Harry made an emotional pilgrimage to the African country, again walking in his late mothers footsteps as he sought to continue her legacy. The Duke met families and children in Cuito Cuanavale, where the dangers of landmines still loom large, 28 years after Diana, Princess of Wales, visited the country. He said: Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. Here in Angola, over three decades later, the remnants of war still threaten lives every day. Credit: The HALO Trust On arrival in Luanda on Tuesday, the Duke joined James Cowan, the chief executive of The Halo Trust, to meet Joao Lourenco, the president of Angola, securing a pledge for a significant three-year programme of further support. He added: The Angolan governments continued commitment is a powerful testament to Halos success in saving lives and reducing humanitarian risk. We thank President Lourenco for his leadership and partnership, as well as continued donor support as we work together towards completing the mission of a landmine-free country. It is almost six years since he last returned to the spot where Diana walked through an area strewn with mines. Prince Harry helped deliver life-saving messages to children living in a remote Angolan village - Ampe Pedro/The Halo Trust By then, it had been transformed into a street in the bustling town of Huambo, with schools, shops and houses. Residents call it Princess Diana Street. The Princess visited Angola with the Halo Trust in January 1997, seven months before she was killed in a Paris car crash. She was photographed on that trip wearing protective equipment and walking through an active minefield during a brief period of peace in Angolas two-decade civil war. Her campaign helped mobilise support for a treaty banning landmines that was signed in October that year, two months after her death. At the time, the country was contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. But almost 30 years later, more than 1,000 minefields, covering an estimated 67km sq, remain to be cleared in Angola. The Duke echoed his mothers support as he helped deliver life-saving messages to children living in a remote Angolan village on Wednesday. The area is so close to Africas largest minefield that it forms part of Halos community outreach programme, which aims to keep people safe from landmines until theyre cleared by trained experts. Prince Harry at the safety class in Cuito Cuanavale - Ampe Pedro/The Halo Trust The Duke repeated simple phrases in Portuguese, including stop, go back and tell your elders, to prevent children from detonating lethal devices left behind from the civil war, which ended in 2002. At least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Angola since 2008, although the exact number of casualties is likely to be higher. Halo has cleared more than 120,000 landmines and 100,000 bombs from the country, but was unable to prevent at least 80 Angolans being killed by them in the past five years. Prince Harry travelled alone to Luanda before taking a series of small two-person planes to the minefields, where he was photographed wearing a Halo branded cap and shirt, surrounded by laughing young children. It is hoped that the visit will encourage more donations from the Angolan government. In September last year, he described how important it was to him to follow in his mothers footsteps, telling a summit in New York: I think we all know how much she would want us to finish this particular job. The Duke said it was important to him to carry on his mothers work - Ampe Pedro/The Halo Trust In June 2019, the local government pledged $60 million to the cause, contracting the Halo Trust to clear 153 minefields in Luengue-Luiana and Mavinga national parks. That September, Prince Harry travelled to a minefield in Dirico, a remote area in the south-east, where he safely detonated a device. In Huambo, he renamed the orthopaedic centre Princess Diana had visited in her honour. In August 2013, he made a private visit to Cuito Cuanavale in Angola with the Halo Trust, wearing the same protective gear his mother had worn on her trip. I was deeply frustrated to learn from the charitys executives and fieldworkers that the job shed spotlighted, indeed the entire global crusade my mother had helped launch, was now stalled, he wrote in his memoir Spare. Lack of resources, lack of resolve. This had been Mummys most passionate cause at the end. Taking up her cause, detonating a landmine myself, made me feel closer to her, and gave me strength, and hope. Queen Camilla is Lady Sponsor of the HMS Astute submarine - Aaron Chown/Reuters The Queen will on Wednesday become the first woman and the first member of the Royal family to be appointed Vice Admiral of the UK. The honorary appointment, which dates back to the mid-16th century, was made in recognition of her ongoing support for the Royal Navy and the high regard in which she is held by all. Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, said it would further enhance Her Majestys relationship with the service. The announcement was made ahead of the Queens attendance at a ceremony at Devonport in Plymouth, the UKs biggest naval base, to mark the end of the first 15-year commission of HMS Astute. The Queen is Lady Sponsor of the submarine, and will join the ships company to celebrate the longest first commission of any Royal Navy submarine in history. Camilla, 77, named the hunter-killer sub in 2007 and watched it enter service three years later. Since then, the Queen has written to the 135-strong crew at least once a year, recently sending English breakfast tea and shortbread, which was really well received on board. Office created in 1513 The office of Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom was created by Henry VIII in 1513 and the most recent holder was the late Adml Lord Boyce, the former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff. Boyce died aged 79 in 2022, following an impressive naval career that took him from officer cadet to chief of the defence staff in 40 years. He succeeded Sir Donald Gosling, who died aged 90 in 2019, and who was made Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom by Elizabeth II in 2012, in acknowledgement of his contribution to maritime life and the Royal Navy. With a deep love of the sea, he long campaigned for a new Royal Yacht Britannia and reportedly left 50 million in his will to the cause. Gen Sir Gwyn said: We are honoured to welcome Her Majesty the Queen to HM Naval Base Devonport. Her Majestys visit has been a tremendous boost to morale, and the honorary appointment reflects the high regard in which Her Majesty is held by all of us. As Sponsor, the Queen is regarded as a member of HMS Astutes ships company, attending key moments in the vessels life and is kept regularly informed of the ships activities. Commander Christopher Bate, the Commanding Officer of HMS Astute, said the crew took enormous pride in Her Majestys sponsorship of their submarine and her support for all aboard since she formally named the vessel, as the Duchess of Cornwall,. almost 20 years ago. Her Majesty The Queen has supported us from the very beginning, he said. She has consistently shown a deep commitment to all aspects of our work. Her continued engagement with our activities and achievements over the years has meant a great deal to us. It is a proud and memorable moment to welcome Her Majesty to HMS Astute and for her to meet our families as we mark the end of our first commission. On arrival on the naval base, the Queen will be met by Commander Bate before inspecting a Guard of Honour consisting of submariners. She will then descend onto the deck or casing of the submarine for the ceremony, during which the Ensign and Union flag will be lowered and the National Anthem played. 0308 Britain's nuclear-powered submarine fleet The ships company will then conduct a Cheer Ship for the Queen a Royal Navy tradition carried out as a special form of salute. HMS Astute will now undergo a major overhaul at Devonport before returning to the seas for her second commission. The Queen most recently visited the boat during a break in operations in Faslane five years ago. She apologised then that she was unable to shake crew members hands, due to the coronavirus pandemic and thanked them from the bottom of my heart for their service. I remember so well Aug 27 2010, as we watched this magnificent boat enter into active service, she said at the time. On that day, I half-jokingly wondered if I would ever join you for a dive. While that has not yet proved possible, somewhat to my relief, I have taken an enormous interest in your work over the past decade. In addition to HMS Astute, she is Sponsor of the UKs flagship HMS Prince of Wales, currently deployed to the Pacific, and Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Navy Medical Service and Naval Chaplaincy Services. The King is Lord High Admiral, the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy. The programmes future remains uncertain, with steep funding cuts proposed for next years budget - ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP via Getty Images Americas beleaguered global anti-HIV aid programme has been thrown a potential lifeline after a rebellion by Republican senators to stop the Treasury reclaiming 300m ($400m) in unspent money. Republicans reached an agreement with the White House to back Donald Trumps wider attempt to claw back federal funding, in return for protecting the flagship Presidents Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar). The 20-year-old scheme has been in turmoil since January, when Mr Trumps administration halted or trimmed many of its programmes as part of wider cuts to foreign aid. Under the deal, which still needs to be approved by both houses, Pepfar would be able to keep money that has been previously assigned for this year, but has not been spent. However the programmes future remains uncertain, with steep funding cuts proposed for next years budget. Pepfar was started in 2003 under George W Bush and has long had widespread bipartisan support as one of Americas most successful public health programmes ever mounted. The programme is credited with saving 25 million lives, mainly in Africa. The Trump administration had wanted to clawback unspent Pepfar funds as part of a wider package of 7bn ($9.4bn) in cuts to federal spending on foreign aid and public broadcasting. The move provoked a backlash from both sides of the senate, including from prominent Republicans such as Susan Collins of Maine. White House Budget Director Russ Vought on Tuesday told reporters that the administration was happy to protect Pepfar to shore up support for the wider package. He said: Were fine with adjustments. This is still a great package, $9 billion, substantially the same package. The Senate has to work its will, and weve appreciated the work along the way to get to a place where they think theyve got the votes. Despite this weeks move to protect unspent funds, Pepfar still faces steep cuts in next years funding. Budget proposals for the 2026 fiscal year, which begins on Oct 1, request 2.1bn ($2.9bn) for Pepfar, down 38 per cent from the 3.5bn ($4.7bn) requested in 2025. The State department has said that after spending a total of 88bn ($120bn) in the past two decades, it will now focusing on finding a responsible off ramp to hand over responsibility for the campaign against HIV to countries themselves. Pepfars future will also depend on what it is allowed to spend the available money on. After Januarys foreign aid cuts, the programme was given a waiver to continue lifesaving aid, but is currently being restricted from providing many HIV prevention services. Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society, said: Global advocacy played a crucial role in persuading US lawmakers to protect this vital programme, reminding them that decisions about Pepfar shape the health and futures of people around the world. Yet uncertainty remains, with ongoing threats to global health funding. We must stay vigilant. Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security Durham Cathedral. The council voted instead to declare a care emergency, a move described as cynical and insulting by a Lib Dem councillor. Photograph: Gannet77/Getty Images/iStockphoto A Reform-led council is thought to have become the first in the UK to rescind its climate emergency declaration, a move condemned as a very dark day for the authority. Durham county council, which has had an overwhelming Reform majority since the May local elections, passed a motion to rescind a declaration made in 2019. More than 300 local authorities have declared a climate emergency. It voted instead to declare a County Durham care emergency, a move described as cynical and insulting by the Liberal Democrat councillor Mark Wilkes. He said there was a financial case as well as an environmental case for keeping the declaration. Wilkes said the councils climate action had helped save more than 13m in the last year alone. He added that stopping work on tackling the climate crisis would risk the loss of external funding. It ran the risk of less money to invest in social care, he said. This is not an either-or. During a sometimes fractious and bad-tempered debate on Wednesday, the Reform council leader, Andrew Husband, said the authority was now driven by data and common sense. During the Roman-occupied era not far away from County Durham, around 45AD, there is evidence of Roman vineyards along Hadrians Wall. This is because the Roman period in Britain is known for having a relatively warm climate which would have been conducive to growing grapes. Mind, how the climate has changed, he said. Kenny Hope, a Reform councillor, accused the Lib Dems of being in favour of adult and child slave labour. He said the mining of material for lithium batteries was rife with child slavery as was the production of solar panels in China. I do not believe in child or adult slave labour and I believe the guys on this side of the house also do not believe in it. But I believe the guys on the other side must believe in adult or child slave labour because they have not took that into consideration, he said. Darren Grimes, a former GB News presenter, prolific tweeter and now deputy leader of the council, proposed the motion and accused his opponents of wanting to make local residents colder and poorer shame. Shame. Shame. He said Durham was done with expensive virtue-signalling tripe and said the 2019 declaration was a feel-good one chasing net-zero rainbows while the likes of China belch out coal more than Saurons Mordor. Afterwards, Jonathan Elmer, one of the councils two Green members, described some of what he heard in the debate as bonkers. He said the vote represented a very dark day for the council. Eighty per cent of the population do believe in the climate emergency and want to do something about it. Durham has an administration that doesnt. Theyve got a head-in-the-sand, dont-look-up approach, Elmer said. Wilkes said he was concerned for his nine-year-old son. I want to know he can grow up and live in a country and on a planet that is safe. There is a personal aspect to everything, isnt there? On Monday, the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, warned MPs about the climate crisis, saying he would explicitly call out politicians who rejected net zero policies for betraying future generations. The duration of the Durham council debate was short because of rules limiting it to 30 minutes. A move by Wilkes to have a fuller debate was voted down by Reform. The rules also meant there was no time for another motion by Grimes to strengthen what he described as free speech protections in the code of conduct for elected members. Before the debate, about 200 protesters gathered outside county hall with banners and placards highlighting the climate crisis. Reform is asking you bury your head in the sand, read one. Our children need a healthy world, said another. Meanwhile, in the East Midlands, another Reform UK council has become the first local authority in the country to abolish its net zero targets. At a meeting in Towcester on Wednesday, the cabinet of West Northamptonshire council (WNC) unanimously voted to refocus the councils sustainability work. This includes removing goals for WNCs operational emissions to reach net zero by 2030 and for its residential and business emissions to do the same by 2045. The meeting had to be paused after a representative from the Umbrella Fair Organisation, a local sustainability group, seemed to refuse to return to her seat after giving a speech about the impact of greenhouse gases. Mark Arnull, the West Northamptonshire council leader, said: Lets be realistic, we simply cannot afford net zero. Every year our council faces financial challenges to deliver the statutory services we have to provide by law. The previous administration set no budget to fund net zero, and instead set undeliverable targets that, if attempted, would likely send the council bust. Sayfollah Saif Musallet. Photograph: Courtesy of family of Sayfollah Musallet When Fatmah Muhammad thinks about her younger cousin Sayfollah Musallet, affectionately known as Saif, she pictures him behind the counter of his ice-cream shop in Tampa Bay, Florida, carefully decorating her knafeh with the same effort he brought to everything else. She makes the dessert from scratch, and would sometimes ship it from California, where the 43-year-old baker lives, so the family legacy could grow nationwide. Saif would sell the Palestinian dessert in his little Amish-style ice-cream shop that carried international treats from the world over. The inventive 20-year-old would record videos for her, making sure each portion of knafeh was flawless, each layer was positioned exactly right. Make sure you get it perfect, she would tease him from 2,000 miles away. He would go above and beyond, she says. Now, less than a year after opening that shop with dreams of expansion, Saif is dead beaten to death by Israeli settlers on his familys farm in the occupied West Bank while he was visiting relatives. His death has left a family shattered and a community demanding answers. Zayed Kadur, a close family friend whom Saif called uncle, wrestled with all the ways that made his nephew by love special. He was just a very rare soul, he says. He made everyone feel important. He made everyone feel loved. Saifs eldest uncle, Hesam Musallet, said the impact his nephew had on the people closest to him was palpable. He would walk into a room and the room would light up, he says. If people were sitting down, he would shake hands with everybody when he walked in, acknowledge them. Old, young to him, it was all the same. Customers at the ice-cream shop told Fatmah how if someone came in short on cash, Saif would quietly cover their tab without making them feel embarrassed. He really made everyone feel like family, Fatmah remembers. No matter the race, no matter the background, no matter the age. Thats just who he was. Born in Port Charlotte, Florida, Saif was the oldest of four children. His parents had moved the family to Palestine for his elementary and high school years before he returned to the US to live and work. A few years later, the ice-cream shop came to fruition, almost by accident. Saif and his cousins noticed that an ice-cream store near their uncles coffee shop by the University of South Florida was struggling. When the owner mentioned he might move on from it, Saif called his family immediately. That business, when he got it, was a failing business, Hesam says. But he went in there, he turned it around. He had a passion for it People would just come back for his customer service. He was phenomenal. For Saif, this summer trip back home to the West Bank village of Baten al-Hawa near Jerusalem was routine a chance to reconnect with extended family before returning to his shop and the life he was building in Florida ahead of his 21st birthday. His father had swapped places with him, taking his shifts at the ice-cream shop so Saif could hang out with the family. The family Saif was visiting represents generations of connections between Palestine and America. His uncle Hesam, who was born in the United States, explained how his father Saifs grandfather had come to the US in the early 1960s. His grandfather first arrived in New York in the early 1900s, spending a few years stateside before returning to the West Bank. Theres so many people in our town that are American citizens, Hesam says of their village. Most of their children and grandchildren all born here. So they go back and forth, summer vacations there. Everybody goes for summer vacations, weddings. Its just typical. But on the day he was killed, Saif was at his familys farm in Baten al-Hawa, in Area B of the West Bank officially under Palestinian administrative control but also under Israeli security control. According to witnesses, settlers had come to the land, chopping down olive trees and burning crops. It was a Friday. People will go out and sit around with friends, Hesam says. And thats our land. If theres nobody there, the Israeli settlers, they would just like to come and just put up a tent so they can say its basically stealing that part of that land. The confrontation escalated, and Saif was beaten with clubs and bats. His friend Mohammed Nael Hijaz was the first to reach him. He was not moving when I got there and he could barely breathe, Hijaz said. There was time to save him. But ambulances were blocked by Israeli forces for three hours, his family said in a statement. During that time, Saif remained conscious, gasping and vomiting, held in the arms of his younger brother. Another young man, 23-year-old Razek Hussein al-Shalabi, was shot and left to bleed to death in the same attack. When ambulances finally reached them, they too were attacked by settlers. Saif was pronounced dead before reaching the hospital. The Israeli military claimed the altercation developed after stones were thrown at Israelis and said it was looking into the incident. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since the Hamas attack on Israel of 7 October 2023, and at least 9,000 have been injured. Israeli settlers seeking to empty the West Bank of Palestinians have grown increasingly emboldened since then, displacing dozens of communities through violent intimidation campaigns. The familys devastation is compounded by what they see as indifference from the US government. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, posted on social media on Tuesday that Israel must aggressively investigate the murder and that there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. But the family is well aware that the prospect of arresting violent settlers is rare. In his first days in office, the Trump administration rescinded Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settler groups accused of attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Still, the family is calling on the state department to conduct its own investigation into Saifs killing. Saifs death isnt the familys only nightmare: Saifs 15-year-old cousin, an American citizen named Mohammed Zaher Ibrahim, has been in Israels Megiddo prison for four and a half months. His family says he has been accused of throwing rocks, which they deny. He is believed to have lost nearly 30 pounds and developed a severe skin infection while imprisoned, with no family visits or phone calls allowed. We have a saying in Arabic, Kadur says. Two hits on your head will hurt. And our family cannot take another blow. The office of the familys Florida congressman, Republican Mike Haridopolos, confirmed to the Guardian that it had been contacted about Ibrahim. We have shared the information we received from his family with the state department and have been informed that the US embassy in Israel is following standard procedures, his office said. The Israel Defense Forces did not respond to a query about the charges against Ibrahim, directing questions to the Israel prison service instead. The Guardian has contacted that agency for comment about Ibrahims current condition. For those who knew Saif, the tragedy lies not just in how he died, but in everything he will never get to do. Nearing his 21st birthday, Saif told his father that he was ready to find a wife and settle down. He was not just a number, Fatmah says. He was a friend to everyone, a cousin, a son, a grandson. I just dont want him to be forgotten. Credit: Sabreen News Vegetable seller Fadlallah Dawara was on his way home on Sunday night when his truck was hijacked by a group of armed men. Mr Dawara was pulled out of his car, beaten and abandoned, blindfolded, on the side of the road. Attackers confiscated seven million Syrian pounds (about 400) and his phone and absconded with his truck, vegetables and all. That account, given to media in Suwayda, a south-western city in Syria, sparked tit-for-tat kidnappings in retaliation which then escalated into deadly clashes between local rival militias. By Monday, the Syrian government had sent its forces into the surrounding countryside in an attempt to restore order. Israel, worried about a military build-up near its border, sent fighter jets to attack the Syrian tanks. The next two days would see tensions rising to a fever pitch as Syrian government forces advanced deeper into Suwayda. The Israeli military stepped up its strikes, bombing around the city, and also hitting Damascus, the Syrian capital including the ministry of defence. Credit: @AJEnglish/X A first ceasefire fell apart within hours. It remains to be seen whether a second, agreed on Wednesday, will hold. Some estimates put the death toll at around 300 people, though the true figures remain unclear, given an internet and electricity blackout in Suwayda. This latest spate of intense, deadly violence appears to be the most significant threat facing the ability of Syrias new government to consolidate control over the richly diverse country after a surprise rebel offensive toppled long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad last December. Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syrias new president who led the rebel coalition that toppled Assad and others he installed at the top of the government are primarily Sunni Muslim, prompting worries of discrimination and violence amongst the countrys many religious and ethnic minorities. Those concerns only deepened in March, when sectarian killings swept through the Alawite religious minority, a sect to which Assad belonged. One estimate put the full death count at 1,500 Syrian Alawites massacred, according to Reuters. Fears that revenge killings would continue have lingered, and many remain terrified that the new guard despite noises to the contrary will eventually revert to the dark, deadly, authoritarian ways of the old. The attacks are very similar to the previous regimes methodology, where they would completely decimate civilian areas to make an example to anyone who wishes to stand up in the face of the governments tyranny, said Abu Jawad, a member of the Druze minority, whose name has been changed for fear of retribution. He accused the Syrian government of covering up its violent actions, which range from looting, beating, and dehumanising civilians all the way to rape and civilian executions. Mr Dawara, the vegetable seller who was robbed, setting off the violent events of the last four days, is also Druze, an Arab sect of about one million people who primarily live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sectarian violence that swept Suwayda, a stronghold of the Druze community, in recent days was primarily between Druze militias, first in response to the attack against Mr Dawara, and Bedouin tribes that took revenge. A few videos, some unverified, began emerging online, showing men in military attire forcibly shaving off the moustaches of Druze men a serious, provocative attack, as they are considered an important cultural and religious symbol for the sect. Credit: @SachaRoytman / X In one, an elderly cleric now identified as Sheikh Merhej Shahin, 80 is seen, in front of his home as a man in military gear shaves off his moustache. The video started circulating online on Tuesday, and his family lost touch with him for a few hours afterwards, with calls to his phone unanswered. Finally, after hours, someone picked up. My aunt repeatedly tried to call him, and at around 8pm, someone answered her call and mockingly told her he met his end, Christine Shahin, the late sheikhs granddaughter, said. When Syrian government forces started advancing, his family begged him to leave, but he insisted on staying to bury his grandson, who had been killed a day earlier by sniper fire. Local Druze fighters, suspicious of Mr al-Sharaas pledge to protect all Syrians, have clashed with Syrian government forces, ambushing and executing some while taking others hostage, as experts have noted based on various videos emerging online. Concern that the violence could spiral out of control prompted Hikmat al-Hijri, one of the three most senior Druze spiritual leaders in Syria, to issue an unprecedented statement directly calling the leaders of the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to take a stand against such persecution. Save Suwayda, he wrote. For our people are being exterminated and being killed in cold blood, with the killer not distinguishing between young and old, woman or child, doctor or sheikh, and they are destroying churches and houses of worship. These are massacres being committed before the worlds eyes and the silence continues to kill. We call on the international community to bear its humanitarian and ethical responsibilities to stop these systematic and organised massacres. Mr al-Hijris stance does not represent the views of all Druze, as many want nothing to do with Israel, instead believing that Israel is exploiting instability in Syria to advance its own domestic security interests, rather than doing so on behalf of the Druze as the military claims. Israel has been bombing long before any of the [latest] aggression toward the Druze sect even began, said Abu Jawad. The Israelis are using this false claim of protecting the Druze to further the divide between the people of Syria and the Druze community ... we never asked for our country to be attacked by foreign occupation aggressors. Either way, the violence underscores some of the biggest challenges the Syrian government still needs to contend with: how to handle aggression from neighbouring Israel, and how best to agree a security arrangement in minority areas, like Suwayda, where locals would rather have members of their own communities, rather than government fighters, installed to maintain order going forward. As night fell on Wednesday, Syrians with friends and family in Suwayda were waiting desperately for any news of their loved ones hard to come by, as communications largely remained down. Nearing 9pm, video surfaced online showing piles of dead bodies in the corridors and beds of a hospital in the city a massacre that had purportedly taken place earlier, and a reminder that the bloodshed was perhaps far from over. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood has urged people to look after wildlife before there is nothing for our children to see. The star joined the Tusk Turtle Trail campaign and designed one of the 16 life-sized turtle sculptures to help raise funds and awareness of endangered marine species. Launched by African wildlife conservation charity Tusk, the installations are positioned at sites across central London including Covent Garden, Carnaby Street and the top of The Shard. Ronnie Wood during a photocall for the launch of Tusk Turtle Trail at Piccadilly Circus (Ian West/PA) The street art can also be found at St Jamess Market, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, with the aim of encouraging passers-by to pause, reflect and engage with urgent marine conservation issues. Wood, 78, is an ambassador of the charity and helped design one of the sculptures, titled The Prodigal, which is in Carnaby Street. He told the PA news agency: It was great fun to do the turtles. Its wonderful. Theres a whole brigade of them. If we dont look after the animals now, therell be nothing for our children to see in the future. The guitarist added that he hopes the campaign will encourage people to appreciate what your surroundings hold and especially the wildlife and the flora and the fauna. You know, look after everything that goes up around us. I think the future of Tusk relies on if we can raise enough money with these turtles to keep the whole project going and the whole message going. John Cleese (second left) and his wife Jennifer Wade (left) with Ronnie and Sally Wood (Ian West/PA) The 16 installations will remain until the end of August before going up for auction in mid-October, with the funds supporting Tusk partners marine conservation projects. The charity led similar campaigns between 2018 and 2023 with rhino, lion and gorilla trails. Other stars who helped design a sculpture for the Tusk Turtle Trail included Irish actor Andrew Scott, Dragons Den stars Deborah Meaden and Steven Bartlett, artist Hannah Shergold and Fawlty Towers star John Cleese and his wife Jennifer Wade. Cleese told the PA news agency: These people like Tusk are doing a great job. We got involved because of my wife. She is passionate about photography and all sorts of conservation projects, and we got sucked in. The first thing we did was a lion, and then we did a wonderful gorilla. The comedian added that they named their turtle sculpture Teddy after their cat, who died earlier this year. He said: Weve christened this little tortoise Teddy to remind us of those happy days. The event aimed to raise awareness and funds for the endangered marine species (Ian West/PA) Wade said: Teddy was a really amazing cat, Maine coon, and he was, like, one in a million. And hes really unique. But with turtles and the conservation we dont want one turtle to be one in a million. We want people to realise that all these turtles need to be saved, and theres species, and theres so many things that people can do to help save them. In other words, Teddys unique to us, but we want all the turtles to be Teddies in the world. Thats what we feel. Wade said she and Cleese have been supporting the charity for about five years. She said: Tusk is amazing. Also, because its a smaller conservation, and the people, you feel like its part of a family, and you feel like youre actually doing some good. Weve loved it. Nick Bubb, chief executive of Tusk, said: Marine turtles have navigated our oceans for over 100 million years, yet six out of seven species are now threatened with extinction. From entanglement in fishing gear to plastic pollution and rising sea levels, human activity has decimated turtle populations across the globe. The aim of the Tusk Turtle Trail is to inspire collective action to celebrate and protect one of the most ancient and endangered marine species. Bidding for the sculptures will begin on Monday. Chinese vice president meets secretary general of BIE Xinhua) 09:48, July 16, 2025 Chinese Vice President Han Zheng meets with Dimitri Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Han Zheng on Tuesday met with Dimitri Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Beijing. Han said that President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to China's participation in BIE and the World Expo affairs, and the World Expo has been reinvigorated amidst the changes of the times since its establishment over 170 years ago. With the support of the BIE, Han said that China successfully hosted the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and the Beijing International Horticultural Exhibition in 2019, and it has participated in World Expos overseas on multiple occasions. China will continue to strengthen cooperation with the BIE, and support the prosperous development of the World Expo cause, Han said. Kerkentzes spoke highly of China's participation in World Expos, fully affirmed the wonderful presentation of the China pavilion at the Osaka Expo. The BIE will continue to strongly support China's participation in the World Expo undertakings, and looks forward to China's extraordinary presentations at various World Expos, said Kerkentzes. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng meets with Dimitri Kerkentzes, Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Provincial police in eastern Ontario say they are investigating an incident that left a young child with serious injuries in Quadeville, Ontario. Photograph: The Canadian Press/Alamy A small rural community in Canada is reeling after police said the horrific attack of an eight-year-old girl was not caused by an animal, as they had suspected, but allegedly by a teenage boy who they have now charged with attempted murder. The residents of Quadeville, a town of a few hundred people in southern Ontario, are questioning local law enforcements handling of the case after officials initially told them to keep their children indoors to protect them against a possible offending animal. The girl was first reported missing on 23 June, with the Ontario provincial police (OPP) saying she was last seen around 6pm at a local grocery store wearing a T-shirt and shorts. She was found with serious injuries later that night, around 12.30am, in a clearing in a wooded area of the community, and taken to a childrens hospital in nearby Ottawa. On 25 June, police investigators announced that they suspected she had been hurt in an animal attack but that further testing was needed. Last week they said they had, in fact, arrested and charged a 17-year-old boy with sexual assault with a weapon and attempted murder. As a minor he cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The OPPs Bill Dickson said officers at first believed the girl was attacked by an animal due to the nature of her injuries, but that he could not comment on them in detail. While we proceeded looking at this as a suspected animal attack, the investigation also continued to look at other aspects, Dickson said. You cant go into an investigation like this with tunnel vision. He added that police could not comment on what led them to arrest the teenager, as the case is before the courts. The allegations have rocked the one-intersection community, whose close-knit nature is illustrated by the fact that the victims family and the suspects family know each other, Dickson said. After the attack, police held a town hall on 12 July to address swirling questions, including why it took them until 9pm on the day the girl went missing to begin searching. It does take time to get some of the specialized services here, Derek Needham, acting chief superintendent with the OPP, told residents, according to the CBC, though a resident responded: As a parent, thats not good enough you guys should be there when the call is put out. The local Pentecostal church has led a fundraiser for the family, with the pastor, Joseph Fiorentino, stating that the girl is showing signs of improvement, adding: Her recovery is hopeful, but the road will be long. Part of the Iraq and Afghanistan memorial in front of the Ministry of Defence in London. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA Two and a half years ago, a British soldier pressed send on an email that was to cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds and change the lives of thousands of people. That email contained the names and details of more than 18,000 people who had applied for asylum under the Afghan resettlement scheme, many of whom would have been obvious targets for reprisals by the Taliban. Since then, more and more people have come to find out about that leak, and yet the news remained secret until this week, protected by an extraordinary government superinjunction. Related: Thousands of Afghans relocated to UK under secret scheme after data leak Now that the details of the leak and the subsequent secret resettlement scheme are public, questions are turning to who knew what, and when? 2022 February Military officers ask a soldier working out of special forces headquarters to help verify the names of people who were applying for asylum under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap). The soldier sends a spreadsheet containing all 18,000 names to Afghan contacts in the UK, who then pass it on to others in Afghanistan. Officials say the soldier only intended to send 150 names for verification, and did not know the entire database was actually contained on the spreadsheet either in hidden rows or on a hidden tab. 2023 August The existence of the database, which had remained secret since it was sent, becomes public when one Afghan who had apparently had their asylum claim refused threatens on Facebook to release it. Afghans on the Facebook group alert British contacts, one of whom then emails the then defence minister James Heappey and then shadow defence minister Luke Pollard to tell them of the possible security breach. The Ministry of Defence then works with officials at the Foreign Office, MI6 and GCHQ to identify the source of the leak. Ministers from various departments meet in the Cobra briefing room along with Gwyn Jenkins, the director of special forces, to discuss their response. Meanwhile, Afghans contact David Williams, a journalist at the Daily Mail, to tell him about the story. Williams calls the MoD, who urge him to hold off publication until they can investigate further. On Friday 25 August, Ben Wallace, the outgoing defence secretary, personally applies to the courts for an injunction to prevent the details becoming public. The injunction is supposed to last four months, giving the government time to airlift those affected out of Afghanistan and bring them to the UK. September Two days after Grant Shapps becomes defence secretary, the judge Robin Knowles not only grants the injunction, but upgrades it to a superinjunction, meaning that not only can the details of the leak not be reported, but neither can the injunction itself. November Officials decide to relocate an initial 150 people affected by the leak from Afghanistan to the UK under the new and top-secret Afghanistan Response Route. The total number to use that route will eventually grow to 6,900 by the time the Labour government shuts it down in July 2025. December Heappey briefs John Healey, then shadow defence secretary, about the leak and the response, at the same time making Healey subject to the superinjunction. Healey takes the legal threat so seriously he does not tell his party leader Keir Starmer about it. Around this time the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, is also made aware of what has happened. 2024 April The Afghanistan Response Route begins operating. May Judge Martin Chamberlain orders the removal of the superinjunction, but the decision is successfully appealed by the government. October Having entered government three months earlier, Labour ministers decide to redesign the secret resettlement programme and fold it into the public one. November The new government applies to have the superinjunction extended. During the hearing, Chamberlain asks during the hearing how it can be possible for the government not to reveal the details of what has happened, given it now estimates the total cost of all the Afghan resettlement schemes could reach 7bn. Nevertheless, he grants the application. 2025 January Six months after winning the election, Labour decides to commission a review into what options it has for the secret resettlement scheme. The commission is to be led by Paul Rimmer, a retired civil servant, and report in late spring. Once more, the government successfully applies to extend the superinjunction. March The government invites the Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, to a briefing about the leak and the secret relocation scheme, but does not mark it urgent and she does not attend. June Rimmer files his report, finding little evidence of intent by the Taleban [sic] to conduct a campaign of retribution against those named on the list. The review adds: The actual data set (versus some knowledge of data being lost) may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared We believe it is unlikely the dataset would be the single, or definitive, piece of information enabling or prompting the Taleban to act. The government now tells Badenoch it is urgent that she is briefed on the situation, but a meeting does not happen until 14 July. July On the basis of the Rimmer report, Chamberlain says he is now minded to remove the injunction. Three days later, on 4 July, the government says it is ending the secret relocation scheme and will apply to remove the superinjunction. Chamberlain orders the superinjunction to be withdrawn on 15 July at midday, giving the government time to contact anyone else affected and take protective measures if necessary. Sir Keir Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen at the UK-EU summit at Lancaster House in London - Neil Hall/Shutterstock Editorial Labour has dramatically increased alignment with the EU over the past six months, undoing many of the legal changes made by the Conservatives after Brexit, according to a new report. Britain is now closely aligned with Brussels on 21 policy areas, up from four last October. They include defence and security, energy and competition policy. A review of the current state of regulatory divergence by the UK in a Changing Europe think tank found that the first six months of the year had been the most significant period for post-Brexit changes for several years. In response to the report, the Conservatives accused Labour of betraying Brexit by any means necessary. Labour has pledged to seek a closer relationship with the EU, aligning with Brussels on some major regulatory issues to smooth the flow of trade. But Brexiteers accuse the Government of ruining the benefits of Brexit, which allowed Britain to set its own rules. Many of the most significant changes were announced at Sir Keirs summit with Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, the respective presidents of the European Commission and Council, in May. They announced a new defence and security deal, which could give British firms access to a fund created by the EU for continental countries to procure defence equipment. Sir Keir also announced that the UK would align with the EUs carbon trading scheme and would sign up to following European standards on food and veterinary exports. Number of case of planned regulatory alignment However, many of the other areas of cooperation with Brussels have happened behind the scenes, with regulation and standards now closer than ever, UK in a Changing Europe said. The think tanks report found that the shift towards Europe has now kicked off in earnest, and identified 21 cases of regulatory alignment. It said there were now only a few areas in which the UK and EU appear to compete, including on financial services and AI regulation. Joel Reland, the author of the report, said: There is no longer a political imperative to demonstrate UK divergence from the EU. It is clear that, on the vast majority of issues, the UK and EU now see each other as partners rather than competitors. Many of the most significant changes were announced at Sir Keir Starmers summit with Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa - Kin Cheung/The Associated Press The report points out that the Government has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to take parallel regulatory action to other international regulators, including the European Commission, when looking at anti-trust cases. Last month, the CMA designated Google as having strategic market status in the field of search engines, putting it in the regulators crosshairs for future competition regulation. It came after the Commission said the company was a gatekeeper firm and accused it of preferencing results from its own sites in web searches. In its recent trade strategy, the Government also announced that Britain would join the World Trade Organisations multi-party interim appeal arbitration arrangement for handling trade disputes. That decision was welcomed by the EU, which said it would increase the stability of multilateral trading relations between Britain and the bloc. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the EU relations minister, said in February that Labour would reset our relationship to help construct a more secure, a safer and a more prosperous UK and EU. A Labour source said: The Tory method was making bad choices because they were stuck in the ideological treacle of the past. Were not going to continue that. Where it makes sense, we will share standards to protect our borders, boost jobs and bring down bills. But at the same time were using Brexit freedoms by removing the VAT loophole for private schools, something we would not have been able to inside of the EU. A Conservative spokesman said: Keir Starmer is betraying Brexit by any means necessary. Starmer is a lifelong Europhile and clearly wants to rejoin, so it should come as no surprise. He energetically campaigned for a second referendum with free movement of people after his side lost. His favourite piece of classical music is even ode to joy the EU anthem. Its no wonder hes trying to unpick Brexit by the back door. A Government spokesman said: We are not interested in divergence for divergences sake, or a race to the bottom in standards. If shared high standards with the EU will cut barriers to trade, we will consider them as long as theyre in our national interest and dont cross our red lines. Rael Braverman joined Reform in December to act as a senior campaigner on defending farmers from Labours inheritance tax rise - Rael Braverman/X Suella Bravermans husband has quit Reform UK six months after joining. Rael Braverman issued a short statement on X, saying: I have left Reform effective immediately. It came hours after Zia Yusuf, the Reform efficiency tsar, had criticised Mrs Braverman, the former home secretary, on the same platform. Mr Yusuf, Reforms former chairman, blamed Mrs Braverman and Robert Jenrick, her then immigration minister, for the Tory governments decision to secretly grant asylum to Afghans put at risk by an MoD data leak. He tweeted on Tuesday afternoon: The British government learnt of the data leak in August 2023. 24 thousand Afghans secretly granted asylum, costing British taxpayers up to 7 billion. The government covered it up. Who was in government? Home Secretary: Suella Braverman. Immigration Minister: Robert Jenrick. Within an hour of her husband announcing his departure from Reform, Mrs Braverman hit back in a lengthy statement, saying she had nothing to do with the Afghan scheme and had actively opposed it when she was in Cabinet. In all this disgraceful betrayal of the people by their own government, I feel only shame, she wrote. I, and a handful of others, fought this, but we failed to stop it. This is why on election night last year I apologised for what we had got wrong. This is why I warned about the direction we were heading in back in 2023. The last Conservative government let you down. The cover-up was wrong, the super-injunction was wrong, and the failure to stop unwanted mass immigration has been unforgivable. So, I am sorry: the Conservative government failed you and its leaders let you down. It wasnt good enough then. Its not good enough now. Mrs Braverman noted that she had not been able to speak out previously because of the super-injunction. She said she had left government before the secret scheme was set up, and was not a Ministry of Defence minister. This episode exposes everything wrong with the Westminster establishment. The state apparatus thinks it can hide its failures behind legal technicalities while ordinary people pay the price, she added. I understand your anger, and I share it. The people who have run this country so badly need to take a long, hard look at themselves. Those responsible must be held accountable, and the system that enabled this cover-up must be dismantled. Were not going to go lightly on the Tories The row threatens to damage relations between senior figures on the right of the Tory party, including Mrs Braverman, and Nigel Farages Reform UK. She has previously said she would be open to a coalition between the Conservatives and Reform in order to defeat Labour at the next election. Mr Braverman joined Reform in December to act as a senior campaigner on defending farmers from Labours inheritance tax rise. The move fuelled speculation that Mrs Braverman could also join, but she has said she has no intention of defecting. My husband and I have a healthy respect for each others independence he doesnt tell me how to do my job, and I dont tell him how to pick a political party, she said at the time. Sources close to the former home secretary believe the friction between her and Mr Yusuf stems from her outspoken criticism of the impact of mass migration on UK culture. In the US last year, she spoke of a fifth column in UK society that refuses to integrate, refuses to abide by our laws, our customs and our values. A Reform source said: Were not going to go lightly on the Tories. If they have done something wrong, we will continue scrutinise their record. Author, author our top picks, from left: William Rayfet Hunter, Yrsa Daley-Ward, Bolu Babalola, Rob Franklin, Issa Quincy, Eloghosa Osunde. Composite: Getty Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. Amid an already bumper year of literary wins for Black authors, with the Sudanese writer Leila Aboulelas Pen Pinter prize among the most recent, there is no better time to beef up your summer reading list. In this weeks newsletter, Ill talk you through some of my favourite page-turners from a romcom about old flames to stories about queer life in Nigeria and a debut coming-of-age novel about class, affluence and grief. Your summer reading list starts here Sweet Heat by Bolu Babalola Bolu Babalola has become one of the foremost romcom writers her short story collection Love in Colour was a bestseller and her debut novel, Honey & Spice, was picked for Reese Witherspoons book club. Honey & Spice charted the fake-to-real romance of university students Malakai and Kiki. Now, the much anticipated follow-up, Sweet Heat, picks up three years after their explosive breakup, as Kiki finds that her ex is to be the best man at a wedding at which she is the maid of honour. Babalola expertly captures the frustration and tension that emerges when we encounter old flames, and asks us to consider how love can be equally transformative and disruptive. Its exactly the kind of book you need this summer. Sweet Heat is published by Headline Review (18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply. Great Black Hope by Rob Franklin This debut novel centres on Smith, a young Black gay man who has been raised in a bourgeois family in Atlanta, and who is looking to escape his grief after discovering the body of his roommate, who had overdosed. Returning to Atlanta, the expectations of his family a cabal of doctors and lawyers only deepen his despair, and he soon finds himself again drawn once again to the tragic and glamorous New York underworld that claimed his friends life. This book is a timely examination of the limits to which class can insulate Black people, and an antidote to respectability politics. Franklin was the son of an HBCU president during the Obama era, and it appears that he has gone through a significant journey while grappling with the pitfalls of affluence and shedding the false promises of exceptionalism. Great Black Hope is published by Simon & Schuster (16.99). Order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Absence by Issa Quincy In Quincys novel, the narrator is charmed by a poem first read to him as a child by his mother, which then follows him through his life. Hes stirred by memories and emotions as he is confronted by letters and photographs, phantoms and secrets, all of which make up a life that has been affected by generations of profound familial tragedy. Quincys prose is deftly lyrical and imaginative; Ive had the pleasure of hearing him read from Absence at a literary salon in London and it was entrancing. He observes the fragility of memory, and what remains after our encounters, however fleeting, with people, say a schoolteacher or an estranged aunt; you might think of him as a counterpart to the novelists Rachel Cusk and Teju Cole. Absence is published by Granta Books (14.99). Order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde I loved Osundes book Vagabonds!, so I am excited to get stuck into Necessary Fiction, which explores cross-generational queer life in Nigeria. The action is set in Lagos, a dynamic but chaotic 24-hour city, and against this buzzing backdrop Osundes characters balance their sexuality and the demands of their lives: negotiating relationships with their parents, building chosen families, embracing and risking romance, and considering desire, death and religion. Lagos is a repository of dreams and aspirations that are often beaten down by the difficulties of the city yet art, music and creativity have helped define it beyond the mismanagement and corruption it has suffered. Necessary fiction is what Osundes Lagosians must carry with them for survival. I look forward to getting to know them and their stories. Necessary Fiction is published by Harper Collins (16.99) on 31 July. Order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. The Catch by Yrsa Daley-Ward This hotly anticipated novel by the eminent writer and poet has been described as dark and lyrical by the author Yomi Adegoke. You can certainly glean that from the synopsis. Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey became estranged after their mother vanished into the River Thames. But when, as adults, they notice a woman called Serene, who looks exactly like their mother at the time of her disappearance, their lives are thrown into confusion. Is Serene their mother? The originality of the plot is compelling, and so is Daley-Wards exploration of familial absence and estrangement. The Catch is published by Cornerstone (16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunte Billed as Saltburn seen through the prism of race, Hunters gay mixed-heritage narrator is down bad for the terrible and terribly wealthy Felix Blake, the brother of his university friend Lily. A romance develops during the summer when the unnamed narrator visits the Blake family in the south of France, but when they return to London, they are assailed by race and class tensions. Both men are haunted by past traumas, and the narrator also faces the sisyphean task of trying to fit into the Blakes world. In Sunstruck, Notting Hill in London is depicted as a site of great privilege and wealth (the Blake familys residence is there) and also a place where Caribbean culture is celebrated at the Notting Hill carnival. Sunstruck is published by Cornerstone (16.99). Order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. To receive the complete version of The Long Wave in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of channelling Margaret Thatcher with new financial reforms with Scotlands First Minister saying her extraordinary actions show the UK economy does not work for Scotland. John Swinney hit out in the wake of Ms Reevess Mansion House speech which contained a package of reforms aimed at attracting more investment to the UK. Ahead of Tuesday evenings keynote address, there had been speculation among observers that the Labour Chancellor would channel Margaret Thatcher with a new era of deregulation. Ms Reeves said she would be rolling back regulation that has gone too far with plans to cut red tape in the City and reform banking rules, including the ring-fencing regime.Addressing the financial sector, the Chancellor insisted the changes are needed for the UK to stay competitive in a more uncertain global economy. She said she had placed financial services at the heart of the Governments growth mission, recognising that Britain cannot succeed and meet its growth ambitions without a financial services sector that is fighting fit and thriving. However Mr Swinney said: The very idea that a Labour Chancellor thinks that channelling Margaret Thatcher is what our economy needs is extraordinary. It is the very last thing we need as we try to recover from Tory austerity. He added that people right across Scotland had suffered terribly during Conservative Mrs Thatchers time as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, and that communities were decimated and countless livelihoods were thrown on the scrapheap. Going on to claim the country is still dealing with the impact of Thatcherism, Mr Swinney said: The UK economy does not work for Scotland. Rather than come up with serious solutions to fix it, Labour are doubling down on the same agenda that has failed before. First Minister John Swinney said Scotland is still dealing with the impact of Margaret Thatchers time as prime minister (Andrew Milligan/PA) We do not need an effort to replicate Thatchers agenda we need bold action and investment to tackle the effects of Thatcher that are still with us. Labour could relax their fiscal rules or make the choice to ask higher earners to pay a little more to unlock investment, just as we have done in Scotland. But the First Minister said the UK Government clearly lack the political courage to do this. He added: Scotland was promised change by Labour instead we have been given the same tired economic policies, and efforts to balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable. We have learned that you cannot trust a word Labour say before an election and that if Scotland is to create an economy that works for everyone, the only way we can do so is as an independent country. A Labour spokesperson said: This Labour Government has delivered the biggest financial settlement for Scotland since devolution began. But as NHS waiting lists fall in England with Labour, one in six Scots are waiting for treatment and cancer waiting times are at their worst ever level under the SNP in Scotland. John Swinney is out of excuses for his partys failure over 18 years in office. Scotland cant risk a third decade of SNP mismanagement of public services. Labour is investing 8.3 billion in funding for GB Energy-Nuclear and GB Energy in Aberdeen, up to 750 million for a new supercomputer at Edinburgh University, 160 million over 10 years for investment zones in the north east of Scotland and in Glasgow City Region, and are investing 452 million over four years for City and Growth Deals across Scotland. While Swinney throws juvenile jibes, Labour is getting on with the job of delivering for Scots. Palestine protesters used van to ram defence factory fence - Alan Simpson Photography Three women have been arrested under the Terrorism Act after a van was driven into a fence surrounding a defence factory in Edinburgh. Pro-Palestinian protesters targeted the Leonardo UK facility on Tuesday morning. The Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh group said the protest was over the firms laser targeting systems for fighter jets, which it claimed were used by the Israeli military. The Italian-owned manufacturer supplies parts for jets and helicopters, including Eurofighter Typhoon components and radar systems for Nato partners. Its website states the Edinburgh site employs about 1,800 people who specialise in the provision of multi-role surveillance radars and countermeasure systems. In a statement, Police Scotland said: Three women, aged 31, 34 and 42, have been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 after a van was driven into an external fence of a business premises in Edinburgh. Police Scotlands counter-terrorism unit is leading the investigation and inquiries are ongoing. We are treating this as targeted, and we do not believe there is any wider threat to the public. Forensics experts examine the van at the scene - Alan Simpson Photography A Leonardo spokesman said: Leonardo UK is subject to UK government export controls and does not supply equipment directly to Israel. The right to peaceful protest is an important principle in our society. However, aggressive and violent activity should have no place in protest. The intimidation of our people, who work hard to support the security and defence of the UK, is not acceptable. Our main customer is the UK Armed Forces. We are proud to manufacture technology that supports our service personnel and helps keep them safe. Their dedication underpins the freedom on which our society is based. Shut Down Leonardo was approached for comment. Three women have been arrested under the Terrorism Act after a van was driven into an Edinburgh-based defence company's fence. Police Scotland said the three women - aged 31, 34 and 42 - were arrested after a disturbance in the Crewe Road North area of Edinburgh on Tuesday. The force said a van was driven into an external fence of a business premises, and that its Counter Terrorism Unit was leading the investigation. It added: "Enquiries are ongoing. We are treating this as targeted, and we do not believe there is any wider threat to the public." Direct action campaign group Shut Down Leonardo - which said it aims to target aerospace, defence and security company Leonardo's headquarters in Edinburgh - posted a photo of the van. It shows police on the roof of the vehicle, which has a Palestine flag hanging off the back. Shut Down Leonardo claims the factory makes components for Israel's F-35 fighter jets. In a separate post, the group said "we're taking action to shut down Leonardo's weapons factory in Edinburgh" and shared a video of an "action taker" explaining why the site has been targeted. Read more: Palestine Action has been proscribed - what does that mean? John Torode sacked from MasterChef Doctor among four people killed in Southend Airport plane crash A Leonardo spokesperson told the PA news agency: "Leonardo UK is subject to UK government export controls and does not supply equipment direct to Israel. "The right to peaceful protest is an important principle in our society, however, aggressive and violent activity should have no place in protest. "The intimidation of our people, who work hard to support the security and defence of the UK, is not acceptable. "Our main customer is the UK Armed Forces. We are proud to manufacture technology that supports our service personnel and helps keep them safe. Their dedication underpins the freedom on which our society is based." Palestine Action - now proscribed as a terrorist group - had also targeted Leonardo's Edinburgh site, cutting off the electricity supply to the factory in March. A US Boeing C-17 used for deportation flights is pictured at an airfield in Texas. The US had deported five migrants to Eswatini. Photograph: Justin Hamel/AFP/Getty Images The US has flown five immigrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba to the small, African country of Eswatini an absolute monarchy with a troubling human rights record. The move signals that the US is again ramping up so-called third country deportations after the US supreme court cleared the practice last month. The US Department of Homeland Security announced the deportation on social media on Tuesday. A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed, Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, wrote. This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back. She said each of the men had been convicted of serious crimes. In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for Eswatini confirmed that the men were being held in correctional facilities. Eswatini, the only absolute monarchy in Africa, also confirmed that it had accepted the US deportees following months of robust high-level engagements with the US. The scope of Eswatinis commitment to accept deportees was not immediately clear, though the Trump administration has been seeking to make deals with countries across the globe to accept immigrants that the US cannot easily deport to their home countries. Though other administrations have conducted third-country removals, the Trump administrations practice of sending immigrants to countries facing political and human rights crises have raised international alarm and condemnation. The state departments most recent human rights report on Eswatini, which has been ruled since 1986 by King Mswati III, points to credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government. There were credible reports that some political prisoners were tortured in detention, according to the state department. Prison conditions overall varied, though facilities were plagued with overcrowding, disrepair, poor nutrition and ventilation and unchecked prisoner-on-prisoner violence. It is unclear how long the US deportees will remain in Eswatini. The acting government spokesperson, Thabile Mdluli, said that the men will be repatriated to their respective countries but will remain imprisoned in the mean time. Mdluli indicated Eswatini would work with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin. The flight carrying deportees to Eswatini comes just days the US completed deportation of eight other immigrants to South Sudan a country beset with political instability and a hunger crisis. Prior to landing in South Sudan, the deportees were diverted to a US military based base in Djibouti, where they had been held in a converted shipping container for weeks. More than 200 Venezuelan men that the Trump administration deported to El Salvador most of whom had no criminal histories in the US also remain incarcerated in the countrys notorious mega-prison, Cecot, where detainees have reported facing torture. In late June, the US supreme court cleared the way for the administration to resume deporting migrants to countries other than their own without offering them a chance to show the harms they could face. The decision handed the government a win in its aggressive pursuit of mass deportations. Related: Irish tourist jailed by Ice for months after overstaying US visit by three days: Nobody is safe Earlier this month, a top Trump administration official said in a memo that immigration officials may deport migrants to countries other than their home nations with as little as six hours notice. US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport someone after informing them of their removal to a so-called third country, according to a memo dated 9 July from the agencys acting director, Todd Lyons. Ice could remove them, however, to a so-called third country with as little as six hours notice in exigent circumstances, the memo said, as long as the person was provided the chance to speak with an attorney. The memo stated that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them without the need for further procedures. The new Ice policy suggested the Trump administration could move quickly to send migrants to countries around the world. Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed reporting California national guard positioned at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles on 10 June 2025. Photograph: Eric Thayer/AP The Trump administration said it would scale down its military operation in Los Angeles with the removal of half of the national guard troops that were deployed to the area last month amid protests over the federal governments mass immigration sweeps. Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, ordered the release of 2,000 national guard troops, the Pentagon announced on Tuesday, significantly reducing the military presence in the city. Related: Troops, terror and tears in Los Angeles as Ice raids show no sign of slowing Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen from the federal protection mission. The deployment, which drew widespread outrage and condemnation, was initiated against the wishes of city leaders, including Karen Bass, the mayor, and Gavin Newsom, Californias governor. The president deployed the California national guard troops to Los Angeles in June to quell protests triggered by the administrations large-scale immigration crackdown. In late May, demonstrators took to the streets in response to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents that had flooded the city, raiding workplaces and arresting people off the street. Donald Trump soon called 4,000 national guard troops into federal service and also deployed about 700 US marines in order to protect federal property and personnel, the administration said. Newsom, who said the presidents actions amounted to illegal overreach and were unconstitutional, sued to stop the deployment. A US appeals court allowed Trump to retain control of Californias national guard. But his decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and inflamed political tension in the countrys second-most-populous city. Along with guarding federal buildings, military personnel accompanied immigration enforcement agents and other federal officials in the region. The Pentagon had defended the deployment, saying safeguarding Ice agents ensures they can do their jobs. The operations have upended life for many in the region, which has large immigrant population. One LA area mayor, a Marine veteran, described Ice activities in the area as a campaign of domestic terror and psychological warfare against residents. Federal immigration authorities conducted mass arrests of immigrants, showing up at parks, car washes and farms, sometimes taking US citizens into custody. Last week a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles. After the withdrawal of the 2,000 military personnel from Los Angeles, 2,000 national guard troops will remain in the city along with the roughly 700 marines. The president has continually shut down any questions surrounding the case - Aaron Schwartz Donald Trump has attacked his own supporters for demanding the release of the Jeffery Epstein files, calling them weaklings. The US president said Maga loyalists had fallen hook, line, and sinker for conspiracy theories surrounding the case, as a rebellion over his administrations mishandling of it grows. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bull----, hook, line, and sinker, Mr Trump vented in a Truth Social post. Its all been a big hoax. Its perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats work, he later told reporters in the Oval Office. Credit: Reuters Mr Trump is facing the biggest internal rebellion of his premiership after the Department of Justice concluded the disgraced financier had no black book of famous clients and died by suicide, not murder. The decision has sparked fury among Maga loyalists, who have called for Pam Bondi, Mr Trumps attorney general, to resign over her mishandling of the case. Democrats have pounced on the rift in an effort to drive a wedge in the presidents base ahead of important midterms next year. The radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again! Mr Trump wrote. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, Trump said of his own supporters who continue to focus on Epstein. He continued: Dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Credit: Reuters As the White House scrambles to contain the row, Mr Trump is reportedly weighing up removing redactions to previously released documents related to the sex offender in a bid to placate his supporters. Ms Bondi, Kash Patel, the FBI director, and Dan Bongino, the bureaus deputy director, have been heavily criticised by Trump loyalists for failing to uncover a broader conspiracy relating to Epstein. The case has come under renewed scrutiny over the so-called client list, which has failed to materialise despite promises from the Trump administration. Conservative influencers from Megyn Kelly to Mr Carlson have called for Ms Bondis resignation over her failure to deliver, after she claimed in February that Epsteins client list was sitting on [her] desk. But the president has stood firm, praising Ms Bondi for handling the case very well. Shes handled it very well, and its going to be up to her, he told reporters on Tuesday. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release. Credit: Rumble / The Dan Bongino Show | Fox News In recent days, Epstein has been accused of working as a Mossad spy by the likes of Tucker Carlson an allegation which has been strongly denied by Israel. Theories about Epsteins supposed connection to intelligence agencies began to surface shortly after he was found to have hanged himself in his Manhattan prison cell while awaiting trial in 2019. His former attorney, Alan Dershowitz, who helped secure the controversial sweetheart deal for Epstein on state sex charges filed against him in 2008, told the Telegraph the disgraced financier laughed at the idea. We discussed it and the answer was no. He laughed. No intelligence agency would really trust him, he said. On Monday, Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli prime minister, vigorously rebutted the claim, criticising the vicious wave of slander and lies against the Jewish state. As a former Israeli prime minister, with the Mossad having reported directly to me, I say to you with 100 per cent certainty: The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false, Mr Bennett wrote. This accusation is a lie being peddled by prominent online personalities such as Tucker Carlson pretending they know things they dont. Some of Trumps closest allies have also called on Mr Trump to release the Epstein files. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, has become the most high-profile figure to break with the president and demand his administration release everything on Epstein to the public. Im for transparency, Mr Johnson told Benny Johnson, a podcast host and conservative commentator. Its a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it. Lady Grey-Thompsons report warned of a clear gap in the training and awareness of security staff in the treatment of disabled passengers and their equipment Photograph: Thomas Krych/AP Airline and airport staff should have mandatory training in disability and accessibility awareness, a government taskforce has urged, to ease the stress, confusion and harm experienced by the growing numbers of passengers requiring assistance to travel. A report from the group, led by the crossbench peer and former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, said the experience of flying for disabled people can be ad hoc, inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic. It said clearer information and standard practices should be adopted across the industry for mobility equipment and guide dogs, along with improved accessibility and complaints procedures. Disabled passengers had given multiple examples of being treated in an undignified manner by airport security staff and said security was a key area of anxiety and concern, the taskforce said. A series of stories of disabled passengers being badly let down by airlines and airports have hit the headlines in recent years. The BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner described last October how he had to crawl to the toilet on a flight and said he had been left stuck on landed planes at least four times. In 2022 an elderly man requiring assistance fell down an escalator at Gatwick and later died. Lady Grey-Thompsons report warns of a clear gap in the training and awareness of security staff in the treatment of disabled passengers and their equipment, and it says ground staff need training to understand the importance of equipment and the impact of damage on passengers. It highlights widespread confusion for passengers in booking and airline policies on seats, companions and assistance dogs, or travelling with health conditions that require medical equipment such as oxygen or medication. The group also found there was limited awareness of non-visible impairments, contributing to unintentional exclusion and undignified treatment. They said more work was needed to address mobility aids, with many stowed in the hold and damaged, and passengers sometimes denied boarding due to battery safety requirements, causing significant stress, inconvenience and in some cases physical harm. Grey-Thompson said there were tough challenges but the scope for action was limited by the international nature of aviation, meaning following the 19 key recommendations in the report would owe more to goodwill than enforcement. The former wheelchair athlete, who has herself been left stranded on planes and trains, added: Some of the cases of poor experiences hit the media headlines but the reality is most do not. According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority, 5.5 million passengers requested assistance at a UK airport in 2024, approximately 1.9% of all passengers a proportion 40% greater than just before the pandemic, and double that in 2010. The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, said: Everyone should be able to travel with dignity and be respected at every stage of their journeys, including disabled passengers. Thats why we established this group in November last year, and I welcome this reports findings which will clear the runway for greater accessibility in aviation. I know industry is working hard to make services more inclusive for all and I look forward to seeing these proposals becoming a reality. Tim Alderslade, the chief executive of Airlines UK, said: As demand for assistance services continues to increase, airlines remain committed to removing barriers so that flying is accessible to all. Karen Dee, the chief executive of AirportsUK, said: The recommendations in this report will help build on the work already being done by airports and the wider sector to ensure air travel is accessible to all. Pride flags in the US. The campaign group Fair Cop argued that flags seen at the Newcastle event signalled political associations associated with gender ideology. Photograph: Jason Whitman/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Police chiefs have been left stunned after the high court ruled officers were wrong to wear their uniforms to take part in last years Pride festival in Newcastle. The judgment found that the chief constable of Northumbria acted irrationally and breached a duty of impartiality by officially supporting the event, which was alleged to have supported views that people could change their gender. The ruling followed a case brought by a woman who objected to uniformed officers taking part to represent their force, which covers Newcastle. The claimant, Linzi Smith, is a gender-critical lesbian who believes sex is immutable. She alleged the event supported an ideology that gender can be chosen. The ruling found Vanessa Jardine, the chief constable, was wrong to allow uniformed officers to take part, marching in uniform bearing Pride flags and painting a police van in colours supporting the event. The judgment listed slogans displayed during the march, which police did not dispute. These included: From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, Tout le monde deteste la police, Northumbria police, off our Pride, Intifada dont deny it, Stonewall was a fucking riot and Queers for free Palestine. Nationally, police chiefs are rushing to understand the judgment and its potential scope. One police source spoke of hearing concerns that forces could not be officially represented at Remembrance parades, events in support of the armed services, or community and religious celebrations, if anyone could object. However, another said the ruling was absolutely right, adding: If you are in uniform, you are on duty to police without fear or favour. In his judgment, Mr Justice Linden wrote: The claimant describes herself as a lesbian who is gender critical. She believes that a persons sex is an immutable characteristic and that gender ideology, which recognises a persons gender identity, is wrong and dangerous. Her evidence is that gender ideology has been embraced by the organisers of the event and was supported by many of the participants in the event, who also strongly oppose gender-critical beliefs. She objects to what she sees as the force and/or members of the force associating themselves with the views of supporters of gender ideology and transgender activists by actively participating in the event. The judge made clear he was not ruling on the merits of the highly charged transgender debate, but whether a body could officially support a disputed cause without breaching a duty of impartiality it was legally bound to observe. The case was supported by a group called Fair Cop, which alleges policing is blighted by excessive political correctness and was founded by Harry Miller, a former officer. In his witness statement, Miller said the chief constable marched in the immediate proximity of those carrying the flags and emblems clearly associated with the gender ideologists cause. He added that banners saying Trans women are women and Trans rights are human rights, plus the intersectional flag and the blue, pink and white transgender pride flag signalled a political association in a similar way to how someone shouting build a wall or make America great again signals an association with Donald Trump. Reaching his decision, the judge said of the chief constable: Her participation in the march was likely to be seen, and may well have been intended to be seen, as expressing the support of the head of the force for the views and the cause which the march sought to promote, and therefore as indicating the position or perspective of the force as an organisation. The judge said all the forces actions at the event gave the impression that the force as a whole was associating itself with a particular viewpoint and, as far as gender-critical people were concerned, taking sides. Linzi Smith said: It is terrifying to live in a community where the police have abandoned their duty of impartiality and embraced a highly controversial political cause. Ive experienced firsthand what happens when the police forget their duty of impartiality. I posted some gender-critical tweets, and Northumbria police launched an investigation into my conduct but when I received appalling homophobic abuse as a lesbian, they did absolutely nothing. Northumbria police said: We recognise not all communities share the same level of confidence in policing for a variety of reasons. We want to ensure everyone knows that we are absolutely here for them when they need us. Part of that is us being visible in those communities and playing an active part in our force area. Throughout the year, we will have an important role to play in a variety of events, including parades and festivals. During these events, while our primary aim is to keep people safe, it also provides us with an opportunity to engage with people, including those who may have less confidence in policing. It is vitally important they feel supported and we continue to build their trust in us. Smiths lawyer, Paul Conrathe, said the judgment may have repercussions for other bodies with a duty of impartiality, such as the BBC, if they align themselves with a controversial cause. With more than 100,000 in student debt, Dr Luke Craddock, 26, now faces unemployment - Lorne Campbell/Guzelian After seven years of medical training, gruelling hospital shifts and more than 100,000 in student debt, Dr Luke Craddock cant believe he is now facing unemployment. The NHS is chronically short of staff, and his training has cost an estimated 250,000 yet when his contract ends in early August, there may be no job for him. The 26-year-old from Nottinghamshire, whose lifelong goal was to become the first doctor in his family, is devastated. Its completely demoralising and depressing, he says. I feel exhausted and betrayed. After seven years of training, its hard to accept that Im now facing unemployment when the NHS desperately needs doctors. Dr Craddock is one of thousands of junior doctors finishing their Foundation Year 2 placements this summer with no job to go to at least not in medicine. A shortage of specialist training posts, the next step on the ladder to becoming consultants, has left many newly qualified doctors scrambling for a dwindling number of non-training roles and locum shifts. Some are leaving the profession altogether, while others are relocating abroad, where their skills are in high demand. The crisis stems from a surge in medical school places without a corresponding rise in postgraduate training posts. Meanwhile, overseas recruitment has soared since 2019, when medicine was added to the shortage occupation list and rules prioritising UK candidates were scrapped. Dr Craddock says that specialist training posts remain scarce, leaving many junior doctors without clear career paths - Lorne Campbell/Guzelian According to a workforce report by the General Medical Council (GMC), in 2023, 27 per cent of all graduate doctors in specialist training came from abroad, up from 18 per cent in 2018. Amongst those training to become GPs, more than half obtained their medical degrees outside the UK. In addition, there are unsuccessful applicants reapplying in subsequent years, causing an ongoing and worsening bottleneck effect, Craddock says. Hes desperately hoping its not the end of a dream hes held since his teenage years a dream hes worked relentlessly to achieve. He secured his place at medical school through a foundation programme for disadvantaged students, a fiercely competitive route with 17 applicants for every place. Getting into medical school felt like a long shot, but I was fully committed and thankfully, the work I put in paid off, he says. I was the only student in my sixth form that year to secure a place at medical school, and one of only a handful ever to do so. His father, an ex-miner, and his mother, a community nurse, were immensely proud when he received the news that hed won a place at Nottingham Medical School. Its a moment well never forget, he says. Not only did he have to work hard to complete an exceptionally challenging degree, but he also supported himself financially by taking summer jobs cleaning student accommodation and mentoring junior medics. Last year, he devoted all his free time to preparing the portfolio required for specialty training a demanding mix of audits, teaching, research, leadership and exams, most of it completed outside regular hours. Craddock hoped his hard work would earn him a specialty training post only to face fierce competition and uncertainty He hoped this would be enough to secure at least one of the three specialty training posts he applied for, including internal medicine and histopathology. Competition for posts has always been tough, but when he started medical school, these were specialties he felt he had a decent chance of entering. Since then, however, competition has risen exponentially. The British Medical Association says more than 33,000 doctors applied for fewer than 13,000 specialty training posts this year. Craddock was among around 20,000 unsuccessful applicants. Despite knowing the system is broken, with so many doctors who have strong portfolios still missing out on training posts, I cant help but feel like a failure, he says. It is a heartbreaking waste of talent and taxpayer investment, and it is hard not to feel like the current system is pushing us out. After years of burnout and carrying responsibility for patients lives, Craddock has started considering jobs outside medicine. As I approach 27, I want stability, he says. I want to settle down and start a family. But with no job security and no clear path forward, its hard to plan anything at all. With so many newly qualified doctors out of work, even temporary non-training jobs are drying up. Senior house officer positions the stepping stone between foundation training and specialty training are scarce, and competition is fierce, with many posts attracting hundreds of applicants. I love my job and do not want to stop working as a doctor, Craddock says. However, my contract finishes at the beginning of August and if I do not find employment as a doctor within a month or two, I will have to look at other sectors. It is a heartbreaking waste of talent and taxpayer investment, says Craddock As more early-career doctors are forced to delay or abandon specialty training, the pipeline of future consultants is narrowing. According to NHS figures from 2023, nearly half of current consultants are expected to retire by 2035 just as patient demand continues to rise and waiting lists hover near record highs. Its likely patients will feel the effects, too. If we had more doctors, patients would receive better care, Craddock says. If we had more specialists, waiting lists would shrink more quickly. We still have one of the lowest numbers of doctors per capita in Europe, so we need more doctors. In response to mounting pressure, the Governments new 10 Year Health Plan for England promises to prioritise UK-trained doctors for training posts and limit overseas recruitment to just 10 per cent of new hires by 2035. An additional 1,000 specialty training places will be created over the next three years in high-need areas. Craddock welcomes the announcement, while also acknowledging the vital role of overseas-trained doctors in keeping the NHS running. It doesnt make sense to continue recruiting doctors trained overseas if we cannot first guarantee employment for doctors trained in the UK. So far, the Government has offered no timeline or details on how the changes will be implemented, and Craddock believes they will come too late for his cohort and those completing medical training in the near future. For now, he and thousands of others remain in limbo. Many doctors, myself included, face an anxiety-filled wait to see where we stand, he says. I honestly dont know what Im going to do. Marco Rubios close relationship with Donald Trump allowed him to intervene when Vladimir Putin stepped up his attacks in recent weeks - NurPhoto/Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto When Donald Trump announced a sweeping package of Russian sanctions and weapons for Ukraine on Monday, it caught the world by surprise. Speaking in the Oval Office, the US president pledged to send billions of dollars of military equipment to Kyiv and threatened to impose 100 per cent tariffs on Russian trading partners if Vladimir Putin did not sign a peace deal to end the war in 50 days. The volte face announced in the same room where Mr Trump berated Mr Zelensky for being ungrateful just five months ago has been chalked up to the presidents increasing frustration with the warmongering tactics of Putin. Yet behind the scenes, Republican hawks have been working for months to steer Mr Trump towards taking a tougher stance against Moscow, three congressional sources told The Telegraph. Central to this effort was Gen Keith Kellogg, Mr Trumps envoy to Ukraine and Russia, who appeared to have been frozen out of negotiations in favour of Steve Witkoff, a real estate billionaire with no prior diplomatic experience. Despite continuing to serve as a go-between with Ukraine, Gen Kellogg was sidelined from direct talks between US officials and Moscow in February. Gen Keith Kellogg played a key role in steering the US president towards a tougher stance against Russia - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images Meanwhile, Mr Witkoff went on to meet face-to-face with Putin on four separate occasions, despite being unable to remember the names of the Ukrainian territories he was negotiating over in an interview with Tucker Carlson. The tide began to shift in recent weeks, with much public attention around support for Ukraine focused on Republican senator Lindsey Graham, a Russia hawk who travelled to Kyiv in May and brought forward a sanctions bill described as a sledgehammer against Putin. But with negotiations floundering and as Putin ramps up his war machine, unleashing some of the most devastating strikes on Ukrainian cities since Russias full-scale invasion, the subtle work of Gen Kellogg is said to have guided Mr Trump towards taking a harder line on Moscow. Gen Kellogg has been in the ascendancy lately, a congressional aide told The Telegraph. He and [Marco] Rubio are driving the new approach. A diplomatic source added that Gen Kellogg has taken on a bigger role in the past few weeks while Mr Witkoff has been bogged down in nuclear talks with Iran. Under the terms of Mondays deal, Mr Trump pledged to send Ukraine $10 billion in US missiles, paid for by other Nato countries, including badly needed Patriot defence systems to help repel large-scale Russian air attacks. Credit: Reuters Multiple reports suggested Mr Trump was considering sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, however the US president on Tuesday ruled out giving Kyiv deep strike munitions. No, were not looking to do that, he told reporters in response to a question about sending weapons that could hit targets deep inside Russia. In what is the first Ukraine weapons shipment agreed since Mr Trump returned to office, he had considered sending long-range Tomahawk missiles, according to multiple reports. The weapons package sparked fury among Maga isolationists such as Marjorie Taylor Greene. One of the presidents most fervent supporters, she accused Mr Trump of going against his America First campaign pledge to avoid foreign entanglements. Maga did not vote for more weapons to Ukraine, she wrote on X. Maga voted for no more US involvement in foreign wars. It was the most recent example of outspoken Maga Republicans denouncing US foreign intervention, last seen in June in the lead-up to the US militarys stealth bombing raid on Irans three nuclear sites. Trump is a realist Yet despite prominent figures within Mr Trumps coalition warning against overseas military action, congressional Republicans warned that it was not always those who shouted loudest whose opinions carried weight with Mr Trump. With this president, you are not going to win your policy debate in the media. The idea of loud people leading him is wrong, a congressional source told The Telegraph. They added that Mr Trump is a realist and a pragmatist, which functions as an ideological difference from those on the isolationist wing of his party. Another insider added: Trump can be hawkish when he needs to be and dovish when he needs to be. With him, its a question of who pays. A senior White House source added: Its pressure points, and he knows how to push them to get the best deal possible, and that is an end to the war. The other prime mover behind Mr Trumps decision to drop the velvet glove is said to be Mr Rubio, his secretary of state and former Republican leadership hopeful, whom the president dubbed Little Marco. A long-term foreign policy hawk who once called Putin a gangster, a thug and a war criminal, Mr Rubio has struck a notably more conciliatory tone towards Moscow since taking up his position. Marco Rubio shakes hands with Sergei Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, in Malaysia on July 11 - FAZRY ISMAIL/EPA/Shutterstock He was ridiculed when an image of him looking ashen-faced and appearing to sink into a sofa went viral following Mr Trumps Oval Office meeting with Mr Zelensky. Yet in doing so, he has grown into one of the most influential advisers of Mr Trumps second term, amassing a portfolio of four jobs, including national security adviser. According to one congressional source, Mr Rubios close relationship with the president allowed him to intervene when Putin stepped up his attacks in recent weeks, unleashing up to 1,000 missile and drone strikes a day. Many of us believed that the Russians will [always mess up], a congressional aide said. [Our tactic was to] get out of the way and let the Russians remind us why this is happening. They always go too far. Melania the wild card And then there is the wild card: Melania - or Agent Melania Trumpenko as she has now been labelled by some in Ukraine. During an Oval Office press conference with the Nato chief Mark Rutte, Mr Trump credited his wife with helping change his mind. I go home, I tell the first lady: I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation. She said: Really? Another city was just hit, Mr Trump told reporters on Monday, as he announced his weapons and sanctions plan. Melania, who grew up next to the Iron Curtain in the former Yugoslavia, has previously appeared to be a bigger supporter of Ukraine than the US president, and has also been credited with swaying him on harsh migrant policies. Despite Mr Trump telling reporters that the weapons deal did not mean he was on Ukraines side, sources hailed Mondays announcement as substantial. But they are all too aware that a lot can still change as the ceasefire deadline draws closer. This will continue to be an issue, [and] we need to continue to put pressure on, one insider said. Another congressional source added: Weve been watching these two dynamics play out in the White House and were hoping that the more hawkish side has won over the president. As the war in Ukraine rages, so too does the battle for the heart of the Republican Party. London flexible office provider Workspace is bracing for large firms to continue vacating, despite signs of midweek office work returning to pre-Covid levels in the capital. Workspace said it was focused on rebuilding occupancy and taking a pragmatic approach to pricing. The London-listed company said it was still seeing larger customers vacating over the latest quarter, after previously warning investors over the retreat. This is set to continue over the coming months with the company expecting more businesses to ditch its buildings in Camden. Occupancy dipped by 0.3% between April and June to total 82.2%, Workspace said. The business has previously flagged that confidence among some of its customers has been weakened by wider economic uncertainty. It comes despite signs that midweek office work has rebounded with property giant British Land recently saying occupancy across its estate had returned to pre-Covid levels in central London. Nevertheless, recent official data showed that 28% of the UK workforce remained in hybrid work, meaning spending some days at the office or at home. Workspace owns a portfolio of about 65 properties across London and the south-east of England, providing units to some 4,000 businesses. At the end of the latest quarter, rents totalled 138.6 million, down slightly on the previous quarter. As expected, occupancy declined slightly in the quarter and we have more large vacations to come in Q2 (the second quarter), Lawrence Hutchings, Workspaces chief executive said. Our immediate focus remains on stabilising and, over time, rebuilding occupancy. Mr Hutchings said it was taking action to retain and attract more customers, including refurbishments at some of its sites and targeting marketing efforts for local offices with fewer occupants. He added that the group had sold lower-performing sites, most recently in the Brentford and Ladbroke Grove areas, for a combined 15 million. Lacey Muszynski / Cheapism Sleeper Savings At Costco, youre here to do two things: Sample something delicious and save money. Once youve had your little mac and cheese ball or new flavor of hummus and pita chips, its time to get to the saving money part of your membership. But which things at Costco yield the biggest savings? What should you buy here that you shouldnt be buying anywhere else? Researchers at CashNetUSA are all over the answer to that question, with a report on all of the biggest savings in the warehouse. Curious? Here are the top 30 items you can save money on at Costco when compared to other top supermarkets. qwe304/Reddit.com 1. Red Vines Costco Savings: 52.1% Professional-Menu191/Reddit.com 2. Croissants Costco Savings: 49.3% Bot-Magnet/Reddit.com 3. Nature Valley Oats n Honey Costco Savings: 47.4% LaurenSomm/Reddit.com 4. Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix Costco Savings: 46.4% CPHDNK/Reddit.com Tied for 5. Jelly Beans Costco Savings: 44.3% LambdaBoyX/Reddit.com Tied for 5. Chicken Thighs Costco Savings: 44.3% shashzilla/Reddit.com 7. Lemons Costco Savings: 42.9% AgingWatcherWatching/Reddit.com 8. La Boulangere Chocolate Croissants Costco Savings: 42.3% Runsglass/Reddit.com 9. Kelloggs Frosted Flakes Costco Savings: 39.3% Costco 10. Quaker Oats Rolled Oats Costco Savings: 36.8% googles_giggles/Reddit.com 11. M&Ms Milk Chocolate Candy Costco Savings: 35.7% Key_Letterhead741/Reddit.com 12. Ferrero Rocher Costco Savings: 35.3% Costco 13. Limes Costco Savings: 34.0% Costco Tied for 14. Eggo Waffles Costco Savings: 33.8% Chocoberrycat/Reddit.com Tied for 14. Nutello & GO! Costco Savings: 33.8% Dadadayayaya/Reddit.com 16. Lotus Biscoff Cookies Costco Savings: 33.3% Rarbnif/Reddit.com 17. Air Heads Costco Savings: 31.3% Costco 18. Jolly Rancher Costco Savings: 30.9% Costco 19. Lindor Truffles Costco Savings: 30.3% Beto_to_the_Max/Reddit.com 20. Cheerios Costco Savings: 29.2% Costco 21. Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds Costco Savings: 28.8% jtrinaldi/Reddit.com 22. Kinder Bueno Costco Savings: 28.3% Extreme-Secretary-56/Reddit.com 23. Large Eggs Costco Savings: 28% Costco 24. Butterfinger Costco Savings: 27.5% Costco 25. Skittles Costco Savings: 26.7% Costco 26. Hersheys Milk Chocolate Bars Costco Savings: 26.0% stakkar/Reddit.com 27. Pork Chops Costco Savings: 25.7% Costco Tied for 28. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups Costco Savings: 25% r/loblawsisoutofcontrol / Reddit.com Tied for 28. Chicken Drumsticks Costco Savings: 25% KnurledNut/Reddit.com 30. Raspberries Costco Savings: 24.6% PlsNoPineapplePizza/Reddit.com The Costco Snacks That Offer the Biggest Savings Nature Valley Oats n Honey: 47.4% Nutello & GO!: 33.8% Lotus Biscoff Cookies: 33.3% Nutter Butter Sandwich Cookies: 23.6% OREO Chocolate Sandwich Cookies: 21.4% Nature Valley Sweet and Salty Peanut Granola Bar: 18.9% Cheddar Goldfish Crackers: 16.9% Flamin Hot Cheetos: 15% Ritz Crackers: 14.9% Original Cheetos: 13.6% Extreme-Secretary-56/Reddit.com The Costco Breakfast Items That Offer the Biggest Savings Croissants: 49.3% Krusteaz Buttermilk Pancake Mix: 46.4% La Boulangere Chocolate Croissants: 42.3% Kelloggs Frosted Flakes: 39.3% Quaker Oats Rolled Oats: 36.8% Eggo Waffles: 33.8% Cheerios: 29.2% Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds: 28.8% Large Eggs: 28% Cinnamon Toast Crunch: 16.5% schooli00/Reddit.com The Costco Candy That Offers the Biggest Savings Red Vines: 52.1% Jelly Beans: 44.3% M&Ms Milk Chocolate Candy: 35.7% Ferrero Rocher: 35.3% Air Heads: 31.3% Jolly Rancher: 30.9% Lindor Truffles: 30.3% Kinder Bueno: 28.3% Butterfinger: 27.5% Skittles: 26.7% rptvision/Reddit.com The Costco Meat That Offers the Biggest Savings Chicken Thighs: 44.3% Pork Chops: 25.7% Chicken Drumsticks: 25% Italian Sausage: 22.4% Beef Chuck: 19.4% Filet Mignon Steak: 18.2% Ground Turkey: 11.5% New York Steak: 8.1% Sirloin Steak: 5.2% Beef Burgers: 2.9% r/Costco / Reddit.com The Costco Fruit That Offers the Biggest Savings Lemons: 42.9% Limes: 34% Raspberries: 24.6% Mandarins: 20% Nectarines: 20% Oranges: 18.2% Strawberries: 15.8% Pears: 8.3% Fuji Apples: 3.2% Kiwis: 1.8% This article was originally published on Cheapism Lacey Muszynski / Cheapism More From Cheapism A Utah man set an Idaho state record back in June, catching a 42-inch Lake Trout inside of Payette Lake, state officials said. According to a news release from the Idaho Fish and Game, Aaron Goettsch, of Utah, caught the massive fish on June 19 while trolling solo in about 80 feet of water while at the lake in McCall, Idaho. Aaron has spent the past three years chasing Lake Trout in Payette Lake, steadily dialing in the fishery and landing some incredible catches along the way, officials said. Goettsche just squeaked past the previous catch-and-release record set by Dylan Smith back in 2018, which was 41.5 inches. Aaron Goettsche holds the 42-inch Lake Trout that clinched the new catch-and-release state record. Lake Trout population rebounding inside Payette Lake Officials said the catches of the two massive trout indicate that the Lake Trout population inside Payette Lake is rebounding from the decline that occurred in the early 2000s. The Lake Trout population was thin at the time due to poor prey availability, as well as the number of kokanee, the fish's "main prey food item," dropping quickly, according to Idaho Fish and Game. It wasnt uncommon to catch a 30-inch fish that looked like a snake, Jordan Messner, regional fisheries manager for Idaho Fish and Game, said. Due to the decline in prey, Idaho Fish and Game launched a plan to boost kokanee numbers while "improving the quality of the Lake Trout population." The plan has yielded positive results, with biologists catching and releasing a 54-pound Lake Trout, just three pounds away from the state's weight record, officials said. "That means another record is likely just around the corner," officials added. How to catch Lake Trout? According to Idaho Fish and Game, here are some tips on how to catch a "record-breaking Lake Trout": Technique: Trolling or jigging are the go-to and suggested methods. Depth: Focus on 3580 feet, where Lake Trout tend to hold tight to structure. Locations: Target underwater ridges, drop-offs and boulder piles. Bait: Mimic kokanee. Use realistic lures, tipped jigs, and scent Lake Trout can be selective, especially when food is abundant. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 42-inch lake trout breaks Idaho state record: See photo The authorities have arrested on suspicion of murder one of the five people detained for questioning in connection with the death of a young boy found in a dumpster in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Panorama City, the Los Angeles Police Department said Wednesday. The department's juvenile division announced in a news release it has in custody "the suspect responsible for the murder of a child,'' and said Brycson Gaddis, 20, was booked on suspicion of murder. The release also identified the victim as 5-year-old Elyjiah Hearn, saying he was not Gaddis' child. ABC7-TV cited the boy's grandfather as saying Gaddis used to be the boyfriend of Elyjiah's mother and the couple had a violent relationship. The LAPD said earlier in the day it detained a man and a woman at a Panorama City apartment complex Tuesday night after getting a tip. Officers were also seen taking custody of two children at the scene, close to where a vigil for Elyjiah was being held alongside an impromptu memorial. A few hours later around 1 a.m., officers detained another two men and a woman while collecting evidence in the case at a unit in Hollywood, about 13 miles away. According to multiple news reports, one of the five people was arrested on an unrelated charge, while the other three were released. Elyjiah was found in a trash bin less than a mile from the apartment complex after police responded to a call on the morning of July 12. The LAPD said its Abused Child Unit took over the investigation. At a police commission meeting Tuesday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the boy had signs of trauma, ABC7 reported. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man arrested for murder after boy found dead in Los Angeles dumpster Getty: BaileysTable Every August, when the Iowa State Fair rolls around, my Midwestern relatives make the trip from their scattered rural homes to the capital city of Des Moines to see one of the worlds largest pigs, the famous butter sculptures, and to eat their way through the fairgrounds endless midway vending booths. Like the rest of us, my almost 90-year-old grandmother loves an indulgent hot, saucy, cheesy sandwich. She and my late grandfather operated their dairy and beef farm in northern Missouri for many years, stocking all of their extended families freezers with enough ground beef and steak to collectively save us hundreds of trips to the grocery store. Though my grandmother doesnt make the trek to the sweltering, busily buzzingalbeit highly entertaining11-day state fair any more, she still holds a soft spot for the fairs famed Italian grinder sandwich. This hoagie rolled mess of ground beef and hot Italian sausage in pizza sauce with melted mozzarella made its way from the fairgrounds to our family tables four or five generations ago. Mothers have scrawled the simple recipe onto white lined recipe cards for their daughters for as long as I can recall. The Iowa State Fair Legacy The Italian grinder sandwich (called the Guinea grinder once-upon-a-time) is a comfort food classic. The satisfying, meaty creation combines minced onion and fresh basil with shakes of fennel seed and red pepper flakes for a sandwich we come back to over and over again. Its just one of many favorites folks have plucked from the fairs culinary pages. The Iowa State Fair began as an agriculture and livestock showcase in 1854, welcoming a dairy building, machinery hall, cattle barn, and the now legendary carnival and food vendor midway over the years. Iowas single largest event has become synonymous with indulgent deep-fried foods on a stick. Fairgoers return year after year to stand in line for bacon-wrapped fried Twinkies and juicy skewered whole pork chops. Of course, you can always get a corn dog, funnel cake or paper basket of cheese curds, but its fun to check out the latest compilations on the whats new list. In 2024, dozens of new items tempted tastebuds, including a bacon cheeseburger eggroll, lobster corn dog and the Iowa smoaked rolla flattened pork tenderloin layered and rolled with jasmine rice, jalapeno cream corn and smoked poblano queso cut into sushi-style bites. One of the longest standing Iowa State Fair food staples, the Italian grinder is a saucy, meaty family favorite and an easy weeknight throw-together dinner. My Family's Italian Grinder Recipe Makes: 4 Italian Grinder Sandwiches Ingredients 4 hoagie rolls pound ground beef pound ground hot Italian pork sausage 8 ounce jar pizza sauce 1 tablespoon minced onion 1 tablespoon chopped basil 1 teaspoon dried oregano teaspoon salt teaspoon pepper teaspoon red pepper flakes 4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese Directions Step 1: Brown meats together in a pan over medium-high heat until no longer pink. Drain grease. Step 2: Mix onion, basil, oregano, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes into pizza sauce. Add to pan of pork and beef. Step 3: Simmer meat and sauce mixture over medium to low heat for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring regularly. Step 4: Preheat oven to 375 F. Split the hoagie rolls open. Layer each roll with the meat and sauce mixture and mozzarella cheese. Wrap each sandwich individually in foil and bake for 15 minutes in the oven. Serve hot with banana pepper rings as an optional topping. More Italian Sandwich Inspiration Dotdash Meredith Food Studios Read the original article on ALLRECIPES Gold Country Wildlife Rescue Black bear cubs at the Gold County Wildlife Rescue NEED TO KNOW Gold County Wildlife Rescue took in six orphaned black bear cubs in the span of one week The cubs, including two sets of twins, are expected to stay at the center for 10 to 11 months as they're rehabilitated and prepared to re-enter the wild As the cost of caring for even one black bear cub is steep, the center is seeking donations to support the bears' medical needs, food and housing A wildlife center is celebrating the successful rescue of six black bear cubs in the span of a week. Gold County Wildlife Rescue in Auburn, California took in the cubs including two sets of twins from July 26 to July 2, the center announced, noting that each had been orphaned due to some form of human interference. The cubs will stay with the center about 10 or 11 months until they're ready to re-enter the wild, GCWR stated. "Each cub is around 56 months old and weighs just 1217 lbs but theyll be growing fast and eating a lot!" the center shared on Instagram. "Their stories vary: some lost their moms to vehicle collisions, others were orphaned due to negative human interactions. Without help, none of them would have survived." Gold Country Wildlife Rescue Black bear cub at the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue The PEOPLE App is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! The cubs include Rubicon and Tahoe, twins from the south Lake Tahoe area; Lassen and Trinity, twins from the Redding area; Shasta, a cub from the county of the same name; and Rollins, a cub from Placer County. All six are in the center's "Summit University" bear rehabilitation program. This is the most Black Bear cubs weve ever had in care at once, GCWR founder and executive director Sallysue Stein said. Its an important milestone for us, but its also a concerning reflection of how much human activity is impacting this species. The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now! Stein told CBS News that GCWR is one of only three facilities in California authorized to rehabilitate black bear cubs by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, adding that they're partnering with the Bear League, "a group that has been helping wild bears for nearly three decades and now shares the cubs' journeys online, drawing thousands of followers." While the GCWR doesn't usually name wild animals, "most black bear cubs are a unique exception," the center said. The cubs usually reside at the center for extended periods of time and "often arrive in sibling groups," and thus it's easier for the GCWR team to discern one from another. Gold Country Wildlife Rescue Black bear cubs transported to the Gold County Wildlife Rescue The center doesn't speak to the animals so that they remain wild, and so the cubs' names aren't used in their presence. Their priority is to "keep wildlife wild and ready for a successful release," the center said on Instagram. They added, "Our goal remains the same: to raise truly wild bears who fear humans and are fully prepared to safely return to their natural habitat." Gold Country Wildlife Rescue Black bear cub at the Gold Country Wildlife Rescue Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Raising just one black bear cub let alone six is an expensive pursuit, the center said, and thus they're seeking donations to help support the cubs' medical care, housing and food. Were committed to giving these cubs their best shot at a truly wild future, but feeding and caring for six growing bears for nearly a year is no small feat," Stein said. "Were asking our community to help us make that possible. Read the original article on People Rodrigo Sandoval, 17, just graduated from high school in South Carolina. He gets excited when he talks about what he'd like to do he's interested in business administration, graphic design or joining the Navy but his face becomes solemn when he talks about the future. Ive noticed a lot of changes, especially in the Hispanic community. We live in constant fear of being deported, arrested and all that, said Sandoval, who came to the U.S. at age 12, fleeing El Salvador due to gang violence that threatened his and his family's life. One of his earliest memories is when he was 5. Its one of my traumas because they put a gun to my head. All I remember is crying out of fear, said Sandoval, who is a beneficiary of the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status classification. The SIJS classification, created by Congress in 1990 as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, protects immigrant minors who have been victims of abuse, abandonment or neglect in their countries and gives them a path to permanent residency in the U.S. They must be under 21 or under 18 in some states, including South Carolina, where Sandoval lives. Last month, the Trump administration ended the measure in place since 2022 that automatically issued the young immigrants work permits and protection from deportation as they waited for their green card applications. Rodrigo Sandoval during his high school graduation in South Carolina in June. (Viki Gomez) Once theyre approved for special immigrant juvenile status, theyre put on a waiting list, which is currently very, very long. We typically tell clients itll probably take more than four or five years, Jennifer Bade, an immigration attorney based in Boston said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. Now after changes under the Trump administration, work permit and Social Security applications must be processed separately, complicating the process for many young people because, in many cases, granting the applications depends on visa availability. Its very strange that theyre in that category because SIJS is about humanitarian protection for young immigrants. There shouldnt be visa limits for these young people, said Rachel Davidson, Director of the End SIJS Backlog Coalition, a part of the National Immigration Project that organizes immigrant youth and allies to advocate for an end to the SIJS backlog. Veronica Tobar Thronson, a professor at Michigan State Universitys School of Law, said many of these young immigrants may not be able to get work permits or renew current ones. If they dont have a work permit or an ID, they cant travel, they cant enter a federal building, they cant apply for a Social Security number they also dont qualify for student loans if they enroll in college, and in some states, they cant apply for assistance with medical or social services because they dont qualify for anything at all. In information sent to Noticias Telemundo, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services stated that foreign nationals from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras currently make up the majority of SIJS applicants, and collectively represent more than 70% of all SIJS applications, although they did not specify the total number. USCIS stated to Noticias Telemundo that while its not rescinding protection from deportation from those who already have it, it has the right to rescind the grant of deferred action and revoke the related employment authorization at any time, at its discretion. A long wait for green card status More than 107,000 young SIJS beneficiaries from 151 countries were on the waiting list to apply for a green card as of March 2023, according to data collected by groups such as the End SIJS Backlog Coalition and Tulane Law Schools Immigrant Rights Clinic. Of the approximately 280,000 SIJS applications approved in the last 12 fiscal years, more than 139,000 have been filed or approved for adjustment of status," according to USCIS. Rodrigo and Alexandra Sandoval in South Carolina with their mother, Viki Gomez. (Viki Gomez) The current processing time for applications for the program (the SIJ I-360 form) is less than five months, according to USCIS. However, the annual visa cap creates a bottleneck because, regardless of the speed of SIJS processing, the number of visas issued remains the same. Both Rodrigo Sandoval and his 20-year-old sister, Alexandra, have already been approved for SIJS but are on the waiting list to apply for permanent residency. Both Alexandra's and her brother Rodrigos work permits expire in 2026, and according to their lawyer, they still have three to five years to wait before adjusting their status. Though they currently have protections under SIJS, Alexandra is still worried about what could happen. "If the police stop us and ask for our documents, its all over because we risk being deported. Hiromi Gomez, a 17-year-old student with SIJS, said it took her nine years to get to apply for a green card, "and I still havent received it." She worries about more recent young immigrants who will have a harder time securing protections due to recent changes. Exploring options Khristina Siletskaya is a South Carolina-based immigration attorney who, among other things, handles cases involving SIJS beneficiaries, including the Sandoval siblings. The Ukrainian-born attorney said that despite changes in U.S. immigration policies, all hope is not lost. This new change that everyone is talking about eliminated the automatic granting of deferred action (from deportation). However, the United States continues to approve cases of special immigrant juvenile status; that continues to operate normally, the lawyer explained. Siletskaya and other experts emphasize that the recent changes are a return to the past, because the automatic granting of deferred action and work permits was implemented in May 2022 but did not exist before. Attorneys for young people with SIJS are exploring other legal avenues to assist them in their search for protection. Does this mean young people cant get Social Security? First, you can try the Department of Social Services. Often, you may be able to get Social Security, but it will indicate that youre not eligible for work purposes, Siletskaya said. So young people could at least get emergency Medicaid, but that will depend on each state. Rodrigo Sandoval, with his sister, Alexandra, has two jobs he has obtained through his current work permit. (Viki Gomez) Regarding work permits, the attorney said there are ways to try to obtain one. The first is to apply for one separately and ask USCIS to grant it. Siletskaya said she has several cases where theyve initiated this process, but warns that she has not yet received a response in those cases. Another option explored by attorneys is to obtain a work permit based on parole, since a young person with SIJS is often granted parole as they work to adjust their status and obtain a green card. Following the recent changes to SIJS, a group of 19 lawmakers led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem expressing concern about the changes. The letter said it "leaves abused and abandoned youth in legal limbo while heightening their vulnerability to exploitation. In the letter, the members of Congress said they had received reports of an increase in the number of detentions and deportations of SIJS beneficiaries. Cortez Masto and other Democrats introduced the Vulnerable Immigrant Youth Protection Act in Congress, seeking to change visa categories for SIJS beneficiaries and prevent delays in adjusting their status, among other things. But the lack of Republican lawmakers supporting it could hamper its passage. The bill is still in its early stages of discussion in the Senate, according to Cortez Masto's office, and members of Congress have not yet received an official response to the letter sent to Noem. 'Not give up' Both Siletskaya and other attorneys consulted by Noticias Telemundo recommend that young people with SIJS avoid taking risks and remain cautious. "Don't get into trouble. If you dont have a drivers license, let your friends drive. Stay discreet, respect the law, stay out of situations where you might be exposed, and wait until you receive your green card, she said. Despite immigration changes and other challenges, Rodrigo Sandoval said he wanted to make the most of every minute of his work permit, which expires next year. Thats why he has two jobs: Hes a barber and also works on construction sites to help his family. My message to people is to keep fighting and keep dreaming big. I dont think there are limits because we as Hispanics are fighters. And this comes from other generations, he said, getting emotional. The truth is, what we have to do is not give up. An earlier version of the article was published in Noticias Telemundo. "Love Island USA" Season 7 has come to a close, and Americas sweetheart Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales finished as one of the villa's strongest couples. But the pair didnt only win one anothers hearts: America voted for the couple to win "Love Island USA," and Bryan chose to split the $100,000 cash prize with Amaya in the end. Amaya, a 25-year-old nurse from New York, and Bryan, a 28-year-old financial accountant, bartender and realtor from Boston, were a late-blooming couple on "Love Island USA" Season 7, with their romance taking off in the latter half of the season. Though viewers quickly caught on to Amayas pure heart and genuine personality, the men of "Love Island USA" Season 7 often gave her a hard time for her emotional and outgoing nature. But late into the season, she found the person she called her prince in Bryan. Heres everything you need to know about Amaya and Bryans villa romance and whether theyre still going strong today. What happened between Amaya and Bryan on 'Love Island USA'? Amaya's journey to find love in Fiji was far from straightforward. Entering the villa as a bombshell on Episode 4 alongside Hannah Fields, Amaya originally coupled up with Ace Greene. While there seemed to be a spark between the pair at first, Ace quickly switched up on Amaya, citing her usage of nicknames (particularly "babe") and physical touch as too much, too soon. From there, Amaya found more connections and obstacles. She coupled up with Austin Shepard on Episode 14, but he, like Ace, began to distance himself from Amaya. The couple split up when Casa Amor happened on Episode 19, leaving them both single and open to exploring new connections. Bryan came into the show as a bombshell in Casa Amor, the biggest relationship test of every "Love Island" season. This is where either the men or the women from the main villa are secretly whisked away to a second villa nearby, where they get to meet a group of other singles hoping to find love in Fiji. In Casa Amor, Bryan quickly hit it off with Andreina. Amaya, meanwhile, was striking up a connection with Zak Srakaew, who also came into the show during Casa Amor. They ultimately coupled up and remained a couple as they went back to the main villa. However, Zak blindsided Amaya during the "Stand on Business" challenge and gang up on her alongside Austin and Ace, which led to Amaya exploring new connections and hitting it off with Bryan. Wait, what happened during the 'Stand on Business' challenge? During the "Stand on Business" challenge in Episode 26, Amaya was confronted by all three men she had previously been coupled up with: Ace, Austin and Zak. As Amaya stood in front of her peers, she read cards that had been written about her specifically about her emotions and how she expressed herself in her relationships. "You cry more than needed. You try to move to fast for everyone," Austin wrote on a card that Amaya had to read in front of the entire villa. "God forbid I'm a sensitive gangsta," Amaya replied (a phrase that became one of her signature one-liners). "I would just have to say that many people could view this as a weakness, but to me personally, after everything I've been through in my life, I view it as a strength," she continued. "So if you guys view it like that, then guess what. I'm just not your cup of tea to be drinking, so don't f------ drink it." Austin admitted to writing the card, explaining that after they initially coupled up, the intensity of your emotions and feelings and wants just felt like they built way up. Ace and Zak decided to join Austin and gang up on Amaya in front of everyone. But what could have been Amayas lowest point in the villa actually became a silver lining, as this is where her and Bryans story began. "One thing I got to add though," Bryan interjected that night. "Coming from a Hispanic household, calling someone 'Babe,' 'Mi amor,' 'Mi vida,' that's just how we talk. You're telling her meet you halfway, you got to meet her halfway, too." The following day, Amaya and Bryan had a chat and started to get to know one another. Bryan not only understood Amaya, but he loved the way she expressed herself. The pair coupled up on Episode 30, and America eventually voted to send them to the Season 7 finale. Viewers got to see their final date and declarations of love, the loving speeches all the final couples give to one another right before the winners are announced. Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales on a date during the "Love Island USA" Season 7 finale. (Peacock / Ben Symons/Peacock) During their first and final date, Amaya expressed her appreciation for Bryan, especially for how he spoke on her behalf during the "Stand on Business" challenge. "Babe, you don't understand how much it meant, that moment, like of you standing up for me in the Stand on Business," she told him. "You know, like, if my light is too bright for somebody, wear sunglasses or something." "But with you, you looked right into the sun, you know?" she continued. Bryan "popped the question," as Amaya put it in her confessional later in the episode, to continue dating exclusively each other when they leave Fiji. "I just wanted to talk to you and just basically let you know how much I care about you and how much you mean to me here," he said. "And I love your energy, I love when you get the zoomies ... Just making everybody's day better. Fine as hell ... I definitely wanted to leave here letting you know that I want to make stuff exclusive with us and prioritize us. I want to continue taking the right steps with you and attacking the outside world with you." Are Amaya and Bryan still together now? As of now, Amaya and Bryan are still together and committed to making their relationship work outside the villa. In a post-finale interview with Ariana, the pair gushed over their win, discussed their plans for their winnings and talked Amaya's viral moments. They did not talk about the future of their relationship. Amaya Espinal and Bryan Arenales during "Love Island USA" Season 7. (Peacock) Since the finale, the final four couples have since traveled back to the U.S. from Fiji, as revealed in some fan videos on TikTok. Fans eager to learn more about how Amaya and Bryans romance is progressing wont have to wait long, as the "Love Island USA" Season 7 reunion will air on Aug. 25. This article was originally published on TODAY.com Arizona is holding Democratic and Republican primaries Tuesday in the race to fill the seat left by the death of U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Arizona. Congress (The Center Square) - Arizona is holding Democratic and Republican primaries on Tuesday to determine the two candidates who will compete to fill the late U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalvas congressional seat. In March, the Democratic congressman died from complications from his cancer treatment. His death left Arizonas 7th Congressional District without a representative in the House. After Grijalvas death, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced the dates of the special primary and general elections. Republicans and Democrats both are holding primaries to see who will face each other in the Sept. 23 general election. Candidates with the highest percentage of votes in their party's primary will advance. The winning candidates only need a plurality of the votes cast in their primary, not a majority. The 7th Congressional District has been a longtime Democratic stronghold. The election won't determine control of the U.S. House. Currently Democrats have 212 seats in the U.S. House, and Republicans are maintaining a narrow majority with 220 seats. The seat that was held by Grijalva is one of three vacancies. Five candidates are running in the Democratic primary. Three candidates are competing in the Republican primary. Democratic candidates A Change Research poll released June 30 shows three frontrunners: Adelita Grijalva, the daughter of Raul Grijalva. She is leading the Democratic primary race in the poll with support of 43% of respondents. Adelita Grijalva has served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. According to her campaign website, she has worked at the Pima County Teen Court for over 25 years. She was first elected to public office in 2002, serving on the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board. As a congressional candidate, Adelita Grijalva supports child tax credits, workers right to unionization, a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants and funding gender affirming care. Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old Democratic activist. She placed second in the Change Research poll with 35% of support from respondents. She is a graduate of Columbia University and worked on former Vice President Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign. Foxx has not previously served in office, but has been involved in Democratic politics and activism since her teenage years. According to her campaign website, she advocates for housing as a human right, adding more justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, Medicare for all and expanding a womans access to abortion. Daniel Hernandez, a former Arizona state representative who served from 2017 to 2023. He co-founded the state House LGBTQ+ caucus. He placed third in the Change Research poll for the Democratic primary, with support from 9% of respondents. In 2022, Hernandez ran for Arizonas 6th Congressional District seat but lost the Democratic primary to Kirsten Engel. Hernandezs campaign website says he supports gender-affirming care, a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, ending right-to-work policies and passing red flag laws. The other two candidates are Jose Malvido Jr., who has worked on health care and family services at Chicanos por la Causa, and Patrick Harris Sr., a single father with 43 patents in health care technology. Malvido received support from 3% of the respondents in the Change Research poll. Harris didn't receive a measurable amount of support, according to a Change Research chart. Eleven percent of poll respondents reported being undecided. Republican candidates The three candidates are: Daniel Butierez, a small business owner who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of violating probation while awaiting trial for possession of a gram of marijuana. After he was released from prison, an Arizona court years later ruled he did not commit the probation violation. He previously ran against Raul Grijalva in 2024, but lost the election by 72,897 votes. Citing his campaign website, Butierez backs lowering taxes, securing the border, defending the U.S. Constitution, and helping veterans and homeless people. Jorge Rivas. Rivas was born in El Salvador but immigrated to America during the Salvadoran civil war in the 1980s. In Arizona, he operates a Mexican restaurant with his family. The restaurant owner has been featured alongside President Donald Trump in his commercials and at roundtable meetings, demonstrating Rivas' support for the Republican president. Rivas doesnt explain his policy positions on his campaign website. However, the top four priorities he ranks in terms of importance are public safety, affordable housing, education and workforce development. Jimmy Rodriguez, a business owner who has built companies in electronics, construction and government surplus. He previously tried to run for Arizonas 8th Congressional District in 2020, but withdrew his candidacy. His website states if he is elected, Rodriguez will donate $154,000 of his $174,000 salary to causes in the 7th Congressional District. On issues, he supports securing the border, advocating school choice, reducing regulations and protecting illegal immigrants who are farm workers and construction workers. WASHINGTON Bahrain's crown prince announced $17 billion in investments in the U.S., including buying a dozen Boeing jets and dozens of GE engines. Were very happy to be announcing $17 billion worth of deals that are coming to the United States," Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa told President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. These arent fake deals. These are real deals." We appreciate the investment, Trump said. Khalifa's third visit to the White House with President Donald Trump came on the heels of the president's Middle East trip in May to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. Deals announced during that trip included a $1.2 trillion commitment from Qatar and a $600 million commitment from Saudi Arabia and an agreement to sell that country $142 billion in arms. Khalifa said the leaders will also be discussing security issues, trade and investment. Asked if he would send Patriot missiles to Ukraine, as Europe is doing, Khalifa said, "We have no current plans." They are wonderful," he said of the air defense missiles. "American technology is the best. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Bahrain's Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa at the White House in Washington, D.C., on July 16, 2025. The plane deal calls for Gulf Air to buy 12 Boeing aircraft worth about $7 billion, with an option for six more. The deal includes the sale of 40 GE engines. The White House said the deal would support 30,000 jobs. Bahrain plans to support U.S. aluminum production, liquefied natural gas production and buy cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips. The country also plans to invest in Oracle and Cisco servers, and replace its Chinese servers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani attend a nuclear cooperation Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 16, 2025. Bahrain also completed a framework to begin discussions towards developing commercial nuclear capabilities. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani for the signing of the memo. This is Khalifa's third White House visit, after two during Trump's first term. He visited in November 2017 to discuss defense and economic cooperation. And he visited in September 2019 to sign a deal for the Patriot missile defense system, along with trade talks. Contributing: Reuters This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bahrain pledges $17B in US investments, including Boeing jets google maps BRIGTH HORIZONS CHILD care center at Columbus Circle NEED TO KNOW The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has identified at least nine children, all between the ages of one and two, who were allegedly victimized while at Bright Horizons Evelyn Vargas, Shakia Henley and Latia Townes are all facing charges of child endangerment Vargas is also facing additional counts of assault Three individuals have been charged in connection with alleged endangerment of children at a prestigious New York daycare. Evelyn Vargas, 47, Shakia Henley, 36, and Latia Townes, 23, have been arrested in connection with alleged abuse that took place at a Manhattan branch of Bright Horizons, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office confirms to PEOPLE. Up to nine children all of whom were between the ages of one and two years old at the time of the incidents were allegedly victimized by the three, per the DAs office. Vargas, who is facing several charges of assault in addition to the child welfare endangerment offense, is accused of placing packing tape across the face of one toddler ear to ear, covering the childs mouth in an incident sometime in January. In doing so, the complaint alleges, Vargas covered the childs mouth and part of her nose, at which point the child turned red and began to cry, according to a complaint compiled by the DA's office and reviewed by PEOPLE. Vargas is also accused of dragging a toddler by her hair for a few feet in January, causing the child "to be in pain", and of dragging at least three toddlers by their arms between September 2023 and February of this year, per the DA's office. She also allegedly force-fed two children ginger shots, stuffed their mouths with tissue and restrained them to chairs on several occasions. Townes is accused of hitting three toddlers in the head with a metal bottle on several occasions between October 2024 and January 2025 at the facility, the DA's office alleged, while Henley is accused in the complaint of spraying a toddler in the face from a bottle that contains soap mixed with bleach in an incident between January and February of this year. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Vargas has been charged with nine counts of endangering the welfare of a child, four counts of attempted assault, one count of strangulation and one count of assault, according to the DA's office. Her lawyer declined to comment on the charges when contacted by PEOPLE. Henley, who has been charged with one count of child endangerment, will be pleading not guilty, her lawyer tells PEOPLE. Townes' attorney was not immediately available for comments. Bright Horizons at Columbus Circle did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comments. If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People The best part of waking up? If youre pinching pennies, it may no longer be a fresh cup of coffee. Trump on July 9 threatened a 50% tariff against Brazil, one of the U.S.s largest suppliers of green coffee beans, starting Aug. 1. That could spell trouble for coffee drinkers, who have already seen price hikes in recent years related to supply chain constraints. "Americans are going to feel the impact of the tariffs in their morning brew. Thats a very significant tax on the leading producer of coffee, said food economist and Michigan State University professor David Ortega, adding that consumers would likely notice higher prices within months of the new tariffs going into effect. Why are coffee prices high right now? Tariffs threaten to add more pressure to an industry already navigating a recent price surge fueled by droughts in countries like Brazil and Vietnam. As of June, the average price of a pound of ground roast coffee cost $8.13, up from $6.25 the year prior and $4.52 in 2020, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inventories were down, but demand is as high as ever, said Ron Kurnik, owner of Superior Coffee Roasting, a roastery in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Kurnik, 49, said a pallet of imported green coffee beans that would have cost him roughly $6,000 a year ago runs closer to $9,000 today. He said he's also facing higher packaging costs, since most of his packaging is shipped in from China, due to tariffs. Thats translated to higher prices for his customers. As of June 1, a 12-ounce bag of Superior Coffee Roasting coffee costs $13.99, up from $11.99. Superior Coffee Roasting owner Ron Kurnik said he's had to navigate rising coffee prices in recent years. Kurnik warned the nearly 17% increase may be just the first in a series of pricing changes, especially if Trumps tariffs on Brazil hold. About one-third of our purchasing goes to coffee from Brazil. Its definitely one of our staples, he told USA TODAY. Superior Coffee Roasting owner Ron Kurnik said he's had to navigate rising coffee prices in recent years. His roastery is far from the only business that leans heavily on imports from Brazil. About 80% of U.S. unroasted coffee imports were sourced from Latin America in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with Brazil making up roughly 35% of those imports. To keep costs low, Kurnik is looking into sourcing more coffee from alternative countries like El Salvador and Colombia. He said buying from local producers isnt an option; while Hawaii and Puerto Rico grow coffee, the quantities are too low and prices too high to completely replace imports. Its just going to be a really bumpy ride trying to navigate where were buying, how much were going to be buying," Kurnik said. But I'm still optimistic. If youre not, you shouldnt be owning a business. The impacts of higher coffee prices would be far-reaching in the U.S. The National Coffee Association estimates two-thirds of American adults drink coffee each day, with consumers spending nearly $110 billion on the drink each year. Price hikes are expected to be most noticeable in grocery stores, with coffee shops seeing less of an impact. Large coffeehouse chains tend to lock in long-term contracts with a diverse array of suppliers, and the final price of a store-bought latte is influenced by far more than just the price of coffee beans. "There's a lot more value-added that you're paying for at a coffee shop," Ortega said. "So it really depends on the type of coffee you're buying, where it's coming from." Still, some coffeehouses' prices are going up. Kurnik said his coffee shop, Superior Cafe, hiked prices on coffee-based drinks anywhere from 25 cents to 50 cents in June. Trump wants more factory jobs in the US. But is there anyone to hire? Other morning staples are getting more expensive Other breakfast staples are also susceptible to higher prices in the months to come. Orange juice prices could be pressed higher if tariff threats hold, as Brazil is a top supplier to the U.S. Plus, high demand and curbed production from record-high temperatures in Japan are driving up prices for matcha, another staple at coffee shops, according to Reuters. Ortega said other caffeinated drinks, such as energy drinks or soda, could see a boost from higher coffee prices on the margin, but theres really no easy substitute for a morning cup of coffee for most people. When it comes to our coffee culture, coffee is the predominant source of caffeine we get in the morning in the U.S., he said. This year's coffee prices will ultimately depend on whether tariffs hold. In June, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told the Wall Street Journal the Trump administration may consider exceptions for produce that can't easily be grown within the U.S., including coffee. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's tariffs could make coffee even more expensive A Michigan woman is suing Monster Energy after finding a mouse in her drink, a lawsuit states. McKenzie Cain alleges she found a mouse inside a Monster Energy drink she purchased from a bagel restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in April 2024. She is seeking $25,000 for "emotional distress, trauma and physical illness," the lawsuit states. "Upon consuming the drink, Cain picked up the can and realized the can was still oddly heavy," the lawsuit states. "Out of curiosity, Cain opened the can further, and to her horror, found a dead mouse laying in the bottom of the can." In the lawsuit filed in September 2024, Cain accuses Monster Energy of negligence and strict liability for causing her physical harm, as well as breach of implied warranty of merchantability. "Its hard to imagine many things more disgusting than finding a dead mouse at the bottom of your energy drink. It is also dangerous. Mice, like all rodents, often carry diseases that can be extremely harmful. It goes without saying that no beverages should ever make it to the shelf with a dead animal inside it," Cain's lawyer, Zach Runyan, said in a statement shared with USA TODAY. In a statement shared with USA TODAY on July 17, Monster Energy called the lawsuit a hoax. "The lawsuit is a copycat claim based on a hoax found on the internet," a Monster Energy spokesperson told USA TODAY. "Strict manufacturing processes and technology make it impossible for a mouse to be sealed inside a Monster Energy drink. The lawsuit is frivolous and Monster Energy looks forward to, once again, exposing this hoax." Which has the most caffeine? Energy drinks like Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar are popular. A view of the Monster Energy logo during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 23, 2017 in Bristol, Tennessee. Monster Energy lawsuit now in federal court On Monday, July 14, the lawsuit was transferred from state to federal court, Western District of Michigan records show. "Plaintiff alleges to have found a dead mouse laying on the bottom of Defendants can after consuming the beverage," the notice of removal from state court reads. This is not the first lawsuit of its kind. In 2011, Monster Energy was sued by a man named Vitaliy Sulzhik, who claimed he found a mouse in his energy drink after opening and consuming part of it. At the time, Monster Energy described the lawsuit as "frivolous, unfounded" and "nothing more than a shakedown." "Common sense would dictate that if a mouse had been introduced into the can at production (a virtually impossible scenario given modern production technologies) which occurred months prior to Mr. Sulzhik's consumption of the product, the mouse would have deteriorated and the product would not have been drinkable from the very first sip," the company said in a news release. As of July 16, it is unclear where Sulzhik's lawsuit stands. Editor's note: This story has been updated to add a statement from Monster Energy. Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Monster Energy sued after woman says dead mouse was in her drink Emma Watson in New York City in 2023. (Arturo Holmes / Getty Images file) Actor Emma Watson has been barred from driving for six months after she was caught speeding last year. Watson, best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" series, drove her blue Audi 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford, England, on July 31 of last year. The 35-year-old was made to pay a total of 1,044, or roughly $1,400, at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Watson, who is earning a degree in creative writing from the University of Oxford, already had nine points on her license. She did not attend her short court hearing on Wednesday, Watson's former "Harry Potter" co-star, Zoe Wanamaker who played Hogwarts professor Madam Hooch was similarly caught speeding last year in West Berkshire, England, roughly 60 miles west of London. The 76-year-old drove her blue Volvo at 46 mph in a 40 mph zone, according to the court. Hooch was also fined 1,044 and banned from driving for six months, and did not attend her hearing. Representatives for the actors did not immediately return requests for comment. By AJ Vicens (Reuters) -Chinese-linked hackers are targeting the Taiwanese semiconductor industry and investment analysts as part of a string of cyber espionage campaigns, researchers said on Wednesday. While hacking to steal data and information about the industry is not new, there is an increase in sustained hacking campaigns from several China-aligned hacking groups, researchers with cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said in a new analysis. Weve seen entities that we hadnt ever seen being targeted in the past being targeted, said Mark Kelly, a threat researcher focused on Chinese-related threats at Proofpoint. The previously unreported hacking campaigns were carried out by at least three distinct Chinese-linked groups primarily between March and June of this year, with some activity likely ongoing, Proofpoint said. They come amid rising restrictions by Washington on exports to China of U.S.-designed chips that are often manufactured in Taiwan. China's chip industry has been working to replace its dwindling supply of sophisticated U.S. chips, especially those used in artificial intelligence. The researchers declined to identify the hacking targets, but told Reuters that approximately 15 to 20 organizations ranging from small businesses, analysts employed by at least one U.S.-headquartered international bank, and large global enterprises faced attacks. Major Taiwanese semiconductor firms include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, MediaTek, United Microelectronics Corp, Nanya Technology and RealTek Semiconductor. TSMC declined to comment. MediaTek, UMC, Nanya and RealTek did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was unable to identify the specific hacking targets or determine whether any of the efforts were successful. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told Reuters in an email that cyber attacks are a common threat faced by all countries, China included, and that the Asian country firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks and cyber crime a position that is consistent and clear. The activity ranged from one or two emails sent as part of the more targeted campaign focused on specific people, to as many as 80 emails when trying to gain information from the company at large, Kelly said. One group targeted semiconductor design, manufacturing and supply-chain organizations using compromised Taiwanese university email accounts to pose as job seekers and send malware via PDFs with URLs leading to malicious files, or a password-protected archive. Another targeted financial analysts at major unnamed investment firms focused on the Taiwanese semiconductor industry by posing as a fictitious investment firm and seeking collaboration. Two of the entities are based in Asia, while the third is based in the U.S. The FBI declined to comment. A representative of TeamT5, a cybersecurity firm based in Taiwan, told Reuters that it had also seen an increase in emails being sent targeting the semiconductor industry tied to a few hacking groups, but not a wide or general phenomenon. Targeting of semiconductors and the supply chain around them is a persistent threat that has existed for long, the representative said, and a constant interest for Chinese-related advanced hacking operators. These groups often target peripheral suppliers or related industries, the representative said, such as a situation in June where a China-linked hacking group identified by TeamT5 as "Amoeba" launched a phishing campaign against an unnamed chemical company that plays a critical role in the semiconductor supply chain. (Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Editing by Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis) Laura Rivera | Unsplash (The Center Square) Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a multi-state lawsuit suing the U.S. Department of Education for freezing funding to various education programs. While $6.8 billion was paused nationwide, Michigan is set to lose about $171 million for six different programs. These education grants are designed to help Michigan students thrive, Nessel said. By freezing them, the Trump White House is not just breaking the law but jeopardizing our kids future. Just as I have before, I will stand with my colleagues to protect the resources our students deserve. Michigan is joined by a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia. The states are calling the freeze unconstitutional, unlawful and an arbitrary decision, as previously reported by The Center Square. Normally, states receive their federal education funds July 1 which Congress has allocated for the upcoming school year. An email from the U.S. Department of Education, sent to various departments of education across the country, stated the department would not be issuing obligating funds for six formula funding programs on July 1. In Michigan, the following programs have been affected: Title I-C Education of Migratory Children, which supports the educational needs of students whose families frequently move for seasonal agricultural or fishing work. Title II-A Supporting Effective Instruction, which provides supplemental funding to help local education agencies (LEAs) implement professional development leadership initiatives that strengthen teaching and improve student academic achievement. Title III-A English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement, which supports English learners and enhances multilingual education services. Title IV-A Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, which aims to improve student achievement by increasing the capacity of states, LEAs, schools, and local communities to offer students a well-rounded education, improve school conditions for learning, and improve the use of technology to boost academic achievement and digital literacy. Title IV-B 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which offers out-of-school academic support, enrichment, youth development, and family engagement for K-12 students. Adult Basic Literacy; Integrated English Literacy; and Civics Education Grants, which ensure adult education providers can support learners in developing basic reading, writing, mathematics, and English language skills. Programs also help adults receive high school completion or equivalency and gain the workforce skills needed for employment. The states have requested a preliminary injunction, which would temporarily restore funding while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts. Michigan Departments of Education (MDE), Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential (MiLEAP), and Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) are in charge of administering the grants for Michigan. They have submitted written declarations describing how the withholding of these funds would affect the state. The withholding of federal title funding negatively and disproportionately affects students who are economically disadvantaged, are migrants or English learners, or need extra help with academics before-school, after-school, or during the summer, said State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice. Our schools and school districts rightfully believed that funds appropriated by Congress and signed into law by President Trump would be forthcoming. Now schools are left to scramble to try to figure out how to provide programs that are vitally important to children. This is an outrage that needs to be stopped in court. Las Vegas Sands COO Patrick Dumont (third from left), Sands co-founder Miriam Adelson (third from right), and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (second from right) at the groundbreaking ceremony in Singapore on July 15, 2025. (Courtesy of Marina Bay Sands) Las Vegas Sands is doubling down on its Singapore bet with a new $8 billion integrated resort, expanding its existing Marina Bay Sands casino complex in the Southeast Asian country. The U.S. casino operator broke ground on the site on Tuesday in a ceremony attended by CEO Robert Goldstein and Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. The project will feature a 55-storey hotel tower which will include other facilities like luxury boutiques, a casino, and a 15,000-seat arena. We have every intention of delivering a product that will be the envy of the hospitality industry and usher in a new era of luxury tourism in Singapore, Goldstein said at the groundbreaking ceremony. The new tower will sit close to Las Vegas Sands existing buildings in Singapores southern Marina Bay Area. It will be designed by Safdie Architects, the firm behind the Marina Bay Sands. Las Vegas Sands opened its Singapore casino in 2010, and the resort has become an important part of the companys business, making up a significant share of the companys revenue. The casino operator reported $1.2 billion from its Singapore integrated resort for the first quarter of the year, compared to $1.7 billion for its five casinos in the Chinese city of Macau. Las Vegas Sands reported greater earnings before interest, taxes depreciation and amortization from its Singapore business, compared to Macau. Ranked no. 374 on the Fortune 500, Las Vegas Sands is one of the few companies on the ranking that makes most of its revenue outside of the U.S. The company completed the sale of its Las Vegas properties in 2022 to focus more on Asia. Singapores travel market bounced back from COVID more quickly than Macau, which was subject to harsher travel restrictions. Chinese officials also cracked down on junket operators, which facilitated and organized casino trips for high rollers. Las Vegas Sandss Macau business has also struggled due to ongoing renovations at the Londoner, one of its resorts based in the Chinese city. Yet Las Vegas Sands thinks Singapores success is more to do with the countrys appeal rather than Chinese weakness. Chief operating officer Patrick Dumont, in an earnings briefing to analysts earlier this year, said Singapore has a rarefied air that attracts the highest level of high-value tourism. Shares in Las Vegas Sands are flat for the year thus far, recoving from lows in early April. Shares in Sands China, a subsidiary that operates the companys Macau casinos, are down 5.8% over the same period. S&P Global expects a surge in Chinese tourists to markets like Singapore and Malaysia to sustain the premium gambling market this year. Singapore is making a big play for MICE travelers, or those attending business meetings, conventions and exhibitions. The Marina Bay Sands complex hosted 2,200 events last year, drawing 1.2 million delegates. The city has also successfully attracted high-profile artists like Coldplay, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, oftentimes being their only Southeast Asian stop. Singapores success with gambling contrasts with its Southeast Asian neighbors, who are pulling back on plans to set up their own casinos. Thailand last week withdrew a draft law that would have allowed the countrys first casinos, citing a need for more public engagement. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com Key Points ASML just warned of slow or no sales growth in 2026. Investors are worried -- logically -- that if semiconductor equipment sales slow, then semiconductor sales could slow as well. Long term, the investment thesis for TSMC stock remains intact. 10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Dutch semiconductor equipment manufacturer ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) warned investors Wednesday its sales might not grow at all in 2026, sparking worries the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution might not be as inevitable as investors thought -- and sparking a brief sell-off in shares of contract chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM). Shares of TSMC tumbled more than 4% in early trading before making up most of their losses by noon ET. As of 12:10 p.m. ET, TSMC stock is down only 0.2%. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More Semiconductor computer chip with the letters AI in the middle. Image source: Getty Images. Semiconductor logic Why is it down at all? The reasoning goes like this: The AI revolution is supposed to be great news for semiconductor stocks -- for both sellers of chips like TSMC, and sellers of the machines that make the chips, like ASML. But if ASML's sales are slowing (and they are -- Q2 sales were up only 0.6% year over year), then that logically might mean that TSMC's own sales growth could stall as well. That's the worry that fretted investors this morning. Is TSMC stock a sell? And yet, that's not what most analysts think will happen -- at all. According to analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, total sales growth for TSMC over the next five years should average nearly 20% annually. And between the stock's 22.4-times earnings valuation and its 1.8% dividend yield, that means TSMC is almost perfectly priced for the long-term growth that almost everyone is certain will happen. Granted, short term hiccups could arise. In ASML's case, growth is probably slowing, at least in part because of sanctions placed on exports of chip-making machinery to China. But there are plenty of other countries in the world that need chips, and both ASML and TSMC can still sell to them. Long term, I expect TSMC stock is going to do just fine. Should you invest $1,000 in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing right now? Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $679,653!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $1,046,308!* Now, its worth noting Stock Advisors total average return is 1,060% a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Dont miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends ASML and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Free ice cream, discounts and more for National Ice Cream Day What better way to celebrate the peak of summer than cooling down with a sweet treat? This National Ice Cream Day -- Sunday, July 20 -- scoop shops and freezer aisle-favorite brands will be dishing deals for customers to enjoy. Free ice cream and discounts for National Ice Cream Day Baskin-Robbins From Sunday July 20 through 26, Baskin-Robbins Rewards members can get $5 off when they spend $20 or more on orders through a third-party delivery service. Jeni's For one day only, Jeni's will serve a brand-new Sundae Fudge Sauce, a rich chocolate sauce with a hint of sea salt, for free with any scoop shop order. Dunkin' Dunkin' Rewards members can get triple the points when they order any frozen beverage on July 20. Dippin' Dots Dippin' Dots - PHOTO: People hold up cups of Dippin' Dots. Dippin' Dots is offering customers 25% off their online order on Sunday, July 20, with promo code NICD25. Dippin' Dots stores will also be giving away free mini cups of ice cream that day -- any flavor -- "during a two hour window at our franchise locations," the company states on its website. The first 100 people in line will get a souvenir take-home cup. Additionally, Chuck E. Cheese customers can get a free cup of Chuck E.'s Cookie Crunch Dippin Dots, an exclusive flavor, using a digital coupon available through the Chuck E. Cheese website. Retailer coupons and deals for National Ice Cream Day Rather than chasing down the ice cream truck, stop by a retailer and enjoy the cool air of the freezer aisle while snagging a discount on ice cream. Klondike Digital coupons live across Fetch, iBotta, and Walmart Cash throughout July for Klondike ice cream products. Popsicle The brand has buy one, get one free offers available at Target, Publix and Kroger all month. Talenti Target Circle will offer a BOGO 50% off deal the week of National Ice Cream Day only, from July 14 through 20. During the same week, Wakefern shoppers can enjoy a promotional price of two for $9 from the gourmet frozen treat brand. After that, through the end of July, Talenti will be two for $10. Additional deals will be available for shoppers on iBotta through mid-August. Breyers Find BOGO free and bundled deals on Breyers ice cream at Publix and Kroger the week of July 30, plus get digital discounts in select Albertsons stores as low as $2.97. Amid an explosive fight on Capitol Hill over whether the Trump administration should release records related to Jeffrey Epstein, the family of the disgraced financiers convicted right-hand woman is saying she "did not receive a fair trial." Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse, several years after he died in jail awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. She is being held in federal prison in Florida and has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to vacate her 2021 conviction. "Her legal team continues to fight her case in the Courts and will file its reply in short order to the Governments opposition in the US Supreme Court," Maxwells siblings said in a statement released Tuesday on a website dedicated to her case. The familys defense of Maxwell comes amid a recent politically charged fight over the release of documents in Epstein's case. Maxwells attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in the statement that he would be "surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal," referring to a 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York City in 2005. (Patrick McMullan / Getty Images file) "Hes the ultimate dealmaker and Im sure hed agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it," Markus added. "With all the talk about whos being prosecuted and who isnt, its especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the US government made and broke." The family, who said they "profoundly concur" with Markus' statement, added that Maxwell's legal team might file a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which if it were granted would allow Maxwell to appear before a judge to determine whether her detention is lawful. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maxwell, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, petitioned the Supreme Court in April to scrap her conviction. Her legal team argued that Epstein's non-prosecution and plea agreement with the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Florida in 2008 protected Maxwell from future prosecution. "Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein," her attorneys wrote in the petition. Lower courts have rejected Maxwell's attorneys' arguments, and on Monday, the Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to follow suit. The Justice Department argued that the non-prosecution agreement in Florida does not protect Maxwell or other co-conspirators from being prosecuted in other jurisdictions around the country. Maxwell was prosecuted on different charges by federal officials in Manhattan. "The NPAs coconspirators clause, which 'also agrees' to forgo certain prosecution of coconspirators, cannot reasonably be construed as reflecting some 'global' scope broader than the Florida-based state and federal charges that Epstein resolved for himself," the brief says. "It would be extremely strange if the NPA left Epstein himself open to federal prosecution in another district as eventually occurred while protecting his coconspirators from prosecution anywhere." The Florida agreement was in a different jurisdiction, and it pertained to charges other than those Epstein ultimately faced in New York. As Maxwell continues to fight to appeal her New York conviction, a battle is brewing within the Republican Party over whether the Trump administration should release further information about its case against Epstein. The case ended after he was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019. A medical examiners office ruled he died by suicide. For years, the nature of Epstein's death, his high-profile contacts and the graphic details of his alleged crimes have fueled conspiracy theories and demands that the government release all it knows about the case. Trump helped fuel these theories in the past, saying during his most recent presidential campaign that he would have no problem looking into an Epstein client list. The Justice Department, however, said last week it would not release any additional files Epstein files. In a two-page memo, Attorney General Pam Bondi disputed the existence of a "client list" of powerful people who participated in Epstein's crimes. The memo said there was no "credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals." The development prompted outrage among some Republican lawmakers and prominent right-wing media figures, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Part of the outrage stems from Bondi's past comments that she had a "client list" related to Epstein sitting on her desk. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Tuesday that Bondi should come forward and explain why she declined to do so. Republicans have also been calling for Maxwell to appear and testify before Congress, which Johnson suggested he was in favor of. "Im for transparency," he said. "Its a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide." After years of promising to release the files, Trump has recently pushed back against Republican criticism and sought to downplay the significance of the documents. On Wednesday, he called the fanfare around the documents a "scam" and "bulls---." (Trump knew Epstein but later had a falling-out with him. No evidence has surfaced to suggest Trump was involved in Epsteins criminal activity.) "I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Countrys history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax," Trump on his social media site, Truth Social. "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore!" he added. Ciara Turner-Ewert in Barcelona. Courtesy of Ciara Turner-Ewert We were recently married, had student loans, and the cost of living in Santa Barbara was rising. We wanted to save money but also travel. We found a cheap place in Barcelona with 5 other people. The roommate situation quickly became an issue, and after the WiFi incident, we left. We were two young college graduates in our second year of marriage. I was 27 and my husband 26. We had student loans, debt, and the cost of living was rising in Santa Barbara, California. We craved a financial breakand some adventure. We'd met while studying abroad in the Middle East and got married in the late fall of 2016. My husband's dream had always been to live in Barcelona. So, we began a nightly ritual of apartment hunting online. Every day, my excitement grew as we planned our exit strategy. Eventually, we found an apartment in the Gothic Quarter. Though it was far from our dream apartment, the rent was the perfect price and included utilities. We'd save nearly $850 a month compared to our apartment in Santa Barbara. We submitted our deposit and were on a flight to Spain the next month. We didn't realize what we'd gotten ourselves into Turner-Ewert in front of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Courtesy of Ciara Turner-Ewert On the first day, panic set in. After we signed the paperwork, our landlord greeted us and gave us an apartment tour. We knew we'd have multiple housemates, but after touring the space, the reality of the situation sank in. The agreement listed four other people, which was the number of housemates we were expecting. However, during the tour, we learned that there was a fifth honorary resident. Having an additional person felt like a giant curveball we had to navigate, as I was mentally prepared for four. With seven people in the flat now, I knew fostering positive, friendly vibes was key to survival. Communicating with roommates who didn't speak the same language was a challenge Turner-Ewert in Ciutadella Park in Barcelona. Courtesdy of Ciara Turner-Ewert Our roommates were a Renaissance man from the UK, a student from Bulgaria, two men from Morocco, and the surprise fifth housematea cousin of one of the Moroccans. Half of them barely spoke any English, which I quickly learned was going to be a challenge. While I speak Spanish, not all of our Moroccan housemates knew the language. They mostly stuck to speaking Arabic. It was extremely hard trying to communicate with them, and conversations often felt like a word stalemate, a Wild West at home. On many occasions, hand gestures were the only mode of communication. While my gestures improved, some questions were impossible to ask. For instance, "Does your cousin who sleeps here every night pay rent?" Or "Can you please not play Parcheesi at 4 a.m.?" We never figured this out, and clear boundaries were never set. We had a lot of roommate issues At times, our food would disappear, so I developed the habit of labeling every single thing. It helped some, but ultimately we stored less food and shopped more often. Dirty plates, cookware, and utensils filled the sink, and clean dishes were sparse in the communal kitchen. I stored a set of clean dishes in our room so we always had some on hand. What's more, there was one bathroom for all seven of us. It was a nightmare. While spacious, the bathroom was filthy and smelled horrendous. One day, my husband went out and bought gloves, a mask, and any chemical he could find to eradicate the gunk. He spent the next couple of hours deep cleaning what must have been months of buildup. For a week, he was deemed house hero, and two of our roommates bought him a thank-you beverage. The last straw was the WiFi Still, one of the biggest problems was the WiFi. It was on and off, slow and fast, and never had a consistently strong signal. Working, studying, or watching a movie from our flat was a perpetual dilemma. I spoke with my landlord about the issue, and he apologized and sent a new network to connect on. Turns out, one of the Moroccan roommates was hoarding the fast WiFi, leaving the slow connection for everyone else. When I shared the new network with my other housemates, tensions rose quickly. This ongoing WiFi conflict caused fury, and a few days later, one roommate (a friend) moved out. Within a week, three more people moved in to occupy that one room. If you do the math, there were now nine people in a five-bedroom home. This was my breaking point. After three months of living in Barcelona, this was our sign to move out. We left and traveled to Bulgaria and then Romania for the Christmas Markets. Shortly after we'd left Barcelona, our Bulgarian roommate sent us a message on Instagram informing us she'd moved out too. In the long run, living with five housemates as a married couple wasn't a complete disaster. We saved money, traveled throughout Europe, and built long-lasting friendships with some housemates and other travelers along our journey. Would we do it all over if we could? Probably not. Read the original article on Business Insider Influencer Emilie Kiser's husband could face a charge of felony child abuse in the drowning death of their 3-year-old son, Trigg, in a backyard pool in Arizona. Chandler police said Tuesday on X that they had completed an investigation into Triggs May 18 death and that "following a thorough review of the evidence, investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser." The case has been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review. Police and the county attorney's office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Trigg died six days after he was found unconscious in a backyard pool. NBC affiliate KPNX of Phoenix reported that he drowned at Kisers home and that he was hospitalized in critical condition until he died. Brady Kiser told police that he was distracted by the couples infant son when Trigg went outside to play, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by KPNX. He said that he lost sight of Trigg for a few minutes and that when he went outside to check on him, he found the boy unconscious in the pool. Brady Kiser, who said his wife was out with friends at the time, called 911. Emilie Kiser, who has built millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram with mom and wife content, has not publicly commented on her sons death. In May, she sued multiple Maricopa County public offices to keep records of her son's death private. A judge temporarily blocked the release of records last month. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. LONDON -- The Israel Defense Forces said it struck "the entrance" of Syria's military headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday. At least one person was killed and 18 others were injured Wednesday in the Israeli airstrikes on the capital, Damascus, Syria's Ministry of Health told the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency. The high-profile strike came amid a wave of sectarian violence in the southern Syrian city of Sweida, where the Druze population has clashed with local Bedouin Sunni tribes and the recently installed Syrian government, headed by interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa who toppled former President Bashar Al-Assad in December. The Druze are an offshoot of a branch of Shiite Islam. Around 1 million Druze are spread across Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The majority live in Syria, concentrated in the south of the country. "The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria," the IDF said in a statement. "In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios." Ghaith Alsayed/AP - PHOTO: Soldiers inspect the damaged Syrian Defense Ministry building allegedly hit by several Israeli airstrikes, in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post Wednesday afternoon on X that the U.S. has spoken to all sides and "agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight." "This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do," Rubio said. Who are the Druze? In several strikes on the Syrian capital, Israel has intervened in a clash between the government and the ethnic minority in the fragile country that has already seen dozens killed. The crisis began last week after Syria's new rebel-led government moved to try to restore order amid deadly clashes in the southern Sweida region. Since the fall of the Assad regime, the Druze have had tense relations with the new Syrian government. A sizable population of Druze also live in Israeli-occupied territory. Israel warned Syria's government not to send troops into the Druze area, and then bombed Syrian troops as they tried to move there to enforce a curfew. On Wednesday, Israel escalated the situation again, heavily bombing Syria's Ministry of Defense and striking near the presidential palace, in what appears to be a message to the Syrian government to pull back from the Druze areas. MORE: From al-Qaeda to Syria's presidency, the rise of Ahmad al-Sharaa Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a post on X, "The warnings in Damascus have ended -- now painful blows will come." "The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Sweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal," Katz added. Meanwhile, hundreds of Druze from Israeli-held territory broke down border fences and moved into Syria to join the Druze protesting there. Trying to reach a ceasefire The crisis underlines fears that Syria is still struggling to stabilize following the toppling of the Assad regime late last year, with fears that ethnic tensions could still tear it apart. It also dramatically undercuts the nascent efforts by the new Syrian state recently to normalize relations with Israel. It also complicates President Donald Trump's approach to Syria, just weeks after he recognized the new government, easing some sanctions and met with the former Islamist rebel who now leads it, al-Sharaa, previously designated as a terrorist by the U.S. Israel has been demanding no Syrian military presence in the southern region near the Israeli-occupied-Golan Heights, and following the fall of Assad significantly expanded the area the IDF controls, saying it was creating a buffer zone. One Druze leader announced they have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government, saying they agree to halt military operations in Sweida and for the region to be full integrated into Syria. But it's unclear still if it will hold -- another ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart. Another Druze leader has reportedly already rejected it. Rami Al Sayed/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Smoke billows following Israeli strikes near the Syrian army and defence ministry headquarters in Damascus on July 16, 2025. The Syrian government said the ceasefire agreement includes the deployment of internal security and state-affiliated police checkpoints within Sweida, and its full integration into the Syrian state. More than 250 people have been killed in Sweida province as of Wednesday morning since the violence erupted on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group. Those deaths included 21 people who were killed in "field executions" by local groups in Sweida, the organization said. Syrian government forces were deployed to the Sweida region -- home to the largest population of the Druze religious minority in Syria -- on Monday in an effort to restore order but ultimately clashed with the Druze militias themselves. On Tuesday, Syrian Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra announced a ceasefire agreement in Sweida, saying government forces would "respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups." But clashes continued. IDF operation As that sectarian violence has grown, the Israeli military has taken action against the Syrian government, the IDF said. Over the past day, the IDF has struck and continues to strike tanks, rocket launchers, weapons and pickup trucks loaded with heavy machine guns on their way to the As Suwayda area in southern Syria," the IDF said in a statement Wednesday, using another common spelling for Sweida. The IDF said it has "decided to reinforce its forces in the area of the Syrian border" and "will continue to operate, both in defense and offense, to ensure the security of Israeli civilians." The IDF's two main goals are to prevent a buildup of a threat on border in southern Syria and to prevent the massacre of the Druze in Syria, according to an Israeli military official. The official said Israel is sending more troops to the occupied Golan Heights and the border, with at least one brigade shifting from Gaza to the north. Ammar Awad/Reuters - PHOTO: Smoke rises as members of the Israel Border Police stand at the ceasefire line between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, July 16, 2025. The office of Syria's interim president said in a statement Wednesday that it "has followed with great concern the unfortunate violations that have recently occurred in some areas of Sweida Governorate." "These acts, which fall within the category of criminal and illegal behavior, are unacceptable under any circumstances and completely contradict the principles upon which the Syrian state is based," the presidency added. "We, in the Syrian government, strongly condemn these shameful acts and affirm our full commitment to investigating all related incidents and holding accountable all those proven to be involved." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also urged Israeli Druze groups not to cross into Syria to join the fighting. "We are working to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regime's gangs," he said in a statement posted to X on Wednesday. Addressing those crossing the border or attempting to, Netanyahu added: "You are citizens of Israel. Do not cross the border. You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the efforts of the IDF. Therefore, I ask you -- return to your homes, let the IDF act." Earlier Wednesday, Rubio said he is "very concerned" about what is happening in Syria, adding, "We want the fighting to stop," at an event Wednesday morning. "We are very worried about the violence in southern Syria. It is a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria. We have been and remain in repeated and constant talks with the governments of Syria and Israel on this matter." Dem Rep Jasmine Crockett [Screenshot/House Judiciary Committee] [Screenshot/House Judiciary Committee] Democrat Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett went on a tirade Tuesday about why Americans must spend their taxpayer dollars on a Sesame Street program in Iraq. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in February over its misuse of taxpayer dollars, including its funding of a Sesame Street program for children in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries. Crockett claimed during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that USAID must fund the childrens television program at the American taxpayers expense because it stops other countries from being radicalized against the U.S. [When] we start to talk about whether or not Sesame Street or anything else thats on NPR or PBS ends up in other places, this is so there is not this warped thought process about the western world or the United States. Were talking about making sure that we dont end up allowing people to be radicalized against us because they have a terrible vision of us because they maybe in a government that actually puts out bad, terrible propaganda about us, Crockett said. (RELATED: Kooky Jasmine Crockett Floats Bizarre Trump Assassination Theory) WATCH: Along with Sesame Workshop, USAID coproduced Ahlan Simsim, which is Arabic for Welcome Sesame, which was designed to promote inclusion, mutual respect, and understanding. Crockett failed to explain how a Sesame Street program will prevent Middle Easterners from obtaining terrible propaganda against the U.S. USAID also handed billions of dollars to foreign aid and left-wing initiatives, including $68 billion of foreign aid in 2023, which mainly went to Ukraine. The agency sent 65.5 million condoms, 9.8 million injectable birth control products and 334,000 IUDs abroad in fiscal year 2022 in its effort to facilitate family planning. The agency further sent $2 million to Guatemala to help organizations perform sex change operations. Democrats raged against the dismantling of USAID and against Elon Musk, who oversaw DOGE at the time. Without evidence, Crockett claimed during a Thursday appearance on the Lets Be Clear podcast that cutting USAID could pave the way for another 9/11-style attack. All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporters byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. Food & Wine / Getty Images Fans of the hugely popular 2010s sitcom Community including myself are eagerly awaiting the confirmed release date of the shows long-anticipated movie. While we hope to see characters like Jeff, Britta, Abed, Shirley, Annie, and Troy debut on the big screen, Im happy to pass the time by learning about the actors behind these favorite characters especially when they share insights into their cooking habits. You may be familiar with Joel McHale as Communitys former lawyer, Jeff Winger, or the exacting fine dining chef who haunts Carmys memories on The Bear, but in real life, this comedian and actor is also a passionate home cook. We sat down to talk with McHale about his new partnership with Seattles Best Coffee not only did the actor grow up in Seattle, but hes also a coffee enthusiast, enjoying several cups a day and taking his brews seriously. As a result, Seattles Best and the Community star have teamed up to promote the companys new Coffee Roast Mallows coffee-flavored marshmallows perfect for your next batch of smores. This points towards one of McHales other loves and an unexpected area of expertise: outdoor cooking. The comedian tells Food & Wine he loves grilling and even spills his secrets to his method for slowly smoking beef until tender. Because McHale lives in Southern California, he notes that cooking outdoors is easy for him all year round. And while hes not a professional chef, the actor says, I'm really good at certain things. One of those certain things is smoking a particular cut of beef. When asked what he loves or is especially good at cooking, McHales immediate reply is, smoking tri-tip but he clarifies that hes done it 10 times now to get good at it. To emulate his thoroughly tested tri-tip strategy which McHale notes he learned from Australian chef Jess Pryles he recommends that you start off with a high-quality tri-tip, and then you keep it in a whole piece. Related: Joel McHale Really Loves Coffee, The Cure, and Meat Pies You hit it with mustard or oil as a binder, and then I put all sorts of different spices on it and then throw that in the old Pitts & Spitts smoker for an hour. And then every 15 minutes [for an] hour and a half spray it with Worcestershire sauce and bourbon For the fourth of July I made five of those and that, I will say, was really good. There are a few easy but brilliant tips to unpack here. To start, choosing tri-tip when smoking is an excellent choice for anyone new to using a smoker or looking to save time. Brisket might be the most popular option for smoking a large cut of beef, but slowly smoking this cut typically takes at least 12 hours or more. In contrast, a tri-tip can be ready in about two hours, and its also budget-friendly. Additionally, McHale explains that tri-tip is actually an easier option than a brisket, because the meat is not as tough. And brisket, you break down; it's breaking down the muscle over the hours... This is definitely more tender I would say in the spectrum of difficult smoking meats, [tri-tip] is not that bad, but it still is really tasty. I've done briskets that take 20 hours, 24 hours, and you don't get any sleep. Related: This Is Officially the No. 1 Bourbon at the 2025 International Whisky Competition The comedians other effortlessly delicious idea is his two-ingredient spritz on the outside of the meat, made of Worcestershire sauce and bourbon. Spraying smoked meats with a flavorful liquid like apple cider vinegar isnt unusual and helps prevent them from drying out while adding more flavor throughout the protein as it cooks. Worcestershire sauce captures all the nuances youd want to add to smoked meat. Its tangy, rich in umami flavor, and slightly sweet the sugars in the sauce might also help form a crust on the tri-tip. Combined with the caramel and oak notes of bourbon, its a match made in heaven, and one Ill be testing out soon even on oven-roasted pork shoulders or racks of ribs, in addition to McHales recommended tri-tip. Read the original article on Food & Wine House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to "come forward and explain" the Trump administration's handling of Jeffrey Epstein files. In an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson, the speaker urged Bondi to further clarify her past comment about reviewing Epstein's alleged "client list." "Pam Bondi, I don't know when she originally made the statement. I think she was talking about documents, as I understood, that they were on her desk. I don't know that she was specific about a list or whatever, but she needs to come forward and explain that to everybody," Johnson said. "I like Pam. I mean, I think she's done a good job. We need the DOJ focusing on the major priorities," Johnson said during the interview. J. Scott Applewhite/AP - PHOTO: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson arrives for a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 2025. Bondi came under fire over her comments to Fox News in February when asked about Epstein's alleged "client list." She told the outlet at the time, "It's sitting on my desk right now to review." After the Justice Department and FBI last week stated they found no evidence the deceased financier kept a "client list" of associates whom he blackmailed or conspired with to victimize dozens of women, Bondi said her comments to Fox News were simply referring to a "file" on Epstein. That explanation, though, has done little to quell outrage from MAGA supporters on the administration's handling of Epstein. MORE: Trump says Bondi should release 'whatever she thinks is credible' on Epstein Johnson also weighed in on growing calls from Republican lawmakers to have Epstein's convicted associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, testify before Congress. "I'm for transparency. We're intellectually consistent in this" Johnson said when asked about Maxwell potentially testifying before Congress. Johnson said while he is not "privy to facts" and "this isn't my lane," he also said "we need to put it out there." Annabelle Gordon/Reuters, FILE - PHOTO: Sen. Josh Hawley speaks to the media, while he exits a Senate GOP lunch, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., June 28, 2025. "We'll see what happens. I do trust the president. I know his heart and head is in the right place. I don't question that at all. I am convinced they are going to sort this out," the speaker said. Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett told ABC News he is "not happy" with how Bondi has handled the Epstein matter. Like Johnson, he called on Bondi to explain her past comments on the "client list." "You know, I know it's the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room, but I'm not happy. Nobody's happy about it. Nobody knows what's going on," Burchett said. Later in a letter sent Tuesday, Burchett called on House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer to invite Maxwell to testify in a public hearing. "Should Ms. Maxwell refuse the invitation, I encourage you to use subpoena powers," Burchett wrote in the letter, saying the American people have "questions" about the Epstein case. "It is well beyond time those questions are answered," he said. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said the Epstein files should be made public and directly called for Maxwell to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I think all this stuff ought to be public. I mean, I think all of the all the documents, should all be public," Hawley said. "I think we'd all ought to be out in the open. I'm a big fan of declassifying-- I think this isn't technically classified. It's just, you know, close hold for prosecution, but I think we ought to put it all out there." "I think it's reasonable for the American people to ask who he [Epstein] sex trafficked these young women to -- if anybody besides himself," added Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy. "And if there were others involved, why haven't they been prosecuted? That's a perfectly understandable question, and I think the Justice Department is going to have to answer it." Late Tuesday afternoon, Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie said he plans to pursue a procedural gambit to trigger a House vote on legislation that would force the release of the "complete" Epstein files. Massie plans to offer a discharge petition, which requires 218 signatures and allows the majority of the chamber to circumvent GOP leaders. There would only be floor action if the resolution receives enough support. A waiting period of seven legislative days kicks off once the petition has enough signatures, so this could become a headache for GOP leaders after August recess. "We all deserve to know what's in the Epstein files, who's implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency. We're introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the US House of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE files," Massie said in a post on X. GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, also speaking to the podcaster Benny Johnson in a separate interview, said she would support creating a special counsel to investigate the Epstein matter. "There has to be a special investigation into this if we aren't going to be provided information," she said. Boebert also had a suggestion for who should lead the probe. "Matt Gaetz as a special counsel? Absolutely," she said. Gaetz, a former GOP congressman from Florida, was once the subject of a multiyear federal sex-trafficking investigation. Gaetz had long denied any wrongdoing and the probe ended with no charges against Gaetz. Meanwhile, Democrats in the House on Tuesday tried to force a vote and debate on California Rep. Ro Khanna's amendment that would have demanded the release of all the Epstein files. Their effort failed by just one vote after a nearly 45-minute vote. House Judiciary Democrats penned a letter to committee chairman Jim Jordan on Tuesday demanding a hearing with Trump administration officials from the DOJ and FBI on the Epstein files. Jordan, though, publicly expressed unwavering support "I have total confidence in President Tump and his team," Jordan told ABC News when asked if he had any questions regarding the Epstein case or if Bondi mishandled the situation. (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired two top leaders at the department, chief of staff Heather Flick Melanson and deputy chief of staff for policy Hannah Anderson, a spokesperson said on Wednesday. Matt Buckham, who currently serves as Kennedy's White House liaison at the HHS, will serve as acting chief of staff effective immediately, the spokesperson said. In his current role, Buckham oversees the recruitment and onboarding of political appointees across HHS. Since taking over as health secretary, Kennedy has proposed overhauling the department by reorganizing several HHS agencies and substantially cutting their workforces. This month, a federal judge blocked the proposal to implement the restructuring. HHS oversees the work of health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health, whose chief operating officer, Eric Schnabel, was fired on Monday. The Washington Post was first to report Schnabel's firing, which Reuters has confirmed. Kennedy, who for decades has sown doubt about the safety of vaccines contrary to evidence and research by scientists, in June fired all 17 members of an independent panel of experts that advises the CDC on vaccine policy, and replaced them with seven new hand-picked members. The firings on Wednesday were first reported by CNN. Kennedy has not decided on permanent replacements to fill these roles, according to the CNN report. Melanson and Anderson were ousted after only a few months on their jobs, and it was unclear whether there was a single event that prompted the firings, the report said. An HHS spokesperson declined to provide any additional details about the staff reorganization. Anderson previously worked as a health policy adviser for the Senate Health Committee. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment on LinkedIn. Flick Melanson, who held senior positions at the HHS during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term, could not immediately be reached for comment. Schnabel, a retired Army veteran who joined the NIH in March 2025, most recently worked at a fitness and wellness company, according to his LinkedIn profile. An NIH staff member with direct knowledge of his departure confirmed Schnabel had left the agency. The Washington Post linked his departure to a probe of a contract that would have benefited his wife, Trish Schnabel, a licensed therapist who sometimes goes by her maiden name, Trish Duffy. The NIH source told Reuters Schnabel's wife was intended to serve as an autism consultant as part of a broader $3.3-million contract with Argo Chasing LLC, an advisory firm based in Shreveport, Louisiana, focused on project management services. According to a review of the non-competitive contract, issued on July 3 through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the grant was for "project coordination and subject matter expert support for high-level strategic research security, counterintelligence, autism and execution service." Eric and Trish Schnabel did not respond to requests for comment. An HHS spokesperson declined to comment. (Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi, Bhanvi Satija and Sneha S K in Bengaluru; Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Michael Erman in New York and Chad Terhune in Los Angeles; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Shinjini Ganguli and Rod Nickel) Getty Black bear (stock photo). NEED TO KNOW A 69-year-old Wisconsin woman is recovering after she was attacked by a black bear When authorities arrived, they searched for the bear and found a cub in a tree, indicating the attack may have involved its mother Now, officials are hoping to capture the bear using traps at the scene in order to euthanize it, study its condition and prioritize human safety. The cub will be released if it's caught A 69-year-old Wisconsin woman is recovering after she was attacked by a black bear. The incident occurred around 2 p.m. local time on Saturday, July 12, outside her rural home near Comstock. The victim, identified as Karen Frye, managed to call 911 for help and was transported to a local hospital, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, before being transferred to a different hospital. She is now in stable condition. When authorities arrived, they searched for the bear and found a cub in a tree, indicating the attack may have involved its mother. DNR workers and USDA Wildlife Services staff tried to track the animal with help from a trained bear hound dog, but were unsuccessful. Now, officials are hoping to capture the bear using traps at the scene in order to euthanize it, study its condition and prioritize human safety. "Humane euthanasia is not always the standard practice in human/bear conflicts. Our actions in these types of situations are very carefully determined based upon the totality of the known evidence of each event," said DNR Large Carnivore Specialist Randy Johnson. Authorities are still investigating, but preliminary findings, including details from Frye's family, "suggest the bear exhibited a sustained series of aggressive behaviors towards the victim," a representative from DNR wrote in the statement. "Although we're still working to piece together every element of what transpired in this incident, we know enough to warrant attempting to live-trap at the location of the incident and humanely euthanize this bear if captured," Johnson added. If the cub is captured, officials say it will be relocated and released into the wild. "By this time of year, cubs are able to survive on their own and this cub will likely have a better opportunity to thrive in the wild without human intervention," DNR said in the statement. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Bryan Sommerfeld, one of Frye's neighbors, told CBS affiliate WCCO he's praying for her healing and has observed more local bears recently. "We really respect them, but I can see how they could really sneak right up on you. You can't hear them," Sommerfeld said to the station. Wisconsin DNR notes instances of black bears attacking or killing humans are rare, but do occur in the Badger State and nationwide. However, there are no recorded human fatalities from wild black bear encounters in Wisconsin's history. Read the original article on People WASHINGTON For more than a decade, actress Lupita Nyong'o has stayed quiet. The "Black Panther" star has long suffered from and declined to speak publicly about a medical condition called uterine fibroids. But on July 15 she told members of the Congressional Black Caucus through tears that the need for more federal research funding for the condition outweighs her own discomfort. Actress Lupita Nyong'o announced a plan July 15, 2025 to launch a grant program with the Foundation for Womens Health to fund more research into uterine fibroids. "I no longer want to remain silent, she said. "Thats why I want to share my personal story for the first time so we can invest in this research and find early detection and treatment and solutions. Treatment for the growths, which disproportionately affect Black women, has advanced so little that many women end up with a hysterectomy the surgical removal of their uterus, which leads to infertility and early menopause. Many also suffer symptoms such as heavy bleeding and disabling pain. Eight in 10 Black women and 7 in 10 white women will experience fibroids. "When we reach puberty, we're taught that periods mean pain and that pain is simply part of being a woman," , Nyong'o said in a July 15 Instagram post. Nyong'o's Instagram post garnered 252,000 likes and was shared nearly 10,000 times. "We need to stop treating this massive issue like a series of unfortunate coincidences," she said, calling for better screening and more research. Congressional Black Caucus members acknowledge that getting more funding will be difficult at a time of budget cuts, but they said said it's important to try. They said the health issue should garner bipartisan support for legislation they reintroduced July 15 because it affects so many women of every ethnicity. Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, introduced the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act named after the late congresswoman from Ohio who championed the legislation for years before her 2008 death. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, at the microphone, urged Congress July 15, 2025 to support bills, including the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Uterine Fibroids Research and Education Act that would fund research. She was joined by advocates and Merv Jones, the son of Tubb Jones. The bill would set aside $150 million over five years for disease research at the National Institutes of Health. It would also boost awareness and improve training of medical professionals in how to detect and treat the disease. (We are in) a crisis of medical misinformation, confusion and self doubt, Clarke told the roundtable. It is a crisis of intentional neglect and limited resources. Caucus members also introduced other bills to bring attention to uterine fibroids, improve early detection and treatment and expand data collection. Lawmakers and advocates have long complained about the lack of research into fibroids, and especially about their disproportionate impact on Black women. Ohio Rep. Shontel Brown, actress Lupita Nyong'o and New York Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, kick off a roundtable discussion July 15, 2025 on uterine fibroids. Uterine fibroids are the most common gynecologic condition in the United States, affecting up to 80% of Black women and nearly 70% of all women by age 50, said Sateria Venable, CEO & Founder of the Fibroid Foundation. Its far past time that we solve this public health crisis, Venable said. A threat I never saw coming Lawmakers hope Nyong'o sharing her story and using her platform will elevate the pressing issue. The 42-year-old Academy award winning actress, has starred in movies such as "Black Panther," "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," "Us," "12 Years a Slave," "Quiet Place" and "Queen of Katwe." Nyong'o said that it was in 2014, the year she won the Oscar, that she also learned she had 30 fibroids. So while the word was celebrating my achievement with me, I was privately contending with a threat to my reproductive system and a threat that I never saw coming, she said. Actress Lupita Nyong'o cried as she described when she first learned she had fibroids and the challenges since then. She shared her story July 15, 2025 at a roundtable hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus. Caucus members introduced bills to fund more research. Nyong'o said she had lots of questions for her doctor. What are fibroids? How did they happen? What could she have detected them? What are her treatment options? The answers and options, she said, were unsatisfying. The norm cannot be a hysterectomy, said Nyong'o, who announced a new partnership with the Foundation for Women's Health to award a $200,000 research grant. Transformation begins with understanding and understanding requires research. So lets start researching some female bodies. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio, who also had fibroids and is a lead sponsor on legislation, said hosting the roundtable and introducing bills are key steps. "It's important that we normalize the conversation,'' she said. "It is time to break the silence. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lupita Nyong'o lobbies for federal funding for fibroid research Dee Annear/Facebook Dee Annear NEED TO KNOW A man has been found guilty of the 2021 murder of his partner in New South Wales, Australia, according to local media reports Rohen James Hanson, 42, claimed he killed Dee Annear, 34, while acting in self-defense in the remote Bulga Forest cabin, which they reportedly named the "witch's hut" An autopsy found Annear died from blunt force trauma A man has been found guilty of the 2021 murder of his partner in a remote cabin in New South Wales, Australia. According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The Canberra Times and Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a jury unanimously found Rohen James Hanson, 42, guilty of murdering Dee Annear, 34, during his trial at the Supreme Court in Newcastle on Wednesday, July 16.. PEOPLE has contacted the New South Wales Police and the Supreme Court of New South Wales for comment. Annear's body was found outside a logger's cabin in Bulga Forest on Sept. 18, 2021, per ABC. The couple had been camping at the cabin, which they named the "witch's hut." An autopsy report found that Annear died from blunt force trauma at around 12:00 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2021, according to ABC and The Daily Telegraph. She had fractures to her skull, rib, nose and jaw, along with lung lacerations and a strangulation injury, per ABC. Dee Annear/Facebook Dee Annear Hanson had attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter but his plea was rejected by prosecutors, per ABC. Though he admitted to killing his partner, he claimed he was acting in self-defense, according to The Canberra Times. PEOPLE previously reported that Hanson's lawyer told the jury that Hanson did not intend to kill Annear. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Hanson was accused of lying to police after he claimed he found Annear dead and then later claimed she died after being involved in a car crash. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. After taking back his claim that Annear died following a car crash, Hanson told authorities that he acted in self-defense after his partner initiated a fight and attacked him with a bottle after he crashed their car alone, according to ABC. Hansom claimed he tackled his partner into a wall after she attacked him with the beer bottle. According to The Daily Telegraph, the Supreme Court heard that Annear faced physical abuse from Hanson throughout their relationship. Her mother Carolyn Butt told the jury that she once saw Hanson punching her daughters head while visiting their home in Wingham, while Butt also claimed she witnessed Hanson headbutt Annear during a previous camping trip, per the outlet. Alamy An Australian Police Force car A neighbor also claimed the couple were once drunk at the house before they got into an argument, resulting in Hanson allegedly pushing his partner into a table and later stomping on her head and punching her face. According to multiple outlets, Hanson will be sentenced on Sept. 5. If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People The man accused of assassinating a Minnesota lawmaker and plotting to assassinate others allegedly claimed in a letter to the FBI director that he was threatened in a far-fetched conspiracy claim prosecutors have called a "delusion." The letter allegedly written by Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was unsealed as prosecutors announced July 15 he had been indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts, some of which could carry the death penalty, according to Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson. Boelter was accused of shooting to death Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband Mark and their dog, and shooting and injuring State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. The indictment and newly released court records reveal additional details about the night of terror that unfolded in the early morning hours of June 14, Thompson said in a news conference on July 15. In addition to the letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel the investigation has revealed additional camera footage of the attacks and details of how Boelter, dressed as a police officer, also allegedly tried to kill the Hoffmans' daughter, Hope, Thompson said. "This political assassination, the likes of which had never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level," Thompson said. Boelter was indicted on six counts, Thompson said July 15, including two murder counts, stalking with the intent to murder and firearm charges. Each count carries a penalty of up to life in prison, with the two capital murder charges also putting the death penalty on the table. Prosecutors won't decide whether to pursue the death penalty until a later stage, Thompson said. USA TODAY reached out to the Office of the Federal Defender, which had been representing Boelter, for comment on the indictment. What happened in the Minnesota lawmakers shootings? Boelter, wearing a "hyper-realistic" silicone mask and dressed to impersonate a police officer, complete with an SUV with flashing lights, drove around the Minneapolis suburbs in the early morning hours of June 14 to the homes of multiple lawmakers, authorities have said. At the Hoffman home in Champlin, Boelter knocked and shouted, "This is the police. Open the door," at about 2 a.m., according to a previously released affidavit. He shot John and Yvette Hoffman multiple times, according to the affidavit. Boelter then allegedly drove to two more state lawmakers' homes; one wasn't home and at the other home, he encountered law enforcement and left. A picture of Mark and Melissa Hortman is set up inside the sanctuary at the Basilica of St. Mary during their funeral services in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 28, 2025. Later in the morning at about 3:30 a.m., he made it to the home of the Hortmans. Police officers who knew about the shooting at the Hoffman home also went to the Hortman house to do a welfare check and saw Boelter, who exchanged gunfire with them before fleeing on foot, according to the affidavit. Melissa and Mark Hortman were killed. The shootings commenced a two-day manhunt that authorities have described as the largest in state history. Boelter tried to kill Hoffmans' daughter, prosecutor says New details from the investigation reveal that not only did Boelter shoot and injure John and Yvette Hoffman, he also tried to shoot their adult daughter, Hope, Thompson told reporters on July 15. Hope Hoffman is now named in the indictment as an intended victim, he said. Thompson said Hope Hoffman was "miraculously" not shot. "Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery to put themselves between Boelter's bullets and their daughter," Thompson said. Hope Hoffman told USA TODAY in a statement that she was relieved that the perpetrator is being charged "to the fullest extent of the law." "Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face," she said. New security footage reveals details about Hortman murders Additional footage from security cameras at the Hortmans' home and from a police vehicle revealed new details about what happened leading up to and during the murders of Melissa and Mark Hortman, Thompson said. Shortly before 3:30 a.m., Boelter pulled up to the home in an SUV designed to look like a police vehicle with flashing lights, wearing his disguise, Thompson said. He approached the door, rang the doorbell and shouted, "Police. Welfare check," Thompson said. Mark Hortman answered the door, and Boelter shined a flashlight into his eyes and told him there were reports of shots fired at the home. Mark Hortman said he had been asleep and didn't know about a shooting. He asked for a name and badge number, and Boelter replied, "Nelson, 286," according to Thompson. A memorial for senior Democratic state assemblywoman Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were fatally shot, is displayed outside the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota, on June 14, 2025. While Boelter was still talking to Mark Hortman at the door, the officers from the Brooklyn Park Police Department arrived. Moments later, Boelter fired a "volley" of shots into the home, Thompson said. The officers then exchanged gunshot with Boelter. Cameras captured audio of another round of gunfire. Thompson said Boelter shot and killed Mark Hortman in the entryway of the home, then moved passed him and shot Melissa Hortman "several times at close range, killing her as she attempted to flee up the stairs." "In those same moments you can hear Boelter kill the Hortmans' dog, their golden retriever Gilbert," Thompson said. Contents of letter to FBI director revealed Thompson said a key part of the investigation has been to determine if Boelter was acting alone and what his motive was. He said investigators are "confident" that Boelter acted alone and that there is no evidence anyone helped him. The investigation "confirmed this was an act of political extremism," Thompson said. "Vance Boelter set out that night to commit a targeted political assassination." While Boelter didn't leave behind writings explaining his political beliefs, he did leave behind a letter in an abandoned car near his farm house. The car was left with a cowboy hat on the hood, Thompson said. A handout photo posted by the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office shows Vance Luther Boelter, 57, the suspected gunman in the shooting deaths of a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and her husband, in custody. The photo was released on June 15, 2025. The letter, addressed to Patel, includes a confession that Boelter is the man who shot the Hoffmans and Hortmans, Thompson said. In the letter, Boelter claimed he was trained by the U.S. military "off the books" and had been "approached" by Minnesota Gov. Tom Walz about killing other lawmakers, Thompson said. The letter also claimed that unnamed people "threatened to hurt his family if he didn't participate." Thompson said the conspiracy theory was a fantasy. "Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? Well, that's a good question. It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes," Thompson said. Contributing: Marina Pitofsky and Corey Schmidt This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minnesota lawmaker shootings investigation reveals new details By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian AI startup developing software for crewless boats said it has been granted one of the first AUKUS exemption licences by the Australian government, allowing it to share information with defence contractors in the U.S. and Britain. Defence officials have said Australia will rely more on autonomous systems to protect its vast coastline and up to 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million sq km) of northern ocean, even as it spends billions on nuclear-powered submarines. Australia, the United States and Britain removed significant barriers on defence trade in August through an exemption to the U.S. International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, designed to speed up construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) pact. The co-founder of the Greenroom Robotics startup, former Royal Australian Navy engineer Harry Hubbert, told Reuters the licence exemption will also speed up the company's collaboration on autonomous vessel trials with defence companies in Britain and the United States. Greenroom's software acts like "the brain of a vessel", he said, emulating what a helmsman or navigator would do by talking to the rudder, engine and radar systems on board. Trials of the software have been conducted on boats ranging from a one-metre long research vessel to an offshore patrol boat, he said. Greenroom has a partnership with navy shipbuilder Austal Australia and has also worked with British company Subsea Craft on a tactical water vessel, Hubbert said. Greenroom's software is dual-use, and can also be applied to help vessels monitor for whales, he added. "The opportunity with AUKUS is that we can enter U.S. and UK markets but also expand the horizon," he said. With around 80% of the ocean floor uncharted to modern standards, autonomous vessels can gather information that helps ocean research, national security needs and sea-borne trade, he said. (Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) BEIJING (Reuters) -China reaffirmed on Wednesday that it is normalising ties with the European Parliament, as Beijing seeks to forge closer economic and political ties with Brussels amid flaring global trade frictions. "In recent years, exchanges between Chinese and European legislative bodies have encountered some setbacks due to well-known reasons," China's foreign ministry said, referring to disputes over alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. "Under current circumstances, both sides believe it is very important for China and Europe to strengthen dialogue and cooperation," spokesperson Lin Jian said, adding that Beijing and the European Parliament had decided to lift all restrictions on mutual exchanges of lawmakers. The comments by China's foreign ministry came after the South China Morning Post reported that Beijing had removed "restrictions" on former EU lawmaker Reinhard Buetikofer sanctioned in 2021. The normalisation of ties was first confirmed by both the European Parliament and Beijing earlier this year. Wednesday's remarks also came ahead of a China-EU leaders' summit slated for later this month when the EU's Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa are expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing. In March 2021, China blacklisted 10 EU individuals and four entities in response to Brussels' sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Buetikofer, a German politician who chaired the European Parliament's delegation to China at the time, was among those sanctioned, barred from entering China or doing business with it. Beijing had accused those sanctioned of seriously harming the country's sovereignty and interests over Xinjiang. (Reporting by Joe Cash and Xiuhao Chen in Beijing; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Raju Gopalakrishnan) Bangladesh has begun demolishing the centuryold ancestral home of internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray north of the capital Dhaka. The house was once used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, a government-run centre for childrens development. It is being replaced with a new semiconcrete structure with officials citing structural safety concerns after a decade of neglect, reported Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. Built some 120km north of Dhaka by Rays grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, the mansion sat on a sprawling 36acre estate. The house links generations of cultural icons: Upendrakishore himself was a pioneering writer, publisher, and technologist of the Bengal Renaissance, best known for founding the childrens magazine Sandesh and introducing advanced halftone printing techniques in India; His son, Sukumar Ray, was a beloved poet and satirist whose nonsense verse remains deeply influential in Bengali literature, and his grandson, Satyajit Ray, went on to become one of the most celebrated filmmakers in world cinema. Indias foreign ministry issued a statement on Tuesday expressing profound regret over the demolition, and urged Dhaka to reconsider, offering both technical and financial cooperation to restore the building instead. Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh, said the statement. Born in Kolkata in 1921, Ray made his directorial debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, which won international acclaim and became the first in his landmark Apu trilogy. Ray went on to win several accolades, including two Cannes Palme dOr awards and an honorary Academy Award in 1992. Born in Kolkata in 1921, Ray made his directorial debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, which won international acclaim and became the first in his landmark Apu trilogy (AFP/Getty Images) Born in Kolkata in 1921, Ray made his directorial debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, which won international acclaim and became the first in his landmark Apu trilogy (AFP/Getty Images) Rays son Sandip said the filmmaker had intended to include images of their ancestral home in a documentary, but decided against it upon seeing its derelict state. I have never been to Bangladesh to see this building; neither did Baba [Satyajit Ray]. What I saw were the pictures of the building. But I remember Baba wanted to use the pictures of this building when he was working on the Sukumar Ray documentary, Sandip Ray told NDTV. A close associate, who used to look after Baba's production, was sent to Bangladesh to click some pictures of this building. But Baba was very disheartened to see the building in a dilapidated state. He, then, decided that he wouldn't use those pictures in his documentary. In Dhaka, officials have defended the decision by saying that the building posed risks to children and that the new structure would allow the academys activities to be resumed. The house had been abandoned for 10 years, and Shishu Academy activities have been running from a rented space, Md Mehedi Zaman, Mymensinghs district children affairs officer told The Daily Star, adding that all proper procedures were followed by the district administration and public works department. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Indias West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh, wrote on X in Bengali that the news was extremely distressing and describing the Ray family as one of the foremost torchbearers of Bengali culture. I appeal to the Bangladesh government and all the conscientious people of that country to take steps to preserve this heritage-laden house. The Indian government should pay attention to this matter, she wrote. , , - Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 15, 2025 Within Bangladesh, some archaeologists and cultural activists have expressed regret that despite the buildings historical importance, it had never been officially listed as protected. Poet Shamim Ashraf told The Daily Star that appeals to preserve the site were ignored and the house remained in a sorry state for years, with cracks forming on its roof. Sabina Yeasmin, field officer of the Department of Archaeology, also told the newspaper that repeated warnings had been disregarded. Adding to growing unease is the fact that another cultural property Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagores ancestral home Kachharibari in Sirajganj was attacked by a mob in early June following a dispute over parking fees. The auditorium was damaged, and the director attacked, prompting a temporary closure of the 19th-century property and an official inquiry. #Bangladesh | Satyajit Ray's ancestral home being demolished in Mymensingh In Bangladesh, the ancestral home of eminent filmmaker #SatyajitRay in #Mymensingh city, formerly used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete structure. pic.twitter.com/2fNZJ4vec1 DD News (@DDNewslive) July 15, 2025 As a video of the demolition of the Ray family home began circulating online, some expressed dismay and drew a link between the two incidents. Economist Sanjeev Sanyal wrote on X: They were silent when Tagores house was vandalised. They are silent when Satyajit Rays ancestral home is demolished. Indeed, they are complicit to the systematic erasure of Bengali Hindu identity in Bangladesh. Iran has seized a foreign tanker accused of smuggling two million litres of fuel through the Gulf of Oman, a regional justice chief said, according to Mehr news agency. Seventeen crew members were arrested and a judicial case was opened at the Jask county prosecutor's office, Hormozgan's chief justice Mojtaba Ghahremani said. During the continuous process of monitoring and surveilling suspicious fuel smuggling movements in the Gulf of Oman, officers inspected a foreign tanker due to its lack of legal documents regarding its cargo and seized it on charges of carrying 2 million litres of smuggled fuel, he added. The Gulf of Oman, southwest of Iran, is a vital shipping route for oil produced around the Persian Gulf. It is linked to the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the worlds total oil supply passes. As the only maritime access from the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, security in the Gulf of Oman is a major concern for both oil importers and exporters. In the past Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz but has never followed through on the move, which would restrict trade and impact global oil prices. The actions of fuel smugglers, who in coordination with foreigners, attempt to plunder national wealth will not remain hidden from the judiciary and punishment of perpetrators, if their crimes are proven, will be without leniency, Mr Ghahremani said. The name of the tanker and its registered flag have not yet been disclosed. While this information can help identify the ships country of origin and its owners, vessels often register under foreign flags to avoid identification or bypass regulations. Fuel smuggling is an increasing problem for Iran, which has some of the world's lowest fuel prices due to subsidies and a sharp decline in the value of its national currency Three vessels, two in 2023 and one in 2024, were seized by Iran near or in the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters. Some of the seizures followed US seizures of tankers related to Iran. Image of Donald Trump speaking at a podium, inset with a photo of a person holding a sign that says A Washington state federal judge ruled this week that the Trump administrations travel ban on 12 countries does not enable it to block 80 previously-vetted refugees from entering the US. Seattle US District Judge Jamal Whitehead ruled late Monday that Trumps June 4 order restricting arrivals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen expressly states that [n]othing in this proclamation shall be construed to limit the ability of an individual to seek refugee status consistent with the laws of the United States. Judge Whitehead said Trumps order banning the entry of people from 12 countries expressly states that it does not limit the ability of people to seek refugee status. AP Last month, the government acknowledged there were 80 refugees relevant to the case who were still being denied entry on the basis of Trumps June proclamation. The Government must immediately resume processing the 80 presumptively protected refugees it has denied based on the Proclamation (that is, unless the Government intends, in accordance with the dispute-resolution procedures below, to try to rebut the presumption), Whitehead wrote in the ruling. In his ruling, Whitehead said by its plain terms, the Proclamation excludes refugees from its scope. AP Whitehead previously ruled that Trumps Jan. 20 executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Program likely crossed the line, only for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to later limit relief to those whose resettlement applications were approved, their travel booked, and their status vouched for by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) before Trump took office. The district judge gave the feds until Monday, July 21, to identify all cases that meet the three criteria. The court expects all parties to implement this framework in good faith, recognizing that real families remain in limbo while these legal processes unfold, Whitehead wrote. Delays in implementation mean continued separation from safety for some of the worlds most vulnerable people. Barring refugees from entering the U.S. would limit their ability to seek refugee status and therefore run counter to the Republican presidents order. AP The Trump administration previously revealed that some 12,000 individuals had been cleared and booked travel before Trump halted the refugee program. A lot of those cases are subject to seperate litigation. Whitehead further directed the government to examine whether refugees whose travel was scrapped before Trumps inauguration, as far back as Dec. 1, 2024, are protected as well. Border Security Force personnel patrolling along the barbed wire fence at India-Pakistan border during Independence Day celebrations at RS Pura Sector in Jammu Kashmir on August 14, 2021. Credit - Feature ChinaFuture Publishing/Getty Images You cant actually see the Great Wall of China from space but the border dividing India from Pakistan is unmistakable. For over 1,900 miles, from the shores of the Arabian Sea to the icy mountain peaks of Kashmir, a line intended to divide Hindus from Muslims is visibly etched onto the surface of the globe. The jagged border was hastily drawn by a British judge when the Indian subcontinent won its independence from Britain in August 1947 but was divided into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan. In the weeks that followed, millions of Hindus and Sikhs fled from the regions newly designated as Pakistan into India, while millions of Muslims left their ancestral homes in India and moved in the opposite directionto what they hoped would be a safe haven in Pakistan. Some 15 million people were rendered refugees, and between one and two million were killed in the violence that accompanied the Partition. The trauma of the Partition continues to define South Asian attitudes toward past, present, and future. Today, layers of fencing, accompanied by 150,000 floodlights, thermal sensors and landmines have turned the border between India and Pakistan into a veritable Iron Curtain. The edgy, militarized border renders Indians and Pakistanis, who had lived together in overlapping communities before the Partition, almost completely inaccessible to one another. One of its most disastrous legacies of the Partition is the dispute over the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, which erupted into a war between India and Pakistan soon after independence and left Kashmir divided between the two countries after a ceasefire. Three more wars, political intrigues, nuclear weaponization, decades of insurgency and counter-insurgency in Kashmir exacted a great human toll and unleashed passions and prejudices which have contributed to excessive dominance of the military in Pakistan, and have helped intensify religious nationalism in India. A massacre in arcadia On April 22, terrorists attacked a group of Indian tourists in a pristine meadow in the Kashmiri town of Pahalgam and murdered 26 peoplethe largest killing of Indian civilians in years. India quickly blamed Pakistan and Indian politicians, television networks and civilians all clamored for revenge. The massacre in Kashmir came after a fraught decade for the two countries. Since 2014, India has witnessed a significant political transformation with the rise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and his emphasis on muscular nationalism and Hindu majoritarianism. At the same time, Pakistan was weakened by several economic and political crises, and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 reduced Islamabads importance to Washington. After New Delhi revoked the semi-autonomous status of Indian-administered-Kashmir in August 2019 and brought it under direct rule, diplomatic, political, economic, and cultural ties with Pakistan all but disappeared. A tense peace followed, maintained by heavy military and police presence, as most Kashmiris withdrew from separatist politics and militancy. India, focused on positioning itself as a global power, largely ignored a struggling Pakistan. Prime Minister Modi responded to the attack by changing Indias military doctrine to consider a terrorist attack in India as an act of war: Indian planes struck deep inside Pakistan, even hitting a military air base close to the headquarters of its Strategic Plans Division responsible for overseeing its nuclear weapons. Fears of India and Pakistan being a mistake away from nuclear war rose as the two countries hit each others military infrastructure with airstrikes and swarms of drones. The history of hostility and violence gave the conflict an aura of inevitability. I am very close to India, and I am very close to Pakistan, and they have had that fight for a thousand years in Kashmir, President Donald Trump remarked. A forgotten history of cooperation Despite the ceasefire holding, even the most modest cultural and diplomatic exchanges between India and Pakistan have now vanished. South Asias two nuclear armed neighbors are now more dangerously cut off from one another than the United States and the Soviet Union were during the Cold War. Yet Indo-Pak relations havent always been defined by hostility alone. After a ceasefire brokered by the United Nations divided Kashmir between the two countries, they reconciled surprisingly quickly. Recently declassified intelligence files reveal that throughout the 1950s, India and Pakistan cooperated, shared intelligence, and even considered a military alliance. Indian and Pakistani intelligence services began collaborating in April 1949 to prevent a communist takeover in Burma, which both countries feared would encourage similar revolutions on their own soil. The operation must be kept completely secret, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, warned his ambassador in Burma. Indian and Pakistani agents worked together to smuggle military equipment worth millions of dollars to the Burmese military into Rangoon, saving the state from total collapse. The Rangoon operation laid the foundation for further collaboration between India and Pakistan. By 1950, a minister in Nehrus cabinet was speaking of the very friendly relations between the two governments, and Prime Minister Nehru spoke of an Asiatic federation in the not very, very distant future, and a United Nations of South Asia. In The Great Partition, historian Yasmin Khan recounts how in 1950 a joint press conference brought journalists from India and Pakistan together for the first time in three years. Correspondents burst into tears upon seeing their old co-workers again. Indias National Herald newspaper described the Indian and Pakistani journalists spending hours talking, trying to learn about life in places across the border they had known intimately, which had become mysterious and inaccessible. Prime Minister Nehru championed the idea of India and Pakistan finding ways to allow their citizens to meet as often as possible. India and Pakistan continued to cooperate with one another for well over a decade, convinced that cooperation was the only way to manage the continued flow of refugees across their borders. Indian and Pakistani politicians worked together to resolve questions of refugee rehabilitation, almost implemented a No War pact, and even introduced joint India-Pakistan passports. In 1960, Pakistans President Ayyub Khan proposed a military alliance, which didnt materialize. But in September 1960, India and Pakistan did sign with the World Bank, the landmark Indus Water Treaty, which enshrines their rights to water from the six rivers that flow between the two countries. For more than six decades, the treaty survived the subcontinental wars and discord but has come under significant strain after India suspended its participation in the treaty after the April terrorist attack in Kashmir. Indian paramilitary soldiers stand guard along a street in Srinagar on May 11, 2025. Sajjad HussainAFP/Getty Images A stark, downward spiral Relations between India and Pakistan began worsening when Indian forces marched into the Portuguese colony of Goa in December 1961. Many in India saw it as the final act of decolonization, ending four centuries of European rule in the subcontinent. But Pakistans President Ayub Khan viewed it as a sign of Indian aggression. In response, he began supporting rebel groups in Indias northeast, prompting India to back separatists within Pakistan. After a brief war in 1965, both countries passed enemy property laws, allowing them to confiscate the assets of citizens who maintained property, business interests, or family connections across the border. Six years later, in 1971, Indian support for Bengali rebels in East Pakistan and its military intervention led to the creation of Eastern Pakistan as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan retaliated by supporting separatist Sikh militants in Punjab in the 1980s. A popular rebellion against New Delhi erupted in Indian-administered Kashmir in the winter of 1989-1990. Pakistan armed, trained, and funded the Kashmiri militants, and transformed the insurgency by sending in Pakistani Islamist militants. A decade later, President Bill Clinton was referring to Kashmir as the most dangerous place in the world. Fading allure of shared histories and peace We stopped a nuclear conflict, President Trump claimed after the India-Pakistan ceasefire in May. The ceasefire has held but any sense of normalcy has not returned to the relations between the two countries. A period of warm cultural and economic relations and serious efforts at resolving the Kashmir dispute between 2002 and 2012 when India was led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a hazy, distant memory now. In those seasons of peace, Indian movie stars lit up Pakistani theatres and Pakistani musicians filled out massive venues in India and bilateral trade would cross billions annually. Indians and Pakistanis, who remember a life before the Partition, before the borders, are in their nineties and dying fast. They recall a complex picture of loss of home, language, friendships and separated families. Even the earlier generations of soldiers and officers in the Indian and Pakistan militaries had shared histories. Opponents in the first wars between India and Pakistan were comrades who fought side by side in the British Army in the Second World War. They would smuggle cigarettes and letters across the front lines to their old friends. After Indias victory in the 1971 war, Gavin Young, a correspondent for The Observer, asked an Indian general if he had met the Pakistani general who had surrendered along with his men before Indian forces. Oh, Yes, the Indian general replied. He said he was very happy to see me. We knew each other in college. After 78 years, there is still no shared understanding of the profound collective loss the Partition inflicted on the subcontinent. The border has hardened, and ironically, it is now easier for Indians and Pakistanis to meet in Britain. In both countries, Partition has been mythologized in ways that leave little space to mourn what was lost. Today, the shared history of India and Pakistan survives only in fragmentsconfined to memories, archives, and scattered familiesas the two nations follow increasingly different trajectories and imagine futures that leave little room for one another. It is politically easier, after all, to say they were always meant to be enemies. Contact us at letters@time.com. An eight-wheeled Stryker armored vehicle patrolling the border area in Sunland Park, New Mexico state, U.S., is seen from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua state, Mexico on March 28, 2025. (Photo by Herika Martinez / AFP) (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images) A U.S. citizen is facing federal conspiracy charges after leading Border Patrol on a 140 mph chase through the New Mexico desert with a car full of illegal immigrants, authorities said. The pursuit began around 6:20 a.m. on Thursday when agents spotted a black Subaru speeding away from the U.S.-Mexico border along a route known for smuggling, according to the Border Report. Multiple Border Patrol vehicles, all-terrain units and a helicopter joined the chase before the car ran out of gas and occupants scattered. (RELATED: Prosecutors Give Abrego Garcias Attorneys The One Thing They Were Hoping For) The driver, later identified as Michael Thomas Raines, allegedly tried to pin the incident on his passengers, telling agents, The Mexicans jumped me and stole my car, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the outlet. A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol vehicle drives past recently installed concertina wire on a section of border wall fencing along the US-Mexico border between San Diego and Tijuana in San Diego, California on April 24, 2025. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images) A Border Patrol agent first spotted the speeding Subaru but lost sight of it as it fled, prompting him to call for backup. Agents later found the car abandoned near NM Highways 9 and 146 in Grant County, the outlet reported. Nearby, they found a Mexican woman and child sitting by a fence, then Raines still claiming hed been carjacked and, deeper in the desert, two more Mexican nationals. Raines reportedly stuck to his story even after being taken to the Lordsburg station, telling agents he only exited from the drivers side because the passenger door was blocked. But after agents searched his cellphone with his permission they uncovered messages instructing him to just go straight to Albuquerque to pick up migrants for cash, as well as videos of him shooting guns and selling firearms through an app, the records reportedly say. (RELATED: Illegal Immigration Thoroughfare Left Trashed, Environmentally Damaged As Migrant Influx Subsides) Agents also learned Raines had served 13 years in prison for premeditated murder, according to the Border Report. When pressed further, Raines reportedly admitted he knew the people were illegal and needed money. Asked how fast he was going, he allegedly laughed and corrected the agents; he didnt attempt to flee, he did boasting he wouldnt have been caught if he hadnt run out of gas. Raines is charged with conspiracy to bring in and harbor aliens. By Marco Aquino LIMA (Reuters) -Miners in Peru who have been allowed to operate with temporary permits have paused protests that blocked a major copper transit route for more than two weeks, one of the protest leaders, Luis Huaman, told Reuters on Tuesday. He said they planned to suspend the protest at least through Friday, while continuing to press the government for a way to extend their permits. Peru's government has been working to end the program for operations known as "informal," which was created over a decade ago and meant to be temporary, but workers in the sector say the stricter regulations to operate legally are too onerous. The protests began throughout Peru in late June, including blocking a road in the Cusco region that is used by major miners MMG, Glencore and Hudbay Minerals, whose mines are among the top 10 copper producers of Peru. The Andean nation is the world's third-biggest copper producer. The Ministry of Energy and Mines is aiming to bring more than 31,000 informal miners in line with regulations by the end of the year, after removing more than 50,000 others from the program earlier this month. The ministry said at least 45,000 of those hadn't registered any activity in the last four years. "It's a truce," Huaman said. A committee of informal miners and various government representatives were scheduled to meet in Lima on Friday to discuss the matter, but protesters would "resume the blockade on the mining corridor" if the outcome was not in their favor, he said. Huaman said the protesters want the government to ensure a way for informal operations to continue, and said they will restart the protest if an agreement isn't reached by Friday. China's MMG and Canada's Hudbay last week told top government officials their production could be impacted if the protests were to continue. (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Kylie Madry and Leslie Adler) Aida Elsayed greeting an aid ship in Sudan (Sudanese Red Crescent Society) In Sudan, we have the problem of the dead body, says Aida Elsayed. The secretary general of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society (SRCS) is relaying how her volunteers entered an area in Khartoum and found bodies of people who had been thrown into water wells a grim reminder of the war that has gripped the country. The mass grave where bodies had been disposed of, and some had been left to die, had rendered the local water source undrinkable. Elsayed cant understand why the whole world isnt paying attention. She is in the UK urging MPs and government officials to remember her home country, as they finalise the foreign aid allocations for this year. Since war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country has spiralled into one of the worlds most acute humanitarian emergencies. More 25 million people face severe hunger and 12 million have been forced from their homes. The Sudanese Red Crescent the local branch of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of which the British Red Cross is also part remains one of the only humanitarian organisations on the ground. Sudan, it is a forgotten crisis, she says, Nobody mentions it, nobody talks about it. Also, as global aid has been shrinking, Sudan has been hit by shortages of essential supplies. Having cut the UKs overall aid budget by 40 per cent, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is set to publish more details about where the remaining funds will be allocated later this month. The government already announced a 120m package of humanitarian aid for Sudan this year and has named the country as one of its funding priorities. The cost is very high The SRCS says it has only raised 30 per cent of what it needs for the year ahead. The most urgent needs to be paid for are food and basic medicine. The World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Food Programme, which provide many of these essentials, are both facing significant pressure on their budgets after the withdrawal of the US from global aid. The WHO says more than half of health programmes in Sudan are at risk, covering roughly 355 health facilities. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme is facing a shortfall of 625 million across the next six months, and is facing having to reduce the numbers of people helped or the amount of food given. When they cant get physical supplies, the SRCS distributes cash, but then the prices are very high, Elsayed says - as much as three US dollars for a piece of bread. While 80 per cent of health facilities have been ground to dust, peoples health needs are rising - both from the toll of violence and the costs of displacement. Outbreaks of disease from dirty water, like cholera, are becoming more common. And diseases which used to be confined to certain regions are spilling out across the whole country along with the movement of displaced people. Before the crisis, Elsayed explains, dengue spread by mosquitoes was found mostly in the east of the country. With the movement of the population, now it is all over Sudan, she says. Sudan refugees queue at a Red Cross water point in the Adre, Chad (AP) Sudan refugees queue at a Red Cross water point in the Adre, Chad (AP) To control that, you have to settle the population, and you cannot do that because they want to go to a better area for their children, for their family, at least to find a safe area. Asked about the difficult choices that inevitably have to be made when supplies and funds are so low, she shakes her head with a gentle laugh. We don't make choices. Whatever comes to the country, we use it and we distribute it. Sometimes aid comes into the country from a donor, but they cant provide the funds to transport it, meaning desperately needed supplies are stuck in Port Sudan. The cost is really very high and whenever it is a dangerous area, the costs go [even higher]. Getting a truck from the border to Kordofan in the very centre of the country took a month earlier this year. Once on the move, theres no guarantee that aid will reach the intended people. Human Rights Watch has found the SAF regularly blocks aid from entering RSF-controlled areas, while the RSF has raided trucks carrying food and medical supplies. The SRCS has lost 73 vehicles carrying supplies for 7,000 people to looting. There are 637,000 people in Sudan facing catastrophic levels of hunger, according to the World Food Programme - more than anywhere else in the world. People cant farm to produce food This reality is all the crueller for the fact that the country is a fertile agricultural hotspot once known as the breadbasket of Africa. Farms are lying untended - unsafe to access, abandoned as people flee, or used instead to house internally displaced people. This caused the shortage of food within the country, Elsayed says. People are not able to access their land, they also don't have access to the seeds, and even [then] they don't feel safe to go and produce, she says. So that's why now so many people rely on external funding. Even when it comes to the food that is still being produced inside Sudan, the conflict means it's not possible to be transported to where people need it, she says. Refugees receive food supplies in the Adre, Chad, transit camp, into which many people from Sudan have fled (AP) Refugees receive food supplies in the Adre, Chad, transit camp, into which many people from Sudan have fled (AP) For aid workers from the SRCS, gathered in a small office room in London and preparing to meet with UK government officials, this is personal. They are themselves displaced and have lost family and homes to the fighting. Elsayed says, If I start to really think about myself, my family, I cannot do the job. She has left the only home she had ever known, where she was born, married and had her own children, to rubble. I cannot even enter it now. Instead, the group of humanitarian workers and volunteers have become each others homes. We live in one house all together. We are family to each other, Elsayed says. Everyone of them has a terrible story: how he moved, who he lost in this. But at the end, they came [to help] the people in Sudan. One day, Elsayed came to work to see a volunteer she didnt recognise. I know them by heart, she adds. The woman was offering to make tea and coffee and serve in any small way she could. Another team member later told Elsayed that the woman was a doctor but that she wouldnt talk about this past. She wanted to work as a normal volunteer and not perform any medical tasks. It came out that the woman had been raped several times and had been brought to the hospital in a state of complete collapse. Sexual violence as a weapon of war is epidemic in Sudan, according to the UN. For five months, the woman was cared for in hospital with the support of the SRCS, and when she was discharged she joined as a volunteer. The volunteer, through helping the Red Crescent, gradually began to perform small first aid tasks before going back to work in the hospital as a doctor. Aida Elsayed says the Red Crescent team has become like a family (IFRC) Aida Elsayed says the Red Crescent team has become like a family (IFRC) It was a rare bright spot, one of the few little things that felt like luck to Elsayed. And while psychological needs are mammoth and may often come at the back of the queue behind food and medicine, they are also relatively inexpensive for the SRCS to provide. In the child-friendly spaces they set up, children who arrive will draw pictures: It is all drops of blood. It is all dead people in the street. This is what they are drawing. And that's what theyve seen. But after some time, the children start drawing their houses. When we go, this is my house, my mother will be here. I don't know where my father is, but he will come. For the aid workers supporting them, though, thoughts of returning home and rebuilding are, for now, far from mind. Most funds offered by the UK and other donor countries are likely go towards emergency, life-saving support. Right now it is for Sudan, it is food and medicine, Elsayed says. Rehabilitation will come after that. This piece has been produced as part of The Independents Rethinking Global Aid series The Duke of Sussex has landed in Angola 28 years after his mother, Princess Diana, embarked on a historic walk through a minefield in the country. Prince Harry has travelled solo, without the Duchess of Sussex, to promote the work of the HALO Trust, a charity he is a patron of that works to clear landmines and other explosive devices left behind by conflicts. Harry previously visited Angola in 2019, donning body armour and a protective visor while setting off a controlled explosion in a partially cleared minefield similar to one visited by his mother. On Tuesday (15 July), the charity said Harry attended a discussion with the countrys president on removing landmines. Roman Storm, left, is on trial in federal court in Manhattan for money laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors say he knowingly let scammers and hackers including the North Korean government launder $1B in dirty crypto. Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm is on trial for a $1B crypto-laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors say Tornado Cash was the go-to anonymizing tool for hackers and scammers. Storm brazenly wore a shirt featuring the Tornado Cash logo and a washing machine, prosecutors said. Is Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm just a smart and selfless software engineer? Or is the 34-year-old Russian expat the go-to money launderer for the world's biggest scammers and hackers? A federal jury in Manhattan heard two very different stories in opening statements Tuesday for Storm's $1 billion money laundering conspiracy trial. Prosecutors pointed to three of the biggest crypto heists in recent years including North Korea's $600 million hack attack on the online gaming platform Axie Infinity. Each time, the criminals hid their stolen money by running it through Tornado Cash, prosecutor Special US Attorney Kevin Gerard Mosley told the seven-woman, five-man jury. Storm's popular online tool "mixes" cryptocurrency, scrambling transactions to make them "basically untraceable and virtually impossible for law enforcement or anyone else to track," Mosley told the jury. "The defendant was running and profiting from a giant washing machine for dirty money, and he knew it," the prosecutor said. "He even marketed Tornado Cash as a washing machine," he added. "In fact," he promised jurors, "you will see a photo of the defendant wearing a T-shirt showing a washing machine with the Tornado Cash logo on it." Prosecutors say Storm kept laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for hackers with the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group even after such transactions were banned under US and global sanctions. "Criminals could avoid being tracked by running their money through the defendant's washing machine," Mosley said of Tornado Cash, a so-called crypto "mixing" tool that lets users deposit and withdraw crypto from a shared pool, obscuring the identities on either end of the transaction. "It would be mixed up with other crypto," Mosley said of the hackers' criminal proceeds, "so it would come out looking clean." Storm tried to cover his tracks after the Lazarus Group was sanctioned, the prosecutor said, by removing a single software control "switch" that could be used to shut off just one part of the washing machine. "He did that so he could pretend the whole washing machine was out of his control," while continuing to reap millions in profits, the prosecutor said. But in fact, Storm was still "running the whole laundromat," he added. "He had the keys to the front door, he paid the gas and electric bills, he still said, 'We're open for business.'" In her own opening statement, defense attorney Keri Curtis Axel countered that Storm is just a privacy advocate who wrote some very useful code. Tornado Cash was backed by US investors, and was built for perfectly legitimate purposes, she told the jury. "Roman had nothing to do with the hackers and scammers he didn't want them to use Tornado Cash," she said. "The overwhelming majority of people who used it were normal people using it for their own financial privacy, which is the purpose that Roman intended." As for that T-shirt? The one with the Tornado Cash logo imposed over a washing machine? "He wore it at a reputable tech conference in Boston in 2019," Axel said. "And people of the jury, I want you to keep in mind it's just a T-shirt worn in poor taste." "It's like a comic strip or a meme. It was a joke," she said. "It was not evidence of a crime." The trial is expected to last about a month and to feature both hackers and victims among the government's witnesses. Storm faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of conspiring to commit money laundering, run an unlicensed money-transmitting company, and violate federal sanctions. Read the original article on Business Insider WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he believed Republicans could pick up five seats in the U.S. House of Representatives by redrawing districts in Texas, which could boost his party's odds of defending its thin majority in next year's midterm elections. Republicans currently hold a 220-212 majority in the 435-seat House, with three vacancies in strongly Democratic districts. Incumbent presidents' parties typically lose House seats in midterm elections, but Trump argued that redistricting Texas could improve its chances. "I think we get five," Trump told reporters at the White House. "And there could be some other states where were going to get three or four or five. Texas will be the biggest one. House districts are typically redrawn every 10 years following each U.S. Census, to account for changes in population. Republicans currently hold 25 of Texas' 38 House districts. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican and strong Trump ally, earlier this month added redistricting to the agenda of a special legislative session on July 21. He said he was doing so "in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice." Abbott announced his decision days after receiving a letter from Harmeet Dhillon, U.S. assistant attorney general of the civil rights division, expressing concern that four majority-minority Texas congressional districts won by Democrats were unconstitutionally drawn along racial lines in 2021. The move is not without risk for Republicans as redrawing some Democratic-held districts to make them more winnable for Republican candidates would make existing Republican districts more competitive. Representative Marc Veasey, a Democrat whose Fort Worth-area seat is one of the four targeted by the Justice Department, labeled the redistricting effort a "craven power grab" and a "coordinated political stunt" between Trump and Abbott. Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in a joint press conference in Washington on Tuesday with several Texas Democrats, said: "Donald Trump, House Republicans here in Washington, and Governor Abbott are conspiring to rig the Texas congressional map as part of an effort to disenfranchise millions of people in Texas." Asked whether he was concerned that Democratic-leaning states like New York and California could launch redistricting efforts of their own, Trump said he was not concerned. "Well, that's fine too," he said. (Reporting by Steve Holland and Brad Brooks; Editing by Scott Malone and Lisa Shumaker) By Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the removal of half of the 4,000 National Guard troops who had been sent to Los Angeles to protect federal property and personnel during a spate of protests last month, the Pentagon said on Tuesday. Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the decision was due to the success of the mission. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Parnell said in a statement. "As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen from the federal protection mission," he added. President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June, against the wishes of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, to quell protests triggered by immigration raids on workplaces by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He also sent about 700 Marines. Despite legal challenges, a U.S. appeals court let Trump retain control of California's National Guard. But his decision to send troops into Los Angeles prompted a national debate about the use of the military on U.S. soil and inflamed political tension in the country's second-most-populous city. The Pentagon has defended the deployment, saying safeguarding ICE agents ensures they can do their jobs. Even after the withdrawal of those military personnel from Los Angeles, 2,000 National Guard troops will remain in the city along with the roughly 700 Marines. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has complained that military force was unnecessary and damaging to the local economy, said popular opposition contributed to the withdrawal. Protesters regularly appear at immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, demonstrating their opposition to the government's display of force. This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court - all of this led to todays retreat," Bass said. She referred to a lawsuit the city joined that led to an order from a federal judge barring immigration officers from detaining people based solely on their race or for speaking Spanish. The troops in Los Angeles are authorized to detain people who pose a threat to federal personnel or property, but only until police can arrest them. Military officials are not allowed to carry out arrests themselves. Trump has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally and has executed raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term. The administration has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country challenging its tactics. Trump has increasingly turned to the military in his immigration crackdown. In addition to sending troops to Los Angeles, thousands of active duty troops have been deployed to the border with Mexico and the Pentagon has created military zones in the border area. The zones are intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to suppress events such as civil disorder. During a chaotic raid and resulting protests last week at two sites of a cannabis farm in Southern California, 319 people in the U.S. illegally were detained and federal officers encountered 14 migrant minors, Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem said. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accompanied by National Guard troops in military-style vehicles turned up at two locations operated by Glass House Farms - one in the Santa Barbara County town of Carpinteria, about 90 miles (145 km)northwest of Los Angeles, and one in the Ventura County community of Camarillo, about 50 miles from L.A. (Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chris Reese, Richard Chang and Michael Perry) (Adds dropped word 'show' in first paragraph) By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) -World Trade Organization members are seeking to break years of paralysis in international trade negotiations, which have been sidelined by the Trump administration and risk becoming irrelevant, internal WTO documents seen by Reuters show. Trump's sweeping tariffs have forced countries to line up to negotiate bilateral trade deals with Washington, bypassing the multilateral framework. WTO members had already struggled to reach deals due to a consensus requirement among all 166 members. Preventing members from blocking decisions is now the top priority in reform talks, diplomats told Reuters. "The sense of urgency is palpable, and there is widespread recognition that there is no viable alternative to reform," Norway's WTO Ambassador Peter Olberg, who was appointed to facilitate the organization's reform talks, said in an internal communication to members seen by Reuters. The WTO's foundational Most Favored Nation (MFN) rule requires equal treatment among members but developing countries have privileges to help them compete. These include China and India, which Trump argues are now major economies with no need for extra support. One document showed WTO members are aiming to streamline decision-making processes, promote fairer industrial policies including subsidies, and review the privileges of developing countries. The proposals feed into reform consultations running through the latter part of this year that are intended to inform the next WTO ministerial conference in Cameroon in March. The latest round of consultations is taking place this week. Among the proposals is the so-called Pareto improvement, which a senior Chinese WTO delegate in Geneva said China had put forward. This measure would require members to provide clear, evidence-based proof of harm when blocking proposals. Other proposals include permitting members to opt out of decisions and allowing subsets of countries to advance negotiations without full consensus. "The post-war multilateral system as we know it is dead," Roberto Azevedo, WTO Director-General from 2013 to 2020, told Reuters, calling reform discussions a "do or die" situation for the WTO in particular. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala conveyed the U.S. position to members in a restricted document viewed by Reuters, that a "reform by doing" approach - of practical, incremental improvements in the organization's functioning - is "vacuous" and would fail to tackle the deeper structural issues. The U.S. said in its 2025 trade policy agenda that its patience is "wearing thin" and that key issues will not be resolved until China and other major economies - implying countries like India - relinquish their privileges. China said in June that it had heard "every word" of the U.S. concerns, expressing openness to discuss such privileges, as well as tariffs and industrial policy. India's WTO mission did not respond to a request for comment. Current reform talks do not address the dispute settlement system, which will be considered at a later date, according to one of the WTO documents. The WTO declined to comment on this article. Olberg did not have further comment when contacted by Reuters. (Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge; editing by Philippa Fletcher) In a photo on OnlyFans.com, a former model from Colombia smiles under a white visor as she sunbathes in South Florida. But the snapshot, taken poolside months ago, is far from her reality: She's locked up in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana. The cost of deportation defense can run into the thousands of dollars, and a growing number of immigrant families are resorting to online fundraising to make ends meet. A USA TODAY analysis of fundraising efforts of one of the nation's largest crowdsourcing sites, GoFundMe.com, found dozens of campaigns that have raised more than $1.8 million since President Donald Trump took office, the majority in the past two months. Public generosity to the fundraisers appears to be growing as the president's mass deportation campaign has intensified. Organizers raised $1.7 million in June and July on GoFundMe, compared with about $141,000 in April and May in step with ICE's expanding immigration enforcement. Before June, many of the fundraisers with the keyword "ICE" were campaigns related to ice hockey, ice cream and the ice bucket challenge, which raises money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients. GoFundMe declined to discuss the increase with USA TODAY or provide in-house data on immigration-related fundraisers. A spokeswoman said GoFundMe had internally verified 15 of the campaigns related to immigration detention tracked by USA TODAY, meaning both the organizers and beneficiaries have been vetted. OnlyFans.com didn't respond to a request for comment regarding immigration detention-related accounts. The Colombian woman's page explicitly centers on her ICE detention, playing on the "before" and "after" of her circumstances. USA TODAY spoke with her by video call to the ICE facility where she is detained and, separately, with her husband by cell phone. They requested anonymity out of fear that their fundraising effort could impact her upcoming immigration bond hearing. In mid-July, her American-born husband was preparing to drive 14 hours overnight to surprise her at the Louisiana detention facility, where detained women are allowed one two-hour visit per week. In a video call with USA TODAY, she cradled the phone receiver in front of rows of gray bunks and women moving around in sweats. The cherry-red polish she had on her nails when she was arrested had nearly grown out. Pleas for money answered online To the Department of Homeland Security, detained immigrants are "criminal illegal aliens" to be removed. DHS touts immigrant arrests on its social media pages, with mugshots and candid photos of serious criminal offenders. In reality, the majority of those arrested are not hardened criminals, according to data analysis by immigration researcher Austin Kocher. Federal agents are staking out courthouses to arrest people pursuing legal immigration pathways; raiding farms, racetracks, construction sites and restaurants; and detaining people pulled over by local law enforcement for traffic violations. ICE has prioritized detention for anyone in the United States without lawful status, to include people who have applied to remain legally or who entered under programs that were legal during the Biden administration. Federal agents detain a man after his court hearing in immigration court at the Ted Weiss Federal Building on July 9, 2025 in New York City. We look forward to USA Today reporting on fundraising for American victims and our brave law enforcement who are facing a 830% increase in assaults against them, said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in an emailed statement. More: ICE agents hurt as assaults surge 700% amid aggressive enforcement One of the vetted GoFundMe organizers, 22-year-old Joanna Martinez, posted her family's story to GoFundMe.com in May after ICE detained her father. Jose Martinez crossed the border from Mexico nearly 30 years ago, without permission; he has no criminal record. He was on his way to put up drywall in Charlotte, North Carolina, she said, when ICE pulled him over. He spent a month in ICE detention; the $3,665 raised on the site helped post his $4,000 bail. But the family still faces thousands of dollars in legal expenses for his application for legal residency. "I still wake up in the middle of the night crying, worried," she said. "Will this happen again?" The Colombian woman is among those who face criminal charges. Though she came legally to the United States on a tourist visa and is pursuing legal residency through her spouse, according to their account, she was charged with driving under the influence in June and turned over to ICE. Still, the pleas for monetary assistance by her and others chronicle the financial emergencies of family members of missing caregivers and absent providers. The Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana, is operated by private contractor GEO Group. Some of the 94 GoFundMe campaigns launched since April have garnered donations in the double-digits; others are well into six-figure territory. A California mother of two whose youngest is still in high school has raised $6,721 in a week. A married Vermont homebuilder who co-owns a business has collected $36,975 since June 18. An Oregon vineyard manager whose expertise in grape-growing is renowned: $150,804 since June 14. In his blurb, Bryant Magana described the "most painful and confusing time" of his life, after his Mexican wife Yocari was detained during her interview for a green card. "What seemed like a very important and exciting day for both of us, because we were so close to obtaining my wife's legal status, turned into one of our worst nightmares when she was detained by ICE," he said in a campaign that had raised $3,643 as of July 14. Luma Mufleh, chief executive of Kentucky-based Fugees Family, said she hesitated before hitting "send" on a campaign to raise funds for a Bowling Green student who, despite having lawful status, was detained by ICE shortly after his high school graduation. The nonprofit assists student refugees. "I wasnt sure people would support it," she said. "Were raising money in a community that went 60% for Trump. I didnt want the backlash." But the opposite happened: "Within 48 hours, we raised $20,000, the bulk of that was from small donors," she said, and the student was released from ICE detention after more than two weeks. Falling in love, hoping to stay The Colombian woman met her husband when he was in a relationship and visiting her country. His parents were raised there and his grandmother is still a resident. The two kept in touch and years later, by then both divorced, they reconnected when she traveled on a tourist visa to South Florida. "One thing led to another and now we're married," he told USA TODAY. This is what freedom looked like before I was detained and locked up. Flowing river, silent nature, peace....freedom pic.twitter.com/OtBaCrlslX Blonde on Bond (@BlondeOnBond) July 6, 2025 "She is beautiful. She likes to look at everything on the bright side. She has a strong belief in God and spirituality. She brought me a lot of peace with that sort of mentality and that sort of attitude," he said. Marrying her "was an easy choice," he said. Deciding to upload scantily clad and nude photos and videos they took as part of their own intimacy was harder. Her OnlyFans handle, @BlondeOnBond, features photos of a voluptuous woman in a skimpy bikini and the tagline: "The Blonde that Shouldn't Get Deported." It has generated a handful of subscriptions, he said. But it hasn't yet drawn in what many of the GoFundMe campaigns have. "Ive been hesitant about it because I dont know where its going to lead, but Im trying to do anything to come up with the money," he said. Driving for Uber full time was enough for daily expenses, but not for the rapidly escalating cost of legal immigration defense. He estimates he has already spent $15,000, including the cost of her legal residency petition and attorneys to defend her from deportation. "Sometimes I am filled with faith and I think everything is going to turn out OK," the woman told USA TODAY in the video call. But then other times I lose heart." In a photo posted to her accounts, she sits at the edge of a rushing river in a green two-piece bathing suit. The picture is meant to be sexy, but her words are wistful: "This is what freedom looked like before I was detained and locked up." Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE detainees turn to GoFundMe, OnlyFans to cover legal fees A man in Utah died in a reservoir over the weekend after police said he saved a 12-year-old girl who was drifting from the shore on top of an inflatable tube. The Utah County Sheriffs Office said Daniel Braga Figueiredo, 31, borrowed a paddleboard and entered the Silver Lake Flat Reservoir at around 7 p.m. local time on Saturday, July 12. According to police, Figueiredo entered the reservoir after seeing the girl, whom he was related to, drifting away from the shore. Witnesses said that when Figueiredo reached the girl, he fell into the water as he tried to relocate her onto the paddleboard. Other witnesses went out onto the Reservoir to assist the 2 that were now both in the water, police said. The last thing witnesses saw was Figueiredo lifting the girl out of the water and onto an inflatable device, saving her, before disappearing under the water, according to police. After reports of the incident were called in, Figueiredos body was found and recovered from the reservoir at around 9:30 p.m. local time. We would like to again offer our condolences to the family, police said. What is the Silver Lake Flat Reservoir? According to the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the area, the Silver Lake Flat Reservoir is located inside the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest, about 40 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. Visitors to the area usually perform outdoor activities like kayaking, fishing, camping and hiking on surrounding trails, the service said. Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paddleboarder dies saving girl at Utah's Silver Lake Flat Reservoir Pennsylvania State Police have released new information concerning the death of Dan Rivera, a paranormal investigator known for leading nationwide tours with the allegedly haunted doll, Annabelle. In a report shared on Wednesday, July 16, via X by Trooper Megan Frazer, officers wrote that Rivera was found in his hotel room by his coworkers on Sunday, July 13, in the Gettysburg area, located in central Pennsylvania. He and the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) were in the area as part of the organization's ongoing "Devils on the Run Tour," which featured the Annabelle doll. Police said in the report that "nothing unusual or suspicious" was observed in Rivera's hotel room at the time of his death. The case is pending autopsy results, according to the law enforcement agency. In a statement emailed to USA TODAY late Tuesday, July 15, NESPR said it is "devastated" by Rivera's death, which it called a "profound loss." "Dan was not only a vital part of our team for over a decade, but also a deeply compassionate, loyal, and dedicated friend," the statement reads. Pictured is Dan Rivera, a 54-year-old paranormal investigator who died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on on Sunday, July 13, 2025. Who was Dan Rivera? A U.S. Army veteran, Rivera "served both his country and the people around him," according to NESPR's statement. "His integrity, creativity, and generosity defined him," the statement continues. "Dans passion for the paranormal was rooted in a genuine desire to educate, help, and connect with others whether through social media, conventions, or investigations with local families seeking understanding and peace." With famed paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren as his mentor, Rivera would become a "constant presence" at local events, such as An Evening with Annabelle, NESPR said. As Warren's health declined, Rivera "remained by her side" and offered a "steady hand and unwavering support" before she died at the age of 92 in 2019. "Dans strong faith was a guiding light in his life," NESPR's statement reads. "He never wavered in his belief in God and often spoke about the spiritual side of the work we do. We find comfort in knowing that he is now at peace, reunited with loved ones who have gone before him." NESPR also referred to Rivera as a "father, devoted husband, and loyal friend." Dan Rivera, Senior Lead Investigator of the New England Society for Paranormal Research, speaks to visitors before they view the original Annabelle doll, an infamous and supposedly haunted doll which inspired 'The Conjuring' film series, on display inside of the Soldiers Orphanage Homestead as part of the 'Devils on the Run' tour, Saturday, July 12, 2025, in Gettysburg Borough. What is Annabelle? Although made popular by the 2013 film "The Conjuring," Annabelle's origins date back to the 1970s when a mom gave her daughter, Donna, a 28-year-old nursing student, the doll she'd bought from a hobby store, according to the NESPR. When the doll was in Donna's possession, she and her roommate, Angie, purportedly noticed weird paranormal activity occurring around the apartment, which began to escalate. The legend behind the doll suggests that paranormal activity worsened, and that Annabelle was possessed by something "demonic and inhuman," NESPR said. The doll was eventually handed over to Ed and Lorraine Warren, who became famous for collecting paranormal objects and artifacts. Annabelle was subsequently put on display in the Warren's occult museum, which was in Monroe, Connecticut. The original Annabelle doll, an infamous and supposedly haunted doll which inspired 'The Conjuring' film series, is seen on display inside of the Soldiers Orphanage Homestead as part of the 'Devils on the Run' tour, Saturday, July 12, 2025, in Gettysburg Borough. Are the Annabelle tours ending? No, the Annabelle tours are not ending, with NESPR and the doll scheduled to visit Rock Island, Illinois, in October, according to the Shreveport Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. In NESPR's statement, the organization said, "As we navigate the days ahead, we want to share that although we do not know what the future of NESPR will look like without Dan, we do plan to move forward with the events previously scheduled for this year." "We believe with all our hearts that Dan would have wanted the work to continuebringing people together, sharing knowledge, and honoring the memory of Ed & Lorraine Warren. We will carry his spirit with us in everything we do," the statement continued. Jonathan Limehouse covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at JLimehouse@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Police give update on death of Dan Rivera, handler of Annabelle doll An Alabama preacher who police said left a 5-year-old unattended while he drank at a bar into the early morning hours is facing a criminal charge in connection to the weekend incident. John Gibson was charged with endangering the welfare of a child after police found the child inside Gibson's SUV, Dothan Police Department Lt. Scott Owens told USA TODAY on Wednesday, July 16. According to Owens, the department's public information officer, Gibson left a 5-year-old family member in his SUV while he drank at a bar in the 2800 block of Ross Clark Circle in Dothan from Saturday, July 12, into the early morning hours of Sunday, July 13. The city of Dothan is in Houston County in southeast Alabama near the Georgia and Florida state lines. 'His faith became sight': Megachurch pastor John MacArthur dies 'He was pretty highly intoxicated' A concerned patron alerted police that a child was in a vehicle unattended," Owens said. "When officers arrived, people directed them to a parking lot where they found the vehicle with the child inside unattended and ID'd Gibson as the owner of vehicle and the child's family member. USA TODAY is not releasing how the child is related to Gibson to protect their identity. It was not immediately known how long the child had been in the vehicle when the officer arrived on the scene, but police said the child was unharmed. "He was pretty highly intoxicated," Owen said recalling when police first interacted with the suspect. The Alabama Department of Human Resources, WTVY-TY, reported, "took the child into their care" until other family members arrived. Human skin? A teddy bear appeared to be wrapped in human flesh. Turns out it was a prank. 'It's just an overall unsafe issue' At the time of the crime, temperatures were in the low 80s, according to weather forecasters. "Regardless of the temperature, someone could have come and kidnapped the child or the child could have had a medical emergency," Owens said. "It's just an overall unsafe issue to leave a child in the car (alone). Police confirmed Gibson was a pastor at First Baptist Church of Dothan at the time of his arrest. A Dothan Police Department patrol vehicle at a scene. First Baptist Church of Dothan statement on pastor's arrest In a statement released to the outlet, the church said it "parted ways with its associate pastor to families following his arrest." This incident occurred on the staff members personal time and in no way involved any of the students or children who participate in our student ministry, the church wrote in the statement. USA TODAY has reached out to First Baptist Church of Dothan. Pastor who drank in bar while child sat in SUV free on bond Officers booked Gibson into the jail on July 13, Owens said. As of July 16, he was free on $500 bond, according to Owen and information from Houston County Sheriff's Office jail records. Owen could not immediately be reached for comment and it was not known whether he had obtained a defense attorney in the case. Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund. This story was updated to add a video. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Preacher leaves 5-year-old alone in car to drink in bar, police say Prince Harry and King Charles private aides reportedly held a secret "peace summit" in an effort to restore the broken relationship between father and son. However, several royal experts insisted to Fox News Digital there's one senior royal who will likely never forgive or forget. "The important issue is that Prince William and his representatives were not invited," royal expert Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital. "I feel that this was a warning shot across Williams bows that Charles is king not him. It may also be a stark warning that Charles will decide what happens during his reign, not William." According to the Mail on Sunday, Meredith Maines, the Duke of Sussexs chief of staff and communications director, flew from California to London recently to meet with the kings communications secretary, Tobyn Andreae. Liam Maguire, who oversees U.K. press for Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, was also present. King Charles, Prince Harrys Painful Feud Damaging Monarchs Reign As Gutted Son Remains Furious: Expert Prince William, Prince of Wales, reacts before a UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Group D match between England and the Netherlands at Stadion Letzigrund July 9, 2025, in Zurich, Switzerland. The informal meeting was reportedly held at the Royal Over-Seas League, a private club located a short walk from Clarence House, the kings London residence. Fox News Digital reached out to Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace and Archewell, which handles the offices of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for comment. Read On The Fox News App Prince Harry and his family have been living in the wealthy, coastal city of Montecito, Calif., since 2022. "It is a sign from King Charles that he wants peace with Harry and Meghan and to meet his grandchildren," Turner claimed. King Charles III listens during a Youth Opportunity Summit at St James's Palace on July 15, 2025, in London. The king was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in 2024. Fox News Digital learned that Maines was in London to meet with the U.K.-based communications team, media, stakeholders and senior figures connected to Harrys patronages. Its understood that the visit was routine and part of ongoing planning and engagement. A source told the Mail Sunday that the meeting was only the "first step towards reconciliation between Harry and his father, but at least it is a step in the right direction." WATCH: PRINCE HARRY, PRINCE WILLIAM NEED AN INTERVENTION TO END FEUD: EXPERT "Everyone just wants to move on and move forward now. It was finally the right time for the two sides to talk," the source added. Prince Harry, right, told the BBC he's ready to reconcile with his family. Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams claimed to Fox News Digital that William, heir to the British throne, likely knew of the meeting but chose not to get his aides involved. Experts previously told Fox News Digital William and Harry are not on speaking terms. "The king is still battling cancer and is in his late 70s," said Fitzwilliams. "He wants a relationship with his grandchildren, whom he has hardly met. He is also temperamentally more accommodating than William. But [William] cannot trust the Sussexes. They must know it. The prospect of seeing the Sussexes at royal events would enrage the monarchys loyal supporters. Of course, reconciliation is desirable [for the king]. It would, however, come at a price." The Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave an explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey in 2021. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals and moved to California in 2020, citing unbearable intrusions of the British press and a lack of support from the palace. After their exit, the couple aired grievances in interviews, documentaries and in Harrys 2023 memoir, "Spare." Prince Harry's memoir was published in 2023. In his book, Harry, 40, appears to be tormented by his status as a royal "spare" behind William, 43. He recounts a long-standing sibling rivalry that worsened after Harry began a relationship with Meghan, 43, whom he married in 2018. "From a positive private family stance, some personal healing between father and son would be good," British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital. "King Charles will always love his son, and, in light of the king's ongoing cancer treatment, it could help tidy up the messy fractured relationship. Click Here To Sign Up For The Entertainment Newsletter Royal experts claimed King Charles III wants a relationship with his grandchildren. "King Charles is living with cancer, which makes his family situation very sad," Chard noted. "I'm sure he is thinking about his mortality and reevaluating his life. He would not want a family feud tarnishing his positive contributions and memory. I'm sure he will also want to clear up unresolved issues or surprises that could lead to further resentment and conflict between his two sons. King Charles III ascended to the throne in 2022. Prince William, his elder son, is heir to the throne. "Life is too short for battles," Chard continued. "However, without Prince Williams inclusion in the rapprochement, I cant see a positive outcome. It could also cause a wedge between Charles and William despite the king most certainly consulting with William." But not everyone feels that way. Prince William has been supporting his father, King Charles, who is battling cancer. "It was a good first step," an insider told People magazine. "Theres optimism that it can be taken forward." The Duke and Duchess of Sussex stepped back as senior royals in 2020. According to the outlet, its not known whether Harry and Charles, 76, have spoken recently. In May, Harry told the BBC he wanted reconciliation but that his father wouldnt speak to him. Sources previously told People the king wouldnt respond to Harrys letters or phone calls. "I would love reconciliation with my family," said Harry. "Theres no point in continuing to fight anymore." Like What Youre Reading? Click Here For More Entertainment News Prince Harry claimed his father wouldn't speak to him. But British royals expert Hilary Fordwich said she wasnt buying the so-called peace summit. Prince Harry and Prince William are reportedy not on speaking terms. "My instincts say that Harry is desperate," Fordwich claimed. "And King Charles loves his son and wants to have a restored relationship. However, this tentative step in any fragile peace process was marred by the leak of the meetings details and photos. How on Earth was the media there?. Both sides [have] expressed frustration regarding how such a leak jeopardizes the process, with now suspicions and distrust being resurrected. "Prince William is likely viewing this leak as being true to form for the Sussexes," Fordwich claimed. "It further reinforces his stance that any reconciliation or indeed dialogue with the Sussexes will become public." Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, is originally from California. She was an American actress before she married Prince Harry in 2018. Chard also wondered how the details of what was supposed to be a private meeting became public so quickly. The Prince and Princess of Wales, along with two of their children, at the Royal Box during the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club at Wimbledon July 13, 2025, in London. "The trust line seems to have been overstepped yet again," Chard claimed. "The story broke as the Prince and Princess of Wales received glowing media attention at Wimbledon. This was promptly overshadowed by the leaked reconciliation story. The PR machine is seemingly in full play. It wouldnt surprise me if everything was filmed and will soon be featured in a new Netflix show. "But wouldnt it be great if a fairytale reconciliation was in the cards or even a diplomatic agreement to disagree and move on?" Royal experts don't believe a reconciliation between the battling brothers will happen anytime soon. Fitzwilliams previously told Fox News Digital William and Harry, once seemingly inseparable siblings, have "less in common than we imagined." Prince William and Prince Harry at the funeral of their grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, at Westminster Abbey, in 2022. "Spare made this pretty clear," said Fitzwilliams. "Harry resented the way he was treated as a bit of a joker and the royal wild child. He was also traumatized by the death of his mother, and resentment about security issues stems directly from this. This was very clear in his angry interview recently on the BBC. "William undoubtedly and rightly feels betrayed by Harry as [the interviews and memoir] were so damaging. At the heart of this is the fact that he feels he cannot trust his brother or Meghan ever again." Original article source: Prince William's absence at King Charles and Prince Harry's 'peace summit' could be a 'warning shot': expert Getty A photo showing National Hot dog day. NEED TO KNOW National Hot Dog Day is on Wednesday, July 16 and several fast food restaurants and convenience stores are celebrating with deals and freebies Most deals require a reward membership with the corresponding food chain in order to get a free or discounted hot dog Rutter's is even dropping six new hot dog menu items including a BLT Dog, Fried Pickle Dog and Reuben Dog, Cheese Dog, Cuban Dog and Spicy Slaw Sausage dog National Hot Dog Day is here and so are the deals! Several fast food restaurants and convenience stores are celebrating on Wednesday, July 16 by giving out free or discounted hot dogs, with some deals even lasting throughout the week and the month. Dog Haus is offering customers part of its reward membership a free hot dog on July 16, and the deals continue throughout the rest of the month. Customers can also cash in on a buy one, get one hot dog from July 17-31. Convenience stores are also cashing in on the hot dog deals, with Kangaroo Express offering a free Ball Park hot dog to members of the military and the same hot dog for regular customers at a discounted price of fifty cents, according to the Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC). Laura Proctor/Bloomberg via Getty A Circle K convenience store in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Several other convenience stores like EG America, Loves, Sheetz, Rutters and 7-Eleven are also offering discounted hot dogs to celebrate the holiday throughout the week and in some cases for longer. However a membership card may be needed in order to obtain the discounts. For example, 7-Eleven rewards members can get hot dogs for $2 as part of the brands Slurpee $1 Days program until July 22. On July 16, Circle K is also offering customers two roller grill hot dogs for $1 through the Circle K app, per the Hot Dog and Sausage Council. Convenience stores arent the only ones offering discounted hot dogs. Sonic Drive-In is offering $1 Corn Dog, $2 All-American Dog, and a $3 Footlong Quarter Pound Coney every week through July. Though customers can only pick this up once a week, they will be able to do so even after National Hot Dog day is up. At Portillo's, customers can get a regular sized hot dog for $1 with a $5 purchase of other items including a sandwich, entree salad, entree pasta or ribs for perks members. Wienerschnitzel is also allowing customers to get a hot dog for 99 cents with a coupon or five chili dogs for $5 at participating locations. Eric Thayer/Getty Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Its not just deals that people can look forward to, but some new menu items at some places. Pennsylvania-based Rutters in particular, is dropping six new hot dogs to their summer menu for a limited time to celebrate National Hot Dog day, per NACS. These include the BLT Dog, Fried Pickle Dog and Reuben Dog, Cheese Dog, Cuban Dog and Spicy Slaw Sausage. Each adds a special twist to the classic hot dog, with their names hinting at the changes. The Fried Pickle Dog exchanges a regular hot dog for a zesty and crunchy fried pickle spear along with banana yellow peppers, mustard and fresh tomatoes, while a Reuben Dog features savory corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing. Read the original article on People Russia has rejected President Trump's "ultimatum" for Moscow to sign a ceasefire deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days on Tuesday as "unacceptable," calling for continued negotiations and insisting that the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin would continue until its goals are achieved. In response to President Trump's threat to impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if Putin's government does not agree to a deal to end the war in that timeframe, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Tuesday that "any attempts to make demands, especially ultimatums, are unacceptable to us," according to Russia's state-run TASS news agency. "We need to focus on political and diplomatic work. The President of the Russian Federation has repeatedly said that we are ready to negotiate and the diplomatic path is preferable for us," Ryabkov was quoted as saying. "If we cannot achieve our goals through diplomacy, then the SVO (war in Ukraine) will continue This is an unshakable position. We would like Washington and NATO as a whole to take it with the utmost seriousness." Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov separately called Mr. Trump's announcement "quite serious." "Some of it is addressed personally to (Russian) President Putin. We definitely need time to analyze what was said in Washington," Peskov said during his daily briefing on Tuesday. "If and when President Putin deems it necessary, he will definitely comment on it. I would not want to get ahead of ourselves, so let's wait for Putin's decision on whether he will comment on it himself." Russia's former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is close to the Kremlin, called Mr. Trump's remarks "a theatrical ultimatum" in a post on social media, adding that "Russia didn't care." On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said "at the end of 50 days, if we don't have a deal, too bad." Mr. Trump said at that point, "the tariffs are going to go, and other sanctions" but he added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "shouldn't target" Moscow. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House on July 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. / Credit: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Speaking Monday in the Oval Office alongside visiting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Mr. Trump said: "We are very unhappy, I am, with Russia." He also announced a deal for the U.S. to sell additional weapons to its NATO allies, with the understanding that they will then send the weapons to Ukraine. "We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for it," Mr. Trump said. "This is really big," Rutte said. "And the decision is that you want Ukraine [to have] what it needs to have to maintain, to be able to defend itself against Russia, but you want Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical." Mr. Trump again expressed his frustration with Putin, whom he recently called "absolutely crazy" for ordering strikes on civilian areas in Ukraine. On Monday, Mr. Trump suggested the Russian autocrat had a habit of saying one thing and then doing another. "I always hang up, say, 'Well, that was a nice phone call.' And then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city and I say, 'That's strange.'" Mr. Trump said. "After that happens three or four times, you say, the talk doesn't mean anything." When asked in an interview with CBS News partner BBC News if he was done trying to deal with the Russian leader, Mr. Trump said: "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him." In a social media post on Monday, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with Mr. Trump and thanked his American counterpart, "for the willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with the President Trump in Vatican City, Vatican, April 26, 2025. / Credit: Ukrainian Presidency/Anadolu/Getty "It's important that we have such a good relationship, and that the Alliance countries are working to increase defense spending," Zelenskyy said, adding that he and Mr. Trump had made plans to speak again. "We agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future as well," he said. "Thank you, Mr. President! Thank you, America!" Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The attack, involving tens of thousands of uniformed soldiers and barrages of missiles, came after Russia unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula after backing separatist forces in the region. While Russia has maintained control over Crimea and installed its own administration there along with a huge swathe of eastern Ukraine seized over the last three years its dominion over those regions is not recognized by the U.S., the United Nations, or the majority of the international community. One of Putin's key demands for a ceasefire in the ongoing war is that Ukraine, and its international backers, should recognize Russian ownership of at least some of that occupied territory. Trump pushes senators to make $9.4 trillion in spending cuts L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says National Guard deployment in city was "a misuse" of soldiers Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Seemingly unfazed by President Donald Trump's 50-day ultimatum to end the fighting, Russia launched hundreds of drones and missile strikes on six Ukrainian regions overnight, officials in the country said. A child was among at least two people killed and 25 people were injured in the strikes in northern, central and southern Ukraine, according to a statement on Telegram from the Ukrainian air force and data collated by regional military administrations. The large-scale, long-range attacks targeted energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. Power was cut for 80,000 families in his hometown of Kryvyi Rih and other locations in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK said on the Telegram app. Firefighters tackle a blaze after a Russian strike in the Vinnytsya region of Ukraine on Wednesday. (Ukrainian State Emergency Service / AFP - Getty Images) The attacks came hours after Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart not to target Moscow. It followed a report by the Financial Times citing two people familiar with the conversation that he had encouraged Zelenskyy to step up attacks deep inside Russia. NBC News has not independently confirmed the Financial Times reporting, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later said that Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. Trump, who has previously lavished praise on Vladimir Putin while scorning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Monday gave the Russian president 50 days to agree to a peace deal. During a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House, he also said that he would slap 100% tariffs on any country that buys Russian goods. At the same time, he said, the United States would sell top-of-the-line weapons including Patriot air defense missiles, to NATO allies including the much-demanded Patriot missiles so that they can be used in Ukraine. On Wednesday, Trump said that some of the vaunted missile systems had been shipped to Ukraine. Theyre coming in from Germany, he said, adding that NATO members would pay us back for everything. However, the 50-day window has been criticized by some European officials and experts, who have asked why Trump is giving additional time to Putin, who has repeatedly stated his desire to subjugate Ukraine. And there was no letup in Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight as it bombarded several cities with around 400 drones and an Iskander ballistic missile, Ukraines air force said. Russia does not change its strategy, Zelenskyy said Wednesday in a post on Telegram, a day after a strike in his hometown in central Ukraine. In order to effectively counteract this terror, we need a systematic strengthening of protection: more aircraft, more interceptors, more determination to make Russia feel our answer. A Ukrainian man gathers the remnants of missiles that fell in the courtyard of his house in the Kharkiv region Tuesday. (Ivan Samoilov / AFP - Getty Images) Kremlin officials largely shrugged off Trump's call to reach a ceasefire agreement in 50 days, and on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that Washington was hardly providing weapons to Ukraine if the European Union was paying for it. If you promise to provide weapons, but say that someone else will pay for them, it is not you who actually provided them, right? she told reporters. Smoke and flame rises following the Russian drone attack on the Vinnytsia region of Ukraine on July 16, 2025. Some of drones struck facilities of civilian industrial infrastructure. At least eight people were injured. - Vinnytsia Military Admin/Anadolu/Getty Images Moscow barreled hundreds of drones toward four key regions in Ukraine overnight, just as lawmakers in Kyiv scrambled to approve additional defense spending against the backdrop of intensified Russian attacks over the past few days. The Kremlin unleashed 400 long-range drones and one missile late Tuesday, according to Ukraines Air Force in what marked largest onslaught so far this week. Kyivs forces intercepted or disabled at least 345 of those drones. Russias strikes pelted multiple cities late Tuesday including parts of the Odesa region, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Ukrainian troops have struggled to contend with one of the fiercest escalations by Russian forces since the full-scale 2022 invasion, with lawmakers in Kyiv supporting an initial amendment to boost army and defense spending. At the same time, Zelensky enacted a seismic cabinet reshuffle on Monday after the US announced a fresh package of weaponry for the war-ravaged country. Most massive attack Kryvyi Rih, in central Ukraine, faced the most massive attack since the beginning of the war, said the head of the citys military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, adding that it involved a ballistic missile and 28 drones. The onslaught sparked several fires and left parts of the city without electricity and water, he added. Zelensky said Russia had targeted energy infrastructure in the city and that 15 people had been wounded there. Russia is not changing its strategy and to counter this terror effectively, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination, Zelensky said in a post on X. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of the eastern city of Kharkiv, said his city was struck 16 times in just 14 minutes during the assault. In Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, eight people were injured and two infrastructure facilities caught fire during attacks. Zelensky said response efforts are still underway in some of the regions targeted overnight. Three deaths were recorded in Ukraine one from shelling in the Sumy region and two in Kharkiv over the previous 24 hours, with 38 people wounded, according to officials. Russia continued its attacks into Wednesday with Ukrainian officials reporting that at least two people were killed and 27 injured in a strike on a shopping center in Dobropillya. The damage included 54 retail outlets, 304 apartments, and eight cars, Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraines eastern Donetsk region, said Wednesday on Telegram. Members of parliament voted to spend an additional 400 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($9.6 million) on security forces, according to the former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Separately, politicians also approved increased funding for defense equipment and machinery. US changes tack Russias latest large-scale wave of attacks on Ukraine comes days after a policy shift from the US administration, and as President Donald Trump grows increasingly frustrated with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Trump announced on Monday that Ukraine will receive Patriot missile systems via NATO as part of a new package of US weaponry, and threatened secondary tariffs on other countries that buy Russian oil, signaling an economically punitive stance towards Moscow. Moscow is monitoring those Western long-range missile deliveries very closely, according to Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov. He had warned earlier that Trumps threat of sanctions was very serious, claiming that the US president addressed his Russian counterpart personally in his announcement. Asked about the decision of US President Donald Trump to sell NATO weapons for further shipment to Ukraine, Peskov said: This is business. There were deliveries before. No one stopped them. Its just a question of who pays for them. Now, some Europeans will pay for them. Just on Tuesday, he warned that such decisions, which are made in Washington, and in NATO countries, and directly in Brussels, are perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to continue the conflict. Smoke and orange flames rise after a Russian drone attack on civilian infrastructure in the Vinnytsia region of Ukraine on Wednesday, as Moscow launched one of the most ferocious assaults this week. - Vinnytsia Military Admin/Anadolu/Getty Images Once complimentary of Putin, Trump appeared angry that his overtures on ending the war have been mostly ignored in Moscow. My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night, Trump said, even as he denied falling into a trap set for his predecessors: He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden he didnt fool me. Meanwhile, a number of European foreign ministers welcomed Trumps Monday announcement. In order to have peace, we need to support Ukraine, and we need to put the pressure on Russia, Kaja Kallas, the EUs foreign affairs chief, said as she arrived at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. I also hope that Americans will move also with their sanctions package or tariffs, so that pressure is on Russia to really stop this war, Kallas added. This story has been updated with additional developments. CNNs Kevin Liptak, James Frater, Anna Chernova and Catherine Nicholls contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Washington The Senate kicked off another lengthy vote series Wednesday afternoon as Congress works to deliver on President Trump's request to rescind $9 billion in spending by Friday. The "vote-a-rama" continued into the overnight hours. The Senate narrowly advanced the request late Tuesday. Three Republicans opposed the package and Vice President JD Vance had to cast the two tie-breaking votes to move it forward. The House approved the original $9.4 billion rescissions request last month, but it has faced pushback in the Senate, where some Republicans have opposed slashing foreign aid and public broadcasting funding. Both chambers need to approve the request before it expires at the end of the week, or the funds will have to be spent as lawmakers previously intended. The Senate's decision to consider amendments to the package means the House will need to approve the final Senate version. The rescissions request targets roughly $8 billion for foreign assistance programs, including the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID. The package also includes about $1 billion in cuts for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public radio and television stations, including NPR and PBS. Senate Republicans met with Mr. Trump's budget director, Russell Vought, on Tuesday as GOP leaders worked to get holdouts on board ahead of the procedural votes later in the day. Vought left the meeting saying there would be a substitute amendment that would eliminate $400 million in cuts to an AIDS prevention program, one of the main concerns of Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said he hoped the House would accept the "small modification." When asked about the $400 million change, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters, "we wanted them to pass it unaltered like we did." "We need to claw back funding, and we'll do as much as we're able," Johnson added. But the change did not satisfy Collins, who voted against advancing the package. Collins was joined by two other Republicans senators: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The holdouts said the administration's request lacks details about how the cuts will be implemented. "To carry out our Constitutional responsibility, we should know exactly what programs are affected and the consequences of rescissions," Collins said in a statement Tuesday. In a floor speech ahead of the procedural votes, Murkowski also said Congress should not give up its budget oversight. "I don't want us to go from one reconciliation bill to a rescissions package to another rescissions package to a reconciliation package to a continuing resolution," she said. "We're lawmakers. We should be legislating. What we're getting now is a direction from the White House and being told, 'This is the priority, we want you to execute on it, we'll be back with you with another round.' I don't accept that." Cuts to local radio and television stations, especially in rural areas where they are critical for communicating emergency messages, was another point of contention in the Senate. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who had concerns about the cuts, said funding would be reallocated from climate funds to keep stations in tribal areas operating "without interruption." Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would vote for the package, but expected that Congress would later have to try to fix some of the cuts once they determine the impacts. "I suspect we're going to find out there are some things that we're going to regret," he said Wednesday on the Senate floor. "I suspect that when we do we'll have to come back and fix it, similar to what I'm trying to do with the bill I voted against a couple of weeks ago the so-called big, beautiful bill, that I think we're going to have to go back and work on." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska Paul Archuleta/Getty Sophia Hutchins NEED TO KNOW Sophia Hutchins, the close friend and manager of Caitlyn Jenner, died on July 2 following an ATV accident A death certificate obtained by PEOPLE on July 15 indicates that Hutchins will be laid to rest in Los Angeles on July 24 Her cause of death has been deferred as officials continue their investigation Sophia Hutchins will soon be laid to rest, but her cause of death has been deferred. Nearly two weeks after her death, PEOPLE has obtained a death certificate from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health, indicating that Hutchins, a close friend and manager to Caitlyn Jenner, will be laid to rest at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Los Angeles on July 24. However, Hutchins' cause of death has been deferred and the investigation is ongoing. Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic Sophia Hutchins in February 2020 The update comes shortly after Hutchins died in an ATV accident. She was 29. Hutchins who served as CEO and director of the Caitlyn Jenner Foundation was pronounced dead on the morning of Wednesday, July 2, in Malibu, Calif., TMZ reported at the time. She was driving an ATV down a road near Jenner's Malibu home when she crashed into the bumper of a moving vehicle carrying two passengers, the outlet reported. The ATV was forced over the shoulder and fell 350 feet down into a ravine. Mike Coppola/Getty From left: Sophia Hutchins and Caitlyn Jenner attends the 28th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party sponsored by IMDb, Neuro Drinks and Walmart on February 9, 2020 in West Hollywood, California. Sergeant Eduardo Saucedo of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department shared additional details about the incident in an interview with the Daily Mail. Saucedo, who is based at the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station, told the outlet that Hutchins is believed to have been traveling at a rapid speed on Decker Canyon Road, near Jenner's Malibu home, in a 2013 Polaris when she hit a gray 2016 Mazda 6. "It looks like she may have been speeding and rear-ended the other car, the other party, and then that caused her to veer to the right and go off the cliff," Saucedo explained at the time. "It doesn't seem like she was following them. I think she just came up on them and then hit the car." Thomas Niedermueller/Life Ball 2018/Getty From left: Caitlyn Jenner and Sophia Hutchins attend the LIFE+ Solidarity Gala prior to the Life Ball at City Hall on June 2, 2018 in Vienna, Austria. The Life Ball, an annual charity event raising funds for HIV & AIDS projects, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year at Vienna's City Hall. The sergeant noted Hutchins attempted to maneuver around the Mazda which was being driven by a local realtor who was showing a house in the area but was simply traveling too fast. "So it looked like she tried to maneuver to go around it, but she was going too fast and just ended up clipping the rear end of that Mazda, causing her to veer off and go off the cliff there," he told the Daily Mail. The driver and passenger in the Mazda were uninjured, while Jenner, 75, was at the accident site when authorities were on the scene, Saucedo said. Following the accident, Saucedo told the outlet that a search and rescue team rappelled down the side of the cliff to recover Hutchins' body, and she was pronounced dead at the scene. The ATV was left at the bottom of the ravine because the tow company "didn't have a line that was long enough to attach it and pull it up." Hutchins who was the founder and CEO of health technology company LUMASOL and Jenner met in 2015 when the television personality announced her transition. They quickly bonded, with the Pepperdine University graduate later praising Jenner for pushing her to grow. Hutchins went on to appear in multiple episodes of Jenner's former E! reality series I Am Cait. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. We have so much in common; we see the world so similarly and we both are such a good match for each other because we challenge each other, the Washington native once said of their relationship in an interview with The Hidden Truth with Jim Breslo. She challenges me in so many ways, has allowed me to grow in so many ways and I hope I challenge her to grow and I think because we share so many of the same passions and views, its just a great match, a great partnership. Read the original article on People The man charged in the June 1 firebomb attack on a demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza waived his right to a preliminary hearing Tuesday as he appeared in state court. Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, faces dozens of charges that include murder and attempted murder. He is accused of targeting the group at a pedestrian mall, attacking them with Molotov cocktails and a makeshift flamethrower, according to a criminal complaint. He faces over 180 charges from the state of Colorado, increased from an initial 118 charges after the later death of one of the injured victims and identification of more victims. He also faces a federal hate crime charge. Wearing a striped orange-and-white jumpsuit, Soliman agreed to his defense lawyer's request for the waiver, which means the court will find probable cause for all the state charges. Public defender Kathryn Herold also indicated she would pursue a continuance at Soliman's arraignment, now set for Sept. 9. Prosecutors say 13 people were injured in the attack at a Boulder street mall. Karen Diamond, 82, died of her injuries on June 25, officials have said. The charges include two counts of first-degree murder, 52 counts of attempted murder, 10 counts of assault, 18 counts of attempted assault, two counts of using an incendiary device, 16 counts of attempted use of an incendiary device and one count of animal cruelty (prosecutors said a dog was injured in the attack). The most serious charge, first-degree murder, carries a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Soliman could also face a life sentence if he's convicted of the federal hate crime charge. USA TODAY has reached out to Soliman's defense attorney. Soliman is an Egyptian native who authorities said overstayed a tourist visa to the United States. In the wake of the attack, Trump administration officials detained and threatened to deport his wife and children. What happened in the Boulder firebomb attack? The attack happened the afternoon of June 1 at the Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder, authorities said. The group Run for Their Lives was holding a weekly demonstration advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants. Boulder attack suspect Mohamed Sabry Soliman poses for a jail booking photograph after his arrest in Boulder, Colorado, on June 2, 2025. Soliman threw two lit Molotov cocktails into the crowd while yelling, "Free Palestine," according to a federal criminal complaint. A Boulder police officer wrote in an arrest warrant that Soliman admitted to planning the attack for over a year and was waiting for his oldest daughter to graduate from high school, which she had days prior. Witnesses said he threw two Molotov cocktails and used a blow torch to set people on fire. Authorities said in the federal complaint that Soliman admitted to investigators that "he wanted to kill all Zionist people" and wanted to stop them from taking over "our land," referring to Palestine. Jewish woman died from injuries weeks after attack Diamond, a mother and grandmother, was among the group of demonstrators targeted in the attack, authorities said. She initially survived the assault but died more than three weeks later and was privately buried, according to authorities and members of her synagogue, Boulder's Bonai Shalom. A police officer patrols with a bomb-sniffing dog beside a makeshift memorial outside the Boulder Courthouse, days after an attack that injured multiple people on June 4, 2025. "This horrific attack has now claimed the life of an innocent person who was beloved by her family and friends," Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty said. After Diamond's death, prosecutors amended two of the charges against Soliman from attempted murder to first-degree murder. One of the counts alleges murder under an extreme indifference theory and the other murder with intent and after deliberation, prosecutors said. Contributing: Trevor Hughes This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Suspect in Boulder firebomb attack waives hearing; accused of murder Kerrville, Texas With about 100 people still missing after devastating floods, the Texas National Guard and local officials leading recovery efforts received additional international support this week when a specialized detachment from the Czech Republic arrived ready to help. Sixteen civilians and four cadaver dogs from a Czech search and rescue team landed Sunday in Texas on a U.S. military flight from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. National Guard Bureau Chief General Steve Nordhaus coordinated the team's arrival and met the team leads in person on Tuesday while he was visiting Kerrville, Texas, for updates on response efforts. "Thanks for being here, Texas and the Czech Republic were partners right from the beginning in 1993 and what just an amazing partnership," Nordhaus told the team leads at the Kerrville-Kerr County Airport. The Texas and Nebraska National Guard have since 1993 shared a military relationship with the Czech Republic as part of the National Guard Bureau's State Partnership Program that pairs states with countries to train together. Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Steven Nordhaus thanks members of the Czech search and recovery team. / Credit: Eleanor Watson There are over 100 partnerships with about 115 countries around the world, according to the National Guard, and the one with the Czech Republic was one of the first after the initiative began in 1991. The Czechs providing support in the wake of floods in Texas follows assistance the Texas National Guard gave last year when the Czech Republic experienced severe flooding. When a flood hit Ostrava in the Czech Republic in September 2024, a Texas Air National Guard unit training in Europe diverted an MQ-9 Reaper drone to Ostrava to provide aerial assessments for recovery efforts. In Texas, about 230 members of the Texas National Guard are currently supporting response efforts. According to the Texas National Guard, members of the guard rescued over 500 people in the initial 24 hours after the flooding began. About 360 of those were evacuated using UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. During a Black Hawk flight over the Guadalupe River Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pointed out to Nordhaus flood-impacted areas, explaining where the water rose at a terrifying speed prompting urgent evacuations and emphasizing how intensive the search will remain for the roughly 100 people still unaccounted for. Governor Greg Abbott thanks Captain Connor Garrison of the Texas National Guard. / Credit: CBS News After the flight, both Abbott and Nordhaus spoke to members of the Guard who have assisted in rescue and recovery efforts since the floods began on July 4. One of the air rescues came on July 4 when two Guard helicopters evacuated 130 children from Camp Mystic, a summer camp severely impacted by floods that led to the deaths of at least 27 campers and counselors. The 130 rescued the day of the flood by the guard were evacuated from Camp Mystic and taken to higher ground, according to Captain Connor Garrison, who led one of the aircraft and recounted the mission to Nordhaus and Abbott. "I appreciate you, I couldn't be prouder," Abbott told Garrison and other members of the Guard. The Texas National Guard is receiving support from other states like Arkansas, Arizona and North Dakota, which are providing additional personnel or equipment. For instance, North Dakota has sent down one of its own MQ-9 Reaper drones to help survey debris scattered along the still swollen Guadalupe River. Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska USA TODAY and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change. If you're dreaming of escaping to a gorgeous island with beaches and sunshine, you're not alone. Global interest by travelers for island vacations are up on average by 30% this year, according to Expedia's first-ever Island Hot List 2025. The list, which was released Tuesday, ranks the world's best islands to vacation at based on Expedia data and traveler reviews, plus weighing factors like accessibility, safety, sustainability and weather. "Powered by real traveler data, the Expedia Island Hot List gives travelers the inspiration they need to plan a smarter island escape, Melanie Fish, head of Expedia Group brands public relations, said in a news release. Island adventurers want standout stays, affordable prices and seamless flight access." Travelers can find deals for their tropical vacation by visiting during the shoulder season, with the chance to save up to 50% on average for accommodations. A visit to Sardinia in September is 35% cheaper than in August, according to a travel platform. Here are the top 10 islands, according to Expedia. No passport, no problem: 5 US towns that feel like Europe Best for year-round sunshine: Aruba Aerial view of Arashi Beach at sunset in Aruba. Aruba's reputation as one of the sunniest destinations in the Caribbean makes it the perfect choice for travelers seeking to maximize their beach time during their trip. It doesn't hurt that its Eagle Beach, renowned for its soft sand and turquoise waters, has consistently ranked on Tripadvisor's annual best beaches. Best time to visit: September Best for relaxation: Bali, Indonesia A traveler enjoying the beauty of Bali. Yogis and surfers have long been going to Bali, known for being a deeply rooted spiritual place with stunning natural beauty, so it makes sense that the Indonesian island was named the best for relaxation by Expedia. Best time to visit: September Best for adventure: Dominican Republic People riding horses on the beach of Rincon near Las Galeras on Dominican Republic Yes, there are beautiful beaches in the Dominican Republic, but the Caribbean island is also an ideal destination for travelers looking to partake in water sports, hikes, ATVs, ziplines and more. With its many all-inclusive properties, travelers can also make the most of their budget. Best time to visit: April Best for community: Fiji People enjoying the beach in Fiji at sunset. Fiji is one of those bucket list destinations, offering travelers a balance of adventure and relaxation, with surfing, diving and pristine beaches to enjoy. The island country is working toward regenerative tourism with community-based and conservation initiatives, according to Expedia. Best time to visit: September Best for culture: Jamaica Street scene in Montego Bay, Jamaica, featuring shops, pedestrians, cars and vendors in a street lined with palm trees. Jamaica has stunning beaches, but also a vibrant culture of reggae music, rum, cuisine and more. For those eager to explore the outdoors, travelers can swim in the waterfalls of the Blue Mountains before relaxing on the paradisiacal Seven Mile Beach. Best time to visit: December Best for affordable luxury: Koh Samui, Thailand Thailand's Koh Samui is a wellness haven. While the latest season of HBO's hit show "White Lotus" put Thailand at the top of everyone's bucket list, the destination is underrated for affordable luxury. Koh Samui is known as Thailand's rising wellness capital, with a focus on yoga, spirituality and detoxes, according to Expedia. Best time to visit: March Best for romance: Maldives A traveler enjoying the pristine waters of the Maldives. Over the last 50 years, the Maldives has risen as a haven for those seeking out a quiet getaway. Its many resorts make travelers feel as if they're on a private island away from the rest of civilization. That is, without giving up luxury, like the famous overwater bungalows, this destination is known for. Best time to visit: May Best for surfing: Oahu, Hawaii Lush green tropical island landscape and blue waters of Makapuu Beach, Waimanalo, Oahu, Hawaii. Hawaii is often credited as the birthplace of modern surfing, with Oahu beckoning surfers of all skill levels from around the world. However, this is just one way travelers can engage with Hawaiian culture, as the islands focus on responsible tourism initiatives, such as volunteering. Best time to visit: September Best for nightlife: Paros, Greece While Mykonos and Santorini may be the more famous Greek islands for travelers, Paros is emerging for those seeking out luxury and nightlife with fewer crowds. Best time to visit: September Best for foodies: Sardinia, Italy Hike at the beautiful bay, Spiaggia di Cala Fuili on the east coast at the Golfo di Orosei. As a Blue Zone, Sardinia is the destination for travelers seeking luxury with a splash of wellness. Fresh, delicious cuisine, combined with the stunning Italian coastline, has earned this island a spot on the list. Best time to visit: September This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dreaming of island life? Expedia reveals 2025s hottest picks By Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that a trade agreement with Vietnam was nearly complete. Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews near Washington that he could release details of the Vietnam trade agreement, but did not think it was necessary. The U.S. president announced earlier this month that he had struck a preliminary trade deal with the Communist country, which would cut planned U.S. tariffs on imports from Vietnam to 20% from the 46% level he had threatened in April. At the time, Trump also said goods that Washington deemed to be illegally transshipped through Vietnam to other countries would be subject to a 40% levy. The agreement has not been finalized and details have not been released, leaving questions over how Washington will define an illegal transshipment and how much value Vietnam must add to imported products to avoid the 40% tariff. It also remains unclear which products would fall under Trump's 20% tariff. Vietnam has not confirmed the specific tariff rates, celebrating what it described as an agreement on a joint statement about a trade framework. Asked if he planned to release details of the trade pact with Vietnam, Trump told reporters, "Well, I might. I don't think it matters how much you release of the deal. We have a Vietnam deal, and I would say that that deal is being pretty well set." Vietnam has nearly tripled its exports to the United States since the start of the U.S.-China trade war in 2018, when the first Trump administration imposed wide-ranging tariffs on Beijing, pushing some manufacturers to move production south. At the same time, Vietnam vastly expanded imports from China, with their inflow almost exactly matching the value and swings of exports to the United States, each totalling around $140 billion in 2024, data from the U.S. and Vietnam show. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Leslie Adler and Stephen Coates) U.S. drug enforcement agents seized more than $10 million in cryptocurrency linked to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel during raids that also netted massive quantities of fentanyl and other drugs, officials said Tuesday. The Sinaloa cartel is one of six Mexican drug trafficking groups that President Trump has designated as global "terrorist" organizations. The cryptocurrency seizure in Miami was part of nationwide operations that netted 44 million fentanyl pills, 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder and nearly 65,000 pounds of methamphetamine since January, the Justice Department said in a statement. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), in coordination with its FBI partners "seized over $10 million dollars in cryptocurrency, directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel," it added. It comes days after Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a son of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, pleaded guilty to drug charges in Chicago in a deal struck with prosecutors in return for a reduced sentence. His father was convicted in a high-profile trial in 2019 and is serving a life sentence in prison. "DEA is hitting the cartels where it hurts -- with arrests, with seizures, and with relentless pressure," DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said. The cryptocurrency haul was among several major seizures across the country in recent weeks, including in California, Texas, Georgia and other states that netted thousands of pounds of drugs and dozens of arrests. In Galveston, Texas, agents uncovered more than 1,700 pounds of methamphetamine worth more than $15 million hidden inside a vehicle. Other raids yielded drugs hidden in produce shipments, including 705 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in cucumbers in Georgia and 783 pounds found in a refrigerated truck carrying blueberries in Texas. The Sinaloa cartel is known for its ruthlessness, as two recent instances show. Late last month, the Justice Department revealed that the cartel hired hacker who was able to infiltrate phone data and Mexico City's surveillance cameras to help track and kill FBI informants. Also late last month, Mexican authorities said twenty bodies, several of them decapitated, were found on a highway bridge in a part of Mexico where factions of the Sinaloa drug cartel are fighting each other. Trump pushes senators to make $9.4 trillion in spending cuts Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files "Severance" and "The Studio" earn top Emmy nominations Birders looking for variety in both species and settings will find plenty to explore in the U.S. national park system. These parks and protected areas support hundreds of native and migratory creatures, thanks to their diverse geography, ranging from subtropical wetlands and arctic fjords to dry grasslands and coastal lagoons. Everglades National Park, Florida Credit: iStockphoto Birding picks up fast in the Everglades once the dry season settles in. Herons, spoonbills, and gallinules gather in the shallow wetlands near Anhinga Trail and Shark Valley, where food becomes more concentrated. Over 360 species have been recorded here, which are especially active in winter. Indiana Dunes National Park, Indiana Credit: iStockphoto The proximity to Lake Michigan plays a big role in why the Indiana Dunes National Park attracts so many birds. Shifting winds along the shoreline create a corridor that concentrates migratory paths, mainly during spring and fall. Birds also drop into the parks wetlands and forests to rest and feed before continuing. Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio Credit: Wikimedia Commons Located between Cleveland and Akron, Cuyahoga is one of the easiest national parks to reach. Theres no entrance fee, and several trailheads connect to local roads and public transit. That convenience doesnt take away from the experience because early summer mornings still provide the clearest bird calls. Point Reyes National Seashore, California Credit: Wikimedia Commons Coves, cliffs, and tidal wetlands all press together in a compact area that brings in serious bird traffic at Point Reyes. Shorebirds come together at Bolinas Lagoon during low tide and feed across wide, exposed flats. Accessible boardwalks make it easy for you to scan for movement, while steeper trails offer vantage points above the coast. Acadia National Park, Maine Credit: iStockphoto Warblers, bald eagles, and ospreys are among the standout species found in Acadia National Park, particularly between May and early fall. Jordan Pond draws songbirds into the spruce canopy, while Cadillac Mountain gives better views of raptors overhead. You can see close to 300 varieties here in the peak months. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina Credit: iStockphoto This park gives you the opportunity for peak birding in spring, with species active across a range of heights. Shaded trails and constant water sources keep activity steady later into the day than in many parks. And the mix of dense forest and open meadow at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park supports both ground feeders and canopy dwellers in close range. Dauphin Island, Alabama Credit: iStockphoto Once a military outpost and trading port, Dauphin Island now plays a vital role in bird migration across the Gulf Coast. Situated just off Alabamas shoreline, the island spans 14 miles and includes pine forests, dunes, and salt marshes. In spring, birds arriving from Central and South America often land here first to use the habitat to rest and refuel. Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska Credit: iStockphoto Various seabirds nest along the rugged coastline during the Kenai Peninsula Birding Festival in May. The event offers guided tours, workshops, and boat excursions that bring participants into prime viewing areas. Much of the activity centers around Kenai Fjords National Park, where cliffs and open water support large nesting populations. Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona Credit: Wikimedia Commons Summer rains in southeast Arizona trigger a surge in hummingbird activity across the sky island region. Chiricahua National Monument often sees up to 13 species, including rarer visitors like the white-eared and berylline hummingbirds. These birds follow blooming patterns brought on by monsoon storms. Ouachita National Forest, Arkansas Credit: Wikimedia Commons You can explore a range of habitats in Ouachita National Forest by visiting specific areas known for bird activity. Lake Ouachita draws bald eagles in winter and hosts purple martin roosts on Bird Island in summer. Paths near the Charlton Recreation Area are reliable for spotting red-cockaded woodpeckers and brown-headed nuthatches. Sonny Bono Salton Sea NWR, California Credit: Wikipedia More than 375 types of birds have made a home at Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. Yellow-footed gulls arrive in late summer, while winter brings large flocks of geese, pelicans, and grebes. Pawnee National Grasslands, Colorado Credit: iStockphoto Shortgrass prairie dominates the view at Pawnee, but it hides impressive bird activity. Driving slowly acts as a mobile blind to observe burrowing owls, lark buntings, and horned larks. Travelers can cover large sections of the grasslands without leaving their vehicles. Milford Point, Connecticut Credit: flickr Managed by the Connecticut Audubon Society, Milford Point is a migration hotspot along the Long Island Sound. A 70-foot observation tower provides wide views over the salt marsh and tidal flats, which allows visitors to spot birds without disrupting their habitats. Entry is free, and optional donations support conservation work. Cape May, New Jersey Credit: iStockphoto Guided walks and public festivals make Cape May a reliable destination for tracking migration with support from local experts and real-time data. Count boards are updated throughout the day to help visitors track active hotspots. The park organizes these efforts in an attempt to attract a large number of birders from across the country. Sax-Zim Bog, Minnesota Credit: Wikimedia Commons If winter birding is the goal, Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota has some of the best cold-season species in the country. Great gray owls and other breeds begin to appear in December as the snow deepens. Though conditions can be harsh, trails stay open and lightly trafficked. Netflix "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Lena Dunhams hotly anticipated return to television is finally here. Whereas her previous productions and their accompanying wardrobes (notably, Girls) feel like time capsules of the early 2010s, her new Netflix series Too Much feels like a maximalist fashion plate. The series follows comedian Megan Stalter in her first major leading role as Jessica Salmon, a downtrodden New Yorker who reinvents herself in London after a bad breakup. The show takes us through the emotional chaos of a transcontinental move and has the clothes to match, thanks to costume designer Arielle Cooper-Lethem, who brought Dunhams script to life with texture, color, and panache. There are a few memorable high-fashion moments, but the real story here is how Cooper-Lethem used both vintage and a rich assortment of smaller fashion brands to bring this quirky, hilarious, and ultimately moving story to life. Ahead, Cooper-Lethem fills us in on what it was like to collaborate with Lena Dunham and the rest of the star-studded cast and why there really is no such thing as a bad nightgown. What type of collaborator is Lena Dunham when it comes to costuming a show like Too Much? Lena is such a fashion girlie. She really knows her clothes and her brands and gets really excited about clothing, which is always nice from a director. She wrote so much costume into the script. I remember reading the script for the first time, and it was so visual because of her clothing descriptions. Whats fabulous about Lena is that she gets excited about adding new ideas into the fold. She definitely had her own ideas that she wrote into the script, but when it came to me interpreting it, she would get excited about seeing the things she wrote interpreted in a new way. Shes very open to new ideas. The hardest part about working with Lena is knowing that Ill have to work with someone else after her. Netflix Are there any flagship costume moments we should look out for? Episode 8 is a standalone episode where they go to this very stuffy English countryside wedding. It was written into the script that Jess should look like Josie Grossie from Never Been Kissed. So we made this custom, very over-the-top dress for her. She also wears that dress to scale the side of a building! Nightgowns were a key element. Jess wears them constantly. It was written into the script that she wears these sort of pioneer nightgowns and that her dresses speak to the same vibe. We found some great ones from the London brand If Only If, and we sourced a lot of vintage nightgowns. Emily Ratajkowskis character is meant to be this knitwear influencer making her own pieces. So we thought about making everything custom, but in the end we found a London-based knitwear designer who had so many fun pieces, called Sulk. Meg also wears a ton of great ballet flats. She might even lose a flat when running away from a bad situation in episode 1. Those are French Sole. I love that theyre a little bit Amy Winehouse. Netflix Whats the secret to selecting a good nightgown versus a bad nightgown? Jess is kind of proof that theres no such thing as a bad nightgown. Its about whos wearing it. Her gowns really range a wide spectrum. Shes got some 1960s pink pajama sets, she has a literal pioneer nightgownshes just a girl who has no rules. It sounds like you worked with a lot of smaller brands to source costumes for Too Much. The truth is, its still devastatingly hard to source extended-size clothing that is fun and indie and cool. A lot of what you see in the high-street shops just feels very officey and dowdy. We were so excited to reach out to these little brands with extended sizing that understand that people want to dress individually. Plus, Jess is the kind of girl who is on Instagram, shes on Etsy, shes always getting excited about new small things. She wears a sailor-collar dress by Foundry Mews, as well as pieces from Bye Bambi and Rosette NYC. Fashion Brand Company is all over the show; they are incredibly size inclusive. Theres a floral rain trench that Jess wears by Celia B, and a lot of her wardrobe also came from Cider. And as a designer I love sourcing vintage wherever possible because its better for the planet and tends to be more special. Lots of vintage for many of the characters was sourced by Found and Vision on Portobello Road in London. Many of the pieces are still available in their for hire archive if you really want the Too Much look! Netflix I need to know what its like to work with Meg Stalter. She really is that funny in person. She has 150 different outfit changes in this show, so it was a lot of work for her, and our fittings were really longbut she was always down for whatever from the start. Very fun, very collaborative. I also noticed that supermodel Adwoa Aboah has a role in the show. She is such a great actor. She has a pretty comedic part. And actually, when we started fitting, she was pregnant at the time and we didnt know. So that was kind of an interesting challenge, because as we got through the shoot, we would get through the fitting and she continued to get further along in her pregnancy. What types of brands did you put Adwoa in? In episode 2, she wears a black PVC dress that is the Annie dress from Annies Ibiza. In episode 1, she wears this fabulous red trench from Abra with a necklace from Sandra Lexandra. In episode 8 she wears a dress from Simone Rocha and this surreal headpiece from Maryam Keyhani. Netflix I think a big part of this show is about the tension between New York and London style. Theyre both large English-speaking cities, but they can feel culturally very different, which is a central conceit of the show. Totally. I think with Jesss wardrobe, as we follow her arc, coming from New York and moving to London, she sort of feels all over the place, so her wardrobe is a bit collected from everywhere to reflect that. But for Emily Ratajkowskis character, we went out of our way to source as much as possible from U.S.-based brands and New York brands. We got her this McNally Jackson bookstore tote to wear in one of her scenes. She also wears Oakleys. Its just a very American look. We definitely wanted to feel the separation there. What was the most challenging part of this production? There were so many people to dress! As a costume designer, you want to be on set as much as possible to establish your look, and we had 125 principal cast, and our Number One had 150 changes! When I wasnt in fittings, I was shopping for fittings! But I will say, to have such a big cast and have everyone be so lovely was very special. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. You Might Also Like Wild American Alligator natural behavior at Orlando Wetlands at Cape Canaveral Florida. Deborah Ferrin/Shutterstock.com We often think of alligators as prehistoric-looking reptiles that lurk only in the swamps of Florida and Louisiana. However, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) can be found in 11 southeastern states. Gators also inhabit Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Although biologists at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) have only uncovered a handful of cases of alligator bites in the state in over 50 years, conflicts between humans and gators are on the rise. Keep reading to find out where gators are striking in North Carolina this summer. The American Alligator Alligators will inhabit any body of water within their range, whether it is freshwater or brackish. They are most active at temperatures between 82F to 92F and do not even feed once temperatures drop below around 70F. As alligators prefer warmer weather, North Carolina and extreme southeastern Virginia are currently believed to be the northernmost points of an alligators range. NCWRC scientists explain that gators living farther north do not grow as rapidly or as large as those inhabiting warmer areas like Florida and Louisiana. Florida gators can reach up to 15 feet and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. In contrast, North Carolina gators grow to a maximum of around 13 feet and can weigh over 500 pounds. Biologists estimate that it takes over 16 years for a North Carolina alligator to exceed 6 feet in length, but even smaller gators can still be dangerous. When and Where Are Alligators Found in North Carolina? Orton Pond in Brunswick County is believed to have one of the highest concentrations of gators in North Carolina. slowmotiongli/iStock via Getty Images In North Carolina, alligator mating season takes place from late April to July. This is when most sightings occur. Residents can expect to see increased activity and territorial behavior from adult male alligators searching for a mate. Younger gators may venture out in search of food, or they may have been driven from the area by an older male. Female alligators fiercely defend their nests and offspring. Warmer weather may also bring alligators migrating from smaller bodies of water to larger water sources where they can submerge and hunt. Alligators may cross roads or cut through backyards as they travel to another body of water. Because alligators are ectothermic, they also leave the water to bask in the sun, which raises their metabolism. In 2024, the NCWRC Wildlife Helpline received 448 calls about alligators, with most of those calls coming from the coastal counties of New Hanover and Brunswick. Larger concentrations of gators can also be found in Columbus, Craven, Onslow, and Pender counties. Officials estimate there are thousands of alligators living in the coastal plain, with the highest population density around Wilmington. Orton Pond in Brunswick County is a well-known gator hotspot. However, officials warn that alligators can also be found in the Sandhills farther inland. They believe that continued development in the area will result in more sightings, as developers expand into more remote areas inhabited by alligators. A Gator Incident Resulting in Injuries On June 13th, a 12-year-old girl was injured by a 12-foot alligator while swimming with friends in Lake Waccamaw. The children were playing in shallow water when the girl yelled that something had bitten her. The encounter resulted in scratches and lacerations to her legs, which required half a dozen stitches. Officials are unsure if the wounds were caused by a bite or the alligators claws. A spokesperson for the Lake Waccamaw Police reported that, although the injuries were serious, they were fortunately not life-threatening. The young girl is expected to make a full recovery. The NCWRC explained that their protocol is to evaluate alligators that have made contact with people, and euthanasia is often considered for those that have attacked or bitten humans. Unprovoked alligator attacks are rare, but officials emphasized that the girl was not to blame. In this incident, the alligator demonstrated unusual behavior, consistent with actions typically associated with being fed. Officials have designated the encounter as an incident rather than an attack, since the gator did not exhibit predatory behavior. Since 2019, only one other gator has been euthanized, and its aggressive behavior is also likely the result of being fed. Timeline of Alligator Sightings In 2024, the North Carolina Wildlife Helpline received 448 calls about alligators. Saddako/iStock via Getty Images Fortunately, there has only been one encounter, but there have been a record number of gator sightings in coastal areas this year. Gators were observed at the following locations and were successfully relocated with no injuries reported: May 11-17: Southport police caught and relocated nine alligators in the area in just one week. May 14: Sheriffs deputies relocated an alligator from Highway 17S entering Brunswick County. May 28: Onslow County sheriffs deputies removed a 10-foot alligator from Old 30 Road. May 31: A gator was found in the River Hotel swimming pool in Southport. June 10: A small alligator was fished out of a Southport familys pool. June 11: The City of Southport reported that they had captured and relocated a total of 20 alligators. June 13: A young girl was injured by a 12-foot alligator while swimming in Lake Waccamaw. June 18: A five-foot alligator was spotted resting against a door of the Mattamuskeet School in Swan Quarter. June 19: An eight-foot alligator was found swimming in the ocean at Sunset Beach. June 23: Southport police removed a 7.5-foot alligator from the backyard of a private residence. At the time of writing, no additional sightings or incidents have been reported. However, in April of this year, Southport Police removed alligators from two residents yards, while Sunset Beach Police caught a young gator that snuck into a garage and hid under a car. Southport Animal Protective Service, in collaboration with Southport police, also captured and relocated a gator that had climbed a fence and was headed toward traffic. What to Do If You See an Alligator Alligators sometimes come into contact with humans as they travel from one body of water to another. damoon016/Shutterstock.com If you see an alligator that could endanger humans, call 911. If the gator is in distress or could injure itself, call the 24/7 wildlife emergency number at 1-800-662-7137 for assistance. You can also reach out to experts at the Wildlife Helpline for information. Additionally, NCWRC officials have launched a new website called GatorWise, aimed at educating the public and minimizing conflicts between humans and alligators. Visitors are reminded to: Assume gators are present in any body of water and maintain a safe distance. Refrain from feeding gators, as it is not only irresponsible, it is also illegal. Properly dispose of fish scraps and food, and do not throw anything in the water. Never try to capture, handle, or approach a gator. Be responsible for children and pets. Remain aware when you are near or in the water. Alligators typically avoid people and are more likely to retreat than attack, but they must still be respected as potential threats. Most alligator-human conflicts are believed to be caused by human interference. As alligators are native apex predators in wetlands throughout the Southeast, we must do our part to ensure their populations remain stable for the health of the entire ecosystem. The post Heres Where Gators Are Striking in North Carolina This Summer appeared first on A-Z Animals. Prime Video "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." When Anne Hathaway was cast as a 40-year-old mom in The Idea of You, there was backlash online. Surprisingly, it wasnt about the hot storyline, in which she romances a younger male pop star. Instead, armchair commentators on Reddit said that she looked like a teenage girl and seemed too young for the role. The Cut noted that her portrayal suggests a sophisticate in her early 30s at best. And its trueHathaway looks young enough to get IDd at a liquor store. But at the time of filming, she was also the same age as her character. As a millennial myself, its especially unnerving to witness the The Princess Diaries star turn 40but its not just Hathaway who is throwing everyone off. As millennials reach so-called middle age, no one seems to be looking or acting their age anymore. For this generation, born between 1981 and 1996, the phrase age is just a number isnt a form of self-soothing. It might actually be true. We are used to being scrutinized. For decades now, millennial behaviors have been well-documented and mocked. Were the avocado toast-pilled, girl boss-ified, American Apparel-wearing, BuzzFeed-quiz-taking, side-part-sporting generation. As the first generation that grew up with the internet, our every move has been dissected to forecast trends and analyze the state of the culture at large. All this attention made our approach to aging and beauty uniquely influential. For other generations, turning 40 often served as a trope for midlife crises or life ends here jabs in movies and TV. Miranda Hobbes bemoaned 43 as her scary age in Sex and the City (Carrie Bradshawsfor the recordwas 45). In This Is 40, Gen Xers Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd are at a standstill in their lives and marriage. But now, as millennials reach the milestone, theyre proving that this generation might actually be the first to push beyond aging stereotypes. There really is some truth to the idea that 40 is the new 30, says Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University and the author of Generation Me and the upcoming 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World. For many millennials, 40 doesnt feel like the midpoint of our life. They may anticipate longer lifespans, and more healthy years to enjoy, says Anne Barrett, Ph.D., a professor of sociology at Florida State University. ANNA KURTH - Getty Images Twenge points out that millennials tend to be much less settled than previous generations, at least by traditional standards. Once, 40 was the age when your career was established, youd been married for a long time, and your kids might be heading to college. According to Census data , in 1960, American womens median age at first marriage was around 20; today its 28. In 2023, a Pew report found that a record number of 40-year-olds25 percenthad never been married. Census data also shows that the number of women between 30 and 44 who have never had children is at a record high. Millennials arent just figuring themselves outtheyre holding onto their youthful looks, helped by a more open attitude toward beauty interventions. David Kim, M.D., a millennial dermatologist in New York City, calls us the Kardashian generationthe first to witness the power of in-office treatments through influencers like Kim and Khloe, who actually admitted to getting them. When millennials came of age, he says, there was a huge spike in interest in cosmetic treatments and people being more curious about lasers and Botox and fillers. Kim shares that openness to cosmetic treatments has helped millennials remain ageless into their fourth decade. Our generation proves that you can care about beauty and still be a serious person, and that beauty can be an empowering form of self-expression, too. Women like Emily Weiss of Glossier and Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal made a business out of celebrating individuality through beauty. We grew up in an age [when branding] encouraged being different, being you, and self-discovery, Kim adds. Millennial beauty brands like Jen Atkins Ouai, Milk Makeup, and ColourPop strike the perfect balance between accessible and playful. Savion Washington - Getty Images Some of us may have lived through more unprecedented times than we would choose to, but we were also a generation raised on hopewe lived through Y2K and were thought of (or maybe thought of ourselves) as being a beacon of light for the new millennium. As teens and as young adults, millennials were more optimistic and had higher expectations than previous generations at the same age, Twenge says. Perhaps hope is the secret sauce that youll never find listed in your skin care ingredients. That hope, and need for self-expression, have shaped how millennials think about fashion, too. Take millennial pink , a term coined by ELLEs own fashion features director Veronique Hyland that ended up defining a generation of professional women. Around the time of the girl boss era, youd see women in pale pink suitsan intentional shade choice, she says. The idea was that if you integrated yourself into the male-dominated power structure and brought a bit of femininity and your own flair, you could seamlessly fit into that existing system. There was a softness to millennial pink. Now, Gen Z has Brat green, which Hyland says feels like the antithesis. It is intentionally sort of ugly, she adds. It doesnt have this softness. Brat green is jarringits a color that represents Gen Zs frankness and in-your-face attitudes, while millennials broke barriers more gently. Notably, millennials were also the first generation to put themselves out there on the internet, their MySpace and Tumblr experiments growing into the creator economy that exists today. In 2025, 84 percent of millennials say that user-generated content influences their beauty buying decisions, according to brand strategy consulting firm DCDX . The popularity of viral brands like Rhode, Rare Beauty, and Charlotte Tilbury shows thateven on the cusp of 40millennials are using social media as a guide just as much as their Gen Z counterparts. Gabe Ginsberg - Getty Images Even as markers of success like home ownership elude them, research shows that many millennials continue to feel hopeful about the future. In a Deloitte survey , over 50 percent of them said they feel optimistic in their ability to make positive changes in the world around them, such as improving mental health awareness and access to education. Kim thinks that the generations approach to aging also reflects their overall positivity. Millennials are happy lookinga little bit fresher, and brighter, he says of his patients. Theyre very comfortable in their own skin, and theyre not nitpicking everything about their hair, skin, or teeth that they dont like about themselves. Theyre very balanced. They really do embrace who they are. As we enter our fourth decade, millennials are still exploring who they areonly now, theres less millennial pink, and American Apparel is firmly in the rearview. In 2025, turning 40 is not a midlife crisis. Rather, its a time for reinvention ( one survey showed that more than one in 10 millennials planned to quit their job for greener pastures in 2025). Its time to rethink cultural norms. And if you ask Hathaway, its also time for really, mystifyingly good skin. You Might Also Like Most enterprises are in the midst of a protracted and costly refresh of PCs purchased during the early days of the COVID pandemic. Customers realise that the easiest and safest way to move to the new OS is to buy new machines with Windows 11 already installed, Kleynhans said. However, hardware refresh projects have gone slower than expected due to budgetary constraints and supply chain issues, necessitating more in-place upgrades to meet the October deadline, he continued. Most larger enterprises have a few machines incompatible with Windows 11 still in service, but many compatible machines are misconfigured or under-configured, requiring replacement. Legacy software especially in-house or customised apps and outdated peripheral devices can also cause problems. While compatibility between Windows 10 and Windows 11 has been extremely good, most enterprises report having one or two ancient applications or old peripherals that cant be made to work on Windows 11, Kleynhans said. These were often stumbling along on Windows 10 and could have broken with any security update. Enterprises often get bogged down trying to decide how to deal with updating these old apps. The hidden software nightmare The hidden software problem is potentially worse. Every IT director knows that they simply dont have full visibility into the multitude of small applets that typically perform very narrow functions. On an ecommerce site, for example, one small applet homegrown by a coder 20 years ago might connect completed purchases with the most relevant shipping partner. Other than the tiny number of people handling that aspect of the site, no one else knows about it or has any reason to know about it. But when the upgrade happens and that applet doesnt work properly under Windows 11, everyone will suddenly learn of that applets existence when e-commerce revenue plunges. It speaks to the increase in the complexity of the upgrade decision, these hidden interdependencies, said Melody Brue, a VP/principal analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy. Brue referred to this problem as the great reckoning of technical debt, adding, this will not just be an upgrade. Its forcing this reckoning that will expose and magnify all of the technical debt. Brue is using the term technical debt in a non-traditional manner. Typically, it refers to the cost of fixing software that suffered when speed shortcuts were taken when it was developed, presumably to save money or time. But Brue is using it to refer to all manner of unknown or outdated applications throughout the enterprises global environments. Will Microsoft really pull the plug on Windows 10 support? One burning question on IT leaders minds is whether Microsoft will follow through on its threat to stop the flow of security patches for Windows 10 after the October deadline. It depends on many factors, especially how many IT shops stick with Windows 10. Microsoft has already softened its position on Windows 10 support. After initially saying it would not support Microsoft 365 apps on Windows 10 past the October deadline, the company did an about-face in May, announcing that it will support M365 apps on Windows 10 until 2028. And in late June, Microsoft suddenly offered consumers (but not commercial customers) a way to get one year of Windows 10 security patches for free. The company also noted that it will continue providing security intelligence updates for its Defender Antivirus software on Windows 10 for three more years. Some tech leaders believe these changes indicate that Microsoft may eventually relent on ongoing Windows 10 support for the enterprise. I dont envision this to be as big a hurdle as people are making it out to be, said Brian Phillips, VP for Macys Technology. Many are worried about losing ongoing patches, for example. I can say categorically that they will not. Microsoft is bluffing. Phillips added that he expects at least some security patches to continue even for customers not in the ESU program. For example, Microsoft may continue to issue Windows 10 patches it rates as Critical or Important to everyone, but will only issue patches rated as Moderate or Low to those paying for extended support, Phillips said Jeremy Roberts, a senior director of research at the Info-Tech Research Group, agreed that it is far from certain what kind of support, patches, and functionality Microsoft will ultimately deliver to Windows 10 post-October. Its always a game of chicken with Microsoft, he said. To put it mildly, its challenging for IT to make rational upgrade decisions when the consequences for not upgrading keep changing and could very well change again over the next several months. The ROI factor Roberts said this decision will likely be driven by the same return on investment factors that always dictate to enterprise CIOs what to do and when to do it. If I am spending resources on an OS upgrade, I am not spending it on things that are far more important, he said. A viable choice is to pay the tech support and delay the upgrade, Roberts said. Youre borrowing productivity from tomorrow and kicking the can down the road, he said. When thousands (or tens of thousands) of employees need to be trained on and get comfortable using a new OS, the productivity hit can be substantial. Theres no avoiding the disruption that will come with a mass migration to Windows 11, so its up to company leaders to decide when its most feasible. The decision boils down to a few difficult options: Make the upgrade and risk having to spend maybe a couple of months putting out fires from the untold number of apps that fail. During that time, productivity will likely take a sharp hit. Opt to not initially upgrade, which might mean losing compatibility with partners and customers who do make the move to Windows 11. And that decision means paying a lot for support payments for an out-of-date OS. Split the difference by upgrading a portion of the environment. That would reduce the exposure from not upgrading, while minimising the disruption from the unknown app problems. Thats the approach Macys takes to OS upgrades, according to Phillips, who said he has seen Windows upgrade problems with small apps that IT tends to not think about. Everything from training apps to clock-in-and-clock-out, some browser components they all have to be tested and rewritten, Phillips said. Macys tackles that testing by shutting down half the POS units in a store and upgrading them, he said. They use the odd/even method: updating only the odd machines one day and the even machines at a later date. That way, productivity during upgrades is maintained, because an associate can always turn to a machine nearby and use that. New hardware is typically the most expensive part of an upgrade, but its also easier to track, because enterprises generally know about every piece of hardware in their environment. Hardware delivers far fewer IT surprises than software. Hardware costs are tied to each enterprises unique situation, with dozens of factors including volume, models and configurations, geography, and even tariffs coming into play. But IT leaders can and should run their own calculations regarding hardware. Globally, how many PCs have the security and capacity to handle Windows 11? How many PCs are about to be replaced anyway? What is the cost difference between upgrading existing hardware to Win11 specs versus purchasing new Win11 PCs? Next, there are the support calculations. How does the cost of upgrading or replacing current hardware compare with the cost of continued Windows 10 support? That support cost is based on how many seats need extended protection, so the spreadsheet has to reduce the support costs based on how many machines can make the transition to Windows 11. One possible projection for a small enterprise might look like: Year 1: Leave 5,000 devices on Windows 10 and pay for extended support for them. Upgrade 3,000 machines that can be upgraded. Purchase 1,000 new Windows 11 PCs. Leave 5,000 devices on Windows 10 and pay for extended support for them. Upgrade 3,000 machines that can be upgraded. Purchase 1,000 new Windows 11 PCs. Year 2: Reduce the number of devices on Windows 10 extended support to 2,500. (The support cost for the PCs remaining on Windows 10 doubles this year, so reducing the number by half keeps that cost the same.) Buy new PCs for the other 2,500 that were on Windows 10 that first year. Reduce the number of devices on Windows 10 extended support to 2,500. (The support cost for the PCs remaining on Windows 10 doubles this year, so reducing the number by half keeps that cost the same.) Buy new PCs for the other 2,500 that were on Windows 10 that first year. Year 3: Replace the remaining 2,500 Windows 10 devices with new Windows 11 PCs, which means no more extended support costs. Replace the remaining 2,500 Windows 10 devices with new Windows 11 PCs, which means no more extended support costs. Year 4: Buy new PCs to replace the 3,000 old machines that were upgraded to Windows 11 that first year. Now all users are on Windows 11 just in time for a new operating system/hardware refresh cycle, when IT gets to do this all over again. Of course, if Microsoft announces in, lets say, December that it is extending Windows 10 support for another year, all ROI calculations will have to be rerun. There are additional options for IT leaders to consider as well, including Windows 365, Microsofts cloud-based desktop-as-a-service offering, which costs $41/user/month for a standard enterprise configuration. Forrester senior analyst Paddy Harrington had a different suggestion that will not please Microsoft. Do we even need Windows anymore? How many of our applications are web-based? More and more users are doing the majority of their work in a browser, using SaaS apps. Why are you even keeping Windows desktops? Harrington asked. Is Linux an option for you? Or one of the thin clients? You have to be open to changing your religion. Triage choices For those who decide to stick with traditional Windows PCs, Harrington is a proponent of phased upgrades. That means deciding which apps and machines get upgraded now and which are delayed. One option is to start with the assets that are most critical to your business, such as financial, your HR, your app dev if that is your world, Harrington said. Another approach is to start with the ones that you are confident will be fine in the Windows 11 environment. Instead of legitimately worrying about the small percentage of software that is unknown, focus on the known apps. Throw them into a sandbox and test if they will survive in Windows 11. That would allow IT to safely upgrade almost all of its environment, which would reduce the cost of the support for the remainder. Move what is safe. You know what they are, whether they are applets or extensions, Harrington said. Some IT officials who are having to make this decision have understandably strong opinions. Kolapo Akande, the founder of Pledge Software and the former performance architect manager at Accenture, encourages IT to upgrade everything. Enterprises should not default to extended support. Its essentially a tax on indecision. Unless they have a mission-critical legacy app with no viable workaround, migrating to Windows 11 now is the smarter long-term play, especially for organisations already on hardware nearing refresh cycles, Akande said. Paying for extended support often leads to sunk costs and delays in adapting internal IT policies for modern endpoint security and management. For those who cant migrate their full environment, Akande has a recommendation: Isolate legacy machines in virtualized or air-gapped environments to minimise exposure. This lets you limit extended support costs to the bare minimum while moving the rest of the org forward. Ari Harrison, director of IT at BAMKO, a global promotional products company, said his team concluded that the risks of not moving to Windows 11 were not worth it. Every month you stay put, you invite unpatched exploits, shrinking vendor support, and a growing skills gap as admins move on. The ESU program buys breathing room but at a steepening price curve thats designed to push you off the ledge, not keep you comfortable on it, Harrison said. Think of it as paying rent on a condemned building, he continued. The smarter play is to upgrade now, while you control the tempo and can schedule downtime on your own terms. Cyber security distributor Netpoleon has added FireMons security policy automation and compliance solutions to its portfolio for enterprise customers and resellers across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ). Netpoleon A/NZ regional director Paul Lim said the deal with FireMon looked to fill customer gaps created from the recent departure of Skybox. A spokesperson for Netpoleon told ARN, Skybox Security ceased its operation in February and are working to transition current resellers to Firemon. It has also been widely reported in the media that the vendor dismissed its staff in Israel and the US. In 2022, ARN reported Netpoleon signed a deal to distribute Skybox Security in Australia. At the time the Skybox said extending the partnership to Australian channel players was a logical step towards broadening market reach. For many years, FireMon has been serving enterprise customers with its firewall security manager on-premises and more recently in the cloud, Lim said. The agreement comes as FireMon expands in the Asia Pacific market (APAC) and as demand for automated firewall management tools continues to rise. Any product-specific price adjustments and/or any consumer price adjustments continue to be communicated separately. Local currency pricing changes for the commercial business dont apply to Azure in modern commerce through Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA), Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP), and Microsoft Buy Online as those are priced consistently in US dollars. Although Microsoft wont raise prices, it is looking to limit the ticket-raised support. The Solutions Partner Designations unlimited benefit package now has a limit of 50 incidents per year enforced on new purchase or renewal anniversary date, and has been renamed to Partner Cloud Support. Microsoft wants to align with the broader shift toward paid Azure support through ASfP and PSfP. Previously, it offered unlimited cloud support to services partners who purchase a solutions partner designation on Partner Centre, which allowed partners to raise support tickets for their own cloud business or on behalf of their customers. As of July, partners will be given the ability to self-serve the cancellation of purchase orders. Previously, partners had to reach out to the support team in case there was a cancellation request for the offer they purchased. The support team received around five tickets on such requests and spent around 370 hours resolving them. Self-serve capability will provide an interface to partners where they can request cancellation of orders, with all checks and balances automated, which were handled by the support team manually. Skills boost For partners to engage with these changes, Microsoft is boosting additional skills opportunities, which will be made available over the next 12 months. This includes hands-on agentic AI skilling with Copilot Studio and Azure AI Foundry, hackathon-styled training activities, and regional in-person workshops and AI roadshows. Microsoft has readjusted the certificate requirements for the analytics and data warehouse migration specialisations. The Azure Data Engineer Associate certificate that expired in March was replaced by the Fabric Data Engineer Associate Certificate. For Migrate Enterprise Apps Specialisation and Azure Expert Managed Services Provider Program requirements, the Azure Data Engineer Associate Certificate is being removed without replacement. Partners who obtained the retiring certificate before their retirement date will have their certifications remain valid for one year. As of 30 July, the qualification framework for the Training Services Partner (TSP) designation will be updated. The current courseware model has been replaced with a more refined three-bucket structure: Fundamentals, two days or less, and three days or more. Total points for qualification in each criterion remain the same, and this change to qualification parameters is made to increase qualification flexibility and make qualifications easier. Dezen wrote in her blog that distributors will also see cloud solution provider (CSP) certification weeks and a Skilling in a Box initiative to scale pre-sales and sales skilling to thousands of resellers. This comes off the back of over three million individuals taking on upskilling activities via Microsoft during the 2025 financial year, she noted, with half of this figure taking on AI, Copilot, and Fabric-related skills. It has updated the intermediate certifications in Security SPD (for both SMB and enterprise). The certification, Microsoft Information Protection Administrator and Compliance Administrator Associate, retired on 31 May, will remain valid for one year if completed before retirement. As an alternative, Microsoft added a new optional certification Microsoft Certified: Information Security Administrator Associate, available in the Partner Centre from mid-July. Microsoft also introduced Copilot specialisation for partners, which aimed to highlight partner capabilities in Microsoft 365 Copilot and is set to launch by the end of this month. This specialisaition enables partners to demonstrate their expertise in providing consulting and professional services related to Copilot, including advisory services, deployment readiness, adoption and change management, and extensibility. Security enhancements Making ongoing improvements to security and privacy safeguards is among Microsofts top priorities, and it aims to help partners protect their customers and tenants, noted Dezen in her blog. This aligned with Microsofts July updates to partners around enhancing security, multifactor authentication (MFA) for all pages in the Partner Center portal, and for API access. As of 30 August, MFA will be enforced for all pages in the Partner Centre portal; 30 September, API will be code-ready for MFA; and April 2026 MFA will also be mandatory for API access. Microsoft will phase out the use of deprecating graph.windows.net audience tokens in the Partner Centre, and by 31 August, the portal will only accept api.partnercenter.microsoft.com audience tokens for both user token and app-only scenarios. SMB partners will also be able to access performance and designation data to help track and improve their security standing in this space. In addition, Microsoft has extended the deadline to 5 January 2026 for partners to provide proof that customers accept the Microsoft Customer Agreement (MCA). The vendor said this was implemented to improve compliance, protect intellectual property, and enhance security. All distributors (formerly indirect providers) and direct bill partners are required to provide proof or new orders will be blocked. Partners can test Partner Center UX changes and blocking experiences in the sandbox, which take effect between July 2025 and January 2026. Bulk attestation will be limited to read-only on 7 October and fully retired in January 2026. However, partners using the current attestation process or direct acceptance wont need to reaccept MCAs, and only net new customers requiring attestation are impacted. Cloud investments Dezen wrapped up the announcements in her blog post with a series of areas Microsoft is looking to increase investment. The largest area by percentage is Azure outcome-based incentives, which will rise by 70 per cent year-on-year, to reward partners for expanding workloads, driving seat growth, and deepening solution adoption. AI Business Solutions incentives have been increased by 50 per cent, which Dezen said reflects strong momentum and broadening accessibility across the workforce. CSP incentives are set to increase by roughly 20 per cent, which Dezen said would reward growth through new customer acquisition, upselling new workloads, and expanding existing relationships. Additionally, in order to align investments with its growth plans, Microsoft would be pulling forward the effective date of these incentives to 1 July. This shift ensures a fast start to the year, enabling partners to accelerate execution, capture opportunity earlier and drive measurable impact from day one, Dezen wrote. Were structuring this opportunity to foster a more predictable and profitable environment as partners deliver strategic customer solutions. Approximately 20 per cent are enterprise customer investment funds. Dezen added that security will see a 15 per cent increase, and Microsoft 365 incentives are going to be raised by double digits. Across customer segments, we see real momentum and value creation through Microsofts AI platform, especially through Copilot and agents, she said. Organisations are using AI to reshape how work gets done, reduce costs and unlock net-new value. Microsofts gradual shift towards these priorities. In March ARN reported Microsoft was planning a variety of support for channel partners who embrace agentic artificial intelligence (AI), three months after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella publicly stated that software-as-a-service (SaaS) will collapse in the agent era. In early May, ARN reported the software giant made changes to cloud service provider (CSP) licensing rules, updating the maximum resale price calculation for channel partner agreements, which came into effect this month, impacting all products and volume licensing frameworks. At the time, Dezen said these changes would streamline customers when it comes to monthly billing support and its focus on cloud and AI. by Vladimir Rozanskij Cotton remains one of the country's main exports, but earnings are steadily declining. The problem stems from the large increase in cotton production in other countries, such as the United States and India, where stocks are at historic highs. And China, by turning to countries that offer the cheapest raw materials, is contributing to global price tensions. Dushanbe (AsiaNews) - In recent months, cotton fibre prices have fallen to their lowest level in five years, which is a very important factor in the crisis in all Central Asian countries, particularly in Tajikistan, which is seeking to increase the volume of cotton harvesting, processing and exports. This year's harvest is expected to reach 390,000 tonnes, compared to 253,000 in 2024, increasing export revenues, but not to the extent expected due to the overheating of global markets in this sector, with reduced demand and price instability. Without a transition to a profound transformation and sustainable agriculture, the country risks remaining an appendage of raw materials in an unprofitable supply chain. The problem stems from the large increase in cotton production in other countries, such as the United States and India. In America, the 2024-2025 harvest reached 18.9 million bales of cotton, almost 6% more than the previous season, with reserves estimated at a record high of over 10 million bales according to data as of 1 July, the highest since 2018. In India, the monsoon season began a week earlier than usual on 24 May this year, giving farmers a head start and increasing the area under cotton by 8%. Brazil also exported a record 12.4 million bales of cotton between February and July, thanks to the weakness of its national currency, even surpassing the United States. China, the world's largest cotton importer, has drastically reduced its purchases from the US after the temporary pause in the trade war in recent months, turning to countries offering cheaper cotton, such as Brazil and Uzbekistan, contributing to global tensions over prices for the material. Estimates of global cotton reserves point to utilisation of around 68%, a worrying indicator of a sharp slowdown and decline in market demand. After the years of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing global economic crisis, the textile industry is increasingly turning away from natural cotton in favour of synthetic alternatives such as polyester and artificial fibres. These materials are cheaper, more technological and more sustainable in the face of market uncertainty, despite the greater ecological damage they cause, and are preferred by companies for their convenience. Cotton is no longer considered a universal standard in the industry, in the context of fierce competition between developing countries. In Tajikistan, cotton remains one of the main export items, but earnings are steadily declining: according to data from January to May 2025, revenues reached 1.3 million, of which 80% came from unprocessed cotton fibre ( million), .4 million from yarn, .6 million from textiles, and the rest from cotton waste. Attempts to introduce more sophisticated forms of production have so far yielded poor results, forcing the country to depend on the export of raw materials, with little profit margin. by Steve Suwannarat As border posts along the 800-kilometre border remain effectively closed, Cambodia announced the introduction of compulsory military service in 2026. The domestic situation in the two countries is fuelling the dispute, as both face strong nationalist headwinds and militaries with extensive interests and power. Thailands highest court announced that it will rule on Thaksin Shinawatra on 22 August. Bangkok (AsiaNews) Tensions between Thailand and Cambodia continue following an incident on 28 May at their yet-to-be demarcated border that resulted in the death of a Cambodian soldier. While not closing all channels of communication with their Thai political and military counterparts, Cambodian leaders have taken an intransigent line. As of 2026, they plan to introduce conscription in 2026, a clear signal to Bangkok that the government led by Hun Manet means business. A career soldier educated at the United States Military Academy, Hun Manet served as Commander of the Royal Cambodian Army under his father, Prime Minister Hun Sen, and headed the negotiating team that defused a crisis in 2008 that threatened to provoke open hostilities between the two countries. All the posts along the more than 800-kilometre shared border are effectively closed, while the situation remains precarious as suggested by Lieutenant General Boonsin Padklang, commander of the Second Army Region, who stressed that his forces are ready for any eventuality or order from Bangkok. The crisis, which has its roots in historical disputes over strips of land not clearly demarcated in the wake of the end of French rule in Cambodia, has also a lot to do with the domestic situation in the two countries, where strong nationalist pressure is being exerted and where their respective militaries have extensive interests and power. The attempt by Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and her Pheu Thai party to pass a law allowing gambling establishments in Thailand would have cut into one of Cambodia's main sources of revenue, especially for the countrys ruling elites. Their respective strategic alliances also play in the background. Cambodia is now very close to the People's Republic of China, while Thailand is more pro-US. In Thailand, the defection of the second-largest party from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatras parliamentary majority, and her suspension from the post of prime minister decreed on 1 July by the Constitutional Court were met favourably by the countrys progressive opposition and the conservative establishment tied to the military and the monarchy. In Cambodia, this has been seen as an opportunity to further weaken a neighbour and economic rival, thus fostering a different balance of power. It is no coincidence that the Thai Supreme Court's decision came after groups opposed to the prime minister and her party began protesting outraged by leaks to the Thai media regarding a telephone conversation she had with former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Cambodias strongman has had a long and close personal and business relationship with Thakshin Shinawatra, Paetongtarn's father and a former prime minister himself. In the conversation, the now-suspended prime minister expressed an unflattering opinion of General Padklang. Meanwhile, the court today announced that it will issue its ruling on former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on 22 August. The older Shinawatra, who turns 76 on 26 July, is accused of violating Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese-majeste law, and the Cybercrimes Act for statements he made in a 2015 interview with South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo. A conviction for lese-majeste carries a custodial sentence of three to 15 years. "We are confident that we will receive justice," said his lawyer Winyat Chartmontree, speaking to reporters, adding that Thaksin will be in the courtroom to hear the ruling. Champion local news. Join our community of readers who value daily beat reporting and in-depth stories alike. Your membership allows us to continue the legacy of local, independent journalism in the Roaring Fork Valley. With your support, we can remain a free and accessible source of news for everyone, always without paywalls or corporate influence. Together, we can ensure that vital local stories are told. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close China champions international ties in cutting-edge research Xinhua) 10:08, July 16, 2025 Chinese radio astronomer Li Di, the chief scientist of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), makes a speech at the 17th Marcel Grossmann Meeting in Pescara, Italy, July 9, 2024. (Xinhua/Li Jing) SHANGHAI, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Thanks to an ambitious international big science initiative led by Chinese scientists, the enduring enigma of how consciousness emerges in the brain has just gained a trailblazing new roadmap. Last week, the renowned international journal Cell and its affiliated journals published a collection of 10 papers revealing groundbreaking results in the field of brain mapping, which detailed the intricate neural connections across species from reptiles and birds to rodents, non-human primates and humans. This collaborative effort, involving over 300 scientists from China, France, Sweden and Britain, has significantly expanded the brain atlas, thus providing crucial insights into the neural networks governing perception, movement, learning, memory and decision-making. The achievements arrived at a moment when China vigorously champions global scientific collaboration for the common good of humanity. From fundamental physics to deep-space exploration, marine habitability and life sciences, the country is now investing in and leading some frontier open science projects with international partnership as a key benchmark. In Beijing's northern suburbs of Huairou, a comprehensive national science center has established 37 cutting-edge research facilities, 16 of them already open to global researchers. In 2024 alone, these facilities allocated an additional 430,000 hours of access time. Among the global projects based in Huairou Science City is the International Meridian Circle Program, a flagship initiative spearheaded by China's scientific community to advance worldwide space-weather monitoring capabilities. In June, during the second Belt and Road Conference on Science and Technology Exchange in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, China reaffirmed its support for global projects like the Deep-time Digital Earth (DDE) and Ocean Negative Carbon Emission (ONCE) launched by Chinese scientists. Lauded by the journal Science as the "geological Google," the DDE program is poised to unravel major scientific puzzles such as the global distribution of metal ore deposits. ONCE plans to draft the first global ocean-sector carbon neutrality standard, which was passed unanimously by the International Organization for Standardization last November with worldwide support, signaling China's rising role in global climate agenda. The "Global Hadal Trench Exploration Program" proposed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has been approved by the United Nations this year, opening a new chapter of global cooperation in trench scientific exploration. Under this program, Chinese scientists and their counterparts from over 10 nations will jointly probe Earth's deepest, uncharted ocean trenches. To date, 145 scientists worldwide have completed 214 dives to the deepest points of nine global trenches, including the Mariana and Kermadec trenches. Exploring the abyss is considered essential to answering the origin of life, its fate and the future of humanity. "Hadal exploration is within reach of only a few nations, while the 37 known trenches span the globe, making closer international cooperation essential," said CAS researcher Du Mengran. China has also launched the -HuB Project, uniting scientific teams from 18 countries to chart the vast diversity of human proteins and decode how our bodies truly function. It is the next grand endeavor in life sciences after the mapping of the human genome. Robert Moritz, a professor at the Institute for Systems Biology in the United States, said that the project has the potential to reshape the entire field of proteomics. China also engages the global scientific community through the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO), its near-Earth space station, and a suite of lunar and deep-space exploration missions. China's space authority has allocated a 200 kg payload on its Chang'e-8 lunar mission for international cooperation. Chang'e-7 will carry payloads from Egypt, Bahrain, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Thailand and the International Lunar Observatory Association. Last week, the International Deep Space Exploration Association, an international academic organization dedicated to deep space exploration, was officially launched in Hefei, capital of Anhui Province in east China. Looking ahead, China's brain-mapping team, in collaboration with international partners, is preparing to launch the International Primate Mesoscale Brain Atlas Consortium. After five to six years of groundwork by Chinese scientists, joint work with the international task force is expected to begin this September, aiming to chart an even more comprehensive map of the human brain. "We call for sustained global scientific collaboration to collectively advance toward the rather ambitious goal of deciphering mesoscale brain atlases of primate brains, including the human brain," said Muming Poo, scientific director of the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology under the CAS. "Scientists from more than 20 countries and nearly a hundred researchers so far have expressed their intention to join the consortium and work together," added Poo. Shing-Tung Yau, a Fields Medalist from Tsinghua University, said at the opening of the International Congress of Basic Science on Sunday: "Enhancing international cooperation in science and fostering mutual exchange and trust is more crucial now than ever before." (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Pashinian confirmed reports that the United States proposed recently that an American company be hired for that purpose. The idea has been discussed during Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks, he said, adding that no final agreement has been reached yet. Pashinian spoke of ongoing intensive discussions on the creation of a company that would run the corridor and invest in it. He said it would have many functions, including ensuring the security of the transit routes. We talk a lot about railways and highways, but in this context we are also talking about pipelines, power lines, telecommunications cables, and that is an infrastructure that needs to be managed and created, he told a news conference. Pashinian, who met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Abu Dhabi last week, claimed that there have already been precedents of such outsourcing in Armenia. He pointed to the fact that the countrys main international airport as well as water supply and railway networks are managed by foreign companies. I dont think that Armenia's sovereignty, jurisdiction, and territorial integrity have been violated in any way there, he said. People arriving in Armenia through Yerevans Zvartnots airport have to go through Armenian border and customs checks. Pashinian did not deny under the arrangement proposed by the U.S. Armenian border and customs officers would not check in a similar fashion cargo and passenger traffic between Nakhichevan and the rest of Azerbaijan. He said that modern technology would be used to exclude physical contact between the officers and Azerbaijani travelers. Baku has said all along that the traffic must be exempt from Armenian border controls. Yerevan has previously rejected these demands. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who strongly supports the Azerbaijani demands for an extraterritorial corridor, said early this month that Yerevan has adopted a more flexible approach. Erdogan met with Pashinian in Istanbul on June 20. The corridor issue is understood to have been high on the agenda of Pashinians July 10 talks with Aliyev. Although the official Armenian and Azerbaijani readouts of the talks did not explicitly mention it, Pashinians domestic critics have speculated that he agreed to make far-reaching concessions to Baku in hopes of holding on to power. They have also expressed serious concern about the reported U.S. proposal. They say that such an arrangement would undermine Armenian sovereignty over the transport links for Nakhichevan passing through Syunik, the only Armenian province bordering Iran. Tehran is strongly opposed to the so-called Zangezur corridor sought by Baku and Ankara. By proposing to transfer control of the Syunik corridor to a third party, ostensibly to ensure uninterrupted communication between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan, Nikol Pashinian is jeopardizing Armenias sovereignty and territorial integrity, Vartan Oskanian, a former foreign minister, said, reacting to Pashinians latest comments. A corridor under the control of a third party would set a dangerous precedent, Oskanian wrote on Facebook. It would effectively cut off a route through Armenias territory, subordinating national sovereignty to the transit rights of a state that not only does not renounce violence, but also continually threatens Armenias security and viability. Speaking the day after the Armenian-Azerbaijani summit in Abu Dhabi, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Thomas Barrack, revealed that Washington has also proposed a 100-year lease on the Armenian section of the would-be road and railway for Nakhichevan. Pashinians press secretary, Nazeli Baghdasarian, ruled out such a possibility on Monday, arguing that Armenian law allows only the lease of agricultural land for farming or grazing purposes. However, the premier seemed open to the idea on Wednesday. Under our legislation this is called a construction permit, he said, commenting on the would-be lease. And under certain conditions, investments granted under this right to build remain or become the property of the Republic of Armenia after the expiration of a contract. Pashinian further declared that Armenians must not be afraid of the word corridor in relation to transport links with Azerbaijan. In many cases, when our international partners say corridor, we jump up a little, and they jump up in turn, saying, But what did we say? he said. On the contrary, the whole world is looking for corridors everywhere. In a lawsuit revealed on Wednesday, the Office of the Prosecutor-General asked a Yerevan court to invalidate the Karabakh governments ownership of the building formalized in 2017. The law-enforcement agency declined to specify the grounds on which it is seeking such a ruling. Court hearings on the lawsuit have yet to start. Artak Beglarian, a former Karabakh premier, predicted that the judge in the case will likely agree to evict the Karabakh Armenian leadership from the building that has for decades served as its office in Armenia. He claimed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian is seeking to seize it at the behest of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev. Aliyev is destroying the buildings of Artsakh state bodies in Stepanakert, Beglarian told RFE/RLs Armenian Service. Now Pashinian's government wants to take the only building of Artsakh state institutes in Yerevan from us. Beglarian also described the court action as Pashinians act of revenge against the Karabakh leadership that has been increasingly critical of his appeasement policy towards Azerbaijan. In March 2024, Pashinian lambasted Karabakhs Yerevan-based leaders for continuing to present themselves as a government in exile and threatened to crack down on them. Pashinian renewed his threats in June 2024 as he accused them of encouraging Karabakh Armenian refugees to participate in antigovernment protests in the Armenian capital. The leaders of Karabakhs main political groups responded by accusing him of unleashing repressions and waging a smear campaign against the Karabakh Armenians. I have made clear that I cannot allow there to be a second state within the Republic of Armenia, Pashinian told reporters on Wednesday. The state should take measures. Pashinian publicly recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over Karabakh even before the September 2023 offensive that restored Bakus full control of the territory and forced its ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia. He has repeatedly indicated that the Karabakh issue is closed for his administration. Pashinians critics say he is now trying to dismantle all Karabakh bodies in order to woo Baku and convince it to sign an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty which he would use for trying to cling to power. Samvel Shahramanian, who served until last month as Karabakhs president in exile, was repeatedly interrogated by Armenian law-enforcement authorities in May and June this year. Shahramanian decided afterwards not to seek reelection backed by the main Karabakh factions. The Karabakh legislature has still not elected his successor. 16 July 2025 19:50 (UTC+04:00) Akbar Novruz Read more After years of ambiguity, hedging, and regional miscalculations, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has delivered what may be one of his most grounded press conferences to date. On July 16, in front of the Armenian and international press, Pashinyan laid bare the evolving contours of his foreign and domestic policy. He appears to understand the structural constraints of Armenian foreign policy given the current circumstances. More importantly, he is aware from his own experience that states suffer consequences if they ignore the changing power dynamics in their neighbourhood. His message was clear: Armenia must come to terms with regional realities or risk further isolation. This time, unlike the evasive rhetoric of past years, Pashinyans words were marked by a striking level of political sobriety. "Yes, in 2022, I recognised the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and that Garabagh is part of it. This decision should have been made much earlier," the Armenian leader admittedan admission few of his predecessors dared make. The recognition, he added, stemmed from a basic geopolitical logic: Armenia cannot recognise its territorial integrity without recognising the territorial integrity of its neighbours. Indeed, for a country historically trapped in irredentism and romantic nationalism, such realism is commendable. It marks the start, not the end, of a painful but necessary recalibration. Perhaps the most notable takeaway from the press conference was Pashinyans practical stance on the issue of restoring regional transport and communication corridors with Azerbaijan. We are interested in restoring bilateral trade relations with Azerbaijan, ensuring connectivity from Azerbaijan to the territory of Armenia or to third countries, as well as ensuring Armenia's access to third countries through the territory of Azerbaijan, he stated. This goes beyond mere infrastructureits about anchoring Armenias economic future in reality. Pashinyan even floated the idea of transferring the management of the route between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan to a private company, comparing it to the already outsourced management of Zvartnots airport. I do not believe that Armenia's jurisdiction or territorial integrity has been violated in any way here, he said. In doing so, he is attempting to take the emotional sting out of regional connectivity projects and reframe them as economic opportunities rather than existential threats. Peace with Turkiye comes as a strategic necessity Pashinyans realism also extends to one of the most emotionally and politically charged issues in Armenian public life: the relationship with Turkiye. If Armenia does not make peace with Turkiye, what alternatives are there? he asked pointedly. Does that mean we should go to war with a country like Turkiye? Do we even understand what we are talking about? These remarks, while deceptively simple, represent a profound departure from the nationalist orthodoxy that has long governed Armenias approach to its western neighbour. These rhetorical questions do more than expose the impracticality of confrontation; they challenge a decades-long psychological and political framework that equated dialogue with defeatism and any engagement with Turkiye as a betrayal of historical memory. In posing them, Pashinyan is forcing a national reckoning. He is asking Armenians to weigh the cost of sustaining historical grievance against the cost of geopolitical irrelevance. The implication is stark: clinging to victimhood narratives may offer short-term emotional comfort, but it will not ensure Armenias long-term viability as a sovereign and prosperous state. Crucially, this shift is not ideological so much as structural. Armenias diplomatic hostility toward Turkiye, now a resurgent regional power, a pivotal NATO member, and a key player in the South Caucasus, is no longer tenable. Geopolitical reality has rendered isolation both unsustainable and strategically reckless. Turkiye plays a decisive role in regional energy, trade, security, and transportation networks, sectors from which Armenia has long excluded itself through self-imposed diplomatic paralysis. Reengagement, therefore, is not a concession; it is a prerequisite for survival. Pashinyans rhetorical pivot also signals a broader transformation in Armenian statecraft, from a reactive foreign policy shaped by diaspora pressures and domestic populism to a more pragmatic, sovereignty-oriented outlook. That such a discourse is emerging now reflects both the cumulative cost of past illusions and the severity of the current predicament. The collapse of the Garabagh project and the rising prominence of regional integration efforts have together created a narrow but urgent window for policy recalibration. Yet, the Prime Ministers words alone will not suffice. Normalising relations with Turkiye demands a deep cultural and institutional shift, one that can overcome decades of state-sanctioned trauma, entrenched distrust, and political resistance from nationalist elites. In that sense, Pashinyans challenge is not just diplomatic; it is civilisational. From Moscows shadow to uncertain sovereignty On the regional security front, Pashinyan dropped another bombshell, his growing distance from the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). It is more likely for Armenia to withdraw from the CSTO than to freeze its membership, he noted, citing the organisation's failure to meet its obligations. Armenia has already ceased participation in CSTO activities and has withheld its membership fees. This signals not only disillusionment with Russia but a desire to reorient the countrys security policy away from imperial dependency. Is this radical shift in his political views really happening? Will Armenia's reliance on Russia for years, and its occasional role as a "political pawn or puppet of Russia," truly come to an end? However, such a pivot is not without its costs. Armenia remains deeply economically dependent on Russia. Its society is still shaped by Kremlin-leaning media and religious institutions, and its oligarchic elite, such as the Karapetyan brothers, many with Russian ties, are actively resisting reforms, endorsing the former government's ideas. Whether Pashinyan can truly wean Armenia off this long-standing dependency remains to be seen. The peace agreement with Azerbaijan and the only path to survival Perhaps the most critical development is that the peace agreement with Azerbaijan appears closer than ever. The text of the Armenia-Azerbaijan project on peace and the establishment of interstate relations has been agreed upon and negotiations on the text have been completed, Pashinyan declared. What remains is a roadmap, possibly involving initialling the deal, and navigating the internal political fallout. He also noted that Armenia is ready to simplify the transit regime through its territory and lamented how some factions have painted the reopening of regional railways as a disaster. I am surprised that some people are trying to present the resumption of railway traffic through the territory of Armenia as a tragedy. The tragedy is that there is no transit railway connection through Armenia, he emphasised. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has then expressed his confidence in the Abu Dhabi talks as a great platform for the peace process. "Abu Dhabi was the first meeting where both parties agreed in advance on the agenda for discussions and negotiations," he stated. "The discussion was very productive, and I hope we can continue this conversation in the same format," he expressed. So is this a real shift in Pashinyans political philosophy or just tactical manoeuvring? Only time will tell. But one thing is clear: he recognises that clinging to outdated narratives no longer serves Armenias interests. He also knows, painfully, that ignoring the shifting power dynamics of the region has already cost his country dearly. That is why Armenia must now move from realism in rhetoric to realism in governance. It must normalise ties with its neighbours, especially Turkiye and Azerbaijan, countries that, unlike Russia, are not interested in exploiting Armenias vulnerabilities for strategic gain. This wont be easy. Armenian society is still deeply traumatised by its past and distrustful of its future. Hatred of Turks is still socially acceptable, and the political class remains split between peacemakers and provocateurs. If recent history is a guide, Pashinyan might find it remarkably difficult to mobilise domestic support to reach his goals in the external arena. Firstly, the majority of the Armenian population still rejects reconciliation with Azerbaijan in the current circumstances. But if there is one thing that can tip the scales, it is leadership. In that sense, Pashinyan's words are not enough, but they are a start. The peace process is underway. Let us hope that, this time, it is not sabotaged by nostalgia, nor by fear. Perhaps, a crucial element in achieving lasting peace is the proposed change to the referendum, which seems like the only, if not one of the few remaining, unresolved issues. By embracing this change, we can pave the way for a future defined by stability and harmony. Because peace is not weakness. For Armenia, peace may be its only path to survival. 16 July 2025 11:43 (UTC+04:00) Full digital access to all news for 1 year Full digital access to all news for 6 months Full digital access to all news for 3 months Full digital access to all news for 1 month Find the plan that suits you best. The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) has added Kazakhstan-based insurance brokers Marsh and Aon to the official register of foreign insurers, reinsurers, and insurance brokers authorized to operate in the country, Azernews reports. Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention. Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis. By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more. Subscribe You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper Thank you! 16 July 2025 14:39 (UTC+04:00) Full digital access to all news for 1 year Full digital access to all news for 6 months Full digital access to all news for 3 months Full digital access to all news for 1 month Find the plan that suits you best. The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan has seen a significant drop both in annual and five-month comparisons, reflecting broader changes in the regional trade dynamics, Azernews reports. According to data from the State Customs Committee reported by Azernews, the total volume of trade between the two Caspian neighbors in 2024 stood at... Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention. Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis. By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more. Subscribe You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper Thank you! 16 July 2025 17:41 (UTC+04:00) Requests for psychological support constitute the majority of inquiries The Azerbaijan Children Hotline, operating with the support of Azercell, received 2,173 inquiries between January and June 2025. The majority of inquiries were related to requests for psychological support (497), followed by legal assistance (392), social issues (378), education (96), and healthcare (24). More than 750 requests addressed general topics, including service-related questions and various other matters. The largest number of inquiries (1,345) were submitted by adolescents aged between 15 and 18. Additionally, 502 requests involved children aged between 11 and 14, while 326 were related to children under the age of 10. Following the evaluation of all cases, 78 families were invited to the center and received legal, psychological, and psychosocial assistance. More than 300 social-psychological rehabilitation sessions were conducted. Emergency visits were arranged to 73 schools and households in response to cases requiring urgent intervention. To raise awareness about the hotline and its services, outreach activities were conducted at three vocational schools, nine secondary schools, and a youth center across Baku, Sumgait, and the Absheron region. Established in 2010, the Azerbaijan Children Hotline Service is managed by the Umidli Glck Public Association for Social Initiatives, with ongoing support from Azercell Telecom LLC and the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijan Children Hotline Service operates 24/7 and can be contacted via the short number 116111, four mobile lines (+994 50 680 22 80, +994 51 580 22 80, +994 51 880 11 80, +994 51 880 22 80), email ([email protected]), social media accounts (Facebook and Instagram)Usaq Qaynar Xtti mobile application and the official website (www.childhelpline.az). 16 July 2025 17:28 (UTC+04:00) Laman Ismayilova Read more The Azerbaijan State Academic Musical Theater has hosted a remarkable evening filled with both joy and nostalgia, as the beloved actress Rasmiya Nurmammadova celebrated her 60th anniversary, Azernews reports. The occasion was marked by a special performance, bringing together theater enthusiasts and artists alike in a celebration of talent, artistry, and dedication. The spotlight of the evening was a brilliant comedy, "Aligul Gets Married Today", based on the play by Sabit Rahman. Directed and choreographed by People's Artist Ilham Namig Kamal, with music composed by People's Artist Oktay Rajabov, the performance was a visual and emotional treat. With its vibrant energy, witty dialogues, and delightful charm, the play brought both laughter and deeper reflection, captivating the audience from the very first act. But the evening wasn't just about the play itself; it was a heartfelt tribute to Rasmiya Nurmammadova, whose illustrious career has spanned over four decades. As one of Azerbaijan's most treasured actresses, Nurmammadova's contributions to the theater were recognized with standing ovations and accolades throughout the night. Her radiant performance as Humay added a layer of depth and grace to the production, and, as always, the audience was mesmerized by her stage presence. The celebration began with an introduction from the Deputy Director of the theater Vafa Mukhadzhirova, who took the opportunity to highlight Nurmammadova's artistic journey. With great admiration, she presented the actress with an honorary diploma from the Republican Committee of the Trade Union of Cultural Workers of Azerbaijan, acknowledging her immense contribution to the cultural landscape of the country. The tributes didn't stop there. Ilham Namig Kamal, who had not only directed but also played the lead male role of Aligul, joined in the celebration. In his heartfelt speech, Kamal presented the actress with a special award from the Union of Theater Workers of Azerbaijan. His words resonated deeply, echoing the sentiments of a colleague and a friend, while celebrating their long-standing professional bond and mutual respect. The stage was alive with the energy of other notable performers, including Honored Artists Akbar Alizade, Igrar Salamov, Samadzade Khasiyev, and Zemfira Abdusamadova, among others. Together, they brought the play to life, elevating the performance with their incredible talent and dedication. The production itself, "Aligul Gets Married Today", was much more than a lighthearted comedy. At its core, the play offered a poignant examination of relationships, both personal and societal. Through humor and sharp wit, the plot explored the nuances of control, love, and manipulation, challenging audiences to reflect on the complexities of their own interactions. Director Ilham Namig Kamal's masterful combination of social satire, psychological drama, and humor made the play not only entertaining but thought-provoking as well. For the audience and those involved, the evening was a powerful reminder of the true essence of theater. Its not just about performances and applauseit's about the profound connections that artists forge with their audience and the lasting impact they leave behind. Rasmiya Nurmammadova, with her unmatched talent and dedication to her craft, embodies this spirit. Her 60th anniversary was not only a celebration of her career but also a tribute to the art of theater itself. Every time she steps onto the stage, it remains a moment of magic, a reminder that true artistry is timeless. As the final curtain fell on this memorable evening, it became clear: the theater is not merely a place for performances; it is a stage where lives are touched, emotions are stirred, and legacies are created. 16 July 2025 17:57 (UTC+04:00) Laman Ismayilova Read more Azerbaijan National Library has opened a book exhibition titled "Honored Scholar, Professor Khalil Yusifli 90" to celebrate the jubilee of Honored Scientist, Professor Khalil Yusifli, Azernews reports. The virtual exhibition features official documents, the professor's research works, photographs, articles about the scholar's creative work published in the press, and other literature. Those interested in exploring the virtual exhibition can use the provided link. The traditional exhibition showcases the scholar's works, fundamental scientific research, valuable and substantial monographs, textbooks and teaching materials, his transliterations and translations, as well as books for which he served as scientific editor, compiler, and author of the "Foreword." Additionally, literature is displayed that highlights his life, extensive scientific contributions, and his role in the development of literary studies. With over 5 million books, manuscripts, and maps, the Azerbaijan National Library is considered one of the largest libraries in the Caucasus region. Since 1939, the library has borne the name of the eminent playwright Mirza Fatali Akhundov. The library has an extensive collection of literature in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, and other languages. It has collected and preserved national editions, works of Azerbaijani and foreign authors about Azerbaijan published abroad. The National Leader, Heydar Aliyev, visited the National Library four times in 1995-1997 and donated nearly 300 books from his personal library. In 2004, the Mirza Fatali Akhundov Library was granted the status of a national library by the decision of Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers. The building of the library is no less impressive. The library's faade is decorated with the statues of eminent poets and writers like Nizami Ganjavi, Mahsati Ganjavi, Uzeyir Hajibayli, Shota Rustaveli, Alexander Pushkin and many others. The scope of the library's activities is constantly expanding. In 2005, on the basis of legal copies received from publishing houses and printing companies, the library published the yearbook "Books of Azerbaijan" for 1990, 1991, 2000, and 2001. Over the past years, the National Library has signed a memorandum on bilateral mutual cooperation with about 80 libraries. In 2021, the Culture Ministry and Mirza Fatali Akhundov Library launched a joint campaign, "Let's go to Garabagh with a book", to restore libraries in the Garabagh region. A large number of books were donated to the Garabagh Book Fund by a number of international organizations working in the field of culture, Turkic-speaking countries, famous foreign and local authors, publishers, and printing houses. 16 July 2025 10:35 (UTC+04:00) Akbar Novruz Read more Azerbaijan's Justice Minister Farid Ahmadov met with a delegation led by Munther Ibrahim Hussein, Chairman of the Federal Supreme Court of the Republic of Iraq, as part of the Iraqi delegation's official visit to Baku, Azernews reports. The meeting underscored the longstanding solidarity between Azerbaijan and Iraq, particularly within various international institutions, with both sides affirming that mutual visits and dialogue continue to strengthen bilateral ties. Minister Ahmadov highlighted the deep-rooted connections between the two nations: Both peoples are connected by a shared history, common religion, and other spiritual threads. This visit will provide an additional impetus to the development of our interstate relations, especially in the field of legal cooperation, the Minister noted. He added that broad opportunities exist for deepening collaboration in the legal sphere, including the exchange of judicial experiences and reforms. In turn, Munther Ibrahim Hussein expressed appreciation for the hospitality extended to the Iraqi delegation and remarked on the value of high-level visits in enhancing judicial cooperation. These exchanges not only promote cooperation in the field of courts and justice but also allow us to benefit from each others experiences in the legal domain, he said. The sides also held discussions on other matters of mutual interest, emphasizing their commitment to continuing dialogue and strengthening legal frameworks between the two countries. 16 July 2025 11:24 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more Euronews has released a special feature on the recent Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) Summit held in Khankendi, Azerbaijan, Azernews reports. The segment, aired as part of Euronews Focus programme, spotlighted the summits emphasis on expanding trade, developing transport corridors, and strengthening regional ties among ECO member states and invited partners. The event brought together heads of state, ministers, and senior officials from across the region to discuss strategies for deeper economic integration and improved connectivity. ECO Secretary General Dr. Asad M. Khan stated that the summit had successfully set out key priorities for enhancing cooperation along regional transport corridorsan essential step toward economic growth and interconnectivity. Azerbaijans Economy Minister, Mikayil Jabbarov, highlighted his countrys strategic role as a bridge between regional markets, underscoring its commitment to facilitating trade and transit. Delegates from Pakistan noted the summits broader diplomatic significance, while Nigerias representative emphasised the importance of strengthening multilateral cooperation beyond the ECOs traditional membership. The summit concluded with a joint declaration calling for the reduction of trade barriers, greater investment in cross-border infrastructure, and a concerted push to raise intra-ECO trade beyond its current share of just 8%. 16 July 2025 12:55 (UTC+04:00) Qabil Ashirov Read more The State Commission on Prisoners of War, Missing and Captured Citizens has announced that the remains of another soldier, previously considered missing from the First Garabagh War, have been identified and will be buried, Azernews reports. The commissions statement confirming the identity of the fallen soldier as Mzahir Karimov Khalq oglu. The remains of Mzahir Karimov will be laid to rest on July 18 at 1:00 PM in the cemetery of Usta Clili village, Khachmaz district. It should be recalled that over 4,000 people went missing during the First Garabagh War. Some of them were imprisoned and held as POWs in Armenia or in territories controlled by Armenian armed forces. These POWs corresponded with their families through the ICRC. However, they later went missing without a trace. Unfortunately, Armenia has refused to cooperate with Azerbaijan in this regard, despite all of Azerbaijans efforts. After the Second Garabagh War, Azerbaijan turned up several mass graves. 16 July 2025 12:18 (UTC+04:00) Qabil Ashirov Read more The Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg has extended the pretrial detention of five Azerbaijani brothersknown as the Safarov siblingsand another Azerbaijani national, Ahliman Ganjiev, who stand accused of a murder committed in previous years, Azernews reports, citing the Russian media. The court reviewed the case materials and granted the investigators request to prolong the defendants detention period until October 19, 2025. The decision ensures that the accused will remain in custody while the investigation proceeds. Details about the case itself have not been publicly disclosed. This development highlights the ongoing judicial process in a high-profile murder case involving Azerbaijani nationals in Russia. Recall that in the early hours of June 27, the Russian Federal Security Service conducted raids on homes inhabited by Azerbaijanis in the city of Yekaterinburg. During the operation, two Azerbaijanis were killed, and several others were detained. The two killed Azerbaijanis were the brothers of the well-known journalist Seyfaddin Huseynli. 16 July 2025 12:13 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held a one-on-one meeting with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Azernews reports. President Ilham Aliyev welcomed Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The Azerbaijani President and the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan posed together for photographs. Addressing the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said: - Dear Gurbanguly Malikgulyyevich, Welcome to Azerbaijan. I extend my sincere greetings to you. I am confident that your visit will make a significant contribution to the development of the brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Our peoples are bound together by deep-rooted fraternal traditions, which have grown even stronger during the years of independence. We enjoy successful cooperation across numerous areas, and both our countries pursue independent policies with a confident outlook toward the future. The historical ties between us form the foundation of our current relations, and I am certain that your visit will provide new impetus to our partnership. We have achieved significant progress in political, economic, humanitarian, and other spheres, including transport and energy, and, of course, today we will exchange views on future cooperation. Dear brother, once again, welcome to Azerbaijan. X X X Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said: - Dear Ilham Heydar oglu, Dear members of the delegations, First of all, please let me sincerely thank you for the invitation to visit Azerbaijan and for the hospitality and cordiality shown to us. I also have the honor to convey to you warm greetings and best wishes from His Excellency, President of Turkmenistan, Serdar Berdimuhamedov. My current visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan has the primary goal of further strengthening and developing bilateral relations, consolidating the milestones achieved, and providing incentives for the implementation of new projects and directions. In general, if we were to characterize the current level of Turkmen-Azerbaijani interstate relations, I would define them in three words: brotherhood, good neighborliness, and cooperation. We rely on a solid historical foundation, the commonality and kinship of our two peoples, mutual understanding of the need for each other, a clear vision of the strategic prospects for partnership, and a willingness to use our combined political, economic, and resource potential for the benefit of our peoples and states, their well-being, and prosperity. It is natural that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan today have a solid and broad agenda for cooperation in foreign policy, economics, culture, and humanitarian affairs. Thanks to the efforts of both sides, our interaction is distinguished by consistency and specificity; it is stable, sustainable, and shows good dynamics. The key decisive factor in this is the highest level of mutual understanding and trust achieved between the leaders of our countries. This allows us the opportunity to make the right and timely decisions on all issues of bilateral cooperation and ensure the implementation of the agreements reached. In the sphere of foreign policy, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan act from principled and firm positions based on adherence to the UN Charter and recognized international legal norms. Our countries are making an important contribution to maintaining stability and security in the world and on the continent, in regional issues, and in the Caspian Sea. We successfully and effectively cooperate in major international organizations, primarily in the UN and in a number of regional structures. In this regard, I would like to congratulate Azerbaijan on the recent successful hosting of the 17th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization in the city of Khankendi. Trade and economic partnership is developing successfully; its qualitative and quantitative indicators are growing. Traditional ties in culture, science, and education, as well as those on a personal human level, are expanding. The importance and role of inter-parliamentary cooperation and public diplomacy as the most important elements of interstate relations are growing. I am confident that this visit will become an important factor in bringing Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan closer together and in the development of coordinated approaches in the context of implementing a long-term cooperation strategy. Once again, thank you, dear Ilham Heydar oglu, for the warm welcome we always feel on the land of brotherly Azerbaijan. Thank you very much. X X X President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. Please convey my greetings to esteemed President Serdar Berdimuhamedov as well. 16 July 2025 16:33 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan emphasized the country's commitment to establishing lasting peace with Azerbaijan during a press conference in Yerevan, Azernews reports, citing Armenian media. Pashinyan affirmed that there will be no further war between the two nations. There will be peace, not war, between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Essentially, we are working towards a long-term solution to this issue and must continue our efforts in this direction, the prime minister stated. It is worth recalling that on July 10, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Abu Dhabi. The meeting was held in a constructive atmosphere, with serious and substantive discussions on key aspects of the peace agenda, including border delimitation, the opening and development of the Zangezur corridor, and the initialing of a peace agreement. General agreements were reached to continue negotiations through various working groups and at higher diplomatic levels. 16 July 2025 15:09 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, visited the Victory Park in Baku, Azernews reports. A guard of honor was lined up for Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in the park. Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan laid a wreath at the Victory Monument. He was briefed on the park, which honors the unparalleled valor of the Azerbaijani people during the Patriotic War, commemorates the historic Victory, and pays tribute to the memory of Azerbaijani martyrs. The Victory Arch at the parks entrance, symbolizing the 44-day Patriotic War, stands 44 meters high, 22 meters wide, and is supported by 44 columns. Victory Park, covering nearly 10 hectares, was inaugurated on November 8, 2024, by President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. 16 July 2025 16:54 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, Oguljahan Atabayeva, daughter of the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, visited the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku. Anar Alakbarov, Director of the Heydar Aliyev Center, provided an overview of the Center, which is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of the modern world. The Centers mission focuses on the in-depth study and promotion of the state philosophy of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the ideology of Azerbaijanism, and his enduring legacy. Through interactive exhibits, the Heydar Aliyev Museum within the Center presents various aspects of the National Leaders leadership during both the Soviet period and the years of Azerbaijans independence. Oguljahan Atabayeva also viewed the collection of official vehicles used by Heydar Aliyev during his leadership of Azerbaijan from 1969 to 2003. The exhibits, photographs, and multimedia installations reflecting different stages of Heydar Aliyevs statesmanship - both during the Soviet era and in the period of independence - sparked great interest in the guest. She also toured the Pearls of Azerbaijan exhibition, which highlights the countrys rich history, culture, and natural resources. The exhibition features traditional carpets, national costumes, ancient coins, and other artifacts showcasing Azerbaijans centuries-old heritage. The guest further explored several other exhibitions on display at the Center, including Musical Instruments: Unity and Diversity, Dance of Loops featuring Azerbaijani carpets, The Mystery of the Rose by Belarusian sculptor Andrey Ostashov, and Reflection of Eternity by renowned Brazilian artist and sculptor Luiz de Souza. Following the tour, a meeting was held between Oguljahan Atabayeva and Leyla Aliyeva. At the end of the visit, Director Anar Alakbarov presented a keepsake to Oguljahan Atabayeva. 16 July 2025 18:59 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, Oguljahan Atabayeva, daughter of the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, visited the Baku Book Center. Gunel Rzayeva, Director of the Baku Book Center, welcomed the guests and provided information about the Center. Established through the initiative and support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Baku Book Center officially opened its doors to visitors on September 1, 2018. The Center offers a rich and diverse selection of books across a wide range of genres in Azerbaijani, Russian, Turkish, English, Chinese, French, German, Arabic, and other languages. Spanning 2,500 square meters, the Center displays a variety of publications by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation across both the ground and first floors. Visitors can also explore a wide array of items, including I Love Baku clothing, souvenirs and accessories, Azerpoct products, bestsellers in multiple languages, non-fiction titles, classic literature, art albums, and tourist guidebooks. The first floor also features the Coffee Mood cafe - an inviting space for reading, meeting friends, or enjoying coffee and magazines in a cozy atmosphere. The second floor houses a reading room, a dedicated area for visually impaired visitors, a childrens zone, a venue for literary and cultural events, and an educational section. The Baku Book Center regularly hosts various events, such as book launches, author meet-and-greets, cultural programs, and masterclasses. It also organizes special reading sessions for children featuring prominent guests. In addition, the Center actively collaborates with international organizations and diplomatic missions to host exclusive events. Interactive displays throughout the venue keep visitors informed about available titles and the latest arrivals. On behalf of the Baku Book Center, a keepsake was presented to Oguljahan Atabayeva. 16 July 2025 18:04 (UTC+04:00) Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade, Chairman of Caucasus Muslims Office, met with Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, in Baku. Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade emphasized that National Leader Heydar Aliyev attached special importance to cooperation among the Turkic states, adding that this strategic policy is being successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev. Noting that Turkmenistan had embarked on a path of development after gaining its independence, Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade commended Turkmenistans achievements over this period. He also expressed his desire to revisit Turkmenistan again and meet with President Serdar Berdimuhamedov in the near future. Touching upon the religious cooperation, Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade recalled his previous meeting with the Mufti of Turkmenistan. He emphasized that under the leadership of the heads of state of both countries, the Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan relations, as well as cooperation in the religious and spiritual realms, have further expanded. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, underlined that the existing religious and spiritual ties between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan contribute to further strengthening the friendly ties between the two peoples. He also expressed confidence that this meeting would also help enhance bilateral relations. Both sides highlighted the strategic significance of joint initiatives, underscoring the vital role of religious and spiritual corporation in this regard. They also stressed the importance of continuing collaborative efforts in this direction in the future. Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov invited Sheikhulislam Allahshukur Pashazade to attend the opening ceremony of a mosque in Turkmenistan. 16 July 2025 17:43 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, Oguljahan Atabayeva, daughter of the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, visited the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. Amina Malikova, Director of Museum, provided detailed information about the history, activities, collections of the museum, as well as the Azerbaijani art of carpet-making, which made a deep impression on Oguljahan Atabayeva. It was noted that thanks to the tireless efforts of First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, Azerbaijans ancient art of carpet weaving was inscribed on UNESCOs Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010. The guest also watched the carpet weaving process at the museum. Oguljahan Atabayeva was also informed about Kelaghayi making which is a traditional Azerbaijani craft, as well as methods of making kelaghayi (traditional Azerbaijani women's headwear) and the meanings of the traditional patterns on it. She was presented with the "Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum" book dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the museum. Oguljahan Atabayeva donated a carpet to the National Carpet Museum. 16 July 2025 18:47 (UTC+04:00) On July 16, a delegation led by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, visited the Milli Majlis (Parliament) of Azerbaijan. The Chairman began his visit with a tour of the Milli Majliss plenary session hall. At the memorial hall named after National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the guests viewed exhibits reflecting different periods of the National Leaders life and political career. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov also signed the guest book. An expanded meeting was then held between the sides. Speaker of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova expressed confidence that the visit would contribute to the development and further strengthening of relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. She noted that the two nations share a common history, culture, language, religion, and family values, which form a solid foundation for their bilateral ties. Since gaining independence, these shared values have helped foster broad and productive relations. Gafarova emphasized the importance of reciprocal visits and high-level meetings in strengthening interstate relations. She highlighted the successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan within various international organizations, especially noting Turkmenistans continuous support for Azerbaijans initiatives during its chairmanship of the Non-Aligned Movement - support that is highly appreciated. She also underlined the strong potential for expanding economic cooperation, noting that partnerships in energy, transportation, and other sectors are progressing well. In addition, humanitarian cooperation between the two countries holds special significance. On interparliamentary relations, Gafarova stressed that mutual visits and meetings between parliamentary speakers and lawmakers provide substantial momentum to bilateral cooperation. She pointed out that interparliamentary friendship groups serve as effective bridges for joint initiatives. Deepening engagement between parliamentarians - both bilaterally and in international parliamentary forums - will further enhance AzerbaijanTurkmenistan relations. Expressing satisfaction with his visit, Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov shared positive impressions of his meeting and discussions with President Ilham Aliyev. He highlighted the important contributions made by both nations, as members of the Turkic family, to global political discourse. He also congratulated Azerbaijan on successfully hosting COP29 and addressing key international issues at a high level. Berdimuhamedov touched on a range of topics including regional developments, gender equality, youth policy, economic cooperation, the work of the Intergovernmental Commission, parliamentary diplomacy, and interparliamentary dialogue. The meeting concluded with an exchange of views on other matters of mutual interest. 16 July 2025 09:00 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva The Czech Republic has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom on nuclear energy cooperation, Azernews reports. This agreement followed a meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic and Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, in London. "A memorandum has been signed to confirm both countries' intention to strengthen our partnership in the nuclear energy sector, where we see significant potential in the coming years," Fiala told reporters after his talks with Starmer. "Working with the UK will help us ensure energy security and provide affordable energy for future generations," he added. Both the British and Czech governments view nuclear energy as a crucial element in the transition to low-carbon energy and in securing energy independence. Besides building traditional nuclear power units, the UK government also supports the development of small modular reactors (SMRs). A key development in Czech-British cooperation was the recent entry of the Czech energy giant CEZ Group into Rolls-Royce SMR, a company specializing in the development of small modular reactors compact reactors that can be assembled from pre-built modules. In collaboration with Rolls-Royce SMR, CEZ plans to construct modular reactors with a total capacity of 3 gigawatts in the Czech Republic by 2050. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining traction worldwide as a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional nuclear plants. These reactors are designed to be factory-built and then transported to their final location, reducing construction time and costs. If successful, they could play a significant role in meeting global clean energy targets. 16 July 2025 15:18 (UTC+04:00) Akbar Novruz Read more Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared that the Armenian Apostolic Church will be "liberated" in the same way that Armenia was freed from former President Serzh Sargsyans rule, Azernews reports. Pashinyan made these remarks during a recent press conference, responding to growing criticism of his government's stance toward the church and its leadership. Rejecting claims that he is orchestrating a campaign against the Catholicos of All Armenians, the head of the Armenian Church, Pashinyan said: The Armenian Apostolic Church is sacred to me and my family. Therefore, we cannot fight it in any way. Whatever we do, we do for the church itself. If the church were not sacred to us, we would simply remain indifferent to the destructive process observed today. Moreover, the current activities of the church, unfortunately, harm it itself. Despite the Prime Ministers claims of respect for the church, his government has faced increasing backlash from religious leaders and conservative circles over its alleged interference in religious affairs and its broader reform agenda. 16 July 2025 20:21 (UTC+04:00) Full digital access to all news for 1 year Full digital access to all news for 6 months Full digital access to all news for 3 months Full digital access to all news for 1 month Find the plan that suits you best. The Hungarian government has officially unveiled a plan to significantly expand its motorway and expressway network, aimed at enhancing transport infrastructure and strengthening regional connectivity. This move is part of Hungary's broader effort to position itself as a key transport hub in Central Europe, according to Hungary Today, Azernews reports. Here we are to serve you with news right now. It does not cost much, but worth your attention. Choose to support open, independent, quality journalism and subscribe on a monthly basis. By subscribing to our online newspaper, you can have full digital access to all news, analysis, and much more. Subscribe You can also follow AzerNEWS on Twitter @AzerNewsAz or Facebook @AzerNewsNewspaper Thank you! 16 July 2025 23:30 (UTC+04:00) By Alimat Aliyeva The Italian Ministry of Justice has announced plans to potentially release up to 10,000 prisoners roughly 15% of the countrys total prison population as part of efforts to ease severe overcrowding in detention facilities, Azernews reports. According to a statement issued late Tuesday, about 10,105 inmates are "potentially eligible" for alternative measures such as house arrest or probation. These options will be offered to those whose sentences are final (no ongoing appeals), who have less than two years remaining to serve, and who have maintained good disciplinary records over the past year. Importantly, individuals convicted of serious offensesincluding terrorism, organized crime, sexual violence, human trafficking, and kidnappingwill be excluded from this early release program. Italy faces one of the most pressing prison overcrowding crises in Europe. Data from the World Prison Brief show that Italian prisons operate at approximately 122% capacity, meaning facilities hold significantly more inmates than they were designed for. Only Cyprus and France report higher occupancy rates on the continent. This overcrowding has raised concerns about prisoner welfare, especially amid a troubling rise in suicides and complaints about extreme summer heat inside prisons lacking adequate air conditioning. Such conditions have spurred public debate about the humane treatment of incarcerated individuals. However, early release is a politically sensitive and complex measure. The Ministry of Justice emphasized that this process will be gradual and carefully managed. A dedicated task force has been established to collaborate with prison officials and parole judges to evaluate each case meticulously. This group will meet weekly and is expected to provide progress reports by September. Beyond easing overcrowding, the ministry hopes that these reforms will contribute to more effective rehabilitation and reduce recidivism by promoting alternatives to incarceration when appropriate. This move reflects a growing international trend towards criminal justice reforms focused on human rights and public safety balance. 16 July 2025 19:19 (UTC+04:00) Nazrin Abdul Read more The recommendations sent by the European Unions Foreign Affairs Council to the Georgian authorities regarding improvements in the countrys democratic situation have not been unanimously welcomed by the government and the ruling party, Azernews reports. The leadership and deputies of the ruling Georgian Dream Democratic Georgia party have described the EUs letter as a form of blackmail. Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling party and Prime Minister of Georgia, stated that discussions about a possible suspension of the visa-free regime with the EU amount to blackmail against the Georgian people. He added that such a step would be counterproductive. Levan Makhasvili, a deputy from the ruling party, said that European institutions continue to exert pressure on official Tbilisi through threats and blackmail. Despite concerns, the Georgian government remains ready to cooperate with both supportive partners and critical forces. Makhasvili emphasized, EU institutions will likely continue to use blackmail and threats in their dealings with Georgia to serve their interests. However, there are also EU member states that assess the situation soberly and believe that EU policy should be based on sound reasoning and shared geopolitical interests. He expressed confidence that opposition forces would also approach the issue rationally and return to the right path. Another ruling party deputy, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, noted that EU foreign ministers have not reached any decisions regarding Georgia, as leaders of individual member states have adopted a pragmatic stance. They understand that damaging relations with Georgia does not align with Europes own interests. Unfortunately, every step we take and every achievement we make is often used against us, Sharmanashvili said. Meanwhile, Pavel Gercinski, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, confirmed that most EU countries oppose suspending the visa-free regime with Georgia. 16 July 2025 18:19 (UTC+04:00) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday that it continued to attack the Syrian government's military targets to prevent reinforcements from being sent to the Suwayda area in southern Syria, Azernews reports. "Over the past 24 hours, Air Force aircraft have attacked and continue to strike tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and armed pickup trucks equipped with heavy machine guns that are heading toward the As-Suwayda," the military said on X, while also releasing footage of the strikes. Earlier today, Israeli forces also struck a military facility in Damascus. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders after clashes with local Bedouin tribes left more than 100 people dead. However, witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The fighting marks the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May leaving more than 100 people dead. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to "leave the Druze in Sweida alone". "As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on," he said in a statement. Syrian forces should withdraw, he added, and promised no let-up in Israeli military attacks until that happened, saying Israel would "raise the level of responses against the regime if the message is not understood". Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military said it had hit Syria's military headquarters in Damascus. "A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria," it said in a statement. Syrian state television reported that two people were wounded in central Damascus, without giving a more precise location. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Wednesday that his country's armed forces are operating to "save" the Druze population in Syria and "eliminate the gangs of the regime." The prime minister described the situation in the city of Suwayda and southwestern Syria as "very serious" and asked the local Druze, who are Israeli citizens, not to cross the border. "You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be taken hostage, and you are impeding the efforts of the IDF. Therefore I ask of you: return to your homes and let the IDF take action," he wrote via his office's account on X. Regarding the recent Israel /Iran Conflict (the "12 Day War"), culminating in the United States Air Force employing seven B2 Bombers to complete a 33 hour flight, dropping 14 fifteen ton bunker busting bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities buried deep under mountain rock, which destroyed Iran's nuclear ambitions against Israel and the United States: Should President Trump have unilaterally made the decision to make such a bold decision to conduct this operation, without first running this prospective operation before the US Congress for their approval? 10% No, The War Powers Act prohibitions, which requires NO presidential military action without congressional approval.90% Yes, the President has Article 2 Constitutional authority to take unilateral military action to protect the American People, providing he does not break congressional codes, which he did not.0% Don't care, never have. Beaufort County Growth, Is it Good? BY: HOOD RICHARDSON We know about the growth of spending and mismanagement within the Federal Government. The 37 trillion dollars of debt and the continuation of social subsidy programs seems to have no end. However, I am hopeful the Big Beautiful Bill that Trump just signed will have at least slowed spending and debt down. We are beginning to see some of the gravy train groups begin to complain that they may starve to death. We have the same kind of spending, government growth, handouts, and over taxation problems here in Beaufort County as the Federal Government. Beaufort County government is spending every dime of income it can get its hands on. There is no effort to reduce costs. The Gang of Four (Frankie Waters, Ed Booth, Randy Walker and Jerry Langley) are sitting on a surplus of 27 million dollars but refuse to reduce taxes. Beaufort County during the past two years has spent 10.5 million for the new consolidated Eastern/Tayloe school, 4 million for telephone companies, and one half million for school land for a total of 15 million dollars. That is off the books money, that is, it does not show up in the budget. All of this money came from over taxing the property owners of Beaufort County. County government continues to grow. At the July Commissioners meeting we voted to purchase 3 acres of land for the Community College for $150,000. Supposedly this was for the trades curriculum (plumbing, carpentry, brick laying, electricians) school. We did this with the President of the College, Dr. Loope, admitting that there are two other locations on the campus that he could have built the trades school. He admitted that he just wanted the land for future growth. The Community College is plenty big for a county our size. The Gang of Four voted to take the money out of savings and buy unneeded land. The commissioners approved a grant addition of $68,324.00 for a Housing Mitigation Grant Program to raise houses for people who may have never paid flood insurance. This program has been going on for over 20 years. Most houses have been raised above flood levels. There are some pretty expensive houses being raised at no cost to the owner. What about those of us who buy flood insurance and then have to pay additional to have the house raised. Is this fair and necessary? More borrowed Federal tax money at work. This money was hidden in the consent agenda. I pulled it out and forced a vote. It passed anyway. Then we took in a grant from the State of North Carolina for $155,398.00 for the Essential Single Family Rehabilitation Loan Pool. Sounds like a loan pool but it is not. If you continue to live in the house the government will forgive the entire amount of the so-called loan. This is for people whose house is rotting down because they never did any maintenance. This money was hidden in the consent agenda. I pulled it out and forced a vote. It passed anyway. There was another grant for $3,000.00 to Soil and Water Conservation for the money to provide legal and surveying expenses for a Conservation grant that exceeds $100,000.00 for someone to get paid to let their land not be used for some number of years. This is another give away of taxpayer money. We get nothing for this expense. Then came another grant from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Decentralized Wastewater System Pilot Program for $250,000.00 to repair septic tank systems. This is for people who make less than $69,904.00 per year. What about those who have been sued by Beaufort County and forced to repair their septic tank system at their own expense? Then an infrastructure and construction assessment pre-disaster contract was approved. This is a single bid contract supposedly to redesign Beaufort County in the event of a disaster, like a hurricane or perhaps even a tidal wave. The company from Texas provides engineers for $394.00 per hour. This is another of those pipe dreams that give County employees jobs to supervise the engineer. The entire idea is useless for Beaufort County. We have plenty of engineers here. I have some knowledge of this and how it works. County employees and Texas engineers must know more than me. This scheme came from EMS. They are looking after you. Then we gave a contract for $2,700 per year for mass notification. Another useless contract from EMS because we have television and radio service in Beaufort County. Then we took $117,086.46 from lottery funds to install new PA systems in Northside, Washington High and Chocowinity schools. It is bad financial judgment to spend this money before the consolidated Eastern and Tayloe schools are much closer to completion, because we do not know what the over runs will be. We may need this money to cover those expenses. It was not a pleasant commissioners meeting for me. The money spigot is fully open. The Gang of Four (Waters, Langley, Booth and Walker) are spending money like it is water. Remember what happened to Tri-County Telephone with Frankie Waters as Chairman. It is no more. Frankie spent their money. We need a conservative Board of Commissioners with tax and spending reductions. Nova Holts Strickland , who's book is titled Bugscuffle...Are We There Yet?, contains her memories growing up in Orange County and living in the Orange County jail as a teenager. Her father, Chester Holts, was the Sheriff for 21 years and these were his handcuffs. The possibility of appealing the original order is still open to the brothers The brothers' portfolio included a Starbucks location on St Stephen's Green, which is no longer in operation. Photo: VIPIreland.com Two brothers behind a number of high-profile Irish franchises including Starbucks cafes in Northern Ireland have secured a stay on a court order restricting them from acting as directors. In a judgment published last month, Ms Justice Nessa Cahill found Colum and Ciaran Butler failed to prove they acted responsibly in the operation of one of their companies, Downtul Ltd, which leased a premises at St Stephens Green, Dublin, that operated as a Starbucks. Downtul was placed in voluntary liquidation in November 2022. The judge granted a declaration sought by Downtul liquidator Patrick OConnell restricting the brothers from acting as company directors or secretaries for five years unless the company meets certain requirements set out in the Companies Act 2014. Such an order means that, for the Butler brothers to act as directors of a company, that company must have share capital of at least 100,000 paid up by shareholders 500,000 in the case of a public limited company. The judge had found that the brothers discharged the burden of showing they acted honestly in the operation of Downtul. Lawyers for the Butlers successfully applied for a stay on the order yesterday, after submitting that their clients would require time to get their affairs in order. Brian McGuckian, acting for the Butlers, told the court his instructions were to seek a six-month stay on the order for two reasons. He said he was firstly seeking the stay to allow the Butlers time to organise their affairs, noting that Ciaran is the director of 134 companies, while Colum is the director of over 170 companies. Mr McGuckian said there was a general practice of the court affording directors time to organise their affairs in the context of an order of this kind. He said he was also seeking a stay pending a possible appeal being brought against the High Court decision. Padraic Lyons SC, for the receiver, said there was an obvious distinction between the granting of a stay pending an appeal and a stay to allow the directors to get their affairs in order. His side had received no correspondence on a potential appeal, and there were no draft grounds of appeal before the court. It was a matter for the directors to put before the court arguable grounds for appeal, he said. Mr Lyons agreed there should be a stay granted to allow the directors to organise their affairs, but submitted that six months was an excessive amount of time. Ms Justice Nessa Cahill said she would grant a stay of four months to allow the Butlers to organise their affairs. She said she was not granting the stay pending a possible appeal, but noted the granted stay will be under the same terms that would have been in place had she acceded to the application for a stay pending appeal. It was a matter for the respondents if they wished to bring an appeal against the order, she said. Struggle families face at what is an expensive time of year laid bare in new credit union study One in three parents with children in education in Northern Ireland are forced into debt by back-to-school costs, according to new research. The study from the Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) also found the average spending for parents of primary school pupils is 947, and 1,094 for parents of secondary school pupils. Over two-thirds of parents reported finding back-to-school expenses a major financial challenge. The data comes from a study carried out for ILCU by i-Reach, which surveyed 544 parents. Just over a third (36%) reported having to go into debt in order to afford the costs. For 19%, these debts exceeded 500. Martin Fisher ILCUs Martin Fisher said: This years findings clearly illustrate the ongoing struggle families face with back-to-school costs, resulting in debt and difficult financial decisions. Its particularly concerning that parents continue to rely on credit cards, money lenders and buy now, pay later schemes to cover these expenses. Such borrowing can quickly lead to escalating debts and hidden charges, compounding financial stress. Were particularly concerned about the ongoing sacrifices parents must make, from essential clothing and educational activities to cutting back on household necessities like food. This indicates that the wider financial challenges faced by households are deepening. Lunches and after-school care represent the joint-largest outlays for parents, with both costing 133 on average. Uniforms can also be challenging, particularly for families with multiple children at school. Parents struggle financially to cover back-to-school costs News Catch Up - Tuesday 15th July Mr Fisher added: There was one incident where a parent who has four children in secondary school was looking at over 1,200 just in uniform costs. Thats a substantial amount of money to have each summer. In that case, the parent was saying to us that, despite having two incomes coming in, they were making cutbacks on other items to help manage that. This years survey found that 39% of parents sacrificed family holidays to afford school expenses, and 12% cut back on food. In response to the strain of costs, over a third of parents also had to deny spending on school items, including shoes and pupil trips. Mr Fisher is concerned that the pressures can harm young people in the long run. He explained: There was another example where one parent was telling us about getting the teenager to school and she said that as she couldnt afford the school uniform, their daughter was refusing to attend that was having an impact on her education. There are direct consequences of people not having access to the full uniform. He highlighted the role local credit unions could play in helping people through the back-to-school financial strains. As not-for-profit, community-based financial providers serving nearly a third of the Northern Ireland population, credit unions are uniquely positioned to help families manage financial pressures and build sustainable futures, he said. We encourage anyone struggling financially to speak to their local credit union before resorting to costly and risky lending methods. Former NI Secretary of State Julian Smith has hit out at Lord Cameron for his extremely cavalier approach to the Brexit referendum in 2016. And Mr Smith, who lasted just over six months in the NI role before being sacked by Boris Johnson, said he was frustrated but not surprise at being removed from the job despite his role in securing a return of Stormont in 2020. Having been appointed as Secretary of State by Boris Johnson in 2019 Mr Smith, who remains MP for Skipton and Ripon in Yorkshire though called himself 100% Scottish, found himself in the midst of what he called an unforgivable decision by former Prime Minister David Cameron to call the referendum on leaving the European Union. I joined the Conservative Party because of David Cameron, because he was dynamic, but it was unforgivable that this fundamental question was put to the British people when you have a whole range of issues, not least the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, he told the BBCs Red Lines podcast. Now on the back benches, one of the few supporters of Theresa Mays government to have survived, hes highly critical of Lord Camerons approach, calling the former Prime Minister extremely cavalier in his approach to Brexit. Former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Julian Smith It (the referendum) was put to the British people as if it was some sort of Eton game, he said, referencing the fact that Mr Cameron was one of several at the heart of the UK government who had been educated at the famous private school. After losing the referendum vote, David Cameron resigned and left piecing it together to others, among them Mr Smith who was a key figure in Teresa Mays doomed government, serving as chief whip under her leadership from 2016-19. There should have been a proposition which outlined how both answers, yes and no, would be addressed, he said. Issues such as how to maintain an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland should have been foreseen. Instead the UK was led into years of contemplating an answer to that question. It was a pretty disastrous period. It has led to many of the challenges today where concerns over immigration are unaddressed and a polarisation of politics. That may have come anyway, but it was really accelerated by that period from 2017 onwards. David Cameron, former UK prime minister and foreign secretary, has resigned from Rishi Sunaks top team (Lucy North/PA) Theresa May resigned in 2019 due to an inability to pass Brexit legislation - three times the votes went against her government in the Commons, During that time he had built up a relationship with the DUP, who had secured their confidence and supply arrangement to prop up government. The DUP relationship was very helpful in one of the big factors - keeping Jeremy Corbyn out of power, he said. They were positive to work with, but it was obviously a very difficult time when you had a very small party that was critical to the stability at Westminster and so influential. On a personal basis I found them straightforward to deal with. When Boris Johnson took over as Prime Minister Smith was appointed to his first Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and was instrumental in breaking three years of political inactivity as Stormont resumed in January 2020. I wasnt sure I would get a job, he said, having been a key figure in supporting Teresa May. I was delighted to get the role, he continued, admitting days in Northern Ireland was the first time he had dealt with Sinn Fein politicians. Theresa May (Hannah McKay/PA) They dont take their seats at Westminster, he said. Probably they could have had the votes to influence things (over Brexit) But I found Sinn Fein to be a very driven and organised party. I find what happened in the past abhorrent and I disagree with their goals, but I found their politicians straightforward to deal with and developed good working relationships with them. That led to Stormont returning in January 2020. A month later, Julian Smith was out of the job. It was quite frustrating, he said. The restoration of Stormont was one of the first successes of the Boris Johnson government. I had pushed back in cabinet about the idea of a no deal Brexit. Looking back, if I had been Boris, Id have been irritated by that too. I felt I could have assisted him more as Prime Minister. But no, it wasnt unexpected he decided to get rid of me as Id served Teresa May. Asked about the potential for a border poll, Smith said he did not think the conditions were right. Look at all the other things that need to be done, he said. Constitutional discussion is basically an excuse for not dealing with these priority issues. Dont let politicians in Northern Ireland off the hook on dealing with social mobility, dealing with the health service, revenue raising I cannot in any world see a border poll with interest from Ireland, acceptance from the UK. Were better focusing on making peoples lives better. A couple will be prosecuted for the murder of a love rival whose body was found hidden in the back yard of a south Belfast squat, a court has heard. From seeing the sights to hitting Arcadia for matcha, WAGs of golf stars soak up The Open in Portrush The clinic will be launched in the Cornmarket area of the city (Tim Goode/PA) A fraud clinic is set to launch in Belfast to provide one-on-one sessions to help people safeguard themselves from financial crime. The free tutorials will be offered by Leeds Building Society and provide advice and services to equip those seeking to become homeowners with the knowledge needed to recognise a scam. The business Cornmarket branch will provide the programme which consists of 30-minute sessions covering a range of different cons such as online banking and card fraud, scam emails and Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud. Stephen Senior, Head of Financial Crime Prevention at Leeds Building Society, said the programme will provide people with the necessary knowledge to spot financial crimes. According to UK Finance, 1.17 billion was lost to fraud in 2024, a shocking figure and something we want to help to tackle, he said. Through developing this educational programme, we hope to help our members and the general public feel more confident about how to protect themselves from financial crime, and give them the tools and knowledge to spot potential scams. Fraudsters avail of a range of methods including social media, email, phone calls and text messages to swindle victims. Between November 1, 2023, and October 31, 2024, the PSNI received more than 5,200 reports of fraud, with the reported loss of 19m in the same period, according to figures from Action Fraud. The clinic will be launched in the Cornmarket area of the city (Tim Goode/PA) News Catch Up - Tuesday 15th July In one instance, a victim lost over 50,000 in an online romance scam after believing they were helping with a business opportunity. Another target here was scammed of more than 100k in a bank impersonation scam where a person was called by someone claiming to be from their bank telling them there had been suspicious activity on their account, and asking for money to be moved into different accounts to keep it safe. Graham Binns, Leeds Building Societys Head of Branch Network, said he is looking forward to welcoming more people into our branches to share the knowledge our teams have learned, and help people in Belfast to feel more financially resilient. The programmes will be launched across a number of the companys sites across the UK and follows trial sessions in five branches, including the Societys Swansea branch. Tracy McCauley, Customer Experience Manager at Leeds Building Society said: Our Swansea branch team recently received a call from a gentleman who attended a fraud clinic after a scammer had attempted to gain personal information from him through a text message claiming to be from a parking company. Putting the learning from the fraud clinic into action, he instantly knew it could be a scam and didnt click on the link. He reported the text message to colleagues in the branch to raise awareness and help protect others. Since attending the session he says he is more savvy to potential scams and feels more confident about his own financial security. Lurgan man Air Marshal Harv Smyth has been appointed as the RAF's next Chief of the Air Staff. A former fighter pilot from Northern Ireland has said he is deeply honoured to be appointed as the new head of the RAF. Air Marshal Harv Smyth from Lurgan will succeed Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton in August after his promotion was approved by the King. Mr Smyth joined the RAF in 1991 as a direct entrant and spent 15 years as a frontline Harrier pilot and weapons instructor flying hundreds of operational missions over Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2015 he was promoted to Air Commodore and has held a range of command positions. My Smyth said: I am deeply honoured to have been selected as the next Chief of the Air Staff at such an important time for the Royal Air Force. He added: I take over from Sir Rich Knighton, who has achieved so much over the past two years, preparing the Royal Air Force for the challenges that we currently face and developing the operational mindset that we need, should we transition to conflict. "I share in his unwavering support for our people and am delighted to have this opportunity to lead our whole force as we deliver outstanding air and space power for the UK and NATO. Defence Secretary John Healey said the move comes at a transformative time for the RAF as it transitions to warfighting readiness following the publication of the Strategic Defence Review. He has outstanding credentials to lead the RAF in a crucial period of transformation for the force, he said. Lurgan man Air Marshal Harv Smyth has been appointed as the RAF's next Chief of the Air Staff. King Charles and Queen Camilla visit Banbridge Air Marshal Smyth has led a distinguished career to date. From spending 15 years as a frontline Harrier pilot and weapons instructor, to flying hundreds of operational missions from both land bases and aircraft carriers, to holding numerous vital command positions, he has served our nation loyally. The pilots ascent began when, aged 14, he attended a careers day in Lurgan College and his English teacher, Molly Edgar, overheard him talking about his interest in the RAF and took an immediate interest. "She was a big encouragement. In fact, she helped set up my very first interview with the RAF when I was 15, which led to me being awarded the RAF Sixth Form and Flying Scholarships, he previously told the Belfast Telegraph. "Very quickly I found myself at Woodgate Aviation at Aldergrove, where at the age of 16, I was taught to fly." In the 2021 interview, he described having the coolest job in the world after he became the UKs first space defender. DUP MP Carla Lockhart offered her congratulations. This is an incredible achievement and a truly proud moment for his family, for Lurgan, for Upper Bann, and for Northern Ireland as a whole, she said. Harvs record of service is exemplary. Over more than three decades, he has consistently displayed courage, leadership and commitment from the frontline in combat zones to the strategic heart of UK defence planning. His appointment to the highest office in the Royal Air Force is richly deserved. At a time when the UK faces growing global threats and an evolving defence landscape, Harvs experience and calm leadership will be vital in guiding the RAF through the next chapter. He brings with him not only operational excellence, but a strong sense of duty and service to our nation. This is also a deeply inspiring moment for our young people. Harv Smyths journey from the streets and schools of Lurgan to the top of the Royal Air Force is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved with determination and integrity. Lurgan man Air Marshal Harv Smyth has been appointed as the RAF's next Chief of the Air Staff. Watch: King and Queen meet The Causeway Shantymen during visit to famous Belfast street His former school, Lurgan Junior High, said staff were immensely proud for their past pupil. With a distinguished career spanning over three decadesincluding 15 years as a frontline Harrier pilot and senior leadership roles across DefenceAir Marshal Smyth now takes on this prestigious position at a pivotal time for the RAF, the school said. His service, leadership, and dedication to our nation are truly inspirational, and we are honoured to count him among our alumni. Lurgan man Air Marshal Harv Smyth has been appointed as the RAF's next Chief of the Air Staff. Red Arrows in Newtownards for Armed Forces Day Meanwhile, the incoming Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton, said: I am absolutely delighted that Air Marshal Harv Smyth has been selected as the next Chief of the Air Staff, and I have every confidence that he will lead the Royal Air Force brilliantly and make sure we are ready to fly and fight. As I hand over to Air Marshal Smyth, I know that under his command the Royal Air Force will go from strength to strength to ensure that we are always ready to protect and promote our national interests on the world stage. "I wish him every success and look forward to working with him in leadership of our Armed Forces. UTV legend launches two-day Belfast festival by handling a trailer of a very different kind Julian Simmons is taught how to handle the tractor and trailer by farmer Michael McGreevy Julian Simmons in front of the farm machinery he was taught to operate In his 35 years on UTV, Julian Simmons was no stranger to making trailers. But now hes experienced a trailer of a different kind pulling one while driving a tractor. The local TV legend was given a crash course in driving the farm machinery for a stunt to promote the Farmers Bash Weekender at Boucher Playing Fields. Julian will appear on the first day of the festival to introduce some of the acts, as well as starring with his own DJ set. He said: When I saw I was having a trailer in the back of it, I nearly died because I thought: How am I going to manoeuvre that? But, surprise, surprise, with the guy showing me what to do, I didnt do too bad. That man was Co Down farmer Michael McGreevy, who enjoyed banter with the presenter for a YouTube video filmed by FarmFLiX. Julian added: I mean, when I was standing beside it looking up at it, I thought: Oh my God! But once I got into it and I was shown the right levers and knobs, I was a bit more confident... it was in a field and I wasnt going to knock too many things over. Nobody died! He will be keeping it country for his star turn at the Farmers Bash next month. But not with his music hes going to dress the part instead. He explained: Im doing an hour of DJ bangers, which the public should like, but the only country twist will be the gear Im wearing for it. Ill be looking for a sort of farmer-ish checked shirt and jeans and everything and Ill have a cowboy hat as well. He is as busy as ever, having left UTV four years ago, but remains modest about his status as a national treasure. He said: No, I dont (think I am), but people tell me that I am, and, I mean, thats very nice, you know? Its nice to be told that, its good people are always pleased to see me and everything. When you think about it, it was nearly 35 years doing that job four nights a week, and also doing my job with Air Canada at Heathrow. It was running about between the two. It was like breakneck speed the whole time. Thank goodness I am still busy, Im very lucky that people still want me to be at things and host things, and now the DJing is such good fun to do because people love a good bop with good, hard music, and they enjoy that. Carolyn Stewart helped me a bit, because I wasnt very aware of how to do the mixing and everything. But she taught me a bit. But what I have learned is actually, when theres a good crowd there, and the music is banging, if you dont get the mix quite right, they dont notice. Hes also working on his autobiography. He said: Its been talked about, and Ive got a couple of chapters written, but Ive been so busy recently that I havent had any more time. I would need to go away somewhere and write over a weekend or something to get some more chapters in. Theres a lot to tell. And, I mean, Ive seen a lot of life in my careers and Ive had a lot of great experiences which are good to talk about. So, I might get round to it yet, and when you live in Northern Ireland, it is warts and all, you know. I mean, theres so much that happens that some people would be quite shocked at, but its just part of the way life has been. In both careers, I was in the thick of it, really, in the airline industry and also on UTV, because I got to meet quite a lot of stars, which was good. That includes one of the acts appearing at the Farmers Bash, Boyzlife, pop duo Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden of Boyzone and Westlife fame, who Julian mentions during his innuendo-filled tractor ride video. Other big names at the two-day extravaganza include The Kaiser Chiefs, The 2 Johnnies, The Coronas and B*Witched. He added: Im looking forward to seeing Boyzlife, because when I was at UTV they were in quite a lot. I used to have Julian mugs in those days and one of the guys, every time I saw him, he asked me for another one. So I think hes got a good collection. Im looking forward to meeting them and a brave few of the acts that are going to be there. I dont know quite yet who Im going to be introducing, but well suck it and see, as they say in the best places. The Farmers Bash Weekender is at Boucher Playing Fields, Belfast, on August 9-10. For more information on the full line-up visit farmersbash.com. Remaining tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.ie Following claims that An Post in in a dire financial situation, Patrick ODonovan said that the postal service has been transformed in recent years under the leadership of An Post chief executive David McRedmond (Brian Lawless/PA) The Arts Minister said he is confident about the future of An Post, describing the company as viable and profitable. Patrick ODonovan said that despite the challenges faced by mail delivery services across Europe, An Post has outstripped most of its detractors. It comes after reports claimed that Government ministers were told that the postal service would have been a substantial loss last year without the revenue generated by general and European election post. Arts Minister Patrick ODonovan (Niall Carson/PA) Mr ODonovan presented the postal services annual report to Cabinet on Tuesday. Following claims that An Post in in a dire financial situation, Mr ODonovan said that the postal service has been transformed in recent years under the leadership of An Post chief executive David McRedmond. Mr ODonovan said: The issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting, and Im not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because Im constitutionally prevented from doing that, as is everybody else. But obviously somebody decided that that wasnt going to be the case. David McRedmond is absolutely right. An Post has been transformed over the last number of years under his leadership, and the men and women that work in the organisation. The Irish state and the Irish Government are absolutely, totally committed to its future. On Thursday, Mr McRedmond said the results given to Cabinet show the highest revenue, making over a billion for the first time. He said that An Post earnings grew from 38 million euros to 55 million euros. Mr ODonovan told RTEs Today with Claire Byrne that An Post has returned to profit following some challenging years. I mean, mail delivery services across Europe have been challenged over the last number of years, but An Post has outstripped most of its detractors with regard to personal delivery, the communications minister added. That I can say as a shareholder, is An Post return to profit last year. Theyve had some challenging years, theres no doubt about that, and theyve gone through a restructuring programme. One of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isnt helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, as people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters. To be quite honest about it, it is showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is and a lack of understanding of what an independent contractor who works for An Post is. The CEO has done an excellent job, and notwithstanding the financial difficulties that are there. But how would a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I dont know how they would come up with that. He added: Theres challenges everywhere, because all of us have moved to a digitalised future. An Post are well ahead of the curve in terms of making sure that their future isnt going to be inextricably linked just to next day mail delivery services, and thats why theyre doing a very good job. Speaking to RTE Radio 1, Mr McRedmond said he was absolutely furious by the claims. That report is utter garbage. Im here in Italy, on my holidays, Im absolutely furious to read something like that, he added. The company presented its results. The results were presented to Cabinet yesterday. They showed the highest revenue weve ever had, over a billion revenues for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from 38 million euro to 55 million euro. They showed that our net profit was at 10 million. The company is performing extremely well. Weve got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe. So I just dont understand it. He rejected claims that without profits generated from last years general and European elections, it would have made a substantial loss. Its just simply not true, and its not how companies work. Yes, we got a big boost in the elections last year, but if it wasnt the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, weve huge costs with them, he added. It was irresponsible leak from a Government minister, which is wholly unacceptable. These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. Yes, we want more cash because were growing so fast, because were growing in commercial parcel markets. We use get paid for everything upfront when people buy stamps, were now in a commercial parcel market. We get paid on 60 or 90 days credit. We are constantly growing, so we need more working capital. We talk to Government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength. He also rejected claims that cash reserves have fallen below one million euros. We have at the end of the year with 38 million cash reserves, and this year, so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year. Im talking to Government about it. I hope theres just some big misunderstanding somewhere, and the company, as I say, is doing really well. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said Israel needed to focus on ending the war (Brian Lawless/PA) The Taioseach has rejected comments from an American diplomat who said the Irish Government needs to sober up. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee criticised the Irish Government over its plans to implement legislation that would ban the imports of goods originating in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Mr Huckabee wrote in a post on X: Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness and propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review your details and accept them to load the content It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland! Call (the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Aiffairs) and say youre sorry! Asked about the comments on Wednesday, Micheal Martin said: I reject the comments made by the ambassador. The situation is very serious in Gaza including an appalling loss of human life. Terrible war crimes are being committed. Ireland has consistently condemned Hamas and we equally condemn Israeli breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza. The slaughter of children must stop. The slaughter of innocent civilians queuing for food must stop. What is going on is beyond any moral compass. Ireland stands for peace and a political pathway forward. Criticism of the Occupied Territories Bill also came from figures in the Israeli government, which Mr Martin has levelled criticism at for the ongoing war in Gaza. Mr Martin said: I think Israel needs to focus on ending the war that is slaughtering innocent children and civilians. This kind of row is ridiculous, given the enormity of killing and the enormity of the death and destruction thats happening in Gaza and the continuing shocking behaviour in the West Bank and the freedom thats given to extreme settlers to destroy settlements and housing belonging to Palestinians whove been there on that land for generations. The time for this war to end this has long passed. He added: Theres a moral issue here, theres an ethical issue at this stage. People queuing for food have been slaughtered. Bombs are landing on houses and children have been slaughtered. Nicholas Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody (Bedfordshire Police/PA) A triple murderer could have his sentence increased to a whole-life order when the Solicitor Generals bid to have his minimum term raised is heard at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Nicholas Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, in March after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023. The 19-year-old also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. (Left to right) Giselle Prosper, 13, Juliana Falcon, 48, and 16-year-old Kyle Prosper (Bedfordshire Police/PA) The Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient in April, with a spokesperson for the Attorney Generals Office claiming that it believed Prosper ought to have been given a whole-life order. The hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Wall is due to begin at 10.30am at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother more than 100 times, Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. He had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after forging a gun licence. Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said that a whole-life term could only be given to an 18 to 20-year-old if a court deemed that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high. But she stopped short of imposing a whole-life order in Prospers case, as he was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up. She continued that while he was indisputably a very dangerous young man, the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. She continued: Despite the gravity of your crimes, it is the explicit joint submission of counsel that a lengthy, finite term will be a sufficiently severe penalty, and this is not such an exceptionally serious case of the utmost gravity where the sentence of last resort must be imposed on an offender who was 18 at the time and is 19 today. As well as the murder sentences, Prosper also received concurrent jail terms of life with a minimum term of 18 years for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, three-and-a-half years for buying the gun and one year for possession of a kitchen knife, to run concurrently. Whole-life orders are reserved for the most serious offences, with those handed the tariffs including Louis De Zoysa, who murdered Metropolitan Police Sergeant Matt Ratana in 2020, and Kyle Clifford, who murdered his ex-partner Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah Hunt and mother Carol Hunt last year. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no-one in that age bracket has received the sentence since then. Sir Keir Starmer will host German chancellor Friedrich Merz on his first official visit to the UK on Thursday as the Prime Minister seeks to boost ties on defence and tackling people smuggling operations. Berlin agreed last year to make facilitating the smuggling of migrants to the UK a criminal offence in a move that will give law enforcements more powers to investigate the supply and storage of small boats to be used for Channel crossings. Mr Merz is expected to commit to adopting the law change by the end of the year. Chancellor Merzs commitment to make necessary changes to German law to disrupt the supply lines of the dangerous vessels which carry illegal migrants across the Channel is hugely welcome, Sir Keir said. As the closest of allies, we will continue to work closely together to deliver on the priorities that Brits and Germans share. Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz and Sir Keir Starmer (PA) The Prime Minister has been seeking to strengthen ties with EU countries, including to bring down small boat crossings, and last week secured a migrant return agreement with France. The UK and Germany, two of the biggest providers of support to Ukraine, signed a defence pact last year with the aim of closer co-operation in the face of a growing threat from Russia. During Mr Merzs visit, the leaders are expected to unveil an agreement to jointly produce defence exports such as Boxer armoured vehicles and Typhoon jets and commit to developing their deep precision strike missile in the next decade, with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres. The chancellor and Sir Keir will also sign a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty that includes plans to set up a new UK-Germany Business Forum. Sir Keir said: The Treaty we will sign today, the first of its kind, will bring the UK and Germany closer than ever. It not only marks the progress we have already made and the history we share. It is the foundation on which we go further to tackle shared problems and invest in shared strengths. A series of commercial investments are being announced to coincide with the visit, worth more than 200 million and will create more than 600 new jobs. These include defence tech company Stark setting up a production facility in Swindon, its first outside Germany, and conversational AI firm Cognigy investing 50 million and expanding its UK team from 13 to 150. The Prime Minister will pledge to rebalance power and responsibility at a summit with faith groups and charities. Sir Keir Starmer will deliver a keynote speech when he launches the Governments civil society covenant on Thursday, at an event that will touch on issues such as healthcare and violence against women and girls. He will tell attendees: This is about rebalancing power and responsibility. Sir Keir will add: Not the top-down approach of the state working alone. Not the transactional approach of markets left to their own devices. But a new way forward where government and civil society work side by side to deliver real change. As well as the speech from the Prime Minister there will be sessions led by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. Chancellor Rachel Reeves de facto deputy Darren Jones will also lead a talk focused on investors and philanthropists. Ahead of the event, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said charities, volunteers, and social enterprises are embedded in the communities they serve and trusted by the people they support. She added: That makes them the perfect partners for shaping the change we need. By working together, well improve public services, make them more responsive and rooted in local needs, and ensure that every community benefits as part of our plan for change. In its election manifesto Labour pressed the importance of community groups when it said that government is at its best when working in partnership with business, trade unions, civil society, faith groups, and communities. Queen Camilla posing for a portrait to mark her birthday in the garden of her home Ray Mill House in the village of Lacock (Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Buckingham Palace) A new photograph of the Queen has been released to celebrate her 78th birthday. Camilla was pictured smiling in the sunshine and leaning on a metal gate in front of a meadow at her Wiltshire residence Ray Mill House. The image shows the Queen looking relaxed and wearing a turquoise dress in a Liberty fabric printed with a rainforest of toucans, lemurs and monkeys. Last year, Camilla was on duty on her birthday attending the State Opening of Parliament at the Kings side. This year, she is said to be spending the day privately. Queen Camilla posing for a portrait to mark her birthday in the garden of her home Ray Mill House in the village of Lacock (Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Buckingham Palace) The King, who is still being treated for cancer, is known to have been buoyed by his wifes support since his diagnosis last year. The pair celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary at the start of April and have had a busy run of engagements, including hosting a state visit by the French president last week, ahead of their upcoming annual summer break to Scotland. The King and Queen receive Frances First Lady Brigitte Macron during the state visit at Windsor last week (Chris Jackson/PA) In the birthday portrait taken by photographer Chris Jackson earlier this month, Camilla can be seen wearing gold drop earrings, a delicate gold bracelet, a gold ring composed of circular plaques on her pinky finger, her wedding band and her five carat emerald cut diamond engagement ring as she places her hands together while resting on the gate. On Wednesday, the Queen was gifted a roll of clingfilm for her birthday in a special holder when she visited a nuclear-powered submarine in Plymouth. The wrapping was used to fix a defect in the main engines of HMS Astute. Flowers and a cling film roll holder that was presented to Camilla during a garden party for the HMS Astute Ships Company and their families (Aaron Chown/PA) Theres nothing more useful, brilliant, how wonderful, the Queen remarked about the present which had a small plaque with the words Clingflim keeping nuclear submarines at sea. Camilla is also to be made a Vice Admiral a honorary role in recognition of her support of the Royal Navy, it was announced the same day. Crime boss Conal Hall had cocaine dealing charges against him dropped prior to pleading guilty to plotting to rob a drug pusher. The former professional boxer turned gangster who was sentenced to 20 months in prison last week had been accused of unlawfully supplying cocaine, being concerned in the supply of cocaine, and being concerned in the supply of amphetamines. Belfast bar has food and service to be proud ofFountain Lane, 16 Fountain St, Belfast, Tel: 028 9032 4769 A precious day off on one of the hottest days of the year can only mean arranging a lunch in the city centre with the option of a cocktail. And because I like to be organised, we took no chances, and booked a table at Fountain Lane. Having been influenced by Instagrams culinary-inspired algorithm, it is one of the places to be if you like good grub without any faff. Which we do. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Deweys Public House, a local bar and grill located on Depot St. in Dalton, announced through a Facebook post on Monday that it will be closing. After ten unforgettable years, were writing today with a mix of gratitude and heavy hearts to let you know that Deweys Public House will be closing its doors, Deweys Public House wrote. Pittsfield is finalizing new rules to legalize and regulate short-term rentals, with the Ordinance and Rules Committee capping the number of units residents can operate, deciding how many days each unit can be rented per year and requiring city review for additional properties. New York Route 22, heading southbound, is seen in this 2018 file photo taken in New Lebanon, N.Y. "The 337-mile road is New York's third-longest north-south route," writes Eagle columnist D.R. Bahlman. "Many years before my most recent trip, I finally logged the completion of a self-set mission to drive its full length, albeit a piece at a time." The Appalachian Trail passes through North Adams with a trail head on Massachusetts Avenue. "If the Appalachian Trail Conservancy were seeking to protect the Appalachian Trail now, its clear that funding would not be forthcoming," writes former ATC executive director Larry Van Meter. Quality local journalism needs your support Access this story and all of our stories with 24/7 unlimited access. Subscribe today. Cancel anytime. Subscribe now for 99 Subscriber Sign In | Return Home A bill before the House would ban tobacco and nicotine product sales to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2006. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). Goodness, we have all heard it, havent we? We hear it often enough to be able to say it together, I am spiritual but not religious. The expression has become so common, that quite recently I saw the term shortened to an acronym SBNR. In the 50s and 60s, traditional, more formalized religions were not only common but almost expected. For each it was somewhat of a one-size fits all package, and ones faith seemed to almost be hereditary, handed down from one generation to the next. The family packed into the car on Sunday mornings, dressed in their Sunday best and all went to church, where they joined the rest of their congregation to listen to the weekly sermon. But for many, that is no longer the case. What Does It Look Like to Be Spiritual but Not Religious? The term spiritual but not religious indeed seems to have gained a great deal of popularity in recent years. In fact, it seems to have come almost as a rebellion against organized religions of any kind. SBNR is often self-applied by people who have beliefs that simply dont align with traditional religious practices. Many of those who identify as SBNR are simply taking a personal stand against organized religion, yet still have a sense of a greater power somewhere; they simply seek some kind of spiritual personal growth. In short, something larger than themselves. For them, being spiritual means engaging in meditation, or prayer, or other behaviors that they hope will further personal inner growth and awareness, often placing an emphasis on mind, body, spirit. There are certainly those for whom SBNR is simply an easy phraseology to describe their attempts to find a balance between the dogma of traditional, formalized religion and their attempts to embracesomething. But they choose being spiritual over institutionalized religion. What we hear, too, is that SBNR folk tend to lean toward the Eastern-type religious beliefs we are all part of the greater universe while adopting, not Christianity, but the humanistic teachings of Jesus. But what is SBNR? It does seem like many of us have some idea of what the term means, but, do we? There are quite likely more questions than answers, as the term is rather vague and its practitioners have differing opinions themselves. How Is the Church Impacted? These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me (Matthew 15:8). That the exodus from the traditional religions began in the 60s and into the 70s is no coincidence. It was a period when youth were urged to question authority and everything that had been valued up to that point. The rules, the rites and the rituals of formalized religion did not sit well with an up-and-coming generation. To be more specific, the man-created dogma of the traditional denominations seemed to rub a more free-thinking generation the wrong way. People began to move toward what was viewed as a bit rebellious the Jesus Movement characterized by its countercultural appeal and emphasis on personal faith in Jesus Christ. And yet, estimates range from 30,000 to as many as 3 million came to Jesus emphasizing a personal relationship, informal worship, and a return to Biblical teachings. Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, wrote in The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything that, conflicts with various church teachings on women, on sexuality, on LQBTQ people and so on mean that some people dont agree with their religious community, so they decide to opt out. Martin adds that the scandals like the sex abuse scandals and financial scandals in many churches including my (his) own turn people off to organized religion. A great many people, unfortunately, see religion as cold, ritualistic and without passion. Dead at least to them. It is not difficult to recognize why our society has and is becoming increasingly secularized. Martin states, Many have not grown up in any faith tradition, so have no connection to religion at all. Theyve never fallen away. Rather, they were never introduced to it. The great majority of SBNRs would say, while they believe in a higher power, they cannot believe in the God of the Bible. The commonplace viewpoint is that fundamental religion causes conflict, division and intolerance. There is no confidence that formalized religion actually teaches people to live the right way and do the right thing and that is what they seek. Todays newer generations have viewed the prescribed religions as formal, unaccepting and hypocritical. People are now leaving church to find their own way or not considering church at all in their spiritual journey. Thus, the question remains: what should we be doing? What conversations should we be having with people who are spiritual and believe in a higher power, but who cannot accept the dogma? Maybe, there is before us an opportunity to open the eyes of their hearts to the truth of the gospel message. To who Jesus really is and what it means to believe in Him. Then he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field (Matthew 9:37). Are Christians Spiritual but Not Religious? And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:24-25). What we need to know is how the Christian community His Church ought to teach people the realities of what we believe. To teach people the Jesus Movement and what that means for their spirituality. And yet, is it Biblical to entirely individualize our faith and worship, leaving the Church out of it? Taking that a bit further, are Christians spiritual but not religious? After all, Christianity is a relationship, not a religion, right? Well, yes, and no. Yes, in one very powerful sense. We are not only spiritual but Spirit-filled. The moment we give our lives to Christ Jesus is the moment we are filled with His Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us along the right paths for His names sake (Psalm 23:3). And yet, that does not mean that we are free to live in any way we choose. We must not lose sight of the role the Church has in the lives of any who calls themselves Christian. A while back, I heard someone say that spirituality and religion are like driving a car one drives the other and not vice-versa. It is not the role of religion to do the driving; religious practice in and of itself can be quite lacking in spirituality. Yet when our religion is driven by spirituality letting our faith and the Holy Spirit lead us therein lies the secret to winning the race. The Church ought to play a significant role in the life of a believer for growth and encouragement what the Bible calls sanctification. Church is not and should not be an afterthought. After all, we are the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:25-27). This is why the author of the book of Hebrews left us with the command to spur one another on, and not to give up meeting together but encouraging one another, especially as we see the Day approaching. The Day of Christs return. Any church that follows these commands who lets their vehicle be driven by spirituality and not religious practices will be alive and bursting with love for Christ and for people. They could never be accused of being passionless and dead. So yes, Christians are spiritual people first, but they are also religious in that they are deeply reliant on each other. And no, salvation is not freedom from religion. Instead, salvation completely transforms our entire understanding of what religion was meant to be from the beginning. So, it makes sense that when we are able to express this common ground, then we begin to open the doors for SBNRs to find precisely what they seek even if they may not know it quite yet. Finding Common Ground I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some (1 Corinthians 9:22). Lets start by remembering that there may be many reasons a person will claim the SBNR tag. They might be simply exploring their sense of deeper meaning; or merely casual in their Christian faith and not deeply rooted. Calling themselves spiritual but not religious would seem to affirm desires to consider their eternal lives and living to do good while freeing themselves from potential division in faith and worship. On the other hand, there are many who have deeper, vital theological questions that they have not found adequate answers to. Others seek a spiritual home and dont know where to turn. Remember it is not our role to convince them of anything. It is ours to plant seeds then let the Lord water and develop them. So, that should be our goal in the conversation: planting seeds. Thus, maybe a good starting point is finding where we can agree. Self-Righteousness SBNRs absolutely reject the self-righteousness of religious acts as a means of spiritual salvation. So does Christianity. So did Jesus, who held His most harsh criticism for the religious leaders of the day specifically, the Pharisees. Timothy Keller, in his book The Reason for God, explained how Pharisee-like reliance on doctrinal righteousness will result in anger and hate toward those who dont share their beliefs, resulting in churches filled with angry, moralistic people. Personal Decision Spirituality is a very personal journey. True salvation is very much a personal decision and private matter. Each of us must decide for ourselves to accept or reject Gods gift of grace, mercy and forgiveness. It is a quite special decision between us and the Lord. Of course, Jesus words in John 3:16 did not say whoever attends church and follows all the rules of that church will be saved. It says, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Quite personal. Find Places to Agree Dont argue against their points, even if you believe their points are wrong. Instead, let them know where we are in agreement. We are created for good. Sometimes there are mysteries difficult to solve. Boy, I can relate to that. Oh yes, I have had those same questions. Acknowledge that sometimes doing church can be messy, because we humans are messy. But help them to know that Christians can approach life with a sense of awe and wonder. Encourage them to explore the truth on their own. This is not us vs them. Lets keep first things first the gospel message of what it means to accept Christ Jesus into your heart. That isnt accomplished through being confrontational or accusatory or argumentative. Control yourself and ask the Lord to put a guard over your mouth. Have you ever known anyone who had their hearts opened to the Lord through someone being aggressive or belligerent? Yeah, me neither. The wisest man in history taught: A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger (Proverbs 15:1). Got It. Now What? God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). 1. Pray for Them You may only have a few moments or a few seconds, but lift up your conversation to God to ask the Holy Spirit to give you the words. 2. Love Them (Ephesians 5:25-27) Let them know you care. After all, you might be the first Christian theyve met who truly exemplifies the love of Christ. Yes, its sad, but true. Let them know what Church is supposed to be a gathering of believers who are there to help each other, support and encourage one another. But also, that their personal decision, personal spirituality with Christ, must come first and that determines how we are religious. 3. Listen (1 Corinthians 9:20-22) Remember the old expression two ears, one mouth? Theyll know if you are sincerely listening or simply waiting for your turn to speak. Seek first to understand their beliefs and experiences. Listen to them. Hear them out. Listen to their issues; try to hear their hearts. Remember Pauls words in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22. 4. Ask Questions That Lead Them to Think (1 Peter 3:15) Do you believe in eternal life? Where do you think youll spend eternity? What do you think sin is? Sowho do you think Jesus was? Why do you think He came to die for us? Did you know? Or come up with a list of your own to keep in your go-to personal file. And then be prepared to give an answer. 5. Highlight Your Personal Relationships with Christ and with Others (Psalm 63:1, Isaiah 26:3, John 17) SBNRs may not understand the true nature of Christianity a personal relationship with God through Christ. Ultimately, that is above all things. We are to be one with Him as He is one with the Father. 6. The Two Rules of Jesus (Mark 12:30-31, Matthew 22:37) At some point, ask them if they know the only two rules Jesus left us. To love God and to love our neighbors. Simple, but not easy, right? 7. Your Personal Testimony You know, in coming to Christ, I came to realize the historical evidence for Jesus leaves us with a couple of choices. Either he was a lunatic of the first order, or He was precisely who He claimed to be the Son of God come to offer us His love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Salvation. Each of us must decide whether to accept that gift or reject it. I realized there is no middle ground and accepted the gift, and my life has never been the same. Sharing your testimony may be the most powerful way to connect with someone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:30-31). Photo credit: Getty Images/Thomas Barwick Grandchamp is an author and speaker. His book, In Pursuit of Truth, A Journey Begins, is an easy-to-read narrative that offers answers to the most common questions new believers and non-believers have about Jesus Christ (Amazon.) Greg speaks on living out our faith in our daily lives and on creating true disciples of Christ. Greg doesnt pretend to be a pastor, a theologian, or a Bible expert, but offers the perspective of an everyday guy on the same journey as everyone else in pursuit of truth. Greg can be reached by email or on Facebook @ Greg Grandchamp - Author. BillOReilly.com is not available in this country. We apologize for any inconvenience. Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital Ahmedabad and Rajkot ink MoU with Gujarat Health Department July 16, 2025 | Wednesday | News Completely free heart surgery will be done in Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital in Rajkot and Ahmedabad Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital Ahmedabad and Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital Rajkot has signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Health Department for free heart surgeries. On this special occasion, the MoU was signed between Gujarat Health Department Secretary, Dr Ratankanvar H. Gadhavicharan (Commissioner of Health (Rural) & Mission Director, National Health Mission) and Manoj Bhimani, Managing Trustee of Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital. Under this agreement, completely free heart surgery will be done in Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital in Rajkot and Ahmedabad for all the needy children and adults of Gujarat state. Initially, patients suffering from heart disease from 6 districts of the state will be sent to Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital in Ahmedabad for free treatment. This hospital has signed agreements with different states of the country, including Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand and the Union Territory of Leh Ladakh, where patients suffering from heart disease are treated free of cost. Gujarat is the 9th state with which Shri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital has signed an agreement. Shri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital, Kashindra, with 310 beds, 4 operation theaters, 4 ICU-ICCU, and a Cath Lab, is becoming a unique example in the field of service. Here, all pediatric patients are operated on free of cost without any discrimination of religion, caste or gender. Shri Satya Sai Heart Hospital Ahmedabad, which is India's largest charitable hospital for pediatric heart disease, performs expensive heart surgeries in children, which cost Rs 3 to 5 lakh in any hospital, free of cost. Seeds of Innocens launches Asias first fully integrated home IVF platform July 16, 2025 | Wednesday | News Ecosystem leverages technology to deliver inclusive, expert-led fertility care for both men and women image credit- shutterstock Seeds of Innocens, a trusted name in fertility care with an international footprint, has launched Asias first fully integrated Home IVF platform. Led by Dr Gauri Agarwal, one of Indias leading gynaecologists and IVF experts with over 25,000 successful deliveries, the platform brings the entire fertility treatment journey into the comfort of patients homes. Launched at a time when Indias fertility rate has fallen to a record low of 1.9, below the replacement level of 2.1, this innovation responds to a growing need. Factors like rising stress, delayed parenthood, and lifestyle changes have made infertility a widespread concern across both urban and rural India. The Home IVF platform addresses these barriers by delivering private, clinically guided care remotely. It also supports egg freezing and offers genetic counselling services, helping couples reduce the risk of hereditary conditions and ensure healthier pregnancy outcomes, especially for those planning parenthood later in life. The platform begins with a teleconsultation with a trained fertility counsellor to record medical history and review diagnostic reports. A fertility specialist then tailors a personalised plan, ranging from natural conception to IUI or IVF. Prescriptions, test protocols, medicine schedules, and progress tracking are integrated into the platform, giving patients full visibility and control. The platform also addresses male fertility challenges, offering discreet at-home semen analysis, teleconsultations, and support for conditions like erectile dysfunction or ejaculatory issues. An in-platform AI-powered chatbot, Doctor IVF, provides 24x7 support and answers to common fertility-related queries. With automation streamlining over 90% of administrative processes, fertility experts can focus more on personalized care while patients benefit from reduced clinic visits and greater flexibility. AIG Hospitals brings ZAP-X Gyroscopic Radiosurgery to South India for brain tumour treatment July 16, 2025 | Wednesday | News With ZAP-X, AIG Hospitals strengthens its position as a neuroscience leader ZAP Surgical Systems, Inc., a global leader in non-invasive robotic brain surgery, has announced that AIG Hospital in Hyderabad, will acquire the ZAP-X Gyroscopic Radiosurgery platform. Reinforcing its commitment to patient-centric innovation, AIG Hospitals will become the first hospital in South India to offer this revolutionary brain tumour treatment. This advancement will empower AIG Hospitals neurosurgical team to deliver precision-focused care without the need for traditional open surgery, thereby redefining outcomes for patients with brain tumors and other intracranial conditions. Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), widely accepted as an alternative to conventional brain surgery for many patients, is an incision-free outpatient procedure offering surgical-like precision with no anesthesia, and minimal recovery time. However, access to SRS has remained limited globally due to high infrastructure costs and radiation safety challenges. With ZAP-X, AIG Hospitals addresses these constraints while placing India on the global map of next-generation neurosurgical care. Developed by Dr John R. Adler, former Stanford professor of neurosurgery and radiation oncology, the ZAP-X platform is the worlds first vault-free radiosurgery system, enabling installation without the need for costly radiation-shielded rooms. It also eliminates reliance on traditional Cobalt-60 radioactive sources, using a modern linear accelerator to deliver biologically consistent and efficient radiation doses. Ambulance startup Dial4242 raises Rs 9 Cr in Pre-Series A funding led by IAN Group July 16, 2025 | Wednesday | News The company aims to deepen hospital partnerships and grow its retail user base Dial4242, Indias leading tech-enabled ambulance service platform, has raised Rs 9 crore in a Pre-Series A funding round led by IAN Group, with additional participation from BioAngels, IIM Bangalores NSRCEL, and other prominent angel investors. The funds will be used to strengthen Dial4242s mission of ensuring ambulance availability across India by reducing its current turnaround time (TAT) from 12 minutes to under 8 minutes. The company will also invest in technology upgrades, marketing, expansion of medical centers in underserved areas, and key leadership hires. Founded in 2016 by Jeetendra Lalwani, along with co-founders Nilesh Mahambre and Atin Verma, Dial4242 operates the countrys largest on-demand ambulance network, covering 850+ cities. The platform provides real-time ambulance tracking, automated dispatch, and a 24x7 call centeraddressing Indias long-standing issues of emergency response time and accessibility. With its asset-light and tech-first model, Dial4242 has built strategic partnerships with major players such as Amazon, Zomato, and Swiggy, offering medical support to gig workers nationwide. Its average turnaround time of under 12 minutes makes it the fastest in the country. Dial4242 will use the funds to strengthen its tech platform, boost trip volumes through marketing, launch free ambulance services through a low-cost membership, set up medical centers in key areas, and expand its product, business, and operations teams. Over the next 12 months, the company aims to deepen hospital partnerships, grow its retail user base, and maintain the fastest emergency response standard in India. State Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands Armed Forces Americas Armed Forces Pacific Armed Forces Europe Northern Mariana Islands Marshall Islands American Samoa Federated States of Micronesia Guam Palau Alberta, Canada British Columbia, Canada Manitoba, Canada New Brunswick, Canada Newfoundland, Canada Nova Scotia, Canada Northwest Territories, Canada Nunavut, Canada Ontario, Canada Prince Edward Island, Canada Quebec, Canada Saskatchewan, Canada Yukon Territory, Canada Postal Code Uncertainty around tariffs is problematic for budget preparations and medium-term fiscal planning, the Taoiseach has said. US president Donald Trump has said that he will implement a 30 per cent tariff on EU goods from August 1st if a new trading deal with the bloc is not agreed by that deadline. Advertisement Mr Trump has also threatened to ramp up tariffs on pharmaceuticals from the end of the month, raising concerns on a key sector for the Irish economy. Negotiations between the US and the EU continue as the Government prepares to announce its Summer Economic Statement next week. The Government is also due to provide an update on its five-year fiscal stability plan to the EU. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr Martin said: Were keeping everything under review, but in context of this year, we have fair ideas to where revenue will land and where expenditure will land. Advertisement But certainly were waiting in terms of the midterm framework, the five year programme that has to be submitted to Europe, it is problematic. We cant abolish the Budgetary process, we still have to go and prepare the budget, and we have to prepare estimates, and there has to be negotiations and so on. And there are very significant downside risks given whats happening and in terms of the tariff threat. Potentially, if weve got it resolved it could be an upside, well have to wait and see. Advertisement He added: There are real issues in endeavouring to project into the future but we do have capital at our disposal. We do need to transform our infrastructure. We do need to put sufficiency of money aside for water and for housing and for energy. Preliminary exam for highest Tibetan Buddhism degree held in Xizang Xinhua) 10:15, July 16, 2025 A preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) LHASA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. The preliminary exam is being held at Gandan Temple in Lhasa, the capital city of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region. The examination began on July 12 and will run until July 19. These monks will first participate in debates concerning Buddhist scriptures, followed by a theoretical examination. An assessment committee will review and rank performances in the debates and theoretical exam to finalize a list of those eligible for the 2026 Geshe Lharampa examination. According to data from the Xizang branch of the Buddhist Association of China, a total of 202 Tibetan Buddhist monks have been awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa since 2004. A preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) A preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) A preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) This photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows a view of the Ganden Monastery, where a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held, in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Actress Emma Watson and a Harry Potter co-star have been banned from driving at the same court. Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the film franchise, drove her blue Audi at 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford, on the evening of July 31st last year. Advertisement The 35-year-old, who has been studying at the University of Oxford, was banned for six months and made to pay a total of 1,044 at High Wycombe Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Zoe Wanamaker (Ian West/PA) Watsons lawyer Mark Haslam, told the court that she is a student, adding: She is in a position to pay the fine. Separately, Zoe Wanamaker, who starred in Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone in 2001 as teacher Madam Hooch, was caught speeding on August 7th 2024, on the M4 in Newbury, Berkshire. The 76-year-old drove her blue Volvo at 46mph in a 40mph limit, the court heard. Advertisement She was also fined 1,044 and banned for six months. Wanamakers lawyer Duncan Jones said that she was not asking for special treatment and accepted the fine. Both Watson and Wanamaker had nine points on their licences before the speeding incidents occurred. Entertainment John Torode says he was not informed of MasterChef... Read More District Judge Arvind Sharma, sentencing, endorsed three more points on their licences, meaning they are both disqualified for six months from now. Advertisement Neither attended their short hearings. The Sun reported that Watson was filmed bargaining with tow-truck drivers when they hauled her Audi onto a flatbed in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in February last year. The father of three children killed by their mother at their family home in south Dublin five years ago has welcomed news that inquests into their deaths are scheduled to be heard before the end of the year. However, the scope of the inquiry to be held by the senior coroner in Dublin, Myra Cullinane, has still to be determined. Advertisement Dr Cullinane told a brief sitting of Dublin District Coroners Court on Wednesday that she planned to hold the inquests into the deaths of Conor (9), Darragh (7) and three-year-old Carla McGinley before the end of 2025. The bodies of the three children were discovered at their family home at Parsons Court, Newcastle, Co Dublin on January 24th 2020. At the opening of the inquests into the childrens deaths in September 2020, it was revealed that postmortems had shown that the three young siblings had died from suffocation. Their mother, Deirdre Morley, a paediatric nurse, was subsequently found not guilty of their murder by reason of insanity following a trial at the Central Criminal Court in May 2021. Advertisement The childrens father, Andrew McGinley, has called for the scope of the inquests into their deaths to be widened to examine the diagnosis and treatment of his wifes mental illness before the tragic event. At the latest sitting of the inquests, Dr Cullinane asked all interested parties to confirm that there would be no further submissions in relation to the scope of her inquiry in addition to those requested at a previous hearing in June 2023. Submissions have already been made on behalf of consultant psychiatrist, Olivia Gibbons; Mr McGinley and the HSE. Counsel for Ms Morley, Nora-Pat Stewart BL, confirmed that she would not be making any submission on the scope of the inquiry. Advertisement Ms Stewart also acknowledged there was no reason why proceeding with the inquests would not be in her clients interest. The coroner said she would issue her ruling on the scope of the inquiry by correspondence with the parties by July 31. It was also agreed between the parties that there would be full disclosure of Ms Morleys medical records without any redactions. The coroner heard that some medical records were already available to the relevant parties as part of another process. Advertisement Counsel for Dr Gibbons, Simon Mills SC, confirmed that his client had no objections to the disclosure of such documents. Dr Cullinane replied that she intended to share the medical records, which would cover a significant time period, with the parties within days. The coroner said she would also make available the reports of two forensic psychiatrists who had examined Ms Morley after the deaths of her three children as well as a transcript of her trial and the Garda file on the investigation. Ms Stewart also applied for legal aid for Ms Morley, who attended the hearing via videolink, so that she could be represented at inquests that would involve particularly difficult matters in which complex issues were expected to arise. Advertisement Dr Cullinane noted that legislation only allowed legal aid to be granted to one family member but granted the application after no objections were raised to the application. The coroner said it was ultimately a matter for the Legal Aid Board to confirm if legal aid would be certified. She adjourned the hearing for mention to October 3rd to indicate a list of witnesses expected to give evidence. Dr Cullinane said she intended to hold the full inquests shortly thereafter which she indicated would be before the end of the year. Speaking after the hearing, Mr McGinley said he welcomed the fact that the process was moving forward and expressed hope that there would be an extended scope to the inquests. An inquest is to be a clear and transparent process. It can only be done if everybody engages positively with it. Thats why Im here, said Mr McGinley. The coroner previously heard that Ms Morley had been an in-patient at a private psychiatric hospital less than six months before the death of her children. Mr McGinleys legal representatives told the coroner that he believed his wifes condition had not been properly diagnosed and she had not been properly treated. They also claimed that he had not been properly involved in her diagnosis and treatment and that Mr McGinley believed there was a link between her medical treatment and his childrens deaths. The inquests heard that Mr McGinleys motivation in seeking to widen the scope of the inquest was to identify circumstances which could prevent the recurrence of such a terrible event. His lawyers claimed such an objective is entirely legitimate and is underpinned by the public policy consideration of coroners courts. However, counsel for Dr Gibbons, a consultant psychiatrist at St Patricks Mental Health Services who had treated Ms Morley, claimed the proposed extension of the scope of the inquest would result in an inquiry that would be a radically different matter not envisaged by the Oireachtas. Ms Morley had been voluntarily admitted to a psychiatric facility in July 2019 and had been discharged from the care of Dr Gibbons on August 1st 2019. At the hearing in June 2023, Dr Mills also pointed out that an expert witness had given evidence on behalf of Ms Morley during her criminal trial that she had only formed the intention to act on her children in January 2020 and that she had not disclosed that intention to anybody. He also noted that civil remedies were available and were being taken up by both Mr McGinley and his wife as they were taking legal actions against medical professionals and the HSE. Dr Mills said they could also make complaints to various regulatory bodies that oversee medical professionals. The owner of Barne Estate, who is being sued by John Magnier over a collapsed property deal, has told the High Court he was "shocked" by an "untoward" offer of "two envelopes stuffed with money" amounting to 50,000 from the bloodstock billionaire, which was meant as a "luck penny". Richard Thomson-Moore was giving evidence at the High Court relating to the failed 15 million agreement. Advertisement Mr Magnier wants the court to enforce the deal he claims he sealed with Mr Thomson-Moore in an alleged handshake agreement for the 751-acre farm on August 22nd, 2023, at Mr Magnier's Coolmore home. The Magnier side has sued the Barne Estate, Mr Thomson-Moore and three companies of IQEQ (Jersey) Ltd group, seeking to enforce the purported deal, which they say had been "unequivocally" agreed. The Barne defendants say there was never any such agreement, as they needed the consent of the trustees to finalise any agreement, and subsequently they preferred to sell the estate to Mr Regan. Mr Thomson-Moore has told the court that while a "price" was agreed with Mr Magnier for Barne, a "deal" was not. Advertisement After agreeing on 15 million, Barne and the Magniers entered into an exclusivity agreement stipulating that the estate would not permit itself or its representatives to solicit or encourage any expression of interest, inquiry or offer on the property from anyone other than Mr Magnier between August 31st to September 30th 2023. However, during September 2023, billionaire Maurice Regan offered around 20 million. The trustees, who hold the estate, decided to remain loyal to the Magnier offer and felt the higher offer of Mr Regan could be seen as a "provocative" one. The court has heard that on September 7th 2023 - two weeks after Mr Magnier claims he shook hands with Mr Thomson-Moore on the deal for the Barne Estate - Mr Magnier called to Barne with his son, JP. Advertisement The Thomson-Moores have told the court their estate agent, John Stokes, who had walked out with the Magniers, returned to the house with two brown envelopes given to him by JP containing a total of 50,000 in cash - 25,000 in each. Mr Thomson-Moore told the court that he did not interrogate Mr Stokes about the purpose of the envelopes and that Mr Stokes explained their offering as a "luck penny". The Magnier side have told the court that the money was a token of "appreciation" to the Thomson-Moores for letting the Magnier side onto the land before any sale was finalised. The Magnier side were ultimately gazumped by US-based construction magnate Mr Regan, who offered a final 22.25 million and was made the preferred bidder. Advertisement Mr Regan is not a party to the case. At the High Court today, Mr Thomson-Moore said the delivery of the money to their Barne home caused him "shock" and he said he felt the offer of "envelopes stuffed with cash" was "untoward". The money was later returned by the Thomson-Moores. Mr Thomson-Moore told defence barrister Niall Buckley SC that a guide price of 13.5 million had been advertised by the selling agents, which he thought was underpriced, and believed the property to be worth between 17.5 million-20 million based on a comparator property in Kildare. Mr Thomson-Moore said that Mr Magnier's retort to this valuation was "slightly hostile" before an offer of 15 million was accepted by the Thomson-Moores at the Coolmore kitchen meeting. Advertisement Caren Geoghegan SC, for the Magniers, asked Mr Thomson-Moore about lists drawn up detailing the contents of the Barne mansion and asked why there were two lists - one "complete" list with a separate incomplete list going to the trustees of the estate. Mr Thomson-Moore said that after the Magnier offer, he was in talks organising an auction of the contents of Barne with Mealy's auction house. Ms Geoghegan put it to Mr Thomson-Moore that his intention at this time was to give one list to the trustees that did not disclose all the items in the house. She put it to him that his intent was to not disclose "high-value items" to the trustees of the estate, which he denied. "There is no ambiguity about the intention," said Ms Geoghegan, "a complete list and then a separate list for trustees." Mr Thomson-Moore said "it didn't happen" but added: "that is what it looks like, though, yes". The case continues before Mr Justice Max Barrett. Landlord Marc Godart is aiming to take over a Dublin pub's licence and has a tenant "lined up", but needs consent from the city council's fire officer, a court has heard. The Luxembourg businessman, now based in Latvia, brought an application before Judge Maire Conneely at Dublin District Court, which was adjourned for two weeks pending the council official's findings. Advertisement In past unrelated proceedings at the District Court, firms linked to the businessman have faced multiple legal issues over property lettings in Dublin. Firms linked to Marc Godart have faced multiple legal issues. Photo: Tom Tuite In Wednesday's licensing case, he sought a certificate of transfer of the licence for Cleary's Pub, Sarsfield Road in Inchicore. Inchicore Parkview Residence Limited made the application, and Mr Godart gave evidence in his capacity as a director. His firm's barrister, Dorothy Collins, asked Judge Conneely to hear the evidence and then to defer ruling on the basis that the fire officer had "requested that there are certain works to be done" and needed to provide a report. Advertisement The judge heard that Godart had travelled from abroad and would only be here for a day. Counsel said there had been "a lot of negotiation with the fire officer who has inspected the premises and required certain works to be done". She added that paperwork had to be completed and the proceedings ought to be postponed to satisfy the council official. Inchicore Parkview Residence Limited's barrister presented the judge with a booklet of documents, including the previous licensee's certificate, an advertisement published in a national newspaper, a certificate of incorporation, and the deed of transfer. Advertisement The judge heard that the pub licence had expired last year, but an application could still be made for a late certificate of transfer. In evidence, Mr Godart agreed with Ms Collins that he had been negotiating with the fire officer. He had engaged a consultant to do whatever was necessary to satisfy the official. Asked if he had any experience running a public house, he said he had managed the building for six months. Ireland Firm linked to controversial landlord Marc Godart... Read More He clarified "that's correct" when put to him that he did not intend to run the pub, the application was to preserve the licence, and concurred that he had "a tenant lined up, but they won't take it over unless there is a licence." Mr Godart said it had been vacant since closing at the beginning of this year. Judge Conneely noted from the company's report that he resided in Latvia and that he did not intend to live in the pub itself, which he confirmed while in the witness box. She said the application was in order, subject to the fire officer's consent and report. The case resumes on July 30th. A murder accused told gardai that he couldn't remember stabbing his sister's partner with a kitchen knife as he was so drunk but later said that "all the evidence pointed" to him being "the only one responsible", a jury has heard. Moldovan national Valeriu Melnic (24), with an address at Calliaghstown Lower, Rathcoole, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Ion Daghi (39) at The Close, Sallins Park, Sallins in Co Kildare on May 12th, 2024. Advertisement A pathologist has told the jury that Mr Daghi died from a single stab wound to the chest. Having been arrested on suspicion of assault causing harm to Mr Daghi at 3.30am on May 12th, Mr Melnic was deemed unfit for interview and was not questioned until 15 hours later. He told interviewing officers at Naas Garda Station that he and the deceased had been drunk and at some point an argument started. "A lot of drink was taken, my memory is very hazy," he added. The accused said he remembered pouring whiskey into a glass and Mr Daghi told him he was pouring whiskey in the "incorrect manner" and they started fighting with their fists. The accused said he remembered a brief moment where he was sitting on the floor and Mr Daghi was trying to choke him. "The only moment I remember is when he tried to choke me, am I going to prison?" asked Mr Melnic. Advertisement The defendant told gardai "we drank three or four bottles of whiskey between the two of us and I drank beer too". In his next interview, the accused said he worked in a granite and concrete factory and had been a heavy drinker over the years. He said he drank quite a lot and that alcohol had "deleted" his memory "almost completely". Mr Melnic said he couldn't remember taking the knife and had fights before "but would never use a weapon". Asked whether he accepted he had stabbed Mr Daghi, the accused said he was ready to face punishment but couldn't remember anything. He accepted he had "caused the wound which caused" the deceased "to pass" but did not remember. Advertisement In his final Garda interview on May 13th, Mr Melnic said he was ready to face a punishment but recalled "nothing of the fight". "What I remember I told you, what I didn't tell you I don't remember...I didn't want to harm anyone, I didn't want to cause all of this". "You don't recall grabbing a knife and your sister struggling with you to stop you?" asked the detectives. "I can't recall anything of what you said, my memory is blank," he replied. He continued: "I can't recall holding a knife, I can't recall how I stabbed him. I regret it happened to my sister, my sister gone through a horrible thing". He said he was the most intoxicated person in the house, which is why he accepted every statement read to him by gardai. Advertisement "I can't imagine I'm capable of stabbing a live person but ready to face the consequences for my actions". He denied pretending that he couldn't remember. The accused said he was drunk so he couldn't recall everything. Gardai put it to him that "in this country doing things when drunk isn't a defence", to which the accused said he wasn't trying to use it as a defence. "Do you accept that you did stab him with a knife?" asked the officers. "Not accepting but it's a reality... I'm not that type of person, I find it hard to comprehend I'm a person capable of doing such a bad thing," said the accused. He said he was prepared for punishment but couldn't recall grabbing the knife or stabbing Mr Daghi. "I wish I was dead, not him". Advertisement Mr Melnic said he hadn't "done this on purpose", it wasn't deliberate. The accused said he was being choked by Mr Daghi, couldn't breathe and remembered pushing him away."I can't remember how I stabbed him but prepared to face punishment for my actions". Asked again whether he accepted he stabbed Mr Daghi, the accused said he had to accept it. "If everyone says it's my fault it shows I'm the person involved". Gardai put it to the accused that he had picked the "biggest knife" when he went to stab the deceased. Mr Melnic said he didn't know why he had picked that knife but all the evidence pointed that he was "the only one responsible". Earlier, Garda Justin Meaney testified that the accused was intoxicated, quite emotional and agitated when he arrived at the deceased's house in Sallins at 3.35am on May 12th. He said Mr Melnic was rambling at times in another language and other times in English. When he cautioned the accused, Mr Melnic said: "Maybe tonight I killed someone cause he stupid". Gda Meaney told Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that Mr Melnic was bleeding from the back of the head. He said the accused had gashes at the top and back of the head, a badly swollen eye and cuts and scrapes on his knee. Dr Mohamad Shafi told Carl Hanahoe SC, prosecuting, that he examined the accused on May 12th and found injuries including severe swelling on the side of the face, which could have been caused by a punch. There was pooling of blood in the tissues surrounding the accused's eye and abrasions on the lateral and back part of the head. There were also abrasions on the knee. Ireland Man (52) pleads not guilty to attempted murder Read More Under cross-examination, the doctor agreed with Mr Grehan that the scratch marks on the neck were "quite possibly" consistent with the accused being grabbed around the neck. Asked if it was fair to say he was looking at someone who had suffered "a beating", the witness said "yes, possibly". In his opening address, Mr Hanahoe said it was the State's case that the accused armed himself with a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Daghi once in the chest following an altercation after the pair had spent the night drinking together. The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice David Keane and a jury of eight men and four women. GAA Palestine has confirmed that a tour of a group of Palestinians who were to visit Ireland will no longer go ahead. The group, which included 33 Palestinian children and young teenagers, were scheduled to arrive in Dublin on Friday; however, they were denied entry by the Department of Justice. Advertisement In a statement, the GAA Palestine executive said it was with a heavy heart that it announced that the planned trip could no longer go ahead. We are outrageous and disappointed by the Department of Justice's handling of the GAA Palestine Summer Tour. See link for full statement #LetThemPlay https://t.co/jvJSyWFBSa pic.twitter.com/me2ioqkOic gaa_palestine (@GAA_Palestine) July 14, 2025 The delay stemming from issues with the Department of Justice has ultimately resulted in this difficult decision, as time has run out to make alternative arrangements, it added. The touring party was scheduled to depart from the West Bank on Wednesday morning. We initially postponed departure for today, as the Department of Justice had informed us they were reviewing the appeal, the statement said. Advertisement However, the embassy in Tel Aviv is now closed we had a driver pick up the passports to allow us to explore other options for the touring party to travel elsewhere, allowing us to provide these young athletes with the respite and opportunity they deserve. Even if visas are issued at this late stage, delays at checkpoints and borders are likely to cause severe disruptions and extended delays. Giving the children hope again, only for that hope to be dashed once more, would be too cruel. We are deeply disappointed by the narrative that has circulated suggesting that necessary documentation was not provided or that we were late in the submission of our appeal. Advertisement We have been working diligently for months with the embassy in Israel. Despite numerous appeals over the past week requesting engagement, we have received no response from the Department of Justice. Our legal team has also attempted to communicate directly with the department, but we have once again been ignored. We are profoundly upset for all our GAA Palestine members, for the clubs that went to great lengths to organise this meaningful trip, and for the families who generously volunteered to host our touring party transforming their homes with bunk beds and painting walls to welcome these young GAA players from the West Bank to Ireland. Advertisement To our sponsors for their generosity, we do hope we can work together again in the future. It said it will look to other places where the children will be welcomed and celebrated. Earlier on Wednesday, Minister for Justice Jim OCallaghan said that all visa applications have to be assessed fairly and accurately. I reject that criticism. Very many people apply for visas from the Department of Justice. Not all of them get media coverage. All of them have to be assessed fairly and accurately by the department, the Fianna Fail minister said. Advertisement We have immigration rules in this country for people who want to come here, whether its on a short-term visa or long-term visa, and no matter who you are, you have to comply with the immigration rules. I am not going to change those rules simply because there is media pressure put on me. Clashes have raged in the Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed and as Israel threatened to escalate its involvement. The Israeli army said that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defence in Damascus. Advertisement Israel has launched a series of air strikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border, saying that it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority. Syrias Defence Ministry had earlier blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached on Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province. Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes, the statement said. Government soldiers stand next to confiscated items stolen during clashes in Sweida city (Omar Albam/AP) A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syrias long-time despotic leader Bashar Assad in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the countrys new rulers have struggled to consolidate control over the territory. Advertisement The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities. The fears of minorities increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiralled into sectarian revenge attacks in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province. Government forces that intervened to restore order have also clashed with the Druze while reports have surfaced of members of the security forces carrying out extra-judicial killings, looting and burning civilian homes. Advertisement No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The UK-based war monitor, Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory said at least 21 people were killed in field executions. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Israeli soldiers stand guard as Syrian Druze protest near the Israeli-Syrian border (Leo Correa/AP) More than half the roughly one million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in 1981. Advertisement In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military. In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the countrys new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others have remained suspicious of the authorities in Damascus and pushed for an autonomous Druze region. On Wednesday, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. UK defence secretary John Healey has offered a sincere apology on behalf of the British government for a massive data breach which exposed details of Afghans who helped British troops. Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge also apologised on behalf of the former Conservative government, who were in power when the leak occurred and when it was discovered more than a year later. Advertisement Their apologies came after a superinjunction was lifted on Tuesday, which had prevented the media from reporting the data breach. Mr Healey told the Commons: This serious data incident should never have happened. It may have occurred three years ago under the previous government, but to all those whose information was compromised, I offer a sincere apology today on behalf of the British Government, and I trust the shadow defence secretary, as a former defence minister, will join me. Mr Cartlidge, who was a minister in August 2023 when the then-government became aware of the data breach, mirrored this sentiment. Advertisement He said: The Secretary of State has issued an apology on behalf of the Government and I join him in that and in recognising that this data leak should never have happened and was an unacceptable breach of all relevant data protocols. And I agree it is right that an apology is issued specifically to those whose data was compromised. A dataset containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) was released in error in February 2022 by a defence official. Arap was responsible for relocating Afghan nationals who had worked for or with the UK government and were therefore at risk of reprisals once the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Advertisement The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) only became aware of the breach over a year after the release, when excerpts of the dataset were anonymously posted onto a Facebook group in August 2023. The UK government sought a court order to prevent details of the breach being published and was granted a superinjunction, which also stopped the fact an injunction had been made from being reported. The leak resulted in the creation of a secret Afghan relocation scheme the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) in April 2024. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people, including family members of the Arap applicants, were affected by the breach and could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data, judges said in June 2024. Advertisement However an independent review, commissioned by the UK government in January 2025, concluded last month that the data loss was unlikely to profoundly change the existing risk profile of individuals named. Around 4,500 people, made up of 900 Arap applicants and approximately 3,600 family members, have been brought to the UK or are in transit so far through the Afghanistan Response Route. UK defence secretary John Healey and shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge (Kin Cheung/PA credit) A further estimated 600 people and their relatives are expected to be relocated before the scheme closes, with a total of around 6,900 people expected to be relocated by the end of the scheme. The ARR is understood to have cost around 400 million so far, with a projected cost of around 850 million, once completed. Advertisement Mr Healey told MPs that he had been deeply uncomfortable to be constrained from reporting to this House as he referred to the superinjunction, which was made at the High Court in September 2023 to reduce the risk of alerting the Taliban to the existence of the data breach. He added that the safety of Afghans who were at risk from the leak had weighed heavily on him. The defence secretary said: I would have wanted to settle these matters sooner, because full accountability to Parliament and freedom of the press matter deeply to me. Theyre fundamental to our British way of life. However, lives may have been at stake, and Ive spent many hours thinking about this decision. Thinking about the safety and the lives of people I will never meet, in a far-off land, in which 457 of our servicemen and women lost their lives. So this weighs heavily on me, and its why no Government could take such decisions lightly, without sound grounds and hard deliberations. He assured MPs that the MoD has taken steps to prevent another such data breach happening again. He said: This data leak was just one of many from the Afghan schemes at the time. And what I can say is that since the election, in this last year, we as a Government have appointed a new chief information officer. We have installed new software to securely share data, and we have also completed a comprehensive review of the legacy Afghan data on the casework system. The minister said one can never say never, but added that he is more confident than I was 12 months ago about the reduced risk of data losses and data breaches in future. Chairman of the defence committee Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi told the Commons: This whole data breach situation is a mess and is wholly unacceptable. The Labour MP added that he is minded to recommend to my defence committee colleagues that we thoroughly investigate, to ascertain what has actually transpired here, given the serious ramifications on so many levels. The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough UN sanctions on Iran by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats said. The three countries ambassadors to the United Nations met on Tuesday at Germanys UN Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and re-imposing the sanctions. Advertisement The matter also came up in a phone call on Monday between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries, according to two US officials. The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon. The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The UK, France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear programme, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the US during his first term, insisting it was not tough enough. Advertisement Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear programme, a so-called snapback provision allows one of the Western parties to re-impose UN sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements. French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that the three European countries would be justified in re-applying sanctions. With regard to Iran, the minister reiterated the priority of resuming negotiations to establish a long-term framework for Irans nuclear programme, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Without a verifiable commitment from Iran by the end of August at the latest, France, Germany and the UK will be justified in re-applying the UN sanctions (snapbacks) that were lifted 10 years ago. Advertisement The diplomats did not provide details of the deal being sought. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said in recent days that Tehran would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the US if there were assurances of no more attacks, following Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities. He said there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated, stressing that the attack on Irans nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution. The United States and Iran held several rounds of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear programme before the Israeli strikes began in June. Mr Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week that talks would happen soon, but nothing has yet been scheduled. Advertisement Mr Araghchi, whose country insists its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, said that the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. Irans UN Mission had no comment on Tuesday on the threat of renewed sanctions if there is no deal. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that the US airstrikes so badly damaged his countrys nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA. A Turkish court has convicted Istanbuls jailed opposition mayor and the chief rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of insulting and threatening a public official and sentenced him to a year and eight months in prison. Ekrem Imamoglu, who has been held in a prison west of Istanbul since March 23, is expected to appeal against the verdict, which is part of several ongoing legal proceedings against him. Advertisement The case, which pre-dates his arrest, stems from comments he made on January 20 in which he criticised Istanbul chief public prosecutor Akin Gurlek, accusing him of targeting opposition figures through alleged politically motivated investigations. The court on Wednesday convicted Mr Imamoglu of insulting and threatening Mr Gurlek but acquitted him of the charge of publicly identifying him with the intent of making him a target. Mr Imamoglu, regarded as the main challenger to Mr Erdogans more than two-decade-rule, has denied the accusations. The mayor was arrested alongside other politicians from the main opposition party as part of investigations into alleged corruption. His arrest triggered the largest street protests in Turkey in more than a decade. Advertisement Despite being behind bars, he was officially nominated as the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP. Elections are due to be held in 2028 but may come sooner. Since Mr Imamoglus arrest, dozens of officials from CHP-controlled municipalities have faced waves of arrests as part of investigations into alleged tender rigging and bribery. The arrests have drawn widespread criticism from opposition leaders, who argue that the charges are politically motivated. Mr Imamoglu has described the trial as punishment, not justice and accused the judiciary of acting under government pressure. Advertisement Mr Erdogans government insists that the courts are impartial and free of political involvement. John Jarratt, the actor who has portrayed outback serial killer Mick Taylor in two Wolf Creek movies and a TV series, says real-life killer Bradley John Murdoch was a belligerent arsehole who may have refused to reveal the location of Peter Falconios body as a final insult. It could be his last little up yours to cash out without telling anyone where the body is, says Jarratt, 73, of the convicted murderer, who has died in custody aged 67. He was a really nasty, horrible human being from all accounts. Wolf Creeks Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) and real-life killer Bradley John Murdoch. Credit: Mark Rogers/Bryan Charlton But the actor, who portrayed Taylor in two Wolf Creek movies in 2005 and 2013, and in two seasons of a spin-off TV series in 2016-17 for streaming platform Stan*, also conceded it was possible that Murdoch simply didnt know the exact location of Falconios remains. Maybe he just went off track somewhere and dug a bit of a hole and threw him in and he didnt know where the hell it was, Jarratt speculated. I mean, it would have all been a bit frantic. Ben Lee is no stranger to the transformative power of Triple Js Hottest 100, having twice finished in the top two of the annual countdown. First, in 1998, his track Cigarettes Will Kill You came second to The Offsprings Pretty Fly (For A White Guy), while Catch My Disease finished behind Bernard Fannings Wish You Well in the 2005 poll. Should Triple Js Hottest 100 be limited to Australian artists only? Ben Lee thinks so. Credit: James Brickwood But on the eve of Triple Js voting deadline for the Hottest 100 of Australian songs, with audiences encouraged to vote for their favourite ever homegrown tracks, the musician believes the public broadcaster could be doing more to support local talent. Posting to Instagram earlier this week, Lee outlined his vision for a new and improved Hottest 100. Advertisement Eating outSpecials board $1 wings, $10 chicken rice and more clucking good dining deals for chook lovers A dozen bargains around Melbourne, from dedicated chicken nights at front-running pubs to Korean and Thai fried chicken for less, and budget-friendly hot chicken rolls at new-age takeaway joints. Tomas Telegramma July 16, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share Should we get the chicken? If thats a question you regularly ask your dining companions, this edition of Specials Board is for you. Were here to help you feed your chicken fanaticism for less thanks to a flock of chook-centric dining deals available now at eateries across Melbourne (and beyond). From upscale takeaway shops to pubs and restaurants with dedicated chicken nights, heres where to find some of the cheapest birds in town. Wood-fired free-range chicken with burnt-chilli nuoc mam, papaya salad and steamed rice at Firebird in Prahran. $10 khao man gai, Khaosan Lane, CBD Forget your winter woes by heading to Thai hideaway Khaosan Lane in the city, which is doing khao man gai, or Thai-style chicken rice, for the unheard-of price of a tenner. Its available at lunch Monday to Saturday to dine in or takeaway until July 31. Advertisement Melbourne GPO, G25/350 Bourke Street, Melbourne, khaosanlane.com $25 chicken night, Builders Arms Hotel, Fitzroy Every Tuesday from 5pm, Andrew McConnells Builders Arms Hotel is packed with punters with one thing on their minds: wood-fired rotisserie chicken. The July special is a butter-chicken half chook with pickled cucumber salad and basmati rice. 211 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, buildersarmshotel.com.au The $16 hot chicken roll at Carvery in Toorak. Advertisement $16 chook roll, Carvery, Toorak The quintessentially Aussie chicken shops of the 70s and 80s were the inspiration for Hawskburn Village newcomer Carvery. As the name suggests, it serves all kinds of roasted meat, but one of the best-value items is the $16 hot chicken roll using Bannockburn chook on Noisette bread. 513 Malvern Road, Toorak, carvery.co Get Thai-inspired fried chicken with curry-spiced potato gems and slaw for $22.50 on Thursdays at Club Chin Chin in South Geelong. $22.50 Thai fried chicken, Club Chin Chin, South Geelong Advertisement Yet to get to Club Chin Chin, the Geelong outpost of Flinders Lanes South-East Asian favourite? Thursday is the night, when $22.50 now buys you Thai-inspired fried chicken alongside curry-spiced potato gems and slaw. Its $7.50 extra for a beer or house wine. GMHBA Stadium, Joel Selwood Stand, 370 Moorabool Street, South Geelong, clubchinchin.com.au $20 chicken schnitzels, Punters Club, Fitzroy At Punters Club, named the inaugural Pub of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2025, the (excellent) schnitzels are usually $29. Save $9 by visiting on Tuesdays from 4pm, when the schnitties cost $20 and, if youre into it, the schnapps are $10. 376 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, puntersclubfitzroy.com Advertisement Get $25 plates of wood-fired free-range chicken with two sides on Wednesdays at Firebird. $25 chicken night, Firebird, Prahran At Vietnamese-leaning diner Firebird, Wednesday night is all about $25 plates of wood-fired free-range chicken. Its served with burnt-chilli nuoc mam and your choice of two sides from a list that includes mushroom banh uot noodles, papaya salad, wok-tossed greens and steamed rice. 223 High Street, Prahran, firebirdmelbourne.com.au Half-price Korean fried chicken, Gangnam Pocha, CBD Advertisement For a limited time only, this Korean eatery is running a deal on Tuesdays and Saturdays that gives you 50 per cent off all fried chicken, from original to soy and garlic to super spicy. Thats a saving of up to $20. Its available until July 31. 1/270 King Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/gangnampocha_melb Roast chicken with gravy is just one of several chicken specials at Hagens Organics. Parker Blain Multiple chicken items, Hagens Organics, Brunswick East Did you know that butcher shop Hagens offers hot food as well as organic meat at its recently opened East Brunswick Village location? That means chicken-fat garlic bread for $7, chicken-salad sangers and gravy-doused hot chicken rolls for $16, and quarter-chicken with chips (fried in beef tallow for maximum deliciousness) for $18. Advertisement 6 Village Avenue, Brunswick East, hagensorganics.com.au $1 chicken wings at Heartbreaker, CBD Neon-lit dive bar Heartbreaker wants you to get your hands dirty on Wednesday nights. From 5pm to 3am (yes, 3am), the perennially popular CBD spot is dishing up chicken wings for only a buck a pop, smothered in your choice of Buffalo or Alabama sauce. 234A Russell Street, Melbourne, heartbreakerbar.com.au Enjoy all-you-can-eat wings at Brunswick East chicken joint Bird. Bonnie Savage Advertisement $29 bottomless chicken wings, Bird, Brunswick East How many wings can you withstand? Find out Monday to Thursday at banging chicken joint Bird, when the offer is all-you-can-eat wings (in various sauces) plus chips and slaw for $29. Buyer beware: theres a 90-minute limit and a $1 charge for any wing that goes uneaten. 179 Weston Street, Brunswick East, birdbangnchicken.com St Ali s panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel with caper-y brown butter, parmesan and salad. $25 chicken schnitzels, St Ali, South Melbourne Advertisement One of the citys biggest cafe players, St Ali, has just launched a new express lunch menu of $25 dishes. Available on weekdays only, the satisfying line-up includes panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel with caper-flecked brown butter, parmesan and salad. 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, stali.com.au $25 for a kilo of Buffalo chicken ribs, Moon Dog World, Preston Start your week strong at Moon Dog World, the local beer brands island oasis in the northern suburbs. On Monday nights, you can up your protein intake and arcade-game skills simultaneously, with a kilo of Buffalo chicken ribs for $25, and free pinball all night. 32 Chifley Drive, Preston, moondog.com.au In a move straight from the royal familys fashion handbook, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albaneses fiancee, Jodie Haydon, demonstrated she is ready for the dressing demands of being Australias unofficial first lady. Accompanying Albanese on the Great Wall of China, wrapping up a six-day trip to the Asian superpower, Haydon wore a $599 short-sleeve midi-dress with a floral print and mandarin collar by Australian label Leo Lin. Like Princess Catherine greeting French president Emmanuel Macron in Britain last week, wearing the Parisienne label Dior, Haydon practised fashion diplomacy by paying tribute to her host country and wearing a label with Chinese connections. Jodie Haydon in a dress from Australian label Leo Lin and her fiance, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, on the Great Wall of China. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer The brands founder, Leo Lin, moved to Melbourne from China for his education when he was aged 16, staying on to explore fashion design and assemble his studio in Sydney. For many years, youve been pushing the benefit of compounding, but to be frank, I cant see the point. I gather you mean letting interest on a bank deposit accrue. Given that the return may be reduced by nearly 50 per cent in tax, I think there must be better strategies. Have I missed something? For many years, Ive been talking about the miracle of compounding, and the essence of it is that you leave the earnings on an investment attached to it and do not withdraw them and spend them. Theres a lot to love about the compounding effect of investing in shares. Credit: Simon Letch You can certainly do this with any sort of interest-bearing deposit, but as you point out, you are only investing in cash, which I regard as one of the riskiest investments because theres no tax benefits (like franking credits) attached to the income, and the value is destroyed by inflation. You cant really do it with property because you cannot plough the rental income back into that property. All you can do is hope that the property value will grow as time passes. Developing green steel is important to decarbonising the high-emitting industry and could provide economic benefits to Australia, says Resources Minister Madeline King. Loading Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared the creation of a green-steel industry of vital interest to both Australia and China at an industry roundtable during his trip to the Asian superpower. His comments were echoed by King, speaking on ABCs Afternoon Briefing, who said it should be pursued and could be a game-changer for the industry. If we can decarbonise the steelmaking process, that of course is good for the environment, because steel forms the basis of our cities and towns and all the things we like, King said. China ... if it can decarbonise green steel, we want to be part of that because we are already part of Chinas steelmaking industry. Donation is about the only hope we have for preventing mitochondrial genetic disease, he said. Almost all our cells contain oval-shaped mitochondria some have thousands. Each is a little cellular power station, converting oxygen and nutrients into energy. They are essential to our lives, but also distinct, with their own complex biology. They live in small bubbles. They reproduce separately. Evolutionarily, they appear to have once been separate organisms before merging and intertwining with more complex life. And they have their own DNA which, in rare cases, can become damaged. Without the ability to efficiently generate energy, our cells begin to malfunction; the brain, nerves and muscles are particularly affected, but more than 350 different types of disease have been identified. About one in every 5000 babies has a mitochondrial disease. People with mitochondrial disease sometimes carry a mix of healthy and damaged mitochondria, at different concentrations in different parts of the body. In the human egg there are about 300,000 mitochondria. A mother with mito, as the disease is known, may contribute some healthy and some diseased mitochondria. Some of these will make their way through to the baby, and some will not, in a seemingly random process scientists still do not fully understand. Monash Universitys Professor Mary Herbert was one of the pioneers of the new procedure. Credit: Monash University and the mitoHOPE Program What it means practically is parents cannot be sure if they will pass the disease on. Its generally a pretty harrowing disease. It can affect children very early on life, or hit later on and cause all sorts of very serious illnesses leading to death. Wanting to avoid it is a very sensible thing, says Carroll, who is also director of Monash Universitys Biomedicine Discovery Institute. The university is leading the donation program. Enter Professor Mary Herbert, a reproductive biologist at Newcastle University in the UK and at Monash University. Herbert and her team had a bold plan: take fertilised DNA out of an egg with mitochondrial disease and place it in a second egg fertilised, but with its DNA removed from a healthy donor. Since the UK legalised the procedure in 2015, Herberts team has taken 22 patients through it, and eight children have been born. All eight are healthy and developing well, the trial team reported. This tells us you can do this procedure in a fertilised egg. And you can get viable embryo, pregnancies and live-birth, with levels of [mitochondrial] carry-over that are well below the level for disease, said Herbert. Five of the children appear to have no mitochondrial DNA damage at all. In the other three, between 5 and 16 per cent of their mitochondria show irregularities. It remains unclear why this is. Herbert suspects some damaged mitochondria are transferred over to the new egg and, over time, increase in frequency. Loading Professor Jus St John, head of the experimental mitochondrial genetics group at the University of Adelaide, said that uncertainty meant we should not be proceeding with clinical trials before more research is done. While the levels of damaged mitochondria were below clinical disease thresholds, it was not clear if those same thresholds would apply to children born using the new technology. This is a black hole. We dont know, he said. I think a lot more research needs to be done. In a separate trial in Greece using a different mitochondrial donation technique, one child ended up with 30 to 60 per cent of mitochondria from his mother, rather than zero. The procedure remains effectively banned in the US as a form of genetic modification of human embryos. Despite the efforts of local advocates, Australias promised mitochondrial donation clinical trial has still not launched. Since 2015, when Britain legalised the procedure, eight babies have been born from the 22 patients Herberts team has taken through it. Credit: Monash University and mitoHOPE Program In 2022, parliament legalised the procedure. A year later, Monash University was handed $15 million to run a pilot program and clinical trial. But more than two years later, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has still not issued a licence allowing the trial to begin. Whats probably been the source of frustration for us is it seems like the regulatory process has been unnecessarily slow, said Clare Stuart, advocacy and engagement manager at the Mito Foundation, which is also part of the trial. Professor Herbert, who was recruited by Monash University to lead its local program, said the licensing system was so complex it is onerous. It is onerous to apply and it is onerous to regulate. Im hoping its just a starting thing. A spokeswoman for the NHMRC declined to directly comment on the licensing issue, but said that this is a complex, multi-stage project with major ethical and scientific ramifications. Embryologists at Monash IVF, which is separate to Monash University, have been training on mice eggs to perform the difficult procedure. But the company is now under investigation from Victorian regulators following two bungled embryo implants. The company also agreed to settle a separate class-action involving more than 700 patients. A Monash IVF spokesman said the company was proud to continue the cutting-edge research. Thanks for joining us for our live news blog. Well be back with more live coverage tomorrow, so please join us. And if youre just catching up on todays news, here are some of the stories that have been making headlines: Police have charged a 21-year-old Cleveland man over an offence allegedly involving a child at a Tingalpa childcare facility on July 10. Police have revealed they tracked two teenage boys, aged 15 and 17, about 100 kilometres before the pair were arrested over the alleged murder of Sunshine Coast man Zdravko Bilic. A Sydney-based banker who was charged with grooming underage girls for sex has been found dead on the Gold Coast hinterland, two days after he was released from a Brisbane cell on bail. Senior Labor women say rogue MP Mark Latham is a pig who would be sacked in any other workplace, after allegations he took photos of female colleagues while in the upper house and claims his office was used to film sordid sexual trysts. Only an unexpected surge in inflation is likely to prevent the Reserve Bank from delivering borrowers and businesses interest rate relief in August after unemployment lifted to its highest level since the end of the COVID pandemic. While the prime minister was content to watch the very chill animals in Chengdu, Coalition MPs were fired up over whether parts of Albaneses trip were strictly necessary. US President Donald Trump has explicitly abandoned his MAGA supporters who are still demanding answers over the Jeffrey Epstein saga, claiming they are doing the Democrats bidding and saying he no longer wants their support. A cockpit voice recording of doomed Air India Flight 171 indicates it was the younger co-pilot who asked his more experienced colleague why he turned off the planes fuel-supply switches, according to people familiar with the matter. Police have charged a 21-year-old Cleveland man over an offence allegedly involving a child at a Tingalpa childcare facility on July 10. The 21-year-old man, who worked at Milestones Early Learning Tingalpa, has been charged with one offence of indecent treatment of a child. He was given conditional bail and was expected to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on August 4. Milestones Early Learning Centre in Tingalpa, in Brisbanes south-east. Credit: William Davis In a statement to media, Affinity Education Group, which runs the centre, said the man had been stood down, and the matter immediately referred to police. From winter-warming food festivals and pop-up events to the latest in cruise dining, heres all the events travellers will want to savour around the country and further afield. Former White House chef turns to cruise ships Ponant has partnered with the prestigious Club des Chefs des Chefs aboard Le Commandant Charcot. Credit: Gilles Trillard As Ponants Le Commandant Charcot cruises the icy Baltic Sea in the midst of an Arctic winter next January, retired White House executive chef Cristeta Comerford, along with other esteemed figures in the world of haute cuisine, to give passengers a taste of diplomatic history. Theyll be offering dishes once served to heads of state at official dinners, as well as giving first-hand accounts of what goes on behind the scenes at presidential residences, including the White House and Frances Elysee Palace. Its all part of a partnership with The Club des Chef des Chefs, considered one of the worlds most elite gastronomic societies. See au.ponant.com Orange Region Fire Festivals new foodie chapter London: The Trump administration has warned Ukraine against bombing Moscow under an arms deal that will ship massive amounts of American weapons to the country, raising new doubts about the pressure being applied on Russian President Vladimir Putin. The restriction came within hours of news reports that US President Donald Trump had asked Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky whether his forces were able to strike Moscow and St Petersburg. The White House rushed to respond by saying the president was not suggesting Ukraine should intensify the war by hitting the major cities. US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: AP Trump reinforced the message soon afterwards by saying he wanted Putin to end the Ukraine war by a new 50-day deadline but this did not mean Zelensky should order missiles to be fired at the Russian capital. No official casualty figures have been released for the latest fighting since Monday, when the Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces. Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defence Ministry headquarters next to a busy square in Damascus that became a gathering point after Assads fall. A member of Syrias civil defence works in the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Syrias defence ministry headquarters on Wednesday. Credit: Getty Images That strike killed three people and injured 34, Syrian officials said. Another Israeli strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said after the initial Damascus airstrike in a post on X that the painful blows have begun. Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syrias new leaders, saying it doesnt want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a multitude of scenarios and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights. Syrias Defence Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating the ceasefire agreement reached on Tuesday. Reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts. Loading In Jaramana near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she feared that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, was dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan would commute to Sweida for work and got trapped there when the clashes erupted. Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husbands colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal. They shot my husband in the hip, from what I could gather, she said, struggling to hold back tears. The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Demonstrators in Damascus wave flags during a rally against Israeli intervention in Syria. Credit: Getty Images Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the moustaches of Druze sheikhs and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses. The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in field executions. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the violations and vowing that perpetrators would be punished. These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and completely contradicts the principles that the Syrian state is built on, the statement read. Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that Washington was very concerned about the Israel-Syria violence, which he attributed to a misunderstanding, and had been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore calm. AP Washington: Australia cannot give the US a guarantee it would use AUKUS submarines to defend American interests in any conflict with China, and any such assurances would not be worth the paper theyre (not) written on, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull says. Confirming his past conversations with US defence official Elbridge Colby, who is leading a Pentagon review of the AUKUS deal, Turnbull said it was impossible for Australia to promise nuclear-powered submarines for a hypothetical contingency. No Australian government can commit any of its defence assets in advance to some future conflict. And the American government wouldnt do that, he said in an interview. Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has been critical of the AUKUS deal. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen In any event, even if one government were to make a commitment of that kind, it couldnt bind a successor government. And circumstances change. In this area, you really cannot deal in hypotheticals. Over the past squalid decade, many of us have let go of the hope that Donald Trump could do or say anything to shake the faith of his ardent base. Theyve been largely unfazed by boasts of sexual assault and porn star payoffs, an attempted coup and obscenely self-enriching crypto schemes. They cheered wildly at his promises to build a wall paid for by Mexico, then shrugged when it didnt happen. The BBC reported on a 39-year-old Iranian immigrant whose devotion to Trump endured even when she was put in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. I will support him until the day I die, she said from lock-up. Hes making America great again. Donald Trump, his then wife-to-be, Melania Knauss, with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in Florida in 2000. Credit: Getty Images So it has been fascinating to watch a vocal part of Trumps movement revolt over his administrations handling of files from the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the sex-trafficking financier who died in jail in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide. Running for president, Trump promised to release the Epstein files, which some thought would contain evidence of murder. Yet another good reason to vote for Trump, Republican Senator Mike Lee, from Utah, wrote on social media. Americans deserve to know why Epstein didnt kill himself. Some of the influencers who now staff Trumps administration built their followings by spinning wild stories about the case, promising revelations that would lay their enemies low. Epsteins client list is going to rock the political world, Dan Bongino, now deputy director of the FBI, said in September. Appearing on Fox News in February, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked whether her department would release a list of Jeffrey Epsteins clients. She responded, Its sitting on my desk right now to review. The Property Council of Australia has thrown its support behind the NSW governments launch of the Housing Pattern Book for low-rise housing and a new fast-tracked approval pathway, calling the move a smart step toward accelerating the delivery of high-quality, well-located homes across the state. As fate would have it, this is the first time I got my hands on the top-of-the-line Corolla Cross GR Sport. Personally, Ive driven the mid-... Sean ODriscoll (21) from Graiguecullen has been selected as one of 32 escorts for the prestigious Rose of Tralee festival in August. Sean is studying government and political science at University College Cork and is sponsored by Slimming World with Mary. The youngest member of this years escort group, Sean brings unique experience from his recent work placement as a legislative assistant in the New York State Senate. Im buzzing now, I cant wait, Sean said enthusiastically about his selection. I got to meet all the lads in a bootcamp in Kerry recently. Theyre all great, so Im looking forward to seeing them again now in August. Its going to be unreal. Sean discovered the opportunity through social media and navigated a comprehensive application process that evaluated both his background and personality. The selection process included detailed questions about his experiences, current activities and personal interests, including favourite movies and books. Id seen the ad first on Instagram and filled out an application on the website, Sean explained. It was lots of questions like, who you are, different experiences youve had, what youre doing now. Its also a bit of personality favourite movie, favourite books. I think what theyre really trying to do is see what kind of person you are. The application process continued with both solo and group interviews, where Seans personality and trustworthiness were assessed, alongside other candidates. His experience in New York proved particularly valuable during the selection process. In a way, I was escorting my senator around; any meetings he had, I briefed him on; whenever he was going to debate a bill during session, I would help him with that lots of different jobs, Sean said of his legislative assistant role. It was quite a wide variety. It was long hours as well. You were in early, you were in until very late as well. So I drew on that when applying to be an escort. I said, look, Ive done a similar role in New York and Id love to take it back to Ireland. As a Rose escort, Seans responsibilities will focus on supporting and assisting his assigned Rose throughout the week-long festival. This includes helping with logistics, ensuring shes prepared for television appearances and providing general support during formal events. Its quite a varying role from what I understand. It really depends on the Rose youre assigned to and what she needs from you, Sean noted. So if she needs just a relaxing person sitting beside her before she goes on TV or just making sure that she knows exactly where she needs to be. Its more about being on the ball, knowing what your Rose needs and wants. While Sean doesnt yet know which Rose hell be paired with, theres excitement in Carlow that it could be local representative Katie Ryan from Tullow, who will represent the county in this years competition. A Dublin man who found himself stranded with his dog in Carlow after an illegal right turn saw his case struck out at Carlow District Court last week due to a postal error although he seemed more concerned about the treatment he received than the legal victory. Alan Power (57), 22 Rossmore Close, Dublin 6 appeared before Judge Geraldine Carthy to contest a traffic offence from 18 November 2024, when he illegally turned right from Burrin Avenue onto Kennedy Street in Carlow town, where a no right turn sign was posted. The court heard that Mr Power, who was unfamiliar with Carlow, had travelled from Dublin specifically to get his recently acquired car back taxed. Unfortunately for him, the vehicles tax had expired ten days earlier, leading to its seizure under section 41 of the Road Traffic Acts. The investigating gave evidence of the incident, while defence solicitor Joe Farrell painted a picture of a man caught in difficult circumstances. He said (the gardai) were right behind him and roadworks were taking place; it was lashing rain; it was really wet and there was heavy traffic. He was trying to get across the junction, Mr Farrell told the court. When asked by Mr Farrell if he had flashed his lights or beeped his horn to warn Mr Power, the garda replied in the negative. Mr Powers own testimony revealed his frustration with the entire ordeal. The weather was horrendous. I couldnt turn left or go straight and was in the middle of the road. I panicked and turned right I didnt see the sign, he explained. No damage was caused and there was no hindrance to any other traffic whatsoever. However, it was the aftermath that seemed to rankle most. With his car seized and his dog in tow, Mr Power found himself stranded in Carlow. I said dont leave me here with the dog, stranded. Ive never been treated so bad by a guard in my life. Thats the fact of the matter, thats the truth, your honour, he told the court. The situation, he said, was compounded by the fact that he couldnt take the train back to Dublin due to restrictions on bringing his dog on board. Adding insult to injury from Mr Powers perspective, the car was held until 5.30pm, meaning he couldnt bail it out until the following Tuesday. Horrid. They kept me waiting at the garda station, he said. Mr Power admitted he would have paid the original 80 fixed-charge penalty notice if he had received it, but expressed confusion when it later became 180. I thought thats not right it should only be 80. I said, Im not going to court, he explained. He outlined he had already paid out 280 to retrieve his car on top of 330 for back tax. When asked if he was upset by the proceedings, Mr Power responded with apparent resignation: I dont really care anymore. The case took an unexpected turn when Judge Carthy was shown that there had been an error with the postal address on the original fixed-charge penalty notice, meaning it could not be served by registered post. She ruled that the matter be struck out entirely. Vivienne Clarke Minister for Communications Patrick ODonovan has said it was unacceptable that details about An Post were revealed at a Cabinet meeting and that ongoing issues with restructuring were conflated with concerns raised by postmasters. Some people who don't understand have conflated the two things, put them together, added two and two and came up with seven, he told RTE radios Today with Claire Byrne show. Mr ODonovan said that the person who claimed that An Post was going to need a bailout should have put their name in the paper and denied the claim that he had been behind the leak which An Post chief executive David McRedmond called "garbage". As a shareholder of An Post he said that the company had returned a profit last year. They've had some challenging years, there's no doubt about that, they have gone through a restructuring programme and actually one of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isn't helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, is people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters and are conflating the two things in the budgetary talks. And to be quite honest about it, it's showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is. When asked about the report about the Cabinet meeting which claimed that An Post was facing a bleak financial future, the Minister replied: It's not today or yesterday that I have been on with you clarifying the morning after, the night before, and what I've said as the shareholder of the company is I am very satisfied that An Post's future is linked inextricably to communities up and down the country. These are nameless people again and it's not the first time I've been talking to you about a nameless person. I'm Patrick O'Donovan, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, I'm the shareholder of RTE and I'm shareholder of An Post. This Government is a firm supporter of An Post, we've shown that, both in terms of the post masters and their connection to the company, but as well as that in terms of the changes that have been brought in by the current CEO and the current board to make the company as viable and as profitable as it is. All postal services around the European Union have been challenged since Covid. Next Day Delivery Services have been challenging for all postal services but An Post has done something that most of its opponents around the European Union are looking on with green eyes saying how did you manage to do this big, they're becoming one of the leaders in Ireland in terms of parcel delivery and that's where their future is. The CEO has done an excellent job notwithstanding the financial difficulties and he did say it this morning, and we are meeting him very regularly, that he wants to work with the government in the new year around working capital. That's what a CEO does, but how a nameless minister, or alleged nameless Minister, or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I don't know how they will come up with that. This is a company that has come through massive transformative change and which my department is fully supportive of with New Era and with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in terms of addressing some of the issues that the CEO referred to this morning on Morning Ireland. As the shareholder of the company I have the confidence of the board and the management and the men and women that work for An Post. An Post is in a very good state and has transformed itself over the last number of years and it's going to continue in that journey of transformation and it will have the full support of the government. Irish farmers are expecting bad news on Wednesday when the European Commission announces a major overhaul of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The Commission is expected to merge CAP into a "super fund" along with other sectors, meaning agriculture will no longer have a ringfenced budget. The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) said changes to the European Union's farming subsidies are potentially devastating coming alongside potential US tariffs. IFA president Francie Gorman told Newstalk radio that it will impact farmers and consumers who buy their products. The mammoth CAP is today worth around 387 billion, or a third of the bloc's entire budget for 2021-2027. Brussels is also set to propose capping the EU subsidies a single farmer can receive each year, in an attempt to redistribute the bloc's massive farming subsidies in favour of smaller businesses, a draft European Commission proposal seen by Reuters, showed. The document is part of the Commission's proposal for the EU's next budget, due to be published on Wednesday. The Commission proposal would attempt to redistribute more subsidies to smaller farmers, by capping at 100,000 per year the area-based income support they can receive, the draft said. It would also progressively reduce the amount paid out per hectare, for those receiving the most. For example, farmers receiving area-based income support above 20,000 per year would have their subsidies above this level cut by 25 per cent, payments above 50,000 per year would be cut by 50 per cent, and payments above 75,000 by 75 per cent, the draft said. This is not the first time Brussels has attempted to cap subsidies, to limit payouts to big landowners and agro-industrial firms. In the previous CAP, roughly 80 per cent of payments went to 20 per cent of the beneficiaries. Past proposals to do this were rejected by EU governments concerned about their farming industries. EU countries and the European Parliament must approve the new budget for 2028-2034. A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the draft, which could change before it is published. The draft would set overarching EU-wide green targets that farmers must meet to receive subsidies, while obliging countries to set additional, locally-tailored conditions. "The new CAP is to be a simpler and more targeted Union common policy, with more flexibility for farmers and a shift from requirements to incentives," the draft said. The draft did not confirm the size of the new CAP. Its core would still be direct income support for farmers, which would be "ring-fenced" meaning it cannot be spent on anything else. The proposal would merge the CAP's current two-pillar structure into one overarching fund a move opposed by the influential European farmers' lobby COPA-COGECA. Additional reporting: Reuters Sonya McLean A man described as the manager of the entire cell of a drug distribution network in the Dublin area has been jailed for 15 years after he was caught with almost 9 million worth of assorted drugs, over 1 million in cash and a stolen garda uniform. Judge Orla Crowe said that gardai are satisfied that no people were higher up nationally than 52-year-old Andrew Pender. The judge said it was a highly sophisticated operation that involved two vehicles which had been adapted to have hidden compartments to store drugs, a rented shipping container, a stolen garda uniform and a falsely registered delivery company. Pender, of Ely Green, Tallaght, Dublin 24, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of an assortment of drugs for sale or supply at The Ward in Co Meath on July 19th, 2024. He has three previous convictions for minor road traffic offences. He further pleaded guilty to having two vehicles a Peugeot and a Mercedes Luton van which had been fitted with a compartment in circumstances giving rise to the inference that he possessed or controlled it for the purpose connected with the commission, preparation, facilitation or instigation of a drug trafficking offence on the same date. Finally, he pleaded guilty to money laundering of 1,149,920 in cash at The Ward, his home and his parents' home also on the same date. The cocaine found was valued at almost 4.47 million, the ketamine had a value of just over 2.5 million, the cannabis was worth 1.29 million, and the MDMA was valued at just over 700,00. In sentencing Pender on Wednesday, Judge Crowe noted that Pender did not assist the garda investigation but acknowledged that he pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage. She accepted that he had a long-standing addiction to cocaine, which has had medical consequences for him before she noted that he suffered from COPD, that he had heart problems and recently had surgery on his nose. She further accepted that there was a large number of references before the court that spoke well of Pender and a letter of remorse he had written. Judge Crowe said that the garda evidence was that Pender managed the entire cell of drug distribution for the Dublin area and gardai are satisfied that he was not under duress or pressure to run this operation. She noted that he was responsible for both the movement of cash and drugs. She said he was in clear control of the operation and working hands-on before describing the evidence as obvious that Pender was at a level of involvement at the highest possible level and that there was no people higher up than he nationally. Judge Crowe said it was an inherently very grave case, noting the impact drugs and drug trafficking at this level have on society. She also noted that "chillingly", Pender had possession of a garda uniform. She set a headline sentence of 20 years in prison, noting that the maximum penalty available to the court was life imprisonment. Judge Crowe said she was taking into account mitigating features of the case, including Penders personal circumstances and his plea of guilty, before she imposed a sentence of 15 years in prison. The sentence was backdated to when Pender first went into custody earlier this month, and he was given credit for time previously served on remand. Judge Crowe acceded to a request from Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting, to have the drugs, cash, vehicles and shipping container seized during the investigation forfeited to the State. She refused an application by Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending to suspend part of the sentence on the basis of Penders chronic drug addiction. Detective Inspector Ken Holohan, of the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT), previously gave evidence that Pender was arrested following what was described as an elaborate ongoing investigation after it was determined that Pender was a person of trust. Pender was stopped while he was driving a Peugeot, and a further search of the vehicle revealed 9,000 in cash, a small quantity of cocaine and a key. It was soon discovered that this was the key for a rented shipping container situated in rural Meath. A warrant was obtained to search this container and a Mercedes Luton van, and a stolen garda uniform, along with a stab vest, was also discovered. The van had been fitted with a hidden compartment, behind a hydraulic device. It was considered a sophisticated compartment which required an expert to access it. In this compartment, 16 blocks of cash and two kilograms of cocaine were found. The rest of the drugs were found in the shipping container. Pender had been renting the container for some time, paying 200 per month in rent. It later transpired that Pender had asked two separate people to register the two vehicles in their own names. Pender had also registered a company in his name in November 2021. It was registered to his home address, but he did not operate the company as a business. The Peugeot that he had been stopped driving also had a false floor fitted to hide a compartment under the seats. Penders home and his parents' home were searched, during which the documentation in relation to the vehicle was found along with further quantities of cash. Mr O Lideadha submitted to the court that Pender had the money and drugs in order to pay off a drug debt, but the gardai do not accept this. Counsel said Pender had damaged his nose due to his chronic cocaine habit, and he had to have part of his nose surgically removed recently as a result. Specsavers Carlow will officially launch its new expanded audiology hub this Friday 18 July with a weekend-long celebration featuring live music, prizes and free ice cream. The enhanced facility aims to address growing demand for hearing care services in Carlow and surrounding areas by effectively doubling appointment availability through the addition of a second testing room and planned weekend clinics. We are delighted to be able to offer improved hearing services to the people of Carlow and surrounding areas, said Brian Maher, audiology director at Specsavers Carlow. Monitoring hearing health is crucial, and with our increased capacity and advanced services, we can now reach more people and provide the essential support they need. The upgraded hub features advanced testing equipment and dedicated soundproof hearing rooms designed to ensure accurate results and patient comfort. Services include comprehensive hearing checks, hearing aid servicing, battery replacements, and professional ear wax removal. The grand opening celebration takes place on Friday 18 July with a weekend of activities planned. Visitors can enjoy an in-store live DJ and radio broadcast, spot prizes, goody bags, and complimentary treats from an on-site ice cream van. The expansion represents Specsavers response to increasing local demand for audiology services, with the new setup designed to reduce waiting times for customers seeking hearing care. Community members interested in learning more about the hearing services or booking an appointment can call (059) 913 7700 or visit the stores website at specsavers.ie/stores/carlow. The Carlow team has extended an open invitation to the local community to attend the grand opening weekend and experience the new facilities firsthand. MORE than 3,000 people flocked to Carlow Town Park on Saturday for the seventh annual Carlow Pride Festival, making it one of the most successful events since its inauguration in July 2019. The festival kicked off at 2pm with a vibrant parade that wound its way from Carlow College through the town centre before arriving at Carlow Town Park. There, festival-goers were treated to a concert headlined by Christina Aguilera tribute act Xtina, followed by an after-party at Tullys Bar featuring a DJ, drag show and what organisers promised was plenty more Pride energy. The Carlow Pride parade starting off from Carlow College on Sunday afternoon Photos: Paul Curran Festival chairman John Paul Payne was delighted with the turnout, noting that the unusually hot, sunny weather may have contributed to the record attendance. A lot of people stayed until the very, very end, which is the first time thats ever happened; it was amazing, he said. Normally, people leave before the concert ends because it starts getting cold. Tom Cavanagh, Debbie Harold, Rev Paul Fitzpatrick and Rita Ryan The sweltering conditions failed to dampen spirits and there was a great buzz about the town. John Paul said: It all went off without a hitch. It was a super-successful day again and everyone was very happy. The festivals success was reflected in both the visible increase in attendance on last year and the enthusiastic response to headline act Xtina. Flying the flag with pride She was a big hit; she was incredible. She sings live and people couldnt believe how good her voice was, John Paul said, adding that the performer herself described it as probably her best night shes ever been to. Pride festival chairman John Paul Payne with drag queens Tracy, Onya, Sassy and Mona The event drew visitors from across Ireland and the UK, with many commenting on the impressive effort made to transform Carlow into a Pride-friendly space. The whole town was decorated. We were working hard for the last couple of weeks, and I think that really showed yesterday, he noted. We had lots of people from different Prides from around Ireland and from the UK, and they were really impressed. Paul and Irene O'Rourke Major sponsor Yahoo demonstrated its commitment to the event by flying employees from the United States to attend. The festival also received strong local support, with local politicians Jennifer Murnane OConnor, Patricia Stephenson and Adrienne Wallace in attendance, along with backing from civil defence volunteers. In a special moment during the festivities, two members of An Garda Siochana Garda Essmay Mannix and Sergeant Conor Egan were presented with an award from the Carlow Pride Committee in recognition of their ongoing support for the festival down the years. Members of Dance Republic pose with their teachers and Eddie McGuinness at the Carlow Pride festival For John Paul, the event represents more than just a successful festival. Theres definitely a change in the air compared to other towns, he said of Carlows growing reputation as an LGBTQ+ friendly community. There was no shortage of colour on Dublin Street The conversations I had yesterday some people never thought they would have this life. I dont think people ever thought they could be this free or be this happy. Everyone was just enjoying their day. I think it really does make Carlow a much better place to live for a lot of people. Advertisement Cemex, Latin America's largest cement company, has announced cuts to its corporate management staff as part of a cost optimisation plan, according to Mexicos Reforma newspaper. The cement company, based in the state of Nuevo Leon, expects to generate US$350m in annual savings by 2027, with these latest cuts taking place at its corporate headquarters in Monterrey. "We are simplifying the way we work and further empowering our regions to operate in a more agile and efficient way," a Cemex source told the media outlet. "Therefore, certain corporate functions have been reassigned to operations, as well as cancelled positions from other projects that have ended because they have already met their objectives." Cemex shares fell 0.87 per cent on Tuesday on the Mexican Stock Exchange, trading at MXN13.71 (US$0.73), their lowest level in the last four sessions. Advertisement The price of cement in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has dropped by 52.3 per cent from US$21 to US$11/bag three weeks after the end of the strike by tractor-trailer drivers, according to a press release by the Ministry of Economy. "Three weeks after a compromise was reached between the central government and the drivers' unions to end the said strike, a bag of cement is currently selling, in almost all municipalities of the city of Kinshasa, between CDF31,000-33,000 [US$10.67-11.34], the source read. Before the strike, which took place between late May and early June, the price of a bag of cement was trading at CDF60,000. Lauren Theresa McCann, 64, of Ooltewah, TN, passed away peacefully at home on July 15, 2025, surrounded by family after bravely battling metastatic breast cancer for four years. The daughter of Kenneth and JoAnne Scheub, Lauren was born on October 15, 1960, in Gary, Indiana. She was raised in the northern Indiana area until her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona when she was 12 years old. She was a graduate of Shadow Mountain High School in Phoenix where she developed several life-long friendships. Shortly after graduating from high school Lauren began what would become her lifelong career and lifes calling: caring for patients in nursing homes. Lauren started her career as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) working at a nursing home in Arizona. She quickly realized that she enjoyed caring for the sick and elderly. Others saw her natural empathetic and caring nature and, over time, she assumed several increasingly important nursing home roles. Encouraged by others, Lauren took and passed the Arizona State Nursing Home Administrators exam and accepted her first position as a nursing home administrator. During her career, Lauren would manage several nursing homes in both Arizona and Tennessee most recently serving as the administrator of Life Care Center of Collegedale. Laurens intelligence, strong work ethic and exceptional people skills ultimately led to her holding several senior management positions for a number of large nursing home companies such as Kindred Healthcare where she served as a VP of operations, responsible for 18 nursing homes in the Southeast and their thousands of patients and employees. Lauren met her husband, Peter McCann, in 1997 while still living in Phoenix. After a two-year, long-distance relationship, she married Peter and moved with her two young children, Sarah and Alex, to the Chattanooga area, joining Peter and his two young children, Peter and Lindsay. Family was incredibly important to Lauren. She cherished being a mom and raised her children with great love while simultaneously instilling in them the importance of being productive members of society. In recent years, nothing brought a bigger smile to her face than spending time with her granddaughter Julia and seeing her three grandsons, Samuel, Eli and Shepherd, playing in the house. She also took her role as a loving, caring daughter to aging parents very seriously. She relished spending quality time with her parents, Ken and JoAnne Scheub, who lived with her and Peter in their Ooltewah home for many years. In the last four years of her life, despite being sick with cancer, Lauren spent many hours each week working with her dad in the downstairs garage restoring old furniture and donating their beautifully finished work to local charities. Friends were also deeply important to Lauren. She forged many close, much-valued friendships with folks from high school, the churches she belonged to, the communities she lived in and with those from her four decades of working in nursing homes. And when not spending time with family and friends, Lauren could be found during these last several years spending special time with her horse Honey, who brought her great joy. Preceding Lauren in death was her mother, JoAnne (Judy) Scheub, of Ooltewah, who died in 2019. Survivors include her husband of 26 years, Peter; her father, Kenneth Scheub of Ooltewah; her brother Kenneth Richard Scheub of Phoenix and brother and sister-in-law Bruce Scheub (Shauna) of Phoenix; her daughter and son-in-law Sarah Kunzel (Peter) of Orlando; son and son-in-law Alex Gandara-Morgan (Scott) of Dallas; daughter and son-in-law Lindsay Scott (Stewart) of Knoxville and son Peter Michael McCann of Durham, NC, and her four grandchildren. You are invited to attend her Memorial Service which will be held at Ooltewah United Methodist Churchs Worship Center (6131 Relocation Way, Ooltewah) at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday July 22 with Pastor Micah Nicolaus officiating. There will be a brief gathering with the family in the back of the Worship Center after the service. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the American Cancer Society. Visit the online obituary www.heritagechattanooga.com to post tributes and share memories. Arrangements are by Heritage Funeral Home, East Brainerd Chapel. We are saddened to announce the passing of James Reynolds Setliffe, Sr., 76, of East Ridge, Tennessee, who passed away on Sunday, July 13, 2025. He was born March 6, 1949 in Chattanooga to the late William Elmer Setliffe Jr. and Mildred Reynolds Setliffe. Jim honorably served his country in the United States Air Force from 1968-1972 and served a tour of duty in Vietnam in 1970. Upon being discharged, he was employed with the East Ridge Police Department and then with TVA as Manager of Corporate Nuclear Security. Jim was a genuinely good man who believed in helping people and was always ready to assist anyone in need without receiving credit or attention. He left a lasting impression on all of the lives he touched. Jim also loved history and family genealogy. Later in life, he found pleasure in baking as a hobby and was always preparing desserts and baked goods for his friends and family. He was proceeded in death by his parents, as well as his brother, William Setliffe, and sister, Ann Setliffe. He is survived by his loving wife of 56 years, Carol Setliffe; Sons, Jimmy Setliffe (Tammy) and Matt Setliffe; Grandchildren, Desi Johnson, Samuel Setliffe, River Pruett, Ava Setliffe, Jane Setliffe, Islay Setliffe, Ruaridh Setliffe, Maia Brisbane ; Great Grandchildren, Stetson, Billy and Lizzie Johnson, Timber and Cedar Pruett; Sister, Bonnie Setliffe. Public viewing will be held from 4-8 p.m. on Sunday, July 20, at Chattanooga Funeral Home-East Chapel, 404 S. Moore Road, Chattanooga TN 37421. The funeral service will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, July 21, at the Chattanooga Funeral Home- East Chapel. Burial service will be held at the Chattanooga National Cemetery at 2 p.m.. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council. The phrase Make America Tennessee is gaining momentum as our state continues to experience significant victories. If more of the country followed our lead, we would be freer, safer, stronger and more united. We have led the nation in fighting for common sense, freedom and parental rights. It should come as no surprise that the Volunteer State continues to attract tens of thousands of new residents each year. U-Hauls growth index places Tennessee ahead of 45 other states in welcoming new residents, a testament to our friendly people, booming industries and steady conservative leadership. Republican lawmakers this year continued to build on our states success by investing in strong communities, improving academic outcomes, enhancing public safety and prioritizing our transportation system. I can confidently say that this legislative session was one of the most effective I have taken part in. One of the measures I sponsored will protect children from harmful hemp-derived cannabinoid products, including THC gummies. Many of these items are marketed like candy, which the medical director of the Tennessee Poison Center says leads to a majority of the organizations THC-related calls. More than 250 children were treated for cannabis poisoning at the East Tennessee Childrens Hospital between July 2023 and June 2024, a heartbreaking number that emphasizes the severity of the issue. The new law creates a mandatory minimum sentence of 48 hours in jail and a $500 fine for people convicted of distribution to people under 21. It also prohibits retailers from knowingly allowing underage employees to sell or handle the products. This is a growing problem in our nation, but the General Assemblys bold action this year will help keep children safe across the Volunteer State. Lawmakers also prioritized education reforms this year, building on Republican efforts to empower students over the past decade. Im pleased to report that recently released Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) results reflect student improvements in all subject areas. While this significant progress is worth celebrating, I join my colleagues in continuing to find effective ways to boost academic achievement. We made strides this session to decrease classroom distractions, invest in teachers and students and promote a more balanced and productive school day. Ive met with several local educators and district superintendents who have conveyed serious concerns about students using cell phones during class. Not only do devices affect their ability to focus, but more than half of public school leaders say it also negatively impacts student success. Meigs, Polk and Bradley counties have exceptional public schools, which is all the more reason we must ensure children pay attention in class. In March, the General Assembly unanimously approved legislation to limit classroom distractions by requiring all Tennessee school districts to implement policies prohibiting the use of electronic devices during instruction time. Schools that have already implemented similar policies have reported exceptional results, and Im eager to see the impact of this consequential new law. There are few policies people care more about than roads - and for good reason. Quality roadways make Tennessee families safer, strengthen our economy and enhance quality of life. Tennessee has historically relied on gas tax revenue to pay for roads and bridges, which are funded with cash on hand, not borrowed money. The rise in fuel-efficient and electric vehicles has made this model unsustainable. Lawmakers unanimously approved a new law this session to significantly increase funding for the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) through a portion of sales tax revenue from new and used tires. The measure will add roughly $80 million more to TDOTs highway fund annually, a number that is expected to increase in subsequent years. This recurring funding will play a significant role in improving Tennessees roads and ensuring we remain a nationwide hub of logistics. Our state is a special place, and it is an honor to represent the values of Meigs, Polk and Bradley counties in the state legislature. With your help, I remain committed to finding innovative ways to promote continued prosperity in our community and across Tennessee. * * * State Representative Dan Howell Rep. Howell represents District 22 in the Tennessee House of Representatives, which includes Meigs, Polk and part of Bradley counties. He is chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Chemistry studies in Germany enjoy an excellent international reputation. In 2024, around 30 percent of doctoral students came from abroad. The number of foreign students at the beginning of their studies and especially during their master's program has also been steadily increasing for years. This is shown by the current statistics on chemistry degree programs published by the German Chemical Society (GDCh). In 2024, a total of 8,004 people began a chemistry degree program (2023: 8,248). The number of students who completed a chemistry degree program with a master's degree or the First State Examination was 3,546 (2023: 3,483). The number of doctorates awarded rose to 2,120 last year (2023: 2,040). Job-seeking graduates with completed doctorates were similarly successful in entering professional life as in the previous year. The proportion of international doctoral students in chemistry has more than doubled since the turn of the millennium. While only 13% of doctoral students came from abroad back then, this figure had risen to 30% by 2024. Internationalization is evident at all levels of study: 14.9% of first-year students in chemistry, 20% of master's graduates, and 25.4% of those successfully completing their doctorates come from abroad. While international students previously came to Germany primarily to pursue their doctorates, they are now increasingly choosing to obtain their bachelor's or master's degrees here. The following results were obtained for the individual study programs: In the field of Chemistry/Business Chemistry, universities reported 5,166 new students (2023: 5,024). 1,910 students (2023: 1,891) successfully completed their bachelor's degree, and 2,052 received their master's degree (2023: 2,111). The median study duration was 7.0 semesters to complete a bachelor's degree (2023: 7.0) and 5.5 semesters to complete a master's degree (2023: 5.3). In 2024, 1,828 people earned their doctorates in Chemistry/Business Chemistry (2023: 1,771). The median doctoral duration was 8.8 semesters (2023: 8.4). In Biochemistry and Life Sciences, 1,599 people began their studies (2023: 1,680). The number of bachelor's degrees was 871 (2023: 905), and the number of master's degrees rose to 856 (2023: 807). The number of doctorates also rose to 253 (2023: 210). The median study duration was 6.9 semesters for bachelor's degrees (2023: 6.9), 5.4 semesters for master's degrees (2023: 5.4), and 9.3 semesters for doctorates (2023: 9.3). In food chemistry , the number of new students fell from 307 in the previous year to 274. A total of 115 students passed the main examination A (1st state examination) or the diploma examination (2023: 150) and 135 people passed the main examination B (2nd state examination) (2023: 125). In addition, the universities reported 137 bachelor's degrees and 150 master's degrees (2023: 132 and 133 respectively). The number of doctorates was 39 (2023: 59). The average length of study to complete the main examination A was 11.0 semesters (2023: 10.9). Bachelor's degrees took a median of 6.8 semesters (2023: 6.7) and master's degrees 4.6 semesters (2023: 4.5). Due to insufficient data, no average length of study for a doctorate could be determined. At universities of applied sciences (HAW), 965 people began studying chemistry (2023: 1237). The number of bachelor's degrees fell to 543 (2023: 583), and the number of master's degrees fell to 373 (2023: 415). The median duration of study was 8.3 semesters for bachelor's degrees (2023: 8.0) and 4.7 semesters for master's degrees (2023: 4.2). Around 97% of all bachelor's graduates at universities and 67% at universities of applied sciences went on to pursue a master's degree. Around 80% of master's graduates at universities began a doctorate. Cherokee Nations Acting Marshal Daniel Mead presented the tribes first for the tribes law enforcement agency on July 14. Home News Amid spread of ISIS, US warns of potential attacks on churches, soft targets in Tanzania Amid the spread of the Islamic State in southern an eastern Africa, the U.S. government has warned about the potential for terror attacks in Tanzania, an East African country largely seen as being among the region's most peaceful. An advisory issued by the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania last week warns of the increasing potential for terrorists.to target places like hotels, embassies, restaurants, malls and places of worship, specifically naming the coastal town of Dar es Salaam. "Locations frequented by U.S. citizens and other Westerners in Dar es Salaam and elsewhere in Tanzania continue to be attractive targets to terrorists planning to conduct attacks," reads the advisory. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Tanzania has been infiltrated by the Islamic State jihadists due to its proximity to the Muslim-dominated province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. "Terrorist groups could attack with little or no warning, targeting hotels, embassies, restaurants, malls and markets, police stations, places of worship, and other places frequented by Westerners," the embassy stressed. ICC reports that a church leader in Tanzania has asked believers to be alert and prayerful. "The Lord has been good to Tanzania over the years, and we are thankful for that. We have had times of tears due to terrorism, but we are not like other East African neighbors," the unnamed church leader was quoted as saying. "Lately, we have seen how our young men and women have joined terrorist groups within the region, and so we should remain vigilant and prayerful and ask God to protect us from these enemies." An advisory on Tanzania issued by the United Kingdom government also says terrorists are "very likely" to attempt attacks in Tanzania. "They could be indiscriminate and occur without warning," the U.K. advisory states. "Places frequented by westerners, including places of worship, transport hubs, embassies, hotels, restaurants and bars, and major gatherings like sporting or religious events may be targets." Tanzania has not experienced a major terrorist attack since the bombing of the U.S. embassy in 1998, but there have been several smaller-scale incidents. In neighboring northern Mozambique, thousands have been killed and nearly 1 million displaced by violence committed by Islamic extremist groups since an insurgency began in 2017. During that time, radicals attacked several villages and took control of a province rich with gas, rubies, graphite, gold and other natural resources. In this mostly-Muslim region of Mozambique in the otherwise Christian-majority country, Islamic extremists kidnap women and keep them as sex slaves and force boys to become child soldiers, according to The Washington Post. Last year, militant groups affiliated with the Islamic State killed at least 29 Christians and displaced hundreds of residents in northern Mozambique in September and October. A report published by the Pennsylvania-based Barnabas Aid stated that at least 21 Christians were killed by Islamist extremists in October in Cabo Delgado province. In September, Barnabas Aid released another report stating that militants from the same terror group had killed at least eight Christians and set fire to two churches and 120 houses in Cabo Delgado and neighboring Nampula province. The U.S. labeled Islamic State-Mozambique as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorists." Known as Ansar al-Sunna, the group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in early April 2018. "Since October 2017, ISIS-Mozambique, led by Abu Yasir Hassan, has killed more than 1,300 civilians, and it is estimated that more than 2,300 civilians, security force members, and suspected ISIS-Mozambique militants have been killed since the terrorist group began its violent extremist insurgency," the State Department stated in a March 2021 report. "The group was responsible for orchestrating a series of large scale and sophisticated attacks resulting in the capture of the strategic port of Mocimboa da Praia, Cabo Delgado Province." In its 2020 country report on Tanzania, the State Department stated that Islamic State Mozambique launched two attacks inside Tanzania in 2020. "Renewed assurances of Tanzania-Mozambique cross-border security cooperation have yet to materialize; however, bilateral cooperation will be important to securing Tanzanian citizens and territory," the report reads. On Oct. 14, 2020, an estimated 300 Islamic State fighters attacked the Kitaya village on the border with Mozambique, killing 20. The militants looted and burned homes, shops, vehicles and an office building. Two weeks later, the Islamic State-affiliated militants attacked Michenjele village, 25 miles from Kitaya, killing five and kidnapping others as they looted and burned homes and other buildings. Home News 'We will not bow in fear': California pastor defiant after ICE arrest at her church A California pastor remains defiant weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went onto her church's parking lot to arrest an individual. The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior minister at Downey Memorial Church in Downey, a Disciples of Christ congregation, penned a column in USA Today on Tuesday detailing a recent incident with ICE agents on her church's property. Last month, armed ICE agents wearing masks came onto the property to apprehend a man who had happened to walk onto the church grounds, Lopez stated. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "The agents were armed, masked and aggressive," she wrote. "They tried to intimidate clergy and staff people whose only armor is their faith and moral convictions. In that moment, our sacred space became a site of state-sanctioned fear and violence." Lopez said that while "fear of ICE raids has become so pervasive that even worship cannot feel safe," she stated that "our faith commands a different path." "Yet, in the face of fear, we do not fold. We are people of faith. And faith, in its truest form, is not passive. It does not retreat when challenged. It stands up. It reaches out," Lopez continued. "That is why, even now, clergy across California are organizing vigils, demanding action from corporations and elected officials, and showing up in courtrooms and communities to shield those targeted by unjust raids. Because our role is not just to comfort, but to confront injustice." The incident at Downey Memorial Church caught the attention of denominational leadership, with Disciples of Christ President the Rev. Terri Hord Owens and Pacific Southwest Region President the Rev. Richie Sanchez issuing a joint statement on June 12. According to the information provided by Owens and Sanchez, the individual that ICE was arresting was not a member of the church and staff members did not obstruct the operation. "We ask for civility as the news of this event continues to be shared and ask that people see past the emotions that drive us away from being able to see others as fully human and worthy of dignity," stated Owens and Sanchez. "Let's take the time to listen to one another and try to find shared values and ideas as people that care deeply for our communities and our country." Amid immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, witnesses report ICE officers also took people into custody at another Downey church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. Since taking office earlier this year, President Donald Trump has overseen a sharp increase in immigration enforcement efforts aimed at deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally. As part of the effort, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the rescinding of a policy enacted by the Obama administration in 2011 that barred immigration law enforcement operations in "sensitive" areas, such as churches and schools. "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," stated DHS at the time. "The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense." "The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis." The rescinding of the policy has led to multiple lawsuits. One filed in April by a group of churches and other nonprofits accused the administration of violating their First Amendment rights. Additionally, the Catholic dioceses of San Bernardino and Nashville each recently issued decrees stating that individuals who fear being detained by ICE agents were not obligated to attend mass. The Diocese of Nashville reported a 50% decline in mass attendance on the Sunday after ICE agents arrested nearly 200 people in an early May operation. The bishops of Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville issued a statement in early June praising law enforcement's efforts to deport criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers but questioned the government's figures. The bishops stressed that "as many as 100 of those detained, while undocumented, apparently had no previous criminal issues." "That brings into question whether the enforcement activity was principally targeted at those who should have no place in our communities because of their own illegal activity," the bishops wrote in the statement released by the Tennessee Catholic Conference. "The fact that so many people without documentation could quietly live under the radar, often for decades, clearly points to the need for broad reform of the immigration system." Also in June, Bishop of San Bernardino Alberto Rojas decried federal agents detaining several people at a San Bernardino parish property after chasing them onto the parking lot. "While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings," the Mexican-born bishop stated. "We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people." Home News Ex-Muslim shares biggest concern about what could happen next in Iran Christian Post columnist Hedieh Mirahmadi is an ex-Muslim with a fascinating take on faith, Christianity and the Middle East. A Bible believer, she often shares what led her away from Islam and toward Jesus. Mirahmadi joins the show to explain her take on Iran, the recent U.S. bombing of the nation's nuclear facilities, and what she believes could happen next: Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The Inside Story takes you behind the headlines of the biggest faith, culture, and political headlines of the week. In 15 minutes or less, Christian Post staff writers and editors will help you navigate and understand whats driving each story, the issues at play and why it all matters. Listen to more Christian podcasts today on the Edifi app and be sure to subscribe to The Inside Story on your favorite platforms: Home News Israel hits regime targets in Damascus; Hundreds of Israeli Druze cross into Syria to join the fighting Israel sharply escalated its strikes on Syrian regime targets on Wednesday, hitting buildings belonging to the defense ministry, the presidential palace and over 160 other targets since Tuesday night. The Israeli intervention is meant to deter regime-affiliated Islamist groups from continuing their attacks on the Druze community in the southern province of Suwayda, where over 240 people have been reported killed in heavy fighting. Local news site Sweida24 reported that the city, along with nearby villages, came under artillery and mortar fire carried out by government forces on Wednesday. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Meanwhile, the Israeli Druze community stepped up its protests, demanding the Israeli government save their brethren in Syria. Following a call by their spiritual leader, Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, hundreds of Druze broke through IDF barriers and crossed the border into Syria to join the fighting. IDF sources admitted that despite recent reinforcements, the troops were not prepared for the overwhelming numbers of Druze. It is estimated that around 1,000 Israelis crossed the border. Israeli media reported that Afif Abed, a member of the Likud Party, and Hamed Amar, a Knesset member for Yisrael Beitenu, both Druze, crossed into Syria in an attempt to convince the Druze to return to Israel. At the same time, the troops were also busy repelling attempts to cross into Israeli territory and employed tear gas in the process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed to the Israeli Druze community for calm. "The IDF is operating, the Air Force is operating, other forces are operating. We are acting to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the gangs of the regime." "And now I have a single request of you: you are Israeli citizens. Do not cross the border. You are risking your lives; you could be murdered, you could be taken hostage, and you are impeding the efforts of the IDF. Therefore I ask of you: return to your homes and let the IDF take action." While the border was in chaos, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) continued striking Syrian regime troops with drones and fighter jets. "The warnings in Damascus have ended now painful blows will come," Defense Minister Israel Katz asserted. "The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal. Our Druze brothers in Israel, you can rely on the Israel Defense Forces to protect your brothers in Syria." The military confirmed striking "tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pickup trucks loaded with heavy machine guns on their way to the Suwayda area in southern Syria. Additionally, routes were struck in order block access to the area." In addition, the IDF said it hit "the Syrian regime's military headquarters," from where "Syrian regime commanders direct combat operations and deploy regime forces to the Suwayda area. Additionally, a military target in the area of the Syrian regimes presidential palace in Damascus was struck." Katz then shared a video from Syrian national TV in which the strike on the military headquarters was seen during a live broadcast. Despite reports of an apparent ceasefire between the Syrian government forces and Druze leaders in Suwayda, the IDF announced additional strikes in the late afternoon, citing the continued movement of several armored and armed vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns and combat equipment heading towards the Druze city. The IDF continues to monitor developments and activities against the Druze civilians in southern Syria and, in accordance with the directives of the political echelon, strikes in the area and is prepared for various scenarios, the military said. The U.S. administration is reportedly very concerned about the fighting between Israel and the Syrian regime forces, as it was attempting to mediate a security deal between the government of Ahmad al-Sharaa and Israel. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Washington that the U.S. is very concerned about the fighting. We want the fighting to stop, Rubio told the reporters. Later, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio said the fighting between Israel and Syrian forces was due to a misunderstanding. Were on our way towards a real de-escalation, and then hopefully getting back on track to helping Syria build a country and arriving at a situation there in the Middle East [which] is far more stable, Secretary Rubio stated. However, a senior Israeli official cautioned against expecting an agreement with the Syrian government, saying the regime is making serious mistakes. Syria is making serious mistakes. The legitimacy their regime recently received may be distorting their sense of reality, the official stated. They would do well to wake up. This country has been torn apart from within for years, with external help, through endless war and bloodshed. Whats happening now is not helping them get to a better place. Toward the evening, President al-Sharaa said his goverment was "following the regrettable violations that have affected certain areas in the Suwayda district," in his first comments on the fighting. "Actions that fall within the framework of criminal behavior are unacceptable under no circumstances and are not consistent with the principles of the state. We confirm our full commitment to investigate all the events in Suwayda and to prosecute all those proven to be involved," he added. This article was originally published by All Israel News. Home News Presidential religious liberty commission convenes first meeting The biggest threat to religious liberty in the United States is secularist groups that are trying to wield the government to stamp out views, according to a professor. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick chaired the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Commission on Religious Liberty last Monday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Panelists included former U.S. Housing Secretary Dr. Ben Carson and TV talk show host Phil McGraw, along with remarks from faith leaders, scholars, and legal experts on the foundational role of religious liberty in American society. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Patrick said the panels two roles were to advise and report to the president. He added, The Presidential Commission does not report to Congress, but the findings from our committees will be reported to the president to see what action would happen after that." He also urged the panel to contend earnestly for religious liberty. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also addressed the commission, saying, Our Founding Fathers understood that every individual must be free to worship without fear, without coercion, and without government interference. Witnesses, including Mark Rienzi, a professor at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and Notre Dame law professor Gerald Bradley, provided testimony on the historical and legal significance of religious freedom, highlighting its roots in the founding era and challenges posed by modern judicial interpretations. Citing the fervent religious belief of the Puritans against the Quakers and other Christian groups, Rienzi said the focus of defending religious freedom has changed from intra-religious Christian disputes to attacks on religion itself from atheists and other secular groups. These days, frankly, I don't think it so much comes from religious people trying to use government to stamp out people with unpopular views, he said. I think it's now more often anti or irreligious folks who want to wield the government to stamp out views that are wrong. And I think the truth is, whether it's the religious people or the opponents of religion, it's wrong. Bradley pointed to James Madisons 1785 pamphlet against a Virginia tax for ministers, a document he coined the Magna Carta of American religious liberty, in which Madison called religious liberty not just a right towards men but a duty towards the Creator. Central to religion is ones conscientiously judging what is the case about ultimate matters and then acting accordingly, said Bradley. This obviously can only happen if people are free of coercion and manipulation." Paula White-Cain, who Trump appointed to lead the White House Faith Office earlier this year, warned about the diversity of recent threats to religious liberty, from de-banking to attacks on churches and other houses of worship. Employees have been fired over their faith. Religious entities have been de-banked, parental rights have been violated, she said. Who would have ever thought that in the very beginning, President Trump would have to pardon 23 pro-lifers for standing outside of an abortion clinic and praying silently?" In response to the meeting, the secular group Americans United for Separation of Church and State claimed that the commissions true goal is to promote Christian nationalism, not true religious liberty. Americans United CEO Rachel Laser, who attended the meeting, criticized the decision to hold it at the Museum of the Bible and accused the government of catering to white Christians. From the setting at the Museum of the Bible to the political appointees to the speakers invited to testify, its clear this commission was created to advance the myth that the United States was founded for white Christians and that our laws and policies must continue to favor their beliefs, Laser argued. Established by a May 1 executive order by President Donald Trump, the commission plans to hold as many as nine hearings through 2026 to gather data and develop long-term strategies to protect religious liberty for all Americans, according to officials. Home News Supreme Court allows Trump to move ahead with cuts to Department of Education The Trump administration is moving forward with plans to dismantle the United States Department of Education following intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, which prompted praise from the White House and outcry from the nations largest teachers union. The Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision Monday reversing a lower court ruling preventing the Trump administration from scaling back the U.S. Department of Education. The Supreme Courts decision in favor of the Trump administration comes four months after President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to close the Department of Education and return authority over education to the states and local communities. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Trump cheered the Supreme Court ruling as a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country in a statement posted to Truth Social on Monday. He expressed gratitude that McMahon will now have the opportunity to begin this very important process. According to Trump, The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE. Americas students will be the best, brightest, and most Highly Educated anywhere in the world. McMahon also praised the ruling in an X post on Monday. 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, she wrote. While todays 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, McMahon added. The U.S. Department of Education will now deliver on its mandate to restore excellence in American education. She continued, As we return education to the states, this Administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy. The National Education Association, the nations largest teachers union, condemned the Supreme Court ruling in a statement Monday. The union was among several organizations that challenged the Trump administrations efforts to abolish the Department of Education. Nothing is more important than the success of students. Americas educators and parents wont be silent as Donald Trump, with the support of the MAGA Supreme Court, strips our students, our families, and our communities of protections and funding that Congress has mandated, said NEA President Becky Pringle. Gutting the Department of Education has already harmed students and communities. Todays ruling withholding relief that the lower courts ordered will only compound the harm, added Pringle, expressing concern that abolishing the federal government agency will hurt all students by class sizes soaring, cutting job training and career and technical education programs, making higher education further out of reach, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections. Home News Wife of Canadian pastor jailed during COVID remembers MacArthur's support: 'Came to my aid' The wife of the first pastor who was jailed in Canada for keeping his church open during the COVID-19 lockdowns wrote a statement honoring the legacy of the late John MacArthur and thanking him for supporting her and her husband during his imprisonment. Erin Coates, whose husband James Coates spent more than a month in prison in 2021 after he reopened his GraceLife Community Church in Edmonton, Alberta, despite public health restrictions, also said MacArthur's teaching gave her the courage to endure the loneliness she felt when government authorities were persecuting her husband. "I needed a minute to get my bearings on this one. I knew this moment was going to come but part of me isnt ready. I have read so many testimonies of how people cant put into words the impact Pastor John has had in their lives and Im right there with them," she wrote in a Tuesday Instagram post. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Her post featured a slideshow of pictures that included her husband graduating from The Master's Seminary, founded by MacArthur, who died Monday at age 86 after being hospitalized with pneumonia. "Next to my husband, Pastor John has had the greatest influence in my life, but James is the man, preacher, and shepherd he is today because of how the Lord has used pastor John in his life. The ministry of GraceLife Church stands on his shoulders (2 Timothy 2:2)," she continued. "I honestly dont know where we would be today without Johns example of faithfulness. Yesterday we lost our former pastor, mentor, and friend. The greatest thing Pastor John taught me was Christ is everything. He always pointed me to His greatness and that His greatness demanded absolute allegiance." Going on to note how MacArthur's ministry and preaching was always based in the Word of God, Coates said the late pastor "taught me to stand for Christ even if I was standing alone." "[I]ronically when James went to jail and I felt like I was standing alone, Pastor John came to my aid," she said. "He taught me that nothing matters more than standing for Christ in the purity of my own private and secret life. He taught me to love the Church even when she wounds you or walks away." "And finally, he taught me to always keep my eyes on Christ and the believers judgment. How did he teach me all of these things? Because he faithfully preached the Word in season and out of season. I will never forget him." Erin concluded by looking at what she sees as MacArthur's testimony of being faithful no matter the consequence. "May Pastor Johns faithfulness put steel in our spines to live a faithful life so that Christ is glorified," Coates added. "Pray for his precious family, GCC, and all the ministries that relied so heavily upon Johns wisdom and grace." "Well done, my dearest friend, it will not be long before we are worshipping our King together for all eternity. Thank you, Lord, for using him to point us all back to Sola Scriptura for Your glory alone," she added. James Coates made international headlines in 2021 when Canadian federal law enforcement raided GraceLife's building at dawn, locked it and barricaded it behind three layers of fencing. Coates, who was ultimately acquitted, spent five weeks in prison and was dragged before a judge while wearing an orange-and-black jumpsuit. Coates told the judge at the time he was not trying to be a "political revolutionary," but simply endeavoring to obey the Lord. I realized thats the way society is going to perceive whats happening here, Coates told the judge. [But] Im simply here in obedience to Jesus Christ, and its my obedience to Christ that has put me at odds with the law. While Coates was imprisoned, MacArthur prayed for him, Erin and their church from the pulpit, asking that God would use Coates' ordeal to advance the Gospel and "would bring down those who are evil and honor your Son, Lord Jesus Christ." Our Chancellor John MacArthur on the unwavering resolve of our very own, Pastor James Coates. The faculty, staff, and students of The Masters Seminary stand in solidarity with James and his church. pic.twitter.com/JHqZLN2XBv The Master's Seminary (@MastersSeminary) February 23, 2021 MacArthur and Grace Community Church similarly defied government authorities by resuming in-person church services weeks into the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. The extended legal battle led to the state of California and Los Angeles County settling and agreeing to pay $800,000 in legal fees. During an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News in March 2021, while her husband was still imprisoned, Erin Coates explained that jail was hard on him, and that she no longer recognized her native Canada. While stopping short of claiming government authorities were deliberately targeting her husband, she did acknowledge her belief that spiritual forces of evil often work through them unwittingly. John MacArthur's Legacy, Church Vs. University Legal Battle, Netanyahu Denies Responsibility For Oct 7 link to download the audio instead. link to download the audio instead. 07:07 07:07 Top headlines for Wednesday, July 16, 2025 In this episode, we delve into the impactful legacy of John MacArthur, the renowned pastor and Bible teacher who passed away at 86, leaving behind a significant theological influence. We also cover the ongoing legal dispute between a church and the University of Maine System, where allegations of religious discrimination take center stage in a property sale disagreement. Lastly, we explore recent developments in the Middle East, focusing on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus latest statements regarding his role and responsibility amidst recent conflicts and the Hamas invasion of October 7, 2023. 00:12 John MacArthur, renowned pastor and Bible teacher, dies at 86 01:12 SBA creates Center for Faith, lets religious orgs apply for loans 02:09 'KPop Demon Hunters' song inspired by 'sin' 02:59 Maine church continues legal battle against university system 03:48 Russell Brand claims God allowed addiction, demonic attacks 04:34 Netanyahu denies personal responsibility for Oct. 7 05:15 Liberal orgs end Catholic charter school lawsuit, declare victory Home News Kentucky church shooter was 'caring' rapper 'HonKy Kong' who 'snapped,' family, friends say Guy House, the 47-year-old gunman who was killed by authorities after he fatally shot a mother and daughter at Richmond Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, on Sunday, was a caring and beloved rapper known as HonKy Kong, who family and friends believe had a mental breakdown because he was not allowed to see his daughter. Scores of Houses more than 9,000 followers on Facebook expressed shock and sadness in the wake of his death and attack on the church. House killed Beverly Gumm, 72, and her 32-year-old daughter, Christina Combs, after he shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper at the Blue Grass Airport. He also shot Gumms husband and longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs husband, Randy Combs. Both men were reportedly in critical but stable condition. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe Since the shooting, family members and friends have painted a picture of a beloved man who simply snapped due to domestic problems. I just cant believe your[e] gone. Im sitting here trying my best not to cry because ya boy Brayden will lose his mind. We had the best childhood together. You was a rapper then and grew up being one. I am shook. I dont even know what to say, think, or feel. This crushed the hell outta me, Houses cousin Kim Taulbee wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. I love you and always will make sure people know you snapped because you couldnt see your baby girl. Your name will never be drug thru the mud around me. I love you cuz forever. Hug mama for me. In one of his most-watched music videos on YouTube titled Struggle Made Me, House appears to rap about his tough upbringing in Kentucky. While acknowledging the victims of his crime, Mary Robinson-Jefferson noted that House was well-loved and compassionate. "You were loved by so many people, especially your baby girl. Inside that hard exterior was a big hearted, funny, smart dude. I hate this situation for everyone involved," she wrote. "Prayers for Guy E. House family, the state trooper and his family, and for the victims at the church. This is heartbreaking." House reportedly had a lengthy criminal history and had previously been violent toward law enforcement. He was only released from probation in January, according to court records. House was due in court for a domestic violence hearing on Monday, according to The Lexington Herald Leader, adding that he also violated probation last year by testing positive for methamphetamine. House reportedly went into the church looking for the mother of his child, who was not in the church at the time. Instead, he killed the woman's mother (Gumm) and sister (Combs). In an interview with WKYT, House's ex-girlfriend said that he had become suicidal and threatened her life in the days leading up to the shooting. She said she reached out to local police and filed an emergency protective order against House, which was never served. "When you communicate to someone that someone's made the threat that suicide by cop and to kill their children's mother, it shouldn't be dismissed. It should be taken serious [sic]," the ex-girlfriend told the news outlet. She said the relationship between her and House, which began this year, started off well, and they had a lot of good memories. He began unravelling, however, when he was unable to see his daughter. "When he wasn't able to see his daughter, I noticed a change in his behavior and mental health," she explained. As his mental health deteriorated, the ex-girlfriend said she broke up with him. House allegedly returned to the ex-girlfriend's house on July 4 and stole her firearms, some personal belongings and then took off with her vehicle. She said she filed the EPO against him the following day, noting how he emotionally abused her, threatened to harm her and her family and get her fired from her job. The ex-girlfriend said police never served the EPO on House despite providing them with a known address. "I didn't think it would go that far. There was like eight days they had, and they had warrants in addition to the EPO to be served, and he was out living his life. He wasn't in hiding," House's ex-girlfriend said. Had the police been a bit more vigilant in taking action against House, his ex-girlfriend questions if the Richmond Baptist Church tragedy could have been avoided. As the loved ones of the dead continue to grieve, House's friend Tabitha Taylor acknowledged that while his dark side is making headlines, that wasn't the man she knew. "I know it isn't looking real good for your character right now, but you were one the most authentic and caring persons. I am gonna miss your interesting videos and dope rhymes. Years of cutting up. You always had me laughing with your insights," she wrote. "That baby girl isn't going to see her daddy again and that kills me. Get your rest, homie. Love you, Guy E. House. I just don't understand. This one hurts!" Home News Tanzania shuts down church after pastors human rights criticism Tanzanias government has shut down a prominent church after its founder and pastor, a ruling party lawmaker, denounced ongoing human rights violations in a sermon. The move came less than a day after the sermon and has sparked widespread concern about religious freedom and political dissent ahead of the countrys October elections. The Glory of Christ Tanzania Church, founded by Bishop Josephat Gwajima, was officially deregistered by the Registrar of Societies on June 2, one day after Gwajima publicly condemned a rise in abductions and enforced disappearances and launched a seven-day prayer campaign for justice and peace during a Sunday sermon, the U.K.-based group Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported this past weekend. The government accused Gwajima of violating Chapter 337 of the Societies Act by delivering politically charged sermons that it said were intended to erode public trust in the government. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The church, widely known in Swahili as Nyumba ya Ufufuo na Uzima (The House of Resurrection and Life), has more than 70,000 members across at least 2,000 branches nationwide, and is one of the most visible Pentecostal movements in the country. Efforts by the church to secure a temporary injunction from the High Court in Dodoma initially failed due to errors in the deregistration letter, Baptist Press reported. Gwajima, who represents the Kawe constituency in Parliament as a member of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or CCM, has become an increasingly vocal critic of President Samia Suluhu Hassan. His recent sermon followed reports of abductions and alleged torture of two foreign activists Kenyan Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan Agather Atuhaire who were arrested in Dar es Salaam ahead of opposition leader Tundu Lissus treason trial, according to The Associated Press. The activists were later expelled from the country after reportedly being tortured and assaulted while in custody. Last Friday, the Glory of Christ Church appealed its closure in court for the second time, but no ruling has yet been announced. As of mid-July, the main church building in Dar es Salaam remains closed and under police watch, with a riot-control vehicle stationed at the entrance. Members of the congregation initially gathered in private homes for services and later relocated to the Tanzanite Social Hall in Kimara Korogwe to worship. On June 1, Gwajima used his platform to warn followers to remain vigilant and condemned detentions and disappearances of government critics. President Hassan had previously cautioned against what she called the Gwajimanisation of the CCM, an apparent reference to Gwajimas growing influence and dissent within the ruling party. The closure comes amid growing signs of repression in Tanzania in the lead-up to the general election. In April, opposition candidate Tundu Lissu was arrested and charged with incitement and treason, a capital offense. He is now on trial, and rights groups have raised concerns about the fairness of the proceedings. The main opposition party, Chadema, has called for electoral reforms, while President Hassan, who assumed office after the 2021 death of former President John Magufuli, is seeking her own mandate. Though her initial months in office included a repeal of Magufulis ban on political rallies, recent months have seen a shift in tone, including her public warnings to foreign observers and deportations of activists without explanation. A police presence was also reported at a joint prayer meeting on July 6 hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, where former members of the Glory of Christ Church had gathered, according to CSW. Earlier, on May 8, Bishop Benson Bagonza of the Lutheran Churchs Karagwe Diocese disclosed that he had received death threats after raising similar concerns about killings and abductions. Tanzania mandates registration of all religious organizations through the Registrar of Societies, with renewals required every five years. Organizations found to have violated terms of registration can face penalties or be shut down. In July 2024, the Christian Life Church in Dar es Salaam was deregistered after allegations that it charged members for spiritual services and delivered sermons deemed contrary to Tanzanian values. CSW CEO Scot Bower said the government was misusing registration laws to silence critical voices, describing the closure as unjustified given constitutional guarantees of religious freedom, expression and association. Home News Tennessee priest to serve 7 years for sexual misconduct involving children, adults A Tennessee Catholic priest has been sentenced to seven years in prison for inappropriately touching a teenager and engaging in other acts of sexual misconduct. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee, announced in its publication Nashville Catholic on Monday that Juan Carlos Garcia, who formerly served as an associate pastor of St. Philip Catholic Church in Franklin, will serve seven years in prison and be listed in the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry after pleading guilty in Williamson County Court to one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child, one count of aggravated sexual battery, four counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and two counts of sexual battery. The diocese clarified that the multiple counts of sexual misconduct involved both minors and adults. As part of his guilty plea, Garcia agreed not to contest his laicization from the priesthood. The Catholic Churchs Code of Canon Law states that A cleric is to be punished with deprivation of office and with other just penalties, not excluding, where the case calls for it, dismissal from the clerical state if he commits an offence against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue with a minor. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe The Franklin Police Department confirmed the news of Garcias sentencing in an X post on Monday, thanking our detectives and the District AGs Office for their hard work on this case. Garcias sentencing comes more than a year after he was indicted on the sexual abuse charges by a Williamson County grand jury in February 2024. St. Philip Catholic Church informed its congregation of the developments involving Garcia in a message to parishioners on Monday. In addition to sharing the statement from the diocese, the Rev. Gervan Menezes, pastor of St. Philip, urged parishioners to Continue to pray for all the families and people involved and expressed hope that the Lord would give comfort and peace to the victims. The Diocese of Nashville first became aware of Garcias illicit behavior in November 2023, when parish officials informed the Diocese of Nashvilles Safe Environment Office that a teenage parishioner at St. Philip accused the priest of touching him inappropriately. This prompted the diocese and St. Philip representatives to submit a report to the Tennessee Department of Childrens Services. Garcia was removed from ministry after the Franklin Police Department began investigating the allegations. The diocese provided additional details about what has transpired in the past year-and-a-half in its Monday statement, noting that Garcia has been held in the Williamson County Jail since his arrest. The diocese further stressed that it had retained a former FBI agent to conduct an internal investigation and that the Vatican has remained informed and involved from the outset of this matter, directing the appropriate canonical processes. Throughout the process, the diocese has stated it is fully cooperating with civil authorities and continues to offer victim assistance to those affected by abuse within the churchs ministries. Individuals with relevant information have been urged to contact the Franklin Police Department, the Diocese noted. Garcia was ordained to the priesthood in 2020, serving as an associate pastor at St. Rose of Lima Church in Murfreesboro before transferring to St. Philip in 2022. Home News Theologians refute misconceptions about 1,700-year-old Nicene Creed Theologians have refuted misconceptions about the Nicene Creed and the council in 325 that created it, as many churches celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the influential document. In a recent episode of the Dallas Theological Seminary's The Table" podcast, Malcolm B. Yarnell III, research professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and Michael J. Svigel, DTS professor of historical and systematic theology, discussed the Nicene Creed's origins and impact on modern society. Yarnell explained that while it was the most universally accepted creed in Christianity, it has been challenged at various points through Christian history. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe In modern times, Yarnell pointed to examples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Jehovahs Witnesses as groups that reject key elements of the Nicene Creed, namely the doctrine of the Trinity. Both groups claim to be Christian but are incompatible with biblical Christianity. Svigel warned that even in what would be regarded as conservative Christian circles, one can find teachers who are reconstructing the history of the Church in a pretty slipshod manner. For example, Svigel critiqued the claim that, before the 325 Council of Nicaea, the early Church weren't really Trinitarian, countering that, actually, the creed was articulating in precise language what the Church has explicitly been teaching. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. The Father's not the Son, the Son's not the Spirit, the Spirit's not the Father. There's one God, not three Gods. The Church has consistently been teaching that, he stated. Sometimes this sloppy thinking, even among Christians who think, well, the Church became Trinitarian, and therefore if the first three centuries weren't Trinitarian, then maybe it's optional. ... They don't take it as seriously. ... The role of the creed was not to establish something new. That's not what it did. Yarnell took issue with the claim among some that the Nicene Creed is a Western imposition on other parts of the world, noting that the Council of Nicaea was mostly non-Western European. The bishops at both the Nicene council of 325 and the Council of Constantinople of 381 are primarily Eastern. There were Western representatives, but they're primarily Eastern bishops, Yarnell explained. Moreover, the leading theologians of the early church, both with regard to Trinity and Christology, which became a major conversation in the fifth century, are Africans. While considered an ecumenical Creed, many churches, especially Protestant and Evangelical nondenominational congregations, do not recite the Nicene Creed as part of worship. For example, recent efforts within the Southern Baptist Convention to add the Nicene Creed to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message have not been successful, due to various reasons. Svigel argued that creeds like the Nicaean one can help balance the Christian faith and also balance our reading of Scripture, while Yarnell believes they can help guide a new believer who is starting to read the Bible. When somebody comes to start reading the Bible and they start importing all sorts of ideas, especially from their own contemporary culture and determining, that's what the Bible means, when actually the Bible's not even talking about that. Or they take an issue that is a narratival issue, and they become so wrapped up in that that they forget what is the core message of Scripture, Yarnell explained. So, I think Svigel's right, they have a hermeneutical guiding function to let you know this is the main road. And it also helps you avoid the errors of falling off into the ditches as well, into extremes, into things that are not really part of the faith. Yarnell also noted that, for his classes, he advises his students to memorize one of the creeds, especially either the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed, as they prepare to teach and to preach. I really believe that the creeds help us to identify and remember the central teaching of the biblical text, the apostolic preaching, the preaching of the Gospel of salvation, he added. The podcast episode comes as churches across the world celebrate 1,700 years since the First Council of Nicaea met in modern-day Turkey and crafted the Nicene Creed. Called by Emperor Constantine the Great and held shortly after the Roman Empire had legalized Christianity, the fourth century gathering came in response to the rise of Arianism, an early church heresy that claimed that Jesus Christ was created by God, rather than being coeternal. The Nicene Creed reaffirmed the orthodox belief that Jesus was God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father. In April, the Roman Catholic Churchs International Theological Commission released an official document highlighting the significance of the council and the creed, and providing resources on the topic. The faith that the Council of Nicaea witnesses to and hands on is the truth of a God who, being Love, is Trinity, and who, out of love, becomes one of us in his Son, stated the ITC in a press release. The Nicene Creed thus stands at the heart of the [Catholic] Churchs faith as a wellspring of living water to be drawn upon also today. Through it, we can enter into Jesus gaze and, in him, into the gaze with which God, Abba, looks upon all his children and upon the whole of creation, starting with the least, the poor and the outcast. Home Books Pastor Tim Timberlake challenges Western Churchs obsession with comfort: Pain has purpose Tim Timberlake has a message for Christians, particularly those in the West, looking for comfort: discomfort may be precisely what is needed. In his new book, The Bumpy Road to Better, the 41-year-old bestselling author and senior pastor of Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Florida, challenges the notion that faith is a way around life's hardships. Instead, he invites readers to walk through them, head-on, hand-in-hand with Jesus. In an interview with The Christian Post, Timberlake said he's not out to offer simple solutions or spiritual cliches but clarity. Pain has purpose, he said, and avoiding it prohibits growth. He believes the Christian life is less about dodging hardship and more about learning to steward it well. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe "I don't know if it was one bump," Timberlake said, reflecting on the book's origin, "or just a lifetime of different bumps and hurdles and obstacles and debris that's been in the road on this journey called life that inspired it." In The Bumpy Road to Better, Timberlake outlines 22 "hard things" that every person will eventually face, including doubt, criticism, pain, delay and sacrifice. But instead of simply gritting one's teeth and pushing through, he encourages readers to embrace difficulty as a gift. "There's great power hidden in the things we're trying to avoid," he explained. "When we unlock the strength and the power in hard things, I believe those things benefit us a lot deeper, a lot richer and a lot more meaningful than if things were easy." According to the pastor, anticipated pain is easier to endure than unexpected pain. "When we can anticipate and expect hardship and pain, I believe we have a little bit more leniency with our mental stamina," he said. "But when the bumps in the road arrive unannounced, we struggle." The solution is to build "margin" for hardship within the heart, Timberlake emphasized, and faith must be practiced and conditioned to meet life's unexpected trials with resilience. "It's ike when you work out. You hit that pain threshold and you start to talk to yourself in third person. Your mind wheels your body into submission, and it reminds you of the goal," he said. Still, even the strongest faith is not immune to doubt. "For instance, one of the greatest things I struggle with, even today, is doubt," Timberlake reflected. "Not my disbelief in God but depending on how big the bump is in the road, I ask myself the question, is God good in this situation, and will God do it for me?" Timberlake finds comfort in the biblical story of the desperate father who pleaded with Jesus: "I believe, help my unbelief." "Life has this crazy way of giving us what I call faith fatigue," he said. "It's not that we don't believe. We bring ourselves to the conclusion that maybe what we're believing for can't happen for us, but maybe it can happen for someone else." His book, he says, is for those still believing, but barely. "It's just a tool, a resource, to help those on this weary journey to remain, to endure, and to have sustaining power to get from where you are to where I believe God desires for you to be." But how do Christians reconcile a good God with so much suffering, like the recent flooding in Texas, which resulted in at least 132 confirmed deaths, including children from a Christian summer camp, and an additional 101 people still missing? "There's questions that all of us have that we will never get the answers to on this side of eternity," he said. "But God's goodness does not sway to the left or to the right. It remains." The problem, according to the pastor, is not God but where one has anchored their faith. "Oftentimes we lose faith because our faith was anchored in something instead of someone," he said. For Timberlake, that lesson became painfully real when his father, also a pastor, died the day after his 18th birthday, an event he recounted in his previous book, The Power of 1440. "My question for God was, 'Where are you? How could this happen to me?' And God simply told me 'I don't live up to your expectations, but I always live up to my word.'" Timberlake doesn't shy away from critiquing modern Christianity, especially the version preached in many Western churches. "Westernized culture, and to make it a little more specific, the westernized church, teaches a doctrine that would have us believe that when we follow Christ, then things should work out the way we want them to," he said. "That theology is just not sound." He points to Hebrews 11 as evidence. While Christians often focus on the victories in the chapter's first half, Timberlake emphasized the back half, the believers who "died in faith" without receiving the promises. "They died holding on to the faith they had anchored in," he said. "We don't get disappointed by what happens to us. We get disappointed by what we expected not to happen to us." Not every challenge comes in the form of tragedy. Some come as feedback, or worse, criticism. In The Bumpy Road to Better, Timberlake offers a personal filter for discerning whether to take it seriously: How close am I to this person? Do they have God's heart for my future? Are they doing what they're criticizing me for better than I am? If the answer is no, Timberlake said, he lets it go. "But if that person is close to me and has God's heart for my future," he explained. "then I become a student." The pastor said he takes a similar approach to sacrifice, another deeply countercultural idea. "We trust in our own ability, because we know the outcome," he said. "But real trust in God often involves stepping into the unknown." "We don't understand how little control we have until we lose control of what we thought we had control over," Timberlake added. "And clenched fists, whether holding onto dreams, habits or even relationships, can't grasp the better things God wants to give. "Maybe there are some things that you've been holding on to that God wants you to release. And maybe there are some things you've prematurely released that God wants you to steward differently." For churches that are often more concerned with comfort than conviction, Timbrlake offered the reminder: "Scripture never asks us how we feel. It never asks us, do we agree? It never asks us, 'Does this make you comfortable?'" "The Word of God is truth," he stressed. "And when it is applied, the truth sets us free." He challenged leaders and believers alike to embrace the discomfort of godly conviction. "There are very good things that come from godly conviction," he said, "and very bad things that come from leaning into comfort over that conviction." Timberlake quoted the Apostle Paul, who, near the end of his life, wrote: "I am being poured out like a drink offering." "My prayer is that we live our lives full and die empty," he told CP. "Because we were good down to the last drop." Home Opinion John MacArthur is gone. But his Gospel legacy will never die Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psalms 116:15). On July 14, California pastor John MacArthur entered into glory at the age of 86, closing a monumental chapter in Evangelical history. For over five decades, MacArthur was a pillar of biblical exposition, pastoral leadership, and theological conviction. His death marks the end of an era, yet his influence will continue to echo in pulpits, seminaries, and Christian homes for generations to come. Born on June 19, 1939, in Los Angeles, California, John Fullerton MacArthur Jr. came from a line of ministers. His father, Jack MacArthur, was an evangelist and broadcaster, and his grandfather also served in ministry. It was clear from early on that John MacArthur was being shaped for a life of proclamation and pastoral care. Get Our Latest News for FREE Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know. Subscribe After earning his education at Bob Jones University, Los Angeles Pacific College (now Azusa Pacific University), and Talbot Theological Seminary, MacArthur was called to Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, in 1969. He remained there for 55 years, preaching verse-by-verse through the Bible with unwavering fidelity to Scripture. His expository preaching was not merely a method it was a theological conviction rooted in his belief in the sufficiency, inerrancy, and authority of the Word of God. MacArthurs ministry was characterized by his deep commitment to biblical truth, even when it brought controversy. He famously preached through the entire New Testament a feat that took over four decades and published those sermons online for free through his media ministry, Grace to You. Millions around the globe have accessed his teachings, and his influence can be seen across denominations and continents. But MacArthur was more than just a preacher. In 1986, he became president of The Masters University (formerly Los Angeles Baptist College), and in 1986 he also founded The Masters Seminary. These institutions became central to his vision for raising up the next generation of biblically grounded pastors. He believed deeply in the local church and sought to equip leaders who would not waver in the face of cultural pressure. His commitment to rigorous theological training was rooted in his belief that pastors are stewards of divine truth and must be prepared as such. MacArthurs unwavering stance on doctrine often placed him at odds with broader evangelical trends. He opposed the seeker-sensitive movement, the prosperity gospel, and progressive theological trends that undermined biblical authority. In his 1993 book Charismatic Chaos, he offered a bold critique of the charismatic movement, insisting that biblical fidelity must never yield to experience-driven faith. His 2018 Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, co-authored with other conservative theologians, rejected the notion that social justice should be considered a part of the gospel message. For MacArthur, the Gospel was clear: Christ crucified, risen, and returning. To conflate it with political or cultural aims was, in his view, to dilute the saving message of Christ. Perhaps no moment demonstrated his courage more than during the COVID-19 pandemic. When government mandates sought to restrict worship gatherings, MacArthur and Grace Community Church defied California regulations, reopening their doors and declaring, Christ, not Caesar, is Head of the Church. His stand drew national attention and lawsuits but MacArthur remained unflinching, citing Acts 5:29: We must obey God rather than men. Ultimately, the state of California was forced to settle, paying the church $800,000 in legal fees. Despite his critics and they were many MacArthur never wavered. He once said, If you faithfully preach the Bible, youre going to have a battle on your hands. He embraced that battle not for the sake of conflict, but for the sake of the truth. His legacy is not just found in the thousands of sermons he preached or the dozens of books he authored including The Gospel According to Jesus but in the pastors he trained, the churches he influenced, and the laypeople he discipled from afar. He was a theologian of conviction, a shepherd of souls, and a servant of the Word. His death leaves an irreplaceable void in evangelicalism. John MacArthurs passing is a loss to the church on earth but a gain to Heaven. His last sermon was from Philippians 1:21: For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. That verse was not merely a text for him; it was a life philosophy. He lived for Christ and now, he rests in Him. In the years to come, it will become increasingly clear how much of an impact John MacArthur made on the shape of conservative evangelicalism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. In a time when biblical truth is often diluted, his ministry served as a clarion call back to the authority of Scripture, the centrality of Christ, and the sufficiency of the Gospel. Grace to You, the teaching ministry of John MacArthur, in a statement wrote, our hearts are heavy, yet rejoicing, as we share the news that our beloved pastor and teacher John MacArthur has entered into the presence of the Savior. This evening, his faith became sight. He faithfully endured until his race was run (2 Timothy 4:1-8). And now, he hears the words we all long to hear: Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your master (Matthew 25:21). Originally published at Juicy Ecumenism. Move fast and break things, has been an anthem of Silicon Valley since the early 2000s. Part philosophy, part mantra, its been used to motivate and accelerate software development, even at the expense of mistakes. The mindset has led to great advances in enterprise apps, social media, gaming, and artificial intelligence (AI) especially generative AI (GenAI), which has advanced at a breakneck pace since ChatGPT launched in late 2022. But as with anything moving too quickly, reliability can be among the first qualities to fail. In its short history, ChatGPT has been plagued by hallucinations (completely fabricated results), challenges with biases, apprehension around privacy, copyright concerns, and more. Industrial AI is different The booming realm of industrial AI demands more serious consideration. When AI malfunctions in industrial settings, from energy to transportation, the impact is real. Costly damage to industrial equipment, physical harm, detrimental exposure to cyber vulnerabilities, and loss of revenue and reputation, are just a few of the things that can come from AI-gone-bad in industry. In other words, the health and wellbeing of business and customers, as well as society, are at stake with industrial AI. Such is the view of Hitachi. With deep roots in industrial equipment and operational technology, its history extends from the early days of electric motor development in Japan all the way to the advanced transformers and high-speed trains of today. The company is also steeped in digital innovation, with decades of research and development in data, infrastructure, and AI with solutions deployed across every industry. In fact, Hitachi is among a select few companies that can fully support the challenges and identify the opportunities for AI across every industry from utilities reimagining the grid or navigating the energy transition, to manufacturers hungry for more automation and autonomous processes, or transportation companies yearning for more uptime and greater efficiencies. Industrial customers count on Hitachi solutions and expertise to help them visualize possibilities, architect scalable solutions, and swiftly move from experimentation to production with a clear understanding of the desired outcomes, expected ROI, and challenges of the real world. The pace of AI is undeniable and must be met with vigor to stay competitive. But the need for speed at any cost is not an option in industrial AI. Too much is at stake. For Hitachi, industrial AI is about moving fast and breaking nothing. Pouring AI into industry The criticality of industrial AI is clear. However, theres more to integrating AI into industrial settings than what meets the eye. In addition to a heightened focus on safety and reliability, successful industrial AI implementations demand things like support for small and heterogenous data, the incorporation of deep domain knowledge, explainability, alignment with physical and engineering constraints, and the ability to model system of systems, among others. Complicating the environment further, data types found within industries are routinely heterogenous. They can include combinations of sensor data, event data, maintenance records, and operational data, not to mention acoustic, vision, and multimodal documents. Understanding these variables per industry and how they may or may not interconnect is crucial to successful industrial AI deployments. A quick breakdown: Small and heterogenous data. Industrial settings often involve data that is sparse, noisy, and highly heterogeneous, like unstructured text, sensor logs, video feeds, control signals, and time-series data. This information is typically collected through domain-specific protocols or legacy systems and is rarely curated for AI applications. Even when data is abundant, it may be inconsistently labeled or embedded in formats like operator notes, maintenance records, or audio transcripts. Deep domain knowledge. Only experience and expertise in a particular field can generate deep domain knowledge. Distinct from understanding horizontal applications, learning the nuances and complexities of vertical industries takes hands-on experience gained over years. Without such industrial expertise, the AI thats implemented will not live up to expectations; time will be wasted and revenue lost. Explainability. Growing in importance in enterprise AI, explainability is critical in industrial AI. This boils down to the software clearly describing the function as well as the expected outcomes of machine learning models. It also provides digital breadcrumbs to explain how the model arrived at the final outcomes. A growing requirement from regulators, explainability drives trust in the models and the companies that use them. Alignment with physical and engineering constraints. Safety and reliability is critical to industrial operations. To ensure both are addressed, we build models that respect the laws of physics and understand the engineering constraints that go into designing a system. Humans intuitively understand the former and are trained on the latter. But teaching models these constraints is still an open problem. Modelling system of systems. Although no official definition exists for system of systems, the concept is widely known and leveraged. Essentially it describes the engineering of multiple decentralized management systems to monitor a variety of disjointed systems and predict behaviors in order to optimize performance and generate positive outcomes. In industrial environments, like rail transport, for example, one can imagine the value of intertwining predictive maintenance with ticketing and scheduling systems to maximize uptime and reliability. Guiding your principles After the surge of large language models (LLMs) in early 2023, researchers began picking up on a descending trend: more and more AI projects were stalling in the pilot phase. Peter Bendor-Samuel, CEO and founder of Everest Group, estimated at the time that 90% of GenAI pilots would not move into the production phase any time soon, and that some may languish there indefinitely. Why? The reasons were myriad and spanned from pilot fatigue too many pilots to manage to an inability to identify a clear return on investment. In other words, rather than losing more time and money on their projects, organizations were abandoning them all together. The trend was becoming almost as disruptive as the rush to LLMs in the first place. It compelled Hitachi to craft a short list of top-line guiding principles to help customers visualize their AI journey. The pragmatic approach encourages organizations to: Be outcome oriented, with stated goals and functions from the outset; Leverage purpose-built tools that are designed for your industry and your types of data; Ensure that your AI is responsible and reliable; in fact, the more responsible the AI, the more reliable the outcomes. Solving the use case The guiding principles serve the industrial AI space well, which, unlike enterprise AI, demands solutions designed for specific industries. Areas like analytics, maintenance and repair, operations optimization, quality assurance, and supply chain management sound horizontal in nature. But even a cursory comparison between, for example, an energy utility and a car manufacturer reveals a critical need for expertise and specialization. An energy utility can take advantage of AI accelerators for things like critical event command center optimization, energy forecasting and consumption, and substation image analytics. An auto manufacturer can leverage accelerators for model-based yield prediction, dynamic scheduling, and inventory optimization. Industrial AI its not for the faint of heart. The impact Although distinct, enterprise AI and industrial AI share a common denominator: improving business performance and customer experience. Likewise, the advent of new technologies like GenAI and agents are only accelerating experimentation and adoption, as companies find new ways to leverage new capabilities. For example, GenAI is augmenting industrial AI in significant ways and transitioning us from Industrial AI 1.0 to Industrial AI 2.0. Consider a typical industrial value chain that comprises design and engineering, procurement and supply chain management, manufacturing and production, installation and commissioning, maintenance, customer support, and circularity. In Industrial AI 1.0, the primary data sources were time-series, and event data and included some image data and manuals. During this era, we were focused on the problems of supply chain management, manufacturing quality and process optimization, and maintenance. With GenAI, we saw the beginning of Industrial AI 2.0. For the first time, it enabled organizations to begin going upstream to aid in things like product and process design, and procurement; and go downstream with installation and commissioning as well as customer support. Its also helping with OT code generation, simulated data generation for automation and robotics, and make metaverse applications much more meaningful. In fact, we believe that GenAI has far more potential to impact industrial operations. Furthering advancing the Industrial AI 2.0 era will be the increased use of AI agents and agentic systems in industry. Although it will be a steeper climb than GenAI, due to the fact that the domain knowledge in the industrial field is not as easily accessible and the cost of making mistakes are much higher. But theres no question, the development and deployment of agents across industry will only add to the ongoing transformation of industry. Progress and Perfection The benefits of industrial AI are clear. Whether integrating GenAI for industrial process transformation, building an agentic architecture to aid frontline workers, or leveraging accelerators to catapult the deployment of autonomous capabilities, the market is poised to skyrocket. In fact, manufacturing is one of the fastest-growing segments of the industrial AI space. The World Economic Forum estimates that the global AI manufacturing market will balloon from its 2023 value of $3.2 billion, to $20.8 billion by 2028. The real challenge for industrial companies becomes determining with whom to partner for this AI journey. For Hitachi, nothing trumps roots in industrial equipment and OT and decades of AI and digital development. Ideal partners will have experience and expertise in both. Industrial AI is too critical for anything less. For more information, visit AI Resource Center Hitachi Digital. Chetan Gupta, PhD, is Head of AI at Hitachi Global Research, and General Manager of the Advanced AI Center at Hitachi Ltd. Interview: FOCAC advances Africa-China cooperation in infrastructure, knowledge transfer, says Ugandan minister Xinhua) 10:17, July 16, 2025 KAMPALA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- As the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) marks its 25th anniversary, it has evolved into a key platform for African nations to voice their development priorities and align strategies with China for mutual growth, a senior Ugandan official has said. During a recent interview in Kayunga District, central Uganda, Minister of Works and Transport Katumba Wamala told Xinhua that the FOCAC has enabled African countries to advance critical energy and transport infrastructure projects with Chinese support. "FOCAC is a very good forum for us not only to interact with China, but also to present Uganda's and Africa's desires," Wamala said shortly before flagging off the upgrading work of a key road linking northern and central Uganda. The project is undertaken by China Roads and Bridges Corporation. "Through FOCAC, we can have a collective African voice, and we are listened to. It is easier for someone to work with a group than with individuals," he added. Uganda has benefited significantly from FOCAC-backed cooperation, said Wamala, citing Chinese financing for the expansion of the Entebbe International Airport and the construction of the Kampala-Entebbe Expressway. China also funded the 600-megawatt (MW) Karuma and 180-MW Isimba hydropower plants, which are critical for providing affordable electricity to spur industrialization in Uganda. "The FOCAC has benefited Uganda greatly, especially by supporting our infrastructure development. We have many Chinese companies working on various projects here," Wamala said. Beyond infrastructure, the minister noted the transfer of knowledge and skills from Chinese experts to local workers, who continue to apply these skills long after projects are completed. Looking ahead, Wamala emphasized the importance of technology transfer under FOCAC, as rapid technological advancements, especially in artificial intelligence, continue to shape global growth. "If we can move toward technological transfer through FOCAC, Africa could eventually have skills comparable to China's," he said. "With China's technological advancements, FOCAC provides an effective channel for Africa to access relevant technologies and keep pace with the rest of the world," he added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Images of Africa are overrepresented in UK-based international development charities direct mail campaigns, according to new research. Published this week, Charity Representations of Distant Others found some potential disconnect between the countries featured in the campaigns imagery and the areas where the charities work. Charity Advertisings report authors warned that overrepresenting African countries could reinforce deeply entrenched associations between Africa and poverty. The reports authors examined 589 images across 31 mailouts from nine UK-based charities, including CARE International, Oxfam and Save the Children, between March 2021 and March 2022. They found that Africa continues to visually dominate charities direct mail communications, with 51% of the images analysed featuring African countries. This is despite the UK being the most represented country (81 images), accounting for 12% of the subject matter, cumulatively more than all other subject matters apart from health, the report says. Deborah Adesina, co-author of the report, said : Despite working in multiple regions, many charities continue to overrepresent Africa a trend that raises questions about narrative authenticity. Our research shows that for some charities, the high volume of African imagery didnt necessarily align with the number of African countries they work in. The report follows another Charity Advertising study published last year that focused on international development charities newspaper adverts and similarly concluded that African countries were overrepresented. Images risk reinforcing outdated stereotypes The research published this week analysed several 2021-22 annual reports to compare the areas where charities worked and those used in their campaign imagery. They found some potential disconnect. For instance, Christian Aid used 68 images of Africa (72% of its total) but worked in 14 countries, only half of which were African. These findings suggest that charities communications risk amplifying visual representation from Africa beyond what their operational footprint would suggest, the report says. This raises important questions about the motivations underlying these choices. Are charities prioritising narratives from Africa because they believe these images carry a stronger emotive impact on donors, and in so doing reinforce deeply entrenched associations between Africa and poverty? The report says such choices also pose ethical challenges, as they may inadvertently marginalise other regions where significant work is conducted, reducing their visibility in donor consciousness. Furthermore, these practices can perpetuate a transactional view of humanitarian work, wherein the depiction of suffering becomes a tool to secure funding, rather than a medium to cultivate an enlightened donor base with a deeper understanding of how development works, it reads. By contrast, it diminishes the agency and dignity of the communities being represented. It adds that the overuse of African imagery risks reinforcing outdated stereotypes of the continent, overshadowing its progress and diverse realities. Fewer pitiful images than in newspaper ads The report says that health remains the most significant subject matter represented in direct mail, accounting for over one-third of all images, compared with over two-thirds of newspaper adverts. It warns that people from the Global South are overwhelmingly positioned as consumers and passive recipients of care, neglecting narratives around training local staff or investing in infrastructure to build self-sustaining health systems. Meanwhile, nearly three-fifths of the images depicted women, children or both from the Global South. Nine direct mail campaigns featured fathers and their children, more than in newsletter ads, while more young people from the developed world were also included. Four direct mail campaigns (less than 1%) included pitiful or shock-inducing images of people, the research found, compared to 11% of the newspaper ads it previously studied. sign up to receive the free Civil Society daily news bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, Drazen / Adobe Stock A lack of succession planning could leave smaller charities facing a crisis as senior leaders step down amid todays highly pressurised operating environment, a consultancy has warned. Cranfield Trusts recently published five-year review of assessment data found that the question it asked its more than 600 charity partners which consistently returned the lowest score was around succession planning for key roles. At first point of contact with the trust, which helps charities develop their organisational sustainability and impact, only around 35% of partners expressed confidence in their succession planning. Even after completing project work with the consultancy, less than half of charities on average over the five years described their succession planning as adequate. The Cranfield Trusts report describes the picture as concerning, in the context of the increasing struggle for survival many smaller organisations face. Real burnout fears Speaking to Civil Society, the trusts chief executive Amanda Tincknell who is stepping down this autumn said she was not surprised by the finding but that it had come out really starkly in the data. There are lots of reasons, but we're particularly worried because of the pressures on chief executives at the moment, said Tincknell, who added that 80% of the consultancys clients had annual income below 1m and 60% below 500,000. There is real concern around burnout, and so we're thinking about how we can support the next generation to be ready for succession. Because at the moment, not many organisations have the opportunity to invest in their development. Tincknell added that previous research by the trust had highlighted skills shortfalls around charities organisation, strategy, and financial management which could be acutely sharpened if senior figures moved on. Prior to working with the trust, only 38% of its 2024 partners had an up-to-date business plan, a 10% fall from pre-pandemic levels. I think the chaotic operating environment is affecting people's ability to plan with confidence, she said. And actually, at a time like this, you need to have a plan and some good forecasts more than ever before. If you cant invest money, invest time Tincknell acknowledged that, given the pressures organisations face, finding solutions is much harder than diagnosing problems. But she urged small charities to review the skill sets in their team and assess what kind of leadership and management skills they may need and to make use of available development resources, some of which can be accessed for free. If you cant invest money, at least invest some time for your teams in development, she said. We're not always helping people to develop skills that they might need if they want to progress in future it is a hard ask, but it's a long-term investment. Tincknell added that organisations including hers needed to consider how to make the case to funders around investing in technology and digital skills. This was another area of concern from the Cranfield Trust research, with only half of charity partners having a strategy in this area even after working with the trust. Board diversity gap Another area where organisations working with the trust scored themselves consistently low was board diversity, with only 53% rating their boards as diverse despite more than 75% having equity, diversity and inclusion policies and recent values statements. It is highly possible charities have policies in this area which have not yet translated to implementation at board level, the report reads. Other areas where more than 75% of charities expressed confidence were around their clarity of purpose, financial auditing and governance, including alignment between CEOs and boards. It gives me hope that they are great people doing amazing things, taking a forward-looking approach to sustain their services, and looking for all the support they can to do that, said Tincknell. Its a privilege to work with them. sign up to receive the free Civil Society daily news bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, By Aquir, Adobe An anti-dairy advert from Bristol-based vegan charity Viva! has been banned after receiving 25 complaints, with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruling that its content was insensitive and likely to cause distress. The cinema ad showed a mother putting her newborn to bed before a sinister bogeyman materialised and the baby disappeared. The shadowy figure then announced that the infant had been taken and would not return because he needed the mothers milk in an analogy for dairy cows calves being taken from them. The ASA judged the ad was likely to be particularly upsetting for viewers with experience of child loss or fertility issues, in particular because the parallel with dairy industry practices was revealed only in the latter half. But Viva!s founder and director, Juliet Gellatley, said the charity strongly rejects the decision. It is an entirely subjective judgement and ignores both its own investigators and cinema advertising experts who ruled the ad is suitable for a 15+ audience, she said. Trade body: Ad was restrained in tone The ad, which the charity said had been primarily screened alongside horror, sci-fi and thriller films, and which also ran on social media, carried a 15 rating from the British Board of Film Classification. Trade body the Cinema Advertising Association (CAA) considered it likely to distress younger viewers. However, CAA representatives told the ASA they believed the use of horror tropes, such as the shadowy figure by the cot, was within the guidelines for the equivalent film age rating and comparable to content found in horror films. They said the ad used metaphor to make an emotional connection with the audience and was restrained in tone, the ASA ruling said. While they acknowledged some viewers might be affected by the appearance of the bogeyman and that those with personal experience of infant loss might find the imagery distressing, they believed that did not override Viva!s right to communicate their message. Viva!, meanwhile, told the ASA the ad was based on factual information and was intended to inform and encourage ethical choices, not to shock. The charity cited a survey that found 59% of respondents did not know cows must give birth in order to produce milk. The ad attracted 25 complaints during its run in March and April 2025, including one from the Dairy Council of Northern Ireland. The CAA received six complaints directly. Viva! claimed its overall reach was around 3.5 million viewers. The ASA confirmed to Civil Society that its own draft recommendation was that the advert had broken no rules. But the ASA Council, a jury which makes final decisions, concluded it had breached standards around social responsibility and harm and offence, and must not be shown again in its original form. The ASA declined to comment further on the matter. Charity: The aim was to connect emotionally This weeks ruling follows a case in 2023 in which the ASA banned another advert by Viva! that was deemed to be graphic and gory. That advert, seen on social media, showed a woman eating a yoghurt that was then seen to contain bloody and raw offal meat. Gellatley, the charitys CEO, said Viva! approached its new ad with the understanding that this is a deeply sensitive topic. Care had been taken to ensure the scene was obviously symbolic; a fantasy rather than literal, she said. The aim was to shine a light on animal suffering in a way that connects emotionally not to trivialise human grief. Gellatley said her charity believes the ASAs decision raises serious concerns about its independence and objectivity. This ruling is nothing short of censorship its based entirely on subjective opinion, not facts nor evidence, she said. Meanwhile, adverts from the meat and dairy industries continue to present staggeringly false portrayals of idyllic farms and the ASA does nothing. Their priorities are clear. sign up to receive the free Civil Society daily news bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, Colorado State Universitys hurricane research team, perhaps the best-known and most-often quoted forecasting service, last week revised its prediction for the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season downward slightly to eight hurricanes, three of them major. Thats almost in line with another, lesser-known forecast service known as Global Weather Oscillations, led by former National Weather Service and U.S. Air Force meteorologist David Dilley, with offices in Ocala and Tampa, Florida. Dilleys model takes it a step further and predicts where the hurricanes will make landfall, within 100 miles or so. Hes calling for one hurricane to hit Florida this season but he cant reveal exactly which area because his service is subscription-based, with zoned predictions that cost $400 a year. It wouldnt be fair to customers who have purchased subscriptions to say publicly where the storms will hit, he told Insurance Journal recently. Dilley and his GWO website claim as much as 90% accuracy, sometimes calculated years in advance. And many of his 200 or so subscribers appear to be true believers, with 80% of them return customers. Ive been buying the GWO forecasts for several years now and its really good to know what to expect each hurricane season in advance of the other forecasting agencies, said Darius Grimes, CEO of Disaster-Smart, a Florida-based consulting and inspection firm that verifies that structures are built to wind-resistant standards. As a example of his models accuracy, Dilley told the story of Hurricane Irma, which raked part of Florida in 2017 and left more than 1 million property insurance claims in its wake, some of which are still being litigated. Dilley said that other hurricane forecasting services had predicted Irma would hit Floridas east coast. GWOs models had it going instead to Floridas southwestern tip and up the states western flank. Dilley was proven right. My customers were better prepared, he said. Just two insurance companies have subscribed to Dilleys service in recent years, though. One of those is Floridas state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp. A spokesman for the carrier declined to comment, except to say Citizens does not endorse products and does not use the GWO forecasts in rate setting. But Dilley said that Citizens benefits from the GWO modeling, and more insurers in the Southeast should get on board: Knowing where and when a major storm will hit can help carriers in purchasing adequate reinsurance and in extending coverage or contemplating policy renewals. The problem, as he sees it, is that few people, including insurance executives, seem know about GWO, even though the firm has been in operation since 1992. Thats largely because, Dilley believes, most news media outlets have shied away from him once they discover that he is not a big believer in the impact of global warming on hurricane formation. Few news articles, in fact, can be found about GWO in recent years. A 2013 article in the Ocala StarBanner newspaper quoted one NWS meteorologist as suggesting that Dilleys predictions might be as much the result of luck as science. Hugh Willoughby, a professor at Florida International Universitys Department of Earth and Environment, which has helped develop hurricane loss models, said he was unfamiliar with Dilleys work. Willoughby noted that many forecasts that try to predict weather events years in advance are on the frontier of psuedoscience. But Dilley, who holds a masters degree in meteorology from Rutgers University, argues that larger forces than man-made climate change are at work. Its a natural cycle, not global warming, he said. He calls his modeling system ClimatePulse Technology, based on 150 years of weather data and thousands of years of geological data. The number of storms rises and falls on a 70-year cycle that is mostly influenced by electromagnetic and gravitational forces, including the interplay of the orbital cycles of the Earth, Sun and Moon, he said. Other cycles run for thousands of years and have an impact on temperatures, rainfall and more, Dilley said. This year, other factors are having an influence, making a slow start to the 2025 hurricane season: Large dust clouds from the Saharan Desert, moving west across the Caribbean Sea, have led to drier air high in the atmosphere, which has reduced moisture and energy for hurricanes. A wild card, he noted, is, in fact rising ocean temperatures (from cyclical forces, not carbon dioxide in the atmosphere). While he predicts one good storm will strike Florida in coming months, he said it could be as many as three, because with a warming Gulf of Mexico, storms can rapidly spin up from minor to major, almost overnight, as happened with Hurricane Milton in 2024. Dilley also warned that its not just the Southeastern states that need to worry about major storms. His modeling shows that in coming years, the Northeastern United States is due for a significant hurricane, perhaps on the scale of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938, which killed some 680 people and caused an estimated $300 million in damage, according to news reports. By 2030, the global cycles will bring cooler ocean temperatures, he noted. But that doesnt mean the United States wont see at least some powerful storms. He argued that Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm that slammed south Florida in 1992, came during a period of slightly cooler water temperatures. Dilleys frustration about his companys lack of visibility may be about to change. He said GWO is on the cusp of being purchased by a major U.S. weather forecast service, perhaps as soon as this month. He declined to name the company but said the merger would likely give his hurricane models much more exposure. President Donald Trumps choice to lead the nations top car safety regulator pledged to prioritize safety while at the same time making it easier for automakers to deploy-self driving cars. Jonathan Morrison, who was nominated by Trump on February 11 to be administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, told lawmakers in a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee Wednesday that the agency he hopes to soon lead should craft self-driving rules that go beyond the current voluntary guidelines that were enacted under previous administrations. Current rules limit automakers to 2,500 test vehicles that dont meet federal motor vehicle safety standards, like having steering wheels and brake pedals. Prior Congressional proposals would have allowed carmakers to request as many 100,000 of these exemptions. Morrison said during the hearing that NHTSA cannot sit back and wait for problems to arrive with such developing technologies. Instead, he said, the agency must demonstrate strong leadership by taking proactive steps to put federal rules in place that would allow for the rapid deployment of autonomous vehicles. Realization of the mobility and safety benefits from AVs depends entirely upon on consumer trust, and that trust must be rooted in safety, said Morrison, whos currently a lawyer at Apple Inc. and formerly served as NHTSAs chief counsel under Trumps first administration. At the same time, Morrison indicated he doesnt want federal regulations for both traditional and self-driving cars to impose undue costs or design restrictions that hamper innovation. If he is confirmed by the Senate, he could lead several investigations into Tesla Inc.s cars and driver assistance technologies. Morrison told lawmakers he has heard in recent years from industry leaders whove complained about the lack of federal leadership in this space. The last thing automakers want to do is to spend billions and billions down a particular technological pathway and then having the federal government shut the door on that pathway, Morrison said. That has a major chilling effect on investment and thats something we have to avoid. Morrison could take over 73 federal probes into potentially defective cars and trucks that remain open after Trump took office in January, including eight active investigations involving Tesla. NHTSA is also expected to tackle federal rules for autonomous vehicles and repeal stringent fuel economy rules for carmakers, should Morrison be confirmed. Michael Brooks, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Auto Safety, which advocates for stringent regulations, noted that during Morrisons earlier tenure at NHTSA, the agency rolled back safety standards and halted probes of carmakers utilizing autonomous vehicle technology that were initiated by the Obama administration. We think it is reasonable to expect more of the same if Morrison is confirmed as NHTSA administrator, Brooks said in an email. Rosemary Shahan, president of the Sacramento, California-based Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety group, said she worked previously with Morrison when he was a lobbyist for the California New Car Dealers Association. Shahan said Morrison is very smart and knowledgeable about the auto industry and well-versed in the NHTSAs mandate. But she said how aggressive the agency will be toward auto regulation will ultimately come down to Trump. John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which lobbies for most major automakers such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp., praised Trumps Morrison nomination in February. Bozzella said Morrison has the right background to lead the countrys top traffic safety regulator. The White House and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Top photo: An autonomous self-driving taxi in Los Angeles. Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem polled about her portrait for the South Dakota Capitol while flooded Texans waited on FEMA's response. Jeff Darcy, cleveland.com CLEVELAND, Ohio --Monday, July 7, Homeland Security Secretary and former South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem asked her Instagram followers which portrait of her they liked best for the South Dakota State Capitol. Responses from central Texas were low as flood waters remained high from July 4th weekend due in part to FEMAs delayed response. On NBCs Meet the Press Secretary Noem, not on horseback posing as a cowboy or dog shooter, denied there had been any FEMA delays. Its not extra red tape. Its making sure everything is getting to my level and that its immediately responded to. This was not slowed down at all. In fact, it was much more responsive. If you remember, I was there. I was standing right there long before this report ever came out. And people were asking, and were granting permission in real time. So the false reporting has been something that is inappropriate and its something that I think we need to clear up: that this response was by far the best response weve seen out of FEMA, the best responses weve seen out of the federal government in many, many years and certainly much better than what we saw under Joe Biden. Noem portrait artist David Uhl might want to paint on her a life preserver. Could be red with big white MAGA letters. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to rescind an emergency deportation order after a Cleveland man sued the department, claiming his due process rights were violated. John Pana, cleveland.com CLEVELAND, Ohio The U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to rescind an emergency deportation order against a Cleveland man who had been arrested twice by immigration agents and who had been granted a bond by an immigration judge. Mario Monroy Villalta, 24, will not be deported without a hearing and will have a chance to argue that he should be released from jail on bond after he sued the agency and the Department of Justice, his attorney Margaret Wong said on Tuesday. The lawsuit accused Homeland Security of violating Villaltas due process rights and challenged the departments claim that he qualified for expedited deportation. Theres only so many people you can help, Wong said. But this is one of those rare success stories. Immigration officials typically only ask for expedited removal if someone was found within two years of entering the country illegally. It allows for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security officials to deport someone without a hearing. The Trump administration, however, has recently tried to expand the use of expedited removal to any immigrant in the country. Its unknown whether Villalta will be released on bond. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that an official ICE memo said that people who arrived in the United States illegally will no longer be eligible for bond and will not be released from custody while their immigration cases are pending. Those memos shouldnt affect this case, Wong said. Unless something bad happened, he should be able to get bond. Immigration judges can grant bonds in cases if they find the person isnt a danger to society, isnt a flight risk or hasnt recently entered the country. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Cleveland earlier this month. Villalta lived in Cleveland since 2021 with his mother, a green-card holder. He fled to the United States after his sister, who was in the police academy in Guatemala, was brutally killed, according to the lawsuit. ICE agents first arrested Villalta in February as he warmed up his car on the way to work, according to the lawsuit. Villalta has no prior criminal history. An immigration judge granted him a $15,000 bond, and he was released from custody in March. After that hearing, Homeland Security attorneys dropped Villaltas immigration case, though they reserved the right to refile it later. After the case was dropped, Villalta filed for asylum through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, citing the threats he and his family received after his sisters slaying and the possibility that he would be killed, harmed or threatened in Guatemala, the lawsuit said. That case was ongoing when ICE agents again arrested Villalta on May 24 while he took a walk with his father, the lawsuit said. Homeland Security attorneys filed for an expedited removal order. That took the case out of the immigration judges hands and put Villalta at risk of an immediate deportation. He has been held in custody in the Mahoning County Jail without bond since his May arrest, one of more than 300 immigrants arrested by ICE that have been jailed in Ohio on civil immigration charges. Its a wonderful victory in this case, Wong said. But ultimately its just not a good day in America. CINCINNATI, Ohio A Middletown man has admitted to pretending to be a 14-year-old boy while chatting with young girls online, then coercing them into sending him sexually-explicit images and videos. William Scott Elam, 53, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 10 counts of coercion and enticement and one count of sexual exploitation of children, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Ohio. The plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 26 years in prison. Prosecutors say Elam used various online chatting apps to communicate with girls between the ages of 10 and 16 years old. While pretending to be a teen boy, he convinced the girls to send him sexually explicit images and videos. Prosecutors say he manipulated at least one girl by threatening to harm himself if she did not do as he asked. He also convinced another victim to cut herself on live video after learning she had a history of self-harm. He also threatened to leak naked images of victims if they did not send him sexual material. Elam had online relationships with several victims in at least seven states for four years, prosecutors say. Investigators have identified at least 10 victims. A sign "Now Hiring" rests in a window as a man walks out of the Corner Market, Thursday, May 28, 2020, in Lyndhurst, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) AP Rotunda Rumblings Solvency standoff: Lawmakers are once again trying to fix Ohios chronically underfunded unemployment compensation fund. But this time around, theyre starting with a modest proposal instead of one big, long-term fix. Anna Staver reports House Bill 321 would raise employer and employee contributions slightly and bring in about $49 million a year. Supporters say it could also be the first step toward broader, more lasting reforms. E-check out? Northeast Ohios mandatory E-check vehicle emissions tests will end as soon as the Trump administration gives permission, thanks to the new state budget. As Jeremy Pelzer reports, the budget directs the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to immediately discontinue the three-decade-old program if the U.S. EPA determines that its no longer necessary in order for Ohio to comply with federal ozone standards. The U.S. EPAs press office, as it has in the past, didnt directly answer when asked whether it will issue such a ruling. Precision agriculture: The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation by Bowling Green Republican Rep. Bob Latta that would require the Federal Communications Commission to examine how it can facilitate using satellites that orbit the earth for precision agriculture on the ground, Sabrina Eaton writes. Precision agriculture applies information-age technologies to farming. Its current techniques include using images from satellites to help farmers make decisions on water and fertilizer use, and when to plant and harvest crops. Farmers also use Global Positioning System (GPS) data from satellites to control their tractors and other farm equipment. Husteds haul: U.S. Sen. Jon Husted might not have a serious opponent so far from either party, but thats not stopping him from raising money like he is. The Columbus-area Republicans political operation reported raising more than $2.9 million between April 1 and June 30. As Pelzer reports, recent contributors included Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, ex-lawmaker and 2022 U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan, and several members of the wealthy and politically connected DeVos family from Michigan. Delete button: Husteds office has deleted a social media post that showed him laughing with lobbyists and touting the One Big Beautiful bill as pro-family, after being asked about the post, Ohio Capital Journal reports. The Columbus-area Republicans office didnt respond to a request for comment from the publication, which identified people photographed with Husted in the social media post as lobbyists. The law will take health insurance and food support away from thousands of low-income, working Ohioans. Congressman/councilman: On Monday evening, former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci was officially sworn in as the newest member of the Wadsworth City Council, News 5 Cleveland reports. Council President David Williams said Renacci will complete the remainder of the term previously held by At-Large Councilmember Susan Hanlon, who stepped down on June 19 so she could move out of state and be closer to her family. Renacci, who previously served as both Wadsworth City Council president and mayor, represented Ohio in the U.S. Congress from 2011 to 2019. He lost a U.S. Senate race to Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2018 and unsuccessfully sought the GOP nomination for Ohio governor in 2022. First mate: For the first time in the 2026 Ohio governors race, a candidate has unveiled a running mate. Timothy Grady, a longshot independent candidate, announced Tuesday that Andrea Neutzling, a substitute teacher and U.S. Army veteran from Meigs County, is his pick for lieutenant governor. Grady, a 28-year-old Ohio State University graduate student who recently helped revamp Ohios chapter of the Forward Party, previously won a total of 574 votes as a write-in gubernatorial candidate in the 2022 general election. Come in, the waters fine: A digital billboard in New Yorks Times Square paid for Vivek Ramaswamys Super PAC encourages New Yorkers to flee the possible Zohran Mamdanis mayoral administration for Ohio, the New York Post reports. Worried About Zohran? Ohio Is Waiting For You! the ad says. Weak link: Mondays email edition of Capitol Letter included the wrong link to Pelzers article on the crowded Republican race for Ohio Supreme Court next year. You can find his story here. Lobbying Lineup Five organizations that are registered to lobby on state House Bill 5, which would impose stiffer prison sentences on those who repeatedly commit violent gun crimes or illegally have guns, and create a more automated process for Ohioans convicted of misdemeanors or lower-level felonies to seal or expunge their criminal records. Ohio Poverty Law Center City of Cincinnati Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police The Collaborative to End Human Trafficking Ohio Gun Owners On the Move Lori Baldridge has been hired as membership services coordinator for the Ohio County Employee Retirement Plan. Baldridge most recently served as deputy elections director for the Ohio secretary of states office and as a support and compliance administrator with Ohios 911 program office. Shes also married to Ohio Department of Agriculture Director Brian Baldridge. Ex-U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from suburban Columbus, was presented Tuesday with the National Fraternal Order of Polices Legislative Advocacy Award. Birthdays Former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan Thomas Worthington, 6th Ohio governor (1773-1827) Straight from the Source I dont think the American people like chaos. Its not good policy, its terrible politics. -U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman in an interview discussing President Trumps ICE raids. Capitol Letter is a daily briefing providing succinct, timely information for those who care deeply about the decisions made by state government. Subscribe to get Capitol Letter in your email box each weekday for free. Protesters on Monday, July 7, 2025, at the federal courthouse in Boston show their support for a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's policy of targeting students for deportation who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. (AP Photo/Michael Casey) AP AP While the Heritage Foundations Project 2025 has made headlines, few people know of the Foundations Project Esther, which equates pro-Palestinian protests with providing material support for terrorism under the guise of fighting antisemitism. According to Dove Kent, U.S. senior director of the Diaspora Alliance, writing in The Forward, Project Esther proposes a public-private plan for dismantling any domestic group that supports Palestinian rights which they call the Hamas Support Network. The plans first targets are pro-Palestinian organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace. The plan calls for firing pro-Palestinian professors and deportation of student visa and green-card holders by using anti-racketeering laws. Among the pro-Israel organizations working with the Trump administration is Betar USA, a onetime self-described fascist movement that the Anti-Defamation League added to its extremist database because it openly embraces Islamophobia and harasses Muslims online and in person and indicated that they would like to work with the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group with a history of antisemitism and Islamophobia, to counter Islamic jihadis. Betar boasts that it uses state-of-the-art facial recognition software that uses thousands of photos scraped from social media accounts by private individuals in the United States to identify protesters as targets for deportation. The group has taken credit for supplying thousands of names of jihadis to the Trump Administration of visitors to America who support Hamas. And the Trump administration has taken action against both individuals and academic institutions on the strength of Betars complaints. The images of masked government agents disappearing people from U.S. streets in the name of fighting antisemitism is alarming. As Saree Makdisi writes in the Nation, The campaign of brute intimidation ravaging campuses across the country is not being framed as a way of safeguarding the American government or political system; it is, rather, intended to protect a distant foreign regime and to shield it from criticism in the country whose taxpayers are increasingly unwilling to finance its system of apartheid and its program of genocidal violence. His April 17 article goes on to say that, After all, not one of the students being pursued or detained today is accused of criticizing the United States or its system of government. Even now, in this gathering darkness, you can stand with a bullhorn in the middle of any American college campus, say what you want about Donald Trump or the American government, and not fear that you will be kidnapped by the state. Instead, what Trumps targets are alleged to share is their criticism of Israels genocide in Gaza and their advocacy of universally acknowledged Palestinian rights. Chuck Ardo is a retired political consultant. Since Hamas carried out its murderous Oct. 7 attack on Israel, antisemitic incidents in the United States have skyrocketed. Finding and punishing the perpetrators of these crimes should be a priority for this, or any other, administration. But as Israeli historian Tom Segev explains, Not every criticism against Israel is antisemitic. The moment you say it is antisemitic hate you take away all legitimacy from the criticism and try to crush the debate. Judaism and Zionism are not synonymous, and conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism has many mainstream American Jews worried that President Trumps crackdown on democratic freedoms in their name will fuel antisemitism, rather than deter it. Chuck Ardo is a retired political consultant in Lancaster, Ohio. He previously served as press secretary to former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks to journalists as he arrives for a press conference at a hotel in Beijing on July 16, 2025. Adek Berry | Afp | Getty Images BEIJING Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was all smiles and compliments as he made his third trip to China in just about half a year. As the leader and co-founder of the world's first, newly-minted $4 trillion market cap company, Huang had particular reasons to be happy when he met the press on Wednesday: Nvidia expected it would be able to resume sales of its less advanced H20 artificial intelligence chips to China after a three-month pause. "Many of my competitors are my friends," he noted. Huang said his understanding was that allowing Nvidia chips into China was part of an exchange with the U.S. for Beijing to release critically needed rare earths. CNBC has reached out to the White House for comment. Wearing his iconic black leather jacket, Huang walked into the sunny courtyard of the Mandarin Oriental hotel about 15 minutes earlier than scheduled and took multiple questions in the nearly 90-degree Fahrenheit weather. "Only in China can we do this out in the sun!" he said. Then he realized the press conference was supposed to be held inside an air-conditioned room. "What are we doing out here? Why didn't somebody say so?" he said. He was swarmed by local reporters asking for signatures of books and T-shirts. "Who needs an autograph? I'll do it while I'm listening." Here are the highlights of what he said over 90 minutes: Whom he met Huang said he had a "wonderful meeting" with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, and clarified that the discussions did not include China's restrictions on battery technology or rare earths. watch now Earlier in the week, he met with Xiaomi founder and CEO Lei Jun, whom he labelled as "a brilliant business person." He said the two discussed artificial intelligence for large language models, autonomous driving and robotics. Xiaomi uses Nvidia's automotive chips in its electric cars. Huang said he told U.S. President Donald Trump about his planned voyage to China during a meeting with the White House leader last week to celebrate Nvidia's $4 trillion market cap. "[Trump] said, 'Have a great trip,'" Huang said. Export controls Nvidia on Tuesday said it expected to resume its H20 chip shipments to China soon following assurances from the U.S. government. The company was forced to halt such sales in April due to new U.S. requirements at the time. "In terms of the H20 ban and the lifting of the ban, it was completely in control of the U.S. government and China government. The discussion has nothing to do with me," Huang said, rejecting the idea that he had played a part in changing Trump's mind. "It's my job to inform the president about what I know very well, which is the technology industry, artificial Intelligence, the developments of AI around the world," he said. Huang emphasized Nvidia complies with the final policy decision and that tariffs are just something the company has to "adapt to." What's next for Nvidia in China U.S. chip restrictions nearly halved Nvidia's market share in China, Huang said in May. Due to the U.S. export controls on China, the company said it missed out on $2.5 billion in sales during the April quarter and will likely take another $8 billion hit in the July quarter, pegging its sales at $45 billion over the period. The U.S. effectively banned Nvidia from selling its most advanced chips to China back in 2022. "I hope to get more advanced chips into China than the H20," Huang said in response to a CNBC question, "and the reason for that is because technology is always moving on. It's not like wood." He stressed that, years from now, there will be better and better technology available, adding, "I think it's sensible that whatever we're allowed to sell in China will continue to get better and better over time as well." But Huang would not give a definitive answer about how many orders Nvidia had received, or when the company would restart local sales of its chips which he acknowledged were not the company's best, but which could still train AI models. He said the U.S. government was still processing the licenses for Nvidia to sell the chips to China, and that the company would need to restart its supply chain a process he indicated could possibly take nine months. Huawei Huang also discussed the outlook for competing Chinese tech giant Huawei, which has been impacted by U.S. sanctions that precede the export controls on Nvidia. "Anyone who discounts Huawei and anyone who discounts China's manufacturing capability is deeply naive," Huang said, pointing also to how Huawei has "excellent chip design" and their own connected cloud system. "They can go to market all by themselves." Underpinning Huawei's AI model capabilities is an entire tech system that doesn't rely on any of Nvidia's chips or tools. Instead, Huawei has developed its own Ascend chips, which works with the company's "CANN" system that acts as an alternative to Nvidia's CUDA. It has also built an AI-specific cloud computing system called CloudMatrix that launched last year. Asked about indications that Huawei's AI chip systems are still challenging for many developers to switch over to, Huang said, "That's just a matter of time." He said "the important thing to realize I've been doing this for 30 years, they've been doing it for a few, and so the fact they're already on the dance floor tells you something about how formidable they are." China's AI Blackstone's rental housing portfolio contains apartment complexes, student housing, mobile home parks, and single-family rental properties. Many of their U.S. assets are concentrated in major cities such as New York and in Sun Belt states including Texas, Georgia and Florida. Blackstone is an American alternative asset manager with significant interests in rental housing. In recent years, the company spent billions acquiring brands such as Tricon Residential, American Campus Communities and AIR Communities. A map displays approximate locations of Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust rental housing assets in the U.S. as of June 16, 2025. "There tends to be a high degree of consistency across our different pools of capital," Kathleen McCarthy, global co-head of Blackstone Real Estate, said in an interview with CNBC. "Really what we try to follow across the globe is job and population growth." Blackstone says it owns less than 1% of the 46 million rental homes scattered across the country. The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust currently has an ownership interest in at least 274,859 rental housing units. But this is a narrow slice of their overall portfolio. "Of their $315 billion in real estate, only roughly $55 billion is in the BREIT product, which is sold to retail investors," said Craig McCann, principal at SLCG Economic Consulting. Blackstone Real Estate launched in 1991 with funds raised from accredited and institutional investors. Its parent company, The Blackstone Group, began as a private equity firm that used techniques such as leveraged buyouts to acquire and improve distressed assets. "They recognized early on the value of diversification," said Greggory Warren, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Blackstone could benefit from their recent acquisitions in the years to come. "Buying is still cheaper than building in many markets, as is typical at the start of a new cycle. This is limiting construction and supporting rent growth," Will Pattison, head of real estate research at MetLife Investment Management, said in a statement to CNBC. Watch the video above to learn more about Blackstone's rise in the U.S. rental housing market. The global flagship store of Pop Mart, a Chinese toymaker and seller, at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street on Aug. 16, 2022, in Shanghai, China. Shares in Pop Mart International tumbled over 6% on Wednesday, a day after the toymaker issued a bullish first-half earnings forecast. The Beijing-headquartered company is behind the global craze around Labubu, a toothy, pointy-eared monster-like character. The toymaker sells its dolls in a blind box to buyers who don't know what character is inside until they open it, with prices ranging from about 59 yuan to 5,999 yuan. In a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, Pop Mart said it expects at least a 350% increase in profit and at least a 200% increase in revenue for the first six months of 2025 from the same period last year. In the first half of 2024, Pop Mart recorded 93.3% growth in profit to 921.3 million yuan ($128.4 million), while its revenue grew 62% to 4.6 billion yuan. The negative stock reaction may be a reflection of investors' conservative outlook on Pop Mart's sales growth, Jeff Zhang, an equity analyst at Morningstar, told CNBC on Wednesday. "Despite stellar earnings growth in H1, it may have peaked and will likely see slowdown starting in H2," he added, saying it may have prompted many investors to take profits. Zhang maintained his view that Pop Mart's shares have been "overvalued," as the high level of uncertainty over the popularity of its major intellectual properties was not fully priced in. In the filing Tuesday, the company attributed its robust profit forecast to the greater global recognition of its brand and intellectual properties referring to signature toy characters such as Labubu, Molly and Crybaby and diversified product portfolios, as well as a growing portion of overseas sales. It also benefited from a substantial increase in profits driven by the economies of scale, cost optimization and tighter expense controls, the company said. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange said that for the first time, six gongs filled its main hall on July 9, 2025, as 5 companies and an ETF marked their listings. This report is from this week's CNBC's The China Connection newsletter, which brings you insights and analysis on what's driving the world's second-largest economy. Each week, we'll explore the biggest business stories in China, give a lowdown on market moves and help you set up for the week ahead. Like what you see? You can subscribe here. There's a murmur of excitement in China's venture capital circles these days: foreign investors are starting to return with U.S. dollars. It's a result of DeepSeek's AI disruption, coupled with a buoyant Hong Kong IPO market on track to surpass Wall Street this year as the world's largest by money raised. Beijing's signals to support businesses in recent months have also helped. The Hang Seng Index's surge of over 20% so far this year reflects near-term optimism. Another sign comes from word of Chinese venture capital firms raising U.S. dollar-denominated funds again, after a dry spell in which the VCs had to turn to local investors with Chinese yuan funds. Beijing-based BAI Capital said it started raising for a new $800 million fund in February and plans to close the initial round in September. The firm is supported by German global media conglomerate Bertelsmann Group. BAI said it's seen "strong interest" for the U.S. dollar-denominated fund, which it will then use to invest in China-based companies. To date, the firm has already invested in 10 companies that plan to go public in the next one to two years. Future Capital Discovery Fund, an early backer of high-flying electric car startup Li Auto , told me it raised a record $210 million for a U.S. dollar-denominated flagship fund in the second half of last year. "Once there is a fundraising window, we must quickly seize the opportunity to raise funds," Mingming Huang, founding partner at Beijing-based Future Capital, said in Chinese, translated by CNBC. "This is very different from the long-standing practice of raising U.S. dollars from the market every few years." "Now we need to be very sensitive to macro trends, especially the direction of relations between major economies," he said. The firm, which counts investors including sovereign wealth funds and endowments from the Middle East, U.S., Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia, has plans to deploy capital for AI agents and hardware. But it's been a tough few years for China VCs and their limited partners. In the VC world, a firm raises money from a range of "limited partners," which include sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, university endowments and family offices. While getting paid to manage the fund, the VC then chooses startups to back, reaping a reward from the companies' IPOs that is shared with the limited partners. The fallout around Chinese ride-hailing company Didi's New York IPO in June 2021, on the eve of the ruling Chinese Communist Party's 100th anniversary despite multiple warnings from Beijing about data privacy breaches did not sit well with regulators on both sides of the ocean. Didi was backed by a long list of prominent investors across numerous funding rounds, including Apple, SoftBank and Sequoia Capital. China would later raise the bar for its companies wanting to list overseas, while Washington ramped up its scrutiny of U.S. capital heading to China, dampening fundraising activity on the mainland, particularly for cross-border investments. Notably, Sequoia Capital China split off from its U.S. parent in 2023 and rebranded under HSG. People familiar with the matter told me that the company is not in a fundraising cycle and still has ample dry powder to fuel its runway for years to come. Other VCs that have spun off or restructured their China arms include GGV Capital, which became Granite Asia, and California-based Matrix, which rebranded its Chinese operations as MPCi last year. CNBC's Jim Cramer on Wednesday reviewed the case for buying stock in Cheesecake Factory . While he praised the restaurant chain's business, he advised waiting until after the upcoming quarterly report to purchase shares. "There's a lot to like about this story, but let's see how they didlast quarter," he said. "As much as I want to say let them eat cake, maybe let this one cool off before you take a bite." Cheesecake Factory offers a great value proposition, Cramer said, a characteristic shared by current winners in the restaurant space. Its expansive menu upwards of 200 items offers a variety of price points, Cramer continued. He said the sheer number of dishes "covers all the bases" and caters to most consumers' tastes. The chain also regularly changes its menu to stay on top of trends, Cramer said, adding that some new dishes are "very vegetable heavy," a positive for more health-conscious customers. Cramer was impressed with the company's annualized unit volume of more than $12.5 million, which it shared during its most recent quarter in April. He suggested that figure is quite large compared Cheesecake Factory's peers. Cramer was encouraged that management indicated its employee retention rate is improving. He also pointed out that the company said it plans to open as many as 25 new restaurants this year, including its flagship as well as other brands North Italia and Flower Child. Shares of Cheesecake Factory are currently up more than 31% year-to-date, and Cramer dubbed the stock "red hot." Although the company beat the estimates last quarter, the stock slipped just after earnings. Cramer attributed that decline to management's commentary that the economic environment "doesn't feel as robust as maybe three months ago." The company is expected to post earnings later in July, and Cramer said Cheesecake Factory could see losses even if the results are positive. "Even though management's been pretty conservative in their outlook throughout this rally, I don't know if it would be prudent for me to tell you to buy Cheesecake Factory ahead of the quarter, given that the stock's rallied 30% since those comments about a deteriorating environment, and it's done so on very little news," Cramer said. Cheesecake Factory did not immediately respond to request for comment. Netflix is slated to release its second-quarter results Thursday after market close, and analysts are expecting another blockbuster. Analysts surveyed by LSEG anticipate that the streaming giant will post earnings of $7.08 per share and $11.066 billion in revenue. Those results would signify earnings growth of 45% year over year as well as a 15.8% jump in revenue when compared to the prior-year period. The anticipated gains come after the streamer posted a major earnings beat for the first quarter of the year, where it saw revenue rise 13%. That was due to the company increasing pricing for its plans toward the end of January. NFLX 6M mountain NFLX, 6-month Since the start of the year, Netflix shares have surged, ratcheting up nearly 42% year to date and about 50% in the past six months. That compares to the S & P 500's year-to-date gains of 6% and the broad index's 5% jump over the past six months. Heading into earnings, much of Wall Street is still bullish. According to LSEG data, 34 out of 49 analysts covering Netflix have rated it a strong buy or buy, while the remaining 15 have given it a hold rating. Here's what some of the analysts are saying prior to the results. Wedbush Securities: Outperform rating and $1,400 price target Analyst Alicia Reese's target signals around 11% upside from Tuesday's close. "We believe that Netflix is well-positioned to accelerate ad tier revenue contribution over the next several years by adding and improving live events, enhancing its advertising solutions and targeting capabilities, expanding its ad partnerships, and broadening its content strategy. While massive subscriber growth was the primary driver in 2024, we expect price increases to drive revenue growth in 2025, and the ad tier to drive revenue higher in 2026. As Netflix expands, its contribution margin can massively exceed our estimates, driving outsized free cash flow." Bank of America: Buy rating and $1,490 price target Analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich's target implies more than 18% upside from Tuesday's closing level. "Netflix has been a top performer in our coverage (up ~42% YTD) driven by: sustained earnings momentum, positive subscriber trends and defensiveness related to tariffs. We continue to view Netflix as well positioned given the company's unmatched scale in streaming, further runway for subscriber growth, significant opportunities in advertising and sports/live and continued earnings and FCF growth." BMO Capital Markets: Outperform rating and $1,425 price target Analyst Brian Pitz's target calls for around 13% upside. "Raising 2Q25E and 2H25E revenue and OpInc estimates reflecting record-breaking Squid Game 3 viewership data, FX, and an attractive content slate in 2H25E. Netflix continues to trade above its forward averages, though AI tailwinds are beginning to proliferate, with multi-year benefits ahead given 'hundreds of billions' of user interactions globally. AI tools should prove complementary to current CGI/VFX products, enhancing production workflows, expanding Creator capabilities, and driving user engagement." Jefferies: Buy rating and $1,400 price target Analyst James Heaney's target implies around 11% upside. "With the stock up 42% YTD and trading near 5YR highs, investor sentiment has turned more cautious ahead of the Q2 print. However, we continue to see a favorable set-up over the next 12mos, as recent US price hikes, a strengthening 2H content slate, and improving ads monetization sustain mid-teens rev growth in 2H25 and FY26. We believe an increase in the FY25 op. margin guide to 30%+ could act as an additional positive catalyst for the stock." Evercore ISI: Outperform rating and $1,350 price target Analyst Mark Mahaney's target reflects more than 7% upside. "We view NFLX as one of the least risky stocks this quarter. We view the Street's Q2 Revenue, Operating Income and EPS estimates as reasonable. While the Street's sequential revenue growth of +5% is ahead of typical seasonality (flat to +2% Q/Q over the past three years), we note that NFLX should benefit from a significant sequential FX tailwind as well as from full quarter impacts of recent price increases in select markets. Further, NFLX has a very consistent recent track record of exceeding its Revenue and Operating Income guidance." Loop Capital: Hold rating and $1,150 price target Analyst Alan Gould's target suggests almost 9% downside. "We remain quite bullish on Netflix the company, but remain neutral on the stock due to valuation with the stock trading at almost 50x earnings. NFLX deserves a premium multiple, but we do not agree with the bull case that NFLX deserves the same multiple as a great consumer company such as Costco. NFLX's has won the streaming wars, but its business continues to evolve which we believe provides it with less earnings durability; it has shown more historic volatility." In this article NVDA Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNT Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks to members of the media in Beijing, China, on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. Na Bian | Bloomberg | Getty Images Nvidia is looking to ship more advanced chips to China than its current generation, CEO Jensen Huang said on Wednesday, as he looks to revitalize sales in the world's second-largest economy. The comments come after Nvidia said on Monday that it will resume sales of its H20 artificial intelligence chip to China, reversing a previous ban. The H20 is a less-advanced semiconductor designed for AI workloads that comply with U.S. export restrictions to China. "I hope to get more advanced chips into China than the H20," Huang said during a press conference in Beijing, China, in response to a CNBC question. "And the reason for that is because technology is always moving on ... today Hopper's terrific but some years from now we will have more and more and better and better technology, and I think it's sensible that whatever we're allowed to sell in China will continue to get better and better over time as well," he said referencing Hopper, Nvidia's chip architecture that the H20 is built on. watch now Nvidia has been caught in the crosshairs of U.S.-China tensions over trade and technology. The tech giant has faced several rounds of restrictions that have forced it to restrict access of its most advanced chips to China. In response, Nvidia has developed semiconductors that comply with export restrictions, such as the H20. Nvidia took a $4.5 billion writedown on the unsold H20 inventory in May and said sales in its last financial quarter would have been $2.5 billion higher without any export curbs. Huang has trod a fine line between praising U.S. President Donald Trump's policies regarding reshoring chip manufacturing to America while also lobbying for change on curbs to China. watch now NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang speaks during the NVIDIA GTC Paris keynote, part of the 9th edition of the VivaTech technology startup and innovation fair, held at the Dome de Paris in the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris on June 11, 2025. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold another 225,000 shares of the chipmaker, totaling about $37 million, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The sale comes as part of a plan adopted in March for Huang to sell up to 6 million shares of the leading artificial intelligence company. Huang began trading stock last month. His most recent sale, disclosed last Friday, totaled 225,000 shares, or about $36 million. Since he began selling stock this year, Huang has unloaded 1.2 million shares, totaling about $190 million, according to InsiderScore. In last year's prearranged plan, Huang cashed in more than $700 million. AI demand and the need for graphics processing units powering large language models have spiked Huang's net worth and propelled Nvidia past a $4 trillion market capitalization, making it the most valuable company. That surge in value has put Huang above Berkshire Hathaway 's Warren Buffett in net worth on Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. A Renault Espace E-Tech full Hybrid (L) and a Megane E-Tech 100% Electric EV (C) are displayed during the Geneva Motor Show 2024 at Palexpo on Feb. 26, 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. Shares of French carmaker Renault plunged as much as 18% on Wednesday after the company lowered its 2025 guidance and announced the appointment of a new interim chief executive officer. The Paris-listed stock closed down 18.5%, reaching a fresh 52-week low and putting the company on track for its worst trading day since March 2020. In a trading update published late Tuesday, Renault said it is targeting an operating margin of around 6.5% this year, down from a previous forecast of around or exceeding 7%. The company is also aiming for a free cash-flow between 1 billion euros ($1.16 billion) and 1.5 billion euros, down from roughly or above 2 billion euros, previously. Renault has fared better than many of its European peers in recent months, with a flurry of new launches boosting sales in key markets. The automaker, which is not directly present in the U.S. market, has previously been singled out as a company that is relatively insulated from the trade disruption caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. However, it has faced pressure from muted European demand and rising competition from Chinese car manufacturers. Renault on Tuesday announced the appointment of Duncan Minto as interim CEO, following Luca de Meo's abrupt resignation last month after around five years at the helm of the company. "Currently CFO of Renault Group, Duncan Minto will ensure the day-to-day management of the company alongside Jean-Dominique Senard, who will hold the position of Chairman of Renault s.a.s., the operating company of the Group, during this period," Renault said in a statement. Analysts at Germany's Deutsche Bank cut their target price to 47 euros, down from 55 euros, on news of Renault's profit warning. "While the new margin guide remains solid also relative to peers, we see the warning as an obvious additional hit on sentiment for shares," analysts at Deutsche Bank said in a research note. Renault is poised to report its half-year results on July 31. Jeep maker Stellantis and Germany's Volkswagen also ended the session lower on Wednesday, down 6.2% and 3.7%, respectively. CNBC's Jordan Butts contributed to this report. Here are Wednesday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Deutsche Bank reiterates Nvidia as buy Deutsche raised its price target on Nvidia to $155 per share from $145. "We generally anticipate strong 2Q/3Q reports/guides for companies across our coverage given that the macro/tariff overhang from 1Q has largely dissipated. In theory, this should give companies in our universe improved visibility on end-market demand into the second-half of the year." Baird reiterates Tesla as neutral Baird said it's cautious on Tesla ahead of earnings next week. "We see risk to estimates stemming from both 1) full-year volume outlook and 2) potential margin compression in the Energy segment." UBS reiterates Disney as buy The firm raised its price target on Disney to $138 per share from $120. "We expect F3Q results to highlight resilient demand at the Parks and similar improvement in DTC profitability, supporting a continuation of double digit earnings growth." Wells Fargo reiterates Advanced Micro Devices as overweight Wells raised its price target on the stock ahead of earnings in early August to $185 per share from $120. "We expect AMD to point to sustained datacenter momentum into 2H; roadmap execution and building rack-scale strategy." Read more. Mizuho upgrades Palantir to neutral from underperform Mizuho said the company is well positioned for growth. " PLTR's recent execution and momentum is stunning, including material upward revisions across its commercial and government segments that we very much underestimated. We also believe PLTR has a legitimate chance to accelerate revenue growth for a 5th consecutive quarter when reporting 2Q results in early August." Jefferies reiterates Amazon as buy Jefferies raised its price target on Amazon to $265 per share from $255. "We see resilient revs and potential margin upside in Q2." Jefferies reiterates Meta as buy Jefferies raised its price target on the stock to $845 per share from $790. " META connects 3.5B+ people around the world to 10MM+ advertisers with best-in-class data and targeting capabilities delivering high-quality and relevant advertising to a loyal user base." Guggenheim upgrades Commvault Systems to buy Guggenheim said it sees a slew of positive catalysts ahead for the data protection company. "Off the back of more positive checks and what we believe are sustainable secular tailwinds in data protection, we are upgrading CVLT shares to Buy from Neutral and introducing a $210 price target representing approximately 20% upside potential." Citi initiates NovaGold as buy Citi said it's bullish on the precious metals company. "We initiate coverage on Novagold ( NG) with a Buy (High-Risk) rating and $7/sh price target." UBS initiates Motorola Solutions as buy UBS said the stock is compelling. "We initiate coverage of Motorola Solutions with a Buy rating and $490 price target (18% upside potential)." Cantor Fitzgerald reiterates Microsoft as overweight Cantor said its bullish on the stock ahead of earnings on July 30. "We are raising our PT to $581 (from $512), or 12.5x C26 revenue which is a premium to MSFT one-year NTM [next twelve months] average given recent acceleration in Azure and Microsoft's positioning as a leading agentic AI platform with checks indicating positive momentum to continue in 2HC25." JPMorgan upgrades GDS Holdings to overweight from neutral JPMorgan said in its upgrade of GDS that the data center company is a beneficiary of Nvidia's H20 chip resuming shipments into China. "NVDA's announcement yesterday that it will seek to resume shipments of H20 into China should be a big positive for the China AI DC [data center] pipeline. Wells Fargo reiterates JPMorgan as overweight Wells raised its price target on JPMorgan Chase to $325 per share from $320 following earnings on Tuesday. "We raise ests and PT (to $325) on this best-in-class bank. 1) Strong qtr w/core EPS beat by 10% given cap mkts, credit, com'l, consumer; 2) Actions speakbuybacks remain at $7B;" Read more. Wells Fargo reiterates Citi as overweight Wells raised its price target on the stock to $115 per share from $110 following earnings on Tuesday. "Citi's path from value destruction to value creation in 2026 becomes even more clear post-2Q25 given strong revenue growth (+8% YoY), op leverage (expenses up only 2%), and resiliency in the midst of volatility (strong trading, network benefits)." Citi initiates QXO as buy Citi said the building products company has a differentiated offering. "We initiate on QXO with a Buy rating and $33 target price as we see a unique opportunity to roll-up the highly fragmented Building Products distribution market." Citi initiates Wave Life Sciences as buy Citi said it's bullish on shares of the biotech company. "We initiate coverage of WVE with a $16/shr TP and a Buy/High Risk rating." JPMorgan reiterates Roblox as overweight JPMorgan raised its price target on the stock to $125 per share from $120. " Roblox platform engagement continues to inflect higher." Needham initiates Karooooo as buy Needham said the software company is well positioned. "We are initiating coverage of Karooooo Ltd. with a Buy rating and $60 price target." Citi adds Carnival to the focus list Citi named the cruise company to the focus list and says the stock has more room to run. "We are swapping out RCL for CCL on the Citi Focus List. While RCL has established itself as best in class (and then some), investors can't help but seek out names with similar exposure to the cruise industry phenomenon but earlier along the valuation realization curve. We believe that CCL nicely fits that description, and while the stock has had a nice run, it is still -40% vs. 2019." Bank of America upgrades Rockwell Automation to buy from neutral The firm said the turnaround is working for the industrial automation company. "We upgrad e ROK shares to Buy from Neutral. ROK is starting to see the impact of its operational turnaround strategy." Bank of America downgrades Centene to underperform from neutral Bank of America said "legislative reforms weigh down growth" for the insurer. "We are downgrading Centene to Underperform from Neutral and lowering our PO to $30 (7.5x our new 2026E EPS) from $52 due to slowing end markets in Medicaid (54% of revenue) and ACA exchanges (23% of revenue) from the recently passed Reconciliation Bill and the increasingly higher likelihood that enhanced exchange subsidies expire at the end of 2025." Morgan Stanley reinstates AT & T as a top idea The firm said the stock is insulated. "We reinstate OW T as Top Pick. AT & T's fiber growth and now lower cash taxes relatively insulate it from any potential wireless industry slowdown." Morgan Stanley reiterates IBM as equal weight Morgan Stanley raised its price target on IBM to $253 per share from $233. "At $283, we believe FCF upside is already priced in, thus we lean tactically cautious into 2Q EPS; though 2Q is unlikely to fully break stock momentum, leaving us EW rated." Deutsche Bank initiates RBC Bearings as buy The firm said the bearings products company is a share gainer. "So while RBC generates only 36% of its sales from the A & D market, the qualities of the business and the company's culture and the output thereofare more aligned with the highest quality A & D companies in our coverage. This, then, is why we have chosen to initiate coverage on RBC." In May, Tesla changed its corporate bylaws in a way that would require investors to own 3% of the stock, today worth about $30 billion, in order to file a derivative lawsuit against the company for breach of fiduciary duties. Authorities in New York State are now asking Tesla to delete the bylaw entirely. Overseers of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which owns about 0.1% of Tesla's shares, submitted a formal proxy proposal and letter to the company on July 11, and shared it with CNBC on Wednesday. They say that Elon Musk's automaker engaged in a "bait-and-switch" to convince shareholders to approve an incorporation move from Delaware to Texas in June 2024. Musk made the move after a judge in Delaware voided the $56 billion pay package that the CEO, also the world's richest person, was granted by Tesla in 2018, the largest compensation plan in public company history. In getting shareholders to approve the change in its state of incorporation, Tesla said that stakeholders' rights "are substantially equivalent" under the laws of Delaware and Texas. On May 14, almost a year after Tesla's move, Texas changed its law to allow corporations in the state to require 3% ownership before being able to carry forth a shareholder derivative suit. "The very next day, Tesla's board amended the Company's bylaws to the maximum allowable 3% ownership threshold, effectively insulating the Company's directors and officers from accountability to shareholders," the New York letter says. The letter was signed by Gianna McCarthy, a director of corporate governance with the retirement fund, on behalf of the fund and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Only three institutions currently own at least 3% of Tesla's outstanding shares. Tesla didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. The New York fund overseers wrote that derivative actions are "the last resort for shareholders to enforce their rights" when company directors or officers violate their fiduciary obligations, and called Tesla's decision on the matter "egregious." In an email to CNBC, DiNapoli said Tesla "deceived shareholders" in assuring them that their rights would remain the same in Texas. "These actions violate basic tenets of good corporate governance and must be reversed," he wrote. WATCH: What to know about the renewed executive churn under Elon Musk Hours after President Donald Trump told a room full of Republican lawmakers that he will fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, he denied plans to do that. "We're not planning on doing it," he said Wednesday at the White House. "I don't rule out anything," he added, "but I think it's highly unlikely, unless he has to leave for fraud." At a meeting Tuesday evening in the Oval Office, Trump had asked a group of House Republicans if they thought he should fire Powell. After receiving support for the move, the president said he would follow through, according to a senior White House official. "The President asked lawmakers how they felt about firing the Fed Chair. They expressed approval for firing him. The President indicated he likely will soon," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the issue. The members had been invited to the White House to discuss crypto regulation bills that had stalled in the House. Separately, The New York Times reported that Trump has gone so far as to draft a letter for firing Powell, and that he showed it to lawmakers during the crypto meeting. A Fed official declined to comment on what happened during the Oval Office meeting. But Powell has said repeatedly that his firing is "not permitted under the law." Government sources have told CNBC TV18 that India is slated to hold the 2nd round of negotiations with Chile and the 8th round of negotiations with Peru for separate, potential Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with both countries.As China's control on exports of rare earth magnets continues to impact supplies across the world, government sources had told CNBC TV18 last month that India is looking to hedge supply chain risks by exploring alternative sourcing destinations like Australia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.Currently, China produces around 60% of the global supply of rare earth magnets, and processes around 90% of the supply, which also involves sourcing of raw materials from other countries.Rare earth elements (REE) and processed minerals are extensively used in heavy industries, robotics, batteries, and military equipment.Having held the 1st round of negotiations in May for a proposed comprehensive FTA, India and Chile had implemented a preferential trade agreement (PTA) in 2006, which is now being widened in scope to negotiate a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).The PTA signed in September 2016 and has been effective since May 2017, will act as the building block for a potential CEPA covering a broader range of sectors, including critical minerals, digital services, MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises), and investment promotion and cooperation.While bilateral trade remains modest, India's imports from Chile in FY 2024-25 grew 72% year-on-year to reach $2.60 billion, amidst 2.46% year-on-year dip in exports taking the FY's export figure to $1.15 billion.Chile is India's 5th largest trading partner in Latin America, which exports minerals worth $1.58 billion and imports automobiles and pharmaceuticals from India.Peru has witnessed 60% year-on-year jump in its exports to India in FY 2024-25 to touch $4.98 billion, while India's exports to its 3rd largest trading partner in Latin America grew 9% year-on-year to touch $1 billion.India primarily exports two and three-wheelers, cotton yarn, pharmaceuticals, iron and steel products, plastics, rubber and pipes to Peru, and imports gold, copper, synthetic filaments, phosphates of calcium, and fish flour. NPCI International Payments Ltd (NIPL), the overseas arm of the National Payments Corporation of India, said on Wednesday it has expanded the UPI-PayNow real-time payment corridor between India and Singapore by adding 13 Indian banks to the platform.The move, effective July 17, takes the total number of participating Indian banks to 19, significantly broadening the reach of the service aimed at easing cross-border remittances for individuals, including migrant workers and students in Singapore.The expanded network will allow users in Singapore to send remittances to accounts in India held with lenders such as HDFC Bank Punjab National Bank and UCO Bank , alongside previously integrated banks including ICICI Bank and State Bank of India . Funds can be received via UPI-enabled apps like BHIM, Google Pay and PhonePe, or through bank apps.Outward remittances from India to Singapore will continue to be supported by seven banks including Canara Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI, and Indian Bank. In Singapore, the service is currently available through DBS Bank and Liquid Group.The UPI-PayNow linkage was launched as a joint initiative by the Reserve Bank of India and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It enables real-time cross-border transfers using mobile numbers or virtual payment addresses (VPAs), with funds typically credited within seconds.This expansion strengthens cross-border payment infrastructure and improves access for users in both countries, said Ritesh Shukla, CEO of NIPL. By enabling more banks to participate, were making remittances more seamless and inclusive.The payment corridor is positioned as the worlds first cloud-based, real-time cross-border payment system and aims to provide a secure, low-cost alternative for small and frequent transactions.UPI is also accepted at select merchant outlets in Singapore via QR code payments, further enhancing its international footprint. , , - Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 15, 2025 The ancestral home of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray in Bangladesh is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete structure. It was built over a century ago by his grandfather and eminent litterateur Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury.Situated on Harikishore Ray Chowdhury Road in Mymensingh, about 120 km north of Dhaka, this century-old house was previously used for an educational academy.The Indian government has stepped in, offering to help repair and reconstruct the property into a museum of literature that symbolises the shared culture of India and Bangladesh.The Ministry of External Affairs said, We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished. The property, presently owned by the Government of Bangladesh, is in a state of disrepair.Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh. The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose, it added.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also appealed to the Bangladeshi government to preserve the historic property. She also mentioned that demolition work on the century-old property has already begun.In a post on X, she wrote, This news is extremely distressing. The Ray family is one of the foremost bearers and carriers of Bengali culture. Upendrakishore is a pillar of Bengals renaissance. Therefore, I believe this house is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal.I appeal to the Bangladesh government and all the conscientious people of that country to take steps to preserve this heritage-laden house. The Indian government should pay attention to this matter, the CM added.Following the partition in 1947, the property came under government hands and was repurposed as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy in the year 1989.According to The Daily Star, the ancestral home of Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete construction.The house has been left abandoned for 10 years. Shishu Academy activities have been operating from a rented space, it reported, quoting Md Mehedi Zaman, the district Children Affairs Officer.The officer went on to say that a semi-concrete building with numerous rooms will be built to replace the old house and restart the academy's activities there.Mehendi stated that the building posed a severe risk to the children gathering at the compound. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on July 15, called for enhanced cohesion and cooperation by the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for its future development. The recommendations come as he was hosting foreign ministers of the 10 members, including, India's S Jaishankar, in China's Tianjin for SCO Council Foreign Ministers' (CFM) meeting. "Wang Yi put forward five suggestions for the future development of the SCO: In the future journey, member states should further carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit", enhance the cohesion, action and appeal of the organisation, do a good job and achieve success, and build the SCO into a model of mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement, as per ANI. "Second, we should share the responsibility of safety and security and lay a solid foundation for security. Third, mutual benefit and win-win results drive the development engine. Fourth, be friendly and good neighbours and build a beautiful home together. Fifth, we must stick to the right path and defend fairness and justice..." it added. On SCO Foreign Ministers meeting in Tianjin | Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry says, "Wang Yi put forward five suggestions for the future development of the SCO: In the future journey, member states should further carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit", enhance the cohesion, action ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 SCO Summit in China from August 31 Leaders of all 10 member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) will take part in the SCO summit 2025 in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, according to Chinese state media Xinhua. Read more: Jaishankar urges SCO to take firm stance on terrorism, flags Pahalgam attack at Tianjin meet The summit was announced shortly after the conclusion of SCO FM meeting where Wang Yi emphasised strengthening the SCO grouping and being "good neighbours" to each other amid rising protectionism. "The world is becoming more multipolar and economic globalisation is deepening, and the global South is growing significantly. At the same time, hegemony and power are going against the trend, protectionism is surging, and regional conflicts are emerging one after another," he said. Chinese President Xi Jinping had also called for improving mechanisms to address security threats and challenges during a meeting with foreign ministers of SCO. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Iran's FM Seyed Abbas Araghchi were among those who attended the meeting. The SCO comprises of India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Belarus. S Jaishankar on July 15 highlighted the founding objectives of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at the CFM meeting and urged member states to take an "uncompromising position" against terrorism while staying true to the organisations principles. Also Read: Balasore Bandh: Police detain protesting BJD leaders, use water canon; vehicles stranded on highway | Watch Jaishankar stated that the three evils SCO was founded to combat are terrorism, separatism, and extremism. "Not surprisingly, they often occur together," he said on X. He also highlighted the "disorder in the international system" with growing conflicts, competition, coercion, and economic instability, and urged for the mitigation of these challenges. Last month, India refused to sign a joint statement of the SCO defence ministers' meeting after mentions of terror attack in Pahalgam was removed while retaining mentions of such activities in Pakistan's Balochistan. At the time, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took a swipe at Pakistan saying perpetrators, financiers and sponsors of terrorism must be held accountable and there should be "no double" standards in combating the menace. Engineers in China are maintaining US Department of Defense computer systems under a contract with Microsoft, a news report said Tuesday. The arrangement relies on US staff known as digital escorts to supervise the Chinese workers, but the escorts often lack the skills to monitor the work effectively, the report by investigative news service ProPublica said. Were trusting that what theyre doing isnt malicious, but we really cant tell, Propublica quoted one of the escorts as saying. Comedian Bill Murray coulda, shoulda, woulda had the most storied career in Hollywood history, if only hed taken half of the many movie roles he was allegedly offered. If you believe it, many of our biggest stars wouldnt have had careers if not for Murrays leftovers, as The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray suggests that a number of the most successful films of the past 50 years almost starred Murray. Here are 12 of the could-have-been chapters in Murrays career 1 Batman Don't Miss Um, what now? Murray was supposedly considered to play Tim Burtons version of the Dark Knight, alongside Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner and Pierce Brosnan. Michael Keaton got the job after earning his stripes as the lead in Ron Howards Gung Ho after Murray turned it down, of course. 2 Forrest Gump Not only did Murray allegedly turn down the role of Gump, Chevy Chase and John Travolta said no as well. That opened the door for Tom Hanks and his consecutive Academy Awards. Hanks won his other Oscar for Philadelphia, in which Murray almost played the Denzel Washington part. 3 Willy Wonka When Burton remade Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he looked to his almost-Batman to play the part of Willy Wonka. Ultimately, Burton went with Johnny Depp over Murray, Nic Cage, Jim Carrey and Christopher Walken. 4 Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit Director Bob Zemeckis wanted Murray for the live-action counterpart to Roger Rabbit. The trouble was, no one could get hold of Murray, so the part went to Bob Hoskins instead. Murray says he regrets missing out. 5 The De Niro Role in Cape Fear Steven Spielberg had Murray penciled in as his first choice for the vengeful ex-con in Cape Fear. However, when Martin Scorsese took over as director, he opted for his old pal Robert De Niro, who was nominated for an Academy Award. 6 Albert Brooks Part in Lost in America Albert Brooks the director preferred Murray for the lead in his comedy over Albert Brooks the actor. But Murray was living in Paris, smack-dab in the middle of a four-year sabbatical from acting, meaning Brooks had to settle for Brooks. 7 Bad Santa Once again, Murray was the first choice for the movies lead, and according to director Terry Zwigoff, had a handshake deal to play the part. But then a familiar problem set in no one could find Murray despite several messages left on his infamous answering machine. Eventually, producers got tired of waiting and hired Billy Bob Thornton. 8 The Dad in Home Alone Advertisement Why would Murray or other considered stars like Harrison Ford or Jack Nicholson want to play the barely-there role of Kevins absent-minded dad? Casting the much less famous John Heard made more sense. 9 Kindergarten Cop Ghostbusters cohort Ivan Reitman offered the lead role in Kindergarten Cop to Murray first. You know the drill Murray passed and Arnold Schwarzenegger became a comedy star. 10 Steve Carrells Part in Little Miss Sunshine Screenwriter Michael Arndt wrote the role of suicidal scholar Frank Ginsberg with Murray in mind. The studio wanted Robin Williams. Everyone settled on Carell, though Murray later lamented missing out on this one. 11 Indiana Jones This idea might be even more ludicrous than Murray as Batman. But Spielberg allegedly considered a number of Saturday Night Live and Animal House alums for the part of Indiana Jones, including Murray, Chevy Chase, Tim Matheson and Steve Martin. Raiders of the Lost Ark could have been full of food fights. The younger Meyers loves the burns, and he dishes it out as good as he takes it Its hard to imagine Kenneth the Page being mean to anyone, but, unlike his most famous character, Jack McBrayer is no angel. Out of all the mainstay comedic character actors of the 21st century, McBrayer, beloved supporting star of 30 Rock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Wreck-It Ralph series, has to have the single most squeaky-clean public image in the business. Now the host of the HGTV reality show Zillow Gone Wild, McBrayer, 52, has maintained the same lovable, folksy, Georgia-born peppiness for his entire career, in spite of the consistent Hollywood workplace abuse that he used to suffer at the hands of Conan OBrien. However, as McBrayer revealed on last night's episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, he picked up a few nasty habits from the old Late Night host, and hes not afraid to use them on unsuspecting children. Don't Miss Despite McBrayers upbeat public persona, everyone in show business has a dark side, and McBrayer chooses to unleash his mean streak on his co-stars kids. But, dont worry, these famous offspring absolutely love it when McBrayer gives them an impromptu celebrity roast. At the top of the interview, Meyers recalled running into McBrayer at a recent reunion for the lauded Amsterdam improv theater Boom Chicago, despite the fact that McBrayer isnt an alumni of the troupe. Seeing as Meyers and his old improv buddies now all have families, the reunion was an all-ages event, and McBrayer shined with the younger audience. Advertisement Kids love Jack McBrayer, Meyers said with a puzzled look on his face. But you have a very strange approach to getting kids to like you. McBrayer explained, Okay, hear me out: I am I tease kids. You're mean to them! Meyers corrected. Every time my son walked over to you, you went, *condescending voice* You again? As McBrayer admitted, thats not exactly how people usually want the star of a kids movie franchise to talk to children. On paper, this sounds horrible, McBrayer started, but they know Im just playing, and what I love is that they play back! They wanna go over and be mean to you! Meyers said of the kids response to McBrayers burns. I think they just love that theres this person that they feel very safe around whos just so shitty to them. Meyers added of the kids insult comedy routine, You literally are like, Oh my God, is your story not over?!?! Advertisement As the pictures of the entire Boom Chicago reunion kids table crowding around McBrayer for a hug demonstrate, clearly, kids have thicker skins than we give them credit for, and there is a real untapped market for kid-oriented roast comedy. If only Jack Donaghy were an executive at Viacom, then Kenneth could definitely get Comedy Central Roasts: Kids' Edition greenlit. Sitcoms have fed the American public a great number of lies. If there was a ranking, first would probably be George W. Bush and WMDs, and second would definitely be sitcoms. In a r/Sitcoms Reddit thread, one Redditor dropped the prompt to share about what sitcom lies mislead us most about adulthood. The initial example was from the show more divorced from our current reality than any other: Friends. In Friends, everyone was eating breakfast with each other before work, all the time. Waking up, having a full banter session, having a mug of coffee, having a little more banter. Growing up, this led me to believe that there was going to be ample time to go to my friends house (very close to mine), enjoy some eggs (reasonably priced) and have a full conversation before my commute (short). I remember being in high school, watching Friends and thinking I cant wait to be an adult so I have that much free time, one Redditor wrote. Spoiler: That didnt play out well for me. Don't Miss That surely wasnt the only lie Friends told either; midday coffee-shop meetings with friends, affordable New York City apartments, dating within your friend group without too much fallout the list goes on and on. However, if Friends was only the only sitcom dramatically misrepresenting the average life, Id probably feel less shell-shocked by how often my sweaty ass was peeling off of plastic seats after an unairconditioned 40-minute commute at the ass crack of dawn, instead of sipping on orange juice while doing my quick walk to the office. One common trope that was a let down: employment. Getting jobs, another commenter wrote. I assumed it would be super easy based on how often sitcom characters can find new jobs and get job offers from random interactions with strangers. New Girl is a sitcom that definitely does this; Jess (Zoe Deschanel) is constantly losing and getting jobs, seemingly by happenstance. When I began my own post-college job search, I assumed it would be similarly serendipitous. It was not. Advertisement Adults have a group of close friends that they see every day and do everything with, and never hang out with anyone else outside that group, another commenter wrote. This is true of just about every sitcom I can think of. Obviously it comes down to casting practicalities and storyline logistics. But still, I think most of us grew up thinking there would be like four to five people we did everything with, all the time. A sort of social consistency. Thats what happened on How I Met Your Mother, Seinfeld, Girlfriends, Boy Meets World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Workaholics, Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc. In general, life on sitcoms old, recent and new all distort the realities of modern life. No one wants to go on vacation with their coworkers, no one runs out the door before eating their freshly made breakfast (again, the price of eggs!), and very few of us are getting away with meeting friends at coffee shops during the work day. But hey, who says your favorite show cant be aspirational? The late Carl Weathers starred in classic movies like Rocky, Happy Gilmore and Predator, aka Bicep Meme: The Movie. But for some younger comedy fans, Weathers greatest performance was as the character of Carl Weathers in TVs Arrested Development. Weathers was unquestionably hilarious playing a sly, ultra-thrifty, stew-loving version of himself in the cult series, which he did with an unwavering earnestness. But it turns out that the Action Jackson star wasnt always thrilled about the material he was given. On a recent episode of Andy Richters podcast The Three Questions, guest Tim Herlihy discussed working with Weathers on Happy Gilmore, which prompted Richter to share a story about the time they briefly overlapped on Arrested Development. Don't Miss Richter, who played himself and his four identical quintuplets on the show, didnt share any scenes with Weathers in the original Fox run of Arrested Development. But when the show was brought back for a (wildly disappointing) continuation on Netflix, Richter joined Weathers as part of Michaels proposed cast for a Bluth family biopic. On his podcast, Richter argued that any celebrity who played a version of themself on Arrested Development would be depicted as a fuck-up and an idiot and a loser. And in the case of Weathers, there was this running gag of everyone seeing him and thinking he was another actor, and then being disappointed that it was Carl Weathers. Specifically Ron Howard, as himself, confuses Weathers for Cuba Gooding Jr., who he wants for the Carl Weathers part in the movie. Advertisement Netflix Moments later, his producing partner Brian Grazer casually greets Cuba. Netflix Even by the low standards of Arrested Developments fourth season, a joke about people confusing Weathers with another Black actor is just lazy and insulting. During a break in filming, Richter touched base with his co-star. I was like, How do you feel about that? the comedian recalled. And hes like, Its not great. I know they like me, and I like working here. But it is weird. Richter told the same anecdote during a 2024 appearance on The Howard Stern Show and noted that it felt as though Weathers was being shit on repeatedly, all day thanks to the writing. Advertisement To be clear, Weathers objection was seemingly in regards to the fourth seasons jokes, not the earlier episodes. As Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz has admitted in the past, Weathers trademark cheapness was actually the actors idea. Hurwitz originally wanted Weathers to parody Rocky IIIs homoerotic beach scene with Tobias. Advertisement Advertisement But when Hurwitz contacted him, Weathers immediately asked, Its not going to be just a bunch of Rocky jokes is it?" After Hurwitz lied and assured him that it wouldnt, Weathers added, "Because I direct and Im a funny guy, and I dont wanna just do a bunch of Rocky jokes. Nobody wants that. Maybe I could be really cheap or something? In retrospect, perhaps they should have just let Weathers write the entirety of Season Four. Screen grab of a video showing off-duty Connecticut State Police Sgt. Bryan Fahey, right, and YouTube activist SeanPaul Reyes, who went to Fahey's Groton home on Friday. Courtesy of SeanPaul Reyes YouTube video Screen grab of a video showing off-duty Connecticut State Police Sgt. Bryan Fahey, right, and YouTube activist SeanPaul Reyes, who went to Fahey's Groton home on Friday. Courtesy of SeanPaul Reyes YouTube video GROTON A Connecticut State Police sergeant accused of spitting on a YouTube activist who confronted him at his home last week remained on active duty Monday, the agency said. SeanPaul Reyes, 34, of Gorham, N.Y., who conducts "audits" of public officials and then posts about them on his YouTube channel, Long Island Audit, was charged with first-degree criminal trespass, second-degree breach of peace and voyeurism with malice in connection with an incident Friday at an off-duty police officer's home, according to Payton Hebert, a spokesperson for the Town of Groton Police Department. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Hebert said officers also arrested Tahiem Glover, 20, of Selden, N.Y., Reyes cameraman. He is charged with first-degree criminal trespass, second-degree breach of peace and voyeurism with malice, police said. In his video, Reyes identified the trooper as Sgt. Bryan Fahey. Reyes said he confronted Fahey over what he considered to be an excessive amount of overtime. Town of Groton police have declined to name the officer involved. The state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection confirmed Fahey is an active member of the state police and was not suspended or on leave as of Monday afternoon. However, the agency declined to comment on whether Fahey's alleged actions were being investigated. Advertisement Article continues below this ad A phone number listed for Fahey was not in service. Reyes, who denied any wrongdoing, is known for capturing the reaction of public officials and police when attempting to film inside public buildings. The practice is called First Amendment auditing. Hebert said the arrest took place after officers received a 911 call at 4:52 p.m Friday from an off-duty law enforcement officer who reported that Reyes and Glover had trespassed on his property. Federal court documents show that Reyes is suing Fahey based on claims the sergeant and two other troopers violated his civil rights when they detained him while he was filming TSA agents at Bradley International Airport in 2021 and when the sergeant and the activist had an exchange at state police headquarters in Middletown later that day. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The lawsuit contends that Reyes was handcuffed and detained by state troopers at the airport even though a TSA supervisor said it was fine for him to film. Reyes also said he was told by a trooper that he'd have to file a complaint at state police headquarters, according to the lawsuit. But when he arrived in Middletown, Reyes said he was directed toward Fahey,\ who did not accept his complaint and gave him instructions to see a separate unit at a different location. At the end of that encounter, Reyes said Fahey assaulted him and broke his cellphone, the lawsuit said. He later filed the federal civil rights lawsuit against the state police sergeant and other state police troopers, claiming they violated his rights. Herbert said Reyes on Friday went to the off-duty officer's home with a video billboard truck playing footage of the prior interaction between them. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Herbert said investigators determined Reyes and Glover were on the property filming and later engaged in a verbal confrontation with the officer. He said the officer also retrieved a firearm from the home during the encounter. According to Herbert, Town of Groton Police are investigating the incident in collaboration with the Office of the State's Attorney New London Judicial District. As this is an active investigation, the department will have no further comment at this time, Herbert said. Reyes, who describes himself as an independent journalist, said in the YouTube video that he traveled to the state police sergeant's home to ask about overtime he's been earning. Advertisement Article continues below this ad In the YouTube video, Reyes can be seen knocking on the officers front door shortly before the law enforcement official exits the home. The off-duty officer can then be seen immediately ordering the two men to leave his property before returning inside. The footage then shows the officer came back out of the home with a handgun at his side. Fahey can be seen repeatedly instructing Reyes to leave before the YouTuber claims the state police sergeant spit in his face. This is the biggest mistake youve ever made, the trooper said to Reyes, according to the footage. The video shows several Town of Groton officers responded to the scene. Reyes is seen as he asked the officers to charge the trooper with assault for being spat on during the encounter, but the officers refused. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Sgt. Devin Bedard of the Town of Groton Police Department can be seen in the video as he told Reyes that he reviewed the relevant statute and found that spitting is not considered an assault unless it resulted in a civilian getting hurt. The only thing that assault fits is physical pain, Bedard said. Bedard also said the officers determined the conduct of Reyes and his cameraman amounted to voyeurism because they violated the state police sergeant's reasonable expectation of privacy by invading his curtilage while recording. In an interview with CT Insider, Reyes described the charges as baseless and said he plans to contest the case in court. He also pledged to file a federal lawsuit against the law enforcement officials involved in the arrest. Advertisement Article continues below this ad I think it's an egregious decision, Reyes said. It's an injustice. He spat in my face. ... I knocked on the door and asked him a question. He told me to leave. I immediately left. Scenes from the Darien High School Commencement on June 16, 2025. Arnold Gold/Arnold Gold/Hearst Connecticut Media Ten Connecticut high school graduates are on a list of close to 800 other students from across the country who are being awarded college-sponsored scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. These students are joining 2,900 other college-sponsored award recipients that the NMSC announced in June. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Officials at each of the sponsor colleges selected their scholarship winners from the list of finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program who will be attending their school. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution providing the scholarship. In total, 146 colleges and universities are sponsoring more than 3,700 scholarships, with 74 of them being private institutions and the other 72 being public institutions located in 42 states and the District of Columbia. NMSC announced its list of semifinalists in September, which came from a pool of more than 1.3 million high school juniors from around 21,000 schools who took the 2023 PSAT/NMSQT. These students were highest-scoring entrants in each state. To become a finalist, the semifinalists had to submit a scholarship application that included their academic records, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment and honors and awards received, according to the National Merit Scholarship Program. Advertisement Article continues below this ad The NMSC offered two other types of scholarships including corporate-sponsored merit scholarships, which had 13 Connecticut recipients. The other, the $2,500 scholarships, had 30 Connecticut recipients. Here are the 10 Connecticut students who are among the most recent list of college-sponsored scholarships. Berlin: Andrew Feldman, Berlin High School. University of Alabama scholarship. Probable career field: actuarial science. Darien: Nathan Camporeale, Darien High School. Case Western Reserve University scholarship. Probable career field: engineering. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Darien: Luca Prince, Darien High School. Tufts University scholarship. Probable career field: biomedical engineering. Darien: Natalie Roche, Darien High School. Colorado College scholarship. Probable career field: biology. Fairfield: Steven Aloysius McDonald, Hopkins School. Occidental College scholarship. Probable career field: marine biology. Farmington: Caleb Evans, Farmington High School. Purdue University scholarship. Probable career field: aerospace engineering. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Glastonbury: Rishi Boggavarapu, Glastonbury High School. University of Texas at Dallas scholarship. Probable career: computer science. New Canaan: Tedra Smedley, New Canaan High School. Emory University scholarship. Probable career field: writing. Greenwich: Michelle Weissler, Greenwich High School. Brandeis University scholarship. Probable career field: economics. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Brittany Young is charged with first-degree assault after slashing her boyfriend in North Haven on April 20, police say. Courtesy of North Haven Poilce File photo of a North Haven police cruiser. Police recently arrested Brittany Young on first-degree assault charge. Police say Young slashed her boyfriend on April 20. Hearst Connecticut Media NORTH HAVEN Soon after he was slashed so deeply that his internal organs were showing, a man pleaded with a person at the scene to not call police, saying, "I don't want to get her in trouble," according to an arrest warrant. Police concluded that "her" was Brittany Young, 37, of Meriden, and that she cut her longtime boyfriend from the left side of his chest down to his pelvis on the night of April 20, the warrant says. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Young, who faces a first-degree assault charge, was being held in lieu of a $200,000 bond for an appearance at state Superior Court in New Haven July 30, according to court records. Police were called to Overbrook Road at about 8:15 p.m. April 20 for a report of a stabbing victim. The victim, who was taken to Yale New-Haven Hospital, would not cooperate with police or say who had cut him, the warrant says. A witness at the scene, however, told police the victim was referring to Young, his girlfriend of about five years, the warrant says. Family members and friends of the victim said the relationship was rocky, drug-fueled and sometimes violent, police said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Police found that a 2013 Subaru Crosstrek captured by a surveillance camera speeding from the scene just before police were called was registered to Young's mother, the warrant says. In an interview April 21, Young told police that she and her boyfriend had gotten into an argument and she left him on Overbrook Road, where some of his family members and a friend live, the warrant says.Young said she did not know what happened after she left, police said. She did say that she and the victim had been "clashing all the time" lately and described their relationship as "toxic," but also said, "I don't recall stabbing him. I don't even have a knife," the warrant says. Police searched the Subaru after getting a warrant and found a receipt for Chore Boy copper scrubbing pads, which are commonly used in glass pipes to smoke crack cocaine, the warrant says. Police also found a diary in the car. The last entry, dated April 2, read, "Sitting here on the bed it;s 5:02 a.m. smoking crack with (the victim) and (the victim's brother)," the warrant says. WATERBURY Assistant Superintendent of Schools Juan Mendoza, a product of Waterbury public schools, is being promoted to deputy superintendent. Superintendent Darren Schwartz on Friday announced the selection of Mendoza to be second-in-command of Connecticut's third-largest school district. "He is the best guy for the job," Schwartz said in a phone interview. "He's a homegrown kid. He has gone through the system. He is well-respected by his peers. He is just a phenomenal educator. He really cares about the students of Waterbury. He sees himself in a lot of the students that we work with and, obviously, he wants to help create a better school system here, and he has been doing that, and he'll continue to do that as a deputy superintendent." Advertisement Article continues below this ad Mendoza, the son of Cuban and Ecuadorian immigrants, grew up in the city and attended the former East Farms Elementary School, then went to Wallace Middle School and graduated from Crosby High School in 1995. Superintendent of Schools Darren Schwartz names Assistant Superintendent of Schools Juan Mendoza to serve as deputy superintendent of schools. The Chase Building is home to the Waterbury Department of Education. Jim Shannon / Hearst Connecticut Media He started his 25-year career in public education as a dual language teacher in Hartford schools after graduating from Central Connecticut State University, and he returned to Waterbury four years later to teach fifth grade at Walsh Elementary School. After earning a master's degree in educational leadership at CCSU, he returned to Hartford where he held a number of instructional positions, served as dean of students and became an elementary school principal. Advertisement Article continues below this ad In 2012, Mendoza came back to Waterbury to serve as the first principal of Jonathan E. Reed School. After eight years, he joined the school district's central office staff. He intially served as interim human resource director managing daily operations and staffing initiatives during the the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, Schwartz said he overhauled the personnel department, which is now known as the human capital department. Mendoza was promoted to assistant superintendent in January 2021, where he has remained overseeing labor relations and the day-to-day operations for the human capital department. He was responsible for overseeing the recruitment, development and retention of more than 2,000 staff members for the district. He also oversaw all personnel operations, including staff evaluations, policy development, and the implementation of human resources and labor relations strategies. In addition, he served as spokesman in collective bargaining negotiations, and managed contract administration, policy interpretation and grievance procedures. "I couldn't be prouder to be in a position to select somebody like him to be deputy superintendent," Schwartz said. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Mendoza did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on his promotion. The deputy superintendent's job became open after the Board of Education voted May 1 to elevate Schwartz from the position to be the next superintendent. Schwartz had been serving as interim leader of the district following last summer's departure of former Superintendent Verna Ruffin. She had served the city for six years until opposition from Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. led to her contract not being renewed last July. Schwartz and Pernerewski are continuing to negotiate the terms of the superintendent's contract. Both men said the negotiations are progressing well and expect to conclude the contract talks in the near future. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Schwartz and Mendoza will be negotiating a contract for deputy superintendent in the coming weeks. The job post's advertised salary range was $150,000 to $190,000. Schwartz said he wants to revise the deputy superintendent's responsibilities as part of wider overhaul of the district administration. He said he plans to assume oversight of finances and operations as superintendent, and he wants Mendoza to concentrate on teaching and learning in the city's 32 public schools. "I don't want him to focus on the operations and finances of the district because I'm going to handle that as the superintendent," Schwartz said. "I really want him to focus more on what matters most, which is what is happening in the schools, and so whether it is curriculum instruction, special education or the assistant superintendents who supervise the schools, I really want him focused on supporting the schools to improve." He said he wants Mendoza to establish a clear line of communication from the central office all the way down to the classroom to ensure there is a strong focus on supporting schools and students, especially as school officials are preparing a new strategic plan for the Waterbury district. Advertisement Article continues below this ad Whether its sports, speech and drama, 4-H or any other activity or group our children decide to become involved in, as parents we support them and cheer them on. And sometimes, that activity or organization becomes a part of our lives, even after our kids are grown. This is how Barb Larsen, known to many in the 4-H community and beyond as Miss Barb, got her start in 4-H over 30 years ago! Her son, Eric, joined 4-H when he was in third grade, in 1993. I walked into my very first Toole County 4-H Leaders Council meeting and walked out as the new secretary! It wasnt long before families from Galata and Lothair approached me about starting a new club, said Barb. Thats how Blazing Saddles 4-H Club, the first multi-county club in our area, was born in 1996. It was in 1995 that Barb became a Cloverbuds leader, when her daughter, Sarah, was old enough to join. Children in Cloverbuds are five to seven-years-old. At that time Montana didnt have a set curriculum, so the Exploring 4-H project manual was used. What started out initially as a small group of aspiring 4-Hers grew over the years under Barbs leadership, with the group boasting 34 members this year. Barb and her husband of 43 years, Joe, are farmers east of Shelby and parents to children, Eric and Sarah. Eric and Sarah were both active in 4-H throughout their childhood and teen years and Barb generously volunteered as a leader throughout it all. Now she is a proud grandma to Raeya, Axel, Gracelyn and Maclean, and still dedicated to the organization she first started volunteering with over three decades ago. Not only does she dedicate countless hours to the youngest members of 4-H, she also volunteers with Toole County Friends of the Library and helps with Galata WELCA. In addition, she works as Heidi Sisks assistant at Shining Stars Preschool. Many might question her sanity and wonder why she continues to dedicate her time to young children and the challenges that come with it, but her answer is simple. Honestly? The biggest challenge has been the energy! As Ive gotten older, I get tired more easily, so I just go to bed earlier now, said Barb with a smile. But I stay involved because I believe in the power of what we do. Studies show that staying active, learning new things and working with youth helps keep you healthy, engaged and even helps prevent dementia. Its a win-win! A win-win for her and for the all the children whose lives she touches with her involvement in 4-H. Barb is patient, kind and an amazing mentor. Over the years her dedication has been recognized, being selected as a Montana State 4-H Ambassador Advisor from 2004 through 2008 and in 2019, when she was inducted into the Montana 4-H Hall of Fame. Her children excelled in 4-H as well, making her proud beyond words, especially when they both served as Montana State Ambassador officers. Barb is an amazing leader and one that encourages others to be the same. Another Cloverbuds leader, Lindsey Habets, shared that she grew up doing 4-H, in Musselshell County, and wanted the same experience for her children. Several years ago, I was excited to learn from Barb, who was only an acquaintance at the time, that she was running a 4-H Cloverbuds program in Shelby. Bus routes and Barb Larsen tipped the scales, leading my husband and I to send our kids north to Shelby for school and 4-H, instead of south to a different town about the same distance from our ranch, said Lindsey. We signed our son up for 4-H as a Cloverbud, the same year he entered kindergarten, and it has been the best two years of learning, activities and experiences. Barb is more than just a leader. She goes above and beyond in planning and coordinating all the meetings, having the kids learn everything from robotics and sewing to livestock nutrition and public speaking. She also gives all Cloverbuds the opportunity to participate in the poultry program, helping provide chicks for everyone in the group. Our Toole County 4-H poultry program has grown tremendously, explained Barb. Weve been fortunate to receive grants from Montana Farmers Union, and we even received an innovative programming grant a few years ago. We also fundraise through the Farmers Market, serving dinner to support the Cloverbuds. Id encourage everyone to come out and support them! This year the Cloverbuds fundraising dinner will take place on Thursday, July 31, at the Farmers Market in Shelby, from 4-6 p.m. Tacos in a bag are what is currently on the menu, come down to Shelby City Park and support this great group of kids! Barbs Chicken Club is popular with the kids, with baby chicks being ordered for all the Cloverbuds and any older 4-H members who wanted to participate. The idea here is that any kid who wants to, can participate in learning about chickens, help care for them and then show at the fair, whether or not they live on a farm or ranch, said Lindsey. When the chicks arrived, Barb kept them in her bathtub until they were too big for the bathroom. Barb, along with a few volunteers and 4-H members, created an area within our 4-H Exhibit Building at the Fairgrounds for the chickens to live. Cloverbuds got to select which chicken they wanted to be theirs. They each had several to choose from, based on the breed they had pre-selected. While kids normally have to be eight-years-old and in regular 4-H to take livestock or animal projects to fair, Barb has made it possible for the younger kids to do so with Cloverbuds and the Chicken Club and by working with county extension agents, administrative assistants and the Marias Fair Open Class Superintendents to create a special class each year for the Cloverbuds so they can participate and have this experience. What an absolutely awesome 4-H program we have in Shelby for our kids, said Lindsey. It would not be this way, if not for the devotion and love of the program, coming from Barb Larsen. I am grateful for her and everything she does. After working with her for a while, I realized, she really does do what she does, for the kids. She doesnt do it for the parents. She doesnt do it for the recognition. She just keeps showing up with awesome ideas, one after the other, leading these kids by example. Barb is a firm believer in 4-H, what it teaches the kids and how it positively influences their lives, even when their time in 4-H has come to an end. 4-H gives youth the chance to grow in ways that last a lifetime, said Barb. They learn public speaking, leadership, record-keeping, financial responsibility, community service and project management. These experiences build confident, capable and compassionate young adults who are ready to take on leadership roles in their communities. Its amazing to watch them grow, and to know theyre making a difference. She praises the extension agents she has had the privilege of working with over the years, sharing that they have kept things running smoothly and fully support the programs and youth events. She also has praise for the volunteers, stating that every single one has contributed something valuable to the program, especially the junior and teen leaders who go above and beyond in helping with the Cloverbuds. Her advice to parents just starting out on their 4-H adventure with their children? Jump in with both feet! Offer help where you can, even a little bit makes a big difference, said Barb. Everyone brings unique strengths to the table and our youth notice when adults show up for them. Whether its lending a hand at a meeting, sharing a skill or simply cheering them on, your involvement helps shape their confidence and motivation. Not only do the kids learn invaluable life skills, the adults who volunteer and participate learn and grow as well. I, myself, have learned so much these past couple years, said Lindsey, One being that being a leader isnt always easy! I find myself in awe of the things Barb knows and contributes, on a daily basis, and in every type of setting. She is an awesome role model; a tremendous leader and Im honored to be able to work with her. She is an incredible asset to our agricultural community and my family is thankful for all she does. There are many in the community who are thankful and in awe of all Barb has done and continues to do. She strives to stay as active and involved in the community as she can and she does an outstanding job. Not for the praise or recognition, but for those it impacts the most, the kids. If youve ever thought about joining or volunteering with 4-H, do it! Its one of the most rewarding experiences you can have, watching young people grow, learn and lead with confidence, concluded Barb. Ive seen firsthand the difference it makes, and Ill always be its biggest cheerleader. Four-County Marias Fair fun time has arrived and Thursday, July 17 through Saturday, July 19 features a fantastic line-up of events for everyone! The grandstand events kick off on Thursday evening with Whacky Western Family Night getting underway at 7 p.m. This program features adults and kids having the opportunity to compete in multiple events in the arena, including Ranch Rodeo Scramble, Rawhide Race, Sweetheart Race, Boot Race (kid event), Calf Dressing and the Chicken Race (kid event). Friday evening features the Marias River Stampede, courtesy Jacobs Livestock Rodeo. The rodeo will get started at 6 p.m. After the rodeo wraps up, music by Jolie Blue will follow at approximately 7 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. Saturday night Logan Health - Shelby is sponsoring and the theme is Suicide Awareness. Everyone is encouraged to wear purple and there will be bracelets, purple bandanas and a wealth of information on suicide awareness and local resources onsite. The rodeo will get underway at 7 p.m. with live music provided by Tanner Laws after the rodeo. Saturday evening also includes the first Corn Hole Calcutta and the fireworks show. Grandstand event tickets can be pre-purchased online by visiting http://www.mariasfair.com. If you opt to purchase your tickets at the gate, be prepared as it will be cash only. There is also plenty of fun to be had during the daytime hours. The traditional Pet and Doll Parade will take place on Thursday, starting at 11 a.m. Everyone is welcome to participate, line-up starts at 10:30 a.m. at the west end of Main Street in Shelby, by the old Catholic School. There will be a cool ice cream treat, courtesy of Marias Veterinary Clinic, and a bounce house for the kids, courtesy of Shelby Paint and Hardware, at the conclusion of the parade in Shelby City Park. Thursday, Friday and Saturday the Adventure Zone and Pirates Rebellion will be open for kids, starting at 11 a.m., at the fairgrounds. There will also be a number of 4-H events taking place and Open Class exhibits on display throughout all three days. Saturday, July 19, is the annual Marias Fair Parade on Main Street in Shelby at 11 a.m. Floats, classic cars and others will make their way down Main Street. There will be judging and prizes awarded for the best classic, best float and best business window. This years theme is Back to the 70s, Stay Groovy! Keep in mind the Shelby 2025 All Class Reunion will also be taking place Friday, July 18 through Sunday, July 20. A complete list of reunion events can be found on the Shelby Area Chamber of Commerce Facebook page and website. The decade bars are: 1940/50/60, Tap Room; 1970, Mint; 1980, Alibi; 1990, Dixie Inn; 2000, Montana Club; 2010, Matadore and 2020, Oasis. For any questions on the parades or All Class Reunion contact Shelby Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Shane Adams at (406) 434-7184. For Marias Fair related questions, or for more information visit http://www.mariasfair.com or call the fair office at (406) 434-2692. Rumors in regards to the Logan Health - Shelby Care Center (nursing home) and the Logan Health - Cut Bank hospital have been circulating the area for the past couple of weeks. Until just recently, nothing had been substantiated in regards to either facility. On Thursday, July 10, an anonymous letter was received that included a copy of the letter sent out to the families of Logan Health - Shelby Care Center residents. The second paragraph states: Our highest priority has always been to provide safe, high-quality care for our communitys seniors. After careful consideration, our Board and leadership team have made the decision to restructure the care delivery model at the care center. By August 29, 2025, we will close our Long-Term Care unit and transition to an Intermediate Swing Bed Program within our hospital. Under this model, we will operate up to 14 intermediate swing beds, as allowed by conditions of participation, to continue delivering skilled and long-term care services. The anonymous letter also included some valid concerns about people who have spent their lives in Toole County now having to move, families now having to travel to see their relatives and how this is just a tremendous loss for the community in general. A press release in regards to the Shelby Care Center was released on Friday, July 11 and can be found in its entirety below. Concerning the Logan Health - Cut Bank hospital closure rumor, the newspaper received the following statement from Chris Leopold, Senior Marketing Coordinator for Logan Health: At this time, its too early to determine what direct impact this legislation (the recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill signed into law on July 4,) will have. However, there are no immediate threats to any Logan Health facilities. Our organization remains committed to Cut Bank and the rest of our critical access communities. One of the benefits of being part of a Montana-based health system like Billings Clinic Logan Health is the ability to respond to changes in the health care landscape, while ensuring continued access to care for communities across the state no matter how rural. *Below is a press release received from Logan Health.* Logan Health Shelby announces transition of care center to intermediate swing bed unit The Board of Directors and local leadership of the Logan Health Shelby Care Center announced plans on June 26, 2025, to restructure care delivery model at the care center and transition the beds to an intermediate swing bed unit within the hospital, ensuring high-quality, sustainable care for seniors and other patients needing short-term, skilled or intermediate services. This decision follows extensive planning and consideration of the best ways to serve the regions health care needs responsibly and sustainably. Providing our communitys seniors with access to excellent care remains our highest priority, said Logan Health Shelby President Vicki Newmiller. However, we must also be good stewards of our resources to ensure we can continue offering a full range of health services in our region. The transition comes in response to the growing challenges faced by nursing homes nationwide. Between 2020 and mid-2024, more than 770 nursing homes closed across the United States due to rising costs, staffing shortages, and reimbursement rates that do not cover the actual cost of care. Montana alone lost 12 nursing homes in recent years, about 20% of its senior care facilities. By converting the care center beds to intermediate swing beds, Logan Health Shelby can continue providing skilled and intermediate nursing services, as well as rehabilitation services for patients who no longer require acute hospital care but are not able to live independently. Our swing bed unit will allow us to deliver the same compassionate, professional care, while keeping our health care services financially viable for years to come, said Newmiller. The transition is expected to be completed within 60 days following notification to state agencies. Current residents and their families will receive personalized support to ensure appropriate placement and continuity of care, whether in the swing bed unit or at another local nursing facility with available capacity. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Ayla Azim is a recent alumni from UC Berkeley who studied philosophy. Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org or follow us on X. China-ASEAN cooperation based on mutual benefit: FM spokesperson Xinhua) 10:22, July 16, 2025 BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China consistently ensures that it responds to ASEAN countries' desire to grow their economies and improve the lives of people, and their cooperation is always based on equality and mutual benefits, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. Spokesperson Lin Jian made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to a relevant query, noting that China and ASEAN countries have similar development philosophies, goals and shared interests. Recent years have seen many cooperation highlights in emerging sectors such as e-commerce and digital tech, Lin said, pointing out that China and ASEAN countries have made remarkable achievements in advancing regional economic integration and facilitating cross-border travel. "China and ASEAN have affirmed the completion of consultations on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0. The two sides are engaged in high-quality implementation of the RCEP, and expanding the common market. Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms are working with their Southeast Asian counterparts to introduce more competitive products to the market," Lin said, adding that Chinese businesses are building 5G networks, bringing fiber optics to households and enabling digital transformation in Southeast Asian countries. "With 'Lancang-Mekong visa' and the 'ASEAN visa' coming into effect, travel is being further eased between China and ASEAN countries," said Lin. Lin said that with China's well-established industrial chain in manufacturing, it has kept the global industrial and supply chains stable, cut local production and living costs and turbocharged technological advancement and industrial upgrade in China's partner countries through industrial cooperation. Noting that China has a mega-sized market, Lin said China is implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand and special initiatives to boost consumption. "The vast potential of domestic demand will be unleashed, bringing more opportunities for our neighborhood and the rest of the world," he added. At the recently concluded China-ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, ASEAN countries said they have the most dynamic and fruitful cooperation with China. "Not only is this a recognition of the cooperation, but also an echo to China's commitment to fostering an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood, the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and a vision for a shared future," Lin said, noting that China will continue to work with ASEAN countries for robust momentum for common development and prosperity. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) For years, the broadcast media have pushed the narrative that mass migration is a net benefit. Skilled migrants, we have long been told, will assimilate, strengthen our economy and drive innovation. What weve seen instead has been very different. Mass immigration has inflicted a massive strain on our public services, a surge in crime, a worsening housing crisis and led to fewer British people in work. Those who do pay their taxes are left carrying the burden of supporting those who dont. The Department for Work and Pensions yesterday released data showing 1.26million foreign nationals are claiming Universal Credit costing the British taxpayer more than 12billion per year by some calculations. Of those receiving taxpayer-funded handouts, some 740,000 are unemployed. These figures have doubled in the past three years alone. This proves theres something fundamentally wrong with our immigration system. Far too many of those we welcome into this country are not working, overstaying their visas and living off the backs of the British taxpayer. It is time to send a clear message: the UK is not a soft-touch destination. Arrive in Britain, receive a warm welcome, free housing, free public transport in parts of the country and youll face little-to-no risk of deportation. When you factor in housing, benefits, healthcare and transportation, the total cost likely runs into the tens of billions. It is no longer credible to argue that this population explosion has delivered financial benefits or strengthened our economy. On nearly every measure, Britain is weaker and poorer than it was before this influx. The UK has long been one of the worlds most welcoming nations taking in genuine refugees and providing aid where its needed. Weve opened our doors to nearly 200,000 Ukrainians since the war began, and more than 100,000 Hong Kong citizens fleeing Chinas crackdown on civil liberties. While these efforts are part of what makes Britain great, they cannot come at the expense of our own citizens. Far too many of those we welcome into this country are not working, overstaying their visas and living off the backs of the British taxpayer, writes Farage A group of migrants are ferried to Dover, Kent, on an RNLI vessel after being picked up from a small boat in the Channel The Office for National Statistics (ONS) now predicts that Britains population will reach 72.5 million by 2032 an increase of nearly a million per year. This trend has resulted in a number of unfavourable statistics: the NHS backlog for consultant-led elective care is at 7.46 million and the UK now has one of the worst hospital bed shortages of all OECD and European countries. While Labour has driven the immigration crisis to new heights, most of the blame lies with the Conservatives. Whatever promises they make now cannot be taken seriously. For years, the Tories peddled the myth that all immigration is positive because migrants work and contribute to society. Quite simply, it was a lie and they knew it yet they covered it up. The Tories will never be forgiven for what they have done to our country. They have failed on border security, failed on welfare and failed to deliver for working people. They broke Britain and it will take Reform to fix it. Under a Reform-led government, we will ban all foreign nationals from receiving benefits. If you want to live in this country, you must work, contribute to society and adhere to our culture. We cannot allow foreigners to benefit off the backs of hard-working Britons while the rest of the country suffers. Reform will introduce an immediate freeze on all immigration: illegal migrants will be deported and legal migration will pause. When it resumes, we will ensure the UK welcomes only the best and brightest the worlds top doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs in small numbers. As other countries do, we will thoroughly vet asylum seekers and other migrants and ensure that everyone coming here is willing to integrate, speak our language and respect our way of life. We will no longer allow waves of unchecked, unvetted migrants with no loyalty to Britain or its values to roam our streets freely. The fundamental duties of any government are to protect its people, improve their lives and put them first. Politicians work for the people, not the other way round. This principle has been lost. The UK can no longer be treated like a charity for the rest of the world: it is time we prioritised our people, our jobs and our culture. My pledge to you is simple: freeze immigration, stop all benefits for foreign nationals, deport foreign criminals and put the needs of the British people front and centre. Only Reform can be trusted to do this. Nigel Farage is Reform UK leader The airwaves are full of ministers and ex-ministers claiming that they take full responsibility for the 7 Billion Afghan farce. How nice. How proper. How reassuring. But in what way do they do so? Will Afghan families come and live in their houses, or even next door? Will their Parliamentary and ministerial salaries and pensions be docked to help pay the bill? Not blinking likely. Will they, like the disgraced War minister John Profumo, in 1963, go off and busy themselves with charitable works until the end of their days? You must be joking. Taking responsibility, in modern British politics, means an uncomfortable few minutes in Parliament and maybe a moderately tough interrogation on Channel 4 News. If they are former Cabinet ministers, they can then hide in comfortable obscurity. If they are prime ministers, they can go on to become extremely rich. His Majestys government opened the nations gates to thousands of Afghans because they idiotically exposed them to danger. They did this after using them in a wholly futile war, which we should never have taken part in. As if they were fornicating rock stars trying to keep their dalliances secret, HMG used our money to obtain a super-injunction to prevent this newspaper from reporting what they had done. They spent our money, to keep us in the dark. This was a vast official lie an enormous government pretence that things had not happened which had. Taliban fighters pose for a photograph in Kabul, Afghanistan As so often in this country, secrecy was not deployed to keep information from our enemies (the Taliban already knew most of what was hidden). It was enforced to keep truth from the British people, who must pay for it and endure its enormous consequences for many years to come. A stupid mistake was made to disappear, by improper use of the courts and outrageous, wrongful use of money extorted by the tax authorities from you and me, under the threat of imprisonment if we do not pay. I repeat, we paid so that our government could hide from us just how much we were paying. We pay heavily and endlessly for the lies of others. Then they lie again so we dont know this has happened. And they erect, in secret, a terrifying legal threat to ensure that nobody talks. No doubt well all be doing our tax self-assessment with extra enthusiasm this year, in tribute to this insulting ingenuity. If we did not still have free media in this country and they are alas much less free than they were 50 years ago this would just have happened in silence, forever. Why did they do it? On Tuesday, Parliaments longest-serving MP, the Tory Sir Edward Leigh, said: Part of the original sin was our intervening militarily and then scuttling out. He then asked the defence secretary, John Healey, a clever question: On a wider point, may I take it that we have learnt our lesson and have got over the liberal imperial itch of the Cameron and Blair eras to intervene militarily in ungovernable countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya? Mr Healey somehow slid past that question in his response to Sir Edward. No wonder. They have not got over it at all. Courtney Wright, aged 12, thought it would be a good idea to wear a Union Jack dress to her schools culture day but was removed from the proceedings The government, and much of the Tory Party, still itch to drag us deeper into the Ukraine war and, if possible, into Irans conflict with Israel as well. I am pretty sure that there are senior figures in politics, the military and the civil service now planning to entangle us in a shooting war against China over Taiwan. For the liberal imperial itch continues to plague a large part of our ruling class, and the only way they have found to soothe it is to apply large quantities of high explosives. If you want a lasting lesson from this episode, then here it is. Britain should stop trying to be Great and jingoistic abroad, and should instead concentrate on being Good and truly patriotic at home. Stop making craters in other countries. Fix the potholes in our own country. We ceaselessly make ourselves unhappy, poor and increasingly less British by Leftist warmongering, usually carried out from Uncle Sams jacket pocket because we cant get out there on our own. We do this in the name of patriotism. The valorous ghosts of the Second World War glory are summoned up by people such as Sir Anthony Blair and Lord Cameron. But are they as patriotic in practice as they like to claim? The more we go to war, the more politically correct we become. Despite repeated campaigns to inculcate British values, actual Britishness shrinks daily under an unending state-sponsored assault of Equality, Diversity and Multiculturalism. Our previous culture, education, laws, religion and behaviour which 60 years ago were conservative and patriotic must all be diluted or altered or even made shameful. This is done in the name of tolerance. But we dont get tolerance. We get a new intolerance, beautifully summed up this week by the treatment of poor Courtney Wright, aged 12. On Tuesday, Parliaments longest-serving MP, the Tory Sir Edward Leigh, said: Part of the original sin was our intervening militarily and then scuttling out Alas Vine & Hitchens: What's the big idea? Get the Mail's new politics podcast, hosted by columnists Sarah Vine and Peter Hitchens - wherever you listen to podcasts now. She thought it would be a good idea to wear a Union Jack dress to her schools culture day dedicated to recognising and celebrating the rich cultural diversity within our school community. Not hers, though. She was removed from the proceedings and was not allowed to deliver her speech, which was intended to celebrate those British values of fairness and politeness. Everyone is apologising now because, once again, the free media have revealed what happened. But thats only public relations. Her removal was the real policy. So untie this knot. Why is it that, while a child can be publicly humiliated for wearing our national flag to a state school, we still go to war as if we were Edwardian Britain, with the crowds cheering the troops. Why do those troops fight abroad under the flag thats denounced at home? Sir Edward is right. This policy is liberal first and imperial a bad second. So why do conservative patriots keep supporting such wars? These adventures we take part in nowadays are Left-wing. They are supposedly aimed at helping democracy take root in the Sahara or the Syrian or Iraqi deserts, or in the desolate mountains of Afghanistan. It never does. All these expeditions have failed because they were bound to. For they were aimed at forcing other people to change the way they lived, just as much as our long-ago colonial expeditions were. Perhaps the stupidest of all was the attempt to persuade Afghans to live according to the ideas of Hillary Clinton and Lady Cherie Blair. Imagine the response if the Taliban tried to impose the burqa on Essex. There was also an attempt to force Afghans to give up growing opium (which Britain grows legally on the slopes of the Chilterns) and instead cultivate mint. Who did we think we were? We were entirely off our heads. And it was this wild fantasy that led straight to this weeks wild scandal. There are plenty of medium-sized nations, which were once empires, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Spain, that have now grown out of fantasies that they are still great powers. And there are those, such as Australia, which never tried to be great powers at all, but just sought to rule themselves. They live happier, more prosperous and more harmonious lives than we do, and I suspect they do not regret it. Why not copy them? A set of humble outdoor lights have captured the hearts (and homes) of thousands of Aussies over the past few years - and it's not hard to see why. Officially boasting the highest unit sales ever on Temple & Webster, the Outdoor Festoon Lights have received more than 3,500 five-star reviews from shoppers who praised the 'flawless quality' and 'perfect shade'. Priced at either $64.99 for 10 metres or $99.99 for 20 metres, the retro lighting is an easy way to spruce up an alfresco hideaway. The spacing between the bulbs and the water-proofing ensures they work anywhere and separate sets can be joined together for additional length. For those worried about power, there's a generous 125cm of cord from the first bulb to the plug. There is no solar-powered option with these but that hasn't stopped Aussies from raving about them. 'We bought these for our yard four years ago and ended up buying eight more sets to light our wedding last year, love the warm glow and the fact that you can link them up together,' one gushed. 'These are so great - much better than those double the price from lighting stores. And I love how you can replace the bulbs individually,' another added. 'Have had these for more than two years I think. They haven't had any issues, I have moved house and they still work,' one more wrote. A set of humble outdoor lights have captured the hearts (and homes) of thousands of Aussies over the past few years - and it's not hard to see why Officially boasting the highest unit sales ever on Temple & Webster, the Outdoor Festoon Lights have received more than 3,500 five-star reviews from shoppers who praised the 'flawless quality' and 'perfect shade' The most popular items ever sold on Temple & Webster In addition to the festoon lights, there are two other items that have been flying off shelves since launching... The Metal Arched Full Mirror, $279.99 This is the website's most purchased decor item. 'It was one of the first products that showed we were starting a love affair with curves in our interiors,' Lucy Sutherland, Director of Insights and Trends, told FEMAIL. 'The mirror strikes the perfect balance between structure and personality with its sculptural shape adding drama and dimension, while the curved line breaks up hard edges. It brings a playful yet polished edge to interiors.' Montauk 3 Seater Slipcover Sofa, $799 This is the most purchased seating item ever sold on the site. 'This remains an all time favourite with our customers, and it's easy to see why,' Lucy said. 'As wellness continues to influence how we live at home, comfort has become the ultimate luxury. Montauk perfectly captures the "sanctuary" trend with its sink-in cushions, tactile fabric and relaxed shape, inviting rest and calm with a casual style. 'Its timeless shape and removable slipcover make it as practical as it is beautiful, earning its place as a true family favourite.' Advertisement Lucy Sutherland, the Director of Insights and Trends at Temple & Webster, said it's no surprise these lights are so popular as they 'bring instant atmosphere'. 'They make any outdoor space feel warm, welcoming and ready to host and as at home entertaining becomes more relaxed and spontaneous, festoon lighting offers an effortless way to set the mood,' she told FEMAIL. '[They] turn backyards, courtyards or balconies into inviting extensions of the home.' And while the lights, sofa and mirror may have stood the test of time so far, there is an entirely new wave of trends coming through that may see them de-throned... The interior trends about to sweep Australia in a HUGE way - and the fastest-rising styles buyers and designers adore Temple & Webster has analysed thousands of local shopping trends and customer preferences to highlight three key style shifts as part of its eagerly anticipated Trend Report - Spaces Reimagined. The trio leading the way? Mix & Max, Past Forward and Sumptuous Sanctuaries. Mix Max is all about colour, pattern and personality - think maximalist prints, colour clashes, nostalgia, broken 'rules', self-expression and story-telling Mix Max Mix Max is all about colour and personality - think maximalist prints, colour clashes, nostalgia, broken rules, self-expression and story-telling. Trends emerging in this space revolve around pattern - from checkerboards and florals to surrealist squiggles and bold, arty textures and shapes. Described by the team as one for the 'unapologetic individualist', this style is fantastic for those wishing to make a statement through their home. Dreamy curves: The site has seen a 286% jump in 'boucle bed' searches, particularly those with cosy curves and arches. Patterned homewares: Striped and checkered furniture sales have jumped by 23% this year as patterns takeover from minimalism as a preference for thousands. Ripples: Wavy furniture sales have increased by 29%. It's likely you've spotted plenty of mirrors and light stands with this design over the past few months - particularly in a 'soft' bedroom environment. Trends emerging in this space revolve around pattern - from checkerboards and florals to surrealist squiggles and bold, arty textures and shapes Past Forward This trend is just as it sounds - it's all about creating a space that feels warm, familiar and joyful. Cosy nostalgia and a touch of retro flair are the goals here. This is done with hints to past favourites, shapes and colours from the '70s and '80s - think deep, saturated tones, sunfaded hues, plush textures, sunken lounges, old school bar carts and an all-round moody (yet charming) vibe. Red resurgence: Sales of homewares in the shade 'merlot' have risen by 32%, highlighting the skyrocketing popularity of deep burgundy and garnets right now. Rich walnuts: Searches for 'walnut coffee table' have risen by 115% this year, with Aussies keen to bring a little vintage charm to their space. Searches are also up 95% for 'retro chocolate timber'. This trend is just as it sounds - it's all about creating a space that feels warm, familiar and joyful. Cosy nostalgia and a touch of retro flair are the goals here This is done with hints to past favourites, shapes and colours from the '70s and '80s - think deep, saturated tones, sunfaded hues, plush textures, sunken lounges, old school bar carts and an all round moody (yet charming) vibe Sumptuous Sanctuaries While it may not be an entirely new trend, this one is proof that more people than ever value the importance of a home that allows for wellness, resetting and reflection. An aura of calm is what sets this interior style apart - think sheer curtains, natural materials, sunlight nooks, quiet luxury, curved timbers and oversized, nurturing seating. When it comes to comfort factors in a 'restorative space', a survey of 1,000 Aussies between 18-74 ranked a cosy sofa as most important, followed by natural lighting, soft, calming colours, zero clutter and a cosy armchair. The latter is a priority for empty nesters. All about marble: There has been a significant 25% increase in sales of homewares made from marble and travertine (a form of limestone) since January, indicating a preference for materials that are more grounding. Swivel armchairs: Aussies cannot get enough of these soothing pieces, with searches up by a whopping 185% since January 1. As the experts say, 'swivelling is the new rocking' - and it's totally re-shaping how many relax. While it may not be an entirely new trend, this one is proof that more people than ever value the importance of a home that allows for wellness, resetting and reflection A Korean actress has been accused of 'cornering her ex-husband into fatherhood' and branded 'selfish' - after becoming pregnant through IVF processes that used his sperm 'without his consent'. Lee Si-young, 43, sparked online debate after revealing that she had become pregnant via an embryo which was fertilised five years ago - while she was still with entrepreneur Cho Seong-hyun. The pair, who already share a son - seven-year-old Jung-yoon - got married in 2017 (when she was already 14 weeks pregnant), but announced their divorce in March. But despite the couple 'mutually agreeing to part ways', they will now co-parent a second baby - despite the father 'not agreeing' with the procedure. The scandal has left Si-young in hot water with fans who have criticised her for not consulting her ex before using the embryo - taking aim at her 'extremely selfish' decision. Si-young announced the news on Instagram, in a now-deleted post, admitting she knows there 'may be many difficulties in the future' - but 'wants to believe that her choice now is more valuable'. 'Eight years ago, when I had my first child, now the most important person in my life, I was not married and filming a drama,' she wrote as per a translation via TheKTea. 'Back then, I was younger and had many shortcomings. Every time I saw Jung-yoon in my arms, I regretted and blamed myself for the time I spent with anxiety negatively. Lee Si-young, 43, sparked online debate after revealing that she had become pregnant via an embryo which was fertilised five years ago - while she was still with entrepreneur Cho Seong-hyun (both pictured) 'That's why I promised myself that if I ever got another chance, I would never regret it again. I prepared for my second child through IVF during my marriage. 'However, a long time passed without receiving the fertilised embryos, and the topic of divorce naturally came up. 'After all the legal process was sorted out, the five-year frozen embryo storage period was ending, and I had to make a choice. 'Before the disposal date, I decided to have the transplant myself.' She added: 'Although I didn't ask for consent from the the other person, I will bear the full weight of my decision.' Si-young also expressed how grateful she was for her 'angel' son, who helped her 'endure her troubled married life'. 'Right now, I am only grateful for the new life that came to me, and I am spending a more peaceful and happy time. 'I will humbly accept any criticism or advice you give me in the future.' As per the Korea Times, Seong-hyun confirmed that he will be a present parent, albeit not agreeing with the process. Si-young announced the news on Instagram, admitting she knows there 'may be many difficulties in the future' - but 'wants to believe that her choice now is more valuable' Social media was divided - as while many were supportive, others were baffled by the legal implications 'Although I opposed the second pregnancy, now that the child is coming, I will do my best as a father,' he told Dispatch. 'Lee and I have continued to communicate for the sake of our first child and we will cooperate regarding the upbringing of both children.' Social media was divided - as while many were supportive, others were baffled by the legal implications. 'Uh I feel like he was kinda cornered in this situation,' one offered. 'He couldn't really refuse to raise the child because they already have one child together and do you really think they would co-parent one child and not the other??? 'Imagine the child grew up knowing their biologically his but that he refused to parent them. Not to mention public scrutiny. 'It's their life and I try to feel empathy for everyone involved but she shouldn't have the right to unilaterally decide to have a child with his genes lol what type of world is this...' Another questioned: 'How do you manage to go through IVF without one person consenting? What the hell is he meant to do in this scenario exactly? 'Well the decision has been made. They already have one child with each other, hopefully he will love and care for the 2nd child despite not wanting it in the first place. Happy to know he's willing to be involved in the early stages already.' The couple, who were married for eight years, were both successful in their respectful industries. Si-young at a press conference in 2023 Seong-hyun, according to Bollywoodshaadis , is a well-known restauranteur, while Si-young has made a name for herself in a number of dramas, including the global hit Boys Over Flowers and most recently, Salon De Holmes. She has also starred in the Netflix series Sweet Home Elsewhere however, one suggested: 'Maybe it's a bad take but I don't really see how anything about this is wrong. 'She said she was going to raise the child alone if she had too, she didn't demand anything from the father. He decided that he wanted to step up on his own accord.' The couple, who were married for eight years, were both successful in their respectful industries. Seong-hyun, according to Bollywoodshaadis, is a well-known restauranteur, while Si-young has made a name for herself in a number of dramas, including the global hit Boys Over Flowers and most recently, Salon De Holmes. She has also starred in the Netflix series Sweet Home. The couple announced plans to divorce earlier this year. As per the Korea Times, Si-young's agency - Ace Factory - released a statement. It read: 'They have mutually agreed to part ways and are currently proceeding with the divorce process. As this is a personal matter, we ask for your understanding that we cannot respond to further inquiries.' It is not clear what the legislative conditions which permitted the IVF procedure were, or if there were other private conversations around the matter. However, according to the Bioethics and Safety Act in South Korea, a 'medical institution producing embryos intends to extract ova or spermatozoa in order to produce embryos' must contain written consent from 'the donor of the ova or spermatozoa, the person into whom an externally fertilized ovum is to be implanted and the spouse of the donor or the person to receive such implantation, if the donor or the person to receive such implantation has a spouse'. The consent is in regards to: 1. Objectives of producing embryos; 2. Preservation period of embryos, ova, or spermatozoa and other matters regarding preservation; 3. Disuse of embryos, ova, or spermatozoa; 4. Use of residual embryos or ova for the purpose of research; 5. Alteration to, or withdrawal of, consent - and finally, the 6. Protection of rights of the person with the right to consent and information about such person and other matters specified by Ministerial Decree of Health and Welfare. FEMAIL has attempted to reach out to Si-young's agency and the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare for comment. A 65-year-old British woman who says she 'doesn't fancy men her own age' has been labelled a 'sex tourist' after finding love with a younger man she met on holiday, much to the disapproval of her concerned family. Zena, 65, from Oxted, Surrey, was on holiday in The Gambia two years ago when she came across Ebrima, a waiter at her resort who is 21 years her junior. With much matchmaking taking place online in the 21st century, Zena was delighted when Ebrima pined after her with flowers, asking her out on a date. The mother-of-four starred on the programme 90 Day Fiance UK, where her love story with her now-boyfriend, Ebrima, 44, was told. 'I thought he's rather nice, he's tall, he's handsome, we've had a few dates and we've had a relationship ever since,' she said. Zena admitted that the age-gap relationship is ideal as 'I don't really fancy men my own age'. She added: 'Men in their 60s, I'm not attracted to. They're all bald and have big fat guts. They're like washed-up coleslaw. I don't fancy young men, I like an in-between.' But although Zena appears to be happy that she has finally found someone after three failed long-term relationships, her family are not convinced that Ebrima has her best intentions at heart, especially after they uncovered his secret social media profile. Since dating, Zena has bought him an iPhone, a mattress and sent him more than 1,000 for occasions such as birthdays, Christmas, and to help his struggling family. Ebrima has also asked her for 3,000 so he can set up a taxi business. Zena, 65, from Oxted, Surrey, was on holiday in The Gambia two years ago when she came across Ebrima, a waiter at her resort who is 21 years her junior She said: 'He's extremely fit and I am so attracted to him. When I put a few posts up on my social media, a lot of people said "You're just a visa vagina" or "You're just a sex tourist". No, I'm not a sex tourist because if I wanted [to have] sex in England I would, even at my age.' Zena added: 'I am a generous person and if I think someone needs money, I will give it to them because you can only keep so much for yourself.' However, her elderly mother, 95, disapproves of Ebrima, adding that she hopes the pair do not end up marrying, while Zena's granddaughter Tillie believes the fairy tale romance may all be too good to be true. 'He could have four ladies exactly like you all sending him money,' she speculated. Zena's daughter, Zoe, said: 'I don't think she's thinking straight but I hope for her sake he's going to prove us all wrong. If he does ask for money that is definitely a red flag.' Ebrima - who also appeared on the show - told Zena that he 'really, really wants to get to England' after speaking about how poorly workers are paid in his country. 'The income is very low so it is dependent on tips,' he said. 'Everyone is struggling to have English people because English people give tips. 'Zena is very good for my family. She usually helps me with money and clothes, now I don't buy clothes.' With much matchmaking taking place online in the 21st century, Zena was delighted when Ebrima pined after her with flowers, asking her out on a date Zena admitted that the age-gap relationship is ideal as 'I don't really fancy men my own age' Ebrima - who also appeared on the show - told Zena that he 'really, really wants to get to England' after speaking about how poorly workers are paid in his country Ebrima - who is a practising Muslim - has always told Zena that he does not have social media, but after her friend Lisa told her to do some digging, she was shocked to find out that she had been lied to. After Tillie found his profile on Facebook, Zena said: 'What a cheek. I'm furious really. He said he never had one.' The waiter also stated he was single on his social media account, with Tillie and Zena uncovering the heaps of scantily-clad women on his Facebook friends list. 'I feel sick, he's totally deceived me,' Zena said, adding that her intention is to confront him about the lie during her trip to The Gambia, which will be the first time she has come face-to-face with her lover in eight months. '[I'll say] "You're supposed to be a Muslim and they're not supposed to do things like that". He's always telling me "Don't wear this, don't wear that, don't drink this, don't drink that". Well I'm sure his w****s on his social media drink.' Upon arriving at the tropical country and being greeted at the airport by her younger lover, Zena was less than impressed with the hotel they were staying in, calling it 'a f***ing building site'. She said: 'I sometimes feel a bit gutted that he hasn't got anything for me. At least there's one thing he can give me that's priceless. I just want to have one good night together before I have it out with him.' But the morning after, Ebrima irritated Zena when he made her tea 'too milky' and she attempted to get the answers she desperately needed. When she asked whether he had social media, Ebrima said: 'It's been deleted for a long time. It's not there now.' But then Zena said he was 'lying' and showed him his own Facebook profile, adding: 'You've put single. Are you single?' He responded: 'It was a joke, I like joking.' Zena's granddaughter Tillie found Ebrima's social media account while packing for her trip to The Gambia Ebrima - who is a practising Muslim - has said that he wants Zena to stop drinking alcohol When confronted about his secret social media, Ebrima said he set one up 'as a joke' and claimed he only used it for a month The 65-year-old then asked why he had not accepted her friend request and said: 'I don't really think it's that funny. I'm not going to waste all my time getting over here, buying you things and buying things for your family and then, lo and behold, you're playing me. 'I don't think it's a joke because I'm taking our relationship seriously. You're going single on here, you could get other women approaching you to join you as a friend, what would you do then?' Ebrima said he was an 'entertainer' and that he would often delete friend requests from women rather than accepting them. The argument turned heated, with Zena saying: 'This isn't a f***ing joke and I'm not happy about that.' She added: 'Who does he think he is? He has trouble making conversation so I don't understand how he thinks he's an entertainer. 'He's lying straight to my face because I know he's got women on there because I've seen them.' But Ebrima maintains he was joking by setting one up and said that he only used it for around a month. In the preview for the fourth episode, Ebrima takes Zena to the house he has been building, but she is far from impressed when she sees that her bedroom barely has four walls and no roof. 'Finances were the main issue,' he said, while saying that he still needs around 2,000 to help with the cost, but Zena is reluctant to take out a loan to help out her boyfriend. The brand-new series of 90 Day Fiance UK is available to stream on Discovery+ now A woman has moved across the world to renovate a 600-year-old medieval Italian home because house prices in her hometown have 'skyrocketed'. Kiki Leigh was stunned by the local property market when she came across a tiny Italian town called Mussomeli, where historic homes were going for 'the price of a handbag'. The 28-year-old snapped up a 17-room pad for just 22,800 (27,000) - a fraction of the estimated 367,000 the property would have cost in Los Angeles, where Kiki has been living. Although the move across the world is daunting, Kiki is embracing the challenge and throwing herself into renovations. Kiki, originally from Winnipeg, Canada, said: 'It started as a bit of a wild idea. I had always seen news stories about cheap homes, but never seriously considered it. 'I'd been living in the city for years, surrounded by constant pressure to chase a version of success that didn't actually fit me. Life felt expensive, overstimulating and a little soulless. 'I experienced a lot of loss and pain and, when I finally picked my head up and really looked around, I realised I wasn't living in a way that felt true to me and I wasn't even sure why.' Kiki said that when she stumbled upon the property, she took the opportunity based on a 'gut feeling' - in search of a 'more grounded way to live'. Kiki Leigh (pictured) has moved across the world to renovate a 600-year-old medieval Italian home because house prices in her hometown have 'skyrocketed' Having looked for a home before, Kiki called the real estate prices in LA 'laughable', and said even in her home country Canada the prices had 'skyrocketed'. She said: 'I was working hard, doing well, but owning a home, let alone a dream home, always felt out of reach. 'I couldn't justify spending half a million dollars on something that didn't feel special. Then I realised that, for a fraction of that, I could own a literal piece of history. The maths just started to make sense in a way that North America never did.' At some points, Kiki was paying the equivalent of 1,830 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. She said, 'That didn't include parking or peace of mind, let alone castle views and cobblestone charm. Rent felt like a monthly punishment for staying somewhere I wasn't thriving. It wasn't sustainable long-term, financially or emotionally.' The bustling lifestyle of LA, where influencers and celebrities flock in swathes, was another reason Kiki wanted to leave. The 28-year-old snapped up a 17-room pad for just 22,800 (27,000) - a fraction of the estimated 367,000 the property would have cost in Los Angeles, where Kiki has been living Although the move across the world is daunting, Kiki is embracing the challenge and throwing herself into renovations. Pictured, the house under renovation Kiki said that when she stumbled upon the property (pictured), she took the opportunity based on a 'gut feeling' While living in the US and Canada, Kiki was at points paying the equivalent of 1,830 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. Pictured: The renovation of Kiki's 600-year-old home 'I'll be cooking more, walking more, talking to neighbours, hosting dinners instead of scrolling. My daily life will be rooted in connection, creativity and calm,' said Kiki. Pictured, a video grab showing the house Kiki bought in Italy The bustling lifestyle of LA, where influencers and celebrities flock in swathes, was another reason Kiki wanted to leave. Pictured: The renovation of Kiki's 600-year-old home 'In LA, everything felt like a rush - fast food, fast fashion, fast success,' she said. 'In Mussomeli, time feels expansive. 'I'll be cooking more, walking more, talking to neighbours, hosting dinners instead of scrolling. My daily life will be rooted in connection, creativity and calm. 'I'll still be working and creating, but from a place that nourishes me. It's not about slowing down completely, it's about being intentional.' So far, Kiki has spent 42,185 on renovations to the 600-year-old pad. She said: 'This is a historic home, the kind of place that reveals new surprises behind every wall. 'To me, this isn't just a house, it's an experience, an art project, a home base for my future and a way to live life a little differently. So, I'm more than happy with the investment.' With the money she's saving, Kiki plans to build a spa with a jacuzzi and sauna and a full bar, because she wants it to be 'a little magical'. Kiki estimates the total cost will land somewhere around 101,250 -118,140. 'I want it to feel like the ultimate home for peace and tranquility,' Kiki continued. 'A place where I can bring all my loved ones together and experience something special and rare.' So far, Kiki (pictured) has spent 42,185 on renovations to the 600-year-old pad and she estimates the total cost will land somewhere around 101,250 118,140 With the money she's saving, Kiki plans to build a spa with a jacuzzi and sauna and a full bar at the property (pictured) Once the remodel is finished, Kiki estimates she'll save 2,200 on outgoings each month. Pictured: The renovation of Kiki's 600-year-old home To add to the quirkiness, Kiki is building a library as a homage to the home's previous owner, a Sicilian scholar and professor. 'It felt only right to preserve that legacy and create a space where books, ideas and conversation are front and centre,' she said. The new homeowner now splits her time between Sicily, LA and Canada while renovations continue, but she is almost ready to move in full-time. Once the remodel is finished, she estimates she'll save 2,200 on outgoings each month. Kiki explained: 'Rent alone is already eliminated,' said Kiki. 'Groceries, utilities, dining out - everything is more affordable here. 'And I don't need to pay to escape chaos, I just step outside and I'm in a 14th-century fairytale. 'This house felt like a chance to take something forgotten and make it beautiful again. There's a kind of romance to that.' Kiki urged others to take a leap of faith in similar situations, arguing that 'life doesn't have to follow the script'. To add to the home's quirkiness, Kiki is building a library as an homage to the home's previous owner, a Sicilian scholar and professor The new homeowner now splits her time between Sicily, LA and Canada while renovations continue, but she is almost ready to move in full-time Kiki urged others to take a leap of faith in similar situations, arguing that 'life doesn't have to follow the script' For work, Kiki is continuing her career in fashion PR but plans to start a business in Italy once her home is completed She said: 'You don't need a five-year plan, a perfect timeline or anyone's permission to build a life that feels good. 'I bought an old, crumbling house in a tiny Sicilian town with no real plan beyond "this feels right" and it's led to more freedom, joy and community than I could have imagined. The life I've built here feels amazing.' For work, she is continuing her career in fashion PR, but she added: 'Once my home is completed, I plan to start a business here. 'What business exactly, I'm not entirely sure, but I have a few ideas that I'm working on. I'm just healthier mentally, physically and spiritually than I ever was in North America. 'It's truly remarkable what this town has given me, and the version of myself I've been able to return to because of this journey.' Dee Devlin has been with disgraced sports star Conor McGregor through thick and thin (both pictured left when they were young and centre, now) - from when he was a teenage nobody trying to make a name for himself, to the height of his MMA career as 'The Notorious' and now; following a string of sexual assault accusations along with humiliating photos of him kissing another woman on a Florida beach. While many likely would have left behind the Irish UFC fighter, 37, years ago, his fiancee has stood by him amid a myriad of scandals - making her support clear through social media posts. The pair have been together for 15 years and are not married - but did get engaged in August 2020 after McGregor proposed while they were celebrating his 32nd birthday. The family, with four children, enjoys a luxury lifestyle of constant getaways abroad, with Conor once known for having a 300,000 Rolls Royce and 2.6 million luxury yacht in his possessions. Although his future reputation remains unclear, Conor's net worth was in 2023 estimated to be around a staggering 160 million - with top US sports analysts once so sure of his money-making prowess, they claimed he'd become a billionaire by the time he's 35. However, despite the athlete once boasting that 'being able to take her out of work, give her everything she's ever wanted and to travel the world with her filled him with pride', Dee's unwavering loyalty has faced a lot of tests. This weekend alone, Conor couldn't keep his hands off of a mystery brunette woman on a busy Florida beach over the weekend (right inset) as they were pictured kissing - with the photos coming on the heels of rapper Azealia Banks accusing him of sexual harassment. Right, Conor and Dee with their children. Left inset, Dee leaving court with Conor in November. A Chemist Warehouse employee has revealed a 'must-have' $10.50 item that's nearly identical to a high-end version that costs $515. Jess, a retail manager from Melbourne, claimed Gem Skin-Loving Deodorant in Santal 'smells just like' Le Labo Santal 33 - a designer fragrance that costs nearly 49 times more for a 100mL bottle. She claimed that both scents share similar fragrance notes, including sandalwood. The personal hygiene range has landed in Chemist Warehouse stores, featuring five scents: Coconut Vanilla, Salted Caramel & Vanilla, Santal, Roasted Almond & Toffee and Vanilla Macadamia. Staying true to the brand's 'skin-loving' focus, the antiperspirant sprays are formulated with nourishing ingredients like hyaluronic acid, vitamin E and shea butter. 'I've never bought something so fast,' Jess said in her video. Sharing her thoughts on the scents, she said: 'I was pleasantly shocked - so delicious.' The Chemist Warehouse worker described the new Roast Almond & Toffee formula smelling like a 'warm, almond coffee - topped with burnt butter toffee'. Chemist Warehouse employee Jess has revealed the 'must-have' $10.50 Gem Skin-Loving Deodorant in Santal that's almost identical to Le Labo Santal 33 - a fragrance that costs $515 The Skin-Loving Deodorants have been popular among shoppers since launching last year - and has been flying off the shelves at Chemist Warehouse in recent weeks. 'Love, love, love the Santal,' one customer said. 'Love this! Smells amazing and lasts all day,' another raved. 'Great smell and actually works very well,' one added. 'I gasped,' one customer said the moment she spotted the deodorants at Chemist Warehouse, to which Jess replied, 'I didn't think they could get any better.' The retail manager announced the news about the new launch of Gem Deodorant sprays Georgia Geminder, founder of Gem, said she was excited to see her brand on the shelves of the popular chemist chain. 'Customers can't get enough of our Skin-Loving formulations, designed to moisturise and protect skin,' she told FEMAIL. 'Most importantly, our hard-working antiperspirants work to protect against sweat and odour for 48-hours. 'Since day one, customers have always been the lifeblood of our business. We know our customers are shopping for multiple fragrances, building a fragrance wardrobe; we have a really exciting portfolio that is ready to answer that call.' She added: 'We will continue to partner with Chemist Warehouse to bring exclusive fragrances and formats to Australian customers nationwide.' A pregnant woman has come under fire online after choosing a very unusual name for her unborn baby - as some people warn her child will endure 'hell' at school. The bizarre moniker was revealed in a now-viral Reddit post by the expectant mother's cousin, from the US, who admitted they were completely baffled and felt compelled to share the name choice with the world. Originally the mother had planned to call her baby girl Serena, but at the last minute done a U-turn and choose 'Vaselinea'. The women sent her cousin a picture of a tube of the petroleum jelly Vaseline and asked 'like this thing?' To which the mother-to-be replied: 'Yes, I wanted the nia sound at the end. Pronounced like Vah-suh-lee-nia.' The cousin captioned the post, which racked up over 22,000 likes: 'One of my older cousins sent this to meI'm sorry but Vaselinea?? 'Is Vaselinea a tragedeigh? How do I convince her to go back to choosing the name Serena?' People online wasted no time in voicing their opinions - which were scathing to say the least. A pregnant woman has come under fire on Reddit after choosing a very unusual name for her unborn baby- with some people saying 'school will be hell' Many begged the cousin to step in and convince the expectant mother to reconsider, warning that little Vasalinea could face years of bullying and embarrassment. One person said: 'Well, at least petroleum jelly is a completely innocent and innocuous product with nothing but robust moisture sealing applications, so you know, what's the worst that could happen? High school is gonna be real rough.' Another added: 'For the love of everything please show her the subreddit. Even if it hurts her it will show her how idiotic that decision is about to be. 'Is the dude [referring to the father] an idiot too? Like there is no way this decision gets the green light by both parties.' Another added: 'The moment my cousins started having kids we had this conversation before the kid was born. I wasn't going to have a family member end up getting bullied because their parents gave them a 'unique name'.' A fourth person discussed the ways in which Vaseline can be used in sex - which would open up the child to ridicule in later life. Another quipped: 'The pronunciation sent me! Yes, it's spelled like Vaseline with 'a' on the end, but it's pronounced like Vaseline with 'ai' on the end.' The original poster added: 'I also tried suggesting a name like Sonia since she wanted a 'nia' sound at the end but according to her its not elegant sounding enough and she needs a name that will stick with someone when they hear it.' It comes after an unsuspecting woman's decision to name her firstborn 'Jobie' has left Scots in hysterics as they pointed out the word's unfortunate slang meaning. Last week, Laura Rogers, believed to be from the UK, shared a sweet video of her newborn on TikTok while announcing her son had been christened Jobie. 'Oh Jobie, mummy loves you so much,' the gushing mother captioned her clip. She later shared her son's 'first outfits of the week' - with both videos racking up over 520,000 views at the time of writing. A majority of these came from TikTok users based in Scotland who couldn't understand why Laura had picked the name considering that 'jobbie' is slang for faeces or a 'piece of excrement' in response to the viral video. 'So, somebody's named their kid "Jobie" and if you're Scottish, you'll know exactly what a jobbie is,' a woman from Scotland, @rachdeex on TikTok, reacted to Laura's name reveal video. She added: 'I wasn't sure whether or not to comment and say that 'you do know that a 'jobbie' is a poo.' The woman could also be overheard asking a toddler whether they knew what a 'jobbie' meant before the two-year-old confirmed it was, indeed, 'a poo-poo'. The search for 'baby jobie' on TikTok returns multiple reaction videos from baffled Scots who can't understand why the name is trending in 2025. 'POV: you've woken up this morning to people calling their babies Jobie in 2025. Scottish descend,' one user, who goes by @viennicevero, captioned her post. Another Scottish woman, Laura, said it was 'a bloody shame' that the baby name 'Jobie' was gaining in popularity. She also claimed that the English woman, who went viral for her original post, was 'deleting' comments about the origins of the word. 'A jobbie in Scotland is a shite,' she explained. 'There obviously has been loads of Scottish people commenting on her post to say "By the way, I don't know if you've got time to change your baby's name but jobbie actually means shite." 'And she's been deleting all the comments,' she continued. 'The wee boy is absolutely beautiful, he just does not deserve a name like Jobie.' In response, some suggested it was fair for Laura to delete any hateful comments about her son's name since she is a 'young mom who doesn't need any criticism' at this stage in her life. Still another Scottish TikToker suggested they were just trying to be helpful by letting the new mum know her son's name has a double-meaning in their part of the world, adding there was no ill intent. Several people, however, defended the British woman's decision to name her son 'Jobie' because the word means 'nothing outside of Scotland'. 'Ignore all the bored Scottish people giving you flack about his name,' one TikTok commented on the first-time mother's video. 'It's lovely. 'If you're not Scottish or living there, who gives a f,' they continued. 'He's beautiful.' 'Literally no one cares, it's not even pronounced like that,' another person said. A school teacher in England also weighed in on the debate taking TikTok by storm as she declared: 'The word "jobbie" means nothing outside of Scotland. 'I work in a Catholic school in England and have taught three Jobes. 'Literally not a single kid has made fun of it because that word means nothing here.' Some TikTokers pointed out that the newborn's name was pronounced 'joe-bee' and not 'jobby or jobbie' like it would be in Scotland, implying the baby's name doesn't really translate to its slang meaning. Leonor's mother Queen Letizia beamed with pride as she watched the ceremony Princess Leonor of Spain received the Navy Merit Grand Cross and a warm hug from her proud father King Felipe at Flag Pledge Ceremony today. The future queen, 19, attended the solemn Flag Pledge (Jura de Bandera) and delivery of Dispatches of Employment ceremony at the prestigious Naval Military Academy in Marin, Pontevedra, Spain. In a poignant moment symbolising her growing role within the Spanish monarchy, Leonor received the honour from the hands of her father. The award acknowledges her commitment and connection to Spains armed forces and marks a significant milestone in her royal journey. The Navy Merit Grand Cross is a high-level military decoration awarded for distinguished service within the Navy. Leonor's mother Queen Letizia and younger sister Princess Sofia beamed as they proudly watching the ceremony. Leonor looked graceful and poised as she proudly donned the crisp white uniform, donning a shirt with epaulettes, which she tucked into a pair of belted smart trousers. Leonor wore her long dark blonde tresses in a practical sleek braided low bun, which sat elegantly below her sailor cap. Princess Leonor of Spain received the Navy Merit Grand Cross and a warm hug from her proud father King Felipe at Flag Pledge Ceremony today She was seen marching alongside her fellow aspiring officers keeping a stern expression and the level of professionalism one would expect from a marine. The princess spent a year with the Spanish army before training to be a marine and will then move onto her final rotation at the General Air Academy. As she is the heir to the throne, Leonor will one day take the title of Commander in Chief of the armed forces, alongside being the Queen of Spain. She therefore has to spend three years in each section of defence and has already spent a year at the General Military Academy of Zaragoza. At the start of the year, Leonor set sail from Cadiz, Spain, for her navy training cruise. Felipe and Letizia watched proudly she took part in a departure ceremony before setting sail from Cadiz. The Princess is following in the footsteps of her father King Felipe as well as her grandfather Juan Carlos, who all attended military training with every of the three armed services in the country. Navy Captain Pedro Cardona Suanzes, director-commandant of the Naval Military School in Marin, previously described the daily routine of the midshipmen to the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia. The future queen, 19, attended the solemn Flag Pledge (Jura de Bandera) and delivery of Dispatches of Employment ceremony at the prestigious Naval Military Academy in Marin, Pontevedra, Spain She looked as regal as she proudly donned the crisp white uniform, donning a shirt with epaulettes, which she tucked into a pair of belted smart trousers In a poignant moment symbolising her growing role within the Spanish monarchy, Leonor received the honour from the hands of her father Princess Leonor marching at the Flag Pledge (Jura de Bandera and delivery of Dispatches of employment) Leonor wore her long dark blonde tresses in a practical sleek braided low bun, which sat elegantly below her sailor cap He said that their life is 'non-stop' adding that there are constant tasks for them to do, from the minute they wake up until they go to bed in the evening. The captain said the day starts at 6.45am. They then shower, make their beds and go and get breakfast all before 7.30am - when their white uniforms are inspected to be 'spotless'. During the week, all students must be in bed before 10.45pm to ensure they get their full eight hours of sleep. On weekends, pupils are allowed to wake up two hours later than usual, at 8.45am and first-years are allowed to stay up until 1.30am in the morning. Before she started her three-year training, Leonor revealed her enthusiasm for becoming a cadet at the Princesa de Girona Foundation award ceremony in Girona last year. She said at the time: 'I have just finished high school and I am about to start a new stage with a period of military training. 'I am happy because I know how much the Spanish value our armed forces... it is an important moment in my life and I feel very excited and determined to continue learning and giving my best effort.' Princess Sofia beamed as she hugged her sister Leonor after the ceremony Queen Letizia (centre), Princess Sofia (right), and Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles (left) attend the delivery of the royal dispatch to the new officers of the Navy Academy of Marin Spanish King Felipe, Queen Letizia, Princess Sofia, and Galicia's regional president Alfonso Rueda This is the adorable moment Queen Letizia and Princess of Leonor threw royal protocol to the wind as they were reunited after months apart And their moving reunion was made all the more special - as this weekend Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain It comes after another adorable moment Queen Letizia and Princess of Leonor throw royal protocol to the wind as they were reunited after months apart. The Spanish royals were reunited at the Port of Fuerte Amador in Panama City in May, after Letizia flew more than 8,000 miles across the globe to see her beloved daughter. Princess Leonor had been away from her family and friends as she embarks on a navy training course around the world. She and her mother Letizia had not seen each other since January, when she set sail aboard the Juan Sebastian de Elcano. Moving video footage from the Spanish Royal Household captured the moment they were finally reunited, with Leonor running across the port to greet her mother. She was soon embraced in an effusive hug that was so powerful that Leonor had to take her hat off, while the Queen had tears in her eyes. They were then pictured excitedly catching up, as Leonor, who previously graduated from UWC Atlantic in South Wales, has been on a whirlwind adventure. Letizia's visit to Panama was an unofficial trip, sources at Zarzuela Palace told Spain's Hola! Magazine. And their moving reunion was made all the more special - as this weekend Mother's Day is celebrated in Spain. While Leonor was smartly kitted out in her naval uniform, her mother had chosen to wear matching shades of white in casual jeans, T-shirt and white trainers. For the Crown Princess's training cruise, she is sailing through two oceans, and visiting 10 ports and eight countries in America, according to La Vanguardia. She will stay in her stopover in Panama until May 6, where she's been enjoying exploring. The Princess of Asturias, as she is also known, participated in a visit to Panama Viejo, took a short walk to the Cathedral Tower and visited several rooms of the Museum (of Panama Viejo), which has a commemorative plaque of the visit of His Majesty the King 2019. Her Royal Highness and the Queen participated in the reception on board that traditionally takes place and had lunch at the El Nacional restaurant in the old town in Panama. Leonor has so far been to Peru, Chile, Brazil and Uruguay. She is soon due to pass through Colombia and the Dominican Republic, before concluding her journey in New York. The 19-year-old has been serving on the 'Juan Sebastian de Elcano' as a first midshipman. Letizia's welcome marked the first visit the heir to the throne has received from family and loved ones since she set sail on January 11, when she set sail in Cadiz. Meanwhile, her parents smiled and waved goodbye, while King Felipe documented the milestone by snapping photographs of Leonor. An expert has warned dog owners they should be cautious when taking their pets for walks and swims. Following the recent warm weather, and heavy rains forecast to follow this week, blue-green algae, which can bloom as a result of mixed weather, has sprung up in lakes and ponds in popular walking spots. Dog walkers should remain alert and keep an eye out for the algae, as it can be dangerous for animals. Among the areas affected by the blue-green algae are bodies of water in parts of Cumbria and Lancashire, Llandrindod Lake in Wales, and Loch Watten in Scotland. Simon Crawshaw, dog nutrition expert at dog food supplier Hilltop Pet Food, told the Mirror: 'At this time of year, it's really common for certain bodies of water to become less safe, especially after a warm spell followed by rain. 'Most owners just want to do the right thing for their dogs.' He added that people should make sure they know what the algae looks like, and what signs they should look out for, to ensure they can enjoy Summer walks, while still staying safe. 'You don't need to stop enjoying the outdoors,' Simon said. Dog owners should be wary of blue-green algae which can bloom in bodies of water, and which is potentially fatal to the animals (stock image) 'It's just about staying informed and making small decisions that keep your dog safe. A bit of extra caution goes a long way.' Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, is a group of bacteria that can contain dangerous toxins harmful and potentially fatal to pets, livestock and birds even if ingested even in small quantities. The algae can appear as a film, or greenish scum, on the surface of water, or it may make water appear cloudy. When ingested by dogs, even if they only consume a small amount, it can make the animals extremely ill - or even be fatal. Canines can come into contact with the toxins in the algae by either drinking affected water, or licking it off their fur after swimming in it. Speaking previously about the algae, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) urged pet owners to watch out for the algae near freshwater bodies, warning that there is no known antidote. British Veterinary Association President Malcolm Morley said: 'Toxic blue-green algae is very difficult to identify and, if ingested, can make dogs seriously unwell and can even be fatal. 'We're urging pet owners to keep their dogs on leads near water bodies where blue-green algae has been confirmed or, if unsure if a water body is safe, to keep them away from it completely. Sometimes, local councils or environmental agencies will put up warning signs near affected areas 'There is no known antidote for the toxins and prompt treatment is critical to help give a chance of recovery. 'Symptoms can appear within a few minutes or hours of exposure, and commonly include vomiting, diarrhoea, drooling, disorientation, trouble breathing, seizures, and blood in faeces. 'If you have any concerns or are worried your pet may have had contact with blue-green algae, speak to your vet as soon as you can.' People can try to find out if there is algae in their walking spot by checking for warnings, which are sometimes posted by councils and environmental agencies near affected areas. If an animal comes into contact into blue-green algae, they should be rinsed off immediately, and treatment instantly sought. It can also affect humans, who should also rinse off themselves off instantly if they come into contact with the growth - before seeking medical attention. Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have finally addressed the state of their marriage - after months of speculation that the couple's relationship is on the rocks. The former President of the United States, 63, was a guest on his wife's podcast IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, with the pair wasting no time in addressing the rumors of their separation. 'What, you guys like each other?' Robinson joked, before Michelle replied: 'Oh yeah, the rumor mill.' 'She took me back!' Obama light-heartedly chimed in, adding: 'It was touch and go for awhile.' The former first lady added that it is nice to be in the same room as her husband, sassily telling her brother: 'When we aren't, folks think we're divorced.' Michelle then made a heartfelt admission about her relationship with her husband of almost 33 years. 'There hasn't been one moment in our marriage where I thought about quitting my man,' she said passionately. She continued: 'And we've had some really hard times. So we had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures, and I have become a better person because of the man I'm married to.' The former President of the United States, 63, was a guest on his wife's podcast IMO, which she co-hosts with her brother Craig Robinson, with the pair wasting no time in addressing the rumors of their separation Robinson admitted he had been asked about his sister's marriage, recalling an interaction with a fan who asked for a photo in Wichita, Kansas. 'This woman came up to me and she was so nice, she's like, can I have a picture?' he recalled. 'You know how you get the side hug, and she's like "what did he do?"' he told the couple, with Robinson jokingly replying: 'What make you think he messed up?' Obama admitted he misses a lot of the speculation, and he was largely unaware of what people were saying. 'These are the kinds of things that I just miss, right? So I don't even know this stuff's going on. And then somebody will mention it to me and I'm all like, "what are you talking about?"' he said incredulously. The Obamas have been married for almost 33 years and share daughters, Malia, 26, and Sasha, 24. Over the past few months they have faced ongoing rumors about their marriage status. The rumor mill swirled after her decision to skip both Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Donald Trump's inauguration - with Michelle insisting they were decisions she made for herself. Her absence at the high-profile political events stoked divorce rumors, as did President Obama's admission in April that he was in a 'deep deficit' with his wife. Robinson admitted he had been asked about his sister's marriage, recalling an interaction with a fan who asked for a photo in Wichita, Kansas Michelle then made a heartfelt admission about her relationship with her husband of almost 33 years, saying there hasn't been 'one moment' in their marriage where she thought about quitting Michelle and Barack Obama are pictured together on their wedding day in October 1992 Michelle and Barack have been married for almost 33 years but have faced ongoing rumors about their marriage status over the last several months. The couple are pictured with their daughters Malia and Sasha Michelle (pictured with Barack in a photo he shared in February) dismissed speculation about her marriage and addressed the rumors head on during a podcast episode of The Diary of a CEO in May The rumor mill swirled after her decision to skip both Jimmy Carter's funeral and President Donald Trump's inauguration - with Michelle insisting they were decisions she made for herself 'This is like 50 term papers. I mean, it just goes on forever,' he said while addressing Hamilton College students in April. 'I'm hoping to get to the finish line on that.' 'Beyond that, look, I was in a deep deficit with my wife, so I have been trying to dig myself out of that hole by doing occasionally fun things,' the former Democratic president admitted. In May, Michelle set the record straight during a podcast with entrepreneur and investor Steven Bartlett following speculation over the former first couple's recent public appearances 'If I were having problems with my husband, everybody would know about it,' she told the host, laughing. She added that she's 'not a martyr' and joked about how she would address such marital strife publicly. Last week, Michelle made a frank admission about life at home with husband after spending months dodging divorce rumors. The mom-of-two shared the insight about being an empty nester with a husband who is no longer serving as the President of the United States on Wednesday's episode of her podcast, IMO, which she hosts with older brother Craig Robinson. 'I mean at this stage in life for me, personally, is the first time I've been completely free,' the mother-of-two told guest Julia Louis-Dreyfus. 'There's been a release where every choice I make is not about my husband, not about his career, not about my family, not about what my kids need or where they're going, it's totally about me,' she admitted, quipping: 'This is when we start living ladies.' Back in the day, it seemed anyone who was anyone wore them: those T-shirts which declared in large letters across the chest: 'This is what a feminist looks like.' The actor Benedict Cumberbatch showed his off, as did politicians Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman. I did, too, back in 2014, as I was the president of The Fawcett Society an organisation that has long campaigned for greater equality between women and men. It was such a simple, yet powerful message, that both men and women of all political shades could be proud of being feminists. Just over a decade on, though, I doubt anyone would wear such a slogan. The word 'feminist' has been poisoned by the phenomenal power of trans activists. Indeed, I believe we've lived through the worst years ever for those feminists who, like me, have held fast to the belief that women's welfare must always be the priority. To my mind, the rot set in around 2012, when Maria Miller became Minister for Women and Equalities under the Tory/Lib Dem coalition. Since then, women have slid down the political agenda in favour of biological males who identify as women. I remember interviewing Miller on Woman's Hour and being shocked when she told me her primary concern was for the trans community who, she said, had told her they suffered terrible discrimination. I challenged her, pointing out that a Minister for Women should have more responsibility for women than for trans women. She ignored me. Those of us who refused to accept trans women were women suffered a great deal back then. And any woman who agreed with me was disparagingly dubbed 'TERF' a trans exclusionary radical feminist. I received worse than just this label, though. An article on the issue that I wrote in The Sunday Times in 2017 saw me threatened with rape and murder on social media. Trans women, I said, deserved respect and consideration but must not see themselves as women with the right to be welcomed into single-sex spaces or be housed in women's prisons if they committed a crime. Harriet Harman wears a shirt reading 'this is what a feminist looks like' - also sported in the past by Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg Jenni Murray believes women have slid down the political agenda in favour of biological males who identify as women since Maria Miller (pictured_ became Minister for Women and Equalities in 2012 My perfectly reasonable views not only brought me those horrifying threats, but the BBC declared I must not be allowed to discuss the issue on Woman's Hour. And when my alma mater, Hull University, wanted to name a lecture theatre after me, the noisy trans activists tried to stop it. All this kind of intimidation is still happening despite the ruling from the Supreme Court that the legal definition of a woman within the Equality Act should be based on biological sex. But now it appears that the latest clever, outspoken woman who is suffering for her feminism is Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, the Prime Minister's choice to lead the Equality and Human Rights Commission when Baroness Falkner ends her term in November. Mary-Ann was director of The Fawcett Society in the mid-2000s when I was appointed president. She went on to become director of the Women's Budget Group a feminist think-tank that provides evidence for the benefits of a gender-equal economy. And as well as working on equality and human rights issues for three decades, she holds a PhD in equality law. You'd imagine that, as she appears to be perfectly qualified to lead the equality watchdog, the suggestion of her appointment would be met with praise. But enter the trans activist, and Mary-Ann's commitment to feminism is called into question. Should she head the watchdog, they ask, when she has been open about her concerns for women whose careers were damaged by what are known as 'gender-critical' views? As far back as 2015, she co-signed a letter to The Guardian decrying 'the worrying pattern of intimidation and silencing of individuals whose views are deemed transphobic'. Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson (pictured) is Sir Keir Starmer's choice to lead the Equality and Human Rights Commission when Baroness Falkner ends her term in November She also donated to the legal fund of Allison Bailey, a barrister who took her chambers to court when they asked her to remove two 'gender-critical' tweets. Trans activists have clearly been successful at lobbying the Lords and Commons' equalities committees, as they challenged her decision to sign the letter to The Guardian. They had, they said, received hundreds of emails and letters from transgender people with concerns about her appointment. Mary-Ann defended her statements because, she said, she was opposed to 'attempts to close down debate'. She said her 25 donation to Allison Bailey's legal fund 'was very specifically because I was upset at seeing women being harassed or sacked from their jobs for peaceful expression of legally protected beliefs'. Those two committees who've been so influenced by the trans lobby have only an advisory role. It will be Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, who will make the final decision. Surely ministers will not allow the transgender rights groups to stop her getting the job? She must not be silenced. Mary-Ann is a woman who knows what needs to be said in support of women who've had to beg for their safe places. Biology trumps gender. The Supreme Court said so. It must be repeated over and over until it sinks in and we don't have to worry any more about being bullied for our beliefs. Hands off our Bayeux tapestry! The Bayeux tapestry should not be coming here 'on loan' from the French. It's not theirs. It's ours, exquisitely stitched by hard-working English women, telling the story of the Battle of Hastings with lots of humour. William the Conqueror features, obviously, but why has France held on to him as a truly French conquering hero? His ancestors were actually Viking invaders of Normandy. Maybe invasion runs in families... The Bayeux tapestry was exquisitely stitched, likely by hard-working English women, to recount the story of the Battle of Hastings Top of a recent list of all-time favourite toys are Lego and Rubik's Cubes. Not my favourites, though. I've stood on far too many Lego pieces in bare feet and the Cube defeated me completely. Sons one and two both did it in a flash. Children are the real victims Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd has received texts from his girls 15 and 11 years old begging for money as they're about to become homeless. He says he is releasing the disturbing messages to show the children are being involved in his ex-wife Alice Evans' 'false and manufactured claim' that she is in financial crisis as he had been paying child support. Frankly, I think both parents are a disgrace. Marriages end and there's grief, but it's up to the adults not their poor children to sort things out. Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd pictured with wife Bianca Wallace. He has two children with ex-wife Alice Evans Smutty Gregg needs to grow up I remember Gregg Wallace when he and his late pal Charlie Hicks, a keen advocate for the home-grown produce industry, came on Radio 4 to talk fruit and veg. There was lots of barrow-boy bonhomie, but nothing too offensive. Gregg's wrong to say, in the light of his disgrace, that working class guys no longer have a place in broadcasting. Of course they do but only if they've grown up enough to know women tend not to like smut with their apples and pears. Food influencer Asia - who goes by @thefoodieb**ch on Instagram - is used to giving her opinions on different restaurants - the food, the ambiance, the service. But what she hasn't experienced is an employee from the restaurant giving their opinion back - until now. In an Instagram Reel that has garnered more than 86,000 views and almost 3,000 comments, Asia talks about her experience at Etra in East Hollywood. In this video, which she shared with her 30,000 followers, the 27-year-old introduces a new rubric she would be using going forward for restaurants: vibe (or atmosphere), price, staff, and food. She gave the vibe a 5/5 (she credits the inclusion of a purse hook), the price a 2/5 (she paid $32 for an 'appetizer'), the food a 3/5, and the staff a 4/5. Asia mentioned that she staff were the reason she tried what she called a 'f**king delicious' Branzino. 'This is why staff is important,' she said in the video. 'Staff should know what's actually good on the f**king menu. The owner was a little weird but the staff was nice and knowledgeable.' Food influencer Asia - who goes by @thefoodieb**ch on Instagram - is used to giving her opinions on different restaurants - the food, the ambiance, the service In an Instagram Reel that has garnered more than 86,000 views and almost 3,000 comments, Asia talks about her experience at Etra in East Hollywood The server Asia had commented on the video, asking the influencer why she had left a 'bad tip' But it seems as though the great service from the staff didn't warrant an equally great tip. The alleged server from the restaurant left a comment on Asia's Instagram calling her out for the tip she left. 'Hey Asia! Respectfully, I'm wondering what was missing for you service wise? You had some kind words for us as a staff here, but you left us a really bad tip,' she said, followed by a sad-face emoji. Asia then responded, 'Hi! Respectfully it's difficult for me to justify a 20-30 percent tip on top of the overpriced food. 'I believe I left 15 percent though next time I'll have to decide between a glass of wine or a heftier tip!' The server then went on to reply that while she understood the difficult economy, servers and other people in the kitchen relied on tips for their livelihoods. She also mentioned that while diners will pay any price for a meal, they'll typically cut corners while tipping - and that the influencer actually tipped less than 15 percent. And while the two continued to have pretty civil discourse about what is 'acceptable' for tipping, other fans in the comment were quick to share their own thoughts. Asia rated the staff a 4/5 and credited them for pushing her to try the Branzino which she called 'f**king delicious' Asia mentioned the food was overpriced and later mentioned this was part of the reason she didn't tip as much Some defended the server, and said that the influencer was in the wrong for 'trying to save a few bucks' in regard to the tip. 'They are trying to pay their rent, cover food costs, pay staff a living wage, jump through impossible regulatory hoops, etc,' one Instagram user commented. 'We're all just trying to survive in this capitalist hellhole of a country, don't take it out on small restaurant owners and staff by leaving unfair reviews and s**tty tips.' 'A really insane vibe to be such a harsh critic of small owned businesses and also being a bad tipper,' another user said. One user even commented: 'If you can't afford to tip, don't go out to eat.' But other fans pointed out that absurdity of the server publicly commenting on Asia's video. 'This should have been a DM, no way you trying to embarrass her over 15 percent. Get a grip,' one person replied to the server's original comment. 'No way a waiter is in your comments guilting you for leaving 15 percent what kind of dystopia is East Hollywood,' another chimed in. Other users mirrored the same sentiments, saying that tip culture was 'getting out of hand.' But despite all the comments rolling in in her defense, Asia finally left another comment on her own video saying, 'Officially been bullied into 20 percent tip minimum thank you everyone for your service.' Travelers are being urged to double-check what is in their luggage after the TSA reminded fliers that tools longer than seven inches are strictly banned from carry-ons. The little-known rule is aimed at keeping passengers safe while on board. The security administration cheekily called out 'airport dads' who try to bring screwdrivers, wrenches and other DIY equipment through security. 'Your tool might be handy, but if it's over seven inches, it's too plane big to carry on. 'It's better off in checked bags,' the official TSA account on X (formerly Twitter) shared. However, it reiterated that you are still allowed to travel with tools - but only in checked bags. The TSA also revealed a helpline to advise on tool length before adding: 'Nobody likes a wrench in their plans.' The travel agency has also shared a list of other banned items in recent weeks. Travelers are being urged to double-check what is in their luggage after the TSA reminded fliers that tools longer than seven inches are strictly banned from carry-ons The little-known rule is aimed at keeping passengers safe while on board (stock image) The security administration recently posted a stern note to Facebook after the team at Pensacola International Airport in Florida stopped a man from taking a camping stove - complete with a propane tank - onto the plane. 'Listen, friends, we love watching cooking shows as much as you do, but any top chef has to know that you cannot bring a stove with a propane tank attached through airport security in your carry-on bag,' the post began. 'This one was hard to miss, but great job by our team at Pensacola International Airport (PNS) for discovering this during standard checkpoint screening on Monday, and educating the passenger on the regulations we have around prohibited items. 'The passenger said he was unaware that stoves and propane tanks couldn't be carried on a plane, so let this be a learning moment for everyone propane tanks cannot and do not belong in either your carry-on or checked bags. 'Camp stoves can be carried on, but *only* if they're empty of all fuel and fully cleaned so no fuel vapors or residue remains.' The security administration cheekily called out 'airport dads' who try to bring screwdrivers, wrenches and other DIY equipment through security (stock image) The security administration also revealed all the rules about taking food and drinks on board. In another tweet, the TSA included a link to a list. Each item was listed alongside the corresponding guidelines, as well as whether they were allowed in carry-on or checked baggage. It addressed a whole host of items - from alcohol and pizza to breast milk and live lobster. Baby formula and breast milk, for example, are allowed in a checked bag, but there are a few extra steps to bring them directly on the plane. Bottled water is allowed in checked bags, but only 3.4 ounces or less is permitted in a carry-on. Lauren Sanchez is famous for her flashy jewels, but some fans are in an uproar over her latest sparkler - they think it might be so poorly made that she could easily lose her pricey bauble. The 55-year-old former journalist showed off her first envy-inducing diamond ring back in 2023, after her now-husband Jeff Bezos proposed aboard his $500 million superyacht, Koru. While it's quite sizable, the Amazon founder, 61, hid the ring underneath her pillow after they had a romantic dinner outside to pop the question. The original bling is estimated to be about 30 carats and has been valued between $3 and $5 million. Sanchez revealed in an interview with Vogue that the center stone is a rare pink diamond with a rose tone. However, Sanchez was quick to upgrade her multimillion dollar engagement ring for her actual wedding. During her over-the-top wedding week in Venice, Italy, Sanchez showed off a new dazzler that jewelers previously told the Daily Mail they believe is worth between a mindboggling $1.5 million and $5 million, which is just a drop in the bucket for the billionaire. While the ring surely impressed their slew of celebrity wedding guests, on social media, people quickly called out the design for seemingly being too delicate to support the massive diamond. Now, insiders are exclusively revealing to the Daily Mail whether the oversized diamond from jeweler to the stars Lorraine Schwartz will hold up, or if it's at risk of being lost during Sanchez's next space or yacht excursion. Lauren Sanchez is famous for her flashy jewels, but some fans are in an uproar over her wedding ring (pictured) and think it might be so poorly made that she could lose her pricey bauble Sanchez (pictured) was quick to upgrade her multimillion dollar engagement ring for her actual wedding to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in Venice this June Deena Bassam, the owner of Deena Diamond Designs, shared a viral TikTok declaring, 'A band that thin with a diamond that size... It's an accident waiting to happen,' including a closeup of the jewel. Bassam went on to say in the caption, 'I'm scared.' The Dallas-based jewelry designer explained that 'Your ring should not only fit your aesthetic preferences but also suite your lifestyle.' Sanchez is famously busy, often traveling the world with Bezos on his boat and even venturing to space on his star-studded Blue Origin flight alongside singer Katy Perry. Bassam exclusively told the Daily Mail that she tells her own clients, 'There is no piece of jewelry that is made of precious metals and diamonds or gemstone that is indestructible, no matter how well crafted it is.' When Bassam crafts pieces she always gives 'honest, upfront advice on potential risks' as well as suggesting less risky options for particularly delicate designs. Bassam's commenters were quick to voice their concerns on social media, with many appalled by the sheer size of the diamond and its seemingly wildly delicate band. Many thought the ring could be structurally weakened because of all of the smaller diamonds, putting it at even greater risk. However, it's likely Sanchez doesn't partake in the activities of plebeians, like packing luggage or washing dishes, where she could easily lose a gem. 'They're filthy rich and I'm sure it's insured. If it pops out, she'll get another,' one person mused. 'With their money, it literally doesn't matter if it breaks in like a month and she loses it,' another commenter wrote, as Bezos is said to be worth an estimated $238.8 billion. Deena Bassam, the owner of Deena Diamond Designs, shared a viral TikTok declaring, 'A band that thin with a diamond that size... It's an accident waiting to happen' Gemologist Olivia Landau told the Daily Mail that it's 'typically not recommended to set a diamond (especially in that large of a size) in a band that thin.' 'If the band is too thin... the pave diamonds are more likely to fall out,' Landau, based in New York City, said. Gemologist Olivia Landau (pictured) told the Daily Mail that it's 'typically not recommended to set a diamond (especially in that large of a size) in a band that thin' However, not everyone believes it's an accident waiting to happen. 'Platinum is basically the workhorse of fine jewelry - strong, durable and built to last,' Monil Kothari, CEO and founder of Haus of Brilliance jewelry, told the Daily Mail. Kothari thinks 'the design actually looks smart', because 'it appears to distribute the diamond's weight evenly across the finger, which takes a ton of pressure off the band itself', which is 'not poor craftsmanship'. 'My hot take? It's a gorgeous stone, a beautiful ring, and there's way too much haterade online,' Kothari said. 'Honestly, I find it laughable that people are speculating that the founder of Amazon is sitting around hoping the ring fails so he can collect on an insurance claim. This isn't an amateur hour jewelry job,' Kothari continued. 'Bezos isn't shopping on Alibaba - any professional worth their salt makes sure a ring like this is engineered to last.' Bezos has always been a huge fan of Star Trek, and wanted to be in the movies Newlywed Jeff Bezos may have totally changed up his looks when he started dating now-wife Lauren Sanchez - but during his 2016 Star Trek cameo, you wouldn't even be able to recognize him. Nine years ago, the Amazon tycoon starred in Star Trek Beyond, making an appearance as an alien. The movie was so popular that it was even nominated for an Oscar that year for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Bezos looked like a totally different person, as he was transformed into character, wearing a huge, misshapen alien head with skin that resembled a chicken's and had veins popping out of it in gruesome detail. The face he wore had blue, scaly markings on it, along with a super pointed chin and a flat nose. To top everything off, Bezos wore a pair of bright blue-colored contacts. In the film, Bezos looked so different that viewers would have never guessed it was really him behind the costume. Since he was young, Bezos has been a huge fan of Star Trek. 'You have to understand, when I was in fourth grade, I watched every Star Trek episode and re-runs, many times over and over, they would just repeat them,' Bezos revealed during a sit-down talk at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards at Seattle's Museum of Flight. Newlywed Jeff Bezos may have totally changed up his looks when he started dating now-wife Lauren Sanchez - but during his 2016 Star Trek cameo, you wouldn't even be able to recognize him The movie was so popular that it was even nominated for an Oscar that year for Best Makeup and Hairstyling In the film, Bezos looked so different that viewers would have never guessed it was really him behind the costume He recalled loving it so much that he would always play Star Trek with his two friends growing up, Dean and Kyle, who lived down the block from him. As a diehard fan, Bezos explained that he had been 'begging' to be in a Star Trek movie for years. 'For years, I have been begging Paramount, which is owned by Viacom, to let me be in a Star Trek movie,' he shared. 'I was very persistent, and you can imagine, the poor director who got the call, you know, you have to let Jeff Bezos be in your Star Trek movie,' he joked. Bezos was so committed that he had even told them that he would wear any amount of makeup and costume required. However, the Amazon founder did have a few requests - he wanted to have a speaking part, and appear in a scene that was 'critical' to the central story so he wouldn't run the risk of being edited out. 'They honored those requirements, and I have a speaking part, it is two words long, I say, "Speak normally,"' he said during the Pathfinder Awards. He joked that you shouldn't blink during the movie, or else you would miss his appearance. He recalled loving it so much that he would always play Star Trek with his two friends growing up, Dean and Kyle, who lived down the block from him 'I was very persistent, and you can imagine, the poor director who got the call, you know, you have to let Jeff Bezos be in your Star Trek movie,' he joked 'It was super fun for me, and it was a bucket list item,' Bezos admitted about the opportunity. But of course, it seems like nothing could compare to him marrying the love of his life, Lauren Sanchez. In late June, the two tied the knot in Venice, Italy, celebrating with a lavish multi-day extravaganza that featured high-profile guests like Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian. Not only did they throw a luxurious wedding, but they also had a foam party on Bezos' $500 million yacht and pajama-themed get-together. Sanchez even graced the cover of Vogue for the occasion, marking her special day with an interview and photo spread in her Dolce & Gabbana wedding dress, which took over 900 hours to make. The cover showed the former journalist with a huge grin on her face as she posed in her white gown, which featured a high neck, lace sleeves and long, trailing veil. 'I'm very happy,' Sanchez told Vogue of her nuptials at the time. 'More than the dress, I'm happy that I'm getting married and I get to spend my life with my best friend, someone who sees me, someone who adores me, someone who I adore,' she continued. 'I am the luckiest woman on the planet.' In late June, the two tied the knot in Venice, Italy, celebrating with a lavish multi-day extravaganza that featured high-profile guests like Ivanka Trump and Kim Kardashian Sanchez even graced the cover of Vogue for the occasion, marking her special day with an interview and photo spread in her Dolce & Gabbana wedding dress, which took over 900 hours to make Since the big day, Sanchez has been spotted in Paris at Haute Couture Week, and at Allen & Co.'s annual leadership retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho, nicknamed 'billionaire summer camp.' Bezos also attended the retreat, as they were spotted arm-in-arm walking to the week's various events together. On Tuesday night, they were seen having dinner at the AVIV restaurant inside 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami. AVIV specializes in fine Israeli cuisine, with the name meaning 'Spring' in Hebrew. The restaurant is owned by chef Michael Solomonov and renowned restaurateur Steve Cook. Brad Pitt is back in the spotlight, and so are his remarkably youthful looks. Fans have gone wild over his new movie F1, where he plays a nomadic racer for hire, but it's the 61-year-old's age-defying appearance that have stolen the show. 'Brad Pitt got a facelift,' one viewer wrote on social media, while a second said, 'the surgeon who did [his] facelift should be the richest person on Earth'. Now, DailyMail.com has spoken to three plastic surgeons to uncover the rejuvenating procedures the star may have received. Despite the suggestions, each said he likely did not receive a facelift, saying they couldn't see the typical giveaway signs of taut skin, squinting eyes and scars around the ear. Instead, they suggested it was much more likely that he had received fat transfers or fillers into the mid-face to boost volume and make him appear younger. Dr Michael Bassiri-Tehrani, a facial plastic surgeon in New York City, said: 'This is a subtle touch-up procedure that tends to be more desirable, especially if you are in the public eye. 'This is because it means... a less drastic change in your appearance, which is important, especially for someone who is in movies and whose face is their identity and their brand.' Brad Pitt is pictured above in December 2022 and at the launch for F1 last month. Surgeons suggest he has undergone tweaks to add volume to his face Your browser does not support iframes. Brad first debuted his incredibly youthful new looks in September last year, which again sparked speculation from fans about a potential facelift. Sources close to the star denied rumors that he had had a facelift, or received any other procedures to DailyMail.com. The plastic surgeons did not treat or get the chance to examine Brad in person, and instead based their comments on photos and videos of the star online. Dr Barry Weintraub, a top facelift surgeon in New York City who examined the above two pictures of the star, told this website: 'Looking straight at these images, it is clear that he is handsome as hell. 'But I do also notice that in the later photo his face is fuller, and that would either be from fat transfers or a variety of fillers that were used. 'It could also be simply because he gained weight, because that can also lead to more fullness appearing in the face.' He added: 'As you get older, you start to lose volume in your own face... so placing volume back into it is a great way to add youth, and I think that is what was done here.' Surgeons said he'd likely received the filler or fat transfers into the cheeks and jawline to add volume to these areas. Brad Pitt, 61, has been looking incredibly youthful including when he attended the Venice Film Festival in September last year, shown above amid viral rumors that he got a facelift They said that overall it was more likely this was fat, typically taken from the abdomen or thighs, because this is longer lasting and can trigger a more natural result. Many celebrities also opt for blepharoplasties, a procedure to remove skin above the eyes to make someone appear more youthful. But all three surgeons said Brad had avoided this, which was a good move because it didn't lead to a drastic change in his appearance. Dr Gary Linkov, a plastic surgeon also in New York City, said: 'I still don't see great proof that he's had a facelift. His hairline area looks ok to me, and I don't see any clear evidence for me. 'But it is possible that he might have had a fat transfer or filler to the midface. 'I mentioned a few years ago that he may have had that procedure, so it's definitely possible that he did something like that again.' Dr Adam Scheiner, a cosmetic surgeon in Florida and author of 2017 book 'The True Definition of Beauty', said Brad may appear so youthful because of how someone views a person's face. 'When we look at a person's face, our brains focus on the eye and mouth region first and the skin and facial contours area second. 'So it tends to be much more dramatic when someone has the eyes or mouth worked on, whereas if it's on other areas it tends to be much more subtle like the work we see here.' Compared to his look in past years, including at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 (shown above), some fans speculated that he went under the knife as his chin and jaw look different Brad has not commented on any recent work he may have, but he has repeatedly spoken about aging saying after he turned 60 years old that he was starting to feel his own mortality. Surgeons have previously suggested that Brad has been receiving fillers and Botox during the years to maintain his youthful appearance. Although this has never been confirmed by the celebrity. Surgeons suggested too that Brad may be maintaining his skin using moisturizers, micro-needling and other procedures. If you find yourself frequently asking 'are you mad at me?', it may be a sign you have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to a woman recently diagnosed with the condition. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects concentration, impulse control and activity levels. According to Olivia Brooke, 29, from the Appalachia mountains, in the US, asking if everything is OK or if people are annoyed with you might be a sign of rejection sensitivity disorder (RSD), which has been linked to the condition. In a video posted on her TikTok page @oliviabroookee which has been viewed more than 1.7million times, the mother, who was diagnosed with ADHD last year, described it as like 'feeling like everyone hates me'. RSD isn't a recognised medical condition, nor is it an official symptom of ADHD. However, many people who have ADHD report having RSD, and it acknowledged as a comorbidity of ADHD by a number of local NHS trusts. One trust describes it as an extreme emotional response to either real or perceived criticism or rejection. Other symptoms Ms Brooke experienced before being diagnosed included forgetfulness, difficulty sleeping, bad time management, and mood swings. In a recent TikTok video she claimed the question can be a sign you have the condition ADHD Olivia Brooke was diagnosed at 28-years-old after her symptoms were brushed off as anxiety In a comment on the post, the Ms Brooke said: 'I was told it was just anxiety! I've also been diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and panic disorder when I was 16.' But when the symptoms made juggling the endless tasks of motherhood harder, she spoke to a doctor. Just two months ago she started the stimulant ADHD medication Vyvanse, and has already seen improvements. In another video, she showed her kitchen looking messy and filled with items left from 'half done tasks', before it suddenly became neat and tidy after she started taking the medication. Now through her TikTok videos, Ms Brooke has urged those who experience the symptoms to talk to their doctor. In a comment she said: 'Medicine can help and so can talking to someone to help get an understanding how your brain works and things you can do to help.' After posting the original video, she received over a thousand comments from social media users who related to the symptoms. One user said: 'I have ADHD, and all of this is painfully relatable. I'm naturally a pretty chill, happy-go-lucky person, but man my brain is mean to me some days.' Another commented: 'My rejection sensitive dysphoria is bad. I constantly feel like everyone hates me and doesn't want to be my friend.' It comes amid a sharp rise in the number of adults seeking ADHD diagnostic assessments later in life. In recent years diagnoses have soared, with more than 2.6 million people in the UK now estimated to have the condition. Some have suggested this is because too many incorrectly people think they have the condition, while others put it down to better awareness of how it affects women. A review of research published from 1979 to 2021 about females with ADHD showed girls and women tend to show inattention and internalised problems, Meanwhile, in contrast, men show greater hyperactivity, impulsivity, and externalised problems. The study also found clinicians may overlook symptoms and impairments in females because they appear less overt, despite still impairing them. Concerningly, it also revealed that up until recently, almost all research on ADHD has focused on boys and men. However, a recent report by MailOnline revealed thousands of women diagnosed with ADHD may in fact have an iron deficiency. Josie Health-Smith, 44, had suffered from brain fog, fatigue and an inability to concentrate for as long as she could remember. So, when she watched TikTok videos in which women shared their 'day in a life' with ADHD, she sought a diagnosisand got one. But after trying medication which caused her side effects, her extreme tiredness and forgetfulness continued. In July 2023, she returned to her GP who, this time, ordered blood tests which revealed she was dangerously low in iron. The essential mineral, iron plays a vital role in energy levels, cognitive function, digestion and immunity. It is common for people to suffer from iron deficiency, which is estimated to affect 36 per cent of UK women of childbearing age, with only a quarter diagnosed. Remarkably, after being prescribed a course of iron injections, not only did her energy return, but her ADHD symptoms all but disappeared. President Donald Trump left the public puzzled on Tuesday when he appeared at a White House press gaggle with what looked like makeup covering a patch on the back of his hand. The makeup appeared to be concealing a raised circular area of skin that Trump's team may have been eager to hide. While they did not treat or examine him, medical experts reviewed video footage and shared their insights with the Daily Mail. 'More likely than not, he has some bruising on his hand and they are trying to hide it,' Dr Boback Berookhim, a New York-based urologist and men's sexual health specialist, told the Daily Mail. 'It could be from a blood draw, an insect bite or potentially from hitting his hand against something.' That small raised bump after a blood draw is a minor histamine reaction to the needle's micro-trauma, a response that typically fades within hours but can lead to more dramatic bruising in older adults due to naturally thinner, stiffer blood vessels. 'President Trump is a man of the people and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other President in history,' press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement to the Daily Mail. 'His commitment is unwavering and he proves that every single day.' Though, Dr Neal Patel, a primary care physician in Orange County, California, said, 'Shaking too many hands is a little bit a stretch. President Trump has had something like this in the past, and from my experience and my patients, I would put that lower on the list of possibilities.' The makeup appeared to be covering a circular protrusion of skin that doctors told the Daily Mail was most likely the after-effect of a routine blood draw The president has appeared with similar bumps and bruises on his hand almost monthly since taking office in January. His hands appeared to have makeup covering one of these bruises last month as well. New York City-based internist Dr Stuart Fischer previously noted that skin fragility is especially relevant for Trump, who at 79 is the second-oldest commander-in-chief in US history. At that age, skin becomes more vulnerable to the deep purple blotches that often appear after minor bumps or routine medical procedures. Dr Patel added that bruising after a simple blood draw would be entirely expected in someone of Trump's age and is far more common among seniors. Some of Dr Patel's patients can hardly brush a water bottle against their skin without developing a mark, he said. Aging skin loses protective fat and collagen, making blood vessels more exposed to even slight pressure. Force compresses these fragile capillaries against bones, causing them to leak blood just beneath the surface. For someone with thinning skin or vascular fragility, even routine contact can result in the telltale purple splotches. 'It could be a simple routine physical,' Dr Berookhim noted. 'Perhaps he is on medications that need monitoring; maybe he was having some complaint and they wanted to look further.' Dr Patel added that the location of the potential injection - on the back of the hand rather than in the crook of the elbow - could be explained by that alone. 'President Trump is a man of the people and he meets more Americans and shakes their hands on a daily basis than any other President in history,' Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed in a statement to the Daily Mail Your browser does not support iframes. 'If he's a hard stick - so it's hard to get blood from a vein in his arm - the hand is a great option,' he said. 'If his veins are dehydrated, we'd also consider doing it on the hand. The veins get flattened in a sense and it's harder to get the vein.' Trump proclaimed he 'did well' in his April physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he underwent extensive testing, including a cognitive assessment. The exam, conducted by Trump's new physician Dr Sean Barbabella, lasted nearly five hours. Trump has a history of optimistic health reports, including a purported perfect score on a cognitive test in 2018. Still, questions linger about his weight (244 pounds at his last physical) and occasional visible bruises on his hand, which aides have repeatedly attributed to vigorous handshaking. A cult Dubai chocolate bar has been urgently recalled by UK food safety chiefs over fears it could trigger fatal allergic reactions. The Neosis Schokolade Love of Dubai bar, a foil-wrapped sweet sold in independent shops and online, contains undeclared peanuts, according to officials. The product is part of a wave of imported Middle Eastern-style chocolates that have surged in popularity thanks to social mediabut concerns are growing that many of these bars fail to meet UK food safety standards. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has issued a 'do not eat' warning and ordered an immediate recall, saying the 95g bar poses a serious risk to people with a peanut allergy. All batch codes and best-before dates are affected. The bar is manufactured in Turkey and distributed in Britain by Black Sea Trading Ltda company the FSA said has so far been uncontactable. Officials are working with local authorities to ensure the product is removed from sale, and are advising anyone who has purchased it to dispose of it and report where it was bought. Undeclared peanuts can cause anaphylaxisa rapid, life-threatening allergic reaction that causes the throat to swell, often leading to unconsciousness or death within minutes. The Neosis Schokolade Love of Dubai bar, a foil-wrapped sweet sold in independent shops and online, contains undeclared peanuts, according to food safety officials Middle Eastern-style chocolates that have surged in popularity thanks to social mediabut concerns are growing that many of these bars fail to meet UK food safety standards As part of the recall notice, the FSA stated: 'This product contains peanuts, making it a possible health risk for anyone with a peanut allergy. If you have bought it, do not eat it.' The recall follows mounting concerns over the so-called Dubai chocolate trend, which has seen pistachio-stuffed, gold-wrapped sweets go viral on social media. While some UK supermarkets have launched their own regulated versions, many of the bars being sold by smaller retailers and online are unregulated imports. The are often missing English ingredient lists, allergen warnings, or valid UK contact details, the FSA has warned. Earlier this year, testing by European authorities found that some Dubai-style chocolates contained undeclared sesame, banned artificial dyes, and even carcinogenic contaminants. In one case, German investigators reported 'widespread safety violations' in imported pistachio chocolate bars, including the presence of aflatoxinstoxic compounds linked to liver cancer. In June the FSA urged the public to check labels on Dubai-style chocolate bars and not purchase them if they do not list, in English, the ingredients with allergens emphasised. The weight of the food in grams, and a best before or use by date should be printed clearly. The name and address of the UK or EU business responsible for the product should be listed, and if the food is not from the UK or EU, the name and address of the importer must be included. Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, 15, collapsed on a flight after eating a Pret a Manger baguette containing sesame, which was not listed on the packaging Experts have warned that the popularity of these sweets is 'outpacing food safety,' with campaigners calling for tighter import controls and better enforcement of allergen labelling laws. The recall comes after a series of high-profile tragedies linked to unlabelled allergens. In 2016, 15-year-old Megan Lee died after eating takeaway food that failed to declare peanuts. The restaurant owners were later jailed for manslaughter by gross negligence. A year later, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, also 15, collapsed on a flight after eating a Pret a Manger baguette containing sesame, which was not listed on the packaging. Her death led to the introduction of Natasha's Law, requiring full allergen labelling on pre-packed foods. The FSA said the recall of Neosis Schokolade Love of Dubai is listed under alert code FAFA-03-2025. Full details are available on its website. Anyone who experiences swelling, rash, difficulty breathing or dizziness after eating the product is urged to seek immediate medical attention. When Rachel Bradford first noticed a blotchy rash breaking out over her skin, she put it down to pregnancy. But within weeks the expectant mother was in excruciating pain leaving her with the complexion of 'a dead person' and practically immobile. As her due date loomed closer, Ms Bradford, 30, and her husband Jack, from Devon, pushed for answers after she suffered uncontrollable spasms and her skin began to blister, forcing her to step back from work. 'It feels like I'm burning alive, like my body is constantly on fire,' the support worker said. 'I was praying the pain would stopI couldn't take it anymore and I felt no one was listening to me, no one was taking me seriously.' After calling NHS 111, the couple were advised to seek help at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where they were told her condition was not a cause for concern. 'We were still being told it could go away after pregnancy, it was just sort of brushed off,' her husband added. Then, unable to give birth naturally due to her swollen limbs that saw her wheelchair bound, Ms Bradford was forced to give birth to her son, Michael, via emergency C-section on May 31 2024. Rachel was previously fit and healthy and expecting her first son with husband Jack when the 'extraordinarily itchy' rash suddenly appeared all over her body in March 2024 The rash started on Rachel's arms and legs before it spread to her head, face, hands, neck, back shoulders and ears 'I couldn't have a natural birth anyway because I couldn't open my legs', she explained. 'They were so swollen from the condition and my mobility was almost nothing at that point.' But the burning sensation did not subside after she gave birth, leaving her contemplating taking her own life just months after her son was born. It was until almost a year later, however, that the true cause of her burning symptoms came to light. In February this year, the young mother was diagnosed with erythromelalgiaa rare condition that causes burning pain, redness and hot skin, along with chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS). 'It's thought the condition is related to her blood vessels,' Mr Bradford explained. 'So they will either completely constrict and she will look like a dead person, or it will go the other way to the point her skin will blister.' Along with the classic symptoms of the condition, which include burning pain that often starts as itching, redness and swelling the mother-of-one also suffers from spasms, brain fog, joint pain and loss of feeling in her extremities. Rachel's symptoms were initially brushed-off by doctors as pregnancy related and the couple were sent away Rachel give birth to Michael, now one, on 31 May 2024 via emergency C-Section as she could not give birth naturally as a result of the swelling in her limbs Rachel's condition has affected every aspect of her life, so that she can no longer play with her son because of the pain She said: 'The condition has taken everything from me. Pregnancy, motherhood, my job my mobility, my independenceI can't even play with my son.' 'She can't escape it. From the moment she opens her eyes, it's the first thing she feels,' her husband added. 'If Michael, now one, sits on Rachel's lap for even for even just five minutes it causes her thighs to flare up. 'Rachel is an amazing mum and to see her completely limited by something outside of her control is absolutely horrendous.' A flare-up can come last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days, leaving Ms Bradford's skin looking blue. Ms Bradford is now trying new medications to help manage symptoms, but the couple say they are 'disappointed' with the standard of care offered by the hospital. Mr Bradford said when they visited Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital for his wife's pain, staff told her to 'put some socks on' and sent her away, insisting there was nothing they could do to help her. 'We've found it all so frustrating,' he said. 'It's been endless amounts of disappointment and it's not given us any hope.' The rash soon worsened turning bright red and blistering in some places Jack says Rachel's skin sometimes resembles that of a dead person, The couple are now fundraising to raise funds for a non-invasive therapy that they hope will relieve Rachel's symptoms The couple have now launched a GoFundMe page, which has raised over 2,000 so far, to help them fund scrambler therapy in Italya non-invasive treatment helping patients in chronic pain. 'If we have the money for another option, another treatmentI dont want Rachel to be hitting a point where she says we have nothing more to try,' Mr Bradford said. The hospital has since issued an apology and have encouraged Mrs Bradford to raise her concerns with their complaints team for further investigation. A spokesperson for the hospital said: 'We are dedicated to providing safe, high-quality care to our patients with compassion and we're very sorry to hear that Mrs Bradford's experience of care did not meet these standards.' Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust added in a statement: 'Last year we received correspondence on behalf of Rachel Bradford via our Patient Advice and Liaison Service. 'In our response we apologised that Rachels experience of her care was not a positive one; we are committed to learning from feedback and improving the experience of women and their families who attend our departments for their care.' According to the NHS, it is not clear what causes erythromelalgia. Sometimes the condition can be triggered by a faulty gene or brought on by another condition. Whilst treatment can vary depending on the cause, most treatments aim to prevent flare-ups which are usually triggered by an increase in body temperature. Treatments options include medicines, creams, gels, sprays, tablets and medicines injected directly into the bloodstream. Rarely, sufferers will need surgery. A mother-of-one whose massive breasts were causing her agony and unwanted attention has shared her outraged after the NHS refused to pay for reduction surgery. Caitlin Telford, 27, from Glasgow, has suffered with excruciating back pain for years having been rejected by the NHS for breast reduction surgery when she was just 17-years-old, and already sporting a size 32G chest. By the time she was just 25-years-old her breasts had ballooned to a whopping 36K, after the birth of her son Luca in January 2023. But the young mother, now in constant pain and having developed grooves in her shoulders from the sheer weight of her breasts, was refused treatment once again. 'It just puts you down as you feel like no matter how much weight you lose, because you have a bigger chest you're never going to be a weight that you can be,' she said. Ms Telford said she felt 'hopeless', uncomfortable in her own body but unable to afford the 10,000 it would cost to have the surgery done privately in Britain. 'By the time I had left primary school, I was already bigger than most of the girls in my class and they just continued to grow and grow,' she recalled. She added: 'They were getting in the way of everything and I would get a lot of unsolicited male attention when I went out.' Caitlin Telford was forced to take painkillers for the excruciating back pain caused by the weight of her breasts At 17, Ms Telford visited her GP for a consultation which she hoped would lead to breast reduction surgery. 'But the doctors pawned me off and said because I was young, I hadn't stopped growing so they would not put me forward for it,' she said. 'Then the pain started across my back. I was also developing grooves in my shoulders where my bra was pulling on them constantly.' Before becoming pregnant with her son, Ms Telford did everything she could to lose weight in the hopes that this would make her an appropriate candidate for surgery, dropping an impressive five stone to help her case. 'I went back to the doctor when I'd lost the weight and I got rejected again,' she said. 'It was annoying as they seemed to be taking my overall weight for my BMI and not thinking about the weight of my chest,' she added. At the beginning of this year, after seeing people celebrating New Years Eve in little dresses, she recalled thinking: 'I just can't do this anymore'. In a final effort to end her misery, Ms Telford started looking for private clinics further afield. Ms Telford said when she used to go out she would get a lot of unsolicited male attention from the age of just 17-years-old, already sporting a 32G chest Her surgery means that she will no longer have to take painkillers to manage her symptoms and has already boosted her confidence ahead of her birthday when she is looking forward to wearing a strapless top She was then recommended a clinic in Istanbul, Turkey, who offered to do the reduction surgery for just 3,600 less than half of the 10,000 she was quoted in the UK. Using a loan from her parents, Ms Telford underwent the 'life changing' operation last month that saw her drop 11 cup sizes to a modest C-cup. 'A few people I knew had been to Turkey, and the price difference was unreal,' she said. 'I'm very happy with my new breasts and it's changed my life. 'Now I can put on a vest top and not feel like I'm exposing myself. Ms Telford is not the only woman suffering pain from large breasts who has been denied surgery on the NHS. However, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde maintains that only cases meeting all necessary criteria are considered for breast reduction surgery, through a clinical assessment which considers the severity of symptoms and overall health. Whilst some experts are concerned that women are seeking these procedures for cosmetic reasons, Dr Judy Evans, honorary secretary at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, told the BBC that far too often women are being dismissed. She said: 'Breast reduction is an operation which can free people from neck pain, from back pain and enable them to look after their children better. 'It's the most wonderful operation in terms of what it does for the person, but also I believe in the long term it saves a lot of money for the NHS.' While Ms Telford enjoyed success by going overseas for surgery medics have warned Britons to be wary of going overseas for cheaper procedures. At least 25 Britons are known to have died during or shortly after surgery in Turkey in recent years. Many more have been injured, with some requiring life-saving care upon return to the UK for complications like infections. While all surgery carries risks, campaigners and surgeons have urged patients to thoroughly do their research before opting to go under the knife overseas. Breast reduction surgery is usually carried out under general anaesthetic and involves repositioning the nipple, removing excess fat and tissue and reshaping the remaining breast. It takes around two to three hours and often requires patients to stay in hospital overnight to recover. At just 25 years old, Savannah Caldwell had her whole life ahead of her. The Kentucky native was healthy, active, and cherished time with her friends and the four stepchildren she helped raise. But when she began experiencing persistent exhaustion and aching bones, she turned to doctors for answers. Physicians initially denied her tests saying she was 'too young for cancer', but after a lump was found on her chest they hey agreed to run further tests, and a biopsy was performed. Days later, she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer that had spread to her ribs, spine, lungs, and possibly her skull. Doctors gave her just a 32 percent chance of surviving the next five years. She said: 'I was in complete shock. I remember staring at the floor not knowing what to think, not knowing what was next, that was a big worry. 'I've had to grow up faster in a week than I have in 25 years.' Caldwell is just one of the ever-increasing number of women diagnosed with breast cancer before they turn 50, which is now among the fastest growing cancers in the age group alongside colon cancer. Savannah Caldwell has been diagnosed with stage four breast cancer at age 25 years after previously been told she was 'too young' to have cancer Your browser does not support iframes. Researchers say breast cancer cases among young women are now rising by up to 1.85 percent per year, with an extra 4,000 women being diagnosed with the cancer annually in the US compared to a decade ago. While breast cancer in women in their 20s is rare, it's not unheard of. About 6.5 out of every 100,000 women in their 20s will receive a breast cancer diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society They remain puzzled by the surge, especially in healthy, young individuals, though some have pointed to possible environmental triggers or earlier onset of puberty as potential factors. For Caldwell, who is from Russell,the diagnosis came with devastating physical symptoms. Shortly after learning she had stage four breast cancer, the 25-year-old developed crippling back pain caused by a tumor pressing against her spine. The pain became so severe it made walking and even basic movement difficult. Doctors immediately began an aggressive treatment plan, starting with 12 rounds of chemotherapy. Caldwell has already completed nine and may also undergo immunotherapy and radiation depending on how her body responds. Caldwell is pictured above amid chemotherapy, she has been recommended for 12 rounds of the treatment Revealing her story to local news station WSAZ , she said: 'At night, especially when with my kids, whenever we cuddle up... I look over... and I just hope I get to see them grow up. 'Things change minute-by-minute, but for the most part I am being very optimistic. I hope my will to fight can get me through. 'I want to fight, I want to live and I want my story to be a beautiful one no matter how long or short it is.' Caldwell said the chemotherapy has gone well so far, but that she has started to lose her hair and has been losing weight rapidly, now being down to 88lbs. In an update after her fourth round of chemotherapy in June, she said: 'Between the third and fourth chemo a lot has changed. Caldwell said her cancer is stage four and has spread to her ribs, spine and lungs. Doctors say she may also need radiation and immunotherapy 'My hair is thinning a lot, just yesterday I noticed it is coming out in clumps. I am still experiencing a lot of back pain, neck pain, [pain] in my ribs. 'Through the night, I wake up very nauseous and almost projectile vomiting and it is harder to eat.' She added: 'I look forward to getting this over with, and getting through.' After the ninth chemotherapy, she said she was 'still not sleeping much' but 'hanging in there'. Doctors have diagnosed her with invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common form of breast cancer and behind about 80 percent of all cases. Her friends have started a fundraiser online to raise money to help cover bills and complications linked to the chemotherapy. On the page, they write: 'Savannah is not going to be able to work for a long time. Please help her fight this beast. Caldwell is pictured above after another round of chemotherapy and after starting to lose her hair, leading her to shave it off 'She'd give the shirt off her back for any stranger she met. Let's come together and help her and her fiance!' Research published earlier this year that analyzed 2.1million cases of early-onset cancer diagnosed between 2010 and 2019 found breast cancer, thyroid cancer and melanoma were the fastest rising among young women. Among young men, colon cancer, testicular cancer and melanoma were the most likely to be diagnosed before someone turned 50 years old. Doctors have also suggested that a trend toward having a first child at a later age could be a possible explanation for the rise in diagnoses. Robert F Kennedy Jrs smile sparked anger among dentists who take issue with his crusade against fluoride, an anti-cavity mineral, in drinking water. The Department of Health and Human Services secretary is leading the federal governments charge against adding what the government standards say are safe amounts of fluoride in public water systems to bolster the nations oral health. Dr Royce Lai, a dentist based in Ontario, Canada, said after looking at a recent photo of RFK Jr: I can tell he needs a deep teeth cleaning as Secretary Kennedy has significant plaque and tartar buildup around the gum line. 'His gums look healthy, but are prone to gingivitis with that amount of buildup. Other dentists told DailyMail.com that RFK Jrs adequate dental health is thanks to elite care and a lifetime of benefits from government-backed policies dating back to WWII. While RFK Jr may be short a few cleanings, according to Dr Lai, Mr. Kennedy, like everyone his age, grew up with fluoride in the water. It is expected that his generation should have fewer cavities and oral health problems than previous generations. Fluoride helps prevent cavities by strengthening enamel and blocking acid from decay-causing bacteria. RFK Jr opposes it based on a study linking it to developmental issues in children, but critics say the research ignored factors like lead exposure and poverty, and used inconsistent data. The CDC and ADA reject the findings, citing no proven link or IQ drops in fluoridated areas. Toronto dentist Dr Khorshid said RFK Jr.'s visible tooth substance could be food residue or a surgical packnot plaquebut noted the partial photo limits diagnosis I find it more odd more than anything because we've had fluoride in water since the 1960s without any apparent ill effects, Dr Lai added. The number of cavities lessened through the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, and children in rural areas seemed to have improved oral health. Dr Mohamad Khorshid, a dentist in Toronto, gave DailyMail.com his thoughts on Kennedys oral health based on a recent photo of him. The off-white substance wedged between the front teeth appears to be food residue rather than harmful plaque or tartar. The white strip near the front teeth is likely a surgical pack to protect a gum surgery site or a possible nicotine patch. Its very hard to tell from this partial view, he said. Dr Sandip Sachar, a New York City-based dentist, said: I do not really see any significant tartar build-up on his teeth except in one spot- where it is difficult to say for sure if that is tartar or just a photographic artifact or something that is caught between his teeth. Dr Khorshid also noted that the teeth exhibit discoloration and moderate wear, but no severe decay. The presence of gum recession and abrasions suggests the use of aggressive brushing or grinding techniques. The teeth dont show severe decay or enamel erosion, which might suggest some fluoride benefit, possibly from drinking water, Dr Khorshid added. Evidence suggests that very high fluoride exposure, exceeding 1.5 milligrams per liter, may have a small effect on IQ. But water fluoridation levels are far below this threshold 0.7 mg/L with no direct evidence linking standard fluoridation to IQ loss. Your browser does not support iframes. Evidence suggests that very high fluoride exposure, exceeding 1.5 milligrams per liter, may have a small effect on IQ. But water fluoridation levels are far below this threshold 0.7 mg/L with no direct evidence linking standard fluoridation to IQ loss A wealth of studies consistently report that fluoridated water helps reduce the risk of tooth decay and cavities. In 1956, researchers found that after a decade of fluoridation, only the second US city to do so, Newburgh, NY, saw 58 percent less childhood tooth decay than non-fluoridated Kingston. Even older Newburgh children had 41 to 52 percent fewer cavities. Similarly, Evanston, IL, reported a 57 percent decline in cavities just six years after adopting fluoridation. Dentists fear an uptick in cavities and gum disease as the anti-fluoride movement gains momentum, with states and municipalities dropping fluoridation like falling dominoes. Alaska became the first to end mandatory fluoridation in 2007, followed by Utah in 2010. Since then, dozens of cities have followed suit, including Portland, OR, Juneau, AK, Collier County, FL, and most recently, Union County, NC. The trend shows no signs of slowing, with about 200 smaller municipalities having discontinued fluoridation since 2010. Dr Khorshid said: The anti-fluoride movement is frustrating, as extensive research confirms fluoride safety and decay-prevention benefits at recommended levels. Opposition often misrepresents data, undermining public health gains, though addressing concerns with evidence remains the best approach. Your browser does not support iframes. RFK Jr acknowledged that fluoride-free water will result in an uptick in cavities and tooth decay. It's a balance," Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News' The Faulkner Focus last month. You're going to see probably slightly more cavities. Although in Europe, where they ban fluoride, they did not see an uptick in cavities. The issue is parents need to decide because the science is very clear on fluoride. Fluoride is not banned in Europe, though it is less widespread than in the US. Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a groundbreaking three-person IVF technique to prevent devastating disease. Four boys and four girls, including one set of identical twins, have been delivered and are all doing well following treatment by a team in Newcastle, who pioneered the technique. One other woman is currently pregnant. The scientific method, known as mitochondrial donation treatment, is designed to prevent children from being born with devastating mitochondrial diseases that are passed down from their mothers. These illnesses can be fatal and often cause devastating damage to organs including the brain, muscle, liver, heart and kidney. Of the eight babies born, three are now aged under six months, two are aged six to 12 months, one is 12 to 18 months old, one is aged 18 to 24 months and one child is aged over two. All the babies are healthy and are meeting their milestones, according to the team from Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle University and Newcastle Fertility Centre. None of the eight babies shows signs of having mitochondrial DNA disease, which tends to affect around one in 5,000 births. Pictured: The groundbreaking embryo replacement procedure in action under a microscope Pictured: A diagram explaining how the new pronuclear transfer technique works The scientists said disease-causing mitochondrial DNA mutations, picked up in three of the children, are either undetectable or present at levels that are very unlikely to cause disease. The main lab method used by the team, known as pronuclear transfer (PNT), involves taking the egg from an affected mother, sperm from her partner and an egg from a donor who is free from disease. The mother of a baby girl born through mitochondrial donation said: 'As parents, all we ever wanted was to give our child a healthy start in life. 'Mitochondrial donation IVF made that possible. After years of uncertainty, this treatment gave us hope - and then it gave us our baby. 'We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we're overwhelmed with gratitude. Science gave us a chance.' The mother of a baby boy added: 'We are now proud parents to a healthy baby, a true mitochondrial replacement success. This breakthrough has lifted the heavy cloud of fear that once loomed over us. 'Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. 'The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.' Professor Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University and part of the team of researchers, said: 'Mitochondrial disease can have a devastating impact on families. 'Today's news offers fresh hope to many more women at risk of passing on this condition who now have the chance to have children growing up without this terrible disease.' In all the cases, the Newcastle team used the PNT technique after the egg was fertilised. For this, scientists transplanted the nuclear genome (which contains all the genes essential for a person's characteristics, such as hair colour and height) from the egg carrying the mitochondrial DNA mutation into an egg donated by an unaffected woman that had had its nuclear genome removed. Thanks to the procedure, the resulting baby inherits its parents' nuclear DNA, but the mitochondrial DNA is mainly inherited from the donated egg. Scientific progress in this area led Parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit mitochondrial donation treatment. Pictured: The groundbreaking embryo replacement procedure in action under a microscope Two years later, the Newcastle clinic became the first and only national centre licensed to perform it, with the first cases approved in 2018. Approval is given on a case-by-case basis by the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The new findings on the eight births, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, show that all the babies are developing normally. Aged 18 months, tests are carried out in areas such as gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive and social development and language skills to check the babies are hitting milestones. The researchers will also check the children when they are aged five. Professor Bobby McFarland, director of the NHS Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said he was confident the children would carry on developing normally. He added: 'If we're not picking up subtle signs of problems at five, then we're really very clear that is not going to be a problem.' He added: 'In my work...I see children in intensive care units up and down this country and that's not pleasant. 'It's very difficult for families to deal with these diseases, they are devastating... 'To see babies born at the end of this is just amazing really.' Mary Herbert, professor of reproductive biology at Newcastle University, added: 'PNT happens in the small hours of the morning - those long nights. And it has paid off. 'It's fair to say it's rewarding. In science though, periods of joy are fleeting and brief because you're always thinking what is the next challenge? How do we optimise it further?' She said the slight DNA mutations seen in three of the children are 'way, way below the threshold that would cause disease'. Pictured: A diagram showing what an embryo created by mitochondrial donation consists of Peter Thompson, chief executive of the HFEA, said: 'Ten years ago, the UK was the first country in the world to licence mitochondrial donation treatment to avoid passing the condition to children. 'For the first time, families with severe inherited mitochondrial illness have the possibility of a healthy child. 'Although it's still early days, it is wonderful news that mitochondrial donation treatment has led to eight babies being born. 'Only people who are at a very high risk of passing a serious mitochondrial disease onto their children are eligible for this treatment in the UK, and every application for mitochondrial donation treatment is individually assessed in accordance with the law.' Dr Andy Greenfield, from the University of Oxford, said: 'It is a triumph of scientific innovation in the IVF clinic - a world-first that shows that the UK is an excellent environment in which to push boundaries in IVF; a tour de force by the embryologists who painstakingly developed and optimised the micromanipulation methods; an example of the value of clinical expertise, developed over decades of working with children and adults suffering from these devastating diseases, being used to support a new intervention and subsequent follow-up, potentially for many years.' Beth Thompson, executive director for policy and partnerships at Wellcome, said: 'This is a remarkable scientific achievement, which has been years in the making. 'The pioneering work behind mitochondrial donation is a powerful example of how discovery research can change lives.' Professor Dagan Wells, from the University of Oxford, said the study showed established methods for avoiding mitochondrial DNA diseases, such as preimplantation genetic testing, perform well and will be suitable for most women at risk of having an affected child. 'A minority of patients are unable to produce any embryos free of mitochondrial disease, and for those women the study provides hope that they may be able to have healthy children in the future,' he added. Voco? Nope, not in my dictionary either, but its a name to pay attention to for a hotel stay that weighs in way above standard offerings, but wont leave your wallet needing a sabbatical (rooms from 107, vocohotels.com). Welcome! The hotel chain aims to be sleek but never stuffy Launched back in 2018, in just seven years the hotel chains sleek but never stuffy charm has made it one of InterContinental Hotels fastest growing brands, with over 100 Vocos globally, including 19 in the UK. At its less-than-a-year-old Winchester offering, two miles from the city centre, that stepped-up experience which, while not five-star certainly nails upscale, is very much in evidence. It also lives up to its name. Voco, since you ask, is Latin for inviting Rooms and facilities Pull up a sofa in Voco's Open Lobby Check-in is swift, smooth and, as well as a room key, will furnish you with a locally inspired treat. When you cross Voco Winchesters threshold its hard not to rubberneck the Open Lobbys lounge first. Vast, airy and, yep, inviting, this buzzy ground-floor area is the beating heart of the hotel, where the brands ambition to seduce you really begins. Boasting break-out sofa and chair areas, all looking the part thanks to a mix and match of mid-century-modern furnishings and vibing happily together via greys, blues and pops of teal, the feel is kickback yet classy. The mood? While-away-the-hours-here-for-as-long-as-you-like, hell, why not pull up a chair and watch some TV? Or, scrub that, with an all-day dining menu available courtesy of the hotels Kitchen 21 restaurant, stage left, and the 24-hour bar, stage right, order some eats and drinks One floor up, my super-king boudoir has much to seduce, too. Greys, blues and the occasional piece of modern art feel considered and chic, while clean lines and fuss-free furnishings give an already decent-sized room something of the Wembley about it. The bed is sprung to perfection, the sofa plump and beckons you to spread while you enjoy the Nespresso machine and wide-screen TV. As for the chair and desk others might want to WFH, but Im thinking more vanity table. The bed is sprung to perfection... While no cats are in danger of being swung in the more functional than fabulous en suite, theres still plenty of luxuriating factor to be had down at the ANA adults-only spa. Here five treatment rooms offer all manner of pamperings using Elemis products, plus there is a Himalayan salt sauna, crystal steam room, sensory shower and bubbly foot spa. Theres also a manicure bar and lounge where lunch plates include butternut squash soup, crispy calamari, Caesar salad I discovered, is best enjoyed after not before a body wrap or deep muscle massage (treatments from 45). Quick tip: before you wander down to the spa in your hotel robe, sessions need to be booked in advance (from 10 person for a two-hour slot). Five treatment rooms offer all manner of pamperings using Elemis products Food and drink At Kitchen 21, all metro tiles, copper pendants with an open-kitchen nailing slick, breakfast comes set continental or full English, from 16.95 or a la carte, such as scrambled eggs, 9. Park yourself on a velvet banquette or sit outside on the terrace and enjoy your flat white as a wild pony passes. Here lunch and dinner is a modern take on traditional British cuisine, or, in our book, crowd-pleasing stuff: from burgers, fish and chips and a showstopping 21-inch pizza to slow-cooked lamb shank, pork belly and pumpkin ravioli, with mains around the 18 mark. Whatever you pick, get a side order of truffle fries! It's Kitchen 21 offers a a modern take on traditional British cuisine' The bar, meanwhile, just yonder in the Open Lobby, is all metro sexy beneath a cascade of plants and statement pendants, and never sleeps. Its open 24/7 as is the nearby vending machine your one-stop-shop for midnight snacks. Make mine a.... Voco's open 24/7 bar Hotel highlights Forget inviting in Latin, I want to know what relaxed is as Voco nails it on the kickback front. Then theres that lounge, where you can watch the world go by or rather the guests (which during my stay included Jeff Brazier) from the comfort of a squishy sofa. Despite being just off a roundabout by the A31, the location is just the sort of peaceful spot you need after hauling your cookies through the streets of Winchester, checking out the cathedral, Jane Austens house et al and its car park means no having to road-rage it into the city its five minutes away in an Uber or theres a bus stop right outside the hotel. What to do nearby Did I mention Winchester, once the ancient capital of England and seat of King Alfred the Great? Buying a property here might be hard its one of the UKs most expensive cities but finding things to do in it isnt. Well-known for its 11th-century cathedral, its also the resting place of former resident Jane Austen, boasts the countrys oldest continuously running school Winchester College (which has appeared in films such as Harry Potter and Les Miserables), and thanks to its bustling shops, pubs and restaurants scene, fabulous architecture, riverside walks and prime spot on edge of the rolling South Downs National Park, it attracts around four million visitors a year. Best for anyone, even pets are welcome. Daily Mail journalists select and curate the products that feature on our site. If you make a purchase via links on this page we will earn commission - learn more We are in peak sales season now. But if youre feeling overwhelmed by where and what to shop, a sure place to find great bargains and savings on investment buys is H&M. This Swedish haunt on the high street has become a go-to for It-girls on the look out for unbranded, stealth wealth looking buys that dont break the bank. The sought after Scandi look is far more achievable than you think when you start shopping here, where most of its stock could rival designer styles. And the sales are excellent, with up to 60% off some of its premium items. Think last minute event dresses and holiday buys, bags that youll wear daily, sleek sandals, statement knitwear and even the winter coats you should be snapping up now for fabulous prices. Keep scrolling for my edit of the top pieces to shop. If youre still on the hunt for holiday buys. This floaty mini will work a treat in hot climates. The little gold shell beads are a luxury touch and the tiered shape makes it a great throw on option for lunch by the pool or cocktail hour. I also have my eye on this chocolate number - our obsession with brown isnt going anywhere. The knot detail at the neck really elevates this simple column shape, which will skim over your curves and give the illusion of longer legs. Add some chunky gold studs and oversized sunglasses and youve got a seriously sleek go-to look. Looking for a wedding guest dress? Try this tomato red, spaghetti strap dress. You can wear this style time and again, plus its less than 20, so you can splurge on the accessories. Alternatively, Google searches for nighties - aka billowing blousy dresses - are surging in the heat right now. This little white puff sleeve iteration will help you nail the trend for as little as 9. Weve had enough of graphic florals and polka dots. Leopard print is set to be big again later this year. Pair this simple shift shape with pumps or chunky sandals now, and then with tights and knee high boots later. Investing in classic arm candy doesnt have to hurt your purse - see this tan bucket tote for just 13. Youre guaranteed to find that it goes with most of your wardrobe. Still hunting for the perfect straw bag? This faux leather trimmed iteration is right on the money. The compact shoulder silhouette will make it just wearable beyond summer and the exposed stitching makes it look far more high end than a 12 spend. Another accessory to covet; suede sandals have been everywhere this season. This chic crossover strap style in dark brown will amp up the simplest of white jeans or a linen dress. Red pumps are also set to storm the shelves again soon - this mesh pair is a no brainer for 13. And youll be surprised at just how comfortable this slip on style is. Your mind may not be on knitwear just yet, but this classic monochrome cardi will be perfect for office days where youre sat in frosty air-con and with your jeans come September. Speaking of knits. You cant go wrong with this 10 fisherman stripe turtleneck. Wear it with your linen Bermuda shorts now on cold evenings and with leather trousers in December. Its a classic that you shouldnt go without! A suede shacket is another great staple to have on your rail. Layering yours with denim or linen shirts will make this faux number look like the real deal. And its a buy that you can go back to again and again for the rest of the year. If, like me, youre looking ahead to your winter wardrobe, dont hesitate when it comes to this black teddy bear maxi coat. The quality of the fabric and tie waist make it look far more expensive than it really is. For just 41 its probably the best sale buy I have seen yet - and it will last you through many blustery months to come. Or hop on the field jacket hype with this bonded twill style which you'll likely wear a little sooner than faux fur. Whoopi Goldberg took direct aim at former President Barack Obama, delivering a stunning and unsparing rebuttal that left her fellow co-hosts rattled and the audience in stunned silence. The unexpected clash erupted during Tuesday's episode of the The View following Obama's controversial remarks at a private fundraiser, where he urged Democrats to stop 'whining,' ditch 'navel-gazing,' and 'toughen up' following the 2024 election loss. 'It's going to require a little bit less navel-gazing and a little less whining and being in fetal positions,' Obama told donors, according to The New York Times. 'And it's going to require Democrats to just toughen up.' Never one to hold back, Goldberg was furious. 'Let me remind everybody who was out in the front lines marching when we had the giant marches that went on. It was the people. The people went out. They were not navel-gazing,' she declared as she stared down the camera. 'It was older people who were saying, "Why are you touching my Social Security?" It was not people whining. It was about people saying, "Why are you taking these rights away from my child when my child was born here?"' The 69-year-old didn't stop there. In a pointed rebuttal that directly challenged both Obama and Shark Tank billionaire Mark Cuban, who had also criticized the Democratic Party's messaging, Goldberg insisted that criticism of the left was misdirected. 'This has not been about Democrats laying back,' she thundered. Whoopi Goldberg took direct aim at former President Barack Obama , delivering a stunning and unsparing rebuttal that left her fellow co-hosts rattled and the audience in stunned silence Obama made controversial remarks at a private fundraiser, where he urged Democrats to stop 'whining,' ditch 'navel-gazing,' and 'toughen up' following the 2024 election loss 'This has been about y'all. Because their messaging was always the same. Democrats have been angry at what this man tried to do the last time. They've been angry this time. So, with much due respect to you both, I believe you are pointing the finger at the wrong person when you say Democrats.' Co-host Sara Haines attempted to clarify whether Goldberg was differentiating between voters and elected officials, to which she responded emphatically: 'Yes, I am. You're saying that because I agree - voters are very impassioned voters.' Cuban, speaking in a virtual address that aired during the segment, scolded Democratic strategists for reducing their message to a simplistic mantra: 'Trump sucks.' 'We picked the wrong pressure points,' Cuban said. 'It's just "Trump sucks." That's the underlying thought of everything the Democrats do. Trump says the sky is blue. 'Trump sucks.' That's not the way to win.' Co-hosts Ana Navarro and Sunny Hostin tried to offer more nuanced takes urging Democratic officials to produce detailed policy alternatives rather than rely on protest alone. Navarro pointed out how the public resistance to Trump's immigration policies, was actually resulting in a collapse in his polling numbers. 'Right now, Trump's handling on immigration has gone dramatically down,' she noted. 'Why is that? Because the American people have taken it upon themselves to amplify the truth, to show up and protest these horrible, inhumane raids... to tell the truth about what their relatives are going through. 'We have heard the story of US citizen children with cancer who are not getting treatment because they've had to leave with their deported parents. Because the American people are doing their part - amplifying, showing up at protest, donating, organizing, and being vigilant. The ladies of The View were left rattled as Goldberg went on an angry rant on Tuesday's show Goldberg also took aim at Mark Cuban who had also criticized the Democratic Party's messaging. Goldberg insisted that criticism of the left was misdirected The audience sat in stunned silence as Goldberg took aim at former president Barack Obama Co-hosts Ana Navarro tried to offer more nuanced takes urging Democratic officials to produce detailed policy alternatives rather than rely on protest alone 'So, some of us say that Donald Trump sucks. He does suck. And it feels good to say it,' Navarro said to cheers from the audience. Goldberg then turned her ire toward those criticizing flood victims in Texas, in a another rant that was no less emotional. 'Let's be really clear,' Goldberg said, 'You can't blame anybody for these floods. It's nobody's fault. I didn't do it. You didn't do it. Has nothing to do with Washington. This was a natural disaster. 'If you are writing on people's socials where you should be giving, if you're saying these kinds of things - damn you! Damn you! People are trying to get their lives together. These floods are no joke. This is not light humor. This is not how we do in America. We show up for whoever is in trouble. We don't say, "Who did you vote for?" We show up.' The co-founder of retail giant Home Depot said he is 'sold on Trump' after slamming the president's tariffs as 'bulls***' months ago. Billionaire Ken Langone made the surprise about-face during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box Tuesday, adding that Trump 'has a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever.' Langone, 89, had previously said that he was afraid Trump would spend the next four years 'getting even,' admitting he made a 'mistake.' 'I'm happy to say I'm comfortable - he's not doing that,' Langone said Tuesday. The mogul, who had been asked on the show about recent movements in the markets, explained that he's never 'been more excited about the future of America.' 'People are walking with more bounce,' he said. On Monday, stocks recorded gains a day after Trump announced tariffs targeting the European Union and Mexico. Both are the US's top trade partners. The president also vowed the US would impose 100 percent tariffs on countries that engage in trade with Russia if there is no peace deal in Ukraine within 50 days - prompting little more than a shrug on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 was sent to near a record high. Billionaire Ken Langone made the surprise about-face during an interview on CNBC's Squawk Box Tuesday, sayingthat Trump 'has a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever' In April, Langone described Trump's tariffs on Vietnam as 'bulls***' and levies against China 'too aggressive, too soon' Back in April, markets - and moguls - recoiled at Trump's proposed tariffs. '[Trump's] a little pissed off at me because I had the audacity to to say on television about two months ago that I was worried he would engage in retribution,' he told Squawk Box co-hosts Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin. In April, Langone described Trump's tariffs on Vietnam as 'bulls***' and levies against China 'too aggressive, too soon,' in an interview with the Financial Times. 'I don't understand the goddamn formula,' he said at the time. Langone reversed course on Tuesday, saying Trump was 'acting presidential' and that he was 'impressed' with the people the president has got around him. Mentioning the strike on nuclear facilities in Iran and how it had 'had significant symbolic meaning' for the world, Langone added: 'I think the American people are waking up.' 'I think the world is a mess, but it's coming more in our direction than it was,' he said. He added that 'America is here, and when our interests are at risk, we're going to do something about it.' Of Trump, he stated: 'Like it or not, this guy's getting things done.' '[Trump's] a little pissed off at me because I had the audacity to to say on television about two months ago that I was worried he would engage in retribution,' he told Squawk Box co-hosts Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin CNBC stock analyst Jim Cramer declared Home Depot a good buy on Tuesday, due to a recent uptick in home equity withdrawals aimed at funding renovation projects Langone also said the president's newly passed Big Beautiful Bill has a good chance of triggering 'significant economic growth' for the country. 'Let me tell you right now - I am sold on Trump,' he continued. 'In fact, I'll say this: I think he's got a good shot at going down in history as one of our best presidents ever.' CNBC stock analyst Jim Cramer declared Home Depot a good buy on Tuesday, due to a recent uptick in home equity withdrawals aimed at funding renovation projects. For now, the company's are down roughly 8 percent year-to-date. Shares dipped 2 percent Tuesday in afternoon trading. Former MSNBC host Joy Reid attacked Donald Trump voters, claiming they are willing to sacrifice their daughters and called JD Vance an 'a*****e' with 'no personality.' Reid, who was fired from the network in February, made the comments during a recent episode of 'NIGHT SCHOOL with Marc Lamont Hill.' When Hill asked the ousted anchor if the country will move on from MAGA after Trump's second term, she compared the president to a cult leader and claimed his supporters will do anything for him. 'Trump is Jim Jones. You know, it's a religious cult, and he's Jim Jones. It's not like Jim Jones Jr. could could run that cult,' Reid said. She believes Trump voters are willing to sacrifice themselves and their children to keep him in power. 'They will give up their healthcare. They will let their daughters be destroyed. They will let their families be destroyed,' Reid said. 'He can drown them in Texas. He can take away their FEMA. He can do anything he wants to them. There's nothing you can do about it, it's a cult.' She also claimed that the MAGA movement will struggle to find a replacement for Trump because the Vice President is unlikable. Joy Reid attacked Donald Trump voters, claiming they are willing to sacrifice their daughters She compared the president to a cult leader and claimed his supporters will do anything for him 'JD Vance, with his lack of charisma, he's just an a*****e, he has no personality,' Reid said. 'He's the personality of Ron DeSantis. Um, so, no, there is no one else who can run the cult.' Reid even compared Trump voters to those who supported Barack Obama and would only turn out on election day to vote for him. 'There is just an Obama voter that will only vote when Obama is on the ballot and will not vote even below the ballot. They will not vote down ticket, just Obama,' she said. 'Trump has those kinds of voters. They are dedicated to him personally. They care more about him being happy than them being happy. They care more about him having what he wants than them having what they want.' She went on the claim that even when Trump goes away, white voters will continue to support Republicans because they hate Democrats. 'But the problem is, there's the cult and then there is just this propensity among White voters to vote for any Republican and to create an adherence to any Republican because they just hate Democrats, and they don't care,' Reid said. 'No one likes Ted Cruz, but they'll vote for him any day of the week because he is not a Democrat.' Reid also called Vice President JD Vance and 'a*****e' with 'no personality' during a recent episode of 'NIGHT SCHOOL with Marc Lamont Hill' (pictured) Earlier this month, Reid predicted the president will rig the 2026 midterms because the Republican Party's unification behind Trump's signature 'One Big, Beautiful Bill' is a sign that they don't fear being voted out of Congress. 'To me, the fact that Republicans are still voting for the bill tells me that they're not actually worried about being reelected,' Reid told Wajahat Ali on his Substack. 'The way Trump is behaving, he's not acting like somebody who worries that his party will lose power or that even if the party, even if somehow we had normal elections and Democrats took control of either House he's not acting like somebody who's worried about the consequences of that.' She added that Trump's ultimate goal is lifetime rule over the United States. 'I don't think Trump intends to leave office. I'm very clear about that. I think he intends stay in office like Putin till he dies. I think it's going to take an extraordinary movement to get rid of him.' CNN's resident data expert revealed that Donald Trump may be in deep trouble with voters due to his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. Citing a new poll conducted by political research firm SSRS Tuesday, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten showed that half of Americans are unhappy with the amount of information the government has released about Epstein. A full 43 percent of Republican-leaning respondents said they were dissatisfied with case, Enten said, with just 4 percent saying they're satisfied. 'My goodness gracious! When you only have 4 percent that is with Donald Trump on a particular issue, that is ridiculously low,' Enten said during a segment on CNN's News Central. 'I've never seen anything quite like it.' For left-leaning respondents, 60 percent said they were dissatisfied with the case as well and 3 percent said they were satisfied. Enten mentioned that Trump had leaned on the support of conspiracy theorists to get reelected and that he repeatedly promised to release Epstein's case file in full. Last week, the Justice Department released findings stating that Epstein never even kept a 'client list' and that he killed himself in jail. CNN's Harry Enten revealed that Donald Trump may be in deep trouble with voters due to his handling of the Epstein case. Statistics from a new poll show that half of Americans are unhappy with the amount of information the government has released about Epstein Epstein, seen here in 2005, died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on August 10, 2019, from what feds ruled was suicide. In the six years since, several have asked how such an important, surveilled figure managed to take his life without being stopped The announcement earned harsh criticism from leading MAGA figures and fringe theorists who Enten said helped Trump 'rise up from the dead' following his election loss in 2020. 'Donald Trump, from the very beginning, has been pushing conspiracy theories over and over and over again, and he has benefited from them historically,' the data expert said. 'And now, finally, it's coming back to actually bite him.' When asked by host Sara Sidner what the poll indicated overall, Enten replied: 'I would say that the word is dissatisfied. 'That is how Americans feel in terms of the releases so far in the Epstein case.' He highlighted how QAnon's support for Trump in last year's election proved crucial to his win over Kamala Harris, when the Republican repeatedly suggested there was more to the case than meets the eye. Such claims stoked the interests of many, especially on the right. Both Democrats and Republicans are now calling on Trump to make good on his promise. Epstein and Trump are seen together at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in 1997 The DOJ and FBI said no one else will be arrested and charged in connection to Epstein's crimes. When asked by host Sara Sidner what the poll indicated overall, Enten said: 'I would say that the word is dissatisfied' House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday said that the files should be released. The Justice Department's announcement on the findings earned harsh criticism from leading MAGA figures, including Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Laura Loomer. Attorney General Pam Bondi had insisted in February that the Epstein list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review.' She subsequently released Epstein documents to right-wing influencers that turned out to contain no new information. Some critics have called for Bondi to be fired while pointing to the announcement as proof of a conspiracy surrounding Epstein and his associates. Epstein and Trump have were pictured together several times in the '90s and 2000s. Both carved out presences in Manhattan and Palm Beach. In a Saturday Truth Social post, Trump blamed Barack Obama, Hilly Clinton, former FBI boss James Comey and 'the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration' for the Epstein files, painting it as unreliable. He also reiterated the Justice Department's stance that a list of Epstein's old clients did not exist, angering many who voted for him in the process. Enten hit this home with data from a series of older polls, including one of registered voters who believed in conspiracy theories peddled by QAnon. The poll, conducted by nonpartisan Public Religion Research Institute two months before the election, showed Trump beating Harris by a margin of +61. The same poll found registered voters who rejected such conspiracies preferred Harris over Trump by a margin of +16. Surveillance footage released last week to back up the DOJ's claim that disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in a New York City prison cell in August 2019 was likely edited, an analysis from Wired has revealed Another poll showed how registered GOP voters and right-leaning independents who picked Trump in 2024 and 2016 have repeatedly sided with conspiracy theories the president has pushed for years. 'Trump swam in the conspiracy theorist waters for years, and now, finally, the sharks in those waters are coming to try and get him,' Enten said in response. On Saturday, Trump tried to wave off disgruntled voters clamoring for the full case file with a widely ridiculed post to Truth Social. 'Whats going on with my "boys" and, in some cases, "gals"?' asked the president. 'We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and "selfish people are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein.' A report from Wired last week found the surveillance footage released to back up the Justice Department's claim that Epstein killed himself in a New York City prison cell in 2019 was likely edited. Further analysis from the publication revealed a full three minutes of the footage was cut out. Daily Mail contacted the Federal Bureau of Prisons for comment. Political commentator Ana Navarro went after a fellow panelist's racial identity on Monday night's episode of 'CNN NewsNight'. Navarro who is a senior political commentator for CNN as well as a cohost of The View - went head to head with conservative journalist Brad Polumbo over Trump's immigration policies. The heated exchange began when Polumbo called out Navarro for labeling Trump's immigration agenda as a 'reign of terror'. 'I think you're definitely being hyperbolic when you talk about a reign of terror. When the doomsday alarm from Democrats or media critics is always at a ten, it doesn't hit the same,' Polumbo said. Navarro issued a blistering response, saying, 'It might be hyperbolic for you as a white man It's certainly not hyperbolic for me as a Latino.' Polumbo was offended by her comment and accused Navarro of being racially discriminatory, 'Oh okay, so we're being racist now,' he clapped back. Navarro insisted she was not being racist, but Polumbo disagreed. 'To dismiss my opinion for being a white man, is racist,' he responded. The two continued to bicker, with Navarro asking, 'Being a white man is an insult?' and Polumbo responding, 'When you invoke it to dismiss my opinion, yes.' Navarro (pictured) who is a senior political commentator for CNN as well as a cohost of The View - went head to head with conservative journalist Brad Polumbo over Trump's immigration policies The heated exchange began when Brad Polumbo (pictured) called out Navarro for labeling Trump's immigration agenda as a 'reign of terror'. Navarro then asked the conservative, 'Do you think Latinos are living under circumstances that other people may not be right now?' However, before Polumbo could respond, CNN host Abby Philip stepped in to defend Navarro and de-escalate the argument. 'I just want to make a point that, Brad, all shes saying is that her view of the situation is different from yours. I dont think thats an insult,' Philip said. But Polumbo maintained his position that Navarro was being racist, saying, 'She basically said that I'm wrong because I'm a white man.' Philip attempted to wrap the conversation, saying, 'No, no, no She said I see it differently from you which is not an insult. And its also not a racial insult.' A clip of the dramatic back-and-forth has gone viral on X, where many users shared their opinion on the dispute. One user wrote, 'She is a bigot. Why does @CNN and the @TheView allow this behavior. White people should form a class action suit and sue her and these networks!' Another said, 'Being an insufferable, rude woman, makes her opinion invalid.' Some users, however, rushed to Navarro's defense. 'White men are absolute cry babies. They just cannot,' a user wrote in response to Polumbo's reaction. This is certainly not the first time Navarro has gone head-to-head with CNN's guests. In April, an argument between Navarro and a black conservative pundit turned so vicious that the network had to abruptly cut to a commercial break. Navarro and Shermichael Singleton got into a shouting match as they discussed the case of undocumented migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration. The back-and-forth turned quickly ugly after Singleton appeared to mishear something Navarro said and became furious at what he called a comparison between undocumented migrants and African Americans who are the descendants of slaves. 'They are not the same as black people who were brought here against our will!' he shouted. 'They decide to walk their way across the border, there is a big difference!' Phillips then chimed in to tell Singleton, 'I think you actually misheard what she said.' Eventually, CNN host Abby Philip stepped in to defend Navarro and de-escalate the argument Navarro added: 'You think I would say something like that after advocating for black people my entire life?' But the argument continued to escalate, with Singleton sarcastically replying: 'Great. Congratulations. Last time I checked, Im black. Youre not, okay.' Navarro fought back: 'That's right. I'm Latino and my people are being racially profiled.' 'Do I have to remind you the history of my people? Do you really wanna go there?' an agitated Singleton continued. That's when Phillips cut their shouting match and sent the cameras to commercial break. I had a private health assessment through Bluecrest Wellness in September. The results of my 199 check contained a blood pressure measurement, which was highlighted with a red flag and a comment that I was at an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. I thought I might have a stroke at any minute, so was shaking with shock for three hours until my daughter, a nurse, came to see me. She read the report and told me the result was impossible and that Bluecrest should have known this before sending it out to me. The top figure, the systolic measurement, was 140, and the bottom, the diastolic, was 185. The bottom figure can never be higher than the top figure. Readings taken at my GP surgery earlier in 2024 recorded 130 over 72. I expected a full refund because of the anxiety caused, but after going through the complaints process, I was offered only 50. Can you help? D.M., Ipswich. Panic: A reader was left thinking they could suffer a stroke at any moment due to a botched private healthcare check up Sally Hamilton replies: If youd tested your blood pressure on receipt of your scary results, I imagine it would likely have been through the roof. Not a calming prescription for a woman of 80 with a family history of heart attacks. I can understand how an off-the-scale figure gave you such a fright. Luckily, your daughter saw immediately there was a mistake and tried to reassure you. But I wondered why Bluecrest hadnt spotted the error just as quickly and intervened before the paperwork was sent. It wasnt just the BP error that upset you. You were unhappy with the complaints process that followed and the way the company, of which you have been a customer for more than a decade, went silent when you said you werent happy with the 50 payout. On my intervention, Bluecrest investigated swiftly. It admitted the health assessment specialist had mistakenly entered an incorrect number in your report but said this was corrected within three days and you were updated. However, it did confirm it had not responded to your last letter expressing discontent with the conclusion. This was because it considered your complaint closed and had informed you in that correspondence of your right to contact the Care Quality Commission should you be unhappy with the resolution. As a result of your experience, Bluecrest confirms it will now track letters that arrive after a complaint has been closed. It tells me your experience has led it to make improvements to its data input procedures. This includes making enhanced verification checks to stop results being submitted that fall outside expected and physiologically possible ranges, as happened with your BP readings. It is also refunding you the 199 cost of your assessment, offered you a further check free of charge should you want it, and donated 50 to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a charity you support. Openreach is bullying my 87-year-old mother In April, my 87-year-old mother received a request from Openreach to consent to a wayleave agreement relating to the installation of fibre network cables on a route across her property to supply another customer. There was a lot of paperwork to review and she asked me to help. Three days after the first letter, she got a chasing letter saying it had heard nothing. A week later, a third arrived, this time mildly threatening, and a week after that a fourth advising they would take the matter to a tribunal and bemoaning the radio silence on her part. My mother couldnt sleep with worry. I want an apology for the bullying approach. K.T., Norfolk. Sally Hamilton replies: Openreach is behind most of the countrys phone and broadband infrastructure and is used by the likes of BT and Sky. When it needs to install, maintain or repair equipment on private land or inside a property such as a block of flats, it will often need permission from those not benefiting from the service. This comes in the form of wayleaves, which are written legal agreements. For individuals such as your mother, who have never come across these before, it can be bewildering. What might you be signing up to? Scam Watch Oasis fans who missed out on concert tickets are being warned about last minute scams. The band are currently on a sellout tour and will play Wembley, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as shows overseas. Lloyds Bank says fans have lost 2 million buying fake Oasis tickets this year. The bank says 90 per cent of ticket purchase scams take place via fake ads and posts on social media. It warns fans only to buy tickets from official vendors and never to send money to anyone you dont know and have only spoken to on social media. You were particularly aggrieved at the hectoring letters sent to your elderly mother and the lack of response as you tried to find out more from your sickbed. You called the number printed on the correspondence several times and only ever got an answer machine on which you left messages outlining the situation. You emailed, but also had no response. You only heard back from Openreach once you had emailed with the signed agreement on May 5, together with a formal letter of complaint about how the matter had been handled. Now it was Openreachs turn for radio silence. You have chased for a resolution to your complaint, but with no response. I agree it was over the top for Openreach to be sending four letters in a row with little appreciation that recipients might struggle to understand what was being asked of them and who might need to ask for input from family or friends. In some situations, it can be sensible for a property owner to take legal advice before signing a wayleave agreement. Not many lawyers would move as quickly as Openreach was expecting your mother to. Openreach needed her permission because it involved her property being used to provide a service to another homeowner. Standard rates or recompense apply in these situations, which for your mother meant a one-off payment of about 184. But of more importance to her, and you, was an apology and a promise to improve the process. Once I contacted Openreach, it responded at lightning speed, sending a bunch of flowers, a note to say sorry and a promise of a gift card. An Openreach spokesperson says: This was a very unusual and unfortunate situation, and were really sorry for causing such distress. We want to thank K.T. and her mother for their feedback and weve sent them a gesture of goodwill. Were also using their feedback to review and improve our wayleaves processes. Straight to the point In December, I booked a two-night stay in a Liverpool apartment for June through Booking.com. But in March I was told the reservation was cancelled and my 183 would be returned to me. I have supplied all of the information Booking.com has requested numerous times but my money has not been repaid. Last time I called, it could not find the reservation. D.E., via email. Booking.com apologises for the delay and says a technical error deleted it from its system. It is getting confirmation of the charge from you and will then process the refund. *** I Bought a new car from a dealership for 52,000 in December and agreed to pay a 5,000 deposit along with 500 each month on finance. After driving just 200 miles, one of the wheels fell off while I was going over a speed bump. My breakdown cover engineer said the nuts must have been loose. I returned the car to the dealership and would like to either get a new one or get the money back Ive paid so far. Im still paying 500 a month. Ive now had to put a deposit down on a new car. E.D., Leicester. You have been refunded the 6,500 you have so far spent on the vehicle and also been handed back the 7,157 you had splashed out on the deposit for your new car. A new breed of sick scammer is trawling through obituary notices in newspapers and on social media posts to sell fake access to funerals streamed over the internet. These heartless criminals have easy access to publicly available death notices. They then create fake Facebook profiles, posing as family or friends of the recently deceased. After doing this, they contact potential mourners to offer them links to a fake live stream of a funeral for about 10. But after paying, victims cannot log on. The fraudsters also often ask you to support a phoney donation page being set up on behalf of the dead persons family using a trusted fundraising platform such as JustGiving. Any donations are pocketed by criminals. Halde Pottinger, a humanist celebrant who conducts non-religious funeral ceremonies on behalf of half a dozen families a week, says that many of his services are now being targeted by these criminals. Sadly, Halde, from Inverness, has had first-hand experience of this crime, when his older brother Ranald, 42, died a year ago. Targeted: Halde Pottinger received five phoney invitations to watch his brothers funeral online despite attending it in person and it not being streamed over the internet He received five phoney invitations to watch his brothers funeral online despite attending his brothers send-off in person and the ceremony not being streamed over the internet. Halde, 41, says: They waited until an hour before my brothers funeral a time when people are at their most vulnerable. 'I went to turn my phone off and saw five Facebook messages from different accounts offering access to a live-stream of his funeral. The pages included photos and details of my brother. It was shocking. After the service, he discovered that other family members had also been targeted, including a niece who was befriended by a scammer. Online funerals became common during the pandemic when ceremonies were often streamed over the internet because social distancing rules meant it wasnt possible for all family and friends to attend in person. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) says that over the past couple of years, there has been a growth in what it calls a disturbing scam. Katherine Hart, from the CTSI, says: Targeting people during one of the most emotionally difficult moments of their lives is despicable. It is particularly upsetting as victims often feel they cannot report what is happening for fear of adding further stress to grieving families. The criminals count on their silence. Trade body the National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) believes that many victims do not report the crime, while some may not realise it was a scam at all. So it is hard to gauge numbers affected. However, it says live streaming and fundraising scams are on the rise. Halde fears that vulnerable people may be more likely to fall victim as they might struggle to get to a funeral in person and be less aware of internet scams. He says: It is sick and disgusting. The more tragic a death such as if someone dies young, a suicide or the death occurred in particularly unexpected circumstances then the more it seems to attract scammers. 'Fewer people will come forward to admit they have been swindled when the death was particularly tragic. Dead links: Scammers are creating fake Facebook profiles, posing as family or friends of the recently deceased, to offer fake streaming of funeral ceremonies The CTSI says there are no circumstances when you should be charged to attend a funeral either in person or for a live stream. It is concerned at how criminals are able to set up fake Facebook pages in the name of recently deceased people to lure in subscribers, and contact victims directly through social media messaging. It wants more robust vetting measures to be put in place by the social media firms. It is also alarmed that people are being asked to donate money through fundraising websites such as JustGiving, with criminals seemingly finding it easy to set up fake accounts on behalf of the deceaseds family or even funeral directors. The CTSI says: Never share personal or banking information in response to unsolicited messages. Be cautious of friend requests or messages from unfamiliar profiles, even if they appear to be mutual friends. Stealing images of people from the internet and setting up a fake website in their memory requires only basic computer skills. Halde also fears that many criminals may not have finished with you after taking a donation but will mark you out as being a person who might be susceptible to being scammed again. He says: After the initial fraud, these criminals might well contact you again. If they can get hold of your bank details and other personal information, such as your full name, date of birth and address, you could become a victim of identity theft. Criminals can sell your personal information on the dark web, with IDs typically being sold from about 10. If bank details are stolen, it may be possible for them to go on a spending spree even taking out credit cards and loans in your name, as they empty your bank account. Donations: Authorities are concerned that criminals are setting up fake fundraising accounts on websites such as JustGiving Andrew Judd, chief executive of the NAFD, says: Scamming people who are grieving for the loss of a loved one is reprehensible, but the reality is that we have heard about more of these cases from our members recently. Instead of clicking on anything that claims to be asking for donations, please just check with the family or the funeral director to see whether it is legitimate. If a funeral really is being live streamed, a trusted funeral director will be able to provide a genuine link and talk about concerns. A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, says: We are continually investing in protections against fraud for those using our platforms and work closely with law enforcement to support investigations. 'We encourage our community to report activity such as this to us and the police, so that we can take action. A JustGiving spokesperson says: As a regulated payments company, we take the safety and security of our users extremely seriously. 'We have monitoring systems and fraud detection measures in place to identify and mitigate suspicious activity. These controls are regularly reviewed and updated in line with industry best practices and regulatory requirements. Our terms of service strictly prohibit fraudulent activity. We work closely with law enforcement and other relevant authorities to investigate and take action against any misuse of our platform. We provide clear guidance to donors and campaign organisers on staying safe online. Barclays has been fined 42million by Britain's financial watchdog over its 'poor handling' of money laundering risks. The Financial Conduct Authority on Wednesday imposed fines related to two separate failings linked to Barclays' dealings with wealth manager WealthTek and gold bullion business Stunt & Co. Both failed businesses have been the subject of criminal investigations. The FCA fined Barclays 39.3million for 'failing to adequately manage money laundering risks' related to providing banking services to Stunt & Co, which was run by socialite James Stunt. Barclays 'did not gather enough information' after starting its relationship with the business and did not carry out 'proper' ongoing monitoring, the FCA said. During this period, Stunt & Co received 46.8million from Fowler Oldfield, a 'multimillion-pound money laundering operation'. The FCA said Barclays failed to properly consider the money laundering risks 'even after receiving information from law enforcement about suspected money laundering through Fowler Oldfield, and after learning that the police had raided both firms'. Fined: Barclays has been fined 42m by Britain's financial watchdog In March, James Stunt was cleared of taking part in a 200million money laundering plot. Barclays was fined a further 3.1million after it failed to check it had enough information to understand the money laundering risk before opening a client money account for now-collapsed WealthTek, the FCA said. It said the lender failed to recognise that WealthTek was not permitted by the FCA to hold client money, before clients deposited 34million into the firms account. Barclays has agreed to make a voluntary payment of 6.3million to WealthTeks clients who are facing a shortfall. Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: 'The consequences of poor financial crime controls are very real they allow criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes, and they allow fraudsters to defraud consumers. 'Banks need to take responsibility and act promptly, particularly when obvious risks are brought to their attention. 'In the first of these cases, Barclays secured a significant reduction in its fine through its extensive co-operation with our investigation and through making a voluntary payment to affected consumers at our request.' A spokesperson for Barclays told This is Money: 'Barclays remains deeply committed to the fight against financial crime and fraud. 'The FCAs investigation relating to Stunt & Co was centred around historical money laundering activity and made no findings that the bank had breached money laundering regulations. 'As acknowledged by the FCA, Barclays undertook an extensive review and self-reported its findings to the FCA. 'Barclays fully cooperated with both investigations and has further strengthened its financial crime and other control capabilities.' The FCA flagged financial crime as a key supervisory focus for UK retail banks in 2024 and said it would continue pushing firms to improve systems and oversight. Last year, the FCSA fined Barclays 40million over the bank's conduct during a fundraising drive in 2008, which it described as 'reckless' and lacking integrity. The FCA said the bank failed to disclose arrangements with Qatari investors when it was looking to raise money at the height of the financial crisis. Earlier this month, Monzo was fined 21million by the FCA over weak financial crime controls, after it allowed customers to register for accounts with 'implausible' home addresses including 10 Downing Street, Buckingham Palace and Monzos own headquarters. Fresh US tariffs are set to be imposed on copper imports from 1 August Miner says it faced $300m first half aluminum hit from US tariffs Rio Tinto expects annual copper output to come in at the top end of forecasts, just as President Donald Trump prepares to slap hefty tariffs on US imports of the metal. The mining giant, which this week named iron ore boss Simon Trott as its next chief executive, told investors on Wednesday that 2025 copper output has been boosted by the 'continued successful ramp up' of its Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia. Rio Tinto is making progress towards making the mine the fourth largest in the world by 2030. It also expects 'good performance' at Escondida in Chile the world's largest. The group now expects copper output to hit the top end of a 780,000 to 850,000 tonne forecast, while 'good cost controls' are set to drive the cost of production lower than initially forecast. It follows upheaval in copper markets amid the threat of 50 per cent tariffs set to be imposed on US imports from 1 August In response, a wide gap has opened between the price of the metal traded in the US compared to prices in London as exports from other countries become less appealing. Rio Tinto wants its Oyu Tolgoi site to become the world's fourth largest copper mine by 2030 As Trump ploughs ahead with efforts to force greater onshoring of US industry, Rio Tinto already suffered a 300million tariff hit within its Canadian aluminium business in the first half. However, this was partially offset by US premiums for the metal. The group also reported its strongest second-quarter iron ore production since 2018. It boasted a 13 per cent sequential rise in second-quarter production after rebounding from extreme weather-related disruptions earlier this year. The world's largest iron ore producer shipped 79.9 million metric tonnes (Mt) of the steel-making commodity from its Pilbara operations in the three months ended June 30, up from 70.7 Mt shipped in the March quarter. However, this fell just short of guidance. Outgoing boss Jakob Stausholm said: 'We delivered excellent operational performance from our mine operations. 'We will continue to drive progress towards our long-term strategy to deliver profitable growth and build a stronger, more diversified business.' Rio Tinto shares were 1.2 per cent to 4,398.5p by midmorning, having lost 13.4 per cent over the last 12 months. Adam Vettese, market analyst at eToro, said: 'Overall, the results highlight Rio's quality asset base and improving diversification but challenges in optimising system capacity and delivering higher-quality product remain areas to watch. 'Investors will be looking for continued improvement in execution heading into H2, particularly in iron ore shipments, to unlock full value from the stronger underlying production performance and hope to see this trigger a reversal in the prevailing trend direction of the shares.' The chief executive of embattled booze giant Diageo will step down after two years marred by profit warnings, supply woes and a sharp fall in market value. Diageo, which owns Guinness as well as Johnnie Walker whisky and Gordon's gin, on Wednesday revealed finance chief Nik Jhangiani will take the reins on an interim basis after Debra Crew stepped down with immediate effect. The Wednesday afternoon update followed shortly after a report in the Financial Times claimed Diageo was on the hunt for Crew's successor. Diageo told investors Crew had stepped down 'by mutual consent' and it has already started a 'comprehensive formal search process' that will consider both internal and external candidates. Chair John Manzoni said: 'The board's focus is on securing the best candidate to lead Diageo and take the company forward.' Crew became chief executive in June 2023, having served as a non-executive director, president of Diageo North America and group chief operating officer. Diageo CEO Debra Crew exits 'by mutual consent' after two years Diageo shares, which have lost more than 40 per cent since the beginning of June 2023, added 2.8 per cent on Wednesday afternoon. The group, like many firms in the sector, has seen weaker sales as cash-strapped and health-conscious drinkers have turned away from premium booze in recent years. It is also shouldering the impact of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US trade tariffs, while supply issues last year saw UK pubs run short of Guinness. In response, Diageo launched the first phase of its Accelerate programme, which it expects to deliver about $3billion in free cash flow each year from 2026, supported by $500million in cost savings over three years. Manzoni said: 'On behalf of Diageo and the board, I would like to thank Debra for her contributions to Diageo, including steering the company through the challenging aftermath of the global pandemic and the ensuing geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility. 'We strongly believe Diageo is well placed to deliver long-term, sustainable value creation.' Verushka Shetty, equity analyst at Morningstar, said the positive market reaction to the news is unsurprising. She added: 'Crew assumed the role in a declining environment, and conditions have worsened since. 'Key bumps in the road for Diageo include mismanaged inventory in Latin America, missed targets, and tariff headwinds. 'Diageos entire portfolio is the strongest in the industry, based on aggregate brand power. We think Diageos current focus on cash generation and portfolio streamlining will put the firm in a better position to secure growth opportunities as the environment improves.' Millions of Premium Bonds holders are owed prizes worth up to 100,000 that they have yet to claim, Money Mail analysis shows. For the first time on record, the total number of prizes yet to be claimed has tipped beyond 100 million, at National Savings & Investments (NS&I). There are 2,598,139 unclaimed prizes ranging from 25 to 100,000 totalling 103,270,175 as of this month. This sum has ballooned 21.9 per cent compared with this time last year, with some unclaimed prizes dating back as far as November 1957. Why have unclaimed prizes hit 100million? Premium Bonds are one of the most popular ways to save some 24 million Britons hold them. Deposits are 100 per cent backed by the Treasury and prizes are tax-free. But as millions of prizes are paid out every month, some go unclaimed despite NS&I offering an array of alerts and the option to pay winnings into a nominated bank account. Unclaimed: For the first time on record, the total number of prizes yet to be claimed has tipped beyond 100 million, at National Savings and Investments NS&I explained most unclaimed prizes are being won by holders who have not registered their details or have moved without telling us and their cheques are being returned. A spokesperson added: Prizes are considered to be unclaimed after 18 months, so gradually accumulate every month. Of the 32,289 unclaimed prizes in January 2024 the most recent draw for which prizes are now being classed as unclaimed the majority were sent to winners as cheques. Sylvia Morris, Money Mails savings expert, explains: Hundreds of thousands of cheques are still sent out each month. At one in ten prizes paid by cheque, thats around 600,000 cheques sent out in July alone. It is those people who have prizes sent in the post moving house or moving into care homes and not updating details who are missing out. NS&I had attempted to phase out paying prizes by cheque and pay all directly to customers bank accounts in 2020, but scrapped the plan in 2021. NS&I insists Premium Bonds prizes are never lost and it will pay out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the bonds were purchased. A spokesperson says: We want to reunite Premium Bonds holders with their winnings. 'Thats why we frequently publicise unclaimed prizes and encourage bond holders to use our prize checkers, register old paper bonds, and use our tracing service to track down mislaid bonds. Your browser does not support iframes. Where are these winners based? Bond holders in the South-East have the highest number of unclaimed prizes a total of 389,713 worth nearly 15 million. Next is London with 386,616 unclaimed prizes worth 15.3 million. No 1 million prizes are unclaimed. NS&I uses a dedicated staff member named Agent Million who knock on winners doors and help track down those who scoop a jackpot. The highest value individual unclaimed prizes are worth 100,000 and there are 11 of them. Stockport is home to one of these top prizes, handed out in the September 2010 draw. A further two are owed to winners based in London, two in the North-West, one in Scotland, and a further two in the South-West and West Midlands. Three unclaimed 100,000 winners are located overseas or in an unknown location. The oldest unclaimed prize is 25 won in November 1957 by a winner from Yorkshire and the Humber. There are 432,052 prizes worth 19.4 million owed to those overseas or dubbed by NS&I as location unknown. This is where a bond holder has either not registered their bonds or contact details are out of date and NS&I has not been informed. Your browser does not support iframes. How do you trace unclaimed prizes? If you think you may have an unclaimed prize, check using NS&Is online prize checker or the prize checker app. Go to NS&I's prize-checker here You will need to know your bond or NS&I number to use this service. If you have neither, you can use NS&Is dedicated tracing service by post or online. NS&I doesnt actively track down prize winners but has a small team that will help trace old bond numbers when contacted via this link. They should be able to help even if you have moved address and do not know where your bonds are registered or if you have lost old paper certificates. The NS&Is tracing team recently united a family in Scotland with a 100,000 prize belonging to their relative who had passed away with scant details. The family got in touch with the tracing team for help ascertaining if their relative had ever won a prize. It was discovered hed won the six-figure sum in June 2013 from a 10 bond. Held: NS&I insists Premium Bonds prizes are never lost and it will pay out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the bonds were purchased A spokesperson said: Our tracing team does additional checks for customers with high-value prizes to see if they can be matched to new addresses. NS&I needs to ensure that it uses taxpayer money wisely while balancing the interests of savers, taxpayers and the broader financial services sector. It is therefore important people keep us up to date with their contact and bank details. NS&I has a service called MyLostAccount, which is associated with UK Finance and the Building Societies Association. It can be used to trace old accounts with other providers as well as NS&I. If you have an ancient Premium Bond and want to check if it has won any prizes, you can register an original paper bond online or by calling NS&I on 08085 007 007. If you do not have internet access or cant print off a form, you can phone NS&I and it will post a form to you. You can also write to the Tracing Service, NS&I, Sunderland SR43 2SB, providing your full name and current address, address at the time you invested and, crucially, any other previous addresses, your previous name if it has changed through marriage or divorce, when you opened your account and the amount you invested. You can also add any other information you think might be relevant to track down the bonds. People can also ask to trace bonds for someone else if they have power of attorney or are an executor of a will. Have you been reunited with a lost Premium Bonds prize? moneymail@dailymail.co.uk. They descend on clinics all over Miami, this daily wave of women seeking to reshape their lives by reshaping their curves. The arrivals pass by those who've had the operation and are leaving heavily padded and walking gingerly in a constant churn in the city that has become the world epicenter of the Brazilian Butt Lift. But for some, they are dicing with death. The recently announced passing of young Louisiana police officer Wildelis Rosa in Miami from a BBL has sharpened the focus on the procedure where the quest for looks really can kill those trusting the wrong people. Now, DailyMail.com can unmask the inside story on the horrors that still await some unsuspecting women who fly to the Magic City for a BBL despite the industry's good guys' largely successful efforts to make it safer. In an astonishing catalogue of shady practices in the production line of some rogue clinics, we can reveal: Potential patients often have no initial physical exam but are 'diagnosed' for treatment in a virtual consultation by receptionists after being asked to provide photos of their butt. Surgeons fly into Miami from other American cities for an exhausting week of money-spinning operations, creating deadly risks by performing far more than is safe each day. If a clinic has had a series of complaints against it, the owners simply shut it down and start again with a new name at the same address. 'Recovery homes', where patients recuperate, can be seedy Airbnb's without a medic in sight, small warehouses filled with air mattresses or even a horse barn. Disreputable surgeons' con patients by claiming accreditation to a medical board they have simply invented. More than 15,000 women a year from around the world descend on Miami for a BBL. Many are attracted by a stay in the Florida sunshine and being at the hands of a renowned surgeon. The city of Miami is known for its nightlife allure and being the hotspot of the BBL industry where 15,000 women descend every year for the op, some risking risk their lives at the hands of potentially shady surgeons to achieve the ultimate body It's a common sight to see women gingerly walking out of medical offices heavily padded with surgical drains emerging beneath their shorts to manage their built-up fluids Women often leave BBL clinics in wheelchairs, struggling to walk. But despite the painful recovery and rising death toll, many are approved for surgery without a physical exam - just a virtual consult with a receptionist who reviews butt photos However, others are lured by shockingly cut-price surgery offered by some clinics as they vie for business on the internet as little as $2,000 compared with up to $18,000 for a top end operation. The surgery involves taking fat from the hips, lower back and abdomen through liposuction then injecting small amounts into the glutes giving the buttocks a curvier appearance. Most deaths typically occur when the doctor accidentally injects the fat into a vein which then lethally moves to either the heart or lungs. New Orleans PD cop and Army reservist Rosa died that way, according to her autopsy report obtained by DailyMail.com. The 26-year-old had just returned from deployment in Kuwait when she had her $7,500 surgery at Prestige Plastic Surgery in the Coral Gables area of Miami. Over two days, we observed the comings and goings at several clinics spread across the city, including four who have experienced BBL deaths. At one of the busiest, Seduction, in the Little Havana district of Miami, cars and minivans came and went picking up BBL patients throughout the day. It advertises the op for 'between' $6,000 and $12,000. It is also where Tennessee mom-of-five Erica Russell died during a BBL in 2021. According to a wrongful death lawsuit, her surgeon Dr. John Sampson performed six BBLs starting at 6.32am before Russell's at 8.32pm. Sampson and the clinic deny negligence in a legal response to the lawsuit filed in Miami Dade County Court. Sampson also denies not having 'appropriate control' of the surgical instrument he was using for the op. The case is set for jury trial in January, 2026. Ten women died from BBL blunders at various clinics in Miami that year. So far in 2025 it has been two Rosa and Las Vegas mom-of-one Ahmonique Miller, 28, who died from a lethal mix of drugs administered in an unlicensed recovery home. Disturbingly, BBL-related deaths are becoming more common. In one recent case, Louisiana cop Wildelis Rosa died after a $7, 500 procedure when fat was mistakenly injected into a vein and traveled fatally to a vital organ, which has raised renewed scrutiny on the industry Many women have died in shady Airbnb 'recovery homes' rented by clinics, often with no medical staff. Some are crammed with air mattresses in tiny warehouses or even repurposed horse barns (PICTURED: Where Wildelis Rosa died) Women who dream of getting curves often come to Miami because of the allure of cheaper prices. Typically, these clinics offer price-cut surgeries that range from $2000 to $18,000 DailyMail.com visited outside one of the busiest clinics for BBL surgeries offering procedures between $6,000 and $12,000 where heaps of women were observed being picked up post-op by minivans and cars Pioneering plastic surgeon Dr. Pat Pazmino has been at the forefront of reducing those deaths from fat clogging an organ. He developed a cheap ultrasound system for surgeons allowing them to see inside the body and greatly decrease the chance of hitting an artery with a fat injection. Its use was signed into Florida state law in 2023. But he still paints a picture of terrifying lawlessness and negligence in the industry among some practices who flout the legislation and callously bend the rules, sometimes lethally, for profit. From his office in the trendy Brickell area of Miami the Harvard-educated doctor warned: 'It's like a game of Whack-a-Mole. You solve one problem and another pops up. 'There's no silver bullet to this. People are still being drawn to operations that are dangerously cheap, that cut corners and risk lives.' In a series of astonishing revelations, the doctor who works with other surgeons collating information to banish the rogues from his industry continued: 'Patients tell us that when they reach out to the very cheap clinics on social media, the clinic will tell them go ahead and send your pictures. 'And then the receptionist or the patient coordinator, who is not trained in medicine, will go ahead and tell the patient what they think they need and sign them up for surgery and collect the payment. 'And this person could be in St. Louis and the clinic will be in Miami. And no one's physically examined. Pioneering plastic surgeon Dr. Pat Pazmino told DailyMail.com that some sections of the industry in Miami are lawless and that some clinics blend rules and risk the lives of their patients for profit Dr. Pazmino (pictured) also said that other doctors that conduct the procedures aren't even present for their patients post operation because they're flown out to Miami by the clinic, leaving the care of the patient up in the air Tennessee mom-of-five Erica Russell died in 2021 after her surgeon performed six surgeries that day, starting at 6.32am with hers last at 8.32pm Russell's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her surgeon, Dr. John Sampson (pictured), and Seduction Cosmetic Center in the Little Havana district 'It's terrible because that receptionist, they're assessing the patient. They're coming up with some kind of judgment. They're coming up with a diagnosis and they're eventually formulating a treatment plan. 'So, clinics that are doing that are illegally using non-medical personnel to illegally practice medicine.' Of the scalpel-for-hire surgeons, he revealed: 'What's very common is that these clinics will often attract doctors from other cities that will fly into Miami for a week, do surgery, and then leave. 'No appropriate plastic surgeon would ever practice that way. I would be thinking the whole time, what's going to happen to the patient once I leave? Who's going take care of that patient? 'And many of these clinics say they will do a BBL in one hour. I teach this procedure, and it takes me at least two hours. Ninety percent of it is liposuction, which is very physically demanding. It requires a lot of strength. 'Using fitness trackers, we've estimated performing one BBL is the equivalent of a 45-minute spin class. Some of these clinics are getting 70 or even 80-year-old surgeons doing large numbers of BBLs each day. Can a 70-year-old do the equivalent of multiple spin classes a day and not make a mistake? 'Some patients report that they were wheeled into the operation room at 9pm and the doctor had started working at 6am.' Pazmino, who is regularly updated with testimony reports to the Florida Board of Medicine and attends its meetings, disclosed horrifying details on some 'recovery homes' that pop up in Miami. Fat is first harvested from the hips, lower back, abdomen, thighs and other areas via liposuction. Special equipment is used to prepare it for transfer before it is injected directly into the glutes at specific points, giving the buttocks a bigger, curvier appearance Another danger in the BBL industry is cheap surgery packages that promise aftercare. Since patients often can't walk and are in severe pain, the offer sounds appealing - but in reality, some end up on mattresses in barns with little to no proper care PICTURED: The recovery home where Ahmonique Miller died in Miami Most BBL patients struggle to walk and battle through the pain of the first few hours, when they need the utmost care and attention. However, establishments provide a cheap BBL 'package' which at times are lethally and depressingly dangerous in their own right. 'These clinics will get an Airbnb for a month and fill it. They'll try to get in as many patients as they can. We've also heard about warehouses being rented out in that way too. They'll put down air mattresses, because they are portable and very cheap. 'But the worst so far is a budget clinic package where aftercare was included. Patients were attracted to that because it sounds like an incredible deal. 'But after surgery they were brought to what they were told was an aftercare center, yet in reality was a barn for horses with mattresses on the floor. That's where they were told to lie and recover. 'It was not sterile, it was filthy and there was no nursing staff. This is going on all the time.' Pazmino warned prospective patients considering a BBL to research not only the name of the clinic they are considering but, crucially, the address. 'When a clinic has many complications and maybe a death their name becomes toxic on the internet. So what they do is just change the name and keep going until a number of patients are hurt again,' he said. 'The same people, the same practices.' He also urged patients to minutely check a surgeon's credentials and warned of make-up artists. Police officer Rosa got her surgery done at Prestige Plastic Surgery (pictured). When she was transported to the aftercare clinic after being watched for a mere hour by medical staff post-op, it was her friend Zavaris Leon-Moctevuma who took care of her rather than a doctor After days of pain, struggling to breathe and a drop in blood pressure in the shower, Rosa's (pictured) friend Leon-Moctevuma desperately tried in vain to revive her with CPR when she found her unresponsive in bed Rosa, who was also an Army reservist, had told the clinic multiple times in those four days leading up to her death when she came in for a lymphatic massage that the oxycodone she was given hadn't helped with the pain and that she was losing sensation in her toes 'You should look for the correct board certification, the American Board of Plastic Surgery,' he said. 'Because there are surgeons who come up with their own boards. 'So they say, I'm certified with the American Board of Abdominal Surgery. And the patient thinks, that's great. What they don't realize is it's completely made up, dishonest and dangerous. This is important, because someone can be a surgeon, but not have the expertise in this area. This is an ongoing problem.' Despite safeguards passing into Florida law, 'unfortunately patients are still dying from BBLs in Miami, with organ injuries, infections, poor after care. So these are things we have to focus on now.' Echoing Pazmino's aftercare concerns, DailyMail.com's investigation reveals a heartbreaking countdown to death for latest BBL victim Rosa at her down-at-heel looking Airbnb while she was being attended by a friend. It happened in March, but her family only revealed the tragedy late June. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's report shows Zavaris Leon-Moctevuma battled in vain to save Rosa with CPR when she was 'unresponsive' at 7am following four days of agony. Leon-Moctevuma was the sole caretaker. There was no medical staff at the single-story house on a small side street of modest homes half a mile from Prestige Plastic Surgery in Coral Gables. Rosa arrived in the city on March 18 without telling her family and the surgery took place next day. She was kept in the post-op room for one hour then discharged to the Airbnb, says the report. Another woman who died from her BBL was Ahmonique Miller (pictured), 28, who passed away just hours after undergoing plastic surgery in Florida. Her death was attributed to a lethal combination of prescription medication and designer street drugs Miller had her surgery done at Avana Plastic Surgery, where Rosa also got hers done, located inside a large nondescript building in the north of the city, on March 7 The next day, the cop took oxycodone before her follow up appointment, where she complained it wasn't nulling the excruciating pain. She was given a lymphatic massage, which removes excess fluid, and sent back to the Airbnb. Leon-Moctevuma helped her take a shower, where her blood pressure fell and she started to have trouble breathing, adds the report. The following day Rosa continued to battle for breath and 'complained that her glutes were hard'. Twenty-four hours later Rosa was still battling for breath. She had another lymphatic massage at the clinic and returned to the Airbnb 'where she complained of not feeling well and having no sensation in her toes'. Leon-Moctevuma attempted to help her by getting her snacks to help her sugar levels, tried to build iron levels by cooking her liver and showered her. At 7am on Sunday, March 23 the friend went to check on Rosa and found her unconscious in bed. She rang 911 and battled in vain to save her friend with the kiss of life before emergency services arrived. The report said Rosa, a native of Buffalo, New York, lived alone and it appeared she was 'not happy' at times and had made a therapist appointment. Her official cause of death is recorded as pulmonary embolism due to deep venous thromboses associated with cosmetic surgery. A fatal cocktail of drugs at a 'recovery' house killed other 2025 BBL victim Ahmonique Miller, 28, according to her Miami Dade Medical Examiner's report, obtained by DailyMail.com. She had her op at Avana Plastic Surgery, located inside a large nondescript building with other businesses in the north of the city, on March 7. Miller had gone with her sister Kiera Barnes as both planned to have the operation done on March 6. But the 28-year-old mother had requested extra surgeries, and when she was denied by her original doctor, she sought out another at the same clinic who was willing to do it Ahmonique, the mother of a one-year-old daughter (pictured), would die just hours later at an unlicensed post-surgical recovery facility operating under the name Keyla's Recovery House And the medical report highlights the flexible nature of some quarters of Miami's BBL world. Miller arrived with her sister Kiera Barnes on March 6. Both planned to have the op that day. But Miller wanted extra work done. Her surgeon refused, saying he 'wasn't comfortable with that many surgeries in one day'. However, she found another surgeon with the same company 'who agreed to perform the surgery for an additional $1,500'. After the op she was taken to the unlicensed Keyla's Recovery House, a few blocks from bustling Calle Oche in Little Havana and run by Keyla Oliver. Her sister had already had her surgery. 'There are several accounts of what occurred after she arrived at the facility,' says the report. 'Per the decedent's sister, the owner gave the decedent an unknown amount of the sister's muscle relaxers and two Percocet tablets from an unlabeled bottle... because her medication was not ready.' Later that day 'the owner' said she tried to wake Miller, but she didn't respond. The cause of death is recorded as acute combined drug toxicity (Oxycodone and Bromazolam). Percocet contains oxycodone and Bromazolam is a mind-altering designer drug that has never been marketed for medical use. When DailyMail.com knocked on the door of the home to speak with owner Oliver, there was no response, despite two cars being on the driveway. But her attorney Bob Pardo told DailyMail.com: 'We do not comment on pending investigations. 'That said, Ms. Oliver has expressed her deepest condolences and prayers for the family and loved ones of the deceased.' Prestige Plastic Surgery said no one would be available for immediate comment on Tuesday but have not responded since. Avana Plastic Surgery did not respond to a request for a statement nor did the Florida Department of Health, which regulates the ops, despite repeated attempts to obtain one. Residents living in the shadow of a cemetery where developers want to build luxury homes over dead bodies have accused their council of 'taking them for fools' after it emerged a full exhumation did not take place as promised. Calls are mounting to block the council's plans to build 20 homes over 11 'sacred' gravestones, including one belonging to a baby, at Tunbridge Wells Cemetery in Benhall Mill Road. Some 15 paupers were buried between 1873-1928 and it was previously revealed how Tunbridge Wells Borough Council had moved to exhume all of the bodies in 2020 amid plans to build over the former burial site. But a Freedom of Information request, submitted by campaign group Friends of the Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, today reveals that only four of the 15 bodies were exhumed between September 28 and October 6 2020. The graves dug for full exhumation with permission from the Ministry of Justice were named as George Langridge, Maria Thomsett, George Cross and George Payne. It means that at least 11 others, including baby Frances Sarah Day, are still potentially buried underneath the ground at the depot where the council plans to build the 16 houses and four flats. The revelation has sparked accusations that the council has kept residents in the dark, with locals saying it is 'incredibly disrespectful' and 'immoral' to build over land where not all the bodies have been removed. Documents seen by MailOnline show the Ministry of Justice issued directions for the exhumation, which included the demand: 'You must remove all human remains from the area hatched on the attached plan prior to starting any development work.' Following the revelation that only four bodies had been exhumed, campaigner Justin Quinn told MailOnline: 'It's insulting to be told one thing by the local council only to find out via a Freedom of Information request that the facts are very different. 'Many of us in the local community are emboldened by the sense that regardless of the questionable moral and legal implications of the development, we don't like being taken for fools. Residents living in the shadow of a cemetery where developers want to build luxury homes over dead bodies have accused their council of 'taking them for fools'. Pictured: Justin Quinn (right) and a group of campaigners Calls are mounting to block the council's plans to build 20 homes over 11 gravestones, including one belonging to a baby, at Tunbridge Wells Cemetery (pictured) in Benhall Mill Road Pictured is the working part of Tunbridge Wells Borough Cemetery and Chapel A gravestone has been erected for the 'reinterred remains of 15 paupers'. Locals say the memorial gravestone is designed to reinforce the message that 'it's all been dealt with' Developers have released sketches of the homes they want to build over the burial plots The campaigners only submitted the FOI after those working on the exhumation told elderly neighbours they thought the remains were buried too deep to find. This allowed them to 'uncover the truth that there are still people buried in the ground where these houses are to be built', Mr Quinn added. 'Our hunch is they are trying to keep it as quiet as possible because they are aware it wouldn't be a popular if people knew what the situation was.' Athanasios Sermbezis, whose parents-in-law are buried together in the working part of the cemetery, is among those fighting to block development on the land which lies within the walls of the working cemetery but is now used as a maintenance depot. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, the 79-year-old said: 'My children were born and live in Tunbridge Wells. My grandchildren were born and live in Tunbridge Wells so obviously to us the cemetery is a very sacred place. The names of those still presumed to be in the cemetery Frances Sarah Day, 1873, (baby) Richard Geer, 1874 Dennis Geer, 1873 Rebecca West 1873 Joseph Austen, 1874 Charles Lee, 1874 Sarah Morley, 1877 William Henry Everest, 1879 Martha Wheeler, 1875 Maria Batting, 1875 Thomas Batting, 1918 Sarah Batting, 1928 Advertisement 'For them to try and hush us and do it so quickly without really providing the evidence that has been cleared. 'My concern is why they are trying to get planning permission and do this when there are people buried there. 'We think from a religious point of view, it is immoral to build something on the top of a burial, even if it is an old burial. It is not morally right to build something where there are dead bodies. 'People might say 'we don't care, we need houses'. Yes we need houses but not on top of dead people.' More than 30 Tunbridge Wells residents have also raised objections to the plans. One resident Tamara Galloway wrote: 'As someone with my grandparents, both my parents and my uncle buried in Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, I'm appalled by this application to build houses on part of this working cemetery. 'The investigations carried out recently did not find all the people buried here. Since these graves were unmarked, there may well be others buried here whose names were not recorded.' Campaigner Robin Parsons, a member of Friends of Tunbridge Wells Cemetery, said: 'I am horrified that you are proposing to build houses over the area in the Cemetery designated as the burial ground of paupers. We know that not all the bodies have been removed. 'What you are proposing is incredibly disrespectful. Would you be doing this if famous or influential people were buried there? 'If the Council wants to erect houses, it should not be at the expense of the cemetery which remains one of the most beautiful areas of Tunbridge Wells.' Another resident, Elaine Lawrence, wrote: 'I particularly can not believe you can build on any burial ground let alone consecrated ground! Please stop this madness! And think of the huge impact on relatives of those buried and instead of a sanctuary of peace it will become a place of noise dirt and lost habitat for wildlife.' Mr Sermbezis, who came from Greece to the UK in the early 1970s, said the land earmarked for development lies within the walls of the cemetery. He said: 'The Church of England in the 1800s would not accept dead people in their cemetery if they were catholic, poor, or if they committed suicide. 'So they created a small space in the corner of the cemetery to put people who did not conform with the church. 'The land was later donated to the council, who are custodians of it.' In total, 15 bodies were buried in the small patch of land, including one of a baby. Pictured: Justin Quinn (right) with members of campaign group Friends of the Tunbridge Wells Cemetery Pictured is the depot on Benhall Mill Road which is used for storing equipment and maintaining the graveyard. Developers want to build homes there Horrified residents say it is disrespectful and immoral to build over the top of the bodies. Pictured is the working part of the cemetery A letter notifying locals about plans to build the 20 houses in one section of the cemetery Locals have spoken of their anger, believing that some of the bodies are still buried in this part of the cemetery where developers want to build In total, 15 bodies were buried in the small patch of land, including one of a baby, but only one four have been exhumed Sketches show the plans to build homes on land where its feared there are still dead bodies buried In 2019, the then-Conservative council applied for permission to build 11 houses on the land in the cemetery. They were told they had to take precautions to exhume all of the bodies and bury them in the main cemetery. However, the now-Liberal Democrat-run council only found four of the 15 bodies. Mr Sermbezis added: 'Out of those four bodies, one of those was called George Cross, we didn't have his name in our records. 'Either they invented it or they found another body. 'But their excuse is that they found the bodies. We are saying if you only found four, you have to go back and find the other 11. 'I am Greek. In Greece they have just discovered Alexander the Great's father. And your talking about 1000 years ago they have been missing. Bones don't disappear that quickly.' The area in red marks where the gravestones of the paupers lie within the Tunbridge Wells Cemetery Council planning documents show the list of paupers and where they were buried in the grounds The retired water engineer said that under the The Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981, all bodies must be removed from the ground before any new building can be erected. Campaigners also say this is 'sacred' and 'consecrated' land which cannot be built upon under planning laws. A memorial gravestone was erected which claimed to have the 'reinterred remains' of all 15 paupers. But with only four bodies exhumed, locals say it is designed to portray that 'its all been dealt with'. The council's plan is to build 16 homes made up of 10 three-bed houses and six two-bed houses. While they also want to build a flat block of four homes, with two two-bed flats and two one-bed flats. Plans show they want to build 30 parking spaces, 20 of which will have electric vehicle charging points. A council source said the council were given a letter from the Diocese of Rochester, which previously had ecclesiastical responsibility for the cemetery, confirming the ground was not consecrated. A spokesperson for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said: 'We can confirm that the bodies were exhumed by a specialist exhumation company, the detailed surveys and work took place during autumn 2020 once necessary permissions had been granted. 'The found remains were treated with dignity and reburied in a different part of the cemetery. 'A memorial was erected with the names of the deceased in the cemetery grounds and all the works were carried out in consultation with the Friends of the Cemetery.' A dream wedding in Sydney took a dramatic turn after indoor fireworks ignited a fire, triggering the sprinkler system and drenching the well-groomed guests. The incident unfolded at Renaissance Weddings and Events in Lidcombe on Sunday, where newlyweds Matthew and Teresa were celebrating their special day. In a video shared to social media, the couple was seen making a joyful entrance to their wedding reception, greeted by cheering loved ones as a live band played. But the fun quickly descended into chaos, as indoor fireworks and pyrotechnics erupted near a floral archway and lit the pricey blooms on fire. Blissfully unaware of the growing flames behind them, the couple and guests continued celebrating with the fire burning in the background. In a video capturing the aftermath of the blaze, large puddles could be seen on the dancefloor after water rained down from an overhead sprinkler system. The bride, still clutching her bouquet, could be seen taking in the chaos surrounding her as the camera panned to soaked tables, chairs and well-groomed guests. The footage drew a mixed reaction on social media, with some questioning the safety of indoor fireworks, while others were more sympathetic. The couple's first dance quickly descended into chaos as indoor fireworks and pyrotechnics erupted near a floral archway and lit the pricey blooms on fire (pictured) 'Why do people insist on indoor fireworks at weddings?' one wrote. One attendee praised the quick-thinking staff who soaked up all the puddles. 'The manager did the best job anyone can ever imagine. He handled everything in a professional and good way to make the event continue,' they said. 'The event ended up turning awesome the venue got cleaned up quickly and the party continued. They ate and danced all night.' Others applauded the dedication of the musicians who continued to perform unfazed while the blaze was growing. 'Love how the drummers played like when the Titanic was sinking and the violinists still played,' one person wrote. In a statement to Daily Mail Australia, Fire Rescue NSW confirmed they attended the site, but reset the fire alarm and no further action was taken. In 2013, Renaissance Weddings and Events was accused by its local council of flouting fire safety regulations by using indoor fireworks. The incident unfolded at Renaissance Weddings and Events in Lidcombe on Sunday, where newlyweds Matthew and Terasa were celebrating their special day (pictured) The Lidcombe venue was noted to have flouted fire regulations by a local council in 2013 A council report included warnings from police that live fireworks were being used inside the venue, which were not part of previous interim occupation certification. 'The potential risk to council in the event of a serious incident occurring at the subject premises is significant,' the report stated. Two years later, a wild brawl outside the wedding venue led to the arrests of four people after tensions between two groups erupted into violence. A 33-year-old man and a 23-year-old man were arrested and charged with affray and resisting arrest. A 20-year-old woman was fined for offensive language after allegedly abusing police, while a 24-year-old man was arrested for ignoring move-on orders. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Renaissance Weddings and Events for comment. Today, if you ask most people, they will tell you that it was American aviator Charles Lindbergh who first flew non-stop across the Atlantic. And it is true that, in 1927, he became the first man to make the trip solo. But eight years before his feat, when technology was a generation behind and the risks were even greater, it was two now-forgotten British men who ended up being the true pioneers. Fuelled by the lure of a 10,000 prize put up by the Daily Mail - the equivalent of around half a million pounds now - First World War veterans John Alcock and Arthur Brown became the first human beings to cross The Pond in a single flight. The pair made the perilous trip from Newfoundland on the tip of Canada to the coastal town of Clifden in Ireland in just under 16 hours, arriving on June 15, 1919. The achievement came a decade after Frenchman Louis Bleriot had become the first pilot to fly from continental Europe to England. The Mail's founder and proprietor, Lord Northcliffe, opted to offer prizes for aviation achievements in the hope of boosting British airmanship at a time when the technology was flourishing. He had been frustrated by the British government's seeming inability to see the military threat posed by ever-improving flying machines. Fuelled by the lure of a 10,000 prize put up by the Daily Mail - the equivalent of around half a million pounds now - First World War veterans John Alcock and Arthur Brown became the first human beings to cross the Atlantic in a single flight in June 1919 The pair made the perilous trip from Newfoundland on the tip of Canada to the coastal town of Clifden in Ireland in just under 16 hours, arriving on June 15, 1919. Above: The plane departing Newfoundland And so in 1913, after awarding Bleriot 10,000, he offered the same financial reward to the first team to cross the Atlantic. Although the First World War put a pause on preparations, the race continued after hostilities came to an end in November 1918. The exploits of Alcock and Brown are detailed in new book The Big Hop, by historian David Rooney. He details how the pair were far from the only team to pitch up in Newfoundland with flying machines. As well as their Vickers plane, there were rival teams from Martinsyde, Handley Page, and Sopwith. Besides Alcock and Brown's effort, only the Sopwith team among the rivals successfully left Newfoundland. But after departing in May 1919, the plane developed engine trouble and the pilots had to ditch in the Atlantic. They were rescued by a Danish steamer. Newfoundland had been chosen so that the crossing would be as short as possible. But, at that time of year, it was bitterly cold and fierce winds would buffet the open cockpit. Your browser does not support iframes. The pair's plane in Clifden, Ireland, after it landed in a bog and then pitched forward in the soft ground The haphazard landing capped off what Alcock described as a 'terrible' journey. But the pair succeeded in their ultimate goal Captain John Alcock and Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown are pictured taking a meal in Newfoundland a few minutes before the start of their first non stop Atlantic flight John Alcock and Arthur Brown a few days after their historic flight Cover of a menu for a luncheon sponsored by the Daily Mail newspaper to commemorate the first non-stop transatlantic flight As for the landscape that they would be taking off from, it was covered with bogs, dotted with ditches and peppered with rocks and fences. Time and money had to be spent on preparing a stretch of land for take-off. Following a successful test flight of their aircraft, Alcock told journalists: 'I am perfectly satisfied with the machine. 'She behaved splendidly, and I shall be off to England as quickly as I can. I hope to be in London before the week end.' And the pilot also sent a cable to Vickers bosses, telling them: 'Machine absolutely top-hole'. In the cockpit they had flasks of coffee, hot chocolate and Horlick's. And in their pockets were the sandwiches that would give them much-needed energy during the bitterly cold journey. They also had a small flask of brandy each. There was more food and drink in a cupboard in the aircraft's tail, should they end up coming down on water. A poster advertising the pair's brave flight across the Atlantic John Alcock pictured in 1914 in front of a plane. The pioneer was killed in 1919 Alcock and Brown pictured next to their aircraft British aviators John Alcock and Arthur Brown in the cockpit, 1919 An illustrated account of the pair's flight across the Atlantic With them too was a bag of what would become the first transatlantic airmail. Among the letters were several written by the two airmen. Alcock wrote to his mother telling her not to worry. And he said to his sister: 'My Dear Elsie. Just a hurried line before I start. Th is letter will travel with me in the official mail bag, the first mail to be carried over the Atlantic. 'Love to all. Your Loving Brother, Jack.' For good luck, they also had their black cat toy mascots. Alcock named his Lucky Jim; whilst Brown's was called Twinkletoe. Both men, as airman veterans of the First World War, were convinced that black cats were a good omen. The flight is now remembered for the fact that it succeeded where rival attempts failed. But those 16 hours in the air were hellish. The radio failed, meaning Alcock and Brown's plan to update operators on the ground with their position at 20 minutes past each hour was dead. A working radio would also have meant that, should the men have to ditch into the Atlantic, they would be rescued in good time. Instead, they had to contend with the knowledge very soon into the flight that no one knew where they were. Mr Rooney writes: 'Whatever happened now, whatever challenges they faced, nobody would hear them. 'Jack Alcock and Ted Brown were entirely alone.' Alcock (centre left) holds a model of their Vickers Vimy biplane, and Brown (centre right) holds a mailbag A page from the logbook used by Alcock and Brown during their historic flight Next, the pilots were met with a sound that Mr Rooney describes as having sounded 'like machine-gun fire'. The Vickers' exhaust pipe had burst and a large section of it was now hanging loose. It got so hot that it turned white, before being blown away. Alcock and Brown now feared that the fire they saw emerging from the now-open exhaust pipe would engulf their aircraft. Although the plane did not burst into flames, the weather did not look kindly on the pilots. The men were flying at 3,500 feet when the plane was engulfed in thick fog that left them totally blind. 'There was no horizon, no sky, no sea,' Mr Rooney writes. All around them was total blackness. And then disaster. The plane went into a steep dive. By the time the aircraft left the cloud it had been stuck in, the aneroid - the device that gave a measure of their altitude - read 50 feet. The Daily Mail's report of Alcock and Brown's successful transatlantic flight Alcock and Brown seen being presented with their 10,000 prize by Winston Churchill The pilots had been just moments away from slamming into the Atlantic. Thankfully though, the aircraft recovered its height and the perilous journey continued. The rest of the trip was, by comparison, uneventful - until the landing. Above Clifden in Ireland, Alcock circled as he searched for a touch-down spot. Having found an open space, he turned off the Vimy's engines and glided down to the ground. But when the wheels touched the ground at around 8.40am on June 15, they dug into the soil. It turned out that Alcock had landed on a bog. The nose of the Vimy tilted forward and the tail lifted into the air as the plane sank into the soft ground. The nose buckled but did not totally break, meaning the cockpit stayed protected. Although Brown bumped his face, he and Alcock escaped otherwise unhurt. Captain Alcock and Lieutenant Brown pose for a photograph, June 1 1919 Printed tissue serviette commemorating Alcock and Brown's pioneering transatlantic flight Brown then fired two flares into the sky and within minutes soldiers and officers from the nearby wireless station had appeared. Daily Mail reporter James Hodson arrived to interview the pair. Captain Alcock said in the Mail: 'We have had a terrible journey. 'The wonder is we are here at all. We scarcely saw the sun or the moon or the stars. For hours we saw none of them. 'The fog was very dense, and at times we had to descend to within 300 feet of the sea. 'For four hours the machine was covered in sheet ice caused by frozen sleet; at another time the sleet was so dense that my speed indicator did not work, and for a few seconds it was very alarming. 'We looped the loop, I do believe, and did a very steep spiral. We did some very comic "stunts", for I have had no sense of horizon.' He added: 'The only thing that upset me was to see the machine at the end get damaged. Charles A. Lindbergh poses with his plane 'The Spirit of St. Louis' in this 1927 file photo. Lindbergh credited Alcock and Brown for having 'showed us the way' 'From above, the bog looked like a lovely field, but the machine sank into it up to the axle and fell over on to her nose.' The Mail's report announcing Alcock's death King George V sent his congratulations. An official message read: 'The King was delighted to receive your welcome announcement that Capt. Alcock and Lieut. Brown have safely landed in Ireland after their Transatlantic flight. 'His Majesty wishes you to communicate at once with these officers and to convey to them the King's warmest congratulations on the success of their splendid achievement.' The victory party was thrown by the Mail at The Savoy. More than 300 guests attended. Winston Churchill, then secretary of state for war and air, gave Alcock and Brown their prize and announced that they would be knighted. But then tragedy struck. On December 18, 1919, Brown was killed in a crash while flying the all-new Vickers Viking amphibian to the Paris Airshow. The Daily Mail announced Alcock's death on December 20. The news report read: 'We deeply regret to announce the death of Sir John Alcock, D.F.C., winner of the Daily Mail 10,000 prize for the first transatlantic flight and the first airman to be knighted. 'His death followed a crash due to a heavy storm while flying a new machine to the Paris Exhibition.' The Big Hop is available now from the Mail Bookshop The report added: 'Sir John Alcock breathed his last in an old four-poster bed of a small Normandy farmhouse at Cottevrard at 4pm yesterday. 'His fatal injuries were received when he crashed into a field three hours earlier while flying the new Vickers combination aeroplane and flying-boat to Paris for the Air Show.' Despite the loss, Alcock's exploits with Brown did achieve the recognition they deserved from fellow pilots. Charles Lindbergh reportedly gave the two men apt recognition when he landed in Paris after his solo crossing from New York in 1927. He allegedly said to rapturous onlookers: 'Why all this fuss? Alcock and Brown showed us the way.' Lindbergh's fellow aviator, Amelia Earhart, described Alcock and Brown's flight as 'an amazing feat, and the least appreciated'. She became the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo in 1932, before disappearing over the Pacific in 1937. And Amy Johnson, who flew from England to Australia in 1930, described Alcock and Brown's feat as 'the greatest in the history of aviation'. The Big Hop, by David Rooney, is published by Chatto & Windus. Investigators probing the crash of Air India Flight 171 have turned their attention to the pilot's medical history amid fears he may have been suffering from mental health issues at the time of the disaster. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced pilot with more than 15,000 hours flying time, was piloting the Boeing 787 Dreamliner when it plummeted into a residential area in Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people on board. Switches controlling the fuel flow to the jet's two engines were turned off shortly after take off, a preliminary report released by the Indian authorities has indicated, resulting in a catastrophic loss of power and the aircraft crashing to the ground. The investigation by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), claimed that one pilot asked the other why he cut off the fuel, and the second pilot responded that he had not. The report, coupled with claims that Captain Sabharwal had taken bereavement leave and was suffering with depression following his mother's death, has raised questions over whether enough is being done to assess and safeguard pilots' mental health. Air India's CEO has warned that the investigation into what happened is still far from over, telling staff in an internal memo today that it is unwise to jump to any conclusions. The AAIB said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out, but also did not offer any conclusions or apportion blame for the June 12 disaster. While the exact cause of the crash is likely to remain unknown for some time, the aviation world is tragically no stranger to man-made catastrophes. These include those triggered by mental health crises - with experts warning that not enough is being done to support pilots and other aviation professionals. Investigations into the Air India plane crash are reportedly examining Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's (pictured) medical records amid allegations that he had depression and mental health issues Horrifying video showed the moment the Air India jet crashed into a medical college in Ahmedabad on June 12 Investigations into the tragic crash (pictured) have begun to analyse the behaviour of the pilot Pictures show the devastation after the plane crashed into a residential building If included as a category in worldwide air-crash statistics, pilot murder-suicides would be the second biggest cause of fatalities in Western-built aircraft since 2012, data compiled by Bloomberg found in 2022. The most notorious crash attributed to pilot suicide, the 2015 Germanwings disaster, saw 150 passengers killed when their plane crashed into a French mountain. Investigators revealed in the days after the crash that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had locked the flight's captain out of the cockpit to deliberately set the plane on a collision course with a mountainside. It emerged that Lubitz had suffered from depression in the past, but was later deemed fit to fly. He had searched online for ways to end his life, before researching the security of cockpit doors. As prosecutors dug deeper into what had happened, they found that the pilot had suffered from a 'severe' depressive episode before being hired - something the airline was not informed of. Just weeks before the crash, a psychiatrist diagnosed a psychosomatic disorder and possible psychosis, but Lubitz hid his sick notes. Prosecutors believed he became 'virtually obsessed' with an 'unfounded' fear of losing his vision - a condition that would surely end his career as a pilot. The findings led investigators to conclude that Lubitz had deliberately cast the plane down into the mountains in a deliberate attempt to end his own life. Aviation psychologist Marc Atherton said the incident encouraged him to get involved in the area of pilot mental health, which he felt was being overlooked. Rescuers search for human remains at the Germanwings crash site on March 26, 2015 A part of the crash site of the Germanwings Airbus A320 near Le Vernet, French Alps Andreas Lubitz, co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525, running during the Aerportrace in Hamburg, Germany, on September 13, 2009 'It was painfully obvious that the global industry had a very good process around safety for physical risks, for operational risks and for technical risks, but what seemed to be missing was a coherent approach to the mental health and performance risk of all of the safety-critical groups in the industry,' he said. Surveys of airline pilots have shown that between four and eight per cent have contemplated suicide, roughly in line with the general population. Airline pilots must undergo periodic medical examinations to keep their licences, with the profession one of very few in which employees must disclose all their health information in order to work. Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a leading aviation safety expert in India, told the Telegraph that he had heard from 'several Air India pilots' that Captain Sabharwal had 'some mental health issues.' But, he emphasised, the pilot 'must have been medically cleared by the company doctors [to fly]. They must have given the clearance certificate.' If pilots develop a mental health condition in between the exams and do not disclose it, they can be stopped from flying. This, experts say, means many conceal their health information or avoid mental health checks out of fear of being put out of work. A 2022 study found that 56.1 per cent of the 3,765 US pilots who participated in the survey reported a 'history of healthcare avoidance behaviour' due to the risk of losing their licence. After the Germanwings crash, a US panel warned that there was 'no convincing evidence' that screening for suicidal tendencies would prevent similar disasters. A piece of debris from MH370, identified as a 'flaperon', was found on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion in 2015 Zaharie Ahmad Shah's family have long rejected claims that he crashed the plane intentionally Another possible way to mitigate the risk of a suicidal pilot taking control of the plane away from their co-pilot was to change door designs, preventing them from being locked. The 2013 crash of a Mozambican airliner in Namibia saw pilot Hermino dos Santos Fernandes himself in the cockpit, preventing his co-pilot from entering as he made a 'deliberate series of manoeuvres' causing the crash, investigators said. But authorities have warned against changing the design of doors, saying sophisticated locks are needed to prevent cockpit invasions and hijackings. Pilot suicide was among the countless theories floated in relation to the disappearance of Flight MH370 in 2014. The Malaysia Airlines jet was on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board when it vanished and became one of the greatest mysteries in aviation. No sign of the plane was found in a 46,000-square mile Indian Ocean search zone and the Australian-led search, the largest in history, was suspended in January 2017. In 2020, former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott claimed that top Malaysian officials believed the aircraft vanished after veteran pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah intentionally crashed it. 'My very clear understanding from the very top levels of the Malaysian government is that from very, very early on here, they thought it was murder-suicide by the pilot,' he told Sky News. 'I'm not going to say who said what to whom but let me reiterate, I want to be absolutely crystal clear, it was understood at the highest levels that this was almost certainly murder-suicide by the pilot - mass murder-suicide by the pilot.' Flight MH370, a Boeing 777, was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014 in one of the world's greatest aviation mysteries (File image of a Malaysia Airlines plane) Zaharie's family have long strongly rejected such claims as baseless, while Malaysia's prime minister at the time of the tragedy also said there was 'no conclusive proof'. Captain Dave Fielding, chair of the International Peer Assist Aviation Coalition (IPAAC), has long campaigned for the improved monitoring of mental health among all aviation workers - from pilots to cabin crew and engineers. 'Big picture-wise, pilot mental health and performance is the new front on flight safety, and is where we should be focusing our efforts,' he said in an interview with the British Safety Council last September. The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) last year published a paper on the challenges mental health issues, and the lack of support available for them, continue to pose to the aviation industry globally. Publishing the report, RAeS chief executive David Edwards said: 'Whilst the industry is doing more to support staff who are already facing mental health issues, there remains a lack of psychosocial risk management systems to prevent the development of mental health issues in the first place.' While the report has generated a significant response from around the world, industry experts agree that there is still work to be done to encourage airline pilots and other aviation professionals to come forward with mental health concerns. 'There has been much good work done across the world in this area,' Captain Fielding told MailOnline. 'But it is in its infancy and a lot more needs to be done.' IPAAC, which he chairs, is a not-for-profit which develops peer support programmes to help 'provide a vital method for safety-critical personnel in aviation to seek help for mental health and wellbeing issues.' In a statement to MailOnline, the organisation said: 'The mental health and wellbeing of all safety-critical personnel in aviation is a safety issue. 'The role of Peer Support Programmes is more critical than ever in assisting our colleagues when they need support from a friendly and confidential co-worker, trained to give specific assistance.' For help and support, call the Samaritans for free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org A cash expert has exposed a major problem with the Reserve Bank's proposed ban on surcharge fees on debit and credit card transactions. The Reserve Bank of Australia's review of merchant card payment costs recommends the fees be scrapped on EFTPOS, Mastercard and Visa card transactions because they don't help consumers. It said lowering the cap on fees paid by businesses would save Australians $1.2billion or $60 for every card-using adult. But cash campaigner Jason Bryce, 58, has called the plan a 'disaster,' claiming it paves the way for hidden costs to be quietly baked into product prices. 'They're going to hide that cost and everybody's going to pay and it doesn't matter whether you bring a card, a phone or cash to the shop.' Mr Bryce, who started a campaign during the Covid pandemic to give a voice to Australians who rely on cash, said the RBA proposal is 'un-Australian'. He said the current system was fairer because it clearly separated card fees from the cost of goods. Under that system, Australians who paid with cash or bank transfer avoided the extra surcharge, while only those who chose to pay with a debit or credit card were charged the additional fee. Cash campaigner Jason Bryce has warned that removing visible fees wont eliminate them -theyll just be quietly baked into the price of goods, hitting all shoppers regardless of how they pay. Mr Bryce says the proposal will reduce transparency and lead to across-the-board price increases - even for those paying with cash. 'These card surcharges are uniquely Australian. The Reserve Bank has caved in to Visa and Mastercard.' He explained that if card fees are banned, the cost won't disappear - it will just be included in the overall price of goods. That means all Australians who pay cash will be footing the bill for the perks enjoyed by credit card users, like reward points, free gifts, and luxury travel deals. 'Ordinary people are going to be paying for the rich's benefits, the holidays, the concierge service, the free gifts,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'The card schemes have got everything they've ever wanted. 'They're going to hide that cost and everybody's going to pay and it doesn't matter whether you bring a card, a phone or cash to the shop.' The Australian Restaurant and Cafe Association slapped down the proposal, and suggested the 'tone deaf' policy would simply drive up menu prices. 'Who the hell does the RBA think will bear the cost of this ridiculous decision?' chief executive Wes Lambert said. 'A blanket ban on surcharging will undermine small businesses, reduce price transparency and mandate price hikes across every menu in Australia.' Consumers are estimated to pay $1.2billion in surcharges on payments each year, the equivalent of $60 per card-using adult. The fee is paid by a business to a customer's card issuer when a transaction occurs, with some passing that fee onto the customer. Better transparency achieved by forcing card networks and large acquirers to publish what fees they are charging has also been recommended to foster competition between networks Some Aussies argue the current system is more transparent, as card fees are visible and sometimes avoidable by paying cash The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia said businesses would just raise their prices and the changes would hide, rather than remove, surcharges. The Independents Payment Forum - a body that represents small businesses including retailers, cafes, service stations and convenience stores - said other merchant fees would still eat into profit margins. 'The proposed regulatory options fail small businesses and the local communities they serve,' co-founder Bradford Kelly said. 'They benefit big business, big banks and big offshore companies.' The RBA's proposals go further than previous federal government suggestions and are likely to be pushed through by the central bank, pending the outcome of a short feedback window. Treasurer Jim Chalmers had said the government was prepared to ban fees on debit card transactions from the start of 2026. But the RBA has included credit cards. The government will consider the recommendation, but Dr Chalmers on Tuesday noted the RBA expected to be able to make the changes under its existing powers. RBA Governor Michele Bullock (pictured) said consumers and businesses would benefit from a ban on surcharge fees for debit and credit card transactions The central bank proposed removing prohibitions on 'no surcharge' rules to achieve scrapping the fees. It expected the card networks would then follow by implementing 'no surcharge' rules based on historical experience and arrangements in other jurisdictions. If that did not occur, the RBA would recommend the government legislate to ban surcharge fees. Canstar data insights director Sally Tindall said consumers were fed up with being slugged with extra fees at the checkout. 'Our research shows the vast majority of Australians want this annoying bugbear off their backs for good,' she said. Banks and other payment systems backed the changes because they kept pace with the reality of the modern-day transaction. 'It makes sense that consumers know the final price before they get to the checkout,' an Australian Banking Association spokesperson said. 'Banks will work with the government to provide Australians with more certainty and transparency on the costs of digital payments.' RBA governor Michele Bullock said consumers and businesses would benefit as fewer and fewer Australians made cash payments. 'The time has come to address some of these high costs and inefficiencies in the system,' she said. Lowering the cap on interchange fees by businesses is predicted to benefit small businesses the most, because they often pay higher fees. The central bank found small businesses would be $185 million better off under the changes, with 90 per cent of them benefiting. Better transparency achieved by forcing card networks and large acquirers to publish what fees they are charging has also been recommended to foster competition between networks. Any changes won't kick in until July 2026. As jets coloured the skies over the Champs-Elysees with trails of red, white and blue, Brigitte Macron stood at her husband's side, right hand clasping left, and stared out across the Bastille Day parade. Eight years as the first lady of France have taught Ms Macron the expectations of the job--and how to manage her image in public. Scrutiny follows how she looks, what she says and how she interacts with her husband when in the presidential spotlight. In her first formal post-election interview in 2017, she gently dismissed a question asking how she felt, as a feminist, about the incessant focus on her clothes: 'If it's good for French fashion, why not?' But it is difficult to imagine that Ms Macron, despite her careful presentation, was entirely unaffected by the libel case simmering in the background of Monday's Bastille Day parade. Scrutiny of one's public image is one thing. It is entirely another to question who they are. In the courts, Ms Macron has parried baseless claims by blogger Natacha Rey and self-proclaimed spiritual medium Amandine Roy that she was born a man and transitioned before marrying her husband. The pair were ordered to pay thousands of euros in damages last year, after their claims went viral and gained traction among conspiracy theorists in the United States. But last week, the Paris appeals court overturned earlier convictions. Dressed all in white for the Bastille Day celebrations on Monday, Brigitte Macron, undeterred, stood tall at her husband's side as her lawyer revealed she would fight the claims in court once more. Brigitte Macron stands at her husband's side at the Place de la Concore in Paris, on July 14 The little girl with a pudding bowl haircut sitting on her mother's knee is Brigitte Trogneux, and far left is her brother Jean-Michel It was three days before Christmas Day, 2021. Most of France was winding down for the holidays. But Mr and Ms Macron were otherwise preoccupied. Her lawyer announced that she would be launching legal action over the spread of false claims that she is a transgender woman who was born a man. Jean Ennochi, the lawyer, told Reuters that several individuals were in focus as the claims gained new momentum following the publication of a video on social media on December 10. The four-hour interview saw a journalist and a self-described medium discuss so-called 'evidence' surrounding claims Ms Macron was born Jean-Michel Trogneux. They spoke about surgeries she had allegedly undergone, aired pictures of her family, and scrutinised personal information belonging to her brother, the real Jean-Michel Trogneux. Ms Rey spoke about the 'state lie' and 'scam' they had uncovered, that the first lady of France had transitioned to become Brigitte and then married the president. She had not. But it did not stop the video being watched nearly 400,000 times and shared across social media as Mr Macron was gearing up for the 2022 presidential election. Ms Macron's office declined to comment at the time. She broke her silence, instead, three weeks later, after Christmas, as the world started to return to normal. Speaking to French radio, she said: 'If I do not address it, if I do not do anything after four years of working against bullying, I will not be listened to.' French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron in the UK on July 9, 2025 Brigitte Macron with her daughter Tiphaine Auziere, who spoke out about her mother's history in an interview with Paris Match Ms Macron photographed as a child Brigitte Macron attends the Banquet for the President, hosted for French President Emmanuel Macron and her, on day two of their state visit to Britain, at the Guildhall in central London, Britain July 9, 202 Speaking on the RTL radio station - incidentally on her priority of tackling bullying in schools - was the first real opportunity to address the falsehood. 'There are three different elements to this story,' the first lady outlined in her comments to the nation. 'It starts with the originators of the story. In this case, they were women who apparently have been pursuing me for a long time I don't know, I don't go there [on social networks]. 'Then, there are those who share and exaggerate what is being claimed. 'And finally there are, of course, 'the hosts,' she said, referring to the social media platforms themselves.' In the first camp was Natacha Rey, a journalist who claimed she was investigating Macron. On her Facebook page, there were posts implying that Ms Macron was a man dating back to March 2021. Matters came to a head in September of that year when she co-authored an 'investigation' with Xavier Poussard for the far-right newsletter Faits et Documents (facts and documents), which he edited. The New Statesman observed at the time: 'Its pages, which do not draw heavily on either facts or documents, include one section on 'lobbies', which criticises the supposed influence of various interest groups, such as Jews, Freemasons and homosexuals.' Natacha Rey, a blogger who shared claims about Ms Macron Brigitte entered the Elysee Palace in 2017 as the wife of the youngest president in French history - she was 64, Emmanuel was 39 (pictured in 2023) Brigitte entered the Elysee Palace in 2017 as the wife of the youngest president in French history - she was 64, Emmanuel was 39 (pictured together in February 2017) The story existed for a few months before Ms Rey took it to medium Delphine Jegousse, alias Amandine Roy, for a four-hour interview. In the video published that December, she claimed to have evidence of the first lady's transition. She referred to an old Trogneux family photograph, in which Brigitte is seen as a young girl sitting on her mother's knee. Ms Rey said the girl was probably Nathalie Farcy, who was orphaned when Brigitte's older sister Maryvonne was killed in a car crash. She identified a boy in a checked shirt as Brigitte, not her brother Jean-Michel, claiming the child later underwent a sex change operation in the 1980s. The theory falls short; the birth of Brigitte Macron was recorded on April 13, 1953, in the Courrier Picard daily newspaper of the Picardy region of France. A notice reads: 'Anne-Marie, Jean-Claude, Maryvonne, Monique and Jean-Michel Trogneux have great joy in announcing the arrival of their little sister, Brigitte.' But the video was seen hundreds of thousands of times before being deleted, and the claims repeated tens of thousands of times on Twitter. At the same time, Ms Rey created a website with a contact form to address the presidency directly, and called for the bulk sending of messages to 'question Brigitte Macron en masse' about 'her brother Jean-Michel'. Things moved quickly. Within a month of Ms Macron's radio appearance, the pair were hauled in front of the civil courts for invasion of privacy. A criminal complaint for defamation was also filed by Ms Macron and her brother. The conspiracy stems from an unfounded claim made by far-Right magazine Faits et Documents (Facts & Documents), after Macron, 46, was elected. Still, Owens aired the theory Candace Owens on Tuesday said that she would be willing to bet her career that French President Emmanuel Macron's wife was born a man. The two women were ultimately found to have defamed Ms Macron by the Paris Criminal Court in September 2024, handed a suspended fine of 500 and ordered to pay a total of 8,000 in damages to Brigitte Macron and 5,000 to her brother. It had been a long wait for the verdict from the trial in June 2023. Ms Macron was not present for the decision. But a verdict was not enough to stop the rumours spreading and taking new form. Originally shared in the United States on sites like notorious disinformation hub 4chan, the claim snowballed when figures 'with very large audiences gave it visibility', doctoral researcher Sophie Chauvet, specialising in audience metrics, told the French AFP news agency. Prominent conservative commentator Candace Owens attacked the first lady in a now-deleted YouTube video posted in March last year, propagating the false claim. She cited a 'thorough investigation' by Rey, published in Faits et Documents in 2021. Why now? Emmanuelle Anizon, a journalist at the French weekly L'Obs, told AFP that the difference was that Xavier Poussard had started translating the newsletter's articles at the end of 2023. Anizon, who spoke to Poussard and his associate Aurelien Poirson who advised on the translation, explained that it was no accident that the US far right had taken up the false claim ahead of the November US elections. 'It was their dream to export this rumour across the Atlantic,' she said. Again, the rumour exploded online. Poussard published a 338-page book called Devenir Brigitte ('Becoming Brigitte') to run alongside it. The falsehoods fail to go away. Last summer, Reuters reported on a photograph of a young male model at a 2009 photoshoot in Russia, posted on social media to more speculation that the boy was, again, Ms Macron. This had no bearing on the original theory. But it did not seem to matter. Reuters contacted the photographer and revealed the image, of a male model in Moscow, not Ms Macron, had been altered. In February of this year, a cropped photo of the Trogneux family circulated on social media, prompting fact-checkers at Full Fact to resurrect the story of how the story emerged, was shot down and led to a successful defamation verdict. 'False and misleading posts like this can spread quickly online, so its important to consider whether what you are seeing comes from a verifiable and reliable source before sharing on social media,' they advised. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron stand with Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto during the Bastille Day parade on Monday French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and his wife Brigitte Macron attend the annual Bastille Day military parade day on Concorde in Paris, France on July 14, 2025 Nearly a year has passed, but the fiction still lingers over both the presidency and Ms Macron's personal life. On Thursday, the Paris appeals court overturned earlier convictions against the two women for spreading the false claim about Brigitte Macron. Judges sitting at the Paris Appeal Court ruled that Amandine Roy, now 53, and Natacha Rey, 49 and a blogger, had every legal right to make the allegations. Both had claimed they were subjected to 'intimidation by the authorities' as 'ultra protected' members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a 'state secret'. Lawyers for Ms Macron, 72, in turn indicated that she was 'devastated' by the development, and would be taking the case to France's Cassation Court. As her lawyer relayed her intentions to the press on Monday, Ms Macron stood before the nation for Bastille Day and watched as jets left trails of red, white and blue overhead. She stood at her husband's side, right hand clasping left, and it was impossible to know what she was thinking. Drivers on the Isle of Wight today told of their fears over one of Britain's most picturesque roads, which is plagued by erosion, branding it an 'accident waiting to happen'. Locals said the 'beautiful' road that runs on the south side of their island said something 'tragic' is bound to happen, as some parts are less than four metres from a cliff edge. They said it is 'precarious' to drive on Military Road and called on authorities to save it because it is 'the most scenic road in the country'. The road - which locals say makes the Isle of Wight 'look like a Mediterranean island' - offers spectacular sea views and of Freshwater Bay and the Needles. The drive, which was nominated in 2022 as one of the most scenic in the country by Visit England for its 'sweeping ocean views', has suffered a series of major landslides in recent years. Parts of the 11-mile 60mph road are just four metres from the edge of a 200ft cliff. Today, locals in the nearby coastal village of Freshwater shared their concerns about the risk of further erosion. This comes after Island Councillor Becca Cameron raised concerns about a 'serious risk to life'. Locals in the nearby coastal village Freshwater shared their concerns about the risk of further erosion Parts of the 11-miile 60mph road are just four metres from the edge of a 200ft cliff Last year, the director of community services at Isle of Wight Council said the thoroughfare could be 'washed away by the sea' in two to 10 years time. Vintage clothing shop owner Lindsay Jobling, 48, said: 'I just worry for all the businesses on this side of the island as it will stop so many people coming down here. 'It's one of the main roads to this part of the island, and if it is closed for a while, then it will have a massive effect. 'Whatever happens, it is not going to be a quick process. Everything around here always takes a long time. 'It is a beautiful road and people love driving down there and taking photos, especially on a sunny, summer day. 'When you're driving along there, it can be quite difficult to see the edge, so some people might not notice it, but it really is a problem. Claire Johnson, 61, a local charity shop manager, said: 'Whenever people want to advertise the island, it is always the one they use for photos, and you can see why. 'I used to drive along there regularly, and you do sometimes notice how precarious the edge is but it is hidden in some places. The road - which locals say makes the Isle of Wight 'look like a Mediterranean island' - offers spectacular sea views and of Freshwater Bay and the Needles The drive - which was nominated in 2022 as one of the most scenic in the country by Visit England for its 'sweeping ocean views' - has suffered a series of major landslips in recent years 'It would be extremely isolating to Freshwater and this part of the island if it were to be closed. 'It is National Trust land, which can be difficult to work with as they can sometimes let nature take its course but we need to keep it for the sake of the island. 'I think it would be a bit selfish for the National Trust to just let it erode away to protect their land.' Christine Pesterfield, 53, who works on the island as a carer, said: 'It is the natural flow of things and so it is difficult to come up with a real solution. 'If the council knew that it could be a problem then they should have had a plan in place years ago. 'There have been plenty of landslips in other parts of the island over the years. It is happening all over the country. 'It all depends on what the weather is doing and can be so unpredictable. 'I don't think it is all the buses and lorries that go along there. It's just nature.' This picture shows how close the edge of the cliff is to the road They said it is 'precarious' to drive on Military Road and called on authorities to save it Shop assistant, Helen Gibbs, 57, added: 'It would be a huge loss to the Isle of Wight. 'They have had some sensors in the cliff but I don't think they work. 'I understand that it is a difficult problem, but that road can look like a Mediterranean island at times of the year and we can't lose it. 'They have spent some money and I know that more will be needed, but it'll be worth it in the end.' Cafe manager Cath Desant, 56, said: 'I think one of the car parks along the road is about a third of the size that it used to be. 'If they closed the Military Road, it would ruin the footfall of people on both ends of the road, 'I think if they asked big businesses to contribute to protecting their road, then they would help as it contributes so much the island's economy. 'It is the most scenic road in the country in my opinion. 'Another bad winter and it will just get that little bit closer to the edge. Locals said the 'beautiful' road that runs on the south side of their island said something 'tragic' is bound to happen as some parts are less than four metres from a cliff edge Locals are petrified that some day the cliff will crumble even more taking with it the road Residents are now calling on the authorities to make sure the road remains safe 'The problem is if they move it back from the edge then in 40 or so years then they will have to do it again. 'Sadly it could go with no prior warning and then and something tragic could happen.' Retired mechanic Martin Pocock has lived on the island his entire life. The 78-year-old said: 'It is part of the attraction and the history of the Isle of Wight. 'It is going to go at some point but what have the council done so far? The sensors don't work and the signs are a joke. 'The whole of Great Britain is eroding and this area is no different. 'Sadly it is not impossible that it could go when someone is driving along it and there could be tragic consequences. 'It could just be an accident waiting to happen but who knows when and where it will happen? 'We just can't lose it.' Physician associates should be banned from seeing patients who have not been reviewed by a doctor to cut the risk of 'catastrophic' harm, a government-ordered review says. Their job title should also be changed to physician assistant to reflect the fact they are supposed to support doctors rather than replace them, it adds. More than 3,500 PAs work in the NHS and there have been previous calls for an expansion in their number. But health secretary Wes Streeting ordered a review last November amid concerns they are being inappropriately used as substitutes for doctors, despite having significantly less training. There have also been a number of high profile deaths of patients who had been misdiagnosed by PAs - sometimes unaware they had not seen a doctor. Professor Gillian Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, was commissioned to lead the review into the safety of the roles and how they can be effectively integrated into a multidisciplinary healthcare team. Presenting her findings yesterday, she said she hopes her report will bring some perspective to what has become a heated debate, with some doctors expressing fierce opposition to PAs. Trainee doctors in particular are angry that PAs can earn more than them, work more sociable hours and take some of their training opportunities. Professor Gillian Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, was commissioned to lead the review Professor Leng acknowledged PAs have been used to plug gaps on doctors rotas and called for major changes to how they work and are supervised. This includes a requirement to work in a hospital for at least two years before being allowed to practice in a GP surgery or mental health trust and a need to have a named senior doctor as a line manager. PAs must be clearly identifiable from a doctor, using standardised measures, such as national clothing, lanyards and name badges, she added. But Professor Leng also called for their scope of practice to be widened with some PAs allowed to prescribe medicines, order MRI scans and train to become more highly paid advanced PAs. She said: Crucially Im recommending that PAs should not see undifferentiated or untriaged patients. If (patients) are triaged, they (PAs) should be able to see adult patients with minor ailments in line with relevant guidance from the Royal College of GPs. She said more detail was needed on which patients can be seen by PAs and national clinical protocols should be developed in this area. She added: Lets be clear, (the role of PAs) is working well in some places, but there indeed has been some substitution and any substitution is clearly risky and confusing for patients. Health secretary Wes Streeting ordered the review last November Professor Leng recommended PAs should be renamed physician assistants to position them as a supportive, complementary member of the medical team, while the 100 anaesthesia associates (AAs) working in the NHS should be renamed physician assistants in anaesthesia. Six patient deaths linked to contact with PAs have been recorded by coroners in England. One high-profile death involved Emily Chesterton, 30, who died from a pulmonary embolism. She was misdiagnosed by a PA on two occasions and told she had anxiety. The Leng Review said safety concerns in relation to PAs were almost always about making a diagnosis and deciding the initial treatment, particularly in primary care or the emergency department, where patients first present with new symptoms. It added: It is here that the risk of missing an unusual disease or condition is highest, and where the more extensive training of doctors across a breadth of specialties is important. Making the wrong initial diagnosis and putting patients on an inappropriate pathway can be catastrophic. Despite the shorter two years of training for PAs, where local NHS services have struggled with filling roles, the easy option in some cases was simply to fill gaps in medical rotas with PAs, the report went on. This seems to have been done without taking into account the more limited training of the PAs and how the roles would interact, other than with the caveat that they would be supervised by doctors. Brendan and Marion Chesterton, parents of Emily, who died after being misdiagnosed by a PA This lack of planning may have been responsible for driving the resentment felt by some resident (doctors) and potentially exposed patients to unnecessary risk. When it comes to the safety of PAs and AAs, Professor Leng said the evidence is poor, with no compelling evidence in published research that PAs were safe to work as doctor substitutes in primary care. She also said the evidence was poor when it came to cost effectiveness. When it came to AAs, there were questions over whether the role was actually needed as fully qualified anaesthetists already face tough competition to find a job. Professor Leng, who spoke to around 1,000 people, concluded: I could be absolutely clear that the roles are not so unsafe that they have to be discontinued, but neither does the evidence support proceeding with no change. PAs only have to complete a two year postgraduate course, rather than a medical degree. Some PA courses let students join after studying geography, human resources or English literature. Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of BMA council, said the review 'laid bare the catastrophic failures in NHS leadership that have put patients at serious risk of harm but said its recommendations do not adequately protect patients'. Dr Tom Dolphin, chair of the British Medical Association's governing council 'A major opportunity has been missed to end the postcode lottery of what PAs can and cant do,' Dr Dolphin added. 'By failing to recommend authoritative, nationally-agreed scopes of practice, Professor Leng has ignored the most urgent demand of the medical profession, and left patients at the mercy of local decisions by employers who can still choose where and how assistants can work.' Dr Dolphin also urged the Government and employers not to waste any time in renaming PAs 'physician assistants', as recommended by the review. The government is expected to respond to the review in a written ministerial statement to Parliament today. President Donald Trump appeared to go after Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on Tuesday for his no vote on the 'big, beautiful bill' suggesting that he had done the congressman a 'big favor' that was a matter of 'death' or 'life.' Trump made the bizarre comment onstage at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he addressed the first annual Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, organized by freshman Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Dave McCormick. Pennsylvania's Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was also on hand, but departed before Trump's mid-afternoon appearance. The president wanted to credit the Pennsylvania U.S. House members who had voted for BBB, with McCormick whispering to him 'they all stayed in Washington,' as the House is in session. 'They're in Washington working on our next bill!' the president exclaimed. 'Good, they shouldn't be here, now I don't have to mention their names,' he laughed. The president then noted how 'we only had two negative votes.' 'I didn't invite those two guys to anything,' he continued. 'We had a guy named "Rand Paul Jr." He's known as "Rand Paul Jr." in the House,' Trump said, a nickname he's given to libertarian-leaning GOP Rep. Thomas Massie. 'And we had somebody else, I did him a big favor,' the president said. President Donald Trump appeared to take aim at Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick during the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, saying he had done the congressman a 'big favor' having to do with 'death and life' Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick was one of only two Republican no votes on President Donald Trump's signature bill. Coming from a swing district, the vote could have impacted his chances of reelection in 2026 - but the president seemed not to care The only other no vote was Fitzpatrick, who Trump didn't name, but said he thought might come around and be a yes vote, despite being from a swing district where supporting the bill could endanger his chances of being reelected in 2026. 'And I said, "no he's going to vote," because I did him a very big, big favor, a very personal favor, as big as you can get - having to do with death and life,' Trump teased. Trump didn't give any details about the favor beyond that. Neither the White House nor Fitzpatrick's office responded to Daily Mail's requests for comment. '"Don't worry about it," I said,' the president continued. 'Sure as hell he voted against us,' Trump said. 'And I said, "another great move by Trump." So much for favors.' 'Welcome to the world of politics, right David?' he told McCormick who was seated to his side at a large roundtable discussion that ended Tuesday's summit focused on artificial intelligence and energy policy. During the president's appearance, he also credited himself with potentially saving McCormick from an assassin's bullet, as the then-GOP Senate nominee was in the audience at Trump's fateful Butler, Pennsylvania rally. Pennsylvania's Republican Sen. Dave McCormick organized the first annual Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, in which President Donald Trump was the featured guest President Donald Trump (right) took credit for saving Sen. Dave McCormick's (left) life, telling the audience Tuesday that he had called McCormick up onstage at the fateful Butler rally but it was too crowded for the Senate GOP nominee to get there 'I actually looked down to the right, before the - that thing - happened. And I said, "oh there's David McCormick he's running for the Senate. David come on up,"' Trump recalled. 'There were so many people, there was a little problem he had coming. I said, "just do it later."' 'And then about a minute later,' the president continued. The president was shot at by Thomas Matthew Crooks, but a bullet just grazed his ear. The anniversary of the assassination attempt happened on Sunday. An audience member, volunteer firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed shielding members of his family. 'If you would have come up, I don't know what the hell would have happened right?' Trump said to McCormick. 'It worked out better this way, right?' 'I don't know if he'd be around,' Trump added. 'I want to take full credit for that.' McCormick, who replaced Pennsylvania's longtime Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, was sworn-in in January and brought together Trump administration members and tech and energy leaders for the Pittsburgh event. A teenage girl sobbed as she told a court how she feared for her life as her own father choked her during an alleged 'honor killing'. Fatima Ali, 18, was giving evidence against her parents Ihsan Ali, 44, and mother Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, at their attempted murder trial on Tuesday. The couple are accused of trying to strangle their daughter outside Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, on October 18 last year. Terrifying footage first published by the Daily Mail before the trial, and shown to the court today, shows Ihsan put her in a chokehold on the ground until her boyfriend Isiah, classmates, and bystanders rescued her. Fatima, who was just 17 when she was attacked, bravely told the jury of the agonizing moments her consciousness slipped away in her father's grasp. The petite 5ft 1in girl weighting just 101lbs felt his arms around her throat and 'dirt on my face' from the ground, couldn't breathe, and had pain in her neck. Prosecutor Heather Stone asked what Fatima was thinking as she struggled to stay alive. 'Heartbroken for what my dad did,' she said. Ihsan Ali, 44, listens on Wednesday as his daughter Fatima Ali tells the court at his attempted murder trial how he tried to choke the life out of her in an alleged 'honor killing' Fatima's mother Zahraa Subhi Mohsin Ali, 40, is also on trial for attempted murder, accused of trying to finished the job after Ihsan was detained. She is pictured in court on Wednesday 'Did you have any fear?' Stone asked. 'Yes.' 'Fear of what?' 'Of dying,' Fatima choked out, her voice breaking into a sob. She was barely able to respond 'no' when asked if she could say anything during the attack. Fatima was in such a state that Thurston Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller called a recess. The teenager explained she lost consciousness four times during the attack and only has flashes of memory. 'I could see my hand reaching for my neck... because I knew my dad was choking me,' she said of one of them. 'I saw darkness at first. [Then] I saw Isiah and a friend standing above me.' Ihsan and Zahraa are accused of attempting to carry out a Muslim 'honor killing' on Fatima 'for refusing an arranged marriage with an older man in another county'. Fatima told police at the time that her father threatened her with the barbaric practice multiple times, and was furious she was dating an American boy. Video showed Ihsan on the ground outside his daughters school, Timberline High School in Lacey, Washington, with her in a chokehold while her boyfriend and classmates repeatedly punch and kick him to get him to release her Ihsan reacts as his daughter gives evidence in Thurston Superior Court on Tuesday Zahraa listens through an interpreter as her daughter describes the attack on Tuesday Her parents planned to send her to their home town of Najaf in Iraq on a one-way ticket hours after she sneaked out of the house about 6am with just $100 she took from her mother and a bag of clothes. Fatima told the court she never told her parents she didn't want to get on the plane because 'no matter what I say it doesn't really change'. When she got to Timberline, the school counselor helped her find a place at Haven House, a youth crisis center, and gave her a blanket and a laptop to continue her studies. But the school didn't offer her a ride to the shelter, so when school ended at 2pm she walked to the bus stop with Isiah, who was 16 at the time. They saw what they thought was Ihsan's pickup truck but hoped it wasn't. He was already at the bus stop when they arrived. Fatima testified that at first her father didn't appear angry as he asked her to come home with him, but she 'felt the energy and intensity [increase]'. '[I told him] I didn't wanna go back home,' she said. Did he accept that? 'No.' 'Every time that I backed away, he comes closer.' Ihsan kept his composure throughout Fatima's testimony on Tuesday, listening through an interpreter These are some of the cuts, welts, and broken bones the teenage girl suffered when her parents allegedly tried to strangle her in an 'honor killing' Fatima said Isiah was by he side patting her back to comfort her as she argued with her dad in Arabic, but this seemed to make Ihsan angrier. When the bus finally arrived, Fatima turned to get on it and Ihsan grabbed her hoodie and said 'my daughter' in Arabic, she told the court. Isiah tried to push Ihsan away, but footage from the bus cameras showed the much larger man punch him in the face and send him flying. With the teen boy out of the way, he went after his daughter, grabbing her by the throat as she tried to flee. The girl's boyfriend jumped to his feet and along with two others boys charged at Ihsan and tried to pull him away, knocking both to the ground. The boys began punching, kicking, and stomping Ihsan as he put his daughter in a chokehold and refused to let go despite the flurry of blows. Fatima told the court she woke up hearing her mother saying 'my daughter' and felt Zahraa holding onto her chest and her neck. Prosecutors and witnesses alleged Zahraa was trying to finish the honor killing by strangling Fatima after Ihsan was subdued. Ihsan punched his daughter's boyfriend square in the face at the start of the attack, sending him staggering back out of the frame and falling down hard on nearby concrete The boys began punching, kicking, and stomping Ihsan as he put his daughter in a chokehold and refused to let go despite the flurry of blows Ihsan (right) speaks with his lawyer Erik Kaeding in court on Wednesday Fatima said she initially couldn't get up and eventually when she was pulled away from her mother's grasp and tried to walk away, her legs were weak. She said her older sister Haneen, 21, who is not charged with a crime, was holding on to her sleeve and she tried to get her to let go. Eventually Haneen released her and she ran towards the school. Fatima told the court she was trying to get away from her mother and sister because 'I was afraid'. She said she couldn't have gotten away from the chokeholds if she was alone, but wasn't asked if that meant she would have died. Fatima ran into the school office, pursued by her mother. 'I told them he (Ihsan) was trying to kill me,' she said. Prosecutors did not ask the teenager about the years of abuse she told police her father subjected her and her siblings to, or about Ihsan's alleged threats to kill her. Judge Schaller ruled prosecutors couldn't bring up the arranged marriage or allow Fatima to talk in detail about a family trip to Iraq when she was 16. She only told the court 'I felt unsafe' when she was there. Fatima told police in her interview last year that the trip made her fearful of being sent there to be married off and never allowed to return to the US. Ihsan's lawyer Erik Kaeding and Zahraa's attorney Tim Leary will continue cross-examining Fatima on Wednesday. Isiah is also expected to give evidence this week. Seconds later it appeared Zahraa had started her attack as the girl seemed to be back on the ground where witnesses alleged she also tried to kill her Ihsan in police bodycam footage sitting a patrol car. His jacket was torn in the struggle and dirt pressed into one side of his face during the attack Witnesses, including Isiah and Fatima's classmates, gave evidence earlier in the trial about what they saw during the horrifying attack. John Denicola, a bus driver who stopped to help and whose cameras recorded the melee, told the court how he frantically tried the save the girl. 'Obviously, she was in distress, her eyes were rolling into the back of her head, you could tell she was not able to breathe,' he said. 'The look on [Ihsan's] face and the way he was squeezing, he was choking her.' Denicola said Ihsan didn't say anything as he choked Fatima, but his eyes were 'wide open' and he 'was focused on his task at hand'. Josh Wagner, a motorist who stopped his car in the middle of the road and ran to help, described how he freed Fatima from her father's chokehold. 'Her face was changing color as she was being choked... she was gonna lose consciousness if it continued... it was very obvious she was being choked,' he told the court. Wagner, a 13-year US Army veteran, held Ihsan down until police arrived and handcuffed him. Both Denicola and Wagner said the dozens of punches and kicks Isiah and his classmates laid into Ihsan were ineffective at getting him to stop choking Fatima. Josh Wagner, seen in the bus video, told the court how he stopped his black Dodge Ram in the middle of the road, got out, and hustled over to the brawl Wagner explained how he restrained Ihsan on the ground until police arrived Wagner's wife Mary Wagner described how Fatima ran in front of her behind the tree pursued by Zahraa and her eldest sister Haneen, 21, then ran towards the school - as shown on the video Wagner's wife Mary, who watched the attack from her car before crossing the road moments later after Fatima was back on her feet. 'She appeared incredibly confused, she seemed not to know what her surroundings were, she was in kind of a panic,' she said. 'She turned around and looked at me, and her eyes were huge, she had hair in her face, she looked completely disheveled, she looked very confused, absolutely terrified.' Two of the teens' classmates also testified on Tuesday to seeing Fatima in similar distress as her father choked her. Both Ihsan and Zahraa are charged with second-degree attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, along with lesser crimes. They have been behind bars since soon after the attack on bonds of $1 million and $500,000. The trial is expected to continue for the rest of the month. The plea deal that Idaho state prosecutors struck with confessed killer Bryan Kohberger may have seemed like justice to some, but the agreement left grieving families and, indeed, many Americans feeling cheated. While Kohberger, 30, will be sentenced on July 23 to life in prison, the country will never be presented with the full scope of the evidence against him and, above all else, an answer to the question: why? What was it that drove Kohberger, a former teen heroin addict turned health freak criminology student into a quadruple murderer? Now, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail, best-selling author James Patterson reveals the theory he and investigative journalist Vicky Ward developed in their new book, 'The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy.' The work is a forensic account of what happened in the early morning hours of November 13, 2022, when Kohberger slipped into 1122 King Road in Moscow, Idaho and stabbed 21-year-old Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and her boyfriend Ethan Chapin, 20, to death. And now for the first-time, Patterson and Ward report that while Kohberger hadn't killed before he had, perhaps, long been preparing for this unspeakable crime. While Kohberger, 30, will be sentenced on July 23 to life in prison, the country will never be presented with the full scope of the evidence against him and, above all else, an answer to the question: why? Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death in their beds as they slept Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, best-selling author James Patterson reveals the theory that he and investigative journalist Vicky Ward developed in their new book, 'The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy.' For the book claims that Kohberger had burglarized the homes of the parents of two of his friends in Pennsylvania, including the house of former Navy SEAL Mark Baylis. 'Even though he's a Special Forces veteran with skills and experience, he cannot catch the person who is repeatedly stealing his knives, his coins, his prescription pills, his girlfriend's jewelry. It maddens him,' Patterson and Ward write. 'Baylis talks to his son Jack and his nephew Brandon about the thefts,' the book reports. 'He says he's going to catch the thief if they try again. Shoot him. Jack tells the third kid, whose name is Bryan, that his dad is p***ed.' It is at this time that Baylis believes that someone has begun to stalk him. 'The stalker hides in those trees, camouflaged, munching on Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, dropping the wrappers on the ground, waiting for Mark to leave on one of his orange motorbikes or in his pickup truck,' they write. 'The stalker forces the door open with a knife and heads for the bathroom, where Baylis keeps old prescription drugs.' Baylis even reportedly thinks that he nearly once caught Kohberger an addict known to steal to feed his habit in the act. But Baylis suspects Kohberger escaped without being seen. 'He comes to believe that Bryan, knowing he has the element of surprise on his side, hides, waits for the veteran to walk toward the back of the house, then sprints out the front door and into the woods he knows will protect him,' the book says. Surveillance, breaking and entering and narrow escapes. These are all the skills that Kohberger employed decades later to horrifying effect. 'I think he cased the [King Road house]. He figured it out,' said Patterson. 'He'd done several break-ins in Pennsylvania and what did he do in Idaho? The door was open. He just had to slide it.' For the book claims that Kohberger had burglarized the homes of the parents of two of his friends in Pennsylvania, including the house of former Navy SEAL Mark Baylis. (Pictured: Kohberger in Pennsylvania as a teen) Surveillance, breaking and entering and narrow escapes. These are all the skills that Kohberger employed decades later to horrifying effect. 'I think he cased the [King Road house] (pictured above). He figured it out,' said Patterson. But who was the target? After 300 hours of interviews and months of intense research, Patterson and Ward believe they have an answer to that question too. 'There was a vegan restaurant in town [The Mad Greek] where Maddie and Xana both worked. And we suspect he may have been there,' Patterson explained. Maddie's friends shared their personal beliefs with the authors that Kohberger may have asked Maddie out and that she rejected him. The thought torments them, they told Patterson, like 'a recurring nightmare.' Her family had previously noted that Kohberger followed Maddie a prolific Instagram poster - on social media and 'liked' many of her pictures. 'I believe he watched Maddie and he cased the house,' Patterson said. Cell phone records put Kohberger in the vicinity of the students' house between 10pm and 2am at least a dozen times between August and November that year. Under cover of darkness, Patterson said, Kohberger may have watched his prey unseen. Trees behind the student house offered a perfect screen and Maddie's open blinds provided a clear view into her room flagged as hers by the letter M and her pink cowboy boots which were perched in the window. 'She would be very visible from the road, doing her hair, doing her makeup,' he explained. It was the perfect set-up, Patterson said, for 'Bryan the Peeping Tom.' Maddie's (pictured, right) friends shared their personal beliefs with the authors that Kohberger may have asked Maddie out and that she rejected him. The thought torments them, they told Patterson, like 'a recurring nightmare.' (Pictured: Madison Mogen, right. Kaylee Goncalves, left) While Patterson and Ward paint the students as popular, driven and loved, they depict Kohberger as an angry, increasingly disturbed, incel [involuntary celibate] whose life was spiraling in the weeks leading up to the killings. Indeed, the 30-year-old criminology post-grad, who worked as a teaching assistant at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, had a history of displaying concerning behavior towards female students. He graded them poorly, wrote condescending 'essays on their essays,' and had expressed the view that women had no business being in the class. The behavior led to a formal complaint being made about him to the faculty and disciplinary proceedings that, in the days before the murders, saw Kohberger on the cusp of losing his coveted position. 'He'd been angry for a long time. I think he's one of those people that goes back and forth between thinking that he's worthless and thinking that he's God. He's certainly a narcissist,' said Patterson. 'I think it was a combination of all these things and his life was about to get thrown up in the air. He was about to lose his fellowship and probably get thrown out of school. He was angry and he thought he could get away with it.' Truth be told, Patterson said; he almost did. In his opinion, Kohberger very nearly committed 'the perfect crime.' Nearly. 'I don't think Kohberger went in there expecting to kill four people,' said Patterson. 'Maddie was the target, and he went right to her.' But Kaylee had tumbled into bed beside her best friend in Maddie's room after a night out in the small college town. Xana one of five roommates was still up after 4am having just ordered a food delivery for herself and Ethan. Two other roommates, Bethany Funk, 23, and Dylan Mortensen, 24, were drowsily aware that something was wrong but survived, locking themselves in their rooms, terrified and confused in the dark. The scene was one of utter chaos and Patterson said, 'Kohberger panicked. I mean there is evidence of that. They have video of when he left after the murders, and he sped out of there.' 'I think it was a combination of all these things and his life was about to get thrown up in the air. He was about to lose his fellowship and probably get thrown out of school. He was angry and he thought he could get away with it.' Truth be told, Patterson said; he almost did. Xana (pictured, right) one of five roommates was still up after 4am having just ordered a food delivery for herself and Ethan (pictured, left). Surveillance footage from a neighbor's security camera clearly shows a car, now known to be Kohberger's white Hyundai Elantra, speeding out of the neighborhood around 4.20am. He is in such a rush that he nearly spins out on a corner. And in his 'panic' - in the moments when, Patterson believes, Kohberger's plan fell into disarray the killer made a mistake and dropped the sheath for his Ka-Bar fixed blade knife. Investigators found the blood-stained sheath underneath Maddie's body. It was DNA retrieved from the sheath snap and uploaded to a genealogical DNA database by the FBI that led them to Kohberger, who was arrested on December 29 - 47 days after the killings. Patterson said, 'I don't think he made any other mistakes. Without that evidence I don't think they could have brought this case to trial.' On July 2 Kohberger accepted a plea deal in which he admitted his guilt in all five counts four of felony murder and one of felony burglary and waived any right to an appeal or the chance of parole. Kohberger spoke only to acknowledge his guilt in a performance Patterson watched and described as 'incredibly dramatic and creepy.' The hearing is a chance for friends and families to share the impact his crimes have had on them and memories of Maddie, Kaylee, Xana and Ethan. But those hoping that Kohberger will shed more light on his heinous crimes are, Patterson believes, likely to be disappointed and the judge cannot compel the killer to speak. Patterson said, 'People tend to see the world in black and white. They want a clear answer. 'I think we've made some sense of it all, but honestly if you asked Kohberger why he did it I'm not sure that he could really tell you.' Two women were killed in the violent overnight flash floods that wreaked havoc on New Jersey and New York City on Monday night. The victims were trapped in their car as rain water rushed through the streets of Plainfield - shoving them into the Cedar Brook. Witnesses told ABC 7 the forceful flooding dragged the car side to side before launching it off into the brook, which was designed to catch the city's flood water. One man recalled to the outlet that one of the women was hear shouting 'I don't want to die!' A quick-thing bystander reportedly smashed one of the car's windows and tried to pull them to safety - but his efforts were in vain, as he was no match for the surge. Once first responders were able to retrieve their bodies, both women were pronounced dead at the scene. 'It was so flooded it was like a river going through, and Ive never seen anything like this before,' one local resident, Theresa Lee, told ABC 7. Little information about their deaths have been shared by police, but the Daily Mail has reached out for further information and confirmation on the identities. North Plainfield police officers and first responders had to trek through water up to save more than 40 people who were swept away by the storm (pictured: two men trying to save a child in Plainfield) A home in North Plainfield had exploded during the storm after its gas line erupted (pictured: the aftermath on Tuesday morning) In some areas, the streets more closely resembled rivers than roads - with dead fish washed up on the asphalt after the rain subsided (pictured) North Plainfield police officers and first responders had to trek through water up to their chests to save more than 40 people who were swept away by the storm. Authorities also said that anywhere from 30 to 50 vehicles were wiped out and destroyed during the floods the National Weather Service (NWS) warned could be 'life-threatening.' One home in North Plainfield had even exploded during the floods after its gas line erupted. Firefighters arrived to the home completely up in flames as the rushed inside to save its four occupants. No injuries were reported and the residents were safely evacuated, ABC 7 reported. Three other nearby homes were also evacuated for problems with their foundations related to the storm surge. The flood's eerie aftermath was apparent on Tuesday morning, with roads wrecked, homes damaged, pieces of pavement missing and debris scattered throughout the shaken city. One home in North Plainfield had even exploded during the floods after its gas line erupted (pictured) Authorities also said that anywhere from 30 to 50 vehicles in North Plainfield were wiped out and destroyed during the floods (pictured) In some areas, the streets more closely resembled rivers than roads - with dead fish washed up on the asphalt after the rain subsided. Governor Phil Murphy has declared a state of emergency, as neighborhoods across Union, Essex and Somerset Counties were also impacted by the intense downpour. These two fatalities come less than two weeks after two men died in Plainfield when a tree fell on top of their car during a powerful storm on July 3. The victims were Rocco Sansone, 79, and Brian Ernesto Valladares, 25. 'To lose four residents in such a short span of time is unimaginable,' Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp said in a statement. 'We mourn with the families, and we remain committed to doing all we can to strengthen our emergency response systems and protect our residents from future harm.' NYC also faced the brunt of the severe thunderstorms - which caused astonishing flooding across all five boroughs. The victims were trapped in their car as rain water rushed through the streets of Plainfield - shoving them into the Cedar Brook (pictured: a truck in North Plainfield submerged in rain water) The two women's deaths on Monday night came less than two weeks after two men, Rocco Sansone, 79, and Brian Ernesto Valladares (pictured), 25, suffered the same fate The NWS raised the alarm on Monday night as the deluge intensified across the Northeast, prompting major delays at JFK and LaGuardia airports for both departures and arrivals. Video showed subway cars packed with passengers filling with water as people crouched on the seats to avoid getting soaked. The floods that rocked New York and New Jersey came about a week after at least 132 people tragically died during a flash flooding event in Texas. At least 101 people are still missing. A 63-year-old migrant being held at Florida's controversial Alligator Alcatraz has made a desperate plea to be released so he can self-deport. Fernando Artese, an undocumented immigrant from Argentina, was thrown into the notorious jail - plagued with accusations of deplorable conditions including overcrowding and food shortages - after he was arrested for driving with a suspended license. U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which runs the facility, has hit back at the claims of poor conditions as 'fake news.' Fernando, who had lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, was taken into police custody on July 3 on a warrant linked to a March charge for driving without a license. He was later placed on an immigration hold, according to the Miami New Times. His 19-year-old daughter, Carla Artese, 19, is begging for her father's release while claiming that the entire family had been preparing to leave the country and settle in Argentina. 'This year, we were trying to leave the USA, and ICE got him and sent him to Alligator Alcatraz, where they treat them like criminals and have no rights,' she explained. She added that she and her family had been 'saving up' for the relocation. 'The plan was to drive cross-country to California, pass through Mexico, visit family in Argentina, and then fly to Madrid,' she told the Miami New Times, adding that she was born in Spain and had planned to start college there. Fernando Artese, an undocumented immigrant from Argentina, was thrown into the notorious jail - plagued with accusations of deplorable conditions including overcrowding and food shortages - after he was arrested for driving with a suspended license. Pictured: Fernando Artese with his daughter Carla U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which runs the facility, has hit back at the claims of poor conditions as 'fake news.' Pictured: The Alligator Alcatraz facility in the Florida Everglades (pictured) According to data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, as of June 15, more than 56,000 immigrants were in ICE detention - the highest number since 2019. Pictured: Scenes from ICE protests in Los Angeles, California However, their ambitious plans drastically changed after her father was detained. 'On the second day of the trip, we were stopped in Jupiter, where were were passing by an area that was more of a rich area,' Fernando's daughter said. 'He was driving, and when he was stopped, we actually stopped, we were talking to them, they run the plate - it was because my dad didn't have a license.' Following the arrest, Fernando was placed on an immigration hold and later transferred to the Alligator Alcatraz facility in the Florida Everglades - a newly constructed detention center that has garnered significant criticism for its alleged conditions. President Donald Trump toured the migrant detention facility on July 1, praising its remote, high-security design. The 47th President promised the controversial center would soon house what he called 'the most menacing migrants, the most vicious people on the planet.' 'Very soon this facility will house some of the most menacing migrants, the most vicious people on the planet. We're surrounded by miles of swamp land and the only way out is deportation,' Trump said. He also said hed like to see similar facilities in many states, adding Florida would getting a second one and probably a couple more. President President Donald Trump Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem tour a migrant detention center, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida Now, the Artese family's worst fears have come to life as their beloved dad is one of hundreds of migrants currently being held at the divisive Florida facility. Pictured: Fernando Artese with his wife, Monica, and daughter Carla Now, the Artese family's worst fears have come to life as their beloved dad is one of hundreds of migrants currently being held at the divisive Florida facility. 'Since I came here [the the United States], I've always had the fear of something happening to my dad, and I feel like my biggest fear happened,' Carla said. 'And I feel like my biggest fear happened, and in the worst situation it could have been.' Fernando has since described the conditions at the facility as harsh and unsanitary, citing extreme temperature swings, mosquito infestations, and a lack of privacy. He also reported that detainees had to handle human waste after toilets malfunctioned, the Miami New Times reported. Fernando has also likened the site to a 'concentration camp' calling it a 'Hispanic concentration camp' full of mostly working-class immigrants. 'My dad tells me, 'We're all like a family in there eating together,'' Carla told the Miami New Times of her father's experience in the camp. 'It's the Hispanic community,' she added. The 63-year-old father-of-one added that he has had only three showers since arriving at the facility. Trump, however, said he 'couldn't care less that the newly erected facilities were controversial. Fernando has since described the conditions at the facility as harsh and unsanitary, citing extreme temperature swings, mosquito infestations , and a lack of privacy. Pictured: Detainees wave to a helicopter flying overhead as they spend time outdoors at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Krome Detention Center An arial view of a migrant detention center, dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz,' is seen located at the site of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida 'We're arresting the worst of the worst,' Trump told reporters in Florida. 'We're getting these monsters out of the United States, out of Florida, out of all the places that they are in' He praised the facility. 'We're arresting the worst of the worst,' he told reporters in Florida. 'We're getting these monsters out of the United States, out of Florida, out of all the places that they are in.' The detention facility was spearheaded by Florida Republican leaders and garnered its nickname due to its location: it sits about 37 miles from Miami in the middle of a swamp surrounded by snakes and alligators - and in an area of the state that is prone to hurricanes. Despite Trump's praise, Democrats railed against the facility and environmental groups have sued to try and stop its opening. 'It's like a theatricalization of cruelty,' Maria Asuncion Bilbao, Florida campaign coordinator at the immigration advocacy group American Friends Service Committee told the Associated Press. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, called the facility a 'makeshift prison camp.' Yet, Trump looked visibly pleased with the setup during his tour - as he was accompanied on by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem - observing stacks of bunk beds behind chain-linked fencing inside an air conditioned tent in a Florida swamp. The president has since said that any migrant being processed into the facility who wanted to return to their home country would be allowed to do so. However, on July 10, Fernando told the Miami New Times that officials at Alligator Alcatraz had made an announcement that detainees who wanted to self-deport should line up. But, when detainees did so, officials disappeared without any explanation. Fernando, who holds Italian citizenship, has made it clear that he wishes to return to Italy, but says he has not been provided with any information about how to proceed. His daughter, who has been desperately trying to assist her father, has since started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for an immigration attorney. On July 10, Fernando said that officials at Alligator Alcatraz had made an announcement that detainees who wanted to self-deport should line up. But, when detainees did so, officials disappeared without any explanation. Pictured: Fernando Artese with his daughter Carla Fernando (pictured), who holds Italian citizenship, has made it clear that he wishes to return to Italy, but says he has not been provided with any information about how to proceed Carla, who has been desperately trying to assist her father, has since started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for an immigration attorney. Pictured: Fernando Artese with his daughter Carla The campaign has raised over $5,000 of its $10,000 goal, but she says more funds are needed to navigate the legal process. 'They haven't given him any information about his case or any right to an attorney. Not to mention, they haven't added him to the system yet, so he doesn't even appear like an inmate anywhere,' she wrote on the fundraising page. 'We want to get an attorney soon to guide us and help us through our situation to make it as quick as possible to see my dad again, and we need help to cover the expenses.' Carla expressed concern over her father's treatment and the lack of transparency in his case. 'They treat them like criminals and have no rights,' she said. Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Emergency Management, has since defended the new facility, claiming the allegations against the center are 'completely false.' 'Those allegations are completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,' Hartman wrote in an email to the Miami New Times. 'Detainees have access to potable water from on-site tanks refilled by 6,000-gallon trucks. Each individual is issued a personal cup they can refill at any time, and bottled water is provided at meals. Tanks are regularly sanitized, flushed, and tested to ensure water quality. Full-size showers are available daily with no restriction on bathing water Trump looked visibly pleased with the setup during his tour - as he was accompanied on by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem - observing stacks of bunk beds behind chain-linked fencing inside an air conditioned tent in a Florida swamp A general view at a temporary migrant detention center known as 'Alligator Alcatraz' The detention facility was spearheaded by Florida Republican leaders and garnered its nickname due to its location: it sits about 37 miles from Miami in the middle of a swamp surrounded by snakes and alligators - and in an area of the state that is prone to hurricanes. Pictured: An alligator swims in water, as preparation is underway at the entrance road of a temporary migrant detention center, informally known as 'Alligator Alcatraz' All wastewater is hard-pumped into 22,000-gallon frac tanks, maintained below 50 percent capacity and pumped daily to minimize transfers. Tanks, hoses, and connections are fully contained to prevent spills and are regularly inspected to ensure zero environmental impact,' the statement concluded. The Florida Division of Emergency Management quickly constructed the controversial site, which officials have said will detain more than 3,000 people. The Trump administration has also touted the facility as a place to hold the 'worst of the worst' criminals before removing them from the country. 'Alligator Alcatraz, and other facilities like it, will give us the capability to lock up some of the worst scumbags who entered our country under the previous administration,' U.S. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem said in a June 30 press release. Ukrainians are celebrating 'agent' Melania Trump after the First Lady apparently opened President Trump's eyes to the tragedies still taking place across their beleaguered country. Trump has admitted that after-hours conversations with his wife preceded the recent US reversal on the treatment of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. 'My conversations with [Putin] are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that a very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night,' Trump said on Monday. 'I go home. I tell the first lady, you know, "I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation." She said, "Oh, really? Another city was just hit."' Trump's comments have since gone viral online, with Ukrainians and their supporters around the world praising Melania for her subtle diplomatic efforts. 'Agent Melania Trumpenko,' one X user wrote alongside a picture of the First Lady at Trump's second inauguration. In the image, Ukrainian military insignia has been edited onto her top. 'Melania is the Slavic Queen Esther,' another writes, referencing the Bible story of a young Jewish woman who becomes queen of Persia and in the process saved her people. 'Melania will save Ukraine,' another said. Trump credited Putin 's recent reversal of fortune with the US on after-hours conversations he has with Melania which opened his eyes to the crisis Trump said: 'I go home. I tell the first lady, you know, ''I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.'' She said, ''Oh, really? Another city was just hit'' A fourth said: 'It's truly astonishing that Melania - elegant, intelligent, and usually so reserved - had to be the one to confront Trump and make him grasp the true threat that Vladimir Putin poses. 'When even she feels compelled to step in, you know things have gone way too far.' Melania was born in Slovenia, a nation considered one of Ukraine's closest allies. Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, she wrote: 'It is heartbreaking and horrific to see innocent people suffering. My thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian people. 'Please, if you can, donate to help them [at the] International Committee of the Red Cross.' Trump went so far as to threaten sanctions on Russia on Monday after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations to end the war. He said he would implement 'severe tariffs' unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia's trading partners in an effort to isolate Moscow in the global economy. Trump has threatened Putin with painful tariffs if he does not work to end the war Agent Melania Trumpenko pic.twitter.com/rVzf6tJfvJ Kate from Kharkiv (@BohuslavskaKate) July 14, 2025 In addition, Trump said European allies would buy 'billions and billions' of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country's supplies of weapons. Trump initially focused his criticism on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, insisting he was unwilling to compromise, but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin. But on Tuesday Trump downplayed the possibility of sending Ukraine long-range weapons, insisting that's not something he is considering doing. 'I'm on nobody's side,' Trump said, adding this concern was for 'humanity.' US officials say they are still sorting through Ukraine's wish list of weaponry to determine what can be most quickly replaced. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss arms transfers that have not yet been approved or completed, said Ukraine's requests for military equipment are roughly the same as they have been since the start of Russia's invasion. Those include air defenses like Patriot missiles and Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems, long-range missiles known as ATACMS and short- to medium-range ground-to-air missiles known as NASAMs, and assorted artillery, according to the officials. Chinese security guards have clashed with Australian reporters in Beijing covering Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's highly anticipated visit - forcing him to make a grim admission about the communist country's tightly controlled press. A group of Australian journalists and camera crew were filming near the historic Drum Tower landmark in the heart of the Chinese capital on Tuesday when they were confronted by security guards who demanded they stop filming. The guards then blocked the contingent, who were travelling with a diplomatic escort, from leaving as they packed up, telling them that they weren't allowed to leave and that the police had been called. ABC journalist Stephen Dziedzic and SBS World News chief political correspondent Anna Henderson were among those caught up in the chaos. Henderson had just finished doing a piece to camera when security guards encircled the group and demanded they hand over their camera equipment. 'It's just a really febrile situation here in Beijing,' Henderson said. 'It's really hard to work out what we've done wrong, but the local authorities are clearly quite upset with us. 'We had paperwork giving us permission to film here.' SBS World News chief political correspondent Anna Henderson (pictured) was among those who clashed with Chinese security guards while filming in Beijing The local security guards initially blocked the Aussie media contingent from leaving the scene (pictured, guards outside the historic Drum Tower) Anthony Albanese is pictured with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday The group was eventually allowed to leave without further incident, after an Australian official with the Beijing embassy stepped in to intervene. 'When it looked like one of the guards might block one of the camera operators, she intervened immediately, telling them to step back. It was deftly done,' Dziedzic reported for the ABC. 'For a moment, it looked like they might not let us leave - but when the bus pulled up, we got on it and left with no problem. 'It wasn't a dramatic encounter and at no point did we feel physically threatened, but it's a reminder of the current political climate in China.' Following the altercation Albanese made an admission to reporters. 'China has a different system obviously with the media,' Albanese said. The Chinese government strictly regulates all forms of media, including news outlets, film, television, and online platforms, ensuring content aligns with the Communist Party's narrative. Sensitive topics such as human rights abuses, political dissent, Taiwan, Tibet, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are heavily censored or erased altogether. Online, the 'Great Firewall' blocks access to many foreign websites and social media platforms, while Chinese alternatives are closely monitored and filtered in real time. Citizens, journalists, and creators often self-censor to avoid repercussions, including arrest. Albanese is currently in China for a six-day visit, where he had 'constructive' talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing to restore ties between the two nations. He later had talks with Premier Li and Chairman Zhao Leji. Albanese will visit the Great Wall of China on Wednesday before flying out to Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan. 'Australia's committed to a stable relationship with China,' the PM tweeted on Wednesday morning. 'Across trade, tourism, and climate action, we're working collaboratively with China in Australia's interests.' Britain has 'reasons to worry' about surging debt, the head of the UK's spending watchdog warned yesterday but cautioned against 'higher and higher taxes'. Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), told MPs that chancellors had been willing to see the debt pile 'ratcheted up and up over time'. With Britain still reeling from global crises over recent years, and amid weak economic growth and near- record taxes, tackling it will be even harder, cautioned Mr Hughes. He said that while there was no 'hard and fast level of debt at which governments should start to worry, if you look at the recent past you've seen governments get themselves into trouble at lower levels of debt than the UK has at the moment'. That includes the Republic of Ireland, he added, which suffered a financial crisis in the 2010s at a lower level of debt than the UK currently has. Mr Hughes said the risk of being brought down by debt depended on how exposed a country is to shocks, how quickly it can instigate reforms to deal with the problems and how easily a country can access the borrowing it needs. 'In all three of those areas, when you look at the UK there are reasons to worry,' he told the Treasury select committee. Mr Hughes pointed to the 'hard hit' Britain had taken from the Covid pandemic, as well as the financial crisis and the energy crisis. Richard Hughes, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), said Britain has 'reasons to worry' about surging debt but cautioned against 'higher and higher taxes' The comments undercut Chancellor Rachel Reeves's attempt to talk up the Government's growth mission at her annual Mansion House speech to the City on Tuesday night He also referenced the high level of taxes making it harder to raise more and the growing concerns about whether investors are willing to keep financing the UK's borrowing. Luring in more investors will have to mean paying higher rates on bonds, adding to the cost of that borrowing, he added. 'So I think there are reasons to be concerned about the level of UK government debt and for it to feature in decisions that are being taken,' said Mr Hughes. The comments undercut Chancellor Rachel Reeves's attempt to talk up the Government's growth mission at her annual Mansion House speech to the City on Tuesday night. They also added to the bleak report published by the OBR last week forecasting that debt is on course to surge from its current level of around 100 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 270 per cent over coming decades. The watchdog warned that Britain is effectively living beyond its means and simply 'cannot afford the array of promises that it has made to the public'. Meanwhile, the new head of the Institute of Fiscal Studies, a respected economic think-tank, said the Chancellor was 'limping' from one fiscal event to another. It comes after recent economic figures showed GDP shrank in May for the second month in a row. GDP was down 0.1 per cent in May, following a 0.3 per cent drop in April Your browser does not support iframes. Mr Hughes added: 'There hasn't been a determined effort to reduce the level of debt over time. 'There has been, in practice, a de facto willingness to allow its level to get ratcheted up and up over time and then commit to getting it to fall on a future date.' Asked about efforts to boost economic growth, Mr Hughes conceded that funding investment in areas such as research and development could help but that using public money to do so could backfire. 'Higher and higher levels of tax are also not good for growth,' he said. Without stronger growth, the level of debt as a percentage of GDP will inevitably continue to surge, the OBR pointed out. David Miles, another member of the watchdog appearing before MPs, said: 'If nothing changed, it wouldn't be right to assume that debt just stayed at 100 per cent of GDP, it would indeed be rising over time... ultimately probably in a way that would be unsustainable.' An outbreak of one of the world's most contagious diseases, measles, has popped up in regional Western Australia with a Qantas flight attendant now infected. A worker believed to be 'patient zero' from the BHP mine in Newman, a remote mining town in the state's Pilbara region, came down with the illness after flying on Qantas Flight QF1708 from Perth on July 2. BHP confirmed a second worker, who remains at the job site, caught the disease and several others are now isolating with symptoms. 'Our health and safety team has implemented precautionary measures for the wellbeing of our workforce and the community,' a BHP spokesman said. Authorities are working to identify the original case of measles. That person had flown on QF1705 from Newman to Perth on June 23 before heading back to Newman on flight QF1708 on July 2. A Qantas spokesperson confirmed a member of the flight crew had also contracted measles following a flight from Perth to Port Hedland and back on July 3. 'We advised WA health of our team member's positive diagnosis and conducted contact tracing internally to identify other staff who may have been in contact with the impacted crew member,' he said. An outbreak of one of the world's most contagious diseases, measles, has popped up in regional Western Australia with a Qantas flight attendant now infected It's understood the mine's first case caught the contagious disease while flying from Perth to Newman The Qantas worker is quarantining and no further symptoms were detected. The WA Department of Health urged anyone who 'visited an exposure location' during a string of specific dates to monitor their symptoms. Signs of measles typically take seven to 18 days to develop while those born before 1966 and those with two vaccinations are generally considered immune. Symptoms include a fever, cough, runny nose and conjunctivitis. A rash typically appears about three to five days after symptoms first show up. In severe cases, measles can lead to ear infections, pneumonia, inflammation of the brain and can even be fatal. There is no specific cure and people are urged to get vaccinated. John Torode's two-decade-long MasterChef career was over in just 24 hours after he was reportedly blindsided by the BBC and sacked without his knowledge. The celebrity chef, 59, was yesterday dismissed from the cookery show after a report into the behaviour of his co-host Gregg Wallace found he had once used a 'racist term'. It was a sudden fall from grace for the loveable Aussie host who had presented MasterChef since 2005 and was also awarded an MBE for services to food and broadcasting three years ago. Moreover, over the weekend food critic Grace Dent was pipped to become Torode's new permanent co-star following Wallace's suspension and dismissal. The pair had already filmed a series of Celebrity MasterChef together and were reportedly due to start shooting the amateur version of the show in the summer. On Tuesday, the BBC confirmed it had sacked Torode less than a day after he posted on Instagram that he was the subject of an allegation he used racist language. He has denied having any recollection of using the term - and said no one can 'even state the date or year' of when the supposed wrongdoing took place. It is understood, however, Torode, was the subject of multiple allegations but only one was substantiated. John Torode and Lisa Faulkner having lunch in June as the investigation into Wallace was underway Torode took to Instagram on Tuesday night after the Beeb said he would no longer be hosting MasterChef The majority of the allegations against Gregg Wallace (94 per cent) related to behaviour which is said to have occurred between 2005 and 2018 Wallace, 60, was suspended from MasterChef in November and sacked last week following a series of allegations against him, including one of unwanted touching. Torode, on the other hand, has continued to host the show and recently filmed a new series of the celebrity version with Dent which was due to go out this autumn. However, it is now thought that series and last year's amateur version hosted by Torode and Wallace may never see the light of day. Claims emerged last night that Torode was not told directly by the BBC that he had been sacked and instead found out after reading it online. A source said according to The Sun: 'John's agent received a call 11 minutes before the statements went out and hadn't had a chance to call him. 'He read about it on the BBC News website.' Meanwhile, Torode posted a lengthy statement on Instagram on Tuesday evening in which he said he was 'seeing and reading' he had been dropped from the show. He wrote: 'Although I haven't heard from anyone at the BBC or Banijay - I am seeing and reading that I've been 'sacked' from MasterChef and I repeat that I have no recollection of what I'm accused of. 'The enquiry could not even state the date or year of when I am meant to have said something wrong. Torode and wife Lisa ate at a restaurant in London during the June heatwave On Monday night Torode took to Instagram to confirm he had been accused of using racist language Torode claimed he had 'absolutely no recollection' of the incident and did 'not believe it happened' 'I'd hoped that I'd have some say in my exit from a show I've worked on since its relaunch in 2005, but events in last few days seem to have prevented that.' Torode said Celebrity MasterChef and two Christmas specials which he recently filmed 'will be my last'. It is not clear if the BBC will air these shows. He went on: 'Personally, I have loved every minute working on MasterChef, but it's time to pass the cutlery to someone else. For whoever takes over, love it as I have. 'I will watch fondly from afar as I now focus on the many other exciting projects that I have been working towards. My tummy will be grateful for a rest after 20 years of eating, but what a joy it has been.' BBC director-general Tim Davie had earlier condemned the 'serious racist term' the Australian-born presenter was alleged to have used. He went on: 'It's really important that we are taking this seriously. It's a reset where we make sure that people are living up to the values we expect across the board.' Asked exactly what Torode said, Davie replied: 'I'm not going to give you the exact term, because I think, frankly it was serious racist term, a serious racist term, which does not get to be acceptable in any way, shape or form.' It comes as a former member of MasterChef's production team told The Telegraph that the show needed to reform. BBC director-general Tim Davie on Tuesday spoke out about the 'serious racist term' Torode used (stock photo) Wallace was previously blasted by disability charities for using his autism as an excuse for his behaviour They said: 'The people in power are the problem. They have enabled this behaviour and that needs to change. 'I hope the show undergoes a cultural change now. This has been a long time coming.' A statement from production company Banijay UK released earlier said: 'In response to John Torode's statement, it is important to stress that Banijay UK takes this matter incredibly seriously. 'The legal team at Lewis Silkin that investigated the allegations relating to Gregg Wallace also substantiated an accusation of highly offensive racist language against John Torode which occurred in 2018. 'This matter has been formally discussed with John Torode by Banijay UK, and whilst we note that John says he does not recall the incident, Lewis Silkin have upheld the very serious complaint. 'Banijay UK and the BBC are agreed that we will not renew his contract on MasterChef.' The Lewis Silkin report, commissioned by Banijay UK, found 45 out of 83 allegations against Wallace were substantiated, alongside two standalone allegations made against other people, including one for using racist language. Torode previously said he had 'no recollection of the incident' and was 'shocked and saddened' by the allegation. A BBC spokesperson said: 'John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him. Wallace has hit out at the BBC with a new statement on Monday after 45 of 83 complaints against him were upheld in an independent probe 'This allegation - which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace - was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm Lewis Silkin. John Torode denies the allegation. 'He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. 'The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. John Torode's contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.' Davie insisted MasterChef does have a future with the broadcaster beyond 2028, when its current deal runs out, while presenting the corporation's 2024/2025 annual report earlier on Tuesday. Davie said: 'I absolutely think it does (have a future), I think a great programme that's loved by audiences is much bigger than individuals. 'It absolutely can survive and prosper, but we've got to make sure we're in the right place in terms of the culture of the show.' Downing Street has said it 'utterly condemns' any instance of racist language after the allegation made against Torode was upheld. 'When it comes to racism (it) clearly has no place at the BBC or anywhere in society, and we utterly condemn any instances of racist language or abuse in the strongest possible terms,' Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's official spokesman said. 'And it's obviously up to the BBC, who are operationally independent from Government, to take forward any necessary next steps.' The BBC said it has not yet made a final decision on whether to broadcast a series of MasterChef filmed last year with Wallace and Torode. A spokesperson for the corporation said: 'We know this is disappointing for fans of the show and those who took part, and at the appropriate time Banijay UK will consult further with the amateur contestants.' In 2022, Torode was made an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to food and charity. He became a familiar face to TV audiences in 1996 as the resident chef on ITV's This Morning, before joining MasterChef alongside Wallace when it was known as MasterChef Goes Large. The State Department has issued an updated travel advisory for Canada amid a period of elevated tensions between the two countries. The advisory follows a steep decline in Canadian tourism to the US and mutual criticism over immigration enforcement and environmental fallout. While Canada remains designated as a low-risk country where only 'normal precautions' are advised, the June update highlights increased environmental hazards and urges travelers to monitor local alerts and follow emergency guidance. The new guidance carries an urgent tone that would have once seemed unthinkable between two countries and marks a rare moment of public friction between the neighboring allies. The relationship has been strained in recent months by political rhetoric and cross-border air quality concerns linked to Canada's record-breaking wildfires. 'In Canada, wildfires are common in forested and grassland regions from May to September,' the US Embassy and Consulates in Canada now cautions. 'In 2024, Canada was affected by record-breaking wildfires affecting all 13 provinces and territories.' American travelers are being urged to stay alert, follow local guidance, and monitor air quality conditions closely. The reminder may sound routine but it comes at a time as the two allies are grappling with a growing sense of mutual unease. The State Department has issued an updated travel advisory for Canada amid a period of elevated tensions between the two countries. Pictured, Bow Glacier Falls and St. Nicholas Peak, Alberta, Canada The State Department has issued an updated travel advisory for Canada, warning American citizens to be aware of worsening wildfire conditions across all 13 provinces and territories. Pictured, a haze blankets Toronto during an air quality warning earlier this week The relationship has been strained in recent months by political rhetoric and cross-border air quality concerns linked to Canada's record-breaking wildfires Last week, Trump threw a grenade on the tariff negotiations between the United States and Canada with a blistering letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney. The two nations had been trying to settle the tariff war that broke out when Trump returned to office and announced plans to reorganize world trade. Canadian officials had hoped a deal was close, but Trump's latest letter - which he shared to Truth Social on Thursday night - set negotiations back to square one. The letter revealed he would raise tariffs on Canadian products to 35 percent from August 1 - a 10 percent increase on the current levy. Trump said the tariff hike was in part due to the fentanyl crisis and Canada's 'failure to stop the drugs from pouring into our country'. 'I must mention that the flow of fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many tariff, and non-tariff, policies and trade barriers,' Trump wrote in the letter. Carney, who took office this year in a liberal win partly powered by Trump's trade actions and threats to make Canada the 51st state, his back in an online posting. 'Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses,' Carney wrote. President Donald Trump fired off a letter to Canada on Thursday announcing a new 35 percent tariff. He said he spoke to Canadian PM Mark Carney that night Carney was elected prime minister in April on the argument that Canadians should keep their 'elbows up' Trump's decision to single out America's second largest trading partner after Mexico came as a surprise While multiple countries have received tariff letters last week, Canada has become a thorn in Trump's side during his second term 'We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1. Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries. That came after Trump mentioned fentanyl in his trade letter, and called out Canada for a 'failure' to control it. 'If Canada works with me to stop the flow of fentanyl, we will, perhaps, consider an adjustment to this letter,' Trump added. 'These tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your country,' he added. The latest round of tariffs are in addition to previously imposed sectoral tariffs on steel, copper and aluminum, which came into effect for most countries on June 4 at a whopping 50 percent. The latest travel advisory follows years of quietly simmering friction that boiled over earlier this year when President Trump repeatedly mocked former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, referring to Canada as America's '51st state,' and demoting Trudeau to the title of 'governor.' The introduction of tariffs between the two countries and Trump's hardline immigration policies have also seen Canadian travel to the US plunge by up to 40 percent this spring, as stories of tourists caught in the web of US immigration enforcement made headlines across the border. In response to the spike in travel-related incidents, the Canadian government has since revised its own advisory for citizens visiting the US, bluntly stating that travelers must 'comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities' and warning that visitors 'could be detained while awaiting deportation.' Last month the US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra attempted to tamp down concerns, calling the fears 'unfounded' and the high-profile detentions 'isolated.' But those reassurances did little to stem the unease especially as smoke from Canadian wildfires once again began spilling across the border. The immediate concerns outlined in the new US travel advisory is environmental: smoke, fires, and increasingly unbreathable air. This month, a fresh round of wildfires erupted in Manitoba, sending smoke billowing eastward and triggering air quality alerts from Toronto to Nova Scotia. Americans haven't forgotten what happened in June 2023 when smoke from Canadian blazes shrouded major US cities. The introduction of tariffs between the two countries and Trump's hardline immigration policies have also seen Canadian travel to the US plunge by up to 40. Toronto is pictured In response to the spike in travel-related incidents, the Canadian government has since revised its own advisory for citizens visiting the US, bluntly stating that travelers must 'comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities' Tourists pose for a photo against city view of Toronto on Monday as smoke from wildfires blankets the city The skies over New York City turned an apocalyptic orange, with the city suffering some of its worst air quality on record. In a sharply worded letter, Republican representatives Tom Tiffany, Glenn Grothman, and Michelle Fischbach called on Canadian Ambassador Kirsten Hillman to take more aggressive action. 'We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer,' the lawmakers declared. The Canadian Embassy, in response, told the BBC that its government 'takes wildfire season very seriously' and emphasized that Canadian communities were facing even more severe impacts. Ghislaine Maxwell's family have broken their silence to insist she is innocent and was subjected to 'government misconduct' in an unscrupulous effort to blame someone for Jeffrey Epstein's crimes after he died. President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi are facing MAGA mutiny amid claims they botched an investigation into Epstein's laundry list of crimes. Epstein's right-hand woman is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking offenses tied to the billionaire financier's crimes. But Bondi maintains that after years of rampant speculation, there is no evidence Epstein ever held a 'client list' implicating high-profile associates. Maxwell was convicted in 2021, two years after Epstein was found dead in his cell while awaiting trial for child sex offenses. Her family now maintain 'our sister Ghislaine did not receive a fair trial', claiming prosecutors stopped at nothing to convict her due to the public's appetite for her to face justice on Epstein's behalf after his death. According to the family's statement, Maxwell is prepared to 'file a writ of habeas corpus' which would 'allow her to challenge her imprisonment.' This challenge would be 'on the basis of new evidence such as government misconduct that would have likely changed the trial's outcome.' The family argue that Maxwell should have been protected under an agreement Epstein entered with the Department of Justice in 2007, in which they vowed not to prosecute any of his co-conspirators after he 'paid fines, paid "victims" millions of dollars and served 13 months in prison.' Ghislaine Maxwell was pictured at FCI Tallahassee last week, where she is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking offenses tied to the billionaire financier's crimes Maxwell was convicted in 2021 , two years after Epstein was found dead in his cell while awaiting trial for child sex offenses As Epstein's right-hand woman is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking offenses tied to the billionaire financier's crimes President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi ar e facing MAGA mutiny amid claims they botched an investigation into Epstein's laundry list of crimes Counsel representing Maxwell, David Oscar Marcus, said: 'I'd be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal. 'He's the ultimate dealmaker - and I'm sure he'd agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it. 'With all the talk about who's being prosecuted and who isn't, it's especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the US government made and broke.' The family said they 'profoundly concur' with Marcus' comments. The controversial deal stated if 'Epstein successfully fulfills all of the terms and conditions of this agreement, the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to' four of Epstein's assistants.' This did not name Maxwell specifically. But the 2007 deal applied only to the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida. Prosecutors found a loophole in which they were able to target Maxwell in New York, which treats such agreements differently to the vast majority of American states. 'Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers are asking the Court to resolve this difference between the Districts,' a filing seen by DailyMail.com states. Ghislaine Maxwell's family (pictured) have broken their silence to insist she is innocent and was subjected to 'government misconduct' in an unscrupulous effort to blame someone for Jeffrey Epstein 's crimes after he died The family wants Maxwell's sentence to be vacated and for her to be referred for resentencing The family wants Maxwell's sentence to be vacated and for her to be referred for resentencing, accusing the court of also 'applying an incorrect guideline range and offense level.' The Maxwell family's comments come at a time of heightened interest in the case after Bondi's memo attempted to shut down long-held theories of an Epstein client list. Back in February, Bondi told Fox News that a list of Epstein clients was on her desk for review. Questioned by reporters about the claim in recent days, her spokesman clarified that she had been referring to files in the case generally. Maxwell's brother Ian told The Spectator that his sister has always denied any such list existed, saying his family was not surprised by Bondi's memo. 'My sister has always maintained there was never such a thing. It never existed,' he said. 'If you prick a conspiracy the balloon goes down and people wonder why they've been fooled.' He called out Elon Musk and other high-profile social media influencers for giving 'tremendous currency' to conspiracy theories about the list, ultimately giving it 'a life of its own' that was always going to become a thorn in Trump's side. 'They've reached the end of the road, it's finished, for what it's worth I think the President would be pleased they've concluded that,' he said. Earlier this month, CCTV footage taken outside Jeffrey Epstein's cell was released - six years after the notorious paedophile was found dead The DoJ said that while the footage doesn't show his cell door, it would capture anyone moving to it President Trump last week rebuked a reporter for asking about the Justice Department memo, telling them that the catastrophic flooding in Texas was more important. Trump has urged his supporters not to 'waste time and energy' on the issue. As he continued to be pressed on it yesterday, he said Bondi had handled the controversy 'very well' and that it was ultimately 'up to her'. 'Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release,' he told reporters before denying his name appeared in any of the records. But allies, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, have called for 'transparency'. Leading MAGA voices including Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly have also joined the call for the files to be released. MAGA loyalists, among many others, have long theorized that the financier did not kill himself in his cell in 2019, as the coroner ruled. But this was also rubbished by Bondi's new memo, in which she ruled out any foul play. Maxwell (pictured with Prince Andrew and accuser Virginia Giuffre) was convicted in 2021 , two years after Epstein was found dead in his cell while awaiting trial for child sex offense Ian Maxwell said Maxwell's statement has not changed his sister's opinion. She has long believed Epstein was murdered. 'I think there is more substance to different and opposing views, that he was murdered,' Ian said. 'That is, and remains, my sister's view for what it's worth.' Ian said while 'people seem to think this involves some James Bond figure slipping into the prison' he suggested a separate theory entirely. 'It seems to preclude another way in which that may have happened - him actually paying someone in prison to kill him. Suicide by internal killing.' As part of the probe into Epstein's death, around 11 hours of footage taken from inside the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City on August 9 and 10 2019 was publicly revealed for the first time earlier this month. Following his arrest on multiple charges, including sex trafficking, he was found unresponsive in his cell early in the morning of August 10 and was later declared dead in hospital. The FBI and DoJ investigation into his death has concluded the same as the coroner - that Epstein committed suicide by hanging. Maxwell does not believe Epstein killed himself in his cell, despite Pam Bondi's recent statements CCTV footage from outside his cell appears to show the orange-clad paedophile being led to his cells by a guard and being trailed by a second one at 7.49pm on the night of August 9. The two guards and Epstein can be seen walking across the common area as they moved towards his cell, according to US news site Axios. The DoJ said that while the footage, which was taken between 7.40pm and 6.40am the next day, doesn't show his cell door, it would capture anyone moving to it. According to Axios, investigators examined the footage and found that between 10.40pm on August 9 and 6.30pm on August 10, when Epstein was locked in his cell, no one was seen entering the area around his cell. The joint FBI and DoJ investigation concluded that Epstein was not murdered, nor did he blackmail powerful figures or keep a 'client list.' The memo from the FBI and DOJ announced that no one involved in the Epstein case will follow Maxwell to prison, as no further charges will be filed. A mother caught out a DNA examiner who helped her child's father pretend to be unrelated to their son so he could evade maintenance payments. Lab worker Robert Patel provided a saliva sample, forged a doctor's signature and used an official stamp after being asked to skew the test results. HGV driver Sheldon Brown, 26, left Chelsea Miller, 31, three days after the birth of their son Louie in March 2022, The Sun reports. Ms Miller said she 'always knew who the father of my child was' but was 'left questioning everything' after Brown denied being Louie's father. A court heard Brown would save 94,000 in maintenance if it was proved he was unrelated to the child - his aunt then asked Patel to skew the results. But after the Child Maintenance Service said the test supposedly taken by Brown was negative Ms Millar managed to persuade Brown's mother Katie to provide DNA at a private lab. The sample proved Louie was Katie's grandson and the fake DNA swab matched Patel, 38, who had a conviction in 2017 for stealing 1,600 from a disabled person. There was no evidence he received payment for the scam. Chelsea Millar (pictured) managed to persuade Brown's mother Katie to provide DNA at a private lab Ms Millar said: 'I always knew who the father of my child was, but I was left questioning everything' Lab worker Robert Patel provided a saliva sample, forged a doctor's signature and used an official stamp after being asked to skew the test results (file image) Patel and Brown both admitted conspiracy to defraud at Guildford crown court, The Sun reported. Brown, of Hampton, south west London, was sentenced to 50 weeks in jail and Patel, of Feltham, west London, got 33 weeks. Ms Millar said online in the wake of the saga: 'I always knew who the father of my child was, but I was left questioning everything. 'The level of unprofessionalism and violation of trust in this case is beyond unacceptable. 'Patients deserve to feel safe and respected when receiving care, especially in situations as sensitive as this. 'I sincerely hope this review encourages others to proceed with caution and prompts the relevant authorities to ensure such behaviour is never repeated.' The ex-husband of Mark Latham's former partner has unloaded on social media after her explosive allegations against the independent NSW state MP. Ross Matthews spoke out after ex-wife Nathalie claimed Latham inflicted 'a sustained pattern' of psychological, financial and emotional abuse against her for almost three years. The Matthews married seven years ago but the marriage reportedly ended in 2022, before Ms Matthews began dating ex-federal Labor Party leader, Latham. She claims Latham proposed to her during their affair - but Latham has dismissed the relationship as just a 'situationship', despite explicit texts to her also now emerging. In the wake of their split, Ms Matthews has now applied for an AVO restraining order against Latham, claiming he abused her and made her perform degrading sex acts. But on Wednesday, Latham hit back, insisting: 'The big news is I had a private life. I had a sex life and Ive got to say it was fantastic.' Now her ex-husband has moved to distance himself from the row and begged not to get involved. Please stop messaging me, he posted on X after the scandal erupted. I don't speak to Nathalie and do not care. Thank you. Ross and Nathalie Matthews tied the knot in 2018 Mark Latham (right) is pictured alongside his ex-partner Nathalie Matthews (left) at celebrity hangout restaurant Mimi's in Coogee, in Sydney's eastern suburbs Ross Matthews issued a statement on social media, distancing himself from his former spouse UK-born Mr Matthews had previously posted proudly about his marriage to his former wife on social media. Six months since I woke up with a killer hangover and still managed to make the best decision I have ever made! he wrote in the wake of their wedding. In another post he added: Happy one year! I cannot believe how fast a year can go! 'I would be lying if I said its been the best year of my life - in fact its easily been the worst but it is in bad times that picking the right life partner is of the most importance! 'I just could not imagine doing life without you, love you always and heres to many years to come! Its understood the pair, who were living in Cronulla in Sydneys south, were both Liberal Party members, and Ms Matthews stood as a candidate at the 2021 Sutherland Shire Council election. On Wednesday, Latham alleged the couple were still actually married while he was seeing Ms Matthews. Now The Australian is reporting that I proposed to Nathalie Matthews in May last year, he posted to X. The former couple married in a traditional Catholic ceremony The pair lived in Cronulla and were active members of the Liberal Party They missed the joke: she was still married to Ross Matthews, and maybe still is to this day.' The former Labor leader has categorically denied he 'abuses women' and insisted all his dealings with Ms Matthews were entirely consensual. In an interview with Chris Smith on 2SM, he did not deny sending lurid texts to Ms Matthews from the floor of state parliament. But he added: 'If I'm the only person in Australia who in a work environment engaged in a bit of playful sex talk with their partner, then I'll buy everyone a lottery ticket tomorrow.' He said the AVO case against him was being brought privately after NSW Police chose to not pursue the allegations. 'There is a court case pending because shes lodged a private AVO application,' he said. 'She tried to get an AVO with the police... I think that tells you a lot about the substance of the matter. 'But I can say in relation to that, just about all the things shes complaining about, she initiated in consensual arrangements.' Nathalie Matthews has now applied for an AVO restraining order against Latham, claiming he abused her and made her perform degrading sex acts Mark Latham and Nathalie Matthews pictured in 2023 Everest Carnival The domestic violence order filed in the NSW Local Court accuses Latham of subjecting his ex-partner to 'a sustained pattern' of psychological, financial, and emotional abuse over almost three years, according to details seen by The Australian. The application alleges Latham engaged in vile acts, including defecating on me before sex and refusing to let me wash, forcing degrading sexual acts, pressuring me to engage in sexual acts with others, demanding I call him master, telling me I was his property, and repeatedly telling me that my only value to him was for sex to demean and control me. Leaked WhatsApp messages reported by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday allegedly show interactions between Latham and his former partner. Latham told Daily Mail Australia the outlet's reproduction of the messages was 'not accurate'. It is also not suggested the claims of abusive behaviour are substantiated, only that the allegations have been made. The leaked WhatsApp messages include a series of lewd exchanges on February 20, 2025 during parliamentary sitting hours. 'Very hard thinking about you,' he wrote to Ms Matthews shortly after 11am, before following up with a series of suggestive emojis. 'Need badly to taste you,' he wrote that afternoon, alongside an emoji of a tongue. 'Made it back for first vote after dinner,' he said at 8.38pm. Ross and Nathalie Matthews wed seven years ago but reportedly split in 2022 Latham told the outlet the communications did not impact his work. The tranche of leaked messages includes more explicit exchanges - too graphic to publish - spanning back as far as October last year. On several occasions, Latham is referred to as 'master'. He said Ms Matthews sent him images during parliamentary sittings, 'seeking a response', and that he could not describe them due to 'an abundance of caution about the revenge porn laws'. 'I don't think responding to a consensual partner on a private, intimate matter in any way has reduced my workload, which I would match up against any other member in the place,' he told The Daily Telegraph. Ms Matthews' allegations against the politician were detailed in court documents filed with NSW Local Court. Latham has denied the allegations which he described as 'comically false and ridiculous' in a post to X on Monday night. Mark Latham (left) claims Nathalie Matthews (right) sent him images during parliamentary sittings, 'seeking a response', and that he could not describe them due to 'revenge porn laws' He said he had 'scores of documents' to support his claims and that he would rely on those documents to defend himself. 'As the old saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,' he wrote. Ms Matthews, who runs an e-commerce global logistics firm based in Dubai, Perth and Sydney, has applied for an interim order barring Latham from coming within 100 metres of her. She cited 'ongoing, reasonable fear of harassment, intimidation, and potential harm'. Her application accuses the former Labor leader of throwing a dinner plate at her, forcing her to call him 'master', and pressuring her to have sex with others. Ms Matthews' filing, reported by The Australian, also alleges Latham prevented her from cleaning up after defecating on her before sex and telling her she was 'property', and telling her that her only value to him was for sex to 'demean and control' her. She also alleged 'physical violence' incidents, including pushing her against walls, forcing her out a door, throwing a plate at her during a row. She also claimed he drove at her with his car, hit her with the side mirror and caused a bruise. Latham is further accused of 'systematically undermining' Ms Matthews to 'control and isolate' her by comparing her 'unfavourably to other women and acting as if he would 'harm himself' to manipulate her. Pictured is a message exchange between the pair (Latham's messages in blue) Latham claimed the texting did not impact his work Ms Matthews accuses Latham of forcing her to cover the cost of holidays abroad 'under duress', making her purchase expensive goods, and coercing her regarding her father's will for his benefit. She claims she experienced 'constant fear and hyper-vigilance' since her arrival home from a June trip abroad, alleging all past break-ups with Latham featured a repeated 'pattern of harassment and intimidation'. She alleges: 'The defendant has held intimate photos and videos of me, and I have been afraid he would expose them to shame and control me if I attempted to leave or resist his demands.' Latham denied all accusations to The Australian. 'Nothing has been served on me nor has anyone contacted me,' he told the newspaper. 'I haven't had anything to do with her (Ms Matthews) since 27 May, so nearly seven weeks ago. I ended the 'situationship' that night for very good reason.' The matter will be heard at Downing Centre Local Court on July 30. A North Carolina teenager is in the hospital after having her legs run over by a pick-up truck in an excruciating beach accident. The incident occurred around 2:11 p.m. on July 14 when Oak Island Public Safety officials responded to reports of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle operating on the sand. The teen, whose identity has not been released, was evaluated on-scene for possible non-life-threatening injuries and later transported to Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center. The vehicle - a 2020 GMC pickup - belongs to TI Coastal Services, a private contractor conducting beach survey work. The work is part of preparations for the 202526 Beach Nourishment Project, which includes land and sea surveying. Police have not yet indicated whether any charges are being considered against the driver. Town officials have since addressed growing misinformation online, stating clearly that the Oak Island Beach Safety Unit was not involved in the incident. A 15-year-old girl was hospitalized after a pickup truck performing beach survey work ran over her legs while she was sunbathing on a public beach in Oak Island, authorities confirmed. Pictured: Oak Island Beach, North Carolina The vehicle - a 2020 GMC pickup (pictured) - belongs to TI Coastal Services, a private contractor conducting beach survey work for engineering firm Moffatt & Nichol, according to a press release from the Town of Oak Island 'It has been erroneously reported on social media and other platforms that this accident was caused by the Town's Beach Safety Unit during its regular patrols. This information is false and should not be shared,' the town said in a statement. 'Claims such as this can quickly cause the spread of misinformation, and lead to a dangerous lack of trust in first responders.' The beach survey work began on July 7 and is expected to continue through mid-July. Town officials said the project had been publicly announced in advance via newsletters and official notices. No further details have been released regarding the teen's condition or whether the contractor has responded to the incident, according to Fox News. TI Coastal Services has not commented publicly. Daily Mail has reached out to TI Coastal Services for comment. The investigation remains ongoing. The terrifying incident comes just months after pair of teens, 14 and 15 years old were run over by a lifeguard at Nokomis Beach in Sarasota County. The two teens were lying on the beach when the lifeguard who was driving a Ford-150 pickup truck 'was moving slowly over the crest of the berm,' The teen, whose identity has not been released, was evaluated on-scene for possible non-life-threatening injuries and later transported to Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center in Bolivia for further evaluation 'out of caution,' officials said No further details have been released regarding the teen's condition or whether the contractor has responded to the incident The guard told Fox13 at the time that he 'never saw any obstructions,' adding that 'his view was very limited by the hood of the pickup truck.' He told the outlet that he 'felt two bumps and stopped, realizing he had struck something, and he saw that he had run over two juveniles as he opened the truck's door. Both were lying down in the sand at an angle.' The beach staffer then immediately called 911 and began rendering aid to the injured teens. One teen was taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, complaining of pain in her neck, left shoulder, left side and left hip, Fox13 reported. The other teen was taken by Aeromed to All Children's Hospital. She advised that she heard the truck coming, but believed the sound was coming from the parking lot to the East rather than the beach to the west of them. The teen's mother said she suffered a broken pelvis and was being kept overnight to evaluate the status of her lungs and liver. The family of a state government official who pocketed $11million and then vanished after 'putting the bins out' one Sunday has broken their silence about his whereabouts and slammed the police for breaking down their front door. Ibrahim Helmy, 38 - the alleged mastermind of a $343million corruption scheme involving rigged Transport for NSW contracts - has been missing since May. NSW Police on Monday issued an outstanding arrest warrant for Helmy after he failed to appear before an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry, saying he is believed to be on the run. When Daily Mail Australia asked Ibrahim's father Moustafa Helmy at his Merrylands home if he knew where his son was, the fugitive's dad said he was not concerned for his son's welfare and was confident 'he is safe'. 'My son is a good man, what they are saying they have to prove. He is an engineer and he is a good person. The gold bullion? My daughter believes it is a good investment, better than banks,' he said. 'They took it, along with my son's Maserati when they came here and broke down my door. There were 30 of them. They were crazy. 'Why didn't they just knock instead of breaking the door in the night when we were sleeping?' Mr Helmy was referring to the raid by ICAC and the NSW Crime Commission on his Merrylands home last September, when officers seized gold, platinum and silver bars, gold nuggets, bundles of cash totalling $12,317, and a Maserati. Missing '$11.5million man' Ibrahim Helmy's father Moustafa has broken his silence about his son who disappeared 'putting out the bins' and talked about the gold and silver bullion seized from their Merrylands home Police seized bundles of cash, gold, silver and platinum bars, and cryptocurrency worth around $8.5million when they raided the Helmys' Merrylands home last September, 'breaking down the door' last September. Months later he vanished 'putting out the bins' Among the seized items were gold bullion in red bags, more than $12,000 in cash, a Kogan cash counter and various gold, silver and platinum bars The Crime Commission further seized $8million in cryptocurrency held in a Binance account by Mr Helmy's daughter, and $413,000 in cryptocurrency held by Ibrahim Helmy. Helmy is alleged to have received $11.5million in kickbacks including bundles of cash, gold bullion and cryptocurrency from contractors in return for them being awarded work on the state's roads. Helmy, a civil engineer who worked for Transport for NSW for 15 years, was suspended from his job at the time of the raid, and sacked in February. ICAC alleged that Helmy arranged for four colleagues to ensure businesses he had corrupt relationships with would be awarded contract work valued from $12million to $99million. His father Moustafa told the Mail he was 'not sure how long it is since (Ibrahim) left, but I haven't seen him'. But he stressed that he believed his son had been 'good at his job'. He said both his children, Ibrahim and his daughter were qualified civil engineers and that he himself was a retired electrical engineer and that his whole family 'have nothing to hide'. Mr Helmy, whose modest 2009 Holden Barina was parked outside the family home, said the raid on his house last year when he, his wife and Ibrahim were in bed had 'scared us'. He said he wasn't sure of the value of the family's items that had been seized in the raid, but that it was 'all legitimate' and nothing had been returned to them. The ICAC haul included gold bars, platinum and silver bullion, bundles of cash, cryptocurrency and computers and other devices when they knocked down the door of the Helmys' Merylands home Moustafa Helmy (pictured at his Merrylands home on Monday) said 30 officers stormed the home after dark, breaking the door in and scaring himself, his wife and his son Ibrahim Authorities believe Ibrahim Helmy is hiding in NSW after disappearing in May, as they have seized his Australian passport, a US passport and issued warnings to look out for the fugitive Computers and storage devices were seized along with a US passport from the Merrylands home, before Ibrahim Helmy was bailed on strict conditions. Ibrahim's younger brother, Mohamed Helmy, is alleged to have profited from the scheme being investigated by ICAC's Operation Wyvern presided over by ICAC Chief Commissioner John Hatzistergos. The fourth public inquiry into Transport for NSW since 2019, it has been investigating allegations of corrupt conduct in the arm responsible for building and maintaining the state's road network. Ibrahim Helmy had worked at Transport for NSW in different roles. He is known to frequent the Merrylands and Guildford areas in Sydney's west. He is described as being Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, 175cm tall, medium build and has black hair. Police seized Ibrahim Helmy's Maserati and this $500,000 2024 Bentley during the ICAC raids investigating Transport for NSW corruption scams Ibrahim Helmy frequents Merrylands and Guildford in Sydney's west and is of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, 175cm tall, with black hair. Pictured, right, some of the cash seized 'Anyone who sees him is urged not to approach him but to call triple zero,' a police statement read. Helmy's Australian passport was detected at Sydney Airport awaiting a flight to China after the Merrylands raid, in September 2024, and he failed to board the flight. He allegedly made unsuccessful attempts to flee overseas after becoming aware that he was the central figure of an ICAC investigation. 'We believe he remains in the jurisdiction and that individuals have been collaborating to conceal his whereabouts. Active steps are being taken to locate him,' senior barrister assisting the ICAC Rob Ranken SC told the inquiry on Monday. 'We suspect it is only a matter of time before he is located and we urge him to come forward of his own volition.' Her front left leg had to be amputated GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING A bridal shop owner has been awarded over $100,000 in damages after her beloved Shih Tzu's leg was severed during a 'terrifying and violent' dog attack. Mary Ioannidis, now 54, was taking her 11-year-old Shih Tzi Lexi for a walk in Mortdale, in Sydney's south, in April 2020 when the dog was mauled by a large greyhound Staffordshire bull terrier. Lexi's front left leg was completed severed and had to be amputated while her owner suffered various lacerations and abrasion while trying to pull the dogs apart. Ms Ioannidis has since been diagnosed with PTSD and remains traumatised by the attack five years later. She launched proceedings in NSW District Court seeking damages under the Companion Animals Act against Melissa Carretero, the owner of the staffy cross. Harrowing details of the vicious attack were laid bare when Judge John Catsanos SC handed down his decision on Tuesday. The court heard how the unrestrained staffy terrier ran towards Lexi and was 'throwing her from side to side' as Ms Ioannidis tried desperately to pull her away. Lexi is seen recovering after her front left paw had to be amputated after she was mauled by a large greyhound Staffordshire bull terrier in Sydney's south The bridal shop owner is pictured in the aftermath of the gruesome dog attack in 2020 'He kept running back and launching at me and he just kept attacking, and he just didn't stop. He didn't stop, and I was falling over and trying to get on my feet,' Ms Ioannidis was quoted as saying by Judge Catsanos. The greyhound cross 'ripped Lexi's whole paw off at the joint' and bit Ms Ioannidis 'across the neck, her face around the chin, her arm and her legs'. A photo supplied to Daily Mail Australia by Ms Ioannidis legal team from Shine Lawyers showed the aftermath of the attack, where she's covered in blood. 'The plaintiff described fingernails being completely ripped off in the chaos of the attack as she was falling over and tripping on the lead, all the time trying not to let go of Lexi,' Judge Catsanos said in his decision. 'By any measure, this was a violent and terrifying attack.' The judge noted that Carretero agreed her dog had attacked Lexi, but not Ms Ioannidis. 'In any event, I am comfortably satisfied that as well as being wounded, the plaintiff was attacked by the defendant's dog,' he said. His decision also detailed the psychological impact the attack had on Ms Ioannidis. Ms Ioannidis (pictured with Lexi) struggles to spend time outdoors after the 'terrifying and violent' attack on her Shih Tzu Lexi, who has since died Lexi's front left leg was completed severed and had to be amputated She struggled to take Lexi for walks, suffers ongoing anxiety while outdoors and now only works at her bridal boutique, Mary Ioannidis Couture, two days a week. 'I am nonetheless satisfied that the plaintiff has suffered some loss of earning capacity as a result of the psychological injury caused by the dog attack,' Judge Catsanos said. 'I find that the dog attack caused the plaintiff to suffer psychiatric injury in the form of PTSD. [Ms Ioannidis] suffers a genuine psychiatric condition as a result of the attack.' Ms Ioannidis received $101,788.63 in damages, with Carretero ordered by the judge to pay her legal costs. Lexi (pictured) survived the horrific attack but sadly died last September 'Mary has suffered profound consequences as a result of this attack,' Shine Lawyers associate Brittany Vella told Daily Mail Australia. 'Mary and Lexi were simply out for a walk when they were set upon by an unrestrained dog - an animal which dwarfed Lexi and which would have easily killed her had it not been for Mary's desperate efforts to save her.' 'There's not just the physical injuries, but long-term psychological trauma as well.' Lexi died last September due to unknown causes. Two female childcare workers have been accused of assaulting a 17-month-old boy at a daycare centre in Sydney's west. Police received a report regarding injuries to the toddler at an early learning centre in South Wentworthville, 26km west of the CBD, on June 26. An investigation found the injuries were allegedly caused by two childcare workers during separate occasions on the same day. A 42-year-old woman was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault, and a 32-year-old woman was charged with common assault. Both women will appear in Blacktown Local Court on August 27. The incident is the latest in a series of troubling events to rock Australia's childcare sector in recent weeks. Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, 26, has been charged with more than 70 child abuse offences, including the sexual penetration of a child and producing child abuse material. Brown worked at a total of 23 childcare centres over an eight-year period between January 2017 and May 2025. Two female childcare workers have been accused of assaulting a 17-month-old boy toddler at a daycare centre in Sydney's west (pictured is a stock image) The former childcare worker, who was arrested at his Point Cook home in May, has been remanded to face court on September 15. The Victoria Government has moved to ban all personal devices, like mobile phones, in childcare centres following Brown's arrest. Premier Jacinta Allan said all centres across the state must adopt the ban by September 26, and those that didn't would face fines of up to $50,000. Allan said on top of the personal device ban, the government was also commissioning an urgent review into childcare safety and would look into installing CCTV in centres. A Sydney man who worked at an early childcare centre was last week charged with using children to create abusive content. Three childcare workers in Adelaide were sacked earlier this month following an investigation into 'inappropriate' nappy rash images of children at the daycare. The female staff members were fired from the Little Shining Stars Early Learning Centre in Klemzig following an investigation by the Education Standards Board (ESB). The ESB received a complaint of inappropriate discipline at the centre and three female workers were fired after an officer attended the site. A young tradie who spent six years working to save for a house deposit lost $110,000 in the single click of a button after falling victim to an elaborate scam. Sydney electrician Louis May, 24, found the perfect apartment to buy as his first property in July last year. He said it needed a little work but overall, was 'very excited' about getting to own his first home, having worked six 10-hour days a week for years. As he moved forward with the property purchase, his lawyer contacted him from two different email addresses. When he received an invitation to sign a Property Exchange Australia (PEXA) form from a third email address, he thought nothing of it. Mr May called his bank, Commonwealth Bank, before following the instructions enclosed in the email which he thought was sent by his lawyer asking him to put his deposit in the PEXA fund. However, come the day of his property settlement, Mr May's lawyer called him to say the $110,000 transfer was not in his account. Sydney electrician Louis May, 24, found the perfect apartment to buy as his first property in July last year. 'I said, "I did what you had told me"... he said, "I'd never emailed you a PEXA form",' Mr May said on SBS Insight. 'My heart dropped. 'That was the moment that I realised I was scammed.' Mr May's mother Alex Brooks helped him try to trace the origins of the scam. 'Someone obviously had breached his confidential home-buying details,' she said. She talked with multiple cybersecurity experts and paid thousands for online forensics experts. Ms Brooks maintains her son was not responsible for the breach of his personal and purchasing details. CBA ultimately offered him $1,000 in compensation which he flatly rejected. Mr May explained he lost his life savings after falling victim to an elaborate scam 'It beggars belief what goes on as people try to seek justice and restitution,' Ms Brooks said. Mr May was fortunately able to receive a loan from a family member, allowing him to settle on the apartment albeit with $600 extra in interest each month. 'It's pretty heartbreaking,' Mr May said. 'I'll just start again, I was supposed to renovate, I was supposed to do a lot. 'But, in that time, all I have done is just kind of put a bed in and just got straight back to work... it's taken a toll on me.' Agent Cody Nagel, of the Joint Policing Cyber Crime centre at the Australian Federal Police (AFP), said a cybercrime is reported every six minutes in Australia. He said the AFP is trying to bring public and private sectors together to interrupt criminal scammers and prosecute those responsible. 'We acknowledge that we can't actually arrest our way out of this problem,' he told the program. Daily Mail Australia has contacted CBA for comment. Alleged Minnesota assassin Vance Boelter was indicted by a grand jury as officials revealed his deranged fantasy to kill Democratic politicians at the behest of Governor Tim Walz. Boelter was charged with murder for the brutal slaying of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband. He was also charged with attempting to kill State Senator John Hoffman, his wife, and their daughter. The madman confessed to the crimes in a rambling handwritten letter to FBI Director Kash Patel. He incredulously claimed he met with Walz before embarking on a sophisticated plot. Walz, Boelter alleged, had approached him about killing the state's two US senators, fellow Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith. 'Tim wants to be senator,' the accused killer claimed in his rambling letter. Rather than a sincere confession, however, acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said the letter appears to be a twisted fantasy Boelter concocted in an attempt to escape blame. 'Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? Well, that's a good question,' Thompson said at a press conference. 'It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes. There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism,' Thompson explained. 'What he left were lists: politicians in Minnesota, lists of politicians in other states, lists of names of attorneys at national law firms.' The indictment includes murder, stalking, and firearms charges and marks the latest escalation in a case prosecutors describe as one of the most shocking acts of political violence in state history. Vance Boelter, 57, has confessed to the crimes in a rambling handwritten letter to FBI Director Kash Patel, but didn't say why he targeted the couples, prosecutors said Boelter is accused of allegedly gunning down Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark (pictured) on June 14 Acting US Attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, speaks to reporters at a news conference on Tuesday in Minneapolis about the grand jury indictment handed up against Vance Boelter, alleging that Boelter fatally shot former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and seriously wounded a state senator and his wife The murder counts in the deaths of former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, could carry the federal death penalty. The indictment includes a notice of 'special findings,' indicating prosecutors believe Boelter should qualify for the federal death penalty if convicted. 'This political assassination, the likes of which have never occurred here in the state of Minnesota, has shook our state at a foundational level,' Thompson, the US Attorney, said Tuesday. Thompson said a decision on whether to seek the death penalty 'will not come for several months' and will be up to US Attorney General Pam Bondi. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but President Donald Trump's administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes. Prosecutors initially charged Boelter with the same six counts, but under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial. His arraignment, where he could enter a plea, will probably be scheduled for later in the week, Thompson said. He previously waived his right to a bond hearing in an effort to 'speed up the process' and reveal 'the truth' about the June 14 attack, according to court records. His attorney, Manny Atwal, said Boelter will plead not guilty. She has not confirmed whether a mental health evaluation will be requested. In this courtroom sketch, Vance Boelter, right, who is charged with killing one Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another, is seen at a federal court hearing He is accused of posing as a police officer during the shootings. Boelter is also said to have worn a terrifying Halloween-style face mask (pictured) during the attacks Boelter also allegedly attempted to kill Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette (pictured) at their home that same day In addition to the letter, authorities discovered flyers for the 'No Kings' anti-Trump rallies (pictured) scheduled the same days as the murders, and a hit list of 70 other politicians, including Walz and abortion providers in the state Thompson also disclosed new details at a news conference. He said investigators had found the handwritten letter, which was addressed to the FBI chief, in a car Boelter abandoned near his home. 'In the letter, Vance Boelter claims that he had been trained by the U.S. military off the books and he had conducted missions on behalf of the U.S. military in Asia, the Middle East and Africa,' Thompson said. 'I am the shooter at large in Minnesota involved in the two shootings,' Boelter allegedly wrote in the letter found in his abandoned car on June 15. The letter doesn't specifically say though why he targeted the Hortmans and Hoffmans. Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At a hearing on July 3, Boelter said he was 'looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out.' In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans. 'I am pro-life personally but it wasn't those,' Boelter said via the jail's messaging system. 'Certain details of that letter were leaked out that probably painted one kind of a picture, but a lot more important details... were not leaked out,' he added in a virtual interview. 'There is a lot of information that will come out in future that goes back 24 months before the 14th. If the gov ever lets it get out. 'You are fishing and I can't talk about my case... I'll say it didn't involve either the Trump stuff or pro life,' Boelter wrote in a message. Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County, but the federal case will go first. Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, who has lived in rural Sibley County south of Minneapolis, was disguised as a police officer, driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask and wearing tactical gear around 2am on June 14. It was then he allegedly went to the home of Senator John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, but they survived. He also allegedly tried to kill their adult daughter, Hope, but they pushed her out of the way and she was not hit. Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One wasn't home while a police officer may have scared him off from the other target. A Minnesota police officer reportedly encountered a man believed to be Boelter outside the home of State Senator Ann Rest in New Hope but was unable to engage him before the suspect fled. Vance Boelter wrote a letter to the FBI wildly speculating that Tim Walz (pictured) wanted to kill Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar so that he could steal her job Boelter is accused of going to the home of Speaker Melissa Hortman (pictured left) and fatally shooting her and her husband Mark (pictured right) and injured their Golden Retriever which had to be euthanized Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3:30am, moments before the gunman opened fire on the couple, court documents said. Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition. Thompson said the gun used to shoot the Hoffmans was found near the Hortman home, while the gun used to shoot the Hortmans was recovered from a pond near their home a few days later. Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours later, about a mile from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in state history. Senator Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the attack. Boelter (pictured) could face the death penalty which would be a rarity for Minnesota Vance Boelter, a father-of-four is pictured with his wife Jenny He left behind three AK-47 assault rifles and a 9mm handgun. In his car, officer discovered five firearms and a large amount of ammunition organized into loaded magazines Hope Hoffman said in a statement Tuesday that she was relieved that Boelter will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. 'Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face,' she said. Hortman led the House from 2019 until January and was a driving force as Democrats passed an ambitious list of liberal priorities in 2023. She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a power-sharing deal after the November elections left the House tied, and she took the title speaker emerita. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has received positive coverage from Chinas state-controlled media during his highly anticipated visit to Beijing. Albanese is currently in the country for a six-day visit, where he has held 'constructive' talks with President Xi Jinping to restore ties between the two nations. The leaders' in-depth discussion of Chinese-Australian relations on Tuesday was then reviewed in an 'editorial' piece for The Global Times. The article highlighted how Australia has embraced China's independence and the country's approach to governance. 'As China-Australia relations have continued to improve, the Australian government's understanding of its relationship with China has also deepened,' it said. 'During the meeting on Tuesday, Albanese said that Australia values its relations with China. 'It adheres to the one-China policy and Australia has never sought to decouple from the Chinese economy.' The Global Times is understood to be a voice of the Chinese Communist Party, run under the direction of the government's People's Daily newspaper. It has previously been described by international business news company Quartz as 'Chinas most belligerent tabloid'. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and partner Jodie Haydon (pictured) are half-way through a six-day diplomatic tour of China to strengthen ties between the nations An article from The Global Times, a publication understood to be a voice of the Chinese Communist Party, has lavished praise on Albanese for his understanding of the government The publication said it is 'best known for its hawkish, insulting editorials (with) aggressive attacks that get it noticed, and quoted, by foreign media around the world as the voice of Beijing'. But the hawkish tone seemed suitably absent as the editorial team delivered compliment after compliment to Australia. 'Although China-Australia relations have experienced ups and downs, after the storm comes the rainbow,' it said. 'Today's... relationship is like a plane flying in the "stratosphere" after passing through the storm zone, and the most turbulent and bumpy period has passed.' It also sought to frame the Chinese government as a welcome ally to Australia in the face of Donald Trump's disruptive global tariffs. 'Australia is currently facing tariff pressure from Washington, but the outlook for the development of China-Australia economic and trade relations remains very clear,' it said. However, key Australian issues prioritised in Canberra - namely the lease of Darwin Port and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement - were only mentioned in passing. Concerns about cyberattacks have been diminished to a subclause noting 'interference from third parties'. The Global Times' praise came as Australian reporters, including SBS World News' Anna Henderson (pictured) were confronted by Chinese security guards Albanese's diplomatic tour has clearly appeased The Global Times, even if it has taken a teacherly tone outlining hopes that Australia 'adheres to a mature and correct path' moving forward. Meanwhile, the visit has caused issues for Australian news outlets who attempted to cover the trip. A group of journalists and camera crews were filming near the historic Drum Tower landmark in the heart of the Chinese capital on Tuesday when they were confronted by security guards who demanded they stop filming. The guards blocked the contingent, who were travelling with a diplomatic escort, from leaving as they packed up, telling them they were not allowed to leave and that the police had been called. Following the altercation, Albanese admitted to reporters: 'China has a different system obviously with the media.' The Chinese government strictly regulates all forms of media, including news outlets, film, television, and online platforms, ensuring content aligns with the Communist Party's narrative. Sensitive topics such as human rights abuses, political dissent, Taiwan, Tibet, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are heavily censored or erased altogether. Online, the 'Great Firewall' blocks access to many foreign websites and social media platforms, while Chinese alternatives are closely monitored and filtered in real time. The husband and wife behind the HUD skincare empire had fled Melbourne's lockdowns to start a new life in Queensland - but it ended in tragedy this week. Zdravko Bilic, 57, was stabbed to death outside their Sunshine Coast home three years after he and wife Gry Tomte moved there to escape Victoria's Covid curfews. He is believed to have been stabbed twice in the stomach late on Sunday night after confronting a thief breaking into their $2.5million five-bedroom home in Warrana. Detectives believe his body lay in the home's front yard for hours before his worried wife, who was interstate at the time, raised the alarm when she didn't hear from him. A neighbour found the horrific scene and alerted police about 7.30pm on Monday. The glamorous couple, who were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary next month, had relocated from Melbourne in 2022 to begin their 'new adventure'. 'I think two years of continuous lockdown and bull***t really took away the shine for me re Melbourne,' Ms Tomte, 53, wrote on social media at the time. 'We are both so happy we made the decision. And now friends can visit our beautiful new home.' Zdravko Bilic, 57, was discovered with two stab wounds in the front yard of their home after his wife Gry Tomte asked a neighbour to check on him His wife of 20 years, Gry Tomte, who was interstate at the time, raised the alarm when she couldn't reach him The power couple had purchased the sprawling five-bedroom, three-bathroom property in March 2022, hoping for a fresh start by the beach The lavish luxury home boasts a stunning lap pool next to the open-plan entertaining area and was just metres from the nearby beach. It was a welcome escape from the bleak lockdowns in Victoria, and both said they were 'so happy,' with their new lifestyle. 'I had the pleasure of calling Melbourne home for almost half my life,' Mr Bilic, known as Zed by friends, posted on Instagram. 'So many fantastic memories with beautiful family and friends at some great events and places.' But he added: 'The most important thing that Melbourne gave me is my wonderful wife. We are super excited with our new adventure.' In March, they were still loving their new life as Queenslanders, with Mr Bilic adding: 'What a fantastic time the last couple of months have been.' The couple were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary next month Known affectionately as 'Zed' to friends, Zdravko Bilic (pictured) gushed about his wife and their plans to begin a 'new chapter' in Queensland Their Instagram accounts regularly featured happy photos of the couple Ms Tomte paid tribute to her husband in a statement on Wednesday. 'He was the kindest, gentlest person Ive ever known,' she said. 'Loved by everyone who ever had the fortune of meeting him.' A crime scene has been declared at the home, with detectives seeking clues about the possible intruder. 'His wife hadn't heard from him and enquired with the neighbour, who discovered him deceased,' Queensland Police Sunshine Coast Detective Inspector Chris Toohey said. Mr Bilic was described as a 'valued member of the community' and his death has rocked the quiet coastal suburb. It had been listed on the Red Suburbs website - which tracks danger zones across Australia - as an area where crime 'exists but does not impact most people.' Norwegian-born Ms Tomte opened her successful HUD Skin and Body clinic, which operates in both St Kilda and Northcote, in 2014. Det Insp Toohey added: 'As you can imagine, it is an extremely distressing time for her, but the community are rallying around her and doing what they can for her.' Police are urging anyone with information or CCTV from the area, between 11pm on July 13 and 7.35pm on July 14, to come forward. Anthony Albanese is still in China, deep into a six-day diplomatic tour that was supposed to reset relations but is fast becoming a masterclass in strategic submission. With each passing press appearance, the Prime Minister looks less like a leader navigating a complex bilateral relationship, and more like a compliant visitor reciting his host's lines. Take his response to the latest flashpoint: Chinese military exercises skirting Australian waters, which defence officials here say pose a risk to our personnel. When asked whether Beijing had asserted a right to operate so close to our coastline, and whether Australia had sought better lines of communication to avoid future incidents, Albanese's reply was telling: 'President Xi said that China engaged in exercises just as Australia engages in exercises.' That's not an explanation, it's an endorsement. A Chinese official couldn't have put it better, from their perspective. This isn't careful diplomacy, it's parroting Beijing's preferred narrative while sidestepping the serious strategic implications for Australia. Albo didn't challenge the characterisation, but nor did he signal any unease at the situation. He certainly didn't defend the principle of Australian sovereignty, which he's done repeatedly when countering US requests for higher defence spending. Instead, he lent credibility to a line that serves China's interests -- not ours. The PM is all smiles as he meets Xi Jinping in Beijing's Great Hall of the People on Tuesday While the PM makes carefully stage-managed appearances while in China, the Middle Kingdom's domestic politics appear anything but stable. Rumours are swirling that Xi Jinping's grip on power is fraying. Another senior figure, Defence Minister Li Shangfu, has vanished from public life, apparently purged in an escalating internal power struggle. Analysts are increasingly unsure whether Xi is consolidating control or flailing in the face of growing dissent inside the Communist Party's ranks. Whichever it is, the risks of turmoil are clearly rising. Beijing's military posture over Taiwan has only grown more aggressive in recent times, with Western analysts now openly warning of miscalculations that could tip into open conflict. Against this backdrop, what does Albo offer? Deference. He walks the halls of Chinese power, echoing lines that downplay its provocations. He dodges hard questions about trade coercion, cyberattacks and political interference. The trip, of course, is being spun as a diplomatic success - but only if 'success' means avoiding offence to the Chinese Politburo. And, as if to confirm how well he's sticking to the script, China's state-controlled China Daily newspaper is lavishing praise on Albanese. When an authoritarian regime publicly congratulates a visiting democratic leader, it usually means the latter left his principles at the airport. What we're seeing is part of a larger pattern. This is a Prime Minister who governs by hedging: on tax reform, on climate ambition, on anything politically fraught. In foreign policy that risk-averse instinct translates into ambiguity. Whether on tax, foreign affairs or climate change, Albanese has become a Prime Minister who governs by hedging, writes Political Editor Peter van Onselen But ambiguity, when misapplied risks becoming appeasement. And right now our PM isn't just being careful, he's being co-opted. Australia faces an increasingly unpredictable power in its region, one led by a man who may no longer be as unchallenged as he once seemed. The risk of conflict is therefore rising. The seven-month-old baby boy who drowned in a lake at a popular camping spot has been identified as Reef Hunter Walton, a day after his father was charged over the child's death. Jaye Lee Walton, 42, a fisherman from Innisfail, did not appear in Ipswich Magistrates Court on Wednesday when his case was heard for the first time. His defence lawyer Mark Butler indicated that his client could make a bail application when the matter returns to court on Thursday. He told Magistrate Robert Walker he would need to determine whether Walton was entitled to bail or would need to show cause for his release. 'It's a discussion with (the prosecutor's) office about a point of law issue, whether (Walton) finds himself in a show-cause position and if agreement can be reached on that point,' Mr Butler said. 'I anticipate an application for bail will be made tomorrow.' Walton will remain in custody for a second night and will appear in court on Thursday. He was charged with manslaughter (domestic violence) on Tuesday, three days after seven-month-old Reef was pulled from the water at a campsite near Gympie on Saturday morning. Jaye Lee Walton (pictured during his arrest) was charged with manslaughter on Tuesday Walton was charged over the death of his seven-month-old son Reef Hunter Walton near a campsite on Saturday (the site is pictured cordoned off with police tape) Emergency services raced to the Chatsworth Park campsite (pictured) on Saturday morning Multiple witnesses, including Reef's mother, performed CPR before the baby boy was rushed to Gympie Hospital, where he died later that night. A makeshift memorial dedicated to 'Joey' has been set up at the Chatsworth site. 'RIP little one,' a large canvas banner decorated with a child's foot and handprints reads. Police have released footage of Walton's arrest in the Ipswich suburb of Bundamba, 213km away from the campground. The footage showed heavily armed police storming into a home and leading Walton out in handcuffs. He was seen sitting outside the front door having a cigarette before being bundled into a police vehicle. Acting Police Commissioner Shane Chelepy earlier this week described the baby's death as 'absolutely tragic'. 'My heart really does go out to everyone involved in that, including the emergency workers and the police that had to attend that job,' he told ABC Radio. Jaye Lee Walton (pictured being arrested on Tuesday) is expected to apply for bail on Thursday Walton was arrested at a home in the Ipswich suburb of Bundamba, 213km from the campsite Police revealed earlier that the baby's family was passing through on their way back to far north Queensland when they camped at Chatsworth Park, about 50metres from the water's edge on Friday night. The mother found her baby unresponsive in the lake the following morning and raised the alarm. She was unable to explain how the baby ended up in the water. 'The mother of the child did retrieve this child from the water. It's been a very traumatic experience for her, clearly,' Detective Inspector Craig Mansfield said. A post-mortem was carried out on the baby's body on Monday. Chatsworth Park is a popular free camping and stopover spot off the Bruce Highway - a major route between Brisbane and Far North Queensland. A body language expert has suggested the posed photo of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping was a 'success' despite fake grins. The two leaders were captured smiling and shaking hands in front of Australian and Chinese flags following their in-depth discussion of political relations. Body language expert Dr Louise Mahler told Daily Mail Australia it is 'very staged and forced' but in a positive way, with the pair 'forcing happiness and connection'. 'I think they've carried it off. That's a lovely photo to put on the wall,' she said. Looking at the image, Dr Mahler's attention was first drawn to the wide grin on Albanese's face as he looked at the camera. 'It's a little bit much, the smile with fake eyes. The eyes aren't really working, they look squinted as opposed to just a lift under the eyes,' she said. 'It just looks a bit fake, doesn't it?' But the expert added this was not something to be concerned about, explaining she knew the visit is a 'very stressful situation and he's doing his best'. Body language expert Dr Louise Mahler said a posed picture of Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping (both pictured) was 'carried off' well despite political tensions But Dr Mahler said her attention was first drawn to Albanese's smile that was 'too much' Standing next to Xi, Dr Mahler noted there was not much comparison when it came to statesmanship between the two leaders. 'Albanese never exudes world leadership, ever. He exudes, I don't know, the class dork, the head of the Tiddly Winks group,' she said. 'Statesman is not a word I'd ever associate with Albanese.' But Xi came across as a 'man of action', she said, suggesting the Chinese leader conveyed an image of someone who speaks little but decides much. Dr Mahler also had praise for the handshake between the pair and said Albanese positioned himself well within the frame. 'Albanese's hand hasn't left his body, so he's not reaching out to China (but) China's reaching out to him,' she said. 'Having said that, it's really a natural distance for (Xi's) hand, so he's not really reaching.' The analysis is a significant improvement on Dr Mahler's last review of the Australian prime minister after he returned from the NATO summit in the Netherlands. She also praised the friendly handshake in which Xi appeared to be 'reaching out' to Albanese She described Albanese's performance during a press conference on June 27, in which he refused to budge on federal government defence spending, as 'shocking'. 'Mr Albanese sounds stressed to the limit,' she said at the time. 'Unable to string two words together with a broken breath and baulking with every word, he frowns, tightens his jaw (a 'tell' of Mr Albanese's stress level) and throws his head forward. 'This is not helped by the gentleman by his side who looks like he needs immediate emergency assistance, disheveled in his appearance with messy hair, loose tie and barely able to keep his eyes open (Browny points to Tanya Plibersek for holding a professional stance). 'The question is, do I, as general public, need to know what a disaster the trip has been? Because, in contrast to the words spoken, that's the clear message I am getting here. 'And the message to the rest of us is to have a clear spoken message and make sure both you and everyone around you has the correct brief (and training) to bring it across. Otherwise you are wasting your stilted breath and time.' Given her 'stressed to the limit' summary of Albanese a fortnight ago, she said the smiling picture with Xi was a 'good start' for projecting leadership. Albanese headed to China over the weekend to hold 'constructive' talks with Xi in Beijing to restore ties between the two nations before speaking with Premier Li and Chairman Zhao Leji. The Prime Minister visited the Great Wall of China on Wednesday before flying out to Chengdu in the southwestern province of Sichuan. 'Australia's committed to a stable relationship with China,' the PM tweeted on Wednesday morning. 'Across trade, tourism, and climate action, we're working collaboratively with China in Australia's interests.' An Australian family has decided to leave the country 'forever', saying they can no longer 'stay silent and conform'. Molly and Brent Orwell, along with their two kids, announced their move from Queensland to a secret overseas location to over 100,000 of their followers on Tuesday. 'We're leaving Australia for good. Not for a holiday. Not for a break. Not for a visa run. We're done,' they wrote. 'We've sat with this decision for years and we finally made the call. 'Australia will always be home but it's no longer where we're meant to grow or raise our kids.' The couple will pack up in eight weeks, and cited five main reasons they no longer want to live Down Under. 'We're done with sky-high taxes, insane cost of living, tall poppy syndrome, a system shaping our kids in ways we didn't choose, and shrinking opportunity for entrepreneurs,' they said. 'You realise you can either stay silent and conform or do what's best and make a move.' Queensland couple Molly and Brent Orwell (pictured with their children) announced they are leaving Australia due to the high cost of living and stifled business culture The couple don't face the same obstacles many expats do when moving overseas as their business is online-based. The Orwells sell online courses on 'high-ticket affiliate marketing, how to build a personal brand on social media and promote premium digital products'. While they wouldn't share exactly where they were headed, the Queenslanders listed a series of perks they're expecting. 'Beachfront living, 350+ days of sunshine, global education, organic food year-round, more time with our kids, a wellness-based lifestyle and a community that actually gets it,' they said. Many commenters believed the family would be heading to Bali, Thailand or another popular destination in Southeast Asia. However, the couple ruled those areas out. Others suspected the family's recent trip to Mexico and the US could have been a secret house-hunting tour. 'My guess is Cabo,' one wrote. Many were left divided by the move 'I say Mexico or Portugal,' another said. While the couple's videos typically focus on their family life, they shared several posts related to their tour of North America in June. In particular, they highlighted their 'love' for Cabo San Lucas, on Mexico's west coast. The announcement left the couple's large following divided, with many refuting the couple's critiques of Australia while others applauded their decision. Many pointed out Australia's safety, healthcare and education systems were second to none. 'Cost of living is not bad, tax rates are fine if you're smart enough. I have travelled all over and prefer a lot of places compared to Australia but when it comes to our health care, schooling, and overall safety not many compare to us,' one wrote. 'You pretty much just described Australia (in the list of perks of their new location),' another said. 'White privileged family moving to a poor, hence cheaper country International school, maid, gated communities what's wrong with their public schools! Do you speak the language or are planning to live with the Australian expat community!!' wrote another. The family listed five reasons why they were fleeing Australia 'Personally I think you'll find out pretty quickly that the issues you highlighted are largely global issues and comparatively we are a very, very lucky country and our citizens are pretty spoiled here. But hey, you don't realise how lucky you are til you don't have it,' one commented. 'They will be back,' said another bluntly. Others commended the move. 'Will be watching to see where you land! My family is living the expat life and never looked back from leaving Australia,' one said. 'Don't blame you. Australia isn't the country I grew up in. The violence and crime in Melbourne is insane,' another chimed in. 'Can you take me with you I hate this place too,' another comment read. The Orwells said their kids had a spot at an international school already, and the family would be selling their house and all their belongings. 'We're not chasing normal,' the couple said. 'We're chasing alignment, expansion, and a life we actually want.' The Orwell's full letter: WE'RE LEAVING AUSTRALIA. FOR GOOD. (Not for a holiday. Not for a break. Not for a visa run. We're done.) We've sat with this decision for months... years!! Wrestled with it. Played out every scenario. Listened to every doubt, every judgement, every 'what if.' But deep down, we know what's right for our family, our business, and our future. And it's not here in this country. Australia will always be home. But it's no longer where we're meant to grow and raise our children. Because when you're: Taxed to the eyeballs no matter how much you make or 'write off' Slammed by the rising cost of living no matter what state you live in, Crushed by the weight of tall poppy syndrome if you dare dream bigger Seeing policies and laws change faster than you can adapt Watching our cities struggle to keep up with decisions we didn't vote for. Watching systems shape your kids in ways you didn't choose And watching opportunities for entrepreneurs get smaller, not greater You realize you can either stay silent and conform or do what's best and make a move. We chose to make a move. We're swapping inflated costs and 'cloudy' skies for: 350+ days of sunshine! Beachfront is living at a fraction of the price! International schooling with global values! More time present with our kids! Organic food year-round! A community of creators and freedom seekers! Wellness, growth, and a life that feels like a holiday! This isn't a flex. It's a call to anyone who's ever felt like they didn't belong in the system. You'll be judged no matter what you do So we're choosing to be judged for living freely and on our own terms. The kids have been approved at an international school The vision is bigger than ever. Our life, health, and future are no longer up for compromise. We have zero desire to live a 'normal' life we never have! We're not here to play small, shut up, or 'be realistic.' We're here to lead by example, even when it stirs the pot. We're not saying where we're going just yet. But let's have some fun, drop your guess in the comments :point_down: Where do you think we're planting our new flag???? Our countdown is on. The packing and selling starts now! We have given ourselves approx. 8 weeks, and we are out! We have so many emotions right now as we pack our first few boxes, but there is no point living a stagnant and truth be told - unhappy life where we are currently in Australia. We are here to show our kids a lifetime of memories and happiness And that's exactly what we plan to do. Brent & Molly P.S. We have a whole house of goods for sale if you're in queensland. Hit us up....... EVERYTHING must go. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed Anthony Albanese for meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before seeing Donald Trump in person. The Prime Minister on Tuesday met with the Communist Party leader in Beijing where Chinese security guards in the authoritarian, one-party state also clashed with Australian journalists covering the diplomatic mission. Senator Hanson said Albanese's visit to China, Australia's biggest trading partner, had jeopardised diplomatic relations with the United States, Australia's biggest defence ally since World War II. 'While Anthony Albanese tours China, our alliance with the United States, the one that keeps Australia safe, is being sidelined,' she said. 'The message? Labor's more comfortable in Beijing than standing shoulder to shoulder with our closest ally.' Albanese's visit to China comes after Colby Elbridge, the US Undersecretary of Defence, this week asked if the likes of Australia would join the US in defending Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion of the island it considers part of China. The Trump Administration is frustrated that Australia's defence spending languishes at just two per cent of gross domestic product, a level well short of the 3.5 per cent level Washington wants. Elbridge wants US allies to match what the United States has spent on defence, as proportion of the economy since the 1990s, arguing countries like Australia needed to 'step up their defence spending and other efforts related to our collective defence'. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has slammed Anthony Albanese for meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping before seeing Donald Trump in person The Prime Minister on Tuesday met with the Communist Party leader in Beijing Senator Hanson said the Americans were right to be concerned about whether Australia would come to the US's aid in defending Taiwan, an autonomous democracy China wants to politically integrate with the mainland. 'The Americans are asking a simple, fair question: if China invades Taiwan, where does Australia stand? Albanese won't answer. That silence speaks volumes,' she said. The Trump Administration is also reviewing the AUKUS submarine deal set to cost Australia $368billion, giving it access to American-designed Virginia Class submarines. 'Let's not forget we're in the middle of a $368billion AUKUS deal,' Senator Hanson said. 'They're offering us nuclear submarines. And Labor can't even show basic respect, let alone commitment. 'This isn't leadership. It's dangerous. It puts our security, sovereignty and future at risk.' Albanese's chances of meeting with Trump have been diminished after it emerged that Australia's Ambassador to the United States, former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd, had previously described the President as a 'village idiot'. UK Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already met with President Trump and has also promised to increase defence spending to three per cent of GDP by 2029, rising to five per cent by 2035. Chinese security guards in the authoritarian, one-party state also clashed with Australian journalists covering the diplomatic mission The UK is a member of NATO, a 32-member body that requires all its signatory nations, including the US, Germany, Canada and France, to react militarily if any of its members are invaded. Ukraine, which Russia invaded in 2022, is not a NATO member. But under the 1951 ANZUS treaty, the Americans are only required to consult Australia if another country attacks us, but not necessarily send in troops. Australia has since joined the US-led campaigns in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Albanese revealed that his government's buyback of the Port of Darwin, announced during the election campaign, was not raised during his visit. 'I cannot be clearer than to say it was not raised,' he said. A former Northern Territory Country Liberal Party government led by former chief minister Adam Giles signed a 99-year lease with the Chinese Landbridge Group in October 2015. Senator Hanson had accused Albanese of talking about 'green steel' instead of raising Taiwan or the Port of Darwin.' 'While Australians are being hit with soaring power bills and rising taxes, Anthony Albanese spent six days in China talking about "green steel",' she said. 'Not Taiwan. Not Chinese spy ships. Not the Port of Darwin, leased to a billionaire with ties to the Communist Party. Just vague platitudes and champagne toasts. 'He skipped meeting a key AUKUS ally in the US, but found time to wine and dine in Beijing. That's not leadership, its dangerous neglect.' California Governor Gavin Newsom dropped an F-bomb at the mere mention of Joe Rogan before answering a 'tough' question from podcast king. Newsom stunned listeners with a blunt response when asked to address his most controversial pandemic-era policies and dropped during the four-hour long interview on The Shawn Ryan Show. Ryan - a former Navy Seal - revealed that he had received a private text message from Rogan prior to the interview to ask Newsom. 'Joe Rogan texted me,' Ryan revealed. 'Mother f**ker!' Newsom responded. 'What did he say? I'm a Joe Rogan fan. He ain't a fan of mine, but I'm a Joe Rogan fan,' Newsom insisted. 'No bulls***! He won't have me on the show by the way.' Rogan's message accused the governor of implementing 'draconian' COVID-19 vaccine mandates for children, ignoring risks like myocarditis, and bowing to pharmaceutical interests. Rogan, who has long criticized public health messaging, demanded to know whether Newsom 'felt any remorse' for what he described as unnecessary and profit-driven policies. The question, read aloud on the podcast, struck a nerve. California Governor Gavin Newsom stunned listeners with a blunt response when asked to address his most controversial pandemic-era policies The moment came as Newsom sat down for a more than four hour long interview on The Shawn Ryan Show Ryan revealed that he had received a private text message from Joe Rogan prior to the interview to ask Newsom a question about the pandemic 'Who will be held accountable for mandating Covid-19 vaccines for children which were unnecessary and ineffective and who will take responsibility for the unprecedented increases in myocarditis and cancer cases among them?', Ryan began as he read Rogan's message. 'Second to that, do you feel any remorse for that draconian decision that was obviously heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical company's desire for maximum profit?' Newsom didn't flinch - but he didn't avoid the question either. 'I've signed some of the most progressive laws against Big Pharma in the country. I have receipts on that.,' Newsom said firmly. 'So no one should suggest that it was about doing the bidding of Big Pharma. Quite the contrary.' Newsom defended his decision-making during the early days of the pandemic noting how California moved quickly alongside red states like Florida and under guidance from Donald Trump's own administration to implement lockdowns and other measures. 'There wasn't a Democratic governor in America that worked closer during the pandemic than I did with Donald Trump,' Newsom said, reflecting on the chaos and uncertainty that defined the initial response to Covid-19. Rather than offer a flat apology, Newsom said he has recently launched an in-depth, state-sponsored investigation into California's handling of the pandemic. Newsom says the process will be the most comprehensive and 'objective' postmortem in the country. California Governor Gavin Newsom is shown above, left, sitting with ten others in the indoor/outdoor dining room at The French Laundry on November 6, 2020 without a mask During the podcast, Newsom admited heading to the French Laundry restaurant during the pandemic was one of the 'biggest boneheaded decisions' he'd made During the early part of the pandemic California issued a statewide mandate to close beaches 'With humility, seriously, humility and grace, I've asked them to have that report done,' he said. 'It'll be the only state that I know of that is putting out a truly objective review of what went right and what went wrong.' The governor acknowledged that mistakes were made, particularly with early policies that were driven by fear and misinformation. Among the regrets Newsom says shutting down beaches and other outdoor spaces was a mistake. 'What the hell were we doing shutting down the beaches and open areas?' he asked. 'We were sitting there wiping down everything in the house with Purell.' Still, Newsom stood by the science behind vaccinations, especially when it came to preventing mass deaths. 'Vaccines save lives. Period. Full stop,' he said. 'And I'm just not going to engage in the kind of revisionist history that pretends otherwise.' In a particularly candid moment of the lengthy interview, Newsom said he regretted heading to trendy restaurant French Laundry for dinner during the pandemic despite there being strict rules on indoor dining and the number of people allowed to gather. 'I despise me for the French Laundry. I was wrong. I went to this damn restaurant. That's the rules for thee and not for me,' Newsom said. 'I'm going to indict myself here. Biggest boneheaded damn decision I made. Now, it was a restaurant that was open but it was against the spirit of what I was saying which is that you shouldn't have large dinners with large groups of people as we did. 'And I went to a damn birthday party and I paid a price - and I own it. You know, I'm not perfect, man. You know, I beat the s*** out of myself for that. And everyone who criticized me is goddamn right. And I own that.' Under Newsom's leadership, California became one of the most aggressive states in its pandemic response - mandating remote work, issuing sweeping mask orders, and imposing the first statewide stay-at-home directive in the nation in March 2020. The state leaned into digital infrastructure, which allowed many industries to adapt through remote work. Newsom is seen receiving his Covid vaccine by Johnson & Johnson in April 2022 Its sunny climate and car-centric culture also allowed for more outdoor activities than in densely packed cities on the East Coast. But the costs were steep as tens of thousands of small businesses shuttered permanently. Public schools remained closed longer than in many other states. Critics hammered Newsom for what they called inconsistent and sometimes hypocritical rules, citing his now-infamous dinner at the upscale French Laundry restaurant while indoor gatherings were banned. Despite the criticism, Newsom pushed back on the idea that states like Florida had done better. 'Florida shut down bars and restaurants before California. Florida had worse educational outcomes during COVID than California,' he said, citing reading and math scores. 'They had more per capita deaths than California. Their GDP contracted more than California's. On three key areas, education, health, and wealth, California outperformed.' He dismissed what he called 'myth-making' around Florida's record and claimed that the 'California derangement syndrome' had become a media obsession. Newsom also voiced concern about the country's preparedness for future pandemics, warning that political division and distrust have left the US vulnerable. People defy the 'stay at home' order issued by California Governor Gavin Newson by riding their bikes along Huntington Beach, California in March 2020 A parking lot next to Santa Monica beach, with Santa Monica pier in the distance, is seen mostly empty after Newson's announcement to close beaches and state parks in March 2020 Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills is deserted as shops close, people stay at home and tourism grinds to a halt as people stay at home during the first few weeks of the pandemic 'We're going to have another one of these damn things,' he said. 'And we're totally unprepared because we're so distrustful of everybody.' Rather than treat the pandemic as political hindsight, Newsom said California's upcoming report will aim to break partisan narratives. 'We're interviewing people that vehemently disagreed with us,' he explained. 'People who opposed the mask mandates. People who opposed the stay-at-home orders. International experts. We're stress-testing our entire process.' That process, he said, began years ago at a summit in Sunnylands, where California convened global health experts to begin gathering data on how it handled COVID across its 58 counties - each with different levels of density, infrastructure, and risk. While the final verdict on California's performance will be up to historians and voters, Newsom had a clear message. 'Everyone's a goddamn genius now in hindsight,' he said. 'But at the time, none of us knew what we were up against - including the president of the United States.' Nearly two years after the fatal shooting Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig a Tennessee judge ruled that the 'intellectually disabled' man accused the slaying is fit to stand trial. After nearly a month of deliberation, Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier made the monumental decision on Tuesday. Judge Dozier rejected arguments from 30-year-old Shaquille Taylor's defense team that he was not mentally competent to understand the charges against him. 'It's been brutal, just waiting and waiting, every day hoping and praying,' Jessica Ludwig, Jillian's mother, said following the ruling. 'It's such a relief to know that this is finally moving forward.' The decision comes after the tragic death of the 18-year-old Belmont University student who was killed by a stray bullet on a walk in the Edgehill neighborhood of Nashville on November 7, 2023. Taylor admitted to firing shots before handing the gun off to another person and was later arrested after police say he fired shots at a car, with one bullet striking Jillian in the head. The college student, a New Jersey native who was studying Music Business, was found about an hour after the shooting and was immediately rushed to the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. Taylor, who has been accused of committing other violent crimes in the past, has since been charged with first-degree murder and evidence tampering in relation to Jillian's death. After nearly a month of deliberation, a Tennessee judge ruled that the 'intellectually disabled' man accused of fatally shooting Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig (pictured) in 2023 is fit to stand trial Shaquille Taylor, 30, has since been charged with first-degree murder and evidence tampering in relation to Jillian's death Despite his prior history of mental health evaluations, which had led to previous rulings of incompetency, Dozier determined that Taylor was now sufficiently able to understand the legal proceedings and participate in his defense. 'Defendant might not be of much assistance to counsel in a tax fraud case against him, but the Court is reasonably assured that Defendant is sufficiently competent to stand trial for the present cases,' Dozier wrote in his ruling, The Tennessean reported. The decision follows a multi-day competency hearing from June, where psychologists debated Taylor's ability to stand trial. Although he has a documented intellectual disability and low IQ scores - once as low as 56 - the Tennessee judge emphasized that IQ alone was not the deciding factor in his ruling. Instead, he considered Taylor's practical understanding of the legal process. The ruling has been met with mixed emotions from Jillian's family. 'I was shaking,' Jessica Ludwig said. 'I broke down in tears. It was a surge of emotions that went through me. That's the decision we've been praying for and hoping for.' The devastated mother added that she and her husband, Matt, have been anxiously awaiting the decision for more than a month and the delay, she says, has been excruciating. The decision comes nearly two years after the tragic death of the 18-year-old Bellmont University student who was killed by a stray bullet on a walk in the Edgehill neighborhood of Nashville on November 7, 2023 The decision follows a multi-day competency hearing from June, where psychologists debated Taylor's ability to stand trial. Pictured: Jillian Ludwig with her parents, Jessica and Matt The Ludwig family had hoped for this ruling during the June hearing, which they believed should have been a clear decision. 'There was a lot of failures that led up to this,' Jillian's father, Matt, told Fox17 Nashville. While the ruling brings a sense of relief, the road to justice is far from over. 'I believe we are one step closer to justice, and we just thank everybody standing with us,' Jessica said through tears. 'We're thankful to the prosecutors who helped to prove that and to the judge who understood it and saw exactly what we saw, a competent man who should be held accountable,' Jessica said. The case however has highlighted a serious gap in The Volunteer State's legal system. Months before Jillian's death, Taylor had been accused of other violent crimes but was released after multiple psychological evaluations found him incompetent, WSMV reported. But, in July 2024, 'Jillian's Law,' sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, was passed and now requires felony defendants found incompetent to stand trial be committed for treatment. The Ludwig family had hoped for this ruling during the June hearing, which they believed should have been a clear decision In July 2024, 'Jillian's Law,' sponsored by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, was passed and now requires felony defendants found incompetent to stand trial be committed for treatment The Tuesday ruling also underscores how the mental competency of criminal defendants is assessed and handled. During Taylor's case, Dozier took particular issue with the remote evaluation conducted by Dr. Mary Elizabeth Wood, a psychologist who assessed Taylor via videoconference, raising concerns about technology's ability to capture the nuances of psychological assessments in complex legal cases. 'While there is a time and place for such technologies, the nuances of psychological assessments for adjudicative purposes may strain the connection between an administrator and their subject,' Dozier wrote in his ruling. Now that Taylor has been declared competent, the trial can move forward, with the prosecution pushing for justice for Jillian. For the Ludwig family, however, the ruling represents just one chapter in an ongoing battle. 'Nothing's going to bring her back, but in a way, this ruling might help set a precedent for other rulings to help make changes to a broken system,' Jessica said. 'Keep praying, we have a trial coming up - that is the next hurdle.' The man accused of murdering an American Idol music executive and her husband had a history of violence and troubled past, DailyMail.com can reveal. Raymond Boodarian, 22, was arrested Tuesday afternoon at his home in Reseda, 24 hours after the bodies of Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca, both 70, were found inside their $5million Los Angeles mansion. Police allege Boodarian did not know the victims, and had entered their home on Thursday with the intent of burglarizing it. But when the couple suddenly arrived home 30 minutes later, Boodarian allegedly shot them both dead. Horrified neighbors of the suspect have broken their silence, detailing the moment officers armed with guns arrived to arrest the accused killer. One neighbor, who did not want to be named, would occasionally see Boodarian roaming the complex 'looking really, really disturbed.' Otherwise, she kept her distance. 'I'm really nervous,' she added. The neighbor said she could often see when Boodarian's lights were on in his bedroom because of a shared wall. She eerily described how he would sometimes have an 'episode' and appear 'ready to break the walls.' 'It feels like he's gonna break right through the wall and is coming into my place,' she revealed. On Monday night, a suspect was spotted hopping a fence to enter the home (pictured) of an American Idol music executive and her husband in the ritzy California neighborhood of Encino Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca, both 70, were brutally shot to death inside their home on Monday Police named Raymond Boodarian, 22, as a suspect in the case, with neighbors near his home (pictured) revealing an alleged history of violence 'The cops have been here in the past,' the neighbor added. 'The mother's called and said "I can't control him."' The neighbor claimed that on at least one occasion, he had to be strapped to a stretcher and removed from the property. 'They're always repairing the unit inside. I don't know if he bangs his head or if he throws things, I don't know, but it's usually really loud. 'Today, I heard nothing. Nothing. No raised voices, no banging. 'He can get really violent. And I don't know if he's throwing furniture or if he's banging with his fist on the wall, but he has actually broken the drywall.' The neighbor alleged that on one occasion he 'broke a couple of his mom's ribs,' though she did not elaborate on the alleged incident. Boodarian's arrest became the talk of the complex on Tuesday afternoon. Another neighbor arrived at the woman's house brandishing footage from her CCTV camera. 'I saw on my ring camera police were here, all right.. With like, shotguns drawn and all this, and I said, "Wow."' Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were called to the six-bedroom home (pictured) for a welfare check, but when they entered, they discovered Kaye and Deluca's lifeless bodies Robin Kaye (left) often rubbed shoulders with celebrities. She and her husband (right) are seen with Dolly Parton (second from left) in 2009 The woman said Boodarian, his mother and his sister moved into the complex 'before the pandemic.' She described Boodarian's mom Sadjbibi and sister as friendly women she has had a handful of pleasant interactions with. 'She works. We kind of wave at each other, we go in and out of the garages. We had one conversation a long time ago. She's been trying to get him help for years.' The ex-boyfriend of Boodarian's mom, Uber driver Adin Mozafari, was horrified to learn of the allegations. 'I'm so very sorry! Oh my God, Oh my God! I can't believe it,' the Uber driver said, his voice cracking. Mozafari shares an 18-year-old daughter with Boodarian's mom. He said he spoke to Sadjbibi just four days ago and 'everything seemed fine.' 'When I asked her (Sadjbibi) how was everyone, she said everyone was fine.' His daughter had just graduated high school, but her half-brother Boodarian didn't attend. He said the 22-year-old doesn't have a job and 'mostly made trouble.' Over the years, Kaye won several Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for her work on American Idol Their sudden deaths are being investigated as a double homicide, police said. Boodarian's arrest came after officers allegedly identified him on CCTV breaking into the home Mozafari said when he left the relationship, Boodarian was young, but he said the 22-year old was often fighting with his mother and her current boyfriend. 'I believe there was some trouble at the home between him and his mother and her boyfriend. The police have to sometimes come over there.' Police do not believe Boodarian was working with a syndicate or in any kind of structured burglary group. Instead, they allege he was working alone when he broke into the Los Angeles home on Thursday night. Boodarian had already been inside the couple's home for about 30 minutes on July 10 when they unexpectedly arrived home. CCTV footage allegedly shows Boodarian entering the home in an attempted burglary. He did not force entry, and instead found an open way to get inside. He allegedly shot them both dead during a struggle when they caught him in the act. Two calls were made to the LAPD about a possible burglary on the day of the couple's deaths, but when officers responded they were unable to get inside because the home is 'highly fortified', ABC7 reported. They saw no visible signs of forced entry and a helicopter which flew overhead did not alert officers to any dangers, so they left the scene. They returned to the six-bedroom four days later at 2.30pm following a call for a welfare check, shattering a back window to gain access to the home. When they entered, they discovered Kaye and Deluca both shot in the head. According to neighbors of Kaye and Deluca, a person, who may have been armed, was spotted hopping a fence in the ritzy California neighborhood. Neighbor Naomi Sadoun, 69, would often see them walking together along the tree-lined streets, sometimes with their dog, and described the couple as 'lovely people.' She said the couple's worried family members showed up outside the Encino home on White Oak Avenue yesterday evening but were kept back by police. Sadoun told DailyMail.com: 'They were very nice - lovely people. Robin was always friendly to me. 'She told me she was from Brooklyn and was also working on commercials these days. Thomas was handsome with blue eyes. Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022 Authorities witnessed blood at the front entrance of the couple's home before breaking through a window to enter the property (pictured) 'It's terrible what has happened to them. They didn't deserve this.' After hearing of the tragic deaths, American Idol issued a statement, calling Kaye 'a cornerstone of the Idol family.' 'We are devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Tom's, passing,' a spokesperson told Daily Mail. 'Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. 'Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.' Kaye worked as the music supervisor for singing competition American Idol for the last 15 seasons, or nearly 300 episodes, per her IMDB page. 'Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.' Over the years, she won several Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for her work on the show. The home where the couple were found dead on Monday was also used a rental property in the past, neighbors said She also worked for other well-known shows, including Lip Sync Battle, Hollywood Game Night, and Worn Stories. Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022. His first 'acclaimed cult favorite debut' album. 'Down To The Wire,' was released by Epic Records in 1986, Deluca's website detailed. Deluca penned songs for popular hit makers, including Kid Rock, the band Molly Hatchet and Meredith Brooks. The couple purchased the home in January 2023, according to public records. It was previously owned by late rapper Juice WRLD who died in 2019 from an overdose, neighbors told KTLA. Two men have been charged with murder three months after a grandmother was shot dead in an alleged drive-by attack. Kim Duncan, 65, died in April after three gunmen allegedly peppered her southwest Sydney home with bullets and drove off. Jesse Evans, 34, and Manase Fakahau, 19, were charged with her murder on Wednesday and hauled before Bankstown Local Court. Police allege three men arrived at a house on Dickens Road, Ambarvale, on April 14, got out of their car and started shooting at the home. The alleged gunmen then climbed back into a dark-coloured sedan and fled. Ms Duncan was in the front living room when she was shot in the leg and died at the scene. Her son, James Shaine Dowd, 34, and a 21-year-old woman were also home at the time, but were uninjured. The family residing at the address were known to police, and officers allege Ms Duncan was not the intended target. Police have charged Manase Fakahau, 19, with murder following the death of a woman, 65 They also arrested Jesse Evans, 34, and charged him with murder early on Wednesday morning Kim Duncan, 65, died in April after three gunmen allegedly peppered her southwest Sydney home with bullets and drove off 'It's abhorrent, somebody coming up to a house and putting shots off is totally reckless and the consequences are catastrophic,' NSW Police Superintendent Grant Healey told reporters at the time. Police had been investigating the family who had only lived in the home for less than two months before the shooting. 'Initially they were [cooperating with police], but at this point in time we're trying to work with them to get some more information,' Supt Healey said. 'We don't know the intent or the reason why [the shots] were fired at the house.' About 4am on Wednesday, officers descend on homes in Atkinson Street, Liverpool, and Sudbury Street, Belmore. 'It was the person that resided at the house, she was shot at, and we believe the people that were involved had a grudge, an argument, or a beef with somebody who lived in that location,' Supt Healey said on Wednesday. He said both men were known to police, one more extensively than the other. Police previously arrested Ms Duncan's son, Mr Dowd, in Ambarvale and another male, aged 32. Kim Duncan, 65, (right) was killed in an alleged shooting in April, before her son James Shaine Dowd, 34, (left) was arrested and later released by police Police were called to a home in Ambarvale, southwest Sydney, on April 14 following reports shots had been fired at a home (above, Mr Dowd distraught outside the home at the time) The men assisted police and were released without charge. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest either man was involved in the shooting. Detectives are still on the hunt for a third person they believe to have been involved in the alleged shooting. Anyone with information that could assist Strike Force Apslawn detectives has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Peter Falconio's killer died from cancer at precisely 10.50pm on Tuesday, but Bradley John Murdoch's eerie final smirk in his chilling last photograph will linger on, long after he took his biggest secret to the grave. A photograph of Murdoch, grinning in a prison-green t-shirt, his brutal features softened in the backlit image, was released along with a gushing family tribute to the violent killer.' Murdoch was described as 'a devoted father and grandfather', 'a generous spirit', 'a gentle giant with a heart of gold, known for his quick wit' The glowing eulogy issued by Murdoch's lawyer Christopher Dale noted that the man convicted of the 2001 murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio had been seeking a petition of mercy to pardon him. However, he dismissed claims Murdoch's former legal counsel Andrew Fraser was working with 'three King's Counsel to draft the petition', and admitted none of the KCs had been involved 'for years'. He said it was 'a crushing blow to Brad, who had clung on to that hope'. This may also explain why Murdoch refused to disclose the location of Mr Falconio's body a crucial secret he never revealed, even in his final moments The ruthless murderer had steadfastly refused even to admit his guilt in the ambush, kidnap and kill incident which still haunts the Australian Outback and which changed the lives of Mr Falconio's family and his then-girlfriend Joanne Lees. While Mr Dale, on behalf of the offender's family, said Murdoch was 'deeply loved' and 'will be deeply missed', it has been agony for the victim's family, who have long begged to bring their loved one's remains home. Peter Falconio's killer Bradley Murdoch died from cancer at precisely 10.50pm on Tuesday, but his eerie smirk in the chilling final photograph released by his family will linger on As the killer's family released a gushing tribute to the murderer, NT police issued a statement saying they were sorry he'd taken the secret of the location of Mr Falconio's body to the grave The family of Bradley John Murdoch described the brutal killer as a devoted grandad and father who was loved by inmates in the jails where he spent the last two decades Daily Mail Australia exclusively revealed in March that Murdoch was dying, and again on Monday - 24 years to the day since the murder - that the killer had two days to live and by then, had fallen unconscious and was unable to communicate. Even then, Mr Falconio's parents were still begging for news of the whereabouts of their sons remains, to heal what has been an open wound for almost a quarter of a century. NT Police said on Wednesday that it was 'deeply regrettabl that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconio's remains'. The statement added: 'His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved.' Mr Falconio was 28 when he was murdered by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway north of Barrow Creek on July 14, 2001. Falconio and Joanne Lees had visited Uluru and Alice Springs before driving 200km north in their VW Kombi campervan to the Ti-Tree Roadhouse to watch the sun set. After setting off towards the Devil's Marbles tourist attraction, they were followed by a white 4WD with a green canopy driven by Bradley Murdoch. By signalling that flames were shooting from the Kombis exhaust pipe, Murdoch tricked them into pulling over at around 7.30pm. Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio in the orange Kombi van in which Bradley Murdoch ambushed them in the Outback, killing Falconio and attempting to kidnap Lees, who managed to escape Murdoch shot Mr Falconio in the head and restrained Ms Lees with cable-tie handcuffs before bundling her into the back of his vehicle as he dealt with Mr Falconio's body. Ms Lees managed to escape from the car into the roadside scrub where she hid while Murdoch vainly searched for her with his dog. He eventually took off, police believe, to dispose of the body at an unknown site. Ms Lees, still cuffed, managed to flag down a truckie who took her to the Barrow Creek Roadhouse. Murdoch was arrested and eventually found guilty in the NT Supreme Court in December 2005 and sentenced to life in prison. At the trial, Murdoch disputed DNA evidence found on Ms Lees' t-shirt and on the gearstick of the couple's Kombi, which was found dumped about 80m from the murder scene the following morning. NT Corrections will release the cremated remains of Murdoch to his family. A Melbourne couple who spoke out online after a trash collection company dumped 26 used mattresses on their driveway has told how they have endured the 'worst 12 months' of their lives as they fight to keep their home. Laura and Jarrod Maultby shared photos of the wall of grimy mattresses left outside their Melbourne home following a disagreement with the service, Junk, last June. The working parents of two daughters had asked the company to pick up and dispose of a small pile of disintegrated wood and were billed $514 when the job was completed. The Maultbys claimed they hadn't expected the service to be so expensive, while Junk claimed the price was outlined in prior paperwork. In the service's terms and conditions, it states that if a customer's bill is left unpaid, it would leave an equivalent amount of waste back at their property. It wasn't long before 26 dirty, old mattresses were dumped outside the family's Langwarrin home in Melbourne's southeast, sparking Ms Maultby to leave negative reviews about her experience with the company. Ms Maultby on Wednesday told Daily Mail Australia the 12 months since have been a nightmare with the young family having to spend $200,000 defending themselves in court after entities linked to Junk sued them for disparaging the business. 'Look it's harrowing, it's been the worst 12 months of our lives to be honest,' Ms Maultby said. Laura Maultby (pictured) told Daily Mail Australia the experience has been 'harrowing' Laura and Jarrod Maultby with their children are now fighting to keep their home Junk dumped 26 mattresses at the Maultbys Langwarrin property in a dispute over a $500 bill The Melbourne woman also told of the shock she and her partner got when they learned they were the subject of a Supreme Court of Victoria lawsuit. 'I think everyday Australians don't expect that sort of thing,' she said. 'I don't want to comment on anything specific but it was 48 hours after querying the invoice that the mattresses were dumped. 'Look, I think given there's two court cases and one tribunal claim against us, and you know, the fact you have to pay to defend yourself, it means we're in a bit of a predicament and we may lose our home, it's not the best feeling.' Ms Maultby said they were happy to pay the invoice and move on but the issue escalated far quicker than they expected. 'We're not the ones suing so we didn't instigate any lawsuit,' she said. 'We questioned an invoice, spoke out online and now to save us from losing our house we've had to do a GofundMe campaign unfortunately.' The couple have to be careful what they say in public while the Supreme Court matter is pending. In documents obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Junk Group Pty Ltd have issued the Maultbys a statement of claim 'pleading injurious falsehood' and breaches of consumer law. The original pile of trash the Maultbys hired Junk to remove Junk, which has previously been contacted to comment, is also seeking loss of earnings due to 'falsehoods' it alleged the Maultbys posted online. According to the document, Junk alleged the Maultbys posted six separate reviews and comments about the business on multiple online platforms June 27 and June 28 last year. Junk has taken aim at three TikTok sequential videos posted by Ms Maultby, a Google review, a TrustPilot review and a productreview.com.au review all of which have since been taken down from the internet. Junk alleged the Maultbys made false claims in the various posts including allegations it 'rips and scams its customers' and the business 'charges more than its quotes provided to customers'. The trash collection company also labelled an allegation posted online that Junk owner Richard Furnari, 'made many calls in quick succession' to the couple in a 'harassing manner' as false. Junk claimed it's weekly revenue dropped approximately $25,281 immediately after the Maultbys posted their reviews. Mr Furnari previously told Daily Mail Australia his company collected the mattresses and they will recoup the invoice through VCAT. Ms Maultby last week launched an appeal for help after spending almost $200,000 on legal fees. Ms Maultby also told of the shock she and Jarrod got when they learned they were the subject of a Supreme Court of Victoria lawsuit She explained on a GofundMe campaign that entities associated with Junk were suing her and her husband in three separate lawsuits across two states. 'We hadn't refused to pay the invoice, we just queried it and wanted to come to a resolution with the business due to confusing quotations,' Ms Maultby wrote. 'We shared our story on social media, asking for help and advice. Our story went viral, and several news outlets covered what had happened. 'Since then, we've received numerous different legal threats from numerous persons and companies associated with the business, and have actually been sued in three separate lawsuits in different jurisdictions: one in the Supreme Court of Victoria, another in the District Court of Queensland by a franchisee of the company, and a third in VCAT.' Ms Maultby said the Queensland lawsuit was 'particularly absurd', comparing it to 'a franchised pizza business in Queensland suing someone in Victoria for leaving a bad review about pizza from a Victorian store'. Despite the couple deleting their social media posts when threatened with legal action, it 'wasn't enough to appease the business'. Ms Maultby said the Queensland matter has been dismissed but could be resumed in Victoria, and that the Supreme Court case is currently on hold. The mattresses viewed from inside the home With the possibility of further legal action, the couple have turned to fundraising. 'The last year has drained our resources and nearly broken our spirits. We've already spent close to $200,000 in legal fees - clearing out our life savings, using our annual leave and borrowing heavily from our elderly relatives just to stay afloat,' she wrote. 'We are now facing the heartbreaking prospect of selling our already mortgaged home simply to defend ourselves and repay the family members who have sacrificed so much to support us. 'This isn't just about us, it's about anyone who has ever tried to speak up before,' she said. Three women have been arrested under anti-terror laws after a van smashed into the fence of a major UK defence manufacturer in a protest against Israel's actions in Gaza. The early morning incident unfolded near Leonardo UK's site on Crewe Road North in Edinburgh on Tuesday, where the facility's perimeter was left damaged and daubed in white paint as pro-Palestinian protesters scaled the fence and unfurled a Palestinian flag. The arrested women, aged 31, 34 and 42, were held under the Terrorism Act 2000 after the vehicle crashed into the site's security barrier. Police Scotland's Counter Terrorism Unit is now leading the investigation. It comes amid heightened tensions around UK-based arms suppliers accused by campaigners of contributing to Israel's military operations. The protest group Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh claimed responsibility, accusing the company of manufacturing laser targeting systems for Israel's F-35 fighter jets. One witness at the scene said: 'There's loads of police in helmets and they've surrounded a van parked up against the fence of the factory. It looks like they're trying to get into the van with an electric saw.' Specialist police officers wearing helmets and harnesses were seen climbing onto the roof of the van in the tense moments before the arrests. Witnesses said there were five police vans and riot officers in the area, with some based at a nearby Morrisons supermarket car park. The arrested women, aged 31, 34 and 42, were held under the Terrorism Act 2000 after the vehicle crashed into the site's security barrier The protest group Shut Down Leonardo Edinburgh claimed responsibility, accusing the company of manufacturing laser targeting systems for Israel's F-35 fighter jets Police say they believe the incident was 'targeted' but confirmed there is no wider threat to the public. In a statement, a spokesperson for Police Scotland said: 'Three women, aged 31, 34 and 42, have been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 after a van was driven into an external fence of a business premises in Edinburgh. The incident happened during a disturbance in the Crewe Road North area of the city on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. 'Police Scotland's Counter Terrorism Unit are leading the investigation and enquiries are ongoing. We are treating this as targeted, and we do not believe there is any wider threat to the public. 'If anyone was on Crewe Road North or in the nearby supermarket car park during the early hours of this morning and has any relevant dashcam footage or saw anything suspicious, please contact the Police on 101 quoting reference 0416 of July 15.' The protest group behind the action later posted images of the crash, writing: 'We're taking action to shut down Leonardo's weapons factory in Edinburgh.' Shut Down Leonardo has previously accused the factory of producing components for Israel's warplanes and said its aim was to stop the 'production of Palestinian slaughter'. The site has been the scene of repeated protests in recent months. In December, activists daubed red paint on the facility and unfurled banners reading 'stop arming genocide'. At the time, and again following Tuesday's incident, Leonardo UK denied supplying weapons directly to Israel, insisting that it operates under strict UK government export controls. Police say they believe the incident was 'targeted' but confirmed there is no wider threat to the public The site has been the scene of repeated protests in recent months. Back in June, activists daubed red paint on the exterior of Leonardo's office is left covered with red paint The windows of Leonardo's office are smashed after an attack by pro-Palestine activists on June 10 In a statement, the company said: 'Leonardo UK is subject to UK government export controls and does not supply equipment direct to Israel. 'The right to peaceful protest is an important principle in our society, however, aggressive and violent activity should have no place in protest. 'The intimidation of our people, who work hard to support the security and defence of the UK, is not acceptable. 'Our main customer is the UK Armed Forces. We are proud to manufacture technology that supports our service personnel and helps keep them safe. Their dedication underpins the freedom on which our society is based.' The protest comes just weeks after the UK government formally banned the group Palestine Action, naming it a terrorist organisation after a series of raids and attacks on defence-linked sites. Police enquiries remain ongoing, with officers appealing for dashcam footage or witnesses in the area on Tuesday morning. TV chef James Martin brought his 'guard dog' to protect him while visiting 'broken London' after his car was raided by thugs. The famed cook, 53, had vowed to 'bring the Malis' next time he ventured to the capital from his home in Hampshire - referring to his two pet Belgian Malinois. The breed of dogs have fearsome reputations and are used by the military and police to take down criminals and terrorists. The cook's decision comes weeks after he was rocked by a 'broad daylight' attack on his motor, which saw yobs smashing his rear windscreen in central London. Staying true to his word, ITV chef Martin shared a picture of one of his pet hounds wearing a black 'working dog' harness while sitting on the pavement. The James Martins' Saturday Morning host simply captioned the picture 'London' as he shared it with his 761,000 followers on Instagram. Speaking in 2022, Martin previously praised his two dogs, writing in a post: 'I have to say I have had dogs all my life but these two are unbelievably clever. Thanks to the trainer for doing all the work.' At the end of May, Martin revealed to his fans how he and some of his friends had been targeted by crooks while in the capital. TV chef James Martin brought his 'guard dog' with him to protect him while in 'broken London ' after his car was raided by thugs Who let the dogs out? Martin shares a picture accompanied by his Belgian Malinois 'guard dog' The move came after he vowed to bring protection the next time he visited the capital following the vandalism of his car the last time he was in the city Sharing a photo of his smashed up motor, he wrote: 'So in a week two of my friends cars got stolen, one other mate got mugged and now I had this happen all in broad daylight all in central London. 'London is broken big timenext time I'm bringing the Malis.' The chef did not reveal whether anything had been stolen during the attack on his car. However, his fans were quick to show their support - as many sought to criticise London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan over the capital's escalating crime rates. 'This is so sad, what once was an incredible capital city is now a centre for crime,' wrote one woman. 'Sadly our mayor turns a blind eye to it all, pretending it doesnt happen. Heartbreaking especially when you visit other countries and see clean, safe, friendly places.' Another person, who claimed to be living in the city, said the it was 'no longer safe for women', adding: 'I'm a cockney, James, and I hate what's happened to my city. 'I only go into London if I have to... [you] can't even get your phone out to answer it for fear of it getting snatched. ITV star James Martin revealed in May how he and his friends had been targeted by thugs 'London has become lawless as has most of the UK because the government is too soft on crime.' A third person simply added: 'Britain is broken. Not just London. Sorry this has happened to you.' The news comes as MailOnline revealed over the weekend that London's knife crime epidemic had reached a record-high for the second year in a row. In response to the spiralling figures, campaigners slammed mayor Sir Sadiq Khan as 'not fit for purpose' and accused him of 'undermining the Met Police at any opportunity'. Home Office data shows more than 16,800 knife crimes were recorded by the Metropolitan and City of London police forces last year, a 16 per cent rise on the previous record of over 14,500 a year earlier. The highest number of knife crimes occurred in several central London neighbourhoods, focused around the high-end areas of Mayfair, Fitzrovia, Soho, St James and the Strand. Your browser does not support iframes. London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan has repeatedly faced questions about the capital's crime rates The most up-to-date figures are from 2023 as the Met stopped publishing data which breaks down weapons offences to this granular level of geographic detail early last year. MailOnline has asked if the force intends to start publishing this breakdown again. The number one area for crime was the neighbourhood technically a 'lower layer super output area' (LSOA) named Westminster 013G which features Regent Street, New Bond Street and a small section of Oxford Street. This Westminster suburb saw saw 141 reported knife crimes in 2023, according to Met Police data. A near-600 per cent rise on 2012, where 21 knife-related offences were recorded. Former Met cop and knife crime campaigner Norman Brennan, who was 25 when he was stabbed in the chest and nearly murdered by a burglar while on duty, told MailOnline: 'Under Sadiq Khan, London has no-go areas and the streets have become unsafe.' A spokesman for the Mayor of London told MailOnline: 'Making London safer is the Mayor's top priority. The latest ONS statistics show that the rate of violent crime with injury in London is lower than in the rest of the country. 'Gun crime, burglary and knife crime with injury for under 25s have all fallen since Sadiq become Mayor. The number of homicides recorded in London last year was half the number recorded in 2003, and we had the lowest number of teenage homicides in the capital since 2012. 'Knife crime overall has also been falling over recent months. 'But there's clearly still much more to do to tackle crime. One death is one too many and the Mayor is determined to continue being both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. 'The previous government took a wrecking ball to policing budgets and youth clubs in London, which has had serious consequences. In contrast, the Mayor has doubled investment in policing from City Hall and created 500,000 positive opportunities to divert vulnerable young Londoners away from criminal gangs and crime and towards training and employment.' A Met Police spokesman added: 'Tackling knife crime is at the heart of our determination to protect Londoners. 'Through stop-and-search and data-led policing, we are seeing results, with knife crime down this year compared to last. We have also seen an 18 per cent reduction in the number of victims injured by knives and sharp objects, and a 10 per cent reduction in personal robberies, including phone robbery, which makes up the largest proportion of knife crime. 'We know we need to do more, which is why we will continue to work with our partners and communities to further drive down offending.' Freed British hostage Emily Damari welcomed news that her Hamas captor had been killed by Israel. Ms Damari, 29, was taken from her home during Hamas' incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023. She was held for 471 days as one of 251 hostages taken into Gaza, before being released in January as part of a wider ceasefire agreement. The Israeli military said this week that Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, who held Ms Damari hostage in his home at the start of the war, had been killed in an air strike. 'One of many,' Ms Damari wrote on Instagram. 'Yes, there should be many more good news like this and we will hold them accountable for it all, God willing... [sic]' She went on to call for the release of her fellow hostage still held in Gaza, writing: 'The real victory will be when Gali, Ziv and the other 48 hostages return.' It is believed there are still 20 living captives in the Palestinian enclave. Negotiations for their release are still ongoing, with U.S. President Donald Trump set to meet Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday to discuss ceasefire proposals, Axios reports. Emily Damari was among three hostages released in January as part of a wider ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas after months of negotiation Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita kept Ms Damari in his home at the start of the war Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a U.S.-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza and discussions on ending the conflict. U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement, however, Israel and Hamas are divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave. As diplomats work desperately towards a lasting ceasefire agreement, Israel continues to pound the beleaguered Gaza Strip with air strikes. The IDF claimed to have killed Hamas' Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita in an air strike in a post shared to social media on Monday. 'IDF & ISA [Shin Bet] eliminated Muhammad Nasr Ali Quneita, the Hamas terrorist who infiltrated Israel on Oct 7 and held Emily Damari hostage,' the military wrote on Twitter/X. 'Quneita was a terrorist in Hamas's Al-Furqan Battalions' military intelligence, who infiltrated Israel during the brutal Oct 7 massacre and held Emily Damari hostage in his home at the start of the war.' The Hebrew language IDF account expanded, clarifying that Quneita was killed on June 19, 2025, in the Gaza City area. 'IDF and Shin Bet will continue to operate with force against the terrorists who took part in the murderous massacre on October 7,' it said. Ms Damari recalled the day she was taken into Gaza. 'I remember his face that day when he transferred me to the tunnels deep beneath the ground,' she wrote. 'Where theres no air, no light, and no will to live. Above us, we could hear planes, bombs, and an entire war unfolding. 'Then he looked at me with the smile of a deceiver and told me "That's it, tomorrow youre going home."' Emily Damari prior to undergoing a series of complex operations on her hand and leg to correct complications from wounds sustained on October 7. Issue date: Sunday March 2, 2025 Emily pictured in Gaza, where a doctor operated on her hand, in a photo shared by the IDF 'He didnt say that because it was true. He said it so I would start to have hope. So I would wait and wait, and nothing would happen. 'I looked at him and told him he was a liar (and if you knew what its like to tell a terrorist the word liar...). 'He looked at me angrily and asked, "Me? A liar? Why do you think that?" 'And I said to him, "Because I hear the planes. Theres no ceasefire and no deal close." 'And sadly, between the two of us, I was right.' Emily was in her home in Kibbutz Kfar Azza, two miles from the border with Gaza, when Hamas and affiliated groups stormed into Israel, according to her family. Ms Damari, a Spurs fan, was born in Kfar Aza and lived on the kibbutz her whole life, but visited England regularly. Gunmen entered the house on October 7 and shot her dog dead. The same bullet that killed her beloved pet hit her in the leg. Emily was shot and left with 'severe injuries' before being blindfolded and kidnapped in the back of her own car. She was then driven into Gaza and kept in captivity for more than a year, along with her friends Gali and Ziv. She said she was then taken to Al Shifa Hospital and wheeled into an operating theatre beside a corpse. A Palestinian medic walked in and told her: 'Hi, I'm Dr Hamas,' Emily recalled on Instagram. She was operated on and woke up to be told 'that I no longer have two fingers, and the leg wound remains open with four stitches instead of 16'. Fellow captive Romi Gonen, a trained medic, helped treat Emily's wound as they remained together for most of their 15 months in captivity. Her mother, Mandy, from Beckenham, South East London, said it was a 'miracle' she didn't contract a life-threatening infection in the tunnels. Romi and Emily were freed on January 19, 2025. Emily lost two fingers and had shrapnel wounds in her leg when she was shot at point blank range before she was kidnapped on October 7 2023 The Tottenham Hotspur fan said she endured 'intense pain' after a medic in Gaza told her he was 'Dr Hamas' The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 and took about 250 hostages. Gaza's health ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 58,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. A previous two month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Donald Trump earlier this year proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the U.N. and Palestinians as a proposal of 'ethnic cleansing.' The son of a multimillionaire car boot king has claimed his father's dementia was so bad when he cut him out of his will that he 'drove his car at some children during the car boot sale' and attacked his own wife and children. The fortune of Richard Scott - who fathered 19 children and ran the UK's second biggest boot fair from his 'vast' Cheshire farm, before dying 81 in 2018 - is at the centre of a 43m will fight between his eldest son Adam Scott, 62, and his former cleaner-turned second bride Jennifer Scott, 60. Formerly Richard's 'favourite' son and 'golden boy', Adam was cut out of his father's will after his father married Jennifer, who was instead left in control of his estate and farmland which she says could now be worth up to 43m. The farm was where ITV's Bargain Hunt-style show Boot Sale Challenge was filmed. Richard Scott had six children with his first wife alongside six illegitimate children during that marriage. He then fathered another seven with his second wife Jennifer, who had been working as his cleaner when the pair first began dating in 1994. Richard and Jennifer eventually married in 2016, some 22 years later and just two years before his death. The controversial wedding ceremony was jeopardised by Adam, who tried to prevent the marriage going ahead, claiming his father did not have the mental capacity to marry. Richard was interviewed by four registrars and a lawyer from the local council, who cleared him to go ahead with the wedding. Adam Scott, 62, pictured outside the High Court, was cut out of the will after his father re-married Adam is suing his father's former cleaner-turned second bride Jennifer Scott, 60, who has now inherited the fortune. On the left is her son Gordon Redgrave-Scott - also made a beneficiary of the last wills Just months after his second marriage, he signed the two wills which disinherited Adam and left Jennifer in control of his wealth, as executor and a major beneficiary. Now Adam is suing his step-mother, as executor of Richard's estate, claiming his father was not in his right mind when he signed the two final wills which disinherited him. Jennifer's two sons, Gordon and William Redgrave-Scott, and Adam's sister Rebecca Horley were also made beneficiaries of the last wills. Adam is now challenging the validity of those two final wills on the basis that his father lacked mental capacity at the time they were made. Adam wants to uphold a previous will which gave him the right to buy his father's farm for its probate value - which he says is around 7m. The money would then be split amongst his other siblings. The value of the land is disputed by Jennifer however, who says she has received offers for it amounting to around 43m. London's High Court heard evidence from psychiatric expert Dr Hugh Series, who told the court there were 'objective indicators of changes in Richard's behaviour' around the time he signed the disputed wills, which could raise questions about his mental state and capacity. One of the most shocking reports was that Richard 'drove his car at some children during the car boot sale,' he told Mr Justice Richards. Car boot tycoon Richard Scott, who died aged 81, fathered an astonishing 19 children before writing his eldest son, Adam, out of his will - with his estate valued at 43million Richard made millions from the car boot business he ran from his 'vast' farm Marthall, Cheshire (pictured is one of the car boot sales taking place) There were also reports that he 'hit another car with his car at the car boot sale' and of other 'poor behaviour' including 'punching wife, pushing and grabbing children...six years into a dementia diagnosis,' Dr Series said. 'His wife was so worried about him, she slept in another room and locked the door,' he said, adding that there had been reports of him 'attacking the door with a hammer and a screwdriver and [having] to be stopped by his children'. 'This seems to me to be quite extreme,' Dr Series told the court. But Alex Troup KC, for Jennifer and her children, told the judge that during the incident when he aimed his car at children attending the car boot sale, Richard had been on dementia drug Donepezil, having been wrongly diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The barrister claimed it was the drug that caused his unusual behaviour and that his mental state had 'improved' when he was taken off it after six months. 'He made a valid will afterwards. The fact that before making that will he drove a car at another car is not much evidence of lack of testamentary capacity,' he said. He also pointed out that the 'door attack' is said to have happened in March 2018 - 18 months after the making of the disputed wills. 'Richard always had a temper and could turn on anyone without warning,' he said. Richard made a fortune running the UK's second biggest boot fair from his Cheshire farm (pictured), where ITV's 'Boot Sale Challenge' was filmed 'Dementia illnesses often have the effect of exaggerating peoples prior personality traits.' Professor Alistair Burns, giving psychiatric evidence having been called by Jennifer, also disagreed that Richard showed signs of his capacity being impaired. At the time when he made the disputed wills, he had been struggling to speak because of his dementia, but Prof Burns told the judge that it was Richard's ability to express himself, rather than his ability to comprehend, which had been affected by the progressive disease. Adam is also arguing that his father promised him that he would have the right to take over the farm after his death and that he sacrificed everything to commit to 'a life of hard and unrelenting physical work' on the back of those promises. But lawyers for Jennifer claim that Richard knew exactly what he was doing when he disinherited his first-born after Adam's relationship with his father 'completely broke down' when he tried to get Richard sectioned. They also say he has no claim to his father's estate on the basis of the alleged promises having already been handed land and property worth over 10m by Richard before his death. Earlier in the trial, the court heard that Richard was a 'mercurial character' and 'ruthless, single-minded and highly successful businessman' who built up a valuable property empire, before switching to running giant and lucrative car boot sales. Adam is also bringing an alternative claim under the law of proprietary estoppel - a legal remedy that can be used when a landowner has promised property will be transferred to someone else at a later date, only to later go back on the promise. Mr Troup is arguing that if promises were made, they were not legally binding, telling the judge: 'Richard was an inherently unreliable character, whose track record was of breaking promises.' The trial continues. The Taliban claims it has had the so-called 'kill list' of Afghans who worked with Britain since 2022 and has spent the last three years tracking them down. The list includes around 25,000 names of interpreters, soldiers and family members who applied for asylum through British evacuation schemes. It was accidentally leaked online in 2022, triggering one of the most expensive and secretive operations in modern British history - but now critics are asking whether it was all pointless. Taliban officials now say they downloaded the list within days of its appearance online and have used it to hunt those named ever since. A senior Taliban source told The Telegraph, 'We got the list from the internet during the very first days when it was leaked.' The official confirmed that many people fled Afghanistan or went into hiding, but said surveillance teams had been hired to watch homes of the individuals and their relatives around the clock. 'A special unit has been launched to find them and make sure they do not work with Britain,' the official said. He also said authorities in the Taliban government had visited relatives of people on the list to 'track them down' and added that they 'must be dealt with'. The Taliban government has claimed it had the full list of the so called 'kill list' since 2022 Unmarked charter planes have been seen arriving at UK airports - the British government responded to the leak by launching Operation Rubific, a covert mission to secretly relocate as many people as possible to safety Another Taliban official revealed to The Telegraph that the search had ramped up in recent months. He said the list was distributed to border agents, who have been instructed to block anyone listed from leaving the country. He called the people on the list 'traitors' and added that the plan was to find 'as many of them as possible'. He also asserted that the leaked list worked in their favour. The British government responded to the leak by launching Operation Rubific, a covert mission to secretly relocate as many people as possible to safety. Nearly 24,000 Afghans have either already been flown to the UK or will be in the coming months, according to newly released government data. The scale of the operation and the danger it posed to those left behind led to an unprecedented super-injunction being imposed in early 2023. It banned all media, Parliament and the public from discussing the leak, the evacuation plans, or even the fact that a super-injunction existed. Ministers argued that any publicity would further endanger lives by confirming to the Taliban that the leak was real. The search for people who worked with the British government has ramped up in recent months, says a Taliban official A plane carrying people evacuated, including Shaffy, David Cameron's interpreter, arriving at Stanstead Airport from Afghanistan in 2024 But a High Court judge who lifted the gag this week said the injunction may have made the situation worse. Mr Justice Chamberlain said there was 'a significant chance that it was in fact endangering' some of the Afghans being relocated. He said the effect on those not brought to the UK was 'likely to be adverse overall.' The judge warned that the government may have 'added more value' to the leak by acting so aggressively to conceal it. A government source confirmed that 7 billion of taxpayer money was spent on Operation Rubific, which has been described by defence officials as the largest covert peacetime relocation effort in British history. According to reporting by The Times, much of the operation was coordinated by MI6, the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office, with emergency teams working for more than two years to process applications, issue visas and arrange flights in secret. Despite these efforts, many Afghans remain trapped. A former British Army interpreter fled to Iran two years ago after hearing his name was on the list, according to the report. His family has since been targeted by Taliban fighters who repeatedly raid their homes. Despite the government's huge efforts, many Afghans still remain trapped as their families fear they will be targeted People in Kabul waited on an airport tarmac to be evacuated from Afghanistan after the Taliban took over The family member told The Telegraph that they had arrested him and even beaten him for a day. He added that being related to someone on the 'kill list' is a 'death sentence' as the Taliban has threatened they would kill a family member if they can't find who they are searching for. Though the UK government has insisted it acted to save lives, critics argue that the Taliban may have already had access to the data and that the secrecy surrounding the operation may have done more harm than good. Justice Chamberlain concluded in court filings that the decision to suppress public knowledge of the breach may have inadvertently endangered the very people the government claimed it was trying to protect. If Taliban officials are to be believed, the cover-up did little to stop the targeting. Donald Trump has labelled the Jeffrey Epstein files 'boring' and said he doesn't understand why people continue to be interested in the case, as accusations of a cover-up continue to mount. The President has shown growing frustration with questions about the files, and shook his head when asked why his supporters in particular 'have been so interested [in the case] and so upset with how it's been handled'. 'He's dead for a long time,' Trump said of the disgraced financier. 'He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.' The Epstein files, a collection of redacted documents relating to Epstein's case, were believed by many to contain the name of the sex trafficker's list of associates. Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi teased a full release of the evidence, even at one point suggesting a 'client list' was on her desk, but last week an FBI and Department of Justice memo said 'no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.' The files, said to include a thousand hours of video footage depicting child sexual abuse, did not include evidence of a client list, according to the memo. The refusal to release the documents has incensed members of the MAGA movement, with Trump allies calling for 'transparency' and some supporters saying they felt 'betrayed' by the backtracking. Speaking to reporters after landing in Maryland on Air Force One, Trump said of the notorious files: 'It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going.' President Trump made the comments as he returned to Maryland following a trip to Pittsburgh Trump distanced himself from the disgraced financier during his first presidential campaign and later said they had a 'falling out' President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi are facing MAGA mutiny amid claims they botched an investigation into Epstein's laundry list of crimes Avoiding reference to criticism from his supporters and allies, Trump went on: 'I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going. 'But credible information? Let them give it - anything that's credible, I would say, let them have it,' he added. Facing pressure from MAGA supporters, Trump had earlier said that Bondi should release 'whatever she thinks is credible' in terms of documents pertaining to the case. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump said he would have 'no problem' looking into the Epstein client list. He went on to appoint MAGA proponents of Epstein conspiracy theories, including FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who previously made broad accusations of corruption and abuse. But these figures are now part of an administration defending the decision not to release the files, with rifts reportedly opening up between Bongino and Bondi. Bongino has reportedly not shown up to work since July 9, when a shouting match is said to have erupted between the pair. 'Bongino is out-of-control furious,' a source close to him told NBC News. 'This destroyed his career. He's threatening to quit and torch Pam unless she's fired.' The threat infuriated Trump, according to CNN, and he is said to have sided with Bondi in the row. Asked by reporters on Sunday if Bongino would remain in his position, the President said: 'Oh I think so... I spoke to him today. Dan Bongino, very good guy. I've known him a long time. I've done his show many, many times. He sounded terrific, actually.' In a lengthy statement on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump praised Bondi's work while also urging supporters to turn their attention away from the Epstein files controversy. A rift has reportedly opened up between Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino 'One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it's the 'HOTTEST' Country anywhere in the World. Let's keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,' he wrote. Asked yesterday whether he specifically was named in the files, Trump said: 'No, no,' before adding that Bondi had 'given us just a very quick briefing' on their contents. He then baselessly accused James Comey, the former director of the FBI under President Obama, of 'making up' the files. 'These files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden [administration],' he said. Trump made similar claims that the Democrats were to blame in his series of Truth Social posts on Saturday, writing: 'They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher that they used on me, and now my so-called 'friends' are playing right into their hands. 'Why didn't these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didn't they use it?' On Monday, Republican lawmakers blocked a Democrat-led effort to force the release of the Epstein files. Republicans for their part pointed out that the files were also not released under previous presidents, including Joe Biden. Billionaire financier Epstein and his right-hand woman Ghislaine Maxwell had a wide circle of friends from fellow billionaires to politicians like Trump, the Clintons, and entertainment icons. The MAGA movement has long promoted conspiracy theories that 'Deep State' elites are protecting Epstein's powerful associates. Suspicions that Epstein held client lists and that his death was not a suicide were far from assuaged by the memo and Trump's calls for supporters to move on from the case. Trump was friends with Epstein and a neighbour of his in Florida for years, once describing him as a 'terrific guy'. 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,' Trump said in an interview in 2002. But he distanced himself from the disgraced financier during his first presidential campaign and later said they had a 'falling out'. Back in February, Bondi told Fox News that a list of Epstein clients was on her desk for review. Questioned by reporters about the claim in recent days, her spokesman clarified that she had been referring to files in the case generally. Meanwhile some of his most influential allies have refused, including House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson, have called for 'transparency'. Maxwell (pictured with Prince Andrew and accuser Virginia Giuffre) was convicted in 2021 , two years after Epstein was found dead in his cell while awaiting trial for child sex offense The debacle has left the MAGA movement divided, with leading voices including Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon and Megyn Kelly also joining the call for the files to be released. In a recent conversation with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, former Fox News host Carlson questioned why journalists have been reprimanded for asking questions about the case. A reporter who asked about the memo last week was met with furious rebuke from Trump, who reacted by saying that the catastrophic flooding in Texas was a more important issue. 'You're asking - we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy? This creep? That is unbelievable,' Trump said at the time. Carlson expressed disdain at Trump's dismissive response, asking: 'Why is it not a fair question? There's tons of evidence this is happening. Like, are you joking? 'You're not going to shout me down, by the way, at this point. I spent four years being shouted down by the Left for asking, I thought, pretty reasonable questions.' Carlson added that attacking critics for their questions 'is not going to work.' 'And telling me that my question is an insult to the children who died in Texas in a flood is an outrageous response,' he said of Trump's response. A Boeing jet bound for India was forced to turn back as a precautionary measure as investigations into the Air India tragedy continue. Etihad Airways flight EY352, travelling from Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad made its return to the UAE capital after an engineering work order came into place on Sunday mid-flight, according to Times of India, though Etihad deny that the two events were related. The order to inspect the locking mechanism on fuel supply switches came after a report by India's Aircraft Investigation Bureau was published on Saturday. The Boeing 787-9 plane departed Abu Dhabi at 10pm local time before it was diverted back, data from flight tracking site FlightAware shows. The flight was one and a half hours into the nearly four-hour journey to Rajiv Gandhi International airport when it was diverted. The airline told MailOnline: 'Etihad has not experienced any issues with fuel control switches. The return of flight EY352 on 13 July 2025 was a precautionary measure and not related to the aircraft's fuel system.' It comes as the preliminary Air India report found that fuel switches for the engines of the doomed plane, which crashed last month in Ahmedabad, had almost simultaneously flipped just seconds after takeoff. This meant that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner began to lose thrust and sink down moments after setting of to London from the Indian city on June 12. Etihad Airways flight EY352, travelling from Abu Dhabi to Hyderabad was forced to turn back after an engineering work order came into place on Sunday mid-flight. File photo shows an Etihad Airways plane The diversion comes after a report into the Air India tragedy found that fuel switches for the engines of the doomed plane. FILE PHOTO: A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in Ahmedabad on June 13 Data on flight tracking website FlightAware shows that the flight turned around midway through the journey India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation has since ordered airlines to inspect the fuel switches on certain aircraft, including Boeing 787s and 737s, following the fatal crash that killed 260 people. In the flight's final moments, one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel. 'The other pilot responded that he did not do so,' the report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) said. It did not identify which remarks were made by the flight's captain and which by the first officer, nor which pilot immediately transmitted the distress call: 'Thrust not achieved... falling... Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!' Seconds later the jet began losing height and exploded into a fireball after smashing into a hostel on the ground in Gujarat, claiming the lives of all but one passenger on board and 19 people on the ground. Investigators' early assessments indicate no apparent fault with the Boeing or its engines, suggesting that Boeing and engine maker GE had no apparent responsibility for the accident. But the report does not say how the switch - which is used to start or shut down the engines and are typically left on during flight - could have flipped to the cutoff position. 'Did they move on their own or did they move because of the pilots?' he asked. 'And if they were moved because of a pilot, why?' India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation has since ordered airlines to inspect the fuel switches on certain aircraft. Image shows the tailpiece of the doomed Air India flight after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12 This screengrab from UGC video footage shows thick black smoke billowing from a residential area after Air India flight AI171 crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025 The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025 Vishwashkumar Ramesh was the only passenger who survived the tragedy The aircraft crashed into a student hostel near the airport shortly after taking off Your browser does not support iframes. The report said the jet was carrying 54,200kg of fuel, which was within the 'allowable limits'. 'The aircraft achieved the maximum recorded airspeed of 180 Knots IAS at about 08:08:42 UTC and immediately thereafter, the Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of 01 sec,' the report said. 'The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off. Referring to data recovered from the plane's two Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFR), it continues: 'As per the EAFR, the Engine 1 fuel cutoff switch transitioned from CUTOFF to RUN at about 08:08:52 UTC. The APU Inlet Door began opening at about 08:08:54 UTC, consistent with the APU Auto Start logic. Thereafter at 08:08:56 UTC the Engine 2 fuel cutoff switch also transitions from CUTOFF to RUN. 'When fuel control switches are moved from CUTOFF to RUN while the aircraft is inflight, each engine's full authority dual engine control (FADEC) automatically manages a relight and thrust recovery sequence of ignition and fuel introduction.' U.S. aviation safety expert John Cox said a pilot would not be able to accidentally move the fuel switches that feed the engines. 'You can't bump them and they move,' he said. scue officials work at the site where Air India flight 171 crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12 ayushi Lawrence, center, wife of Lawrence Christian, a victim of the June 12 Air India plane crash, grieves during his funeral, in Ahmedabad, India, Sunday, June 22, 2025 Screen grab shows footage of the Air India plane crash The new findings appear to tally with theories reportedly put forward on the US side of the investigation, which also noted that the switches that control fuel flow to the aircraft's twin engines were turned off shortly after takeoff, causing the jet to lose thrust. It remains unclear why they were turned off, and investigators have been left wondering whether it was deliberate, accidental or corrected too late. Earlier this week, it was revealed that investigations into the Air India plane crash are looking into the pilots' medical records as it is claimed one of them had depression and mental health issues. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, an experienced pilot with more than 8,200 hours in the cockpit, was piloting the Boeing 787 Dreamliner when it plummeted. Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a leading aviation safety expert in India, has revealed that 'several' Air India pilots had allegedly confirmed that the well-experienced pilot had suffered from poor mental health. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, he claimed: 'He had taken time off from flying in the last three to four years. He had taken medical leave for that. Captain Sabharwal is also understood to have taken bereavement leave after the death of his mother, though it is believed by Mr Ranganathan that he had been 'medically cleared' by Air India prior to the fatal crash last month. In Powai, Mumbai, one of Captain Sabharwal's former colleagues described him as a 'thorough gentlemen' telling the publication that he believed 'he was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years', with plans to look after his elderly father, aged 90. Investigations into the Air India plane crash are reportedly examining Captain Sumeet Sabharwal's (pictured) medical records amid allegations that he had depression and mental health issues Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was piloting the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with co-pilot Clive Kunder (pictured) when it plummeted into a residential area killing 241 people on board and claiming 19 more lives of those on the ground In his short career, co-pilot Clive Kunder, 28, had logged more than 3,400 hours. The Telegraph said that while Air India declined to comment, an official working with their parent company, Tata Group, told the publication that Captain Sabharwal had not taken any medical leave, with the preliminary report failing to obtain any significant findings. They added that within the last two years, both pilots onboard the flight had passed the Class I medical exam, which makes an evaluation of their psycho-physical capabilities. Labor is unwilling to push it further however The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is seeking to tax Australia out of its dueling obesity and diabetes epidemics. A sugar tax could be placed on soft drinks, sweetened juice and cordial if the government were to adopt the AMA's latest advice released this week. Macarthur MP Michael Freelander previously said he believes the new tax should be introduced alongside a broader public education effort about the harms of excess sugar. The association has called for a new tax at a rate of 50c per 100g of added sugar for each of these drinks to be paid by beverage manufacturers. This means a 375mL of normal Coke with 39.8g of sugar would be hit with a tax of 19.9c. A 600mL bottle of Berry Ice Powerade with 34.8g of sugar would incur a 17.8c levy. Some government officials have already begun championing the new suggestion and even pushing to take it further. Dr Freelander, who is a practising pediatrician, hoped the new tax would prompt drink companies to put less sugar into their drinks going forward. Labor MP Michael Freelander, a practicing pediatrician, supports the idea of new taxes The Australian Medical Association wants Australia to put a tax on sugary drinks like soft drinks, sweetened juice and cordial Labor however has shut down any idea of itself helping to push these measures forward. 'What we're now seeing is children presenting with obesity and with type two diabetes. And we should not be seeing that,' Dr Freelander said. 'We do now see lots of societal changes that are causing health problems and one of the issues is the access to highly processed foods.' 'So it's not just about drinks, it's also about making people aware of the dangers of high calorie highly-processed foods.' The Parliamentary Budget Office found in 2024 that a 20 per cent tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would boost revenue by more than $1.3bn in two years. Dr Freelander requested the costings as a means to garner support but stressed that any policies should be trialled before they were implemented. Alongside the proposed tax Dr Freelander suggested alterations to future town planning which would make it easier for children to walk to school. This combined with greater access to healthy food and less fast food outlets would go a long way towards making the country healthier, he said. The Albanese government has said it does not support the idea AMA Vice President, Julian Rait, agreed these measures would guarantee the 'best chance' at reducing rates of obesity and chronic disease. The proposal would drive down consumption by as much as 2kg per person and increase the bottomline budget by $3.6 billion, Mr Rait said. These savings could be 'invested in other crucial preventive health measures', he added. 'For people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, reducing sugar intake through swaps like drinking water over soft drinks can make a profound difference to their long-term health,' he told news.com. 'Last year it was revealed the sugar content in popular soft drink Fanta had increased by 60 per cent, despite industry assurances that sugary drinks were being reformulated.' Thus far Labor itself has ruled out any potential levy or tax and said it will instead seek to implement 'front-of-pack labelling' on sugary items. It will also work with companies to reduce the amount of sugar in foods, Health Minister Mark Butler said. 'There is no plan in our government for a sugar tax. We're instead focusing on education and also working with food manufacturers to reduce the amount of sugar that they put into their products,' he said in May. The nurse at the centre of a landmark employment tribunal has been cleared of all gross misconduct allegations against her, her lawyer has said. Sandie Peggie was suspended after she complained about having to share a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton at the NHS Fife hospital where they both worked. The nurse took the health board and the born-male medic to an employment tribunal, which is set to continue today. But in a stunning development just hours before it is set to continue Mrs Peggie has been cleared of gross misconduct as part of separate proceedings brought against her. Margaret Gribbon, her solicitor, said Mrs Peggie has been left 'delighted' the 18-month ordeal is over and she has been cleared of all allegations. Ms Gribbon said: 'On Tuesday, the evening before the resuming of her tribunal, Sandie Peggie received confirmation from Fife Health Board that following a disciplinary hearing, none of the gross misconduct allegations against her were upheld. 'This follows a disciplinary hearing on June 25, which considered four gross misconduct allegations: two relating to patient care failures, one of 'misgendering' Dr Upton, and one relating to her encounter with Dr Upton in the workplace female-only changing room on Christmas Eve 2023. 'Sandie is relieved and delighted that this 18-month long internal process has concluded and cleared her of all allegations.' Sandie Peggie (pictured arriving for tribunal proceedings today) has been cleared of all gross misconduct allegations against her Mrs Peggie challenged the presence of transgender medic Dr Beth Upton (pictured February 10) in the women-only changing rooms at the hospital Mrs Peggie was suspended from work at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on January 3 2024, after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment, the tribunal heard earlier this year. The first batch of employment tribunal hearings took place in Dundee in February and was then adjourned until today. It resumes after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the 2010 Equality Act 'refer to a biological woman and biological sex'. Mrs Peggie has welcomed the ruling. The latest set of employment tribunal hearings is expected to last 11 days. Reacting to Ms Peggie being cleared of gross misconduct, Scottish Conservative shadow equalities minister Tess White MSP said: 'This decision confirms what we've known all along Sandie Peggie did nothing wrong. 'NHS Fife's credibility lies in tatters and senior bosses owe Sandie an immediate and unreserved apology. 'This dedicated nurse should never have been dragged through a distressing disciplinary hearing for expressing discomfort about sharing a changing room with a biological man. 'Neil Gray has repeatedly expressed confidence in the health board. We must urgently hear if that is still his view. Mrs Peggie was visibly delighted as she turned up to separate proceedings today, having been cleared of gross misconduct. She is pictured with solicitor Margaret Gribbon Sandie Peggie (pictured on June 18) was suspended after she complained about having to share a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton The women-only changing rooms referred to in the case were at the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, Fife. (File image) Mrs Peggie (pictured in February) was suspended from work after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment, the tribunal heard earlier this year Nurse Sandie Peggie alongside gender-critical campaigners Maya Forstater (L) and her solicitor, Margaret Gribbon (R), outside the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood on June 18 'This decision also raises further concerns about the conflict of interest resulting from the same lawyer representing NHS Fife and Beth Upton at the tribunal. 'Cases like this wouldn't need to continue if John Swinney finally stepped in and ensured NHS Fife and other public bodies were upholding the Supreme Court ruling and providing single-sex spaces for women.' Last week, it emerged that NHS Fife has spent more than 220,000 defending itself in the employment tribunal. The extent of the costs was uncovered following an intervention by Scotland's information commissioner. In a statement, the health board said: 'NHS Fife can confirm that an internal conduct hearing has concluded in relation to a staff member in our emergency department, following allegations concerning conduct. 'The hearing was held in accordance with the national NHS Scotland conduct policy and followed an investigation into matters. It considered several allegations, including regarding interactions between colleagues and patient care. Solicitor Margaret Gribbon gives a statement on behalf of Sandie Peggie outside the tribunal today 'After reviewing the evidence presented, including written submissions and witness testimony, the panel found that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding of misconduct. 'While no formal sanctions have been imposed, the panel concluded that a facilitated reflective practice discussion would be appropriate. 'NHS Fife acknowledges that this was a complex and sensitive matter, and we are satisfied that the process has been appropriately followed and is now concluded. 'We remain committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive, and safe working environment for all of our staff and patients. 'As this matter relates to an individual member of staff, NHS Fife will not be making any further comment on the outcome.' Emma Watson has been banned from driving for six months after she was caught speeding in her 30,000 Audi. The 35-year-old Harry Potter actress was sentenced at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court today after admitting driving at 38mph in a 30mph zone - her fourth driving offence in less than two years. She received three points on her licence, in addition to nine points from driving offences in October 2023, November 2023 and January 2024. The star, who played Hermione in the films, will also have to pay 1,044 in fines, including 660 for a guilty plea, a 264 surcharge and 120 cost, which she must pay within 28 days. Coincidentally, Watson was the second Harry Potter star to be banned from driving at the same court today. Her co-star Zoe Wanamaker, who played Quidditch referee Madam Hooch in the first movie, appeared in the same court room just moments later. Nine-time Olivier Award nominee Wanamaker, 76, was caught doing 46mph in a 40mph zone on the M4, close to where she lives in Wiltshire. Watson's offence was captured by a speed camera on a restricted road in the city where Watson has been studying for a doctorate at Oxford University. The actress was behind the wheel of a 30,000 Audi S3 at the time of the incident. This is not Watson's first brush with motoring misfortune. In February last year, her Audi was impounded by police after she parked illegally outside the Rose and Crown pub in Stratford-upon-Avon. The car had been left blocking the entrance to a car park, trapping a pizza restaurant manager's vehicle inside for more than three hours. Emma Watson (pictured in January) was captured by a speed camera on a restricted road in Oxford. The actress was behind the wheel of a 30,000 Audi S3 at the time of the incident Emma will be banned from driving for six months and will also have to pay 1,044 in fines within the next 28 days In February last year Emma Watson's Audi was impounded by police after a night out in the Rose and Crown pub in Stratford-upon-Avon Emma Watson, pictured in June, has recently taken a step back from Hollywood, focusing instead on her personal life The manager, who had just finished a 12-hour shift, was eventually forced to call the police after being unable to locate the car's owner. Watson emerged from the pub as the vehicle was being towed, but her appeals were unsuccessful. She was issued a 192 fine. Watson rose to fame playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film series from 2001 to 2011 and later starred in 2019's Little Women. She has since taken a step back from Hollywood, focusing instead on her academic pursuits and personal life. At Oxford, she has been spotted coxing the New College women's third rowing team and is reportedly dating fellow student Kieran Brown, who recently completed his own doctorate. The pair were seen kissing at a Gail's Bakery in Oxford last year. Watson has also made headlines for her public support of trans rights, in contrast to Harry Potter author JK Rowling's views on the issue. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Watson wrote: 'Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren't who they say they are.' Zoe Wanamaker, 76, was also banned from driving - in the same court room today - after being caught speeding on the M4 Zoe Wanamaker already had nine points on her licence from previous offences which occurred on June 26, 2023, December 11, 2023 and July 1, 2024. In addition to the three points she received today, that pushed the My Family actress to the maximum driving points anyone can receive - meaning she is automatically banned from driving for six months. She also received a fine of 1,044 payable within 28 days. District Judge Arvind Sharma, passing sentence, said: 'Her licence will be endorsed with three points, a Band A fine, which would have been 1,000, reduced to 660 for her guilty plea at the first opportunity. 'She will pay a 264 surcharge and 120 costs, to be paid in full within 28 days. 'The 12 points (means) she is disqualified for six months from now.' Zoe is also famous for starring in British sitcom My Family alongside Robert Lindsay. The case of Wanamaker, the nine-time Olivier Award nominee, was heard by magistrates directly after Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson who received the exact same sentence at High Wycombe Magistrates court today. Duncan Jones, defending Wanamaker, said: 'She is not seeking any special treatment and accepts that she will be disqualified from driving.' Europe's most famous holiday hotspots are busier than ever this week - despite anti-tourism protests taking place across the continent. Images show swarms of holidaymakers packed shoulder-to-shoulder and forming huge queues waiting for trains and buses in some of the most beautiful destinations in Italy and Greece. In the Italian village of Varenna - famed for its tiny streets and colourful facades of houses - Brits have complained of crowds so dense they were barely able to reach down to take their phones out of their pockets. Meanwhile, footage from the Greek island of Santorini - adored by influencers for its breathtaking sunsets and views across the Mediterranean - show thousands of people inching along narrow streets with barely enough room to pass each other. It comes as Europe struggles to cope with a surge in tourism - with some areas being forced to introduce special measures in an attempt to combat the problem. Disappointed sunseekers have taken to social media to share how their dream holiday didn't quite match reality. Europe is groaning under a tourism surge. Shocking footage reveal the extent of the crisis, with some streets so crowded that tourists are forced to shuffle shoulder-to-shoulder just to move. Pictured: A street in Positano, Italy A holidaymaker in Lake Como, Italy posted a video warning others what to expect while visiting in the summer, showing packed coastal pathways and an hour long line for the ferry Another Lake Como visitor likened the long queues to 'the tourist hunger games' and posted a picture of an endless line of people This image shows tourists walking beside Lake Como in 2023, before it was overcrowded with tourists A holidaymaker in Lake Como, Italy, posted a video warning others what to expect, showing packed coastal pathways and an hour long line for the ferry. The clip is captioned: 'Lake Como in June is so amazing, the views are stunning, but so many people and waiting times.' Another visitor likened the experience to 'the tourist hunger games' alongside a seemingly endless line of people. Meanwhile, a tourist in Portofino, a small coastal town on the Italian Riviera in Liguria, revealed how even areas which are meant to be quiet have been swarmed by holidaymakers. She wrote across a TikTok video of a crowded beach: 'You travelled to a "secret beach" in Portofino, except it definitely isn't secret anymore.' The caption read: 'Expectation vs Reality in Portofino! Literally took one look at the crowds and left.' Another TikToker posted a clip of a busy street in Portofino and simply wrote, 'Watching Portofino get flooded with tourists'. A third posted an image showing the scenic views she expected in the town, before revealing the overcrowded reality. A woman visiting Positano, on Italy's Amalfi Coast, was also left disappointed by her experience. A third posted an image showing the scenic views she expected in Portofino, before revealing the overcrowded reality Pictured: The overcrowded reality of Portofino She said: 'Social media lied. I've been dreaming of going to Positano on Italy's Amalfi Coast for years. 'And while it is definitely a very beautiful town, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. 'I was expecting all of the stairs, but I wasn't expecting the magnitude of the crowds and the lineups. 'Positano has become a travel destination where you need to have every moment of your itinerary planned out in advance, and book reservations for pretty much everything. 'Otherwise, it will all be booked up before you even touch down in Italy.' Meanwhile, in Greece, overcrowding is also frustrating sunseekers. One woman revealed how much the island of Santorini has changed since her last visit two years ago, before the tourism surge became so severe. She posted a picture of a packed street, writing, 'Santorini! When we stayed here in 2022, we scoffed at the people who came off the cruise ships. A tourist in Portofino, a small coastal town on the Italian Riviera in Liguria, revealed how even areas which are meant to be quiet have been swarmed by holidaymakers. She wrote 'you travelled to a 'secret beach' in Portofino, except it definitely isn't secret anymore' Pictured: What tourists expect when visiting Portofino 'This time, we were those people! Santorini in summer is no joke. The heat, the crowds, the lines. No magic this time. Just sweat, nausea and swollen feet. 'Don't be deceived by the smiling faces.' Some areas have introduced special measures in an attempt to crack down on overcrowding. Portofino has banned walking barefoot, picnics and drinking booze on the streets among a swathe of other prohibitions. Tourists risk being fined for carrying out a variety of actions typically enjoyed abroad. From July 15, travellers in Portofino will no longer be able to walk through the town barefoot, in swimwear, or topless - or sit in the piazza in such attire. Consuming alcohol on public streets has also been prohibited, with only restaurants, bars and designated areas left to booze in. Begging, sitting, or lying on the streets, walls, sidewalks and parks has also been banned along with having picnics. The new ordinance, signed by Mayor Matteo Viacava, will take effect during the summer season and temporarily expire on September 30. Anyone who is caught violating the regulations before then will be subject to a fine of between 22 and 433. The goal of the latest crackdown is to protect the 'peace and quiet of residents and tourists' in the exclusive coastal resort which brings in up to 100,000 tourists during peak season - despite the town only having a population of 400. The municipality had already attempted to combat troublesome tourists in 2023. During that period, stopping at particularly popular viewpoints across the picturesque town was prohibited. A tourist in Portofino, a small coastal town on the Italian Riviera in Liguria, revealed how even areas which are meant to be quiet have been swarmed by holiday makers. Pictured: A crowd in Positano, Italy Another person visiting Positano, on Italy's Amalfi Coast, expressed her disappointment at the experience in a TikTok clip. She said: 'Social media lied. I've been dreaming of going to Positano on Italy's Amalfi Coast for years.' Pictured: The quiet beach the woman expected She wrote: 'I was expecting all of the stairs, but I wasn't expecting the magnitude of the crowds and the lineups.' Pictured: The crowds in Positano This image shows a quiet street in Positano, before the town suffered from overcrowding @vickirutwind Social media lied Ive been dreaming of going to Positano on Italys Amalfi Coast for years. And while it is definitely a very very very beautiful town, it wasnt exactly what I was expecting. I was expecting all of the stairs, but I wasnt expecting the magnitude of the crowds and the lineups. Positano has become a travel destination where you need to have every moment of your itinerary planned out in advance, and book reservations for pretty much everything. Otherwise, it will all be booked up before you even touch down in Italy. And while that might be your travel style, I really like having an opportunity to explore and be spontaneous. I also think if you want some of the magical experiences you are seeing on social media, you have to pay a major premium to stay at the super luxury hotels, and dine at the most expensive restaurants with reservations booked way in advance. In the end, I did still have a nice time in Positano because its a beautiful town, the main beach has a nice beach club, and we had some nice meals. But for now, its not one of my favorite travel destinations. Im on the fence about whether Ill return. Have you been to Positano? And if you have, what did you think about it? #positano #positanoitaly #amalficoast #travelitaly #instagramvsreality #italytravel original sound - william springfield Santorini has also introduced new rules and measures to manage the influx of tourists. These include a tourist tax, restrictions on access and parking, and a proposed 'saturation law' limiting daily visitor numbers. Meanwhile, Spain's Balearic Islands have stopped using influencers to promote holiday hotspots and warned that 'selfie tourism' is ruining the region's most beautiful beaches. The move comes a year after jeering Mallorcan protestors descended on an Instagram-famous beach and blocked visitors from entering in a bid to combat mass tourism. Local authorities had originally hoped social media stars would help relieve the strain on some locations frequented by tourists by encouraging visitors to explore less popular sites. One woman revealed how much the island of Santorini has changed since her last visit two years ago, before the tourism surge became so severe She posted a picture of a packed street writing, 'Santorini! When we stayed here in 2022 we scoffed at the people who came off the cruise ships. This time, we were those people! Santorini in summer is no joke' Pictured: A coastal path in Santorini before the tourism surge But the strategy has seemingly backfired, as some of these remote locations have now become flooded with selfie-snapping visitors, causing even more overcrowding and sparking further fury from locals contesting 'over tourism.' 'It has had the complete opposite effect to what was intended and runs contrary to government policy on containing tourism,' a spokesman for the Balearic tourism department admitted over the weekend. As Covid-19 restrictions lifted in recent years across Europe, tourism has returned close to the levels seen before the pandemic - but some locals have had enough. This return to normalcy has seen a rise in anti-tourism sentiment amongst locals living in the continent's travel hotspots, many of whom are urging officials to implement measures that limit the influx of visitors. Pictured: People march during a protest against over tourism in the Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain, Sunday, June 15, 2025 Pictured: Protesters confront police officers during a demonstration in Piazzale Roma against the introduction of an entrance fee to the city for day-trippers, in Venice, 2024 Complaints range from a lack of affordable housing for locals (with dwellings instead being used as holiday accommodation), vast crowds making cities and towns unbearable during the busiest months, or simply the wrong type of tourists. While residents understand that tourism is vital for local economies, patience is wearing thin, and although such tensions have always existed between locals and visitors, this appears to have become particularly pronounced in recent years. Angry protests and demonstrations against tourism have sprung up in Spain, while officials in Italy, France and Greece - among others - have started implementing limits on visiting sightseers, or are considering their options. Some 3.6million Brits are getting benefits with no obligation to seek work after an extraordinary surge since Covid. Nearly half of all the 7.9million people on Universal Credit have 'no work requirement', compared to fewer than 700,000 in January 2020. Meanwhile, numbers classed as searching for employment while they get handouts have slumped to 1.6million. That is despite UC claims swelling by 1.1million over the year to June. The grim figures underline the scale of sickness issues blighting the UK economy, with ministers struggling to get a grip on spiralling spending. Keir Starmer was forced to gut a 5billion package of reforms earlier this month after a massive revolt by Labour MPs. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said UC claims with 'no work requirements' overtook 'searching for work' as the largest conditionality regime in April 2022. Your browser does not support iframes. Keir Starmer was forced to gut a 5billion package of benefits reforms earlier this month after a massive revolt by Labour MPs Liz Kendall has warned that the spiralling benefits budget cannot be sustained It said the increase was down to people making new claims as well as moving across from the old Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). The government has pledged to scrap work capability assessments for UC by 2028 in a bid to toughen the rules, but not said what will replace them. As of March there were 6.4million households on UC, the highest since the benefit was introduced in 2013 and a million more than in November 2023. Some 2.7million households were single people with no children, 2.1million single parents, 800,000 couples with children and 200,000 couples with no children. The average payment was 1,010 in March, with single people typically getting 740 and couples with children 1,250. For the first time the government released a breakdown yesterday of how many immigrants are getting the benefit. The data showed that 1.2million UC claimants had EU settled status, were refugees, arrived under a humanitarian route or had limited or indefinite leave to remain as of June. That was up from 1.1 million a year earlier. The majority of migrants being paid UC are not in work - a situation campaigners described as 'unsustainable'. Some 83.6 per cent of those on the benefit were British, Irish, or live or work in the UK without any immigration restrictions. The Tories said they have a 'clear, common-sense position' that UC 'should be reserved for UK citizens only'. The Government said it had 'inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling, unsustainable benefits bill' and was working on reforms including tightening rules on who can claim. The Prime Minister's spokesman said yesterday they will double the amount of time it takes to apply for settled status from five years to 10, limiting eligibility for the benefit. Asked whether Sir Keir wants to see the number of foreign nationals claiming benefits while unemployed reduced, his official spokesman said: 'Absolutely, we both want to see the overall numbers of immigration reduced and we've set out plans for that through the Immigration White Paper. 'Within that, we also want to see people making a contribution to the UK, and that's why in the White Paper we set out that we will be doubling the amount of time it takes to apply for settled status. 'That actually means that typically you can only access universal credit after you've lived here currently for five years, and we're doubling that to a starting point of 10 years, so that will obviously reduce those numbers.' The DWP said it had published the breakdown of immigration status 'following a public commitment to investigate and develop breakdowns of the UC caseload by the immigration status of foreign nationals in receipt of UC'. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. People can access UC only if they have an immigration status that provides recourse to public funds. Those with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) cannot claim most benefits, tax credits or housing assistance that are paid by the state. Asylum seekers do not have access to UC as they have NRPF but those granted refugee status deemed to have been forced to flee their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution, war or violence can claim the benefit. While refugees on UC had the lowest rate of employment at 22 per cent, the department said those who have only recently been granted refugee status cannot be in employment at that point as asylum seekers are not permitted to work. Giving evidence to the Work and Pensions Committee this morning, Liz Kendall argued that welfare reforms were in 'the right place' now after she was forced to scrap most of the planned changes in the face of a Labour revolt. Ms Kendall insisted the reforms had not been motivated by the Treasury's desire to cut spending but were driven by a desire to end a situation where people became dependent on benefits rather than working. The Universal Credit Bill cleared the Commons after elements to restrict eligibility to Personal Independence Payment - Pip - were scrapped, with any changes postponed until after a review led by disability minister Sir Stephen Timms. Ms Kendall said: 'I know, always, how anxious people are when they hear about proposed changes in the benefits system. 'I think we've ended up in the right place now and I think we have a really positive story going forward about how we will work with disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts to make sure we get a system that's fit for the future.' She denied the proposals were motivated by the almost 5 billion they were due to save. Ms Kendall said: 'I've never started with pound signs or spreadsheets. I've always started with what I believe can help people with long-term health conditions and disabled people build a better life for themselves and our reforms are based on helping those who can work to do so, instead of writing them off and then denying them any support.' She told MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee her department 'ends up picking up the pieces of the problems that are deep-rooted from many other government areas'. She said: 'Poor health, poor opportunities, low skills, not enough jobs those are the problems we have to tackle together.' Her department was 'at the sharp end of it' and after 'admittedly, a bumpy ride over the welfare legislation' the Government has to 'start shifting resources into the things that really help create better lives for people'. 'We are spending, I believe, too much on the costs of failure and not enough on the better health, better jobs, better skills that we need,' she said. 'That is extremely difficult to shift, because people rely on those benefits, and they've built their lives around them.' But, she added: 'Benefits alone is not the solution to a better life.' An actor who featured in a Batman film alongside Robert Pattinson and Colin Farrell hanged himself when his housemate left him for just 40 minutes to go for a run, an inquest heard. Peaky Blinders stage star Sam Thomas said he had been 'concerned' about his friend Phil Aizlewood in the lead up to his death. Mr Aizlewood had been plagued by financial stress and a relationship break-up in the weeks before he took his own life, the inquest at Inner West London Coroner's Court heard. The 37-year-old shared a flat with Mr Thomas, who had been working around the clock 'desperately trying to hold him together.' Mr Thomas left the flat for less than an hour, when the Italia Conti-trained actor went into the kitchen and ended his life. He returned to a silent flat, and thought Mr Aizlewood had gone out but he couldn't open the kitchen door. After asking a neighbour to help open it, he found Mr Aizlewood hanging and immediately began what assistant coroner Jean Harkin described as 'effective and professional' CPR which restarted his heart twice. Multiple paramedic crews then tried for a further hour, giving Mr Aizlewood 'advanced life support' and IV adrenaline, but after 30 minutes without a heartbeat they had to admit he had died. Phil Aizlewood has been plagued by financial stress and a relationship break-up in the weeks before he took his own life, the inquest at Inner West London Coroner's Court heard A statement from his two half sisters Jane Aizlewood and Kate Staniforth described Mr Aizlewood as 'intelligent, precocious and talented' Mr Aizlewood (pictured with friends) trained at the Italia Conti theatre school before working as a cruise ship and theatre director as well as in the London stage version of Peaky Blinders: The Rise The inquest heard how Mr Aizlewood had suffered a 'very rapid and terrifying' decline in his mental health in the weeks leading up to his death on July 26 last year. A statement from his two half sisters Jane Aizlewood and Kate Staniforth described him as 'intelligent, precocious and talented.' He was born in Taunton, Somerset, and lost his father from early onset Alzheimer's aged 14 and his mother from pancreatic cancer at the age of 26. He trained at the Italia Conti theatre school before working as a cruise ship and theatre director as well as in the London stage version of Peaky Blinders: The Rise. In 2022, he was also in the 550m smash-hit Warner Bros picture The Batman directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz and Colin Farrell, playing the part of Falcone's Bodyguard. But he had been beset by financial stress and the recent break-up of a romantic relationship, the inquest heard. Mr Thomas added: 'I had been concerned about Phil's safety for the last few weeks. 'I'd noticed his mental health was unstable. He would have highs and lows.' Relevant entries from Mr Aizlewood's GP notes were all from July last year, with a diagnosis of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder on July 10. On July 2, he had reported having suicidal thoughts. A day later, he was seen by his local mental health home treatment team, part of South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust and although he was having continuing suicidal ideation, he was deemed to have no actual plan to take his life. GP notes shared with the court showed he had discontinued the SSRI sertraline but had started Citalopram, another anti-depressant, and was also having talking therapy organised by his GP. On the day of his death, friends were so concerned for his welfare that they called an ambulance for him at 11.45am. Relevant entries from Mr Aizlewood's GP notes were all from July last year, with a diagnosis of mixed anxiety and depressive disorder on July 10 The London Ambulance Service (LAS) sent out its Mental Health Joint Response (MHJR) service, which pairs a paramedic with a mental health clinician to provide care for those in crisis. Shortly after that, the local mental health home treatment team arrived and Mr Aizlewood also saw his therapist for 1.5 hours. Mr Aizlewood told LAS mental health nurse Kemi Otun that he had attempted suicide twice before and was experiencing 'ongoing ideation' about killing himself. 'He was subdued and clearly low in mood but he was able to speak to us and was willing to engage with us,' she told the inquest. 'He said he didn't want to go to hospital. He was willing to accept help.' Mr Aizlewood was deemed to have capacity, meaning he could make decisions for himself, but he didn't want to attend A&E or the Lotus Assessment Suite in Tooting, which provides an alternative to A&E for adults who need emergency mental health care. Ms Otun said he was willing to go to the local Crisis House treatment centre for a short stay and if a bed was not available he would go and stay with one of his sisters for the weekend, when his friends would be away. However, Mr Thomas said that after the meeting between the LAS and his home treatment team that day, Mr Aizlewood felt 'completely overwhelmed' and none of his friends felt like there was a clear plan in place. Mr Thomas said: 'I was very much of the opinion that there was no clear plan in place for Phil's care. 'One option was admission into A&E which Phil and the LAS both agreed was probably not suitable. 'The option to stay with his sisters was discussed then there was the option for him to be referred to Crisis House. 'Prior to that we were not aware that that was something that could be offered to Phil. 'There was an air of dejection following that meeting.' Gideon Garbrah, of the Wandsworth home treatment team which treated Mr Aizlewood, told the inquest that he was of the opinion that Mr Aizlewood hadn't wanted to attend any acute mental health facilities. He said he could have been sectioned the following day if he'd still refused, but by then he had died. A contingency plan to stay with one of his sisters and to call 999 if he felt unsafe was given to him verbally, along with his flatmates and the London Ambulance Service that day, he added. Coroner Mrs Harkin said that friends felt they had been left to look after Mr Aizlewood with no clear plan as to his future treatment Dr Hubbeling, consultant psychiatrist for the Wandsworth home treatment team, added that there was a difficulty with patients who had capacity but did not want to leave their homes. She added: 'It's very difficult to predict suicide, it's a rare event. 'It's impossible to use the Mental Health Act on people who have decision-making capacity and deny immediate suicidal plans. 'That is the biggest dilemma we have in the mental health service.' After the mental health services had left that day, Mr Thomas decided to go for a short run at 4.24pm and when he returned at 5.04pm, he discovered Mr Aizlewood hanging. Coroner Mrs Harkin said that friends felt they had been left to look after Mr Aizlewood with no clear plan as to his future treatment. She said: 'Friends were on suicide watch day and night desperately trying to hold him together. 'They feel they were left screaming into a void unheard and that if Phil's suicidal ideation had been taken seriously that Phil would still be alive today.' She said that in future the London Ambulance Service should leave clear written instructions about what a patient's care plan was with them and loved ones, thus avoiding any confusion about what was to happen. She added that she would write to the LAS drawing their attention to the matter. Mr Aizlewood's sister Jane said: 'If anything can come out of this and any practice means things will be improved then obviously it will be a really good thing.' Summing up, Mrs Harkin said: 'On July 26th friends who had been looking after Phil very well and taking on the responsibility of caring for him and trying to prevent him committing suicide, these friends did not fully understand what the plan was. 'Sam felt able to go on a run and it was while he was out on that run that he came back and Phil had sadly hanged himself with a ligature. 'While it's innovative to employ the services of a mental health nurse to send in these situations I feel on the evidence that London Ambulance Service. 'There's a possibility that clarification even in the form of a scribble being left for mental health purposes could be given to family and friends in future.' My Family and Harry Potter star Zoe Wanamaker has been banned from driving after being caught speeding on the M4. The actress, who played Madam Hooch in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was caught doing 46mph in a 40mph zone in Wiltshire. The 77-year-old already has nine points on her licence from previous offences which occurred on the 26 June 2023, 11 December 2023 and 1 July 2024. The three points she received today means she is automatically banned from driving for six months. Coincidentally, Wanamaker was the second Harry Potter star to be banned from driving at the same court today. Emma Watson, who starred as Hermione Granger in the films, appeared in the same court room just moments before. Both stars received a fine of 1,044 payable within 28 days. District Judge Arvind Sharma, passing sentence, said: 'Her licence will be endorsed with three points, a Band A fine, which would have been 1,000, reduced to 660 for her guilty plea at the first opportunity. Zoe Wanamaker, 76, has been banned from driving after being caught speeding on the M4 She appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as Rolanda Hooch Zoe is also famous for starring in British sitcom My Family alongside Robert Lindsay 'She will pay a 264 surcharge and 120 costs, to be paid in full within 28 days. 'The 12 points (means) she is disqualified for six months from now.' Wanamaker, a nine-time Olivier Award nominee, and co-star Watson received the same sentence at High Wycombe Magistrates court today moments apart from each other. Duncan Jones, defending Wanamaker said: 'She is not seeking any special treatment and accepts that she will be disqualified from driving.' She played Quidditch referee Madam Hooch in the first instalment of the Harry Potter movies, in 2021. But Wanamaker did not reprise the role in the rest of the sequels, accusing producers of underpaying their actors. Zoe also featured in Apple TV thriller Criminal Record, ITV's drama The Man Who Fell To Earth and Killing Eve, to name a few. Donning leather head to toe and a head tattoo, Zoe featured in historical drama Britannia as Queen Antedia from 2017 to 2021. More recently, the star played Charlie Hungerford, the mother-in-law of widowed Jim Bergerac in a remake the of crime drama which aired last month. Emma Watson's offence was captured by a speed camera on a restricted road in the city where Watson has been studying for a doctorate at Oxford University. The actress was behind the wheel of a 30,000 Audi S3 at the time of the incident. Emma Watson (pictured in January) was captured by a speed camera on a restricted road in Oxford. The actress was behind the wheel of a 30,000 Audi S3 at the time of the incident In February last year Emma Watson's Audi was impounded by police after a night out in the Rose and Crown pub in Stratford-upon-Avon It is not Watsons first brush with motoring misfortune. In February last year, her Audi was impounded by police after she parked illegally outside the Rose and Crown pub in Stratford-upon-Avon. The car had been left blocking the entrance to a car park, trapping a pizza restaurant managers vehicle inside for over three hours. The manager, who had just finished a 12-hour shift, was eventually forced to call the police after being unable to locate the cars owner. Watson emerged from the pub as the vehicle was being towed, but her appeals were unsuccessful. She was issued a 192 fine. The Home Office has been accused of thwarting attempts to crack down on migrant illegal working by refusing to share the location of asylum hotels with food delivery companies. Deliveroo said it had asked the Home Office for the hotel addresses so it could block its rider accounts being used from those addresses. But civil servants blocked the request citing safety concerns for hotel occupants. It comes after delivery firms, including Deliveroo, were asked to take additional steps to stop illegal working by asylum seekers. Last month it emerged that migrants living in taxpayer-funded asylum hotels including those who arrived by small boat are securing work as fast food delivery riders within hours of entering Britain. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said he had found evidence of asylum seekers breaking rules which bar them from working while their claim is processed by the Home Office. The Tory politician visited an asylum hotel in central London and posted a video showing bicycles fitted with delivery boxes for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats parked outside. Days later, the Home Office said it had called in all three companies for a dressing down and the meeting led to pledges to introduce facial recognition systems on rider apps, such as those used by banks to confirm someones identity. However, Deliveroo was refused access to hotel location data despite assurances it would be treated confidentially, the Times reported. Shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam said: The fact that the Home Office is refusing to help them just shows how topsy-turvy this country's approach to migration has become. Crossing the Channel illegally is a crime. Working here illegally is a crime. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp found fast food delivery bicycles ouitside a central London asylum hotel last month Too many people are brazenly breaking the rules and it's a disgrace that the Home Office is aiding and abetting them. A Home Office spokesman said it was looking at improved information sharing to target illegal working hotspots.. Robert Bates, from the Centre for Migration Control, a think tank that campaigns for lower immigration, said: Not only does the Home Office have no clear plan to tackle illegal working, but it is now actively vetoing technological solutions to this problem. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp posted a video on social media of riders leaving the asylum hotel Delivery companies hold the personal data and addresses of millions of Brits, yet are somehow not trusted by Home Office officials to know the whereabouts of asylum hotels. Fast food rider's bikes were parked outside the undisclosed location last month A Deliveroo spokesman said: Deliveroo has led the sector in introducing security measures to prevent illegal working on our platform. We continue to go further to strengthen our controls, as determined and sophisticated criminals seek new ways to exploit all platforms' systems. The number of small boat arrivals since the start of the year is up 52 per cent on the same period in 2024, latest data shows. The running total for this year is 22,504, compared with 14,759 at the same point last year. Because crossings peak in late summer and early autumn the total for this calendar year appears on course to top the annual record of 45,700, set in 2022. Your browser does not support iframes. The number of small boat migrants to have reached the UK since Labour came to power in July last year now stands at 45,746. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer unveiled a new returns agreement with President Emmanuel Macron last week which will see a small proportion of small boat migrants returned to France. They will be exchanged one for one for migrants with stronger asylum claims. However, the scheme was ridiculed by the Conservatives for being a far weaker deterrent than their Rwanda asylum deal, which Labour scrapped. Labours scheme is also likely to be beset with legal difficulties. Have YOU been affected by the gas cloud? Pungent cheeses are one thing. And we've learned to put up with a whiff of garlic or onions here and there. But now the French have truly outdone themselves on the nose-wrinkling stakes after a cloud of foul-smelling gas wafted over the Channel. The stinky air - dubbed 'Le Pong' - has left exasperated Britons on the south coast retching in disgust. Emergency services in Sussex were swamped with calls from worried locals fearing some sort of environmental disaster. Things were so bad, it even saw the coastguard being scrambled on Tuesday evening. However, besieged residents have been told the stench is not due to some catastrophe - but done to the French. The 'rich and potent' gas cloud, said to smell of sweat and rotten eggs, drifted over from a factory in the northern French city of Rouen. The smell is so bad, locals have reported breathing problems and streaming eyes. It's not the first time the south coast has been plagued by 'Le Pong' - a similar incident happened in 2013, sparking outrage. Your browser does not support iframes. A stinky gas cloud has drifted across the Channel from France and is causing mayhem for locals living in West Sussex (pictured is Bognor Regis' beach, where the stench can be smelt) It's thought the stinky air - dubbed 'Le Pong' - may have come from a factory in Rouen, France As locals demand answers, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service confirmed they believe the smell is coming from the sea. Councillor Paul Wells of Bognor Regis Town Council said: 'Can't seem to get anything out of anybody about what it might be but it seems to be spreading across the south coast. 'It's a very rich, potent gas small. It's making people feel faint. 'Shops have been contacting us looking for advice and the gas board is overloaded with calls. 'There have been reports in Chichester, Bognor and Littlehampton and more from social media. 'People want some answers.' A spokesman for West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service said: 'We have had a number of calls from people along the south coast concerned they can smell gas. 'It is believed that this might be coming from offshore, rather than a local domestic gas leak. 'We would always encourage anyone who thinks they smell gas to contact their utilities provider. 'If you begin to feel unwell, always dial 999 for emergency medical care.' The smell has reportedly reached Littlehampton, Chichester and Worthing (pictured is the River Arun in Littlehampton) Last month, Bognor Regis was crowned the sunniest place in Britain by the Met Office, after receiving more than 1,900 hours of sunshine a year. Its long beach, as well as Butlins resort, are a major draw for the town. However, the stench now blighting the area could prompt tourists to turn their noses up at visiting the seaside resort. Some residents said the whiff smelled of sweat and rotten eggs, while others compared it to stale cabbage, garlic or diesel fumes. A spokesman for gas company SGN, said: 'We've received several calls this afternoon regarding a smell in the air in the Bognor Regis area. 'Our engineers are responding to individual reports, but there's nothing so far to suggest the smell is coming from our network.' The coastguard confirmed it was called at 5.20pm on Tuesday after reports of a 'gas and diesel' smell at Selsey Bill. 'Investigations found no evidence of anything untoward,' a spokesperson said. MailOnline has contacted Lubrizol - which runs the factory in Rouen - to see if there has been another leak at its facility. A Columbia porn actor accused of murdering a couple and dumping their dismembered bodies in suitcases at Clifton Suspension Bridge told a court how he cut the body of one of the victims. Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35, knifed Albert Alfonso, 62, repeatedly during sex after he had allegedly bludgeoned his partner Paul Longworth, 71, with a hammer. He then put the dismembered heads in a chest freezer, Woolwich Crown Court heard. Other parts of their bodies were found in two suitcases on Bristols Clifton Suspension Bridge on July 10, last year. Mosquera had been staying at the couples home on Scotts Road, Shepherds Bush, west London. He had met Mr Alfonso online where the Columbian used the names iamblackmaster and mrd-k20cm, the court heard. He came to the UK to study English and participate in sex acts and he dominated and degraded Mr Alfonso which the older man made films of which he posted online. Mosquera denies murdering retired handyman Mr Longworth, who he claims was killed by Mr Alfonso. Yostin Andres Mosquera (right) knifed Albert Alfonso (middle) during sex after he allegedly bludgeoned his partner Paul Longworth (left) with a hammer Mosquera, pictured, admits killing Mr Alfonso but claims it was manslaughter by reason of loss of control Parts of Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth's bodies were discovered on the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, pictured, on July 10 last year He also denies murdering Mr Alfonso, a swimming instructor, but admits manslaughter. Earlier in his evidence, Mosquera claimed Mr Alfonso cut up Mr Longworths body after killing him. He said he stabbed Mr Alfonso because he was afraid that he would do the same to me that he had done to Paul. Continuing her cross-examination prosecutor Deanna Heer, KC, asked Mosquera why he stabbed Mr Alfonso in the neck. She said: You could have stabbed him in the back. Mosquera replied: I dont know. Ms Heer said: You could have stabbed him in the buttock, couldnt you? Mr Alfonsos back was completely unprotected. Youre an adult, you know that if you stab someone in the neck it is likely to be very dangerous, do you agree? Jurors heard both Mr Longworth, left, and Mr Alfonso, were decapitated and dismembered at the flat they shared in Shepherd's Bush, west London, before their remains were dumped near the bridge in Bristol Mosquera replied: Yes. Ms Heer asked him: And if you keep stabbing someone in the neck you are likely to kill them? Yes, he agreed. The only reason why you would stab someone in the neck in that way is because you wanted to kill them, do you agree?, asked Ms Heer. I dont know, I dont remember anything, said Mosquera. I cant be certain of anything. Mosquera said after seeing Mr Longworths dismembered body, he decided to do the same to Mr Alfonsos corpse. Yes I saw Pauls body and I cut Alberts. I dont know the exact moment but I cut it having seen Pauls body. Ms Heer told Mosquera: You lied to people about what was in the suitcases. You told them the suitcases contained mechanical parts or car parts. And you lied to Mr Cunningham, the cyclist, and the bridge staff. Pictured: Forensics officers at the flat shared by Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth in Sheperd's Bush, west London, on July 13 last year Mosquera replied: Ok. Ms Heer said: Youve lied to the jury, havent you Mr Mosquera, throughout your evidence? No, he replied. Ms Heer said Mosquera had replied no comment when he was interviewed by the police. You made no comment so that you could wait and make up a story later, knowing that you had murdered both Paul Longworth and Albert Alfonso. Mosquera insisted that he had been advised by his lawyer to make no comment. They just told me to reply no comment, he said. The trial continues. Macao's historic center marks 20 years as living world heritage 13:22, July 16, 2025 By Guo Yuqi, Qi Fei ( Xinhua Tourists visit the Ruins of St. Paul's in south China's Macao, July 9, 2025. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka) 2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the Historic Center of Macao being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Macao SAR government's tourism office said that with the summer holiday underway, a variety of events and performances will be held to attract more visitors. MACAO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) on Tuesday began a series of activities to mark the 20th anniversary of the Historic Center of Macao being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Designated on July 15, 2005, at the 29th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Durban, South Africa, the district embodies over four centuries of maritime history and cultural fusion. CHRONICLE OF CULTURAL BLEND From the Guia Fortress to the A-Ma Temple, the Historic Center of Macao spans 22 landmarks and eight plazas -- an enduring tapestry of East-West exchange. The Ruins of St. Paul's vividly represent the heart of the legacy. Erected in the early 1600s, the monument resembles a traditional Chinese "Paifang" while bearing Western motifs. "You can see the blend of East and West," said Ung Vai Meng, guest professor at the Macao University of Science and Technology. "The way grey bricks are embedded in rammed earth walls reflects Chinese craftsmanship merged with European structural ideas," he told Xinhua. The Ruins of St. Paul's was originally part of St. Paul's College, which at that time drew inspiration from European universities and trained scholars to carry the Chinese language and philosophy to Europe, while introducing Western science and culture to China. "It was a two-way bridge of enlightenment," noted Wu Zhiliang, president of the Macao Federation of Cultural Circles. Their influence went beyond theology -- it reached education and cultural identity, he added. A tourist visits the Mandarin's House in south China's Macao, July 13, 2025. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka) Another pillar of the historic center is the former residence of Qing Dynasty reformist Zheng Guanying, known as the Mandarin's House. Nestled in the southwest of the old town, it remains Macao's largest traditional residential compound. "Here, we feel Lingnan culture firsthand," Ung said. "Oyster-shell windows speak to southern Chinese traditions, while Western columns and decorative carvings hint at global influence." Within those walls, Zheng penned Words of Warning in Times of Prosperity, an urgent call for political and economic reform at that time. "He shifted from a traditional gentry to an advocate of modernization at this place," Wu said, noting that "his thinking profoundly influenced a generation." REVITALIZING HISTORIC TREASURE Built in the 1800s and opened to the public in 1958, the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library houses over 20,000 classical volumes. Towering ancient trees and the rockery fountain complement each other, cloaking this historic building in a veil of nature. Tang Mei Lin, chief of the department of public library management, Macao SAR government's cultural affairs bureau (IC), told Xinhua that the library is not only a place for reading and studying, but also a popular spot where many locals come to unwind. "We offer unique activities, such as a one-day librarian experience and hands-on workshops in ancient book restoration," Tang said, noting that it's a great example of successful revitalization. In 2022, the Macao World Heritage Monitoring Center was established, equipping the city with over 170 environmental sensors. "Our teams can conduct real-time checks using mobile apps and analyze data through a centralized platform," said Ho Cheok Fong, an official of the department of cultural heritage under the IC. An aerial drone photo taken on Nov. 1, 2024 shows a view of the A-Ma Temple in south China's Macao. (Xinhua/Cheong Kam Ka) Revitalization has become a hallmark of Macao's heritage approach. Events like the 2025 Macao International Parade in March -- launched from the Ruins of St. Paul's -- transformed the old streets into vibrant stages. With performers from 15 countries and regions joining local troupes, the event animated cultural dialogues. "The parade is more than a spectacle," said Leong Wai Man, head of the IC, adding that "it creates real connections between local, national, and global cultures." "It's nice to see a city keeping its old culture and old buildings alive," Dale Page, a tourist from the United Kingdom, told Xinhua at the Mandarin's House. Another visitor from the Chinese mainland, Xiao Hui, reflected: "This architectural legacy isn't just Macao's treasure but a gift to world heritage." Data showed that as of 11 a.m. on July 8, the number of visitor arrivals in Macao this year has surpassed 20 million -- 26 days earlier than last year. The Macao SAR government's tourism office said that with the summer holiday underway, a variety of events and performances will be held to attract more visitors. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) A fascinating sketchbook from a Tommy in the trenches has been discovered in a storage locker 109 years later. Lieutenant Frederick Holmes was a Chelsea tailor and an accomplished artist before the start of the First World War. He was sent to the Western Front in 1916 - the year of the bloody Battle of the Somme - and fought with the London Regiment. During his time there he produced 45 colour sketches depicting wartime views including life in the trenches and the French countryside. There is a poignant image of a lone soldier sitting at the end of a trench with his bayonet staring into the distance. Another is of a collection of rifle grenades stood upright and primed for action while a third is a harrowing view of a smouldering battlefield. A fascinating sketchbook from a Tommy in the trenches has been discovered in a storage locker 109 years later. Lieutenant Frederick Holmes was a Chelsea tailor and an accomplished artist before the start of the First World War Lieutenant Holmes produced 45 colour sketches after being sent to the Western Front in 1916 Away from the front Lieutenant Holmes also captured views of the French countryside. There is one picture of a church at Auxi-le-Chateau which had so far escaped battle damage and a row of barren trees. On a break from fighting, Lieutenant Holmes brought his sketchbook with him to the idyllic St Cecile beach on the north French coast and did some drawings there. The tranquil setting would have been a stark contrast to the bloodshed he witnessed on the battlegrounds of north west France. The sketchbook was recently unearthed by the vendor who was going through a storage locker in Devon. Its previous provenance is a mystery but the auctioneers hailed it as a 'rare and evocative discovery'. A depiction of what appear to be plumes of smoke on the Western Front A view of a trench. Lieutenant Holmes fought with the London Regiment A collection of rifle grenades stood upright and primed for action On the inside cover Lieutenant Holmes wrote his name, regiment, location and the date There is one picture of a church at Auxi-le-Chateau which had so far escaped battle damage Another view of Auxi-le-Chateau, northern France On a break from fighting, Lieutenant Holmes brought his sketchbook with him to the idyllic St Cecile beach on the north French coast Another view of St Cecile beach, which was visited by Lieutenant Holmes A view of troops moving down what Lieutenant Holmes has described as Arras Road Another view of the beach at St Cecile. It is dated 1916 A shop front in Auxi-Le-Chateau The sketchbook has emerged for sale for 1,200 at Rendells Auctioneers, of Newton Abbot, Devon. Dave Marochan, specialist at Rendells Auctioneers, said: 'The vendor was at a storage locker sale in Devon and spotted the sketchbook which caught her interest. 'We sadly don't know how it ended up there in the first place but it is really is a fabulous thing. 'There are 45, mostly colour, sketches which are of high quality and Lieutenant Holmes clearly had a very good eye. 'We believe that he worked as a tailor in Chelsea which helped him with the lines. 'There are some very evocative sketches of life in the trenches and you almost feel as it you are transported back there. 'To discover something like this is quite rare and I would say it is worthy of a museum.' The sale takes place tomorrow. Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper should be will not be given a whole-life for the 'exceptional' killings of his mother and two siblings after a bid to increase his sentence was dismissed at the Court of Appeal. Nicholas Prosper was jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years after admitting to the brutal killing of his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, along with weapons charges. The violence-obsessed 19-year-old was also plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in Luton, Bedfordshire, purely with the aim of becoming Britain's worst mass killer. Passing sentence in March, High Court judge Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told Luton Crown Court that her duty to the public was met with the 49-year minimum term, rather than using 'the sentence of last resort' and jailing him for the rest of his life. However, the Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as 'unduly lenient', claiming Prosper should have been given a whole-life order, meaning he would die behind bars. Prosper would have become the first person aged between 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life sentence - the maximum punishment that can be dealt out in the UK. Barristers for Prosper, who currently will not be released until at least his late 60s, told judges the sentence 'cannot be said to be unduly lenient'. In a ruling, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Wall, said that Prosper's sentence was 'itself a very severe sentence for a 19-year-old'. Nicholas Prosper, 19, murdered his mother, brother and sister before plotting to target a primary school (he is seen pretending to hold a gun while dressed in the clothes he would go on to kill his family in) Nicholas Prosper murdered Kyle, Juliana and Giselle Prosper (pictured left to right) She said: 'These were undoubtedly offences of the utmost gravity, with multiple features incorporating disturbing, recurrent themes around school shootings 'Had the offender been 21 or over at the time of the offending, a whole-life order would undoubtedly have been made.' She added that the sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, was right to conclude that the 'enhanced exceptionality test' of whether to pass a whole-life term on an 18-to-20-year-old was 'not met on the facts'. 'Parliament chose to set what is already a very high threshold for a whole-life order for an adult, even higher for a young offender,' she said. She concluded: 'Appalling though these crimes were, we are not persuaded that anything less than a whole-life order was unduly lenient.' Prior to the ruling, Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, told the hearing in London: 'What the facts reveal is a case which, on any view, was exceptional, even in the context of a murder.' He continued: 'It was a murder of three people, two of them were children, including the intended rape of the sister. That did not take place, but it had been intended. 'The murders were committed one after the other in their own home, heard by neighbours and each was aware they were being killed by their son or sibling, and one pleaded, that is the brother, for his life.' He added: 'It was meant to achieve national and international notoriety.' In written submissions, he said that a whole-life term would have been 'just punishment'. He said: 'The age of the offender and his guilty pleas, although relevant to the ultimate decision, did not inexorably lead to or mean that this was a case in which a whole-life order was not appropriate.' After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother more than 100 times, Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. The warped teenager had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after hoodwinking him with a forged a gun licence. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders. Your browser does not support iframes. Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said a whole-life term could only be given to someone in that age bracket if a court deemed 'that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high'. She stopped short of imposing a maximum punishment in Prosper's case, as he was prevented from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up. She continued that while he was 'indisputably a very dangerous young man', the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. David Bentley KC, for Prosper, said on Wednesday that it was 'very difficult' to say how a 49-year sentence 'can be said to be unduly lenient'. He said: 'The reality is that with the existing sentence, the earliest date he could actually be considered for parole is in his late 60s, and the dangerousness is covered by the life sentence. 'As the court knows, if he remains considered to be dangerous, he never comes out anyway, so a life sentence is a life sentence, and the minimum term simply provides a time when it can be reviewed.' Prosper (pictured), 19, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court to a minimum term of 49 years He continued: 'We accept that had it been someone aged 21 or over, the whole-life order would have been made. 'However, the judge, we say quite rightly, said this test is so high and there are factors here which allow her to stand back from that.' He also said that Prosper 'voluntarily separated himself' from the weapon after deciding not to carry out the school shooting. Prosper watched proceedings via a video link from HMP Belmarsh, at times with his head in his hands. The Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Wall and Mr Justice Goss could give judgment later on Wednesday. A California couple have been accused of running a suspected baby surrogate-fueled human trafficking ring that involved at least 21 children. Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, were arrested in May for felony child endangerment after cops descended on their $4.1 million home in Arcadia, initially responding to reports of a two-month-old suffering a traumatic head injury. Inside, they found 15 children between the ages of two months and 13. Another six children had also been moved to other homes. Of the 21 total children, 17 were under the age of three. All of the surrogate-born children were taken into the custody of Department of Children and Family Services. Xuan and Zhang were charged child endangerment and neglect related to the infant found with a head injury, and later released. They have not been charged over thei alleged surrogacy scheme. Cops also issued an arrest warrant for their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, alleging that security cameras inside the home revealed Li was 'verbally and physically' abusing the children. Although having dozens of children through surrogates is not illegal, officials said they are investigating the startling find inside the home. Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center of Bioethics and Culture, told ABC7 that while the couple may not have broken the law by having so many surrogate children, the situation 'smells of trafficking.' Guojun Xuan, 65, (pictured) and his partner Silvia Zhang, 38, were arrested for felony child endangerment after cops found they had 21 children from surrogate mothers Zhang (pictured) and Xuan allegedly had 15 children in their home aged between two months and 13-years-old, and six other children had also been moved to other homes Security cameras inside their home (pictured) allegedly showed the couple's nanny was abusing the children, and she is also being sought by cops It is unclear what the couple do for work, with public records showing they are connected to a number of investment firms. Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said that the couple 'took legal guardianship of those kids' after they were born through surrogates, before Li allegedly abused the children as their nanny. 'The discipline, both verbally and physical, was severe to the point where it supported the beliefs that child abuse was occurring inside the home Cieadlo said. The Arcadia police said the FBI has joined its investigation into a suspected mass-surrogacy operation owned and ran by Xuan and Zhang. Kayla Elliot, one of the surrogate mothers hired by the couple, said she believed that they were clients of a surrogate agency. 'It's horrific, it's disturbing, it's damaging emotionally,' she told ABC7. Officials issued an arrest warrant for their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, (pictured), who allegedly abused the children 'verbally and physically' Kayla Elliot, one of the surrogate mothers hired by the couple, said she believed that the couple were clients of a surrogate agency, and told her they only had one other child Elliot said she is now hoping to regain custody of the child she bore for the couple, and described the allegations as 'horrific, disturbing, (and) damaging emotionally' Elliot said the couple told her they only had one other child, and is now hoping to get custody of the child she bore for them. 'These agencies, we're supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency - that was not disclosed at all beforehand,' she added. Fell, who is working with Elliot, said that the surrogacy industry is unregulated, and oftentimes, 'anything goes.' 'And these clinics, these agencies are not regulated by any governing body,' she said. 'That to me smells of trafficking... What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?' A grieving widow is demanding answers after her husbands body was found in a locked toilet cubicle at a councils head office - six days after he went missing. Heartbroken Julie Stephen says shes baffled why nobody had realised her 38-year-old partner Sean was still in the loo cubicle at Edinburgh City Chambers. The 47-year-old had been chatting with her spouse - who complained of feeling unwell - on the phone as he went into the local authoritys Royal Mile buildings on July 1. But she was unable to reach him later on, she reported him missing. However, he wasnt discovered until almost a week later. Speaking on a TikTok LIVE Mrs Stephen said: Theres CCTV footage of him on the phone to me walking up the Royal Mile and into the council building. He was healthy but said he was feeling dizzy and sick. He said he was going to get a taxi. I came off the phone when he was going to do the toilet. That was the last time I spoke to him. It baffles me. Heartbroken Julie Stephen (pictured left) says she's 'baffled' why nobody had realised her 38-year-old husband Sean Stephen (pictured right) was still in the loo cubicle at Edinburgh City Chambers The 47-year-old had been chatting with Sean (pictured), who complained of feeling unwell, on the phone as he went into the local authoritys Royal Mile buildings on July 1. But she was unable to reach him later on, she reported him missing. However, he wasnt discovered in the toilets at at Edinburgh City Chambers until almost a week later There are security guards, cleaners and someone who sits at reception. The CID are still digging. Could he have been saved? These are questions which will be in my head for rest of my life. Ms Stephen posted a picture of him online with the caption, Shame on Edinburgh district council. The couple had been married since 2019 and she said she knew something was wrong when Sean wasnt answering his phone, prompting her to call 999 that evening. She added: I spoke to police on the phone but the first response I got was hes 38 years old. He couldnt be a missing person (yet) because of his age. We spent a week looking for him and put flyers in shops. We went searching everywhere. We were two minutes away from him, we didnt expect him to be in a locked building. The couple had been married since 2019 and she said she knew something was wrong when Sean wasnt answering his phone, prompting her to call 999 that evening When they found him, his body was so decomposed. I couldnt even see his body. I had to give his toothbrush for DNA. This could happen to anybody. Its horrible, its torture. A GoFundMe page has been set up by friends to help raise funds to cover the funeral costs for the loving gentle giant. Ms Stephen said: Im emotionally drained. Im just asking for help. I just want to bring his body home and lay him to rest. I will get the answers but right now I just need to lay him to rest. A spokesman for the city council said: Were continuing to assist Police Scotland with their inquiries and cant comment any further at this stage. A police spokesman said: At 9.20pm on Tuesday, 1 July, 2025 we received a report of concern for a 38-year-old man in the Edinburgh area who failed to make an pre-arranged appointment. Enquiries were carried out to trace him and he was traced deceased on Monday, 7 July in the High Street area of Edinburgh. A fingerprint led police to a man who allegedly murdered an American Idol executive and her musician husband in their Los Angeles mansion. Raymond Boodarian, 22, was arrested Monday for the murders of Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas DeLuca, both 70, at their stunning Encino home. Boodarian allegedly shot the couple dead during a burglary gone wrong last Thursday, with investigators now keen to see if he'd been alerted to the couple's wealth during a previous trip to the property. The suspect was identified thanks to a fingerprint left at the scene as well as surveillance footage, TMZ reported. Boodarian's fingerprints were in the LAPD's database thanks to his previous encounters with the law. Meanwhile, a shocking police blunder also emerged in the wake of the shocking killings. Police had received a radio call Thursday reporting a person jumping a fence onto the property, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. However, officers left the 'highly fortified' home after they were unable to enter and found no signs of forced entry. Boodarian entered the home through an unlocked door after scaling a fence, according to surveillance footage cited by police. That means the couples bodies may have lain inside the home for hours after investigators failed to access the property. Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca, both 70, were brutally shot to death inside their home on Monday On Monday night, a suspect was spotted hopping a fence to enter the home (pictured) of an American Idol music executive and her husband in the ritzy California neighborhood of Encino Authorities witnessed blood at the front entrance of the couple's home before breaking through a window to enter the property (pictured) When the couple returned home and encountered him, 'a confrontation ensued, which resulted in the suspect taking their lives,' police said. Boodarian then fled the area on foot. 'My renter saw someone hopping the fence back on Thursday and she called 911,' a homeowner in the LA neighborhood told KTLA. 'But we [havent] heard anything since then, so we have no idea if its even related or not.' Officers were called to the six-bedroom home for a welfare check after relatives said they had not heard from the couple for days. When they entered the home, they discovered Kaye and Deluca both shot in the head in different rooms. The killings appear to be random, but police are looking into any past interactions between the suspect and the couple, including any possible service calls to the home. He has a criminal history that includes charges of battery, exhibiting a deadly weapon and threatening to commit a crime with the intent to terrorize American Idol released a statement following news of Kaye's death this week. 'Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her, an American Idol spokesperson said in a statement. Over the years, Kaye won several Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for her work on American Idol Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022 'Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.' Kaye worked as the music supervisor for singing competition American Idol for the last 15 seasons, or nearly 300 episodes, per her IMDB page. Robin Kaye (left) often rubbed shoulders with celebrities. She and her husband (right) are seen with Dolly Parton (second from left) in 2009 The music supervisor also worked in the music departments of several other productions such as The Singing Bee, Hollywood Game Night, Lip Sync Battle, and several Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022. Deluca penned songs for popular hit makers, including Kid Rock, the band Molly Hatchet and Meredith Brooks. After Boodarian's arrest, his horrified neighbors told of his strange behavior. One neighbor, who did not want to be named, would occasionally see Boodarian roaming the complex 'looking really, really disturbed.' The neighbor said she could often see when Boodarian's lights were on in his bedroom because of a shared wall. She eerily described how he would sometimes have an 'episode' and appear 'ready to break the walls.' 'It feels like he's gonna break right through the wall and is coming into my place,' she revealed. 'The cops have been here in the past,' the neighbor added. 'The mother's called and said "I can't control him."' The neighbor claimed that on at least one occasion, he had to be strapped to a stretcher and removed from the property. A top National Crime Agency detective who stole bitcoin digital currency while investigating a major drug dealer on the dark web was today jailed for five and a half years. Paul Chowles, 42, secretly took the cryptocurrency from the operator of the underground Internet marketplace following his arrest, in May 2017. Using 'sophisticated' techniques he learned on the job, the 'extremely calculating' officer managed to launder and hide the 50 bitcoin, then worth around 60,000, in online accounts for almost five years. Liverpool Crown Court heard that, over that time the value of the bitcoin increased enormously to 4.3million. But Chowles was relatively frugal with his spending - using the cash to make routine, day-to-day purchases at supermarkets and shops, such as Screw Fix and Asda, paying for meals out in restaurants and pubs or for his children's nursery fees - so as not to arouse suspicion. Overall, he spent around 20 bitcoin, the equivalent of around 110,000, via hundreds of debit card payments and transactions. However, prosecutors believe he benefited financially to the value of more than 600,000 from his criminality and was saving millions as a 'nest egg' for his retirement. Chowles was eventually caught when the drug dealer was released from prison and complained to police that his valuable bitcoin was missing. Paul Chowles, 42, has been dismissed from his job at the National Crime Agency - Britain's FBI Chowles stole 50 Bitcoin in May 2017 when it was valued at nearly 60,000 - it would be worth over 4.3m today The National Crime Agency detective was jailed at Liverpool Crown Court (pictured) Officers followed the complicated digital money trail and eventually discovered the highly skilled officer was responsible. Jailing Chowles, who pleaded guilty to theft and transferring and concealing criminal property, Judge David Aubrey KC told him he had abused his 'privileged' position at the NCA, which demanded 'utter trust, integrity and honesty.' 'You had knowledge of cryptocurrency, which was a great asset to your agency, provided you used it in the pursuit of justice,' the judge said. 'Alas you did not. 'Instead you weaved a sophisticated, intricate and dishonest web, a web of deceit and guile. 'The public expects people like you, in the position you were in, to act with integrity and honesty and in accordance with the law. 'You were in a position of power and you abused that privilege. You were there to serve the public but you did not. You were serving yourself for your own ends.' The prison sentence marks a dramatic fall from grace for Chowles, a divorced father-of-three young children, with no previous convictions, who has now lost his 33,000-a-year job and his liberty. He was formally dismissed from the NCA earlier this month. Craig Hassall KC, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court that, in 2017, Chowles was a senior officer with the NCA Britain's equivalent of the FBI - in charge of investigating Thomas White, a university dropout described as the 'guiding mind' behind a clandestine website known as Silk Road 2.0. The marketplaces allowed users to buy and sell drugs and other illegal items on the dark web, using bitcoin for their transactions. After White, who was jailed for five years and four months in April 2019, was arrested Chowles led the analysis and extraction of relevant data and cryptocurrency from his computers and other electronic devices. Over two days, in May 2017, he stole and moved 50 bitcoin from one of White's online wallets. He was then able to use his expertise to break it down into smaller amounts and move it through a system on the dark web, known as the bitcoin 'fog,' which effectively 'washed' or laundered the dirty cash. He then transferred it into different legitimate private accounts, in an attempt to hide the money trail. The bitcoin fog was eventually shut down by the FBI but this is believed to be the first prosecution linked to it in the UK. Although financial investigators at the NCA looked into White's claims that the money had disappeared at the time, the NCA team - which included Chowles - concluded that White must have found a way to move it himself before he was jailed. It was only when Merseyside police became involved, after White was released, and attempts launched to recover his assets, via proceeds of crime investigations, that he continued to insist the money was still missing, and officers began to suspect foul play. White insisted someone from within the NCA had to have stolen the bitcoin because they were the only ones with the private keys to his cryptocurrency wallet. Chowles, of Bristol, was arrested in May 2022 and his devices seized. Police recovered an iPhone, which linked to an account he had used to transfer the bitcoin. It also revealed he had searched online for a cryptocurrency exchange service. Several notebooks were also discovered in his office which contained usernames, passwords, and statements relating to White's cryptocurrency accounts. Will Parkhill, defending Chowles, said: 'He did not do the right thing. It was dishonest and dishonest not once, but on a number of occasions. 'It seems at the time he was suffering from anxiety and depression. It seems at the time he was dealing with undiagnosed autism. 'He feels shame and remorse. Mr Chowles destroyed his life and it had serious impact on other people.' Following the hearing, Alex Johnson, specialist prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, said: 'Within the NCA, Paul Chowles was regarded as someone who was competent, technically minded and very aware of the dark web and cryptocurrencies. 'He took advantage of his position working on this investigation by lining his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would ensure that suspicion would never fall upon him. 'Once he had stolen the cryptocurrency, Paul Chowles sought to muddy the waters and cover his tracks by transferring the Bitcoin into mixing services to help hide the trail of money. 'He made a large amount of money through his criminality, and it is only right that he is punished for his corrupt actions. 'The CPS will not hesitate to bring charges against those who abuse their position in power for financial gain.' Ross William Ulbricht, founder of the original Silk Road site. He was known a 'Dread Pirate Roberts' after identities adopted by several fearsome characters in the novel and film, The Princess Bride. The bitcoin was allegedly taken during an investigation into Thomas White (pictured) a university dropout described as the 'guiding mind' behind Silk Road 2.0 Chowles' offending began during his investigation into White, a self-taught computer expert, who first began using the original Silk Road marketplace in 2013 to buy a prescription drugs for a sleeping disorder. He then started selling items, including drug-testing kits and the illegal party drug MDMA, before later progressing to offering security advice and creating backups of vendor pages and forums in case the site was taken down. When, in October 2013, the FBI had shut down the Silk Road and arrested it's founder Ross Ulbricht, White collaborated with another American to set up a new version of the marketplace, Silk Road 2.0. He took on Ulbricht's moniker of Dread Pirate Roberts, taken from the identities of multiple fearsome pirate characters in the novel and film The Princess Bride, and began running the site from his student accommodation, in Liverpool. After White was jailed for running the site, in April 2019, Chowles with fellow NCA detective colleague Garry Tancock gave a statement as lead officers in the investigation. But by then, and unbeknown to his NCA colleagues, Chowles had already helped himself to White's online bitcoin stash. Among the cryptocurrency he stole was bitcoin taken from a wallet White had named the 'Dread Pirate Roberts Retirement Fund.' Mr Johnson added: 'Of the 50 Bitcoin stolen Paul Chowles spent approximately 20 of them and still had hold of 30 which he might well have gone on to spend had he not been apprehended. 'He stole it from a Bitcoin wallet called the Dread Pirate Roberts Retirement Fund. Perhaps he considered this to be the Paul Chowles retirement fund.' He added: 'One of the curious aspects of this case is that Chowles was able to go on and spend more money than he stole in the first instance because of the explosion in the value of the bitcoin during the time that it was in his possession.' Detective Chief Inspector John Black, from Merseyside Police's Force Intelligence Bureau, said: 'It will be extremely disappointing to everyone that someone involved in law enforcement could involve themselves in the very criminality they are tasked with investigating and preventing. 'This case should illustrate in the starkest terms that nobody is above the law. When it became clear that one of the NCA's own officers had stolen Bitcoin, our officers conducted extensive enquiries to unearth a trail of evidence that Chowles had attempted to hide. This was supported fully by the NCA. 'He took advantage of his position on this investigation to line his own pockets while devising a plan that he believed would cover his tracks. He was wrong.' A student has been killed near their school after being struck by a car. Emergency services were called to Tingal Road and Berrima Street in Wynnum, east of Brisbane, about 8.20am on Wednesday. A Mitsubishi Pajero being driven by a 17-year-old struck the 14-year-old one kilometre away from Wynnum State High School. The 4WD, with L-Plates visible in the window, was recovered from underneath the Wynnum Rail Bridge on Berrima Street. Neither the driver nor his two passengers, a 41-year-old female and a 16-year-old male, were injured. Queensland Police are now investigating the crash. Wynnum State High School sent a letter out to parents of children at the school informing them of what had happened. The school has offered support and guidance counselling for students and staff to ensure 'everybody is cared for in the wake of this tragic event'. A 14-year-old has died after being hit by a Mitsubishi Pajero being driven by a 17-year-old near his school in east Brisbane Emergency services were called to the scene about 8.20am on Wednesday Principal Sandra Quinn said the Year 9 student was 'much-loved' and a valued member of the community. 'I know that you will join me in offering our deepest condolences to his family, friends and loved ones during this difficult time,' she wrote, reports the Courier Mail. 'As a tight-knit school community, we share our shock and sadness at the enormity of this situation.' Earlier Tingal Road was closed to traffic with drivers being diverted via either Bride or Burke streets. The Wynnum Rail Bridge, also known as Duck Bridge, is infamous for its 1.9m clearance which is too low for most emergency vehicles to fit under. It is unknown if the bridge impeded emergency efforts. A man accused of trying to spy for Russia 'would dream about being like James Bond' and once wrote to Arsenal saying he wanted to be the football club's manager despite having 'no qualifications', his ex-wife has told a court. Howard Phillips, 65, from Harlow in Essex, is on trial at Winchester Crown Court charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. It is alleged Phillips intended to assist people he believed to be Russian agents called 'Sasha' and 'Dima' - offering to pass on personal information about former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps, help with travel logistics and booking hotels. Giving evidence on Wednesday, Phillips' former wife Amanda Phillips told the court her ex-husband was a 'kind, caring man, a good friend, a good dad'. 'Not a great husband,' she told jurors. 'But he has got a good soul. He is also a daydreamer, big time, pipe dreams, big time.' Mrs Phillips, who has three children with Phillips, said: 'For example, he wrote to Arsenal and England football clubs saying that he wanted to be their manager. 'He has no qualifications, no experience, it was like off the wall.' Body worn footage shows Howard Phillips, 65, in handcuffs as he is walked towards the entrance of a coffee shop in London Just moments before, he met an undercover British officer - who he believed was a Russian agent - and allegedly handed over a USB stick containing the personal details of Grant Shapps She said she had seen a response letter from Arsenal saying they did not require Phillips' services. Asked by Jeremy Dein KC, defending, how she reacted, she said: 'I just laughed. I thought, I just can't take this seriously.' Mrs Phillips told jurors her ex-husband also wanted to be an actor but had 'no qualifications, no experience'. 'He read a lot about James Bond, watched films to do with MI5, MI6, and he was infatuated with it,' Mrs Phillips said. 'I think he would dream about serving this country in some way and being like James Bond, you know that was quite normal... he had unrealistic behaviour traits, you know they were not real to me, they were OTT. Over the top dreams, thoughts.' She claimed Phillips was 'totally rejected' by his father, who was Phillips' sole caregiver after his mother died when he was around 14. Mrs Phillips told jurors the defendant 'loved James Bond, he loved the image, you know, the suit, the nice car'. 'James Bond was someone you could respect, you know, that people liked, someone special,' she told the court. Phillips had previously boasted he could get government clearance due to his new job at Border Force The couple met in Golders Green, north London, and were married for more than 18 years, the court heard, from around 1997. She said that after they split she saw Phillips less but he still came to her house around once a week to see their children. Mrs Phillips told the court she was aware her ex-husband had applied for a job at the UK Border Force in October 2023, which prosecutors allege was part of his bid to assist Russia's intelligence service. Phillips, who is of Jewish faith, previously claimed he had contacted the Russian embassy in early 2024 in a bid to track and expose Russian agents to assist Israel. His ex-wife told jurors she had been to Israel with Phillips, and said: 'He loves Israel, loves the land, you know its the Jewish homeland, he felt very comfortable there, just as I do.' Asked what Phillips' attitude is to the UK, his ex-wife said 'he loves this country, really does, always has done', adding that he loves pubs, pints and fish and chips. 'He loves this country, he loves the culture, loves the people,' she said. 'He would defend this country in any way.' Phillips claimed to have been to Former defence secretary Grant Shapps' home and had met up with him several times She added that he would 'never, ever betray this country'. Body-worn footage shows Phillips, 65, in handcuffs as he is walked towards the entrance of a coffee shop in London by plain-clothed officers and told of his arrest. Just moments before, he met an undercover British officer - who he believed was a Russian agent - and allegedly handed over a USB stick containing the personal details of Tory politician Shapps. This included his home address, telephone number, and the location of his private plane, jurors have been told. The Briton, from Harlow, Essex, is on trial, accused of trying to spy for the Kremlin. Prosecutors said Phillips wanted to 'offer services' to Russian intelligence but the two handlers he corresponded with were British undercover security services agents. Released by the Met Police, the new video shows the moment he was arrested at a Black Sheep Coffee shop in London. In the clip, he spoke only to confirm that he understood why he was being arrested. CCTV images show Howard Phillips sending a secretive message to his 'Russian' handlers At Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire , Phillips denies engaging in conduct to assist a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors say Phillips had previously boasted he could get government clearance due to his new job at Border Force. He said he wanted the 'agents' and him to be a 'family' - and said they could all 'help each other' and 'look after each other'. He claimed to have been to Shapps' home and had met up with him several times. One of the intelligence officers, who is employed by the security service, gave evidence from behind a curtain at Winchester Crown Court on Thursday. The British officer was known to Phillips as 'Dima' and spoke to him in recordings with a fake Russian accent. On May 9, Phillips met with 'Dima' at a Costa Coffee in a retail park in West Thurrock, Essex. It was here that he revealed the 'useful' information he had been holding related to Shapps. Phillips told the officer: 'So I know his home address, I know his home telephone number and I know where he has his private plane. Maybe it's of interest, maybe not.' On May 16, he checked into a Hilton Hotel in London at the request of the fake agents, who told him it was for a senior officer of their 'organisation', the Russian Intelligence Service. He met with Dima just after 3pm and handed over a bag containing the card, a mobile phone, and the USB stick. Phillips was told to go to Black Sheep Coffee on King's Cross Square, London, to meet the senior RIS officer. Upon arriving at around 3:45pm, he was arrested by plain clothed officers. Shapps served as Secretary of State for Defence during the Ukraine and Russia war, and would have held negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky. He was defeated in last year's general election and lost his seat. The trial continues. President Donald Trump's Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has continued deportations of illegal immigrants to third-party countries. Five migrants with criminal records were flown to Eswatini this week even though none of them originated from the small country in southern Africa, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin announced. The Supreme Court last month ruled that the Trump administration could continue its deportation of migrants to nations that were not their countries of origin. Following that ruling, the eight men from Asia and Latin America at the center of the case were deported earlier this month to South Sudan. Migrants who landed in Eswatini on Tuesday are originally from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen. It's not clear when the administration struck a deal with the African country to accept migrants. '[A] safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,' McLaughlin wrote on X on Tuesday night. 'These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to Trump and Noem they are off of American soil.' DHS announced a deportation flight of five migrants landed in the small southern African country of Eswatini this week after a Supreme Court ruling allowed the administration restart this month its deportation flights to third countries DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin listed on X the five criminal migrants who were on the flight, including a Vietnamese national (pictured) convicted or child rape and sentenced to 20 years She listed the migrants' crimes, which included child rape, murder, robbery, assault, aggravated battery of a police officer and grand theft auto. A July 9 memo on the operations claims that third country deportation flights could take place within six hours of migrants being notified. Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Rodd Lyons said in that memo that there would typically be a 24-hour period between when migrants are informed and when they are deported. Asked if the men who were given prison sentences for their crimes remain in the custody of law enforcement in Africa, McLaughlin told NBC News: 'That's up to Eswatini.' The country of Eswatini is landlocked between South Africa and Mozambique. Its land area is smaller than the state of New Jersey and has a population of 1.2 million, according to a 2023 estimate. Eswatini is Africa's last remaining absolute monarchy. Jamaican citizen (left) convicted of murder and robbery was among those deported on Tuesday's flight, along with Laos citizen (right) convicted of second-degree murder and burglary A Cuban citizen (left) convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated battery and a Yemen citizen (right) convicted of second-degree homicide and assault were also on the flight to Eswatini It's not immediately clear whether more migrants will be departed to Eswatini and what terms the U.S. reached in its agreement to send convicted criminals and illegal immigrants there. The administration has a goal of deporting 1 million immigrants every year. By June more than 100,000 illegal immigrants were sent out of the country. Off track of Trump reaching the goal by the end of the first year of his second term, deportation flights have been increasing in recent months after setbacks earlier in the administration. ICE conducted 190 deportation flights in May alone. A woman has died after a freight train collided with a family car, leaving three children and a man injured. The collision occurred about 2pm on Wednesday at a level crossing on Redmond-Hay River Road, in the Albany suburb of Redmond in Western Australia's south. Emergency services rushed to the scene where a woman aged in her thirties remained trapped in the vehicle with critical injuries. The other passengers - a man in his thirties and three children aged under 10 years - were all taken to Albany Health Campus with non-life threatening injuries. Two men aboard the freight train were also treated for shock. Witnesses said the train sounded its horn before colliding with the car, which it pushed for about 30 to 40 metres before both came to a stop, the ABC reported. Officers reportedly told witnesses both the road and train lines would remain closed to traffic until major crash detectives conducted their assessments. A number of Albany Fire and Rescue vehicles and St John Ambulance crews attended the scene along with local police. Police are pictured at the scene of the crash in Albany, WA on Wednesday afternoon Emergency services were called to the scene just before 2pm (stock) A rescue helicopter was dispatched to the scene but was called back shortly after. Emergency crews remained at the site late into the afternoon with officers from the Major Crash Squad due to travel to Albany from Perth to investigate. Police asked the public to avoid the scene as investigations continued. Great Southern Police Acting Superintended Rhonda Alexander urged anyone with information or footage of the incident to contact police. A schoolboy who hurled a 15 kilogram seat off the top floor at Westfield Stratford shopping centre for a prank told police: 'It's not that deep.' The 15-year-old boy admitted launching the blue chair some 50ft downwards towards shoppers at the busy mall in east London. He admitted criminal damage of the 500 chair and recklessly causing a public nuisance while a second 15-year-old boy, who filmed the incident, denied the charges at Stratford Youth Court. The court heard that the teen was 'apologetic' and said himself and the co-defendant 'regularly indulge in pranks including throwing objects off bridges at trains.' He will return for sentencing on August 13 after reports are prepared. Elizabeth Ajayi, prosecuting, said: 'From the footage that has been recovered both from CCTV and a broadcast circulating on social media, on the 1 March 2025 at about 10.30pm the two defendants were seen at Westfield Shopping Centre. 'They were located at the top floor of the shopping centre - both of them were seen to have approached a sitting area. 'There was what appeared to be a brief conversation between them both.' Ms Ajayi referred to the boy 'lifting a blue sofa which is one of those that are put there for shoppers, and throwing it over the glass balustrade all the way down to the lower floor'. She said the second boy 'is seen to have positioned himself in a way where he was able to record what was happening his phone.' In footage posted on social media, a boy, wearing a grey hoodie, can be seen hurling a blue seat from the top floor down to the bottom After the chair was thrown, it could be seen falling from the top to the bottom floor of Westfield She told how a worker at the shopping centre estimated the weight of the seat to be 'approximately 15kg'. 'From the point of being thrown to the floor the distance would be about 50 foot - the damage caused is approximately 500. '(The footage) shows how close the sofa was to people were walking in the shopping centre, it is just simply fortunate that no-one was injured.' The teenager who recorded the video was then identified by police before they were both arrested, the prosecutor said. In an interview the 15-year-old who threw the sofa told police: 'It's not that deep, I did not hit no-one', Ms Ajayi said. She referred to a security worker at Westfield who wrote in his victim impact statement that there has been 'unease from customers' since the incident. Turning to the teenager who admitted both offences, Ms Ajayi told the court: 'A concern is what was indicated during the interview. 'He was apologetic and he stated that himself and (the co-defendant) regularly indulge in pranks including throwing objects off bridges at trains.' It landed with a loud thud and just narrowly missed shoppers who walking on the ground floor The boy was released on bail subject to a curfew and conditions to live and sleep at his address, not contact his co-defendant and not to enter the E20 postcode area. The second youth who denied both offences will appear at the same court again on September 24 for a case management hearing ahead of his trial on October 2 in front of a district judge. Both teenagers, who cannot be named, were accompanied in court by their parents. A six-year-old boy allegedly killed a newborn baby after being left to roam around a hospital's maternity unit, despite complaints from parents. Police have launched a criminal inquiry after the horror unfolded at the Jeanne-de-Flandre Children's Hospital in the northern city of Lille, France. It was there that a baby identified as Zayneb-Cassandra who was born premature, at 7 months, to a 23-year-old woman, earlier this month was declared dead on Tuesday. She suffered a traumatic brain injury last Friday after allegedly being dropped on the floor by the boy 'who treated her like a doll,' said an investigating source. Despite being reported as a 'disruptive presence' in the hospital, the boy was found alone with the unconscious baby in a neonatal unit. The baby was her mother's first child, and she was delivered by cesarean section, said the investigating source. 'The delivery went very well, but the little girl was premature, so she was taken to a neonatal unit, while her mother remained in a maternity ward.' The 'disruptive six-year-old' the son of another mother who was in a maternity ward was meanwhile spotted wandering around the hospital unattended. The horror unfolded at the Jeanne-de-Flandre Children's Hospital in the northern city of Lille Zayneb-Cassandra's grandmother told the Voix du Nord newspaper: 'The boy would arrive at 7am and spend all day running up and down the hallways. 'All the mothers were complaining, and a nurse even warned the child's mother that there was a problem. He was entering the other rooms. 'He also entered Zayneb's room for the first time. He said she looked like a doll, and my husband, who was there, took him out.' Last Friday, Zayneb's mother was signing discharge papers, when 'all of a sudden, the family received a call from a ward manager, saying they needed to come right away a little boy had been playing with the baby, who had fallen.' According to the family, who cite another mother in a neighbouring room, 'a loud bang' was heard when the baby's head connected with the ground. Zayneb was found unresponsive on the floor, next to the six-year-old, who was on a chair. 'It seems he tried to grab her by her nappy, and she fell on her head,' said Zayneb's grandmother. The baby was rushed to intensive care, but she was declared dead on Tuesday, after suffering 'a serious a brain injury.' An investigation has been opened by the juvenile unit of the Lille Judicial Police Service, in conjunction with local prosecutors. 'Investigations are currently underway in this case,' said a spokesman for Lille prosecutors. The hospital also announced the opening of 'an internal administrative investigation'. A spokesman said: 'This human tragedy has deeply affected the staff and teams of Lille University Children's Hospital, as well as the other families present.' A newborn girl who survived after her mother was tragically shot to death by her boyfriend in Pennsylvania is suffering from devastating injuries that may leave her unable to ever walk. Tanyiah Bell, 19, of Lansdowne, was eight months pregnant when she was fatally shot by her 19-year-old live-in boyfriend, Kaiheem Jerelle Williams, on November 14, 2024, according to the Lansdowne Police Department. Declared dead at the scene, Tanyiah was rushed to the hospital, where her 4-pound baby was delivered alive. Now, eight months later, 19-pound Tanyiah Miracle Bell is defying the odds, despite suffering a severe brain injury. 'She may never be able to walk. She can't blink. She can't smile,' Tylicia Bell, Tanyiah's mother, tearfully told 6abc. 'She can't react to us, but the doctors did say she has perfect eyes and perfect ears, so I know she sees the love, hears the love.' When officers responded to reports of a gunshot victim at Tanyiah's apartment on the 200 block of North Wycombe Avenue that fateful November night, they rushed her to the hospital in a desperate attempt to save her unborn child. Miracle was delivered just five minutes after arrival, and doctors were able to save her. Tanyiah Miracle Bell, who survived after her mother was tragically shot to death by her boyfriend in Pennsylvania, is suffering from devastating injuries that may leave her unable to ever walk Tanyiah Bell, 19, was eight months pregnant when she was fatally shot by her 19-year-old live-in boyfriend, Kaiheem Jerelle Williams, on November 14, 2024 'When they pulled her out, she was gray,' Tylicia told 6abc. 'They did CPR on her for 25 minutes and they were able to get a heartbeat.' Miracle was born with a severe brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation. She also has cerebral palsy, suffers frequent seizures and needed a tracheostomy tube to assist with her breathing, according to the outlet. 'She's a true fighter,' Tylicia told 6abc. 'Everything she's been through, we've gotten through. 'She's been fighting through it, and we've been right by her side every step of her way.' Miracle has been receiving care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is currently battling an infection - the latest obstacle in a long fight for survival. Still, her loving grandmother holds on to hope that in two months, she'll finally be able bring her daughter's baby girl home - and fulfill the dreams Tanyiah had for her. 'I wish my daughter was here to see this, but I know she's watching over us and is like, "Mom, you got this,"' Tylicia told 6abc. Tylicia Bell, Tanyiah's mother and now Miracle's full-time caregiver, said that the baby girl suffered a severe brain injury caused by oxygen deprivation Miracle (pictured with Tylicia) also has cerebral palsy, suffers frequent seizures and needed a tracheostomy tube to assist with her breathing, according to the outlet Miracle has been receiving care at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and is currently battling an infection - the latest obstacle in a long fight for survival 'She looks just like her,' the grandmother added. 'I feel like I'm raising my daughter all over again.' Once home, Miracle will require around-the-clock care, including specialized equipment, a larger vehicle and modifications to the home - most of which is not covered by insurance, according to Tylicia Facing mounting medical expenses, Miracles grandmother launched a GoFundMe campaign to help support the cost of her new life as a full-time caregiver. 'As her grandmother and now full-time caregiver, I've had to step into a role I never imagined - becoming her nurse, advocate, and voice,' Tylicia wrote in the description. 'I havent been able to return to work since the tragedy, and I am doing everything I can as the only surviving grandparent. But I cannot do this alone.' Funds are being raised to cover the cost of a larger vehicle to safely transport Miracle and her medical equipment, adaptive gear like high chairs and positioning tools, home renovations for safety and comfort, and daily essentials and therapy. 'Thank you for helping us honor Tanyiahs memory by fighting for her daughters life,' she wrote. 'May her mommy continue to rest in peace, and may Miracle continue to shine as the blessing she truly is.' 'She is truly a blessing, a fighter, and a living testimony.' Once home, Miracle will require around-the-clock care, including specialized equipment, a larger vehicle and modifications to the home - most of which is not covered by insurance, according to her grandmother Williams - who was identified as the 911 caller after fatally gunning down Tanyiah (pictured) - was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder and is due back in court on July 22 As of Wednesday morning, the campaign had raised $3,165 toward Tylicias $5,500 goal. Williams - who was identified as the 911 caller after fatally gunning down Tanyiah, according to police - was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder, 6abc reported. He is due back in court on July 22. Police bodycam footage of a female Minnesota senator allegedly burglarizing her stepmother's home was played in court this week. The video taken the night of the incident on April 22, 2024 captures the dramatic moment police officers discovered Senator Nicole Mitchell in the basement of her stepmother's Detroit Lakes home. Mitchell was found in an allblack outfit, carrying a flashlight. Her black garb and matching black hat has comically been compared to that of a cat burglar on social media. 'Apparently, Senator @NicoleMitchell watched a cartoon as to how to dress up as a cat burglar,' someone on X wrote. Mitchell's felony burglary trial kicked off on July 15 and, during jury selection, Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald called into question the state senator's cartoonlike outfit, asking the 23 potential jurors, 'Would you agree that how the person was dressed is relevant to their intentions?' Many of the potential jurors nodded. The bodycam footage revealed in court on Tuesday shows the moments leading up to officers' discovery of Mitchell in the basement. Police entered the home of the stepmother Carol Mitchell after she made a 911 call reporting, 'Somebody's broken into my house.' Upon arrival at the house, a seemingly terrified Carol directed them to the location of the intruder in the basement where her stepdaughter was then discovered and handcuffed. Following Mitchell's arrest upon discovery, the senator called out to her stepmom, 'It's Nicole. I was just trying to get some of my dad's things because you wouldn't talk to me anymore.' Police bodycam footage of a Minnesota senator Nicole Mitchell (pictured) allegedly burglarizing her stepmother's home was played in court this week Mitchell (pictured in the bodycam footage) was found in an allblack outfit, carrying a flashlight. Her black garb and matching black hat has comically been compared to that of a cat burglar on social media Nicole Mitchell's felony burglary trial kicked off on July 15 (she is pictured here in her mugshot following arrest) When the police officer asked Carol how she knew the intruder, she replied, 'She's my stepdaughter. She's also a Minnesota senator.' Mitchell's father Roderick died without a will in 2023, and a probate court awarded Carol Mitchell 100 percent of Roderick Mitchells estate. This decision led to a familial dispute over the finances, with Carol accusing Mitchell of 'trying to get money.' The police reportedly found a crowbar and a backpack containing two laptops on the scene and Mitchell was charged with felony firstdegree burglary and possession of burglary tools. Testimony for Mitchell's trial began on Tuesday, with Carol testifying that she felt 'extremely violated' when her home was broken into. 'It was frightening,' she said. 'I didn't dare to stay there. I moved out.' Mitchell's defense attorney, meanwhile, is arguing that the senator broke into her house because she was concerned over her stepmother's declining health. Mitchell also told police on the scene that her stepmother has Alzheimer's and is 'paranoid'. In court on Tuesday, Mitchell's defense attorney said, 'Losing a parent is always hard. For Nicole, her father Rod's death seemed to come too early, and it also came at a time when Carol was in decline.' Police entered the home of the stepmother Carol Mitchell (pictured) after she made a 911 call reporting, 'Somebody's broken into my house.' Upon arrival at the house, a seemingly terrified Carol directed them to the location of the intruder in the basement Mitchell's father Roderick (pictured with Mitchell) died without a will in 2023, and a probate court awarded Carol Mitchell 100 percent of Roderick Mitchells estate. This decision led to a familial dispute over the finances, with Carol accusing Mitchell of 'trying to get money' The attorney continued, 'By the time Nicole drove to Carol's in April of 2024, Nicole's dad had been dead for more than a year. A year of Carol throwing out, giving away, and donating Rod's things. For all Nicole knew, there may not have been any of Rod's personal belongings even left in the house. Nicole knew that Carol was declining and eventually Carol wouldn't be able to take care of herself.' However, when Carol was asked if her stepdaughter cared about her safety or wellbeing, she told the court 'I don't believe so. Nicole never let me get close to her.' Mitchell has pleaded not guilty to firstdegree burglary and possession of burglary tools. If convicted, she will face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. If found guilty of possession of burglary tools, she will face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. An airline which has been operating deportation flights for the Trump administration has announced major closures after furious pro-migrant protests at several airports. Texas-based budget carrier Avelo Airlines said this week that it will close down its west coast operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport as it struggles financially. The company said it will reduce its operation at the airport to one aircraft until December 2 and then close the base which currently serves 13 routes. Avelo said the protests and its contract with DHS did not have any effect on its decision to close the base and have not impacted its business. 'We believe the continuation service from (Burbank) in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop,' the company said in a statement. However, the airport has been the target of several fiery rallies by pro-migrant protesters who have hailed the closure as a response to their calls for a boycott. They include Nancy Klein, from Hollywood, California, who organized seven protests with activist groups CA27Indivisible and East Valley Indivisible in Southern California. 'This change in Avelo's business operations is some evidence that being on the right side of history, while being principled and persistent, can make a difference,' Klein said, adding that another protest is planned at Burbank Airport on July 27. An airline which has been operating deportation flights for the Trump administration has announced major closures after furious pro-migrant protests at several airports. (Pictured: Venezuelan migrants being deported from the US to their native country in April) Avelo said the protests and its contract with DHS did not have any effect on its decision to close the base and have not impacted its business - but protesters hailed the closure as a victory Texas-based budget carrier Avelo Airlines said this week that it will close down its west coast operations at Hollywood Burbank Airport as it struggles financially. The company said it will reduce its operation at the airport to one aircraft until December 2 and then close the base The airline signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside America. It faced backlash from customers and employees over its partnership with the DHS. Protests unfolded across the country from outside the Burbank Airport to their hub in New Haven, Connecticut, calling on the airline to end its partnership with the DHS and for customers to boycott the carrier. Susan Auerback slammed Avelo for using migrant deportations 'for their economic benefit' during a protest at Burbank airport earlier this year. 'We will not stand for these mass deportations and we will intervene wherever we can to stop the operation of them,' she told ABC7 reporters at the scene on April 28. 'Protesting an airline that has just decided that this is for their economic benefit to be part of this unjust policy is why we're here.' Avelo's CEO, Andrew Levy, defended the decision at the time, adding that the airline also operated deportation flights under the Biden administration. Avelo's CEO, Andrew Levy (pictured), defended the decision to operate DHS flights in April, adding that the airline also operated deportation flights under the Biden administration Avelo said the rallies and its contract with DHS did not have any effect on its decision to close the base and have not impacted its business - but protesters hailed the closure as a victory Texas-based carrier Avelo Airlines signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside America 'We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic,' Levy said in a statement. 'After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come.' Avelo said it had made several changes over the past few years to its West Coast operations but they did not produce the results necessary to continue presence there. The Daily Mail has contacted Avelo for more information on the DHS operations. A British couple sparked an airport security investigation after passing through with a 10-inch steak knife in their hand luggage. Michael and Kathryn Roper were enjoying a pre-flight pint in the departure lounge at Leeds Bradford Airport when they made the shocking discovery. They were carrying a sharp knife with a six-inch blade tucked inside her bag. The retired couple, aged 64 and 72, were heading off to their holiday home in Spain when they realised the item had slipped through security undetected. Kathryn, from Oxenhope near Bradford, said she had accidentally left it in her bag after using it to cut cake while visiting her stepfather earlier that day. Stunned by the oversight, the pair immediately alerted airport security. The knife was swiftly confiscated by the security chief, but the couple have said the blunder raises serious questions about safety. Mr Roper said: 'It's pretty rubbish, either the scanners were not working properly, or the bloke looking at the bag station has not been paying attention. Michael and Kathryn Roper were enjoying a pre-flight pint in the departure lounge at Leeds Bradford Airport when they made the shocking discovery The couple were accidentally carrying a sharp knife with a six-inch blade tucked inside her bag 'My wife had been down to see her elderly step-dad, she took a knife and some cake for him. 'She put the knife in her bag, picked up our passports, bags, etc. and off we went. 'We went through security, sat having a beer and she pulled it out and she was like 'oh my God'. 'Both of us fought it was shocking no one noticed - we couldn't believe it.' The incident comes as Leeds Bradford Airport, along with several others across the UK, has relaxed its hand luggage rules, now allowing passengers to carry up to 1000ml of liquids through security. According to the pub landlords, when they arrived at the airport they went through the new scanners where you no longer have to take liquids out of your bags. They then passed into the departure lounge and were sat having a pint when they came across the blade. The couple have revealed they were unsure what to do but eventually decided the best course of action was for Michael to put the knife in his pocket walk back through security and notify the chief there. Michael said: 'We were stuck with an offensive weapon, a sharp steak knife, airside. The knife was swiftly confiscated by the security chief, but the couple have said the blunder raises serious questions about safety. Pictured: Leeds Bradford airport in Yorkshire 'You can't put it into a bin, you've got a responsibility, it could get into the wrong hands, we all know what can happen.' 'You can't just give it to a member of the public there.' 'When I got to the chief he scanned my boarding card and said 'thanks, we'll look into it'.' Michael said the ordeal brought back memories of 9/11, saying more care should be taken to ensure nothing like this happens again. The airport, which is in Yeadon, confirmed an internal investigation into the matter is underway. A spokesperson said: 'As the incident is under investigation internally, we can't comment any further.' A 12-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by a 22-year-old man has died giving birth to her attacker's baby. The unnamed schoolgirl, who was eight months pregnant, was rushed to a maternity hospital in the eastern Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte after suffering from severe stomach cramps. Local media reports said she had to undergo an emergency C-section and died from a brain haemorrhage, but her newborn reportedly survived. The girl, who lived in the indigenous Warao tribal community, began experiencing pregnancy symptoms such as nausea and loss of appetite. But according to family members, the child did not understand what was happening, which meant that she did not tell her parents that she was expecting for several week. As a result, she did not receive any prenatal care, it is understood. Due to her age, hospital staff alerted the police, who have since opened an investigation into the rape of a vulnerable person. Her baby's father is reportedly a 22-year-old man who lived in the same indigenous community as her. Her uncle Andy Tovar said: 'This death was because of her pregnancy. It was an adult man, we already know who he is.' A 12-year-old girl (pictured) who was allegedly raped by a 22-year-old man has died giving birth to her attacker's baby The girl lived in the indigenous Warao tribal communit in eastern Brazil. Picture shows the place where the 12-year-old girl lived In Brazil, the rape of a vulnerable person comes with a penalty of up to 15 years behind bars. It is unclear if the suspect has been arrested. City Hall officials said the family has been offered expert counselling. A spokesperson said: 'The family received continuous monitoring from the unit's multidisciplinary team, including psychological support.' Abortion is only legal in Brazil when the pregnant person's life is at risk or when the pregnancy results from rape. The disturbing case comes after a 12-year-old girl gave birth to twins in Argentina after being denied an abortion by local authorities despite having been raped back in 2020. Authorities in Jujuy forced the child to remain pregnant until the twins could be safely delivered by caesarean section. Abortion only became legal in Argentina later that year. A Ballymena schoolgirl was walking along a street when she was dragged into a garage and allegedly raped and sexually assaulted by three males, a court heard today. Details of the alleged sex attack which sparked three days of riots in the Northern Ireland town last month were revealed for the first time as a 14-year-old Romanian boy, who cannot be identified, applied for bail. Ballymena Youth Court heard that while two of her alleged assailants were arrested within hours of the incident on June 7, a third suspect has fled back to Romania. Both the defendant, and another 14-year-old, are on remand in custody charged with attempted rape. It was hours after the pair first appeared in court on June 9 that serious rioting and public disorder erupted in Ballymena and Romanian families fled their homes on Clonavon Terrace. Three nights of serious trouble saw houses attacked and cars burned with Police Service of Northern Ireland riot squads facing an angry mob hurling missiles, including petrol bombs, fireworks, masonry and bottles. Giving evidence in the contested application today, Detective Constable Sinclair told the court the girl's grandmother contacted police that evening, to report that her granddaughter 'had been raped by three males in a garage in Harryville', an area close to the town centre. When police attended and spoke to the schoolgirl, she told them she was walking along the street when 'three males grabbed her and took her to a garage down an alleyway'. It was hours after the pair first appeared in court on June 9 that serious rioting and public disorder erupted in Ballymena. Pictured: Riots in Ballymena on June 11 The case precipitated three days of street violence and in the County Antrim town in Northern Ireland last month. Pictured: Ballymena riots June 12 The police officer told the court that inside the garage, the girl saw two mattresses 'and she was put on one'. He added that while two of the men tried to force the girl to perform sex acts on them, the third male who has since absconded 'raped her'. DC Sinclair continued: 'She said that this went on for about 10 minutes but when they heard a male voice outside, the three ran off.' At that stage, the complainant 'was able to leave the garage and get help' and based on the information provided by the teenager, police attended an address on Clonavon Terrace where the two 14-year-olds were arrested. The court heard they 'matched the description' given by the alleged victim. DC Sinclair said the bail applicant 'denied any criminal activity' and then refused to answer police questions during his interviews. Turning to bail objections, the investigator told District Judge Trevor Browne 'police have strong concerns that there's a risk he may leave the jurisdiction'. She said: 'Within hours of the defendant being arrested, a co-accused who had been identified, left the country and we believe he is residing in Romania. Riot police officers walk near a fire on June 12 following a protest in in Portadown over an alleged sexual assault in Ballymena on a teenage girl 'We believe that, given the significant public disorder that descended after the incident, there's a risk that if released, this defendant will leave the jurisdiction and we are not content that any conditions can be put in place to prevent that.' She added that while a proposed bail address outside of Ballymena had been put forward by the defence, there were also concerns about that as well. DC Sinclair explained that while the occupant had been put forward as a relative, she told officers who spoke to her that 'she was a friend of the family' rather than a relative. The officer added that police had also ascertained there were three children living in the property, including a 14-year-old girl. It was also a concern, said DC Sinclair, that another family with a young child appeared to be living in the house, a property she described as being 'in a poor state of repair'. The officer concluded: 'Police do not believe that any conditions will satisfy [their concerns] and we are aware that there's an opportunity to surrender passports and ID cards, however, we believe there are other ways of leaving the country.' Defence counsel Conn O'Neill lamented that none of those concerns had been raised with the defence before the hearing, adding that had they been 'we could have dealt with them'. Demonstrators prepare to throw objects towards the police while they take cover behind a wall during Ballymena riots on June 11 A riot police officer walks near a fire during serious violence in Portadown on June 12 Highlighting that the defendant had voluntarily undergone DNA testing and an identity parade, he suggested that given the multitude of objections from the police, that the court adjourn the bail application. Judge Browne told the barrister: 'I completely agree, with the best will in the world, the application just disintegrated before our very eyes. 'We are all mindful that he is a 14-year-old boy with no previous convictions and there is a working presumption in favour of bail... but it would not be fair to force you on without giving you the opportunity to address this important obstacle.' In adjourning the bail application, the judge adjourned both cases to August 6. By way of an update, the prosecutor told the judge the case had been expedited, that the complainant has completed her Achieving Best Evidence video interview with the police and that the 'target date for completion of the full file is the end of September'. The governments flagship anti-extremist scheme must up its game in the wake of failures to stop the Southport attack and the murder of Tory MP Sir David Amess, a major new report has concluded. An official review of the Prevent scheme said the jury is still out on whether a series of changes will improve its operation. The report by Interim Independent Prevent Commissioner, Lord Anderson, said: Prevent failed in both cases; and from these failures, lessons must be learned. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper commissioned the peer, a leading barrister, to scrutinise Prevents work in the wake of the last summers Southport murders. Knifeman Axel Rudakubana killed Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, and injured 10 others. Southport attack victims Alice Dasilva Aguiar, top, Bebe King, bottom left, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, bottom right Conservative MP Sir David Amess was murdered at a constituency surgery session in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, in 2021 A previous review, published in February, found Rudakubana had been referred to the programme Prevent three times. But in a catalogue of blunders including spelling his name wrong experts failed to put the teenager on a de-radicalisation scheme before he embarked on his rampage. In the case of Sir Davids 2021 murder, another earlier report revealed his killer Ali Harbi Ali was dismissed as a very low terror threat just months before he bought a foot-long carving knife and started planning a terrorist atrocity. The murdered MPs daughter Katie Amess said earlier this year that Prevent was not fit for purpose after Ali, 29, was discharged by Prevent too quickly. Now Lord Anderson has declined to give Prevent a clean bill of health. His report said: An intensive series of efforts has been made by both the Home Office and CTP [counter-terrorism policing] to improve the relevant processes, training and guidance. The jury is still out on some of these initiatives, and none of them can substitute for human judgement or remove the possibility of human error. But he added that several changes already made to the scheme last year have the potential to improve in material respects the inner workings of the machine. The review urged Prevent to ensure its work addresses individuals who are obsessed with violence but do not fall into a clear terrorist category. Southport killer Axel Rudakubana at a hearing in Liverpool Crown Court last December Rudakubana appeared as a child in a Doctor Who advert for BBC Children In Need, in which he . is seen leaving the Tardis dressed as the Doctor, wearing a trench coat and tie to look like the show's former star David Tennant Ali Harbi Ali after being arrested for the murder of Sir David Amess in 2021 The recommendation reflects how the threat posed by Rudakubana was partly ignored by police and officials because of the absence of a distinct ideology. Lord Anderson also said Prevent should be far more open about its activities. Public transparency about the structures, systems and statistics of Prevent should be the default position, it said, and the Home Office and counter terrorism police should adopt a pro-active approach to the release of such information. A Cabinet Office task force should be set up to begin looking at whether Prevent should be formally linked to broader safeguarding and violence prevention system, the report went on. Lord Andersons 156-page review suggested ministers should look at finding ways for young people to discuss and feed in ideas about Prevent and addressing the particular circumstances of black and mixed heritage boys who are less likely to have been referred for early help. Lord Anderson said: More needs to be done. Ali Harbi Ali was given a whole life sentence at the Old Bailey in 2022 for the murder of Sir David Amess It has to be clear that people with a fascination with extreme violence can be suitable subjects for Prevent, even when they have no discernible ideology. Prevent needs to up its game in the online world, where most radicalisation now takes place. It needs to get better at information-sharing, and be more open with the public to gain the trust on which it depends. The latest review comes just over two years after serious failings in the anti-extremism programme were exposed by another major inquiry. An independent review of Prevent by William Shawcross, former head of the Charity Commission, warns the scheme applied a 'double standard' to Islamist and far-Right threats. It found Prevent was failing to tackle radicalisation and that Islamist ideology had been 'misinterpreted, misunderstood or even overlooked' by officials. It prioritised countering far-Right activity above the prime Islamist threat. In some cases, the 49million-a-year programme set up in 2006 had directly funded or engaged with extremists and was 'out of kilter with the rest of the counter-terrorism system', Mr Shawcross said. Katie Amess, daughter of Sir David, said earlier this year that Prevent was 'not fit for purpose' Interim Independent Prevent Commissioner, Lord Anderson, has declined to give Prevent a clean bill of health. The number of individuals referred to Prevent had become 'politicised' because officials feared being labelled Islamophobic or racist, it went on. The Home Secretary said today she would act immediately on the findings of Lord Andersons review. Ms Cooper told MPs in a written statement: 'My department remains steadfast in its commitment to keeping the public safe and safeguarding people at risk of radicalisation.' 'We will clarify Prevent thresholds in guidance and training to ensure that frontline public sector workers subject to the Prevent Duty understand that those "fascinated with extreme violence or mass casualty attacks" should be referred to Prevent,' she said. 'We will complete this work by the end of September.' She also pledged to 'improve transparency and information sharing' by the end of the year, 'strengthen our approach to tackling online radicalisation' and 'continue exploratory work on how Prevent connects into wider safeguarding and violence prevention pathways to ensure no-one can fall between the cracks'. Separately, the Southport Public Inquiry, led by Sir Adrian Fulford, is due to resume later this year and will publish its findings later. Following Constance Marten and Mark Gordon's convictions for the gross negligence manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria, the Mail has released exclusive podcasts revealing never-before-heard details about the couple. This second episode follows Constance's life story, from her multimillionaire father leaving the family to live in a truck in Australia to her induction into a religious cult based in Lagos, Nigeria. The cult was called SCOAN (The Synagogue Church of All Nations) and its leader, TB Joshua, targeted the UK for new, wealthy recruits by infiltrating Evangelical churches in the south of England. Through her connections to one of these churches, Constance's mother, Virginia, was persuaded to travel to Nigeria with her daughter to the sect's compound in 2006. Virginia believed TB Joshua, who styled himself in internet videos as a miracle healer, could rid her daughter of her 'rebellious spirits'. Speaking to Trial Plus hosts Caroline Cheetham and Jack Hardy, author Matthew McNaught, who wrote a book about the cult and its abuse of British recruits, described how SCOAN operated and how Marten became affiliated with it. Following the convictions of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, the Mail has released a series of exclusive podcasts revealing never-before-heard details about the couple On Monday, Marten and Gordon were convicted of killing their daughter, Victoria, after going on the run to stop her being taken into care Temitope Balogun Joshua, known as TB Joshua, founded an evangelical Christian church called the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in 1987 'I became interested in SCOAN because I grew up in an Evangelical Church in Winchester called Emmanuel', McNaught told the podcast. 'Some church members came across this ministry in Nigeria there were videos being sent around for publicity. They were incredibly graphic, very dramatic videos showing seemingly incredible things. 'I was very sceptical of TB Joshua from the start the videos were so extreme and gross. You would see sores and bare breasts, gore and nudity that was incredibly hard to watch. 'As soon as people started becoming disciples their personalities began to change. They withdrew from old friendships and people within my church started to become suspicious. 'Constance was in Lagos for six months. She got in contact with me in 2013 after I wrote a blog detailing TB Joshua's abuse. Her experience was the same as many others I had spoken too. 'She had gone out there a passionate, young Christian and had been pulled into this horrible community and dynamic. TB Joshua's compound was usually guarded by gunmen and access was strictly controlled (pictured surrounded by mourners after his death in 2021) Virginia believed TB Joshua, who styled himself in internet videos as a miracle healer, could rid her daughter of her 'rebellious spirits' 'I believe she left because she had offended TB Joshua in some way, she was essentially kicked out. 'She told me she struggled for a long time afterwards and that she was keen to reconnect with those who had a similar experience. 'In my conversations with her, she came across really well she wanted to help people to break through the isolation people suffered after being SCOAN. It feels sad to see that her life has taken this turn.' The Crime Desk: The Mail's new true crime podcast network, available on all major podcast platforms On Monday, Marten and her lover Mark Gordon were convicted of killing their daughter, Victoria, after going on the run to stop her being taken into care. They will be sentenced for gross negligence manslaughter on September 15. Bisola Johnson, who was close to the cult's leader and interacted with Constance Marten during the socialite's time in Nigeria, described some of the worst abuses of the organisation. Bisola described herself as TB Joshua's 'right-hand woman' who feels deep regret for her role in his regime of terror. She said: 'I worked as a video editor for SCOAN for many years. I was only there for about a week before TB Joshua invited me to his room and introduced sex to me. Jack Hardy: 'It's clear it completely shattered her.' Listen here 'Most young girls there would visit his bedroom. People were called out of the dormitory at midnight to sleep with him or massage him as he lay there naked. 'There was verbal and emotional abuse. We would be beaten with horse whips if we didn't do something right. It was like a concentration camp. 'If you argued, you'd be ostracised you'd not be given food, no one wanted to talk to you. It was mental torture. 'Constance got in contact with me in 2013, she said something had happened to her in SCOAN. Everybody had depression after leaving the group. You couldn't believe you'd accepted such mental torture. 'I wanted to help her, but I couldn't because she threatened to return with a body camera. I was afraid for her she said she'd contact Al Jazeera. Before she even called them, I knew her body would disappear, and I didn't want to be involved in that.' From his investigation into Marten's time in SCOAN, co-host Jack Hardy provided insight into the psychological damage the experience had on her. 'It's clear it completely shattered her', Hardy said. 'One friend who spoke to us told us she always used to be wild, but also happy, kind and buoyant. 'When she came back, she was darker she found things more difficult. Another friend we spoke to put things more bluntly, TB Joshua ruined her life.' To listen to the bombshell episode in full, subscribe to The Crime Desk, the home of arresting podcasts from The Daily Mail. Search www.thecrimedesk.com today for a 7-day free trial. The husband of TikTok star Emilie Kiser is facing charges in the drowning death of their toddler son that shocked fans earlier this year. Kiser, a 26-year-old popular mommy blogger, lost her three-year-old son Trigg on May 18 - a day after he was found unresponsive in the pool in Chandler, Arizona. She was not at home at the time. Now, police are recommending a felony charge of child abuse against her husband, Brady Kiser. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office will make the final decision. 'After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions,' the Chandler police said in a statement Thursday. Brady was home with Trigg and the couple's newborn son Theodore when the toddler drowned. He reportedly told police that he had seen Trigg playing near the pool and noted it was 'not uncommon' for the toddler to do so. The father added that the pool usually had a protective cover over it. Brady said he was taking care of the newborn when he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes. When he returned to the backyard, the toddler was floating in the pool. Kiser, a popular mommy blogger, lost her son Trigg (right) on May 18 after he was found unresponsive in a backyard pool in Chandler, Arizona TikTok star Emilie Kiser wasn't home when her three-year-old son fatally drowned in the family's backyard pool, a source told DailyMail.com The Kisers have not spoken publicly since Trigg's death, except through court documents. Emilie, who has more than four million followers on TikTok and frequently shares her life as a mother, filed a lawsuit against several agencies to permanently block public access to records related to her son's death. The lawsuit said that Kiser was 'going through a parent's worst nightmare right now' and the family 'desperately wanted to grieve in private.' 'Triggs death has become a media frenzy. Appallingly, 100+ public record requests have been filed with both the City of Chandler and the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office,' the lawsuit continued. 'Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son, two-month-old Theodore. But every day is a battle,' the suit said. Kiser's attorneys argued that the records presumably contain 'graphic, distressing, and intimate details' of the toddler's death. They continued that public access to the records 'has no bearing on government accountability.' Once news broke that he was the boy who drowned, a 'media frenzy' unleashed as internet sleuths and fans of Kiser took it upon themselves to request records in relation to his death Kiser (pictured with Trigg and her husband Brady Kiser) hasn't posted since the tragedy, but her followers have continued to flood her accounts with messages of support and condolences before she turned off her comment sections 'To allow disclosure in these circumstances would be to turn Arizonas Public Records Law into a weapon of emotional harm, rather than a tool of government transparency,' the lawsuit added. Emilie and Brady first became parents in July 2021 when they welcomed their son Trigg. Just over two years later, in September 2024, the couple revealed they were expecting their second child. 'WE GOTTA BABY GROWING,' Kiser captioned a sonogram post. 'We can not wait to add another angel to our family. Whatever you are, we love you so much already.' In March, the Kiser family officially grew by one with the arrival of their second son, Teddy. Emilie announced the joyful news on Instagram, writing: 'We love you so much and our hearts feel like they are going to burst.' She also expressed gratitude for the experience, sharing: 'I am so grateful for a smooth delivery, a healthy baby, and the best husband. Could not have done it without my rock @bradykiser. The love I have for my boys is infinite.' Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn's already-embattled 2026 re-election bid appears to have just gotten tougher. He's facing allegations of doctoring a Trump endorsement and was hit with disappointing second quarter fundraising numbers. Cornyn raised just over $800,000 in the last three months according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) data. The Cornyn Victory Fund, which splits funds between Cornyn, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and leadership PACs, raised another $3.1 million. That's compared to his Trump ally primary challenger, fellow Republican Ken Paxton, who raised $2.9 million and has $2.5 million cash on hand. Paxton's team seized on the opportunity to call Cornyn out for a perceived lack of support. They noted in a media release that the fundraising discrepancy between the two camps 'represents the massive enthusiasm in Texas to replace establishment insider John Cornyn with a conservative warrior like Ken Paxton.' In a campaign press release issued Monday, Cornyn's team touted a haul of 'more than $3.9 million' with $8.5 million total cash on hand. For comparison, Senator Ted Cruz - who is not up for re-election until 2030 - raised $1.75 million in the second quarter. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks to media, Oct. 18, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) meeting on February 23, 2024, in National Harbor, Maryland The latest fundraising hauls come as a pro-Cornyn PAC is also being accused of manipulating audio from a 2019 Trump rally to make it seem like the president recently endorsed the senator. The ad is scheduled to begin its run across Texas on Wednesday. Trump ally and far-right activist Laura Loomer first circulated the accusations of Cornyn's PAC team doctoring footage. In Trump's 2019 rally footage, the President praises both Texas Senators, Cornyn and Cruz, for their work delivering on his agenda in Washington. In the allegedly doctored footage, the pro-Cornyn super PAC Texans for a Conservative Majority appears to have clipped the 's' from the end of Senators, as well the reference to Cruz during Trump's rally six years ago. Texans for a Conservative Majority - which raised almost 11 million in the second quarter - is putting seven figures behind the ad which will run statewide. Axios reported in May that former Trump co-campaign manger Chris LaCivita is serving as senior adviser to the pro-Cornyn outside group. Trump himself has not yet issued an endorsement in the race. Since 2019, Cornyn has cast several votes in which he has split from the majority of his GOP colleagues, adding to his RINO or Republican in name only accusations. Despite touting a voting record thats 99 percent in line with President Trump, conservative groups in Washington are no fans of Cornyn. President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, in Washington SCOOP: RINO Texas Senator John Cornyn @JohnCornyn (who is trailing 20 points in the polls behind Texas AG @KenPaxtonTX) is debuting the ad below on Television tomorrow morning (July 16, 2025) in Texas. I can exclusively report that the ad has manipulated audio and video of pic.twitter.com/eYpWQRBdXL Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) July 16, 2025 .@JohnCornyn on his Q2 fundraising haul, $3.9 million between campaign account and JFC. $8.9 million COH. #TXSen pic.twitter.com/gHKdaF5r5k Brad Johnson (@bradj_TX) July 14, 2025 NEW: We raised $2.9 million last quarter in a historic fundraising haul for a GOP Senate primary challenge. The movement to fire John Cornyn has never been stronger, and it's just the beginning. It's clear that Texans are ready for a change, and in March 2026, change is coming. pic.twitter.com/CQOBR4jJk6 Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 11, 2025 Heritage Action, the grassroots arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation ranks Cornyn's votes in the current session of congress as 35 percent aligned with their values. That number is barely half of his lifetime score of 64 percent. Cornyn's rankings are also down with the American Conservative Union. Despite a lifetime score of nearly 87, his latest ranking from the group is 77. Less than two years after his 2020 election, in 2022, Cornyn was one of 15 GOP Senators who caved on the Second Amendment and sided with Democrats to deliver one of, if not the biggest, wins of President Bidens tenure, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Cornyns choice to act in this manner was undoubtedly due to public pressure in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting tragedy which happened in his state. Yet, his fellow Texas Senator Ted Cruz didnt cave to the anti-gun mob. Cornyn's political advisor did not respond to the Daily Mail's request for comment about his fundraising numbers, or the allegedly doctored ad. Despite his sizable recent fundraising haul, Paxton's running in the primary as far from a perfect candidate. He was impeached in 2023 due to claims he hired a woman with whom he had an affair him. Paxton's wife, Texas State Senator Angela Paxton announced last Thursday that she was filing for divorce from her husband, and that 'in light of recent discoveries' is was not within the best interests of their family for her to remain in the marriage. Although she attended her then-husband's impeachment trial, Angela did not vote on the outcome. He was acquitted by the senate. Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton, right, is hugged by his wife State Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney before the impeachment trial for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate Chamber at the Texas Capitol, Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023, in Austin, Texas On top of infidelity in his marriage, Paxton has also been accused of corruption on several occasions. He has never been convicted of a crime. The winner of the GOP primary next March will face off against the Democrat nominee who is also yet to be determined. Polling released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) earlier this month showed Democrat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett leading a hypothetical Democratic primary with 35 percent of likely voters, followed by former Rep. Colin Allred at 20 percent. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, questions the witnesses during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee hearing on government efficiency on Capitol Hill, Feb. 12, 2025, in Washington In a recent interview with liberal comedian and media personality Hasan Minhaj, Crockett noted that she already has her 'expiration date in mind for the House,' adding that she already has 'been eyeing people to replace' her. Failed Democrat candidate for both U.S. President and U.S. Senate Beto ORourke, and Rep. Joaquin Castro tied at 13 percent. Only 18 percent remain undecided about who should challenge Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who is seeking a fifth term. Crockett has made headlines numerous times in recent months as a key critic of the Trump administration. Sadiq Khan today hit out at Keir Starmer's plan to cut the number of foreign students coming to Britain in his latest clash with the Labour leadership. The London mayor used a visit to Ghana to say UK universities should remain 'open' to overseas students, after a new immigration clampdown was announced in May. It will see the amount of time post-graduate students can spend in the UK after completing their course cut from two years to 18 months. A new levy on income that universities generate from international students could also be introduced. It follows changes introduced by the former Conservative government in January 2024 that banned almost all international students from bringing dependents like spouses and children with them. In a written article for the radio station LBC's website, Sir Sadiq said the levy risked 'putting off young people from coming to cities like London and piling yet another burden on our strained higher education sector'. 'Closing our country to global talent would be a pointless act of immense economic self-harm, slowing down growth and leaving working people in every part of the UK worse off,' he said. 'Instead, we must make the argument for openness, confident in the immense contribution that international students make to our prosperity.' The London mayor used a visit to Ghana to say UK universities should remain 'open' to overseas students, after a new immigration clampdown was announced in May. It will see the amount of time post-graduate students can spend in the UK after completing their course cut from two years to 18 months. A new levy on income that universities generate from international students could also be introduced. It is Sir Sadiq's latest attempt to distance himself from the Labour government, having also supported recent demands from backbench MPs to water down benefit cuts. He also criticised the PM for using the phrase 'island of strangers' in an immigration speech earlier this year. The difference between the number of people moving to the UK and leaving the country is estimated to have halved, in the biggest fall in net migration since the pandemic. The figure stood at an estimated 431,000 in the year ending December 2024, down 49.9 per cent from 860,000 a year earlier, the Office for National Statistics said. This is the biggest calendar-year drop since the early stages of the pandemic when net migration fell from 184,000 in the year ending December 2019 to 93,000 in the year ending December 2020. The latest decrease is the largest numerical drop on record and the ONS said the decline has been driven by falling numbers of people coming to work and study in the UK. Long-term immigration fell below one million for the first time in around three years. But Sir Sadiq said: 'Whilst we can and must make the economic argument for keeping our country open to global talent, I dont think it quite captures all that is at stake in this debate. The students who come to London dont just bring billions for our economy. They come with something that cannot be measured in currency alone: new ideas, different cultures and diverse perspectives. When they return, they bring a bit of Britain back with them, too. In an increasingly divided world, there is strength to be found in this kind of collaboration, not least with a continent home to the youngest and fastest-growing population on Earth. A search is underway for a plane which was declared missing after failing to make its scheduled arrival time, with fears it may have crashed in a remote alpine wilderness. Emergency services were notified about 4.35pm on Tuesday the light aircraft had missed its scheduled arrival time at Moruya Airport on NSW's Far South Coast. It was flying from Wangaratta in north-east Victoria with one person on board, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Its last known location was Khancoban, a small town in the western foothills of the Snowy Mountains. 'The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) was notified by Air Services Australia that a plane took off from Victoria, bound for Moruya Airport; however, it never arrived,' a NSW Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia. Police believe the plane may have crashed within 500metres of the Dargals Trail, a remote hiking and mountain biking track in Kosciuszko National Park. A multi-agency search effort was launched on Tuesday led by the NSW Police Alpine Operations Unit officer along with the NSW and Victoria Ambulance Service. Despite assistance from the National Parks and Wildlife Services and the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre airwing, the plane was unable to be located. The plane missed its scheduled arrival at Moruya Airport on NSW's Far South Coast (pictured) Police fear the plane may have crashed in NSW's Snowy Mountains region (stock) Multi-agency ground search efforts resumed about 8.30am on Wednesday morning and were expected to continue into nightfall. Ground searches are set to recommence at first morning light. 'The ground-search teams will be faced with rugged and inaccessible alpine terrain impacted by recent heavy snow falls,' an AMSA spokesperson told ABC News. Meanwhile the AMSA-led aerial search near Khancoban was reportedly suspended about 4pm on Wednesday due to 'limited visibility'. Temperatures at Khancoban ranged between five and ten degrees Celsius on Tuesday with snow showers forecast at higher altitudes. Further showers are expected to take place on Thursday with temperatures falling as low as one degree above freezing. Israel launched air attacks on the Syrian ministry of defence in Damascus on Wednesday, claiming to be intervening in support of a minority group after days of deadly clashes in the south of the country. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz shared video showing the moment a Syrian journalist cowered in fear as Israeli strikes rocked the building behind her. Al Jazeera footage from another angle showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the air as a reporter scrambled for cover. The attack came hours after a drone strike on the same building. Israel also reportedly launched air strikes near the presidential palace in the capital, according to Reuters and Al Jazeera. At least one person is said to have died and 18 have been wounded in the capital, according to state media, citing the country's Health Ministry. The Ministry of Defence has not confirmed any casualties. Zeina Khodr, a reporter for Al Jazeera in Damascus, said: 'Israeli warplanes are circling the skies over the Syrian capital. There's panic in the city, especially after the first major strike.' She reported 'at least three to four strikes' had occurred. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military's Arabic-language spokesperson, wrote on X that the Israeli army had struck the entrance gate to the General Staff compound in Damascus. He added that the military 'continues to monitor developments and actions against Druze civilians in Syria'. Israel had vowed to ramp up its attacks unless Syrian government forces withdrew from the southern city of Suwayda. Tensions have mounted since Syria's government sent troops to quell unrest between Druze and Bedouin fighters in the region. Witnesses, Druze armed groups and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Syrian troops took part in fighting with the Bedouin against the Druze, which Israel has vowed to protect. A journalist with Al Jazeera reacts as Israeli strikes hit the Ministry of Defence in Damascus Israel warned it would escalate its attacks unless Syrian forces withdrew from the south Another video showed a Syrian reporter flinching as the strikes hit the capital The strikes come after days of clashes in Suwayda Smoke rises after Israeli strikes on Syria's defence ministry in Damascus, Syria July 16, 2025 The Britain-based war monitor, with sources inside Syria, said that 21 Druze civilians had been killed 'in summary executions by government forces' and allied groups. At least 248 people have been killed in the province since the violence erupted on Sunday, it reported. Israel threatened to escalate its attacks unless Syrian government troops withdrew. After days of clashes, Israel launched a series of strikes targeting government troops and convoys, which it says were in support of the religious minority group. Reuters reporters heard warplanes swoop low over the capital on Wednesday and unleash a series of massive strikes on central Damascus. The cityscape was blanketed in smoke with a thick plume rising from the defence ministry. Writing on social media, Israel Katz said that the 'painful blows have begun.' He promised that troops would 'operate forcefully in Suwayda to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal'. Syria's Defence Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Suwayda for violating a ceasefire agreement, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire. It said they were 'adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes.' The Syrian Ministry of Defence had declared a 'complete ceasefire' in the southern province on Tuesday, qualifying that government forces would only respond to attacks by what the ministry described as 'outlawed groups'. Military police units were reportedly sent to the region to regulate army conduct and hold violators accountable, minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said. A vehicle ablaze amid ongoing clashes in the southern city of Sweida, 16 July 2025 An injured man is seen as clashes continue for the fourth day between Syrian security forces and armed local groups, in Suwayda, Syria, on July 16, 2025 Emergency services arrive and set up a security perimeter following an Israeli airstrike targeting the entrance of the Syrian army's General Staff Complex in Damascus, on July 16 Syrian Defense Ministry military units are seen with military vehicles entering the city to control the situation after three days of clashes in Suwayda, Syria on July 15 Syrian government forces had taken three-quarters of Suwayda after they were deployed to restore order in the region. While some Druze recognise the new government in Damascus, others are wary of the new leadership. Some 153,000 Druze are Israeli citizens, living mainly in the north. In the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967, more than 22,000 Druze hold permanent resident status, but maintain family ties inside Syria. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised and that Israel would not accept the presence of Damascus's Islamist-led government near its territory. The US, UK and EU began removing sanctions against Syria this month, acknowledging the new transitional government that displaced Bashar Al-Assad in December. But Israel has continued to pound the country with air strikes, and announced plans to increase the number of settlers to the occupied Golan Heights. In the past, the new government has resolved clashes by granting a degree of autonomy to Druze fighters. President Donald Trump's handling of the budget has taken a big hit with voters since he signed his 'big, beautiful bill' into law. Trump successfully jammed the legislation that enshrines his signature tax cuts, but adds trillions to the national deficit, through the House and Senate earlier this month - despite Republican rebels who threatened to tank it. 'I think I have more power now,' Trump said following the bill's passage. 'More gravitas, more power.' The package extends the president's 2017 tax cuts and further eliminates taxes on tips and overtime - a marquee promise that the president pledged repeatedly on the campaign trail. It doubles the child tax credit and includes a popular $1,000 'Trump investment account' - formerly known as MAGA accounts - for newborn babies. The $3.3 trillion measure cleared Congress July 3d, with Trump declaring: 'I think I have more power now.' Also included in the measure are steep cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and renewable energy programs expanded by former President Joe Biden. But Trump's support on the issue of the federal budget with Americans has dropped to just 37 percent in a new CNN / SSRS poll, with 63 percent disapproval on the issue. Back in March, Trump had 48 percent approval on the budget, with 52 percent disapproval. President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' is supported by only 39 percent of Americans, according to a new CNN / SSRS poll That comes after the White House overcame opposition from House and Senate budget hawks to pass the measure. Even then, there were signs of trouble. Just over a quarter of Americans, 28 percent, backed it in mid-June, a Daily Mail poll by J.L. Partners found. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the measure will tack $3.9 trillion onto the debt an analysis the White House disputed in part by attacking the CBO. Republicans got it through on special 'reconciliation' procedures designed for budget reduction, which allowed it to steer clear of the filibuster in the Senate. The CNN poll found that the mega-measure remains underwater with voters with 39 percent support compared to 61 percent opposition. Democrats argued during debate that opposition would grow when Medicaid cuts and other cost-cutting measure go into effect starting in 2027, after the mid-term elections. The bill cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion over a decade. Trump has stressed the tax cuts, and said failure to pass it would have amounted to a big tax hike. It also made good on some of his campaign promises such as 'no tax on tips.' Vice President JD Vance is joining the effort to sell the bill at an event Wednesday in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, not far from former President Joe Biden's childhood home in Scranton. And the White House has unveiled an interactive map to allow Americans to try to calculate how much they can save under the law. It allows Americans to enter their weekly salary, overtime pay, and tips, to calculate estimated yearly savings. It also shows state-by-state savings, but doesn't mention the CBO analysis that an estimated 16 million people could lose their healthcare by 2034. Democrats held their own event in the Louisiana district of House Speaker Mike Johnson where they called the bill 'reverse Robin Hood stealing from the poor to give to the rich.' Trump heralded the bill by signing it on July 4th but has not organized a major campaign to promote it, telling NBC he might travel 'a little bit.' 'But honestly, it's been received so well I don't think I have to,' he said. His trip to battleground Pennsylvania on Tuesday was billed as an energy event. Trump carried the state last year. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Pennsylvania's Republican Sen. Dave McCormick organized the first annual Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, in which President Donald Trump was the featured guest A majority of adults in the new poll oppose the new law The poll of U.S. adults was conducted July 10-13, in the immediate aftermath of the dramatic fight in Congress and Trump's pressure to get it through by July 4th. Trump's own approval in the survey stood at 42 percent, with 58 percent disapproval. That is a drop from 45 percent in March and 48 percent in February. Trump's handling of the economy was at 40 percent and his handling of health care policy was at 38 percent. Trump did better on taxes, with 44 percent support and 56 percent opposition. Former President Joe Biden's inner circle continues its efforts to set the record straight on the 2024 Democratic disaster that fueled President Donald Trump's smashing victory. Biden's son Hunter broke his post-election silence, angrily scolding the party for abandoning his father after his historically bad debate performance in late June. 'We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party,' Hunter Biden said. 'Thats my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down.' The so-called party 'meltdown' led to his father ending his presidential campaign and passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the election to President Donald Trump. Harris, Hunter Biden implied, did not have the same draw with the American electorate as his father did. Hunter Biden unleashed his criticism of Democrats in a new 'At Our Table' podcast hosted by Jaime Harrison, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, which was shared with The Hill. Hunter Biden is breaking his silence and sharing his frustration with the Democratic party for abandoning his father in the 2024 election US President Joe Biden and son Hunter Biden step out of a bookstore together in Nantucket Hunter Biden also raged at the best-selling 'Original Sin' book authored by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that chronicled how Biden's inner circle covered up the president's mental and physical decline. The book revealed that toward the end of his presidency, Biden struggled to remember the names of close donors, staff members and prominent Democratic figures. The president's son said the 'idea of a conspiracy' was made up to sell books. Washington, D.C., he argued, was a 'fish bowl' that would make it impossible to cover up health problems and that the 'ability to keep a secret in Washington is zero.' He questioned the book's anonymous sources for misleading readers about his father's competency. 'Every single day, hundreds of people,' Hunter Biden said, 'and you cant get one of them to go on the record and say, I saw the president do X.' Hunter Biden's comments emerge as the former president and his aides are stonewalling Republican investigations into Biden's closest confidants. Anthony Bernal, aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives to testify before the House Oversight Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building Dr. Kevin O'Connor was on Capitol Hill, under subpoena, as part of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer's probe into Biden's mental capabilities while in office Former First Lady Jill Biden's longtime personal assistant Anthony Bernal pleaded the Fifth Amendment during testimony at a closed-door Congressional hearing on Tuesday after investigators asked him if he was ever ordered to lie about the president's health. Last week, Biden's personal physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor also pleaded the Fifth Amendment in response to questions. Biden's inner circle of advisors are also scrambling to defend the use of the 'autopen' in the White House to sign a flood of pardons at the end of his presidency. They put the president on the record in a rare interview with the New York Times to defend the pardons, as more questions are raised about their validity. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations,' Biden told the Times. 'Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false.' Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, in Los Angeles, California Vice President Kamala Harris fell short in the 2024 election as President Donald Trump stormed back into power Trump continues to raise questions about the use of the autopen, accusing Biden's aides of using it without the president's knowledge. 'The autopen, I think, is maybe one of the biggest scandals that we've had in 50 to 100 years. This is a tremendous scandal,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. 'I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it.' The New York Times reported that Biden White House emails from Jan. 19 show that it was Chief of Staff Jeff Zients who approved the last-minute pardons late before the last day of Biden's presidency. But Biden insisted he approved the last-minute controversial pardons that included Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and Reps. Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Adam Kinzinger on the January 6th investigation committee. 'Everybody knows how vindictive he is, so we knew that they'd do what they're doing now,' Biden said to the Times. 'I consciously made all those decisions.' Record-breaking levels of immigration is causing Britain's population to grow faster than any other major EU country, figures have claimed. According to the United Nations, the UK's population is expected to balloon 6.8 per cent from 69.6million to 74.3million by the end of the century. Only Luxembourg, with a tiny population of around 672,000, is expected to rise more, at 10 per cent. It's feared the main driving force behind the surge is the Britain's skyrocketing immigration crisis - which political parties have so far failed to tackle. The news comes as the number of people living in the UK swelled by 9.2 million in the last 25 years, according to a cross-party Lords report today. The study, drafted by Conservative peer Robin Hodgson and 'Blue Labour' grandee Maurice Glasman, raised concerns the UK was well on track to becoming Europe's most crowded country. They have called for a new independent Office for Demographic Change amid fears the number of people living in Britain could increase to record levels. In their report, the pair say the current expansion is 'the most rapid increase in our nation's history' - and comes amid the small boats crisis which sees tens of thousands of immigrants sailing into the country illegally on small boats from the EU. Your browser does not support iframes. The figures come as Britain continues to try to get to grips with its immigration crisis A record-breaking number of illegal migrants have crossed the Channel so far this year, with more than 21,000 making the trip (pictured are some arriving in Dover) Slamming politicians for 'kicking the can down the road', Lord Hodgson said: 'If we don't start putting plans in place now, the problems we face later will be far harder to solve.' However, according to the latest UN estimates, cumulative net migration to the UK will total 14.3million by the end of the century, fuelling the skyrocketing population surge. This figure is almost double the 7.8million predicted for France over the same period and just under a quarter more than Germany's expected growth. Data from the UN's World Population Prospects 2024 claims just three of the 27 current EU member states will see their populations increase between now and 2100. As well as Luxembourg's predicted boom, Sweden is also anticipated to grow by 6.7 per cent, while France will see its population swell by 2.8 per cent to just under 68.5million. The UK's figure is by far the largest, however, in terms of growth of any European country with more than a million residents in. Without positive net migration, the number of people living in the UK would fall by more than a quarter to below 50million by 2100. This is about what it was in 1950. This is because the average number of children conceived per woman is set to level off well below the 2.1 replacement rate, meaning the population will ultimately shrink. Your browser does not support iframes. Between 2022 and 2023, the total fertility rate in England and Wales stood at just 1.44 children per woman, following a downward trend in recent years. The UN's summary also found the UK's median age by 2100 will rise from 40 last year to 47. However, without immigration - where arrivals tend to be younger - this figure will skyrocket to 50 as early as 2067. But Britain is currently facing an immigration crisis, which has seen tens of thousands of migrants illegally enter the country in recent years. Since January of this year, a record-breaking number of Channel crossings have been made, with more than 21,000 asylum seekers unlawfully reaching the UK. The toll of the migrant crisis has already placed a strain on government coffers, with Whitehall splashing out billions to house new arrivals in hotels. Likewise, the number of foreign nationals claiming Universal Credit has also swelled over three years, from 906,018 in June 2022 to a staggering 1.26million last month, figures published on Tuesday claimed. Of these, refugees made up 118,749, with 54,156 on humanitarian visas. Some 59.1 per cent were found to be unemployed in May. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said: 'These are staggering figures and are clear proof that the Labour Government has lost control of our welfare system. 'Weve set out a clear, common-sense position. Universal Credit should be reserved for UK citizens only. This is about fairness, responsibility and protecting support for those whove contributed to this country.' The number of illegal migrants has placed strain on the UK's finances, with billions having been shelled out by the government to house asylum seekers in hotels According to the separate cross-party report by Lord Hodgson and Lord Glasman, housing and public services now risk being strained due to the growing number of Britons. Lord Glasman has now called on political parties of all colours to tackle the issue, saying: 'Issues of demography and immigration have disfigured our public debates for too long. 'The general public is clearly looking for ways to address these challenges.' The Government has repeatedly pushed for French authorities to do more to prevent boats leaving the shore, including changing existing rules to allow police officers to intervene when dinghies are in the water. The rule is in the process of being scrapped - but some police appear to be acting early, prompting anger from refugee charities. Last week, Sir Keir Starmer and French leader Emmanuel Macron announced a new migrant return deal to combat the crisis. However, only a day after unveiling the scheme alongside Mr Macron, the Prime Minister was facing objections from Europe and charities that helped ground the Tories' Rwanda plan. The new scheme was condemned by campaigners, who said they would support court cases brought by small-boat arrivals chosen to be sent back to France. A border union boss said the legal challenges could take a year. Brussels ominously warned it was assessing whether the proposal complied with the 'spirit and the letter of the law', while governments including Italy were said to be harbouring 'huge doubts' about its legality. Republicans in Congress failed to push forward with a planned vote on sweeping crypto reforms on Tuesday, but after a late-night meeting with Trump, they will soon try again. Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican House leadership faced an uprising from the conference's far-right flank on Tuesday that resulted in the decision to end work earlier than expected. A preliminary vote to tee-up a full vote on a triad of crypto measures, namely the GENIUS Act, failed after a handful of Republicans voted against it. House leadership has dubbed this push 'crypto week' and also under consideration are the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. They vented concerns that the legislation does not do enough to outlaw a central bank digital currency (CBDC) out of fear that the government-issued cyber money would be used as a surveillance tool - or worse. 'Behind the scenes there are the functional surveillance capabilities of a CBDC,' Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene posted. 'The bill as written does not expressly ban a CBDC and does not protect self-custody. Self-custody means that you control your own money, not a third party.' To calm her fears, and the concerns of many other Republicans, Trump took matters into his own hands and hosted the discontent lawmakers to smooth things over. 'I am in the Oval Office with 11 of the 12 Congressmen/women necessary to pass the GENIUS Act and, after a short discussion, they have all agreed to vote tomorrow morning in favor of the Rule,' the president wrote on Truth Social just before 9 pm local time. Trump hosted 11 lawmakers who voted against advancing crypto legislation to the Oval Office late on Tuesday evening. He wanted to convince them to pass the package, but Greene was unconvinced, saying Wednesday morning she can't support the measure The president said he will not support any lawmakers that oppose his desired crypto reforms 'Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was at the meeting via telephone, and looks forward to taking the Vote as early as possible,' the Republican's note continued. 'I want to thank the Congressmen/women for their quick and positive response.' In addition to Greene, Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, Fla., Chip Roy, Texas, Victoria Spartz, Ind., Michael Cloud, Texas, Andy Harris, Md., Eli Crane, Ariz., Andrew Clyde, Ga., Tim Burchett, Tenn., Keith Self, Texas, Andy Biggs, Ariz., Scott Perry, Florida, and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, La., voted against the advancement of the bills. Scalise voted no in the end so he could urge the chamber to vote on the measure again, and now the package of crypto legislation will get another procedural vote. Trump has said he would not endorse any lawmakers that oppose his crypto package and has repeatedly written about making the U.S. the 'crypto capital of the world.' The president's urgent request for passing crypto legislation comes as he and his family have invested heavily in the industry. The firm World Liberty Financial, which offers crypto that would directly be impacted by the package of bills the president is touting, was co-founded in 2024 by Donald and his three sons, Don Jr., Eric, and Barron alongside Zach Witkoff, the son of real estate mogul and Trump foreign policy envoy Steve Witkoff. But at least one lawmaker came away from the Oval Office meeting unmoved by the president. I will not vote for this. The only way to guarantee a ban on a central bank digital currency is through law. The GENIUS Act does not ban CBDC or maintain peoples chain of custody. Revelations 13:16-17 pic.twitter.com/Br9iFFSn3p Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) July 16, 2025 Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida has said she is against CBDCs On Wednesday morning Greene posted: 'I will not vote for this.' 'The only way to guarantee a ban on a central bank digital currency is through law,' she continued. 'The GENIUS Act does not ban CBDC or maintain peoples chain of custody.' Her post featured a screenshot of the Bible verse Revelations 13:16-17, which references the mark of the beast, an end time prophecy that claims before the world ends humanity will be assigned a sort of social credit system 'so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark.' Rep. Luna of Florida similarly pushed back on CBDCs on Tuesday. 'I support crypto but cannot get behind anything that allows for a backdoor to CBDC,' she posted on X. 'There was a vote to allow legislation to come to the floor that would enable that to happen. Thus I voted no.' It remains unclear if the Republicans who met with Trump will flip and vote for the package of crypto bills. Republicans can only afford to lose three votes and still pass legislation on party lines, though there is the possibility that Democrats could support the crypto measures. A tranquil corner of upstate New York has been shaken by fears of terrorism after seven foreign men including five Iranians were caught by federal agents trying to sneak across the US-Canada border. The dramatic arrests occurred on July 1 near Mooers Forks, a sleepy hamlet just miles from the Canadian border, when Border Patrol agents from the Champlain Station intercepted a minivan packed with the seven suspicious men. All the men had previously been arrested for trying to cross into the US illegally, reportedly sparking concern over Iranian sleeper cells operating in the US amid heightened geopolitical tensions. According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the van carried five Iranian nationals and two men from Uzbekistan all now in custody and facing deportation proceedings. 'They are currently detained and pending removal proceedings,' CBP confirmed on Facebook. 'Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety.' The incident unfolded in the Swanton Sector, which spans parts of New York, New Hampshire and Vermont, which has emerged as a hotspot for illegal crossings amid a surge of foreign nationals attempting to enter the US from the north. Tensions are especially high following US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, with security experts warning of Iranian-backed sleeper cells positioned inside the country, lying low and waiting to strike. The sleepy town of Mooers Forks in upstate New York is reportedly on edge after the apprehension of Iranian border jumpers Border guards said the arrests relate to 'national security', though it remains unclear if the detained are linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (pictured) Still, there is no suggestion from CBP that any of the detainees are linked to the Iranian regime or its allied militias, or had planned any violent or even criminal attacks. They could just be economic migrants. Fox News reported that the arrests had stoked 'terror fears' without providing evidence. Jonathan Gilliam, a former FBI special agent and counterterrorism task force officer, sounded the alarm. 'Where these sleeper cells may be is in plain sight,' Gilliam told Fox News earlier this month. 'That's the truly terrifying part they could already be here.' Gilliam linked the growing threat to what he described as lax immigration policies under Joe Biden, arguing foreign operatives could easily exploit asylum loopholes to gain access to the country. 'They can show up at the border, claim asylum, and instead of being properly vetted and held, they're often released into the US with little oversight,' Gilliam said. Other analysts note that Iran would be loath to attack the US right now, as it would likely compel President Donald Trump to launch a series of devastating economic and military actions against Tehran in response. The arrests near Mooers Forks follow a troubling pattern. A 2023 terrorism report from the US State Department outlined several plots involving Iranian nationals on Western soil. They included an assassination plan in New York City, a terror reconnaissance case in London, and multiple Iranian-backed operations in Europe. 'Iran has clearly shown it is willing to use terrorism as a tool of foreign policy,' the report stated. In one case, three individuals tied to Iran were charged in a plot to kill an Iranian dissident on US soil, while other plots led to arrests and expulsions of Iranian officials in Belgium, Albania, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The latest arrests have cast a long shadow over Mooers Forks, a community of some 3,600 farmers, retirees and others nestled among the forests and fields of rural Clinton County. Locals, more accustomed to spotting deer than international fugitives, now find themselves living on the frontline of potential terror infiltration. As national attention remains fixed on the chaos at the southern border, experts say the northern frontier has become an overlooked backdoor one increasingly used by those who wish America harm. In a separate incident, a New Hampshire Green Card holder and avid Trump supporter was recently denied re-entry into the United States after visiting Canada in the same region. Chris Landry, 46, has legally lived in the US since he was three years old and has built a life in Peterborough with his partner and five children. But earlier this month, as he attempted to return home from his yearly trip to his native Canada, he was stopped at the border in Maine with three of his children and barred from re-entry. Frontier guards across the Northeast Swanton Sector have been busy in recent months Chris Landry (pictured) earlier this month attempted to return home from his yearly trip to Canada, where he is a citizen, but he was stopped at the border in Maine with three of his children and barred from re-entry Landry, 46, has legally lived in the US since he was three years old and has built a life and a family in Peterborough Landry was turned away due to charges he faced of marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license in 2004 and 2007. At the time he was given a suspended sentence and paid the fines but said he has had no criminal record since 'They denied me re-entry and said, 'Don't come back or we will detain you,' and the only way for me to get in back was to see an immigration judge,' Landry told NBC 10. 'They pulled me aside and started questioning me about my past convictions in New Hampshire.' After three hours, he was turned away due to charges he faced of marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license in 2004 and 2007. At the time he was given a suspended sentence and paid the fines and said he has had no criminal record since. 'I never expected that I wouldn't be able to go back home,' he told WMUR. 'It was scary. I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.' Keir Starmer suspended a group of serial Labour welfare rebels today as he tried to reassert his authority over his fractious backbenchers. Rachel Maskell, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Neil Duncan-Jordan were stripped of the whip this afternoon for 'persistent breaches of party discipline'. Ms Maskell, the York Central MP, was a leading figure in the rebellion last month that forced the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to all-but abandon plans to trim the UK's spending on disability hand-outs. And the others have all clashed with the government over welfare and other issues including Net Zero and relaxing planning rules. Additionally, three other MPs, former shadow minister Rosena Allin Khan, plus Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin, have been stripped of their roles as trade envoys. All seven voted against the Universal Credit Bill, even after ministers removed every contentious change to personal injury payments (PIP) that it contained. The timing of the disciplinary action comes as Westminster was easing itself into its summer break, which starts next week. But while it shows Sir Keir - who said last week he was a 'hard b*****d' - is unafraid to act, it also risks a civil war within Labour ranks simmering in the weeks ahead. Rachel Maskell, the York MP, was a leading figure in the rebellion last month that forced the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rachel Reeves to all-but abandon plans to trim the UK's spending on disability hand-outs. Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Neil Duncan-Jordan lost the whip for what what described as 'persistent breaches of party discipline'. They were all involved in a major welfare rebellion that forced Keir Starmer to scrap major cuts to the huge disability benefits bill. The action comes weeks after backbenchers managed to water down plans to cut the UK's massive disability benefit bill. And earlier this month, former Labour MP Zarah Sultana formally quit the party and said she would link up with ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn in a new hard Left party. Ms Maskell said she had been suspended for 'standing up for my constituents' over welfare reform. She said she was 'not angry' but 'upset that we are in this place because I believe we are better than that as a party. I believe that strength comes from the backbenches.' Ms Maskell urged the Prime Minister to engage with his backbenchers, saying she wanted to see 'bridges built' and this would 'make him a better Prime Minister.' Mr Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole in Dorset, had consistently refused to toe the line on a range of issues, while Alloa and Grangemouth's Mr Leishman had also criticised plans to close a local oil refinery. Mr Hinchliff, the North East Hertfordshire MP, has attacked Angela Rayner's planning reform that would make it easier to build on the green belt, and rebelled over welfare cuts. Mr Duncan-Jordan confirmed he had been suspended, telling the Politics Home website: 'Since being elected I have consistently spoken up for my constituents on a range of issues, including most recently on cuts to disability benefits. 'I understood this could come at a cost, but I couldn't support making disabled people poorer. 'Although I've been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party today, I've been part of the Labour and trade union movement for 40 years and remain as committed as ever to its values. 'To my constituents: it's business as usual. I remain your hardworking local MP, I will continue to take up your concerns and speak up for Poole.' Additionally, three other MPs, former shadow minister Rosena Allin Khan, plus Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin, have been stripped of their roles as trade envoys. Mr Leishman added: 'I have voted against the Government on issues because I want to effectively represent and be the voice for communities across Alloa and Grangemouth. 'I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences.' The Universal Credit Bill cleared the Commons after elements to restrict eligibility to Pip were scrapped, with any changes postponed until after a review led by disability minister Sir Stephen Timms. Mr Leishman called for the welfare law to be withdrawn, even in the essentially meaningless form it finally passed the Commons at the end of June. The MP for Alloa and Grangemouth voted in favour of a cross-party amendment that would have stopped the Bill before second reading. At the time he said: 'Today was a prime example in how not to legislate. 'A shambolic afternoon with policy being made up off the cuff and on the notion of promises to come. 'The Government should do the honourable and decent thing and withdraw this dreadful Bill.' Liz Kendall insisted this morning that the Government's welfare reforms were in 'the right place' now after she was forced to scrap most of the planned changes in the face of a Labour revolt. The Work and Pensions Secretary acknowledged it had been a 'bumpy ride' but the review into the personal independence payment (Pip) would now be able to take a proper look at the system in conjunction with disabled people. Ms Kendall insisted the reforms had not been motivated by the Treasury's desire to cut spending but were driven by a desire to end a situation where people became dependent on benefits rather than working. This follows attack on the business and himself The Burgatory boss has announced he will step down amidst rising debt and a liquidation probe into his business. Founder and CEO of the Melbourne-based restaurant, Hash Tayeh, said he was leaving the role of of food and beverage company QSR Collective CEO Wednesday. It was with a heavy heart that he announced his decision on Instagram. 'The decision hasn't come lightly, but it comes with complete conviction,' he wrote. 'When I started Burgertory, it was never just about burgers. It was about building something unapologetically bold.' His departure comes after the fast food chain became Australia's first to introduce 'a profit-sharing model across all staff, not just the boardroom'. Despite Mr Tayeh's leaving he insisted that it still had plans to 'take on the world'. A location is still expected to launch in the Philippines later this year. Founder and CEO of the Melbourne-based restaurant chain, Hash Tayeh, announced he was leaving the role Wednesday Mr Tayeh said he was leaving to ensure the brand continued its growth Burgertory has been named the largest independently owner burger chain in the country The 35-year-old burger boss said he was leaving so that his store could continue to grow. 'This isn't me stepping away because we're winding down, this is me stepping aside so Burgertory can soar higher,' he wrote. Mr Tayeh is a Palestinian-Australian businessman who caught a lot of flack for his ventures into activism amidst the Israel-Hamas war. He vocally advocated for his fellow Palestinians across protests and online. Previously Mr Tayeh had a branch of his gourmet burger chain firebombed after he led chants at a pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne in late 2023. Burgertory's Caulfield branch burned down early in the morning in November although no one was inside at the time. Ten fire crews battled to extinguish the blaze, which appears to have gutted the restaurant and shattered its glass windows, for around half an hour. The chain is Australia's largest independently-owned burger restaurant after founding it in 2018. In 2023 Mr Tayeh was filmed vocally supporting Palestine amidst the Israel-Hamas war Following this incident one of Mr Tayeh's Melbourne branches was firebombed before his own home was It's owner however had sparked controversy for leading cries of 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free' at a local protest. Many interpret the chant as a call for the destruction of Israel. Mr Tayeh vehemently denies he is anti-Semitic and has since asserted he has the deepest sympathy for civilian victims in both Palestine and Israel. The inferno was investigated at the time. Mr Tayeh and his family moved into a safe house after this attack. One year later his own home was allegedly firebombed while he and his family were asleep. Mr Tayeh claimed these alleged attacks had been sparked by his vocal support of Palestine in his retirement post. 'The reality is, I've been subjected to targeted attacks, politically motivated smears, and ongoing harassment, not because of any wrongdoing, but because I've dared to speak out against injustice,' he said. 'While I will never apologise for my activism, or my voice, I cannot allow these attacks to become collateral damage for the people who've helped build this empire.' This is the astonishing moment Russian soldiers surrendered to a Ukrainian patrol made up entirely of robots and drones. Footage shows both FPV and kamikaze ground drones striking a Russian dugout, before troops emerge holding a handwritten sign reading 'We want to surrender'. In a historic first, the soldiers were taken prisoner without a single Ukrainian infantryman present - marking the worlds first successful combat capture using only unmanned aerial and ground drones. The operation, conducted by the Third Assault Brigade on July 8 or 9 in Kharkiv Oblast, allowed the Ukrainians to retake territory without their soldiers firing a single bullet. During the assault, which lasted just 15 minutes, FPV drones first struck Russian dugouts, causing chaos among the troops. Moments later, unmanned ground vehicles loaded with powerful explosives moved toward the already battered fortification. As the first drone - reportedly carrying an anti-tank mine - detonated, the Russian soldiers realised the imminent danger and quickly created a cardboard sign to signal their surrender before a second drone could strike. In a historic first, Russian soldiers were taken prisoner without a single Ukrainian infantryman present - marking the worlds first successful combat capture using only unmanned aerial and ground drones This is the astonishing moment Vladimir Putin 's soldiers surrendered to a Ukrainian patrol made up entirely of robots Footage shows both FPV and kamikaze ground drones striking a Russian dugout, before troops emerge holding a handwritten sign reading 'We want to surrender' An overhead drone then guided the Russians directly to Ukrainian lines, where they were taken prisoner without resistance. Ukrainian infantry later moved in to secure the captured position - without suffering a single casualty. Kiev had previously attempted to gain control of the area through traditional means, but without success. The logic behind the combined use of aerial and ground drones is simple but effective - with each having unique capabilities. While aerial drones excel in reconnaissance, target identification, and precision strikes, ground-based UGVs can carry a far larger amount of explosives. It comes after in March Ukraine's first all-robot offensive destroyed a Russian frontline unit without a single soldier being on the ground. The attack on a Russian position north of the embattled Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, saw the nation's 13th National Guard Brigade Khartiya launch around 50 unmanned aerial vehicles. An overhead drone then guided the Russians directly to Ukrainian lines, where they were taken prisoner without resistance During the assault, which lasted just 15 minutes, FPV drones first struck Russian dugouts, causing chaos among the troops Moments later, unmanned ground vehicles loaded with powerful explosives moved toward the already battered fortification As the first drone - reportedly carrying an anti-tank mine - detonated, the Russian soldiers realised the imminent danger and quickly created a cardboard sign to signal their surrender before a second drone could strike The five-hour attack, believed to be the first of its kind, left several Russian corpses in its wake, and has now lead to other Ukrainian units planning similar missions. Lt. Andriy Kopach, who specialises in land drones, told the Wall Street Journal that as the early morning assault began, Ukrainian troops knelt in deep snow to release five unmanned ground vehicles at different spots several miles from the front-line to prevent crossing signals and confusing the robots. These five ground vehicles were mounted with massive machine guns and ammunition belts. Video footage showed the ground vehicles traipsing across snow-covered land near Kharkiv. They were assisted by a swarm of first-person-view (FPV) drones, including one mounted with an assault rifle and many that dropped explosives, as they approached enemy lines. All of this was coordinated from a command post near the frontline. Video footage showed several Ukrainian soldiers sitting in a command post in front of dozens of screens, on which real-time battle information was relayed to them from the swarm of land and air drones at their disposal. One clip appeared to show a mobile land drone driving towards a Russian bunker during the battle and detonating itself. Travis Decker appeared to be struggling mentally when he slammed his truck against the back of a car at a red light days before he allegedly killed his daughters. It was the second time in three weeks that the former Army Ranger had crashed his truck against the back of another vehicle, but police let him go. Three days later, Decker is believed to have strangled his three young children - Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 - at a campsite outside Leavenworth, Washington. He allegedly dumped their bodies and his truck, and has been wanted on murder charges since. Decker's ex-wife, Whitney, said he had been suffering from mental health issues in recent years and was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. The accused family annihilator had reportedly been living in his truck and talking about getting rid of his dog because of his financial situation. Still, Whitney told police she didn't believe Decker was dangerous, and that he loved his daughters, with whom he had a 'good relationship.' But dashcam footage from the May 27 traffic stop has added to the image of Decker's poor mental state at the time. Decker appeared in the 19-minute video with his arms crossed and a bored expression before he leaned on his car and then sat on the bumper. Travis Decker is seen on police footage three days before he allegedly killed his three daughters and went missing Decker is accused of killing his three daughters, Paityn, 9, Evelyn, 8, and Olivia, 5 Travis Decker, 33, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping for the deaths of his three daughters At one point, he can be seen resting his head on his truck bed as the other driver and police officer interact. After the incident, the other driver told KING 5, which obtained the video, that Decker appeared 'nervous and fidgety' and 'kept telling me not to call police' claiming he would go to jail over the accident. Decker was involved in two car crashes that were three weeks apart. His ex-wife had told a judge that he had been living out of his truck When the driver told Decker he had to call police to report the crash, he said the alleged killer's body language was 'almost intimidating.' 'I could tell he was not in his full senses,' the driver added. At the end of the video, Decker shook the driver's hand for nine seconds. When the driver tried to pull away, Decker continued asking if he was going to be okay, the driver said. The traffic stop happened three days before Decker picked up his daughters at their mother's house for the last time, according to police. Whitney called police after Decker failed to bring them back. She told cops he was 'quieter than usual' when he collected the girls, which was 'out of character' for him. Decker was court-mandated to receive mental health treatment and domestic violence anger management counseling but had refused. Police said he was homeless and living out of his car. Decker has been wanted since June 2, when officials found his truck and the bodies of his three daughters at a campground outside Leavenworth, Washington Authorities have offered a reward of up to $20,000 for information that leads to Decker's arrest On June 2, Decker's vehicle was found, and authorities discovered his daughters' remains at the campground. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and kidnapping, but police never found him. Reports swirled two days later that Decker was spotted in Idaho, but authorities later dispelled the rumors. An autopsy then confirmed the horrific cause of death for all three girls was suffocation, and their deaths were ruled a homicide. Authorities later said there was no evidence that Decker was still alive as the sheriff's office pivoted their search to include the use of cadaver dogs. But some experts, including law enforcement and security analyst Todd McGhee, said Decker's extensive military background may have enabled him to live in the wilderness undetected. Decker joined the Army in 2013 and served in Afghanistan before transferring to the Washington National Guard in 2021, a communications director for the Washington Military Department previously confirmed to the Daily Mail. The Guard was in the process of a disciplinary discharge due to Decker's absences when his daughters were killed. A quick-thinking mother and son were rescued from a massive California forest after getting lost on their way to a camping trip. Tami, 49, and her nine-year-old son, Stirling, were driving from Sacramento to a Cub Scouts trip at Camp Wolfeboro in Calaveras County on Friday. However, Tami took a wrong turn and her car got stuck after the undercarriage hit a large bump. 'I started trying to call 911. I couldn't get any calls to go through,' Tami, who did not give her last name, told ABC10. '[Stirling] started, blowing his Cub Scout whistle. He had learned what to do with that, and so we kept trying that for hours and eventually we realized we were gonna be stuck there for the night.' After spending the night in the car, the mother and son duo decided to go search for help and left notes along the way in case anyone found them. 'HELP! Me and my son are stranded with no service and can't call 911,' one note said. 'We are ahead, up the road to the right. Please call 911 to get help for us.' A second note said, 'HELP. Me and my son are stranded up the road to the right. Please get help for us. Follow the strips of brown sheet. Thank you!' Tami (right), 49, and her nine-year-old son, Stirling (left), got lost in a California forest while driving to a Cub Scout camping trip Rescuers were able to find the mother and son thanks to notes they left with directions to where they were located Thankfully, members of the Calaveras County Volunteer Search and Rescue Team discovered the note and were able to bring the mother and son to safety. 'We didn't want to get lost from our car, so we did leave a note on our car saying that we were walking away by foot,' Tami said. 'I had a sheet in the car, so I, I tore the sheet up and we took the strips with us, and everywhere we walked, we hung those on the trees so that we would be able to get back to the car.' When Tami and Sterling didn't show up at camp, the Calaveras County Dispatch Center received a report that the mother and son duo were overdue and not answering their phones. The Calaveras County Volunteer Team happened to be conducting its monthly training session nearby and were sent to look for the pair, according to the sheriff's office. 'Very scary experience and the longer we were out there,' said Tami. 'The more we were worried that nobody was gonna come for us. 'Then we heard another honk and I turned around and I saw this truck coming down the road and it was just the best feeling ever.' Due to the isolated location where rescuers found Tami and Sterling, they were unable to communicate their discovery to the command post via conventional radio frequencies or cell phone. Tami took a wrong turn and her car got stuck after the undercarriage hit a large bump As they were out searching, Stirling (pictured) blew his Cub Scout whistle to signal for help while his mother left the notes 'They utilized an amateur radio frequency, commonly known as HAM radio, to establish communication,' the Calaveras County Sheriff's Office said. 'After broadcasting "emergency traffic" on the HAM radio, their call was immediately answered by a retired El Dorado County Communications Supervisor who was a HAM Operator monitoring frequencies from his home.' Finally, rescuers were able to connect with their team and get the necessary equipment to recover Tami's car and get them back to their loved ones. 'It was just a very scary experience. In general, it was just really scary and and I'm also really emotional with all the support we got our friends, our family that got on the phones calling hospitals, calling 911,' Tami said. 'All the search and rescue people that helped us, they were, they were just, it's so amazing how dedicated they are.' Another top Biden aide is refusing to participate in House Republicans' investigation into the former President's mental decline. Anthony Bernal, a former aide to former first lady Jill Biden, appeared on Capitol Hill Wednesday under subpoena. Bernal, the longtime Biden aide nicknamed 'Jill's husband,' was slapped with a subpoena by Republicans last month after he missed a session to testify on former President Joe Biden's mental health. Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer noted that 'its no surprise that Anthony Bernal is pleading the Fifth Amendment to shield himself from criminal liability.' 'During his deposition today, Mr. Bernal pleaded the Fifth when asked if any unelected official or family members executed the duties of the President and if Joe Biden ever instructed him to lie about his health,' Comer added in a statement posted on X Wednesday morning. Bernal is the second former top Biden White House aide to plead the Fifth Amendment protection against 'self-incrimination' during his testimony to Congress. Joe Biden's personal physician did so last Wednesday. Dr. Kevin O'Connor was also on Capitol Hill, under subpoena last week, as part of Comer's probe into Biden's mental capabilities while in office. Comer said Biden's longtime personal doctor pleaded the fifth and argued it shows 'there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden's cognitive decline.' Bernal's initial refusal to appear came after President Donald Trump's administration waived executive privilege for Bernal and other aides who were called to testify about the former president. 'With no privilege left to hide behind, Mr. Bernal is now running scared, desperate to bury the truth,' Comer said. Anthony Bernal, aide to former first lady Jill Biden, arrives to testify before the House Oversight Committee at the Rayburn House Office Building, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington Anthony Bernal and Jill Biden in June 2024 in Wilmington, Del., outside of Hunter Biden's trial Rep. James Comer (R-KY) speaks to a reporter as he arrives for a House Republican conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on May 6, 2025 in Washington, DC. Executive privilege guarantees aides ability to speak frankly to a president by giving the president authority to withhold certain information from Congress. It is not unusual for one administration to waive it for another. Biden's administration, for example, waved it for Trump aides who were subpoenaed by Democrats on the special committee looking into the January 6th insurrection Bernal has worked for the Biden family since Joe Biden served as vice president. He worked for Jill Biden in the East Wing when she was first lady. But he had an outsized influence over the couple and over White House operations. He continues to work for them. Comer and fellow Republicans are investigating whether senior Biden aides played any role in keeping quite concerns about the 82-year-old's mental health capacities. The first Biden aide, Neera Tanden, appeared before lawmakers on last month for a sworn deposition. She told reporters afterward that there was 'absolutely not' an effort by aides to disguise Biden's mental state. 'I answered every question, was pleased to discuss my public service, and it was a thorough process, and I'm glad I answered everyone's question,' she said. Comer, however, said Tanden revealed she was the one who controlled access to Biden's autopen. Tanden, who served as staff secretary, said she had 'minimal interaction' with the president and sent numerous 'decision memos' to an 'inner circle' of White House advisers for approval. In an interview with the New York Times which was published this past Sunday, former President Joe Biden revealed that he made 'every decision' during his tenure in office. Republicans are investigating if aides covered up President Joe Biden's mental health U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House on July 15, 2025 in Washington, DC But, the former President also revealed that when it came to large groups of people, he did not individually approve the names of every single person he pardoned during his final months in the White House. Instead, he signed off on the criteria and standards he wanted to be used to determine which criminals received reduced sentences. This placed offenders into categories, some of which were issued sweeping pardons. His decision to speak out on the issue comes after Republicans have spent months demonizing the autopen's usage and questioning whether Biden was ever even aware of the decisions being made. President Donald Trump called his predecessor's autopen use 'maybe one of the biggest scandals that we've had in 50-100 years,' during a press conference in the Oval Office Monday. 'This is a tremendous scandal... I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing. I guarantee it,' Trump added at the time. The White House announced Tuesday that despite the Congressional investigations, it was opening it's own inquiry into Biden's autopen usage. The investigation is to be conducted by the White House counsel's office. A couple who had 21 surrogate children including 17 toddlers didn't tell surrogates about the huge army of youngsters they were building, it is claimed. Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38, who were arrested and charged in May, also hired a fleet of abusive nannies to care for their mega-brood, it was alleged Wednesday. The age-gap pair, who lived in an enormous $4.1 million mansion in Arcadia, just north of Los Angeles, are said to have sought the help of a huge fleet of surrogates because Silvia wanted a huge family. Details of their astonishing family emerged this week after all 21 of the children were taken into custody by social services. And a haunting photo of one of the babies emerged online after the infant's surrogate mother Kayla Elliot, 27, launched a bid to get the baby back. Elliott says she was told the baby was going to a loving family who only had one child. But CBS Los Angeles said the huge brood of children kept secret by Xuan and Zhang were aged between two months-old and 13 years-old, with seventeen aged three or under. One of the surrogate mothers who gave up her child to the couple, Kayle Elliot, 27, said she was heartbroken to discover that her baby girl was not given to a loving family with only one child, as she had been told A California couple who acquired 21 surrogate-born children kept them in a hotel-style $4.1 million mansion where they were abused, police say Investigators believe the couple solicited babies from surrogate mothers from around the country, none of whom knew they were carrying embryos for the same couple at the same time. They were busted after security cameras in the home allegedly showed their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, 'physically and verbally' abusing the children, and a warrant has been issued for her arrest. Neighbors said the sprawling nine-bedroom mansion is set up like a hotel. Michael Bui, who also lives on Camino Real Avenue, said he was shocked that children were possibly harmed. 'Its a horrible thing; I cant believe it. 'I dont know what they did with the children. Did they send them to school? I dont know why no one found out about the people who carried the children . Twenty-one children! What do you want to do with all of those children? I pass by here mostly every day, but I never see people go in and out. No, I never heard (any kids crying). Bui said during the 25 years hes lived in the neighborhood, hes seen a for sale sign posted a few times about 4 or 5 years ago. Bui, who has grown children of his own, teared up when he spoke about the alleged abuse inflicted on at least one of the children who lived in the home. I feel horrible. But I say, What goes around comes around. People who are evil the evil will go after them. Another neighbor, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she was shocked to hear that 21 children lived there because she never saw any toys, strollers, or vans in the yard. She said during the pandemic, the home went up for sale, but she never saw people moving in the home. She said the block is full of retirees and is very quiet. Most of the residents keep to themselves. A mail carrier who has worked on the block for years said he also has never seen the residents of the home or see any children when he delivers the mail. Art Romero told CBS News that inside there was the feeling of a hotel clerk. Zhang has denied the allegations, and told KTLA that officials are 'misguided and wrong... We look forward to vindicating any such claims at the appropriate time when and if any actions are brought.' Despite Zhang's alleged claim that she just wanted a large family, one expert fears the mega-family may have been connected to trafficking. Guojun Xuan, 65, (left) and his partner Silvia Zhang, 38, (right) were arrested for felony child endangerment in May, before a search warrant found they had 21 children from surrogate mothers, cops said Neighbors said the couple's lavish mansion was set up 'like a hotel', with a lobby and nine bedrooms Boxers of diapers and toys are seen in the dumpsters outside the home in Arcadia In a GoFundMe set up by Kayla Elliot as she tries to regain custody of her baby girl, she wrote that her child 'deserves stability, love, and a safe home.' All of the children were taken into the custody of Department of Children and Family Services, with Elliot saying she wants to take her home to Texas to be 'in a nurturing environment rather than staying in foster care.' Elliot told ABC7 that she believed the couple were clients of a surrogate agency, however cops now believe they were allegedly running the agency themselves. 'It's horrific, it's disturbing, it's damaging emotionally,' she said. Elliot said the couple told her they only had one other child, and is now hoping to get custody of the child she bore for them. 'These agencies, we're supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency - that was not disclosed at all beforehand,' she added. Elliot said she is now hoping to regain custody of the child she bore for the couple, and described the allegations as 'horrific, disturbing, (and) damaging emotionally' Xuan and Zhang were released following their arrest in May, but Arcadia police say they are still searching for Li, the nanny, who allegedly abused the children in the home. Detectives told CBS News that other nannies employed by the couple were also seen abusing the children in home security cameras. Although having dozens of children through surrogates is not illegal, officials said they are investigating the startling find inside the home. The sheer number of children involved and the fact many are so close in age to one another has raised alarm bells. Kallie Fell, executive director of the nonprofit Center of Bioethics and Culture, told ABC7 that while the couple may not have broken the law by having so many surrogate children, the situation made her fear they were part of a human trafficking ring. Fell, who is working with Elliot, said that the surrogacy industry is unregulated, and oftentimes, 'anything goes.' 'And these clinics, these agencies are not regulated by any governing body,' she said. 'That to me smells of trafficking... What are the intentions of having that many children at home through these assisted reproductive technologies?' Officials issued an arrest warrant for their nanny Chunmei Li, 56, (pictured), who allegedly abused the children 'verbally and physically' It is unclear what the couple do for work or how they acquired their considerable wealth, with public records showing they are connected to a number of investment firms. Arcadia police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo said that the couple 'took legal guardianship of those kids' after they were born through surrogates, before Li allegedly abused the children as their nanny. 'The discipline, both verbally and physical, was severe to the point where it supported the beliefs that child abuse was occurring inside the home Cieadlo said. The Arcadia police said the FBI has joined its investigation into a suspected mass-surrogacy operation owned and ran by Xuan and Zhang. A New York airport that was beloved by John F. Kennedy Jr. will be demolished and turned into a park for the next generation. Lufker Airport in East Moriches, Long Island, has been given the green light to be knocked down by the Town of Brookhaven on Thursday. The 2,300-foot airfield will become a public park that will be used for generations. 'Transforming this site into permanent open space reflects our commitment to land preservation, environmental stewardship, and community well-being,' Town Supervisor Dan Panico said. 'This decision honors the past while securing a more sustainable and accessible future.' The airport has been used by A-listers like JFK and his wife, Carolyn Bassett-Kennedy, both whom died in a plane crash in July 1999 in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. John was also a certified pilot and flew often. Pan American Airlines founder Juan Trippe, and actor Cliff Robertson also used the Long Island airport. And former New York Governor George Pataki flew the New York State helicopter to the airport while visiting Suffolk County. It was a popular 30-acre airfield for celebrities, as it provided coverage from paparazzi, especially compared to the more busy spots on the island. Lufker Airport in East Moriches, Long Island, has been given the green light to be knocked down by the Town of Brookhaven on Thursday. The 2,300-foot airfield will become a public park that will be used for generations It was a popular 30-acre airfield for celebrities like JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bassette-Kennedy , as it provided coverage from paparazzi, especially compared to the more busy spots on the island. The airport has been used by A-listers like JFK Jr. and his wife, Carolyn Bassett-Kennedy, as well as Pan American Airlines founder Juan Trippe, and actor Cliff Robertson The acquisition cost $5.28million and was paid for mainly by Brookhaven, while 25 percent was covered by Suffolk County. The labor and demolition are estimated to cost $75,000. The privately-owned airport originally went up for sale in 2019 for $11.5million and dropped to $8million in 2020. Before the land housed the airport, it was a farm that harvested cabbages and melons until the 1940s. 'Brookhaven extends its gratitude to aviation enthusiasts and local residents whose input helped guide this effort,' a press release read. 'While saying goodbye to Lufker Airport is bittersweet, Brookhaven embraces its transformation as a gateway to nature and a living tribute to the towns evolving story.' A breathtaking California village has been left outraged after a 'crown jewel' plot of coastal land hit the market for $6.95 million - making residents feel they might never get to bask in its glory. The Albion Headlands - an iconic 84 acres of crashing waves, raw bluffs and hills off the Mendocino Coast - is now up for sale, giving its prospective buyer a chance to not just own it, but subdivide it into 16 residential parcels. The private beauty spot has long been known as a staple in Albion - about 15 miles outside of Fort Bragg - that has majestic and calming views. But now, if a wealthy buyer swoops in to take the land, locals fear they might never get to enjoy it for themselves. For Chris Skyhawk, a longtime Mendocino Coast resident, the view alone takes his breath away and gives him a feeling 'you can just feel in your soul when you sit up there and just get real quiet and look,' he told SFGATE. News of the land's listing has not sat well with him, and he especially didn't favor the idea of 'reimagining' the highlands - the language that was used in Sotheby's International Realty listing for the plot. Skyhawk believes the sale of the land is going against what it is all about, adding: 'Lets reimagine heaven. How can we improve it?' 'Were becoming kind of a Disneyland for rich people,' Skyhawk said. The Albion Headlands - an iconic 84 acres of crashing waves , raw bluffs and hills in off the Mendocino Coast - is now up for sale, giving its prospective buyer a chance to not just own it, but subdivide it into 16 residential parcels Chris Skyhawk, a longtime Mendocino Coast resident, is against the new sale and he feels rich people can be up there now and enjoy the view' He went on to say that the privatization of the area is 'part of the sin of capitalism,' adding that 'rich people can be up there now and enjoy the view.' For him, redeveloping the Albion Highlands 'is about as popular as offshore oil drilling.' Despite Skyhawk's views, Justin Nadeau, the broker representing the listing, said he has made conservation a major point in the sale - so much so that he contacted the Mendocino Land Trust, local tribal leaders and a private contact he thinks would help protect the sacred land. 'The first party, Mendocino Land Trust, stepped up right away and theyve made this public,' he told the outlet. 'My intentions of this is not just, "Hey lets get this great listing and sell off this beautiful chunk of land, you know, to make a bunch of money",' Nadeau continued. In fact, Conrad Kramer, executive director of the Mendocino Land Trust, said the non-profit is actively trying to purchase the land so they can be the ones to give the community what it wants. 'Some very rich person or developer could still swoop in and grab it,' Kramer said. 'We think that that wont happen right away, and Im knocking on wood here.' The land trust was founded in 1976 and helps protect thousands of acres of land along California's North Coast. Although the group usually helps out through conservation easements, Kramer said they have decided to throw all their eggs in one basket for the highlands. Kramer and the rest of the non-profit believe that purchasing the land is the only way it can be made open to the public. The private beauty spot has long been known as a staple in Albion - about 15 miles outside of Fort Bragg - that has majestic and calming views Despite Skyhawk's views, Justin Nadeau, the broker representing the listing, said he has made conservation a major point in the sale Unfortunately, there is only so much money they can offer. 'We have to get an appraisal done and we cant pay more than that appraised value,' Kramer explained. Personally, he believes the current asking price is 'considerably over the actual value,' so if the seller does not accept their number 'we might be out of luck.' 'We think that theyll come in and maybe cover half of the price of this property. And then the rest will have to come from somewhere else,' he added. Donations for the cause have already been made by the group's supporters, Kramer said, adding that they haven't launched an official campaign for it. In response to Skyhawk's comment on how the land sale was marketed, Nadeau clarified what he meant by the term 'reimagining.' 'When I talk about reimagining the future of the Albion Headlands, Im actually talking about reimagining it in a way for the public to be there and use it. 'The current imagination of the property is houses and condos,' he explained. The realtor said he also took time to speak with locals who have lived in the area for about five to six decades. As he did so, he quickly noticed a pattern between them all - that 'they've never actually been out there [the highlands].' Although Nadeau wants the land to be sold to someone who will put the interest of the community before their own, he said there is still a chance it could be snagged and built on - leaving it private Conrad Kramer, executive director of the Mendocino Land Trust, said the non-profit is actively trying to purchase the land so they can be the ones to give the community what it wants According to him, the listing has sparked frustrations about the lack of open space and public ownership. Because the Albion Headlands is considered private land, those who access it are technically trespassing, Tom Wodetzki, another longtime resident, told the outlet. 'Albion is about the only community on the coast that doesnt have its own headlands proper,' the environmental advocate said, pointing to other nearby towns - Little River, Mendocino, Fort Bragg, and Cleone - that all have public headland trails. 'People have not been able to go up there without trespassing,' Wodetzki said. Because of the land's restrictions, he thinks it's 'extra important for locals to get our way [that] we can go watch the sunset from the headlands.' Although Nadeau wants the land to be sold to someone who will put the interest of the community before their own, he said there is still a chance it could be snagged and built on, leaving it private. 'If a private individual decides, "Hey, Im going to buy the property and Im going to build a single house," the property is then basically lost to the public forever,' he said. A Syrian asylum seeker appeared in court accused with the rape of a young woman in a public toilet on Bournemouth seafront on Wednesday. Mohammed Abdullah, 18, allegedly attacked the 20-year-old woman in the toilet in Undercliff Drive, Bournemouth, at about 2am on July 6. Dorset Police originally arrested a 31-year-old Bournemouth man in connection with the incident but he was later released with no further action taken. Abdullah, who arrived in Britain as an asylum seeker in 2023 and has been granted permanent leave to remain here, was subsequently arrested at his home address in West Drayton, Middlesex, on Monday. He appeared at Poole Magistrates' Court charged with rape and sexual assault. Several of his family members watched on from the public gallery as he spoke only to confirm his name, age and address via an Arabic interpreter during the hearing. Harry Price-Smith, defending, said: 'He's originally from Syria and came to this country with his family two years ago as an asylum seeker, and has been granted indefinite leave to remain. 'His mother, father, two sisters and a family friend are all here in court to support him.' Mohammed Abdullah, 18, allegedly attacked and raped a 20-year-old woman in the toilet on Bournemouth seafront on Wednesday July 6 (Abdullah's family leaving court) The attack allegedly occurred at Undercliff Drive, Bournemouth, at around 2am (pictured) Abdullah, a student, was granted conditional bail by magistrates at Poole Magistrates Court (pictured) but has been remanded in custody while the prosecution appeals the decision Abdullah, a student, was granted conditional bail by magistrates but has been remanded in custody while the prosecution appeals the decision. He is due to appear at Bournemouth Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on August 14. Magistrate chair Jim Hoggart said: 'You are going to be placed on remand until the matter can be heard by a crown court in the next few days.' Detective Inspector Shaun Inkpen, of the Dorset Police Major Crime Investigation Team (MCIT), said: 'After extensive enquiries, an 18-year-old man from the West Drayton area of Middlesex was arrested on suspicion of rape and sexual assault. 'After consulting with our colleagues in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), charges were authorised in respect of rape and sexual assault. 'I would like to pass on my thanks to the members of the public who have come forward and assisted our investigation. 'The victim is continuing to be supported and has been updated with the developments in the investigation.' A Seattle judge has ordered that a popular beach be closed because it has become a hot spot for public sex and nudity. King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung has given the city two weeks to handle the ongoing inappropriate behavior occurring at Denny Blaine Park. The waterfront park has become known as a nudist spot for over 50 years and is particularly popular among the LGBTQ community, though it is not specifically designated by Seattle Parks and Recreation as a clothing optional park. Residents of the Denny Blaine area have reported an escalation in aggressive sexual behaviors over the last few years at the park, and neighbors organized a group - Denny Blaine Park for All - to combat the issue. As part of the lawsuit that the group filed, they provided video evidence of people masturbating in the park. The group wrote an open letter to the community which detailed some of the troubling incidents, including a man exposing himself to a female neighbor while making sexually aggressive remarks, and another nude man masturbating on the hood of his car for over six hours. Four public masturbation incidents occurred in a single week this March, according to the open letter, and the community has been plagued by ongoing trespassing, indecent exposures and 'menacing behavior'. Chung ruled that the sexual behavior and nudity at the park constitutes a 'public nuisance' in a preliminary injunction issued Monday. A Seattle judge has ordered that popular beach, Denny Blaine Park (pictured), be closed because it has become a hot spot for public sex and nudity Denny Blaine Park has become known as a nudist spot for over 50 years, though it is not specifically designated by Seattle Parks and Recreation as a clothing optional park King County Superior Court Judge Samuel Chung (pictured) has given the city two weeks to handle the ongoing inappropriate behavior occurring at Denny Blaine Park Lee Keller, a spokesperson for Denny Blaine Park for All, said, 'At a minimum, we need the law upheld.' 'This gives the city an opportunity for 14 days to get a plan together, so thats what the judge is asking for,' Keller continued. 'These sexual misconducts, lewd activity, masturbation, and public sex acts need to stop. However the city wants to do that; thats up to them.' Denny Blaine Park for All members said they brought the lawsuit about after 'exhausting every possibility' of trying to get the city to step in and handle the issue. It is unclear exactly how the city plans to address the new law, but Mayor Bruce Harrell on Tuesday called Chung's order an 'opportunity' to talk with different communities who use the park. 'We recognize the historical significance of that park,' the mayor told KOMO News. 'I've also made it clear that some of the unacceptable behaviors, some of the lewd behaviors, there's no place for that at any park... we'll see with the city attorney's office how they proceed,' Harrell continued. Although nudity is generally considered legal in the city of Seattle, Judge Chung said that nudity must be addressed as part of the city's plan to combat nuisances at the park. Friends of Denny Blaine is a group that supports allowing nudity in the park. Residents of the Denny Blaine area have reported an escalation in aggressive sexual behaviors over the last few years at the park, and neighbors organized a group - Denny Blaine Park for All - to combat the issue It is unclear exactly how the city plans to address the new law, but Mayor Bruce Harrell on Tuesday called Chung's order an 'opportunity' to talk with different communities who use the park Some of the incidents at the beach include a man exposing himself to a female neighbor while making sexually aggressive remarks, and another nude man masturbating on the hood of his car for over six hours The group said that Chung's ruling 'erroneously links harassment and other misconduct to general nude usage of the park.' A statement from the group said, 'An enormously overwhelming majority of nude usage of the beach by thousands of Seattleites each year is friendly, legal, and positive.' 'Our aim is to ensure the case, and the city's response, focuses solely on actual criminal activity -- public masturbation and sexual harassment -- which cannot be conflated with mere nudity,' the statement continued - adding that non-sexual nudity is protected free expression under the First Amendment. Friends of Denny Blaine says the group has been working with park users, the parks department, Seattle police and neighbors to handle issues arising at the park. The mother of a British tourist who has been missing for a year after vanishing in Sardinia has been sent messages saying: 'I tried to believe it was an accident.' Michael Frison, 26, from Chard in Somerset, disappeared in rural Luras on July 13, 2024 while staying with friend Niomi Orlandini, 27, from Jersey. His mother, Cristina Pittalis, said that the pair had met online in July 2023 and seen each other in person just once before he asked her to join him on the Italian island. While in Sardinia, Ms Orlandini called Ms Pittalis to say her son had come back from a walk in a confused state, rested, and then ventured off again without returning. The mother-of-two told The Sun that she has now received 'anonymous and disturbing Facebook messages' from someone she believes may know more. The messages, she said, 'reference guilty, fear, and the ability to remain silent.' 'I tried to forget. I tried to believe it was an accident. But the fear it doesnt go,' one message read, according to The Sun. Ms Pittalis has since moved back to Sardinia, where she was born, in the hopes of finding Mr Frison, but says she has found nothing to explain his disappearance. Earlier this week, she told Sky News that she was living a 'never-ending nightmare' and called for Interpol to intervene. Michael Frison (left) from Chard, in Somerset, disappeared after going for a trek in rural Luras on July 13, 2024. Pictured here with his mother Cristina Pittalis While in Sardinia, Ms Orlandini called Ms Pittalis to say her son had come back from a walk in a confused state, rested, and then ventured off again without returning Your browser does not support iframes. Mr Frison, who grew up in Bristol, flew from Bristol Airport to Olbia on July 2 last year to celebrate his 25th birthday and his grandmother's 70th. He asked his friend to join him on the island and cancelled his return flight home to stay with her for another week. Ms Pittalis understands that they left the grandparents' home together on July 12 and went to volunteer on a farm in return for food and lodging. They stayed in a tent near the German couple that owned the land. Mr Frison went missing on July 13. He is understood to have gone for a walk and returned 'confused', with symptoms of heatstroke. He left on another walk and never came back. Ms Orlandini found his clothes, including his trainers, nearby. 'Human beings do not disappear from the face of earth without leaving traces unless [] something extremely bad happened to them,' Ms Pittalis told Sky News. She said it was 'completely out of character' for him to leave barefoot, and assessed it 'extremely unlikely' he was suffering from heatstroke. He had lived on the island before and knew the climate, she said. Ms Pittalis previously said the last message she received from her son was the night before he went missing saying he would call her the next day. The mother revealed in October it was 'out of character' for her son to vanish without contacting his family. While in Sardinia, Ms Orlandini (pictured) called Ms Pittalis to say her son had come back from a walk in a confused state, rested, and then ventured off again without returning Mr Frison, (pictured) who grew up in Bristol, had been visiting family while volunteering in the northern side of the island before he disappeared A fundraiser has been set up to try and raised funds to get volunteers out to Sardinia in the search for Mr Frison She said she has had no response from Ms Orlandini since she left the island but insists 'I'm not accusing her of anything'. She previously pleaded to her son's friend, as she believes she may have details regarding his whereabouts. 'I need you, Niomi. I need your help. You've done nothing wrong,' Cristina pleaded in October: 'However, you were the last person to be with Michael.' A fundraiser has been set up to try and raise funds to get volunteers out to Sardinia in the search for Mr Frison. Just two weeks into his disappearance, Italian authorities suspended their search. A 10-year-old boy is in police custody after he allegedly set a Wisconsin Walmart on fire, causing millions of dollars in damage. Shocking footage showed the flames rapidly growing inside the store located in Franklin - about 20 minutes outside of Milwaukee - on Monday. First responders arrived on scene shortly before 9pm to discover heavy plumes of smoke rising from the building. The building's automatic sprinkler system went off and assisted in controlling the blaze, according to the Franklin Fire Department. This allowed for the safe evacuation of all store patrons and employees, and no injuries were reported. Investigators have not revealed how the fire started, but police took a 10-year-old boy from Milwaukee into custody for questioning. 'Arson charges will be referred to the Milwaukee County Juvenile Justice Center as a result of the investigation,' the Franklin Police Department said. While the building is still being assessed, officials believe millions of dollars in damage was done. A 10-year-old boy is in police custody after he allegedly set a Wisconsin Walmart on fire First responders arrived on scene shortly before 9pm to discover heavy plumes of smoke rising from the building 'Preliminary damage estimates are still being evaluated, however, extensive smoke damage was noted throughout the structure resulting in the loss of merchandise estimated to be several million dollars,' the Franklin Fire Department said. The store's Facebook page posted, 'Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances we will be closed until further notice.' A Walmart spokesperson told DailyMail.com they are directing customers with pharmacy needs to their 27th Street Store location in Milwaukee. April King, a merchandising contractor at the store, told Fox 6 she believes the fire was in the party supplies aisle. 'That was like, the party aisle. What's going to set fire there?' I was shocked, honestly. Because it's like, you know, I've never seen a random fire like that in a place you wouldn't associate with a fire,' King said. 'Customers are impacted and employees at Walmart are impacted because they can't work. So yeah, it is a huge impact to the community, definitely.' She was shocked to learn such a young boy had been taken into custody for starting the fire. 'I don't understand how a 10-year-old could even, one, think to do that and then how did he get the equipment to do that,' King said. Shocking footage showed the flames rapidly growing inside the store located in Franklin Local Walmart patrons were shocked and saddened to learn about the fire. 'For me, It's concerning how that fire got that large,' customer Anthony Tischer told TMJ4. Tischer's fiancee, Kassandra Helsick, said she was worried the fire could be part of a greater trend going on across the country. 'What are these kids getting into,' Helsick asked. 'It causes panic. Nobody needs that.' The mother of a three-year-old boy who died in a savage dog attack at a farm after he allegedly wandered into a pen unsupervised has told how she heard 'screaming' when a relative found him covered in blood. Daniel Twigg suffered horrific injuries in the 'furious and prolonged' attack at Carr Farm, Rochdale, on May 15, 2022. His parents Mark Twigg, 43, and Joanne Bedford, 37, are on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of Daniel's manslaughter. The prosecution allege their negligence meant the toddler was 'alone and unsupervised' when he entered a yard where two large, 'dangerous' and 'powerful' 50kg guard dogs were kept. Although the dogs - a Cane Corsa called Sid and Tiny, a Boerboel type dog - belonged to farm owner Matthew Brown, it's alleged the couple were looking after them at the time and should have know the risks to Daniel. They had also ignored warnings from the RSPCA that the animals were a danger, it's claimed. On the day of the attack, Twigg had left for work in the morning while Bedford had remained at their rented farmhouse. Bedford told the jury that she'd gone upstairs after Daniel had taken a bath to fetch him a pair of shorts. Three-year-old Daniel Twigg died after being mauled by two 'dangerous' and 'powerful' guard dogs during a 'furious and prolonged' attack Daniel's parents Mark Twigg, 43, (left) and Joanne Bedford, 37, (right) are on trial at Manchester Crown Court accused of their son's manslaughter Police at the scene at the farm in Milnrow, Rochdale on May 16, 2025, the day after the incident in which Daniel was killed She'd asked a young relative to 'keep an eye' on him downstairs, she said. Bedford, who was then seven-months pregnant, said she'd also needed to go the toilet while upstairs because she was constipated and before she could get the shorts she heard the relative 'screaming'. The relative then told her: 'Daniel is in the dog pen. He's face down and there's blood everywhere.' Bedford said she went downstairs 'as fast as she could' but it was difficult due to her pregnancy. She said she went into the pen and told the dogs to 'get away' from Daniel. Tiny was stood near the shed, she said, while Sid was was stood over the injured toddler and kept moving towards him. 'I told Sid to get off him and leave him alone and get away from him,' she told the jury. Bedford said she found Daniel face down, with 'blood and marks all over his neck' and she recalled feeling 'scared for my little boy' while trying to keep the dogs away from them both. The jury heard how Bedford had given conflicting accounts of how long Daniel had been out of her sight and that gates to the dog pen - located to the side of the farmhouse (pictured) - were secured only with a Karabiner clip, rather than a padlock, which could be pressed open One of the dogs (not canine pictured) involved in the attack was a Cane Corsa who experts believe is 'likely' responsible for little Daniel's death. Pictured: a file photo of a Cane Corsa The other guard dog (again, not dog pictured) was a Boerboel type breed, athough it is not know if he participated in the attack. Pictured: a file photo of a Boerboel. a mastiff breed from South Africa 'I kept telling them to get in the shed but they wouldn't listen to me,' she told the jury, and she'd also asked the relative to put the dogs in the shed. Bedford then dialled 999 and moved Daniel to a bench where she performed CPR on him until paramedics arrived. Bedford said she told her neighbour Craig McDonald, who'd arrived at the scene with a knife, to 'kill' the dogs because she'd 'didn't want them to hurt anyone else'. The jury were previously told that it's not known if both dogs were involved in the attack, but Sid was 'likely' responsible. He was shot dead at the scene and a post mortem examination showed that he had not eaten for 12/24 hours while Tiny had been described as 'dangerous' and a 'ticking time bomb' by a neighbour. Daniel was taken to hospital but later pronounced dead. The prosecution allege that he was left alone in the pen for around 20 minutes and his parents were aware he was capable of entering it unsupervised. The jury have heard how Bedford had given conflicting accounts of how long Daniel had been out of her sight and that gates to the dog pen - located to the side of the farmhouse - were secured only with a Karabiner clip, rather than a padlock, which could be pressed open. Two police officers at the scene the day after the horrifying dog attack took place Phone records show Bedford briefly accessed Facebook while Daniel was being attacked but she said she couldn't recall doing so. When asked by her barrister Ian Henderson KC why she hadn't mentioned visiting the toilet during police interviews or in defence documents, she said she was 'petrified of failing my child' and 'scared' the police would use it against her. Earlier, she'd told the jury she'd assured visiting RSPCA officers that Daniel wasn't 'left alone' with the dogs and would 'always be supervised'. And they had never spoken to her about the gates or locks to the pen, she said. The jury were told of a text message she sent to Twigg in the weeks prior to the attack when she said she was 'living in fear', which she said referred to 'a build up of events'. But she admitted wanting to move back to the family home in Blackley, Manchester, and telling a neighbour she was 'terrorised' living at the farm because dogs escaped all the time. Under cross-examination from John Elvidge, KC, she denied telling a paediatrician and a detective that Daniel had previously gone into the pen alone and been 'told off'. Bedford said Daniel had only been told not to play with the Karabiner clip and to 'come away from it'. Mr Elvidge also pressed her on why shed not mentioned visiting the toilet in her accounts to police. Bedford said shed just wanted to be with Daniel and 'wasnt focusing', had felt 'fear' towards police and had suffered PTSD. Twigg and Bedford, of Radcliffe, Bury, both deny charges of gross negligence manslaughter and being in charge of a dog that caused injury while dangerously out of control. The trial continues. Free speech is under threat in Britain because people fear causing offence over race, religion and immigration, according to a new study. More than a third of Britons felt they had to self-censor their views on race or ethnicity while 32 per cent said they felt they could not speak freely about immigration or religious extremism. Some 41 per cent felt they had to hold back their views on transgender issues while 31 per cent felt constrained from discussing the conflict in Gaza following the October 7 Hamas terror attack. Almost half of Britons believe people are too easily offended, according to research for the Commission for Countering Extremism, which advises the Government. Earlier this year US Vice-President JD Vance (pictured) said Britain has a free speech problem as he raised the case of an Army veteran prosecuted for silently praying outside an abortion clinic Older, white males are among those who feel the most restricted, and the more outspoken a persons views, the more likely they are feel constrained by the risk of offending others. The study, based on interviews with 2,500 people, was conducted by Ipsos to establish the state of free speech in Britain and was first reported by the Telegraph. People who are white, male, older and not university educated were more strongly in favour of free speech, regardless of the issue, but felt less able to speak their minds, the poll found. Some 48 per cent of this group said they felt they had to hold back their comments on race, far higher than the average of 36 per cent. The same was true on immigration, where 43 per cent felt they had to hold back on their views compared to an overall average among the public of 32 per cent. Among religious groups, Christians were more likely to back the right to free speech, but also more likely to feel they had to hold back on expressing their views. Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick (above) said that the Lefts determination to shut down debate around immigration has created a chilling environment for free speech By contrast, women, younger Britons and people from ethnic minorities or non-Christian religions tended to think that people needed to be more sensitive in the way they spoke. Meanwhile the poll found that people predominantly held back from expressing their views to avoid causing offence or starting an argument. Some 46 per cent resisted expressing their views on any religious figure, text or teaching and 35 per cent held back their political views to avoid causing offence. Some people held back because of heightened concerns about their safety, with a quarter restraining themselves from discussing religion because of safety fears and 17 per cent their political views. Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, said that the Lefts determination to shut down debate around immigration has created a chilling environment for free speech. He told the Telegraph: In this context, a catch-all definition of Islamophobia would be a disaster, worsening the culture of fear that has spread throughout society. One of the world's most notorious drug cartel leaders could very well destabilize the Mexico government as he plans to reveal all he knows about corrupt officials. Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's son, Ovidio Guzman Lopez pleaded guilty to two counts of drug conspiracy and two counts of knowingly engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise before a federal judge in Chicago last Friday. The 35-year-old jailed boss, who oversaw the Sinaloa Cartel's 'Los Chapitos' faction, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors who have accused him of distributing drugs and running a criminal enterprise. New York and Illinois federal prosecutors alleged that Guzman Lopez and his three brothers assumed control of the Sinaloa Cartel once El Chapo was arrested in Mexico in 2016 and then extradited in 2019 to the United States, where he is serving a life sentence at a Colorado super maximum-security prison. The indictments indicated that the transnational drug trafficking organization made hundreds of millions by shipping, producing, and trafficking fentanyl to the United States. Now Guzman Lopez's mea-culpa could very well open a Pandora's box into the Sinaloa Cartel's dealings with former and current law enforcement and government officials back home in Mexico. His high-profile lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman slammed the Mexican government while talking to reporters after leaving the courtroom. 'It's not so much of a surprise that somehow, for 40 years, the Mexican government, Mexican law enforcement, did nothing to capture who was probably the biggest drug dealer, perhaps in the history of the world,' he said. Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman pleaded guilty to four counts in a Chicago federal court last Friday and is expected to provide damaging information that could take down current and former Mexican officials Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman is escorted by U.S. federal agents upon arriving in New York on January 19, 2017 following his extradition from Mexico Lichtman was referring to Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, who co-founded the cartel with El Chapo and had never been arrested until El Chapo's also jailed son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, set him up and flew him across the border to Texas, where he turned himself in and El Mayo was captured. 'So what I would say to Pres. Sheinbaum is: perhaps she should look to her predecessors in the president's office and try to figure out why that happened, why there was never any effort to arrest,' the famous criminal lawyer said. 'I don't even know if Zambada has been charged in Mexico.' In an X post on Friday night, Lichtman appeared to take another swipe at Sheinbaum for reportedly shielding criminal organizations. 'Apparently the president of Mexico is displeased with my truthful comments about her corrupt office and government,' Lichtman wrote. 'She can call as many hastily convened press conferences as she likes, but the people of Mexico (and myself) know that she acts more as the public relations arm of a drug trafficking organization than as the honest leader that the Mexican people deserve. I'll have more to say on this shortly.' The war of words spilled over to Tuesday when Sheinbaum filed a defamation law suit against Lichtman. 'I'm not going to establish a dialogue with a lawyer for [a] narco-trafficker,' Sheinbaum said during a press conference. Jeffrey Lichtman, the lawyer for Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, and his four sons questioned Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for allegedly protecting criminal organizations Ivan Guzman Salazar (pictured), is one of El Chapo's sons now leading one-half of the Sinaloa Cartel. The DEA is offering a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction The Drug Enforcement Administration is offering a $10 million reward for information that leads to the arrest and/or conviction of Jesus Guzman Salazar El Chapo's two other sons, Ivan Archivaldo and Jesus Alfredo Guzman, who are both wanted by the United States government, have hired Lichtman, who has over three decades of experience as a lawyer. Retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent and chief of operations Ray Donovan told DailyMail.com that Ovidio's and Joaquin's cooperation could allow for the Mexican government to reorganize itself. 'I think with the potential that Ovidio, Joaquin and others provide information on corrupt politicians and corrupt officials, is an opportunity for Mexico to reset and Sheinbaum is the president to do that,' said Donovan, who took down El Chapo 'So, you can look at it like this is very good, very bad for her party or you can look at it as, "I'm in control now, we want to be strong partners and we want to take Mexico forward not backwards."' 'This is an opportunity for her to do that. Now, the actions she has taken I think have been substantial. And clearly she is very astute, she is different from other presidents, he added. 'The good news about Claudia Sheinbaum, besides the fact that she is highly intelligent, I think that the corruption piece that often surrounds politicians, she doesn't have that. 'So, this is an opportunity to really take Mexico forward under her leadership and partnership with the United States. Regardless of if charges were to come out against politicians, she's taking concrete action forward and I think it's going to be great. I see her as a really, influential leader in the Western Hemisphere. It's not a bad thing.' Ovidio Guzman Lopez's decision to accept responsibility for his wrongdoing in court last Friday came just two months after 17 family members, including his mother, sister, wife and children, were met by U.S. federal agents at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego and brought across the border. The fact that his brother was able to lure El Mayo made cooperating with the U.S. government easier. 'It was smart for the 'Chapitos' to pull him in because now they got a bargaining chip,' Donovan said. 'They got some leverage. They got something to negotiate with.' A people smuggler who trafficked adults and children into Britain has claimed he shouldn't be deported because 'it would be too disruptive for his daughter'. Miklovan Bazegurore is wanted by authorities in Ghent where he was previously sentenced to five years in jail for his part of a human trafficking ring. The Kosovan national had put several adults' and childrens' lives at risk by smuggling them in the backs of lorries - including one that contained a concrete mixing mill. But his lawyers cited the convicted criminal's right to a family life under European Court of Human Rights act in their appeal against extradition. The claimed his 10-year-old daughter, who has special education needs, would suffer if her father had to spend time in a foreign jail. However, a judge at the Court of Appeal said the severity of the offences trumped the father-of-two's rights. Bazegurore played a central role in the international people smuggling ring that operated between Belgium, France and the UK. The gang 'exploited vulnerable people, including children' for financial gain and smuggled Albanian immigrants into the UK in the back of lorries from the continent. Miklovan Bazegurore is wanted by authorities in Ghent where he was previously sentenced to five years in jail for his part of a human trafficking ring A district judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court agreed he should be sent to Belgium to face justice but his lawyers appealed this Migrants make their way from the shore in a small boat as they attempt to cross the English Channel in Gravelines, France, on June 30, 2025 The National Crime Agency caught up with the gang after they intercepted one such lorry containing nine adults and two children in Milton Keynes in June 2016. In August 2016 another lorry was stopped in Belgium and was found to contain nine Albanian adults and four children. Bazegurore was convicted by a court in Ghent of facilitating the illegal immigration of people. The authorities there said Bazegurore was 'centrally involved in the unlawful people smuggling' and that it was an 'habitual, tight and well organised international smuggling ring'. Bazegurore was sentenced to five years in jail by a court in Ghent in March 2018. In September 2018 he was jailed for nine years at Aylesbury Crown Court after pleading guilty to conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration in connection with the Milton Keynes incident. Since he was released from prison for the British offences in 2023 Bazegurore has been fighting extradition to Belgium where he is required to serve his first sentence. A district judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court agreed he should be sent to Belgium to face justice but his lawyers appealed this. They used the European Court of Human Rights Act to try and prevent the British authorities from granting extradition. His barrister Amanda Bostock said that him being extradited would interfere with his, his wife's and his children's right to a family life. It was important for the welfare of his 10-year-old daughter, named only as X, to have her parents present to support her. Since he was released from prison in 2023, Bazegurore has worked at a scaffolding yard close to the family home. The court was told that he also takes the children to and from school and has become closer to them. A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, onboard an RNLI Lifeboat following a small boat incident in the Channel. Picture date: Thursday July 10, 2022 Families and children board a small boat on July 02, 2025 in Gravelines, France His legal team cited an expert report conducted by Dr Sharon Pettle, a consultant clinical psychologist who said it 'will be extremely disruptive for the children if he is now extradited'. She stated his wife has been able to cope with bringing up their children but found it 'very challenging'. But a Court of Appeal judge has ruled that the people smuggling offences that are outstanding in Belgium were so serious Bazegurore should be extradited. Mr Justice Calver said: 'The difficulty with Ms Bostock's submission is the seriousness of the offence for which the Appellant is wanted by the Belgian authorities. 'The offending was organised and planned. It exploited vulnerable people, including children, for financial gain. 'The offending sought to facilitate the unlawful entry of multiple people into this jurisdiction, thereby undermining the proper operation of the immigration systems and the security of national borders in multiple jurisdictions across Europe. 'The District Judge was correct to identify that the offending for which the Appellant is wanted is one of the most serious offences on the scale of offending. 'I can well see that if the offence for which the Appellant were wanted in this case was, for example, shoplifting, then in view of the Appellant's challenging family circumstances the analysis might be very different. 'But it is not: as the Ghent Court of Appeal emphasised the offence is very serious indeed. 'Added to this is the fact that X has her mother, family and friends to assist in her care, albeit I have no doubt it will be a very challenging time for them indeed without their father.' Mr Justice Calver said the high threshold under Article 8 of the European Court of Human Rights of a 'rare' and 'exceptional' case has not been met by Bazegurore lawyers and the appeal was dismissed. The Duke of Sussex has mirrored his mother Princess Diana by crossing a minefield in Angola. Prince Harry spoke to families who live near Africa's largest minefield as part of HALO's community outreach programme, which aims to keep people safe from landmines until they are cleared by trained experts. The Duke repeated phrases in Portuguese, including 'stop, go back and tell your elders' to prevent children from detonating lethal devices left behind from the civil war which ended in 2002. His crossing of the cleared minefield mirrors Princess Diana's in January 1997, when the nation experienced a brief period of peace following a two-decade civil war that had left the country contaminated by more than 15 million landmines. Harry said: 'Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. Here in Angola, over three decades later, the remnants of war still threaten lives every day.' The Duke added: 'The Angolan government's continued commitment is a powerful testament to HALO's success in saving lives and reducing humanitarian risk. 'We thank President Lourenco for his leadership and partnership, as well as continued donor support as we work together towards completing the mission of a landmine-free country.' The Duke of Sussex has followed in his mother Princess Diana's footsteps as he walked across a minefield in Angola The Duke of Sussex at a minefield in Cuito Cuanavale during his visit Princess Diana in 1997 when she took a walk through a minefield wearing a Halo Trust flak jacket and helmet Harry spoke to families who live near Africa's largest minefield as part of HALO's community outreach programme The Duke repeated simple phrases in Portuguese, including 'stop, go back and tell your elders' The Duke of Sussex at a minefield in Cuito Cuanavale during his visit The Duke kneels down on the ground during his visit to Angola At least 60,000 people have been killed or injured by landmines in Angola since 2008, although the exact number of casualties is not known and is likely to be higher. HALO has cleared more than 120,000 landmines and 100,000 bombs from the country, but at least 80 Angolans have still been killed by them in the last five years. Over 1,000 minefields remain to be cleared across the entire country, including on the periphery of the Lobito Corridor, a strategically important railway that links Angola's Atlantic coast to the mineral heartlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. James Cowan, CEO of The HALO Trust, said: 'We are hugely grateful to President Lourenco for his leadership and to the Duke of Sussex for his personal commitment to HALO's work in Angola. 'This new contract is an important step forward in our mission to make Angola mine-free, and we will continue our work in solidarity with the Angolan people until every last mine is cleared.' Not since Yalta has the world seen such a controversial summit. The seemingly impossible happened over the weekend, with senior aides to King Charles and Prince Harry meeting to broker a potential reconciliation reportedly leaving Prince William livid. 'It's no coincidence that William and Catherine did not have a representative' at the meeting, a friend of the couple told the Daily Mail. Nor is it any secret that William remains deeply and irreparably distrustful of his prodigal brother. We have since learned that William and Kate are, as ever (wink wink), treating the incipient reconciliation 'with extreme caution.' 'The fact that it ended up in the newspapers,' said their friend, 'tells you all you need to know.' Indeed that's one of the tantalizing mysteries here. Who leaked the summit, which curiously occurred in a public place, in full view of paparazzi? The seemingly impossible happened over the weekend, with senior aides to King Charles and Prince Harry meeting to broker a potential reconciliation - reportedly leaving Prince William livid 'It's no coincidence that William and Catherine did not have a representative' at the meeting, a friend of the couple told the Daily Mail Nor is it any secret that William remains deeply and irreparably distrustful of his prodigal brother History would suggest it was the Sussexes who are said to be 'frustrated' by the leak. But clues also point to the King's camp. Meeting at a private members' club whose patron is King Charles a club just three minutes from Clarence House, the King's private London residence were Meredith Maines, Harry's chief communications officer; Liam Maguire, the Sussexes' PR chief in the UK; and Tobyn Andreae, the King's communications secretary. All three otherwise unrecognizable people gathered at a table, on a balcony, in full view of photographers who just happened to be there. If this staging was pre-arranged by Charles my, how we have taken a page out of the late Diana's playbook. It would also be a stunning rebuke to William, the dutiful son who was left alone to shoulder the weight of royal responsibility as his father and wife both suffered cancer diagnoses. William's rage is all too understandable. Harry is a forever mess a 40-year-old man-child who has betrayed the family repeatedly, who made the remaining days of Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth II utter miseries, who allowed his wife to tell Oprah that there were 'racist' royals and whose cheerleader Omid Scobie somehow let Charles and Kate be named as said racist royals. Yet Harry, despite tantrum and treachery, gets chance after chance without so much as issuing a single public apology. William, meanwhile, has no such luxury. He cannot put a foot wrong, yet gets further punishment while Harry, with this summit, receives another unearned reward. So while William and Kate and two of their children were at Wimbledon this weekend Kate having received a standing ovation when she attended solo on Saturday his father, symbolically and metaphorically, may have just gone behind his back. The back of the son who is doing all he can to preserve the future of the monarchy, while Harry and Meghan have seemingly done all they can to destroy it. This is Biblical, truly. The stuff of Cain and Abel. From Charles's point of view, however, his own cancer battle has clearly imposed a ticking clock. If he wants to have any relationship at all with his younger son and the two grandchildren he barely knows, now is surely the time even if it risks incurring William's wrath. And therein lies the shadow rivalry: As William takes on more public duties for the aging King, he increasingly becomes the face of the monarchy and accrues his own soft power. And Harry well knows that once William is King, he and Meghan will have no way back. For him, too, it's now or never with Charles, no matter how confusing Harry's messaging may be. Recall that just two months ago, Harry gave a bombshell interview to the BBC after a British court denied him, yet again, taxpayer-funded security. He wildly claimed that after Megxit 'my life got devalued from the highest score to the lowest score overnight.' Herein lies the shadow rivalry: As William takes on more public duties for the aging King, he increasingly becomes the face of the monarchy and accrues his own soft power And he went on to effectively imply that the Royal Family wished him harm but that he'd nonetheless love to get back in their good graces. 'The people that wish me harm consider this a huge win,' he said, adding that the King 'won't speak to me because of this security stuff.' Makes sense, right? He also indecorously implied that Charles could die at any moment. 'I don't know how much longer my father has,' Harry said. Little wonder William keeps his distance. Were Charles to let Harry back in and we know Meghan is part of that package deal he may do well to recall the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog, in which a scorpion wants to get across a river and asks a frog to carry him. The frog asks: 'Why would I do that? You're a scorpion who can kill me with one sting.' The scorpion says: 'Why would I do that? If I kill you, we both drown.' So the frog agrees to carry the scorpion, who stings the frog halfway across the river anyway. When the frog asks why, the scorpion says: 'I couldn't help myself. It's my nature.' In the end, both are taken under. To my mind, this may be the most salient metaphor for a newly fragile, still negotiated peace with House Sussex: Once a scorpion, always a scorpion. A Colorado dentists colleague became suspicious he was poisoning his wife when he got potassium cyanide delivered to his office while he insisted she was sick, his murder trial heard on Wednesday. Office manager Caitlin Romero said Dr. James Craig was acting strangely in the weeks before his wife of 23 years Angela died in March 2023, and ordered staff not to open the package addressed to him. Romero testified in the Centennial court that Craig told her to put the box on the desk his desk with strict instructions: 'Don't open it'. Mother-of-six Angela, 43, was declared brain dead on March 15 in an intensive care unit after going to hospital three times, complaining of dizziness and weakness. Prosecutors say Craig, 47, was poisoning her protein shakes because he wanted to get out of their marriage to be with his mistress. His murder trial also heard he frequented so-called 'sugar daddy' websites, where he claimed to be worth $10million. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder as well as other charges stemming from his alleged activity from jail, where hes been held since his arrest one day after Angelas murder. Romero wore a red blazer and sparkling black flats as she walked by a gray-suited Craig on her way to take the stand. She related a series of events beginning on March 6 which eventually led her to raise the alarm about Craigs suspected criminal activity. Office manager Caitlin Romero said Dr. James Craig, pictured, was acting strangely in the weeks before his wife of 23 years Angela died in March 2023, and ordered staff not to open the package addressed to him The dentists wife had been at a conference in Utah in the days beforehand, and Craig arrived late to the daily morning huddle with staff, she said. He apologized for being late and said that his wife was not feeling good, Romero testified. Theyd worked out together, he made her a shake after, she drank that, she started to not feel well. Craig also made a comment that maybe hed added too much protein, more than she was normally used to, and maybe thats why she wasnt feeling well. Craig left the practice after getting a phone call later that day that Angela was going to the hospital, Romero testified. He returned to the office later that evening, however, when Romero was the only person remaining and instead of using his office, she came upon him working in the dark on an exam room computer. Romero was on her way out of the office and thought hed left when she passed the exam room and was surprised by his presence. She asked how his wife was feeling and what Craig was doing in the exam room, she testified. The dentist told her her Angela was doing okay, saying it was a stressful day, and thats why he came back to the office just to get away for a minute. As she was driving home, Romero testified, 'I got a text from him saying that he was having a personal package delivered to the office, and when it got there, put it on his desk, don't open it.' Such a request 'had never happened before while I had worked there,' she said. She liked the message and Craig repeatedly texted her to ask if had arrived - but it wasn't delivered until March 13. James, 47, was having an affair and allegedly poisoned Angela because he wanted to get out of their marriage to be with a witness James Craig is seen wiping his tears while on trial for murdering his wife, Angela Craig In the days leading up to its delivery, however, Angela was getting sicker. Craig was in and out of the office but also concerned about the practice, Romero testified. 'He had called and spoke with me and he basically, in one sentence, was concerned about his production and his patients but then also concerned that he wasn't going to make it through the night,' she said. On March 13, Craig's personal package arrived at the dental practice in Aurora - but a front desk employee opened it before it got to Romero, she testified. Romero told the employee not to open items marked 'personal,' then tried to put the foil package back into the box, noticing biohazard stickers and checking the invoice because the office was expecting a delivery of fentanyl. The invoice noted it had been ordered by 'Jim Craig personal,' she said - and the contents were marked 'potassium cyanide.' She put it on the dentist's desk, then returned to her computer to google the substance. She said she never brought it up with Craig and had seen him enter an exam room after she left it on his desk. 'I thought maybe there was some reason for potassium cyanide to be needed, because he was taking into an exam room,' she said. As Angela got progressively sicker, however, Romero did search 'symptoms of potassium cyanide poisoning.' Craig had told her about Angela's symptoms, and she realized they were 'the same symptoms that appeared in the Google search.' Despite that, however, Romero didn't initially tell anyone else. 'Thinking that somebody was capable of possibly poisoning somebody else...it was not something that I was taking lightly,' she testified. But she finally decided to share her concerns after Craig made a second comment about Angela 'not making it through the night'. Angela Craig, 47, died on March 18, 2023, after suffering mysterious symptoms for two weeks, which prosecutors say were caused by her husband Prosecutors said Craig swapped his wife's medication with poison in a calculated effort to free himself from a marriage in which he described feeling 'trapped,' 'hopeless' and 'helpless' It was March 15, and he'd begun seeing patients again but told Romero Angela was being re-admitted and he had to leave early. 'Shortly after he left the practice, when he was on his way to go see Angela ...that's when he made the same comment: I don't think she's going to make it through the night,' she said. Later that afternoon, Romero called a superior about the cyanide delivery, who told the wife of Craig's dental partner, Ryan Redfearn. Then she spoke with Redfearn himself, and later police, she told the court. Before Romero's bombshell testimony, an ER nurse who treated Angela testified how the mother of six crashed just after midnight March 12 as her husband was in the room. Alarms sounded as Angela's oxygen levels plummeted to the 50s and her heart raced to 130, Blaine Cullen testified. She was declared brain dead on March 15 and taken off life support on March 18. An Illinois woman with a flying saucer tattooed on her forehead was sentenced to 30 years behind bars for murdering her girlfriend. Alexia Telles, 28, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last week in connection to the tragic death of Annissa Ellen-Williams, 25, the Kendall County State's Attorney's Office announced Monday. Telles, who has several other face tattoos, was charged in connection with the February 2023 slaying after Ellen-Williams died of a traumatic head injury at a home in Oswego - about an hour outside of Chicago. Life-saving attempts were made on Ellen-Williams, but she died at the scene, according to prosecutors. After her death, authorities discovered the couple, who appeared to be in a long-term relationship, had gotten into some sort of disagreement while Ellen-Williams was driving just before they arrived at the home. Forensic and digital evidence, along with statements made to police, soon revealed Telles 'intentionally killed' her partner and made it look like Ellen-Williams had committed suicide, investigators concluded. Investigators did not specify what sparked the argument and how the killing was carried out. 'These cases can be difficult to prosecute because only two people know exactly what occurred that fateful night,' Kendall County States Attorney Eric Weis said. Alexia Telles, 28, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder last week in connection to the tragic death of her girlfriend Annissa Ellen-Williams, 25 Telles, who has several other face tattoos, was charged in connection to the February 2023 slaying after Ellen-Williams died from a traumatic head injury 'However, the investigative work done by law enforcement and the Coroners Office led to the successful prosecution of Telles for the murder of Ms. Ellen-Williams.' Telles, who has remained in custody since her arrest, was ordered to serve her entire 30-year prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release, prosecutors said. 'This sentence ensures that justice is served, and the victims family does not have to endure the pain of a trial,' Weis stated. 'Telles has accepted responsibility for the heartless act she committed against someone she professed to care so much for.' Daily Mail contacted Weis and Telles' attorneys, Josh Adams and Alana De Leon, for comment. The couple appeared to be in a relationship for years, as their first ever post on Telles' Facebook was from 2016. Forensic and digital evidence, along with statements made to police, soon revealed Telles (pictured) 'intentionally killed' her partner and made it look like Ellen-Williams had committed suicide The couple appeared to be in a relationship for years, as their first ever post on Telles' Facebook was from 2016. (Pictured: Ellen-Williams) Telles (right), who has remained in custody since her arrest, was ordered to serve her entire 30-year prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release, prosecutors said In a post from 2019, Telles wrote: 'Love you fo [sic] ever,' alongside an image of her and Ellen-Williams. This story comes months after a 22-year-old woman was found naked and discarded in the grass after getting into a domestic dispute with her abusive boyfriend. Nahomi Citttadini, of Miami Beach, Florida was found abandoned on the side of the highway in early December. Lorent Pion, a 29-year-old convicted felon, was charged with his girlfriend's murder murder, despite initially telling officers that she had been struck by another car during an argument, CBS News reported. Disturbing video footage from August captured Pion violently beating Cittadini along a street in Miami Beach, relentlessly chasing after her before grabbing her hair and aggressively throwing her to the ground. A drunken mother who swigged from a bottle of duty-free spirits was of 'real concern' to flight crew during a mid-air incident before she was eventually arrested, a court heard. Police were alerted before the Manchester-bound flight from Dublin due to Nicola Dooley's conduct. Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard a bottle of spirits she had bought was found to be three-quarters empty. Dooley had been put at the back of the plane. The 38-year-old was so drunk she didn't know where she was when she was spoken to by police. She was hauled before a judge and handed a suspended prison sentence. Prosecuting, Zahra Khan said officers at Manchester Airport were informed of reports of an 'aggressive' passenger on an Aer Lingus flight, which was due to arrive on December 22 last year from Dublin. Dooley had been moved to the rear of the plane due to her behaviour. She used 'abusive language' towards other passengers, the court heard. When she arrived at Manchester, it became 'obvious' to police Dooley was drunk. She couldn't find her ID documents and said she 'didn't know she was in Manchester', and said she had 'missed her flight'. Nicola Dooley, 38, swigged from a bottle of duty-free spirits during a flight from Dublin to Manchester and prompted 'real concern' The 38-year-old was said to be so drunk that she didn't know where she was when she was spoken to by police Dooley had been moved to the rear of the Aer Lingus flight due to her behaviour. She used 'abusive language' towards other passengers, the court heard They discovered she had a duty free bag containing three, one litre bottles of spirits. One had been opened and was three-quarters empty. Dooley pleaded guilty to being drunk on an aircraft. Defending, Megan Edwards said Dooley had experienced 'extreme shame, embarrassment and remorse'. She said the defendant has no previous convictions. Ms Edwards said no members of staff or passengers were willing to make a witness statement. Sending Dooley to prison would have a 'significant harmful impact' on her children, the barrister said. She told the court Dooley had been travelling to and from her native Ireland frequently at the time, to facilitate contact between her children and her partner who still lives in the country. Dooley had moved to the UK months prior, Ms Edwards said. Sentencing, Judge Tina Landale told Dooley: 'Your behaviour was clearly of real concern because the staff on board requested the police to attend on landing to arrest you. 'It was reported that there was an aggressive passenger onboard who was heavily intoxicated. Dooley, of Huddersfield, was sentenced to three months, suspended for 12 months 'But it is relevant that not a single passenger or a single crew member has chosen to make a witness statement. 'Your behaviour demonstrates that you were extremely drunk. You couldn't find your ID documents and you didn't even know where you were.' Dooley, of Huddersfield, was sentenced to three months, suspended for 12 months. She was ordered to carry out 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days. An NHS equalities boss Googled the trans policies of other health boards as they did not have their own, a tribunal was told yesterday. Nurse Sandie Peggie was suspended from Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy after she complained about having to share a changing room with trans medic Dr Beth Upton. The 51-year-old nurse has since sued the health board and medic, and the landmark employment tribunal she brought against them returned yesterday. Isla Bumba, NHS Fifes equality and human rights lead officer, told the tribunal she had researched the policies of other health boards as there was no policy in place regarding trans employees in 2023. And she revealed she had been using a search engine to investigate the trans patient policies of other health boards after being tasked with writing one. As the tribunal returned for what is expected to be another eleven days, she said she would hazard a guess at being female but that she has not had a chromosome test. And the NHS employee defended having the phrase LGBT ally on her email signature, telling the tribunal it matter of fact about herself but did not mean she was not an ally to women. Yesterday the tribunal was told in August 2023 Esther Davidson, who worked in the emergency department, had sought advice on transgender policies. Ms Bumba said she had been asked for very generic and informal advice because they had a transgender staff member who was due to join the workforce so was seeking advice on how to accommodate them, particularly around changing rooms. She told Jane Russell, KC, for NHS Fife: I said it could be deemed discriminatory to not allow a trans person access to facilities that aligned with their gender, but I recommended that it might be worthwhile having a conversation with the person directly if they had been open about their trans status to see where they would be most comfortable. Isla Bumba, NHS Fifes equality and human rights lead officer, told the tribunal she had researched the policies of other health boards The inquiry was told Ms Bumba looked at policies from other health boards, with NHS Highlands policy saying that staff must be treated in accordance with their self-declared gender regardless of whether under medical supervision or have a gender recognition certificate. As well as not having a policy for staff, they did not have a policy for patients. And Ms Bumba said: I had been tasked with writing a trans policy for patients, because we also did not have one at that time, and so part of my scoping I was contacting or leaning on the other equality leads. Having discussions with them, trying to get copies if I could, or be referenced to their existing policies if they had one and doing my own research on what other policies were - so I would have been Googling them, I could have came across English policies online, but I reached out directly to some of my Scottish colleagues for their policies. Ms Bumba has been at the health board for just over three years, and she told the tribunal her job was to make sure NHS Fife was adhering to the Equality Act among other duties. Nurse Sandie Peggie arrives at the tribunal The witness disputed the definition of biological sex when questioned by Mrs Peggies lawyer Naomi Cunningham. She told the barrister: I think youve simplified what could be deemed biological sex, but in actual fact its far more complex. I dont know anything about Beths body, I didnt at the time I dont now, I dont need to know. But it wouldnt be something that I would ever have the information of exactly what she is made of biologically. Nor do I know what my own body is made of biologically. I hazard a guess that I would be female, but no one knows what their chromosomes are or their hormonal composition unless youve had that test and I at least have not and Im not sure Beth has. On her email signature she was listed as an LGBT ally, the tribunal heard, and Ms Cunningham challenged her on it. The lawyer, who highlighted other things she does not list including being a disability ally, said: Doesnt singling out LGBT ally on your email signature give the impression that the boards human rights and equality lead thinks that the protected characteristics of sexual orientation and gender reassignment are the most important ones and they come first? But Ms Bumba, who studied at Aberdeen University, said: I dont think having that on my email signature suggests that its my top priority no. A priority, but not necessarily the top priority. Ms Peggie was suspended from Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy after she complained about having to share a changing room with trans medic Dr Beth Upton (pictured) Being an LGBT ally does not mean that Im not an ally to other protected characteristics. Following her involvement in the incident in early January 2024, Ms Bumba said she did not have any more involvement until July. The inquiry heard of a Daily Mail article which told of the incident involving Mrs Peggie and Dr Upton, 30. Ms Bumba, who said she was not aware of the identity of the nurse and doctor concerned at this point, said she told a follow up meeting: I did remind the group that the nurse involved was entitled to her personal beliefs and that gender critical beliefs were protected under the Equality Act specifically, however, that being said, the NHS expects its employees to conduct themselves in a certain way that aligns with our values and ethics. The tribunal continues. Upcoming events featuring the 'possessed' Anabelle doll will go on as planned, despite the sudden death of one of the tours leaders in Pennsylvania. Dan Rivera, 54, was in Gettysburg for the Devils on the Run Tour - a chilling cross-country event featuring the infamous doll - when he was found unresponsive at his hotel Sunday night. On Wednesday morning, authorities revealed that he died from 'natural causes' and that there was 'nothing unusual or suspicious observed at the scene,' according to Pennsylvania State Police. The New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), where Rivera served as a senior lead investigator, announced in a Tuesday evening press release that they will resume the tours previously scheduled events, believing it's what the veteran ghost hunter 'would have wanted.' 'We believe with all our hearts that Dan would have wanted the work to continue - bringing people together, sharing knowledge, and honoring the memory of Ed & Lorraine Warren,' the statement said, referring to the legendary paranormal investigators who kept Annabelle their private occult museum. 'We will carry his spirit in us in everything we do.' Rivera had built a loyal fanbase through his ghost-hunting work and viral content featuring the eerie legends of Annabelle and other cursed relics. His final stop - in Gettysburg, a Civil War town long said to be haunted - was completely sold out. Upcoming tours featuring the 'possessed' doll Anabelle will go on as planned, despite veteran ghost hunter Dan Rivera's (pictured) sudden death Rivera, 54, was in Gettysburg for his Devils on the Run Tour - a chilling cross-country event featuring the infamous doll - when he was found unresponsive at his hotel Sunday night On Wednesday morning, authorities revealed that Rivera passed away from 'natural causes' and that there was 'nothing unusual or suspicious observed at the scene' (pictured: Rivera far left) On Sunday night, Rivera was alone in his hotel room by coworkers. The coroner was called to the scene shortly after first responders and later confirmed that Riveras death was not considered suspicious. Results from the routine autopsy could take between 30 and 60 days to complete. Since news of his death spread, the internet has erupted into an international firestorm of speculation - with many pointing to the Annabelle doll, which Rivera frequently handled, as the cause of his sudden and unexplained passing. NESPR responded to the wave of controversy in their statement. 'We understand that Dan's work inspired fascination and curiosity for many,' it read. 'But above all, he was a father, devoted husband and loyal friend, someone who meant the world to those closest to him. Out of respect for his family, we kindly ask for privacy as they mourn this tremendous loss.' Jason Hawes, star of SyFy's 'Ghost Hunters,' also spoke out in a Facebook post, condemning those who placed blame on the Annabelle doll. 'Whats even harder to see right now are the posts blaming his death on things like the Annabelle doll and attacking places like Ghostly Images of Gettysburg Tours and other locations for having events,' Hawes wrote. 'That needs to stop.' The New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), where Rivera served as a senior lead investigator, announced in a Tuesday evening press release that it will resume its previously scheduled A events, believing it's what he 'would have wanted' Annabelle's tour team pictured left to right: Avery Gilloren, Father Bob Bailey, Dan Rivera, Chris Gilloren, Caleb Breece, Ryan Buell, and Wade Kirby) Three more events are scheduled for the remainder of the year - one featuring Annabelle (pictured) in September in Maine, another promising to 'redefine the paranormal experience' in October in Illinois, and a 'ScareFest Weekend' also in October in Kentucky 'Lets focus on remembering Dan for who he was, not turning his death into some made up bulls*** story to get clicks or attention,' he added. 'Honor the man. Forget the garbage.' The Raggedy Anne Doll's paranormal legend dates back to the 1970s, when it was apparently given as a gift to nurse in Hartford, Connecticut, before beginning to exhibit disturbing behavior. Annabelle was thought to be possessed by the spirit of a dead child and was said to move on its own, leave terrifying handwritten notes and even allegedly attacked someone. Due to the popularity of the story and subsequent film franchise, the real Annabelle doll was removed from its secure case and included in the Devils on the Run tour, which began in May. Three more events are scheduled for the remainder of the year - one featuring Annabelle in September in Maine, another promising to 'redefine the paranormal experience' in October in Illinois, and a 'ScareFest Weekend' also in October in Kentucky. American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband moved into a mansion in an idyllic corner of Los Angeles 20 miles away from crime-ridden downtown. But over the last 12 months, residents have been living in fear. Constant burglaries in Encino prompted talk about buying guns, setting up a neighborhood watch and paying private guards to patrol the lavish homes. Kaye and her musician husband, Thomas Deluca, had experienced the surge in crime first hand. Their $4.5million mansion on White Oak Avenue was broken into in May, and they reached out to a security firm for a quote on having a safe room fitted. The couple were hoping to protect themselves from the most terrifying scenario possible, yet it happened anyway. Kaye and Deluca, both 70, were shot and killed inside their home over the weekend. Their bodies are believed to have laid in the property for several days before police discovered them on Monday. American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband Thomas DeLuca wanted to install upgraded security - including a panic room - before they were murdered in their Los Angeles mansion Less than 24 hours later, Raymond Boodarian, 22, was arrested by police with guns drawn at his home in nearby Reseda. Detectives revealed the suspect did not know the victims and had entered their home on July 10 to burglarize it. CCTV footage revealed Boodarian had been in the property for approximately 30 minutes when the couple arrived home and he allegedly shot them both in the head. Police added he did not force entry into the home and used an open door to get inside. According to Kaye and Deluca's neighbors, a person, who may have been armed, was spotted hopping a fence in the ritzy California neighborhood. Now, a security expert who lived close to the couple has revealed to the Daily Mail they were about to install state-of-the-art security measures - including a panic room. Kaye reached out to Guy Cohen from SecureIT Homes via a neighborhood chat group. He visited the property on May 20 and drafted a plan to make the property safer. On Monday night, a suspect was spotted hopping a fence to enter the home (pictured) of an American Idol music executive and her husband in the ritzy California neighborhood of Encino Kaye reached out to Guy Cohen from SecureIT Homes via a neighborhood chat group. He visited the property on May 20 and drafted a plan to make the property safer Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022 'Robin reached out to me and wanted a consultation,' Cohen, 44, told the Daily Mail. 'She was nervous because they had just had a break-in the previous evening. 'An intruder came in through the sliding glass door in the kitchen. They were home and the dog started barking and she yelled and the burglar ran away.' Cohen recommended installing early detection equipment in the yard with an 'infrared laser beam system' to detect intruders on the premises. He also suggested a new camera system with 24-hour monitoring by an outside company, along with shatter-resistant film on the windows. There would also be a panic room installed in Kaye's closet in the primary bedroom with a reinforced door and walls rated to fend off six men pounding for an hour. 'We walked the house together,' added Cohen. 'Thomas showed me his guitar collection, his studio. The sad part is they didn't even have valuables. 'They didn't have watches or purses or anything. It was more just they had a fancy house. It was more about personal protection, personal safety. 'They said they were considering the proposal. They were going out of town and had some life things happening and said they would get back to me. 'Unfortunately, it was just too late. This is something that could have been avoided.' Cohen revealed that the couple had a handyman install sharp metal spikes along the top of the property's perimeter walls and driveway gate - but that there were still some parts that hadn't been upgraded, which ultimately allowed Boodarian to allegedly scale a wall. Police have said they attempted to perform a wellness check at the home earlier on Monday but were unable to gain access. 'Apparently the cops didn't want to hop over the wall like the intruder did,' Cohen said. Kaye and her husband considered installing better security after their house was broken into in May when an intruder came in through a glass sliding door 'So they just left and put up a helicopter which didn't see anything from the air. 'They should have verified that the homeowner is aware that somebody might have been in their backyard. 'They should have come back to verify that everything was OK the same day. But they just said everything's fine and they left. That was a big mistake.' Cohen even pointed out his theory that the burglar could have been in the house when the police arrived. 'I know how paranoid they are. I doubt that they left the door unlocked,' he said of the couple. Cohen noted that Encino and other parts of LA are rife with burglaries and are 'being hit really hard right now by gangs.' He explained that 'you have all the foreigners that poured in. You had millions of people come into the country undetected. 'There are all kinds of gangs here, including Chilean and Armenian. 'You've got the local gangs and the imports - it's like the perfect storm. LA is being hit everywhere.' He said local gangs hire underage teenagers, usually aged 14 to 17, to burglarize homes who then get a 'ticket out' from courts when caught and then are released. 'They get a slap on the wrist. There's no repercussions for the minors. So the local gangs are using the minors to break into homes,' he claimed. He said LAPD is 'overwhelmed' by the spiraling number of break-ins, and blamed LA District Attorney Nathan Hockman for not being tougher on crime and criminals. 'The judges are letting these people off the hook. The DA can recommend charges, but then the judge comes in and just says, 'Nope, no charges for you,'' he claimed. Residents in their Encino neighborhood have reported a surge in crime over the last 12 months Prior to their deaths, the couple had also been plagued by a neighboring party house where loud, late-night pool parties, often with naked women and rowdy guests, were the norm. Neighbor Naomi Sadoun, 69, told the Daily Mail that tickets were sold online for the parties, with guests bused in from outside the area. She would often see Kaye and Deluca walking with their dog and described them as 'lovely people,' adding, 'Robin was always friendly to me.' Sadoun said they were engaged in an ongoing battle over the wild parties and had hired an attorney to help. 'The parties are out of control and the property owner doesn't seem to care,' said Sadoun. 'Robin was really upset about it and told me her broker had disclosed the problem to them when they purchased the property.' President Donald Trump signaled support for appointing a special prosecutor who could further investigate the bombshell case of financier and convicted pedophile Jeffery Epstein. Trump spoke about the case in an interview with John Solomon of JustTheNews.com and signaled his support for an independent investigator to look into the weaponization of DOJ against conservatives in the 2016 election. The president also volunteered that the special prosecutor could look into the Epstein files as well. 'I think they could look at all of it. It's all the same scam. They could look at this Jeffrey Epstein hoax also, because that's the same stuff that's all put out by Democrats,' Trump said when asked what he'd most like to see the FBI investigate. Trump expressed concerns that former intelligence and law enforcement officials could have tampered with evidence surrounding Epstein case. 'I can imagine what they put into files, just like they did with the others. I mean, the Steele dossier was a total fake, right? It took two years to figure that out,' he said, referring to former FBI directors James Comey and Christopher Wray. He described the case as a 'hoax' and lamented that Republicans were still hung up on the case despite an effort by the Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice to put the controversial case behind them. This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series 'But they ought to look into the Jeffrey Epstein hoax too, because that's another hoax that's frankly, put out by the Democrats pushing, pushing the Republicans, and put out by the Democrats,' he added. The president and his administration has faced growing controversy after the Justice Department announced in a memo that there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that Epstein was murdered in prison and that he did not have a client 'list' that they could release. The news sparked outrage from the president's followers who anticipated the eventual release of the files after Trump promised during his presidential campaign to release them. Congressional Democrats jumped on the case, further exploiting the disappointment from Trump's base, even suggesting the president was tied up with the Epstein case and covering it up. Trump said Wednesday in the Oval Office he was discouraged by many of his supporters clinging to the case. 'I've lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah, I've lost. Because they got duped by the Democrats,' he told reporters. On Wednesday, Trump also berated his followers on social media for their focus on the 'Epstein scam' he said was perpetrated by Democrats. 'Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker. They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years,' he wrote. New photos of infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell at the Clinton White House, one day after Maxwell pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking charges. This undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein. Portrait of American financier Jeffrey Epstein (left) and real estate developer Donald Trump as they pose together at the Mar-a-Lago estate in 1997 He criticized Republicans and his MAGA supporters for not focusing on his successes and distracting the public with the case. 'Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!' he added. On Tuesday, Trump tried to dismiss the case as 'boring' and said he did not understand why the case was so important to his supporters. 'He's dead for a long time,' Trump said of the disgraced financier. 'He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.' The president spoke about the issue that threatens to further plague his presidency after a trip to Pennsylvania on Air Force One. 'It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going,' he said to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews. Epstein's associate Ghislane Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in Florida after she was convicted in June 2022 for conspiring with her boss Epstein in the sexual exploitation of minors. The White House dismissed any notion of Trump pardoning Maxwell. 'There have been no discussions or consideration of a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, and there never will be,' a senior White House official told the Daily Mail. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to be making the first steps toward a 2028 presidential run. A Kennedy-associated group held an event last week, with two sources telling Axios that while another presidential bid wasn't openly discussed it felt like the current Health and Human Services secretary was testing the waters. The call attracted hundreds of supporters and influencers that are part of Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again movement. Among them - comedian Russell Brand - who has attached himself to the MAHA movement after becoming sober. Brand pleaded not guilty to rape charges in May in the United Kingdom. Leading the call were MAHA PAC leader Tony Lyons, vaccine skeptic Robert Malone and Stefanie Spear, who ran communications for Kennedy's 2024 campaign, Axios said. The call was organized by Lyons' non-profit, MAHA Action, with sources telling the publication that Lyons' involvement signaled the PAC would again support Kennedy, should he give a White House run another go. Lyons pushed back to the Daily Mail that his involvement indicated that Kennedy was mulling another presidential run. 'Secretary Kennedy has given no indication whatsoever that he's even considering running for president,' Lyons said. 'He's clearly laser focused on the incredible opportunity that Donald Trump has given him.' Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attends a Make America Healthy Again roundtable on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. A call that included the head of his super PAC stoked speculation that he could mount another White House bid in 2028 Lyons also said the PAC he ran in the 2024 cycle is 'mostly dormant now.' Kennedy stepping into campaign mode could ruffle feathers with President Donald Trump, who - with his large campaign coffers - is positioning himself as kingmaker for any future Republican hopefuls. When Kennedy announced his presidential ambitions in April 2023, he ran as a Democrat, the party of his famous political family. In October 2023, when it was clear he wouldn't win a Democratic primary against President Joe Biden, he launched an independent presidential run instead. After Trump was nearly assassinated on July 13, 2024, Kennedy and the then Republican nominee started having conversations about joining forces. Trump said he would embrace Kennedy's MAHA movement, Kennedy in turn would endorse him. That happened the day after the Democratic National Convention wrapped up in August 2024, taking some wind out of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris' sails. The Trump-Kennedy coalition helped Trump win all seven swing states on Election Day. Trump named Kennedy as his HHS head nine days later. Since taking over HHS, Kennedy has shrunk the size of the federal agency, canceled billions in grants to universities and public health departments and changed COVID vaccine regulations. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is photographed on the campaign trail in October 2023, when he announced that he would no longer seek the Democratic presidential nomination and run for the White House as an independent instead Daily Mail's July poll conducted by J.L. Partners found that Kennedy's approval rating ran in the middle of the pack compared to other prominent political figures. Trump had higher favorables than Kennedy - with 26 percent holding a very favorable view of the president and 18 percent holding a somewhat favorable view. But Trump's cumulative negative rating stood at 51 percent. With Kennedy, 16 percent held a very favorable view of the HHS secretary while another 25 percent viewed him somewhat favorably. Forty-six percent viewed Kennedy unfavorably, in a poll with a plus or minus 3.1 percent margin of error. Two teenagers have been charged with the murder of a man found dead in the front yard of his home that he shared with his skincare mogul wife. Zdravko Bilic, 57, was allegedly stabbed to death outside his home on Napalle Street in Warana on the Sunshine Coast, on Monday. Emergency services rushed to the scene after a neighbour reported Mr Bilic was unresponsive in his front yard. Mr Bilic has moved to the Sunshine Coast three years ago after he and his wife Gry Tomte moved there to escape Victoria's Covid curfews. He is believed to have been stabbed twice in the stomach after allegedly confronting a thief breaking into their $2.5million five-bedroom home. On Thursday morning, police charged two teenage boys, aged 15 and 17, with murder. The teenagers are due to appear before Maroochydore Children's Court later on Thursday. Detectives believe his body lay in the home's front yard for hours before his worried wife, who was interstate at the time, raised the alarm when she didn't hear from him. Zdravko Bilic, 57, was discovered with two alleged stab wounds in the front yard of their home after his wife Gry Tomte asked a neighbour to check on him His wife of 20 years, Gry Tomte, who was interstate at the time, raised the alarm when she couldn't reach him The power couple had purchased the sprawling five-bedroom, three-bathroom property in March 2022, hoping for a fresh start by the beach A neighbour found the horrific scene and alerted police at about 7.35pm on Monday. The glamorous couple, who were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary next month, had relocated from Melbourne in 2022 to begin their 'new adventure'. 'I think two years of continuous lockdown and bull***t really took away the shine for me re Melbourne,' Ms Tomte, 53, wrote on social media at the time. 'We are both so happy we made the decision. And now friends can visit our beautiful new home.' The lavish luxury home boasts a stunning lap pool next to the open-plan entertaining area and was just metres from the nearby beach. It was a welcome escape from the bleak lockdowns in Victoria, and both said they were 'so happy,' with their new lifestyle. 'I had the pleasure of calling Melbourne home for almost half my life,' Mr Bilic, known as Zed by friends, posted on Instagram. 'So many fantastic memories with beautiful family and friends at some great events and places.' The couple were due to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary next month Known affectionately as 'Zed' to friends, Zdravko Bilic (pictured) gushed about his wife and their plans to begin a 'new chapter' in Queensland Their Instagram accounts regularly featured happy photos of the couple He added: 'The most important thing that Melbourne gave me is my wonderful wife. We are super excited with our new adventure.' In March, they were still loving their new life as Queenslanders, with Mr Bilic adding: 'What a fantastic time the last couple of months have been.' Ms Tomte paid tribute to her husband in a statement on Wednesday. 'He was the kindest, gentlest person Ive ever known,' she said. 'Loved by everyone who ever had the fortune of meeting him.' A crime scene has been declared at the home, with detectives seeking clues about the possible intruder. 'His wife hadn't heard from him and enquired with the neighbour, who discovered him deceased,' Queensland Police Sunshine Coast Detective Inspector Chris Toohey said. Mr Bilic was described as a 'valued member of the community' and his death has rocked the quiet coastal suburb. It had been listed on the Red Suburbs website - which tracks danger zones across Australia - as an area where crime 'exists but does not impact most people.' Norwegian-born Ms Tomte opened her successful HUD Skin and Body clinic, which operates in both St Kilda and Northcote, in 2014. Det Insp Toohey added: 'As you can imagine, it is an extremely distressing time for her, but the community are rallying around her and doing what they can for her.' Police are urging anyone with information or CCTV from the area, between 11pm on July 13 and 7.35pm on July 14, to come forward. There are many practical and constitutional reasons why it makes sense for the Palace to explore a rapprochement with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. As A. N. Wilson argued so cogently in yesterdays Daily Mail, fractured dynasties do not survive, and when the crown eventually passes to Prince William, it would be infinitely better if Harry and Meghan were inside the tent rather than on the outside causing mayhem. But there are multiple aspects to this royal saga, and the real difficulty for everyone concerned is going to be separating the personal from the public. The late Queen, of course, was brilliant at this. In many ways, it was the secret of her remarkable success as monarch, and one of the main reasons she left the institution in such good nick, despite all the setbacks she faced during her long reign. Like many of her generation, she was good at compartmentalising: she set boundaries and stuck to them. It wasnt that she didnt feel things deeply; indeed, she was a highly sensitive woman. Its just that she understood when to put her emotions to one side, and did her utmost not to let them cloud her judgment. The same cannot be said of her children and grandchildren. At 76, Charles may now be the very personification of royal respectability, but as a prince he was, to put it bluntly, a hot mess. Charles may have matured into a wise and thoughtful monarch but when he was the same age as Prince Harry (now 40), he was still working through an awful lot of stuff, writes Sarah Vine No one likes to mention it any more because, well, hes the King, but in his day he arguably inflicted as much damage if not more on the reputation of the Royal Family as his younger son has in recent years. Charles in the 1990s and 2000s did not exactly cover himself in glory. There was his flagrant infidelity (including that unfortunate telephone conversation in which he expressed a desire to be reincarnated as a sanitary product); his infamous, meddling black spider letters to ministers and others; and his frankly cruel treatment of Princess Diana, who had been little more than a child when he married her. He may have matured into a wise and thoughtful monarch and, yes, Camilla has worked tirelessly to earn the love and respect of the British people. But when King Charles was the same age as Prince Harry (now 40), he was still working through an awful lot of stuff. If one were to believe in karma, as the King reputedly does, you might say Prince Harry is working through his own stuff, too only, in many ways, what he has to deal with is harder than anything Charles ever faced. As mere boys, both Harry and William suffered a deep trauma with the sudden death of their mother and with the eyes of the world fixed upon them. It was inevitable that sooner or later all that, and much else, would come out in the wash. I dont say this by way of justifying Harrys recent behaviour, or the agonies he has put his family through. But it does explain a lot of his inner rage and resentment, particularly towards his father and stepmother. When they were both boys, William was famously protective of his younger sibling, while also dealing with his own loss Kate has, quite simply, been Williams strength and stay Sadly, the Duchess of Sussex seems to have had the opposite effect on Prince Harry These are complex, deep-seated emotional wounds that may well take a lifetime to heal, if they ever will. Thats why, fundamentally, taking steps to welcome the wayward duke back into the family is the right thing. When someone is in as much pain as Harry clearly is, they lash out at anyone within reach, especially those tied to them by blood. But if you can grab them and hold them to your heart, show them the love and understanding they need, soothe their hurt with the balm of forgiveness, you can perhaps help them begin to move forwards. Having been there myself, I know its not an easy process, and it requires a lot of compromise which can be very hard when terrible things have been said and done. Both sides must be able to let go with love. And thats a big ask. Its an especially big one for the other key player in this family drama: Prince William. He is arguably the real injured party for the simple reason that, while some of Harrys anger towards his father may be justified because of what happened with his late mother, he has no earthly right to resent his brother or, for that matter, his poor sister-in-law. The Prince of Wales is just as scarred as Prince Harry possibly more so since, when they were both boys, William was famously protective of his younger sibling, while also dealing with his own loss. Thats what makes Harrys treatment of William and Kate so painful and so hard to forgive. And yet William has it in him, Im sure, for the simple reason that, like his late grandmother, he does understand how to marshal his emotions. Instead of indulging his pain, feeding off it even, as Harry has done, he seems to have mastered it, channelling it into his royal roles and his family. Then again, he had slightly better luck or judgment than his brother, in that he had the good sense to marry the Princess of Wales. Without her stabilising and steadfast presence, who knows where he might be? As the late Queen said of Prince Philip, Kate has, quite simply, been Williams strength and stay. Which is possibly why he is so furious with his brother for all that he has said and done to undermine her, especially given her cancer diagnosis. Sadly, the Duchess of Sussex seems to have had the opposite effect on Prince Harry. Instead of helping him heal his emotional wounds, she seems to have re-opened them or even rubbed salt in them, some might say. Instead of encouraging him to shape his own identity within the Royal Family, she has helped him turn his back on it. Which might have been fine if together they had embarked on something truly life-affirming. But they didnt. Theyve walked away, but they keep looking over their shoulders. They are obsessed with the very thing they supposedly hate, and thats never a good frame of mind to be in. Every venture the duke and duchess have undertaken since their departure has revolved around their royal status. Just look how Meghan reminded viewers on her Netflix series that shes Sussex now so blinded by her own ambition that she cant even see how contradictory that sounds. Meghan, you left to get away from the Royal Family, yet you cant stop talking about how royal you are. Thats not freedom, its a fixation. As for Harry, hes learned an important life lesson: you cant outrun your demons. If you are miserable, you will be miserable wherever you go, whether its a cottage on the Windsor estate or a mansion in Montecito. But at least at Windsor he was at home, with a clearly defined role, in a land whose people liked and understood him. Now hes lost and rudderless, with no obvious employment other than that of walker to his rather pushy wife. Whatever happens, the King and the Prince of Wales must proceed with caution. Trust and respect are fragile commodities: easily broken and hard to mend. The rift between Harry and his family may never quite be closed, but if all parties can take a leaf out of the late Queens book and set aside their emotions and differences for the greater good, then maybe, over time, the wounds will start to heal. After Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in June, the local real estate market quickly took a dramatic turn. Luxury buyers started pulling the plug on purchasing apartments due to Mamdani's proposed policies, and wealthy New Yorkers who strongly disagree with his progressive politics are looking to leave the city altogether. Ever since the pandemic, a wave of wealthy residents have relocated full-time to low-tax state Florida and, once again, that appears to be the plan for some. 'Two weeks ago, I had a couple of buyers In the $3, $4 and $5million price point range - one I was selling a building to - who are no longer interested in buying,' New York luxury realtor Jay Batra told the Daily Mail. 'They don't want to hear about Mamdani and the rent freeze he is proposing.' Mamdani's emphasis is on socialism and the redistribution of wealth. He will be up against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is now also running as an independent, and Republican Curtis Sliwa in November. Mamdani has earned the backing of younger voters through persuasive social media campaigns and in-person visits with New Yorkers across the five boroughs. He's stated his support for taxing the ultra-rich, proposing a 2% tax hike on New York City residents who earn more than $1 million a year. The money from the taxes, he says, will fund programs that would make NYC living more affordable for lower-income residents. He also supports freezing the rent for the roughly 1 million existing rent-stabilized apartments across the city - the mayor of NYC can appoint members to the Rent Guidelines Board, which oversees adjustments for rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments. Some luxury buyers are pulling the plug on purchasing apartments due to Zohran Mamdani's proposed policies Zohran Mamdani (pictured) has an emphasis on socialism and the redistribution of wealth New York luxury realtor Jay Batra (pictured) A rent freeze like the one proposed would essentially put a cap on the income landlords can generate from their properties for a set period of time. Batra says clients he's worked with for years have long invested their millions in New York real estate, growing a portfolio with multiple apartments. Now, they want out. 'They are very discouraged by everything that's going on in the news, but the consensus overall is that Mamdani is not the direction they want the city to go in,' he said. 'And this agenda is making people pause and think, 'Is this the place they want to park their money?'' Most of those who do end up selling will start anew in Florida, he said. 'They like the ideologies and politics better in Florida.' Daniel de la Vega, President of ONE Sotheby's International Realty, the leading luxury brokerage on Florida's East Coast, told the Daily Mail that there's a wave of New Yorkers headed to the area looking for real estate. 'Our website traffic from the New York area increased by 50 percent in the week following the primary,' he said. 'Our agents are fielding calls from buyers actively reassessing their options, and we have seen a clear uptick in demand across our new developments. 'Many New Yorkers who are already renting in South Florida or have been sitting on the sidelines are now moving with more urgency, wanting to secure a property before another wave of migration.' People who for years have invested their millions in New York real estate, growing a portfolio with multiple apartments, want out There's a wave of New Yorkers headed to Florida looking for real estate Daniel de la Vega (pictured), President of ONE Sotheby's International Realty, the leading luxury brokerage on Florida's East Coast De la Vega added that, working in the luxury sector, he is seeing an uptick in interest for South Florida from high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. 'It's a range of different buyers including families, entrepreneurs and wealth managers looking to relocate operations and lifestyle permanently.' Their motivations are consistent: tax advantages, greater stability, safety and an overall elevated quality of life. They are considering options all along the east coast of Florida, and are being 'focused and intentional' about their moves. 'Florida remains a top destination because of our lifestyle, tax advantages and pro-business policies. Political shifts in other states only reinforce the appeal for some.' But as with all real estate transactions, deals take time to structure and close. 'While there's been early interest and movement, Mamdani still hasn't won, so it's too soon to say how this will play out come November,' he added. New Yorkers clients unsure of buying because they are 'spooked by the uncertainty' of a possible Mayor Mamdani Frances Katzen (pictured), a luxury NYC broker for Douglas Elliman Frances Katzen, a luxury NYC broker for Douglas Elliman, says she's also had clients unsure of buying because they are 'spooked by the uncertainty' of a possible Mayor Mamdani. 'One of our clients, who has owned and rented out a condo unit in Manhattan for over a decade, recently decided to sell,' she told the Daily Mail. 'Rising operating expenses, growing regulatory uncertainty and the possibility of increased taxes and rent control made him rethink the investment. 'Another client even texted a photo of their new baby and wrote, 'Where should we go, and how much would it cost?'' For Katzen, this does not spell crisis for the city's housing market. 'For many, New York still offers unmatched opportunity, connectivity and cultural vibrancy. It remains one of the world's most dynamic, resilient and desirable real estate markets,' she said. 'No matter how the election shakes out, the city has always proven its ability to adapt and thrive.' A star-studded Los Angeles club has announced shocking plans to shutter before the end of the year - marking the end of an era for the iconic city's nightlife scene. The Mayan, which has been a downtown LA staple for 35 years, alerted its more than 31,000 Instagram followers it will being closing in September. 'It is with heavy yet grateful hearts that we announced The Mayan will be closing its doors at the end of September, after 35 unforgettable years,' its owners wrote on Monday. 'To our loyal patrons, community, and friends; thank you for your unwavering support, your trust, and your countless memories we've created together. You made every night truly special.' While The Mayan debuted as a nightclub in 1990, its history stems way back to 1927, when the historic venue opened to the public as a theater. It was designed by Mexican sculptor Francisco Cornejo and architects, who drew inspiration from pre-Colombian American societies, The Los Angeles Times reported. The 1,491-seat Mayan Theatre started as a space for musical performances, and quickly became a symbol of 1920s Mayan Revivalism architecture. It flip-flopped in ownership several times - spending years promoting Spanish films before become a porno theater in the 1970s and 1980s, according to The Wrap. The Mayan, which has been a downtown LA staple for 35 years, alerted its more than 31,000 Instagram followers it will being closing in September (pictured: club-goers dancing at The Mayan) Over the years, the club has welcomed its fair share of celebrities, and hosted performances from bands including Panic! At the Disco and Linkin Park (pictured: Chester Bennington of Linkin Park at The Mayan) In 1989, LA made the building a Historic-Cultural monument, as it reflects 'the broad cultural, political, economic or social history of the nation, state, or community,' according to the city. The following year, The Mayan was purchased by its current owners, and has since become an A-lister magnet for its lively events and concerts. Over the years, the club has welcomed its fair share of celebrities, and hosted performances from bands including Panic! At the Disco and Linkin Park. Other artists including MIA, Jack White and Prophets of Rage have also hosted concerts there. While its purpose evolved over the years, The Mayan's architectural integrity has remained - featuring detailed carvings and ancient cultural patterns from Aztec and Mayan civilizations. Another standout quality of the seven cathedral-esque windows surrounding its entrance. While The Mayan (pictured) debuted as a nightclub in 1990, its history stems way back to 1927, when the historic venue opened to the public as a theater In response to the nightclub's closure announcement, hundreds of party-loving patrons - including some prominent names - grieved in the comment section (pictured: a guest and bottle service employee at The Mayan) In response to the nightclub's closure announcement, hundreds of party-loving patrons - including some prominent names - expressed their grief in the comment section. 'Absolutely iconic venue for LA. It will be missed,' LA-based electronic artist Rinzen wrote. 'Thank you for so much great live music,' added SiriusXM disc jockey and voice actress Kat Corbett. 'Dtla is turning into a ghost town. Sad for those who still remember the awesome light life it one had. RIP to Coles, The Falls, art walk, and now the Mayan theater,' someone added. Another passionately asked: 'WHY??? WHY ARE ALL THE COOL PLACES CLOSING DOWN?' The Mayan's president, Sammy Chao, told the LA Times a slew of 'adversity' had led up to the difficult decision. Ever since COVID, Chao explained, business has been on a downward slope. Rising operation costs combined with wildfire fallout and other broader issues have also contributed to the struggles faced by The Mayan. The 1,491-seat Mayan Theatre (pictured) started as a space for musical performances, and quickly became a symbol of 1920s Mayan Revivalism architecture It flip-flopped in ownership several times - spending years promoting Spanish films before become a porno theater in the 1970s and 1980s (pictured: the theater) 'Weve done everything possible to stay afloat, adapt and serve, but the path forward has been eroded beyond recognition,' Chao wrote to the LA Times. 'We have given this business everything we have and more and come this far, so the decision to close is not so much one of defeat, but of necessity and truth.' While the nightclub is set to close for good on September 13, it is unclear what the future holds for the legendary building. As the US continues to deal with a summer full of devastating flash floods, scientists warn that something even worse could soon wash out vulnerable American communities. Flooded subway tunnels in New York City and deadly overflowing rivers in the Texas Hill Country were powerful examples of how destructive water can quickly become during extreme weather events. But scientists say an 'outburst flood' could deliver more destruction than 90 of the most powerful nuclear bombs in history. Officially known as glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), they're becoming increasingly common due to climate change, and millions of people, including thousands in the US, are in harm's way. GLOFs are not new, but the scale and frequency are rising fast. At the end of the last Ice Age, roughly 15,000 years ago, the Missoula Floods swept across the American Northwest, triggered by massive glacial lakes bursting through ice dams. This catastrophic event all started with a remote glacial lake quietly growing in size, swelling more than twelvefold as melting ice relentlessly fed it. However, after several decades, the water became too much. With immense pressure building behind a ridge, the lake exploded, unleashing a wall of water up to 60ft that roared down a valley, obliterating everything in its path. Glacial lakes are forming more due to climate change (NASA/USGS) Each of the 400 individual floods during this event unleashed the energy of 4,500 megatons of TNT, nearly 100 times the force of the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, Soviet Russia's 'Tsar Bomba.' Water roared at speeds of 65 miles per hour, carrying boulders the size of cars, reshaping the landscape and carving vast canyons that are still visible today. In 2023, India's Sikkim region suffered the deadliest GLOF in recent memory, when a glacial lake burst following years of steady melt, killing dozens and leaving hundreds homeless. Now, attention is turning to the US, where three states - Alaska, Washington and Wyoming - are facing growing threats. One Alaskan lake, ominously named Suicide Basin, has burst two years in a row, releasing a staggering 14.6billion gallons of water in each event. That's the equivalent of 22,000 Olympic swimming pools flooding downtown Juneau, turning streets into rivers and forcing residents to flee with pets in carriers. Floods beneath the basin have been recorded since 2011, but researchers are now alarmed at the rapid acceleration. A recent study found 106 out of 120 glacier-dammed lakes in Alaska have drained at least once since 1985, and new lakes are forming as the glaciers retreat. Floods have occurred beneath the lake - named 'Suicide Basin' - since 2011 One lake in Alaska has now flooded two years in a row, which is a huge concern for scientists 'The danger is growing,' scientists warned. 'As ice-free basins fill with water, they eventually reach a breaking point. 'Pressure builds until the glacier can't hold, and the result is a sudden, violent flood downstream.' These floods, they say, are often unpredictable and have already caused significant loss of life and infrastructure worldwide. Washington State was once the site of the legendary Missoula Floods, and experts say history could repeat itself. All 47 glaciers currently monitored in the state are retreating, creating new lakes in unstable terrain. Back in 1947, a combination of rain and glacial melt triggered a GLOF from the Kautz Glacier, sending 1.4 billion tons of mud and debris surging six miles and carving a canyon 300 feet deep. Now, the northeastern region of the state is considered a GLOF hotspot, and scientists have called for more urgent monitoring. In 2025, a panel of glaciologists urged the installation of seismic sensors and real-time weather stations to detect potential bursts before they happen. Despite advances in modeling and hazard mapping, the team wrote in the science journal called Nature, 'These events continue to cause large-scale destruction due to weak policy enforcement, inadequate warning systems and poor community preparedness.' While not as high-risk as Alaska, Wyoming's Wind River Range and Absaroka Mountains have experienced multiple GLOFs, and the state remains on alert. In 2003, the Grasshopper Glacier released 3.2 million cubic meters of water, damaging nearby infrastructure. Floods reshaped the state thousands of years ago A study using NASA Landsat satellite data found 13 separate GLOFs between 1994 and 2007, and local records have identified at least 15 total outbursts around Mammoth Glacier alone. That's the highest concentration of GLOFs documented in the Rockies since the Ice Age-era Missoula Floods. 'Glacial retreat is exposing new terrain where meltwater can accumulate,' scientists wrote. 'Eventually, these lakes become unstable, and when they go, they go fast.' Globally, more than 15 million people live in danger zones where GLOFs could strike, according to a 2023 report by the United Nations University. In the US, experts are urging swift action to map at-risk areas, invest in early-warning technology and educate vulnerable communities. 'Climate change is accelerating glacier melt,' researchers warn. 'And with every new lake that forms, the odds of catastrophe go up.' Archaeologists digging at the ruins of ancient Troy have unearthed fresh evidence of a violent Bronze Age conflict, one that mirrors Homer's Iliad. According to Homer's Iliad, the war began after Paris of Troy abducted Helen, wife of the Spartan king, triggering a Greek siege lasting 10 years. The most famous scene of the tale is the wooden horse used by the Greeks to sneak into the city and destroy it from within. Now, a team of Turkish researchers have uncovered dozens of clay and smoothed river rock sling stones, unearthed just outside what would have been the palace walls, along with arrowheads, charred buildings, and hastily buried human skeletons. Together, experts say, the clues paint a chilling picture of close-range fighting and a sudden, catastrophic fall, just as the ancient Greeks described. 'This concentration of sling stones in such a small area suggests intense fighting, either a desperate defense or a full-scale assault,' said Professor Rustem Aslan of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, who is leading the excavation. The sling stones, smoothed to aerodynamic perfection, were one of the Bronze Age's deadliest weapons, capable of cracking skulls at range when hurled from leather slings. The stones found at the site date to around 3,200 to 3,600 years ago, exactly the period believed to match the Trojan War, which according to Greek historians took place around 1184 BC. According to the archeologists, sling stones were common battlefield weapons in the Bronze Age, and their concentrated presence points to a siege, not a peaceful decline Archaeologists have uncovered 3,500-year-old evidence at the ancient city of Troy that may point to a real war behind Homer's legendary tale For centuries, scholars dismissed Homer's Iliad as pure myth, a poetic fantasy centered on a quarrel over Helen, the 'face that launched a thousand ships,' and a wooden horse that tricked an entire city. But the new finds suggest there may have been a real war behind the legend. This summer's excavation, part of the Legacy for the Future Project, backed by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, focused on the palace, marketplace, and defensive walls of Troy, a heavily fortified city once known as Wilusa in Hittite texts. There, archaeologists discovered a cache of war relics: bone tools, a pointed 'biz' used for piercing leather armor, and even a knucklebone likely used as a gaming die, hinting at the lives of soldiers waiting for battle. But it's the destruction layer, first uncovered in 2024 and now further expanded, that has stunned researchers. It contains burned ruins, broken weapons, and human remains buried in haste, signs of a sudden, brutal attack, not a slow decline. The team's discovery, combined with arrowheads from previous digs, strongly suggests close-quarters fighting erupted in this part of the city, a likely battleground where defenders made a final stand. It also lines up with ancient texts. Both Herodotus and Eratosthenes, Greek historians writing centuries later, claimed the Trojan War was a real event, while Roman poet Virgil immortalized its aftermath in the Aeneid, describing survivors fleeing the burning city. There, archaeologists found war relics clustered together including, bone tools, a pointed 'biz' used for piercing leather, and a knucklebone likely used as a gaming die Archaeologists are continuing excavations at the ancient city of Troy in northwestern Turkey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a history spanning 5,500 years, aiming to uncover new evidence connected to the legendary Trojan War According to legend, one such survivor, Aeneas, would go on to found the line that led to Rome itself. Ancient Troy was no backwater. Its location near the Dardanelles made it a vital trade hub between Europe and Asia, rich with goods and strategically placed to control naval access. The city boasted stone towers, long walls, and a complex urban structure, making it a prized, and well-defended, target. Modern archaeologists have worked the site since the 1870s, but attention has now turned to a very specific window: 1500 to 1200BC, the era most commonly associated with the Iliad. Experts widely agree that Troy existed, but now, many also believe it suffered a real war during the Bronze Age collapse, a time when empires across the Mediterranean crumbled amid invasion, rebellion, and mass migration. Theres still no physical evidence of a wooden horse, and scholars caution it may have been poetic symbolism, a metaphor for subterfuge or betrayal. Scientists have captured the birth of a new solar system for the very first time. These incredible images reveal the exact moment when planets began to form around a star 1,300 light-years from Earth. Located within the constellation Orion, the 'baby' proto-star HOPS-315 is surrounded by a ring of hot minerals that are only just starting to clump together. Scientists say these cosmic baby photos are just like what our own Sun would have looked like over four billion years ago. Lead author Professor Melissa McClure, an astronomer at Leiden University, told MailOnline: 'The star has disc and stellar properties that are very similar to what was expected for the Sun at only 100,000 years old. 'So it provides a snapshot of what the Sun might have looked like in its infancy.' Scientists believe that planets emerge from structures called protoplanetary discs - spinning wheels of hot matter that form around young stars. Now, using the James Webb Space Telescope and the ALMA telescope in Chile, scientists have finally been able to see what this process looks like. The stunning pictures show the exact moment that planets began to form around a star 1,300 light-years away from Earth This image shows jets of silicon monoxide (SiO) blowing away from the baby star HOPS-315. This material is what formed the first building blocks of planets in the solar system. Astronomers found that it is located in a small area around the star, about the size of the asteroid belt Astronomers often spot protoplanetary discs swirling around young stars or find discs that contain newborn, massive, Jupiter-like planets. However, the exact moment that planets start to condense has remained elusive. Within our own solar system, the very first material to condense near where the Earth currently orbits is trapped inside ancient meteorites. By analysing these fragments of the early solar system when they fall to Earth, scientists know that they are packed with minerals rich in the chemical silicon monoxide. Since this chemical only condenses in the super-hot conditions of a young protoplanetary disk, its presence is a key sign of planetary formation. The first kilometre-sized 'planetesimals' (the tiny building blocks of planets), in the solar system formed just after these crystalline minerals started to condense. However, this moment, known as the "t=0" point, has never been seen because young stars are usually shrouded in an envelope of cold gas. But by finding a star system with 'just the right geometry', the researchers were able to peer through this thick cocoon and see the planetary disk inside. Scientists found that a key chemical around HOPS-315 is now in the form of both a gas (bottom) and a solid crystal (top). This is the 'smoking gun' that the process of planetary formation is just starting Located within the constellation Orion, the star HOPS-315 (circled in red) is just 100,000 years old. This makes it just a 'baby' star compared to others in the galaxy The signals of silicon monoxide were first detected around HOPS-315 by the James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers then used the ALMA telescope to work out exactly where those signals were coming from. Importantly, in their paper, published today in Nature, Professor McClure and her co-authors show that the chemicals around HOPS-315 are just beginning to cool. Professor McClure says: 'We were able to detect cooling silicon monoxide gas and these same crystalline minerals around a young protostar that is 100,000-200,000 years old.' The fact that the minerals are in both solid and gas states is a 'smoking gun' for this being the exact t=0 moment. They determined that the chemical signals were coming from a small region of the disc. This region was stretched in a ring around the star at a distance equivalent to where we find the asteroid belt in our solar system. Co-author Dr Logan Francis, a researcher at Leiden University, says: 'We're really seeing these minerals at the same location in this extrasolar system as where we see them in asteroids in the Solar System.' That similarity shows that HOPS-315 is undergoing a process of planet formation which is very similar to the one which produced Earth and all the other planets. This means scientists can study HOPS-315 to learn more about how our own planet formed billions of years ago. Co-author Professor Merel van t Hoff, of Purdue University, says: 'We're seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form. 'This system is one of the best that we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our Solar System.' A school has been criticized after it sent home a student for wearing a Union Jack dress on diversity day. Courtney Wright, 12, wore the Spice Girls-inspired dress and wrote a speech about UK history and traditions as part of the celebrations on Friday. But she was told the dress was 'unacceptable' before being hauled out of class and made to sit in reception until her father collected her. Students wearing burkas, niqabs and traditional Nigerian clothing were reportedly allowed to attend lessons as normal, while children with St George's and Welsh flags were turned away at the school gates. Following outrage at Courtney's exile from class, the UK government stated the child was right to celebrate being British. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'The PM has always been clear that being British is something to be celebrated. 'You can see that from everything this government has done. We are a tolerant, diverse, open country, proud of being British.' Shocking: Courtney Wright was made to leave school on culture day Courtney's father, Stuart Field, 47, said he was 'gobsmacked' to learn his daughter had been segregated from her peers due to her choice of attire at Bilton School in Rugby, Warwickshire. Mr Field, who works in marine restoration, said: 'Courtney was so embarrassed and couldn't understand what she'd done wrong. 'She should not be made to feel embarrassed about being British. 'And she shouldn't be punished for celebrating British culture and history; nobody else I've spoken to can quite get their heads around it.' Removed: She was hauled out of lessons and made to sit in reception until her father Stuart Field (pictured) collected her Culture day: A poster advertising the school's Culture Day wants students 'recognizing and celebrating the rich cultural diversity within our school community' The father added: 'Another with a St George's flag and another with a Welsh flag were not allowed in either. It was ridiculous. It just seemed anything that was remotely British wasn't allowed. 'It's ironic they were having a cultural diversity day but then decided to single out a group of people. 'Others were allowed in burkas, niqabs or traditional Nigerian clothing.' Mr Field said Courtney wanted to wear the dress to celebrate being British, the Spice Girls and the freedom of being able to wear a dress. 'This was her interpretation of British culture and what it means to her,' he said. 'Somebody at the school has politicized a Union Jack dress even though that was clearly not Courtney's intent. Courtney didn't do anything to be political.' Headteacher: Jayne Delves. The school contacted Courtney's father over the weekend to apologize for the move In a permission letter sent to parents, it said the Culture Celebration Day was 'designed to promote inclusion, understanding, and appreciation of different backgrounds, traditions, and heritages'. But Mr Field said the school's actions went against the message of inclusion and other pupils with St George's flags and Welsh flags were turned away from the school gates. Courtney said after the ordeal: 'I felt really embarrassed. I was made to sit in reception all day. All my friends were getting angry at why the teachers were doing that because my dress was wonderful.' Apology: The school contacted Mr Field over the weekend and have since apologized Inspiration: 'Straight A' student Courtney wore a Spice Girls-esque dress as part of her school's culture day on Friday... ...Geri Halliwell in her iconic dress School: The school contacted Mr Field over the weekend and have since apologized for the move The child's father added: 'The day was to celebrate everyone's cultures and Courtney chose this Union Flag dress so she could celebrate hers. 'She also wrote this speech to go with it and was very proud of what she'd done. 'The next thing I get a call at work at around 9am to say she's not allowed in school dressed like that and that it was unacceptable. 'I wasn't able to get away from work until about midday. They made her sit in reception all morning in front of the receptionists and kept her in isolation. 'She's a straight-A student, one of the brightest in her year and she's never been in trouble before so she was really upset. 'All the kids there are British in my eyes, I like to think I'm a tolerant person but this was just not right. 'I wanted an answer as to why they thought this was acceptable - and nobody could give me a straight answer, I wanted to know how they had justified it. 'I spoke to her head of year, and he said he wasn't the best person to talk to about it, so I can only assume he didn't really agree with it either. 'It obviously came from above him but I don't know for sure who made the decision. 'I was fobbed off and told that I'd get a phone call and I took Courtney straight out for a nice meal to cheer her up. 'If anything I was extremely proud of what she chosen and what she had written in her speech. 'She wanted to celebrate being British, she couldn't understand what was wrong with that. 'She wasn't the only kid picked out either - one child from a farming background was turned away at the gates for wearing traditional flat-cap and checked shirt. 'They didn't even read or listen to her speech which actually celebrates inclusivity and other cultures. 'It was just like British culture could not be celebrated. She was punished for being proud of being British. 'I put a post on Facebook and I've had messages of support from all over the world really, from Poland to Australia to America. 'Everybody is saying how ridiculous it is that any young person cannot celebrate where they are from. 'The school now want her to come back and read the speech, but she doesn't feel comfortable about it or wearing the dress anymore. 'She feels like the school is parading her a bit now. It could have all been avoided if the school just followed their own policy of inclusivity and let everyone share a little about their culture.' Sorry: Ranjit Samra, the chief executive of the Stowe Valley Trust, who apologized after the ordeal Embarrassed: Her father Mr Field said: 'Courtney was so embarrassed and couldn't understand what she'd done wrong' The school contacted Mr Field over the weekend and have since apologized for the move. A spokesman for Stowe Valley Trust said: 'At Bilton School, we are proud of the diversity of our students and the rich heritage they bring to our community. We are committed to fostering an environment where every pupil feels respected, valued, and included. 'On Friday 11th July, an incident occurred during our Culture Celebration Day that caused considerable upset to one of our pupils, her family, and members of the wider community. 'We deeply regret the distress this has caused and offer our sincere and unreserved apologies. 'We have since spoken directly with the pupil and her family to listen to their concerns and reflect on how this could have been handled better. 'We are committed to learning from this experience and ensuring that every student feels recognised and supported when expressing pride in their heritage. 'As a school, we are reviewing our policies and strengthening staff training to ensure our practices reflect our values of inclusion, respect, and understanding for all.' MailOnline has contacted the school for further comment. A mother-of-four who spent $10,000 on a nose job said it was left looking 'smashed' and she struggled to breathe after the operation she had in the hope of resolving respiration problems. Ashley Caselli, now 37, had underwent a revision rhinoplasty, with Dr Lindsay Sturm in January 2021, but when she woke after around three hours she was left in a state of constant worry about her nose. The Iowa native told DailyMail.com: 'It just looked smashed. It doesn't look finished. It looks like I am missing a piece of my face. My nose doesn't even have a tip any more.' Nose job: Ashley Caselli, left, before she had the procedure and as she looks now Change: Caselli seen in profile before and after the procedure Once a social mother who loved taking pictures of herself with her children, Caselli is now consumed by fear whenever she leaves the house and is always photoshopping herself in family pictures. She also said her breathing is 'much worse', and that she wakes up several times every night with a dry mouth and has to pull up her nose when she runs to get air in. She said: 'It's just no way to live. It really hurts your self-confidence; it hurts your way of thinking whenever you do things and want to take pictures with your family. 'Every day, I look in the mirror and I am saddened by it, and when people look at me, I constantly wonder, are they looking at my nose?' Caselli is one of at least eight patients to have come forward in recent months alleging harm by Sturm, who ran a clinic in Iowa until February this year. The cosmetic surgeon and otolaryngologist - a specialist in ears, nose, throat, neck and head - has also been accused of causing the death of her patient Angela Kettwig in a lawsuit, although she denies the allegation. The lawsuit is pending. Others to come forward include Christine Heintz, who paid Sturm $20,000 for a 'mommy makeover' in November 2021, which included a breast reduction and lift, abdominoplasty and liposuction. Just after the surgery, she said that a 'giant hole' opened in Heintz's right breast going back to her ribcage, with doctors saying most of the breast had died and could not be saved. She underwent further reconstructive surgery in January 2023 which resulted in her losing most of her breasts. In another case, patient AJ Gomez-Han visited Sturm in 2024 for skin removal surgery to his thighs and arms. Afterward, he developed a bacterial infection that evolved into an open bleeding sore and required six weeks in the hospital to fix. Caselli has not filed a lawsuit, however, because the procedure happened too long ago for her to file a claim under Iowa law. The doctor's clinic Sturm Cosmetic Surgery abruptly closed on February 9, and said in an email that 'due to personal, emergent medical concerns, Dr Sturm is unavailable to provide ongoing care.' Damage: Her nose is shown from the underside before and after the procedure The Iowa Board of Medicine charged her with professional incompetence, including failure of a physician to exercise a degree of care ordinarily exercised by the average physician, in May 2025. Sturm opted not to contest the charges and has voluntarily surrendered her license, without admitting wrongdoing. She also filed for bankruptcy in June, according to local media reports. In Caselli's case, the mother and property manager went for her first nose job with a different surgeon in 2018 to open up her airways and resolve a long-term breathing issue. The initial procedure 'wasn't terrible,' she said, but she was still having trouble breathing out of one side of her nose and felt one side also appeared 'cuppier' than the other. This led her to contact Sturm, who said she would be able to help Caselli breathe better and have a more appealing nose. In a pre-op appointment, Caselli said Sturm told her that the previous surgeon had 'removed all the cartilage' from her nose, leaving it without proper support. (It is extremely unusual for surgeons to remove all the cartilage from a patient's nose). Sturm suggested extracting some cartilage from the top of Caselli's right ear and implanting it into her nose to help with the breathing issue, Caselli said. Caselli agreed, saying she was won over by the chance to be operated on by a female surgeon and Sturm's apparent personable and kind nature. Cosmetic surgeon: Dr Lindsay Sturm, who carried out the procedure Just before the surgery in 2021, the pair prayed together for a successful procedure and a good outcome. Caselli said after the surgery she had to wear a nose bandage and splint, a plastic device placed outside the nose after surgery to support its new shape, for about two weeks but, even with the swelling from surgery, became concerned about her nose every time she removed a bandage to wash it. 'I actually voiced my concerns because I did see some issues,' she said. 'One side of my nose that I wanted changed originally, that was still the same, and the side that was a little swollen didn't look right. 'I was also concerned because in the profile view of the side of my face, it looked different, the tip of my nose was missing, well, it didn't have a tip.' She said Sturm initially told her that the appearance could be linked to the swelling from surgery but then retorted that she shouldn't ask for a perfect nose because no one's nose is perfect. 'I was shocked by that,' Caselli said. 'I told her that I am not trying to achieve the perfect nose, I just want a functioning nose that looks nice and normal, but this doesn't. It looks normal it looks very messed up. 'She tried to make me feel bad for that.' Caselli also said that at one point a hole opened up in the middle of her nose after a suture came loose following the surgery. During the procedure, Sturm was also meant to perform liposuction on the bottom of Caselli's chin, but Caselli said that this wasn't done properly, with the area she wanted removed 'still there' when she woke up from surgery. Social: Caselli said after the procedure her nose is a constant worry for her, and she edited these these images to obscure its appearance Alteration: Caselli also Photoshopped her face in this image of herself with her family Sturm offered to do a fat transfer to Caselli's nose after the surgery, Caselli said, but she refused, and says she's now seeking help from a new surgeon. Caselli also claimed that her breathing is now 'much worse' than before, and she has to breathe through her mouth most of the time. She said she holds up the end of her nose sometimes when she runs to get air in and is also waking up throughout the night, suffering from a dry mouth and breathing issues. 'I hope revealing this helps people,' she said. 'The irony here is that she was an expert and she still messed up my nose. Everyone should know the difference between a cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon. 'I am lucky, but unlucky, people go through worse things, terrible things, but they can cover their bodies. For me, I can't cover my face.' British holidaymakers heading to Spain this summer are being warned to double-check local dress codes before packing their suitcases or risk facing hefty fines. The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel guidance for Spain, alerting tourists visiting popular hotspots that walking around in swimwear away from the beach is not only frowned upon - it's illegal. A statement under the 'Dress Code' section on the Gov.uk website reads: 'In some parts of Spain, it's illegal to be in the street wearing only a bikini or swimming shorts. According to officials, being 'bare-chested' in public spaces - particularly on seafront promenades or on adjacent streets - can also result in fines. In a bid to maintain public decency and reduce disruptive behaviour in tourist-heavy areas, the rules have been enforced by local authorities as the summer holiday season kicks off. While these rules mostly apply to resort towns such as Barcelona, Palma and parts of the Canary Islands, travellers are urged to check specific local laws and regulations before they travel. On the flip side, tourists are also being cautioned about wearing face-covering veils or garments, such as burqa and niqab, inside official buildings. Though not banned in public spaces, local security protocols may require visitors to temporarily remove face coverings when entering town halls or other administrative areas. The UK Foreign Office has updated its travel guidance for Spain, alerting tourists visiting popular hotspots that walking around in swimwear away from the beach is not only frowned upon - it's illegal According to officials, being 'bare-chested' in public spaces - particularly on seafront promenades or on adjacent streets - can also result in fines (pictured: tourists in Palma de Mallorca) The Foreign Office has also issued a reminder on carrying proper identification in any event their identity needs validating. Police in Spain - including the Guardia Civil and local authorities - are legally entitled to detail individuals who fail to produce valid ID until their identity is confirmed. As reported by the Express, officials warn: 'Ignoring direct requests of a police officer can be considered as "disobedience," which is a criminal offence.' British nationals are advised to carry a passport or a clear photocopy while travelling around Spain. However, travellers are warned not to leave their passport at hotel, accommodation or car rental receptions when having their details checked by staff. Instead, they should wait for hotel staff to register information and photocopy the document, and take it with them immediately afterward. Using credit or debit cards may also require ID, especially for purchases of a higher value. Some retailers will accept a driving licence or passport copy, but others may insist on seeing the original passport. British nationals must also be aware of post-Brexit entry rules, which are still in effect. On the flip side, tourists are also being cautioned about wearing face-covering veils or garments, such as burqa and niqab, inside official buildings Travellers heading to Spain, which is part of the Schengen zone, must ensure their passport was issued within the last ten years and remains valid for at least three months beyond the date they plan to leave the Schengen area. It comes as tourists visiting a popular Mediterranean hotspot this summer are being strongly warned against discarding cigarette butts. This act can easily spark wildfires, especially during the hot and dry summer months. The Foreign Office is urging visitors to be extremely cautious while holidaying in Turkey to extinguish cigarettes properly, dispose of them responsibly, and be aware of fire risk areas. It comes as scorching heatwaves blighting Europe is causing major disruption as wildfires continue to devastate popular holiday resorts and ground flights. There's a line between caution and paranoia which needs to be considered when holidaying with your children. So, while trips abroad should be a time for freedom and new experiences for young ones, it's wise to ensure that they are properly and safely organised to minimise the chances of attacks and incidents involving sexual predators. 'While it's really important to reiterate the 'stranger danger' rules of home, while abroad be honest, open and age-appropriate when discussing your child's safety abroad,' says best-selling author and child development specialist Fi Star. 'Parents should echo the same age-appropriate cautions made at home, but in a way that doesn't terrify them to the point of not enjoying their holiday or having the confidence to do activities independently. Ditch the scare-mongering stories in favour of sensible rules you all follow to keep them safe.' It's worth stating that attacks on children in popular holiday destinations are still very rare. Yet incidents over the last few years have, understandably, put pressure on local authorities to do more to maintain an area's reputation as being safe for family holidays. It's also made parents think more carefully about where they should next take their fortnight in the sun with kids in tow. The following are destinations where, due to recent incidents against children, we recommend that parents take particular care with supervising their children to ensure that everything goes without a hitch. Attacks on children in popular holiday destinations - such as coastal Spain, pictured - are still very rare, but high-profile incidents over the last few years have put pressure on local authorities to keep hotspots safe Spain Sex crimes against children are rare in Spain, but more popular tourist hotspots, such as Magaluf and Benidorm, have seen a rise in predatory behaviour towards younger visitors particularly teenagers who might be intoxicated. In September 2023, it was reported that an 11yearold autistic Irish boy was playing with other children at his resort in Costa Adeje when a man approached and touched the child's genitals over his trousers. The attack was witnessed by the boy's family who chased him away. The incident was caught on CCTV, and the suspect was arrested by local police. And in April 2022, in Calella just 30 miles east of Barcelona a 14yearold British girl holidaying with her parents was claimed to have been sexually assaulted in her hotel. A man was arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing a minor. 'Holidays are for relaxing and having fun, but with children you always feel like you're on duty,' says Star. 'To make sure your little ones are safe as well as getting that much needed 'relax time', take it in turns to keep an eye on your child. 'And don't ever worry about reporting any suspicious characters to staff or local police if concerned. The old phrase 'better safe than sorry' comes into play here. Equally, encourage your children to always report to you or a hotel staff member anything or anyone they feel uncomfortable about.' UK Even on a holiday within the UK, it's prudent to be cautious, particularly in the busiest parts of central London. Your main cause for concern is likely to be pick-pockets especially in and around tube stations but more serious crimes against children have occurred. In August last year, an 11yearold Australian girl visiting the capital with her mother was stabbed eight times with a steak knife in Leicester Square by a stranger. Members of the public intervened and detained the attacker until police arrived. When it comes to spotting potential attackers, Star suggests that parents should 'be wary of individuals taking photos or videos of your child without consent, anyone observing your child constantly or paying them an unusual amount of attention, or individuals hanging around children's areas such as play parks or the kids pool but without children of their own'. It's also worth keeping an eye on your children while enjoying beaches in popular tourist destinations such as Devon, Cornwall and West Wales. Predators have been known to secretly take pictures and videos of young children while playing on the beach wearing swimming costumes. France France is a very safe country to visit in the main and, just like London, the most common crime is pick-pocketing on the Paris metro. However, more serious offences against children are not unheard of. In June 2023, a threeyearold British girl was among four children who were stabbed in an Annecy playground by a man shouting religious phrases. And in 2016, at a holiday campsite in the Sisteron region, a mother and her three daughters, aged eight, 12 and 14, were attacked with a knife while eating breakfast at a campsite. The youngest child suffered a punctured lung and required emergency surgery. Again, the attacker was apprehended, but the message is clear: a playground or a family campsite with a kids club is still a place where parents shouldn't feel uncomfortable about asking questions in advance of their holiday. 'They can be lots of fun and filled with activities,' says Star, 'but don't feel you have to take the resort or campsite's word for it that staff are qualified or DBS checked. Ask to see qualifications of childcare staff before leaving your kids with them. You'll feel a lot better and enjoy your child-free time knowing they're in good hands.' It's worth keeping an eye on your children while enjoying beaches in popular tourist destinations as predators have been known to secretly take pictures and videos [stock image] Turkey There were 42 sexual assault cases reported in 2023 by British nationals in Turkey with some involving children. These mostly occurred in coastal resort areas, in public washrooms or by staff at hotels and resorts. An Irish family on holiday in Antalya in May 2022 reported a terrifying abduction attempt when two men tried to grab a twoyearold girl. Covering her with a towel and attempting to carry her away, the girl's parents succeeded in fending them off before raising the alarm. 'Child-free time is an important element of any family holiday,' says Star. But don't ever be tempted to leave your child unattended in a hotel room, especially in the evenings. Not even for a short time. It simply isn't worth the risk.' The UK Foreign Office currently cautions parents to closely supervise children in Turkey especially in public bathrooms and in hotels. Thailand Child prostitution and sex trafficking remain serious problems in Thailand, particularly in tourist heavy areas and, there have been several reports of high-profile arrests of British nationals accused of grooming children. In December last year, a 30-year-old British tourist was arrested in Pattaya after being identified by the UK's National Crime Agency for allegedly raping a six-year-old girl and filming the abuse. The Child Protection Bureau pressed charges for 'raping a minor under the age of 13'. And in January this year, a 39-year-old migrant from Myanmar was detained in Kamala, Phuket, for trying to sexually assault a 14-year-old girl, threatening her with a knife. He was arrested within 12 hours. Star advises: 'Never give out info to any adults asking for constant details or social media handles and be aware of anyone offering unusual amounts of favours such as free rides, sweets, gifts or trips to your children.' Thailand does now have a Tourist Police Bureau, though parents should avoid isolated areas and manage supervision of children tightly. Disney resorts Disneyland Paris' reputation as being one of the safest family holiday destinations was damaged last month by the widely reported 'fake child wedding'. A 39-year-old convicted British sex offender, Jacky Jhaj, was arrested at the resort after a staged ceremony with a nine-year-old Ukrainian girl. Jhaj hired extras, falsified documents and spent thousands renting park time, but the event was shut down by Disney staff before any abuse occurred. He's now charged with fraud, money laundering and identity theft. Fi Star, a best-selling author and child development specialist, says parents should be 'honest, open and age-appropriate' when discussing safety abroad with their children In Disneyland California, a 38-year-old man from Calgary was arrested in New Orleans Square in April this year after stripping naked and climbing atop a roofed restaurant area. 'Be aware of individuals who are 'hands-on', including any hotel or kids club staff,' Star. 'This includes inappropriate behaviour such as hugging, touching, inappropriate comments or invites to go off with them.' Bulgaria In general, sexual crimes targeting children holidaying with families is low in Bulgaria, but there have been incidents involving molestation. In 2012, a Ukrainian man in his 40s was reported to have attacked eight boys at the Pomorie Hotel in the Sunny Beach resort first in the sea, then inside a hotel toilet. British holidaymakers alerted the police, but the man was merely fined for 'hooliganism' and then released. And in 2017, 59-year-old Philip Robertson, from Scotland, was arrested and jailed after groping and kissing young girls aged ten and 12 in hotel lifts. Robertson had also exposed himself at schools in Scotland prior to his departure. He received an eight-month sentence and was placed on the sex offenders register. 'Take time to prepare for your trip and check the local area on gov.uk travel advice,' suggests Star, 'and do talk to other families who have travelled there before Tripadvisor is particularly honest!' Cyprus Sexual attacks against children are unusual in Cyprus its reputation as a safe holiday island remains valid. Incidents that do occur, however, are rare, but often serious. A 76-year-old man holidaying in Cyprus in 2023 was sentenced in June this year to six years in jail for sexually abusing his partner's six-year-old granddaughter throughout the summer while she was staying with him. And, back in 2018, a British minor holidaying with his family in Paphos was raped by a 19-year-old local male. Initially, the assailant received six years in prison but in Cyprus' Supreme Court deemed that sentence 'manifestly inadequate' and in November increased it to nine years. There was also an attempted child abduction at a beach resort in Protaras in the summer of 2018. A gang posing as hotel staff tried to lure and abduct children into unmarked vehicles at the poolside. Luckily, a vigilant father intervened, detained one suspect and alerted the local authorities. The sun sets over Provence in France - a country with a recent record of violent offences against youngsters Cruise ships It's hard to think of a safer family-friendly environment than a cruise ship but there have been recent incidents involving children. In March, aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, two Mexican nationals, Jose Diaz (36) and Ricardo Leal (37), were arrested for forcing a 14yearold boy to perform sex acts in a sauna aboard the Independence of the Seas vessel. The boy was alone when the assault occurred, and both men were charged with lewd behaviour and molesting a minor. In 2023, a former crew member, Arvin Joseph Mirasol, who worked aboard Royal Caribbean ships, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after being caught installing hidden cameras in cabins, including bathrooms, in order to capture footage of minors in states of undress aboard the Symphony of the Seas vessel. Following his conviction, multiple passengers including children have filed lawsuits against Royal Caribbean. Cruise ships are so vast that it's possible for children to get lost on them just as easily as they could in a new city. Fi Star advises that 'should your child become lost, it's incredibly important to have a plan in place'. 'Establish clear, age-appropriate communication before your holiday about what to do if they become lost and ensure everyone travelling with you knows the plan,' she adds. 'For younger children, putting an ID bracelet with your contact numbers on their wrist when out-and-about is ideal. For older children who want a little more independence, consider using location-sharing tools such as Apple AirTags, family location apps such as Life360 or Whatsapp's location sharing so you know their whereabouts and can relax a little. 'Remember,' concludes Fi, 'you can be aware and safe and protect your children, all while having an amazing time abroad.' Fi Star's parenting website, theregularparent.co.uk, offers free tips and advice for parents, as well as links to her podcast and books. Diners across Mallorca will no longer be allowed to split the bill at certain restaurants because it is too 'complicated for the staff'. Juanmi Ferrer, the president of the Restaurants Association on the Spanish island, said that there will now be 'one bill per table and it is up to the customers how they deal with the payment'. He explained that the move comes in an attempt to make it simpler for restaurant staff, because allowing diners to individually pay for their share is often time consuming and leads to miscalculations and items not being paid for. 'Some don't want to pay for the wine, others specifically ask to pay for their own dish. This gets complicated for the staff, and there can be items that no one is charged for. It is time-consuming and even more so if the bill doesn't add up'. But Mr Ferrer said that customers can choose how they will later split the bill, such as through money transfer apps. Splitting the bill after a meal is common practice, but can often create awkward arguments among diners. The 'one table, one bill' police is being used in many eateries across Spain, with restaurant owners arguing that the measure is needed for efficiency. Diners in Mallorca will no longer be allowed to split the bill at restaurants because it is too 'complicated for the staff' File photo shows Magaluf Beach on the Spanish island of Mallorca, which is a popular destination for British sun seekers The move is mainly being used in areas popular among tourists, such as Malaga, Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, due to a higher customer turnover. And while tourists have been contesting the crack-down, restaurant owners argue that the move is necessary because they are running out of staff to cope with large numbers of tourists. But even some Spaniards have opposed the latest measure, arguing that it is more awkward having to ask their friends to transfer them money after a meal. The clampdown on restaurant bills on the Spanish island comes as locals continue to protest tourism across the country, making holidaymakers feel increasingly unwelcome. Last month, protesters used water guns against unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona and Mallorca as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fuelling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns. The marches were part of a coordinated effort by activists concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe's top destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal's capital, Lisbon. Around 5,000 people gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some toting water guns as well and chanting 'Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.' Huge ITV drama Unforgotten has been dealt a fresh blow after its writer Chris Lang has admitted he wishes to step down after the upcoming series. The crime drama follows detectives as they delve into cold cases however the latest season received criticism from viewers who blasted ITV for 'ruining' it with 'woke and nonsensical' storylines. And now it seems the future of the show has been called into question with Chris' involvement uncertain. Speaking in an interview with the Royal Television Society he said: 'I'll probably hand on the baton after this series. I'll still be involved, but I've written 42 episodes and don't want to repeat myself,' The Sun reported. The multi-award winning screenwriter added: 'I wouldn't write it if I didn't have something to say about the state of the nation. 'Because Unforgotten has an inherent and robust structure, that allows me space to hold up a mirror to British society it's a Trojan horse show.' Huge ITV drama Unforgotten has been dealt a fresh blow after its writer Chris Lang (pictured) has admitted he wishes to step down after the upcoming series The crime drama follows detectives as they delve into cold cases however the latest season received criticism from viewers who blasted ITV for 'ruining' it with 'woke and nonsensical' storylines (pictured Sinead Keenan and Sanjeev Bhaskar) When contacted by MailOnline, an ITV spokesperson said: 'As the series creator, Chris will still be involved and remains hugely invested in Unforgotten, its scripts and its storytelling. 'He is currently writing a seventh series, which is due to be filmed next year. No other creative decisions have been taken about the drama.' Back in February ITV confirmed Unforgotten would be recommissioned for a seventh series, despite some fans fearing it would be axed. The sixth series was a great streaming success, with the first episode attracting 7.4million viewers after 14 days. However despite tuning in viewers weren't happy as they took to social media to accuse the show of going 'full on woke'. The sixth series saw DCI Jessica 'Jessie' James (Sinead Keenan) and DI Sunil Sunny Khan (Sanjeev Bhaskar) work on Gerry Cooper's unsolved murder and assess suspects. Mel and Asif raised suspicions with the detectives after they claim they don't recall Gerry. While Marty also caused concern when he asked for a break to think about his story. Many TV watchers took to social media to share their opinions on the crime drama. Back in February ITV confirmed Unforgotten would be recommissioned for a seventh series, despite some fans fearing it would be axed It first aired in 2015 and has since seen over 30 episodes grip fans as the cases unfold One viewer posted on X: 'I reckon one more series and this show will get mothballed or even fully axed. 'Unfortunately this one is a real box-ticking leftie crowd-pleaser. Such a shame that mass popularity television invariably descends into safe and bland dross. Sanj and Sinead wasted.' 'Sorry guys but you have ruined #Unforgotten as its now complete woke nonsense!'; 'What the hell has happened to #Unforgotten its gone full on woke!! Switched off @ITV.'; '#Unforgotten utterly ruined. Woke clap trap. Such a shame.' Another watcher agreed with the 'woke' claims but expressed they they were 'still enjoying' the show. They penned: 'Up to episode 4 of #Unforgotten Look forward to seeing how all the pieces of the puzzle will fit together. Some great acting. 'Is it too woke? Probably - but I am still enjoying it as, in a few years time when we see repeats, we will consider it an astute look at UK in 2025.' While someone else said: 'Brilliant series! Recommend Unforgotten near tears at the end #unforgotten #itv.' The 'best comedy since Only Fools and Horses' has now been made available to stream for free on the BBC - leaving viewers 'sobbing and laughing at the same time'. Alma's Not Normal, which debuted on BBC Two in April 2020, comes from the mind of actress and comedian Sophie Willan, who wrote, created and stars in the sitcom. It follows Sophie as Alma Nuthall, a working-class aspiring actress in her thirties from Bolton, Greater Manchester, reeling from a break-up, while working as an escort. The three-time BAFTA-winning programme covers a range of topics, from addiction, to loss, to the inadequacy of public services. It also draws on some of Sophie's own experiences as a care leaver, with Alma having spent time in care and left school with no qualifications. Its two series, available to watch on BBC iPlayer, also boast a star-studded lead cast, including comedian Jayde Adams and Grantchester actress Lorraine Asbourne. Alma's Not Normal (pictured, with Sophie Willan as Alma), which debuted on BBC Two in April 2020, comes from the mind of actress and comedian Sophie Willan, who wrote, created and stars in the sitcom It follows Sophie as Alma Nuthall (centre, with Lorraine Ashbourne, left, as Joan and Jayde Adams, right, as Leanne), a working-class aspiring actress in her thirties from Bolton, Greater Manchester, reeling from a break-up, while working as an escort Jayde stars as Alma's best friend and confidant Leanne, while Lorraine plays her grandmother Joan, who raised her when her mother Lin was unable to. Downton Abbey's Siobhan Finneran plays Lin, whose heroin addiction and mental health issues left her with a fractious relationship with her daughter Alma. After the roaring success of the pilot in 2020, the full first series launched in September 2021, to widespread critical acclaim. It won Sophie the BAFTAs for Best Comedy Writer and Best Female Comedy Performance. A second series hit our screens in October last year, winning the BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy. The programme has a lot of fans, who have taken to social media to encourage others to watch the show too. One said on Facebook: 'One of my favourites - so well written and acted beautifully.' Another commented: 'Watched all of this, highly recommend it. Best comedy since Only Fools. It's hilarious if in need of a good laugh.' Downton Abbey's Siobhan Finneran (right) plays Lin, whose heroin addiction and mental health issues left her with a fractious relationship with her daughter Alma After the roaring success of the pilot in 2020, the full first series launched in September 2021, to widespread critical acclaim. Pictured: Series two Someone else chimed in: 'I sobbed and laughed at the same time... Nothing has ever done that to me before, brilliant.' One took it even further: 'I think this is possibly the best thing I have ever watched.' But despite the high praise, creator Sophie has confirmed the programme will not be returning for a third series. She told Deborah Frances-White's podcast The Guilty Feminist: 'Basically, they're not getting a series three. I'm done.' But it might not be quite the end of the story just yet: 'I want to do a Christmas special, they've commissioned the script. 'But I don't want to do another series. I want to wrap up the journey. She is no longer a situational comedy protagonist. 'They have to not learn, that's the point. She's Del Boy at the end when he gets boring and rich.' The semi-autobiographical element of the show continued into the second series, released last year. But despite the high praise, creator Sophie has confirmed the programme will not be returning for a third series She told Deborah Frances-White's podcast The Guilty Feminist: 'Basically, they're not getting a series three. I'm done' Like Alma, Sophie was brought up by her grandmother, called Denise, between stints in foster care. The second series sees Alma's grandmother Joan diagnosed with cancer - and similarly, Denise died from cancer during filming of the first series of the programme. Sophie later dedicated her BAFTA win in 2022 to her grandmother. Also like Alma, Sophie had at one point turned to sex work to make ends meet. She developed an interest in acting around the same time. Joining a theatre company in Manchester, she had been about to branch out to make her own when she won the BBC's Caroline Aherne bursary in 2017. The fund, named for the creator of sitcom The Royle Family, sees a budding comedy talent supported to develop a script - and it was how Alma's Not Normal was born. She has previously told the BBC: 'The second series was very hard to write because some of it was stuff that I was currently dealing with rather than stuff that I processed long ago.' It saw her take aim at cuts to the mental health and care systems: 'I wanted to take the state to task. I wanted to show the impact on vulnerable women. It comes after another beloved BBC comedy (pictured) also came to an end Man Like Mobeen (pictured) sees former drug dealer Mobeen try to lead an honest life in Small Heath Birmingham after years of an unlawful lifestyle The show (pictured), which first aired back in 2017, was created by and stars actor and comedian Guz Khan 'And what happens to my mum in [the show] is systematic failure.' It comes after another beloved BBC comedy also came to an end. Man Like Mobeen sees former drug dealer Mobeen try to lead an honest life in Small Heath Birmingham after years of an unlawful lifestyle. The show, which first aired back in 2017, was created by and stars actor and comedian Guz Khan. It was confirmed earlier this year the comedy would make a comeback for a fifth instalment, released on May 1 - but it would be the very last one. 'In the final series, Mobeen must save Aqsa but can he even get a passport or a plane ticket to the UAE? And will he convince his friends to join him?' the synopsis reads. Creator and star Guz previously revealed he had only written the series for fans and he would not be making another. He explained: 'I can't even shop at Aldi without someone popping out from behind the bread aisle and asking me when there's going to be more Man Like Mobeen. 'So, for you, and only for you, here's one, final, very last, never to be done again season of Man Like Mobeen. 'Please don't make me make any more, I got loads of kids to raise and that.' Alma's Not Normal is available to stream on BBC iPlayer. A man's partner tragically passed away following a Brazilian bum lift and now he has been left to raise their five daughters. Wednesday's episode of This Morning saw co-hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard interview people who have experienced issues with the procedure. A non-surgical BBL involves injecting filler into the buttocks and has recently grown in popularity. One of the guests included Dane Knight, who's partner, Alice, died in August 2024. He revealed how he didn't know Alice was even having the procedure and thought she was enjoying a day out. 'I didn't know she was getting the procedure done, obviously when we got the phone call I didn't know what the issue was from the hospital, it was more get there and then find out the current situation,' Dane explained. Wednesday's episode of This Morning saw co-hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard (both pictured) interview people who have experienced issues with the procedure One of the guests included Dane Knight (pictured) who's partner, Alice, died in August 2024 'Prior to that, going back off the information, we talked about the procedures, as far as we were concerned, the information that was available at that date and time it was deemed as safe,' he added. 'Now I've learnt that it's not.' Dane shared he felt Alice didn't actually understand the risks because it was 'deemed as safe'. The couple have five daughters together and Cat asked if Alice had been aware of the possible risks, would she have gone ahead with the procedure. 'No way Cat she wouldn't of, no chance,' Dane said. Cat and Ben had discussed the risks of similar procedures with Health Secretary Wes Streeting on Tuesday's episode and notified him of Dane and Alice's situation. On the show, Wes said: 'In the coming days and weeks we're going to be setting out the regulations. He revealed how he didn't know Alice (pictured) was even having the procedure and thought she was enjoying a day out Dane shared he felt Alice didn't actually understand the risks because it was 'deemed as safe' 'Over in the next week or so you should hear from the government about what we're going to do to clamp down on cosmetic cowboys here at home, when it comes to overseas it's more complicated...' 'Just hearing Dane speaking there and the thought of five children being left behind because they've lost their mother in these circumstances, that motivates me to act and I hope for people watching as well, it's just the worst possible reminder,' he added. Dane commented that the Health Secretary's comments and plans were 'comforting' but that he hoped to see 'action'. 'Something needs to be put in place sooner, rather than later, before this happens to another family,' he said. Save Face director Ashton Collins also featured on Wednesday's instalment and said: 'In our view, Alice's death should never have been allowed to happen. We warned the government in 2023 that this was crisis waiting to happen. 'We said without action, lives would be lost and we are just hopeful that they will do something before anyone else has to pay the ultimate sacrifice at the hands of these unscrupulous people.' Ben asked Dane how he and his daughters were coping with things Ben asked Dane how he and his daughters were coping with things. Dane replied: 'Girls are going strong, they're a credit to Alice. Obviously the damage is still showing and it's ongoing especially with the ongoing police investigation so we can't put it rest and get that grief process started because it just kicks back up again so it's just an ongoing nightmare. 'It's hard enough becoming a single parent, to losing someone but all these bits together is just unreal.' This Morning airs weekdays on ITV1 from 10am and is available to stream on ITVX. Great British Menu star Andi Oliver has been revealed as the favourite replacement MasterChef host after the BBC sacked John Torode for 'using an extremely offensive racist term'. The Australian chef, 59, was axed from the cooking competition in an announcement from the broadcaster on Tuesday afternoon. It came after a report into a series of allegations of inappropriate behaviour by his co-star Gregg Wallace, 60, which saw him sacked as a presenter this month. The investigation also found John had once used an 'extremely offensive racist term', allegedly during some drinks after filming. John posted to Instagram on Tuesday evening to say he had 'no recollection' of the incident and did not believe it had happened. But in the wake of both the co-hosts' disgrace, Gogglebox star Andi Oliver, 62, has emerged as the bookies' favourite to replace them. Great British Menu star Andi Oliver (pictured) has been revealed as the favourite replacement MasterChef host after the BBC sacked John Torode for 'using a racist term' John Torode (pictured), 59, was axed from the cooking competition in an announcement from the broadcaster on Tuesday afternoon It came after a report into a series of allegations of inappropriate behaviour by his co-star Gregg Wallace , 60, which saw him sacked as a presenter this month (Pictured: John Torode and Gregg Wallace on MasterChef) Bookies at What Are The Odds have said her chances stand at 5/2, or 28.6 per cent, boosted by her 'warmth and culinary credibility'. The chef is also helped, they said, by her 'vibrant energy and authority' on Great British Menu, which she has variously judged and presented since 2016. She would make history as the first black woman to present MasterChef if she were to be given the top job. But Andi, who is a regular on Celebrity Gogglebox with her daughter, presenter Miquita Oliver, 41, has some competition. Close behind her is celebrity chef Tom Kerridge, 51, who has been rated at 3/1, or 25 per cent, for his 'accessible cooking style', 'likeable media persona' and 'devoted following'. 'With multiple restaurants, several BBC series, and a reputation for combining fine dining with everyday appeal, Kerridge is seen as a strong fit for MasterChefs evolving audience', the bookies added. What Are The Odds analyst Dave James said: 'Andi Oliver remains the market leader but Tom Kerridge is attracting a lot of support. 'His profile is huge and he's one of the most trusted names in British food. This could come down to what direction the BBC wants prestige, relatability, or a bit of both.' But Andi, who is a regular on Celebrity Gogglebox with her daughter, presenter Miquita Oliver, 41 (pictured together on This Morning in 2023), has some competition Close behind her is celebrity chef Tom Kerridge (pictured), 51, who has been rated at 3/1, or 25 per cent Other names which could make the cut include Poppy O'Toole, 29, a Michelin-trained chef who has skyrocketed to fame on social media as the 'Potato Queen'. At 4/1 or 20 per cent, she is followed by chef Angela Hartnett, 56, at 5/1 (16.7 per cent) and Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, 40, on 6/1 or 14.3 per cent. Stars rated below them range from TV chefs James Martin, Nigella Lawson and Marcus Wareing, to food critic Grace Dent. Even John's wife and fellow TV chef Lisa Faulkner, 53, still makes the top ten, at 14/1 or 6.7 per cent, despite his recent sacking. It comes after John was left 'heartbroken' by discovering he had been dropped from MasterChef online. A source told The Sun: 'He read about it on the BBC News website. 'Obviously he's heartbroken. He feels he's been made a scapegoat off the back of the Gregg Wallace report.' Just after the news broke, the chef released a statement confirming he had not 'heard from anyone at the BBC' or the show's production company Banijay UK. Other names which could make the cut include Poppy O'Toole (pictured), 29, a Michelin-trained chef who has skyrocketed to fame on social media as the 'Potato Queen' Even John's wife and fellow TV chef Lisa Faulkner (left, with John at the National Television Awards last year), 53, still makes the top ten, at 14/1 or 6.7 per cent, despite his recent sacking His agent was reportedly called just 11 minutes before the BBC's announcement - and so 'hadn't a chance to call him' before word got out. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the BBC said it does not 'tolerate racist language of any kind' and that it takes the finding 'extremely seriously'. The move came after BBC director-general Tim Davie notably failed to back Torode and said he 'expects action to be taken' following the racism allegations. He delivered the remarks as the BBC released its annual report - an occasion overshadowed by controversies for the second year in a row. A witness of the moment at issue in John's sacking claimed he apologised instantly for using the term as he 'was mortified' and he 'didn't use the term as a slur'. No one complained at the time but the incident was brought up during Gregg's inquiry, they added. A BBC spokesperson said: 'John Torode has identified himself as having an upheld allegation of using racist language against him. 'This allegation - which involves an extremely offensive racist term being used in the workplace - was investigated and substantiated by the independent investigation led by the law firm, Lewis Silkin. John Torode denies the allegation. A source said: 'Obviously he's heartbroken. He feels he's been made a scapegoat off the back of the Gregg Wallace report'. Pictured: John and Gregg in 2008 Just after the news broke, the chef released a statement confirming he had not 'heard from anyone at the BBC' or the show's production company Banijay UK 'He has stated he has no recollection of the alleged incident and does not believe that it happened. 'He also says that any racial language is wholly unacceptable in any environment. 'The BBC takes this upheld finding extremely seriously. We will not tolerate racist language of any kind and, as we have already said, we told Banijay UK, the makers of MasterChef, that action must be taken. 'John Torode's contract on MasterChef will not be renewed.' Banijay UK has also now said it has decided not to renew his contract. ITV are standing by under fire John, with sources at the channel telling MailOnline it will continue to broadcast John and Lisa's Weekend Kitchen as scheduled on Saturday. The much-loved cookery show, which launched in 2019, features John, 59, and his wife Lisa as they showcase their favourite recipes. An ITV source said: 'There is no change to the ITV schedule and John and Lisa's Weekends will be broadcast as usual and will continue to air for the next three weeks.' ITV are standing by under fire John, with sources at the channel telling MailOnline it will continue to broadcast John and Lisa's Weekend Kitchen (pictured) as scheduled on Saturday Meanwhile, BBC director general Mr Davie has insisted MasterChef can still prosper despite the loss of Gregg and John. Pictured: John and Lisa on This Morning earlier this month It means the third episode of the tenth series of the show will be broadcast on ITV1 at 11.40am on Saturday. There are also plans for the broadcaster to welcome John back later in the year with John & Lisa's Christmas Kitchen in December. Meanwhile, BBC director general Mr Davie has insisted MasterChef can still prosper despite the loss of Gregg and John. He said: 'The BBC in some ways are quite simple on this, if someone is found to not live up to our values we expect the independent company, Banijay in this case, to take action and report back to us on what they have done. 'These are not BBC employees, but we absolutely expect action to be taken.' The director general added: 'I think it's a great programme that's well loved by audiences and is much bigger than individuals. 'It absolutely can survive and prosper, but we've got to make sure we're in the right place in terms of the culture of the show.' A Banijay spokesperson said: 'In response to John Torode's statement, it is important to stress that Banijay UK takes this matter incredibly seriously. It comes after his co-star Gregg (right) hit out at the BBC after a probe upheld more than half of the complaints of inappropriate behaviour against him as he warned he 'won't be the last' to be cancelled The report into Gregg's behaviour on the cooking show upheld 45 out of 83 complaints made. Pictured: Gregg on Lorraine last year 'The legal team at Lewis Silkin that investigated the allegations relating to Gregg Wallace also substantiated an accusation of highly offensive racist language against John Torode which occurred in 2018. 'This matter has been formally discussed with John Torode by Banijay UK, and whilst we note that John says he does not recall the incident, Lewis Silkin have upheld the very serious complaint. Banijay UK and the BBC are agreed that we will not renew his contract on MasterChef.' John is said to have been the subject of multiple allegations before only one - relating to 'racist language' - was upheld, The Telegraph has reported. It comes after his co-star Gregg hit out at the BBC after a probe upheld more than half of the complaints of inappropriate behaviour against him as he warned he 'won't be the last' to be cancelled. The report into Gregg's behaviour on the cooking show upheld 45 out of 83 complaints made, including one count of 'unwanted physical contact', leaving the BBC to admit it 'could and should have' acted sooner on the MasterChef host. The damning investigation also found two complaints about the behaviour of 'other people' - including John - were upheld. While apologising for any 'distress' he caused, Gregg took aim at the MasterChef broadcaster, which he claims valued 'protecting its legacy' over 'protecting people'. Warning it was 'dangerous' to be a 'working-class man with a direct manner' in the world of broadcasting, he said he 'won't be the last' to face cancellation. While apologising for any 'distress' he caused, Gregg took aim (pictured) at the MasterChef broadcaster, which he claims valued 'protecting its legacy' over 'protecting people' The presenter said: 'In the end, the BBC left me exposed to trial by media and the damage it leaves in its wake. 'To those who've shown kindness, thank you. It mattered. This has been brutal. 'For a working-class man with a direct manner, modern broadcasting has become a dangerous place. I was the headline this time. But I won't be the last. 'There will be more casualties if the BBC continues down this path, where protecting its legacy matters more than protecting people. 'For my part, with full legal support, I will consider my next move.' Lorraine Kelly, 65, took a swipe at Gregg following the scandal and his statements on her ITV show yesterday. The TV presenter said: 'Gregg Wallace has released a statement, many statements. He's tried to get ahead of this a lot and he's said many, in my opinion, inappropriate things. 'It's just quite strange because he has a little boy who has autism as well - I find that bizarre, I find that very strange. 'What's interesting though is those around him who enabled him to be like that.' Meanwhile, the chairman of the BBC has admitted there are powerful individuals still making life 'unbearable' for colleagues after a slew of people were sacked from the corporation. Samir Shah spoke out as MasterChef was plunged into crisis on Monday night when it emerged John had an allegation of misconduct upheld before he was sacked the next day. It followed the release of the corporation's annual report which revealed former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker - who left his job in May after being accused of posting an 'antisemitic trope' on social media - topped the list for the eighth year running. Lorraine Kelly, 65, took a swipe at 'strange and inappropriate' Gregg Wallace on her breakfast show on Tuesday (pictured today) Speaking about the scandal, Lorraine said: 'Gregg Wallace has released a statement, many statements. He's tried to get ahead of this a lot and he's said many, in my opinion, inappropriate things' (pictured together in 2024) Samir Shah (pictured) spoke out as MasterChef was plunged into crisis last night when it emerged presenter John Torode had an allegation of misconduct upheld (file image) On Tuesday evening, it was announced Mr Torode (left) had been sacked from the show after a report into his co-host Gregg Wallace (right) found he had used an 'extremely offensive racist term' Speaking as the report was released, Mr Shah admitted there had been a 'string of revelations' about abuses of power at the BBC over the past year. He said: 'Our staff are dedicated, hardworking and treat each other with respect. 'However, there are pockets in the organisation where this is not the case. There are still places where powerful individuals - on and off-screen - can abuse that power to make life for their colleagues unbearable.' He added there had been dismissals following a review, which came out in April, but stopped short of identifying those who were sacked. Elsewhere, it a source told The Sun that the BBC and production company Banijay had asked John to resign from MasterChef and blame his mental health after the accusation of misconduct were made public. However, John reportedly refused to quit when urged to stand down over the weekend and was instead sacked on Tuesday. When it comes to a divorce, there are arguably no winners. And this is particularly the case when the divorce in question is as bitter as that of actors Ioan Gruffudd and Alice Evans which has resulted in more than four years of venomous barbs and legal battles. But perhaps Alice thinks differently. For yesterday, shortly after the Mail revealed that Ioan had released heartbreaking text messages sent by the couples children Elsie, 15, and Ella, 11 to their father, in which they harshly castigate him, she posted what appeared to be a thinly-veiled message to her ex-husband to her Instagram: an image of a chessboard bearing the message You lost. The messages had been released by Ioan as part of court documents in his divorce settlement proceedings, in which he is fighting to show his daughters are being manipulated by his ex-wife. Whether Alices post was yet another dig at her ex or not, theres no doubt that Ioan has lost the peaceful relationship he once enjoyed with his little girls. I know first-hand how happy the actor once was. It was at a bland community centre in the heart of California beach town Santa Monica that a six-foot, dark-haired man approached me to introduce himself. Im Ioan Gruffudd, he said in his soft Welsh accent as he shook my hand and gave me a huge, beaming smile. He was the epitome of polite and I was rather smitten, not least by his piercing brown eyes. Of course I knew who he was. My younger sisters and I had watched 102 Dalmatians many times the film on which Ioan met Alice and Id also seen the 2005 superhero movie Fantastic Four. Ioan Gruffudd with ex-wife Alice Evans. She alleges that his refusal to pay enough maintenance meant that she and their two daughters were on the verge of becoming homeless But on this day, way back in April 2015, the handsome actor and I were spending the day not with the starry LA set, but with underprivileged children in Santa Monica who were being taught how to code. The initiative was part of the Los Angeles Brit Week, where expats living in the city were helping local charities and good causes as a way to give back to their adopted home. Id already interviewed TV producer and dance competition judge Nasty Nigel Lythgoe, and my next task as a journalist working in the US was to spend the day shadowing Ioan as he helped youngsters learn how to programme computers. And as I did, I warmed to him even more. Nothing was too much trouble for him as he engaged with these hard-up kids. Back then, Ioan was married to fellow British actor Alice and their daughters Ella and Elsie were around five and one. He told me of his delight at being a dad and how he and Alice absolutely loved living in Los Angeles, having made the decision to move there more than a decade before in 2003. He joked disarmingly that sometimes people in Hollywood would get confused and think he was married to another British star in LA called Alice Alice Eve, the beautiful, blonde daughter of actors Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan and hed have to explain to them that, no, his beloved was called Alice Evans. He was just about to start filming ITV drama Liar and confided that at times hed found it hard to find work. Yet he wouldnt want his life any other way, he told me. There was no question that he adored his children and he was deeply happy with his wife. I recall thinking what a lucky lady Alice was I mean, those eyes are just beautiful. There were no airs and graces despite Ioan being one of just a few Brits who had made it in Hollywood at the time. As we said our goodbyes, he hugged me and thanked me for being good company, and I returned the compliment and meant it. Yesterday Alice posted what appeared to be a thinly-veiled message to her ex-husband on Instagram: an image of a chessboard bearing the message You lost. Since then, however, the world has been hearing about a very different Ioan to the one I met a decade ago. Six years after that heart-warming day with the kids, Ioan left his wife of 14 years a fact revealed by Alice on her social media and since then has been on the receiving end of some harsh accusations from her. No doubt most hurtful of all, she has painted him as a bad father, alleging earlier this year that his refusal to pay enough maintenance meant that she and their two daughters were on the verge of becoming homeless. Alice also accused Ioan of being abusive which he vehemently denies. In fact, it was Ioan who in February 2022 was granted a restraining order against her, after she posted a number of messages about him and his new wife, actress Bianca Wallace, on social media and allegedly sent him more than 100 texts, some appearing to threaten him. Alice denied abusing or harassing him but the order was extended for three years, so she remains forbidden from posting about either of them until August 2025. Ioan claims that Alice has breached her restraining order 5,000 times in the past three years, and he is now seeking to have her permanently banned from talking about him and from ever contacting him or Bianca 19 years his junior who is now expecting their first child. Friends of 51-year-old Ioan called me yesterday to tell me that he is devastated at the effects the very public fallout is having on the children and that he has tried to get them proper psychological support to help them deal with it. They also say he suspects that distressing text messages to him from 15-year-old Ella begging him for money which the Mail revealed yesterday had been released into the public domain in the latest round of legal proceedings were written with Alices help. In one she wrote: Mummy works very hard and also looks after us 24/7. You are avoiding the issue which is that you dont want to work. Its not mummys fault its yours. You left us and now you cant provide for us. You are a father who has abandoned his children and doesnt see them or talk to them... Its pathetic and everyone sees you. Ps, if there is enough money for us never to become homeless then why arent you helping us out? You hate mummy more than you love us. One friend said: It is devastating that the children are so front and centre in all of this. It is destroying Ioan. Indeed, in just over a fortnight there will be yet another court hearing as the venomous war of words reaches a crescendo. And in documents filed by Ioan to the Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday as part of his and Alices divorce settlement including subpoenaed figures showing her alleged income he seeks to make the case that her public narrative suggesting financial destitution at his hands is entirely false. The papers state that her earnings/receipts for 2024 total $130,141 (97,000), yet she still has a GoFundMe page in which she has received around $18,000 (13,400) from generous fans. The documents add that Alice is set to earn/receive at least that amount in 2025, but she has not provided statements from her UK bank accounts, which Ioan believes strongly suggests that her actual income is much higher. The papers also state that Ioan pays 56-year-old Alice $3,000 (2,200) per month in child support, plus a further $1,500 (1,100) in spousal support. Following the release of the court papers, sources close to Alice claimed the figures cited by the Welsh actor include the support he was ordered by the court to give, accounting for around $80,000 of the $130,000. Friends of Ioans are furious with Alice for battering away at his character and reputation since their split four years ago. One tells me: She has destroyed him, and she has tried to leave his reputation in tatters. And while Alice is of course entitled to her own views on her ex-husband, the Ioan I met a decade ago spoke so fondly of his wife and children that I simply cant believe he is the monster she would have us believe. Grace Kellys lookalike granddaughter turned heads at a recent charity ball not just for her striking resemblance to the late princess, but for wearing a jaw-dropping gown inspired by one of her most iconic film looks. Camille Gottlieb, 27 daughter of Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Jean Raymond Gottlieb made a show-stopping appearance at the Monaco Red Cross Gala on Saturday, channeling every bit of her grandmothers Oscar-winning charm and timeless elegance on the red carpet. The young royal wore a custom gown inspired by Grace's unforgettable wardrobe in Alfred Hitchcocks 1954 thriller Rear Window, in which Kelly starred opposite James Stewart. The original design a romantic navy dress with a dramatic portrait neckline and voluminous white skirt was the work of legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head. Camilles modernized take paid homage while adding her own flair, featuring sparkling silver floral embellishments across the bodice and a daring thigh-high slit. After the event, Camille took to Instagram to share a glimpse behind the scenes, writing: 'Thanks to @elisabettafranchi, I was able to pay tribute to my grandmother with this beautiful dress.' Grace Kelly s lookalike granddaughter turned heads at a recent charity ball not just for her striking resemblance to the late princess, but for wearing a jaw-dropping gown inspired by one of her most iconic film looks The original design a romantic navy dress with a dramatic portrait neckline and voluminous white skirt was the work of legendary Hollywood costume designer Edith Head The beauty completed the look with Cartier jewelry a nod to the very brand that supplied her grandmothers engagement rings. Also in attendance at the elegant affair were Princess Graces son Prince Albert and his wife Princess Charlene. The royal fashion moment was a nod to Grace's glamorous Hollywood legacy before she gave it all up to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956. The couple went on to have three children: Princess Caroline, Prince Albert, and Camilles mother, Princess Stephanie. Grace first met her future husband thanks to a bit of matchmaking by actress Olivia de Havilland. The Gone with the Wind star introduced the pair after meeting Kelly on a train to Cannes in April 1955. De Havilland thought the American screen siren and the prince should meet over dinner. Grace had reportedly described Rainier as 'charming' when they first met after being invited to do a photoshoot at the Prince's palace to promote her film The Country Girl. Camilles modernized take paid homage while adding her own flair, featuring sparkling silver floral embellishments across the bodice and a daring thigh-high slit After the event, Camille took to Instagram to share a glimpse behind the scenes, writing: 'Thanks to @elisabettafranchi, I was able to pay tribute to my grandmother with this beautiful dress' Son of Stephanie of Monaco, Louis Ducruet (2nd L) and his wife Marie Chevallier (L), Prince Albert II of Monaco (2R), Princess Charlene of Monaco (C) and Daughter of Stephanie of Monaco, Camille Gottlieb pose as they arrive to attend the 76th annual Monaco Red Cross Ball The beauty completed the look with Cartier jewelry a nod to the very brand that supplied her grandmothers engagement rings Grace Kelly starred opposite James Stewart in Alfred Hitchcocks 1954 thriller Rear Window, a stylish suspense classic that cemented her status as a Hollywood icon They kept in touch in secret before spending two days together in Philadelphia getting to know one another, ahead of his proposal. After a brief engagement, Kelly and Prince Rainier III tied the knot in a quiet civil ceremony inside the throne room of Monacos royal palace on April 18, 1956. But under the Napoleonic Code of Monaco, a second, religious ceremony was required and it was anything but quiet. The following day, the couple exchanged vows again in a grand service at Saint Nicholas Cathedral, officiated by Monacos bishop, Gilles Barthe, and broadcast to an estimated 30 million viewers around the world. Amid her whirlwind engagement and royal wedding the following spring, Grace filmed what would become her final movie role in High Society, starring alongside Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. She was just 26 years old when she retired from acting to become a real-life princess. Though Camille never had the chance to meet her legendary grandmother who tragically died at 52 from a brain hemorrhage following a car accident she's clearly inherited her iconic sense of style. Former Neighbours star Damien Richardson may question the 'mathematical formula' of a Nazi salute as he fights charges in court. The actor, 55, appeared at Moorabbin Magistrates Court on Tuesday. He was charged with performing a Nazi salute at a restaurant in Melbourne's southeast in September 2024. Richardson asked police to consider offering him a diversion at a hearing in June, to spare him a criminal conviction, but this was rejected, the court was told on Tuesday. He has now been charged with intentionally performing 'a Nazi gesture whilst knowing that the symbol is associated with Nazi ideology' and that the display 'occurred in a public place'. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Neighbours star Damien Richardson may question the 'mathematical formula' of a Nazi salute as he fights charges in court Prosecutor Nicholas La Mattina applied to change the wording of the single charge, to remove the words 'symbol' and 'display'. He also asked the magistrate to insert the words 'Nazi salute' into the charge, and that it 'is likely to be confused with or mistaken for a Nazi salute, whilst knowing the Nazi salute is a Nazi gesture'. Magistrate Luisa Bazzani approved of the change in wording and ordered the matter be set down for a two-day contested hearing. She said there were two issues; whether Richardson performed a Nazi gesture or salute and whether he could be exempt under the Act as performing out of 'genuine artistic purpose'. 'What's conceded is the gesture Mr Richardson performed was a Nazi gesture, but not specifically a Nazi salute,' Mr La Mattina said. Defence lawyer Peter Monagle said his client claimed 'it was a gesture which was made without thought as to what ramifications there may be'. The magistrate said Richardson had referred to the fact he may be fined or jailed, while he was performing the gesture. Mr La Mattina said he may potentially call an expert on 'what constitutes a Nazi salute' to give evidence to the hearing. He was charged with performing a Nazi salute at a restaurant in Melbourne's southeast in September 2024 Appearing in Moorabbin Magistrates Court on Tuesday he has now been charged with intentionally performing 'a Nazi gesture whilst knowing that the symbol is associated with Nazi ideology' and that the display 'occurred in a public place' Mr Monagle said he would cross-examine that witness, if called, on the 'mathematical formula' of what constitutes a Nazi salute, including how high an arm must be raised and the position of the fingers. A two-hour livestream of the incident may be played at the contested hearing, but Mr Monagle said he would ask the court to not allow evidence of another speaker at the event as it would be 'prejudicial' to the case. Richardson, who is facing a fine of up to $23,000 or 12 months in jail, will return to the court for a contested hearing on November 5 and 6. The actor appeared in the Moorabbin Magistrates' Court in April after being charged under Victoria's anti-Nazi salute laws. He was allegedly filmed performing a Nazi salute to a crowd of far-right activists at a National Workers Alliance meeting in Melbourne in September. NWA says it stands 'for the preservation of Western culture and identity'. Before performing the Nazi salute, which was revealed by ABC's 7.30, Richardson declared that Australia was experiencing 'a war on men'. 'I thought it was a war on Western tradition, Western values and actually, it's an anti-white male agenda.' Prosecutor Nicholas La Mattina said he may potentially call an expert on 'what constitutes a Nazi salute' to give evidence to the hearing. Defence lawyer Peter Monagle said he would cross-examine that witness, if called, on the 'mathematical formula' of what constitutes a Nazi salute, including how high an arm must be raised and the position of fingers. It was then that Richardson raised his right arm and alluded to the fact that far-right extremist Jacob Hersant was given a one-month jail term last week for doing a Nazi salute. 'Am I gonna be fined now? I'm gonna go to jail for five years?' Richardson said. 'I mean, really? I mean, this is absurd. This is insane. It's crazy. It's so crazy you can't believe it's even happening.' After Richardson performed the salute, which was broadcast live on Facebook, members of the National Socialist Network neo-Nazi group could be heard cheering. Despite his actions and words being filmed, the actor has tried to distance himself from the neo-Nazis he was addressing. Matt Trihey, who organised the Melbourne gathering, said 'there has been a lot of misinformation spoken about the event, Damien, the National Workers Alliance and myself'. 'Neither Damien or I have ever been members of Nazi organisations and we have no connection with the NSN,' he told the ABC. 'I am a free speech advocate and have no control over who purchases online tickets to my events.' Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said he was 'disgusted' at the footage. 'I was shocked enough when I saw the salute, disgusted when I heard the applause,' he said. 'They might think they did it in a private place, but the moment you put things online there's a new legal question on whether it was done publicly, so that will be something our authorities will work through.' Savannah Chrisley opened up about cosmetic surgery on the latest episode of her Unlocked podcast. The 27-year-old platinum blonde TV star who cozied up to President Donald Trump to facilitate her parents' pardon from prison had a candid conversation with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Charlie Galanis, during which she explained why she underwent liposuction. 'I was going through all kinds of s***t with my endometriosis,' she recalled about what prompted her to go under the knife. 'I had taken this medication and I gained 40 pounds in like three months. It was crazy. And I had to do this like campaign shoot and I hated how I looked.' Endometriosis is a condition characterized by tissue that normally lines the uterus growing elsewhere in the body. 1 in 10 women experience it. Chrisley also spoke about the terrible rhinoplasty that left her nose crooked. In the episode, titled 'Be Curious, Not Judgmental,' Chrisley shared that a higher cost doctor doesn't always translate to better results. Savannah Chrisley opened up about cosmetic surgery on the latest episode of her Unlocked podcast Savannah pictured left in 2024 and right in 2019 'I got my nose done by a guy in Beverly Hills, and he was known as the "it guy." I went and got it done and it was literally crooked,' she detailed. 'I was like, this does not look good,' she added before sharing that she went to 'one of my dad's friends to fix it.' Now, she says about her nose, 'I love it, looks great.' She then emphasized that 'just because [plastic surgery] is a certain price or just because [a doctor] has done such and such celebrity],' doesn't guarantee a satisfactory procedure. The Chrisley Knows Best alum didn't say exactly when she had her liposuction, but noted that it was 'a while ago,' while adding that it 'happened fast,' taking place just one week after her virtual consultation. 'I went to Beverly Hills, mom [Julie Chrisley] went with me, I did the surgery. And for me, it was just, I felt like s**t. I didn't like how I looked,' she remembered. She pointed out, 'If you don't like how you look, it doesn't just take a toll on you physically, but emotionally and mentally.' Post-procedure, Savannah regained her confidence. 'Speaking from personal experience, when I got my lipo done, I felt like... when you can look in the mirror and see a difference, it made me want to live healthier. The 27-year-old media personality had a candid conversation with her plastic surgeon, Dr. Charlie Galanis, during which she explained why she underwent liposuction 'I had taken this medication and I gained 40 pounds in like three months,' Chrisley explained about what prompted her decision to undergo liposuction; seen in July 2025 She also spoke about undergoing two rhinoplasties, with the first one needing to be fixed because her nose was 'crooked'; pictured right in 2024 and left in 2014 In late May, President Trump personally called Savannah to inform her of his decision to grant her parents' Todd and Julie Chrisley clemency after they were convicted of bank fraud; pictured in 2019 'When I saw the results, I was like, oh my gosh. I wanna keep this up,' she said of the life-changing ordeal. And she said she looked like a 'totally different human being' afterward. Savannah's parents Todd, 56, and Julie Chrisley, 52, were both convicted in 2022 for orchestrating a $30 million bank fraud and tax evasion scheme. They were serving multi-year sentences before they were pardoned by President Donald Trump in May, due to their daughter's staunch advocacy for their release. During a press conference in Nashville, Tennessee in May, the media personality slammed critics and defended her persistent efforts to free her mom and dad. 'Obviously the biggest misconception right now is that I either paid for a pardon or slept for a pardon,' she said to a hoard of media outlets. 'That's the biggest misconception right now, and if people knew the countless hours and the money and the time that I spent going to D.C., literally with not a meeting scheduled, and I just got on a plane and went and said, "I'm going to be in the right room at the right time and meet the right people..."' she added. Chip and Joanna Gaines are defended by the gay couple after critics slammed the reality stars for including them on their new show. This comes as the HGTV stars are facing backlash from conservative Christians for their 'unbiblical' casting on their new reality show. Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs, a same-sex couple, and their children are one of three families featured on the Gaines' new Magnolia Network reality series, Back to the Frontier. Following the show's premiere on July 10, the reality stars started receiving harsh criticism before the dads took to social media to defend the show. Hanna posted a screenshot of a news article with the headline, 'Conservative Christians rage at reality show for letting gay people on,' and explained why he believes families like his should be shown on TV. His partner also shared a post thanking Chip and Joanna for casting them and standing by their decision to do so even though nearly a decade ago, it was revealed that the Fixer Upper stars attend an Evangelical church, which believes 'homosexuality is a sin.' Chip and Joanna Gaines are defended by the gay couple after critics slammed the reality stars for including them on their new show. This comes as the HGTV stars are facing backlash from conservative Christians for their 'unbiblical' casting on their new reality show; pictured July 2021 in New York City 'Representation matters deeply especially for those who are still finding the courage to live their truth. When families like ours are visible, it opens doors for others to feel safe, loved, and validated,' he wrote in his Instagram Story post on Monday, per People. 'Visibility isn't just about being seen; it's about making sure no one feels alone,' he added alongside emojis of a rainbow and a red heart. Riggs also shared a post in response to a headline about Chip 'clapping back at critics of the same-sex couple' on their new show and wrote: 'Thank you @chipgaines and @joannagaines for leading with love, listening and learning.' The couple are executive producers of a new Magnolia Network series called Back to the Frontier, which drops three families near the Canadian Rockies and forces them to live like it is the 1880s for eight weeks. The families have no access to modern technology, no electricity or running water, and must harvest all their own food and tend to livestock. While the show sounds like must-see TV for Chip and Joanna's target audience, some viewers have expressed outrage over the inclusion of a gay couple on the cast. Texas-based couple Jason and Joe Hanna-Riggs are married with two 10-year-old twin boys, who they welcomed via a surrogate in 2014. The couple's post comes one day after Chip expressed his support for including them in their show in a post he shared on X on Sunday. Jason Hanna and Joe Riggs, a same-sex couple, and their children are one of three families featured on the Gaines' new Magnolia Network reality series, Back to the Frontier Following the show's premiere on July 10, the reality stars started receiving harsh criticism before the dads took to social media to defend the show Riggs also shared a post in response to a headline about Chip 'clapping back at critics of the same-sex couple' on their new show and wrote: 'Thank you @chipgaines and @joannagaines for leading with love, listening and learning. 'Talk, ask questions, listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never,' he wrote. 'It's a sad Sunday when "non-believers" have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian.' Chip's message appeared to be a direct response to Franklin Graham, the son of Evangelical pastor Billy Graham, writing on X that it was 'disappointing' to see the Magnolia Network show featuring the same-sex couple and their kids. 'I hope this isn't true, but I read today that Chip and Joanna Gaines are featuring a gay couple in their new series,' Franklin wrote on Sunday. 'If It is true, it is very disappointing ... God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin.' Ed Vitagliano, who is VP of the American Family Association, insisted that the Magnolia Network should be 'expected to uphold' biblical values because the Gaines had been open about their faith in the past. 'This is sad and disappointing, because Chip and Joanna Gaines have been very influential in the evangelical community,' Vitagliano posted online. 'We aren't sure why the Gaines have reversed course, but we are sure of this: Back to the Frontier promotes an unbiblical view of human sexuality, marriage, and family a view no Christian should embrace.' The couple's post comes one day after Chip expressed his support for including them in their show in a post he shared on X on Sunday; pictured October 2017 in New York City The couple thanked Chip and Joanna for casting them and standing by their decision to do so even though nearly a decade ago, it was revealed that the Fixer Upper stars attend an Evangelical church, which believes 'homosexuality is a sin'; pictured October 2017 Other viewers also turned their ire directly towards Chip and Joanna, slamming the pair for including a gay couple on the show. Speaking to Queerty about their experience on the show, the Hanna-Riggs couple said that they learned throughout the process that LGBTQ homesteaders did in fact exist in the 1880s. 'Well, from the homestead perspective, it was fascinating to learn that queer homesteaders existed like, that's how a lot of folks kind of escaped, I guess, really being ostracized in cities,' Joe said. 'They would go to the frontier as a couple. So it was a common thing back then, and it's kind of the resilience of LGBTQ+ folks then, as well as it continues to be into into modern times.' Australian horror director James Wan is mourning the tragic loss of Dan Rivera, the caretaker of his infamous 'haunted doll' Annabelle, who passed away while on tour in the US. Dan Rivera, 54, was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for his Devils on the Run tour - a cross-country event featuring the eerie Annabelle doll - when he was discovered unresponsive at his hotel on Sunday night. Wan, 48, known for directing the 2013 horror hit The Conjuring, which introduced Annabelle to audiences, and producing its 2014 spin-off, expressed his shock and sadness on social media this Wednesday. The Saw director shared a heartbreaking report of Rivera's unexpected death on his Instagram Stories, adding a caption adorned with a saddened and shocked emoji. The news came just one month after Wan expressed his heartbreak after his former producing partner Jason Constantine unexpectedly died. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Legendary Australian horror director James Wan is mourning the tragic loss of Dan Rivera, the caretaker of his infamous 'haunted doll' Annabelle It comes after the veteran ghost hunter died suddenly while touring the US with a 'possessed' doll in one of America's 'most haunted towns', Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Emergency dispatch logs confirmed a CPR-in-progress call for a man matching his age, according to the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), where he served as lead investigator. The organisation later confirmed his death, though the cause remains unknown. Rivera had built a loyal fanbase through his ghost-hunting work and viral content reviving the eerie legends of Annabelle and other cursed relics. His final stop - in Gettysburg, a Civil War town long said to be haunted - was completely sold out. The Annabelle doll gained notoriety through paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who kept it locked in a glass case in their private occult museum and famously warned visitors never to touch it. The couple's work inspired Wan's The Conjuring and Annabelle films and remains central to modern paranormal lore. The Devils on the Run tour - during which the actual doll was removed its sealed case for a series of public events - has come under growing scrutiny, with fans fearing its dark energy could be unleashed. Dan Rivera was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania for his Devils on the Run tour when he was discovered unresponsive Wan expressed his shock and sadness on social media this Wednesday The Raggedy Ann Doll's paranormal legend dates back to the 1970s, when it was apparently given as a gift to a nurse in Hartford, Connecticut, before beginning to exhibit disturbing behaviour. Annabelle was thought to be possessed by the spirit of a dead child and was said to move on her own, leave terrifying handwritten notes and even allegedly attacked someone. The case caught the attention of the Warrens, who concluded Annabelle was being manipulated by a demonic entity. Due to the popularity of the story and subsequent film franchise, the real Annabelle doll was removed from its secure case and included in the Devils on the Run tour, which began touring in May. The tour wasn't just a viral hit - it stirred controversy too - Critics accusing Rivera and his team of exploiting fear and superstition for profit, while believers warned that transporting the doll could unleash real danger. During one of the stops, visitors claimed the three-foot-tall doll had vanished without explanation, sparking a wave of online panic and conspiracy theories. Fears snowballed across social media, with some convinced the so-called 'possessed' doll had unleashed a curse. Despite the dark nature of his work, Dan was known for his upbeat, engaging presence - especially when it came to Annabelle. Sydney Sweeney is NOT currently slated to play a Bond Girl in the upcoming James Bond adaptation from Amazon MGM Studios. The 27-year-old actress is not currently in negotiation to join the long-running series of spy movies, an insider told TMZ Tuesday. Speculation of Sweeney signing on with Amazon MGM for the big budget blockbuster came after the rising star was in attendance at the Italy wedding of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez earlier this month. Sweeney is in business with Bezos and his new bride Sanchez on a separate project - a lingerie line that the wealthy tandem is funding via their venture capital company Coatue. Reports of the Emmy-nominated actress' potential involvement in the project came amid widespread speculation she would steer her surging career in the direction of the venerable film franchise. Daily Mail has reached out to reps for Sweeney and Amazon MGM for further comment on the story. Sydney Sweeney, 24, is NOT slated to play a Bond Girl in the upcoming James Bond adaptation from Amazon MGM Studios. Pictured in NYC on June 4 Reports of the Emmy-nominated actress' potential involvement in the project came amid widespread speculation she would steer her surging career in the direction of the venerable film franchise Sweeney has been on a professional roll in recent years, she's been seen in the 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You alongside Glen Powell; and starred in the 2024 horror movie Immaculate and 2025 AppleTV+ thriller Echo Valley. Insiders told TMZ that tidbits the Euphoria actress will be cast in as a Bond Girl are simply instances of 'wishful thinking on the part of her fans' - and not grounded in reality. Production on the motion picture has not yet advanced to the point where the roles were being cast. Producers last month earmarked filmmaker Denis Villeneuve to helm the director's chair, and have not replaced the outgoing Daniel Craig in the title role. Villeneuve delved into detail about his appreciation for the James Bond franchise throughout the years in a statement confirming his involvement with the blockbuster film. 'Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007,' the four-time Academy Award nominee said last month. 'I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. 'I'm a die-hard Bond fan. To me, hes sacred territory. I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come.' The Dune director said of the 007 job: 'This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor.' The Emmy-nominated actress was pictured at the Met Gala this past May Pierce Brosnan, the late Sean Connery and Daniel Craig have enjoyed memorable runs as the James Bond character The most recent release in the film franchise was the 2021 movie No Time to Die, which marked the final performance from Daniel Craig in the legendary role of the secret agent. Craig, 57, told The Sunday Times last year about the impact the role, which he played across five feature films from 2006 thru 2021, had on his career as a whole. 'Early on with Bond I thought I had to do other work, but I didn't,' Craig said. 'I was becoming a star, whatever that means, and people wanted me in their films. Incredible.' He added, 'Most actors are out of work for large chunks so you take your job offers - but they left me empty. Then, bottom line, I got paid. 'I was so exhausted at the end of a Bond it would take me six months to recover emotionally. I always had the attitude that life must come first and, when work came first for a while, it strung me out.' Tammy Hembrow half-sister has revealed that pursuing a career as an influencer led her to drugs, alcohol, and depression. Speaking on the Deliverance Down Under podcast, Starlette Thynne said that she had long placed Tammy and sisters Amy and Emilee on a pedestal. 'I'm also one of seven siblings lots of fighting for attention and fighting for the spotlight,' she said. 'We settled in Brisbane when I was in grade 8. I have three older sisters and three younger siblings. 'My three older sisters were a lot older and really stepping out in their lives as young women. I really looked up to them.' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Starlette Thynne (pictured) has revealed that pursuing a career as an influencer led her to drugs, alcohol, and depression Starlette said that she was still in high school when Tammy's social media career really started to take off, adding that she never wanted to be in Tammy's shadow. 'One of my sisters started gaining a lot of attention online,' she said. 'As I went through my schooling years, towards the end, I would get lots of comments from people in school shouting out to me: "are you blah blah blah's sister?" I was wanting to separate myself from that because I didn't want to be associated just as someone's sister. 'But it kind of snowballed into this: "I'm blah blah blah's sister".' Starlette went on to explain that she wasn't even interested in having a social media account, until she was enlisted to do a shoot for one of Tammy's brands. 'When I got out of school, I ended up doing a shoot for one of her brands. At the time, I didn't want Instagram, I didn't want social media I wanted to lay low, but my partner at the time was like: "you should get Instagram".' Starlette said, after hopping on Instagram, she 'started getting all these followers overnight' - a phenomenon which, while exciting, she was ill-prepared to handle. 'As my following started to increase, the pressure I was putting on myself was starting to increase,' she said. Speaking on the Deliverance Down Under podcast, Starlette Thynne said that she had long placed Tammy (pictured) and sisters Amy and Emilee on a pedestal 'I had a really shaky, low self-confidence, so when I would attend events, I would end up drinking because I felt insecure,' she said. 'I developed a habit of finding my confidence in alcohol.' 'I would see how beautiful my sisters were I was still really young and not sure what path I wanted to take in life, but I almost wanted to meet their standard.' She said that low self-esteem, coupled with her newfound fame, caused her to turn to alcohol and drugs to cope. 'I had a really shaky, low self-confidence, so when I would attend events, I would end up drinking because I felt insecure,' she said. 'I developed a habit of finding my confidence in alcohol.' Starlette continued: 'I ended up falling into the wrong kinds of scenes, doing lots of drugs like cocaine and, because I had that really broken side to me, it was almost like an escape from the pain that I would feel in my day to day life. 'I would have these really big highs and these really deep lows. I realised pretty quickly that nobody really cares about anyone but themselves in that industry. 'It was almost like I was living someone else's life or living to try and please the idea of what people wanted from me.' Starlette continued: 'I ended up falling into the wrong kinds of scenes, doing lots of drugs like cocaine and, because I had that really broken side to me, it was almost like an escape from the pain that I would feel in my day to day life' She also admitted to having suicidal thoughts during a period when her already low self-esteem reached its nadir. Starlette is pictured with Amy, Tammy and Emilee Hembrow in 2020 'It got to a point where I became really content with the idea of falling asleep and never waking up again' Starlette also said that living up to people's perceived expectations had led her to some 'compromising' situations. 'I'd put myself in these compromising positions, like sleeping with men that I shouldn't have slept with when I was really intoxicated because I knew it would hurt me and I knew that I would hate myself for it.' Starlette, admitting that she put herself in these positions as a form of 'punishment', also admitted to self-harming during the difficult period. 'I would put myself in these positions as a form of punishment. I would give myself scars because I knew they would heal really badly and I would have to have them for the rest of my life,' she said through tears. She also admitted to having suicidal thoughts during a period when her already low self-esteem reached its lowest point. 'I was getting to a point where I didn't like who I was I had no real value to provide anyone. I had no real importance in anyone's life. Nobody wanted the Star that was broken, everybody just wanted the Star that they created in their own head,' she said. 'It got to a point where I became really content with the idea of falling asleep and never waking up again.' She said that it was speaking to a family member who had given 'their life to Jesus' that pulled her out of her emotional turmoil. 'I was tormented by my mind, tormented by my past and I read about this God who takes away your past. That's when I first believed I encountered a personal intimate moment with God that filled me with all this light.' Anyone struggling with their mental health is urged to call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. Kylie Jenner showed off her bare face in a sweet makeup tutorial with daughter Stormi, as she revealed the lesson she taught her little one about natural beauty. The lipkit mogul, 27, shared an adorable video with the seven-year-old on Tuesday as they filmed a 'get ready with me' while vacationing in Greece. During the clip, Kylie who was using Kylie Cosmetics products in the video revealed the crucial natural beauty lesson she imparted to her daughter. 'Mommy always tells you, though, you're the most beautiful without...' she said, trailing off, as Stormi completed the sentence, stating, 'Makeup.' 'Yes,' Kylie who recently stunned fans with a 'nasty looking' plastic surgery scar from a breast augmentation responded. 'Our first GRWM together we always make vids together for fun and i never post them but this was just tooooo cute, ' Kylie who shares Stormi and son Aire, three, with ex Travis Scott, 34 captioned the clip. Kylie Jenner, 27, showed off her bare face in a sweet makeup tutorial with daughter Stormi, seven, as she revealed the lesson she taught her little one about natural beauty Timothee Chalamet's girlfriend started out the clip showing off her natural features while wearing a plush cream robe. 'It's Stormi,' Kylie playfully started out the clip, jokingly switching out their names, after Stormi introduced herself as Kylie. 'We're gonna do our first-ever makeup tutorial together,' Kylie went on, revealing that they were going to start with the Kylie Cosmetics Lip Butter. 'Really glossy,' Stormi remarked, after smacking her lips. Stormi then moved on to the blush as Kylie put on her foundation. The proud mom then explained how her little one enjoys makeup. 'Stormi likes to play with my makeup sometimes, but obviously, she doesn't wear makeup yet,' the mom-of-two said. The duo then went on to apply mascara before adding concealer. Stormi then spoke about having fun on the luxury vacation. 'We are in Greece. I love the boat that we were on. I love the food. I love the water. The water's so warm,' she sweetly shared. The lipkit mogul shared an adorable video with Stormi on Tuesday as they filmed a 'get ready with me' while vacationing in Greece During the clip, Kylie who was using Kylie Cosmetics products in the video revealed the crucial natural beauty lesson she imparted to her daughter 'Mommy always tells you, though, you're the most beautiful without...' she said, trailing off, as Stormi completed the sentence, stating, 'Makeup' 'Yes,' Kylie who recently stunned fans with a 'nasty looking' plastic surgery scar from a breast augmentation responded 'Our first GRWM together we always make vids together for fun and i never post them but this was just tooooo cute, ' Kylie who shares Stormi and son Aire, three, with ex Travis Scott , 34 captioned the clip Kylie then asked if Stormi liked 'having sleepovers with Mommy every night' to which she replied 'yes.' Stormi then showed off how she applied 'Mommy's dewy balm' as Kylie laughed and said 'You're so cute.' The two went on to apply blush, with Kylie choosing a mix of Summer Sorbet and Ladybug, and Stormi opting for Cheeky Mood. Kylie then applied her lip liner, as Stormi declared, 'Now, we're just waiting for Mommy to finish!' Earlier this week Kylie shared a video of her and Stormi dancing around in circles on a yacht while wearing robes with towels on their heads. She called her daughter her 'built-in-bestie for life.' She also shared the video to TikTok where she captioned it, 'can't see our haters from here.' She also shared videos of Stormi arriving in Greece. Kylie cheekily captioned that video, 'I want to be her.' Later she posted a video of Stormi going down the huge slide off the yacht into the sea. Kylie's girls' trip included four friends, among them her bestie, 28-year-old Stassie Karanikolaou. She shared a carousel of images earlier on Sunday of her time with the adults on the yacht. Earlier this week Kylie shared a video of her and Stormi dancing around in circles on a yacht while wearing robes with towels on their heads Kylie also shared a post with pics of her and her girlfriends enjoying the yacht 'Greeeece,' the mom of two captioned that update. In the first image, The Kardashians star wore a tiny yellow and black Chanel string bikini as she sat on her knees on the yacht. In another snap, the reality TV star showered off as she climbed back onto the boat after a swim in the sea. Khloe Kardashian commented on her sister's post: 'Are you ever coming home?' Many of Jenner's fans think her A Complete Unknown actor beau Timothee is secretly with her on the yacht vacation. That is because a man in black briefs was spotted resting on a seashore in one of her latest Instagram posts shared on Tuesday. 'That guy on the shore is Timothee,' said one fan on X while another piped up: 'He is secretly with her in Greece, I feel it in my bones.' The couple were last photographed together in St Tropez in the south of France on July 5. A pregnant fitness influencer has gone viral on social media for accusing her boyfriend of serial cheating. Sadia Yansaneh took to Instagram last week and alleged that Jordan Wyn, the father of her expectant child, cheated on her with at least 25 women. At 37 weeks pregnant with their first child, she spelled out the details of the bleak situation. 'I just recently found out that the father of my child has been cheating on me with multiple women UNPROTECTED putting myself and my baby at risk,' Yansaneh wrote on July 9. She added, 'I have ONE month left of my pregnancy. Two incidents in the last 5 days. 25+ women.' A pregnant fitness influencer has gone viral on social media for accusing her boyfriend of serial cheating Sadia Yansaneh took to Instagram last week and alleged that Jordan Wyn, the father of her expectant child, cheated on her with at least 25 women Last Wednesday the North Carolina resident reposted a pregnancy announcement photo with her now-ex-boyfriend, with a red line down the middle, indicating their breakup. The former couple wrapped their arms around each other and smiled while holding a sonogram. Accompanying the picture was a long, impassioned caption that began, 'And sometimes you just get cheated on WHILE PREGNANT. Never in 1 million years would I think that I would be making a post like this but this has been my new reality.' The mom-to-be discovered her then-boyfriend's infidelity when various women reached out to her recounting their hookups with him. She acknowledged the women in the caption, adding, 'Thank you to the women who have reached out to me letting me know of this sick behavior. I'm truly so grateful for protection and divine timing .' The influencer referred to her misfortune as 'an unfair hand' and said she was sharing her experience to reach other women. 'I'm making this post for all my women out there who can do every single thing right with their partner and for their baby's best interest and still get an unfair hand,' said the online personality, who currently has 248,000 Instagram followers. Sadia said, 'There were zero signs and I did not know he was living a double life.' Amid the turmoil, she is determined to stay strong for her unborn child: 'While it would be so easy to break down right nowmy baby needs me more than ever and I'm actually grateful that this information was presented to me so that I can learn from this.' Last Wednesday the North Carolina resident reposted a pregnancy announcement photo with her now-ex-boyfriend, with a red line down the middle, indicating their breakup In a follow-up Instagram post Yansaneh shared an screenshot of a message from an unnamed contact that seemed to be Wyn. It read: 'Yo I know you hurt but trying to air me out to instagram is so immature' The mom-to-be discovered her then-boyfriend's infidelity when various women reached out to her recounting their hookups with him. So far, Sadia says she has not received an apology from Jordan, who has reportedly disabled his social media accounts So far, Sadia says she has not received an apology from Jordan, who has reportedly disabled his social media In a follow-up Instagram post Yansaneh shared an screenshot of a message from an unnamed contact that seemed to be Wyn. It read: 'Yo I know you hurt but trying to air me out to instagram is so immature.' She also shared messages from the people claiming to have had sex with her ex-boyfriend as she captioned, 'This is what the lack of accountability and an apology looks like. Literally sickening. The audacity to insult someone when you've been doing things in the dark is crazy.' Three days after her initial post, she gave an update: 'It's been 72 hours since everything came to light, and not once have I received an apology or even a simple 'I'm sorry.' Just silence, deflection, and a complete lack of remorse.' Despite the heartbreak, the expectant mom is focused on her future as a single mom, vowing she 'will never get back with him.' Yansaneh is scheduled to be induced on July 23. Jessica Alba looked relaxed after unwinding during a romantic getaway with her much younger beau. On Tuesday, the 44-year-old actress stepped out for the first time since returning from her tropical summer vacation in Mexico with her rumored boyfriend, who is 11 years her junior. This comes shortly after she sparked romance rumors after sightings with the hunky Top Gun actor Danny Ramirez in Cancun over the weekend. The Honey star who filed for divorce from her longtime husband Cash Warren earlier this year after 16 years of marriage appeared to be in high spirits while stepping out with two of their three kids. She was joined by their teenage daughter Honor, 17, and seven-year-old son Hayes. In addition to Honor and Hayes, Alba and her estranged husband also share their 13-year-old daughter Haven. Jessica Alba looked relaxed after unwinding during a romantic getaway with her much younger beau For their casual weekday outing, Alba brought along her eldest and her youngest kids for a shopping trip in Beverly Hills. She looked effortlessly chic as she strolled through a parking lot, sporting an all-white, midriff-baring set featuring a crop top and baggy pants. She also sported a pair of chunky, white sneakers and an oversize jean jacket teamed with a small, tweed crossbody bag. She looked sun-kissed and radiant as she stepped out with minimal-to-no-makeup on her face after her sweet summer vacation. She left down her honey-highlighted, brunette tresses for their casual outing and sported a pair of retro, all-black pair of sunglasses. Just days earlier, Alba was spotted with the hunky actor Danny Ramirez, who turns 33 in September, while boarding a plane to Cancun before returning back to LA together on Sunday. Their sighting comes two months after she was spotted 'kissing' a mystery man in London, though it remains unclear if that was Ramirez. The Marvel actress, who plays Sue Storm while Ramirez plays the new Falcon in the MCU, previously announced her split from her husband in January after nearly two decades of marriage and welcoming three children together. The Honey star who filed for divorce from her longtime husband Cash Warren earlier this year after 16 years of marriage appeared to be in high spirits while stepping out with two of their three kids. She was joined by their teenage daughter Honor, 17, and seven-year-old son Hayes Ramirez previously starred in Top Gun: Maverick as Lieutenant Mickey Garcia and is currently in the midst of filming Avengers: Doomsday, which is set to drop December 18, 2026. On Monday, it was reported that Alba is not dating anyone 'seriously' and is just enjoying single life following her divorce. 'She's been getting a lot of attention since the divorce,' a source told People on Monday. 'She's flattered and definitely enjoying being single again.' The insider also added: 'She's gone on some dates, but it's nothing serious. She's focused on herself and her kids. She's not interested in a relationship right now.' The actress is 'excited to be getting back into acting and is looking forward to working with Orlando Bloom on their new project The Mark with the source revealing that she once called him 'charming.' 'She's in a great place. She's excited to get back to filming. She's doing what she loves and keeping her circle tight,' the source told the outlet. This comes shortly after she sparked romance rumors after sightings with the hunky Top Gun actor Danny Ramirez in Cancun over the weekend; pictured May in London In addition to Honor and Hayes, Alba and her estranged husband also share their 13-year-old daughter Haven On Monday, it was reported that Alba is not dating anyone 'seriously' and is just enjoying single life following her divorce. Earlier this year, she announced her split with Warren in a note to her fans; pictured November 2024 in Los Angeles They had been married for nearly two decades and welcomed three kids together before they called it quits and filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences; pictured April 2005 in Los Angeles Earlier this year, she announced her split with Warren in a note to her fans. 'I've been on a journey of self realization and transformation for years - both as an individual and in partnership with Cash,' she wrote. 'I'm proud of how we've grown in our marriage over the last 20 years and it's now time for us to embark on a new chapter of growth and evolution as individuals. 'We are moving forward with love, kindness and respect for each other and will forever be family. Our children remain our highest priority and we request privacy at this time.' It may be two decades in the making, but Oasis are finally making their way Down Under. As rift rumours continue to swirl around brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher during the Britpop icons' sold out world tour, many fans are wondering if the pair's notoriously prickly relationship can last the distance of a 41-date world tour. In fact, after just four shows, many fans are questioning if the band can make it to their highly anticipated shows at Wembley Stadium later this month. Reports that Noel and Liam would be kept apart as much as possible on tour, and Liam taking off solo after the band's first show in Cardiff have caused fans to wonder if the wheels will fall off before the tour wraps up in November. Meanwhile, the pair's body language on-stage has been analysed by experts, who say Noel appears 'overwhelmed', whereas Liam remains the 'dominant' presence From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. It may've been two decades in the making, but Oasis are finally making their way Down Under Fans voiced their concerns on X, with many speculating the tour would not see its end due to the brothers' feelings towards one another. Users took to the site to write: 'Please finish the tour without fighting... The tour will be lucky to finish all dates [mark my words].' 'They still hate each other... Bet they don't finish the tour... It's not Oasis though, it's the Liam and Noel show. I bet they don't finish the tour.' However, if the completed shows are anything to go by, it seems Aussie fans will have little to worry about. Claims that there is still friction between Liam and Noel appear to contradict the 'united front' the brothers have been projecting out on stage. For example, the band's bravura set in Cardiff to kick off the tour earlier this month, saw Noel and Liam take to the stage, arm in arm, before delivering a set to delight even the most cynical Oasis fan. Further, Rolling Stone Australia reported that it was a similar situation during the band's second of five hometown shows in Manchester. The publication wrote that when it came time for Noel's 'leading segment' of the set, Liam let his brother have his moment in the sun. As rift rumours continue to swirl around brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher during the Britpop icons' sold out world tour, many fans are wondering if the pair's notoriously prickly relationship can last the distance of a 41-date world tour Claims that there is still friction between Liam and Noel appear to contradict the 'united front' the brothers have been sending out on stage They reported that Liam even gave his brother a friendly fist bump before blowing a kiss to the crowd and sauntering off stage to let Noel's star shine. It seems the brothers are keen to keep the tour going as long as possible as a way to say 'thank you' to fans who have waited so long for a reunion. The publication reported that Liam had some positive words for the crowd after playing their hit Champagne Supernova. 'Over the years, I know its hard work and all that tackle, but we appreciate it,' he reportedly told the crowd. 'Youre the best f***ing fans, man. Youre mad as f***, but youre the f***ing best ones, man.' With the love-fest showing no signs of abating, Aussie fans should be confident of seeing the Britpop legends in the flesh when they hit Australia for four shows later this year. The Wonderwall fan favourites will play Melbourne's Marvel Stadium on October 31, November 1 and November 4 before moving to Sydney's Accor Stadium for shows on November 7 and November 8. The band were last in the country back in 2005 on their Don't Believe The Truth tour. Sesame Workshop has again addressed the embarrassing hack it suffered on Monday when a hacker accessed the Elmo account and posted a series of shocking posts targeting Jewish people and trolling President Donald Trump. 'On Sunday, Elmo's X account was briefly hacked by an outside party, in spite of the security measures in place,' read a tweet from the Sesame Workshop. The statement continued, 'We strongly condemn the abhorrent antisemitic and racist content, and the account has since been secured. 'These posts in no way reflect the values of Sesame Workshop or Sesame Street, and no one at the organization was involved.' A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop previously confirmed the digital security breach to Daily Mail on Sunday evening. 'Elmos X account was compromised today by an unknown hacker who posted disgusting messages, including antisemitic and racist posts,' the rep said. 'We are working to restore full control of the account.' Sesame Workshop has again addressed the embarrassing hack it suffered on Monday when a hacker accessed the Elmo account and posted a series of shocking posts targeting Jewish people and trolling President Donald Trump The Sesame Workshop said that no one at their organization was involved with the offensive messages Following the post from the Sesame Workshop, a number of followers on the platform peppered in responses that ranged from jokes to troubleshooting. 'I dont believe you were hacked,' said one user. 'I think the real Elmo came out.' Another user wryly chimed in, 'Big Bird's silence on this issue has been deafening.' One user went on a long rant at the character, saying, 'Elmo, Ive been crying and throwing up ever since you posted those very hateful things. 'The truth of it is you were a role model to me growing up and because of that I would always tickle you whenever you asked. The statement ended, 'After what happened on Sunday I was forced to throw you in the dumpster out back my local Chilis and will no longer be having you in my life. Goodbye old friend.' Multiple users rejected Sesame Workshop's denial anyone from their side was involved. 'Sesame workshop has become beyond woke and I guarantee it was someone internal,' one user said. 'If I allowed some sort of breach like this at my job, I would be fired. @SesameWorkshop take accountability. The user said the late Sesame Street founder Jim Henson 'would be horrified' at the lack of accountability in the wake of the humiliating security breach. Following the post from the Sesame Workshop, a number of followers on the platform peppered in responses that ranged from jokes to troubleshooting Another added: 'Serious question. Is anyone ever hacked by an "inside party?" Your inability to apologize MUCH SOONER is weak. But most concerning is that no one believes you were hacked. 'We believe you have an employee who did this intentionally but you havent explained this because then, of course, wed all want to know who did it and then expect them to be fired, etc. 'See, the longer you all dont provide details, the more the pressure grows to know more.' The account for Elmo, under the handle @elmo, has more than 639,800 followers, and has been on the platform since November of 2012. 'Elmo lives on Sesame Street and was told to tell you that Elmo is official!' a bio line on the social media page read. On Sunday, it was clear the account had been commandeered by rogue actors, as a series of messages posted called for violence against Jewish people. The social media site X was abuzz Sunday after an account for the famed Sesame Street Muppet Elmo was hacked, leading to a series of shocking posts targeting Jewish people, as well as Black people and transgender people A rep for Sesame Workshop confirmed the digital security breach to Daily Mail Sunday evening The post repeated a series of antisemitic tropes and called for harm against Jewish people. The post also took aim at the president, saying, 'DONALD TRUMP IS NETANYAHU'S PUPPET BECAUSE HE IS IN THE EPSTEIN FILE.' One message tagged in President Donald Trump that read: 'RELEASE THE FILES @readDonaldTrump' along with an offensive term directed at Trump. The hacker also peppered in more sharp responses to people who condemned the racist prank. When one person expressed their frustration with the posts from the account, a profane response used a racial epithet aimed at Black people. When another person said they were going to mute Elmo, a response from the Elmo account contained a transphobic slur. The unlikely hack and subsequent shock messages led for Elmo to become a trending topic on the platform, with a number of different takes on the incident. 'Hacking the official Elmo account gotta be one of the most diabolical things this app has ever seen,' one response read. The account for Elmo, under the handle @elmo, has more than 639,800 followers, and has been on the platform since November of 2012 The unlikely hack and subsequent shock messages led for Elmo to become a trending topic on the platform, with a number of different takes on the incident. One user posted a long-circulating meme of the Sesame Street character standing in front of flames to aptly summarize the situation with the hacker A few people made reference to rapper Kanye West's history of antisemitic X posts , which he has since distanced himself from One take described the breach as 'one of the most diabolical things this app has ever seen' One social media user said that the incident provided an insight into how deeply antisemitism is embedded in some people A few people made reference to rapper Kanye West's history of antisemitic X posts, which he has since distanced himself from. 'Kanye and Elmo should collab sometime,' one user said, while another asked, 'Who let Kanye on Elmo's account?' One user posted a long-circulating meme of the Sesame Street character standing in front of flames to aptly summarize the situation with the hacker. One social media user said that the incident provided an insight into how deeply antisemitism is embedded in some people. 'This is a real tweet from the Elmo X account. It has since been deleted,' said the user. 'Were dealing with depraved immoral sociopaths who target even a beloved childrens character in order to incite violence and hate against Jews.' Alison Brie and Dave Franco have been blasted by fans after they were spotted engaging in a 'nasty' public act at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The Community actress, 42, was seen cutting her husband's, 40, toenails as they enjoyed an outdoor picnic date. The Los Angeles native who stars alongside her spouse in an upcoming horror flick was seen tossing Dave's nails in the grass while he scrolled on his phone in the leaked 'TMI' clip, which surfaced on social media on Tuesday. 'Doing this for a man in public is wild,' a caption on the video read. 'Yeah thats nasty Alison,' one fan wrote on X. 'I'm gonna throw up,' someone else added. Alison Brie, 42, and Dave Franco, 40, have been blasted by fans after they were spotted engaging in a 'nasty' public act at Griffith Park in Los Angeles 'TMI. Some things don't need to be shared on here man.' 'Ewwwww.' another comment read. 'Doing this for a man in private is also wild' someone else added. 'Girl stand up! what is thisss ugh.' Yet another person simply wrote, 'JAIL.' 'Seriously thats so gross - go to a manicurist and get a proper mani and pedi - no one needs to see that in public so nasty.' 'In public is gross.' 'Just nasty.' While some found it disgusting, others speculated it was merely promotion for the couple's new horror flick, Together, where they portray a codependent couple. 'This is def promo for their movie and I am on board lol I love when movie promo gets a lil freaky,' one fan wrote. 'This got to be for the new movie cuz why else would they be doing this in public?' another questioned. The Community actress was seen cutting her husband's toenails as they enjoyed an outdoor picnic date The brunette star was seen tossing Dave's nails in the grass while he scrolled on his phone in the leaked 'TMI' clip, which surfaced on social media on Tuesday 'Yeah thats nasty Alison,' one comment on X read. 'I'm gonna throw up,' someone else wrote after viewing the video While some found it disgusting, others speculated it was merely promotion for the couple's new horror flick, Together, where they portray a codependent couple; Seen in a still On Monday, Neon Films shared a photo of the pair kissing in front of a billboard for their film. 'The perfect couple in the perfect date night horror movie. TOGETHER,' the caption read. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about their latest fright flick in January, Brie explained, 'Both of us have done intimate scenes with other actors, of course, but without giving too much away, a lot of this film requires close proximity from its two leads to a greater extent than anything Ive done before.' 'I think we pretty much finished every day of shooting and said to one another, "I dont know how you could make this movie without a real-life couple because of some of the situations we found ourselves in."' 'The movie explores codependency and its something that we dont necessarily think is a good or bad thing; there are levels to it,' Franco explained. The couple were introduced by mutual friends at Mardi Gras in 2011 and they married in 2017. 'Because we are married, and we work together constantly, I think we definitely could be defined as codependent. But we try to maintain a healthy relationship.' 'Also, because of the fact that certain jobs take us away from each other for long periods of time, we are forced to also be more independent.' On Monday, Neon Films shared a photo of the pair kissing in front of a billboard for their film The couple were introduced by mutual friends at Mardi Gras in 2011 and they married in 2017; Pictured in June at the 71st Taormina Film Festival in Taormina, Italy The film is set to be released on July 30. In 2023, Alison discussed what it was like having her husband direct her sex scenes with Jay Ellis in their movie Somebody I Used to Know. 'I realize that it sounds wild, but we are actors, this is our job,' she told Jezebel at the time. 'Its actually not that weird. And with something like this, because its our baby that we made together, I think our first priority is always just the movie.' Annie Knight has dropped a staggering $2.7million on her dream home in Queensland. The 28-year-old adult star, who has been dubbed Australia's most sexually active woman, is now the proud owner of a luxury four-bedroom home with a pool, calling it her 'forever home'. The purchase marks a major upgrade from her previous property - a $1.37 million acreage home on the Gold Coast, which she has now listed on the market. Knight has listed the three-bedroom property, which was previously rented out for $1100 a week, for auction on August 22. 'I bought the house of my dreams that doesnt need any renovating,' she told Realestate.com.au. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Annie Knight (pictured) has dropped a staggering $2.7 million on her dream home in Queensland The purchase marks a major upgrade from her previous property - a $1.37million acreage home on the Gold Coast (pictured), which she has listed on the market Knight described her new property as the one she had been holding out for. 'When I say this is my dream home I mean it. It is so, so perfect, so much space, huge backyard, a pool,' she said. She added she will be selling the stylish Gold Coast home she bought earlier this year as a result of the dream purchase. 'I decided to sell the home I bought last year. As an investment property, it just didnt make sense,' she said. In June, Knight splashed out over $1million on a Gold Coast home, after sleeping with 583 men in one day. And in a surprise revelation, the OnlyFans star announced she intended to raise a family. Taking to social media, the Gold Coast-based internet celebrity described the four-bedroom home as 'perfect'. Appearing in the short clip in a modest crew neck sweater, Annie gushed over the property's features, which she said, included a 'big backyard' and a pool. Knight has listed the three-bedroom property, which was previously rented out for $1100 a week, for auction on August 22 Knight described her new property as the one she had been holding out for 'I made $600,000 from the 583 guy challenge and I bought my home,' she declared 'I made $600,000 from the 583 guy challenge and I bought my home,' she declared. In a move that may surprise her fan base, the newly engaged sex worker announced that she 'couldn't wait' to start raising a family. 'A lot of people think it's crazy that I talk about having kids and having a family, when I do what I do,' she confessed. 'But I've always had a dream to raise and have a family. And I hope to raise them to be non-judgemental and pro SW [sex work].' 'My mum never raised me to be judgemental of other people and always told me to accept people for who they are. 'That's how I plan to raise my children. I can't wait to raise them to be as accepting and non-judgemental as I am. 'I know they will understand why I chose the career I did and be grateful for a everything hopefully I will be able to provide for them.' She then added that her plans to start a family were still a 'little way off by the way'. It comes as the adult content creator is currently planning to tie the knot with fiance Henry Brayshaw. The happy couple, who have been friends for ten years, got engaged in March - just one week after rekindling their relationship. Henry, 27, popped the question over a romantic dinner in Beverly Hills during a trip to LA. Billy Brownless has shocked his family, friends and followers after sharing a very risque selfie. The AFL legend, 58, is currently enjoying a one-year anniversary trip with partner Crystle Fleur, 52, at Cable Beach Club Resort and Spa in Western Australia. The broadcaster has been busy documenting the trip on Instagram, however his latest post was possibly more suited to OnlyFans. Billy shared a photo of himself completely nude in the the pool. Captioning the shock post, Billy was not afraid to poke more than a little fun at himself. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMails new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Billy Brownless has shocked his family, friends and followers after sharing a very risque selfie during a one-year anniversary trip with partner Crystle Fleur Billy shared a photo of himself completely nude in the pool 'Some call it "Skinny Dipping". I like to call it "Fat Dipping",' he wrote. Billy's nude selfie horrified his daughter Ruby, who commented: 'wow, it gets worse.' AFL WAG Bec Judd, who was holidaying at the same location, also chimed in on Billy's eye-popping display. 'Hahahaha. Nice seeing you yesterday. Glad you had some clothes on,' she joked. Lisa Brayshaw, the wife of media personality James Brayshaw, replied to Bec's comment with: 'I just said to James oh no, I think Bec is there on holidays. I hope shes left by now because you cant unsee this if its in your resort pool.' Former AFL star Dale Thomas also jumped in, suggesting Billy was attempting to recreate a very famous album cover. 'Reverse angle is a Nirvana album cover,' he joked, referring to the grunge band's breakthrough album Nevermind. The ribbing didn't end there either, with one fan suggesting Billy's display may make it difficult for him to travel. Captioning the risque post, Billy was not afraid to poke more than a little fun at himself, writing: 'Some call it "Skinny Dipping". I like to call it "Fat Dipping"' 'Youll never get back in the plane with that much crack in your possession Billy,' they joked. The subtle sledge certainly tickled Billy's partner Crystle, who replied with two crying laughing emojis. Another pleaded with Billy's partner: 'Good lord @crystle15 stop him.' However, Crystle admitted she was powerless to curtail Billy's shenanigans. 'He's out of control. I'm running,' she replied. It comes as trolls took aim at Billy as he marked his one-year anniversary with his glamorous partner. Crystle took to Instagram earlier this month to celebrate their milestone anniversary with a sweet picture of the couple, which has received nearly 7,000 likes. However, many trolls poured into the comments section of the post to share their thoughts on the pairing, with some saying Billy is 'punching above his weight' with the mum-of-three, and that she's out of his league. 'Good to see you happy Bill, but still punching way above,' one person wrote. Another chimed in: 'Punching above your weight there, big man...' The romance between Billy and Crystle first became public knowledge in October last year. The romance between Billy and Crystle first became public knowledge in October last year Since then, he and Crystle have been inseparable and have been seen enjoying several outings across Melbourne. In February, the pair were spotted strolling hand-in-hand through South Yarra after a casual cafe date. A mother-of-three, Crystle's low-key style and successful career have captured Brownless' heart. Billy's private life hit the headlines in 2016 when his friendship with Garry Lyon was rocked by scandal. The former best mates fell out after it emerged Lyon was in a relationship with his ex-wife, Nicky. The public split caused deep hurt for Billy, who spoke openly about his disappointment. However, in recent years, the pair have moved towards reconciliation. The families spent Christmas together and, in January, Billy and Garry appeared on air together for the first time in years. In a further sign of healing, Lyon attended the wedding of Billy's daughter Ruby in Noosa in March. Pierce Brosnan's son Paris looked smitten with his girlfriend Alex Lee Aillon as they attended the opening of his art exhibition in Munich. The nepo baby artist, 24, and his model girlfriend, 26, put on a sweet display during his exhibition opening at Drivers & Business Club Munich (Motorworld) by Merck Finck Private Bank on Tuesday. Paris looked stylish for the occasion as he arrived in a leather jacket, white t-shirt, black jeans and red and white hi-tops to display his paintings. Meanwhile Alex stepped out in a chic black ruched off-the-shoulder top paired with tailored belted shorts and brown suede ballet pumps. The couple have been together for six years, with Paris marking their anniversary in May with a sweet post reading: 'Six years of loving you today; thank you for always being by my side.' Paris is the youngest of two kids Hollywood star Pierce, 71, shares with his wife Keely Shaye Smith, 61. Pierce Brosnan's son Paris looked smitten with his girlfriend Alex Lee Aillon as they attended the opening of his art exhibition in Munch on Tuesday The nepo baby artist, 24, and his model girlfriend, 26, put on a sweet display during his exhibition opening The longtime couple are also parents to model Dylan Brosnan, 28. Pierce also shares his late daughter Charlotte and sons Christopher, 52, and Sean, 41, with his first wife, the late actress Cassandra Harris. The Mamma Mia! star was the fifth actor to play James Bond and starred as the iconic secret agent in four films. He is also known for playing the charming con man-turned-private investigator in the NBC series Remington Steele from 1982 to 1987. He also starred in the 2008 classic Mamma Mia! and 1999 heist film The Thomas Crown Affair. Pierce previously spoke about how he encouraged his children to pursue any of their passions except his own: acting. 'Just because it is f***ing hard work,' he told GQ in 2022. 'It's a cross to bear. You're constructing and destroying yourself.' Taking his dad's advice, Paris, now 24, is channelling his talent into art and music. The exhibition of his paintings took place at Drivers & Business Club Munich (Motorworld) by Merck Finck Private Bank Paris looked stylish for the occasion as he arrived in a leather jacket, white t-shirt, black jeans and red and white hi-tops to display his paintings Meanwhile Alex stepped out in a chic black ruched off-the-shoulder top paired with tailored belted shorts and brown suede ballet pumps The couple have been together for six years, with Paris marking their anniversary in May with a sweet post reading: 'Six years of loving you today; thank you for always being by my side' Taking his dad's advice to not become an actor, Paris, now 24, is channelling his talent into art and music The youngest child of Pierce and Keely, he was born on February 27, 2001 in Los Angeles. He spent most of his childhood in Kauai, Hawaii. He has also worked as a model, filmmaker and environmental activist. At just age 18 in September 2019, he walked the runway at a British Museum charity show during London Fashion Week. He has also appeared in GQ with his father and brother Dylan. The up-and-coming star has also modelled for Dolce & Gabbana and Balmain. He is the youngest of two kids Brosnan, 71, shares with his wife Keely Shaye Smith, 61; pictured July 2018 in London The longtime couple are also parents to model Dylan Brosnan, 28; pictured June 2023 in Los Angeles In the film sector, he worked as a production assistant for Pierce's 2022 film Black Adam and has worked on short films of his own. In 2021, he directed a short film documenting his 2019 trip to Sri Lanka, highlighting a partnership between Clarins and FEED to support school meal programs worldwide to end childhood hunger. In May 2023, Paris graduated from Loyola Marymount University, and his dad took to social media to share a congratulatory post. 'Go into the world with a brave heart and create stories that will make the world a better place,' he wrote. James Bond is known for being a heartthrob, his love of martinis (shaken not stirred) and always makes sure he's looking suave even when on a serious mission. And one of the favourites to play him in the next films, the charming Theo James, certainly fits the bill in all three of those respects after speaking in a new interview about how booze is his greatest vice, revealing what makes him 'feel sexy' and making a name for himself playing a series of debonair characters. And while Theo is happily married to fellow actor Ruth Kearney, the star, 40, has lifted the lid on his prior romantic life admitting he is definitely not friends with any of his exes. And Bond - most recently played by Daniel Craig - certainly has a cut-throat attitude to moving on to the next romantic partner as he charms a different lady in each film. Asked by Vogue this week if it's possible to stay friends with an ex he quipped back: 'I'm not friends with any of mine!', before revealing his love for the finer things in life. He also admitted that 'sugar and booze' are his greatest vice and when asked what makes him feel the most attractive replied: 'Smell makes me feel f***ing sexy...' James Bond is known for being a heartthrob, his love of martinis (shaken not stirred) and always makes sure he's looking suave even when on a serious mission - much like one of the favourites to play the role next: Theo James Theo recently spoke in an interview about how booze is his greatest vice and revealing what makes him 'feel sexy' in traits that mirror Bond (Daniel Craig seen as 007) Theo is often seen stepping out at premieres in smart suits much like Bond and was a natural playing debonair aristocrat Eddie in 2024 Netflix series The Gentlemen. Demonstrating a Bond-style allure during the interview Theo was also asked what the best gift he's ever been given was as he cheekily replied: 'I can only think of dirty answers!' Revealing his love for the finer things in life he revealed he also said his favourite hotel to stay in is the Il Pellicano in Tuscany which starts at 4,000 a night. Last month Theo was the bookies' favourite to step into the iconic role of James Bond, with odds of 5/2. The Divergent star surged ahead of other contenders, including Superman actor Henry Cavill, Tom Hardy, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and James Norton. The legendary 007 character was first brought to life by Sean Connery in 1962's Dr. No and has since been portrayed by several leading men. Most recently, Daniel Craig fronted the franchise, starring in five Bond films from 2006 to 2021. Ever since No Time to Die marked Craig's final outing, speculation has been rife about who will take up the mantle next - and it seems Theo is firmly in the lead. The Brit has previously impressed while playing rogue, morally ambiguous characters somewhat similar to Bond in both The White Lotus and and Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen. Theo was a natural playing debonair aristocrat Eddie (seen) in 2024 Netflix series The Gentlemen Bond seen with his drink of choice - a vodka martini And while Theo is happily married to fellow actor Ruth Kearney, the star, 40, has lifted the lid on his prior romantic life admitting he is definitely not friends with any of his exes Asked by Vogue this week if it's possible to stay friends with an ex Theo quipped back: 'I'm not friends with any of mine!' Theo is often seen stepping out at premieres in smart suits much like Bond (seen is Craig in Skyfall) He also admitted that 'sugar and booze' are his greatest vice and when asked what makes him feel the most attractive replied: 'Smell makes me feel f***ing sexy...' But James has played down speculation linking him to the part, telling The Guardian last year that it 'probably wouldn't be me'. While she was planning the new Bond movie, Barbara Broccoli's favourite was thought to be The Divergent star Aaron Taylor-Johnson, 34. He momentarily moved down bookies' lists after Amazon's purchase of the franchise, but recently soared back up them after signing a deal with Omega, the official watch provider of Bond. He was also endorsed by former 007 Pierce Brosnan, 72, during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross show last month. 'I think he (Aaron) would make a very fine Bond,' Brosnan said. 'He was actually in one of the movies I made called The Greatest. This young man we cast as The Greatest. 'He was so impressive then. He just had this charisma, he had this presence... he would be so good. But there's many men on the list, I'm sure.' As The Daily Mail reported, the plan is for the new Bond to be a 'straight up' reboot. There is reportedly set to be no explanation of how the special agent is still alive, no multiverse of Bonds and no attempt to go back to the 1960s for a vintage Bond. Amazon bosses are currently said to be considering locations in which to set the much-anticipated new film, which experts predicted is likely to be released at the end of next year or in 2027. Due to a filming ban being imposed in Central London next year, new locations are reportedly being considered - with Liverpool a frontrunner, according to The Sun. An insider told the publication: 'This will no doubt irk Bond purists who already fear Amazon taking over the 007 franchise may lead to them making big changes. Demonstrating a Bond-style allure during the interview Theo was also asked what the best gift he's ever been given was as he cheekily replied: 'I can only think of dirty answers!' 'But Liverpool is a well-known alternative to London for film-makers. 'It has appeared in everything from The Batman to Captain America and Harry Potter movies, doubling up as international cities.' The source added that it doesn't necessarily mean the story will be set in Liverpool - though eagle-eyed Merseysiders will no doubt spot their city centre in the background. MailOnline contacted Amazon for comment about the possibility of Liverpool being the setting for the next Bond. Natalie Portman cut a chic figure as she was spotted filming Lena Dunham's new rom com Good Sex in New York City on Tuesday. The Oscar winner, 44, shot outdoor scenes with co-star Rashida Jones, 49, as they ate hot dogs and chatted on a park bench. Natalie, who plays a couples therapist named Ally in the Dunham written and directed movie, wore a cream blouse with navy bow and gold button detailing. The leggy look was completed with a skimpy navy mini skirt, loafers and a black leather handbag. The Black Swan star appeared in high spirits during the shoot and flashed a huge smile as she chatted with the crew. The premise of Good Sex is: 'A 40-something couples therapist ventures back into the world of dating in New York. Natalie Portman, 44, cut a chic figure as she was spotted filming Lena Dunham 's new rom com Good Sex in New York City on Tuesday The Oscar winner (R) shot outdoor scenes with co-star Rashida Jones (L) as they ate hot dogs and chatted on a park bench The stunned looked effortlessly stylish on set 'Between two very different romances - a young hipster and a successful fifty-something - she must discover what she really wants in love,' per an IMDB synopsis. Along with Portman, other stars that have been cast in the movie include Mark Ruffalo, Meg Ryan, Tramell Tillman, Rashida Jones and Tucker Pillsbury. Dunham is writing and directing the rom-com, and Natalie is both acting and producing the project. It comes after the Girls creator was slammed for 'cultural appropriation' for quipping she would 'take her hoops out' and 'fight' anyone slating her cast mates. The controversial Girls star, 39, who previously bizarrely accused her college of cultural appropriation for serving sushi, was slated online for her response on how to deal with trolls. She told Variety: 'If anybody has anything to say about any of my actors I keep my mouth shut on most things these days, but try a b***h. Im not playing around here. Its the only time that Im going to be taking my hoops out, ready to fight.' The comment sparked immediate uproar as fans accused her of 'cosplaying a black woman' and 'still appropriating cultural references that aren't hers.' One follower wrote: 'Can we send her back where ever she went for the last 15 years ? Hoops? This girl had a show in Brooklyn with zero POC in it. That show was a fantasy in her own mind for a lot of reasons. Natalie, who plays a couples therapist named Ally in the Dunham written and directed movie, wore a cream blouse with navy bow and gold button detailing The leggy look was completed with a skimpy navy mini skirt, loafers and a black leather handbag The scene saw the two characters purchase a New York hot dog from a cart The Black Swan star appeared in high spirits during the shoot and flashed a huge smile as she chatted with the crew Most recently Portman has also been keeping busy and starred in the action movie Fountain Of Youth - which dropped on Apple TV+ in May Another typed: 'Sigh. I cant wait until cosplaying a Black woman goes out of style. Others penned: 'Taking my hoops out is such a wild comment from a white woman who has harassed Black people. Shes such a joke! 'Fifteen years later and still appropriating cultural references that aren't hers. Why is she still getting any of our time?' 'Hoops? Cant recall a single character that was a woman of color. 'About the hoops? I rolled my eyes. Racist undertones of you ask me.' DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Lena Dunham for comment but has yet to hear back. In 2016 the star spoke out after her alma mater Oberlin College's dining hall was accused of 'cultural appropriation' for serving the likes of sushi and Banh Mi sandwiches. Students began protesting the liberal Ohio college's incorporation of Asian cuisine on the cafeteria menu. They found some dishes 'offensive' because it messed with the original recipe and felt 'wronged' by others for not tasting good. It comes after the Girls creator was slammed for 'cultural appropriation' for quipping she would 'take her hoops out' and 'fight' anyone slating her cast mates The comment sparked immediate uproar as fans accused her of 'cosplaying a black woman' and 'still appropriating cultural references that aren't hers' 'There are now big conversations at Oberlin about cultural appropriation and whether the dining hall sushi and Banh Mi disrespect certain cuisines,' Dunham told Food & Wine. 'The press reported it as, "How crazy are these Oberlin kids?" But to me, it was actually, "Right on.'" Elsewhere in the chat the Good Sex writer opened up about body image after years of discourse about her size. 'I have been in Hollywood at every size. I have been a sample size, I have had my body change because of life, illness, aging, menopause. And it is merciless wherever you are.' A sample size in the US is a size two. Tasha Ghouri showed off her incredible figure in an array of sexy snaps as she jetted off to Tuscany. The former Love Island star, 26, flew out to Arezzo, Italy, this week just days after debuting her new romance at Fearne Cotton's Happy Place festival in London. Taking to Instagram on Tuesday evening, Tasha looked radiant as she stepped out the night at a grand Tuscan villa at Il Borro resort. Tasha donned a stunning white chiffon gown featuring an off-the-shoulder design paired with spaghetti straps. The dress also featured a bandeau-style bralet with a cut-out at the torso displaying her toned abdomen, as well as a draping full-length skirt. She accessorised for the evening with huge white rose earrings, a white pearl clutch bag and a cuff bracelet. Tasha Ghouri showed off her incredible figure in an array of sexy snaps as she jetted off to Tuscany Taking to Instagram on Tuesday evening, Tasha looked radiant as she stepped out the night at a grand Tuscan villa 'Arezzo evenings xxx,' she captioned the snaps, where she was seen enjoying champagne by the pool. It came after Tasha packed on the PDA with her new CBBC presenter and zoo owner boyfriend Cam Whitnall this weekend - just a few days after a bitter row with her ex Andrew Le Page. Tasha put her arms around Cam and held hands with him as they stepped out together at Fearne Cotton's Happy Place festival at Gunnersbury Park in London over the weekend. YouTuber Cam Whitnall, 29, stars in CBBC series One Zoo Three and BBC show OZT Goes Wild alongside his brothers Ty and Aaron. Cam, whose family run Hertfordshire Zoo, is the managing director of a non-profit charity, The Big Cat Sanctuary, which rescues wild cats and protects species at risk of extinction. On the joint outing Tasha - who has been dating Cam since May - looked stylish in a skimpy white dress and tassel boots. It comes after Tasha's ex Andrew launched into an explosive rant about her being on a dating app during their relationship. Andrew claimed on Thursday night that Tasha was using the celebrity dating app Raya while still in a relationship with him and insisted he wanted to speak out after she had appeared on 'one too many podcasts' to speak about him. Tasha donned a stunning white chiffon gown featuring an off-the-shoulder design paired with spaghetti straps The dress also featured a bandeau-style bralet with a cut-out at the torso displaying her toned abdomen, as well as a draping full-length skirt She accessorised for the evening with huge white rose earrings, a white pearl clutch bag and a cuff bracelet 'Arezzo evenings xxx,' she captioned the snaps, where she was seen enjoying champagne by the pool Soon after they released a shock joint statement. In the statement shared with MailOnline, the former couple who met on Love Island in 2022, came together to address 'hurtful comments' in a move that took place after Andrew accused Tasha of not being able to 'keep his name out of her mouth'. The exes quickly put Andrew's rant aside and come together to address the 'noise' around their relationship as Tasha admitted to 'making mistakes' during their romance. Both parties expressed their wish to 'move on' from the relationship after suffering 'judgement and cruelty' from online trolls. Sharing her side of events, Tasha said: 'I just want to address recent hurtful comments about me and & Andrew. We've always been open about who we are and what we went through, the hate and harsh words have been unfair and overwhelming for both of us. 'No one deserves to be torn down, especially when they're already trying to heal. We've both made mistakes, we've both learned, and we've both grown. But the judgement and cruelty we are facing from people online has been hard. 'Please remember that behind every nasty post, every comment, every story, there are real people with real emotions. Always be kind.' While Andrew added: 'Tasha and I want to address the noise around our breakup, as there's been hate going around that neither of us ever wanted. Tasha is now in the early stages of a new romance, which MailOnline revealed was with CBBC presenter Cam (pictured) It comes after Tasha's ex Andrew launched into an explosive rant about her being on a dating app during their relationship 'Things were said on both sides, but at the end of the day, no relationship is perfect, but ours still had some incredible moments I'll always be grateful for. 'I truly just want us both to move on and be happy. Wishing Tasha nothing but the best, and I'll always be proud of her.' The statements came shortly after he hit back at the star after she claimed in a new interview he 'wasn't supporting her,' before their shock split. The couple, who met on Love Island in 2022, split in January, with Tasha admitting she now regrets her treatment of him after they 'grew apart' during her stint on Strictly Come Dancing. Tasha, who has been deaf since birth and had a cochlear implant fitted at the age of five, appeared on the 2024 series of Strictly with pro partner Aljaz Skorjanec. In an interview for Rylan Clark's How To Be In Love, Tasha claimed their relationship was already starting to fray prior to her Strictly debut, with Andrew offering 'no support' as she progressed to the show's latter stages. But Andrew furiously hit back in a now-deleted post on Snapchat, where he accused Tasha of 'talking s**t about him,' before stating that Tasha had begun using the celebrity dating app Raya before their relationship was over. Brooklyn Beckham showed off his cooking skills as he whipped up a pasta dish as he continues his aim of taking over the food industry. The son of David and Victoria Beckham, 26, has launched a whole host of culinary partnerships in recent months as well as his very own hot sauce brand, Cloud23. He also hoped to create his own liquor line but was forced to withdraw his application to avoid a trademark dispute with German booze brand Beck's. Despite the setback, Brooklyn got straight back into the kitchen as he shared his latest advertisement with Italian pasta producer Barilla. The aspiring chef took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a video of himself whipping up a vegetarian Fusilloni dish in the kitchen. He revealed it was one of his 'favourite' meals as he detailed how to make the creamy zucchini and asparagus pasta dish. Brooklyn Beckham showed off his cooking skills as he whipped up a pasta dish as he continues his aim of taking over the food industry The aspiring chef took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a video of himself whipping up a vegetarian Fusilloni dish Brooklyn, who is married to Nicola Peltz, first put the pasta on to boil before chopping up the asparagus and other vegetables, which he then stirred into a creamy sauce. At the end of the clip, Brooklyn tasted a single piece of pasta which he dipped in a cream sauce - though it did not appear to be the complete dish he had whipped up. 'It's so good,' he declared before flashing a smile to the camera. Bottles of his Cloud23 sauce could also be seen on the shelf in the background as he also plugged his other business venture. In a caption, he added: 'This is one of my favorite dishes simple, satisfying and full of flavor from zucchini, onion, squash, and asparagus. 'What truly makes this dish shine is the pasta itself. The rough texture of Barilla Al Bronzo pasta clings to sauce effortlessly, so every bite is rich and flavorful. 'With a sauce this delicious, I want to savor every last drop. Italians call that gesture Scarpetta, and Barilla Al Bronzo does it perfectly! 'I hope you love this recipe as much as I do.' He revealed it was one of his 'favourite' meals as he detailed how to make the creamy zucchini and asparagus pasta dish At the end of the clip, Brooklyn tasted a single piece of pasta which he dipped in a cream sauce - though it did not appear to be the complete dish he had whipped up BROOKLYN'S BARILLA FUSILLONI RECIPE Fusilloni with Creamy Vegetable Sauce Ingredients 1 Package Barilla Al Bronzo Fusilloni pasta 4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided cup yellow onion, chopped 2 zucchinis, diced small 1 yellow squash, diced small 1 cup asparagus, diced 1/3 cup white wine 1 cup heavy cream 2 cups baby spinach 1 cup diced roma tomatoes cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated To taste, salt and black pepper Instructions 1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, cook pasta according to package directions 2. Meanwhile, in a skillet saute onion with half the olive oil for two minutes over medium heat 3. Increase the heat and add zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, cook for two minutes, then deglaze with white wine. Evaporate, add cream, salt and pepper and bring to boil. 4. Drain pasta and toss with veggies and spinach for one minute. 5. Finish with remaining olive oil and cheese before serving. Advertisement His latest culinary venture comes after Brooklyn was faced with a setback when he was forced to withdraw a trademark application for his liquor line. He also hoped to create his own liquor line but was forced to withdraw his application to avoid a trademark dispute with German booze brand Beck's. This week, Brooklyn gave up on his plan to create his own liquor line after being handed a headache by the firm behind German booze brand Beck's. He hoped to expand his Cloud23 hot sauce line with more food and drink options and had applied to trademark Becks Buns in the US so he could sell beer and spirits. However, the company that makes Beck's beer challenged it and was given time to bring a case against Brooklyn's line before his application was passed. Parent firm Brauerei Beck & Co opposed it and had been granted an extension to file documents to try and sink Brooklyn's plan. Brooklyn then filed papers with the US Patent and Trademark Office to remove 'beer' and 'distilled spirits; wine; mirin in the nature of Japanese shochu-based mixed liquor' from his application to avoid going to war with the drinks firm. Brooklyn launched his first hot sauce, Cloud 23, last year and said: 'It's been a passion project of mine for the last two and a half years, something I've literally put everything into.' In his personal life, Brooklyn also appears to be locked in a family feud with his parents and brothers over his relationship with his wife and US heiress Nicola Peltz. Last week, it was revealed that Brooklyn and Nicola's Instagram accounts no longer follow his brothers Cruz and Romeo in the latest twist in the family drama. However, Brooklyn's friends told MailOnline on Friday that Cruz and Romeo have actually blocked them on the social media platform. This would make sense given Brooklyn, 26, and Nicola, 30, are still following his parents Victoria, 51, and David, 50. Brooklyn was faced with a setback when he was forced to withdraw a trademark application for his liquor line as he hoped to expand his food empire after launching his hot sauce Cloud23 In his personal life, Brooklyn appears to be locked in a family feud with his parents and brothers over his relationship with his wife and US heiress Nicola Peltz Cruz and Romeo were still following Brooklyn and Nicola earlier this week but appeared to take action after Brooklyn posted a birthday tribute to sister Harper, sharing a family photo without them in it - which Nicola reposted. There was much speculation whether Brooklyn would reach out to Harper on her 14th birthday on Thursday, but despite him doing so, it seems all is not well in the camp. Brooklyn's birthday tribute to Harper marked his first public interaction with his family since he paid tribute to his grandmother Sandra on June 26, despite remaining silent and shunning his father's 50th birthday earlier that same month. Sources close to the family have told MailOnline of their fears that Brooklyn and his wife Nicola have also distanced themselves from Harper after they failed to visit her when they flew into London in May to film an advert for French-Italian clothing brand Moncler just over a mile from the family home in Holland Park. David and Victoria had no idea whether Brooklyn, who Harper has idolised since she was a little girl, would message her privately or publicly on Instagram because they have no communication with him. The news that Cruz and Romeo had blocked their older brother followed Cruz's many pointed digs towards Brooklyn on social media last month. Amid the escalating feud, Romeo stepped in as he shared a very pointed statement about 'appreciating people that love you' and insisted 'life was too short' to not tell people you care about them. Brooklyn and Romeo have been living a somewhat fractious relationship over the last few months following claims Romeo's ex-girlfriend Kim Turnbull was the reason behind their rift. David and Victoria seen with their children Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper last year before the family feud Kim addressed the speculation June 16 and insisted she has only ever had a friendship with the eldest Beckham son. Sharing a statement on her Instagram page, she said: 'I've avoided speaking on this topic to prevent adding fuel to the fire, however it's come to a point where I feel the need to address it so I can move on. 'I will not continue to receive harassment or be embarrassed on the basis of lies, to fit a certain narrative. 'I have never been romantically involved in ANY capacity at ANY point with the person in question. 'Nothing between us has occurred further than a school friendship at age 16. I would like to remove myself from the ongoing conversation & set the record straight for the sake of everyone involved.' Kim had been at the centre of the row after Nicola claimed that she felt uncomfortable around her, with sources close to the US heiress saying that Kim had dated Brooklyn when they were teenagers - which she then denied. Last month, Romeo and Kim then split after seven months together, with friends saying that the romance 'fizzled out' three weeks after David's 50th birthday. Following their split, friends said things remain 'amicable' between Romeo and Kim, and that their parting is 'nothing to do' with Kim being blamed by Nicola for being the catalyst for the feud that has ripped the Beckham family apart. Molly Mae Hague's sister Zoe Rae came under fire for leaving Bali just 48 hours after she arrived because it 'did not live up to expectations set by other influencers'. After sharing her honest review in a YouTube video, Zoe's followers claimed they were 'surprised' by her reaction because the island is a developing area of the world where many live in poverty. While the five star resorts - like the Radisson Blu Utuwata where Zoe stayed - portray exclusive luxury, a lot of the island does not match up to the flawless social media aesthetic projected by influencers online. Many poked fun at Zoe, 28, for not realising this was the case after she complained that she and her husband Danny had 'missed the mark' when they decided to celebrate their anniversary in Bali. However, others have agreed with the former army medic and said that they were also shocked by the reality of the province - which they described as 'dirty and smelly' - in their own scathing reviews. After a look at the opinions on TikTok, influencers are at odds over their Bali experience, with contrasting reviews both raving over the area and slating it as a 'terrible' holiday destination. Molly Mae Hague 's sister Zoe Rae came under fire for leaving Bali just 48 hours after she arrived because it 'did not live up to expectations set by other influencers' While the five star resorts - like the Radisson Blu Utuwata (pictured) where Zoe stayed - portray exclusive luxury, a lot of the island does not match up to the flawless social media aesthetic projected by influencers online Despite staying in a huge sea view room at the Radisson Blu, a five-star hotel, they decided to leave early and jet to Dubai instead (pictured in Dubai) Despite staying in a huge sea view room at the Radisson Blu, a five-star hotel, they decided to leave early and jet to Dubai instead. Zoe explained that Bali looks better on social media than in real life, as influencers make it look luxurious, despite it being a developing part of the world. She claimed that it did not meet their high expectations after being promised 'lovely places to eat, beaches, gyms and coffee shops'. However she insisted that the 'reality' of Bali is not shown online, which she believes is down to influencers sharing a misleading version online. HATE IT One of the online critics who agreed with Zoe and Danny's point of view was fitness and travel influencer Harry - whose Tiktok handle is @resurgent_harry. Harry told his followers he was 'so glad' the couple had voiced their opinion after he travelled there for two months and 'tried so hard to like it'. In a new clip shared to his page, Harry said: 'I'm so glad Zoe and Danny said what they did. Bali is Dubai for people that can't afford Dubai. 'Went to Bali for two months and I tried so hard to like it. I've known Danny for years and I just felt exactly the same. 'It's for people who want to post fancy pictures and tell everyone how great their life is. But Dubai has created its own infrastructure and it's own ecosystem and lifestyle and everything, and Bali doesn't have that. One of the online critics who agreed with Zoe and Danny's point of view was fitness and travel influencer Harry - whose Tiktok handle is @resurgent_harry Also in agreement was @pavlazarou, who claimed he felt too scared to eat and complained about the smell after being 'gaslighted' by Instagram He said: 'We've spent three days now in Seminyak and three days in Jangu now, it's an unpopular opinion but Bali is a f***ing s*****e Revealing what he didn't like about Bali, he continued: 'It is completely overcrowded. There's no infrastructure, but somehow it's still quite expensive. It is aesthetic, only is very small pockets. The gyms are amazing but as soon as you leave the gyms, you are being run over by scooters on the pavements. 'You can't go for a run, there is trash everywhere. The beaches are completely covered in trash. The people there are just trying to convince you, themselves and everyone that they're really successful. And then try and convince you to buy their course. 'I'm sorry I never normally say bad things about places online and I've been to a lot of places but Bali was the worst place that I have travelled to. And I went to Ukraine last year.' Also in agreement was @pavlazarou, who claimed he felt too scared to eat and complained about the smell after being 'gaslighted' by Instagram. He said: 'We've spent three days now in Seminyak and three days in Jangu now, it's an unpopular opinion but Bali is a f***ing s*****e. 'Everywhere is dirty, it stinks everywhere. You feel too scared to eat the food. Instagram and TikTok has gaslighted me into thinking this place is nice but it's not. It's minging and there's nothing to do. 'I don't mean to be so negative but I've come all this way to try and enjoy myself but I just don't get the hype. Like is this really what people come all this way for? I don't get it. Meanwhile, Corrin's main complaint for Bali was the traffic, which she told her 4,000 TikTok followers was completely 'unbearable' 'We're meant to be going to Ubud, Uluwatu and Gili Islands and I'm hoping it's so much better than this. Right now I want nothing more than to leave and go home.' Meanwhile, Corrin's main complaint for Bali was the traffic, which she told her 4,000 TikTok followers was completely 'unbearable'. The influencer - whose handle is @cor_98 - said: ' Everyone says come to Bali it's an amazing place to come. Honestly I absolutely hate it, look at this. 'Traffic is everywhere. Look how built up it is, it's awful. You can't even move. You can't even cross the road. 'You stand at a zebra crossing and everyone still goes by. Literally you're just asking yourself to be run over. The traffic is unbearable, I've never seen something like this in my life. It's changed my perspective completely.' LOVE IT However, there were many staunch advocates for the Bali who praised the 'beautiful' views across the ocean in scenic videos of the area. Fiona Wang - who goes by @heyfionawang - insisted that the 'real Bali' is not overrated as she posted a sneak peek at her accomodation. She said: 'If you think Bali is overrated like I did the first time I came here, it's because you don't know where to go. Because look at this, oh my lord, that's the ocean and the pool and that's so beautiful and that's my villa. 'Actually have the views directly to this and all this is only $120. So this is called Segara Seaside in Nusa Ceningan and in my next video I'll give you a full review and show you the real Bali that is not overrated. Meanwhile, Tom Birchy - known as @tombirchy on the platform - revealed that Bali was growing on him after previously being a 'hater' of the area. He said: 'When we got here two days ago we were driving through the streets and we were like wow it's a bit dirty here like, look, there's a river - not looking its best. Meanwhile, Tom Birchy - known as @tombirchy on the platform - revealed that Bali was growing on him after previously being a 'hater' of the area Alex (alcross) was also in favour of encouraging others to visit Bali, as she recommended the nice restaurants and stunning sunsets 'But after two days here I'm kind of getting the charm. It's definitely not for me, it's different - but I get it.' He admitted he can see why people are drawn to the island as a place to base themselves as a digital nomad. He said: 'If you're in your late 20s, early 30s, a digital nomad looking for a place to base yourself with a load of likeminded individuals Bali's got that. Especially this area I'm in now, Changu.' Revealing what it's got going for it, he said: 'It's got brekkie spots and artisan coffee shops, everything you could want. 'But I do kind of go, ah, it doesn't really have much authenticity. It seems like Australia light. I guess that's kind of the business model here. 'Indonesia is an Islamic country, but a secular one. So they have zoned all the s*** to Bali. All of the nightclubs, party culture. 'All of that stuff is kept here to concentrate it so it doesn't over spill into other locations. Kind of cool. But yeah, it's interesting. I like all the little shops, they're different and there's lots of boutiques. It's a cool place, maybe I'll change my mind about Bali.' Alex (alcross) was also in favour of encouraging others to visit Bali, as she recommended the nice restaurants and stunning sunsets. She said: 'I'm just on the beach in Uluwatu in Bali and I just wanted to do a quick review. I've only been here for four nights and the great thing about it is that it's much quieter than Jangu. That's the only place I've been so far. 'The beaches are nicer and quieter, it's a much more chilled vibe. The only thing I would say is that you need to learn to ride a scooter or you can't get around that easily. But it's really good. Much more of my kind of vibe than Jangu. There's so many nice restaurants and places to eat, and a beautiful place to watch the sunset.' Sharing his own honest review of Bali, Liam Etheridge (liametheridge2) said that he was drawn there because of his love of beaches and it didn't disappoint In his own expletive-laden review, Mashtag Brady said: 'So far, honest review of Bali. Greatest place ever! What is everyone talking about? The amount of messages I got saying why are you going there it's f***ing shit' Sharing his own honest review of Bali, Liam Etheridge (liametheridge2) said that he was drawn there because of his love of beaches and it didn't disappoint. He said: 'A lot of people are asking at the moment if Bali is worth going to if you're travelling around SE Asia. My simple answer for this is yes. Three reasons why I wanted to come here was purely because I love beaches. 'So the beaches in Bali are absolutely insane. Especially if you like surfing the waves here i Uluwatu to Noosaduwa are really good for that. And the second reason which we haven't actually done yet is the diving.' 'In Ko Tao (Thailand) we got our diving licences and every instructor said go to Bali because the diving in insane. There's so much to do here, you've got the rise terraces and mountains. You can hike for sunrise, volcanoes. 'And then you've also got the waterfalls. So if you enjoy all of that then Bali is definitely worth the trip.' In his own expletive-laden review, Mashtag Brady said: 'So far, honest review of Bali. Greatest place ever! What is everyone talking about? The amount of messages I got saying why are you going there it's f***ing shit. 'You're a boring c*** this is the best place ever. I'm having so much fun. I love it. The freedom is amazing.' Victoria Beckham continued to put on a brave face on Tuesday as she plugged a new product from her beauty brand amid her bitter ongoing family feud. The former Spice Girl, 51, and husband David, 50, are in the midst of an escalating rift with eldest son Brooklyn Beckham and his actress wife, Nicola Peltz. But amid the family fallout, Victoria brushed aside her woes and got back to business as she promoted her Colour Wash liquid blush on her Instagram page. Sitting in a room with a white towel wrapped around her head and donning a silk bathrobe, Victoria showed off her radiant complexion with a light and dewy makeup palette. In the tutorial video, the beauty applied the product, which retails for 44, on her cheeks and lips as she explained that she is 'obsessed with it going into summer'. 'I can get that cute little flushed look whilst literally spending my whole summer in the shade,' she told her followers. Victoria Beckham continued to put on a brave face on Tuesday as she plugged a new product from her beauty brand amid her bitter ongoing family feud The former Spice Girl, 51, and husband David, 50, are in the midst of an escalating rift with eldest son Brooklyn Beckham and his actress wife, Nicola Peltz (Brooklyn and Nicola) The fashion designer appeared in good spirits as she talked through the new product with her fans amid her recent heartbreak over her rift with her eldest son. Last week, it was revealed that Brooklyn and Nicola's Instagram accounts no longer follow his younger brothers Cruz, 20, and Romeo, 22, in the latest family drama. However, Brooklyn's friends told MailOnline on Friday that Cruz and Romeo have actually blocked them on the social media platform. This would make sense given that Brooklyn, 26, and Nicola are still following Victoria and David. Cruz and Romeo were still following Brooklyn and Nicola earlier this week but appeared to take action after Brooklyn posted a birthday tribute to sister Harper, sharing a family photo without them in it - which Nicola reposted. There was much speculation whether Brooklyn would reach out to Harper on her 14th birthday on Thursday, but despite him doing so, it seems all is not well in the camp. Brooklyn's birthday tribute to Harper marked his first public interaction with his family since he paid tribute to his grandmother Sandra on June 26, despite remaining silent and shunning his father's 50th birthday earlier that same month. Sources close to the family have told MailOnline of their fears that Brooklyn and his wife Nicola have also distanced themselves from Harper after they failed to visit her when they flew into London in May to film an advert for French-Italian clothing brand Moncler just over a mile from the family home in Holland Park. But amid the family fallout, Victoria brushed aside her woes and got back to business as she promoted her Colour Wash liquid blush on her Instagram page Sitting in a room with a white towel wrapped around her head and donning a silk bathrobe, Victoria showed off her radiant complexion with a light and dewy make-up palette David and Victoria had no idea whether Brooklyn, who Harper has idolised since she was a little girl, would message her privately or publicly on Instagram because they have no communication with him. The news that Cruz and Romeo had blocked their older brother followed Cruz's many pointed digs towards Brooklyn on social media last month. Amid the escalating feud, Romeo stepped in as he shared a very pointed statement about 'appreciating people that love you' and insisted 'life was too short' to not tell people you care about them. Brooklyn and Romeo have been living a somewhat fractious relationship over the last few months following claims Romeo's ex-girlfriend Kim Turnbull was the reason behind their rift. Kim addressed the speculation June 16 and insisted she has only ever had a friendship with the eldest Beckham son. Sharing a statement on her Instagram page, she said: 'I've avoided speaking on this topic to prevent adding fuel to the fire, however it's come to a point where I feel the need to address it so I can move on. David and Victoria seen with their children Brooklyn, Romeo, Cruz and Harper last year before family feud 'I will not continue to receive harassment or be embarrassed on the basis of lies, to fit a certain narrative. 'I have never been romantically involved in ANY capacity at ANY point with the person in question. 'Nothing between us has occurred further than a school friendship at age 16. I would like to remove myself from the ongoing conversation & set the record straight for the sake of everyone involved.' Kim had been at the centre of the row after Nicola claimed that she felt uncomfortable around her, with sources close to the US heiress saying that Kim had dated Brooklyn when they were teenagers - which she then denied. Last month, Romeo and Kim then split after seven months together, with friends saying that the romance 'fizzled out' three weeks after David's 50th birthday. Following their split, friends said things remain 'amicable' between Romeo and Kim, and that their parting is 'nothing to do' with Kim being blamed by Nicola for being the catalyst for the feud that has ripped the Beckham family apart. Conor McGregor's fiancee Dee Devlin has made her feelings towards him known, after he was seen with the same woman he was pictured kissing while on holiday in Florida earlier this week. Brushing off the recent furore around his behaviour, the MMA star, 37, took to Instagram to share a shirtless snap. And despite snaps emerging that showed Conor kissing a mystery woman, Dee showed her appreciation for the snap with a sexually-charged comment. Hours after sharing a heart-eyes emoji and a prayer emoji, she added: 'My monster.' It comes as Conor publicly addressed the controversy over the alleged nude images of himself posted online and attempted to use the backlash to fuel his fledgling political career. The former UFC champion had been at the centre of a public storm following the release of alleged nude photos of himself by rapper Azealia Banks, which she claimed the 37-year-old sent to her unprompted. Banks, who is known for getting into high-profile feuds on social media, posted two shocking photos seemingly of McGregor posing in the mirror while completely naked, which she alleges he sent to her via direct message on X despite not following him. Conor McGregor's fiancee Dee Devlin has made her feelings towards him known, after he was seen with the same woman he was pictured kissing while on holiday in Florida But according to Conor, the frenzied social media reaction to his genitalia and broader discussions over his conduct are simply a smokescreen, aimed at distracting from the issues affecting his native Ireland. 'Dont let them distract you with my G C while they rob our country blind,' McGregor wrote in X, replying to a post that called out the media for focusing on the former fighter's 'sizeable package' rather than 'the facts he is spraying'. On Tuesday, Conor was spotted on a cosy dinner date on his birthday with the same mystery woman he was pictured kissing on the beach earlier this week. The Irish MMA star, who was turning 37, was seen at an intimate table at Padrino's Cuban Restaurant on July 13 days after their first PDA-packed appearance. Conor has also been spotted 'liking' an Instagram post condemning him for playing away behind his fiancee Dee Devlin's back. The post which has bizarrely been supported by the controversial star, claimed Conor's partner is 'so much better' as he questioned 'what the f*** is he doing'. It read: 'Bro his wife is so much better than these b****s what the f*** is Conor doing bruh. Fr got a smoking hot wife who has stuck with him through all the allegations and bulls*** and multiple children and he's out here with a 4/10.' Dee, who has been engaged to Conor since 2020, seemingly also brushed off the kiss when she publicly wished him happy birthday after the pictures emerged. Conor was spotted on a cosy dinner date on his birthday with the same mystery woman he was pictured kissing on the beach earlier this week (pictured) After Conor shared a shirtless snap, Dee was quick to share a sexually-charged comment towards him, as well as another emoji post to show her appreciation Conor was also spotted 'liking' an Instagram post condemning him for playing away behind his fiancee Dee Devlin's back (pictured with Dee in 2022) It comes as Conor publicly addressed the controversy over the alleged nude images of himself posted online by rapper Azealia Banks She shared a post from a fan account which read: 'Happy Birthday to the person who always keeps Dee entertained and makes her smile.' The same day as Dee's loving post, Conor, who was wearing a turquoise top and shorts, met up with the unknown woman again during his time in Florida this week. In pictures obtained by the Sun, Conor and his mystery woman were seen in the restaurant together before leaving moments apart. Conor's partner of 16 years has consistently stood by his side throughout several scandals., even when he was accused of 'raping and battering' a woman. Conor batted away the drama as he re-shared messages from his friends on his 37th birthday, posted a photograph of himself from the day of the PDA drama and made a telling comment about 'loyalty' - brazenly ignoring the scandal. His string of posts came hours before rapper Azealia Banks then took to X - formerly known as Twitter - to double down after accusing Conor of sexual harassment. On Monday, Azealia, 34, shared alleged nude photos of Conor, which she claimed he sent to her unprompted, as the disgraced fighter was already caught up in a cheating scandal. Amid the cheating scandal, Conor took to his Instagram Stories to document his 37th birthday, remaining silent on the pictures of him kissing a woman in Florida. In one photograph, seemingly taken during a recent trip to Ibiza, Conor beamed from ear-to-ear and fist-pumped the air as he threw his arm around his friend's shoulders. Re-sharing the birthday tribute, the Irish star added his own caption, simply writing: 'Jocks,' not referencing the allegations he punched a man in a nightclub during that trip - before his most recent scandal. Conor also made a telling comment about there being 'no one more loyal' as one of his female friends shared a snap of them together to mark his birthday. 'No cooler than us! No more loyal than us. Family,' Conor added alongside the picture. Conor also posted a photograph taken of him at the beach in Florida, going shirtless in green board shorts, which was taken on the same day as the shock PDA pictures, but failed to mention the scandal. Amongst the string of posts, he also shared a picture with heavyweight boxer Tommy Welch as they posed from inside a very lavish private jet. The Irish star made no reference to the fresh scandal after he was caught sharing a kiss and a cuddle with a bikini-clad mystery woman over the weekend. They were spotted smooching in full view of other beachgoers during his Fort Lauderdale holiday, before he was seen Facetiming his sons. His partner Dee - who he shares children, daughter Croia, five, and sons Conor Jr, eight, Rian, three and Mack, 19 months, with - was nowhere in sight. Just hours later, Azealia also set the internet ablaze after sharing alleged nude photos of Conor that she claims the disgraced UFC legend sent unprompted. She then doubled down on her claims with further wild posts as she questioned 'where' Conor was amid the scandal and responded to mocking videos. In one post, shared to X, Azealia questioned: 'Where's Conor a' (sic) before she posted a series of tongue-in-cheek posts about her original allegations. She responded to one person who accused her of 'committing revenge pornography', writing: 'White ppl r so dry.' (sic) Azealia also quipped: 'No me and Conor McGregor have been sending each other unsolicited nudes since 2016. LOL,' in response to backlash from users. Posting on Conor's birthday, she went on: 'I have never met the leprechaun but today is his birthday and he wants everyone to make a wish and blow out the candle . 'Funny how big of closet maga bait that was Men are so h*** and obsessed with d*** it's not even funny.' Re-sharing another video mocking her allegations, she added: 'They loved it.' Her string of posts came after Azealia accused Conor of sexual harassment when she shared nude photographs purporting to show the MMA star. 'How you gonna send a b**** a some crooked d*** pics then threaten her not to tell,' she wrote alongside the screenshots. '@TheNotoriousMMA n**** do you know who the f*** I am? This is HARAM.' Azealia continued: 'Like how are you really going to sexually harrass me with the potato farmer d*** then threaten me not to tell???? Honey ain't u trying to be the president of Ireland what is it giving fam? Use some f***ing sunscreen damn.' As well as the alleged nude selfies, the screenshots also showed a message from what purported to be Conor's account reading: 'Don't be a rat cos all rats get caught.' Alongside one image which seemingly shows his manhood strapped to a dumbbell, the Irish fighter apparently wrote: 'Lifting weights.' Azealia then shared another screenshot of the alleged pictures suddenly being 'hidden' on X because she does not follow Conor's account. Conor brazenly ignored the cheating scandal he has been embroiled in as he posted photographs of himself partying on a 'jocks' holiday (pictured) Although it is unclear if he had anything to do with that alleged change, she commented: 'The motherf***er woke up early LOL.' DailyMail.com has reached out to the last-known attorneys on record for Conor, his agent and Azealia's agent for comment. It is the latest embarrassment to hit the sportsman's relationship with his partner Dee, who was ever-present by his side throughout his sexual assault court case last year. The pair have been together for 15 years and got engaged in August 2020 after Conor proposed while they were celebrating his birthday. The couple met as teenagers at a nightclub in 2008 and Dee has been a key player in the MMA star's story, supporting him when he was jobless and focused on making it as a professional fighter. The couple live in a 2.5million home in Kildare, a 40-minute drive from Dublin with their four children. In 2024, Conor lost a civil case as jurors at the High Court in Dublin found him liable of raping Nikita Hand, 35, in a Dublin hotel on December 9, 2018, with the judge awarding Hand 250,000 in damages. But despite the verdict, Dee has emphatically made clear that she intends to back Conor - attacking Nikita in a series of posts on Instagram at the time. In the posts, she wrote: 'Conor and I dealt with these issues privately many years ago, as should be done in a relationship and we have come out stronger than ever. 'We have four beautiful children now whose smiling faces and happy hearts are a testament to who he is and who we are!' Myf Warhurst has become entangled in a chaotic war with her neighbour as a dispute over a fence spiralled out of control. The ABC television presenter and her next-door neighbour, Karla Martinez, clashed over a concrete wall being built between their homes in North Warrandyte, near Melbourne. Warhurst and her then-boyfriend, architect Brian Steendyk, objected to a section of the construction, claiming it encroached onto their property. The stoush erupted on December 28, 2022, when Steendyk took a chainsaw to a 26m area of the dividing fence, reported The Australian on Wednesday. The trio clashed, with calls made to Triple O and Steendyk alleging Martinez struck him on the head with a piece of agricultural pipe. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Myf Warhurst (pictured) has become entangled in a chaotic war with her neighbour as a dispute over a fence spiralled out of control 'Without warning I felt a sharp whack to my face, head and back,' Steendyk's witness statement said. 'The force of this whack threw my glasses from my head, and tore skin from the bridge of my nose.' 'Stunned, I stepped back from the fence and looked up to see Karla Martinez with a long agricultural drainage pipe in her hand standing over where I had just been crouched down and yelling obscenities to me.' Officers from nearby Eltham police station arrived on the scene, with Martinez initially charged with assaulting Steendyk. Dramatic footage of the aftermath of the argument was recorded by police body-worn cameras. However, the matter was dismissed by the police prosecutor before it was due to be heard in court. 'Everything started out friendly enough and I even went over and brought her a bottle of wine to welcome her to the neighbourhood,' Martinez told The Australian. 'But all hell broke loose as soon as they found out we were going to start constructing a concrete wall along the property line. The ABC television presenter and her next-door neighbour, Karla Martinez (right), clashed over a concrete wall being built between their homes in North Warrandyte, near Melbourne The trio clashed, with calls made to Triple O and Steendyk alleging Martinez struck him on the head with a piece of agricultural pipe Officers from nearby Eltham police station arrived on scene, with Martinez initially charged with assaulting Steendyk (pictured). However, the matter was dismissed by the police prosecutor before it was due to be heard in court Dramatic footage of the aftermath of the argument was recorded by police body-worn cameras 'Brian grabbed a chainsaw and a grinder and started demolishing the fence because he claimed it was on his property,' Martinez said 'She hated it the wall, design, everything.' Martinez says the heated argument came to a head when the couple objected to the location of a portion of the fence. 'Brian grabbed a chainsaw and a grinder and started demolishing the fence because he claimed it was on his property,' she said. Martinez conceded that the boundary line of the fence did veer 'around 30cm' onto Warhurst's property. Both sets of neighbours continued their war through legal means, with Martinez and Steendyk each taking out interim intervention orders (IVOs) against each other. All charges relating to the case have since been dropped. Martinez has also accused the ABC of showing 'bias' in an article on the clash that was published on the ABC website on May 5, 2024. The article was later removed. Martinez says she was identified by name, while Warhurst and Steendyk were not, with Warhurst instead described as an unnamed 'ABC contractor'. Myf is best known for her hosting role on the ABC's long-running music quiz show Spicks and Specks Warhurst has vehemently denied any involvement in the publication of the article. Warhurst and Steendyk are believed to have separated since the clash. When contacted for comment by Daily Mail Australia, an ABC spokesperson said: 'The ABC is assured it acted appropriately in this matter. Myf Warhurst had no involvement in publishing the story. Myf is highly valued by the ABC.' Myf is best known for her hosting role on the ABC's long-running music quiz show Spicks and Specks. Noel Gallagher went unnoticed by commuters on the London Underground as he enjoyed some time back in his home city. The rock superstar, 58, is currently on a world tour with his brother Liam, 52, as the pair managed to put their 16-year feud aside. After they finished up their second night in Manchester, it appeared that Noel return back to his home in North London as he prepared for their next gig up north on Wednesday, July 16. In a TikTok video posted by loisinthenorth on Tuesday, Noel could be seen leaving a nearly empty tube with no one rushing over to him, despite his A-list status. The star opted for a lowkey figure in a navy t-shirt and trousers as he attempted to disguise his identity with a pair of silver frame sunglasses. The owner of the video captioned the clip: 'POV: You're getting the train from Paddington - Baker St and bump into' Noel Gallagher went unnoticed by commuters on the London Underground as he enjoyed some time back in his home city The rock superstar, 58, is currently on a world tour with his brother Liam, 52, as the pair managed to put their 16-year feud aside After they finished up their second night in Manchester, it appeared that Noel return back to his home in North London as he prepared for their next gig up north on Wednesday, July 16 Fans rushed to the comment to share their surprise and said the person filming was 'very lucky' to have spotted Noel. They said: 'You are one lucky b...ard mate... Wow!! Lucky!... Hes a man of the peopleeee... 'Tbf theyre recording studio is near Paddington etc so not a surprise... Yes thats him... Hes always on the tube champ.' It comes after it was reported that Noel and Liam are 'planning to splash 200,000 on a huge party' following their shows in London. After 16 years, Oasis have finally reunited for 41 shows across Europe, including seven gigs in London, with the first on July 25 and the final one on September 28. And the brothers will reportedly throw the ultimate bash in September to celebrate the completion of the first part of their reunion tour with their celebrity pals. A source told The Sun: 'Liam and Noel are staying away from the booze and parties during the tour to protect their voices. 'They are looking forward to catching up with pals in September following the success of the tour. There will be no expense spared and guests with an invitation can expect to be given the VIP treatment.' In a TikTok video posted on Tuesday, Noel could be seen leaving a nearly empty tube with no one rushing over to him, despite his A-list status Fans rushed to the comment to share their surprise and said the person filming was 'very lucky' to have spotted Noel MailOnline has contacted representatives for comment. Meanwhile, fans fear the Gallagher feud could end their 400m tour before even reaching Wembley. Since Oasis formed in 1991, Liam and Noel, aged 52 and 58 respectively, have caused controversy with their hedonism, iconic showbiz wars and raucous on-stage presence - all prior to their acrimionious split in 2009, which left fans bereft. After years of public animosity, Oasis lovers were overjoyed last year when they put their differences aside for a 400m, 41 date reunion tour, which kicked off in Cardiff last week ahead of shows in UK, Ireland, Australia, the US and Mexico. Despite delight over the return, concerns have arose among superfans that the warring siblings may not make it to their upcoming gigs - including Wembley later this month - thanks to seemingly dominant behaviour, different hotel stays and more. Fans, some of whom scandalously spent thousands on tickets, have taken to social media to voice their concerns over the band making it to their own dates, while bookies' have also been taking bets on the likelihood of cancellation. All does not appear to be lost however, as Liam has shown his dedication by vowing to stay sober for the duration of the tour while 'military style' contingency plans have been laid to keep the duo separated while off-stage. Meanwhile, the pair's body language on-stage has been considered by experts to show Noel looks 'overwhelmed' while Liam remains the 'dominant' presence. It comes after it was reported that the brothers will reportedly throw the ultimate bash in September to celebrate the completion of the first part of their reunion tour Fans voiced their concerns on X, with many hypothesising the tour would not see its end due to the brothers' feelings towards one another. Users took to the site to pen: 'Please finish the tour without fighting... The tour will be lucky to finish all dates [mark my words]... 'They still hate each other... Bet they don't finish the tour... It's not Oasis though, it's the Liam and Noel show. I bet they don't finish the tour.' It has been reported that lengths have been taken to ensure the pair remain amiable - by working to keep them separate while not performing. The Gallaghers will reportedly be kept apart when not on stage in a 'military style operation' during their much-anticipated reunion tour. There will be separate dressing rooms and transport to avoid a clash and resulting 'PR and financial nightmare'. Following Friday's opening gig in Cardiff, body language expert Judi James spoke exclusively to MailOnline about the duo's on-stage presence. Analysing the on-stage reunion, Judi stated that Liam was the 'dominant' one who was 'firmly in control', 'instigating all the action' as he led them on stage. Since Oasis formed in 1991, Liam and Noel, aged 52 and 58 respectively, have caused controversy with their hedonism, iconic showbiz wars and raucous on-stage presence - all prior to their acrimionious split in 2009, which left fans bereft (pictured in Manchester in 1994) Despite Liam proudly 'presenting' his brother to the audience with an air of confidence, contrastingly, Judi observes, Noel appeared somewhat more trepidatious, suggesting he was 'overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment.' She told MailOnline: 'It's the body language details that are so important to the fans here as the Gallagher narrative arc is displayed to a breathless nation. 'The walk-out ritual signals unity of course but the status and instigation signals are important. The glorious monochrome back view photo is intended to allow us to share the experience and see what they were seeing.' Of Liam's behaviour, she explained: 'What we do see is Liam very firmly in control, instigating all the action. His arm is around Noel's shoulders as though he's the more dominant brother and as though he's the one finally leading his brother back out to an adoring audience. 'His maracas are held high in a signal of celebratory victory and they even form a V-shape to add to that message of victory. 'When they hold raised hands it's actually Liam grabbing his brother's wrist and holding it up, again as though presenting him proudly to the fans.' Commenting on Noel's conduct in comparison, Judi explained: 'Noel cuts a very different figure here. Walking with his arms down at his sides, almost like a small child, his lip-clamp and his lowered eyes suggest he is overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment.' Bookmakers William Hill have led the way in taking bets on whether the brothers will manage to complete the tour. The website lists: 'The stage is set and all eyes will be on the Principality Stadium for the opening night of the Oasis Live '25 reunion tour but will the band manage to stick together for the entire run of concerts? 'Punters expecting a clash between the Gallaghers can back the tour to end before the final 2025 date, scheduled for 23rd November in Sao Paolo, Brazil, at 4/1. Spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps, said: 'Whether Liam and Noel can keep their tempers in check in the coming months remains to be seen, and we're 4/1 that they call time on their reunion before the final 2025 tour date in November. 'However, the 1/6 about Oasis playing together next year suggests this reunion could be more than a short-term project.' Despite concerns, the group do however appear determined to keep things running smoothly with sights to concluding the tour. It was revealed prior to the tour kicking off that Liam is planning not to booze during the shows after previously admitting he stopped drinking on stage after his erratic performance with Oasis at Wembley in 2000. A source told The Sun: 'Liam's just returned from a boozy holiday and now plans to be in lock-down for the foreseeable to focus on getting fit for the tour. 'He is planning on being sober ahead of and on tour with Oasis. He's actually used cutting out booze to help him prepare and also to get through the shows before.' As well as his focus on sobriety, the brothers spoke ambitiously about their capabilities while announcing the industry-shattering comeback. In the video, which was released last year, Liam said: When we both come together, you have greatness', while Noel sweetly stated:'I know my brother better than anybody else. This is it, this is happening.' Despite their feud, sources claimed in PJ Harrison's book In The Fall And Rise Of Oasis that the brothers 'still really love each other'. An insider also added that Liam was the one that made peace with Noel, explaining: 'He's a great one for making, you know, peace. He's the one that will make the peace and bring things back together with people.' In a post on X when he was asked who called first him or Noel, Liam replied: 'I called him but don't tell anyone as I don't want folk thinking I'm a soft lad and stuffs keep it between me n you cheers x.' Representatives declined to comment when approached by MailOnline Feature: Global experts call for cultural understanding, exchange in China's Harbin Xinhua) 13:45, July 16, 2025 HARBIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- While speaking of his bond with Chinese culture, 69-year-old British translator David Ferguson hummed a passage from the Peking Opera classic Dingjun Mountain, recalling how Chinese art has profoundly transformed his life. Ferguson, the honorary chief English editor of China's Foreign Languages Press, has lived and worked in China for nearly two decades. Over the years, his engagement with Chinese culture has deepened both professionally and personally -- his son, who came to China with him as a toddler, has studied Peking Opera for many years and can now perform a range of opera pieces. He said he is proud of what his son has achieved, noting that his son's experiences have strengthened his belief that cultural exchange is his life's mission. Ferguson was a recipient of the inaugural Orchid Awards in 2023. The awards were established to honor international friends who have contributed to fostering cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. From July 11 to 14, Ferguson joined dozens of global scholars, cultural experts and awardees of this year's Orchid Awards on a visit to Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province famous for its unique music and cultural offerings. To Ferguson, meaningful dialogue between civilizations often takes place not on grand stages, but during ordinary encounters -- much like his bond with Peking Opera. "We tend to associate cultural exchange first with fine arts, but ordinary people are in fact the protagonists of most cultural interactions," he said. He recalled a visit years ago to rural areas in northwest China's Gansu Province to learn about local poverty alleviation efforts. In a village inhabited by the Dongxiang ethnic group, children welcomed him in a modest classroom by performing "Auld Lang Syne" -- a memory that remains vivid to this day. "As a Scotsman, hearing the melody of my homeland in a Chinese village thousands of miles away brought tears to my eyes. It was the most precious gift I've received in China," he said, noting that such moments of cultural exchange are more important than ever in a world troubled by conflicts and tensions. For German medical scientist Thomas Rabe, who also participated in the Harbin tour, cultural exchange has been consolidating his family's long-standing friendship with China and will continue to contribute to international peace and friendship. Rabe is the chairman of the John Rabe Communication Center, which is dedicated to commemorating his grandfather John Rabe for his role in protecting civilians during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, an atrocity committed during Japan's war of aggression against China. Over the years, Thomas Rabe has dedicated himself to compiling over 20 volumes of wartime diaries written by his grandfather. He has donated thousands of pages of the original manuscripts to Chinese authorities and UNESCO. These diaries have become invaluable historical resources for research on the Nanjing Massacre. Rabe also shared with Xinhua how a China-German medical cooperation project he helped launch at Capital Medical University in Beijing enabled a Chinese cancer patient to give birth to two healthy children. For his contributions to cultural and scientific exchanges, Rabe was awarded the Friendship Envoy Award at the second Orchid Awards earlier this month. "For my family, China has been, is, and will always remain our second homeland," he said. Guo Weimin, president of the China Public Relations Association and deputy chair of this year's Orchid Awards expert committee, emphasized that cultural exchange is a vital force for connecting civilizations and advancing the development of human society. "Visionary individuals from around the world, including the Orchid Awards honorees and nominees, have made outstanding contributions to international cultural dialogue and mutual learning among civilizations," Guo said. "Their efforts inspire confidence in our shared pursuit of peace and common development." (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Shappi Khorsandi has claimed her friend was humiliated by female staff at a London pub for having a visible panty line - and that she was then 'shoulder barged' after challenging the bartender who made the comment. The TV comedian, 52, is a regular on comedy panel shows including Have I Got News For You and 8 out 10 Cats. But she took to Instagram on Monday to post a now-deleted rant about an alleged incident at The Grange in Ealing, and declared she would be boycotting the venue. 'I'm at The Grange pub in Ealing for the last time because they told my friend off because her skirt showed the outline of her knickers in a certain light,' she fumed. 'And she was told that it was a family pub.' Shappi continued: 'We're never coming back here again because in the summertime at The Grange pub, you're not allowed to wear summer clothes. 'Otherwise you get shamed. But the bar staff have all got their bra straps showing.' Shappi Khorsandi has claimed her friend was humiliated by female staff at a London pub for having a visible panty line - and that she was then 'shoulder barged' after challenging the bartender who made the comment The TV comedian, 52, is a regular on comedy panel shows including Have I Got News For You and 8 out 10 Cats (Seen in August 2024) Shappi explained she wouldn't show her friend - who she described as 'young' and 'a beautiful human' - on camera because 'she's too upset' by what had happened. The comedian, who starred in ITV's I'm a Celebrity! in 2017, is currently studying for a Master's in Gestalt Psychotherapy. She was at the venue - owned by Young's Pubs - with her fellow students to enjoy a drink to celebrate the end of term. 'We were just mature students having a pint, not a threat to anyone's "family values",' she continued in the caption. 'She was wearing a completely normal summer outfit.' Shappi added of the female manager's complaint over her friend's VPL: 'How hard was she staring??? I couldn't see it. 'The bar manager's bra straps, also underwear, were visible. She got quite annoyed when we respectfully pointed this out.' Shappi, who has long used her platform to champion women's rights and challenge sexism, said she calmly challenged the decision. But upon on doing, Shappi claimed she was physically shoulder-barged by another female member of staff. Shappi took to Instagram on Monday to post a now-deleted rant about an incident which she claimed took place at The Grange in Ealing The comedian, who starred in ITV's I'm a Celebrity! in 2017 (Pictured), is currently studying for a Master's in Gestalt Psychotherapy 'I (mildly sunburnt, drinking shandy responsibly) calmly pointed out to a (again, female) member of the bar staff that this was ridiculous and was promptly shoulder-barged in a strop,' she added in the caption. 'Goodness. Good job my weeble frame bounced me back up.' The comic said she would not usually 'name and shame' a venue but that the experience had crossed a line. 'We came for an end of term drink. Not a morality tale,' she continued. 'Congrats @thegrangeealing - you've upset a beautiful human for not being a nun, and just lost the loyal post-class trade of your local college. The comic said she would not usually 'name and shame' a venue but that the experience had crossed a line (Seen in 2023) 'We'll take our pints (and our freedom to wear cool clothes) elsewhere.' MailOnline has contacted The Grange and Young's Pubs for comment. Shappi revealed last year that she was studying alongside fellow mature students on a Gestalt Psychotherapy programme. The comedian said the work has helped her 'reclaim joy' in later life. Christina Haack got some good news about her reality show The Flip Off featuring her first ex-husband Tarek El Moussa and his second wife Heather Rae El Moussa. On Tuesday, a source told Us Weekly that the televised flipping battle where two teams must 'find, buy, renovate, and flip a house for the biggest financial gain' was renewed for a second season, 'but there is no filming date or air date yet.' On the March 5th finale of the six-episode series, Tarek and Heather were declared the winners by securing a $431K profit off the sale of their flipped home while Christina only earned $217K. Sadly, the El Moussas' other HGTV reality show The Flipping El Moussas 'is not coming back.' The news came a month after the half-Lebanese 43-year-old received a citation for battery from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for 'allegedly mounting a man's back and pummeling him with three blows to the head' while defending his father at The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort. Christina Haack got some good news about her reality show The Flip Off featuring her first ex-husband Tarek El Moussa and his second wife Heather Rae El Moussa 'Tarek intends to contest these allegations in a court of law where he will assert his right to self-defense and the defense of his elderly and infirmed father,' Tarek's attorneys David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld told TMZ on June 12. El Moussa and the 42-year-old interior designer amicably co-parent two children - son Brayden, 9; and daughter Taylor, 14 - following their 2018 divorce after seven years of marriage. Christina also got some bad news as her HGTV reality show Christina on the Coast has also 'not been renewed.' That's not too surprising considering Haack built the show around moving to Tennessee and 'creating breathtaking renovations for eager clients in the beautiful countryside' with her third ex-husband Josh Hall, whom she acrimoniously divorced on May 1 following three years of marriage. The Anaheim-born blonde is also mother to five-year-old son Hudson with second ex-husband Ant Anstead, who proudly announced Tuesday that his show Born Mechanic was renewed by Discovery+ for a second season. The 46-year-old Englishman began dating two-time Oscar winner Renee Zellweger after meeting on the set of Celebrity IOU: Joyride in June 2021 - the same exact month he finalized his divorce from Christina. Haack has been romancing Network Connex CEO Christopher Larocca since January. On Tuesday, a source told Us Weekly that the televised flipping battle where two teams must 'find, buy, renovate, and flip a house for the biggest financial gain' was renewed for a second season, 'but there is no filming date or air date yet' (pictured April 30) On the March 5th finale of the six-episode series, Tarek and Heather were declared the winners by securing a $431K profit off the sale of their flipped home while Christina only earned $217K Sadly, the El Moussas' other HGTV reality show The Flipping El Moussas 'is not coming back' The news came a month after the half-Lebanese 43-year-old received a citation for battery from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department for 'allegedly mounting a man's back and pummeling him with three blows to the head' while defending his father at The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort (pictured July 6) El Moussa and the 42-year-old interior designer amicably co-parent two children - son Brayden, 9; and daughter Taylor, 14 - following their 2018 divorce after seven years of marriage (pictured June 10) Christina also got some bad news as her HGTV reality show Christina on the Coast has also 'not been renewed' That's not too surprising considering Haack built the show around moving to Tennessee and 'creating breathtaking renovations for eager clients in the beautiful countryside' with her third ex-husband Josh Hall (L), whom she acrimoniously divorced on May 1 following three years of marriage The Anaheim-born blonde is also mother to five-year-old son Hudson (L, pictured June 19) with second ex-husband Ant Anstead (R), who proudly announced Tuesday that his show Born Mechanic was renewed by Discovery+ for a second season Haack has been romancing Network Connex CEO Christopher Larocca (R, pictured July 9) since January On July 7, the real estate investor vowed to manifest 'being the most calm, grounded version of myself' as she looks forward to 'love and adventures with my guy' (pictured June 23) On July 7, the real estate investor vowed to manifest 'being the most calm, grounded version of myself' as she looks forward to 'love and adventures with my guy.' Christina and Kylie Wing run an interior design company called Christina & Kylie. Haack runs a 'durable, affordable, and stylish' flooring company called Christina Collection Flooring. The San Diego State University grad is next excited to launch a champagne company called Cle Cachee this fall. Gwyneth Paltrow had eyes for a famous British actor while she was in the midst of her romance with Brad Pitt, according to a new biography. The bombshell revelation comes from Gwyneth: The Biography by Amy Odell, which peels back the curtain on the Oscar winner's most private moments. While filming Emma in 1996, Paltrow reportedly confided to a crew member that she wasnt sure about Pitt and 'admitted that she had a crush on Hugh Grant,' per excerpts from People. At the time, she and Pitt were Hollywoods golden couple, making the confession all the more unexpected. Meanwhile, Grant was still in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley, despite his widely publicized scandal involving a sex worker in 1995. After Emma was released, Gwyneth found herself confiding in her close friend, makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, breaking down in tears several times over her troubled relationship with Pitt, per Odell. Gwyneth Paltrow had eyes for a famous British actor while she was in the midst of her romance with Brad Pitt , according to a new biography; (Pitt and Paltrow in 1996) While filming Emma in 1996, Paltrow reportedly confided to a crew member that she wasnt sure about Pitt and 'admitted that she had a crush on Hugh Grant,'l (Elizabeth Hurley and Hugh Grant in 1994) Though he wanted to stay with her, Pitt reportedly felt overshadowed by her success and the spotlight she was attracting. Aucoin didnt sugarcoat ithis advice was clear and direct, reportedly telling Paltrow, 'You really need to end this.' Gwyneth and Brad never publicly explained the exact reason for their 1997 breakup. However, Odell's sources recalled rumors that it might have been linked to Gwyneth's alleged fling with her Sliding Doors.co-star John Hannah. Reflecting on the split in a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, she admitted, 'I wasnt ready, and he was too good for me.' Shortly after, she began dating Ben Affleck in late 1997. Their rocky relationship, per Odell, lasted until around 2000 amid intense media attention. In 2002, she found love with Coldplays Chris Martin, marrying him and having two children before their amicable 'conscious uncoupling' in 2014. Meanwhile, Grant was still in a relationship with Elizabeth Hurley , despite his widely publicized scandal involving a sex worker in 1995; (Grant in July 2025) After Emma was released, Gwyneth found herself confiding in her close friend, makeup artist Kevyn Aucoin, breaking down in tears several times over her troubled relationship with Pitt, per Odell; (Pitt and Paltrow in 1996) Though he wanted to stay with her, Pitt reportedly felt overshadowed by her success and the spotlight she was attracting and the pair never publicly explained the exact reason for their 1997 breakup; (seen in 1996) Since 2015, she has been in a steady relationship with TV producer Brad Falchuk (pictured) Even after their separation, Gwyneth and Chris maintained a supportive co-parenting relationship for kids Apple, 21, and Moses, 19. Since 2015, she has been in a steady relationship with TV producer Brad Falchuk. The couple married in 2018, marking a new chapter in her love life. Meanwhile, Gwyneth is making her acting comeback opposite Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, set to debut this December 25. Pete Davidson and girlfriend Elsie Hewitt are expecting their first child together - just months after debuting their romance. The former lothario comedian, 31, and his model love, 29, who debuted their romance in March, announced the happy news on social media - with a shirtless Davidson cradling Hewitt's bump, alongside the caption: 'welp now everyone knows we had sex.' Further images showed the couple dressed in white celebrating the pregnancy, a scan of their unborn child and attending an ultrasound appointment - two months after Hewitt revealed to DailyMail.com she had surgery for endometriosis. The couple are set to welcome their baby this winter and are said to be 'thrilled' to become parents, family sources told TMZ. DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Pete Davidson and Elsie Hewitt for further comment. Davidson - who got sober last year - has mostly kept his relationship with Hewitt, an English model, out of the spotlight since going public in March 2025. Pete Davidson and girlfriend Elsie Hewitt are expecting their first child together - just months after debuting their romance The comedian, 31, and his model love, 29, who debuted their romance in March, announced the happy news on social media - with Davidson cradling Hewitt's bump, alongside the caption: 'welp now everyone knows we had sex' However, the couple made a rare exception last month as Hewitt shared photos of them celebrating Fourth Of July together. In May the pair were united at the Endometriosis Foundation of America event in NYC - where Hewitt told DailyMail.com she underwent surgery to treat endometriosis last year. 'I feel so much better it's actually insane,' she said before gushing about how Pete takes 'very good' care of her. 'He has all the heating pads, all the water bottles ready to go, feeds me. It's very sweet.' Endometriosis is a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, potentially causing severe pain in the pelvis and making it difficult to conceive. Davidson's baby joy comes almost 24 years since his father Scott was killed aged 33 in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Pete was seven years old. Scott worked as a firefighter in New York City and was responding to the less well-known Marriott World Trade Center, a 22-story hotel nestled between the two enormous towers that was also known as World Trade Center 3. Although the building was directly hit by either jet strike, it was completely destroyed during the collapse of the two taller towers. Davidson who got sober last year has mostly kept his relationship with Hewitt, an English model, out of the spotlight since going public in March 2025. - pictured May 2025 Further images showed the couple dressed in white celebrating the pregnancy, a scan of their unborn child and attending an ultrasound appointment The couple looked loved-up as they hugged in another snap Pete and Elsie marked their family announcement in the sweet snaps The couple posed with face masks in another snap The comedian is known for his impressive, headline-worthy dating resume, which includes the likes of Kim Kardashian, Emily Ratajkowski and Ariana Grande News of their romance emerged in March, with insiders describing Hewitt as a 'non-celebrity' and unlike 'anybody else [Davidson's] ever dated'; the couple seen in May Pete's dad Scott, was a New York City firefighter who died while responding to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 Davidson and Hewitt's Fourth Of July getaway comes two month after the couple made the big decision to move in together. A source claimed that the pair were balancing time between Davidson's home in upstate New York and a Brooklyn brownstone the couple is renting. News of the fresh romance emerged in March, with insiders describing Hewitt as a 'non-celebrity' and unlike 'anybody else he's ever dated,' per Page Six. The outlet added that Davidson is 'very happy' and that his new lady 'respects Pete and his desire for privacy.' Despite his preference to stay out of the limelight, Hewitt went Instagram official with her beau in late March. Their relationship went public that month when they were spotted at a luxury beachfront hotel in Palm Beach, Florida. They packed on the PDA while swimming and lounging in the sun. The couple made their red carpet debut as a couple at the 13th Annual Blossom Ball in May. Davidson's relationship with Hewitt comes after his split with Madelyn Cline last year. His previous high-profile relationships include his whirlwind engagement to Ariana Grande as well as flings with Kate Beckinsale, Margaret Qualley, and Kaia Gerber. He famously struck up a romance with Kim Kardashian after the two crossed paths when she was a guest star on Saturday Night Live in October 2021. Before Elsie, Davidson dated Madelyn Cline, who he split from last year (pictured May 2024) He started a relationship with his Bodies Bodies Bodies co-star Chase Sui Wonders in 2023 - pictured April 2023 They subsequently attended the 2022 Met Gala together and the Staten Island native even met her four kids, whom she shares with ex-husband Kanye West. Their time together came to an end in August 2022. Pete then briefly dated supermodel Emily Ratajkowski and started a relationship with his Bodies Bodies Bodies co-star Chase Sui Wonders in 2023. Naga Munchetty is reportedly planning on quitting BBC Breakfast despite receiving a hefty 10,000 pay rise, after she was accused of bullying and hauled into a meeting over an alleged sex jibe. The BBC Breakfast presenter and 5 Live host, 50, had been spoken to by executives after she reportedly made a sex jibe during an ad break while hosting the radio show. She is believed to have used a crude slang term for a sex act and asked a colleague 'if they had ever done it'. Naga's own conduct was thrown into doubt when BBC Breakfast's editor Richard Frediani reportedly took an extended period of leave, after an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations was opened into the show. Amid the fallout, Naga's agents have reportedly 'held talks with rival station LBC' to explore opportunities for the highly-respected journalist. A source told The Sun: 'The fallout of Richard Fredianis investigation created a stark him or her narrative on Breakfast with Naga flung to the front line. Naga Munchetty is reportedly planning on quitting BBC Breakfast despite receiving a hefty 10,000 pay rise, after she was accused of bullying and hauled into a meeting over a 'sex jibe' The BBC Breakfast presenter and 5 Live host had been spoken to by executives after she reportedly made a sex jibe during an ad break while hosting the radio show (pictured in May) 'The fact is she loves the BBC and her job but theres only so much external noise anyone is prepared to take. LBC would suit her well as the focus remains on news-led broadcasting, they take a hard line and theres far less of the fluffy nonsense involved in working at the BBC. 'Her team last week renewed historic talks with the Global radio station to see if there could be any work for her there.' A BBC Spokesperson said: 'While we do not comment on individual cases, we take all complaints about conduct at work extremely seriously.' MailOnline has contacted Naga's representatives for comment. New figures released by the BBC on Tuesday reveal the presenter was awarded a 10,000 increase in her annual salary. It now takes her pay packet to an eye-watering 355,000 - almost double that of her co-host Charlie Stayt. Charlie, 63, has remained in the 190,000 bracket as tensions between the pair are said to be 'rife'. Naga hosts BBC Breakfast on Thursdays to Saturdays with Charlie, while Jon Kay and Sally Nugent anchor the programme from the start of the week. Amid the fallout, Naga's agents has reportedly 'held talks with rival station LBC' to explore opportunities for the highly-respected journalist New figures released by the BBC on Tuesday reveal the presenter was awarded a 10k increase in her annual salary, which takes her pay packet to an eye-watering 355,000 - almost double that of her co-host Charlie Stayt, who sits on 190,000 Naga's own conduct was thrown into doubt when BBC Breakfast's editor Richard Frediani (pictured) reportedly took an extended period of leave, after an internal review of bullying and misconduct allegations was opened into the show It was previously claimed that the show's staff are feeling increasingly 'uneasy' around Frediani, with the former Head of ITV News accused of 'shaking' a female editor while working on the show. The Mail told how Naga has also been holding discussions with Sky News in an apparent bid to leave the corporation, industry sources have revealed. In a surprise move, the presenter held talks with both broadcasters in what appears to be an attempt to escape the toxic atmosphere on the programme she co-hosts three days a week with Charlie Stayt. However, sources said the talks broke down with Sky News, with some bosses at the networks unsure about Naga's 'tough ways' and deciding against continuing negotiations. One said: 'There were quite a few discussions with both Sky and LBC but then it was decided by both that they wouldn't go any further. 'She is quite sharp and it is perhaps not what they were looking for, so it all kind of fell apart. Rightly or wrongly, Naga has a reputation for being quite tough and difficult at times they didn't like that.' BBC Breakfast bosses were reportedly forced to apologise to Geri Halliwell-Horner after a very awkward interview with Naga and Charlie. During the awkward resurfaced interview from October 2023, Naga, caught the Spice Girl off guard as she asked: 'Do you not like being interviewed?' BBC Breakfast star Naga, pictured with her co-host Charlie, who present the show Monday to Wednesday After the segment ended, Geri, 52, allegedly said she did not want to appear on the show opposite the pair ever again. The BBC's annual report on its top earners revealed Gary Lineker and Zoe Ball have topped the BBC rich list again this year, as the corporation acknowledged 'challenges' with its workplace culture. The 64-year-old's 1.35 million salary made him the Beeb's highest-paid star over the last year, according to the BBC's annual report for 2024/25. Radio 2 host Zoe Ball is the highest-paid woman at the corporation on 519,000, despite working part-time. She left her full-time position as the station's breakfast show host in December. Her replacement Scott Mills is on 359,999. Duck Dynasty star Miss Kay has made an 'unbelievable' health comeback two months after her husband Phil Robertson's heartbreaking death. The TV personality, 77, was 'depressed' after her partner of 60 years passed away on May 20 at the age of 79 due to a battle with Alzheimer's. Last month in June, her son Willie revealed that she was 'not in the best of health' as she mourned the loss of her husband and Duck Dynasty monarch. However, he recently joined wife Korie to offer a positive update on his mother during an interview with Fox News Digital published on Wednesday. 'She is doing so much better. It's unbelievable how she made the turn. I think she was just really kind of depressed after Phil passed away,' Willie told the outlet. 'You know, you've been with somebody for 60 years, over 60 years, so just losing her soulmate and she is getting older.' Duck Dynasty star Miss Kay, 77, has made an 'unbelievable' health comeback two months after her husband Phil Robertson's heartbreaking death 'She is doing so much better. It's unbelievable how she made the turn. I think she was just really kind of depressed after Phil passed away,' Willie told the outlet; Phil seen above Willie added that his mother had been 'struggling' with Phil's death but has since 'bounced back, and she just went to church. I think she's going out of town this weekend. She's traveling more. She's on our show.' Korie also expressed how Miss Kay made an appearance on the Duck Call Room podcast this month as 'a proof of life video.' She further said that Kay has 'been with us for a few things that we've been filming this week. So that's been really special. 'And, you know, that's a special part about our show. We feel like it's just getting to do it with our family and getting to spend that time together.' Willie also reflected on his father's passing and stated, 'We were just happy knowing that he's gone on to be with the Lord, and he was so secure in that. 'That's pretty much all he talked about his whole life was whenever it ended, the faith and hope that he had. 'Also with Alzheimer's - the bad part is you have to watch them go down, but I think it does prepare you and I think she may have been even in denial, you know, like that it was actually gonna happen.' Willie explained that Kay 'just had to deal with it' but 'stuck close to the family.' Willie also reflected on his father's passing and stated, 'We were just happy knowing that he's gone on to be with the Lord, and he was so secure in that'; seen in 2016 in NYC Willie explained that Kay 'just had to deal with it' but 'stuck close to the family'; Phil and Kay seen above The reality star continued, 'We were all there and all around her, and she was with different family members and just took care of her friends and the relationships she had.' He then expressed gratitude that his mother is able to have 'brighter days' but admitted not having his father around has left 'a big void.' 'And I know them two were so together in pretty much everything that they did, so I know it was hard for her.' Last month in June shortly after Phil's death, Willie candidly shared to USA Today Network that Kay was 'not in the best of health' and loved ones are 'trying to help her out as much as we can.' And in April before her husband's death, Jase Robertson had also opened up about Kay's health on an episode of the Unashamed With The Robertson Family podcast. 'She got an infection from a fall from a cut that had happened earlier,' he said at the time. 'We were dealing with the fact that maybe this is it.' Earlier this month, Kay made a surprise appearance on the Duck Call Room podcast where she said, 'I'm tired of being dead.' Al Robertson - who was also on the episode - opened up about false AI reports about his mother's and Si Robertson's deaths. 'Tales of your demise have been greatly exaggerated, 'cause you're here today. So this is the proof of life video,' he said. He then expressed gratitude that his mother is able to have 'brighter days' but admitted not having his father around has left 'a big void'; Phil seen in season four of Duck Dynasty Last month in June shortly after Phil's death, Willie candidly shared to USA Today Network that Kay was 'not in the best of health' and loved ones are 'trying to help her out as much as we can'; seen in 2013 in NYC Earlier this month, Kay (seen above) made a surprise appearance on the Duck Call Room podcast where she said, 'I'm tired of being dead' They also reflected on Phil's passing, with Al saying, 'Obviously this was an hard deal for all of us, but it was especially hard for Mom.' He then brought up the moment when Kay went back to church for the first time since her husband's death - and how she had shocked how others told her how well she looked. 'She said, "I'm tired of people saying how good I look. My husband just died. It's not like I'm back on the market."' Al added, 'I was like, Mom, they're not saying, "Do you wanna date?" they're saying, "You look amazing."' But Kay chimed in with, 'Well, I thought I should look sad.' Nearly two months earlier, Phil's family issued a statement on Facebook to announce Phil's death after a battle with Alzheimer's in his final months. 'We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord,' Willie's daughter-in-law Korie had written. 'Thank you for the love and prayers of so many whose lives have been impacted by his life saved by grace, his bold faith, and by his desire to tell everyone who would listen the Good News of Jesus.' She then added, 'We are grateful for his life on earth and will continue the legacy of love for God and love for others until we see him again.' 'We celebrate today that our father, husband, and grandfather, Phil Robertson, is now with the Lord,' Willie's daughter-in-law Korie had written She then added, 'We are grateful for his life on earth and will continue the legacy of love for God and love for others until we see him again' In the months leading up to Phil's passing, both the late star and wife Kay had been residing at the same facility together, which Jase explained on the podcast. 'My dad's not doing great overall, and my mom is not doing great physically. She has to have pretty much 24/7 professional healthcare, but my dad, it's like .. he's been so much calmer since she came back.' He continued, 'They're in a facility where there are other people, but they have their own little private room - it's great - and so, they're helping each other, so that's been positive.' Other family members jumped to social media to pay tribute to Phil such as Willie and Jep Robertson, and the late star's granddaughter Sadie. In the months leading up to Phil's passing, both the late star and wife Kay had been residing at the same facility together, which Jase explained on the podcast Sadie recently revealed the last words her grandfather had told her on Instagram and said: 'One of the last things he said to me was "full strength ahead!" Amen!' Sadie recently revealed the last words her grandfather had told her on Instagram and said: 'One of the last things he said to me was "full strength ahead!" Amen!' It came after she also shared a Bible verse which read: 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV.' The media personality continued, 'As I was sitting with Papaw Phil today, I thought about this verse he has already experienced this on earth - going from dead to alive by the power of Christ! 'It was his testimony that changed his life, our families life, and thousands of others. Now he is experiencing it in the fullness. Fully alive in Christ. The new has come.' Lena Dunham flashed a rarely glimpsed tattoo on Wednesday as she shot a new project with stars Natalie Portman and Rashida Jones in New York City. The 39-year-old actor, writer and director was pictured in Manhattan's Washington Square Park as she helmed a scene with the two actress for her upcoming feature Netflix rom-com Good Sex. She was hot on a new project shortly after her Netflix series Too Much, which stars Hacks actress Megan Stalter and The White Lotus season two's Will Sharpe premiered on July 10 to stellar reviews. Lena stood out on her set in a pair of denim shorts that revealed a tattoo on her left thing with a banner reading 'My Beastly Shadow' and featuring a squiggly, abstract design. Although the Girls creator catalogued several of her tattoos earlier in her career and shared the inspirations behind them, this ink has so far gone unremarked on. She appears to have gotten the tattoo sometime in 2020. Lena Dunham, 39, showed off a rarely glimpsed thigh tattoo on Wednesday while shooting her film Good Sex in Manhattan. She appears to have gotten the ink back in 2020 She helmed a scene with two of God Sex's stars, Natalie Portman and Rashida Jones Lena was hot on a new project shortly after her Netflix series Too Much, which stars Hacks actress Megan Stalter (pictured) and The White Lotus season two's Will Sharpe premiered on July 10 to stellar reviews It's unclear if the 'Beastly Shadow' of the text could refer to one of her pets. In 2018, she suffered a tragedy when her Yorkie Bowie died, and only months earlier her cat Gia Maria had died. Dunham now appears to be a cat and dog owner again, and she regularly poses with her dog Ingrid on social media. Dunham rounded out her casual outfit on Wednesday with a black T-shirt and red flats for a splash of color. Natalie was seen with her between takes in a ruffled white blouse with a long black ribbon. She showcased her legs in a black mini skirt with chic black leather loafers, and she accessorized with a semicircular black handbag. Rashida's costume featured a midnight blue mini dress with a jacket decorated with a brown-and-yellow lattice pattern and strappy beige sandals, though she slipped into a pair of more-comfortable black clogs when she was seen chatting with Natalie and Lena off camera. Good Sex stars Natalie as a couples therapist who reluctantly explores the dating world at the start of her 40s following a string of relationships that haven't worked out. Lena's tattoo features a squiggly, abstract design and a banner reading 'My Beastly Shadow.' It's unclear if she could be referring to one of her pets. She currently has a dog named Ingrid (pictured) and cats. In 2018, her dog Bowie died The director wore denim shorts with a black T-shirt and red flats. Natalie was dressed in a ruffled white blouse with a black ribbon tie and a black mini skirt She paired the look with chic black leather loafers. Rashinda wore a brown-and-yellow lattice-patterned jacket over a midnight blue mini dress The film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Severance's Tramell Tillman and Meg Ryan. Natalie plays a couples therapist getting back into dating at 40 after at a string of failed relationships The film also stars Mark Ruffalo and Severance breakout star Tramell Tillman, while Meg Ryan returns to starring in a rom-com after rising to fame in them. As part of her press tour for her new show Too Much, Lena chatted with Variety for a profile earlier this month. She spoke about how protective she felt over her actors, who engage in extensive sex scenes in the show. 'If anybody has anything to say about any of my actors I keep my mouth shut on most things these days but try a b****,' she said. 'Im not playing around here. Its the only time that Im going to be taking my hoops out, ready to fight.' The comment landed her in hot water with some social media commenters, who claimed the statement was an example of cultural appropriation, while one person said she was 'cosplaying a black woman.' Elsewhere, she suggested she wasn't 'protective enough' of herself after being body-shamed in the past, particularly for her work on Girls. She also took 'merciless' body shamers to task and noted that she had experienced people's cruel reactions to her body in multiple different states. 'I have been in Hollywood at every size. I have been a sample size [a size two], I have had my body change because of life, illness, aging, menopause. And it is merciless wherever you are,' she admitted. Californians will soon have one less flight option. Avelo Airlines, the Texas-based budget carrier known for its sub-$30 fares and West Coast roots, is pulling out of California. Its decision comes amid mounting backlash over its cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and increasing business pressure in the region. The company announced Monday that it will shutter its base at Hollywood Burbank Airport and shift focus to its 38 other destinations, largely concentrated on the East Coast. 'We are in the planning phases of relocating the three planes to the East Coast, so [these are] only positive outcomes for our East Coast airports,' Avelo added. Before the decision, Avelo flew into 10 cities on the West Coast. Budget fliers could connect to destinations spanning the region including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Portland, and Kalispell, Montana. Those services will end by December 2, 2025. It's a major retreat from the first airport the company ever served. Avelo's inaugural flight departed Burbank and flew to Northern California in 2021. Avelo said it is cutting its West Coast flights by early December 2025 'This was not an easy decision,' the company's top boss, Andrew Levy, said in a statement. 'Our company's deepest operational roots are in BUR, having launched our first flight there over four years ago during the Covid pandemic.' But the company said those roots weren't deep enough to weather the region's competitive pressures. The spokesperson said executives made an 'investment of significant time, resources, and efforts' to make the West Coast routes work, but the venture did not produce 'the results necessary to continue our presence there.' Avelo plans to redeploy its California aircraft to the East Coast, where it sees 'more efficient longer-term growth prospects,' Levy said. The decision to shutter California operations also comes as the company faces mounting criticism. Avelo is under fire from activists and consumers calling for a boycott over its cooperation with the Trump administration on deportation flights. The airliner signed a contract with the US Department of Homeland Security in April to transport migrants to detention centers inside and outside the US. Travelers have turned to Avelo for budget flights with fares starting at $29 on some flights 'This was not an easy decision,' Andrew Levy, the airline's CEO, said - the move comes as his company faces mounting consumer protests It maintains that protests had no influence on the decision to leave California. 'Protests nor our contract with DHS had any effect on our decision and have not impacted our business,' a spokesperson for the company told DailyMail.com. Opposition has cropped up across the country from outside Burbank Airport to the company's hub in New Haven, Connecticut with demonstrators urging Avelo to end its partnership with DHS. Nancy Klein, a California-native, told Reuters she had organized seven protests against the company. She believes the company's decision to end their service at the airport is partially due their calls to boycott the airline. 'This change in Avelo's business operations is some evidence that being on the right side of history, while being principled and persistent, can make a difference,' she said in a statement. Klein said she is planning the next protest against the carrier at Burbank Airport on July 27. Aldi has fired shots at Trader Joe's by releasing Sundae Shoppe-branded tiny cones in select US stores. The nation's fastest growing supermarket's tiny cones went viral after shoppers noticed their striking similarity to Trader Joe's Hold the Cone treats. Shoppers have been able to find these cones in various flavors like chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla with hazelnut pieces. Like the Trader Joe's desserts, Aldi's tiny cones start at $3.99 per box, which comes with 12 ice creams. 'My kids are going to eat these over night, they don't stand a chance,' a Facebook user commented. A few shoppers admitted they too could probably eat the entire Aldi tiny cones box in one sitting. The German grocery store first opened in Iowa in 1976, and now operates over 2,500 stores in the US alone. It's the nation's third-largest grocery chain, and is set to open another 800 US locations by the end of 2028. Aldi fired at Trader Joe's by releasing Sundae Shoppe-branded tiny cones in select US stores The deserts are similar to Trader Joe's Hold the Cone mini desserts Trader Joe's has been growing rapidly since its first store opened in 1967, and now has over 560 shopping centers nationwide. Trader Joe's and Aldi are run by Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud, respectively, which used to be one company run by a pair of brothers, Food Republic reported. While the chains have a major connection to one another, they've been highly competitive for years regarding their products. An earlier battle between the grocers was over Japanese food after Aldi released fully-cooked kimbaps to compete with Trader Joe's Korean sushi. The stores have also been going head to head on store expansion in the US. Trader Joe's is planning to open a dozen new stores across 10 states. Aldi shot back by announcing its plans to open more than 225 US stores this year and snapping up Big Lots locations. The chain also opened its first supermarkets in Las Vegas. Aldi, the nation's fastest growing supermarket, is set to open another 800 US locations by the end of 2028 Aldi and Trader Joe's are not the only chains participating in supermarket wars. After losing its title of America's favorite supermarket, Wegmans has slowly redeemed itself and is planning to open four new stores this year. Kroger has been coming in hot this summer by giving away 92,000 pints of ice cream. Despite shuttering over 60 underperforming stores, it's looking for ways to boost profits and customer satisfaction, including updating access to Weekly Digital Deals. Bar Harbor Bankshares (NYSEAMERICAN:BHB Get Free Report) is expected to be announcing its Q2 2025 earnings results before the market opens on Thursday, July 17th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.70 per share and revenue of $34.75 million for the quarter. Bar Harbor Bankshares Price Performance Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:BHB opened at $30.80 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $471.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The businesss 50 day simple moving average is $30.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.88. Bar Harbor Bankshares has a 12 month low of $26.43 and a 12 month high of $38.47. Get Bar Harbor Bankshares alerts: Bar Harbor Bankshares Increases Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 15th. This is a boost from Bar Harbor Banksharess previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. Bar Harbor Banksharess payout ratio is currently 44.91%. Analyst Ratings Changes Several analysts have weighed in on BHB shares. Wall Street Zen started coverage on Bar Harbor Bankshares in a report on Saturday, April 26th. They issued a hold rating on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price objective on shares of Bar Harbor Bankshares from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Read Our Latest Analysis on BHB Bar Harbor Bankshares Company Profile (Get Free Report) Bar Harbor Bankshares operates as the holding company for Bar Harbor Bank & Trust that provides banking and nonbanking products and services primarily to consumers and businesses. It accepts various deposit products, including interest-bearing and non-interest-bearing demand accounts, savings accounts, time deposits, and money market deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Bar Harbor Bankshares Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bar Harbor Bankshares and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO Free Report) by 10.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,985 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the period. Schechter Investment Advisors LLCs holdings in Altria Group were worth $359,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Security Advisor Inc. raised its holdings in Altria Group by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Financial Security Advisor Inc. now owns 98,653 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,921,000 after acquiring an additional 2,357 shares during the last quarter. Platform Technology Partners raised its holdings in Altria Group by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Platform Technology Partners now owns 7,835 shares of the companys stock valued at $470,000 after acquiring an additional 261 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in Altria Group by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 505,152 shares of the companys stock valued at $30,319,000 after acquiring an additional 12,806 shares during the last quarter. Realta Investment Advisors raised its holdings in Altria Group by 8.8% in the 1st quarter. Realta Investment Advisors now owns 9,802 shares of the companys stock valued at $588,000 after acquiring an additional 793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kathmere Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Altria Group by 10.6% in the 1st quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 46,287 shares of the companys stock valued at $2,778,000 after acquiring an additional 4,421 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 57.41% of the companys stock. Get Altria Group alerts: Altria Group Stock Performance NYSE:MO opened at $58.50 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.80, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $59.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $56.71. Altria Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $47.57 and a fifty-two week high of $61.26. Altria Group Dividend Announcement Altria Group ( NYSE:MO Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $4.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.64 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 43.09% and a negative return on equity of 295.44%. The firms quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Investors of record on Monday, June 16th were given a dividend of $1.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. Altria Groups payout ratio is currently 68.34%. Analyst Ratings Changes MO has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Altria Group from a sell rating to a neutral rating and increased their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $59.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Altria Group from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 price target on shares of Altria Group in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $56.75. Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on MO Altria Group Profile (Free Report) Altria Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. The company offers cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; large cigars and pipe tobacco under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; oral nicotine pouches under the on! brand; and e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Altria Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Altria Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (TSE:NDM Get Free Report) (NYSE:NAK) insider Bruce Wayne Jenkins sold 51,000 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$2.75, for a total transaction of C$140,250.00. Bruce Wayne Jenkins also recently made the following trade(s): Get Northern Dynasty Minerals alerts: On Thursday, June 5th, Bruce Wayne Jenkins sold 50,000 shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals stock. The stock was sold at an average price of C$1.72, for a total transaction of C$86,000.00. Northern Dynasty Minerals Trading Down 0.7% NDM opened at C$2.95 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.33, a current ratio of 1.04 and a quick ratio of 3.93. The company has a market cap of C$1.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -93.50 and a beta of 0.75. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of C$1.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of C$1.38. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of C$0.41 and a fifty-two week high of C$3.27. Northern Dynasty Minerals Company Profile Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd is a Canadian mineral exploration company. It has a single operating segment of acquisition, exploration, and development of mineral properties. Its core asset is the Pebble Project located in Alaska, USA. The Pebble project is seeking to develop a significant deposit of copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver into a modern mining operation. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Northern Dynasty Minerals Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Northern Dynasty Minerals and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. First Command Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in General Mills, Inc. (NYSE:GIS Free Report) by 6,654.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,458 shares of the companys stock after acquiring an additional 4,392 shares during the period. First Command Advisory Services Inc.s holdings in General Mills were worth $267,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GIS. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of General Mills by 23.7% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,360,234 shares of the companys stock worth $200,908,000 after buying an additional 643,571 shares during the period. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in General Mills by 10.0% during the first quarter. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC now owns 20,566 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,230,000 after acquiring an additional 1,863 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its position in shares of General Mills by 126.1% in the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 774,134 shares of the companys stock valued at $46,285,000 after purchasing an additional 431,693 shares during the last quarter. Sigma Planning Corp lifted its position in shares of General Mills by 12.5% during the 1st quarter. Sigma Planning Corp now owns 28,646 shares of the companys stock worth $1,713,000 after purchasing an additional 3,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of General Mills during the 1st quarter worth about $630,000. 75.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Get General Mills alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes GIS has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised General Mills from a sector perform rating to an outperform rating and lowered their target price for the company from $67.00 to $63.00 in a report on Thursday, June 26th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of General Mills from $52.00 to $49.00 and set a sell rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of General Mills from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their target price for the company from $68.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Monday, June 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of General Mills from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an underweight rating and set a $51.00 price objective (down previously from $53.00) on shares of General Mills in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, General Mills presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $59.73. General Mills Stock Performance NYSE GIS opened at $50.03 on Wednesday. General Mills, Inc. has a twelve month low of $49.86 and a twelve month high of $75.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The stock has a market cap of $27.14 billion and a P/E ratio of 12.20. The companys 50-day simple moving average is $53.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.26. General Mills (NYSE:GIS Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.02. General Mills had a return on equity of 24.88% and a net margin of 11.78%. The company had revenue of $4.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.01 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was down 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that General Mills, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. General Mills Increases Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a $0.61 dividend. This represents a $2.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.88%. This is a boost from General Millss previous quarterly dividend of $0.60. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 10th. General Millss dividend payout ratio is 59.51%. General Mills Profile (Free Report) General Mills, Inc manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates through four segments: North America Retail; International; Pet; and North America Foodservice. It offers grain, ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and savory snacks, ice cream and frozen desserts, unbaked and fully baked frozen dough products, frozen hot snacks, ethnic meals, side dish mixes, frozen breakfast and entrees, nutrition bars, and frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for General Mills Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for General Mills and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Profitability This table compares Greif Bros. and its rivals net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Greif Bros. 3.74% 10.21% 3.23% Greif Bros. Competitors 5.83% 21.92% 6.53% Dividends Greif Bros. pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Greif Bros. pays out 89.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, CONTNRS PPR/PLS companies pay a dividend yield of 2.7% and pay out 56.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Get Greif Bros. alerts: Insider & Institutional Ownership 5.1% of Greif Bros. shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 69.9% of shares of all CONTNRS PPR/PLS companies are held by institutional investors. 16.2% of Greif Bros. shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 9.1% of shares of all CONTNRS PPR/PLS companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth. Risk and Volatility Earnings and Valuation Greif Bros. has a beta of 0.84, suggesting that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Greif Bros.s rivals have a beta of 0.97, suggesting that their average stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. This table compares Greif Bros. and its rivals top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Greif Bros. $5.45 billion $268.80 million 18.75 Greif Bros. Competitors $5.78 billion $370.95 million 17.72 Greif Bros.s rivals have higher revenue and earnings than Greif Bros.. Greif Bros. is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry. Summary Greif Bros. rivals beat Greif Bros. on 8 of the 11 factors compared. About Greif Bros. (Get Free Report) Greif, Inc. produces and sells industrial packaging products and services worldwide. It operates through four segments: Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services; Paper Packaging & Services; Flexible Products & Services; and Land Management. The Rigid Industrial Packaging & Services segment offers rigid industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services. This segment sells its products to customers in the chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agricultural, pharmaceutical and minerals, and other industries. The Paper Packaging & Services segment provides containerboards, corrugated sheets, corrugated containers, and other corrugated and specialty products to customers in the packaging, automotive, food, and building products markets. This segment's corrugated container products are used to ship various products, such as home appliances, small machinery, grocery products, automotive components, books, and furniture, as well as various other applications. The Flexible Products & Services segment offers flexible intermediate bulk containers comprising polypropylene-based woven fabric, as well as related services to the agricultural, food, and other industries. The Land Management segment engages in harvesting and regeneration of timber properties; and sale of timberland and special use land. As of October 31, 2020, this segment owned approximately 244,000 acres of timber property in the southeastern United States. The company was formerly known as Greif Bros. Corporation and changed its name to Greif, Inc. in 2001. Greif, Inc. was founded in 1877 and is based in Delaware, Ohio. Receive News & Ratings for Greif Bros. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Greif Bros. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS decreased its holdings in AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV Free Report) by 10.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,980 shares of the companys stock after selling 2,904 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KSs holdings in AbbVie were worth $5,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ABBV. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC grew its position in AbbVie by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 14,052 shares of the companys stock worth $2,944,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares during the period. PAX Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of AbbVie by 27.7% in the 1st quarter. PAX Financial Group LLC now owns 2,731 shares of the companys stock worth $572,000 after buying an additional 592 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its holdings in shares of AbbVie by 7.9% in the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 160,823 shares of the companys stock worth $33,696,000 after acquiring an additional 11,726 shares during the period. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC increased its position in AbbVie by 1.1% during the first quarter. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC now owns 26,280 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,506,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in AbbVie by 0.8% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 101,532 shares of the companys stock worth $21,273,000 after purchasing an additional 813 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.23% of the companys stock. Get AbbVie alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ABBV. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of AbbVie from $214.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AbbVie to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of AbbVie from $204.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a neutral rating and issued a $194.00 price objective on shares of AbbVie in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered AbbVie from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $211.29. AbbVie Price Performance Shares of NYSE:ABBV opened at $186.56 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $329.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $186.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $189.19. AbbVie Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.81 and a fifty-two week high of $218.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 44.14, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.76. AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 25th. The company reported $2.46 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.40 by $0.06. AbbVie had a net margin of 7.31% and a return on equity of 412.03%. The business had revenue of $13.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.91 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.31 EPS. The businesss revenue was up 8.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AbbVie Inc. will post 12.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. AbbVie Dividend Announcement The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.64 per share. This represents a $6.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.52%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 15th. AbbVies dividend payout ratio is presently 279.15%. AbbVie Company Profile (Free Report) AbbVie Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, and sells pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Humira, an injection for autoimmune and intestinal Behcet's diseases, and pyoderma gangrenosum; Skyrizi to treat moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic disease, and Crohn's disease; Rinvoq to treat rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, atopic dermatitis, axial spondyloarthropathy, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease; Imbruvica for the treatment of adult patients with blood cancers; Epkinly to treat lymphoma; Elahere to treat cancer; and Venclexta/Venclyxto to treat blood cancers. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ABBV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for AbbVie Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for AbbVie and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Signaturefd LLC lowered its position in Rio Tinto PLC (NYSE:RIO Free Report) by 10.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,039 shares of the mining companys stock after selling 2,397 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLCs holdings in Rio Tinto were worth $1,204,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Mechanics Financial Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Alpine Bank Wealth Management acquired a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto during the 1st quarter worth about $30,000. Bfsg LLC lifted its stake in shares of Rio Tinto by 5,754.5% during the 1st quarter. Bfsg LLC now owns 644 shares of the mining companys stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Rio Tinto during the 4th quarter worth about $47,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 19.33% of the companys stock. Get Rio Tinto alerts: Rio Tinto Price Performance Shares of Rio Tinto stock opened at $58.50 on Wednesday. Rio Tinto PLC has a twelve month low of $51.67 and a twelve month high of $72.08. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $60.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $73.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.07 and a beta of 0.66. Analyst Ratings Changes RIO has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group restated a hold rating on shares of Rio Tinto in a research note on Tuesday, June 3rd. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Rio Tinto from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Rio Tinto in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. They set an overweight rating for the company. Barclays reiterated an overweight rating on shares of Rio Tinto in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Rio Tinto from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $73.00. Read Our Latest Research Report on Rio Tinto Rio Tinto Profile (Free Report) Rio Tinto Group engages in exploring, mining, and processing mineral resources worldwide. The company operates through Iron Ore, Aluminium, Copper, and Minerals Segments. The Iron Ore segment engages in the iron ore mining, and salt and gypsum production in Western Australia. The Aluminum segment is involved in bauxite mining; alumina refining; and aluminium smelting. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Rio Tinto Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Rio Tinto and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Torex Gold Resources Inc. (OTCMKTS:TORXF Get Free Report) has been assigned an average rating of Buy from the six brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Torex Gold Resources in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Torex Gold Resources in a research report on Friday, April 4th. National Bankshares reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Torex Gold Resources in a research report on Tuesday, June 24th. CIBC reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Torex Gold Resources in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Scotiabank reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Torex Gold Resources in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Get Torex Gold Resources alerts: Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on Torex Gold Resources Torex Gold Resources Trading Down 1.1% Torex Gold Resources Company Profile OTCMKTS:TORXF opened at $31.47 on Friday. Torex Gold Resources has a 52-week low of $13.88 and a 52-week high of $36.09. The businesss fifty day moving average is $32.23 and its 200 day moving average is $27.41. (Get Free Report Torex Gold Resources Inc operates as an intermediate gold producer in Mexico. It primarily holds a 100% interest in the Morelos Gold property, including Morelos Complex, which includes the El Limon Guajes Mine Complex; the Media Luna Project, a processing plant; and related infrastructure that covers an area of 29,000 hectares located southwest of Mexico City. See Also Receive News & Ratings for Torex Gold Resources Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Torex Gold Resources and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:RNR Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 105,920 shares of the insurance providers stock after selling 776 shares during the quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. owned about 0.22% of RenaissanceRe worth $25,421,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Get RenaissanceRe alerts: Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new stake in RenaissanceRe during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 1,587.5% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 135 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Tsfg LLC bought a new stake in RenaissanceRe during the 1st quarter worth about $40,000. Huntington National Bank raised its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 179.3% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 257 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in RenaissanceRe by 165.1% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 464 shares of the insurance providers stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. 99.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of analysts recently weighed in on RNR shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a market perform rating and issued a $268.00 price target (down from $282.00) on shares of RenaissanceRe in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $266.00 to $265.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Barclays upgraded shares of RenaissanceRe from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and raised their target price for the stock from $231.00 to $256.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of RenaissanceRe from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and set a $284.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of RenaissanceRe from $437.00 to $426.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $288.00. Insider Activity In related news, CAO James Christopher Fraser sold 332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.54, for a total value of $82,847.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 27,154 shares in the company, valued at $6,776,009.16. This trade represents a 1.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.00% of the companys stock. RenaissanceRe Stock Down 1.5% NYSE:RNR opened at $236.11 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 1.36. RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. has a one year low of $210.51 and a one year high of $300.00. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $243.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $242.08. The company has a market cap of $11.49 billion, a PE ratio of 7.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.30. RenaissanceRe (NYSE:RNR Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The insurance provider reported ($1.49) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.32) by ($1.17). The company had revenue of $3.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. RenaissanceRe had a net margin of 13.26% and a return on equity of 15.90%. The companys quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $12.18 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. will post 26.04 earnings per share for the current year. RenaissanceRe Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. RenaissanceRes payout ratio is 5.10%. RenaissanceRe Company Profile (Free Report) RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides reinsurance and insurance products in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Property, and Casualty and Specialty segments. The Property segment writes property catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance and excess of loss reinsurance to insure insurance and reinsurance companies against natural and man-made catastrophes, including hurricanes, earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis, as well as winter storms, freezes, floods, fires, windstorms, tornadoes, explosions, and acts of terrorism; and other property class of products, such as proportional reinsurance, property per risk, property reinsurance, binding facilities, and regional U.S. Read More Receive News & Ratings for RenaissanceRe Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for RenaissanceRe and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. In a significant move to maintain a technological edge, the U.S. Department of Defense is deepening its collaboration with the commercial tech sector, awarding major contracts to Google, xAI, Anthropic, and OpenAI. Announced by the Pentagons Chief Digital and AI Office (CDAO), the agreements, each valued at up to $200 million, are designed to accelerate the integration of advanced artificial intelligence into U.S. military operations and national security frameworks. Get alerts: The CDAO, established to speed up the DoDs adoption of data, analytics, and AI, is spearheading this initiative. The core mission is to develop what are known as agentic AI workflows to support vital national security functions. This strategic investment signals a decisive shift toward leveraging the innovation of commercial frontier AI companies to address complex defense challenges. The adoption of AI is transforming the Departments ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries, stated Chief Digital and AI Officer Dr. Doug Matty. Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems. From Generative to Agentic AI: A Leap in Capability This new initiative represents a substantial leap beyond the militarys current applications of generative AI, which have typically focused on administrative tasks, such as tech support and file management. The focus now is on agentic AI, a more advanced form of artificial intelligence with enhanced reasoning capabilities that can independently plan and execute complex tasks. While generative AI can create content, agentic AI is designed to understand a goal, formulate a plan, and adapt its actions to achieve it, potentially automating elements of missions that have always required human intervention. The DoD has identified several key areas for AI integration, including intelligence analysis, campaign planning, logistics, and data collection. Agentic AI could revolutionize these fields by, for example, optimizing complex supply chains in real-time or analyzing vast datasets to provide critical intelligence insights. Experts note its potential in orchestrating intricate military logistics, a task involving the coordinated movement of personnel and equipment across multiple modes of transport and vast distances. A Broader Strategy for Technological Supremacy These contracts are part of a wider Pentagon strategy to ensure the U.S. remains at the forefront of AI innovation. This commercial-first approach is being facilitated through initiatives like the Tradewinds program, an acquisition ecosystem designed to streamline the procurement of cutting-edge technology. The Tradewinds Solutions Marketplace allows the DoD to rapidly access and award contracts for innovative solutions from industry and academia. In August 2023, the DoD established Task Force Lima to specifically evaluate and integrate generative AI tools responsibly. This task force has been instrumental in identifying potential use cases and establishing the necessary guardrails for experimentation. Following the groundwork laid by Task Force Lima, the new AI Rapid Capabilities Cell (AI RCC) will now focus on accelerating the deployment of these advanced AI tools across the department. Through these partnerships, the DoD will also provide broader access to the latest generative AI models for Combatant Commands, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Staff. This will be facilitated through platforms like the Armys Enterprise LLM Workspace and by embedding AI models into existing DoD systems such as Advana and the Maven Smart System. By fostering competition among top AI firms and creating a direct pipeline for innovation, the Pentagon aims not only to enhance its capabilities but also to provide tech companies with better insights into how their technologies can serve national security interests. This collaborative effort underscores the critical role of public-private partnerships in shaping the future of national defense. The second in the series Did Ye Hear About? . . . Mythbusting Conversations was held in the Gasyard Centre recently, where once again, a full house listened intently to Maeve McLaughlin, the director of the Bloody Sunday Trust, talk on bonfires, the work of the Bloody Sunday Trust, parading and how what has become known as the Derry Model is now being used as a template for bringing about resolutions of contentious issues. Under the chair of former Derry Journal Editor, Pat McArt, she began by explaining the workings of The Derry Model which had brought about an agreement between the Apprentice Boys of Derry and the local community to ensure parades in the city passed off peacefully. She stated: What we learned is a basic point - the only way to get agreement is to engage with the other side. You need to have hard conversations, sometimes having to listen to things you fundamentally disagree with and dont want to hear. You need to get people into the same room. You need all the stakeholders involved. And thats what happened here in Derry. When everyone feels heard and listened to, real progress is possible. She continued: Initially, there was a lot of resistance in our own community, many people resenting what they regarded as triumphalist, coat-trailing marches. In contrast, the Apprentice Boys saw it as their legitimate right to march on the west bank of the Foyle as that was where the Memorial Hall is, where St Columbs Cathedral is, where the City Walls are. This is central to their history, their culture. But they knew they had to get an agreement from the residents, and we knew that we had to acknowledge our shared history. That was the basis of where we started out from. In a wide-ranging address Meave McLaughlin also discussed bonfires on the west bank they have little support she said - and the growing support for the Bloody Sunday Museum pointing out that it had more than 44,000 visitors last year. IN PICTURES: Myth-busting lecture series at the Gasyard ... The Derry Model The work of the Bloody Sunday Trust was, she explained, also continuing, and it had achieved two of its three aims a public inquiry and an apology from the British government. Its third aim, prosecutions of those involved on January 30 1972 was still ongoing. The first in a Did Ye Hear About? . . . Mythbusting Lecture Series was held a fortnight ago where a member of the Orange Order gave a talk on what he described as the misconceptions about the order. Addressing the issue that the Order was inherently anti-Catholic, he suggested that was the wrong emphasis it was not anti- Catholic, it was pro-Protestant. For him, the Order was, he said, evangelical, wanting people to join them on the right path. The Did Ye Hear About..? series is to continue over the coming months. The mythbuster lectures are part of the Connections A Peace Barrier Project, organised by the Neighbourhood Management Team and funded by the International Fund For Ireland. There were celebrations in Derry last weekend as local support worker Mark Higgins was crowned winner of The Support Worker Award (NFP Not for Profit) at the prestigious National Learning Disability and Autism Awards 2025. The awards celebrate excellence in support for people with learning disabilities and pay tribute to individuals and organisations who excel in providing quality care. Mark, who works at Praxis Cares Templemore Supported Living Service, was recognised for his extraordinary dedication, empathy and impact in supporting people with learning disabilities and autism in the Derry area. Judges praised Mark as a vital, compassionate team player, adding: Marks dedication, understanding and respectful approach create a safe environment, enabling meaningful progress and exemplifying exceptional support work. Mark is known by colleagues and the people he supports as calm, kind and deeply committed. He plays a key role in training new staff and creates a consistent, person-centred environment where individuals with complex needs can thrive. With his nomination stating, Where others have seen challenge, Mark sees communication. He works tirelessly to understand and meet the underlying needs behind behaviours, consistently showing empathy and dignity. Marks achievement has sparked pride across Praxis Care, one of UK and Irelands largest providers of care and support. The charitys Templemore Supported Living Service provides specialist care to adults living in their own homes in the local area. When asked how he felt about winning, Mark said; Im still in shock that I won or even that I was nominated. It was amazing just to be recognised, and Im absolutely over the moon to have won. Congratulations as well to everyone else who was nominated. I love what I do and I do it with a smile on my face, and to the best of my ability. Theres no better feeling than seeing the people we support smiling. Just knowing they have a good quality of life because of the work we do thats an award in itself. Service Manager, Samantha Villa said: The dedication Mark shows to the people we support every day is truly outstanding. I am beyond delighted for Mark and so very proud to have him on our team. READ NEXT: Gasyards Did Ye Hear About? Conversations Series ... The Derry Model This recognition highlights the incredible working happening in social care across Northern Ireland. To learn more about Praxis Cares services or career opportunities, visit praxiscare.org. Derry Magistrate's Court heard today how two men are alleged to have used an accelerant to try and burn two cars and a house in what a judge described as 'a determined effort' to carry out violent acts. Jamie Curran (29) of Ebrington Terrace and Damien Dunne (26) of Claremont Street both in Derry were charged with attempted arson of a vehicle on July 14, criminal damage, attempted arson of another vehicle and attempted arson of a house all on the same date. Both men were also charged with abuse of the electronic network to send threatening messages on the same date. Dunne was further charged with a series of driving offences including ramming a police vehicle injuring two police officers on July 8 and dangerous driving on the same date. He was further charged with assaulting a female occasioning her actual bodily harm on May 17, impersonating a police officer on the same date and making a threat to damage property. Dunne was further charged with stealing a car on October 28 last year. A police officer connected the accused to the charges and opposed bail. She told the court that on July 14 the alleged injured party reported her vehicle had been set alight by two men one of whom was Dunne who was her ex partner and the other she said was Curran who she said she knew for five years. She said Curran had poured accelerant over the vehicle and set it alight and Dunne was driving the car and was alleged to have shouted to set fire to the rear window. On the same date the woman was alleged to have received messages threatening 'to burn her out' and making threats that 'they were in the area'. The court was also told about a similar incident outside another females house when petrol was poured over her car and set alight as well as an incident at a man's home when windows were set alight when he was in his bed. As regards the driving offences the court heard that police tried to stop a vehicle they believed was being driven by Dunne on July 8. The vehicle initially slowed then rammed the police car causing it to spin around and injuring two officers 'not seriously' before making off towards the border after hitting the police vehicle a second time. The court was further told of an incident in an hotel in Belfast on May 17 where Dunne was alleged to have threatened to damage the female's car. Police were called and Dunne was said to have left but then returned and banged on the door claimng to be police. When the woman opened the door he was alleged to have assaulted her. Finally Dunne was charged with the theft of a vehicle after a woman had arranged for him to repair it but he never returned it. Bail was opposed for both men as an officer said Dunne had 44 previous convictions and Curran 36. She said the pair had 'shown recklessness' and could not be relied upon' to adhere to conditions. Defence solicitor Paddy MacDermott said these were 'complex matters' but both men had co-operated with police and provided alibis. READ NEXT: Derry man who cut chain off gate to take shortcut fined He said it could be some time before the case came to court and both men could be ordered to stay away from certain parts of the city. District Judge Ted Magill said that trying to burn someone's house when they were in bed could well end up as arson endangering life. He described the bail applications as 'hopeless' and remanded both men in custody to appear again on August 7. The GAA Palestine Executive has officially announced the planned trip to Ireland of a group of Palestine Gaels - including 33 children - can "no longer process". In an official statement released today, the group said: "It is with a very heavy heart we announce the planned trip to Ireland can no longer proceed. The delay stemming from issues with the Department of Justice has ultimately resulted in this difficult decision, as time has run out to make alternative arrangements. "The touring party was scheduled to depart from the West Bank this morning. We initially postponed departure for today, as the Department of Justice had informed us they were reviewing the appeal. However, the embassy in Tel Aviv is now closed we had a driver pick up the passports to allow us explore other options for the touring party to travel elsewhere, allowing us to provide these young athletes with the respite and opportunity they deserve. "Even if visas are issued at this late stage, delays at checkpoints and borders are likely to cause severe disruptions and extended delays. Giving the children hope again, only for that hope to be dashed once more, would be too cruel. "We are deeply disappointed by the narrative that has circulated suggesting that necessary documentation was not provided or that we were late in the submission of our appeal. We have been working diligently for months with the embassy in Israel. Despite numerous appeals over the past week requesting engagement, we have received no response from the Department of Justice. Our legal team has also attempted to communicate directly with the Department, but we have once again been ignored. "We are profoundly upset for all our GAA Palestine members, for the clubs that went to great lengths to organise this meaningful trip, and for the families who generously volunteered to host our touring party transforming their homes with bunk beds and painting walls to welcome these young GAA players from the West Bank to Ireland. To our sponsors for their generosity, we do hope we can work together again in the future. "While we are beyond devastated, we remain committed to our mission and will now proceed with Plan B, exploring other destinations where our children will be welcomed and celebrated. "We thank EVERYONE for their continued support and understanding during this challenging time." Consumer electronics brand Thomson has launched two new aggressively priced Mini LED TVs in India, featuring 65-inch and 75-inch screen sizes. Thomson claims that these are Indias first TVs equipped with two built-in subwoofers and a six-speaker configuration (108W). Were not just launching TVs were launching the future of Indian living rooms, said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL, exclusive licensee of THOMSON in India. Our new Mini LED range brings together the best in global display technology like Dolby Vision, HDR 10, HLG, refresh rate 122 Hz, Dolby Atmos-powered audio with output of 108 Watts, along with 6 speakers and with the latest 5.0 Google TV experience all proudly Made in India. Price and Availability The new Mini LED TVs will be available exclusively on Flipkart starting July 17, 2025. The 65-inch model is priced at INR 61,999 (Rs. 64,999 after initial promotional phase), while the 75-inch version is priced at INR 95,999. CEO Avneet Singh Marwah emphasised the domestic manufacturing aspect, highlighting the integration of global technologies in a locally produced product. Flipkart continues to serve as the exclusive sales partner. Key Features These TVs integrate an IPS LCD base model with a quantum dot colour converter layer and a mini LED backlight. Both models feature 540 local dimming zones and support full array local dimming. The TVs support a peak brightness of 1500 nits, a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 (with local dimming), and a display capable of rendering 1.1 billion colour combinations. Audio output is rated at 108W, delivered through six speakers, including sky-firing subwoofers. Running on the latest Google TV, the new Mini LED TVs come with voice search, personalised content recommendations, and support for over 10,000 apps, including Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, and JioCinema. The TVs also support built-in Chromecast and Apple AirPlay. The TVs are equipped with features aimed at gamers, including 120Hz MEMC, Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). Connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, three HDMI ports (with ARC and CEC), and two USB ports. They are powered by a MediaTek processor with a Mali-G52 GPU, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. LG enters hybrid bonding tool race, challenging Samsung and Hanwha LG Electronics is making a bold push into the high-end semiconductor equipment market, setting its sights on hybrid bonding (HB) tools, critical for producing next-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. Often described by industry insiders as the "dream tool" for future memory packaging, HB systems are seen as essential to boosting performance in AI and data-intensive applications. The initiative marks a pivotal shift for LG, aligning with the group's wider strategy to expand its footprint in artificial intelligence and business-to-business (B2B) markets. According to Seoul Economic Daily, LG's Production Research Institute (LG PRI) has begun developing HB tools, aiming for mass production readiness by 2028. The company has confirmed that R&D is underway, highlighting its intention to challenge established players in this emerging but strategically vital segment of the semiconductor supply chain. Strategic move aligned with AI and B2B expansion Industry analysts interpret LG's recent strategic shift as aligning with Chairman Koo Kwang-mo's overarching plan to steer the conglomerate toward emerging technologies. The company has intensified its focus on artificial intelligence and business-to-business ventures, aiming to establish foundational infrastructure that supports long-term digital transformation beyond the scope of consumer goods. This move places LG in direct technological rivalry with prominent South Korean firms like Samsung Electronics, Hanwha Semitech, and Hanmi Semiconductor, which are already engaged in developing or supplying equipment for HBM production. Building out semiconductor packaging capabilities Reports indicate that LG PRI has recently formed a new division focused on advanced semiconductor packaging technologies. With the development of HB tools now underway, industry watchers expect LG to significantly scale this unit, recruit top talent in semiconductor packaging, and deepen collaborations with academic institutions. Earlier coverage by ET News noted that LG PRI is also developing other advanced tools, including Laser Direct Imaging (LDI) systems for IC substrates and Through-Glass Via (TGV) laser drilling equipment for glass-based substrates, laying the groundwork for a comprehensive advanced packaging equipment portfolio. Hybrid bonding could reshape HBM landscape Hybrid bonding is emerging as a game-changing alternative to traditional thermo-compression bonding (TCB), offering a more advanced method for vertically stacking semiconductor chips. Unlike TCB, which relies on micro bumps to link chips, hybrid bonding allows for direct die-to-die connections without the need for bumps. This innovation enables thinner chip assemblies and improved thermal performance, both critical for the densely stacked DRAM layers found in HBM. Although hybrid bonding is already used in NAND flash and some system-on-chip applications, it has yet to be widely adopted for HBM production. LG's entry into this space could accelerate that shift, especially as the company seeks to boost profitability through a deeper push into business-to-business technologies. If successful, LG could secure contracts with leading HBM manufacturers such as SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung. Such wins would strengthen LG's position in the semiconductor equipment industry and drive growth in a sector vital to next-generation AI and computing applications. Credit: Besi Korean players challenge global HB leaders The current hybrid bonding equipment market is dominated by the Netherlands-based BE Semiconductor Industries (Besi) and the US-based Applied Materials. But with SK Hynix and Samsung leading the global HBM supply, South Korean firms are eager to localize this strategically important technology. Industry watchers say LG could gain traction if it meets the stringent performance and reliability demands of top-tier chipmakers. Samsung is reportedly preparing to deploy hybrid bonding for its sixth-generation HBM, known as HBM4, as early as 2025. SK Hynix may adopt the technology for its next-generation HBM4E products. Samsung's affiliate Semes is also developing in-house hybrid bonding systems to support the company's HBM roadmap. Meanwhile, Hanwha Semitech, which currently supplies TCB systems to SK Hynix, is rapidly expanding its hybrid bonding capabilities. The company views fast commercialization as a critical path to future competitiveness. Hanmi Semiconductor, another major TCB supplier to SK Hynix, recently unveiled plans to invest KRW28.5 billion (US$20.8 million) in a new hybrid bonding equipment factory. The move further intensifies the race among Korean firms to gain the upper hand in one of the semiconductor industry's most promising new frontiers. Article edited by Jerry Chen Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Independent TD Catherine Connolly has said she will seek to become the next Irish president. The left-wing Galway West representative said she did not make the decision overnight and was doubtful enough about the move, but was convinced by the correspondence she got from people asking her to run. She outlined the reasons why she decided to run and her vision for the presidency while speaking on RTE Raidio na Gaeltachtas programme Adhmhaidin. I was taken aback by the support I received, I wasnt expecting that level of support from people across the country, in English and Irish, she said speaking in Irish. She said she was independent, was not afraid to speak out and outlined her vision for the role. She added: I will give an ear to everyone, I worked as a clinical psychologist for seven years, and then I worked as a barrister. From that experience I can hear everyones opinion. On Tuesday, Mairead McGuinness became the first official nominee in the presidential race to replace Michael D Higgins after his term comes to an end in the autumn. Ms McGuinness, who was a TV presenter and farming journalist before becoming an MEP and EU commissioner, is the nominee to become Fine Gaels presidential candidate. Prospective candidates need the support of 20 Oireachtas members to get on the ballot paper. Fianna Fail, the party with the most TDs in the Dail, has not clarified if it will run a candidate and is to make a decision in the early autumn. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has also refused to rule herself out of the running. Ms Connolly has received the backing of the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, with the Labour Party to very seriously consider backing her. Left-wing independent Ms Connolly worked as a barrister and a clinical psychologist before becoming a councillor for 17 years and spending a term as Galway mayor until 2005. She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006 after being turned down to be a running mate of then incumbent TD Michael D Higgins. She was first elected to the Dail as an independent candidate for Galway West in 2016. Speaking on Wednesday, she said she did not fall out with the Labour Party and said she understood that Labour and Sinn Fein were considering support her, adding she already had the support of more than 20 Oireachtas members. Asked about who would pay for her campaign, she said the parties that have backed her were happy to give her any support she needs, but the details had not yet been worked out. She was also asked about her stance on the war in Ukraine about the suggestion that she did not clap during Volodymyr Zelenskys address to the Dail in April 2022 and whether Ukraine should be sent arms by other countries. She said she had criticised Russia many times and was despondent about the failure of diplomacy in relation to the conflict, but that does not give Russia any excuse. She said she did clap for Mr Zelensky in April 2022 but said some journalists reckoned her applause did not go on long enough or was not strong enough. She added: I want us to use our voice as a neutral country. I am very worried about the direction Europe, the US and other countries are going in. More war does not bring about peace, that is not the way. Were a small country with a particular history and we should use that experience and influence, not just in relation to Russia, but in relation to Israel and Gaza too. GAA Palestine have released an official statement announcing their disappointment that their planned trip to Ireland this Friday will not be going ahead. The team lodged an official appeal on Tuesday after their visas were denied by the Department of Foreign Affairs who said their entry was denied over certain criteria that wasn't being met. READ NEXT: 1 in 3 parents getting into significant debt over back-to-school costs A spokesperson for the department said, "Applications made on behalf of minors who are not travelling in the company of their parents must be supported with evidence that appropriate child protection measures are in place during the visit. "In all cases, evidence of financial means, employment or other ties that indicate a person intends to return home are important criteria". Although the department said they would deal with the appeal promptly, it could not be done in time before their planned visit later this week. In their statement, GAA Palestine said, "It is with a very heavy heart that we announce that the planned trip to Ireland can no longer proceed. The delay stemming from issues with the Department of Justice has ultimately resulted in this difficult decision, as time has run out to make alternative arrangements. "The touring party was scheduled to depart from the West Bank this morning. We initially postponed departure for today, as the Department of Justice had informed us they were reviewing the appeal. However, the embassy in Tel Aviv is now closed we had a driver pick up the passports to allow us explore other options for the touring party to travel elsewhere, allowing us to provide these young athletes with the respite and opportunity they deserve. READ NEXT: Irish father tragically killed in the United States repatriated home to be laid to rest "Even if visas are issued at this late stage, delays at checkpoints and borders are likely to cause severe disruptions and extended delays. Giving the children hope again, only for that hope to be dashed once more, would be too cruel. "We are deeply disappointed by the narrative that has circulated suggesting that necessary documentation was not provided or that we were late in the submission of our appeal. We have been working diligently for months with the embassy in Israel. "Despite numerous appeals over the past week requesting engagement, we have received no response from the Department of Justice. Our legal team has also attempted to communicate directly with the Department, but we have once again been ignored. "We are profoundly upset for all our GAA Palestine members, for the clubs that went to great lengths to organise this meaningful trip, and for the families who generously volunteered to host our touring party transforming their homes with bunk beds and painting walls to welcome these young GAA players from the West Bank to Ireland. To our sponsors for their generosity, we do hope we can work together again in the future. "While we are beyond devastated, we remain committed to our mission and will now proceed with Plan B, exploring other destinations where our children will be welcomed and celebrated. "We thank EVERYONE for their continued support and understanding during this challenging time." Drogheda's Boann Distillery has helped craft a landmark blended whisky to celebrate The British and Irish Lions partnership. Named after the year of the Lions' founding, 1888 is a luxury blend that unites grains and malts from five distilleries across Ireland and Britain. These include Platin Road-based Boann, Echlinville (Northern Ireland), Cameronbridge (Scotland), White Peak (England), and Penderyn (Wales), each bringing a unique character to a truly unified dram. With just 1,888 individually numbered bottles released, 1888 aims to offer fans a tangible piece of Lions and whisky history in this rare collaboration. READ NEXT: Dundalk's Mo Chara gets triple nomination at Irish Bar of the Year Awards It was launched to mark Scottish company, Patron Saint Whiskys appointment as an Official Supplier to The British & Irish Lions Mens Team. Patron Saint collaborates with esteemed distilleries across Ireland and Britain to create exceptional whiskies that celebrate heritage and unity. "We are immensely proud to contribute to the creation of 1888, said Pat Cooney, founder of family-run Boann Distillery. This whisky is more than a blend - its a symbol of unity and the exceptional craftsmanship found in each of the four unions. The Lions represent the pinnacle of sporting achievement and tradition, and its an honour for Boann to be part of this iconic partnership." Crafted using an array of special casks including Oloroso Sherry, Mourvedre, Red Wine, and First-fill Bourbon 1888 delivers a luxurious sensory experience. On the nose, it reveals sweet vanilla, tangy citrus and baked fruit, followed by layers of summer berries, butterscotch and lightly toasted nuts on the palate. The 2025 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia began with a home fixture in Dublin on June 20, with Andy Farrell's men suffering defeat to Argentina in a thrilling tour match. A series of high-profile matches Down Under this month will culminate in a three-Test series against the Wallabies, starting this Saturday. (July19) The release of 1888 has been supported by Lions legends John Rutherford and Craig Chalmers, both praising its craftsmanship and its connection to the spirit of the Lions. Just as every Lion who pulls on that jersey contributes to its enduring legacy, every dram of '1888' reflects the careful crafting and dedication that defines a Lion, said Rutherford. Ben Calveley, CEO of The British & Irish Lions, said: I am pleased to welcome Patron Saint to the Lions family and hope that our fans enjoy their unique whisky whilst they cheer on the team this summer. To purchase one of the limited bottles of 1888, visit www.patronsaintwhisky.com. Bellingham Farms Unlimited in Louth has been fined a total of 8,000 at Drogheda District Court for health and safety breaches following a fatal workplace incident in 2023. At a sitting on Tuesday 15 July at Drogheda District Court, Judge Nicola Jane Andrews imposed the fines following guilty pleas by the company to two charges under occupational safety and health legislation. The court heard that on 14th August 2023, an employee of Solar Power Ireland BK Limited tragically died after falling through a skylight on the roof of an agricultural building at Bellingham Farms, Milestown, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth. An investigation by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) found that Bellingham Farms Unlimited Company failed to make the legally required written appointments of a Project Supervisor for the Design Process and a Project Supervisor for the Construction Stage, as set out under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013. Commenting on the case, Mark Cullen, HSA Interim Chief Executive Officer, said, This tragic incident highlights the critical importance of ensuring all necessary safety roles are in place before construction work begins. Appointing competent project supervisors is not just a legal requirement, it is a vital step in protecting workers lives. Read also: Plans for new hotel, apartments and retail in mid-Louth "The onus is on the client to ensure that each supervisor appointed has adequate training, knowledge, experience and resources for the work to be performed. I urge all employers and duty holders to fulfil their responsibilities under health and safety legislation to prevent such incidents. Bellingham Farms Unlimited pleaded guilty to: Regulation 6(1)(a) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013 contrary to Section 77(2)(c), in that it failed to appoint in writing a competent project supervisor for the design process for construction work carried out at Milestown, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth. Regulation 6(1)(b) of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2013 contrary to Section 77(2)(c), in that it failed to appoint in writing a competent project supervisor for the construction stage for construction work carried out at Milestown, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth. Solar Power Ireland BK Limited and its Director, Brian Kelly, had previously pleaded guilty at Dundalk Circuit Court to four offences each under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 in relation to the same incident. Sub 20k EV motoring has come to Ireland which has welcomly arrived a lot sooner than expected and Dacia and Hyundai are to be commended for this. The expectation was the much lauded competitiveness from the Chinese brands would do this first, so hats off to Dacia and Hyundai for being first to do this with cars having 4 seats in a market that now has over 110 models to choose from and sales up 26% over the same first 6 month period last year. The end of this review will have me picking the one Id buy but please note that, as Ill explain, the choices everyone has will dictate where they plumb so what's best for me might not be best for you. Ill pick the items to compare that I think are key and because of space I won't dwell too long on the reasons. Looks wise neither jar but the Hyundai looks the more different and has a lot of the latest Hyundai Ionic design themes. The Spring looks more conventional and compact, again with current Dacia themes. Price next. To afford the Inster youll need 2,600 more than the Spring, an increase of 15%. When these are the cars for your budget that's a sizeable difference. But the Inster gets a 5 year warranty v the 3 years in the Spring. Ranges are 225 km for the Spring and 300km for the Inster. It'll take you 45 mins to recharge the Spring from 20% to 80% as it can only take a max. of 30kW DC with the Inster taking 30 mins to go from the lower 10% to 80% and can take up to 120kW . The Spring uses less electricity than the Inster so km for km it will be cheaper to run the Spring.I can't find much fault with either of these figures because most users buying these will be urban and city dwellers and recharging at home. Hyundai Inster Boot space is 308Ll in the Spring which I will say is very good with the Inster having a very useful adjustable boot of between 238L and 351L because it has a rear seat that slides backward and forwards. This is a feature that should be a standard on all hatchbacks. I took my folks away for a two night weekend break and with the seat forward we could fit the folding wheelchair in the boot. Then when we didn't carry it the legroom they got when the seat was pushed backwards was simply huge, bordering on unbelievable. They reckoned they had more space in the back of the Inster than my 2012 E-Class and it certainly looked and felt like it. Being cars of course performance matters as any electronhead will tell you and here the Inster shines with over twice the power giving it a 0-100km/h time of 11.7s to the Springs 19s. The Inster is a well balanced car and has that big car feel about it. The Spring feels smaller, more basic and lighter with the Dacia penchant for the stripping out of non-essentials at play here. The roadholding of the Inster is quite assured whereas the Spring feels less so and a bit vague which is really only exposed away from its natural city home. Noise levels are higher in the Spring with the Inster quite quiet and hushed.The Inster is the better place to be for me. Read Next: Dundalk festival AurFest appeals for support to bridge funding gap In fact I have to say I don't know how Hyundai are doing it for the money and it will be a serious challenge for the expected competitors from China to match. I found the interior of the Inster similar to the Ionic 5 and 6, its that good, compared to the budgety feel of the Spring. Materials were better by far in the Inster compared to the immediate noticeability of the Springs quality gap. Having said that, I could drive these cars all day everyday in the city and be very happy with either, but if venturing afar Id be in the Inster. My conclusion is Id buy the Hyundai Inster instantly if price isn't an issue and the Inster even if it was - Id find/finance/beg for the money somehow. That 2,600 gap is more than made up by the superior range, faster charging, better warranty and better standard features. It has refinement, space and comfort which the Spring alas, doesn't. Independent TD Catherine Connolly has formally launched her bid to become Irelands next president, saying she wants to empower people to find their own voices. The left-wing Galway West representative said she wants to show that Ireland can be a different type of country. Speaking outside Leinster House in Dublin, surrounded by politicians from the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, as well as independent TDs and Senators, Ms Connolly said it was a privilege to have their support. She confirmed that she has the 20 nominations required to stand in the election, which is expected to take place in October. She outlined her priorities and vision for the role of president, saying that it is possible to make Ireland better and to live up to its Republic name. Ms Connolly also agreed that the salary for the office of president is high, saying she would look at it. The presidents annual salary is just over 330,000 euros a year. I certainly would look at the salary, and Im open to ideas on that, Ms Connolly said. I would have my own ideas, in due course, how I would use that salary and how I produce it to the best of my ability for the common good. I will discuss that with the team I have. There are lots of decisions to make about the campaign, and how I use the salary is one of those. Ms Connolly worked as a barrister and a clinical psychologist before becoming a councillor for 17 years and spending a term as Galway mayor until 2005. She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006 after being turned down to be a running mate of then incumbent TD Michael D Higgins. She was first elected to the Dail as an independent candidate for Galway West in 2016. She also said she supports transparency around the activities and spending of the presidents office, but stopped short of calling for further scrutiny. She added: Well, its interesting. Im back on the Public Accounts Committee for my second time, and I was on it in the first term, and I had a difficult role in the sense that I knew Michael D and so on, but we had to examine the accounts. I did that to the best of my ability, and I would hope that will continue to be done on the public accounts for the president, where the expenses are closely scrutinised. I did that to the best of my ability. Speaking outside Leinster House, she said: Im standing to enable people, to empower people to find their own voices, to stand up and be counted, to say there is a different way. We must deal with climate change. We must be a voice for peace. We have to stop the normalisation of war and violence. We have to stop the normalisation of homelessness. We have to say that these problems are not inevitable. They are man made, policy driven, and we can have a different type of country and a different type of world. That is what motivates me, and I understand thats what motivates all of those around me. She added: I think I have shown my mettle as Leas-Cheann Comhairle (deputy chairwoman). I think Ive shown that Ive been fair, that Im able to put aside my strong opinions and function as Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Im a Democrat to my fingertips. It was actually interesting for me to serve as Leas-Cheann Comhairle for four-and-a-half years, or approximately, a role I wasnt expecting. I stood in that with the help of my colleagues and with the help of the opposition, to show that we can stand together as an opposition and provide a different way of doing things. Asked whether she wants the backing of Sinn Fein, Ms Connolly said that it and the Labour Party are going through their own process, but would like to see their support. I would like the support of anyone. Id like to be an inclusive candidate to say, lets do this together. Lets show whats possible, she added. She said earlier: I will give an ear to everyone, I worked as a clinical psychologist for seven years, and then I worked as a barrister. From that experience I can hear everyones opinion. On Tuesday, Mairead McGuinness became the first official nominee in the presidential race to replace Michael D Higgins after his term comes to an end in the autumn. Ms McGuinness, who was a TV presenter and farming journalist before becoming an MEP and EU commissioner, is the nominee to become Fine Gaels presidential candidate. Fianna Fail, the party with the most TDs in the Dail, has not clarified if it will run a candidate and is to make a decision in the early autumn. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has also refused to rule herself out of the running. Asked about who would pay for her campaign, Ms Connolly said the parties that have backed her were happy to give her any support she needs, but the details had not yet been worked out. She was also asked about her stance on the war in Ukraine about the suggestion that she did not clap during Volodymyr Zelenskys address to the Dail in April 2022 and whether Ukraine should be sent arms by other countries. She said she had criticised Russia many times and was despondent about the failure of diplomacy in relation to the conflict, but that does not give Russia any excuse. She said she did clap for Mr Zelensky in April 2022 but said some journalists reckoned her applause did not go on long enough or was not strong enough. She added: I want us to use our voice as a neutral country. I am very worried about the direction Europe, the US and other countries are going in. More war does not bring about peace, that is not the way. Were a small country with a particular history and we should use that experience and influence, not just in relation to Russia, but in relation to Israel and Gaza too. The median house price for houses sold with the Dundalk Eircode A91 in May 2025 was 330,000, according to figures released by the CSO (Central Statistics Office) in their Residential Property Price Index report. The county wide median house price for Louth now stands at 345,000. Of the 42 houses sold in Dundalk in May, 10 were to first time buyer owner-occupiers; 21 to former owner-occupiers and 11 were to non occupiers. Thirty-one of these houses were existing builds while eleven were new homes. The median price of the new houses sold was 375,000 and the median price of existing houses sold in May was 265,000. In Drogheda, the median price of residential properties sold in A92: Drogheda in May 2025, was 365,000. Of the 98 houses sold in Drogheda in May, 48 were to first time buyer owner-occupiers; 47 to former owner-occupiers and 3 were to non occupiers. Forty-eight of the houses sold were new houses and fifty were existing. The median price for the new houses sold was 410,000 while for existing houses it was 308,500. Commenting on the national figures, Niall Corkery, Statistician in the Prices Division, said: Residential property prices rose by 7.9% in the 12 months to May 2025, up from 7.6% in the year to April 2025. In Dublin, residential property prices saw an increase of 6.9%, while property prices outside Dublin were 8.7% higher in May 2025 when compared with a year earlier. In the 12 months to May 2025, house prices in Dublin rose by 6.8% while apartment prices increased by 7.2%. The highest house price growth in Dublin was in Fingal at 9.3% while Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown saw a rise of 5.1%. Read Next: PHOTOS: Launch of Macardles Digitisation Project at An Tain in Dundalk Outside Dublin, house prices were up by 8.9% and apartment prices rose by 6.7%. The region outside of Dublin that saw the largest growth in house prices was the Border (Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo) at 11.1%, while at the other end of the scale, the South-East (Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford) saw a 7.7% rise. Households paid a median or mid-point price of 370,000 for a residential property in the 12 months to May 2025. The highest median price paid for a dwelling was 670,000 in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, while the lowest was 186,000 in Leitrim. The most expensive Eircode area over the 12 months to May 2025 was A94 (Blackrock, Dublin) with a median price of 770,000, while F45 (Castlerea, Roscommon) had the least expensive price of 150,000. Executive summary On 1 November 2023 a two-year preparation phase was launched to lay the groundwork for the potential issuance of a digital euro. The primary objectives during this phase include providing a draft digital euro scheme rulebook, selecting potential providers for the digital euro platform and infrastructure, and conducting further experimentation and stakeholder consultations to ensure a digital euro would meet the highest standards of quality, security, privacy and usability. This report summarises the progress of the digital euro project from November 2024 to April 2025, confirming that key milestones and deliverables remain on track. A key focus during this period was continuing to develop the digital euro scheme rulebook. This is an iterative and collaborative process and is coordinated through the Rulebook Development Group (RDG). The RDG brings together senior representatives from organisations on both the supply and demand sides of the European retail payments market, as well as observers from the Eurosystem and the EU institutions. Work has progressed on the development of the draft rulebook, addressing topics such as user experience requirements, brand rules, implementation specifications and risk management. The European Central Bank (ECB) has established workstreams comprising around 50 participants from over 30 organisations to look into these topics and other key aspects of the rulebook, and has hosted sessions with industry experts to address specific topics such as transaction latency and dispute management. In parallel, the ECB has launched an innovation platform and conducted extensive user research to ensure the digital euros design addresses the needs of European citizens and is inclusive from the outset. Through the innovation platform, around 70 market participants have conducted technical tests of features such as conditional payments and explored conceptual ideas and use cases to integrate the digital euro into the financial ecosystem. The ECB has also engaged small merchants, vulnerable consumers and under-represented groups through focus groups, interviews, and collaborations with consumer associations. These efforts aim to understand the challenges users face with current payment options and explore how the digital euro can be designed to be as inclusive as possible. The ECB has also made further progress on the design of the digital euro. An accessibility strategy is being defined for the digital euro app to ensure that it is accessible to everyone, including people with physical disabilities, low digital skills or learning impairments. The ECB has developed user journeys and user experience guidelines to ensure a consistent and intuitive interface across both the digital euro app and the apps of participating payment service providers (PSPs). On the offline front, the ECB has continued to carry out technical analysis to ensure the digital euro remains operational during emergencies such as power or network outages. Key areas under consideration include the duration of offline payment availability, activation of security measures during disruptions, and the feasibility of enabling merchants to receive payments without power. These efforts are aimed at enhancing the resilience of the digital euro and ensuring continuity of payments in critical situations. Continuous engagement with stakeholders remains a cornerstone of the digital euro project. The ECB has intensified its outreach to market participants, merchants and consumers through technical sessions, workshops and bilateral meetings. Particular attention has been given to how the digital euro would fit into the existing European payments ecosystem. Dedicated sessions with PSPs, merchants and consumers, under the umbrella of the Euro Retail Payments Board (ERPB), assessed value drivers across the three themes competition, synergies and business model. The ECB also collected written feedback and held a provisional outcomes session to consolidate insights. This work supports the Eurosystems commitment to ensuring that the digital euro complements private sector solutions and integrates smoothly into the broader payments landscape. In parallel, the ECB has continued its engagement within EU fora, where discussions have focused on the strategic significance of the digital euro. It has continued to regularly update the euro area finance ministers in the Eurogroup on developments in the digital euro project. The ECB has also provided technical input to support the legislative process. For example, it contributed to the expert-level discussions in the Council of the European Union with technical input on privacy and the possible use of the digital euro outside the euro area. The ECB also continued its regular dialogue with the European Parliament, maintaining the practice of regularly informing the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) about the projects progress. Public communication efforts have also been stepped up, with ECB representatives participating in over 20 public events and a dedicated seminar with civil society organisations to promote awareness and dialogue around the digital euros benefits and design. 1 Introduction The Eurosystems digital euro project aims to adapt central bank money to the digital age, addressing current challenges of the European payments ecosystem. As retail payments become increasingly digital, Europeans remain heavily reliant on foreign providers, such as international card schemes and big tech. This creates vulnerabilities in Europes resilience, economic competitiveness and monetary sovereignty, and increases the risk of fragmentation due to the development of different private means of payments that cannot be seamlessly used across countries. The digital euro aims to tackle these challenges by providing a single way to pay across the euro area, much like physical cash. It would also provide an infrastructure that could help national payment schemes scale up their services to the European level. As a digital complement to cash, the digital euro would support financial inclusion, reduce dependency on foreign payment systems and foster a unified European payments ecosystem, ensuring that Europe retains its autonomy in a rapidly evolving global environment. Against this background, this report outlines the progress of the digital euro project from November 2024 to April 2025. It summarises the work carried out during this period and its outcomes, confirming that key milestones and deliverables remain on track. In addition, it describes the technical input provided by the ECB to support the legislative efforts of European Union legislators, as well as the ECBs engagement with stakeholders and the general public. 2 Developing a digital euro scheme rulebook The development of the digital euro scheme rulebook is a collaborative process. The rulebook is being refined through iterative feedback with market participants to improve user journeys, end-to-end flows, and business rules. The preparation of the digital euro scheme rulebook is a collaborative and iterative process which is being shaped by extensive input from market participants and experts. Stakeholders share their drafting input through the members of the RDG, which includes representatives from both the demand and supply side of the European retail payment market, as well as observers from the Eurosystem and the EU institutions. The draft rulebook is being designed with sufficient flexibility to accommodate potential changes resulting from the legislative process. In April 2025 the ECB published an update on the work of the RDG. Since the previous update in September 2024, the RDG has focused on reviewing sections of the draft scheme rulebook and engaging with participants to develop sections on key topics. The feedback from the RDG members and the constituents they represent[1] has been of significant help in shaping critical areas of the rulebook, such as those defining user journeys, end-to-end flows and business rules. In parallel, the ECB is engaging with around 50 market participants through dedicated workstreams of the RDG to address specific areas of the rulebook.[2] Over 30 organisations across the euro area are represented, including PSPs, technical service providers, consumer groups, merchants and standardisation bodies. Their expert input is helping to ensure that the rulebook is practically sound and builds on existing industry practices and standards where possible. The rulebooks open standards will enable private PSPs to roll out retail payment solutions across the euro area, thereby mitigating the current market fragmentation and supporting innovation and competition. The different RDG workstreams have focused on the following areas. Defining a methodology to develop minimum user experience requirements. These aim to ensure that the digital euro offers a state-of-the-art, harmonised and easily recognisable user experience while still providing market participants with sufficient flexibility, facilitating innovation and building on existing strengths and best practices. Reviewing existing market standards and certifications in the financial sector with a view to reusing them for the digital euro. The ECB has kept the RDG updated on its exchanges with standardisation bodies, as it is committed to using to the extent possible open, non-proprietary market standards to support compliance and interoperability across European payments infrastructure. Developing risk management rules to ensure strong operational resilience, with an initial focus on fraud risks and operational risks. Drafting technical specifications for both front-end and back-end systems. These will help PSPs prepare to offer digital euro services to individuals and businesses, as well as connect with the digital euro service platform (DESP). The ECB has also hosted sessions with industry experts nominated by the RDG on specific subject areas such as latency and dispute management. In these sessions, market participants provided input on the end-to-end latency[3] of transaction flows, helping to inform the development of latency requirements for digital euro transactions. Similarly, expert sessions have increased participants understanding of market practices concerning dispute management mechanisms and scenarios a key aspect in ensuring end-user protection in digital euro payment transactions. 3 Refining the digital euro through user research and experimentation User research and experimentation are central to developing a digital euro that it is both user-friendly and innovative. Experimentation and user research are crucial pillars of the digital euro preparation phase and are helping to shape both the technical design and user experience of the digital euro based on real-world insights. Developing a digital euro that truly benefits the people who use it, while unlocking new business cases for market participants, is at the heart of the digital euro project. The ECB has launched an innovation platform with European stakeholders to explore potential use cases of the digital euro. Following a call for expressions of interest in October 2024, the ECB received over 100 applications and then selected around 70 market participants to join the platform, including merchants, fintech companies, start-ups, banks and other PSPs, all of whom bring valuable insights and payments expertise. From February to May 2025, the ECB engaged with market participants through two dedicated workstreams: the pioneers and the visionaries. The pioneers conducted technical tests on the innovation platform to test how features like conditional payments (payments triggered only under specific conditions, e.g. upon delivery of a parcel) could work in practice. Meanwhile, the visionaries focused on conceptual development, brainstorming creative ideas and use cases to envisage how a digital euro could fit into the financial ecosystem. This dual approach, combining technical expertise with forward thinking, encouraged collaboration across sectors to explore the digital euros potential. The insights and outcomes from both workstreams will be shared in the second half of 2025. In parallel, the ECB has been working to better understand the needs and desired features of digital euro users and market participants. In late 2024 the ECB directly engaged with small merchants and vulnerable consumers through in-depth focus groups and individual interviews in every euro area country. The goal of these activities was to explore the experience of these groups with existing digital payment methods, identify the challenges they face and learn how a digital euro could offer improvements on current solutions. The findings will be published in the second half of 2025. In addition, quantitative studies shed further light on what people expect from payment methods and applications, and what would make them consider switching their current preferences. The ECB has also been working closely with consumer associations to ensure that the voices of under-represented groups, such as minors and people with disabilities, are heard. The goal is to better understand how these groups perceive the current design of the digital euro, learn which features they value most and identify ways to address their specific needs and concerns. This collaboration is a further step towards designing a digital euro that is inclusive and accessible to everyone. The findings from this research will be published in the second half of 2025. 4 Aspects related to the design of the digital euro 4.1 The digital euro app The digital euro mobile app will provide Europeans with a seamless, pan-European solution for both online and offline payments, prioritising accessibility and ease of use. User experience guidelines will ensure the app is intuitive, user-friendly and recognisable for everyone. Consumers would be able to access digital euro services through two main channels: the digital euro app a dedicated mobile application developed by the Eurosystem and the apps of PSPs that decide to integrate the digital euro into their payment solutions. The ECB has continued its technical work on the design of the digital euro app, aiming to support consumer recognition and deliver a harmonised user experience. Progress has been made on defining the accessibility strategy of the digital euro app to ensure it is accessible to everyone, including people with physical disabilities, low digital skills and learning impairments. The goal is not only to address physical barriers, but also to ensure using the app requires a low cognitive workload. Additionally, the ECB has developed user journeys and user experience guidelines to ensure a consistent, seamless and intuitive experience for all users irrespective of whether they use the digital euro app or the proprietary apps of PSPs. 4.2 The offline functionality The offline functionality of the digital euro should enable consumers to continue making payments even in emergency situations such as power or network outages. The ECB has made significant progress in its technical analysis for the offline functionality. As the procurement process nears completion, efforts have focused on defining the necessary secure environment and specific features such as automated funding[4], and assessing their potential impact. Until now, automated funding has primarily been explored for online use cases and has yet to be applied in offline scenarios. It would offer a more seamless experience for consumers, eliminating the need for them to worry about technical details. The Importance of utilising a highly secure offline payment environment have been more clearly outlined. Functionally, this environment should go beyond merely supporting cryptographic operations and key storage it must also be programmable[5], updatable and capable of ensuring atomicity[6] to prevent inconsistencies in the event of a power outage. From a security standpoint, it should be tamper-resistant and robust enough to withstand any plausible attacks that could compromise the payment process. The ECB is assessing the resilience measures that the digital euros offline functionality should include to remain operational during a payment network outage, starting with exploring the feasibility of enabling users to top up their offline wallets under emergency conditions. This involves finding a way to transfer funds to an offline wallet outside the usual payments infrastructure if that infrastructure becomes unavailable. The findings from these efforts will help inform decisions on whether to incorporate these capabilities into the final offline solution, in collaboration with vendors. 5 Engagement with external stakeholders The ECB keeps continuous engagement with stakeholders, including legislators, market participants and the public. Continuous engagement with stakeholders, including external stakeholders, legislative bodies and the general public, is at the core of the digital euro project. Engagement efforts aim to foster collaboration with market participants[7], provide expert technical input to support legislative discussions, and enhance public understanding of the digital euros objectives, benefits and impact on financial inclusion and innovation in payments. Through engagement with a diverse range of stakeholders, the ECB aims to ensure that the digital euro meets the needs of both users and the market. 5.1 Engaging with market participants Engaging with market participants, merchants and consumers is crucial to explore the integration of a digital euro into the European payments ecosystem and address key challenges such as financial inclusion and consumer privacy. The ECB is intensifying its engagement with market participants. Transparency and close cooperation with stakeholders remain key pillars of the project. To this end, the project brings together all actors involved in the digital euro ecosystem under the umbrella of the ERPB technical sessions on digital euro. By drawing on the existing skills and knowledge of market experts and insights from consumers, the ECB aims to design the best possible digital euro, ensuring it reflects the needs and preferences of people in Europe. Tailored ERPB technical sessions have been organised to discuss market feedback on how to develop a robust, data-driven methodology for calibrating a digital euro holding limit. This technical work is being carried out through a rigorous and inclusive process which involves extensive input from a wide range of market stakeholders. Examples include technical workshops, written consultations and dedicated ERPB sessions, in which the ECB has provided updates on the preliminary methodology being developed[8] and gathered structured stakeholder feedback from ERPB members on key design considerations.[9] In parallel, the ECB has continued to engage with the market regarding how a digital euro would fit into the European payments ecosystem.[10] This is a key topic for policymakers, legislators and market stakeholders alike, in view of which the ECB held extensive, dedicated discussions with market stakeholders as part of the ERPB technical sessions on digital euro. These discussions were tailored to each group of ERPB stakeholders: (i) bank and non-bank PSPs, (ii) merchants, and (iii) consumers. PSP-focused discussions began in the October 2024 ERPB technical session. Based on three core themes of competition [11], synergies [12], and business model [13], the ECB and digital euro stakeholders assessed a total of sixteen potential value drivers. These sessions took place in November 2024, December 2024 and February 2025 respectively and were followed up with written feedback[14] and a outcome session each[15]. In the kick-off session the ECB reiterated the Eurosystems commitment to creating a digital euro that benefits the private sector both PSPs and merchants while guaranteeing access and usability for all citizens. In this context, merchant and consumer-focused discussions were scheduled for May 2025. In addition to ongoing efforts within the ERPB sessions, the ECBs stakeholder engagement included high-level meetings with merchants attended by Executive Board member Piero Cipollone, as well as a technical workshop focused on merchant and consumer-specific topics. 5.2 Technical input provided in the context of the legislative discussions The ECB regularly engages with EU institutions and provides technical input to support the digital euro legislative process in areas such as privacy, data sharing and the use of data outside the euro area. The ECB engaged in discussions within EU fora regarding the strategic significance of the digital euro, which was also acknowledged by the euro area heads of state and government. After the Euro Summit meeting on 20 March 2025, its members issued the following statement : In a more fragmented and digital world, accelerating progress on a digital euro is key to support a competitive and resilient European payment system, contribute to Europes economic security and strengthen the international role of the euro. We invite the President of the Eurogroup to report regularly on progress with these initiatives.[16] The ECB continues to regularly update the euro area finance ministers on digital euro project developments through the Eurogroup. An update was provided in January 2025[17], which reinforced the ECBs ongoing technical support in the legislative process[18]. This update provided an overview of the projects progress and highlighted the role a digital euro can play in supporting innovation, strengthening European payment systems and safeguarding financial stability. The ECB also maintains regular dialogue with the European Parliament, keeping its ECON Committee informed of project developments. On 8 April 2025, Executive Board member Piero Cipollone took part in a public exchange of views on the digital euro at a meeting of the ECON Committee.[19] In his introductory statement, he emphasised the need for a digital euro that complements cash supporting financial stability, innovation and consumer protection while preserving monetary sovereignty amid geopolitical uncertainty and rapid digitalisation. The ECB continues to support the legislative debate at the technical level. Together with the Commission, the ECB is an observer to meetings of the Council Working Party (CWP) that discusses the digital euro legislative proposal, in which context it provides expert technical input, based on the Opinion[20] adopted by the Governing Council. At the request of the Council Presidency, the ECB provided technical input in the following specific areas. ECB analysis on the use of the digital euro outside the euro area (January 2025 CWP). The analysis found that public authorities outside the euro area would have more influence on the circulation of digital euro in their countries than on the circulation of euro cash. This is because the draft Regulation requires the distribution of the digital euro in non-euro area countries to be based on arrangements or agreements with local authorities, without which it would not be possible for citizens of those countries to have digital euro holdings. In addition, the holding limit for non-euro area residents needs to be equal to or lower than the limit for euro area residents. Residents outside the euro area would need to gain access to digital euro services through European PSPs, which are required to perform identity checks when onboarding users. This means that access for non-residents would likely remain limited, which in turn would restrict the digital euros function as a store of value outside the euro area, especially when compared with cash. At the same time, the analysis highlighted that allowing merchants outside the euro area to accept digital euro payments could strengthen the euros role as an international currency and support trade in euro. This would not threaten the monetary sovereignty of non-euro area countries, since citizens would not be able to hold digital euro in the absence of arrangement/agreements and any payments received by merchants would be immediately converted into the local currency. The analysis found that public authorities outside the euro area would have more influence on the circulation of digital euro in their countries than on the circulation of euro cash. This is because the draft Regulation requires the distribution of the digital euro in non-euro area countries to be based on arrangements or agreements with local authorities, without which it would not be possible for citizens of those countries to have digital euro holdings. In addition, the holding limit for non-euro area residents needs to be equal to or lower than the limit for euro area residents. Residents outside the euro area would need to gain access to digital euro services through European PSPs, which are required to perform identity checks when onboarding users. This means that access for non-residents would likely remain limited, which in turn would restrict the digital euros function as a store of value outside the euro area, especially when compared with cash. At the same time, the analysis highlighted that allowing merchants outside the euro area to accept digital euro payments could strengthen the euros role as an international currency and support trade in euro. This would not threaten the monetary sovereignty of non-euro area countries, since citizens would not be able to hold digital euro in the absence of arrangement/agreements and any payments received by merchants would be immediately converted into the local currency. ECB technical input on privacy and data sharing[21]. The ECB provided technical information on privacy, which is a key consideration in the digital euros design and has also been at the core of the design of the digital euro service platform (DESP). The DESP is the technical platform for settling digital euro transactions and providing functions that cannot be accomplished by individual intermediaries. It features a best-in-class privacy model that will apply strict data segregation, ensuring that the Eurosystem cannot link transactions to users or infer any of their behaviours or identity attributes. Only PSPs will be able to identify the end user and link that identity to individual transactions. Furthermore, as provided for in the digital euro Regulation, the ECB will delegate certain DESP tasks to external providers of support services, which will further contribute to data segregation. The providers of support services will be subject to contractual safeguards that prevent the linking or onward transmission of any personal data that can only be processed for specific purposes, and when strictly necessary. Privacy enhancing techniques will be implemented and updated on a continuous basis by the Eurosystem and providers of support services, in open dialogue with market experts and the data protection community. 5.3 Engaging with the public Public communication activities have focused on increasing awareness about the digital euro across all channels, with the topic featuring more prominently in ECB staff speaking engagements. Public communication activities aimed to raise awareness and foster a positive perception of the digital euro by encouraging open dialogue and providing clear, accessible information to a wide range of audiences and through a variety of channels. The ECB has maintained a strong public presence through high-level speaking engagements, with Executive Board Member Piero Cipollone and other project leaders participating in over 20 public and expert events to explain the objectives, design choices and benefits of the digital euro. These engagements have consistently underscored that the digital euros role can strengthen Europes strategic autonomy and competitiveness, in particular by addressing market fragmentation, fostering innovation in digital payments and reducing dependence on non-European providers.[22] The ECB engaged with civil society organisations in a hybrid seminar on 13 November 2024. The seminar brought together European civil society organisations representing consumers, minorities and vulnerable groups to explore how the digital euro would enhance digital financial inclusion and ensure access to services and necessary support. Participants discussed concrete benefits of the digital euro, such as ease of use, the offline functionality, enhanced user privacy and the support it would provide to groups at risk of financial exclusion. The next in-house seminar with civil society organisations will be held in the third quarter of 2025 and will shed light on the possible impact of the digital euro on resilience and strategic autonomy. 6 Next steps Over the coming months, technical work will continue according to the timeline set for the preparation phase. Building on the progress made so far, the digital euro project will maintain its focus on providing a draft digital euro scheme rulebook, selecting potential providers for the digital euro platform and infrastructure and conducting further experimentation and stakeholder consultations to ensure a digital euro would meet the highest standards of quality, security, privacy and usability. The ECB is finalising five tender procedures scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025 to select providers for the digital euro platform and infrastructure. Framework agreements will be signed with the selected providers to set out the terms for potential future work. These framework agreements do not involve any financial commitments from the Eurosystem at this stage. Subject to Governing Council decisions, the ECB will work with the selected providers to test and implement the digital euros technical specifications, including the offline functionality. The ECB is drafting the scheme rulebook, incorporating feedback from ongoing consultations and further developing key areas together with the RDG. The next draft of the digital euro scheme rulebook will be shared with the RDG members and the constituents they represent for an additional interim review during the second half of 2025. The draft rulebook will be sufficiently flexible to accommodate any future adjustments arising from the legislative discussions on the digital euro Regulation proposed by the European Commission in June 2023. Almost 350 early years staff left their jobs in Cork last year, as Early Childhood Ireland says that bringing wages in line with primary school teachers would result in more childcare places and smaller fees. According to Pobals annual early years sector profile, the national average staff turnover is 25%. Cork, however, has turnovers of 29.3% in the city and 27.4% in the county. In Cork, 345 educators left or changed jobs in 2023/2024 and, of these, as many as 140 held NFQ Level 7 or higher qualifications. Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) launched its pre-budget submission today, urging the Government to name a date for bringing early years graduates under public pay and conditions on a par with primary school teachers, even if that date is 2028. Not feasible ECI director of policy Frances Byrne said that, without retaining educators, increasing places while decreasing fees for children and families in Cork is simply not feasible. Theres a few thousand early years staff members across the country who end up on the dole during the summer, unlike their primary school counterparts who quite likely get paid all year round, she told The Echo. Theres a disparity between the two systems. To address these stark figures, there needs to be a brave politician if it could be the Taoiseach that would be great to name a date to bring these highly-qualified, hard-working staff in line with primary school teachers pay. Even if that date is in the second half of the current Governments term, it would mean our 458 member settings in Cork could think about expansion, reopening rooms they may have closed, which would reduce the number of people on waiting lists. If the Government took up covering more wages, they could strike a deal and ask for fees to fall in exchange, and we think that would happen. Ms Byrne praised the last government for significantly increasing the funding, but said Ireland is still behind other European countries. We are last or second last in the league, and parents are paying high fees because of the legacy of underinvestment, and the fact that investment seems to have stalled around 1bn. Cost She said ECI estimates that nationally it would cost about 475m to bring early years workers into public pay, but this would reduce staff turnover, allow providers to think about expansion to deal with capacity issues, and bring about a fall in fees. She explained that, in Denmark, all children will be offered a place in a local setting or with a childminder before their first birthday, and that a country as wealthy as Ireland should aspire to a similar system. In Ireland, the greatest challenges facing our member settings are to do with staffing, she said. Weve had members in Cork say they start to get a knot in their stomach at 4pm on Sunday dreading a text message saying someone isnt well. Theyve had to close rooms for a day or a week because staffing is so tight. They say they are losing good staff, highly qualified, and theyre leaving to go to retail because not only are the wages not great in early years, but the employer cant offer them a pay scale for the future. Theres lots of graduates with excellent degrees never going into early years settings at all. Local representatives are to receive later this month a revised costing on the full, multi-million-euro repair of a historic North Cork weir, but finance minister Paschal Donohoe has declined to commit any further funding for remedial works. The modern Fermoy Weir dates back to the late 18th century, when the towns founder, Scottish entrepreneur John Anderson, built it, reputedly on the ruins of a 12th century structure, to power his new mill. A 2019 breach caused much of the weir east of Kent Bridge to collapse, resulting in a two-metre drop in water levels upstream. Last year, Cork County Council, which owns the weir, a listed, protected structure, secured planning permission to refurbish it, and says funding for that repair is in place. However, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) has insisted on the installation of a separate fish pass on the northern bank, west of the bridge, to run parallel to the river, as a condition of any restoration. Costs for that fish pass are expected to run to millions of euro, and no timeframe or suggestion of a funding source has been forthcoming from the council. Last week, finance minister Paschal Donohoe visited Fermoy, opening a constituency office for local Fine Gael TD Noel McCarthy. Mr Donohoe told The Echo that Mr McCarthy had briefed him on the importance of the weir to the town, and the impact low water levels were having on local sporting clubs. I understand that this issue, in relation to the pass, is one that emerged towards the end of the planning process, and the cost of it now is now going to be a considerable issue in delivering the project itself, he said. I cant give any commitment at this point in time to this specific project, but I have seen with my own two eyes now the importance of it, the difference it can make to safety here within the area, and also, what could be the consequences if its delayed further. Its the main local issue that I have been struck by in my engagements across the day. Mr McCarthy said local representatives are scheduled to have a meeting with Cork County Council on July 24, at which they would be given full costings for the weir refurbishment, including the added fish pass. The last time we got a price for [IFIs added fish pass], it was 3 million, but that was a number of years ago, Ive no doubt that will at least double now, Mr McCarthy said. He declined to give a commitment to a timeframe for completed repairs. Earlier this month, Fermoy Rowing Club, which organises the annual regatta, said low water levels had almost caused the cancellation of the event this summer. A Cork city councillor has said that no further money should be spent on the controversial robot trees after it emerged that the council spent more than 2,000 on transporting them from the city centre to Tramore Valley Park, where they are now stored. Figures provided at Mondays council meeting show that it cost 366,114.29 to buy the trees in 2020, with 78,248.73 spent in the last five years on maintaining and repairing them. Annual maintenance costs for 2020 amounted to 16,778.76; 17,755.30 in 2021; 17,880 in 2022, 8,940 in 2023, and 14,497.70 in 2024. An additional 2,396.97 was spent on repairs in 2021. On May 18 this year, 2,214 was spent on transportation when the structures were removed and moved to storage, bringing the total cost to 446,577.02. Just stumps remain of the robot trees which have been removed from Cork City. Picture: Larry Cummins David Joyce, the councils director of climate action, highlighted that Cork City Council received National Transport Authority grants totalling 409,744.94 for this project, meaning it spent 36,832.08 outside of this. Independent Irelands Noel OFlynn, to whom the costing figures were provided, told The Echo that the latest figures should be the last money ever spent on the project. All this money was spent on robot trees for cleaning the city centres air, and there was no report ever given to members on the operation, the environmental impact, or the efficiency of these devices, despite numerous requests from members over the years, said Mr OFlynn. The trees are now retired to the Tramore Valley Park, where I have no doubt they will be left to rust away and eventually be taken away for scrap. There should be no more money spent on these apparatuses. A line has to be drawn under them now, and we can move on. The sinful thing is there could have been 40 local authority houses refurbished for what was spent. Its a huge loss of public money for a failed experiment. A Cork city councillor has raised concerns that there are only very rough estimates available for the cost of the Luas Cork project, saying this should be examined before the project is progressed. Fine Gaels Shane OCallaghan asked for the estimated total cost of the project, approximate dates when work is likely will be completed, and when it will be open to the public. The councils directors of services Niall O Donnabhain and Edith Roberts told Mr OCallaghan: The Cork Luas route will be circa 18km in length with 25 stops and high frequency and reliable services, facilitating balanced regional development and compact growth for Cork. The estimated forecasted cost of the project is in the 2bn-3bn range and more precise cost estimates will be calculable as the scheme design is progressed and subjected to a comprehensive business case, they said. The emerging preferred route for the project has been published, and it is anticipated that the route will be confirmed in early 2026 ahead of the preliminary design and planning stages. Unfortunate Mr OCallaghan told The Echo it was unfortunate that the timeline part of his question had not been answered, but said: What would concern me more is that the estimated cost at this stage is between 2bn-3bn thats a huge difference. Im very supportive of the concept of a Cork Luas, I think it would be fantastic for the city, and I know that Taoiseach Micheal Martin is really driving the project. But I would have a concern that some past taoisigh have attempted grandiose projects that havent ended up happening. Also, given how major infrastructure projects in this country over the last decade or so have gone in way over their original costing, I suspect the estimated 2bn-3bn will end up turning into many multiples of that, in reality. Theyre pushing ahead with the project, but it needs to be talked through properly. How many extra buses would Cork get for 2bn? How many smaller local transport projects could be put in place? We have shovel-ready, properly costed schemes on hold, waiting for funding. We need to get costings on this set out before we embark on such a massive project. Four men charged with possession of illegal drugs and possession of illegal drugs for sale or supply in relation to a major cocaine seizure in West Cork on July 1 have been further remanded in custody. The four appeared by video link before Judge Joanne Carroll at Clonakilty District Court and are charged over the seizure of 440kg of cocaine with an estimated street value of 31m at Courtmacsherry in West Cork. Sergeant Tom Mulcahy said a file was being prepared by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He said it was the States application to remand all four men in custody to appear again on July 25. Levent Gulay, aged 31, of Schwabenstrae, Neu Ulm, Bavaria, appeared with the assistance of a German interpreter. His solicitor, Myra Dinneen, presented a statement of means to the court and legal aid was granted. Conrad Murphy, acting as agent for solicitor Eddie Burke, was told by Judge Carroll if a statement of means was filed for his client, Christopher Hibbett, aged 44, of Lower Park, Tresillian, Truro, England, an application for legal aid could be adjudicated upon. Solicitor Plunkett Taaffe for Mark Doherty, aged 40, of Waterfoot Avenue, Glasgow, Scotland, said the question of legal aid in relation to his client was still outstanding and said he was also seeking directions from the DPP in relation to the matter of venue. Judge Carroll said Mr Taaffe was entitled to a response by July 25. Mr Taaffe also represented the fourth man, Ben Sandford, aged 42, of Woodgreen, Drum Road, Keith, Moray, Scotland, on behalf of solicitor Frank Buttimer. Jude Carroll further remanded all four accused to appear again by video link on July 25. This article is funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme A Cork man who crashed his SUV into a parked car in a West Cork hotel car park and drove off has been convicted and fined in the district court. Sergeant Tom Mulcahy told Clonakilty District Court that David Beechinor, aged 35, of Carhoogariffe, Clonakilty, Co Cork, was driving his grey Toyota Land Cruiser in the car park of Fernhill House Hotel in Clonakilty at 12.45am on June 29, 2024. The court heard Beechinors SUV collided with a blue Ford Focus car that was parked in car park. The rear drivers side of the Land Cruiser hit the door of the car but Beechinor did not remain at the scene and drove off and he did not report the incident later either. The matter was investigated by gardai and Beechinor was identified as the driver of the Land Cruiser. Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said his client was not aware he had damaged the other vehicle and there was no damage to his own vehicle. He said the injured party was paid more than 2,000 to cover the damage and Beechinor was fully cooperative as soon as he became aware of the situation. Mr Taaffe said his client was a hardworking, self-employed farmer who owned up immediately when he discovered what had happened. Judge Joanne Carroll said it was puzzling how Beechinor would not have realised he collided with the other car. She said she would have two convict him but as he had no previous convictions she would convict him of the single charge of failing to keep a vehicle at the scene under Section 106 of the Road Traffic Act 1961. Beechinor was also fined 125 and allowed three months to pay the fine. This article is funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme A 24-year-old man facing charges in relation to the alleged seizure of cannabis worth 40,000 and cocaine worth over 10,000 at Farranree had the case against him adjourned on Monday until November 10. On the application of Sergeant John Dineen, the lengthy adjournment was granted by Judge William Aylmer to allow time for the seized materials to be sent to Forensic Science Ireland for examination. Szymon Nakielski of Flowerhill, Rushbrooke Manor, Cobh, Co Cork, was arrested last month and charged by Garda Kian OSullivan after it was alleged that he was stopped while driving a car through Farranree. Szymon Nakielski, 24, is charged with four counts under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Two charges are for having drugs for his own use, namely cocaine and cannabis, and having both drugs for the purpose of sale or supply to others. All charges relate to Knockpogue Avenue, Farranree, Cork, on June 7. He was initially remanded in custody on June 9 with consent to bail but one of the conditions was an independent surety of 5,000 of which a cash lodgement of 3,000 was required. He was later released on bail when there was compliance with all of the conditions. Sergeant John Dineen said directions were awaited from the Director of Public Prosecutions. It is anticipated they will await the outcome of forensic analysis of the alleged cocaine and cannabis. Cork City Council is to officially look into renaming Bishop Lucey Park, which the local authority says is set to reopen to the public in November following two years of renovations. In a motion submitted this week under section 140 of the Local Government Act (2001), Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan, Green Party councillor Oliver Moran and Social Democrats councillor Niamh OConnor cosigned a motion calling for the chief executive to undertake a process to explore the renaming of the park as part of the ongoing redevelopment. At last months meeting, a motion by Mr Tynan to change the name in light of historical scandals in the church, and to rename it Pairc na mBan Chorcai, was passed, stating council agreement with the name change, but further steps needed to be taken to allow the official process of name changing to begin. Section 140 allows the elected members of a local authority to require the chief executive to carry out a specific executive function through a resolution. Mr Moran said at the meeting: If we were to do it now is the opportunity to do it, when the park is being redeveloped the name of the park is something that regularly comes up. The motion doesnt tie us into any decision it is a once in a generation opportunity to look at the question, whatever the answer is. Speaking at this weeks meeting Mr Tynan said: Im not being anti-religion as such, but I think when there is an injustice done, it needs to be recognised and corrected. Ms OConnor added: This park was named in 1985, obviously Ireland has changed massively social and culturally since then. In my view, were not renaming the park - it is a new park which just happens to be where the old park was, we should name it something that reflects our society in 2025. The motion was opposed by Terry Shannon, who said: This is an attempt to rewrite history this country is becoming a cold place for Christians and Catholics. He acknowledged that the church has a lot to answer for, but said it wasnt all bad, and that Bishop Lucey made several positive contributions to the city. But Independent councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy said he was in favour of looking at the name change while the park was being redeveloped, saying that the public should have their say on the parks name. The motion passed, receiving 17 votes in favour and 11 against, with the Fianna Fail councillors as well as independents Paudie Dineen and Albert Deasy and Independent Irelands Noel OFlynn voting against it. By Cate McCurry and Grainne Ni Aodha, PA Independent TD Catherine Connolly has formally launched her bid to become Irelands next president, saying she wants to empower people to find their own voices. The left-wing Galway West representative said she wants to show that Ireland can be a different type of country. Speaking outside Leinster House in Dublin, surrounded by politicians from the Social Democrats and People Before Profit, as well as Independent TDs and Senators, Ms Connolly said it was a privilege to have their support. She confirmed that she has the 20 nominations required to stand in the election, which is expected to take place in October. She outlined her priorities and vision for the role of president, saying that it is possible to make Ireland better and to live up to its Republic name. Ms Connolly also agreed that the salary for the office of the president is high, saying she would look at it. The presidents annual salary is just over 330,000 a year. I certainly would look at the salary, and Im open to ideas on that, Ms Connolly said. I would have my own ideas, in due course, how I would use that salary and how I produce it to the best of my ability for the common good. I will discuss that with the team I have. There are lots of decisions to make about the campaign, and how I use the salary is one of those. Ms Connolly worked as a barrister and a clinical psychologist before becoming a councillor for 17 years and spending a term as Galway mayor until 2005. She resigned from the Labour Party in 2006 after being turned down to be a running mate of then-incumbent TD Michael D Higgins. She was first elected to the Dail as an independent candidate for Galway West in 2016. Independent TD Catherine Connolly speaking to the media outside Leinster House, Dublin (Brian Lawless/PA) She also said she supports transparency around the activities and spending of the presidents office, but stopped short of calling for further scrutiny. She added: Well, its interesting. Im back on the Public Accounts Committee for my second time, and I was on it in the first term, and I had a difficult role in the sense that I knew Michael D and so on, but we had to examine the accounts. I did that to the best of my ability, and I would hope that will continue to be done on the public accounts for the president, where the expenses are closely scrutinised. I did that to the best of my ability. Speaking outside Leinster House, she said: Im standing to enable people, to empower people to find their own voices, to stand up and be counted, to say there is a different way. We must deal with climate change. We must be a voice for peace. We have to stop the normalisation of war and violence. We have to stop the normalisation of homelessness. We have to say that these problems are not inevitable. They are man-made, policy-driven, and we can have a different type of country and a different type of world. That is what motivates me, and I understand thats what motivates all of those around me. She added: I think I have shown my mettle as Leas-Cheann Comhairle (deputy chairwoman). I think Ive shown that Ive been fair, that Im able to put aside my strong opinions and function as Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Im a Democrat to my fingertips. It was actually interesting for me to serve as Leas-Cheann Comhairle for four-and-a-half years, or approximately, a role I wasnt expecting. I stood in that with the help of my colleagues and with the help of the opposition, to show that we can stand together as an opposition and provide a different way of doing things. Asked whether she wants the backing of Sinn Fein, Ms Connolly said that it and the Labour Party are going through their own process, but would like to see their support. I would like the support of anyone. Id like to be an inclusive candidate to say, lets do this together. Lets show whats possible, she added. She said earlier: I will give an ear to everyone. I worked as a clinical psychologist for seven years, and then I worked as a barrister. From that experience, I can hear everyones opinion. On Tuesday, Mairead McGuinness became the first official nominee in the presidential race to replace Michael D Higgins after his term comes to an end in the autumn. Ms McGuinness, who was a TV presenter and farming journalist before becoming an MEP and EU commissioner, is the nominee to become Fine Gaels presidential candidate. Fianna Fail, the party with the most TDs in the Dail, has not clarified if it will run a candidate and is to make a decision in the early autumn. Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald has also refused to rule herself out of the running. Asked about who would pay for her campaign, Ms Connolly said the parties that have backed her were happy to give her any support she needs, but the details had not yet been worked out. She was also asked about her stance on the war in Ukraine about the suggestion that she did not clap during Volodymyr Zelenskys address to the Dail in April 2022, and whether Ukraine should be sent arms by other countries. She said she had criticised Russia many times and was despondent about the failure of diplomacy in relation to the conflict, but that does not give Russia any excuse. She said she did clap for Mr Zelensky in April 2022 but said some journalists reckoned her applause did not go on long enough or was not strong enough. She added: I want us to use our voice as a neutral country. I am very worried about the direction Europe, the US and other countries are going in. More war does not bring about peace, that is not the way. Were a small country with a particular history and we should use that experience and influence, not just in relation to Russia, but in relation to Israel and Gaza too. Fionnuala Walsh A man who broke a safety order by posting a video of his ex-wife on Facebook with abusive rap music over it has had his four-month jail sentence replaced with a suspended term on appeal. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, posted a video of four pictures on a loop, one of which showed his former wife in a swimsuit on a beach with her face distorted. He had pleaded guilty in the District Court to breaching a safety order contrary to section 33(1) of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 on June 13th, 2024, but lodged an appeal against his sentence. Garda Noel McBrearty told the District Court Appeals Court on Wednesday that gardai received a report from the injured party that her former husband had breached a safety order. He said that gardai were made aware of a video posted to the mans Facebook page, which featured rap music playing over four images on a continuous loop. Garda McBrearty said that the first image was of the injured party wearing a swimsuit on a beach, the second image featured the womans new partner, the third showed a vehicle the woman had previously owned, and the fourth was another picture of the woman. He said the injured party told him that the rap music had lyrics which were abusive in nature. Garda McBrearty said that all of the images had digitally distorted facial features, but the injured party was able to identify herself in the pictures. Defence counsel for the man, Chloe Geraghty BL, said that her client recognised the stupidity in posting the video on a public platform, although the woman was blocked from his page at the time. She said that the man had a very difficult time accepting the relationship was over, but has now moved on. Judge Christopher Callan told the defendant that he breached the safety order less than a month after it was issued, adding that he was not sure the man understood what he was obliged to do under the order. The appellant told the judge that he now understands and apologised for his actions, adding that he will not do it again. Judge Callan told the man that he was running out of road rapidly but decided to suspend the sentence of four months for the period of 12 months on the condition that he keeps the peace and abides with the directions of the safety order to not to contact the injured party by any means. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Womens Aid (24-hour freephone helpline at 1800-341 900, email helpline@womensaid.ie) or Mens Aid Ireland (confidential helpline at 01-554 3811, email hello@mensaid.ie) for support and information. Safe Ireland also offers a number of local services and helplines at safeireland.ie/get-help/where-to-find-help/. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112. You never know whats possible until you step outside of your comfort zone. Say yes to opportunities, push yourself and meet people. So says Marilyn Reidy, who should know what shes talking about as her original plan was to be a historian and lecturer, but along the way she discovered marketing which has led to a hugely successful and completely unexpected career. I originally set out to pursue an academic career. I studied history for many years, but along the way, I found myself drawn to the fast-paced, creative, and data-driven world of marketing, she said. An internship with SOS Ventures introduced me to the world of business and start-ups, and I was hooked. Ive always been a creative person, and marketing gave me the perfect outlet to combine creativity with strategy and measurable impact its just another form of storytelling and I love that, said Marilyn. Originally from Limerick, she has lived in Cork for 16 years having come here to study. Currently, she leads Demand Generation and Digital Marketing at Kneat Solutions, a leading provider of digital validation software for the life sciences industry. Essentially, her job is about making sure the right people hear about what we do and helping turn that awareness into long-term clients. Its not surprising so that she won Networker of the Year at the recent Network Cork Businesswoman of the Year awards. But what is surprising is that not too long ago she suffered from imposter syndrome. I joined Network Cork in 2022, encouraged by two people I really respect my CMO at the time, Ciara Byrne, and my friend Paula Daniela Scopetta, who was already on the committee. They both felt it would be a great space for connection and growth, and they were right. I was looking to build my network locally and connect with people outside my day-to-day tech role. What I found was a genuinely supportive community of ambitious, engaged women from all sectors. Its a place where people share ideas, opportunities, and practical advice. Through a connection at a Network Cork social, I became involved with the Marketing Institute Ireland and was later invited to join the National Marketing Competency Framework board. This is a national initiative designed to define the essential skills marketers need at every stage of their career, from entry-level to CMO. Being invited to contribute was a real honour and a career milestone. Its given me the opportunity to help shape the future of marketing talent in Ireland and it all started with a conversation at a local networking event. In 2023, she won the Network Cork Shining Star Award, and said it truly opened doors for her. I believe it helped me secure my current role at Kneat. Recognition like that gives you a real boost not just professionally, but personally too. It gave me the confidence to aim higher and believe in myself more. Its so easy to get stuck in imposter syndrome, and that win reminded me I deserved a seat at the table. Marilyn also believes in giving back, and bringing others along with you. Its brilliant to see more women stepping into leadership, and Im passionate about helping create space for those voices to be heard. Im a big believer in leading with empathy, using data to inform decisions, and creating space for others to shine, especially women in tech, life sciences and marketing. I also mentor early-career marketers and am a mentor with Network Ireland. Theres something truly special about helping women discover their voice, not just professionally, but the voice of their business. Its a part of mentoring, I genuinely love. Winning the Networker of the Year award this year was another proud moment. More than anything, it reminded me how important it is to get involved and put yourself forward, even if it feels outside your comfort zone. You never know where it might lead. The world of marketing is changing fast, but at its core, its still about connection. Being described as a committed networker who brings people together with purpose was incredibly meaningful, because thats exactly what I try to do, whether its in my job, through Network Cork, or just amongst my friends. Marilyn lives in Cork with her partner Cormac, who she says has always been one of her biggest supporters. Having someone in your corner who believes in you makes a real difference, especially when youre balancing a demanding role with committee work and personal goals. My parents have also always been incredibly supportive, cheering me on in every new chapter and always encouraging me to follow my interests, even when my path took unexpected turns. I try to get home to Limerick to see them and my brother as often as I can, she said. Her top advice is not to short-change yourself. You might study one thing, but you never know where your career will take you. I wouldnt be in the role Im in today or have won the Network Cork Networker of the Year Award if I hadnt taken those chances and connected with so many incredible people along the way. Im looking forward to seeing what happens next. Marilyn's top networking tips 1. Show up consistently I remember when I first started going to business events, I wasnt just shy, I had a bit of imposter syndrome too. I wasnt sure how to approach networking or if I even belonged in the room. But the key is to keep showing up. You dont have to be the loudest person in the room just be present. Whether its a formal event, an online session, or a casual catch-up, people notice when you make the effort to turn up consistently. Relationships take time, but that consistency builds trust. Even if you only speak to one person at your first event, thats one more connection the next time, and chances are, theyll introduce you to others. Thats how your network starts to grow. Going to these kinds of events really helped me come out of my shell. The more I showed up, the easier it became, and those early conversations led to genuine, long-lasting connections. 2. Be helpful without an agenda Good networking isnt about pitching yourself its about being useful. That might mean sharing something relevant, making a quick intro, or just listening properly. You dont need a grand gesture, just a willingness to engage without expecting something in return. People remember the ones who add value without pushing for anything. Thats how you build trust and real relationships, not just contacts. 3. Follow up and follow through The real value of networking happens after the event. Send the message. Connect on LinkedIn. Grab the coffee. And if you said youd do something? Do it. Reliability builds trust faster than any pitch and its the easiest way to stand out. (Photo: Peter Kenny)Jerusalem religious signs for Christians, Jews and Muslims on Feb. 14, 2016. Tens of thousands of protesters packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square at the weekend in the largest protest yet against Israel's controversial nation-state law which is opposed in some cases by Jews, Christians, Muslims, and significantly members of the country's Druze community. Led by Israel's Druze minority, the crowd, filling nearly every square foot of the city's central square, repeatedly cheered "Equality!" as speakers railed against the recently passed legislation, CNN reported on Aug. 5. Druze leaders say the nation-state law makes them feel like second-class citizens because it doesn't mention equality or minority rights. The law focuses almost exclusively on enshrining Israel as the Jewish people's nation-State. "The nation-State law in its current form does not recognize all Israeli citizens as equals," said Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai at the protest. "For the love of the nation, I call all of us to cancel or amend the law that leaves the 'other' outside the circle and to remove this ugly stain from the face of our state of Israel." Palestinian citizens of Israel have leveled strong criticism of the law since even before it was passed. DRUZE SPECIAL PLACE IN ISRAEL But CNN noted that Druze hold a special place in Israeli society. The Druze, a religious group spread throughout Israel, Lebanon and Syria, make up a subset of Israel's Arab population. They are known to be fiercely loyal Israel. Numbering fewer than 150,000, Israeli Druze nonetheless participate in every aspect of Israeli society. They support the State of Israel, are active in parliament and, crucially, serve in the Israeli army. "All our lives we took pride in an enlightened, democratic, and free state of Israel with the freedom and dignity of man as a supreme value. We never questioned the Jewish identity of the state," said Sheikh Muafak Tarif, the spiritual leader of the Druze in Israel. "No one can teach us about sacrifice. No one can preach to us about loyalty. Military cemeteries and hundreds of fallen soldiers will testify to it. "The same way we fight for the existence of the state, we are determined to fight for the right to live in equality and dignity. We are Israelis. We are brothers," Tarif said at the rally. Last week, two Druze officers resigned from their positions in the Israel Defense Force in protest against the law. Male members of the Druze community consistently serve in the military, in keeping with the their group's values of loyalty to the State. On the same day as the Tel Aviv protest, Bedouins joined Druze in high court petitions against the Nation-State Law According to the Bedouin petitioners, the law grants additional civil rights to Jewish citizens of Israel on the sole grounds of their ethnic and religious identity, The Jerusalem Post reported. Two Bedouin Israeli citizens filed a petition to the High Court of Justice on Sunday against the recently passed controversial Nation-State Law, following previous petitions by Druze MKs and the Meretz party. The petition was submitted by attorney Mohammed Rahal. One of the petitioners is a lieutenant colonel in reserves in the IDF. The plea seeks to have the Nation-State Law declared null and void, due to its articles contradicting Israel's Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, a pseudo-constitutional law (equal in legal status to the Nation-State Law) that has been in place since 1992. They further claim that the Nation-State Law defies the status quo that has existed in Israel since its establishment, and which is anchored "in its Declaration of Independence and in its spirit." (Photo: Peter Williams/WCC) Jerusalem skyline showing al-Aqsa Mosque. They also demanded a court order be issued that would instruct the Knesset and government to explain why the law should not be repealed, and in the event that it is not repealed, why it should not be amended to ensure equality for all citizens of Israel. The Bedouin petitioners said the new law grants additional civil rights to Jewish citizens of Israel on the sole grounds of their ethnic and religious identity. Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Apostolic Administrator of Jerusalem and Palestine, released a statement on July 31 regarding the Basic Law: "Israel as the Nation State of Jewish People," which Vatican News said is a new and controversial law which defines Israel as a Jewish State. PALESTINIANS EXCLUDED He said the new law is a "cause of great concern (...) the law fails to provide any constitutional guarantees for the rights of the indigenous and other minorities living in the country," and noted that Palestinian citizens are completely excluded from this act. The World Council of Churches noted that the heads of churches in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories reacted with dismay and concern to the Knesset's adoption on July 19 of the new law. They observed that the new Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which specifies that "The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people." The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III observed that the new law does not mention the Christians and Muslims who have lived on the land before and ever since the establishment of the State of Israel. He said that the new law "strengthens the institutionalization of racism and dispels hopes of equality/" Bishop Sani Ibrahim Azar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land called it "fundamentally divisive, racist, and destructive." Azar remarked that the new law "deliberately excludes the 1.5 million citizens of Israel who identify as Arab Israeli" and "ignores the presence of citizens and residents who are members of other religious groups and the significant contributions they make to Israeli society." The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem; statement stressed that "the law fails to provide any constitutional guarantees for the rights of the indigenous and other minorities living in the country" and "sends an unequivocal signal to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, to the effect that in this country they are not at home." The downgrading of Arabic from an official language to a language with "a special status" strengthens that signal. Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, stressed "this is about the Holy land and holy places of three religions. Jerusalem must be a shared one. "It cannot be the exclusive possession of one faith over against the others, or of one people over against the other. Jerusalem is, and must continue to be, a city of three religions and two peoples." "Jerusalem is regarded as a holy city and loved, genuinely and deeply loved, by all three Abrahamic faiths Jews, Christians and Muslims," Tveit underlined. "That love and profound attachment must be respected and affirmed in any solution that might be envisaged, if it is to be viable." And Jewish leaders in Israel and around the world have also voiced concerns about the implications of the new Basic Law for Israel's democracy. Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt is reported to have commented that the new law "raises significant questions about the government's long-term commitment to [Israel's] pluralistic identity and democratic nature." (Photo: Peter Kenny)Graffiti on the Israeli separation wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in February 2016. Two of the top church leaders in the Holy Land have toured the Christian Palestinian town of Taybeh in the West Bank, the scene of several attacks by militant settlers in recent weeks, and charge that Israeli authorities have facilitated the ongoing harassment. In a joint statement, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa said the settler attacks were a threat to Christian heritage in the region, the and called for an investigation into the failure of Israeli law enforcement authorities to respond to such assaults. "On Monday, 7 July 2025, radical Israelis from nearby settlements intentionally set fire near the town's cemetery and the Church of Saint George, which dates back to the 5th century," they said. "Taybeh is the last remaining all-Christian town in the West Bank. These actions are a direct and intentional threat to our local community first and foremost, but also to the historic and religious heritage of our ancestors and holy sites. "In the face of such threats, the greatest act of bravery is to continue to call this your home. We stand with you, we support your resilience, and you have our prayers," the Chrisitan leader said. They made their statement during a solidarity visit that both the church leaders made to Taybeh, where they also conducted a press conference and held a prayer ceremony at the site of a recent arson incident, the Times of Israel reported. King Abdullah II of Jordan also issued a statement that came at the same time as the church leaders' visit, in which he condemned a recent settler arson attack in the town as "a blatant violation of the sanctity of the dead, Christian holy sites, and [the] Christian presence in the Holy Land." Taybeh residents and local church leaders had said last week that the town had experienced an upsurge in settler harassment recently, the Israeli newspaper reported. They cited an arson attack, which they said was committed by extremist settlers next to the ruins of the Church of St. George in the town the preceding week, as one of the most serious incidents so far. "The Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches calls for these radicals to be held accountable by the Israeli authorities, who facilitate and enable their presence around Taybeh," said Theophilos and Pizzaballa in their joint statement. A fire burns next to the archaeological site of the ruins of the Church of St. George in the West Bank town of Taybeh, July 9, 2025. Residents allege that local settler extremists started the fire. (Courtesy, Nabd ElHaya online radio station) "We call for an immediate and transparent investigation into why the Israeli police did not respond to emergency calls from the local community and why these abhorrent actions continue to go unpunished," they continued. - 'CALLED THE POLICE TWICE' According to the Times of Israel report local church leaders had called the police emergency line twice during the arson attack and were told that a police force was being dispatched, but they said that no police officers arrived at the scene. Theophilos and Pizzaballa went on to say that Taybeh was facing "an intensifying trend of systemic and targeted attacks," and called the settler assaults "a direct and intentional threat" to the local Christian community and to "the historic and religious heritage of our ancestors and holy sites." During a press conference, Pizzaballa said that fears over violence were pushing Christians to leave the West Bank, estimating that only around 50,000 Christian Palestinians currently remain in Jerusalem and the West Bank. "Unfortunately, the temptation to emigrate is there because of the situation," he added. "This time it's very difficult to see how and when this will finish, and especially for the youth to talk about hope, trust for the future." The two church leaders said in their statement, "The attacks by the hands of settlers against our community, which is living in peace, must stop, both here in Taybeh and elsewhere throughout the West Bank. This is clearly part of the systematic attacks against Christians that we see unfolding throughout the region." (Photo: Peter Kenny / Ecumenical News)Israeli settlements expand in sight of Bethlehem on the West Bank photographed in February 2016. The World Council of Churches is gravely concerned about a new law which reportedly forbids granting entry visas to foreigner who call for economic, cultural or academic boycotts of either Israel or the "Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories." The "Entry to Israel Act (Denial of Visa to Non-Residents Who Knowingly Call for a Boycott on Israel)" apparently makes no distinction between boycotting Israel proper and boycotting products of the settlements, which are widely considered illegal under international law, said the WCC in a statement on March 9. "If reports of its content and intent are correct, this law is a shockingly regressive law," said WCC general secretary Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit. The American Jewish Committee said it was "troubled" by the new Israeli law banning entry to foreigners who publicly call for boycotting the Jewish state or its settlements. "Every nation, of course, is entitled to regulate who can enter," AJC CEO David Harris, said March 7 quoted in The Forward. "But barring entry to otherwise qualified visitors on the basis of their political views will not by itself defeat BDS, nor will it help Israel's image as the beacon of democracy in the Middle East it is, or offer opportunities to expose them to the exciting and pulsating reality of Israel," Harris said. The AJC's statement, released a day after the law's passage, was the first signal from the American Jewish establishment that it was unhappy with the law. The Forward noted that nn array of American groups on the left - including J Street, Americans for Peace Now, Ameinu, the New Israel Fund and T'ruah, a rabbinical human rights group denounced the law as soon as it passed. The law passed March 6 will apply to those who suppport the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement or BDS as it is often referred to. "It would be a clear violation of freedom of expression that is critical for those who want to visit Israel, for those who have to live under the occupation, and for those who want access to the Palestinian territories. It is also a significant violation of freedom of religion," said the WCC's Tveit. "It is precisely because of our Christian principles and teachings that we in the World Council of Churches find the purchase and consumption of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories immoral," said Tveit. He noted, "It is for the same reason many churches and Christians around the world choose to divest from companies that profit from the illegal occupation." Tveit observed that, if strictly applied according to its reported terms, "this new legislation would have the effect of barring representatives of many churches around the world from entering Israel." The churches would be prevented from "accompanying sister churches and fellow Christians in the region, and from visiting the holy places for Christians." This could impact the religious freedom of many Christians around the world, and it harms Christians in Israel and Palestine. "It could mean that I cannot, as general secretary of the WCC, visit our member churches in Israel and Palestine any more, nor go to the holy sites." WCC REPRESENTS 560 MILLION CHRISTIANS The WCC, a grouping of churches representing more than 560 million Christians globally says it has encouraged its member churches to consider in their own contexts appropriate non-violent means of opposing the occupation and of working for a just peace in Israel and Palestine. It says they should do this according to their own moral principles and teachings. The WCC said it has a specific and longstanding policy inviting member churches to boycott Israeli settlement products and to re-consider their investments from the same perspective, and many of them have made statements and taken actions accordingly. "The WCC affirms and supports Israel's right to exist, categorically rejects violence as a means of resolving the conflict, and has described anti-Semitism as a sin against God," stressed Tveit. "But we, together with the United Nations and the vast majority of the international community, consider Israel's 50 year-long occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories as illegal. "And on this basis the WCC has encouraged boycotting goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, divestment from companies that benefit from the occupation, investment in Palestinian enterprises that can stimulate the local economy, but not a general boycott of or sanctions against Israel." Tveit said the WCC seeks an equal measure of justice and dignity for all people and wants a just peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike. Tveit said, however, "this legislation represents a form of isolationism that cannot be in Israel's best interests as a member of the international community, let alone of the people of the region. "It is a critical shift in the way Israel relates to the rest of the world, and also in their role as guardians of holy places for three religions. I hope and pray it will not prove to be the government's actual policy and practice." TI EMEA President Stefan Bruder (middle) receives the 2025 Volkswagen Group award for operational excellence from Hauke Stars, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG responsible for IT (left) and Bernd Zielke, Head of Group Procurement Central Functions (right). Texas Instruments (TI) received the prestigious Operational Excellence award at the annual Volkswagen Group Award 2025 in Wolfsburg, Germany. The recognition highlights TIs resilient semiconductor supply strategies and forward-looking investments in production capabilities. Diesen Artikel anhoren Todays vehicles rely on thousands of semiconductors that power essential functions from engine control to advanced safety and infotainment. TIs automotive-qualified semiconductors not only help automakers create safer vehicle systems, but provide the advanced capabilities and scalability needed to meet current and future design requirements. With more than 30 models planned in 2025 across multiple regions, brands and platforms, Volkswagen Group highlighted the importance of a dependable supply of foundational semiconductors to design the next generation of safer, smarter vehicles. The company emphasized its close collaboration with strategic semiconductor partners like TI to ensure greater efficiency and reliability. TIs technological strength and broad automotive portfolio, paired with our dependable, long-term supply is helping drive the next generation of vehicle innovation, said Stefan Bruder, president of Texas Instruments Europe. We are proud to work alongside Volkswagen Group to help create smarter, safer automotive systems with more advanced capabilities and features than ever before. The Federal Communication Commission plans to vote on new rules that will ban the use of Chinese technology in undersea cables, according to a press release from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. The proposed rules will apply to any company on the FCC's existing list of entities that pose "an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States." Besides "prohibiting the use of 'covered' equipment," the FCC's new rules will also limit the ability for Chinese companies to receive a license to build or operate cables that connect to the US. Undersea or submarine cables are a key piece of internet infrastructure, and a potential site of foreign espionage in the eyes of the FCC. Banning, or at least severely limiting the influence of Chinese companies is an attempt to benefit American cable providers while hurting the country's perceived enemies. During President Donald Trump's first term, the FCC made similar moves to prevent mobile carriers from using Chinese equipment in the US. Trump signed a law that required carriers to "rip and replace" old Huawei and ZTE mobile infrastructure, and the FCC provisioned funding to make it happen. The new rules around undersea cables are being proposed by a very different commission, though. Currently, there are only three commissioners on the FCC, down from the typical five. Under Carr, the commission has taken a much more aggressive approach to regulating the telecommunications industry, bordering on violating the First Amendment. Carr has threatened to investigate companies for their diversity, equity and inclusion policies and committed to not approving any mergers of companies that insist on keeping them. The FCC is expected to vote on the new rules on August 7. Besides being consistent with past FCC actions, they could be justified as a way of securing American infrastructure following the widespread "Salt Typhoon" hack the affected US carriers and other companies last year. Google will host its next Made by Google event on August 20, the company announced today. In a media invite, it promised the event would feature new Pixel phones, watches, buds "and more." It's hard to imagine what other product types might be covered by those last two words, but for those who watch the industry closely, this event is likely to see the launch of the Pixel 10 flagship phones, along with a Pixel Watch 4 and new Pixel Buds. It's easy to make that deduction, especially going by previous Made By Google events. At last year's hardware launch, Google announced the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Buds Pro 2. Between that and the company's invite, we can expect a refresh of nearly the entire Pixel line. As for what the "and more" bit could entail, recent rumors suggesting Google is working on a proper response to Apple's MagSafe tech dubbed Pixelsnap. Android manufactures have been slow to adopt the Qi2 wireless charging standard, but with the upcoming Pixel 10 it appears the company is working on a host of magnetic Qi2 accessories, including a new charging stand. As always, be sure to visit Engadget on the day of the event as we'll have a liveblog of the entire proceedings. Update, July 16 2025, 1:50PM ET: This story has been updated to include a list of devices we expect Google to unveil on August 20. Prince Harry may be working to repair his strained relationship with King Charles, but a royal expert believes his approach could be deepening the rift with Prince William. According to The Sun's royal correspondent Matt Wilkinson, Harry recently sent representatives to meet privately with King Charles' Director of Communications, Tobyn Andreae, at a London members-only club. The meeting was framed as a step toward reconciliation, but insiders note that Prince William's team was left out entirely. "There was no invite to this meeting to Team William," Wilkinson told TalkTV, per Mirror. Harry's team, Wilkinson speculated, arranged the meeting as a choreographed public performance of an attempt to reconnect with the King even if it doesn't lead to actual change. "This is an attempt, I believe, by Prince Harry and his team to reach out to the King, and to be seen reaching out to the King," he said. However, Harry's silence regarding his brother remains a red flag. "You can't clear the air without speaking to the heir," Wilkinson added pointedly. Royal Rift, PR Push While the meeting may have been intended as private, photos of Harry's aides and Andreae at the club were widely circulated by the British press. Aides from both camps expressed frustration over the exposure, particularly Harry and Meghan Markle's team, who were reportedly "frustrated" the moment was captured on camera. Aides close to Harry deny tipping off the press, but speculation has been rampant. Biographer Phil Dampier suggested the leak may have been strategic, claiming it served Harry's interest "to portray himself as the one who is trying to patch things up." Despite denials, Harry's critics believe the meeting was more about image than resolution. Wilkinson emphasized that the summit was not meant to fix the core issues between Harry and the royal family. "It's not going to solve the family relationship," he said. "What it is, is to smooth the waters, open up a certain level of communication." Absence of William Undermines Peace Effort Royal sources argue that without Prince William, the meeting held little weight. A palace insider told Hollywood columnist Rob Shuter: "You can patch things up with your father, but until the brothers speak, nothing truly changes." Harry has made clear he wants to speak with King Charles but continues to avoid publicly addressing his relationship with William. Some insiders see this as part of a pattern, with one telling Shuter, "This wasn't progressit was PR. The real wound is between Harry and William." Artist Anne Nordhaus-Bike with her Backyard Bunny In Grass, Autumn, watercolor-see it in Midwest Nature before show closes 7/26! Award-winning Chicago artist Anne Nordhaus-Bike's Backyard Bunny watercolor painting will be on view only a couple more weeks in the exhibition Midwest Nature: Its Beauty And Its Peril, at the historic Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, IL. The show closes end of day Saturday, July 26, 2025. "It's a beautiful show in a stunning historic venue," Nordhaus-Bike said. "I hope all art lovers who live in the Oak Brook and greater Chicago area will make a point to stop by while the show is still up - my Bunny painting is so fun and has been a big hit with visitors!" Midwest Nature presents artworks by 48 artists that express the beauty of nature in the Midwest. Most of the works on view are for sale, and art makes a perfect gift to a friend or loved one (or for yourself). Beautiful artwork brings happiness that lasts a lifetime. The Mayslake Peabody Estate gallery hosting the show is open Monday through Friday, noon to 3 p.m., and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The DuPage Forest Preserve, which operates the venue, offers tours at 12:30 p.m. weekdays and 11:30 a.m. Saturdays. For more information, call (630) 206-9566. For more about the show and Anne's bunny painting, go to https://annenordhausbike.com/blogs/blog/final-weeks-see-backyard-bunny-watercolor Tuesday, July 15, 2025 The FSA: Its Implementation, Whatis Wrong, and How to Fix It. Susan M. Giddings, PhD Bruce W. Cameron, MS LPC-S, LSOTP-S 2025, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. The First Step Act (FSA) was signed into law by President Trump on December 21, 2018; it was the single most significant piece of legislation to impact federal incarceration and the incarcerated population since the end of parole in 1987. Among other things, the FSA sought to incentivize participation in Evidence-Based Recidivism Reducing (EBRR) Programs and Productive Activities (PAs), which were developed to address identified criminogenic needs and thereby reduce the risk of recidivism. John C. Maxwell tells us, "What gets rewarded gets done," and the big reward for program participation under FSA is earned time creditsthe gold medal of incentives. They allow an individual to earn credits that are applied either toward early transfer to Supervised Release and/or early prerelease placement. This article will highlight key points of the FSA implementation; the structural flaws of the FSA that have excluded the highest risk, highest need individuals, while at the same time undermining the Second Chance Act needs-based prerelease placement, and finally, recommendations for fixing the statutory flaws preventing the FSA from realizing its full value. How does it work? An eligible individual would complete a series of risk and need assessments. Based on the results, their unit team would, in consultation with other program providers, develop an individualized program plan with recommendations for specific programs linked to the identified needs. During subsequent reviews, the unit team would monitor the personis program progress, conduct follow-up assessments to identify the individualis evolving needs, and adjust the program plan, as necessary. In exchange for having completed all the necessary assessment tools and agreeing to comply with all the EBRR programs and PAs as recommended, the individual begins accruing programming days that allow him to earn Federal Time Credits. Then, on a monthly basis, the Bureau would review every individual, and individuals who accrue a sufficient number of program days, they could icash them in,i and the earned time credits would be posted to their record, advancing their release date. Simple, right? Not in the least. The FSA arrived six years ago like a shiny new Christmas gift under the tree with all its ribbons and bows, and the promise of something that was really good, even greato a program designed to give people second chances, reward good behavior, and get people home to their families and communities sooner because they earned it, and maybe even save some money as an added bonus. So, what happened? When Bureau officials opened that beautifully wrapped gift box, there was no shiny new toy. Instead, there was a box full of nuts and bolts, pieces and parts; some pieces were broken, others didnit fit together quite right, and some of it looked new, but the instructions just didnit make sense to everyone. Before getting into what was wrong, and more importantly, some ideas to fix it, it might be helpful to review the major legislative components and how the Bureau of Prisons applied those components to implement the First Step Act. The FSA Federal Time Credits Program Initial Classification and the FSA Risk & Need Assessment System. While the FSA was new, the requirements of the Risk and Need Assessment System outlined in 18 USC 3632(a) were not, at least not entirely. The Bureauis Initial Classification and Program Review system has been in place for decades and predicated on the authority granted to the Bureau in 18 USC 4042(a)(1), regarding the management of all federal prisons. During an initial classification, the case manager reviewed the Presentence Investigation Report, identifying relevant issues, and recommended programming. It was both intuitive and obvious. For example: No high school diploma? Recommended the GED program. A history of substance abuse? Recommended drug treatment. Had minor children? Recommended the parenting program. Over the decades the forms and format changed, technology was introduced, and more structured reviews were developed, but the core of the process was still the same: review for needs, recommend programs to meet the needs, monitor progress at later teams, and modify initial recommendations, as required. Regardless of how complex the it may have looked, the FSA Risk and Needs Assessment System was as simple as review, recommend, monitor, and modify. The FSA statute required eight specific elements that had to be incorporated into the new FSA assessment system but also allowed the Bureau to use both new and existing risk/need assessment tools. The eight required elements included: * Determine an individualis recidivism risk during the intake process, classifying him or her as having a risk level of high, medium, low, or minimum. * Determine an individualis risk for violent or serious misconduct. * Determine the type and amount of EBRR programming necessary, and assign the individual to the programming based on the individualis criminogenic needs. * Reassess the recidivism risk level of each person periodically. * Reassign each person to appropriate EBRR programs or PAs based on their progress, or lack thereof ensuring individuals: o Have meaningful opportunities to reduce their level while in custody. o Address the specific criminogenic needs. o Are able to successfully participate in programs. * Determine when to provide incentives/rewards for successful participation in EBBR programs and PAs. * Determine when the individual is ready to transfer into prerelease custody or supervised release. * Determine the appropriate use of audio technology for course material for individuals with dyslexia. Given that the statutory requirements for the Risk and Need Assessment System were clearly consistent with the activities of the existing Initial Classification and Program Review process, it was an obvious choice to fold the new PATTERN Risk Assessment and SPARC-13 Needs Assessment into the existing process. Further, when coupled with the provision in the statute which allowed for the use of existing assessment tools, expanding the existing process was both an effective and efficient way to integrate all the changes in as seamless a manner as possible. Earning Federal Time Credits. In terms of earning credits, the statute addresses only a handful of specific limitations and prohibitions. First, the statute specifies who is eligible to earn time credits based on individualis sentencing procedure, conviction, and deportation status. Second, the statute sets out when an individual cannot earn credit. Lastly, the statute addresses how much credit can be earned and states that earning credit is based on successful participation and completion of EBRR programs and PAs. This last point is at the center of the Bureauis earned time credit calculator. Individuals do not earn time credits directly, rather they accrue programming days through the successful participation and completion in EBBR programs and PAs assigned by Bureau staff to address identified criminogenic needs, which are then cashed in for time credits. Both the formula and programming requirement for earning are annotated in 18 USC 3632(d)(4)(A)(i) & (ii): (i) A prisoner shall earn 10 days of time credits for every 30 days of successful participation in evidence-based recidivism reduction programming or productive activities. (ii) A prisoner determined by the Bureau of Prisons to be at a minimum or low risk for recidivating, who, over 2 consecutive assessments, has not increased their risk of recidivism, earns an additional 5 days of time credits for every 30 days of successful participation in evidence-based recidivism reduction programming or productive activities. The intent of Congress was clearo time credits are earned for successful programming, and successful programming is based on participating in programs for which the individual was assigned to by staff and based on their specific identified needs. Despite the opinions of some courts, nothing in the statute suggests that time credits were to be given merely for being sentenced or for participation is just any programming. Congress intended that the opportunity to earn credits is a structured process where the Bureau was responsible for assessing criminogenic needs and then linking those criminogenic needs to specific programming opportunities, and the individual inmate was responsible for participating and completing the programs identified for them. Applying Time Credits. The statutory language for applying time credits is articulated in subparagraph (d)(4)(C) of the same 3632, directing the application of time credits toward prerelease custody or supervised release with the specific conditions laid out in subparagraph (g)(1). First, the conditions referenced in subparagraphs (g)(1) (A), (B), and (C) cover application of time credits to either early transfer to supervised release or early prerelease placement, and include: * The amount of time credits applied is equal to the remaining amount of time to serve. * The person has a minimum or low recidivism risk level. * The remainder of their prison term computed under the applicable law. The first condition referenced above has created some of the most significant challenges in the implementation of time credit due in part of the language itself, but also as a result of the consequences of the 2020 election. The law gives the Bureau the discretion to apply time credits toward either early supervised release or early prerelease placement. Accordingly, the Bureauis initial implementation plan proposed allowing individuals to apply time credits toward early Supervised Release up to 365 days or until they were within 18 months of their release, with the remaining amount of credit applied to early prerelease placement. The purpose of this strategy was to create a predictable release date, while still allowing sufficient time to transfer to the individual to prerelease placement. This would have meant individuals with shorter sentences would see less time applied toward early release but would have allowed them to transfer to prerelease placement much sooner. Further, because the FSA does not restrict home confinement like Second Chance Act (SCA) and many, if not most, of these individuals do not require the residential services of halfway house, these individuals would have benefited from longer and direct home confinement placements. Unfortunately, with the 2020 election and the change in the administration, this proposed implementation was rejected, and the decision was made to create conditional release and placement dates for eligible individuals. While the Bureau developed and deployed both a Conditional Release Date Calculator and a Conditional Placement Date Calculator to facilitate release planning, they are as complex as they are useful with both limitation and presumptions. Further, these calculators are difficult to understand and explain by all but the most experienced Bureau staff, but the complexity of the calculators is unavoidable due to the complexity of the task at hand. Second, subparagraph (g)(1)(D) provides different application conditions related to the specific recidivism risk level and whether the credit is being applied to prerelease placement or early supervised release. In terms of prerelease placement, an individual must have a recidivism risk level of minimum or low risk for two FSA assessments, or lacking that (i.e., having minimum or low risk or two assessments at the minimum or low risk level), the individual can petition the Warden as an exception case. In contrast, in order to apply the time credits toward their early transfer to supervised release, the individualis last FSA assessment must be low or minimum risk level. This application requirement means even though prerelease placement, which requires two assessments for early transfer, occurs before supervised release, the Bureau must start posting earned time credits toward early release as soon as the individual achieves low or minimum risk level. The process must proceed in this way in order to create a predictable, albeit moving release date, but those early release credits are not officially applied until the end of the individualis sentence and after transfer to prerelease custody. Finally, subparagraph (g)(3) stipulates the limitation on the amount of time credits that can be applied toward early supervised release, specifically, the individual may transfer to their Supervised Release Term up 12 months early. This means individuals with no supervision term are unable to release early from prison, with earned time credits exclusively applied to prerelease placement. Early in the implementation, in some cases individuals without supervision went back to the courts, and courts ordered one day of supervised release. If the reason for the Supervise Release requirement was to ensure these early releasees were supervised, such court actions defeated the purpose. Where is the FSA Going Wrong? The FSA was designed to incentivize individuals to participate in recidivism-reducing programs and activities so that when they released from prison, they returned to their families and communities in a better position, increasing the likelihood they do not reoffend and return to prison. The law obligated the development and use of structured risk and need assessment tools so that individualized program plans would be developed with specific program participation linked to identified needs, and by addressing those specific needs, an individualis risk to recidivate was lowered. So, where is the FSA going wrong? * The highest risk, highest needs individuals are either statutorily or functionally excluded from the time credit benefit, while the lowest risk, lowest need individuals benefit the most. * The FSA language created conflicts with the SCA, effectively undermining need-based prerelease placements. * The statutory language regarding eligibility, earning, and applying of time credits, coupled with the changing political winds of the last six years, has created an extraordinary administrative burden for the agency. Highest Risk Individuals Locked Out and Lowest Risk Individuals Benefit the Most The FSA statute, as currently designed, excludes the majority of the federal incarcerated population from earning and applying time credits. The statute includes restrictions on earning time credits based on conviction offense and on applying time credits based on risk level. According to the Department of Justice 2024 First Step Act Annual Report, 36.6% of the population was statutorily ineligible to earn time credits. Further, another 25.5% of the population was ineligible to apply credits earned due to their risk level. These numbers translate to nearly 90,000 individuals(1) or 65.2% of the incarcerated population were ineligible(2) to apply the credits earned (DOJ, 2024). Because the exclusion list uses offense and penalty statutes rather than classes of offenses (e.g., crimes of violence), it mostly excludes individuals convicted of violent (including sex crimes) crimes and certain drug offenses, but not entirely. The result is a haphazard exclusion of individuals from the time credit incentive that at times makes little sense. For example, 18 USC 924(c), concerning the use or possession of a firearm during a crime of violence or drug trafficking, is the only firearms violation included on the exclusion list. However, 18 USC 924(j), which sets the penalty for a person who causes the death of another while committing 924(c), is not excluded. Further, the range of behaviors that can be associated with 924(c) conviction is broad and may not involve actual violence. Separate from the conviction exclusion, many individuals are unable to earn time credits due to their risk level. The same 2024 DOJ Report finds 45% of individuals had high or medium risk levels, separate from their eligibility status. While some individuals may eventually be able to work their risk level down, others will never be able to despite programming. Why? Because age and criminal history scores are the two most heavily weighted items in the entire risk instrument, and while the age score may change as they serve their sentence, the criminal history score will not. Couple these two scores will other elements like history of violence or escape, and even aggressive programming may not be enough. Even when their risk level does drop, they are unable to maximize the time credits earned because they do not reach the 15-day earning rate until much later in their sentence. While not discounting the exclusion list and/or the recidivism risk levels entirely, it can be easily argued that these are the very individuals who should be incentivized to participate in programming. Many of these individuals often have the highest needs n substance abuse, lack of education and work skills, anger issues, and criminal thinking n and should be incentivized to participate in the EBRR reducing programs, making them precisely the individuals for which successful programming can have the greatest impact. Who are these higher risk individuals? They are younger, lower educated, lower skilled individuals with longer criminal histories who are serving longer sentences, making reentry even more difficult. Compare them to the individuals benefitting most from time credits. They are people who enter prison with low or minimum risk levels from the very beginning. These individuals are older, more educated with little or no criminal history serving shorter sentences who are mostly non-violent, white collar, property, or low-level drug offenders. Further, these inmates tend to have minimal release needs as a result of having intact families, supportive communities, a college education, and substantial work skills, all of which support successful reentry. They are often individuals who would have chosen to participate in programming regardless of the incentives, if for no other reason than to pass the time. So again, if the purpose of the FSA was to incentivize program participation and recidivism risk reduction, shouldnit the needs of higher risk individuals be the focus? Failed to Reconcile the Purpose, Scope, and Limitations of the Second Chance Act The Second Chance Act, signed into law on April 9, 2008, did three specific things in terms of the Bureau of Prisons and the federally incarcerated population: * Its purpose was to end the cycle of recidivism through, among other things, increased transitional, community-based residential programming designed to assist releasing offenders with community reentry services. * In its scope, it directed the Bureau to develop regulations to ensure individuals were designated to prerelease placement consistent with 18 USC 3621(b), and that these placement decisions were individualized, as well as for a sufficient amount of time, creating the greatest likelihood for successful reentry within the limitations. * It limited prerelease placement (halfway house and/or home confinement) to no more than the last 12 months of the individualis sentence, and further restricted home confinement to 10% of the sentence or 180 days, whichever was less. While the FSA limited the maximum amount of earned credits applied toward early transfer to Supervised Release to 12 months, it placed no limitation on the amount of credits applied toward prerelease placement other than the application of earned credit equals the remaining time to serve. This means, depending on the length of a sentence coupled with how early in the sentence the individual scores out at a minimum or low risk, there is the potential for individuals to earn several years of time credits, with all but the first year, in prerelease placement. However, at this point, it is no longer prerelease placemento this is community incarceration. Whether in halfway house and/or home confinement, a multi-year placement is not transitional, and the likelihood that it becomes counterproductive is concerning. With the exception of the Bureauis research regarding home confinement results under the Cares Act, studying the impact of long-term community incarceration as not been widely reviewed, if at all. The Bureau evaluated recidivism rates within the 12 months of release for individuals who were released from home confinement and compared recidivism rates for those whose home confinement was under the Cares Act versus those in routine home confinement. The results showed those placed in home confinement under the Cares Act were less likely to recidivate. Even with the seemingly positive results documented in the Cares Act study, the evaluation did not appear to examine differences in the length of home confinement, nor whether individuals required transfer to more restrictive community programs in lieu of being returned to a Bureau prison facility(3). In contrast, a simple Google search regarding restrictive post-release supervision and recidivism rates reveals mixed results, suggesting post-release supervision may actually contribute negatively to recidivism rates(4). Even the proposed Safer Supervision Act (2023) states, The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has explained that iexcessive correctional intervention for low-risk defendants may increase the probability of recidivism by disrupting prosocial activities and exposing defendants to antisocial associates.i Aside from the potential negative impact of a long-term placement, time credits are by definition a reward n reentry needs and/or the appropriateness of the placement are nonissues. The FSA statutory language has been interpreted to mean the Bureau has no discretion to reduce or deny placement even when there is no bedspace in the individualis release area, or if the individual is otherwise not eligible. The impacts of this interpretation, which is in direct conflict with the historical purpose of prerelease placement, have been significant. First, prerelease placement was not designed for long-term placements; once the basic provisions of actual reentry are met, continued placement in either halfway house or home confinement is a drain on resources and prevents other individuals from being placed. Second, because of the apparent mandatory nature, the Bureau has had to prioritize FSA placement cases over SCA placement cases. This means that individuals who have been assessed to have actual release needs but are either not eligible to earn and/or apply time credits or are not earning time credits toward prerelease placement are relegated to whatever capacity is left. This often means receiving a placement that is less than what was recommended by their institutions to meet their needs, if at all. Finally, the FSA statute did not reconcile the language regarding home confinement. While the SCA restricts home confinement to 10% of the sentence or 180 days, whichever is less, the FSA has no such restrictions. Because time credits are earned, they are not frontloaded into the sentence computation like Good Conduct Time. They advance the projected release date as they are earned monthly until the individual earns 365 days or releases from custody. In complying with the SCA, the Bureau created the Home Confinement Eligibility Date, which reflects the lesser of 10% of the sentence or 180 days. This date is attached to the individualis projected release date and informs the staff and the individual when he is eligible for either direct home confinement, or if he is already in halfway house, when he is are eligible to transfer to home confinement. However, with FSA, the Bureau is also using a Conditional FSA Release Date and Conditional FSA Placement Date to facilitate release preparation and timely transfer to prerelease placement. Thus, for individuals who are only earning time credits toward early Supervised Release, they are often unable to maximize their home confinement eligibility because their eligibility is attached to their projected release date, which only includes earned credit, as opposed to their conditional release date that includes both earned and unearned credit. The result is not only that these individuals are getting less home confinement than they could have before FSA, but because they are otherwise eligible for home confinement with a verified home plan, they are taking critical physical bedspace from other individuals who need the residential services a halfway house provides. The Substantial Administrative Burden The FSA time credit benefit as currently constructed is an administrative nightmare. Because of the statutory language regarding ineligible offenses and penalty statutes, as well as criteria differences for earning and applying credit including, earning rates, immigration status, and application exceptions, the time credit calculation systems had to be built separately from the current sentence computation system with monthly credits calculated and then imported into the system. While the system is fully automated in terms of the actual calculation and posting, it is still manually initiated by staff each month. Because of the size of the application, which has been expanded several times since the program was initially envisioned, it cannot be run continuously due to the significant processing capacity requirements. To perform correctly, the application required data integration of the risk and need assessment systems, as well as all the inmate programming status data because time credits are not earned directly but are a function of the successful programming. The risk and need assessment systems also needed to be automated and integrated into the case management system, while at the same time, standardizing all the EBRR program and PA assignment codes, as they were required to be integrated in the risk and need assessment systems as well. Aside from significant technological investment, the burden on Bureau staff in the field has been enormous. Oddly enough, the additional work related to completing the various assessments, generating additional reports, or even providing additional program opportunities was not excessively burdensome as it was merely an expansion of what the agency was already doing. The excessive burden was created by (1) the statutory language, which is lacking in both content and clarity in various areas; (2) the overly complex, yet necessary, system created to meet the requirements of the law; and (3) the changing political winds since the law was enacted. These issues combined to create an extraordinary level of confusion for both the staff and the incarcerated population. The result was staff who have difficulty explaining to the population why certain credits have or have not been applied, or worse, do not have the bandwidth to take the time to figure it out and/or explain it because of increasing caseloads. Finally, because of the aforementioned issues with the statute n the complexity of the time credit calculation and the conditional date calculation applications, and the degree to which staff can adequately explain and answer questions from the individual offenders n there has been an enormous uptick in agency administrative remedy requests, as well as court actions. The court outcomes have varied widely based on the issue and the disposition of the court. Further, the politicization of FSA meant the previous DOJ administration seemed to have little interest in supporting the Bureauis positions, regardless of the issue. Whether an individual court rules in the Bureauis favor or not, it does not mitigate the time and resources spent either by the Bureau or the courts, nor does it curb the flow of new cases because very few cases have been elevated to the circuit court level. What are the Fixes? The things not working with the FSA time credits can be fixed, but it will take both work and intestinal fortitude by Congress. The changes need to focus on effective use of existing resources and incentivizing program participation for those individuals at highest risk and for whom program participation will produce the biggest bang for the buck. Moreover, there should be focus on streamlining the entire process to reduce the administrative burden, allowing staff to focus on providing programming and prerelease planning for the incarcerated population. This list of 11 suggestions tackles both effectiveness in terms of the FSAis purpose and efficiency in terms of process and use of resources. 1. Amend the Second Chance Act to eliminate the home confinement restriction. This change will allow more minimum risk, minimum security individuals to transfer directly to home confinement rather than to take up halfway house bedspace required for individuals who actually need the residential services. 2. Grant the Bureau of Prisons special, expediting contracting authority to expand home confinement capacity more quickly and provide the needed funding to pay for the increased capacity. With rapid expansion of home confinement capacity coupled with eliminating the home confinement restriction, the current bed space crisis could be sufficiently resolved, allowing the Bureau to use halfway house space as intended to provide transitional residential services. 3. Amend the FSA language to allow credits to be applied toward early release from incarceration, regardless of Supervised Release status. In light of the bipartisan Safer Supervision Act making its way through Congress, the current restriction is counterproductive. 4. Revisit statutory ineligibility based on offense and penalty statutes to earn credit and consider eliminating offense-based ineligibility altogether. Instead, statutory ineligibility should be limited to individuals with life sentence or the death penalty. If the ability to earn time credits is tied to improving oneis risk level, participation and completion of programming, and behavior while in prison, then it truly could become an incentive to change behavior. An individual cannot change their conviction (absent an appeal), but the conviction should not be the disincentivizing factor toward future change. 5. Similarly, eliminate the ineligibility for the RDAP early release benefit due to current or prior criminal conviction. Individuals should earn and maintain the early release benefit by completing programming (including the community-based portion) and refraining from all serious misconduct for the remainder of the sentence. 6. Modify the time credit earning structure. Allow individuals to apply earned time credits toward early release in an amount up to 15% of their sentence, or alternatively time served, with an additional 12 months of earned credits applied toward early transfer to prerelease placement. Any remaining earned credits not applied to either early release or early prerelease placement, could be applied toward early termination of Supervised Release at the discretion of United Statement Probation and the court. 7. Simplify the earning rate to a single rate of 10 days per 30 programming days. 8. Expand the application of time credits, regardless of risk level, by allowing all eligible individuals to apply time credits earned if they lower either their violent or general recidivism risk score and then refrain from serious institution misconduct for the remainder of their sentence. Refraining from serious misconduct for the remainder of a sentence demonstrates behavioral change and creates a safer prison environment for both the incarcerated population and Bureau staff. 9. Revisit the statutory restriction prohibiting individuals with final orders of deportation from applying time credits toward early release. The Bureau relies on immigration officials to provide complete and timely information regarding final order status. While the Bureau accepts the information provided as factual, situations have occurred where it is determined that a final order has not been issued, or final orders are issued just prior to the individualis scheduled release. The process is inefficient with an increased administrative burden placed on Bureau staff as they are required to make repetitive inquiries to immigration officials and redo work already completed. 10. Create a program completion early release benefit (like RDAP) for other residential programs and certain non-residential programs, like GED and Department of Labor Apprenticeship programs. The amount of the early release benefit can vary based on the program. The program completion benefit would be in addition to time credit, and a person could earn more than one program completion benefit, but the total amount of early release benefits (time credits and program completions) would be capped based on a percentage of the sentence (e.g., 20%). 11. Amend the FSA language to eliminate those areas that have been contested as ambiguous including, but not limited to, when an individual is eligible to begin accumulating programming days and earning times credits, as well as issues related to community-based placements eligibility. While the list to fix is extensive and some proposals will be politically easier to implement than others, each of these items will contribute toward accomplishing what the First Step Act was intended to doo incentivize individuals to participate and complete those programs and activities which were specifically designed to address the criminogenic needs that create barriers to successful reentry and increase recidivism. It will allow more individuals the opportunity to earn a reduced sentence. These activities will also streamline the administration of the program, creating a more straightforward and efficient system and providing for more efficient use of resources. Finally, with more individuals able to reduce their prison term and a system that is more efficient, lower prisons populations and cost savings become a welcomed byproduct. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of the Bureau of Prisons. Resources Department of Justice. First Step Act Annual Report (2024). Available at https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/docs/first-step-act-annual-report-june-2024.pdf Federal Bureau of Prisons, Office of Research and Evaluation. Cares Act: Analysis of Recidivism (2024). Available at https://www.bop.gov/resources/research_projects/published_reports/recidivism/202403-cares-act-white-paper.pdf H.R.5005, Safer Supervision Act -118 Congress (2023 n 2024). Available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5005/text Notes 1. Based on cohort 137,485 individuals; excluded D.C. code cases and those unassessed for either recidivism risk level and/or FTC eligibility. 2. While these individuals are not eligible for time credits, they may be eligible for other incentives including additional telephone minutes and visitation, nearer release transfer, achievement awards, preferred housing, and incentive events. 3. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Office of Research and Evaluation. Cares Act: Analysis of Recidivism (2024). Available at https://www.bop.gov/resources/research_projects/published_reports/recidivism/202403-cares-act-white-paper.pdf 4. Search string ipost release supervision and recidivism rates.i Postscript: In the weeks since this article was finalized for publishing, the Bureau has deployed enhancements to the auto-calculation application, which is allowing for more frequent posting of time credits. Additionally, on June 17, 2025, the Bureau announced the designation of pre-release placement would apply FSA and SCA authorities cumulatively and in sequence, and would include home confinement. This new directive will mitigate the negative impacts of the statute with regard to home confinement as addressed in this article. The new directive is currently under implementation and while this new directive will require staff training, inmate education, and yet another conditional calculator to manage the statute's shortcomings, the Bureau announced today, July 14, 2025, the establishment of a task force to expedite home confinement transfers using the Designation and Sentence Computation Center (DSCC) component to provide added support for the manual calculation of FSA conditional home confinement dates. More information regarding the task forces is available on www.bop.gov. SALEM, Ohio A flesh-eating parasite that burrows into livestock and can kill them if left untreated is creeping closer to the U.S. border, forcing officials to slam the brakes on livestock trade with Mexico and ramp up emergency pest control. On July 9, Mexicos National Service of Agro-Alimentary Health, Safety and Quality reported a new case of New World screwworm in Ixhuatlan de Madero, Veracruz, roughly 160 miles north of the current sterile fly dispersal zone and just 370 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The discovery comes only two months after NWS was discovered further north in Oaxaca and Veracruz. Those initial cases prompted U.S. officials to close southern ports to cattle, bison and horses on May 11. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a phased reopening of those ports starting July 7, but the newly reported case has upended that plan. Once eradicated from the U.S., the New World screwworm being detected in northern Mexico raised fears of an outbreak that could endanger American agriculture and livestock. When New World screwworm flies lay eggs, their larvae burrow into animals open wounds, spiraling deeper as they feed, much like a screw being driven into wood. The wound can become larger and deepen as more maggots hatch and feed on living tissue, with often deadly consequences to the animal. The new NWS case raises significant concern about the accuracy of previously reported data from Mexican authorities and severely compromises the timeline for reopening five southern ports between now and mid-September, USDA officials said. The United States has promised to be vigilant and after detecting this new NWS case, we are pausing the planned port reopenings to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico, said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins in a July 9 statement. We must see additional progress combating NWS in Veracruz and other nearby Mexican states in order to reopen livestock ports along the Southern border. Effective immediately, Rollins ordered a halt to livestock trade through southern ports of entry to protect U.S. livestock and the nations food supply. Following the USDAs announcement, the National Cattlemens Beef Association responded with support for the agencys decision and a renewed call for action. A key part of USDAs strategy for protecting American agriculture is continuously monitoring conditions on the ground, said NCBA CEO Colin Woodall in a statement. Secretary Rollins has been working to balance the economic needs of U.S. cattle producers who rely on imports while at the same time protecting the overall U.S. cattle herd. The New World screwworms northward movement jeopardizes the safety of American agriculture, which is why Secretary Rollins paused cattle movement again until we can push the screwworm further from our border. Woodall also emphasized the importance of expanding U.S. capabilities to deal with the pest long-term. NCBA anticipates this situation will continue to evolve and we will monitor conditions, coordinate with stakeholders, and work with USDA to protect U.S. cattle farmers and ranchers, Woodall said. Thanks to what Rollins called aggressive monitoring by USDA staff in the U.S. and in Mexico, the agency was able to respond swiftly to this new threat. The USDA says its holding the Mexican government accountable to prevent further spread, relying on tight animal movement controls, surveillance and trapping to push the infestation south, ideally back to the Darien Gap between Central and South America, where NWS is endemic. In June, the agency launched what it calls a Bold Plan to combat NWS. It includes boosting eradication efforts in Mexico, increasing preparedness at home and building a sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base near Mission, Texas. That facility, having now broken ground, will allow the USDA to rapidly respond with sterile fly releases if an outbreak occurs on U.S. soil. A larger domestic fly production facility is also in the design phase. USDA says it is working closely with border states and will continue performing site visits across Mexico to verify that containment protocols and eradication efforts remain on track. Pentagon orders half of National Guard to leave Los Angeles Xinhua) 14:21, July 16, 2025 LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday ordered 2,000 of the roughly 4,000 California National Guard members deployed in the Los Angeles area to return to their home commands. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell in a statement, announcing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to scale back the deployment. The "federal protection mission" had achieved its immediate goals, the statement said. It was not specified how soon the service members would leave, while some officials said units would redeploy "in an orderly manner". The California National Guard confirmed it had begun contacting commanders to arrange transportation for soldiers whose assignments are ending. The Trump administration federalized around 4,000 California National Guard members and dispatched about 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area in June after large-scale protests erupted over immigration enforcement raids in the area. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sharply criticized the deployment, arguing that the heavy military presence aggravated tensions rather than restored calm. Both officials reiterated on Tuesday that complete control of public-safety operations should be returned to state and local agencies at once. "Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state," Newsom said in a post on X. "End this theater and send everyone home." At a press conference Tuesday evening, Bass said the troops were "deployed unnecessarily" and "used as props" by the Trump administration. "I am hoping that this is the beginning of a complete withdrawal," she said as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. Even after the drawdown, some 2,000 Guard troops and all 700 Marines will remain in the Los Angeles area. Their responsibilities include protecting federal buildings and assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their operations. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) With wildfires surging and drought spreading, the NFU is demanding urgent action from the government to protect farms, food supplies and rural communities. The appeal follows confirmation that large parts of England are now officially in drought, intensifying concerns about the impact of extreme weather on food production and agricultural resilience. Prolonged periods of hot, dry weather have left the countryside exceptionally vulnerable, increasing the risk to crops, livestock, infrastructure and human safety. While farmers are taking precautions to prevent and manage fire outbreaks, the NFU is urging government, fire services, and local authorities to significantly enhance their support. Fires can ignite rapidly and spread with alarming speed, posing a serious danger not only to farmland but also to nearby homes and communities. In 2025 alone, the National Fire Chiefs Council has recorded over 500 wildfire incidents. Meanwhile, data from NFU Mutual shows the financial impact of farm fires rose sharply in 2023, reaching 110 million a 37% increase on the previous year. The NFU is calling on all fire services nationwide to invest in a newly developed adapter that allows fire engines to access water stored on farms including bowsers and tanks once their on-board supplies run dry. Though this system is already being used in some areas such as Lincolnshire and Norfolk, most regions still lack the necessary fittings, making rural fire response slower and less effective. The government is also being pressed by the union to legislate that all combine harvesters come equipped with fire suppression systems at the point of sale, reducing the risk of machinery-related fires during harvesting. In addition, it is encouraging local authorities to introduce Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) to curb high-risk behaviours in the countryside, including lighting disposable barbecues and releasing sky lanterns. Policymakers are also being urged to avoid land management changes particularly in upland areas that could inadvertently increase the risk of wildfires during dry weather, such as restrictions on controlled burning. NFU vice president Rachel Hallos underlined the severity of the current situation, warning that many farms in 'tinderbox condition'. "Fires can spread scarily quickly, putting both people and animals at risk and destroying valuable crops, grassland and infrastructure," she said. Although farmers are taking all possible steps to mitigate the risk, Ms Hallos stressed that the challenge cannot be faced in isolation. Its vital that government, fire services and local authorities work with us on prevention, education and response, and for everyone enjoying the countryside this summer to be fire-aware so these shared spaces remain safe for all. She concluded with a clear message: Protecting our farmland means protecting our food, our environment and our rural communities. As combine harvesters roll out for the summer harvest, concerns are mounting that fire incidents could increase unless better equipment and resources are made available nationwide. In Lincolnshire and Norfolk, a practical solution is already making a difference. Fire engines in those counties are now equipped with a specially designed adapter, developed by a local farmer, which allows them to tap into rural water supplies. However, this equipment remains absent in most other counties, limiting fire crews ability to respond quickly and effectively to agricultural fires. Lincolnshire arable farmers Andrew Ward and Rhonda Thompson experienced the value of the adapter first-hand when part of their farm caught fire over the weekend. Ms Thompson recalled: It was awful to get the call from a neighbour that our poultry manure heap was on fire, which is surrounded by thousands of acres of wheat both our own and neighbouring farmers. Every minute the fire was unattended added to the risk of it breaking over into the crop, where it wouldve spread quickly to neighbouring farms and been much harder to contain. Two fire engines arrived quickly from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire and, fortunately, the Lincolnshire fire engine was carrying the adapter." She added: I dread to think how bad it wouldve been if the firefighters didnt have access to our on-farm water stores and neighbours water bowsers and tankers. "Sadly, thats the situation facing most farms across the country without this adapter. Muller has announced a 45m investment in its Skelmersdale site, marking a major upgrade aimed at boosting production and strengthening ties with farmers. The move follows the dairy processor's acquisition of Yew Tree Dairy in October 2024 and is part of its broader strategy to expand its presence in the UK dairy sector. The investment will significantly enhance liquid milk processing capacity at the West Lancashire facility and establish a leading milk drying operation. Once complete, Skelmersdale is set to become one of the UKs largest and most flexible milk balancing facilities. The expansion will increase powdered milk output by 30%, positioning Muller as a key exporter of British-produced powdered milk. The additional drying capacity is also expected to improve the companys ability to manage seasonal surges in milk supplyparticularly following record on-farm production during the 2025 spring flush. As part of its wider growth plan, the dairy processor is also investing in its relationships with supplying farmers. A core element of this is the introduction of the Muller Advantage programme, which supports best practices in areas such as responsible sourcing, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. To complement the initiative, Muller will introduce a revised pricing structure designed to offer greater stability and transparency. From 1 November 2025, suppliers will have the option of adopting the new Muller Direct Skelmersdale price, calculated using a combination of the companys liquid and ingredients prices based on published global indices. Farmers can also choose to continue with the existing Muller Ingredients pricing model. Rob Hutchison, CEO of Muller Milk & Ingredients, said: We are enhancing our liquid milk production capacity, capability and quality, and creating a flagship facility for milk drying one of the biggest and most flexible milk balancing sites in the UK. With significant investment in the Skelmersdale site, its people and supplying farms, we are creating exciting new opportunities for the whole supply chain." Daniel Zeichner, Minister for Food Security, also welcomed the move: We are proud that global brands such as Muller see the UK as a great place to produce quality food and drinks. With greater capacity, new growth opportunities will be opened for the sites supplying farmers along with new job opportunities for the local community." Sheep farmers across parts of the UK are being urged to step up monitoring of parasite burdens and lamb performance following recent rainfall, which may significantly heighten the risk of worm challenges on pasture. The Sustainable Control of Parasites in Sheep (SCOPS) group is encouraging producers to combine faecal egg counts (FECs) with close observation of lamb condition in response to a potentially dangerous shift in pasture conditions. Nerys Wright, technical adviser for SCOPS, warns that the recent showers, following a prolonged dry spell, have created ideal circumstances for parasite activity. Rainfall creates ideal conditions for worm larvae to survive and migrate up the grass stem, increasing the risk of ingestion by grazing lambs, she says. Were encouraging farmers to carry out regular faecal egg counts (FECs) to monitor parasite burden and make informed treatment decisions. However, she cautions that FECs alone may not provide the full picture. After a prolonged dry spell, large numbers of immature worms may be present and cause clinical disease before a high FEC is detected. This makes visual assessment and consideration of nutritional status equally important in decision-making. Earlier dry conditions also limited grass growth on many farms, potentially leaving lambs nutritionally compromised at a critical stage of their development. A lambs immune system is closely linked to its nutritional status, adds Ms Wright. Lambs under nutritional stress are less able to withstand a parasite challenge. Rebecca Mearns, parasitology vet lead at the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), supports the call for a measured, evidence-based approach. She notes that while some areas are now seeing high egg counts, others remain lowreinforcing the importance of testing rather than assuming parasites are to blame for underperformance. Its essential to consider other factors like grass quality and availability. Not all poor performance is due to worms, and blanket treatments can do more harm than good in the long term. SCOPS is also reminding English farmers to take advantage of the Worming Treatment Check (WTC), a Defra-funded scheme available through the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway Review. A similar initiative is available in Scotland to support sustainable farming practices, though no equivalent programme is currently in place in Wales. To access funded testing, a sufficiently high FEC must be confirmed to justify treatment. The key message remains: check your FECs before undertaking the WTC to ensure the timing is right and the results are meaningful, Ms Mearns says. SCOPS continues to promote a strategic approach to worm control that combines FECs, monitoring of weight gain, planned grazing rotations, and the practice of leaving a proportion of lambs untreated to preserve refugia and slow the development of anthelmintic resistance. US President Donald Trump has announced a landmark trade agreement with Indonesia that will see all Indonesian exports to the US subject to a 19 per cent tariffreplacing the 32 per cent rate he had threatened to impose from August 1. The deal followed direct negotiations with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. Under the agreement, Indonesia will purchase $15 billion in US energy products, $4.5 billion in agricultural goods, and 50 Boeing aircraft, including several 777 jets. In return, US exporters will enjoy full tariff- and barrier-free access to the Indonesian market, a first in the two countries trade history, Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday Trump has unveiled a major trade deal with Indonesia, replacing a threatened 32 per cent tariff with a 19 per cent duty on Indonesian exports to the US. In return, Indonesia will buy $15 billion in US energy, $4.5 billion in agriculture, and 50 Boeing jets. US exports gain full tariff- and barrier-free access, marking an unprecedented opening of Indonesia's market to US producers. Trump said the 19 per cent tariff on Indonesian goods would help correct the trade imbalance and ensure fairer terms. He also warned that any transshipments from higher-tariff countries routed through Indonesia would attract additional duties. This landmark Deal opens up Indonesias ENTIRE MARKET to the United States, Trump declared, celebrating what he called a breakthrough for US ranchers, farmers, and fishermen gaining access to a consumer base of over 280 million people. The announcement follows recent trade pacts Trump has brokered with Vietnam, the UK, and China. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KD) President Donald Trump yesterday announced the US administration will impose over 10-per cent tariffs on goods from more than 100 smaller countries, including those in Africa and the Caribbean. He also unveiled a new trade deal with Indonesia, including a 19-per cent tariff on all Indonesian goods entering the United States. American exports will enjoy full access to Indonesias markets, devoid of tariffs and trade barriers. The deal replaces a 32-per cent tariff on Indonesian imports proposed earlier. The US will impose over 10-per cent tariffs on goods from more than 100 smaller nations, including those in Africa and the Caribbean, President Donald Trump said. He also unveiled a new trade deal with Indonesia, including a 19-per cent tariff on all Indonesian goods entering the US. US exports will enjoy full access to Indonesia's markets. The US is close to finalising a trade deal with India, he said. Trump also said the United States is close to finalising a trade deal with India. Well probably set one tariff for all of them [the smaller nations], Trump told reporters. US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said the plan would focus on nations that generally engage in a modest level of trade with the United States and their contribution in trade balances are relatively insignificant, when addressing the aim of reducing trade imbalance with the rest of the world, according to US media reports. Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS) Sidharth Malhotra has become the newest member of the "girl dad" club, as he and his wife, Kiara Advani, have welcomed a baby girl. Fans of Student of the Year have also noted a wholesome coincidence, all three lead actors from the film, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, and now Sidharth Malhotra, are parents to daughters. Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, and Sidharth Malhotra, who started their Bollywood careers together in Student of the Year, now share the experience of parenthood, each having welcomed a baby girl into their lives. Upon the news of Sidharth Malhotra welcoming a baby girl, fans immediately took to social media to highlight the wholesome coincidence. One of them said, Teeno ke ghar Laxmi hui hai (They have been blessed by Goddess Lakshmi), while another wrote, Teeno ki shaadi bhi sequence mein hui thi (they got married in the same order). Another fan said, All three can be in Student of the Year 3. Another wrote, Daughters are the best. One of the users also commented, Powerpuff girls. The students surely have come a long way. Ranbir and Alia got married at their Mumbai residence, Vastu, on April 14, 2022. Eventually, they were blessed with their daughter, Raha later that year. Natasha and Varun got married in a private ceremony in 2021, and they welcomed their daughter in June last year. Sidharth and Kiara got married in Jaisalmer and had an iconic wedding moment which went viral across social media. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sidharth Malhotra (@sidmalhotra) Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani also announced the good news on Instagram with the message, Our hearts are full, and our world forever changed. We are blessed with a baby girl. Also Read: Just In: Sidharth Malhotras Family Members Arrive From Delhi As Kiara Advani Welcomes Baby Girl Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2025) - FIRST ANDES SILVER LTD. (TSXV: FAS) (OTC Pink: MSLV) (FSE: 9TZ0) (the "Company" or "First Andes") today announced that is has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing from 10,000,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.10 CAD per unit for gross proceeds of $1,000,000 CAD to 13,500,000 Units at $0.10 CAD per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,350,000 CAD (the "Offering"). Each Unit will continue to consist of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one-half of one share purchase warrant (each whole share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable at $0.15 CAD per Share for a period of two (2) years from the date of issue. The securities issued under the Offering will be subject to restrictions on resale for a period of four (4) months from the date of issue. The Company may pay finders a fee in cash and/or share purchase warrants to registered finders. The proceeds of the Offering will be used to expand on its current drill program at the Santas Gloria silver property and general working capital purposes. About First Andes Silver Ltd. First Andes Silver Ltd. is a British Columbia company that holds a 100% interest in the high-grade Santas Gloria silver property, located in a major mining district 55 km east of Lima, Peru. Santas Gloria has excellent established road access and is situated within a well-known intermediate sulfidation epithermal belt, and hosts over 12 km of multiphase veins mapped at surface, which had never been historically drilled or explored by modern techniques before 2024. First Andes' maiden diamond drill program last year reported high-grade silver on all drilled vein systems confirming silver endowment and warranting high priority follow-up drilling in 2025. Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Company's limited operating history, ability to obtain sufficient financing to carry out its exploration programs and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258968 SOURCE: First Andes Silver Ltd. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2025) - SILICON METALS CORP. (CSE: SI) (FSE: X6U) ("Silicon Metals" or the "Company") announces that, further to its press release dated July 15, 2025, the Company has amended the terms of its private placement of units for gross proceeds of up to $800,000 (the "Offering"). Pursuant to the amended terms of the Offering, the Company intends to issue up to 16,000,000 non-flow-through units at a price per unit of $0.05. The units will consist of one common share of the Company and one half of a common non-flow-through share purchase warrant, with each whole non-flow-through warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase a non-flow-through common share at an exercise price of $0.055 for a period of 24 months. The terms of the non-flow-through warrants will also include an accelerator provision whereby, if the price of the common shares on the CSE closes at $0.15 or higher for a period of ten (10) consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the warrants to thirty (30) days from the acceleration trigger. The Company intends to use the aggregate proceeds of the Offering for advancement and development of the Company's properties, as well as for general working capital purposes. Finders' fees may be payable in connection with the Offering in accordance with the policies of the CSE. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the date of issuance, as set out in National Instrument 45-102 - Resale of Securities. None of the securities sold in connection with the Offering will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Silicon Metals Corp. Silicon Metals Corp. is currently focused on exploration in western Canada, namely British Columbia. The Company holds an undivided 100% right, title and interest in the Ptarmigan Silica Project located approximately 130km from Prince George, British Columbia. The Company has also acquired an option to purchase an undivided 100% right, title, and interest in both the Silica Ridge Silica Project located approximately 70kms southeast from the town of MacKenzie, British Columbia, as well as the Longworth Silica Project located approximately 85km East from Prince George, British Columbia. Silicon has also signed a definitive option agreement to earn a 100% interest in the Sudbury District of Ontario based Aggregate Permit 6453 and signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire five (5) mining claims encompassing the permit itself. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF SILICON METALS CORP. "Morgan Good" Morgan Good Chief Executive Officer and Director Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release). Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forward-looking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, the Company's proposed Offering and statements regarding the Company's plans and intended use of proceeds. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain material assumptions, including without limitation, that the Company will be able to complete the Offering, and that the Company will have all the necessary resources, including personnel and capital to carry out its business plans. These forward-looking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that the Company will fail to complete the Offering, on the terms proposed, or at all; that the Company will not use the proceeds from the Offering as disclosed; that the Company will be unable to carry out its business plans as disclosed; changes in applicable legislation impacting the Company's exploration plans; unanticipated costs; loss of key personnel; failure to raise the capital required to carry out the Company's business plans. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258977 SOURCE: Silicon Metals Corp. San Diego, California--(Newsfile Corp. - July 15, 2025) - Best Garage Door & Gate Repair, one of San Diego's most trusted specialists in this field, has proudly confirmed the expansion of its emergency repair team and introduction of Smart garage door upgrade services as part of its ongoing commitment to supporting homeowners and commercial garage owners throughout America's Finest City. San Diego's Trusted Garage Door Company Expands Services to Meet Growing Demand To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8814/258839_3a608a0a048d38ce_002full.jpg Expanding Garage Door Services For Residential & Commercial Garages Best Garage Door & Gate Repair services is already widely accepted as one of San Diego's preferred services, and aims to cement its place at the top table of California's professional garage door specialists. An ongoing commitment to quality and customer satisfaction has made Best Garage Door & Gate Repairs the preferred choice for both residential and commercial clients in the area. Thanks to the expansion, businesses and homeowners seeking immediate support are now guaranteed to receive a prompt and professional service. Emergency garage door and gate repair services are available 24/7. Whether the door has become stuck or has been damaged by adverse weather, those issues can compromise a property's security. A fast and reliable service will restore safety and function with quick yet lasting results. Repairs may include replacing an entire garage door or simply fixing faulty parts. Either way, Best Garage Door & Gate Repairs provides a thorough inspection, followed by the insights customers need to make an informed decision regarding the best solution. Meanwhile, the addition of Smart garage door installations as a new service reflects the growing demands across California. The service gives owners the chance to truly bring their garages into the modern day. The decision to expand the emergency repair team and introduce Smart garage door solutions comes following an immensely successful period for the company, while underlining the company's continued commitment to setting the highest standards for garage door repair services; as well as enabling the team to support a greater volume of clients, the firm's skilled technicians have confirmed that its same-day service and honest pricing will remain across San Diego County. Residential and commercial clients can also use the company for ongoing garage door maintenance needs or additional services like the installation of garage door openers or gate opening devices. The company's expanded emergency repair team has already helped dozens of clients in San Diego County, and welcomes contact from owners who require same-day services now. About Best Garage Door & Gate Repair Best Garage Door & Gate Repair Services is one of the most trusted garage door and gate repair companies in San Diego. The family-owned company has been recognized as a Top Rated Service Provider on HomeAdvisor and maintains an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB). From new installations to repairs and upgrades, quality is assured. For more information, please visit www.bestgaragedoor.us. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258839 SOURCE: Plentisoft Empowering one of Australia's largest education networks with SAP S/4HANA to improve efficiency, enhance user experience, and streamline data management MELBOURNE, Australia, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in digital services and consulting, has announced a collaboration with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) to drive an ambitious digital transformation initiative. This engagement showcases Infosys' strong capabilities in implementing managed services in the education sector. As part of the initiative, Infosys will deploy a suite of enterprise platforms, including SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, and other advanced solutions like identity and access management and master data management. These integrations aim to move MACS' core ERP systems to the cloud and streamline its operations across its network of about 300 schools, enhancing efficiency, user experience, and scalability for future innovations. The program offers a unified digital workspace with personalized, role-based access, enabling enhanced collaboration through team-based communities and streamlined communication. It improves master data management for accurate, real-time access and provides scalable infrastructure to support future generative AI applications aligned with MACS' strategic vision. This collaboration sets a new standard for large-scale, AI-driven ERP modernization in education. By managing end-to-end digital services, Infosys enables MACS to prioritize educational outcomes while ensuring operational excellence and future-ready platform capabilities. Dr Edward Simons, Executive Director, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, said, "Good education runs on more than just passion; it runs on systems that work effectively. Getting digital system foundations right is complex detailed work, and it requires deep, specialist expertise. That is why we have collaborated with Infosys. We chose them for their proven track record in tackling these complex challenges, and we're confident that together, we can build a foundation that lets our teachers spend less time navigating systems and more time with their students." Vicki Russell, Chief Technology and Transformation Officer for Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, said, "Collaborating with Infosys allows us to modernize our systems and align our operations to better support school communities. With a future-focused platform in place, we will be well-positioned to foster innovation, enhance collaboration, and deliver quality education at scale." Peter Moore, Head of Partner Ecosystem, SAP Asia Pacific, said, "With over 18,000 staff supporting 120,000 students across nearly 300 schools, MACS is a large and complex organization. By working with Infosys and using SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors, MACS will be able to simplify and modernize the way it runs - from streamlining admin and day-to-day operations, to improving how it manages and supports its teaching staff and other employees. This collaboration also sets MACS up to make the most of AI in the future, and use data more effectively to enhance the experience for both students and staff." Raja Shah, EVP and Industry Head, Global Markets, Infosys, said, "This collaboration marks a significant milestone for Infosys in Australia. Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools is setting a bold vision for digital transformation in education, and we are proud to bring our expertise and managed services capabilities to help realize it. With SAP, we are also enabling a cloud-based, AI-capable platform that empowers educators and administrators alike." About Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) is the largest non-government education system in Australia. It operates almost 300 Catholic primary and secondary schools. Its 18,000 staff educate almost 120,00 students, helping them discover futures filled with purpose, for lives that make an impact. SAP SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. About Infosys Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 320,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses, and communities. We enable clients in more than 59 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, or our future financial or operating performance, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the execution of our business strategy, increased competition for talent, our ability to attract and retain personnel, increase in wages, investments to reskill our employees, our ability to effectively implement a hybrid work model, economic uncertainties and geo-political situations, technological disruptions and innovations such as artificial intelligence ("AI"), generative AI, the complex and evolving regulatory landscape including immigration regulation changes, our ESG vision, our capital allocation policy and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, liquidity, capital resources, our corporate actions including acquisitions, and cybersecurity matters. Important factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our US Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law. Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731453/MACS_Infosys.jpg Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/5415508/Infosys_Logo.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/infosys-collaborates-with-melbourne-archdiocese-catholic-schools-to-drive-network-wide-digital-transformation-302506427.html Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (FSE: D4E) (WKN: A1JQW5) ("Defiance" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signing of the definitive agreement with Green Earth Metals Inc. ("GEMS"), a privately held company with a portfolio of three copper-gold-silver projects in Sonora, Mexico, and all of the shareholders of GEMS, thereby completing the previously announced acquisition of GEMS (the "Transaction") (see press release dated April 7, 2025). Under the terms of the Transaction, Defiance has acquired all issued and outstanding common shares of GEMS (the "GEMS Shares"), solidifying its position as a leading exploration company with projects across Mexico's mineral belts. Map 1: Mexico's Mineral Belts This map delineates two of the most extensive mineralized belts in Mexico: The Porphyry-Copper Belt and the Mexican Silver Belt. Defiance's newly acquired projects, Victoria, Espiritu, and Los Ocotes, are located on the Porphyry-Copper Belt, a favorable geological setting that is home to large gold, copper and silver mining districts in Mexico. Including major production areas such as Cananea, one of the largest copper mines in North America. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_001full.jpg Under the terms of the Transaction, Defiance issued an aggregate of 4,954,613 common shares ("the "Defiance Shares") to the shareholders of GEMS at a deemed price of C$0.255 per Defiance Share in exchange for all issued and outstanding GEMS Shares, based on an exchange ratio of one Defiance Share for every 4.52 GEMS Shares, for a total consideration of C$1,263,426. Transaction Highlights Strategic Acquisition: Defiance has acquired 100% of GEMS, a private British Columbia-based company founded by renowned discovery geoscientist Richard Osmond. As a result of the Transaction, GEMS is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Defiance. Significant District-Scale Mineralization Supports Ongoing Discovery Potential in Sonora: GEMS holds rights to three copper-gold-silver projects in Mexico's Sonoran Desert, covering a total of 6,795.22 hectares. The area hosts top-tier copper deposits, including the Cananea and La Caridad Cu-MoAu porphyry systems-two of the largest copper mines in North America. Robust Business Environment Anchored by Ongoing Production and Growth in Sonora: Sonora is recognized as a favorable mining jurisdiction due to its long history of productive and successful mining operations. The acquired projects are strategically located near Alamos Gold's operating Mulatos Mine, where the recently permitted "Puerto del Aire" mine-extension is under development. Significant Exploration Upside: Defiance is committed to advancing exploration efforts on the Victoria, Espiritu, and Los Ocotes projects. With a drill permit already in place, Defiance plans to launch a comprehensive exploration campaign, including a diamond drill program at the Victoria project. Chris Wright, Chairman and CEO of Defiance, commented: "This acquisition brings three copper-gold-silver projects in Sonora, Mexico, one of the world's most renowned copper-gold mining jurisdictions, into Defiance Silver's portfolio. The GEMS team consists of seasoned mine financiers and global mineral explorers, and we are pleased to welcome them as shareholders. This transaction strengthens Defiance's strategy to build a diversified portfolio across silver, gold, and copper systems, enhances our exploration potential, and reinforces our commitment to creating value for shareholders." Sonora State Sonora remains Mexico's premier jurisdiction for precious metals and copper. According to the State Government's Annual Report, Sonora accounted for 75.6 % of Mexico's copper production and 25.7 % of national gold output as of early 2024. The state also led the country in overall mining contribution, representing 31.4 % of total national mining value, with over 20,000 direct jobs in the sector. This concentration of output underscores a robust, district-scale metal endowment, marking Sonora as a high-caliber destination for long-term investment 1, 2, 3. The GEMS projects are situated in proximity to several large, active mining operations, including: Mulatos (Alamos Gold): First explored in the 1980s and brought into production two decades later, it is a low-cost, open-pit gold mine producing over 120,000 oz/year, with upside toward 160,000 oz. on a 34,000+ ha property, Mulatos demonstrates how mid-scale projects can deliver sustained growth 4 . Dolores (Pan American Silver): After more than a decade of exploration beginning in 1996, Dolores emerged as a high output mine producing 80 koz gold and 4 Moz silver annually, Dolores still contributes meaningful ounces while transitioning through residual leaching. Its 27,700-ha land package and original 17+ year mine plan validate the area's silver-gold endowment 5,6 . Cananea/Buenavista del Cobre (Grupo Mexico): After decades of early prospecting, it became one of the world's largest open-pit copper operations in 1948. Cananea produces over 330,000 t of copper annually. With more than a billion tonnes in original reserves and decades of production, it anchors Mexico's premier porphyry copper belt 7 . Pinos Altos (Agnico Eagle): After initial exploration in 1995 and a 14-year path to first gold pour, Pinos Altos began with a large gold and silver reserve base and remains a steady producer at ~80 Au koz/year. Its longevity and scale within an 11,000-ha district confirm the region's strong gold-silver endowment 8. Map 2: Location of Mines Neighboring GEMS Transaction projects Defiance's new projects are situated in proximity to operational mines and advanced exploration sites, highlighting the region's significant mineral potential. However, the Company and its qualified person have not independently verified the technical information regarding these mines and this information should not be considered indicative of mineralization on the Company's properties. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_002full.jpg Exploration Potential Historical exploration and sampling across the GEMS projects have identified extensive geological features indicative of large-scale hydrothermal Cu-Au-Ag systems within the Porphyry Copper Belt of Sonora. These findings highlight the strong potential for resource discovery and expansion. Victoria Project: Drill-Ready Copper-Gold-Molybdenum System The Victoria Project consists of two non-contiguous mineral claims totaling 1,795.22 hectares in the Sahuaripa, Mexico mining district. Geological indicators suggest porphyry-style stockwork and breccia-hosted Cu-Mo-Au mineralization. Strong phyllic alteration overprinting potassic alteration, and subsequent leaching have resulted in intense leached capping at the surface and lower surface copper grades. The leached capping suggests potential for secondary copper enrichment superimposed on primary copper sulfides mineralization at depth. Figure 1 - Photo of Victoria asset showing surface alteration of large hydrothermal system To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_003full.jpg On behalf of Defiance Silver Corp. "Chris Wright" CEO and Chairman of the Board Qualified Person Mr. George Cavey, P. Geo, Vice-President Exploration and Director of the Company, is a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this press release. About Defiance Silver Corp. Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (OTCQX: DNCVF) (FSE: D4E) is an exploration company advancing the district-scale Zacatecas project, located in the historic Zacatecas Silver District and the Tepal Gold/Copper Project in Michoacan state, Mexico. Defiance is managed by a team of proven mine developers with a track record of exploring, advancing, and developing several operating mines and advanced resource projects. Defiance's corporate mandate is to advance our projects through capital-efficient exploration focused on resource growth and new mineral discoveries. Disclaimer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding anticipated benefits of the Transaction, the potential of the combined projects of both Defiance and GEMS (the "Projects"), the strengths, characteristics and potential of the Transaction; the impact of the Transaction on Defiance, GEMS and their respective shareholders and other stakeholders; and other anticipated benefits of the Transaction. Although Defiance believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators, and assumptions made with regard to the estimated costs associated with the advancement of the Projects and the Company's ability to achieve the synergies expected as a result of the Transaction. Forward-looking information is subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include risks associated with the business of Defiance and GEMS; risks related to reliance on technical information provided by GEMS; risks related to exploration and potential development of the Projects; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and indigenous groups / local communities in the exploration and development of the Projects and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop the Projects and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as identified in Defiance's filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+ (available at www.sedarplus.ca). The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Defiance does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. REFERENCES 1. Gobierno del Estado de Sonora. "Informe de Resultados: Secretaria de Economia 2023-2024." Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, 2024. https://ejecutivo.sonora.gob.mx/archivos/informes/ECONOMIA.pdf 2. Servicio Geologico Mexicano. "Anuario Estadistico de la Mineria Mexicana 2023." Secretaria de Economia, Direccion General de Minas, 2024. https://www.sgm.gob.mx/Documentos/Publicaciones/Anuario_2023.pdf 3. INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia). "Produccion Minera por Entidad Federativa, Enero 2024." Sistema de Informacion Economica, 2024. https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/mineria/ 4. Alamos Gold Inc. "Alamos Gold Reports Mineral Reserves and Resources for the Year Ended 2023." Alamos Gold, 2024, https://www.alamosgold.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2024/Alamos-Gold-Reports-Mineral-Reserves-and-Resources-for-the-Year-Ended-2023/default.aspx. 5. Pan American Silver Corp. "Technical Report Dolores Mine 2022". 2023, https://panamericansilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/DoloresTR2022-06.pdf. 6. Pan American Silver Corp. "Pan American Silver Reports First Quarter 2025 Results." Pan American Silver, 24 Apr. 2024, https://panamericansilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Q1-2025-Financial-Report.pdf. 7. Grupo Mexico. "Form 10-K Annual Report." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2023, https://minedocs.com/26/Southern-Copper-Form-10-K-2023.pdf. 8. Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. "Pinos Altos Mine" Agnico Eagle, 31 Dic. 2024, https://www.agnicoeagle.com/English/operations-and-projects/global-operations-and-development-projects/pinos-altos/ To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258945 SOURCE: Defiance Silver Corp. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Argo Graphene Solutions Corp. (CSE: ARGO) (OTCQB: ARLSF) (FSE: 94Y) ("Argo" or the "Company") a leader in innovative graphene-based technologies, is pleased to announce the appointment of Wilbert J. Landry, Jr. to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Mr. Landry brings over four decades of distinguished experience in the construction and real estate industries, making him a valuable addition to the Company's leadership. As the Founder and President of Landry Construction Inc., based in Kenner, Louisiana, since 1989, Mr. Landry has overseen a diverse portfolio of projects, including commercial developments for major brands such as ExxonMobil and Shell, multi-unit apartment complexes, and post office renovations across the United States Gulf South region. His expertise in managing complex projects and delivering operational excellence aligns with Argo's commitment to innovation and quality. A Vietnam War veteran, Mr. Landry served in the United States Air Force from 1969 to 1973, achieving the rank of E-4. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of New Orleans, which has informed his strategic approach to finance and operations. In addition to his construction leadership, Mr. Landry is the co-owner and manager of Plaza Park Management, where he oversees more than 80 apartment units and multiple properties in New Orleans, managing all aspects of strategic planning, vendor negotiations, compliance, and operations. "We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Landry to our Board of Directors," said Scott Smale, CEO of Argo. "His extensive experience in construction, real estate, and operational management, combined with his proven leadership and strategic insight, will be instrumental as we continue to advance our mission of delivering cutting-edge graphene additives to the concrete, cement and asphalt industry." Mr. Landry expressed enthusiasm for his new role, stating, "I am honored to join the Board of Argo and contribute to the Company's vision. I look forward to working with the team to support the Company's growth and success." Mr. Landry's appointment strengthens the Company's corporate governance as it continues to expand its footprint in the rapidly evolving graphene industry. ABOUT ARGO GRAPHENE SOLUTIONS CORP. Argo Graphene Solutions Corp. is a Canadian advanced materials company focused on developing sustainable, high-performance solutions for the construction and agricultural industries. Through its subsidiaries, including Argo Green Concrete Solutions Inc., Argo leverages cutting-edge technologies to create eco-friendly products that meet the demands of modern infrastructure. For further information, please contact: The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed this press release and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Forward-Looking Statements Certain information contained herein constitutes "forward-looking information" under Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, the Company developing its technology and the Company creating a brand of organic and/or environmentally friendly products. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "will", "plans", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management as of the date such statements are made and they are from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or forward-looking information subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different, including receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. Although management of the Company have attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company will not update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258950 SOURCE: Argo Graphene Solutions Corp. First patient enrolled in INFLAM MOTION, a global randomized Phase 2a trial including 129 knee osteoarthritis patients - 4P004 to be evaluated over 3 months for dual efficacy: symptom relief and synovial health improvement via contrast-enhanced MRI - Topline results expected in the second half of 2026 4Moving Biotech (4MB), a spin-off of 4P-Pharma dedicated to developing first-in-class treatments that modify the natural course of knee osteoarthritis (OA), today announced that the first patient has been enrolled in Phase 2a clinical trial, INFLAM MOTION. The study will evaluate 4P004, an intra-articular GLP-1 analog, as a potential first-in-class therapeutic candidate for knee osteoarthritis. INFLAM MOTION is a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2a trial planned to be conducted across Europe, the United States, and Canada. A total of 129 patients worldwide diagnosed with knee OA will be enrolled to evaluate, for the first time in humans, the efficacy of 4P004. "Enrolling our first patient is a pivotal step toward rewriting the treatment paradigm for knee osteoarthritis," said Professor Francis Berenbaum, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer at 4Moving Biotech. "Almost 600 million people live with OA, yet no disease-modifying therapy has been done to patients. By acting directly in the joint, 4P004 tackles pain, inflammation, and tissue damage through GLP-1-mediated pathways. We believe its targeted intra-articular delivery can unlock the full therapeutic power of GLP-1 biology. We are eager to confirm both symptomatic relief and meaningful structural benefit in this proof-of-concept study". The study's primary endpoint is the reduction in knee pain at week 4 and 12. Key secondary objectives include assessing synovial changes by contrast-enhanced MRI and conducting an exploratory analysis of blood and imaging biomarkers as potential surrogates for long-term disease progression and delay to total knee replacement. The study timeline covers 12 months, with patient enrollment taking place over 9 months and follow-up to be completed before the topline readout in the second half of 2026. INFLAM MOTION has been designed to generate the first human evidence that 4P004 can deliver both clinical relief and measurable structural benefit. Insights from this Phase 2a readout will shape the forthcoming Phase 2b program, whose primary aim will be to confirm surrogate endpoints that reliably predict the hard endpoint that is delaying the time to total knee replacement. About 4MB Incorporated in mid-2020 as a spin-off of 4P-Pharma, 4MB is a clinical stage biotechnology company dedicated to the development of the Disease-Modifying Osteoarthritis Drug (DMOAD). Its mission is to provide a sustainable therapeutic solution to the significant unmet medical need of osteoarthritis. The company is headquartered at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, France. Website: https://www.4movingbiotech.com/ LinkedIn: https://fr.linkedin.com/company/4moving-biotech The only version of the 4Moving Biotech press release that is legally binding is the one in its original language. Translations must always be compared to the source text, which will establish precedence. The press release text resulting from a translation should not be considered official in any way. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715282394/en/ Contacts: Press Emmanuel Dadje Communication Manager Emmanuel.dadje@4P-Pharma.com +33 6 30 06 12 13 The recognition acknowledges TC&C's Deepfake Guard platform for pioneering real-time, enterprise-grade protection against synthetic media threats through innovation, scalability, and customer-focused design. SAN ANTONIO, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost & Sullivan is pleased to announce that TC&C has been awarded the 2025 Global New Product Innovation Recognition in the real-time deepfake detection industry for its outstanding achievements in technology innovation aimed at proactive threat mitigation, which delivers substantial value to customers. This highlights TC&C's leadership in redefining enterprise communication security through its next-generation platform, Deepfake Guard. Frost & Sullivan evaluates companies through a rigorous benchmarking process across two core dimensions: strategy effectiveness and strategy execution. TC&C excelled in both, demonstrating a clear product-market fit and the ability to scale secure AI-driven solutions across regulated industries. "TC&C's Deepfake Guard is not just a defensive tool-it's a proactive shield designed for real-world operational environments," said Elka Popova, research, vice president at Frost & Sullivan. "Its unique ability to detect and neutralize AI-driven voice and video impersonation during live interactions, rather than relying on post-event analysis, gives it a clear edge in enterprise-grade protection." Guided by a strategy rooted in direct industry engagement and iterative product development, TC&C has proven its ability to respond to high-impact challenges with highly effective, readily deployable solutions. The company's investment in multimodal detection, contextual threat evaluation, and dynamic response capabilities has enabled Deepfake Guard to perform at scale in demanding environments such as financial services, healthcare, and customer contact centers. TC&C's highly innovative approach enables it to deliver compelling and differentiated capabilities to customers. Deepfake Guard evaluates audiovisual, linguistic, and behavioral signals concurrently to identify threats as they emerge. Its layered defense model-combining the DFG Analysis Engine, Feedback and Alerting Engine, and proprietary Deepfake Captcha Engine-enables active intervention during live communication sessions. The platform integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco Webex, and TC&C's own compliance stack while offering deployment flexibility across cloud, on-premises, and mobile infrastructures. "We are incredibly honored to receive Frost & Sullivan's 2025 Global New Product Innovation Recognition for Deepfake Guard. This award validates our unwavering commitment to pioneering a holistic, real-time deepfake detection platform that protects the very core of enterprise communications: trust. Unlike traditional solutions that focus solely on identity verification, Deepfake Guard proactively neutralizes AI-driven impersonation in live interactions across audio, video, images, and text, by assessing the authenticity of the communication itself. We believe this unique, multi-layered approach provides unparalleled security for businesses in an increasingly vulnerable digital world, ensuring their operations and reputation remain safeguarded against evolving synthetic media threats, even before any damage is done." said Csaba Juhasz, Chief Executive Officer at TC&C. TC&C's focus on real-time detection is matched by a robust service and support framework. Its customer engagement model includes structured onboarding, multilingual training, 24/7 technical escalation, and localized support through regional distribution partnerships. These initiatives ensure seamless implementation and sustained alignment with customer objectives. Clients benefit from continuous system optimization, proactive updates, and transparent auditability, which are crucial for regulated sectors that rely on forensic-grade documentation and evidence traceability. Frost & Sullivan commends TC&C for setting a new standard in enterprise threat detection. Deepfake Guard's ability to operate at high volume with low latency, combined with infrastructure-agnostic design and dynamic inference adaptation, delivers a compelling value proposition to enterprises seeking scalable, future-proof protection. Its customer-first innovation cycle, backed by rigorous testing and client co-development, positions the company as a market leader in secure communications. Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents the New Product Innovation Recognition to a company that has introduced an innovative product that delivers superior value and addresses critical customer pain points. The recognition honors organizations that bring fresh thinking, technical excellence, and measurable market impact to the industries they serve. Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Recognitions acknowledge companies in regional and global markets for outstanding achievement in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Analysts evaluate performance through in-depth interviews, market analysis, and rigorous benchmarking to identify best-in-class solutions. About Frost & Sullivan For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, megatrends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion. Contact: Tarini Singh E: Tarini.singh@frost.com About TC&C TC&C is a pioneering software company with over 30 years of experience in developing advanced technologies for collaboration and compliance, powered by artificial intelligence. TC&C has grown into a global presence, operating in more than 50 countries with a network of over 100 partners across five continents. The company's flagship product, CARIN Compliance Recorder is widely deployed and serves as the foundation for TC&C's innovative solutions. In recent years, TC&C has strategically expanded CARIN with AI-powered capabilities, initially focusing on quality assurance features such as sentiment analysis, transcription, and translation. As deepfake threats began to emerge in enterprise communications-especially in high-risk sectors like finance and recruitment-TC&C, leveraging its expertise in compliance recording, set its focus on developing a proactive platform to detect such risks directly within communication streams. Since 2023, TC&C has led the Deepfake Guard Project in partnership with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. This initiative brings together nearly 20 AI researchers, engineers, and developers to advance protection against synthetic media threats. Deepfake Guard has been named a finalist for the Best of Enterprise Connect Award in two categories. TC&C remains committed to delivering secure, enterprise-grade communication solutions tailored to regulated industries-where trust, accuracy, and compliance are paramount. Contact: Diana Tokaji E: diana.tokaji@tcandc.com www.deepfakeguard.ai Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731401/TCC_Award.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/tcc-receives-frost--sullivans-2025-global-new-product-innovation-recognition-for-real-time-deepfake-detection-302505414.html TAMPERE, Finland, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Treon, a leading IoT technology company, has announced a long term strategic partnership with Forbes Marshall, a pioneer in steam engineering and process automation based in India. With a legacy spanning nearly eight decades, Forbes Marshall is known for its leadership in intelligent monitoring and energy efficiency. The partnership is built on a shared vision and a seven-year roadmap, expanding upon several years of successful collaboration between the two companies. The alliance aims to accelerate the deployment of advanced monitoring infrastructure across India and key international markets, driving digital transformation and sustainable operational improvements. "Forbes Marshall is a 78-year-old company, and we believe in building relationships that last," said Mukesh Vyas, Business Unit Head, Instrumentation Business, Forbes Marshall. "In Treon, we found a partner who shares our values and delivers advanced wireless technology that is reliable, scalable and ideally suited for complex industrial environments. This forms the foundation of a long-term partnership built on trust and performance." Focus markets and deployment plan The initial rollout will take place in India, leveraging Forbes Marshall's extensive market knowledge and installed base. This will be followed by expansion into high growth regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The focus will be on the sectors requiring ATEX certified Zone 0 and Zone 1 solutions, particularly in hazardous industrial environments. The partnership also opens new avenues for Forbes Marshall to serve industries like oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, where wired systems and portable data collectors often face limitations. Scalable, future-ready architecture with Treon Connect The solution is built on Treon Connect, a platform designed to scale seamlessly across industrial environments. It enables data collection from thousands of devices and allows integration into customer ecosystems with minimal disruption. By combining Forbes Marshall's domain expertise and AI-powered analytics with Treon's sensor technology and digital infrastructure, the partnership delivers a unified, powerful solution for asset health monitoring. This platform-level collaboration also strengthens offerings like Forbes Marshall's MachPulse, a wireless digital vibration analysis and diagnostic solution, by enabling deeper integration with Treon's scalable edge infrastructure. "Through Treon Connect, Forbes Marshall can now deliver a scalable solution with faster deployment, reduced downtime and greater operational visibility," said Juhani Kallio, Head of Global Sales at Treon. "This is how the future of industrial systems looks, platforms working together to bring intelligence and resilience to complex environments." About Forbes Marshall Forbes Marshall is a leading Indian multinational company specializing in steam engineering, process automation, and energy efficiency solutions. With over 75 years of experience, the company partners with process industry clients to enhance productivity, reliability, and sustainability. Forbes Marshall offers a wide portfolio of products and services, including control instrumentation, condition monitoring, and turnkey solutions. The company has a strong presence across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, with manufacturing facilities in India and abroad. For more information visit Forbes Marshall website or LinkedIn About Treon Treon is a leading technology company with a mission to help businesses improve productivity, enhance operational visibility, and sustainability. Its platform, Treon Connect, boosts operational efficiency by utilizing data-driven automation to extend machine lifespan, monitor assets, increase productivity, and ensure safety across industries. Treon is trusted by global leaders to provide secure, customized products that integrate seamlessly into existing business solutions. For more information on Treon Connect visit https://treon.fi or Treon LinkedIn. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2652650/5415554/Treon_Logo.jpg Treon press inquiries: Samah Zain Head of Growth samah.zain@treon.fi +358-505507331 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/treon-and-forbes-marshall-announce-long-term-strategic-partnership-for-global-expansion-302505693.html AD HOC ANNOUNCEMENT PURSUANT TO ART. 53 LR 16 JULY 2025 RICHEMONT POSTS SOLID START TO THE YEAR FOR ITS FIRST QUARTER ENDED 30 JUNE 2025 Highlights for the quarter ended 30 June 2025 Group sales at 5.4 billion, up by 6% at constant exchange rates and by 3% at actual exchange rates in a volatile macroeconomic and geopolitical context Continued strength at Jewellery Maisons, up by 11% at constant exchange rates; softer sequential rate of decline at Specialist Watchmakers, down by 7%; 'Other', including Fashion & Accessories Maisons, at -1% Double-digit growth in Europe, the Americas and Middle East & Africa; stable sales in Asia Pacific at constant exchange rates; Japan down on high comparatives in prior-year period Consistent growth across all distribution channels, led by Jewellery Maisons Robust net cash position at 7.4 billion, after cash transferred to YNAP upon closing of the sales transaction with LuxExperience April-June 2025 2024 Movement at: m m constant rates actual rates By region Europe 1 295 1 171 +11% +11% Asia Pacific 1 731 1 809 - -4% Americas 1 335 1 215 +17% +10% Japan 527 603 -15% -13% Middle East & Africa 524 470 +17% +11% By distribution channel Retail 3 734 3 631 +6% +3% Online retail 323 315 +6% +3% Wholesale and royalty income 1 355 1 322 +6% +2% By business area Jewellery Maisons 3 914 3 656 +11% +7% Specialist Watchmakers 824 911 -7% -10% Other 674 701 -1% -4% Total 5 412 5 268 +6% +3% Review of trading in the three-month period ended 30 June 2025 versus the prior-year period, at constant exchange rates Any long form references to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan within this company announcement are Hong Kong SAR, China; Macau SAR, China; and Taiwan, China respectively. At constant exchange rates, Group sales in the quarter ended 30 June 2025 rose by 6% in a volatile global macroeconomic and geopolitical context. The growth was led by double digit increases in Europe, the Americas and Middle East & Africa, more than offsetting Japan's sales decline against high prior-year comparatives; sales in the Asia Pacific region remained stable. In Europe, sales grew by 11%, driven by robust demand from local clients and overall positive tourist spend, supported by successful high jewellery events. Almost all main markets in the region saw an increase in sales this quarter, with notable performances in Italy and Germany. In the Americas, sales growth remained strong at +17%, driven by supportive local demand across all business areas and markets. Sales in the Middle East & Africa region rose by 17%, led by the United Arab Emirates market as well as higher tourist spend. In Japan, sales declined by 15% against a demanding +59% comparative in the prior-year period, with a strengthening Yen strongly reducing tourist spend, most notably from Chinese clientele, whilst local demand remained positive. Asia Pacific sales were stable overall versus the prior-year period, as a 7% decline in China, Hong Kong and Macau combined was fully compensated by robust growth in almost all other Asian markets. Of note, sales in Australia and South Korea were up double digits. Growth was consistent across all distribution channels, each up by 6%, led by Jewellery Maisons. Retail sales accounted for 69% of Group sales, with growth across all regions excluding Japan. Wholesale sales growth was driven by solid increases in the Americas, Europe and Middle East & Africa. Onlineretail sales showed robust growth across almost all regions. The Group's four Jewellery Maisons - Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Vhernier - recorded an 11% rise in sales, marking a third consecutive quarter of double-digit growth, supported by both jewellery and watch product lines. All regions posted growth, except Japan that faced a very high comparative in the prior-year period. Specialist Watchmakers sales were 7% lower than the prior-year period, largely reflecting declines in sales in China, Hong Kong and Macau combined as well as in Japan, partly offset by double-digit growth in the Americas. The Group's Other business area, which includes Fashion & Accessories Maisons, declined by 1% compared to the prior-year period. Notable highlights included continued solid momentum at Peter Millar and Alaia, an encouraging performance at Chloe and robust growth at Watchfinder & Co. The Group's net cash position at 30 June 2025 stood at 7.4 billion (2024: 7.3 billion) after accounting for the 426 million cash-out upon completion of the sale of YNAP to Mytheresa on 23 April 2025. Corporate calendar The annual general meeting will be held on Wednesday 10 September 2025 in Geneva. The interim results for the current financial year will be announced on Friday 14 November 2025. The Group's corporate calendar is available on https://www.richemont.com/investors/corporate-calendar/. About Richemont At Richemont, we craft the future. Our unique portfolio includes prestigious Maisons distinguished by their craftsmanship and creativity. Richemont's ambition is to nurture its Maisons and businesses and enable them to grow and prosper in a responsible, sustainable manner over the long term. Richemont operates in three business areas: Jewellery Maisons with Buccellati, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Vhernier; Specialist Watchmakers with A. Lange & Sohne, Baume & Mercier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai, Piaget, Roger Dubuis and Vacheron Constantin; and Other, primarily Fashion & Accessories Maisons with Alaia, Chloe, Delvaux, dunhill, G/FORE, Gianvito Rossi, Montblanc, Peter Millar, Purdey, Serapian as well as Watchfinder & Co. Find out more at https://www.richemont.com/. Richemont 'A' shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Richemont's primary listing, and are included in the Swiss Market Index ('SMI') of leading stocks. The 'A' shares are also traded on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Richemont's secondary listing. Investor/analyst and media enquiries Alessandra Girolami, Group Investor Relations Director James Fraser, Investor Relations Executive Investors/analysts enquiries: +41 22 721 30 03; investor.relations@cfrinfo.net Media enquiries: +41 22 721 35 07; pressoffice@cfrinfo.net; richemont@teneo.com Disclaimer The financial information contained in this announcement is unaudited. This document contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Richemont's forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions regarding the Company's business and performance, the economy and other future conditions and forecasts of future events, circumstances and results. Our retail stores are heavily dependent on the ability and desire of consumers to travel and shop and a decline in consumers traffic could have a negative effect on our comparable store sales and/or average sales per square foot and store profitability resulting in impairment charges, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Reduced travel resulting from economic conditions, retail store closure orders of civil authorities, travel restrictions, travel concerns and other circumstances, including disease epidemics and other health-related concerns, could have a material adverse effect on us, particularly if such events impact our customers' desire to travel to our retail stores. International conflicts or wars, including resulting sanctions and restrictions on importation and exportation of finished products and/or raw materials, whether self-imposed or imposed by international countries, non-state entities or others, may also impact these forward-looking statements. If international tariffs are imposed or increased, materials and goods that Richemont imports may face higher prices, which could lead to reduced margins or increased prices that could cause decreased consumer demand. As with any projection or forecast, forward-looking statements are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the Group's control. Richemont does not undertake to update, nor does it have any obligation to provide updates of, or to revise, any forward-looking statements. Richemont 2025 This announcement does not contain full details and should not be used as a basis for any investment decision in relation to the Company's shares. Please find the full announcement available in PDF below: Richemont FY26 - Q1 Sales PDF EN Rheinmetall, Renk und Hensoldt haben den Rustungsboom der letzten Jahre dominiert, doch inzwischen sind diese Titel fundamental heillos uberbewertet. KGVs jenseits der 60, KUVs uber 4, und das in einem politisch fragilen Umfeld mit wackelnder Haushaltsdisziplin. Fur spateinsteigende Anleger kann das teuer werden. Doch es gibt Alternativen, die bislang unter dem Radar fliegen; solide bewertet, operativ stark und mit Nachholpotenzial. In unserem kostenlosen Report zeigen wir dir, welche 3 Rustungsunternehmen noch Potenzial haben und wie du von der zweiten Welle der Zeitenwende profitieren kannst, ohne sich an uberhitzten Highflyer zu verbrennen. Holen Sie sich den neuesten Report! Verpassen Sie nicht, welche Aktien besonders vom weltweiten Aufrusten profitieren durften, und laden Sie sich das Gratis-PDF jetzt kostenlos herunter. Dieses exklusive Angebot gilt aber nur fur kurze Zeit! Daher jetzt downloaden! With over 20 years of military leadership and strategic defense expertise, Jan Hesselbarth has served across NATO missions and top-level federal advisory roles. Appointed as the first Vice President of Circus' newly launched Defense Business Unit spearheading the rollout of autonomous meal supply systems in the defense sector. His arrival marks a major milestone as Circus scales its dual-use AI robotic systems to transform defense operations and safeguard critical infrastructure worldwide. Circus SE (XETRA: CA1), a global technology leader in AI software and robotics for the food service industry, announces the appointment of Jan Hesselbarth as Vice President Defense Strategy Operations. Hesselbarth brings over two decades of leadership across military operations and public-sector transformation. As a former airborne officer and senior advisor to federal and international institutions, he has led military and civil programs with teams of up to 1,000 personnel and delivered results across highly dynamic and complex environments. At Circus, Hesselbarth will take full strategic and operational ownership of defense deployment programs, including deployments of the recently introduced CA-M autonomous meal supply system for armed forces and civil protection. His scope spans logistics, deployment, and compliance in security-critical environments. Prior to joining Circus, Hesselbarth advised military commands and national authorities on geostrategy, resilience, and security. Throughout his career, he trained over 5,000 Bundeswehr personnel in mission-specific readiness, supported operational planning for Lithuanian officer training and German command structures, and co-authored a federal study on maritime security for the German Ministry of the Interior. "Jan combines operational command experience with strategic foresight a rare profile at the intersection of defense, logistics, and innovation," said Nikolas Bullwinkel, CEO and Founder of Circus. As Circus ramps up its defense unit, Hesselbarth's appointment reflects the company's commitment to operational readiness, secure field logistics, and customer-centric deployment both in Europe and globally. "I'm excited to join Circus at this inflection point," said Jan Hesselbarth. "Bringing autonomous technology into real-world military and security operations requires more than innovation it takes field experience, discipline, and trust. I look forward to building systems that deliver." About Circus SE Circus SE (XETRA: CA1) is a global AI and robotics company developing autonomous systems for food supply in both civilian and defense sectors. Its flagship robot, the patented CA-1, is the world's first fully autonomous food production robot, now in serial production. Powered by proprietary embodied AI, Circus delivers industrial-scale, high-reliability meal output with minimal human input. Headquartered in Munich, the company is building the global infrastructure for autonomous food supply on a mission to fuel humanity. Language: English Company: Circus SE Hongkongstrasse 6 20457 Hamburg Germany E-mail: ir@circus-group.com Internet: https://www.circus-group.com/for-investors ISIN: DE000A2YN355 WKN: A2YN35 Listed: Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich (m:access), Tradegate Exchange View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715227587/en/ Contacts: Circus SE St.-Martin-Strae 112 81669 Munich press@circus-group.com Black Veatch has completed execution of a front-end engineering design (FEED) study for the Whitelee Green Hydrogen Project, a proposed development by owner ScottishPower Energy Retail Limited. The contract was awarded to Black Veatch in October of 2024. The first phase of the plan, located 15 miles south of Glasgow, was awarded via U.K. government funding support as part of its Hydrogen Allocation Round 1 (HAR1) process. The project will produce green hydrogen via a power supply connection to the U.K.'s largest onshore windfarm, Whitelee Windfarm, creating a valuable renewable fuel with zero carbon emissions. Green hydrogen effectively provides a resilient fuel source by using electricity from renewable sources, such as wind, and converting it using an electrolyser -a device that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. Green hydrogen then operates as a transportable and fungible fuel, ensuring low to no carbon emissions in the process. As the U.K. government shortlists new green hydrogen projects for funding as part of its Hydrogen Allocation Round (HAR2), Black Veatch continues to work with clients using the company's power generation and lower carbon expertise to plan, design and build green hydrogen plants. Black Veatch has recently completed more than 200 front-end loading (FEL) studies globally with 245MW of green hydrogen projects completed or under construction. "ScottishPower develops green hydrogen responsibly and we selected Black Veatch because of their decades of experience in hydrogen and strong commitment to safety," said Mark Bradley, Hydrogen Director, ScottishPower Green Hydrogen Limited. "We take a holistic development approach, consulting with local stakeholders to ensure we are able to successfully develop low carbon sources of energy for our customers." The multi-disciplinary engineering team from Black Veatch delivered a design with safety at the forefront and leveraged the internal experience of constructing and commissioning hydrogen production facilities in other regions. The FEED study includes the incorporation of the OEM's electrolyser package design, as well as the design of all balance of plant scope including hydrogen compression and a tube-trailer dispensing station. The first phase of this project covers 10MW of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis, and the conceptual design from Black Veatch includes a second phase that incorporates an additional 10MW in electrolysis capacity. The second phase has been shortlisted for the U.K. government's HAR2 process. Black Veatch is also the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) provider for Advanced Clean Energy Storage I (ACES I), a green hydrogen hub in Utah in the United States, and is considered a leading global innovator in the design and engineering of first of a kind, at-scale green hydrogen plants. "Our clients entrust us to help engineer and deploy innovative, bankable green hydrogen energy infrastructure to transition them to lower carbon solutions," said Youssef Merjaneh, senior vice president and managing director, Europe Middle East and Africa, Black Veatch. "This innovative project will produce green hydrogen from adjacent onshore wind as part of the U.K. government's HAR funding program, and we look forward to continued collaboration with the ScottishPower team." For more information on the company's hydrogen and ammonia experience, visit www.bv.com/hydrogen. About Black Veatch Black Veatch is a 100-percent employee-owned global engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with more than 100-years of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people around the world by addressing the resilience and reliability of our most important infrastructure and energy assets. Follow us on www.bv.com and on LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716518605/en/ Contacts: Media Contact Information: BRUCE ERIC ANDERSON +1 952-896-0835 Media@bv.com HEALWELL announced improved performance for its core AI business segment with preliminary revenues expected to exceed $5 million for the first six months of 2025, reflecting a year-over-year increase of over 200% as compared to the same period last year. This strong performance is expected to lead to positive Adjusted EBITDA for the AI business segment during the first six months of the year. HEALWELL acquires remaining 49% of Pentavere Research Group Inc., by exercising a call option to gain full ownership of the business. Pentavere is an award winning and globally renowned AI healthcare company which is responsible for the development of a leading AI-driven patient identification platform, DARWEN. TM With 100% ownership of Pentavere, HEALWELL intends to deepen integration between its AI businesses and accelerate commercialization of AI products across healthcare offerings. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - HEALWELL AI Inc. (TSX: AIDX) (OTCQX: HWAIF) ("HEALWELL" or the "Company"), a healthcare artificial intelligence company focused on preventative care, is pleased to provide a corporate update, including improved performance in its AI business units, the acquisition of the remaining interest in Pentavere Research Group Inc. ("Pentavere") and deeper integration of the entities within its AI business segment. The Company's AI business segment, encompassing Pentavere, Khure Health ("Khure"), and Mutuo Health Solutions ("Mutuo") businesses, is on track to exceed $5 million in revenues for the first six months of 2025, ending June 30, 2025, representing a year-over-year increase of over 200%. This strong performance is expected to lead to positive Adjusted EBITDA for the AI business segment during the same period. Strategic Acquisition and Performance Highlights Full Ownership of Pentavere: HEALWELL has exercised its call option to acquire the remaining 49% of Pentavere, gaining full ownership of the globally recognized AI healthcare company. Pentavere is the developer of DARWEN, a leading AI-driven patient identification platform crucial for preventative care. HEALWELL has exercised its call option to acquire the remaining 49% of Pentavere, gaining full ownership of the globally recognized AI healthcare company. Pentavere is the developer of DARWEN, a leading AI-driven patient identification platform crucial for preventative care. Robust Organic Growth: Preliminary results for Q2-2025 show significant organic revenue growth within the AI segment, with both Pentavere and Khure each increasing by more than 100% during the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period last year. This demonstrates the Company's enhanced connectivity with the life sciences marketplace. New Leadership and Forward Strategy James Lee, HEALWELL's new Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2025, commented, "I'm incredibly pleased with the strong performance of our core AI division, and I believe its potential is substantial. With Orion Health now part of our family and 100% ownership of Pentavere, we have a unique opportunity to truly differentiate our offering and accelerate the commercialization of our AI products. We are already seeing strong interest in our various AI products, from some of the largest healthcare systems in the world." HEALWELL's strategy is to deeply integrate its AI and data science products into its software platforms. This approach provides a direct path to market, leveraging existing customer bases and contracts to enable healthcare systems worldwide to adopt AI solutions more readily. Hamed Shahbazi, HEALWELL's Chairman, emphasized the significance of Pentavere, "DARWEN is a globally unique and recognized AI solution, validated by some of the largest and most complex healthcare systems. Its focus on ethical and compliant training with permissioned data, alongside clinical validation in over 40 publications, positions it to lead the healthcare sector in deploying AI insights for real-world outcomes. We also continue to be greatly impressed with both the capability and thought leadership of the Pentavere team and are excited to watch them continue their efforts to modernize and AI-enable preventative health." Commitment to Preventative Care Mr. Lee further commented on the urgent need for AI in healthcare, "Global healthcare systems face relentless demands amid budgetary and staffing challenges. AI-based tools like Pentavere's DARWEN are breaking new frontiers in patient identification and preventative care, holding the potential to save and protect many lives. Our role is to be an enabler of preventative care, and we must act with urgency. We are committed to delivering on our vision, and along with the Company's President, Dr. Alexander Dobranowski, I look forward to sharing key milestones as we achieve them." Transaction Details of Pentavere Call Option Exercise HEALWELL has acquired the remaining 49% of Pentavere which it did not already own by exercising a call option that it had previously negotiated at the time of its original acquisition of a majority interest in Pentavere in 2023 (the "Call Option"). Pursuant to the Call Option, HEALWELL has acquired all of the remaining issued and outstanding shares of Pentavere for an aggregate purchase price of $13,978,244.70, which was satisfied with the issuance of 10,161,562 Subordinate Voting Shares at a deemed price of $1.3756 per share, equal to the 5-Day VWAP on July 11th, 2025. James Lee Chief Executive Officer HEALWELL AI Inc. Footnotes: "Adjusted EBITDA" is a non-IFRS financial measure and may not be comparable to other similar measures disclosed by other companies. For more information on the composition of this measure, its purpose and a reconciliation to the nearest IFRS measures, please see "Non-IFRS Financial Measures" in the Company's most recent MD&A dated May 12, 2025, a copy of which is available under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. About HEALWELL AI HEALWELL is a healthcare artificial intelligence company focused on preventative care. Its mission is to improve healthcare and save lives through early identification and detection of disease. Using its own proprietary technology, the Company is developing and commercializing advanced clinical decision support systems that can help healthcare providers detect rare and chronic diseases, improve efficiency of their practice and ultimately help improve patient health outcomes. HEALWELL is executing a strategy centered around developing and acquiring technology and clinical sciences capabilities that complement the Company's road map. HEALWELL is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "AIDX" and on the OTC Exchange under the symbol "HWAIF". To learn more about HEALWELL, please visit https://healwell.ai/. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release, constitute "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements about the Company's strategic plan and expected timelines, milestones and future announcements under the plan; and are based on assumptions, expectations, estimates and projections as of the date of this press release. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by words or phrases such as "mission", "intends", "to be", "coming", "opportunities", "look forward to", "expected" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain future conditions, actions, events or results "will", "may", "could", "would", "should", "might" or "can" be taken, occur or be achieved, or the negative of any of these terms . Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon management's perceptions of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as a number of specific factors and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by HEALWELL as of the date of such statements, are outside of HEALWELL's control and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies which could result in the forward-looking statements ultimately being entirely or partially incorrect or untrue. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on various assumptions, including, but not limited to, the following: HEALWELL's ability to integrate its AI technologies into its other service offerings and platforms; HEALWELL's ability to maintain and leverage its relationships with their commercial partners; the continued adoption of the software, tools and solutions created by HEALWELL and its subsidiaries; that HEALWELL will be successful in identifying, executing and integrating new acquisitions, investments and/or partnerships; the stability of general economic and market conditions; sufficiency of working capital and access to financing; HEALWELL's ability to comply with applicable laws and regulations; HEALWELL's continued compliance with third party intellectual property rights; the effects of competition in the industry; the requirement for increasingly innovative product solutions and service offerings; technologies working as intended or at all; trends in customer growth and the adoption of new technologies in the industry; and that the risk factors noted below, collectively, do not have a material impact on HEALWELL's business, operations, revenues and/or results. By their nature, forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that may be general or specific and which give rise to the possibility that expectations, forecasts, predictions, projections, or conclusions will not prove to be accurate, that assumptions may not be correct, and that objectives, strategic goals and priorities will not be achieved. Known and unknown risk factors, many of which are beyond the control of HEALWELL, could cause the actual results of HEALWELL to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements, or developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include but are not limited to those factors which are discussed under the section entitled "Risk Factors" in HEALWELL's most recent annual information form dated March 31, 2025, which is available under HEALWELL's SEDAR+ profile at www.sedarplus.ca. The risk factors are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors that could affect HEALWELL and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors, uncertainties and potential events carefully and not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purpose of providing information about management's expectations and plans relating to the future. HEALWELL disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law. All of the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. This news release contains future-oriented financial information and financial outlook information (collectively, "FOFI") about the expected Q2 2025 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA generated by the Company's AI business, which are subject to the same assumptions, risk factors, limitations, and qualifications as set out in the above paragraphs. The actual financial results of the Company's AI business segment may vary from the amounts set out herein and such variation may be material. HEALWELL and its management believe that the FOFI has been prepared on a reasonable basis, reflecting management's best estimates and judgments. However, because this information is subjective and subject to numerous risks, it should not be relied on as necessarily indicative of future results. Except as required by applicable securities laws, HEALWELL undertakes no obligation to update such FOFI. FOFI contained in this news release was made as of the date hereof and was provided for the purpose of providing further information about HEALWELL's anticipated future business operations and strategic plan for the coming year. Readers are cautioned that the FOFI contained in this news release should not be used for purposes other than for which it is disclosed herein. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258997 SOURCE: HEALWELL AI Company implements emerging standard that enables AI agents to dynamically discover and utilize messaging, voice, email, and verification capabilities STOCKHOLM, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sinch AB (publ) (XSTO: SINCH), which is pioneering the way the world communicates through its Customer Communications Cloud, today announced its implementation of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), ensuring AI agents can successfully execute communication actions through Sinch's global platform. As MCP emerges as a standard for how AI agents perform various actions - from database queries to API calls, Sinch's implementation specifically enables these agents to handle the communication components of their tasks effectively. The announcement reflects the accelerating shift toward AI-powered customer engagement. Sinch customers are already seeing transformative results: a global insurer autonomously handles 80% of customer requests across 125+ languages, while a leading retailer achieved 3x higher engagement combining conversational AI with RCS. According to Sinch's State of Customer Communications Report, 95% of businesses are using or planning AI in customer communications, as IDC projects the AI platforms market will reach $153.0 billion by 2028. Sinch orchestrates 900 billion customer interactions annually across messaging, voice, email, and verifications for 175,000 businesses worldwide. Operating in 60+ countries with local compliance expertise and routing intelligence, the platform delivers the resilience required for critical customer communications. Years of enterprise-scale deployments have built deep technical capabilities that ensure success across every market and channel. By exposing these capabilities through MCP, Sinch enables AI agents to leverage this proven expertise and scale effectively. Powering the Communication Actions of AI Agents Model Context Protocol provides a standardized way for AI agents to discover and execute actions across various systems and services. When those actions involve communicating with customers - orchestrating marketing campaigns, sending customer notifications, managing identity and verification processes, or handling customer service interactions - Sinch's MCP implementation ensures agents understand exactly how to execute these communications successfully. Through the Sinch MCP server, now live in developer preview with Claude, AI agents learn the specific requirements for each communication task: which channel to use, how to format messages for different regions, what compliance rules apply, and how to ensure delivery. This knowledge is accessible across the expanding AI ecosystem: from IDEs like Cursor, to agent frameworks including OpenAI Agents SDK, AI workflow platforms such as AgenticFlow, and enterprise solutions through Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Copilot Studio. "AI is transforming how businesses communicate, and Sinch has the proven infrastructure to make it work at scale," said Robert Gerstmann, Chief Evangelist and Co-Founder at Sinch. "With MCP, we're codifying decades of communications expertise into protocols that AI agents can understand, teaching them the specific requirements, compliance rules, and best practices needed for each use case and region. What matters most happens behind the scenes; guaranteeing delivery, maintaining quality, navigating compliance, and preventing fraud. We've spent decades perfecting these operational fundamentals that make AI-powered communications actually work." Building a Comprehensive AI Communications Platform This MCP implementation represents one element of Sinch's comprehensive approach to AI-powered communications. With established integrations for OpenAI and Anthropic, along with conversational AI capabilities and intelligent routing systems, Sinch is building the foundation for enterprises to deploy AI-enhanced communication strategies. These capabilities work together to help businesses explore new ways to engage customers while maintaining the reliability and scale they require. Beyond technical integrations, Sinch's strategic partnerships as Adobe's Platinum Partner and connections with Salesforce Agentforce and Microsoft Dynamics Customer Insights strengthen Sinch's position in the enterprise AI ecosystem. "At Sinch we are pioneering the way the world communicates, and our MCP implementation represents the next evolution of that mission," said Laurinda Pang, CEO of Sinch. "Through the expansion of native AI capabilities and partnerships, we're equipping organizations with unprecedented capabilities to connect with customers anywhere, anytime, through any channel. We envision a world where every business, regardless of size or technical sophistication, can harness the power of intelligent communications to keep their customers engaged, informed, safe, and happy." # # # For more information please contact: Janet Lennon, Director of Global PR & Communications janet.lennon@sinch.com | 1.206.914.6175 This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/sinch-ab/r/sinch-pioneers-next-generation-ai-communications-with-model-context-protocol-implementation,c4207593 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/sinch-pioneers-next-generation-ai-communications-with-model-context-protocol-implementation-302506556.html Ende Mai leitete US-Prasident Donald Trump mit der Unterzeichnung mehrerer Dekrete eine weitreichende Wende in der amerikanischen Energiepolitik ein. Im Fokus: der beschleunigte Ausbau der Kernenergie. Mit einem umfassenden Manahmenpaket sollen Genehmigungsprozesse reformiert, kleinere Reaktoren gefordert und der Anteil von Atomstrom in den USA massiv gesteigert werden. Ausloser ist der explodierende Energiebedarf durch KI-Rechenzentren, der eine stabile, CO-arme Grundlastversorgung zwingend notwendig macht. In unserem kostenlosen Spezialreport erfahren Sie, welche 3 Unternehmen jetzt im Zentrum dieser energiepolitischen Neuausrichtung stehen, und wer vom kommenden Boom der Nuklearindustrie besonders profitieren konnte. Holen Sie sich den neuesten Report! Verpassen Sie nicht, welche Aktien besonders von der Energiewende in den USA profitieren durften, und laden Sie sich das Gratis-PDF jetzt kostenlos herunter. Dieses exklusive Angebot gilt aber nur fur kurze Zeit! Daher jetzt downloaden! The firm drafts top talents to grow its Listed Derivatives offering across Continental Europe and into Equity Derivatives. Liquidnet, a leading technology-driven agency execution specialist, today announced two senior appointments to support the expansion of its Listed Derivatives business across Continental Europe and into Equity Derivatives. This move builds on Liquidnet's existing Equities and Fixed Income capabilities and reflects growing demand from buy-side clients for multi-asset solutions delivered through a single, agency-focused platform. Oliver Deutschmann has joined as Head of Equity Derivatives, EMEA. In this role, he will lead client acquisition across the region and oversee the deployment of Liquidnet's Equity Derivatives capabilities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will also support the expansion of the Listed Derivatives offering throughout Continental Europe. Deutschmann brings over 15 years of experience, most recently serving as Head of Equity Derivatives for Credit Suisse, where he led the redevelopment of the equities flow derivatives business in Germany and Austria. Prior to that, he held several senior roles, including Head of ETD Fixed Income Sales for Germany and Austria at UBS and Sales Trader at Commerzbank. Oliver Deutschmann, Head of Equity Derivatives, EMEA at Liquidnet, commented: "Establishing local teams in key European hubs enhances our ability to deliver a more tailored service offering to buy-side firms while deepening access to liquidity in the region. The move into Equity Derivatives is a natural next step in the evolution of our Listed Derivatives business, allowing us to bring our technology-led, buy-side focused model into new asset classes and unlock meaningful synergies across our network." Juan Ferrer Pons has also been appointed as Listed Derivatives Sales Trader, based in Madrid. He will focus on supporting Members in Continental Europe with tailored liquidity solutions, helping them navigate local markets and optimise execution across the region. Ferrer Pons spent the majority of his career at BBVA, where he held various trading roles across Funds of Hedge Funds (FoHF) and Equity Derivatives. Most recently, he served as Equity Derivatives Broker at TP ICAP, Liquidnet's parent company. About Liquidnet Liquidnet is a leading technology-driven, agency execution specialist that intelligently connects the world's investors to the world's investments. Since our founding in 1999, our network has grown to include more than 1,000 institutional investors and spans 57 markets across six continents. We built Liquidnet to make global capital markets more efficient and continue to do so by adding additional participants, enabling trusted access to trading and investment opportunities, and delivering the actionable intelligence and insight that our customers need. For more information, visit www.liquidnet.com and follow us on X @Liquidnet. About TP ICAP Group TP ICAP is a world-leading markets infrastructure and data solutions provider. The Group connects buyers and sellers in wholesale financial, energy and commodities markets. We are the world's largest wholesale market intermediary, with a portfolio of businesses that provide broking services, trade execution, data analytics, and market intelligence. www.tpicap.com 2025 Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries. Liquidnet, Inc. is a member of FINRA/SIPC/NFA. Liquidnet Europe Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, is licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa and is a member of the London Stock Exchange and a remote member of the SIX Swiss Exchange. TP ICAP (EUROPE) SA is authorised by the Autorite de Controle Prudentiel et de Resolution and regulated by the Autorite des Marches Financiers and is a remote member of the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Liquidnet Canada Inc. is a member of the Canadian Investment Industry Regulatory Organization and a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. Liquidnet Asia Limited is regulated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission for Type 1 and Type 7 regulated activities and is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Recognized Market Operator. Liquidnet Japan Inc. is regulated by the Financial Services Agency of Japan and is a member of JSDA/JIPF. Liquidnet Australia Pty Ltd. is registered with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission as an Australian Financial Services Licensee, AFSL number 312525. Liquidnet Singapore Private Limited is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Capital Markets Services Licensee, CMSL number CMS 100757-1. Liquidnet Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries are part of TP ICAP Group plc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716092350/en/ Contacts: Sophonie Robichon, Liquidnet Global Marketing Communications +44 20 3933 0153 srobichon@liquidnet.com In today's world, where security and sovereignty are more important than ever before, Orange Business has obtained the security visa from the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) for the SecNumCloud qualification of its Cloud Avenue SecNum platform. This highest level of recognition in Europe certifies that our dedicated and private Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) environments meet the strictest security and transparency standards. With this achievement, our customers can confidently deploy their critical services on a powerful, secure, and trusted cloud platform. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716348965/en/ Orange Business has obtained the security visa from the French Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI) for the SecNumCloud qualification of its Cloud Avenue SecNum platform. (Photo credit: Orange Business) Cloud Avenue SecNum: a trusted, sovereign platform At the heart of Orange Business' strategy is a reliable cloud platform that complies with security and regulatory requirements across Europe. Hosted in our sustainable data center in Grenoble, France, and managed by our dedicated French teams, Cloud Avenue SecNum ensures data sovereignty. Designed with a modular architecture and an "as-a-service" approach, the platform empowers users to increase their autonomy and technological control. It comes with built-in security features, such as encryption, key management, network isolation, and access control, while also providing comprehensive traceability of actions and ensuring physical, environmental, and operational security. Aligned with the French state "cloud doctrine", the platform helps our customers meet the strictest French and European standards. Cloud Avenue: a range of cloud solutions for diverse organizational needs. This solution is part of our comprehensive Cloud Avenue portfolio, developed and managed by Orange Business. It offers complete flexibility through modular technology. Our solutions are designed to meet the needs of all organizations, especially those in sensitive sectors like industry, banking, healthcare, defense, and public services. With infrastructure across Europe (France, Germany, Norway and Sweden), Cloud Avenue ensures full data control and strict compliance with regulations. According to Frederic Beon, Director of Information Systems and Digital Organization for the Gers Department, a region in Southwest France, "The platform provides us with the necessary security and compliance to meet regulations such as the French state "Cloud Doctrine", while also enabling us to gain autonomy with our testing and development. Additionally, Cloud Avenue SecNum allows us to significantly reduce time spent certifying our user online services in accordance with the General Security Referential (RGS), thereby optimizing our operational efficiency." "At Orange Business, our mission is to deliver unwavering trust and control over cloud infrastructures for our customers. SecNumCloud qualification demonstrates our commitment to sovereignty and confirms that our Cloud Avenue SecNum solution adheres to the strictest security and compliance standards. This validation reinforces our dedication toward our customers who are facing the complexities of an ever-changing digital landscape," says Aliette Mousnier-Lompre, CEO of Orange Business. SecNumCloud: An essential qualification to enhance security and trust The SecNumCloud qualification, granted by ANSSI, confirms that infrastructure meets Europe's highest security standards. This ensures strong protection for sensitive data, such as intellectual property or artificial intelligence information. Going through this rigorous process helps reduce legal and technical risks and gives users greater confidence in cloud solutions. In addition, ANSSI security visas, awarded after detailed evaluations by authorized labs, verify that these solutions are reliable and compliant. These assessments include penetration tests and thorough analyses to identify security measures that are truly trustworthy. This security visa serves as a badge of credibility for organizations that adopt these qualified solutions. About Orange Business Orange Business, the enterprise division of the Orange Group, is a leading network and digital integrator, supporting customers to create positive impact and digital business. The combined strength of its next-generation connectivity, cloud, and cybersecurity expertise, platforms, and partners provides the foundation for enterprises around the world. With 30,000 employees across 65 countries, Orange Business enables its customers' transformations by orchestrating end-to-end secured digital infrastructure and focusing on the employee, customer, and operational experience. More than 30,000 B-to-B customers put their trust in Orange Business globally. Orange is one of the world's leading telecommunications operators with revenues of 40.3 billion euros in 2024 and 291 million customers worldwide at 31 December 2024. In February 2023, the Group presented its strategic plan "Lead the Future", built on a new business model and guided by responsibility and efficiency. "Lead the Future" capitalizes on network excellence to reinforce Orange's leadership in service quality. Orange is listed on the Euronext Paris (ORA). For more information: www.orange-business.com or follow us on LinkedIn and on X: @orangebusiness Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716348965/en/ Contacts: Presse Emmanuelle Nahmany: emmanuelle.nahmany@orange.com Severine Belhomme-Moisand: severine.belhommemoisand@orange.com Fraudsters are shifting away from ID theft to social engineering, data compromise scams and 'quishing' as the UK sees card fraud rise 4% year on year The FICO European Fraud Map 2024 has revealed a worrying trend of rising card fraud levels and losses across the continent. The data from Euromonitor International on 18 countries shows that Card Not Present (CNP) fraud dominates card fraud losses and has increased across most countries. E-commerce fraud, e-wallet, social engineering and QR code fraud or "quishing" are all rising as well. More information: https://www.fico.com/en/europeanfraud Highlights Card fraud losses across EMEA have increased from 1,493m in 2021 to 1,578m in 2024 UK card fraud increased by 4% to 572.6 million since 2023 CNP fraud accounts for around 70% of total card fraud losses in the UK increasing by 11% year on year Hungary saw the greatest increase across Europe at 22% card fraud losses also dramatically increased in Norway, Denmark and Hungary Portugal and the Netherlands are the only countries to see fraud levels fall "While card fraud loss figures are still lower than the 2015 peak of 1,642 million, the last few years show that fraud in Europe is steadily rising back up towards this figure," commented James Roche, principal fraud consultant for FICO in EMEA. "The UK has followed a similar trajectory to the rest of Europe, aligning with what FICO has seen in terms of the dominant fraud MOs that plague both the UK and Europe, as well as the common approaches taken in the last decade via initiatives such as PSD and PSR." Card Losses Grow in UK In 2024, UK Finance reported 572.6 million in total card fraud losses, a 3.9% increase from 551.3 million in 2023. This goes against the trend of the past few years of falling card losses and a broader trend of stabilisation in the UK payments landscape, which is a cause for concern. Card Not Present (CNP) fraud remained the leading fraud category, accounting for around 70% of total card fraud losses. This marks an increase of 11% from 2023 and puts the UK at the top of the league table for CNP fraud losses in Europe, underscoring the persistent risk associated with remote transactions. Conversely, identity (ID) fraud losses dropped significantly by 26% to 58.7M, pointing to a shift in criminal behaviour away from ID theft and towards social engineering, data compromises and scams. The growing use of fraud enhancements such as biometric and behavioural monitoring tools are also likely to have contributed to the decrease. Plus, continued investment by UK and EU financial services in full customer journey visibility and data sharing is enabling identity characteristics to be monitored from onboarding through early book and ongoing lifecycle stages of the customer journey. "The UK has long been a leader in deploying innovative fraud technology, and clearly the challenges are still growing," Roche said. "With PSD3 regulations now taking effect across Europe, we see fraud prevention teams moving towards a unified approach to fraud risk assessment. Continued investment in preventative tools, such as Scam Signal, and intelligence-led fraud detection remain critical to protecting card portfolios from evolving threats." The Picture across Europe Other highlights from the FICO European Fraud Map show the impact card fraud is having across the region In Norway fraud losses have dramatically increased over the last few years from 14M in 2021 to 26.4M, rising 8% in 2024. fraud losses have dramatically increased over the last few years from 14M in 2021 to 26.4M, rising 8% in 2024. Denmark demonstrated a more than twofold increase in fraud losses (19.6M to 47.6M) since 2021, and a concerning 20% rise in 2024 alone. demonstrated a more than twofold increase in fraud losses (19.6M to 47.6M) since 2021, and a concerning 20% rise in 2024 alone. In Hungary, fraud losses jumped from 3.3M to 22.4M from 2021 to 2024, rising by 22% in 2024. fraud losses jumped from 3.3M to 22.4M from 2021 to 2024, rising by 22% in 2024. Greece has also seen a significant increase, with a twofold increase from 13.4M to 28.4M since 2021 and 20% in 2024. has also seen a significant increase, with a twofold increase from 13.4M to 28.4M since 2021 and 20% in 2024. Sweden's losses have risen significantly from 13.1M to 24.2M, an increase of around 85% in three years, and 19% during 2024. Despite the overall EMEA loss picture trending slowly upwards, a few countries are seeing a downward trend in their card fraud losses: France's losses are slowly but steadily decreasing and have done so consistently since their peak at 433.2M in 2018. They now sit at 409.2M, the second highest losses of the 18 countries studied but setting a good example for controlling their losses. losses are slowly but steadily decreasing and have done so consistently since their peak at 433.2M in 2018. They now sit at 409.2M, the second highest losses of the 18 countries studied but setting a good example for controlling their losses. Turkey showed significantly lower losses at 1.1M for 2024, but they too are reducing their fraud losses consistently and have done since their peak at 14M in 2010. However, 2024 saw fraud rise by 5% in Turkey. "With PSD3 regulations due to take effect across Europe in the next couple of years, financial institutions must work harder than ever to fight new fraud patterns and improve customer service," said Roche. "We are seeing a number of emerging approaches that unify protection that is currently siloed, using 360-degree customer profiling to assess fraud and financial crime risk across all channels and products and throughout the entire lifecycle of the customer (onboarding through to offboarding). We at FICO believe this approach is absolutely critical, as criminals look for the weakest link in fraud defences." FICO's fraud solutions portfolio includes the AI-powered FICO Falcon Fraud Manager, which protects more than 4 billion cards worldwide; FICO Omni-Channel Communications for Fraud, available on FICO Platform; and award-winning models for scam detection, as well as the award-winning Scam Signal product developed with Jersey Telecom. About FICO FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 200 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, insurance, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 80 countries do everything from protecting 4 billion payment cards from fraud, to improving financial inclusion, to increasing supply chain resiliency. The FICO Score, used by 90% of top US lenders, is the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the US and has been made available in over 40 other countries, improving risk management, credit access and transparency. Learn more at www.fico.com. FICO and Falcon are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716798079/en/ Contacts: For further press information please contact: FICO UK PR Team Wendy Harrison/Matthew Enderby ficoteam@harrisonsadler.com 0208 977 9132 Ryan, a leading global tax services and software provider, has been named one of the United Kingdom's Best Workplaces for Wellbeing by Great Place To Work ranking 31 in the Medium Company category on this year's list. Companies recognised on this prestigious list have consistently placed team member wellbeing at the heart of their culture. "We are committed to fostering an environment where every team member feels valued, supported, and empowered to thrive," said Tom Shave, President of Ryan's European and Asia-Pacific Operations. "This recognition from Great Place To Work is a testament to our ongoing dedication to prioritising the wellbeing of our incredible team." The UK's Best Workplaces for Wellbeing rankings celebrate organisations that excel in fostering exceptional employee wellbeing. Compiled by Great Place To Work culture experts, this prestigious list is based on thousands of employee surveys, offering a holistic view of workplace wellbeing. Key areas assessed include work-life balance, sense of fulfilment, job satisfaction, and financial security. Additionally, the evaluation considers how consistently organisations deliver a positive employee experience across all departments and levels of seniority. Benedict Gautrey, Managing Director of Great Place To Work UK says: "A thriving workplace culture is rooted in trust, pride, camaraderie, and a genuine commitment to employee wellbeing. As we mark the fourth year of the UK's Best Workplaces for Wellbeing list, we're proud to celebrate organisations that go above and beyond to support their people's mental, physical, financial, and social health. When employees feel truly valued and supported, they're not only healthier but also more energised, motivated, and aligned with their organisation's goals. Congratulations to Ryan on earning a well-deserved place on this prestigious list!" One of Ryan's cornerstone wellness initiatives is RyanTHRIVE, a holistic program focused on team member wellbeing and education. RyanTHRIVE offers self-guided modules across a wide range of topics, including emotional and financial health, professional development, and personal relationship success. In addition, Ryan provides a suite of competitive benefits designed to support team members throughout all stages of life and career. These include fitness reimbursements, generous parental leave, tuition assistance, and reimbursements for adoption and fertility services. Every benefit is curated with the intention to ensure team members feel recognised, supported, and equipped for success both inside and outside of work. To learn more about Ryan and its commitment to wellbeing, visit our careers page About Great Place To Work Great Place To Work is the global authority on workplace culture, helping organisations to create exceptional, high-performing workplaces where employees feel trusted and valued. The UK's Best Workplaces for Wellbeing enables these outstanding organisations to celebrate their achievements, build their employer brand, and inspire others to take action. For more information, visit www.greatplacetowork.co.uk. About Ryan Ryan, an award-winning global tax services and software provider, is the largest Firm in the world dedicated exclusively to business taxes. The Firm provides an integrated suite of international tax services on a multijurisdictional basis, including cost management, compliance, consulting, technology and transformation, and innovation funding. Ryan is an 11-time recipient of the International Service Excellence Award from the Customer Service Institute of America (CSIA) for its commitment to world-class client service. Empowered by the dynamic myRyan work environment, which is widely recognised as the most innovative in the tax services industry, Ryan's multidisciplinary team of more than 5,900 professionals and associates serves over 77,000 clients in more than 80 countries, including many of the world's most prominent Global 5000 companies. More information about Ryan can be found at ryan.com/europe. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716956762/en/ Contacts: MEDIA CONTACT Melodie Elliott Director, Public Relations Ryan 972.934.0022 melodie.elliott@ryan.com XUZHOU, China, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- All 120 trainees from XCMG Technician College's 2025 "Blue Sea Elite" Young Technicians Training Program have secured position offers within XCMG Machinery's international service network well before graduation. This milestone coincides with their successful attainment of the prestigious German Industrial Mechanic (IHK) certification, enabling a seamless transition into global roles immediately upon completing their studies. This outstanding achievement, a 100% employment rate into international service positions, underscores XCMG's over thirty years of commitment to cultivating high-caliber technical talent. It highlights the success of deeply integrating industry with education and innovating international training models. The "Blue Sea Elite" program, launched in August 2021 through a strategic partnership between XCMG Technician College, the Erfurt Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), and the Erfurt Educational Centre in Germany, masterfully blends the renowned German dual-system vocational education with Chinese vocational strengths. This fusion creates a highly efficient pathway specifically tailored to meet global industry demands. The program significantly enhances the international capabilities of instructors, fostering a collaborative, five-dimensional teaching system integrating work and study. Over 20% of specialized faculty are now bilingual or possess international experience, providing critical support for developing globally competent technicians. The program set up a comprehensive development framework covering language proficiency, technical mastery, cross-cultural understanding, and management skills. Graduates emerge as overseas service elites equipped with international perspectives, exceptional technical skills, and cross-cultural competence. All graduates from the program's inaugural cohort have assumed roles such as service managers and engineers across Southeast Asia, West Africa, and South Africa, becoming core members of XCMG's global service team. The program's success is built on a robust, integrated system encompassing vocational certification, curriculum alignment, teaching methodologies, faculty development, and rigorous assessment. This system ensures continuous improvement and directly feeds XCMG's primary global development strategy with exceptional talent. XCMG extends this successful model through localized training programs in key markets like Brazil and Indonesia, having cultivated over 3,000 international technicians to date. The company is actively promoting the international adoption of Chinese technical skill standards, having secured accreditation as an authoritative industry training base and implemented evaluation systems for international talent, establishing a benchmark for global construction technical training. About XCMG Machinery XCMG Machinery (SHE:000425) is a multinational heavy machinery manufacturer headquartered in Xuzhou, China. With a product portfolio serving 190+ countries, XCMG ranks among the world's top three construction machinery brands. The company drives innovation through intelligent manufacturing and sustainable solutions. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2732304/05.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/xcmg-technician-college-graduates-secure-global-construction-industry-roles-pioneering-international-talent-pipeline-302506584.html SHENZHEN, China, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Baseus proudly announces that it is set to become one of the first brands to deliver Qi2.2-certified power banks to consumers, with three new models rolling out globally starting this August. As wireless charging technology enters a new era, Baseus leads the way-bringing the speed, safety, and precision of Qi2.2 to users through practical, stylish devices. Qi2.2: Faster, Smarter, More Precise Qi2.2, introduced by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), marks a major leap in wireless charging. The standard raises maximum wireless output from 15W to 25W-ideal for modern high-demand smartphones. 0.5mm magnetic alignment precision improves charging efficiency by up to 40%, reducing misalignment-related energy loss. An upgraded foreign object detection (FOD) system enhances user safety, while backward compatibility ensures seamless support for Qi1.3, Qi2.0, and other mainstream devices. For more details on the Qi2.2 standard and its benefits, please visit the Qi2.2 guide on our blog. Three Devices, One Seamless Qi2.2 Experience Baseus introduces a trio of Qi2.2-certified charging solutions, each tailored to different user needs but united by next-gen speed and precision. The PicoGo AM61 Magnetic Power Bank features 25W magnetic wireless charging and a built-in 45W USB-C cable-an all-in-one solution for fast, flexible power. The PicoGo AM52 Ultra-Slim Magnetic Power Bank packs the same wireless performance into a slim, ergonomic aluminum-silicone body, perfect for everyday portability. The PicoGo AF21 Foldable 3-in-1 Wireless Charger features a foldable 3-in-1 design, delivering up to 35W total output-ideal for powering multiple devices at once. The new Qi2.2-certified power bank series will launch globally starting this August through Baseus's official online store and leading e-commerce platforms such as Amazon. Leading the Future of Charging Technology Baseus's leadership in Qi2.2 reflects its ongoing mission to push the boundaries of charging innovation. As a pioneer in GaN fast-charging, Baseus has introduced some of the world's most compact and powerful GaN chargers, developed in collaboration with industry leaders. The brand is also globally recognized as the No.1 name in retractable power accessories, with its patented cable technology delivering unmatched durability, flexibility, and ease of use-powering users across commuting, travel, and home environments. With the arrival of Qi2.2-certified power banks, Baseus reaffirms its commitment to creating high-performance, user-first solutions that are both accessible and beautifully designed. About Baseus Founded in 2011, Baseus was born out of utmost care for users. The company embodies its slogan: Practical. Reliable. Base on User. This shows the pursuit of ultimate practicality to solve users' problems with outstanding design and fashionable appearances that also reflect reliability, high quality, and cost-effectiveness. Baseus delivers a variety of products - including Portable Chargers, Desktop Chargers, Wall Chargers, Wireless Earbuds, and Docking Stations. Chosen by 300 million users and providing 6 billion services, Baseus delivers over 100 million practical and aesthetic products each year, continuously enhancing users' sense of fulfillment. Join the Baseus family today to see a new world of technological innovation. Media Contact: Email: pr@baseus.com Baseus Official Website: https://www.baseus.com/ Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2732225/Baseus.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2098707/Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/baseus-becomes-one-of-the-first-to-deliver-qi2-2-certified-power-banks-to-the-market-302506599.html Kelowna, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - F3 Uranium Corp (TSXV: FUU) (OTCQB: FUUFF) ("F3" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the final assay results of 2024 JR Zone drilling including drillhole PLN24-184 (See NR October 29, 2024) which returned 13.0m of 3.2% U3O8, including a high grade core with 2.5m of 13.7% U3O8. Exploration geochemical results are highlighted by PLN24-187 which targeted and intersected the A1 Extension 3.2km along strike from JR Zone, an interpreted continuation of the A1 Main Shear on the southeast side of the Harrison Fault and which intersected strongly elevated uranium values averaging 70ppm over 8.5m, with a peak of 244ppm at 549.0m. Elevated uranium values of 111ppm U over 5.5m between 193.5 - 199.0m in PLN14-019 helped prioritize the A1 conductor which hosts the JR Zone. Continued anomalous intersects across the Harrison fault, A1 Extension and B1 areas highlight the complex geologic and structural setting which still hosts numerous high priority untested targets. F3 is also pleased to announce the engagement of SLR International Corporation ("SLR") to complete the maiden resource estimate for the Company. SLR brings deep familiarity with basement hosted uranium deposit modeling and resource estimation and is qualified to prepare a NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Patterson Lake North Project, targeted for completion in Q4 2025. 2024 JR Zone Highlights: PLN24-184 (line 105S): 13.0m @ 3.2% U 3 O 8 (228.5m to 241.5m), including: (228.5m to 241.5m), including: 2.5 @ 13.7% U 3 O 8 (238.0m to 240.5m), further including: (238.0m to 240.5m), further including: 0.5m @ 26.3% U3O8 (238.5m to 239.0m) PLN24-185 (line 025S): 11.5m @ 2.7% U 3 O 8 (219.5m to 231.0m), including: (219.5m to 231.0m), including: 3.5m @ 8.2% U 3 O 8 (222.5m to 226.0m), further including: (222.5m to 226.0m), further including: 1.0m @ 17.7% U3O8 (223.0m to 224.0m) 2024 Exploration Highlights: PLN24-178 (line 2535S): 2.0m @ 94ppm U (446.5m to 448.5m), including: 0.5m @ 128ppm U (446.5m to 447.0m) PLN24-179 (line 4245S): 0.5m @ 119ppm U (426.0m to 426.5m) PLN24-187 (line 3240S): 8.5m @ 70ppm U (545.0m to 553.5m), including: 1.5m @ 198ppm U (549.0m to 550.5m), including: 0.5m @ 244ppm U (549.0m to 549.5m) Sam Hartmann, Vice President Exploration, commented: "F3 Uranium is pleased to report the completion of the 2024 assay results for the JR Zone drilling program. These results will be integrated into our dataset to support the maiden mineral resource estimate, targeted for completion in Q4 2025. This milestone represents a significant achievement for F3 Uranium, advancing the JR Zone from discovery to a defined resource. During this time, we will continue drilling at our new discovery - the Tetra Zone just 12km to the south." Table 1. Drill Hole Summary and Uranium Assay Results Collar Information Assay Results Hole ID Grid Line Easting Northing Elevation Azi Dip From (m) To (m) Interval (m) U3O8 weight % PLN24-169 2820S 589486 6408554 530 113 -70 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-170 150S 587940 6410726 546 58 -85 A1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-171 3345S 589633 6408013 535 55 -66 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-172 3780S 590006 6407749 539 56 -65 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-173 2850S 589230 6408338 537 55 -67 A1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-174 3075S 589596 6408116 533 15 -58 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-175 4245S 590243 6407348 543 56 -67 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-177 70S 587813 6410743 547 56 -81 199.5 212.0 12.50 0.17 inc. 210.5 211.0 0.50 1.29 PLN24-178 2535S 589250 6408365 538 54 -67 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-179 4245S 590178 6407292 542 54 -64 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-180 1125S 588192 6409710 542 54 -60 A1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-181 2880S 589301 6408383 540 79 -65 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-182 5280S 590644 6406355 539 54 -72 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-183 3240S 589414 6407983 530 54 -59 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-184 105S 587753 6410654 545 53 -62 228.5 238.0 9.50 0.73 238.0 240.5 2.50 13.72 inc. 238.0 239.0 1.00 21.65 240.5 241.5 1.00 0.05 244.5 245.0 0.50 0.05 PLN24-185 025S 587737 6410739 545 53 -66 219.5 222.5 3.00 0.19 222.5 226.0 3.50 8.16 inc. 223.0 224.0 1.00 17.70 226.0 231.0 5.00 0.34 PLN24-186 035S 587810 6410777 546 51 -79 187.0 187.5 0.50 0.08 189.5 197.0 7.50 0.33 PLN24-187 3240S 589410 6407980 531 54 -65 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-188 4140S 590100 6407369 544 54 -70 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-189 3450S 589589 6407853 540 54 -70 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-190 3360S 589752 6408087 531 54 -66 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-191 2955S 589548 6408433 531 232 -68 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-192 2895S 589364 6408432 537 94 -66 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-193 3015S 589469 6408464 530 109 -67 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 PLN24-194 2865S 589594 6408578 532 65 -66 B1 Exploration; no mineralization >0.05 Map 1. JR Zone Drill Holes with Uranium Results To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8110/258906_e3ccfb97a473a8ae_002full.jpg Map 2. Exploration Highlights To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8110/258906_e3ccfb97a473a8ae_003full.jpg Samples from the drill core are split into half sections on site. Where possible, samples are standardized at 0.5m down-hole intervals. One-half of the split sample is sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SCC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) in Saskatoon, SK while the other half remains on site for reference. Analysis includes a 63 element suite including boron by ICP-OES, uranium by ICP-MS and gold analysis by ICP-OES and/or AAS. The Company considers uranium mineralization with assay results of greater than 1.0 weight % U3O8 as "high grade" and results greater than 20.0 weight % U3O8 as "ultra-high grade". All depth measurements reported are down-hole and true thicknesses are yet to be determined. About the Patterson Lake North Project: The Company's 42,961-hectare 100% owned Patterson Lake North Project (PLN) is located just within the south-western edge of the Athabasca Basin in proximity to Paladin's Triple R and NexGen Energy's Arrow high-grade uranium deposits, an area poised to become the next major area of development for new uranium operations in northern Saskatchewan. The PLN Project consists of the 4,074-hectare Patterson Lake North Property hosting the JR Zone Uranium discovery approximately 23km northwest of Paladin's Triple R deposit, the 19,864-hectare Minto Property, and the 19,022-hectare Broach Property hosting the Tetra Zone, F3's newest discovery 13km south of the JR Zone. All three properties comprising the PLN Project are accessed by Provincial Highway 955. Qualified Person: The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and approved on behalf of the company by Raymond Ashley, P.Geo., President & COO of F3 Uranium Corp, a Qualified Person. Mr. Ashley has reviewed and approved the data disclosed. About F3 Uranium Corp.: F3 is a uranium exploration company, focusing on the high-grade JR Zone and new Tetra Zone discovery 12km to the south in the PW area on its Patterson Lake North (PLN) Project in the Western Athabasca Basin. F3 currently has 3 properties in the Athabasca Basin: Patterson Lake North, Minto, and Broach. The western side of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, is home to some of the world's largest high grade uranium deposits including Paladin's Triple R project and NexGen's Arrow project. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements regarding the suitability of the Properties for mining exploration, future payments, issuance of shares and work commitment funds, entry into of a definitive option agreement respecting the Properties, are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws. The TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange have not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release, and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Dev Randhawa" Dev Randhawa, CEO To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258906 SOURCE: F3 Uranium Corp. TORONTO, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sintana Energy Inc. (TSX-V: SEI, OTCQX: SEUSF) ("Sintana" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the following update regarding Petroleum Exploration License 79 ("PEL 79") which governs blocks 2815 and 2915 located in Namibia's Orange Basin. The joint venture partners of PEL 79 which include the National Petroleum Corporation of Namibia (Pty) Ltd. ("NAMCOR") and Giraffe Energy Investments (Pty) Ltd. ("Giraffe"), an entity in which Sintana maintains a 49% ownership interest, have been notified by the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Energy for the Republic of Namibia that a 12-month extension to the second renewal exploration period has been granted extending the current license period to July 2026. Giraffe is the owner of a 33% interest in PEL 79 and Namcor is the operator with a 67% interest. PEL 79 sits inboard of licenses operated by BW Energy, Rhino Resources and Shell. PEL 79 is attractively situated to deliver significant value through an existing prospect inventory underpinned by over 4,760 km of 2D seismic, 1,137 km2 of 3D seismic and 1 well with gas shows intersecting the Kudu source rock. Additionally, PEL 79 sits adjacent to an emerging microregional dynamic focused on oil-weighted prospectivity. Rhino Resources, operator of PEL 85 which sits directly outboard to the west of PEL 79, has drilled two wells including the Capricornus-1X discovery well which returned a flow test in excess of 11,000 barrels per day of light oil with limited associated gas from a 38-metre net oil-bearing reservoir. Additional drilling activity is expected to commence in Q3 initially targeting the Volans prospect, with up to two optional wells that could include appraisals. BW Energy has acquired 4,600 square kilometers of new 3D seismic over PEL 3, located directly west of PEL 79, and has moved to initiate an exploration and appraisal campaign including drilling the Kharas well located northwest of Kudu during H2 2025. "We appreciate the leadership by our joint venture partner NAMCOR to secure the extension for PEL 79. Extending our exposure during a period of significant offset activity positions us to fully realize the significant geologic, commercial, and strategic value of PEL 79." said Robert Bose, Chairman of Giraffe and Chief Executive Officer of Sintana. "The potential for high impact progress on PEL 79 adds to the prospect for significant developments across our Namibian offshore portfolio. We expect material progress on all our licenses over the coming quarters." he added. ABOUT SINTANA ENERGY: The Company is currently engaged in petroleum and natural gas exploration and development activities on five large, highly prospective, onshore and offshore petroleum exploration licenses in Namibia, and in Colombia's Magdalena Basin. On behalf of Sintana Energy Inc., "A. Robert Bose" Chief Executive Officer For additional information or to sign-up to receive periodic updates about Sintana's projects, and corporate activities, please visit the Company's website at www.sintanaenergy.com Corporate Contacts: Investor Relations Advisor: Robert Bose Sean J. Austin Jonathan Paterson Chief Executive Officer Vice-President Founder & Managing Partner 212-201-4125 713-825-9591 Harbor Access 475-477-9401 Forward-Looking Statements Certain information in this release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intensions for the future, and include, but not limited to, statements with respect to potential future farmout agreements on PEL 83 and/or PEL 87, and proposed future exploration and development activities on PEL 83 and/or PEL 90 and neighbouring properties, statements as to the future prospectivity of KON-16, the closing of the proposed transaction with Corcel as presently proposed or at all, the receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals, as well as the prospective nature of the Company's property interests. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including, but not limited to risks relating to the receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals, results of exploration and development activities, the ability to source joint venture partners and fund exploration, permitting and government approvals, and other risks identified in the Company's public disclosure documents from time to time. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company assumes no obligation to update such information, except as may be required by law. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8eb17490-3cee-45b5-8ff6-7e6c4d831c6b LONDON, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimeXBT , a global multi-asset broker, has been awarded the title of Best Crypto Broker in Latin America by World Finance in its 2025 awards. This recognition highlights PrimeXBT's commitment to delivering world-class service, industry-leading conditions, and a platform experience tailored to the needs of LATAM traders. The award reflects PrimeXBT's strong position in the region, where clients can access Crypto Futures and Crypto CFDs with deep liquidity, transparent pricing, and leverage of up to 200x. Through one unified ecosystem, users can trade over 150 global markets, including CFDs on Forex, Indices, Commodities, and Stocks, using crypto as collateral across PXTrader and MT5. It also features a built-in crypto exchange, secure wallets, and the ability to buy and sell crypto. With fast execution, crypto and fiat payment options, including local methods, and 24/7 multilingual customer support, PrimeXBT delivers a seamless and fully localised experience for LATAM traders. "This recognition reflects the trust our clients place in us. Being named Best Crypto Broker in Latin America shows that our approach is truly resonating with traders," said a spokesperson at PrimeXBT. "It's a testament to our ongoing focus on building innovative solutions that empower clients to gain more control of their trading, while staying deeply aligned with the needs and expectations of local markets across LATAM." As PrimeXBT continues to grow its presence in Latin America, this award underscores the company's dedication to empowering traders with powerful technology, region-specific solutions, and responsive customer care. Start trading with PrimeXBT Disclaimer: The content provided here is for informational purposes only and is not intended as personal investment advice and does not constitute a solicitation or invitation to engage in any financial transactions, investments, or related activities. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. The financial products offered by the Company are complex and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. These products may not be suitable for all investors. Before engaging, you should consider whether you understand how these leveraged products work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money. The Company does not accept clients from the Restricted Jurisdictions as indicated on its website. Some products and services, including MT5, may not be available in your jurisdiction. The applicable legal entity and its respective products and services depend on the client's country of residence and the entity with which the client has established a contractual relationship during registration. Contact Information World News Media Richard Willcox +44 (0)207 553 4151 richard@wnmedia.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/primexbt-named-best-crypto-broker-in-latin-america-by-world-finance-302505786.html Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) ("Sankamap" or the "Company") is pleased to provide assay results from the preliminary exploration program at its 24,000-hectare ("ha") Fauro Property ("Fauro"), part of its Oceania Project, located in the Shortland Islands, Western Province, Solomon Islands. The May site visit yielded a significant number of grab samples containing gold (Au) and Copper (Cu) mineralization, with assays returning values of up to 19.25 grams per tonne (g/t) Au and 4.09% Cu. CEO John Florek commented: "Confirming the historical mineralization at the Fauro property was a key objective of our recent site visit, and we are encouraged by the results. We continue to actively advance multiple epithermal prospects located around the rim of this highly mineralized caldera. "At the Kiovakase Target recent grab samples have returned multiple high-grade gold values in the double-digit g/t range; reaching up to 19.25 g/t Au; further validating the extent of gold mineralization. These encouraging results highlight the strong exploration potential on the property. "A significant development was the unexpected identification of substantial copper mineralization in recent grab samples, with grades reaching up to 4.09% Cu, alongside gold and elevated concentrations of lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and silver (Ag). This represents a meaningful advancement over previous exploration efforts, which had only reported isolated anomalous values for these additional elements. Notably, the recent sampling was conducted across a broad zone exceeding 500 metres in strike length, an area that has seen only limited historical drilling: specifically, two shallow holes completed in the 1990s. For further context, please refer to our June 17, 2025, news release and Figure 2 below. "We are excited to continue advancing these targets as we work to expand and define the mineralized zones across the project areas." Assay Sample Highlights Rock samples from Fauro yielded several high-grade gold assays, including a peak value of 19.25 g/t Au, with all sampling averaging a grade of 6.53 g/t Au Higher than historically reported copper values, up to 4.09% Cu in rock samples, potential for a porphyry target at depth Silver values are strongly associated with Au ranging from 6.3-100+ g/t Ag Elevated typical epithermal mineralization pathfinder elements present in assays including: >5900 ppm arsenic ("As") in 3 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm >5400 ppm lead ("Pb") in 2 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm >6400 ppm zinc ("Zn") in 3 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm Evidence of widespread gold across the property, confirmed through validating assays, historical exploration, and artisanal mining activities such as panning and surface excavation Discussion The Fauro Property is strategically situated along a regional copper-gold (Cu-Au) trend known for hosting major deposits, including Panguna and Lihir. Fauro shares key tectonic and geological features with both Panguna and Lihir and is situated in a largely underexplored region. (See disclaimer below and regional location map in the May 7, 2025, news release). The initial phase of the exploration program at Fauro was strategically designed to validate historical surficial assay results, engage with local communities, and evaluate terrain and logistical conditions in preparation for a forthcoming drill campaign. As part of this effort, sixteen preliminary grab samples were collected from the Kiovakase Target, one of three historically explored zones on the property (see Figure 1). Assay results returned high-grade gold values, including up to 19.25 g/t Au, along with multiple significant copper assays, reaching up to 4.09% Cu (see Figure 2 and Table 1). These results reinforce the strong mineral potential of the Fauro Property and provide compelling support for continued exploration. Figure 1: Location of target areas and historical intercepts with magnetics overlay. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11623/258978_cc32b9a554c7cb21_002full.jpg Figure 2: Highlighted recent 2025 assay results at the Kiovakase Target. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11623/258978_cc32b9a554c7cb21_003full.jpg Figure 3: Select high-grade rock samples at Kiovakase. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/11623/258978_cc32b9a554c7cb21_004full.jpg Table 1: 2025 Assay highlights at Kiovakase. Sample ID Year Easting Northing Ag (g/t) Cu_% Au (g/t) D08775 2025 174396 9240339 27.4 0.02 5.87 D08778 2025 174381 9240319 41.8 0.05 7.29 D08780 2025 174509 9240364 26.9 0.03 5.77 D08781 2025 174511 9240366 39.5 0.06 8.58 D08782 2025 174521 9240363 21.4 0.03 7.55 D08783 2025 174517 9240351 >100 4.09 1.30 D08784 2025 174514 9240347 29.1 0.13 9.93 D08785 2025 174532 9240316 14.0 0.03 7.61 D08786 2025 174528 9240300 >100 3.00 2.86 D08787 2025 174532 9240305 53.2 1.44 0.94 D08873 2025 174386 9240346 6.3 0.03 10.65 D08874 2025 174332 9240439 18.7 0.05 19.25 D08875 2025 174412 9240395 21.7 0.03 16.95 Quality Assurance and Control Procedures Sample preparation and analysis was completed at the Brisbane, Australia ALS Global Facility accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) and compliant with international standards ISO/IEC 17025. Samples were analyzed using Four acid digestion methods on 34 elements: HF-HNO3-HCIO4 acid digestion, HCL leach and ACP-AES. Gold was analyzed using the Fire Assay technique with a 50g sample under the ALS code Au-AA26. A secure chain of custody procedure was maintained in storing and transporting samples. Sankamap uses industry standards for collecting samples taken on the Fauro property, internal quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) procedures were followed by ALS. Next Steps - 2025 Exploration Historical exploration including drilling, surface sampling, and geophysics at the Fauro Property have identified multiple near-surface, epithermal-style gold systems with strong potential for an underlying porphyry system. Rock samples collected at the Kiovakase target during an initial site visit in May 2025 validated the presence of significant Au and Cu mineralization at surface. A phased exploration program is slated to commence in late 2025, initially concentrating on systematic sampling to verify historical surface data. These findings will guide a follow-up geophysical survey (if necessary) targeting the conductive and resistive signatures characteristic of porphyry and epithermal mineral systems. The integration of geophysical data with existing exploration results will aid in designing a focused drilling campaign. This program will seek to validate and build upon historical drill results while testing extensions of mineralization that remain open at depth and along strike. *Disclaimer: References to the Lihir and Panguna deposits are provided solely to illustrate the potential scale of mineralization that could exist in similar geological settings. These references are not intended to imply that mineralization of similar type, size, or grade is present on Sankamap's property. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on Sankamap's property, and it is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the delineation of a mineral resource. Not all historical information including, but not limited to magnetic survey data, QAQC procedures, lab assay certificates for historical exploration and sampling is available to Sankamap, historical exploration was in quarterly, annual and press releases. About Sankamap Metals Inc. Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) is a Canadian mineral exploration company dedicated to the discovery and development of high-grade copper and gold deposits through its flagship Oceania Project, located in the South Pacific. The Company's fully permitted assets are strategically positioned in the Solomon Islands, along a prolific geological trend that hosts major copper-gold deposits; including Newcrest's Lihir Mine, with a resource of 71.9 million ounces of gold (310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred). Exploration is actively advancing at both the Kuma and Fauro properties, part of Sankamap's Oceania Project in the Solomon Islands. Historical work has already highlighted the mineral potential of both sites, which lie along a highly prospective copper and gold-bearing trend, suggesting the possibility of further, yet-to-be-discovered deposits. At Kuma, the property is believed to host an underexplored and largely untested porphyry copper-gold (Cu-Au) system. Historical rock chip sampling has returned consistently elevated gold values above 0.5 g/t Au, including a standout sample assaying 11.7% Cu and 13.5 g/t Au2; underscoring the area's significant potential. At Fauro, particularly at the Meriguna Target, historical trenching has returned highly encouraging results, including 8.0 meters at 27.95 g/t Au and 14.0 meters at 8.94 g/t Au3. Complementing these results are exceptional grab sample assays, including historical values of up to 173 g/t Au3, along with recent sampling by Sankamap at the Kiovakase Target, which returned numerous high-grade copper values, reaching up to 4.09% Cu. In addition, limited historical shallow drilling intersected 35.0 meters at 2.08 g/t Au3, further underscoring the property's strong mineral potential and the merit for continued exploration. With a commitment to systematic exploration and a team of experienced professionals, Sankamap aims to unlock the untapped potential of underexplored regions and create substantial value for its shareholders. For more information, please refer to SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca), under Sankamap's profile. 1. Newcrest Technical Report, 2020 (Lihir: 310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred) 2. Historical grab, soil and BLEG samples from SolGold Kuma Review June 2015, and SolGold plc Annual Report 2013/2012 3. September 2010-June 2012 press releases from Solomon Gold Ltd. and SolGold Fauro Island Summary Technical Info 2012 QP Disclosure The technical content for the Oceania Project in this news release has been reviewed and approved by John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol., a Qualified Person in accordance with CIM guidelines. Mr. John Florek is in good standing with the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (Member ID:1228) and a director and officer of the Company. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS s/ "John Florek" John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol Chief Executive Officer Sankamap Metals Inc. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved this press release. Forward-Looking Statements Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws including, without limitation, the timing, nature, scope and details regarding the Company's exploration plans and results at its projects. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258978 SOURCE: Sankamap Metals Inc. SHENZHEN, China, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Akko, a global innovator in mechanical keyboards, proudly announces the release of the ISO layout version of its award-winning MOD 007 HE Year of the Dragon Magnetic Switch Keyboard. Now available in German, French, and UK layouts, this release brings one of Akko's most celebrated designs to a broader European audience. Originally launched in ANSI layout, the Dragon Year keyboard was recognized with the Omdia Innovation Award at IFA Berlin 2024, one of the world's leading consumer electronics events. The keyboard draws deep inspiration from the Qinglong, a mythological creature representing strength, renewal, and Eastern wisdom. Its bold visual identity includes a three-tone anodized aluminum case with laser-engraved dragon-scale textures, and dye-sublimated keycaps featuring a powerful dragon in flight - creating a stunning fusion of traditional Chinese culture and modern industrial aesthetics. Functionally, this version also marks the first ISO release of Akko's proprietary Astrolink Magnetic Switches, engineered to deliver precise, real-time input. With features such as adjustable actuation and reset points, Rapid Trigger, and SOCD , the keyboard is optimized for both competitive gaming and everyday productivity and it offers deep customization and responsiveness tailored to individual preferences. To ensure a seamless user experience, the keyboard comes pre-packaged with extra French and UK ISO keycap sets, as well as a Mac-compatible kit, allowing for full plug-and-play compatibility across operating systems - without any additional purchases required. As Akko approaches its brand anniversary in August 2025, the company is preparing to expand its mythology-inspired collection with the upcoming MOD Alice Year of Snake. Inspired by Xuanwu, the legendary Black Tortoise of Chinese lore symbolizing protection and wisdom, the keyboard features the ergonomic Alice layout and Mechanical switch technology, continuing Akko's signature blend of culture and engineering. Alongside its limited editions, Akko is also developing two new premium product lines: the Gem and Mineral series. Positioned in the mid-to-high-end segment, these collections focus on advanced materials, elegant design, and performance-driven features aimed at serious enthusiasts and professional users alike. About Akko Founded in 2016, Akko redefines PC peripherals by combining pop culture, craftsmanship, and engineering excellence. Known for its custom mechanical switches, vibrant keycap collections, and artistic flair, Akko products are sold in over 50 countries and loved by keyboard enthusiasts worldwide. For more information, Visit akkogear.de, akkogear.eu, and its sub-brand site monsgeek.eu. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731062/Akko_MOD_007_HE_YOD_V2_Banner_3200_1600.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/akko-releases-iso-version-of-dragon-year-magnetic-switch-keyboard-302504919.html TEL AVIV, Israel and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CADY, the pioneer in AI-powered copilot for electrical schematics, today announced a strategic agreement with SiliconExpert, a global authority in electronic component data and supply chain intelligence. Together, the companies aim to revolutionize how engineers design and analyze circuits-by combining automatic AI-driven copilot with real-time, component-level intelligence. CADY's platform automates the manual process of designing and reviewing electrical schematics by identifying errors, risks, and inefficiencies in real time - as well as generating design suggestions and best practice recommendations based on accumulated "Tribal Knowledge" collected of its global community of expert users. By integrating SiliconExpert's vast component database directly into this process, engineers can now receive instant insights on obsolescence, compliance, and sourcing risks-all within their design environment. "This partnership brings component insight to the heart of circuit design," said Gilad Shapira, CEO of CADY. "Our AI copilots schematic design, and with SiliconExpert's data embedded, engineers get not only functional analysis but also real-time component insights, all in one place" About CADY CADY is redefining hardware design with AI-powered schematic copilot that automatically detects errors, risks, and inefficiencies before those become costly problems, and generates design suggestions and best practice recommendations to refine and perfect the design. With zero setup required, CADY helps engineers design smarter, validate instantly, and reduce development cycles dramatically. Learn more at www.cadysolutions.com Media Contact: Michal Minitzer Head of Marketing, CADY info@cadysolutions.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731763/CADY_Solutions.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/cady-and-siliconexpert-announce-strategic-agreement-to-its-ai-driven-schematic-copilot-with-intelligent-component-insights-302506526.html SHENZHEN, China, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Huawei held the 2025 Global Education and Healthcare Partner China Convention. Over 300 partner guests from 40 countries attended. At the event, Huawei launched the Global Education and Healthcare Partner Alliance (GEHPA). This initiative aims to strengthen communication with industry partners, leverage mutual strengths, achieve win-win cooperation, and ultimately build a high-quality, sustainable industry ecosystem. Members of the alliance can jointly undertake technical research and develop innovative solutions to power the digital transformation of education and healthcare worldwide. Education and healthcare are greatly impacted by the rapid development of AI technologies and applications. Ernest Zhang, President of Partner Development and Commercial & Distribution Business Dept in Huawei Enterprise Sales Dept, stated that Huawei is committed to fully supporting its partners with enhanced capabilities, collaborative innovation, and a superior partnership experience. The goal is to ensure that more partners thrive through the cooperation, jointly serve the hundreds of thousands of education and healthcare customers worldwide, and build a more beautiful future for these industries in the age of AI. Li Junfeng, Vice President of Huawei and CEO of Global Public Sector BU, stated out that the education and healthcare sectors are at the forefront of the global digital and intelligent transformation. Huawei is eager to work with partners to build a friendly, win-win, and sustainable global partner ecosystem. They will do this by creating joint solutions, nurturing industry ecosystems, setting benchmarks, and innovating cooperation models. Peter Zhou, Vice President of Huawei and President of the Data Storage Product Line, stated that the healthcare industry's vast accumulation of high-quality data is key to leading AI implementation in the sector. He then proposed four initiatives: promoting standardized healthcare data and management, building shared intelligent diagnostic and treatment data infrastructure across departments and multiple hospital campuses, facilitating the tool-based and standardized development of data and model engineering, and accelerating the creation and adoption of sound AI diagnostic and treatment business models to foster a positive cycle. Moving forward, Huawei plans to strengthen global collaborations, consistently innovating and applying new technologies in education and healthcare to address changing market needs. At the same time, Huawei will also commit to driving the high-quality development of the GEHPA, contributing to the sustainable growth of global education and healthcare. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731417/1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2731418/2.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/huawei-launches-global-education-and-healthcare-partner-alliance-to-unleash-value-in-industry-ecosystem-302506651.html F1 Driver Oliver Bearman Leads the Way, Joined by 10 KOLs and 18 Real Users to Share Authentic Crypto Trading Stories VICTORIA, Seychelles, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Zoomex, the fastest-growing digital asset trading platform globally, officially partners with Haas F1 Team to launch a global brand interview series Engine On: Zoomex Haas Interview Season. The campaign brings together real users and professional traders in in-depth conversations, aiming to build a co-creative content ecosystem and rebuild the authentic connection between trading platforms and user trust. The first episode features rising F1 driver Oliver Bearman, who shares his journey from F2 to F1, his goals for his first full season, and his two-year partnership with Zoomex. When asked about the similarities between racing and crypto trading, Oliver Bearman said: "I'd compare my driving style to Zoomex's trading engine - sub-10ms reaction time. On the track or in the markets, victory often comes down to that split-second decision and execution." Zoomex commented that this dialogue sets the tone for the series "rapid execution meets authentic judgment" and deepens the content-level value of its ongoing collaboration with Haas. By drawing parallels between motorsport and crypto trading behavior, the campaign sparks strong user resonance. In addition to this race-centric episode, Engine On: Zoomex Haas Interview Season unfolds across two key storytelling threads: 10 globally influential KOLs in the crypto trading space share insights on on-chain trends, trading strategies, and platform experiences. in the crypto trading space share insights on on-chain trends, trading strategies, and platform experiences. 18 real Zoomex users, grouped in trios by language, participate in online interviews to discuss why they chose Zoomex, their trading logic, and user experience. All participants are verified Zoomex users, ensuring authenticity and representativeness. Zoomex defines this initiative as an attempt at "co-created brand storytelling", using the user's perspective to establish deeper trust mechanisms with the platform. The interview series will be released in multiple languages, covering major crypto communities in Japan, Korea, Europe, and Latin America. Through localized storytelling and embedded community engagement, Zoomex aims to further enhance its brand presence in regional markets. As of Q2 2025, Zoomex has surpassed 3 million registered users, supports over 500 trading pairs, and operates across 35+ countries and regions. Known for its "simplicity ease of use lightning-fast execution", Zoomex has built a strong reputation among global crypto traders. In an increasingly noisy and homogeneous crypto landscape, Zoomex chooses to respond to users' core concerns through slow, high-trust content giving real users and thought leaders the space to voice their reasons for choosing Zoomex. "We want to return the question 'Why Zoomex?' back to our users - through longer-term, more authentic content formats. The platform is no longer just a slogan broadcaster, but a builder of shared conviction." With new episodes rolling out weekly, Zoomex Haas Interview Season marks the platform's evolution from a tool-based product to a resonance-driven brand - building trust through content, and winning user loyalty at every trading decision point. Event details: https://www.zoomex.com/en/promotion/Interview/ About ZOOMEX: Founded in 2021, Zoomex is a global cryptocurrency trading platform that follows the core values of "simplicity ease of use speed." The platform is dedicated to providing users with high-performance, low-barrier trading experiences. Zoomex optimizes both its matching engine and user interaction processes, supporting millisecond-level command responses, and significantly enhancing usability through a minimalist interface. With flexible identity verification mechanisms and a free trading system, Zoomex is building a faster, safer, and more accessible trading environment for users worldwide. Media contact Contact: Catherine Company: Zoomex Address: 306 Victoria House, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles Website: www.zoomex.com Email: catherine.shi@zoomex.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/zoomex-and-haas-f1-launch-global-interview-series-engine-on-zoomex-O-haas-interview-season-302506662.html TAMPA, FL / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) continues to execute on its strategy to leverage market access and announced today that its new blending, storage and distribution plant in Palmeirante, Tocantins, Brazil, will begin operations this month. An inauguration ceremony, hosted by Mosaic Executive Vice President, Commercial Jenny Wang, is being held today with state and local officials. The plant increases blending capacity and expands Mosaic's presence in the fast-growing northern region of Brazil. With a capacity to process 1 million tonnes of fertilizer annually, and approximately 500,000 tonnes in 2025, the Palmeirante facility will be a key contributor to Mosaic's ambitious growth plans in Brazil. Distribution sales are expected to grow from less than 8 million tonnes in 2024 to 13-14 million tonnes by the end of the decade. The $84 million investment in the Palmeirante facility has been completed on time and within budget. The facility is expected to earn a margin of $30-$40 per tonne-generating an anticipated internal rate of return in excess of 20 percent and demonstrating the company's commitment to capital allocation execution and reallocation in pursuit of strong shareholder returns. "The inauguration of our new plant in Palmeirante represents meaningful progress for Mosaic," said Executive Vice President, Commercial Jenny Wang. "Brazil is an agricultural powerhouse, and Mosaic has been a leader in the market for many years. We are providing farmers in the MATOPIBA region with more efficient access to the fertilizers they need and expanding Mosaic's presence in a key growing region." The facility includes significant warehouse capacity, automated blending and bagging systems, and a direct rail connection to the port of Itaqui-reducing logistics costs and providing state-of-the-art quality control technology. About The Mosaic Company The Mosaic Company is one of the world's leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. Through its Mosaic Biosciences platform, the company is also advancing the next generation biological solutions to help farmers improve nutrient use efficiency and crop performance sustainably. Mosaic provides a single-source supply of phosphate, potash, and biological products for the global agriculture industry. More information on the company is available at www.mosaicco.com. Contacts: Investors: Media: Jason Tremblay, 813-775-4282 Ben Pratt, 813-775-4206 jason.tremblay@mosaicco.com benjamin.pratt@mosaicco.com Joan Tong, CFA, 863-640-0826 joan.tong@mosaicco.com This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, but are not limited to, statements about future transactions or strategic plans and other statements about future financial and operating results. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of The Mosaic Company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties include,but are not limited to: political and economic instability and changes in government policies in countries in which we have operations; the predictability and volatility of, and customer expectations about, agriculture, fertilizer, raw material, energy and transportation markets that are subject to competitive and other pressures and economic and credit market conditions; the level of inventories in the distribution channels for crop nutrients; the effect of future product innovations or development of new technologies on demand for our products; changes in foreign currency and exchange rates; international trade risks, including the impact of U.S. tariffs and retaliatory tariffs on economic conditions; and other risks associated with Mosaic's international operations; changes in government policy; changes in environmental and other governmental regulation, including expansion of the types and extent of water resources regulated under federal law, carbon taxes or other greenhouse gas regulation, further developments in judicial or administrative proceedings, or complaints that Mosaic's operations are adversely impacting nearby farms, business operations or properties; difficulties or delays in receiving, increased costs of or challenges to necessary governmental permits or approvals or increased financial assurance requirements; the effectiveness of Mosaic's processes for managing its strategic priorities; adverse weather conditions affecting operations in Central Florida, the Mississippi River basin, the Gulf Coast of the United States, Canada or Brazil, and including potential hurricanes, excess heat, cold, snow, rainfall or drought; actual costs of various items differing from management's current estimates, including, among others, asset retirement, environmental remediation, reclamation or other environmental regulation, reduction of Mosaic's available cash and liquidity, and increased leverage, due to its use of cash and/or available debt capacity to fund financial assurance requirements and strategic investments; brine inflows at Mosaic's potash mines; other accidents and disruptions involving Mosaic's operations, including plant outages and down time, potential mine fires, floods, explosions, seismic events, sinkholes or releases of hazardous or volatile chemicals; and risks associated with cyber security, including reputational loss; as well as other risks and uncertainties reported from time to time in The Mosaic Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. SOURCE: The Mosaic Company View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/food-and-beverage-products/mosaic-opens-new-facility-in-palmeirante-brazil-1049066 The state-of-the-art lab will help accelerate enterprise transformation leveraging SAP's Business AI, data, and cloud solutions, along with Infosys Cobalt and Infosys Topaz BENGALURU, India, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced the launch of the Infosys Enterprise Innovation Lab for SAP Solutions at Infosys' premises in Dusseldorf, Germany. As part of the collaboration between Infosys and SAP, this lab is designed to enable enterprises to explore the limitless possibilities of AI and data, co-create tailored solutions that address their business challenges, and accelerate the adoption of cutting-edge Infosys and SAP offerings. Leveraging SAP Business AI, the SAP Business Data Cloud solution, and the RISE with SAP journey, along with Infosys Cobalt, a set of services, solutions and platforms for enterprises to help accelerate their cloud journey, and Infosys Topaz, an AI-first offering using generative AI technologies, the collaboration aims to help businesses inspire, ideate, prototype, and leapfrog their AI, cloud, and digital journeys. Working closely with SAP, Infosys is revolutionizing the approach for business transformation by offering a collaborative and informative workspace where organizations can ideate on integrating enterprise-wide data to fuel AI-based solutions. This lab will help enable organizations to envision solutions to help improve financial performance, enhance operational efficiency, risk mitigation, decision-making facilitated by real-time data insights, and elevate compliance and security. Solutions from the Enterprise Innovation Lab in Dusseldorf will also be available across Infosys' global network of over 12 Living Labs. Key highlights of the Infosys Enterprise Innovation Lab for SAP Solutions: Tangible Experience : Offers access to Infosys Topaz and SAP Business AI to discover possibilities and develop practical applications. : Offers access to Infosys Topaz and SAP Business AI to discover possibilities and develop practical applications. Co-creation and Innovate Provides a collaborative space for customers and experts to co-create AI solutions tailored to specific business needs. Provides a collaborative space for customers and experts to co-create AI solutions tailored to specific business needs. Strategy Development : Creates a foundation for designing AI and data strategies that achieve business goals through clear plans and use cases. : Creates a foundation for designing AI and data strategies that achieve business goals through clear plans and use cases. Data-driven Architecture : Helps combine enterprise-wide data using SAP Business Data Cloud to unlock its full potential. : Helps combine enterprise-wide data using SAP Business Data Cloud to unlock its full potential. Rapid Prototyping and Scaling: Enables fast-tracking of prototype creation and transform them into scalable and fully integrated AI and data solutions. Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery, said, "In today's fast-changing world, staying ahead requires faster, more flexible transformations with lasting value. With AI-powered innovation and seamless cloud adoption, businesses can shift from reactive to proactive strategies. Thus, we are delighted to collaborate with Infosys on the Enterprise Innovation Lab, embodying our shared commitment to empowering businesses with pioneering AI & Data solutions. Having received the RISE with SAP Validated Partner recognition, Infosys leverages its profound expertise in cloud transformations, empowering our joint customers to seize new opportunities and foster innovation by strategically integrating SAP solutions." Dinesh Rao, EVP - Chief Delivery Officer, Infosys, said, "Enterprises seeking to embrace new SAP solutions can significantly accelerate their transformation journey by overcoming adoption and integration hurdles. The Infosys Enterprise Innovation Lab for SAP Solutions at our Dusseldorf office provides a collaborative space to develop tailored solutions. By harnessing the capabilities of Infosys Topaz and Infosys Cobalt, we aim to empower businesses to leverage the full potential of cloud, data, and AI and benefit from tangible business outcomes such as enhanced efficiency, improved decision-making, significant cost savings, and future-readiness." With over 25 years of expertise in SAP software transformation, consulting, technology, and a comprehensive suite of tools and accelerators, Infosys is collaborating with SAP to develop cloud and AI solutions across industries. Building on this strong foundation, the lab will help accelerate business transformation by enabling organizations to harness the full potential of emerging technologies and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving business landscape. Trademark SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. About Infosys: Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. Over 320,000 of our people work to amplify human potential and create the next opportunity for people, businesses, and communities. We enable clients in more than 59 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer clients, as they navigate their digital transformation powered by cloud and AI. We enable them with an AI-first core, empower the business with agile digital at scale and drive continuous improvement with always-on learning through the transfer of digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem. We are deeply committed to being a well-governed, environmentally sustainable organization where diverse talent thrives in an inclusive workplace. Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE, BSE, NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next. Safe Harbor Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, or our future financial or operating performance, are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding the execution of our business strategy, increased competition for talent, our ability to attract and retain personnel, increase in wages, investments to reskill our employees, our ability to effectively implement a hybrid work model, economic uncertainties and geo-political situations, technological disruptions and innovations such as artificial intelligence ("AI"), generative AI, the complex and evolving regulatory landscape including immigration regulation changes, our ESG vision, our capital allocation policy and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, liquidity, capital resources, our corporate actions including acquisitions, and cybersecurity matters. Important factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to differ from those implied by the forward-looking statements are discussed in more detail in our US Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/4364085/Infosys_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/infosys-to-launch-enterprise-innovation-lab-for-sap-solutions-in-dusseldorf-germany-302506672.html - Achieves decisive victory in key scientific benchmarks, delivering highly practical and experimentally testable ideas with unparalleled cost-efficiency. Global commercial launch slated for Q3 2025, leveraging an existing platform of 170,000 researchers. In the global race to create an 'AI Scientist' capable of independent scientific discovery, Korean startup Pluto Labs is making significant waves. While tech giants like Google and Anthropic define competitive strength by sheer computing power, Pluto Labs introduces 'Scinapse AI,' a groundbreaking model that develops a more effective AI Scientist at just one-tenth of the usual computational cost, achieving overwhelming performance against top models in blind evaluations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715211709/en/ GRAPH: Scientific Idea Generation Performance Comparison Scinapse AI vs. Google Gemini 2.5 Pro vs. Claude Opus 4 (Evaluation conducted by Pluto Labs) Pluto Labs pioneers a 'Strategic Efficiency' architecture, mirroring how human scientists optimize research. Instead of brute-force computing (like Google's 'Co-scientist'), Scinapse AI smartly delegates inefficient tasks, such as sifting through vast data, to its existing Scinapse academic search system (used by 170,000 researchers). This allows the AI to focus exclusively on creative reasoning and generating new ideas, leading to unparalleled practicality and cost-efficiency. Scinapse AI's superior performance was proven in blind evaluations judged by direct competitors' AI models (OpenAI O3, Anthropic's Claude 4 Opus, and Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro). Scinapse AI consistently ranked #1 in 'Plausibility' (how realistic and sound an idea is) and 'Testability' (how easily an idea can be experimentally validated) across 61 diverse scientific topics. This confirms Scinapse AI delivers "real scientific hypotheses that are practical to implement and can be experimentally validated within 3-5 years," a significant leap from 'plausible fiction' to 'actionable scientific research.' Pluto Labs has developed a robust system to eliminate AI 'hallucinations' (false information), a critical barrier in scientific AI. All Scinapse AI ideas are strictly grounded in a database of 260 million academic papers. The system dynamically refines searches for highly accurate data and rigorously cross-references ideas against the database to guarantee genuine novelty, identifying truly new scientific insights. "It provides the most complete answer to the question that challenges researchers most: 'Is this idea truly new?'" said Professor Changshin Jo of POSTECH. "The AI completes a literature review in minutes that would take a human researcher days or weeks, and with higher accuracy. This is not just an idea-generation tool; it's an innovation that fundamentally changes the starting point of research planning." With cumulative funding of 5 billion KRW (~$3.6M USD), Pluto Labs is uniquely positioned to disrupt the global 'AI Scientist' race. Its 'efficiency' and 'practicality' approach, combined with its established Scinapse platform, sets it apart. "The fact that a small Korean startup has proven superior to Google in an objective benchmark is more than just a technical achievement-it's a symbolic event for innovative leadership," said Simon Kim, CEO of Hashed. "It demonstrates that success in advanced AI can be achieved through creative problem-solving and strategic design, not just infinite capital. This is a significant milestone that points to the future direction for the global AI ecosystem, suggesting a new path for AI agent development." Scinapse AI is slated for official global launch in Q3 2025. About Pluto Labs: Pluto Labs is a Seoul-based Research Intelligence service company founded in 2019 that specializes in AI-powered scientific research tools. The company operates Scinapse, a comprehensive academic search platform used by over 170,000 researchers worldwide. Scinapse AI, launching in Q3 2025, is a next-generation AI scientist system that generates research ideas with high scientific validity through a hybrid AI architecture while maintaining cost efficiency. The company has raised a cumulative 5 billion KRW (~$3.6M USD) in funding from investors including Hashed, JB Investment, HG Initiative, and POSCO Investment. Pluto Labs is committed to leading global research innovation through accessible AI solutions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715211709/en/ Contacts: Media Contact: Pluto Labs Email: press@plutolabs.com Phone: +82-10-2644-5399 New Trains on the Sengkang-Punggol LRT (Photo courtesy of SBS Transit LTD) TOKYO, July 16, 2025 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has completed delivery of the first trains for a project to enhance the transport capacity of the Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) system(1) used on the Sengkang-Punggol Light Rapid Transit (SPLRT)(2) network serving the northeast area of Singapore, based on an order received jointly with MHI's regional subsidiary Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MHI-AP) and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) in 2022 from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) of Singapore.(3)First two new trains were delivered and began commercial operation on July 15. On the same day, LTA hosted a ceremony to commemorate the commencement of commercial operations, attended by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong. MHI group will plan for sequentially deliver a total of 25 trains by 2028.The new trains retain the similar exterior design as the existing trains. In addition, our married-pair trains have achieved optimization of onboard equipment such as signaling system. The driver's cab inside the vehicle is equipped with a touch panel that allows settings to be adjusted for each piece of equipment. Further, MHI responded to various requests from the operator for improvements, such as continually accumulating vehicle information during operation and utilizing this data to enhance the speed of maintenance and troubleshooting.The population of the Sengkang and Punggol areas is growing rapidly, and the number of users of the SPLRT is increasing. Expectations for this project are high among the people involved and the surrounding residents. MHI based on their track record of stable operation and after-sales service since the start of operations, will steadily implement the project.MHI Group will continue to contribute to the world through services that support the comfortable and safe transport of people and goods.(1)Automated Guideway Transit (AGT) is an electric power-driven, fully automated transportation system. A key feature is the rubber-tired carriages that provide a smooth ride with low noise. AGT is used around the world for intra-city transportation, and moving people through airports and to surrounding areas.(2)Conventionally, LRT is used as the abbreviation of "Light Rail Transit," but in the case of Singapore's Sengkang-Punggol LRT, the "R" refers to "Rapid" in accordance with that network's high-speed operation.(3)For more information on the Sengkang-Punggol LRT transport capacity enhancement project, see the following press releases.https://www.mhi.com/news/220217.htmlhttps://www.mhi.com/news/23050901.htmlAbout Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MHI-AP)Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. (MHI-AP) is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), one of the world's leading industrial firms. Located in Singapore, the Asia Pacific headquarters supports the growth of markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Australia and other parts of the region. MHI-AP builds on its global outlook and deep local insights to deliver integrated solutions to the region in urban development and infrastructure, energy and utilities, as well as logistics and transportation. As a market leader in Asia Pacific, MHI-AP provides reliable and innovative solutions that move the world forward. For more information, visit www.mhi.com/.About MHI GroupMitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group is one of the world's leading industrial groups, spanning energy, smart infrastructure, industrial machinery, aerospace and defense. MHI Group combines cutting-edge technology with deep experience to deliver innovative, integrated solutions that help to realize a carbon neutral world, improve the quality of life and ensure a safer world. For more information, please visit www.mhi.com or follow our insights and stories on spectra.mhi.comSource: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.Copyright 2025 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. (TSXV: CHS) ("CHS" or the "Company"), a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider revolutionizing healthcare benefits administration, is pleased to announce key milestones achieved during the first half of 2025 and provide an update on its status and future growth strategy. Through its innovative Novus 360 platform, CHS continues to drive efficiency, transparency, and cost savings for Insurance Providers, Self-funded Employers, Hospitals, Third Party Administrators, Pension Funds and Taft-Hartley Multi-Employer Unions across North America. Key 2025 Milestones and Achievements Major client wins & a robust business development pipeline: To support strong revenue growth for next 3 years. Active discussions at different stages with over 50 prospective clients. Financial Turnaround resulting in positive EBIDTA: Net loss improved to US$ 0.6M with positive cash from operations of US$ 0.37M for the full year 2024 against a net loss of US$ 3.6M during 2023. (Source: Audited Financial Statement for years 2023 and 2024) Shares Consolidation and shares for debt transactions to strengthen the balance sheet Addition of technology resources and enhancement of core Novus 360 Platform to scale growth 1. Major Client Wins Boost Revenue In Q1 2025, CHS secured a multi-year contract with a prominent Midwest self-funded employer, adding 10,000 members to the Novus 360 platform. This was followed up in early Q2 2025 with the signing of an agreement with a Northeast Taft-Hartley union, collectively driving a 20% year-over-year revenue increase. These newly contracted partnerships, along with a strong pipeline for additional new clients underscore the platform's scalability and appeal in a fragmented benefits technology market. 2. Financial Turnaround Achieved CHS reported positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2024, sustained into Q1 2025, marking a significant milestone in its "Pathway to Profitability" strategy. Monthly cash burn dropped to near-breakeven from USD 300,000 in Q3 2023, supported by a 30% reduction in vendor costs through internalized technology development and a June 2025 shares-for-debt transaction that strengthened the balance sheet. 3. Novus 360 Platform Enhancements In Q2 2025, CHS is preparing to launch advanced AI-driven features for Novus 360, including an enhanced automated workflow engine to quickly allow clients to configure new workflows and rules; predictive analytics for cost containment and blockchain-based claims verification to combat fraud and AI Agent technology for its digital engagement solutions. These enhancements, coupled with HIPAA, SOC 2, and HITRUST certifications, position the platform as a leader in compliance and innovation, helping clients to automate up to 85% of the claims adjudication process. 4. Leadership Team Expansion CHS plans to appoint a Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Technology Officer during the second half of 2025, enhancing its ability to drive sales and innovate. The strengthened leadership team will be focused on accelerating client acquisitions and advancing platform capabilities to meet 2025 regulatory and market demand. Current Status CHS is experiencing steady growth and has built a strong foundation to achieve accelerated growth during the second half of 2025 and beyond. Operating through subsidiaries such as Health Plan Systems, Inc. and Sterling Health Services Inc., the Company serves a diverse client base across the U.S. A robust pipeline of over 50 prospective clients and active discussions with institutional investors for growth capital signal strong momentum. CHS's focus on cost discipline, client success, and strategic investments has positioned it as a competitive player in the USD 3.1 billion Benefits and Pension Administration technology software and services market. Future Outlook, Initiatives & Catalysts CHS is poised for transformative growth in 2025 and beyond, leveraging industry tailwinds and its unique market position. Key initiatives include: Organic Growth Acceleration: CHS plans to double its sales team by Q4 2025, targeting mid-sized employers, third party administrators, pension administrators and multi-employer unions to achieve 25% to 50% revenue growth in 2026. Enhanced client support, including 24/7 service and tailored onboarding, will drive retention and upsells. Strategic Acquisitions: The Company is pursuing two to three strategic acquisitions by mid-2026, integrating clients onto Novus 360 to expand scale and cross-selling opportunities. Technological Innovation: Q3 2025 will see further Novus 360 enhancements, including a mobile-first member portal with Agentic AI integration for stronger member engagement along with real-time price transparency, aligning with consumer demand for accessible care and compliance with the Transparency in Coverage Legislation. Market Leadership: CHS's fully integrated platform differentiates it from legacy competitors, positioning it to capture greater market share. Alignment with Global Trends: CHS is capitalizing on digital health trends, including interoperability, cost transparency, and cybersecurity, as highlighted by recent CMS and WHO reports, to deliver value in a dynamic healthcare landscape. CEO Commentary "CHS is on a transformative journey in this multi-billion dollar healthcare benefits and pension administration software and service solutions market, says Comprehensive Healthcare's CEO, Chris Cosgrove. Our Novus 360 platform drives efficiency and transparency which is fueling major client wins, positive EBITDA and AI-powered innovation in Q2 2025. With a robust prospect pipeline, strategic acquisitions and a strengthened leadership team, CHS is poised for exponential growth and market leadership, delivering exceptional value to both our clients and shareholders." The Company also announces that it will conduct a shares for debt (SFD) settlement of up to $600,000 through the issue of up to one million shares at a deemed price of $0.60. The Debt Settlement remains subject to the receipt of all necessary regulatory and TSX Venture Exchange approvals, as the case may be. All securities issued in connection with the Debt Settlement will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the date of issuance. About Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. is a corporation incorporated under the laws of the Province of Alberta and is the parent company of Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. (Delaware). The Company is a vertically integrated software as a services (SaaS) company focused on digitizing healthcare with Healthcare Benefits Administration solutions, providing reliable and high-volume transaction-capable systems. The Company's state-of-the-art Novus 360 Healthcare Welfare and Benefits Administration (HWBA) SaaS platform is used by clients for all aspects of healthcare benefits administration (including self-funded employers, providers, and labor unions), providing healthcare administrative software and technology-enabled services. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: The press release contains "forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "budget", "believe", "project", "estimate", "expect", "scheduled", "forecast", "strategy", "future", "likely", "may", "to be", "could", "would", "should", "will" and similar references to future periods or the negative or comparable terminology, as well as terms usually used in the future and conditional. These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions as of the date they are provided. However, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors that could cause the Company's actual results and financial conditions to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important risk factors that could cause actual results and financial conditions to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements, include among others: general economic, market and business conditions in Canada and globally; market volatility; unforeseen delays in timelines for any of the transactions or events described in this press release; and the risk of regulatory changes that may impact the business of the Company. All forward-looking information is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking statement or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events, or developments, except as required by law. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258975 SOURCE: Comprehensive Healthcare Systems Inc. Vancouver, Kelowna, and Delta, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Investorideas.com, a global investor news source covering mining and metals stocks issues a snapshot of fully permitted, pre-production gold and silver miner ESGold Corp. (CSE: ESAU) (OTCQB: ESAUF) (FSE: Z7D) and its strategy from its founding fifteen years ago, to minimize risk for its shareholders. ESGold Gold-Silver Project To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6292/258907_bf4ae729a498ab0b_001full.jpg The Management From choosing a property that could fast-track to production, to attracting the right management, to a funding strategy that was less dilutive, founder and former CEO, Paul Mastantuono, embedded the philosophy of protecting the shareholders from inception into the Company. Mastantuono now continues to serve as Chairman of the Board while also taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer. Mastantuono told Investorideas.com in a recent Exploring Mining Podcast that, "In 2010 we put together a group of family/friends investors with an idea of building an asset that we could fast-track and get a mining project up and running into production; creating value for shareholders for a long time." Taking his vision to a pivotal point nearing production, Mastantuono, thinking as a shareholder, felt it was the right time to bring a leader on board that could take the company to the next level. New CEO, Gordon Robb, possesses more than ten years of expertise in investment banking, fixed income trading, and capital markets within the mining sector. Most recently, he held the position of Business Development and Investor Relations Manager at Scottie Resources (TSXV: SCOT.V), where he played a pivotal role in securing funding for the company and driving effective shareholder communication strategies. Previously, Robb occupied senior positions at prominent global financial firms, including ICAP in Hong Kong, BGC Partners (once a division of Cantor Fitzgerald), and the TMX Group. In these roles, he managed complex fixed income instruments for major institutional clients worldwide. His career has taken him to key financial hubs, including Hong Kong, London, New York, and Dubai, placing him at the forefront of global capital markets and international investment activities. Gordon Robb also shares the shareholder philosophy of Paul Mastantuono, a lesson deeply rooted in his years at Scottie Resources. He recently shared with host Cali Van Zant on an Exploring Mining Podcast, "I was very fortunate to work with Scottie Resources and the CEO, Brad Rourke. Brad was an investor first and saw how money was being spent and ended up taking over the company. To see a company run by an investor, worried about dilution, making sure the shareholders were put first consistently, is a skill I plan on taking forward with ESGold." ESGold also announced the addition of Mr. Peter Espig to the Board of Directors in May as part of its production strategy moving forward. Espig is an experienced capital markets and mining executive with a proven history of success in project financing, corporate restructuring, and guiding junior companies to become cash-flow positive producers. The Property Montauban, situated 80 km west of Quebec City, serves as a model for redeveloping legacy sites into cash-flow-generating projects throughout North America. Talking about its Gold-Silver Project and the risk strategy in choosing it, Mastantuono said, "We wanted to focus on a very different model. Finding a property like Montauban, where it had low hanging fruit, with a million metric tons of tailings made it very simple. It was above ground, no cost exploration; no risk. "We could see it, we could touch it, and we could walk on it. We didn't have to spend millions of dollars to find out where it is and what we have. "It was simple; just process the material and then we have cash flow and then from the cash flow model - take the money and invest it into the ground. We want to tap into what is potentially underground," CEO Gordon Robb said to Investorideas, "We're not just exploring first and going down the same path as most exploration companies do. It is move into production quickly and first generate cash flow and then use that money to go back and explore." In June, the company announced a milestone towards its goal of production. ESGold reported a significant expansion of its Montauban Project mine building to support the Company's transition into gold and silver production. Originally planned at approximately 2,000 square feet, the building is now being expanded to 4,000 square feet to accommodate enhanced operational needs and support infrastructure. More recently ESGold made a major announcement on the Montauban Project, making the potential even bigger than originally anticipated. From the news: The company announced the results of its recent Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey operated by Caur Technologies at the Montauban Gold-Silver Project in Quebec. The preliminary interpretation of this advanced seismic imaging has revealed multiple deep-seated geological structures, suggesting that the Montauban system may extend far beyond its historically mined zones - opening the door to a potential district scale mineral system. Originally scoped to map subsurface structures to 400 metres, the ANT survey exceeded expectations - imaging to depths of 1,200 metres and revealing a vertically extensive, laterally continuous geological system. These findings suggest that Montauban may represent a district-scale Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) environment, rather than a singular deposit, with structural and lithological features consistent with some of the most prolific mining camps globally. Key Highlights: Imaging Unveiled to Depths of 1,200 Meters: ANT survey has revealed deep-seated structural zones potentially hosting stacked mineralized lenses - a breakthrough for exploration at Montauban. New Interpretation Supports District-Scale Opportunity: Montauban may represent a clustered VMS system with structural repetition and geological similarities to world-class deposits like Sweden's Skellefte district. North-Central Feeder Zone Emerges: Strong contrast between high-velocity basement in the north and structurally complex southern domains presents multiple potential discovery targets; while the southern area shows more structural complexity - both priority areas for high-value targeting. Historic Assays + VTEM + ANT = Advanced Model Underway: The ongoing 3D geological model will integrate over 950 historic drill holes results, 2015 VTEM survey data, and this new deep seismic imaging to identify next-generation discovery zones. Andre Gauthier, P.Geo., Director of the Company, added: "We now believe Montauban may be far more than a single deposit - it is emerging as a deep, district-scale system with possible structural and geological continuity," said Andre Gauthier, as a director of exploration. "These results may place Montauban into a new category of exploration potential. Where previous generations saw a series of shallow pods, we now see the signature of a vertically integrated mineral system - potentially with stacked, repeating lenses akin to those in VMS system or Broken Hill-style districts. We're seeing signatures that resemble the structural architecture of globally significant systems, but we are still in the early stage of exploration." "Montauban is no longer just a development story - it's a discovery story in the making," said Gordon Robb, CEO of ESGold. "This survey has fundamentally changed the way we understand this special deposit. The continuity, depth, and scale of the structures we're seeing suggest that the original mine was just the tip of the iceberg. As we build toward production from the tailings, we're simultaneously unlocking the blue-sky potential beneath. This data confirms Montauban may be just the first chapter in a much larger district-scale opportunity, and we're excited to share that story with the world." Full news: https://esgold.com/esgold-unlocks-district-scale-discovery-potential-at-montauban-with-geological-structures-extending-to-1200m/ The ESG Factor For mining companies one of the biggest risks and hurdles is the environmental challenges they face in taking a mine to production. The Montauban Property offers a distinctive opportunity to convert legacy tailings into valuable resources through modern milling techniques, while promoting environmental restoration. Chairman Paul Mastantuono explained to Exploring Mining , "Today you need to be socially responsible but it is beyond that with the Government's new mining acts checks and balances. It's a challenge, but it's not rocket science. "The material left behind is an aggregate; a rock. If you have a rock processed at a quarry, different granulation sizes; there is a value to that. In this case the rock is considered waste because of the way it was treated. "If we are able to reprocess it and neutralize it, then you have a material that is worth a lot of money in the industry. What we are able to do is create a byproduct that is 100% reusable, and that makes us full circle ESG. "And more importantly we don't have to manage a tailings pond." The Risk Chief Executive Officer, Gordon Robb, said to Investorideas, "What investors are looking for is risk-off. That is why ESGold is so exciting to me. We are fully permitted, very close to production with a mill on-site and tailings piles ready to be processed. "We just have a few more steps to get there; start producing, be cash flow positive and then funnel that money into exploration, where we don't need to go the market with our hand out. "This is not the dilution model that so many other exploration companies have being doing over the past 30-40 years. "It's risk-off in a risky industry." Learn more about ESGold Corp. (CSE: ESAU) (OTCQB: ESAUF) (FSE: Z7D), https://esgold.com/investors/. Research mining stocks at Investorideas.com with our free mining stocks directory at Investorideas.com. About Investorideas.com - Big Investing Ideas Investorideas.com is the go-to platform for big investing ideas. From breaking stock news to top-rated investing podcasts, we cover it all. Disclaimer/Disclosure: This article featuring EsGold is paid for content as part of a monthly featured mining stock service (payment disclosure). Our site does not make recommendations for purchases or sale of stocks, services or products. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or securities. All investing involves risk and possible losses. This is not investment opinion. This site is currently compensated for news publication and distribution, social media and marketing, content creation and more. Disclosure is posted for each compensated news release, content published /created if required but otherwise the news was not compensated for and was published for the sole interest of our readers and followers. Contact management and IR of each company directly regarding specific questions. More disclaimer info: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp. Learn more about publishing your news release and our other news services on the Investorideas.com newswire https://www.investorideas.com/News-Upload/. Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.asp. Follow us on X @investorideas @Exploringmining Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Investorideas Follow us on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/Investorideas To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258907 SOURCE: Econ Corp Services DBA Investorideas.com Sudbury, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Magna Mining Inc. (TSXV: NICU) (OTCQX: MGMNF) (FSE: 8YD) ("Magna" or the "Company") is pleased to announce production and cost guidance for the second half of 2025. Jason Jessup, CEO of Magna, stated, "Over the past four months, Magna has been executing a plan to unlock the potential of the McCreedy West Mine. We have invested capital into underground equipment and additional development, hired additional people to support a 24-7 operation at the mine, and we are seeing the benefits of this plan materialize. The mine plan for this year is evolving from the plan we inherited with the purchase of McCreedy West, to a plan that is designed, owned and executed by Magna. In Q4 and beyond, we expect to be developing into mining areas that have better grades, while building flexibility and upside into the plan. We expect all-in sustaining costs to decrease in 2026 as we conclude our accelerated capital development program and achieve our optimization goals. I am proud of our team at the mine, and the dedicated executive management team that are helping to build McCreedy West into what we believe will be a long life, cash flow generating copper, nickel and PGE mine." Highlights (in USD unless otherwise stated): Quarterly ore sales from the 700 Copper Zone are expected to be between 80,000 and 92,000 tons in the second half of 2025. Contained copper equivalent grade expected to be between 2.9% to 3.4% in Q3 2025, and 3.8% to 4.4% in Q4 2025. Cash costs (per copper equivalent pound) expected to be $3.85 to $4.40 in Q3 2025, reducing to $3.11 to $3.66 in Q4 2025. AISC (per copper equivalent pound) expected to be $4.95 to $5.49 in Q3 2025 and $3.85 to $4.47 in Q4 2025. Table 1 - Operating Guidance for Q3 & Q4 2025 OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE (Prices are in CAD unless otherwise stated) Q3 2025 Q4 2025 700 Copper Zone Ore Tons Sold 80,000 - 92,000 80,000 - 92,000 Copper Equivalent Grade Contained 2.90% - 3.40% 3.80% - 4.40% Copper Equivalent Payable Pounds (000s) 3,500 - 4,200 4,700 - 5,600 Average Realized Price $5.69 $5.69 Cash Cost Per Copper Equivalent Pound $5.25 - $6.00 $4.25 - $5.00 AISC Per Copper Equivalent Pound $6.75 - $7.50 $5.25 - $6.10 Cost Metrics (USD)1 Cash costs $3.85 - $4.40 $3.11- $3.66 AISC $4.95 - $5.49 $3.85 - $4.47 1CAD/USD exchange rate: 1.365 Copper equivalent payable pounds for the purpose of copper equivalent payable grade, cash cost and AISC were calculated using the following US dollar prices:2025: $4.17/lb Cu, $6.90/lb Ni, $15.85/lb Co, $959.65/oz Pt, $944.65/oz Pd, $3,207.48/oz Au, $32.26 Ag. McCreedy West Planned Underground Development Activities in 2025 The Company plans to make important investments at the McCreedy West Mine during the second half of 2025, including upgrading the mobile equipment fleet and increasing the amount of capital and operating mine development. In June, a contract mining company was mobilized to site to increase the amount of capital development at McCreedy West for the reminder of the year. Forecasted daily development rates are expected to increase to 28 ft/day in the second half of 2025. Development rates year to date are shown in Table 2. Table 2 - Development Rates at the McCreedy West Mine in 2025 Month Development (ft/day) Jan / Feb (Under Prior Operator) 6 March 6.9 April 14.4 May 16.2 June 17 A contract mining company is not currently planned to be retained for capital development in 2026, at which point sustaining capital costs would be expected to decrease. The total underground development planned for H2 2025 (including operating and capital development) is approximately 5100 feet. Planned capital development is designed to access the western side of the 700 Copper Zone on multiple levels via ramp. Planned operating development is expected to provide the mine with increased stope development inventory, which is expected to add consistency and flexibility to stope sequencing and other production activities. COO Jeff Huffman added, "The planned capital development on the western side of the 700 Copper Zone should allow us to exploit the existing known resources as well as facilitate access to areas from which we can launch an exploration program in previously untested western areas of the 700 Copper Zone. As the capital development is now reaching the western extent on the 930 level, the first underground diamond drill will be mobilized in this area in coming weeks. The planned operating development will provide McCreedy West with increased production optionality and flexibility and is expected to support a more robust operating plan moving forward into 2026." Figure 1 - Crushed Ore Pile from July 7, 2025 at McCreedy West Mine To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8002/258925_54faef8f1457f811_002full.jpg Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Statements All statements, other than statements of historical fact, contained or incorporated by reference in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, such as "may", "might", "potential", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "believe", "could", "should", "would", "will", "continue", "intend", "plan", "forecast" or other similar words or phrases or variations thereof. For example, forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to operational and financial performance including the Company's production and cost guidance for H2 2025, the ability to reduce sustaining capital costs in 2026, the additional capital investment and underground development planned for H2 2025, the potential of the McCreedy West Mine, mine development activities, the composition of the Company's portfolio of assets, including its operating mines, development and exploration projects, and Magna's future plans, and those statements found, among other sections of this press release, under the headings "Highlights" and "Table 1. Operating Guidance for Q3 & Q4 2025". Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to business, market, economic, technical and other risks, uncertainties and contingencies that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements, including risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's present and future business strategies, operations performance within expected or budgeted ranges, including targeted mining rates and the availability of additional investment capital, personnel, contractors, equipment and supplies, anticipated future production and cash flows, including the failure to accurately estimate production, costs, cash flows and other forecasted operating and financial measures in this press release, the ability of the Company to achieve expected further development or production at the McCreedy West Mine, results of exploration programs, including the failure of additional drilling to realize anticipated growth in resources or additional definition or delineation of current resources, delays for assay results, changes in disclosed resources or reserves that are only estimated, local and global economic conditions and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, the prices of base and precious metals (including copper, nickel and PGM minerals) and key commodities, projected mineral grades, international exchanges rates, anticipated capital and operating costs, the inability to raise the financing necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the Company's properties, environmental liabilities (known and unknown), accidents, labour disputes and other risks inherent in the mining industry, political instability, terrorism, insurrection or war, the availability and timing of required governmental and other approvals for the operation or development of the Company's projects and other risks disclosed in the Company's most recent management discussion and analysis. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Magna's filings with Canadian securities regulators, including the most recent management discussion and analysis, available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risks, uncertainties, contingencies and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking statements, there can be no certainty or assurance that the Company has accurately or adequately captured, accounted for or disclosed all such risks, uncertainties, contingencies or factors. Readers should place no reliance on forward-looking statements as actual results, performance or achievements may be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Resource exploration and development, and mining operations, are highly speculative, characterized by several significant risks, which even a combination of careful evaluation, experience and knowledge will not eliminate. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Non-IFRS Performance Measures The Company has included certain terms or performance measures commonly used in the mining industry in this press release that are not defined under IFRS, which include cash costs and all-in sustaining costs. With respect to non-IFRS performance measures, please refer to the section in the Company's Q1 2025 Management Discussion and Analysis entitled "Non-IFRS Performance Measures" for the definitions and reconciliation of such non-IFRS performance measures to the consolidated financial statements of the Company. Non-IFRS performance measures do not have any standardized meaning under IFRS, and therefore, they may not be comparable to similar measures employed by other companies. Such measures are intended to provide additional information and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures prepared in accordance with IFRS and should be read in conjunction with the Company's financial statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. About Magna Mining Inc. Magna Mining is a producing mining company with a portfolio of copper, nickel and PGM operating, exploration and development projects in the Sudbury Region of Ontario, Canada. The Company's primary assets are the producing McCreedy West copper mine and the past producing Levack, Podolsky, Shakespeare and Crean Hill mines. Additional information about the Company is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on the Company's website (www.magnamining.com). To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258925 SOURCE: Magna Mining Inc. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Romios Gold Resources Inc. (TSXV: RG) (OTC Pink: RMIOF) (FSE: D4R) ("Romios Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into agreements to settle an aggregate of $968,386 of debt owed to four officers, one director, one former director, and one former director and officer for management fees, directors fees and salary, in consideration for the issuance of 25,578,450 common shares of the Company at a price of $0.02 per share (the "Debt Settlement"). A total of $266,569 of debt owed to four officers and two directors will be settled for 13,328,450 common shares at a price of $0.02 per share. Anastasios (Tom) Drivas ("Tom Drivas"), a former director of the Company and former President and CEO, was owed $701,817.07 for salary for the period from February 2016 to January 2022. He has agreed to forgive $201,817.07 of accrued salary owed to him, reducing his outstanding salary to $500,000 (the "Reduced Salary"). His Reduced Salary will be settled in consideration for the issuance of $245,000 of common shares at $0.02 per common share for a total of 12,250,000 common shares. The Company will be obligated to pay the remainder of his Reduced Salary, being $255,000, to the Canada Revenue Agency for source deductions. The Company also wishes to announce that Tom Drivas has resigned as a director of the Company. Stephen Burega, President and a Director of the Company, stated, "on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation for the contribution Tom Drivas has made over the years to the Company since its formation. As the Company founder, the former President and CEO and a director, Tom was instrumental in acquiring the Company's highly prospective Lundmark-Akow Lake and Golden Triangle properties. We wish Tom all the best in his future endeavours." Mr. Drivas will continue as a consultant to the Company. Closing of the Debt Settlement is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The common shares to be issued pursuant to the Debt Settlement will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance, in accordance with applicable securities laws and TSX Venture Exchange policies. The settlement of an aggregate of $511,569 of insider debt in consideration for 25,578,450 common shares is exempt from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101") by virtue of the exemptions contained in sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) of MI 61-101 in that the fair market value of the consideration for the securities of the Company to be issued to insiders does not exceed 25% of its market capitalization. In accordance with the provisions of MI 61-101 the Debt Settlement will not close until at least 21 days after the filing of a material change report with respect to the Debt Settlement. Early Warning Disclosure Regarding Tom Drivas Tom Drivas, a former director of the Company, will acquire 12,250,000 common shares pursuant to the Debt Settlement. Immediately prior to the completion of the Debt Settlement, Tom Drivas beneficially owns, directly or indirectly, or exercises control or direction over, 21,192,287 common shares, 833,333 common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") with each warrant exercisable at $0.05 for one (1) common share of the Company, until October 27, 2025, and 800,000 stock options (the "Options") exercisable at between $0.05 and $0.08 until January 14, 2026 representing approximately 8.03% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and 8.6% on a partially diluted basis. Immediately following the closing of the Debt Settlement, Tom Drivas will beneficially own, directly or indirectly, or exercise control or direction over, 33,442,287 Common Shares, and the Warrants and Options, representing approximately 11.56% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares on a non-diluted basis and 12.05% on a partially diluted basis. Tom Drivas has advised that the common shares will be acquired for investment purposes and that he has no present intention to either increase or decrease his holdings in the Company. Notwithstanding the foregoing, he has advised that he may increase or decrease his beneficial ownership, control or direction over common shares of the Company through market transactions, private agreements, exercise of warrants, other treasury issuances or otherwise. This news release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues of the Canadian Securities Administrators, which also requires an early warning report to be filed with the applicable securities regulators containing additional information with respect to the foregoing matters. A copy of this early warning report in respect of this transaction will be available on the Company's issuer profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. About Romios Gold Resources Inc.: Romios Gold Resources Inc. is a progressive Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in precious- and base-metal exploration, focused primarily on gold, copper and silver. It has a 100% interest in the Lundmark-Akow Lake Au-Cu property plus 4 additional claim blocks in northwestern Ontario and extensive claim holdings covering several significant porphyry copper-gold prospects in the "Golden Triangle" of British Columbia. Additional interests include two former producers in Nevada: the Kinkaid claims in the Walker Lane Trend covering numerous Au-Ag-Cu workings, and the Scossa mine property in the Sleeper Trend which is a former high-grade gold producer. The Company retains an ongoing interest in several properties including a 2% NSR on McEwen Mining's Hislop gold property in Ontario; a 2% NSR on Enduro Metals' Newmont Lake Au-Cu-Ag property in BC, and the Company has signed a definitive agreement with Copperhead Resources Inc. ("Copperhead") whereby Copperhead can acquire a 75% ownership interest in Romios' Red Line Property in BC. For more information, please click here for Romios' website. This News Release contains forward-looking statements which are typically preceded by, followed by or include the words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "intends", "plans" or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance as they involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. We do not intend and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements and shareholders are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such statements. TSX Venture Exchange or its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258974 SOURCE: Romios Gold Resources Inc. BEIJING, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The opening ceremony of the Third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) took place in Beijing on July 16. During the event, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), together with representatives from the global business community, jointly launched the Beijing Initiative of the 3rd China International Supply Chain Expo. Speakers at the ceremony included South African Deputy President Paul Mashatile; Thailand's Deputy Permanent Secretary of Commerce, Ekachat Seetavorarat; Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA; John W.H. Denton, Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce; Sherard Cowper-Coles, Chair of the China-Britain Business Council; and Liao Lin, Chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). More than 1,100 participants representing governments, the private sectors, academia, and civil society from over 100 countries, regions, and international organizations attended the event. Ren Hongbin, Chairman of CCPIT, presided over the ceremony. He stated that this year's Expo features broader international participation, a more defined supply chain structure, and a stronger emphasis on innovation. Ren encouraged members of the global business community to work together to uphold the multilateral trade system anchored in the World Trade Organization through constructive engagement and proactive collaboration. He added that CCPIT will continue to serve both domestic and international companies, maintain the global public good nature of industrial and supply chains, and contribute to the development of an open global economy and a shared future for humanity. Hosted by CCPIT, the 3rd CISCE is being held from July 16 to 20 under the theme Connecting the World for a Shared Future. Five international organizations are supporting the event as partners, including the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Trade Centre (ITC), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Thailand serves as the Guest Country of Honor, while Shandong and Guangdong provinces are featured as Guest Provinces of Honor. This year's Expo includes six key industrial chains and one exhibition area: Advanced Manufacturing Chain, Smart Vehicle Chain, Green Agriculture Chain, Clean Energy Chain, Digital Technology Chain, Healthy Life Chain, and Supply Chain Service Area. 651 companies and organizations from 75 countries and regions are participating in the Expo, showcasing cutting-edge technologies, products, and services across the entire supply chain. Notably, international exhibitors account for 35 percent of the total. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2732431/image.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2427202/CISCE_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/third-china-international-supply-chain-expo-opens-in-beijing-302506709.html VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Amarc Resources Ltd. ("Amarc" or the "Company") (TSXV:AHR)(OTCQB:AXREF) is pleased to announce that it and Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. ("Freeport") recently commenced an approved $10 M 2025 exploration program, which includes substantial drilling at the JOY District (or "JOY" or the "District") in north-central British Columbia ("BC") (see Amarc release May 29, 2025). Drilling will be focused at the new, high grade, gold-rich porphyry copper-gold-silver ("Cu-Au-Ag") AuRORA Deposit, the PINE Deposit and the Twins and Canyon Discoveries as well as other drill-ready Cu-Au Deposit Targets across the District (see Amarc releases January 17 and 21, and February 28, 2025). Amarc continues to manage the exploration programs which are being 100% funded by Freeport. "We are very excited to be back out on the ground working with Freeport to advance the high grade, near surface AuRORA Cu-Au-Ag Deposit Discovery announced earlier this year that remains open to expansion, and to continue to drill test other discoveries and numerous deposit targets across the JOY District," said Diane Nicolson, Amarc President and CEO. "Amarc believes that the JOY District has the potential to deliver further major copper-gold discoveries. The focus of the Canadian and BC (and international) governments on critical mineral strategies designed to power the green and digital economy[1] presents a clear opportunity and impetus for the efficient and responsible advancement of projects like JOY." JOY District Expansion Amarc also announces the expansion of the JOY District strategic land package that will now also include the Brenda Property, a portion of the PIL Property and three additional mineral claims staked by Amarc (Figure 1). Figure 1 - Large-Scale Mineral System Trends Occur at JOY that Host the AuRORA Deposit Discovery, PINE Deposit, Canyon Discovery, Twins & Other Sulphide Systems Brenda Property Further to Amarc's February 11, 2025 release announcing a mineral property option agreement with Canasil Resources Inc. pursuant to which Amarc could acquire an 100% interest in the 44.5 km2 Brenda Property ("Brenda"), the Company reports that Freeport has exercised its right to have the entire Brenda tenure included in the Mineral Property Earn-In Agreement (the "Agreement"), for the JOY District (see Amarc release May 12, 2021). Brenda is underlain by the same highly prospective volcanics and transitional porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au-Ag geological setting as at Amarc's recent AuRORA and Canyon porphyry Cu-Au discoveries. Historical exploration of the Brenda Property has identified both epithermal and porphyry related rock alteration assemblages hosting Cu, Au and Ag mineralization, and includes an intersection of 78 m grading 0.61 g/t Au and 0.10% Cu from 110 m in hole BR-07-05, which was collared nearby a large gossan (see Canasil National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report at https://www.canasil.com/projects/bc-canada-properties/brenda/). PIL Property In addition, Amarc has exercised its right to have approximately 32% of the total mineral claims area of Freeport's option to acquire 80% of the PIL Property (see Finlay Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:FYL) release April 17, 2025) brought into the JOY District (Figure 1). Amarc's interest lies in the structural and alteration corridors that have a strong spatial relationship to most of the significant mineral occurrences in the Toodoggone region that hosts the JOY District. Approximately 32% (42.34 km2) of the PIL mineral claims area lies within the area of common interest under the Agreement. Freeport is responsible for making any expenditures to fund the exercise of the PIL option with Finlay, and expenditures incurred within the Amarc area of common interest only will count towards Freeport's anticipated election to spend $75 million under Stage 2 of the Agreement with Amarc. If Freeport fulfills its obligation to acquire 80% of the PIL Property, Amarc will have a maximum interest of 24% in the PIL mineral claims within the area of common interest. About Amarc Resources Ltd Amarc is a mineral exploration and development company with an experienced and successful management team focused on developing a new generation of long-life, high-value porphyry Cu-Au mines in BC. By combining high-demand projects with dynamic management, Amarc has created a solid platform to create value from its exploration and development-stage assets. Amarc is advancing the JOY, DUKE and IKE porphyry CuAu Districts located in different prolific porphyry regions of northern, central and southern BC, respectively. Each District represents significant potential for the development of multiple and important-scale, porphyry CuAu deposits. Importantly, each of the three districts are located in proximity to industrial infrastructure - including power, highways and rail. Amarc's exploration is led by an internationally successful team of experienced geologists specializing in porphyry Cu-Au deposits. Members of this team have been involved in and have tracked porphyry Cu-Au exploration advancements in the Toodoggone region since 1990. Their experience and early recognition of the porphyry potential at the NWG Target in terms of a shallowly overburden covered and underexplored transitional epithermal-porphyry geological setting, led to the discovery of the Au-rich AuRORA porphyry Cu-Au-Ag Deposit. Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. ("Freeport"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. at JOY and Boliden Mineral Canada Ltd. ("Boliden"), an entity within the Boliden Group of companies at DUKE, can earn up to a 70% interest in each District through staged investments of $110 million and $90 million, respectively. Together this provides Amarc with potentially up to $200 million in non-share dilutive staged funding for these Districts. In addition, Amarc completed self-funded drilling at its higher-grade Empress Deposit in the IKE District in 2024. Amarc is the operator of all programs. Amarc is associated with HDI, a diversified, global mining company with a 35-year history of porphyry Cu deposit discovery, development and transaction success. Previous and current HDI projects include some of BC's and the world's most important porphyry deposits - such as Pebble, Mount Milligan, Southern Star, Kemess South, Kemess North, Gibraltar, Prosperity, Xietongmen, Newtongmen, Florence, Casino, Sisson, Maggie, AuRORA, PINE, IKE and DUKE. From its head office in Vancouver, Canada, HDI applies its unique strengths and capabilities to acquire, develop, operate and monetize mineral projects. Amarc works closely with local governments, Indigenous groups and stakeholders in order to advance its mineral projects responsibly, and in a manner that contributes to sustainable community and economic development. We pursue early and meaningful engagement to ensure our mineral exploration and development activities are well coordinated and broadly supported, address local priorities and concerns, and optimize opportunities for collaboration. In particular, we seek to establish mutually beneficial partnerships with Indigenous groups within whose traditional territories our projects are located, through the provision of jobs, training programs, contract opportunities, capacity funding agreements and sponsorship of community events. All Amarc work programs are carefully planned to achieve high levels of environmental and social performance. Qualified Person Mark Rebagliati, P.Eng, a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved all technical and scientific information related to the Joy Project contained in this news release. Mr. Rebagliati is not independent of the Company. For further details on Amarc Resources Ltd., please visit the Company's website at www.amarcresources.com or contact Dr. Diane Nicolson, President and CEO, at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114, or Kin Communications, at (604) 684-6730, Email: AHR@kincommunications.com. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AMARC RESOURCES LTD. Dr. Diane Nicolson President and CEO Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking and other Cautionary Information This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All such statements, other than statements of historical facts that address exploration plans and plans for enhanced relationships are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking statements include the following: Amarc's projects will obtain all required environmental and other permits and all land use and other licenses, studies and exploration of Amarc's projects will continue to be positive, and no geological or technical problems will occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, potential environmental issues or liabilities associated with exploration, development and mining activities, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and tenure and delays due to third party opposition, changes in and the effect of government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, exploration and development of properties located within Aboriginal groups asserted territories may affect or be perceived to affect asserted aboriginal rights and title, which may cause permitting delays or opposition by Aboriginal groups, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Amarc Resources Ltd., investors should review Amarc's annual Form 20-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedarplus.ca. Figure 1 - Large-Scale Mineral System Trends Occur at JOY that Host the AuRORA Deposit Discovery, PINE Deposit, Canyon Discovery, Twins & Other Sulphide Systems [1] Canada's Critical Minerals Strategy https://www.canada.ca/en/campaign/critical-minerals-in-canada/canadas-critical-minerals-strategy.html SOURCE: Amarc Resources Ltd. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/amarc-and-freeport-launch-2025-aurora-and-joy-copper-gold-district-drilling-conso-1049131 SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / International Land Alliance, Inc. (OTC PINK:ILAL) , ("ILAL" or the "Company"), an international land investment and development firm, today announced a new planned phase at its Cabo Oasis development. With the engineering and interior roads already completed, the Company plans to begin offering this rental property product in the next 45 days. "The market for rentals in Baja is in high demand and we will be meeting that demand with this new phase," said ILAL president Frank Ingrande. "Not only is this a natural conduit for subsequent sales but will provide recurring rental revenues in addition to management fees. We have added a new marketing team with offices in Las Vegas and Northern California to focus on the new rental and sales phases. We have worked with this team that will now be operating in Las Vegas and Northern California for over 20 years and are excited to add this new inventory to their product offering. We have already started our weekly informational dinner seminars in Las Vegas and had our first on site sales tour." Sales continue to be strong for ILAL as the sales team reported 8 new homesite contracts signed over the weekend, including 4 contracts from newly released inventory at Cabo Oasis. With the beachfront inventory sold, the Company has released and opened for sales sites in Oasis Phase II, which comprises 200 homesites with an average price of $30,000. Four additional sales contracts were reported from Rancho Costa Verde homesites. As previously announced, the Company reported sales at Cabo Oasis of 23 beachfront lots average price entry prices of $80,000 each and 5 new homes in the contract stage. The new homes are being built on beachfront homesites adjacent to the planned 72-room condotel on the beach fronting an existing natural lagoon at Cabo Oasis. This will serve as a flagship amenity for owners at both Rancho Costa Verde and Cabo Oasis. This Sante Fe style design will be a scaled-up version of the existing boutique hotel at Rancho Costa Verde. The total construction revenue for these first five homes is projected to be in excess of $1.3M, with the first home expecting break ground in August 2025. The Company opened up sales at its Cabo Oasis, a master planned community located just eight kilometers south of Rancho Costa Verde in San Felipe, Baja California. With 500 homesites available for development, this represents over $15,000,000 in gross lot sales potential, followed by over $125,000,000 in gross potential construction revenue. About International Land Alliance, Inc. International Land Alliance, Inc. (OTCQB:ILAL) is an international land investment and development firm based in San Diego, California. As its' core mission, the Company has embraced technology for sustainable and socially responsible solutions, in addition to using proptech and construction tech advanced applications to meet these goals. The Company is focused on acquiring attractive raw land primarily in Northern Baja California, often within driving distance from Southern California. The Company serves its shareholders by devoting considerable time and resources to seeking out the finest sites available and obtaining the necessary development permits to build a compelling portfolio of properties, which provide a diversity of investment and living options. Please visit: www.ila.company . Safe Harbor Statement The press release may include certain statements that are not descriptions of historical facts but are forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements may include the description of our plans and objectives for future operations, assumptions underlying such plans and objectives, and other forward-looking terminology such as "may," "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "projects," or similar terms, variations of such terms or the negative of such terms. There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made herein. Such information is based upon various assumptions made by, and expectations of, our management that were reasonable when made but may prove to be incorrect. All such assumptions are inherently subject to significant economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies beyond our control and upon assumptions with respect to the future business decisions which are subject to change. Accordingly, there can be no assurance that actual results will meet expectations and actual results may vary (perhaps materially) from certain of the results anticipated herein. CONTACT: Amplifi PR Erik Blum / Erik@AmplifiPR.com SOURCE: International Land Alliance, Inc. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/international-land-alliance-unveils-new-revenue-model-featuring-1049121 Miami, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Digital Silk, an award-winning web development agency focused on creating brand strategies, custom websites, and digital marketing campaigns, highlights how the combined use of Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and AI in web development may help businesses support user experience, streamline workflows, and remain competitive in evolving digital markets. Modern Web Development Workspace Featuring PWA and AI Interfaces To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/10732/258857_d1f403c6b49ceba1_001full.jpg As modern brands seek scalable, device-responsive platforms, PWAs are increasingly leveraged to deliver faster performance, offline access, and lower friction than traditional apps. Digital Silk notes AI tools are helping speed up development, automate testing, and personalize content delivery. "AI and PWAs are becoming strategic assets in modern web development," said Gabriel Shaoolian, CEO of Digital Silk. "Brands that begin to adopt these technologies may be better positioned to deliver consistent and adaptive digital experiences." AI and PWAs May Support Scalable, Cross-Platform Web Development According to a 2024 article by HashStudioz, businesses using progressive web apps have reported up to 36% higher conversion rates compared to native mobile apps, highlighting the potential performance benefits of adopting PWA architecture. Digital Silk outlines four emerging benefits from adopting PWAs and AI solutions: Enhanced mobile speed and responsiveness Reduced dependency on app stores for distribution Improved personalization based on user behavior Automation of repetitive development and testing tasks Implementation Considerations for Brands in 2025 Digital Silk emphasizes that thoughtful implementation is key. Brands should evaluate AI and PWA capabilities against their specific goals and digital requirements. Best practices include: Auditing existing websites for responsiveness and scalability Conducting accessibility testing for visual, voice, and interactive interfaces Reviewing architecture to ensure SEO performance and mobile compatibility Maintaining strict data privacy and security standards with automated tools As a trusted Miami Web Development Agency, Digital Silk supports organizations that want to evolve their digital platforms while maintaining visual consistency and functionality across devices. About Digital Silk Digital Silk is an award-winning Miami Web Development Agency focused on growing brands online. With a team of seasoned experts, we create digital experiences through strategic branding, custom web design, and digital marketing services to help improve visibility and support engagement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258857 SOURCE: Digital Silk VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Greenridge Exploration Inc. ("Greenridge" or the "Company") (CSE: GXP | FRA: HW3 | OTCQB: GXPLF), is pleased to announce the commencement of a work program (the "Program") at its Hook-Carter Uranium Project ("Hook-Carter", or the "Property") located in the southwestern Athabasca Basin region of Saskatchewan, Canada. Exploration at Hook-Carter is operated by Denison Mines Corp. ("Denison") and the Property is owned 20% by Greenridge and 80% by Denison. The Program consists of a moving loop time-domain electromagnetic ("MLTDEM") ground geophysical survey to identify new drill targets along the highly-prospective Patterson Lake Corridor, which is host to multiple significant existing uranium deposits. Hook-Carter consists of eleven claims covering 25,115 hectares and is located in the southwest corner of the Athabasca Basin approximately 147 kilometres northeast of La Loche, Saskatchewan. The Property has excellent potential to host economic uranium deposits. Hook-Carter is interpreted to host the northeastern strike extension of the Patterson Lake Corridor ("PLC"), which hosts NexGen Energy Ltd.'s Arrow uranium deposit (and a potential expansion of the width of the PLC with the recently discovered Patterson Corridor East ("PCE") zone), Paladin Energy Limited's Triple R uranium deposit, and Purepoint Uranium Group Inc.'s Spitfire, Hornet, and Dragon zones in a joint venture with Cameco Corporation and Orano Canada Inc. (Please see Figure 1 below). Figure 1 - Hook-Carter Uranium Project: Compilation Map of Uranium Deposits and Occurrences and Historical Exploration The Property also overlies the interpreted strike extension of the Carter and Derksen corridors, each of which represent highly prospective and under-explored structural corridors along which significant uranium mineralization may exist. About the MLTDEM Survey The 2025 exploration program is planned to be comprised of a six-line MLTDEM survey, designed to infill the existing MLTDEM coverage along the extension of the Patterson Lake corridor within the Property. The historical geophysical coverage was surveyed at 1,200 metre-spaced lines. The 2025 survey will increase resolution down to 600 metre-spacing to validate and refine conductivity interpreted from the 2023 Z-Axis Tipper Electromagnetic ("ZTEMTM") airborne survey before drilling prospective anomalies in future exploration campaigns (Please see Figure 2). Figure 2 - 2025 Moving Loop Time Domain (MLTDEM) Electromagnetic Survey Plan Additionally, a joint inversion of the 2025 MLTDEM data, the 2023 ZTEMTM airborne survey, and historical resistivity data is also planned. The joint inversion will be constrained by existing drill hole data and is expected to result in a targeting model that will highlight coincident geophysical anomalies, increasing confidence in the interpretation and understanding of the physical properties of the subsurface geology and therefore de-risking future drill targets. The MLTDEM survey is planned to be carried out from a temporary work camp located on the Property and is scheduled to begin in August 2025. Engagement with local communities is ongoing with the goal of creating a mutually beneficial relationship between Denison, Greenridge, and the residents of the Southwestern Athabasca region. Details of the Hook-Carter Joint Venture Agreement In October 2016, ALX Resources Corp. ("ALX") and Denison entered into a purchase agreement whereby ALX sold an 80% interest in the Property in exchange for 7.5 million shares of Denison. ALX retained a 20% interest in Hook-Carter, and Denison agreed to fund ALX's share of the first $12.0 million of expenditures. On November 15, 2019, ALX and Denison executed a written acknowledgement with respect to the deemed formation of a joint venture between them upon Denison's completion of a requirement to solely fund a minimum of $3.0 million of project expenditures within an initial 36-month funding period. Since 2016, Denison's exploration expenditures at Hook-Carter totaled approximately $7.08 million, including the completion of surface and airborne geophysical programs, as well as nearly 12,000 metres of diamond drilling. In May 2024, the Hook-Carter joint venture was amended whereby ALX could increase its ownership interest in the Property from 20% to 25% ownership by funding the next $3.0 million of exploration at the Project by November 2026. On December 30, 2024, ALX was acquired by Greenridge by way of a plan of arrangement and Greenridge assumed ALX's ownership interest and its funding obligations in the amended Hook-Carter joint venture. Statement of Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Sean Hillacre, M.Sc., P. Geo., a geological consultant to the Company and a Qualified Person for Greenridge as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Hillacre has examined information regarding the historical exploration at Hook-Carter, which includes a high-level review of the historical sampling, analytical, and procedures underlying the information and opinions contained herein. Management cautions that historical results collected and reported by operators unrelated to Greenridge have not been verified nor confirmed by its Qualified Person; however, the historical results create a scientific basis for ongoing work in at Hook-Carter. Management further cautions that historical results, discoveries and published resource estimates on adjacent or nearby mineral properties, or other properties located within the Athabasca Basin, whether in reference to stated current resource estimates or historical resource estimates, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the Property. About Greenridge Exploration Inc. Greenridge Exploration Inc. (CSE: GXP | OTCQB: GXPLF | FRA: HW3) is a mineral exploration company dedicated to creating shareholder value through the acquisition, exploration, and development of critical mineral projects in Canada. The Company owns or has interests in 27 projects and additional claims covering approximately 335,825 hectares with considerable exposure to potential uranium, lithium, nickel, copper and gold discoveries. The Company is led by an experienced management team and board of directors with significant expertise in capital raising and advancing mining projects. Greenridge has one of the largest uranium property portfolios in Canada consisting of 16 projects and additional prospective claims covering approximately 221,509 hectares. The Company has opportunities to realize value in a further 11 strategic metals projects which include lithium, nickel, gold, and copper exploration properties totalling approximately 114,316 hectares. Project highlights include: The Black Lake property, located in the NE Athabasca Basin, (40% Greenridge, 50.43% UEC, 8.57% Orano Canada) saw a 2004 discovery hole (BL-18) return 0.69% U 3 O 8 over 4.4m. 1 O over 4.4m. The Hook-Carter property (20% Greenridge, 80% Denison Mines Corp.) is strategically located in the southwest Margin of the Athabasca Basin, sitting ~13km from NexGen Energy Ltd.'s Arrow deposit and ~20 km from Paladin Energy's Triple R deposit. The Gibbons Creek property hosts high-grade uraniferous boulders located in 2013, with grades of up to 4.28% U 3 O 8 2 , and the McKenzie Lake project saw a 2023 prospecting program return three samples which included 844 ppm U-total (0.101% U 3 O 8 ), 273 ppm U-total, and 259 ppm U-total. 3 O , and the McKenzie Lake project saw a 2023 prospecting program return three samples which included 844 ppm U-total (0.101% U O ), 273 ppm U-total, and 259 ppm U-total. The Nut Lake property located in the Thelon Basin includes historical drilling which intersected up to 9ft of 0.69% U 3 O 8 including 4.90% U 3 O 8 over 1ft from 8ft depth. 4 In 2024, Greenridge's prospecting program located a float sample that returned 31.13% U 3 O 8 , sourced from the Tundra Showing. 5 O including 4.90% U O over 1ft from 8ft depth. In 2024, Greenridge's prospecting program located a float sample that returned 31.13% U O , sourced from the Tundra Showing. The Firebird Nickel property has seen two drill programs (7 holes totaling 1,339 m), where hole FN20-002 intersected 23.8 m of 0.36% Ni and 0.09% Cu, including 10.6 m of 0.55% Ni and 0.14% Cu. 6 The Electra Nickel project 2022 drill program included results of 2,040 ppm Ni over 1m and 1,260 ppm Ni over 3.5m.7 The Company has strategic partnerships which includes properties being operated and advanced by Denison Mines Corp. and Uranium Energy Corp. The Company's management team, board of directors, and technical team brings significant expertise in capital raising and advancing mining projects and is poised to attract new investors and raise future capital. References: 1 - Black Lake: UEX Corporation News Release dated October 12, 2004. 2 - Gibbons Creek: Lakeland Resources Inc. News Release dated January 8, 2014. 3 - McKenzie Lake: ALX Resources Corp. New Release dated November 7, 2023. 4 - Nut Lake: 1979 Assessment Report (number 81075) by Pan Ocean Oil Ltd. 5 - Nut Lake: Greenridge Exploration Inc. News Release dated February 19, 2024. 6 - Firebird Nickel: ALX Resources Corp. New Release dated April 15, 2020. 7 - Electra Nickel: ALX Resources Corp. New Release dated July 20, 2022. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Greenridge Russell Starr Chief Executive Officer, Director Telephone: +1 (778) 897-3388 Email: info@greenridge-exploration.com Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", expect", "target", "plan", "forecast", "may", "would", "could", "schedule" and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Greenridge, future growth potential for Greenridge and its business, and future exploration plans are based on management's reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on management's experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of uranium, nickel, copper, gold, cobalt and other metals; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; Greenridge's ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms. This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Canadian securities laws. Statements, other than statements of historical fact, may constitute forward looking information and include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Property and its mineralization potential; the Company's objectives, goals, or future plans with respect to the Property; statements with respect to the Program by Denison; expected benefits of doing the Program and the Company's joint venture with Denison; anticipated benefits of the MLTDEM survey at the Property; further exploration work on the Property in the future. With respect to the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things, the geological, metallurgical, engineering, financial and economic advice that the Company has received is reliable and are based upon practices and methodologies which are consistent with industry standards. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include, among others: fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of well results and the geology, continuity and grade of uranium, nickel, copper, gold, cobalt and other metal deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs, recovery rates, production estimates and estimated economic return; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs or in construction projects and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; increased costs and restrictions on operations due to compliance with environmental and other requirements; increased costs affecting the metals industry and increased competition in the metals industry for properties, qualified personnel, and management. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6a858062-9790-441c-86b5-ed8815424b7f https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a37c89a4-1c3f-4bf8-a5bc-9eb87032e925 BANGALORE, India, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Perovskite Solar Cells Market is Segmented by Type (Rigid Module, Flexible Module), by Application (BIPV, Power Station, Defense & Aerospace, Transportation & Mobility, Consumer Electronics): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2024-2031. In 2024, the global market size of Perovskite Solar Cells was estimated to be worth USD 968 million and is forecast to reach approximately USD 10210 million by 2031 with a CAGR of 40.6% during the forecast period 2025-2031. Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-18T185/Global_Perovskite_Solar_Cells_Market Major Factors Driving the Growth of Perovskite Solar Cells Market: The Perovskite Solar Cells Market is rapidly evolving as a competitive segment within the broader photovoltaic landscape. Offering a compelling mix of high efficiency, design flexibility, and cost advantages, perovskite technology is attracting attention from startups, research institutions, and established energy players. Its expanding applications across rigid, flexible, and BIPV formats are transforming energy generation possibilities for urban, rural, and mobile scenarios. As barriers around long-term stability and scalability are addressed, commercial adoption is accelerating. The market's future looks promising, driven by demand for clean, affordable, and innovative solar energy solutions that meet the energy transition goals of both developed and developing economies. Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-18T185/global-perovskite-solar-cells TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS MARKET Rigid perovskite solar cells are significantly contributing to the growth of the market by offering a stable and efficient solution for fixed solar energy systems. These rigid modules are built using glass or other hard substrates, providing durability and higher conversion efficiency suitable for utility-scale and rooftop installations. Their compatibility with traditional silicon solar infrastructure makes them a preferred alternative or supplement in existing setups, allowing easy integration without major redesign. Moreover, rigid perovskite cells benefit from better encapsulation, increasing their lifespan and performance consistency under various environmental conditions. This form factor appeals to industrial and commercial applications, especially in regions with established solar frameworks, thereby accelerating adoption and overall market expansion. Flexible perovskite solar modules are playing a transformative role in expanding the application scope of the Perovskite Solar Cells Market. These modules can be fabricated on lightweight substrates like plastic or metal foils, enabling their use in portable solar chargers, curved surfaces, and wearable devices. Their flexibility opens opportunities in sectors such as aerospace, automotive, and mobile electronics, where conventional rigid panels are impractical. Additionally, their ease of installation, reduced transportation cost, and adaptability to non-traditional surfaces support decentralised renewable energy solutions. The demand for solar-integrated products in smart infrastructure and consumer electronics is directly fueling the growth of flexible modules, helping manufacturers tap into previously unreachable market segments. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) are driving the growth of the Perovskite Solar Cells Market by enabling seamless solar energy generation directly from architectural elements. Perovskite cells, due to their tunable color, semi-transparency, and high efficiency, are ideal for integration into windows, facades, and skylights. As sustainable construction and net-zero energy buildings gain global traction, architects and developers are turning to BIPV solutions that combine aesthetics with functionality. Perovskite-based BIPVs offer lightweight design and easy adaptability to curved or unconventional building forms. This convergence of energy generation and building design not only supports green building mandates but also unlocks new revenue streams for construction firms, boosting market penetration. One of the primary drivers of the Perovskite Solar Cells Market is their rapid improvement in power conversion efficiency (PCE). The structure of perovskite materials allows easier tuning of bandgaps and enhanced light absorption. High efficiency at low material and manufacturing cost makes these cells appealing to commercial and residential users alike. As the need for more compact, high-yield energy solutions rises, perovskite technology stands out as a viable and scalable option. The manufacturing process for perovskite solar cells is simpler and more cost-effective compared to conventional silicon-based cells. These cells can be produced using solution-based methods such as spin coating or inkjet printing, which operate at lower temperatures and require less energy input. Furthermore, the raw materials used in perovskite cells are more abundant and less expensive, which reduces overall production costs. This cost advantage is particularly attractive for emerging economies and large-scale solar deployment initiatives. As energy access and affordability remain key global issues, the economic efficiency of perovskite cells positions them as a strong contender in the race for accessible solar energy solutions. With the growing need for mobile and lightweight power sources, especially in military, disaster relief, and off-grid applications, perovskite solar cells provide a viable solution. Their ability to be fabricated on flexible, lightweight substrates without compromising efficiency makes them ideal for foldable chargers, backpacks, and tent roofs. This has expanded the application domain far beyond traditional rooftop or utility-scale solar farms. Moreover, their potential integration with autonomous devices, drones, and wearables supports the rising demand for self-sustaining electronic ecosystems. These factors collectively enhance their appeal in sectors that demand portability, thereby boosting the growth trajectory of the perovskite solar cells market. As cities expand and governments launch smart city initiatives, there is increasing focus on decentralized and embedded energy systems. Perovskite solar cells offer solutions that align with these goals through integration in infrastructure such as noise barriers, public transport shelters, and street furniture. Their thin and lightweight form factor makes installation feasible in compact urban spaces without altering aesthetics. They can be used in Internet of Things (IoT) devices deployed across city landscapes for energy-autonomous functioning. These features position perovskite technology as a strategic component in the evolution of urban sustainability and energy resilience, directly impacting market growth. Governments and international organizations are providing substantial research grants and policy support to accelerate the commercialization of perovskite solar cells. Pilot projects, public-private partnerships, and innovation hubs are being established globally to explore industrial-scale production and stability enhancement. Regulatory agencies are also encouraging the integration of next-gen solar technologies through subsidies, tax benefits, and energy credits. As countries aim to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and achieve net-zero targets, policy-driven support is catalyzing perovskite cell innovation and adoption. The consistent backing from institutional and governmental players is a significant force driving the market's forward momentum. Claim Yours Now! https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-18T185&lic=single-user PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS Europe leads in research and pilot deployment, particularly in countries like Germany and the UK, backed by strong government funding and clean energy targets. North America follows closely, with growing investment from solar firms and a focus on next-gen PV technologies in the U.S. and Canada. The Asia-Pacific region, especially China, South Korea, and Japan, is emerging as a key manufacturing hub, thanks to cost-efficient production capabilities and rising demand for flexible solar products. Latin America and the Middle East are witnessing growth through utility-scale projects and building-integrated solar infrastructure, contributing to overall market diversification. Key Players: Saule Technologies Oxford PV GCL Suzhou Nanotechnology Co., Ltd Hubei Wonder Solar Microquanta Semiconductor Heiking PV Technology Co., Ltd. Swift Solar Li Yuan New Energy Technology Co. Hunt Perovskite Technologies (HPT) Greatcell Energy Purchase Regional Data: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-18T185/Global_Perovskite_Solar_Cells_Market SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans. DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: EXPLORE SIMILAR REPORTS! - The global market for All-inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells was valued at USD 74.1 million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 190 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 14.4% during the forecast period. - The global Perovskite Solar Cells Module revenue was USD 630 million in 2022 and is forecast to a readjusted size of USD 2773.3 million by 2029 with a CAGR of 23.3% during the forecast period (2023-2029). - The global market for Perovskite Photovoltaic Modules was valued at USD 70.7 million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 394 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 27.8% during the forecast period. - Perovskite Tandem Solar Cells Market - Perovskite Thin Film Solar Cell Laser Integrated Processing System Market - Perovskite Coating Device Market - The global market for Perovskite Photovoltaic Flat Panel Coating Machine was valued at USD 378 million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 479 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 3.1% during the forecast period. - The global market for Perovskite Deposition Equipment was valued at USD 271 million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 1483 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 25.8% during the forecast period. - Perovskite Precursors Market - Perovskite Cell Coating Equipment Market - The global market for Outdoor Solar Furniture was valued at USD 179 million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 481 million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 15.4% during the forecast period. 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GET A FREE QUOTE Valuates Reports sales@valuates.com For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 WhatsApp: +91-9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Blog: https://valuatestrends.blogspot.com/ Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/valuatesreports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valuatesreports6753 https://www.facebook.com/valuateskorean https://www.facebook.com/valuatesspanish https://www.facebook.com/valuatesjapanese https://valuatesreportspanish.blogspot.com/ https://valuateskorean.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesgerman.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesreportjapanese.blogspot.com/ Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/perovskite-solar-cells-market-to-reach-new-heights-with-high-efficiency-and-low-cost-energy-tech--valuates-reports-302494623.html VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Green Bridge Metals Corporation (CSE:GRBM)(OTCQB:GBMCF)(FWB:J48, WKN:A3EW4S) ("Green Bridge" or the "Company") is pleased to announce positive results from a core sampling campaign at the Skibo prospect ("Skibo"), located within the Company's south contact zone properties along the basal contact of the Duluth Intrusion, north of Duluth, Minnesota (the "South Contact Zone Properties"). The core sampling results include intercepts of 0.28% Cu and 0.15% Ni, over 153 meters (m) to include 3.1m at 1.6% Cu, 0.4% Ni, and 18.3 parts per million (ppm) Platinum Group Elements (PGE) (Figure 1) (Table 1). These new assay results from Skibo demonstrate the potential for both bulk tonnage and high-grade copper nickel systems to exist at Skibo. In addition, significant PGE and Cobalt mineralization was encountered in the unsampled drill core pointing to the potential for valuable by-products in the mineralized system. The initial results of the historical core sampling program warrant a continuation of the program to define the extent of the mineralized system(s) and development of drill targets with the goal of defining a resource at Skibo. Message from David Suda CEO: "We continue to be impressed by the South Contact Zone Properties. At Skibo, Green Bridge has discovered newly defined mineralization with 153m of approximately 0.6% CuEq from surface. The Skibo prospect is only one of four prospective properties with exceptional exploration and development potential. By adding length to the identified well mineralized zones at Skibo, we will pursue the extent of potential thickness at these zones. As we only begin to scratch the surface of the potential, the zones look to be significant and rich with metals including Copper, Nickel, PGEs, Cobalt and Titanium. We look forward to more results from Skibo as the program continues." The goal of the 2025 core sampling program has been to evaluate whether high grade, massive sulphide veins are associated with a larger interval of lower grade, but still economic, copper and nickel grades and thus far the thesis is proving valid at Skibo. Results for 877m of previously unsampled drill core have been recently received from the assay lab and incorporated with historical assay data for the drill holes. The new, cumulative results have defined substantial grade and interval lengths in comparison to previously unpublished results. New sampling protocol has also included both a full trace element and whole rock analysis which provides valuable information for future exploration vectoring as well as metallurgical consideration. The addition of whole rock analysis provides valuable data on the existence of other critical minerals such as titanium dioxide (TiO2) and Cobalt at Skibo. Cobalt in drilling appears to be another value driver at Skibo with a 54.2m interval of 1982.6 ppm Co, in addition to 0.26% Cu, and 0.15% Ni, at the surface. Though the data is incomplete downhole, it is apparent from the new whole rock data that Oxide Ultramafic Intrusions (OUI), which typically contain substantial TiO2 and vanadium mineralization, are present in the near surface at Skibo and results of only a portion of the drilling contains intercepts of 51.5m at 4.2% TiO2 that includes 22.5m of 0.09% V2O5. Intercepts of massive, net-textured, and disseminated copper and nickel mineralization over tens to hundreds of meters is evidence that the mineralization at Skibo justifies continued attention by the Company (Figure 2). Results Highlights: SK09-02: Results include 187.3m of new sampling 3.0m of 1.6% Cu, 0.4% Ni, and 18.3 g/t PGE 3.0m of 1.1% Cu, 0.4% Ni, and 4.4 g/t PGE 153m of 0.28% Cu, 0.15% Ni and 0.37 g/t PGE SK09-03: Results include 311.3m of new sampling 54.2m 0.26%, 0.15% Ni, 0.1 g/t PGE, 1982.6 ppm Co 113.5m 0.23% Cu, 0.09% Ni, 0.14 g/t PGE 51.5m 475 ppm Co, 4.2% TiO2 SK09-04: Results include 267.3m of new sampling 3.4m of 1.3% Cu, 0.2% Ni, 0.5 g/t PGE 3.0m of 0.6% Cu and 0.2% Ni 60.7m 0.24% Cu, 0.11% Ni 23.5m 0.23% Cu, 671.4 ppm Co The results of integrating assays over the entirety of historically drilled holes, as well as developing a model for the occurrence of mineralization in association with host intrusions and footwall sediments are together providing a strong foundation to understanding the geologic controls on all types of mineralization at Skibo. The technical team believes that there are two horizons for copper and nickel mineralization; one in the near surface, associated with OUI type magmatic bodies and one deeper, just above the contact with the Virginia Formation sediments, hosted in troctolitic intrusions. It also appears that there may be a discontinuous zone of massive sulphide veins between the upper and lower ore zones. This initial concept will continue to be modelled and tested as the core sampling program continues. Table 1 HOLE ID LOCATION From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Ni (%) PGM (g/t) Co (ppm) SK09-02 Skibo N 17.1 440.7 423.6 0.22 0.09 0.43 149.1 Including 23.5 176.5 153 0.28 0.15 0.37 248.5 281.5 296.1 14.6 0.24 0.06 0.35 71.3 344.3 350.4 6.1 0.97 0.41 0.28 193.4 367.9 376.1 60.2 0.42 0.14 0.43 104.6 421.5 424.6 3.1 1.60 0.40 18.25 243.8 SK09-03 Skibo N 15.3 474 458.7 0.17 0.07 0.01 331.7 Including 15.3 69.5 54.2 0.26 0.15 0.15 1982.6 185.3 191.4 6.1 0.28 0.09 0.17 352.7 199.0 250.5 51.5 0.01 0.05 0.06 475.4 250.6 272.8 22.2 0.23 0.11 0.15 357.7 307.5 336.5 29.0 0.23 0.08 0.10 482.2 359.4 472.9 113.5 0.23 0.09 0.14 263.6 SK09-04 Skibo N 8.5 453.2 444.7 0.15 0.06 0.11 125.7 Including 8.5 69.2 60.7 0.24 0.11 0.17 236.1 79.9 121.0 41.1 0.30 0.09 0.16 149.4 260.0 283.5 23.5 0.23 0.07 0.12 671.4 353.9 372.5 18.6 0.22 0.08 0.11 129.9 SK11-01 Skibo N 13.4 356 342.6 0.04 0.023 0.18 29.8 Including 150.0 159.7 9.7 0.30 0.07 0.37 NS Grade intervals may include historical intercepts reported in a NI 43-101 Technical Report dated September 18, 20241 NS= No sample results Lengths are drill intersections and not necessarily true widths. True widths cannot be consistently calculated for comparison purposes between holes because of the irregular shapes of the mineralized zones. 1Dufresne, M.B., et al. 2024. "Technical Report and Mineral Resource Estimate for the South Contact Zone Project, St Louis County, Minnesota, USA". Apex Geoscience Ltd. Edmonton, AB, Canada. Green Bridge Metals Corp. September 18, 2024 Figure 1. Skibo prospect map showing geology and historically drilled holes with new sampling and assay results. Bold Hole ID indicates assay results have been received and are included in this document. Inset shows cross section A-A' with interpolated copper grade shells and nickel concentrations on the drill hole trace as colored bars. Figure 2. Images of sulphide mineralization in unsampled core from SK09-02. QUALITY ASSURANCE, QUALITY CONTROL AND QUALIFIED PERSONS Please see the technical report entitled "Technical Report and Mineral resource Estimate for the South Contact Zone Project, St Louis County, Minnesota, USA" with an effective date of September 18, 2024 prepared by independent "Qualified Persons" (as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101")) Michael B. Dufresne (P. Geol, P. Geo), Andrew J. Turner (P. Geol, P. Geo), Fallon T. Clarke (P.Geo) and Christian Bohm (P.Geo) for all historical assay information as well as information on the quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC"), data verification, analytical and testing procedures at Skibo, part of the South Contact Zone Properties. The laboratory used for all historical data herein is ALS Minerals, which is independent of the Company. The laboratory used for all new assay data herein is Activation Labs, which is independent of the Company. The Company's drill core samples were collected at 3.1m intervals with the exception of one core hole (SK09-03)which was sampled at 1.5m intervals. Sampling was conducted following industry standards and best practices. All new samples were submitted to Activation Labs in Thunder Bay, Ontario, an independent, commercial, assay lab, for geochemical analysis. The analyses used in this analytical program include fire assay with Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) analysis for gold and platinum group elements, sodium peroxide fusion analysis with analysis by ICP-OES was used to report all trace elements, and whole rock chemical composition was analyzed using a Lithium Metaborate fused disc with analysis by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF). Measures to ensure QA/QC of assay and analytical results include inserting assay standards certified for copper and nickel mineralization, or a certified blank every 6.1m. All data was reviewed for quality using comparison of results to QA/QC standards and using a pass/fail criteria of 3 standard deviations. All QA/QC standards and blanks passed the verification criteria. Lengths are drill intersections and not necessarily true widths. True widths cannot be consistently calculated for comparison purposes between holes because of the irregular shapes of the mineralized zones. Drill intersections have been independently selected and drill composites have been independently calculated by the Company. The geological interpretations in this news release are solely those of the Company. The locations and distances highlighted on all maps in this news release are approximate. HOLE_ID EASTING NORTHING Elevation (m) TD (m) AZIMUTH DIP SK09-01 566945.00 5258033.00 463.4 144.48 250 -60 SK09-02 567329.00 5256717.00 461.0 535.53 118 -80 SK09-03 566918.00 5255797.00 459.7 486.77 103 -55 SK09-04 567229.00 5256638.00 460.8 566.01 138 -80 SK11-01 567814.80 5254611.90 457.9 452.93 0 -90 SK11-02 567814.80 5254611.90 457.9 287.43 170 -65 SK15-01 567140.00 5256790.00 461.0 471.83 145 -75 SK19-01 567231.00 5255720.00 458.5 243.23 289 -45 SK19-02 567231.00 5255720.00 458.5 427.94 289 -70 SK20-01 567089.00 5255935.00 458.5 245.67 289 -45 SK20-02 567090.70 5255934.00 458.5 402.03 280 -75 Ajeet Milliard, Chief Geologist at The Company is a Qualified Person within the meaning of NI 43-101 and is satisfied that the analytical and testing procedures used are standard industry operating procedures and methodologies, and has reviewed, verified, and approved the technical information disclosed in this news release, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the technical information. About Green Bridge Metals Corporation Green Bridge Metals Corporation is a Canadian based exploration company focused on acquiring 'critical mineral' rich assets and the development of the South Contact Zone Properties along the basal contact of the Duluth Intrusion, north of Duluth, Minnesota. The South Contact Zone Properties contain bulk-tonnage copper-nickel and titanium-vanadium in ilmenite hosted in ultramafic to oxide ultramafic intrusions. The South Contact Zone Properties have exploration targets for bulk-tonnage Ni mineralization, high grade Ni-Cu-PGE magmatic sulfide mineralization and titanium. ON BEHALF OF GREEN BRIDGE METALS CORPORATION, "David Suda" President and Chief Executive Officer For more information, please contact: David Suda President and Chief Executive Officer Tel: 604.928-3101 investors@greenbridgemetals.com Forward Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to: results from the exploration and development of the South Contact Zone Properties, including Skibo; the goals of the 2025 core sampling program; and statements regarding the potential of the South Contact Zone Properties, including that it appears to be significant and rich with metals including Copper, Nickel, PGEs, Cobalt and Titanium. Although management of the Company believe that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that forward-looking statements or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements about: the Company's ability to identify potential new mineral deposits within North America; the proposed scope and timing of expansion drilling programs; the timing and results (drill targets) from new core assay results; and the development of the South Contact Zone Properties. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These risk factors include, but are not limited to: locating mineral deposits is inherently risky; the exploration and development of the South Contact Zone Properties may not result in any commercially successful outcome for the Company; risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; changes in laws (including regulations respecting mining concessions); and other risk factors as detailed from time to time. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Investors should not attribute undue certainty or place undue reliance on forward looking statements. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosures in Green Bridge's annual and quarterly reports and other public filings, available at www.sedarplus.ca. Certain figures and references contain information supported by public and corporate references that may have been updated, changed, or modified since their referenced date. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved or disapproved the contents of this news release. SOURCE: Green Bridge Metals Corporation View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/green-bridge-metals-reports-significant-disseminated-and-high-grade-copper-nickel-1049116 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Rio Grande Resources Ltd. (CSE:RGR)(OTCQB:RGRLF)(FSE:488) ("Rio Grande" or "RIO" the "Company"), an emerging North American gold and silver exploration company, today announced that its common shares have received approval to be cross traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange ("FSE") in Germany under the symbol FSE:488, and commenced trading on July 7, 2025. The Company's shares will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the symbol "RGR" and the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol "RGRLF". The cross listing on FSE will enable greater access to European investors and increase Rio Grande's global visibility. The FSE is the largest of the seven stock exchanges in Germany and one of the largest and most efficient trading venues in the world, offering high liquidity and access to a broad range of international investors. Germany is Europe's largest economy with a strong base of institutional investors and a growing retail investor community. Jason Barnard, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rio Grande, comments: "The approval to cross trade on the FSE provides the opportunity to enhance our trading volume and liquidity on a major international exchange. It will also serve to improve our visibility in the European market and tap into a new pool of institutional and retail investors. We look forward to engaging a wider investor base as we advance the development of our Winston Property project and build long-term value for our shareholders." Investors can find real-time quotes and market information for the Company on the FSE website at: https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/equity/rio-grande-resources-ltd?mic=XFRA Equity Grant Further, the Company announces that it has granted an aggregate 1,200,000 stock options to the directors, officers and consultants of the Company, exercisable at $.35 and for a period of 2-years. All stock options issued are subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day and have been granted in accordance with the Company's Omnibus Long-Term Incentive Plan dated December 20, 2024 and the policies of the CSE. About Rio Grande Resources Rio Grande Resources (CSE:RGR)(OTCQB:RGRLF)(FSE:488) is a burgeoning mineral exploration company focused on unlocking the high-grade gold and silver potential within its 3,000-acre drill-ready property in the Black Range of Sierra County, New Mexico. The company holds 100% interest in the Winston project group, which includes the 2 patented historic Ivanhoe & Emporia Claims, and Little Granite mines, all known for their past production of high-grade precious metals. Rio Grande Resources is led by a team of experienced professionals with expertise in mineral exploration and development, who are targeting large-scale precious metal discoveries within the property's well-documented low-sulfidation epithermal setting. To view the company fact sheet and corporate presentation please visit our website at www.riogranderesources.ca Contact and Information Company Jason Barnard, President, CEO and Director (604) 767-6598 jason.barnard@riogranderesources.ca Investor Relations Lucas A. Zimmerman & Ian Scargill MZ Group - MZ North America (262) 357-2918 RGR@mzgroup.us www.mzgroup.us Follow us or contact us on social media: X: @RioGrandeRGR | LinkedIn | Facebook Forward-Looking Statements Except for the statements of historical fact contained herein, the information presented in this news release and oral statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company are or may constitute "forward-looking statements" as such term is used in applicable United States and Canadian laws and including, without limitation, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, for which the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements and forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the Company's expectations with respect to the Private Placement; and the use of proceeds under the Private Placement;. These statements relate to analyses and other information that are based on forecasts of future results, estimates of amounts not yet determinable and assumptions of management. Any other statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as "expects" or "does not expect," "is expected," "anticipates" or "does not anticipate," "plans," "estimates" or "intends," or stating that certain actions, events or results "may," "could," "would," "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and should be viewed as forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such risks and other factors include, among others, the availability of capital to fund programs and the resulting dilution caused by the raising of capital through the sale of Units, continuity of agreements with third parties, risks and uncertainties associated with the environment and delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Many of these factors are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict. Important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially and that could impact the Company and the statements contained in this news release can be found in the Company's filings on SEDAR+. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements contained in this news release and in any document referred to in this news release. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Please refer to the Company's most recent filings under its profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca for further information respecting the risks affecting the Company and its business. The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release and accepts no responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy hereof. SOURCE: Rio Grande Resources View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/metals-and-mining/rio-grande-announces-listing-on-the-frankfurt-stock-exchange-1049136 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - BELGRAVIA HARTFORD CAPITAL INC. (CSE: BLGV) (OTCID: BLGVF) (FSE: ECA) ("Company" or "Belgravia") is pleased to announce that: it has entered into a binding agreement with Round13 Digital Asset Fund ("Round13 DAF") for a secured convertible debenture for a one-time principal amount investment of USD$5,000,000 (the "Debenture") convertible into common shares at C$0.71, being a 40% premium to the volume-weighted average trading price (the "VWAP") for the seven consecutive days immediately preceding the date of this announcement; and as a result of this above-market Debenture, Belgravia has elected to voluntarily reduce its non-brokered private placement to close on 16,091,822 units (the "Units") at a price of C$0.25 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of C$4,022,955.55 (the "Offering") to the Company. New USD$5 Million Round13 DAF Debenture Convertible at C$0.71 The principal amount and interest of the Debenture is convertible into common shares of Belgravia at a conversion price (the "Conversion Price") of C$0.71, being a 40% premium to the VWAP for the seven consecutive days immediately preceding the date of this announcement. In the case that, at any time prior to the maturity date of the Debenture, the VWAP of Belgravia common shares equals or exceeds C$1.42, being 200% of the Conversion Price for 20-consecutive trading days of the common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE"), then 20% of the then-outstanding principal amount (together with a proportionate amount of accrued and unpaid interest) shall automatically convert into common shares of Belgravia without any further action of Round13 DAF. The Debenture bears interest at a rate of 4% per annum, accrued monthly, and matures two years from the closing date thereof. Mehdi Azodi, CEO of Belgravia, stated: "This continued support from Round13 DAF, our lead strategic advisor and partner in all areas of Bitcoin-related finance, results in any new securities issued being set at a 40% premium to the price of Belgravia shares for the seven consecutive days immediately preceding the date of the announcement - a far less dilutive mechanism for Belgravia to achieve its stated goals. In addition, as a result of this Debenture, Belgravia has determined that it is in the best interests of our shareholders, to voluntarily cap the Offering at slightly more than 40% of its initial size." Mehdi Azodi continued: "This path enables Belgravia to achieve an excess amount of additional Bitcoin than originally expected to our treasury but, most importantly, with almost 60% less dilution." Khaled Verjee, Managing Director of Round13 DAF, added: "We are extremely pleased to continue to support our partners and believe Belgravia is building an innovative business where Bitcoin treasury strategies play an integral role. From its innovative capital structures, protecting shareholder value, to its suite of, soon to be launched, Bitcoin focused technical tools designed to increase shareholder value and growth at a BTC level, Belgravia is well-positioned in this space. For a microcap to be thinking the way Belgravia is, and to have the technical team it does, it is in our opinion a recipe for long term success." Closing of Offering As disclosed by press release on June 24, 2025, the Company announced a non-brokered private placement of Units. Under the Offering, each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of one Common Share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant") at a price of C$0.25 per Unit. Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional Common Share at an exercise price of C$0.50 per share for a period of 12-months from the date of issuance. The Warrants will be subject to an acceleration clause whereby, if the closing price of the Common Shares on the CSE is greater than C$0.75 for a period of ten consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof. In such case, the Warrants will expire 30-days after the date of such notice. Under the Offering, a total of 16,091,822 Units were issued at a price of C$0.25 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of C$4,022,955.55. No finders fees or commissions were paid to any party in connection with either the Offering or the Debenture. In accordance with the policies of the CSE and applicable securities legislation, the Common Shares and Warrants comprising the Units will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance. In addition, closing of the Debenture is subject to all rules, policies and procedures of the CSE. Belgravia intends to use the proceeds of the Debenture and the Offering to purchase Bitcoin, in line with the Company's strategic objective of building a 100% Bitcoin only Treasury. ******************************* For more information, legal disclaimer and about Belgravia Hartford please visit, please visit www.belgraviahartford.com or www.blgvbtc.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258989 SOURCE: Belgravia Hartford Capital Inc Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - HYPER BIT TECHNOLOGIES LTD. (CSE: HYPE) (OTCID: HYPAF) (FSE: N7S0) (the "Company" or "Hyper Bit") is proud to recognize 'Crypto Week' in the United States, coinciding with a pivotal moment as the US government considers major digital asset legislation. This week, the House of Representatives is set to advance three significant bills: the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, the GENIUS Act for stablecoin regulation, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. These efforts reflect the US government's ambition to position America as a global leader in the crypto sector, with President Trump's administration actively supporting digital asset innovation through executive orders and national policy initiatives. The Company further announces its transition from the OTC Pink Market to the OTCID Market operated by OTC Markets Group Inc. The OTCID Market is intended for companies committed to maintaining enhanced disclosure practices, including current financial reporting, management certifications and verified company profile updates. This elevated level of transparency strengthens investor confidence and broadens access to institutional and retail investors who require strong corporate disclosure standards. Hyper Bit believes this transition reinforces its continuing commitment to transparency and sound corporate governance and represents a strategic step in the Company's broader capital markets plan to enhance investor visibility. "We're excited to have begun trading on the new OTCID market, which represents a strategic milestone in Hyper Bit Technologies' public company growth," said Dallas La Porta, Chief Executive Officer. "This listing enhances our visibility in the U.S. capital markets, expands access to a broader base of investors, and supports our commitment to delivering long-term value for shareholders. It also sets the stage for our anticipated progression to the OTCQB tier as we continue building momentum in the crypto mining and Bitcoin treasury space." Strategic Advisory Appointment Additionally, the Company announces it has appointed Mr. Daniel Terrett as a strategic advisor. Mr. Terrett is a serial entrepreneur with expertise in capital markets advisory, focused on Web3 finance and spearheading crypto strategies. Mr. Terrett brings to Hyper Bit over 20 years of experience in the capital markets with a focus on strategic acquisitions and M&A in the technology and mining space. What's on the Table During Crypto Week: CLARITY Act (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act) Scheduled for a July 16 vote in the House. This bill provides much-needed definitions and clear jurisdictional boundaries between the SEC and CFTC-clarifying whether specific digital tokens are commodities or securities. The hope? Greater legal certainty to spur business innovation and institutional adoption CREFC+9Business Insider+9CoinDesk+9Tech Xplore+2Reuters+2PYMNTS.com+2. Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act Set for a July 16 vote. This legislation would prohibit the Federal Reserve from creating a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC), upholding financial privacy and preventing government surveillance Wikipedia+8Business Insider+8House Financial Services+8. GENIUS Act (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act) Slated for a House floor vote July 17. The bill, which U.S. Senate passed June 17, sets federal standards for stablecoin issuers-requiring full asset backing, transparency in reserves, and dual federal/state oversight Wikipedia+13Wikipedia+13CoinDesk+13. Why This Matters Regulatory clarity means institutional investors-such as custodians, pension funds, and corporate treasuries-are more likely to allocate capital toward Bitcoin and digital assets. Stablecoin framework enables safer integration of crypto in traditional finance, fueling payments innovation with faster settlement and lower costs-benefiting both miners and treasury users. Protection against CBDCs reinforces the sovereignty of private digital asset systems-safeguarding miners and users from potential centralized surveillance. Why this matters to Hyper Bit Stakeholders: "As a vertically integrated Crypto Mining and treasury strategy Company, Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. views this week's legislative momentum as a landmark moment not just for the broader crypto ecosystem-but for every stakeholder invested in our mission," stated Dallas La Porta, CEO. "Regulatory clarity is the bedrock of sustainable innovation. With the advancement of bills like the CLARITY Act and the GENIUS Act, the U.S. is signaling a clear commitment to fostering responsible growth in digital assets." "For our shareholders, these developments reduce long-term regulatory risk and open the door to expanded institutional participation in Bitcoin, which directly supports the value of our treasury strategy. For our operational teams, the emphasis on stablecoin frameworks and the rejection of centralized surveillance via CBDCs reaffirms the importance of decentralized systems and justifies further expansion of our mining infrastructure in North America." "And for our partners-from energy providers to technology vendors-this moment affirms that crypto is entering a phase of durable legitimacy. We believe these legislative strides will unlock new opportunities in capital markets, ESG-aligned infrastructure development, and cross-border commerce, all while reinforcing the long-term value proposition of Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. Hyper Bit is well positioned to lead in this next chapter." About Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. is a forward-thinking, diversified technology company specializing in the acquisition, development, and strategic deployment of crypto mining operations and blockchain-based innovations. As global interest in digital assets accelerates-driven by the rise of blockchain, decentralized finance (DeFi), and increasing institutional and retail adoption-Hyper Bit is committed to unlocking value across the crypto ecosystem while delivering growth for our stakeholders. Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. is a member of the Blockchain Association of Canada and the American Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Association. Stay informed on our latest developments by subscribing to Company updates at Hyperbit.ca and follow us across our social media channels: X.com, TikTok, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. is publicly listed in Canada (CSE: HYPE), the USA (OTCID: HYPAF) and in Europe (FSE: N7S0). ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD (Signed) "Dallas La Porta" __________ Dallas La Porta, President, CEO and Director FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release includes statements related to the Proposed Transaction and related matters. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. No investment is without risk. Crypto currencies are particularly volatile and therefore particularly risky. Companies that are developing technologies and investing in crypto mining can potentially be adversely affected by its inherent volatility. Readers are cautioned to always consult an investment advisor to determine if an opportunity is right for you. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258943 SOURCE: Hyper Bit Technologies Ltd. With unprecedented demand from employers for workplace financial benefits, Wagestream continues to expand its product capability LONDON, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Wagestream, the market leader in workplace finance and wellbeing, has announced the acquisition of pensions technology company Zippen. The move continues to support Wagestream's mission of improving the financial wellbeing of every worker and solidifies the evolving role of employers as key providers of financial services in the workplace. Founded in 2017, Zippen had developed specialist knowledge in defined contribution pensions. Its deep understanding of the UK pensions landscape - where an estimated 31.1 billion in pension assets remains unclaimed - makes it a valuable addition to the Wagestream Group. Wagestream research has shown that low and middle-income workers are disproportionately affected, holding twice as many unclaimed pension pots as the average UK worker. The acquisition comes amidst a fundamental shift in the employee-employer relationship, as financial services increasingly move beyond traditional financial institutions, into the workplace. What was once limited to debt helplines and hardship funds has evolved into salary-linked financial services, high interest savings accounts, affordable loans, and flexible pay. Peter Briffett, CEO & Co-Founder of Wagestream, comments: "We are in the midst of an evolution in the way financial support is provided to workers. Thousands of employers are realising that holistic financial wellbeing - from today's pay to long-term planning - isn't just a perk, but a driver of engagement, loyalty and productivity. With Zippen joining the Wagestream Group, we are strengthening our expertise and furthering our mission to help people take control of their financial lives." Zippen's Co-Founders Stuart Feast and Ellie Tembras will join the Wagestream Group. Stuart Feast, Co-Founder of Zippen, adds: "We are so excited to be joining the Wagestream team. We have spent the last eight years building deep knowledge of the pensions ecosystem and we look forward to sharing that with a mission-led business that already reaches millions of workers globally." The acquisition aligns with Wagestream's broader strategy to build the most comprehensive platform for workplace finance and wellbeing. As UK pensions continue to evolve, Wagestream is well positioned to understand and address workers' long-term financial challenges through its payroll integrations, employer relationships and proprietary employee data. About Wagestream: Globally, three million people now have access to the Wagestream platform through 2,000 brands - across the U.K., Europe and U.S. - making it the world's most widely-used financial wellbeing provider. Offered through employers, the platform helps members to earn, learn, save, spend and borrow on their own terms, all in one smartphone app. Wagestream is a B corporation, built with a social charter to provide fair financial services. About Zippen: Zippen is an award winning pensions company that helps thousands of people take control of their pensions and plan for retirement. Founded in 2017 by Stuart Feast and Ellie Embras, Zippen's mission is to make pensions management affordable and transparent for people everywhere. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2639253/5417598/Wagestream_Logo.jpg View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/wagestream-acquires-pension-technology-provider-zippen-302506751.html NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Hyperlink InfoSystem, a globally recognized and trusted name in technology innovation, proudly announces the launch of its groundbreaking AI-based app development platform: 24/7Coders.AI. Operating since 2011, Hyperlink InfoSystem has built a solid reputation as one of the top mobile app development companies in the world. With the introduction of 24/7Coders.AI, the company continues its mission to simplify complex technology and make app development accessible, fast, and intelligent for everyone-from solo entrepreneurs to enterprise-level teams. With 24/7Coders.AI, businesses can build and deploy their app in just 5 minutes, making it one of the fastest and most efficient AI-based platforms in the industry. The platform eliminates traditional development bottlenecks and gives users complete control through an intuitive interface, AI-powered module suggestions, pre-built templates, real-time multi-OS previews, and seamless multi-platform deployment-all without writing a single line of code. 24/7Coders.AI redefines user experience by combining simplicity with powerful functionality. Whether one is launching a new product or managing multiple apps, the platform empowers users to design, develop, iterate, and scale-all from one easy-to-use dashboard. Backed by 24/7 support and thoughtfully designed pricing plans, it caters to startups, SMBs, and large enterprises alike, offering a frictionless path from idea to execution. Speaking on the launch, Harnil Oza, CEO of Hyperlink InfoSystem, shared: "At Hyperlink InfoSystem, we've always aimed to simplify complex technology into accessible and intelligent solutions. With 24/7Coders.AI, we wanted to eliminate the traditional barriers that delay or discourage people from bringing their app ideas to life. It's not just a tool; it's a powerful gateway to transform an idea into a live product quickly and intelligently-without relying on coders or complex development cycles." The launch of 24/7Coders.AI marks a major milestone in Hyperlink InfoSystem's mission to democratize digital transformation. As businesses across the globe seek faster, smarter solutions, this platform offers a game-changing approach to app development-combining speed, scalability, and innovation like never before. It stands as a powerful testament to what's possible when cutting-edge technology meets visionary simplicity. Anyone interested in experiencing the speed and power of 24/7Coders.AI can request a personalized use-case demo through the official website: https://www.247coders.ai/connect-now or drop an email at info@247coders.ai About Hyperlink InfoSystem Hyperlink InfoSystem is a prominent international enterprise excelling in IT solutions in many domains. Since its humble beginnings in 2011, its specialization in technologies has expanded across web development, mobile app development, enterprise software solutions, and now Artificial Intelligence (AI). With over 1200+ employees and a global presence in the USA, UK, UAE, France, India, and Canada, Hyperlink InfoSystem is dedicated to assisting corporations to leverage the complete power of technology to accomplish their goals. Contact Details: Hyperlink InfoSystem Harnil Oza +1-309-791-4105 info@hyperlinkinfosystem.com New York Address: One World Trade Center 285 Fulton Street suite 8500, New York, NY 10007, United States Ahmedabad Address: C-308, Ganesh Meridian, Opp Kargil Petrol Pump, S.G. Highway, Sola, Ahmedabad, 380061 India London Address: Level 30, The Leadenhall Building, 122 Leadenhall Street, London EC3V 4AB Canada Address: 151 Yonge Street, 11th Floor, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 2W7, Canada Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2429933/5417441/Hyperlink_InfoSystem_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/hyperlink-infosystem-introduces-247codersai-making-app-development-simpler-smarter-and-scalable-302506588.html Final close of Pantheon Credit Opportunities III (PCO III) highlights Pantheon's leadership in private credit secondaries and GP/LP liquidity solutions and GP/LP liquidity solutions PCO III targets compelling absolute and risk-adjusted returns across a broad and diversified range of credit strategies and investments across a broad and diversified range of credit strategies and investments Strong investor interest across geographies and channels , including institutional, insurance, and a wide range of private wealth investors , including institutional, insurance, and a wide range of private wealth investors With this close, the third generation of Pantheon's senior and opportunistic credit fundraising programs reaches $8.3 billion Pantheon, a leading global private markets investor, is pleased to announce the final close of Pantheon Credit Opportunities III (PCO III) and related vehicles, with total commitments of approximately $2.2 billion, exceeding initial targets by over 2.5x. PCO III is a core offering within Pantheon's integrated private credit secondaries platform, which includes dedicated pools of capital for U.S. and European senior private credit as well as opportunistic credit. This structure, combined with a solutions-focused partnership approach with GPs and LPs and a credit-first underwriting philosophy, enables selective capital deployment while offering investors targeted exposure to distinct strategies and diversified portfolios. In April 2025, Pantheon raised $5.2 billion for its third senior credit secondaries program (PSD III), which targets portfolios of senior secured, floating rate, primarily sponsor-backed investments across LP interests and GP solutions opportunities. PCO III continues supporting this growth trajectory, offering investors access to a curated and diversified portfolio of private credit investments backed by Pantheon's global network and institutional infrastructure. Including PCO III, PSD III, and other associated accounts, Pantheon has raised $8.3bn for its third generation of senior and opportunistic programs. PCO III attracted broad global support from institutional and private wealth investors, primarily across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Commitments came from a wide range of institutional investors, including pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and insurance companies, as well as a range of private wealth investors, underscoring the broad appeal of Pantheon's differentiated approach, experience, and track record in private credit secondaries. PCO III targets attractive absolute and risk-adjusted returns through diversified secondary investments in portfolios managed by leading private credit GPs, spanning senior, junior, asset-backed, and opportunistic credit with a focus on quality, diversification, and downside protection. The strategy aims to capitalize on increasing liquidity needs through LP/GP transactions, market dislocations, and structural inefficiencies across the private credit landscape. Rakesh (Rick) Jain, Partner and Global Head of Private Credit at Pantheon, commented: "Private credit secondaries are entering a new phase of maturity and growth, driven by increased deal flow, heightened liquidity needs and greater buyer and GP-led activity. As long-standing investors in both secondaries and private credit, our ability to provide creative solutions-oriented partnership capital to GPs and LPs is a key differentiator. We're excited to leverage our flexible mandate and deep sourcing capabilities to identify and execute on the most compelling opportunities." Toni Vainio, Partner and Head of European Private Credit at Pantheon, added: "We are grateful for the trust of our investors and proud to have built one of the most agile and diversified credit secondary platforms in the market. An experienced dedicated team manages both our senior and opportunistic credit secondaries strategies, ensuring consistency in underwriting and execution. Strong alignment, combined with our global reach and longstanding GP relationships, positions us to deliver strong outcomes across market cycles." Notes to Editors About Pantheon Pantheon* has been at the forefront of private markets investing for more than 40 years, earning a reputation for providing innovative solutions covering the full lifecycle of investments, from primary fund commitments to co-investments and secondary purchases, across private equity, private credit, infrastructure, and real assets. We have partnered with more than 650 clients, including institutional investors of all sizes as well as a growing number of private wealth advisers and investors, with approximately $71bn in discretionary assets under management (as of December 31, 2024). Leveraging our specialized experience and global team of professionals across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, we invest with purpose and lead with expertise to build secure financial futures. Pantheon refers to the subsidiaries and subsidiary undertakings of Pantheon Ventures Inc. and AMG Plymouth UK Holdings Limited and includes operating entities principally based in the US (San Francisco and New York), UK (London), Hong Kong, Guernsey, Tokyo, Dublin and Singapore. Pantheon Ventures Inc. and Pantheon Ventures (US) LP are registered as investment advisors with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"); Pantheon Securities, LLC is a broker dealer registered with the SEC and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"). Pantheon Ventures (UK) LLP is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") in the United Kingdom. Pantheon Ventures (Guernsey) Ltd and a number of other Pantheon entities incorporated in Guernsey are regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission. Pantheon Ventures (Asia) Limited is registered as a Type II Financial Instruments Business and Investment Advisory and Agency Business Operator with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau in Japan (KLFB). Pantheon Ventures (Ireland) DAC is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland ("CBI") and is an appointed representative of Pantheon Ventures (UK) LLP in respect of activities carried out in the United Kingdom. Pantheon Ventures (Singapore) Pte. Ltd holds a capital markets service license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") to conduct fund management with accredited and institutional investors. This press release is not an offer of securities for sale. Securities may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. 2025 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250715202024/en/ Contacts: For further information, please contact: Pantheon Mariella Reason, Pantheon Communications Tel: +44 20 3473 3975 Email: mariella.reason@pantheon.com Six finalist teams from around the world gathered in Sweden for the 2nd annual Susilo Institute Business+Ethics Case Competition, hosted by Boston University's Questrom School of Business. Organized by the Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy, the year-long competition challenges students to address complex ethical challenges through rigorous case analysis, team collaboration, and cultural immersion. It began last fall with more than 44 teams representing over 20 universities across 12 countries, and culminated in an immersive, in-person, final round in Stockholm and Ostersund, Sweden, from June 1-4, 2025. Three original case studies written by Questrom MBA students Soleha Patel ('25), Alexander Orta ('25), and Ankit Saraf ('25) under the direction of Professor Greg Stoller anchored the competition. The six teams presented their original analysis and solutions to the Swedish company's executive teams, who also served as judges. Additionally, teams composed of students from different universities presented their impressions of Swedish culture and proposed a strategic plan for a Swedish candy distributor. The six finalist teams represented Caucasus University (Georgia), Gadjah Mada University (Indonesia), UMass Boston (USA), Stanford University (USA), Tor Vergata University (Italy), and Trinity College Dublin (Ireland). The first-place team from Caucasus University-Giorgi Zanguri, Aleksandre Maisuradze, Mariam Lochoshvili, and Mariam Lortkipanidze-was recognized for their strategic insight, ethical reasoning, and cross-cultural awareness. Stanford University and Trinity College Dublin also placed. David Epstein, Executive Director of the Susilo Institute, and Claudia Sunberg, Swedish Program Coordinator supported Prof. Stoller's innovative approach for this competition. The Susilo Institute for Ethics in the Global Economy is a business-focused ethics center promoting global ethical practices and giving students real exposure to cultural and operational diversity. The competition is a flagship initiative of the Institute, founded through the generosity of Harry Susilo, Chairman and Founder of Sekar Group, an international corporation, and long-time supporter of Boston University. Representing the Susilo family at the finals were Finna Huang and Mark Clay, a director at Sekar Bumi. The competition shows how business education can go beyond the classroom-uniting students from around the world through immersive travel, student-led research, and a rigorous focus on business ethics. "Some of these presentations have been absolutely fantastic," said Clay. "But what's really interesting for me this yearwas the feedback from the actual owners of the sponsored companies who are saying they are actually gaining valuable insights into ideas that can benefit their companies going forward." Soleha Patel (Questrom '25), one of the case writers, reflected on the experience: "Someone pinch my 13-year-old shy self and tell her that almost a decade later, she'll be pursuing an MBA, traveling to Sweden, and sitting across from founders and CEOs. I'm beyond grateful to have worked with an amazing team to craft cases for the Susilo Institute's competition" Last year, the finals were held in Indonesia, and featured teams from Mexico, Japan, Germany, Lebanon, Indonesia, and the United States. About the Boston University Questrom School of Business Founded in 1913, the Boston University Questrom School of Business is a global top-tier academic research business school. Led by Allen Questrom Professor and Dean, Susan Fournier, Questrom develops business leaders who create value for the world. Questrom redefines transformational business programs, strengthens partnerships with the business community, advances the impact of research on business, and manages the school as a high-performing enterprise committed to excellence with a service mindset. Comprising a renowned full-time faculty of 165 researchers, teaching faculty, and accomplished practitioners, Questrom generates insights to address today's business challenges and prepares students with the tools they need to succeed from Day 1 in their professional lives. Questrom's portfolio of academic programs is robust and includes a Top 20 undergraduate program of over 2,200 students; distinctive MBA offerings including 900 students in a full- and part-time MBA, the affordable Online MBA and specialty MBAs in social impact, health, and digital technology; several thriving specialized masters programs in areas including business analytics, mathematical finance, and management studies; and a rigorous PhD program. More than 50,000 Questrom alumni form a powerful global network of leaders driving value creation that changes the world. QUESTROM MEANS BUSINESS. For more information, visit bu.edu/questrom. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716118887/en/ Contacts: Press contacts: Paul Alexander Tel.: 617-470-9772 Email: pasystem@bu.edu Jill Totenberg Tel.: 917-697-6900 Email: jtotenberg@totenberggroup.com New Company Meets Evolving Needs of Global Air Spring Design, Manufacturing and Distribution with a Vision of 'United for Growth, Driven by Innovation' Infinity Engineered Products, a leading air spring designer and manufacturer, and Meklas Otomotiv, one of Europe's leading air spring manufacturers, recently announced that they entered into a definitive merger agreement to become a single leading company in global air spring innovation, manufacturing and distribution. The formal announcement was made at Automechanika Istanbul on June 12, 2025. "The synergies formed will unlock opportunities for our global customer base from research and design to the manufacturing floor while strengthening our business at every level," said Char Zawadzinski, Infinity Engineered Products, Chief Executive Officer. "This is both an exciting and transformational time. We're eager to offer our customers greater engineering power and capacity, increased idea generation and a reinforced global commitment." The unified company bearing the name Infinity Engineered Products will be able to leverage the strengths of both companies and their resources, and empower a very customer-first approach, enabling both OEM and aftermarket customers to thrive. Positioned to serve a wide range of diversified industries, the new company will offer an expanded product portfolio and a broad range of tailored solutions for heavy-duty, agriculture, and industrial markets. "We expect the merger to accelerate product innovation and production and empower our employees to boldly live our vision of 'United for Growth, Driven by Innovation,'" Zawadzinski said. This merger will allow broader reach of Goodyear Air Springs and Infinity Engineered Products into Europe and around the world. The Infinity Engineered Products business operates advanced research and design centers and engineering facilities in the United States and manufacturing facilities in Mexico. The latest product innovation was the SpringRide air spring line, designed to help fleets reduce maintenance costs related to ride control and available throughout North America. Meklas Otomotiv, founded in 1986, is one of Europe's leading air spring manufacturers with production facilities in Turkey and worldwide export capabilities. Guided by a vision to become a company that creates global brands through a culture of excellence, Meklas has expanded its presence in Europe and North America under the Connect brand since 2002. To learn more about Goodyear Air Springs or Infinity Engineered Products, please contact your air springs sales representative and visit GoodyearAirSprings.com or call (877) 897-3469. About Infinity Engineered Products Since 1950, Infinity Engineered Products and Goodyear Air Springs have been one of the world's premier designers and manufacturers of leading air springs that deliver long life, value, and performance. As a global leader in the engineering and development of air springs serving mission-critical industries, including supply chain and transportation, transit, agriculture, industrial, and emerging EV applications, the Infinity Engineered Products principal products are Goodyear SuperCushionrolling lobe air springs, Goodyear SuperCushionbellows air springs, and SpringRideair springs. The company merged with Meklas Otomotiv in June 2025, leveraging the strengths of both companies to deliver broader, scalable, and customer-focused solutions to OEM and aftermarket sectors worldwide. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716287898/en/ Contacts: Christine Bowser Pinnacle Media Office: (330) 688-3515 Email: chrissy@pinnmedia.com Intellistack CEO, Aled Miles, Appointed as Chairman of Wales Tech Week 2025 Intellistack, formerly Formstack and a leader in data capture and workflow automation, today announced that it will be the Headline Partner for Wales Tech Week, Wales' largest international technology summit. This landmark event showcases Welsh technology and its ecosystem championing industry and technology on a global stage. In a further show of commitment to Welsh advancement and global tech leadership, Aled Miles, Intellistack CEO and Welsh Government Envoy to the United States, is returning to his position as Chairman of Wales Tech Week 2025, a role he held at the most recent Wales Tech Week. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716937168/en/ Aled Miles, Welsh Government Envoy to the United States, Intellistack CEO, and Chairman of Wales Tech Week. The international tech summit, powered by Technology Connected and taking place at the ICC Wales, Newport from 24-26 November, shines a global spotlight on Welsh innovation, technology, and talent. More than just a technology event, Wales Tech Week is a global platform for cutting edge development, investment, and collaboration. It showcases how tech is transforming every sector from energy and manufacturing to health, to professional services, finance, and logistics. It brings together a powerful ecosystem of entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors, academics, and policymakers, positioning Wales as a global hub for digital innovation and a magnet for international talent and investment. Wales Tech Week empowers leaders and industries to explore how digital transformation can address real-world challenges, drive sustainable growth and future-proof organizations. For businesses, it offers practical insights and tangible opportunities from forging strategic partnerships to unlocking funding, investment, and scaling potential. It is a launchpad for innovation adoption, new ventures, and commercial collaboration, supporting companies of all sizes on their growth journeys and enabling businesses to do business on a global stage. Intellistack, with its headquarters based in Denver, Colorado, serves over 32,000 organizations worldwide across industries ranging from healthcare and education to finance and enterprise tech, by eliminating inefficiencies and solving complex workflow challenges using their new process automation platform, Intellistack Streamline. The platform uses artificial intelligence and no-code technology to connect systems behind the scenes. Providing a way for organizations to create smart, secure workflows that help them to move faster, protect data, and reduce human error, Intellistack is redefining how intelligent work gets done at scale and is a clear example of how technology is helping the world work smarter, safer, and faster. "It's not only about technology, it's about giving people back their time, reducing stress, and making everyday life a little easier," said Aled Miles, Chairman of Wales Tech Week and CEO of Intellistack. "Imagine if every time you went to the doctor, applied for a job, enrolled in school, or signed a contract, the process was fast, secure, and completely hassle-free. That's the kind of future Intellistack is building." Aled, the Welsh Government Envoy to the United States, and an internationally respected tech leader, shared his thoughts on the significance of the event, "It's a global event, with guests and speakers there to understand both what the world can offer Wales but most importantly what Wales can offer the world from a technology perspective. It's an opportunity to get connected and be connected." "With the technology changes, the future of SaaS, and improved efficiency and productivity enabled by AI, as well as any potential dangers lurking with artificial super-intelligence versus artificial general intelligence, attendees will gain connections, deepen technological understanding, and derive real value from the conference." "Wales Tech Week is more than an event, it's a movement. It's where Welsh innovation meets global opportunity. I'm honored to serve as its Chairman and proud that Intellistack is leading the way as Headline Partner. Together, we're showcasing the ingenuity, ambition and talent that make Wales a rising force in the global tech ecosystem." Avril Lewis, Managing Director of Technology Connected, the organization powering Wales Tech Week, added, "We're absolutely thrilled to welcome Intellistack as Headline Partner for Wales Tech Week 2025. Their global impact, driven by cutting-edge AI and process automation, speaks directly to the ambition and innovation we are proud to foster here in Wales." "Having Aled Miles as Chairman of this year's event is particularly special. His ongoing support, deep ties to Wales, and global leadership in tech make him an ideal champion for everything Wales Tech Week represents." Wales Tech Week 2025 is free to attend and will explore three key themes Tech for People, Tech for the Planet, and Tech for Performance. For more information and to register visit www.walestechweek.com. About Intellistack Intellistack is a leading provider of data capture and process automation solutions that help organizations optimize the value of their data. Backed by PSG Equity and Silversmith Capital Partners, Intellistack delivers both standalone productivity products-including form-building, document-generation, and eSignature software under its Formstack and Formsite brands-and a market-first no-code process automation platform under the flagship Intellistack brand. Whether serving small businesses or global enterprises, Intellistack empowers organizations with secure, scalable tools for data collection, activation, and workflow orchestration. Since its founding in 2006, the company has been trusted by more than 32,000 organizations worldwide-including Kaiser Permanente, Shell, Shopify, and Netflix-to digitize what matters, streamline processes, and unlock productivity. To learn more, visit www.intellistack.com. About Technology Connected As the leading voice for Wales' digital technology industry, we strategically connect industries, technologies, and people to accelerate the adoption of digital solutions that drive performance, profitability, and sustainable growth. Through advocacy, collaboration, and promotion, we amplify the voice of Wales's tech industry, unlocking opportunities to develop a more prosperous, inclusive and digitally-capable Welsh economy. Events and initiatives from Technology Connected include Wales Tech Week, Talent4Tech, the Wales Technology Awards, and the Technology Leadership Council. For more information https://technologyconnected.net/ WalesTechWeek Talent4Tech @TechnologyConnx View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716937168/en/ Contacts: Press Contact Jeannie Zaemes Intellistack VP, Communications jeannie.zaemes@formstack.com 303-250-2507 LONDON, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Bopper Media, a London-based creative agency, has unveiled its first AI-generated brand film for its client BSV Association, a global organisation dedicated to educating, innovating and advocating for real-world blockchain adoption and the BSV blockchain. The film marks a new chapter in BSV Association's brand refresh and strategy that redefines how blockchain technology is communicated to the world. Developed over an eight-week period, the film was created using a combination of legacy and emerging AI platforms. The process began with scripting and storyboarding, with AI assisting in shaping both narrative and visuals. Over 5,000 images were generated using AI platforms to build out the film scenes, each frame refined to create a cinematic experience that aligns with the brand's vision. The sound design followed a similar process. AI was used to generate voiceovers, and each audio element was then human tuned. This approach significantly reduced its environmental footprint, showing how accessible, sustainable and imaginative storytelling can be with the right creative strategy. The film is built around people, the individuals, businesses and governments working in blockchain to make process and operations better. It aims to tell a human story about how blockchain can be useful, reliable and more accessible than most people think and shows a future where blockchain helps give people control over their own data, helping businesses operate with integrity, and supporting governments to serve more efficiently. Part of the Association's mission is to educate, advocate and innovate; the brand film works to improve understanding of what BSV blockchain is and highlights how blockchain can be useful, reliable and more human than people think. Bopper also worked with BSV Association to rebrand with a fresh adaptable look and feel that reflects the new brand line - Together, Towards Better - by combining cutting-edge AI production with a human-centric narrative. It focuses on the real-world power of the BSV Blockchain such as its scalability, efficiency and potential to drive positive change. Victoria Stout, Creative Director at Bopper Media said, "AI gave us a fresh way to bring this story to life. We told a story spanning eight countries without using a single camera. It let us explore ideas more freely, bringing creativity and imagination to the forefront while operating within both a tight budget and limited timeframe. Using AI also made the project more sustainable, helping us reduce the environmental impact. This way, we kept things creative, cost efficient and environmentally friendly." The film also showcases the new brand motion theory and logo reveal, representing the new identity, line and balance between AI and human creativity. The AI brand film is now live on BSV Association's website, along with the full brand refresh. You can watch the film here: Together, Towards Better | BSV Association To know more about how the film was made using AI, you can visit: Behind the Scenes: BSV Association and Bopper Media About Bopper Media: Taking your brand to the new digital frontier. Bopper is the bridge between the ways things are and the way they could be. That bridge is built on rigorous strategy, daring creativity and a true understanding of the technology that's reshaping how we live, think and work. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/bopper-media-unveils-ai-only-brand-film-for-leading-tech-client-302506783.html MONTREAL, QC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Valsoft Corporation Inc. ("Valsoft"), a Montreal-based company specializing in the acquisition and development of vertical market software businesses, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Tiltid, a Sweden-based company offering cloud-based scheduling and staffing solutions, with a strong footprint in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality sectors. This acquisition marks Valsoft's ninth investment in the workforce management vertical, further reinforcing its presence in a mission-critical industry. Tiltid brings decades of domain expertise and a trusted reputation in the Swedish market, serving some of the country's largest supermarket and retail chains. The addition of Tiltid supports Valsoft's long-term commitment to building a diversified portfolio of workforce management solutions across global markets. "Joining Valsoft marks an exciting new chapter for Tiltid," said Pia Groundstroem, CEO of Tiltid. "We're incredibly proud of what we've built together with our customers over nearly forty years. Becoming part of the Valsoft family enables us to accelerate innovation, expand our solutions, and continue delivering the exceptional support our customers expect. With greater resources and deeper expertise, we're poised to improve faster, innovate smarter, and deliver even more value." "The legacy of this family business reflects decades of adaptability and resilience in an ever-evolving market," said Anthony Caruso, Investment Partner at Valsoft. "We are excited to work alongside Pia and Tomas to preserve and build upon the foundations laid by their parents' remarkable journey. Their strong presence in the Swedish market underscores the company's value proposition and long-standing customer relationships. We look forward to supporting their continued growth." Following the acquisition, Tiltid will continue to operate independently, preserving its talented team, leadership, and customer-first approach. Through the Valsoft ecosystem, Tiltid will benefit from additional resources, operational best practices, and strategic expertise to support its next phase of growth. Valsoft was represented internally by Oliver Gray (Senior Legal Counsel) and Elisa Marcon (Senior Corporate Paralegal), and externally by Advokatfirman Hammarskiold. Tiltid's shareholders were represented by Gernandt & Danielsson. About Tiltid Founded in 1986, SEV Tidsystem is a Swedish software company specializing in cloud-based solutions for scheduling and staffing. Its flagship platform, Tiltid, simplifies complex workforce planning and is trusted by over 1,500 businesses across Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, particularly in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality sectors. Headquartered in Handen, Stockholm, the company is led by CEO Pia Groundstroem and supported by her brother Tomas Klys, with Roberto Spagnolo leading operational efforts. In addition to its software offering, Tiltid provides training and consulting services to help clients maximize operational efficiency and customer service. About Valsoft Corporation Valsoft Corporation acquires and develops vertical market software companies with the goal of driving long-term growth and value creation. Valsoft partners with companies to provide operational support, capital, and strategic expertise while allowing them to retain their entrepreneurial spirit. Headquartered in Montreal, Valsoft has a presence in over 20 countries and operates in more than 30 vertical markets. Media contact information Thierry Tardif Communications and Public Relations Valsoft Corporation +1 514-799-6679 t.tardif@valsoftcorp.com SOURCE: Valsoft Corporation View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/valsoft-corporation-acquires-tiltid-leading-swedish-provider-of-work-1049254 AUSTIN, TX / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Xtra Energy Corp. (OTCID:XTPT), a U.S.-based critical minerals exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the commencement of its Phase 1 Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the American Antimony Project in Nevada. Drilling officially began on July 15, 2025. The Phase 1 program is being conducted by Harris Exploration Drilling, headquartered in Fallon, Nevada. Harris is a respected provider of exploration, geotechnical, and environmental drilling services across the United States and Canada. The program will be supervised by Robert Johansing, M.S. Economic Geology, QP, a Qualified Person with extensive experience in mineral exploration and project management throughout both the United States and Latin America. Figure 1: Drilling Team Onsite at The American Antimony Project Program Details: RC drilling program : 20-30 holes Target depth : 300 to 500 feet per hole Total footage : Minimum of 6,000 feet Daily progress : ~300 feet per day (plus move time) Shift schedule : Single 10-12 hour shift per day Estimated drilling time : ~20 days Total program duration: ~25 days including moves and mobilization Figure 2: RC Drill Rig that will be utilized in Phase 1 Drill targets are focused on testing down-dip and lateral extensions of historically productive stibnite (antimony sulfide) veins and felsite dike systems hosting disseminated stibnite, including the Antimony King, King Solomon, and Arrance corridors-all located within the 4-kilometer mineralized zone identified through historical mapping, sampling, and recent validation. "With drills now turning, this marks the true beginning of subsurface discovery at the American Antimony Project," said Mac J. Shahsavar, P.Eng., Chairman & CEO of XTPT. "We've hit every milestone on schedule - from BLM approval to bond posting to breaking ground - and this drill program positions us to validate and expand the known mineralized system with modern data." Figure 3: Drill Pad Locations Targeting the Antimony King, King Solomon, and Arrance corridors About Harris Exploration Harris Exploration, a subsidiary of Earth Drilling Co. Ltd., operates a fleet of 41 drill rigs, including RC, diamond core, sonic, rotary, dual rotary, and auger platforms. With U.S. operations headquartered in Fallon, Nevada, the company serves the mineral exploration market across the western U.S. and is known for its technical reliability and performance in challenging terrains. Strategic Positioning The Phase 1 drill program builds on a series of recent milestones that demonstrate XTPT's operational momentum and technical readiness: Petrographic study identifying a spatial relation between quart-sericite-pyrite (QSP) alteration and antimony mineralization in structurally controlled felsite (rhyolite) dikes Successful funding supporting accelerated exploration and development efforts Full BLM permit approval, enabling ground operations on federal land Posting and formal acceptance of the reclamation bond, clearing final regulatory hurdles Completion of road construction and drill pad development, providing immediate site access for drilling Together, these achievements position XTPT to rapidly advance from surface validation to subsurface discovery - with the ultimate goal of becoming America's first domestic antimony producer. Xtra Energy's American Antimony Project is one of the only known U.S.-based projects positioned for near-term production of antimony, a federally designated critical mineral essential to defense, semiconductors, and energy storage. With China's antimony supply chain rapidly contracting, XTPT is advancing one of the most strategically important mineral projects in the U.S. About Xtra Energy Corp. Xtra Energy Corp. (OTC PINK:XTPT) is a U.S.-based mineral resource company dedicated to the exploration, development, and responsible stewardship of critical mineral assets. With a primary focus on antimony, Xtra Energy is advancing a growing portfolio of high-grade domestic projects aimed at reducing U.S. reliance on foreign supply chains. Through environmentally responsible practices and strategic project development, the company is positioning itself to become a leading supplier of antimony-based ore in North America. Contact & Learn More: Xtra Energy Corporation Phone: 512-412-3636 secretary@americanantimony.com Corporate Website: https://americanantimony.com/ Corporate Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xtra-energy-corp/ Corporate Twitter: https://twitter.com/xtra_corp Corporate Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xtraenergycorp/ Corporate Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093057374695 FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS: This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events, including our ability to raise capital, or to our future financial performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause materially different results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements since they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond our control and which could, and likely will, materially affect actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Any forward-looking statement reflects our current views with respect to future events and is subject to these and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions relating to our operations, results of operations, growth strategy and liquidity. We assume no obligation to publicly update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see our filings with the OTC Markets Group Inc. Our public filings with the OTC Markets Group Inc are available from commercial document retrieval services and at the website maintained by the OTC Markets at https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/XTPT/disclosure. SOURCE: Xtra Energy Corp. View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/oil-gas-and-energy/xtra-energy-corp.-announces-commencement-of-phase-1-drilling-campaign-at-america-1049169 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd. (TSXV: SM) ("Sierra Madre" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an upsize to its previously announced "best efforts" private placement. Under the amended terms, the Company will issue up to 23,572,000 units of the Company (each a "Unit") at a price of $0.70 per Unit (the "Issue Price") for aggregate gross proceeds to the Company of up to $16,500,400 (the "Offering"). Beacon Securities Limited ("Beacon") is acting as lead agent and sole bookrunner, on behalf of a syndicate of agents including Canaccord Genuity Corp. (together with Beacon, the "Agents") in connection with the Offering. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Unit Share") to be issued pursuant to Part 5A of National Instrument 45-106 - Prospectus Exemptions ("NI 45-106"), as amended and supplemented by Coordinated Blanket Order 45-935 - Exemptions from Certain Conditions of the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption (the "Listed Issuer Financing Exemption"), and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant a "Warrant") of the Company. Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share (a "Warrant Share") at a price per Warrant Share of $0.85 for a period of 12 months from the date of issuance. Subject to compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and in accordance with NI 45-106, the Units will be offered for sale to purchasers resident in Canada, other than Quebec, pursuant to the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption. The securities issued under the Listed Issuer Financing Exemption to Canadian subscribers will not be subject to a hold period in Canada. An amended and restated offering document dated July 16, 2025 related to the Offering will be filed under the Company's profile at www.sedarplus.ca and on the Company's website at www.sierramadregoldandsilver.com. Prospective investors should read this offering document before making an investment decision. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the "United States" (as such term is defined in Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act) unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. The Offering is expected to close on or about July 24, 2025, and is subject to the Company receiving all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About Sierra Madre Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd. is a precious metals development and exploration company focused on the Guitarra mine in the Temascaltepec mining district, Mexico, and the exploration and development of its Tepic property in Nayarit, Mexico. The Guitarra mine is a permitted underground mine, which includes a 500 t/d processing facility that operated until mid-2018 and restarted commercial production in January 2025. The +2,600 ha Tepic Project hosts low-sulphidation epithermal gold and silver mineralization with an existing historic resource. Sierra Madre's management team has played key roles in managing the exploration and development of silver and gold mineral reserves and mineral resources. Sierra Madre's team of professionals has collectively raised over $1 billion for mining companies. On behalf of the board of directors of Sierra Madre Gold and Silver Ltd., "Alexander Langer" Alexander Langer President, Chief Executive Officer and Director Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation and statements that are based on the beliefs of management and reflect the Company's current expectations. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. Such statements and information reflect the current view of the Company. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the timing and completion of the Offering, the use of proceeds of the Offering and the receipt of regulatory approvals for the Offering. Risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in those forward-looking statements and information. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information or forward-looking statements that are contained or referenced herein, except as may be required in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf is expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice regarding forward-looking information and statements. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259008 SOURCE: Sierra Madre Gold & Silver Empowering small businesses to ditch the paperwork and fast-track new hire setup, Patriot's employee self-onboarding feature lets new hires enter their own info securely-saving time, reducing errors, and giving employers one less stack of forms to deal with. CANTON, OH / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Patriot Software, a leading provider of accounting and payroll software in the U.S., announces a new value-added feature for all payroll customers-employee self-onboarding for new hires. Employee self-onboarding significantly cuts down on administrative burdens and offers businesses a swift and professional method to integrate new hire information into their payroll system. Many of Patriot's existing customers have been adding new employees to their teams, prompting Patriot to prioritize this enhancement. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that small businesses added 5.4 million workers in March 2025 alone, underscoring the dynamic nature of the current job market. And in today's competitive landscape, businesses that move quickly gain a significant advantage. By automating onboarding tasks, Patriot helps businesses reduce manual data entry and avoid costly errors. With Patriot's employee self-onboarding, new hires securely enter their essential personal details, bank, and tax information directly into the payroll software, all while keeping sensitive information protected and centralized. "Employee self-onboarding does double duty-it saves time for employers and creates a seamless experience for employees," said Amie Scarpitti, Product Manager at Patriot. "Employers should not have to spend their precious time sorting through stacks of paper forms, and new hires deserve a smooth experience. We're proud to offer a modern onboarding experience that's fast, secure, and eliminates unnecessary paperwork." Patriot is dedicated to helping American businesses operate more efficiently with powerful, easy-to-use accounting and payroll solutions. This commitment is clearly reflected in the latest feature. Based on feedback from early adopters, it's hitting the mark. One customer noted, "It's a great addition to Patriot Software," while another shared, "I know it saved a lot of time on my end." Existing payroll customers can access the employee self-onboarding feature directly within their accounts when adding a new hire. Businesses interested in streamlining their accounting and payroll can learn more and schedule a demo at Patriot Software's website. New customers receive a 30-day free trial and 50% off software pricing for the first three months. ----- Patriot Software is disrupting the accounting and payroll industries with its low prices, achieving the 100th percentile for customer loyalty and satisfaction, and award-winning software. Patriot offers cloud-based accounting, payroll, HR, and time and attendance software solutions that help American businesses with up to 500 employees simplify their administrative tasks. Patriot's US-based customer support team provides a personal touch that most software companies lack today. The company has been serving tens of thousands of businesses nationwide since 2002. For more information, please contact: Michele Bossart Product Marketing Manager mbossart@patriotsoftware.com 877-968-7147 SOURCE: Patriot Software, LLC View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/business-and-professional-services/less-paperwork-more-productivity-patriot-launches-new-employee-s-1044994 Clara asks teenagers helpful questions to boost creativity, sharpen critical thinking, and strengthen writing competence and confidence. Write the World, a global nonprofit providing online writing programs that build literacy and critical thinking skills in teenagers (ages 13-19), fostering their growth as global citizens, is announcing the launch of Clara, a Socratic AI writing assistant created exclusively for teen writers and available for free on the Write the World website. Write the World will also make Clara available to public and independent middle and high schools to serve as an AI writing tool for the classroom. "Unlike chat-based AI tools that write for students, Clara supports teen writers by bringing out their creativity and unique voice. Clara is a writing companion that asks relevant, personalized questions to promote metacognition, analytical thinking, and creativity. It empowers teens to be authentic, confident, and competent writers," said Brittany Collins, M.Ed., Director of Education at Write the World. "Our organization was founded to help teens develop the writing and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in school, career, and life, and Clara's innovative technology extends the educational impact of that mission." Clara's Socratic pedagogy asks students guiding questions that encourage reflection and preserve their originality, such as, "What specific emotions or themes do you want to evoke with this setting?," "What specific aspect of the novel intrigues you the most?," and "How do you plan to support your analysis with examples from the text?" Clara does not write for students, but instead helps them brainstorm, draft, research, and refine their writing through dialogue and individualized feedback. Clara can engage with students' drafts in real time, allowing them to receive support throughout their creative process. The iterative nature of the tool provides teens the opportunity to improve their writing and gain confidence before sharing work with peer or teacher readers. The tool assists with various aspects of writing, including topic, approach, structure, audience connection, grammar, tone, style, word choice, rhythm, argumentation, flow, and clarity. With access to large AI language models, Clara assists with writing in any genre and across virtually any topic. Clara was founded and created by Benjamin Klieger while a student at Stanford University Online High School, gaining feedback from pilot programs in local schools and several students and professors at Stanford University. "I had an experience where I wrote an essay and had to submit a rough draft followed by a final draft. However, it was only after the final draft was submitted that I received constructive feedback on my rough draft. After exploring, I realized this was a common experience for students, especially in public schools where teachers are often under-resourced and have much larger class sizes. When I looked at the state of existing AI writing tools, they mainly did all the writing for the student, which did not help writers develop their own voice and truly improve," said Ben. "This led me to create Clara, an AI companion that provides in-the-moment support during the writing process, when students need it the most. Instead of being an infallible source of answers, you can critically engage in a dialogue with Clara and push back on its feedback. I am excited that Write the World acquired Clara and is distributing the technology across its global community of students and educators to reach more young writers." Over 200 teenagers around the world pilot tested Clara and shared how it helped them develop as writers. Mahati V of the US said, "I was surprised by how much Clara understood my piece. Clara gave me the kind of specific feedback that truly helps apply a broad idea in a specific place." "Feels like you are talking to a friend or a teacher that guides you in your writing journey," added Ivanna of the UK. "By using Clara, I was able to think deeply about my writing and the scene that I was writing. Clara really challenged me to think outside the box," said Ozi of Brunei. Clara for Classrooms Write the World will also make Clara available to public and independent middle and high schools through a subscription model. Clara for Classrooms is compatible with Google Docs for easy integration into classroom writing assignments across subjects, from personal narrative to poetry, journalism, analysis, science reports, and more. Using Clara in the classroom can help teachers differentiate instruction, save grading time, and improve students' literacy. Its 24/7 real-time, tailored feedback and encouragement augments students' learning and reinforces teachers' instruction. Educators and administrators who are interested in bringing Clara to their school or district are encouraged to use the Pilot Interest Form accessible on this page. "Today, teachers are wrestling with how to integrate AI tools into the classroom as a constructive resource that spurs creativity and authentic ideas-how to fight against the risk of cognitive outsourcing to technology. We believe Clara uniquely returns the thinking and writing process to the lived experiences of students," said David Weinstein, founder of Write the World. "Clara unlocks the authentic voices of teen writers, helps them become critical thinkers, and promotes ethical values for AI use throughout the learning process." About Write the World Write the World, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded at Harvard University and dedicated to improving the writing and critical thinking skills essential for students to achieve success in school, career, and life. The organization offers free writing programs in a vibrant, 24/7 online community that has served over 120,000 students and educators in more than 125 countries. Beyond the global writing community, the organization offers monthly writing competitions, college essay services, summer writing workshops, and educator resources. Learn more at: writetheworld.org View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716507638/en/ Contacts: Terence Burke 617-901-1697 tburke@denterlein.com Coin Metrics' trusted data and analytics to integrate seamlessly with Talos's institutional trading and portfolio management platform NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Talos, the premier provider of institutional trading and portfolio technology for digital assets, today announced that it will acquire Coin Metrics, the leading provider of crypto financial intelligence. By incorporating Coin Metrics' extensive crypto market data, blockchain analytics and benchmark indexes with Talos's platform - a unified order and execution management (OEMS) and portfolio management system (PMS) - the combination will create the industry's first integrated data and investment management platform. This acquisition aligns with Talos's strategy of building the most comprehensive, one-stop solution for all institutional trading workflows in digital assets. "We're thrilled to welcome Coin Metrics to Talos," said Anton Katz, CEO and Co-Founder of Talos. "By bringing our platforms together, we're creating a fully integrated, one-stop solution that benefits the clients of both firms. Institutions increasingly look to us to support the entire digital asset investment lifecycle, from trading and portfolio management to market data, on-chain analytics, and portfolio construction. Combining our teams and technologies delivers a uniquely powerful platform, making our offering significantly stronger for our clients." Data is a crucial component within trading and portfolio management workflows, particularly for the largest institutional clients both companies serve. The firms' complementary services will create synergies for their collective clients, including streamlined access to advanced portfolio analytics, sophisticated risk monitoring, premium indexes and industry-leading execution capabilities. "Joining forces with Talos represents an exciting next chapter for Coin Metrics," said Tim Rice, CEO and Co-Founder of Coin Metrics. "Both companies believe in a future where digital assets are pervasive, requiring robust infrastructure to support trading, investment, and risk management at scale. Our combined expertise will deliver the industry's most powerful integrated platform for institutions to operate in the digital asset economy." Coin Metrics, headquartered in Boston, is poised to benefit from Talos's established global reach with offices in New York, London, Cyprus, and Singapore serving clients across 32 countries. Both firms are known and trusted by many of the largest global financial institutions in the world. This transaction will mark the largest acquisition in Talos's history. In recent years, Talos has acquired leading digital asset firms to expand its institutional platform. Talos significantly enhanced its portfolio management system with best-in-class capabilities from the acquisition of Cloudwall, a risk management technology provider, Skolem, an infrastructure platform for institutional DeFi trading, and D3X Systems, a portfolio construction platform for systematic investment in digital assets. About Talos Talos provides institutional-grade technology that supports the full digital asset investment lifecycle, including liquidity sourcing, price discovery, trading, settlement and portfolio management. Engineered by a team with unmatched experience building institutional trading and portfolio systems, the Talos platform connects institutions to key providers in the digital asset ecosystem - exchanges, OTC desks, prime brokers, lenders, custodians, and more - through a single interface. For additional information, visit www.talos.com . Talos Disclaimer: Talos offers software-as-a-service products that provide connectivity tools for institutional clients. Talos does not provide clients with any pre-negotiated arrangements with liquidity providers or other parties. Clients are required to independently negotiate arrangements with liquidity providers and other parties bilaterally. Talos is not party to any of these arrangements. Services and venues may not be available in all jurisdictions. About Coin Metrics Coin Metrics is the leading provider of crypto financial intelligence, offering network data, market data, indexes and network risk solutions to the most prestigious institutions touching cryptoassets. Established in 2017, Coin Metrics is committed to building the crypto economy on a foundation of truth, providing authentic and accurate data with the highest standards of clarity and precision. Coin Metrics puts unparalleled insight and accuracy into crypto data and analytics so that companies can accelerate value creation and minimize risk. For more information, visit www.coinmetrics.io . Media Contact: media@talos.com View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/talos-to-acquire-coin-metrics-creating-industrys-first-integrated-data-and-investment-management-platform-for-digital-assets-302506796.html On July 15th, 2025, the "Chinese Quality Products Shared with the World" Zunyi Dialogue was held in Zunyi, Guizhou, China. This event was part of the 2025 "China's Development, An Opportunity for a Colorful World" International Exchange Week, with more than 150 participants, including diplomatic envoys from over 30 countries, experts and scholars, university faculty and students, enterprises with distinctive features, and media representatives, attended the event. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716158187/en/ An expert and a diplomatic envoy exchange views at the session "Chinese Quality Products Shared with the World." Zunyi is famous for its tea, chili peppers, liquor, and guitars. Among them, guitars from Zheng'an have gained worldwide reputation, with one out of every seven guitars globally being produced in Zheng'an; Zunyi is also famous for Moutai, China's renowned sauce-aroma liquor. Its tea industry is represented by brands such as "Zunyi Red" and "Meitan Cuiya", with two-thirds of Meitan County's population engaged in tea production. Known as "China's Chili City", Zunyi is home to the country's largest chili trading market, nicknamed the "Wall Street of Chili Peppers". Hu Guangfen, Chairwoman of Guizhou Guisanhong Food Co., Ltd., shared her entrepreneurial journey with chili peppers. At the age of 19, she left her hometown to work in a shoe factory in Dongguan, Guangzhou Province. In 1996, she quit her well-paying job in Dongguan to return home and start a business. In 2017, she invested RMB 200 million to build a new industrial park, which now achieves an annual output value exceeding RMB 100 million. Her story exemplifies how the lives of ordinary Chinese farmers have been transformed through the Reform and Opening-up. During the dialogue session, Bakhtiyor Mirzaev, Trade-Economic Counselor of the Uzbekistan Consulate General in Guangzhou, noted that the ancient Silk Road historically began in Xi'an and passed through Tashkent and Samarkand, connecting China, Central Asia, and Europe. He mentioned that a railway linking China and Uzbekistan is currently under construction, which will facilitate bilateral trade. Ivet Nikolova, Commercial Counsellor of the Bulgarian General Consulate in Shanghai, highlighted Bulgaria's strategic position within Europe and its long-standing tradition of fruit wine consumption. She expressed hope for deeper integration between Chinese industries and Bulgarian culture to strengthen China-EU connectivity. Over the next three days, guests from various countries will visit local sites to experience firsthand the essence of "Chinese Quality Products Shared with the World". View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716158187/en/ Contacts: Wang Qi Tel: 86-13588729798 email: kikiwangq@163.com Press Release Atos launches the Atos Polaris AI Platform to accelerate digital transformation with Agentic AI Driving universal automation across business processes and software engineering with the Atos Polaris AI Platform Paris, France - July 16, 2025 - Atos, a leading provider of AI-powered digital transformation, today announces the launch of the Atos Polaris AI Platform, a comprehensive system of AI agents that works autonomously to orchestrate complex business workflows. The Atos Polaris AI Platform, created for development, testing and IT operations, supports engineers at all stages of the development process. Customers can also use the platform to accelerate digital transformation by driving universal automation of business processes. AI agents developed using the Atos Polaris AI Platform enable users to achieve business outcomes thanks to built-in capabilities to autonomously plan, reason, collaborate, act and learn on their own. The platform also provides Agent Ops functionalities for alignment with business key performance indicators through compliance, performance and cost management practices. "With the Atos Polaris AI Platform, we are driving the automation of automation, shifting the paradigm toward fully autonomous agents for software engineering and business processes, and making agentic AI a huge lever for business success. We are particularly proud to make Atos Polaris AI Platform available worldwide to support businesses as they embrace the Agentic AI era," said Narendra Naidu, Group Head of Data & AI, Atos. The Atos Polaris AI Platform includes various pre-built autonomous AI agents, including: AI Developer : The AI developer reduces software development efforts by autonomously analyzing business requirements and orchestrating the solution development with foundational developer agents. It helps reduce development efforts by 40-50%. : The AI developer reduces software development efforts by autonomously analyzing business requirements and orchestrating the solution development with foundational developer agents. It helps reduce development efforts by 40-50%. Quality Assurance : The quality assurance AI agent enables the end-to-end orchestration of quality assurance tasks. It validates and scores business requirements, generates and intelligently executes test cases, and independently creates and publishes test reports. This agent can help reduce efforts and lead-time by 50-60%. : The quality assurance AI agent enables the end-to-end orchestration of quality assurance tasks. It validates and scores business requirements, generates and intelligently executes test cases, and independently creates and publishes test reports. This agent can help reduce efforts and lead-time by 50-60%. IT Support Engineer : The IT support engineer assists in automated analysis and resolution of support tickets. It facilitates in-depth analysis of log files across system components to determine the root cause and recommend solutions based on past history. The IT support life-cycle engineer can reduce efforts by 25-35%. : The IT support engineer assists in automated analysis and resolution of support tickets. It facilitates in-depth analysis of log files across system components to determine the root cause and recommend solutions based on past history. The IT support life-cycle engineer can reduce efforts by 25-35%. Contract Analyst : The contract analyst AI agent continuously monitors contracts for compliance risks, and it flags potential breaches through quantified risk analysis and compliance checks. The agent also recommends correction to ensure contracts adhere to regulations and policies. The agent can provide 30-40% reduction in time and efforts for the contracts review cycle. : The contract analyst AI agent continuously monitors contracts for compliance risks, and it flags potential breaches through quantified risk analysis and compliance checks. The agent also recommends correction to ensure contracts adhere to regulations and policies. The agent can provide 30-40% reduction in time and efforts for the contracts review cycle. Financial Reports Analyst : The financial reports AI analyst can interpret and analyze large financial documents and reports to provide highly accurate summaries and actionable recommendations based on specific requirements. It can also cross-validate information for anomalies or irregularities. This agent can deliver 50-60% productivity improvement in report analysis efforts. : The financial reports AI analyst can interpret and analyze large financial documents and reports to provide highly accurate summaries and actionable recommendations based on specific requirements. It can also cross-validate information for anomalies or irregularities. This agent can deliver 50-60% productivity improvement in report analysis efforts. Market Researcher: The market researcher AI agent leverages data from an organization's trusted sources to perform in-depth analysis on various topics based on specific requirements. It can synthesize and present the analysis in a format and style that caters to specific business needs. This agent can enable 60-70% reduction in efforts and research lead-time. The Atos Polaris AI Platform is available to customers as part of Atos' AI transformation projects, as well as through select strategic partners. *** About Atos Group Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 72,000 employees and annual revenue of c. 10 billion, operating in 68 countries under two brands - Atos for services and Eviden for products. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high-performance computing, Atos Group is committed to a secure and decarbonized future and provides tailored AI-powered, end-to-end solutions for all industries. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea) and listed on Euronext Paris. The purpose of Atosis to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space. Press contacts Global: Isabelle Grange | isabelle.grange@atos.net North America: Maggie Wainscott | maggie.wainscott@atos.net Attachment DELRAY BEACH, Fla., July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The global Hemostats Market, valued at US$2.80 billion in 2024 stood at US$2.90 billion in 2025 and is projected to advance at a resilient CAGR of 6.4% from 2025 to 2030, culminating in a forecasted valuation of US$4.00 billion by the end of the period. The escalation in global accident rates has led to a surge in surgical procedures characterized by extended operating durations. A significant contributor to hemorrhage in surgical and trauma cases is the suboptimal application of conventional wound closure methods, including sutures, staples, and various hemostatic agents. This inadequacy underscores the growing demand for advanced blood loss management solutions, particularly effective hemostatic products, to optimize patient outcomes during surgical interventions. In this report, the hemostats market is segmented by type, formulation, application, end user, and region. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=9571619 Browse in-depth TOC on "Hemostats Market" 186 - Tables 43 - Figures 215 - Pages By type, the hemostats market is segmented into oxidized regenerated cellulose-based hemostats, thrombin-based hemostats, combination hemostats, gelatin-based hemostats, collagen-based hemostats, and other hemostats based on type. The oxidized regenerated cellulose-based hemostats segment accounted for the largest share of the hemostats market in 2024. ORC-based hemostatic agents have emerged as the preferred choice for surgical hemostasis due to their proven efficacy across a range of surgical specialties, including orthopedics, cardiovascular, and general surgery. These hemostats consistently demonstrate reliable hemostatic performance, making them indispensable in various intraoperative settings. Their versatility across diverse operating room conditions ensures that they are often the clinician's first choice for managing complex clinical scenarios. One of the substantial advantages of ORC-based hemostats is their bioabsorbable composition, which eliminates the need for surgical removal post-procedure and minimizes the risk of foreign-body reactions. Furthermore, certain ORC formulations possess inherent antimicrobial properties, providing an added defense against surgical site infections and thereby enhancing patient safety and post-operative outcomes. The increasing incidence of trauma cases and emergency surgeries has intensified the demand for prompt and effective hemostatic interventions within healthcare systems. In light of this trend, institutions are compelled to integrate reliable hemostatic agents into standard surgical protocols, driven by the dual objectives of improving surgical outcomes and reducing intraoperative blood loss. By formulation, the global hemostats market is differentiated into matrix & gel hemostats, sheet & pad hemostats, sponge hemostats, and powder hemostats. In 2024, the matrix & gel hemostats segment dominated the hemostats market. These formulations effectively balance versatility and efficacy, making them suitable for a wide range of surgical applications. Matrix and gel hemostats are particularly advantageous due to their straightforward application, even in challenging anatomical locations. Their ability to conform to irregular wound morphologies allows them to effectively address both profuse and oozing bleeding scenarios. Many formulations are compatible with laparoscopic techniques, facilitating the advancement of minimally invasive surgery. Moreover, certain matrix and gel combinations are integrated with active agents such as thrombin, which significantly enhances hemostatic performance and expedites clot formation. By applications, the hemostats market has been segmented into orthopedic surgery, general surgery, neurological surgery, cardiovascular surgery, gynecological surgery, reconstructive surgery, and other surgical applications, based on application. The reconstructive surgery segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period in the hemostats market. The observed increase in surgical interventions can be attributed to the rising prevalence of aesthetic and trauma-related procedures, including skin grafting, breast reconstruction, and craniofacial surgeries. The growing recognition and acceptance of aesthetic treatments, alongside improved access to surgical options, are further driving this demand. Additionally, the rising incidence of cancer-related surgeries, particularly post-mastectomy reconstructions, as well as trauma cases, are significant contributors to market growth. These procedures often involve delicate tissues with high vascularity, where meticulous hemostatic control is essential. This underscores the critical need for effective hemostatic agents in the operating room. Furthermore, advancements in reconstructive technologies are accelerating the adoption of specialized hemostatic products, enhancing outcomes in this evolving sector. By end user, the hemostats market can be divided by end user into three main categories: Hospitals, specialty clinics, and other end users. Hospitals represent the most substantial segment of the hemostats market, primarily due to the high volume of surgical procedures performed within their facilities. The intricate nature of these surgeries, along with the presence of specialized surgical departments, contributes significantly to the growing demand for effective bleeding control solutions. Complex and emergency cases, which frequently arise in hospitals, necessitate a reliable means of managing blood loss, thereby creating a continuous need for advanced hemostatic products. Additionally, hospitals often serve as the pioneers in adopting new surgical technologies and innovative products. This proactive approach is made possible by their enhanced funding capabilities and well-developed procurement processes, allowing them to stay at the forefront of medical advancements. The presence of highly skilled surgical specialists and comprehensive post-operative care units further amplifies the need for efficient hemostatic agents. These factors collectively ensure that hospitals remain a critical driver of demand in the hemostats market as they seek to improve patient outcomes and enhance surgical efficacy through cutting-edge bleeding control solutions. By geography, the market for hemostats has been divided into five key geographical regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2024, North America held the predominant portion of the hemostats market. North America is at the forefront of the hemostats market, propelled by its advanced healthcare infrastructure and the swift integration of cutting-edge medical technologies. This region exhibits a robust demand for both cosmetic and restorative procedures, significantly influenced by the escalating geriatric demographic and an uptick in surgical interventions. The increasing incidence of chronic diseases is projected to further amplify the volume of surgical procedures, thereby enhancing the requirement for effective hemostatic agents. The region's leadership in both innovation and market share is underscored by the concentration of numerous key players in the hemostats industry. Additionally, the high levels of disposable income and elevated standard of living in nations such as the US and Canada significantly contribute to the growing demand for premium medical treatments. Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=9571619 The prominent players in the hemostats market include Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (US), Baxter (US), Pfizer Inc. (US), B. Braun SE (Germany), BD (US), Teleflex Incorporated (US), Medtronic (Ireland), Hemostasis, LLC (US), Stryker ((US), Integra LifeSciences Corporation (US), Advanced Medical Solutions Group plc (UK), Samyang Corporation (South Korea), Marine Polymer Technologies, Inc. (US), GELITA MEDICAL (Germany), Dilon Technologies (US), Betatech Medical (Turkey), Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. (India), BioCer Development GmbH (Germany), Unilene (Peru), Katsan Medical Devices (Turkey), Tricol Biomedical (US), 3-D Matrix Medical Technology (Japan), Hemostat Medical GmbH (Germany), CELOX Medical Ltd. (UK), and Altaylar Medical (Turkey). Among other developments, these companies adopted strategies such as partnerships, collaborations, agreements, integrations, acquisitions, product launches, and expansions to strengthen their presence in the hemostats market. Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (US): In 2024, Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. maintained its dominant position in the hemostats market, attributed to its expansive distribution networks across North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa. The company's extensive portfolio is particularly notable within the oxidized regenerated cellulose-based hemostats segment, with SURGICEL as its flagship brand for hemostatic agents. To bolster its market leadership, Johnson & Johnson leverages a strategic framework encompassing expansions, regulatory approvals, and innovative product launches. A significant move was made in May 2022, when Ethicon, a subsidiary under the Johnson & Johnson Medtech umbrella, acquired GATT Technologies B.V. This acquisition aims to enhance its biosurgery portfolio by incorporating synthetic polymer-based hemostatic technologies, exemplified by the development of advanced solutions such as the ETHIZIA Hemostatic Patch. Such strategic initiatives are pivotal in amplifying their market share and reinforcing Johnson & Johnson's entrenched position within the hemostats sector. Baxter (US) Baxter has emerged as a dominant force in the hemostats market as of 2024, securing a substantial market share largely due to its extensive and effective sales and distribution networks. With operations spanning over 100 countries, Baxter leverages both direct and indirect sales channels to optimize product reach and accessibility. The company's commitment to research and development is exemplary, facilitating the introduction of cutting-edge products that address evolving clinical needs. In addition to its organic growth strategies, such as new product launches, Baxter is also pursuing inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions, further solidifying its competitive position in the hemostats sector. Pfizer, Inc. (US) Pfizer, Inc. is a leading entity in the hemostats market as of 2024, operating within a robust global framework that spans approximately 125 countries, including regions such as North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. The company's established operations in the US provide a strategic platform for further penetration into emerging markets, thereby augmenting its geographical footprint. The rising adoption of foam-based hemostats is a key driver of significant revenue generation for Pfizer's hemostatic product offerings, reflecting a shift towards innovative solutions in the surgical and trauma care sectors. For more information, Inquire Now! Related Reports: Biosurgery Market Collagen & Gelatin Market Orthopedic Devices Market Biomaterials Market Adhesion Barrier Market Get access to the latest updates on Hemostats Companies and Hemostats Market Size About MarketsandMarkets: MarketsandMarkets has been recognized as one of America's Best Management Consulting Firms by Forbes, as per their recent report. MarketsandMarkets is a blue ocean alternative in growth consulting and program management, leveraging a man-machine offering to drive supernormal growth for progressive organizations in the B2B space. With the widest lens on emerging technologies, we are proficient in co-creating supernormal growth for clients across the globe. Today, 80% of Fortune 2000 companies rely on MarketsandMarkets, and 90 of the top 100 companies in each sector trust us to accelerate their revenue growth. With a global clientele of over 13,000 organizations, we help businesses thrive in a disruptive ecosystem. 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Contact: Mr. Rohan Salgarkar MarketsandMarkets INC. 1615 South Congress Ave. Suite 103, Delray Beach, FL 33445 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Visit Our Website: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1868219/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg View original content:https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/hemostats-market-worth-4-00-billion-by-2030-with-6-4-cagr--marketsandmarkets-302506513.html Asia-Pacific to Drive One-Third of Global PHM Market Growth, Projecting $89.3B by 2030 Amid Aging Demographics and Chronic Disease Challenges, Black Book Research KUALA LUMPUR, MY / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / As HIMSS25 APAC convenes healthcare leaders, innovators, and policymakers in Kuala Lumpur this week, a major spotlight is cast on the dramatic rise of Population Health Management (PHM) adoption across the Asia-Pacific region. According to the newly released Q3 2025 Black Book of Global Healthcare IT, Asia-Pacific is projected to account for 33% of global PHM market growth, reaching an estimated USD 90 billion by 2031. This growth is being driven by a convergence of strategic public health investments, demographic pressure from rapidly aging populations, rising chronic disease burdens, and aggressive digital health policies in countries such as Australia, China, Japan, India, and South Korea. These developments are fueling demand for PHM software, analytics, and care coordination tools that enable smarter, more equitable healthcare delivery. The 540-page Black Book report underscores how Asia-Pacific nations are embracing PHM technologies to modernize fragmented systems, prioritize preventive care, and advance health equity across urban and rural populations. HIMSS25 APAC celebrates this transformation by recognizing the region's top-rated PHM vendors named through surveys of healthcare professionals worldwide across 110 countries for their leadership in accelerating digital health progress. PHM Innovation Driving National Digital Health Strategies Across the Asia-Pacific region, national health systems are undergoing a structural shift toward data-driven, interoperable ecosystems, with Population Health Management platforms emerging as core enablers of healthcare modernization. Governments are embedding PHM strategies into national digital health roadmaps to manage epidemiological transitions, optimize longitudinal care, and mitigate systemic inefficiencies through predictive analytics and real-time data integration. Japan is deploying scalable PHM frameworks to support its super-aged society as 36.2% of its population will be over 65 by 2030. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) is accelerating investments in integrated care networks, leveraging AI-assisted telehealth systems and health information exchange (HIE) platforms to enable proactive chronic disease surveillance, care coordination, and eldercare continuity across prefectures. South Korea is integrating population health analytics into its National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) and national precision medicine roadmap. Government-led initiatives like the "Data Dam" project are fueling cross-sector PHM innovation, with over 45 million citizens' clinical and claims data being securely harnessed for AI-driven risk stratification, early intervention modeling, and population-level disease forecasting. China, under the Healthy China 2030 framework, has made PHM a strategic priority. With over 260 million citizens living with chronic illnesses, China has invested in more than 1,800 "smart hospital" pilots across provinces. These facilities incorporate real-time PHM dashboards, regional health data lakes, and cloud-based chronic disease registries, supporting large-scale risk analytics and personalized preventive care strategies. India is rapidly scaling its digital public infrastructure (DPI) through the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), targeting over 1.4 billion citizens. With World Bank and Asian Development Bank support exceeding $1.3B, India is integrating PHM tools into its national health stack, linking EHRs, citizen health IDs, and national analytics grids to drive population-wide surveillance, immunization tracking, and digital therapeutics in remote and underserved geographies. Australia continues to lead in rural and remote care innovation, supported by the National Digital Health Strategy and the My Health Record expansion. Through advanced telehealth integration, real-time care planning platforms, and federated PHM solutions, Australia is enhancing access for its 7 million rural residents. The Australian Digital Health Agency has reported a 52% increase in digitally coordinated chronic care encounters since 2022, largely attributed to targeted PHM deployments. Top-Ranked Population Health Vendors in Asia-Pacific: Performance Deep Dive Dedalus Markets: Australia, Japan Dedalus is recognized for its advanced care coordination frameworks and analytics engines that align with national health strategies. In Australia, Dedalus powers PHM modules integrated into state-wide digital health programs, such as the Single Digital Patient Record initiative. In Japan, Dedalus supports regional health information exchange (HIE) networks, enabling seamless clinical data aggregation and longitudinal care tracking in compliance with the Japanese Medical Information System Development Center (MEDIS-DC) standards. Users report high marks for multi-lingual UI adaptability, interoperability with national eHealth records, and care pathway analytics, especially in managing cardiovascular and diabetic populations. __________ GuidelineX Markets: Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia GuidelineX's AI-driven clinical decision support tools are especially lauded by public and private health systems implementing predictive care models. Southeast Asia deployments, including in Singapore and Thailand, showcase GuidelineX's natural language processing (NLP)-driven population stratification tools that integrate with low-resource environments and diverse clinical vocabularies. Black Book respondents highlight its real-time predictive insights and clinician workflow integration as key differentiators. __________ iMedway Markets: China, ASEAN (Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia) iMedway's strength lies in scalable, federated data platforms tailored to diverse public health ecosystems. In China, iMedway's PHM modules are embedded in 20+ provincial health bureaus' disease management registries, supporting over 90 million patient records and real-time epidemiological analytics under the National Health Commission framework. In ASEAN, iMedway is being adopted in urban/rural public-private integration pilots. In Malaysia, for example, the firm supports the MyHealth Analytics Hub, noted for automated patient segmentation and decentralized data access. Users praise iMedway for low-latency data warehousing and FHIR-native APIs, enabling plug-and-play with existing EMRs and national HIS networks. __________ InterSystems Markets: Australia, Japan, Greater APAC InterSystems is a top performer for its unified health information platforms with embedded PHM tools and semantic interoperability. Its HealthShare solution underpins regional eHealth infrastructures, such as South Australia's statewide care coordination platform, which integrates data from over 120 hospitals and GP practices. In Japan, InterSystems supports PHM analytics aligned with national long-term care and chronic disease models, with high performance scores in data harmonization and HL7/FHIR conformance. Clients across APAC report InterSystems leads in real-time population dashboards, integrated care record access, and clinical outcomes tracking. __________ IQVIA Markets: China, Japan, South Korea, Australia Known globally for real-world data and advanced analytics, IQVIA's Asia-Pacific PHM tools are used extensively in value-based care pilots and life sciences partnerships. In South Korea, IQVIA partners with the NHIS on nationwide population analytics, using de-identified claims and genomics data to guide cancer and rare disease programs. In Australia and Japan, IQVIA supports payer-provider collaborations focused on risk-adjusted benchmarking and clinical pathway optimization, with users citing high confidence in its data quality, multi-source integration, and AI model transparency. __________ Milliman Markets: Japan, India, China, South Korea Milliman's actuarial-driven PHM analytics tools are highly regarded in markets prioritizing cost containment and risk pool optimization. In India, Milliman supports state-based insurance schemes under Ayushman Bharat by enabling prospective cost modeling and hospital utilization pattern analytics. In China and Japan, Milliman's tools are used to simulate public health scenarios and resource allocation, especially in population risk pooling and bundled payment planning. __________ Oracle Health Markets: Australia and broader APAC Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) remains a top-tier PHM platform provider across large health systems and government programs. In Australia, Oracle Health powers major PHM deployments in the public hospital system, particularly in Victoria and Queensland, where its solutions support integrated chronic disease pathways, social determinants of health (SDoH) risk indexing, and automated alerts for at-risk populations. The platform is praised for scalability, robust data governance tools, and strong integration with AI-powered clinical decision tools post-Oracle acquisition. __________ Orion Health Markets: Australia, New Zealand, Asia-Pacific Orion Health continues to lead in interoperability-centric PHM deployments across Oceania. Its Amadeus platform is widely adopted in New Zealand's national electronic health record system and by Local Health Networks in Australia, offering cross-provider care plans, real-time patient summaries, and predictive analytics. Clients rate Orion highly for FHIR-native architecture, intuitive clinician dashboards, and strong patient engagement modules in community care environments. __________ Telstra Health Markets: Australia Telstra Health remains a domestic leader in PHM for chronic disease management and virtual care enablement. Through partnerships with state and territory governments, Telstra Health supports remote patient monitoring, telehealth-based care plans, and analytics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, contributing to improved access and outcome tracking in remote communities. Its tools are noted for interoperability with national repositories (e.g., My Health Record) and alignment with national PHM metrics. "The Asia-Pacific region is rapidly becoming a global benchmark for population health innovation," said Doug Brown, Founder of Black Book Research. "Strategic investments and coordinated national policies are accelerating digital transformation and enabling scalable care improvements. Governments, regional health systems, and private networks are aligning on shared PHM goals." For instance, China's Healthy China 2030 initiative aims to connect more than 75% of hospitals to PHM-capable infrastructure within five years. South Korea's government-backed health data integration programs are empowering precision public health. Meanwhile, India's digital health roadmap is targeting rural and underserved populations with scalable, cloud-enabled PHM tools. About Black Book Research: Black Book Research is the healthcare industry's leading independent research firm, known for amplifying the voices of frontline users, clinicians, and technology stakeholders across 110 countries. Its annual Population Health Yearbook and Global HIT Insights reports provide decision-makers with unbiased intelligence on digital health transformations, platform performance, and real-world adoption. The Q3 updated Black Book study gathered perspectives from 151 senior officials and executives across APAC, highlighting not just adoption momentum, but measurable impacts on care outcomes, resource planning, and health equity. Media Contact: research@blackbookmarketresearch.com Download the report at no charge to industry stakeholders globally at www.blackbookmarketresearch.com SOURCE: Black Book Research View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/himss25-apac-highlights-surge-in-population-health-tech-adoption-acro-1049233 Houston, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Over two hundred fifty energy industry professionals gather in August to gain insight and analysis of up to the minute issues facing the U.S. Rockies & West natural gas market region. The 21st annual Energy Innovations - LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West takes place August 11 - 13, 2025 in Denver, CO. This is the industry's premier gathering for natural gas industry professionals, which is much more than simply a conference, with participants routinely negotiating commercial transactions during the event. This year's Program is packed with relevant critical issues faced by natural gas market stakeholders across the value chain. A key theme spanning the Agenda is the reset of markets to support the Administration's policy of unleashing American energy, including supplying the remarkable projected increase in natural gas demand. Beyond this overarching theme, the Agenda also addresses issues unique to U.S. Rockies & West natural gas markets. Gas/electric coordination challenges, including electricity demand growth to serve AI Data Centers and general growth in reliable/non-intermittent electricity, translates into a significant forecasted increase for natural gas fired power generation. New midstream infrastructure projects, desperately needed to move natural gas to markets on a reliable basis, are in development. LNG Exports, primarily on the U.S. Gulf Coast liquefaction facilities, but also on the Canadian pacific coast, are now competing for supply from production regions that traditionally serve U.S. Rockies & West markets. The convergence of these market conditions translates into potential for volatility and the need for informed decisions on structuring commercial arrangements into the future. In addition, recurring LDC Gas Forum topics include market fundamentals (supply/demand), natural gas supply capabilities, midstream infrastructure project updates, end use natural gas user perspectives, gas/electric coordination, policy/regulatory/legal analysis, and technology innovations. All this against a backdrop of commercial operations involving producing, transporting, and buying natural gas. The content/insight program of the LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West consists of 2 days with a total of eighteen keynote Presentations and Panels. Keynote addresses will be delivered by Ron Gusek, CEO, Liberty Energy, Sam Thigpen, Founder/CEO, Sapphire Gas Solutions, and James Pearson, Senior Market Analyst, ConocoPhillips, and Dan Haley, Executive Director, Coloradans for Responsible Energy Development. The Program also includes four moderated interactive Panel discussions addressing a variety of timely topics, with knowledgeable subject matter experts including executives from: bp; DRW Holdings; Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI); NatGasHub.com; NRG Energy; Promethius Hyperscale; Frontier Infrastructure Holdings; PureWest; NRG Energy; Trellis Energy; nGenue; Cleveland Advisory; Enbridge; Vantage Data Centers; and SoCal Gas. These Presentations and moderated Panel discussions offer an excellent opportunity to gain insight into topical issues, with drill-down focus and actionable takeaways, from a variety of perspectives. The agenda also allocates multiple sessions of dedicated time for networking, to facilitate discussion, including with speakers, and to meet and connect with existing and prospective customers. This Forum focuses on energy innovations in U.S. Rockies & West natural gas markets, while six other LDC Gas Forums throughout the year address other key regions and market segments across the continent. Even in today's digital age, natural gas market participants appreciate events that facilitate face-to-face interaction. The LDC Gas Forum is uniquely structured to meet this expectation. The Forums have been the venue of choice for thousands of participants for decades. Registration is still available at https://www.ldcgasforums.com/rw/. The LDC Gas Forums (4), Gulf Coast Energy Forum, and NatGas to Power Forum series consists of six annual events, each focused on a key natural gas market region across North America. This is where buyers and sellers meet to do business. Much more than simply conferences, the Forums are a well-structured event that delivers insights into critical issues affecting natural gas, LNG, natural gas power generation, and emerging energy markets, but in addition, provide participants opportunities to meet with industry counterparts to complete commercial business transactions. Timely panel discussions featuring key industry experts focus on important questions facing buyers, sellers, transportation operators, service/product suppliers, and other market stakeholders in competitive energy markets. Topics addressed include: natural gas market fundamentals (supply/demand) and price forecasting; LNG exports; natural gas power generation demand (incl. AI Data Centers); gas/electric coordination; natural gas infrastructure additions; energy policy, regulation and legal; Mexico natural gas exports; natural gas end user perspectives; virtual pipeline solutions; technology innovations for energy; energy evolution/additions providing supply security, affordability, and lower carbon alternatives (incl. certified gas, RNG, CCS). Participants at the Forums include C-Suite market leaders, decision makers and subject matter experts, representing all segments of the commercial natural gas value chain including utilities, industrial gas consumers, producers, pipelines, marketers, key service/product providers, as well as policy makers, regulators and market analysts. Multiple dedicated networking sessions give you access to your clients, prospects, and peers to pursue opportunities in the market. The LDC Gas Forums: Southeast, Northeast, Energy Innovations: Rockies & West, Mid-Continent, Gulf Coast Energy Forum, and NatGas to Power Forum. Where the Natural Gas Industry Gathers: Networking - Insights - Deal-Making www.ldcgasforums.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258921 SOURCE: Pinion Partners Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - It's official: iconic Canadian wellness brand, Scandinave Spa, has chosen Edmonton for its newest location with an anticipated opening of 2028. Overlooking the North Saskatchewan River Valley, Scandinave Spa's fifth location is expected to generate approximately $121 million in total economic impact over its first 10 years. It will support 330 temporary jobs and 52 permanent full-time jobs during sustained operations post-opening. This major project paves the way for future tourism development and strong growth of the visitor economy in the region. Travel Alberta supported the project through its new Investor Concierge program, providing strategic market insights, access to robust data, and a financial incentive. The project is also supported by the Government of Alberta's Investment and Growth Fund (IGF), the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Global, and Explore Edmonton. Set to open in summer of 2028, Edmonton was chosen as the location for Scandinave Group's next spa due to its mix of natural and urban aspects, reinforcing the potential for tourism development in the Edmonton region. Sustainable and responsible construction and operations remain top priorities as the group aims to preserve and enhance the natural environment along the river valley. The creation of a Scandinave Spa in Edmonton will mark a major milestone in the accelerated growth of Alberta's wellness tourism sector. It's poised to become a signature experience that connects visitors to the natural beauty of the river valley while supporting long-term economic and tourism development in the area. Quotes "Bringing Scandinave Spa to Edmonton is a natural fit with our vision to create unforgettable wellness experiences in iconic destinations. We're proud to be part of Alberta's tourism future and to offer Edmontonians a unique way to unwind, year-round." -Steve Arsenault, President and CEO, Scandinave Group "Having played for the Oilers in the 90s, Edmonton holds a special place in my heart. I'm thrilled to see Scandinave Spa become part of the City's vibrant future. For me, this project is more than just a development. It's a way to give back to the community and help position Edmonton as a premier wellness destination. -Vincent Damphousse, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of the Board, Scandinave Group "Travel Alberta's holistic destination management focus on developing new tourism experiences across the province, such as this transformative project with Scandinave Spa Edmonton, aligns perfectly with global wellness trends and the rising demand for wellness-focused travel. As Alberta continues to lead the nation in tourism growth, the Edmonton region plays a vital role in drawing visitors year-round. We're excited about the impact this new tourism development will bring to the city and to the province." -Jon Mamela, Chief Commercial Officer, Travel Alberta "Our government is always excited to see new investment coming to Alberta, growing our economy, creating jobs, and making life more enjoyable for those who call this province home. Lower corporate taxes and reduced red tape means Alberta is open for business and a great place for companies to grow." -Joseph Schow, Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration "Our government is proud to support the development of Scandinave Spa Edmonton, an exciting new experience for both Albertans and visitors. This landmark project sets the stage for future tourism development, fuelling the growth of our visitor economy by enhancing Edmonton's iconic river valley and promoting Alberta as a premier wellness destination." -Andrew Boitchenko, Minister of Tourism and Sport "We're thrilled to welcome Scandinave Spa to the Edmonton Metro Region. This exciting addition will not only create jobs and boost the local economy, but it will also enhance the quality of life for both residents and visitors and contribute to the kind of vibrant, livable communities that help attract global investment. The visitor economy is a huge economic driver and offerings like this will help elevate the region's profile and draw the attention of investors and developers-unlocking further economic opportunities." - Malcolm Bruce, CEO, Edmonton Global "The Scandinave Spa adds to Edmonton's visitor economy by creating a coveted wellness experience surrounded by one of Edmonton's greatest assets, the river valley. We are grateful to see Scandinave Group's commitment to thoughtful design and working with natural landscapes. Explore Edmonton is eager to welcome a new attraction to Edmonton, one that provides a high-quality, all-season experience for visitors and residents alike." -Melissa Radu, Executive Director of Destination Stewardship, Explore Edmonton Quick facts The project is projected to drive $121 million in total economic impact over the construction and first 10 years of operations. It will support 330 temporary jobs and 52 permanent full-time jobs. More than $18 million in tax revenue will be generated across federal, provincial, and municipal governments, supporting public services and infrastructure. The Investment and Growth Fund is a deal closing incentive designed to be offered in select late-stage investment decisions when there are demonstratable barriers to making a final investment decision in Alberta. Since fall 2021, 14 Investment and Growth Fund grants have been announced that will support more than 1,300 permanent full-time jobs and approximately 1,400 temporary jobs, with total capital investment of more than $855 million. -30- About Travel Alberta As the Government of Alberta's destination management organization, Travel Alberta drives the growth of the province's visitor economy, creating and promoting must-visit destinations throughout the province. We do this by developing signature products and destinations, marketing those destinations to the world, and attracting investment in the sector. Together, in partnership with the Government of Alberta, regional destination organizations, industry associations, and thousands of Alberta tourism businesses across the province, we are working to grow the value of Alberta's visitor economy to $25 billion by 2035. Visit industry.travelalberta.com to learn more. About Scandinave Group Since 1999, Scandinave Group has been a Canadian pioneer in Nordic spa experiences, rooted in the age-old Scandinavian tradition of thermal therapy, silence, nature, and digital detox. The journey began in Mont-Tremblant, QC, and has expanded to iconic destinations including Blue Mountain, ON, Whistler, BC, and Old Montreal, QC, with a new location coming soon in Edmonton, AB. Open 365 days a year, rain or shine, Scandinave Spa offers an immersive experience of deep relaxation in breathtaking natural or heritage settings. Learn more at scandinave.com. About Edmonton Global The purpose of Edmonton Global is to radically transform and grow the economy of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. We are a not-for-profit corporation founded by 14 municipalities that make up the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. Our focus is attracting foreign investment, helping regional businesses export to the world, enhancing our region's global competitiveness, and bringing our region together with a unified voice to attract the attention and interest of investors the world over. About Explore Edmonton Explore Edmonton is the city's destination marketing and management organization, focused on promoting Edmonton as a premier location for tourism, events, and business. Committed to making the city vibrant and prosperous, Explore Edmonton works with partners to create unique experiences for visitors while driving economic impact and enhancing the quality of life for residents. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258908 SOURCE: Travel Alberta VICTORIA, Seychelles, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Global online broker M4Markets is stepping forward with insights on the major forces set to reshape trading in 2025. As markets grow more complex and technology moves faster than ever, the broker highlights key developments like artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, geopolitical shifts, and the growing popularity of alternative assets. As part of its continued efforts to support traders with forward-thinking guidance, the company is addressing how these trends are already influencing the market. "2025 is proving to be a year of real transformation," stated Oscar Asly, CEO of M4Markets. "We are seeing AI shift from being a reserved tool to a mainstream part of retail trading. The speed and accuracy it brings are helping traders process massive volumes of market data and make better decisions. At the same time, markets are moving in response to global uncertainties - from elections in major economies to trade realignments and armed conflicts. And beyond traditional asset classes, traders are increasingly looking at alternatives. These trends are changing the entire rhythm of how trading is done, and we believe it is crucial to stay on top of them." AI, Geopolitics, and Alternative Assets Are Reshaping Trading "As market dynamics continue to shift, our goal is to give traders the edge they need to make smarter and faster decisions," added Asly, "At M4Markets, we are actively propagating platform enhancements, more advanced tools, and global asset coverage to ensure our clients are ready for what is next. This is not a reactive move but part of our ongoing commitment to lead with insight, speed, and innovation." About M4Markets M4Markets offers an exceptional trading experience designed for today's fast-paced market conditions. Traders gain access to raw spreads from 0.0 pips, ultra-fast execution, and various account types adjusted to different needs. The broker supports trading on intuitive MT4 and MT5 platforms, with the added benefits of negative balance protection, segregated accounts, and strong liquidity across forex, commodities, indices, and shares. With multi-channel customer support, strong regulation, a variety of funding methods, and educational resources, M4Markets continues to be a reliable choice for traders ready to thrive in 2025. 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NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Originally published by Mastercard Mastercard showcases how it is advancing against its mission to power economies and empower people, building a sustainable economy where everyone prospers, in its 2024 Impact Report. The report details the meaningful progress the company has made across its impact strategy pillars - People, Prosperity and Planet - and the connection of these efforts to its business objectives. The report reflects on the year's progress, outlines areas of opportunity and reinforces a deep commitment to driving inclusive, sustainable growth for the long term. With a focus on transparency, accountability and innovation, Mastercard remains steadfast in its efforts to build a thriving economy where people prosper on a healthy planet. Progress and highlights from Mastercard's impact efforts in 2024 include: Empowering all people to reach their full potential Mastercard continues to foster a workplace and world where everyone has the opportunity to succeed, empowered by a culture of community and belonging. Over 90% of employee respondents to a 2024 employee survey said they are proud to work at Mastercard. Employees volunteered over 135,000 hours serving local communities in 2024, up 11% from 2023. 309,000 students educated through Kids4TechTM and Girls4TechTM in 2024, reaching more than 12 million students in 65 countries and territories since the program's inception in 2014. Advancing prosperity around the world Mastercard is focused on helping everyone participate in the digital economy, connecting people to the tools and resources that can help them chart pathways to prosperity for their families, communities and beyond. This work is a collaborative effort with the company's partners. Connected 960 million people to the digital economy since 2015 through 2024, toward the company's goal to connect 1 billion people to the digital economy by 2025. Connected 65 million micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to the digital economy since 2020 through 2024, surpassing the company's goal. Reached 19 million micro and small businesses through Mastercard Strive from 2021 through 2024, surpassing the company's goal. Registered 7 million users on the Community Pass platform since 2018, across Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Prevented over $47.9 billion in fraud losses over the last three years through one AI-powered cybersecurity solution alone. Preserving the planet for future generations Mastercard understands a thriving economy requires a healthy planet, which is why it is driving toward net zero emissions and accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, regenerative economy. Decreased Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 7% year-over-year, while experiencing 12% growth in net revenue, reflecting continued decoupling of corporate growth from greenhouse gas emissions. 71% of the company's top emitting suppliers have committed to science-based targets to reduce emissions, and reported through CDP, public reporting or supplier agreement. For the eighth consecutive year, continued to generate or source 100% renewable energy for its operations. 26 million trees funded for restoration through the Priceless Planet Coalition since 2020, toward the goal of 100 million trees. "Our work supports people in Kennesaw, cafe owners in Kuala Lumpur, smallholder farmers in Kenya and everywhere in between," said Jon Huntsman, vice chairman and president, Strategic Growth, Mastercard. "It's about bringing new technologies, insights, tools and resources that connect them to the digital economy while keeping them protected. That way they can focus on what's important - achieving their dreams, growing their operations and contributing to the prosperity of their communities." Mastercard's 2024 Impact Report is available online. Media contact Sarah Ely 914-325-4716 | Sarah.Ely@mastercard.com About Mastercard Mastercard powers economies and empowers people in 200+ countries and territories worldwide. Together with our customers, we're building a resilient economy where everyone can prosper. We support a wide range of digital payments choices, making transactions secure, simple, smart and accessible. Our technology and innovation, partnerships and networks combine to deliver a unique set of products and services that help people, businesses and governments realize their greatest potential. www.mastercard.com Originally published by Mastercard Follow along Mastercard's journey to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere. View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Mastercard on 3blmedia.com. Contact Info: Spokesperson: Mastercard Website: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/mastercard Email: info@3blmedia.com SOURCE: Mastercard View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/banking-and-financial-services/mastercard-delivering-pathways-to-sustained-prosperity-1049383 Seattle, Washington--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - EIOTCLUB, a Seattle-based leader in IoT connectivity, announces the launch of its advanced eSIM designed to deliver instant online activation, multi-network access, and borderless coverage for enterprise and individual users. This new global eSIM solution eliminates the hassle of physical SIM cards by enabling users to activate their plan within minutes and connect in over 200 countries and regions. With flexible prepaid plans ranging from 30 to 360 days, it's a great fit for both short-term travelers and long-term users who need flexible, reliable data - from vacations to remote work. EIOTCLUB's eSIM connects to the best local network automatically in every country it covers-no roaming fees. Users are able to keep their original number to receive texts and verification codes as usual, while the eSIM adds reliable local data wherever they go. It's a simple way to stay connected during international travel. EIOTCLUB's travel eSIM offers a seamless solution for staying connected while abroad-perfect for business travelers, tourists, students, and remote workers alike. With support for 4G and 5G networks, it delivers strong performance in areas with reliable cellular coverage, making it a great fit for most urban, suburban, and well-covered rural regions. What sets EIOTCLUB apart is its focus on simplicity and control. From the moment users purchase eSIM online, setup is effortless-just scan a QR code to activate, with no shipping delays or physical SIM cards to worry about. This hassle-free "Scan-to-Start" experience means users can be up and running in minutes, no matter where they are. Managing the plan is just as straightforward. EIOTCLUB's intuitive mobile app puts everything at the users fingertips-track data usage, top up balance, or update billing preferences with just a few taps. This level of ease empowers users to stay in control of their connectivity, even while on the move. Behind this user-friendly experience is a flexible, transparent Pay-as-You-Go model that helps eliminate unexpected roaming fees. Whether checking into a hotel in Tokyo or working from a cafe in Lisbon, users know exactly what they are paying for and nothing more. EIOTCLUB is also built for long-term convenience. With partnerships across more than 100 leading IoT hardware manufacturers, its connectivity solutions are increasingly integrated directly into smart devices, providing reliable service without the need for constant manual setup. It's no surprise, then, that over 2.58 million users worldwide trust EIOTCLUB to keep them connected across borders. The combination of affordability, broad compatibility, and automatic network switching creates a reliable, stress-free experience wherever life takes them. The new global eSIM is available now. Users can explore plan options, check device compatibility, and activate their prepaid eSIM instantly through the company's official website at www.eiotclub.com/pages/esim. To take advantage of eSIM technology, devices like smartphones or tablets must be equipped with a built-in eSIM chip module (eUICC). However, many older models-such as those running Android 9 or earlier-lack this capability. To bridge this gap and extend eSIM benefits to a broader range of users, EIOTCLUB developed a Physical eSIM Card that includes an integrated eUICC chip. When inserted into a compatible device, it functions just like a native eSIM, allowing users to download and manage eSIM profiles without needing hardware upgrades. This innovative solution not only makes global connectivity more accessible for individual users but also offers significant advantages for businesses managing large-scale IoT deployments. With compatibility across 95% of global hardware, including industrial routers, GPS trackers, and remote monitoring equipment, the Physical eSIM Card enables seamless plug-and-play integration. Industries such as security monitoring, smart vehicles, wearables, drones, and robotics benefit from reduced setup costs, minimal downtime, and reliable connectivity-helping them stay focused on performance without worrying about infrastructure limitations. For more information on how to stay connected with a reliable eSIM solution, visit www.eiotclub.com and follow EIOTCLUB on Facebook, Instagram (@eiotclubofficial), YouTube, and TikTok (@eiotclub). Join the growing community that counts on EIOTCLUB to make IoT and global connectivity simpler than ever before. About EIOTCLUB Based in Seattle, Washington, EIOTCLUB is a leading MVNO specializing in IoT connectivity solutions that serve more than 2.58 million users worldwide. From industrial-grade SIMs and eSIM solutions to rugged devices and satellite support, EIOTCLUB partners with top hardware manufacturers to make the IoT easier, more reliable, and ready for the future. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259012 SOURCE: 41Caijing Regulatory News: SpineGuard (FR0011464452 ALSGD), an innovative company that deploys its DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) local conductivity sensing technology to secure and streamline the placement of bone implants, today announced that its patent application directed to enhance safety of bone drilling power tools thanks to a DSG-enabled active safety stop, has received a decision to grant from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Stephane Bette, Deputy CEO and cofounder of SpineGuard, said: "We are particularly proud of the grant of this new patent, which is a cornerstone in our strategic development in the United States, the first market worldwide in our sector. For years, SpineGuard has pioneered employing its unique DSG guidance technology to secure and enhance surgical tools in skeletal surgery. More recently, we have developed with the academic ecosystem, algorithms to automatically detect bone breach situations in robotic drilling. With this newly granted patent in the United States, SpineGuard presents and protects a breakthrough innovation: an active safety stop applicable to hand-held bone drilling power tools. Conceptually, it allows for broad applications in today's as well as tomorrow's surgery, whether in free-hand, navigated, or robot-assisted surgery. We intend to leverage our IP and related product design work toward technology deals with the industry in a near future." Since its inception, SpineGuard has developed and maintained a significant IP portfolio currently including 11 patent families totaling 72 patents and applications as well as 3 trademarks, in the major geographies such as Europe, USA and China. The new patent object of this communication and about to be granted, is the fourth granted patent by SpineGuard in the United States belonging to the category of DSG-enabled "smart" assisted surgery. That is, where the DSG signal is exploited by software/ algorithmic intelligence in real time to provide assistance to skeletal surgery, such as providing audio and visual color-coded warning signals, or triggering a safety stop mechanism to block the progress of a drilling tool when a near-breach situation is encountered. About SpineGuard Founded in 2009 in France and the USA by Pierre Jerome and Stephane Bette, SpineGuard is an innovative company deploying its proprietary radiation-free real time sensing technology DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) to secure and streamline the placement of implants in the skeleton. SpineGuard designs, develops and markets medical devices embedding its technology. Over 100,000 surgical procedures have been secured worldwide thanks to DSG and 36 studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals have demonstrated the multiple benefits DSG offers to patients, surgeons, surgical staff and hospitals. Building on these strong fundamentals and several strategic partnerships, SpineGuard is expanding the scope of its DSG technology to the treatment of scoliosis via anterior approach, sacroiliac joint fusion, dental implantology and innovations such as the smart pedicle screw and power drill or surgical robotics. DSG was co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., and Alain Vanquaethem, Biomedical Engineer. SpineGuard has engaged in multiple ESG initiatives. For further information, visit www.spineguard.com Disclaimer The SpineGuard securities may not be offered or sold in the United States as they have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any United States state securities laws, and SpineGuard does not intend to make a public offer of its securities in the United States. This is an announcement and not a prospectus, and the information contained herein does and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or exemption from registration. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716924309/en/ Contacts: SpineGuard Pierre Jerome CEO Chairman Tel: +33 1 45 18 45 19 p.jerome@spineguard.com SpineGuard Anne-Charlotte Millard CFO Tel.: 01 45 18 45 19 ac.millard@spineguard.com NewCap Investor Relations Financial Communication Mathilde Bohin Aurelie Manavarere Tel: +33 1 44 71 94 94 spineguard@newcap.eu Millipede88 Demonstrates High Revascularization and First Pass Effect Rates in 180 patient multicenter study Perfuze, a medical device company developing catheter technology for interventional stroke care, today announced positive preliminary results from its pivotal IDE clinical trial, MARRS (Millipede Aspiration for Revascularization in Stroke Study). These preliminary results were presented at the Society for NeuroInterventional Surgery (SNIS) Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716465479/en/ Millipede88 Aspiration Catheter, Perfuze's Flagship Superbore Aspiration Catheter The trial is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of the Millipede System for revascularization in acute ischemic stroke. Conducted across a network of leading stroke centers in the U.S. and Europe, the study included patients with occlusions in the ICA, M1, M2 and basilar, or vertebral arteries. The Millipede System includes the Millipede88 aspiration catheter, Perfuze's flagship Superbore aspiration catheter. The MARRS trial enrolled 180 evaluable subjects, with first pass direct aspiration being performed with the Millipede88 in 101 of these patients. The preliminary analysis shows a high rate of First Pass Effect (FPE, defined as complete or near-complete revascularization (mTICI 2c) following a single device pass. For patients treated with Millipede88, an FPE rate of 61% was observed across all target vessels in the Per Protocol (PP) population. Specifically, for M1 artery occlusions treated with Millipede88 in the PP population, an FPE rate of 77% was achieved "The MARRS data are truly exceptional. Achieving 77% First Pass Effect for M1 occlusions in a pivotal study is a major advance for stroke care. The ability to reliably achieve rapid, complete reperfusion with a single aspiration pass is exactly what we need to improve efficacy. This technology is a powerful tool that simplifies thrombectomy and delivers outstanding performance," said Dr. Raul G. Nogueira, Principal Investigator of the MARRS Study and Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Across the 180 patients enrolled, delivery success of the Millipede System was 99%, and the median number of passes was 1. Preliminary safety analysis showed a symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) rate of 1.7%. Perforation was reported at 0% and the rate of intracranial dissection was 1.1%, indicating a promising safety profile. "The MARRS study represents several years of work by the Perfuze team and our clinical partners," said Wayne Allen, CEO and Co-Founder of Perfuze. "We designed the Millipede88 to navigate seamlessly to the clot face, enabling a superbore catheter that improves the likelihood of achieving First Pass Effect. This early data reflects that intent, and we're encouraged by the physician feedback we've received to date." The MARRS trial completed enrollment earlier this year, executed ahead of schedule, reflecting strong engagement from stroke centers and interest in next-generation aspiration technology. These clinical results follow several successful milestones for Perfuze, including FDA 510(k) clearance for its Zipline Access Catheters and a 22 million funding round to support commercial expansion and operational scale-up. With these preliminary MARRS data, Perfuze is preparing for FDA submission. "This is a significant inflection point for the company," said Perfuze Chairperson, Hooman Hakami. "Preliminary MARRS results support the Millipede88 catheter's safety and effectiveness and underpin our vision to advance stroke intervention About the Millipede System and MARRS Trial Millipede88 is a superbore aspiration catheter developed to support effective clot retrieval while maintaining navigability through challenging cerebrovascular anatomy. The MARRS trial is a prospective, multicenter, single-arm pivotal IDE study designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Millipede System in patients with large vessel occlusion stroke. Revascularization outcomes were adjudicated by an independent core laboratory. About Perfuze Perfuze is a privately held medical device company based in Galway, Ireland. The company is dedicated to developing advanced catheter technologies that simplify stroke procedures and aim to improve outcomes for patients suffering from acute ischemic stroke. For more information, visit https://www.perfuze.com. Follow us on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). Disclaimer: United States: CAUTION Investigational device. Limited by Federal law to investigational use. Europe: Exclusively for use in a clinical investigation. These are preliminary results from an ongoing clinical investigation. The Clinical Study Report has not yet been approved or reviewed by regulatory authorities. Data may be subject to change and may not fully reflect the contents of the Clinical Study Report. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250716465479/en/ Contacts: Media Contact: Dr. Freskida Goni Communications Consultant, Perfuze comms@perfuze.com +44 7473678178 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Telescope Innovations Corp. (CSE: TELI) (OTCQB: TELIF) (FSE: J4U) ("Telescope" or the "Company"), a developer of advanced technologies and services for the global pharmaceutical and chemical industries, reports financial results for the fiscal quarter ended May 31, 2025 (Q3). The Company generated revenues of $1.4 million during this period, and an adjusted EBITA loss of $0.1 million. Revenues were driven strongly by sales of DirectInject-LC, our flagship product for advanced chemical analysis. Increased sales and revenues continue to fuel growth, with financial results in line with FY 2025 budget and targets. FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FISCAL QUARTER ENDED MAY 31, 2025 All values are represented in CAD. Revenues of $1,394,542 (versus $1,224,351 for the comparable quarter in FY 2024) Expenses of $1,896,028 (versus$1,424,650 for the comparable quarter in FY 2024) Adjusted EBITA loss of $99,466 (versus $51,413 EBITA loss for the comparable quarter in FY 2024) OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS STRONGEST QUARTER YET FOR DIRECTINJECT-LC PRODUCT . Both sales and order pipelines enjoyed consistent growth this quarter, with the number of opportunities more than doubling compared to Q3, 2024. The recent launch in Asia rapidly converted into sales and deployed units in Japan, alongside a pipeline including multi-system orders in China. We continue working strategically with Mettler Toledo on our global distribution campaign: this quarter we executed 11 application feasibility studies at customer sites across the US, Europe, and Asia; participated in 2 lead-generating InfoDays hosted by Mettler Toledo; and presented at the 2025 IFPAC global conference, one of the largest Process Analytical Technology summits in North America. Both sales and order pipelines enjoyed consistent growth this quarter, with the number of opportunities more than doubling compared to Q3, 2024. The recent launch in Asia rapidly converted into sales and deployed units in Japan, alongside a pipeline including multi-system orders in China. We continue working strategically with Mettler Toledo on our global distribution campaign: this quarter we executed 11 application feasibility studies at customer sites across the US, Europe, and Asia; participated in 2 lead-generating InfoDays hosted by Mettler Toledo; and presented at the 2025 IFPAC global conference, one of the largest Process Analytical Technology summits in North America. PROGRESS ON SELF-DRIVING LAB DEVELOPMENT WITH PFIZER. Telescope is in the final stage of building and confirmation testing a "Phase 1" Self-Driving Lab (SDL) platform in collaboration with Pfizer. SDLs use artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and advanced process analytical technology to perform chemistry research up to 100x than traditional methods. We are currently discussing the specifications of Phase 2 deliverables to ensure direct alignment of Telescope's technology with industry needs. Telescope is in the final stage of building and confirmation testing a "Phase 1" Self-Driving Lab (SDL) platform in collaboration with Pfizer. SDLs use artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and advanced process analytical technology to perform chemistry research up to 100x than traditional methods. We are currently discussing the specifications of Phase 2 deliverables to ensure direct alignment of Telescope's technology with industry needs. COMMERCIAL ADVANCEMENT OF LITHIUM SULFIDE (Li2S) PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY. Telescope shipped its first battery-grade Li2S samples to major battery industry groups in Asia and North America, marking the initial customer evaluation of its proprietary low-temperature production process. The samples were made with North American feedstocks, including lithium hydroxide monohydrate from Standard Lithium Ltd.'s demonstration plant in southwest Arkansas. Building on this strategic collaboration, Telescope is now part of the inaugural cohort of the first US-based accelerator innovating the battery supply chain: the Arkansas Lithium Technology Accelerator. "Q3 was marked by strong commercial momentum across our core technologies," said Henry Dubina, Telescope CEO. "Telescope's advanced analytical and automation innovations continue to gain traction with growing DirectInject-LC sales, our leadership in Self-Driving Labs, and the lithium processing technologies we developed with these tools. We're excited to build on our partnerships Mettler Toledo, Pfizer, and Standard Lithium that are positioning us for long-term success." Readers are encouraged to review the full financial statements and accompanying management discussion and analysis for the fiscal period ended May 31, 2025, both of which are available under the profile for the Company on SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca). About Telescope Telescope is a chemical technology company developing scalable manufacturing processes and tools for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. The Company builds and deploys new enabling technologies including flexible robotic platforms and artificial intelligence software that improves experimental throughput, efficiency, and data quality. Our aim is to bring modern chemical technology solutions to meet the most serious challenges in health and sustainability. The CSE has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Neither the CSE nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259042 SOURCE: Telescope Innovations Corp. Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") announces its intention to amend certain terms of its currently outstanding 10% unsecured convertible debentures (the "Debentures") that were originally issued in two tranches by the Company through private placement on August 1 and August 31, 2023 (see the Company's news releases of August 4, September 12 and September 22, 2023). As at the date hereof, there is US$619,000 of Debentures outstanding. The Company also intends to amend the terms of 3,720,792 outstanding common share purchase warrants (the "Warrants") and 11,049 finders' options (the "Finder's Options") which were issued in conjunction with the Debentures. The Debentures mature as to US$444,000 on August 1, 2025 and US$175,000 on August 31, 2025 with 10% annual interest payable quarterly and upon maturity. The principal amount of the Debentures are currently convertible into common shares at a price of C$0.50 per Common Share after adjusting for a share consolidation effected on June 13, 2025 (see the Company's news release dated June 11, 2025). The Debentures carry a fixed foreign exchange rate of C$1.30 for each US$1 of principal for conversion purposes. Interest on the Debentures may not be converted to Common Shares. In respect of the Warrants, each Warrant currently entitles the holder to acquire one Common Share at a price of C$0.60 per share (after adjusting for the aforementioned share consolidation) with 2,637,582 Warrants expiring on August 1, 2025 and 1,083,200 expiring on August 31, 2025. Each Finder's Options currently entitles the holder to acquire one Common Share at a price of C$0.60 per share (after adjusting for the aforementioned share consolidation) expiring on August 31, 2023. The Company intends to amend the Debentures as follows: (a) The maturity date will be extended for an additional two years to August 1, 2027 and August 31, 2027 respectively and the conversion price will be reduced to C$0.25 per Common Share; (b) alternatively, debenture holders will be offered the option to convert the Debentures at a price of C$0.15 per Common Share on the current maturity date. All other terms of the Debentures remain unchanged. The Company intends to amend the term of the Warrants and the Finder's Options by extending their expiry date an additional two years and reducing the exercise price to C$0.25. In accordance with TSX Venture Exchange policy, any amended Warrants and Finder's Options will include an accelerated expiry clause such that the exercise period of the amended Warrants and Finder's Options will be reduced to 30 days if, for any ten consecutive trading days during the unexpired term of the amended Warrants and Finder's Options, the closing price of the Company's Common Shares exceeds $0.30. Insiders of the Company currently hold 135,400 Warrants (the "Insider Warrants"). The application of any amendments to the Insider Warrants constitutes a "related party transaction" within MI 61-101 - Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions ("MI 61-101") but are exempt from the MI 61-101 valuation and minority approval requirements for related party transactions under sections 5.5(a) and 5.7(1)(a) as neither the fair market value (as determined under MI 61-101) of the subject matter of, nor the fair market value of the consideration for, the transaction, insofar as it involves the Related Parties, exceeds 25% of the Company's market capitalization (as determined under MI 61-101). Any amendments to the Debentures, Warrants and Finder's options are subject to acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange. Reasoning for the Proposed Amendments Strategic Timing to Advance Pilar and Drive Shareholder Value The Company is taking proactive steps to strengthen its balance sheet and align capital with its most compelling near-term growth opportunity, the advancement of the Pilar Gold & Silver Project. The Company's proposed restructuring of the Debentures comes at a pivotal time, as Pilar progresses toward bulk sampling, supported by strong recent and historical exploration results. Momentum Toward Test Mining Colibri's joint venture partner, Tocvan Ventures, announced on June 18, 2025, that engineering and design for a 50,000-tonne pilot leach facility is now complete, with the permitting process well underway. Tocvan has indicated it does not foresee delays in approvals and intends to commence construction following final permit acceptance. If successful, a pilot test mine run of Pilar materials could generate a relatively meaningful amount of cash flow over a short period, helping to reduce Colibri's near-term capital requirements and further de-risking its 49% interest in the project. Pilar Drill & Bulk Sample Results Highlight Gold-Silver Potential Over multiple exploration phases, drilling at Pilar has consistently returned broad zones of oxidized near-surface gold mineralization, along with high-grade intercepts-critical for the economics of the upcoming test mine. Highlights include: 2025 (Diamond Drilling - JES-25 Series): - 83.5 @ 1.3 g/t Au from surface, including 10.3 g/t over 9.7m - 64.9 m @ 1.2 g/t Au, including 3.0 m @ 21.6 g/t Au and 209 g/t Ag-marking the first high-grade intercept along the North Hill trend (JES-25-108) 2023 Bulk Sample: A 1,200-tonne surface sample yielded an average head grade of 1.9 g/t Au with a calculated recovery rate of approximately 62%, confirming the presence of near-surface mineralization amenable to heap leach or vat leach processing. Historical Drilling (2020-2022): - 116.9 m @ 1.2 g/t Au, including 10.2 m @ 12.0 g/t Au and 23 g/t Ag (Phase III) - 94.6 m @ 1.6 g/t Au, including 9.2 m @ 10.8 g/t Au (Phase I) - 47.7 m @ 0.7 g/t Au, including 3.0 m @ 5.6 g/t Au and 22 g/t Ag (Phase II) (Above technical information cited in Tocvan Ventures Corp. news release dated June 18th, 2025 which was reviewed and approved by Brodie A. Sutherland, qualified person for Tocvan Ventures Corp.) Together, these results demonstrate the continuity, scale, and metallurgical potential of gold mineralization at Pilar, while outlining multiple high-grade near-surface zones that could meaningfully contribute to the upcoming bulk test mine. What This Means for Shareholders The pilot plant is nearing approval, and Colibri's 49% stake positions it to potentially benefit directly from the Pilar's bulk sample / test phase's outcome. The restructuring of the Debentures will reduce immediate financial obligations, freeing up capital to support the Pilar bulk sample / test mine program and broader exploration. With gold prices trading near historic highs, the ability to advance a high-grade, near-surface gold system into production under a low-capex pilot structure presents a compelling opportunity to unlock value for shareholders. By aligning its financial position with Pilar's development timeline, Colibri is taking a disciplined, shareholder-first approach to unlocking value from one of the most advanced gold projects in Sonora. For Debenture holders, they will now have the opportunity to participate significantly in the potential upside in the Pilar Gold & Silver Project. ABOUT COLIBRI RESOURCE CORPORATION Colibri is a Canadian-based mineral exploration company listed on the TSX-V (CBI) and is focused on acquiring, exploring, and developing prospective gold & silver properties in Sonora, Mexico. The Company holds three high potential precious metal projects: 1) 49% Ownership of the Pilar Gold & Silver Project which is believed to hold the potential to be a near term producing mine, 2) 100% of EP Gold Project in the significant Caborca Gold Belt which has delivered highly encouraging exploration results and is surround by Mexico's second largest major producer of gold on four sides, and 3) ta 60% interest in the Diamante Gold & Silver Project.. For more information about all Company projects please visit: www.colibriresource.com. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward-looking statements". Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that they will prove to be accurate. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259058 SOURCE: Colibri Resource Corporation Saguenay, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - First Phosphate Corp. (CSE: PHOS) (OTCQB: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) ("First Phosphate" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has closed the final tranche of its originally announced $2,000,000 non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering"), as further described in the Company's news releases dated June 30, 2025 and July 9, 2025. As part of both tranches of the Offering (closed July 8, 2025 and July 16, 2025), the Company has raised gross proceeds of $4,692,329 through the issuance of 12,856,513 Flow-Through Shares at a price of $0.35 for gross proceeds of $4,499,780, and 550,142 Hard Dollar Units at a price of $0.35, each comprised of one Common Shares and one-half of one Warrant. Under this final tranche of the Offering, the Company raised a total of $1,462,800 through the issuance of 3,729,428 Flow-Through Shares, and 450,000 Hard Dollar Units. Together with this Offering, the Company has raised to date a total of approximately $28.5 million in 8 management-led non-brokered private-placement financings since June 2022, of which approximately $8.2 million has been closed in the last 3 months. In total, in connection with the Offering, the Company paid $1600 in cash finder's fees, issued 894,998 Compensation Shares and advisory shares at a price of $0.35 per common share, and issued 899,570 Compensation Warrants, exercisable at a price of $0.50 per common share of the Company, until December 31, 2025, subject to an Accelerated Expiry Date. All securities issued under the Offering are subject to a four-month and one day statutory hold period in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Offering as disclosed in the Company's press release dated June 30, 2025. Capitalized terms used in this news release and not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Company's news release dated June 30, 2025. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to sell any of securities in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available. Completion of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, the receipt of all necessary approvals. There can be no assurance that any further securities will be sold under Offering. The Company is also pleased to announce that it has entered into an advertising and e-marketing contract with Revolution Small Cap Marketing ("the contractor") to provide marketing services, including social media engagement. The initial term of the agreement is 120 days, starting on July 10, 2025, and may be renewed with mutual written agreement. During the initial term the contractor will be paid $15,000. The contractor is based at 39 Queen St., 3rd floor, St. Catharines, ON, Canada, L2R-5G6, and reachable at (647) 544-7207. About First Phosphate Corp. First Phosphate (CSE: PHOS) (OTCQB: FRSPF) (FSE: KD0) is a mineral development company dedicated to producing high-purity phosphate for the LFP battery industry. The Company is committed to sustainable extraction and purification with a low anticipated carbon footprint. Its vertically integrated model connects phosphate mining directly into the supply chains of North American battery producers. First Phosphate's flagship project, the Begin-Lamarche Property in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, contains rare igneous anorthosite rock that yields high-purity phosphate with minimal impurities. -30- Forward-Looking Information and Cautionary Statements This news release contains certain statements and information that may be considered "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" and other similar expressions. In addition, statements in this news release that are not historical facts are forward looking statements, including, among other things: the Company's planned exploration and production activities; the properties and composition of any extracted phosphate; the Company's plans for vertical integration into North American battery supply chains; and the receipt of all necessary approvals. These statements and other forward-looking information are based on assumptions and estimates that the Company believes are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances, which may prove to be incorrect, include, but are not limited to, the various assumptions set forth herein and in the Company's public disclosure record including the short form base prospectus dated June 5, 2024, and the receipt of all necessary approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. There can be no assurance that any opportunity will be successful, commercially viable, completed on time or on budget, or will generate any meaningful revenues, savings or earnings, as the case may be, for the Company. In addition, the Company will incur costs in pursuing any particular opportunity, which may be significant. These factors and assumptions are not intended to represent a complete list of the factors and assumptions that could affect the Company and, though they should be considered carefully, should be considered in conjunction with the risk factors described in the Company's other documents filed with the Canadian and United States securities authorities, including without limitation the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis dated July 27, 2025 and Annual Report on 20-F dated July 8, 2024, which are available on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking information or information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259059 SOURCE: First Phosphate Corp. Boyang Wang on Targeting Underfunded Longevity Projects SINGAPORE, SG / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Immortal Dragons, a purpose-driven longevity fund headquartered in Singapore, today announced its unique approach to investing in radical life extension technologies. With $40 million in assets under management (AUM), Immortal Dragons is poised to redefine how capital fuels scientific breakthroughs in longevity and healthspan. At its core, Immortal Dragons is driven by a profound philosophy: to view aging and death not as inevitability, but as technical challenges that can be overcome through scientific innovation. This conviction underpins every investment decision, prioritizing impacts over financial returns. Moonshot Ventures Immortal Dragons targets diverse areas within the longevity sector. The fund has already invested in over 15 startups that are at the forefront of these paradigm shifts, exploring technologies across several strategic pillars: Replacement & Regeneration: Including pioneering research in xenotransplantation, cryopreservation, replacement or regeneration of biological components. Gene Therapy: Gene therapies aimed at addressing the root causes of aging and age-related diseases. 3D Bioprinting: 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs for therapeutic and regenerative purposes. Longevity Infrastructure: Foundational ecosystem for longevity science, accelerated clinical trials, and regulatory sandboxes. Boyang Wang, the founder of Immortal Dragons, articulated the fund's approach: "Whether it's cutting-edge science or creating better environments for research, we need to see the opportunity for real impact." [2] This commitment to diverse areas guides the fund towards supporting what Boyang calls "moonshot projects push the boundaries of science, while infrastructure work - like special economic zones - creates conditions for broader success." [2] Purpose-Driven Capital Operating with the flexibility of a single-LP structure, Immortal Dragons directs its own capital towards projects it is most passionate about, enabling swift and decisive action. This model allows the fund to support underfunded but transformative research that traditional venture capital might overlook. "We say we are a purpose-driven fund, and the key implication is that Immortal Dragons values impact over economic returns," Boyang explained in his recent interview. "I'm investing in the field of longevity because I want to see progress and breakthroughs in the sector." [1] This commitment extends to personal conviction. Boyang Wang is notably among the first 300 global recipients of Minicircle's follistatin gene therapy, underscoring the fund's willingness to embrace and test frontier science. "The gene therapy is a personal attempt, but this does reflect our risk profile and support for the cause," Boyang explained, "We have strong motivation to support the first wave of longevity companies to make profit, so as to propel the investment flywheel." Global Longevity Advocacy Beyond conventional investments, Immortal Dragons is dedicated to fostering a global longevity advocacy. The fund actively engages in educational outreach, and community-building initiatives, such as translating scientific talks, translating and publishing longevity-themed books, hosting leading chinese longevity podcast channel, sponsorships and grants to longevity initiatives like Vitalist Bay, ARDD 2025. This approach recognizes that progress requires not only financial investment but also public awareness and a robust infrastructure. The fund's advocacy approach has been praised by leading academics in the field. Professor Peter Lidsky of the City University of Hong Kong's Biomedical Science department commented, "I was excited to meet Immortal Dragons team members at the Vitalist Bay, Berkeley earlier this year. These are young, brave and energetic people committed to resolving the main challenge humanity faces: aging. Their foundation helped me a lot in translating one of my lectures to Chinese, and I hope our collaboration will prosper in the future." With deep roots in both east and west, the fund is committed to bridge markets, capital, research and institution through various evangelism efforts. Aubrey de Grey, president of the LEV Foundation commented, "It has been a great pleasure to get to know the Immortal Dragons team. I have been frustrated for many years that there has been too little longevist activity in China, and I am delighted that that is now changing, with the work of a group that is bringing my and others' work to the Chinese public. I am also very happy that Immortal Dragons are investing in promising longevity startups." Immortal Dragons stands as a testament to the power of purpose-driven investment. By differentiating from the status quo and offering a new perspective to human healthspan, the fund is on a mission to push boundaries and carry on the torch or human life extension. About Immortal Dragons: Immortal Dragons (https://www.id.life/) is a purpose-driven longevity fund headquartered in Singapore. The fund invests in cutting-edge, high impact technologies by supporting 15+ portfolio companies. Beyond conventional investments, the fund also puts effort into longevity advocacy, including: book translation and publishing, translation of longevity leader's talks, hosting leading Chinese longevity podcast, sponsorships and grants to longevity initiatives and conferences. Contact: Boyang Wang Founder of Immortal Dragons Mailto: contact@id.life References: [1] Lifespan.io. (2025, June 9) Boyang Wang on Targeting Underfunded Longevity Projects. https://www.lifespan.io/news/boyang-wang-on-targeting-underfunded-longevity-projects [2] Longevity.Technology. (2025, June 30). Inside the longevity fund that aims to 'make death optional'. https://longevity.technology/news/inside-the-longevity-fund-that-aims-to-make-death-optional/ SOURCE: Immortal Dragons View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/biotechnology/immortal-dragons-launches-40m-longevity-fund-to-support-radical-life-extensions-1049533 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSXV: PX) OTC PINK: PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a high-resolution UAV aeromagnetic survey is currently underway. The 900 line-kilometer 50 meter-spaced survey will cover all current exploration targets from the northern end of Manfo to the southern end of Nkosuo. The survey results should greatly assist in geological and structural interpretation and the refinement and ranking of targets for drill testing over the combined projects. The survey has progressed well and is approximately 45% completed. "The launch of our high-resolution drone survey marks an exciting step forward in unlocking the full potential of the Nkosuo Mining Lease and the broader Manfo project area," commented Ingrid Hibbard, President and CEO. "Nkosuo's geological continuity with Manfo and its multiple mineralized trends position it as a transformative extension that could significantly enhance the total resource potential of the unified corridor. Additionally, we are nearing completion of the announced Mineral Resource Estimate update for the Manfo project and are on track for its release this quarter." To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/6179/259064_89fda46ce4d109a1_001full.jpg Qualified Person Mr. Kevin Thomson, P.Geo. (Ontario, #0191), Senior Vice-President, Exploration and Director, is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Thomson approved the technical data disclosed in this release. About Pelangio Pelangio acquires and explores prospective land packages located in world-class gold belts in Ghana, West Africa and Canada. In Ghana, the Company is exploring its two 100% owned camp-sized properties: the 106 km2 Manfo property, the site of eight near-surface gold discoveries, and the 280 km2 Obuasi property, located on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine, as well as the 100% optioned Dankran property located adjacent to its Obuasi property. 1. The results of exploration or mineral resources on an adjacent property are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Pelangio's property Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements or information appear in a number of places and can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information include statements regarding the Company's ability to complete the acquisition of the Nkosuo Project, the planned work programs, the Company's strategy of acquiring large land packages in areas of sizeable gold mineralization, the Company's plans to follow-up on previous work, and the Company's exploration plans. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, we have made numerous assumptions, including assumptions about the state of the equity markets. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Such risks include the changes in equity markets, share price volatility, volatility of global and local economic climate, inability to obtain necessary approvals or permits in Ghana including a forest entry permit, gold price volatility, political developments in Ghana, and Canada, increases in costs, exchange rate fluctuations, speculative nature of gold exploration, including the risk that favourable exploration results may not be obtained, and other risks involved in the gold exploration industry. See the Company's annual and quarterly financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statement and information. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. All forward-looking statements and information herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259064 SOURCE: Pelangio Exploration Inc. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Karus Mining Inc. (the "Company" or "Karus") announces that following recent changes to the Board of Directors (June 30, 2025 Press Release), Karus is fast-tracking the re-start of exploration at the highly prospective district scale South Cariboo and Mineral Creek assets. The Board of Directors and Management of the Company have: Initiated search for a new CEO and supporting exploration team. Through this process, Alex Gostevskikh will remain as interim CEO; Assembled a Technical Advisory committee to develop exploration plans for the Mineral Creek and South Cariboo projects; and Re-started the process to raise capital and list Karus shares on a Canadian stock exchange. These actions will position the Company to deliver on robust exploration potential for both the South Cariboo and Mineral Creek projects, located in British Columbia. Chairman's Comments Tony Cina, Chairman of the Board, comments, "The new Board has hit the ground running as we look to fast-track and deliver on the exploration potential of Karus' assets. We have launched the search for a permanent CEO to take the company exploration plans forward. We are also working with major shareholders and capital market players to develop a capital and listing plan. I am very excited for the future and the prospects to unlock value for shareholders." South Cariboo District The South Cariboo Gold District is a district scale land package considered highly prospective for sediment hosted orogenic gold systems, located in the Cariboo Gold District on north central British Columbia that includes the FG Gold and Gold Creek projects. Targeted exploration between 2020 and 2022 confirmed the orientation of high-grade gold mineralization at FG Gold and with multiple structural gold corridors identified. Drill highlights defining these gold corridors include: 12.4 m of 4.3 g/t gold in hole FG-20-376 at 239.4 m downhole 14.3m of 6.4 g/t gold in hole FG-20-377 at 386 m downhole 35.4 m of 2.94 g/t gold at 248 m downhole, incl. 6.5 m of 9.55 g/t gold in hole FG-21-401 The Project remains underexplored along a >20-km trend, providing many opportunities to expand the footprint of gold mineralization and for new discoveries on-strike and downdip. Details on Karus' drill results can be found in the "Technical Report on the South Cariboo Property, British Columbia, Canada" dated June 6, 2022 by Equity Exploration Consultants Ltd. Mineral Creek Located on Vancouver Island, approximately 11 km southeast of Port Alberni is considered highly prospective for high-grade epizonal orogenic vein gold systems (similar to the Berners Bay and Bralorne Pioneer gold districts), and VMS systems such as the Myra Falls deposit. Project area has been subjected to a number of exploration campaigns including core drilling and underground development. The Karus Technical team plans to review historical exploration results incorporating modern AI based technologies to outline priority areas for follow-up exploration. Past exploration at Mineral Creek has identified high-grade gold mineralization over broad intervals including: 15.6 m of 129.19 g/t gold* in hole D87DH118 from 43.4 m downhole 21.8 m of 23.65 g/t gold* in hole D87DH050 from 55.7 m at 41.0 m downhole 7.2 m of 159.03 g/t gold* in hole BTT-L54 from 63.8 m downhole *Drill results from Mineral Creek are historical, have not been independently verified and are not NI 43-101 compliant. All drill results reported are drilled lengths. True widths have not been determined. Qualified Person Steven McMullan, Independent Consultant is a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. About Karus Karus is the 100% owner of the 1,000 km2 South Cariboo Gold District that includes the drill-stage FG Gold and Gold Creek projects in British Columbia, and also controls the Mineral Creek gold exploration project, which is centred 12 kilometers southeast of Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Karus is the result of the merger of Karus and Theia with the latter having been founded by a number of mining and finance business persons and the former having been originally financed by Yamana some of whose executives before it was purchased in 2023 are the founders of Theia and were instrumental in the merger of Karus and Theia. Further information on Karus and its assets can be found at www.sedarplus.ca, or by contacting us as info@karusgold.com. ON BEHALF OF KARUS MINING INC. "Tony Cina" Tony Cina Chairman Cautionary Statement on Forward-Looking Information Except for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. When used in this press release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements and information. The information in this news release about the future plans of Karus and other forward-looking information includes but is not limited to information concerning the intentions, plans and future actions of the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms of such transaction. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include risks. The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of Karus based on information currently available to Karus. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Karus has made assumptions about Karus' ability to complete the planned transaction and activities. Karus has also assumed that no significant events will occur outside of Karus' normal course of business. Although Karus believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Specifically, there is no assurance that Karus will be able to recruit or retain a new exploration team, complete the development of an exploration plan, raise the necessary capital to fund these activities, or confirm any additional mineralization within any of the Company's mineral properties. Any forward-looking information speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Karus disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259056 SOURCE: Karus Mining Inc. A live stream of the ribbon cutting and new store opening celebration will be held on Thursday, July 24 at 5:00 PM CDMX / 7:00 PM EST on JOi's Instagram page: @joi.dollar.plus Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - PesoRama Inc. (TSXV: PESO) ("PesoRama" or the "Company"), a Canadian company operating dollar stores in Mexico under the JOi Dollar Plus brand, today announces the upcoming grand opening of store #28 on July 24th in Agricola Oriental. Store #28 is a 502-square-meter space in the Agricola Oriental neighborhood. Known for its established commercial activity and residents, this area offers a strong customer base seeking convenient access to everyday essentials. The store will be located within the new Hospital de la Luz complex, directly opposite the subway station, positioning it to benefit from the high foot traffic in the area. It is located 12.6 kilometers from downtown Mexico City. "The opening of our 28th JOi Dollar Plus Store in Mexico bodes well for our overall expansion and provides greater accessibility to Mexican consumers who want to shop at our stores," said Rahim Bhaloo, Founder, CEO & Chairman of PesoRama. "There are multiple new locations, with a high density of potential customers, where we would like to open our stores to drive continued growth and success." To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/5801/259048_ecb213728447fac5_002full.jpg Join Our Live Stream on Instagram! A live stream of the ribbon cutting and new store opening celebration will be held on JOi's Instagram page on Thursday, July 24th at 5:00 PM CDMX / 7:00 PM EST. Join us in celebrating and follow along on Instagram: @joi.dollar.plus About PesoRama Inc. PesoRama, operating under the JOi Dollar Plus brand, is a Mexican value dollar store retailer. PesoRama launched operations in 2019 in Mexico City and the surrounding areas targeting high density, high traffic locations. PesoRama's 27 stores (28th store opening on July 24th) offer consistent merchandise offerings which include items in the following categories: household goods, pet supplies, seasonal products, party supplies, health and beauty, snack food items, confectionery and more. For more information visit: http://pesorama.ca. Cautionary Note This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, among other things, statements regarding the Company's planned expansion, new store openings and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate. While the Company believes that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements, including due to changes in consumer behaviour, general economic factors, the ability of the Company to execute its strategies, the availability of capital and the risk factors which are discussed in greater detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's prospectus dated January 31, 2022 and filed under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release. PesoRama undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of PesoRama, its securities, or its financial or operating results (as applicable). Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259048 SOURCE: PesoRama Inc. (All amounts expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated) Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Torex Gold Resources Inc. (the "Company" or "Torex") (TSX: TXG) announces assay results from the Company's ongoing drilling program in the northern extension of EPO. The results to date support the Company's goal of expanding resources to the north of the EPO deposit, which, in conjunction with drilling within the ELG and Media Luna clusters, is aimed at enhancing and extending the current production profile of the Morelos Complex beyond 2035. Results contained in this news release include notable highlights from drilling at EPO that were included in the year-end 2024 mineral reserve and resource update, as well as drilling results from this year's program through May 15, 2025. Jody Kuzenko, President & CEO of Torex, stated: "We continue to be impressed with the significant exploration potential at EPO, our newest mine development on the Morelos Property. The strong drilling results we are seeing in the northern portion of EPO build on the success we had in that area in 2024 when we added more than 233,000 gold equivalent ounces ("oz AuEq") to Inferred Resources. "The most recent drill results include several impressive intercepts including a remarkable 55.18 grams per tonne ("gpt") AuEq over 20.1 metres ("m") in ML24-1049DA as well as 4.92 gpt AuEq over 35.7 m and 8.98 gpt over 20.1 m in drill hole ML24-1042. To date, mineralization encountered in the northern portion of EPO extends over an extensive area of at least 500 x 200 m, with vertical continuity of over 100 m. "These latest drilling results at EPO, along with results released earlier this year at ELG Underground, Media Luna East, and Media Luna West, underline the prolific nature of the Morelos Property and our potential to continue to enhance and extend the reserve case production profile released in September 2024. With the first blast taken to access the EPO deposit from the Guajes Tunnel in late May, we remain on track to deliver first production from EPO by the end of 2026, which firmly establishes a minimum of at least 450,000 oz AuEq produced annually through 2030 and likely well beyond that as we continue to unlock the full potential of Morelos through drilling and exploration." HIGHLIGHTS The 2024 EPO drilling program successfully added approximately 233,000 oz AuEq of Inferred Resources, primarily from exploration success in the northern area of the deposit. (i) The most notable intercepts encountered in this area that were included in the 2024 year-end resource update include ML24-1041 (5.65 gpt AuEq over 10.1 m, 4.55 gpt AuEq over 15.0 m, and 6.34 gpt AuEq over 14.6 m) and ML24-1042 (4.92 gpt AuEq over 35.7 m, 8.98 gpt AuEq over 20.1 m, and 4.70 gpt AuEq over 7.6 m). These results added new resources at EPO's northern extension and defined the focus area for follow-up drilling in this year's program. The most notable intercepts encountered in this area that were included in the 2024 year-end resource update include ML24-1041 and and ML24-1042 and These results added new resources at EPO's northern extension and defined the focus area for follow-up drilling in this year's program. Drilling from this year's program in the northern area of EPO has continued to return strong results, particularly drill hole ML24-1049DA which returned notable intercepts of 55.18 gpt AuEq over 20.1 m and 2.97 gpt AuEq over 13.4 m . This hole was a follow-up of drill hole ML24-1041 over a north-south section and confirmed a mineralized vertical column of at least 100 m (Figure 2). These intercepts indicate strong potential to expand resources in the north of the deposit and upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated Resources category with the year-end 2025 mineral reserve and resource update. and . This hole was a follow-up of drill hole ML24-1041 over a north-south section and confirmed a mineralized vertical column of at least 100 m (Figure 2). These intercepts indicate strong potential to expand resources in the north of the deposit and upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated Resources category with the year-end 2025 mineral reserve and resource update. The follow-up of drill hole ML24-1042 over a north-south section located 120 m to the east of drill hole ML24-1049DA also returned multiple mineralized intercepts, notably 6.17 gpt AuEq over 15.0 m, 4.97 gpt AuEq over 11.2 m, and 4.09 gpt AuEq over 14.5 m in ML24-1048D, and 2.85 gpt AuEq over 12.1 m and 5.60 gpt AuEq over 13.9 m in ML24-1055D. These results indicate that mineralization extends to the north, further supporting an expected increase in resources at EPO. (i) For additional information on EPO resources, please refer to Table 2 of this news release. EPO DRILLING PROGRAM Drilling at EPO remains a key focus as the Company aims to expand mineral resources to the north (Figure 1) and upgrade Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources, with an ultimate target of enhancing the production profile and economics outlined in the internal EPO pre-feasibility study released in September 2024.(i) The drilling program to the north of EPO has confirmed the vertical continuity of the mineralization with outstanding high-grade intercepts that could open new mining fronts, if proven to be economic and brought into future reserves. Figure 1: Plan view of the Media Luna Cluster which includes EPO To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/259009_05e820d574699958_001full.jpg Having defined the main mineralization control following a west-northwest trend, drilling is being conducted along north-south sections using a fan arrangement of directional holes to have a better understanding of the mineralized zones to support the geological interpretation. Drilling in the northern area of EPO to date in 2025 has been focused on the northern block of the west-northwest La Avispa fault (Figure 2), which controls a dike swarm of an estimated width of 150 to 200 m that represents a discontinuity between the main EPO mineralized zone to the south and its northern extension within the hanging wall of the fault. Mineralization at the southern end of the La Avispa fault is controlled by the contact between the limestones and the intrusive bodies that host most of the mineralization at the Media Luna Cluster, while, at its northern extension, most of the mineralization is bound by the pre-mineral west-northwest dikes that intruded through the same structures as the mineralization feeders in this area (Figures 3 and 4). The current mineralization footprint in the north extends approximately 500 x 200 m with a west-northwest strike that has a significant vertical continuity ranging between 15 m to over 100 m between the interpreted boundaries of the favourable alteration zone that vertically extends for ~200 m. The lateral continuity of the mineralization is defined by the spacing between the dikes that varies from approximately 5 to 35 m, defining several mineralized blocks. Mineralization remains open to the north following the favourable alteration zone. (i) For more information related to the EPO pre-feasibility study results, please refer to press release dated September 4, 2024 titled: Torex Gold Integrates EPO Deposit into Morelos Mine Plan. Drill hole ML24-1041 (Figure 3 and 4) suggests a continuity at depth of the mineralization for up to 50 m towards the contact between the Morelos Formation limestones and the underlying granodiorite. The vertical continuity of the high-grade mineralization intercepted by drill hole ML24-1049DA at shallower elevations will be defined through follow-up drilling later this year. The positive initial results of the drilling program support the potential to upgrade Inferred Resources to Indicated Resources with the year-end 2025 mineral reserve and resource update. Table 1: Highlights from the advanced exploration drilling program in the northern extension of EPO Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) ML24-1046 672.9 674.5 1.6 0.47 49.3 1.21 3.10 ML24-1048D 713.2 727.7 14.5 1.08 48.7 1.44 4.09 including 720.1 727.7 7.6 0.99 71.6 2.28 5.67 737.0 752.0 15.0 0.51 88.9 2.74 6.17 including 739.5 740.9 1.4 0.67 184.2 5.71 12.48 including 745.1 747.6 2.5 1.05 144.1 4.47 10.29 784.7 791.1 6.5 2.86 79.2 1.78 3.60 including 786.3 786.9 0.6 17.50 222.4 4.99 28.61 798.7 809.8 11.2 0.63 97.5 1.87 4.97 839.1 843.6 4.5 0.44 115.0 2.64 6.29 901.7 903.4 1.7 0.96 83.7 3.55 7.90 ML24-1049DA 711.9 714.8 2.9 2.25 16.2 0.02 2.50 815.1 828.5 13.4 2.47 8.4 0.24 2.97 including 815.1 818.0 2.9 1.25 11.0 0.47 2.16 including 822.4 823.9 1.5 3.22 8.1 0.20 3.65 including 826.7 828.5 1.8 11.69 16.4 0.15 12.14 858.5 861.4 3.0 7.37 18.3 0.54 8.49 including 860.5 861.4 1.0 13.60 43.0 1.04 15.88 889.9 910.0 20.1 45.87 96.6 4.89 55.18 including 896.9 897.6 0.7 148.90 67.5 2.62 154.09 including 901.0 903.7 2.7 175.54 88.0 3.66 182.72 928.0 933.4 5.4 0.60 34.3 1.38 3.31 ML24-1055D 725.4 728.1 2.6 0.49 91.2 2.59 5.95 733.4 745.5 12.1 0.28 44.9 1.20 2.85 including 733.4 734.9 1.6 0.54 80.2 2.14 5.11 including 736.4 739.4 3.0 0.28 57.5 1.79 3.96 including 744.1 745.5 1.4 0.64 84.0 1.67 4.49 752.1 766.1 13.9 1.34 67.6 2.05 5.60 including 758.7 766.1 7.3 2.16 99.0 3.21 8.74 781.6 782.8 1.3 0.44 66.7 2.25 5.02 818.3 820.5 2.2 0.39 59.0 1.71 3.98 871.0 876.0 5.0 1.06 4.3 0.54 2.01 ML25-1058D 740.7 744.0 3.4 1.84 35.5 1.25 4.36 775.8 777.2 1.4 2.73 14.6 0.68 4.04 791.6 793.5 1.8 0.41 52.3 1.88 4.19 855.4 857.9 2.6 0.97 31.0 1.49 3.82 ML25-1061D 724.4 729.6 5.2 1.16 10.8 0.55 2.20 including 728.8 729.6 0.9 0.21 28.1 1.49 3.03 ML25-1064D 829.2 830.7 1.5 0.80 48.0 1.26 3.50 Notes to Table: 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) Core lengths reflect drilling core recovery of 89.1-100% and are subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 3) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 4) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. Torex has budgeted approximately $10 million towards drilling at EPO, $5 million of which is related to drilling and exploration within the northern extension of EPO. Drilling is progressing with four rigs in the area. The Company is on track to achieve the planned 12,000 m of drilling specific to the northern extension of EPO by the end of the year, with 9,430 m completed by mid-May over 12 drill holes. This supports the overall program of 27,000 m at EPO planned for 2025. Drill results, including those that have been previously reported, can be found in Tables 3 through 8. AuEq grades use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz gold ("Au"), $22/oz silver ("Ag"), and $3.75/lb copper ("Cu")) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the current mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground (effective date of December 31, 2024) and has been applied to the assay results for newly published drill holes as well as previously published drill holes. The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480). EPO GEOLOGY The main host unit at EPO is the Morelos Formation, cut by an intrusive phase of the Media Luna granodiorite and followed by multiple generations of late felsic dikes predominantly oriented northwest and northeast. A dome and phreatomagmatic breccia event with an apparent north-south control crosscuts the whole sequence. EPO is located to the east of the major Cuajiote fault within a structural block characterized by multiple second-order structures. These structures are recognized at surface and in drill core, and exhibit north-south, north-northeast, and west-northwest orientations. The north-south oriented Copalillo and Todos Santos bound the main alteration-mineralization event. The EPO northern extension is located to the north of the west-northwest La Avispa fault controlling a dike swarm of an estimated width of 150 to 200 m that represents a discontinuity of the mineralization towards the main mineralized body to the south of the fault. Mineralization at the south of the La Avispa fault is controlled by the contact between the limestones and the intrusive bodies that host most of the mineralization at the Media Luna Cluster, while, at its northern extension most of the mineralization is bounded by the west-northwest dikes that represent the mineralization feeders in this area. Early-stage calc-silicate alteration is related to a proximal "aborted" skarn event containing anomalous molybdenum values and traces of Cu and Au. The latter grades into CRD-style mineralization that is associated with the main Cu and Ag mineralization event. Mineralizing fluids are believed to have originated from a deeper magmatic source, younger than the Media Luna granodiorite stocks, which have not yet been identified at surface. A late intermediate sulphidation-epithermal mineralization event, related to the phreatomagmatic activity, increases the Au volume and grade. Dikes and sills are deemed to have been previously emplaced along the same feeder structures of the mineralization event and constitute traps for the mineralized bodies. Given that Au precipitates due to the buffer exerted by the early stage calc-silicate alteration and sulfide mineralization, it occurs as free Au and is dissociated from the early Cu event mainly related to chalcopyrite. QA/QC AND QUALIFIED PERSON Torex maintains an industry-standard analytical quality assurance and quality control ("QA/QC") and data verification program to monitor laboratory performance. Results from this program confirm the reliability of the assay results. The exploration program and analytical QA/QC program for Media Luna Cluster drilling is currently overseen by Jose Antonio San Vicente Diaz, Chief Exploration Geologist for Minera Media Luna, S.A. de C.V. All samples reported have been checked against Company and Lab standards and blanks. No core duplicate samples are taken. HQ-size core is sawn in half with half the core retained in the core box and the other half bagged and tagged for shipment to the sample preparation facility. Sample preparation is carried out by Bureau Veritas ("BV"), an accredited laboratory, at its facilities in Durango, Mexico and consists of crushing a 1 kg sample to >70% passing 2 mm followed by pulverization of 500 g to >85% passing 75 m. Au is analyzed at the BV facilities in Hermosillo, Mexico following internal analytical protocols (FA430) and comprises a 30 g fire assay with an atomic absorption finish. Samples yielding results >10 g/t Au are re-assayed by fire assay with gravimetric finish (FA530). Cu and Ag analyses are completed at the BV facilities in Vancouver, Canada as part of a multi-element geochemical analysis by an aqua regia digestion and/or four acid digestion with detection by ICPES/MS using BV internal analytical protocol AQ270/AQ370. Overlimits for the multi-element package are analyzed by internal protocol AQ374. Approximately 5% of the samples collected from exploration are sent for analyses checks and assayed for Au, Ag, and Cu. External pulp check assays for QA/QC purposes are performed at ALS Chemex, de Mexico S.A. de C.V., an accredited laboratory. Internal and external check control results are reviewed daily by MML database team, and an external audit by GeoSoporte Mexico is carried out monthly. The pulp check samples are analysed for Au, Ag and Cu. Overall comparability between Bureau Veritas and ALS Chemex is good to excellent, with high correlation. Scientific and technical information contained in this news release, other than the expected commencement of mining at EPO and the estimated annual production for the Morelos property, has been reviewed and approved by Rochelle Collins, P.Geo. (PGO #1412), Principal, Mineral Resource Geologist with Torex Gold Resources Inc. a "qualified person" ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101. Ms. Collins has verified the information disclosed, including sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the drill results. Verification included visually reviewing the drill holes in three dimensions, comparing the assay results to the original assay certificates, reviewing the drilling database, and reviewing core photography consistent with standard practice. Ms. Collins consents to the inclusion in this release of said information in the form and context in which they appear. Scientific and technical information contained in this news release regarding the expected commencement of mining at EPO and the estimated annual production for the Morelos property, has been reviewed and approved by Dave Stefanuto, P. Eng, Executive Vice President, Technical Services and Capital Projects of Torex Gold Resources Inc. and a QP. Additional information on sampling and analyses, analytical labs, and methods used for data verification is available in the Company's technical report entitled the "Morelos Property, NI 43-101 Technical Report, ELG Mine Complex Life of Mine Plan and Media Luna Feasibility Study, Guerrero State, Mexico", dated effective March 16, 2022 filed on March 31, 2022 (the "2022 Technical Report") and in the annual information form ("AIF") dated March 21, 2025, each filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and the Company's website at www.torexgold.com. Additional information on the EPO mineral resource estimate can also be found in the AIF. ABOUT TOREX GOLD RESOURCES INC. Torex Gold Resources Inc. is an intermediate gold producer based in Canada, engaged in the exploration, development, and operation of its 100% owned Morelos Property, an area of 29,000 hectares in the highly prospective Guerrero Gold Belt located 180 kilometres southwest of Mexico City. The Company's principal asset is the Morelos Complex, which includes the producing Media Luna Underground, ELG Underground, and ELG Open Pit mines, the development stage EPO Underground Project, a processing plant, and related infrastructure. Commercial production from the Morelos Complex commenced on April 1, 2016 and an updated Technical Report for the Morelos Complex was released in March 2022. Torex's key strategic objectives are: deliver Media Luna to full production and build EPO; optimize Morelos production and costs; grow reserves and resources; disciplined growth and capital allocation; retain and attract best industry talent; and industry leader in responsible mining. In addition to realizing the full potential of the Morelos Property, the Company is seeking opportunities to acquire assets that enable diversification and deliver value to shareholders. CAUTIONARY NOTES ON FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information also includes, but is not limited to, statements about: outstanding high-grade intercepts indicate strong potential to continue to expand resources to the north of the deposit; the results to date support the Company's goal of expanding resources to the north of the EPO deposit, which, in conjunction with drilling within the ELG and Media Luna clusters, is aimed at enhancing and extending the current production profile of the Morelos Complex beyond 2035; these latest drilling results at EPO, along with results released earlier this year at ELG Underground, Media Luna East, and Media Luna West, underline the prolific nature of the Morelos Property and our potential to continue to enhance and extend the reserve case production profile released in September 2024; the Company remains on track to deliver first production from EPO by the end of 2026, which firmly establishes a minimum of at least 450,000 oz AuEq produced annually through 2030 and likely well beyond; drilling results in the northern area of EPO indicate strong potential to expand resources in the north of the deposit and upgrade Inferred Resources to the Indicated Resources category with the year-end 2025 mineral reserve and resource update; results from drill hole ML24-1042 over a north-south section located 120 m to the east of drill hole ML24-1049DA indicate that mineralization extends to the north, further supporting an expected increase in resources at EPO; the drilling program to the north of EPO has confirmed the vertical continuity of the mineralization with outstanding high-grade intercepts that could open new operating fronts, if proven to be economic and brought into future reserves; results of drill hole ML24-1041 suggests a continuity at depth of the mineralization for up to 50 m towards the contact between the Morelos Formation limestones and the underlying granodiorite; Torex has budgeted approximately $10 million towards drilling at EPO, $5 million of which is related to drilling and exploration within the northern extension of EPO; the Company is on track to achieve the planned 12,000 m of drilling specific to the northern extension of EPO by the end of the year, with 9,430 m completed by mid-May over 12 drill holes; this supports the overall program of 27,000 m at EPO planned for 2025; and; and Torex's key strategic objectives are to optimize and extend production from the ELG Mine Complex, de-risk and advance Media Luna to commercial production, build on ESG excellence, and to grow through ongoing exploration across the entire Morelos Property. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "objective", "strategy", "target", "continue", "potential", "focus", "aim" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will", "would", or "is expected to" occur. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with: the ability to upgrade mineral resources to categories of mineral resources with greater confidence levels or to mineral reserves; risks associated with mineral reserve and mineral resource estimation; uncertainty involving skarn deposits; and those risk factors identified in the Technical Report and the Company's annual information form and management's discussion and analysis or other unknown but potentially significant impacts. Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions discussed in the Technical Report and such other reasonable assumptions, estimates, analysis and opinions of management made in light of its experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances at the date such statements are made. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. The Technical Report, AIF and MD&A are filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca and the Company's website at www.torexgold.com. Table 2: Mineral Resource Estimate - EPO Underground (December 31, 2024) Tonnes Au Ag Cu Au Ag Cu AuEq AuEq (kt) (gpt) (gpt) (%) (koz) (koz) (Mlb) (gpt) (koz) EPO Underground Measured - - - - - - - - - Indicated 7,060 2.66 31.2 1.28 604 7,082 200 5.18 1,176 Measured & Indicated 7,060 2.66 31.2 1.28 604 7,082 200 5.18 1,176 Inferred 6,883 1.76 39.3 1.24 390 8,690 188 4.31 954 Notes to accompany the mineral resource table: 1. Mineral resources were prepared in accordance with the CIM Definition Standards (May 2014). 2. The effective date of the estimates is December 31, 2024. 3. Mineral resources are depleted above a mining surface or to the as-mined solids as of December 31, 2024. 4. Gold equivalent ("AuEq") of total mineral resources is established from combined contributions of the various deposits. 5. Mineral resources for all deposits are based on an underlying gold ("Au") price of $1,650/oz, silver ("Ag") price of $22/oz, and copper ("Cu") price of $3.75/lb. 6. Mineral resources are inclusive of mineral reserves (ex-stockpiles). Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. 7. Numbers may not add due to rounding. 8. Mineral resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical, marketing, or other relevant issues. 9. The estimate was prepared by Mrs. Rochelle Collins, P.Geo. (Ontario), Principal, Mineral Resources. Notes to accompany EPO Underground mineral resources: 1. Mineral resources for EPO Underground are reported above a 2.0 gpt AuEq cut-off grade. The assumed mining method is from underground methods, using long-hole open stoping. 2. Mineral resources were estimated using ID3 methods applied to 1.0 m capped downhole assay composites within lithology domains and internal grade domains. Block model size is 5 m x 5 m x 5m with 2.5 m x 2.5 m x 2.5 m sub-blocks. 3. Metallurgical recoveries at EPO average 87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu. 4. The dataset allowed the bulk density to be directly estimated into the domains with an average bulk density of 3.5 g/cm3. 5. EPO Underground AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480), accounting for underlying metal prices and metallurgical recoveries. Figure 2: Drilling results from the northern extension of EPO showing the proximity to the La Avispa fault. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/259009_05e820d574699958_002full.jpg Figure 3: Drilling results from EPO that lay at the northern block of the west-northwest La Avispa fault showing most of the mineralization is found between the west-northwest dikes. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/259009_05e820d574699958_003full.jpg Figure 4: Detailed internal grades of mineralized intercepts at EPO that lay at the northern block of the west-northwest La Avispa fault showing that most of the mineralization is found between the west-northwest dikes with open vertical and along strike continuity. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1863/259009_05e820d574699958_004full.jpg Table 3: Drilling results from the late 2024 and 2025 year-to-date exploration and drilling program in the northern area of EPO. Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML24-1046 Del. 421983.6 1985609.8 1440.5 359 -48 957 672.9 674.5 1.6 0.47 49.3 1.21 3.10 100.0% ML24-1048D Del. 422198.7 1985619.7 1460.6 3 -55 929 713.2 727.7 14.5 1.08 48.7 1.44 4.09 100.0% including 720.1 727.7 7.6 0.99 71.6 2.28 5.67 100.0% 737.0 752.0 15.0 0.51 88.9 2.74 6.17 100.0% including 739.5 740.9 1.4 0.67 184.2 5.71 12.48 100.0% including 745.1 747.6 2.5 1.05 144.1 4.47 10.29 100.0% 784.7 791.1 6.5 2.86 79.2 1.78 3.60 99.9% including 786.3 786.9 0.6 17.50 222.4 4.99 28.61 99.9% 798.7 809.8 11.2 0.63 97.5 1.87 4.97 100.0% 839.1 843.6 4.5 0.44 115.0 2.64 6.29 100.0% 901.7 903.4 1.7 0.96 83.7 3.55 7.90 100.0% ML24-1049D Del. 422101.2 1985627.1 1447.1 360 -60 540 No significant values ML24-1049DA Del. 422101.2 1985627.1 1447.1 360 -60 945 711.9 714.8 2.9 2.25 16.2 0.02 2.50 100.0% 815.1 828.5 13.4 2.47 8.4 0.24 2.97 100.0% including 815.1 818.0 2.9 1.25 11.0 0.47 2.16 100.0% including 822.4 823.9 1.5 3.22 8.1 0.20 3.65 100.0% including 826.7 828.5 1.8 11.69 16.4 0.15 12.14 100.0% 858.5 861.4 3.0 7.37 18.3 0.54 8.49 100.0% including 860.5 861.4 1.0 13.60 43.0 1.04 15.88 100.0% 889.9 910.0 20.1 45.87 96.6 4.89 55.18 95.9% including 896.9 897.6 0.7 148.90 67.5 2.62 154.09 100.0% including 901.0 903.7 2.7 175.54 88.0 3.66 182.72 100.0% 928.0 933.4 5.4 0.60 34.3 1.38 3.31 100.0% ML24-1053D Del. 421983.6 1985609.8 1440.5 359 -48 1014 No significant values Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. Table 3 (continued): Drilling results from the late 2024 and 2025 year-to-date exploration and drilling program in the northern area of EPO. Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML24-1055D Del. 422198.7 1985619.7 1460.6 3 -55 938 725.4 728.1 2.6 0.49 91.2 2.59 5.95 100.0% 733.4 745.5 12.1 0.28 44.9 1.20 2.85 100.0% including 733.4 734.9 1.6 0.54 80.2 2.14 5.11 100.0% including 736.4 739.4 3.0 0.28 57.5 1.79 3.96 100.0% including 744.1 745.5 1.4 0.64 84.0 1.67 4.49 100.0% 752.1 766.1 13.9 1.34 67.6 2.05 5.60 100.0% including 758.7 766.1 7.3 2.16 99.0 3.21 8.74 100.0% 781.6 782.8 1.3 0.44 66.7 2.25 5.02 100.0% 818.3 820.5 2.2 0.39 59.0 1.71 3.98 100.0% 871.0 876.0 5.0 1.06 4.3 0.54 2.01 100.0% ML24-1057 Del. 421928.7 1985579.6 1432.1 358 -48 513 No significant values ML25-1058D Del. 422101.2 1985627.1 1447.1 360 -60 1009 740.7 744.0 3.4 1.84 35.5 1.25 4.36 98.7% 775.8 777.2 1.4 2.73 14.6 0.68 4.04 89.1% 791.6 793.5 1.8 0.41 52.3 1.88 4.19 100.0% 855.4 857.9 2.6 0.97 31.0 1.49 3.82 100.0% ML25-1061D Del. 421928.7 1985579.6 1432.1 358 -48 841 724.4 729.6 5.2 1.16 10.8 0.55 2.20 100.0% including 728.8 729.6 0.9 0.21 28.1 1.49 3.03 100.0% ML25-1064D Del. 421928.7 1985579.6 1432.1 358 -48 945 829.2 830.7 1.5 0.80 48.0 1.26 3.50 100.0% ML25-1067 Del. 422101.3 1985627.3 1447.5 0 -53 411 No significant values Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. Table 4: Drilling results included in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate but not previously reported. Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML24-1041 Del. 422101.2 1985627.1 1447.1 360 -60 1006 742.2 744.5 2.3 3.80 11.6 0.15 4.20 100.0% 849.0 859.1 10.1 4.24 28.4 0.63 5.65 95.3% including 849.0 850.5 1.5 4.39 4.1 0.01 4.45 100.0% including 853.6 859.1 5.5 6.58 51.0 1.15 9.15 89.3% 866.0 881.0 15.0 1.66 32.9 1.49 4.55 100.0% including 873.7 875.2 1.6 9.64 157.7 7.01 23.23 100.0% 893.4 899.4 6.0 5.02 7.9 0.19 5.44 100.0% including 898.4 899.4 1.0 21.50 6.4 0.08 21.72 100.0% 921.1 928.1 7.0 1.27 11.2 0.96 2.99 100.0% including 927.1 928.1 1.0 5.78 19.9 1.38 8.31 100.0% 938.7 943.3 4.6 1.23 13.6 0.94 2.96 100.0% including 938.7 939.8 1.2 3.82 25.3 1.56 6.72 100.0% 959.9 974.4 14.6 4.24 27.2 1.06 6.34 100.0% including 962.9 967.7 4.8 5.88 47.8 1.95 9.72 100.0% ML24-1042 Del. 422198.7 1985619.7 1460.6 3 -55 947 711.0 746.6 35.7 0.94 65.6 1.90 4.92 100.0% including 725.5 728.4 2.9 2.03 163.7 5.99 14.04 100.0% including 731.2 746.6 15.4 0.85 84.2 2.40 5.90 100.0% 755.3 775.4 20.1 1.91 114.9 3.38 8.98 100.0% including 765.3 767.3 2.0 1.91 146.9 5.01 12.08 100.0% including 769.0 773.0 4.0 2.49 198.9 5.71 14.49 100.0% 806.4 814.0 7.6 3.78 28.6 0.33 4.70 100.0% including 810.1 810.7 0.5 19.50 27.3 0.00 19.86 100.0% including 813.0 814.0 1.0 11.50 37.6 0.65 13.06 100.0% 863.9 865.0 1.1 0.31 45.4 1.57 3.49 100.0% 872.0 874.9 2.9 0.53 31.1 1.31 3.10 100.0% Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. Table 5: Previously reported drilling results. For more information, please refer to the Company's press release titled "Torex Gold Reports Results from the Ongoing 2024 EPO Exploration Program" (November 13, 2024). Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML24-1017 EPO 421982.4 1985608.2 1440.4 17 -54 958 699.5 707.5 8.0 1.47 21.6 0.46 2.51 100.0% 721.0 722.7 1.7 3.43 23.5 0.17 4.02 100.0% 791.7 796.3 4.6 0.96 16.9 0.55 2.09 100.0% 847.1 859.3 12.2 1.07 33.7 1.16 3.43 100.0% Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. Table 6: Previously reported drilling results. For more information, please refer to the Company's press release titled "Torex Reports Results From 2023 Drilling at EPO" (September 5, 2023). Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML23-942 Adv. Ex. 421981.6 1985607.0 1440.4 16 -50 977 603.0 606.6 3.6 2.94 4.1 0.07 3.11 88.8% 762.0 765.0 3.0 2.43 23.6 0.40 3.38 100.0% 791.9 807.7 15.8 3.26 58.9 1.36 6.27 100.0% including 791.9 793.9 2.0 23.53 18.5 0.71 24.93 100.0% 873.3 876.0 2.8 0.09 75.8 1.88 4.17 100.0% 912.5 923.7 11.2 1.54 27.1 1.35 4.12 100.0% including 921.0 923.7 2.7 2.34 98.9 4.21 10.57 100.0% ML23-949A Adv. Ex. 421983.8 1985606.6 1440.5 23 -54 988 747.0 765.2 18.2 0.50 62.9 1.94 4.51 100.0% including 747.0 754.1 7.1 0.64 115.6 3.72 8.28 100.0% 774.2 783.5 9.3 0.63 59.1 1.57 3.98 100.0% 791.0 794.0 3.1 3.64 30.4 0.75 5.27 100.0% 807.2 818.0 10.8 0.54 32.5 0.92 2.48 100.0% 834.8 841.0 6.2 2.52 100.1 3.18 9.05 100.0% 918.5 920.1 1.6 0.66 70.5 2.41 5.54 100.0% Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data Table 7: Previously reported drilling results. For more information, please refer to the Company's press release titled "Torex Reports Encouraging Results From Drilling at EPO" (March 23, 2023). Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) ML22-857 Adv. Ex. 421981.6 1985603.8 1440.5 24 -69 754 233.0 240.7 7.7 1.26 44.7 0.98 3.46 89.2% 651.9 678.5 26.5 0.66 13.7 1.01 2.50 100.0% ML22-919D Adv. Ex. 422197.0 1985617.6 1461.0 307 -77 726 648.0 694.7 46.7 3.10 12.4 0.68 4.38 99.6% including 665.3 668.3 3.0 13.53 61.8 2.34 18.19 100.0% including 676.7 678.7 2.0 4.57 23.7 0.90 6.36 90.0% including 685.2 688.6 3.5 13.09 10.7 0.67 14.33 100.0% including 692.3 694.7 2.4 10.23 28.4 1.63 13.29 100.0% Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. Table 8: Previously reported drilling results. For more information, please refer to the Company's press release titled "Torex Reports Assay Results of Step Out Drilling Program at Media Luna" (June 18, 2015). Intercept Drill Hole Program UTM-E (m) UTM-N (m) Elevation (m) Azimuth () Dip () Final Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Core Length (m) Au (gpt) Ag (gpt) Cu (%) AuEq (gpt) Core Recovery (%) NWZML-23 Drill Test 422364.6 1985817.2 1466.8 320 -60 902 470.0 473.7 3.7 1.78 117.5 1.80 6.28 100.0% 491.9 495.6 3.7 3.62 37.4 0.36 4.70 100.0% 764.8 778.3 13.5 3.19 9.1 0.27 3.75 100.0% including 775.7 778.3 2.6 13.91 14.8 0.07 14.22 100.0% 863.4 871.5 8.1 3.06 28.6 1.08 5.21 100.0% including 863.4 868.1 4.7 4.44 26.0 1.49 7.23 100.0% Notes to Table 1) Drill hole intercepts are core length. True width/thickness will be determined once the geological modelling is completed. 2) The gold equivalent grade calculation used is as follows: AuEq = Au (gpt) + (Ag (gpt) * 0.0130) + (Cu (%) * 1.6480) and use the same metal prices ($1,650/oz Au, $22/oz Ag, and $3.75/lb Cu) and metallurgical recoveries (87% Au, 85% Ag, and 92% Cu) used in the year-end 2024 mineral resource estimate for EPO Underground. 3) Core lengths subject to rounding. Assay results are uncapped. 4) Coordinates are WGS 1984 UTM Zone 14N. 5) Torex is not aware of any drilling, sampling, recovery, or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/259009 SOURCE: China, U.S. maintain close economic, trade communication at multiple levels: commerce ministry Xinhua) 08:08, July 11, 2025 BEIJING, July 10 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States have maintained close economic and trade communication at multiple levels, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday. Spokesperson He Yongqian made the remarks at a regular press briefing when responding to a question about whether the U.S. commerce secretary and other senior U.S. trade officials would meet with Chinese negotiators in early August. Since May this year, guided by the consensus reached between the heads of state of China and the United States, the economic and trade teams of both countries have held high-level trade talks in Geneva and London, establishing a consensus in Geneva and a framework in London, the spokesperson said, adding that the teams have been working to implement these outcomes, which have stabilized bilateral trade relations. It is hoped that the United States will work with China in the same direction, adhere to the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and make good use of the China-U.S. economic and trade consultation mechanism while continuing to strengthen dialogue and communication, said the spokesperson. The spokesperson also called on the U.S. side to take concrete actions to uphold and implement the important consensus reached between the two heads of state during their recent phone talks, with the aim of promoting stable, healthy, sustainable China-U.S. economic and trade relations, and of injecting more certainty and stability into global economic development. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) China, Laos sign cooperation agreement for 2025 LMC Special Fund Xinhua) 14:43, July 16, 2025 VIENTIANE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Laos Fang Hong and Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Maithong Thammavongsa have signed a cooperation agreement for the 2025 Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Special Fund. The signing ceremony took place on Tuesday in the Lao capital, Vientiane. Officials from relevant ministries and sectors also attended. Speaking at the event, Fang highlighted the significance of the LMC mechanism, which marks its 10th anniversary this year. She reaffirmed China's commitment to the principles of "development first, equal consultation, pragmatism and efficiency, openness, and inclusiveness," and emphasized strengthening collaboration with Laos to ensure the fund delivers tangible benefits to people across the region. In his remarks, Maithong praised the LMC for its vital role in promoting regional development. He expressed gratitude to China for its continued support through the special fund and affirmed Laos' commitment to working closely with China to implement high-quality projects under the initiative. He also emphasized the importance of fostering a shared future among the Lancang-Mekong countries. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) According to reports published in Daily Mail,British writer A. N. Wilson said that the difference between William and Harry is that one has Kate to soothe his mental anguish, while the younger of the two brothers has Meghan to rub salt into his wounds. Decoding how true the statement is. read more Difference between William & Harry is that one has Kate to soothe his mental anguish, while Meghan rubs salt The Prince of Wales is just as scarred as Prince Harry is. As per report, the way Kate handles the situation is way different from Meghan. British writer A. N. Wilson told Daily Mirror that fractured dynasties do not survive. He said, It would be infinitely better if Harry and Meghan were inside the tent rather than on the outside causing mayhem. As per A. N. Wilson, William like his late grandmother, he does understand how to marshal his emotions. Instead of indulging his pain, feeding off it even, as Harry has done, he seems to have mastered it, channeling it into his royal roles and his family. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Kate is Williams strength Unlike , Kate has always been Williams strength. While the Duchess of Sussex seems to have had the opposite effect on Prince Harry. Instead of helping him heal his emotional wounds, she seems to have re-opened them or even rubbed salt in them, some might say. And that obviously the whole world knew, the way she created distance between Harry and the British Royal family. Even in the Netflixs show, the way she instigated to talk ill about the royal family members is very disheartening. In fact, Meghan literally brought out all the dark secrets of the royal family for her own fame. The British author rightly said to Daily Mail, Instead of encouraging him to shape his own identity within the Royal Family, she has helped him turn his back on it. Which might have been fine if together they had embarked on something truly life-affirming. But they didnt. Meghan Markle is the mastermind behind Harrys controversial memoir Spare Not just Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, Firstpost had earlier written how Meghan Markle is the mastermind behind Prince Harrys controversial memoir _Spare. T_he proof of his claim comes from Prince Harrys acknowledgment to his beloved wife in Spare. It talks of Meghan Markle being Prince Harrys logical, physical, emotional and spiritual inspiration. Royal biographer Tom Bower suggested that the Duchess of Sussex is the driving force behind the controversial memoir, titled Spare. Meghan Markle has been cited as Prince Harrys role model. Tom Bower added, His book is really Meghans. Meghan is the person who has dictated this agenda. Meghan Markle an agent of destruction She wanted to be Angelina Jolie; a celebrity and a famous influencer. But she was irrelevant. Being with Harry gave her that opportunity and she played him from the start. Harry was groomed by Meghan. Her wedding guests were all Hollywood, not family. In fact, in Firstposts previous story we had mentioned how he never even acknowledged his fathers contribution to her success. The meanest way to secure what you want in life, is to put down the person who helped you in this journey of success and limelight because that person knows how exactly you have achieved it. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD (With added inputs from Daily Mail and agencies) Bahrain has unveiled a Golden Residency Visa as part of the Vision 2030 plan. The new 10-year residency visa offers a low-cost and more flexible alternative to the UAE and Saudi visas, targeting employed professionals, retirees, property owners, and talent-based applicants. Heres how much it will cost read more Bahrains Golden Residency Visa, introduced as part of the countrys Vision 2030 plan, is designed to attract long-term residents, global talent, and investors. File image/Reuters If youre eyeing long-term stability in the Gulf without the hefty price tag, Bahrains new Golden Residency Visa might just be your answer. As countries across the Gulf ramp up their efforts to draw in global talent and investment, Bahrain is stepping into the spotlight with a Golden Visa programme that is not only low in cost but also a more flexible alternative to the widely known UAE Golden Visa and Saudi Arabias Premium Residency. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Heres a closer look at how the programme works, and whether its the right fit for you What is Bahrains Golden Residency Visa? Bahrains Golden Residency Visa, introduced as part of the countrys Vision 2030 plan, is designed to attract long-term residents, global talent, and investors. The programme allows eligible individuals to live and work in Bahrain for 10 years, with the option to renew. As reported by The Times of India, the visa comes with a host of benefits. Holders are not tied to a single employer, meaning they can change jobs or even start their own businesses without losing their residency status. Bahrains relatively lower cost of living compared to regional neighbours like Dubai or Riyadh makes it an appealing choice for families, retirees, and professionals looking for a more affordable base in the Gulf. File image/Reuters Unlike many Gulf schemes, continuous stay in the country is not mandatory to maintain the visa, which is a major plus for digital nomads, remote workers, and frequent travellers. Another advantage is Bahrains relatively lower cost of living compared to regional neighbours like Dubai or Riyadh. This makes it an appealing choice for families, retirees, and professionals looking for a more affordable base in the Gulf. The visa also makes it easy to bring your family along. Spouses, children, and even parents can be sponsored under the Golden Residency without the need to meet additional income or property requirements Who is eligible? According to the Government of Bahrain, the Golden Residency Visa is open to individuals from four primary categories. Employed professionals are eligible if theyve been residing in Bahrain and earning a minimum monthly salary of BHD 2,000 (roughly Rs 4.4 lakh or USD 5,300) for at least five consecutive years. This category targets high-income expatriates already living and working in the country. Retirees can also apply, provided they receive a monthly pension of at least BHD 2,000. If applying from outside Bahrain, the pension requirement doubles to BHD 4,000 (approximately Rs 8.8 lakh or USD 10,600), as per official guidelines. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Property owners are eligible if they hold real estate in Bahrain worth BHD 200,000 or more, equivalent to about Rs 4.4 crore or USD 530,000. This option appeals particularly to investors looking to establish a long-term base in the country. Finally, talent-based applicantsthose who have demonstrated exceptional skill or achievements in fields like science, arts, sports, or entrepreneurshipare also encouraged to apply. Dependents, including spouse, children, and parents, can also be sponsored under the same residency. How to apply? Applying for Bahrains Golden Residency Visa is a relatively simple, fully online process designed for ease and accessibility. Heres how it works: 1. Check your eligibility Begin by confirming that you meet the criteria under one of the four main categories: skilled professionals, property owners, retirees, or individuals with exceptional talent. Bahrains official Golden Residency portal provides a clear breakdown of what each category requires. 2. Gather the required documents Depending on your chosen category, youll need to prepare and upload relevant documentation. This typically includes: A valid passport (with at least six months validity) Proof of active health insurance Financial records such as bank statements, salary slips, pension statements, or property deeds Employment certificates or professional achievements (especially for the talent-based category) 3. Create an eKey account To use Bahrains eGovernment services, youll need to register for an eKey account. This digital ID is necessary to access and complete the visa application online. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 4. Submit your application online Once your documents are ready, you can submit the application via Bahrains official Golden Residency portal. The application fee is just BHD 5 (about USD 13 or Rs 1,100), making it one of the most affordable long-term visa schemes in the region. 5. Wait for processing After submission, most applications are reviewed within 5 to 10 working days. Applicants under the skilled professional, retiree, or property owner categories usually receive quicker feedback, while those applying via the talent route may face slightly longer processing times due to additional verification. 6. Pay the visa issuance fee Once approved, youll be required to pay BHD 300 (approximately Rs 66,000 or USD 795) for the visa issuance. This grants you 10 years of renewable residency, with the ability to sponsor family members as well. With input from agencies Dan Rivera, the handler of the infamous Annabelle doll, died suddenly at 54 while touring with the haunted toy. The Connecticut-based paranormal investigator led the New England Society for Psychic Research, the organisation established by legendary demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. His death comes months after rumours surfaced that the doll had gone missing read more A US Army veteran turned paranormal investigator, Dan Rivera had spent years working closely with the NESPR, the organisation established by legendary demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. Image courtesy: X/@OfficialATU Dan Rivera, the man best known as the real-life handler of the infamous Annabelle doll, has died unexpectedly at the age of 54 while touring with the haunted toy. A Connecticut-based paranormal investigator, Rivera had long been the primary caretaker of the original Raggedy Ann doll, said to be possessed, and which inspired the terrifying Annabelle character in The Conjuring universe. According to the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), which organised Annabelles Devils on the Run tour, Rivera passed away suddenly over the weekend at a stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD His passing has left a void in the world of paranormal research, particularly for those familiar with Annabelles unsettling reputation. So, who exactly was Dan Rivera, and why was he trusted to care for one of the most notorious haunted toys in the world? Heres a closer look at the man and the chilling story that made Annabelle a horror icon. Who was Dan Rivera? A US Army veteran turned paranormal investigator, Dan Rivera, had spent years working closely with the NESPR, the organisation established by legendary demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren. Rivera gained popularity through shows like Most Haunted Places on Travel Channel and Netflixs 28 Days Haunted. He also developed a strong online presence, sharing chilling insights and videos about haunted artefacts, including Annabelle, on TikTok. According to a report in the Daily Mail, Riveras fascination with the paranormal began early in life and only grew stronger with time. After serving in the military, he started his own investigation team. His path later led him to Lorraine Warren, who mentored him and taught him spiritual protection techniques, including how to visualise a halo of white light to shield himself during investigations. Eventually, Rivera became NESPRs lead investigator. In that role, he helped extend the Warrens legacy, leading investigations into private hauntings, organising community events like the ParaCon convention, and of course, overseeing the safe handling of Annabelle. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Rivera became NESPRs lead investigator. In that role, he helped extend the Warrens legacy, leading investigations into private hauntings and overseeing the safe handling of Annabelle. Image courtesy: Instagram News of Riveras death prompted a wave of grief from across the paranormal community. Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal, NESPR said in a heartfelt statement on Facebook. His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him. Mary Jo Chudley of Penn Paranormal, speaking to the Daily Mail, remembered him as a true legend and one of the kindest, most genuine and funniest guys. What happenend to Dan Rivera? Dan Rivera was part of the Devils on the Run tour, an event hosted by Ghostly Images of Gettysburg in collaboration with the NESPR. The tour pays tribute to the work of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and features the infamous Annabelle doll for those brave enough to face her, according to the organisers official website. The tour pays tribute to the work of renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren and features the infamous Annabelle doll. Image courtesy: AFP This particular stop in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was held at the towns Haunted Orphanage. NESPR described the weekend event as a night of paranormal history as Annabelle made her eerie appearance at the famously haunted location. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Tragically, Rivera was found unresponsive in his hotel room on Sunday night, July 14, during the Gettysburg tour stop. Emergency services were called, and although CPR was performed, he was declared dead at the scene. Adams County Chief Deputy Coroner Scott Pennewill told TODAY.com that Riveras death is not being treated as suspicious. The coroners office and the state police were called to the scene on Sunday night, he said, adding that Riveras body was sent for an autopsy, and results are pending. The findings are expected within 60 to 90 days. Interestingly, Pennewill confirmed that the Annabelle doll was not in Riveras hotel room at the time of his death. He added that the doll may have been secured inside a van in the hotel parking lot, though he could not officially confirm its location. Riveras death comes just a few months after a wave of rumours falsely claimed that Annabelle had gone missing while the group was touring in Louisiana. At the time, some visitors alleged they hadnt seen the doll during one of the stops, but Rivera had quickly refuted the claims and reassured fans that the haunted object was safe. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The creepy legacy of Annabelle The real-life Annabelle is far from the porcelain, sinister-looking doll made famous by The Conjuring universe. In reality, shes a classic Raggedy Ann doll, red-yarn hair and all, though her backstory has made her one of the most infamous haunted objects in the world. The real-life Annabelle is in a display case at the Warren Occult Museum, which, according to Annabelles story began in 1970 when the doll was gifted to two nursing students, Lara Clifton and Dierdre Bernard. What started as a quirky present soon turned eerie, as the women claimed the doll would move on its own. Disturbed, they eventually contacted a psychic, who told them the doll was possessed by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins. But the behaviour soon turned darker. As recounted by Ed and Lorraine Warrens biographer Gerald Brittle in The Demonologist, the doll allegedly began leaving handwritten notes on scraps of paperones that read messages like HELP US and HELP CAL. Especially creepy was that the girls could not find a pencil in the apartment that could have been used for the notes. It eventually found its way to the Warrens, who locked the wide-eyed clown-like doll in a display case at the Warren Occult Museum, which, according to NBC News, is secured by crosses and holy water. It also famously warns visitors never to touch it. Even members of the Warren family are wary of the doll. Chris McKinnell, Ed and Lorraines grandson, told The Mirror that he doesnt necessarily believe Annabelle is demonic, but does acknowledge its unsettling energy. I dont believe its a demon. But I do believe it has energy its reactive, not active, he said. So why doesnt it break out of its case? Because it only responds to people. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Annabelle first appeared in 2013s The Conjuring before receiving her own spin-off franchise. Annabelle was released in 2014, followed by Annabelle: Creation in 2017 and the latest entry, Annabelle Comes Home, in 2019. Despite Riveras unexpected death, the infamous doll now continues its journey. According to the NESPR, Annabelle will still make scheduled appearances in the coming months, with her next stop planned for Augusta, Maine. With input from agencies Indias Chief Negotiator and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Rajesh Agarwal, will be in Washington today to participate in the ongoing India-US trade talks. A court hearing on the release of the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, will take place in Tennessees Nashville read more It is set to be a busy Wednesday with several events lined up for the day. Firstly, Indias Chief Negotiator and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Rajesh Agarwal will be in Washington to participate in the India-US trade talks. Meanwhile, a court hearing on the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia will take place in Nashville, Tennessee. Suriname, a South American country, will be witnessing history being created today with the inauguration of its first female president. Foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine will meet today in Polands Lubin, marking the fifth anniversary of the Lubin Triangle. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Today marks the 60th anniversary of the inauguration of the Mont-Blanc tunnel. In India, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will lead a protest in Kolkata against the targeting of migrants. Here are some events set to take place across the world today. India-US trade talks to take place in Washington Rajesh Agrawal, Indias chief negotiator and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce, is set to join the Indian commerce ministry team in Washington, DC today. This visit is part of a crucial round of negotiations for the proposed bilateral trade agreement (BTA) between India and the United States. Rajesh Agrawal, Indias chief negotiator and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce. File image/PTI The Indian team has already commenced talks in Washington on Monday (July 14) and the discussions are scheduled to continue for four days, concluding on Thursday (July 17). Agrawals arrival signifies the heightened importance and intensity of these ongoing negotiations. The visit assumes significance as both sides have to iron out issues in sectors like agriculture and automobiles. It is also important as the US has further postponed the imposition of additional tariffs on several countries, including India, until August 1. Hearing on the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia An important hearing on the case relating to the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia will take place in Tennessees Nashville today. This hearing will address a request by federal prosecutors to revoke a previous order that granted him pretrial release, allowing him to remain in custody while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcias case has garnered significant national attention. He was in March 2025 by the Trump administration, despite a 2019 US immigration judges order shielding him from deportation due to fears of gang violence. After intense pressure, including a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the US last month to face the smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Inauguration of Surinames first woman president Jennifer Geerlings-Simons is set to make history with her inauguration as Surinames first woman president today in the capital city of Paramaribo. Geerlings-Simons National Democratic Party (NDP) won 18 of the 51 seats in the National Assembly. A physician and veteran politician, Geerlings-Simons led the National Democratic Party (NDP) to a narrow victory in the May 2025 general election. Following the inconclusive results, she successfully hammered out a coalition agreement with five other parties, securing the necessary two-thirds supermajority (34 out of 51 seats) in parliament to ensure her election unopposed. Her vice president will be Gregory Rusland, leader of the National Party of Suriname (NPS). Foreign ministers meet of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine The foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine are set to meet in Lublin, Poland, today, marking the fifth anniversary of the Lublin Triangle, a trilateral regional cooperation platform established in July 2020. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the meeting, stating that the foreign ministers Radoslaw Sikorski of Poland, Kestutis Budrys of Lithuania and Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha will participate in the meeting. Sybiha will be standing in for Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who has been attending other engagements. The agenda for the meeting will focus on strengthening political, economic, cultural, and social ties between the three nations, with a particular emphasis on coordinating efforts to counter Russian aggression and support Ukraines Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Inauguration of the Mont-Blanc tunnels 60th anniversary The iconic Mont-Blanc Tunnel will mark its 60th anniversary, commemorating six decades since its official inauguration in 1965. The tunnel stretches 7.2 miles (11.6 kilometres) through the Alps and at the time of its inauguration was a marvellous genius that connected Chamonix in France with Courmayeur in Italy. The tunnel drastically shortened travel times between the two nations. An aerial view shows the French-side entrance to the Mont Blanc road tunnel which links France and Italy beneath the Alps. File image/Reuters Construction on the tunnel began in 1957, taking eight arduous years to complete under incredibly challenging conditions. Workers faced extreme cold, high altitudes, and the dangers of drilling through solid granite, often encountering unpredictable geological formations and water intrusions. The project symbolized European cooperation and ambition, as it was a joint venture between France and Italy. Mamata Banerjee to lead protest in Kolkata against targeting of migrants Responding to what the Trinamool Congress calls continued targeting of migrants from West Bengal in BJP-governed states, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will lead a protest rally in Kolkata today. The rally is scheduled to begin at 1 pm from College Square and culminate at Dorina Crossing in central Kolkata. It is a strong assertion of Bengali pride" by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC). The protest comes amidst a series of incidents where Bengali-speaking individuals have reportedly faced discrimination, detention and even deportation attempts, with allegations of being labelled as Bangladeshis. With inputs from agencies Frances public debt has reached 3.3 trillion, or 114 per cent of GDP, with annual interest payments projected to hit 100 billion by 2029. Prime Minister Francois Bayrous 2026 budget proposes cutting two national holidays, freezing welfare, healthcare and civil service pay, and reducing the deficit from 5.8 per cent to 3 per cent by 2029 to avoid a Greek-style financial crisis read more French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou leaves following the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, July 16, 2025. File Image/Reuters Frances long-standing tradition of public holidays is under the lens as Prime Minister Francois Bayrou unveiled a sweeping fiscal consolidation plan that includes the removal of two national holidays. The measure, part of a broader 43.8 billion deficit-reduction strategy, aims to address the countrys deepening financial crisis and increasing investor unease over French public debt. During the presentation of the 2026 budget in Paris, Bayrou outlined a series of fiscal corrections targeting what he described as Frances addiction to public spending. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Central to this effort is the call to scrap two public holidays Easter Monday and May 8, Victory in Europe (VE) Day in order to boost national productivity and reduce economic downtime during the spring period. This is the last stop before we hit the cliff and are crushed by debt, Bayrou warned. The entire nation must work harder to produce more and ensure that the countrys overall activity is greater throughout the year. Frances budget crisis Frances economic indicators have become a source of concern for both domestic policymakers and international financial institutions. The national debt has escalated to 3.3 trillion, representing 114 per cent of GDP placing France among the most indebted economies in the European Union. The budget deficit, currently at 5.8 per cent of GDP, exceeds the 3 per cent limit set by EU fiscal rules. Bayrous administration seeks to reduce this shortfall to 4.6 per cent in 2026 and reach compliance with the EUs 3 per cent ceiling by 2029. However, without aggressive reforms, interest payments on Frances debt are forecast to climb dramatically, reaching 100 billion annually by the end of the decade outpacing even the military budget. For 2025, debt servicing alone is projected to consume 60 billion, a sum nearing the defence allocation. With public borrowing costs increasing, France has found itself paying significantly higher yields on its sovereign debt. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The spread between French and German 10-year bonds recently held near a three-week high at around 70 basis points, reflecting investor anxiety about both financial mismanagement and political instability. What Bayrou has proposed In addition to the proposed holiday reductions, Bayrous fiscal blueprint includes a comprehensive freeze on non-defence public expenditures. Welfare payouts and pension benefits will be held at 2025 levels. Healthcare funding is slated for a 5 billion cut, while hiring in the civil service will be sharply limited only two out of every three departing government employees will be replaced. The French prime minister also intends to restructure public sector operations by closing or downsizing what he called unproductive state agencies. Government salaries, including those of public servants and staff in public institutions, will be frozen across the board. At the same time, President Emmanuel Macron has insisted that military spending continue to rise to meet growing strategic threats. Defence funding will increase by 3.5 billion in 2026, with additional increases planned for 2027 a reflection of Frances positioning in an increasingly tense geopolitical environment, particularly concerning Russia. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Holidays at risk: Easter Monday and May 8 Bayrou has pointed to Easter Monday and Victory Day (May 8) both deeply ingrained in the national calendar as likely candidates for removal. These holidays, he suggested, fall within periods that already have excessive days off, especially in May, which includes Labour Day and Ascension Day. He referred to the month as resembling a veritable Gruyere, comparing it to Swiss cheese full of holes. Its the entire country going back to work on a day it hasnt worked for a long time, Bayrou said. The goal, he added, is to increase productive work days and generate billions of euros in additional economic output. However, Bayrou acknowledged that these holidays were merely initial suggestions and expressed openness to other options. France currently observes 11 official public holidays annually, the same as the United States. Historically, attempts to alter holiday schedules in France have met with fierce resistance. A prior attempt in 2003 to cancel Ascension Day following a devastating heatwave led to widespread protests and was ultimately abandoned. An attack on our history Right-wing and left-wing leaders alike have denounced the plan as an affront to national heritage and an attack on working-class citizens. Cancelling two holidays is a direct attack on our history, our roots and on working France, declared Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, the largest individual party in Frances lower house. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD His parliamentary group firmly rejected the idea, vowing not to support what he described as an act of provocation. Jean-Luc Melenchon, head of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI), called for Bayrous dismissal, stating, Its time to expel Bayrou and end this destruction, these injustices. Fabien Roussel of the French Communist Party labelled the budget an organised hold-up. The Socialist Party also joined in the criticism. Senior MP Boris Vallaud condemned the governments approach as unjust and economically misguided: Asking always more from those who have little, and so little from those who have much, is neither serious, effective, nor just. Marine Le Pen, speaking as head of the National Rallys parliamentary group, added, This government prefers to turn on the French people, working people and retirees, rather than tackle waste. Bayrou, however, has stood firm. He believes that while these measures may be unpopular, they are essential. Everyone will have to contribute to the effort, he said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The entire nation has to work more so that the activity of the country as a whole increases, and so that Frances situation improves. Political gamble for Bayrou Bayrous position is precarious. Appointed after his predecessor Michel Barnier was brought down in December last year by a no-confidence motion over similar fiscal plans, Bayrou now leads a minority government with no clear majority in Parliament. The snap election called by Macron last year led to a hung legislature, and the prime minister must now navigate competing demands from rival factions on both the left and right. The budget proposal presented this week is only a preliminary outline. A detailed draft is expected to be submitted to Parliament by October. Without cross-party support, however, Bayrou faces a real risk of another no-confidence vote. Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe operations at Eurasia Group, noted, Bayrou has gone for broke, knowing full well these measures have little chance of passing. Should Bayrou fail to find consensus, France may enter yet another cycle of political instability. For now, Bayrou remains adamant that without significant changes including sacrifices like working on previously sacred holidays France risks repeating the mistakes of other indebted nations. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD We should never forget what happened to Greece, he said. With inputs from agencies The first atomic bomb, nicknamed The Gadget, was launched at the Trinity test site in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945. Led by physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the launch ushered in a new era - the nuclear age. The test was part of the Manhattan Project, which brought together some of the greatest scientific minds of the time, including Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman and Niels Bohr read more World's first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Image Courtesy: nps.gov The world entered the nuclear age on July 16, 1945, with the detonation of the first atomic bomb, which was tested in the New Mexico desert. Code-named Trinity, it was part of the Manhattan Project, a massive scientific and military effort by the United States to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. If you are a history geek who loves to learn about important events from the past, Firstpost Explainers ongoing series, History Today, will be your one-stop destination to explore key events. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD On this day in 1951, JD Salingers iconic novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published. The book introduced the world to the unforgettable teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Here is all that took place on this day across the world. The first atomic bomb exploded One of most important events of the 20th Century took place on July 16, 1945. The first atomic bomb was successfully tested by the United States in Alamogordo, New Mexico. And with this, the world entered the nuclear age. The bomb, nicknamed The Gadget, used plutonium-239 and was detonated at 5:29 am. The explosion created a blinding flash, a fireball that reached temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun and a mushroom cloud that rose over seven miles (11 kilometres) into the sky. It produced an energy equivalent of about 21 kilotons of TNT. A man sits next to The Gadget, the nuclear device created by scientists to test the worlds atomic bomb, at the Trinity Site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Wikimedia Commons Led by physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project brought together some of the greatest scientific minds of the time, including Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman and Niels Bohr. The successful test confirmed that nuclear fission could be weaponised, changing the course of history. After witnessing the explosion, Oppenheimer famously quoted the Bhagavad Gita, Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. Just three weeks later, the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, leading to Japans surrender and the end of World War II. The Trinity test not only marked the dawn of nuclear warfare but also triggered decades of arms races, Cold War tensions and ethical debates about the use of such destructive technology. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Catcher in the Rye published JD Salingers only full-length novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published by Little, Brown and Company on this day in 1951. With the launch of the book, the world was introduced to the unforgettable teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Set in post-World War II America, the novel follows Holden over the course of three days in New York City after being expelled from prep school. Disillusioned by the phoniness of the adult world and struggling with grief over the death of his younger brother, Holden narrates his journey in a raw, confessional tone that was both controversial and groundbreaking at the time. JD Salingers classic novel, which gave life to Holden Caulfield. File image/AP While initial reviews were mixed, the book quickly gained popularity among young readers and became a bestseller. Its honest portrayal of teenage alienation, mental health, and rebellion struck a chord with postwar youth and sparked widespread debate. Salinger, who became famously reclusive after the novels publication, never allowed a film adaptation and published little afterward. Yet his lone novel became a literary icon and has sold over 65 million copies worldwide. This Day, That Year Chicago officially opened its Millennium Park on this day in 2004. In 1979, Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq. Apollo 11 lifted off from Nasas John F Kennedy Space Center in Florida on this day in 1969. India and the US are at odds over agriculture and dairy as they rush to finalise a trade deal before Donald Trumps August 1 deadline. Amid concerns over non-veg milk, New Delhi is reportedly pushing Washington for a strict certification to ensure that the imported milk comes from cows that have not been fed animal-based products like meat or blood. But why? read more India is hesitant to import milk from US cows. File Photo/Reuters The trade deal between India and the United States has hit a roadblock. As talks continue, the two sides are struggling to find a common ground on agriculture and dairy. India is reportedly hesitant about allowing American dairy imports into the country due to cultural concerns over non-veg milk. This comes amid US President Donald Trumps August 1 deadline to reach a deal with countries or face steep tariffs. Lets take a closer look. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD What is non-veg milk? India is pressing the US for a strict certification to ensure that the imported milk comes from American cows that have not been fed animal-based products like meat or blood. As per reports, India has deemed it a non-negotiable red line, citing religious and cultural concerns. Around 38 per cent of Indias population identifies as vegetarian, according to a 2023 World Atlas report. Hindus use milk and ghee in religious rituals every day. Imagine eating butter made from the milk of a cow that was fed meat and blood from another cow. India may never allow that, Ajay Srivastava of Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI), a New Delhi-based think tank, told PTI. Indias Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying mandates veterinary certification for food imports. A condition to issue these certificates states: The source animals have never been fed with feeds produced from meat or bone meal including internal organs, blood meal and tissues of ruminant origin and porcine origin materials except milk and milk products. The US has criticised this at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). What the US feeds its cows The feed for cattle in the US includes animal products. Cows are still allowed to eat feed that can include parts of pigs, fish, chicken, horses, even cats or dogs And cattle can continue to consume pig and horse blood for protein, as well as tallow, a hard fat from rendered cattle parts, as a fattening source, as per a 2004 report by Seattle Post-Intelligencer. While there are regulations on animal ingredients in cattle feed to prevent the spread of diseases, a mixture of bedding material, feathers, spilled feed and chicken droppings can be used as a low-cost feed additive, as per reports. A dairy farm worker is milking cows at Mancebo Holsteins in Tulare, California, US, July 24, 2018. File Photo/Reuters Why India is unlikely to concede on dairy New Delhi has banned the imports of dairy products from cows that were fed animal products. India, the largest producer and consumer of milk, may not agree to opening its dairy market to the US. The dairy sector feeds more than 140 crore Indians and employs over eight crore people. Indias milk production was reported at 239.30 million tonnes during 2023-24, according to the Basic Animal Husbandry Statistics 2024. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There is no question of conceding on dairy. Thats a red line, a senior government source told India Today TV earlier this month. Not just religious and cultural considerations, India also has to look at its economic aspects. According to a recent analysis by the State Bank of India (SBI), Indian dairy farmers could suffer annual losses of Rs 1.03 lakh crore if the sector is opened to American imports. The analysis underlined the impact on the income of small-scale dairy farmers, noting significant subsidies received by the US dairy industry. If the dairy sector is opened up, price of milk in India is likely to drop by at least 15 per cent which could cause potential annual loss of Rs 1.03 lakh crore to dairy farmers, ANI reported, citing the SBI report. The dairy sector is important to Indias rural economy, as it generates about 2.5-3 per cent of the national Gross Value Added (GVA), equivalent to Rs 7.5-9 lakh crore. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The government needs to make sure were not hit by cheap imports from other countries. If that happens, the whole industry will suffer, and so will farmers like us, Mahesh Sakunde, a farmer from Maharashtra, told Reuters. The US has reportedly termed Indias insistence on not ceding ground on dairy and agriculture as an unnecessary trade barrier. Indias resistance stems from its efforts to shield small-scale dairy farmers. And it seems unlikely New Delhi will budge from its position. With inputs from agencies Kerala-born nurse Nimisha Priya was to be executed today (July 16) after she was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her business partner in Yemen. However, a last-minute reprieve came her way, and shes been saved from the noose for now. Heres how the negotiations unfolded read more Nimisha Priya, the Kerala nurse on death row in Yemen, will not be executed today, July 16. Image courtesy: Save Nimisha Priya Action council/CNN On July 16, Kerala-born nurse Nimisha Priya was all set to be executed by authorities in Yemen after she was convicted for the murder of her former business partner, a Yemeni national, back in 2017. However, the 38-year-old and her loved ones were granted a huge reprieve on Tuesday, July 15, when Yemeni authorities deferred her execution. Following the news, her husband, Tomy Thomas, who is in India, heaved a huge sigh of relief, telling news agency PTI, The execution has been postponed. That is good news. We are happy and relieved. I am sure efforts will continue to avert her execution and bring her back safely. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD An order for execution and last minute reprieve A nurse from Keralas Palakkad, Nimisha moved to Yemen in 2011 and later partnered with Yemeni local, Talal Abdo Mehdi, to open a clinic. However, in 2017, in an effort to secure her passport from Mehdi, she sedated him. However, it went totally awry and he died of an overdose. She subsequently dismembered his body and dumped it in a water tank. She was arrested and in 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. Her family challenged the decision in Yemens Supreme Court, but their appeal was rejected in 2023. Then last December, Yemens President Rashad al-Alimi approved the death sentence for Nimisha Priya. And it was announced that Nimisha, who has been lodged at a central prison in Yemens Sanaa, would face the gallows on July 16. However, just hours before the former nurse was to be sentenced to death, on Tuesday, came the big reprieve that her execution was halted, at least for now. No fresh date for her execution has been made until now. Hectic parleys and diplomatic interventions According to social worker Samuel Jerome Baskaran, who has been leading the negotiations in Yemen to secure Kerala nurse Nimisha Priyas release, the delay in the execution of Nimisha came at the eleventh hour. He told the Indian Express that the decision came after Abdul Malik Al Nehaya, ruler of the Al Wasab region, met the President of Yemen last Friday. A day later, President Rashad al-Alimi consented to defer the execution. The Indian government also got involved in this mission. There was a directive from the Yemen authorities not to disclose the details, he was quoted as telling Indian Express. He further explained that the presidents order reached the prosecutor on Monday and following this, on July 14, the public prosecutor issued an order, saying that based on the direction of the attorney general, the execution of the retaliation sentence against Nimish is postponed. While more details havent come in on how the deferment came about, the timing is significant. It comes after the Indian government said that it has made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family of Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Advocate Subhash Chandran KR, representing nurse Nimisha Priya addresses the media, in New Delhi. File image/PTI Living on a prayer According to Subhash Chandran, lawyer and core member of Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, the deferment in Nimishas execution came just after Mehdis brother came to the negotiating table. In Yemen, a person on death row can be freed if the family of the victim agrees to their release after receiving diyya, blood money. Under the Sharia law, which governs Yemen, this legally sanctioned financial compensation to the family of the murder victim is a valid alternative to capital punishment. However, it has to be accepted by the kin. Chandran was quoted as telling NDTV, For the first time since the case began, the brother of the victim came to the table a day before the date of her execution. We talked all night. By late morning, the execution was deferred. We got what we wanted, some time to persuade the family now. Chandran also noted that it was the efforts of Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, a prominent Indian Muslim cleric, which led to this change. But who is this cleric? The 94-year-old, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as Grand Mufti of India, made last-minute efforts to halt the execution of Nimisha, with support from a Yemeni Sufi scholar, according to news agencies. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He told media agencies in Kerala on Tuesday that he successfully appealed to Yemeni scholars to intervene in Nimisha Priyas case considering the importance to saving a human life. A report by Gulf News said that Musliyar reportedly made contact with key clerics close to the victims family a connection no one else had managed to establish. I dont know the family, but I contacted responsible scholars in Yemen from afar, Kanthapuram was quoted telling Gulf News. They understood the situation. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. Earlier, Mehdis family had shown no inclination to negotiate with the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. In fact, the brother, Abdelfattah Mehdi, told BBC, Our stance on the attempts at reconciliation is clear; we insist on implementing Gods Law in Qisas [retaliation in kind], nothing else. He further added, Any dispute, whatever its reasons and however big, can never justify a murder let alone dismembering, mutilating and hiding the body. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Mercy still eludes Nimisha Priya Its important to note here that Nimisha has only been granted a temporary reprieve for now; she hasnt been forgiven. For her to be freed, the victims family the Mehdis have to pardon her and accept her donation of diyya, dubbed blood money. As of date, Nimisha Priyas family has offered $1 million (Rs 8.6 crore) as blood money to the victims family. However, they have shown no inclination to accept it. Babu John, an activist with the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council, told NDTV, We have proposed $1 million to save Nimisha Priya. The Yemeni mans family has not said yes or no. Once the family says yes, we will mobilise the funds and give them to the family if they are ready to pardon Nimisha. Even Chandran notes that diyya is the only way out for Nimisha now. There will be no more hearings. The judiciary has done what it could. Now its entirely up to the victims family. If they accept the diyya and pardon her, Nimisha lives. If not, we will lose her. With inputs from agencies A massive 2022 data breach exposed personal details of nearly 19,000 Afghans linked to British forces, prompting a covert UK scheme to relocate thousands under Taliban threat. Hidden behind a superinjunction for nearly two years, the secret evacuation cost billions read more British Forces from 16 Air Assault Brigade arrive in Kabul, Afghanistan, to provide support to British nationals leaving the country, as part of Operation PITTING after Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul, August 15, 2021. File Image/UK Ministry of Defence via Reuters A serious data leak by a British defence official in 2022 triggered one of the most secretive and expensive relocation efforts in recent UK history. The breach exposed the personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghan nationals and their families who had applied for protection under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP), a programme created to support those who had worked with British forces during the UKs military presence in Afghanistan. The error ultimately led to the covert resettlement of thousands of Afghans, cost London billions of pounds, and resulted in an unprecedented legal battle to suppress details from the public for nearly two years. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The breach, which occurred in February 2022, involved a defence official working outside authorised government systems. The individual mistakenly sent a full list of ARAP applicants to an unintended recipient while attempting to contact just 150 people. That list, which included names, phone numbers, addresses, and even some UK government email contacts, ultimately reached individuals in Afghanistan. One recipient later threatened in a Facebook group to post the entire database online. It was only in August 2023 that the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) became aware of the leaks scale, after part of the data surfaced on Facebook. The breach raised alarm in Whitehall, given the real possibility that the Taliban who had returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021 could gain access to the list and target those named on it for reprisals. How did the UK govt respond? The severity of the incident prompted then-UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to seek extraordinary legal protections. On September 1, 2023, the High Court granted what is believed to be the first superinjunction ever requested by a UK government. The order prohibited not only the reporting of the data breach but also any mention of the injunctions existence. It was issued against the world, meaning it applied to all individuals, not just specific parties. This move was criticised by several media organisations, but the courts repeatedly upheld the injunction. One High Court judge, while extending the order in February 2024, acknowledged the lack of parliamentary or media scrutiny but accepted the governments argument that disclosure could endanger lives if the Taliban learned of the list. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Wallace later defended the governments handling of the situation. Writing in The Telegraph, he stated, Some may disagree but imagine if the Taliban had been alerted to the existence of this list. I would dread to think what would have happened. He insisted that the decision to suppress the story was not a cover-up but an effort to prioritise the safety of those exposed. What is Operation Rubific? Immediately after learning of the leaks extent in August 2023, the MoD launched an urgent internal investigation and began tracing the spread of the data. At the same time, UK officials contacted around 1,800 ARAP applicants who were in Pakistan at the time, warning them of the potential threat to their safety. Facebook was also contacted and asked to remove the relevant post due to the risk of physical harm to those named. In response to the escalating threat, the UK quietly initiated Operation Rubific, a classified effort aimed at extracting Afghans judged to be at highest risk. In December 2023, this was formalised into a secret scheme known as the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). It was designed specifically to assist individuals affected by the breach who were not eligible under ARAP but whose exposure made them vulnerable to Taliban retaliation. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Although the ARR initially aimed to help approximately 200 principal applicants and their families, the numbers quickly grew. By July 2024, the scheme had relocated 900 individuals and 3,600 family members. An additional 600 people who had been issued relocation invitations would also be accommodated, UK Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed in Parliament. What did it cost? Including those relocated through the ARR and other existing schemes, the number of Afghans brought to the UK due to the breach reached more than 16,000 by mid-2025. Overall, the government has resettled more than 56,000 people across various Afghan evacuation and relocation programmes since 2021. The financial implications were equally significant. The ARR alone is projected to cost 850 million, while the broader cost of relocation efforts across all schemes including existing ARAP applicants has been estimated between 5.5 billion and 6 billion. According to an unnamed official cited in early reports, the data breach itself may have cost around 2 billion. Healey, speaking in Parliament confirmed that the official responsible for the data leak was no longer doing the same job. He offered a sincere apology on behalf of the British government, a sentiment echoed by other political leaders including Conservative ministers Kemi Badenoch and James Cartlidge. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Were the Afghans at risk from Taliban? In January, the UK Ministry of Defence commissioned Paul Rimmer, a former senior civil servant, to conduct an independent review of the situation. The assessment concluded that while killings and detentions still occur in Afghanistan, there was no clear evidence that the Taliban had obtained the dataset. The report found little evidence of intent by the Taliban to conduct a campaign of retribution based on the breach and noted that the leaked data may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared. It also questioned the proportionality of the continued ARR scheme, suggesting that the threat may no longer justify its operation. The ARR scheme may now be disproportionate to the actual impact of the data loss, the report noted. Based on these findings, the MoD petitioned the High Court to lift the superinjunction on Tuesday. The ARR scheme was officially closed shortly thereafter. However, the 600 relocation offers previously extended to individuals and their families will still be honoured. Healey reiterated in Parliament, When this nation makes a promise, we should keep it. Also Watch: With inputs from agencies Israel has bombed the areas around the Syrian city of Suweida after renewed fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze militias. This came after clashes broke out between the Druze and Bedouin tribes over the weekend in which 30 were left dead and dozens wounded. But who are the Druze? Why is Israel bombing Syria to protect them? read more Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border, in Majdal Shams in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. AP Israel has bombed the areas around the Syrian city of Suweida. The development comes as the fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze militias has broken out. This came after clashes between the Druze and Bedouin tribes over the weekend in which 30 were left dead and dozens wounded. There are reports that Syrian forces have executed some civilians. Israels prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons in the Suweida because the government intended to use [them] against the Druze. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD But who are the Druze? Why is Israel bombing Syria to protect them? Who are they? The Druze are an Arabic-speaking ethnic minority. The Druze broke away from Shia Islam during the 10th or 11th Century in Egypt. More from Explainers How Israel is dominating West Asian dynamics The religion was founded by al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah who followed the sixth Fatimid caliph. Al-Hakim was later deified by the Druze and remains a central figure in their belief system. While they identify mainly as Arab, their faith incorporates aspects from several faiths including Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity. The Druze believe in one God which is why they are known as Muwahhidun (monotheistic). This, they believe, is the same deity that the Abrahamic religions worship. They also believe that the soul is eternal and reincarnates in successive bodies. While they do not believe in traditional Muslim practices such as praying five times a day and making a pilgrimage to Mecca, they also revere several important figures from other religions. The Druze largely keep to themselves no matter where they are. They do not proselytise, that is convert people. This comes out of their earliest experiences of facing violence and persecution for their beliefs. Nor do they accept converts from people of other faiths. Only a select few, known as the uqqal (the wise) have access to their religious texts and practices. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The rest of the community is known as the juhhal (the ignorant). They do not have formal religious ceremonies or elaborate places of worship. Instead, they congregate in simple buildings known as khalwas. Here, they engage in communal worship and religious study. Marriage outside the community is also discouraged. They live in a tight-knit community centred around family and religion. The men wear white turbans, while the women cover their hair using white veils. They practice truthfulness, fellowship and belief in the oneness of God known as al-Tawhid. They believe that existence is cyclical in nature and that al-Hakim will return one day to set up true justice. The Druze are overseen by the Majlis al-Uqal which is a council of religious leaders. Why is Israel bombing Syria to protect them? First, lets take a look at where the Druze live. While they are mainly found in West Asia particularly Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Israel-controlled Golan Heights they are also found in the US, Australia and Europe. There are around 150,000 Druze in Israel who are citizens. There are around 20,000 Golan heights which Israel seized from Syria during the war in 1967 many of whom are not citizens. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD They comprise around 1.5 per cent of Israels population. There are around 700,000 Druze in Syria and 300,000 in Lebanon. In southern Syria, they are found near Sweida and Jabal al-Druze (Mountain of the Druze), while in Lebanon they are found near Mount Lebanon in the north. Syrian government soldiers drive in front of a house that was burned during the clashes between the Syrian government forces and Druze militias on the outskirts of Sweida city, southern Syria, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Scholars say The Druze have played a major role in the history of West Asia both in ancient and modern times. Makram Rabah, assistant professor of history and archaeology at the American University in Beirut, told Al Jazeera that the Druze in ancient times assumed many political and military responsibilities on behalf of the Muslim Caliphate. When it comes to the modern era, they are one of the founding communities of modern Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and Palestine. So all of this has made them one of the surviving tribes of the Levant, Rabah added. The Druze and Israel have a relationship that goes all the way back to the founding of the country. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The term blood covenant is often used to describe the ties between the Druze and the Israeli state. They have often served in the military in wars against its Arab neighbours. Though there are several Druze in Israels Parliament and they have reached high-ranking positions in the Israeli military particularly the IDF, police and security, many complain that the 2018 law defining Israel as a Jewish state has made them second-class citizens. Israel has said it is trying to protect the Druze in Syria. Netanyahus office said Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria. Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said that Israel could not stand idly by as the Druze engaged in fighting. We see massacres and insults against the Druze, and we must fight against the terrorism regime in Syria, Chikli STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD However, what is actually happening is more of a geopolitical game with Israel seizing more and more territory in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime in 2024. The Druze in Syria themselves are suspicious of the government of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The areas that they live in until now have been largely under the control of their militias. Syria has slammed Israels attacks as a a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic, and a reprehensible example of ongoing aggression and foreign interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. With inputs from agencies Dror Goldstein, an Israeli man, allegedly met the Russian woman in Goa eight years ago and fell in love. He said the lady left Goa without informing him, and he didnt know where they were read more Inside the cave, the 'spiritually inclined' Russian woman had kept a Rudra idol, Russian books, and photos of Hindu deities. Police found her during a routine patrol. Image courtesy: X Days after a Russian woman, along with her two daughters, was found living inside a remote cave in the Indian state of Karnataka, a statement from her husband has emerged in the media. Speaking to Indian news channel NDTV, Dror Goldstein, an Israeli man, claimed that he was the Russian womans husband, and she left Goa along with the daughters without informing him. The woman has been identified as Nina Kutina. Goldstein, who allegedly met Nina in Goa eight years ago and fell in love, shared his story with the media. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD We spent seven months in India together, and then we spent more time in Ukraine, he said. For the past four years, Goldstein has been travelling to India to visit his daughters, Prema (6) and Ama (5). A few months ago, she (Nina) left Goa without informing me, and I didnt know where they were, he said. After filing a missing person complaint, he discovered Nina and their daughters were living in Gokarna. I went to see my daughters, to see how they are. She wouldnt let me spend time with them, only a little bit; she made it really hard, Goldstein explained. Hes now pushing for shared custody, saying, I want to be able to be in touch and close to my two daughters. Goldstein also mentioned that hes been sending Nina a good amount of money each month, adding, She has everything they need. Regarding their potential deportation, Goldstein vowed to do everything possible to stop the Indian government from sending his daughters to Russia. It would be hard for me if they will be taken there, he said. On July 11, police found Nina and her daughters living in a cave on Ramatirtha Hill in Gokarna during a routine patrol. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The 40-year-old explained she had moved from Goa to Gokarna seeking spiritual solitude, choosing the cave to meditate and pray, far from city distractions. Authorities discovered Nina had entered India on a business visa valid until April 2017. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Panaji, Goa, issued an exit permit in April 2018, and records show she left for Nepal and re-entered India in September 2018, overstaying her visa. Beijing as a major player will prefer to remain invisible, and it is in this grey zone that India will witness greater Pakistan-China collusivity, which will get compounded in times to come read more Chinas official responses to the April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack mirrored Pakistans narrativeadvocating a quick and fair investigation of the Pahalgam attack and expressing full understanding of Islamabads legitimate security concerns. While the Chinese Foreign Office spokesperson termed the May 7 response by India on terrorist targets in Pakistan as regrettable, China also collaborated with Pakistan in diluting the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Press Statement, excising any direct reference to The Resistance Fronta proxy of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and the group behind the Pahalgam attack. More recently, it also prevented an inclusion of the terror attack in the draft Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) communique, resulting in the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh refusing to sign the document on June 25, as it would have weakened Indias position on terrorism and regional security. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Chinese media also played an active role in shaping perceptions by amplifying Pakistans propaganda. The digital landscape also underscored Chinas active alignment with Pakistans strategic messaging, which included celebrating the alleged success of Chinese-origin military platforms deployed by Pakistan. A recurring theme was the concern that the crisis could escalate into a nuclear conflict, prompting calls for international diplomatic intervention to prevent further escalation. However, the Chinese role is now no longer restricted to the dimensions of diplomacy, economy, supply of military hardware, and strategic communications. It has metamorphosed to a degree where a conflict with Pakistan now openly involves China, as Pakistans military capability in terms of weapons and technology has been boosted by China. It is well known that Pakistan is the biggest buyer of Chinese military hardware, but it is now the military software, as evidenced during Operation Sindoor, which is concerning. Deputy Army Chiefs Remarks On July 04, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Rahul R Singh, while speaking on Operation Sindoor, reinforced this important aspect of the China-Pakistan nexus when he stated that China was an ever-present factor bolstering Pakistans military efforts through unprecedented battlefield collusion during Operation Sindoor. Drones, cyber operations, and net-centric warfare elements employed by Pakistan showed unmistakable imprints of the Chinese military playbook. The Deputy Chief also said that Chinese intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems provided real-time data, situational awareness, and surveillance capabilities to the Pakistani forces. Even civilian assets such as the Chinese fishing fleet were reportedly leveraged to monitor Indian naval deployments, while Pakistans Navy remained coastal-bound. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He stated that Pakistan had full visibility into Indian military deployments, which was made evident during the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO)-level talks by disclosing that When the DGMO-level talks were going on, Pakistan actually was mentioning that we know that your such-and-such important vector is primed and ready for action. I would request you to perhaps pull it back. It is apparent that Pakistan was getting these inputs from China. Operation Sindoor was also a test bed for Chinas defence industry, validating its platforms and collecting performance data in real combat. As per him, 81 per cent of Pakistans military hardware acquired in the last five years is from China. He said that China was using Pakistan as a live lab to test its weapons against various other weapon systems. To quote Siemon Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Any state producing or buying weapons is keen to see how the product does in real conflict. Tests and exercises can tell most about the capabilities of weapons, but the ultimate test is often combat. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This in turn allows the Chinese to improve and upgrade their product for the next conflict. These upgrades will probably be available to Pakistan, which will be better prepared in the future. Lieutenant General Singh revealed that during Operation Sindoor, India faced not just Pakistan but effectively three adversaries on one border. Pakistan was the front face. We had China providing all possible support Turkey also played a very important role in providing the type of support that was there. He also disclosed that Turkey provided substantial support to Pakistan, including Bayraktar drones and trained personnel. Turkey also played a very important role in providing the type of support that was there. Bayraktar, of course, had been there. We saw numerous other drones also coming in during the war, along with trained sorts of individuals who were there, he revealed. This brings out Turkeys active role in supporting Pakistan against India, indicating a broader geopolitical alignment that extends beyond traditional Pakistan-China cooperation. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD China Downplays Remarks On July 7, China downplayed the deputy chiefs remarks, and its foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a media briefing, I am not familiar with the specifics you mentioned. Let me say that China and Pakistan are close neighbours who enjoy traditional friendship. Defence and security cooperation is part of the normal cooperation between the two countries and does not target any third party. At the same time, Mao said the India-China relationship is in a critical moment of improvement and development and Beijing would like to promote steady growth of bilateral ties with New Delhi. When it was pointed out that Chinas active support in providing live inputs to Pakistan during the conflict was contrary to her assertion that the close ties do not target any third party, Mao said, I am not sure how that allegation came about. Different people may have different perspectives. In sync with these remarks, the Pakistan Army Chief, General Asim Munir, now Field Marshal, in an address to graduating officers at the National Defence University in Islamabad, said, Insinuations regarding external support in Pakistans successful Operation Bunyanum Marsoos are irresponsible and factually incorrect. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Pakistan-China Collusivity The handing over of Shaksgam Valley in GilgitBaltistan by Pakistan to China in 1963 was a defining moment in Pakistan-China relations. In 1964, Pakistan became the first non-communist country to begin its flights to China. In March 1965, Pakistan denounced the Two China policy of the US. China now began to regard Pakistan as a trustworthy partner in South Asia. The 1965 India-Pakistan war proved to be a real catalyst in cementing these ties, as China fully supported Pakistan. In 1971, the US used Pakistan to reach out to China, and in recent years China has always stood by Pakistan at all international forums and provided them all possible support, including the transfer of advanced missile and nuclear technologies. During Operation Sindoor, Chinese-origin systems were employed by Pakistan. The Pakistan Air Forces deployment of Chinese J-10C fighters armed with PL-15 beyond-visual-range missiles, alongside HQ-9 air defence systems, and the operational integration honed over years of joint exercises such as the Shaheen series were visible. This interoperability was not just symbolic. It was translated into tactical advantages in real-time combat. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Chinas BeiDou satellite navigation system played a critical role, including in missile guidance for the PL-15, reaffirming the direct integration of Chinese systems into Pakistani battlefield operations. The Chinese satellite network Baidu continuously searched, identified, and tracked targets on the Indian side, and thereafter the data was fed to the fire control systems of the aircraft that were being tested by China through the air force of its autonomous regionPakistan. Therefore, the air-to-air missiles could have found a target on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC). However, it must be noted that finding a target is different from hitting the target. On May 12, Air Marshal A K Bharti, Director General of Air Operations, presented visual evidence of missile remnants and named China-supplied weapons in the Pakistani arsenal used against the Indian Armed Forces. You can see the pieces of it on the screen, he said, showcasing debris of the PL-15 long-range missile that fell inside Indian territory, including a relatively intact rear section recovered from Hoshiarpur in Punjab. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Reports also indicate the fusion of the Swedish Saab 2000 Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform alongside Chinese systems to target Indian aircraft, reflecting a sophisticated convergence of multi-origin platforms, many of which are enabled or integrated by Chinese technologies. Pakistans announcement on June 6 of China offering it its fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighters, the KJ-500 AEW&C aircraft, and the HQ-19 ballistic missile defence system reinforces its position as the foremost recipient of Chinese frontline military hardware. China and Pakistan have a shared enmity with India, and Pakistan, with its geostrategic location, is integral to Chinas transformation to a global power, as it provides Beijing connectivity through both the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Maritime Silk Route. Conclusion The fact is that India is dealing with the legacy of the unsettled borders with both China and Pakistan on the LoC, Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL), and LAC. This has resulted in the deployment of forces to safeguard our territorial sovereignty. Post the June 2020 Galwan crisis, while disengagement has taken place, the deinduction of troops has not. The ceasefire along the LoC has also effectively collapsed post Operation Sindoor. The collusion is no longer in the realm of fantasy; it is a fact. The lessons from Operation Sindoor should guide Indias threat assessments, force modernisation, and operational thought process. This fundamentally changes Indias strategic calculus and defence planning, as it confirms the two-front collusive threat is not a theoretical construct for the Indian military but an operational reality. We therefore need to secure ourselves and promote our national interests by building on our economy and strengthening our military capabilities. While speaking at an event hosted by the Observer Research Foundation on July 8, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said, There is a possible convergence of interest we can talk about between China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh that may have implications for Indias stability and security dynamics. Operation Sindoor has demonstrated that conflicts will not be fought as per the previous templates. The focus, though shifting to multi-domain operations, is on non-contact kinetic attacks using long-range vectors and air to facilitate precision strikes apart from cyber, economic, legal, information, and proxy wars. In such a scenario China as a major player will prefer to remain invisible, and it is in this grey zone that we will witness greater collusivity, which will get compounded in times to come. The author is a retired Major General of the Indian Army. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. Days after Hamass October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, I reread Japanese author Haruki Murakamis 2009 acceptance speech for the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society. In it he said, Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg [] [y]es, no matter how right that wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. While this was widely interpreted to be a pro-Palestinian message, I believed that Murakami was making a subtler point about the wall in his metaphor, which he also calls The System. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The System, Murakami tells us, is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill otherscoldly, efficiently, systematically. This description, I believed, tacitly extended the blame to forces like Hezbollah and Hamas. So I read it as a call to re-examine blind, angry loyalty to ones own side. Subsequent reporting suggested Murakami had been more stridently critical of Israel elsewhere and that Murakami inadvertently held anti-Israel notions due to the cultural milieu in which he dwells. This question in itself doesnt interest me, but another re-reading has convinced me that the speechs inclusiveness was less intended than superimposed by a wishful reader. This realisation was disappointing at several levels. The primary one being that Murakamis greatest appeal was his alienation, an estrangement from society that seemed to place him beyond familiar political divides. His distaste for Japanese nationalist writers like Yukio Mishima is well-known, and his novels like The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle were deeply political, but they seemed to emerge from the depths of the individual psyche where mundane political ideas gave way to universal emotions and images. So this binary, uninsightful nature of his political stances felt like a betrayal of promise. It is my impressionan unverified onethat his anti-nationalist pronouncements grew shriller after the annual Nobel Prize speculation began. Murakami, the master storyteller, surely neednt be warned of the perils of creating paper-thin antagonists. The playwright Aaron Sorkin insists, You cant think of your villain as a villain. Instead, he suggests writing them like theyre making their case to God about why they should be allowed into heaven. To be fair, Murakami didnt make Israel out to be an outright villain, and he did defy calls from Palestinian groups to decline the prize. Still, his metaphor of a state having convinced its people to kill otherscoldly, efficiently, systematically comes dangerously close. And its telling that such calls to conscience fall only upon Israel: is Murakami unaware that forces like Hamas and Hezbollah, with the sponsorship of the likes of Iran and Qatar, strive to coldly, efficiently, systematically kill Israelis? Is he also unaware that terrorist acts are designed to invite state clampdowns and cause alienation? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD His framing of the issue is of interest because it is indicative of a wider moral incoherence that surrounds this and other conflicts and only accentuates their tragedy. Observe how Murakamis wall-and-an-egg symbolism perpetuates the symbolism of an armed state at war with unarmed people. Gazas tragedy (and that of Palestinians as a whole) would have been better approximated with the image of an egg being crushed between two steel blocks: one gripping the egg in place and the other closing in and smashing it against the first. The second steel block consists of Palestinian extremist groups and their sponsor states. And it is precisely because serious moral pressure isnt mounted upon this second block that Israeli suffering is perpetuated and Palestinian tragedy compounded. To illustrate, lets take Israels accusation of Hamas unlawfully embedding military assets in densely populated areas and using them as human shields. New York Times paraphrases Oxford Professor Janina Dill countering the charge with [e]ven if Hamas uses civilians as human shields, those civilians are entitled to full protection under international law unless they directly participate in the fighting. Israel can neither be expected to ask its soldiers to get shot rather than fire at terrorists attacking from behind civilians nor will it give up its military objectives. Then why not call for an international ban on Hamas and for the sanctioning of its supporters? Such pressure may well force Hamas to return the hostages and thereby compel Israel to cease fire. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Such calls dont arise because global realpolitik and ideological pressures suppress them. Also, the fact that these pressures weigh disproportionately upon individual states suggests that keeping states off balance is desirable to multiple players. But let us stay with the moral discourse here. Counterintuitive though it might seem, international law allows certain , including uses directed toward self-determination. Using this outdated anti-colonial provision, ideologues project terrorism as a struggle for self-determination (therefore a ) to justify violent means. [Incidentally, it isnt clear that Hamass military wing is legitimate in international law.] But even with just cause, , and so a more roundabout intellectual exercise begins. For example, Neve Gordon points to Israels celebration of the roles of Zionist paramilitariessome murderousin Israels creation, seemingly to equate future Hamass legitimacy with Israels today. He bemoans the tendency of states to describe civilians theyve killed as human shields while describing civilians killed by non-state actorsGordon wont call them terroristsas civilians. He also suggests that states locating military offices in densely populated areas should invite similar condemnation. Citing anti-colonial struggles, Gordon then justifies the ability to blend into the civilian population as being necessary for military survival of paramilitaries, given the asymmetry of power. He further holds state militaries new surveillance technologies and enhanced weapon systems responsible for forcing paramilitary groups to hide in densely populated urban settings and concludes, Hamas, in this sense, is no outlier. This is a hardboiled egghead version of Murakamis egg-and-wall stuff. A question worth posing here is why Gordon doesnt worry that making a military case for human shields is self-defeating, as it would lead us to the concept of STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Legal scholar Louis Rene Beres writes, When Israels enemies declare an IDF attack on a Gaza high-rise building to be disproportionate, they wittingly ignore ipso facto that the rule of proportionality does not demand any tangibly equivalent infliction of military harms, but only an amount of force that is militarily necessary. He also introduces a legal concept Gordon assiduously avoids: perfidy. To the extent that Hamas and its insurgent allies routinely practice a form of human shields, the Palestinian side is guilty of perfidy .Any such practice is illegal prima facie and qualifies as a conspicuously grave breach of the relevant Geneva Convention. The most critical legal effect of perfidy committed by Palestinian insurgent leaders is to immunise Israel from any responsibility for inadvertent counterterrorist harms done to Arab civilians. Ideologues dont worry about military cases because their arguments arent really about principle but about perception: about weaponising Israels status as a state and a democracy against it. And despite weak disclaimers to the contrarylike GordonsHamass violence is sought to be semi-legitimised in the name of the Palestinian people. Once again, using wall-and-egg oversimplifications. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Consider the harm caused in one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the war: humanitarian aid. Israel claims Hamas diverts aid supplies for its use and to fund its war. Accusations of Israeli blockades weaponising hunger have even yielded International Court of Justice warrants against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Gallant. Israel and pro-Israel voices deny there is starvation and accuse critics of lying. But wheres Hamas, the governing party in Gaza prior to the war, in all this? A top Hamas official stated that 75 per cent of Gazans were refugees, so it was the UNs responsibility to protect them and that Israel was obliged to provide for Gazas citizens under the Geneva Convention. The hostage-taking, civilian-massacring Hamas demanding that Israel take care of its civilians is a stunning double standard, but one that aid agencies and the UN appear to go along with. Meanwhile, most aid agencies object to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private entity backed by the US and Israel, on relief supply citing principle. As aid agencies themselves warn of a humanitarian crisis, why not engage with it for the sake of Palestinian civilians, even if under protest? And why shouldnt governments diplomatically extract concessions from Hamas to facilitate transparent aid delivery? Surely some brakes on the second steel block are also warranted. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD I sincerely believe Israel must be held to very high standards to demonstrate that it is not targeting civilians militarily or through aid. But I also believe Hamas must be compelled to cooperate to stop the suffering of Palestinians, release hostages, and be held accountable for October 7. Its a foregone conclusion that most intellectuals will emphatically agree with the former and weasel out of the latter. Sacrificing the egg for the second steel block: that is moral incoherence. The worlds intellectuals, media, and institutions must do better. Can Israel seriously be expected to validate people like UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanesethe news of whose sanctioning by the US is just breakingwho reportedly justified Palestinian violence? Or journalist Mariam Barghout, who writes in Al-Jazeera of the exhilaration she felt on October 7: [T]he Palestinians have struck Israel where it has struck Palestinians for more than 75 years: lives and land. Or Professor John Mearsheimer, who was questioned about his moralistic tone against Israel when he displayed none against alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine: I dont have to provide a consistency of approach. Im focusing on what the Israelis are doing in Gaza. Im not comparing what happened in Gaza with what happened on October 7 and whats happened in Ukraine. Those are different issues. You could write a piece like that, but Im sorry, theres nothing wrong with me analysing what the Israelis are doing in Gaza, period. Are there no errors or sins of omission? STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Conclusion The universal images and emotions of Murakamis fiction can actually help us understand the soul-crushing situation of the Palestinians and Israelis existential fears. Instead were served up tendentious agenda-driven narratives, which in truth drive the steel blocks that smash the egg. If aggressive Zionism crushes the Palestinian people, so do ideologies that undermine legitimate states, provide cover to terrorists, and give terror-sponsor countries a free pass. I dont have a personal axe to grind in the Israel-Palestine conflict, and I believe Indias official position on the Gaza Warcondemning terrorism, justifying responsibly striking back, but seeking peaceful resolution of the issueis the moral one. But, for decades now, I have listened to smug voices shield Pakistan and its terrorist proxy-soldiers and undermine India in exactly the same way. Thats enough time to develop an aversion for vacuous moralising and intellectual contortionism. It is better to call terrorism terrorism, to know that justifying it in any context is perilous, and that creating ideological space for it is reprehensible. And to those very people who might loosely hurl about terms like Islamophobia or genocide justification, I would say Hamas ruled Gaza brutally, with a fundamentalist ideology, killed Israelis including children, took hostages, raped women, and now negotiates to return dead bodiesso just take a look at what it is you are justifying. This isnt resistance, its depravity. And I would question whether such critics genuinely weep for Palestinian suffering and death or find in it a vent for their anger and a useful weapon against an enemy. Incidentally, Murakamis own relations with the political Left suffered a blow when he was semi-cancelled for misogyny in his writings. I wont go into its merits here, but I cant help but sympathise with an author who shared what was within his fragile shell only to find himself up against a high, solid wall made up of bricks in the wall he thought were his allies. The writer is the published author of two novels (Penguin, India and Westland, India) based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect Firstposts views. The backing from one of the worlds most valuable companies comes after MP, which operates the only U.S. rare earths mine, last week agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Defense that will see the Pentagon become its largest shareholder read more Apple has signed a $500 million deal with MP Materials for rare earth magnets, mitigating supply risks after China curbed exports this year and representing a major coup for MP that sent its shares soaring by a fifth. The backing from one of the worlds most valuable companies comes after MP, which operates the only U.S. rare earths mine, last week agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Defense that will see the Pentagon become its largest shareholder. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Las Vegas-based companys stock price has nearly doubled since the government deal was announced. It has had remarkable turnaround since last year when it contemplated merging with an Australian rival as profits plunged in what CEO Jim Litinsky called a very frustrating pricing environment for rare earths. The deal, announced on Tuesday, guarantees Apple a steady flow of rare earth magnets free from China - the worlds largest producer. For Apple, the cost to support U.S. magnet production pales in comparison to the long-term risk that it could lose access entirely to the critical components, analysts said. Were in an era where executives are willing to pay a significant premium for a reliable supply chain. They dont want stoppage, said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. China placed export restrictions on rare earths in April in response to U.S. President Donald Trumps tariffs. Though the U.S. and China reached a deal in June that has resolved much of the rare earth dispute, broader trade tensions continue to underscore demand for non-Chinese supply. As part of the agreement, Apple will prepay MP $200 million for a supply of magnets slated to begin in 2027. The companies did not disclose the length of the deal nor the volumes of magnets to be provided. The agreement calls for magnets produced from recycled material, in keeping with Apples long-standing goal of ending its reliance on the mining industry. They will be produced at MPs Fort Worth, Texas, facility using magnets recycled at MPs Mountain Pass, California, mining complex. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. Bob ODonnell, president at market research firm TECHnalysis Research, said Tuesdays move makes complete sense given that Apple requires significant amounts of rare earth magnets for its devices. Plus, by focusing on a U.S.-based supplier, it does help position Apple more positively in Washington, he said. Apple, which said the deal is part of its $500 billion four-year investment commitment to the U.S., has faced threats from Trump over iPhones not made in the U.S. But many analysts have said making the iPhone in the U.S. is not possible, given labor costs and the existing smartphone supply chain. Apple did not disclose which devices in which it will use the magnets. MP said the deal will supply magnets for hundreds of millions of devices, which would constitute a significant share of any of Apples product lines. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD MP produces mined and processed rare earths and has said it expects to start commercial magnet production in its Texas facility by the end of this year. Last weeks deal between MP and the U.S. government includes a price floor for rare earths designed to spur investment in domestic mines and processing plants, which has been lagging partly due to low prices set in China. The company also has magnet supply deals with General Motors and Germanys Vacuumschmelze. Rare earths are a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion, including the devices that make cell phones vibrate. They are also used in weapons, electric vehicles and many other electronics. China requires its overseas employees to pay tax on their global income by law. However, it has only been a few months since this rule has been enforced on people working in other countries read more A general view of the offices of TikTok, as the site faces an April 5 deadline to reach a deal to find a non-Chinese buyer under threat of being banned from the United States, in Culver City, California, US, April 2, 2025. File Image/Reuters Several TikTok employees in China have been asked to relocate to the US, but the staff in question have said they will only move if the company compensates the additional taxes they have to incur due to their relocation. According to a report by Bloomberg, TikToks employees in China have urged ByteDance to cover the costs of any tax liabilities exceeding the 45 per cent cap that they will be subjected to in China for moving to the US. Sources have told the news outlet that employees will deny relocating to America in case TikTok rejects its proposal. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The company, meanwhile, is in talks with its employees over the situation and has been holding meetings with tax consultants to address their concerns. TikTok parent company ByteDance Ltd. has been moving more Chinese executives into US-based roles, especially within the apps e-commerce division, as it aims to replicate the success of similar shopping platforms in China. Why is China taxing its overseas workers? China requires its overseas employees to pay tax on their global income by law. However, it has only been a few months since this rule has been enforced on people working in other countries. Meanwhile, TikTok changed its tax compliance policy earlier this year, requiring all its employees working in the US to pay taxes, sources told Bloomberg. Tax complications affecting a crucial segment of the workforce risk dampening morale among those already relocated and may deter others from moving overseas, further compounding challenges for TikTok and ByteDance. An added burden Chinese companies are not obligated to comply with the taxation law of the country, as they technically argue that they are not required to withhold taxes for staff of subsidiaries abroad. Despite this loophole, TikTok notified some of its US-based workers that they needed to pay taxes at home, which caught many off guard and added a hole in their pockets. These employees were reportedly not told about the system before they were asked to relocate. Adding to the strain, only US federal taxes are exempt under bilateral tax treaties. As a result, employees must still pay additional Chinese taxes, which can reach up to 45 per cent, while the US federal tax rate is capped at 37 per cent. On top of that, state taxes, such as in California, can exceed 10 per cent, depending on income levels. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD After pro-regime fighters killed dozens of minority Druze community members in southern Sweida province, Israel warned Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa to leave the community alone. Israel also struck the Syrian army headquarters in a warning to the regime to stop the violence. read more A member of Syrian security forces looks at burnt vehicles amid ongoing clashes in the southern city of Sweida on July 16, 2025. Syrian regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa deployed troops in the predominantly Druze province of Sweida after clashes between Druze fighters and Bedouin tribes killed scores of people. (Photo: Bakr ALkasem/ AFP) Following days of strikes in southern Syria amid sectarian violence, Israel on Wednesday struck the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus. The Israeli strike followed warnings to Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa to leave the Druze alone. In recent weeks, pro-regime fighters have repeatedly clashed with the Druze people and dozens of people from the minority community have been killed. At least 248 people, including at least 92 Druze community members, have been killed in clashes in southern Syrias Sweida province in recent weeks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The violence has continued even as Syrian military has been deployed in the area to contain the violence. However, the SOHR said that at least 21 Druze community members were executed by the military itself. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The latest round of fighting erupted after Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes clashed after an abduction of a Druze merchant. The SOHR, witnesses, and Druze community members have said that the Syrian military has intervened in these clashes on the side of Bedouins and against the Druze community, according to AFP. This is the latest round of sectarian violence under Al-Sharaa regime. Previously, pro-regime groups had massacred more than 1,000 minority Shia Alawites. The Druze are a distinct religious group that is a minority in Syria. The Druze people trace their origins to the present-day Lebanon, Syria, and northern Israel in the historic Levant region of West Asia. Israel ramps up strikes after warnings over Druze attacks Amid reports that the Syrian military joined pro-regime fighters in attacks on Druze people and went on a rampage against them in the Sweida province, Israel said it bombed the Syrian army headquarters in Damascus. Israel has committed itself to their protection in Syria and has said it may raise the level of responses against the (Syrian) regime if the message is not understood. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told Al-Sharaa to leave the Druze in Sweida alone. As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on, Katz further said. Katz further said that Al-Sharaa should withdraw its military and warned that Israel would continue military actions until the withdrawal. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Earlier in February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised and warned that Israel would not accept the presence of Al-Sharaas forces. Amid ongoing tensions, Israel announced the deployment of more troops to the armistice line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-controlled territory, according to AFP. In accordance with the situational assessment, the (Israeli military) has decided to reinforce its forces in the area of the Syrian border, an Israeli statement said. Israeli Druze leader, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, called the situation in Syria an existential battle for the Druze community. After India offered to help with the repair of the ancestral home of filmmaker Satyajit Ray in Dhaka, Bangladeshs authorities stopped the demolition of the building and have expressed regret about the episode. read more After India expressed displeasure over the demolition of filmmaker and writer Satyajit Rays ancestral house in Dhaka, Bangladeshs authorities stopped the demolition and expressed regrets about the episode. India on Tuesday said that it was regrettable that Bangladesh was demolishing the ancestral house of Ray, the celebrated filmmaker and writer, who was bestowed Indias highest honour, Bharat Ratna, and was conferred Oscar lifetime achievement award. India also offered to help Bangladesh with the repair of the house. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Bangladeshi authorities cited the dilapidated nature of the house, which belonged to Rays grandfather, the eminent writer Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, as the reason for demolition. They said a new building would be erected on the plot. However, critics have slammed the move as the erasure of Bangla heritage and the destruction of a symbol of an iconic family that has made immeasurable contributions to Bangla art and culture. Mymensingh, Bangladesh: The demolition which was ongoing at the ancestral home of director Satyajit Ray has been stopped pic.twitter.com/77P9UnVEoo IANS (@ians_india) July 16, 2025 In a statement on Tuesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said, We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished. The property, presently owned by the Government of Bangladesh, is in a state of disrepair. Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh. The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose. Notably, the destruction of Rays ancestral house was taking place at a time when Bangladeshs new regime of Muhammed Yunus has been systematically wiping off national icons, such as Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, from public spaces. That was a lapse on our part: Bangladeshi official admits mistake Shortly after the news emerged of authorities stopping the demolition of Rays ancestral house, a Bangladeshi official admitted that the demolition was a mistake and was initiated out of misunderstanding between multiple elements of the government. Faisal Mahmud, the press minister of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, confirmed to The Week that the demolition had stopped. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Faisal further said, First of all, this particular one-storey building in Mymensingh was never listed as a protected heritage structure. That was a lapse on our part. We understand that. Usually, houses like this especially one connected to someone like Satyajit Ray, who is so dear to us should have been protected. ALSO READ: The storied history of Satyajit Rays ancestral home that Bangladesh wants to demolish, India wants to save Faisal explained that the house was a property of the Shishu Academy of Bangladesh and it used to hold classes in the building. However, he said that classes and any extracurricular activities stopped in 2007 as the building fell into a state of disrepair. Faisal admitted that it was a failure on part of the district administration that no one wrote to the archaeological department for the building to be protected as a heritage monument. Faisal further said that the archaeological department wrote to the Shishu Academy the Childrens Academy under Bangladesh government to not go ahead with the demolition. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Faisal further said, So its not exactly accurate to say that the government unilaterally decided to demolish it. One part of the government the archaeological department asked another part, the Shishu Academy, to halt the demolition. Since the issue attracted a lot of media attention, the Bangladesh government has now put the demolition on hold. China has jailed a 63-year-old Japanese man for three and a half years for spying. He is among 17 Japanese citizens with business or other connections to China who have been detained in China since 2014 when the Communist regime enacted the anti-spying law. Five Japanese nationals are still held in China. read more A Japanese man was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison in China on espionage charges, according to the Japanese embassy in Beijing. The embassy did not identify the man, who has been detained since March 2023. Japans Kyodo News Agency described him as a man in his 60s and an employee of Astellas Pharma Inc., a major Japanese pharmaceutical company. The man was charged with espionage in August and his first hearing was held in November but no details were released. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Peoples Court did not immediately make an announcement after handing down the sentence. Kenji Kanasugi, the Japanese ambassador to China, called the sentencing extremely regrettable. The Japanese government has protested a series of detentions of its citizens in China. More from World How Chinas ideologues glorify the Uyghur genocide Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that judicial authorities had handled the case in strict accordance with the law and that China provides a sound environment for Japanese companies and workers. As long as foreign nationals in China abide by the law and engage in lawful employment, there is nothing to worry about, he said. A total of 17 Japanese citizens with business or other connections to China have been detained since 2014, when China enacted the anti-spying law. Five remain in China, Kyodo reported. A Japanese diplomat was detained for questioning in 2022 and released hours later, prompting strong protests from Japan. Kanasugi was present at Wednesdays ruling, but Japanese reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom. He told reporters that Japan has demanded and will continue to demand the early release of detained Japanese nationals, adding that such detentions are one of the biggest obstacles to improving people-to-people exchanges and public sentiment between Japan and China. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A statement released by the Japanese embassy in Beijing urged the Chinese government to ensure the humane treatment of detainees and to improve the transparency of the judicial process. Japan considers Chinas growing influence in the region as a threat to its national security and economy, and the risks of getting caught in China on espionage allegations are a growing concern in Japan, including its business community. A safety handbook for visitors to China, published by the Japanese embassy in Beijing, urges visitors to use extra caution. (This is an agency copy. Except for the headline, the copy has not been edited by Firstpost staff.) As part of the ongoing crackdown on jihadists, Ethiopia has arrested 82 persons suspected to be Islamic State terrorists, who it claimed were deployed in the country to carry out terrorist attacks, according to state media. read more The undated photograph shows an Islamic State (Isis) terrorist holding a gun and another holding the group's flag. (Representative Photograph, Credit: Reuters) Ethiopia has arrested dozens of suspected Islamic State militants, who it claimed have been trained and deployed to carry out operations across the country, the state-affiliated Fana broadcaster reported. The 82 suspects were part of Islamic States Somalia affiliate, which operates in the semi-autonomous Puntland region, according to a statement by the National Intelligence Security Services which was shared with Fana. The Islamic State faction in Somalia has become an increasingly important part of its parent organisations worldwide network in recent years. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD NISS has been closely monitoring the groups cross-border infiltration strategies and its efforts to establish sleeper cells in Ethiopia, Fana reported late on Tuesday. With an estimated 700 to 1,500 fighters, Islamic States Somalia wing has grown in recent years thanks to an influx of foreign fighters and increasing revenues. But it is still much smaller than al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militant group, which controls large parts of southern and central Somalia. The US military has carried out periodic air strikes against the group for years and recently intensified the strikes since President Donald Trump took office. Puntland government forces have captured large portions of territory from IS since announcing a major offensive against them in December. (This is an agency copy. Except for the headline, the copy has not been edited by Firstpost staff.) After US President Donald Trump approved an arms package to the tune of $10 billion for Ukraine, the European Union (EU) is working on a plan to make Russia foot the bill and not the EU or the United States. Read to know EUs plan in the works. read more Servicemen of the 24th Mechanized brigade, named after King Danylo, of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fire a BM-21 Grad multiple-launch rocket system toward Russian troops, on a front line, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk region, Ukraine February 15, 2025. (Photo: Reuters) The European Union (EU) is working on a plan to make sure that Russia will fund the latest arms package for Ukraine. US President Donald Trump on Monday announced that Ukraine will get air-defence systems, missiles, and artillery shells, among potentially other equipment, to the tune of $10 billion. He said the EU will buy the equipment on Ukraines behalf. The Daily Telegraph has reported that the EU has drawn a plan to use profits generated from frozen Russian assets to pay for the arms package. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD ALSO READ: Is Trump giving Putin reasons to believe hes weak? Russia expert explains Ukraine U-turns After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the EU froze Russian assets worth around 210 billion ($243 billion). Even as these assets remain frozen, they remain invested in interest-bearing instruments like government bonds. It is these profits from these assets and not the assets principal value of around 210 billion that the EU plans to use to fund the arms package for Ukraine. Estimates have said that profits from frozen Russian assets could provide around 2.53 billion ($2.93.4 billion) a year for Ukraines assistance. Nato to control EU-provided cash pot to arm Ukraine Under plans in the works, the Natos Ukraine assistance mission Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (Nsatu) will take the lead in using profits from Russian frozen assets provided by the EU to purchase equipment and transfer it to Ukraine, according to The Telegraph. It is widely considered that Natos support mission for Ukraine Nsatu will play the lead role in coordinating purchases of American weapons and their eventual delivery to Kyiv, a Nato official told the newspaper. Under what the newspaper called the most likely plan, this is how the EU will provide weapons to Ukraine: Firstly, the Nato will be given the control of the cash pot containing profits from Russian frozen assets and additional funds provided by the EU and Canada. Then, the Nato will purchase military equipment from a shopping list of military equipment provided by Ukraine. ALSO READ: With Russias terms to Ukraine, Putin seeks surrender not a peace deal Polish Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski reportedly pushed the idea of the EU using profits from frozen Russian assets to arm Ukraine. Nato chief Mark Rutte has already said that the bloc will buy equipment from the United States and transfer to Ukraine. He further said at least eight Nato members had already signed up for such a plan. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Details of the plans are yet to be worked out and the White House is yet to finalise what military equipment will be provided to Ukraine as part of the scheme. The US Homeland Security Department on Tuesday announced that a deportation flight carrying immigrants from different countries had landed in Eswatini, a country located in South Africa read more Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrive at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela. AP file US President Donald Trump has deported illegal immigrants to a lesser-known African country of Estawani, days after the Supreme Court lifted a ban on sending migrants to third-world countries. The US Homeland Security Department on Tuesday announced that a deportation flight carrying immigrants from different countries had landed in Eswatini, a country located in South Africa. A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back, US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Who has been deported? In a post on X, McLaughlin named five deportees from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen and said they were convicted of crimes ranging from child rape to murder. Earlier this month, a memo by a top Trump administration official said that immigration officials may deport illegal immigrants to countries other than their home nations with as little as six hours notice. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport someone after informing them of their removal to a so-called third country, according to a memo dated July 9 from the agencys acting director, Todd Lyons. ICE could remove them, however, to a so-called third country with as little as six hours notice in exigent circumstances, the memo said, as long as the person was provided the chance to speak with an attorney. The memo stated that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them without the need for further procedures. Where is Eswatini? Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa bordered by South Africa and Mozambique. While it has made strides in education and health, Eswatini faces challenges such as high unemployment and one of the worlds highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. Its economy largely depends on agriculture, manufacturing, and regional trade. With inputs from Reuters The ancestral home of Satyajit Ray, the renowned Oscar-winning filmmaker, faces demolition in Bangladesh, prompting the Indian government to urge Dhaka to reconsider and offer assistance for its restoration as a museum of literature. read more The ancestral home of legendary filmmaker and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray in Bangladesh faces demolition to make way for a new semi-concrete building. This prompted a response from the Indian government, New Delhi stepped in and urged Dhaka to reconsider the step, offering help to restore and rebuild the property as a museum of literature. According to Bangladeshs Daily Star newspaper, the house belonged to Rays grandfather, the renowned writer and editor Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. The building, which previously housed the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, is being torn down for a new structure. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The MEA said in a statement, We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished. The property, presently owned by the Government of Bangladesh, is in a state of disrepair. Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh. The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose, the MEA said. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed for intervention from both New Delhi and Dhaka. She said in a posting on X on Tuesday: I learnt from media reports that the memory-entwined ancestral house of renowned writer-editor Upendrakishore Roychowdhury in Bangladeshs Mymensingh city is being demolished. The reports say that the demolition process had already begun. This is heartbreaking news. Bangladeshs Department of Archaeology said the house, built over a century ago and located about 120 km north of Dhaka, became government property after the Partition in 1947. In 1989, it was converted into the Mymensingh Shishu Academy. A local official told the Daily Star that the demolition is being carried out with the necessary approvals and proper procedures. He explained that a new semi-concrete building with several rooms will replace it to continue the academys activities. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD When asked why a building of such historical significance, standing on a 36-decimal plot, was being demolished, the official said it posed a safety risk for children who gathered there, according to the report. Jaishankar recalled the UNSCs strong condemnation of the attack in April that killed 26 people and called on the SCO to take a firm stance against terrorism, adding that India is making efforts to bring the terrorists involved in the attack to justice read more External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has reasserted Indias stance on terrorism at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers meeting, where he said that the Pahalgam attack was carried out to disrupt Jammu and Kashmirs booming tourism economy and create religious differences. Jaishankar recalled the UNSCs strong condemnation of the attack in April that killed 26 people and called on the SCO to take an uncompromised position against terrorism, adding that India is making efforts to bring the terrorists involved in the attack to justice. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In an address at the SCO foreign ministers meeting in this Chinese city, Jaishankar said India will continue to positively approach new ideas and proposals, asserting that such cooperation must be based on mutual respect, sovereign equality and under territorial integrity and sovereignty of member states. The remarks came against the backdrop of growing global criticism of Chinas mega-connectivity project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as it was perceived to show disregard for the sovereignty of nations and lack transparency. Jaishankar reminded the blocs motto to combat the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. He said, Not surprisingly, they often occur together. Recently, we in India witnessed a graphic example in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22. It was deliberately conducted to undermine the tourism economy of Jammu & Kashmir, while sowing a religious divide. Meanwhile, the external affairs minister also held separate meetings with his Russian and Chinese counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Wang Yi, with a focus on furthering bilateral cooperation. Reviewed our bilateral cooperation and global developments with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia in Tianjin this afternoon, Jaishankar said in a social media post. It is understood that the two foreign ministers also deliberated on the evolving regional security scenario, including the situation in West Asia. Jaishankar also met Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he apprised the leader of the recent development of our bilateral ties. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD With inputs from agencies Refresh for updates. Trade talks between the US and India are gaining momentum as President Donald Trump signals progress on a potential trade deal, crediting his tariff policies for opening access to Indian markets read more US President Donald Trump on Tuesday asserted that the country is making notable progress in gaining access to Indias markets, attributing the breakthrough to his tough tariff policies and hinting at an outcome toward a coming trade deal. He said that his tariffs have helped the US dismantle barriers that previously hindered American businesses. Were going to have access into India, Trump said, while announcing a trade agreement with Indonesia following a call with President Prabowo Subianto. You have to understand, we had no access into any of these countries. Our people couldnt go in. And now were getting access because of what were doing with the tariffs. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD #WATCH | US President Donald Trump says, "We made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great president...and we made the deal. We have full access to Indonesia, everything. As you know, Indonesia is very strong on copper, but we have full access to everything. We will pic.twitter.com/hSFArf17Ly ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2025 Although the White House has not released concrete information about the scope or progress of the proposed US-India trade agreement, Trumps comments point to a fresh effort to reshape Americas trade ties across Asia. Moreover, a high-level team from the Ministry of Commerce and Trade is also in the US to negotiate further, as India is firm on protecting its dairy and agriculture sector. Trump pointed out that his tough tariff stance is yielding results. Now were getting access, he repeated, positioning the development as a direct outcome of his trade policies. Donald Trump has frequently insisted that a trade deal with India is almost finalized, though a few outstanding issues remain. Interestingly, experts on US-India relations suggest its actually beneficial that Trump hasnt yet sent an official letter to New Delhi. Meanwhile, Indias trade delegation, headed by chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, is in Washington for scheduled talks, fueling renewed hopes for a potential agreement. Among all US trading partners facing Trumps proposed reciprocal tariffs, India is the largest and stands out because, unlike the EU, South Korea, Japan, Canada, and Mexico, it has not received a formal letter from Trump threatening 25 to 35 percent tariffs starting August 1. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Iranian lawmakers clarified Wednesday that the chant Death to America means death to arrogance, death to Trump, and death to those who rule America read more Irans parliament clarified on Wednesday (July 16) that the chant Death to America is a rejection of US leadership and its history of global dominance, not a call for harm against American citizens. It means death to arrogance, death to Trump, and death to those who rule America, lawmakers stated during Wednesdays open session. They noted the slogan has gained traction beyond Iran due to US actions involving oppression, war, and interference. This comes after President Masoud Pezeshkian told American Conservative commentator and journalist Tucker Carlson that the phrase is often misinterpreted in the West. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD They dont mean death to the people of the United States, or even to the officials, Pezeshkian said. They mean death to crime, death to killing and carnage, death to supporting killing others. On Wednesday, Irans parliament declared that nuclear talks with the US should not resume until certain preconditions are met. When the US use negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met, the statement read. While the specific preconditions werent outlined, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously demanded guarantees against further attacks on Tehran. Last month, Israel and the US struck Irans nuclear facilities, claiming they were part of a weapons programme, though Iran insists its nuclear efforts are for civilian use only. Before the 12-day air war, Tehran and Washington held five rounds of indirect talks through Oman, but US demands to end Irans uranium enrichment programme stalled progress. Araqchi recently reaffirmed that Iran wont accept a deal restricting its uranium enrichment or agree to discuss non-nuclear issues like its ballistic missile programme. Earlier on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was in no hurry to negotiate, claiming Irans nuclear sites are obliterated. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Still, the US, alongside three European nations, has set late August as a deadline for a potential agreement. Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, the Indian Embassy in Iran has advised Indian citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Tehran and urged those already in the country to stay alert and consider leaving if needed. read more (File) The S-300 missile system is displayed during Iranian defence week, in a street in Tehran on September 24, 2024. Reuters The Indian Embassy in Iran on Wednesday issued a new advisory urging Indian citizens to think carefully before making any non-essential trips to Tehran, given the growing tensions in the region. In a statement shared on X, the embassy also advised Indians in Iran to stay alert to the latest developments in the Middle East and consider using commercial flights or ferry services if they wish to leave the country. In view of the security-related developments over the past several weeks, Indian nationals are advised to carefully consider the evolving situation before undertaking non-essential travel to Iran, the advisory said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD More from World Deepening China-Iran ties pose a new challenge for India They are also advised to monitor regional news closely and follow updated advisories issued by Indian authorities. Indian nationals already in Iran who wish to leave may use commercial flight and ferry options currently available, it added. This advisory comes amid heightened tensions in the Middle East, following recent clashes between Iran, Israel, and the United States. Last month, Israel carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities under Operation Rising Lion, aiming to disrupt Irans nuclear program and prevent it from building atomic weapons. In response, Iran launched missile and drone attacks against Israel. The United States supported Israel in the conflict. On June 22, the US conducted its own strikes against Iranian nuclear sites, including facilities in Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan, as part of Operation Midnight Hammer, using B-2 stealth bombers and bunker-buster bombs. Khamenei accused Israel of waging last months 12-day war with the broader aim of destabilising Irans government and inciting unrest to overthrow the Islamic Republic read more Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday (July 16) took a sharp jab at the United States and Israel, praising the fight against Washington and what he called its dog on a leash Israel as praiseworthy. He accused Israel of waging last months 12-day war with the broader aim of destabilising Irans government and inciting unrest to overthrow the Islamic Republic. The calculation and plan of the aggressors was to weaken the system by targeting certain figures and sensitive centres in Iran, Khamenei said in a statement published on his website, as quoted by AFP. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He added that the attacks were intended to stir unrest and bring people into the streets to overthrow the system. Khamenei warned that the attackers would have to adapt their stance before they are totally wiped out. More from World Iran signals shift in cooperation with IAEA after war with Israel His remarks come amid escalating regional tensions and growing concerns in Iran over threats from the US and Israel. On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, targeting and killing senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. According to Iranian authorities, the attacks claimed over 1,000 lives in Iran. The strikes triggered a 12-day conflict, with Iran retaliating through drone and missile attacks that, according to Israeli authorities, killed 28 people in Israel. The assault began just two days before Iran and the US were scheduled to hold a sixth round of nuclear negotiations, which had started on April 12. Those talks have not resumed since the conflict. Tehran has reiterated its willingness to engage in diplomacy, but only if Washington provides assurances that it will not resort to military action against the Islamic Republic. On Wednesday, Irans Parliament declared that no negotiations would take place until certain unspecified preconditions are met. In his statement, Khamenei called for Irans diplomatic and military efforts to proceed with care and precision, though he offered no further details on the approach. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD CDS Chauhan has highlighted the success of indigenous technology during Operation Sindoor and stressed the need to modernise Indias armed forces, as he revealed details of Pakistans failed drone attacks during Op Sindoor. read more Reflecting on Operation Sindoor, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan noted on Wednesday(July 16) that Pakistan had deployed unarmed drones and loitering munitions on May 10 at the peak of the conflict, but none of the attacks were successful and caused no damage to Indian military infrastructure. During Operation Sindoor, on May 10, Pakistan used unarmed drones and loitering munitions. None of them inflicted any damage to Indian military or civil infrastructure. Most were neutralised through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means, and some were even recovered in almost intact condition," General Chauhan said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Wednesday also stressed the urgent need to modernise the armed forces weapon systems, stating that todays wars must be fought with tomorrows technology. Speaking at a workshop on the indigenisation of UAV and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) in New Delhi, General Chauhan praised the use of indigenous weapons during Operation Sindoor and underlined the importance of investing in and building Indias defence capabilities. You cant win todays warfare with yesterdays weapon systems. Todays warfare has to be fought with tomorrows technology," CDS Chauhan said. In response to the terror attack in Pahalgam on April 22 by Pakistani backed and based terrorists, India had launched precision strikes on nine militant camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), targeting key bases of groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen, in locations at Bahawalpur and Muridke. Though, in its old tactical policy of bleeding into a thousand cuts, Pakistan showed an aggressive approach rather than settling down the matter. Pakistan has a long history of backing and training terror groups for the advantage of the state. The back-to-back meetings have, once again, stirred coup rumours in Pakistans political circles as Munir engages with the top leadership to replace the president read more Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, along with Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) of Pakistan Asim Munir. Some suggest that the Sharif family may be involved in the possible coup. File image/Reuters While earlier speculations on a military coup in Pakistan have not died down yet, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday shortly after Sharif held a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari at the latters residence. The back-to-back meetings have, once again, stirred coup rumours in Pakistans political circles as Munir engages with the top leadership to replace the president. According to a report by The Express Tribune, word of the town is that Islamabad is likely to invoke the 27th Amendment, followed by a resignation of President Zardari. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Army has no interest in politics The theory that military may take over the reins of the Pakistani government has been dismissed by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who has rejected media reports as lacking credibility. Talking to the Express Tribune, Asif confirmed that while the possibility of President Zardaris resignation and a subsequent military takeover came up during the discussions between Munir and Sharif, he dismissed rumours and found claims made by Pakistani media unfounded. He said that Zardari was well aware of the meeting between Sharif and Munir. Mr President was fully aware of the issue and expressed his full confidence in the government. Its all kite flying, Asif asserted. Army chief has no interest in politics. He [Munir] doesnt need anything, he added. Sharif denies claims, too Last week, PM Sharif said, Field Marshal Asim Munir has never expressed any desire to become the president, nor is there any such plan in the offing. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also criticised what he called a malicious campaign targeting Pakistans civilian and military leaders. In a post on X, Naqvi suggested that foreign groups were behind the dissemination of these rumours and said the government knows who is responsible for pushing this narrative. With inputs from agencies The bombardment came two days after US President Trump threatened to impose severe sanctions against the country unless it reached a peace settlement within 50 days to end its three-year war on Ukraine read more A firefighter stands on a roof of an apartment building, damaged during Russian drone and missile strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine July 10, 2025. Reuters file Russia fired hundreds of drones, artillery and a ballistic missile at Ukraine between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, Ukraine said, defying calls by Donald Trump to reach a peace deal.The attacks left one woman dead and wounded more than two dozen people across multiple regions, while a missile attack cut power and water in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys home city of Kryvyi Rig, according to authorities. The bombardment came two days after US President Trump threatened to impose severe sanctions against the country unless it reached a peace settlement within 50 days to end its three-year war on Ukraine. Ukrainian and Russian officials last met for direct peace talks more than a month ago, and no further meetings have been scheduled despite the Kremlin saying it is open for more talks. Russia fired at least 400 drones at Ukraine between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, as well as an Iskander ballistic missile launched from the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Ukrainian air force said. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Overnight drone attacks on the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia left eight wounded, while three were wounded in an attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, local authorities said. Russian attacks on the city of Kryvyi Rig wounded at least 15 people, destroyed an industrial building and disrupted power and water supplies, according to local officials. A 17-year-old boy was among those injured, the citys mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram. He was wounded in the abdominal cavity. He was immediately taken to the hospital, in serious condition. Now doctors are fighting for his life, he wrote. This has never happened before. A ballistic missile and 28 Shaheds simultaneously, he added, referring to Iranian-designed drones. Russia has stepped up its summer campaign against Ukraine in recent weeks as Washington-mediated ceasefire talks stall. Its army has pushed ahead on the battlefield, while pounding Ukraine with combined drone, artillery and missile strikes. Trump said Monday he had struck a deal with NATO chief to supply more American air defence systems and weapons to Ukraine, citing his frustration with Russias refusal to accept a ceasefire. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which has been at the centre of controversies, has said that while 19 people were killed in a stampede, one person was stabbed to death in the violence near a distribution hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis read more Local Palestinian staffers of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in blue vests form a human chain to protect female aid recipients at one of GHF's distribution sites on June 9, 2025. (Source: GNF) At least 20 Palestinians died on Wednesday near a US-backed aid groups distribution centre as they were on their way to collect food. This comes as Israeli strikes killed 41 others, including 11 children, according to hospital officials. The Gaza Humanitarian Fund, which has been at the centre of controversies, has said that while 19 people were killed in a stampede, one person was stabbed to death in the violence near a distribution hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The aid group has accused Hamas of stirring violence near its depot and spreading misinformation that led to the incident, though it provided no evidence to support the claim. Meanwhile, separate Israeli strikes in Khan Younis killed 19 people earlier and 22 people in northern Gaza, including 11 children. The Israeli military said it has struck more than 120 targets in the past 24 hours across the Gaza Strip, including Hamas military infrastructure of tunnels and weapons storage facilities. Over 800 killed seeking aid The United Nations has said that nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed in the last six weeks as they went to collect aid. The UN, which refuses to cooperate with GHF over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives, said last week that 798 people have been killed seeking aid between late May and July 7, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF sites. Where people are lining up for essential supplies such as food and medicine, and where they have a choice between being shot or being fed, this is unacceptable, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. Why is GHF controversial? GHF has been associated with the deaths of several Palestinians who have been shot dead in the past couple of weeks as they rushed to aid distribution centres run by the group. The group replaced UN-run relief operations in Gaza after they were banned from the region. As many as 15 rights groups have warned the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) that they might face legal challenges over international law violations and have called on it and other private organisations to cease their operations in the region. With inputs from agencies In the G20 finance ministers meeting in South Africa starting tomorrow, debt stress, development finance, and trade are set to dominate the agenda. The meeting comes at a time when US President Donald Trumps tariffs have upset the world order and rattled countries the world over. read more South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (C) delivers his opening remarks during the G20 Finance and Central Bank Deputies and Ministerial Meeting at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in Cape Town on February 26, 2025. (Photo: Rodger Bosch/AFP) Group of 20 finance officials meet in South Africa from Thursday amid trade tensions, a global economic slowdown and Washingtons threat to withdraw from multilateral organisations. President Cyril Ramaphosa has sought to leverage Africas first G20 presidency to promote an African agenda, with topics including the high cost of capital and climate change. Here are the key issues to be discussed: Debt stress Nearly two dozen countries in Africa are already in or at high risk of debt distress, the International Monetary Fund said. Debt-servicing costs crowd out spending on services like infrastructure development, health and education. Launched in late 2020, the G20 Common Framework is a platform aimed at speeding up and simplifying the process of getting overstretched countries back on their feet. But progress has been slow. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Making the platform more efficient is one target for South Africa. Ramaphosa launched an Africa Expert Panel in March whose role is to galvanise efforts, chief among them debt relief. More from World Is Ukraine sliding into authoritarianism amid war? Zelenskyy faces backlash over police raids on critics Panel chair Trevor Manuel told Reuters it had already begun to make detailed recommendations on improving the framework. One of the reforms is that the opportunities in the Common Framework should be available to all middle-income countries as well, said Manuel. Financing for development With aid and development-finance cuts and a pivot by wealthy countries to defence spending, traditional funding sources for developing nations have become scarcer. South Africa is looking to shore up favourable finance for poorer nations. It wants to strengthen and improve the role of multilateral development banks in financing for development. Washington, meanwhile, could potentially withdraw from more global institutions including these banks. Some analysts believe Washingtons withdrawal from multilateralism could leave a space for China to occupy, but it is unclear if Beijing aims to do that. Lending to Africa from China has slowed to a trickle leaving an $80 billion financing gap. Meanwhile, US and European grants accounting for 25 per cent of the regions external financing face cuts as Washington suspends foreign aid and European capitals redirect funds toward defence. Just energy transition President Donald Trumps administration has withdrawn from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) a key focus for South Africa that is designed to help developing countries transition away from coal to cleaner energy. Launched in 2021, JETPs aim to funnel money from governments, multilateral lenders and the private sector to renewable energy projects in a way that benefits local communities. On Monday, the G20s financial stability watchdog said it had developed a new plan to tackle climate risks but it had paused further policy work in light of the U.S. retreat from climate action. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Mobilising funding for climate disasters affecting the Global South was a key agenda item for South Africas presidency. Trade Trumps tariff threats have disrupted the global economy and the response will dominate the agenda even as US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skips the gathering. US plans for tariffs on Canada, Europe and Mexico as well as threats to impose further levies on BRICS member countries including China, India, Russia, Brazil and G20 host South Africa, further heighten tensions between the worlds largest economy and other G20 nations. Communique Director General of Treasury Duncan Pieterse said in a statement on Monday that he hoped to issue the first Communique under the South African G20 presidency at the end of the meetings. The G20 was last able to take a mutually agreed stance to issue a Communique in July of 2024. (This is an agency copy. Except for the headline, the copy has not been headed by Firstpost staff.) Trump has reversed course, saying Ukraine should not target Moscow, as he denied reports that he urged strikes on Russian cities, outlining new conditions for ending the war. read more US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 28. File image/AFP In a big U-turn, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Jul 15) said that Ukraine should not strike Moscow, dismissing reports that he had urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attack the Russian capital during a call on July 4. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, No, he shouldnt target Moscow. When asked if the US was considering sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, Trump replied, No, were not looking to. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD His comments came just a day after he announced what he called a tougher stance against Russia, which includes new military aid for Ukraine. He shouldnt target Moscow Trump on Zelenskyy pic.twitter.com/9krlPcAszb Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2025 Earlier, the Financial Times reported that during the July 4 call, Trump allegedly asked Zelensky, Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? Can you hit St Petersburg too? According to the report, Zelensky responded, Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons. The report claimed Trump suggested striking Russian cities could make them [Russians] feel the pain and push President Vladimir Putin toward negotiations. I am on nobodys side, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. I am on humanitys side because I want to stop the killing. A spokesperson clarified that President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further violence, and added, Hes working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war. Trump also expressed disappointment with President Putin, saying that while he has helped resolve other conflicts, the war in Ukraine remains unsolved. He called the conflict a Biden war, not a Trump war, and said his goal is to find a way for the US to step back from the situation. Trump has given Russia a 50-day deadline to agree to a ceasefire or face new US sanctions and oil tariffsa shift that signals a tougher approach but leaves questions about how negotiations might proceed. At the end of the 50 days, if we dont have a deal, its going to be too bad, Trump said, without offering details on what an agreement would look like. He defended the timeline, saying, I dont think 50 days is very longand it could be sooner than that. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD He also threatened severe tariffs if Russia doesnt end the war within the next 50 days, warning, If theres no deal in 50 days, well impose secondary tariffs100 percent. Thats how its going to be. Trumps remarks come just weeks after the Pentagon halted arms deliveries to Ukraine. Speaking from the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump confirmed that billions of dollars worth of US-made weapons would soon be sent to NATO allies. We are going to produce top-of-the-line weapons, and they will go to NATO, he told reporters. As new questions emerge about Epsteins infamous client list and Trumps past promises to release it, the Maga base is growing restless, and critics are seizing the opportunity to revisit a decades-old connection that refuses to fade read more The relationship between US President Donald Trump and the late Jeffrey Epstein has once again ignited public debate, with speculation, conspiracy theories, and political fallout dominating headlines. As new questions emerge about Epsteins infamous client list and Trumps past promises to release it, the Maga base is growing restless, and critics are seizing the opportunity to revisit a decades-old connection that refuses to fade. What is the controversy? In early 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced she had possession of Epsteins so-called client list, a document long rumoured to name powerful figures linked to the disgraced financiers crimes. However, after much hype, only heavily redacted documents and old material were released, which lacked substance for hawkish observers. This led to widespread unease among MAGA supporters. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Federal officials have since stated that no incriminating client list exists, a claim that has only fueled suspicion and prompted calls for transparency, including from high-profile figures like Elon Musk on social media. Relationship between Epstein and Trump Trump and Epsteins relationship dates back to the late 1980s, when the two mingled in the elite social circles of Palm Beach, Florida. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, they were frequently spotted together at high-profile events, including at Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort, with resurfaced footage showing them socialising. In a 2002 interview, Trump described Epstein as a terrific guy, a comment that has haunted him as hes sought to distance himself from the child sex offender in recent years. Trump now claims a falling out occurred in the mid-2000s, reportedly sparked by a 2004 dispute over a real estate bid in Palm Beach. Epsteins first conviction in 2008 and subsequent investigations further severed their ties. Flight logs and Epsteins notorious black book reveal that Trump and members of his family were guests on Epsteins private jet, though Trumps attorney, Alan Garten, has downplayed any significant connection, dismissing the logs as evidence of a fleeting association. Despite Trumps recent urging for his supporters to move on from the Epstein saga, the issue continues to dog him, particularly during the election cycle. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Even on Wednesday (July 16), Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform that his supporters asking for the release of Epstein files were weaklings who had bought into this bullsh*t." My PAST supporters have bought into this bulls hook, line, and sinker, he said in the post, adding, Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Political opponents and media outlets have kept the story alive, pointing to the lack of transparency around Epsteins network and Trumps past proximity to it. Adding to the complexity, leaked tapes have surfaced in which Epstein allegedly claimed a close friendship with Trump, describing their social exploits in detail. Trumps team has vehemently rejected these claims, labelling them false smears meant to tarnish his reputation. The tapes, combined with the stalled release of Epstein-related documents, have only deepened public fascination and distrust. As the MAGA base grows increasingly vocal about the administrations handling of Epsteins files, the lack of concrete disclosures risks alienating Trumps supporters. Meanwhile, critics argue that the unresolved questions about Trumps ties to Epstein underscore broader issues of accountability among the powerful. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A statement from the US trade representative noted that the probe will focus on the Brazilian governments policies related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference read more The Trump administration has launched an investigation into Brazils unfair trading practices, a week after the US slapped 50 per cent tariffs on the nation. A statement from the US trade representative noted that the probe will focus on the Brazilian governments policies related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference. The US and Brazil are engaged in a trade dispute after President Donald Trump imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Brasilia, accusing the country of unfair trade practices and running a witch trial against former president Jair Bolsonaro. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Why is US probing Brazil? US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has said that the investigation against Brazil is being carried out at Trumps direction into Brazils attacks on American social media companies as well as other unfair trading practices that harm American companies, workers, farmers, and technology innovators. I have determined that Brazils tariff and non-tariff barriers merit a thorough investigation, and potentially, responsive action, he said. Greer claimed that Brazil, under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, subjects America to much higher tariff rates than its other trading partners, hurting the countrys economy. The probe will also find substance on the alleged attempts by Brazil to penalise US companies involved in digital trading and services for not censoring political speech. Nato warns Brazil Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte on Wednesday warned that countries like Brazil, China, and India risk facing severe secondary sanctions if they continue economic ties with Russia. Rutte issued the warning during a meeting with US senators, a day after President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine and threatened to impose biting 100% secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian exports unless a peace agreement is reached within 50 days. My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard, Reuters quoted Rutte as saying to reporters. Refresh for updates. President Donald Trump brokered a late-night agreement with House Republicans ending an internal revolt and reviving stalled cryptocurrency legislation and the Genius Act ahead of a critical vote read more In a dramatic turn of events on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump reportedly brokered a last-minute deal with hardline House Republicans late Tuesday, clearing a procedural roadblock that had earlier derailed the scheduled legislative push for three major cryptocurrency bills and the Genius Act. The intervention, which unfolded during a private meeting in the Oval Office and included a phone-in appearance by House Speaker Mike Johnson, appeared to unify a divided GOP caucus ahead of a crucial vote. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Crypto week almost derailed The week had been touted by GOP leadership as Crypto Week, a symbolic effort to highlight the partys commitment to digital asset regulation. However, internal divisions flared when a bloc of 13 Republicans sided with Democrats to vote down the procedural rule needed to advance the legislation. As reported by The Hill, the opposition included prominent figures such as Reps. Chip Roy, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andy Biggs, among others. Their chief concern centred on the absence of language in the Genius Act prohibiting the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), a sticking point that has become emblematic of broader GOP mistrust of centralised financial oversight. The Genius Act, which aims to establish a federal framework for stablecoins digital tokens pegged to the US dollar had already passed the Senate, making it the most viable piece of crypto legislation currently in motion. Yet its path in the House was blocked when dissident Republicans argued that it did not go far enough to rein in federal authority over digital finance. Trump steps in Trumps decision to engage directly with the rebellious lawmakers signalled the high stakes of the moment. In a post on Truth Social, he claimed that after a brief meeting with 11 of the 12 holdout Republicans, all had agreed to support the procedural rule required to advance the bills. The president said Speaker Johnson had participated via phone and that the vote would be held Wednesday morning. While Trump did not specify what, if any, concessions were made to secure this agreement, the statement appeared to quell the immediate legislative crisis. Speaker Johnson has confirmed the arrangement, expressing gratitude for Trumps intervention, calling it crucial in getting the chamber back on track. Johnson also pledged that the House would continue pushing forward on additional cryptocurrency legislation. Legislative package under review The agreement clears the way for the House to consider not only the Genius Act but also two other key crypto bills the Digital Asset Market Structure Bill and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act. The former seeks to delineate regulatory responsibilities between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), clarifying jurisdiction over digital assets. The latter is a symbolic rejection of a government-issued digital currency reflecting conservative fears about state overreach in personal financial data. The procedural impasse stemmed partly from demands by some GOP lawmakers to bundle all three bills into a single package. Speaker Johnson explained that such a move would require re-approval by the Senate, potentially delaying the process indefinitely. The Senate has so far only passed the Genius Act after months of deliberation. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Tactical or strategic? The unusual move to block a rules vote a typically pro forma step in the House represented both a tactical manoeuvre and a broader ideological statement by GOP hardliners. By disrupting floor proceedings, they sought to signal dissatisfaction with leadership and the perceived softness of the legislation, especially regarding federal surveillance potential in a digital currency future. Votes on procedural rules are usually routine, divided along party lines. However, the House Republican majority has increasingly seen internal factions use these votes to assert influence or air grievances. Majority Leader Steve Scalise notably changed his vote to no as a procedural manoeuvre allowing the issue to be revisited an indication that leadership was anticipating a second attempt. A crypto ally in Trump Trumps growing alignment with the cryptocurrency industry has been one of the notable developments of his second term as president. He has repeatedly voiced support for a clean stablecoin bill and has cautioned against entangling it with other measures or regulatory additions. His endorsement appears to carry significant weight among House Republicans, many of whom are treading through a new territory in the rapidly evolving digital finance space. His position stands in contrast to more cautious lawmakers who prefer comprehensive regulation that addresses both investor protection and federal control. Nonetheless, Trumps decisive involvement in this legislative episode suggests he is positioning himself as a champion of crypto innovation, an emerging issue with increasing political resonance. What comes next If the agreement holds, the House is expected to vote on the procedural rule and begin debate on the three bills as early as Wednesday, potentially delivering a significant win for the crypto sector. However, the final passage remains uncertain, especially as the Senate has shown limited enthusiasm for comprehensive crypto legislation beyond the stablecoin framework. Still, Tuesdays episode reflected the unpredictable dynamics of GOP politics in the post-Trump era. Trumps intervention appears to have not only salvaged the days legislative agenda but also reaffirmed his role as a central figure in shaping the partys policy direction, even on complex issues like digital finance. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump has signaled plans to impose new tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as soon as the end of July, warning that rates on drug imports could eventually soar as high as 200 percent. read more President Donald Trump recently indicated his intention to impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as early as the end of July. These import taxes are likely to align with broader "reciprocal" rates set to take effect on August 1st. Probably at the end of the month, and were going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then were going to make it a very high tariff, Trump said STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump, speaking to reporters while returning to Washington from artificial intelligence summit, stated that pharmaceutical tariffs would initially be low, giving companies about a year to bring manufacturing back to the US, before escalating to very high rates. He also mentioned a similar and less complicated timeline for semiconductor tariffs, though he didnt offer specifics. Earlier in the month, Trump had publicly discussed a 50 per cent tariff on copper and predicted pharmaceutical tariffs could reach 200 per cent after a year-long grace period for companies to reshore production. These moves stem from investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, where Trump argued that a surge of foreign imports posed a threat to national security. I would say India, and we have a couple of others, but I have to tell you, for the most part, Im very happy with the letters, Trump said. These potential tariffs could immediately affect major drugmakers like Eli Lilly & Co., Merck & Co., and Pfizer Inc., which have significant overseas production. This, in turn, risks driving up costs for American consumers. Similarly, semiconductor tariffs are expected to impact not only chip manufacturers but also popular products such as laptops and smartphones from companies like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronic Co Ltd. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trumps tariff threats come amidst his recent practice of unilaterally dictating tariff rates to various trading partners via letters, while simultaneously asserting his willingness to negotiate. For example, he announced an agreement with Indonesia that reduced a previously announced 32 per cent tariff to 19 per cent, in exchange for Indonesias commitment to purchase $15 billion in US energy, $4.5 billion in agricultural products, and 50 Boeing Co. jets. Trump predicted he could finalize two or three trade deals before the August 1st implementation of his reciprocal tariffs, with an agreement with India being among the most likely. He acknowledged substantive discussions with five to six countries but indicated he was often content with simply dictating a tariff rate rather than finalizing a full agreement. He also suggested a standard tariff of a little over 10 per cent for smaller countries not receiving tailored rates. While some countries, like South Korea, have shown a willingness to open trade after his threats, others, such as Japan, have not. Representatives from the European Union, facing a 30 per cent tariff, were expected to meet with U.S. negotiators. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump also dismissed concerns that his recent threat of secondary tariffs on Russian trading partnersif Moscow didnt agree to a ceasefire with Ukrainecould impact US consumers, despite expert warnings that such a move could drive up energy costs. He simply stated, I dont think so. I think that whole thing is going to go away. Bennets denial followed recent remarks by right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, who claimed without evidence that Epstein may have been working on behalf of Israeli intelligence read more Rumours of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein being a former Mossad agent have been floating around ever since Tucker Carlson triggered discussions about the unfounded claim. Now, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has rejected the allegations, describing them as a vicious wave of slander and lies against Israel. The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false, Bennet said, adding, Theres a vicious wave of slander and lies against my country and my people, and we just wont take it anymore. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, was first charged with sex offences in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. Ever since then, he has been fighting legal battles in a complicated turn of events due to his links with US President Donald Trump. The Justice Department and FBI said in a memo made public earlier this month that there is no evidence that the disgraced financier kept a client list or was blackmailing powerful figures. What did Tucker Carlson say? Bennets denial followed recent remarks by right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, who claimed without evidence that Epstein may have been working on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Carlson made the comments at a conservative conference, suggesting Epsteins activities could have been part of a foreign blackmail operation. Allegations of ties between Epstein and Israeli intelligence have circulated for years, largely fueled by Epsteins association with media mogul Robert Maxwell and his daughter, Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as meetings with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Some reports also speculated a link between Epstein and Israeli intelligence due to shared connections with the Maxwells. Credible Epstein files should be released The Epstein case is taking Trumps popularity down by a smidge, with the MAGA backers pushing the president to release files related to the case. Trump said Tuesday the US Justice Department should release all credible information from its probe into Epstein. The attorney general has handled that very well, the Republican leader said of Pam Bondi, who leads the Justice Department, when he was asked about the case at the White House. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Trump repeated his claim that the Epstein files were made up by his Democratic predecessors in the White House even though he said multiple times during the election campaign that he would probably release them. With inputs from agencies The Secret Service immediately initiated emergency protocol by locking down the White House and redirecting all press personnel to shelter in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room read more The White House is seen behind bars from a fence in Washington, DC. AFP The White House was temporarily locked down on Tuesday after an object was thrown over the fence of the North Lawn in a possible security breach. Later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that a phone was thrown in the direction of the premises by someone. The Secret Service immediately initiated emergency protocol by locking down the White House and redirecting all press personnel to shelter in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The agency is now conducting a probe into the incident. It is not yet clear who threw the object, which appeared to be a phone, over the fence and why. The Secret Service enforced a full lockdown of the White House grounds and briefly closed Pennsylvania Avenue to traffic. By 11:56 a.m. local time, the security measures were lifted, and journalists were permitted to return to the North Lawn. BREAKING: The Secret Service has shut down the North Lawn of the White House and instructed all the press to shelter in the briefing room. They have not explained why yet! pic.twitter.com/pg1C4XZAzS Jessica (@RealJessica05) July 15, 2025 A report by The Dallas Express suggests that a tourist threw the phone inside the White House, prompting security measures, although nothing has been confirmed by the Secret Service yet. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is not said to be affected by the lockdown, with his Pennsylvania event continuing as planned. This isnt the first time the White House has experienced a security breach. Earlier this year, a child managed to crawl through the North Lawn fence and attempted to enter the grounds. Officers quickly reunited the child with their parents without incident, said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi in a post on social media. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Shocking discovery with Granger Ford ESP? Wow, I hope I am wrong here, but just went to get an ESP from Granger Ford, Planned to use the payments option. When I selected it, they added a 10% "admin" fee. Well, let's face it, that is basically an interest rate. So, I decided to see what the actual rate was using ChatGPT.The purchase price of the plan is. They require 20% down, so you aren't actually paying the full amount over, you are paying $1652 with a. The payoff period is 18 months and the installment is monthly.What's that work out to according to ChatGPT?(or as they put it, admin) fee.Holy cow, this is two fingers Jimmy rates. @GrangerFord what say you?Note: I've checked Flood Ford and their price is $2065 with no "admin" fee. If there is an "admin" fee for the monthly payments and not for the single pay, then it is interest by very definition. Are you charging an admin fee for people who pay all at once? If not, you need to disclose this. Looking forward to your response. I hope there is a reasonable explanation here. If this is a 3rd party charging these fees, then they are not doing anything to help your reputation. Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2024. Dennis received bachelor's degrees in communication and political science with a TAG degree in Spanish from The University of Akron in Ohio. He grew up in Ohio with two sisters and two brothers, one being his fraternal twin. He and his wife have two dogs: Bacio, and Cal. Dennis currently covers natural resource and environmental issues for The Daily Sentinel Mon Monday 92 /68 Morning clouds followed by afternoon sun. Highs in the low 90s and lows in the upper 60s. IMAGE CAPTION: Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. logo. | Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc., a leading mortgage subservicer, today announced the successful completion of its 2025 Service Organization Control 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 audits. These independent audits, conducted by the public accounting and business advisory firm Plante Moran, PLLC, affirm Dovenmuehle's adherence to the highest standards for internal controls, data security, and operational effectiveness. A woman who conspired with a former postal worker to steal and alter ballots during the 2024 general election was sentenced to probation and community service Tuesday. Sally Maxedon pleaded guilty to one count of election forgery, a class five felony, and one count of voting twice, a class two misdemeanor. Maxedon received a 24-month deferred judgment for the felony case, meaning as long as she completes the terms of her plea agreement, she will not get a felony conviction. Maxedon and Vicki Stuart, who worked for the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier, stole 19 ballots from a Grand Junction neighborhood, forged the signatures and returned them to the Mesa County Elections Division in October. The incident was reported to the 21st Judicial District Attorney investigators by elections staff on Oct. 21, 2024. In Colorado, the District Attorneys Office is tasked with investigating crimes related to elections, and DA investigators launched a criminal investigation with the assistance and coordination of other local, state and federal agencies including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser according to a news release. District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said Tuesday he believed Stuart, who was sentenced to five years in prison in June after pleading guilty to identity theft and forgery, was the driving force behind the scheme. We were able to identify the principal in this situation as being Ms. Stuart, Rubinstein said. Rubinstein said he believed Stuart stole the ballots from people she believed may have been in the U.S. illegally and/or may have been inclined to vote differently from how she wanted. Maxedon was involved in filling out the ballots, Rubinstein said. Of the differences between Stuarts plea deal and Maxedons plea deal, Rubinstein said sometimes not everyone can be a defendant, someone has to be a witness. Rubinstein noted Maxedon cooperated with the investigation after some initial hesitance. According to the arrest affidavit, Maxedon initially told investigators she had been provided the ballots by a Colorado Bureau of Investigation employee who she met at Mesa Mall. Rubinstein asked for a very large number of community service hours. Maxedons attorney, Daniel Shaffer, said Maxedon may have gotten her news from an echo chamber that led her to believe people were coming into the U.S. illegally and voting, something a reasonable person would find ridiculous. Shaffer said Maxedon has written letters to some of the victims apologizing for betraying their trust. I just want to make sure you know I take accountability for what Ive done. Maxedon said. I feel horrible. I feel ashamed of myself. Judge Brian Flynn sentenced Maxedon to two years probation and 100 hours of community service, to be completed within 18 months. We want to vote, and we want our voices to be heard, and I dont want anybody interfering with that, Flynn said. They cut down Englands beloved Sycamore Gap tree. Now they face over 4 years in prison Two men who cut down Englands beloved Sycamore Gap tree have been sentenced to over four years in prison Contracts Contracts For July 15, 2025 U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND Alaska Marine Lines Inc., Seattle, Washington (HTC71124DW001); American President Lines LLC, Arlington, Virginia (HTC71124DW002); American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier LLC, Ponte Verda Beach, Florida, (HTC71124DW003); Crowley Government Services Inc., Jacksonville, Florida (HTC71124DW004); Farrell Lines Inc., Norfolk, Virginia (HTC71124DW005); Federated Maritime LLC, Boca Raton, Florida (HTC71124DW006); Foss International Inc., Seattle, Washington (HTC71124DW007); Hapag-Lloyd USA LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (HTC71124DW008); Liberty Global Logistics LLC, Lake Success, New York (HTC71124DW009); Maersk Line Ltd., Norfolk, Virginia (HTC71124DW010); Matson Navigation Co. Inc., Oakland, California (HTC71124DW011); National Shipping of America LLC, San Francisco, California (HTC71124DW012); Northcliffe Ocean Shipping & Trading Co. Inc., St. Simons Island, Georgia (HTC71124DW013); Pasha Hawaii Holdings LLC, Honolulu, Hawaii, (HTC71124DW014); Patriot Contract Services LLC, Concord, California (HTC71124DW015); Schuyler Line Navigation Co. LLC, Annapolis, Maryland (HTC71124DW016); Sealift Inc. of Delaware, Oyster Bay, New York (HTC71124DW017); SeaTac Marine Services LLC, Seattle, Washington (HTC71124DW018); Superior Maritime Services Inc., Weston, Florida (HTC71124DW019); Tote Maritime Alaska LLC, Tacoma, Washington (HTC71124DW020); Tote Maritime Puerto Rico LLC, Jacksonville, Florida (HTC71124DW021); Trailer Bridge Inc., Jacksonville, Florida (HTC71124DW022); US Ocean LLC, New Orleans, Louisiana (HTC71124DW023); and Young Brothers Ltd., Honolulu, Hawaii (HTC71124DW025), have been awarded option period contract modifications to an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract. The modifications total an estimated face value of $750,000,000 bringing the total estimated cumulative face value to $1,525,000,000. These modifications allow for procurement of the following services under the Universal Services Contract - 10 (UAX-10) program: international ocean and intermodal transportation services, including time-definite, port-to-port and door-to-door transportation service using ocean common or contract carriers offering regularly scheduled commercial service, to include shipment of both containerized and breakbulk cargo. The option period of performance is from Sept. 1, 2025, to Aug. 31, 2026. Working capital funds (Transportation) will be obligated for fiscal 2025 and 2026. The U.S. Transportation Command, Directorate of Acquisition, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, is the contracting activity. DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Vibrant Works/San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind,** San Antonio, Texas, has been awarded a maximum $67,851,379 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for flame resistant extreme weather outer layer trousers. This is a five-year contract with no option periods. The ordering period end date is July 14, 2030. Using military service is Army. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2025 through 2030 defense working capital funds. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (SPE1C1-25-D-B011). NRG Business Marketing LLC, Princeton New Jersey (SPE604-25-D-7525, $21,951,299); and Sage Energy Trading Energy LLC, Tulsa, Oklahoma (SPE604-25-D-7519, $8,871,896), have each been awarded a firm-fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment contract under solicitation SPE604-25-R-0402 for direct supply of pipeline quality natural gas. This was a competitive acquisition with eight responses received. These are two-year base contracts with one six-month option period. Locations of performance are Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio, with a Sept. 30, 2027, performance completion date. Using customers are Army, Air Force, Navy, Space Force, Defense Department, and other federal civilian agencies. The customers are solely responsible for funding this contract and funds may vary in appropriation type and fiscal year. The contracting activity is the Defense Logistics Agency Energy, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. ARMY Birdon America Inc.,* Denver, Colorado, was awarded a $25,787,618 modification (WP00045) to contract 56HZV-19-D-0093 for the procurement of an equipped bridge erection boat and support services. Work will be performed in Denver, Colorado, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 30, 2027. Fiscal 2025 other procurement, Army funds in the amount of $25,787,618 were obligated at the time of the award. Army Contracting Command, Detroit Arsenal, Michigan, is the contracting activity. GMHill Baker JV LLC,* Jacksonville, Florida (W912EP-25-D-0020); CEMS-RS&H SE JV,* Jacksonville, Florida (W912EP-25-D-0020); Toland & Mizell Architects Inc.,* Atlanta, Georgia (W912EP-25-D-0020); and The Johnson-McAdams Firm P.A.,* Greenwood, Mississippi (W912EP-25-D-0023), will compete for each order of the $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for architect and engineering services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 16 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of July 14, 2030. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity. Guardian Construction Inc.,* Layton, Utah, was awarded a $10,272,698 firm-fixed-price contract for an aircrew readiness facility. Bids were solicited via the internet with eight received. Work will be performed in Beale Air Force Base, California, with an estimated completion date of Oct. 1, 2026. Fiscal 2023 military construction, Air Force Reserves funds; and 2025 operation and maintenance, Air Force Reserves funds, in the amount of $10,272,698, were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Kentucky, is the contracting activity (W912QR-25-C-A007). Shearwater Mission Support LLC, Anchorage, Alaska, was awarded a $9,150,373 modification (P00041) to contract W911S8-18-D-0018 for installation support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 16, 2026. Army 418th Contracting Support Brigade, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, is the contracting activity. NAVY BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P, Minneapolis, Minnesota, was awarded a $10,332,144 firm-fixed-price modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-24-C-5324) for MK 41 Vertical Launching System canister and ancillary equipment production. Work will be performed in Aberdeen, South Dakota (90%); and Minneapolis, Minnesota (10%), and is expected to be completed by February 2028. Fiscal 2025 defense-wide procurement funds in the amount of $10,332,144 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. (Awarded July 11, 2025) *Small business **Mandatory source https://www.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract/Article/4244925/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Talisman Sabre 2025 Begins with Record Participation and Enduring Purpose By Staff Sgt. Kylee Marshall July 14, 2025 Sydney, Australia -- Exercise Talisman Sabre 25 formally commenced today from the flight deck of HMAS Adelaide in Sydney Harbor, launching military activities involving 19 nations and over 30,000 service members across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. This marks the largest bilateral military training event between the United States and Australia to date. With unprecedented scale in both geography and participating nations, the strategic message is unmistakable, Talisman Sabre 25 represents a cornerstone of allied military cooperation between Australia and the United States, demonstrating enduring resolve to ensure regional stability. "Ultimately, there are two things that Talisman Sabre, and exercises like this, as we campaign through the theater provide," said Lt. Gen. Joel B. Vowell, Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Pacific. "It's readiness to respond when our nations call us to do that, and it's effectively a deterrent mechanism, because our ultimate goal, part two here, is no war. By rehearsing, by practicing together, by staying in tune with each other, we are providing that readiness to our armies, our navies, our air forces, our space forces, our cyber forces." Throughout Talisman Sabre 25, the U.S. military will join the Australian Defence Force and like-minded partners from across the world to train together, enhancing interoperability and refining procedures to ensure continued regional stability. U.S service members from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and Space Force are all participating, integrating their capabilities across all domains with the Australian Defence Force and multinational partners. This ensures the combined force is rehearsed and ready to meet requirements for continued stability and security across the Indo-Pacific. The participation of 19 partner nations, the most in Talisman Sabre history, underscores a shared understanding that lasting security in the Indo-Pacific depends on collective commitment, strength, and deterrence against modern challenges. "We do interoperability with three facets, human, technical, and procedural facets. Those are important because you can't build those things in a crisis, a humanitarian assistance disaster response mission, some sort of conflict in the future," said Vowell. "We build those capacities and capabilities forward together, as the saying goes, if we could do all this alone, then we could go fast, but because we want to go far, we have to do it together." This represents the most complex Talisman Sabre iteration ever conducted. The scope of geography being trained upon, the number of service members present, and the advanced technology and capabilities being demonstrated reflect the professionalism and lethality of participating nations. Over the coming weeks, these troops will be tested, capabilities rehearsed and resolve for enduring regional stability clearly demonstrated. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Construction partnership in Poland enhances readiness, interoperability and deterrence in Eastern Europe By Christopher Gardner July 14, 2025 POZNAN, Poland -- The infrastructure of deterrence continues to grow in Poland, with crews actively building the foundations for interoperability, readiness and lethality for troops at military bases across Poland. Most of the work is part of the Poland Provided Infrastructure program, through which the Polish military funds and leads construction of military infrastructure that is designed and constructed to meet U.S. requirements for use by U.S. forces operating in Poland. For its part, the U.S. will continue to bear the costs of training, equipping, deploying and employment of U.S. forces in the country. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers represents U.S. European Command as the U.S. execution agent for the program and works closely with Polish partners to support design and construction efforts for projects in the PPI program. This includes early design development, design review processes and on-site construction oversight to enable seamless interoperability. "The Corps of Engineers is working with our Polish counterparts to deliver military projects all over Poland," said Europe District Northern Europe Area Office Engineer Guillermo Provencio. "The projects we're delivering increase U.S. readiness, Polish readiness and NATO readiness in Eastern Europe and we are proud to be part of the Poland Provided Infrastructure program." Provencio oversees several Europe District personnel based at U.S. Army Garrison's headquarters on Camp Kosciuszko in Poznan. This team works closely with Polish partners on construction at various military sites where U.S. and Polish forces operate side by side. In all, the PPI program will deliver more than 100 projects at military sites throughout Poland. The first project formal PPI project broke ground in 2022 and, so far, several have already been completed, several are in active construction and dozens are already well into design. Europe District's personnel in Poland are part of Europe District's recently organized Poland Integrated Program Office meant to streamline support and coordination for the PPI program. "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is committed to delivering the Poland Provided Infrastructure program with precision and efficiency. By aligning our resources through the Integrated Program Office, we ensure seamless execution of critical projects that enhance NATO's Eastern Flank," said Europe District Poland IPO Chief Tom Waters. "Our partnership with the Polish government continues to strengthen daily, reinforcing our shared commitment to regional security and operational excellence." The current PPI construction mission is largely focused on the three main military communities supported by U.S. Army Garrison Poland - Poznan, Powidz and Swietoszow. In Poznan, U.S. Army Garrison Poland and V Corps Headquarters Forward occupy the relatively small footprint of Camp Kosciuszko. Most of the upcoming work in Poznan is focused on renovating and improving existing buildings with plans in the works for significant interior renovations that will significantly increase administrative space for personnel. Powidz has seen a great deal of new construction in recent years, with even more projects on the horizon. Through PPI, a new Deployable Air Base System support and storage facilities project is nearly complete that will further enable readiness for the U.S. Air Force. Additionally, a new Bulk Fuel Storage project and associated site improvements as well as key communication infrastructure will also increase Powidz's operational capacity. Work is also underway for a new rotary wing apron, which will be able to support a combat aviation brigade's full complement of helicopters and the lethality and other capabilities they represent. On the quality of life side, work recently began on a new barracks and dining facility for the rotational troops stationed there. Swietoszow includes the Zagan Training Complex and other military sites in southwestern Poland. Right now, crews are working to increase fueling and rail infrastructure. Designs are in the works for a wide range of additional military infrastructure including an entire new brigade operations facility. This effort will involve design and construction of multiple facilities to accommodate an enduring presence of approximately 4,800 troops. Europe District works closely with different regional Polish military construction counterparts, which operate much like how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has regional districts in the United States. Europe District Project Engineer Jeff Thompson emphasized the importance of that relationship in delivering projects and how it is continuing to develop as the PPI program grows. "We have a lot of different Polish partners that we work with and in this region we work with RZI Wrocaw and we really work to build that relationship... they have been the best of partners, great at communication, friendly, always willing to learn and also teach me," Thompson said while on site in Swietoszow. "There are problems and there are solutions and you just need people to work together and work through them and the more we work with RZI Wroclaw and other Polish partners, the better we get at that and the easier that cooperation will be in the future between the U.S. and Poland." Waters emphasized that the success of the PPI program hinges on the strength of collaborative partnerships and sustained relationships, underscoring their critical role in achieving seamless execution and advancing shared strategic objectives. "The PPI program exemplifies the robust and growing partnership between the U.S. and Polish militaries," Waters said. "As part of this enduring collaboration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is honored to contribute to initiatives that enhance Poland National Defense and NATO's Eastern Flank. Through the PPI program, we are witnessing tangible improvements in readiness and interoperability, with continued benefits anticipated as the program expands." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Defense Contractor Berg Co. Agrees to Pay $3.3M to Resolve Allegations of Causing Fraudulent Bids Monday, July 14, 2025 For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs Berg Companies Inc. (Berg) has agreed to pay $3.3 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting, or causing the submission of, false claims under prime vendor contracts with the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), which the Department of Defense (DoD) uses to purchase goods and services. Berg, based in Spokane, Washington, manufactures rigid wall shelters and sells them to the federal government, including through various prime vendor programs. In September 2019, Berg was acquired by Hunter Defense Technologies, Inc., which is a defense contractor that is based in Solon, Ohio. Berg was a vendor to Noble Sales Co. Inc. doing business as Noble Supply & Logistics (Noble), which is a Boston-based prime contractor to DLA for Maintenance, Repair & Operations (MRO) contracts for the European Command. Under the MRO contracts, the DoD can place orders for goods and services through Noble. Noble is then required to solicit bids from two independently competing vendors for transactions below $25,000 and from three independently competing vendors for transactions at or above $25,000. According to DLA, MRO contracts are "a partnership aimed at achieving infrastructure savings, inventory cost reductions and favorable product pricing through leveraged buying." Pursuant to the settlement agreement, Berg admitted that, from 2019 to 2021, Berg coordinated with Noble and two other Noble vendors to submit inflated quotes for Berg-made rigid wall shelters so that the other vendors would win the awards at inflated prices. In the first scheme, Berg admitted that it coordinated and submitted inflated quotes on two solicitations for the sale of 10 Berg-made rigid wall shelters that Noble awarded to a New Mexico-based vendor. In the second scheme, Berg admitted that it coordinated and submitted inflated quotes on 26 solicitations for the purchase of 29 Berg-made rigid wall shelters that Noble awarded to a Florida-based vendor. As a result of these schemes, the United States contends that the requirements were not competed as required by the prime vendor contract and the military customers were overcharged for the Berg-made rigid wall shelters. "Bid rigging of this type inhibits competition on the products and on prices, thereby creating the risk that the government is purchasing inferior products at exorbitant prices," said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "This settlement reinforces the Department's commitment in using the FCA to pursue anti-competitive fraud." "As evidenced in this settlement agreement, these contractors manipulated and undermined the fair and open bidding process designed to save our military and taxpayers money," said U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley for the District of Massachusetts. "We commend Berg for cooperating with the government to resolve this matter and taking responsibility for this conduct. As this settlement demonstrates, not only will my Office continue to use the False Claims Act to help root out fraud, waste and abuse involving taxpayer funds, but it will reward those that accept responsibility and cooperate with the government." "Collusion in government contracting erodes public trust, distorts fair competition, and drives up costs for taxpayers and service members," said U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison for the District of New Mexico. "Such conduct undermines the integrity of the procurement process and betrays the public's expectation that government funds will be used responsibly. This resolution demonstrates our unwavering commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars, ensuring a level playing field for all businesses, and holding accountable those who seek to profit by manipulating federal contracting. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to defend the integrity of government procurement and safeguard the interests of the American people." "Today's settlement announcement demonstrates the commitment of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), along with our law enforcement partners, to aggressively pursue those who undermine the integrity of the DoD contracting process," said Acting Special Agent in Charge Chad Gosch of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, DCIS Southwest Field Office. "DCIS will use all available resources to hold accountable those who betray the trust of the American taxpayer by corrupting the DoD procurement system for personal gain." "GSA OIG will continue to work with its investigative partners to hold government contractors accountable for concealing relevant information that may affect the award or performance of government contracts," said Special Agent in Charge Joseph Dattoria of the U.S. General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General, Northeast Division. Berg cooperated with the government in this matter. As part of the settlement, Berg acknowledged and accepted responsibility for the facts that form the basis of this settlement. This settlement resolves claims brought against Berg under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the FCA, which permit private parties to sue on behalf of the government when they believe that a defendant has submitted false claims for government funds and to receive a share of the recovery. The settlement in this case provides for the whistleblowers, Mark G. Davis and Andrew G. Gunn, to receive a $561,000 share of the recovery. Davis is a U.S. Army veteran and former salesperson for one of the sub-vendors involved in the conspiracy allegation. Gunn is the managing director of a United Kingdom company that manufacturers storage equipment for United States military customers and sold its equipment through this prime vendor's MRO contracts. The remainder of the matter remains under seal. The resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Justice Department's Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the United States Attorney's Offices for the District of New Mexico and District of Massachusetts, with assistance from the Defense Criminal Investigative Services, the Army Criminal Investigation Division, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the General Services Administration Office of Inspector General. The matter was handled by Trial Attorney Samson Asiyanbi of the Justice Department's Civil Division, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Cunniff of the District of New Mexico, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lindsey Ross and Brian LaMacchia of the District of Massachusetts. The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability. Topic: False Claims Act Components: Civil Division USAO - Massachusetts USAO - New Mexico Press Release Number: 25-704 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese MND spokesperson urges Japan to exercise caution in military and security fields over Japan's reported plan to export used destroyers to Philippines Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 14, 2025 04:01 PM In response to Japan's plan to export six used navy destroyers to the Philippines, which is allegedly for "deterrence against China's maritime expansion," Jiang Bin, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson, said on Monday that China has always maintained that defense and security cooperation between relevant countries should not target or harm the interests of third parties. According to Reuters, the export plan involves six Abukuma-class destroyer escorts in service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force for more than three decades. During World War II, Japanese militarism committed aggression and colonial rule against neighboring countries, including China and the Philippines, and occupied islands in the South China Sea, bearing grave historical responsibility. In recent years, Japan has breached the pacifist constitution and exclusively defense-oriented policy, continuously exporting weapons and equipment abroad in an attempt to form "small cliques" to disrupt the South China Sea and create instability in the Asia-Pacific region. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. We urge Japan to deeply reflect on and learn from its history, exercise caution in its words and deeds in the military and security fields, and take more actions conducive to maintaining regional peace and stability, Jiang noted. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan urged to exercise prudence in military, security fields Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China Source Xinhuanet EditorLi Jiayao 2025-07-14 23:52:29 BEIJING, July 14 (Xinhua) -- China on Monday urged Japan to draw lessons from history, in a bid to exercise prudence in security issues as this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. Jiang Bin, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media request for comment on claims by Japanese government sources that the country plans to export six Abukuma-class ships to the Philippines. The spokesperson reiterated China's position that defense and security cooperation between countries should neither target a third party nor undermine the interests of any third party. Jiang highlighted the historical responsibilities of Japanese militarism during World War II, including invasions and colonial rule over neighboring countries such as China and the Philippines, as well as the occupation of islands in the South China Sea. In recent years, Japan has breached the constraints of its pacifist constitution and the exclusive defense-oriented principle, continuously exporting weapons and military equipment abroad, the spokesperson noted. Such actions are seen as attempts to form exclusive blocs and stir instability in the South China Sea and the broader Asia-Pacific region, he said. "We urge the Japanese side to engage in deep reflection, draw lessons from history, exercise prudence in both words and actions regarding military and security matters, and make contributions to regional peace and stability," the spokesperson said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Systematic war of thirst': Israel kills 700 Palestinians collecting water in Gaza Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 2:18 PM The Government Media Office in Gaza says more than 700 Palestinians, including children, have been killed while collecting water, as part of Israel's "deliberate war of thirst" against people in the besieged territory. In a statement released on Monday, the office said Israeli forces have been using water as a weapon of war in order to deprive Palestinians of their most basic rights. "The Israeli occupation continues to wage a systematic and deliberate war of thirst against the Palestinian people in Gaza," it added. "We affirm that this racist policy constitutes a full-fledged war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and a grave violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law." The media office also noted that the Israeli military has targeted 112 freshwater filling points and destroyed 720 water wells in the Gaza Strip, preventing the access of 1.25 million people to clean water. It further said that the occupation's army has obstructed the entry of 12 million liters of fuel monthly, the necessary amount to operate the minimum number of water wells, waste collection mechanisms, sewage stations, and other vital sectors across Gaza. "This has caused a complete paralysis in water and sewage networks and the spread of epidemics, mainly among the children," it added. Meanwhile, the media office called on the international community and human rights organizations to take immediate action towards stopping Israel's war of thirst and allowing the entry of fuel and heavy equipment needed to reoperate water wells and drainage stations in Gaza. On Sunday, Israeli airstrikes targeted a water distribution point north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 thirsty people, including 6 children, who were queuing for drinking water. The Gaza Strip is facing a rapidly worsening crisis in access to clean water amid Israel's ongoing genocidal war on the Palestinian territory. Israel unleashed its brutal onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for the regime's intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people. The Tel Aviv regime has so far failed to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing captives in Gaza, despite killing 58,026 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 138,500 others. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Netanyahu 'unwilling' to reach Gaza ceasefire deal: Hamas Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 6:37 PM Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not seeking to reach a ceasefire deal to end the ongoing genocidal campaign across the besieged Gaza Strip. In a statement released on Monday, the Palestinian group said that the "criminal Netanyahu" was plunging his army and his entity into a futile war with no prospects. "Netanyahu is skilled at thwarting one round of negotiations after another, and is unwilling to reach any agreement," Hamas said. The "absolute victory" that Netanyahu is promoting is a major illusion intended to cover up a resounding defeat on the ground [in Gaza] and in politics, it added. Delegations from both sides began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree to a temporary halt to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has been going on since October 7, 2023. Israel's refusal to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip has hampered indirect ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli regime. Both Hamas and Israel have announced that 10 living captives, taken during Hamas-led Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, would be released if an agreement for a 60-day ceasefire were reached. But Israel's refusal to withdraw all of its troops from Gaza is holding back progress on securing an agreement. Hamas has said it wants a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, which is home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians. Elsewhere in the Monday statement, Hamas said resistance fighters were now "waging a war of attrition that surprises the enemy daily with innovative field tactics, causing it to lose the initiative and confuse its calculations, despite its superior firepower and air superiority." "The longer the war continues, the more the occupation army sinks into the shifting sands of Gaza and becomes more vulnerable to the resistance's qualitative strikes." Israeli reserve major-general Yitzhak Brik recently told the Hebrew-language Maariv daily that Hamas had regained its pre-war strength, contradicting the Israeli military's accounts of progress in the besieged Palestinian territory. Brik called the reality on the ground for Israeli soldiers "grim". He further pointed out that Hamas now numbers about 40,000 resistance fighters, similar to its strength before the Israeli aggression began in Gaza. Palestinian resistance fighters in recent days have killed and injured dozens of Israeli occupation forces in a series of ambushes, amid the regime's escalated aggression on the besieged territory. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ranking Member Shaheen and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic Members Publish Major New Report on the Consequences of the Trump Administration's Global Retreat and China's Strategic Gains Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 14, 2025 WASHINGTON - Today, Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen and Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee released a comprehensive report detailing how the Trump Administration's first six months have significantly undermined the United States' ability to compete with the People's Republic of China (PRC). Commissioned by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the report warns that the Administration's lack of a coherent, whole-of-government U.S. strategyincluding leveraging foreign aid, robust diplomatic tools and alliances and partnershipshas created space for China to expand its global influence in ways that harm American economic and security interests. Based on extensive meetings with foreign officials, U.S. companies, and international NGOs, as well as thousands of miles of travel by Committee staff, the report calls for the urgent restoration and reconstruction of the tools America needs to compete with our top long-term national security challenge. The release of this report comes at a critical moment, as the Senate considers a rescissions package and the Fiscal Year 2026 budget request that would further erode America's diplomatic and development capacitydirectly undermining efforts to compete with China on the global stage. It also follows significant layoffs at the State Department and the effective shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The 91-page report, titled "The Price of Retreat: America Cedes Global Leadership to China," is informed by committee travel to Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, interviews with aid workers, subject matter experts, foreign officials and open-source research. It presents detailed findings on the Trump Administration's collective actions, including undermining America's ability to deliver foreign assistance and development programs, gutting U.S.-supported independent media and dismantling counter-disinformation tools. It catalogs the short-sighted elimination of U.S.-led people-to-people exchanges, the abandonment of key international institutions and attacks against U.S. allies and partners. Taken together, these actions have unquestionably weakened America's ability to lead and compete with China. "This report paints a troubling picture," said Ranking Member Shaheen. "While President Trump retreats from every corner of the worldattacking allies, slashing America's diplomatic tools and embracing adversariesChina is building influence, expanding relationships and reshaping the global order to its advantage. At a time when China is articulating its vision for a future that leaves America behind, the Administration's abdication of global leadership is dangerous and will impose real costs on the American people. I believe my colleagues on both sides of the aisle recognize the fundamental challenge that China poses to America's safety and prosperityfrom fentanyl to unfair trade practices to a concerning military build-up. Unfortunately, either this Administration does not take the challenge posed by China seriously, or it simply has no coherent strategy to address it." President Trump's sweeping and non-strategic cuts to core pillars of U.S. global strength and influence include: Waging a global trade war against allies and partners, which isn't just driving economic chaos and higher costs at home, but is also making it more difficult for allies to increase defense spending, negatively impacting the U.S. defense industrial base and forcing some partners to reconsider closer economic ties to Beijing; Gutting USAID, including haphazardly cutting the workforce needed for effective foreign assistance programming; Attempting to shutter the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its affiliated networks, including Radio Free Asia, even as China expands the global reach of its propaganda; Dismantling key counter-disinformation functions at the State Department, which support the U.S. as well as allies and partners in detecting and responding to disinformation spread by adversaries; Pausing and potentially eliminating Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) projects around the world; Freezing Countering PRC Influence Fund (CPIF) and Countering Strategic Competitors (CSC) programming; Harming our ability to attract international talent to study and innovate in the United States by defunding U.S. government programs for basic scientific research, attacking international students and top U.S. academic institutions and eliminating U.S.-led people-to-people programs; Proposing to eliminate nearly all U.S. contributions to key international bodies like the United Nations, and suggesting that the United States will withdraw from these bodies in the near future; and Proposing to close U.S. diplomatic posts in regions where U.S.-China competition is acute. Key recommendations in the report: Rebuild America's Foreign Assistance and Development Capacity: Congress and the Administration must work to immediately restore humanitarian, food security and global health programs, many of which have been gutted in recent months, to reestablish U.S. presence, soft power and influence. Require a National Intelligence Estimate on U.S. Foreign Assistance Cuts: The Intelligence Community should conduct a National Intelligence Estimate that examines the impact that U.S. foreign assistance terminations have had on U.S. national security interests, including how China has taken advantage of these terminations. Rebuild Counter Disinformation Capabilities and Support Independent Media: Rebuild tools to expose and counter foreign disinformation from our adversaries, which are expanding the global reach of their propaganda, and maintain robust U.S. support for global independent media. Restore U.S. Leadership in Multilateral Bodies: Maintain U.S. contributions to the United Nations and UN peacekeeping efforts, expand American personnel in key international organizations and codify a strategic multilateral staffing initiative within the State Department. Strengthen Trade and Industrial Base Resilience: Reject the Administration's reckless tariff policies that damage our economy as well as U.S. alliances and defense supply chains; mandate an analysis by the Department of Defense of tariff impacts from the Department of Defense or RAND Corporation. Secure Critical Mineral Supply Chains in Coordination with Allies and Partners: Reinstate and expand USAID, U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and MCC projects that support alternative supply chains to markets dominated by China. Protect the U.S. Diplomatic Footprint: Enact legislation strengthening congressional oversight of U.S. diplomatic post closures to ensure that downsizing our footprint does not put the United States at a disadvantage vis-a-vis China. Maintain Robust Support for the Millennium Challenge Corporation: Protect and fully fund MCC programs that serve as a critical, transparent counterweight to China's Belt and Road Initiative. Invest in Global Talent and People-to-People Exchanges: Provide robust funding for and modernize U.S.-led international educational and cultural exchanges such as Fulbright and the International Visiting Leadership Program, which the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle, even as Beijing expands its own programs. Fortify the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) Partnership: Maintain and strengthen the AUKUS partnership in order to enhance deterrence in the Indo-Pacific and deepen defense collaboration with our allies Australia and the United Kingdom. Ensure U.S. Diplomatic Workforce Stability: Enhance Congressional oversight of executive branch reductions in force, which have arbitrarily weakened America's diplomatic corps during a time of rising global competition. The full report is available HERE. An abridged version of the report is available HERE. ### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Egging Moldova on Into Potential Armed Conflict with Russia - Russian Intel Sputnik News 20250714 NATO is actively preparing to involve Moldova in a potential armed conflict with Russia, and a decision has been made in Brussels to accelerate the country's transformation into the alliance's "forward outpost" on the eastern flank, the press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) stated. "The press office of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reports that, according to information received by the SVR, NATO is actively preparing to engage Moldova in a probable armed conflict with Russia. A decision has been made in Brussels to speed up the transformation of the country into the 'forward outpost of the alliance on the eastern flank, taking into account the advancement of Russian forces in Ukraine,'" the statement reads. NATO is working to make Moldova's territory suitable for the rapid deployment of the alliance's troops to Russian borders, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service reported. "NATO forces are intensively turning what was once a peaceful agricultural republic into a military testing ground. Moldova's territory is being made suitable for the operational redeployment of NATO troops to Russia's borders. Projects are underway to switch to European railway standards and increase the capacity of bridges. Logistic hubs, large warehouses, and areas for concentrating military equipment are being built. The Marculesti and Balti airfields, located near Ukraine, are being modernized with a focus on enabling the reception of a significant number of combat and military transport aircraft," the statement said. The Western military bloc expects that Moldovans will become "cannon fodder" in the event of armed actions against Russia, said the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. Moldova is heavily relying on NATO support for the pro-presidential "Action and Solidarity" party in the upcoming parliamentary elections, the press office reported. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Secretary Rubio's Call with Transatlantic Quad Foreign Ministers US Department of State Readout Office of the Spokesperson July 14, 2025 The below is attributable to Spokesperson Tammy Bruce: Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom today about fostering stability in the Middle East and ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon. On the Russia-Ukraine war, the Secretary underscored that it remains a priority of President Trump to bring the war to an end through a durable negotiated settlement. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Deputy Secretary Landau's Meeting with Prime Minister Fils-Aime of Haiti US Department of State Readout Office of the Spokesperson July 14, 2025 Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau met today with Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime to discuss ongoing efforts to restore security and advance political stability in Haiti. Deputy Secretary Landau reiterated that Haiti's security crisis poses a threat to our regional and national security. Both officials emphasized the importance of restoring constitutional order and reinforcing the capacity of Haiti's democratic institutions. The Deputy expressed the United States' support for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, but emphasized the need for greater burden-sharing. Deputy Secretary Landau also affirmed the United States' commitment to accountability for those who undermine Haiti's stability. The United States will continue to leverage all tools, including sanctions, visa restrictions, and other measures against individuals who enable violence and instability. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sudan: Humanitarian needs deepen amid rising hostilities and heavy rains 14 July 2025 - Escalating violence, displacement and heavy rains are deepening the needs of civilians caught in the war in Sudan, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Monday. Nearly 27 months have passed since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a former ally, the paramilitary Rapid Security Forces (RSF), creating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The UN voiced grave alarm over escalating hostilities in El Fasher, the besieged capital of North Darfur state. Serious risk of renewed violence Large numbers of RSF fighters reportedly entered the city on Friday for the first time since the siege began over a year ago. Local sources report that recent fierce fighting, particularly in the southwest and east of El Fasher, has led to civilian casualties. "The situation remains highly volatile and unpredictable, with a serious risk of renewed violence, as well as further displacement and disruption of humanitarian operations - which are already under severe strain," OCHA said. Insecurity in North Kordofan state Meanwhile, in North Kordofan State, growing insecurity forced 3,400 people to flee their homes over the weekend, according to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM). Local reports indicate that at least 18 civilians were killed, and homes were burned in several villages. OCHA reminded all parties that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international humanitarian law, and that civilians must be protected at all times. Rainy season constraints Meanwhile, heavy rains have been reported in West and Central Darfur states, which may affect road conditions in some locations and worsen the challenges humanitarians are already facing in accessing people in need. "With the rainy season continuing through October, the risk of floods, access constraints and disease outbreaks is growing - especially during this critical lean season, a time between harvests when food stocks traditionally run low," OCHA warned. Families return to West Darfur The agency said that despite the crisis, signs of small-scale returns are visible in West Darfur state, where displaced families have been returning from Chad to three localities - Sirba, Jebel Moon and Kulbus - to cultivate their farms. Furthermore, local authorities report about 40 people returning daily to Kulbus, with 300 arriving over the past week. OCHA urged all parties to enable safe and unimpeded access to all people in need across Sudan, and for donors to step up their support. Some 30 million people nationwide - more than half the population - need vital aid and protection this year. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Interview: Nigerian energy giant's CEO hails China's clean energy development, contribution to world economy Xinhua) 14:54, July 16, 2025 VIENNA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Bashir Bayo Ojulari, CEO of the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), hailed China's clean energy development and the country's role in driving world economic growth during a recent interview with Xinhua. Ojulari made the remarks last week when he was attending the 9th Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) international seminar in Vienna. "It's very clear that China's economy has grown significantly for what we can see, and also China has already pivoted into clean energy, which is very impressive," he said, adding that a lot of economic growth in China comes not only from traditional businesses, but also from energy transition. He said solar systems and other forms of energy in China are "quite mature." "I think what is interesting now is taking that maturity of energy transition into providing and meeting what I call energy security for most developing countries," he said. Speaking of the Chinese economy's contribution to the world, he said China's economic growth is "far beyond the borders of China" and is driving growth in Africa and other parts of the world, particularly in developing countries. "It's very clear that growth will be very supportive to the rest of the world," he added. The CEO of the Nigerian energy giant also said that China maintains a "reasonable" mix of hydrocarbon during the energy transition. "In terms of our gas-based industries, we've seen a lot of Chinese technology which are very cost-effective and very, very efficient. We're trying to grow our gas industry," he said, adding that the NNPC and China have been in deep cooperation on many fronts. He said the NNPC values the collaborations with Chinese companies and looks for future cooperation opportunities. For the industrialization that Nigeria is pursuing, he said that "China represents a great example where we can learn a lot. So working with Chinese companies to achieve this objective is something that I think is very important for us." (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Security Council renews UN's Haiti mission amid spiralling crises By Vibhu Mishra 14 July 2025 - Amid runaway gang violence and crumbling state authority, the Security Council on Monday unanimously extended the mandate of the UN's political mission in Haiti until the end of the year, amid escalating gang violence, political paralysis and a deepening humanitarian crisis threatening the country's collapse. By adopting resolution 2785, the Council renewed the authorization of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), reaffirming support for a Haitian-led solution to the island nation's overlapping crises. The decision comes as armed gangs maintain their grip on most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, with over 1.3 million people displaced and more than 4,000 killed in the first half of 2025 alone, according to UN figures. Conditions have deteriorated dramatically amid growing food insecurity and the erosion of public institutions. Of particular concern is the safety of women and girls, with a sharp rise in reports of sexual violence since the start of the year - including rape, gang rape, and sexual enslavement. Time is running out The Security Council also "expressed its intention to consider, without delay" the recommendations by the Secretary-General on possible future roles for the UN in sustaining security and stability in Haiti. In February, Antonio Guterres presented the Council with a range of options. "Each new wave of criminal attacks against the communities and institutions of Haiti is a distressing sign that time is running out," the UN chief said in a letter. He urged Member States to support the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, which the Council authorized in October 2023 to assist Haiti's national police in tackling gang violence and restoring order. He also emphasized that international efforts to improve security must be matched by national progress toward resolving the political crisis. Several Council members voiced willingness to engage on the Secretary-General's proposals. The Chinese representative, for instance, said Beijing was open to working with others to chart a constructive way forward. "With regard to how to improve the situation in Haiti, including how to respond to the Secretary-General's recommendations, we are ready to have candid communication with all parties, explore viable solutions and seek the broadest possible consensus," said Geng Shuang, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN. Mission critical The Council's action was welcomed by Haiti's Ambassador, who underscored the political and security stakes ahead of a critical 2026 transition timeline. "This extension should help Haitian authorities undertake a real, genuine political dialogue, to strengthen good governance, bolster security and bring about justice and promote human rights," said Pierre Ericq Pierre, Permanent Representative to the UN. He also expressed his Government's expectation that the UN mission will support implementation of the national roadmap, including constitutional reforms and elections. Emphasizing national ownership, he added: "BINUH must work as part of a holistic plan to support Haitian authorities in confronting the grave crisis shaking the country to its core." The United States, which led negotiations on the resolution alongside Panama, stressed the urgency of political progress and called on international partners to increase support. "Less than one year remains on the Transitional Presidential Council's planned roadmap for the restoration of democratic institutions," said Ambassador Dorothy Shea, acting representative. "Supporting the security of elections and the participation of all sectors of society is key to sustainable political progress in Haiti. Without BINUH, realizing the vision of a stronger, more resilient society would be less likely." New mission leadership Council members also welcomed Carlos G. Ruiz Massieu, appointed as the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of BINUH, succeeding Maria Isabel Salvador. Mr. Ruiz Massieu, who currently leads the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, brings decades of diplomatic and political experience, including in peace negotiations and institution-building. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) - a special political mission - was established in 2019 to advise and support Haitian authorities on political dialogue, justice, human rights and governance. It succeeded a series of UN peacekeeping and political missions on the island, dating back to 1993, including the large-scale MINUSTAH operation, which wrapped up in 2017 after 13 years. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address World News in Brief: Inter-ethnic violence in Syria, Indigenous Peoples' rights, global information security 14 July 2025 - Clashes on Sunday between Sunni Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militia have reportedly left at least 30 dead in Syria's predominantly-Druze city of Sweida. The violence erupted two days after a Druze merchant was abducted on the highway to Damascus. The incident marks the latest episode of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have surged since Islamist rebels toppled former dictator Bashar al-Assad in December and installed a new caretaker Government, which is gaining increasing international recognition. Those targeted include the Druze sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. UN voices 'deep concern' On Monday, UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, Najat Rochdi, expressed "deep concern" over these reports and urged authorities and stakeholders to "take immediate steps to protect civilians, restore calm and prevent incitement." She also underscored the need for inclusion, trust-building and meaningful dialogue to advance a credible and inclusive political transition in Syria. UN human rights chief says 'wisdom' of Indigenous Peoples needed in climate change, digital policy upgrades The UN human rights chief spoke at a high-level political forum on the rights of Indigenous Peoples on Monday. Underscoring how crucial such forums are to advancing the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Volker Turk highlighted developments in Colombia, Finland and Guatemala that have given them more self-determination. But despite these advances, violations against Indigenous Peoples' rights continue. Many still lack formal land recognition, while mining activity, deforestation and large-scale agricultural development often cause environmental destruction. Indigenous Peoples also experience immense discrimination and face the brunt of climate chaos, Mr. Turk stressed. Toll on activists Furthermore, data from the human rights office reveals that 26 per cent of rights activists killed in 2023 and 2024 were Indigenous, largely in the Americas. Additionally, states are using AI in ways that harm Indigenous Peoples through surveillance, data exploitation and exclusion from decision-making. Turk thus called for human rights-based approaches that uphold Indigenous data sovereignty and self-determination. The High Commissioner also called for future policies on climate, digital technologies and other areas to "reflect the wisdom and experience of Indigenous Peoples." "This is not only essential to respect and fulfil the human rights of Indigenous Peoples," he concluded. "There is growing recognition that the ideas and approaches of Indigenous Peoples hold important lessons for all of us." Guterres welcomes step forward in securing digital technology worldwide The UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday, welcomed the adoption by consensus of the UN Open Ended Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies. It was established in 2020 with a five-year mandate to promote regular institutional dialogue and initiatives focused on keeping digital technologies safe and secure. The Secretary-General welcomed the Final Report of 10 July, which summed up the past five years of negotiations, said a statement issued by his Spokesperson. It reflects shared views on current and emerging threats, responsible government policies, international law, norms and efforts such as confidence-building and capacity development. Call for cooperation It also establishes a permanent mechanism to continue discussions about responsible State behaviour in the use of information and communications technologies, which the Secretary General particularly appreciated. "The Secretary-General now calls upon all States to work together through the Global Mechanism to tackle digital risks and ensure these technologies are leveraged for good," the statement said. The Secretary General congratulated the group on its accomplishments, saying the consensus adoption "demonstrates that even in the most challenging international security environment, collective action is still possible." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Unanimously Adopting Resolution 2786 (2025), Security Council Renews Mandate of United Nations Mission to Support Hudaydah Agreement Meetings Coverage Security Council 9957th Meeting (AM) SC/16118 14 July 2025 The Security Council today decided to extend until 28 January 2026 the mandate of (UNMHA) to support the implementation of the Agreement on the City of Hudaydah and Ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Issa as set out in the 2018 Stockholm Agreement. Through the unanimous adoption of resolution 2786 (2025), the 15-member organ reaffirmed its strong commitment to the unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yemen and its commitment to stand by the people of the country. Reaffirming its endorsement of the Agreement reached in Sweden by the Government of Yemen and the Houthis on the City of Hudaydah and the Ports of Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Issa (the Hudaydah Agreement), the Council reiterated its call on the parties to work cooperatively to implement all its provisions. The Council stressed the need to facilitate increased and unhindered UNMHA patrolling, noting, in line with the Secretary-General's letter of 10 June 2025 (S/2025/371) that the evolving context within Hudaydah and across Yemen, as well as the wider region and internationally, could create opportunities for further efficiencies and structural coherence and coordination across United Nations missions in Yemen. Council members also further requested the Secretary-General to present to the organ, before 28 November 2025, a further review of UNMHA with a view to delivering further efficiencies and structural coherence and coordination across the United Nations missions in Yemen. It expressed its intention to review the full range of options for UNMHA's mandate, including sunsetting of the Mission, and make any necessary adjustments to gain efficiencies and reduce costs or otherwise as may be required to UN operations in Hudaydah by developments on the ground, including, inter alia, a durable nationwide ceasefire. The United Kingdom's delegate after the vote said that as the mandate of UNMHA approaches its expiry early 2026, London will continue to engage closely with the UN on its upcoming review to identify opportunities for greater efficiency, coherence, and coordination across UN missions in Yemen. She said she looked forward to leading further discussions in this Council on the full range of options for UN operations in Hudaydah, including assessing the future viability and potential sunset of UNMHA. The United Kingdom remains committed to ensuring that the UN can effectively support humanitarian needs, promote long-term stability and preserve the space for a future UN-led peace process. "It is time to sunset UNMHA," said the representative of the United States, emphasizing that the "the Mission is mandated to lead a committee that has not functioned since 2020, and its movements and patrols are subject to the whims of the Houthis". Noting that the Council asserts its intention to assess UNMHA through today's resolution, he said that his country "looks forward" to that assessment and urged the Secretariat to use the next six months to "consider how to reconfigure its options on the ground". He also condemned the Houthis' recent unprovoked attacks on two civilian cargo vessels in the Red Sea, calling on the Council to fully support UN mechanisms that "actually do make a difference in countering the Houthi threat" recognized by resolution 2216 (2015). China's delegate said that UNMHA has played a key role in monitoring the ceasefire and assisting parties in implementation. Its continued presence is vital to maintaining stability in the Hudaydah area. China is deeply concerned by recent air strikes that endanger the Mission and undermine Yemen's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The safety of UN personnel must be ensured. All parties should respect the Mission's mandate, lift movement restrictions and fully cooperate with its work. China supports efforts to enhance coordination, improve working methods and increase the Mission's effectiveness. He also stressed that a political solution remains the only path forward, urging Yemeni parties to resume dialogue with the support of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Republic of Moldova: Council lists seven individuals and three entities for actions destabilising the country European Council / Council of the European Union Council of the EU Press release 15 July 2025 15:33 Today the Council has imposed restrictive measures against seven individuals and three entities responsible for actions aimed at destabilising, undermining or threatening the sovereignty and independence as well as democracy, the rule of law, and stability of the Republic of Moldova. The new designations target close associates of Ilan Shor, already listed by the EU due to his involvement in the illegal financing of political parties in the Republic of Moldova and for incitement to violence. The listings include leaders and members of successor entities to the outlawed SOR political party. Some of the persons listed today have been actively involved in vote buying schemes, in the context of the presidential elections and of the constitutional referendum on EU accession of 2024, and bribery to corrupt several politicians from the Republic of Moldova. The Council also listed A7, a company with multiple ties to Moscow that has been linked to efforts to influence the Presidential elections and the 2024 Constitutional referendum on EU accession. Additionally, the Council listed Victory/Pobeda Political Bloc, established by Ilan Shor and involved in spreading false information and in-vote buying schemes. The Cultural Educational Centre of Moldova has been listed for facilitating electoral interference in the 2024 Presidential elections. With today's listings, the EU restrictive measures in view of actions destabilising the Republic of Moldova now apply to a total of 23 individuals and 5 entities. Those listed are subject to an asset freeze. It is also prohibited to make available funds or access economic resources to them, either directly or indirectly. Additionally, a travel ban applies to the natural persons listed, preventing them from entering and transiting through the territories of Union Member States. The relevant legal acts have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Background In its conclusions of 26 June 2025, the European Council reaffirmed its commitment to continue working closely with the Republic of Moldova to enhance the country's resilience and stability in the face of persistent destabilising activities by Russia, including hybrid attacks, aimed at undermining the country's democratic institutions. EU restrictive measures were introduced in April 2023 at the request of the Republic of Moldova in order to target persons responsible for supporting or implementing actions which undermine or threaten its sovereignty and independence. Efforts to destabilise Moldova have noticeably increased since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and represent a direct threat to the stability and security of the external borders of the EU. The EU remains unwavering in its support for the Republic of Moldova and its peace, resilience, security, stability, and economic growth in the face of destabilising activities by external actors. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Haiti: EU lists three individuals and renews sanctions regime for an additional year European Council / Council of the European Union Council of the EU Press release 15 July 2025 15:10 Today the Council decided to list three individuals that have engaged in criminal activities and gang violence in Haiti, and are therefore responsible for actions that threaten the peace, stability and security of the country. The Council has listed three gang leaders: Micanor Altes, leader of the Wharf Jeremie gang responsible for the massacre of 207 people in December 2024; Christ-Roi Chery, leader of the Ti Bwa gang, and Jeff Larose, leader of the Canaan gang, both responsible for forcible recruitment of children, kidnapping, homicides and sexual and gender-based violence. They will be subject to an asset freeze, and the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, to them or for their benefit, is prohibited. Additionally, a travel ban to the EU applies to them. A dangerous crisis is only getting worse in Haiti. Today the EU has imposed new targeted sanctions on individuals including those involved in mass killings, the forcible recruitment of children, kidnapping, homicides and sexual and gender-based violence. At this moment of grave instability, Haiti urgently needs support from the international community. Discussions at the UN Security Council should secure without further delay the future of the Multinational Security Support Mission including by giving it the financing it needs to fulfil its mandate of restoring peace, stability, and the rule of law in the country. - Kaja Kallas, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Furthermore, the Council decided today to renew the EU framework for restrictive measures against those responsible for threatening the peace, stability and security of Haiti or undermining democracy and the rule of law in the country until 29 July 2026, as the EU remains concerned about the persistent and destabilising criminal activities, including the high levels of gang violence, that undermine the stability of the region. In its conclusions of 17 October 2024, the European Council stated it remained extremely concerned about the situation in Haiti and called for new targeted sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for violence, with the objective of helping to restore peace, security, stability, democracy and the rule of law in Haiti. The relevant legal acts have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Background On 21 October 2022, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 2653 (2022), which established a sanctions regime on Haiti, including targeted assets freeze, travel restrictions and arms embargo measures. On 25 November 2022, the Council adopted Decision (CFSP) 2022/2319 concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Haiti implementing that UNSC Resolution. On 28 July 2023, the Council amended its sanctions regime in view of the situation in Haiti, allowing the EU to autonomously impose restrictive measures on individuals and entities responsible for threatening the peace, security or stability of Haiti, or for undermining democracy or the rule of law in Haiti. This framework complements the sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council in October 2022. Haiti remains firmly on the agenda of the EU. The EU's support is twofold: on the one hand to strengthen the institutional capacity and on the other to facilitate the access to basic public services to the population in the very insecure and volatile context. The EU support entails macroeconomic assistance as well as assistance to education, food security and nutrition, disaster preparedness, protection and stability, including to the Haitian National Police. The European Union is a long-standing political and development partner of Haiti, and will continue to play its part alongside other regional partners, to help face the dire situation, including humanitarian crisis in the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Affairs Council: remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas at the press conference European External Action Service (EEAS) 15.07.2025 Brussels, 15/07/2025 EEAS Press Team Check against delivery! Good afternoon. We just concluded the Foreign Affairs Council. There were many important issues on the agenda, and we had very good discussions. So first on Ukraine. Russia's bombing campaign has reached record levels, and we see an increasing use of banned chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine. All this shows that Russia does not want peace. In response, the EU is set to approve one of its toughest sanctions packages against Russia. I am really sad that we did not reach this agreement today. I must say that we were really close. To reassure Slovakia, the Commission has delivered what they asked for. Now the ball is in Slovakia's court, and we must get this deal done. It has been already two months. Sanctions are necessary to starve Russia of the means to wage this war, and the European Union will keep rising the cost. Stopping its aggression becomes the only path forward to Moscow. We welcome President Trump's announcement to send more weapons to Ukraine, although we would like to see the US share the burden. America and Europe are working together, and if we are working together, this can put the pressure on Putin to negotiate seriously. The only way to get Putin to end this war is to force his hand. Last week also brought some other important commitments. We had the Rome conference for Reconstruction, and this conference pledged 10 billion to help rebuild Ukraine. The Coalition of the Willing reassurance force will help Ukraine defend itself against any future attack of Russia. The message is very clear. Russia's efforts are wasted. Europe is wholly committed to Ukraine. Then the second big topic we had, of course, was the Middle East. So last week, Israel and the European Union reached an understanding for the expansion of the humanitarian aid into Gaza. We see positive signs. We see more trucks and supplies are reaching Gaza. We see more entry points opened. We also see electricity lines being repaired. But Israel needs to take more concrete steps to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground. The European Union will keep a close watch on how Israel implements this common understanding and the pledges and will update the compliance every two weeks. As we go forward, Ministers made clear, that ceasefire and hostage release still remain a priority. At the request of the European Council, I also presented Ministers an inventory of different measures that could be taken in relation to the review done in June. We had a discussion on this. These are choices that the Member States have to make. We will keep these options on the table and stand ready to act if Israel does not live up to its pledges. The aim is not to punish Israel. The aim is to really improve the situation in Gaza. On Iran, Ministers reiterated that Iran should not have any nuclear weapons, and diplomacy is the best way and long-term approach to achieve this goal. While the ceasefire is fragile, it offers an opportunity to resume the negotiations, and Ministers urged immediately to restart the talks and allow also the United Nations inspectors back in. So, the European Union is ready to negotiate. On Georgia, the assault on democracy by Georgian Dream is growing more severe. Today, Ministers took stock of EU support to civil society and discussed different options on what more we can do. These include suspending the visa free regime, the Association Agreement and [the adoption of] sanctions. Georgia's democratic back backsliding will come at cost. And finally, Moldova. The first ever Moldova-EU Summit was earlier this month, and it underscored that the European Union is fully committed to Moldova's EU accession. Moldova is now preparing for very high-stakes parliamentary elections, coming [up] in autumn, and these polls will be a prime target of Moscow's hybrid war. So today we had good discussion on that. And today, Ministers also agreed to impose sanctions on people and entities that aim to destabilise Moldova. We also agreed to deliver more counter hybrid support, especially before the elections. This shows that European Union is determined to safeguard Moldova's democratic process against external interference. Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-275240 Q&A. Q. What happens with the sanctions package now? I am reading the tweet from Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico which says that the Commission is giving them insufficient guarantees, nothing in terms of what they want. He says something that he wants is an exception from the 'Repower EU' plan to stop all energy imports into the EU, to fulfil their contracts with Gazprom until 2034. So, is the Commission willing to grant concessions in this long-term Repower EU plan to get this sanctions package over the line or what happens from now on with the package? These negotiations have been ongoing for quite some time. As you see, the President of the Commission also sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Slovakia reiterating all the things that were really addressing the concerns that they had. So far, it seemed okay. So, I do not know what happened in between, probably something in domestic politics, but it is important that we stick to these points. If you go into negotiations over worries you have, and if your sensitivities are addressed, then it is important that you do not present anything on top of it. Thank you. Q. You said in the morning maybe tomorrow as well, if not today. Is this what you're hoping for, or what happens from now? No, I was hoping for today. In the end, we really made one final push for that as well. Tomorrow is the discussion also on the technical level, so yes, I am optimistic and still hopeful that we will reach the decision tomorrow. I want to emphasise that this has been going on for two months, trying to find a solution. And I think the messages, also that come from different parts of the world, are really understanding that we need to put the pressure on Russia, so we should also deliver on that. But at the same time, while I am saying this, we have 27 different democracies, with 27 different public opinions and oppositions as well, so we need to navigate in that process. But I'm still hopeful that we will get the decision tomorrow. Q. From your point of view, how reasonable is this request of Slovakia? This is the first question. And the second question: maybe you discussed the possibility of using frozen assets to pay for American weapons and to send it to Ukraine. It is not up to me to assess whether requests are reasonable or not. Every Prime Minister comes from their own political situation and [with] the worries that are domestically there. So, I would not give my assessment, and it does not matter anyhow, the requests are there. When it comes to your other question. It is clear that we need more and more funding to stop this war, and also to really help Ukraine to defend itself. Now, we have very different views on the frozen assets, between the Member States. So, we agreed to have a discussion on frozen assets only in the Gymnich format that we have in August with the Ministers. Because it is important that everybody hears everybody's arguments, and then we can also come up with compromises to address these sensitivities. I think in the end, we all have our own public opinions. We have our taxpayers and our taxpayers are asking, "why is Russia, who is causing all the damage, not paying for this damage, and all the needs that there are?" And this is a fair question. Q. I just wanted to ask you to expand a little bit on the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Is that coming from your own information sources? Are you getting that from the Ukrainians? And what was the sort of response in the room? Are we condemning that, as the EU? It seems like it is crossing a red line. And the other one on Georgia. You mentioned this morning that a letter was sent from the Commission to Georgia. I just wanted to ask you to tell us a little bit what was in that letter and what might be the next steps there. So, on the chemical weapons. This was the information from the Dutch and German intelligence, that they are using the chemical weapons, and, of course, that it is intensifying. And it is actually public sources as well. The Minister of Defence of the Netherlands has published this. I will not read out the details there, but it was also surprising for me to hear that since the start of the large-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has carried out more than 9,000 chemical weapons attacks on Ukrainian troops. That is quite significant. As these intelligence services are saying that this is intensifying, then I think it is of great, great concern. Again, it shows that Russia wants to cause as much pain and suffering as possible so that Ukraine would surrender. It is really unbearable and that is why we are taking all these steps. Now, on your other question, when it comes to the letter to Georgia, as you know, we have the visa-free travel regime for Georgia since 2017. This is a big benefit that the European Union is giving to countries, and therefore, there are recommendations which have been addressed to Georgia in the seventh visa suspension mechanism report. And I will not read it all out here, but I am just putting the point on this, for example, the obligations that Georgian government has to ensure and uphold the protection of fundamental rights of all Georgian citizens, including the freedoms of association, assembly and expression, the right to privacy, the right to participate in public affairs, as well as the prohibition of discrimination. This is just one point, and there are eight points like this. The point being that, as they have a deadline until the end of August to comply with this, then the question is, how do we react if these recommendations have not been fulfilled? And as we hear that, for example, seven opposition leaders out of eight have been put in jail, this is not really in accordance with the first point that I pointed out. So far, we have kept this position that we do not want to hurt Georgian people, and taking away the visa free regime is really having an impact on them. But at the same time, it is also an issue of credibility of the European Union. If we have asked those things, and this is something beneficial or a bonus that we are giving to this country, and they are not complying with these conditions, then there are also consequences, for the public also to see that the government is not on the European path and it is not taking the candidacy status seriously. Q. You said that you welcome Donald Trump's initiative on the weapons to arm Ukraine, but you want the US to share the burden. What do you mean by that? Can you explain that a bit more? You mean that you do not think it is right that the US is just asking Europe and Canada to pay for all of these weapons? If we pay for these weapons, it is our support. It is European support. We are doing as much as we can to help Ukraine and therefore the call is that everybody would do the same. If you promise to give the weapons, but say that somebody else is going to pay for it, it is not really given by you, is it? Q. On the agreement you have with Israel, last Friday. Since then, dozens and dozens of Palestinians are being killed. And as you said, you are going to follow them very closely and report maybe in two weeks time. Madame High Representative, if I look to the agenda, we are in the summer break now, no next FAC until October. It means that the Palestinians, hundreds of Palestinians could be killed by then. So, my question is: as the agreement is not fully implemented now, which guarantee you may have soon to let the Israelis know that there are some leverages, and instruments should be activated. I understood that there is no instrument in your hand today. It is important, the implementation of the agreement. And yes, we see some worrying signs, but we also see some good signs. Like I said, border crossings have been opened. We see more trucks going in. We see also reparations of the electricity network and such things. But it is clearly not enough, because the situation is still untenable. Now, we agreed that this briefing - our people are in constant contact with the international actors on the ground, Israel, and also the neighbouring countries that are having the control of the crossing points so that they can say, what is the actual numbers that are going in. And we agreed that we are doing this via the PSC ambassadors, so every two weeks they get updates on what is the situation on the ground. Now, the only guarantee we have is that the inventory of all the options that could be taken by the Member States is presented, and if the situation is not going to improve, then the Member States are also willing to take next steps. The goal is to improve the situation, because it is really untenable - the humanitarian situation. We reached this common understanding at the end of last week. Today we are Tuesday. We also heard from our Jordanian counterparts that, yes, there is more aid going in, and we see some positive signs. Of course, we need to do more. That is very clear. And we keep on monitoring this, but we do this hand in hand with our international counterparts who are on the ground, like the World Food Program who are there. What I want to stress is that, why is it much harder right now than it was when there was a ceasefire? Because the war is going on. Also the providers of humanitarian aid are actually at risk. That is why it is so much more complicated. But we are really trying to put the pressure and keep the pressure. And all the Member States are really following up on this. I shared the details of those things. It is not that we are counting every truck all the time but the trend that we see, tangible improvement, though we do not see that. I think that is the overall conclusion. Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-275474 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Affairs Council: press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas upon arrival European External Action Service (EEAS) 15.07.2025 Brussels, 15/07/2025 EEAS Press Team Check against delivery! Good morning. We have a very intensive day coming up with the Foreign Affairs Council, many topics [on the agenda]. First, of course, Ukraine. We really welcome the news that comes from the United States that they will provide weapons to Ukraine, so that they can defend themselves. Of course, we hope to reach also a political agreement on the 18th sanctions package. We are very, very close. I hope it comes today. Then, we have the Middle East. On the Middle East, of course, we talk about Gaza and the situation there. We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground. But it is not about the paper, but actually about the implementation of the paper. We see some positive signs when it comes to border crossings opening, we see some positive signs of them reconstructing the electricity lines, providing water, all also more trucks of humanitarian aid coming in. But of course, we need to see more in order to see real improvement for the people on the ground. Then, we are going to discuss Iran as well. Of course, it is in our interest that we resume to the diplomatic track and negotiations. We are ready to do so, and we have also from the JCPOA, the snapback deadlines coming up. And then we will discuss Georgia. We see some serious backsliding in Georgia and we will discuss what more we can do. There are all options on the table, including suspension of the visa free regime and other elements that could make the Georgian government to change the calculus. Of course, there are a lot of other issues that are happening in the world, but in a nutshell, these are the main things. Q&A. Q. Has Israel done enough, do you think [inaudible]? The situation is still very, very bad in Gaza. It is catastrophic - the humanitarian situation. As long as it has not really improved, then we have not all done enough. It is clear that we are in this situation where we do not have a ceasefire, and that is why it is so much harder to provide that aid. But we really need to work for that to help the people, because we do not know how far the ceasefire really is. Q. The options you presented to Member States, is there one that is getting more traction among them? The options inventory is presented, and we will have a discussion on that. But I cannot predict how the discussion will go. I think the last time we had the discussion, then the main focus was that we really needed to improve the situation of the people on the ground. That was the main goal. So, I think that is the main focus. Q. [inaudible] when can we expect [inaudible]? Yes, we are hoping that it is either today or tomorrow that we adopt the 18th package of sanctions. I hope it is today but there is still some work to do, and well we hope to have good cooperation with the new government of Ukraine like we have had with the previous one. Q. On Georgia, can we expect some decision? And also, can you confirm that you will propose a list for targeted sanctions, and this list also includes judges? Yes, we have proposed a list, and because we see these sentences also for young protesters being really, really out of proportion. So, it is clear that the judicial system is also part of the apparatus. So yes, there are two judges in the sanctions package. We will discuss that, as you know, before we have had blockage, but we will also discuss, in relation to that, our working methods, and we will continue with that later on. Q. [inaudible] Well, we try, but if we cannot overcome the blockage, then we do not. But what we will have today is a letter sent to Georgia also regarding the visa fee free regime, so they have certain conditions that they had to comply with. And if these conditions are not met within that deadline, then we will have to suspend the visa fee free regime. Q. [inaudible] On Moldova, please. [What will be] the main topics for Moldova? Moldova is in a situation where they have the elections coming up on in September. So, we will discuss about the foreign malign influence and interference in the elections and what more we can do to build the resilience of Moldova. So, it is also for the Foreign Ministers to learn what the is situation, what the main threats are, what the issues are. Q. Any decisions [inaudible], sanctions? Yes, there were two elements on Moldova also in the sanctions package. Q. High Representative, about the situation in Gaza, we heard the Israeli minister yesterday. He is almost sure that nothing from the EU side will happen. Can you count on the Israeli will uphold [inaudible] For us, the main thing is really right now - because the situation is so catastrophic - to improve the situation on the ground. We have been really focusing on that, so that we have a concrete understanding with the Israelis. And we see also positive signs of the fulfilment of that understanding. But we need to see more, that is very clear. I have presented the options paper to the Member States, and it is up to the Member States to decide what they want to do with this. Q. How did you convince [inaudible] to vote for the sanctions? This is the European Union. It is 27 democracies, and that means a lot of negotiation all the time, and lot of compromises as well. So, it is hard sometimes, but eventually we will come to the decisions, which is important. Q. [inaudible] do you think that Mr. Trump's decision will be a game-changer [inaudible] to let European Union to buy [inaudible]? It would be good if, with all those promises that also the Biden administration has given to Ukraine, the weapon deliveries will continue, and they will get all what they have been promised. Of course, we, on our European side, want to do more. It is also a good sign that we see from United States. They have also realised that Russia does not really want peace. So, in order to have peace, we need to support Ukraine, and we need to put the pressure on Russia. And I also hope that Americans will move also with their sanctions package, or tariffs, so that pressure is on Russia to really stop this war. Q. But would you provide EU funding to [inaudible] for Ukraine? We are providing a lot of funding for Ukraine to buy whatever weapons and ammunition they need. We need to see what more we can do together. But I would very much like to see all our partners also actually contributing if we want this war to stop. Q. On the oil price cap, is it alive? Yes, it is alive. Q. Do you think the United States will support the oil price cap? We are working on this oil price cap. It is alive. Hopefully we will get an agreement now. Like I said to you before, even if the Americans are not on board, but the other G7 countries are on board, then we will move on with this. Q. Should we expect decisions on Georgia? Well, like I said, we are working on this. We have made proposals, but it is a question whether we can overcome the veto of one Member State or not, but we are trying to work on that. Q. [inaudible] The options are sanctions and, like I said before, it is also the suspension of the visa free regime and all the elements that we on the topic. Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-274973 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Spain calls on E.U. to suspend cooperation agreement with Israel amid Gaza war IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares says Madrid will press the European Union to suspend its cooperation agreement with Israel, calling for stronger measures to ensure an end to the war in Gaza. Speaking ahead of a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, Albares welcomed a recent agreement between the E.U. and Israel to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, but stressed that the step was insufficient. He called on the 27-member bloc to take punitive measures to ensure the war comes to an end, El Pais daily reported. Albares said Spain would push the E.U. to adopt concrete actions against Israel, including suspending the E.U.-Israel Association Agreement at least for the duration of the war, or implementing an arms embargo on Tel Aviv. 9341**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mr. Jacob Zuma, former President of South Africa and leader of the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, stated that his party believes Morocco's Autonomy Proposal allows for significant local governance by the populations of the Sahara region, while ensuring that Morocco retains its sovereignty over the Sahara. Morocco Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday 15 July 2025 This position was expressed in a press statement by Zuma following his talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita. The former South African President added that his party, the MKP, "recognizes the historical and legal context that underpins Morocco's claim to Western Sahara" and views that "Morocco's efforts to reclaim its full territorial integrity align with the MK Party's commitment to preserving the sovereignty and unity of African states." While acknowledging "the growing international and continental support that the Moroccan Autonomy Proposal has gained over the last couple of years," Zuma emphasized that the Autonomy Plan "offers a balanced path forward that promotes stability, peace, and development in the region," and called on "the international community to support Morocco's Autonomy Plan as the possible effective way to ensure peace, stability, and prosperity" for the populations of the Sahara region. This position is in line with the MK party's policy platform "aimed at bringing about a practical solution to the long-standing debacle on the future of the Sahara region," which was published last month under the title "Strategic Partnership for African Unity, Economic Emancipation, and Territorial Integrity." This document reaffirms that the Sahara "was part of Morocco before Spanish colonization in the late 19th century. As such, it has been an integral part of Morocco for centuries. Morocco's claim predates colonization and originates from the allegiance of the tribes to the Moroccan Throne," while calling on the international community to "take into account the region's historical ties with Morocco and the legitimate interests of the Moroccan people in preserving their territorial integrity." The document also recalls the Glorious Green March as "an act of decolonization and a testimony to the historical bonds between Morocco and its Sahara," describing it as "a unique and non-violent liberation movement" during which "more than 350,000 unarmed Moroccans entered the Sahara to reclaim their land." It is worth noting that Zuma, as President of South Africa, met His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist Him, in 2017 on the sidelines of the AU-EU Summit in Cote d'Ivoire. This meeting gave new momentum to bilateral relations between the two countries. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mr. Ahmad Said Ahmad Al-Tamimi, Head of the Human Rights and Civil Society Department and member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), praised Morocco's "steadfast and vital" support for the Palestinian cause, under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds committee. Morocco Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tuesday 15 July 2025 In a statement to the press following his meeting on Tuesday in Rabat with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita, Al-Tamimi praised the "centuries-old relations" linking Morocco to the Palestinian national authority. He also commended the "continuous support" that Morocco has consistently provided to the Palestinian cause under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, and during the reigns of the late Sovereigns, His late Majesty Mohammed V and His late Majesty Hassan II. He pointed out that discussions with Mr. Bourita covered several issues as regards the Palestinian people, including the repercussions of the Israeli blockade, the unfreezing of Palestinian Authority funds, and the cessation of Israeli violations at border crossings. Furthermore, Al-Tamimi stated that he had informed Mr. Bourita about the situation in Al-Quds and the Israeli acts against Palestinians, commending in this regard the role of the Al-Quds Committee, chaired by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in defending the holy city and supporting the resilience of the residents of Al-Quds. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army Aviation Regiment holds 2-day air patrol over Mindanao waters Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno July 15, 2025, 5:44 pm MANILA -- The Army Aviation Regiment (AAR) conducted a two-day maritime air patrol (MARPAT) over Mindanao waters, the Philippine Army (PA) said Tuesday. In a statement, PA spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said the MARPAT took place from July 12 to 13 to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the 2016 Arbitral Ruling favoring the Philippines' case against China in connection with the West Philippine Sea (WPS). "The two-day MARPAT mission was flown by the Special Mission Aviation Company, a subordinate unit of the Aviation Regiment, on the archipelagic waters and territorial seas of Zamboanga Peninsula, Maguindanao del Norte and the islands of Basilan and Sulu," Dema-ala said. On June 11, the AAR also conducted a MARPAT mission on the archipelagic waters and territorial seas of Aurora, Isabela and Cagayan provinces, as well as in the exclusive economic zone where the Philippine Rise is located. The AAR also carried out a similar MARPAT mission in Central and Eastern Visayas last month. Dema-ala said the PA leadership lauded the AAR for its sustained conduct of MARPAT missions, which support the Army's Land Defense Concept, an integral component of the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept of the Department of National Defense. The Arbitral Ruling, released by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on July 12, 2016, invalidated China's so-called nine-dash line. The invisible demarcation, which has since expanded into a 10-dash line, covers and lays territorial claim over a huge portion of the South China Sea, including the Philippines' exclusive economic zone in the WPS. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PH Army makes debut in Australia's largest war drills Philippine News Agency By Priam Nepomuceno July 15, 2025, 3:01 pm MANILA -- For the first time, the Philippine Army (PA) is taking part in Exercise Talisman Sabre, Australia's largest bilateral exercise with the United States. In a statement Tuesday, PA spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala said 35,000 troops from 19 partner nations, including the Philippines, will take part in the three-week event from July 13 to Aug. 4. The exercise, hosted by Australian Defense Force (ADF), will take place across various training locations in Australia and Papua New Guinea. "Exercise Talisman Sabre is by far the largest-ever military exercise hosted by Australia, bringing together about 35,000 troops from 19 partner nations, including the Philippines," Dema-ala said. The Philippine delegation, which arrived in Australia on July 5, consists of seven personnel from the PA, three from the Philippine Marine Corps, five from the Philippine Navy, and 17 from the Philippine Air Force. The delegation was led by PA commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, representing Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. Aside from the Philippines, other partner nations in the exercises are Canada, Fiji, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Tonga, and the United Kingdom. Over the next three weeks, they will train together with other contingents from other 18 partner nations in live-fire exercises and field training activities, incorporating force preparation activities, amphibious landings, ground force maneuvers, as well as air combat and maritime operations. The large-scale exercises, which will span sea, land, air, space and cyber domains, will be conducted across various locations in Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, New South Wales and Christmas Island. For the first time, activities will also be conducted outside of Australia, in Papua New Guinea. "The PA's historic debut in Exercise Talisman Sabre marks a significant step in advancing its commitment to global cooperation," Dema-ala said. "By joining like-minded nations, the Army aims to build collective capabilities to effectively address emerging security challenges in the Indo-Pacific Region," he added. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palace: SCS ruling legally binding, cornerstone of int'l maritime law Philippine News Agency By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos July 15, 2025, 2:42 pm MANILA -- The 2016 arbitral ruling in the South China Sea (SCS) remains "legally binding and cornerstone of international maritime law," Malacanang said on Tuesday, after China continues to disregard the Philippines' historic win in its territorial dispute with Beijing. "Isang tagumpay po na mapaalam sa buong mundo kung ano ang ipinaglalaban natin at kung ano ang para sa Pilipinas at para sa taumbayan (It is a victory to let the whole world know what we are fighting for and what is for the Philippines and for the people)," Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said in a press briefing. This, after the Chinese Foreign Ministry earlier said the 2016 arbitral award on SCS favoring the Philippines is "nothing but a piece of waste paper that is illegal, null and void, and non-binding." The Chinese Foreign Ministry also claimed that the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration's (PCA) ruling on SCS disputes is "fundamentally flawed with obvious mistakes." While China's position remains unchanged, Castro said the current administration has a different perspective and stance. Castro said the award invalidated China's historic rights and nine dash-line claims, stressing that it is "a confirmation of the Philippines' sovereign rights within the country's exclusive economic zone." She said the ruling serves as the Philippines' guide to national policy, strengthening the country's legal and operational posture. "Nilinaw din nito ang maritime status ng ilang mga feature sa South China Sea at nagku-kondena sa panggugulo sa mga Filipino vessel at environmental destruction na dulot ng pagguho ng mga artificial island (It also clarified the maritime status of several features in the South China Sea and condemned the harassment of Filipino vessels and environmental destruction caused by the collapse of artificial islands)," she said. "Muli ang Pangulo, hindi isusuko ang soberenya, ang karapatan ng bansa at ng taumbayan kahit kanino (The President once again will not surrender the sovereignty, the rights of the country and the people to anyone)." Castro also enjoined Filipinos to stand united to protect the Philippine territory. "Manatili po tayong maging pro-Philippines, makabansa, makabayan. Huwag po nating tularan ang iba na not pro any country (Let us remain pro-Philippines, pro-national, patriotic. Let us not imitate others who are not pro any country)," she said. To protect the country's marine resources, Marcos, on Nov. 8, 2024, signed Republic Act (RA) 12064, the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, and RA 12065, the Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act. RA 12064 delineates the maritime zones under the jurisdiction of the Philippines, while RA 12065 designates the sea lanes and air routes suitable for the continuous and expeditious passage of foreign ships and aircraft through or over its archipelagic waters and the adjacent territorial sea. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hezbollah warns of 'major escalation' after deadly Israeli strikes Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 7:03 PM The Hezbollah resistance movement has issued a strong warning after Israeli airstrikes killed at least a dozen people in eastern Lebanon in the deadliest attack since a November ceasefire took hold. In a statement released on Tuesday, Hezbollah said the attack marked "a major escalation in the context of the ongoing aggression against Lebanon and its people." The resistance movement called on the Lebanese government to break the silence and "take serious, immediate and decisive action" to uphold the ceasefire deal with Israel. The movement also demanded that the United States, Israel's main backer, live up to its responsibility as the guarantor of the ceasefire. "The US, as a guarantor of the ceasefire agreement, has evaded its obligations and instead advanced initiatives that serve only the interests and security of the Israeli enemy." Hezbollah pointed out that the US attempts to deceive the Lebanese people by portraying itself as a supporter of Lebanon's stability, security, and unity, while in reality, it unleashes the Israeli enemy to wreak destruction and death across Lebanon. The movement warned that the continued absence of an official and effective stance will only lead to further escalation and aggression. "In the absence of an official, strong and effective position, and the continuing negligence and inaction internationally, will only lead to more violations and aggression," Hezbollah said. Elsewhere in the statement, the Lebanese group reaffirmed the criminal nature of the enemy, which disregards international law and conventions and does not hesitate to commit massacres against innocent civilians. Israel is trying to press on Lebanon's "national will", but the Lebanese people will "hold on to resistance as a choice to confront the enemy," it said. The statement came hours after Israeli warplanes on Tuesday intensified their strikes against Lebanon, launching a wave of deadly air raids in the northern Bekaa Valley. The airstrikes left a dozen people dead in the Bekaa region, including seven Syrians near al-Hermel city. The attacks targeted civilian infrastructure, marking one of the most dangerous developments in recent days. One of the strikes occurred near a school while students were taking exams. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which came into effect on November 27, 2024. Ever since, the regime has violated the ceasefire more than 3700 times by launching assaults on the country. Under the agreement, Israel was obligated to fully withdraw its forces from Lebanon. However, it has maintained a military presence in five areas, in clear violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and the terms of last November's agreement. Israeli air raids in recent days have also extended to Beirut's outskirts and northern cities, causing civilian casualties. Lebanese authorities have repeatedly warned that the regime's violations of the ceasefire agreement threaten stability in the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Gaza authorities say US-backed GHF operates as security cover for Israel Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 5:28 PM Gaza authorities say the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been serving as a security front for the Israeli regime under the guise of humanitarian work across the besieged Palestinian territory. In a statement released on Tuesday, the authorities said the Israeli occupation had used GHF as a security and military front through which arrests, assassinations, and field investigations were conducted. Israeli forces reportedly questioned civilians during the distribution of aid under the company's name. The authorities said these actions were coordinated with local figures and tribal groups, including the Daesh-linked Abu Shabab gang, in an attempt to legitimize their operations inside the Gaza Strip. The statement said there is verified information confirming that the GHF exploited its humanitarian operations to gather intelligence by contacting associations and community activists in Gaza. The Gaza security department said the GHF has now been fully banned from operating in the territory. It warned that any collaboration with the GHF will be considered a security breach, and those involved will face legal consequences, regardless of their motives or justifications. 875 Palestinians have been killed near Gaza aid sites: UN The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had documented the killing of at least 875 Palestinians within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of Gaza GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys. On May 26, the GHF opened its first aid point in southern Gaza's Rafah city. The US privatized scheme, which has employed armed Private Military Contractors (PMC) to man its distribution points, has been widely criticized by the United Nations and international humanitarian organizations. The GHF's CEO, Jake Wood, even resigned one day prior to the project's launch, citing ethical reasons as to why, and called upon the Israeli regime to allow the passage of more aid into Gaza. Founded in Switzerland in February, the GHF serves as an umbrella for a network of private mercenary firms used by Israel to supplant the role of the United Nations in providing aid to the besieged Palestinian territory. With no legal standing or formal mandate to operate in Gaza, the GHF now operates at the pleasure of Israel's military. The GHF project has the endorsement of the administration of US President Donald Trump. Observers say a broader plan is underway to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza by forcing the starving population into concentration camp-like hubs. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel kills 12 in eastern Lebanon in deadliest ceasefire breach Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 3:34 PM Israel has killed at least 12 people in airstrikes on eastern Lebanon in the deadliest breach of the ceasefire that took effect in November last year. The regime's warplanes bombed the Wadi Fara area in the area of Bekaa Valley on Tuesday, said the region's governor, Bachir Khodr. "A camp for displaced Syrians" also came under attack, resulting in the deaths of 12 martyrs, including seven Syrians, and eight wounded," according to Lebanon's National News Agency. Khodr also confirmed that seven of the dead were Syrian nationals, who often work in the agricultural fields of the Bekaa region. In a statement, Israel's military claimed that its fighter jets launched "numerous strikes" on targets belonging to Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah in the area. Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire, which came into effect on November 27, 2024. Ever since, the regime has violated the ceasefire more than 3700 times by launching assaults on the country. Under the deal, Tel Aviv was required to fully withdraw its forces from the country, but it has kept them in five places, in clear violations of UN Security Council resolution 1701 and the terms of last November's agreement. Lebanese authorities have repeatedly warned that the regime's violations of the ceasefire agreement threaten stability in the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Yemeni army launches drone toward Red Sea Eilat port in fresh anti-Israeli operation Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 11:16 AM Yemen's Armed Forces have launched a homegrown combat drone toward the city of Eilat in the southernmost tip of the occupied Palestinian territories in their most recent anti-Israeli operation. The Israeli military asserted in a statement that it had intercepted the unmanned aerial vehicle as it was flying in the skies over the Red Sea city. There were no reports of injuries or damage, and the spokesman for the Yemeni military, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, did not immediately comment. The development came a few days after the leader of Yemen's Ansarullah resistance movement declared that reopening the Port of Eilat (Umm al-Rashrash) is impossible, affirming his country's firm stance and ongoing decision to enforce maritime sanctions against the Israeli occupation regime in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea. In a televised speech on Thursday, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi emphasized that the recent events in the Red Sea serve as a clear warning to all shipping companies operating for the Israeli regime, stressing that any vessels affiliated with Israel will face decisive responses. He was referring to the Yemeni navy's strike on the vessel ETERNITY C bound for the port of Eilat in occupied Palestine after the crew repeatedly disregarded naval warnings. Also, earlier this week, the Yemeni armed forces released footage of the boarding and sinking of the ship Magic Seas, whose owning company violated the Yemeni ban on Israel-bound vessels. The Red Sea, which borders Yemen's coast, is a critical waterway for oil and commodities, but Yemen's armed forces have banned the entry of Israel-bound ships since November 2023 in solidarity with Gaza and after Israel began its campaign of genocide in Gaza. As the genocidal war on Gaza escalated, the Yemenis enforced a strategic blockade on essential maritime routes, with the goal of obstructing the delivery of military supplies to Israel and urging the international community to take action regarding the ongoing humanitarian emergency in Gaza. The Yemeni Armed Forces have declared they will not stop their assaults unless Israel ceases its ground and aerial offensives in Gaza. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At least 78 Palestinians killed across Gaza as Tel Aviv torpedoes ceasefire talks Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 8:37 AM Israeli regime forces have killed at least 78 Palestinians, including several aid seekers, in bombardment attacks across the Gaza Strip as the regime strives to derail ceasefire talks amid a deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory. Palestine's Safa news agency reported on Tuesday that five people were killed and an unspecified number of others injured as a result of the Israeli warplanes targeting a house in the vicinity of the al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. The agency said the strikes by the Israeli warplanes targeting a building in the area of Zarqa in the neighborhood of al-Tuffah, northeast of Gaza City, also left individuals martyred or wounded. The occupation army, as Safa reported, also blew up a number of homes of citizens east of the al-Zeitoun neighborhood in southeastern Gaza. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said an Israeli attack near an aid distribution point in Rafah in southern Gaza killed at least five people who were seeking aid on Monday. In Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, an Israeli strike on a displacement camp also claimed the lives of at least nine people and wounded many others, according to WAFA. In central Gaza's Bureij refugee camp, four people were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a commercial center. Israeli forces also resumed stepping up attacks in northern Gaza and Gaza City. The occupying regime pounded Deir el-Balah in central Gaza with "massive airstrikes in the vicinity of the Tuffah and Shujayea neighborhoods, leveling residential buildings." The WAFA news agency said at least two dozen Palestinians were killed in Gaza City and dozens more were wounded. The Palestinian outlet said Israel's intense bombing targeted a five-story house in the Zarqa neighborhood, north of Gaza City, killing 14 civilians. The agency added that first aid responders and civil defense crews could not reach the site of the bombing to retrieve the bodies from the rubble. Israeli shelling also struck a house in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, west of the city, claiming the lives of at least 10 civilians and injuring over 25 others, some in critical condition. The casualties took place as delegations from the Palestinian resistance movement and the Tel Aviv regime began discussions in Qatar last Sunday to try to agree to a temporary halt to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, which has been going on since October 7, 2023. Israel's refusal to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip has hampered indirect ceasefire negotiations between the two sides. The attacks come as UN agencies continue to plead for more aid to be allowed into Gaza, where famine looms and a severe fuel shortage has brought the already battered healthcare sector to its knees. Gaza's water crisis has also intensified since Israel blocked nearly all fuel shipments into the territory on March 2. With no fuel, desalination plants, wastewater treatment facilities and pumping stations have largely shut down. Israel unilaterally ended the Gaza ceasefire agreement and resumed its aggression on the Strip on March 18, carrying out a wave of bloody airstrikes across the territory and killing hundreds of Palestinians. Since March 18, at least 7,568 have been killed and 27,036 others wounded, according to medical sources. In the last 24 hours, the bodies of 120 slain Palestinians, including three retrieved from the rubble, and 557 casualties were admitted to Gaza hospitals. Israel has waged a brutal onslaught on the Strip since October 2023, killing 58,386 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 139,077 others. Moreover, at least 10,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Palestinian lawmaker killed in Israeli airstrike on Gaza City Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 8:08 AM An Israeli strike against Gaza City has killed a Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member, who used to be a veteran political figure as well as a leader with the Gaza Strip's Hamas resistance movement. Faraj al-Ghoul was killed early Tuesday morning in the act of aggression that struck his home, according to a medical source at the coastal sliver's al-Shifa Hospital. Born in 1957, al-Ghoul used to serve as the head of the PLC Legislation Committee and was widely recognized as one of Hamas's leading figures in Gaza. He also used to direct the House of Right and Law, a Gaza-based legal organization, and was the secretary of the Palestinian Lawyers Union. His long political and legal career was marked by repeated arrests. He spent periods in Israeli detention between 1989 and 1992, was jailed for six months in 1994, and held under administrative detention - a policy the Israeli regime uses to detain its targets without charge - in 1995. Also in 1994, he acted as the spokesman for thousands of Palestinians, who were being held in Israeli prisons. In addition to his parliamentary work representing the Gaza District, al-Ghoul was known for sharply critical remarks about the United States' aggressive and interventionist policies in the West Asia region. In one statement, he denounced the US's approach for being devoid of a legal basis. "It is a very biased and aggressive position against the Palestinian people, and it neglects the suffering of those who have been the victims of aggression." "America should not stand with the Zionist occupation against the Arabs," he said, referring to Washington's refusal to begrudge the Israeli regime any instance of political, military, and intelligence support, despite Tel Aviv's unbridled atrocities against the regional nations. No details have yet emerged regarding other casualties from the Tuesday strike. The attack came amid intensified Israeli bombardments across the Gaza Strip that the regime carries out as part of its October 2023-present war of genocide on the territory. The attacks have increasingly targeted political, administrative, and civil figures affiliated with various Palestinian factions. Palestinian sources have described the killing of al-Ghoul as another attempt to weaken their leadership structure. The war has so far claimed the lives of nearly 58,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children. On Saturday alone, the regime killed at least 150 Palestinians throughout the territory in what turned out to be the deadliest round of aggression targeting them since May. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Iron Footprints' stumble: Israel loses 3 forces in northern Gaza Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 6:40 AM As many as three troopers from an Israeli armored brigade known for its ferocious war tactics have been killed in the northern Gaza Strip, reportedly under heavy anti-tank fire from the Palestinian territory's resistance fighters. The Israeli military reported the fatalities in a statement on Monday. The Israeli regime's Maariv newspaper referred to the location of the incident as the city of Jabalia. A fourth trooper was also "seriously wounded" during the incident, the military added, citing "an explosion involving an Israeli tank" as the likely cause of the casualties. The statement added that the tank had "caught fire" after the incident, suggesting that the casualties might have been caused as a result of the troops getting trapped inside the vehicle. It has, meanwhile, not ruled out either a roadside explosion or a "technical failure" as other likely causes. The blaze was, however, so intense that the Israeli regime was forced to dispatch firefighters to put it out. Maariv, meanwhile, confirmed that the forces were riding one of the military's Merkava Mark 4 tanks that Tel Aviv boasts is "the best and most protected tank in the world." The military identified the fatalities as Staff Sergeant Shoham Menahem, Sergeant Shlomo Yakir Shrem, and Sergeant Yuliy Fakto. According to the statement, the forces belonged to the 401st Armored Brigade, which is also known as the "Iron Footprints" or "Iron Tracks." The brigade has a drawn-out history of unbridled aggression -- going back as far as the 1960s -- against various West Asian nations. This includes heavy involvement in several wholesale Israeli wars on Gaza and Lebanon. Since October 2023, when the regime began its latest genocidal military assault on the coastal sliver, the battalion has likewise been heavily depended upon for deadly rounds of aggression targeting such places as Jabalia and the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Gaza's resistance movements have, for their part, faced the brigade with strong retaliation, including the one that killed the trio, and decisive reprisal against invading Israeli forces in Jabalia in October 2024 that took out the brigade's commander Ehsan Daxa. The groups had, prior to that, also given the battalion an exceptionally hard time by storming the Zikim area in the western part of the occupied Palestinian territories during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by resistance fighters that led to the capture of hundreds of Israelis. Also on Monday, various news outlets reported a "very serious" incident in eastern Gaza that prompted the Israeli regime to scramble rescue helicopters to evacuate the forces that had been wounded as a result. Reporting on the latter development, a correspondent with Qatar's Al Jazeera television network said the regime enacted its controversial "Hannibal Directive" during the incident to allegedly avoid capture of a trooper by resistance fighters. The directive condones the Israeli military's taking whatever course of action it deems necessary to avoid such captures even if it entails taking the lives of the exposed troopers. Monday's incidents come less than a week after eight Israeli forces were killed or wounded in southern Gaza in what was hailed by resistance fighters as an operation "shattering" the Israeli regime's myth of invincibility. On July 4, the armed wing of Gaza's Islamic Jihad resistance movement announced either killing or injuring at least 40 Israeli forces during a complex ambush targeting various groups of the troops in the territory's northern area. As of June 2025, a total of 893 Israeli forces have reportedly been killed in Gaza during the genocide launched by Israel that began after the al-Aqsa Flood operation. A whopping 449 fatalities were caused after the regime stepped up the genocide by bringing the territory under a no-holds-barred ground operation in May. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US Court Temporarily Halts Bid To End Protection Status For Afghans By RFE/RL July 15, 2025 A US court has for the time blocked plans by the government to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Afghans in the country, granting at least a one-week reprieve to thousands of people at risk of deportation to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, late on July 14 issued an administrative stay on the termination of TPS for Afghans until July 21, granting a request from immigration advocacy group CASA. CASA filed for an emergency motion on July 14, the day the protected status for Afghans was to end. The court did not provide a reason for its ruling. US administration will have until 11:59 p.m. on July 16 to respond. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had declared on May 12 that TPS for Afghanistan would expire on July 14, with the decision affecting an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 Afghans currently living and working legally in the United States under the program. Rights groups and Afghan refugees condemned the decision to allow the protections to expire, warning that it puts lives in jeopardy and ignores the realities on the ground in Afghanistan. The DHS at the time said the termination of TPS was based on its assessment that conditions in Afghanistan have "improved sufficiently" and no longer meet the statutory requirements for TPS. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem had "determined that, overall, there are notable improvements in the security and economic situation such that requiring the return of Afghan nationals to Afghanistan does not pose a threat to their personal safety due to armed conflict or extraordinary and temporary conditions," a DHS statement said in May. That statement said Noem had also determined that permitting Afghan nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is "contrary to the national interest of the United States." The department cited national security and fraud concerns, claiming some individuals under TPS are being investigated for threats to public safety and national security. But Afghans living in the United States under TPS said they will be in danger if they return to Afghanistan. "It is true that there is relative security, but there are many problems," an Afghan man who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Right now, former government soldiers are being arrested, disappeared, and even killed," said the man, who lives in Texas with his family of four. Advocates for the Afghans argue that many of them assisted the US military or other organizations in Afghanistan and thus would be subject to harsh treatment by the hard-line Taliban rulers, who have not been recognized as a legitimate government by Washington and much of the rest of the world. Those fears are rooted in the dramatic changes Afghanistan has undergone since the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Following the withdrawal of US and NATO troops, Taliban insurgents seized Kabul, toppling the Western-backed Afghan government. Since then, the Taliban has imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, rolling back rights and freedoms, especially for women and girls, who are now barred from secondary education and most employment. Reports from the UN and human rights organizations have documented widespread human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and public floggings, particularly targeting former government officials, security personnel, and dissenters. A total of some 180,000 Afghans fled their home country and had come to the United States since the Taliban retook control of the country in August 2021. Many of those are not under TPS status, having applied for or received other forms of protection, such as political asylum, and are not subject to the TPS termination order. The DHS has granted the Temporary Protected Status to people from a number of countries who are now in the United States, allowing them to work legally in the country but does not provide a route to citizenship. DHS reviews the status every 18 months. The US administration has moved to remove protected status for seven countries, including Afghanistan. The largest numbers of people affected are from Venezuela and Haiti. With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, Reuters, and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghan-us-tps-dhs- taliban-refugee-asylum/33474432.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EU Eyes Sanctions And Visa Moves Over Georgia's Political Crackdown By Rikard Jozwiak July 15, 2025 As EU foreign ministers gather in Brussels on July 15 for their last official meeting before the summer break, Georgia is once again high up on the agenda due to the deteriorating political situation in the South Caucasus republic after the recent arrests of several opposition politicians. Just a brief discussion point among ministers last month, the situation in the country is now a major talking point -- and more decisive action may be taken this time after the previous adoption of symbolic measures against Tbilisi. In early 2025, Brussels imposed visa requirements on Georgian diplomatic passport holders. It has also refrained from holding high-level political meetings and diverted EU funding from Georgia's government to civil society. The most pressing issue this time is whether the bloc -- with the unanimous approval of all 27 member states -- manages to impose any sanctions. There have been attempts before, notably in January, when the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wanted to slap visa bans and asset freezes on 13 individuals linked to the Georgian Dream party for a crackdown on opposition protesters. Dissenting Voices In Bratislava And Budapest Back then, Hungary and Slovakia vetoed any such moves, and sanctions talks stalled in Brussels for a while. EU officials have in recent weeks also discussed the possibility of blacklisting a couple of people responsible for what an internal EU document seen by RFE/RL calls the "instrumentalization of the justice system by the Georgian authorities." This would occur under the "EU global human rights sanctions regime" -- a sanctions framework similar to the US Magnitsky act that already includes more than 100 human rights abusers from various countries, such as China, Libya, Russia, and Sudan. According to several EU officials familiar with the discussions more than 10 EU member states -- including France, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Sweden and the Baltic trio of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- have been pushing for sanctions to be adopted by EU foreign ministers. Just like in January, Bratislava and Budapest have been resisting the move, arguing that any type of restrictive measure could worsen the situation and that dialogue with Tbilisi is a better approach. While not siding with Slovakia and Hungary, Greece has been arguing against taking any hasty decisions. Despite the obvious opposition, many diplomats RFE/RL has spoken to on condition of anonymity believe that there still is a chance of finding a consensus to blacklist at least a couple of Georgian judges, whom the EU deems responsible for the arrest of Georgian oppositionists. It's believed that sanctions-skeptic countries may accept this instead of targeting high-profile politicians. So, what other options are being discussed? A Radical Move The most obvious one is to suspend visa liberalization for Georgian citizens -- a move that only requires a qualified majority of 55 percent of member states representing 65 percent of the total EU population. Sweden is the latest country to push for this, arguing that it can be done temporarily if the situation continues to worsen after Georgian local elections in early October. This view is apparently also supported by the Baltic states, Denmark, France, and Poland. Others have expressed reservations, however -- notably Greece and Slovenia. They argue that such a radical move -- with the bloc never having suspended visa liberalization for an EU candidate country before -- should be taken as an absolute last resort. It has also been pointed out that such a step would likely have more of a negative impact on ordinary Georgian citizens rather than the country's leadership. Another alternative proposal put forward by the European Commission is to impose national entry bans on certain individuals. A 'Softer Measure' This is regarded as a somewhat "softer measure" compared to imposing a blanket suspension of EU visa liberalization or broader sanctions. However, it would only be effective if several member states chose to adopt and coordinate this approach. Whether that will happen remains uncertain, as some countries -- such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and Romania -- have stressed that it still is important to keep communication channels open with Tbilisi. The internal EU document also mentions the possibility of suspending Georgia's candidate status, which the bloc unanimously bestowed on the country back in December 2023. The EU, however, has never before unilaterally reversed candidate status in its history (Iceland asked Brussels to remove its EU candidate status back in 2015). Once again, unanimity would be necessary to take this step. Finally, there is an option that could likely be achieved this week: a large group of countries, led by the Baltic trio, plans to ask the European External Action Service and the European Commission to conduct a thorough assessment of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement from 2016. The goal would be to explore the possibility of suspending parts of the agreement in the future, such as the free trade provisions it includes. Such a suspension would require only a qualified majority. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-georgia-crisis-sanctions- options/33473820.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Sanctions Galore As EU Hits Moldovan Opposition, Mulls Targeting Tbilisi By Rikard Jozwiak July 15, 2025 Briefing #1: The EU Weighs Up Georgia Sanctions What You Need To Know: As EU foreign ministers gather in Brussels on July 15 for their last official meeting before the summer break, Georgia is once again high on the agenda due to the deteriorating political situation in the South Caucasus republic with the recent arrests of several opposition politicians. After briefly being discussed by ministers last month, the situation in the country is now a major discussion point -- and more decisive action may be taken this time. The bloc has so far enacted some symbolic measures against Tbilisi. In early 2025, Brussels imposed visa requirements on Georgian diplomatic passport holders. It has also refrained from holding high-level political meetings and diverted EU funding from Georgia's government to civil society. Deep Background: The most pressing issue this time is whether the bloc -- with the unanimous approval of all 27 member states -- manages to impose any sanctions. There have been attempts before, notably in January, when the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wanted to slap visa bans and asset freezes on 13 individuals linked to the Georgian Dream party for a crackdown on opposition protesters. Back then, Hungary and Slovakia vetoed any such moves, and sanctions talks stalled in Brussels for a while. EU officials have in recent weeks also discussed the possibility of blacklisting a couple of people responsible for what an internal EU document seen by RFE/RL calls the "instrumentalization of the justice system by the Georgian authorities." This would occur under the "EU global human rights sanctions regime" -- a sanctions framework similar to the US Magnitsky act that already includes more than 100 human rights abusers from various countries, such as China, Libya, Russia, and Sudan. According to several EU officials familiar with the discussions, more than 10 EU member states -- including France, the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Sweden and the Baltic trio of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- have been pushing for sanctions to be adopted by EU foreign ministers. Just like in January, Bratislava and Budapest have been resisting the move, arguing that any type of restrictive measure could worsen the situation and that dialogue with Tbilisi is a better approach. While not siding with Slovakia and Hungary, Greece has been arguing against taking any hasty decisions. Despite the obvious opposition, many diplomats RFE/RL has spoken to on condition of anonymity believe that there still is a chance of finding a consensus to blacklist at least a couple of Georgian judges, whom the EU deems responsible for the arrest of Georgian oppositionists. It's believed that sanctions-skeptic countries may accept this instead of targeting high-profile politicians. Drilling Down So, what other options are being discussed? The most obvious one is to suspend visa liberalization for Georgian citizens -- a move that only requires a qualified majority of 55 percent of member states representing 65 percent of the total EU population. Sweden is the latest country to push for this, arguing that it can be done temporarily if the situation continues to worsen after Georgian local elections in early October. This view is apparently also supported by the Baltic states, Denmark, France, and Poland. Others have expressed reservations, however -- notably Greece and Slovenia. They argue that such a radical move -- with the bloc never having suspended visa liberalization for an EU candidate country before -- should be taken as an absolute last resort. It has also been pointed out that such a step would likely have more of a negative impact on ordinary Georgian citizens rather than the country's leadership. Another alternative proposal put forward by the European Commission is to impose national entry bans on certain individuals. This is regarded as a somewhat "softer measure" compared to imposing a blanket suspension of EU visa liberalization or broader sanctions. However, it would only be effective if several member states chose to adopt and coordinate this approach. Whether that will happen remains uncertain, as some countries -- such as Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and Romania -- have stressed that it still is important to keep communication channels open with Tbilisi. The internal EU document also mentions the possibility of suspending Georgia's candidate status, which the bloc unanimously bestowed on the country back in December 2023. The EU, however, has never before unilaterally reversed candidate status in its history (Iceland asked Brussels to remove its EU candidate status back in 2015). Once again, unanimity would be necessary to take this step. Finally, there is an option that could likely be achieved this week: a large group of countries, led by the Baltic trio, plans to ask the European External Action Service and the European Commission to conduct a thorough assessment of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement from 2016. The goal would be to explore the possibility of suspending parts of the agreement in the future, such as the free trade provisions it includes. Such a suspension would require only a qualified majority. Briefing #2: Brussels Tightens Stance On Moldova's Pro-Russian Opposition What You Need To Know: EU foreign ministers on July 15 are expected to rubber stamp an agreement to impose sanctions on people and entities the bloc deems guilty of "actions destabilizing" Moldova, where Russia still wields massive influence and maintains more than 1,000 troops in the separatist Transdniester region. The sanctions regime was first adopted in 2023 in an attempt to protect Chisinau from Moscow-backed attempts to wrestle back political control over the country. So far, 16 people and two organizations are blacklisted, most notably the fugitive oligarchs Vlad Plahotniuc and Ilan Shor, both of whom fled Moldova. The proposed new batch of listings, seen by RFE/RL, consists of seven individuals and three entities -- all in one way or another linked to Shor. Deep Background: The Russia-based Shor, whom the Moldovan police believe was responsible for a vote-buying scheme last year that nearly swung the referendum on future EU membership in the Eastern European republic, was a key figure in bank fraud scandal a decade ago in which close to $1 billion was transferred out of Moldovan banks for loans that remained unpaid. Shor's political party SOR was outlawed in 2023, but a year later he launched a new political bloc from Moscow called Victory/Pobeda, which is one of the three entities proposed for sanctioning by the EU. The official sanction text notes that "the Victory/Pobeda Political Bloc is involved in spreading false information and in vote-buying schemes" during both the referendum last year and the presidential election that returned the pro-EU President Maia Sandu to office. Shor's company A7 is also listed. Described by Brussels as a firm "established by Ilan Shor, together with multiple financial companies in Moscow, partnering with Russian state entities" it stands accused of being the vehicle used by him to buy votes. A7 has also been accused of helping facilitate cross-border financial transfers for Russian clients in the face of Western sanctions. The third entity on the list is the "Cultural Educational Centre of Moldova" which according to the EU was distributing free vouchers to voters transported to a Moscow polling station, "while simultaneously promoting the 'Card of the Citizen of the Republic of Moldova' in the Russian Federation' propaganda program." This was, according to the bloc, another activity that Shor and his associates were behind. Drilling Down Another Individuals on the list also appear to be linked to Shor. Alexandru Beschieru is the leader of the Forta de Alternativa si de Salvare a Moldovei (Alternative and Salvation Force of Moldova) political party, which is one of the successors of the SOR party and now finds itself under the umbrella of the Victory/Pobeda political bloc. Victoria Furtuna, the leader of the Moldova Mare (Greater Moldova) party, is another who allegedly has benefited from Shor's patronage. Moldovan members of parliament Alexandr Nesterovschi and Irina Lozovan, both of the Renastere (Revival) party which is perceived to be yet another successor of the SOR party, are also proposed for blacklisting. The pair were sentenced earlier this year to 12 and six years in prison, respectively, for illegal financing of political parties. Both disappeared after their convictions, with Chisinau authorities believing that they currently are hiding in the breakaway Transdniester region. The leader of the Renaissance party, Natalia Parasca, is also included in the EU document with the bloc pointing out that she is a member of the board of the already sanctioned entity Evrazia, which according to the files is "actively involved in the illegal financing schemes" of Shor. Vadim Grozavu, leader of the Victory Party and Alexei Lungu, who heads the Chance Party, are also to be blacklisted. The EU sanctions do not, however, include the mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban.There was confusion on July 9 when the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on its website that due to national security considerations, Bucharest had barred him from entering Romania. on its website that due to national security considerations, Bucharest had barred him from entering Romania. That the measure also included a ban on access to the EU's Schengen area, which encompasses most EU countries as well as non-EU countries such as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Ceban will be included in the Schengen Information System (SIS), which is a Schengen area database used for sharing information on border management and security, unless he appeals the decision. But that stops short of a full ban as individual European capitals can undercut the Romanian ban by issuing a visa to their country or simply just allowing him entry. Looking Ahead On July 16, the European Commission will present its first draft proposal for the next long-term EU budget (2028-2034). The proposed budget of over a trillion euros ($1.2 trillion) will kick off a debate in Brussels that will drag on for months, as member states will fight among themselves over how much money should be spent on various items. Perhaps the most interesting question will be how much money will go to EU foreign policy and enlargement, with the bloc expected to take in new members during the new budget period. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-sanctions-georgia- moldova-pro-russian-opposition/33474013.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Department of Public Information . News and Media Division . New York 15 July 2025 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's briefing by Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. ** Briefing All right, good afternoon. At 12:45 p.m. there we will be a briefing here by Ambassador Bob Rae, in his capacity as the President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and he will brief you on the High-Level Political Forum. ** Occupied Palestinian Territory Turning to the situation in Gaza. Our humanitarian colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs report that the Israeli military continues to issue displacement orders, telling Palestinians to relocate to Al Mawasi, an area as you know that is already extremely overcrowded and lacks the basics for survival. This is happening obviously amongst ongoing hostilities. Today's displacement order covers approximately 9 square kilometres, encompassing 11 neighbourhoods across Gaza and North Gaza governorates, where at least 120,000 people are estimated to be residing. We cannot underscore enough that civilians must be protected, including those fleeing and forced to leave through displacement orders, as well as those who decide to stay. Food insecurity is, as you can imagine, is also worsening. On the fuel crisis, OCHA reports that Israeli authorities continue to allow the entry of limited supplies of fuel. So far, it's been a rate of about 75,000 litres per working day, with nothing allowed in on Friday or Saturday and a lag of a day or two before fuel can be collected from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing. We and our partners reiterate that hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel are critically needed every day to keep life-saving services going. Inside Gaza, planned missions by our partners to deliver aid and services continue to face significant access challenges. Many are either denied outright or obstructed due to unpredictable and lengthy coordination procedures. The restrictive operational environment is making it increasingly difficult to deliver core humanitarian services, including food, healthcare, shelter, water, sanitation, protection and education, all of this is further worsening an already catastrophic situation. We reiterate our call on the Israeli authorities to allow us to facilitate unimpeded and safe flow of humanitarian and commercial supplies into Gaza, and to do so swiftly and at the scale necessary to help people. The picture in the West Bank is also bleak. A lot had been mentioned by our colleagues in Geneva this morning, but I can tell you that in the past weeks Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. We call on Israel to immediately stop these killings, harassment and home demolitions across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. As the occupying power, Israel must take all feasible measures to ensure public order and safety in the West Bank. There must be thorough, independent and transparent investigations into all killings and all other alleged violations of international law. ** Lebanon and Israel Moving north to the situation in Lebanon, and I can tell you that our UNIFIL peacekeepers stationed in southern Lebanon continue to observe a military presence and activities by Israel Defense Forces, including air violations by drones. Also, you have been asking me in the past days about the Israeli air strikes on targets in Lebanon, I can tell you that we are aware of reports of Israeli air strikes reportedly against Hizbullah positions in the Bekaa Valley to the east of Beirut, resulting in several casualties. And also, I wanted to say that yesterday, UNIFIL peacekeepers found two unauthorized weapons caches in their area of operations, including one containing detonation wire coils and another containing mortars and anti-personnel mines. As per usual practice, these were referred to the Lebanese Armed Forces for disposal. We, once again, urge the parties to uphold the cessation of hostilities and refrain from any activities that may endanger civilians. Our UNIFIL colleagues are committed to impartially monitor and report on violations of resolution 1701 and to support the parties in fulfilling their responsibilities under that resolution. ** Syria Political On the Syrian front, I can tell you that the Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the continued violence that we have seen in the Druze-majority area in Suweida governorate in southern Syria, which has resulted in dozens of casualties, including among civilians. He is disturbed by reports of arbitrary killings of civilians, sectarian incitement, and looting of private property. He condemns all violence against civilians, especially acts that risk inflaming sectarian tensions. The Secretary-General urges the interim authorities and local leaders to immediately de-escalate, and to protect civilians, to restore calm, and of course to prevent further incitement. He further urges the interim authorities to transparently and openly investigate and hold to account those responsible for what we have seen. The Secretary-General is also concerned by Israel's air strikes on Syrian territory and calls on Israel to refrain from violations of Syria's independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity. The Secretary-General underscores that it is imperative to support a credible, orderly and inclusive political transition in Syria in line with the key principles of Security Council resolution 2254 (2015). The Deputy Special Envoy for Syria, Najat Rochdi, is in Syria currently and calling for de-escalation and dialogue between the interim authorities and local stakeholders. Our Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, is also sending the same messages. ** Syria And also just on the humanitarian front, our humanitarian partners in Suweida report that medical services are overstretched, and that markets and basic services such as electricity, water and education have been disrupted. UN aid operations are still suspended in the impacted areas, as movements along the main roads have been disrupted but we are mobilizing to be able to respond once the situation allows it. Meanwhile, OCHA reports that we and our partners continue to provide assistance to communities affected by recent wildfires in Lattakia province, that has been done in coordination with Syrian authorities. The fires are now largely under control, though sporadic blazes have continued. More than 1,100 people have been displaced and over 14,000 people have been affected overall, with large areas of farmland destroyed. UN agencies, along with NGO partners and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are providing a range of support, including mobile teams to provide health and nutrition services; solar lamps, jerry cans and other critical household items; as well as bread and ready-to-eat rations; clean water; and also helping to rehabilitate damaged schools. ** Sudan Turning to Sudan, where the situation continues to deteriorate for civilians, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tell us they're gravely concerned over reports of brutal attacks on villages in the Kordofan region, as hostilities continue to escalate. Between 10 and 13 July, attacks on villages in the locality of Bara in North Kordofan State reportedly left at least 300 people dead, including children and pregnant women, and many more injured. Homes were looted and burned, and people displaced. Our colleagues say that ongoing communications disruptions in the area are making it difficult to confirm the exact number of civilians killed. OCHA is also alarmed by reports of renewed shelling in Al Obeid, the state capital, which is deepening fears and insecurity among civilians who were there. In West Kordofan State, attacks on the villages of Al Fula and Abu Zabad between 10 and 13 July reportedly killed more than 20 people, including victims of an air strike on a school that was sheltering displaced families. Humanitarian operations of course also have been affected by the ongoing fighting. These incidents are another tragic reminder of the relentless toll the conflict is taking on civilians across Sudan. We once again reaffirm our condemnation of the killings of all civilians. We are also seeing that civilians and civilian infrastructure including schools, homes, shelters and humanitarian assets be targeted, they must never be targeted. And we call on all parties to the conflict to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law. People fleeing North Kordofan, as well as El Fasher in North Darfur State, continue to seek out safety in other parts of Sudan, including Northern State. Our humanitarian partners there report that more than 3,000 people have arrived in the locality of Ad-Dabbah since June. While some have received food assistance, the steady influx of newly displaced families is putting more pressure on an already overstretched humanitarian system. OCHA warns that the rainy season is bringing further hardship. In eastern Sudan on Sunday, heavy rain and strong winds destroyed or damaged shelters and food supplies for about 2,700 displaced people in Gedaref. A rapid assessment conducted by OCHA and our partners yesterday found that most of the impacted families wish to return to their areas of origin but need support to do so. Across Sudan, more than 1.3 million people have returned to their home areas since November 2024, that's what the International Organization for Migration is telling us. The vast majority returned to Al Jazirah, Sennar and Khartoum states, but they face worsening living conditions and shortages of basic services. We continue to appeal for urgent and increased support to reach millions of vulnerable people across Sudan. We thank the donors who have so far contributed to this year's humanitarian response plan for the country, which is nearly 23 per cent funded, with about $950 million in the bank. ** Democratic Republic of the Congo Moving to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our colleagues from the peacekeeping mission there, report that on 13 July, suspected CODECO elements attempted an attack on the village of Ndjala in Ituri province. UN peacekeepers rapidly deployed a patrol in response, leading the assailants to disperse with no casualties, thankfully, were reported. The Mission also reports that it engaged with six Lendu community leaders who reaffirmed their commitment to promoting peace through intercommunal dialogue with Hema leaders and sensitizing CODECO militias on engaging in dialogue to strengthen intercommunal social cohesion. The peacekeeping mission remains actively engaged in supporting the implementation of local peace initiatives including the recently concluded dialogue between the armed groups, known as the Aru II Act of Engagement. This commits armed groups in Ituri province to cease hostilities against civilians, adhere to the national disarmament programme and support the safe, voluntary and dignified return of displaced people. ** Afghanistan Turning to Afghanistan. During a visit to the Islam Qala border crossing, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, called for an immediate international support for relief efforts as she witnessed the staggering daily influx of tens of thousands of Afghan returnees. During the visit, Ms. Otunbayeva met with returnee families, assistance partners and regional de facto officials. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan noted that despite determined efforts of UN agencies and local authorities, and a powerful public outpouring of practical support to the returnees, the pace and scale of returns are overwhelming already fragile support systems. More than 1.3 million Afghans have returned so far in 2025, straining communities across a country where 70 per cent of people live in poverty. ** Nigeria Also, I want to flag that yesterday afternoon we issued a statement in which the Secretary-General said he is deeply saddened by the passing of the former President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. During his tenure, President Buhari demonstrated a deep commitment to the sovereignty, stability and development of his country. He also played a key role in promoting regional peace and security in West Africa and the Lake Chad Basin. He was also a strong advocate for multilateral and regional cooperation. The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the family of the President, the Government, and the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during this time of national mourning. ** Youth Skills Day Today is what day besides Tuesday? It is something that I could've used when I was younger. It is World Youth Skills Day. This year's theme is "Youth empowerment through AI and digital skills". In his message, the Secretary-General says as AI reshapes our world, young people must be seen not just as learners, but also as co-creators of a fairer digital future. Every young person must be equipped with the skills for this digital age we live in. ** Financial Contribution I've got a quiz for you today. Two countries paid in full. Ready? The first country's national dish is Kabsa, a flavourful [a journalist says Saudi Arabia] so do you want to tell us what Kabsa is, or shall I continue? I will go. It's a flavourful rice dish typically made with meat (such as chicken, lamb, or beef) and a blend of spices like cinnamon and cardamom. So, thank you to Riyadh. The second country is the largest landlocked country in Europe but the twentieth largest landlocked country in the world. Belarus. So, we thank Minsk. We now have 116 paid up Member States. I'm open to queries if there were any. Dezhi. ** Questions and Answers Question : Yes. Last week, there was a report that EU had a deal to increase humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza in partnership with Israel. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been rejected by the EU, which means there are not that many options. So, has the UN been informed to be ready because we didn't see any progress actually in that front? Spokesman : We're always ready. And I think the theme since the latest large-scale blocking of aid coming in is that we are ready. Right? And I think Carl Skau told you, Mr. Fletcher has told you, everyone has told you, and I've told you that we are ready. We are well aware of the agreement announced between the European Union and Israel. We saw the statement from Ms. Kallas underscoring the fact that the UN needed more aid to come in. So obviously, there's been no unlocking of this as of now. We understand discussions are ongoing. But as always, we are ready. Question : Is the UN the part of the discussion? [cross talk] Spokesman : Sorry? Question : Is UN in the... Spokesman : The discussions are between the European Union and Israel. Question : But you are... [cross talk] Spokesman : Thank you. But I can tell you we are well aware of what is being discussed. Question : Okay. Secondly, on the Suweida situation, I'm kind of wondering what's the situation of UNDOF there in, on Golan Heights? Spokesman : Well, the situation of UNDOF [UN Disengagement Observer Force] remains the same that it is limited in its ability to do its work. But UNDOF is not covering the area of Suweida. Question : But the Israeli military still is in presence in Syria? Spokesman : That's correct. Okay. Yes. Madame Saloomey. Question : Speaking of AI, there were some demonstrators that were removed from the premises earlier that were protesting tech companies that were cited in Francesca Albanese's report for helping Israel carry out its operations in Gaza. Has the UN considered its work with any of these tech firms going forward as a result of that? Spokesman : Was there a demonstration in the building? Question : I believe they tried to get into the building and didn't. But they were out in front on the... [cross talk] Spokesman : Okay. I was not aware. We expect all of the private sector to work and to engage in work based on the principles of the charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And we expect all our vendors that we may have, to behave in a way that meets the code of conduct that is specified in our procurement. Question : Will the UN continue to work with those companies? Spokesman : That's what I'll say for the time being. Volodymyr and then Magdalena. Question : Thank you, Stephane. Today, European Union Foreign Policy Chief, Kaja Kallas, stated that Russia has increasingly used chemical weapons in Ukraine, citing 9,000 cases based on Dutch and German intelligence. What is the Secretary-General's position on this? Spokesman : Look. We have seen those reports. I can tell you that we firmly stand against the use of any chemical weapons. Magdalena. Question : So, Mike Waltz just wrapped up his senate confirmation hearing to be [United States] Ambassador to the UN. And throughout his testimony, he talked about how the UN desperately needs reform. He also said that the Organization displays favouritism towards China and has a very strong antisemitic and anti-Israel priorities. Is there a response to these comments or comment more generally about his possible arrival to the US Mission soon? Spokesman : I don't want to get in the midst of a confirmation hearing that's taking place. So, obviously, we would welcome a permanent, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, which is such a critical partner and part of this organization. You know, I think our message to all Member States is if you're not fully pleased with what's going on in this organization, engage with the other Member States in this organization. Alex? Question : Thanks, Steph. There have been some reports that Germany has submitted a formal request to the UN to trigger the snapback mechanism against Iran under the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. Do you have any information? Spokesman : I have not heard that except just now from you. Question : Oh. But... [cross talk] Spokesman : I will check. Correspondent : Thank you. Spokesman : All right. Anyone online? Serife. Question : I want to ask you about the Israeli Diaspora Minister, [Amichai] Chikli's, comments. After he compared the Syrian Administration to Hamas, he called for the elimination of the Syrian President Ahmed Al Sharaa. And if you have a minute, I want to say exactly what he said. He said, "Anyone who thinks that Sharaa is a legitimate leader is deeply mistaken. He's a terrorist, a barbaric murderer who should be eliminated now." So, I just want to know if you have a reaction to this call of assassination to a State leader. Thank you. Spokesman : The last thing this region needs is more incitement to violence and more violent rhetoric. Okay. Yes, you may do one more. Plenty of time. Question : Just OCHA came out with the number 875 people having been killed. Either getting... [cross talk] Spokesman : I think that's from our human rights colleagues. Correspondent : Okay. Spokesman : But whatever. Question : Is there any way to put a number like that into perspective? These are people that are trying to get help. I mean, is there anything you've been doing this job a long time in terms of a humanitarian operation. What does this say in terms of how it functions in international law? Spokesman : They issued some breakdown of which ones were near the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which one were others. The vast majority were near GHF. How can you put in perspective, or how can you choose the right words when describing a situation where people are forced to walk miles between barbed wires in a militarized food distribution system only to be shot by unnamed contractors or by the Israeli military or by we've seen a few cases from Palestinian gunmen. It is just horrific. There is a better system, and it's not one that's a theoretical system. It's a system that existed during the ceasefire. All we're asking is to go back to that system, and we're saying there's enough work for everybody. There's enough work for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to work with us. The only thing we ask is that they work based on the most basic principles where it is people don't have to risk their lives to get food. Dezhi. Question : Since you have plenty of time... Spokesman : I didn't say plenty. I said a little bit more time. And just for Ms. Saloomey. Question : So, I'm just wondering what's the reaction from the Secretary-General that the country that owes big money actually want the big influence here in the United Nations. Spokesman : Do you know of any country that doesn't want big influence in this organization? Thank you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address At least 35 children reportedly killed in attacks in communities in Sudan's North Kordofan State UNICEF Statement by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell 15 July 2025 NEW YORK/AMMAN/PORT SUDAN,15 July 2025 - "More than 450 civilians, including at least 24 boys, 11 girls, and two pregnant women, were reportedly killed in horrific attacks in communities around the city of Bara, including the villages of Shag Alnom and Hilat Hamid, in Sudan's North Kordofan State over the weekend. With dozens more injured and many still missing, we fear that the number of child casualties could rise further. "These attacks are an outrage. They represent a terrifying escalation of violence, and a complete disregard for human life, international humanitarian law, and the most basic principles of humanity. "UNICEF condemns the attacks in the strongest possible terms. We call on all parties to the conflict to end the violence immediately and to uphold their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, and the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. "Civilians - particularly children - must never be the target of attack. All alleged violations must be independently investigated, and those responsible held to account. Impunity cannot be tolerated for violations of international law, especially when children's lives are at stake. "We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and to anyone impacted by this heinous violence. "No child should ever experience such horrors. Violence against children is unconscionable and must end now." ##### Notes for editors: The situation in North Kordofan has escalated in recent weeks, resulting in increased displacement, civilian casualties and restrictions on humanitarian access that are detrimental to children's survival. In 2024, six per cent of all grave violations against children - including killing and maiming of children; recruitment or use of children in armed forces and armed groups; attacks on schools or hospitals; rape or other grave sexual violence; abduction of children; and denial of humanitarian access for children - in Sudan took place in North Kordofan. A more alarming trend has been registered since January 2025. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Today's top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Sudan UNOCHA - United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Occupied Palestinian Territory Tens of thousands affected by latest displacement order in Gaza OCHA reports that amid ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli military continues to issue displacement orders - telling people to relocate to Al Mawasi, an already overcrowded area lacking the basics for survival. Today's displacement order covers approximately nine square kilometres, encompassing 11 neighbourhoods across Gaza and North Gaza governorates, where at least 120,000 people are estimated to be residing. OCHA underscores that civilians must be protected, including those fleeing and forced to leave through displacement orders, as well as those who remain despite those orders. As displacement and bombardments continue, food insecurity is also worsening. Last week, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that there is very little dry food remaining in Gaza, as malnutrition among children spreads. The agency added that UNRWA has life-saving food, medicines and other basics - worth at least 6,000 truckloads - that have been waiting months for the green light to enter Gaza. On the fuel crisis, OCHA reports that Israeli authorities continue to allow the entry of limited supplies of fuel - so far at a rate of about 75,000 litres per working day, with nothing allowed over the weekend and a lag of a day or two before fuel can be collected from the Palestinian side. The UN and its partners reiterate that hundreds of thousands of litres of fuel are critically needed every day to keep life-saving services going. Inside Gaza, planned UN missions to deliver aid and services continue to face significant access challenges. Many are either denied outright or obstructed due to unpredictable and lengthy coordination procedures. The restrictive operational environment is making it increasingly difficult to deliver core humanitarian services - including food, healthcare, shelter, water, sanitation, protection and education - which is further worsening an already catastrophic situation. The UN and its partners reiterate their call for the Israeli authorities to allow and facilitate the unimpeded and safe flow of humanitarian and commercial supplies into Gaza - swiftly and at the scale necessary to save survivors. Syria As-Sweida hostilities displace civilians, disrupt critical services OCHA reports that hostilities in the southern Syrian governorate of As-Sweida in recent days have led to significant displacement of civilians, as well as reports of civilian casualties. Humanitarian partners warn that medical services are overstretched, and that markets and basic services such as electricity, water and education have been disrupted. UN aid operations are still suspended in affected areas, as movements along main roads have been disrupted. However, teams are mobilizing to be able to respond once the situation allows. In a social media post yesterday, the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, Adam Abdelmoula, called for calm and for civilians to be protected. Meanwhile, OCHA reports that the UN and its partners continue to provide assistance to communities affected by recent wildfires in the coastal governorate of Lattakia, in coordination with Syrian authorities. The fires are now largely under control, though sporadic blazes have continued. More than 1,100 people have been displaced and over 14,000 people have been affected overall, with large areas of farmland destroyed. UN agencies, along with NGO partners and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are providing a range of support, including bread and ready-to-eat meals, clean water, solar lamps, jerry cans and other critical household items. Mobile teams are providing health and nutrition services, and work is underway to help rehabilitate damaged schools. Sudan Scores reportedly killed in Kordofan attacks OCHA is gravely concerned over reports of brutal attacks on villages in Sudan's Kordofan region, as hostilities continue to escalate. Between 10 and 13 July, attacks on villages in the locality of Bara in North Kordofan State reportedly left at least 300 people dead, including children and pregnant women, and many more injured. Homes were looted and burned, and people displaced. Ongoing communications disruptions in the area are making it difficult to confirm the exact number of civilians killed. OCHA is also alarmed by reports of renewed shelling in Al Obeid, the state capital, which is deepening fears and insecurity among civilians. In West Kordofan State, attacks on the villages of Al Fula and Abu Zabad between 10 and 13 July reportedly killed more than 20 people, including victims of an air strike on a school sheltering displaced families. Humanitarian operations have also been affected. These incidents are yet another tragic reminder of the relentless toll the conflict is taking on civilians across Sudan. OCHA emphasizes that civilians and civilian infrastructure - including schools, homes, shelters and humanitarian assets - must never be targeted, and calls on all parties to the conflict to fully respect their obligations under international humanitarian law. People fleeing North Kordofan - as well as El Fasher in North Darfur State - continue to seek out safety in other parts of the country, including Northern State. Humanitarian partners there report that more than 3,000 people displaced people have arrived in the locality of Ad-Dabbah since June. While some have received food assistance, the steady influx of newly displaced families is putting more pressure on already stretched resources. OCHA warns that the rainy season is bringing further hardship. In eastern Sudan on Sunday, heavy rain and strong winds destroyed or damaged shelters and food supplies for about 2,700 displaced people at two sites in Gedaref. A rapid assessment conducted by OCHA and its partners yesterday found that most of the affected families wish to return to their areas of origin but need support to do so. Across Sudan, more than 1.3 million people have returned to their home areas since November 2024, according to the International Organization for Migration. The vast majority returned to Aj Jazirah, Sennar and Khartoum states, but they face worsening living conditions and shortages of basic services. OCHA continues to appeal for urgent and increased support to reach millions of vulnerable people across Sudan* and thanks the generous donors who have so far contributed to this year's humanitarian response plan for the country, which is nearly 23 per cent funded, with about US$950 million received to date. *Donations made to UN Crisis Relief help UN agencies and humanitarian NGOs reach people in Sudan with urgent support. Posted on 15 July 2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Adopting Resolution 2787 (2025), Security Council Extends Reporting Requirement on Houthi Attacks against Merchant, Commercial Vessels in Red Sea Meetings Coverage Security Council 9958th Meeting (PM) SC/16120 15 July 2025 The Security Council today extended the request to the Secretary-General to provide written monthly reports through 15 January 2026 on any further Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. Adopting resolution 2787 (2025) (to be issued as document S/RES/2787(2025)) with a vote of 12 in favour to none against, with 3 abstentions (Algeria, China, Russian Federation), the Council extended the reporting request in paragraph 10 of resolution 2722 (2024), while also recalling all its relevant resolutions on the situation in Yemen and the Red Sea, including resolutions 2216 (2015), 2722 (2024), 2739 (2024) and 2768 (2025). Acts of Terrorism by Houthis In the ensuing discussion, the representative of the United States, who served as co-penholder of today's resolution, said that the recent Houthi attacks on two civilian cargo vessels the MV Magic Seas and the MV Eternity Sea are yet another stark reminder of the Houthis' terrorist tactics and their blatant disregard for civilian life. These attacks have also disrupted the free flow of global commerce through the Red Sea and, according to some reports, more than doubled the cost of operating commercial vessels in the area. "The United States strongly condemns these acts of terrorism, which threaten freedom of navigation and undermine regional economic and maritime security," she said, calling for the immediate and permanent cessation of all Houthi attacks against vessels transiting the Red Sea. Demanding the unconditional release of the crew of the MV Eternity Sea, who remain in Houthi custody, she also reiterated condemnation of Iran's ongoing violations of Council resolution 2216 (2015), which continue to "enable Houthi terrorism" including these latest attacks. No Justification for Any Attack against Innocent Seafarers The representative of Greece, also co-penholder of today's resolution, said that the recent, unprovoked attacks against two commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea region "provide a clear testimony of the Houthis' continued aggression and destabilizing role, as well as the need to keep the reporting mechanism in place". Underscoring that there is no justification for any attack against innocent seafarers "whose contribution to international maritime trade is irreplaceable" he stressed that, if the Red Sea region "becomes even more degraded, it will expose the international community to more acute security risks and economic uncertainty". He therefore called on all Member States to respect and implement the arms embargo established by resolution 2216 (2015). As a nation deeply invested in the stability of the Red Sea, Somalia's delegate said that he supported the resolution as a reflection of an unwavering commitment to maritime security. "We recognize the gravity of the current threats and their far-reaching implications, from economic disruption to environmental risks," he said. While this resolution is a constructive step forward, its effectiveness will depend on a thoughtful approach that accounts for regional realities and sensitivities. Security in the Red Sea cannot be separated from the stability of its coastal States or the broader peace process. Lasting solutions must tackle the root causes of instability while upholding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations in the region. "We must avoid actions that risk further escalation and instead focus on addressing the legitimate concerns of all stakeholders," he said. Nexus between Attacks in Red Sea and Aggression against Palestinians in Gaza The representative of Algeria said that his delegation's abstention "comes in line with its principled position", including abstentions on resolutions 2722 (2024), 2739 (2024) and 2768 (2025). He stressed, however, that this abstention must not be interpreted either as a reservation regarding the Secretary-General's monthly reports or as a justification for the attacks targeting commercial vessels or cargo carriers. Rather, it is a "reflection of our deep concern" over the implementation of resolution 2722 (2024), he said, noting that such resolution has been misused to justify attacks on the territory of sovereign States. He added that the Council cannot disregard the "clear nexus between the attacks in the Red Sea and the aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza". The representative of the Russian Federation whose delegation also abstained noted with concern that the text represents a direct continuation of resolution 2722 (2024) an instrument that, despite its stated aim of ensuring freedom of navigation, has "raised serious concerns on our side" regarding its interpretation and application in practice. While the resolution's original intent is commendable, namely safeguarding maritime security around Yemen, the broad and ambiguous language has opened the door to arbitrary interpretations, including its use as justification for unilateral military actions on the sovereign territory of Yemen. "We emphasize that such misinterpretations are unacceptable and undermine the authority of the Security Council," he said. Stabilization efforts in and around Yemen must be pursued exclusively through political and diplomatic means, in full respect of international law. Moreover, it is impossible to decouple the Red Sea's security from the wider instability across the region most notably the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. Achieving sustainable peace requires immediate steps: a ceasefire, the release of hostages and detainees, and unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. Council Resolutions Should Not Be 'Misinterpreted or Abused' The representative of China whose delegation also abstained recalled its similar abstention on resolution 2722 (2024). "Following the adoption of that resolution, certain countries took military actions against Yemen, which seriously impacted Yemen's peace process and exacerbated tensions in the Red Sea," he recalled, adding that the "negative effects" of such actions "continue until today". He underscored that Council resolutions should not be "misinterpreted or abused", and that Yemen's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected. Adding that tensions in the Red Sea are a "major manifestation of the spillover from the Gaza conflict", he said that issues in the Red Sea and Yemen cannot be resolved without easing tensions and de-escalating the overall situation in the region. Red Sea Corridor for Global Trade, Vital Channel for Humanitarian Aid The representative of Pakistan, Council President for July, having voted in favor of resolution 2787 (2025) and speaking in his national capacity, reaffirmed "our principled and longstanding commitment" to upholding maritime security and unequivocally condemning attacks on all commercial shipping. He denounced the recent assaults on vessels in the Red Sea and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all detained crew members. In the current context, the extension of the reporting mandate is a necessary and timely step. "We underscore the strategic significance of the Red Sea maritime corridor not only as a critical artery for global trade, but also as a vital channel for humanitarian aid to Yemen," he said. All attacks on merchant and commercial vessels navigating the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden must cease immediately and permanently, in full compliance with international law. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 55th Wing arrives in Australia for Talon Shield, reinforcing global partnerships, combat readiness Published July 15, 2025 By Kris Pierce 55th Wing Public Affairs ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE BASE EDINBURGH, Australia (AFNS) -- The 55th Wing has arrived in Australia, launching the execution of Talon Shield. This high-end training event reinforces the U.S. Air Force's ability to project power, integrate with allies, and execute from forward locations. Talon Shield is part of the larger exercise, Talisman Sabre, which will bring together more than 30,000 personnel from 19 countries across the Indo-Pacific region. Talon Shield centers on strengthening joint operational readiness and highlights the U.S. Air Force's Air Force Force Generation, or AFFORGEN, model a deliberate force presentation strategy designed to ensure mission-ready airmen are trained, equipped and deployable on demand. The 55th Wing is executing the exercise under a Strategic Deployable Combat Wing construct, demonstrating how smaller, agile teams can operate from distributed locations while remaining fully connected to the joint fight. "We are grateful to our partners, the Royal Australian Air Force, for hosting our large contingent for Talon Shield," said U.S. Air Force Col. Aaron Gray, 55th Wing commander. "We are learning from each other and demonstrating the ability to project power and deeply integrate anywhere on the globe. We are excited to be a part of such an expansive exercise demonstrating not only readiness, but the strength of our relationships." Two key partners joined the 55th Wing: the 319th Reconnaissance Wing from Grand Forks Air Force Base, North Dakota, and the 552nd Air Control Wing from Tinker AFB, Oklahoma. Together, these wings deliver advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or ISR, airborne command and control, or C2, and electromagnetic warfare capabilities key enablers in ensuring joint force superiority. "Our integration with the 55th Wing and our Australian hosts underscores the real-world relevance of airborne battle management," said U.S. Air Force Col. Kenneth J. Voigt Jr., 552nd Air Control Wing commander. "This exercise proves that our globe-spanning partnerships are more than symbolic; they are operationally decisive." Standing up a Strategic Deployable Combat Wing model in Australia demanded meticulous planning, cross-unit synchronization and a united logistics effort spanning three major wings across the continental United States. The combination of these three critical wings delivers unique capabilities and complex support requirements, which the team merged into a single, agile, forward-deployed force package. The 55th Wing coordinated the deployment of nearly 200 personnel across multiple specialties essential to the mission, including aircraft maintenance, operations, intelligence, communications, security forces, logistics and personnel support. This diverse team formed the backbone of the Strategic Deployable Combat Wing, ensuring 24/7 operational readiness upon arrival. Alongside the personnel deployment, the wing moved more than 55 tons of cargo including mission-critical systems, maintenance equipment, aircraft support tools, communications infrastructure and sustainment supplies. Load plans, cargo tracking and customs documentation were meticulously executed to align international movements and ensure seamless setup at RAAF Base Edinburgh. "Agile operations require more than speed; they require precision, trust and disciplined coordination," Voigt said. "What we accomplished here wasn't just a movement of forces; it was a demonstration of how strategic planning and interoperability give us the edge in contested environments." The scale of this deployment required inter-theater coordination, including direct collaboration with the U.S. Transportation Command, Pacific Air Forces logistics planners and Australian base support teams. Lodging, local transportation, in-country movement of mission assets and 24/7 sustainment operations were pre-planned in close partnership with the RAAF, whose responsiveness and interoperability were essential to mission success. Moreover, leveraging RAAF systems and infrastructure, from flightline equipment and communication systems to cargo handling, allowed the U.S. team to remain agile and minimize its footprint, further proving the effectiveness of allied integration in contested and resource-constrained environments. "This was a full-scale logistical operation that spanned hemispheres," said U.S. Air Force Col. Alfred Rosales, 319th Reconnaissance Wing commander. "Our ability to seamlessly arrive, set-up and operate with the RAAF shows what allied nation integration looks like in action. It's not theory, it's a capability realized." This operation wasn't just about transportation and the timeline; it was about building a combat-ready team, fully integrated and postured to execute the mission from Day One. Across the Pacific, every moving piece from aircraft and equipment to fuel plans and lodging was orchestrated to ensure airmen could arrive, plug in and immediately contribute to the fight. That level of precision and purpose is what defines the 55th Wing's approach to combat preparation. "Standing up a Strategic Deployable Combat Wing takes relentless focus and a warfighter mindset from every Airman involved," Gray said. "We mobilized, arrived ready, integrated with the BMC2 enterprise, other ISR assets and allies. We delivered a large force package of decisive airpower." This level of integration, complexity and speed demonstrates that the AFFORGEN model is not just a concept; it's a reality in motion. Through Talon Shield, the 55th Wing and its partners are proving that globally integrated, rapidly deployable and interoperable airpower is not only possible, but operationally decisive. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address USS Mount Whitney Returns to Homeport US Navy 15 July 2025 From Ensign Samantha Mendiguren GAETA, Italy -- The Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) returned to homeport in Gaeta, Italy, after operating in the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean, and Baltic Sea. The underway underscored the U.S. Navy's commitment to regional security and strong partnerships with European and African nations. During the ship's underway, it conducted port visits to several nations in Africa and Europe and held numerous key leader engagements, fostering international cooperation and addressing shared security concerns in both theaters. These countries included Tunisia, Libya, Cabo Verde, Mauritania, Spain, Germany, Poland, Latvia and Sweden. "From the Mediterranean to the Baltic Sea, we worked alongside our allies and partners, building relationships and demonstrating the U.S. Navy's unwavering commitment to security and stability in both regions," said Capt. Colin Price, commanding officer of USS Mount Whitney. "I am incredibly proud of the professionalism and dedication exhibited by Team 20 and grateful to have had the opportunity to work with our many great partners in Africa and Europe." Mount Whitney also participated in Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 25, the premier annual maritime-focused military exercise in the Baltic region. This year marked the 54th iteration of the exercise, bringing together sixteen NATO allies. Over 40 ships, 25 aircraft, and approximately 9,000 personnel participated, working to enhance warfighting capabilities, demonstrate layered defense strategies, and reinforce the strength of partnerships within the Baltic region. As the U.S. 6th Fleet command and control ship, Mount Whitney supports naval combatants to deter regional adversaries, conduct naval operations in defense of the homeland, and defend the sovereignty of our partners and allies in Europe and Africa. Mount Whitney, forward deployed to Gaeta, Italy, operates with a combined crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Command civil service mariners in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. Commander, U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied and interagency partners to advance U.S. national interests, security and stability in Europe and Africa. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Security Council's resolution on Red Sea should not be misinterpreted or abused: Chinese envoy Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 16, 2025 10:32 AM After a vote on the Security Council resolution regarding the Red Sea, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), made an explanatory statement, emphasizing that the relevant resolutions of the Security Council should not be misinterpreted or abused, and that Yemen's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity should be respected, according to a statement posted on the website of the Permanent Mission of China to the UN. Based on the current situation in the Red Sea and Yemen and in line with its consistent position, China abstained in the voting of draft resolution just put to vote, said Geng. The tension in the Red Sea has recently escalated again. Israel and the Houthi armed forces have engaged in a new round of clashes, with the Houthis attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, resulting in casualties. China expresses deep concern over this, said Geng. "We call on the Houthis to respect the navigational rights of commercial vessels of all countries in the Red Sea in accordance with international law, to cease attacks on commercial vessels, and to safeguard the security of the Red Sea waterways," said Geng. China abstained in the voting of Council Resolution 2722 regarding the situation in the Red Sea and its subsequent extensions. After the adoption of resolution 2722, certain countries took military actions against Yemen, severely impacting the peace process in Yemen and exacerbating tensions in the Red Sea, with negative effects continuing to this day. I would like to emphasize that the Security Council's resolutions should not be misinterpreted or abused, and Yemen's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity should be respected, said Geng. The tensions in the Red Sea are a significant manifestation of the spillover from the Gaza conflict. The resolution of the issues in the Red Sea and Yemen cannot be separated from the overall easing and de-escalating of the regional situation, said Geng. China stands ready to work with all parties to achieve positive outcomes at the High-Level Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution scheduled for the end of this month, said Geng, according to the statement. On Tuesday, the Security Council adopted resolution 2787 with a result of 12 votes in favor, zero votes against, and three abstentions, extending the Secretary-General's monthly reporting requirement on Houthi attacks in the Red Sea until January 15, 2026. Algeria, China, and Russia abstained from voting, according to the Xinhua News Agency. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PCG 9701 vessel makes dangerous maneuvers, 'will trigger China's strengthened rights protection efforts': analyst Global Times By Hu Yuwei and Fan Wei Published: Jul 16, 2025 12:21 PM On Tuesday morning, Philippine Coast Guard vessel 9701, operating in the waters near China's Huangyan Dao in the South China Sea, deliberately provoked China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels 21550 and 5009, which were conducting rights protection and law enforcement operations in the area. The vessel repeatedly conducted high-speed transits through the stern areas of China Coast Guard law enforcement vessels while dangerously approaching them, with the closest distance being only some 100 meters. This act seriously threatened the navigation safety of the CCG vessels. Analysts told the Global Times that unlike the previous "hit-and-run" style provocations aimed at portraying an image of "victim," the Philippine's provocative behavior this time was more "arrogant and unreasonable." In connection with a series of recent provocations by the Philippines in the South China Sea, the Philippines has shown a new trend of ignoring international rules, which will undoubtedly force China to further step up rights protection and law enforcement efforts in the South China Sea. Images sent back by the Global Times reporter dispatched to Huangyan Dao show that at around 10:30 am on Tuesday, while "escorting" two official vessels of the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to operate in the waters near China's Huangyan Dao, Philippine Coast Guard vessel 9701 provoked CCG vessels 21550 and 5009, which were carrying out rights protection and law enforcement operations in the area. The images show that the vessel repeatedly made large-angle course changes at close range and conducted high-speed transits through the sterns of China Coast Guard vessels 21550 and 5009, with the closest distance to the two ships being about 100 meters. Track charts obtained by the Global Times from the scene also show that within about half an hour, Philippine Coast Guard Ship 9701 was in a state of high maneuverability and irregular navigation, with a haphazard route, seriously disrupting the navigation path of CCG vessels 21550 and 5009, which were sailing normally. "The Philippines' actions are extremely egregious in nature and seriously endangered the safety of CCG vessels," Yang Xiao, an expert on maritime issues at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday. He noted that Philippine vessel 9701 has a displacement of 2,300 tons, while CCG vessels 21550 and 5009 are hundred-ton-class. During the enforcement operation by the two Chinese vessels, the Philippine vessel repeatedly made sharp turns at high speed, at one point closing to within just 100 meters of the Chinese boats. "This constitutes an extremely dangerous and malicious act of provocation. Any collision would have led to catastrophic consequences," the expert stressed. He further stated that despite the large tonnage of its vessel, the Philippine side made multiple close-range course changes and sailed at high speed. This provocative act by the Philippines is unprecedentedly aggressive, differing from its previous behaviors. Considering recent actions made by the Philippines, it is clear that Manila has not only disregarded China's restraint, but also completely ignored relevant international rules, attempting to continuously escalate tensions in the South China Sea. This series of provocations warrants high vigilance. "While the Philippines has been trying to paint China as a 'bully' in the South China Sea on the international stage, the reality is that China has exercised maximum restraint in its rights protection and law enforcement operations, striving to avoid further escalation," said Yang. He emphasized that the reckless maneuvers of Philippine vessel 9701 had seriously endangered the safety of CCG vessel 21550. "The Philippine side really needs to think carefully: if it causes the situation to deteriorate further, will it end up shooting itself in the foot?" NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump says 19 percent tariff to be charged on Indonesian goods People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 09:15, July 16, 2025 NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that a 19 percent tariff will be imposed on imports from Indonesia while the United States will pay nothing, local media reported. He also said the United States will have full access to Indonesia. Earlier in the day, Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social: "Great deal, for everybody, just made with Indonesia. I dealt directly with their highly respected President." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russo-Ukraine War - 15 July 2025 - Day 1238 Su M Tu W Th F Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While GlobalSecurity.org takes utmost care to accurately report this news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos. On 24 February 2022, Ukraine was suddenly and deliberately attacked by land, naval and air forces of Russia, igniting the largest European war since the Great Patriotic War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a "special military operation" (SVO - spetsialnaya voennaya operatsiya) in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the "Donbass republics" for help. That attack is a blatant violation of the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Putin stressed that Moscow's goal is the demilitarization and denazification of the country. The military buildup in preceeding months makes it obvious that the unprovoked and dastardly Russian attack was deliberately planned long in advance. During the intervening time, the Russian government had deliberately sought to deceive the world by false statements and expressions of hope for continued peace. "To initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." [Judgment of the International Military Tribunal] The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that in total, since the beginning of this day, there have been 148 combat clashes. Ukrainian defenders continue to decisively interrupt the attempts of the Russian enemy to advance deep into Ukrainian territory, giving him a fiery impression. Today, Russian invaders launched one missile and 39 aviation strikes on the positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements, using three missiles and dropping 61 controlled aviation bombs. In addition, there were 1218 kamikadze drones and carried out over 4000 shelling. Ten combat clashes have taken place in the North Slobozhansky and Kursky directions since the beginning of the day. In addition, the Russian enemy launched one air strike, dropping four controlled air bombs, and carrying out 165 shelling positions of Ukrainian troops and settlements, including three from reactive salvage systems. In the South Slobozhansky direction, the Defense Forces repelled four Russian attacks near the settlements of Vovchansk and Stroivka. One fighting encounter continues so far. In the Kupiansky direction, Russian forces tried to go forward five times in the area of the settlements Stepova Novoselivka, Zagrizove and Picnje. Ukrainian defenders stopped all attacks of the enemy. In the Lyman direction, Russian invaders 24 times attacked the positions of Defense Forces near the settlements of New Mir, Novoyegorivka, Grekivka, Karpivka, Kolodyazi, Green Valley, Torske, towards Shandrigolovy and Serebryanka. Four fighting clashes are going on so far. In the Sivers komu direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled two Russian attacks near Grigorivka and Viymka. In the direction of Kramators komu, Russian forces seven times attacked the positions of Ukrainian defenders in the areas of Predtecinogo, White Mountain and Stupochok. So far, one combat has not subsided. In the Toretsky direction, Russians five times stormed the positions of Ukrainian units near Diliyivka, Toretsk, Novospasky and Rusyn Yar. In the Pokrovsky direction, from the beginning of this day, the Russian opponent 41 times tried to advance in the areas of popiv yar, Novoekonomicne, Mirolubivka, Lisivka, Kotline, Zvirove, Udaachne, Oleksiyivka, towards the settlements Rodinske, Pokrovsk, Muravka Filiya, Dachne. Three combat clashes are ongoing so far. Today in this direction, according to preliminary data, 93 Russian occupants were defecated, 63 of them - irrevocably. Also destroyed 4 cars, 2 motorcycles, 22 unmanned aircraft and one cannon. In addition, one tank and one gun of the Russian occupiers were damaged. In the Novopavlovsk direction, Russian forces 22 times tried to break through the defense of Ukrainian defenders in the areas of the settlements Zaporizhia , Piddubne, Lisne, Mirne, Maliivka, Shevchenko, Novosilka and towards the settlement of Novohatske. The three fighting clashes are still going on. In the direction of Gulyaipils komu, Russian forces did not carry out offensive actions. In the Orihivsky direction, the Russian occupiers launched an aviation strike on the areas of the settlement of Novoandriivka. In the Pridniprovsky direction, Ukrainian soldiers repelled seven Russian attacks in the area of Antonivsky Bridge and near the islands of Kozulsky and Zabych. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coast Guard seizes over 240,000 pounds of cocaine, doubling amount interdicted over previous year Release Date: July 15, 2025 WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Coast Guard announced that it has seized 242,244 pounds of cocaine since the start of President Trump's administration on January 20th. This is a more than 100% increase over the cocaine seized under the previous administration over the same period in 2024. Since just 1.2 grams of cocaine can be lethal, the Coast Guard has seized over 91 million potentially lethal doses enough to kill the entire population of the states of California, Texas, and New York combined. This milestone comes after President Trump ordered a surge of Coast Guard resources to America's maritime border on his first day in office, tripling the number of forces along the U.S. southern border and maritime approaches. "The U.S. southern border is an interconnected system, and as illegal migration and smuggling become harder across the southwest land border, cartels may try different routes," said Coast Guard Acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday. "Our message to the cartels is this: We own the sea, not you. Using every capability at our disposal, the Coast Guard will prevent threats from reaching our borders." "Thanks to the heroic and diligent work of the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard, these drugs will never hit American streets to poison our communities and destroy American families," said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "Securing our maritime borders is critical to making America safe again. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem's leadership, the Coast Guard is getting the resources and support it needs to fulfill its mission like never before." Under the President's leadership, Secretary Noem is implementing Force Design 2028, a full-scale effort to transform the Coast Guard into a more agile, capable, and responsive force. This effort will make the Coast Guard even more effective maritime force, empowering it to crack down on the international drug trade and keep deadly drugs like cocaine and fentanyl out of American communities. 80 percent of all US-bound drugs are seized on the high seas, and the Coast Guard is the primary force charged with interdicting those drugs and breaking up international maritime drug smuggling rings. For more information about the Coast Guard, visit www.uscg.mil. # # # NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Justice Department Highlights DEA Drug Seizures for First Half of 2025, Successful Operations Over the Last Several Weeks Tuesday, July 15, 2025 For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs WASHINGTON -- Today, Attorney General Pamela Bondi highlighted the great work of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to get illegal drugs off our streets and protect innocent Americans from addiction, overdose, and drug-related crime and violence. Since January 20, 2025, DEA has seized approximately 44 million fentanyl pills, 4,500 pounds of fentanyl powder, nearly 65,000 pounds of methamphetamine, more than 201,500 pounds of cocaine, and made over 2,105 fentanyl-related arrests. "Our DEA agents are doing historic work to keep our communities safe from deadly drugs like fentanyl and dismantle the cartels selling them," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. "I want to remind all Americans to exercise extreme caution: a pill can kill." "DEA is hitting the cartels where it hurtswith arrests, with seizures, and with relentless pressure. From meth labs in California to fentanyl pills disguised as pharmaceuticals seized at our border, these operations are saving American lives every single day," said DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy. "We are not slowing down. We are dismantling these networks piece by pieceand we won't stop until the last brick of their empire falls." Over the last several weeks, DEA has conducted a number of successful operations across the United States including: In Lexington County, South Carolina , DEA, in coordination with its state and local partners, seized over 156 pounds of fentanyl and 44 pounds of methamphetamine, a firearm and arrested one trafficker. , DEA, in coordination with its state and local partners, seized over 156 pounds of fentanyl and 44 pounds of methamphetamine, a firearm and arrested one trafficker. In Gainesville, Georgia , DEA, and its state and local partners intercepted over 705 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a truckload of cucumbers and arrested two traffickers. , DEA, and its state and local partners intercepted over 705 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a truckload of cucumbers and arrested two traffickers. In Minneapolis, Minnesota , DEA and its federal and local partners seized 889 pounds of methamphetamine, one handgun and arrested three traffickers. , DEA and its federal and local partners seized 889 pounds of methamphetamine, one handgun and arrested three traffickers. In Kern County, California , DEA and its local partners shut down a major methamphetamine conversion lab, seizing over 240 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, 151 gallons of liquid methamphetamine, and arrested five traffickers. , DEA and its local partners shut down a major methamphetamine conversion lab, seizing over 240 pounds of crystal methamphetamine, 151 gallons of liquid methamphetamine, and arrested five traffickers. In Fresno, California , DEA and its federal, state and local partners seized 24 pounds of carfentanil disguised as real prescription pills the largest single seizure to date of carfentanil in Northern California. , DEA and its federal, state and local partners seized 24 pounds of carfentanil disguised as real prescription pills the largest single seizure to date of carfentanil in Northern California. In Galveston, Texas , DEA, in close coordination with its federal partners at CBP, helped uncover over 1,700 pounds of methamphetamineworth more than $15 million dollarshidden inside a vehicle. , DEA, in close coordination with its federal partners at CBP, helped uncover over 1,700 pounds of methamphetamineworth more than $15 million dollarshidden inside a vehicle. In Austin, Texas , DEA, in coordination with its FBI, state and local partners, seized 783 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside a refrigerated truck carrying blueberries. , DEA, in coordination with its FBI, state and local partners, seized 783 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside a refrigerated truck carrying blueberries. In a single coordinated takedown spanning Indiana, Kentucky , and Arizona , DEA, working alongside its federal, state and local partners, DEA seized 59 illegal firearms, possessed by serious violent felonsalong with 74 pounds of methamphetamine, 11 pounds of fentanyl, 11 pounds of cocaine, cash, and conducted 23 arrests. , , DEA, working alongside its federal, state and local partners, DEA seized 59 illegal firearms, possessed by serious violent felonsalong with 74 pounds of methamphetamine, 11 pounds of fentanyl, 11 pounds of cocaine, cash, and conducted 23 arrests. In Miami, Florida , DEA in coordination with its FBI partners, seized over $10 million dollars in cryptocurrency, directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel. , DEA in coordination with its FBI partners, seized over $10 million dollars in cryptocurrency, directly linked to the Sinaloa cartel. In El Paso, Texas , DEA, with the assistance of its federal partners at HSI and U.S. Border Patrol, seized 115 pounds of methamphetamine from a drug-laden vehicle outfitted with a GPS tracker. , DEA, with the assistance of its federal partners at HSI and U.S. Border Patrol, seized 115 pounds of methamphetamine from a drug-laden vehicle outfitted with a GPS tracker. In Omaha, Nebraska, DEA and its local partners seized machinegun conversion devices, AR-style pistols and fentanyl pills in a raid that dismantled a multi-state poly-drug operation. Topics: Operation Take Back America Drug Trafficking Opioids Prescription Drugs Components: Office of the Attorney General Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Press Release Number: 25-741 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China Space Station receives new supplies from Tianzhou-9 craft Global Times By Deng Xiaoci in Wenchang Published: Jul 15, 2025 07:47 PM Shenzhou-20 taikonauts who are currently staying and working in the orbiting China Tiangong Space Station have opened the hatch of the Tianzhou-9 cargo spacecraft and entered the craft on Tuesday afternoon. They will carry out work including cargo transfer according to plan, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said on Tuesday. Packed with a record 6.5 tons of cargo, the Tianzhou-9 spacecraft was launched successfully atop a Long March-7 Y10 carrier rocket from the tropical island province of Hainan early on Tuesday. After a rapid rendezvous and docking operation at 8:52 am with the rear port of the Tianhe core module of the space station that took around three hours, the Tianzhou-9 cargo craft entered the combined flight phase, the Global Times learned from the CMSA on Tuesday. The Tianzhou-9 cargo mission marks the fourth of its kind during the application and development phase of the China Space Station. It is tasked with ferrying cargo, including supplies for the astronaut system and platform materials for the space station system, as well as experimental samples and equipment for space applications, aerospace medicine and space technology testing. These supplies will provide strong support for the space station's in-orbit operations and the long-term stay of taikonauts, mission insiders told the Global Times on Tuesday. In terms of rendezvous and docking, China has successfully verified and implemented several approaches in orbit, including the 2-day, 6.5-hour, 2-hour, and now the 3-hour schemes. The three-hour rendezvous and docking mode used by the Tianzhou-9 cargo spacecraft is set to become the standard procedure for future Tianzhou missions for the foreseeable future. Explaining why the three-hour approach is the best one, experts from the state-owned space giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC) told the Global Times that it offers a time advantage over the traditional 6.5-hour mode, while being less demanding than the two-hour mode. It relaxes requirements on orbital insertion accuracy, tracking and control precision, sensor and navigation accuracy, and guidance and control systems, thereby improving overall mission reliability, according to the CASC experts. Experts pointed out that under China's current level of aerospace technology, the three-hour rendezvous and docking mode strikes the best balance between efficiency and reliability, making it the most cost-effective technical solution. Having successfully achieved the three-hour fast rendezvous and docking which is the third time this fast-track approach has been achieved, following the Tianzhou-7 and Tianzhou-8 missions, it will pave the way for making this mode a new norm, said Li Zhiyong, a member of the Tianzhou spacecraft development team with CASC. Previously, Global Times reporters learned from the Astronaut Center of China (ACC) that two sets of upgraded spacesuits for extravehicular activities, or spacewalks, and a new set of core muscle training devices, as well as around 30 new kinds of space food were onboard the Tianzhou-9 craft, which Yin Rui, an spokesperson of the ACC believes will bring significant enhancements and improvements for the taikonauts who are working and living in orbit. The Chinese Academy of Sciences said the scientific and research payload that flew on Tianzhou-9 to the space station includes several firsts and it will shed light on future exploration at the Chinese permanent space outpost. Among them, in the field of space life sciences and biotechnology, scientific experiments will be carried out using the biotechnology experiment cabinet aboard the Wentian lab module of the space station. These include new studies on the impact of the space environment on the human blood-brain barrier and brain function using organoid-on-a-chip technology for the first time, research on how the space microgravity environment affects the migration of skeletal muscle progenitor cells and the underlying mechanisms, as well as investigations into the biological functions of nucleic acid-lipid nanocarriers under microgravity conditions. Regarding the brain organoid-on-a-chip research, Qin Jianhua, chief scientist at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday that unlike traditional silicon-based chips, this brain organoid chip integrates multiple advanced biotechnologies. Derived from human pluripotent stem cells, it constructs a highly realistic miniature brain model on a chip about the size of a credit card, Qin said. The chip features a rich cerebral microvascular network, neural cells, immune cells, and a structure and functionality that resemble the blood-brain barrier, enabling it to simulate the complex microenvironment of the human brain and its responses to external stimuli, he said. Qin noted that this biomimetic model can be used to investigate how the space environment affects the human blood-brain barrier and brain function at the cellular, tissue and organ levels, and to explore the potential underlying mechanisms. It offers tools for predicting and mitigating health risks associated with long-term spaceflight, he noted. Gong Yongsheng, with the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times that the Tianzhou-9 was to deliver a total of 776.5 kilograms of application payloads including experimental payloads, experiment units, samples, critical spare parts and consumable materials, covering 23 scientific experiments. The Tianzhou-9 mission also set a first in the manned space engineering sphere, the Global Times learned from the mission contractor CASC. China's space station logistics system has now, like the Shenzhou manned spacecraft system, also established its own "dual insurance" mechanism, further enhancing its emergency supply transport capability. Before the launch of the Tianzhou-8 cargo spacecraft on November 15, 2024, Tianzhou-9 had already completed its full development and had entered a full-vehicle standby state, the first time China achieved a three-month contingency launch readiness for cargo missions. By the time Tianzhou-9 was launched on Tuesday, the next cargo spacecraft was already prepared to serve as a mission backup, further boosting the safety and reliability of the space station's operations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PhilSA warns public vs. retrieving possible rocket debris Philippine News Agency By Ma. Cristina Arayata July 15, 2025, 4:28 pm MANILA -- The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) on Tuesday warned the public against retrieving possible rocket debris and advised them to report if suspected debris is sighted. China launched the Long March 7 rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Wenchang at around 5:34 a.m. (PhST). PhilSA suspects the debris to have fallen approximately 33 nautical miles away from Bajo de Masinloc, 88 nautical miles away from Cabra Island, Occidental Mindoro, 51 nautical miles away from Recto Bank, and 118 nautical miles away from Busuanga, Palawan. There a possibility for the debris to float around the area and wash toward nearby coasts, PhilSA said in an advisory. "PhilSA also cautions against retrieving or coming in close contact with these materials that may contain remnants of toxic substances such as rocket fuel," it added. If contact with debris is unavoidable, the use of personal protective equipment is advised. Although not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats, and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone. In the past, debris was found by fishers a day or several days after the launch. Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and faring, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space. "Additionally, the possibility of an uncontrolled re-entry to the atmosphere of the rocket's upper stages returning from outer space cannot be ruled out at this time," PhilSA said. (PNA) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Review to modernise reserve force By Lieutenant Colonel Jim Johnston 15 July 2025 The Strategic Review of the Australian Defence Force Reserves identified 17 recommendations to modernise the ADF Reserve, supporting an integrated, focused force prepared to meet evolving strategic challenges. The review recommendations aim to strengthen reserve contributions across the workforce, build capability and boost the specialist domains, including space and cyber. Many of the recommendations will be implemented over the next 12 months. A key recommendation is the Cyber Reserve Concept, developed to support the Defence Strategic Review's call for enhanced resilience, workforce agility and sovereign capability in the cyber domain. Cyber reserves will contribute specialised skills to safeguarding Australia's critical networks, be part of a pioneering force that strengthens national resilience, and make an operational impact on Defence cyber missions. The Cyber Reserve Concept incorporates organisational design, policy frameworks and pathways for on-boarding mid-career specialists, including reservist personnel. A flexible service model will underpin the cyber reserve workforce. Director Cyber Reserve Concept Support Colonel John Molnar said expressions of interest and a refinement of entry processes would be issued in the coming months to support activation of the cyber reserve capability by early 2026. "The Cyber Reserve Concept is developing a powerful new way for Australians to serve by bringing their skills to the frontline of national cyber defence," Colonel Molnar said. For further information about the Strategic Review of the ADF Reserves visit: Strategic Review of the Australian Defence Force Reserves | Defence NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Statement on Joint Outcomes of the China-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting Media statement Tuesday 15 July 2025 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese The Hon Anthony Albanese MP Prime Minister of Australia 1. At the invitation of H.E. Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, The Hon Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia, undertook an official visit to China from 12 to 18 July. Prime Minister Albanese visited Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu, Sichuan. 2. During the visit to Beijing on 15 July, H.E. Xi Jinping, President of the People's Republic of China, met with Prime Minister Albanese. Premier Li Qiang and Prime Minister Albanese jointly convened the Annual Leaders' Meeting. H.E. Zhao Leji, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, also met with Prime Minister Albanese. The leaders exchanged views in depth on China-Australia relations, as well as on key regional and international issues. 3. At the Annual Leaders' Meeting, the leaders reaffirmed their support for the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and reiterated the importance of a mature, stable, and constructive bilateral relationship. They agreed to continue to grow the bilateral relationship, enhance exchanges and cooperation in areas of shared interest, uphold their respective national interests, and navigate their differences wisely. 4. Consistent with the Statement on Joint Outcomes issued in Canberra in June 2024, the two sides reiterated the importance of the 1972 Joint Communique on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People's Republic of China and Australia and restated their commitment to their respective national policies and positions contained therein, including mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, stable development and Australia's commitment to its one-China policy. 5. The leaders acknowledged the importance of regular engagement between leaders, ministers and officials on both sides in support of the ongoing stabilisation and development of the bilateral relationship. They welcomed the resumption, since the last Annual Leaders' Meeting in June 2024, of the Fourth Strategic Economic Dialogue in September 2024, and welcomed the upcoming session to be hosted by Australia later this year. They looked forward to holding the Foreign and Strategic Dialogue and the Joint Ministerial Economic Commission in China in 2025. 6. The two sides reaffirmed the importance of the UN Charter and the WTO. They agreed to continue to work together in the UN, WTO, G20, APEC, East Asia Summit and other multilateral platforms. Australia looked forward to a successful APEC 2026 and supported China's hosting. The two sides attached importance to cooperation under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. They acknowledged the importance of a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment. 7. The two sides reaffirmed support for people-to-people exchanges and highlighted the important role these played in deepening the bilateral relationship. They welcomed the increasing number of visitors travelling in both directions, underpinned by the growing number of direct flights. They welcomed the important role played by the China-Australia High Level Dialogue and plans to hold the next meeting later this year in China. 8. The two sides agreed to continue or expand engagement in: Political dialogue, including through continuing the Annual Leaders' Meeting, the Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, the Strategic Economic Dialogue, the Joint Ministerial Economic Commission, as well as other government-to-government mechanisms. Bilateral trade, including through the participation of both leaders in the Australia-China CEO Roundtable meeting in Beijing on 15 July. The two sides recognised the importance of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) for promoting bilateral economic and trade relations and welcomed a review of the ChAFTA. China welcomed Australia's participation in the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) as this year's country of honour and the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Both sides welcomed the conclusion of the WTO Agreement on Electronic Commerce and committed to its incorporation into the WTO framework. In line with this, they would also explore potential ways for cooperation on the agreement's interim implementation. Climate change, energy and environment, through agreement to establish a new Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation, and through continuing exchanges between officials on climate change and the environment, including on transparency-related issues, dryland farming, climate-smart agriculture and the green economy. They looked forward to holding the Ninth China-Australia Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change in 2025 in China. People-to-people links, and other exchanges in culture, sports, education, innovation, academia, aviation, health and tourism, including through resumption of the Australia China Tourism Dialogue. Australia continued to welcome Chinese students and to value their contribution to Australian society. Both sides welcomed more young Australians travelling to China for visits and exchanges, including through international youth exchange programs and initiatives. The leaders welcomed their National Museums' exchanges of culturally significant exhibitions. Border enforcement, building on existing bilateral law enforcement cooperation in our mutual interest against forms of crime including counter-narcotics, transnational and organised crime and cyber-telecom scams. 9. The leaders witnessed the signing of the following MOUs and Protocols: Memorandum of Understanding Between the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia Regarding the Implementation and Review of China-Australia Free Trade Agreement in 2025-2026 Memorandum of Understanding Between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China on Tourism Cooperation Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for Export of Fresh Apples from Australia to China Between the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Protocol of Phytosanitary Requirements for Export of Chinese Jujube Fruits from China to Australia Between the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China and the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Memorandum of Understanding Between the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry of Australia on Paperless Certification of Agricultural and Food Products Strategic Cooperation Agreement Between China Media Group and Tourism Australia 10. The leaders agreed to convene the next Annual Leaders' Meeting in 2026. China welcomed the invitation of the Australian side for Chinese leaders to visit Australia at a mutually convenient time. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Opening remarks - Australia-China bilateral meeting Transcript Tuesday 15 July 2025 Beijing, People's Republic of China Prime Minister Anthony Albanese The Hon Anthony Albanese MP Prime Minister of Australia XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: Prime Minister Albanese, welcome to China again and congratulations again on your re-election. Over the past three years, you and I have met three times. During these meetings we had in-depth discussions on the strategic, overarching issues critical to the direction of China-Australia relations, and we reached many common understandings. With joint efforts from both sides, the China-Australia relationship has rose from the setback and turned around, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Australian peoples. The most important thing we can learn from this is that a commitment to equal treatment, to seeking common ground while sharing differences, pursuing mutually beneficial cooperation, serves the fundamental interests of our two countries and two peoples. No matter how the international landscape may evolve, we should uphold this overall direction unswervingly. In 2014 I paid a state visit to Australia, during that visit our two countries announced the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership. Now this partnership has entered the second decade. The Chinese side is ready to work with the Australian side to push the bilateral relationship further and make greater progress so as to bring better benefits to our two peoples. I will stop here first, now over to you. ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well thank you, Mr President, and it is my pleasure to meet with you again here today. This is my eight visit to China, but my second as Prime Minister, and I appreciate very much your hospitality. When Premier Li visited Australia last year for our Annual Leaders' Meeting, I was pleased he visited not only Canberra, but also Adelaide and Perth. And I know, President Xi, that you have visited every state and territory of Australia. I'm happy to be able to reciprocate Premier Li's visit by visiting three cities here in China this week - Shanghai where I have been, Beijing here, and Chengdu, where I will travel tomorrow afternoon. In Shanghai yesterday, I was very pleased to meet with leading businesses from Australia and China, including important discussions on how we can tackle steel decarbonisation together. In Chengdu tomorrow I will look at where Australia has growing ties, particularly on medical technology and sports. Tomorrow I'll also visit the Great Wall, where Australia's Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, who of course, initiated the recognition of the People's Republic of China when he came as Labor Party Leader in 1971. In Beijing today, I look forward to a constructive Annual Leaders' Meeting with Premier Li, identifying opportunities for further practical cooperation in areas of shared interests, including steel decarbonisation. I note your comments in your opening remarks about seeking common ground while sharing differences, that approach has indeed produced very positive benefits for both Australia and for China. The Australian Government welcomes progress on cooperation under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which has its 10th anniversary year. As a direct result, trade is now flowing freely to the benefit of both countries and to people and businesses on both sides, and Australia will remain a strong supporter of free and fair trade. Today also, we will have after this the Australia-China CEO Roundtable. What that will do is provide a practical example of the benefit of business engagement. Australia values our relationship with China and will continue to approach it in a calm and consistent manner, guided by our national interest, which we regard very much as the relationship being positive, which is just that. It is in our national interest, and indeed in the interest of the region as well. It's important we have the direct discussions on the issues that matter to us, and to the stability and prosperity of our region. As you and I have agreed previously, dialogue needs to be at the centre of our relationship, and I welcome the opportunity to set out Australia's views and interests and our thinking on how we can maintain peace, security, stability, and prosperity in our region. And I look forward very much to another productive conversation with you today, both at this meeting, and I thank you as well for the honour that you have given myself and Ms Haydon, my fiance, in the lunch that we will share afterwards as well. Xie xie. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Opening remarks - Australia-China Annual Leaders' meeting Transcript Tuesday 15 July 2025 Beijing, People's Republic of China Prime Minister Anthony Albanese The Hon Anthony Albanese MP Prime Minister of Australia LI QIANG, PREMIER OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: Honourable Prime Minister Albanese, it is a great pleasure to meet with you in Beijing. Welcome to China. Please allow me to once again congratulate you on your successful reelection as Prime Minister. In the past three years, thanks to your personal efforts and the joint efforts of both sides, China-Australia relations have moved beyond a low point and returned to the right track of stability and development. Our pragmatic cooperation is brimming with renewed vitality and bringing real benefits to our two peoples. Mr Prime Minister, you have come to China at the start of your second term, I'm sure this will provide new momentum for our two country's cooperation and relations. Since we last met in October last year, a lot has happened in the world. The world economy sees growing instability and uncertainty. The development of all countries is faced with new challenges. Given such circumstances, China and Australia, as important trade partners, should strengthen dialogue and cooperation. The significance of us doing so is becoming more notable. This morning, President Xi Jinping met with you and you reached important understandings on deepening China-Australia relations. China would like to continue to work with Australia for more outcomes in cooperation across the board to deliver more benefits to our two peoples. I would like to exchange views with you on issues of common interests in an in-depth and candid manner. Thank you. ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, thank you very much, Premier Li, for warmly welcoming me back to your country. And the friendship which we have developed I think was shown by the fact that we caught up, some of our officials, waiting for us, to engage informally as well - and I very much appreciate that. Your visit to Australia last year was warmly welcomed and this is the third now Annual Leaders' Dialogue that we have had together and I look forward to welcoming you to Australia next year as well. During that visit, you came not just to our national capital of Canberra, but to Adelaide and to Perth as well, which was very warmly received. And I'm pleased that I am reciprocating by being able to visit, not just Shanghai and Beijing, but Chengdu tomorrow, which is important, to go to Western China as well. Since our last Annual Leaders' Meeting, we have continued to make very good progress together, stabilising our bilateral relations and developing our relationship. Trade is flowing freely. Our officials are engaging regularly on shared priorities, including on climate change and steel decarbonisation, where I hosted a very good meeting yesterday, and maintaining dialogue on areas where we disagree, but we won't allow those to define our relationship. Preparations are underway for ministers from both countries to hold our eighth Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue, and our fifth Strategic Economic Dialogue, as well as many more engagements of all levels of our governments. Mr Premier, today I look forward to exploring new opportunities for cooperation, including in areas of climate change, trade, tourism, and culture. Our people-to-people links are so important, as you will have seen when you were so warmly welcomed in Australia by the many -- some 1.4 million Australians trace their ancestry and their heritage proudly back to China. And that is a benefit to both of our countries because they provide a very real personal link between us. We'll also have opportunity to have frank and open dialogue, and that enables us to navigate issues that need to be discussed wisely. Australia remains committed to a stable and constructive relationship between our two nations. We value this relationship and my presence here so early in my second term, our Parliament will assume, it's meeting for the first time next Tuesday, one week away. and so I'm here before Parliament has been scheduled. I think that can be taken as a sign of the importance of the relationship. So, I thank you very much to you as host for the arrangements for what has been already a splendid visit to China, and I look forward to another constructive dialogue with you. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Australia-China leadership meetings Media release Tuesday 15 July 2025 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese The Hon Anthony Albanese MP Prime Minister of Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met today with the senior Chinese leadership in Beijing, as part of his second official visit to the country since being elected in 2022. The visit is an opportunity to continue advancing Australia's economic and security interests, while stabilising the relationship with our largest trading partner China. Direct engagement between Australia and China at the highest levels is central to a constructive relationship and enables differences to be addressed and opportunities to be maximised for Australia. Australia will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest. In Beijing, Prime Minister Albanese held his fourth meeting with President Xi Jinping. He also met Premier Li Qiang for their third Annual Leaders' Meeting and had his second meeting with Chairman Zhao Leji of the National People's Congress. The Prime Minister and Premier Li also participated in the 8th Australia-China CEO Roundtable and witnessed the signature of bilateral arrangements to progress cooperation in trade, agriculture and tourism. This was the first CEO Roundtable in China attended by an Australian Prime Minister since 2016. It is important that we have strong trading relationships - with one in every four Australian jobs relying on trade. Outcomes of the Annual Leaders' Meeting include a new Memorandum of Understanding on activating the built-in review mechanism of the China Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), which will allow industry and the community to share views on how to improve the agreement. Australia and China also signed export protocols to allow Australian mainland apple farmers - responsible for 90 per cent of Australia's grown apples - to export to China for the first time and for Chinese jujubes to be imported from China. Following the success of the Australia-China Steel Decarbonisation Roundtable in Shanghai, Australia and China have agreed to establish a new Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation. This will provide Australia with timely insights and input into the Chinese government's planning on steel, including new opportunities for our domestic mining and steel industries. Tourism is an important part of Australia and China's economic relationship, as well as contributing to our people to people and community connections. Australia and China renewed a Memorandum of Understanding between Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism to assist in growing traveller numbers to the benefit of the tourism industry across Australia's cities and regions. Tourism Australia and the China Media Group also signed a new Strategic Cooperation Agreement providing Australia with greater tourism media exposure in China, showcasing Australia as a world-class tourism destination. This follows the new MOU signed between Tourism Australia and Trip.com to help drive deeper tourism ties between Australia and China. These new initiatives announced today will boost Australian jobs and support Australian businesses. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Press conference - Beijing Transcript Wednesday 16 July 2025 Beijing, People's Republic of China Prime Minister Anthony Albanese The Hon Anthony Albanese MP Prime Minister of Australia ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. It is very good to be back in Beijing for my second visit as Prime Minister. And this morning, we had a very constructive meeting with President Xi in which we spoke about the range of issues facing our relationship with China. Here, and always, I'm guided by Australia's national interest. My Government's approach to our relationship with China is patient, is calibrated and is deliberate. And it is aimed at cooperating wherever we can, disagreeing where we must, but engaging in our national interest. Given that one in four of Australia's jobs depends upon trade, and given that China is overwhelmingly, by far, the largest trading partner that Australia has, it is very much in the interest of Australian jobs and the Australian economy to have a positive and constructive relationship with China. Dialogue is how we advance our interests, how we manage our differences and how we guard against misunderstanding - and the purpose of my visit here is to advance Australia's interests. President Xi and I agree that dialogue must be at the centre of our relationship. We also discussed our economic relationship, which is critical to Australia. We spoke about the potential for new engagement in areas such as decarbonisation - that was the subject of the forum that was held yesterday. This afternoon, after this, I will travel back to the centre of Beijing for meetings with Chairman Zhao of the National People's Congress, for the Annual Leaders' Meeting with Premier Li, we'll then have the signing of various MoUs, and then we will have the CEO Roundtable. The fact that senior Australian business people, led by the Business Council of Australia, have come here to Beijing as well as were present in Shanghai and indeed Australian businesses will also be engaged with us in Chengdu, shows how important the economic relationship is and how the Australian business community regard this as an important relationship. We will then have, later this evening, a banquet hosted by Premier Li. But I thank very much President Xi not just for the bilateral meeting that we were able to have, but also hosting a banquet lunch there in the Great Hall of the People, which is an honour which is bestowed on Australia. JOURNALIST: On the security side, did you seek assurances that Australia would be better informed in future about the PLA's navy in Australian waters? And has China asserted its right to free navigation in those waters? PRIME MINISTER: Yes to the former. And secondly, in response of course, President Xi said that China engaged in exercises just as Australia engages in exercises. JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. Can I just clarify on that answer that you specifically sought that the notification was really the issue that Australia had had earlier in the year, and can I also ask if discussions were had around the case of jailed Australian, Dr Yang Hengjun? PRIME MINISTER: On the latter, yes. And on the former issue, I said what I said at the time, which was that it was within international law, there was no breach of international law by China, but that we were concerned about the notice and the way that it happened, including the live-fire exercises. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you've spoken a lot about the importance of increasing dialogue, building engagement between businesses. What tangible outcomes are you looking for, for example with the Free Trade Agreement, with these talks? PRIME MINISTER: Well, you'll see some outcomes this afternoon. I will travel back immediately after this for the Leaders' Meeting with Premier Li. But already what you've seen is a range of business-to-business relationships, if you like, coming forward. Some of those have been written about already. On the Free Trade Agreement, one of the provisions, not unusually, in the ChAFTA - the Chinese Australia Free Trade Agreement that was signed by the former government ten years ago in 2015, following the Comprehensive Partnership that was signed also by the Abbott Government - was there was a clause in there for a review. That will happen, because the ten years has kicked in. So we'll engage in that. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, your Government's made clear its concern about China's unexplained military build-up. Did you seek clarity on China's strategic or military intent? And did you seek any clarity or did you gain any insight into China's plans for reunification with Taiwan? PRIME MINISTER: I reaffirmed, on Taiwan, Australia's position of support for the status quo - JOURNALIST: On the military build-up, what its purpose is, what China's strategic and military aims are? PRIME MINISTER: Well, you would be surprised if that was brought forward. I'm not sure what you're getting at or what you're suggesting might have been raised. I'm not sure of the context. JOURNALIST: Well, your Government's raised concerns around the military build-up and the lack of clarity around what it might be used for. Do you feel confident that China is a force for peace in the region after this meeting? PRIME MINISTER: Well, what we did was we put forward Australia's position - or, I did - which is that we want peace and security in the region. That that is in the interest of both Australia and in the interest of China. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, our security partner, the United States, regards China as its greatest military threat. I'd like you, if you could, to say how do you regard China in terms of its threat, and particularly, has your view on the security threat changed as a result of your sitting down with the President? PRIME MINISTER: In the latter, no it hasn't. We have strategic competition in the region, but we continue to engage in order to support peace and security in the region and stability in the region. And that's something that we advocate for, it's something that I advocated for today. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did the President express any objection to your plans about bringing the Port of Darwin back into Australian hands or any potential response that China might take to that? PRIME MINISTER: No, it wasn't raised. JOURNALIST: PM, President Xi asked you to continue to improve the relationship no matter what happened in the world - this seemed to be a reference to the United States. Did you make any sort of commitments in terms of the ongoing relationship with China in terms of the actions of the United States and what it may do? PRIME MINISTER: I spoke about the relationship with China, that was the purpose of the visit and the purpose of the meeting. And the fact is we do live in an uncertain world, something that I've said a number of times. During the recent election campaign you might have noted that in various speeches, media conferences, on a daily basis - so that is just a fact, that observation. But I was speaking about the relationship between Australia and China, and I asserted Australia's position. JOURNALIST: You mentioned Dr Yang was mentioned. Are you able to elaborate, and are we any closer to perhaps getting him out of jail and back home to Australia? PRIME MINISTER: Well, I raised Dr Yang's case. You wouldn't expect there to be an immediate outcome, that's not the way these things work. The way it works is by that patient, calibrated advocacy - that is what Australians do, that's what my Government does. And I'll point to my Government's record when it comes to these issues. JOURNALIST: You mentioned dialogue, but on defence intercepts in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, Australia has complained a number of times about Chinese actions, which Australia has said are unsafe. Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan and other countries have also said the same thing. Do you think, or do you get an impression that there is going to be more dialogue on these kinds of things? There is going to be a change in how the PLA acts in the region? Or have your queries on this fallen on deaf ears? PRIME MINISTER: Well, we raised the issue of Australia's interests, and we raised it in specific contexts as well, that there have been these maritime incidents. And one of the things that we know is that dialogue is a good thing. When I spoke at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore as the lead keynote speaker a few years ago, I spoke about the need for - I think it was 2023, so two years ago - I spoke about the need for there to be military-to-military communication between the United States and China, which had broken down. And I spoke in that context as well about the relationship that was there for a long time between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and that there was always communication. If you don't have communication, you can have misadventure and misinterpretation as well. It's a good thing, I spoke about that in the Shangri-la Dialogue, and I've spoken about it ever since. JOURNALIST: How has US President Donald Trump's trade policy, and particularly as it relates to Australia, affected how Australia approaches its relationship to China? PRIME MINISTER: Look, our relationship with China is very separate from that. China is our major trading partner, the destination for more than one in four of our export dollars comes here. The trade with the United States is important, but it's less than five per cent. What Australia is doing is engaging not just with China, but we engage as well with our partners around the world, and we increasingly want to see a diversification of our trade. JOURNALIST: Supporters of Yang Hengjun in Australia, including Feng Chongyi, say that they think the approach that your Government has taken has been too soft and too weak and has actually invited bullying from the CCP - I'd like your response to that. In the same vein, do you hold any concerns about the fact that Australian media were encircled by local authorities earlier today, asked to delete our footage, and that the police were going to be called because we were reporting on this visit? PRIME MINISTER: Well, on the issue - I'm certainly not going to comment on what the family of someone who is detained here or anywhere else. That would be entirely inappropriate and insensitive. I understand the pressures that are on people when a loved one has been incarcerated. What we will do though is put forward our views in a diplomatic way in order to try to maximise an outcome. And I point towards the outcomes where Australians here in China, in Myanmar, in Vietnam, in Indonesia, the United States and the UK have all received outcomes that at the least could be called satisfactory because of my Government's advocacy. And we'll continue to do that in order to achieve outcomes, and that is what our objective is. The media, of course - I'm here paying my respect to the media here, that's what I do - and China has a different system, obviously, with the media. But certainly, I'm here being accountable. I came straight here and I'm going straight back. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just briefly on the Pacific. Did you discuss the Pacific with President Xi? Did you ask China for more clarity on its strategic objectives or urge it to work through the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, and if you did, what was the President's response? PRIME MINISTER: I stated our position of peace and security in the Pacific and stated my position of our engagement in the Pacific. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, did Xi raise US pressure on Australia and other allies over the defence of Taiwan? PRIME MINISTER: No. JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, you said that President Xi didn't raise the Port of Darwin and you didn't use the opportunity of meeting him to explain your policy on that - PRIME MINISTER: I don't need to. I've had the same position for a decade, since the Liberal Government chose to provide an incentive to the, the Liberal federal government, chose to give an incentive to the Northern Territory Liberal Government to flog off an asset. JOURNALIST: What concerns did Xi raise, Prime Minister? If any? Sorry to jump in. PRIME MINISTER: None, it wasn't raised. I can't be clearer than that. JOURNALIST: Were any issues raised? PRIME MINISTER: I can't be clearer than to say the question I was asked was not raised. JOURNALIST: Did he raise complaints about Australia's foreign investment? Did that come up? PRIME MINISTER: No. JOURNALIST: President Xi said about the trajectory that we're on and that it shouldn't change regardless of the international landscape. It did appear to be a comment about Donald Trump. Did he make any direct comments about Donald Trump or the US trade tariffs in relation to, I guess, in conversations about trade? PRIME MINISTER: Well, I of course asserted Australia's view, which was we stand for free and fair trade. We want to see an open trading system. President Xi did, as part of his remarks, of course speak about the importance of international trade as well. Thanks very much. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister Carney speaks with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen Prime Minister of Canada - Mark Carney July 14, 2025 Ottawa, Ontario Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, spoke with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. The leaders focused on how to make Canada and the European Union (EU) stronger and more competitive faced with changing trade relationships and economic uncertainty. They discussed deepening their strategic partnership and boosting co-operation between Canada and the EU, as well as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). They reviewed the success of the recent EU-Canada Summit and the progress made since then. Canada and the EU are strengthening their partnership in key areas such as industrial policy, digital trade, critical raw materials, and clean technologies, in line with the commitments made at the Summit. The leaders also talked about new opportunities to work together on defence industrial procurement and manufacturing, as part of their new Security and Defence Partnership. Prime Minister Carney and President von der Leyen will stay in close contact and continue working closely together. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wang Yi Meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: July 13, 2025 23:30 On July 13, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Beijing. Wang Yi welcomed Sergei Lavrov to China for the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States. He said that China-Russia relations represent the most stable, mature and strategically valuable major-country relationship in the world today. The two sides have always viewed and advanced bilateral cooperation in various fields from a historical depth, strategic height, and long-term perspective. The two foreign ministers have stayed in close contact, which is conducive to the timely implementation of the common understandings reached between the two heads of state. The current priority is to jointly prepare for the next stage of high-level exchanges, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination, promote their respective development and revitalization, and work together to address the challenges posed by a turbulent and changing world. Wang Yi said that the SCO serves as an important platform for carrying out comprehensive strategic coordination, upholding multilateralism, enhancing practical cooperation and strengthening solidarity among the Global South. As the current rotating chair, China is ready to work with Russia and other member states to make thorough preparations for the Tianjin Summit, chart the course for future development, inject fresh impetus into cooperation across various areas, and elevate the SCO's development to a new level. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. The two sides should also organize a series of commemorative activities marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of World War II (WWII), and safeguard the correct historical narrative of WWII. Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is willing to work with China to deepen cooperation in various fields under the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, and promote continuous new achievements in Russia-China relations. Russia will continue to fully support China in holding the rotating presidency of the SCO, enhance communication and coordination within the framework of SCO and others, and work for the complete success of the Tianjin Summit. The two sides also exchanged views on issues such as the Korean Peninsula, the Ukraine crisis and the Iranian nuclear issue. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SCO foreign ministers' council meeting aims to make political preparations for the Tianjin Summit: Chinese FM spokesperson Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 14, 2025 04:28 PM Commenting on the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States to be held in Tianjin on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Monday that the meeting aims to make political preparations for the Tianjin Summit. China is willing to take this meeting as an opportunity to uphold the Shanghai Spirit and work with all parties to build a shared home featuring solidarity and mutual trust, peace and tranquility, prosperity and development, good-neighborliness and friendship, as well as fairness and justice, Lin said. Lin noted that China, as the rotating presidency of the SCO for 2024-2025, will host the summit in Tianjin this fall, and the foreign ministers' council meeting aims to make political preparations for the Tianjin Summit. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will chair the Tuesday meeting, where foreign ministers of member states will exchange views on cooperation in various SCO fields and major international and regional issues, and sign a series of resolutions and documents. China is willing to take this meeting as an opportunity to uphold the Shanghai Spirit, align with the SCO chairmanship slogan "SCO in Action," and work with all parties to implement President Xi Jinping's important initiatives for building a shared home featuring solidarity and mutual trust, peace and tranquility, prosperity and development, good-neighborliness and friendship, as well as fairness and justice, Lin said. This will help consolidate more consensus on cooperation, achieve more cooperative measures, ensure the complete success of the Tianjin Summit, and promote the SCO into a new stage of high-quality development, added the spokesperson. The Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States will be held in Tianjin on July 15. At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, foreign ministers of other SCO member states and heads of SCO's permanent bodies will attend the meeting. Parties will exchange views on SCO cooperation in various fields and major international and regional issues. In addition to attending the meeting, India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will also pay a visit to China, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wang Yi Holds Talks with UK Prime Minister's National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: July 14, 2025 21:12 On July 14, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi held talks with UK Prime Minister's National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in Beijing. Wang Yi said that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-UK relations have embarked on a path of improvement and development, fulfilling the aspirations of the people of both countries and following the trend of the times. China appreciates the UK's proposal to develop a consistent, lasting and mutually respectful relationship between the two countries, and is willing to engage and partner with the UK from a broader perspective, enhance strategic communication, expand strategic cooperation, inject new dimensions into bilateral relations, and jointly promote world peace, stability and prosperity. Jonathan Powell expressed the UK's willingness to enhance dialogue and communication with China to build a stable, practical and long-term partnership. The two sides also had an exchange of views on hotspot issues of common interest and concern. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Wang Yi Holds Talks with Malta's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ian Borg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: July 14, 2025 21:26 On July 14, 2025, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Malta's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ian Borg in Beijing. Wang Yi noted that Malta, located at the strategic crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa, has pursued "small country, big diplomacy", playing a unique and positive role in safeguarding world peace and stability. China and Malta enjoy traditional friendship, with strong political mutual trust and profound public support. China cherishes its friendship with Malta and appreciates Malta's long-standing commitment to making the development of relations with China a diplomatic priority. China is ready to maintain high-level political mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual understanding and mutual support with Malta, honor commitments on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as trade, investment, culture and tourism, science and education, and maintain sound communication and coordination in international affairs. Wang Yi said that the most important experience and inspiration learned over the past 50 years of China-EU relations is that China and the EU should be characterized rightly as partners, not rivals, and that dialogue and cooperation should be the defining feature of the relationship. There is no fundamental conflict of interest between China and the EU. China is an opportunity, not a challenge, for Europe. Although the two sides differ in history, culture and stages of development, such differences should not make them rivals, nor should divergences lead to confrontation. As two major forces, civilizations and markets in the world, China and the EU should understand, respect and appreciate each other, view the mutually beneficial nature of bilateral relations with a developmental perspective, jointly advance the progress of human civilization, and safeguard world peace and stability. Ian Borg said that Malta and China enjoy traditional friendship and fruitful cooperation. Malta attaches great importance to its relations with China, always makes developing relations with China a diplomatic priority, firmly adheres to the one-China principle, and actively participates in Belt and Road cooperation. Malta looks forward to further deepening cooperation with China in various fields and welcomes more Chinese friends to visit Malta. Malta also believes that the EU and China should be partners rather than rivals, and that differences should be properly handled through dialogue and consultation. Malta is willing to continue playing an active role in promoting EU-China relations. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Commissioner's Office of Chinese FM in HK expresses strong condemnation over certain foreign media outlets' smear of NSL Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 15, 2025 03:39 PM The Commissioner's Office of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region strongly condemned several foreign media outlets on Tuesday, telling them to remove their "tainted glasses" immediately and stop making false remarks about Hong Kong as those outlets deliberately smeared the National Security Law for Hong Kong (NSL) on the fifth anniversary of the law's implementation. In response to ideologically biased reports, commentaries, and editorials published by foreign media outlets such as BBC Chinese and Nikkei, which deliberately smear the NSL for Hong Kong and slander the successful practice of "One Country, Two Systems" on the fifth anniversary of the law's implementation, a spokesperson from the commissioner's office expressed strong condemnation, urging these media outlets to respect facts and stop spreading lies. Since the implementation of the NSL for Hong Kong, the city has returned to stability, residents have resumed peaceful lives, and economic development has resumed a positive momentum. Hong Kong now ranks as the world's freest economy, maintains its position among the top three global financial centers, and has re-entered the top three in global competitiveness rankings. These facts are the strongest evidence to the law's effectiveness, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson also emphasized the need to uphold fairness and reject double standards. National security legislation is a common international practice, and the countries where these media outlets are based have even stricter national security laws. Yet these outlets remain silent on their own nations' laws while harshly criticising the NSL for Hong Kongonce again exposing their hypocrisy and double standards. Media outlets should also uphold professional ethics and refrain from misleading the public. By distorting facts, misrepresenting law enforcement actions in Hong Kong, and giving voice to anti-China elements who have fled abroad by portraying them as so-called "victims", these outlets are clearly supporting anti-China forces with obvious political motives, the spokesperson said. The spokesperson also stressed that relevant media should immediately stop making false remarks about Hong Kong and report on the city objectively and fairly. Hong Kong is China's Hong Kong, and any external smearing or interference is futile. With the strong support of the central government and the joint efforts of all sectors of Hong Kong society, the city is sure to write a new chapter in the successful practice of "One Country, Two Systems" and embrace an even brighter future of prosperity and stability. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address China firmly opposes illicit unilateral sanctions: FM on US threat of 500% tariff over Russia trade Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 15, 2025 10:28 PM Responding to a question on threats by US Senator Lindsey Graham of imposing 500 percent tariffs on countries including China if they continue to trade with Russia, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China's position on the Ukraine crisis has been consistent and clear. "We always believe that dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out of the crisis. China firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. Tariff wars have no winners. Coercion and pressuring will lead nowhere," Lin said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday. The bill backed by Graham and Senator Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. It would target nations like China and India, which account for roughly 70 percent of Russia's energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort, the AP report said. Graham and Blumenthal told AP that they hope to bring the legislation to a vote in the Senate before the August recess. Meanwhile, the US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US would punish Russia with tariffs if there is no deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days, the AP reported. "We hope parties will help create the atmosphere and conditions for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and act in ways conducive to promoting talks for peace," Lin commented at the same press briefing. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese FM lashes out Japan's new defense white paper hyping 'China threat' narrative Global Times By Zhang Changyue Published: Jul 15, 2025 10:03 PM Japan's latest defense white paper reflects a wrong perception of China, interferes in China's internal affairs and peddles the false "China threat," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Tuesday at a regular press conference, adding that China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has protested with Japan, as he refuted the paper's claims that China's military activities could seriously impact Japan's security. Lin said that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. We urge Japan to deeply reflect on its historical crime, draw lessons from history, and stop finding pretexts for its military buildup by talking up "tensions" in the neighborhood and issues related to China. It needs to avoid further losing the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community, Lin said. Japan released its annual defense white paper on Tuesday, claiming "China's active military activities have the potential to seriously affect Japan's security, and this is of grave concern," the Japan Times reported. The paper claimed that the Chinese military is stepping up activities throughout areas surrounding Japan, including the East China Sea around the Diaoyu Islands, the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean, beyond the so-called first-island chain and extending to the second-island chain, per the Japan Times. Bloomberg reported that the section on Chinese actions is longer than in last year's paper, including a new reference to "growing concern" about an increase in military activity by China around Taiwan island. The white paper details a series of major Chinese military exercises that were held around Taiwan over the last year, per Bloomberg. In response to the paper's hyping of China, Lin said that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair, and how to settle it is a matter for the Chinese ourselves. According to the Japan Times, the defense report claimed that Russia's military cooperation with China is another area of serious concern. The partners have conducted joint bomber flights and naval voyages around the archipelago that Tokyo says "are clearly intended as a demonstration of force against Japan." Lin said in response that China is committed to peaceful development. China's national defense policy is defensive in nature, and our defense development and military activities are legitimate and justified. China's military cooperation with other countries is fully consistent with international law and international practice. Japan is playing the same old tune again in its defense white paper, filling it with groundless accusations, displaying a hostile attitude toward China and relentlessly promoting the so-called "China threat" narrative, Xiang Haoyu, a research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday. Xiang said the purpose is nothing more than to create excuses for its own push for military expansion and the development of offensive military capabilities. "This reflects Japan's extremely one-sided and erroneous understanding of China, as well as its narrow and outdated geopolitical thinking. Such actions violate the political consensus between China and Japan, undermine mutual security trust and are not beneficial to Japan's own peaceful development," Xiang said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian's Regular Press Conference on July 15, 2025 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the People's Republic of China Updated: July 15, 2025 19:00 CCTV: Cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has made good progress recently. The smart port at Friendship Pass on the border between China and Viet Nam started joint commissioning and testing. Chinese company completed Genting Tunnel on the East Coast Rail Link in Malaysia. Some media, however, said that Southeast Asian countries, including ASEAN countries, face a "China Shock" which could disrupt local economic and social development. What's your comment? Lin Jian: China and ASEAN countries have similar development philosophies and goals and shared interests. In designing cooperation with ASEAN countries, we always make sure that it responds to their desire of growing the economy and delivering better lives for their people, and that our cooperation is always based on equality and mutual benefit. Recent years have seen many cooperation highlights in emerging sectors such as e-commerce and digital tech. China and ASEAN countries have also achieved a lot in advancing regional economic integration and facilitating cross-border travel. China and ASEAN have affirmed the completion of consultations on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0. The two sides are engaged in high-quality implementation of RCEP, and expanding the common market. Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms are working with their Southeast Asian counterparts to introduce more competitive products to the market. Chinese businesses are building 5G networks, bringing fiber optics to households and enabling digital transformation in Southeast Asian countries. With "Lancang-Mekong visa" and the "ASEAN visa" coming into effect, travel is further eased between China and ASEAN countries. With China's well-established industrial chain in manufacturing, it has kept the global industrial and supply chains stable, cut local production and living costs and turbocharged technological advancement and industrial upgrade in China's partner countries through industrial cooperation. China has a mega-sized market. We are implementing the strategy of expanding domestic demand and special initiatives to boost consumption. The vast potential of domestic demand will be unleashed, bringing more opportunities for our neighborhood and the rest of the world. At the recently concluded China-ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, ASEAN countries said they have the most dynamic and fruitful cooperation with China. Not only is this a recognition of the cooperation, but also an echo to China's commitment to fostering an amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood, the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and a vision for a shared future. China will continue to work with ASEAN countries for robust momentum for common development and prosperity. Reuters: Paraguay's president has said that the country is preparing to receive Taiwanese leader Lai Ching-te next month. Lai is also expected to visit Belize. He could very well make stopovers in the United States during his transit. Has China already warned the U.S. not to allow Lai to transit and if so, what was the U.S.'s response to that? Lin Jian: On the so-called "diplomatic ties" between Paraguay and China's Taiwan region, China has made its position clear more than once. The one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and an international consensus. Upholding the one-China principle is the right thing to do. It is where the arc of history bends and public opinion trends. People from various sectors of Latin American countries, including from Paraguay, have visited China in recent years. There is a widely shared view among them that Paraguay needs to stop turning its back on China, stop being an outlier of the international community, and recognize the one-China principle and make a change in its relations with China sooner rather than later. We urge the current administration of Paraguay to stop going against the trend of the times, and reject being manipulated and used by "Taiwan independence" forces. It needs to listen to the aspiration of the people of Paraguay, and make the right choice that truly serves the fundamental and long-term interests of its people at an early date. We also hope that relevant Latin American and Caribbean countries will see the prevailing trend, act prudently on Taiwan-related issues, and join the big family of China-LAC friendship and cooperation at an early date. Regarding the possible stopover in the U.S., you mentioned, China firmly opposes any form of official interactions between the U.S. and China's Taiwan region. We oppose any visit to the U.S. by leaders of the Taiwan authorities under whatever reason or pretext. The U.S. should not in any way aid or abet "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities. The U.S. needs to fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, abide by the one-China principle and the three China-U.S. joint communiques, and handle the Taiwan question with extra prudence. RT TV: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is paying a visit to China. Could you brief us on his visit? What's your comment on it? Lin Jian: President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi have met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov respectively, and the readouts have been released. China and Russia maintain close and smooth communication at all levels, which is conducive to the timely implementation of the common understandings reached by the two presidents, promoting each other's development and revitalization and jointly addressing the challenges in this volatile and changing world. Global Times: It's reported that on July 11, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on social media sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Defense Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alvarez Casas for human rights violations, and their access to visas will be restricted. This is the first time that the U.S. sanctions Miguel Diaz-Canel. What's China's comment? Lin Jian: We noted relevant reports. China firmly opposes the U.S. using human rights as a pretext to wrongfully impose unilateral sanctions, and interfere in Cuba's internal affairs. Over six decades of sweeping U.S. blockade and sanctions have devastated the lives of the Cuban people. The sanctions should be lifted at once, not redoubled. China firmly supports Cuba in pursuing the development path suited to its national conditions and safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity. We urge the U.S. to immediately lift the blockade and sanctions on Cuba, and remove it from the list of "state sponsors of terrorism." Let me stress that if the U.S. truly cares about human rights, it should reflect on its own human rights violations at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the world. AFP: Japan said yesterday that China's military activity in the region could seriously impact Japan's national security. Does China have a response to this comment? Lin Jian: I think you are referring to the Defense of Japan 2025 that was just released. The white paper reflects a wrong perception of China, interferes in China's internal affairs and peddles the false "China threat." China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this, and has protested with Japan. Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. The Taiwan question is purely China's internal affair, and how to settle it is a matter for the Chinese ourselves. China is committed to peaceful development. China's national defense policy is defensive in nature, and our defense development and military activities are legitimate and justified. China's military cooperation with other countries is fully consistent with international law and international practice. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. We urge Japan to deeply reflect on its historical crime, draw lessons from history, and stop finding pretexts for its military buildup by talking up "tensions" in the neighborhood and issues related to China. It needs to avoid further losing the trust of its Asian neighbors and the international community. Reuters: U.S. President Trump has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Russian goods and also secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian oil unless Russia agrees to a peace deal within the next 50 days. Does the ministry have any comment on this? American Senator Lindsey Graham has threatened China and other countries with 500 percent tariffs and other punitive measures if they continue trading with Russia. Are you concerned about the pressure from Washington? (Similar question from RT TV) Lin Jian: China's position on the Ukraine crisis is consistent and clear. We always believe that dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out of the crisis. China firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. Tariff wars have no winners. Coercion and pressuring will lead nowhere. We hope parties will help create the atmosphere and conditions for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and act in ways conducive to promoting talks for peace. RIA Novosti: A follow-up on the Japanese defense ministry report. It also says that Tokyo is deeply concerned about Russia's military activity in the Far East and its strategic partnership with China. The Ministry particularly noted the growing frequency of military interaction between the two countries, including joint exercises and joint patrols. What's China's comment on this? Lin Jian: I just made clear China's position on Japan's defense white paper. Let me reiterate that China is committed to peaceful development. China's national defense policy is defensive in nature, and our defense development and military activities are legitimate and justified. China's military cooperation with other countries is fully consistent with international law and international practice. Reuters: The European Commission's VP Teresa Ribera has told journalists that China said it is committed to a new climate target that is comprehensive, and that China will come up with concrete updates on that this autumn. Could we confirm if China has set such a timeline for finalizing its climate targets? Also just following up on the dialogue with the EU on climate that just concluded, about the joint declaration that the EU mentioned, are China and the EU on track to have a joint declaration during the summit of the leaders? Lin Jian: You mentioned the visit to China by Executive Vice-President of the European Commission Teresa Ribera. Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang held the sixth China-EU High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue jointly with Teresa Ribera. The readout has already been released, which you may refer to. I would like to stress that China actively implements the UNFCCC and its Paris Agreement. We are fully committed to green and low-carbon development. No matter how the world may shift, or how other countries may adjust their policy, China will not deviate from its goal of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. President Xi Jinping stated at the Leaders Meeting on Climate and the Just Transition in April this year that China will announce its 2035 NDCs covering all economic sectors and all greenhouse gases before the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Belem. I'd refer you to competent authorities for specifics. On the China-EU Summit, I have no information to share at the moment. Bloomberg: Today NVIDIA announced that it will be allowed to start selling its lower-grade AI chips to China because the U.S. government will allow them to do so. Can you respond please? Lin Jian: Usually, we do not comment on business activities. I would like to point out that China's opposition to politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing tech and trade issues and malicious attempts to blockade and keep down China is consistent and clear. These actions will destabilize the global industrial and supply chains, and serve no one's interests. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese FM urges US to immediately lift blockade, sanctions against Cuba Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 15, 2025 04:33 PM When asked to comment on US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement on sanction imposition on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Armed Forces Minister General Alvaro Lopez Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, citing human rights violations as the reason, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Tuesday that China firmly opposes the US using the so-called human rights pretext to impose unilateral sanctions and interfere in Cuba's internal affairs. The US announced its first sanctions on Friday against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel for his role "in the Cuban regime's brutality toward the Cuban people," AFP reported. The US has maintained a comprehensive blockade and illegal sanctions against Cuba for over 60 years, causing severe suffering to the Cuban people. Sanctions should be lifted immediately, rather than intensified, Lin said. Lin said that China firmly supports Cuba in pursuing a development path that suits its national conditions and in safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity. Lin urged the US to immediately lift the blockade and sanctions against Cuba and to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. "I would like to emphasize that if the US truly cares about human rights, it should reflect on its own human rights violations in Guantanamo and around the world over the years," Lin said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mar. 14, 2025 Transcript Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth Greets German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Well, Mr. Minister, I wanted to welcome you and your team to the Pentagon. Thank you so much for being here. It's an honor to host you. And first, I want to recognize the incredible [inaudible]. So many of the folks at this table have served there and had an opportunity to spend time in your beautiful country, including me very briefly, but MINISTER OF DEFENSE BORIS POSTORIUS: [Inaudible] SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Yes, absolutely. Yeah, about 10 years ago, more now but thank you. And I also want to recognize just the long-standing partnership that we've had, and especially, we've gotten to know each other, Mr. Minister, over a number of meetings now and I think we've seen incredible progress inside NATO and with Germany taking the lead on that, upfront commitment to your spending, commitment to European leadership. And so I want to commend you and thank you for that, to include the contributions and the partnership that we'll continue to undertake, especially given the approach the president is taking, we just talked about this morning at the White House. So look forward to further partnership and you're also not just Patriot systems, but what you're doing in Lithuania with your brigade and the fifth-generation fighters really leaning forward. So thank you. I look forward to a strong discussion today, and welcome to the Pentagon. Thank you. MINISTER OF DEFENSE BORIS POSTORIUS: Thanks a lot, Secretary Hegseth, dear Pete. Let me begin by saying that it is a privilege to meet you at the Pentagon today. I very much look forward to continuing our close cooperation and you mentioned that Germany and the United States share a long standing, deep and trusted partnership, a partnership that strengthens not only our two nations, but also benefits the entire transatlantic alliance. Time and again this bond has proven its value and resilience in the face of unprecedented security challenge. In response to the shifting security landscape, Germany and our European allies have taken significant steps to reinforce the European contributions within NATO. We have committed to substantially increasing our defense investments reaching five percent of our GDP by 2035. According to our budget, Germany budgetary planning, we will achieve 3.5 percent of our GDP on core defense spending by 2029 already. So, we are determined to assume greater responsibility for Europe's deterrence and defense while recognizing that the contribution of the United States of America remains indispensable to our collective security. Our brigade, you mentioned it in Lithuania, will be operational by 2027. And beside bilateral topics, we will have the opportunity today to discuss some of the key security challenges we face together, strengthening NATO and enhancing our collective defense capabilities, which is really a relevant challenge, maintaining our steadfast support for Ukraine in its courageous fight for freedom and sovereignty, and addressing regional security dynamics in key regions like the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific. So let me assure you once more, Germany will continue to play a strong role and a reliable role in the alliance. We are firmly committed to fair burden sharing and to building and to building a more capable, more reliable, more resilient Europe with NATO. Thank you. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: Excellent. MINISTER OF DEFENSE BORIS POSTORIUS: [Inaudible] SECRETARY OF DEFENSE PETE HEGSETH: I appreciate it. Thank you. https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4243658/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address July 14, 2025 By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News Hegseth Thanks German Counterpart for Stepping Up to Defense Challenges Germany has committed to a permanent brigade in Lithuania, a sizable purchase of F-35 Lightning II fighter jets, an increase in defense spending and being a key nexus for providing support to Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged those efforts during a meeting today at the Pentagon with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. "First, I want to recognize the incredible support the German government gives to our troops in your country [who are] stationed there," Hegseth said. "Thank you for many years of partnership and friendship in that regard." The secretary also called out Germany's forward momentum on providing support to NATO. Earlier today, President Donald J. Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and other officials also met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, to discuss how the U.S. plans to support Ukraine going forward. That plan involves the U.S. providing weapons to Ukraine, which NATO will pay for. In the interim, the president said, Germany has agreed to provide some of its own missiles to Ukraine, which NATO will eventually replace. "I think we've seen incredible progress inside NATO and with Germany taking the leap on that upfront commitment to your spending, commitment to European leadership," Hegseth said. "I want to commend you, and thank you for that to include the contributions and the partnership that we'll continue to undertake, especially given the approach the president is taking, [that] we just talked about this morning at the White House." Germany, along with nearly every other NATO partner, has also recently committed to spending 5% of its gross domestic product on its defense, which greatly enhances NATO. And Rutte added that Germany has stepped up "massively" to help keep Ukraine strong and to increase defense industrial production. "I look forward to further partnership," Hegseth told his German counterpart, noting Germany's commitment to European security by putting a brigade in Lithuania, and its commitment to buy fifth generation fighter jets from the U.S. In 2022, Germany agreed to buy 35 F-35 aircraft. Through a long-standing partnership, Pistorius said, the U.S. and Germany have not only strengthened their own security, but also the security of other partners. "Germany and the United States share a long-standing, deep and trusted partnership a partnership that strengthens not only our two nations, but also benefits the entire transatlantic alliance," he said. "Time and again, this bond has proven its value and resilience in the face of unprecedented security challenges." Pistorius reiterated Germany's continued commitment not only to the partnership with the U.S., but to NATO and European security as well. "In response to the shift in security landscape, Germany and our European allies have taken significant steps to reinforce European contributions within NATO," he said. "We have committed to substantially increasing our defense investments, reaching 5% of our GDP by 2035." The defense minister said it's understood that Germany would reach 3.5% of its GDP in core defense spending by 2029. "We are determined to assume greater responsibility for Europe's deterrence and defense, while recognizing that the contribution of the United States of America remains indispensable to our collective security," he said. The German army plans to station some 4,800 military personnel in Lithuania, along with civilian personnel. That brigade will eventually include a mechanized infantry battalion, a tank battalion and the multinational "Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Lithuania." Pistorius said the brigade will reach full operational capability by 2027. "Let me assure you once more, Germany will continue to play a strong role and a reliable role in the alliance," Pistorius told Hegseth. "We are firmly committed to fair burden sharing, and to building a more capable, more reliable, more resilient Europe with NATO." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mar. 15, 2025 Release Readout of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's Meeting With the Federal Minister of Defense of Germany, Boris Pistorius Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell provided the following readout: On July 14, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met with his German Defense counterpart, Federal Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius. Secretary Hegseth reaffirmed the strong bilateral relationship and expressed appreciation for German leadership in securing historic commitments by NATO allies at last month's NATO Summit at The Hague to meet President Trump's call to spend 5% of GDP on defense. They discussed how to build on the momentous shift within NATO for allies to translate these commitments into action to accelerate fielding of combat-credible capabilities to meet NATO's core missions of deterrence and defense. Secretary Hegseth and Minister Pistorius also discussed how to help set conditions for an end to the war in Ukraine on terms that support an enduring peace. https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/4244370/ NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address It is right choice for China, India to be partners contributing to each other's success, realize 'dragon-elephant tango', Chinese VP tells Indian FM Global Times By Fan Anqi Published: Jul 14, 2025 04:55 PM Chinese Vice President Han Zheng said on Monday that China and India are both major developing countries and important members of the Global South and it is the right choice for both sides to be partners contributing to each other's success and realize the "dragon-elephant tango," when meeting with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Beijing. Han said, last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a successful meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kazan, leading China-India relations to a new starting point. Han called on both sides to further implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, adhere to the high-level guidance, steadily advance pragmatic cooperation, respect each other's concerns, and promote the sustained, healthy, and stable development of China-India relations. Jaishankar, who is in China to attend the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States to be held in Tianjin on Tuesday and pay a visit to China, said that following the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and President Xi in Kazan, India-China relations have shown steady improvement. The Indian side stands ready to take the consensus reached by the leaders as guidance to maintain the momentum of bilateral ties, advance mutually beneficial cooperation, and enhance communication and coordination within multilateral mechanisms, Jaishankar added. India supports China in hosting this year's Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit as the rotating chair, Jaishankar said. In a post on X, Jaishankar said he noted improvements in bilateral relations, and expressed confidence that discussions during his visit "will maintain that positive trajectory." The Indian Foreign Minister's first visit to China in five years comes in the context of the meeting between the leaders of China and India during the BRICS Summit in October last year, which has promoted the continuous improvement of bilateral ties. "Jaishankar's visit sends an important signal of ongoing detente in the two countries' relations," Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times. "Implementing the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and further improving China-India relations are key points of discussion, which may specifically include mutual journalist exchanges, resuming normal people-to-people exchanges, and other issues of particular concern to India," Qian said. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address EAM's visit to China and meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister India - Ministry of External Affairs July 14, 2025 External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with his Chinese counterpart, CPC Politbureau Member and Foreign Minister H.E. Mr. Wang Yi on 14 July 2025 in Beijing during his ongoing visit to China. 2. During the meeting, the Ministers reviewed the state of India-China bilateral relationship. They took note of the recent progress made by the two sides to stabilize and rebuild ties, with priority on people-centric engagements, including activities to commemorate the 75th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations this year. EAM appreciated the Chinese side's cooperation for resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. The two sides agreed to take additional practical steps, including travel to each other's country and direct flight connectivity, for facilitating people-to-people exchanges. 3. EAM highlighted the positive impact of peace and tranquility in the border for the smooth development in bilateral relations and supported continued efforts towards de-escalation and border management. He underlined the need for cooperation on trans-border rivers, including resumption of provision of hydrological data by the Chinese side. He also took up restrictive trade measures and roadblocks to economic cooperation. 4. The two Ministers discussed regional and global issues of common interest. EAM expressed India's support to the Chinese side for a successful SCO Presidency. 5. The discussions were constructive and forward-looking. The Ministers agreed to remain in touch, including through bilateral visits and meetings. 6. During the course of the day, EAM also called on China's Vice President H.E. Mr. Han Zheng, and met with Minister of the International Department of the Communist Party of China H.E. Mr. Liu Jianchao. EAM will travel to Tianjin tomorrow for the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and attend other events related to the SCO. Beijing July 14, 2025 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran ready for any new adventurism: Defense Minister IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh has stressed that Iran does not trust the ceasefire, while it has different scenarios for any new act of adventurism. The Defense Minister made the remarks in separate telephone conversations with his counterparts from Turkey and Malaysia on Monday. "The Islamic Republic does not seek to spread war and insecurity to the region, but it is prepared to respond decisively and crushingly to any aggressors' acts of adventurism," General Nasirzadeh told Turkey's defense minister. "The Islamic Republic does not trust the ceasefire. Therefore, it has predicted various scenarios for any new adventurism," he further told the Turkish counterprat. Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler, for his part, expressed his satisfaction and happiness with the ceasefire, saying, "We believe that the nuclear negotiations should be concluded in a reasonable agreement that benefits Iran and the region." Nasirzadeh also thanked the Malaysian government for its strong stance in supporting the Islamic Republic of Iran during the unjust and imposed war against the United States and the Israeli regime in his phone call with his Malayasian counterpart, Mohamed Khaled Nordin. The Malaysian defense minister, for his part, stated that Iran is a friendly and reliable country to Malaysia, adding that "We blame Israel for the war, that's why we firmly condemned this attack from the very beginning." He lauded the performance of the Iranian armed forces and people for the unity and courage they showed in the 12-war imposed war, adding that "We are confident that Israel cannot achieve any of its goals in the Middle East, and Iran has shown that Israel's words and claims are nothing more than a fiction." 2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran is seriously pursuing the path of diplomacy by utilizing all political capacities: Pezeshkian IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- President Masoud Pezeshkian has emphasized that the window of diplomacy remains open for the country, and his administration will actively pursue this peaceful approach by utilizing all political resources. In a message addressed to Iranians living abroad on Monday, Pezeshkian highlighted the solidarity that has developed among the people and officials during the 12-day imposed war, viewing it as an opportunity to serve the nation more effectively. He added, "We advocate for diplomacy and constructive engagement while opposing war. To keep the shadow of war away from our country and to defend the natural rights of the Iranian nation, we will utilize all available political and diplomatic resources." Referring to the 12-day war imposed on the country by the Israeli regime, Pezeshkian said: "Despite the psychological pressures and numerous challenges faced by our nation, we witnessed one of the rarest displays of public participation, consensus, and social cohesion in Iran's contemporary history. Iranians, both inside and outside the country, including critics and supporters, stood united against the aggressor like a single fist, asserting their will against the enemy." "Today, however, a new chapter has begun that fosters hope and aims toward a more secure, stable, and powerful Iran. This path can only be achieved through the companionship and solidarity of our dear people, by preserving national unity, and by relying on the energy of our youth and their innovative ideas," he added. The President further noted, "To open new horizons, we must critically reflect on the past. Rebuilding hope and preparing to learn, change, and forge a new path with consensus, empathy, and rationality will lead us to a better future." "Our national security is ensured through both military strength and the unity of our citizens. Now is the time to look toward new horizons and, with hope for a brighter future supported by our nation's immense social capital, take steps to build a more prosperous Iran," he said. Pezeshkian emphasized, "We have never sought war; our aim has always been to play an effective role in promoting global sustainable peace. Iran's adversaries should understand that while our nation is dedicated to peace, it will never yield. Iran, rooted in its historical, cultural, and religious foundations, seeks justice and human dignity for all nations." He condemned Israeli aggression against Iran, noting that the country's armed forces are at their highest level of defense readiness. He warned enemies that if they consider attacking Iranian soil again, they will face even more crushing responses. Israel launched the war of aggression against Iran on June 13, killing dozens of military commanders and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes before attacking military, nuclear, and civilian sites across the country. The Iranian Armed Forces launched powerful retaliatory strikes, targeting key positions across the Israeli-occupied territories and inflicting significant damage. A ceasefire was announced on June 24. 3266**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran open to talks if red lines respected, senior adviser says IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- A senior adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution says Tehran would not oppose negotiations with the United States, provided the talks are held without preconditions and respect Iran's red lines, including its right to enrich uranium. Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser on international affairs to Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, made the remarks during a meeting with Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran on Monday. "We have no objection to negotiations that are held without preconditions and that respect the Islamic Republic's red lines," Velayati said. "They say Iran must abandon uranium enrichment, but this is one of our red lines. If talks are conditional on halting enrichment, they simply won't happen." Velayati described Iran-Pakistan ties as "deep, historic, and brotherly," and called for stronger bilateral cooperation. During the meeting, Naqvi delivered messages from Pakistan's prime minister and army chief for the Leader. The two sides expressed satisfaction with the growing trajectory of relations and emphasized broader cooperation in various fields. Turning to regional developments, Velayati condemned Israel's aggression against Iran and its crimes in Gaza, accusing the United States of backing such moves. He called for unity and coordination among Islamic countries in response. Naqvi echoed the condemnation, voicing Pakistan's support for Iran's stance and denouncing attacks by Israel and the U.S. on Iranian territory. The two sides also discussed trilateral cooperation with Iraq in facilitating the upcoming Arbaeen pilgrimage. Velayati emphasized the significance of Pakistani pilgrims traveling through Iran to Iraq, describing it as an opportunity for expanded cooperation among the three nations. 9341**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Army commander terms safeguarding independence and territorial integrity an eternal duty IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Kermanshah, IRNA -- Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Forces, Brigadier General Kiumars Heidari, has emphasized that safeguarding the nation's independence and territorial integrity is an eternal responsibility. Speaking in a ceremony on Monday, Brigadier General Heidari said: "We are forever indebted to the patience and steadfastness of the families of martyrs. We consider the defense of Iran's independence and territorial integrity as an unwavering and eternal duty." Referring to the indispensable role that martyrs have played in securing Iran's sovereignty and strength, he stressed that the spirit of defense and resistance will always be upheld by the country's brave Army and its dedicated forces. He further emphasized, "The martyrs are the guiding light of Iran's honor and freedom, and their sacrifices ensure the nation's lasting security today." 3266**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Anti-Iran miscalculation will face decisive response: Top commander IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi says that if the enemy makes another mistake, Iranian soldiers are fully prepared to deliver a response that will make them regret. During a visit to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) Aerospace Force in Tehran on Monday, Mousavi congratulated the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, for having such capable military forces. He also assured the Iranian nation that as long as these brave and powerful soldiers are present, they will not allow Iran's security to be jeopardized. The commander noted the strong morale and steadfastness among the armed forces, saying that they are working diligently, without the slightest interruption, to manufacture the arms needed to defend the country. Brigadier General Majid Mousavi, the commander of the I.R.G.C. Aerospace Force, presented a report on "Operation True Promise III", highlighting the operational and strategic readiness of the Iranian armed forces. He said that military personnel remain ready with their "finger on the trigger" to counter any miscalculations or potential new adventures by the enemy. 4208**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran warns of proportionate response if Europe triggers snapback of sanctions IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has once again warned the European signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal against using the so-called snapback mechanism that would re-impose U.N. sanctions on Iran if activated. Addressing a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Baqaei described the European threat as "a political act and in opposition to the Islamic Republic, which will naturally be met with a proportionate and appropriate response." He said that using the mechanism, stipulated in the Iran deal officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (J.C.P.O.A.), is devoid of any relevance given last month's Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran's peaceful nuclear facilities. Resorting to a mechanism, which was included in the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 2231 endorsing the J.C.P.O.A. for specific reasons, lacks any legal, political, or moral basis, the spokesperson said, adding that the European parties are constantly trying to use it as a tool in violation of their fundamental obligations. He continued by saying that Iran had remained committed to the J.C.P.O.A. but it was forced to gradually reduce its commitments, a right that was foreseen in the text of the deal, in response to the gross violations by the United States and European parties. Baqaei emphasized that the Islamic Republic has shown its firmness, despite multi-layered sanctions imposed by the United States under different false pretexts in recent years. "The Iranian nation has resisted these pressures by relying on its internal strength and has not retreated from its rights and interests," he said. Negotiations need effective diplomacy In response to a question about whether Iran has specific preconditions for resuming negotiations with the United States, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said any talks should not be held in "deception." Tehran was serious in diplomacy and entered negotiations with good faith, but as everyone witnessed, the Israeli regime launched its military aggression against Iran in coordination with the United States before the sixth round, he underscored. "We will not enter into such a process until we are sure of the effectiveness of diplomacy and the negotiation process," Baqaei stressed, adding that diplomacy should not be stigmatized but should be used as "a tool and an opportunity." He emphasized that no one has the right to deprive Iran of this tool to explain its point of view, defend its interests, and realize its rights, similar to armed forces who are authoritatively engaged in the task of defending the country. Hailing positive stance of Russia and China Baqaei touched on the approach of China and Russia, saying the two friendly nations have always been ready to help resolve the Iranian nuclear issue. Russia and China, the two permanent members of the U.N. Security Council with which we have a strategic partnership, have always been in close contact with us within the framework of the J.C.P.O.A. and have constantly held consultations, he said. The spokesman denied any specific proposal or a package from Moscow and Beijing but said that they remain in contact such as during the BRICS Summit or as Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has travelled to China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Ministerial Meeting, which will be a good opportunity to continue consultations. Israeli crimes have no limits Referring to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Baqaei said that the wave of crimes of the regime is not limited to one point or region. "The main reason for the continuation of the Zionist regime's crimes and aggression against regional countries and the genocide in Gaza is the impunity it enjoys," he underlined. According to the spokesperson, all governments and international organizations are obliged to take action against "an unprecedented genocide taking place in Gaza for the past two years." He accused Israel and its Western backers of paralyzing the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations Security Council and human rights mechanisms to hold the Zionist regime to account. "The United States in particular, as the largest supporter of the Zionist regime, must be held accountable for these crimes," he said, adding that "The responsibility lies with regional countries, especially the Islamic countries, in this regard." Selective approach of international institutions and I.A.E.A. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson emphasized that the instrumental and selective use of international institutions by some countries, to exert pressure on others, has become a normal practice, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) is no exception. Referring to anti-Iran resolutions over the past years, he said that such process is ignored under normal circumstances, when the issues require consideration by the I.A.E.A. Board of Governors. "But the agency has remained silent and maintained a completely selective approach on Iran's peaceful nuclear program, which was targeted by military aggression," he added. Baqaei also said Germany's hosting of U.S. nuclear weapons and aircraft capable of carrying nuclear warheads is clearly contrary to and in violation of the European country's commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). "We know that a significant part of the U.S. nuclear and weapons of mass destruction are located in Germany, which is a clear sign of the country's violation of its international obligations," he underscored. He also slammed Germany's recent stance in supporting the Israeli aggression against Iran, saying it is an open support for an action that violates international law. 4399**4194 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel 'deliberately' targeted Iranian Red Crescent teams: Official IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Israeli attacks on members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) during the regime's 12-day war of aggression last month were "completely intentional," IRCS Chairman Pirhossein Kolivand has declared. "The attacks were fully intentional and not random," Kolivand said on Monday while speaking at a weekly press conference of Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei. "Footage from surveillance cameras at our centers broke my heart," Kolivand said. "Despite the bombings, staff bravely continued caring for their patients without seeking shelter." He emphasized that medical centers are supposed to be protected under the Geneva Conventions, yet they were "consciously and heavily targeted" by the Israeli regime. According to Kolivand, Red Crescent ambulances and staff were clearly marked and identifiable from all angles, making the justification of accidental targeting implausible. "These were not stray missiles. Our uniforms, our vehicles, everything clearly showed we were humanitarian workers. Yet we were attacked while providing aid," he said. The official also described the scenes he witnessed as reminiscent of Ashura tragedies, saying, "We saw children torn apart like Ali Asghar, and the suffering of our Abbas and Zaynab. It was real, not a story. Homes burned. Innocents massacred. There was no mercy," he said in reference to suffering by family members of Imam Hossein (PBUH), including his newborn son Ali Asghar who was killed during the battle of Karbala 14 centuries ago. Israel attacked Iran in an unprovoked act of aggression on June 13, assassinating military commanders and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes, and killing civilians in air raids on residential areas. The war was halted on June 24 after the Tel Aviv regime requested a ceasefire following retaliatory missile strikes by Iran. 'Israeli attacks killed civilians and aid workers' Kolivand further said that the Red Crescent Society has suffered heavy losses during recent Israeli attacks, with both civilians and humanitarian personnel among those killed. He offered condolences over the deaths of Iranian citizens and said the attacks left widespread damage and destruction. "Around 8,200 homes have been damaged, including 400 that were completely destroyed," he explained. "Among the martyrs, 126 were women and 41 were children, none of them were combatants." Kolivand said five Red Crescent aid workers were killed while on duty. "They were directly targeted while delivering aid," he said. "One of our ambulances was hit and completely burned. One of our martyrs was struck in the middle of a rescue mission." He also said that such actions are in clear violation of international humanitarian law. "These are blatant breaches of the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols," he said, adding that "under international law, no one has the right to target medical staff, relief workers, or civilians." Kolivand called for accountability, warning that the scale and nature of the attacks constituted serious war crimes. 4354**4194 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Over 50k compensation requests filed in Israel after Iran's retaliatory response: Report IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 More than 50,000 settlers have submitted compensation claims for damage caused by Iran's attacks on Israeli-occupied territories in response to the regime's aggression last month. The figure was reported by Israeli daily business and economics newspaper, Calcalist, on Sunday. It said that over 50,000 compensation claims have so far been registered following the end of the conflict between Iran and Israel on June 24. The conflict ended with a ceasefire after 12 days. The Iranian Armed Forces launched powerful drone and ballistic missiles on targets inside the Israeli-occupied territories in response to the regime's attacks on residential areas and nuclear facilities. The Iranian attacks caused significant damage to strategic military infrastructure as well as personal and commercial properties. Iranian officials note that the strikes, carried out under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, were in defense of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. 7129**4194 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign minister ridicules Netanyahu's anti-Iran rhetoric, says Israeli PM is haunted by his failures IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has deplored Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "ridiculously" justifying his recent U.S.-coordinated war with Iran over Tehran's peaceful nuclear program. "In Iran, he [Netanyahu] dreamed that he could erase 40+ years of peaceful nuclear achievements," Araqchi wrote on his X page on Monday, in reference to the 12-day Israeli-imposed war of aggression. Calling the Israeli assassination drive a naive idea, he said "Every one of the dozen Iranian academics that his mercenaries martyred had trained 100+ capable disciples. They will show Netanyahu what they are capable of." The top diplomat exposed the Israeli prime minister's continued arrogance, despite facing a crushing defeat at the hands of the Iranian Armed Forces. Having miserably failed to achieve any of his war aims in Iran, he compelled to run to "Daddy" when powerful Iranian missiles flattened secret Israeli regime sites, which Netanyahu is still censoring," Araqchi referred to the Israeli call for U.S. President Donald Trump's help in the face of retaliatory Iranian strikes. The reaction followed Netanyahu's claim during his visit to Washington last week that the Islamic Republic is "in deep trouble," following the 12-day war and that "Iran could have had a nuclear weapon within a year" if Israel and the U.S. had not attacked last month. Netanyahu also told Fox that he would like Trump to make an "exceptional deal" that does not allow Iran to either enrich uranium or produce long-range ballistic missiles. Araqchi described the comments as ridiculous. "Netanyahu is openly dictating what the U.S. should or shouldn't say or do in talks with Iran," he said, adding that "Apart from farce that Iran will accept anything a wanted war criminal has to say, the inevitable question arises: what exactly is Netanyahu smoking? and if nothing, what exactly does the Mossad have on the White House?" In his post, the foreign minister also mentioned Netanyahu's claim about his victory in the genocidal war on defenseless Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. "Netanyahu pledged victory in Gaza almost two years ago. The end result: military quagmire, facing arrest warrant for war crimes, and 200,000 new Hamas recruits," Araqchi exposed the Israeli regime's lies in the face of continued resistance by Palestinian fighters. Netanyahu is facing an arrest warrant issued by the U.N.-backed International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The ICC issued the arrest warrant in late November 2024, more than a year after the Israeli regime launched its devastating war on the Palestinian territory. 4399**4194 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Foreign Ministry, Armed Forces acted in full coordination during negotiations and war: Deputy foreign minister IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 14, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Iran's military and diplomatic apparatus worked in complete coordination both during Israel's 12-day war of aggression and in indirect talks with the United States, says a top diplomat. "In times of threat, the political and diplomatic sectors must act shoulder to shoulder with the military and defense sectors," Kazem Gharibabadi, the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said on national T.V. on Sunday night. "During both the negotiations with the U.S. and the 12 days of war and sacred defense, this coordination reached its highest level," he said, adding, "It wasn't that the Foreign Ministry did one thing and the Armed Forces did another; all actions were fully coordinated." Israel attacked Iran in an unprovoked act of aggression on June 13, assassinating military commanders and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes and killing civilians in air raids on residential areas. The war came amid ongoing talks between Tehran on Washington on Iran's civilian nuclear program. Gharibabadi emphasized that Iran's positions in negotiations remain unchanged, particularly the principle that "Iran's rights must be secured." On the broader regional impact of the conflict, he noted a shift in perception. "Previously, some countries, influenced by American and Israeli claims, viewed Iran as a threat. Today, they speak of the Israeli regime as the real danger. This is the outcome of the war and victory." He said Israel, after facing Iran's military response, turned to Washington to request a ceasefire. "We never asked for a ceasefire. We were ready to continue defending ourselves," he added. Gharibabadi also criticized Britain, Germany, and France for siding with Israel during the war. "These three European countries have damaged their own reputations," he said, adding that no other countries, aside from the U.S. and the European trio, supported Israel's actions. Regarding speculation about European countries possibly reactivating the snapback mechanism to reimpose U.N. sanctions on Iran, Gharibabadi said Iran had received no official notification but remained prepared. "If they resort to snapback, they effectively remove themselves from diplomatic engagement with Iran," he warned. "We must not welcome snapback; rather, we should take every necessary measure to prevent it, without granting concessions." He added that any move toward snapback would make further nuclear or sanctions-related negotiations meaningless. 4354**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran's president calls for unity among Muslim nations against Israel Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 11:13 PM Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has emphasized the need for Muslim nations to present a united front against the Israeli regime, highlighting the importance of solidarity within the Islamic community. Pezeshkian made these remarks during a meeting on Monday evening with visiting Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Tehran. He underscored that cooperation among Islamic countries is an undeniable necessity in the face of ongoing challenges. "If Muslim governments and communities recognize the significance of the unity of the Islamic Ummah, they can effectively unite against the Zionist regime, which thrives by creating division and perpetrating injustices in Islamic societies," Pezeshkian stated. The president urged policymakers and leaders in the Islamic world to be mindful of Israel's harmful strategies and to counteract them by nurturing unity and collaboration among Muslim nations. "The Zionist regime aims to weaken and fragment the ranks of Muslims," Pezeshkian remarked, stressing the need for a collective response to this malicious agenda. Pezeshkian also expressed satisfaction with the current state of bilateral relations between Iran and Pakistan, highlighting the importance of diplomatic exchanges and constructive dialogues to enhance comprehensive cooperation. He appreciated Pakistan's steadfast support during the 12-day imposed war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. "The potential for expanding cooperation between our two countries is significant, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is fully ready to utilize these opportunities to strengthen relations and improve the effectiveness of our interactions," he remarked. During the meeting, Pakistani Interior Minister Naqvi conveyed the greetings of Pakistan's Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and congratulated the Iranian nation on its resilience against the recent aggression from the Zionist regime. He noted, "We believe that the wise leadership of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, along with his prudence and management, played a decisive role in this proud resistance, which is a source of pride for the entire Islamic nation." Naqvi reiterated Pakistan's prompt and clear condemnation of the Zionist regime's aggression, stating, "Pakistan was among the first countries to denounce the aggression and reaffirm the legitimate right of the Islamic Republic of Iran to defend itself." On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia. On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pezeshkian warns against Israel's destabilizing role in region, urges unity to thwart its plots Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 4:55 PM Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned against Israel's destructive role in the region, urging regional countries to foster unity to counter the regime's plots. In a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Interior Abdul Amir al-Shammari in Tehran on Monday, Pezeshkian said the Israeli regime is disrupting peace and security in the region. "The Zionist regime is the arrogant system's project to undermine, occupy, and plunder the resources of the [regional] countries and disintegrate the region," he added. "We must stand united in the face of such a common enemy, support each other and vehemently avoid division and duality," he emphasized. The president hailed fraternal Tehran-Baghdad relations, which are based on deep religious and cultural bonds, and noted that Iran would make further efforts to reinforce unity and coherence among Muslim nations. He expressed Iran's readiness to bolster cooperation with Iraq in all fields. The Iraqi interior minister, for his part, extended his congratulations to the Iranian people over their victorious resistance against the Israeli regime during its 12-day acts of aggression against the Islamic Republic. Shammari said the Iraqi government is using its utmost capacities to host millions of pilgrims who plan to mark Arba'een, the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein, the third Shia Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pezeshkian says 'window for diplomacy still open,' but warns enemies against miscalculations Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 4:05 PM President Masoud Pezeshkian says Iran believes the window for diplomacy is still open and the country will use all its political capacities to move forward on this path. "We advocate diplomacy and constructive interaction and oppose war," Pezeshkian said in a message to Iranian expats on Monday. "To remove the shadow of war from our country, we will use all political and diplomatic resources at our disposal while defending the natural rights of the Iranian people," he said. He added that Iran has never sought to wage war but, instead, it has always intended to play an effective role in promoting endurable peace in the world. The president, however, cautioned enemies that while the Iranian people seek peace, they are by no means submissive. Based on its historical, cultural, and religious bonds, Iran seeks justice and human dignity for all nations, Pezeshkian emphasized. Pointing to the recent Israeli-US aggression against the Islamic Republic, he said the Zionist enemy attacked Iran while it was engaged in negotiations with the United States, despite distrust of the Americans. He added that Tehran entered the talks with Washington to "clear any misunderstanding in the public opinion and to prove the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities." As the two countries held five rounds of negotiations and were scheduled to hold fresh talks, the Israeli regime, backed by the US, attacked Iran and killed a number of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists, and civilians, including innocent women and children, the president said. "We have repeatedly announced that our doctrine is based on a peaceful nuclear program. Experience has shown that whenever Iran seeks to move towards stability and peace, the Zionist regime intervenes and undermines [such efforts]," Pezeshkian stated. He pointed out that Iran's legitimate self-defense during the 12-day imposed war was in line with all international principles and regulations and the United Nations Charter. Despite the martyrdom of a number of military commanders, the Iranian Armed Forces succeeded in inflicting a heavy and crushing blow to the enemy under the wise leadership of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, he said. Pezeshkian expressed hope that the enemies would never make such a miscalculation, as the Iranian Armed Forces are currently at their highest level of defense capabilities. "If the enemies intend to once again invade the Iranian territory, they will face even a more crushing response," he said. On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. In response, the Iranian Armed Forces, led by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), launched a powerful retaliatory campaign, Operation True Promise III, against the Israeli regime by targeting key military, intelligence, industrial, energy, and R&D facilities across the occupied territories. On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iranian missiles severed enemies' hands; stronger response awaits any misstep: Top cmdr. Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 11:14 AM Iran's top military commander has lauded the country's aerospace forces for the highly effective missile counterstrikes they conducted against the nation's adversaries last month, warning that any repeated mistake would be rewarded with an even stronger response. Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, made the remarks on Monday, visiting the facilities and servicemen of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)'s Aerospace Force. "It was the sharp sword wielded by the Aerospace Force that, through divine assistance, managed to cut off the enemies' heads and their hands," the commander said. Intense Israeli airstrikes targeted the Islamic Republic between June 13 and 25, prompting the country to launch rapid and forceful counterattacks. This reprisal, known as Operation True Promise III, focused on striking vital Israeli military, intelligence, and industrial targets, inflicting significant damage. Iran then struck al-Udeid, the most important American airbase in West Asia, after the United States entered the fray by attacking Iranian nuclear sites. The commander said the Aerospace Force's retaliation far surpassed its counterstrikes during the Iraq-imposed war in the 1980s. Elsewhere in his remarks, he reassured the entire nation that "if the enemy makes another mistake, our servicemen stand fully prepared to deliver a regret-inducing and stronger response." Fingers on trigger: Aerospace Force cmdr. Accompanying the official, the Aerospace Force's Commander, Brigadier General Majid Mousavi, produced a report on True Promise III. The document detailed the operation's achievements for the Iranian nation and the level of coordination that was observed among the force and other significant military sectors throughout the retaliation. "By God's grace and in line with the directives that have been issued mandating 'keeping fingers on the trigger,' we are still prepared to confront any miscalculation and potential act of adventurism on the part of the enemy." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran brands snapback bid as escalation, vows appropriate response Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 10:34 AM Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says any attempt to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism to reimpose UN sanctions amounts to a confrontational move that will draw an appropriate response from Tehran. "In view of the recent developments, resorting to the snapback mechanism is baseless and lacks legal, political, and ethical basis more than ever," Baghaei said at his weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday. He added that the mechanism is merely an instrumentalization of a provision that was included in UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 nuclear agreement, and lacks any justification. He emphasized that Iran is still a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and scaled down its commitments only in response to the other party's gross violation of its obligations enshrined in the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The three European parties to the JCPOA - Britain, France and Germany - also blatantly violated their JCPOA obligations, he noted. Baghaei, however, explained that Iran holds talks with the European troika to safeguard national interests. "If the European parties had fulfilled their commitments, we would not have been facing such conditions. Certainly, if they had fulfilled [their obligations], Iran would not have resorted to its right to reduce its commitments," he emphasized. He urged the E3 to accept the responsibility for their lack of commitment, arguing that resorting to the snapback mechanism means that the Europeans do not consider a role for themselves in the continuation of diplomacy over Iran's nuclear program. Germany's 'incorrect' support for Israel's aggression gross violation of intl. law The Iranian spokesman criticized the instrumental and selective use of international bodies to exert pressure on certain countries, saying the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is not an exception in this regard. He said Germany hosts US nuclear weapons and aircraft capable of carrying nuclear warheads, which clearly violates the European country's commitments under the NPT. He noted that a significant portion of the US weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arsenal is deployed in Germany, which is a "clear indication of this country's violation of international commitments." "However, the IAEA keeps silent vis-a-vis such cases and pursues a completely selective approach. In contrast, Iran's peaceful nuclear program is not only criticized but has also been the target of military aggression," Baghaei pointed out. He slammed Germany's "incorrect and inappropriate" stance in support of the Israeli regime's acts of aggression against Iran, saying the German government bears international responsibility as its support constitutes a clear breach of international law. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK, France, Germany tarnished their credibility over support for Israeli aggression: Iran's deputy FM Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 7:44 AM Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs says the European troika - France, Germany and Britain - tarnished their own credibility by supporting the Israeli regime's acts of aggression against Iran. Speaking in a televised interview on Sunday, Kazem Gharibabadi said certain countries supported the Israeli regime during its 12-day war of aggression, specifically naming the three European countries of Britain, Germany and France. "Aside from these three, I did not see any other country that supported the Zionist regime, and of course, the United States, which was part of this aggression," he added. He noted that the trio defended their support for the Tel Aviv regime using "baseless arguments." The senior Iranian diplomat explained that representatives of the US and Israel have prepared and submitted letters to the United Nations to justify the aggression against Iran, adding that "the three countries also repeated the same justifications and pretexts." The US and the Israeli regime claimed that Iran's nuclear program posed an imminent threat and was moving towards militarization, he explained. Therefore, he added, Iran had a legitimate right to self-defense to neutralize the US-Israeli plots. It is ridiculous that the US claimed in its letter that it did not initiate the war and that it was in a "state of war" with Iran, he emphasized. "This is completely false from a legal perspective. Iran has never been in a state of war with the United States," Gharibabadi pointed out. He noted that the US and Israel claimed that the slogans of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" showed that Iran has sought to eliminate them and that is the reason they used as a justification to defend their so-called right to self-defense as legitimate. On the morning of June 13, the Israeli regime launched a premeditated, large-scale military attack on Iranian soil with the green light from the United States. The Tel Aviv regime conducted indiscriminate strikes on densely populated civilian areas, vital infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and non-combatants. The result was hundreds of fatalities, thousands of injuries, and significant damage to the country's medical, educational, and industrial facilities in civilian areas. In response, Iran launched Operation True Promise III, a sweeping counteroffensive that struck critical military, intelligence, and industrial infrastructure across the occupied territories. The retaliatory strikes were followed by an Iranian missile strike against al-Udeid, a key US airbase in the region, after the US joined the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear facilities. The Israeli regime was forced on June 24 to declare a unilateral halt to its aggression, which was announced on its behalf by US President Donald Trump. Iran received no formal note om activation of snapback mechanism Gharibabadi said Iran has not yet received a formal note that the EU troika intends to trigger the so-called "snapback mechanism" to reimpose United Nations sanctions, but expects them to do so one day. He stressed the importance of making necessary arrangements to confront such a policy and respond to it effectively. "So, we keep ourselves prepared for such scenarios every day," the Iranian deputy foreign minister said. Pointing to the latest remark by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said that his country had submitted a request to the UN to activate the snapback mechanism against Iran, Gharibabadi said the Iranian Foreign Ministry would follow up on the case via Germany's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The snapback mechanism would bring into force six previous Iran-related Security Council resolutions adopted between 2006 and 2010. It would reinstate the expired UN arms embargo that barred countries from supplying, selling, or transferring most military equipment to Iran and prohibited Tehran from exporting any weapons. It would also impose export controls, travel bans, asset freezes, and other restrictions on individuals, entities, and banks. Interaction with Europe meaningless if snapback mechanism invoked Gharibabadi said Iran would not welcome the activation of the snapback mechanism but would instead carry out "every necessary measure to prevent them from resorting to this mechanism." However, this does not mean that Iran would compromise on the issue, he explained. "If they take this action, they will effectively exclude themselves from the realm of interaction and diplomatic engagement with Iran," the Iranian diplomat emphasized. He noted that Iran and the E3 have held six rounds of talks because "the atmosphere of engagement is still open" but in case of the triggering of the snapback mechanism, any interaction would be meaningless. He said the United States in 2018 quit the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the three European countries did not fulfill even one of their obligations. Therefore, it is "sheer audacity" of the trio to claim that Iran has not fulfilled its commitments, and thus previous resolutions of the Security Council must be reinstated, he added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran: Council sanctions eight individuals and one entity over serious human rights violations and transnational repression European Council / Council of the European Union Council of the EU Press release 15 July 2025 14:55 The Council today imposed restrictive measures on eight persons and one entity under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions regime. They are responsible of committing serious human rights violations and abuses on behalf of the Iranian state bodies outside of Iran, in particular extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions and killings, as well as enforced disappearances of persons deemed to be opponents or critical of the actions or policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today's listings confirm the EU's concerns about transnational repression by Iranian state bodies through the use of proxy agents, in particular involving criminals and organised crime networks targeting dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory. The Council is listing the Zindashti Network, a criminal group connected to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) that has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression, including assassinations of Iranian dissidents and persons critical of the actions or policies of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today's listings also include the Zindashti Network's boss Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti - an Iranian narcotics trafficker and organised crime boss -, and some of his criminal associates: Abdulvahap Kocak, Ali Esfanjani, Ali Kocak, Ekrem Oztunc, and Nihat Asan, who have been involved -among others- in the assassinations of the Iranian dissident Mas'ud Molavi Vardanjani and Iranian Gem TV owner, Saeed Karimian. The Council is also targeting Mohammed Ansari, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Unit 840 who ordered the assassination of journalists critical of the Islamic Republic, and Reza Hamidiravari, an intelligence officer working for the MOIS, that oversees Naji Zindashti's MOIS-directed operations. Those listed today are subject to an asset freeze, and the provision of funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly, to them or for their benefit, is prohibited. Additionally, a travel ban to the EU applies to the natural persons listed. The European Union expresses its support for the fundamental aspiration of the people of Iran for a future where their universal human rights and fundamental freedoms are respected, protected and fulfilled. The European Union reaffirms its commitment to a comprehensive policy approach considering all options at its disposal: critical where necessary, and ready to engage, on the basis of mutual respect, where interests align. The relevant legal acts have been published in the Official Journal of the EU. Background The EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime, established on 7 December 2020, enables the EU to target individuals, entities and bodies - including state and non-state actors - responsible for, involved in or associated with serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide. On 4 December 2023, the Council prolonged the framework for restrictive measures under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime for three years, until 8 December 2026. The listings under the regime expire and are reviewed every 12 months. The EU follows the developments in this domain closely and, as a result, ensures that the listings are kept under constant review. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address S.C.O. stresses guaranteeing Iran's legitimate nuclear rights: Russian Foreign Minister IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Moscow, IRNA -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) member countries reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring Iran's legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Speaking at a press conference in Tianjin, China, on Tuesday, Lavrov addressed the issue of Iran's nuclear program, noting that S.C.O. member countries emphasized their dedication to guaranteeing Iran's legitimate rights in this regard. He also referred to his recent meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, adding that they discussed potential peaceful solutions for Iran's nuclear program. The Russian Foreign Minister added, "We discussed realistic approaches to achieving a solution through peaceful political and diplomatic means, while respecting the decisions made long ago by the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the renunciation of nuclear weapons." He said, "No one, including inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.), has presented any evidence contradicting Tehran's declaration of pursuing a peaceful nuclear program." Lavrov emphasized, "The second key principle is that any resolution to Iran's nuclear issue must not violate Tehran's legitimate rights as a member of the I.A.E.A. and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (N.P.T.), including its ability to enrich uranium for energy-related purposes." 3266**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia calls for diplomatic solution to Iranian nuclear issue IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araqchi, has stressed the importance of resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through political and diplomatic means. Lavrov made the remarks while meeting with Araqchi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) summit in Tianjin, China on Monday. The two top diplomats exchanged views on issues of common interest, as well as regional and international developments. "We had the opportunity to discuss some of the developments that are taking place rapidly," Lavrov was shown in a video released in the first minutes of the meeting. During the talks, the Russian side once again emphasized that the crisis surrounding Iran's peaceful nuclear program can be resolved solely through political and diplomatic means, in accordance with international law. The Iranian and Russian foreign ministers last met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil, following the unprovoked war launched by the Israeli regime and the United States against the Islamic Republic. The 25th ministerial meeting of the S.C.O. began on Tuesday in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. The main goal of the 2-day gathering is to review the latest political, security, and economic developments in the region and coordinate the upcoming S.C.O. summit, which is scheduled to be held in Tianjin later this year. 4399**2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pezeshkian: Nation's courage foiled enemy plot during Israeli aggression IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- President Masoud Pezeshkian has hailed the national unity and public resilience shown during Israel's recent military aggression against the country, saying the nation's courage rendered the enemy's conspiracies ineffective. Speaking Tuesday at a ceremony honoring the staff of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare for their efforts during the 12-day war, Pezeshkian said that although the country lost numerous invaluable lives in the war, the solidarity and cohesion that emerged among the people were even more precious. "The Zionist regime believed that by assassinating commanders of our armed forces, who had dedicated their lives to Iran's dignity, it could destabilize our system," he said. "But the wisdom of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the immediate appointment of successors, along with the powerful response of our armed forces, thwarted their plot." Israel attacked Iran in an unprovoked act of aggression on June 13, assassinating military commanders and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes and killing civilians in air raids on residential areas. The war came amid ongoing talks between Tehran and Washington on Iran's civilian nuclear program. Pezeshkian further noted that the Iranian people demonstrated unprecedented bravery and resolve during this period. "The enemy expected public dissatisfaction and unrest to follow shortly after its strikes. They hoped to see the Islamic Republic collapse. But the people stood firm and defeated its plots," he added. He also underscored the importance of the unity forged during the war, saying it extended even to those previously alienated from the system, such as former detainees or individuals who had left the country out of dissatisfaction. "Even they rose to defend the country," he said. Describing this national cohesion as an invaluable asset, Pezeshkian expressed regret that a small minority had instead chosen the "disgrace of betrayal" by supporting "a savage, criminal, genocidal regime." "Indeed, we lost dear lives, but the unity and empathy we gained are priceless," the president added. 4354**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran not looking for war, but will not submit to bullies: Administration spokesperson IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Administration spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani says that Iran has not launched a war in modern history and is not looking for it, but will not succumb to coercion and bullying, in any way. Addressing the weekly press conference on Tuesday, Mohajerani said that the administration has recently delivered this message to the world through different channels, including diplomatic meetings and interviews. "We do not seek war, but we do not surrender either," she said is the important slogan that has been confirmed by historical records. Referring to the self-defense, the spokesperson emphasized that the administration will continue to follow the path to make sure that the people enjoy the best life. Mohajerani hailed the Iranian nation's steadfastness during the recent 12-day Israeli-U.S. war imposed on the country, saying that the deep-rootedness is what makes Iranians resilient in the face of enemies' aggression. According to her, Iran had been attacked by enemies many times over the years, due to its geographical location but the Iranian people remained steadfast throughout history to defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity. The spokesperson also mentioned President Masoud Pezeshkian's recent message to Iranians abroad that they are the true owners of the country, and despite the psychological and economic pressures, the world witnessed the historical unity among the Iranian nation. 12-day sacred defense Mohajerani stressed the need to replace the term "12-day war" with another word, suggesting that "the sacred defense" will be more appropriate. She said that Iran is land rich in words and, therefore, must find an alternative for the 12-day war, which is akin to the one used by Zionists, such as the 6-day war, the 33-day war. Expressing her gratitude to the Armed Forces for their brave resistance, Mohajerani said that every single Iranian is grateful to their steadfastness against the aggressors. Post-war damage control In response to a question about the extent of damages caused by the imposed war, Mohajerani said that a complete assessment, especially in the areas of infrastructure has not been made and for that reason, no amendment is needed in this year's budget yet. She assured, however, that the administration can amend the budget if necessary. The spokesperson also revealed that the budget includes demands of the defense sector and the issue can be resolved if more will be required in terms of the defense. Israeli and U.S. threats against Leader Mohajerani went on to state the administration's stance on the U.S. president's rhetoric and insult to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, saying the issue is being pursued through official international channels. She said that the outrageous remarks and the U.S.-Israel threats against the Leader not only angered the Iranian nation, but prompted religious scholars to issue a fatwa in response to these insults and disrespects. "Ayatollah Sistani and the head of the Bosnian Ulema were among the first to react quickly," Mohajerani added. 4399**9417 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Pezeshkian warns against Israel's destabilizing role in region, urges unity to thwart its plots IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned against Israel's destructive role in the region, and called on regional countries to foster unity to counter the regime's plots. The President made the remarka in a meeting with Iraqi Minister of Interior Abdul Amir al-Shammari in Tehran on Monday. Pezeshkian said the Israeli regime is disrupting peace and security in the region. "The Zionist regime is the arrogant system's project to undermine, occupy, and plunder the resources of the regional countries and disintegrate the region," he added. "We must stand united in the face of such a common enemy, support each other and vehemently avoid division and duality," he emphasized. The President hailed fraternal Tehran-Baghdad relations, which are based on deep religious and cultural bonds, and noted that Iran would make further efforts to reinforce unity and coherence among Muslim nations. He expressed Iran's readiness to bolster cooperation with Iraq in all fields. The Iraqi interior minister, for his part, extended his congratulations to the Iranian people over their victorious resistance against the Israeli regime during its 12-day acts of aggression against the Islamic Republic. Al-Shammari said the Iraqi government is using its utmost capacities to host millions of pilgrims who plan to mark Arba'een, the 40th day after the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Hussein (AS), the third Shia Imam and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). 2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian FM calls for diplomatic resolution of Iran's nuclear issue Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 2:50 PM Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has strongly condemned recent US-Israeli aggression against Iran, reiterating the importance of resolving Tehran's nuclear issue through political and diplomatic means. Lavrov made the remarks during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on the sidelines of the summit of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Chinese city of Tianjin on Tuesday. During the meeting, the two top diplomats discussed issues of common interest, as well as regional and international developments. "We had the opportunity to discuss some of the developments that are taking place rapidly," Lavrov said in a video released in the first minutes of the meeting. During the talks, the Russian side once again said the crisis related to Iran's peaceful nuclear program can be resolved solely through political and diplomatic means, and in accordance with international law, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ministers also agreed on future contacts at various levels, the ministry added. The 25th Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization began on Tuesday in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. The main objective of this two-day meeting is to review the latest political, security, and economic developments in the region as well as key priorities, including enhancing security cooperation against terrorism, supporting multilateralism, boosting regional trade, and expanding the organization's role in Eurasian geopolitical arrangements. The foreign ministers of Iran and Russia last met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil. The meeting took place after the unprovoked acts of aggression launched on June 13 by the Israeli regime and the United States against the Islamic Republic. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran calls on SCO to take urgent action over recent Israeli aggression Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 11:20 AM Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has called on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to promptly review the situation regarding the recent Israeli aggression against Iran, urging the body to adopt measures offering Tehran essential political backing and related support. Speaking at the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO held in China on Tuesday, Araghchi submitted several proposals by Iran aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and standing of the organization. He proposed "establishing a permanent mechanism to monitor, document, and coordinate responses to military aggression, acts of sabotage, state-sponsored terrorism, and violations of member states' national sovereignty." He also called for creating a "Center for Sanctions Studies and Countermeasures" tasked with developing operational strategies to combat unlawful unilateral sanctions, safeguard supply chains, protect banking systems, and secure trade exchanges among member states. The top Iranian diplomat also requested forming a "Shanghai Regional Security Forum" with the participation of defense and intelligence institutions from member states to address shared threats such as terrorism, extremism, organized crime, and cyber threats. Araghchi called on the SCO to strengthen media and cultural integration among member states as a tool to counter perception warfare and one-sided narratives promoted by the media of hegemonic powers. Key bilateral meetings On the sidelines of the SCO meeting, Araghchi had a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday morning, accompanied by other foreign ministers from the organization. Before the group gathering, Araghchi and Xi also engaged in a short bilateral discussion. The Iranian minister also held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on regional and international issues. The Russian side once again reiterated the importance of resolving the issues surrounding Iran's nuclear program solely through political and diplomatic means, and in accordance with international law. Araghchi also held talks with his Pakistani, Uzbek and Kyrgyz counterparts, Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Bakhtiyor Saidov and Jeenbek Kulubayev, respectively. In a post on his X account released on Tuesday, the Pakistani foreign minister hailed the meeting and said, "Good to catch up with Foreign Ministers of Iran, Uzbekistan, and Belarus on the sidelines of the SCO CFM in Beijing, just before our joint call on Chinese President Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing." He added that it is always good "to exchange views for strengthening regional understanding and cooperation in such a challenging time." Araghchi also held a phone conversation with Malaysia's Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan. During the call, the top Iranian diplomat referred to his recent meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro. He underscored Iran's commitment to follow up on mutual agreements regarding the development and expansion of bilateral relations. The two sides expressed their desire to continue talks and consultations on bilateral relations and key developments in the West Asia region. The top Malaysian diplomat highlighted his country's interest in strengthening Tehran-Kuala Lumpur relations. He also invited his Iranian counterpart to visit Malaysia at an appropriate time, which Araghchi welcomed. The 25th Meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization began on Tuesday in the Chinese port city of Tianjin. The main objective of this two-day meeting is to review the latest political, security, and economic developments in the region as well as key priorities, including enhancing security cooperation against terrorism, supporting multilateralism, boosting regional trade, and expanding the organization's role in Eurasian geopolitical arrangements. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address 'Even those with grievances rose up': Pezeshkian hails national unity in face of Israeli aggression Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 11:05 AM Iran's president has praised the nationwide unity and solidarity achieved after the Israeli regime's aggression on the country, saying those who had even been unjustly treated over the years threw their weight behind the Islamic Republic in the wake of the imposed 12-day war. Masoud Pezeshkian, in a ceremony at Iran's Ministry of Cooperative, Labor and Social Welfare on Tuesday, hailed the unity among Iranians as "priceless," saying they displayed an unprecedented and honorable image of bravery by foiling the enemy's plots. "The Zionist regime imagined that after martyring the commanders of our country's Armed Forces, who had dedicated their lives to the glory of Iran, the Islamic Establishment would face challenges; however, the wisdom of Leader of the Islamic Revolution [Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei] and the immediate appointment of successors to the martyred commanders, coupled with the Armed Forces' powerful defense, thwarted the enemy's plots," Pezeshkian said. "The Iranian people did a greater and more important job; the enemy's plan was that within a short time after the start of its attacks, the people would go rogue and take to the streets, and the Islamic Republic of Iran would collapse, but the people also stood up to the enemy and neutralized its conspiracies," he added. The Iranian president emphasized that even those who had been wronged and treated unfairly, including those in prison or those who had left the country due to dissatisfaction, rose to defend the country. "The ones we lost in those 12 days were indeed very valuable and dear, but the consensus and empathy we gained are far more precious. Iran belongs to all of us, regardless of race, gender, language, ethnicity, or religion, and anyone interested in serving the country and its people should have the opportunity to serve solely based on their merits and capabilities," Pezeshkian said. "We must strive to preserve the unity, cohesion, and empathy created in the country and spare no effort in building and developing Iran." On June 13, Israel launched a blatant and unprovoked act of aggression against Iran, assassinating many high-ranking military commanders, nuclear scientists, and ordinary civilians. More than a week later, the United States also entered the war by bombing three Iranian nuclear sites in a grave violation of the United Nations Charter, international law, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). In response, the Iranian Armed Forces targeted strategic sites across the occupied territories as well as the al-Udeid air base in Qatar, the largest American military base in West Asia. On June 24, Iran, through its successful retaliatory operations against both the Israeli regime and the US, managed to impose a halt to the illegal assault. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Azerbaijan And Syria In A Plot Against Iran? Tehran Thinks So. By Kian Sharifi July 15, 2025 Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa's visit to Baku last weekend highlighted a dramatic shift in regional alliances, prompting a mix of concern, suspicion, and strategic recalculation across Iranian media. Official statements following Sharaa's meeting with President Ilham Aliyev emphasized a new era in Syrian-Azerbaijani relations. Both leaders acknowledged past stagnation, directly blaming ousted President Bashar al-Assad's "unfriendly policy" and pledged to restore and deepen cooperation. Notably, the visit yielded a deal to export Azerbaijani gas to Syria via Turkey, with officials hailing the agreement as a needed remedy for Syria's chronic energy crisis. Meanwhile, various outlets, including Israeli media, claimed that Syrian and Israeli officials met on the sidelines of the trip. It's unclear whether Sharaa attended the meeting, but the mere occurrence of such a meeting -- facilitated by Azerbaijan, Israel's key ally in the region -- has further fueled concerns in Tehran. Sharaa, a former insurgent known under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, joined forces with Turkish-backed rebels and, in December 2024, led his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) faction in a lightning offensive that ultimately toppled the Iran- and Russia-backed Assad government. Security Challenges A shared concern in Iranian media is what is seen as a shifting militant footprint from the Syrian battlefield to the Caucasus -- right on Iran's doorstep. Arman-e Melli, a pro-reform newspaper, argued that one aspect of the budding relationship between Damascus and Baku will involve the transfer of Syria-based fighters through Turkey into bases in Azerbaijan -- a potential development it described as a "mission" for Sharaa. It speculated that their presence is meant to destabilize areas along the borders of Iran and Russia and to carry out operations targeting the broader axis of China, Russia, and Iran. The conservative newspaper Farhikhtegan struck a similar tone, arguing that Sharaa sees the redeployment of his fighters to meet a US demand to expel foreign fighters from Syria. Under such a plan, the paper said, Azerbaijan would emerge as a strategic hub; either a staging ground for further infiltration into the Caucasus and Russia or a site for settlement in areas such as Karabakh. A 'Message' To Iran Israel's i24NEWS network, citing an unnamed Syrian source, claimed that Israel and the United States had made decision for Baku to host a meeting between Israeli and Syrian officials to "send a message to Iran." Referencing the report, Iran's state broadcaster-run Jam-e Jam newspaper charged that given Baku's track record of alleged involvement in anti-Iranian operations over the years, and suspicions about its cooperation with Israel during the last month's war, this could well be taken as "clear evidence" that some neighboring countries are working with Israel against Iran. Jam-e Jam specifically named Azerbaijan and its allies Turkey and Israel as the countries involved in "shaping new dynamics that work against Iran's interests." The paper argued that ultimately Iran will need to safeguard its national interests with both diplomatic and security savvy, including strengthening ties with neighbors such as Armenia and Russia, and taking a firm stand against "Baku's provocations." Tehran has watched with growing concern as Azerbaijan forges ever-closer links with Israel. In recent years, the partnership has significantly expanded, highlighted by deepening defense collaboration and Baku's decision to open an embassy in Tel Aviv in 2023 -- developments that have only heightened Iranian mistrust. Iran's president, Masud Pezeshkian, last month pressed Aliyev to "investigate and verify" reports that Israeli drones, including micro-drones, had crossed into Iranian airspace through Azerbaijani territory during the 12-day war the ended in a ceasefire on June 24. Aliyev rejected the allegations, affirming that his government would never permit Azerbaijani territory to be used against Iran. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-worries-syria- azerbaijan-plot-tehran-israel/33474859.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lavrov Emphasizes Need for Peaceful Resolution to Iran's Nuclear Program Crisis Sputnik News 20250715 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized the importance of resolving the crisis over Iran's nuclear program through political and diplomatic efforts during a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. "The sides continued to exchange views on issues of mutual interest on the regional and international agenda. The importance of resolving the crisis over the Iranian nuclear program exclusively through political and diplomatic means in accordance with the norms of international law was once again emphasized. The ministers agreed on upcoming contacts at various levels," the ministry said in a statement. On the night of June 13, Israel launched an operation against Iran, accusing Tehran of developing a clandestine military nuclear program. Iran denied the allegations and responded with its own attacks. Over the following 12 days, the two sides exchanged strikes. The United States joined the conflict by targeting Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22. In retaliation, Tehran launched an attack on the United States' Al Udeid airbase in Qatar. On June 23, US President Donald Trump announced that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire, bringing an end to the hostilities. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Minister Netanyahu's statement at the Hasmonean Brigade Israel - Prime Minister's Office Events and Speeches The 37th Government 15.07.2025 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited today (Tuesday), along with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, the training facility of the Hasmonean Brigade at IDF Camp Tevetz in the Jordan Valley. During the visit, the Prime Minister held a meeting with the Brigade's fighters and spoke with them. In addition, the Prime Minister received a briefing from the Brigade commanders on the Brigade operations and the training of the Haredi fighters, in full compliance with their way of life. *Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu* (translated from Hebrew): "We are here at the Hasmonean Brigade in the Jordan Valley, the IDF's first Haredi brigade. I have now met with both the commanders and the soldiers, and it is uplifting. You see young Haredi men who come here, enlist and become excellent fighters. They have already been to Gaza and fought with distinction. Sadly, some of their friends in the Netzah Yehuda battalion fell in battle last week. We are fighting a great battle, and we need the forces of spirit and the military might to prevail. Here we have the spirit and the might. They come in as Haredi and they come out as Haredi and that thing is possible. They are coming not under coercion, but willingly, and that willingness is widespread among the Haredi public. We can lead a process not one of confrontation and infighting, but rather a mobilization of all the forces in Jewish society in order to truly bring security to our state and defend our people. I wish it on everyone to see what we have here, it is going to develop and grow. At once preserving the world of the Torah, which is one of the foundations of our existence for thousands of years; and enlisting thousands upon thousands of enthusiastic, strong and devoted young men. We are operating in Syria as well. We have a commitment to preserve the south-western region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israel's border. We will not allow a return to the situation where a second Lebanon is being established there, and we also have an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals. We are doing that by carrying out intensive operations. I hope we won't need further operations, and that very much depends on what is understood and done, and what is not done, in Damascus". *Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich* (translated from Hebrew): "We met today with first-class brave fighters who chose to serve the nation of Israel in the battlefield without giving up their Haredi way of life. The Hasmonean Brigade, commanded by Col. Avinoam Emunah, proves that it is possible to integrate the sons of the Haredi community in the Israeli Defense Forces in the best way. The entire training facility is run professionally, and raises a generation of qualified fighters that will comprise a substantial part of the IDF's fighting force. We are determined to bring about, God willing, the enlistment of many thousands of members of the Haredi community, and we are convinced that this is the way to do it. Together, with the building of trust, and through a determined and fundamental process". The Prime Minister was joined by his chief of staff Tzachi Braverman, the Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs, his Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, head of the IDF Personnel Directorate Maj.-Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, IDF Infantry and Paratroopers Corps Commander Brig.-Gen. Eran Oliel, head of the IDF Ground Forces Personnel Division Brig.-Gen. Ehud Bibi, and head of the IDF Personnel Planning and Management Division Brig.-Gen. Shay Tayeb. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan-Mauritius Foreign Ministers' Meeting Ministry of Foregn Affairs of Japan July 15, 2025 On July 15, commencing at 2:00 p.m. for approximately 35 minutes, Mr. IWAYA Takeshi, Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with Hon. Dhananjay Ramful, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Republic of Mauritius. At the outset, Minister Iwaya stated that Mauritius, located at a strategic point in the Indian Ocean connecting Asia and Africa, is an important partner in promoting a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)" based on the rule of law and that he would like to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries, taking advantage of the upcoming TICAD9 next month. In response, Minister Ramful expressed his gratitude for Japan's cooperation in various fields. He also referred to the good relations between the two countries and expressed his hope for further strengthening of the bilateral relations, particularly in the economic field. The two ministers concurred to advance initiatives such as maritime security with a view to achieving peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, also in view of the promotion of a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific" (FOIP). They also reaffirmed that they will work together in order to increase investment from Japanese companies to Mauritius, which serves as a gateway for investment in Africa. The two ministers also exchanged views on issues, including regional situation in East Asia such as their policies toward North Korea including on the nuclear and missile issues as well as the abductions issue, United Nations Security Council reform, and other issues and concurred to further strengthening cooperation in regional and international arena. Minister Ramful expressed his support for Japan's efforts toward immediate resolution of the abduction issue. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lieutenant General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (Retd), Minister of Defence of Indonesia leading a delegation comprising representatives from various services and intelligence agencies called on the Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), Chief of Army Staff at General Headquarters, today. Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan Rawalpindi - July 15, 2025 No PR-217/2025-ISPR Lieutenant General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (Retd), Minister of Defence of Indonesia leading a delegation comprising representatives from various services and intelligence agencies called on the Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), Chief of Army Staff at General Headquarters, today. During the meeting both sides exchanged views on bilateral defence collaboration, regional security dynamics and avenues to further strengthen military ties. The meeting underscored the longstanding friendship and cooperation between the two countries. Field Marshal highlighted the importance of mutual cooperation in maintaining peace and stability in the region. Minister of Defence of Indonesia appreciated the role of Pakistan Army in fight against terrorism and reaffirmed Indonesia's commitment to enhancing defence relations with Pakistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, NI (M), Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), attended commemoration ceremony of 98th founding day of People's Liberation Army of People's Republic of China as a Chief Guest. Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan Rawalpindi - July 15, 2025 No PR-218/2025-ISPR General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, NI (M), Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), attended commemoration ceremony of 98th founding day of People's Liberation Army of People's Republic of China as a Chief Guest. The ceremony drew a distinguished gathering of civilian and military officials, media representatives, business leaders and members of civil society, reflecting the broad-based support for this partnership. Chairman JCSC extended profound felicitations to the people of China, its military leadership and all ranks of People's Liberation Army (PLA). He commended PLA's pivotal role under the visionary leadership of His Excellency President Xi Jinping for China's remarkable development and rapid modernisation, which has transformed People's Republic of China into a key pillar of peace, stability and prosperity. CJCSC highlighted China as a stabilizing factor in the regional security dynamics. In his address, the CJCSC highlighted the enduring and time-tested "Iron-clad brotherhood" between Pakistan and China, with shared resolve to broaden and deepen this unique relationship across all domains. He reiterated Pakistan's unwavering commitment towards security of Chinese nationals working in Pakistan and advancing collaboration on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, strengthening defence ties and promoting regional harmony and development. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's Grip Weakens In The South Caucasus, Opening Doors To New Players By Ulviyya Asadzade July 16, 2025 As Russia remains preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, its influence is weakening along its southern border, particularly in Armenia and Azerbaijan. This power shift is opening the door for other players, including Turkey, the European Union, and the United States, to expand their presence in the region, analysts told RFE/RL. On July 10, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Abu Dhabi to discuss a potential peace deal, notably without any mediators -- including Russia. Although no breakthrough was reached, a joint statement reaffirmed both countries' commitment to bilateral negotiations and continuing "confidence-building measures." Just five years ago, however, the dynamics were starkly different. After a 44-day war between the two countries in 2020 over Nagorno-Karabakh -- a mostly ethnic Armenian region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and long at the center of the two countries' mutual animosity -- Russian President Vladimir Putin mediated a cease-fire, reinforcing Moscow's traditional role as the region's power broker. But the truce has since contributed to what Rauf Mirgadirov, an analyst with the Ayna-Zerkalo newspaper in Baku, calls "a historic shift." "The two countries -- after more than 30 years of conflict over Karabakh -- are now closer to one another and distancing themselves from Russia," he told RFE/RL. "Both want to be free from Russian influence, and this is their opportunity, as Russia is very busy with the war in Ukraine." Ruben Mehrabian, an analyst at the Armenian Institute of International Relations and Security, agrees that Yerevan views the current situation as a chance to loosen Moscow's hold on the country. "Russia wanted Armenia to remain in eternal conflict so that it could continually rescue us to justify its indefinite presence," he said. "But Armenia wants to resolve these disputes and remove any Russian presence from our country. Now Russia doesn't like that." Mounting Tensions And Accusations In the eyes of some analysts, Yerevan's ties with Moscow began to deteriorate in 2016 during a brief bout of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict concluded with a Russian-brokered cease-fire and some territorial gains for Azerbaijan, fueling Armenian frustration over Moscow's limited support for its traditional ally. According to Richard Giragosian, founding director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, this moment marked "the beginning of Armenian erosion and loss of confidence in Russia as a security partner." "Russia's position and policy beginning with the 2016 war began to shift to Azerbaijan," he said. Relations plunged further after the 2020 conflict, when Baku regained control over Nagorno-Karabakh and Russia again failed to back Yerevan. Recent events have highlighted how strained the bond between the two countries has grown. On June 17, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian was arrested on charges of calling for the unlawful seizure of power. In Giragosian's view, the arrest was "a move by the Armenian government to preempt any Russian interference" in next year's parliamentary elections. "But at the same time, it was more about pushing against Russian interest or influence within Armenia itself," he added. "This man is a product of Moscow; he is widely perceived as pro-Putin." Just days later, on June 25, Armenian authorities arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, a prominent cleric in the Armenian Apostolic Church, accusing him of plotting to overthrow the government. Russia responded angrily, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling for an end to "unjustified attacks" against the church, describing it as "one of the key pillars of Armenian society." Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan fired back, accusing Moscow of meddling in Armenia's internal affairs. Azerbaijan Also Turns Away From Moscow The shifts aren't limited to Armenia. Relations between Baku and Moscow have also deteriorated sharply this summer. In late June, Aliyev suspended high-level meetings, barred Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk from visiting and canceled Russian cultural events in Baku. These actions followed the deaths of two ethnic Azerbaijanis during a police raid in Yekaterinburg, Russia, amid allegations of torture. Russia's Zangezur Dilemma Five years ago, Russia had other ambitions for maintaining influence in the region -- specifically through military presence. The 2020 cease-fire agreement signed by Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan called for reopening economic and transportation routes. It also stipulated that Armenia would ensure secure transit between Azerbaijan proper and its Nakhchivan exclave via the so-called Zangezur corridor, with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) assigned to oversee it. "Perhaps the Zangezur corridor is Russia's only viable option for maintaining a presence in the region," Kirill Krivosheev, a Russian analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service in 2023. However, Armenia sees the corridor as a threat to its sovereignty. While negotiations continue, it remains unclear whether Russian FSB oversight will be part of any final deal. In March, Pashinian said there would be no foreign deployments along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border after a treaty is signed, and the idea is also not really attractive to the Azerbaijanis either, according to Vadim Dubnov, a correspondent for RFE/RL's Echo of the Caucasus. "Deploying FSB forces may have made sense for Azerbaijan before the Karabakh conflict was resolved," he said. "But now, direct negotiations with Armenia -- and not Russian involvement -- are more beneficial to Baku." Control over Zangezur also ties into a larger geopolitical picture: the Middle Corridor, a route linking China to Europe and bypassing Russia. "Zangezur is part of the Middle Corridor," Mirgadirov explained. "Russia doesn't just want to control Zangezur; it wants to dominate all land and air routes in the South Caucasus. But I think Turkey is well-positioned to lead regional security efforts." New Regional Players While analysts agree that Russia's influence is waning, they caution that deep economic and historical ties cannot be severed overnight. However, since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this economic dependence has also begun to shift, Russian analyst Krivosheev noted in his 2023 interview with RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service. "Turkey has become a key import partner for Russia. Many goods are transported via Turkey and Azerbaijan," he said. "The Istanbul straits are vital, and Azerbaijan is now a crucial hub for Russian gas. We sell oil and gas to Azerbaijan, which then sells it to Europe. This is legal and does not violate sanctions." Paul Goble, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, highlighted Azerbaijan's rising importance. "Aliyev has finally realized that Moscow needs Azerbaijan at least as much as Azerbaijan needs Russia," he said. "When you realize that the other side needs you more than you need it, that changes how you make calculations." Meanwhile, Yerevan is rebuilding ties with Istanbul while distancing itself from Moscow. Long strained over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- in which Turkey supported Azerbaijan, closing its borders with Armenia in the 1990s -- and historical grievances, relations between the two countries are cautiously improving. In June, Pashinian visited Turkey and met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- the first political working visit aimed at bilateral negotiations. "Armenia is economically dependent on Russia because most of our communication with external markets runs through Georgia to the Russian market," said Mehrabian. "Our border with Iran is open but limited in capacity. Opening the Turkish border would allow Armenia access to European markets." Yet Armenia is not putting all its hopes on Turkey. Mehrabian said Yerevan is also strengthening ties with the US and EU. "We are working with the EU and the US to elevate cooperation," he said. "With the US, we have already signed a charter of strategic partnership. With the EU, we have passed legislation aligned with potential membership -- even though we know it's a long road ahead." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/south-caucasus-russia- losing-influence-armenia-azerbaijan/33475018.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Germany Federal Foreign Office 14.07.2025 - Press release A Federal Foreign Office Spokesperson issued the following statement today (14 July) on the current clashes in Syria: The Federal Government is following reports of numerous victims in the current clashes in Suweida with great concern. The Federal Government calls on all sides to exercise restraint and underscores the duty of all parties involved to protect civilians. The hostilities must cease immediately. The Federal Government urges the Syrian Government to act to de-escalate tensions now. The Syrian Government has a responsibility to work towards a political settlement between the population groups. A reconciliation process, a functioning transitional justice system and an inclusive political process are key in this regard. Germany stands ready to continue to support the people of Syria on this difficult path. Iran condemns Israeli attack on Syria's Sweida, criticizes U.N.S.C. inaction IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Jul 15, 2025 Tehran, IRNA -- Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei expressed concern over clashes in Syria and strongly criticized the U.N. Security Council's inaction in the face of the Israeli regime's aggression on Syria, Lebanon and Gaza. In a statement on Tuesday, Baqaei expressed deep concern over the clashes that occurred in the Sweida region in southern Syria, which have resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, and condemned the military attacks by the Israeli regime against Syria over the past two days. Referring to the continuation of the Israeli regime's military aggression against Syria's territorial integrity, while continuing to occupy a large part of the country's territory, the spokesperson considered the continued inaction on the part of the United Nations Security Council in in the face of the Israeli regime's aggressive actions against the countries of the region to be very dangerous and to have contributed to the increasing assertiveness on the part of the occupying regime. Baqaei emphasized the need for the countries of the region and the Islamic world to pay attention to need to stop the Israeli regime's lawlessness and crimes, including the regime's unprecedented genocide in Gaza and its continued attacks against Syria and Lebanon. He also noted the responsibility of the international community to prevent the continuation of gross violations of international law and the United Nations Charter by the Tel Aviv regime. The Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against Syrian HTS-led regime's positions in southern Sweida province on Tuesday, in another act of aggression aimed at destabilizing the region. Also, the Israeli regime killed at least 12 people in airstrikes on eastern Lebanon on Tuesday in the deadliest breach of the ceasefire that took effect in November last year. Moreover, Israel's military killed more than 50 Palestinians in Gaza since Tuesday dawn as thousands of civilians fled the besieged north after it threatened to attack "the combat zone". 2050 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN Syria Commission deeply alarmed by Suwayda violence, urges de-escalation, civilian protection and respect for human rights Press releases Independent investigation 15 July 2025 GENEVA -- The most recent violence in Suwayda governorate in southern Syria has reportedly resulted in the deaths of dozens, including women and children, and the injury of more than one hundred others, with clashes reportedly ongoing. A conflict between Bedouin tribal forces and local armed groups drawn from the Druze community has escalated significantly in recent days, drawing the deployment of Syrian Interim government security and military forces to the city and prompting a series of Israeli-claimed airstrikes. Local residents have reported killings, abductions, burning of properties, and looting, as well as an increase in incitement and hate speech online and in person. The interim Ministry of Defence has reported at least 18 soldiers have been killed. The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry expresses deep concern over the renewed escalation of violence and recalls that it is the interim government's responsibility to ensure the respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights of all its people, free from any form of discrimination, and calls on all parties to cease violence immediately and de-escalate the situation through dialogue. Civilians seeking to flee must be protected and afforded safe passage and access to humanitarian support. The Commission is alarmed by reports of Israeli airstrikes in the area. Any third-state intervention risks widening the conflict, drawing in more actors, and inflicting even greater suffering on the Syrian people. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic is currently investigating alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law in relation to these events and will report on them in due course. ENDS Background: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was established on 22 August 2011 by the Human Rights Council through resolution S-17/1.The mandate of the Commission is to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Human Rights Council also tasked the Commission with establishing the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable. The Human Rights Council has repeatedly extended the Commission's mandate since then, most recently until 31 March 2025. The commissioners were appointed by the President of the UN Human Rights Council; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. While the UN Human Rights Office provides support to the Commission of Inquiry, the commissioners serve in their individual capacity and are independent from any government or organization, including the UN. Views presented herein are solely those of the mandated commissioners. Current Commissioners: Paulo Sergio Pinheiro (Brazil), Chair (Brazil), Chair Hanny Megally (Egypt) (Egypt) Lynn Welchman (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran condemns deadly Israeli airstrikes in southern Syria Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 7:17 PM Tehran has expressed deep concern over the recent clashes in the Suwayda region in southern Syria and condemned the Israeli attacks on the Arab country over the past two days. Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, pointed to the continued military aggression by Israel against Syria's territorial integrity, coinciding with the ongoing occupation of a large part of Syrian territory. He described the continued inaction of the United Nations Security Council regarding the aggressive actions of the Zionist regime against regional countries as 'extremely dangerous' and as fueling the escalating boldness of the occupying regime. Baghaei emphasized the necessity for countries in the region and the Islamic world to act urgently to stop the violations and crimes committed by the Zionist regime, including its unprecedented genocide in Gaza and ongoing attacks against Syria and Lebanon. He emphasized the international community's responsibility to prevent further severe violations of international law and the UN Charter. The Druze-majority city of Sweida in southern Syria has been a scene of clashes since Sunday between factions from the Druze religious minority and Bedouin tribes, killing more than 100 people. The two sides have a longstanding feud in Sweida. Syria's unelected HTS regime has deployed its forces in a bid to extend its power to the area controlled by local armed groups. On Tuesday, following contacts between Damascus authorities and notables from Sweida, the Syrian regime announced a ceasefire after the regime forces had entered the city. Some Druze leaders have accused the regime of failing to uphold its commitment to enter Sweida peacefully and called for resistance against them. Meanwhile, the Israeli regime has launched strikes against HTS-led forces in defense of the Druze minority. The HTS regime slammed the Israeli strikes, warning it had a "legitimate right to defend its land and its people". NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israel says won't withdraw from Syria's demilitarized zone Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 6:45 PM Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich says Tel Aviv will not withdraw from the demilitarized buffer zone in Syria's occupied Golan Heights. In a post on X, Smotrich said the military's presence in the area is "essential for the defense of the Golan Heights settlements." There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in Syria's occupied Golan Heights, which are home to an estimated 20,000 settlers. The settlements are considered illegal under international law. Smotrich said Israel "cannot afford to retreat under any circumstances from the buffer zone and the Hermon peak." He also claimed that Tel Aviv "will continue to protect the Druze in southern Syria to the best of its ability." The Israeli minister said the Syrian military's recent attack in the Druze-majority city of Suwayda is clear evidence that "the interim government is composed of violent and cruel extremist Islamists." Smotrich said the West should be wary of being "deceived by their suits and ties." On Monday, armed forces affiliated with Syria's ruling Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group carried out violent attacks on the Druze minority in the Syrian southwestern provinces of Sweida and Dara'a. Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he was committed to preventing harm to the Druze seen by Tel Aviv as a strategic ally due to their deep ties to those living in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government on December 8, Netanyahu ordered his forces to launch an incursion deep into Syrian territory and seize control of key strategic areas. He said that his forces will remain in the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria "until border security is guaranteed." The Israeli military has since expanded its presence in the Golan Heights, seizing areas inside the UN-monitored demilitarized zone. Satellite imagery from January shows new Israeli military installations inside the buffer area. Under the 1974 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Syria, Israeli forces are barred from crossing the so-called Alpha Line into the Area of Separation (AoS). However, analysts say recent construction points to Israel's intent to maintain a military foothold in southwestern Syria. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Israeli warplanes strike multiple installations in southern Syria Iran Press TV Tuesday, 15 July 2025 6:57 AM Israeli warplanes have carried out airstrikes against a number of installations once belonging to the ousted president Bashar al-Assad's army but now used by the militant forces of the ruling Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime in the southwestern province of Suweida. Local media outlets reported that two aerial raids struck sites near the town of al-Mazraa late on Monday. Informed sources said sounds of explosions were also heard in the vicinity of Kanaker town. Material damage was reported, but no information was yet available about possible casualties. The Israeli military later asserted in a statement that it hit several tanks in the area between alMazraa and Sami' as they moved towards Suweida in southern Syria. It claimed that the strikes were aimed at "preventing their arrival to the area." "The Israeli army will not allow the establishment of a military threat in southern Syria and will operate against it," it said. Early on Monday, HTS forces initiated an offensive in Suweida following fatal confrontations between Druze and Bedouin factions, resulting in the deaths of dozens of individuals and injuries to hundreds of others. At least 99 people have been killed and around 200 others wounded over the past two days in the Suweida province, as clashes escalate between local Druze fighters, Bedouin tribes, and HTS forces, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. According to the Britain-based monitoring group, the fatalities include 60 from the Druze community - among them two women and two children - 18 from Bedouin tribes, 14 from HTS fighters, and seven unidentified individuals wearing military uniforms. Since the collapse of Assad's government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria's now-defunct army. Israel has been widely condemned for the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria and for exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation in the wake of Assad's downfall to make a land grab. The United Nations has condemned ongoing Israeli attacks inside Syrian territory and repeated violations in and around the buffer zone created as part of a 1974 ceasefire agreement with Damascus. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UN urges de-escalation, protection of civilians as conflict roils Syria 15 July 2025 - Inter-ethnic violence in Syria's predominantly Druze city of Sweida has been met with government intervention, Israeli airstrikes - and on Tuesday, a reported ceasefire announcement by Syria's defence minister. On Sunday, violence erupted between Sunni Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias in Sweida, two days after a Druze merchant was abducted on the highway to Damascus. The casualty figures are unclear according to local reports, but the death toll is at least 30, and hundreds have been injured. As violent unrest continued Monday, interim government security forces were deployed to restore order, which reportedly led to clashes with local armed militia. On the same day, Israeli forces struck tanks under the control of Syrian forces in defence of the Druze, whom it considers a loyal minority at home and in the occupied Golan area, according to news reports. Shortly after forces of the caretaker government in Damascus arrived in Sweida on Tuesday, Syria's defence chief announced a ceasefire. Tensions have historically been high between minority groups in the city since Islamist rebels toppled former president Bashar al-Assad's regime in December and a new caretaker government was installed which is gaining increasing international recognition. Guterres expresses concern Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, addressed the situation in Syria on behalf of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Tuesday's briefing in New York. "The Secretary-General is deeply concerned over the continued violence we have seen in the Druze-majority area in Sweida governorate," Mr. Dujarric said, adding that he is particularly alarmed by reports of arbitrary violence against civilians. Mr. Guterres condemned "all violence against civilians, especially acts that risk enflaming sectarian tensions," and urged de-escalation, protection of civilians and a transparent investigation into those responsible for the killings and injuries. Israel urged to end violations within Syria "The Secretary-General is also concerned by Israel's airstrikes on Syria's territory and calls on Israel to refrain from violations of Syria's independence, its sovereignty and its territorial integrity," Mr. Dujarric stressed. Mr. Guterres urged support for "a credible, orderly and inclusive political transition in Syria in line with the key principles of Security Council Resolution 2254." Mr. Dujarric also relayed reports from UN humanitarian partners in Sweida, noting that medical services are overstretched and that markets and essential services - including water, electricity and education - have been disrupted. While UN aid operations have been suspended in impacted areas due to blocked roads, the UN is mobilising to respond when conditions allow. Investigators raise alarm Also on Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Council mandated Syria Commission of Inquiry released a statement expressing concern over the situation in Sweida and stressing the urgent need for de-escalation and the protection of human rights. The statement cited reports from local residents of killings, abductions, property burnings, looting and a rise in hate speech both online and in person. In addition to highlighting concern over sectarian violence and Israeli airstrikes, the Commission emphasized the interim government's responsibility to uphold human rights and ensure safe passage and humanitarian aid access. The independent human rights investigators said they had begun an investigation into alleged human rights abuses related to the killings in Sweida in recent days. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Lai inspects Kaohsiung naval mine drill as Han Kuang enters day 6 ROC Central News Agency 07/14/2025 07:01 PM Kaohsiung, July 14 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te () on Monday inspected a naval mine drill in Kaohsiung, as Taiwan's annual Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day. The training session in Kaohsiung involved Navy preparations for deploying mines in waters near Zuoying Naval Base as part of a simulated defense against an amphibious Chinese invasion, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND). During his inspection, Lai was first briefed on how the Navy was making preparations for the drill before he boarded a mine-laying vessel. The president stayed at the base for around 20 minutes. The live-streamed exercise showed that after receiving their orders, Navy personnel first loaded naval mines onto military trucks before transporting them to the port and loading them onto minelaying vessels. Chang Chia-ming (), a senior official of the 192nd Fleet's mine-laying unit, said Taiwan was now using three different kinds of locally made bottom mines, which rest directly on the seabed, and moored mines, which use an anchor. According to Chang, the mines are detonated by detecting sound, magnetic, and pressure changes, and are mainly used to target warships and submarines. Chang said that naval mines offer a relatively low-cost way to deny access to sea areas, disrupt enemy movements, and protect coastal regions. Their effectiveness in delaying or disrupting enemy operations plays an important role in Taiwan's asymmetrical warfare against China, he said. Also on Monday, actions continued around the country and its offshore islands during the Han Kuang exercises. In New Taipei, Army troops conducted a counter-assault exercise on the banks of the Tamsui River by setting up obstacles on the river and detonating C4 explosives to prevent the advancement of Chinese troops into Taipei. Defending the area near the mouth of the Tamsui River has always been a priority for the military, because if it is breached by enemy forces, they could easily advance into the Greater Taipei area, Taiwan's political and economic center, according to the MND. Meanwhile, in New Taipei's Linkou District, soldiers from the 206th Reserve Brigade practiced using 105 mm grenade launchers in standing, kneeling and prone positions. The brigade, which consists of around 3,000 personnel, is responsible for guarding the Greater Taoyuan region. Monday's exercises took place on the sixth day of the live-fire phase -- the longest-ever segment of the Han Kuang drills -- running from July 9 through July 18, lasting 10 days and nine nights. Since 1984, the annual Han Kuang exercises have been Taiwan's premier war games, combining live-fire drills and computerized tabletop simulations to test combat readiness against a potential Chinese invasion. This year's tabletop war games were held from April 5 to 18. (By Chang Yi-lian, Wang Hung-kuo, Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh) Enditem/ASG NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Shoulder-fired Stinger missiles make rare appearance during Taipei metro drills ROC Central News Agency 07/14/2025 11:21 AM Taipei, July 14 (CNA) U.S.-imported FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills in the Taipei Metro simulating a Chinese invasion. The exercises, part of the Han Kuang drills, featured Military Police troops carrying Stingers, machine guns, 40mm grenade launchers and anti-armor rockets, and were held between Shandao Temple Station and Longshan Temple Station while the metro was closed to passengers. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said the exercises simulated Taiwanese troops using the metro system to quickly reach a target area and engage the enemy. Simulating Taiwanese troops' response after a successful Chinese military landing, the Military Police boarded metro cars at Shandao Temple Station around 1:10 a.m. and conducted a tactical exercise before arriving at Longshan Temple Station. Around 100 soldiers later exited the metro station and continued their exercises on the streets of Wanhua. The MND said the U.S.-made FIM-92 Stinger is a fully automated, short-range air defense system and serves as the military's premier shoot-on-the-move air defense weapon. It is a lightweight, highly mobile, and easily transportable surface-to-air missile system, equipped with eight Stinger missiles housed in two missile pods. The MND declined to disclose the exact number of Stinger missiles received from the U.S. or their deployment locations, stating only that they were acquired through military aid. Su Tzu-yun (), a research fellow at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research, previously told CNA that the Stinger system provides low-altitude firepower and can be quickly deployed at airports, radar stations, or other combat zones to target low-flying enemy threats. Monday's exercises took place on the sixth day of the live-fire phase -- the longest-ever segment of the Han Kuang drills -- running from July 9 through July 18, lasting 10 days and nine nights. Since 1984, the annual Han Kuang exercises have been Taiwan's premier war games, combining live-fire drills and computerized tabletop simulations to test combat readiness against a potential Chinese invasion. This year's tabletop war games were held from April 5-18. (By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh) Enditem/kb NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Rubio says Wang did not warn against 'welcoming' Lai ROC Central News Agency 07/14/2025 03:22 PM Washington, July 13 (CNA) U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi () did not warn him against "welcoming" American stopovers by President Lai Ching-te (), during direct talks on the sidelines of the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Malaysia Friday. At a news conference in Kuala Lumpur, Rubio said it "was not a warning-type meeting" when asked if Wang had raised the issue of Lai's transit visits through the U.S. In late 2024, China lodged a "stern" protest with Washington after Lai made transit stops in Hawaii and Guam during a seven-day trip to the South Pacific. In addition, Rubio said there was "no issue about drills" when asked if Taiwan's ongoing Han Kuang drills, which opened on July 9, had been discussed at the meeting. "This was not a meeting where ... either side warned each other about anything. "This was very constructive and productive, and I hope that that's how they reflect it as well, because I thought it was a very positive meeting. "I think the Chinese position on Taiwan has been expressed [and] I don't think it's a mystery to anyone in terms of where they stand on it. "And our position has also been expressed pretty openly," Rubio said. Following Rubio's comments, U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mignon Houston said Washington's longstanding relationship with Taipei does not and will not change under the Trump administration. "We want to continue working with Taiwan [and] promoting their ability to participate in international forums and have the safety and security and confidence that their voices will be respected as well," Houston said during a Foreign Press Center roundtable, in response to a question from CNA. (By Chung Yu-chen and Frances Huang) Enditem/ASG NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese envoy regrets abuse of UNSC resolutions on Houthi attacks in Red Sea Xinhua) 15:30, July 16, 2025 UNITED NATIONS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Yemen must be respected, said a Chinese envoy on Tuesday after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution concerning Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. "China is deeply concerned by this development," said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, referring to the recent re-escalation of tensions in the Red Sea as a new round of hostilities erupted between Israel and the Houthis in Yemen. "We call on the Houthis to respect the navigational rights of commercial vessels of all countries in the Red Sea in accordance with international law, to cease attacks on commercial vessels, and to safeguard the security of the Red Sea waterways," he said. "All parties concerned should exercise calm and restraint and refrain from actions that could further escalate tensions," said Geng, adding that the tensions in the Red Sea are a significant manifestation of the spillover of the Gaza conflict. The settlement of the issues in the Red Sea and Yemen cannot be achieved without easing tensions and de-escalating the overall situation in the region, said Geng. The international community must act with a greater sense of urgency to promote an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and fully restore humanitarian access, he said. The Security Council on Tuesday adopted Resolution 2787, which extended the reporting requirement from Resolution 2722 through Jan. 15, 2026, asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report monthly on attacks by the Houthis on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and none against, while Algeria, China and Russia abstained, voicing concerns that the language in Resolution 2722 has been misused to justify attacks on Yemen. After the adoption of Resolution 2722 in January 2024, certain countries took military actions against Yemen, severely undermining the Yemeni peace process and exacerbating tensions in the Red Sea, with adverse effects that persist to this day, said Geng. Resolution 2722 condemned the Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, demanded an immediate cessation of all such attacks, and "takes note of the right of (UN) member states, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms." (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Any Lai stopovers to follow past practice: U.S. State Department ROC Central News Agency 07/15/2025 02:37 PM Taipei, July 15 (CNA) The U.S. Department of State has said that any stopovers by President Lai Ching-te () will be "in line with past practice, and fully consistent with our longstanding policy," on Monday evening, Washington time. In an email response to CNA's inquiry regarding U.S. policies on Taiwanese presidential transits and their consideration of relations with Beijing, the State Department said that stopovers by high-level Taiwan officials are "undertaken with consideration for the safety, comfort, convenience, and dignity of the passenger." On July 11, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters after he met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi () in Malaysia that Wang had not warned him against "welcoming" Lai. Taiwanese local media, citing an unnamed source, reported Tuesday that Lai plans to make stopovers in New York and Dallas, Texas, during August state visits to Taiwan's allies in Central and South America, including Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize. In response to the report, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States said there was nothing to announce at the moment but that the Presidential Office would release any arrangements as required. Presidential Office Spokesperson Karen Kuo (), echoed the statement, saying the office would inform the Taiwanese public in due course about any relevant arrangements if they are confirmed. Lai made U.S. stopovers in Hawaii and Guam during a trip to the South Pacific in late 2024. The August stopovers will be his first in the continental United States since taking office, if they materialize. (By Chung Yu-chen and Wu Kuan-hsien) Enditem/ASG NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Key Taipei bridge closed for drills aimed at blocking PLA from capital ROC Central News Agency 07/15/2025 12:55 PM Taipei, July 15 (CNA) A key bridge in the Greater Taipei area was closed in the early hours of Tuesday for a military drill simulating efforts by Taiwan's armed forces to prevent enemy forces from moving into the capital city of Taipei. Tuesday's drill, part of the military's annual Han Kuang exercises, simulated a scenario in which forces of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) were attempting to enter the capital city of Taipei from neighboring New Taipei City using cars, including military cars. Conducted at the Wanban Bridge () connecting New Taipei's Banqiao District with Taipei's Wanhua District, which was closed from 11 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, the drill began with military police building a four-tier blockade on the bridge within two hours in anticipation of incoming PLA troops. The temporary 690-meter-long blockade was made up of roadblocks, civilian buses, and barbed wire barricades as well as newly acquired Hesco bastions -- modern, collapsible barriers made of wire mesh and fabric. Used in Iraq and Afghanistan, these barriers were originally designed for flood control and military fortifications and have the advantage of accelerating the construction of temporary defenses. During the drill, military police first used drones to detect the PLA's deployment remotely before simulating opening fire at the Chinese troops. The second part of the drill simulated PLA troops breaking through three of the four levels of the blockade set up by Taiwan's forces before being fired on by Taiwanese snipers from high points. Domestically built "Clouded Leopard" eight-wheeled armored vehicles were also deployed to help Taiwan's military sweep the bridge in a simulated attempt to eliminate remaining PLA forces there. The military and police also set up spot-check sites. These simulations were meant to prevent enemy forces from advancing into Taipei, home to the Presidential Office Building, Taipei Main Station, and other key locations. According to the Military Police Command Headquarters, Tuesday's drill was used to familiarize troops on how to use existing bridges to build temporary multi-layered blockades to deny enemy access and disrupt enemy movements. Similar bridge-defense drills have been conducted in previous Han Kuang exercises, but this year was the first time a bridge connecting the two cities was fully closed to traffic. Tuesday marked the seventh day of Taiwan's longest-ever live-fire phase of the annual Han Kuang military exercises, which officially began July 9, with a special focus on countering China's "gray zone" tactics. According to the Ministry of National Defense, the 10-day, nine-night Han Kuang exercises running through July 18 are twice as long as previous live-fire drills, which typically lasted five days and four nights. Since 1984, the annual Han Kuang exercises have served as Taiwan's major war games, combining live-fire drills and computerized tabletop simulations to test combat readiness against a possible Chinese invasion. This year's tabletop war games were conducted from April 5 to April 18. (By Matt Yu and Joseph Yeh) Enditem/ls NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Japan's defense white paper highlights China's military drills around Taiwan ROC Central News Agency 07/15/2025 10:06 PM Tokyo, July 15 (CNA) Japanese Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani presented the 2025 edition of Japan's defense white paper on Tuesday, which highlighted China's intensification of military drills surrounding Taiwan since 2024, accusing Beijing of trying to isolate President Lai Ching-te's () government. The document said that China has been actively increasing its military presence around Taiwan in recent years and that this trend not only continued into 2024 but has intensified. For example, the report said, shortly after President Lai's inauguration in May 2024, China launched the large-scale "Joint Sword 2024A" exercises. Another round, "Joint Sword 2024B," followed after Taiwan's National Day on Oct. 10. The aim of Chinese military drills around Taiwan includes criticizing the Lai administration, which Beijing perceives as more pro-independence than the previous Tsai Ing-wen () government, and deterring the United States from deepening security ties with Taiwan, the report noted. China also aims to divide Taiwanese society and further isolate the Lai government by using a dual strategy of hardline military action alongside efforts to strengthen cross-strait economic ties, according to the report. The white paper noted the Chinese military's exercises around Taiwan exhibit three major characteristics: realistic combat training, propaganda orientation, and normalization. In terms of combat-readiness, China's military training scenarios simulate actual combat under the assumption of a "Taiwan contingency," according to the report. For instance, China's "Joint Sword 2024" military drills featured joint combat training for precision strikes on key cities and ports in Taiwan, coordinated airspace blockade drills, and synchronized law enforcement actions by the Chinese Coast Guard alongside the military. Notably, China has been gradually expanding the scope of its air and sea blockade exercises, the report said. As for propaganda, the exercises serve a political messaging purpose as Chinese media widely broadcast footage of the drills, and scholars from military research institutions provide commentary to explain the objectives and legality of the drills, the report said. The propaganda efforts include videos with 3D animations simulating live-fire drills, designed to heighten psychological impact, the report noted. As for normalization, China's continued military deployments and drills aim to make such activities routine, according to the document. The report concludes that the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) escalating military pressure on Taiwan suggests an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo through force. This raises concerns about regional security, particularly in the Indo-Pacific, the report said, adding that Japan must continue to closely monitor Chinese military activities. After releasing the white paper at a Cabinet meeting, Nakatani said that as China is rapidly strengthening its military and expanding and intensifying its military activities, the Japanese defense ministry will not tolerate any attempt by any party to unilaterally change the status quo by force. With a sense of urgency, Japan will thoroughly reinforce its defense capabilities and respond calmly and resolutely, the Japanese defense minister said. (By Tai Ya-chen, Yang Ming-chu and Evelyn Kao) Enditem/cs NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Chinese FM urges Paraguay to stop going against trend of times, over it reportedly preparing to receive Taiwan regional leader next month Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 15, 2025 11:43 PM In response to a question that Paraguay President Santiago Pena claimed on Monday that the country is preparing to receive Taiwan's regional leader Lai Ching-te next month, and he could make stopovers in the US during the transit, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Tuesday that on the so-called "diplomatic ties" between Paraguay and China's Taiwan region, China has made its position clear more than once. The one-China principle is a basic norm in international relations and an international consensus. Upholding the one-China principle is the right thing to do. It is where the arc of history bends and public opinion trends. According to Reuters, Paraguay is preparing to receive Lai next month, President Santiago Pena said on Monday, and the report said it means "Lai will also most likely make transit stops in the US." People from various sectors of Latin American countries, including from Paraguay, have visited China in recent years. There is a widely shared view among them that Paraguay needs to stop turning its back on China, stop being an outlier of the international community, and recognize the one-China principle and make a change in its relations with China sooner rather than later, Lin said. We urge the current administration of Paraguay to stop going against the trend of the times, and reject being manipulated and used by "Taiwan independence" forces. It needs to listen to the aspiration of the people of Paraguay, and make the right choice that truly serves the fundamental and long-term interests of its people at an early date. We also hope that relevant Latin American and Caribbean countries will see the prevailing trend, act prudently on Taiwan-related issues, and join the big family of China-LAC friendship and cooperation at an early date, Lin noted. The spokesperson said regarding the possible stopover in the US, China firmly opposes any form of official interactions between the US and China's Taiwan region. "We oppose any visit to the US by leaders of the Taiwan authorities under whatever reason or pretext. The US should not in any way aid or abet "Taiwan independence" separatists and their separatist activities. The US needs to fully understand the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, and handle the Taiwan question with extra prudence," said Lin. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan ROC Ministry of National Defense 2025/07/15 PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan 1.Date: 6 a.m. Jul. 14 (Mon.) to 6 a.m. Jul. 15 (Tue.) (UTC+8) 2. PLA activities: 26 sorties of PLA aircraft, 7 PLAN ships, and 1 official ship operating around Taiwan were detected as of 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 21 out of 26 sorties crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's northern, southwestern, and eastern ADIZ. ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy ships, and coastal missile systems in response to detected activities. 1140715_PLA activities in the waters and airspace around Taiwan.jpg [Open a new window] 1140715_PLA air activities in the vicinity of Taiwan.jpg [Open a new window] NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Mainland spokesperson opposes Lai's planned US transit, urges the US side to strictly adhere to one-China principle Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 16, 2025 12:04 PM In response to media inquiries regarding Taiwan regional leader Lai Ching-te's reported "visit" to Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize, with planned "transit" stops in New York and Dallas, Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, stated on Wednesday, "We firmly oppose any form of official interaction between the US and China's Taiwan region, and resolutely oppose Lai's 'transit' stops in the US under any pretext or in any form." Chen urged the US side to strictly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-US joint communiques, and to handle Taiwan-related issues with prudence so as to avoid sending any wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. "We sternly warn the Lai authorities: seeking 'independence' by relying on the US is futile and doomed to fail," Chen said. The one-China principle is a consensus of the international community and a basic norm in international relations, upheld by the vast majority of countries around the world. It is where justice lies, reflects the people's aspiration, and aligns with the trend of the times, Chen added. He expressed hope that the relevant Latin American and Caribbean countries will recognize the overarching trend, handle Taiwan-related matters with caution, and join the big family of China-Latin America friendship and cooperation. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taiwan's DPP hypes so-called 'attack' incident to incite cross-Straits confrontation: spokesperson Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 16, 2025 11:47 AM In response to an inquiry on that the so-called "mainland affairs council" in the Taiwan island asked the mainland to explain and apologize for Chinese embassy staff in the Czech Republic "attacking" Hsiao Bi-khim during her visit to Czech Republic, Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Wednesday that we have always clearly opposed any form of official exchanges between countries having diplomatic ties with China and the Taiwan region, and firmly opposed relevant country providing a political stage for "Taiwan independence" separatists. Relevant countries should abide by the one-China principle and not be provoked and exploited by "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, said Chen, noting that Chinese diplomats have always abided by the laws and regulations of the host countries. The so-called "attack" incident hyped up by the relevant countries and the DPP authorities is made up and reverses right and wrong. The DPP authorities have once again maliciously hyped up the topic in order to incite hostile confrontation between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, said Chen. Chen also warned the DPP authorities that no matter how many times they repeat their lies, they will not come true, and the continuous farce will only bring shame upon themselves. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address PM meeting with Prime Minister Fiala of the Czech Republic: 14 July 2025 The Prime Minister welcomed the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, to Downing Street this afternoon. From: Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street and The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer KCB KC MP Published 14 July 2025 The Prime Minister welcomed the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fiala, to Downing Street this afternoon. The leaders began by reflecting on the close relationship between the two countries, including across defence, trade and energy security. Both agreed that there were plenty of opportunities to be even more ambitious, which was emphasised by the signing of a civil nuclear memorandum of understanding today. The agreement would allow both countries to harness the potential of nuclear power and the related technology to drive prosperity, energy security and highly skilled jobs, the leaders agreed. The Prime Minister also thanked Prime Minister Fiala for the Czech Republic's strong support for Ukraine in the face of ongoing Russian aggression, and the leaders reflected on the strength of solidarity for Ukraine through the Coalition of the Willing. Both looked forward to speaking again soon. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine claims first capture of Russian troops with drones, robots; expert underscores unmanned systems' roles in modern warfare Global Times By Liu Xuanzun and Liang Rui Published: Jul 14, 2025 02:30 PM Ukrainian forces recently claimed to have for the first time captured Russian troops without the use of infantry, relying solely on drones and ground-based robotic systems, according to media reports. A Chinese military affairs expert said on Monday that drones and robots put great psychological pressure on human soldiers, and that unmanned systems are expected to further change how combats are fought. Citing a statement from Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade on July 9, the Kyiv Independent reported that the operation took place in Kharkiv where the brigade deployed first-person view (FPV) drones and kamikaze ground robotic platforms to attack Russian fortifications. The exact date of the operation was not provided. According to the brigade, Ukrainian forces targeted and destroyed Russian bunkers with kamikaze drones and robotic ground vehicles. As another robot approached a damaged Russian holdout, the remaining Russian soldiers reportedly chose to surrender. The captured troops were then guided out of the combat zone by drones and taken into custody by Ukrainian forces, the Kyiv Independent reported. The Russian positions had previously resisted capture by neighboring Ukrainian units, but the successful assault by unmanned systems allowed Ukrainian forces to take control of both Russian fortifications and a nearby forest line, the brigade claimed, according to the report. The Ukrainian brigade released a video allegedly depicting the operation, while the Russian side has apparently not responded to the Ukrainian claim. Only a few media outlets from other Western countries, such as the UK's Daily Express and Germany's DW, made the coverage on the operation. The Global Times cannot independently verify the authenticity of the report. The first known occasion when soldiers had surrendered to an uncrewed vehicle was back in 1991 during the Gulf War, when a US Navy Pioneer RQ-2A drone was carrying out a reconnaissance mission, assessing the effects of gunfire from the battleship USS Wisconsin. As the drone made a low pass over Faylaka Island near Kuwait City, 40 Iraqi soldiers appeared and indicated their desire to surrender, Forbes reported. Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times on Monday that given the current evolution of modern warfare and unmanned technologies, the tactical use of drones to capture enemy combatants is becoming feasible. The deployment of drones has already changed how battles are fought, and the coordinated operations between aerial drones and ground robots could further affect frontline engagements. When soldiers encounter robots rather than human enemies, they may experience severe psychological stress. Even if you manage to destroy some units, more could keep advancing relentlessly, posing persistent threats, leading to the possible thoughts of surrender, Fu said. Fu noted that the growing use of aerial drones and ground robots is poised to fundamentally transform future warfare. These technologies could redefine battlefield dynamics, alter the nature of conflict, and revolutionize tactical approaches. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump says U.S. to supply Patriot missiles to Ukraine People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 14:18, July 14, 2025 LOS ANGELES, July 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the United States will send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine to help bolster the country's defenses against Russian attacks. Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Trump explained that the European Union would purchase the missiles from the United States and then deliver them to Ukraine. "We basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment. They are going to pay us 100 percent for that, and that's the way we want it," Trump said, without specifying the number of Patriot systems to be provided. The president also said that he plans to meet with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the coming week to discuss Ukraine and other urgent matters. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump threatens Russia with 100% tariffs if no Ukraine truce in 50 days Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 7:00 PM US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose secondary tariffs of 100 percent on Russia if a peace deal is not reached with Ukraine in 50 days. During a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House on Monday, the US president said he was "very unhappy" with Russia and "disappointed" in President Vladimir Putin over the lack of progress towards a deal to end the Ukraine conflict. "We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per cent, you'd call them secondary tariffs," he noted, adding that the tariffs would be "very, very powerful." The US secondary tariffs are expected to target Russia's trading partners in a bid to isolate the country in the global economy. Also during the meeting, Trump said the US will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, which will pay for and distribute them. The United States' "top-of-the-line weapons," including Patriot missile systems and batteries, would be arriving very soon, he pointed out. Rutte, for his part, emphasized that Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and Denmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. Russia launched what it called a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, partly to prevent NATO's eastward expansion after warning that the US-led military alliance was following an "aggressive line" against Moscow. The Western countries have been escalating the war through the supply of advanced weaponry to Kiev. Also on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg in the capital Kiev, where they discussed buying American weapons with European help. In an X post, Zelensky said he was "grateful" to Trump for sending "important signals of support" for Ukraine. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Germany refuses Taurus missiles for Ukraine despite renewed plea, Russian attacks Iran Press TV Monday, 14 July 2025 8:06 AM German Defense Minister has announced that Berlin will not provide Taurus long-range missiles to Kiev, rejecting a renewed request from the Ukrainian capital. "Germany would not deliver its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine despite a wave of recent Russian air attacks and a renewed request from Kiev," Boris Pistorius said in an interview with the Financial Times, released on Sunday. Ukraine has long sought to add long-range missiles to its arsenal for use against Russia. Taurus missiles are capable of striking targets at a distance of 500 kilometers, a range exceeding that of other long-range weapons Ukraine has received from its allies. Russian Ambassador to Berlin Sergey Nechayev told the Rossiya-24 TV channel earlier that Moscow would keep a close eye on what the German authorities would do in terms of sending Taurus missiles to Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin remarked at a TASS-hosted meeting with the heads of the world's leading news agencies that Taurus supplies would destroy relations between Moscow and Berlin but would not stop the advance of the Russian Armed Forces along the entire line of contact. Elsewhere in his interview, Pistorius also said Berlin was unable to provide Ukraine with more Patriot air defense systems after sending three to Kiev in 2023-2024. "We only have six left in Germany," Pistorius said, adding that two had been lent to Poland and at least one was always unavailable due to maintenance or training. "That's really too few, especially considering the NATO capability goals we have to meet. We definitely can't give any more," the German defense chief noted. However, Pistorius did not rule out that he would discuss his proposal to let Germany buy two Patriot systems from the US for Kiev at a meeting with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in Washington on July 14. US-led Western countries, Germany included, have been fueling the flames of the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia with their unchecked delivery of weapons to Kiev. According to a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Ukrainian forces have suffered about 400,000 casualties since the war started in late February 2022. CSIS estimates in its report that between 60,000 and 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed since then. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ranking Member Shaheen Statement on Trump Announcement on Ukraine Support Senate Foreign Relations Committee July 14, 2025 WASHINGTON -- Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement on President Trump's decision to send Patriot missiles to Ukraine: "This move is a positive, but overdue, step for Ukraine and for our shared goal of a just and durable peace. Today's decision to send additional Patriot batteries to Ukraine, made possible through the meaningful investments of our European partners, will save countless Ukrainian lives from Putin's horrific assault. This announcement sends a powerful signal that NATO will not back down in the face of Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine and his attempts to undermine our alliance. "But this announcement, by itself, will not be enough to bring Putin to the negotiating table and finally end this war. President Trump needs to commit to a sustained flow of security assistance to Ukraine over the long-term. And we must move immediately on the tough sanctions package in the Senate, which has overwhelming bipartisan support and will make it harder and harder for Putin to prop up his economy and sustain his illegal war. After six months in office, I'm glad President Trump seems to be finally coming to his senses about Putin's responsibility for this senseless and barbaric killing of innocent people. Now is the time to match words with actions and bring this war to an end." ### NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia's Air Defense Systems Ready to Counter Potential US-Made Missiles for Ukraine Sputnik News 20250714 On Sunday, Donald Trump promised to supply Kiev with Patriot air defense systems, provided NATO reimburses their cost. As Ukraine could potentially receive advanced US-made systems, Russia's air defenses are primed to intercept and neutralize these threats, says Igor Korotchenko, military analyst and editor-in-chief of "National Defense". The key systems in Russia's arsenal include the long-range S-400 and S-300V/4, medium-range BUK-M2 and BUK-M3, and short-range TOR-M2 and Pantsir complexes. These systems are proven to detect, track, and destroy cruise missiles like the Scalp and Storm Shadow, which were targeted successfully during the ongoing special military operation. While no air defense system guarantees 100% success, Russian air defenses provide the most reliable means of counteracting such strikes. These advanced Russian systems are equipped to handle threats at various ranges and are capable of tracking and neutralizing low-flying missiles. Despite the challenging nature of missile defense, especially with terrain-following technology and multi-directional attacks, Russia's air defense remains the most effective tool for preventing such strikes. Russia has repeatedly stressed that the long-range weapons supplied by the West are being used by Ukrainian forces to target civilians on Russian territory and disrupt peace efforts. Allowing Ukraine to use these weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict, as Russian President Putin has previously stated. "We will make the necessary decisions based on the threats we face," he said. "The key question is whether to consider NATO countries as directly involved in the military conflict," the president added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump Threatens '100% Secondary Tariffs' on Russia If No Ukraine Deal Reached in 50 Days Sputnik News 20250714 US President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the United States will impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russia if no resolution is reached in the Ukraine conflict within the next 50 days. "We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we are going to be doing very severe tariffs if we do not have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs at about 100%. You would call them secondary tariffs," Trump said during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. Ukraine to Get 'Massive Amount' of Military Equipment, Including Air Defense "We make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything. The European nations know that, and we've made a deal today ... where we are going to be sending them [Europe] weapons, and they're going to be paying for them. We, the United States, will not be having any payment made," Trump told reporters following his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Trump called it a "very big deal," noting that "billions of dollars worth of military equipment" are going to be purchased from the United States. "What we will do is work through the NATO systems to make sure that we know what Ukrainians need ... Of course, the US will keep its stockpiles necessary to defend the country. That is absolutely clear. But it will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment, both for air defense and also missiles and ammunition," Rutte said. Additionally, 17 Patriot missile systems are being prepared for shipment to Europe, with a significant number expected to be deployed on the battlefield in Ukraine. Russia previously warned that Western long-range weapons are being used to target civilians and disrupt peace efforts, with President Putin emphasizing the potential shift in the conflict if NATO becomes directly involved. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russia Prepared for 3rd Round of Talks With Ukraine - Kremlin Sputnik News 20250714 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia is prepared for the third round of talks with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Monday. "The Russian side is ready to continue and hold the third round," Peskov told reporters. Russia still awaits a proposal on the timing of the next round, but Kiev is clearly in no hurry, the official added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on July 1 that the dates of the third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine were being agreed upon. Later, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that Russia was ready for the third round of negotiations with Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine held two rounds of talks in Turkey. The first talks in more than three years took place on May 16 in Istanbul. The second round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine was held on June 2. The meeting at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul lasted more than an hour. The parties exchanged memorandums on the settlement of the conflict and agreed on a large-scale exchange of prisoners. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Russian Forces Take Control of Malinovka Village in Zaporozhye Region Sputnik News 20250714 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian troops had taken control of the village of Malinovka in the Zaporozhye region. "As a result of active and decisive actions of the units of the Vostok [East] group of forces, the settlement of Malinovka in the Zaporozhye region has been liberated," the ministry said in a statement. The Russian forces have also taken control of the settlement of Mayak in the Donetsk People's Republic, the ministry added. Russia's Battlegroup Tsentr has eliminated up to 360 Ukrainian troops over the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. "The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 360 servicepeople, a US-made HMMWV armored combat vehicle, a Kozak armored car and four artillery pieces," the ministry said in a statement. Battlegroup Zapad has eliminated more than 220 Ukrainian soldiers over the given period, the ministry added. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Germany Refuses to Send Taurus Missiles to Ukraine Despite Fresh Appeal Sputnik News 20250714 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in an interview that Berlin will not supply Taurus missiles or Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, despite Kiev's renewed request. "We only have six [Patriot systems] left in Germany," Pistorius said. "That's really too few, especially considering the NATO capability goals we have to meet. We definitely can't give any more." Germany already gave Ukraine three such systems, two others had been lent to Poland and at least one was always unavailable due to maintenance or training, he recalled. The minister noted that on Monday he would meet with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth in Washington. During the meeting, the roadmap for ensuring European security by the United States will be discussed. According to Pistorius, the ministers will also discuss the sale of two Patriot systems to Germany by the United States, intended for Ukraine. As the minister added, Germany is also working on a "purchase plan" for military equipment by the country until the 2030s, which will include the purchase of tanks, submarines, drones and fighter jets. Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Berlin would support Ukraine in developing its own long-range systems against the backdrop of the lifting of restrictions on strikes on Russian territory, agreed upon, according to Merz, with the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Later, the chancellor noted that the decision had been made several months ago. After a visit to Germany, Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview that Kiev and Berlin were working on the issue of Taurus supplies, but declined to disclose details. Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a meeting with representatives of international news agencies at the SPIEF in June, said that the use of Taurus missiles would damage relations between Russia and Germany, but would not affect the course of military action. Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev previously said that Russia would closely monitor Berlin's specific actions regarding the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine and training of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in their use. Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement of the conflict and directly involve NATO countries in it. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump Set to Unveil New Arms Package for Ukraine Sputnik News 20250714 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump is set to unveil a new arms delivery plan for Kiev on Monday, which may include offensive weaponry, Axios reported, citing sources familiar with the plans. Two sources said they had reason to believe the plan will likely include long-range missiles, the publication emphasized. None of the sources were aware of "any final decision" on weapons. Trump said that the United States would send Patriot systems to Ukraine. "We will send them Patriots which desperately need," Trump told reporters on his way back to Washington from New Jersey. According to Trump, the United States will send Ukraine "various pieces" of military equipment, which will be paid for "100%." He also said that he was very disappointed with the pace of the settlement and allegedly only hears how the Russian leadership "talks nice." Trump previously said that the United States would send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine. According to Trump, the United States will send Ukraine "various pieces" of military equipment, which will be paid for in full. Russia believes that arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement of the conflict and directly involve NATO countries in it. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ministry of Defence initiates establishment of humanitarian demining coordination platform based at Ukrainian Training and Testing Complex (UTTC) Ministry of Defence of Ukraine 14 July, 2025, 1:50 PM EEST The Ministry of Defence has proposed designating the UTTC Training and Testing Complex as the basic platform for interagency cooperation in the field of mine action at the national level. This was announced by Colonel Olha Drobot, a representative of the Main Directorate for Mine Action, Civil Protection, and Environmental Safety of the Ministry of Defence. She presented this initiative during a regular cluster meeting on further coordination of mine action in Ukraine. The UTTC Complex was established by the Ministry of Defence, based on the infrastructure of the Joint Centre of Excellence for Mine Action, Civil Protection and Environmental Safety. It has become an effective platform for testing innovations in humanitarian demining. According to Olha Drobot, this platform can serve as a pilot model for new formats of cooperation among government agencies, donors, and manufacturers in the field of humanitarian demining. "UTTC, as a logistics, training, and communication hub, is already building an ecosystem of testing grounds where technologies are trialed, people are trained, and ideas are brought to life," noted Olha Drobot. In addition, cluster participants delivered thematic presentations on the use of virtual reality to raise awareness about explosive ordnance risks, methods and initiatives in underwater demining, and the concept of establishing a unified training system for humanitarian demining specialists. The event was held in Kyiv with the support of the Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address I Am Counting On Sufficient Support From The Members Of Parliament For The New Configuration Of The Government Of Ukraine - Address by the President President of Ukraine 14 July 2025 - 20:48 I wish you good health, fellow Ukrainians! It has been a long day today. I met with General Kellogg - he has begun his visit to Ukraine, and it has been quite substantive. We had a productive discussion. I am grateful to President Trump for his readiness to help protect our people's lives. This war continues solely because of Russia, solely because of Putin's desire to prolong it, to drag it out. Russia is trying to make the war seem like the "new normal." We must never put up with this. Absolutely everything possible - humanly possible - must be done to force Russia to stop the killings, to achieve real peace, and to ensure security. Peace is only possible through strength. We discussed this with President Trump. We discussed this with members of Congress. We are working at our teams' level - teams of Ukraine and the United States - to secure the forces and means we need to protect lives and defend our state: American weapons, American sanctions against Russia - a sanctions bill has already been prepared in Congress - as well as European financing and support, our joint defense. Ukrainian military officials, our intelligence and special services will provide General Kellogg with all the necessary information about what is happening right now on the frontline and about the new offensive actions Russia is preparing. Russia still has the money - the money to destroy the lives of its neighbors. And not only Ukraine. But the world knows where to hit so that Putin feels the pain and Russia feels the need to seek peace. Russia's war financing must be cut off. Russia's ties with Iran and North Korea must be cut off. Any supply of components and equipment for Russia's military industry must be cut off. I am grateful to our team, I am grateful to the United States, and I am grateful to Germany and Norway for preparing a new decision on Patriots for Ukraine. We are also working on major defense agreements with America. It is not yet time to reveal the details publicly, but together, we can achieve a great deal for the sake of security. Ukraine is absolutely ready for all honest and effective steps toward peace - lasting peace - and real security. It is Russia that is not ready. It is Russia that must be forced. And this is what is happening. We will definitely continue to increase our domestic weapons production and develop all our defense projects - both our Ukrainian and joint projects with partners. And this is one of the top priorities for the renewed Government. We must increase the share of domestic weapons production - this is a clear and specific goal. We must engage in global tech competition through our own innovations. We must direct more of Ukraine's economic strength to supplying our Defense Forces. It is important to carry out deregulation and give society more opportunities to develop our internal potential. It is also essential to eliminate all excessive bureaucracy and duplication of functions in our state institutions - this will definitely allow us to reduce all unnecessary spending. At the same time, we must provide greater social stability for our people - for all Ukrainians. All resilience programs in Ukraine must operate at full capacity. Today, I spoke with Yuliia Svyrydenko - I have proposed that she head the Government of Ukraine and renew its work based on her extensive experience in supporting Ukrainian production and Ukrainian entrepreneurship, which Yuliia has as First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy. The tremendous experience of Denys Shmyhal will undoubtedly be valuable in the role of Minister of Defense - this is exactly the area where the country's greatest resources, the heaviest workload, and the highest responsibility lie right now. I am counting on sufficient support from the Members of Parliament for the new configuration of the Government of Ukraine. It is also important that the Government promptly conducts an audit of all agreements with our partners to determine what is working and what requires reassessment or intensification. Today, I met with the Minister of Defense of Denmark - I thanked him for the support. Our cooperation with Denmark is nearly exemplary - many projects have already been implemented, and many agreements are in place. Today we discussed our next joint steps. And we are currently preparing for a conversation with the President of France - I always value Emmanuel's perspective and the coordination of our policy, our collaboration with France. I thank everyone who stands with Ukraine! I thank everyone who is helping us keep global attention focused on Ukraine, on the needs of our state and our people. Glory to Ukraine! NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine And Denmark Expand Joint Production Of Three Types Of Drones And Will Continue Developing The Danish Model President of Ukraine 14 July 2025 - 20:39 In Kyiv, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Denmark, Troels Lund Poulsen. Also present at the meeting was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Industry, and Trade of the Faroe Islands part of the Kingdom of Denmark Siri Simona Stenberg, who is visiting Ukraine for the first time. "I want to thank the Government of Denmark for organizing the recent visit to your country. We are very grateful for our bilateral cooperation and the support coming from Denmark, primarily military support," the Head of State noted. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Denmark has provided EUR 9 billion in defense assistance. Of that, EUR 1.8 billion is allocated for this year. Key topics of the meeting included Ukraine's military needs, strengthening air defense, countering Russian missile threats including ballistic missiles and developing joint arms production. The primary focus was on the joint manufacture of three types of UAVs: drones used on the frontline, interceptor drones, and long-range drones. The parties also discussed the further development of the Danish model, including increased investment and the launching of Ukrainian defense production in Denmark. The Danish delegation assured full support for Ukraine and readiness to deepen bilateral cooperation. Special attention during the meeting was given to energy security and preparations for the winter. The President noted that solutions must already be sought now to help people get through the upcoming winter. In addition, they discussed further humanitarian support: assistance with building shelters in hospitals, schools, and higher education institutions. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Coercion, pressure will not solve the problem: Chinese FM on US president's tariff threats over Russia-Ukraine conflict Global Times By Global Times Published: Jul 15, 2025 04:22 PM Asked to comment on US President Donald Trump's remarks that the US would impose 100 percent tariffs on Russia and secondary tariffs on countries purchasing Russian oil if no agreement is reached between Russia and Ukraine within 50 days, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian reiterated on Tuesday that China always believes that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, and that there is no winner in a tariff war, and coercion and pressure will not solve the problem. "We hope all parties can further create an atmosphere, accumulate conditions and do more to promote a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis," Lin said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Latvia discuss expanding cooperation in defence industry and innovation Ukraine Government Communications Department of the Secretariat of the CMU, posted 15 July 2025 13:30 A meeting between the Prime Ministers of Ukraine and Latvia, Denys Shmyhal and Evika Silina, took place in Kyiv. The parties discussed bilateral cooperation across various sectors. The Head of the Ukrainian Government expressed gratitude to Latvia for its support and consistent assistance to Ukraine in military, political, humanitarian, and sanctions-related areas. "We value Latvia's position among the leaders in support relative to GDP," said Denys Shmyhal, specifically thanking Latvia for a new aid package, including the supply of Patria heavy armoured vehicles. During the meeting, the Latvian Prime Minister announced the arrival of the first batch of armoured personnel carriers in Ukraine, with the next batch already in transit. In total, 42 units of equipment are planned for delivery, valued at approximately EUR 70 million. The officials agreed to deepen cooperation between manufacturers, particularly in the defence industry, innovation, and joint production of equipment and drones. They also explored opportunities to use the European SAFE instrument to finance joint projects. Sanctions policy was a separate topic of discussion. "We look forward to the approval of the EU's 18th sanctions package, which will further undermine russia's economic capacity to finance the war. We must increase pressure on the aggressor," stressed the Ukrainian Prime Minister. The meeting also addressed Ukraine's reconstruction. "I thanked Latvia for its assistance in rebuilding Chernihiv region. We discussed potential cooperation with Latvian companies in critical infrastructure," said Denys Shmyhal. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NATO Secretary General meets President Trump to bolster support for Ukraine NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation 14 Jul. 2025 - 15 Jul. 2025 Last updated: 15 Jul. 2025 14:16 NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House yesterday (14 July 2025) to advance critical efforts in support of Ukraine's defence against Russian aggression. Speaking to press in the Oval Office, Rutte hailed President Trump's pivotal decision to ensure Ukraine receives essential military resources, with NATO coordinating the effort with funding from Allies in Europe and Canada. Mr. Rutte highlighted the momentum from the recent NATO Summit in The Hague, where Allies agreed to a 5% GDP defence spending target and increased defence industrial production as well as continued support to Ukraine. He underscored how this effort brings all three together just weeks after the historic decisions were made. NATO is now working on substantial military equipment packages, including air defence systems, missiles, and ammunition. Rather than a single, finite package, the announcement yesterday marks new impetus, focused on rapid, substantial equipment transfers to Ukraine. "This is Europe stepping up," he stated, noting commitments from Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada, with more expected to follow. While in Washington, the Secretary General also had meetings with the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as well as Members of Congress. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine: Impact on civilians of wave of Russian attacks underscores need for immediate ceasefire Press briefing notes Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 15 July 2025 From Spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Liz Throssell Location Geneva According to our latest information, so far this month at least 139 civilians have reportedly been killed and 791 injured in Ukraine amid intense and successive waves of missile and drone strikes launched by the Russian Federation. In an overnight attack on 12 July, Russian armed forces reportedly deployed 597 Shahed loitering munitions and decoy drones, and 26 missiles. Two civilians were killed and 41 reportedly injured. Damage to civilian infrastructure was reported across several regions, including Chernivtsi, Lviv, Cherkasy, Volyn and Kirovohrad, far away from the frontline. On 9 July alone, Russian armed forces launched a record number of long-range drones against Ukraine - 728. July has brought no respite for civilians in Ukraine, after June which, according to our monitoring in Ukraine, saw the highest monthly number of civilian deaths and injuries in three years - with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured. The devastating physical and psychological impact on civilians of repeated attacks on their areas of residence - in this and other conflicts - cannot be captured by numbers alone. People are having to spend hours sheltering, including in basements, corridors and available refuges such metro stations. Children, older people and people with disabilities are especially vulnerable to the prolonged stress and disruption of sleep, and, in some cases, are unable to get to shelter. Intense and sustained attacks using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas are likely to have indiscriminate impacts and as such raise serious concerns as to their compliance with international humanitarian law. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk reiterates that an immediate ceasefire is needed now to end this unbearable suffering. "The Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine must urgently be halted and work on a lasting peace, in line with international law, must intensify - a peace that ensures accountability for gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law." The High Commissioner also highlights that it is vital that any negotiations focus on a coordinated push - as immediate steps - to end attacks that affect civilians, protect the rights of people in occupied territory, return forcibly transferred or deported children, establish humanitarian corridors across the line of control, and end the torture and ill treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees. He urges the Russian Federation and Ukraine to commit to a full exchange of prisoners of war. Resolving the fate of civilian detainees also needs to remain high on the agenda. Since early June, colleagues in Ukraine have interviewed nearly 140 Ukrainian prisoners of war, all men, released during recently agreed exchanges. Many had endured up to three years in captivity, and nearly all reported being tortured or ill-treated, including severe beatings, electric shock and sexual violence. These findings confirm patterns we have previously established of widespread and systematic torture. We also continue to interview Russian POWs held by Ukraine, documenting the use of unofficial places of detention and torture and ill-treatment in the early stages of captivity. We note that the Ukrainian authorities have launched investigations into several of these allegations, and we call on them to ensure that these investigations progress expeditiously, in accordance with international standards. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump says U.S. to send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, threatens "severe tariffs" targeting Russia People's Daily Online (Xinhua) 08:07, July 15, 2025 WASHINGTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, and threatened "severe tariffs" targeting Russia if a ceasefire deal is not reached in 50 days. Trump announced an agreement with NATO regarding weapons to assist Ukraine while meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office. "We are going to be sending them weapons and they're going to be paying for them," said Trump, adding that the United States will manufacture those weapons. "We're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said of Russia. Trump noted there would be "secondary tariffs" of about 100 percent, multiple news outlets reported. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified later that Trump meant "economic sanction" when he threatened "secondary tariffs" against Russia if it did not reach a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days, The Washington Times reported. Speaking to reporters after the Oval Office meeting, Trump said that the deal with the NATO allies was done and fully approved, The New York Times reported. "We'll send them a lot of weapons of all kinds," Trump said. "And they're going to deliver those weapons immediately to the site, to the site of the war, different sites of the war, and they're going to pay for 100 percent of them." Trump also told reporters that some Patriot systems will arrive in Ukraine within days, according to ABC News. Trump said European countries that have Patriots will transfer them to Ukraine and "they're going to start arriving very soon," ABC News added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukrainian PM Resigns Amid Major Government Reshuffle By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service July 15, 2025 Ukraine's prime minister said he has submitted his resignation, part of a major, widely anticipated reshuffle of the war-torn country's government. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was expected to accept the resignation of Denys Shmyhal, who has served under Zelenskyy since 2020 -- before Russia's all-out invasion in February 2022. He posted a photograph of Shmyhal's handwritten resignation letter on July 15. Shmyhal's replacement will be Yulia Svyrydenko, who has been serving as first deputy prime minister. A technocrat, Svyrydenko had taken a prominent role in negotiations with the United States over a deal granting US companies access to Ukraine's valuable minerals and rare earths. In announcing the shakeup, Zelenskyy said Svyrydenko would seek to expand Ukraine's domestic weapons production, streamline business regulations, and do more to bolster the country's social welfare system. After more than 41 months of often relentless Russian bombardment, Ukrainians are increasingly exhausted, though still largely in support of the war effort. Opinion polls have shown that support for Zelenskiy among Ukrainians is still high, though lagging behind other prominent public figures, most notably Valeriy Zaluzhniy, who served as the country's top military commander before resigning and becoming ambassador to Britain. Elected in 2019, Zelenskyy invoked martial law after the Russian invasion, which precludes holding new elections. He himself has come under criticism for not calling a presidential election, which most analysts say would be impossible to conduct during war-time conditions. Russian President Vladimir Putin has used that as a cudgel to allege that Zelenskyy was illegitimate. In February US President Donald Trump also criticized Zelenskyy - calling him a "dictator without elections" - though he has since toned down his words while also increasing his criticism of Putin. Zelenskyy was also expected to remove his defense minister, Rustem Umerov, and appoint him as ambassador to Washington. Shmyhal has been tapped by Zelenskyy to take over the Defense Ministry. All of the nominations require parliamentary approval, which is not expected to be an issue. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-politics-shuffle- prime-minister-shmyhal-svyrydenko/33474906.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address As Drone War Rages In Kostyantynivka, Morgue Workers Count Casualties By Borys Sachalko and Current Time July 15, 2025 As Russian forces battle for control of Kostyantynivka, in Ukraine's Donetsk region, soldiers behind the front lines are forced to cope with the terrible impact. Servicemen working at a morgue outside the city must identify the bodies of the fallen soldiers who are brought to the site every day. Yevhen, an officer of the Ukrainian military's 93rd Brigade, is one of the workers who helps ID the remains so that relatives can be notified and burial can be arranged. "Sometimes, the injuries are so bad that the face is unrecognizable. Then it's marked as 'unidentified,'" Yevhen said. "We look for tattoos, scars, or previous injuries" as identifying marks, he explained. And if none of those means of identification are possible, the workers arrange for DNA testing. The servicemen carefully remove the victim's possessions, photograph them, and store them for transport with the body. That might include documents, phones, wallets, and rings or other jewelry. But some say one type of possession hits them the hardest emotionally: letters from soldiers' children, carefully stored in their pockets. Yevhen described the pain of learning that a fallen serviceperson left children behind. And some of the dead were very young themselves, he said. "At first, you feel it all," Yevhen said. "But then you realize, if you take every death to heart, you'll lose your mind. Sadly, you just have to keep going and just do it." One of his co-workers, named Andriy, has been working in the morgue for three years. The emotional toll has not lessened in that time, he said. "You can never get used to it," Andriy said. "You just accept that this is war, and in war, people die." But he has seen changes in the nature of the war since the early days. "Gunshot wounds were last common around mid-2022. Now, we might see one maybe every two or three months," Andriy said. Instead, the casualties of war are now mostly caused by drone strikes, mortars, and artillery. The fighting has only intensified around Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk, as Russia battles for control of the two strategic cities. The rise of drone warfare has also complicated the work of evacuating bodies, as Kostyantynivka and other frontline sites remain under threat from aerial attack. But for those who have been recovered, the morgue workers help ensure that they are returned home for a dignified burial. "This is a job with a lot of responsibility. And it's a necessary job," Andriy said. "Because these are someone's relatives, parents, brothers, husbands." Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-kostyantynivka-war- casualties-morgue/33474091.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Vitaliy Shabunin Case Sparks Concerns Over Corruption And Justice In Ukraine By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service and Ray Furlong July 15, 2025 Fifty-nine Ukrainian non-governmental organizations have issued a joint call to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding an investigation of an anti-corruption campaigner that has provoked widespread outrage. The groups issued an open letter on July 15 as Vitaliy Shabunin, one of Ukraine's most prominent activists on corruption issues, was due in court. According to Ukrainian investigators, he's suspected of systematically evading military service while claiming army pay worth $1,200 per month and illegally using a military vehicle. "We emphasize that this procedural action is in no way related to his professional activities," investigators said. But the case has reignited concern that Ukraine's deep-rooted problems with corruption are not being tackled, with efforts to promote accountability and transparency facing pushback from powerful vested interests. Shabunin was mobilized in 2022, and is accused of failing to appear "at the place of duty for a long period and, under the guise of 'business trips,' was in civilian institutions that are not part of the defense forces." He is also charged with taking a monthly cash allowance given to soldiers "despite his actual absence from the military unit." However, Shabunin's supporters, including his the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), note that he was absent from his unit because he was seconded to work on an official government anti-corruption body. "The investigator's accusations are absolutely absurd, since Vitaliy was seconded to the [National Agency for Corruption Prevention] NACP in accordance with an order that, as a soldier, he simply could not fail to obey," the ACC said. Shabunin himself has called the case "a step on the path to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's corrupt authoritarianism," while even a lawmaker from Zelenskyy's own party, Anastasia Radina, described the case as a "selective miscarriage of justice." The statement calling for Zelenskyy to intervene in the case was signed by respected civil society groups and journalists' organizations, including the Zmina Human Rights Center, Transparency, International Ukraine, and the Bihus investigative unit. It says the case results from either "complete incompetence of officials" or a "targeted attack aimed at putting pressure on Vitaliy Shabunin, who, while serving in the military, continued to criticize the work of state bodies." Olha Aivazovska, board chairwoman at Opora, a Kyiv-based civil rights group that also signed the letter, said campaigning for transparency had made Shabunin many enemies in the political establishment. Investigators said Shabunin could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the charges. Critics have pointed to what they see as double standards, with investigators going after someone accused of low-level wrongdoing while big fish remain untouched. News outlet Ukrainska Pravda contrasted Shabunin's treatment with that of Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was charged with corruption on June 23. Investigators said he caused losses to the state of nearly 350,000 dollars. "Not only did he not lose his position or was not suspended from his work, but he has also been publicly participating in the work of the international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine in Rome," it wrote. Zelenskyy's office has not so far publicly commented on the case. It's potentially embarrassing for someone who originally ran for president on an anti-corruption ticket. With Western aid pouring into Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, suggestions that corruption campaigners are being targeted are highly sensitive to Ukraine's administration. While public opinion has rallied behind Zelenskyy's wartime leadership, corruption has been stubbornly persistent, with a series of scandals in recent years involving the Defense Ministry, national prosecutors, and wealthy businessmen. Underlining the point, Yehor Firsov, a former lawmaker and activist who now serves in the army, wrote that "what happened looks like an outright political persecution" while Ukrainians were fighting a war against Russia "to preserve democracy and freedom." The July 15 court hearing was scheduled following a search at Shabunin's Kyiv home four days earlier, in which investigators seized phones and tablets belonging to him, his wife, and two children. A search was also carried out at an address near Kharkiv, where he was serving in the military. The ACC said the searches were conducted without the necessary court orders. "The goal is simple - to undermine our activities to expose government corruption. Therefore, we expect further provocations," Shabunin said. The 40-year-old has often faced heavy-handed pushback for his work. In 2020, his home was burned down in a suspected arson attack. In 2018, he suffered chemical burns when attackers threw a green antiseptic in his face as he took part in a demonstration outside a prosecutor's office in Kyiv. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/vitaliy-shabunin- corruption-justice-ukraine-zelenskyy/33474748.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Zelenskyy Hails Trump Move To Boost Arms Supplies To Ukraine Amid Frustration With Putin By RFE/RL July 15, 2025 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked US President Donald Trump for his "willingness to support" Kyiv hours after the US leader vowed to provide a major influx of new weapons to Ukraine and threatened Russia with "severe" new financial measures. "We discussed the necessary means and solutions with the president to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions," Zelenskyy said in a post on X about his July 14 phone call with Trump. "It was a very good conversation. Thank you for the willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace," Zelenskyy wrote. The Ukrainian leader's remarks came after Trump earlier in the day threatened Moscow with "very severe" tariffs if there is no cease-fire agreement between Kyiv and Moscow within 50 days and vowed to supply Ukraine with "billions of dollars" worth of new military hardware that will be paid for by NATO members. Trump, speaking at a White House news conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte, said he had agreed with the Western military alliance to supply the military hardware to Ukraine "within days." The weapons will include Patriot missile systems and batteries, Trump added, noting the United States will receive money for all of the equipment it sends to NATO for use in Ukraine. "We are very unhappy, I am, with Russia," Trump said as part of his promised "major statement" on his newly stated policy toward Moscow after years of praising Russian President Vladimir Putin Rutte said Britain, Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark would be among the countries paying for weapons to supply Ukraine, adding that "speed is of the essence here." German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on July 14 said Berlin would play a "decisive role" in the new strategy. "President Trump took an important initiative today: The US will provide Ukraine with weapons on a large scale if European partners finance it," Merz wrote on X. "We do this in our own interest. This will help Ukraine defend itself against Russia's bombing terror. This is the only way to increase the pressure on Moscow to finally negotiate peace. After all, we are showing that we are pulling in the same direction as security policy partners," he added. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who was in Washington to meet with US Pete Hegseth, said Berlin had offered to buy two Patriot systems under the deal. "Germany will continue to play a leading and reliable role in the [NATO] alliance," Pistorius said. Pistorius added that a decision on the purchase of the sophisticated Patriot missile systems to be provided to Ukraine will come within days or weeks. The German defense chief also said Berlin had sent a request to Washington asking for a potential purchase of Typhoon long-range missiles, which could be used in the interim before Germany and other European nations will be able to develop similar own long-range weapons. Trump also threatened to hit Russia on the financial front, saying he would use trade to help force an end to the war, which is now in its fourth year, adding "it's great for settling wars." "We are going to do very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days," Trump said, adding that he was talking about secondary tariffs - meaning they could be placed on countries trading with Russia --"at about 100 percent." He gave no further details. Earlier in the day, US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv for talks on procuring weapons to repel invading Russian forces. "We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer. This includes strengthening Ukraine's air defense, joint production, and procurement of defense weapons in collaboration with Europe," Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. "And of course, sanctions against Russia and those who help it," he said, adding "it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless it's unreasonable ambitions are curbed through strength." Kellogg said that, in his talks with Zelenskyy, he discussed Trump's "landmark NATO deal that will accelerate the best US made weapons to Ukraine." "Funded entirely by allies, it speeds delivery, supports Ukraine's defense, strengthens NATO unity, and underscores his commitment to peace through strength." Kyiv and cities across Ukraine have come under repeated heavy air attacks from Russia forces in recent weeks, raising the ire of Trump and other officials in Washington, who have begun questioning whether Putin wants to hold peace talks to end Europe's longest and deadliest conflict since the end of World War II. At the same time, Ukraine's outgunned and outmanned army is also facing pressure on the ground as Russian forces are making new efforts to drive back Ukrainian defenders along a 1,000-kilometer front line in the east of the embattled country. Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels on July 15 to discuss the war, including the imposition of a possible 18th package of sanctions on Russia. With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, AFP, and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-russia-ukraine- patriots-zelenskyy-putin-tariffs/33474083.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Trump is Under Pressure of EU, NATO - Lavrov on Trump's Statement on 50 Days to End Ukraine Conflict Sputnik News 20250715 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow seeks to understand the reasoning behind US President Donald Trump's statement about a 50-day deadline to resolve the Ukrainian conflict. "We want to understand what is behind this statement. Fifty days. It used to be 24 hours. And 100 days. We have all been through this and really want to understand what motivates the US president," Lavrov said at a press conference following the SCO foreign ministers' meeting. It cannot be said that there was no progress during negotiations in Istanbul on the Ukraine settlement, Sergey Lavrov said, commenting on US President Donald Trump's remark on 50 days. "If our explanations, which we have repeatedly conveyed to our colleagues, including at my meetings on the sidelines of ASEAN events, if they are simply ignored, or not reported to president Trump it is difficult to judge what is behind this. But to say that there is no progress and therefore 50 days ... If in the week of June 22 the Ukrainian side had agreed to name the date of the third round, maybe there would already be 30 days left," Lavrov said. It is clear that Trump is under indecent pressure from the European Union and NATO, which support Volodymyr Zelensky's demands to supply Ukraine with modern weapons, the minister said. "The sanctions that the EU has now imposed and that are being prepared again in Brussels are trying to drag the US into the sanctions vortex, but president Trump very specifically explained that Europe will pay for all this. All this, of course, has already caused damage to the European economy. Sound and objective European analysts and economists, political scientists admit that the damage is borne primarily by the author of this sanctions war," Lavrov said. If new sanctions are imposed, Russia will manage to overcome them, the minister added. "This conclusion is also based on an assessment, on an analysis of independent, including many Western economists and politicians. Our trade partners hear what has been said, but they can hardly predict their actions now. They have international obligations and knowing our partners, I do not see how they can abandon their independent policy, the policy of observing agreements reached both through bilateral channels and in multilateral formats," Lavrov said. On Monday, Trump said that Washington would impose 100% tariffs on Russian goods and secondary sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil if no deal on the Ukraine conflict is reached in the next 50 days. He also said that the United States will supply weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defense systems, with European nations covering all the costs. Washington is well aware of Moscow's stance on the negotiations in Istanbul on the Ukrainian issue, Lavrov said, adding that this format has not been exhausted. "Our American colleagues know our position very well. We told them about this, about the 'exhaustion of the format.' It has not been exhausted," Lavrov said. At the same time, Kiev's statements that the Istanbul format had exhausted itself demonstrate Ukraine's careless attitude towards its own citizens, as well as absence of desire to find an agreement, the Russian minister added. Lavrov said on Tuesday that he discussed with his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi a peaceful resolution to issues related to Tehran's nuclear program. "Realistic approaches to ensuring a solution that would be achieved through peaceful political and diplomatic means with respect for the decisions that were made in the Islamic Republic of Iran long ago were discussed. Namely, regarding Tehran's official renunciation of its nuclear weapons. No evidence to the contrary has ever been presented by anyone, including IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspectors," Lavrov told reporters, answering a question from Sputnik. At the same time, respect for Iran's legitimate rights regarding the enrichment of uranium for energy purposes is the second most important principle to resolve the issue, the Russian minister also said, adding that SCO member states confirmed Tehran's right on peaceful use of nuclear energy. Lavrov also added that Iran did not ask Russia to help restore facilities damaged by Israeli and US shelling. Earlier in the day, Lavrov and Araghchi held a meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) ministerial meeting. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Sees US and NATO Decisions as Signal to Persist in War - Kremlin Sputnik News 20250715 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that the decisions made in Washington and NATO are viewed by Kiev not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to prolong the war. "For now, one thing can be said unequivocally: it seems that such a decision, which is being made in Washington, and in NATO countries, and directly in Brussels, is perceived by the Ukrainian side not as a signal for peace, but as a signal to continue the war," Peskov told journalists. New statements by US President Donald Trump are very serious, Peskov said. "The statements by the US President are very serious, something in them is addressed personally to the [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin. We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington," Peskov told reporters. Putin will comment on Trump's new statements if and when he deems in necessary, the spokesman added. On Monday, Trump said that Washington would impose 100% tariffs on Russian goods and secondary sanctions on countries purchasing Russian oil if no deal on the Ukraine conflict is reached in the next 50 days. He also said that the United States will supply weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot air defense systems, with European nations covering all the costs. Moscow has not yet received any signals regarding the timing of the third round of negotiations with Ukraine, Peskov said. "I repeat once again, we have not yet received signals regarding the timing of the third round. And it is difficult to say what this is connected with. We are ready to continue the dialogue," Peskov told reporters. Russia maintains its readiness for the third round, but it has not yet received any proposals for a meeting from Kiev, the official said. "We are ready to continue the dialogue. They want to see this dialogue in Washington, they want to see it in Europe, allegedly," Peskov added. Peskov said, commenting on the situation around Ukraine, the Europe would rather see an escalation of military actions than a transition to a peaceful regime. "Washington wants to see this dialogue [between Russia and Ukraine], and Europe allegedly wants to see it too. Although, judging by the statements, Europe wants to see an escalation of military action rather than a transition to a peaceful regime, but Kiev is silent," Peskov told reporters. Everything related to Transnistria is a matter of concern for Russia, Kremlin spokesman stressed. "Everything connected with Transnistria is a matter of special concern for Russia. Especially since, as it were, signals from our special services, as far as we know, this territory and Transnistria are mentioned in various, let's say, plans and intentions of European countries. This is what worries us. That is all that can be said," Peskov told reporters when asked to assess the likelihood of a direct attack on Transnistria. Earlier in the day, member of the Supreme Council of Transnistria Andrei Safonov told Sputnik that NATO military developed a plan to attack the region. "Leaked details" of conversations between US President Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky turn out to be fake as a rule, Dmitry Peskov said. "This rhetoric has not appeared just now. As a rule, it all turns out to be fake, most often, but often, sometimes there are some serious 'leaks,' including in those media outlets that we previously considered very respectable," Peskov told journalists. Earlier in the day, The Washington Post reported that Trump called on Zelensky to increase pressure on Moscow and St. Petersburg, in response to which Zelensky demanded long-range weapons. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US's New Assistance to Ukraine Could Include Long-Range ATACMS Missiles Sputnik News 20250715 MOSCOW (Sputnik) - New supplies to Kiev announced by US President Donald Trump on July 14 may include long-range ATACMS missiles, according to a report by The Washington Post on Tuesday. Washington may also allow the Ukrainian armed forces to use 18 long-range ATACMS missiles that Kiev has as part of military assistance, the newspaper reported. Earlier, during his meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the US President Donald Trump said that Washington would supply weapons to Ukraine, with European nations covering all the costs. He called it a "very big deal" with "billions of dollars worth of military equipment" to be purchased from the US. The president also said that the military aid would include Patriot air defense systems with all the weapon's components. Russia has consistently emphasized that the long-range weapons provided by the West are being used by Ukrainian forces to target civilians in Russian territory and hinder peace efforts. As Russian President Putin has previously stated, allowing Ukraine to use these weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict. "We will make the necessary decisions based on the threats we face," Putin said. The president added, "The key question is whether to consider NATO countries as directly involved in the military conflict." Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Patriot Systems Delivery to Ukraine Will Take Months - German Defense Ministry Sputnik News 20250715 WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius stated that the delivery of Patriot systems to Ukraine, following an agreement with the United States on their purchase in the coming days or weeks, will take months. This came after his meeting with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth. "It is clear that Ukraine really needs them [Patriot systems], and we have seen this. But do not have any illusions the Patriot system, which we are talking about today that it should be sent to Ukraine, will take months to deliver. And it will take more days or weeks until a decision is made. But after that, everything will go quickly," Pistorius told reporters. The minister noted that the parties had decided not to report the number of systems being supplied, as discussions were ongoing on what exactly would be included in one unit of the system in terms of technical characteristics and the number of missiles. He estimated the cost of one battery at approximately $1 billion. Earlier, Pistorius said that the issue of a roadmap for ensuring the security of Europe by the United States would be discussed during the meeting. According to Pistorius, the ministers would also discuss the sale of two Patriot systems by the United States to Germany, intended for Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia. The Kremlin emphasized that pumping Kiev with weapons by the West would not contribute to the success of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations and would have a negative effect. Boris Pistorius said that he had discussed with his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, the need to coordinate the possible reduction of US troops in Europe. "We have discussed what to do if this happens ... We are speaking about how we step by step can coordinate the implementation of such decisions if they are made - but they have not been made yet - so that we together guarantee that there will be no dangerous gaps in the European security. So that we can avoid the situation when the United States withdraws something which we cannot replace in time," Pistorius told reporters after the meeting with Hegseth. On June 5, Hegseth said that the United States intended to review the deployment of its troops around the world and restore deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Andrii Sybiha held a meeting with US Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine 15 July 2025 19:16 Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha: "I had a productive meeting with US Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg and thanked him for joining us on Ukraine Statehood Day, as well as for his recent participation in the Coalition of the Willing meeting in Rome. Following Keith Kellogg's meeting with President Zelenskyy yesterday, I reaffirmed Ukraine's continued commitment to peace efforts aimed at bringing the war to an end and restoring peace. We are grateful to President Trump for his pivotal decision to provide, together with European allies, new Patriot systems and other weapons. We discussed ways to expand the mutually beneficial Ukrainian-American defense cooperation, welcomed the bipartisan momentum behind the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, and coordinated further steps to increase the cost of war for the aggressor. Despite what Russian propaganda claims, Russia is not winning and Ukraine is not losing this war. In fact, despite vast resources and losses, Moscow has failed to achieve a single strategic goal. Now is the time to advance peace through strength: expand Ukraine's capabilities and increase transatlantic pressure to force Russia to end its war of aggression." NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Andrii Sybiha at the EU Foreign Affairs Council called on allies to increase transatlantic pressure on Russia Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine 15 July 2025 12:45 The expansion of Russia's military machine poses a threat to the entire transatlantic community, so allies must deprive Russia of resources, in particular by reducing oil revenues, and sanctions can no longer be delayed. This was stated by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on Tuesday, July 15, during an online speech at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. The Minister began his speech with detailed information about the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine and the urgent need to strengthen the air shield over Ukraine. "We see that Russia rejects peace efforts and instead intensifies terror. Moscow aims to achieve three goals: to gain time to continue the war, to delay the imposition of sanctions, and to push the U.S. out of peace efforts," the Minister said. Andrii Sybiha emphasized that Moscow must not be allowed to achieve these goals and called on allies to take concrete steps to strengthen Ukraine and collective defense, increase transatlantic pressure on the aggressor, and advance Ukraine's accession to the EU. "What is usually called EU enlargement is in fact reunification. We are returning to where we have always belonged to Europe. Accession negotiations must be merit-based and not be blocked for political reasons. The swift opening of the first cluster and other clusters is Ukraine's top priority. This is not just a symbolic gesture, but a practical necessity. We are doing our part and expect the EU to do the same," the Minister stated. Andriy Sybiha stressed that Ukraine needs parity with Russia in military potential and the defense industry. "We need to achieve greater self-sufficiency, and the country's rapidly growing defense industry has significant potential for further expansion," he noted. In this context, the Foreign Minister called on European allies to increase investment in Ukraine's defense industry, particularly in drone production, and emphasized the mutual benefit of this cooperation. "Clarity on key decisions brings peace closer. And we strive for peace more than anyone. A just, comprehensive, and lasting peace for Ukraine. I am confident that Denmark's presidency of the EU has the will to take the right steps. The time to act is now. For a safe, peaceful, and prosperous Europe," the Minister stated. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine Expands Defense Cooperation with the EU: Focus on Joint Production and the New SAFE Instrument President of Ukraine 15 July 2025 - 21:32 Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva held a meeting with Benedikta von Seherr-Tho, Managing Director for Peace, Security and Defense at the European External Action Service. Ihor Zhovkva thanked the European Union and its Member States for the military support provided to Ukraine. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of ensuring the delivery of all types of weapons and ammunition in greater volumes. The meeting included discussions on all possible mechanisms for supporting Ukraine, including the new SAFE instrument. "Ukraine's involvement in the implementation of joint projects under SAFE is mutually beneficial and will significantly strengthen the defense potential not only of Ukraine, but - in the near future - of the European Union as well," Ihor Zhovkva noted. The conversation also focused on the integration of Ukrainian and EU defense systems, the launch of joint production, and support for Ukraine's defense industry through the manufacturing and procurement of military equipment, including drones, artillery shells, and long-range missiles. The meeting was also attended by Simon Mordue, Deputy Director-General at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood, and Arunas Vinciunas, Acting Head of Ukraine Support and Military Mobility Unit at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Defense Industry and Space. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address The President Meets with the Prime Minister of Latvia President of Ukraine 15 July 2025 - 18:32 In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Prime Minister of Latvia Evika Silina to discuss further defense support for Ukrainian warriors and Ukraine's path to European integration. The Head of State expressed his gratitude that Evika Silina, together with her team, visited Ukraine precisely on the Day of Ukrainian Statehood. "We truly count on your country, and we know that Latvia - the state and its people - are great friends of Ukraine and Ukrainians," said the President. Evika Silina assured that Latvia will continue to support Ukraine. According to the Prime Minister, the country has already begun delivering the promised defense aid package agreed upon during the last leaders' meeting. This package includes, among other items, 42 Patria armored vehicles. "We are grateful for your substantial support and the delivery of the promised Patria armored vehicles. This is a very strong signal for our army, for our soldiers," Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted. The Head of State also expressed gratitude for the new military aid package, amounting to EUR 70 million, approved by the Latvian Government on July 1. In addition, the President praised Latvia's decision to allocate 0.25% of its GDP for defense aid to Ukraine and Latvia's co-leadership in the drone coalition. "I hope you will defeat Russia. We are all together. We have to. There is no other way. We must continue pressuring Putin to push him out of Ukraine and keep him away from our homes. Because it's serious for us as well," Evika Silina stated. During the meeting, they discussed the situation on the battlefield, the effectiveness of drones, the provision of supplies to Ukrainian warriors, and mechanisms for financing military aid within the framework of the European Union's SAFE program (Security Assistance for Europe). The leaders also talked about the practical delivery of new defense aid packages from NATO member countries. Furthermore, they discussed political support for Ukraine's EU membership and the efforts required to open six negotiating clusters this year. Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Evika Silina share the same vision: it is important to do everything possible to unblock the negotiation process as soon as possible. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Following SSU investigation, GRU agents who adjusted russian strikes on Kharkiv and Mykolaiv sentenced to 15 years in prison Security Service of Ukraine 17:00, 15 July 2025 Based on evidence collected by the Security Service of Ukraine, another two agents of russian military intelligence ('the GRU') have been convicted to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property for adjusting russian strikes on Ukraine. One of the perpetrators is a 46-year-old handyman from Kharkiv who guided russian glide bombs on the city. To do this, he rode his bicycle in the target area and recorded the defensive lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He passed the collected data in the form of marks on Google Maps to his acquaintance. The latter in 2014 left for the temporarily occupied part of Donetsk region and began cooperating with russia's GRU. The SSU detained the agent at the end of 2024. A phone with evidence of his work for the occupiers was seized from him during searches. Another traitor is a 47-year-old unemployed man from Voznesensk district of Mykolaiv region, who also prepared coordinates for russian air strikes on the Armed Forces. The enemy's priority targets included operational airfields and air defense complexes. In an attempt to identify military installations, the spotter installed a hidden video recorder in his car, which he used to drive around the region. The asset coordinated his actions with his handler via a chatbot of the traitor Sergei Lebedev (also known as 'Lokhmatyi'), who is hiding in Donetsk and acts as a 'liaison' for the GRU. The SSU detained the aggressor's accomplice in the spring of 2024. Based on the SSU's investigations, the court found the accused individuals guilty of crimes under two Articles of the CCU: 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law); 114-2.3 (unauthorized dissemination of information on the movement or location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine). The investigations were carried out by the SSU Offices in Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor's Offices. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SSU and National Police detain another six FSB agents preparing terrorist attacks against Defense Forces servicemen Security Service of Ukraine 13:00, 15 July 2025 The Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police have prevented a series of terrorist attacks against the Defense Forces in several regions of Ukraine. Six agents of russia's federal security service have been detained: they were preparing to blow up Ukrainian defenders using improvised explosive devices. All assets were recruited by russian special services through Telegram channels offering 'easy money'. In Kyiv, two members of an organized sabotage group were apprehended. On behalf of the FSB, they attempted to plant explosives near one of the region's military units. The perpetrators turned out to be two local drug addicts, while their actions were coordinated from a pre-trial detention center by a detainee who had set fire to an AFU vehicle a year ago. He involved his cellmate in the sabotage activities. While behind bars, both repeat offenders continued to carry out russia's orders and involved two accomplices on the outside for this purpose. In Vinnytsia, an enemy agent was caught red-handed while planting explosives near an apartment building where military families lived. The detained individual is a 19-year-old resident of Zhytomyr oblast. After recruitment, his handler sent him to Vinnytsia, where he took explosives from a cache for the attack. In Dnipro, the SSU and the National Police detained a couple of enemy agents who attempted to blow up an Armed Forces serviceman. To carry out the attack, the saboteurs lured the defender to a 'date' with supposedly 'a sister of another soldier fighting on the front line'. Before the meeting, the 'girl' asked to pick up her brother's belongings from an acquaintance. In reality, it was the terrorist who handed the soldier a bag with the bomb. Immediately after the 'package' was handed over, the occupiers tried to remotely detonate the IED, but the law enforcement defused it and detained the pair of agents. Another traitor was arrested in Rivne. He was ordered by the occupiers to blow up a Defense Forces serviceman's car. To do this, he planted an IED in the passenger compartment of the service vehicle and installed a hidden camera nearby. With the help of the video device, the enemy hoped to track the arrival of the military officer at the site of the planned attack and eliminate him. The individuals involved have been notified of suspicion, according to the offences they committed, under the Articles of the CCU: 111.2 (high treason, committed under martial law); 28.3, 113.2 (sabotage, committed by an organized group, under martial law); 15.2, 258.2 (completed attempt to commit a terrorist act, by a group, upon prior conspiracy); 28.3, 263.1 (illegal handling of explosives committed by an organized group). The suspects face life imprisonment with confiscation of property. The operations were carried out by the SSU Offices in Kyiv and Kyiv region, Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne, and Zaporizhzhia regions under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor's Offices. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address SSU detains enemy agent who tried to blow up high-rise building in Rivne Security Service of Ukraine 10:00, 15 July 2025 The Security Service has prevented another terrorist attack in Ukraine. As a result of preemptive measures, the SSU detained an enemy agent who was preparing an explosion in an apartment building in Rivne. According to the investigation, the perpetrator installed an improvised explosive device in a rented apartment in the city center on orders from russian special services. By remotely activating the IED, the enemy hoped for a powerful explosion inside the high-rise building, which would result in deaths and injuries among civilians and spread panic in the region. The SSU uncovered the ruscists' plans at an early stage and caught the terrorist red-handed as he was mining the apartment. The detainee is a 27-year-old Lviv resident, recruited by russia through a Telegram channel offering 'easy money'. After recruitment, he arrived in Rivne. Following the coordinates provided by his handler, he took a ready-made bomb from a cache and came to the rented apartment that was to be blown up. After placing the explosives on a shelf, the agent set up a phone camera opposite it, through which the occupiers planned to record the explosion. After the attack, he planned to lay low in another rented flat in Rivne and then flee to Lviv. SSU investigators have notified the detained individual of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU: 14.1, 27.5, 258.2 (aiding in the preparation of a terrorist act, committed by a group, upon prior conspiracy); 263.1 (illegal handling of explosive substances). The suspect is in custody and faces up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property. The operation was carried out by the SSU Offices in Rivne and Khmelnytskyi regions under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor's Office. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Ukraine: Civilians under fire in record numbers as attacks surge 15 July 2025 - Relentless missile and drone strikes by Russian forces have killed and injured hundreds of civilians in Ukraine this month, continuing a devastating pattern of attacks far from the frontlines. According to the UN human rights office, OHCHR, at least 139 civilians have been killed and 791 injured so far in July alone. "The devastating physical and psychological impact on civilians of repeated attacks in this and other conflicts cannot be captured by numbers alone," said OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell on Tuesday. Escalating attacks On the night of 12 July, Russian forces reportedly launched nearly 600 Shahed-type unmanned attack and decoy drones, along with 26 missiles, killing two civilians and injuring 41. Damage was reported across multiple regions, including Chernivtsi, Lviv, Cherkasy, Volyn and Kirovohrad - all far from active combat zones. Earlier that same week, Russian forces reportedly launched a record-breaking 728 long-range drones in a single 24-hour period. June marked the deadliest month for civilians in over three years. "People are having to spend hours sheltering (...) in basements, corridors and available refuges such as metro stations," said Ms. Throssell. "In some cases, they're unable to get to shelter at all." Health under pressure The UN World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile has verified 2,504 attacks on health facilities and personnel in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation on 24 February 2022. These strikes have hit hospitals, ambulances and first responders, including in so-called "double tap" attacks where secondary strikes follow the initial impact. "This means more than two attacks every day...Healthcare is not a safe place for patients and healthcare workers," said Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine. Access to healthcare remains especially limited in frontline areas, where personnel and supplies are scarce. Only 69 per cent of residents in those areas have seen a primary care doctor, compared to 74 per cent nationally. WHO mobile teams operating in 82 locations have conducted more than 7,500 consultations in 2025 so far. The psychological toll is also wearing people down. A recent assessment found that seven out of 10 people reported anxiety, depression or severe stress over the last 12 months, while one in two said they had experienced significant stress in just the past two months. To address this, WHO and national partners have trained more than 125,000 health workers and expanded mental health services through more than 220 community resilience centres. Despite continued deliveries of trauma kits and medical supplies by UN and humanitarian partners, the response remains critically underfunded. As of mid-July, only 35.5 per cent of the required $129 million for 2025 has been secured, leaving more than two million people without adequate medical support. Call for accountability In Geneva, Ms. Throssell highlighted the UN human rights chief's calls for an immediate end to hostilities and for efforts toward a just and lasting peace. "The Russian Federation's full-scale armed attack on Ukraine must urgently be halted and work on a lasting peace in line with international law must intensify," Volker Turk said in a statement. The High Commissioner emphasized that any sustainable solution must include accountability for serious human rights violations, the return of deported children, protection for civilians in occupied areas, humane treatment of prisoners of war, and restoration of humanitarian corridors. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Some Patriot Missiles Already On Their Way To Ukraine, Trump Says By RFE/RL July 16, 2025 US President Donald Trump said some Patriot missiles are already on their way to Ukraine a day after announcing a that NATO members would send weapons to Ukraine in a change in his stance against sending US weapons to the war-torn country. "They're coming in from Germany," he told reporters on July 15 without elaborating. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said two Patriot air defense systems are being prepared for delivery to Ukraine. Germany is to pay for their transfer, but the final technical, logistical, and financial details still need to be clarified, Pistorius said on July 14 after meeting with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. The details "appear to be solvable for both of us, so we will get to work quickly," Pistorius added, saying that Ukraine urgently needs additional air defense systems. Russian Shahed drones attacked Kharkiv on the evening of July 15, injuring two people local authorities reported. Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said at least 17 explosions were heard in the city within 20 minutes. Trump said he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since his July 14 announcement, which included a 50-day deadline on Russia accepting a cease-fire deal to avoid sanctions being imposed on countries that trade with Russia. Trump did not say whether any talks were planned to try to work out a deal but defended the deadline. "At the end of the 50 days if we don't have a deal, it's going to be too bad," Trump said. But he also said it might not take 50 days to make a deal. Trump also was asked about a report in The Financial Times saying that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up deep strikes on Russia. Citing people briefed on discussions, the newspaper said that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether the Ukrainian military could strike Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons. "No, he shouldn't target Moscow," Trump told reporters on July 15 when asked if Zelenskyy should order an attack on the Russian capital. The US president also played down the possibility that the United States would send long-range weapons to Kyiv. European officials are working to ensure Ukraine gets the weapons it needs, while the European Union is working to reach agreement on a new round of sanctions against Russia after Slovakia again held up the latest package. "I'm really sad that we didn't reach this agreement today," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on July 15. "But I'm still hopeful that we will get the decision tomorrow." The fresh round of sanctions has been stalled for weeks by a wrangle with Slovakia over separate plans to phase out Russian gas imports. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he needed further guarantees from Brussels on its plans to cut off Russian gas imports from the end of 2027. Slovakia remains dependent on Russian gas imports and earns money from transit fees for supplies piped across its territory. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and dpa Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/33475442.html Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NEW YORK and NEW ORLEANS, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC (KSF) and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until July 22, 2025 to file lead plaintiff applications in securities class action lawsuits against Organon & Co. (NYSE: OGN), if they purchased the Companys securities between November 3, 2022 and April 30, 2025, inclusive (the Class Period). These actions are pending in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. What You May Do If you purchased securities of Organon and would like to discuss your legal rights and how the case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-ogn/ to learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court by July 22, 2025 . About the Lawsuits Organon and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws. On March 10, 2025, pre-market, the Company announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, disclosing, among other things, that management had reset the Companys dividend payout, from $0.28 to $0.02, contradicting its prior statements assuring investors that the regular quarterly dividend was a number one priority and that the Company was committed to its capital allocation strategy through the aforementioned dividend. On this news, the price of Organons shares fell more than 27%, from a closing market price of $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025, to $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025. The first-filed case is Hauser v. Organon & Co., et al., No. 25-cv-05322. A subsequent case, Lerner v. Organon & Co., et al., No. 25-cv-12983, expanded the class period. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. This past year, KSF was ranked by SCAS among the top 10 firms nationally based upon total settlement value. KSF serves a variety of clients, including public and private institutional investors, and retail investors - in seeking recoveries for investment losses emanating from corporate fraud or malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, Delaware, California, Louisiana, Chicago, New Jersey, and a representative office in Luxembourg. TOP 10 Plaintiff Law Firms - According to ISS Securities Class Action Services To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. Contact: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Lewis Kahn, Managing Partner lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com 1-877-515-1850 1100 Poydras St., Suite 960 New Orleans, LA 70163 CONNECT WITH US: Facebook || Instagram || YouTube || TikTok || LinkedIn DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 15, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The 19th Global Freight Forwarders Conference hosted by JCtrans was successfully held in Dubai, bringing together 1,237 logistics professionals and 752 leading enterprises from 74 countries and regions. This three-day event marked a significant milestone for the global freight forwarding industry, opening new avenues for international collaboration. Opening Ceremony: Shaping a Prosperous Future for Global Logistics At the opening ceremony, Leon Li, Chief Operating Officer of JCtrans, delivered a keynote speech highlighting the surging value of the Middle Eastern logistics market, now estimated at $27.8 billion and projected to reach $39.2 billion within five years with a compound annual growth rate of 7.1%. He reaffirmed JCtranss mission to help global freight forwarding companies achieve sustained profitability and emphasized its vision to become the most trustworthy international logistics trading platform. JCtrans remains committed to integrity and global partnership, striving to create a more connected and prosperous logistics ecosystem. Keynote Sharing: Insight and Innovation Go Hand in Hand During the presentation segment, JCtrans senior executives Crystal Zheng, Zuocai Wei, Yorick Zhu, and Alice Zhang shared deep insights on business opportunity matching, risk mitigation, payment solutions, and global branding strategies. Crystal Zheng, Senior Vice President of JCtrans Membership and Event, revealed that JCtrans now serves over 11,000 paid members across 179 countries, with an annual renewal rate of 86%. Through its AI-powered inquiry system, the platform facilitates more than 2.2 million business matches per year. Enhanced member store functionality and a new Inquiry Hit List further boost visibility and lead conversion. Zuocai Wei, Senior Specialist of Cooperation Risk Protection, introduced JCtranss upgraded risk management system. In the past year alone, the platform helped members avoid over 2,200 potential risks, resolved 84% of disputes, and recovered approximately $185 million in claims. With tools like real-time Risk Alerts and Credit Assurance Orders, JCtrans ensures safer and more reliable cross-border transactions. To tackle payment challenges in the freight forwarding industry, JCtrans launched JC Pay, a settlement solution offering real-time transactions with zero fees. Yorick Zhu, Vice President of Membership, stated that JC Pay has facilitated over $400 million in annual settlements and helped members save millions in banking fees. JCtrans will soon launch JC Verified, a business capability certification service designed to build trust and promote high-quality collaboration across borders. Alice Zhang, Head of Office of the CEO, highlighted JCtranss expanding global presence. The reservation system for the upcoming 2025 Shanghai Conference is now open, and planning for the 2026 Thailand Conference is already underway. JCtrans will also participate in the India International Cargo Show, the countrys largest logistics exhibition. Additionally, platform enhancements such as booth reservation, exclusive training sessions, and improved digital storefronts are helping members connect with new clients more efficiently. One-on-One Meetings: Building Practical Partnerships At the heart of the conference were the one-on-one business meetings, providing a direct communication bridge for participants. These face-to-face interactions helped numerous companies reach initial cooperation agreements, laying the foundation for future business expansion. JCtranss intelligent matching mechanism significantly improved the efficiency and success rate of these engagements. Networking Events: Celebrating Connection and Vision JCtrans also hosted a welcome cocktail reception and a gala dinner to express gratitude to its partners. These gatherings provided valuable networking opportunities, strengthened friendships, and fostered trust, paving the way for deeper long-term cooperation among global attendees. The success of the JCtrans Dubai Conference underscores the platforms leadership in the global logistics sector and its commitment to building a truly borderless and collaborative logistics community. As preparations unfold for the upcoming events in Shanghai and Thailand, JCtrans will continue working hand in hand with its members to shape a brighter future for the industry and contribute to the seamless flow of global trade. Contact Info: Name: Oliver Liu Email: liurunze@jctrans.net Organization: JCtrans Co., Ltd. Website: www.jctrans.com Disclaimer: This content is provided by the JCtrans Co., Ltd.. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider. The information shared in this press release is not a solicitation for investment, nor is it intended as investment, financial, or trading advice. It is strongly recommended that you conduct thorough research and consult with a professional financial advisor before making any investment or trading decisions. Please conduct your own research and invest at your own risk. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1eda3f22-6ab6-414d-a14b-ec7c705539f5 Indianapolis, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Complete College America (CCA)a national nonprofit on a mission to raise postsecondary attainment in the United Statestoday announced the launch of the Complete College Photo Library, a free public collection of Creative Commons photography featuring authentic images of todays college students. The library showcases the wide range of student experiences and campus settings across the countryincluding community colleges, HBCUs, regional universities and workforce training programshighlighting how many of todays students are balancing college with jobs, family, and other complex real-world responsibilities. College students are more likely to be working learners, parents, veterans, first-generation college-goers, and professionals seeking to upskill, rather than the full-time, residential, straight-from-high-school archetype depicted in the majority of media and publications on higher education, said Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America. The way we depict studentsregardless of the mediumhas to evolve beyond the outdated stereotypes of the past. This project is about shifting the visual narrative to match the realities. For decades, the prevailing narrative about higher education in media and public discourse has focused narrowly on traditional, four-year residential colleges and the experiences of students in their late teens. At the same time, recent data from the Common App shows a sharp increase in students who are financially independent, many of whom are returning to college later in life. Nationally, more than one in four students (26%) is raising a child while pursuing their education, and roughly 40% of undergraduates are over 25. Research also shows that todays students attend a broad range of institutions over 40% of students enrolled in postsecondary education attend community colleges, HBCUs enroll 10% of all Black students in the U.S., and Hispanic Serving Institutions enroll more than 65% of all Hispanic undergraduates. To help produce a more complete picture of the lived realities of todays students, Complete College America invited institutions from across the nationwide CCA Alliance to apply for participation in the inaugural cohort of a new storytelling and visual identity initiative. Through this process, the organization selected seven partner campuses and coordinated a series of multi-day, on-campus photo shoots to create a national library of high-quality, authentic imagery. Colleges and universities today are shaped by the unique experiences, backgrounds and identities of our diverse student bodies -- it's what strengthens and binds our community together, said Eric M. Friedman, President at Bergen Community College. Serving as one of the flagship colleges in the Complete College America Photo Library not only speaks to the tapestry of cultures at Bergen Community College, but how those many identities enrich our institution and how we provide visibility for our community members to the entire society. The result is the newly-unveiled photo library, which now includes nearly 1,000 curated, professional-quality images featuring a wide range of students in real college and workforce settings across the country. The images were captured by renowned photojournalist and photographer Allison Shelley, who traveled to each campus to capture authentic students and scenes. All images are free and accessible for use by all through a Creative Commons license, which ensures that journalists, institutions, policymakers, funders, and advocates will have access to these materials. The initial cohort of institutions selected to contribute to the Complete College Photo Library includes Bergen Community College, College of Northern New Mexico, College of Southern Nevada, Salish Kootenai College, Pasadena City College, Tougaloo College, and the University of Indianapolis. Complete College America invites media outlets, freelance journalists, education organizations, and researchers to explore and use the new Complete College Photo Library. The collection features authentic, high-quality images that reflect the diversity and experiences of todays college students. Visit completecollege.org/photolibrary to explore and share. ### About Complete College America: Complete College America (CCA) is a bold national advocate for dramatically increasing college completion rates and closing institutional performance gaps by working with states, systems, institutions, and partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies that improve student success. To learn more about CCA, visit www.completecollege.org Attachment OXFORD, United Kingdom, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Evox Therapeutics Ltd (Evox or the Company), a biotechnology company developing innovative therapies for rare, genetically driven neurodegenerative diseases using a next-generation gene editing modality, today announced the appointment of three world-class scientists to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). These appointments come as Evox advances a focused pipeline of transformative gene editing therapies targeting the MSH3 gene for the treatment of Huntingtons disease and other trinucleotide repeat disorders and the ATXN2 gene for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2). The new SAB members will help guide Evoxs strategic and scientific direction, joining world-renowned experts such as the Evox co-founders Professor Matthew Wood of the University of Oxford and Professor Samir El Andaloussi of the Karolinska Institutet, as well as Professor Robert Langer of MIT, who has provided the Company with advice related to drug delivery to the central nervous system for several years. New SAB Members: Michael Benatar, MBChB, MS, DPhil Professor of Neurology and the Walter Bradley Chair in ALS Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A trailblazer in pre-symptomatic ALS research, Professor Benatar has led international consortia to discover early biomarkers and develop preventative strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Professor of Neurology and the Walter Bradley Chair in ALS Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. A trailblazer in pre-symptomatic ALS research, Professor Benatar has led international consortia to discover early biomarkers and develop preventative strategies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Sarah Tabrizi, MD, PhD, FRS, FMedSci Professor of Neurology at University College London, Director of the UCL Huntingtons Disease Centre, and Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute. Professor Tabrizi spearheaded the first-in-human gene-lowering trials for Huntingtons disease, identifying key biomarkers and translational pathways for neurodegeneration. Professor of Neurology at University College London, Director of the UCL Huntingtons Disease Centre, and Group Leader at the UK Dementia Research Institute. Professor Tabrizi spearheaded the first-in-human gene-lowering trials for Huntingtons disease, identifying key biomarkers and translational pathways for neurodegeneration. Fyodor Urnov, PhD Professor of Molecular Therapeutics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director at the Innovative Genomics Institute. A pioneer in genome editing, Professor Urnov co-developed foundational CRISPR/Cas tools and, as a co-founder of the CRISPR Cures centre, helped shepherd the development of a bespoke CRISPR base-editing therapy for Baby KJ, the first-ever personalized in vivo gene editing treatment. Per Lundin, PhD, MBA, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Evox Therapeutics, said: I am thrilled to welcome Professors Benatar, Tabrizi and Urnov to our SAB. They are all leaders in their respective fields, and their collective expertise in genome editing and neurodegenerative disease will be instrumental as we continue the rapid advancement of our pipeline programs. About Evox Therapeutics By advancing a pipeline of next-generation gene editing assets, Evoxs mission is to revolutionise the treatment of rare neurodegenerative diseases. Backed by leading investors and with an unrivalled intellectual property estate, the Companys pipeline programs target the MSH3 gene for the treatment of Huntingtons disease and other trinucleotide repeat disorders and the ATXN2 gene for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 (SCA2). For enquiries, please contact: Media: Simon Conway / Natalie Garland-Collins / Sam Purewal EvoxTherapeutics@fticonsulting.com +44 (0) 203 727 1000 Kenmare Resources plc (Kenmare or the Company or the Group) 16 July 2025 Q2 and H1 2025 Production Report Kenmare Resources plc (LSE:KMR, ISE:KMR), one of the leading global producers of titanium minerals and zircon, which operates the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine (the "Mine" or "Moma") in northern Mozambique, is pleased to provide a trading update for the quarter and half year ended 30 June 2025 (Q2 2025 and H1 2025). Statement from Tom Hickey, Managing Director: Kenmare continued to experience consistent demand for all of its products in Q2, with ilmenite prices remaining stable during H1, and we have a strong order book for H2. However, uncertainty regarding market conditions in the medium term has led us to slightly lower our long-term pricing assumptions. Primarily because of this, we expect to recognise an impairment charge on our assets in H1 2025 that is not expected to exceed $125 million. While this is disappointing, it will be a non-cash charge with no anticipated impact on our operations, projects or financing facilities or the Companys ability to pay dividends. Our strong safety performance from 2024 has continued in the first half of 2025, with our team at Moma achieving seven million hours worked without a Lost Time Injury in early July. At the end of H1 we are on track to achieve our 2025 production and cost guidance, and we expect higher excavated ore volumes to support stronger production in H2. The Wet Concentrator Plant A upgrade project continues to progress to plan and commissioning of the upgraded plant and dredges is on track to begin later in Q3. Q2 2025 overview Zero Lost Time Injuries (LTIs) in H1 2025 and improved Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of 0.03 per 200,000 hours worked for the 12 months to 30 June 2025 (30 June 2024: 0.09) Kenmare is on track to achieve 2025 production and cost guidance, with higher anticipated excavated ore volumes expected to increase production in H2 Heavy Mineral Concentrate (HMC) production of 358,300 tonnes in Q2 2025, up 5% year-on-year (YoY), due to a 16% increase in ore grades offsetting a 12% decrease in excavated ore volumes Ilmenite production of 245,400 tonnes, up 3% YoY, benefitting from increased HMC processed Primary zircon production of 13,100 tonnes, up 1% YoY Total shipments of finished products of 181,800 tonnes, down 23% YoY, mainly due to poor weather and maintenance of transshipment vessels The Wet Concentrator Plant (WCP) A upgrade project continues to progress to plan, with commissioning on track to begin in Q3 the projects estimated capital cost remains at $341 million Market conditions for ilmenite were stable in Q2 2025, with demand continuing to exceed Kenmares ability to supply, and the Company has a strong order book for H2 Managing Director Tom Hickey met with the President of Mozambique in June and constructive discussions with the Government are continuing regarding the extension of Momas Implementation Agreement (IA) The Company expects to recognise an impairment charge on its assets in H1 2025 that is not expected to exceed $125 million mainly due to lower projected future revenue assumptions associated with an uncertain pricing outlook At the end of H1 2025, net debt was $83.1 million (31 December 2024: $25.0 million) Kenmare retains significant financial flexibility to fund its capital projects and make shareholder returns Kenmare has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series, following the June 2025 review Operations update Production from the Moma Mine in Q2 2025 and H1 2025 was as follows: Q2 2025 Q2 2024 Q1 2025 H1 2025 H1 2024 tonnes % variance % variance tonnes % variance Excavated ore1 9,119,000 -12% -2% 18,456,000 -6% Grade1 4.45% 16% 5% 4.33% 12% Production HMC production 358,300 5% 15% 670,600 2% HMC processed 360,900 5% 19% 664,800 2% Ilmenite 245,400 3% 20% 449,900 2% Primary zircon 13,100 1% -6% 27,200 28% Rutile 2,300 -8% -8% 4,800 20% Concentrates2 10,400 -11% 14% 19,400 -9% Shipments 181,800 -23% -41% 488,900 2% 1. Excavated ore tonnage and grade prior to any floor losses. 2. Concentrates include secondary zircon and mineral sands concentrate. No LTIs were recorded during H1 2025 and the Moma team passed the milestone of seven million hours worked (over 10 months) since Kenmares last LTI. Kenmares rolling 12-month LTIFR to 30 June 2025 improved to 0.03 per 200,000 hours worked (30 June 2024: 0.09). HMC production was 358,300 tonnes in Q2 2025, a 5% increase YoY. This was the product of a 16% increase in ore grades, offsetting a 12% decrease in excavated ore volumes. Ore grades were higher in Q2 2025 YoY due to WCP B mining a high-grade portion of the Pilivili ore zone. Excavated ore volumes were lower in Q2 2025 YoY due to more challenging mining conditions at each of the WCPs. HMC processed in Q2 2025 was 360,900 tonnes, up 5% YoY, in line with HMC produced. Production of finished products in Q2 2025 was up 2% YoY, slightly lagging HMC processed. Ilmenite production in Q2 was 245,400 tonnes, up 3% YoY, although impacted by lower recoveries; primary zircon production was 13,100 tonnes, only up 1% YoY, because of a drawdown on intermediate zircon stocks in the prior period; and rutile production was 2,300 tonnes, down 8% YoY, due to lower feed grade and recoveries. Concentrates production was 10,400 tonnes, down 11% YoY, due to lower grade feedstock. Concentrates production excludes Kenmares new concentrates product, ZrTi, as there was none shipped during the quarter (ZrTi is a tailings product and only recognised as production upon shipment). At the end of H1, Kenmare is on track to achieve its 2025 production and cost guidance. The Company expects higher production in H2 versus H1, supported by higher excavated ore volumes from the installation of two new higher-capacity dredges as part of the WCP A upgrade. This is anticipated to offset the three to four weeks of downtime for WCP A while the upgrade work is undertaken, bolstered by production from the Selective Mining Operation (SMO). Total shipments in Q2 2025 were 181,800 tonnes, down 23% YoY. This was due primarily to poor weather conditions and maintenance to both transshipment vessels that led to some shipments being delayed, including a high-value zircon and rutile shipment. One of the Companys two transshipment vessels, the Peg, left for its five-yearly dry dock in early June and is scheduled to return to Moma in late August. Shipments in Q2 comprised 154,000 tonnes of ilmenite, 14,500 tonnes of primary zircon, and 13,400 tonnes of concentrates. No rutile was shipped during the quarter. Kenmare no longer expects shipments to exceed production in 2025 and a further update will be provided in the H1 2025 Results. Closing stock of HMC at the end of Q2 2025 was 16,900 tonnes, including a 3,000-tonne stock adjustment, compared to 22,400 tonnes at the end of Q1 2025. Closing stock of finished products at the end of Q2 2025 was 300,100 tonnes, compared to 210,600 tonnes at the end of Q1 2025. Capital projects update WCP A upgrade WCP A is Kenmares largest mining plant and the Company is undertaking a project to upgrade it in advance of its transition to Nataka. As the largest ore zone in Momas portfolio, Nataka contains approximately 70% of Momas nine billion tonnes of Mineral Resources, and mining this area will secure production from Moma for decades to come. Work on WCP A continued to advance to plan in Q2 2025. The capital cost estimate for the project remains at $341 million and by the end of 2025 over 75% of the project budget is expected to have been successfully incurred and deployed. In early June, the two new high-capacity dredges left the contractors dockyard in the Netherlands and were transported to Moma by sea. They anchored to the north of Moma in early July and the first dredge is due to be landed on the beach at Moma before the end of the month. The second dredge is expected to be landed soon afterwards, with timing dependent on favourable weather and calm sea conditions. Kenmare will provide further updates on the de-risking of the project through the achievement of these milestones over the coming months. Photographs of the WCP A upgrade work can be viewed at www.kenmareresources.com/media/image-library/#projects. An animation of the WCP A upgrade sequence can be viewed at www.kenmareresources.com/media/videos/. Selective Mining Operation In early 2025 Kenmare began commissioning a small-scale, low-cost dredge mining and concentrating operation, or SMO, that will enable mining in peripheral areas of Momas Mineral Resources. It has a targeted run rate of 300 tonnes per hour, delivering 50,000 tonnes of HMC production per annum. Due to its simple modular nature, it has a low capital cost of less than $6 million. Operational optimisation, including the use of dry mining to provide consistent feed to the SMO, was undertaken in Q2. The concentrator is now performing in line with design expectations, and further enhancements are planned for Q3. Building on the success of the SMO to date, an order has been placed for a second unit, SMO 2, with capacity of 1,000 tonnes per hour. SMO 2 is expected to be commissioned in H1 2026 and Kenmare anticipates that it will be fed exclusively by dry mining. The expanded unit, with additional capacity and upgraded design features for reliability, is expected to cost approximately $15 million, which will be incurred in 2025 and 2026. The two SMOs, in combination with some debottlenecking work at WCP B, represent a highly capital efficient alternative to the previously planned WCP B upgrade project. Market update In Q2 2025 Kenmare experienced consistent demand for its products, which continued to exceed the Companys ability to supply. Ilmenite pricing was stable during the quarter, following a decrease in Q1 2025, while zircon and rutile prices continued to decline. Global demand for titanium feedstocks remained robust, supported by improved sentiment among pigment producers outside of China. This followed the introduction of anti-dumping duties on Chinese pigment producers, which Western producers responded to by increasing plant utilisation rates, leading to anticipated stronger margins and bolstering demand for Kenmares products. Chinese pigment production continued at healthy levels in Q2 2025 but moderated slightly from the record highs of Q1 2025. The titanium metal market remains strong and currently accounts for approximately 20% of Kenmares sales. The growth of HMC production from Chinese concentrates producers in countries like Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Nigeria has continued in H1 2025, although at a slower rate than in H2 2024. This, combined with higher domestic ilmenite production in China, means the feedstock market is currently oversupplied. Rutile and lower-quality ilmenite producers have been most impacted by this oversupply, with some producers likely to be operating at or near marginal cost. The zircon market remained subdued in Q2 due to persistently weak demand, particularly in Chinas construction sector, and greater substitution of lower-quality products in downstream markets. Recent improvements in this sector have not yet been reflected in market demand for zircon. The increased supply of concentrates has also added more lower-grade zircon to the market, although demand for high-grade products, such as Kenmares zircon, remains robust. The Company continues to experience consistent demand for zircon, exceeding its ability to supply. Kenmare enters H2 2025 with a strong order book. However current market dynamics and outlook, including the oversupply position outlined above, have led Kenmare and external commentators to take a more cautious view on the likely pace of pricing recovery and market growth in the medium term, and to slightly lower long-term pricing assumptions. Corporate update Implementation Agreement The IA governs the terms under which Kenmare conducts its mineral processing and export activities. Although the IAs original expiry date was 21 December 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce provided confirmation that Kenmares existing rights and benefits remain in full force and effect pending conclusion of the extension process. Mining operations at Moma are conducted under a separate regulatory framework, which is not impacted in any way by the IA process. Kenmares Managing Director Tom Hickey met with the President of Mozambique, His Excellency Daniel Chapo, in mid-June. During the meeting Tom was pleased to discuss with the President Kenmares significant investments into Moma, its meaningful contribution to the local and national economy, its future plans, and the importance of a near-term conclusion of this agreement. The Company continues to engage constructively with the Government of Mozambique, while reserving the right to safeguard its contractual entitlements, if an agreement cannot be reached. Inclusion in the FTSE4Good index Kenmare announces it has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series. Created by the global index and data provider FTSE Russell, the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The FTSE4Good indexes are used by a wide variety of market participants to create and assess responsible investment funds and other products. FTSE Russell evaluations are based on performance in areas such as Corporate Governance, Health & Safety, Anti-Corruption and Climate Change. Businesses included in the FTSE4Good Index Series meet a variety of environmental, social and governance criteria. New Chief Financial Officer James McCullough joined Kenmare as Chief Financial Officer on 1 May 2025. James brings extensive mining, strategic and financial experience to Kenmare, having served for 14 years with Rio Tinto Plc, most recently as General Manager - Group Strategy. James succeeds Tom Hickey, who was previously Finance Director before being appointed as Managing Director in August 2024. Termination of offer discussions On 19 June 2025, Kenmare announced that it had terminated offer discussions with Oryx Global Partners Limited and Michael Carvill (together, the Consortium). During the Companys most recent engagement with the Consortium, it was made clear by the Consortium that it would only be willing to proceed with an offer at pricing substantially below the initial proposal of 530p per Kenmare share. The revised pricing was subject, inter alia, to a request for an additional period of due diligence to conclude financing and other arrangements. Kenmares Board, together with its advisers, considered the revised pricing and unanimously rejected it on the basis that it significantly undervalued Kenmares business and its prospects. Kenmares Board will continue to review all opportunities to create significant long-term value for all stakeholders, including shareholders. Finance update Impairment charge in H1 2025 Results Lower revenue assumptions associated with the uncertain pricing outlook outlined above are expected to result in a lower estimated recoverable value attributable to Kenmares mining and processing assets as at 30 June. Accordingly, as this value is less than the carrying value of property, plant and equipment, an impairment will be recognised in Kenmares H1 2025 results. This impairment, which also reflects the latest proposed amendments to the IA, is unlikely to exceed $125 million at the consolidated Group level; it would be a non-cash charge and would not impact Kenmares continuing operations, development programmes, ability to pay creditors, or debt covenant compliance. No impairment is expected to the Companys balance sheet (i.e. on a non-consolidated basis), and therefore there is no anticipated impact to Kenmares distributable reserves or ability to pay dividends. Should circumstances permit, there is scope for this impairment to be reversed in future periods. Further details will be provided in the H1 2025 Results. Dividends and financial position Since 2019, Kenmare has returned approximately $295 million to shareholders through dividends and share buy-backs. The Company remains committed to continued shareholder returns through its full capital investment cycle and the 2025 interim dividend is likely to be in the range of USc8-12/share. The Company will disregard the impairment charge in the determination of the full year dividend. Following the 2024 final dividend distribution of $28.6 million and significant capital investments in H1, cash and cash equivalents were $46.5 million at 30 June 2025 (31 December 2024: $56.7 million). Kenmare had debt of $128.5 million (31 December 2024: $80.4 million) and lease liabilities were $1.1 million (31 December 2024: $1.3 million). Accordingly, at 30 June 2025, Kenmare had net debt of $83.1 million (31 December 2024: $25.0 million). The Company expects net debt to increase through H2 2025, to remain elevated through the remainder of the current capital project in H1 2026, and to reduce in H2 2026 as free cashflow increases. Kenmare will announce its H1 2025 Results on 20 August 2025. For further information, please contact: Kenmare Resources plc Katharine Sutton Investor Relations ir@kenmareresources.com Tel: +353 1 671 0411 Mob: +353 87 663 0875 Murray (PR advisor) Nicola Cooke ncooke@murraygroup.ie Tel: +353 1 498 0300 Mob: +353 87 780 6125 About Kenmare Resources Kenmare Resources plc is one of the world's largest producers of mineral sands products. Listed on the London Stock Exchange and Euronext Dublin, Kenmare operates the Moma Titanium Minerals Mine in Mozambique. Moma's production accounts for approximately 6% of global titanium feedstocks and the Company supplies to customers operating in more than 15 countries. Kenmare produces raw materials that are ultimately consumed in everyday quality-of life items such as paints, plastics and ceramic tiles. All monetary amounts refer to United States dollars unless otherwise indicated. Forward Looking Statements This announcement contains some forward-looking statements that represent Kenmare's expectations for its business, based on current expectations about future events, which by their nature involve risks and uncertainties. Kenmare believes that its expectations and assumptions with respect to these forward-looking statements are reasonable. However, because they involve risk and uncertainty, which are in some cases beyond Kenmare's control, actual results or performance may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Reading, United Kingdom, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CJB Crypto launches a limited-time login reward program. New users can get a $10 mining quota by registering, and experience Bitcoin benefits without pre-depositing funds! Against the backdrop of the continued rise in the global cryptocurrency market, CJB Crypto officially launched a new user incentive plan for XRP mining, with "zero threshold, high returns" as the core, to help new and old users easily participate in digital currency mining. With its innovative reward mechanism, flexible contract selection and transparent profit model, the platform quickly became the focus of the industry. Sign up and get $10, the first step to "earn money while lying down" In order to lower the threshold for user participation, CJB Crypto has launched a "Registration Reward" program for new users: after completing the registration, you can get $10 experience points, which can be directly used to purchase cloud computing contracts and start XRP mining income. This benefit not only allows novice users to experience platform services at zero cost, but also demonstrates CJB Crypto's confidence in its own technology and profitability. Sign in at $0.6 per day, with a stable and uninterrupted income CJB Crypto breaks the traditional mining platform's "passive waiting for income" model and launches a daily sign-in reward mechanism. Users only need to log in to the platform and sign in every day to get an additional $0.6 cash reward. The income will be credited in real time and can be withdrawn or reinvested. 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It is strongly recommended that you perform due diligence before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies and securities, including consulting a professional financial advisor. Austin, TX, USA, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Custom Market Insights has published a new research report titled Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Size, Trends and Insights By Material Type (Based Carboxylated, Bimodal), By Application (Printing Rubber Rollers, Extrusion & Calendering, Injection Molding, Adhesive, Sealant & Mastic, Others), and By Region - Global Industry Overview, Statistical Data, Competitive Analysis, Share, Outlook, and Forecast 20252034 in its research database. According to the latest research study, the demand of global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market size & share was valued at approximately USD 0.92 Billion in 2024 and is expected to reach USD 0.96 Billion in 2025 and is expected to reach a value of around USD 1.45 Billion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 4.70% during the forecast period 2025 to 2034. Click Here to Access a Free Sample Report of the Global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/request-for-free-sample/?reportid=71066 Overview As per the industry experts at CMI, The Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) sector is poised for substantial change owing to heightened requirements for durable, chemically resistant compounds in automotive, oil-and-gas, and construction applications. Industry leaders such as ARLANXEO, LG Chem, and BASF are channeling resources into bio-based raw materials and low-VOC grades to address stricter environmental mandates. In North America and Europe, production initiatives emphasize energy efficiency and adherence to REACH as well as EPA standards. Concurrently, Asia-Pacific firms are expanding high-volume, cost-competitive capacity to satisfy local infrastructure needs while also targeting export outlets. Above all, the landscape features alliances that seek to weave sustainability into the value chain and drive innovation forward. Key Trends & Drivers Automotive Sector Demand: Automotive Demand Specialty-grade Nitrile Butadiene Rubber (NBR) remains a mainstay in automotive manufacturing, appearing in fuel hoses, oil seals, gaskets, and O-rings thanks to its durability against oil, fuel, and heat. With the overall vehicle market expanding-in part because new electric models still require rubber for thermal shielding and seals-the appetite for NBR-laden components is steadily increasing. Replacement components for older cars further underpin steady, ongoing use. With stricter safety and performance rules now in force worldwide, producers turn to high-quality, durable elastomers like NBR whenever parts face demanding chemicals or conditions. These intertwined original-equipment and aftermarket requirements consistently position the automotive segment as a leading growth driver for the NBR business. Industrialization in the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East-and-Africa: Regions has substantially increased the demand for specialty nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR). Upgrading infrastructure and rapid urban expansion, together with manufacturing growth in oil, chemicals, construction, and power generation, create a consistent need for rubber parts that resist heat and corrosive substances. Major industrial programs in India, China, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states routinely specify NBR hoses, gaskets, seals, and belts to safeguard fluid lines and rotating machinery. In addition, the rise of small and medium-sized factories across these markets strengthens overall consumption because NBRs reputation for durability at a practical cost suits the harsh conditions they face. Request a Customized Copy of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/request-for-customization/?reportid=71066 Oil & Gas Expansion: Crude and refined fuels are among the toughest environments for elastomers, which is why the oil and gas industry continues to depend on NBR. As global energy demand rises and new upstream, midstream, and downstream projects multiply-especially in North America and the Middle East-use of specialty NBR in downhole packers, blowout-preventer seals, hoses, and wellhead items has jumped sharply. Those applications operate under punishing combinations of pressure, heat, and harsh chemicals, so materials must stay stable and sealed. NBRs strength, low swell, and minimal creep in those conditions make it nearly irreplaceable. Accordingly, booming offshore drilling, shale growth, and routine pipeline upkeep keep the market for high-end elastomers buoyant and NBR firmly embedded in the energy value chain. Manufacturing Recovery: The post-pandemic recovery has reset manufacturing momentum worldwide, with noteworthy growth in automotive, machinery, consumer goods, and industrial equipment sectors that rely on NBR. Production lines are restarting, companies are increasing capital spending, and backlogs of seals, gaskets, belts, and hoses made from specialty nitrile rubber are accumulating quickly. Concurrently, incentive packages introduced by policymakers in the European Union, the United States, and several Asia-Pacific nations have energized domestic factories, further elevating demand for high-performance elastomers. Efforts to reshore or near-shore operations, intended to make supply chains more robust, are directing additional local orders toward NBR. Analysts project that this production momentum will endure as countries pursue greater industrial self-sufficiency, producing a positive sales outlook for specialty NBR on every continent. Report Scope Feature of the Report Details Market Size in 2025 USD 0.96 Billion Projected Market Size in 2034 USD 1.45 Billion Market Size in 2024 USD 0.92 Billion CAGR Growth Rate 4.70% CAGR Base Year 2024 Forecast Period 2025-2034 Key Segment By Material Type, Application and Region Report Coverage Revenue Estimation and Forecast, Company Profile, Competitive Landscape, Growth Factors and Recent Trends Regional Scope North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South & Central America Buying Options Request tailored purchasing options to fulfil your requirements for research. (A free sample of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber report is available upon request; please contact us for more information.) Our Free Sample Report Consists of the following: Introduction, Overview, and in-depth industry analysis are all included in the 2024 updated report. The COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak Impact Analysis is included in the package. About 220+ Pages Research Report (Including Recent Research) Provide detailed chapter-by-chapter guidance on the Request. Updated Regional Analysis with a Graphical Representation of Size, Share, and Trends for the Year 2025 Includes Tables and figures have been updated. The most recent version of the report includes the Top Market Players, their Business Strategies, Sales Volume, and Revenue Analysis Custom Market Insights (CMI) research methodology (Please note that the sample of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber report has been modified to include the COVID-19 impact study prior to delivery.) Request a Customized Copy of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ SWOT Analysis Strengths: Specialty nitrile rubber (NBR) stands out in demanding environments because it resists oil, solvents, and mechanical wear. That resilience makes the material popular in automotive seals, aircraft fuel hoses, and heavy machinery gaskets. Formulators can adjust the acrylonitrile content and blend other additives-hydraulic oils, antioxidants-to match each application, a flexibility not seen in many competing elastomers. Together with good heat stability and resistance to ozone aging, these traits often tip engineers away from standard rubbers toward specialty NBR. Well-established global suppliers maintain steady production, share research findings, and release upgraded compounds regularly, reassuring customers in high-performance and regulated markets. Weaknesses: On the downside, specialty NBR remains a petrochemical product; its key monomers-butidene and acrylonitrile-are still tied to crude oil, so price swings and transport shortages can ripple through the supply chain. Making the material also consumes sizable energy and generates more carbon than some bio-based or recycled alternatives, drawing the attention of stricter climate rules. Because of those factors, specialty NBR costs more than many general-purpose elastomers, limiting use in projects with tight budgets. Moreover, smaller compounders may lack the equipment or know-how needed to manufacture advanced grades, reducing local availability in emerging markets and slowing broader competition. Opportunities: The market outlook remains positive thanks to stronger vehicle electrification and growth in aerospace and oil-and-gas projects that require molecules with excellent thermal and chemical stability. Reformulated bio-based or recyclable grades of NBR would meet both industry demand and tightening green chemistry requirements. Infrastructure expansion across emerging economies in the Asia-Pacific and Latin America reveals large, yet largely untapped, volumes for industrial seals, hoses, and membranes. Targeted partnerships with propylene-and-ACN producers, plus lighter, low-VOC grades, offer clear pathways for technology differentiation and stronger global positioning. Threats: In mature markets, tightening environmental rules-firmly focused in Europe and North America-could reduce traditional batch production lines and inflate costs for any plant that cannot reach compliance. Concurrent innovations in thermoplastic elastomers and silicone grades threaten to siphon value-added applications away from standard NBR. Geopolitical friction, coupled with tariffs on key feedstocks imported from China or Russia, further strains the cost structure of many producers. Many smaller companies still encounter capital-scarcity limits when trying to install sustainable technologies, and ongoing consolidation among larger multinationals could tighten competition at the retail level. Request a Customized Copy of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ Key questions answered in this report: What is the size of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market and what is its expected growth rate? What are the primary driving factors that push the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market forward? What are the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Industry's top companies? What are the different categories that the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market caters to? What will be the fastest-growing segment or region? In the value chain, what role do essential players play? What is the procedure for getting a free copy of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market sample report and company profiles? Key Offerings: Market Share, Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20252034 Market Dynamics Growth Drivers, Restraints, Investment Opportunities, and Leading Trends Market Segmentation A detailed analysis by Types of Services, by End-User Services, and by regions Competitive Landscape Top Key Vendors and Other Prominent Vendors Buy this Premium Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Research Report | Fast Delivery Available - [220+ Pages] @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ Regional Perspective The Specialty nitrile butadiene rubber Market can be divided across different regions such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. This is a cursory overview of each region: North America: North America claims a noteworthy portion of the specialty nitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) market, driven by its well-established industrial base and vigorous demand from the automotive, aerospace, and oil-and-gas industries. The United States stands out as the largest consumer because its producers prioritize high-performance, long-lasting elastomer components. In addition, federal regulations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys emissions guidelines have prompted formulators to create cleaner, more sustainable grades of the polymer. Ongoing growth in medical-device manufacturing and in chemically resilient equipment further adds to the regions appetite. Leading players are therefore channeling substantial resources into research and development for precise, oil-resistant solutions, underscoring North Americas character as a mature yet forward-looking marketplace. Europe: Europe continues to play a central role in the specialty NBR sector, supported by robust automotive, pharmaceutical, and industrial-machinery markets. Stringent environmental legislation, including REACH, together with demanding safety requirements, has accelerated the shift toward low-emission, bio-derived elastomer formulations. Germany, France, and the United Kingdom in particular are at the forefront of materials innovation while simultaneously financing closed-loop production initiatives within the circular-economy model. Growth in seals, gaskets, and adhesives used in sustainable construction activities adds an additional layer of upward pressure. Europes unmatched blend of quality control, regulatory rigor, and technological leadership thus positions the region as both the benchmark and the laboratory for next-generation specialty NBR products. Asia-Pacific: Asia-Pacific accounts for the largest share of the Specialty NBR market volume, a position that stems from fast-paced industrial growth, extensive infrastructure projects, and soaring automotive output across China, India, Japan, and South Korea. Abundant, low-cost feedstock and labor further position the region as the worlds primary manufacturing center for nitrile rubber. Expanding markets for construction, consumer electronics, and general machinery push steady orders for NBR-based adhesives, sealants, and molded parts in both high-end and everyday applications. Moreover, state-sponsored petrochemical complexes and increasing spending on downstream processing are strengthening domestic supply chains and reliability. Combined with investor-friendly policies and accelerating urban migration, these factors keep Asia-Pacific on the radar of major producers while broadening NBRs reach through countless end-use segments. LAMEA: The LAMEA region is gaining traction in the Specialty NBR market, driven by expanding infrastructure, rising oil-and-gas programs, and a steady pace of industrial modernisation. Latin America, and particularly Brazil and Mexico, is channelling resources into automotive assembly and building projects, which in turn lifts demand for rubber parts. In addition, the Middle East enjoys ready supplies of petrochemical feedstocks, a condition that has already encouraged local plants to ramp up production of speciality grades. Africas promise-as this comes through intensified urbanisation and greater investment in power systems-rest on similar momentum. Although volatility and weak transport networks remain hurdles, targeted government policies and sustained foreign capital are gradually bolstering manufacturing capacity, signalling that LAMEA could emerge as a solid growth market in the medium to long term. 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Email Directly Here with Detail Information: support@custommarketinsights.com Browse the full Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Size, Trends and Insights By Material Type (Based Carboxylated, Bimodal), By Application (Printing Rubber Rollers, Extrusion & Calendering, Injection Molding, Adhesive, Sealant & Mastic, Others), and By Region - Global Industry Overview, Statistical Data, Competitive Analysis, Share, Outlook, and Forecast 20252034 Report at https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ List of the prominent players in the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market: ZEON CORPORATION American Rubber Products JSR Corporation China Petrochemical Corporation LG Chem OMNOVA North America Inc. KUMHO POLYCHEM Lion Elastomers Griffith Rubber Mills ARLANXEO Others Click Here to Access a Free Sample Report of the Global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ Spectacular Deals Comprehensive coverage Maximum number of market tables and figures The subscription-based option is offered. Best price guarantee Free 35% or 60 hours of customization. Free post-sale service assistance. 25% discount on your next purchase. Service guarantees are available. Personalized market brief by author. 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What Developments Are Going On in That Technology? Which Trends Are Causing These Developments? Who Are the Global Key Players in This Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market? What are Their Company Profile, Product Information, and Contact Information? What Was the Global Market Status of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market? What Was the Capacity, Production Value, Cost and PROFIT of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market? What Is the Current Market Status of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Industry? What's Market Competition in This Industry, Both Company and Country Wise? What's the Market Analysis of Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market by Considering Applications and Types? What Are Projections of the Global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Industry Considering Capacity, Production, and Production Value? What Will Be the Estimation of Cost and Profit? What Will Be Market Share, Supply and Consumption? What about imports and exports? What Is Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Chain Analysis by Upstream Raw Materials and Downstream Industry? What Is the Economic Impact On Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Industry? What are Global Macroeconomic Environment Analysis Results? What Are Global Macroeconomic Environment Development Trends? What Are Market Dynamics of Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market? What Are Challenges and Opportunities? What Should Be Entry Strategies, Countermeasures to Economic Impact, and Marketing Channels for Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Industry? Click Here to Access a Free Sample Report of the Global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ Reasons to Purchase Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report provides qualitative and quantitative analysis of the market based on segmentation involving economic and non-economic factors. Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market report outlines market value (USD) data for each segment and sub-segment. This report indicates the region and segment expected to witness the fastest growth and dominate the market. Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Analysis by geography highlights the consumption of the product/service in the region and indicates the factors affecting the market within each region. The competitive landscape incorporates the market ranking of the major players, along with new service/product launches, partnerships, business expansions, and acquisitions in the past five years of companies profiled. Extensive company profiles comprising company overview, company insights, product benchmarking, and SWOT analysis for the major market players. The Industry's current and future market outlook concerning recent developments (which involve growth opportunities and drivers as well as challenges and restraints of both emerging and developed regions. Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Includes in-depth market analysis from various perspectives through Porter's five forces analysis and provides insight into the market through Value Chain. Reasons for the Research Report The study provides a thorough overview of the global Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market. Compare your performance to that of the market as a whole. Aim to maintain competitiveness while innovations from established key players fuel market growth. Buy this Premium Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Research Report | Fast Delivery Available - [220+ Pages] @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ What does the report include? Drivers, restrictions, and opportunities are among the qualitative elements covered in the worldwide Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market analysis. The competitive environment of current and potential participants in the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market is covered in the report, as well as those companies' strategic product development ambitions. According to the component, application, and industry vertical, this study analyzes the market qualitatively and quantitatively. Additionally, the report offers comparable data for the important regions. The report provides actual market sizes and forecasts for each segment mentioned above. Who should buy this report? Participants and stakeholders worldwide Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market should find this report useful. The research will be useful to all market participants in the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber industry. Managers in the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber sector are interested in publishing up-to-date and projected data about the worldwide Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber market. Governmental agencies, regulatory bodies, decision-makers, and organizations want to invest in Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber products' market trends. Market insights are sought for by analysts, researchers, educators, strategy managers, and government organizations to develop plans. Request a Customized Copy of the Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Market Report @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ About Custom Market Insights: Custom Market Insights is a market research and advisory company delivering business insights and market research reports to large, small, and medium-scale enterprises. We assist clients with strategies and business policies and regularly work toward achieving sustainable growth in their respective domains. CMI offers a comprehensive solution, from data collection to investment advice. Our company's expert analysis digs out essential factors that help us understand the significance and impact of market dynamics. The professional experts utilize client insights to inform strategies for estimating future declines, forecasting opportunities for growth, and conducting consumer surveys. Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube Contact Us: Joel John CMI Consulting LLC 1333, 701 Tillery Street Unit 12, Austin, TX, Travis, US, 78702 USA: +1 737-734-2707 India: +91 20 46022736 Email: support@custommarketinsights.com Web: https://www.custommarketinsights.com/ Blog: https://www.techyounme.com/ Blog: https://businessresearchindustry.com Blog: https://www.technowalla.com/ Blog: https://marketresearchtrade.com/ Buy this Premium Specialty Nitrile Butadiene Rubber Research Report | Fast Delivery Available - [220+ Pages] @ https://www.custommarketinsights.com/report/specialty-nitrile-butadiene-rubber-market/ Highlights Groundbreaking ceremony kicks of the construction of the Inland Rail Facility (IRF) and upgrade of the ore haulage access road The IRF and road are critical infrastructure projects for the transfer bauxite from the Minim Martap Mine to the Port of Douala Engineering work for rail and port infrastructure to start soon, and Canyon remains on track for start of production in early 2026 and first shipment in 1H 2026 PERTH, Australia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading bauxite developer Canyon Resources Limited (ASX: CAY) (Canyon or the Company) is pleased to announce that construction of the Inland Rail Facility at Makor, Cameroon has commenced. The Inland Rail Facility is a key piece of infrastructure that will underpin the export supply chain for the flagship Minim Martap Bauxite Project (Minim Martap or the Project). A ground breaking ceremony at the site was attended by senior government members, including community members, Canyon Executive Chairman Mr Mark Hohnen, and Canyon cornerstone investor Eagle Eye Asset Holdings Pte. Ltd. Construction of the IRF has commenced just months after the Company received approval from the Cameroon Government for the site location1, demonstrating its commitment to fast-tracking development of the Project. In addition to the above, the Company has also commenced upgrading the ore haulage access road which connects the Minim Martap Project to the IRF. Mr Mark Hohnen, Canyon Executive Chairman commented: Commencing construction of the IRF and upgrading the ore haulage access road were two key development milestones, as the Company continues to fast-track Minim Martap towards first production anticipated for early 2026 and delivering its maiden shipment of bauxite in 1H 2026. The ore haulage access road and IRF will allow us to safely and cost effectively tranship bauxite from the mine to Port of Douala, from where we will export our product to growing global markets. This is a great moment for our team and our very supportive stakeholders in Cameroon to celebrate. Id like to thank the Canyon team for their ongoing hard work and dedication and our major shareholder Eagle Eye, who has been instrumental to our success to date. The future of Canyon is very exciting and I look forward to executing on our strategic plans and become the next major ASX-listed bauxite producer. Canyon has secured rail access from Makor to the Port of Douala, and 65,000 m2 of land for the storage and loading of bauxite at the port. This will enable the Company to efficiently store and transport up to 6Mtpa of bauxite ore, which the Company intends to ultimately expand to 10Mtpa in line with increased production at Minim Martap. Mr Peter Secker, Canyons Chief Executive Officer commented: The execution of these key project items will coincide with other infrastructure development works to underpin the Projects supply chain." Following the placement of the orders for critical path items including road construction and locomotives earlier this year, this is the next step in the Minim Martap development program. We are also gearing up to commence engineering and design work for other critical rail and port infrastructure. This includes rail sidings and passing bays, and port storage and loading infrastructure. This an exciting time for Minim Martap and we look forward to updating investors on the development of the IRF and other milestones as we head towards production. Figure 1: Ribbon cutting to launch the Minim Martap Bauxite Project Figure 2: Interim Minister of Mines, Industries & Technological Development Prof. Fuh Calistus Gentry, Camalco CEO Mr Rana Singh, Canyon Executive Chairman Mr Mark Hohnen, community leaders and members Figure 3: Technical launch of the Minim Martap Bauxite Project This announcement has been approved for release by Canyons Board of Directors. Enquiries: Peter Secker Cameron Gilenko Chief Executive Officer Investor Relations & Media Canyon Resources Limited Sodali & Co T +61 8 6385 2263 T +61 6160 4909 E: info@canyonresources.com.au E: cameron.gilenko@sodali.com __________________________________ 1 Refer ASX Announcement 4 February 2025 Approval of Inland Rail Facility by Government of Cameroon Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/ca01664b-fbb4-4dec-94a3-62dd851f5b7e https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8c26ac2a-1c44-43a0-848b-5f95dc58f366 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/86bb97cc-6d6b-4a71-afce-3e552e80321c Dublin, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Malaysia Recommerce Market Intelligence Databook - 60+ KPIs, Market Size, Share & Forecast by Channel, Category & Consumer Segment - Q2 2025 Update" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The recommerce market in Malaysia is expected to grow by 14.7% on annual basis to reach US$1.67 billion in 2025. The recommerce market in the country experienced robust growth during 2020-2024, achieving a CAGR of 18.3%. This upward trajectory is expected to continue, with the market forecast to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% during 2025-2029. By the end of 2029, the recommerce market is projected to expand from its 2024 value of USD 1.46 billion to approximately USD 2.67 billion. This report provides a detailed data-centric analysis of the recommerce market in Malaysia, covering market opportunities and risks across consumer segments (peer-to-peer and business-led resale); product categories; sales channels; and resale formats. With over 60+ KPIs at the country level, this report provides a comprehensive understanding of recommerce market dynamics. It offers a comprehensive analysis of market dynamics in the recommerce market, segmented by recommerce channels (C2C, B2C, trade-in programs), sales models (resale, rental, refurbishment), platform types (generalist and vertical-specific), digital engagement (app, website, social media), and retail categories (electronics, apparel, home goods, and more). In addition, it provides a snapshot of consumer behaviour, device usage, payment preferences, and city-level penetration across Tier 1 to Tier 3 cities. Reasons to Buy Market Insights for Growth and Innovation: Navigate the future direction of the recommerce market by understanding business models adopted by key players - including resale, refurbishment, and rental formats. Leverage market share estimates to assess innovation, positioning, and growth opportunities. In-depth Understanding of Recommerce Market Dynamics: Gain a detailed view of market structure and growth trends across core sectors such as retail shopping, automotive, and home improvement. Understand key drivers shaping recommerce adoption through 2029. Value and Volume KPIs for Market Sizing: Utilize gross merchandise value (GMV), transaction volume, and average transaction value at the national level to quantify the overall market opportunity with precision. Competitive Landscape and Market Share Intelligence: Benchmark against leading recommerce players using market share data across categories and channels. Inform strategic decisions by understanding the current and emerging competitive landscape. Channel-Level and Digital Engagement Insights: Identify high-growth channels including C2C, B2C, and retailer-led trade-in programs. Track consumer activity across app, web, and social platforms to align digital strategies with behavior. Consumer Segmentation and Demand Patterns: Target growth opportunities by analyzing consumer behavior segmented by age group, income level, gender, and city tier. Adapt business models to evolving spending dynamics and platform preferences. Key Attributes: Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 83 Forecast Period 2025 - 2029 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2025 $1.67 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2029 $2.67 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 12.4% Regions Covered Malaysia Scope This report offers a comprehensive, data-centric analysis of the recommerce market in Malaysia, supported by 40+ tables and 55+ charts. The databook provides detailed forecasts and key performance indicators across transaction value, volume, and market share trends from 2020 to 2029. Below is a summary of the key market segments covered: Malaysia Recommerce Market Size and Growth Dynamics Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) Trend Analysis Average Transaction Value Trend Analysis Transaction Volume Trend Analysis Malaysia Recommerce Market Size and Forecast by Sector Retail Shopping Home Improvement Other Sectors Malaysia Recommerce Market Size and Forecast by Retail Category Apparel & Accessories Consumer Electronics Home Appliances Home Decor & Essentials Books, Toys & Hobbies Automotive Parts & Accessories Sports & Fitness Equipment Other Product Categories Malaysia Recommerce by Channel Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Retailer Trade-In & Buyback Programs Malaysia Recommerce by Sales Model Resale Rental Refurbishment & Certified Pre-Owned Malaysia Recommerce by Digital Engagement Channel Website-Based Resale App-Based Resale Social Media Driven Resale Malaysia Recommerce by Platform Type Generalist Marketplaces Vertical-Specific Platforms Malaysia Recommerce by Device and OS Mobile vs Desktop Android, iOS Malaysia Recommerce by City Tier Tier 1 Cities Tier 2 Cities Tier 3 Cities Malaysia Recommerce by Payment Instrument Credit Card Debit Card Bank Transfer Prepaid Card Digital & Mobile Wallets Other Digital Payments Cash Malaysia Recommerce Market Share Analysis Market Share by Key Players Competitive Landscape Overview Malaysia Recommerce by Consumer Demographics Market Share by Age Group Market Share by Income Level Market Share by Gender For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qjpoq1 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Attachment AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Quest Software , a global leader in securing critical IT infrastructure, modernising Microsoft and database environments, and driving data readiness for AI, today announced the global release of Security Guardian Intelligence, a generative AI enhancement to its Security Guardian identity threat detection and response (ITDR) platform. Built specifically for hybrid Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID environments, the update helps organizations reduce investigation time and act faster on identity threatseven without specialized AD expertise. Security Guardian Intelligence doesnt just detect identity threatsit explains them with business or board-level context, said Heath Thompson, President, and Chief Product Officer at Quest. It gives teams a faster way to prioritize real risk and take action, without needing to interpret every technical detail manually. Why It Matters: Identity Threats Are a Top Risk Security and IT teams are under pressure. Identity based attacks are growing fast, and downtime from Active Directory issues can cost over $730,000 per hour. But teams are still slowed down by alert overload, disconnected tools, and a shortage of AD specialists. The longer it takes to contain identity threats, the higher the impact. A successful ransomware attack can shut systems down for an average of 23 days, crippling operations and extending recovery timelines. Security Guardian Intelligence (SGI) closes that gap with three high-impact capabilities: Plain-language threat summaries : Turn raw AD findings into readable insights anyone can understand : Turn raw AD findings into readable insights anyone can understand Mapped attacker behavior : Tied to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and real-world breach scenarios : Tied to MITRE ATT&CK tactics and real-world breach scenarios Built-in remediation: Follow step-by-step resolution guidance with no scripting or escalation required We support customers across industries who are drowning in identity alerts but lack the in-house expertise to act on them, said Eric Aslaksen, General Manager of Security and CISO at ivision. Security Guardian already gives visibility - SGI adds the context and speed theyve been missing. By helping surface what matters and guiding the response, its shaping up to be a valuable tool in our identity security toolkit. Legacy Platforms Cant Keep Up Unlike legacy platforms still anchored in on-premises architectures and now retrofitting AI features, Quest built Security Guardian for the cloud from day one, ready for modern identity environments and real-time use of Generative AI. Where traditional on-prem tools often struggle to operationalize large language models (LLMs) due to performance and infrastructure limitations, Quests architecture enables secure, real-time application of LLMs across live identity telemetry, without workarounds or bolt-ons. The result is faster insights, better context, and more scalable threat response. Cloud-Native by Design. AI-Ready from the Start SGI is embedded directly into Quests cloud-native platform and purpose-built for Active Directory and Entra ID environments. It uses a click-to-context model that takes users from an identity alert to the business impact and recommended fix in a single step. SGI doesnt just summarize log data, it analyzes live signals, maps them to real-world attacker behavior, and delivers clear guidance to acteven without a senior identity specialist on the team. Built-In at No Extra Cost. Security Guardian Intelligence is now available to all existing Security Guardian customers at no additional cost. It also integrates seamlessly with other Quest solutions across its Cybersecurity & Resilience portfolio, including enterprise backup and disaster recovery, endpoint protection, and 24/7 incident response, making it easier to protect most critical assets at every stage of the attack lifecycle. Learn More or See a Demo Want to see how SGI handles real-world AD threats? About Quest Software Quest Software creates technology and solutions that build the foundation for enterprise AI. Focused on data management and governance, cybersecurity and platform modernization, Quest helps organizations address their most pressing challenges and make the promise of AI a reality. Around the globe, more than 45,000 companies including over 90% of the Fortune 500 count on Quest Software. For more information, visit www.quest.com or follow Quest Software on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. Media contact: Slava Balykov PR Manager slava.balykov@quest.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newcore Gold Ltd. ("Newcore" or the "Company") (TSX-V: NCAU, OTCQX: NCAUF) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the 35,000-metre drill program underway at the Companys 100% owned Enchi Gold Project ("Enchi" or the "Project") in Ghana. Shallow Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling at the Sewum Gold Deposit ("Sewum") intersected multiple zones of near-surface gold mineralization, including hole SWRC258 which intersected 0.89 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 33.0 metres ("m") from 1 m and hole SWRC269 which intersected 3.98 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m, including a higher-grade interval of 22.62 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 7 m. Drilling continues to prove out the continuity of gold mineralization and potential for resource growth at Enchi. Highlights from Drilling at the Sewum Gold Deposit at Enchi Drilling on the Ridge Zone at the Sewum Gold Deposit continues to define a series of stacked sub-parallel gold mineralized structures. Structures occur across an average width of 250 m, with consistent gold mineralization defined over a length of 800 m within the oxide and transition horizons. Multiple sections of drilling at the Ridge Zone at Sewum encountered shallow gold mineralization within the oxide and transition horizons. SWRC258 to SWRC264 drilled along the same section encountered several shallow gold mineralized structures: SWRC258 intersected 0.89 g/t Au over 33.0 m from 1 m; SWRC259 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 40.0 m from 2 m; and SWRC260 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 27 m, including a higher-grade interval of 1.66 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 55 m. SWRC247 to SWRC251 drilled along the same section intersected multiple gold mineralized structures near surface: SWRC247 intersected 0.61 g/t Au over 30.0 m from 2 m; SWRC248 intersected 0.56 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 4 m; SWRC249 intersected 0.80 g/t Au over 24.0 m from 15 m; and SWRC251 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 59 m. Sewum is the largest of the five deposits which comprise the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi, remaining open along strike and to depth with the average vertical depth of all holes drilled to date at Sewum only down to 75 metres. Sewum has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 20.9 million tonnes grading 0.48 g/t Au containing 323,300 ounces and Inferred Mineral Resource of 21.8 million tonnes grading 0.53 g/t Au containing 373,100 ounces. The 35,000-metre drill program underway at Enchi is focused on resource growth and infill drilling designed to convert Inferred Resources to Indicated. The goal of the first phase of drilling is completion of drilling required for resource conversion in advance of commissioning a Pre-Feasibility Study later this year. The second phase of the drill program will focus on discovery and resource growth, including drilling targeting earlier-stage exploration targets along with drilling focused on defining the resource growth potential at depth and along strike. Luke Alexander, President and CEO of Newcore stated, "These results from drilling at Sewum continue to confirm the continuity of gold mineralization at the largest deposit on the Enchi Gold Project. The drilling completed at Sewum targeted shallow mineralization in the oxide and transition horizon, within a maximum vertical depth of 120 metres, which is amenable to open pit mining and heap leach processing. As we continue to drill at Enchi, with a 35,000-metre drill program underway, we also continue to complete development work required to advance the Project to a Pre-Feasibility Study in 2026 including diamond drilling to support further metallurgical, geotechnical and hydrogeological testwork. Newcore has a busy year ahead as we continue to advance the development of Enchi while in tandem defining the longer-term potential of our district scale Enchi Gold Project through the drill bit." This release reports results for 47 RC holes totalling 4,493 m (SWRC225 to SWRC271) targeting the Sewum Gold Deposit, with 46 holes intersecting gold mineralization. A total of 24,127 m in 200 holes have been reported as part of the ongoing 2024 - 2025 drill program at Enchi, with 98% of holes intersecting gold mineralization. Select assay results from the 47 holes of the drill program reported in this release are below: Table 1 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Highlights Hole ID Zone/Deposit From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) SWRC258 Sewum 1.0 34.0 33.0 0.89 SWRC269 Sewum 2.0 8.0 6.0 3.98 including 7.0 8.0 1.0 22.62 SWRC248 Sewum 4.0 45.0 41.0 0.56 including 9.0 16.0 7.0 1.67 SWRC260 Sewum 27.0 68.0 41.0 0.51 including 55.0 61.0 6.0 1.66 SWRC251 Sewum 59.0 100.0 41.0 0.51 SWRC259 Sewum 2.0 42.0 40.0 0.51 SWRC236 Sewum 40.0 69.0 29.0 0.67 SWRC249 Sewum 15.0 39.0 24.0 0.80 Notes: 1. See detailed table for complete results; 2. Intervals reported are hole lengths with true width estimated to be 75 - 85%; and 3. Length-weighted averages from uncut assays. A plan map showing the drill hole locations can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-nr-enchi-plan-map-sewum.pdf Cross sections showing drill results and highlights for holes SWRC236 to SWRC241, SWRC247 to SWRC251, SWRC258 to SWRC264, and SWRC265 to SWRC271 can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-crosssections-sewum.pdf A complete list of the drill results in this release, including hole details, can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-enchi-2024-2025-drill-results.pdf Drilling at the Sewum Gold Deposit SWRC225 to SWRC271 (47 RC holes totalling 4,493 m) were completed at Sewum, targeting three areas of the deposit: the Ridge Zone, the northern portion of Checkerboard Hill, and the Sewum Extension Parallel Structure. Drilling targeted near-surface oxidized and shallow transition mineralization with a goal of infill drilling for resource conversion to improve the confidence level as well as grow the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. RC drilling at Sewum consisted of 50-metre spaced sections with drill holes spaced every 25 metres along the sections. Drilling targeted shallow mineralization, with drill holes reaching a maximum vertical depth of 120 metres. The majority of the holes reported in this news release are distributed across 6 separate sections that are spread along a 700-metre strike length at the Ridge Zone area of Sewum. 36 RC holes totalling 3,157 m (SWRC236 to SWRC271) were drilled at the Ridge Zone at Sewum. The Ridge Zone is the largest and northernmost mineralized area currently defined at Sewum, consisting of a series of stacked sub-parallel gold mineralized structures which occur across an average width of 250 metres. Drilling intersected a series of stacked, shallow-dipping, sub-parallel structures hosted within the diorite intrusive which underlies the prominent ridge hosting the gold mineralization in this area. A series of holes drilling along the same section (SWRC258 to SWRC264) intersected multiple shallow mineralized structures; SWRC258 intersected 0.89 g/t Au over 33.0 m from 1 m, SWRC259 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 40.0 m from 2 m, and SWRC260 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 27 m including a higher-grade interval of 1.66 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 55 m. A second section of drill holes (SWRC247 to SWRC251) also intersected multiple mineralized structures near surface; SWRC247 intersected 0.61 g/t Au over 30.0 m from 2 m, SWRC248 intersected 0.56 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 4 m including a higher-grade interval of 1.67 g/t Au over 7.0 m from 9 m, SWRC249 intersected 0.80 g/t Au over 24.0 m from 15 m, SWRC250 intersected 0.38 g/t Au over 51.0 m from 40 m, and SWRC251 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 59 m. A section of drill holes (SWRC265 to SWRC271) completed in the northernmost area of the Ridge Zone intersected multiple mineralized structures with higher-grade gold intervals; SWRC269 intersected 3.98 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m with a higher-grade interval of 22.62 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 7 m and a second interval of 5.50 g/t Au over 2.0 m from 39 m including a higher-grade interval of 10.53 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 39 m, SWRC265 intersected 0.64 g/t Au over 21.0 m from 18 m, and SWRC271 intersected 1.10 g/t Au over 11.0 m from 19 m. 5 RC holes totaling 528 m (SWRC228 to SWRC232) were drilled on the north-eastern area of the Checkerboard Hill portion of the structure at Sewum, approximately 0.5 kilometres to the south of the Ridge Zone. Drilling in this area consisted of first pass step-out drilling targeting extensions of the mineralization to the northeast. SWRC229 intersected 0.65 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 83 m in the upper sulphide mineralization. 6 RC holes totalling 447 m (SWRC225 to SWRC227, SWRC233 to SWRC235) tested the Sewum Extension Parallel Structure, with drilling focused on both infill for resource conversion and step-out drilling for resource growth. The Sewum Extension Parallel Structure is an area near the southern portion of the structure identified at Sewum, approximately 2 kilometres to the south of the Checkerboard Hill area. SWRC234, the southernmost hole drilled on this structure and a 100-metre step out from prior drilling, intersected 0.63 g/t Au over 11.0 m from 64 m. Hole SWRC227, drilled 350 metres to the north of SWRC234 and targeting resource conversion, intersected 1.59 g/t Au over 4.0 m from 31 m. The results from drilling within this area of Sewum continue to highlight the potential for future resource growth across the property. The recently completed drilling at Sewum continues to confirm continuity along strike and down dip for the principal structures which comprise the Sewum Gold Deposit. The width and gold grades within these drill results are consistent with prior wider-spaced drilling completed at Sewum. The drill results released to date from the 2024 - 2025 drill program are largely from the Boin and Sewum deposits where drilling was designed to improve the confidence level of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. This recent drilling was completed in areas where the previous pit constrained Mineral Resource Estimate was classified as Inferred. The Company anticipates that the results of this recent drilling should allow for the conversion of a substantial portion of mineralization within these areas to the Indicated category. 2024 - 2025 Enchi Work Program A 35,000-metre drill program is underway at Enchi, targeting near-surface oxide and shallow sulphide mineralization with a primary goal of infill drilling for resource conversion to improve the confidence level of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. Most of the infill drilling is allocated to the two largest deposits at Enchi, Boin and Sewum. Improving the confidence level of the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi is a key component of the development work required to be completed in advance of commissioning a Pre-Feasibility Study for the Project. A subset of the drill program will also focus on outlining resource growth, with all deposit areas and pre-resource targets at Enchi remaining open along strike and at depth, providing for future resource growth across the district-scale property. Additional exploration and development work is on-going at Enchi, including metallurgical testwork, trenching, hydrogeological testing, geotechnical work, and environmental work. Drone topographic surveys have been completed, expanding on previously completed work, at the Kwakyekrom and Tokosea deposit areas to provide detailed topographic information required to improve the confidence level of each deposits Mineral Resource Estimate. Additionally, the drone survey was completed across the proposed heap leach facility area to contribute additional data for future detailed engineering studies. An airborne magnetic survey tested grass roots targets related to a series of gold-in-soil anomalies and gold mineralization identified in trenching. Soil sampling was also completed on the Omanpe and Abotia licenses with a goal of further defining early-stage targets across Enchi for future trenching and drilling. Sewum Gold Zone Sewum is one of the five deposits which comprise the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi (Sewum has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 20.9 million tonnes grading 0.48 g/t Au containing 323,300 ounces and Inferred Mineral Resource of 21.8 million tonnes grading 0.53 g/t Au containing 373,100 ounces). Sewum is located 15 kilometres south of the town of Enchi, with nearby roads and power and further access provided by a series of drill roads. Sewum is outlined on surface by a greater than six-kilometre-long and one to two-kilometre-wide gold in soil anomaly. An airborne geophysical anomaly coincident with the Sewum Gold Deposit defines a series of sub parallel and intersecting structures. To date, approximately 45% of the gold-in-soil anomaly at Sewum is untested by drilling, with the average vertical depth of all holes drilled to date at Sewum only down to 75 metres. Drill Hole Locations Table 2 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Hole Location Details Hole ID UTM East UTM North Elevation Azimuth Dip Length (m) SWRC225 520646 626141 115 120 -55 198 SWRC226 520707 626184 123 120 -55 168 SWRC227 520846 626317 139 120 -55 120 SWRC228 521672 627929 167 120 -55 66 SWRC229 521689 627951 167 120 -55 114 SWRC230 521650 627968 169 120 -55 144 SWRC231 521710 627996 144 120 -55 78 SWRC232 521680 628019 144 120 -55 126 SWRC233 520518 625923 107 120 -55 120 SWRC234 520541 625900 125 120 -55 90 SWRC235 520553 625967 97 120 -55 112 SWRC236 521409 628682 194 120 -60 72 SWRC237 521390 628697 194 120 -60 90 SWRC238 521371 628711 194 120 -60 84 SWRC239 521348 628726 194 120 -60 96 SWRC240 521328 628740 195 120 -60 66 SWRC241 521311 628745 195 120 -60 60 SWRC242 521422 628771 193 120 -60 84 SWRC243 521402 628786 194 120 -60 84 SWRC244 521385 628797 196 120 -60 87 SWRC245 521367 628805 196 120 -60 108 SWRC246 521338 628822 196 120 -60 108 SWRC247 521449 628892 194 120 -60 78 SWRC248 521431 628900 194 120 -60 84 SWRC249 521406 628914 194 120 -60 102 SWRC250 521384 628932 194 120 -60 102 SWRC251 521361 628944 194 120 -60 108 SWRC252 521477 629081 195 120 -60 60 SWRC253 521456 629095 195 120 -60 80 SWRC254 521434 629114 196 120 -60 98 SWRC255 521411 629121 195 120 -60 120 SWRC256 521385 629136 194 120 -60 138 SWRC257 521362 629147 194 120 -60 64 SWRC258 521549 629252 197 120 -60 66 SWRC259 521529 629263 202 120 -60 74 SWRC260 521504 629277 195 120 -60 80 SWRC261 521480 629288 195 120 -60 108 SWRC262 521454 629299 194 120 -60 120 SWRC263 521435 629313 194 120 -60 136 SWRC264 521405 629332 193 120 -60 60 SWRC265 521580 629359 198 120 -60 60 SWRC266 521555 629368 198 120 -60 80 SWRC267 521534 629380 200 120 -60 100 SWRC268 521509 629393 195 120 -60 120 SWRC269 521492 629402 194 120 -60 60 SWRC270 521469 629414 194 120 -60 60 SWRC271 521601 629348 192 120 -60 60 Enchi Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate The Enchi Gold Project hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 41.7 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au containing 743,500 ounces gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 46.6 million tonnes grading 0.65 g/t Au containing 972,000 ounces. Mineral resource estimation practices are in accordance with CIM Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019) and follow CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 10, 2014), that are incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). The Mineral Resource Estimate is from the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Enchi Gold Project" dated June 7, 2024, with an effective date of April 24, 2024, prepared for Newcore by Preetham Nayak, P.Eng., Ryda Peung, P.Eng., and Zunedbhai Shaikh, P.Eng., of Lycopodium Minerals Canada Ltd.; Kerrine Azougarh, P.Eng., of Micon International Limited; and Simon Meadows Smith, P.Eng. / P.Geo., of SEMS Exploration in accordance with NI 43-101, and is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Simon Meadows Smith is an independent qualified person ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101. Newcore Gold Best Practice Newcore is committed to best practice standards for all exploration, sampling and drilling activities. Drilling was completed by an independent drilling firm using industry standard RC and Diamond Drill equipment. Analytical quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample strings. Samples are placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to Intertek Labs located in Tarkwa, Ghana for 50 gram gold fire assay. Qualified Person Mr. Gregory Smith, P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration at Newcore, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical data and information contained in this news release. Mr. Smith has verified the technical and scientific data disclosed herein and has conducted appropriate verification on the underlying data including confirmation of the drillhole data files against the original drillhole logs and assay certificates. About Newcore Gold Ltd. Newcore Gold is advancing its Enchi Gold Project located in Ghana, Africas largest gold producer (1). Newcore Gold offers investors a unique combination of top-tier leadership, who are aligned with shareholders through their 15% equity ownership, and prime district scale exploration opportunities. Enchis 248 km2 land package covers 40 kilometres of Ghanas prolific Bibiani Shear Zone, a gold belt which hosts several multi-million-ounce gold deposits, including the Chirano mine 50 kilometres to the north. Newcores vision is to build a responsive, creative and powerful gold enterprise that maximizes returns for shareholders. (1) Source: Production volumes for 2023 as sourced from the World Gold Council. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Newcore Gold Ltd. Luke Alexander President, CEO & Director For further information, please contact: Mal Karwowska | Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations +1 604 484 4399 info@newcoregold.com www.newcoregold.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes statements that contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussion with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often, but not always using phrases such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: statements about the estimation of mineral resources; results of preliminary economic assessments; completion of a pre-feasibility study; results of metallurgical testwork; results of our ongoing drill campaign; results of drilling, magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; and future exploration prospects. These forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business. The assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Newcore. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Newcore believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, Newcore cannot assure its shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information also involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risks related to the speculative nature of Newcores business; Newcores formative stage of development; Newcores financial position; possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold and other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, unusual or unexpected geological formations); the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Newcore disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Athene, a subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, Inc. (NYSE:APO), announced it will host a Fixed Income Investor Call on Tuesday, August 12, 2025 at 10:00AM ET. The call will feature members of Athenes senior management team, who will provide an update on current business trends, new business origination, the investment portfolio, and capital. An accompanying presentation, live webcast, and webcast replay will be available on the Investor Relations section of Athenes website at ir.athene.com . Conference Call Details: Dial-in: Toll-free at 877-404-1236 (domestic) or + 1 215-268-9888 (international) About Athene Athene is the leading retirement services company with over $380 billion of total assets as of March 31, 2025, and operations in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, and Japan. Athene is focused on providing financial security to individuals by offering an attractive suite of retirement income and savings products and also serves as a solutions provider to corporations. For more information, please visit www.athene.com . Contact: Jeanne Hess Vice President, External Relations +1 646 768 7319 jeanne.hess@athene.com NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading securities law firm Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP announces that a lawsuit has been filed against Organon & Co. (NYSE: OGN) and certain of the Companys senior executives for potential violations of the federal securities laws. If you invested in Organon you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action. Investors have until July 22, 2025, to ask the Court to be appointed to lead the case. The complaint asserts claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of investors who purchased Organon securities. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and is captioned: Hauser v. Organon & Co., et al., No. 25-cv-05322. Why was Organon Sued for Securities Fraud? Organon is a global healthcare company focused on womens health that has historically rewarded its shareholders with a healthy dividend. In October 2024, Organon completed a $1.2 billion acquisition of Dermavant, a biopharmaceutical company focused on dermatological conditions. As alleged, while the acquisition increased Organons debt, the Company assured investors it would maintain its dividend, which Organon asserted was its #1 capital allocation priority. In truth, Organon had shifted its capital allocation priority after the Dermavant acquisition to focus on reducing its debt, ultimately leading the Company to severely cut its dividend. The Stock Declines as the Truth is Revealed On May 1, 2025, Organon announced that management reset the Companys dividend payout from $0.28 per share to $0.02 per share. Organons CEO explained that the Company reset our capital allocation priorities to accelerate progress towards deleveraging and that [b]y deleveraging more rapidly, we will continue to strengthen the future prospects of the company. Organons CFO added, [t]he biggest issues we face . . . relate to managing our leverage and relate to growth. And we need capital to solve both of those issues, and so returning capital to shareholders is right now, less of a priority. On this news, the price of Organon stock declined roughly 27%, from $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025, to $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025. Click here if you suffered losses: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action. What Can You Do? If you invested in Organon you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm. All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses. Submit your information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action Or contact: Ross Shikowitz ross@bfalaw.com 212-789-3619 Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP? BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named Elite Trial Lawyers by the National Law Journal, among the top 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers by Lawdragon, Titans of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360 and SuperLawyers by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd. For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com. https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/organon-co-class-action Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. SANTA MONICA, CA, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oliveda International, Inc. (OTCID: OLVI) today announced that its Olive Tree People Inc. subsidiary, the world's leading waterless beauty company with over 3000% growth in 2024 and sales of over $100 million in its second year operating in the United States, continues to grow at double-digit rates in 2025, closing the first half of the year with growth of over 70%. The outlook for the second half of 2025 promises to be no less successful. The company will be represented at New York Fashion Week for the first time in September 2025 with its brands Oliveda, LA Dope, and Olive Rose and will have 75 makeup artists working with more than 150 models. In addition, Olive Rose will present further innovations related to the hydroxytyrosol no-makeup collection, such as the new Olive Rose Blushes, the new Olive Rose Hydroxytyrosol Contour, as well as concealer, mascara, and many other Olive Rose products. In the fall, Olive Tree People plans to introduce its world's first pet brand, "Is that Matty," to the public as well as another brand that has been in development for years. In October 2025, Olive Tree People expects to open the direct-to-consumer market in Europe, following the U.S. and Canada launches, after Olive Tree People has successfully transitioned from retail. Founder and CEO Thomas Lommel said, Following the U.S. market launch in 2023, Canada will follow in 2025 and Europe in October 2025, making Olive Tree People not only the fastest-growing waterless beauty company but also the leading global waterless beauty company in the world. In the second half of the year, many new product launches will follow for our successful hydroxytyrosol no-make brand, Olive Rose, and in November, what is probably the world's first hydroxytyrosol pet brand, "Is that Matty," will follow. In addition to our Olive Tree People flagship store in Los Angeles, others will follow in Europe. At our annual convention in October 2025, a new surprise brand we've been working on for years will be exclusively presented in Los Angeles. Of course, it's important to mention that we'll also be acquiring more olive groves and olive farms in the second half of the year and working with the municipality of Arroyomolinos de Leon on our first modern mill. I believe 2025 will probably be the most intensive year in the history of Oliveda and Olive Tree People after 2024, and I'm very confident that we'll close the second half even more successfully and realize at least $150 million in our third year direct-to-consumer. About Oliveda International, Inc. Oliveda International, Inc. and its subsidiary, Olive Tree People Inc., as well as the European companies, Olive Tree People Europe AG and Oliveda Deutschland GmbH, as well as Olive Tree Farmers SL, were founded by the German real estate investor Thomas Lommel and have more than 20 years of experience in management and organic certification growing mountain olive trees, in the extraction of first-class, internationally award-winning extra virgin olive oils, the extraction of hydroxytyrosol, and in the production and distribution of cosmetic and holistic waterless products related to the olive tree. Lommel is the inventor of the Olive Tree Therapy 10 years in 14 days as well as the inventor of olive matcha, which is based on the ground olive leaf. Also unique is the coffee replacement developed by Lommel, which is based on olive leaf and hydroxytyrosol. In addition, Lommel is successfully active in the rapidly growing mindfulness industry with the olive tree sound bath meditation he developed and the frequencies of his olive trees, which he makes available worldwide. In addition to the registered beauty brands, Oliveda and LA Dope, as well as OLIVE re:connected to Nature, The Intuition of Nature, and Olive Mush, to name just a few brands, Lommel is the region's largest conservationist and protector of over 30,000 one-hundred-year-old mountain olive trees, and, with his Thomas Lommel Foundation, he brings the water that he does not use into his waterless beauty products to the people of Africa by building water wells on site. In addition to online sales and a Europe-wide branch network of thousands of retail stores, Oliveda Deutschland GmbH operates its own flagship stores in Berlin and Dusseldorf. The brand's treatment concepts are unique worldwide, and their effectiveness has been confirmed by conventional medicine. Read our book The Olive Tree Therapy 10 Years in 14 Days. Waterless beauty has been called The Next Big Thing in articles in U.S. Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, InStyle, Elle, Madame, Forbes, and many other industry publications, as well as by Mintel, a world-leading futurology institute. Gigi Hadid and many other celebrities are already Oliveda fans and support its success. Further information on Oliveda International, Inc. and its subsidiaries and associate companies and brands can be found at www.olivetreepeople.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain statements, estimates or projections that constitute "forward-looking statements" pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Generally, the words "believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "project," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, which may be found in the Companys filings with OTC Markets Group Inc., that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's historical experience and present expectations or projections. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or intention to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements unless otherwise required by law. SARASOTA, Fla., July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oragenics, Inc. (NYSE American: OGEN), a biotechnology company developing intranasal therapeutics for brain-related conditions, today announced it has entered into a manufacturing agreement with Sterling Pharma Solutions, an industry leading CDMO with multiple US-based development and manufacturing facilities. Oragenics has partnered with Sterling Pharma Solutions for the GMP production of its lead drug candidate, ONP-002, for the treatment of concussion. This agreement is expected to ensure Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)-compliant drug product supply ahead of the planned Phase IIb clinical trials which the Company expects to start next year. The collaboration marks an important milestone for Oragenics as it secures domestic production capabilities to support its upcoming clinical and regulatory efforts. We are excited to partner with Sterlings facility in Cary, North Carolina, to support the production of ONP-002, said Janet Huffman, Chief Executive Officer of Oragenics. This partnership is a critical milestone in our path forward for Phase IIb clinical trials. This partnership reinforces our commitment to quality, efficiency, and U.S.-based innovation and we believe this step will help streamline our clinical development strategy. Sterling will produce ONP-002 under strict cGMP conditions for use in Oragenics planned Phase IIb trials, a proof-of-concept study which will evaluate early efficacy of ONP-002 in patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Chad Telgenhof, Chief Commercial Officer at Sterling Pharma Solutions, said: We are pleased to be partnering with Oragenics for the GMP production of its lead molecule for clinical trials. Our scientific expertise in CNS therapies and our ability to meet critical timelines will support the continued path to market for this transformative drug candidate. This U.S.-based manufacturing agreement builds upon Oragenics broader strategy to develop scalable, accessible, and fast-acting treatments for neurological trauma, beginning with concussion, a condition that currently has no FDA-approved pharmacological therapies. About Oragenics, Inc. Oragenics is a biotechnology company focused on developing intranasal therapeutics for neurological disorders. Its lead candidate, ONP-002, is being developed for the treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), commonly known as concussion. The Companys intranasal delivery technology is designed to deliver fast, targeted, and non-invasive therapy to the brain. For more information, please visit www.oragenics.com . About Sterling Pharma Solutions Sterling Pharma Solutions is a global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) with more than 50 years experience in providing small molecule API development and manufacturing services to the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in handling challenging chemistries. Sterling manages the most complex API challenges from proof-of-concept to commercial manufacture, as well as antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) research and development bioconjugation services. Sterling has six facilities employing more than 1,350 people: its HQ in Dudley, Cramlington, UK and a site in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK; a European presence in Ringaskiddy, Co. Cork, Ireland; a dedicated bioconjugation and ADCs facility in Deeside, North Wales, UK; and two sites in the US, in Cary, North Carolina and Germantown, Wisconsin. Find out more at www.sterlingpharmasolutions.com . Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on managements beliefs and assumptions and information currently available. The words believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, project and similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters identify forward-looking statements. Investors should be cautious in relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any such forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to those described in our Form 10-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information set forth in this press release is as of the date hereof. You should consider these factors in evaluating the forward-looking statements included in this press release and not place undue reliance on such statements. We do not assume any obligation to publicly provide revisions or updates to any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by law. Oragenics, Inc. Janet Huffman Chief Executive Officer 813-286-7900 jhuffman@oragenics.com Investor Contact: Rich Cockrell CG Capital 866.889.1972 ogen@cg.capital TORONTO and MONTREAL, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fengate Private Equity, a division of Fengate Asset Management (Fengate), today announced the formation of CanPro Roofing Partners (CanPro or the Company), a Canadian roofing platform in partnership with industry veteran Dino DiVito, who has joined as CEO. Fengate is managing this investment on behalf of the LiUNA Pension Fund of Central and Eastern Canada. CanPro is committed to building a best-in-class roofing platform by partnering with high-quality companies focused on institutional, commercial and industrial end markets that provide roof replacement and maintenance services. Concurrent to the formation of CanPro, the Company is pleased to announce its first partnership, with Toiture Perreault, a leading roof replacement business serving the greater Montreal area. Founder and President Vincent Perreault will continue to be involved in the business focusing on expanding its footprint across the Quebec market. He will retain a significant equity interest. We are excited to launch CanPro Roofing Partners and elevate the standard of commercial roof replacement and maintenance in Canada, said Mohit Kansal, Managing Director, Fengate Private Equity. We will achieve this through partnerships and acquisitions with best-in-class regional roofing firms across the country. Were pleased to start the journey by partnering with Vincent Perreault and the entire Toiture Perreault team as well as industry veteran, Dino DiVito. I am thrilled to partner with this exceptional team as we build a premier roofing platform across Canada, adds Dino DiVito, CEO of CanPro. With Fengate, we are equipped with the resources and expertise necessary to drive growthboth organically and through strategic partnerships. Under Vincents leadership, Toiture Perreault has earned an outstanding reputation by prioritizing customer service and achieving remarkable growth. Our strategy remains focused on thoughtfully selecting trusted partners who align with our long-term vision and to deliver lasting value for all stakeholders. Joining CanPro as a founding partner was a strategic decision for us, adds Vincent Perreault, President, Toiture Perreault. I believe we have a unique opportunity to become the national leader in the roof replacement industry by bringing together the best roofing companies across Canada. With Fengates backing and Dinos leadership, were building more than just a platform, were building a legacy of quality, safety, and growth that will reshape the future of commercial roofing in this country. Stikeman Elliott LLP and BDO Canada LLP served as advisors to Fengate. McCarthy Tetrault LLP and RBC Mid-Market M&A served as advisors to Toiture Perreault. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. About CanPro Roofing Partners: CanPro Roofing Partners is committed to building a best-in-class Canadian roofing platform by partnering with high quality companies serving institutional, commercial and industrial markets with a focus on roof replacement and ongoing maintenance services. CanPro continues to explore new partnerships with leading commercial roofing companies across Canada. Founders and advisors interested in learning more are encouraged to reach out directly. Learn more at www.canproroofing.com. About Toiture Perreault: Toiture Perreault, headquartered in Blainville, Quebec, is a roofing service provider for commercial, institutional, industrial and multi-residential clients. The company specializes in roof replacement, service and maintenance of roofs of multiple materials and complexities. The company offers a streamlined approach to project management leveraging the workforces diversified skillset in roofing. Learn more at www.toitureperreault.com . About Fengate Asset Management: Fengate Asset Management is a leading alternative investment manager, with more than $24 billion in assets under management, focused on private equity, infrastructure and real estate strategies. With offices and team members across Canada and the United States, Fengate leverages more than 50 years of entrepreneurial experience to deliver excellent investment results on behalf of its clients. Fengate Private Equity, a division of Fengate Asset Management, is a differentiated investment platform supporting the growth ambitions of entrepreneurs through transformative capital. Learn more at www.fengate.com . Contacts: Dino DiVito Chief Executive Officer CanPro Roofing Partners dino.divito@canproroofing.com Vincent Perreault President Toiture Perreault v.perreault@toitureperreault.com Appointed Mr. Seok Joung Youn as Head of Manufacturing & Facility Operations 40 Years of Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturing & Quality Control Experience from Samsung SDI and Global Battery Startups Launched Worlds First Wide Electrode Production Line for Samsung EV Batteries Will Direct Production of High-Quality Electrodes and Large-Format Battery Cells for Robust Testing & Validation for Global Battery Partners TORONTO, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NEO Battery Materials Ltd. (NEO or the Company) (TSXV: NBM) (OTC: NBMFF), a low-cost silicon anode materials developer that enables longer-running, rapid-charging lithium-ion batteries, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Seok Joung Youn as Head of Manufacturing and Facility Operations. Mr. Youn brings 40 years of lithium-ion battery and facility operations experience and leadership from Samsung SDI, the worlds 7th-largest battery cell manufacturer, and global battery startups. With a technical background spanning process engineering and quality control, Mr. Youn acted in key roles in developing and realizing production efficiencies in high-volume manufacturing for both small-format and automotive batteries. During his tenure at Samsung, Mr. Youn successfully launched the battery industrys first 1,200mm-wide electrode production line for electric vehicles. Along with stabilizing product yield and establishing operator protocols, Mr. Youn enhanced Samsungs global battery deployment capacity and reduced costs from lowered defects. He subsequently held senior roles at global battery startups, including EoCell, where he led pilot production lines for a European gigafactorys commercial-level qualification and start-of-production (SOP). Along with Dr. J.S. Jeoung, SVP of Commercialization & Cell Development, Mr. Youn will lead manufacturing operations to ensure NEOs quality adheres to standards required by its global battery partners. He will also direct the production of high-quality electrodes and large-format cells, which are integral to testing and validating NEOs silicon battery materials at near-commercial scale. As the Company moves toward expanding silicon battery capacity, Mr. Youns expertise and leadership are expected to facilitate the transition from material innovation to real-world application. Mr. Spencer Huh, President & CEO of NEO, stated, We are honoured to welcome Mr. Youn to NEO Battery Materials, and we are excited to build a well-rounded team that covers the full spectrum of battery manufacturing and technology. Mr. Youn retains deep operational experience and a proven ability to lead high-precision, large-scale battery manufacturing, having worked at Samsung and other global companies. His know-how and leadership will further strengthen our execution capabilities as we proceed to the next phase of commercial readiness. About NEO Battery Materials Ltd. NEO Battery Materials is a Canadian battery materials technology company focused on developing silicon anode materials for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, electronics, and energy storage systems. With a patent-protected, low-cost manufacturing process, NEO Battery enables longer-running and ultra-fast charging batteries compared to existing state-of-the-art technologies. The Company aims to be a globally-leading producer of silicon anode materials for the electric vehicle and energy storage industries. For more information, please visit the Companys website at: https://www.neobatterymaterials.com/. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Spencer Huh Director, President, and CEO For Investor Relations, PR & More Information: info@neobatterymaterials.com T: +1 (437) 451-7678 This news release includes certain forward-looking statements as well as management's objectives, strategies, beliefs and intentions. All information contained herein that is not clearly historical in nature may constitute forward-looking information. Generally, such forward-looking information can be identified notably by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: volatile stock prices; the general global markets and economic conditions; the possibility of write-downs and impairments; the risk associated with the research and development of advanced and battery-related technologies; the risk associated with the effectiveness and feasibility of technologies that have not yet been tested or proven on commercial scale; manufacturing process scale-up risks, including maintaining consistent material quality, production yields, and process reproducibility at a pilot or commercial scale; compatibility issues with existing battery chemistries and unforeseen the risks associated with entering into and maintaining collaborations, joint ventures, or partnerships with battery cell manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers, and various companies in the global battery supply chain; the risks associated with the construction, completion, and financing of commercial facilities including the Windsor and South Korean facilities; the risks associated with supply chain disruptions or cost fluctuations in raw materials, processing chemicals, and additive prices, impacting production costs and commercial viability; the risks associated with uninsurable risks arising during the course of research, development and production; competition faced by the Company in securing experienced personnel and financing; access to adequate infrastructure and resources to support battery materials research and development activities; the risks associated with changes in the technology regulatory regime governing the Company; the risks associated with the timely execution of the Companys strategies and business plans; the risks associated with the lithium-ion battery industrys demand and adoption of the Companys silicon anode technology; market adoption and integration challenges, including the difficulty of incorporating silicon anodes within battery manufacturers and OEMs systems; the risks associated with the various environmental and political regulations the Company is subject to; risks related to regulatory and permitting delays; the reliance on key personnel; liquidity risks; the risk of litigation; risk management; and other risk factors as identified in the Companys recent Financial Statements and MD&A and in recent securities filings for the Company which are available on www.sedarplus.ca. Forward-looking information is based on assumptions management believes to be reasonable at the time such statements are made, including but not limited to, continued R&D and commercialization activities, no material adverse change in precursor prices, development and commercialization plans to proceed in accordance with plans and such plans to achieve their stated expected outcomes, receipt of required regulatory approvals, and such other assumptions and factors as set out herein. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information has been provided for the purpose of assisting investors in understanding the Company's business, operations, research and development, and commercialization plans and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is made as of the date of this presentation, and the Company does not undertake to update such forward-looking information except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With a multi-day stretch of extreme heat and humidity continuing across Southern Ontario, Alectra Utilities is encouraging residents to prioritize their health and safety while taking steps to reduce electricity consumption. Environment Canada has issued a heat warning with daytime highs of 31 to 35 C and humidex values reaching up to 42. The intense conditions are expected to persist through Thursday night. With extreme heat events becoming more frequent, investing in renewing aging equipment and installing new infrastructure remains crucial to meet the growing grid demand. For more information on Alectras capital construction investments, please visit: alectrautilities.com/improving-reliability. To help manage electricity consumption and lower summertime bills, Alectra recommends the following tips: Use a programmable thermostat to regulate indoor temperatures. Close curtains or blinds during peak sun hours. Delay using major appliances, such as dishwashers or dryers, until the evening. Use ceiling or portable fans to circulate air. Keep windows and doors closed while using air conditioning. If your home is too hot, consider visiting a cooling centre, public library, mall or community centre. Follow the advice of your local public health authority. For more tips, visit alectrautilities.com/tips-resources. For more information about how you can save energy this summer and avoid higher bills, visit alectrautilities.com/tips-resources. About Alectra Utilities Serving more than one million homes and businesses in Ontarios Greater Golden Horseshoe area, Alectra Utilities is now the largest municipally-owned electric utility in Canada, based on the total number of customers served. We contribute to the economic growth and vibrancy of the 17 communities we serve by investing in essential energy infrastructure, delivering a safe and reliable supply of electricity, and providing innovative energy solutions. Our mission is to be an energy ally, helping our customers and the communities we serve to discover the possibilities of tomorrows energy future. X: https://twitter.com/alectranews Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alectranews/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alectranews/?hl=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/16178435/admin/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alectranews.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/alectranews Media Contact Ashley Trgachef, Media Spokesperson ashley.trgachef@alectrautilities.com | Telephone: 416.402.5469 | 24/7 Media Line: 1-833-MEDIA-LN Burlingame, CA, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global luggage delivery service market is estimated to be valued at USD 6.13 Bn in 2025 and is expected to reach USD 10.58 Bn by 2032, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1% from 2025 to 2032. The market has experienced consistent growth in recent years, largely fueled by the global expansion of the tourism industry and a rising consumer preference for convenient, hassle-free travel. Demand for luggage delivery services is projected to grow substantially over the forecast period, driven by key factors such as the increase in business travel, the continued growth of the tourism sector, and the expanding middle-class population. Request Sample Report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/7628 Global Luggage Delivery Service Market Key Takeaways According to Coherent Market Insights (CMI), the global luggage delivery service market size is projected to be valued at USD 6.13 Bn in 2025 and further grow at a CAGR of 8.1%, reaching USD 10.58 Bn by 2032. Door-to-door delivery remains highly a sought-after service type, accounting for 38% share of the luggage delivery service market by 2025. By customer type, individual category is expected to account for two-fifths of the global luggage delivery service market share in 2025. Based on distribution channel, online platforms segment is slated to account for a prominent share of 56.2% in the global market by 2025. North America is likely to maintain its dominance over the forecast period, accounting for a global industry share of 37.3% in 2025. As per CMIs new luggage delivery service market analysis, Asia Pacific is poised to experience fastest growth over the assessment period. Booming Travel and Tourism Industry Fueling Market Growth Coherent Market Insights latest luggage delivery service market research report offers insights into key factors driving market growth. One such major growth driver is the flourishing travel and tourism sector. There has been a strong rebound in international and domestic travel post-COVID-19 pandemic. According to the UN Tourism, around 300 million tourists travelled internationally in Q1 2025, an increase of about 14 million compared to the same period in 2024. The rising number of both international and domestic tourists will create need for convenient baggage handling. This, in turn, is expected to significantly contribute to expansion of the luggage delivery service market. Immediate Delivery Available | Buy This Premium Research Report: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/7628 High Service Costs and Trust Issues Limiting Market Growth The future luggage delivery service market outlook indicates strong growth. However, high service costs and trust-related concerns may limit market growth to some extent during the forthcoming period. Many luggage delivery service companies charge premium prices. This cost factor becomes a deterrent for budget-conscious travelers, dampening overall luggage delivery service market demand. Similarly, some travelers are reluctant to entrust third-party services with their valuable belongings due to concerns about theft, loss, or damage. Such trust issues may also negatively impact the luggage delivery service market growth during the forecast period. Rising Demand for Convenient Travel Experiences Creating Growth Opportunities The looming threat of disease transmission and growing preference for convenience are prompting travelers to opt for contactless and hassle-free experiences. This trend is expected to fuel demand for luggage delivery services as they offer convenience by eliminating the need to carry baggage through airports and transit systems. Luggage delivery service providers are capitalizing on these opportunities by launching new convenient options. For instance, recently, EzShip.in launched new affordable & hassle-free luggage delivery across India. Impact of AI on the Luggage Delivery Service Industry Just like in other industries, artificial intelligence (AI) is making a profound impact on the luggage delivery service market. It enhances operational efficiency, improves customer experiences, and reduces costs. AI-powered tracking systems offer real-time updates and predictive insights, thereby ensuring timely and secure delivery of luggage. Automated customer service bots and intelligent routing algorithms streamline communication and logistics, minimizing delays and human errors. AI also helps optimize resource allocation and demand forecasting, allowing service providers to manage peak travel seasons more effectively. It is driving greater reliability, convenience, and personalization in the luggage delivery ecosystem. Emerging Luggage Delivery Service Market Trends A key growth-shaping trend in the luggage delivery service market is the expansion of airline partnerships. Many prominent airlines are partnering with third-party luggage delivery companies to enhance customer experience. Adoption of these services into airline ticketing or check-in processes is making them more accessible and appealing. Growth in business travel is expected to positively impact the global luggage delivery service market value in the coming years. This is mostly because corporate travelers prefer efficient and time-saving services, increasing demand for premium luggage delivery options. Ongoing technological advancements are playing a key role in fostering market growth. Innovations in tracking technologies like GPS and RFID provide customers with complete visibility of their luggage from pick-up to delivery. These technologies enhance confidence and reduce anxiety about baggage safety, thereby encouraging adoption of luggage delivery services. Rising environmental concerns are prompting companies to adopt greener practices, including using electric vehicle fleets and biodegradable packaging. This rise in eco-friendly and sustainable logistics will support market expansion. Request For Customization: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/7628 Analysts View The global luggage delivery service industry is poised to record robust growth, owing to rising booming travel and tourism sector, growing demand for convenience baggage handling, and continuous technological advancements, said a senior analyst at CMI. Current Events and Their Impact on the Luggage Delivery Service Market Event Description and Impact 2025 Airline Chaos and Record Mishandling Rates Description: In Q1 2025, multiple airlines reported an increase in lost/delayed baggage. Impact: This provides a major boost in consumer interest in third-party luggage delivery services, especially among premium and business travelers who seek reliability and peace of mind. Integration of Smart Luggage with Delivery Platforms Description: In 20242025, smart luggage manufacturers (like Samsonite and Away) began integrating GPS and IoT tracking systems compatible with delivery services. Impact: Enhances transparency and user control in luggage logistics, allowing real-time tracking a key driver of trust and adoption. Competitive edge for tech-integrated delivery startups. Carbon-Neutral Travel Initiatives Description: Major players have pledged carbon-neutral delivery for travel-related logistics. Impact: Eco-conscious travelers increasingly prefer sustainable luggage delivery services over traditional airline baggage systems. Competitor Insights Key companies listed in the luggage delivery service market report include: Send My Bag Luggage Forward AirPortr Luggage Free BagsVIP My Baggage Excess Baggage Company Luggage Delivery Services Travel Luggage Deliv Luggage Concierge Bagbnb FlyAway LuggageHero CheckedAway Key Developments In 2025, EzShip.in announced launch of new cost-effective & hassle-free luggage delivery across India. The new service is intended to help passengers save up to 50% on airline excess baggage fees while improving overall convenience. In April 2024, Avaan Express launched a new international delivery service to enhance travel convenience. The new service offers door-to-door pickup and drop-off, ensuring a hassle-free travel experience from start to finish. Market Segmentation Service Type Insights (Revenue, USD Bn, 2020 - 2032) Door-to-Door Delivery Airport Delivery Hotel Delivery Others Customer Type Insights (Revenue, USD Bn, 2020 - 2032) Individuals Businesses Travel Agencies Others Distribution Channel Insights (Revenue, USD Bn, 2020 - 2032) Online Platforms Travel Agencies Direct Booking Regional Insights (Revenue, USD Bn, 2020 - 2032) North America U.S. Canada Latin America Brazil Argentina Mexico Rest of Latin America Europe Germany U.K. Spain France Italy Russia Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China India Japan Australia South Korea ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East GCC Countries Israel Rest of Middle East Africa South Africa North Africa Central Africa Related Reports: Digital Logistics Market Size, Share & Trend Analysis Report for 2025-2032 Luggage Market Size, Share, Trends & Opportunities for 2025-2032 Last Mile Delivery Market Analysis and Forecast for 2025-2032 Our Trusted Partners: Worldwide Market Reports, Coherent MI, Stratagem Market Insights Get Recent News: https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/news Dublin, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "China - The Future of Foodservice to 2029" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report provides an in-depth evaluation of the Chinese foodservice market, including analysis of the key issues impacting on the industry. During 2024-29, the Chinese profit sector will register a value CAGR of 1.5%. The number of transactions will register a CAGR of 0.5%, and the number of outlets will post a CAGR of 0.3%. The leisure channel is expected to register the highest value CAGR during 2024-29, at 4.9%. The foodservice profit sector generated revenue of CNY6.4 trillion ($896 billion) in 2024, recording a CAGR of 2.1% during 2019-24. The number of transactions and outlet count registered CAGRs of 2.1% and 0.9%, respectively, during the period. FSR was the largest channel in China in 2024, accounting for a 69% share of total sales, followed by QSR with 18.5%. Supported by the growing coffee culture, the coffee & tea shop channel recorded the highest CAGR at 6.8% during 2019-24. This report includes: Consumer insight and analysis to provide a clear view of prevailing need states, trends and demands of consumers, including segmentation analysis and channel preference, all fully supported by comprehensive market data and occasions and locations analytics. In-depth analysis of channel performance, both profit and cost sector, detailing the winning formats, with supporting analysis to provide comprehensive understanding of the reasons behind success and failure. For each of four key profit sector channels - QSR, FSR, coffee & tea shops and pubs, clubs & bars, a deep dive into the 'who', 'why', 'what', 'where' and 'what next'. Analysis of major market player performance, and how each player is meeting the needs of consumers and dealing with changing market demands, with supporting case studies on key menu, service and format innovations. Scope Understanding the wider economic and social trends within a country; key to providing background when looking into a specific industry. Profit sector channels: A number of foodservice channels have been grouped together to form the "profit sector"; these include accommodation, leisure, restaurants, retail, travel, workplace, and pub, club & bar. This section will first go through overall trends in the sector, then "deep dive" into each of the four key channels. These channels are QSR, FSR, coffee & tea shop, and pub, club & bar. The report structure for each of these channels is explained below. Cost sector channels: A number of foodservice channels have been grouped together to form the "cost sector"; these include healthcare, education, military & civil defense, and welfare & services. This sector typically represents the state's foodservice operators. This section of the report will go through overall trends in the sector. Profit sector sub-sections - QSR, FSR, coffee & tea shop, and pub, club & bar: For each of these key profit sector channels, this report will "deep dive" into the performance of the channel. This will follow a summary of the channel, which will encapsulate everything within the section. The report section will then cover historic and forecast growth/decline; key players within the channel; consumer segment analysis; and a "who", "why", "what", and "where" analysis (including, for some channels, case studies to bring key discussion points to life). It will finish with a look into the key drivers of future performance. Cost sector: For the overall cost sector channel, this report will provide an overview of the performance of the channel. The report section will cover historic and forecast growth/decline and will finish with a look into the data and channel share breakdown. Reasons to Buy Specific forecasts of the foodservice market over the next five years (2024-29) will give readers the ability to make informed business decisions through identifying emerging/declining markets. Consumer segmentation detailing the desires of known consumers among all major foodservice channels (QSR, FSR, and coffee & tea shop) will allow readers understand the wants and needs of their target demographics. Key Topics Covered: Introduction Report Guide Executive Summary Macroeconomic Context Macroeconomic Overview Trends Landscape Profit Sector - Consumer Behavior Profit Sector Metrics Key Metric Highlights Value Share and Growth by Channel Outlets and Transactions Growth by Channel Operator Buying Volumes and Growth by Channel Channel Historic and Future Growth Dynamics Outlet-Type and Owner-Type Growth Dynamics Profit Sector by Channel Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) Enablers and Inhibitors of Growth Metrics Key Players Who? Why? What? Where? What Next? Full-Service Restaurant (FSR) Coffee & Tea Shop Pub, Club & Bar Healthcare Education Military & Civil Defense Welfare & Services Companies Featured Yum! Brands Fujian Wallace Food McDonald's Pala Catering Management Ting Hsin International Restaurant Brands International Country Style Cooking Restaurant Chain Inner Mongolia Xiao Wei Yang Chained Food Service Donglaishun Zhengzhou Liang'an Enterprise Luckin Coffee Starbucks Shenzhen Meixixi Catering Management For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/s1v6n0 About ResearchAndMarkets.com ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. ST. LOUIS, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) today announced that its Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated broker-dealer subsidiary ranked No. 1 in employee advisor satisfaction among wealth management firms in the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Financial Advisor Satisfaction StudySM. This marks the third straight year that Stifel has earned the top ranking, which is calculated based on responses submitted by Stifel advisors. Stifels overall score was 819 out of 1,000 214 points higher than the employee segment average and up 52 points from last year. In addition to finishing No. 1 overall, Stifel ranked first in five individual categories: compensation, leadership and culture, operational support, products and marketing, and technology. I am thrilled that J.D. Power has named Stifel the No. 1 wealth management firm for employee advisor satisfaction for the third consecutive year, said Ron Kruszewski, Chairman and CEO of Stifel. This recognition means even more because it comes directly from our advisors. Ranking No. 1 in overall satisfaction and in five of six categories is a powerful testament to the culture weve built at Stifel. But we dont view this as a victory lap we view it as a challenge. A challenge to keep raising the bar, to keep listening, and to continuously improve. This is a tremendous honor for the firm, our advisors, and the colleagues who support them, said Jim Zemlyak, President of Stifel and Head of Global Wealth Management. Our unique culture is built around respect for our advisors, and we continually invest in their success by providing them the resources and support needed to deliver exceptional service to their clients. Stifel is home to approximately 2,340 advisors with approximately $517 billion in client assets as of June 30, 2025. Stifel Company Information Stifel Financial Corp. (NYSE: SF) is a financial services holding company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, that conducts its banking, securities, and financial services business through several wholly owned subsidiaries. Stifels broker-dealer clients are served in the United States through Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, including its Eaton Partners business division; Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc.; Miller Buckfire & Co., LLC; and Stifel Independent Advisors, LLC; and in the United Kingdom and Europe through Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited. The Companys broker-dealer affiliates provide securities brokerage, investment banking, trading, investment advisory, and related financial services to individual investors, professional money managers, businesses, and municipalities. Stifel Bank and Stifel Bank & Trust offer a full range of consumer and commercial lending solutions. Stifel Trust Company, N.A. and Stifel Trust Company Delaware, N.A. offer trust and related services. To learn more about Stifel, please visit the Companys website at www.stifel.com. For global disclosures, please visit www.stifel.com/investor-relations/press-releases. For further information, contact Brian Spellecy (314) 342-2000 Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP Securities Litigation Partner James (Josh) Wilson Encourages Investors Who Suffered Losses Exceeding $75,000 In Organon To Contact Him Directly To Discuss Their Options If you suffered losses exceeding $75,000 in Organon between October 31, 2024 and April 30, 2025 and would like to discuss your legal rights, call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). [You may also click here for additional information] NEW YORK, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, a leading national securities law firm, is investigating potential claims against Organon & Co. (Organon or the Company) (NYSE: OGN) and reminds investors of the July 22, 2025 deadline to seek the role of lead plaintiff in a federal securities class action that has been filed against the Company. Faruqi & Faruqi is a leading national securities law firm with offices in New York, Pennsylvania, California and Georgia. The firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors since its founding in 1995. See www.faruqilaw.com. Defendants provided investors with material information concerning Organons prioritization of its capital allocation strategy through regular, quarterly dividends. Defendants statements included, among other things, reassurance that capital allocation through the aforementioned dividends was a #1 capital allocation priority and that Organon was committed to consistent deployment of capital. Defendants provided these overwhelmingly positive statements to investors while, at the same time, disseminating materially false and misleading statements and/or concealing material adverse facts concerning the true state of the Companys priorities, particularly, related to capital allocation through quarterly dividends. Notably, Defendants concealed the high priority of Organons debt reduction strategy following the Companys acquisition of Dermavant, resulting in a 70% decrease for the regular quarterly dividend. Such statements absent these material facts caused Plaintiff and other shareholders to purchase Organons securities at artificially inflated prices. Investors and analysts again reacted promptly to Organons revelations. The price of Organons common stock declined dramatically. From a closing market price of $12.93 per share on April 30, 2025, Organons stock price fell to $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025, a decline of more than 27% in the span of just a single day. The court-appointed lead plaintiff is the investor with the largest financial interest in the relief sought by the class who is adequate and typical of class members who directs and oversees the litigation on behalf of the putative class. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision to serve as a lead plaintiff or not. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP also encourages anyone with information regarding Organons conduct to contact the firm, including whistleblowers, former employees, shareholders and others. To learn more about the Organon & Co. class action, go to www.faruqilaw.com/OGN or call Faruqi & Faruqi partner Josh Wilson directly at 877-247-4292 or 212-983-9330 (Ext. 1310). Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, on X, or on Facebook. Attorney Advertising. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP (www.faruqilaw.com). Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular case. All communications will be treated in a confidential manner. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/fdafeab3-e66c-4705-b292-211a18341546 Atlanta, Georgia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savvy Cyber Kids, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, appointed new members to the Board of Directors starting July, 1, 2025. Use your cyber super powers for good - Savvy Cyber Kids Joining the Board of Directors for Savvy Cyber Kids are James Azar, Anne-Marie Brockwell, Jason Cenamor, Nelson Soares, and Dr. Jasyn Voshell. Savvy Cyber Kids enables youth, families and school communities empowerment through technology by providing age-appropriate cyber safety, cyber ethics and digital parenting resources and education starting at three years old. ------- As a father, cybersecurity practitioner, and advocate for creating a safer digital environment for all children, I was compelled to join the board of Savvy Cyber Kids, states James Azar, CISO and Host, CyberHub Podcast. The organizations mission, under the leadership of Ben Halpert, deeply resonates with me. Promoting responsible internet use begins at home, and Savvy Cyber Kids equips parents with the guidance and talking points they need to raise digitally aware and cyber-safe children. James Azar is a dedicated cybersecurity practitioner and CISO in industries like FinTech, Banking, Energy and Oil and Gas with over 20 years of experience. He has a passion for aligning security and business goals, believing that innovation and creative thinking are key to solving todays security challenges. As the host of the CyberHub Podcast, James enjoys sharing insights and fostering conversations around cybersecurity, technology, and business. Hes had the privilege of speaking at industry-leading events like RSA and CyberTech Israel and contributing to well-known publications. When not immersed in security, James enjoys espresso, good food, and a fine whiskey. ------- I'm thrilled to join the board of Savvy Cyber Kids, where I can further my commitment to empowering families, educators, and students with the knowledge to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly," states Anne-Marie Brockwell, Account Executive, Microsoft. "Through my advocacy for proactive digital learning and community engagement, I aim to expand awareness and foster a more inclusive, ethical online future. I look forward to using my network to amplify this vital mission. Anne-Marie Brockwell is a seasoned Account Executive and strategic education leader with a deep commitment to empowering learners and advancing digital citizenship. At Microsoft, she leads partnerships with premier higher education institutions across New England, helping them accelerate AI innovation, modernize infrastructure, transform data strategies, and strengthen cybersecurity posturesall in service of their ultimate stakeholders: the students. With over a decade of experience spanning education technology and enterprise sectors, Anne-Marie brings a global, cross-industry perspective shaped by leadership roles at Rosetta Stone, Sanofi/Genzyme, Imagine Learning, and Deloitte. Her career has consistently focused on consulting selling, strategic partnerships, and operational excellence, underpinned by a passion for equity, access, and innovation in education. ------- As technology becomes increasingly more prominent in our everyday lives, so does the need for increased education around cybersecurity, states Jason Cenamor, Founder, Confide Group and The CISO Society. Like all important things, cybersecurity education starts at the grassroots, and organizations like Savvy Cyber Kids will ensure cyber safety becomes as natural as looking both ways before you cross the road. Witnessing so many people fall victim to bad actors every day, I could not be more passionate about ensuring the next generation is prepared to navigate the new world equipped with the knowledge and tools to avoid the same fate. Jason is the Founder and CEO of Confide Group - a cybersecurity advisory firm, and the Founder and Chief Community Officer of The CISO Society - a private community where members collaborate and share expertise on security strategy, project roadmaps, technology partners, CISO jobs, talent acquisition, industry news, and more. As a community figurehead and advocate, Jason possesses a passion for relationship building, networking, events, and providing an environment for security leaders to connect and learn from one another. ------- As a father, cybersecurity advocate, and entrepreneur passionate about digital education, Im honored to join the Board of Directors at Savvy Cyber Kids, states Nelson Soares, Founder & CEO, C-Vision International and CEO, NS Advisory Group Inc. Todays children are growing up in a world shaped by rapid technological changeone that demands both awareness and resilience. Ive spent my career helping organizations navigate innovation responsibly, and I believe theres no greater mission than empowering our youth to do the same. I look forward to contributing to this critical cause and supporting Savvy Cyber Kids in building a safer digital future for families everywhere. Nelson Soares is a dynamic entrepreneur and executive with deep expertise in leadership, consulting, and go-to-market strategy. As the Founder & CEO of C-Vision International, he has played a pivotal role in producing global thought leadership experiences for C-suite executives. He is also the CEO of NS Advisory Group Inc., where he advises startups and enterprise technology providers on scale, sales, and strategic growth. Nelsons work bridges innovation and executive influence, particularly in cybersecurity and enterprise software, and his network spans the U.S., EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. He also serves on the board of Pocket Security, a nonprofit. A proud husband and father of two daughters, Nelson brings a personal and professional commitment to helping the next generation thrive in the digital age. ------- Ive had the privilege of knowing and working with Ben Halpert for over 20 years, including some of his earliest projects in cybersecurity education, states Dr. Jasyn Voshell, Senior Director, Products and Solutions Security, Zebra Technologies. Joining the Savvy Cyber Kids Board is especially meaningful to me as an uncle to nieces and nephews who are growing up in a world where digital technology is ever-present. Being part of an organization that empowers families to navigate the online world safely and confidently is both a personal passion and professional commitment I hold close to my heart. Dr. Jasyn Voshell is the Senior Director of Products and Solutions Security at Zebra Technologies, where he leads the global Product & Solutions Security Program. He is responsible for the strategy, planning, and execution of Zebras enterprise-wide security initiatives across all products and solutions. Jasyn works closely with engineering and business teams to ensure security is embedded throughout the product lifecyclesecure by design, secure in use, and secure through trust. Jasyn was instrumental in establishing the Product Security Organization at Zebra, significantly reducing risk exposure while reinforcing customer trust in Zebras solutions. Under his leadership, the organization has delivered measurable improvements in secure software development practices, vulnerability management, and risk governance across the product portfolio. He holds bachelors degrees in Mathematics and Physics, a masters degree in Applied Mathematics and Computer Information Systems, and a doctorate in Civil Law and Cybersecurity. Jasyn also maintains numerous industry-recognized certifications in cybersecurity and audit. ------- Our children are frontline warriors pitted against threats delivered by todays latest technology they cant even comprehend, states Ben Halpert, Founder, Savvy Cyber Kids. Parents and schools unwittingly place the children they are responsible for up against harms they are not equipped to triumph over in their daily battles, both physically and mentally. Making meaningful, long term, generational change for the worlds most vulnerable population which is young children, takes dedication. In todays reality of youth sextortion related suicide, AI suicide encouragement, 24/7 cyberbullying, and the realization of harms against our children delivered through technology, educating young children starting at age three is paramount, said Ben Halpert. Most people want to believe quick fixes will work; when it comes to shaping human behaviors to build individual resilience, that is not the case. Our dedicated team looks forward to expanding our reach for the benefit of the worlds children, said Ben Halpert. Learn more about the Board of Directors and their passion for Savvy Cyber Kids at https://savvycyberkids.org/about/board-of-directors/ Savvy Cyber Kids is grateful for the ongoing support of its sponsors: CISO Horizon, C-Vision International, VIPRE Security Group, PWC US, Yass Partners, Jodi Fink Halpert Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Georgia Properties, Vercel,and SecurityScorecard. About Savvy Cyber Kids Savvy Cyber Kids (SCK), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to enable youth, families, and school communities to be empowered by technology, recognizes that children may be Digital Natives but are also Digital Naives, who, without intervention, completely lack understanding of the implications of their digital actions. Founded in 2007 by noted speaker and author Ben Halpert, Savvy Cyber Kids resources are used in 50 states and 54 countries around the world to help parents and teachers educate todays youth on cyber safety and cyber ethics topics of cyberbullying, digital reputation, technology and screen-time balance, mental health, body and self-image, physical safety, sexting, privacy, gaming, child sexual predators, and more starting at 3 years old. Press inquiries Savvy Cyber Kids https://savvycyberkids.org/ Ben Halpert info@savvycyberkids.org TORONTO, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) announced that it has issued a Notice of Proposal to revoke the liquor licence for The Goofie Newfie at 105 Queen Street West in Fergus, Ontario. The AGCO has also issued an order to immediately suspend their licence, halting liquor sales effective Tuesday, July 15. This decision follows the conviction by the Ontario Court of Justice of one of the bars owners, Robert OBrien, on two counts of sexual assault. Under the Liquor Licence and Control Act, 2019 (LLCA), individuals are not eligible to hold a liquor licence where there are reasonable grounds to believe the applicant will not carry on business in accordance with the law and with integrity and honesty. The Courts findings provide sufficient evidence to sustain those concerns. An establishment served with an Order of Immediate Suspension or Notice of Proposal to revoke a licence has the right to appeal the Registrars action within 15 days to the Licence Appeal Tribunal (LAT), an adjudicative tribunal that is part of Tribunals Ontario and independent of the AGCO. Quote Holding a liquor licence in Ontario is a privilege accorded to individuals who can be relied upon to act with integrity. The AGCO enforces this fundamental standard of Ontarios laws to protect the public. Dr. Karin Schnarr, Chief Executive Officer and Registrar, AGCO Media Contact AGCO Media media@agco.ca About the AGCO The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is an Ontario provincial regulatory agency reporting to the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG). It is a corporation under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario Act, 2019. New York, USA, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Obstructive Sleep Apnea Clinical Trial Pipeline Expands as 12+ Companies Driving Innovation in OSA Therapeutics | DelveInsight The obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) market is being propelled by the rapid evolution of early detection and diagnostic tools. Technologies like home sleep apnea testing (HSAT), AI-powered applications, and smart wearables are transforming the diagnostic landscape by making it more accessible and user-friendly. These innovations not only reduce the dependency on traditional sleep labs but also facilitate earlier diagnosis and timely intervention. As a result, more patients are entering the treatment pathway, supporting both improved clinical outcomes and sustained market expansion. DelveInsights 'Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Insight 2025' report provides comprehensive global coverage of pipeline obstructive sleep apnea therapies in various stages of clinical development, major pharmaceutical companies are working to advance the pipeline space and future growth potential of the obstructive sleep apnea pipeline domain. Key Takeaways from the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Report DelveInsights obstructive sleep apnea pipeline report depicts a robust space with 12+ active players working to develop 14+ pipeline obstructive sleep apnea drugs. active players working to develop pipeline obstructive sleep apnea drugs. Key obstructive sleep apnea companies such as Apnimed, Incannex Healthcare Ltd, Mineralys Therapeutics Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Shionogi Apnimed Sleep Science , and others are evaluating new obstructive sleep apnea drugs to improve the treatment landscape. and others are evaluating new obstructive sleep apnea drugs to improve the treatment landscape. Promising pipeline obstructive sleep apnea therapies, such as Sulthiame, IHL-42X, Lorundrostat, Retatrutide, BAY2925976, SASS-001, and others, are in different phases of obstructive sleep apnea clinical trials. and others, are in different phases of obstructive sleep apnea clinical trials. In June 2025 , Innovent Biologics, Inc. announced that the first participant had been successfully dosed in a Phase III clinical trial (GLORY-OSA) of Mazdutide , a dual glucagon (GCG) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, in Chinese participants with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity (BMI 28 kg/m2). , announced that the first participant had been successfully dosed in a Phase III clinical trial (GLORY-OSA) of , a dual glucagon (GCG) and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, in Chinese participants with and obesity (BMI 28 kg/m2). In April 202 5, Apnimed announced that the first patient had been dosed in the Phase IIA RESTEADY trial evaluating the novel oral drug combination, SASS-001 , in an underserved population of patients suffering from sleep apnea with a central component. Top-line results from the study are expected in the first half of 2026. SASS-001 represents the first clinical stage asset from Shionogi-Apnimed Sleep Science, LLC (SASS), Apnimed's joint venture with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Shionogi). 5, announced that the in the Phase IIA RESTEADY trial evaluating the novel oral drug combination, , in an underserved population of patients suffering from sleep apnea with a central component. Top-line results from the study are expected in the first half of 2026. SASS-001 represents the first clinical stage asset from Shionogi-Apnimed Sleep Science, LLC (SASS), Apnimed's joint venture with Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (Shionogi). In April 2025 , Shionogi & Co., Ltd. announced that it had entered into an agreement with Apnimed, Inc. for the introduction of sulthiame * and a new drug development program. With the conclusion of this agreement, Shionogi acquired a joint ownership interest in the intellectual property rights related to the use of sulthiame in the field of sleep apnea and also in other intellectual property rights related to a different drug development program of Apnimed by paying a one-time fee to Apnimed. , Shionogi & Co., Ltd. announced that it had entered into an with for the introduction of * and a new drug development program. With the conclusion of this agreement, Shionogi acquired a joint ownership interest in the intellectual property rights related to the use of sulthiame in the field of sleep apnea and also in other intellectual property rights related to a different drug development program of Apnimed by paying a one-time fee to Apnimed. In April 2025 , Apnimed announced that it had acquired the intellectual property and exclusive global rights to develop and commercialize sulthiame , a differentiated carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, in the broad field of sleep apnea and sleep-related breathing diseases, from D esitin Arzneimittel GmbH . Apnimed will develop sulthiame with Shionogi & Co. Ltd. through their joint venture, Shionogi-Apnimed Sleep Science (SASS). , announced that it had to develop and commercialize , a differentiated carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, in the broad field of and sleep-related breathing diseases, from D . Apnimed will develop sulthiame with Shionogi & Co. Ltd. through their joint venture, Shionogi-Apnimed Sleep Science (SASS). In April 2025 , Incannex Healthcare Inc. announced that the Company has completed Phase II patient enrollment in the global Phase II/III RePOSA study of IHL-42X for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). IHL-42X is an oral fixed dose combination medicine designed to reduce the incidence of interruptions to breathing during sleep and improve sleep quality. , announced that the Company has in the global Phase II/III RePOSA study of IHL-42X for the treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA). IHL-42X is an oral fixed dose combination medicine designed to reduce the incidence of interruptions to breathing during sleep and improve sleep quality. In January 2025, Mineralys Therapeutics, Inc. announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had cleared the Companys Investigational New Drug (IND) Application for a Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the effect of lorundrostat in the treatment of subjects with moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypertension. Request a sample and discover the recent advances in obstructive sleep apnea drugs @ Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Report The obstructive sleep apnea pipeline report provides detailed profiles of pipeline assets, a comparative analysis of clinical and non-clinical stage Obstructive Sleep Apnea drugs, inactive and dormant assets, a comprehensive assessment of driving and restraining factors, and an assessment of opportunities and risks in the obstructive sleep apnea clinical trial landscape. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Overview Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a sleep disorder marked by repeated episodes of partial or complete blockage of the upper airway during sleep. These episodes cause drops in oxygen levels and frequent awakenings, resulting in fragmented, poor-quality sleep. Common signs include loud snoring, witnessed pauses in breathing, and excessive daytime sleepiness. OSA can have wide-ranging health effects, impairing cardiovascular health, behavior, quality of life, and even driving safety. While other types of sleep-disordered breathing, such as central sleep apnea, upper airway resistance syndrome, and obesity hypoventilation, share some features with OSA, they are distinct conditions and will be discussed separately. The symptoms of OSA vary and can severely impact day-to-day functioning. These include persistent daytime drowsiness, loud snoring, gasping or choking during sleep, morning headaches, dry mouth or sore throat upon waking, difficulty concentrating, mood disturbances such as irritability or depression, high blood pressure, and reduced libido. These manifestations can greatly affect both physical well-being and overall life quality. The underlying cause of OSA involves upper airway obstruction during sleep, mainly due to negative pressure that causes the airway to collapse during inhalation. A key area of concern is the narrowing of the airway in the retropalatal region during exhalation. Obesity is a significant risk factor, with a higher body mass index (BMI) linked to greater airway narrowing. Both structural factors (like airway size) and neuromuscular control contribute to this condition. Understanding how airflow interacts with pressure in collapsible airways is vital to grasping the mechanics of OSA. Additional anatomical and physiological factors also influence the severity of the disorder. Managing OSA requires a personalized and multifaceted approach. For mild-to-moderate cases, lifestyle changes, such as losing weight, maintaining good sleep habits, and avoiding alcohol and sedatives, are important first steps. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the most effective treatment for moderate-to-severe OSA, though adherence can be difficult. Alternatives like oral appliances, especially mandibular advancement devices, may help in less severe cases. Surgical options, including uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP), maxillomandibular advancement (MMA), and hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HNS), may be considered for more severe or treatment-resistant cases. In rare, severe situations, a tracheostomy may be necessary, particularly for patients with significant comorbidities. Ultimately, the best outcomes are achieved through an individualized treatment plan that may combine several strategies to relieve symptoms, improve sleep quality, and enhance overall health. Find out more about obstructive sleep apnea drugs @ Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment A snapshot of the Pipeline Obstructive Sleep Apnea Drugs mentioned in the report: Drugs Company Phase MoA RoA AD109 Apnimed III Adrenergic uptake inhibitors; Cholinergic receptor antagonists; Muscarinic receptor antagonists Oral Retatrutide Eli Lilly and Company III Gastric inhibitory polypeptide receptor agonists; Glucagon receptor agonists; Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists Subcutaneous IHL-42X Incannex Healthcare Ltd II/III Cannabinoid receptor CB2 agonists; Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors Oral Lorundrostat Mineralys Therapeutics Inc. II Aldosterone synthase inhibitors Oral Sulthiame Apnimed II Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors Oral SASS-001 Shionogi Apnimed Sleep Science II Purinergic P2X3 receptor antagonists Oral Learn more about the emerging obstructive sleep apnea therapies @ Obstructive Sleep Apnea Clinical Trials Obstructive Sleep Apnea Therapeutics Assessment The obstructive sleep apnea pipeline report proffers an integral view of the emerging obstructive sleep apnea therapies segmented by stage, product type, molecule type, route of administration, and mechanism of action. Scope of the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Report Coverage : Global : Global Therapeutic Assessment By Product Type: Mono, Combination, Mono/Combination Mono, Combination, Mono/Combination Therapeutic Assessment By Clinical Stages: Discovery, Pre-clinical, Phase I, Phase II, Phase III Discovery, Pre-clinical, Phase I, Phase II, Phase III Therapeutics Assessment By Route of Administration: Oral, Intravenous, Subcutaneous, Parenteral, Topical Oral, Intravenous, Subcutaneous, Parenteral, Topical Therapeutics Assessment By Molecule Type : Recombinant fusion proteins, Small molecule, Monoclonal antibody, Peptide, Polymer, Gene therapy : Recombinant fusion proteins, Small molecule, Monoclonal antibody, Peptide, Polymer, Gene therapy Therapeutics Assessment By Mechanism of Action : Adrenergic uptake inhibitors, Cholinergic receptor antagonists, Muscarinic receptor antagonists, Cannabinoid receptor CB2 agonists, Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, Aldosterone synthase inhibitors, Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, Purinergic P2X3 receptor antagonists : Adrenergic uptake inhibitors, Cholinergic receptor antagonists, Muscarinic receptor antagonists, Cannabinoid receptor CB2 agonists, Carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, Aldosterone synthase inhibitors, Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, Purinergic P2X3 receptor antagonists Key Obstructive Sleep Apnea Companies : Apnimed, Incannex Healthcare Ltd, Mineralys Therapeutics Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Shionogi Apnimed Sleep Science, and others. : Apnimed, Incannex Healthcare Ltd, Mineralys Therapeutics Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Shionogi Apnimed Sleep Science, and others. Key Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Therapies: Sulthiame, IHL-42X, Lorundrostat, Retatrutide, BAY2925976, SASS-001, and others. Dive deep into rich insights for new obstructive sleep apnea treatments, visit @ Obstructive Sleep Apnea Drugs Table of Contents 1. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Report Introduction 2. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Report Executive Summary 3. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline: Overview 4. Analytical Perspective In-depth Commercial Assessment 5. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Clinical Trial Therapeutics 6. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline: Late-Stage Products (Pre-registration) 7. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline: Late-Stage Products (Phase III) 8. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline: Mid-Stage Products (Phase II) 9. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline: Early-Stage Products (Phase I) 10. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline Therapeutics Assessment 11. Inactive Products in the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline 12. Company-University Collaborations (Licensing/Partnering) Analysis 13. Key Companies 14. Key Products in the Obstructive Sleep Apnea Pipeline 15. Unmet Needs 16. Market Drivers and Barriers 17. Future Perspectives and Conclusion 18. Analyst Views 19. Appendix For further information on the obstructive sleep apnea pipeline therapeutics, reach out @ Obstructive Sleep Apnea Therapeutics Related Reports Obstructive Sleep Apnea Epidemiology Forecast Obstructive Sleep Apnea Epidemiology Forecast 2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted obstructive sleep apnea epidemiology in the 7MM, i.e., the United States, EU5 (Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom), and Japan. Obstructive Sleep Apnea Market Obstructive Sleep Apnea Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast 2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key obstructive sleep apnea companies, including Apnimed, Eli Lilly and Company, Nyxoah Inc., ICUREsearch, Eisai Inc., Purdue Pharma LP, Desitin Arzneimittel GmbH, Berendo Scientific LLC, Sumitomo Pharma America Inc., Apnex Medical Inc., among others. Sleep Apnea Market Sleep Apnea Market Insights, Epidemiology, and Market Forecast 2034 report delivers an in-depth understanding of the disease, historical and forecasted epidemiology, as well as the market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key sleep apnea companies, including Apnimed, Incannex Healthcare, Fujian Shengdi Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly and Company, RespireRx Pharmaceuticals, Neurim Pharmaceuticals, among others. Sleep Apnea Pipeline Sleep Apnea Pipeline Insight 2025 report provides comprehensive insights about the pipeline landscape, pipeline drug profiles, including clinical and non-clinical stage products, and the key sleep apnea companies, including Apnimed, Incannex Healthcare, Fujian Shengdi Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly and Company, RespireRx Pharmaceuticals, Neurim Pharmaceuticals, among others. Sleep Apnea Diagnostic Devices Market Sleep Apnea Diagnostic Devices Market Insights, Competitive Landscape and Market Forecast 2032 report delivers an in-depth understanding of market trends, market drivers, market barriers, and key sleep apnea diagnostic devices companies, including Natus Medical Incorporated., SOMNOmedics GmbH, Compumedics Limited, ZOLL Itamar Ltd., Nihon Kohden Corporation, Vyaire., Cleveland Medical Devices Inc., Cadwell Industries Inc., Koninklijke Philips N.V., InMode Aesthetic Solutions, ResMed, Resonea, DeVilbiss Healthcare LLC, Smiths Group Plc. (Smiths Medical), Hemodiaz Life Sciences Private Limited., ActiGraph, LLC., Advin Health Care, Recorders & Medicare Systems Pvt Ltd (RMS), Allengers, EB Neuro S.p.A., among others. DelveInsights Pharma Competitive Intelligence Service: Through its CI solutions, DelveInsight provides its clients with real-time and actionable intelligence on their competitors and markets of interest to keep them stay ahead of the competition by providing insights into the latest therapeutic area-specific/indication-specific market trends, in emerging drugs, and competitive strategies. These services are tailored to the specific needs of each client and are delivered through a combination of reports, dashboards, and interactive presentations, enabling clients to make informed decisions, mitigate risks, and identify opportunities for growth and expansion. Other Business Pharmaceutical Consulting Services Healthcare Conference Coverage Pipeline Assessment Healthcare Licensing Services Discover how a mid-pharma client gained a level of confidence in their soon-to-be partner for manufacturing their therapeutics by downloading our Due Diligence Case Study About DelveInsight DelveInsight is a leading Business Consultant and Market Research firm focused exclusively on life sciences. Connect with us at LinkedIn MILTON, Del., July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In honor of its 30th anniversary, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery unveils an off-centered reconstruction of Founder Sam Calagiones first-ever homebrew, Cherry Pale Ale . A liquid time capsule transporting drinkers back to the mid-90s, this limited-edition beer is brewed with Delaware wheat, Maine barley, Cascade hops and boatloads of beautiful cherries for an easy-drinking, summertime sipper with balanced sweet and tart notes of stone fruit. Want to try the beer that started it all? Beginning this Friday, July 18, at noon EST, Dogfish Heads Cherry Pale Ale will be available for purchase within a special 30th birthday box exclusively at www.givethembeer.com. Dogfish Heads Cherry Pale Ale 30th birthday box includes a 6pk/12oz cans of Cherry Pale Ale alongside a selection of 90s-inspired Dogfish Head merchandise a magnet, sticker pack, mini pennant flag and a special Post Tape digital cassette. Priced at just $30 each, including shipping, while supplies last. I first brewed Cherry Pale Ale back in 1993, while I was writing the business plan for Dogfish Head, said Sam Calagione, Dogfish Head Brewer & Founder. After serving it to my roommates and friends at a party in our small New York City apartment, I knew and proclaimed to everyone that brewing beer was what I wanted to do with my life. Now, in honor of Dogfish Heads 30th birthday, I couldnt be more excited to share my virgin brew with drinkers near and far! To make this release of Cherry Pale Ale as authentic as possible, every detail was thoughtfully inspired by Dogfish Heads history and Calagiones first time homebrewing. The beers recipe includes Delaware wheat and Maine barley, offering loving nods to the brands bistate roots Delaware, where the brand was founded and is still rooted today, and Maine, the state housing the jut of land after which Dogfish Head was named. The label artwork, which features a hand-painted cherry, is a recreation of the artwork that adorned Calagiones original homebrew. And to keep things true-to-history, it was created the same way as the original, by Calagione, using a hand-carved potato stamp and finely bristled paint brush. Everything about this release holds a special place in my heart, but one of my favorite details has to be the infamous carpet coasters, said Calagione. Youre probably thinking, carpet coasters what the f*ck? Well, when I first brewed Cherry Pale Ale, after heating the bottles in the oven to sanitize them, I placed them on the carpet to cool. Little did I know the heat would melt the carpet to the bottles requiring me to cut a coaster around each bottle. Hey, necessity is the mother of invention right? So thats why every can of Cherry Pale Ale is lovingly affixed with a hand-crafted carpet coaster of its own. While Dogfish Heads Cherry Pale Ale 30th birthday box will only be available for purchase online, drinkers in Delaware can pick up a 6pk/12oz cans of Cherry Pale Ale, carpet coasters and all, at Dogfish Heads Milton brewery. Priced at $16 per 6pk/12oz cans. Limited to one 6pk per person. Rooted in coastal Delaware, Dogfish Head opened its doors as the first brewpub in the First State and one of the smallest commercial breweries in America in June of 1995. Now, 30 years later, Dogfish Head is one of the largest, most well-known craft breweries in the country, with a production brewery, production distillery and tasting room in Milton; a beer-themed, canal-front hotel in Lewes; and two delectable restaurants in Rehoboth. And while many things have changed over the past three decades, the brewerys raison detre has not; Dogfish Head remains committed to providing off-centered goodness for off-centered people, in the forms of beers, spirits, culinary adventures and more. For more about Dogfish Head and its 30-year history, please visit www.dogfish.com. XXX DOGFISH HEAD CRAFT BREWERY: With quality, creativity and non-conformity at its core, Dogfish Head has been committed to brewing unique beers with high-caliber culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened 30 years ago. Dedicated to exploring goodness of all kinds, Dogfish Head later expanded its beverage artistry beyond just craft beer to produce award-winning portfolios of full-proof spirits whiskeys, gins, vodkas, rums and more and spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails. A Boston Beer Company brand and proud supporter of the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, Dogfish Head is a Delaware-based entity consisting of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, a production brewery and tasting room; Dogfish Head Distilling Co., a production distillery; Brewings & Eats, a brewpub and live music venue; Chesapeake & Maine, a seafood and cocktail spot; and the Dogfish INN, a beer-themed, canal-front hotel. For more about Dogfish Head, please visit www.dogfish.com or follow the brand on social media. Attachment LAGRANGE, Ga., July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Agricultural Scientific, LLC announces that construction is now underway on the Agriculture Technology Campus (ATC), an innovative agricultural project in South Carolina set to transform food production in the Eastern U.S. Located at the 1,000-acre Agriculture Technology Campus, the high-tech hub will feature a hydroponic greenhouse and processing facility in Early Branch, SC. It will produce locally grown, organic tomatoes with 90% greater water efficiency than traditional farming, reducing dependence on imports from Mexico, California, and Canada. Initially announced in September 2020 during the COVID pandemic, the highly anticipated project that garnered international interest, has been galvanized through a strategic partnership between Phoenix Lender Services, a subsidiary of Community Bankshares, Inc. and Optus Bank of South Carolina. Backed by a complex capital stack of USDA Business & Industry and Food Supply Chain loans, the project will enable 400+ acres of hydroponic greenhouses to produce year-round vegetables, cutting water use and eliminating pesticides. Upon completion, this innovative project will bring $350 million in private capital investment and over 1000 direct jobs to rural Hampton County and the surrounding region. This isnt just about growing vegetablesits about reshaping the future of agriculture and re-shoring our critical U.S. supply chain, said Zeb Portanova, CEO of Agricultural Scientific. By producing fresh, high-quality produce closer to consumers, we can reduce food miles, cut emissions, and limit our reliance on foreign countries. Thank you to the United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins for her integral support of this project. Currently, 90% of vegetables consumed in the Eastern U.S. are transported from other countries and regions, leading to supply chain vulnerabilities and excessive carbon emissions. This project will drastically shorten food miles, ensuring fresher produce while slashing CO emissions by approximately 600 metric tons per 100 truckloads. Key benefits of this initiative include: Enhance food security by reducing reliance on imported produce from Mexico and Canada Lower carbon emissions through sustainable, localized production Align with retailers goals by providing fresher, locally grown, organic, and environmentally responsible products Foster U.S.-based manufacturing growth and reinvestment in critical sectors that sustain communities and the economy Generate hundreds of skilled agricultural jobs in South Carolina This is a landmark moment for agriculture, rural America, and sustainability," said Chris Hurn, President of Phoenix Lender Services and Community Bankshares, Inc. By investing in local food production, were not only boosting U.S. agriculture but also bringing manufacturing back home, reducing reliance on foreign supply chains and creating lasting economic impact. This facility represents the future of sustainable food production, said Reggie Webber, Chief Credit Officer of Optus Bank. Its not just an investment in farmingits an investment in economic stability, job creation, and environmental responsibility. At Optus Bank, we are proud to bank on communities through innovation, impact, and economic empowerment. Our strategic partnership with Community Bankshares and their subsidiaries, Phoenix Lender Services, allows us to achieve a key strategic imperative for the Bank, said Benita Lefft, President of Optus Bank. A total USDA loan capital stack of $46,157,187 was successfully structured through the partnership. This included two food supply chain loans totaling $29,610,400 and a Business & Industry (B&I) loan of $16,546,787. The ATC is developed and owned by Agricultural Scientific, LLC and leased to Lokal Harvest USA (LHUSA), a subsidiary of Harvest House, one of Europes largest and most successful greenhouse operators. With a track record of supplying major retailers like Walmart, Kroger, Sams Club, Trader Joes, and Publix, Lokal Harvest USA is well-positioned to scale operations and meet the rising demand for fresh, locally grown produce. The Agriculture Technology Campus has been the talk of Hampton County since it was first announced, and the commencement of construction could not have come at a better time. We in Hampton County understand that good economic development has a direct tie to a better quality of life for all of our citizens, and we are excited about this innovative agricultural project. We thank everyone involved in the ATC project for their support, and we look forward to working with the company for decades to come as new jobs and opportunities emerge in Hampton County, said Dr. Roy Hollingsworth, Chairman of Hampton County Council. SouthernCarolina Alliance is delighted to see this critical project coming to fruition. We appreciate the support of our partners at USDA, the SC Dept. of Commerce, the SC Dept. of Agriculture, Phoenix Lender Services, Community Bankshares, and Optus Bank in facilitating this investment in our region. Good jobs and investment change communities, and this project will not only affect Hampton County locally, but also improve the quality of life in our region and beyond through both its economic impact and fresher, healthier produce for all, said Danny Black, President and CEO, SouthernCarolina Alliance. This landmark project is more than just a local initiativeits a scalable model for the future of agriculture in the U.S. With federal support, private investment, and the expertise of global leaders in hydroponic agriculture, this initiative is poised to set a new standard for modern farmingone that delivers fresher produce, reduces environmental impact, and supports economic growth. Local, legislative and state leaders gathered at the construction site on July 16 to celebrate the partnership and view the construction underway. For more information, please visit The Agriculture Technology Campus https://agtechcampus.com . For more information about Phoenix Lender Services and its lending solutions, please visit www.phoenixlenderservices.com . ABOUT AGRICULTURE TECHNOLOGY CAMPUS (ATC) The Agriculture Technology Campus in Hampton County, SC, is a pioneering agricultural development designed to revolutionize food production through controlled-environment farming, sustainable growing practices, and strategic partnerships with global leaders in greenhouse technology. If you are interested in joining the ATC campus, please email info@gemozf.com . Backed by a complex capital stack of USDA Business & Industry and Food Supply Chain loans, the project will enable 400+ acres of hydroponic greenhouses to produce year-round vegetables, cutting water use and eliminating pesticides. ABOUT PHOENIX LENDER SERVICES Based in Georgia and serving clients nationwide, Phoenix Lender Services offers a comprehensive suite of commercial lending solutions, including loan underwriting, closing, and servicing; participant lender matching; secondary market sales; portfolio management; risk analysis; and compliance reviews and regulatory support. Our seasoned professionals combine extensive industry expertise in SBA, USDA, and other commercial government-guaranteed lending with industry-leading technologies to deliver tailored solutions that align with each clients unique strategic goals. Phoenix Lender Services is leading the way in SBA and USDA commercial lending. ABOUT COMMUNITY BANKSHARES INC Community Bankshares, Inc. is a dynamic company that is revolutionizing the financial landscape via its support for Americas businesses. As a mission-focused company, we are redefining how lending capital is provided across the nation and its territories in ways that promote business stability and encourage local area prosperity. In doing so, we foster economic growth, job creation and retention, and community strength. https://communitybankshares.com/ ABOUT OPTUS BANK Established in 1921, Optus Bank is a federally designated Minority Depository Institution (MDI) and certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) dedicated to serving underserved communities. Optus is committed to Banking on Communities Through Innovation, Impact, and Economic Empowermentproviding access to capital, financial education, and full-service banking for individuals, small businesses, and mission-aligned organizations. https://optus.bank/ ABOUT LOKAL HARVEST USA Lokal Harvest USA is a leading producer of hydroponic greenhouse vegetables, bringing advanced farming techniques and global supply chain expertise to the U.S. market in partnership with Harvest House, one of Europes largest greenhouse operators. https://agtechcampus.com/ MEDIA CONTACT Abigail Davison Uproar PR by Moburst for Community Bankshares, Inc. abigail.davison@moburst.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e99b9c29-2298-468a-8d70-705020ace65d London, UK,, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- RDGMining, a globally recognized leader in cryptocurrency cloud mining, is excited to announce enhanced opportunities for XRP enthusiasts looking to increase the value of their digital assets and easily acquire more XRP. With its user-friendly cloud mining service, RDGMining continues to provide a convenient and efficient pathway for individuals to participate in the growing XRP ecosystem. Founded in January 2019, RDGMining has established itself as a premier, cloud mining platform. The company boasts an extensive global infrastructure, with over 100 large-scale mining farms and data centers across Canada, Kazakhstan, the United States, Russia, and other key regions. Serving over 7.5 million users in 175 countries, RDGMining's one-click mining service simplifies crypto asset investment, offering stable and high-yield returns without the complexities of traditional mining setups. "We are committed to making cryptocurrency investment accessible and profitable for everyone, especially for the vibrant XRP community," says a spokesperson for RDGMining. "Our cloud mining service leverages the inherent efficiencies of the XRP Ledger Consensus Protocol, providing a seamless and environmentally conscious way for users to expand their XRP holdings and generate passive income." XRP's unique attributes, including its rapid transaction speed (1,500 transactions per second), minimal confirmation times (3-5 seconds), and extremely low transaction fees (typically around 0.00001 XRP), make it an ideal asset for cloud mining. With a total supply of 100 billion XRP fully generated, the design and revenue model of RDGMining's services are intricately linked to these fundamental characteristics of the digital asset. Start Your Passive Income Journey with RDGMining Today: Step 1: Register an account and receive an instant $10 reward. Step 2: Choose from a variety of mining contracts tailored to your investment goals: New User Experience Computing Power: Investment: $100 Contract Period: 2 days Daily Income: $3.50 Maturity Income: $100 + $7 Classic Computing Power Contracts: Investment: $500 | Period: 5 days | Daily Income: $6.25 | Maturity Income: $500 + $31.25 Investment: $1,000 | Period: 10 days | Daily Income: $13 | Maturity Income: $1,000 + $130 Investment: $3,000 | Period: 20 days | Daily Income: $42 | Maturity Income: $3,000 + $840 Advanced Computing Power Contract: Investment: $8,000 | Period: 35 days | Daily Income: $128 | Maturity Income: $8,000 + $4,480 Super Computing Power Contract: Investment: $30,000 | Period: 45 days | Daily Income: $540 | Maturity Income: $30,000 + $24,300 Click here to view more contract details RDGMining's platform ensures effortless profit settlement, automatically crediting mining rewards to user accounts daily in real-time. Both new and experienced users can easily track detailed earnings, computing power changes, and transaction history without any manual intervention, ensuring a truly hands-off passive income experience. In addition to XRP, RDGMining supports a diverse range of mainstream cryptocurrencies for cloud mining and profit distribution, catering to varied asset allocation strategies. The platform prioritizes transparency and security, offering convenient withdrawal channels that allow users to safely transfer mining revenue to their personal wallets at any time, free from hidden fees. RDGMining is also deeply committed to green sustainability. Its operations are powered by clean energy, and the company employs efficient, energy-saving mining machine clusters and intelligent cooling systems to minimize energy consumption. This dedication ensures that every bit of computing power output aligns with ecological protection, demonstrating RDGMining's commitment to environmentally responsible development within the digital mining sector. Start your sustainable journey to wealth through cloud mining with RDGMining today. About RDGMining: Founded in January 2019, RDGMining is a leading cloud mining platform. With over 100 large-scale mining farms and data centers globally, RDGMining provides one-click mining services to over 7.5 million users across 175 countries, offering stable and high-yield crypto asset investment opportunities. RDGMining Official Website: https://pyfmjc.com/ Disclaimer: The information provided in this press release does not constitute an investment solicitation, nor does it constitute investment advice, financial advice, or a trading recommendation. Cryptocurrency mining and staking involve risks and may result in loss of funds. It is strongly recommended that you perform due diligence, including consulting a professional financial advisor, before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies and securities. London, England, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GoldenMining today announced the official launch of its new daily return cloud mining contract, designed for ETH and XRP holders seeking predictable income without hardware or technical setup. The contract allows users to convert their assets into a stable stream of daily earningsdelivered automaticallyby activating a secure, fixed-rate mining agreement via the platform. The launch follows major developments in the crypto market, including the approval of the ETH spot ETF and a surge in XRP trading volume. As volatility increases, investors are moving beyond passive holding strategies and looking for income-generating alternatives. GoldenMinings cloud mining model offers a seamless solutionallowing users to earn thousands of dollars per day simply by committing ETH or XRP to the new daily yield contracts. As crypto investment continues to develop, GoldenMining will involve traditional crypto assets such as ETH and XRP in real mining operations through smart contracts. This mechanism is supported by the large-scale, automated cloud mining facilities deployed by the platform. In addition, GoldenMining uses multiple encryption technologies to ensure asset security and is insured by an international insurance agency (AIG). The platform complies with the compliance standards of major global markets, allowing users to not only earn with peace of mind, but also use it with confidence. Users only need a few steps to experience the profit process Register an account, get a $15 bonus immediately, and learn about the profit model faster Choose contract income. The platform can purchase a variety of long-term and short-term contracts. Purchase contracts to activate cloud mining machines to obtain stable income. User contract recommendation contract Investment Amount Contract Rewards Total income New User Experience $15 $0.60 $15.60 Elphapex DG1+ $100 $3 $106 Bitmain S23 Hyd $650 $42.25 $692.25 AntminerL917GH $1800 $287.28 $2087.28 L916GH $4500 $1890 $6390 ElphaPex DG Hydro1 $7800 $3276 $11076 Elphapex DG2 $12,000 $8,100.00 $20,100.00 Automatic daily income: No need to calculate manually, contract profits are automatically distributed to your account every 24 hours By recharging your account with ETH, XRP or other mainstream cryptocurrencies (such as BTC, USDT, LTC, etc.), the system will automatically incorporate it into the daily income system without the need for complex settings or manual intervention. As the cryptocurrency market develops, passive holding is no longer enough. Investors need daily, real returns without taking any risks. GoldenMining represents the formation of a new generation of cloud mining, which is more convenient, efficient, and deeply integrated with assets such as ETH and XRP. In the future, volatility exists, and practicality is more important than hype. GoldenMining's strategy allows investors in this market to not only enjoy the value brought by encryption, but also enjoy the returns brought by investment. For more information, please visit the official websitewww.Goldenmining.com Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an as-is basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We assume no responsibility for any inaccuracies, errors, or omissions. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above. Scottsdale, Arizona, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Black Rock Coffee Bar , founded in Oregon and known for its premium roasted coffees, teas, smoothies, and flavorful Fuel energy drinks, continues its rapid Texas expansion with the opening of a new store in Stafford, Texas. Located at 11123 W Airport Blvd, the new coffee bar will celebrate its grand opening on Friday, July 25, with free 16-ounce drinks all day. The Stafford store represents Black Rocks 21st location in the Houston Metro area, 42nd in Texas, and part of the brands ongoing growth in key markets across the Sunbelt. Our growth in Houston continues to surpass expectations, and were thrilled to bring Black Rock to Stafford, said Mark Davis, CEO of Black Rock Coffee Bar. This community has such a strong sense of connection, and our team is ready to welcome guests with fast, friendly service and quality drinks. With 157 Black Rock Coffee Bar stores across the U.S., Texas now accounts for 26% of Black Rock Coffee Bars total locations, highlighting the brands rapid growth and deepening presence in the state. Loyal Black Rock guests can be rewarded for in-store, in-app and online purchasesincluding the new Egg Bitesearning bolts that can be redeemed for complimentary beverages through the coffee bars rewards program. The new 2000-square-foot Black Rock Coffee Bar store showcases the boutique coffee brands signature industrial modern design. This design philosophy is aimed at ensuring that visitors can not only enjoy their favorite beverages but also relax, work, or socialize in a laidback and inviting environment. The popular coffee operator is set to become the go-to destination for all coffee enthusiasts seeking fast and friendly service. The skilled team of baristas at Black Rock are committed to enhancing the overall customer experience making it their mission to brighten their customers' day. Black Rock Coffee Bars mission is to be a positive force in the communities it serves. Founded in 2008 in Portland, Oregon, an area of the Pacific Northwest known for its coffee excellence, Black Rock Coffee Bar continues its rapid expansion in the West and into the Sunbelt with locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. This year, the boutique coffee company was named the Fastest Growing Private Company in Oregon and SW Washington by the Portland Business Journal. In 2023, Black Rock Coffee Bar ranked 1179th among Americas Fastest-Growing Private Companies by Inc. Magazines 5000 Annual List. The Black Rock culture prides itself on providing opportunities for young people to learn how to lead, run a business, and develop people skills. About Black Rock Coffee Bar Black Rock Coffee Bar is a national boutique coffee shop that is known for its premium roasted coffees, teas, smoothies and flavorful Fuel energy drinks. Founded as a family owned and operated business in Oregon in 2008, Black Rock Coffee Bar has grown to 157 retail locations in seven states. The Black Rock culture prides itself on not only being a positive force for the communities it serves, but also the team members that fuel their locations day in and day out. An important aspect of their team mission is to recognize those that go above and beyond by displaying the 4Gs of Black Rock - grit, growth, gratitude, and grace. For more information, visit https://br.coffee/ Attachment TABER, ALBERTA, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FLEXIBLE SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL, INC. (NYSE-AMERICAN: FSI), is the developer and manufacturer of biodegradable polymers for oil extraction, detergent ingredients and water treatment as well as crop nutrient availability chemistry. Flexible Solutions also manufactures biodegradable and environmentally safe water and energy conservation technologies. In addition, FSI is increasing its presense in the food and nutrition supplement manufacturing markets. Today the Company announces second quarter (Q2), 2025 revenue. Sales were up in Q2, 2025 compared to Q2, 2024. Flexible Solutions top line revenue increased to $11.212 million (Q2, 2025) from $10.529 million (Q2, 2024) to), up approximately 6.5% year over year. Mr. Dan OBrien, CEO, comments, The $2.5 million payment for food grade product development moved our Q2 revenue from poor to good. We saw weakness from several historic customers in the quarter most likely related to general business conditions, tariff uncertainty and inventory reduction. Mr. OBrien continues, Volatility in our base business reinforces our decision to emphasize food grade operations but, it does not change our opinion that the second half of 2025 will see growth unless economic conditions decay further. Complete financial results will be available after market close on Thursday, August 14, 2025, concurrent with the Companys SEC second quarter filings. A conference call will be scheduled for 8:00 am Pacific Time, 11:00 am Eastern Time, the following business day, Friday, August 15, 2025. See the FSI August 14, 2025 financials news release for the dial in numbers. About Flexible Solutions International Flexible Solutions International, Inc. (www.flexiblesolutions.com), based in Taber, Alberta, is an environmental technology company. The Companys NanoChem Solutions Inc. subsidiary specializes in biodegradable, water-soluble products utilizing thermal polyaspartate (TPA) biopolymers. TPA beta-proteins are manufactured from the common biological amino acid, L-aspartic and have wide usage including scale inhibitors, detergent ingredients, water treatment and crop enhancement. Along with TPA, this division started producing other crop enhancement products as well. In 2022, the Company entered the food and nutrition markets by obtaining FDA food grade approval for the Peru IL plant. The other divisions manufacture energy and water conservation products for drinking water, agriculture, industrial markets and swimming pools throughout the world. Safe Harbor Provision The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "Safe Harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts, are forward looking statement with respect to events, the occurrence of which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted, either positively or negatively, by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Flexible Solutions International 6001 54th Ave, Taber, Alberta, CANADA T1G 1X4 Company Contacts Jason Bloom Toll Free: 800.661.3560 Fax: 403.223.2905 Email: info@flexiblesolutions.com To find out more information about Flexible Solutions and our products please visit www.flexiblesolutions.com If you have received this news release by mistake or if you would like to be removed from our update list please reply to: info@flexiblesolutions.com WILMINGTON, Del., July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) today announced plans to issue its third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings release at approximately 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The companys live webcast with securities analysts will include an executive summary and detailed remarks. The live webcast will take place at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, July 30. Simultaneously, the company will post a slide presentation in the Investor Relations section of its website at http://investor.ashland.com. Among those participating in the webcast presentation will be: Guillermo Novo, chair, and chief executive officer William Whitaker, interim chief financial officer Dago Caceres, senior vice president, general manager, specialty additives Alessandra Faccin, senior vice president, general manager, life sciences and intermediates Jim Minicucci, senior vice president, general manager, personal care To access the call by phone, please go to this registration link and you will be provided with dial in details. To avoid delays, we encourage participants to dial into the conference call fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. The webcast and supporting materials will be accessible through the Investor Relations section of Ashland's website at http://investor.ashland.com. Following the live event, an archived version of the webcast and supporting materials will be available on the Ashland website for 12 months. About Ashland Ashland Inc. (NYSE: ASH) is a global additives and specialty ingredients company with a conscious and proactive mindset for environmental, social and governance (ESG). The company serves customers in a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including architectural coatings, construction, energy, food and beverage, personal care and pharmaceutical. Approximately 2,960 passionate, tenacious solvers from renowned scientists and research chemists to talented engineers and plant operators thrive on developing practical, innovative and elegant solutions to complex problems for customers in more than 100 countries. Visit ashland.com and ashland.com/ESG to learn more. Trademark, Ashland, or its subsidiaries, registered in various countries. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: Investor Relations: Media Relations: William Whitaker Carolmarie C. Brown +1 (614) 790-2095 +1 (302) 995-3158 wcwhitaker@ashland.com ccbrown@ashland.com Attachment Vancouver, July 15, 2025 - First Andes Silver Ltd. (TSXV: FAS) (OTC Pink: MSLV) (FSE: 9TZ0) (the "Company" or "First Andes") today announced that is has increased its previously announced non-brokered private placement financing from 10,000,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.10 CAD per unit for gross proceeds of $1,000,000 CAD to 13,500,000 Units at $0.10 CAD per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $1,350,000 CAD (the "Offering"). Each Unit will continue to consist of one common share of the Company (a "Share") and one-half of one share purchase warrant (each whole share purchase warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable at $0.15 CAD per Share for a period of two (2) years from the date of issue. The securities issued under the Offering will be subject to restrictions on resale for a period of four (4) months from the date of issue. The Company may pay finders a fee in cash and/or share purchase warrants to registered finders. The proceeds of the Offering will be used to expand on its current drill program at the Santas Gloria silver property and general working capital purposes. About First Andes Silver Ltd. First Andes Silver Ltd. is a British Columbia company that holds a 100% interest in the high-grade Santas Gloria silver property, located in a major mining district 55 km east of Lima, Peru. Santas Gloria has excellent established road access and is situated within a well-known intermediate sulfidation epithermal belt, and hosts over 12 km of multiphase veins mapped at surface, which had never been historically drilled or explored by modern techniques before 2024. First Andes' maiden diamond drill program last year reported high-grade silver on all drilled vein systems confirming silver endowment and warranting high priority follow-up drilling in 2025. Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to Company's limited operating history, ability to obtain sufficient financing to carry out its exploration programs and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258968 /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES ORFOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ Vancouver, July 15, 2025 - Quantum Critical Metals Corp. (TSX.V: LEAP | OTCQB: ATOXF | FSE: 86A1) ("Quantum" or the "Company") announces that, further to its news release date June 27, 2025, the Company has closed a second tranche of its non-brokered private placement financing (the "Offering") raising gross proceeds of $400,000 pursuant to the sale of 4,000,000 units ("Units") at a price of $0.10 per Unit. Each Unit consists of one common share of the Company (each, a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one Share at a price of $0.20 per Share until July 15, 2027. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Offering to fund continued exploration activities on the Company's properties in British Columbia and Quebec and for general corporate purposes. Closing of the Offering is subject to certain conditions, including the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") and certain other conditions customary for a private placement of this nature. The Company expects to close a final tranche on or about July 17, 2025. All securities issued pursuant to this tranche of the Offering are subject to a statutory four month and one day hold period from their date of issue expiring on November 16, 2025. The Company paid finder's fees consisting of $11,830 in cash fees and issued 118,300 brokers warrants in respect of subscriptions from purchasers under the Offering introduced to the Company by certain persons in accordance with the policies of, and subject to the approval of, the TSXV. Gross proceeds for Pro Group members (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) in the second tranche amounted to $55,000 pursuant to the issuance of 550,000 Units. The securities described herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act"), or any state securities laws, and accordingly, may not be offered or sold within the United States except in compliance with the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities requirements or pursuant to exemptions therefrom. This press release is not an offer or a solicitation of an offer of securities for sale in the United States, nor will there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Quantum Critical Metals Corp. Quantum Critical Metals Corp. (TSX.V: LEAP) (OTCQB: ATOXF) (FSE: 86A1) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on advancing critical metals projects that power next-generation technologies. With a growing portfolio of promising assets-including the NMX East Gallium-Rubidium-Cesium Project in Quebec, the Discovery Gallium-Rubidium-Cesium and polymetallic project in Quebec, the Victory Antimony Project, 4 copper projects in British Columbia, and the Prophecy Germanium-Gallium-Zinc Project in British Columbia, among others, the Company is strategically positioned to support the West's transition to a secure and sustainable critical minerals supply. To stay updated on Quantum's latest developments, sign up for our mailing list and visit www.quantumcriticalmetals.com and www.sedarplus.ca. Marcy Kiesman, CEO Telephone: 604.428.2900 or 604.339.2243 Email: marcykiesman@qcritical.com Website: www.quantumcriticalmetals.com Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains "forward?looking information or statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which may include, without limitation, statements that address Offering and the terms thereof, including the closing of future tranches of the Offering, the payment of fees in respect of the Offering and TSXV approval of the foregoing, the use of proceeds from the Offering and other statements relating to the business, financial and technical prospects of the Company. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical facts that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking information reflects the Company's views with respect to future events and is subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those filed under the Company's profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. The Company does not undertake to update forward?looking statements or forward?looking information, except as required by law. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Copyright (c) 2025 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. Vancouver, July 15, 2025 - Silicon Metals Corp. (CSE: SI) (FSE: X6U) ("Silicon Metals" or the "Company") announces that, further to its press release dated July 15, 2025, the Company has amended the terms of its private placement of units for gross proceeds of up to $800,000 (the "Offering"). Pursuant to the amended terms of the Offering, the Company intends to issue up to 16,000,000 non-flow-through units at a price per unit of $0.05. The units will consist of one common share of the Company and one half of a common non-flow-through share purchase warrant, with each whole non-flow-through warrant entitling the holder thereof to purchase a non-flow-through common share at an exercise price of $0.055 for a period of 24 months. The terms of the non-flow-through warrants will also include an accelerator provision whereby, if the price of the common shares on the CSE closes at $0.15 or higher for a period of ten (10) consecutive trading days, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the warrants to thirty (30) days from the acceleration trigger. The Company intends to use the aggregate proceeds of the Offering for advancement and development of the Company's properties, as well as for general working capital purposes. Finders' fees may be payable in connection with the Offering in accordance with the policies of the CSE. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day after the date of issuance, as set out in National Instrument 45102 - Resale of Securities. None of the securities sold in connection with the Offering will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Silicon Metals Corp. Silicon Metals Corp. is currently focused on exploration in western Canada, namely British Columbia. The Company holds an undivided 100% right, title and interest in the Ptarmigan Silica Project located approximately 130km from Prince George, British Columbia. The Company has also acquired an option to purchase an undivided 100% right, title, and interest in both the Silica Ridge Silica Project located approximately 70kms southeast from the town of MacKenzie, British Columbia, as well as the Longworth Silica Project located approximately 85km East from Prince George, British Columbia. Silicon has also signed a definitive option agreement to earn a 100% interest in the Sudbury District of Ontario based Aggregate Permit 6453 and signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire five (5) mining claims encompassing the permit itself. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF SILICON METALS CORP. "Morgan Good" Morgan Good Chief Executive Officer and Director Neither the CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release). Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release includes certain statements and information that may constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance and reflect the expectations or beliefs of management of the Company regarding future events. Generally, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "intends" or "anticipates", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "should", "would" or "occur". This information and these statements, referred to herein as "forwardlooking statements", are not historical facts, are made as of the date of this news release and include without limitation, the Company's proposed Offering and statements regarding the Company's plans and intended use of proceeds. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release. Readers are cautioned that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain material assumptions, including without limitation, that the Company will be able to complete the Offering, and that the Company will have all the necessary resources, including personnel and capital to carry out its business plans. These forwardlooking statements involve numerous risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially from results suggested in any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, that the Company will fail to complete the Offering, on the terms proposed, or at all; that the Company will not use the proceeds from the Offering as disclosed; that the Company will be unable to carry out its business plans as disclosed; changes in applicable legislation impacting the Company's exploration plans; unanticipated costs; loss of key personnel; failure to raise the capital required to carry out the Company's business plans. Although management of the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned that reliance on such information may not be appropriate for other purposes. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statement, forward-looking information or financial out-look that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. We seek safe harbor. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR TO U.S. PERSONS To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258977 Vancouver, July 16, 2025 - Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (FSE: D4E) (WKN: A1JQW5) ("Defiance" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the signing of the definitive agreement with Green Earth Metals Inc. ("GEMS"), a privately held company with a portfolio of three copper-gold-silver projects in Sonora, Mexico, and all of the shareholders of GEMS, thereby completing the previously announced acquisition of GEMS (the "Transaction") (see press release dated April 7, 2025). Under the terms of the Transaction, Defiance has acquired all issued and outstanding common shares of GEMS (the "GEMS Shares"), solidifying its position as a leading exploration company with projects across Mexico's mineral belts. Map 1: Mexico's Mineral Belts This map delineates two of the most extensive mineralized belts in Mexico: The Porphyry-Copper Belt and the Mexican Silver Belt. Defiance's newly acquired projects, Victoria, Espiritu, and Los Ocotes, are located on the Porphyry-Copper Belt, a favorable geological setting that is home to large gold, copper and silver mining districts in Mexico. Including major production areas such as Cananea, one of the largest copper mines in North America. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_001full.jpg Under the terms of the Transaction, Defiance issued an aggregate of 4,954,613 common shares ("the "Defiance Shares") to the shareholders of GEMS at a deemed price of C$0.255 per Defiance Share in exchange for all issued and outstanding GEMS Shares, based on an exchange ratio of one Defiance Share for every 4.52 GEMS Shares, for a total consideration of C$1,263,426. Transaction Highlights Strategic Acquisition: Defiance has acquired 100% of GEMS, a private British Columbia-based company founded by renowned discovery geoscientist Richard Osmond. As a result of the Transaction, GEMS is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Defiance. Significant District-Scale Mineralization Supports Ongoing Discovery Potential in Sonora: GEMS holds rights to three copper-gold-silver projects in Mexico's Sonoran Desert, covering a total of 6,795.22 hectares. The area hosts top-tier copper deposits, including the Cananea and La Caridad Cu-MoAu porphyry systems-two of the largest copper mines in North America. Robust Business Environment Anchored by Ongoing Production and Growth in Sonora: Sonora is recognized as a favorable mining jurisdiction due to its long history of productive and successful mining operations. The acquired projects are strategically located near Alamos Gold's operating Mulatos Mine, where the recently permitted "Puerto del Aire" mine-extension is under development. Significant Exploration Upside: Defiance is committed to advancing exploration efforts on the Victoria, Espiritu, and Los Ocotes projects. With a drill permit already in place, Defiance plans to launch a comprehensive exploration campaign, including a diamond drill program at the Victoria project. Chris Wright, Chairman and CEO of Defiance, commented: "This acquisition brings three copper-gold-silver projects in Sonora, Mexico, one of the world's most renowned copper-gold mining jurisdictions, into Defiance Silver's portfolio. The GEMS team consists of seasoned mine financiers and global mineral explorers, and we are pleased to welcome them as shareholders. This transaction strengthens Defiance's strategy to build a diversified portfolio across silver, gold, and copper systems, enhances our exploration potential, and reinforces our commitment to creating value for shareholders." Sonora State Sonora remains Mexico's premier jurisdiction for precious metals and copper. According to the State Government's Annual Report, Sonora accounted for 75.6 % of Mexico's copper production and 25.7 % of national gold output as of early 2024. The state also led the country in overall mining contribution, representing 31.4 % of total national mining value, with over 20,000 direct jobs in the sector. This concentration of output underscores a robust, district-scale metal endowment, marking Sonora as a high-caliber destination for long-term investment 1, 2, 3. The GEMS projects are situated in proximity to several large, active mining operations, including: Mulatos (Alamos Gold): First explored in the 1980s and brought into production two decades later, it is a low-cost, open-pit gold mine producing over 120,000 oz/year, with upside toward 160,000 oz. on a 34,000+ ha property, Mulatos demonstrates how mid-scale projects can deliver sustained growth 4 . Dolores (Pan American Silver): After more than a decade of exploration beginning in 1996, Dolores emerged as a high output mine producing 80 koz gold and 4 Moz silver annually, Dolores still contributes meaningful ounces while transitioning through residual leaching. Its 27,700-ha land package and original 17+ year mine plan validate the area's silver-gold endowment 5,6 . Cananea/Buenavista del Cobre (Grupo Mexico): After decades of early prospecting, it became one of the world's largest open-pit copper operations in 1948. Cananea produces over 330,000 t of copper annually. With more than a billion tonnes in original reserves and decades of production, it anchors Mexico's premier porphyry copper belt 7 . Pinos Altos (Agnico Eagle): After initial exploration in 1995 and a 14-year path to first gold pour, Pinos Altos began with a large gold and silver reserve base and remains a steady producer at ~80 Au koz/year. Its longevity and scale within an 11,000-ha district confirm the region's strong gold-silver endowment 8. Map 2: Location of Mines Neighboring GEMS Transaction projects Defiance's new projects are situated in proximity to operational mines and advanced exploration sites, highlighting the region's significant mineral potential. However, the Company and its qualified person have not independently verified the technical information regarding these mines and this information should not be considered indicative of mineralization on the Company's properties. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_002full.jpg Exploration Potential Historical exploration and sampling across the GEMS projects have identified extensive geological features indicative of large-scale hydrothermal Cu-Au-Ag systems within the Porphyry Copper Belt of Sonora. These findings highlight the strong potential for resource discovery and expansion. Victoria Project: Drill-Ready Copper-Gold-Molybdenum System The Victoria Project consists of two non-contiguous mineral claims totaling 1,795.22 hectares in the Sahuaripa, Mexico mining district. Geological indicators suggest porphyry-style stockwork and breccia-hosted Cu-Mo-Au mineralization. Strong phyllic alteration overprinting potassic alteration, and subsequent leaching have resulted in intense leached capping at the surface and lower surface copper grades. The leached capping suggests potential for secondary copper enrichment superimposed on primary copper sulfides mineralization at depth. Figure 1 - Photo of Victoria asset showing surface alteration of large hydrothermal system To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/2950/258945_c3032cdcf4958a97_003full.jpg On behalf of Defiance Silver Corp. "Chris Wright" CEO and Chairman of the Board Qualified Person Mr. George Cavey, P. Geo, Vice-President Exploration and Director of the Company, is a Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this press release. About Defiance Silver Corp. Defiance Silver Corp. (TSXV: DEF) (OTCQX: DNCVF) (FSE: D4E) is an exploration company advancing the district-scale Zacatecas project, located in the historic Zacatecas Silver District and the Tepal Gold/Copper Project in Michoacan state, Mexico. Defiance is managed by a team of proven mine developers with a track record of exploring, advancing, and developing several operating mines and advanced resource projects. Defiance's corporate mandate is to advance our projects through capital-efficient exploration focused on resource growth and new mineral discoveries. Disclaimer Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information All statements, trend analysis and other information contained in this press release about anticipated future events or results constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding anticipated benefits of the Transaction, the potential of the combined projects of both Defiance and GEMS (the "Projects"), the strengths, characteristics and potential of the Transaction; the impact of the Transaction on Defiance, GEMS and their respective shareholders and other stakeholders; and other anticipated benefits of the Transaction. Although Defiance believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors identified in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian securities regulators, and assumptions made with regard to the estimated costs associated with the advancement of the Projects and the Company's ability to achieve the synergies expected as a result of the Transaction. Forward-looking information is subject to business and economic risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results of operations to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include risks associated with the business of Defiance and GEMS; risks related to reliance on technical information provided by GEMS; risks related to exploration and potential development of the Projects; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of drill results and the geology, continuity and grade of mineral deposits; the need for cooperation of government agencies and indigenous groups / local communities in the exploration and development of the Projects and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop the Projects and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; and other risk factors as identified in Defiance's filings with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR+ (available at www.sedarplus.ca). The forward-looking information contained in this news release is made as of the date hereof and Defiance does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. REFERENCES 1. Gobierno del Estado de Sonora. "Informe de Resultados: Secretaria de Economia 2023-2024." Gobierno del Estado de Sonora, 2024. https://ejecutivo.sonora.gob.mx/archivos/informes/ECONOMIA.pdf 2. Servicio Geologico Mexicano. "Anuario Estadistico de la Mineria Mexicana 2023." Secretaria de Economia, Direccion General de Minas, 2024. https://www.sgm.gob.mx/Documentos/Publicaciones/Anuario_2023.pdf 3. INEGI (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia). "Produccion Minera por Entidad Federativa, Enero 2024." Sistema de Informacion Economica, 2024. https://www.inegi.org.mx/temas/mineria/ 4. Alamos Gold Inc. "Alamos Gold Reports Mineral Reserves and Resources for the Year Ended 2023." Alamos Gold, 2024, https://www.alamosgold.com/news-and-events/news/news-details/2024/Alamos-Gold-Reports-Mineral-Reserves-and-Resources-for-the-Year-Ended-2023/default.aspx. 5. Pan American Silver Corp. "Technical Report Dolores Mine 2022". 2023, https://panamericansilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/DoloresTR2022-06.pdf. 6. Pan American Silver Corp. "Pan American Silver Reports First Quarter 2025 Results." Pan American Silver, 24 Apr. 2024, https://panamericansilver.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Q1-2025-Financial-Report.pdf. 7. Grupo Mexico. "Form 10-K Annual Report." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2023, https://minedocs.com/26/Southern-Copper-Form-10-K-2023.pdf. 8. Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.. "Pinos Altos Mine" Agnico Eagle, 31 Dic. 2024, https://www.agnicoeagle.com/English/operations-and-projects/global-operations-and-development-projects/pinos-altos/ To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258945 Empire Expands Process and Engineering Development Team Commences Bulk Metallurgical Testing LONDON, July 16, 2025 - Empire Metals Ltd. (LON:EEE), the AIM-quoted and OTCQB-traded resource exploration and development company, is pleased to announce several strategic technical appointments and partnerships that strengthen the in-house project development team and support the advancement of the Pitfield Titanium Project ("Pitfield" or the "Project") in Western Australia. These appointments coincide with the commencement of bulk-scale metallurgical testing, a critical step in progressing Pitfield toward commercial development. Highlights Strategic Appointments to Accelerate Development Empire has appointed Mr. Alan Rubio as Study Manager and Mr. Pocholo Aviso as Hydro-metallurgist. These appointments are aligned with the Company's objective to evaluate mining scenarios, optimise product development, assess commercial process flowsheet options and progress the Project toward a feasibility study. Mr. Alan Rubio, an engineer and seasoned Study and Project Manager with over 28 years' experience working within the resources sector developing and evaluating mining projects, will lead the assessment of mining, infrastructure and oversee key economic studies to deliver a robust project development plan. Mr. Pocholo Aviso, an experienced hydro-metallurgist with a background in the TiO? pigment industry (including roles at Tronox and BHP's Kwinana Nickel Refinery), will manage the titanium product development programme, focusing on product optimisation, process flowsheet designs and evaluating market pathways. Partnership with Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd: Empire has also partnered with Strategic Metallurgy, a highly respected, Perth-based metallurgical consultancy. The firm will provide oversight of the metallurgical testwork programme and technical guidance to the Company's internal metallurgists and process design engineers, helping transition from bench-scale process development to pilot-scale testing. Bulk-Scale Testwork: The Company has commenced bulk metallurgical testwork that will produce significant quantities of mineral concentrate to support large-scale beneficiation testing and, for the first time, enable the supply of bulk product samples to prospective end users. In addition, this testwork will provide critical technical information for the development of a commercial process flowsheet. These key appointments advance the Company toward confirming project economics and assessing mine design, process flowsheets and product options-critical steps in the development pathway to commercial mine production. Commenting on the announcement, Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "I am delighted to welcome Alan and Pocholo to our team. Their technical expertise will be invaluable as we move toward defining the economic potential and product strategy for Pitfield. Building a strong in-house team has been key to our progress so far, and these appointments mark an important next step. "We are also very pleased to be working with Strategic Metallurgy, whose reputation and experience in process development will significantly strengthen our metallurgical programme. The timing is ideal, with large-scale metallurgical testing now underway, including ore scrubbing and spiral gravity separation, using bulk samples collected earlier this year." Process Development Update A large-scale metallurgical testwork programme, involving mineral separation techniques that require bulk feed samples, between approximately 0.5 to 1.5 tonnes each, has commenced using the material collected from the February 2025 Air Core drilling. The programme includes ore scrubbing, desliming and gravity spiral testwork. Alternative gravity separation unit processes, such as jigs and up-current classifiers, are also being evaluated. Flotation testwork is also being carried out on the fines fraction, separated in the desliming step. As part of this programme, bulk mineral concentrates will be produced for downstream processing, testing both hydrometallurgical and product finishing flowsheet concepts. This will allow a consistent, common mineral concentrate stream to be assessed across the range of flowsheet options that are being considered downstream of the mineral separation step. Figure 1. Photos of bulk testwork programme showing clockwise from bottom left: deslimed feed sample, wet scrubber unit, and gravity spirals . This bulk testwork programme will produce significant volumes of concentrates which will feed into beneficiation testwork and result in larger product samples which can be delivered to potential end users for assessment for the first time. In addition, this programme is designed to assess different types of process equipment and analyse a variety of flowsheet options, resulting in technical information necessary for developing a commercial process flowsheet. About Strategic Metallurgy Strategic Metallurgy Pty Ltd, established in 2010, is a metallurgical consulting company whose business model is to work with mining companies to develop their metallurgical strategy and ensure that it fits into their overall business plan. With a proven track record of providing expert consulting, process development, testwork management, feasibilities and strategic reviews Strategic Metallurgy has the extensive hands-on experience that Empire requires to progress the Pitfield Project through the metallurgical testing, process modelling, flowsheet design stages to pilot plant design and operation. The Pitfield Titanium Project Located within the Mid-West region of Western Australia, near the northern wheatbelt town of Three Springs, the Pitfield titanium project lies 313km north of Perth and 156km southeast of Geraldton, the Mid West region's capital and major port. Western Australia is ranked as one of the top mining jurisdictions in the world according to the Fraser Institute's Investment Attractiveness Index published in 2023, and has mining-friendly policies, stable government, transparency, and advanced technology expertise. Pitfield has existing connections to port (both road & rail), HV power substations, and is nearby to natural gas pipelines (refer Figure 2). Figure 2. Pitfield Project Location showing the Mid-West Region Infrastructure and Services. Competent Person Statement The scientific and technical information in this report that relates to process metallurgy is based on information reviewed by Ms Narelle Marriott, an employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Ms Marriott is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012. Ms. Marriott consents to the inclusion in this announcement of the matters based on their information in the form and context in which it appears. The technical information in this report that relates to the geology and exploration of the Pitfield Project has been compiled by Mr Andrew Faragher, an employee of Empire Metals Australia Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire. Mr. Faragher is a member of the AusIMM and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity being undertaken to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code 2012. Mr Faragher consents to the inclusion in this release of the matters based on his information in the form and context in which it appears. Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014, as incorporated into UK law by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, until the release of this announcement. **ENDS** For further information please visit www.empiremetals.co.uk or contact: Empire Metals Ltd Shaun Bunn / Greg Kuenzel / Arabella Burwell Tel: 020 4583 1440 S. P. Angel Corporate Finance LLP (Nomad & Broker) Ewan Leggat / Adam Cowl Tel: 020 3470 0470 Shard Capital Partners LLP (Joint Broker) Damon Heath Tel: 020 7186 9950 St Brides Partners Ltd (Financial PR) Susie Geliher / Charlotte Page Tel: 020 7236 1177 About Empire Metals Limited Empire Metals is an AIM-listed and OTCQB-traded exploration and resource development company (LON:EEE)(OTCQB:EPMLF) with a primary focus on developing Pitfield, an emerging giant titanium project in Western Australia. The high-grade titanium discovery at Pitfield is of unprecedented scale, with airborne surveys identifying a massive, coincident gravity and magnetics anomaly extending over 40km by 8km by 5km deep. Drill results have indicated excellent continuity in grades and consistency of the in-situ mineralised beds and confirm that the sandstone beds hold the higher-grade titanium dioxide (TiO?) values within the interbedded succession of sandstones, siltstones and conglomerates. The Company is focused on two key prospects (Cosgrove and Thomas), which have been identified as having thick, high-grade, near-surface, in-situ bedded TiO? mineralisation, each being over 7km in strike length. An Exploration Target* for Pitfield was declared in 2024, covering the Thomas and Cosgrove mineral prospects, and was estimated to contain between 26.4 to 32.2 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.5 to 5.5% TiO 2 . Included within the total Exploration Target* is a subset that covers the in-situ weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical depth of 30m to 40m and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO 2 . The Exploration Target* covers an area less than 20% of the overall mineral system at Pitfield which demonstrates the potential for significant further upside. Empire is now accelerating the economic development of Pitfield, with a vision to produce a high-value titanium metal or pigment quality product at Pitfield, to realise the full value potential of this exceptional deposit. The Company also has two further exploration projects in Australia; the Eclipse Project and the Walton Project in Western Australia, in addition to three precious metals projects located in a historically high-grade gold producing region of Austria. *The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Target is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource. See RNS dated 12 June 2024 for full details. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. SOURCE: Empire Metals Limited View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire Edmonton, July 16, 2025 - AuMega Metals Ltd. (ASX: AAM) (TSXV: AUM) (OTCQB: AUMMF) ("AuMEGA" or "the Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr James Withall as a Non-Executive Director, effective 1 August 2025. Mr. Withall was formerly Chief Executive Officer of Rupert Resources Ltd. (TSX: RUP). Mr. Withall will serve as the Company's fourth Non-Executive Director. AuMEGA Metal's Chair of the Board of Directors, Justin Osborne commented: "We are delighted to welcome James to the Board of AuMEGA Metals. He brings deep and diverse experience across the mining sector - from his early work as a geologist in Western Australia, to his role as a portfolio manager at BakerSteel in London, and most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Rupert Resources. Under his leadership, Rupert transformed from a small-cap explorer with a mature resource into a multi-million-ounce discovery story, achieving a market valuation approaching CAD $1 billion at the time of his departure in late 2024. With the scale of our business and the early-stage nature of the work we have been doing, James' experience particularly from exploring in regions with considerable overburden, will serve the business well. On behalf of the Board, I welcome James and look forward to his contributions as we enter our next phase of growth." Incoming Non-Executive Director, James Withall stated: "I'm excited to join what I believe is one of the most compelling opportunities in the junior exploration space. AuMEGA is led by a talented and disciplined team that continues to make smart, well-timed decisions - an approach that closely mirrors what we pursued at Rupert Resources. The Board includes highly respected directors who have created meaningful shareholder value throughout their careers. The Company's strong backing from B2Gold and several major global funds gives AuMEGA a uniquely supportive and strategic ownership structure for a company at this stage. I look forward to contributing to its continued success." About Mr James Withall Mr Withall brings nearly thirty years of international experience in mining, exploration, and natural resource investing. From 2017 to 2024, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Rupert Resources, where he led the discovery and advancement of the Ikkari gold project in northern Finland - a multi-million-ounce project. Prior to that, he spent thirteen years as Managing Partner and Fund Manager at BakerSteel Capital Managers, a multi-award-winning natural resources investment specialist. Earlier in his career, Mr Withall worked as a geological consultant and held operational roles with Xstrata AG (now Glencore) and a number of junior companies in Western Australia. He holds a degree in Applied Geology from Leicester University and a Masters in Mineral Project Appraisal from Imperial College London, both in the United Kingdom. < END > This announcement has been authorised for release by the Company's Board of Directors. To learn more about the Company, please visit www.aumegametals.com, or contact: Sam Pazuki, Managing Director & CEO About the Company AuMEGA Metals Ltd (ASX: AAM) (TSXV: AUM) (OTCQB: AUMMF) is utilising best-in-class exploration to explore on its district scale land package that spans 105 kilometres along the Cape Ray Shear Zone, a significant under-explored geological feature recognised as Newfoundland, Canada's largest identified gold structure. This zone currently hosts Equinox Gold's Valentine Gold Project, which is the region's largest gold deposit (+5 million ounces), along with AuMEGA's expanding Mineral Resource. The Company is supported by a diverse shareholder registry of prominent global institutional investors, and strategic investment from B2Gold Corp., a leading, multi-million-ounce a year gold producer. Additionally, AuMEGA holds a twenty-seven kilometre stretch of the highly prospective Hermitage Flexure and has also secured an Option Agreement for the Blue Cove Copper Project in southeastern Newfoundland, which exhibits strong potential for gold, copper and other base metals. AuMEGA's Cape Ray Shear Zone hosts several dozen high potential targets along with its existing defined gold mineral resource of 6.1 million tonnes of ore grading an average of 2.25 g/t, totaling 450,000 ounces of indicated resources, and 3.4 million tonnes of ore grading an average of 1.44 g/t, totaling 160,000 ounces in inferred resources1. AuMEGA acknowledges the financial support of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program, Department of Industry, Energy and Technology, Provincial Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. ________________________ 1 News release dated 30 May 2023 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/258986 Verstappen-Wolff holiday a coincidence F1 legend Gerhard Berger is not convinced that Max Verstappen really is seriously contemplating a move to Mercedes. Max Verstappen, Monaco GP 2025 Red Bull Some, including respected commentator Martin Brundle, firmly believe the Verstappen camp - prominently featuring Max's father Jos - was behind Christian Horner's shock sacking as Red Bull boss. The well-connected Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf is not convinced. It's common knowledge that Jos was a major critic of Horner and warned in early 2024 that Red Bull would fall apart if he stayed, correspondent Erik van Haren said. "His influence shouldn't be underestimated, but it shouldn't be overestimated either. Stories about a deal with Red Bull management, meaning Horner will be out and Verstappen will definitely stay, are dismissed as nonsense by all parties. Red Bull's management is still terrified that Verstappen will leave after all. Indeed, the rumour mill went even deeper into overdrive this week with reports that Verstappen and Toto Wolff's respective yachts were moored alongside one another on vacation in Sardinia. Photos of the pair together were faked or out-of-date, but Ralf Schumacher fully understands why the speculation was so strong. When you land in Sardinia, it's always the case that the paparazzi already know what's going on, he told Sky Deutschland. "Perhaps they should choose a different vacation spot for peace and quiet. But it's certainly strange when the two of them show up together with their boats in the same harbour. I can imagine they met, the former F1 driver added. What is clear is that Verstappen's future, particularly in light of Horner's sudden exit, will remain a hot topic all the way until the next grand prix at Spa. Until Spa, there will be a lot of fishing and the role of Verstappen's camp will be examined, said van Haren. Other than that, however, not a lot else will immediately change, Schumacher warned. The change of team principal will initially not change anything technically, he said. "Pierre Wache will continue to build the car for next year. "The signs aren't good for Red Bull at the moment. If Verstappen wants short-term success, he'll have to look elsewhere. I believe it's Mercedes, but I can imagine that Max is struggling with it, because he's naturally attached to Red Bull. But his management and his father already know where things are going. I think that's Mercedes. Gerhard Berger is famously extremely close to the Red Bull family, and he insisted in conversation with Kronen Zeitung newspaper that the Sardinia story is grossly overblown. It was just a coincidence, he said when asked about Verstappen and Wolff holidaying at the same time on the Mediterranean island. Max has always emphasised that he wants to remain loyal to Red Bull and I think he will continue to do so after Horner's departure, Berger added. The relationship between the Verstappens and Horner was known to be less than ideal. His departure could even be a deciding factor for Max to stay. Berger also thinks it's strange that Horner and his closest allies were apparently so shocked about his sacking. You could see that things were heading in that direction, said the former Toro Rosso co-owner. If Horner didn't recognise that, it's not a good sign. Post-Horner, the new and remaining management's first public declarations have been to insist that the drivers' world title is still a possibility in 2025. Berger said: "The focus shouldn't be on immediately wanting to get back in the title race. The most important thing is to stabilise the team and properly reintegrate Verstappen. Red Bull is clearly in a downward spiral, he added. It's now about rebuilding. (GMM) Next article: Ghanaian business leader urges US to back democracy with investment in Ghana Featured StanChart declare GH1.67 dividend share Business Desk Report Business News Jul - 16 - 2025 , 17:45 Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC has declared a dividend share of GH1.67 per ordinary share, totalling GH225.16 million, and a preference share dividend of GH2.77 million, resulting in a total payout of GH227.94 million. The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ebenezer Twum Asante, highlighted the Bank's strong foundation, proactive risk management and resilience in the face of economic challenges. He emphasised the Bank's commitment to building a sustainable business and delivering long-term value to shareholders. "We are confident in our ability to unlock shareholder value and drive sustained growth in this dynamic environment," Asante said. "We remain committed to practicing high standards of corporate governance and proactively managing risks to ensure operational resilience." Innovation The Chief Executive Officer, Mansa Nettey, reiterated the Bank's commitment to long-term value, innovation, agility and inclusive growth. "We will continue to execute our strategic priorities within our risk appetite, aimed at enhancing our ability to withstand external shocks while driving strong, safe and long-term sustainable growth," she said. The Bank's performance reflects a balanced approach to risk, returns and strategic long-term value. Strong capital adequacy and operational efficiency have underpinned its ability to sustain momentum and meet shareholder expectations. With 129 years of operating in Ghana, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC will continue to leverage its key capabilities to drive business growth, focusing on integrated, differentiated cross-border capabilities and tailored wealth management solutions. The Bank's commitment to delivering strong shareholder returns, enhancing client service and contributing to the communities it serves remains unwavering. Driving business growth With 129 years of operating in Ghana, Standard Chartered Bank Ghana PLC will continue to leverage its key capabilities to drive business growth, focusing on integrated, differentiated cross-border capabilities and tailored wealth management solutions. The Bank's commitment to delivering strong shareholder returns, enhancing client service and contributing to the communities it serves remains unwavering. Featured Two partner to boost intra-Africa payments Justice Agbenorsi Business News Jul - 16 - 2025 , 18:16 The continents efforts to simplify financial transactions and bolster economic growth across the country took a significant leap forward when two institutions partnered to launch a single payment platform for cross-border transactions in local currencies. Through a collaboration between the Pan-African Payment and Settlement Systems (PAPSS) and Onafriq, the move seeks to address the persistent challenges faced by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and everyday individuals when navigating the complexities of currency and payment systems across Africa. With the launch of the platform in Accra last Thursday, Ghanaians can now send money to their counterparts in Nigeria using their bank, mobile money or fintech USSD codes and vice versa. Representatives from both parties demonstrated how to send money through their mobile money accounts to bank accounts in Nigeria using the platform. Currently, the regulator, Bank of Ghana (BoG), has approved a six-month pilot programme to allow Onafriq and PAPSS to assess transaction flows, user adoption and foreign exchange performance while delivering better rates and more accessible services to customers. As part of this pilot, Onafriq, which operates in more than 40 countries on the continent, is leveraging PAPSS infrastructure and regulatory coverage to offer its fintech, mobile money and traditional partners in Ghana unparalleled access to cross-border payment capabilities. The pilot will focus on Nigeria, with further plans of expanding to all 54 African countries after the pilot. Vision The Founder and CEO of Onafriq, Dare Okoudjou, explained that the partnership was born out of a shared vision of making cross-border payments as seamless as domestic transactions. If you provide a phone number, it should be enough to transact," Okoudjou said, adding that the goal of enabling users to transfer money effortlessly across different countries, just as they do within their own countries, was necessary to boost intra-African trade. The initiative, he said, aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework by making free trade more accessible to ordinary individuals, particularly those in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and informal sectors, who lack the resources to navigate existing barriers. Mr Okoudjou said transaction fees would be determined by the partner organisation (like MTN) while Onafriq would provide the underlying infrastructure for these transactions. On exchange rates, he said they would be determined by supply and demand dynamics, with expectations that increasing currency participation would lead to better rates for end users. This partnership represents a significant step towards enhancing financial integration across Africa, making cross-border transactions easier and more efficient for individuals and businesses alike, he added. Local currency PAPSS CEO Mike Ogbalu explained that the new system would allow transactions to originate and settle in local currencies, significantly reducing reliance on third-party currencies. "The more we use our currencies, the stronger they become," Mr Ogbalu said, adding that this multilateral net settlement approach would streamline payments and lower transaction costs. Featured Forts, castles record least visits 2024 GH Tourism report discloses Gifty Owusu-Amoah Showbiz News Jul - 16 - 2025 , 14:27 3 minutes read DESPITE Cape Coast and Elmina castles sitting comfortably in the fifth and seventh positions respectively on the Top 10 Most-visited Tourist Sites in Ghana, the 2024 Tourism Report discloses that the overall performance of all 28 forts and castles in Greater Accra, Central, Volta and Western regions recorded the least visits by tourists. Cape Coast Castle garnered 120,242 while Elmina Castle logged 87,691 visits in the year under review. The rest performed abysmally. The latest statistics have raised concerns about the need to boost tourist patronage at Ghana's historic forts and castles and significant heritage sites that tell the story of the country's rich history and its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Deputy Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Yussif Issaka Jajah, expressed disappointment with the performance of the forts and castles at the recent launch of the 2024 Ghana Tourism Report at the Ghana Tourism Authority(GTA) in Accra. Mr Jajah said the poor structural state of the forts and castles has been a major obstacle to attracting tourists. To address this challenge, he disclosed that the government was currently renovating six of the sites to increase patronage. The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) is the legal custodian of Ghanas material cultural heritage (movable and immovable heritage). The mission of the GMMB is to acquire, protect, conserve and document the nations movable and immovable material cultural heritage for posterity, purposes of research and education of the public. When Graphic Showbiz reached out to the Ag Executive Director of GMMB, Kwesi Essel Blankson, on the Tourism report, he said the forts and castles had been favourite tourist sites and hosted visitors for many years, probably accounting for their low patronage this time around. (Read EDITORS LENS: Tourists find accommodation too expensive in GH) Even though he didnt admit that the not-so-good state of the sites may have accounted for their low patronage, he mentioned that a UNESCO State of Conservative Report on Ghanas Forts and Castles had recommended renovations for them. The report recommended that the Ussher Fort in the Greater Accra and Fort Amsterdam in the Central Region be renovated. However, presently, the government is refurbishing six castles and forts, namely Ussher Fort, James Fort, Christianborg Castle, Fort St. Anthonio at Axim, Fort Orange at Sekondi and Fort Apollonia at Benyin. According to William Nsuiban Gmayi, Head of Communications, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Ghanaians should be proud and interested in managing and conserving local heritage sites. He said the board had been adhering to recommendations of the UNESCO report, which had contributed to the governments renovation of some forts and castles, prioritising structural interventions at each site and guiding further evaluation of the forts and castles. The report also disclosed that although the project began on May 14, 2023, it was yet to be completed, having originally been expected to be completed on September 18, 2023. Featured Gloria Sarfo: GH movie industry wasting talents because there are no films Joy Entertainment Showbiz News Jul - 16 - 2025 , 10:45 2 minutes read Ghanaian actress Gloria Sarfo has vented her displeasure over the state of Ghanas film industry, comparing its stagnation to the buoyancy of Nigerias movie sector. In an Instagram post Tuesday on July 15, 2025, Sarfo said the talents of most Ghanaian actors who could be thriving elsewhere, particularly in Nigeria are wasting away in Ghana. Honestly, if youre in Nigeria as an actor, youd realize that youve REALLY WASTED YOUR TALENT back in Ghana, she wrote. As in, people are shooting on a daily basis, back to back, non stop. Meanwhile, in my country Ghana, producers STRUGGLE to even shoot one film in a year. Sarfo described the situation as CRAZY and totally disheartening, questioning what had gone wrong in an industry that used to flourish. What has happened to our industry??? Talents are BEING WASTED. Mercy Lord, she added. In a caption accompanying her post, Sarfo elaborated on her concerns, noting that friends, family and fans had long been telling her that she was wasting [her] talent in Ghana. This MUST be looked at, seriously. Look there are lots and lots of talent wasting in Ghana year by year, trust me, she wrote. Im just here recommending people left right center, cos I KNOW what we have back in my country, I KNOOOOOOOOOOOW, Gloria intimated. She praised the opportunities available in Nigeria, where she believes many Ghanaian talents could thrive with the right support. Great great talents, wholl do exceptionally WELL in Nigeria meeeehn. And there are people to PUSH THEM too. But in our CASE Oh my HEART, she added. (Read Dear musicians, CDs or No CDs?) Sarfo also reflected on the past, saying the situation was once the opposite. It was the other way round just some few years ago, so WHAT HAPPENED, WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. Or is it the NUMBERS, or WHAT? she asked. She suggested that actors may have to take matters into their own hands by producing films themselves. Next article: Work to improve quality of education - Minister to NaSIA, NaCCA boards Previous article: RMU receives $20k and workboat from MODEC to train next generation of seafarers Tech training at Burma Camp welcomes new cohorts Daily Graphic Education Jul - 16 - 2025 , 09:57 2 minutes read The third and fourth cohorts of trainees of the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT) of the Ghana Armed Forces take off at the Burma Camp Computer Centre. The training brings together military and civilian staff of the Ghana Armed Forces and will include practical instruction in essential areas such as software development, computer networks, cybersecurity, and systems administration. Jackson Institute It is part of an ongoing technology training partnership between the DIT and Jackson Institute of Technology (JIT), Ghanas only NIIT-authorised training centre. The training, which is part of a broader effort to strengthen internal capacity across the Armed Forces, will be delivered by JIT. As the sole NIIT authorised centre in Ghana, JIT offers internationally recognised certification and skills training customised to meet the needs of individuals and organisations. Orientation As part of the training, an orientation has been held at the Burma Camp Computer Centre, during which the participants were given an overview of the course structure, the tools they would be working with and the expectations that would guide their learning experience. The Training Officer at the Directorate of Information Technology Captain Enock Boabeng Appianing, who welcomed the new participants, explained the reasoning behind the programme. This collaboration is part of a long-term plan. We are creating a path for our people to develop the skills that modern systems require. It is deliberate, focused and we believe it will make a difference, he said. The programme, which is expected to run over several months and will include project work, assessments, and certification. The aim is to ensure participants are better equipped to support the changing technology requirements of the Armed Forces. As the partnership progresses, both institutions have expressed a shared commitment to delivering high-quality, practical training that keeps up with the increasing demand for digital expertise across sectors. Previous article: Jinapor: Were not selling ECG; just fixing it with private sector help Featured Attorney-General orders probe into galamsey links involving Abanga, Yamin Beatrice Laryea Jul - 16 - 2025 , 12:29 2 minutes read The Minister for Justice and Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, has directed the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate individuals suspected of engaging in illegal mining activities across the country. In a letter dated Tuesday, July 15, 2025, Dr Ayine instructed EOCO to act on intelligence and public concerns regarding unauthorised mining operations. I write to direct your esteemed office to initiate investigations into suspected illegal mining activities being perpetrated by certain individuals within mining districts in the country, he stated. Dr Ayine further disclosed that President John Mahama has reaffirmed his commitment to ending illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey, and has requested that EOCO invite Mr Yakubu Abanga and Mr Joseph Yamin for interrogation. This directive is borne out of growing public concern, corroborated by media reports and intelligence, regarding the involvement of some citizens in unauthorised mining operations that are in blatant contravention of the provisions of the Minerals and Mining Act, 2006 (Act 703), as amended by Act 995, the Attorney-General stated. He noted that such activities not only breach Ghanas mining laws but also pose serious threats to water bodies, forest reserves, and local livelihoods. In line with this national stance, and pursuant to your mandate under the EOCO Act, 2010 (Act 804), I am directing your office to invite the following persons named in recent credible reports for interrogationnamely, Mr Yakubu Abanga and Mr Joseph Yamin, the letter read. Dr Ayine also instructed EOCO to extend the investigation to any other individuals found to be complicit in the unlawful activities, and to consider issues raised in the Prof Frimpong-Boateng Report on illegal mining. He further requested that the Chief Executive Officer of the Minerals Commission be invited to assist with the investigation, given the Commissions regulatory oversight responsibility. I trust that EOCO will treat this matter with the urgency and gravity it deserves in order to uphold the rule of law and ensure the integrity of our extractive governance framework, Dr Ayine concluded. Featured Energy Minister rules out VRA sale, proposes merger with Bui Power Authority to protect state assets Mohammed Ali Jul - 16 - 2025 , 14:25 2 minutes read The government has ruled out the sale or privatisation of the Volta River Authority (VRA), instead proposing a merger with the Bui Power Authority aimed at restructuring operations within the energy sector. The Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Mr John Jinapor, made this known at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, during the Government Accountability Series. Our vision is not to sell VRA, Mr Jinapor said. Rather, we are proposing a merger between VRA and Buii to form a single holding company with three operational divisions: thermal, hydro, and renewable energy. He explained that the new structure is intended to bring the assets of both state agencies under one central management to improve coordination and reduce operational costs. This will allow for better internal efficiency and technical alignment, especially as we move towards a cleaner and more reliable energy system, he stated. Mr Jinapor said the move offers a better alternative to earlier proposals to separate VRAs hydro and thermal operations. Instead of breaking up our state assets, we intend to strengthen them through integration and better management, he said. He also dismissed claims of a hidden agenda to privatise the VRA, stressing that the restructuring would be carried out by the government with clear oversight. This is a national asset. We are not going to hand it over to the highest bidder, Mr Jinapor said. What we want is a strong energy institution that can stand the test of time. The proposed merger, he added, will go through a process of consultation with stakeholders and may require legislative backing before it can take effect. Rivers create striking natural 'hot pot' effect in SW China's Yunnan People's Daily Online) 16:05, July 16, 2025 In Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province, the confluence of the Jinsha and Hengjiang rivers forms a breathtaking natural phenomenon reminiscent of the Chinese delicacy hot pot. (People's Daily Online/Cheng Hao) The Jinsha and Hengjiang rivers meet at a confluence in Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province, where their clear and muddy waters form a striking boundary reminiscent of the Chinese delicacy hot pot. (People's Daily Online/Cheng Hao) As the flood season set in, a rare and eye-catching natural phenomenon has emerged in Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province, where the Jinsha River meets the Hengjiang River. At their confluence, the two rivers paint a vivid contrast. The Jinsha River flows with a serene, emerald-green hue, like a sheet of silk gliding smoothly through the landscape. In sharp contrast, the Hengjiang River surges forward with sediment-laden, muddy yellow waters. The two currents run side by side, each maintaining its distinct color while slowly blending together, creating a natural "hot pot" effect reminiscent of the Chinese delicacy where two broths share one pot. The Jinsha and Hengjiang rivers meet at a confluence in Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province, where their clear and muddy waters form a striking boundary reminiscent of the Chinese delicacy hot pot. (People's Daily Online/Zeng Zhihui) The sharply contrasting colors of the Jinsha and Hengjiang rivers create a stunning natural spectacle in Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (People's Daily Online/Zeng Zhihui) The sharply contrasting colors of the Jinsha and Hengjiang rivers create a stunning natural spectacle in Shuifu city, southwest China's Yunnan Province. (People's Daily Online/Zeng Zhihui) (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Featured Commonwealth Head of Mission to lead petition for jailed Ato Essien Justice Agbenorsi Jul - 16 - 2025 , 05:14 3 minutes read The Head of Mission for the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Dr John Apea, has announced plans to file a petition for a presidential pardon for the jailed founder of the defunct Capital Bank, William Ato Essien. Addressing a news conference last Thursday (July 10), he explained that Mr Ato Essien, who was jailed in 2023 for stealing over GH90 million belonging to the bank, was currently battling health challenges and was in a wheelchair. He added that the trial of Ato Essien was a miscarriage of justice, saying he was preparing to gather over 650 signatures for the petition. Amount Dr Apea said the GH90 million that the state accused Essien of stealing was not stolen, but part of a liquidity support loan provided by the Bank of Ghana to Capital Bank, not a bailout or grant. He stated that Capital Bank had been repaying GH 14.4 million monthly without default, and had already repaid GH308 million before the bank's closure. "That GH90 million is extremely contentious to begin with. The case was made that liquidity support was given by the Bank of Ghana to Capital Bank, the bank he founded. I'm here to tell you that this liquidity support was not free money; it was a loan, a commercial loan at 28 per cent per annum. And until Capital Bank was closed, they were paying GH 14.4 million every month without default," he stated. Dr Apea further argued that Ato Essien was neither the Managing Director nor part of the bank's management team, but had only acted as a facilitator in securing the loan. Background Essien, who was convicted in December 2022 for stealing over GH90 million belonging to Capital Bank, avoided a custodial sentence after the court accepted an agreement between him and the Attorney-General (A-G) for him (Essien) to pay the GH90 million as restitution to the state. In a ruling, the court, presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour, held that Essien has failed to pay the restitution to the state per the agreed terms with the A-G. The agreement was pursuant to Section 35 of the Courts Act, 1993 (Act 459), which allows accused persons standing trial for causing financial loss to the state to pay the money and possibly avoid a custodial sentence. Essien paid GH30 million of the amount on December 1, 2022, and per the agreement as adopted by the court, was ordered to pay the remaining GH60 million in three instalments with the first instalment on or before April 28, 2023, the second on or before August 31, 2023, and the last instalment on or before December 15, 2023. However, Justice Kyei Baffour said as of the time of sentencing, Essien had paid only GH7 million out of a possible GH40 million, missing the deadlines for April 28 and August 3, 2023, bringing the total paid to GH37 million of the total GH90 million. Justice Kyei Baffour, however, ruled that Essien could regain his freedom if he paid the outstanding sum of GH53 million, which is what is left for him to pay to the state as reparation and restitution. He has since been jailed with an appeal in motion to challenge the decision of the trial High Court. Make position on LGBTQ+ clear - Global Evangelical Church Moderator to govt Pacome Emmanuel Damalie Jul - 16 - 2025 , 09:57 3 minutes read Ghana must boldly declare its stand on issues of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queers (LGBTQ+) internationally and show no fear of losing international financial assistance, the Moderator of the Global Evangelical Church (GEC) has said. Rt Rev. Samuel Prosper Dzomeku said the country could not afford to compromise such important family values because of money, and urged Ghanaians to speak up whenever such matters came up. I believe wherever Ghanaians find themselves and issues of family values show up, they should speak against such moves and make everybody know that in Ghana we believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and not the same-sex, he said. His call followed the recent uproar among Ghanaians on the alleged abstention of the country from voting on the LGBTQ+ issue at the United Nations (UN). The moderator said although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had debunked the assertion, the sector Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, must do well to promote the countrys virtues when the need arose. The moderator was speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra last Sunday during the ordination of 15 Reverend Ministers of the GEC. Church, national development Rev. Dzomeku urged churches to see themselves in contemporary times as partners with the government and rally behind it in the development of the country. He emphasised that making up 70 per cent of the population, Christians must also take interest in praying for the government to take divine decisions that would inure to the benefit of the country. We must pray for unity of purpose among the three arms of government so that they can lead this country to continue enjoying the peace that we have enjoyed over the years, he said. The moderator added that although the Churchs core mandate was to win souls for Christ Jesus, it must also prepare in investing in them to be great ambassadors wherever they found themselves. He emphasised that churches must also be creative in establishing some businesses aside the establishment of social institutions such as schools and hospitals to create jobs and contribute to the countrys growth. Leadership In his message to the newly ordained pastors, Rev. Dzomeku urged them to live by the Word of God and not rely on their own understanding or false prophecies and teach their congregants the Word of God. He argued that the engagement of Christians in vices had been partly due to lack of sound teachings and doctrines; hence the call on the new church leaders to do what was right by the Word of God. The moderator also urged the congregants to welcome the new pastors as people sent by God and partner them to derive the best from whatever God had imbued in them for their benefit. Next article: Commonwealth Head of Mission to lead petition for jailed Ato Essien Previous article: See the areas that will be affected by ECGs planned maintenance on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Featured President Mahama scraps fuel allowance for appointees Kester Aburam Korankye Jul - 16 - 2025 , 05:57 3 minutes read President John Dramani Mahama has directed the immediate cancellation of fuel allowance and fuel allocations for all political appointees as part of stringent measures to reduce government expenditure. The move is aimed at cutting costs and redirecting public funds to priority areas of national development. The Presidency indicated that leadership must lead by example in making sacrifices, especially as the government called on citizens to endure economic challenges. In a statement issued yesterday, the Spokesperson to the President and Minister in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, said the decision aligned with broader efforts to streamline governance and foster fiscal discipline. Cost-saving This latest directive follows earlier austerity measures, including a reduction in the number of ministers and presidential staff, as well as the discontinuation of satellite TV subscriptions for offices at the Presidency and other government facilities. President Mahamas administration has consistently stressed the need for prudent financial management amid global and domestic economic pressures. According to the minister, the scrapping of fuel benefits for appointees was expected to save millions of cedis annually, which would be re-allocated to critical sectors such as education, health care and infrastructure. This is not the first time the Mahama administration has implemented cost-saving measures. Since assuming office, the government has pursued policies aimed at reducing waste and improving efficiency in public expenditure. Mr Ofosu stated that the latest decision was expected to reinforce public confidence in the administrations commitment to fiscal responsibility. Public Reaction While some have lauded the move, describing it as a step in the right direction, some political actors have called for further cuts in government spending, including a review of other perks for public officeholders. The Member of Parliament for Akuapim North, Sammy Awuku, in an interview with the media in Parliament yesterday, called for the closure of fuel depots at the Osu Castle and the Jubilee House to give credence to the directive of the President. The Presidents directive takes immediate effect, with all ministries and government agencies instructed to comply without delay. Other measures Although the cancellation of fuel allowance for political appointees may not cumulatively impact government expenditure significantly, political watchers view it as a public appeal measure to get the average citizen to appreciate the willingness of the political class to also sacrifice for the good of the country. Indeed, just 12 days ago, the Minister of Energy and Green Transition, John Jinapor, announced that state agencies would be required to run on prepaid electricity meters to enhance efficiency and reduce technical and commercial losses in the electricity distribution chain. President Mahama had earlier barred his appointees from travelling on Business Class on any foreign trip, while all such trips were required to be approved through a stringent system. Next article: Energy Minister rules out VRA sale, proposes merger with Bui Power Authority to protect state assets Previous article: Punikrom to get army base as Mahama moves to curb border crime and insecurity in Western North Featured Government has begun paying ENI, Tullow and WAPCo to ease energy sector debt Jinapor Mohammed Ali Jul - 16 - 2025 , 14:56 2 minutes read The government has begun paying off parts of Ghanas long-standing energy sector debt, with recent transfers made to key suppliers including ENI, Tullow Oil, and the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCo), the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Mr John Jinapor, has confirmed. Speaking at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Mr Jinapor said the payments are part of broader efforts to restore confidence in the power sector and avoid service interruptions. So far, we have paid ENI and Tullow. WAPCo has also received payments, US$12 million initially, Mr Jinapor stated. Were now current on these obligations, which is why the threats of shutdowns have subsided. He also disclosed that the government has started replenishing the US$500 million World Bank-backed partial risk guarantee, which had been nearly depleted under the previous administration. Weve restored nearly half of it already, he said. Mr Jinapor explained that the payments are being supported by a restructured energy sector levy, which is now ring-fenced by the Ministry of Finance to deal specifically with legacy debts. Were no longer using energy levy funds for unplanned expenditures. The revenue is going directly into settling debt, he said. According to Mr Jinapor, this is part of a broader programme involving ENI, Tullow, Nigerian Gas, and WAPCo to stabilise the energy sector both financially and operationally. He added that the ongoing reforms are designed to reduce the sectors dependence on the Ministry of Finance for routine payments. This is how we free up fiscal space while making the energy sector self-sustaining, he said. A full breakdown of paid and outstanding debts, he noted, will be made available through the Ministry of Information in line with the governments transparency efforts. This is a journey, not a sprint, Mr Jinapor said. But we are firmly on the path to financial recovery. Next article: See the areas that will be affected by ECGs planned maintenance on Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Featured GRA implements Fuel Levy increases today as government deepens austerity measures GraphicOnline Jul - 16 - 2025 , 06:16 2 minutes read The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) has announced that new adjustments under the Energy Sector Levies (Amendment) Act, 2025 (Act 1141), will take full effect today, July 16, 2025just a day after President John Dramani Mahama directed the cancellation of fuel allowances and allocations for all political appointees as part of sweeping austerity measures. In an earlier statement signed by Acting Commissioner-General Anthony Kwasi Sarpong, the GRA confirmed that the levys implementation, originally scheduled for mid-June, had been deferred for a month to assess international market trends and preserve recent fuel price stability. The Authority noted that the decision to proceed now follows a thorough review of prevailing market indicators and in line with the governments commitment to ensuring stable economic conditions. The revised rates represent hikes across petroleum products. The Energy Sector Shortfall and Debt Repayment Levy (ESSDRL) on petrol (motor spirit) has increased from GH0.95 to GH1.95, while diesel (gas oil) now attracts GH1.93, up from GH0.93. Marine Gas Oil (MGO) used by foreign vessels will also rise from GH0.93 to GH1.93. Locally consumed MGO will move from GH0.03 to GH0.23, and heavy fuel oil will now attract GH0.24, compared to the previous GH0.04. However, the levies on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and naphtha remain unchanged at GH0.73 per litre, offering some relief to domestic consumers who depend heavily on LPG for cooking and household use. The GRA said it had updated the Integrated Customs Management System (ICUMS) to automatically enforce the new rates. Importers, distributors, and customs agents have been instructed to fully comply with the revised levies. Your cooperation is vital to the successful implementation of this critical revenue measure, which is essential for Ghana's energy sector stability and overall economic development, the GRA stated. Circulars have been distributed to all ports, customs stations, and petroleum service providers to ensure full compliance. On July 15, the Presidency issued a directive ordering the immediate termination of all fuel-related benefits for political appointees in a bid to cut government spending. The President believes that leadership must also bear its part of the sacrifices it is calling on the people to make, said Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Spokesperson to the President, in the official statement. The latest directive follows earlier decisions to slash the number of ministers and staff at the Office of the President, as well as eliminate satellite television subscriptions for government officesmeasures aimed at promoting transparency, accountability, and fiscal discipline. The combination of tax reform and expenditure cuts underscores the governments stated commitment to stabilising the economy while ensuring the burden of recovery is shared across leadership and citizens alike. Featured GRNMA suspends planned strike as government commits to key demands Joyce Awuni Jul - 16 - 2025 , 17:25 3 minutes read The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has suspended its intended industrial action following what it described as satisfactory commitments from the government during a meeting held on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Addressing a press conference in Accra on Wednesday, July 16, the President of the Association, Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, said the decision came after fruitful discussions with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Health. The meeting was convened to address unresolved concerns in the Associations Collective Agreement, particularly issues that had sparked the threat of industrial action earlier this month. Ms Ofori-Ampofo disclosed that the talks centred on two critical itemsthe 8 per cent Non-Basic Allowance and the Fuel Allowance. She explained that the non-basic allowance, which was expected to reflect an upward adjustment in the Market Premium for nurses and midwives, had not been implemented properly due to distortions. They have committed to taking urgent steps to correct those distortions, she said. With regard to the fuel allowance, she stated that the government had agreed to provide it at existing government-approved rates, rather than the 10.99 per cent or ex-pump rate previously referenced in the agreement. She also confirmed that the Ministry of Finance had assured the Association that provisions for these allowances would be captured in the upcoming mid-year budget review. It was agreed that all other items listed under Appendix B of the Collective Agreement would be costed and included in the 2026 national budget, she added. Among the other entitlements the government has pledged to implement are the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) allowance, renewal fees for PIN/AIN licences, the 13th Month Allowance, medical subsidies, and other Category 2 and 3 allowances. As part of the agreement, all nurses and midwives are expected to meet CPD requirements and be fully licensed by December 31, 2025, to be eligible to practise legally from January 1, 2026. While expressing cautious optimism, the GRNMA president said the Association would continue to monitor progress to ensure that all the commitments are honoured. Leadership will do nothing less than pursue what has been agreed upon, she affirmed. She also used the opportunity to reflect on setbacks that delayed the implementation of previous agreements. We are here today because someone chose to ignore the Collective Agreement of nurses and midwives during the transition, she said. More importantly, a section of our fraternity also curtailed its implementation last year. Calling for accountability and unity, Ms Ofori-Ampofo urged that such lapses must not be repeated, and that nurses and midwives deserve to be respected and supported. Nurses and midwives must be recognised and provided with improved working conditions, she stated. The GRNMA extended gratitude to government agencies, the media, the public, and other labour unions for their solidarity and support throughout the negotiation process. We thank our members across the country for their patience and unity, she said. With negotiations still ongoing and implementation measures yet to be finalised, the Association said it will continue to engage the government in good faith while safeguarding the interests of its members. Next article: Ministers to ditch fuel cars for solar-powered EVs under Ghanas green agenda Featured Gunmen abduct 4 family members of community leader Beatrice Laryea Jul - 16 - 2025 , 15:29 1 minute read At least four family members have been abducted in Tungan-Mangoro village, located in Nasko area of Niger State in Nigeria. According to Dailypostng.com, the kidnapping occurred at about 7 pm on Monday, July 14, when four family members of a community leader, Alhaji Danlami were kidnapped by the gunmen who raided Danlamis house in the Tungan-Mangoro village. The victims have been identified as Abbas Danlami, Jamila Danas Medio, Samaila Danasibi, and Naja. Witnesses told Zagazola Makama that the gunmen who operated in large numbers, were present for almost an hour, and planned to attack the entire area but later fled with the victims. Security officials have commenced search and rescue operation to recover the victims and arrest the culprits. Featured Jinapor orders smart meter audit over Usain Bolt billing complaints Mohammed Ali Jul - 16 - 2025 , 14:23 2 minutes read The government has begun a nationwide audit of smart meter installations following widespread concerns over unusually fast electricity consumption, the Minister for Energy and Green Transition, Mr John Jinapor, has said. Speaking at the Government Accountability Series media briefing held in Accra on Wednesday, July 16, 2025, Mr Jinapor acknowledged rising public frustration over what he described as Usain Bolt meters, alleged to deplete prepaid units at an unusually rapid rate. We needed to pause, audit, and rationalise the deployment of smart meters because of inefficiencies we identified, Mr Jinapor said. The audit will expose any unfair billing practices and help restore confidence in the system. He noted that while the smart metering initiative, which began under a previous administration, was introduced with good intentions, it was poorly implemented. Smart meters are important, but they must work properly, he said. If a household buys GH100 worth of electricity, they must be confident it reflects actual usage, not inflated figures. Mr Jinapor said the Ministry is working closely with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) to identify irregularities and enforce accountability. In some regions, our staff have been attacked while recovering revenue, which shows how sensitive this issue is, he added. He clarified that the audit is not a rejection of digital metering but a step to ensure accurate billing and fairness. This is not an attempt to scrap the use of smart meters. The goal is to ensure they serve their purpose, he said. As part of wider reforms in the sector, Mr Jinapor announced that the Cabinet has approved a policy to place all non-essential public institutions on prepaid meters. Hospitals, schools, and security services will be placed on postpaid systems with defined budgets. If we want the private sector to invest in our utilities, we must first fix the fundamentals, Mr Jinapor said. Featured No casualties in Madina Ritz Junction Slum fire Ghana National Fire Service Beatrice Laryea Jul - 16 - 2025 , 13:25 1 minute read The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) has confirmed that it successfully contained a fast-spreading fire involving several wooden structures at Madina Ritz Junction on Monday, July 15, 2025, with no casualties reported. In a statement released on Wednesday, the GNFS noted that despite significant challenges, including limited access, multiple gas explosions, and the absence of hydrantsfirefighters managed to bring the blaze under control by 7:50 p.m. and fully extinguished it by 9:43 p.m. "The fierce fire, which affected dwellings and commercial units, was reported at 1900 hours and quickly responded to by the Madina Fire Station within 4 minutes, with reinforcement from Legon and Abelemkpe Fire Stations," the statement read. "No fatalities or injuries were recorded. Several wooden structures and contents were severely destroyed. Nearby properties were salvaged through swift intervention," it added. The GNFS further stated that the cause of the fire is still under investigation and commended the firefighters for their courage and professionalism in handling the situation. "We salute our gallant firefighters for their courage and professionalism in saving lives," the statement concluded. Previous article: IT Engineer returns from abroad and surrenders to authorities after OSP wanted notice Featured Police uncover inside job in Jukwa gold robbery; driver, guard nabbed Mohammed Ali Jul - 16 - 2025 , 10:31 2 minutes read The Police have arrested three suspects in connection with a gold robbery that occurred near Jukwa, close to Afransie in the Western Region, describing the incident as an inside job involving members of the transport crew. The robbery took place on July 15, 2025, when a Toyota Hilux pickup with registration number GT 7426-23, transporting gold concentrate from a mining site to Wassa Akropong, was attacked along the Jukwa road. The vehicle was occupied by the assigned driver, Mr Kofi Gyamfi, a security guard identified only as Bashiru, and one other individual. According to initial police reports, the incident was not a random act. Officers from the Western Central Regional Command, who responded promptly, arrested a suspect at the scene, Mr Foster Peprah, a small-scale miner. Police investigators say Mr Gyamfi recruited him to execute the robbery. During interrogation, Mr Peprah told police he conspired with another man, known only as Isaac, who is currently on the run. He also revealed that Mr Gyamfi, the official driver, arranged their access and timing. Following this disclosure, police arrested Mr Gyamfi, who admitted his role in the crime and named Bashiru, the onboard security guard, as the one who initiated the plan. Bashiru was later picked up from his hideout in Wassa Gyedua. All three arrested suspects are currently in police custody and are assisting with the investigation. Police say efforts are underway to apprehend Isaac, who remains at large. The Ghana Police Service has stated it is taking steps to improve safety along mining transport routes and to deal with individuals who use insider knowledge to stage such robberies. Next article: Government has begun paying ENI, Tullow and WAPCo to ease energy sector debt Jinapor Featured Punikrom to get army base as Mahama moves to curb border crime and insecurity in Western North Mohammed Ali Jul - 16 - 2025 , 15:04 2 minutes read President John Dramani Mahama has announced that a Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Ghana Armed Forces will be established at Punikrom, a border town in the Western North Region, to help address rising security threats along Ghanas frontier with Cote dIvoire. The announcement was made on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, during a durbar in Juaboso, as part of Mr Mahamas Thank You Tour. He said the base was in response to appeals from traditional authorities and growing concern over cross-border crime, smuggling, and illegal mining in the area. We are establishing a Forward Operating Base of the Ghana Armed Forces in Punikrom, as requested by Nananom, to respond swiftly to security threats and border-related crimes, Mr Mahama said to applause from residents and chiefs. The military presence is expected to strengthen patrols, improve intelligence-gathering, and deter criminal activity in the region. Western North, created in 2019, shares a long and porous border with Cote dIvoire, making it a hotspot for the unregulated movement of goods and people. Mr Mahama said peace and security must be prioritised, particularly in areas earmarked for investment under the NDCs proposed Big Push infrastructure programme. The Punikrom base will host personnel tasked with surveillance, anti-smuggling operations, and rapid response duties. It is also expected to counter illegal mining and other illicit activities undermining law enforcement in the region. Local chiefs have repeatedly called for permanent security infrastructure, arguing that the absence of such facilities has left their communities exposed and unattractive to investors. This is not just a security intervention, its a developmental one, said Nana Osei Kwadwo, a local chief, after the former Presidents remarks. We have waited too long for this. The initiative forms part of a broader discussion on decentralising security deployments across the six new regions, many of which lack basic public infrastructure. Mr Mahama also indicated that the base would be supported by the recruitment of local youth into the security services, subject to financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance. Featured IT Engineer returns from abroad and surrenders to authorities after OSP wanted notice GraphicOnline Jul - 16 - 2025 , 11:25 1 minute read Raphael Mensah, the individual wanted by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for his alleged involvement in a corruption-related offence, has returned to Ghana and surrendered to authorities. Mensah, who was abroad when a wanted notice was issued for him on 8 July 2025, appeared in court today and was granted bail under strict conditions. The OSP had accused Mensah of aiding and abetting the improper use of a public office for personal gain, contrary to sections 20(2) and 179C(a) of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The notice described him as a key suspect in a case involving the exploitation of public office for private benefit. Upon his return, Mensah voluntarily presented himself to the OSP and was subsequently arraigned before the court. The presiding judge granted him bail set at GHS 100,000 with two sureties. Additionally, Mensah was ordered to deposit his passport with the court and report to the OSP every two weeks as part of his bail conditions. The OSP had earlier urged the public to assist in locating Mensah, providing contact details for tips. His return marks a development in the case, which has drawn public attention amid Ghana's ongoing anti-corruption efforts. The OSP has in the past reiterated that all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The case is expected to proceed as investigations continue. Featured Cyber Security Authority, Meta forge alliance to tackle cyber threats in Ghana GraphicOnline Technology Jul - 16 - 2025 , 18:00 2 minutes read The Cyber Security Authority (CSA) of Ghana has held a strategic meeting with Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to deepen collaboration in the fight against cybercrime and enhance digital safety across the country. The high-level engagement, which took place in Accra, focused on strengthening Ghanas cybersecurity framework and digital ecosystem through joint initiatives. The Meta delegation was led by Mr Kojo Boakye, Vice President of Public Policy for Africa, the Middle East, and Turkiye. Key areas discussed included digital literacy, child online protection, cybercrime investigations, impersonation and fraud takedowns, and the development of real-time incident reporting systems. Both parties also stressed the importance of localised public education campaigns to raise awareness of online threats and empower users with the knowledge to protect themselves. The Director-General of the CSA, Mr Divine Agbeti, described the meeting as a pivotal moment in Ghanas cyber resilience journey. He underscored the need for tech giants like Meta to work closely with national institutions to address the growing threat of cyberbullying, identity theft, and online fraud. Meta and other social media platforms play a critical role in shaping the digital experiences of Ghanaians, Mr Agbeti said. We urge Meta to support our mission of creating a safer cyberspace, especially for vulnerable groups like children and the elderly. Mr Boakye reaffirmed Metas commitment to supporting governments in tackling digital security challenges. He highlighted the companys efforts to invest in safety tools, content moderation, and user protection mechanisms. The meeting also explored future avenues for training and capacity building for law enforcement and digital security professionals in Ghana. Both parties agreed on the need for sustained collaboration to improve response times to cyber incidents and ensure accountability on digital platforms. ITC will ban iPhones with BOE displays from being sold in the US Apple likely wont be able to sell iPhones with BOE displays in the US due to a preliminary ruling by the US International Trade Commission (ITC) that the Chinese display maker infringed on Samsung Displays trade secrets on OLED panels. The ITC ruling includes two orders a limited exclusion order and a cease and desist order. The first prevents Apple from importing infringing iPhones into the US. The latter prohibits Apple from using existing inventory and further production or sales activities. This hasnt come into effect yet the import ban is expected to kick in with the final ruling in November. ETNews, which has been following the suit, reports that preliminary rulings are rarely overturned. After November, there is a two-month period during which President Trump will be able to veto the final ruling. Apple sources components from multiple manufacturers, e.g. iPhone displays are made by Samsung, LG and BOE. BOE typically makes the non-ProMotion displays on vanilla phones in fact, it supplied the majority of iPhone 16e displays. However, @Jukanlosreve recently reported that Apple has approved BOE display panels for iPhone 17 Pro phones that will be exclusively sold in China. Of course, ITCs ban has no influence on sales in China, but it may have affected how Apple distributes production quotas between its display suppliers. Also, the future iPhone Fold is safe, since it will use Samsung Display panels. Besides the ITC suit, Samsung Display filed a suit with the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas seeking compensation for lost operating profit plus punitive damages over BOEs infringement. Source (in Korean) Here's a clear case of 'looking too much at spec sheets may not be very productive', especially when we're talking about 0.1mm differences. See, on paper, the Honor Magic V5 in one specific colorway (called Ivory White) is advertised by the brand to be 8.8mm thick when folded. Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7, on the other hand, is 8.9mm thick when folded. So there's a clear winner here, right? A clear "world's thinnest book-style foldable', as it were. Well, not so fast. Place the two side by side and try to balance something off of them, as famed Chinese leaker Ice Universe has done in the video below, and the roles are reversed, as you can see - the Fold7 is clearly the thinner device. There is no accurate measuring tool, but we can still draw a rigorous conclusion: Galaxy Z Fold7 is the thinnest folding mobile phone in the world. I switched the positions of two mobile phones during the test, and the results remained the same, which showed that the factors of pic.twitter.com/irlNgKOtH0 PhoneArt (@UniverseIce) July 15, 2025 So what gives? Well, it's all about the pre-applied screen protector on the Magic V5, which is not part of the official thickness measurement, but is, well, pre-applied, when you buy the phone, whereas the Samsung doesn't have such a perk. This just goes to show how irrelevant a 0.1mm thickness difference is in real life, despite brands loving to claim things like "world's thinnest" and "world's lightest". So please keep this in mind - you won't feel 0.1mm and you won't feel 1g in real life, thus it only makes sense to make your choice for buying a device based on claims like "world's thinnest" and "world's lightest" if you then want to brag to your friends about your device wearing such a (sometimes very short-lived) crown. In this day and age, a lot of foldables are already thin enough and light enough to be very comfortable to use even when folded, so we'd advise you to make your pick based on other traits they have which you require. What do you think, though? Is all of this too much hype or are even minute differences like these important to you? Let us know in the comments. Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 Earlier this month, Sony halted sales of its Xperia 1 VII due to random reboots, shutdowns, and inability to power on. The brand later launched an investigation into the issue and it seems to have reached a conclusion. It appears that a number of Xperia 1 VII units are affected by a faulty circuit board, resulting in the aforementioned issues. As a result, Sony will offer a free replacement program for affected Xperia 1 VII users. The brand also confirmed that it altered its manufacturing process to ensure future units won't suffer from the same issue. Our investigation has concluded that the manufacturing process may cause a failure of the circuit board in a small number of Xperia 1 VII smartphones, which could potentially result in power issues. The manufacturing process was changed immediately to ensure this does not happen again. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers. - Sony UK official statement All Xperia 1 VII users are encouraged to verify their phone's IMEI number on a dedicated validation portal. If their device is affected, Sony will provide further instructions on how to apply for a replacement unit. The replacement program is scheduled to begin on July 21. Sony also reminds affected users to back up their data before sending in their devices for replacement. Thanks for the tip, Josip! Source The Guam Police Department said it arrested on July 15 three more individuals involved in a shooting on July 8 in Mangga Court, Dededo, including the person who allegedly got shot. This brings to nine the total number of individuals so far arrested in connection with the shooting. The three newly arrested: Jerome Edwin Santos Assault, rioting, and outstanding warrant Terry Juan Cabrera Aggravated assault and rioting Cassandra Rose Eagleson Mendiola Aggravated assault and rioting Suspected shooter arrested At around 4 p.m. on July 8, a shooting occurred at a residence in Mangga Court, Dededo. Following a physical altercation, a suspect fired a stolen pistol, striking a man. Two days later, on July 10, Christian Sison Gatchalian was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, aggravated assault, terrorizing, reckless conduct, criminal mischief and multiple firearm offenses. Gatchalian admitted to the shooting, GPD said. Police: Gatchalian shot Santos On July 15, GPD said it arrested Santos, Cabrera and Mendiola in connection with the July 8 shooting at Mangga Court, Dededo. They engaged in a fight with Gatchalian who shot Santos, GPD said. Earlier arrested Besides the three newly arrested and Gatchalian, the five individuals arrested earlier: Shawn Phillip Sapp, charged with disorderly conduct DonnaLynn Salas Villanueva, facing narcotics-related charges Paco San Agustin Bermudes, charged with destroying evidence, obstructing governmental functions, unlawful possession of a firearm, and carrying two outstanding warrants Rodney Charles Sapp Jr., charged with aggravated assault, rioting, destroying evidence, obstructing governmental operations, and unlawful possession of a firearm Vivencia Millani Racelis, mother of Sapp Jr., charged with assault on a peace officer as a third-degree felony, hindering apprehension or prosecution, resisting arrest and obstructing government function, all as misdemeanors. Magistrates complaint Gatchalian, the suspected shooter, was earlier treated for injuries and released from the hospital. Police later learned Gatchalian had broken bones near his right eye and minor damage to his spine, according to the magistrates complaint filed in local court. In the complaint, Gatchalian said he had brought a firearm to the Dededo home and was later attacked by multiple individuals. During the struggle, he retrieved the weapon and discharged it while someone was on top of him. Police spoke to witnesses who said Gatchalian came to the house asking Mendiola for money. Mendiola left and returned with her boyfriend, Santos, who confronted Gatchalian. A physical fight ensued and Gatchalian pulled out his gun and shot Santos in the neck. Mendiola took Santos to Guam Regional Medical City. He was unconscious and unresponsive when he arrived at GRMC and he had what appeared to be a puncture wound on the left side of his neck and an exit wound on his right flank. He was immediately transported to the operating room for surgery. Police last Thursday said Santos was in stable condition. Gatchalian was also released the same day and placed under arrest. He admitted the gun was the same gun he used in both the July 8 and March shootings. He said a man gave him the gun in Christmas 2024 in exchange for drugs, the complaint stated. Case remains open The Dededo shooting case remains open, and the investigation remains active, with detectives seeking additional witnesses. To protect the integrity of this investigation, GPD said it does not have any more releasable information at this time. Anyone with information is requested to contact GPDs Criminal Investigation Section at (671) 475-8552 or leave an anonymous tip on the Guam Crime Stoppers website at www.guam.crimestoppersweb.com. The Contractors License Board is one step closer to resolving an uncollected $300,000 fine brought against a major airport vendor two years ago. CLB Investigator Supervisor Nida Bailey told the board Wednesday that the CLB now has a long-awaited attorney to handle an appeal of the fine, which was levied against former airport baggage handling system contractor Menzies Aviation. Menzies was given the $300,000 penalty in March 2023, after the CLBs investigators found the company did not have a contractors license required to do work at the airport. The company secured a license the same year a fine was assessed. Its work for the airport earned over $3.5 million, before the airport brought on another baggage handling system vendor in June, a review of airport records found. Menzies also contested the $300,000 fine shortly after it was assessed, and the CLB must hold a hearing on the matter before it can move forward. With no attorney assigned from the Office of the Attorney General to hold that hearing, the fine was long held up, the Pacific Daily News reported last month. But as of Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Alex Ford was assigned to hold the hearing, investigator supervisor Bailey reported to the board on Wednesday. Bailey said that Chief Deputy Attorney General Joseph Guthrie notified her of the assignment in an email. A hearing date was pending, she said. Following the March 2023 fine and a cease-and-desist order from the CLB, Menzies secured a contractors license that same year, the PDN has reported. A procurement protest from Menzies competitor, industrial equipment supplier JMI-Edison raised allegations that Menzies had no license as early as September 2021. But Public Auditor Benjamin Cruz in February of 2022 found JMI had worked with former CLB executive director Cecil Buddy Orsini to commit fraud in the protest appeal of the airport contract. The controversy resulted in Orsinis resignation, and held up the matters resolution for years. A Superior Court of Guam judge last year found JMI was denied due process by the public auditor, and the case was sent back to Cruz for more proceedings. But JMI, Menzies, and the airport settled the procurement protest in May 2024, and the case was dismissed. With procurement frozen by JMIs protest for years, Menzies was running the airports baggage handling system on a month-to-month, emergency basis from November 2021 to this past May. The airport paid Menzies over $3.5 million through that time period, based on a review of emergency procurement reports. When the airport went out to bid for a new baggage handling contractor last September, JMI won. JMI took over services on June 1, the PDN reported. July 21 marks the 81st anniversary of Guams liberation from Japanese occupation during World War II, and the island is marking the occasion with a grand parade along Marine Corps Drive, three fireworks displays and a three-day festival at the CHamoru Village in Hagatna. The occasion honors 81 years of freedom and resilience. After more than 30 months under Japanese occupation that started on Dec. 8, 1941, Guam was recaptured by American forces on July 21, 1944. Memorials, Masses, exhibits and other somber ceremonies kicked off the weekslong observance, starting with the retracing of the march to the Manenggon concentration camp and visits to war-era massacre sites to honor those who perished and survived. July 19-21: Dinanna Chamoru Festival The three-day 81st Guam Liberation Dinanna CHamoru Festival will be held from Saturday to Monday at the CHamoru Village in Hagatna. The Mayors Council of Guam, which is hosting the event, invites the community to a celebration of the vibrant CHamoru culture through music, dance, food, and traditional arts. There will be cultural performances, demonstrations by local artisans, and activities for all ages. Saturday, July 19: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, July 20: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, July 21: 5 to 10 p.m. July 21: 81st Liberation Day Parade Guams largest community celebration is the annual Liberation Day Parade, along Marine Corps Drive in the islands capital of Hagatna, starting at Adelup and ending at the grandstand in front of the CHamoru Village. Parade goers can expect vibrant floats, walking groups, and special tributes honoring WWII survivors and liberators. Parade route road closures begin at 5 a.m. Liberation 5K Run at 6 a.m. Liberation 1-Mile Run at 7:21 a.m. The parade starts at 8 a.m. July 21: Fireworks show at 3 locations To wrap up the day, a Liberation Fireworks Show, hosted by the Guam Visitors Bureau, will light up the night sky at 7:21 p.m. at the following three locations: Hagatna Treatment Plant (15-minute display) Fort Apugan (5-minute display) Paseo Point Statue of Liberty locale (5-minute display) The parade Live Broadcast begins at 9 a.m. on PBS Guam/KGTF Channel 12 and on YouTube at youtube.com/@pbsguam. A digital booklet with special Liberation Day messages and information on parade entries will also be available on July 21, 2025 and viewable on governor.guam.gov. Honor the past, celebrate the future Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio on Wednesday issued a statement inviting the entire community to gather for the 81st Liberation Day Parade and evening fireworks. As we prepare to celebrate the 81st anniversary of our islands liberation, we do so under a banner that calls on us to rise united, proud, and strong, the governor said in a statement. Fanohge CHamoru is a living reminder of our resilience and identity. We invite everyone to join us for the parade and fireworks as we stand together to honor our past and celebrate our future. Tenorio, for his part, said as Guam prepares to celebrate the 81st anniversary of its liberation, we do so under a banner that calls on us to rise united, proud, and strong. Fanohge CHamoru is a living reminder of our resilience and identity, he said. We invite everyone to join us for the parade and fireworks as we stand together to honor our past and celebrate our future. 75th anniversary of the Organic Act of Guam Guam is also celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Aug. 1, 1950 signing of the Organic of Guam, granting U.S. citizenship to residents of Guam at the time and their descendants, establishing the civil government on Guam, and solidifying Guams political status as an unincorporated territory of the United States. Tenorio said Liberation Day and the commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Organic Act of Guam are defining moments in the islands history. They are reminders of the sacrifices made by our people in advance of peace and freedom, he said. Lets take this opportunity to educate our islands children and all those that call Guam home about our unique history and our continued quest for prosperity for all. This years Liberation theme, Fanohge CHamoru Stand Ye Guamanians, comes from the powerful opening line of Guams anthem, written by Dr. Ramon Manalisay Sablan, in 1919. It serves as both a reflection of Guams past and a call to action for its future. Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto said he had a 'very good' call with Trump A man federal officials say was a prolific drug dealer for distributing methamphetamine on Guam was sentenced to 135 months in federal prison on Wednesday. Gavin Domingo Alimurong, 27, was charged in the District Court of Guam with conspiracy to distribute fifty or more grams of methamphetamine hydrochloride in 2022, according to court documents. He later pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced by Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood on Wednesday. U.S. Attorney for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands Shawn Anderson in a statement applauded multi-agency partners for protecting our communities from this dangerous activity. Law enforcement removed a prolific drug dealer from the streets of Guam, he said. Alimurong also forfeited four vehicles, jewelry, luxury bags, and $350,164 in cash. The court also ordered five years of supervised release and a mandatory $100 special assessment fee. In addition, defendants convicted of a federal drug offense may no longer qualify for certain federal benefits. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office, between July 2019 and July 2022, Alimurong conspired with others to distribute methamphetamine in Guam. He obtained methamphetamine, cocaine, and ecstasy through the dark web, converting U.S. currency into Bitcoin to pay for drugs shipped to Guam via the U.S. Postal Service. In December 2021, Guam Police Department investigated a domestic violence incident involving Alimurong. During searches of his residence and vehicle, law enforcement seized 594 grams of methamphetamine and 401 grams of cocaine, in addition to pharmaceuticals including oxycodone, alprazolam, and amphetamine pills. Police also seized glass pipes, a pill crusher, a digital scale, plastic zip-top bags, a money counter, a postal stamp printer, and various luxury items. Officers also recovered a firearm, ammunition, and $93,124 in cash. A search of a storage locker revealed an additional $257,040 in U.S. currency from illegal drug sales. Western Union records indicated that Alimurong wired $103,165 to multiple individuals in China, Vietnam, Bolivia, Colombia, Laos, and the United States. Drug trafficking will not be tolerated in our communities, said Anthony Chrysanthis, deputy special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Los Angeles Field Division, which oversees Guam. We will vigorously pursue all criminals who flood our streets with their poison and ensure they face the full force of the law. Homeland Security Investigations Hawaii Special Agent in Charge Lucy Cabral-DeArmas, in a statement, said Alimurong callously chased profits with no concern for the impact and harm he brought to public safety. HSI and its partners in law enforcement will aggressively investigate, disrupt, and dismantle the transnational flow of illegal drugs and ensure those that choose to traffic them are held accountable for the harm they bring to the communities of Guam, she said. Put the community in great harm The case was investigated under the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Strategic Initiative. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. You will lose your freedom and the unlawful proceeds or your crime if you try to exploit the U.S. mail to traffic dangerous controlled substances, said U.S. Postal Inspection Service San Francisco Division Inspector in Charge Stephen Sherwood. I would like to thank our federal partners, and our task force partners with Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency, the Guam Police Department, and the Guam Army National Guard Counter Drug Program for helping keep methamphetamine out of the mail and out of our communities. ATF Seattle Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Blais said Alimurongs actions put the community in great harm and was only exacerbated by his possession of firearms. Because of his actions, this sentence is well deserved. The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Guam Police Department, with support from Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and Guam Police Department Special Investigations Section, and the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency. Assistant United States Attorney Rosetta L. San Nicolas prosecuted the case in the District of Guam. Col. Joaquin Danny Santos, Jr., 90, was inspired to enlist in the Marines after witnessing the liberation of Guam on July 21, 1944, when he was nine years old. When the Japanese bombed Sumai, Santos, then, six years old, was in church with his grandmother and brother. They were warned by a person who ran into the church screaming about what had happened. I had no idea what a Japanese plane looked like, or what an American plane looked like, so my grandmother pulled us and then the priest blessed us, and we went up to the hill and stayed there until the island was secured, Santos said. That was the front end of the invasion. We just went back to our house, but the house was occupied by the Japanese throughout the war. During the occupation, Santos grandfather, Juan Aflague Santos, was a boatswains mate with the United States Navy. After the island was secured, he was interrogated and then incarcerated in Agana under suspicion of holding military information, but he was released when the Japanese realized he did not have any valuable information. Afterward, Santoss family gathered with the rest of Asan when the Japanese started forcing people to march to Manenggon. That morning, Salas and his brother were sent to gather water and bamboo for their grandmother to store in a pot and use to cook once they arrived at the concentration camp. When the Marines landed, we marched from Manenggon to Agat, Santos said. I remember holding on to my grandfather, Juan, as we came across this hill. I looked at this Jeep that had a driver, a passenger in the front who was giving out cookies and candies, and the gunner in the back, and everybody was smiling. I asked my grandfather, Tata, what is that? Without blinking, he said, Thats a tank. Well, when I became an officer in the Marine Corps, I came back to Guam on a vacation, and I told my grandfather I know the difference between a Jeep and a tank [now]. Santos would later enlist in the Marine Corps during college. He retired as a colonel after 26 years of service from both active and reserve duty. What I wanted to do more than anything was to show gratitude to the United States of America for invading and rescuing us from the wrath of the Japanese, Santos said. I enjoyed it. Its a good opportunity. Santos attended the Asan Memorial on July 16 in the company of other war survivors, veterans, senators, mayors, and active military. When the United States military retook Guam in a joint mission between the United States Marines, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard on July 21, 1944, they arrived on the shores of Asan, storming the beach with war machines and bombs. Honor the legacy of sacrifice This memorial was different from its preceded ceremonies. Previous memorials at Manenggon, Tiyan, Malesso, and Hagat commemorated the sacrifices and hardships of the CHamoru people. The Asan Memorial commemorates the sacrifices of the U.S. military soldiers who fought and died for the liberation of Guam, the veterans who lived to see its success, and the men and women who continue to protect and defend Guam and the rest of the United States. The memorials keynote speaker was 1st Sgt. Jan Pocaigue, a retired Marine who served as a combat engineer from August 2001 to February 2022. His speech resonated with Santos, describing the importance of Fanhoge CHamorro to Guams service members. We gather here today not just to commemorate a chapter in our history, but to honor the legacy of sacrifice that has shaped who we are, Pocaigue said. This is a day of reverence, a moment to bow our heads in silence for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that others might live in peace, dignity, and freedom. On these hollow grounds, 81 years ago, courage faced cruelty, and though the cost was great, the cause was just. To the surviving family members of those who gave their lives during the liberation of Guam, and to every family who has ever received that folded flag, your loved ones did not fall in vain. Pocaigue defined the relationship between CHamoru spirit and military service as a calling to honor the past sacrifices that planted the seeds of liberty in soils soaked with blood and hope. He stressed how service members today walk in the shade of freedom that their predecessors and ancestors fought for. Most especially, he reminded everyone how the liberating forces were outnumbered, outmanned, outgunned, and assisted by the Insular Guard, military unit hastily resurrected to protect Guam in 1941 with no formal training or arms. They were never outmatched with resolve, and they were not alone, Pocaigue said. Long before the landing crafts appeared on the horizon here in Asan, Guams own sons, the ones that we rarely hear about, the men of the Insular Guard, stood as the first line of defense, armed with little more than courage and loyalty. Many were captured, tortured, and killed. Others were forced into labor, but none ever surrendered their pride or their love for their island and family. To the families of those brave CHamoru men, we remember them, we honor them, and we carry their legacy with us. CHamoru soldiers Santos found Pocaigues speech very powerful. He most resonated with Pocaigues point to carry the legacy of Guams past and present service members. While Guam leads the nation in military service per capita, it also has the highest number of military fatalities. As part of continuing and honoring their legacy, Santos touched on the importance of awarding CHamoru soldiers their due recognition. Vietnam is a classic example, Santos said. In Vietnam, six CHamorus were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross of the U.S. Army for valor above and beyond the call of duty, Santos said. Of those six CHamorus, three of them are recommended for elevation of their Distinguished Service Cross to the Medal of Honor: Command Sgt. Maj. Martin Manglona, the late Sgt. Maj. Juan Ogo Blas, and Spc4 Joseph Meno Perez. Joseph Meno Perez particularly is being pushed for the Medal of Honor because he picked up a hand grenade lobbed by the enemy and absorbed its blast to save others. He survived the explosion but lost his wrist and his right eye. Santos found Meno Perezs lack of award surprising, considering 68 American servicemen were awarded the Medal of Honor for doing the same thing in Vietnam. I am writing in full support of Sen. Telo Taitagues proposed amendment to Bill 11-38, which seeks to exempt all general contractors engaged in federally funded military buildup projects from the gross receipts tax, GRT, rollback. This is a critical and fiscally responsible step that will help protect Guams limited resources while preserving the intent of the rollback for those who truly need it. These large-scale military projects have placed a tremendous burden on our islands infrastructure, roads, utilities, ports, and public services, as well as on our private sector workforce. The result has been a prolonged labor shortage that continues to this day, leaving local contractors and businesses unable to find sufficient manpower to meet demand. This has directly affected our ability to rebuild after COVID-19 and Typhoon Mawar and has further strained our already limited housing market and materials supply. While I fully support the rollback for companies that are rooted in Guams economy and file taxes locally, we cannot ignore the outsized impact that military buildup projects have had and continue to have on our community. Allowing contractors involved in these federally funded projects to benefit from the rollback would not only dilute the purpose of the legislation, but it would also reduce critical tax revenue needed to sustain essential public services. There has been some concern raised about whether such an exemption would be considered adverse or discriminatory. However, this is not the case. The proposed amendment does not target any contractor based on where they are from or how they are incorporated. It draws a fair and legally justifiable distinction based on the nature of the work performed. Courts have long upheld the governments authority to classify economic activity for taxation, so long as it serves a legitimate public interest. In fact, this principle is firmly rooted in Guams own legal precedent. Under the Guam Economic Development Authoritys underwriting guidelines for the Qualifying Certificate, QC, program, economic activity has always been classified based on the degree of impact, contribution, and long-term investment on the island. QC benefits are not granted simply for operating on Guam. They are granted for generating measurable economic value and sustainability. The same principle applies here. Furthermore, as a U.S. territory with Home Rule authority and local taxing power, Guam has the legal discretion to enact tax policy that reflects its unique economic realities. So long as the classification is uniform, objective, and activity-based, it does not violate equal protection, due process, or anti-discrimination laws. The military buildup contractors fall into a distinct category of temporary, federally funded construction that often bypasses our tax system while consuming local resources. This is not about opposing the military or the buildup. Its about economic fairness. Senator Taitagues amendment is a sound and necessary correction. It protects the original intent of Bill 11-38 by ensuring that the rollback reaches the businesses that need and deserve it, while preserving revenue from projects that do not contribute proportionately to our economy. I strongly urge the Legislature to adopt this amendment and demonstrate responsible governance that balances tax relief with fiscal sustainability. There is a stirring in our people. You can feel it in the solemn whispers of war survivors, in the laughter at village fiestas, in the swelling pride when a child learns their first CHamoru prayer. As Guam marks the 75th anniversary of the Organic Act, we are called to more than remembrancewe are called to revival. This anniversary is not simply a date. It is a living promise handed to us by the generations who endured and overcame, who dreamed of a future where Guam could stand strong, proud, and defined not by others, but by ourselves. Soul of a destination The world knows our beaches, but do they know our bravery? Do they know the spirit behind the Hafa Adai greetingthe unspoken promise that every soul who touches our shores becomes family? Now is the time to redefine what it means to experience Guam. Not as a commodity for consumption, but as a story to be understood. As a sacred place where culture, community, and courage converge. Tourism must no longer be about volumeit must be about value. And its greatest value lies in pride: our pride, as caretakers of a legacy that refuses to be forgotten. Awakening community responsibility When we reimagine tourism, we reimagine ourselves. We invite every youth to learn their history, every elder to share their wisdom, every villager to take ownership of our narrative. Guam deserves to be lived with honor and seen with reverence. This isnt just an economic strategy. This is an emotional homecoming. A reckoning with who we areand who we refuse to become. Let the 75th anniversary of the Organic Act mark the moment we stopped asking others to define us. Let it be the moment we stood together, and said, Come, see Guamnot only for what lies on the land, but for who rises from it. A number of years ago, my mom asked me to pick up a birthday cake at the store. I asked if it was mine. She said no, its for your brothers surprise birthday party. But were twins. Fortunately, she didnt really do that, at least I dont think she did. However, I bring up our birthday because next Monday, July 21, is our birthday. I remember back to June 2010 when I moved to Guam, Brandon, who had been here for about half a year, told me that our birthday was on the same day as Guams Liberation Day. Fifteen years later, I still have the special feeling of sharing such an important day in Guams history. I reminisce of our birthdays through the yearsusually at the pool or nearby at the Outer Banks, always hoping for one thing: thunderstorms. And the heavier the rain and the more frequent the lightning, the better. Although I still love a classic thunderstorm, my wish is different now, specifically for Guam. An ideal July 21 for me in the National Weather Service on Guam would be for moderate trades, some overcast, and dry! This is because many across Guam will enjoy the extended weekend with a variety of festivities, picnics and barbecues and the parade! We often hear of people overheating at the parade, or at other events, or concern about inclement weather and heavy showers and winds. I recall seeing several Liberation Day events with a deluge of heavy showers and gusty winds. Will that be the case this year? At five days out, that is always a possibility. Several of my previous columns focused on heat safety (www.weather.gov/safety/heat), and another in May, focused on lightning safety (www.weather.gov/safety/lightning). Due to a recent event in the states, and the current weather forecast for Guam, I wanted to write about lightning hazards and safety as we approach the holiday weekend. On July 10, the United States recorded its 7th and 8th lightning fatalities for 2025. An 18-year-old and a 19-year-old were struck by lightning while fishing from a pond in an open field. Based on the last 10 years of data, the U.S. averages nine lightning fatalities through July 11, with many of those deaths occurring during the summer months. The current Guam weather forecast (www.weather.gov/gum/PublicForecasts) calls for a wetter last half of this week that may linger into the weekend, with a chance for thunderstorms. While this is a typical forecast for this time of year, with scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, its important not to downplay the lightning risk for the island, and the lightning hazard for folks outside and away from a safe structure. We at NWS Guam wish for everyone to have a safe and happy Liberation Day and weekend. The best way to do that, especially if weather conditions are not ideal, is to keep weather in the forefront of your plans: 1. Plan activities to avoid the lightning risk. 2. Check the forecast before going out and consider postponing or cancelling activities if thunderstorms are predicted. 3. If you do go out, monitor weather conditions with radar or lightning apps, keep a watchful eye on the sky, and listen for thunder. 4. Head to a substantial building with wiring and plumbing or a hard-topped metal vehicle at the first signs of a developing or approaching thunderstorm. 5. While inside, avoid contact with anything that is plugged into an electrical outlet and all plumbing. 6. Remain inside for 30 minutes after the last rumble of thunder. And most importantly, dont take chances. A little inconvenience could save your life. If youre at the Liberation Parade or at the beach, and you see lightning or hear thunder, youre in danger, hence the phrase, when thunder roars, get indoors. Taking cover under a tent, canopy or tarp is not safe refuge from a possible lightning strike. Nor is an umbrella. Make sure you are aware of the latest weather forecasts, and weather conditions in your area, so that you can take action to protect yourself, and your friends and family, from lightning should the need arise. Lightning can strike in a flash, so know the weather forecast (www.weather.gov/gum) for your area if you have outdoor plans. Dont become a statistic: have a Plan B ready to go, and know what actions to take should lightning become a concern. From all of us at NWS Guam: Have a Safe and Happy Liberation Guam! Haiti - FLASH : Risk of terrorist violence Do not travel to Haiti On July 15, 2025, the U.S. State Department reissued its strongest travel warning for Haiti, after adding the terrorism indicator, warning all Americans not to travel to Haiti. Crime and Terrorism : There is widespread violent crime and organized crime in the country, and local law enforcement has limited ability to respond to serious crimes. Violent crime is rampant in Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince, where the expansion of gang, organized crime, and terrorist activity has led to widespread violence, kidnappings, and sexual assault. The escalation of clashes between armed groups has led to a rise in sporadic gunfire incidents. There is a substantial risk of being struck by stray bullets, even for individuals not directly involved in the violence. There is risk of terrorist violence, including attacks and other violent gang activity in Haiti. There are gangs that are designated as terrorist organizations present in Haiti. Key Points of the Travel Advisory : The U.S. government advisory clearly outlines the multiple reasons why travelers should refrain from traveling to Haiti at this time. These include: - Kidnapping and Armed Robbery : Violent crimes involving firearms, including carjackings and kidnappings for ransom, are common in Haiti. This problem has long persisted, and the situation has deteriorated significantly in recent years; - Civil Unrest : The country is experiencing increasing instability, marked by civil unrest and dangerous activities. The U.S. Department of State also included a terrorism indicator in its latest update, highlighting the heightened threat. - Limited Access to Health Care : Due to ongoing instability, the Haitian health system is severely underdeveloped, with limited resources and access, especially during times of crisis. - State of emergency : Haiti has been in a state of emergency since March 2024, reflecting the seriousness of the situation and the government's difficulty in restoring order. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-44548-haiti-flash-state-department-maintains-level-4-alert-do-not-travel-to-haiti.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Washington : PM meets with Senator Raphael Warnock and Michael Jensen On Tuesday, July 15, 2025, as part of ongoing cooperation with international partners aimed at a lasting solution to the crisis in Haiti, Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aime, on an official visit to Washington, D.C., met with Democrat Raphael Warnock (Georgia), a senior member of the Senate and an influential member of the Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness. At the heart of the discussions were security issues, the organization of free and credible elections, and the crucial renewal of the HOPE/HELP Act, a strategic pillar of the economic partnership between Haiti and the United States. The Prime Minister expressed his government's firm commitment to creating the necessary conditions for institutional stability and strengthening the rule of law, an essential condition for economic recovery. He reaffirmed the Haitian government's commitment to addressing the multidimensional challenges facing the country. He also emphasized the critical importance of the trade preferences granted under the HOPE/HELP Act for the development of the Haitian textile industry, the creation of sustainable jobs, and the fight against poverty. The Prime Minister called for the solidarity of the U.S. Congress to ensure the sustainability of this essential instrument of cooperation. According to James Monazard, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, the Hope/Help Act is on the agenda of the U.S. Congress to be passed before the end of this year... https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-45198-haiti-economy-major-economic-guidelines-of-the-government-video.html Prime Minister Fils-Aime was also received the same day at the White House by Michael Jensen, Director for the Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council. During the exchanges between the two men, marked by cordiality and mutual respect, the security situation in Haiti and ongoing efforts to hold credible, transparent, and democratic elections were discussed. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the Haitian government's firm commitment to restoring public order, strengthening republican institutions, and ensuring a return to constitutional normalcy. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Humanitarian : Spain donates emergency equipment to civil protection On Monday, July 14, 2025, Marco Antonio Penin Toledano, the Spanish Ambassador accredited to Haiti, visited the Civil Protection Directorate (DPC) in Port-au-Prince to preside over the handover ceremony for humanitarian equipment from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the signing of the donation certificate. Faced with the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Haiti, with a gradual increase in the number of internally displaced persons due to violence perpetrated by armed groups, AECID implemented an emergency response by donating essential equipment to the DPC to meet the growing needs of the population. Thirteen tons of supplies arrived by plane at Toussaint Louverture Airport on Saturday, July 12th, thanks to the logistical support of the World Food Programme (WFP), which organized a charter flight to transport humanitarian supplies to Haiti, pre-positioned at the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (DRC) in Panama, for various organizations. This donation, estimated at over US$150,000, includes tents of various sizes, kitchen utensil kits, mosquito nets, water purification equipment, four 10 m flexible tanks, two generators, and equipment for the construction of various types of latrines, among other things. These materials will help improve the hygiene and sanitation conditions of hundreds of families who have lost their homes. After the ceremony, a tour of the DPC facilities, the crisis room, and the warehouse where these 13 tons of equipment have been stored pending their next distribution in the coming days was organized. A third of the equipment will be deployed in the Southeast department, where Spanish Cooperation focuses a large part of its operations in the country and which is frequently affected by storms and hurricanes. During this hurricane season, prevention and preparedness are essential for a rapid and appropriate response in the event of an emergency. The Haitian delegation expressed its satisfaction and gratitude for the usefulness and quality of the equipment received. HL/ S/ HaitiLibre According to the 2025 Flightright Index, published by German outlet Bild , Finnair scored 2.48 out of 5, placing last among 20 European airlines. The worst score came in the reliability category, where Finnair earned only 1.5 points due to cancellations and delays. Finnair has been ranked the worst airline in Europe by a new consumer index after months of flight cancellations, delays, and customer complaints. The company is also facing a financial hit of up to 100 million and a severe decline in public trust. The carrier performed better in compensation handling but was still outperformed by all but two low-cost rivals, Ryanair and Vueling. Finnair is traditionally seen as a premium airline, yet it landed at the bottom with budget carriers, Flightrights Feyza Turkon told Bild. This shows that ticket price doesn't automatically reflect service quality. The poor rating coincides with a turbulent period for the airline. Finnair cancelled over 1,300 flights in the second quarter of 2025 due to a protracted industrial dispute involving ground staff. The strike, led by the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU), ended only in late June after six months of failed negotiations with employer association Palta. Finnair reported a comparable operating result of 10.3 million for the second quarter, down from 43.6 million in the same period last year. The company estimates that direct losses from the industrial action reached 51 million by the end of June, while the broader impact on annual revenue may approach 100 million. CEO Turkka Kuusisto apologised to customers in the airlines half-year financial report. I want to offer my sincere apologies to every customer whose travel plans were disrupted by the industrial action, he said. Despite the disruption, the airline claims it operated 94 percent of scheduled flights during the strike period. Yet internal feedback data tells a different story. Finnair said the volume of customer complaints reached unprecedented levels, with thousands facing delays in refunds and compensation. This is a level of feedback Finnair has never experienced before, said Jonna Vermila-Alajaaski, head of Finnairs disruption services, in comments to Finnish media. The airlines brand, once associated with punctuality and Nordic reliability, has now become synonymous with service breakdowns. Earlier customer complaints focused on cost-cutting measures, such as the reduction of in-flight offerings. In recent months, complaints have shifted toward missed connections, unresolved refunds, and unresponsive service. The damage to Finnairs reputation could be long-lasting. The company is now forced to rebuild consumer confidence at a time when demand for travel is growing, but competition is intensifying. Trust, as Kuusisto acknowledged in the companys report, may be harder to restore than financial losses. HT The North Savo wellbeing services county said the dismissals were based solely on job performance and not on nationality. The affected staff had been working in inpatient wards in Kuopio, Iisalmi, and Varkaus. Authorities in North Savo have terminated the contracts of 10 nurses and two doctors recruited from abroad, citing unsatisfactory language and professional competence. The decision, made during their probationary periods, has triggered criticism and raised questions over international recruitment processes in Finlands public healthcare system. According to healthcare union Tehy, the group includes nurses from Zimbabwe who studied in Poland before moving to Finland. Saana Rantonen, deputy chief shop steward at Tehy, said the outcome reflects multiple failures. So many things went wrong. The biggest issue was the lack of language skills, but their skills have also not been up to expectations. This has been a big burden on the work community, Rantonen told Yle. Sami Remes from the North Savo healthcare authority confirmed the decision, saying the workers did not meet the necessary standards during the trial period. He said 10 of the nurses were offered temporary extensions through the end of July to complete their assignments. The purpose of the probationary period is to allow the employment contract to be terminated at a low threshold, Remes said. He added that the group included staff from different countries, not just Zimbabwe. In an official statement, the services county emphasised that the decision was not discriminatory, but based on the responsibilities required in patient care. The county has pointed to a recruitment agency as partly responsible, accusing it of failing to properly evaluate the candidates language proficiency and qualifications before placement. The agency, which was contracted to help alleviate staff shortages in the region, has denied any breach of its agreement. According to Savon Sanomat, the county has filed a formal complaint against the agency for its role in the recruitment process. North Savo, like many Finnish regions, has turned to international hiring to ease the burden of a persistent shortage of healthcare workers. The situation now highlights the risks involved in relying on cross-border recruitment without adequate systems for language training and professional validation. HT The Russian national, identified only by his first name, Yevgeny, was apprehended on 17 June near the town of Kitee in eastern Finland after illegally crossing the border from Russia and applying for asylum. He was detained on suspicion of an unauthorised border crossing. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo confirmed Tuesday that Finland has not received any official contact from either Ukraine or Russia regarding a former Wagner Group fighter detained by Finnish authorities in mid-June. Orpo said that he had been kept informed of the incident from the beginning. I was informed back in June that an illegal border crossing had taken place and that the person had been detained, he said, adding that questioning by the Finnish Border Guard was still ongoing. The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is also assessing whether additional criminal investigations should be launched based on the mans background as a former member of the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company involved in operations in Ukraine and elsewhere. According to Yle, the Ukrainian Embassy in Helsinki has acknowledged that it is aware of the case. A spokesperson said on Saturday that it was too early to determine whether Ukraine might request extradition. So far, no formal communication on the matter has been received from either Kyiv or Moscow. Orpo said the episode demonstrated the effectiveness of Finlands eastern border surveillance. This shows that our border security remains consistently strong, he stated. The Finnish authorities have not released further details on the asylum application or the detainees history in the Wagner Group. The case remains under review. HT The EU directive, originally adopted in March 2022 after Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine, allows member states to offer streamlined protection outside the standard asylum process. It is aimed at enabling rapid support for displaced persons during large-scale crises. Finland will continue offering temporary protection to Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war until 4 March 2027, following a decision by the EUs Foreign Affairs Council. The Finnish Ministry of the Interior confirmed the extension in a press release on Monday. Finland currently hosts around 46,000 Ukrainian nationals under the scheme. Since the directive took effect, authorities have received approximately 84,000 applications for temporary protection. Many applicants have since returned to Ukraine or relocated to other EU countries, the ministry said. Across the European Union, about 4.3 million people are receiving temporary protection status under the same directive. The Finnish Immigration Service (Migri) estimates that between 8,000 and 12,000 more Ukrainian nationals will apply for temporary protection in Finland during 2025. The final number will depend on several evolving factors, including developments in Ukraines military situation, international support, and conditions affecting daily life in Ukraine. The key factors affecting the number of applicants include possible changes in Ukraines military situation, the US policy on Ukraine and Russia, the Wests support for Ukraine, the economic and humanitarian situation in Ukraine, the state of infrastructure and opportunities for education and employment, the ministry stated. The government has not proposed any changes to the current rights attached to temporary protection status, which include access to healthcare, education, accommodation, and limited employment rights. The decision ensures that Ukrainians in Finland can remain legally until at least spring 2027, unless conditions in Ukraine significantly change before that time. HT Researchers attributed the population growth to two key factors: restrictions on hunting and bans on harmful environmental substances. These changes have allowed the seals reproductive capacity to return to normal levels, reversing a long period of decline. Finlands Baltic ringed seal population has increased fivefold since the 1970s, according to a new study by the University of Helsinki. The once highly endangered species now numbers an estimated 25,000 individuals, up from just 5,000 five decades ago. The study found that continued population growth is possible, with a projected annual increase of around seven percent, but only if seal hunting is completely halted. Despite the population recovery, Baltic ringed seals remain a target of regulated hunting in Finland. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry sets seasonal quotas for both Baltic ringed seals and grey seals, with hunting permitted from April through December. Last week, WWF Finland urged the government to reduce the proposed quota for Baltic ringed seals by half, citing conservation concerns and the need to protect fragile gains. Public interest in the species has grown in recent years, in part due to WWFs Norppalive live stream, which follows the lives of seals in their natural habitat. The stream has drawn more than 11 million views over the past nine years. While the species no longer meets the criteria for severe endangerment, conservationists warn that policy choices made now will determine whether the recovery continues or stalls. HT The data comes from Punkkilive , a nationwide tracking platform operated by the University of Turku and pharmaceutical company Pfizer. In 2024, the total number of tick sightings for the entire year was around 62,000. Tick sightings in Finland have more than doubled compared to last year, with over 115,000 reports submitted so far in 2025. The sharp rise is linked to mild, wet conditions and a warming climate that continues to favour the spread and survival of ticks across the country. Ilari Saaksjarvi, professor at the University of Turkus Biodiversity Unit, said that ticks thrive when rainfall is steady and temperatures remain relatively high. Ticks dehydrate easily. This summer weve had exactly the kind of weather they prefer, not too dry, not too hot, and with regular moisture, he said. While dry heatwaves temporarily push ticks into hiding, short daily showers maintain the humidity that keeps them active in vegetation. According to Saaksjarvi, the taiga ticks activity typically drops off by early July, but the more common species may remain active into November if temperatures stay mild. Regional data shows a sharp rise in sightings in multiple parts of Finland. In Kokkola, Central Ostrobothnia, reports increased from 1,200 in 2024 to over 3,100 in 2025. In Vaasa, roughly 100 kilometres away, sightings nearly doubled from just over 1,000 to around 2,000. Inland in Seinajoki, the number of ticks reported grew from under 500 to approximately 1,200. Despite the surge in sightings, Saaksjarvi urged the public to approach the situation with caution rather than panic. People should be aware of the risks but still enjoy nature. Just remember to do tick checks after being outdoors, he said. With cases of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) rising, Saaksjarvi also encouraged residents in high-risk areas to get vaccinated, even if its already mid-July. If we get a warm autumn, ticks could stay active well into September or October, and isolated ticks might still be out in November, he said. In the long term, Saaksjarvi said Finlands tick population has grown steadily due to changing environmental conditions, including earlier breeding seasons and a broader geographic range. Climate change is part of the bigger picture here, he added. HT The Israeli military said it hit a site near the entrance of Syrias Ministry of Defence in Damascus. In Suwayda, the strikes targeted regime convoys and equipment. Defence Minister Israel Katz warned that the attacks would continue unless Syrian forces withdraw from Druze areas. Israel carried out airstrikes in Syria on Tuesday and Wednesday, targeting sites in the capital Damascus and the southern city of Suwayda. The strikes followed days of escalating violence between the Syrian army and Druze militias, which has left nearly 250 people dead. Israel will not tolerate attacks on the Druze, Katz said in a statement. He called on the Syrian government to leave the Druze alone and threatened more military action if troops remain deployed in southern Syria. Fighting broke out over the weekend between Druze militias and armed Bedouin groups. The clashes escalated after the Syrian government sent forces into the area. Syrian state troops have since become directly involved in the fighting, which initially erupted after a Druze merchant was kidnapped. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the death toll includes over 90 Druze fighters and nearly 30 civilians. Most of the remaining casualties are members of the regimes security forces. This marks the first major Syrian army operation in Suwayda since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December. Despite a ceasefire announcement by Syrias defence ministry on Tuesday, fighting continued through the night. Residents have reported summary executions, indiscriminate gunfire, and looting by regime troops and allied militias. One resident told BBC Arabic that the situation in Suwayda was catastrophic and described people fleeing the city despite a curfew. Reports from Reuters said uniformed men set fire to a liquor shop and looted homes and businesses. SOHR said regime soldiers killed 12 Druze civilians during a raid on a guesthouse in Suwayda. Multiple Druze leaders have expressed support for continued resistance and have called for international protection. Israels airstrikes are framed as support for the Druze, a minority population present in both Syria and Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified the action by saying the Syrian regime planned to use heavy weapons against Druze communities. The United States has reportedly asked Israel to halt its operations in Syria. According to sources cited by Axios, Washington is concerned that Israeli intervention could worsen the crisis. The Syrian government has condemned Israels strikes, accusing it of killing civilians. Damascus has not commented on the allegations of war crimes by its forces. HT Ecusta Trail a business success? Looks like it Before my inaugural ride on the Ecusta Trail on Sunday from the trailhead at the Visitors Center to U.S. 64 at Horse Shoe, I had not seen first-hand the walkers, runners, rollers and bicyclists using the greenway. Related Stories For those who wondered whether the trail was worth the hype, for those who questioned whether it would deliver the economic surge and tourism boom that many predicted, the answer is plain to see: It already is. From the Dry Falls, Trailside and Guidon breweries, the Barn at Packas Place and Root & Bone all of which were built after it was known the trail was coming to the BT (before trail) businesses and attractions Southern Streams Coffee House, Elijah Mountain Gem Mine, Horse Shoe Gap Village and others the trail is about to deliver a business owners dream: people on foot and on wheels primed to tip a pint, sip a cuppa joe or purchase an ET T-shirt all without using a parking space! The town toasts the Ecusta Trail in an hours-long celebration starting at 2 p.m. Friday at the Visitors Center newly double-purposed as the official eastern terminus and ending whenever the last trail users stroll, roll or pedal home. The dream of Ken Shelton, Mike Oliphant, Chris Burns, Hunter Marks, Chuck McGrady, Chuck Edwards, Tina Kinsey, Jeff Meadows, Nancy DePippo, the late Mike Domonkos and others who began meeting at Etowah Methodist Church in April 2010 has come true. They were more than dreamers; they were true believers, stubborn in their faith that the railroad company would sell the rail corridor, that the money would somehow materialize to build the trail and that the community would rejoice along with them at the idea of a 19-mile linear park. I called Christopher Todd, the good-natured assistant county manager who has been the countys tip of the spear for the trail, to fact-check final details as the first six-mile stretch opens. Heres my questions and Chriss answers. When will amenities like benches, kiosks, bike repair stands and rest rooms arrive? Theyre in the design process right now, he said. We did not have funding for amenities in the first phase. Our intent is to get them as quickly as possible. Will we see an announcement of major trail naming based on a big donation? Not right away. The county has already given the Friends of Ecusta Trail permission to erect a plaque at the Visitors Center honoring major donors although Todd said that wont be part of the ceremony on Friday. It is BYOP Bring Your Own Plaque, he said. On my ride I was impressed with how much safety had been designed into every aspect not just at intersections but the way sturdy steel fencing protects trail users wherever there is a potential hazard along the trail like a steep dropoff, a slope with rip-rap or a parallel roadway. It is important to remember that this is designed using best practices and traffic engineers who have a design standard for every single intersection and who determined for every foot what was needed for safety and what was not needed. Thats why you see different categories of safety at different intersections based on traffic counts, sightlines and other factors. Those include trail traffic yielding to cars at lightly traveled, more rural roads, four-way stops in the cities, pedestrian-bicyclist crossing buttons, flashing light intersections and two fully signalized traffic lights (at Kanuga Road and U.S. 64 in Horse Shoe). What about the segment between Whitted and South Main that remains unpaved? When Commissioner Rebecca McCall asked about that in the June 18 county commission meeting, you responded that the contractor was moving aggressively to finish on time. Then County Manager John Mitchell said this: They will either complete the trail as they committed to us or theyll never work for the county again. Theyve still got several hundred yards to go. Theyve got a lot of work to do in the next few days. Sure enough, Tar Heel Paving shifted into get 'er done gear. Monday and Tuesday the Kanuga Road to South Main leg was nearly finished and workers on the scene said the entire trail would be black-topped in time for the grand opening. I asked Todd how he was feeling now that the trail was about to open. A lotta people have made this happen over the last 20 years, he said. Already what youre seeing today, even though theyre not supposed to, is people biking and walking on the trail and theyre out spending money and theyre out getting healthier. People are out biking and walking the trail that probably have not done so in a long time. Im thrilled that the trail is open, he added, and Im going to be even more thrilled three years from now (when the 19-mile greenway is finished) when well have something that is truly impactful to our community and will be for generations. AS Nettlebed Folk Club celebrates its 50th birthday, organiser Mike Sanderson says there are so many highlights to mention over the decades that its hard to pin them all down. However, a few gems come to mind. The club, which is hosting a sold-out extravaganza on Monday (July 14) at the Village Club in Nettlebed, has also arranged for livestreamed tickets to be bought, so the show can be enjoyed by people in their own living rooms for just 20. Mike, who lives in Pinkneys Green, co-founded the club, which started out at the Bull in Nettlebed High Street in 1975. We do have some performers still from those early days, with probably the most well-known being Downes and Beer, or Paul and Phil, he says. They first performed for us in the Seventies and are on the bill for our anniversary night. Phil is half of the duo Show of Hands who have filled the Royal Albert Hall five times! I remember one night from those early days when they drove up from Devon for a show with us but broke down on the A34. They walked to a phone there were no mobiles in those days and called us and I went to rescue them and the show went ahead. In addition to Phil Beer, Mondays line-up features performers from throughout the years, including Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, Feast of Fiddles, Chris While, Julie Matthews and Kellie While, Steve Knightley, Miranda Sykes, Maddy Prior, Mike McGoldrick and John McCusker, Benji Kirkpatrick, Paul Downes, Jackie Oates, Megan Henwood and Charlie Dore. In 1997, the folk club staged six live shows for the BBC called The Nettlebed Sessions, including major names such as Lindisfarne and five years later, it won the BBC Award for folk club of the year. A decade ago, the team at the club got involved with a television production. We were asked to create a folk festival for Midsomer Murders, that was quite a big thing we did, says Mike. We had a budget for 112 people so we had to provide an audience, three days of filming and 12 artists. They called it The Ballad of Midsomer County, we had a murder at a folk festival. They made a DVD. The title track became a song released by folk artists Lucie Jones and Seth Lakeman. Someone said Who can create a folk festival? and then yeah, right, I got the job, says Mike. They were actually quite gobsmacked by the musicianship, they used clips, and they hauled us up to London to a studio and they made a CD as well of the music. Other memorable moments that Mike can recall include being asked by folk rock band Steeleye Span to be their warm-up show ahead of supporting Status Quo at Wembley Arena, Richard Thompson performing a special solo gig in between Womad and the Royal Albert Hall and keeping the club running through the covid-19 pandemic by arranging online shows. Speaking of the Royal Albert Hall, adds Mike, such is the reputation of the club that BBC presenter, Mark Radcliffe, told the audience in the hall for a live broadcast awards show that it was very much the Nettlebed Folk Club of the South Kensington area!. A week later, a 50th birthday concert will feature Peter Knights Gigspanner Big Band. Peter, Sacha Trochet and Roger Flack will be joined by Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin, of Edgelarks, as well as John Spiers from Bellowhead. Mike says: Their high-energy, virtuosic performances appeal equally to traditionalists and to those looking for something more experimental. They have garnered praise from publications as varied as fRoots, the Telegraph and the Wire. Peter has worked with bands such as Steeleye Span and Feast of Fiddles. His Gigspanner Big Band has been described by Folk Radio UK as a group of musicians intent on making some of the most important and exhilarating art ever to sit under the banner of folk music. Nettlebeds 50th birthday extravaganza at the Village Club in High Street, Nettlebed, has sold out, but tickets costing 20 are available to watch the livestream. The show, on Monday, July 14, will start promptly at 7pm, with two intervals, finishing at 11.30pm. For more information, visit www.folkscape.live l Peter Knights Gigspanner Big Band play at the club on Monday, July 21 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost 27.50 in advance or 28.50 on the door. For more information, call 01628 636620 or 603670 (between 10am and 8pm only) or visit www.nettlebedfolkclub.co.uk As President Donald Trump threatens to hit European imports with tariffs as high as 50%, world leaders are quietly working to form a new global trade order that excludes the U.S. With a July 9 deadline looming for a new EU-U.S. deal, Trump has warned that punitive tariffs will return if the bloc doesn't agree to his terms. In response, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a bold counter. The proposal would mean uniting the EU's 27 countries with the 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which includes the UK, to launch a new trade alliance without the United States, according to Politico. "CPTPP and the European Union is mighty," von der Leyen said at the EU leaders' summit, adding that the bloc could replace the WTO and decide later whether to admit the U.S. The idea has public backing from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who likened the approach to Trump's own erratic style. "We need to be similar to our partners in some sense," Tusk said. Privately, EU leaders reportedly admit they are now scrambling to craft a face-saving deal with the U.S. before the deadline to avoid sweeping tariffs. Negotiations are expected to continue into next week. However, the bloc remains divided. Some leaders want to secure a basic agreement quickly to shield vulnerable industries like chemicals and steel, while others remain reluctant to concede to Trump's demands. French President Emmanuel Macron, once defiant, now concedes, "10% [tariffs] will be 10%." Originally published on Latin Times Russia launched a massive overnight assault on Ukrainian cities just days after Donald Trump's 50-day ceasefire ultimatum, raising questions about the credibility of his threats and the future of the conflict. Since the start of his second term, Trump has promised to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, blaming former President Joe Biden for its outbreak and insisting that his own diplomatic leverage could swiftly bring both sides to the table. But his latest tactic, a threat to impose 100 percent tariffs on Russia unless it agreed to a ceasefire within 50 days, has been largely dismissed by Kremlin officials as political theater. Russian state media and high-profile allies like Dmitry Medvedev openly mocked the threat, with one official calling it a distraction from Trump's domestic political controversies. Despite Trump's posturing, Russia went ahead with a large-scale attack Monday night into Tuesday, firing about 400 Shahed drones and one ballistic missile across multiple Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Vinnytsia, according to the Daily Beast. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted most of the drones, but more than 50 got through, damaging infrastructure and killing at least two civilians. A 17-year-old boy was among those critically injured, according to regional authorities. The timing of the barrage underscored Moscow's open defiance of Trump's deadline. While the U.S. president said, "I don't think 50 days is very long," and hinted that he could act sooner, no additional consequences were announced. Originally published on Latin Times Rosewood Bermuda, the premier luxury island resort within the exclusive Tucker's Point community, has appointed Patrick Graham as the new Managing Director. In this new role, Graham will oversee all facets of Rosewood Bermuda's operations, ensuring the property continues to deliver the exceptional service, world-class amenities, and immersive local experiences for which it is renowned. His leadership will be instrumental in continuing to strengthen the resort's connection to the local community while guiding its next era of innovation under the Rosewood 3.0 vision. Graham joined Rosewood Hotels & Resorts in 2022, most recently serving as Hotel Manager at Rosewood London, where he led operations at one of the brand's flagship European properties. He has also held key pre-opening and interim leadership positions at Rosewood Munich and Rosewood Schloss Fuschl, where he served as Opening Ambassador and Acting Managing Director. His ability to lead high-performing teams through critical phases of hotel development and brand integration has made him a trusted asset across Rosewood's global portfolio. The Grand America Hotel is pleased to announce the appointment of Christian Ojeda as Executive Chef, effective July 15, 2025. A seasoned hospitality professional with more than two decades of experience in high-end hotels and fine dining establishments across the country, Ojeda will oversee all culinary operations at the award-winning Salt Lake City property, including banquet programs, in-room dining, and The Grand America's signature restaurant, Laurel Brasserie & Bar. Born in Utah with Chilean roots, Ojeda joins The Grand America Hotel from Bernardus Lodge & Spa in Carmel Valley, California, where he served as Executive Chef for the past three years. Under his leadership, the resort earned back-to-back Triple Forbes Four-Star ratings and the prestigious Michelin Key recognition in 2025. Prior to Bernardus, Ojeda spent nearly a decade at Montage Deer Valley in Park City, Utah, where he rose through the ranks from Chef de Cuisine to Executive Chef, managing a large luxury food & beverage operation with up to 120 culinary associates across multiple dining venues. Throughout his career, Ojeda has demonstrated a passion for mentorship and sustainability, launching robust internship programs and building strong partnerships with local farmers and purveyors. His culinary philosophy balances modern innovation with classic technique, drawing from his extensive experience across luxury properties including Calistoga Ranch, Encantado Resort, and acclaimed restaurants such as Joel Robuchon and Fleur de Lys in Las Vegas. For more information, please contact 801.258.6000 or visit www.grandamerica.com. Palladium Cares,the identity that encompasses all of Palladium Hotel Group's Corporate Social Responsibility projects, is celebrating its second anniversary. The company is consolidating its commitment through four pillars of action: Our People, Our Community, Our Planet and Our Company. The final pillar has always been at the centre of everything, but now takes on its own identity, highlighting the integration of sustainability into the corporate structure. A NEW PILLAR: OUR COMPANY Our Company reinforces its commitment to responsible governance, regulatory compliance, and transparency, in alignment with international frameworks such as the EU Taxonomy and the principles of double materiality. Reflecting this commitment, Palladium Hotel Group continues to evolve with the goal of generating sustainable value for its employees, clients, and local communities. The progress of Palladium Cares reflects the groups commitment to lasting positive impact. The effort and dedication of our employees are the driving force behind large-scale projects with real impact. We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with NGOs that share our values and help us bring our initiatives to life. America has opened extraordinary doors for us, and we celebrate the impact we are experiencing there, especially in the social and sustainability arenas. We continue to generate value for employees, the planet, and local communities. Gloria Juste, Corporate Social Responsibility Sr. Director at Palladium Hotel Group PROGRESS IN SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PILLARS Palladium Cares has continued to advance its commitment across all pillars. Through Our People, the group has promoted key projects such as supporting the expansion of a daycare centre near its hotels in Jamaica and Mexico, helping employees achieve a better work-life balance, and creating a solidarity fund to assist staff facing extraordinary circumstances. In addition, the university scholarship programme for employees children in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, funded by the Abel Matutes Foundation, now benefits six new students who join the three who started earlier this year. The programme covers full tuition, living expenses, and technological equipment. Through Our Planet, the group has implemented food surplus measurement tools in its hotels, resulting in a significant reduction in waste. The food donation project in collaboration with OREKA has enabled the donation of over 2,500 meals, preventing more than 615kg of food waste and reducing over 10,970kg of CO emissions. Other noteworthy initiatives that combine sustainability, social impact, and the circular economy include Soap for Hope, which recycles used soap from hotels in Mexico and the Dominican Republic into new hygiene products sold by vulnerable communities as a source of income; and Linens for Life, which repurposes discarded linens and towels into useful items donated to nonprofits for resale or community use. As part of its commitment to biodiversity, the group is also advancing significant projects such as supporting sea turtle conservation efforts in Brazil and the Riviera Maya through nest identification and protection initiatives. OUR COMMUNITY: EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES The Our Community pillar focuses on skill development and generating new employment opportunities in the communities where the group operates, through the Palladium Hotel Groups Training Centres. Already established in Jamaica, Brazil, and Mexicothis initiative is now expanding to Europe. Through a partnership with NGO Caritas in Ibiza, more than 45 vulnerable individuals will be selected to participate in a vocational training programme including internships after the summer season. To date, there are nine training centres, including one located in Isla Mujeres (Mexico), managed in collaboration with the Fundacion Origen. Since its opening in October 2024, over 2,000 people have received training in employability, community development, and soft skills. In Jamaica, Palladium Cares runs seven centres offering hospitality training in collaboration with local organisations. Last year, 79 students graduated and completed internships at the groups facilities. Currently, 102 students are enrolled, with 86 of them already undertaking internships at one of the hotels of the company. In Brazil, 250 students have received training at the group-run centre, with four different courses offered in the past year. Thirty-two students are currently completing internships. GLOBAL PROJECT 4 CAUSES 4 QUARTERS: IMPACT BEYOND BORDERS The global project 4 Causes 4 Quarters, already implemented in all hotels across Europe and the Americas, strengthens collaboration with NGOs through year-round actions aligned with social and environmental causes. It brings together employees, hotels, and clients around a different cause each quarter. In Europe, the initiative has benefited over 3,292 people, thanks to the dedication of 1,697 volunteers who have contributed more than 6,791 hours of service. In the Americas, where the project was recently launched, over 788 people have already benefited, with 231 volunteers contributing more than 1,639 hours of volunteer work. In its second year, guests have also been invited to participate in social projects through initiatives such as: Fundraising at check-out and Sandy Footprints, which encourages guests to bring clothes, books, school supplies, or medical materials to donate to nearby organisations and even opportunities to take part in the delivery of donations, fostering real connections with local communities. COMMITTED TO POSITIVE IMPACT: ONGOING PROGRESS Through Our People, the group continues to scale successful local projects internationally so that more employees can benefit. A clear example is the training scholarship programme currently available in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Socially, the Our Community pillar drives the expansion of Training Centres in both the Americas and Europe. This growth phase starts in Ibizathe company's place of originthrough new partnerships that support professional development and inclusion by offering training and opportunities to local communities. From an environmental standpoint, under Our Planet, the group has launched new projects focused on biodiversity. A recently inaugurated agricultural centre in Punta Cana promotes sustainable farming, native plant cultivation, and beekeeping. This centre not only encourages environmentally friendly practices but also generates strong social impact by actively involving the local community in its operations and training. Another promising initiative under evaluation is the potential collaboration with local institutions in the Dominican Republic focused on marine ecosystem restoration. Currently under review, this proposal includes actions such as coral, seagrass, and mangrove restoration, with plans for future expansion to Mexico and other destinations. For more information visit palladiumhotelgroup.com. About Palladium Hotel Group Palladium Hotel Group is a Spanish hotel chain with over 50 years of experience, owned by Grupo Empresas Matutes (GEM). The group operates more than 40 hotels and over 13,000 rooms, distributed amongst eight countries: Spain, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Italy, Brazil, the USA and the UAE, and manages ten brands: TRS Hotels, Grand Palladium Hotels & Resorts, Palladium Hotels, Fiesta Hotels & Resorts, Ushuaia Unexpected Hotels, The Unexpected Hotels & Residences, Only YOU Hotels, BLESS Collection Hotels, the Hard Rock Hotels Brand under licence with three hotels in Ibiza Tenerife and Marbella and the ephemera brand 45 Times Hotels. Palladium Hotel Group is characterised by its philosophy of attention to its team and to offering its clients high quality products and services. www.palladiumhotelgroup.com Montreux, Switzerland Glion Institute of Higher Education is proud to announce its official recognition by the Swiss Accreditation Council (SAC) as a University of Applied Sciences Institute. This accreditation marks the successful completion of a two-year evaluation process and underscores Glions commitment to academic excellence and Swiss quality assurance. This significant milestone brings wide-ranging benefits to the Glion community, enhancing international recognition, academic mobility, research opportunities, and graduate employability. A mark of distinction for Glions academic model Accreditation by the SAC confirms Glions compliance with the Swiss Higher Education Act (HEdA) and the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG), reinforcing the global standing of its degrees. As a University of Applied Sciences Institute, Glion is now authorised to use this protected academic title, signifying the rigour and quality of its education model. Key advantages of this recognition include: Enhanced international credibility : Facilitating global degree recognition and strengthening graduate employment prospects worldwide. : Facilitating global degree recognition and strengthening graduate employment prospects worldwide. Increased academic mobility : Enabling smoother credit transfer and access to further studies across Europe. : Enabling smoother credit transfer and access to further studies across Europe. Expanded research capacity : Opening doors to national and international collaborations and funding opportunities. : Opening doors to national and international collaborations and funding opportunities. Ongoing quality assurance: Ensuring continued institutional improvement through regular audits and evaluations. A rigorous two-year journey The accreditation process required Glion to meet five areas of evaluation and eighteen quality standards defined by the Swiss authorities: Quality Assurance : Evaluating systems that support academic and student life. : Evaluating systems that support academic and student life. Governance : Assessing decision-making processes and stakeholder engagement. : Assessing decision-making processes and stakeholder engagement. Teaching, Research & Services : Reviewing academic delivery and innovation. : Reviewing academic delivery and innovation. Resources : Analysing financial, human, and infrastructure capabilities. : Analysing financial, human, and infrastructure capabilities. Communication: Ensuring transparency through internal and external channels. The pathway to accreditation included an initial eligibility assessment, a comprehensive self-evaluation, an independent external review by Swiss experts, and a final submission to the SAC for approval. Looking ahead This federal recognition not only reinforces Glions position as a leader in hospitality and luxury business education, but also initiates a new chapter of continuous improvement and academic development. We are honoured to receive this accreditation, which reflects the outstanding commitment of our faculty, staff, and students. It strengthens the value of a Glion degree and our capacity to contribute meaningfully to the global education landscape. As we enter this new phase, we remain dedicated to upholding the highest standards of Swiss higher education. Philippe Vignon, Managing Director of Glion This achievement represents a major milestone for Glion and the wider Sommet Education group, reinforcing their shared mission to shape the future of global hospitality and business education. About Glion Institute of Higher Education Founded in 1962, Glion Institute of Higher Education is a Swiss institution offering bachelor's, master's and executive degrees in hospitality, luxury and finance to an international student body across three campuses in Switzerland and London, UK. Glion ranks number six among the world's top higher education institutions for hospitality and leisure management in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject. It also holds number three globally in employer reputation, highlighting its strong industry recognition and ability to meet employer expectations. Part of the Sommet Education network, world leader in education and training in hospitality, luxury and culinary arts. Glion has received official recognition from the Swiss Accreditation Council (SAC) as a Swiss University of Applied Sciences Institute. In addition, Glion is also accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE). For more information, visit https://www.glion.edu/ Anouck Weiss Chief Communication Officer Glion View source 77% of Europeans plan to travel between June and November 2025, highlighting strong demand despite economic uncertainty. 65% are opting for cross-border trips within Europe, a 6.5% increase year-on-year. More than half (55%) of travellers are seeking less popular, or off-the-beaten-path destinations for their next trip. Travel remains a top priority for Europeans, with 77% planning to take at least one trip between June and November 2025. Despite ongoing economic pressures, most intend to maintain or even increase their holiday budgets in the coming months, according to the latest Monitoring Sentiment for Intra-European Travel Wave 22 report from the European Travel Commission (ETC). Travel demand remains high across all age groups, with the strongest intentions seen among Europeans aged 55 and over 82% of whom plan to travel. This is closely followed by those aged 45 to 54 (79%) and 35 to 44 (78%). While travel intent is somewhat lower among 1824-year-olds, 66% still plan a trip, despite more commonly facing financial and time-related barriers. Commenting on the findings, Miguel Sanz, President of ETC, said: Our latest data shows that, even amid shifting economic and social realities, Europeans are not willing to compromise on travel, and they increasingly prefer quieter destinations and trips outside peak seasons. Destinations should take advantage of this trend by promoting less crowded, off-the-beaten-track experiences, particularly during shoulder months, and by enhancing their sustainable marketing efforts aimed at European travellers. This approach allows us to meet visitors changing expectations while fostering a more balanced and resilient tourism sector across Europe. Europeans open to off-peak travel July and August remain the most popular summer holiday months, each chosen by 25% of Europeans. However, September is emerging as a strong contender, with 22% of Europeans planning trips that month. This strong preference for early autumn travel suggests that a significant share of travellers are open to off-peak options, motivated by milder weather, fewer crowds, and better value for money. Regional travel on the rise A vast majority of Europeans (91%) intend to travel within the continent in the coming months, while just 8% are considering trips beyond Europe a limited figure likely linked to higher costs and ongoing geopolitical uncertainties abroad. Within Europe, interest in domestic (26%) and neighbouring country travel (33%) remains steady. However, a growing share of Europeans (32%, up 5% from last summer) are looking beyond their neighbouring countries to more distant destinations across the continent. This shift could be motivated by a rising appetite for culturally distinct experiences that still offer the familiarity, safety, and ease of intra-European travel. The Mediterranean remains the most sought-after region this season. Spain leads as the top choice (13%, up 5% from year-on-year), followed by Italy (10%), France (8%), and Greece (6%). Summer travel shifts toward quieter and less crowded destinations Europeans are becoming more aware of the uneven distribution of travel flows across some destinations and throughout seasonal peaks. Concern about too many tourists at preferred locations has risen by 3% since summer 2024, alongside a growing emphasis on choosing less crowded destinations now a priority for 11% of travellers, up 4% from last year. In line with these preferences, 55% of Europeans plan to spend their 2025 summer holidays in less popular or off-the-beaten-track destinations, compared to 48% in spring 2025. Meanwhile, interest in traditional tourist hotspots has declined proportionally, now chosen by 45% of respondents. Against this backdrop, air travel remains the most popular mode of transport (53%), valued primarily for its speed (27%) and affordability (21%). However, the growing interest in lesser-known destinations may be shaping mobility choices, with more Europeans 32%, up by 4% year-on-year now opting for car travel, favoured for its flexibility, comfort, and easier access to locations not well served by public transport. Budgets hold steady as travellers prioritise value and comfort Despite persistent economic uncertainties, 62% of Europeans plan to keep their travel budgets steady through November 2025, while 22% expect to spend more highlighting the value placed on travel in their lives. Overall, Europeans holiday budgets remain similar to last year. However, there has been a notable increase in the share of travellers planning to spend between 1,500 and 2,500 per person on their next trip. This mid-to-high range is now the most commonly cited, up by 3% compared to summer 2024. When it comes to spending priorities at the destination, accommodation (32%) and food & drinks (24%) top the list. Yet, preferences differ by age group. Travellers over 45 tend to prioritise comfort and quality dining, while those under 35 are more experience-focused allocating more of their budgets to activities, shopping, wellness, and lifestyle upgrades. This project is co-funded by the European Union. Full summary can be downloaded here About European Travel Commission Established in 1948, the European Travel Commission is a unique association in the travel sector, representing the National Tourism Organisations of the countries of Europe. Its mission is to strengthen the sustainable development of Europe as a tourist destination. In the last several decades, ETC has positioned itself at the forefront of the European tourism scene, establishing its expertise and building up partnerships in areas of tourism, based on promotion, market intelligence and best practice sharing. View source The phrase Alternative Lodging surfaced in the early 2000s as a way to describe options other than hotels. Between 2004 and 2011 industry professionals began to think that Airbnb could be a potential disruptor to the hotel industry, according to Hospitality Net. But vacation rentals have been around since the 1960s. Whats the difference? To understand the similarities and differences between hotels and vacation rentals, its important to clarify that Airbnb is not a vacation rental company in the same way Expedia is not a hotel company. VR or STR? (No, not like a hotel STR report, either) Even within the vacation rental industry, there is a terminology separating short-term rentals (STR), which are mainly in urban markets, from vacation rentals (VR), which are mainly in vacation destinations. Be wary of grouping every rental as an Airbnb if you want to make friends in this space. Vacation rentals are located in destination markets, where people go to relax and escape the daily grind. Some vacation rental companies in the Outer Banks of North Carolina are 30 to 40 years old. They manage 30 to 3,000 homes, townhomes and condos (mostly single family homes) and maintain a staff. Their primary clients are the homeowners, not the guests. They charge a commission for management and marketing of the properties. Their brand names are prominently displayed throughout the town and the owners are known by the locals, so if someone has a party or trash gets left out, everyone knows where to direct complaints. Airbnb is a marketplace where anyone can list a property that can be rented out, but they do not own, rent or manage any properties. Their client is the guest, not the host. This changes a lot about how they operate how complaints are handled. Owners no longer need to go through a real estate agent or management company to rent out their home. If they dont live in the same state, which is often the case, they also dont have anyone to swing by the property to check on it or help a guest with a door code that isnt working. Similarities between Vacation Rentals and Hotels Both vacation rentals and hotels want their guests to enjoy their stay and rebook directly through their websites. They both struggle with increasing costs from their tech stack and staff overhead. Its not uncommon for their revenue managers to set pricing without talking to their sales and marketing teams, or for marketing teams to send out promotional emails before consulting with revenue managers. Other Ways Vacation Rentals are Similar to Hotels Operations: Trashed rooms during spring break (yes, on occasion their cleaners find cocaine, vomit, etc. when a guest checks out) Trashed rooms during spring break (yes, on occasion their cleaners find cocaine, vomit, etc. when a guest checks out) Marketing: Competing for Google Ads with the OTAs that have bigger marketing budgets Competing for Google Ads with the OTAs that have bigger marketing budgets Guest Relations: Guests asking to be compensated because of a clogged toilet or construction next door Guests asking to be compensated because of a clogged toilet or construction next door Finance: Bed taxes and tourist taxes are paid by both vacation rentals and hotels Bed taxes and tourist taxes are paid by both vacation rentals and hotels Family Owned: Where applicable, handed down family operations struggle with branding, consistency and family dynamics While the business models might be different, when it comes to family owned brands, the generational handoff looks virtually identical. Both are facing the same legacy and leadership challenges and opportunities. For example, there is a second-generation vacation rental company in Sunrive, OR with a 4.8 Google rating and approximately 100 properties, mainly single family homes. When the company was founded in 1983 the landscape and technology looked very different than it does today. The children taking over the company had to increase costs in buying software that enabled online bookings and making investments in digital marketing, upsetting the parents requests for higher margins. The same goes for a boutique hotel in Grenada that is in the process of handing off the reins to the son, who plans to rebuild the brand to be more upscale over the next few years in order to afford the rising cost of running the establishment. Operational Model Differences The biggest difference between hotels and vacation rentals is the staff to room ratio. Most vacation rentals have a 12-36 ratio of properties to staff. Some companies manage 36 vacation rentals per every one full-time staff member. They outsource most of their operations, and even their marketing, to local small businesses, but their software needs are still at a national or international level. At the community level, local politics drive a lot of vacation rental discussion. Many property managers show up at town halls and county meetings where locals want to ban rentals. The good managers are getting lumped in with the bad ones who dont regulate their guests parking or trash or noise levels. The second biggest difference between hotels and vacation homes is likely the margins plus the onsite food and beverage component. However, there are more concierge services supporting the vacation rental guest experience than ever before. Companies like Noshable allow rental guests to have a fully stocked pantry or ready-to-heat lasagna show up at their request. Not to mention spa services, yoga instructors, and private chefs from companies like CookinGenie are leveling the playing field. When do Airbnbs Compete with Hotels With data providers like AirDNA and KeyData providing reports and analysis for both vacation rentals and hotels, it depends on the location and target customer. Additionally, the use of loyalty points is increasing competition and leveling the playing field. Urban Market Landscape Guests looking for a short stay in an urban market are likely comparing a hotel to an STR, even if they are traveling for work. The guests first data point to compare is price, then amenities, then value based on the photos. Previously, brands made assumptions about the generational gaps when it came to who stayed in Airbnbs versus hotels but that is no longer the case. Vacation Destination Markets There is a bigger difference between the hotel guest experience and the vacation rental guest experience in these markets. Guests traveling with multiple family members, groups and multi-generational travel will be more comfortable in a single family home than multiple hotel rooms and more likely to save money this way. Couples or small families needing daily cleaning services, onsite food and beverage, and poolside bar service will always choose a hotel first, even if its more expensive. As more guests turn to ChatGPT and other AI solutions to answer the question of Where should I stay? hotels and vacation rental companies have less control over the options being evaluated. It will be important for all operators to communicate clear benefits and unique differentiators that can be understood by humans and bots alike. For hospitality consultants advising on competitive positioning, understanding these operational differences will change how you approach market analysis and strategic recommendations. View source IHG to Open Crowne Plaza Hotel in Madinah in 2026 - Image Credit IHG Hotels & Resorts IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed an agreement to open Crowne Plaza Madinah Al Haramain in partnership with Arbah Tayba Real Estate Company. The 383-room hotel is scheduled to open in 2026 and will be located opposite the new Haramain high-speed railway station in Madinah, Saudi Arabia. The hotel will offer direct access to the Haramain train station via an underground tunnel, providing seamless connectivity to major cities, including Jeddah and Makkah. This development is part of a larger mixed-use project and is situated near other significant projects like Knowledge Economic City and Rua Al Madinah. Upon completion, the hotel will feature 383 rooms and suites, as well as two food and beverage outlets. The design will align with Crowne Plaza's focus on integrating work and leisure for travelers. The project is part of IHG's strategy to expand its premium portfolio in key religious and cultural destinations. The company currently operates 45 hotels across six brands in Saudi Arabia and has 47 hotels in the development pipeline expected to open within the next three to five years. Madinah is experiencing rapid development driven by government initiatives and projects aligned with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030. The city is enhancing its infrastructure, transportation, and hospitality services to support its growth as a spiritual and tourism hub. Whitbread Completes Structural Phase of New Manchester Premier Inn - Image Credit Whitbread Whitbread has completed the structural phase of a new 229-room Premier Inn hotel on Rochdale Road in Manchester, with an opening scheduled for autumn 2026. Whitbread PLC has announced the completion of the structural phase for its new Premier Inn hotel located on Rochdale Road, near Manchester's Northern Quarter. The hotel, which will feature 229 rooms, is set to open in autumn 2026. This development marks Whitbread's continued investment in Manchester, responding to high demand for budget accommodations in the area. The ten-storey building will include Premier Plus rooms, an integrated restaurant, bar, and reception area on the ground floor. Once operational, it will be Whitbreads second largest hotel in Manchester City Centre, providing easy access to Victoria Station and the Northern Quarter. Construction of the hotel began in October 2024, following Whitbread's acquisition of the site from Premcor in February 2024. GMI Construction Group is the principal contractor for the project. The company has previously collaborated with Whitbread on other projects, including a Premier Inn in Keswick. This new hotel is part of Whitbread's broader strategy to expand its presence in Manchester. The company is also working on another project at Manchester Airport, which will become the largest Premier Inn in northern England. Whitbread aims to increase its UK room count to 125,000, with plans to open more than 20 new locations across northern England. In line with Whitbread's sustainability goals, all self-built hotels will be powered by renewable electricity from 2025, and the company aims to reduce water consumption per sleeper by 20% by 2030. Whitbread currently operates over 85,000 Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn rooms across the UK and Ireland. Image Credit FlightHub Despite economic challenges, Canadians are finding innovative ways to maintain their travel habits, emphasizing flexibility and financial planning. In a world marked by economic uncertainties and shifting global dynamics, Canadians are demonstrating resilience in maintaining their travel habits. A recent survey conducted by Arlington Research for FlightHub sheds light on how Canadians are adapting to the financial pressures impacting their travel plans. The survey, which polled 1,500 Canadian adults who have flown at least once in the past two years, reveals that travel remains a priority, albeit with more strategic planning and flexibility. Adapting Travel Strategies The survey highlights that Canadians, particularly younger generations, are adjusting their travel strategies to cope with rising costs. A significant portion of respondents, 61%, reported modifying their travel habits over the past two years to make travel more affordable. Gen Z respondents were particularly proactive, with 76% indicating they had adapted to manage costs. Among those adapting, 67% are utilizing discounts, 54% are adjusting their travel dates, and 42% are opting for alternative destinations to stretch their travel budgets. Financial Trade-offs and Planning Economic pressures are prompting Canadians to make financial trade-offs to sustain their travel aspirations. Four-in-ten respondents noted that the cost of living significantly impacts their travel budgets. Despite these challenges, only 21% prioritized financial goals over travel, while 10% expressed a commitment to travel as much as possible, regardless of cost. Many Canadians are adopting cautious financial strategies, with 62% saving in advance and 37% adhering to strict travel budgets. Additionally, 28% are opting for "travel first, pay later" solutions through credit cards. Professional Flexibility and Travel The commitment to travel extends beyond budgeting, as Canadians are also reshaping their professional lives to accommodate travel. According to the survey, 20% of respondents are seeking jobs that offer more flexibility for travel. Furthermore, 27% would accept a lower-paying job in exchange for greater travel flexibility, with nearly a third of this group willing to take a pay cut of 11% or more. This trend suggests a shift in how Canadians evaluate their careers, with a growing emphasis on lifestyle flexibility alongside income. The survey underscores the importance of travel in Canadians' lives, even amid economic challenges. As Henri Chelhot, CEO of FlightHub, notes, Canadians are making deliberate choices to preserve travel as a priority. Whether through adjusting budgets, seeking flexible careers, or exploring new destinations, Canadians are demonstrating a commitment to maintaining their travel habits. Wait! Before you go Please sign up for our Evening Digest and Breaking Newsletters Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Williamstown Select Board Discusses Plans of Action WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The Select Board on Monday discussed the its priorities for the 2024-25 session and projects on which individual members of the board want to focus in the year ahead. As a starting point for the conversation, Chair Stephanie Boyd pointed the panel to the comprehensive plan adopted in November 2023 by the Planning Board. "The comprehensive plan, overall, is managed by the Planning Board, but a lot of the initiatives involve more than just the Planning Board to work on," Boyd said. "Some are outside the work of the Planning Board." Boyd included in the packet for Monday's meeting the plan's implementation matrix , a spreadsheet of about 110 action items pulled from the 70-page document. "This is a tool for us to use or not as we see fit," she said. Shana Dixon noted that the comprehensive plan, titled "Envisioning Williamstown 2035," is just one tool at the board's disposal. "The CARES Report," Dixon said. "I wanted to see how it aligns with this plan. We received that report and haven't touched base on anything that's in there. I just feel like there's something in there that can work with what we have in front of us. "I think we should look at the CARES Report again. I don't want them to put all that hard work in for us not to utilize it." The CARES Report is the outcome of a multi-year, social worker-led study of the needs of town residents, including an emphasis on how traditionally marginalized members of the community can feel a greater sense of safety and inclusion in town. Boyd, who chaired the Planning Board and co-chaired its Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, said that the CARES Report, published in September 2023, and its preliminary data were consulted in the development of the comprehensive plan, a successor to the master plan, required by the commonwealth for any town with a Planning Board. "We have tried to incorporate it," Boyd said of the CARES (Community Assessment Research) study. "The comprehensive plan, for the most part, is focused on the physical parts of the town, where the CARES report is just as important but different." Jeffrey Johnson backed up Boyd's assertion. "I've seen where certain aspects of the CARES study are in [the comprehensive plan]," Johnson said. "But, as [Town Planner Andrew Groff] said, this is a living document. If there's something we want to change [in the comp plan], we can change it." Dixon urged all her colleagues to again read through the Williamstown CARES Final Report and use it as a guidepost for any initiatives they undertake. Board members identified several areas where they would like the body to devote time and energy in the year ahead. Johnson pointed to item 1.9 on the implementation matrix, which recommends the town, "Collaborate with Williams College and other major employers to explore new opportunities for employer-assisted housing." Johnson directed the board to information on a project in Middlebury, Vt., where the town, college and a developer are working to create hundreds of units of mixed-income housing, implying that Williamstown could look into forming a similar partnership with Williams College. "It absolutely was in line with helping the college to get their workforce to live closer to town," Johnson said, alluding to goals of both liberal arts colleges. "It's time for this town to get over the NIMBY stuff that's going on. It's garbage. We still have housing issues we want to address. This is something I threw out that I wanted everyone to look at at some point." Boyd, who is filling the Select Board's seat on the board of the town's Affordable Housing Trust, said she had a couple of ideas to bring to the table when that board was to hold a scheduled brainstorming session on Wednesday. Peter Beck, who, like Dixon, joined the board after the May town election, suggested the town could purchase affordability deed restrictions on existing homes, similar to a model employed in resort areas of Eastern Mass where market forces are making homes unaffordable for working families. "At the last meeting, we signed an affordability deed restriction for Habitat for Humanity," Beck said. "Those kinds of restrictions are not limited to site-built homes by Habitat. You can put an affordability deed restriction on any property, just like you can put a conservation deed restriction on farm land. "We need growth, but we can also make sure the housing stock that exists remains affordable." It was suggested that the town's Community Preservation Act funds could be a source to fund such a deed restriction initiative. "Or maybe we chase [this idea] down and it's a dead end," Beck said. "But the idea is we've got to chase these things down." Beck also referenced item 7.2 in the comprehensive plan implementation matrix: "Plant native trees and plants and improve current land management practices on municipally owned lands to reflect sustainable management best practices." He said that action item aligns with an idea that Select Board member Matt Neely mentioned to Beck prior to the meeting. "My idea was what are some things we could do in addition to just having a larger July 4 celebration [to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026]," Neely said. "Since we were having a discussion about all these trees being cut down, it occurred to me, we could plant 250 trees. That could be a fun theme to organize people around. "It's not a one-day event." Neely's main point of emphasis for the 2025-26 term is looking at steps the town can take to foster economic development, a conversation he previously told his colleagues he was having with other members of the community outside of formal town meetings. "I was given by [Town Manager Robert Menicocci], all the reports from previous decades of economic development groups," Neely said. "I started with the 2015 report, and I'm working backward. I think I'm in the 1980s now. "There certainly are a lot of ideas, and it's a question of how we can make anything substantial happen for the good of the town." Neely shared with his colleagues that Menicocci, who was on vacation on Monday, is working on a request for proposals for development of the long-vacant old town garage site on Water Street. Beck noted that once the Williamstown Fire Department relocates to its new home on Main Street, the current fire house will be another Water Street location that could, potentially, see development. Much of Monday's meeting was spent talking about the future from the big-picture priorities to encouraging a year-round fund-raising strategy to fund next year's Independence Day celebration to strategies for managing public comment at board meetings. In the nearer term, the Select Board agreed in principle to a policy Boyd suggested to allow members to be compensated for travel and expenses associated with training and advocacy opportunities related to their elected office. Boyd suggested the board adopt a rule that members could be compensated for up to $200 per event and up to $500 in a calendar year for events like conferences held by the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Any member could submit receipts and a request for reimbursement directly to the chair for compensation out of an existing $20,000 Select Board line item under the policy if adopted. Compensation beyond those caps would be possible with the agreement of the full board. All five members agreed that the rule made sense, and Boyd said she would have it reviewed by Menicocci and, perhaps, town counsel, before bringing it back to the body for adoption at a future meeting. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Chinese toymaker Pop Mart said it is expecting the massive popularity of Labubu dolls to lead to soaring profits for the first six months of the year. The popularity of the fang-toothed plush toy spread like a wildfire after celebrities like Blackpink's Lisa and Rihanna were seen flaunting them on their luxury bags. The Beijing-based company on Tuesday said it expects at least a 350 per cent profit and about a 200 per cent jump in revenue for the first six months of the year. The persistent global demand for Labubu dolls has turned Pop Mart into a $40bn (31.6bn) company, with its Hong Kong-listed shares jumping 588 per cent over the past year, according to Bloomberg. The companys revenue more than doubled in 2024 to $1.81bn (1.35bn), mostly due to the elvish dolls. Revenue from Pop Marts plush toys soared more than 1,200 per cent in 2024, accounting for nearly 22 per cent of its overall revenue, according to the companys annual report. The Labubu, by artist and illustrator Kasing Lung, first appeared in three picture books inspired by Nordic mythology in 2015. In 2019, Mr Lung struck a deal with Pop Mart to sell Labubu figurines. open image in gallery The toys were originally part of The Monsters series by artist Kasing Lung ( AFP via Getty Images ) open image in gallery Visitors look at a set of three Labubu sculptures from a series called 'Three Wise Labubu' at a preview exhibition of Yongle International Auction, in Beijing, China 6 June 2025 ( Reuters ) But it wasnt until Pop Mart started selling Labubu plush toys on key rings in 2023 that the toothy monsters suddenly seemed to be everywhere. It took the dolls less than a year to break into the Western market, aided by their increased visibility on the Chinese video app TikTok. The charms can often be seen dangling from expensive Hermes Birkins and Miu Miu bags, lending them a fun and colourful twist. Labubus, priced at around $40 (about 30), are released in limited quantities and sold in blind boxes, meaning buyers dont know the model they will receive. The company has faced criticism over its marketing technique, which some say promotes compulsive buying. As well as regular designs, there are also so-called "secret edition" Labubus, which are especially rare and sought-after by collectors. open image in gallery People look at collectable designer art toy Labubu at a Pop Mart pop-up store in Siam Center shopping mall in Bangkok on 6 May 2025 ( AFP/Getty ) open image in gallery Toy collector Ashley Bushey has said the resale market for the viral Labubu dolls is a battlefield Demand for Labubus is so high, that rare Labubus are being resold for more than $1,000 (745) each, according to reports. In June, a life-sized Labubu figure was sold in China for 1.08m yuan ($150,000 or 111,800 ) at an auction, setting a new record for the "blind box" toy. Amidst its growing popularity, Pop Mart has responded to the surge in counterfeits by releasing detailed videos on how to verify a dolls authenticity. Right now Pop Mart, whose products are manufactured across Asia, says that it is continuously scaling production and expanding distribution across its online shop, retail stores and blind box vending machines to meet increasing demand. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Lion cubs are being offered for cuddles as part of a four-course afternoon tea at a restaurant in China , sparking widespread concern for the animals' welfare. Pictures and video clips posted on China's WeChat and Weibo platforms show customers cradling the young lions as if they were babies. The Wanhui restaurant in Taiyuan city, Shanxi province, which opened in June, also features llamas, turtles, and deer on its Douyin page, China's equivalent of TikTok. According to the state-run Shanghai Daily, which reported on its official WeChat page, the establishment sells approximately 20 tickets daily for its 1,078 yuan (\$150) set menu, allowing patrons to 'snuggle' with the animals. open image in gallery Pictures and video clips posted on China's WeChat and Weibo platforms show customers cradling the young lions as if they were babies. ( Getty Images/iStockphoto ) "The service has raised serious concerns about legality and animal welfare," the English-language newspaper added. Reuters was unable to independently contact Wanhui. Online comments were mostly critical, saying the venture was dangerous and not good for the animals. "This is for the rich to play," said one Weibo user. "Ordinary people even can't afford to drink." Another user urged action by the authorities, adding, "The relevant departments should take care of it." The incident comes just after authorities investigated a hotel in June for offering a "wake-up service" starring red pandas, state media said. open image in gallery A Chinese hotel faced calls to stop its red panda wake-up service. ( AFP via Getty Images ) The Lehe Ledu Liangjiang Holiday Hotel, a popular family resort in Chongqing, was called on by the local forestry bureau to stop one of its most popular services. Many guests are attracted to the hotel solely for its red panda wake-up experience. The service involves bringing one of the hotels red pandas up to a guest's bedroom in the morning, allowing the panda to roam freely around the room and climb onto the bed. Reviews online for the resort showed guests checking in just so they can book the experience and get up close to cute, furry animals from the comfort of their hotel room. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A high school teacher in her 30s has been detained by South Korean authorities for allegedly conspiring with a students parent to break into her school and steal final exam papers. Investigators suspect that the teacher may have repeatedly provided exam materials in advance, enabling the student to maintain her top academic standing in her class. A court in Andong ordered the teacher to be held in custody on Tuesday, followed by the mothers detention. Police also intend to question the daughter over possible involvement in disrupting school operations, local reports said. They were reportedly assisted by a school facilities manager, who has also been taken into custody. According to investigators, the teacher and the parent forced their way into the high school in Andong in north Gyeongsang province at around 1.20am local time on 4 July, reportedly with the cooperation of a security guard who turned a blind eye to the break-in. However, the attempt was thwarted when the schools alarm system was triggered, leading to their apprehension. On Tuesday, following a separate court hearing, both the parent and the school facilities manager were formally arrested. The parent, in their 40s, faces charges of trespassing and interfering with school operations, while the staff member has been accused of facilitating the theft and allowing unlawful entry into the premises. The school confirmed that the teacher had entered the premises at least seven times after her resignation in February last year, with most of these visits coinciding with exam periods. The teacher had previously worked at the school until February 2024 and is currently employed at another high school in Gyeonggi province. Police have found evidence of financial transactions between the parent and the teacher, raising further suspicion of a bribery arrangement related to the theft. On Monday, the school recommended the student for expulsion and will nullify all of her past exam results. She had maintained the top position in her class throughout her time at the school. Investigations are ongoing, and authorities are continuing to examine the scope of the case, including the possible involvement of the security guard. Authorities have also confirmed that the teacher was also privately tutoring the student, an act that violates South Korean law barring currently employed schoolteachers from offering paid extracurricular instruction. Authorities have also since reportedly widened the investigation, uncovering signs that other fixed-term teachers may have also received payments or gifts from parents. We are investigating the scope of the stolen test content, the timeline of leaks, possible co-conspirators, and whether money changed hands, a police spokesperson was quoted as saying by local news outlet Kyunghyang Shinmun. The incident has triggered widespread outrage among parents, who are demanding accountability and stricter safeguards to prevent such breaches. Its shocking to think something like this, which feels straight out of a drama, happened in our community, said Kim Su-jeong, the mother of a middle school student. There are rumours that the mother did this to get her daughter into medical school, she was quoted as saying by Korea Joongang Daily. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice An analysis of the cockpit voice recorder from the Air India flight that crashed in Ahmedabad last month reportedly showed the younger co-pilot asking the captain why he had turned off the fuel switches. The analysis came after an initial investigation into the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crash, which killed at least 260 people, found the aircrafts fuel switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run position to cutoff three seconds after take-off. First officer Clive Kunder was at the controls during take-off and at the time of the crash, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. It was Kunder who asked captain Sumeet Sabharwal why he had flipped the switches, starving the engines of fuel, according to the report. The preliminary report published by Indias Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau said one pilot was heard on the voice recorder asking the other why he had cut off the fuel. The other pilot responded that he did not do so, the report added. The report, however, stopped short of attributing blame. Shortly after taking off for London at 1.37pm local time on 12 June, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner started to lose thrust and sink, the report said. All but one of the 242 people onboard flight AI171 to Gatwick were killed, including 53 Britons. At least 19 people also died on the ground as the plane crashed into a medical college building. An association of Indian pilots had rejected the investigation reports insinuation that pilot error could be behind the crash. The Airline Pilots Association of India, representing Indian pilots at the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations in Montreal, called for a fair, fact-based inquiry. The pilots body must now be made part of the probe, at least as observers, the associations India president Sam Thomas said. The Journal did not state if there was evidence Sabharwal had indeed moved the fuel switches beyond the verbal exchange quoted in the report. But it quoted American pilots familiar with the Indian investigation report as saying that Kunder, the pilot actively flying, likely would have had his hands full pulling back on the Dreamliners controls at that stage of the flight. Captain Sumeet Sabharwal Sabharwal, 56, started his aviation career in the early 1990s and logged over 15,000 hours of flying experience. After joining Air India in 1994, he went on to become line training captain, a role to train and guide co-pilots during live flights. He had obtained clearances to fly as pilot-in-command on several aircraft, including the Boeing 787 and 777 and the Airbus A310. At least 8,596 hours of his total flying experience of 15,638 hours were logged on a Boeing 787. open image in gallery Sumeet Sabharwals father offers prayers next to his body in Mumbai, India ( Reuters ) Sabharwal, from the western Indian city of Mumbai, was widely regarded as disciplined and professional, with no complaint ever filed against him. Friends and relatives remembered him as a soft-spoken and humble man. Months away from his retirement, he planned to stay with his father, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, 88, to take care of him. He never married or had children. His neighbours earlier told The Indian Express he had been looking forward to spending more time at home and caring for his ageing parent. On the day of the crash, he reportedly called his father from the airport. Ill call you once I reach London, he reportedly told him. That call never came. First officer Clive Kunder First officer Cliver Kunder, 32, unlike Sabharwal, was at the beginning of a promising aviation career, with over 3,400 hours of flight time to his name. Kunder grew up in Mumbai and lived alone in the citys Goregaon area. According to Indian media reports quoting relatives, he had dreamt of flying since childhood. He began his journey as a pilot in 2012 and joined Air India in 2017. open image in gallery People console the mother of Clive Kunder ( Reuters ) His commercial pilots licence, issued in 2020, was valid until 26 September 2025. He had obtained clearances to fly Cessna 172 and Piper PA-34 Seneca aircraft as pilot-in-command and Airbus A320 and Boeing 787 jets as co-pilot. Kunder was also looking forward to a new chapter in his personal life as he was just two months away from getting married. At his funeral at the Sewri Christian Cemetery near his home, Steffi Miranda, a close friend from Wilson College, addressed the gathering of family and friends. Seventeen years ago, we met Clive for the first time. Since then, we watched him grow, evolve, and soar, she said. Though grief surrounds us, there is pride too in who Clive became. He hasnt left us; hes only flying higher now. open image in gallery Friends and family members mourn near the coffin of Clive Kunder in Mumbai ( Reuters ) Both Sabharwals and Kunders fascination for aviation had begun at home. Sabharwals father had retired from Indias aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, while Kunders mother was a former Air India flight attendant. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson earlier said that both pilots had passed the mandatory pre-flight breathalyser tests and there were no observations about their medical status. The Air India crash investigation is far from over, Mr Wilson said, adding that the airline continued to cooperate with authorities, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. However, he cautioned against premature conclusions amid growing scrutiny over the preliminary investigation. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Bangladesh has begun demolishing the centuryold ancestral home of internationally-acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Ray north of the capital Dhaka. The house was once used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, a government-run centre for childrens development. It is being replaced with a new semiconcrete structure with officials citing structural safety concerns after a decade of neglect, reported Bangladeshi newspaper The Daily Star. Built some 120km north of Dhaka by Rays grandfather Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury, the mansion sat on a sprawling 36acre estate. The house links generations of cultural icons: Upendrakishore himself was a pioneering writer, publisher, and technologist of the Bengal Renaissance, best known for founding the childrens magazine Sandesh and introducing advanced halftone printing techniques in India; His son, Sukumar Ray, was a beloved poet and satirist whose nonsense verse remains deeply influential in Bengali literature, and his grandson, Satyajit Ray, went on to become one of the most celebrated filmmakers in world cinema. Indias foreign ministry issued a statement on Tuesday expressing profound regret over the demolition, and urged Dhaka to reconsider, offering both technical and financial cooperation to restore the building instead. Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh, said the statement. Born in Kolkata in 1921, Ray made his directorial debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, which won international acclaim and became the first in his landmark Apu trilogy. Ray went on to win several accolades, including two Cannes Palme dOr awards and an honorary Academy Award in 1992. Born in Kolkata in 1921, Ray made his directorial debut with Pather Panchali in 1955, which won international acclaim and became the first in his landmark Apu trilogy ( AFP/Getty Images ) Rays son Sandip said the filmmaker had intended to include images of their ancestral home in a documentary, but decided against it upon seeing its derelict state. I have never been to Bangladesh to see this building; neither did Baba [Satyajit Ray]. What I saw were the pictures of the building. But I remember Baba wanted to use the pictures of this building when he was working on the Sukumar Ray documentary, Sandip Ray told NDTV. A close associate, who used to look after Baba's production, was sent to Bangladesh to click some pictures of this building. But Baba was very disheartened to see the building in a dilapidated state. He, then, decided that he wouldn't use those pictures in his documentary. In Dhaka, officials have defended the decision by saying that the building posed risks to children and that the new structure would allow the academys activities to be resumed. The house had been abandoned for 10 years, and Shishu Academy activities have been running from a rented space, Md Mehedi Zaman, Mymensinghs district children affairs officer told The Daily Star, adding that all proper procedures were followed by the district administration and public works department. Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of Indias West Bengal state which borders Bangladesh, wrote on X in Bengali that the news was extremely distressing and describing the Ray family as one of the foremost torchbearers of Bengali culture. I appeal to the Bangladesh government and all the conscientious people of that country to take steps to preserve this heritage-laden house. The Indian government should pay attention to this matter, she wrote. Within Bangladesh, some archaeologists and cultural activists have expressed regret that despite the buildings historical importance, it had never been officially listed as protected. Poet Shamim Ashraf told The Daily Star that appeals to preserve the site were ignored and the house remained in a sorry state for years, with cracks forming on its roof. Sabina Yeasmin, field officer of the Department of Archaeology, also told the newspaper that repeated warnings had been disregarded. Adding to growing unease is the fact that another cultural property Nobel prize-winner Rabindranath Tagores ancestral home Kachharibari in Sirajganj was attacked by a mob in early June following a dispute over parking fees. The auditorium was damaged, and the director attacked, prompting a temporary closure of the 19th-century property and an official inquiry. As a video of the demolition of the Ray family home began circulating online, some expressed dismay and drew a link between the two incidents. Economist Sanjeev Sanyal wrote on X: They were silent when Tagores house was vandalised. They are silent when Satyajit Rays ancestral home is demolished. Indeed, they are complicit to the systematic erasure of Bengali Hindu identity in Bangladesh. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A 20-year-old student in India set herself on fire at her college campus after alleging sexual harassment by a professor, an incident that has prompted national outrage and calls for an inquiry from political leaders. The woman, a second-year undergraduate studying education at Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Balasore, Odisha, self-immolated on Saturday, moments after leaving the office of the college principal. She suffered over 90 per cent burns and was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Science in Bhubaneswar, where she died late on Monday night. Her father, speaking to local media, accused the college of conspiring against his daughter. My daughter was killed, he said in Hindi, breaking down on television. She always raised her voice in college, so they targeted her. Everyone forced her to die. Is this not murder? He claimed that his daughter had complained of sexual harassment by Sameer Ranjan Sahoo, the head of the education department, accusing him of demanding sexual favours and threatening to ruin her career. She didnt open up completely but said the accused was pressuring her, he said, reported India Today. Mr Sahoo has been suspended and arrested, with a local court placing him under 14 days judicial custody. The student had formally approached the colleges Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), naming Mr Sahoo and claiming that the principal, Dillip Ghosh, and other college authorities failed to act on her initial complaints. The ICC is said to have promised action, but the family say none was taken. She had also approached the police and even met her local MP, but the family say the alleged harassment continued. Mr Ghosh was suspended as principal by the college on Sunday, and arrested on Monday when the student was still in critical condition in hospital. Local opposition leader Bhakta Charan Das, the Odisha Congress Party chief, announced a state-wide shut-down on 17 July to protest the collapse of the justice redressal system. Thousands attended the students cremation in her home village on Tuesday, including the local state legislator from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Pratap Sarangi, and other officials. Mohan Charan Majhi, Odishas chief minister, expressed his condolences and vowed strict action while offering 18,500 in compensation for the family. The case has triggered a political storm in Odisha and beyond. Former chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party leader Naveen Patnaik blamed the BJP-led state government, calling the girls death institutional betrayal and a result of planned injustice. She went from pillar to post for justice but was failed by the very system meant to protect her, Mr Patnaik wrote on X (formerly Twitter). She did not die due to injuries alone, but because the state left her alone in her struggle. National opposition leader Rahul Gandhi called the students death an organised murder by the system and said those meant to protect her kept breaking her. In a sharply worded post on X calling out prime minister Narendra Modi, he added: Whether in Odisha or Manipur, the daughters of the nation are burning, breaking, and dying. And you [prime minister Narendra Modi] remain silent. India's opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi called the students death an organised murder by the system ( Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Mr Gandhi was politicising the incident, stating that the welfare of women was a top priority for the BJP-led central government. In response to the public outcry, the University Grants Commission (UGC), a statutory body under the education ministry, has set up a fact-finding team led by Raj Kumar Mittal. The panel will examine the circumstances of the students death, review the colleges compliance with regulatory norms, and assess the effectiveness of anti-harassment mechanisms. Other members of the committee include UGC joint secretary Ashima Mangla, Gujarat University vice-chancellor Neerja Gupta, and former UGC member Sushma Yadav. The panel has been asked to submit its report by 22 July. The UGC said the committee would visit the college, engage with students, staff and administrators, and assess the safety measures and institutional culture related to student welfare. Meanwhile, the victims family continues to demand answers. Why was she called alone to the principals office? What happened inside? Why were we not informed? her father asked while speaking to ANI. I request the government to acknowledge that my daughter didn't die, she was killed, and everyone should be charged with murder," he said. If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org, or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The execution of an Indian nurse who is on death row in Yemen has been postponed at the eleventh hour amid negotiations for a pardon. Nimisha Priya, 38, from the southern Indian state of Kerala, was found guilty of murdering her business partner in 2017 and was sentenced to death in 2020. Priya has denied killing Talal Abdo Mahdi, a Yemeni national who co-owned a clinic with her in Sanaa and whose chopped-up remains were found in a water tank. The Indian foreign ministry sources said the government "made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for the family of Ms Nimisha Priya to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party. The ministry's officials had been in regular contact with Yemeni jail authorities and the prosecutor's office there. The postponement of the sentencing is only a temporary relief for Priya, as only a pardon by the victims family can save her from the imminent execution. According to Yemens Islamic judicial system, murder, drug trafficking, apostasy, adultery, and same-sex relations are punished by death and it allows a murder convict to be pardoned by the victims kin in exchange for diyat, or blood money. Her family in India has said they have already raised $1m (735,000) and offered the money to Mahdi's family, which is reluctant to pardon her. Samuel Jerome Baskaran, a social worker who has been negotiating on behalf of the nurse with Yemeni officials and the victims family, said the postponement came after the ruler of the Al Wasab region met the president of Yemen on Friday on his request while the Indian government also got involved, according to The Indian Express. He said a plea from Priyas mother, Prema Kumari, requesting a postponement, was formally submitted. On Saturday, the president of Yemen Rashad al-Alimi consented to defer the execution, he said, adding that a directive not to disclose further details about the case or the postponement, possibly was issued due to its sensitivity. The final step (to stop the execution) is the consent from the Talal family. The key to Nimishas life rests with the family of Talal. They have to forgive her, and our job is to convince the family to forgive her, he said. Mahdi's family have said they only want to implement Gods Law in Qisas, which means retaliation in kind and said they have suffered from the brutal crime. His brother, Abdelfattah Mahdi, told BBC Arabic that they have suffered at the hands of the exhausting litigation process and called it a horrible and heinous crime case. "Any dispute, whatever its reasons and however big, can never justify a murder let alone dismembering, mutilating and hiding the body." Priya arrived in Yemen to work as a nurse in 2008. She launched a clinic in partnership with Mehdi, in line with Yemeni law that required foreign entrepreneurs to collaborate with citizens. However, she was arrested in 2017 after Mahdi was murdered and his body was found in a tank. Her family previously alleged that Priya faced mental, physical and financial abuse at his hands. She had even filed a police complaint against him in 2016, leading to his brief arrest. He allegedly resumed threatening her after getting out. In 2020, a local court sentenced her to death. The decision was challenged in the Supreme Court but the appeal was rejected in 2023. The nurses mother, a domestic worker in Kochi city, has been in Yemen for the past year trying to save her daughter. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Police in Indias southern Karnataka state have discovered a Russian woman and her two young daughters living in isolation within a remote forest cave. Nina Kutina, 40, and her children, aged six and four, were found by officers on July 9 during a routine patrol of Ramatirtha Hill, a popular coastal tourist spot. Police officer Sridhar S.R. confirmed the family had been residing in the cave for over a week. Authorities are now arranging for Ms Kutinas repatriation to Russia, as she had overstayed her visa. She and her daughters have been transferred to a detention facility for foreign nationals living in India illegally. In a statement, police noted that Ms Kutina spent her time in the cave meditating by candlelight, telling officers she was "interested in staying in the forest and worshiping God." Mr Sridhar added that Ms Kutina had previously worked as a Russian language tutor in Goa, another coastal tourist state in southern India. Indian policemen rescue Nina Kutina, 40, a Russian woman, from a cave in forest area of Ramtirtha hills in southern Indian state of Karnataka ( AP ) It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here, said Sridhar. He said police found pictures of Hindu deities on the inside walls of the cave where Kutina had been living. In a photograph provided by the police, she is seen in front of makeshift curtains made of red saris that covered the entrance to the cave. The Russian Embassy in New Delhi didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. The police statement said Kutina sent a message to her friends after she was found. Our peaceful life in the cave has ended our cave home destroyed, she wrote in the message, according to the statement. The Associated Press contacted Kutina over the phone but she declined to comment. On Tuesday, she told news agency Press Trust of India that she spent her days in the cave by painting, singing, reading books, and living peacefully with her children. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Reduced flights, ticket cancellations and fare adjustments continue to deepen losses for Air India over a month after one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners crashed shortly after takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport. The crash, which killed at least 260 people on 12 June, and the subsequent losses are a blow to owner Tata Group's ambitious plans to restore the airlines reputation and revamp its fleet. All but one of the 242 people onboard flight AI171 to London Gatwick were killed in the crash, including 53 British citizens. The plane crashed into a hostel complex at the Byramjee Jeejeebhoy Medical College, killing several students and residents on the ground. Only one passenger, a British man seated in 11A, miraculously survived. A preliminary investigation report released last week revealed the aircrafts fuel switches almost simultaneously flipped from run position to cutoff three seconds after takeoff. It claimed that one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he had cut off the fuel. "The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report added. At the crash site, both fuel switches were found in the run position and the report noted that there had been indications of the engines relighting before the low-altitude crash. The crash is challenge to CEO Campbell Wilsons push to revive Air India as a world-class airline. Its set to become the most expensive aviation insurance claim in Indias history, with about 353m in total liability, according to Bloomberg. The figure includes the full hull value of the aircraft, compensation for families of the victims under international aviation law, and payouts for third-party property damage and loss of life on the ground. open image in gallery A family member with a child stands next to a photo of Akash Patni, who died after an Air India Boeing Dreamliner plane crashed during takeoff from the Ahmedabad airport ( REUTERS ) While the airlines losses are expected to be covered under all-risk aviation insurance, the payouts for passengers are governed by the Montreal Convention, to which India is a signatory. The minimum compensation per dead passenger under this framework could go up to 128,821 Special Drawing Rights, which works out to 134,000-171,000, although the actual amount might vary depending on nationality, legal claims, and additional liabilities. The Tata Group has already announced interim compensation of about 85,000 for each of the families of the dead. In addition, Air India has announced 21,000 in interim payment to the families of the victims as well as the sole survivor Vishwash Kumar Ramesh. The claim for the planes hull and engine is estimated at around 93m, according to Ramaswamy Narayanan, chairman and managing director at General Insurance Corporation of India. He estimates additional liability claims for loss of life of the passengers and third-party property damage at almost 260m. This amount is more than triple the annual premium for the aviation industry in India in 2023, according to Bloomberg. Given the large number of international passengers, including from the UK, Portugal and Canada, global reinsurers are expected to absorb much of the financial impact. open image in gallery Investigators at the scene of the Air Indian plane crash in Ahmedabad ( Getty ) Air India has suffered additional losses, with bookings for flights dropping around 20 per cent on domestic and international routes in the week after the crash. The airline cancelled dozens of flights after the crash and slashed ticket prices on key routes by up to 15 per cent, deepening its financial losses. Air India has a 30 per cent share of the domestic passenger market. The airline has a fleet of 198 planes, of which 27 are 10-15 years old and 43 are over 15 years old, the civil aviation ministry told the parliament in March. It was ranked the worst airline for flight delays in the UK, where its departures were, on an average, just under 46 minutes behind schedule in 2024, according to an analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data by the PA news agency published in May. Air India has been reporting losses since at least fiscal year 2019-20. It reported a net loss of about 386m on sales of 34bn in 2023-24. The preliminary investigation report, Mr Wilson said, found no mechanical or maintenance faults with the aircraft. He added that all required maintenance had been carried out on the aircraft, and that the pilots had passed all pre-flight checks amid allegations that the disaster was caused by human error. The report has triggered unprecedented checks on all Boeing flights to secure the safety of the fuel switches. India's aviation authorities set 21 July as the deadline for all airlines with Boeing jets to confirm the security of the switches. Over 150 Boeing 737 and 787 aircraft are reportedly in operation across India, flown by carriers including Air India, Air India Express, Akasa Air, SpiceJet, and IndiGo. South Koreas flag carrier Korean Air Lines said on Tuesday it had proactively begun inspecting fuel control switches and would implement any additional requirements the transport ministry may have. Japan Airlines said it had been doing such inspections since 2018. "Any issues detected were repaired on the ground, and therefore did not occur during flight," JAL said in a statement. South Korea's aviation authorities said it was preparing to order all airlines in the country with Boeing jets to examine the switches. Singapore Airlines said it had completed precautionary checks on the fuel switches of its 787 fleet, including aircraft used by its low-cost subsidiary Scoot. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Authorities in Japan are searching for a hunter who went missing following a possible bear attack in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, just days after officials issued a brown bear warning. The deer hunter in his 50s went missing on Mount Esan on Tuesday, the Hokkaido prefectural police and local fire department said. Police said they were informed through an emergency call that the hunter had not returned after venturing into the forest. Bloodstains and a hunting rifle believed to belong to the missing man were found on a road at the foot of the mountain, the Japan News reported. The local police and firefighters have deployed a helicopter to search for the missing person. The hunter went missing just two days after Hokkaido authorities, for the first time, issued a top-level alert about brown bears in one of its towns following repeated bear sightings and fatal attacks. The police said a bear was sighted in the area where the hunter went missing. Bear sightings in towns and villages of Japan have surged in recent years due to fluctuating harvests of staple foods for bears, combined with rural depopulation. Experts have also pointed to the declining number of children in country towns and villages, whose naturally noisy presence once helped deter bears, as another contributing factor. The bear warning was issued after a 52-year-old newspaper deliveryman was found dead in the bushes in the early hours of Saturday with wounds that resembled a bear attack. The man's body was found with claw marks and bites on his abdomen, The Mainichi reported. He was attacked and then dragged into the bushes by the bear. The bear that attacked the man was about 1-1.5m in body length and did not run away even when a witness shouted, according to reports. The brown bear warning is expected to be effective through 11 August and locals have been instructed to be careful, especially during nighttime outings and not to leave food waste outside homes. An 81-year-old woman was found dead after an apparent bear attack at her home in Iwate prefecture in northeast Japan. In April, authorities in the Nagano prefecture are on high alert after a bear attacked three people in Iyama, leaving two seriously injured. The animal entered residential properties, broke through glass and attacked two men and a woman, local media reported. Following the spate of attacks, Japan's parliament enacted a revised law to allow municipalities to authorize "emergency shootings" by hunters when dangerous animals, such as bears, enter populated areas. In early 2024, the environment ministry reported to an expert panel that there were 19,192 sightings of Asian black bears between April and October 2023, the highest figure ever, exceeding the 18,000 sightings logged in 2020. Typically, bear sightings peak in June and decline through October, before rising again in subsequent months. However, in 2023, the numbers began climbing earlier, with some 6,000 sightings reported in October of that year alone. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice An Indian student in Singapore was sentenced to 35 months in jail for pushing a man into the Singapore River, causing his death by drowning. Prosecutors said 22-year-old Legha Pawans actions on 30 June last year, which resulted in the death of 33-year-old Jasbir Singh, were unprovoked and carried out without any clear reason. On Wednesday, Pawan was sentenced to two years and 11 months in jail after pleading guilty to a charge of voluntarily causing hurt that resulted in grievous harm. Pawan and Mr Singh were both Indian nationals. They didnt know each other. Singh worked in construction and was married with two young children. The court was told that Pawan had moved to Singapore to pursue his education and was studying at a private school, Birmingham Academy, at the time of the incident. On 30 June last year, Pawan, who had been drinking with friends, returned alone to the riverside and reportedly suddenly shoved Singh whom he did not know without provocation. Pawan and his friends had been drinking near Clarke Quay when an argument broke out. Intoxicated, Pawan had to be restrained by a friend, and the group later dispersed, local media reported. Around the same time, Singh, was walking alone along the riverbank. He had been drinking heavily in recent months following his mothers death, CNA reported. At about 10.30pm, Pawan returned alone and approached Singh, drawing the attention of a nearby couple who recognised him from the earlier commotion. Singh fell into the river and drowned. Pawan fled the scene, and changed his clothes to avoid detection. He took a train home and asked a housemate, unaware of the incident, to bring him his backpack at a nearby location. He returned to his flat around 8am the next morning, where he was arrested. During questioning, Pawan claimed he pushed Singh because the older man had grabbed and damaged his bangle and insulted his mother, though there was no evidence to support this, The Straits Times reported. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit accusing a US development bank of providing an unlawful near-$5 billion loan to a fossil fuel project in southern Africa. Friends of the Earth US, Mozambican environmental charity Justica Ambiental, and EarthRights International are accusing the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) - which uses US public money to support US investments abroad - of not conducting sufficient due diligence around the re-approval of the $4.6bn loan to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Mozambique. In March, under President Donald Trump, EXIM announced the re-approval of the loan, which had been paused after the project ran into difficulties related to an ongoing Islamic Insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region where the project is based in 2021. The groups allege EXIM rushed through approval without conducting required environmental reviews, economic assessment, or complying with the procedural requirements mandated by Congress. The lawsuit also claims that EXIM failed to follow neither its own Charter nor federal law, setting a dangerous precedent for future decisions. The Independent has previously reported on the numerous human rights and environmental concerns that surround the project. open image in gallery Activists supporting Friends of Earth outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, during a protest over the development of a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique in 2021 ( PA ) "There are legal procedures and processes in place to ensure the U.S. Export-Import Bank does not waste taxpayer dollars on risky projects plagued by violent insurgencies, said Kate DeAngelis, deputy director for economic policy at Friends of the Earth US. Yet EXIM like the rest of the Trump Administration believes that it can operate outside the law. We will not stand by while the Trump Administration cuts health care and disaster aid so that it can give handouts to fossil fuel companies. Richard Herz, of EarthRights International, added: EXIMs Boards illegal decision to subsidize this project, without even considering the risks to local people, let alone the serious allegations that project security committed a massacre at the project site, is beyond reckless. EXIM needs to do its job and actually consider the harms this project will inflict on local people. The long-delayed LNG project has displaced thousands of local people. In 2021, French oil giant TotalEnergies, which is spearheading the project, was forced to halt operations after Islamist insurgents killed dozens of workers near the companys main site in the Cabo Delgado region. The ongoing insurgency and a force majeure declaration around the project also means that TotalEnergies has been unable to resume operations. Signs of discontent can be found in villagers claiming that they have not been sufficiently compensated for giving up land that most rely on for subsistence farming, according to evidence collected by local NGO Justica Ambiental, after Mozambique LNG was given rights to 6,625 hectares of land to build its liquefaction terminal. A spokesperson for TotalEnergies previously told The Independent that prior to the force majeure announcement, 89 per cent of compensation payments had been paid within six months of the signing of compensation agreements, and 66 per cent were paid within 90 days. The Force Majeure situation has prevented the full implementation of the relocation and compensation process and has slowed down the exercise, they said. A spokesperson for Justica Ambiental said: To continue financing gas projects in Cabo Delgado would be a betrayal of Mozambique and humanity. It would ignore the voices of the families who are bearing the heaviest burdens who have lost their land, access to the sea, and their livelihoods. It would show a lack of commitment to national laws, international standards, and any efforts to deal with the climate crisis. An EXIM spokesperson said: The Export-Import Bank of the United States is aware of recent reports and inquiries regarding ongoing legal proceedings. As a matter of longstanding policy, EXIM does not comment on pending litigation. EXIM remains committed to its mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating the export of U.S. goods and services. The Bank continues to operate in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. This piece has been produced as part of The Independents Rethinking Global Aid series Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The country has been rocked by severe flooding in recent weeks and climate change is making it even more dangerous, according to a report. This week, torrential rain slammed New York and New Jersey, leaving two dead. Last week, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Chantal ravaged North Carolina, displacing 60 and killing at least six. The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a once-in-century flood struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives. The latter two events are considered 1,000-year floods, meaning theres a 0.1 percent likelihood they will occur in any given year, according to AccuWeather. Climate change is likely the reason that such intense floods are occurring at an exponential rate, NPR first reported. open image in gallery Two women were killed this week after floods slammed New Jersey ( AP ) For one, climate change is intensifying rainfall. The heaviest rainstorms in Texas now dump about 20 percent more water than in the 1950s, according to the National Climate Assessment. Similarly, as videos captured New York Citys subway gushing with water, Rohit Aggarwala, the citys climate chief, told the New York Times. It is now the case that five of the most intense rainstorms in New York Citys history have taken place in the last four years, Thats largely because warmer atmospheres allow for more water vapor, leading to an uptick in precipitation extremes, the assessment found. As the atmosphere continues to warm, extreme weather events become even more likely. Warmer atmospheric temperatures could also drive an increase in short-duration extreme rainfall, according to the assessment. open image in gallery A sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas after floods ravaged the area ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) In Texas, the Guadalupe River surged from 8 feet to 29 feet in a matter of hours due to the amount of rainfall. Although its too soon to tell how much of a role climate change played in this months deadly floods, an initial analysis by ClimaMeter scientists revealed that natural variability could not have alone been responsible for the magnitude of the heavy rainfall that led to the Texas floods. Some states rely on rainfall reports that are 50 years old, NPR reported in 2022. Given the warming atmosphere, those numbers are often quite outdated, affecting cities abilities to prepare for disasters. open image in gallery The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a once-in-century flood struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives ( AFP via Getty Images ) Before the 1960s in Harris County, Texas, about 13 inches of rain dropped during extreme storms; that number was at 18 inches in 2018, NPR reported. The difference means one-third of the major roads and highways in Harris County are now vulnerable to flooding, according to the outlet. Asked at a press conference about the delayed alerts in Texas just before floods struck, after it was too late to evacuate for many, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed ancient technology. When President Trump took office he said he wanted to fix [that], and is currently upgrading the technology, Noem said. And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years, and that is the reforms that are ongoing. NOAA has said it is updating its systems to account for climate change. open image in gallery Water gushed in a flooded subway station in New York City after rainfall inundated parts of New York and New Jersey ( via REUTERS ) Physical systems are also not prepared for these extreme weather disasters. For example, New York Citys sewer system, which is over 100 years old and also handles storm water runoff, can handle about 1.75 inches of rain per hour. The pipes were designed for a certain amount of water. A lot more water fell from the sky, Aggarwala told the Times of the flooding this week. Floods are not only extremely dangerous but theyre also costly. Flooding from 1988 through 2021 caused $230 billion in damages 37 percent of which was attributable to climate change, according to a 2024 National Centers for Environmental Information report. Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Up until a disastrous day earlier this month, more than 150 trucks crossed daily over a border bridge between Nepal and China. Known by locals as the Miteri Pul (Friendship Bridge), the Rasuwagadhi crossing served as the main trade route between the two countries, with over $50m of goods passing over it last year alone. But on the 8 July, floodwaters tore through northern Nepals Rasuwa district, sweeping away parts of this critical border highway. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction & Management Authority, seven people lost their lives, and 20 were missing, including six Chinese nationals. The Chinese nationals were working on a 200 megawatt hydro project in the Tirsuli River, which was also damaged by the floods. Initial estimates suggest Nepal has sustained losses of over $100m in the incident as a whole. Mina Poudel, a hotel owner near the NepalChina checkpoint, says she was jolted awake at 2am by violent tremors. "Thinking it was an earthquake, we suddenly got up and ran out of the house," she told The Independent by phone. "Everyone was shouting. Then from a safe distance, we saw water rising in the Bhotekoshi. That's when we knew it was a flood." By 4am, she said, the torrent had swept away a Chinese workers' camp and a cargo vehicle. Her hotel, once serving more than 70 customers daily, now stands empty. "The border is closed. The businesspeople are gone. So are the tourists." Scientists have determined that the cause was an outburst from a glacial lake. According to Jakob Steiner, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Graz (Austria), and Amrit Thapa, a PhD student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the glacial lake had formed in March, approximately 35km upstream from the border inside Chinese territory. Their research shows that ponds of liquid water sitting on top of the glacier began growing from March, then suddenly started expanding rapidly in June. All the ponds coalesced into a single, massive lake measuring 638,000 square metres by 7 July, before bursting out into the valley below, draining a third of the lakes area in just 24 hours. Glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) have become increasingly common in Nepal, driven by rapid warming in the Himalayas. Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology reports that temperatures in the Himalayan region have increased by 0.42C per decade between 2008 and 2018 nearly double the global average. open image in gallery Nepal-China border post flooding ( Prakash Chandra Timalsena ) Nepal lost 24 per cent of its glaciers due to global warming between 1977 and 2010, the most recent data available, contributing to a substantial decline in freshwater reserves in the Himalayas. In the Himalayan region, the number of glacial lakes and their area are rapidly increasing. A study by ICIMOD found that the number of glacial lakes in Nepal increased by 154 per cent between 1977 and 2017, while their total area expanded by about 46 per cent. Nepal currently shares more than 1,500km of mountainous border with China, and many of its rivers, including the Bhotekoshi, originate in Tibet. A 2020 survey by ICIMOD and the UN Development Programme identified 3,624 glacial lakes across the region's three river basins. Of these, 47 were found to be at high risk of bursting, with 25 located in Tibet. One of the most dangerous is Thulagi Lake in Manang District, which holds an estimated 36 million cubic metres of water. If it were to burst, the resulting flood could impact over 160,000 people downstream and cause damage estimated at $415m. Basanta Raj Adhikari, assistant professor of engineering geology and disaster risk reduction at the Department of Civil Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, said that the Rasuwagadhi flood was neither the first nor the last. He warned that Nepal will face more major GLOFs in the future, resulting in significant losses. The increasing global temperature has a direct effect on the Himalayas, where the formation of glacial lakes [has been] increasing in recent years, he said. These glacial lakes might turn into GLOFs in changing conditions, as we are witnessing. open image in gallery People watch overflowing river amid flooding in Nepal ( AP ) Over the past five years, Nepal has faced repeated incidents of severe floods originating from the Himalayan region, causing significant damage and disruption. In May 2025, a glacial lake outburst occurred near the Limi Valley in Humla district, in western Nepal near the China border. According to Shiva Baskota, senior geologist at the Department of Mines and Geology, three glacial ponds located at an altitude of 4,400 metres melted. The water flowed out rapidly, triggering a flood. As a result, more than 20 families were displaced from their homes. On 16 August 2024, a similar flood hit the popular tourist village of Thame, which was caused by another glacial lake burst. Two lakes overflowed, and the water rushed nearly 10 kilometres downhill, striking the village that has been home to legendary Sherpa climbers like Tenzing Norgay. The flood destroyed 23 homes and damaged 40 more, according to Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality. In 2021, a glacial lake collapsed near the Tibetan border in Sindhupalchok district. This event claimed 24 lives and caused damage worth about $905m, including the destruction of 570 homes, according to Nepals National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority. In 2016, Gongbatongshacuo Lake in Tibet burst, sending a massive flood down the Bhote Koshi River in northern Sindhupalchok. The flood swept away 20 houses, a boarding school, and part of a customs office. It also damaged many buildings, a hydropower plant, and roads, including a major highway connecting Nepal and China. Ranjan Kumar Dahal, an engineering geologist at Tribhuvan University in Nepal, said that the latest devastating event should raise serious concerns and serve as a reminder that Himalayan tsunamis are becoming more frequent and intense, and they are not going to stop anytime soon. Pema Gyamtsho, director general of ICIMOD, said that it was an absolute certainty that global temperature rises are driving increases in the frequency, ferocity, and complexity of mountain hazards. In June alone, three lake outbursts have torn through our region, on top of horrific floods in India and Pakistan; tragically confirming our Monsoon Outlooks predictions of a high-hazard summer. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Tesla Inc. has opened its first showroom in India, marking the vehicle makers long-anticipated debut in the worlds third-biggest automotive market. Located in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, an upscale business center in the financial capital of Mumbai, the showroom will serve as Teslas flagship retail and experience outlet as the company introduces its EV lineup to Indian customers. Teslas entry to India comes after years of delays and policy friction, marking a pivotal expansion in a fast-growing consumer base while global sales are plunging and the company faces challenges in its two core markets, China and the US. Tesla launched its Model Y in India as the US automaker, grappling with slowing sales, bets on prospects in a country that company boss Elon Musk has long criticised for its high import tariffs. Tesla has begun accepting orders for its Model Y on the company website. For India, Teslas entry signals rising investor confidence and strengthens its move towards clean mobility. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, while inaugurating the store, said: This is not just the inauguration of an experience centre but a statement that Tesla has arrived, in the right city and state, that is Mumbai, Maharashtra. Mumbai stands for innovation and sustainability. With deliveries estimated to start from the third quarter, Tesla is targeting a niche electric vehicle segment in India that accounts for just 4 per cent of overall sales in the world's third-largest car market. The base price of the Y model is Rs6.78m or $79,000 for the long-range, rear-wheel drive vehicle, according to a presentation by the company. By comparison, the price tag is around $44,990 in the US without a federal tax credit. The government wants to change that and increase the electric vehicle share to 30 per cent by 2030. Sales of Tesla electric cars fell sharply from April to June as boycotts over Musks political views continued, keeping buyers away. Tesla will compete mainly with German luxury giants such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz rather than domestic mass-market EV players such as Tata Motors and Mahindra. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi met Tesla boss Elon Musk in the US in February 2025 ( Narendra Modi/ X ) The company will import cars into a country where tariffs and related duties can exceed 100 per cent, driving up the price for consumers. Grappling with excess capacity in global factories and declining sales, Tesla has adopted a strategy of selling imported vehicles in India, despite the duties and levies. The EV maker has long lobbied India for lower import tariffs on cars, and prime minister Narendra Modi's officials remain in talks with US president Donald Trump's administration to lower the levies under a bilateral trade deal. Musk invited Indians in April 2016 to preorder the upcoming Tesla Model 3. Several customers placed an order but the cars never arrived and the booking amount had to be refunded. Despite his earlier enthusiasm, in 2019 Musk expressed concern in a post on his social media platform X that import taxes could double prices of Tesla cars, making them unaffordable. Tesla pressed Indian authorities to cut import taxes on EVs to be able to test the local market, but New Delhi wanted Tesla to set up manufacturing facilities so a comprehensive policy could benefit all the players in the sector. The dynamics changed after Modi and Musk met in the US in February during the prime ministers state visit. The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Aid cuts to education, and in particular foundational learning of reading and maths for young children, will have a major impact on the futures of children across the developing world, new research suggests. The UN has projected that global aid for education will fall by a quarter between 2023 and 2027. The US and UK until recently the largest bilateral donors for foundational educationare both expected to almost entirely cut their education spending. That news comes just as groundbreaking new research from think tank the Centre for Global Development, which has been shared exclusively with The Independent, shows that children with better foundational skills tend to perform much better in later life. Specifically, the new paper finds that young children who score well in reading and maths, after accounting for family background, go on to earn roughly 11 per cent more as adults. The paper also finds that children with better foundational skills tend to stay in school for longer, and also are slightly less likely to have had children themselves by early adulthood, indicating a potential link between early learning and reproductive choices. According to Lee Crawfurd, the researcher behind the paper, research on the impact of foundational learning on later life has been largely missing until now, due to difficulties adults would have in assessing their reading and mathematics when they were younger. The new working paper reaches its conclusions using longitudinal data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey. Longitudinal surveys, which are surveys that follow individuals over long periods of time, are generally rare in low- and middle-income countries, but provide information on long-term policy impacts These findings provide a strong economic rationale for prioritising foundational literacy and numeracy interventions. But aid donors are doing the opposite, Mr Crawfurd told The Independent. This research shows its not just going to school that mattersits whether children actually learn to read and do basic maths. Thats what helps them earn more as adults. Just because the payoff comes years down the line doesnt make it any less real, he continued. The returns are so high that even spending five or ten times as much on foundational learning could still be great value for money. Policymakers should protect and prioritise these investmentsbecause they work. The UK has ppreviously spent more than $1bn a year on education, but it has slipped to less than $500 million a year in recent years and is set to fall further. On foundational learning in particular, the UK spent just under $100m in 2021, data shows. With Prime Minister Keir Starmer slashing UK aid from 0.5 to 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), UK aid towards education is expected to drop to near-zero. A separate analysis from the Centre for Global Development has shown that once costs of UK asylum seeker accommodation, commitments to fund multilateral institutions like the World Bank and EU, and humanitarian aid for conflicts like Gaza and Ukraine are accounted for, then the aid budget is effectively used up. According to Mr Crawfurd, UK aid was mostly well targeted at countries with the greatest need, such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Pakistan. Multilateral institutions like the World Bank tend to be less focused on cost-effective approaches, he added. The US was also spending just over $1 billion a year on education aid before 2025, with a large chunk of that on foundational learning, data shows. This piece has been produced as part of The Independents Rethinking Global Aid series For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Triple murderer Nicholas Prosper will not be given a whole-life order after a bid to increase his sentence was dismissed at the Court of Appeal. Prosper, 19, would have become the first person aged between 18 and 20 to be given a whole-life tariff if three senior judges had ruled that his sentence should be raised. He was jailed in March for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2024. He also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. If he had succeeded, he would have carried out the first major school shooting in Britain since the 1996 massacre in Dunblane, Scotland, in which Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and a teacher before turning the gun on himself. The Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient, with barrister Tom Little KC, for the Solicitor General, stating that the case was exceptional. open image in gallery Nicholas Prosper murdered his mother and two siblings ( PA Media ) Barristers for Prosper, who is due to be released in his late 60s at the earliest, said the sentence cannot be said to be unduly lenient. In a ruling released on Wednesday afternoon, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting with Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Wall, said that Prospers sentence was itself a very severe sentence for a 19-year-old. She said: These were undoubtedly offences of the utmost gravity, with multiple features incorporating disturbing, recurrent themes around school shootings. She continued: Had the offender been 21 or over at the time of the offending, a whole-life order would undoubtedly have been made. She added that the sentencing judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, was right to conclude that the enhanced exceptionality test of whether to pass a whole-life term on an 18-to-20-year-old was not met on the facts. open image in gallery Nicholas Prospers victims, from left: Giselle Prosper, Juliana Falcon and Kyle Prosper ( PA Media ) She said: Parliament chose to set what is already a very high threshold for a whole-life order for an adult, even higher for a young offender. She concluded: Appalling though these crimes were, we are not persuaded that anything less than a whole-life order was unduly lenient. Prosper watched proceedings via a video link from HMP Belmarsh. Whole-life orders are reserved for the most serious offences, with those handed the tariffs including Louis De Zoysa, who murdered Metropolitan Police Sergeant Matt Ratana in 2020, and Kyle Clifford, who murdered his ex-partner Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah Hunt and mother Carol Hunt in 2024. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no one in that age bracket has received the sentence since then. Britain likes to think of itself as a nation that honours loyalty. It salutes its soldiers, cherishes its veterans, and builds grand narratives around comradeship and duty. Yet, behind that national self-image lies a harsher truth: when it comes to those who have risked everything to help us in our wars abroad, we are alarmingly quick to forget them. The recent revelation that the names and details of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked alongside British forces were leaked and left exposed thanks to a staggering data breach has laid bare not only a monumental failure of security but also a deeper, historical pattern of neglect. These interpreters, drivers, fixers and logistical staff were essential to the British war effort in Afghanistan. They were not on the periphery; they were at the centre of operations, guiding soldiers through complex cultural terrain, translating intelligence, calming hostile situations, and often saving lives. Their reward? Having their identities posted online for the Taliban to find. For nearly two years, the British government successfully suppressed the story with a super-injunction, while some of these people lived in fear, unsure whether their names were among those leaked, and with no clear way to find out. Since then, the Ministry of Defence has scrambled to relocate thousands of Afghans under Operation Rubific, at a cost of some 7bn. But thousands remain. Thousands are still at risk. The Independent has been campaigning for the cause of the Afghan helpers for the past two years, during which time we showed that five in six Afghan applicants are rejected from the military scheme established to give sanctuary to those in danger from the Taliban. Two years ago, the paper also revealed the desperate plight of an Afghan colonel, who fought alongside British troops and fled to Britain on a small boat, and yet was disgracefully threatened with deportation to Rwanda. But this horrific leak is not an isolated failure. On the contrary, it echoes a recurrent pattern throughout British military history. The North-West Frontier of the 19th and early 20th centuries is a stark early chapter. Britains hold over Indian borderlands todays Pakistan relied less on troops and more on local militias: the Khyber Rifles, Tochi Scouts, Chitral Scouts, and Pathan Levies. Raised on local knowledge, steeped in tribal loyalty, they patrolled treacherous gorges and confronted armed insurgents. One such unit, the Chitral Scouts, formed in 1903, drew on local mountaineers and remained indispensable to frontier control. Yet as soon as regular British units withdrew ostensibly for financial reasons during the Second World War and strategic priorities shifted, it was these indigenous groups who were left to face reprisals, their villages caught between tribal revenge and state indifference. Their sacrifice was recognised in dispatches, their fate forgotten. Their usefulness had expired; so, it seemed, had our obligations. open image in gallery Afghan citizens watch as a British military plane prepares to evacuate troops from Kabul ( MoD ) Decades later, the dense jungles of Malaya bore a strikingly similar tale. In the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960, Britain mobilised Iban trackers skilled bushmen from Borneo to help root out communist insurgents. Just seven weeks after the conflict began, 49 Ibans arrived; by late 1948, hundreds were in deployment, and by 1952, more than a thousand had worked through Malaya. They gained a sterling reputation: undeterred, indefatigable, and brave. Some were awarded medals, including the George Cross and the George Medal yet were officially deemed civilians, so excluded from pensions or long-term recognition. A handful were later absorbed into the Sarawak Rangers in 1953, but most returned to anonymity once the conflict subsided. Their exceptional service merited little more than oral history and fading photographs. Even those allies who served as professional soldiers found themselves on the wrong side of British amnesia. The Gurkhas those famously fearsome and loyal Nepalese warriors who have fought for Britain since the early 19th century endured decades of inequality. open image in gallery Joanna Lumley celebrates with retired Gurkha soldiers outside parliament in 2009 ( Getty ) Paid less than their British counterparts, denied settlement rights, and excluded from pensions until a sustained and high-profile campaign finally forced the government to act in 2009, they had to fight not just on battlefields, but in courtrooms and newspapers for what they were owed. And even then, many of the changes only applied to those who served after 1997, leaving older veterans with scant recompense for their decades of loyal service. The betrayal extends to Iraq and Afghanistan in more recent memory. In Iraq after 2003, British forces relied on hundreds of local interpreters vital conduits between soldiers and civilians. Some became targets of extremist militias. The British resettlement scheme, however, lagged far behind that of the Americans; names leaked from internal emails, and some interpreters were killed before official offers of protection arrived. Afghanistan, in turn, has given us similarly harrowing scenes: drivers and translators who followed British patrols in Helmand Province but found their applications stalled, their emails unacknowledged. Many who expected evacuation were left hoping, waiting, praying. Interpreters have complained of opaque processes, sudden refusals, and long waits in danger zones. open image in gallery British troops are evacuated from Afghanistan as part of Operation Pitting after the fall of Kabul ( MoD ) Many of the promises made by ministers during the fall of Kabul in August 2021 almost four whole years ago have yet to materialise for the people who pinned their survival on them. But the leak, caused by simple human error and then hidden by a super-injunction, elevates this from failure to farce. In peacetime, such a mistake would result in resignations. In wartime, it is a matter of life and death. What makes this more bitter is the contrast with how Britain treats those who serve in secret. The intelligence services are famously and admirably rigorous in protecting their sources. The names of spies and informants are held in complete confidence, often for decades, even centuries. The Official Secrets Act is not some dusty document; it is a living, breathing code of silence and protection. We will go to extraordinary lengths to protect the identity of someone who passed us information from behind the Iron Curtain. But if that person stood next to our soldiers in Helmand or Basra? Theyre on their own. open image in gallery Demonstrators, including former interpreters for the British army in Afghanistan, protest opposite parliament in August 2021 ( AFP/Getty ) The brave man or woman who helps us has no cloak of invisibility. Their name is on a roster; their visa applied for; their presence logged in databases vulnerable to error and neglect. He or she stands visibly beside British troops and is abandoned visibly, too. There is also a cost beyond the moral. In future conflicts, Britain will need help. We will need local allies, interpreters, trackers, fixers. If those people look at our record and see betrayal and abandonment, they will think twice. And who can blame them? What rational person would risk everything for a power that consistently walks away when the danger turns inward? To rely on an alliance is not charity it is mission-critical. Betray it, and your mission dies long before the bullets fly. It is time for this country to put its commitments in writing, not just in rhetoric. We need a legally binding contract with those who work alongside us in conflict zones a promise of resettlement, of sanctuary, of long-term support. Their loyalty should not have to be bought. But it must, at the very least, be honoured. open image in gallery A member of the Taliban threatens a journalist covering a womens protest in 2021 ( AFP/Getty ) The time is surely right for legislation a helper covenant, perhaps ensuring asylum, relocation, practical support, recognition. Not token words, but actionable rights. Interpreters, trackers, drivers: titled, registered, resettled. If we fail to respond with urgency, clarity, and structural change, we will have answered the question long before it is asked again. We will have confirmed that the British promise is empty that we honour valour only in victory, and neglect loyalty after withdrawal. It is time to decide: will we break the cycle, or will we let it continue? The Afghan leak is a scandal, but it is also our mirror. It reflects every forgotten scout, every bypassed interpreter, every ignored Gurkha. We have been here before and we keep choosing the same path. We puff ourselves up with rhetoric and then walk away. Tomorrows potential allies are watching. In failing to protect those who served us so publicly, we chip away at our own credibility. And that may be our greatest betrayal of all. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Hundreds of Afghan special forces soldiers betrayed by Britain had their details leaked in a major data breach before being left in the dark about the potential threat to their lives from the Taliban, The Independent can reveal. The leak in February 2022 involved the names and contact information of 18,700 Afghans being shared in error by a Ministry of Defence (MoD) official, and prompted a top-secret operation to scramble thousands to safety in Britain. Among the names were those of members of two specialist units, known as the Triples, whose soldiers have faced death or torture by the Taliban because of their role training and fighting side by side with British forces, as revealed by this publication. The Independent spearheaded a campaign urging the government to grant members of the Triples sanctuary in Britain after many were left stranded and in danger, following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. Now it has emerged that around half of the commandos initially identified for relocation to the UK were affected by the breach, which became the subject of a draconian superinjunction amid fears the dataset could fall into the hands of the Taliban. Major General Charlie Herbert, who served alongside the Triples in Afghanistan, described the data leak episode as a dereliction of duty by the government, and questioned whether a superinjunction should ever have been put in place. open image in gallery Afghan special forces members had their data breached in a catastrophic error ( The Independent/Charlie Herbert ) I cant believe the data breach happened. Im really worried that nobody was made aware of this. There would have been people in Afghanistan on that list, not aware that that list had been shared and could have been in the hands of the Taliban, he said. What was the purpose of that injunction, because the information had leaked? It was already on social media in Afghanistan, so the only impact it had was on the medias ability to report it, he added. Ex-Tory veterans minister Johnny Mercer said: The whole thing is appalling, its time to stop the deceit and do the right thing by these poor folk. The MoD need to extract the remaining Triples. There are enough subject matter experts out there to help them identify them, and then consider where we go from there. The Triples members only knew about the blunder as the legal order was lifted on Tuesday after an extraordinary two-year legal battle over the gagging of the British press. Hundreds of Triples soldiers, along with their families, have been brought to the UK, but there are fears many have been left behind in Afghanistan, where their lives are still at risk. Experts have urged the government to spell out how many have made it to the UK and how many are still in limbo. open image in gallery Members of the Triples only discovered their details had been leaked after a superinjuction was lifted on Tuesday ( The Independent ) Daniel Carey, a partner at legal firm DPG, which has represented Triples, questioned why those at risk were not notified earlier. He said: We already know from many Arap [Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy] cases that government assessments of Taliban risk are unreliable. My clients have been detained and tortured despite government assessments that the risk to them was low. Afghans in the UK are worried about the impact on their families and pending family member applications. It emerged in court documents submitted in early 2024, as part of the superinjunction case, that around half of those Triples commandos who would be brought to the UK had had their data leaked by the government. In a witness statement, the head of Afghan resettlement, Natalie Moore, said the MoD would retake 2,000 eligibility decisions for applicants claiming a connection to UK special forces, which include applications from former members of the Triples, of which around 50 per cent are affected people. As of this month, 300 Afghans with links to specialist units have been brought to the UK or are on the way, and 1,800 are still to come. The special forces units were set up, paid and trained by the British, but soldiers were denied relocation through the Arap scheme, which promised to relocate Afghans directly employed by, or who worked closely alongside, British forces and who are at risk of reprisals. The Independent raised the plight of the Triples in November 2023, three months after officials first became aware of the leak. Following our joint investigation with newsroom Lighthouse Reports, the MoD admitted its decision-making was not robust and announced a review of around 2,000 applications to Arap. The High Court later heard that one UK special forces officer oversaw the blanket rejection of 1,585 cases during the summer of 2023. Mr Carey said it was incredible that, a year after the data breach, another military official had overseen a sweeping refusal of applications. open image in gallery UK military personnel board an A400M aircraft departing from Kabul on 28 August 2021 as part of Operation Pitting. ( MoD Crown Copyright via Getty ) Last week, the High Court found that defective decision-making resulted in hundreds of Afghan special forces who served with the British being wrongly rejected for sanctuary and abandoned to the Taliban. Mr Carey said: Our clients have experienced years of delays at risk of Taliban reprisal waiting for lawful decisions. The governments refusal to notify those affected of the decisions in their cases (now reversed) led to further delays. Now we know that the whole time they have also been put at risk due to the massive data leak. Many Triples are still in Afghanistan, nearly four years after applying, and are seemingly now at greater risk than ever. I hope that the decisions will now follow swiftly. On top of the 2,000 initial applications reviewed, up to 2,500 extra cases have been identified for re-examination after the MoD realised the significance of rediscovered payroll data. An MoD spokesperson said the Triples review absolutely remains a priority. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Information that led to the Afghan data leak superinjunction being lifted was available last year, the government has admitted, raising questions over why the unprecedented gagging order was maintained for so long. The major leak in February 2022 exposed the personal information of 18,700 Afghans seeking sanctuary in Britain, prompting an unprecedented court order banning any details of the leak from being revealed amid fears it would fall into the hands of the Taliban and put up to 100,000 people at risk. It was finally lifted on Tuesday, after a review commissioned by defence secretary John Healey, which concluded in June, found that the threat of danger to those on the list was not significant. Now, it has emerged that Defence Intelligence officials, who advised the government on the need for the superinjunction, had access to the same information last year. In a written response to a High Court judges demands for further investigation on why the order could not be lifted sooner, a senior government official admitted that a large amount of the information that the review ordered by the defence secretary was based on was already known to the Ministry of Defence. Defence official Dominic Wilson said that the crucial review of the response to the data breach was based to a substantial extent on information available at an earlier stage and considered by Defence Intelligence. The case for maintaining the superinjunction, which was in place for nearly two years, was largely based on assessments from Defence Intelligence officials who argued that thousands of lives would be at risk if it were reported that the data loss had occurred. The covert operation to bring Afghans affected by the breach has cost UK taxpayers billions ( The Independent ) However, the governments review, led by the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence, Paul Rimmer, concluded that, while extrajudicial killings do occur, alongside other targeting of former Afghan officials, it appears unlikely that merely being on the dataset would be grounds for targeting. Should the Taliban wish to target individuals, the wealth of data inherited from the former [Afghan] government would already enable them to do so, it continued. After receiving a copy of Mr Rimmers review, the judge who heard the case, Mr Justice Chamberlain, expressed a concern that early assessments by MoD about risk, upon which the superinjunction ultimately rested, might have been reached without full consideration by the MoD of relevant information, Mr Wilson explained. The judge was concerned that the government could have reached, much sooner, the view about risks that is set out in the Rimmer Review and which led to the decision to seek the discharge of the injunction, the statement added. Lifting the order on Tuesday, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the conclusions of the review fundamentally undermine the evidential basis on which the injunction, and the decisions to keep it in place, relied. Responding to the latest revelation, a Downing Street spokesperson said questions over why the superinjunction wasnt lifted sooner need looking at properly. On Wednesday, Sir Keir Starmer expressed his anger over the cover-up and said Tory ministers have serious questions to answer. Meanwhile, the Commons defence committee has launched an inquiry into the breach, vowing to get to the bottom of what went so catastrophically wrong. And Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons committee for science innovation and technology, has said she will write to the Information Commissioner to push for an investigation. She is calling for a rethink on why it has so far declined to hold its own investigation, despite previously issuing a fine of 305,000 for a much smaller MoD data breach. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Ministry of Defence official responsible for a catastrophic data leak which put the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans at risk still works for the government, it has emerged. The major breach happened in February 2022 after a member of the armed forces inadvertently shared a spreadsheet containing the names of thousands of people who said they were in danger from the Taliban and had applied for sanctuary in Britain. The leak, which came to light when someone threatened to publish the whole list on Facebook, prompted thousands of Afghans to be evacuated to Britain under a top secret resettlement scheme which the government projected to cost billions. The details of the leak, and the subsequent evacuation, have been kept under wraps for almost two years as the result of an unprecedented superinjunction. Now it has emerged that the official behind the leak has not been fired for the blunder. Asked whether the serviceman was still employed by the government, defence secretary John Healey told the News Agents Podcast: They are no longer doing the same job on the Afghan brief. Asked for a second time whether the official was still employed by the government, Mr Healey refused to be drawn on the matter. Instead, he added: This is bigger than the actions of a single individual. For me as defence secretary now in this government, my biggest concern and my first focus coming into government was to try and get a grip of something that was entirely unprecedented. Journalist Lewis Goodall asked for a third time whether the person is still a government employee and the defence secretary again avoided answering. Pushed for a fourth time, he responded: Im actually not going to get into the personnel matters. Asked yet again, he went on: My first priority was not trying to conduct some sort of witch hunt on the defence official that released the spreadsheet that caused this profound data loss. My argument to you is that accountability can start today, accountability in due course, as the facts of this are properly scrutinised and examined that will come. Mr Goodall told Mr Healey that we can assume on the basis of your answers that noone has been fired. When The Independent asked the MoD to clarify whether the serviceman was still employed by the government, a spokesperson said there was nothing to add. In a statement on Tuesday, the Information Commissioners Office said the body had decided no further regulatory action is required at this time in this case. The database contained 33,000 records and the confidential information of over 18,700 applicants to the Ministry of Defences Afghan resettlement scheme (Arap). It contained email addresses and phone numbers of applicants, as well as their fathers names and their case status. Defence secretary John Healey gave a statement in the Commons on Tuesday about the data incident ( Parliament ) It also included the names of some British government officials. It is understood that the unnamed official emailed the dataset while trying to verify information about the applications, believing the dataset to only have around 150 rows. The MoD only became aware of the breach more than a year after the release, when excerpts of the dataset were anonymously posted onto a Facebook group in August 2023, with officials fearing those affected by the breach could be at risk of harassment, torture or death if the Taliban obtained their data. An unprecedented superinjunction was made at the High Court in September 2023 to reduce the risk of alerting the Taliban to the existence of the data, which banned any news about the leak being published or the order itself being discussed. The Independent was among the publications injuncted after finding out about the leak through investigations into the UKs resettlement schemes. Ministers went on to create a secret Afghan relocation scheme the Afghanistan Response Route in a bid to help covertly relocate more than 16,000 Afghans to the UK. Around 8,000 more Afghans are still due to arrive in Britain. Asked about the next steps, Mr Healey said that influential committees of MPs, such as the defence select committee, should absolutely launch an in depth inquiry in to what had happened. He said he thought he would have been very, very unlikely to have taken out a superinjunction if he had been in position at the time the data breach was discovered. Senior MPs have warned about the precedent set by the super injunction to cover up the data breach. Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: I am concerned the super injunction was applied as that is peculiar, it stopped any free speech or examination in Parliament and we are still none the wiser as to who was responsible or why it happened. The superinjunction, lifted on Tuesday, is thought to be the longest lasting order of its kind and the first time the government has sought such a restrictive measure against the media. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Queen is to be made a vice admiral, reflecting the "high regard" she commands with sailors, the head of the Royal Navy has announced. General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, said the honorary role would "further enhance Her Majestys relationship with the service". The appointment will be formally made when Camilla visits Devonport naval base. There, as HMS Astutes sponsor, she will join a ceremony marking the submarines first commission's end. The honorary role, dating to the mid-1500s, includes the formal presentation of a burgee or pennant by Rear Admiral Andy Perks, head of the submarine service, recognising the Queens ongoing Royal Navy support. The honorary appointment reflects the high regard in which Her Majesty is held by all of us, the First Sea Lord said. open image in gallery Queen Camilla is installed as an Honorary Freeman and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers ( Richard Pohle/The Times/PA Wire ) Sir Gwyn, who is a Royal Marine, met Camilla on Tuesday when she was installed as an honorary freeman and liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, an organisation associated with the Royal Marines. Were super proud of Her Majestys role with HMS Astute, as are the crew, it really matters a lot to us as a Navy and to them as a crew that its the Queens submarine, he said during the City of London event. The Queen joked to him about not wanting to serve on a submarine. The head of the Royal Navy said afterwards: I think we would all recognise that being a submariner is a very special skill set, you have to be really committed to the role and what you do for the country. It can be phenomenally rewarding, its an amazing sense of teamwork onboard, but its not for everyone. open image in gallery Camilla on HMS Astute at HM Naval Base Clyde ( PA Archive ) At Devonport, the Queen and the crew will celebrate the submarines achievements over the past 15 years the longest first commission of any Royal Navy submarine in history. The hunter-killer submarine will undergo a major overhaul at Devonport naval base to allow it to continue patrols safeguarding the UKs interests for years to come. Commander Christopher Bate, commanding officer of HMS Astute, said the crew took enormous pride in the Queens sponsorship of their submarine and support for all onboard since she formally named the vessel nearly 20 years ago. Her Majesty the Queen has supported us from the very beginning, she has consistently shown a deep commitment to all aspects of our work, he said. Her continued engagement with our activities and achievements over the years has meant a great deal to us. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Hot spots in the east and southeast of England may record a heatwave in the coming days potentially spelling the fourth this summer for some, forecasters are warning. Days after the Met Office confirmed that extremes of temperature and rainfall are becoming the norm, experts say the mercury could show 28C or 29C in those regions on Thursday and Friday, and it will be humid. At the weekend, record-breaking temperatures exceeded 30C in several parts of the country, as the third heatwave of 2025 swept the UK. A high of 33C was recorded in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, and Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales recorded their warmest days of the year so far. Much of the UK enjoyed a brief reprieve from the hot weather on Tuesday, then on Wednesday temperatures started creeping up again into the high 20s Celsius. Meteorologist Tom Morgan said: From a technical point of view, there is the potential for some places to reach heatwave status. open image in gallery The Met Office predicts a high of 28C in London on Friday at 4pm ( Met Office ) But its not going to be anything like the most recent heatwave, which saw temperatures reach the high 20s or low 30s. Currently, were expecting temperatures of 29C in southeast England on Thursday and Friday, then it might well be 28C or similar on Saturday. Most likely, its a few individual weather stations that reach the criteria for a heatwave... but that wont be for everyone, it will be a small minority of places where there is a technical heatwave. Definitions of a heatwave vary by county. Weather counts as a heatwave when a place has at least three days in a row when temperatures meet or exceed the heatwave temperature threshold for that place. open image in gallery A high of 27C in London is predicted on Thursday at 5pm ( Met Office ) In areas from Cambridgeshire to West Berkshire to Surrey, the threshold is 29C. In much of northern England, Scotland and Wales, its 25C. As records continue to be set this year, England had its warmest ever June, and the UK overall experienced its second-warmest since the series began in 1884, according to provisional Met Office statistics. Forecasters say the rest of July and early August are likely to be changeable. But towards mid-August, there are tentative signs that high pressure may become more dominant, the Met Office says, which would bring more dry, settled weather. Temperatures are expected to continue to run above average overall, with a greater likelihood, compared to the preceding couple of weeks, of very warm or hot spells to develop by mid-August, especially further south and east. After the UKs driest spring since 1893, nearly seven million people are facing hosepipe bans. The Southern Water restrictions affecting Hampshire and the Isle of Wight will begin on Monday, while Thames Water announced a ban that will begin on Tuesday for customers in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, most of Wiltshire and some parts of Berkshire. South East Water has also said 1.4 million customers in Kent and Sussex will also be banned from using hosepipes. The first ban, across Yorkshire, came into effect on Friday after a drought was declared in the region. The Environment Agency has warned that without substantial rain, more bans will follow. The West and East Midlands have been declared as suffering from drought, as have Cumbria and Lancashire, Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, and Merseyside and Cheshire. Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, East Anglia and the Thames areas have been designated as in prolonged dry weather status. However, in the west of England on Thursday, forecasters say there will be outbreaks of rain, some of them intense, and thundery downpours are possible. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Hosepipe bans have been introduced across England as Britons battle with consecutive heatwaves this summer and temperatures surpassing 30C. A fourth heatwave could hit parts of the UK this week with temperatures predicted to climb to 29C in south east England on Thursday and Friday and then it might reach 28C on Saturday. After the driest spring since 1893, swathes of the country are suffering drought conditions and water shortages. It has left nearly seven million Brits, which is more than 10 per cent of Englands population, facing restrictions on how they can use their water. Southern Water has become the latest utility firm to announce a hosepipe ban, with almost a million of its customers in southern England hit by the new restrictions. Households in Yorkshire hit with hosepipe ban (Andrew Matthews/PA) ( PA Archive ) The hosepipe ban will come into effect in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight from 9am on Monday, the company said in a statement. Thames Water announced earlier this week that a hosepipe ban would come into effect across much of Swindon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire. Beginning on 22 July, it will affect all OX, GL and SN postcodes, alongside RG4, RG8, and RG9 postcodes. Announcing the ban, Thames Water said the UK has experienced one of its warmest and driest springs in over a century in 2025, adding that June was also Englands warmest on record. Thats why we need to bring in a hosepipe ban. It will help protect the environment and make sure theres enough water to go around this summer. South East Water announced on Friday that 1.4 million of its customers in Kent and Sussex have been placed under a hosepipe ban after record levels of water consumption. The water provider said that demand across the two counties had reached the highest levels this year and had now reached a point where they have exceeded the limits in the companys drought plan. They added that on 30 June, they supplied 680 million litres of water, more than 100 million litres more than the daily average for summer. Just hours before that announcement, another hosepipe ban came into effect across Yorkshire, affecting 5.5 million residents. Yorkshire Water said the region had both the driest and warmest spring on record this year, receiving just 15cm of rainfall between February and June, less than half the level expected in an average year. Water demand had also been higher than usual, the company said, leaving reservoirs at 55.8 per cent full, which is 26.1 per cent lower than normal. In late May, the Environment Agency also placed northwest England under drought status. They said at the time that reservoir storage levels were already lower than they were during the 1984, 1995 and 2022 drought years. On Saturday, the Met Office recorded UK temperatures peaking at 33C in Ross on Wye, with further warm weather expected on Sunday. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) put large swathes of England on an amber health alert on Friday, with authorities warning soaring temperatures over the weekend are likely to cause a rise in deaths. Regions spanning from the Midlands to the south are affected, including London. Only the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber have retained less severe yellow heat alerts. These yellow alerts had been in place across England until Monday, but they were upgraded on Friday morning for the east and West Midlands, London, the east of England and the South East and South West. The UKHSA says significant impacts are likely in the affected areas, including a rise in deaths. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Workers say they are being negatively impacted by pressure to spend more time in the office, a survey has found, as a growing number of companies toughen their stance on remote working. The poll, conducted by recruitment firm Hays, found that 38 per cent of respondents reported a negative impact on their wellbeing following recent news coverage of firms increasing office attendance requirements. This effect was skewed towards female respondents, with 42 per cent of women reporting negative effects on their wellbeing from news coverage about return-to-office mandates, compared to 32 per cent of men. Younger workers between the ages of 20 and 29 also expressed more concern than their older counterparts aged 50 and above. Around 84 per cent of hybrid workers said being permitted to work from home or remotely had a positive effect on their wellbeing. This effect also skewed towards female respondents, with 87 per cent of women reporting improved wellbeing from a hybrid model versus 80 per cent of men. All respondents in favour of the hybrid model cited improvements to their mental, physical, social and financial health. The findings are based on responses from 3,600 UK-based employers and employees across both the public and private sectors, collected between late April and early May. Financial pressure, particularly commuting expenses, emerged as a key concern, with 59 per cent saying it was a factor that would affect their willingness to return to the office more frequently. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, hybrid working was the norm for 28 per cent of working adults in Great Britain during the first quarter of 2025. But a number of major firms, especially in the finance sector, have announced stricter return-to-office policies. HSBC warned UK retail banking staff in May that a failure to spend at least 60 per cent of their time in the office could result in reduced bonuses. Barclays and Santander have also introduced more restrictive remote working guidelines. Man Group, the worlds largest publicly listed hedge fund, required London-based analysts to return to the office full-time on a temporary basis from June, as the company looks to recover from a period of underperformance. Hannah Pearsall, the head of wellbeing at Hays, said: The popularity of hybrid working shows no signs of wavering any time soon, and the role this flexible working pattern plays in improving wellbeing should not be overlooked. A lack of awareness around the impact of a return to the office on wellbeing, particularly financial wellbeing, could be catastrophic for the sustained success of their business. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A catastrophic Ministry of Defence data breach that exposed the details of thousands of Afghans seeking refuge in the UK was kept secret for nearly two years under an unprecedented superinjunction, The Independent has revealed. The leak, which occurred in February 2022, compromised sensitive information about applicants to the MoDs Arap resettlement scheme a programme for Afghans who had supported British forces and now feared Taliban reprisals. Officials launched a top-secret response, codenamed Operation Rubific, resulting in the covert evacuation of more than 16,000 people to the UK. The government was prepared to relocate up to 42,000 in total at a projected cost of 7bn. The extraordinary cover-up meant MPs, the public and even many within Whitehall were kept in the dark. A court battle led by The Independent and other media finally overturned the superinjunction this week, raising serious questions about transparency, accountability, and the treatment of those who risked their lives for Britain. Reactions from readers have been swift and damning, touching on moral responsibility, government secrecy, institutional incompetence, and the human cost of this breach. Many drew parallels with past scandals, while others demanded consequences and urgent reform. Heres what you had to say: Britain has a moral responsibility It is an expensive programme, that is true, but the problem is a very big one. The whole thing was bungled from the start remember Dominic Raab staying on his holiday in Crete while Kabul was being evacuated? And the nature of the leak is just incredible. The billions this costs, spread out over several years, are desperately needed elsewhere, but as with the Gurkhas, Britain has a moral responsibility. RegCostello This story has shocked many whats your reaction? Add your voice in the comments. Strain (i) 'Prioritisation of Ukrainian nationals' and (ii) 'drastically increased work-from-home arrangements for civil servants' were the main reasons given for the months-long consular waits for visas and passport processing in 2022 and 2023. I wonder whether this massive evacuation from Afghanistan contributed to that strain, or whether it was all managed by a separateandcovert department. Either way, covert or not, every resource has its limit, doesnt it? Ever more freely and transparently may truths emerge! IndySpannerPhones Many are still in danger Hopefully the Labour government will quickly step up the process of getting all to safety. It's been over a year, but many are still in danger. The government needs to ensure that 10 per cent of evacuees do not end up homeless, as they suggested could be the case in October 2024. PropagandaoftheDeed A national shame The way we treated these people who helped us at great risk is a national shame. Albert Ginwallah Corruption or shambles? Hmmm... so Britain's security is more at risk from the government and MoD! Well, I for one am not surprised at all. And that goes for the cover-up and lies from successive governments! Look at the Post Office and Horizon, the blood contamination saga. Is it corruption or a shambles? Red Dragon Has the person been sacked? My first question is: has the person who sent the email been sacked and prosecuted for breaching confidentiality as well as costing the country some 400m? If not, why not? TomHawk Spare a thought for Afghan women This was a chaotic Tory mess-up, as is traditional. Against the scale of the issue, this ethical UK response is tiny. Spare a thought for the 450k Afghan refugee women forcibly repatriated from Iran and Pakistan since Jan 2025, who are instantly criminalised for travelling alone back to a medieval regime where women and girls have a value less than livestock. Herbacious Scandal after scandal Is there anything the UK government can run? Scandal after scandal after scandal. Billions upon billions p***** up the wall. A little bridge in a London park, 36 million? Chichee Let's have an expensive public inquiry Wow a government cover-up. Thats a surprise. Lets have an expensive public inquiry at the cost to us taxpayers that will last the next five years, with the familiar outcome stating lessons will be learnt Once that's out of the way, we can then promote the guilty individuals to the House of Lords. theSpycatcher A get-out clause A "superinjunction" is basically the get-out clause for despotic governments (or in the case of Britain, the rancid ruling class). stonia Keeping the public in the dark How ironic that the British establishment invests huge efforts in keeping the public in the dark about so many things of public interest and yet is incapable of protecting sensitive data when lives actually depend on it. Danilov How? Data like this should never leave a secure government server. What on earth is it doing being emailed to random people and posted on Facebook? And how do you inadvertently share a file? sj99 Incompetence should have consequences Incompetence on such a massive scale should have consequences; otherwise, it sends the wrong message. It says: don't worry about being diligent, do what you like, it doesn't matter. Sean Shameful As if the data breach itself wasn't appalling enough, the fact that this individual is still employed in another department at the MoD is absolutely shameful. Cyclone8 Only in the UK public sector... Where else but the UK public sector can someone do something that puts people's lives at risk and costs 400m to sort out, yet keep your job and your pension? If there is any better illustration of how we are let down by our public sector, I can't think of it. These days, our public sector is the refuge of those who should not be let loose with a broom, let alone handle sensitive matters. TomHawk We are failing to protect those we put at risk Bloody shambles. We should have offered sanctuary to those who were at risk just because of who their former employer was the MoD. While the news and politics are all about illegal immigrants, we are failing to protect those we put at risk. Shameful. Snaughter Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity. Want to share your views? Simply register your details below. Once registered, you can comment on the days top stories for a chance to be featured. Alternatively, click log in or register in the top right corner to sign in or sign up. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The killer of British backpacker Peter Falconio has died. Bradley John Murdoch, who was convicted in 2005 of murdering Falconio, 28, and assaulting his girlfriend Joanne Lees at gunpoint, died after being moved to palliative care last month. Falconio and Ms Lees, both from Yorkshire, were travelling across the country in a camper van when they were ambushed by Murdoch on the Stuart Highway, an isolated road that runs through the centre of Australia, on 14 July 2001. Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for at least 28 years. Murdoch, 67, was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was moved to palliative care from Alice Springs Correctional Centre last month, according to local media reports. The Northern Territory Government Department of Corrections said on Tuesday that there had been a death in custody and the coroner would be informed. Falconio and Ms Lees had been driving near the tiny settlement of Barrow Creek, around 300km (188 miles) north of Alice Springs, when Murdoch pulled up beside them claiming to have seen sparks coming from their van. Murdoch was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 ( PA Media ) He shot Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before forcing Ms Lees into his vehicle and binding her wrists with cable ties. She managed to escape, hiding in the Outback for hours before flagging down a passing truck. During the trial, prosecutors argued that Murdoch was likely to have disposed of the backpackers body somewhere in the vast, remote expanse of desert between Alice Springs and Broome. Despite repeated searches, Falconios body has never been found. Ms Lees, who returned to the UK, told Australian current affairs programme 60 Minutes in 2017 that she still wanted to bring him home. Pete lost his life on that night, but I lost mine too, she said. Ill never be fully at peace if Petes not found, but I accept that that is a possibility. Murdoch lodged several unsuccessful appeals over the years, with Australias highest court refusing to hear his case in 2007. Last month police announced a new A$500,000 (about 240,000) reward for information leading to the discovery of Falconios remains. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Recent figures from the British Beer and Pub Association show that pubs will close at the rate of one a day in the UK during 2025. This is just the latest chapter in a familiar story more than a quarter of British pubs have closed since 2000. The cost of running a pub has risen dramatically. The ingredients used to brew beer all cost more, as do the business rates, rents, duties, utilities and wages required to operate a welcoming venue in which to serve it. Some publicans have reported utility bills doubling in a matter of months. Many pubs occupy prime locations and high-value buildings, which, coupled with larger floor space, means business rates can be high relative to turnover and profit. Meanwhile, food offerings, which had provided many pubs with a profitable alternative to a drinks-only model, have also been hit by rapid increases in costs. Supermarkets and delivery platforms now provide food and drink directly to consumers at prices few licensed venues can compete with. Even pubs that are economically viable are often more profitable when converted into residential or retail space. These economic challenges accompany wider cultural trends, such as the continued prevalence of home working, changes in drinking habits and competition from alternative forms of in-person and online leisure. open image in gallery The economic challenges accompany wider cultural trends ( PA ) Weve researched pub closures in England and Wales to learn what the loss of pubs means for the communities who drink and gather in them. When pubs closed temporarily during COVID-19 lockdowns, many people realised that what they missed about pubs was not alcohol but the social contact pubs provided. Pubs have a clear social value. They offer a space for people to meet and interact and have been shown to help tackle loneliness and social isolation. Our research participants relayed stories of pub closure in relation to their own lives and communities: Ive been consoled in there, Ive consoled friends in there. Weve chopped up family issues, work issues. Weve drunk for the sake of drinking in there. Pubs help people feel connected to a local place. When they close, they can become sites of mourning, a painful reminder of change and decline. One resident of a former colliery village in Nottinghamshire said of the pub she had once worked in now derelict, fire-damaged and vandalised as it awaits redevelopment that despite her wish that it had remained open, it was now better to knock it down to put us out of our misery. For many, pubs are a sort of bellwether for wider anxiety about social and generational change. The loss of pubs speaks to where we might be heading as a nation or as a community. Our recent analysis of how the British press has reported on pub closures since 2000 shows that a sense of national identity under threat is a recurring theme. Both local and national newspapers have made repeated use of the word our in this context, warning readers of the grave threat to our pubs and our heritage, often invoking an idyllic image of rural life. However, much of this coverage has also praised the pub as a great leveller, as a place where people come together as a community to socialise despite their differences. Can pubs be saved? The Campaign for Real Ale, the leading consumer group for beer drinkers and pub goers, suggests changing planning and licensing laws to protect pubs at local and national levels, and more support and publicity for pubs to cater to changing markets. Others have more directly lobbied for duty cuts that give pubs a fighting chance against supermarkets benefiting from economies of scale, VAT exemptions and convenience. A hot meal served in a pub incurs a standard 20% rate of VAT, while a supermarket ready meal to be heated at home does not. The rationale for a tax cut to support pubs would rest on the social benefits they offer to communities, in contrast to supermarket-bought alcohol typically consumed at home. open image in gallery Pubs help people feel connected to a local place ( Getty Images ) The Localism Act 2011 gave communities the right to bid to take pubs into community ownership, designating them as assets of community value. Yet while there are some terrific examples of community-owned pubs becoming both thriving businesses and a revived focal point for communities, residents in poorer areas lack the resources to sustain viable campaigns. In one village in our study, a pub listed as a going concern at 500,000 in fact sold as a development plot for over 660,000. A viability study suggested that an investment of 225,000, plus working capital of at least 20,000, would be needed to reopen the pub. The residents we spoke to all conceded that a purchase was far beyond the modest resources of the local community. While the loss of so many pubs is shocking, it obscures the fact that when other licensed venues, such as bars, restaurants and licensed cafes are factored in, the downward trend is flattened and even reversed in some areas. This suggests a long-term diversification of the sector the pub is no longer the only option when going out for a drink. open image in gallery A long-term diversification of the sector means the pub is no longer the only option when going out for a drink ( PA ) This may also reflect a feeling that other hospitality venues better cater to different people and groups who may feel less at home in traditional pubs. Some interviewees told us that they felt craft brewery taprooms were more welcoming and family-friendly. Others found cafe-bars to have a more appealing mix of coffee, food and both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. Theres a long history of pubs adapting to serve new needs and markets. Pub is the Hub, for example, has supported rural pubs to incorporate everything from village shops and libraries to pizza ovens and IT skills hubs. There have been promising experiments with fitting pubs for co-working and meeting space. And micropubs can continue to offer the benefits of a convivial social space, in a back-to-basics approach that reduces the costs of running bigger venues. Pubs can and must evolve. Thomas Thurnell-Read is a Reader in Sociology at Loughborough University. Robert Deakin is a Research Associate in Sociology at Loughborough University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Sir Keir Starmer has vented his fury over the cover-up of the catastrophic data breach that risked the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans, as it emerged no one had faced action over the huge blunder. The prime minister said the leak should never have happened and that Tory ministers have serious questions to answer, a day after an unprecedented superinjunction was lifted. Sir Ben Wallace, who was defence secretary at the time the initial legal order was sought, earlier said he took full responsibility for the leak, which happened when an MoD official released a spreadsheet containing the names of 18,000 Afghans in error. But questions have been raised over why no one has been fired over the breach, which risked putting the lives of those with links to UK forces in danger of reprisals from the Taliban, amid calls for further investigation. It comes as the chair of a powerful Commons committee has written to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), applying pressure for a rethink on its decision not to investigate the breach, which cost the taxpayer billions in relocating thousands of affected Afghans to the UK. At the start of a tense Prime Ministers Questions, Sir Keir expressed his anger, telling MPs: We warned in opposition about Conservative management of this policy and yesterday, the defence secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited: a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen. open image in gallery Starmer speaking during Prime Ministers Questions ( PA ) He suggested the Conservatives should welcome scrutiny from the Commons defence committee, which has vowed to investigate. In a dramatic intervention just hours later, right-wing former home secretary Suella Braverman revealed that there were splits in the Tory government over how to deal with the breach and said she had opposed the superinjunction and the new secret route set up to bring those affected to the UK. In a scathing statement, Ms Braverman condemned the former Tory government, then led by Rishi Sunak, in which she played a major role before she was sacked by the former prime minister. She said: There is much more that needs to be said about the conduct of the MoD, both ministers and officials, and the House of Commons is the right place to do so. I hope we have the opportunity soon. What has happened is outrageous and must never happen again. We must therefore be very clear about what that was and how it happened. The cover-up was wrong, the superinjunction was wrong, and the failure to stop unwanted mass immigration has been unforgivable. So, I am sorry: the Conservative government failed you, and its leaders let you down. It wasnt good enough then. Its not good enough now. open image in gallery Ben Wallace said he took full responsibility for the leak ( PA ) Mr Sunak, ex-defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps and former armed forces minister James Heappey, who oversaw the cover-up, have all been contacted for comment, but none have broken cover and have all remained silent on the breach. Amid calls for further investigation into the breach, defence secretary John Healey said that accountability starts now after admitting that he was uncomfortable with the way that the information had been covered up for three years. The Commons defence committee confirmed it would launch its own inquiry, and Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons committee for science innovation and technology, is writing to the information commissioner pushing for an investigation. The information commissioner has so far declined to hold its own probe, despite previously issuing a fine of 305,000 for a much smaller MoD data breach. Dame Chi told The Independent: A leak of this magnitude is, of course, extremely worrying and the fact that it happened in the Ministry of Defence brings the additional dimension of security concerns. The defence select committee office [ICO] will be undertaking a full inquiry. In the meantime, I will be writing to the information commissioner to ask for more details on his office's role in this case. Jon Baines, a senior data protection specialist at Mishcon de Reya, expressed bafflement at the commissioners attitude to the breach. He said: I have not seen such unanimous bafflement from the data protection commentariat at the ICOs lack of apparent interest. open image in gallery Chi Onwurah is writing to the information commissioner ( PA ) There is a potential argument that there is no point in a big fine against the MoD when it would punish the public purse. Enforcement is not just about fines. The information commissioner has the power to lay a report before parliament. I have been banging on for years about the issue of hidden data in spreadsheets, and if I were the commissioner, I would be thinking about how I can raise the issue. A report before parliament would give them publicity, raise the issue and seize parliament. The ICO has not responded to The Independents request for comment. Meanwhile, a member of the defence select committee has warned against naming and shaming the individual responsible for the breach and said the committee should instead look at a failure of government. Confirming the committee would launch an inquiry, its chair, Labour MP Tan Dhesi, told BBC Radio 4s The World at One programme: We want to get to the bottom of what has happened on behalf of parliament, which has been sidelined for too long on this issue. Ultimately, I think the fact there has been no parliamentary scrutiny, that nobodys been held to account on this, is just not on at all. Leyton and Wanstead Labour MP Calvin Bailey, who was a key figure in organising flights out of Kabul when allied forces went into a chaotic retreat as the Taliban swept to power in 2021, called for proper scrutiny on the matter. He said: We need to go back and give proper scrutiny to everything, not just the data breach, the whole culture management and oversight of the operation, of the extraction recovery, the foreign policy and the military engagement and involvement. We will probably find that people were working under duress and pressure, because there were too few people to deal with the crisis. He also warned that the defence committee was best placed to do the necessary work as a full public inquiry would take too long and be too expensive. Perfidious Albion, in modern terms, means that when it comes to international affairs, Britain is seen as treacherous and unreliable and has turned mendacity into an art. Students of imperial history will recall the hundreds of treaties signed with local chiefs, kings and leaders that were waved aside in the interests of the empire. The French call their deep distrust of Les Anglo-Saxons Fashoda syndrome named after a sordid episode of British duplicity that delivered an obscure bit of southern Sudan to the UK in the 19th century, and triggered the enduring distrust of our closest neighbour up to this day. Now we have the Kabul cock-up. It will inevitably serve to undermine Britains woeful and feeble international reputation and drive some of those who have been betrayed into the arms of our enemies. open image in gallery Afghan special forces soldiers are waiting on help from the UK ( The Independent/Lighthouse Reports ) The disastrous accidental release of up to 100,000 names and numbers of Afghans seeking safety in the UK, a noble but feeble effort to save some of them, and the desperate cover-up using the courts to ensure that the British public knew nothing of the whole farrago, can only be reported today, two years after it was uncovered. The official reason for a superinjunction to hide the mess was to protect Afghans who wanted to get out of Afghanistan before the Taliban found and killed them. But their numbers, emails, and names were already in the public domain as a result of the leak. The Taliban are not illiterate morons. They beat the Soviets, they beat Nato and the US at war. They would have got hold of the list within moments of a clumsy British Ministry of Defence official hitting the send button on an email containing all those sensitive details to sources in, or near, Afghanistan. Rather than take the lead and act on principle to protect human lives, the British government did what it always does and went into overdrive to protect its own embarrassment and to avoid making the case for, not against, immigration to this country. Ministers could have stood up and admitted to the leak. They could, and should, have defended the right and need of people who had literally risked their lives to settle in the UK; people who believed this to be a country in which decency is a first principle. open image in gallery The government failed to defend the right of Afghan special forces soldiers, who had risked their lives, to settle in the UK ( Charlie Herbert ) But because British politicians from the two mainstream parties live in fear of Reform, they had already embarked on their betrayal of the soldiers who had given the most to the UK during its hopeless war in Afghanistan. As The Independent has previously reported, Afghan special forces teams from task forces 333 and 444 paid and trained by the UK, who fought alongside the SBS and the SAS for years were ditched when the Taliban took control of Kabul in mid-2021. Very senior British officers, who knew the capabilities and the loyalty of these men, formally suggested that they could be brought to the UK and used as tier two special forces operators in the British army. They were sneered at. Some of those Afghan special forces operators, intelligence sources have told The Independent, are now living in Iran. Imagine their skills being put to work for a regime that is planning revenge for the recent attacks carried out on it by Israel and the US. Some have been relocated to the UK after a campaign by this newspaper. But many others were abandoned. So, when the massive leak of names was reported to the British government, it did set about trying to help some of the potential victims. But it kept most in the dark in an effort to hide a British snafu not to save the lives of loyal servants to the crown, who did not know that the Taliban probably knew who they were. open image in gallery Our front page about the betrayal of the Afghan Triples on 2 November 2023 ( The Independent ) The Independents Holly Bancroft uncovered the story in the autumn of 2023, but was unable to report it because of the ongoing evacuation operation. In total, 23,900 Afghans linked to the breach have been offered relocation to the UK, with more than 16,000 already in the UK. The MoD says 6,900 of these are people who would not otherwise have been brought to Britain, she wrote, once the superinjunction had been lifted. Why not? Why were these 6,900 Afghans originally deemed ineligible suddenly given access to the UK? Could their previous ineligibility have been due to politicians being reluctant to make the case, either moral or economic, for immigration? Its feeble enough that this government, like the last, continues to campaign against immigration while businesses, led by the Confederation of British Industry, are crying out for skilled and unskilled labour to fuel growth. Its just as feeble that, although the economic case for rejoining the European single market is overwhelming, no senior politician in government is making that case. So, if there is no effort to show leadership in areas of clear national interest, one should not be surprised that ministers hide within the mob that clings to irrational beliefs fomented by disinformation and extremist populism. Theyd rather just abandon battlefield allies, hide the fact that these people have been accidentally endangered, and gag anyone who wishes to talk about it. The first instinct is perfidy and obfuscation, not leadership. Plus ca change, plus cest la meme chose, as theyd say next door. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The taxman has no idea how much is being collected from billionaires amid mounting calls for a wealth tax, a powerful Commons committee has found. With Rachel Reeves seeking billions of pounds to plug a gaping hole in the public finances, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) cannot identify how much tax is paid by Britains billionaires. Despite there being relatively few billionaires, and the group contributing a significant amount to the governments coffers, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC does not know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK or how much they contribute overall. The authority can and must do more to understand how much tax the very wealthiest are paying, it added. open image in gallery Rachel Reeves needs to find billions of pounds in her autumn Budget ( Getty ) The stark warning comes as Labour MPs are piling pressure on the chancellor to introduce a wealth tax in her Budget this autumn, with Ms Reeves needing billions of pounds of tax hikes or spending cuts to meet her fiscal rules. After the governments chaotic U-turn on planned benefit cuts, squandering 5bn of annual savings, MPs have argued ministers should target the rich to make up the shortfall. They were backed by former Labour leader Lord Kinnock, who has called for a 2 per cent tax on assets over 10 million, arguing it could raise up to 11bn a year and help shore up the UKs finances. Sir Keir has kept the option on the table, heightening fears of an exodus of the super-rich from Britain. Analysis by the consultancy New World Wealth showed a quarter of the UKs billionaires, 18 in total, left the country in the last two years, more than any other country. open image in gallery Former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock has called for a wealth tax ( PA ) The PACs warning about HMRC sparked a backlash among MPs campaigning for a wealth tax, with Labour left-winger Kim Johnson condemning the ability of the super-rich to operate in secrecy. She told The Independent: This says everything about the priorities of this government - more focused on shielding extreme wealth than scrutinising it. Under Rachel Reeves arbitrary, self-imposed fiscal rules, were told theres no money for public services, yet theres no effort to even find out whether the wealthiest are paying what they owe. We need the political will to ensure that those with the broadest shoulders do carry more of the burden. But instead, were left with a system that lets billionaires hide in the shadows. This isnt a technical failure - its a deliberate political choice. Ms Johnson added: In what world is it acceptable for the super-rich to operate in secrecy, while the working-class are squeezed at every turn? Labour MP Nadia Whittome told The Independent Britain needs a tax system that closes loopholes and guarantees that wealthy individuals pay their fair share. She added: That must start with the government doing more to understand how much tax billionaires are currently paying and the opportunities for taxing the super-rich more. open image in gallery Nadia Whittome said HMRC needs to close tax loopholes ( PA ) Campaign group Tax Justice UK said the PACs findings undermine public faith in the tax system. At the heart of this story is the urgent need for HMRC to have the resources and political backing for it to be an effective and efficient tax authority that can administer a tax system that is fair and fit for the 21st century, interim director Fariya Mohiuddin said. The PAC highlighted The Sunday Times Rich List and artificial intelligence (AI) as ways that the revenue body could dig deeper into wealth and assets. It is calling for HMRC to publish its plan for increasing tax yield from wealthy taxpayers both domestically and offshore. It said HMRC does not collect information on taxpayers' wealth and says that it only collects the data needed to administer the tax system as required by UK tax legislation. The report said: "There is much public interest in the amount of tax the wealthy pay. "People need to know everyone pays their fair share." HMRC's plan for improving its understanding of the wealth and assets held by billionaires could include how it might immediately start work on comparing available data on known billionaires, such as The Sunday Times Rich List, with its own records, the report suggested. In the United States, the Inland Revenue Service has worked with researchers to link its data to The Forbes 400, the report said. There is "much more" that HMRC can do to improve its work to risk assess and target wealthy people, in particular through the use of data and technology and recruiting wealth management experts, it added. PAC member Lloyd Hatton said: "This report is not concerned with political debate around the redistribution of wealth. "Our committee's role is to help HMRC do its job properly ensuring wealthy people pay the correct tax. "While HMRC does deserve some great credit for securing billions more in the tax take from the wealthiest in recent years, there is still a very long way to go before we can reach a true accounting of what is owed. "We already know a great deal about billionaires living in the UK, with much information about their tax affairs and wealth in the public domain. "So we were disappointed to find that HMRC, of all organisations, was unable to provide any insight into their tax affairs from its own data - particularly given that any single one of these individuals' contributions could make a significant difference to the overall picture. "We found a similar apparent lack of curiosity in how wide the tax gap is both for the very wealthy and for wealth stashed away offshore. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Sir Keir Starmer has suspended four Labour MPs as he seeks to reassert his authority after a series of damaging backbench rebellions. Rachael Maskell, one of Sir Keirs fiercest opponents in the recent revolt over welfare reforms, Chris Hinchliff, Brian Leishman and Neil Duncan-Jordan have all had the whip withdrawn over persistent breaches of party discipline. In response, Mr Leishman and Mr Duncan-Jordan both hit out, saying they had not been elected last year to make people poorer. The move comes before politicians depart Westminster for the summer early next week and follows speculation that some Labour MPs could have been in talks to join a new party being created by ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. open image in gallery Critics claimed the suspensions had hastened Keir Starmers fall (Isabel Infantes/PA) ( PA Wire ) But a senior Labour figure said the punishment shows how weak they are and added: It only hastens Starmers fall by showing his absolute weakness. Sir Keir suffered a serious blow earlier this month when dozens of his own MPs voted against his planned welfare cuts in Parliament. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, now faces the task of filling the 5bn hole in the public finances left by the climbdown, raising speculation she will be forced to raise taxes in the autumn. The prime minister had been forced into two humiliating U-turns on the legislation in less than a week to head off a revolt that threatened to defeat his government on one of its flagship policies. Despite the climbdowns, the revolt was still the largest backbench rebellion Sir Keir has suffered so far. open image in gallery Brian Leishman (centre) said he remained committed to the party (Andrew Milligan/PA) ( PA Wire ) In response to his suspension, Alloa and Grangemouth MP Mr Leishman, who has repeatedly criticised Sir Keir over welfare reforms and winter fuel payment cuts, said he was a proud Labour member, and I remain committed to the party. I wish to remain a Labour MP and deliver the positive change many voters are craving. But he said he did not believe it was his duty as an MP to make people poorer. He said he had voted against the government because I want to effectively represent and be the voice for communities across Alloa and Grangemouth. I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences. Poole MP Mr Duncan-Jordan said he couldnt support making disabled people poorer, while York Central MP Ms Maskell said she had been suspended for standing up for my constituents over the benefits plans. She added: There are lines I cant cross because of where I come from in politics with my faith. She said she was not angry but upset that we are in this place because I believe we are better than that as a party. I believe that strength comes from the backbenches. Three other Labour MPs, Rosena Allin Khan, a former member of Sir Keirs frontbench, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin, had their trade envoy roles removed for their opposition to the government. Amid mounting tensions between Labour and the unions, the Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright called the suspensions an outrageous and authoritarian act. He added: Instead of abandoning the benefit cuts that will force hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, Keir Starmer has chosen to purge Labour MPs who sought to halt this disastrous policy. The FBU will use its influence as a Labour affiliated union to seek to force the party hierarchy to reinstate those who have been suspended. In a sign of the deteriorating relationship between Labour and the unions, last week Unite said it had voted to suspend Deputy PM Angela Rayners membership and would reconsider its ties with the party. It came just days after several groups, including the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the FBU, piled pressure on the government to avoid more cuts by bringing in a wealth tax. Unite voted to suspend Angela Rayners membership and reconsider its ties with the party, with its general secretary claiming Sir Keir Starmers party is not on the side of working people. Unite, which is one of the biggest unions in the country and has long been affiliated with Labour, has accused the government of failing workers in a row over the Birmingham bin strike that could lead to a historic split with the party. Before the welfare vote, the previous record for rebellion numbers was earlier this month during the passage of the planning and infrastructure bill, when 16 MPs rebelled. A revolt last year, over the controversial two-child benefit cap, saw a number of Labour MPs stripped of the party whip, including Jeremy Corbyns shadow chancellor John McDonnell. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Rachel Reeves inadvertently breached parliaments rules by failing to declare gifts on time, the standards watchdog has found. The chancellor was probed by the standards commissioner over free theatre tickets, which she failed to add to her register of interests within 28 days. She blamed an oversight for her initial failure to declare the gifts, which included tickets to an adaptation of the classic childrens novel Ballet Shoes at the National Theatre over Christmas. open image in gallery The chancellor inadvertently breached parliaments rules ( PA Wire ) Ms Reeves had only listed the donation in the register for ministers, not MPs. In an email to standards commissioner Daniel Greenberg, Ms Reeves suggested the tickets were received in her capacity as chancellor, but that there is often ambiguity as to whether hospitality I receive is purely as a result of my role as a minister, or whether it is additionally received in my capacity as an MP. Therefore, to be as transparent as possible, it is my ongoing intention to declare hospitality of this nature on both registers, Ms Reeves added. After investigating the entry, Mr Greenberg accepted there had been an inadvertent breach, but told the chancellor she could have avoided the mistake by paying greater attention to the rules. Ms Reeves apologised and promised future gifts would be registered in line with Commons rules. The investigation centred on two donations of tickets by the National Theatre. One was a show and dinner last March, valued at 265, and the other was for the December show, valued at 276. The inquiry came at a damaging time for Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer, as it was announced on the eve of the local elections, in which the party suffered heavy losses. She previously faced criticism from MPs for accepting free tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter performance while outlining plans to cut benefits by 5bn. open image in gallery A row over freebies dominated Labours first months in power ( Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire ) Last year, she also pledged she would not accept any more free clothes from donors after Labours first months in power were overshadowed by a row over freebies. It came after the chancellor used her Mansion House speech to vow to take the boot of regulation off the throat of businesses, unveiling a bonfire of red tape to boost the economy. She said: In too many areas, regulation still acts as a boot on the neck of businesses, choking off the enterprise and innovation that is the lifeblood of growth. Regulators in other sectors must take up the call I make this evening not to bend to the temptation of excessive caution but to boldly regulate for growth in the service of prosperity across our country. She told her audience of bankers and investors: We have been bold in regulating for growth in financial services and I have been clear on the benefits that will drive with a ripple effect across all sectors of our economy, putting pounds in the pockets of working people. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Get our free View from Westminster email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Labour MP has thanked London Underground passengers for rushing to her defence as she was hassled by a man. Stella Creasy was on the Victoria Line when she began to be harassed by the male passenger in an incident she is planning to report to the police. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Walthamstow MP said: If you were one of the passengers on the victoria line just now who intervened to stop a man hassling me thank you from the bottom of my heart. Please get in touch with my office if you are prepared to be a witness as maybe the police might listen to you about him now! open image in gallery Stella Creasy has repeatedly faced abuse ( House of Commons ) The Independent contacted Ms Creasy to ask for more details. TFL was contacted for comment. Ms Creasy has been repeatedly targeted with abuse, lashing out last year at the crusade of harassment launched against her by anti-abortion activists, an issue on which she has campaigned. In a moving interview with The Independent, Ms Creasy said she was facing a bonfire of abuse from anti-abortion ideologues on social media in punishment for campaigning on abortion rights. And in 2013, a man was arrested after launching a torrent of violent abuse on social media at Ms Creasy. Peter Nunn, a blogger from Bristol, was sentenced to 18 weeks imprisonment in September 2014 for sending messages to Ms Creasy calling her a witch and retweeting rape threats. She and other feminist campaigners were harassed after expressing support for the image of author Jane Austen to be placed on a banknote. After the incident, Ms Creasy was forced to have a panic button installed in her home. Ms Creasys latest incident comes months after a cross-party inquiry warned that democracy is being undermined by the scale of abuse, threats and intimidation facing MPs. A survey by the Speakers Conference revealed about half of MPs said threatening behaviour had caused anxiety or depression (49 per cent), with a similar share feeling unsafe as a result (52 per cent). open image in gallery Sir Lindsay Hoyle has warned abuse of MPs is undermining democracy ( PA Archive ) The inquiry concluded that electoral law is not fit for purpose in relation to tackling abuse of political candidates in elections and called for a Government review to assess security and electoral integrity. This phase of the Conference was established in 2024 to help ensure that elections to Parliament are conducted freely and fairly, without threats or violence. It also seeks to enable candidates to campaign safely and support elected representatives to do their job securely. Commenting on the findings, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Commons Speaker and chairman of the Speakers Conference, said: Participating in free and fair democratic processes as a candidate or a Member of Parliament is a privilege, and we expect that to come with robust political discourse and debate. But abuse, threats and intimidation should never be part of this job. It threatens the health of our democracy, and forces people to choose between the public good and their own safety and wellbeing. I am grateful to members, their staff and the witnesses we have heard from to date for sharing their experiences with us and look forward to working with colleagues on the next phase of the Conferences work. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake has triggered a tsunami warning along a 700-mile stretch of Alaska's southern coast, prompting communities to order residents to higher ground. The tremor struck at 12:37 p.m. local time, just south of Sand Point, a community of approximately 580 people located on Popof Island in the Aleutian chain. While initial projections indicated the first waves would hit this area, the state's emergency management division reported no damage an hour after the quake. "We have seen other earthquakes in the area that have not generated significant tsunami waves, but we're treating it seriously and going through our procedures, making sure communities are notified so they can activate their evacuation procedures," stated spokesman Jeremy Zidek. The U.S. Tsunami Center confirmed the warning was active from about 40 miles southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass, encompassing a vast 700-mile distance. Kodiak, with a population of 5,200, was among the larger communities affected. The tsunami warning was later changed to an advisory, which was allowed to expire, with no immediate reports of damage. open image in gallery A strong earthquake Wednesday off the Alaska coast triggered a tsunami warning which later expired ( AP ) In Unalaska, a fishing community of around 4,100 residents, officials urged people to move at least 50 feet above sea level and 1 mile inland. Similarly, in King Cove, home to about 870 residents on the south side of the Alaska Peninsula, an alert was issued for those in coastal areas to seek higher ground. Washington officials also analyzed potential dangers to their state, but data from tsunami buoys subsequently confirmed there was no threat, the Washington Emergency Management Division announced on X. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Top executives have recently departed Tesla after months of turmoil caused by CEO Elon Musks stint in politics and a sales slump at the electric car company. Troy Jones, vice president of sales, service and delivery in Teslas North American market, left the firm after 15 years,The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Several other Tesla higher-ups have left the company in the past year. Milan Kovac, a vice president of engineering who oversaw Teslas development of its humanoid robot Optimus, announced his departure in June. open image in gallery Top executives have recently departed Tesla after months of turmoil caused by CEO Elon Musks stint in politics and a sales slump at the electric car company ( Andrew Harnik/Getty Images ) This week, Ive had to make the most difficult decision of my life and will be moving out of my position. Ive been far away from home for too long, and will need to spend more time with family abroad, Kovac, who had worked at the company for more than nine years, wrote on X at the time. He added: I want to make it clear that this is the only reason, and has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. My support for @elonmusk and the team is ironclad - Tesla team forever. Jenna Ferrura, Teslas director of human resources for North America, has also left. Bloomberg reported in June, citing people familiar with the matter, Ferrura no longer appeared in the company directory. Omead Afshar, who oversaw sales and manufacturing operations in North America and Europe, has departed the company as well. Forbes reported in June, citing people familiar with the matter, Afshar was fired by Musk after being promoted to his position in October. Bloomberg called Afshar one of Musks closest confidants, working at the company since 2017. The E-suite shakeups come during a rough few months for Tesla. Musk made waves among a key demographic of EV buyers when he led President Donald Trumps Department of Government Efficiency. Musk left the White House in late May, and his relationship with Trump quickly soured. There have been protests at Tesla dealerships and even some cases of attacks on property at car showrooms and lots, charging stations and involving privately owned Tesla cars. open image in gallery There have been protests at Tesla dealerships and even some cases of attacks on property at car showrooms and lots, charging stations and privately owned Tesla cars ( Stephanie Keith/Getty Images ) Against this backdrop, Teslas global vehicle sales dropped 13.5 percent in the second fiscal quarter of 2025, the Journal reported earlier this month. The company reported worse-than-expected Tesla deliveries. There were 384,122 Tesla vehicles delivered in the second quarter, off the 387,000 estimate from analysts, according to FactSet. Teslas stock has also significantly decreased over the past six months. The stock was at around $413 per share on January 16, compared to about $308 per share on Tuesday, according to MarketWatch. The company has been trying to entice customers with an updated Model Y midsize SUV and a cheaper version of its Cybertruck. June was a particularly big month for Tesla as the company unveiled new versions of its Model S and Model X luxury cars and launched a pilot of its robotaxi service in Austin. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal law enforcement agency primarily tasked with carrying out President Donald Trumps mass deportation agenda, now has a larger budget than most of the worlds militaries. Through the presidents signature domestic policy, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICEs annual budget is expected to increase from $8.7 billion to approximately $27.7 billion, with $75 billion allocated for the agency over the next four years. The annual funding bump is an unprecedented amount for ICE. It surpasses the annual military budgets of Iran, Turkey, Spain, Mexico, Iran, and at least 23 countries in the top 40 military spenders, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. ICEs new annual budget places the federal agency among the top 20 most well-funded militaries in the world, sitting between Canada, which spent roughly $29.3 billion in 2024, and Turkey, which spent $25 billion last year. While the U.S. consistently spends the most on its military compared to other countries, officials have proposed a $1 trillion budget in 2026, boosted by Trumps bill. open image in gallery The Trump administration will give Immigration and Customs Enforcement $27.7 billion annually more than many countries military budgets ( Getty Images ) The Trump administration has promised to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, and the turbocharged ICE funding is expected to expand immigration detention facilities and bulk up staffing. Youre going to see immigration enforcement on a level youve never seen it before, Tom Homan, Trumps border czar, said in an interview, according to the New York Times. For immigrants and immigration advocates, the funding push is a worrying step toward more widespread ICE raids that have terrified communities and detainments that circumvent due process. In the wake of raids, anti-ICE protests have erupted across the country with thousands of people pushing back on the expansive use of immigration law enforcement. Hundreds of protesters clashed with masked enforcement officers and agents in Los Angeles in June when they began conducting mass arrests. The president responded with further force, federalizing the California National Guard and deploying 4,000 guards to the area, as well as 700 Marines. Earlier this month, a California marijuana farm worker died during an ICE raid which led to the arrest of more than 360 people for alleged illegal immigration. Multiple immigration lawyers have raised alarm bells that their clients have been arrested while attending immigration-related court appointments. Other concerns include that people are being deported, sometimes to third countries they have never been to and with questionable human rights records, without due process. open image in gallery Federal agents lined up at a California marijuana farm to protect ICE agents who were carrying out mass immigration arrests ( Getty Images ) The administration was forced to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who was living in Maryland under a court-approved status, after sending him to a maximum security prison in El Salvador on allegations that he belonged to a gang. Abrego Garcia and hundreds of other people never received a court hearing before being deported. Throwing billions at detention centers and enforcement agents is short-sighted. Instead, we should be investing in a system aimed at welcoming immigrants that contribute billions to our economy, Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement, in response to the boost in ICE funding. We dont need more jail beds and indiscriminate raids. We need balanced solutions that strengthen due process and keep families together. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Drones targeted oil fields in Iraqs semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks in recent days that have put several oil facilities out of commission. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have exacerbated tensions between the central government in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities. The Kurdish regions anti-terrorism department said two drones attacked an oil field in the district of Zakho, causing damage but no injuries. DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company operating the field, said its operations were temporarily suspended following three explosions involving a small storage tank at Tawke and surface processing equipment at Peshkabir. It said there were no injuries, and a damage assessment was underway. Hours later, the anti-terrorism department said the Baadre oil field, located in the Sheikhan district of Dohuk province, was targeted by a drone strike. There were no injuries. Videos showed a plume of smoke rising over barren hills. The attacks came a day after another oil field in Dohuk province operated by a U.S. company was set ablaze, also after being struck by a drone. The Kurdish regions Ministry of Natural Resources said the attacks were meant "to disrupt the economy of the Kurdistan region and threaten the safety of civilian employees of the energy sector, and called for federal authorities to intervene to stop them. Iraqi oil industry expert Hamza al-Jawahiri said the targeting of oil fields in the Kurdish region would not affect global oil prices and that oil production in southern Iraq is sufficient to compensate for any resulting shortage. The fields in northern Iraq produce around 500,000 barrels per day. Al-Jawahiri said the primary losers would be the companies operating the fields, which are working under partnership contracts. Earlier this month, the Kurdish regional government accused the Popular Mobilization Forces a coalition of Iran-allied militias that are officially under the control of the Iraqi military of carrying out drone attacks. The Iraqi army said the accusation was issued in the absence of evidence and said it could provide hostile parties with justifications to undermine Iraqs stability. Iran-backed armed groups have periodically attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. During last months Israel-Iran war, some of them threatened to target U.S. interests and bases in the region if Washington got involved. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Popular podcaster Joe Rogan ripped into the Justice Departments handling of the so-called Epstein files as House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans broke away from President Donald Trump over the issue. Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI said in a memo there was never any client list of high-profile names associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Trump administration has faced backlash over this new development, as it had promised to release files about the federal investigation into the late financier. Rogan ranted about the feds on an episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, released Tuesday. Theyve got videotape and all a sudden they dont, Rogan said. You had the director of the FBI on this show saying, If there was [a videotape], nothing youre looking for is on those tapes,' referring to Kash Patels interview with Rogan in June. open image in gallery Popular podcaster Joe Rogan ripped into the Justice Departments handling of the so-called Epstein files ( Carmen Mandato/Getty Images ) open image in gallery Earlier this month, the DOJ and FBI said in a memo there was never any client list of high-profile names associated with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein ( New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP ) During his appearance, Patel indicated there was no video evidence of people committing crimes on Epsteins private island. Whyd they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s***? Whyd they say that? Didnt [Attorney General] Pam Bondi say that? Rogan said during Tuesdays rant. Bondi told reporters in May, There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn and there are hundreds of victims, according to the Miami Herald. The feds July memo said there was a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography. But when it came to potential allegations against third parties, the memo stated: There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and close ally to Trump, told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson in an interview Tuesday he supported the release of the Epstein files. Im for transparency, Johnson said, per The Washington Post. Its a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it. Despite his vocal support, Johnson opposed a procedural motion advanced by House Democrats Tuesday that would have allowed lawmakers to vote to release the Epstein files. open image in gallery Rogans rants comes as House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans break with President Donald Trump over the Epstein files ( REUTERS ) But Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, wrote on X Tuesday he would force a House vote on releasing the COMPLETE files. We all deserve to know whats in the Epstein files, whos implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency, he said. Earlier this month, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a prominent Georgia figure in Trumps base, told Real Americas Voice network, I think the Department of Justice and the FBI has more explaining to do this is Jeffrey Epstein, per The Hill. This is the most famous pedophile in modern-day history, and people are absolutely not going to accept just a memo that was written that says there is no client list, she said. open image in gallery Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said Americans are 'not going to accept' that Jeffrey Epstein had no client list ( Getty ) Trump on Tuesday claimed that former President Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey made up the Epstein files. Leaving for an event in Pennsylvania from the White House, the president was asked by a reporter if Attorney General Bondi had revealed whether his name appeared in any of the Justice Departments files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Shes given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen, Trump said. And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. Obama, a Democrat, served in the White House from 2009 to 2017, while Comey led the FBI from 2013 until May 2017. Epstein died in prison in 2019. When asked about the memo at a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump said, Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guys been talked about for years. I mean, I cant believe youre asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where were having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration, Trump said, referring to the July 4 flooding disaster along the Guadalupe River. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A gourmet pie company that pitched to billionaires on Shark Tank earlier this year has filed for bankruptcy amid a pending lawsuit. Joyebells, a family-run bakery in Virginia that launched in 2019, initially achieved success thanks to a string of local media appearances following its launch, culminating in a 2022 appearance on Today. The bakerys biggest hits were its sweet potato, peach, and pumpkin pies. CEO Joye Berry-Moore took her pies to Shark Tank in February, and despite being praised for the quality of her baked goods, the sharks ultimately decided not to invest in the company. Now, just five months later, Joyebells has filed for Chapter 11 after being sued by its main lender for defaulting on a $350,000 loan, according to Richmond BizSense. open image in gallery CEO Joye Berry-Moore appeared on the Shark Tank show in February earlier this year ( Disney ) On June 30, Locus Bank formerly known as VCC Bank filed the suit in Henrico Circuit Court, naming Joyebells LLC, Joye Berry-Moore, and her husband, Eric Moore, as defendants. The bank states that it loaned Joyebells up to $350,000 in May 2023, but after the loan was renewed last year, the maturity date was set for May 11, 2025. On May 12, Locus sent the company a default notice and demanded payment from Joyebells, according to court filings. The bank is seeking a minimum of $344,500 from the pie company. Three days before the maturity date, Berry-Moore and her husband filed for personal bankruptcy, court records show, as seen by Richmond BizSense. open image in gallery Joye Berry-Moore walked away empty-handed after pitching her company on the show ( Disney ) In the court filing, the couple stated that their debts, totaling around $1.27 million, were a combination of business-related expenses and credit card debt. Two names that appeared, both claiming to be owed money, include the Internal Revenue Service, with a claim of $144,000, and Apple Valley Foods, a Minnesota pie manufacturer, which is owed $570,000. Berry-Moores had credited her business with turning her life around after she went from being homeless to becoming a first-generation business owner. I ran away from home at 14 years of age and remained homeless until age 17 years old until the end of my senior year of high school. I lived in abandoned houses and ate out of dumpsters in South Dallas, Texas, she states on the companys website. However, the legal battle is not the first challenge experienced by the baked goods company. It previously faced problems in 2023 when over 315,000 of its peach pies were pulled from shelves after a manufacturing issue led to the pies being made with unripened peaches, according to Richmond Bizsense. This resulted in reduced profits as Joyebells only sold products through QVC in 2024. The Independent contacted lawyers representing Lotus Bank and Joyebells for comment. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Minnesota man was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he fatally shot former Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The indictment handed up lists murder, stalking and firearms charges against Vance Boelter after the deaths of Hortman, a prominent Minnesota state representative, and her husband. He also seriously wounded a state senator and his wife while he was allegedly disguised as a police officer. The federal murder counts could carry the death penalty. The chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota has called the killings a political assassination. Prosecutors initially charged Boelter in a complaint with six counts, including murder, stalking and firearms offenses. But under federal court rules they needed a grand jury indictment to take the case to trial. Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, was driving a fake squad car, wearing a realistic rubber mask that covered his head and wearing tactical gear around 2 a.m. on June 14 when he went to the home of Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and Yvette Hoffman eight times, but they survived. open image in gallery Vance Boelter was indicted by a federal grand jury on murder charges - and could face the death penalty. ( Hennepin County Sheriff's Office ) Prosecutors allege he then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers. One, in Maple Grove, wasn't home while a police officer may have scared him off from the second, in New Hope. Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans' home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Brooklyn Park police, who had been alerted to the shootings of the Hoffmans, arrived at the Hortman home around 3:30 a.m., moments before the gunman opened fire on the couple, the complaint said. Boelter allegedly fled and left behind his car, which contained notebooks listing dozens of Democratic officials as potential targets with their home addresses, as well as five guns and a large quantity of ammunition. Law enforcement officers finally captured Boelter about 40 hours later, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from his rural home in Green Isle, after what authorities called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. Sen. Hoffman is out of the hospital and is now at a rehabilitation facility, his family announced last week, adding he has a long road to recovery. Yvette Hoffman was released a few days after the attack. Former President Joe Biden visited the senator in the hospital when he was in town for the Hortmans funeral. open image in gallery Mark and Melissa Hortman were shot in their home around 3:30 a.m. ( 2025 Star Tribune ) Friends have described Boelter as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. At a hearing July 3, Boelter said he was looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out. In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for President Donald Trump, but he declined to discuss why he allegedly killed the Hortmans and wounded the Hoffmans. You are fishing and I cant talk about my caseIll say it didnt involve either the Trump stuff or pro life, Boelter wrote in a message to the newspaper via the jail's messaging system. It ultimately will be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi, in consultation with the local U.S. attorney's office, to decide whether to seek the federal death penalty. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911. But the Trump administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes. Boelter also faces state murder and attempted murder charges in Hennepin County, but the federal case will go first. Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined mourners at the Hortmans funeral June 28. Gov. Tim Walz, Harriss running mate on the 2024 Democratic presidential ticket, eulogized Melissa Hortman as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. Hortman led the House from 2019 until January and was a driving force as Democrats passed an ambitious list of liberal priorities in 2023. She yielded the speakership to a Republican in a power-sharing deal after the November elections left the House tied, and she took the title speaker emerita. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The University of Michigan has been placed under federal investigation by the Education Department following the separate arrests of two Chinese scientists linked to the institution on charges of smuggling biological materials into the United States. The department announced its probe into the universitys foreign funding on Tuesday, citing the "highly disturbing criminal charges" that emerged within days of each other in June. It expressed significant concerns regarding Michigans susceptibility to national security threats originating from China. Paul Moore, chief investigative counsel for the department, stated: "Despite the University of Michigans history of downplaying its vulnerabilities to malign foreign influence, recent reports reveal that UMs research laboratories remain vulnerable to sabotage." The scrutiny aligns with a broader push under President Donald Trump to enhance transparency surrounding foreign gifts and contracts to US universities, particularly those with ties to China. Similar investigations have been initiated at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of California, Berkeley. This also echoes calls from Republicans in Congress for universities to sever research ties with China, alleging exploitation for technology theft. Michigan itself ended a partnership with a Shanghai university in January amid pressure from House Republicans who deemed it a security risk. The new investigation demands comprehensive financial records from Michigan, alongside details of its research collaborations with institutions outside the US. The Education Department has accused the university of providing "incomplete, inaccurate and untimely" public disclosures concerning funding from foreign sources. In response, Colleen Mastony, a spokesperson for the University of Michigan, affirmed the institutions commitment to cooperate with federal investigators, stating it takes its responsibility to comply with the law "extremely seriously." Ms Mastony added: "We strongly condemn any actions that seek to cause harm, threaten national security or undermine the universitys critical public mission." The federal charges in June involved a Chinese scientist and his girlfriend, who worked at a University of Michigan lab, after the FBI reportedly thwarted their attempt to bring a toxic fungus into the US. Days later, another Chinese scientist was arrested upon arrival in the US, accused of shipping biological material to a University of Michigan laboratory. The university announced a review of its research security protocols in June. open image in gallery This image provided by United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Michigan shows toxic plant pathogens that a Chinese scientist entered the U.S. last year stashed in his backpack, federal authorities said (United States District Court For The Eastern District Of Michigan via AP) A However, in a letter to the university, the Education Department criticised certain school officials for downplaying the risks of research collaborations with Chinese institutions. It specifically singled out Ann Chih Lin, director of the university's Center for Chinese Studies, who has publicly dismissed the threat of technology theft from China as overstated. Department officials wrote that Ms Lins "apparent indifference to the national security concerns of the largest single source of funding for UMs annual research expenditures the American taxpayer is particularly unsettling." Federal law mandates universities to report all foreign gifts and contracts totalling \$250,000 or more. This law saw limited enforcement until Donald Trumps first term, when the Education Department launched numerous inquiries into universities suspected of underreporting foreign funds. While the Biden administration closed most of these cases, the enforcement effort has recently been renewed. Many US universities acknowledge the need to bolster research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with undue hostility, noting that only a small number have been implicated in espionage. Last year, a report by House Republicans claimed that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had inadvertently supported Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology, and nuclear weapons. China remains the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the US, after India, with over 270,000 Chinese students making up roughly a quarter of all international students in the 2023-24 academic year. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A U.S. citizen who helped the Kremlin target Ukrainian troops has been granted a Russian passport in Moscow. Daniel Martindale, with a trim beard and dressed in a suit and tie, smiled as he received his new documents, as seen during a Russian state television broadcast a report on Tuesday. "I, Daniel Richard Martindale, voluntarily and consciously accepting the citizenship of the Russian Federation, swear to observe the constitution," he said in Russian. "The belief that Russia is not just my home, but also my family I am extremely glad that this is not only in my heart, but also by law. Martindale grew up on farms in upstate New York and Indiana, the child of missionaries who later moved to rural China, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Martindale speaks after receiving a Russian passport in Moscow ( via Reuters ) A brief trip over the border into Russia's Far East during the family's time in China sparked Martindale's interest in Russia. In 2018, Martindale, now in his early 30s, moved to Vladivostok, a Russian port city on the Pacific, where he studied Russian and taught English, before being deported a year later for violating labour laws, the Journal said. He moved to southern Poland, but was keen to return to Russia, the Journal said. In 2022, Martindale entered Ukraine just days before President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine. Respect and gratitude Martindale told reporters at a press conference last November that he established contact with pro-Russian forces via Telegram and passed them information on Ukrainian military facilities from the Donetsk region in the country's east. Reuters was not able to contact Martindale to ask about his motivation for helping Russia. A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department declined to comment. On Tuesday, Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-controlled part of Donetsk region, presented Martindale with his Russian documents, which he said were awarded by a decree from Putin. Pushilin expressed gratitude to Martindale, saying some of the information he had shared formed the basis for Russian planning to seize Kurakhove, a town near the key Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk. Martindale "has long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us." "For us, this (the Russian passport) is a sign of respect and a sign of gratitude for what Daniel has done." The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A group of frustrated San Francisco residents is sick of receiving tickets despite being parked in their own driveways. Some of the residents in the California city say they are convinced that someone is using old photos to file citations against them over and over again. Larry Reed told NBC Bay Area that he found a $108 ticket on his car on Monday. One hundred and eight dollars for parking on my driveway, he told the broadcaster. A complaint had been filed against his car for parking on the sidewalk, part of a flood of complaints that have been made against him and his neighbors, which have resulted in hefty parking fines. "We don't know what the deal is. It's just, when we park on the driveway, we get a notice, Yolanda Francisco told the broadcaster. It's been reported to 311 multiple times. But one picture, multiple times." Residents in San Francisco neighborhoods have been receiving numerous fines for cars parked in their driveways that are slightly sticking out over the sidewalk ( Getty ) The citations have been happening for about two months in Mission District neighborhoods. According to parking officers who spoke to the broadcaster, they're responding to complaints filed on the city's 311 system. Francisco's son-in-law, David Chen, noted that the photos of the alleged infractions are repeats, showing the same alleged parking violations over and over again. Chen was there when Reed received his citation on Monday. He said Reed's car while slightly on the sidewalk left plenty of space for anyone, including people with mobility issues, to get past. "There's like 10 feet of open space. It's not causing a problem for anyone with accessibility issues, he told the broadcaster. It's literally somebody making themselves feel good by submitting it, trolling us, getting us tickets." Reed has gone so far as to post a sign near his front steps offering to move his vehicle for anyone who has an issue with its location they need only call him. Sharon Gillenwater, another resident living in the Noe Valley neighborhood, said she was fined a total of $324 because her son's car and her SUV slightly cross their driveway line onto the sidewalk when they're parked, according to the U.S. Sun. She called the fines "overzealous punishment" and agrees with the idea that someone is intentionally targeting people in the neighborhoods with their reports. Were not fighting the law, we all agree that strollers and disabled people need to pass," she told the publication. But can we just be in the spirit of the law? In our case, there is plenty of room for two wheelchairs to go in tandem down the street. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said it is not targeting the residents, but is just responding to 311 reports as they are received. Reed and his neighbors are frustrated with the sudden flood of complaints, and they want to know why, all of a sudden, someone has raised a stink about their parking. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Shoppers at Trader Joe's in California have been sharing the aisles with animal rights activists, and it doesn't appear that's going change anytime soon. Over the past few months, Direct Action Everywhere - a Berkeley-headquartered group - has been holding demonstrations inside Trader Joe's stores across the state. As the group's name suggests, their tactics include disrupting the daily operations of targeted companies. At Trader Joe's, that has taken the form of marching into the stores with megaphones, screaming profanities at customers, gluing themselves to surfaces, and using signs and videos. According to SFGATE, the group is protesting Trader Joe's poultry products, alleging its supplier Perdue subsidiary Petaluma Poultry is keeping birds in inhumane conditions. Trader Joe's has served the group a cease-and-desist letter, according to a July 3 complaint in Alameda County courts. Trader Joe's legal representatives believe the group will ignore the cease and desist and will continue to enter its stores and disrupt customers, the documents state. Members of Direct Action Everywhere protesting outside a Trader Joe's grocery store in Pasadena on July 2, 2025 ( Michelle Del Cueto/DxE ) The complaint notes that Direct Action Everywhere has been targeting Trader Joe's locations for years, but the group's incursions have only recently become more aggressive and more frequent. It describes the group as using signs, skits, and videos, and alleges that more aggressive tactics are causing potential fights. They have threatened and berated Trader Joes customers and Crew Members, physically engaged with Trader Joes customers, removed items from customers shopping baskets, and posed as authorized representatives of Trader Joes, the complaint says. During a disruption on July 2 at a Pasadena Trader Joes, one woman glued herself to the meat aisle. At the same time, another protester glued herself to the front desk at the grocery chain's corporate headquarters in Monrovia. Both women were arrested and charged with court dates set for August, according to SFGATE. Days before the July 2 event, Direct Action Everywhere members protested at a number of Trader Joe's locations across California. The complaint alleges that Trader Joe's employees asked the group to stop filming and to leave, but they refused. On June 28, the group stormed a San Diego Trader Joe's and some members allegedly got into a shouting match with a customer, according to the complaint. The lawsuit says that "at least a dozen customers complaint to Crew members about how shaken they were and how some of them were harassed verbally and felt threatened." The Independent has contacted Trader Joes, Petaluma Poultry, and Direct Action Everywhere for comment. The group says it plans to continue its protests until Trader Joe's changes its poultry supplier. Ive seen firsthand the cruelty at Perdues Petaluma Poultrychickens sick, injured, crammed into filthy crates, left to suffer in agony, Carla Cabral, a Direct Action Everywhere member named in the complaint, said in a news release. We brought this to Trader Joes, but instead of listening, they blocked us, refused all dialogue, and hired powerful attorneys to try to shut us up. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Most Americans think the Trump administration is covering up evidence in the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epsteins federal case, according to a new poll. A poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov from July 11 to 14 found 67 percent of Americans believe the government is hiding evidence related to the late financier, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls. He had pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. After Epsteins death which the Justice Department and FBI confirmed was a suicide in a memo released earlier this month conspiracy theories swirled about the late financiers life, including the powerful people who are speculated to have partaken in his crimes. Conspiracy theorists also werent convinced Epstein killed himself. The feds memo also said there was never any Epstein client list and, There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. open image in gallery Most Americans think the Trump administration is covering up evidence in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epsteins federal case, according to a new poll ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images ) Only 8 percent of respondents in the new poll believe the government is not covering up evidence about Epstein, while 25 percent are unsure. When asked if the government should release all documents relating to the feds Epstein case, 79 percent of respondents said it should. Only 5 percent said the government shouldnt release the files, and 17 percent were unsure. The feds memo sparked backlash from Trumps base, who were promised the Epstein files. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News evidence of a client list was sitting on my desk right now to review. open image in gallery In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News evidence of a client list was 'sitting on my desk right now to review' ( Alex Wong/Getty Images ) When the feds evidence came up short, people started to ask questions. Theyve got videotape and all a sudden they dont, Podcaster Joe Rogan said on his show Tuesday. Rogan name-dropped Bondi, saying, Whyd they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible s***? Whyd they say that? Didnt [Attorney General] Pam Bondi say that? Bondi told reporters in May, There are tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn and there are hundreds of victims, according to the Miami Herald. open image in gallery Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls ( New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP ) The feds memo said there was a large volume of images of Epstein, images and videos of victims who are either minors or appear to be minors, and over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography. But the memo fell short of incriminating anyone else who may have been associated with Epstein. Trump had socialized with Epstein decades ago when he was a New York real estate mogul. The president was accused of being on Epsteins client list by tech billionaire Elon Musk, whose relationship with the president turned sour after his short stint at the White House, leading the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk did not provide any evidence to prove Trump was on any suspected list. open image in gallery Trump had socialized with Epstein decades ago when he was a New York real estate mogul ( NBC News ) House Democrats tried to advance a procedural motion that would have cleared the way for lawmakers to vote to release the Epstein files, but Republicans blocked it on Tuesday. When asked about the memo at a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump said, Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guys been talked about for years. I mean, I cant believe youre asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where were having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration, Trump said, referring to the July 4 flooding disaster along the Guadalupe River. Trump defended Bondi to reporters Tuesday, saying she handled the review of the Epstein files very well. When asked if his name appeared in any documents, he said, No. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Jeffrey Epstein may have been dead for six years, but the circumstances surrounding his death and the evidence supporting federal charges of child sex trafficking continue to make headlines. Most recently, they have caused a schism in MAGA world, reigniting anger from some supporters of President Donald Trump over his campaign promise to release the FBI files on the Epstein case, which the Department of Justice now says will not happen. At the heart of the anger is the supposed existence of a client list of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent associates, whom some claim that Epstein blackmailed over their alleged involvement in his trafficking ring. Conspiracy theorists have long demanded its release, but now the Trump administration says there is no evidence it exists, despite Attorney General Pam Bondi having said in February that it was on her desk. Bondi now says she was referring to the overall case file. The attorney general also said officials at the Justice Department were examining a truckload of evidence that had previously not been made public. open image in gallery Attorney General Pam Bondi, seen here with President Donald Trump, has angered the MAGA base by deciding not to release the so-called Epstein Files ( Getty ) However, the department concluded that public disclosure would not be appropriate, and much of the material was sealed by a judge. This has added fuel to rampant speculation that Trump is on the alleged list, despite its apparent nonexistence. This caused a storm among right-wing influencers, including commentator Tucker Carlson, activist Laura Loomer, and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who are outraged over this lack of transparency. Heres what you need to know about the case and why MAGA is up in arms. What are the so-called Epstein Files? Epstein was a wealthy and very well-connected financier who was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City about a month after his arrest. Investigators concluded he died by suicide, although many people dispute this determination, including, most recently, a former occupant of the same cell. In addition, the raw video footage released by the Department of Justice of Epsteins cell door in the hours before he was found dead had nearly three minutes cut out from it, a new report has claimed. Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins former girlfriend, was charged with helping him abuse teenage girls and was convicted of sex trafficking at a 2021 trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Because the couples social circle included royals, presidents, and billionaires, the case gained massive attention and fueled some of the biggest conspiracy theories driving Trumps supporters. open image in gallery Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an undated handout photo issued by the Department of Justice ( US Department of Justice ) Trump himself was a friend of Epstein, and the two were photographed and filmed together on several occasions. In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a terrific guy whom he had known for 15 years, in an interview with New York magazine. He added: It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. Being so well-connected, key figures in the MAGA movement have long propagated unsubstantiated claims that Epstein was murdered and that deep state actors in the government are hiding lists of his clients, videos of crimes being committed, and other evidence. Among those figures were now-FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino, who both stoked conspiracy theories surrounding Epsteins death, with the latter telling listeners in 2023 that there are people in the Washington swamp who are not telling you the truth. In 2019, Trump himself suggested there was a cover-up and was asked on Fox News on the 2024 campaign trail if he would declassify documents relating to the case once he took office again these became known as the Epstein Files. Then-candidate Trump said he would, alongside files relating to 9/11 and the JFK assassination, but hedged his answer on Epstein, adding: I think that less so because you dont want to affect peoples lives if its phony stuff in there, because its a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would. open image in gallery Kash Patel and Dan Bongino ( Getty ) What has happened since Trump returned to the White House? In February, weeks after Trumps inauguration, Bondi was asked during a Fox News interview whether the DOJ would release the alleged client list. She responded: It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive by President Trump. I'm reviewing that. A few days later, Bondi told the network that the Justice Department planned to publish a lot of flight logs and a lot of names related to Epstein. On February 27, far-right influencers, including Jack Posobiec and Scott Presler, as well as the individuals behind the LibsofTikTok and DC_Draino accounts, were invited to an event at the White House and provided with binders marked The Epstein Files: Phase 1 and Declassified. After jubilant images of the group holding the binders aloft were published, their excitement quickly faded when they realized that the content was already almost entirely in the public domain. Some were outraged and blamed Bondi. open image in gallery People walk out of the West Wing of the White House with "The Epstein Files: Phase 1" binders, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025 ( Reuters ) Loomer blasted the handling of the publication, writing on X: "The Epstein files were released in an unprofessional manner with paid, partisan social media influencers to curate their binders for us. I can't trust anything in the binder. Neither should you." In May, Bondi claimed there were tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn, adding further fuel to conspiracy theories that powerful people were being protected and the decision to release Phase 1 had been to allow time for some kind of cover-up. Bondi pushed back on this notion, saying: Its a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public. Multiple people who worked on the criminal cases of Epstein and Maxwell told The Associated Press that they had not seen and were unaware of a trove of recordings similar to what Bondi had referenced. June 5 Musk and Trumps feud explodes with Epstein allegation As the months-long bromance between Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk came to a spectacular end with a social media battle for the ages, the topic of Epstein arose in one of the most explosive posts exchanged that day. Musk tweeted: Files linked to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have emerged as a point of fixation for Trump and his allies and right-wing media figures. Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Shortly after, he wrote: Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out. Later, perhaps as cooler heads prevailed, Musk deleted the tweet. open image in gallery President Donald Trump and Elon Musk at the White House in happier times ( AFP/Getty ) July 7 MAGA world erupts over DOJ memo At the close of the Independence Day federal holiday weekend, the Justice Department announced in a two-page memo, in conjunction with the FBI, that there was no client list and no additional files relating to the case would be made public. The DOJ, it said, had determined that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted, much was sealed by a court to protect Epsteins victims, and only a fraction of it would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial. Additionally, the memo said that no further charges were expected as investigators did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. Also released were hours of footage, which officials say further confirms Epstein died by suicide while in custody in his jail cell in Manhattan in 2019. The 11-hour video of Epsteins final hours in New Yorks Metropolitan Correctional Center had one minute of footage missing, and forensic experts concluded that the clip had been modified, adding fuel to the fire. While the memo said the governments highest priority was combatting child exploitation, it added: Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends. Right-wing conspiracy theories and renewed suspicions of a cover-up went into overdrive over this retreat by Bondi. Former Trump adviser Bannon questioned if the administration is really as transparent as it claims to be. Loomer called on Bondi to resign for lying to the American people, a call echoed by fellow MAGA influencer Glenn Beck. Podcaster Megyn Kelly called Bondi either lazy or incompetent, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones accused the Trump administration of being part of the cover-up. July 8 Trump tries to deflect while Bondi attempts clean-up open image in gallery Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, listens as President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House ( AP ) In a Cabinet meeting on July 8, with reporters present, Trump interrupted a question on the topic, saying: Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable. Bondi then clarified her past comments on the case: In February, I did an interview on Fox, and it's been getting a lot of attention because I said I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed, meaning the file along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That's what I meant by that. Concerning her later comments about the tens of thousands of videos, she said that they had turned out to be child porn downloaded by that disgusting Jeffrey Epstein. Musk once again joined the conversation, posting on X: How can people be expected to have faith in Trump if he wont release the Epstein files? The former DOGE administrator also claimed, with no evidence, that his nemesis, Bannon, was in the files. July 11 Bonginos future in doubt The most public split within the Trump administration emerged between Bondi and Bongino, with the deputy FBI director expressing dissatisfaction with how the memo had been released. He told allies that he may resign as the storm over the memo continued within MAGA world. According to reports, the two had a fiery confrontation with Bongino attacking Bondi for her handling of the situation. To try and diffuse speculation about infighting within the administration, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on X that he had personally worked with both Bongino and Patel on the memo. All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo, Blanche wrote. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo's composition and release is patently false. This provoked an angry response from Loomer, who asked why no one had signed their name on the memo, speculating that the FBI had wanted to release more information and Bondi whom she refers to as Blondi had refused. Blondi is literally blowing up the Trump admin by concealing information, spending time on Fox News lying to MAGA base and by releasing contradictory statements, wrote Loomer on X. open image in gallery Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Deputy Director Dan Bongino on Capitol Hill ( Getty ) July 12 Trump defends Bondi amid continuing MAGA outrage Only one person could attempt to diffuse internal strife within the administration, and so on Saturday, the president took to Truth Social and, in an extraordinarily lengthy post, defended Bondi amid continued calls for her resignation from his base. Trump praised her for doing a fantastic job and urged his boys and gals in MAGA world to stop attacking her. Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals? Trump wrote. Theyre all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! Were on one Team, MAGA, and I dont like whats happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein, Trump protested. The presidents post did little to quell the anger from his base, who continued to call for the release of the files. His first-term national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, wrote on X: @realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away. He added that failing to address unanswered questions about Epstein would make facing other national challenges much harder. Musk once again commented on X, replying to a post: Seriously. He [Trump] said Epstein half a dozen times while telling everyone to stop talking about Epstein. Just release the files as promised. On the same day, rumors circulated that Patel, like Bongino, was also considering leaving the FBI. The director wrote on X that it is an honor to serve the president and I'll continue to do so for as long as he calls on me. The following day, asked about Bonginos future, Trump said he was in good shape, adding: I spoke to him today, Dan Bongino, very good guy. I've known him a long time. Before this, it had been reported that Trump was angry at Bongino over the situation. July 14 Lara Trump weighs in and Democrats demand answers The presidents daughter-in-law appeared to be off-message in terms of tamping down the scandal when she told Bennie Johnson on his podcast that there needed to be more transparency from the administration regarding the Epstein case and that more information would be released sooner rather than later. On the same day, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters at a news conference that there were only two things possibly be happening regarding the case. Option one, Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, and the MAGA extremists intentionally lied to the American people for years about the Jeffrey Epstein situation, he said. Option two is that, in fact, there's reason for the American people to be concerned as it relates to what information has not been released that could be damaging to the Trump administration and the friends and family of the Trump administration and their billionaire, corrupt supporters. And so, they're actively engaging in a cover-up, Jeffries continued. He added that if the administration was hiding something, it was up to Congress to uncover the truth for the American people. Later, Texas Democratic Rep. Marc Beasey introduced a resolution calling for the immediate release of all unclassified Epstein Files. That echoed calls from MAGA Republicans. America deserves the truth about Jeffrey Epstein and the rich powerful elites in his circle, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X Monday. Nevertheless, House Republicans blocked another Democrat push to force the Trump administration to release the FULL Epstein files. Seizing on growing MAGA infighting, California Representative Ro Khanna introduced an amendment to the GENIUS Act on Monday, calling on Bondi to compile and release all Epstein records within 30 days. Late Monday evening, the House Rules Committee voted 75 to block the proposal from reaching the lower chamber. July 15 Trump says Bondi should release whatever she thinks is credible open image in gallery President Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ( AFP/Getty ) On Tuesday, with the scandal refusing to die down, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn that Bondi should release whatever she thinks is credible on Epstein. When asked if Bondi had informed him that his name appeared in the file, the president said no and that he had received a very quick briefing on the review of the Epstein files before the release of the memo a week earlier. He then accused his predecessors of making up the files. And in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen, and I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden -- and you know, we and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all of the different things that we had to go through, Trump said. We've gone through years of it, but she's handled it very well, and it's going to be up to her, Trump said of Bondi. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release. Later in the day, Trump addressed it yet again. I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It's pretty boring stuff. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going, he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. Also on Tuesday, podcaster Joe Rogan criticized the DOJs handling of the Epstein files as House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans broke away from the president over the issue, stating that he was for transparency and that even though it was a very delicate subject, everything should be made public to let people decide. Further, a day after saying he was done talking about Epstein and would trust my friends in the government, podcaster and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk reversed course and said he meant yesterday and will continue to discuss it, despite the presidents plea for MAGA world figures to let the issue die out. MAGA Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert called for failed Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz to lead a special counsel investigation into the files to deliver the truth. Gaetzs nomination was derailed over allegations that he paid for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl. He denies any wrongdoing, but a bombshell House Ethics Committee report detailed his alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use while he was in Congress. July 16 Trump lashes out at PAST supporters, and ties Epstein scandal to other scams and hoaxes With the Epstein Files and MAGA world rift dominating the news cycle, Trump took to Truth Social, writing a lengthy post tying the scandal to a multitude of past scams and hoaxes, pushed by the Radical Left Democrats. The president then lashed out at his MAGA base, claiming his PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. I dont want their support anymore! Trump wrote. In an Oval Office appearance on Wednesday following the post, Trump said he had lost a lot of faith in certain people as he tried to move past the story. Its all been a big hoax, he told reporters. Its perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. He complained that Bondi has been waylaid over her handling of the case and has given out all credible information about the wealthy financier. If she finds anymore credible information shell give that, too, Trump said. What more can she do than that? Talking to Politico, Loomer warned that the scandal over the Epstein files could consume Trumps presidency, reiterating an earlier call for a special counsel to investigate. Later, in a pre-taped interview with Real Americas Voice, Trump adds: All my supporters want to talk about is the Jeffrey Epstein hoax. Its unbelievable ... Its a disgrace. ... Im going to remember. Kirk attempted some damage control on Trumps behalf on his podcast: Dont take too seriously this whole Truth Social here ... I dont believe he was trying to insult anybody personally. However, he is clearly still frustrated by the administration: We are now Wednesday, going into Thursday. People are very, very confused, and some people are very disappointed and mad. He added: We made so much progress with Gen Z, and this is a big vulnerability. Online, on TikTok, this story is not landing well. Lets fix this, and we can. July 17 White House attempts to explain Trumps hoax comments ahead of bombshell WSJ report open image in gallery White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt holds a press briefing at the White House on July 17, 2025. ( REUTERS ) Anger at the Trump administration for its reversal on the Epstein case continued on Thursday morning ahead of a White House briefing at which Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked multiple questions about the Epstein files saga. Asked what about the Epstein case, which featured multiple victims who testified about being trafficked and raped by the late sex offender, was a hoax, as Trump had posted, Leavitt ignored the presidents claim that the entire matter had been made up, and instead said the hoax status stems from the fact that Democrats are now joining his supporters in pushing for the case files to be made public. The President is referring to the fact that Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein, which is an asinine suggestion for any Democrat to make, she said, adding that over four years in the Biden presidency they didnt do a dang thing about the case. After rumors circulated all day about a coming bombshell report from The Wall Street Journal, in the evening the outlet published a report about a 50th birthday greeting that the president reportedly sent Epstein in 2003, which was described as including a sexually suggestive drawing and a reference to secrets both men shared. On Truth Social, a furious Trump called the letter FAKE, saying it was not my words and, I dont draw pictures, despite multiple examples of him doing so in the past. Referring to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the paper, the president wrote: Im going to sue his ass off. Following the weeks of uproar over the Epstein files, Trump asked Bondi to release certain documents and relevant grand jury testimony. He wrote on Truth Social: 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. This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now! Two minutes later, Bondi tweeted: President Trumpwe are ready to move the court tomorrow to unseal the grand jury transcripts. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, attributed the Democrats 2024 election loss to the fact that they abandoned his father as the party's leader. Speaking for the first time since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Hunter Biden offered his perspective on the election during a new podcast, At Our Table, hosted by former Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison. We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party, Hunter Biden said. Thats my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down. After Joe Bidens disappointing and concerning debate performance against Trump last June, Democrats scrambled to create a Plan B placing former vice president Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, and drafting in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as their VP pick. open image in gallery Hunter Biden attributed Democrats 2024 election loss to the party abandoning his father as its leader ( Getty Images ) But it took weeks for Joe Biden, then the oldest person to serve as president, to agree to drop out of the race after a pressure campaign by some in the Democratic party and donors. In that time, Trump continued to aggressively campaign, picking up undecided voters amid a Democratic party in turmoil. And while Harris revitalized support among young people, it wasnt enough to defeat the Republican nominee. Hunter Bidens take on his fathers political demise stands in contrast to reports that have emerged in books addressing the tumultuous 2024 election. According to 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, Joe Biden was mentally preoccupied with his sons federal gun trial, and the possibility of Hunter going to prison, at the height of election campaigning last summer. Hunter was convicted on three federal gun charges for unlawfully purchasing and possessing a firearm in 2018 while battling substance use disorder. Despite claiming he would not pardon Hunter if found guilty, Joe Biden granted his son a full pardon shortly before leaving office. open image in gallery Former first lady Jill Biden (left) and Hunter Bidens wife, Melissa Cohen Biden (right), attended nearly every day of his federal gun trial ( Getty Images ) Another book, Original Sin, written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent, Alex Thompson, alleges that the White House and Biden family tried to conceal the presidents declining mental and physical health toward the end of his term. But in excerpts from this weeks podcast, Hunter Biden told Harrison that the reports about his fathers health were incorrect and the books were sold on the idea of a conspiracy. He claimed that if his father had been suffering from a serious ailment, it would have been known in Washington D.C. because secrets do not stay secrets. Since leaving the White House, Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Hunter Biden also denied allegations that he played a role in helping his father politically, saying that he stayed as far away from his father as possible during his campaign. open image in gallery Joe Biden rushed to support his son after he was found guilty on three federal gun charges last summer the trial, according to reports, preoccupied the former presidents mind ( AFP via Getty Images ) You think Jake Tappers telling the truth when he says that I was the acting chief of staff of the presidents? I was in that White House 12 days over the course of the last two years of the administration. Clearly, because I had other things going on, OK? Hunter said, according to The Hill. Which, by the way, broke my heart, Hunter Biden added. The first episode of Harrisons podcast will air Thursday, and also features Tim Walz. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The first lady could be President Zelenskyys unlikely ally in the White House, influencing Trumps recent tougher stance on Russia. As the president this week decided to deliver Patriot air missiles to Kyiv, Melania Trump has been reminding him of the deadly toll of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine. I go home, I tell the first lady, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. And she says, Oh really, another city was just hit, he said from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. Melania was born behind the Iron Curtain in 1970 and grew up in the former Yugoslavia. As well as praising Ronald Reagan, who helped end the Cold War, she speaks to her son Barron in Slovene, and both still hold EU passports. It has long been reported that the first lady prefers to spend time away from the White House since her husbands inauguration in January, as she is close to Barron, who is attending NYU. According to Mary Jordan, author of The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump, Melanias influence does not come as a surprise to those who know her, Barron Trump, left, and his grandfather Viktor Knavs, right ( AP ) It [Melanias fondness for Ukraine] is not surprising at all given she grew up in the former Yugoslavia, a country with no love for Russia, she told The Times. She has more experience than other people in the cabinet trying to get her point across. Jordan added that Melania is well-informed about European politics, as her father, Viktor Knavs, 81, frequently travels to Slovenia, where she was raised. Her home country is all in for Ukraine, and people over there are appalled that the United States would suddenly not be arming Ukraine anymore. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Trump described Putin as savvy and genius while Melania described the war as heartbreaking and horrific. It is heartbreaking and horrific to see innocent people suffering. My thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian people. Please, if you can, donate to help them [International Red Cross], she posted on X, formerly Twitter. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee made a surprise appearance at Benjamin Netanyahus corruption trial on Wednesday. Huckabee said he dropped in on Netanyahus trial to see whats going on but was asked to leave after proceedings were moved behind closed doors. It comes after President Donald Trump vowed to save Netanyahu as he hit out at the Israeli leaders witch-hunt corruption trial. Why did I come? I wanted to see whats going on. Im watching, its an open trial, Huckabee said outside Tel Aviv District Court. Trump claimed Israels prime minister was a great hero and warrior who faced politically motivated charges and called for the trial to be cancelled. Huckabee later wrote on social media: I stopped by the trial of @IsraeliPM in Tel Aviv today. My conclusion? @realDonaldTrump is rightagain. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee holds a note given to him by President Trump to be placed in the cracks of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in the Old City of Jerusalem ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) Huckabee was confirmed as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel in April 2025. The Senate confirmation of Huckabee, a well-known evangelical Christian, was reported as a relief to Israeli officials, although he told lawmakers during a March hearing that he would carry out the presidents priorities, not mine as ambassador. That pledge came in response to questions about some of his past statements about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. I am not here to articulate or defend my own views or policies, but to present myself as one who will respect and represent the president, whose overwhelming election by the people will hopefully give me the honor of serving as ambassador to the state of Israel, Huckabee said at the time. Huckabee acknowledged his past support for Israels right to annex the West Bank and incorporate its Palestinian population into Israel, but said it would not be his prerogative to carry out that policy. Huckabee, a one-time presidential hopeful, also has repeatedly backed referring to the West Bank by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria, a term that right-wing Israeli politicians and activists have thus far fruitlessly pushed the U.S. to accept. Netanyahu faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust and denies all of them. He was indicted in 2019. He pleaded not guilty after the trial, involving three criminal cases, began in 2020. In the first case, the Israeli leader is alleged to have committed fraud and breach of trust over claims he and his wife, Sara, received expensive gifts illicitly from a Hollywood media mogul, according to The Times of Israel. In the second instance, he is accused of fraud and breach of trust for allegedly attempting to persuade a newspaper publisher to provide favorable coverage in exchange for legislation that would weaken the newspapers key rival. In the third case, Netanyahu is alleged to have passed legislation that financially benefited a telecommunications giant shareholder in return for more favourable media coverage. Trump frequently used the term witch-hunt to describe his own legal battles prior to his re-election in November 2024. Israeli President Issac Herzog has the power to pardon Netanyahu but has been quoted by Israeli media as saying that it is not currently on the table. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at a senior Department of Government Efficiency official who allegedly called the Pentagon police on a subordinate after a confrontation, according to a new report. The reprimand allegedly took place after a tense one-on-one meeting on April 4 between Yinon Weiss, Elon Musks pick to lead DOGE at the Defense Department, and Justin Fulcher, another official at the advisory body, three sources told the Washington Post. It came at a tumultuous time for the defense secretary, who was dealing with the fallout from Signalgate, where top officials gave The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg a front row seat as they discussed impending strikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen in March. After storming out of the meeting, Fulcher allegedly went to Hegseths office and complained that he believed Weiss had reported him to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. Weisss alleged actions angered the defense secretary, the sources said. Its not clear what caused the argument between Weiss and Fulcher. open image in gallery Hegseth became irate after a spat between DOGE staffers allegedly ended in the Pentagon police being called ( AP ) At times raising his voice, the sources added that an irate Hegseth demanded that Weiss, who departed DOGE last week, explain why he believed he possessed the authority to evict someone from government property. Weiss attempted to explain to Hegseth that he had not contacted the Pentagon police but another government official, two people familiar with their argument said. One source claimed that Weiss contacted the Pentagon transition office that assists newly arriving political appointees. In a text message to The Post, Fulcher said that he believed no police were called, nor did he see any law enforcement officers. There was one person who was making claims that he was going to call PFPA (Pentagon Force Protection Agency) that was clear, he said. Despite Fulchers admission, Hegseth did not appear to blame the DOGE employee. After his spat with Weiss, he was provided with a Pentagon office space. open image in gallery After his DOGE departure last week, Yinon Weiss (pictured) thanked Hegseth for the unprecedented opportunity he gave DOGE ( Fox News ) After firing several senior Pentagon officials in mid-April, Hegseth named Fulcher a senior adviser. While Fulcher remains in his position, sources said he has been relocated from outside Hegseths main office to a desk down the hall. Fulcher told The Post that the move was temporary, due to maintenance work being conducted. Justin Fulcher is a senior advisor to Secretary Hegseth, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Independent. Our senior advisors at the Department of Defense are unified and working together to carry out President Trump and Secretary Hegseths agenda. Reflecting on his departure from DOGE on Tuesday, Weiss thanked Hegseth for the unprecedented opportunity he gave the group. @SecDef carefully and fairly weighed in on every recommendation that was presented to him, and he fully embodied the values he promotes for the Department; reviving the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, and reasserting deterrence, he tweeted. The altercation highlights tension between senior Pentagon officials and those assigned to DOGE, whose mission to dismantle federal departments has reportedly clashed with national security priorities. Despite publicly praising DOGEs work, behind the scenes, Hegseth expressed frustration about its activity and unreliable communication, especially earlier in the year, according to sources. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Donald Trump on Wednesday morning unleashed a fresh tirade at his own supporters as key members of his Make America Great Again movement continue to push back at Attorney General Pam Bondis refusal to release case files from the prosecution of multimillionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. In a post on Truth Social, the 47th president, who once spoke highly of the disgraced financier and his proclivity for surrounding himself with young women, resumed arguing that the furor around the so-called Epstein files a longtime fixation for many of his MAGA supporters who believe they contain damaging information on prominent Democrats and other liberal celebrities is a creation of his political enemies rather than anything genuinely felt by his political base. Trump compared the burgeoning scandal around his own Department of Justice to past political blow-ups over Russias interference in the 2016 election and Hunter Bidens infamous laptop, calling the present dustup a SCAM perpetrated by Democrats and labeling it as what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. He also suggested that anyone still clamoring for the documents is not a true supporter of his. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, a clearly agitated Trump wrote. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. Donald Trump y Jeffrey Epstein en una fiesta en noviembre de 1992 ( NBC News ) I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Countrys history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, he raged on. Epstein, a math teacher turned financial adviser, who federal agents arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019, was found to have hanged himself roughly a month later in a Manhattan detention facility where he was awaiting trial. Though it was officially ruled that he died by suicide, many dispute that conclusion, and questions have been raised regarding the circumstances surrounding his death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. For years, the presidents supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. For years, Trump has winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last years presidential election. But last week the Justice Department and FBI issued a memo stating that there was no such client list and announcing that no additional files relating to the case would be made public. The agencies had determined that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted, much was sealed by a court to protect Epsteins victims, and only a fraction of it would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial. Additionally, the memo said that no further charges were expected as investigators did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. Now, as his base revolts over the Justice Departments failure to make good on that promise, he is angrily disavowing those MAGA die-hards. Continuing his Truth Social rant, the president went on to disavow those supporters who still want his administration to come clean on the case files assembled as federal investigators and prosecutors built a case against Epstein for sex trafficking during his first term. He wrote: Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! The presidents social media rant is the latest in a series of outbursts he has had when pressed on the Epstein matter. During a cabinet meeting last week when a reporter asked him about the now-infamous Justice Department memorandum, he expressed incredulity that anyone was still discussing the matter. And over the weekend as the furor failed to break, he took to his social media platform to inveigh against the continued clamoring for records relating to his former associate. He wrote: Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals? and groused that his PERFECT Administration was being hurt by selfish people ... all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. In remarks to reporters on Tuesday he claimed not to understand why the dead pedophile was still animating his base. I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It's pretty boring stuff, he said. I think, really, only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going. But some of his most prominent supporters dont agree. In an interview with podcaster Benny Johnson on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (who is not related to the podcaster) said he was for transparency and called for the Justice Department to put everything out there and let the people decide it even as he and most House Republicans voted down Democratic legislative language that would have forced the release of the documents at issue. Another Republican, Representative Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, wrote on X Tuesday that he would force a House vote on releasing the COMPLETE files. We all deserve to know whats in the Epstein files, whos implicated, and how deep this corruption goes. Americans were promised justice and transparency, he said. And one of Trumps most vocal boosters, Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, told the right-wing Real Americas Voice network she expects more to be made public. I think the Department of Justice and the FBI has more explaining to do this is Jeffrey Epstein, she said. This is the most famous pedophile in modern-day history, and people are absolutely not going to accept just a memo that was written that says there is no client list. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to lash out at some of his most fervent supporters amid continuing calls for the justice department (DOJ) to release case files on multimillionaire sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, telling reporters in the Oval Office that those in his party who are refusing to drop the matter are stupid and foolish. The comments to reporters came just about two hours after he posted a screed on his Truth Social platform ripping into what he called his PAST supporters for continuing to press for the release of the Epstein DOJ files in full. Speaking alongside Bahraini crown prince and prime minister Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa during a media availability at the top of a bilateral meeting, Trump was asked if he has evidence to support his recent claim that the fervor over the late disgraced financier, who died from suicide in a Manhattan jail cell during his first term, is part of a Democratic hoax against him. He declined to say there is any such evidence, but he repeated his dubious claim that theres nothing to the Epstein matter and accused those in his camp who still want to see documents from the case of having been taken in by duplicitous Democrats. I know its a hoax. It was started by Democrats. Its been run by the Democrats for four years ... its perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats work, he said. Trump railed against the continued coverage of the so-called Epstein files as he was joined by Bahrains prime minister ( Reuters ) The case of Epstein, a former math teacher turned financier who was arrested for alleged sex trafficking by federal authorities in 2019, has been a longtime fixation for many of Trumps Maga supporters who believe they contain damaging information on prominent Democrats and other liberal celebrities. For years, the presidents supporters have pushed for release of what they believe was a list of powerful people to whom Epstein is alleged to have trafficked young girls, as well as other information they believe would reflect negatively on members of the Democratic Party, various Hollywood celebrities, and other purported elites who they believe to be part of a sinister cabal controlling world events. Trump has winked and nodded at such beliefs and had indicated during his 2024 campaign that his administration would release the documents in question if he were victorious in last years presidential election. But last week, the DOJ and FBI issued a memo stating that there was no such client list and announcing that no additional files relating to the case would be made public. The agencies had determined that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted, much was sealed by a court to protect Epsteins victims, and only a fraction of it would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial. Additionally, the memo said that no further charges were expected as investigators did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. The president was once closely associated with and spoke highly of the disgraced financier and his proclivity for surrounding himself with young women, while Epstein at one point described himself as Trumps best friend, leading to speculation that the president has been trying to prevent release of the files despite a campaign promise to do so because their content would reflect poorly on him. Earlier in the day, he took to Truth Social to attack his own supporters for their continued clamor for transparency around the notorious case, falsely alleging that the dust-up is a creation of his political enemies rather than anything genuinely felt by his political base. He also suggested that anyone still clamoring for the documents is not a true supporter of his. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, a clearly agitated Trump wrote. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. He went on to disavow those supporters who still want his administration to come clean on the case files assembled as federal investigators and prosecutors built a case against Epstein for sex trafficking during his first term, writing: Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Asked whether he was sincerely rejecting the support of anyone unwilling to accept the DOJs word on the Epstein case, he said hed lost a lot of faith in certain people and accused them of having been duped by the Democrats. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Donald Trump has claimed that former President Barack Obama and former FBI Director James Comey made up the Epstein files. As he left for an event in Pennsylvania from the White House Tuesday, the President was asked by a reporter if Attorney General Pam Bondi had revealed whether his name appeared in any of the Justice Departments files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Last week, the DOJ and FBI released a joint memo confirming that Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 and did not have a client list of rich and powerful people. The memo concluded that no further investigation was needed, pouring cold water on years of speculation surrounding the disgraced financier. Tech billionaire, and former Trump ally, Elon Musk has claimed without evidence that the Presidents name appears in the files during a public falling-out with him last month. Trump, who had socialized with Epstein before he entered politics, did not answer directly Tuesday. Shes given us just a very quick briefing, and in terms of the credibility of the different things that they've seen, Trump said. And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey. They were made up by Obama. open image in gallery President Donald Trump told reporters he believes former President Barack Obama and ex-FBI Director James Comey 'made up' the Epstein files ( REUTERS ) Obama, a Democrat, served in the White House from 2009 to 2017, while Comey led the FBI from 2013 until May 2017, at which point Trump fired him. Trump made a similar claim in a Truth Social post Saturday, claiming the files were written by Obama, Comey and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, among others. They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called friends are playing right into their hands, Trump wrote. Why didnt these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didnt they use it? The Epstein files refers to a collection of redacted documents believed to contain the names of the convicted pedophiles alleged associates. Bondi previously insinuated to Fox News she had the client liston her desk in February. Trump also praised Bondis work on the memo while speaking to reporters Tuesday, as she faces backlash from members of the far-right who say she hasnt released enough information and should step down. open image in gallery President Donald Trump praised Attorney General Pam Bondis handling on the Epstein files ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ) I think the Attorney General has handled it very well on the DOJ and FBI review, the findings of that review, Trump said. Tensions are rising in the White House as FBI leaders, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, are reportedly frustrated with the memo and Bondis handling of the Epstein case. Deputy Director Bonginos relationship with the White House is currently untenable, CNN has reported. White House officials reportedly confronted Bongino and Patel over a story leaked to NewsNation that claimed the Justice Department had stopped the FBI from unsealing further evidence related to Epstein. Patel and Bongino denied that they were behind the leak. However, Bongino was so frustrated he offered an ultimatum to the president: either fire Bondi or he would resign. Bongino reportedly did not show up to work Friday as a result of the incident, sources told CNN Monday. open image in gallery FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino may be poised to leave his post after a falling out with Attorney General Pam Bondi ( Getty Images ) The situation infuriated the president, who spent the weekend angry with Bongino, CNN reported. After reports of the spat, Trump publicly backed Bondi, and Patel announced he would not step down as FBI director. By Sunday, the presidents anger appeared to have dissipated as he told reporters that he had spoken with Bongino, who remains his deputy FBI director. According to CNN, Bongino was back in his office Monday. Patel and Bongino, both right-wing media personalities before they took up posts at the FBI, were among the biggest proponents of Epstein conspiracy theories in MAGA world. Now, MAGA activists are outraged over the recent memo. The White House maintains that Bongino, Bondi and others are working in lockstep and with unprecedented success. Attorney General Bondi, Director Patel, Deputy Director Bongino, and the countless other heroes of our law enforcement community are dedicated to executing President Trumps agenda of protecting civil rights, safeguarding communities, holding criminals accountable, and defending victims, spokesperson Harrison Fields told The Independent Monday. Democrats have also entered the fray with Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin saying he will urge House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan to subpoena Bondi, Patel and Bongino over the handling of the files. [M]any of these people have gestured at the existence of a client list, so this is a vast public perception now without regard to ideological lines, Raskin said. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org to find a helpline near you. In the UK, people having mental health crises can contact the Samaritans at 116 123 or jo@samaritans.org. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A far cry from the bad, hard criminals Donald Trump said his undocumented immigrants crackdown would focus on, record-breaking numbers of deportation orders have been issued to young immigrant children under the Trump administration, The Independent can reveal. More kids aged 11 or under 8,317 received a removal order from an immigration court in April than any other month in over 35 years of data collection, according to court data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). Since Trumps inauguration in January, judges have ordered removals for over 53,000 immigrant minors. Those children are predominantly elementary school age or younger. Some 15,000 children were aged under four years old, and 20,000 of them were children aged four to eleven. Teenagers are also experiencing climbing deportations, with 17,000 seeing a court-ordered removal, although thats lower than their all-time peak in 2020 under the first Trump administration. open image in gallery This 2021 photo, during the Biden administration, shows young unaccompanied migrants waiting at a processing station inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in Texas. ( AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills ) Some of these children being deported are unaccompanied minors, who do not have a legal guardian in the US; though the exact number is unclear, since immigration authorities stopped recording this data years ago. Children, including toddlers, are required to show up at immigration hearings to be questioned by a judge and many, unsurprisingly, do not understand what is happening nor the gravity of their situation. In one case, a source tells the Independent, a young child from Haiti had his immigration court hearing remotely in front of a screen. The child, who had a learning disability, was fidgeting and running around the room. Finally, he pointed at the judge on the screen and asked Whos that? In other cases, children are being arrested by ICE with their families, but held in detention and deported separately. A six year old child was picked up [by ICE] with his father, separated from his dad, and parked in custody for four months before being deported, a lawyer familiar with children's immigration cases told the Independent. The child was unable to receive legal assistance, as he was deported while federal legal funding had been cut. The deportation outcome rate for immigrant children under age 11 is higher than in any other age group, latest figures show, and has jumped significantly since Trump came into office. Whats more, under-18s account for one in four (26 percent) of all deportations ordered in immigration court since January despite the fact that minors make up just 11 percent of the undocumented population. The vast majority (76 percent) of children under 11 do not have legal representation, and cases are being sped through the system, according to sources close to the courts. This is pumping up the deportation numbers on the back of kids their rights to safety and due process are not respected, the immigration lawyer told the Independent. This is about striking fear in the hearts of everybody. It's demonstrable cruelty in the name of so-called deterrence. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded to the Independent: Accusations that ICE is targeting children are FALSE and an attempt to demonize law enforcement. ICE does not target children nor does it deport children. Rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe the parent designates. Highest-ever deportations for young children Immigration crackdowns across the country have been almost indiscriminate, with new data revealing that ICE is arresting more non-criminals than ever. The number of people who have been deported under the Trump administration is murky; ICE has not disclosed official figures since January, and available immigration court data is not comprehensive, with age not recorded in 13 percent of cases. But analysis of court data reveals that children have been increasingly, and disproportionately, marked for deportation in recent months. Under the Trump administration, immigration courts have quickly ramped up deportation rates. Around two thirds (68 percent) of all immigration court proceedings ended in deportation in May, compared to 39 percent in January. But for children under 11, the removal rate is even higher, at 75 percent in May; and 78 percent for kids under 4 years old, both substantially higher than the 45 percent seen on average for young kids in January. This suggests that children are being disproportionately targeted for deportations under this administration, overrepresented by 2.3 times more than their proportion of the illegal immigrant population, our analysis shows. What we're seeing right now is basically a grist mill in immigration court, just scooting kids through the process as quickly as possible, the lawyer, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Independent. At the same time, children facing immigration court are more vulnerable and less protected than ever. open image in gallery A young girl holds a placard that says "America Built by Immigrants" during a February rally in Pennsylvania. A group of protesters held a rally against the new immigration laws and use of ICE to deport some of their family and friends. ( Getty ) In spite of this, the Trump administration has been fighting to cancel funding which provides legal aid for unaccompanied immigrant children. The government first issued a stop-work order in February, and cancelled federal contracts in March. In April the federal district court ordered the Trump administration to restore funding, saying it is congressionally mandated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). Legal assistance programs told the Independent that they had since been re-contracted; but remain on pins and needles as the government appeals the court ruling, and Trumps Big Beautiful Bill makes it harder and more expensive to sue against his policies. Rocket dockets and separating families In the meantime, children are being put on expedited paths through immigration court, known as rocket dockets, according to the immigration lawyer. Many of these cases are going through in just two weeks from start to finish which leaves little-to-no room for a child to prepare the necessary documents and arguments. Of course, a child is going to file a case that's not completely fleshed out in all the legal arguments, because they don't understand the legal argument, the lawyer told the Independent. This is also really damaging for trafficking victims. Kids who have experienced severe trauma need the time to have their nervous system relax, to understand that they're safe, to share some of the most sensitive details about their cases. open image in gallery A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, under the first Trump administration. They were detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents before being sent to a processing center for possible separation. Children must be able to argue their case for asylum in front of a judge. ( Getty Images ) These tactics evoke the family separation policy, employed in 2018 under the first Trump administration, which forcibly kept parents and children apart when detained at the border with as many as 1,360 families never reunited, according to Human Rights Watch. It is seen as against the due process rights of a child to be systematically separated from their parent or legal guardian, the lawyer explained. Whats clear is that they are sidestepping the legal settlement to protect children from these cruel techniques." Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Donald Trumps defiant U-turn on releasing Department of Justice case files related to Jeffrey Epstein has put some of his most diehard Republican supporters in a bind. On Wednesday, Trump unloaded on Republicans who wanted to see promises kept about releasing the files about the disgraced financier who died in police custody after being arrested for trafficking underage girls and women. Trump, who knew Epstein for many years, claimed the effort to keep the heat on him over Epstein was perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats work, even though Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell were both arrested during Trumps first administration. But Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) who said he would not seek re-election after he came out against Trumps One Big, Beautiful Bill last month, was more taciturn than his more MAGA colleagues. I think at the end of the day, just release the damn files, Tillis told The Independent on Wednesday. Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna is a staunch Trump supporter who has introduced legislation to make him part of Mount Rushmore and also supported efforts to declassify the Epstein files ( Getty Images ) Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who shepherded FBI Director Kash Patels confirmation through the committee, insisted that there needs to be transparency. So maybe one motivation, since it's not going to be here, what they thought it was going to be, he said. And the other one would be motivation, maybe it's more damaging to some people than they think it could be. You can't do the whole we got to protect witnesses. Thats what they call redaction. But Tillis is in a far different spot than most of his Republican colleagues in the House and Senate given hes clashed with Trump on a few occasions, and does not have to worrry about being pitted against a Trump- and RNC-backed primary challenger in a reelection bid. Republicans had earlier blocked an attempt by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to include an amendment to a rule to declassify files related to Epstein. Every Republican either opposed the legislation or did not vote. On Monday evening, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was the sole Republican on the House Rules Committee hearing to support Khannas amendment. But when The Independent showed him Trumps post on Truth Social, he chuckled and immediately pivoted to former President Joe Biden. Trump, the great things he's doing, where I do agree with him. Where was the inquiry that they had to get into Biden's LLCs? he asked. The cash payments. It never happened. So I see why hes frustrated. Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who leads a House task force on government secrets and has supported attempts to declassify files related to Epstein, challenged the idea she opposed attempts to declassify the info around Epstein with her no vote. I didn't vote against his amendment, that was a procedural to return power to the House Democrats, she told The Independent. Lunas predicament, like that of many members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is that they have pushed for years to declassify information related to Epstein. Part of this was in hopes that it would lead to the downfall of Democratic elected officials and business elites and indeed, former president Bill Clinton and Bill Gates both were friendly with Epstein, as was Trump. When The Independent asked about the presidents post on Truth Social where he said his PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, she dodged. I have not read it yet, but I'll definitely check it out, Luna told The Independent. When pressed about it, she referred to past statements where she said a whistleblower accused the government of destroying evidence. I will tell you that, although I have not seen any information pertaining to the Epstein whole files as a whole, what I will tell you is the President's statement was pretty clear that he supported releasing credible evidence, she told The Independent. What I will tell you is that again, I don't speak for the DOJ and I don't speak for the White House, but I think that there's more to come on this, and so, I'll leave it at that. But Trump has always been cagey about declassifying information about Epstein. During the 2024 campaign, when asked by Fox News about it, he said, I think that less so because you dont want to affect peoples lives if its phony stuff in there, because its a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would. Trumps forceful denunications have put him directly at odds with some of his biggest defenders. A poll from Quinnipiac University released on Wednesday showed that only 40 percent of Republicans approve of how Trump has handled the Epstein files and 36 percent disapprove of it. The numbers come ever since the Department of Justice released a two-page memo saying it had conducted an exhaustive review of materials related to Epstein and that he had no client list. That has put Republicans like Rep. Brandon Gill of Texas in a bind. Gill, a freshman firebrand, had previously called for files around Epstein to be released. But when asked by The Independent, he demurred. I think there's always still a chance, he said. I mean, I'd like to see them. I think most, most Americans would. I trust the president and his team. We've got a great group of people working there, so we'll see where it goes. When pressed, Gill repeated his remarks. Like I said he's put together a really good team, he told The Independent. He's the leader of the party. I think he's gonna do the right thing. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice At an energy and innovation summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, President Donald Trump insisted that his uncle, Dr. John Trump, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had once taught a seriously good student named Theodore Ted Kaczynski. Hed go around correcting everybody, Trump boasted. It didn't work out too well for him... but its interesting in life. During his winding 30-minute speech at the inaugural Energy and Innovation summit at Carnegie Mellon University, Trump elaborated on the story, suggesting that the student was the domestic terrorist and mathematician known as the Unabomber. After invoking his late paternal uncle, whom he falsely described as MITs longest-serving professor, Trump continued his implausible anecdote. Kaczynski was one of his students, he continued. Do you know who Kaczynski was? Theres very little difference between a madman and a genius. open image in gallery Trump his MIT professor uncle taught the Unabomber - but records say otherwise ( Reuters ) The crowd showed little reaction to the story, and it was unclear if the president was confusing Kaczynski, who died by suicide in a federal prison in 2023, with someone else. The bizarre claim is not only highly unlikely, it is practically impossible. Kaczynski attacked academics, businessmen, and random civilians with homemade bombs between 1978 and 1995, as part of a campaign aimed at collapsing modern society. He killed three people and injured 23. Before being recognized as the Unabomber, Kaczynski earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1962, having entered at the age of 16, and Master's and Doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Michigan by 1967. open image in gallery Before becoming the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski never attended MIT ( AP ) Kaczynski taught as an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley, until 1969, before making a deliberate shift away from academic life and mainstream society, living in a remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana. Despite Trumps statements, Kaczynski never attended MIT. There is no record of him ever visiting or lecturing at the university either. Meanwhile, Prof. Trump, a cancer research pioneer who received the National Medal of Science, taught at MIT for approximately four decades before his death in 1985 at the age of 78. He focused on high-voltage phenomena, electron acceleration, and the interaction of radiation with both living and non-living matter, including the design of X-ray generators for cancer therapy. His expertise has been repeatedly vaunted by his nephew, who on Tuesday described him as a smart man. open image in gallery The president has repeatedly hailed uncle John Trumps intellect. describing hims as a smart man ( MIT Museum ) Unlike Kaczynski, John Trump was not a mathematician; he was a professor of electrical engineering and physics. Even if the renowned physicist did cross paths with the infamous serial killer, he could not have known that Kaczynski was linked to the Unabomber attacks. The alleged conversation would have taken place more than a decade before the FBI identified Kaczynski as the Unabomber in April 1996 after his brother, David Kaczynski, turned him in after reading his manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future. The manifesto makes no mention of Prof. Trump, MIT, or any figures associated with that institution. His autobiography and prison interviews also contain detailed recollections of his education and professors, with no mention of Trumps uncle or his time at MIT. While MIT geneticist Phillip Sharp received a threatening letter from Kaczynski before his arrest, no one from or affiliated with the technical college was physically attacked or injured. The Independent has contacted the White House for more information. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Authorities in Australia have urged over 800 additional children to undergo testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), after four more childcare centres were linked to a former employee now facing more than 70 charges, including child rape. Joshua Dale Brown, 26, is accused of sexually abusing eight children, aged between five months and two years, while working at a childcare centre in Point Cook, a suburb of Melbourne. The alleged offences occurred between April 2022 and January 2023. Mr Brown was arrested in May and is due to appear before the Melbourne Magistrates Court in September. Victoria Police said the list of centres where he worked has now grown from 20 to 23 after investigators uncovered additional dates and locations, with one previously named centre removed from the list following a review. Earlier, the authorities contacted approximately 2,600 families with children who attended the centres. At least, 1,200 advised to undergo screening for STI, reported the Guardian. File: Activists protesting child sexual abuse in Sydney on 18 July 2008 ( AFP via Getty Images ) The health department is contacting 830 more families whose children may have been in contact with Mr Brown, and recommends STI screening for approximately 800 of them after four more centres were added to the list. The infections being tested for include chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis treatable conditions that are not commonly associated with children, and whose presence could indicate serious abuse. Although the risk of exposure is considered low, Victorias chief health officer Dr Christian McGrath said testing is being advised as a precaution. This is obviously a highly distressing situation, and I want to reassure all families being contacted that the potential exposure risk to an infectious disease for their child remains low, Dr McGrath said, reported the Guardian. Families will be contacted via text message, followed by a phone call, and those who have already had their children tested do not need further screening. Victoria Police Acting Commander Janet Stevenson acknowledged public frustration over the delays in updating Mr Browns work history. We are working through a large amount of information that has been provided to us, she said, reported ABC News. Each piece has to be individually assessed and verified before it can be released to the public. Investigators described the process of reconstructing Mr Browns employment timeline as extremely complex due to the lack of centralised records in the childcare sector. Detectives had to obtain handwritten rosters, execute search warrants, review over 270 Crime Stoppers reports, and interview multiple witnesses. Ten of the 20 previously identified centres have had their employment dates amended following new information, while one centre, Papilio Early Learning in Hoppers Crossing was removed after investigators found Mr Brown had not worked there. G8 Education, the childcare operator that employed Mr Brown at the time of his arrest, has committed to fast-tracking the installation of security cameras across its 400 centres and will initiate an independent review once criminal proceedings are concluded, reported BBC News. Affinity Education Group, which operates several affected centres, has apologised for the distress caused and said it had submitted updated employment records to the police earlier this month. No family should have to go through this. We are committed to supporting every family impacted, a spokesperson said. Despite being under investigation for concerning behaviour two years ago reportedly unrelated to sexual misconduct Mr Brown retained his Working with Children Check, a clearance mandatory for individuals employed in child-related roles. The case has sparked widespread outrage across Victoria, with parents expressing anger not only at the alleged crimes but also at what they see as serious failings in the vetting and oversight of childcare workers. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Vaping among school-age children has significantly reduced, the Australian government has said, citing a study, a year after a ban on disposable vapes. Australian health minister Mark Butler on Wednesday said vaping rates "have now turned the corner" for young children, calling it a result of their 12-month campaign to crack down on the illegal sale of vapes. The nationwide Generation Vape Research Project by Cancer Council conducted an anonymous survey of 3,000 young Australians. Among children aged 14-17 years, vaping rates have fallen from 17.5 per cent to 14 per cent from the start of 2023 to April this year, it has found. Overall, smoking rates among people aged over 15 fell by more than a third, while vaping rates among those aged 30 to 59 dropped by nearly half. Vaping rates for young Australians have now turned the corner. Our education and prevention campaigns as well as support to deter people from taking up vaping and smoking or to quit are making a difference, Mr Butler said. open image in gallery A collection of discarded electronic cigarette vapes have been grouped together over a worn concrete floor ( Getty Images ) Mr Butler said vaping products still "leak" through the border despite their crackdown. "From the time we put this ban in place we never pretended we'd be able to stop every vape coming in," he said. "But we do know that it is harder to get your hands on a disposable vape that's led to a very significant increase in the price of vapes where they are still accessible, and that's having a positive impact on young people." He said authorities have seized more than 10 million illegal vapes in the past year. The Therapeutic Goods Authority and Australian Border Force (ABF) said the 10 million vapes half a billon dollars worth of vapes were taken off the market. Additional seizures included 2.5 billion cigarette sticks and 435 tonnes of illicit tobacco. open image in gallery Australian Health Minister Mark Butler speaks gestures towards boxes of electronic cigarettes during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024 ( AAP IMAGE ) "It's a market that targets our communities including our children," ABF Assistant Commissioner Tony Smith said. "[It] sends profits into the hands of organised crime, profits that are used to cause further harm through intimidation tactics, arson, firearms, drugs and even cyber crime." Laws introduced to curb vaping banned single-use vapes from being made, imported, advertised and supplied in 2024. Only nicotine vapes were allowed to be legally sold with a prescription in pharmacies. The UK also banned the sale of disposable vapes in June this year. Vaping was introduced as an alternative to smoking tobacco, but experts say they are not risk-free, and it has created a new generation of nicotine dependency in our community. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Australias Federal Court has ruled that the national government owes no legal duty to protect the Torres Strait Islands or their Indigenous inhabitants from the effects of climate change, in a landmark judgment that campaigners say exposes critical gaps in the countrys legal framework. Justice Michael Wigney dismissed the claim brought by two Torres Strait Islander elders, Paul Kabai and Pabai Pabai, who argued that the federal government had been negligent in failing to cut carbon emissions or take meaningful adaptation measures to safeguard their ancestral lands. The Commonwealth did not and does not owe Torres Strait Islanders the duty of care alleged by the applicants, said Justice Wigney on Tuesday, according to SBS News. While he accepted the scientific evidence of devastating climate impacts on the islands, he concluded that decisions on emissions targets fell squarely within the realm of government policy, not judicial oversight. The case was the first of its kind in Australia to argue that the federal government owed a specific legal duty to protect its citizens from climate harm under the law of negligence. The Torres Strait Islands, a group of around 270 islands scattered between the northern tip of Queensland and Papua New Guinea, are home to about 4,000 people more than 90 per cent of whom are Indigenous Australians. Only a few dozen islands are inhabited. open image in gallery Delegations representing Philippines, Australian and Dominican Republic share a negotiation table regarding the islands in danger of disappearing due to the rising ocean levels caused by global warming, in the framework of the COP16 United Nations Climate Change conference on 9 December 2010 ( AFP via Getty Images ) The claimants, both community leaders from the low-lying islands of Saibai and Boigu, warned that rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and stronger storm surges are already destroying homes, sacred burial grounds and food sources, threatening both the physical and cultural survival of their communities. We wont have our culture... if Saibai goes under water, we lose everything. Our culture, our identity, our livelihood. It will all be gone, said Mr Kabai in his submission to the court, reported News.com.au. Mr Pabai, whose home island Boigu is also facing rapid environmental decline, told the court, If Boigu was gone, or I had to leave it because it was under water, I will be nothing. I will become nobody. Sea levels in the Torres Strait region have risen by approximately 6cm per decade between 1993 and 2019, the court was told. Despite accepting these facts, Justice Wigney said that while the damage was undeniable, it did not create a cause of action under current Australian negligence law. He cited binding precedent and concluded: The reality is that the law in Australia, as it currently stands, provides no real or effective legal avenue through which individuals and communities can claim damages or other relief for the consequences of government inaction on climate. He added that the only available recourse for those in the plaintiffs position was public advocacy and protest, and ultimately, recourse via the ballot box, reported News.com.au. Although the court found the Commonwealth had paid scant, if any, regard to the best available science in setting emissions targets under previous Coalition governments, the judge noted that the current Labor administration had set significantly higher and more ambitious goals, reported BBC. The court acknowledged that Torres Strait Islanders would likely face catastrophic losses if urgent action is not taken. There could be little, if any, doubt that the Torres Strait Islands and their traditional inhabitants will face a bleak future if urgent action is not taken to address climate change and its impacts, said Justice Wigney. open image in gallery File: Climate activists from the group Rising Tide staged a protest in Newcastle Harbour in Australia attempting to block the entry of a large bulk carrier into the world's largest coal port ( Getty Images ) The ruling has triggered deep disappointment among the claimants and their communities. My heart is broken for my family and my community, said Mr Pabai after the judgment. This pain isnt just for me its for all people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who have been affected by climate change. This is emotional, said Mr Kabai. Were not going to stop here. From Cairns, several hundred kilometres from his home, Mr Kabai called on Australians to unite in demanding government action. Sea level is rising and our communities Boigu and Saibai they are about 1.3m above sea level, so we are sinking. Its time now for us to keep knocking at the governments door. The plaintiffs, supported by the Grata Fund a legal charity that financed the litigation said they are considering an appeal. Isabelle Reinecke, the funds executive director, said the case was only the beginning. The court did not say that accountability is impossible under the law, it just said that it is not ready yet, she said according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I have a lot of hope that the law will and can develop. She compared the case to the historic Mabo ruling, which established Indigenous land rights after a decade-long legal battle. Ms Reinecke welcomed the governments post-ruling commitment to adaptation and urged it to commission studies on what those measures might entail for the Torres Strait. Legal experts say the verdict reflects how Australias laws have not yet caught up with the complex realities of climate change and human rights. Riona Moodley, a researcher at the University of New South Waless Institute for Climate Risk and Response, told BBC News that the ruling was definitely a setback, but added: The reality is that Australian law will need to adapt to meet the challenges of climate change. Her colleague Wesley Morgan said the case should galvanise political leaders. The government must listen to the science telling us we need to be as ambitious as possible in the decade ahead. Energy minister Chris Bowen and Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy acknowledged the significance of the case, saying in a joint statement: We understand that the Torres Strait Islands are vulnerable to climate change, and many are already feeling the impacts. Criticism was also directed at the previous government. The judge found the Coalitions emissions targets in 2015, 2020 and 2021 failed to engage with the best scientific advice. However, opposition spokesperson Dan Tehan defended the former administration, saying it had reduced emissions by 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 202122, and accused the Labor government of failing to present a credible implementation plan. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The two sides in one of Europes longest running disputes have expressed their optimism about fresh talks which are set to start on Wednesday. Informal talks are set to start in New York, chaired by the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, with the UK involved as one of the guarantor powers for the Mediterranean island. The breakaway Turkish Cypriots in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have promised a new approach to the talks, while the Republic of Cyprus government in the south say they enter the talks with a positive spirit. open image in gallery Cyprus president Nikos Christodoulides with TRNC president Ersin Tatar ( Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved ) The talks are also set to involve the UK as one of the islands former guarantor powers with Keir Starmer hoping to make it the latest in a succession of international agreements. After a series of successes on the international stage, including a Brexit reset and trade deals with the US and India, the prime minister is now looking at ending the 51-year division on the island of Cyprus. It comes after Ersin Tatar, the president of the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) sought help from Boris Johnson in a visit to the UK in late June. Mr Tatar met with the former prime minister after holding talks in a Whitehall office with UK minister Stephen Doughty , who is set to lead for the UK in the New York talks. Mr Johnson, who has Turkish heritage, was UK foreign secretary during the last formal talks on the island in 2015 to 2017 in Crans Montana, Switzerland which collapsed. Turkish and Greek Cypriots are still deadlocked over the decades-long division of their island. President Tatar, supported by Turkeys president Recep Erdogan, is pushing for equal recognition and a two-state solution with the island divided in practice since 1974. However, the recognised Cypriot government is still pushing for a federal solution to reunite the island. But Mr Tatar has said that he has agreed to look for a new way of resolving the disputes by using the talks to find mutual cooperation on issues which benefit both sides. He said: Our new approach is basically for the two sides to cooperate on various matters, including energy, water, new economic opportunities, clearing the land from all mines, especially in the buffer zone, even repairing reciprocity the old cemeteries on both sides. We want to have investment in solar energy, in renewable energy in the buffer zone where we have a lot of land which is sitting there for nothing. So we can use a lot of investment to generate energy and share it with the Greek Cypriots for our common good. He also thinks the island will benefit with a new cable running from Turkey which is just 60km from Cyprus. The issue has been further complicated over disputes on who owns oil and gas reserves close to the island. Meanwhile, Spyros Miltiades, deputy high commissioner for Cyprus in London, told The Independent: The Republic of Cyprus is going to the new meeting in New York, in a positive spirit hoping to see things move forward. Our position is that in New York we should have result oriented discussions that will create the conditions to go to the next step, which is to start direct negotiations within the UN agreed framework for a comprehensive solution of the Cyprus problem from where we were left in Crans Montana in 2017. The only framework of negotiations that the Republic of Cyprus and the rest of the international community accept, is the UN agreed framework of Bizonal Bicommunal Federation. open image in gallery TRNC president Ersin Tatar met Boris Johnson ( TRNC ) He added: We hope that all parties concerned will attend the meeting in goodwill and ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue within this framework that will bring us closer to the islands reunification. After all these decades of on-going UN-led rounds of negotiations, we have reached convergences in most aspects of the Cyprus issue that could make a settlement reachable. Mr Tatars meeting in June with Mr Doughty was the first meeting between a TRNC representative and a UK minister in government Whitehall offices in recent memory. The minister is understood to have refused to have a picture taken with Tatar in his office such is the sensitivity around the Cyprus issue. An FCDO source said: Mr Doughty met Ersin Tatar informally, as leader of the Turkish Cypriot community to discuss ongoing UN-led efforts to reach a Cyprus settlement, as we approach the next UN-led meeting between the parties and guarantor powers in July. The TRNC leader had earlier sought help from former prime minister Boris Johnson. The UN secretary general announced in early May the appointment of Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar as his personal envoy on Cyprus, who is tasked to reengage with the parties in order to work on next steps on the issue. Her appointment has been welcomed by both sides. Additionally, the European Commission designated Johannes Hahn, a former European commissioner, as special envoy for Cyprus to contribute to the settlement process, in close cooperation with Mrs Holguin. Ms Hahns appointment underlines the EUs commitment to the reunification of Cyprus. It comes at critical juncture with hope that any substantive progress in the EU-Turkey relations is linked with progress over the Cyprus issue. The UK, as the former colonial power which still has two military bases on Cyprus, is the guarantor power along with Greece and Turkey. The island has been divided since the Turkish army intervened in 1974 following a Greek-Cypriot military coup which led to ethnic conflict. Turkeys army has remained in the north since then, with Turkish Cypriots seeing them as a defensive force and the Greek Cypriots, supported by the international community, as occupiers. The TRNC declared itself to be an independent state in 1983 but has not been recognised outside Turkey. open image in gallery Stephen Doughty (House of Commons/UK Parliament) ( PA Archive ) Turkish Cypriots argue that the division began in 1963 with the collapse of the ethnic power sharing arrangement following attacks on the Turkish Cypriot community just three years after independence from the UK. In 2004 the Annan Plan at the United Nations almost saw reunification but was rejected at the last minute by the Greek Cypriots in a referendum in the south even though the Turkish Cypriots voted in favour. Despite this Cyprus was allowed to become a member of the EU which critics, including former foreign secretary Jack Straw, claim has made the problem almost impossible to resolve. This article was amended on July 18 2025. It previously inaccurately stated that Ersin Tatar met with Stephen Doughty in the FCDO, but he did not. They met in Mr Doughtys Whitehall office on the Parliamentary estate. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A court has sentenced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main rival of Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, to a fresh prison term, the countrys state broadcaster TRT has reported. Mr Imamoglu has been in jail, pending trial, since March over separate corruption charges. He was sentenced on Wednesday in Istanbul to one year and eight months in prison for insulting and threatening the chief prosecutor of the city. The new sentence must be confirmed by two appeals courts. This is the second time that Mr Imamoglu has been convicted of insulting public officials. In 2022, he was sentenced to two years and six months in jail for criticising election board officials over a decision to cancel 2019 Istanbul elections, in which he defeated the ruling AK Party candidate. Ekrem Imamoglu outside the courthouse in Istanbul ( AP ) He has appealed that sentence, but it has not yet been reviewed. Mr Imamoglu denies the charges. "I've been fighting against the abuse of the judiciary and against its use as a political tool. This is indeed an insult against our nation," he was quoted as saying by broadcaster Halk TV and other Turkish media. The 2022 conviction, if upheld, could prevent him from participating in future elections. Istanbul University in March annulled Imamoglu's university diploma, without which he cannot stand as a candidate for president. Since October 2024, police have detained more than 500 people, over 200 of whom were then jailed pending trial, under investigations into municipalities run by the main opposition CHP, Mr Imamoglu's party. The CHP denies corruption allegations and calls them a politicised attempt by the government to remove electoral threats against Mr Erdogan, a charge the government rejects. Wednesday's hearing was held inside a courthouse-prison complex in Istanbul's Silivri district, a site often used for high-profile and politically sensitive trials and where Mr Imamoglu is currently being held. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A volcanic fissure that opened up in Icelands Reykjanes Peninsula expanded on Thursday after an eruption forced the evacuation of local residents and travellers staying at the famous Blue Lagoon spa. Lava was still flowing on Thursday, after what officials say was the twelfth eruption in the region since 2021. The volcano alert level will remain at the highest level until 3pm on Friday, Icelands Meteorological Office (IMO) said in their latest assessment. The eruption on Wednesday prompted fresh evacuations from the nearby town of Grindavik, a luxury hotel, and the popular Blue Lagoon spa, Icelandic authorities said. Jordis Gumundsdottir, communications director for civil protection, says that police were driving around the Blue Lagoon checking on people staying in houses. There are quite a few people there, she said, according to The Mirror, adding that she didn't have an exact number of people staying in the area. On Wednesday, the eruption sent glowing lava and columns of smoke into the air, with dramatic footage showing orange flows lighting up the dark volcanic landscape. The outbreaks, known as fissure eruptions, are characterised by lava flows emerging from long cracks in the earth's crust, rather than from a central crater. The crack in the ground now measures some 2.4 kilometres, with fresh lava now covering 3.2 square kilometres, according to officials. (It does) not threaten any infrastructure at this time, the IMO said in a statement. Based on GPS measurements and deformation signals, it is likely that this was a relatively small eruption. open image in gallery Lava and smoke erupting from a volcano near Grindavik on the Icelandic peninsula of Reykjanes ( Public Defense Department of the State Police ) Authorities moved swiftly to evacuate areas near the site. According to Icelands public broadcaster RUV, guests were relocated from the Blue Lagoon resort and residents were cleared from Grindavik. Clouds of gas were heading towards nearby communities in Vogar and Reykjanesbr, Sandgeri and Gar, local media reported. Residents were asked to close windows and monitor the air quality. The town, once home to nearly 4,000 people, was evacuated in 2023 and has remained largely deserted ever since, due to repeated volcanic activity and earthquake threats. A large sulphur dioxide gas cloud was blowing toward Keflavik International Airport. Flights at Keflavik airport, about 20km away, were not affected as of Thursday evening, and no major disruption to air traffic was reported. open image in gallery Lava emerges through a fissure following a volcano eruption near Grindavik, Reykjanes, Iceland ( Reuters ) The eruption is the latest in a growing sequence of volcanic events on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which began when dormant systems were reactivated in 2021 after centuries of silence. Experts warn the region could now face periodic eruptions for decades or even centuries. This is part of a new volcanic cycle, the IMO has previously said, referring to the Reykjanes system, where magma often emerges through long surface fissures rather than traditional crater eruptions. While past eruptions in the region have not ejected large volumes of ash into the stratosphere, the frequent lava flows and associated tremors continue to pose risks to infrastructure, geothermal plants, and communities in southwest Iceland. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to reinstate tough UN sanctions on Iran by the end of August if no concrete progress is made on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats have revealed. Ambassadors from the three nations convened on Tuesday at Germanys UN Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and reimposing the sanctions snapback mechanism. The issue was also discussed during a Monday phone call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries, according to two U.S. officials. The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon. The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. open image in gallery The ambassadors to the United Nations met Tuesday at Germanys UN Mission ( AP ) On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported that Iran's parliament said the country should not resume nuclear negotiations with the United States until preconditions are met. "When the U.S. uses negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met," the statement said. The statement did not define the preconditions, but Irans Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said there should be guarantees that there will be no further attacks against Tehran. The UK, France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. during his first term, insisting it wasnt tough enough. Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program, a so-called snapback provision allows one of the Western parties to reimpose UN sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that the three European countries would be justified in reapplying sanctions. With regard to Iran, the minister reiterated the priority of resuming negotiations to establish a long-term framework for Irans nuclear program, the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Without a verifiable commitment from Iran by the end of August at the latest, France, Germany, and the UK will be justified in reapplying the UN sanctions (snapbacks) that were lifted 10 years ago. open image in gallery Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot ( PA ) The diplomats did not provide details of the deal being sought. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in recent days that Tehran would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the U.S. if there were assurances of no more attacks, following Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities. He said there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated, stressing that the attack on Irans nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution." The United States and Iran held several rounds of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program before the Israeli strikes began in June. Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week that talks would happen soon, but nothing has yet been scheduled. Araghchi, whose country insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, said in a July 2 CBS interview that the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. Iran's UN Mission had no comment on Tuesday on the threat of renewed sanctions if there is no deal. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that the U.S. airstrikes so badly damaged his countrys nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Italy may release up to around 10,000 people from prison to ease overcrowding, the Justice Ministry has announced. Some 10,105 prisoners, or about 15 per cent of the total population of inmates, are "potentially eligible" for alternative measures to prison, such as house arrest or probation, the ministry said late on Tuesday. The option would apply to people whose convictions are final and no longer subject to appeal, have less than two years of sentences left to serve, and have no serious disciplinary offences in the past 12 months. People serving time for serious crimes such as terrorism, organised crime, rape, migrant trafficking and kidnapping would be excluded. According to the World Prison Brief database, Italy has one of Europe's worst prison overcrowding records, with an occupancy level of around 122 per cent. open image in gallery Some 10,105 prisoners are potentially eligible for alternative measures to prison ( Reuters ) Any level above 100 per cent indicates that prisons are occupied above their maximum capacity. Only Cyprus, France and Turkey have higher scores in Europe, according to the database. The plight of prisoners has attracted attention in Italy following a rise in suicides and complaints about soaring summer temperatures in detention facilities that are not air-conditioned. However, the early release of prisoners is a politically sensitive move, and the Justice Ministry indicated that it would not happen overnight. It said it had set up a task force to liaise with prisons and parole judges to facilitate decisions on individual cases, which will meet weekly and report on its work by September. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The main stage at Tomorrowland festival in Belgium has been severely damaged in a huge fire. The annual festival in the town of Boom, north of Brussels, which is scheduled to start on Friday, draws tens of thousands of visitors from around Europe. Images shared on local news sites and social media showed flames and plumes of black smoke engulfing the stage and spreading to nearby woodland. Nearby residents had been urged to close all windows and doors until the fire was under control. One employee at the site described an apocalyptic scene after the fire engulfed the stage. We suddenly heard bangs and saw fire near the stage, a huge amount of fire, the unnamed individual told Het Nieuwsblad newspaper. We were just putting the finishing touches on it. One more day and it would be finished. Four weeks of work... gone in half an hour. open image in gallery Fireworks burst and smoke rises as a fire engulfs the main stage of Tomorrowland festival in Boom, Belgium ( Reuters ) At least three-quarters of the spectacular stage is believed to have been damaged. Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland main stage, our beloved main stage has been severely damaged, the organisers posted on the event's website. We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident. The statement said the focus is now on finding solutions for the festival weekend. The cause of the fire has not yet been confirmed. open image in gallery Smoke caused by a fire billows above the site of the Tomorrowland electronic music festival ( Belga/AFP via Getty Images ) We can announce that, DreamVille will open tomorrow as planned and will be ready for all DreamVille visitors, they added. All Global Journey [travel package] activities in Brussels and Antwerp will take place as planned. Dozens of emergency teams were seen rushing through the festival grounds just after 6pm in an attempt to extinguish the flames and evacuate those inside the grounds. There were no members of the public present at the time, but around 1,000 staff members were working on site. Some of the world's most popular DJs are due to appear on the stage over the weekend, including Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Fisher, Swedish House Mafia and Steve Aoki. Back in 2017, the festival had to evacuate over 22,000 people after a major fire. The crowds at Barcelona's Tomorrowland Unite were forced to flee just hours before Steve Aoki was due to headline the event. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice President Volodymyr Zelensky has named Yulia Svyrydenko as Ukraines new prime minister in the latest reshuffle of his cabinet. Ms Svyrydenko, 39, has been serving as first deputy prime minister and economic development and trade minister since November 2021. She had been appointed to lead the revival of Ukraines struggling economy only months before Russia invaded in February 2022 and made her task more difficult. Ms Svyrydenko took over as prime minister from Denys Shmyhal on Thursday after her appointment was confirmed and voted through by the Ukrainian parliament. The outgoing prime minister Shymhal will take over as Ukraines defence minister in his new role. "War leaves no room for delay," she said on X after accepting her new role as the war-time prime minister. "We must act swiftly and decisively. Our priorities for the first six months are clear: reliable supply for the army, expansion of domestic weapons production, and boosting the technological strength of our defence forces, she said. Mr Zelensky had met with Ms Svyrydenko earlier this week on Monday and discussed the implementation of agreements with European and American partners regarding support for Ukraine reached during the recent Ukraine Recovery Conference. Mr Zelensky is reshuffling his cabinet at a time when Ukraine is seeking to revive its cash-strapped economy and boost its arms industry. Ms Svyrydenko came to global attention earlier this year when she brokered a minerals deal with the US, fulfilling a crucial demand that the Donald Trump administration had set to help Kyiv negotiate with Russia. The deal helped repair damaged ties between Mr Zelensky and the Trump administration. She underlined that Kyiv needed the US as a strategic partner in the war and worked with the Trump administration to get the deal done. She led a Ukrainian delegation to Washington where she signed the deal, called the United States-Ukraine Reinvestment Fund, on 30 April with treasury secretary Scott Bessent. The deal gives the US preferential access to Ukraines critical minerals and other natural resources. It also establishes a reconstruction investment fund to which Ukraine is expected to contribute 50 per cent of all future profits from natural resources. open image in gallery Yulia Svyrydenko arrives at the Three Seas Summit Initiative in Bucharest ( AFP via Getty ) Initial versions of the deal presented by Mr Trumps negotiators required Ukraine to pay back the aid the US had given it over the course of the war. The eventual deal, according to Mr Shmyhal, made no such demand. Another milestone on the path to launching the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund: Ukraine has completed all necessary procedures on schedule," Ms Svyrydenko said after the deal was signed. The deal helped thaw relations between Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky which had collapsed after they engaged in a shouting match at the White House where US vice president JD Vance also joined in. The agreement, which sought to balance Washingtons demands with Kyivs control over its natural resources, especially rare earths, and infrastructure, was hailed as a win for Ukraine. open image in gallery Yulia Svyrydenko speaks during a press conference in Lausanne ( AFP via Getty ) This agreement is a win-win and it is written in friendly language. It is about investments, investments and investments," Taras Kachka, Ukraines deputy minister for economic development, trade and agriculture, said at the time. Ms Svyrydenko also led the 4th Ukraine Recovery Conference that concluded in Rome last week, securing agreements on economic and development projects worth at least 11bn. After meeting with Mr Zelensky on Monday, Ms Svyrydenko said she would pursue deregulation, cut back bureaucracy, protect businesses and reduce non-critical expenditure to achieve the "full concentration of state resources" for defence and post-war recovery. The state apparatus has no right to waste the resources and potential of our country," she said. "Ukraine deserves to be among the strongest economies in Europe." Close Zelensky thanks Trump after US president threatens Putin with sanctions if no peace in Ukraine in 50 days On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has offered Vladimir Putin fresh peace talks after weeks of relentless Russian missile attacks. Mr Zelensky offered Moscow another round of ceasefire negotiations for next week, saying he wanted to speed up ending the conflict. It comes after weeks of relentless Russian strikes on Ukraine, including over 300 drones and 30 missiles launched on Friday night. Everything should be done to achieve a ceasefire, Mr Zelensky said in his evening address to the nation. The Russian side should stop hiding from decisions. Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul over the past five months. They have agreed to swap prisoners but made no breakthroughs in ending almost three and a half years of conflict that started with Russia's 2022 invasion. Mr Zelensky said Rustem Umerov, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at both talks in Istanbul, had sent the Russian side the offer to hold the meeting next week, but gave no more details. US president Donald Trump, who has sharpened his tone against Russia in recent weeks amid worsening air strikes on Ukrainian cities, threatened harsher sanctions on Russia earlier this month if a peace deal was not reached within 50 days. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice US President Donald Trump has issued a 50-day ultimatum to Russia, demanding a peace deal in Ukraine or facing bruising sanctions on its energy exports. This deadline, however, is seen by some as inadvertently granting the Kremlin additional time to pursue its summer offensive, though dogged Ukrainian resistance makes rapid Russian gains unlikely. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that any peace deal requires Ukraine to withdraw from the four regions illegally annexed by Moscow in September 2022, which Russia never fully captured. He also demands Kyiv renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces terms unequivocally rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies. A chronic shortage of manpower and ammunition has forced Ukrainian forces to focus on holding ground rather than launching counteroffensives. open image in gallery Rescue workers try to put out a fire at an apartment building heavily damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine ( AP ) But despite a renewed Russian push and an onslaught of aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks Ukrainian officials and analysts say it remains unlikely that Moscow can achieve any territorial breakthrough significant enough in 50 days to force Ukraine into accepting the Kremlin's terms anytime soon. Russia's main targets Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their land gains, capturing the most territory in eastern Ukraine since the opening stages of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian forces are closing in on the eastern strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, methodically capturing villages near both cities to try to cut key supply routes and envelop their defenders a slow offensive that has unfolded for months. Capturing those strongholds would allow Russia to push toward Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, setting the stage for the seizure of the entire Donetsk region. If Russian troops seize those last strongholds, it would open the way for them to forge westward to the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional capital of Dnipro, a major industrial hub of nearly 1 million, is about 150 kilometers (just over 90 miles) west of Russian positions. The spread of fighting to Dnipropetrovsk could damage Ukrainian morale and give the Kremlin more leverage in any negotiations. open image in gallery A family sleeps in a metro station as they take cover during a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, ( AP ) In the neighboring Luhansk region, Ukrainian troops control a small sliver of land, but Moscow has not seemed to prioritize its capture. The other two Moscow-annexed regions Kherson and Zaporizhzhia seem far from being totally overtaken by Russia. Early in the war, Russia quickly overran the Kherson region but pulled back from large swaths of it in November 2022, retreating to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. A new attempt to cross the waterway to seize the rest of the region would involve massive challenges, and Moscow doesnt seem to have the capability to mount such an operation. Fully capturing the Zaporizhzhia region appears equally challenging. Russian attempts to establish a buffer zone Moscows forces captured several villages in northeastern Ukraine's Sumy region after reclaiming chunks of Russias Kursk region from Ukrainian troops who staged a surprise incursion in August 2024. Ukraine says its forces have stopped Russia's offensive and maintain a presence on the fringe of the Kursk region, where they are still tying down as many as 10,000 Russian troops. Putin recently described the offensive into the Sumy region as part of efforts to carve a buffer zone to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks. The regional capital of Sumy, a city of 268,000, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border. Putin said Moscow doesnt plan to capture the city for now but doesnt exclude it. Military analysts, however, say Russian forces in the area clearly lack the strength to capture it. open image in gallery In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters try to put out a fire following a Russian attack in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine ( AP ) Russian forces also have pushed an offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region, but they haven't made much progress against fierce Ukrainian resistance. Some commentators say Russia may hope to use its gains in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as bargaining chips in negotiations, trading them for parts of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control. A scenario of territorial swaps as part of the talks is quite realistic, said Mikhail Karyagin, a Kremlin-friendly political expert, in a commentary. Wearing down Ukraine with slow pressure Ukrainian commanders say the scale and pace of Russian operations suggest that any game-changing gains are out of reach, with Moscows troops advancing slowly at a tremendous cost to its own forces. While exhausted Ukrainian forces are feeling outnumbered and outgunned, they are relying on drones to stymie Moscow's slow offensive. Significant movements of troops and weapons are easily spotted by drones that are so prolific that both sides use them to track and attack even individual soldiers within minutes. Russian military commentators recognize that Ukraines drone proficiency makes any quick gains by Moscow unlikely. They say Russia aims to bleed Ukraine dry with a strategy of a thousand cuts, using relentless pressure on many sectors of the front and steadily increasing long-range aerial attacks against key infrastructure. open image in gallery Soldiers stand during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit to a military training area to find out about the training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system ( via REUTERS ) The Russian army aims to exhaust the enemy to such an extent that it will not be able to hold the defense, and make multiple advances merge into one or several successes on a strategic scale that will determine the outcome of the war, Moscow-based military analyst Sergei Poletayev wrote in an analysis. Its not that important where and at what speed to advance: the target is not the capture of this or that line; the target is the enemy army as such. Western supplies are essential for Ukraine Ukrainian troops on the front express exasperation and anger about delays and uncertainty about U.S. weapons shipments. Delays in U.S. military assistance have forced Kyiv's troops to ration ammunition and scale back operations as Russia intensifies its attacks, Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine told The Associated Press. The United States will sell weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine, according to Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Included are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine. open image in gallery A Ukrainian soldier walks past damaged buildings in central Pokrovsk, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region of Ukraine ( AP ) Speeded-up weapons shipments from European allies are crucial to allowing Ukraine to stem the Russian attacks, according to analysts. The rate of Russian advance is accelerating, and Russias summer offensive is likely to put the armed forces of Ukraine under intense pressure, Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute in London said in a commentary. But most of the capabilities that Ukraine needs from drones to artillery systems can be provided by NATO allies in Europe, he said. In the short-term, Europe can cover most of Ukraines needs so long as it can purchase some critical weapons types from the U.S., Watling said. On The Ground newsletter: Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly dispatch from our international correspondents Get a weekly international news dispatch Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has accused Israel of trying to turn Syria into a theatre of endless chaos in the wake of IDF strikes on Damascus. In a televised speech on Thursday, the Syrian leader promised to protect the countrys Druze citizens as government forces withdrew from the southern province of Sweida, where clashes have erupted between Bedouin tribal fighters and Druze militias. Bedouin clans had fought alongside government forces against the Druze groups. A ceasefire between Syrian government forces and Druze fighters, mediated by the US and Turkey, appeared to be holding as of Thursday evening. Under the agreement, Druze factions and clerics have been appointed to maintain internal security in Sweida. The Israeli intervention, which has consistently targeted our stability and sown discord since the fall of the former regime, now seeks once again to turn our sacred land into a theatre of endless chaos, Mr al-Sharaa said in a televised address from an undisclosed location. open image in gallery The Syrian Defence Ministry building in Damascus was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes ( AP ) The violence escalated on Wednesday when Israel hit Damascus with airstrikes, damaging the defence ministry and striking near the presidential palace. Western diplomats were passing near the ministry in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness. Nobody in the convoy was injured. Israel has demanded the withdrawal of Syrian government forces from the south, citing its responsibility to protect the Druze population in Syria. We have set forth a clear policy: demilitarisation of the region to the south of Damascus, from the Golan Heights and to the Druze Mountain area, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He claimed Damascus had broken this policy. The regime sent troops south of Damascus, into the region that has to be demilitarised, and began slaughtering the Druze, he said. That we could not accept in any way, and I therefore directed the IDF to take action and take powerful action. Since fighting broke out, Israel has launched dozens of strikes against government troops and convoys and warned it could escalate its involvement. open image in gallery Smoke billows following Israeli strikes near the Syrian army and defence ministry headquarters ( AFP via Getty ) Armed confrontations broke out between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes after a Druze merchant was abducted on a highway on Sunday. The situation worsened when government troops attempted to restore order but ended up clashing with local Druze fighters. In Sweida, a local Druze journalist who asked not to be named for security reasons told The Independent that the national hospital in the city was packed with bodies, most of them civilians. There are more than 500 bodies of those killed in the National Hospital in Sweida almost all of them civilians. There are women, children, people shot in the head, he said. Fadel Abdulghany from the Syrian Network for Human Rights said they had documented at least 207 people killed, including six women, six children and two medics. He said the death toll is probably far higher than that, as the number does not include combatants killed in battle, but instead focuses on those who were subjected to summary executions, other violations and those killed in Israeli strikes. This not a final death toll, its increasing there are cases we havent been able to reach, Mr Abdulghany told The Independent. The core of the problem is everything has been a mess there is no real political inclusion [since the fall of Assad], it feels like major centralisation. open image in gallery Israeli drone footage shows the missile attack on Syria's military HQ ( IDF ) Ryan Marouf of the local TV station Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. People are looking for bodies, he said in a voice recording. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shia Islam. It is deeply suspicious of Mr al-Sharaas government. Israels defence minister Israel Katz said the painful blows have begun in a post on X, alongside a video of a Syrian presenter interrupted live by an airstrike on Syrias defence ministry. The explosion caused the camera to shake and the presenter quickly took shelter. A large explosion erupted behind her, with smoke billowing from the scene. In a separate TRT video, a presenter is shown ducking as a burst of red flares up before the building is engulfed in smoke. open image in gallery Smoke billows after clashes between Syrian government forces and Druze militias in Sweida, southern Syria ( AP ) An Israeli military spokesperson said: The IDF struck the entrance of the Syrian regimes military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria. The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regimes actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. The IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios. Mr Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Tensions between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters have continued since Sunni rebels led a lightning assault to topple former president Bashar al-Assad in early December. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Cunard has unveiled plans to serve its popular Le Gavroche at Sea residencies with Michel Roux aboard its newest cruise ship Queen Anne next year. The Michelin-starred chef will host four exclusive dining experiences for passengers on select Cunard cruises. Each Le Gavroche at Sea residency features a five-course tasting menu served in Sir Samuels. Three residencies will take place on seven-night Norwegian fjords voyages in May, August and November. Prices start from 799 per person, departing from Southampton on 30 August 2026, and go up to 999 per person for the earlier May sailing. Alternatively, Roux will be on board for an Iceland and British Isles itinerary in July 2026, with prices starting from 1,649 per person. Passengers will need to book quickly, though, as guest numbers are limited to just 50 diners per evening. Roux will also host live cooking demonstrations in the Royal Court Theatre during the sailings and will take part in speaking sessions and book signings. It will be the third year of the partnership, which began in 2024 and was sold out this year. Read more: First look inside Cunards new Queen Anne cruise ship Katie McAlister, president of Cunard, said: Le Gavroche at Sea has quickly become one of the highlights of our voyages, and were thrilled to welcome Michel back to Queen Anne for a third season. His passion for creating memorable dining experiences is a perfect match for Cunards commitment to excellence. Our guests often tell us how special these evenings are and we expect 2026 to be even more unforgettable. Roux added: Bringing Le Gavroche to sea with Cunard has been an absolute joy. The warmth of the guests, the elegance of the ships, and the shared love of fine dining make it something truly unique. Im delighted to return next year and to once again share the spirit of Le Gavroche in such a spectacular setting. Each residency is a chance to connect, to create, and to celebrate food in a way thats both refined and relaxed. Read more: How family-friendly is a Cunard cruise? Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Get Simon Calders Travel email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Japan has created an administrative body aimed at easing the effects of over-tourism on the country. It comes after concerns were raised by residents over the rapid rise in the number of foreigners in recent years, as policies concerning non-Japanese residents emerge as a key issue in Sunday's national election. The body would serve as a cross-agency "control tower" to respond to issues such as crime and over-tourism involving foreigners, the government said. Japan has long sought to maintain a homogeneous population through strict immigration laws, but has gradually eased them to supplement its shrinking and ageing labour force. The number of foreign nationals hit a record of about 3.8 million last year, although that is still just 3% of the total population. The formation of the administration body comes after a group of lawmakers in Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party in June proposed measures to realise a "society of orderly and harmonious coexistence with foreign nationals". A person takes pictures of Mount Fuji from across the street of a convenience store, hours before the installation of a barrier to block the sight of Japan's Mount Fuji ( AFP/Getty ) Those measures included adopting stricter requirements for foreigners switching to a Japanese driver's license and for buying real estate properties. "Crimes and disorderly conduct by some foreigners, as well as the inappropriate use of various administrative systems, have created a situation in which the public feels uneasy and cheated," Ishiba said at the kick-off ceremony. Japan welcomed a record 36 million tourists in 2024, according to official figures. Estimates from the Japan National Tourism Organization revealed that more than 36.8 million people visited the country for business or leisure in 2024, surpassing a previous high of 31.88 million in 2019. There was a significant increase in visitors from the US, Europe, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Concerns over the influx of foreigners, both temporary and permanent, have resonated with voters, with opinion polls showing a rapid surge in the popularity of tiny populist party Sanseito, which advocates a "Japanese First" agenda. Public opinion polls show the LDP and its junior coalition partner Komeito are in jeopardy of losing their majority in the upper house election on July 20. John Healey has said there is no justification for most of the names in Afghan data leak to claim asylum, stating that the majority of individuals had no connection to Britains armed forces. Speaking to Sky News on Wednesday (16 July), the defence minister said that most names were not eligible for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme. There was never a plan to bring everyone on that data set into this country and nor should we, he said, Details of a relocation scheme following the breach which involved over 16,000 Afghans at a cost of 7billion were released yesterday after the lifting of a superinjunction. Speaking to MPs on Tuesday (15 July), Mr Healey called the breach a serious departmental error. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice "The greatest of them all." That's how hotelier Conrad Hilton described the Waldorf Astoria New York. It was a hotel, he said, that was "the most important in the world, the original luxury property and the place where luxury service was perfected". And now, the Hilton-run Park Avenue hotel that also gave the world a timeless salad, has reopened after an eight-year refurbishment costing $2 billion. It's truly a hotel that's a tourist attraction in its own right and one that was originally two adjacent hotels, the Waldorf Hotel and the Astoria Hotel, run by two feuding cousins who were Fifth Avenue neighbors. The 13-story Waldorf Hotel went up first, built in 1893 by William Waldorf Astor in place of his demolished home. open image in gallery Hilton has a 100-year agreement to manage the 1.6-million-square-foot building, 62,000 square feet of which is designated as a landmark ( Waldorf Astoria New York ) His cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, described it as a "glorified tavern", but was jealous enough to demolish his own four-story dwelling and build on the plot the 17-story Astoria Hotel, which opened its doors to guests in 1897. The properties weren't separate for long, though. In that same year, the cousins resolved their disagreements and merged the two hotels into one. The then-hyphenated Waldorf-Astoria threw open its doors, with the two buildings connected by a 300-foot-long marble thoroughfare that earned the moniker "Peacock Alley" because fashionable guests enjoyed parading up and down it. Astor died in the Titanic disaster in 1912 as the world's wealthiest man, having amassed a fortune from real-estate development of around $3.5billion in today's money. William, meanwhile, moved to England with his family shortly after the Waldorf-Astoria opened and died in 1919. They left behind a hotel that would become legendary. Though there was a blip in 1929 when it was demolished to make way for the Empire State Building and rebuilt at its current 301 Park Avenue address. open image in gallery Waldorf Astoria New York boasts that it now offers some of the largest guest rooms and suites in Manhattan. Above is a junior suite ( Waldorf Astoria New York ) open image in gallery Hilton explains that there are more than 11 guest room categories, with the rooms designed to 'feel like private apartments' ( Waldorf Astoria New York ) It reopened in 1931 as the planet's tallest and largest hotel, with 2,200 rooms, 47 stories and a height of 623ft, and won the presidential seal of approval. President Herbert Hoover moved into the hotel for 30 years, proclaiming that the property "marks the measure of the USA's growth in power". His home was also beloved by famous guests including Frank Sinatra, who sang in the Grand Ballroom; Albert Einstein, who gave talks there; Queen Elizabeth II and Marilyn Monroe and it made a name for itself as a hospitality trailblazer. open image in gallery The signature brasserie Lex Yard ( Waldorf Astoria New York ) It was the first hotel to introduce 24-hour room service, in-room telephones and electricity on every floor; it pioneered ensuites and popularized not only the Waldorf Salad but Eggs Benedict and Red Velvet Cake. Its regal aesthetics, meanwhile, would go on to attract a host of movie directors, with the property appearing in Catch Me If You Can, The Godfather Part III, Coming to America, The Royal Tenenbaums and Scent of a Woman. Conrad Hilton bought the Waldorf Astoria for $3million in 1949, but the Hilton group sold it for a record-breaking $1.95 billion to the Chinese firm Anbang Insurance Group in 2014 (having stopped using the hyphen in 2009). open image in gallery The main foyer at the Astoria Hotel in 1903. It was connected to the Waldorf Hotel by a thoroughfare known as Peacock Alley. The two properties merged in 1897, having been built by cousins John Jacob Astor IV and William Waldorf Astor ( Courtesy of clickamericana.com ) That firm began refurbishing the hotel in 2017, but went bankrupt after being accused of economic crimes by the Chinese government and the property passed into the hands of another Chinese company, the Dajia Insurance Group. Today, Hilton has a 100-year agreement to manage the 1.6-million-square-foot building, 62,000 square feet of which is designated as a landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. What can guests expect today? For starters, a huge bill. Rooms start at $2,200 per night. open image in gallery The main entrance of the Waldorf Hotel in 1903 ( courtesy of clickamericana.com ) But they'll also be in a "meticulously restored" hotel, immersed amid "iconic architecture" and "sophisticated designs", according to Hilton. The company continues: "Throughout all of the building's landmark interior, the restoration celebrates the hotel's storied legacy, while improving access, creating more space, and introducing new pathways for natural light. "Guests will also notice the careful preservation of the hotel's beloved murals, with some of these vibrant artworks dating to the 19th century, restored by ArtCare Conservation." open image in gallery The Waldorf Astoria Grand Ballroom in 1903 ( courtesy of clickamericana.com ) It adds: "In the new reception area, the same marble used for the historic Peacock Alley columns was employed to construct the fireplace, ensuring visual continuity. "Portoro marble, mosaics, and restored decorative features were preserved and repositioned in dialogue with contemporary interventions such as integrated lighting systems, automated curtains, and custom-designed furniture." Read more: The best New York hotels for 2025: Where to stay in Manhattan, Brooklyn and more NYC hotspots The hotel boasts that it now offers some of the largest guest rooms and suites in Manhattan, with the majority of the hotel's rooms exceeding 570 square feet. This extra room for maneuver is the result of 1,400 rooms being turned into 375 guest rooms and 372 residences. Hilton explains that there are more than 11 guest room categories, with the rooms designed to "feel like private apartments". Each features a bespoke bar and a "spa-like" bathroom. open image in gallery The Gentleman's Cafe at the Astoria in 1903 ( courtesy of clickamericana.com ) open image in gallery The Turkish Salon at the Waldorf in 1903 ( courtesy of clickamericana.com ) On the refreshment front, there are three "distinctive" food and beverage experiences the signature brasserie Lex Yard, the Japanese dining concept Yoshoku and Peacock Alley. The latter "remains the heart of Waldorf Astoria New York". The hotel says: "At Peacock Alley, guests will find the historic Waldorf Astoria Clock and Cole Porter piano. Restored to its former glory and positioned in the centre of Peacock Alley, the Waldorf Astoria Clock was crafted in London for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Read more: This US property makes the list of the worlds most beautiful hotels "A fixture at both the hotel's Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue locations, guests are invited to once again say, 'Meet me at the clock. The transformation of Waldorf Astoria New York was led by architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with hotel interiors by Pierre-Yves Rochon and residential interiors and amenities designed by Jean-Louis Deniot. Is the hotel the "greatest of them all"? Visit waldorfastorianewyork.com to book a stay and find out. The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Once upon a time, if the president of the United States stumbled over a sentence, forgot a name, or momentarily glitched mid-speech, it was treated as a national emergency. Cognitive decline! the headlines cried. Whos really running the country? asked Republican attack ads on then-president Joe Biden, implying former vice president Kamala Harris was lurking just offstage with the strings of the puppet in her hands. Twitter (not X, never X) diagnosed poor Joe with dementia. There was talk about invoking the 25th Amendment. Bidens enemies and then even some of his friends painted him as a husk of a man: barely lucid, tragically unaware, propelled only by hubris toward a second term. But now Donald Trump is back, and arent things different? Or wait, are they? During a speech in Pittsburgh Tuesday afternoon for the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit, the 47th president certainly had his faculties on full display. To start, the president claimed, without blinking, that he had already secured $16 trillion in investments into the U.S. economy. For reference, the entire GDP of the United States is under $30 trillion. Now, we all know that Donald is prone to exaggeration. Weve all heard that his latest idea/bill/haircut is the greatest thing ever, and that some people are saying its the most incredible idea/bill/haircut the world has ever seen. But this was clearly not delivered for melodramatic effect. This was the president of the United States claiming that he had single-handedly funded half of capitalism, in six months. open image in gallery President Donald Trump was in Pittsburgh, where his speech was rambling and full of gaffes. ( Getty Images ) Moments later, Trump attempted to introduce Republican Rep. Dan Meuser. Wheres Dan? he asked, scanning the crowd. Dave McCormick, seated beside him, had to quietly inform him that all the representatives had stayed in Washington. Oh, theyre in Washington working on our next bill? Good! Trump replied. Now I dont have to mention their names, although theyre watching on television, I guarantee. He laughed nervously as he said it, in quite an uncharacteristic way, and then trailed off while muttering, again, that it was good that they are working on something in D.C. It was oddly difficult to watch. The 79-year-old president then struggled to pronounce the name of one of his own White House aides, before saying, They tell me youre doing great. And, as the spicy dressing on the word salad, he added a bizarre aside about Unabomber Ted Kaczynski being a great student (It didnt work out too well for him in the end, however, according to Trump, a conclusion that clearly demands intellectual rigor beyond the everyday man or woman.) If Biden had said any of this, Fox News would have launched a live countdown to impeachment. But its unlikely well see these gaffes dominate the news cycle even though President Donald J. Trump, supposedly the sparkiest 79-year-old who ever damn lived, began to visibly struggle to stay awake while seated behind the microphone. open image in gallery During his address, the president forgot the names of his aides and made statements that arent supported by facts. ( Getty Images ) Theres something to be said here about gerontocracy, and the fact that the last election felt like watching two bald grandpas fighting over a comb, and the awfulness of having people on both sides of the aisle (the late Dianne Feinstein and the clearly struggling Mitch McConnell as two examples) hold on to power rather than relinquish it to people who have the mental and physical capacity to wield it. Theres something to be said about Republicans sticking together, even in the face of clear dereliction of duty, and Democrats routinely turning on their own. Theres even, perhaps, something to be said about how one can sleepwalk (quite literally) into stupid-sounding lies if one is accustomed to just saying whatever one wants all the time, until eventually it becomes clear that the emperor has no clothes. Trump is vulnerable at this moment, writing as he has on Truth Social that hes disappointed in his boys and gals for not letting themselves be gaslit into believing there was no Epstein list after all. Elon Musk is calling for a new party, as Laura Loomer and Tucker Carlson are being periodically, and loudly, more disloyal. Vice President J.D. Vance isnt exactly coming to a resounding defense of his running mate each time controversy rears its head, either. So it really mightve been a good idea for Trump to bring his A-game to events right now. Instead, he showed, in a few short remarks, that he has very little knowledge of the reality of the American economy; is incapable of remembering where his own representatives are, to the point that hell invite one onstage who is literal states away; doesnt appear to have heard of his aide; and cannot stay awake during an early afternoon public appearance. Its hard to sell disruptor and firebrand when youre falling asleep at the table and muttering peoples names semi-coherently. But of course, as we know, all of this will simply be absorbed into the MAGA mythos: just another quirk of the ever-evolving, benevolent Trumpian character. The Republicans will carry him, even if they saw ten times less from Biden and called it reprehensible. And they wont do it because they truly think hes sharp. Theyll do it because, in the end, they no longer think that matters. US tariff threat means ministers are unwilling to create further barriers to trade The introduction of mandatory warning labels on alcohol is to be pushed back to 2029, amid concerns about the extra costs they would impose on businesses in the drinks sector and because they would be a barrier to trade. The labels, warning about the link with diseases such as cancer, were to come into force from May 22, 2026, whenever alcohol was offered for sale in a shop or restaurant. While the Department of Health had been sticking to the deadline, senior ministers began to express concern about the labels last April in the context of the trade tensions with the US. Alcohol labelling was cited as a significant barrier to American exports in a report published earlier this year by the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The drinks industry exports 450m of product each year, and the US is a major market, particularly for whiskey. Currently, 90pc of distilling in Ireland has been halted, following the imposition of a 10pc tariff on whiskey imports into the US. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe was the first to signal there might be a delay, saying the labels would have to be looked at again in the context of tariffs. Tanaiste Simon Harris then said the timeline for introduction was under consideration, while Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said the requirement was being examined as the Government considered how to protect the competitiveness of Irish businesses. Last month, as revealed by the Irish Independent, Mr Burke formally asked Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to consider pausing the introduction of warning labels. Our domestic production sector is going through a period of very significant disruption In a letter to his cabinet colleague, Mr Burke expressed concern that the labels would mean increased costs for Irish producers and importers, and potentially add to the price payable by consumers. At the same time, our domestic production sector is going through a period of very significant disruption to supply chains and access to markets, the minister also told the Dail. Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon also formally requested a delay, citing concerns about jobs and investment. Mr Harris said that he believed the labels needed to be delayed, but still expected them to be brought in during this Governments term. The plan to postpone the requirement has now been indicated in a letter sent to members of the Governments trade forum by the Tanaiste. Pushing the deadline back to 2029 would still, in theory, keep the change within the lifetime of this Government. Having taken office in January 2025, it has a natural lifespan of five years. The drinks industry has been lobbying against the labels, with Ibec among those calling for a postponement on the basis that it would increase prices by up to 30pc. Alcohol Action Ireland has criticised the planned delay, saying that given the costs of alcohol-related harms, the Government should stand by law that was passed with cross-party support in 2018. A receiver is offering The Hive office building in Sandyford, Dublin 18 for sale at 24.2m, which is more than 10m less than the price American investor Colony Capital sought for it only three years ago. It had been part of Colonys Irish portfolio, after the US company became involved with four Dublin properties owned by UK developer U+I. Colony was led by Tom Barrack, a close confidante of American president Donald Trump, and was one of the first US companies to enter the Irish property market after the financial crash when it teamed up with Irish developer Johnny Ronan. Colony helped finance the Ronan familys property interests out of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), including Connaught House on Burlington Road in Dublin and Bewleys coffee house on Grafton Street. It also was a partner with Ronan Group Real Estate (RGRE) on the development of Facebooks planned headquarters at Fibonacci Square in Ballsbridge. However, Colony decided to exit the Irish market and wrap its share of Irish joint ventures into a sale of $2.7bn of international real-estate assets to New York-based Fortress Investment Group. Colony had been also been involved with U+I in four of its Irish properties through a firm called Spectre whose properties included The Hive, Carrisbrook House, Ballsbridge, and Donnybrook House. In 2022 Colony sought 34.4m for The Hive but failed to secure it. Subsequently Grant Thornton was appointed receiver to the building, and it has now put the property on the market at the reduced price. Extending to 6,785 sq m across four floors, The Hive was comprehensively refurbished by U+I in 2019. Agent HWBC says that its 24.2m guide price would deliver a net initial yield of 7pc, with the potential to exceed 8pc through upcoming lease events and income growth. The building generates annual rental income of 1.95m, with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 8.2 years to expiry, underpinned by what is described as a high-calibre tenant line-up. Existing tenants include Grafton Group, the owner of Woodies and Chadwicks; NTR plc, a quoted infrastructure investment company managing over 3bn in sustainable assets; and Cubic Telecom, a software firm valued at over 900m. The building is 86pc let and the agents are quoting 28 per sq ft for the remaining vacant space. It also comes with 114 car parking spaces, 96 cycle spaces and 12 EV charging stations. Dermot Crowley, who stands to make millions from Dalata deal, will soon have a new boss Dermot Crowley and his team worked many late nights over the past few weeks as they negotiated the sale of Dalata, Irelands biggest hotel group. Now the Cork native is looking forward to taking a breather and watching his home county take on Tipperary next Sunday in Croke Park in the All-Ireland hurling final. But does the sale of the hotel group he has helped steer for the past 13 years feel like a victory? Crowley says it does. He sees it as an opportunity to give Dalata the kind of access to growth capital that it struggled to secure when it was distinctly under-loved by investors. I get to spend more time on the normal day job and back to what I really enjoy, said Crowley, who has been in and out of the hotel business over the past 25 years. An accountant, he was the head of development at Jurys Doyle from 2000 to 2006. He joined Dalata in 2012 from Ion Equity as its deputy chief executive, helping to navigate it towards a 2014 stock market flotation. He became CEO in November 2021. He stands to make at least 5.5m before tax from the sale of Dalata via the sale of his directly-held shares. When his conditional long-term incentive plan shares are included under Dalatas plan they vest in a takeover scenario that will mean an additional 4.2m. He points out that Dalata has a busy development pipeline, with two hotels under construction in Edinburgh, another in Madrid, one in Berlin that opens next year, and projects in Dublin such as a Croke Park venue. Theres a huge amount of development going on and thats really exciting, he said. Dalatas board had argued, when launching a strategic review in the spring, that its share price didnt reflect the inherent value of the business. The review was a way of unlocking that value. Crowley, who will report to the Scandic CEO Jens Mathiesen when the deal is done, insists he has no intention of leaving Dalata in the foreseeable future. Its good I dont have an ego, he said. My initial responsibility now as CEO of Dalata is first of all, to make sure this deal goes through, and then to make sure the transition into new ownership is smooth. Ultimately, its to see the Maldron and Clayton brands grow. Balrath Investments wants permission for 273-bed tourist development Plans by Eamon Waterss company Balrath Investments for a 273-bed tourist hostel on Dublins Drury Street would turn the area into another Temple Bar-style tourist location, it has been claimed. Madeline Blaine, a local retailer, made the claim in her objection to the scheme proposed by Balrath, which is also seeking planning permission for a restaurant at a ground-floor level. It wants to change the use of the first to fourth-floor levels at Maryland House, 20-21 William Street South and 50-51 Drury Street from office to tourist hostel accommodation, proposing a total of 44 bedrooms accommodating 273 bedspaces in a mixture of four- to eight-person units. Eamon Waters Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Ms Blaine, owner of The Collective Jewellers, told Dublin City Council she and the surrounding businesses already have constant issues with people drinking on the street. This is an ongoing problem that the council is already well aware of. Allowing yet another unneeded bar is just worsening the existing situation, she said. A tourist hostel comprising dormitories is definitely low-end, aimed at the budget-conscious traveller, turning Drury Street into another tourist Temple Bar location. If businesses like mine are going to survive, we should be attracting a higher money bracket to this street, where people can browse and shop in relative calm and ease. These plans will cause irreparable damage Ms Blaine also claimed that the proposed development would discourage retail pedestrians. I have had my business here since 2017 and it is now well established with an excellent reputation, she added. These plans will cause irreparable damage, not just to myself but also to the other nearby businesses. SW Restaurant Ltd, the operator of SOLE Seafood and Grill at 18/19 South William Street, said it had no objection in principle to the development. However the firms solicitor, John McMullin, said the council should carefully consider the application against the background of the recurring problem in the area of crowds, on-street drinking, and refuse. The development would exacerbate those problems, he said. Brock McClure, planning consultants for Balrath Investments, told the council: The proposed development will enhance street activation during the evenings and at night time whilst generating more job opportunities at a pivotal location. The council has placed the application on hold after asking the applicants to address design and transport issues. The sale of the 63.6 million shares to institutional investors was completed by way of an accelerated book build following the close of the markets yesterday. The sales price was 1.98, which would have been a 5.4pc discount on the closing price of 2.09. NatWest, which raised 126m from the sale, originally acquired a 16.66pc stake of PTSB in November 2022 as part of the Irish banks complicated acquisition of the retail business of Ulster Bank. The State still holds a 57.4pc stake in the bank. The British banking giant and the Minister for Finance entered into a shareholder co-operation agreement in late 2022. The following June, the State and NatWest disposed of a cumulative 10pc stake in the bank, a legacy from the financial crash when it bailed out the Irish banking sector. As part of the co-operation agreement, the Minister for Finance was offered an opportunity to participate in last nights sale, but chose not to do so. The minister also committed to a 90-day lock-up period on the States shareholding. After the recent sale of the States remaining stake in AIB, the Department of Finance said it would assess opportunities for the disposal of shares in PTSB as they arose. Paschal Donohoe, the finance minister, also removed the salary cap that had been in place in both AIB and PTSB. Eamonn Crowley, the ceo of PTSB, welcomed the decision by NatWest. This marks another important step towards normalising the composition of our shareholder base and creating further liquidity in the banks shares, he said. It also demonstrates that there is a strong market appetite to invest in PTSB, and confidence in our strategic direction to deliver real and sustainable value for our shareholders. Denis McGoldrick, an analyst with Goodbody, said: We had flagged in early May that it was likely NatWest would look to reduce its holding in PTSB in the near future given the return of its Ulster Bank licence to the Central Bank of Ireland was imminent, that PTSB's share price had recovered to above the 'break even' point for NatWest, and that an exit would close out its last remaining interest in the Irish banking market. From a PTSB perspective, we view the news as a positive development which should also see a positive share price reaction. The exit of a material holder will significantly improve liquidity in the stock which currently has an average daily trading volume, over the last 30 days, of just 300,000 shares. Ulster Bank returned its licence to the Central Bank at the end of June, ending a 165-year history of banking in Ireland. Davy also said that the sale by NatWest removes and overhang on the stock, and should improve its liquidity. PTSB is well positioned due to a range of initiatives, including operational and capital efficiency measures currently underway, to increase profitability and return and resume distributions to shareholders, it said. PTSBs share price was down almost 2pc in early trading on the Irish stock exchange. Yesterday it emerged that staff at the bank will be getting a 4pc pay increase, after an agreement was reached between management and trade unions following lengthy negotiations. The burned Luas carriage on O'Connell Street in Dublin as the clean up operation got underway. Photograph: RollingNews.ie The Luas tram set alight and severely damaged during the Dublin riots of November 2023 will not be back in service until the beginning of next year. That is according to new accounts for Transdev Dublin Light Rail Ltd (TDLR), the operator of the tram service, which show that pre-tax losses reduced by 61pc from 9m in 2022 to 3.53m in 2023. A note in the accounts says that on November 23 of that year, a riot occurred in Dublin city centre where tram #5037 was blocked by those involved. The tram driver evacuated all passengers and secured the tram, so nobody was injured during the event. "The tram was set alight during the riot, resulting in severe damage. It is currently being repaired and is scheduled to be back in service at the beginning of 2026. Asked to quantify the cost involved a spokeswoman for Transdev Dublin Light Rail said today: As this matter is currently before the courts, we are unable to comment further. The details are also commercially sensitive. The sharp decrease in losses at TDLR followed a 13pc increase in revenues, from 81.7m to 92.38m in 2023. The directors say losses reduced by 61pc mainly due to the improvement of the operational performance and exceptional energy index in December 2022. Commenting on the performance of the business in 2025, the Transdev spokeswoman said: We are seeing record levels of performance and passenger numbers, reflecting strong public confidence and the essential role Luas plays in Dublins transport network. A key trend last year, which is said to be continuing in 2025, is an increase in weekend travel, driven by retail, events, and leisure. In 2024, Luas recorded 54 million passenger journeys, a 12pc increase on 2023. The accounts also detail how another Luas train remains out of service - six years after a road traffic accident involving a bus. A note states that Tram #3003 was damaged in March 2019. It adds that the tram has been positively assessed to determine if it were repairable. The repairs are expected to commence at the beginning of 2024 and the tram is scheduled to be back in service in Q4 of 2025. The bus insurance recognised full liability of the repairs in relation of the accident. Last year, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) put an estimated value of 1.75bn on the new Luas operation and maintenance contract. A note attached to the Transdev accounts says the current contract was due to expire at the end of November 2025. The directors say the timeline has been extended to August 2026 to facilitate the tender process for a new contract, incorporating operations and asset maintenance activities for the Luas light rail system. Staff numbers in 2023 increased from 603 to 648 as staff costs increased from 33.66m to 37.16m. In cinemas; Cert 12A William (Pierce Brosnan) strolls in through the door one day with an announcement for wife Bette (Imelda May) and teenage son Nicholas (Fionn OShea). Were in the Dublin of the early 1970s, where a job in the civil service is a thing to be clutched tightly. But a shaft of sunlight falling on his desk has led to William having a major epiphany hes going to pack up a few things and move to the west coast to be an itinerant landscape artist. Its the kind of madly romantic gesture towards a meaningful existence that colours this long-mooted adaptation of Niall Williamss bestselling 1997 debut novel. The laws of poetry, love and art are nourishment enough for heart and soul and institutions such as Church and State only put a downer on things. Who could argue. The decision leaves Nicholas and Bette in the lurch and fending for themselves while their breadwinner goes off on his elaborate flight of fancy. Pierce Brosnan in 'Four Letters of Love' Across the water from where William eventually sets up his easel, an island glistens off the western seaboard. It is home to the Gore household comprised of cultured, bohemian parents Margaret and Muiris (Helena Bonham Carter and Gabriel Byrne), their breezy and beautiful daughter Isabel (Ann Skelly) and son Sean (Donal Finn). The Gore household is picture-perfect, you might say, an image of Irishness in tune with dancing, red-haired cailini, quaintly cluttered kitchen dressers, and wee drams to wet the throat beside an evening fire. The Hibernian paradise undergoes a crack, however, when Sean is in an accident just as Isabel is readying herself to leave for convent school. She tears herself away nonetheless, only to fall foul of the nuns and run away with a roguish cad (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo). Isabel and Nicholas; Nicholas and Isabel. One is embarking on an adventure into early adulthood, romance and self-discovery, the other still reeling from the fallout to his family life by his fathers sudden wilful abandonment. Their situations couldnt be less alike and yet they are, were assured, bound together. Director Polly Steeles take on the novel adapted for the screen by the Clare-based author himself presents the two strands as being on a parallel journey towards a head-spinning (and predictably gooey) inevitability. Their pre-destination is signposted with the subtlety of a billboard until Nicholas embarks west in search of William and catches a glimpse of Isabel on the local bus and the direction of his young life suddenly shifts. The lush prophesying sweep of the narrative, the coincidences and serendipities and fateful mishaps, will be too sickly sweet for viewers of a cynical bent. Add to this the way it tiptoes along the fringes of stage Irish, flirting with a version of pre-1990s Ireland (pretty, cute, benign and sweetly befuddled), and Four Letters of Loves setting is almost outlandish when watched from seats on this island. And that might just be the whole idea. Right around the moment that you scratch your head at the shaky tenor of Brosnans brogue (Irish actors who are unable to do Irish accents is becoming a worrying trend), a suspicion strikes you. Much like its source novel, Steeles film might also speak to a pre-destination: that of a love affair with cinemagoers beyond these shores. Fionn O'Shea and Ann Skelly in 'Four Letters of Love' Sweeter than The Banshees of Inisherin, more fanciful than Brooklyn, this is about as unashamedly sentimental and syrupy as it gets, and those in search of a gentle, easy-on-the-eyes swoon will forgive the odd accent wobble, the patches of abrupt editing, or the clumsy dialogue replacement splices. Cinematographer Damien Elliottt and production designer John Leslie get that fantasy-realist netherworld just right. Cast members do what they must Brosnan gives enigmatic scans of the wind-swept horizon; Byrne hunches over love poems and grunts good-naturedly at the youthful carry-on. Regardless of what region this film is experienced in, the star of the show is Bonham Carter, whose brilliant quips stop the whole thing from disappearing up its own Blarney. For an outing that applies such a honeyed filter to the Irish condition, it is her characters cranky benevolence and perfectly timed eye-rolls that might just be the most authentic national traits on show here. Three stars In cinemas; Cert G Another pricey Hollywood Smurfs flick with a starry voice cast and zero imagination. Its as if comic strip artist Pierre Peyo Cullifords blue-skinned forest dwellers werent designed for a big-screen feature-length movie. The format doesnt suit them and this shoddy musical reboot ranks among the laziest animations of the year. Rihanna, would you believe, is a producer of this vacuous fantasy from director Chris Miller (Puss in Boots) and writer Pam Brady (Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken). The Barbadian superstar also lends her voice to Smurfette, the only female Smurf in the village, whose patience is severely tested after a mob of wicked wizards kidnap her beloved Papa Smurf (John Goodman). Business as usual, then. But we also have a Smurf with an identity crisis (James Cordens No Name Smurf), and a bizarre trip to the real world, where nothing much happens and nobody ever notices the tiny blue trespassers. Natasha Lyonne and Nick Offerman provide support, and theyll appreciate the pay packets, Im sure. But this new-and-unimproved Smurfs movie shows very few signs of intelligent life. Two stars Colin Farrell, Sharon Horgan and Ruth Negga have all been nominated for Emmy Awards ahead of the ceremony that takes place in Los Angeles IN September. Horgan has been nominated in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role in Bad Sisters. Farrell was the first name revealed for the Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie category for his performances in The Penguin. Negga has been nominated for her performances in Presumed Innocent in the Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie category. Severance separated itself from the field with 27 nominations while The Studio led comedy nominees with a record-tying 23 in a dominant year for Apple TV+. Limerick actor Ruth Negga stars as Rusty's wife Barbara in Presumed Innocent. Photo: Apple TV+ No other dramas came close to the dystopian workplace series Severance, which achieved a convergence of acclaim and audience buzz for its second season that brought an expected Emmy bounty. Lead acting nominations came for Adam Scott and Britt Lower for what amounted to dual roles as their characters innie work selves and outie home selves. Tramell Tillman got a supporting nod for playing their tone-shifting, pineapple-wielding supervisor, and Patricia Arquette was nominated for supporting actress for playing an ousted outcast from the sinister family business at the centre of the show. Ben Stiller got a directing nomination. Apples Hollywood satire The Studio was expected to make a big showing for its first season, but it romped over more established shows like Hacks, which got 14, and The Bear, which got 13. And The Studio tied a record set by The Bear last year when it also got 23 nominations, the most ever for a comedy. The Studio co-creator Seth Rogen personally got three nominations for acting, writing and directing. Its A-list roster of guest stars brought in a bounty, with nominations for Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Bryan Cranston, Anthony Mackie, Dave Franco and Zoe Kravitz. The men made for five of the six nominees in the guest actor in a comedy category. The Penguin, HBOs dark drama from the Batman universe, was also surprisingly dominant in the limited series category with 24 nominations, including nods for leads Farrell and Cristin Milioti. Netflixs acclaimed Adolescence got 13 limited series nominations, including a supporting actor nod for 15-year-old Owen Cooper, who plays a 13-year-old suspected of a killing. HBOs high-end soap The White Lotus got its usual flowering of drama acting nominations for its Thailand-set third season, with four cast members including Carrie Coon getting supporting actress nods, and three including Walton Goggins up for supporting actor. It was second in the drama categories to Severance with 23 nominations overall. The Pitt, HBO Maxs prestige medical procedural starring ER veteran Noah Wyle, got 13 nominations, including best drama and best actor for its star, ER veteran Noah Wyle. One of its nurses, Katherine LaNasa, was able to squeeze in among the women of The White Lotus for a supporting actress nod. Sarah Greene, Eva Birthistle, Sharon Horgan and Eve Hewson in Bad Sisters The Last of Us brought in 16 nominations in drama categories for HBO. The elite cable channel with its streaming counterpart HBO Max has been so prolific for decades in Emmy nominations that it almost felt like an off year without it having a Succession or a Game of Thrones atop the drama category. But it definitely wasn't. It led all outlets with 142 nominations, the most it's ever gotten. Netflix followed with 120 nominations overall, and Apple TV+ had 79. Wyle, who was nominated five times without a win for ER, could join Scott to make best actor in a drama a two-man race, with both seeking their first Emmy. Actors Harvey Guillen and Brenda Song announced the nominations in key categories. The nominees for best drama series are: Andor; Paradise; Severance; Slow Horses; The Diplomat; The Pitt, The Last of Us and The White Lotus. The nominees for best comedy series are: Hacks; The Bear; The Studio; Only Murders in the Building; Abbott Elementary; Nobody Wants This; Shrinking and What We Do in the Shadows. The nominees for outstanding limited series are: Adolescence; Black Mirror; Dying For Sex; Monsters: The Lyle And Erik Menendez Story and The Penguin. The nominees for best comedy actor are: Seth Rogen, The Studio; Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building; Jeremy Allen-White, The Bear; Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This; Jason Segel, Shrinking. The nominees for best comedy actress are: Uzo Aduba, The Residence; Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This; Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary; Jean Smart, Hacks; Ayo Edibiri, The Bear. Severance has become a signature show for Apple TV+. The streamer has gotten plenty of Emmy nominations for dramas including The Morning Show and Slow Horses, and Ted Lasso was downright dominant on the comedy side. But Apple has lacked the kind of breakaway prestige drama that HBO seems to produce perennially. That could change when the Emmys are handed out in September. Severance got 14 nominations for its first season in 2023, but won just two, for its music and its title sequence. All the shows are living in the splintered world of the streaming era, and the like the Oscars its most acclaimed nominees rarely have the huge audience they once did. While an impressive average of 10 million people per episode watched Wyle on The Pitt at some point on HBO Max, according to Warner Bros. Discovery, 30 years ago an average of 30 million sat down on the same night and watched him on ER on NBC. Kathy Bates' best actress nomination for playing the title role in CBS's Matlock made for a rare exception to streamers' dominance over broadcast networks. The Oscar-winning Bates is considered the front-runner to get the Emmy. She was the first person nominated in the category from a network show since 2019, and would be the first to win it since 2015. ABCs Abbott Elementary has been keeping hope alive for broadcasters in recent years. It got six nods this year, including best actress in a comedy for creator Quinta Brunson, who also got a writing nomination. CBS will air the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards from the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on September 14. Nate Bargatze is slated to host. The European Commission has proposed a significant cut to the EUs flagship farming support scheme, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in its draft long-term budget for 20282034. Under the new proposal, CAP funding would fall to 300 billion for the next seven-year period, compared to 387 billion allocated for 20212027. When adjusted to real prices, this amounts to an estimated 30% reduction in funding. The CAP will also no longer be a standalone fund. Instead, it will be merged into a single mega-fund alongside cohesion and rural development spending, to be managed at the national level through new National and Regional Partnership Plans. It comes as a draft proposal on the next CAP leaked in recent days also outlines a controversial shake-up of how direct farm payments are distributed, including new caps on large payouts. Under the Commissions blueprint, income support would be capped at 100,000 per year per farmer. Tiered reductions would apply to larger recipients: payments above 20,000 would face a 25% cut, those above 50,000 a 50% cut, and anything over 75,000 would be cut by 75%. The goal is to reallocate support towards smaller farms. Previous efforts to impose caps on farm subsidies have been blocked by member states concerned about their larger farming operations. The proposals are likely to spark resistance from Europe's powerful farming lobby. The influential COPA-COGECA group, of which the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) is a member, has strongly opposed the merging of CAPs two-pillar structure and warned against the redistribution of direct payments. Ireland, a net contributor to the EU budget since 2013, receives the bulk of its EU receipts through CAP. Under the current CAP Strategic Plan (20232027), Ireland receives nearly 2 billion annually to support its farming and agri-food sectors. Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon recently warned of the economic risks posed by CAP cuts. As a country that is now a net contributor to the overall EU budget, there are many things we pay into that we dont get a direct return from, he said. Of the receipts the Exchequer gets back from what we pay into Europe, 75pc comes through the CAP. If CAP is reduced, that hits the overall economy in terms of how much of that return we see. In 2023, Ireland contributed 3.6 billion to the EU budget. That figure is forecast to rise to almost 4.5 billion by 2027. However, speaking today Minister Heydon said todays publication is just the beginning of a 'protracted process'. "Member States will, through the Council of Ministers, begin the process of agreeing a general approach to the Commissions proposals, before engaging in line by line negotiations with the EU Parliament and the EU Commission. "This will take some time, and I fully expect the progression of these proposals to be a significant feature of Irelands Presidency of the EU Council in the second half of next year. Broader overhaul of EU spending The CAP reform is part of a wider redesign of the EUs long-term budget. The Commission today unveiled a draft Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 20282034 worth nearly 2 trillion equivalent to 1.26% of the EUs gross national income. President Ursula von der Leyen said the revamped budget would help the EU shape its own destiny in an era of global uncertainty. Our new long-term budget will help protect European citizens, strengthen Europe's social model and make our European industry thrive, she said. In a time of geopolitical instability, the budget will allow Europe to shape its own destiny, in line with its vision and ideals. The Commission stressed that new demands on the EU budget including defence, migration, energy resilience and industrial competitiveness require a fundamental overhaul. Europe faces an increasing number of challenges... These are not temporary but reflect systemic geopolitical and economic shifts, the Commission said. One pressing concern is the EUs mounting debt, with repayments of 2530 billion per year due to begin in 2028. To fund new priorities and ease the burden on national budgets, the Commission proposed five new own resources, including levies on emissions, e-waste, tobacco, and large corporate revenues. Combined, these are expected to raise 58.5 billion per year. Next steps The Commissions draft budget must be agreed unanimously by member states, following approval from the European Parliament. Several proposals, including new revenue streams, require ratification by national parliaments. One in three families spend beyond their means and get into debt when their children go back to school. Over 60pc of people surveyed said they were finding the expense of kitting out students a huge financial burden, according to research commissioned by the Irish League of Credit Unions. The one-time Baron of Ballsbridge has filed motions with the High Court aimed at securing his discharge 12 years after he was made bankrupt in Ireland when he defaulted on 164m in loans from Ulster Bank. Man arrested following 17,000 drug seizure in Cork town A house was searched after gardai stopped the man, who was driving dangerously Drugs, cash and other items seized in Carrigaline. Photo: AGS Kevin Galvin Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 16:39 A man in his 20s has been arrested in Carrigaline, Co Cork, after more than 17,000 worth of drugs and a further 6,000 in cash was discovered in his home by gardai. Homeowners Andrew and Julie Dollard with Jenson Jacob, Georgina James, Jeffrey Vinoj, Kaushik and Kaarthik Krishna Maheswarna, who all bought homes in the Sand Wood development in Portlaoise. Photo: Frank McGrath The head of the electricity network has acknowledged the stress suffered by families prevented from moving into their new homes because their estate has no power. Nicholas Tarrant, managing director of ESB Networks, said work was under way to resolve the situation at the Sand Wood estate in Portlaoise, where 80 homebuyers have been left waiting months for an electricity connection. However, he did not say when the new development would have power. The plight of the families who had originally expected to move in last Feburary - was highlighted in the Irish Independent last Monday. Mr Tarrant said ESB Networks staff had visited the estate since as part of the preparations for providing a connection. He told the Oireachtas climate, environment and energy committee that Portlaoise was a high-growth area where electricity was constrained. Population in the town had increased by 16pc in a decade, he said. I acknowledge theres been considerable uncertainty and stress for the families that are involved in this development, he said. Homeowners Andrew and Julie Dollard with Jenson Jacob, Georgina James, Jeffrey Vinoj, Kaushik and Kaarthik Krishna Maheswarna, who all bought homes in the Sand Wood development in Portlaoise. Photo: Frank McGrath Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th The developer in question [UK-based Hollybrook] applied to us back in March 2024. There was a revised application in August to cater for a commercial unit they were putting in and updated demand for that. We issued a connection offer to them in May of this year. During that time, we have to look at the various other applicants in that area. He said one of the factors involved was that Portlaoise needed two large new transformers to add capacity to the town. They were now in place and the developers had been given details of the work they needed to do on site to accommodate the connection. As soon as that site is ready for our electrical connection work to be done, we will work with the developer to get that done over the next period of time, he said. Asked by committee members whether there were other similarly constrained areas, he agreed there were, citing north and west Dublin and other areas where you have seen the biggest population growth. ESB Networks own capacity registers show that half the countrys substations have little or no room to connect new housing or other developments. Mr Tarrant said efforts to keep up with the fast-growing demand for electricity were being hampered by delays in the supply chain for key equipment. We have seen some lead times double and [it is now] over 24 months for large electrical transformers. The demand for this equipment across Europe and globally has dramatically increased as countries invest to support the decarbonisation of their networks to meet their climate change targets. Mr Tarrant said ESB Networks, as a semi-state operating under licence, could not prioritise connections for housing over developments such as data centres, but had to allocate on a first come, first served basis. Asked whether he would prefer if he could put housing first, he said such a decision would have to come from government policy or a direction from the energy regulator. GAA Palestine has confirmed a planned trip to Ireland this summer will no longer go ahead and said they are beyond devastated for the children who had hoped to travel here. A group of 33 children and 14 mentors were due to travel from the West Bank to Ireland on Friday. However, the group has been denied entry by the Department of Justice. The touring party were planning to spend two weeks travelling around Ireland. The GAA Palestine executive said they were profoundly upset for all parties involved as they vowed to explore a Plan B of visiting other destinations where our children will be welcomed and celebrated. It is with a very heavy heart that we announce that the planned trip to Ireland can no longer proceed, GAA Palestine said in a statement. The delay stemming from issues with the Department of Justice has ultimately resulted in this difficult decision, as time has run out to make alternative arrangements. The touring party was scheduled to depart from the West Bank this morning. We initially postponed departure for today, as the Department of Justice had informed us they were reviewing the appeal. However, the embassy in Tel Aviv is now closed we had a driver pick up the passports to allow us explore other options for the touring party to travel elsewhere, allowing us to provide these young athletes with the respite and opportunity they deserve. GAA Palestine said the trip will not go ahead even if visas are later issued, as delays at checkpoints and borders would likely cause severe disruptions. "Giving the children hope again, only for that hope to be dashed once more, would be too cruel. An appeal was lodged by GAA Palestine on Tuesday after the travel visa applications for the group were refused. GAA Palestine said it is deeply disappointed by the narrative suggesting necessary documentation was not provided or that we were late in the submission of our appeal. "We have been working diligently for months with the embassy in Israel. Despite numerous appeals over the past week requesting engagement, we have received no response from the Department of Justice. Our legal team has also attempted to communicate directly with the Department, but we have once again been ignored. "We are profoundly upset for all our GAA Palestine members, for the clubs that went to great lengths to organise this meaningful trip, and for the families who generously volunteered to host our touring party transforming their homes with bunk beds and painting walls to welcome these young GAA players from the West Bank to Ireland. "To our sponsors for their generosity, we do hope we can work together again in the future. While we are beyond devastated, we remain committed to our mission and will now proceed with Plan B, exploring other destinations where our children will be welcomed and celebrated. We thank EVERYONE for their continued support and understanding during this challenging time, they conclude. Speaking in the Dail chamber earlier today, Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he was genuinely perplexed by how the planned tour was handled by GAA Palestine, highlighting their visa appeal was only submitted yesterday when it could have been submitted earlier. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said: Requests for visas to enter Ireland are considered within the established visa application system. People who apply for visas must demonstrate that they meet the criteria to be granted. All of the information provided in support of an application must be in the form of documentary evidence which can be verified by a Visa Officer. These requirements apply to all those who apply and they cannot be waived for sporting events no matter how good the intention. When an application is unsuccessful the reasons for the refusal are communicated in the decision letter. The visa appeals process allows applicants to address any factors of the original refusal decision and have that application considered again. An appeal was received by the Department on the afternoon of July 15 from the groups solicitor which was acknowledged and has been receiving immediate attention." How dare you former minister Alan Shatter criticised in committee on Israeli settlements bill The ex-Fine Gael TD had repeatedly described the Occupied Territories bill as a Father Ted measure Former justice minister Alan Shatter arriving at Leinster House for a committee hearing on the Occupied Territories Bill. Photo: PA Grainne Ni Aodha Press Association Tue 15 Jul 2025 at 19:03 Former justice minister Alan Shatter has been criticised for comparing a ban on trade with Israeli settlements to TV sitcom Father Ted, with one TD asking how dare you use that description. Donald Trumps 30pc tariff threat now looms large, with the bloc ready to strike back should negotiations fail Tanaiste Simon Harris and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has spoken about the potential hits to Ireland. Photo: PA The Irish aviation and whiskey sectors are bracing for the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs after bourbon whiskey and Boeing aircraft were included on a list of US goods to be hit with tariffs in the event that negotiations with the Trump administration fail. Ireland wanted bourbon to be excluded because of the potential damage that the drinks industry here could suffer as a result, while Ryanair has billions of euro worth of planes on order from Boeing in the coming decade. US president Donald Trump has previously threatened to put a 200pc tariff on imports of European alcoholic beverages in retaliation for tariffs on US alcohol. Such a move would almost wipe out the Irish whiskey sector, which is hugely dependent on exports to America. Taoiseach Micheal Martin told the Dail in April that he had discussed the issue directly with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, which handles trade policy. US president Donald Trump. Photo: AP It is 'regrettable' that the EU and US was not able to agree a framework on tariffs ahead of an earlier deadline, Tanaiste Simon Harris has said I [raised] our concerns on the potential inclusion of bourbon and dairy on the proposed list of European Union countermeasures. I am pleased that the concerns of Ireland were fully taken into account, he said. While dairy is not included on the EUs new hit list, bourbon is there, along with cars and Boeing aircraft, a move that would affect Ryanair. The airline has orders worth 30bn with Boeing going through to 2034. The commission is presenting the 206-page list, covering 72bn of annual US imports, to EU member states for final approval. It is shorter than an earlier list, which covered 95bn of goods. The US imports would only be hit in retaliation for higher tariffs from America. Following much lobbying by EU governments, including Irelands, which were trying to protect sensitive sectors of their economies, other goods have been dropped from an earlier draft of the list. These include purebred horses, bovine semen and strawberry plants. The main item is almost 11bn of aircraft and aircraft parts, according to a report by Politico. Also included are 8bn worth of cars and car parts, plus machinery products, some chemicals and medical devices. In agri-food, it includes fruit and vegetables, as well as rum. There is no proposal as yet as to what level of tariffs would apply to these goods. The EU list that emerged pre-dates the letter sent last weekend by Mr Trump threatening to impose 30pc tariffs on EU goods if a trade deal is not agreed by the new deadline of August 1. It is actually a response to the earlier reciprocal tariff of 20pc, threatened by Mr Trump in April. With pharmaceuticals also in Mr Trumps sights, Tanaiste Simon Harris will hold talks today with representatives from the sector in the US. Speaking before the meeting, he said the sector is critically important for both economies. An important component of Irelands economic relationship with the US includes significant, mutually beneficial trade and investment partnerships in the pharmaceutical sector, he said. The integrated supply chain in pharma products between the EU, including Ireland and the US, supports rather than threatens our collective transatlantic economic security. Speaking in the Dail, Aontu leader Peadar Toibin pointed out that the planned EU countermeasures on Boeing, bourbon and butter could result in further US retaliation. This could affect the aircraft leasing sector in Ireland, which is worth 300bn. There was also a threat to Irish medical devices, worth 16bn, and the Irish whiskey sector, which he said is stopping production at the moment. Up to 90pc of whiskey operations have currently stopped distilling, with their product covered by the existing regime of 10pc tariffs when sold into America. Mr Martin said the uncertainty and volatility was terrible, but the Irish position up to now had been to avoid any escalatory response by Europe. Some would have liked a more robust response already, but Europe has played it calm and firm, he said. We had good reason to believe that there was a deal on the table, an outline framework agreement in principle, a couple of days ago. At the weekend that all changed. A 30pc tariff would be unsustainable and would have to be met with an EU response, Mr Martin said. In what amounts to a sop to the US administration, however, a plan to make warning labels on alcohol mandatory from next year is now expected to be pushed back to 2029. Alcohol labelling was cited as a significant barrier to American exports in a report published earlier this year by the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The continuing threat of a 30pc tariff on EU imports is now having an effect on the framing of this autumns budget and even for the completion of the National Development Plan, Mr Martin also told the Dail. The European Commission has put off until August 6 a separate plan to slap tariffs on 21bn of US imports in response to levies put on steel, aluminium and cars going into America from Europe. That report is utter garbage An Post CEO furious over front page newspaper story on company being on the brinkCommunications Minister denies leaking the claims: No, it wasnt meIrish Daily Mail political editor defends articleTaoiseach expresses confidence in An Post and its CEO While the An Post Irish Book Awards flourish, post offices around the country are closing Communications Minister Patrick ODonovan has denied leaking damaging claims about An Post to the media, after its CEO dismissed reports it was on the brink of financial collapse as utter garbage. No, it wasnt me, the minister said this morning when asked who leaked claims to a national newspaper. Todays Irish Daily Mail front page leads with a headline: An Post on the brink. The article reports that the "States postal service cash reserves drop below 1m for the first time but Cabinet sources warn there will be no bailout. It reports An Post is facing a "dire financial situation". It detailed how Mr O'Donovan told the Cabinet the postal service would have made a "substantial loss" last year had it not been for revenue generated by election-related post. Speaking this morning from a holiday in Italy on RTE Radio 1s Morning Ireland, An Post CEO David McRedmond said he was "absolutely furious. He described the newspaper article as utter garbage and utterly irresponsible reporting. Meanwhile, Mr ODonovan told the Claire Byrne radio programme; I heard David McRedmonds interview this morning and, first of all, I agree with him. "And you know, the issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting and I'm not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because I'm constitutionally prevented from doing that, as everybody is. But obviously somebody decided that that wasn't going to be the case. And it's not the first time. David McRedmond The minister said An Post had been transformed over the last number of years under [Mr McRedmonds] leadership. He said he wasnt going to get into Cabinet discussions on live radio. Maybe if the person who said that [the threat to An Post] put their name in the paper, you should be asking them. What I can say as a shareholder is An Post returned to profit last year, he continued. These are nameless people again and it's not the first time I've been talking to you about a nameless person, he said. Speaking of Mr McRedmond again, he said: We are meeting him very regularly. He wants to work with the Government That's what a CEO does. "But how a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying this, the situation is dire. I don't know how they will come up with that. Responding to the article, Mr McRedmond said the company was not on the brink. "That report is utter garbage, he said. Im here in Italy on my holidays, Im absolutely furious to read something like that. The company presented its results [to the Cabinet yesterday]. They showed the highest revenue we've ever had, over 1 billion revenue for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from 38 million to 55 million. They showed that our net profit was at 10 million. The company is performing extremely well. We've got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe, so I just don't understand it. David McRedmond, CEO of An Post. Photo: Collins Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th The Irish Daily Mail article also added that the minister has briefed the Cabinet on the bleak financial realities facing the States postal service. The Cabinet was told that without the significant once-off revenue generated from election-related post last year when general, local and European elections were held the organisation would have made a substantial loss, the article continued. Mr McRedmond said: It's just simply not true, and it's not how companies work. Yes, we got a big boost from the elections last year, but before and after the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, weve huge costs with them. This is utterly irresponsible reporting. It was an irresponsible leak from a government minister, which is wholly unacceptable. These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. Yes, we want more cash because we're growing so fast, because we're growing in commercial parcel markets. We talked to the Government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength. David McRedmond, CEO of An Post. Photo: Collins He said it was untrue to say the companys cash reserves had fallen below 1 million. "At the end of the year, weve 38 million cash reserves, and so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year. "My two concerns [are] the 10,000 employees of An Post reading a wholly garbage article this morning, when the company that they worked really hard for is doing really well, and they've been so disrespected by this. And the other is our customers, because we have big global commercial customers, and if they read this morning that An Post is on the brink, then they're going to think: Maybe we should go with someone else. So it's reckless in the extreme. Mr McRedmond said An Post had no plans to close any post offices. In defence of the article, Craig Hughes, the political editor at the Irish Daily Mail and author of the article, told the Irish Independent: David McRedmond did not dispute the fact that their cash reserves fell below 1m during last year. If he wishes to do so, he can publish the cash flow data throughout the year. The Cabinet was told that without the exceptional revenue generated through the mail on the back of the three elections, they would have made a significant loss. "I note Minister Patrick ODonovan did not refute these facts on air on RTE with Claire Byrne, he added. Later speaking to Newstalks The Pat Kenny Show, Mr Hughes said: As someone from rural Ireland, we've seen lots of services being stripped out over the years. "But initially it was just the banks, the post office, in many cases, is the last service that is existing in some communities. I think it would be very politically unpalatable if there was a wave of closures there. I know the postmasters' union were predicting that without getting the 15 million, the increase of 5 million, that you could have up to 400 post office closures around the country imminently. The Government is currently giving a subvention of 10 million annually to the postmasters. They say it isn't enough. [Michael Healy-Rae] thinks it should be the 15 million which they asked for in that bit of research that they put out there. But of course, very difficult for them to negotiate a better long-term deal with An Post if they're having these long-term challenges as well. Mr Healy-Rae told Newstalks The Pat Kenny Show that Mr Hughess article was giving a very important issue a national spotlight. We have about 900 post offices in operation in Ireland at the moment. But if you go back, for instance, to 2018, we lost 159, he said. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said while he didn't know if there had been a leak from a government minister, he said "it wasn't good for the company". He added that there had been no discussion about An Post being on "the brink". "I can understand [David McRedmond's] anger and his annoyance at what he read today, and I'm not apportioning blame anywhere. I just simply do not know [where it came from]," the Taoiseach said. "There was no discussion around An Post being on the brink. I mean, the company turned a profit last year and improved the situation significantly from the previous year," he added. Mr Martin added that the article published on Wednesday morning did not reflect the resilience of An Post. "I was disappointed with the thrust of that story this morning, because I don't think it reflects the strength of innovation and resilience that is within the company," he said. The Taoiseach said An Post has been an "effective" company and stood by its chief executive, Mr McRedmond. "An post has, in my view, been a very effective company that, under the leadership of David McRedmond, has actually adapted very well to changing trends," Mr Martin said. "The big shift has been to parcel delivery and An Post has captured that very well, and it's become a leading force in parcel delivery across the length and breadth of the country very efficiently," he added. Following An Posts CEO interview, former RTE presenter and Liveline host Joe Duffy praised Mr McRedmond on his social media. "Stunningly positive and powerful defence of a great Irish company An Post by dynamic CEO David McRedmond on Morning Ireland, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. I was taken aback by the support I received, the left-wing Galway independent said Independent TD Catherine Connolly has said she will seek to become the next Irish president. The left-wing Galway West representative said she did not make the decision overnight and was doubtful enough about the move, but was convinced by the correspondence she got from people asking her to run. Micheal Martin says uncertainty is very worrying Tanaiste Simon Harris has told senior pharmaceutical bosses based in the US that it is a crucial sector for our economy. Irelands position is that the sector should be addressed in the course of general discussions on tariffs between the EU and US and not set aside for later attention. United Ireland coming very soon, says Catherine Connolly as she launches Presidency campaign with bid to woo Sinn Fein The Independent Galway TD has promised not to take her full salary as she launched her campaign as a Left candidate Catherine Connolly launches bid to become the next president Senan Molony Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 15:41 Catherine Connolly has launched her Independent campaign for the Presidency, promising not to take her full salary - but looking forward to a United Ireland "very soon". Climate Change Advisory Council concerned over Michael Healy-Raes proposal to use deep peatlands Irelands plan to plant almost half-a-billion trees to help counteract greenhouse gas emissions has been unsuccessful, climate change experts have warned. Under a policy described as a failure, 8,000 hectares of land were to be planted with trees every year, but only one-fifth of that was planted last year and little more the year before. Diarmuid Gavin: The sustainable Kerry farm that has become a shining example of small-scale floriculture Annette Daltons one-woman enterprise supplies the best of seasonal blooms to lucky customers in the southwest Annette Dalton of Nettie's Flowers Diarmuid Gavin Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 06:30 When Annette Dalton left her senior horticultural role at the National Trust in the UK, some imagined she might take a breather, maybe a quiet retirement filled with roses and tea. Max Boot: Vladimir Putin took Donald Trump for granted he will pay for that mistake US president has given Russian counterpart 50 days to reach a peace deal with Ukraine before 100pc tariffs are introduced The previously friendly relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin appears to have soured. Photo: Reuters Max Boot Washington Post Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 06:30 Donald Trumps announcement about aid to Ukraine proves once again that he is nothing if not unpredictable. Saoirse Hanley: Is refusing to engage in small talk the perfect example of boundary-setting or just a symptom of Gen Z rudeness? Our columnist prides herself on being an approachable and polite but she cant summon the energy to chit-chat with strangers "These randomers had come to my table, taken my spare seats, and now they wanted my attention too? Or at least, thats how it seemed in the moment." Image: Getty Saoirse Hanley Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 06:30 A few weeks ago I lost my virginity. Sorry, I should clarify, I lost my Gravediggers virginity, and had my first lovely pint in the Dublin institution that is John Kavanaghs pub. They say you never forget your first. The bar does not serve food on a Monday, which means only the smaller side is open. So while I went searching for a seat in what space remained, I came to a conclusion about myself: Im really bad at small talk. Antoinette Burke is trying to raise 300,000 so her daughter Katie (18) can get life-changing surgery in the USA A Cork mom is selling donated clothes through online marketplace Vinted to raise money so her daughter can undergo a vital surgery in Florida. Antoinette Burke, based in Cobh, must raise 300,000 to cover the cost of the surgery needed by her 18-year-old daughter Katie. Katie has cerebral palsy, a dysplastic hip, twisted femur and retroverted pelvis, and these disabilities have made her life very difficult since she was just four-years-old. Ms Burke said her daughter is going to the gym four days a week, despite the physical difficulties she faces, to prepare for the procedure she hopes to undergo. She goes on her own because she is stubborn and independent and wants to keep the strength up in her legs because the stronger she is, the better she will recover when she eventually has surgery, Ms Burke said. Katie was given a training programme and all. Its great for her. Over 30,000 has been raised for Katie to get surgery to date through a fundraiser titled Katies Fight to Keep Walking. It has been underway for over two years and the money raised will fund the surgery, flights, and physiotherapy before and after the procedure. Ms Burke used to sell donated clothes and appliances on Facebook Marketplace to raise money, but that resource has dried up in recent months. Determined to succeed, she decided to give popular second-hand marketplace Vinted a chance. With Vinted, I put up whatever I have for sale and whatever is bought, I just package up and drop them off at the post office, and the package goes directly to their door, Ms Burke explained. The buyer also pays for the postage, which makes things so much easier, she said. Through the Katies Fight Vinted account, she sells a range of donated clothes and shoes, as well as unsold school uniforms donated by Tesco in Douglas Shopping Centre. Ms Burke started to sell the stock on Vinted about a month ago, and made more than 1,000 so far. There does be days where I could sell 20 items, and then not sell a thing the following day, she explained. It all depends on who is online, she added. Ms Burke posts her Vinted account on various notice boards on Facebook to attract visitors to her account. Its not just uniforms either, people have donated womens clothes, mens clothes, books and shoes, Ms Burke said. Find Katies GoFundMe here: https://gofund.me/fccf89ed Find Katies Vinted store here: https://www.vinted.ie/member/261932454-katiesfight Macroom Tidy Towns volunteers have been out and about during recent weeks undertaking much-needed weeding and a general clean-up. Members of the group also installed wicker baskets for the dipper population near the execution hole under the bridge in Macroom over the weekend. The dipper is one of the most common river birds in Ireland and frequents areas where the water quality is high. The bird is an important element of Irelands biodiversity as they exclusively feed from the river by collecting insect larvae. The wicker baskets designed for the birds are made of willow and are strategically placed where dippers are likely to build their nests. Where you find dippers, it is usually an indicator of good water quality, so it is lovely to see them and really help the environment having them there, project officer John Lyons said. Mr Lyons said raising awareness of the bird is very important and he is urging locals who walk around the area to keep an eye out for the little black bird with nice features. [The wicker baskets] will give them a shelter to build a nest and to raise awareness for people to know what is going on in the local environment, he explained. They are located under the bridge, central in town, and they are amazing little creatures. Macroom Tidy Towns members also placed two boxes on old trees for the betterment of the white barn owl species on Tuesday evening. [Owls] are secretive birds. You wouldnt see much of them in the morning or the evening, and not many people would have seen the white baron owl on a regular basis, Mr Lyons said. We know in Macroom, there are a couple of locations where they breed, and thats where we went to put them up. The box will provide a nesting place that is secure, safe and suitable for the owls needs. They are light birds, but they have a big wingspan and would usually go into large holes for shelter and isolation, Mr Lyons explained. These owl boxes have a pretty big opening and theres a tray outside it, where they land with their prey. Life Liam Collins: Sometimes it pays not to recycle Ive discovered my empty wine bottle is worth up to 100 Sitting on my desk as I write this is an empty bottle of Chateau Mouton Rothschild 2006. It is graced with a label that reprints a rather amateurish drawing by the renowned artist Lucian Freud of a giraffes head and a palm tree. Gardai in Galway have been keeping their newest canine recruit busy as he was on hand to help detect eight incidents of drug possession at Ceannt Station. Gunner, an 18-month-old cocker spaniel, joined gardai in Galway on Saturday for a high-visibility public transport policing operation at the citys train station where he detected the cases. The young dog was welcomed to the force at the start of June and was immediately called into action by assisting gardai at mandatory intoxicant testing checkpoints in Galway. Gunner the Galway Garda dog. Photo: An Garda Siochana Galway In a statement shared on social media, gardai praised Gunner, saying: Our new sniffer dog Gunner has been very busy bringing paw and order to the streets of Galway and he was the goodest boy again last weekend. On Saturday, he took part in a high-visibility public transport policing operation at Ceannt Station and detected eight incidents of drug possession. Hes on track to have a great career, sniffing out crime at full steam! Gunner got a very positive response from commuters as he walked through the crowd on the platform and on board the trains, who also praised our members for their high-visibility presence. Wooded island at Cloonaghlin showing potential of native woodlands to thrive in Iveragh landscape. Remnant woodlands in uplands of Iveragh peninsula requiring active intervention to allow regeneration. An exciting new project has received funding which will support farmers in south Kerry to conserve existing woodland and increase tree cover within farm systems that benefits farmers and the wider community. With an estimated target of 300 hectares, the Iveragh Woodlands European Innovation Partnership (EIP) will focus on restoring old-growth remnants, facilitating natural regeneration, and, where needed, planting local provenance native saplings. As well as benefits for nature, the project aims to reconnect local communities with natural heritage, create new opportunities through upskilling and investigating market opportunities, and ultimately hopes to create a blueprint that will inform policy and future agricultural support mechanisms. EIP aims to address two challenges: a policy environment that makes it extremely difficult to create or restore native woodlands in upland areas - especially where they are designated for conservation - and diminishing farm viability in upland and hill settings. This project proposes a new model for upland woodland restoration that complements existing farm systems and supports rural communities. This four-year initiative is led by the charity Hometree and is co-funded by the European Union and Department of Agriculture. It will offer participating farmers an initial participation fee, support for any restoration actions undertaken, and ongoing payments linked to ecological outcomes designed to work alongside existing payments. Ray O Foghlu, project lead at Hometree, said the project has enormous potential for positive impact on Irelands landscapes and habitats. It also benefits farmers financially and by creating and strengthening networks and opening up opportunities. Im incredibly excited about the potential for positive impact this project will bring to south Kerry, he said. The project is supported by Munster Technological University, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Kerry County Council and other partners and local stakeholders. Hometree is recruiting an ecologist and a local coordinator to work full-time on the project alongside a project manager and administrator. See https://www.hometree.ie/joinourteam for more information and application details. Contact information: Ray O Foghlu at 087 224 9226. Lucy Taylor lucy@hometree.ie The Lecture will focus on Irelands Place in the World of 2040 and take place at the historic cable station on Valentia Island Irish businessman Denis OBrien will be among the well-known names who will speak at the ninth edition of the Valentia Lecture, which will take place on Thursday and Friday (July 17 and 18). The Lecture will focus on Irelands Place in the World of 2040 and take place at the historic cable station on the island. The annual event commemorates the worlds first transatlantic cable, which was laid between Valentia Island and Herts Content in Newfoundland. The laying of the cable resulted in the first ever message to be transmitted across the ocean in 1858, from Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to President James Buchanan of the United States. This year the Lecture will take a new format, which will see keynote speakers provide a range of perspectives on history, the arts, media, politics, society, technology and business. The speakers will include historian Professor Jane Ohlmeyer of Trinity College Dublin, journalist Mick Clifford, Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae as well as Denis OBrien. Each of the speakers presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with four of Irelands future leaders. These leaders are all in their 30s, the same age as Cyrus Field was when he transformed the world when he led the transatlantic cable project in the late 1800s. More than 30 of these future leaders with expertise in business, politics, academia, media, government, arts and sport will be participating. They will be asked to reflect on the Ireland of today and to share their vision for Ireland in 2040 and its place in the world. The Irish Ambassador to Canada, John Concannon, will also visit the Lecture alongside James Moloney, MP at the House of Commons in Canada. The Canadian Embassy in Dublin will be represented at the event by the head of political and public affairs, Mr David Kyffin. Research collaborations by universities from Ireland and Canada will also be discussed at the event, which will be followed by a gala dinner at the Royal Hotel. Kerry Mayor Mike Foley will welcome the guests to Valentia at the dinner and Ambassador Concanon will deliver an after-dinner address. A team from the Connect Centre at Trinity College Dublin, who will be showcasing their mobile engagement unit whose aim is to bring quantum technologies to life will also be welcomed to the Lecture this year. The upcoming event is supported by investment banking company Brown Brothers Harriman. New report shows Independent Cllr John OHeney presented Bertie Callinan with a certificate of appreciation following the publican's retirement in June. Bertie's Bar is going strong in Dundrum under new ownership and is at the heart of parish life, along with the church, community centre and GAA club, said Cllr O'Heney Tipperary has seen the fifth worst decline in the number of public houses between 2005 and 2024, according to a new report supplied by the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI), published on Monday. The report, called The Decline in the Number of Public Houses, 2005 to 2024, is an economic analysis by Anthony Foley, of Dublin City University Business School. A reduction has been recorded in every county in Ireland, with rural areas the most severely affected. The 19-year total decline for Tipperary shows that there were 525 pubs in the county in 2005, compared to 357 pubs in 2024, or 168 fewer pubs overall during the period. The five-year period from 2019 to 2024 recorded a decrease of 44 fewer pubs, representing an 11pc decline. The figures show that there 401 pubs open in Tipperary in 2019, 397 in 2020, 387 in 2021 and 2022, falling to 361 in 2023, and 357 pubs still open last year. During the period, Limerick saw the largest reduction (-37.2pc), followed by Offaly (-34.1pc), Cork (-32.7pc), Roscommon (-32.3pc) and Tipperary (-32pc). In total, eight counties recorded decreases of 30pc or higher, and another eleven counties saw decreases of 20pc or higher. Many of the 2,119 pubs that have closed since 2005 played a unique and important role in their local communities - serving as vital social and cultural gathering places, stated the report. In many small towns and rural areas, they were often the only venue for people to connect and socialise. Their closure represents a profound loss, stripping communities of key social, cultural, and economic pillars. In a sign of the times, independent Cllr John OHeney wished well-known local publican Bertie Callinan and his family all the best for the future following his retirement on June 18 from well-known Berties Bar in Dundrum. Although Bertie retired after over 40 years of service, the new owners are keeping it going strong as a pub under the same name, and Berties Bar is at the heart of village life. Berties has been open in Dundrum village since 1982, and Bertie himself served the community with distinction ever since, said Cllr OHeney. He is a great supporter of all local organisations and events and will be fondly remembered. I was delighted to present him with a certificate of appreciation for his dedicated community service and contributions to the community over many years. Wishing Bertie a long and happy retirement. Cllr OHeney told the Irish Independent that the figures released on Monday are quite concerning and detrimental to the rural parish and way of life. He believes the pub is often the heartbeat of the community, along with the GAA club, or church, and community centre. It is worrying to see a trend exist where closures are happening on a very regular basis, said Cllr OHeney. Some of the causes are cultural. A lot of younger people are not going to the pubs anymore. Theyre going to gigs and concerts in the cities. Theyre travelling a lot more than they used to in the last few years, he said. The cost of alcohol now means it is quite expensive to have a few drinks out. Thats not really the publicans fault. Costs have been levied on top of them by Guinness and by Diageo, and by the breweries. If you go out for a drink now, you wont get much change from 20 for two drinks. The cost of going out is a significant problem for people going out now. Its a cost of living problem, said Cllr OHeney. Several European countries offer grants and funding opportunities to support pubs and cafes. Cllr OHeney said something has to be done for the rural pubs, otherwise were going to be left in a situation where many parishes will be left without a rural pub. Its a social outlet for people, particularly elderly people who might not have family, or they may not have people in the area that theyre close to. They can go down to the local pub and meet someone for a chat or a game of cards, or to watch a match. Follow Independent Tipperary on Facebook Theres been a big change in the last few years and something needs to be done to address the slide. Some incentives need to be brought in from government level, whether its a reduction in rates, or maybe some kind of grants incentive. Were in situation now where most towns have had significant closures. Rural towns are gone back to six, seven, eight pubs where they used to have 25 or 30 pubs in the same town, added Cllr OHeney. Victims told the court how they were on constant alert and felt helpless and unsafe A woman who harassed two teachers at a school in the New Ross district to such an extent that both of them ended up leaving their positions has received a ten month suspended prison sentence. The woman in her early 60s who was charged with harassment was present in court last week when both injured parties described the effect her actions had had on them during her campaign of harassment. Garda Donal Doyle told the court that he had received correspondence from Victim A, in November 2020 that appeared to be a letter from the Teaching Council which was delivered to the school attaching the code of conduct signed off as the Education Department within the council. Brendan Curran, state solicitor, queried with Garda Doyle if this department exists to which he confirmed it does not. After this incident on February 14, 2022 Victim A received a Valentines day card which was posted to her home address which read Happy Valentines Day, see you soon. Victim A was in a long term relationship at this time. A month later a St. Patricks Day card was also sent to her home. Mr Curran put to the court that the implication of these cards was that they were from a secret admirer and could cause significant issues in her relationship. Garda Doyle confirmed these cards were sent to Victim As home address and caused her significant stress. Wexford Courthouse. Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th The second complainant, Victim B, was a colleague working in the school alongside Victim A. Both women had raised concerns within the school and in June 2020 Victim B received a letter which again appeared to be from the teaching council which was sent to her home address. This letter seemed to accuse the injured party of harassing and bullying co-workers and referred to health and safety legislation. On December 18, 2020 the defendant was staring into the classroom of Victim B. The defendant also phoned Victim Bs mother-in-law. The court heard these calls were not threatening but deemed inappropriate, with Garda Doyle saying the tone was not great. In October 2021 Victim B received correspondence purporting to be from the teaching council with the code of conduct attached and again Garda Doyle said it didnt come from the council. Ultimately complaints were made and investigated by Garda Doyle. In relation to the St. Patricks Day card received by Victim A in March 2021 the stamp was able to be traced to the post office it was bought as well as the date and time it was bought. This allowed gardai to locate CCTV and identify the accused as the person buying the stamp. As a result of this warrants were executed, one of which led to the seizure of a printer which correlated to a print test page that was on the back of one of the letters included in the letters purporting to be from the teaching council, and the accused was then arrested. She made admissions at the time and was further interviewed on two occasions where she also made full admissions to the correspondence but did not accept the accusation of staring into the window at the school. The accused claimed she was trying to help her sister who held a position within the school at the time. Victim A read her victim impact statement into court. She detailed that in the final three years of teaching within the school there were staff issues and during this time she began to receive anonymous post. Victim A said that these malicious letters were sent to damage her professional and personal relationships, and her sense of trust in the workplace felt undermined. She became worried that she had been reported to the teaching council and was incredibly upset, on the same date it was received the teaching council confirmed that it was not from them. Victim A claimed the third and fourth letters received, the cards sent to her home address, were the most devastating as they implied she was having an affair and attempted to cause a rift in her relationship. She stated in her final two years of teaching she became increasingly anxious and isolated, entering the school only through the back door and rarely leaving her room unless necessary. Victim A said how she had ultimately decided to leave the school which she described as one of the most difficult decisions Ive ever made. She added the effect the letters had was devastating as she began to feel stressed and anxious, and felt vulnerable and unsafe at the idea of receiving further letters. The victim added that her peace of mind was taken from her. She said the emotional pain had been all consuming. Victim A also noted that the defendant, who also had an educational background herself, should have known the serious damage her actions could cause. Victim A ended her statement on a bittersweet note stating she is finally beginning to put her life back together and that she is grateful for the years she had in this school and remembers her past pupils fondly and is thankful for the colleagues she has had the privilege of working with stating they are still some of her greatest friends. Victim B then shared she felt she was targeted for raising child and staff safety issues within the school over two years and seven months. She described how she felt unsafe, threatened, and under attack by the letters as the letters suggested insider knowledge of the schools issues. Victim B said she felt hurt over the loss of what had been a good school atmosphere. She stated she had reported all the letters received to her Board of Management yet no action was taken, as a result she worried constantly about another letter. Victim B emphasised to the court the premeditation involved in these letters as they needed to be typed, printed, folded, placed into an envelope, addressed, stamped, brought to a post office or letterbox, and posted. When Victim B as informed by Garda Doyle that the defendant, who Victim B said was a former principal in addition to holding other educational qualifications, was the culprit behind the letters she felt her conduct was a betrayal of the teaching profession. Victim B also recounted an incident in January 2021, when the defendant contacted her elderly mother-in-law, leaving phone calls and voicemails that the victim described as threatening and demanding. She felt that the tone of these calls showed a complete lack of respect for the elderly woman and caused immense worry and stress. As a result of the ongoing harassment, Victim B became constantly on high alert, fearing that the defendant was watching or following her. She described the worry as relentless". Ultimately, the victim made the difficult decision to leave the school. She described the emotional toll as leaving her feeling afraid, weak, helpless, unsafe, and vulnerable. She referred to the entire ordeal as a nightmare I could not wake from in which there was no escape or relief. Victim B thanked the gardai for their professionalism, commitment, and kindness in this case and also stated she is grateful to her family, friends, and colleagues for the support received during these circumstances and counts herself lucky for these people in her life. Ross Pratt OBrien BL, counsel for the defendant, confirmed that there was ongoing issues within the school and stated it was a fair assessment to say there were a number of parties involved at the time. Mr. Pratt OBrien BL told the court that the defendant is the older sister to a woman who worked within the school and this woman would have kept the accused appraised of everything going on within the school. As a token of remorse a sum of 4,000 was offered to both victims which Garda Doyle confirmed was refused. Mr. Pratt OBrien BL described the incident as not a very sophisticated operation which Garda Doyle confirmed but stated there was a bit of thought in putting everything together. Garda Doyle confirmed the accused has no previous convictions, made early admissions, and has not come to An Garda Siochana attention since the last incident in March 2022. The defendant then took to the witness stand to convey her apologies to both of the injured parties. She acknowledged the hurt and expressed her deep regret for the hurt she caused to the individuals involved. She stated she felt immense pressure to support her sister who was experiencing challenges within the school and acknowledged how she should not have allowed her emotions to dominate and control her actions and should have maintained a neutral and objective stance. She described her actions as unwise and very regrettable". The accused offered her sincere apologies to all parties involved and expressed her deep remorse for the impact her actions had. Mr. Pratt OBrien BL urged the court to consider a probation report in the unusual circumstances of the case where there were ongoing issues within the school and Walsh felt protective of her sister. The barrister told the court that the defendant is working part time as a lecturer and her career is essentially winding down. Counsel reminded the court of the accuseds sincere apology and remorse for her actions and stated he is seeking a probation report as he feels certain issues will come to light in this report. Judge John Cheatle described the incident as an out of character event with very serious consequences but did not order a probation report and instead opted to finalise matters for the peace of mind of both injured parties. Judge Cheatle commended the victims for their statements and also the gardai for their professionalism in this case. He remarked that when the defendant began sending these letters that she had no idea of the catastrophic effect her actions would have on both women and their families and friends in so many ways. Judge Cheatle stated he cannot see the benefit in imprisoning the accused and imposed a 10-month sentence suspended for 12-months, and also ordered 4,000 be paid to each of the injured parties as a gesture of remorse and in circumstances where the victims do not want the money they can nominate a charity for the funds to be paid to. Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme Many members of the community paid tribute to the late artist and sculptor, Michael Warren who passed away on July 10. Originally born in Dublin in 1950, Michael lived and worked in his studio in Letatlin, Ballycale. Michaels impact on Goreys cultural landscape helped establish the town as a significant hub for artistic expression and education. He studied at Bath Academy of Art, Trinity College, Dublin and at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. Michael was greatly involved with the establishment of what would become Gorey School of Art. Teaching alongside Eamonn Carter throughout the mid to late 1990s, Michael helped build the institutions reputation through his dedication to nurturing student talent and excellence. As the schools standing grew, it was formally established as Gorey School of Art in 2003, with Michaels foundational contributions remaining central to its identity. The Gorey School of Art community extended its deepest condolences to Michaels family and friends during this difficult time. Paul Carter, current director of Gorey School of Art said he first encountered Michael as a Leaving Certificate student in the 1990s, when his sculptures were featured on the national art syllabus. It was remarkable to discover that this internationally respected artist was from our own town of Gorey. I had the privilege of working closely with Michael for over a decade, collaborating on documentation, archival projects, photography, and public art grant submissions. The knowledge and spatial understanding I gained from that experience exceeded anything I learnt during my six years in art college. His influence continues to guide my work today. He will always be remembered as a dear friend, a gentle soul, and a remarkable artist with endless depth and integrity Paul said. Wicklow Wexford TD Malcolm Byrne spoke about Michaels legacy. Michael was an extraordinary artist and sculptor. Even though he was recognised internationally, for him, it was very important that his art would be recognised around Gorey town. I extend my sympathy to his wife Maria, his children and extended family Deputy Malcolm said. Michael was heavily involved in the development of the Tulach a' tSolais memorial on Oulart Hil. They released a tribute to Michael on Facebook: It is with deep sadness that all involved in Oulart Hill Walking Hub have learned of the death of Michael Warren. It was Michael who shepherded the project through a surprisingly difficult planning process in coordination with Barry Murphy, then Chairman of the Office of Public Works who also felt it was a perfect site for the memorial and who backed it all the way they said. Members of the community paid tribute to Michael. One person on RIP.ie said: Michael left a great legacy of monumental and powerful works for future generations to appreciate and enjoy. As an artist you cannot ask for more. Rest in peace Michael. Another person said: Sincere condolences to Maria, Elaine and all the Warren family on Michael's passing. He played a critical role in the siting of Tulach a' tSolais on Oulart Hill, being involved from the conceptual stage with Ronald Tallon and he was determined it would stand where it is today. As an artist, Michael achieved international recognition for his sculptural work including being awarded honorary membership of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 2012 and was presented with the Medalla al Merito Artistico by the Mayor of Madrid, Spain in 1991. In recognition of his profound impact on the institution, Gorey School of Art formally named its new facility the Michael Warren Gallery & Studios in 2018. His funeral Service took place at Christ Church, Gorey, on Saturday, July 12, followed by burial in Tubberneering graveyard. Parents of Our Lady of Fatima pupils have voiced concerns over changes to the provision of special education from September The parents pictured outside Our Lady of Fatima School on Friday were (l to r)- Nicola Reck, Thomas Reck, Vanessa Steenson, Darryl Cogley, Karen Whitty and Patience Saunders. Pic: Jim Campbell For parents, families and the children who go there Our Lady of Fatima Special School in Wexford town has become something of a safe haven. One of 30 schools in Ireland which caters for children with mild general learning disabilities (MGLD) it attracts pupils from all over Co Wexford and beyond, with some travelling from as far as Wicklow to attend. Currently there are 117 children on its roll, 117 children who avail of the specialised care and attention they receive from the schools teachers, special needs assistants (SNAs), and extended staff. However, the future of those children, and the children who hope to attend the school in the future, was thrown into jeopardy in May of this year when a letter, issued by the Department of Education, outlined its proposed changes for special education provision for the academic year 2026/27 and beyond. The letter (Circular 0039-2025), which followed engagement with the National Council for Special Education (NCSE), details the departments plans to review the designation of existing special schools. Set to be finalised by December 31 of this year, the plan states that where there is a need for special class places in a local area, and there is no available school to meet this need . . . the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) can approach other schools to open special classes. With regards to the designation of special schools under the plan, the Department and the NSCE have said they intend to commence work on reviewing the designation of existing special schools to ensure that all special schools respond to the needs of children in their local region, rather than children having to travel past one or more special schools to access a special school placement due to the designation of those schools. Under the new plans, pupils with MGLD may be required to attend special units in mainstream schools in their locality rather than travel to Our Lady of Fatima for their education. Already, the principal of Our Lady of Fatima, Ms Glenda McKeown, has voiced her deep concerns regarding the changes to the system and how it will impact children across Wexford, saying students in Our Lady of Fatima would definitely struggle for many different reasons mental health or high anxiety levels if they were compelled to go to a mainstream school, and there would be a greater level of absenteeism. And now, with uncertainty and fear growing among those who attend Our Lady of Fatima, parents of some of the schools current students have had their say. Vanessas story The changes detailed in Circular 0039-2025 are particularly pertinent for Vanessa Steenson and her daughter Helen Maria. Living in Gorey, they are a long way from Our Lady of Fatima in Wexford town and would, like many other families, be forced to go to the nearest available mainstream school if the changes are implemented. Helen Maria (12) has already spent some time in a mainstream school where it quickly became apparent that she required a more specialised environment. She spent junior infants in a school in Gorey, the teachers were very good, and understanding, but they werent able to support her, says Vanessa. She spent most of the time sitting in the back of the room with a piece of paper and some crayons. I knew she had a lot of potential but the teachers werent able to unlock it. Helen Maria has a rare genetic disorder which affects her cognitive learning abilities and she also has difficulties with sensory processing. In addition, Vanessa says that although her chronological age is 12, shes really only about seven or eight. Following junior infants, Helen Maria began attending Our Lady of Fatima. She was pre-verbal at this stage, she now talks, shes able to read, is at fourth class level and can read small novels, says Vanessa. She has amazing potential and its only by being in Our Lady of Fatima that they have found ways of tapping into it. "She couldnt learn in a mainstream setting where theres 30 kids, one teacher, lots of noise and distraction. Now shes in a small classroom setting, theres two special needs assistants (SNAs), plus the teacher, and her work is all tailored to her, as it is to the other students, All the children who attend Our Lady of Fatimas have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) which contains various targets and goals for each child. "The teacher uses various learning approaches and teaching styles to suit that child. If you go into a mainstream setting the teacher is just opening the book and telling the class what theyre going to be doing, says Vanessa who is a teacher herself. If Helen Maria was in a mainstream setting she would be starting first year now, probably in Gorey Community School. She is tiny, can you imagine her in among a group of teenage first years? Children like her get forgotten or are labelled as disruptive in a mainstream school. Although the academic year has now concluded at Our Lady of Fatima, the school is still working with its students, Helen Maria included, to ensure they are ready for all that the world throws at them in their future lives. Theyre doing their summer provision at the moment, its like a summer camp, Vanessa explains. They organise activities for the children, improve their life skills. I got an email the other day to tell me they were going to the shops, to the cinema. Chloe had to bring her little purse with money to buy a bottle of water, some treats, before they went to the cinema. Leaving Cert class of 2024 from Our Lady of Fatima School, Emily McMahon, Glenda McKeown (Principal), Eddie Sullivan, Sarah Mylett, Glenn Molly, Sorcha Donnelly, Sean O'Connor, Lee Kelly, Adam Sinnott, Bridget Lacey (Deputy Principal), Emer Kehoe (Leaving Cert Class Teacher). Pic: Jim Campbell Darryls story Describing Our Lady of Fatima as nothing short of a lifeline for his daughter, Darryl Cogley, as chair of the parents association, says the proposed changes fill him with a mix of apprehension and deep concern for the future of our special schools. Before Grace came here, we had navigated a labyrinth of challenges, often feeling isolated and misunderstood. But within the walls of that school, she has found a place where her unique needs are not just accommodated, but celebrated, he says. The dedicated staff, the tailored curriculum, the small class sizes these are not luxuries, they are essential pillars that have allowed my daughter to blossom, to achieve her full potential in a way that simply wouldn't have been possible in a mainstream setting. "This school has unlocked her abilities, built her confidence, and given her a sense of belonging that every child deserves. Its amazing to see a child going into the school at 9-10-years-old and watching their development; youd have a child who wouldnt have spoke very much, where their peers (in mainstream) were moving on at a faster pace so they were left out of conversations. Now theyre in with their own peers, their own age group, theyre welcomed every day and all the anxieties theyve had are starting to reduce. Although the proposed changes wont impact Grace or any students from Our Lady of Fatimas for the upcoming academic year, Darryl says the prospect of a reduction in special school places for children with (MGLD) sends shivers down his spine. The parents pictured outside Our Lady of Fatima School on Friday were (l to r)- Nicola Reck, Thomas Reck, Vanessa Steenson, Darryl Cogley, Karen Whitty and Patience Saunders. Pic: Jim Campbell Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th "The Department of Education and the NCSE speak of expanding special classes in mainstream schools and a gradual phased basis for changes to existing special schools, but what does that truly mean for our children? he asks. Will the nuanced, individualised support that makes Our Lady of Fatima so exceptional be replicated in a mainstream setting? My fear, and the fear of countless other parents, is that it simply cannot. If this leads to a significant reduction in places for children with MGLD at schools like Our Lady of Fatima, it will have a far-reaching, devastating effect on hundreds of potential future students. We cannot afford to lose these vital spaces, these havens of tailored education. We implore the Department of Education to recognise the irreplaceable value of schools like Our Lady of Fatima and ensure that the needs of all children with special educational needs, including those with MGLD, continue to be met with the highest standard of care and specialized provision. Our children's futures depend on it. This isn't just about administrative adjustments; it's about the very heart of how we support our most vulnerable children. Darryls fears extend beyond his own situation, beyond that of the schools current student body. Theres a lot of parents out there who had thought their children would be going to Our Lady of Fatima in the next couple of years and theyre worried about whats going to happen with their child now. Nicola and Thomass story Gerard reached fourth class in a mainstream setting before it became apparent that his situation was no longer sustainable. While he got on well with his peers, was liked by his classmates, the academic challenges were mounting, causing the young boy severe distress. "He used to be crying going into mainstream, it was so hard on him, he couldnt cope with it, says his dad Thomas. At night time he couldnt sleep with the anxiety, the worry. Now 15, Gerard, who has autism and MGLD, had done his level best to keep up, but the school setting just wasnt appropriate for his needs. He went as far as fourth class, at that point even those within the school felt he needed more, says mam Nicola. They gave him plenty of support, looked after him really well, he was popular with the other kids and socially he mixed with everyone. But academically he began to feel the pressure, he would say to us, why am I struggling, why are things so hard? Everyone else can do it but I cant. The switch to Our Lady of Fatima happened six years ago and the changes in their sons demeanour have taken even his parents by surprise. Its been brilliant, hes done his Junior Cert, hes halfway through the Leaving Cert Applied, says Nicola. He hated drama before, but hes acted in a play now; hes given everything a go, took part in things he would never have done before. Our Lady of Fatima has made a huge difference to his life, to his confidence; we can see how much he's matured. Those levels of maturity have seen the teenager complete two blocks of work experience, one in a car dealership and the other with a local charity, and a realisation that anything is achievable. This extends to his extra-curricular work, to embracing his own natural creativity and blending it with the skills he has acquired in school. Hes started to write his own book, we never fell over when he came to us with that, says Nicola. Its a science fiction story, hes done it all by himself. Seeing him doing that, the pride he takes in it, he takes in his schoolwork, is incredible. Hes also done some public speaking. The school is navigating a path for him for when he finishes, ensuring theres variety there for him. Karens story Since the birth of her daughter 11 years ago, Karen Whitty says shed had to fight for everything. Diagnosed with an incredibly rare genetic syndrome which affects just 400 children worldwide, Daisy May also has a MGLD and attended a specialised pre-school from a young age. From there she was fortunate enough to go straight into Our Lady of Fatima, straight into an environment which has allowed her to flourish from the outset. Her specialist in Crumlin would have always said the reason she is doing so well is because shes in Our Lady of Fatima, says Karen. Theres no way she would ever be able to settle into a mainstream setting. I would not do that to her, I wouldnt let her go. While her place is secure for the upcoming academic year, Daisy May and hundreds of children like her face an uncertain future due to the changes being implemented by the Department of Education and the NCSE. The prospect of having one of the few certainties in her daughters life taken away fills Karen with dread. You have to fight for everything when you have a child with special needs. Everything. Basic things are a fight. Our Lady of Fatima is the one thing we have that we can rely on and now theres a possibility it could be taken away. I couldnt believe it when I saw the letter for the first time, I just thought this is typical, here we go. "Shes such a happy little thing at the moment, but the minute shed walk into a playground in a mainstream school shed be different straight away. And she doesnt feel that way in Our Lady of Fatima. In there shes not different, she doesnt even see difference, its just such a lovely environment for her. Its the entire community, from the caretaker to the bus escorts and drivers, its so reassuring as a parent. Karen hopes that sense of reassurance will extend well into the future, a future which she believes would otherwise consist of her daughter sitting at home every day, her entire education gone to waste in an inappropriate setting. She has seven years left in Our Lady of Fatima, thatll bring her to the Leaving Cert. Her entire future is at stake here. The school will get her ready for when she leaves. She has so much to give and they will get it out of her, theyll make sure shes ready for the world when she walks out those gates for the last time, and that she won't just be left sitting at home with me. Patiences story Prior to attending Our Lady of Fatima, Patience Saunders daughter had become something of an errand girl in the mainstream school she attended. It wasnt that her services were particularly in demand, that a lot of errands needed doing; it was just the only way the teachers could keep her out of their classes, and thus out of their hair. Now 15, Sophie has been in Our Lady of Fatima for eight years after spending her early years of education in a mainstream setting. "The teachers would have her doing errands, theyd say I can get on and teach the other children now when Sophie isnt here, Patience recalls. "It used to break my heart, Id actually get a pain in my chest when I got a call from the school telling me that Sophie was being disruptive, that shed done such and such a thing again today. Diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and a MGLD, Sophie is now flourishing in Our Lady of Fatima, in an environment where there is lots of acceptance, and love among her peers. For her its not a school, its a community, says her mother. The confidence she has now, the belief in herself, shes just a completely different person there. In the coming academic year Sophie will take on her first set of state exams, and, far from being apprehensive, she is relishing the project. Shell be doing her Junior Cert next year and shes excited about taking on the new subjects, they go to Selskar College and St Peters for some of them, says Patience. She just wants to fit in, I think that's all anybody wants in life. Our Lady of Fatima gives them the tools to become a member of society. If she had remained in mainstream she would have stopped going to school. Once she reached first year in secondary that would have been it. The future In the wake of the letter issued by the Department of Education, Our Lady of Fatima and the other 29 special schools for children with MGLD issued a joint statement to Education Minister Helen McEntee. It called upon both the Department and the NCSE to protect our model, to expand provision across the board, and to invest in the full range of needs and for Minister McEntee to meet them in person to discuss the issues they are facing. Education Minister Helen McEntee. Photo: PA It is her responsibility to stop this harmful action, to engage with staff and parents affected and to consider alternatives, read the statement. And in the Dail, on July 1, Wexford TD George Lawlor offered his full support to Our Lady of Fatima and schools potentially impacted by these proposed changes. Noting that pupils from the Wexford school had recently gone on to third level and been accepted onto apprenticeship programmes, Deputy Lawlor said these schools, and the children who attend them, needed to be supported. We need to stand up for the children with a mild, general learning disability because they thrive in places like Our Lady of Fatima school. They thrive in what these schools offer them. Children who attend special schools like Our Lady of Fatima would definitely struggle for many different reasons, including mental health or high anxiety levels, if they were compelled to go to a mainstream school. The students in the likes of Our Lady of Fatima in Wexford town flourish. This school offers the primary curriculum, junior certificate level and level 3 subjects, and has started senior cycle level 2 and the leaving certificate applied. The students receive the same as they would in a mainstream school but the difference is the number of students is smaller. The anxiety they would have felt in a mainstream school has been taken away. Our Lady of Fatima special school can attend to their needs. As a result, the students in this wonderful school and wonderful schools like it across the country are successful in accessing the curriculum. The argument that no child should pass the school that is right beside their house is understood, but schools such as the one I have mentioned should be an option for parents who want to send their children to them. The policy outlined in Circular 39/2025 (letter from the Department) creates the risk of students being very unhappy in an environment in which they do not flourish. The success of the children of Our Lady of Fatima special school when they leave school is proof of how it works. "There is a strong chance that these students would not have been able to achieve this in a mainstream setting. Our Lady of Fatima special school is a model that works and the feeling now is that this model is at risk and that the education of the children who are content and anxiety free is at risk. Darryl Cogley, the chairperson of the school parents' association, has a daughter who originally attended mainstream school and then moved to Our Lady of Fatima special school. He said that children like his daughter require a specialised school and educational environment, and dedicated support. She got it at Our Lady of Fatima special school and continues to flourish on a day-to-day basis. I ask the Minister of State to re-examine Circular 39/2025 for the benefit of these wonderful schools across the country." Returning to the parents, they say there is one reason behind the proposed changes, one reason why the Department wants to change the provision of special education throughout the country. Its down to a lack of funding and resources," says Vanessa, they dont want to spend money building schools for these children, schools that are needed. They dont want to invest, theyre saying you know what, well get the kids from MGLD and well put them into mainstream and put the kids with profound needs in there instead. But how are teachers going to teach children with MGLD children in classes that are already packed, when their resources are already stretched? On a potential meeting with either Minister McEntee or the Minister for Special Education, Michael Moynihan, the parents have one simple requirement. Engage with us, thats all we want, says Darryl. Come down and talk to us and the parents from the other schools. They have contacted both departments says Vanessa, but with varying results. Thats the worst insult. Thanks for you letter, heres a generic response, its been noted. Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme. Millie Doyle-Keegan from Aughrim, who was born with biliary atresia with splenic malformation, with her brothers Matthew and Lee. Millie Doyle-Keegan from Aughrim, who was born with biliary atresia with splenic malformation, with her big brother Lee. The parents of a five-month-old Wicklow girl with a rare condition that requires a liver transplant to save her life have launched a fundraiser to help cover the costs of travelling to London at the drop of a hat when a donor liver becomes available. Born with biliary atresia with splenic malformation, which affects her liver and other vital organs, Millie Doyle-Keegan from Aughrim has already endured so much despite her young age, but has persevered like a trooper and done so with a smile on her face. In the days after her birth, Millies mother, Sarah Doyle, knew something was not right, despite her newborn being cleared for jaundice. The mother of threes concerns were dismissed at a subsequent hospital visit, before she and her husband, Richie Keegan, finally received a conclusive diagnosis. She had all the symptoms of this disease pale poo, dark urine, a swollen tummy and jaundice, Sarah recalled. So, I brought her to the hospital, but they told me theres nothing wrong. The following week, I brought her back to Holles Street, where I had her, and they did a blood test and an ultrasound. The next day, we went to Crumlin Hospital, and within three days, we were told, all in one breath, that she had biliary atresia with splenic malformation, and that the Kasai procedure to address it could only be done in London. It was a huge shock, but also a big relief, as we knew there was something wrong, and at least we finally had an answer. After undergoing the surgery in April, it sadly didnt work for baby Millie, whose liver is continuing to fail. The only option left to save her life now is a liver transplant at Kings College Hospital in London, a journey comes with huge emotional and financial pressure for her family, between travel costs, time off work, accommodation London and ongoing medical care. To help ease the burden on Sarah and Richie so they can focus on Millie, while also looking after their two young boys, Lee and Matthew, a GoFundMe page was launched by Sarahs friend Heather that has already raised 7,744. A few people in the community had come to us about doing a fundraiser, but we had said to hold off, because we had to travel to London in April, and if all went well there, we wouldnt have needed it, Sarah said. When the surgery didnt work, I was really embarrassed about the idea, but Heather pressed home to me that we had a sick child, and people wanted to help. We have such a great community here in Aughrim, and I cant believe how generous people have been. Were blown away by it. There are a lot of bills to pay, between flying back and forth and accommodation, so it will make a huge difference to us, and we cant thank everyone enough. Asked about the next steps for Millie, Sarah said they will fly to London in August for an assessment, after which Millie will be placed on a liver transplant list. From then on, the family must be on alert 24 hours a day and ready to catch a flight at a moments notice. Once were on that list, we have to be ready 24/7, and we cant travel 80 kilometres outside our house, Sarah said. If they ring us to say the liver is available, theres an ambulance 20 minutes away, we have to be ready to get out to the ambulance, go straight to the airport and straight to London. We could be waiting one or two years, depending on whether her condition gets worse, and shell be moved up. Im praying that someone from the family will match her. Looking to the future, Sarah said she feels blessed by her plucky daughters attitude, with her smile and personality shining throughout the challenges of her young life. She will have a long road ahead, and even when she gets the liver transplant, theres still that chance of rejection or her immune system being compromised, she said. Millie was actually born without a gallbladder, and she has loads of little spleens, which dont fight off infection as well as one big one. Im so blessed that she has just taken everything in her stride, and it gives us hope for the future. If any of us were going through what she has, wed be winging all the time. Were in and out of hospital for weeks at a time, or up and down for blood tests and ultrasounds but she just smiles her way through it. The nurses in Crumlin love her because shes just so relaxed and calm. Its a blessing that shes such a good baby, and you can really see her personality shining through. To support baby Millie, visit gofund.me/da6d1c6c Four Dublin men charged with assault after violent Wicklow attacks Three suspected stabbings have taken place in just two weeks, sparking shock, fear and calls for an emergency policing meeting A garda corden at Back Street in Arklow last Thursday, July 10. Eoin Mac Raghnaill Wicklow People Wed 16 Jul 2025 at 08:00 Four Dublin men have been charged at a special sitting of Bray District Court in connection with a serious assault that took place in Arklow last week, the third attack in the town in less than a fortnight. Michael Knight, Orla Phillips, Fred Jones and Aine Greaney from Bray Runners who took part in the Mick Murphy Memorial 5K Road Race in Ferns village, Co Wexford. Photo: Pat O'Connor Christ Church Bray, church of Ireland. Services of Worship for this Sunday the Fifth Sunday after Trinity: 8.30 a.m. Holy Communion; 11 a.m. Morning Worship. The congregation should be aware that all services are live-streamed via churchservices.tv/christchurchbray. Parish Life Centre (PLC) Bookings: The Parish Life Centre is available for day and evening bookings. Please contact the parish office at 01 286 2968. Bray Methodist Church Worship for this Sunday: 10 a.m. Sunday Worship with Creche and Sunday School. Bray Presbyterian Church Worship for this Sunday: 11.30 a.m. Sunday Worship. Christian Assembly Church Worship for this Sunday: 10.45 a.m. Morning Worship. Wednesdays: 8 p.m. Prayer Meeting and Bible study. Monthly Ladies Meeting: For details see: christianassemblybray.com. Cornerstone Church at the Well Worship this Sunday: 11 a.m. Bray Christian Outreach Free hot meals, Clothes, sleeping bags, toiletries etc, are available in Bray Methodist Church on Sundays from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Holy Redeemer Parish Call 01 2868413. Website: holyredeemerbray.ie; Email office@holyredeemerbray.ie. Mass Times: 10 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday No Mass on Tuesday. Sunday Masses: 6 p.m. Vigil Mass on Saturday and on Sunday at 10.30 a.m. and 12Noon. To book a Mass, please call into the sacristy before or after our Masses. St Annes Church, Shankill A Vigil Mass is celebrated at 5 p.m. on Saturdays. St Peters Parish, Little Bray St Peters Church Mass Times: Sunday: 9 a.m. (Irish Mass), 11.30 a.m. Holy Days: 11 a.m. First Friday: 11 a.m. To Book a Mass: To book a Mass, please contact the parish office at 01 282 9467 or email stpeterslittlebray1@gmail.com. Parish office: parish office opOur Lady Queen of Peace Parish Parish Website: queenofpeace.ie. Mass: Weekday Masses are celebrated at 10.30 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Weekend Masses are at 6.30 p.m. on Saturdays and 10.30 a.m. and midday on Sundays. Mass Bookings: Anyone who wishes to book a Mass can do so by contacting the parish secretary via email at: secretary@queenofpeace.ie, or call 2745497. Church Opening Hours: The church closes at 4.30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Eucharistic Adoration: Eucharistic Adoration takes place from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Mondays only in this church. Parish Centre: To book a meeting room in the Parish Centre please call 01 2760045 or email villafas1@hotmail.com. St Fergals Parish, Ballywaltrim Masses Online: For Masses broadcast from other churches go to churchservices.tv/churches or churchservices.tv/.ie. For Live Mass from St Annes Parish, Shankill go to http://stannesparishshankill.com/live-video/; Live Mass from St Brigids Parish, Cabinteely, cabinteelyparish.ie/parish-services/web-cam/; live Mass from St Marys, Popes Quay, Cork: dominicanscork.ie/live-Mass/; EWTN, the Catholic can be viewed on Sky 588 and on Virgin Media 815; EWTN LIVE on the WEB: ewtnireland.com/watch-live/; HSE Website: hse.ie/eng/. Mass Times: Mass times are 9.30 a.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. No morning Mass on Thursdays and Saturdays. Saturday: 7 p.m. Vigil Mass; Sunday: 8 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. Confessions: Are heard on Saturdays after the 7 p.m. Vigil Mass. Baptism: Baptisms take place on the first and third Saturday of each month at 12Noon. Bookings can be made through the parish office Only. The Preparation meeting takes place on the Monday before the first Saturday of the month. Please call into the parish office three weeks in advance of the baptism to complete the Baptism Form and to confirm the date. St Claires Conference of the society of St Vincent de Paul: Messages for the St Vincent de Paul should be sent to St Clairs Centre, Ballymorris, Killarney Road, Bray call 01 2745325 and leave your message. Mobile No: 087 1738235. Marriage: All couples must give notice to the priest or parish secretary at least three months prior to the date of marriage. Facebook page for the Bray and Enniskerry Pastoral Area: Check out Bray and Enniskerry Pastoral Area for all the news and information of our Pastoral Area. Irish Railway Record Society (Co. Wicklow members) Bray and North Wicklow readers interested in joining the Irish Railway Record Society which holds lectures on various aspects of Irelands railway history and heritage, can obtain a membership application form by post (SAE appreciated) from the Dublin Area Representative, The Irish Railway Record Society, Hueston Station Dublin eight, or by emailing: memberhip@irrs.ie. Bray Library Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday with late opening on Tuesday and Thursday till 8.30 p.m. Online services including e-books, audio-books, digital magazines and newspapers and e-learning are available via the library website. The library is involved in Imbolc, the Community Seed Arc programme, where one can get seeds for a variety of plants and after they flower, donate seeds from them for the programme. As always, you can have seeds sent to your local Wicklow Library branch by emailing your branch and requesting up to four packets. English Conversation Classes take place in the library every Monday (except Bank Holiday Mondays) from 11 a.m. to midday the next meeting of the Bray Library Crime Book Club takes place at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 12, check in branch for the book being discussed. Bray Library Comic Book Club for ages nine to 11 meets for one hour each morning at 10 a.m. from next Monday to the following Friday and at the same time from Monday, August 11, to Friday, August 15, To book a place email braylib@wicklowcoco.ie. Ballywaltrim Library Opening hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. The library can be contacted at 01 2723205 or by email at: ballywatrimlibrary@wicklowcoco.ie. Online services including e-books, audio-books, digital magazines and newspapers and e-learning are available via the library website. Borrowers can renew their books online at any time. Parents and carers of children are reminded that library staff cannot supervise your children so you must stay with your children at all times for their safety and other library users. Adult Scrabble takes place every Monday from 3 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. no booking is required. Tummy-Time for Babies takes place every Monday from10.30 a.m. to midday no booking required. FAST Fun Accessible Sensory Toys: our new collection of sensory toys is available to borrow by all adult Wicklow County Council Library patrons. The FAST catalogue can be accessed online or in the library and can be requested by email, telephone call or in person. The library is involved in Imbolc, the Community Seed Arc programme, where one can get seeds for a variety of plants and after they flower, donate seeds from them for the programme. As always, you can have seeds sent to your local Wicklow Library branch by emailing your branch and requesting up to four packets. Bray Cualann Historical Society The Bray Cualann Historical Society, the local history society for Bray and North Wicklow, is on summer Break but on Saturday, July 30, visitors from Brays twinned town of Dublin, California, will meet at the Town Hall at 8 p.m. for a guided tour of Town Hall and a short talk about Bray and its American Connections from Brian White, the Societys chairman. For Heritage Week 2025, with the kind permission of the Bray Municipal District, Brian White will give guided tours on The Windows of the Town Hall as part of the Societys contribution to Heritage Week 2025, at 3 p.m. on Saturday, August 16, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, August 20, and at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 23, Due to a restriction on the number who can take part in each visit, the Mermaid Theatre has agreed to manage a booking system. Members and non-members must book with the Mermaid Theatre call 01 272 4030 or via mermaidartscentre.ie. There is no booking fee. In1880 Lord Meath presented the people of Bray and the Bray Township Commissioners with a Town Hall and Market Place at a cost of nearly 7000. In the Town Hall there are 30 stained glass windows which trace the Brabazon Family from 1120 to 1884. In the meantime events taking place in the coming week include: today (Wednesday) There is a free guided tour of Collecting Irelands History; Libraries and the recovery of lost records exhibition at 1.10 p.m. in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin two. Admission is free but advance booking is required via libraryInfo@ria.ie. The tour is repeated at the same time next Wednesday (July 23) and again advance booking is required; Professor Andrew Pettegree will present Bookselling. Writing the History of a Restless Trade at 3 p.m. in the Dr Steevens Hospital, Dublin eight. Admission is free but pre-booking is essential email info@edwardworthlibrary.ie to reserve a place. Next Tuesday Dublin City Council Historian in Residence Elizabeth Kehoe will lead a Parnell Square Dublins Finest Square walking tour at midday for which advance booking is essential via centrallibrary@dublincity.ie. Pre-booked participants will assemble outside Chapters Bookstore on Parnell Square. Music in Calary Music in Calary is delighted to welcome back the wonderful Musici Ireland to Calary Church where they will play a concert this Saturday. As usual, the concert will begin at 8 p.m. with free parking available. If you would like to book tickets or wish further information, please email.derekneilson11@gmail.com, or call (01) 2818118. QOP youth club On Tuesday the Queen of Peace Adventure Youth Club had twenty-two members kayaking, and jumping off rocks wearing wetsuits, buoyancy aids, and helmets. The club will close for the summer break on the last week of July till the third week in August. During this time the leaders will take a well-earned rest and return with their batteries fully charged. Diving club Bray Divers Sub-aqua club based n Greystones Harbour have vacancies for up to six new members. A warm welcome is extended to diver Peadar Lang, who has returned to the club for the rest of the diving season. New members are trained using the international CMAS diving system. Divers from other dive federations are accepted and crossover certificates are arranged. Call Albert at 087 6756439 for more information. Christine, Dean and Isobelle with Winnie at the Summer Church Fete in Redcross. Photo: Michael Kelly Amy and Lily Bracken with Aine Strahan at the Summer Church Fete in Redcross. Photo: Michael Kelly Roisin Quinn on the pony at the Summer Church Fete in Redcross. Photo: Michael Kelly The sun shone on Redcross Church recently as massive crowds flocked to the church grounds for the annual church fete, which boasted a vast array of stalls, pony rides and a huge raffle. Featuring all the usual stalls, bric-a-brac, crafts, childrens games, home baking and pre-loved stalls, pony rides with Bumble proved a massive hit, while the bumper raffle with prizes donated by parishioners and local businesses was very popular. Thanking all those in attendance, who volunteered their time and donated prizes, parish administrator Martina McCartin said that this years fete was probably our best year ever. I dont know how many attended, but numbers were well up and people came from far and wide, I suppose mainly because of the very good weather we had on the day, she said. Its a great opportunity for people to come together, and a real family event. We had all the usual attractions, and the pony rides were very popular. The raffle went very well, and we were very lucky that our first prize was donated by a local artist and one of our parishioners here, Niki Purcell, who donated one of her original landscape paintings. We also had lovely hampers and lovely prizes donated by parishioners and local businesses. The church was also open for reflective prayer and another lady provided information on the history of Redcross and gave a guided tour through the old graveyard. A big thanks to all the volunteers who give very freely of their time and their talents for the fete every year. Nicholas Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years earlier this year for the murders of his mother and two siblings A triple murderer could have his sentence increased to a whole-life order when the Solicitor Generals bid to have his minimum term raised is heard at the Court of Appeal on Wednesday. Nicholas Prosper was jailed for a minimum term of 49 years, less 188 days already spent in custody, in March after admitting killing his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at their family flat in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 2023. The 19-year-old also admitted weapons charges after plotting a mass shooting at his former primary school in the town. (Left to right) Giselle Prosper, 13, Juliana Falcon, 48, and 16-year-old Kyle Prosper (Bedfordshire Police/PA) The Solicitor General referred his sentence to the Court of Appeal as unduly lenient in April, with a spokesperson for the Attorney Generals Office claiming that it believed Prosper ought to have been given a whole-life order. The hearing before the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Wall is due to begin at 10.30am at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. After shooting dead his siblings and mother, and stabbing his brother more than 100 times, Prosper hid for more than two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. Nicholas Prosper (Bedfordshire Police/PA) Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th He had bought the firearm and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders after forging a gun licence. Sentencing Prosper at Luton Crown Court in March, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said that a whole-life term could only be given to an 18 to 20-year-old if a court deemed that the seriousness of the combination of offences is exceptionally high. But she stopped short of imposing a whole-life order in Prospers case, as he was stopped from carrying out the school shooting, having murdered his family earlier than he intended after his mother woke up. Killer Nicholas Prosper holds a plank of wood as a mock gun. Photo: Bedfordshire Police/PA She continued that while he was indisputably a very dangerous young man, the risk to the public was met with a life sentence. She continued: Despite the gravity of your crimes, it is the explicit joint submission of counsel that a lengthy, finite term will be a sufficiently severe penalty, and this is not such an exceptionally serious case of the utmost gravity where the sentence of last resort must be imposed on an offender who was 18 at the time and is 19 today. As well as the murder sentences, Prosper also received concurrent jail terms of life with a minimum term of 18 years for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, three-and-a-half years for buying the gun and one year for possession of a kitchen knife, to run concurrently. Whole-life orders are reserved for the most serious offences, with those handed the tariffs including Louis De Zoysa, who murdered Metropolitan Police Sergeant Matt Ratana in 2020, and Kyle Clifford, who murdered his ex-partner Louise Hunt, her sister Hannah Hunt and mother Carol Hunt last year. Rules were changed in 2022 to allow younger defendants aged 18 to 20 to receive whole-life orders in exceptional circumstances, but no-one in that age bracket has received the sentence since then. UK defence secretary John Healey speaks in the House of Commons following news that thousands of Afghans are being relocated to the UK after a leak compromised the safety of those who supported UK forces. Photo: PA A data breach at the UKs ministry of defence (MoD) put the lives of up to 100,000 Afghans at risk and prompted thousands to be evacuated to the UK under a covert 7bn (8bn) scheme, it was revealed yesterday. The scheme was kept secret for almost two years by an unprecedented super-injunction. The leak in February 2022 exposed the details of thousands of Afghans who said they were in danger from the Taliban because of their links to UK forces, and now wanted to escape to the UK. The blunder triggered a top-secret government operation, codenamed Operation Rubific, which involved 16,000 Afghans being brought to the UK as part of the countrys largest covert peacetime evacuation. About 8,000 Afghans are still waiting to be evacuated. The whole operation was kept secret from MPs and the public. The extraordinary case can only now be revealed after a court battle lasting almost two years in which national media fought for the lifting of the super-injunction, a court order so strict that even mentioning its existence is forbidden. Lifting the super-injunction yesterday, Mr Justice Martin Chamberlain called for further investigation after an official review into the data leak fundamentally undermined the evidential basis on which the super-injunction had been based. As the catastrophic breach was finally made public, it was revealed: l The UK government was prepared to evacuate more than 42,000 people affected by the data leak at an estimated cost of 7bn. l At least 17 people on the dataset are believed to have been killed by the Taliban, 14 of these after the leak occurred. l The official review of the leak, commissioned in January 2025, warned the government may have made the dataset more appealing to the Taliban by creating the special evacuation scheme and slapping the media with a super-injunction. l The MoD is facing a compensation claim from more than 650 Afghans who believe they are affected by the breach, which could cost hundreds of millions of pounds. After the super-injunction was lifted, UK defence secretary John Healey offered a sincere apology on behalf of the British government for the data breach. Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, he added that he had felt deeply concerned about the lack of transparency resulting from the order. Hours before the super-injunction was set to be lifted, journalists were hit with a new injunction preventing the publication of exact details of what was on the spreadsheet, with the government arguing it should be implemented on grounds of confidentiality and national security. The database contained information from applications to the MoDs resettlement scheme, which was set up in the wake of the withdrawal from Kabul to relocate Afghans who had worked with UK forces. The names of 18,714 applicants and their family members appeared in the database, which was shared by a member of the armed forces trying to verify cases. Mr Healey said the soldier believed the list contained just 150 names but admitted the leak should never have happened. The majority of these applicants had already been found ineligible for relocation to the UK, and most were still in Afghanistan. The list also included names of UK government officials. One independent caseworker, who raised concerns to the MoD over the leak, warned officials the document amounted to a kill list of vulnerable Afghans. After the breach was discovered by the MoD in August 2023, the High Court put in place a super-injunction that was granted contra mundum, meaning it applies to everyone. It is believed to be the first ever order of its kind, according to Mr Justice Chamberlain. In total, 23,900 Afghans linked to the breach have been offered relocation to the UK, with more than 16,000 already in the UK. The MoD says 6,900 of those are people who would not have otherwise been brought to the UK. In order to explain the need for a new resettlement scheme without alerting the Taliban to the leak, Mr Healey told MPs that the changes would deliver greater efficiency. Officials said the plan would provide cover for the thousands arriving in the UK and explain to councils why Afghan families needed to be housed. In January 2025, former defence intelligence deputy head Paul Rimmer was commissioned to review the governments approach, leading to a report that would blow holes in their legal case and ultimately lead to the lifting of the super-injunction. It would conclude that, as the Taliban already had access to significant volumes of data to identify targets, the leaked dataset would be a piece of the puzzle rather than a smoking gun. The report would lead the defence secretary to recommend the lifting of the injunction and the judge to question the defence intelligence assessments that underpinned the MoDs case until now. Yesterday, Mr Justice Chamberlain read out his summary judgement, dismissing the super-injunction. Noting that the granting of a super-injunction had given rise to serious free speech concerns, he said the super-injunction had the effect of completely shutting down the ordinary mechanisms of accountability which operate in a democracy. In an urgent statement to the House of Commons after the injunction was lifted, Mr Healey said: No government wishes to withhold information from the British public, from parliamentarians or the press in this manner. After news of the leak emerged, Sara de Jong, co-founder of The Sulha Alliance, a charity helping former Afghans who supported the UK, said: While this data breach was the most severe and most recent, it is not the first time that the safety of Afghans has been compromised by the UK government. These Afghans protected us and they deserved our protection in return. ( The Independent) Gachiakuta episode 3: Gachiakuta keeps fans hooked with its bold animation style and gripping storyline. As Episode 3 approaches, viewers are excited to see how Rudos dangerous adventure in the Junkyard unfolds and what mysteries will be revealed next. Heres a complete guide to the release date, time, and streaming platforms for the new episode. Gachiakuta episode 3 release date and time Gachiakuta episode 3 will be released on 27th July 2025. Gachiakuta episode 3 release schedule as per different time zones Pacific Standard Time (PST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 8 AM Central Standard Time (CST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 10 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 11 AM Brazil Standard Time (BRT): Sunday, July 27, 2025 12 PM British Summer Time (BST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 4 PM Central European Time (CET): Sunday, July 27, 2025 5 PM Indian Standard Time (IST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 8:30 PM Philippine Standard Time (PST): Sunday, July 27, 2025 11 PM Australian Central Standard Time (ACST): Monday, July 28, 2025 12 AM Where to watch Gachiakuta episode 3? Gachiakuta episode 3 will be released on Crunchyroll for international viewers. What is Gachiakuta anime about? Gachiakuta follows the journey of Rudo, a young man who is unjustly banished to a perilous trash-filled abyss after being accused of killing his foster father. Set in a dystopian world where the privileged residents of a floating city dump their waste, and sometimes people, into the toxic Ground below, the story shows Rudo battling monsters, enduring the harsh conditions, and searching for answers about his fathers death, all while plotting revenge against those responsible for his exile. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. "Kitne aadmi the?" - No matter what era you're born in, you would definitely remember this dialogue from one of the most loved Bollywood films - Sholay. It has been 50 years since we first met Jai and Veeru, the unforgettable duo played by Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra, but the film remains etched in the hearts of people even today; and not just in India, even Iran is in awe of the magic of movie five decades later. This year, it has been 50 years since the movie was released. To the mark the occasion, Iran's prominent national newspaper featured a full-page tribute to the film, which is quite a rare honour for a foreign cinematic work. Twitter handle 'Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran' in Mumbai shared the news of X (formerly Twitter). On #Sholays 50th anniversary, #IranNewspaper dedicated a full-page tribute to the iconic film. With its unforgettable story of friendship, Sholay became a cornerstone of cinematic memory in #Iran; so much so that many Iranians still associate #Bollywood with this epic. pic.twitter.com/xNoNPd4JUw Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) July 16, 2025 Why is Sholay popular in Iran? For the unversed, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Indian cinema was widely distributed in Iran, and Sholay became a blockbuster during that period, especially among the older generation. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan were household names. Twitter handle of Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Mumbai also revealed that Iranian actor Navid Mohamadzadeh once drew inspiration from the iconic villanious character of Gabbar Singh, originally played Amjad Khan. Not only did he mimic his looks but also copied his mannerism in an Iranian film. Iranian actor @navidmamza once drew inspiration from #GabbarSingh, mimicking his iconic looks and menacing mannerisms for a villainous role. pic.twitter.com/WaO2skFxWT Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) July 16, 2025 Not just that, Gabbar Singh is also popular in Iran. He is fondly called Jabbar Singh. The character played by Amjad Khan remains to be an iconic cinematic villain there as well. In Iran, he is known as "Jabbar Singh"; a formidable villain whose presence leaves a lasting impression. Consulate General of the I.R. Iran in Mumbai (@IRANinMumbai) July 16, 2025 A few years ago, an Iranian woman had gone viral for dancing to Bollywood song Jab Tak Hai Jaan, once again showing how the Hindi music continues to rule cross borders. At the Bengaluru International Film Festival, Iranian filmmaker Shahed Ahmadlou had proudly declared, "I have watched Sholay over 500 times." His statement reflects how deeply the film resonates with Iranian cinephiles. In an age where most Bollywood films fade from memory within months, it is heartwarming to see a 50-year-old cult classic like Sholay being celebrated in Iran. Despite decades of censorship, and geopolitical shifts, Sholay still gets love from Iran. Meanwhile, Italy is hosting the world premiere of the newly restored Ramesh Sippy film at the iconic film at II Cinema Ritrovato festival. It is also set to be re-released in India this August. The new Stranger Things Season 5 teaser opens in autumn 1987 Hawkins, Indianathree years after Season 4s summer release. The threeminute preview shows the main group preparing for one final confrontation with Vecna, amid dire new threats: grave desecration, hospital scenes with Maxs coma, gunfire, explosionsand heavy emotional stakes. Release plan & final titles revealed Netflix has scheduled Volume One to launch November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving), followed by Volume Two on December 25 (Christmas), with the series finale arriving December 31 (New Years Eve). Each episode drops at 5 p.m. PST. According to creators Matt and Ross Duffer, production wrapped with 650 hours of footage. Episode titles include The Turnbow Trap, Shock Jock, Escape From Camazotz, and the finale The Rightside Up. One mysterious title, The Vanishing Of , has a blurred final word. Stranger Things Season 5 promises an unforgettable farewell to the Hawkins gang | Credit: X Plot threads & stakes highlights Netflixs synopsis outlines a town scarred by rifts and united to find and kill Vecna, who is still at large. A military quarantine is in effect, and Eleven must return to hiding. As the anniversary of Wills disappearance looms, a deep dread sets in. The final battle is looming, the blurb saysone that will demand all characters band together against a darker force than ever. Fan reactions & speculation Fans responded swiftly, one user said Watching all the actors going from kids to adults, feels like were watching Harry Potter all over again. Another wrote: This year has been the greatest year of Netflix between the final seasons of Cobra Kai, Squid Game and Stranger Things. A third fan noted: Seeing Eddies tombstone defaced like that is devastating. He deserves better. Also, Linda Hamilton, a scifi legend! The new Stranger Things Season 5 teaser opens in autumn 1987 Hawkins, Indiana | Credit: X The cast returns and grows Original cast members return, including Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, and Winona Ryder. Season 5 will also feature Linda Hamilton as Dr. Kay, Nell Fisher as Holly Wheeler, Jake Connelly as Derek Turnbow, and Alex Breaux as Lieutenant Akers. With military quarantine, grave desecration, and Vecna on the loose, this Stranger Things Season 5 teaser sets the stage for a final, epic showdown in Hawkins. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Things are heating up in France as The Young and the Restless spoilers for Wednesday, July 16, tease that Nick is no longer just a spectator. While Chance may be leading the official investigation into Damians (Jermaine Rivers) stabbing, Nick (Joshua Morrow) finds himself drawn into the mystery and lands on a clue the professionals seem to have missed. Until now, Nicks role in France has mostly involved keeping others calm. Hes been reassuring Nikki (Melody Thomas Scott) about Victoria (Amelia Heinle) and Claire (Hayley Erin), offering some reluctant praise to Adam (Mark Grossman), advising Sharon (Sharon Case) to eat better, and telling Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) to rethink her erratic decisions. Basically, its been business as usual for Nick whether in Genoa City or across the ocean. But Damians stabbing has changed that. Its not just a metaphor this time its real, and Nick is convinced he knows whos behind it and more importantly, why they did it. Devon has his own theory Nick isnt the only one playing detective. Devon (Bryton James), whos also been keeping busy during the France trip, has his own take on what happened to Damian. Hes spent his time warning Cane (Billy Flynn) about his behavior, reminding Lily (Christel Khalil) of Canes past, and criticizing Amanda (Mishael Morgan) for defending Cane. And of course, Devon has assured Abby (Melissa Ordway) that Dominic is fine back home. Despite his full schedule of opinions, Devon now turns his focus to Damians stabbing. Like Nick, he has a theory and hes just as sure of the motive. Cane in The Young and the Restless | Credit: X Amanda demands the truth from Cane Amanda isnt particularly swayed by Devons comments or by Nicks newfound detective role. What she cares about is the truth. And for that, she turns to Cane. Amanda knows enough to suspect Cane is hiding something. Shes already pieced together parts of the puzzle the who and the how. But now she wants answers about the why. And this time, she wont accept half-truths or evasion. Cane needs to be honest, because Amanda is done guessing. As suspicions grow and truths emerge, the characters face revelations that may alter everything they thought they knew in France. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. K-dramas have a special way of pulling characters - and viewers - into extraordinary adventures that defy the limits of reality. Whether it's time travel, reincarnation, or slipping through magical portals, these stories thrive on twists of fate. When ordinary lives are thrown into unfamiliar worlds, romance, danger, and destiny unfold in unexpected ways. One standout example is the ongoing series The First Night with the Duke, where Girls' Generations Seohyun plays a college student who suddenly wakes up inside her favorite novel as Lady Cha Sun Chaek - a background character engaged to the dashing Prince Yi Beon (2PM's Taecyeon). With modern knowledge and a sharp wit, she tries to avoid him - but the prince has other plans. As feelings grow, she just might change the entire plot. If you're loving the genre-blending magic of The First Night with the Duke, here are more K-dramas where characters break free from the ordinary and enter fantastical new worlds. Destined With You Where to watch: Netflix Lee Hong Jo (Jo Bo Ah), a hardworking but often overlooked civil servant, quietly endures a life filled with complaints and solitude. Her routine takes a turn when she discovers an ancient wooden chest - along with the key to breaking a powerful curse. Jang Sin Yu (Ro Woon), a brilliant and charming lawyer, has long battled a strange illness linked to a generations-old family curse. As his symptoms grow more severe, his search for a cure leads him straight to Hong Jo. What begins as a desperate attempt to survive soon sparks an unexpected bond between them. Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo Where to watch: Viki, SBS VOD, Wavve During a rare solar eclipse, modern-day woman Go Ha Jin (IU) is unexpectedly thrust back in time to the early Goryeo Dynasty, awakening in the body of Hae Soo, a 16-year-old noblewoman. Now living in the home of the gentle 8th Prince Wang Wook (Kang Ha Neul), who is married to her cousin, Hae Soo is forced to adapt to court life and unfamiliar customs. As she navigates palace politics, she grows close to several princes, including the feared and misunderstood 4th Prince Wang So (Lee Joon Gi). Despite her desire to stay uninvolved, Hae Soo is swept into the dangerous power struggles over the royal throne. Love, loyalty, and betrayal blur as history unfolds - and Hae Soo becomes entangled in a destiny far greater than she imagined. Mr. Queen Where to watch: Netflix, Viki, Hulu After a freak accident, Jang Bong Hwan, a cocky chef from modern-day Seoul, wakes up in the most unexpected placeinside the body of Queen Kim So Yong (Shin Hye Sun) in the Joseon era. Trapped in a royal court full of deception, he must navigate palace life while inhabiting the body of a queen married to King Cheol Jong (Kim Jung Hyun), a ruler in name only. Behind the throne, real power rests with Queen Sun Won (Bae Jong Ok) and her scheming brother, Kim Jwa Geun (Kim Tae Woo). But things aren't as simple as they seem. As Queen So Yong, Jang Bong Hwan begins to see past Cheol Jong's mild facade - and discovers that the king has secrets of his own. What starts as a chaotic body swap turns into a dangerous game of politics, mystery, and unexpected romance. W Where to watch: Netflix, Apple TV, Viki, WeTV, iflix When renowned webtoon artist O Seong Mu (Kim Eui Sung) vanishes while finishing the final chapter of his hit series W, his daughter, O Yeon Ju (Han Hyo Joo), a skilled cardiothoracic surgeon, sets out to find him. But reality takes a surreal turn when a hand reaches out from his computer monitor and pulls her into another world. Yeon Ju wakes up on a rooftop beside a gravely injured man - and instinctively saves his life. That man is Kang Cheol (Lee Jong Suk), the protagonist of her fathers webtoon. Trapped between fiction and reality, Yeon Ju soon learns that her ability to enter and exit the webtoon hinges entirely on Kang Cheol's emotions. As she becomes entangled in his world, the lines between creator, character, and reader begin to blur - and the story may no longer be hers to control. The Heavenly Idol Where to watch: Viki Pontifex Rembrary, a high priest with divine powers, is in the midst of a battle with a devil when he's suddenly transported to modern-day Korea. He wakes up in the body of Woo Yeon Woo (Kim Min Gue), a struggling idol from the boy group Wild Animal. After a chaotic live broadcast where he declares himself a high priest, his odd behavior goes viral. With unexpected charm and stage presence, he helps the group's popularity soar. But fame brings new dangers. As Rembrary adjusts to idol life, echoes of his past return - mysterious cults, supernatural threats, and the devil he thought he left behind. Caught between two worlds, he must protect his new life while confronting the darkness that followed him. A Time Called You Where to watch: Netflix Han Jun Hee (Jeon Yeo Been) is still grieving the loss of her boyfriend, Koo Yeon Jun (Ahn Hyo Seop), who died a year ago. Struggling to move on, her life takes a surreal turn when she's suddenly transported back to 1998 - into the body of a high school student named Kwon Min Joo. In this unfamiliar time, she meets Nam Si Heon, a charming and popular student who looks exactly like her late boyfriend. As she tries to make sense of the time slip and her emotions, Si Heon's best friend, Jung In Kyu (Kang Hoon), begins to fall for Min Joo, unaware of who she truly is. Caught between past and present, Jun Hee must navigate friendship, first love, and the mysteries of fate. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here. Bank holidays 2025: All the public and private banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI) in Meghalaya will be closed due to death anniversary of Indian freedom fighter and chiefs of the Khasi people in the early 19th century, U Tirot Sing on Thursday, July 17, according to the state-wise holiday calendar of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The banks in the rest of the country will remain open today, July 17, 2025. After that upcoming bank holidays on July 19 due to Ker Puja in Tripura, July 20 (Sunday), July 26 (Second Saturday), July 27 (Sunday), and July 28 (Monday) due to Drukpa Tshe-zi in Sikkim. Who was U Triot Sing? U Tirot Sing Syiem, popularly known as the hero of the Khasi Hills, was born in 1802 into the ruling Syimileh (Chief) clan in the Nongkhlaw area of the Khasi Hills. He is remembered for his bravery, smart battle strategies, and his strong stand against British control in the region. After the Anglo-Burmese War, the Treaty of Yandabo was signed, giving the British a way into the Brahmaputra Valley. But what happened next? Why did this period after the treaty lead to another war? Portrait of U Tirot Sing | Credit: Vskassam The story takes us back to the 19th century, when the British finally gained access to the Brahmaputra valley. David Scott, a British officer, was looking for a route to connect Assam and the Surma Valley to boost trade. The proposed route, around 230 km long, would pass through present-day Meghalaya. Back then, Meghalaya was made up of smaller kingdoms, each led by local chiefs chosen by tradition. One such chief was U Tirot Sing Syiem, the leader of Nongkhlaw. A forward-thinking ruler, Tirot was always working for the betterment of his people. When he heard about the British plan, he believed it would benefit his community and gave his permission. However, things changed in early 1829. According to historian Edward Gait in his book The History of Assam, a local worker informed Tirot Sing that the British had secret plans. He warned that once the road was complete, the British would impose taxes and take control of their land. Alarmed by this, Tirot Sing called a meeting (durbar) with David Scott and other British officials, where he expressed his concerns and asked them to leave Nongkhlaw. The British ignored his request, which angered the Khasis, who felt betrayed. As per Prof. P. N. Duttas book Glimpses into the History of Assam, on 8 April 1829, Tirot Sing led an attack on a small group of British officers and killed them. This marked the start of the Anglo-Khasi War, which lasted for four years. Tirot Sing and his people fought the British forces using guerrilla warfarefighting with swords, arrows, and clever tactics against the British guns. Eventually, Tirot Sing was forced to surrender on 9 January 1833. He was taken to Dhaka, where he was kept in Dhaka Central Jail. He died there on July 17, 1835 while still in custody. Today, the Tirot Sing Caves in the Mairang area of Meghalaya are a popular tourist spot. These caves were used by Tirot Sing for secret meetings and hiding from the British. A visit to the caves offers a glimpse into the freedom struggle of that era. Every year, 17 July is observed as U Tirot Singh Day in Meghalaya to honour his legacy. In 1954, a memorial was built in his memory at the junction of the Shillong-Mairang-Nongstoin and Nongkhlaw-Mairang roads, marking the land of this great warrior. RBIs Bank Holiday List for July 2025 The RBI issues a monthly bank holiday list that reflects the diversity of Indian states and their cultural events. July 2025 includes 13 bank holidays, including national weekends, religious festivals, and regional events. Below is a state-wise bank holiday list for July: State-wise Bank Holidays in July 2025 July 17 (Friday) U Tirot Sing death anniversary: Banks closed in Meghalaya U Tirot Sing death anniversary: Banks closed in Meghalaya July 5 (Saturday) Guru Hargobind Jis Birthday: Banks closed in Jammu and Srinagar Guru Hargobind Jis Birthday: Banks closed in Jammu and Srinagar July 17 (Monday) Beh Deinkhlam: Banks closed in Shillong (Meghalaya) Beh Deinkhlam: Banks closed in Shillong (Meghalaya) July 16 (Wednesday) Harela: Banks closed in Dehradun (Uttarakhand) Harela: Banks closed in Dehradun (Uttarakhand) July 17 (Thursday) U Tirot Singh Death Anniversary: Banks closed in Shillong (Meghalaya) U Tirot Singh Death Anniversary: Banks closed in Shillong (Meghalaya) July 19 (Saturday) Ker Puja: Banks closed in Agartala (Meghalaya) Ker Puja: Banks closed in Agartala (Meghalaya) July 28 (Monday) Drukpa Tshe-zi: Banks closed in Gangtok (Sikkim) Regular Weekend Bank Holidays in July 2025 Apart from regional festivals, banks across the country will also be closed on weekends. Here's the weekend holiday schedule: Second Saturday July 12 July 12 Fourth Saturday July 26 July 26 Sundays July 6, 13, 20, 27 On these dates, all public and private sector banks will remain closed throughout India. For more informative articles on historical and upcoming events from around the world, please visit Indiatimes Events. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday indicated that a trade agreement with India could be reached soon, possibly before the United States enforces reciprocal tariffs starting August 1. The comment follows his announcement of a successful trade arrangement with Indonesia, where the US revised its earlier 32% tariff down to 19%. Trumps comments suggest that similar agreements are being considered with India and several other countries, as part of broader efforts to reshape US trade relationships in the lead-up to the tariff deadline. Something similar to Indonesia deal expected with India When asked about how many more trade deals could be concluded before August 1, Trump mentioned, We made a terrific deal, [the Indonesian President] opened up the entire country to trade with the United States. I think something similar would happen with India and we have a couple of others. This signals that a trade deal with India is high on the US administrations priority list, and aligns with earlier statements Trump made about being close to making a deal with India. US President Donald Trump | Credit: X Bilateral talks with India ongoing in Washington Trumps latest comments come as a four-day bilateral trade discussion between India and the US is underway in Washington. According to reports from PTI, these discussions began on Monday and are expected to conclude by July 17. This round of negotiations is seen as part of the larger framework for establishing a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), which both countries have been exploring to ease trade tensions and expand market access. Letters sent to trade partners, tariff pressure mounts According to Bloomberg, Trump referred to letters recently issued to various trade partners, which outlined potential tariff rates. India was among 14 countries included in this wave, alongside Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, and Bangladesh. In the days following, the Trump administration announced sweeping tariffs, including 35% on Canadian goods, 50% on Brazilian imports, and a threatened 100% tariff on Russian products should a peace deal with Ukraine not be reached within 50 days. With talks ongoing in Washington, a US-India trade deal before the August 1 tariff deadline now seems increasingly possible. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Twenty people were killed in a deadly crowd surge at an aid distribution center in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a group backed by the US and Israel. The incident occurred at the GHF-run site in Khan Younis and, according to a statement released by the organization, 19 individuals were trampled and one person was stabbed. GHF claims the panic was triggered by "agitators" in the crowd who it alleges were affiliated with Hamas. The group called the incident tragic and described the surge as chaotic and dangerous. Independent verification of this report was not immediately available. Conflicting hospital report adds to the uncertainty Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis reported a different account. It confirmed receiving the bodies of 10 individuals who, according to them, died due to "suffocation" after the aid site was abruptly closed by private US security contractors working with GHF. The variation in cause of death and casualty numbers highlights the ongoing confusion and tension surrounding aid distribution in Gaza. GHF claims the panic was triggered by "agitators" in the crowd | Credit: X Pattern of violence at aid centers grows Since GHF began its operations in late May, reports of deaths near its distribution sites have become a near-daily occurrence. Witness accounts suggest that many Palestinians seeking food have been shot by Israeli forces. On Tuesday, the UN human rights office stated that 674 people have been killed near the GHFs four aid sites in southern and central Gaza in just six weeks. Additionally, 201 people have reportedly been killed along routes used by UN and other aid convoys. The UN attributes these figures to its field documentation, while GHF disputes their accuracy. Before the latest incident, GHF had denied any deaths near its facilities and accused the UN of sharing what it called false and misleading numbers sourced from the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Security measures and ethical concerns at the core GHF currently operates in Israeli military-controlled zones and uses private security firms for protection and distribution management. This setup has led to growing criticism. The United Nations has refused to work with GHF, calling its operations unethical due to both its location and operational style. Meanwhile, the Israeli military acknowledged last week that civilians had been harmed near aid areas. It added that efforts are being made to reduce potential friction between troops and civilians during aid activities. With rising deaths and conflicting reports, questions about aid safety, crowd control, and transparency remain urgent and unresolved in Gaza. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Shaktipeeth Expressway: The Shaktipeeth Expressway is an ambitious 86,300 crore infrastructure project in Maharashtra, designed to connect Nagpur in the east to Patradevi in Sindhudurg on the Goa border. The 802-km six-lane greenfield expressway aims to reduce travel time, boost logistics, and promote regional development. However, the expressway has triggered widespread farmer protests across 12 districts, making it one of the most controversial projects in the states recent history. Why Are Farmers Protesting the Shaktipeeth Expressway? The expressway, stretching over 802 kilometers, will pass through Wardha, Yavatmal, Hingoli, Nanded, Parbhani, Beed, Latur, Dharashiv, Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur, and Sindhudurg. Over 55,000 agrarian families are reportedly affected by the land acquisition drive. Farmers allege that the government is planning to acquire around 27,000 acres of fertile agricultural land, much of which is irrigated and has supported generations of rural livelihoods. The resistance is particularly fierce in districts like Sangli, Beed, and Hingoli, where protests have included road blockades on national highways such as the Sangli-Kolhapur route and Pune-Bengaluru National Highway. Many fear that even with compensation, the loss of land will permanently affect their way of life. Concerns have also been raised about the parallel alignment of this expressway with the existing Ratnagiri-Nagpur Expressway, questioning the need for another similar route. Shaktipeeth Expressway: Political and Social Backlash The Shaktipeeth Expressway has sparked political controversy, with opposition leaders and farmer groups like the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leading protests. On Krushi Din (July 1), thousands of farmers across 12 districts staged chakka jam blockades, disrupting highway traffic to oppose the land surveys. Shaktipeeth Expressway Land Acquisition: Overview Parameter Details Project Cost 86,300 crore Total Length 802 kilometers Type Six-lane, greenfield, access-controlled Districts Affected 12 Estimated Land Acquired 27,000 acres Farming Families Affected Over 55,000 Land Fertility Status Over 80% is fertile, irrigated land Shaktipeeth Expressway: Regions Affected by the Expressway The expressway will pass through key regions in eastern, central, and western Maharashtra, impacting both agricultural and tribal areas. The alignment overlaps with productive farmlands, increasing rural resistance. Shaktipeeth Expressway: Farmers main concerns Below are the required Farmers Main Concerns listed: Land Acquisition and Compensation: Farmers argue that the acquisition process is proceeding without adequate dialogue, with fears of poor or delayed compensation and permanent loss of fertile land managed by families across generations. Farmers argue that the acquisition process is proceeding without adequate dialogue, with fears of poor or delayed compensation and permanent loss of fertile land managed by families across generations. Redundancy and Economic Viability: Farmers' leaders, including Raju Shetti of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, have questioned the project's necessity, highlighting that the expressway runs parallel (2 to 30 km apart) to the existing Ratnagiri-Nagpur National Highway (NH166), which itself is running at a loss. Farmers' leaders, including Raju Shetti of Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana, have questioned the project's necessity, highlighting that the expressway runs parallel (2 to 30 km apart) to the existing Ratnagiri-Nagpur National Highway (NH166), which itself is running at a loss. Impact on Livelihood: Especially in Marathwada, many farmers claim the project will hurt economic stability by displacing horticulture and agricultural communities. Especially in Marathwada, many farmers claim the project will hurt economic stability by displacing horticulture and agricultural communities. Consultation Deficit: Representatives like MP Vishal Patil have demanded village-level consultations rather than unilateral imposition of the project by the government. Shaktipeeth Expressway: Maharashtra Governments Response Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has defended the expressway as a transformative infrastructure venture that will stimulate economic growth in Marathwada and western Maharashtra, comparing its impact to the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway. The government believes the expressway will foster regional development and improve connectivity to important religious sites, or Shaktipeeths. However, the government also faces pressure to address farmers grievances and evaluate project viability seriously, with ongoing studies by IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Hyderabad regarding traffic, toll collection, and financial feasibility. FAQs 1. What is the Shaktipeeth Expressway and where will it run? Answer: The Shaktipeeth Expressway is a proposed 802-km long, 86,300 crore greenfield highway connecting Nagpur to Patradevi (Goa border), passing through 12 Maharashtra districts. 2. Why are farmers protesting the Shaktipeeth Expressway? Answer: Farmers are protesting because the project may acquire 27,000 acres of fertile agricultural land, affecting over 55,000 families, threatening their livelihoods and traditional farming. 3. Which districts in Maharashtra are affected by the Shaktipeeth Expressway? Answer: The expressway will pass through 12 districts, including Nagpur, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg, and others. These areas are rich in cultivable and irrigated lands, raising concerns among locals. 4. Is the Shaktipeeth Expressway different from the Ratnagiri-Nagpur Expressway? Answer: Critics claim it runs parallel to the Ratnagiri-Nagpur Expressway, questioning its necessity. The distance between the two expressways is as little as 2 to 30 kilometers in some regions. 5. What is the Maharashtra governments stance on the protests? Answer: The government has approved funding and maintains the project will enhance infrastructure. However, it faces intense backlash for inadequate dialogue with farmers and compensation concerns. For the latest and more interesting financial news, keep reading Indiatimes Worth. Click here. Israel has launched fresh airstrikes on Syria, targeting the Defence Ministry and areas close to the presidential palace in Damascus. The attacks come while Israeli forces are also conducting operations in Suwayda, southern Syria, amid warnings to Syria from Israel over military presence in the region. The ongoing military actions take place alongside a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 58,000 deaths since the conflict escalated in October 2023. Damascus targeted as tensions rise in Suwayda The airstrikes on Damascus followed Israeli threats to increase military activity if Syrian forces were not withdrawn from Suwayda, where confrontations have erupted between government troops and members of the Druze community. In a direct message to Israels own Druze citizens, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the situation as very severe and claimed the operations were aimed at protecting the Druze population. He urged Israeli citizens not to cross the Syrian border, warning that doing so would jeopardize their safety and military efforts. Israel has launched fresh airstrikes on Syria | Credit: X Continued civilian casualties in Gaza The attacks in Syria coincide with intensified Israeli operations in Gaza, where at least 61 people, including aid seekers, were reported killed in airstrikes this week. One of the most lethal incidents occurred at the Shati refugee camp, where 23 people died, according to medical sources. In Rafah, at least two women were killed and 30 injured near a distribution point managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an organisation supported by Israel and the US. The UN states that 875 people have died while attempting to access aid since late May. UNRWA officials are warning that malnutrition is on the rise, with one in 10 children now undernourished in Gaza. UNRWAs Philippe Lazzarini described the situation as engineered and man-made. An Israeli airstrike also hit a tent sheltering displaced civilians in Gaza City, killing six people. EU considers sanctions as humanitarian deal unfolds The European Union is facing growing calls to act. During a meeting in Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas presented a list of 10 possible measures against Israel, including trade restrictions and sanctions. Although no agreement was reached, EU leaders said they would monitor Israels compliance with a new humanitarian deal that allows limited food and fuel into Gaza. Countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain have called for reassessing ties with Israel amid mounting concerns about human rights violations. Public pressure appears to have driven the latest EU push, but human rights organizations say its not enough. Amnesty Internationals Agnes Callamard criticized the EUs lack of decisive action, warning that failure to act risks complicity in alleged war crimes. Israels strikes in Syria and Gaza continue to draw international concern as humanitarian conditions worsen and diplomatic pressure mounts. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Abdelfattah Mehdi, brother of the deceased Talal Abdo Mehdi, has declared that the family will not accept any form of compensation or pardon for Nimisha Priya, the 36-year-old Kerala-born nurse convicted of Talals murder in 2017. Speaking to BBC Arabic on July 14, Abdelfattah reiterated that only Qisas, or retributive justice under Islamic law, would be acceptable to the family. Rejecting Indian media reports that suggested Talal had abused Priya or withheld her passport, Abdelfattah accused outlets of portraying a convicted murderer as a victim. He said, We suffered not only due to the brutal crime but also from the prolonged and painful litigation process. He confirmed that Talals relationship with Nimisha began professionally, turned into a business partnership, and eventually led to a short-lived marriage that lasted four years. Despite all these, he maintained, No dispute can justify the killing, mutilation, and concealment of the body. The execution of Nimisha Priya, which was scheduled to take place tomorrow (16/07/25), has been postponed to another day. This is the verdict given by the Public Prosecution of Specialized Criminal Court, Republic of Yemen, today. pic.twitter.com/QvPrrF8zCu Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad (@shkaboobacker) July 15, 2025 Who is Nimisha Priya and why is there delay in execution? Nimisha Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 seeking better job prospects. Over the years, her professional relationship with local businessman Talal Abdo Mehdi soured. In 2017, according to Yemeni authorities, she tried to recover her passport by sedating Talal, resulting in a fatal overdose. She, along with another nurse, allegedly dismembered his body and disposed of it in a water tank. She was sentenced to death in 2020. Her appeals in Yemeni courts were rejected. Although her execution was initially set for July 16, it has been postponed. Sources suggest that this delay follows diplomatic and humanitarian interventions by Indian authorities to secure more time for negotiations. Talks between Nimishas family, Indian religious leaders, and Yemeni clerics are ongoing. The Grand Mufti of India, AP Abubakar Musliyar, is reportedly involved in outreach efforts aimed at reconciliation. Meetings involving tribal elders, religious figures, and the victims family are continuing, but no breakthrough has been reached. What is Qisas and why it matters in this case Qisas, rooted in Islamic Sharia law, allows a murder victims family to demand retributive justice, typically capital punishment. It follows the eye for an eye principle and is legally recognised in countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others with Sharia-based criminal systems. In these jurisdictions, the victim's family may also opt for clemency by accepting diyah, or blood money, which can lead to a pardon. However, in this case, Talals family has publicly refused all compensation offers. Abdelfattah Mehdi made the family's position clear in a Facebook post: Our demand is clear: Qisas, and nothing else, no matter what. Following the postponement of the execution, he wrote, Unfortunately, we did not expect this... No postponement will stop us. No pressure will shake us. Blood cannot be bought. Justice cannot be forgotten. Qisas will be done, no matter how long it takes. With Gods help. As things stand, Nimisha Priyas fate rests entirely in the hands of Talals family, who continue to reject reconciliation or blood money. While diplomatic efforts are underway, the legal framework of Qisas limits options. Her case remains one of the most high-profile examples of how Islamic criminal justice intersects with international diplomacy and humanitarian intervention. For more news and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G launch date: Samsung Galaxy F36 5G India launch is set to make waves this July, marking the arrival of a smart, AIenabled budget smartphone under 20,000. Teased on Flipkart under the bold Flex HiFAI campaign, this model follows the popular Samsung Galaxy M36 series line while bringing redesigned aesthetics, including a slim build, leftside SIM tray, and veganleather rear finish. Powered by the Exynos 1380 chipset, the F36 5G promises reliable everyday performance, while AI toolssuch as Edit Suggestions, Image Clipper, and AI NightShothighlight Samsungs growing emphasis on intelligent imaging. Announced for July availability via Flipkart, this launch positions the F36 as a value-packed contender in Indias fiercely competitive mid-range 5G market. Stay tuned to see how Samsung blends AI innovation with affordability. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G launch date in India (Confirmed) The Samsung Galaxy F36 5G is scheduled to launch on July 19 at 12 p.m. The teaser suggests sophisticated AI-powered functions by referring to the gadget as a "Flex Hi-FAI" smartphone. It has a leather finish on the back panel and is available in red and purple. The design of its triple rear camera unit, which is vertically oriented, is very similar to that of the Galaxy M36 5G. Flipkart will be selling Samsung's Galaxy F36 5G across the nation. The new gadget is teased on a special landing page made by the e-commerce company. Features like Edit Suggestions, Image Clipper, and Object Eraser are confirmed to be included. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G expected specifications The listing indicates that the Exynos 1380 chipset, an improvement over the Exynos 1280 found in its predecessor, will power the smartphone. It is anticipated to run on Android 15 with the One UI 7 skin from Samsung already installed. 6GB of RAM may be included with the phone, while there may be other variations. Furthermore, rumours also indicate that the Samsung Galaxy F36 and the recently released Galaxy M36 may have comparable specs. A 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 120 Hz and Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection may be included in the smartphone. A 50MP primary sensor with optical image stabilization, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, a 2MP macro camera, and a 13MP front camera might all be included for photography. It is anticipated that the battery will enable 25W fast charging and feature a 5,000mAh capacity. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G expected price in India As the replacement for the Galaxy F34 5G, the Samsung Galaxy F36 5G is anticipated to go on sale for less than Rs. 20,000. The 2025 Emmy nominations are finally out, and while most headlines are focused on acclaimed dramas and streaming heavyweights, one unexpected nod is stirring up chatter online. A performance from the 2024 Oscars featuring BLACKPINKs Lisa has been nominated, not under her name, but her presence alone has reignited speculation about the role her boyfriend, Frederic Arnault, may have played in her rise in the global spotlight. Lisa's Oscar moment lands an Emmy nod but not for what fans think. The nomination in question falls under Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming. The performance, a James Bond-themed tribute at the 2024 Oscars, was choreographed by Mandy Moore and featured a powerhouse trio: Lisa, Doja Cat, and Raye. While the Emmy nod rightfully credits Moore, Lisa's presence in the number has reignited the online debate that first flared up when the Oscars aired. EMMY NOMINATED PERFORMANCE pic.twitter.com/MbDnjDJdhp lisa loops (@lsloops) July 15, 2025 Back then, critics questioned why Lisa, a K-pop idol with no prior acting roles or original Oscar-nominated tracks, had taken centre stage in such a high-profile segment. Some fans speculated that her relationship with Frederic Arnault, son of LVMHs CEO and a key executive himself, may have helped secure her spot, since LVMH was one of the event's major sponsors. Others felt she simply didnt earn the spotlight, and now, the Emmy nomination has brought those discussions back. The White Lotus, Lisas acting debut, racks up nominations too Interestingly, Lisas name was also floated in Emmy conversations for her acting debut in the buzzy third season of The White Lotus, where she played the mysterious character Mook. The HBO series has emerged as the second-most-nominated show this year, pulling in an impressive 23 nominations, just behind the frontrunner Severance. While Lisa didnt individually land an acting nomination, many fans celebrated her inclusion in such a critically acclaimed series, marking a milestone in her transition from global pop star to Hollywood crossover talent. Internet brings back lip sync allegations Lisas Oscar performance was highly contentious, with some users claiming the segment was pre-recorded and others accusing her of lip-syncing during the live broadcast. "The Emmy voters must be thrilled to honour choreography from a James Bond tribute that had half the audience asking, 'Wait, was that live?'" one user wrote. The Emmy voters must be thrilled to honor choreography from a James Bond tribute that had half the audience asking, "Wait, was that live?" Bad Sarcasm (@Badsarcas) July 15, 2025 "Does this make sense? I don't have any problems with Raye and Doja. But Lisa?" another user mentioned. Does this make sense? I don't have any problems with Raye and Doja. But Lisa? https://t.co/PrpXYBNewL Tata Citra (@happiestarmys) July 15, 2025 "Mind you, this lipsynced travesty is nominated in the same category as THEE BEYONCE BOWL," one user added. Mind you this lipsynced travesty in nominated in the same category as THEE BEYONCE BOWL https://t.co/65fmbdG4eg pic.twitter.com/mb51DMWw8T (@JIMINistrending) July 15, 2025 However, some fans also came out in her defence, with one mentioning, "Before losers start crying, shaking, and throwing up in the QTs, shout out to the CHOREOGRAPHER for her well-deserved nominationthe execution was immaculate!" before losers start crying shaking throwing up in the qts shout out to the CHOREOGRAPHER for her well deserved nomination- the execution was immaculate! https://t.co/sDNYhigUtf lisas alter ego (@lalalisaloveme) July 15, 2025 "The award goes to the choreographer of the performance, and there are already misogynistic people saying that LISA paid for this. Like, can you think before commenting stupid things?" wrote another user. The award goes to the choreographer of the performance and there are already misogynistic people saying that LISA paid for this. Like, can you think before commenting stupid things? https://t.co/HDqHMjrea6 dpr wrld (@abcdft0327) July 15, 2025 Meanwhile, Lisa is currently lighting up stages on BLACKPINKs DEADLINE World Tour alongside bandmates Jennie, Rose, and Jisoo, earning praise for her show-stopping performances and stage presence at every stop. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here. It seems like the entire online world holds its breath, desperately hoping for a glimpse into the romantic life of the global sensation and BTS' golden maknae, Jeon Jungkook! The rumour mill is once again in overdrive, churning out fresh speculation about a potential romance between Jungkook and aespa's Winter. The latest spark? None other than Jungkook's brand-new, highly anticipated Instagram account and its cryptic handle. Earlier in July, these two idols found themselves unwillingly thrust into the spotlight of dating speculation. Eager netizens - acting as amateur detectives - tried to piece together 'evidence' that might suggest a secret relationship. These claims, however, were largely brushed aside as nothing more than baseless fantasy. The mystery of @mnijungkook However, the conversation reignited on July 15 when fans were surprised to discover that BTS members were suddenly following a mysterious new Instagram account: @mnijungkook. Despite the account having no posts, followers quickly assumed it was Jungkook's, given the group's long-standing tradition of only following each other on social media. Later when he went live on Instagram with V aka Kim Taehyung and the leader of BTS - RM aka Kim Namjoon, it was confirmed that it truly is Jungkook's new Instagram account. BTS' Jungkook debuts new Instagram handle| Credit: Instagram The "@imjungkook" connection to aespa's Winter What truly drew attention was the username itself. Some fans claimed that "mni" in "@mnijungkook" could be a subtle reference to Winter's real name, Minjeong, interpreting it as "MinJungkook." This quickly fueled renewed speculation about a romantic involvement between the two idols. Further adding to the fire, fans uncovered that the account was actually created months ago, with its original handle reportedly being @imjungkook, strikingly similar to Winter's Instagram handle @imwinter. Fan reactions: Questioning the 'evidence' Many ARMYs took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share various Instagram accounts that start with "im," including those of many Korean stars and even Indian actors like Shah Rukh Khan and Bobby Deol. They humorously questioned if Jungkook was dating all of them as well, highlighting the flimsy nature of the 'evidence' being presented. by this logic winter is also dating bobby deol?? https://t.co/s51gkfA62r pic.twitter.com/f3QD0g87nx vee (@yglogist613) July 15, 2025 Another day, another wild moment on K-pop community "Don't put 'iam' in your handle, otherwise, you guys are dating." pic.twitter.com/GKeNmYEKjk JUNGKOOK UK (@_Jungkook_UK) July 15, 2025 Guys Jungkook is also dating srk pic.twitter.com/szPYpLkiWg jk (@__jk190811) July 15, 2025 Jungkook sets the record straight Not so happily for the potential shippers, it didn't take long for Jungkook himself to step in and put an end to the frantic chatter. During a live broadcast, he calmly confirmed that @mnijungkook is, in fact, his personal account. He also unveiled the true meaning behind the handle and as it turns out, there's no hidden romance, no cryptic love message. It just stands for "My Name Is Jungkook" - that's it and the mystery, it seems, was far simpler than anyone imagined. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here. The First Frost star Bai Jingting is back - and this time, he's trading charm for chaos. Known and adored as the swoon-worthy Sang Yan, Bai is making a dramatic return to the screen in Justifiable Defense, a gritty legal thriller that plunges deep into moral grey zones and courtroom battles. Gone is the light-hearted romance of The First Frost; in its place is a shadowy world of past traumas, shocking truths, and justice that comes at a price. Its a stark transformation, but Bai proves once again that he's not just a fan favorite - he's a powerhouse. Bai Jingting's new Chinese drama Justifiable Defense: What is it about? Justifiable Defense explores Article 20 of China's Criminal Law and opens with Duan Hongshan (Zhang Luyi), a veteran prosecutor, investigating a controversial case. Housewife Jiang Ting (Ye Qing) has killed her abusive husband, claiming it was an act of self-defense. As the case gains media attention and public scrutiny, Hongshan teams up with rising prosecutor Fang Lingyuan (Gao Ye) to uncover the full story. Their investigation leads them to a connected case from 14 years ago - a campus incident of excessive self-defense involving Li Mufeng (Bai Jingting), a student who was imprisoned after killing a school bully to protect senior Mei Zheng (Zhang Bojia). The threads between Jiang Ting's present-day trial and Mufeng's past conviction start to intertwine in surprising ways, forcing the prosecutors to reconsider what justice really means. As layers of the past resurface, Justifiable Defense challenges the law's rigidity, asking whether moral righteousness can override legal boundaries. When and where can fans watch Justifiable Defense in India? The drama premiered on July 9, 2025, and concluded with its finale on July 15, 2025. With just 15 tightly packed episodes, the series is now available for streaming on iQIYI in India and globally. Bai Jingting's fans can expect a performance that's subtle, intense, and unlike anything he's done before. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow Indiatimes Trending. Abhishek Reddy, a man from Andhra Pradesh, had quit his job at a prominent Hyderabad start-up to come to the peaceful forests of Manali to start farming. The 25-year-old had planned his life out in two parts. He wanted to work till he was 35 and then take an early retirement and partake in his bucket list thereafter. However, life took an unexpected turn, and Abhishek gave up the Rs 1.5 crore per annum job to settle in Obulapuram village near Pamidi town. He ran a farm with his mother and sister, and the 25-year-old was living his best life. He told reporters that his "Life is bindaas". He became the symbol for all the corporate employees who had dreamed of living a life filled with solitude, happiness, and freedom. Abhishek Reddy has now moved to Manali Recently, The Better India reached out to the idol of 'corporate slaves' and found out that he is now residing in the dense forests of Manali. He learnt the principles of permaculture (A design system for creating sustainable human settlements and agricultural systems by mimicking natural ecosystems), and implemented them to build a farm healthy enough for the environment. He made layers in the farm with tall canopy trees and produced fruits like mangoes, guava, and jackfruit. Abhishek's success on Instagram brought him two new disciples to his place in Manali. One is an artist from Kerala, Ponni M Nath, and another is his 38-year-old friend, Rency. Ponni M Nath told The Better India about how Abhishek truly cares about the ecosystem and works diligently to build a sustainable future for everyone. She said, "He approaches farming as an art form, blending intuition with science. I spent the day learning about permaculture principles, how every plant, every section of the land, is part of a carefully balanced ecosystem. He walked slowly among the crops, adjusting branches with care and even talking to the plants, as if each one had its own story to tell. And the meal he prepared for me, made entirely from produce grown on the farm, was the freshest and most delicious I have ever tasted. Abhishek Reddys journey from corporate hustle to being an influencer Abhishek Reddy has become a known face over social media for his educational videos on permaculture practices and sustaining a healthy environment. Howver, his journey was not easy. He gave up the typical Indian dream job to partake in his interests. "First, I had started my own web designing company in Hyderabad, where I would also offer creative branding ideas to companies. One of my clients liked my work so much that they offered me a Rs 1.5 crore per annum job, and since it was an exciting prospect, I took it up only to end up working about 15 hours a day in the office," Reddy told Moneycontrol in 2024. He left the job soon enough to move to his hometown in Andhra Pradesh and buy a farm to settle with his family. After a few months, the 25-year-old got significantly popular on Instagram, sharing his agricultural journey with his 753k followers. Additionally, he also shares reels on historic facts about Manali's forests, dos and don'ts for tourists, and other educational videos. He goes by the name Silly Sensei on Instagram. This 25-year-old man had defied all odds and given up a lavish, materialistic life to breathe fresh air under the bright sun. His journey from the top of the corporate world to being a significant environmental influencer in dense forests is one of the inspiring stories our young generations must know. The stressful and challenging corporate world will grow without Abhishek Reddy, but who will step up like Abhishek to pursue their dream? The question remains, and the new generation must step out of the 'corporate race' bubble and choose what they truly want to be remembered for in their life. The internet was not ready for an online nude leak scandal to unfold between Irish MMA legend Conor McGregor and American rapper Azealia Banks, but then is anything surprising anymore in 2025? Just when it felt like the McGregorBanks saga couldnt get any messier, UFC fighter Paulo Costa decided to toss in his two cents. The Brazilian middleweight, known as much for his unpredictable humour as his punches, added his voice to the viral chaos surrounding McGregors latest 'nudes' leak scandal. Scroll ahead to know exactly how Costa reacted. Azealia Banks leaks Conor McGregor nudes on X On June 14, Azealia Banks claimed that Conor McGregor sent her inappropriate photos through Instagram DMs without her permission. In screenshots shared on X, Banks called out the UFC fighter for allegedly sending 'unsolicited' nudes and then trying to silence her. How are you going to send someone crooked dick pics and then tell them not to speak about it? she wrote, adding, Conor McGregordo you even know who youre messing with? This is HARAM. In another post, she continued: You sexually harass me with that potato farmer d**k and then try to scare me into staying quiet? Arent you trying to be Irelands president or something? Seriouslyuse some sunscreen. Banks' screenshots showed that messages were sent to her Instagram inbox, but she never accepted the DM request. Paulo Costa reacts to Conor McGregor's scandal Just as McGregor's controversy gained momentum, Paulo Costa couldnt resist weighing in. On his X account, he posted, I dont judge. Maybe someday there will pop up some of my di*k photos somewhere. I hope not. I dont Judge. Maybe someday there will pop up some of my dick photos somewhere. I hope not Paulo Costa (@BorrachinhaMMA) July 15, 2025 His response didnt name McGregor directly, but the timing and subject made it clear who he was referencing. Costas dry humour was quickly picked up by fans, with many calling it one of the more honest takes. Conor McGregor spotted with mysterious woman Notably, Banks' post came just days after McGregor was spotted getting cosy with a mystery woman on a Florida beach, sparking speculation about his relationship with long-time fiancee Dee Devlin. In the viral photos, McGregor could be seen drinking, hugging, and relaxing with the woman, sparking cheating speculations. Conor McGregor out cheating on Dee again. Looks consensual, hopefully he doesnt rape this woman later pic.twitter.com/2MIM0Qvc6t MMA Joey (@MMAJOEYC) July 13, 2025 Despite the ongoing drama, Devlin didnt show any signs of concern. On July 14, as Conor McGregor turned 37, she shared a heartfelt birthday message on Instagram along with cheerful family photos featuring their four children: Conor Jr., Croia, Rian, and Mack. How did the MMA legend react to the controversy? The 37-year-old has remained unfazed throughout the controversy. Amid all the online buzz, McGregor simply posted a cryptic message: Happy birthday to me. He didnt address the situation directly, but the post made it clear hes not letting the drama rattle him. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. The First Night with the Duke Episode 12 online: Fans of the hit K-drama The First Night with the Duke can stream Episode 12 online today, July 17, 2025, at approximately 4 PM GMT (12 AM ET), as per the official schedule. Cha Sun-chaek, a present-day student, suddenly finds herself swept into the world of her favorite medieval romance novel - now living as noblewoman Cha Seon-chaek. After a fateful encounter with the story's male lead, Prince Yi Beon, she unintentionally alters the plot. Hoping to set things back on course, she tries to pair him with the novel's original female lead. But Yi Beon's heart begins to stray from the script, and toward Cha Seon-chaek. The First Night with the Duke: Release date and time for Episode 12 Episode 12 airs on Wednesday, July 17, 2025, at 9:50 PM KST on KBS2 in South Korea. It will also be available for international viewers via simultaneous streaming on Rakuten Viki and Viu, both offering English subtitles to make the series accessible to a global audience. Where to Watch The First Night with the Duke Episode 12 Online? Episode 12 is available to stream on Rakuten Viki and Viu, the main legal platforms offering high-quality video and English subtitles. In South Korea, it airs on KBS2. For viewers in the U.S., Canada, India, Indonesia, and the UK, both Viki and Viu continue to be the top choices for watching the series. The First Night with the Duke: Plot highlights of Episode 12 In Episode 11, Sun Chaek is devastated by her husband's disappearance and drawn into palace intrigue as Prince Yi Gyu seizes power. When a mysterious object swaps her with her real-world self, she must navigate two realities and find a way back before both unravel. Episode 12 promises more romantic tension and palace drama. And, this will continue to explore the clash between fiction and fate. The First Night with the Duke episode 12: Spoilers Here are the spoilers for Episode 12 of the Korean series The First Night with the Duke based on the YouTube preview: A storm brews in the kingdom, and at its center is Sun Chaek - newly arrived at Hoseondang, where shadows of Yi Beon cling to every surface. His room remains untouched, as if he might walk back in at any moment. But he doesnt. Instead, silence answers her grief. Seeking meaning in the chaos, she turns once again to the shaman. This time, the words offered are not comforting, only ominous: "Only at the end will you understand." Far away, Yi Beon rides into danger. An ambush leaves him and his men surrounded, and in the quiet before the fight, his thoughts drift to the one he loves. If he dies here, what will become of her? Soon after, devastating news returns home - Yi Beon is gone. His sword, his sash, a handkerchief stained with memories - all delivered to Sun Chaek. Her world splinters. In that vulnerable moment, another man steps forward. Prince Yi Gyu, polished and poised, offers his support - but there's a hunger behind his eyes. As the kingdom falters and the King weakens, Yi Gyu sees opportunity. He doesnt just want Sun Chaeks affection; he wants control. Slowly, his facade begins to crumble, revealing ambition that knows no bounds. Then, something impossible happens. An object - ordinary in her world, foreign in this one - appears before Sun Chaek. The moment her fingers brush it, the illusion shatters. She collapses. When she awakens, the truth is too wild to ignore: two lives, one from fiction and one from reality, have crossed paths. The Sun Chaek of this world, and Miss K of her own, have switched places. And now, trapped between pages and fate, she must find a way back - before both stories spiral beyond repair. The First Night with the Duke: Cast and Characters The series features Seohyun as Cha Seon-chaek (also known as K), Ok Taec-yeon as Prince Yi Beon, and Kwon Han-sol as Cho Eun-ae. They are joined by a strong supporting cast, including Seo Bum-june, Ji Hye-won, and several other notable talents. FAQs 1. When will Episode 12 of The First Night with the Duke be released? Answer: The First Night with the Duke Episode 12 will be released on July 17, 2025, at 4 PM GMT (12 AM ET) and will air in South Korea on KBS2 at 9:50 PM KST. 2. Where can I watch Episode 12 of The First Night with the Duke online? Answer: The First Night with the Duke Episode 12 will be available for streaming on Rakuten Viki and Viu, both platforms offering English subtitles. 3. Does The First Night with the Duke have English subtitles? Answer: Yes, The First Night with the Duke is fully subtitled in English on Viki and Viu, including Episode 12. 4. What is the plot of Episode 12 of The First Night with the Duke? Answer: The First Night with the Duke Episode 12 deepens the tension between Cha Seon-chaek and Prince Yi Beon, as palace intrigue threatens to unravel the fragile trust between them. 5. Is The First Night with the Duke available on Netflix? Answer: No, The First Night with the Duke is not available on Netflix. The drama officially streams on Rakuten Viki and Viu. For more news and updates from the world of OTT, and celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment. Combat tanks have become a vital part of a nations military strength. These powerful war machines are designed to dominate on the battlefield with their thick armour, powerful guns, and ability to move across difficult terrain. But which country in the world has the largest fleet of combat tanks in 2025? Lets find out in this list of top 10 countries with the most combat tank units. What is a Combat Tank? A combat tank is a heavily armoured vehicle that carries powerful weapons and moves on metal tracks instead of wheels. The design helps it move over rough land, making it useful in warzones. Tanks were first introduced during World War I, with Britain creating the worlds first functional tank called Little Willie. Since then, tanks have become more advanced, faster, and stronger. A Brief History of Tanks in Warfare Combat Tank | Credit: Pixabay/Representational image The idea of using vehicles in war is not new. Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians used horse-drawn chariots during battles. Later, in the Middle Ages, people used armoured wagons and battering rams. But the invention of the modern-day combat tank changed everything. It allowed armies to break through enemy lines and added a new level of power to ground forces. Military Spending and the Rise of Combat Tanks According to a report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending increased by 37% between 2015 and 2025. Many countries are now investing in air defence and land forces. Adding more combat tanks to their armies is one of the main strategies to strengthen their military power. Top 10 Countries with the Most Combat Tanks in 2025 Heres a look at the top 10 countries with the largest combat tank fleets in 2025: 1. China 6,800 Tanks China tops the list with a massive fleet of 6,800 combat tanks. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) owns the worlds largest number of main battle tanks (MBTs) currently in service. This reflects Chinas focus on becoming a leading global military force. 2. Russia 5,750 Tanks Russia holds the second position with around 5,750 tanks. One of its most powerful tanks is the T-14 Armata, a fourth-generation main battle tank built on the Armata Universal Combat Platform. Despite economic challenges, Russia continues to invest in armoured strength. 3. United States 4,640 Tanks The United States ranks third with a total of 4,640 combat tanks. Most of these are M1A2 Abrams tanks, considered one of the most powerful MBTs in the world. The US also has a large number of reserve tanks ready for action. 4. North Korea 4,344 Tanks North Korea has surprised the world with its fleet of 4,344 tanks, securing the fourth spot. In 2024, North Korea introduced a new MBT that closely resembles Western tank models, strengthening its ground forces. 5. India 4,201 Tanks India is in the fifth spot with around 4,201 combat tanks. According to the website War Power India, its fleet includes the Ajeya Mk.2 (T-72 Ajeya), and Bhishma (T-90S (Bhishma)). These tanks boost Indias ability to respond to threats from neighbouring countries and improve its defence capabilities. 6. Egypt 3,620 Tanks Egypt comes sixth with 3,620 tanks, including 1,130 US-made M1A1 Abrams. This makes Egypt one of the leading nations in terms of tank strength in the Middle East and Africa. 7. Pakistan 2,627 Tanks Pakistan ranks seventh with 2,627 tanks in its fleet. In 2024, the country launched an ambitious project through Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) to develop an Active Protection System (APS) for its main battle tanks, aiming to modernise and enhance tank performance. 8. Turkiye 2,238 Tanks Turkiye holds the eighth position with 2,238 tanks. The country uses a variety of tank models, including Leopard 1, Leopard 2, M60 Sabra, M60 Patton, and M48 Patton. Turkiyes defence industry has also been working on producing its own tank called Altay. 9. South Korea 2,236 Tanks With a total of 2,236 tanks, South Korea ranks ninth. Its advanced K2 Black Panther is considered one of the most modern and technologically superior combat tanks in the world today. 10. Iran 1,713 Tanks Iran rounds off the list with 1,713 combat tanks. It has developed home-grown models like the Karrar and Zulfiqar tanks. These domestic tanks show Irans efforts to reduce reliance on foreign arms imports. As military strategies continue to evolve, so does the race to build better, stronger, and faster combat tanks. These tanks will remain a key part of any countrys defence system for years to come. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending. Breaking records and stealing hearts - K-Pop Demon Hunters is doing it all. From sobbing over Jinu of Saja Boys sacrificing himself to dancing along to the film's addictive soundtrack, fans can't get enough of this Netflix sensation. The buzz isn't just about the animation or storyline - it's about the emotional punch and cultural resonance. Director Maggie Kang has already credited BTS as a major influence in bringing the film to life. Now, Arden Cho - the voice behind Rumi - is also sharing her admiration for the seven-member global phenomenon that has come to define K-pop for millions. Arden Cho as Rumi In K-Pop Demon Hunters, Cho brings to life Rumi, the fierce and layered leader of HUNTR/X, a fictional K-pop girl group with a secret life as demon hunters. But Rumi isn't an average idol. Born with evil blood, she constantly battles her inner darkness, relying on honmun - a sacred spiritual barrier powered by the energy of her fandom - to keep it at bay. For Cho, a Korean-American actress who has spent her life straddling two cultures, the role struck a deep personal chord. "This project was a journey of self-discovery," she said with quiet intensity. "I had to be a part of it." Rumi of K-Pop Demon Hunters Born and raised in the U.S. to Korean immigrant parents, Cho often travels to Seoul to stay connected to her roots. During an interview in Gangnam, she revealed she had originally auditioned for the role of Celine, HUNTR/X's wise mentor. But the creative team saw something else - they saw Rumi in her. At the time, Cho was vacationing in Korea. Without hesitation, she flew back to the U.S. to audition - and the role became hers. A BTS fan at heart When asked about her favorite real-life K-pop act, Cho didn't hesitate: BTS. "I love many groups, but BTS is the best," she said with a smile. "I even flew to Las Vegas during filming to catch their concert. If you want to understand what K-pop truly is, you have to see them live." Arden Cho, the voice of Rumi in K-Pop: Demon Hunters, reveals BTS is her favorite group: BTS is the best. While filming, I even flew to Las Vegas to see their concert. If youre curious about what K-Pop is, you need to watch their performance. pic.twitter.com/07FG6o3edF Pop Base (@PopBase) July 15, 2025 About K-Pop Demon Hunters This movie isn't just a hit; it's a record-breaker! With over 33 million global views on Netflix in its first two weeks, it's the platform's most streamed film. Its musical impact is equally impressive: the fictional boy band Saja Boys' track Your Idol just soared to number one on the US Spotify chart. This unprecedented achievement makes them the highest-charting male K-pop group in US Spotify history, dethroning even K-pop giants BTS. The film's girl group, Huntr/x, also made history with Golden, reaching number two and becoming the highest-charting female K-pop group, surpassing Blackpink. For all the latest K-drama, K-pop, and Hallyuwood updates, keep following our coverage here. The global popularity of BL (boys' love) dramas has opened the door to new storytelling and genre-bending ideas. While Taiwan and Thailand have established a reputation for producing some of the most acclaimed programs in the industry, China is now venturing into uncharted terrain. Desire, the recently released 2025 drama, is making history as the first live-action series based on the ABO (Alpha-Beta-Omega) Omegaverse, a daring decision that defies popular BL narrative conventions. What is the Omegaverse? Originating in fanfiction, most famously Supernatural, the Omegaverse depicts a universe in which people have a secondary gender classification: Alpha, Beta, or Omega. These characteristics extend beyond biological sex to determine hierarchy, behavior, and even reproduction. Alphas are dominant, Betas are neutral, and Omegas are generally submissive. Scent-driven attraction (pheromones), heat or rut cycles, suppressant use, and even male pregnancy (MPREG) are all common features of the genre. Though originally inspired by werewolf mythology, the genre has evolved into a versatile framework for stories about power dynamics, intimacy, and identity. Desire (2025): The first Omegaverse MPREG drama Adapted from Nong Jian's novel Desire, this Chinese series fully embraces the Omegaverse setting. Set in a near-future world ravaged by a mysterious virus, society has evolved to include sub-genders that influence reproduction and pheromonal attraction. Most people now fall into the familiar alpha, beta, or omega categories - but a rare, mysterious classification known as "Enigma" is rumoured to surpass even the power of an Alpha. The plot revolves around Sheng Shao You, an Alpha and CEO of a leading pharmaceuticals company. Skeptical of the Enigma mythology, his world is turned upside down when he meets Hua Yong, a financially struggling Omega from a competing business. Despite his initial reservations, Shao You chooses to help Hua Yong, only to discover an intense, mutual desire that hints at something far deeper. But Hua Yong is keeping a life-changing secret that could rock their blossoming bond to the core. Desire, which has 16 episodes, combines typical Omegaverse themes (suppressants, scent-based attraction, heats, and MPREG) with a unique twist, introducing the lesser-known Enigma subgender. Desire, marketed as the "World's First Omegaverse MPREG Drama Series," defies typical BL storytelling conventions. The show will be available on numerous streaming platforms, including Viki, and is likely to draw worldwide fans anxious to see how this genre evolved into live-action drama. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral follow Indiatimes Trending. Reham Khan, the former wife of Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, has officially launched her own political party called the Pakistan Republic Party on July 15 at Karachi Press Club. The British-Pakistani television journalist and filmmaker declared her move as a significant step in reshaping the nations political landscape. Speaking at the press conference, Reham Khan emphasised that the Pakistan Republic Party would represent the voice of ordinary citizens and work to hold the ruling class accountable. "This is not merely a partyits a movement to transform politics into a form of public service," she said. She stressed that the party would promote justice, transparency, and equal representation across all social classes. A new chapter beyond Imran Khan Imran Khan and his wife Reham | Credit: NDTV During her announcement, Reham Khan subtly addressed her past political ties with Imran Khan, stating, I had once joined a party for a person, but today I am standing independently, on my own terms. Her decision to step into the political world stems from growing public discontent with the current political system in Pakistan. "Weve reached a point where people are tired of traditional power games and dynastic politics. I aim to change that," she stated. The vision behind the Pakistan Republic Party Reham Khan clarified that her party isnt here to build personal empires, but rather to represent every corner of Pakistan. She criticised current political norms, saying, No one in our party will contest elections from four constituencies at once. Thats not democracyits manipulation. She added, Our Parliament must reflect all segments of society. People should be represented by individuals who truly understand their struggles. Expressing her emotional connection with the Karachi Press Club, Reham shared that it had supported her during difficult times. All my important announcements will be made here, she promised. Highlighting Pakistans challenges During her address, Reham Khan pointed out that basic issues like clean drinking water and primary healthcare have remained unresolved since 2012. Its simply unacceptable that people are still deprived of essentials, she said. She also shared a moving moment when a child urged her not to become like other politicians, further strengthening her resolve to lead with integrity. Reham Khans political pledge and future roadmap Towards the end of her speech, Reham declared, The whole of Pakistan is my constituency, as she expressed strong criticism of the governments current governance style. She promised to release her partys manifesto soon, which will be built upon constitutional principles and democratic values. She concluded powerfully, saying, I have arrived to replace the giants of old politics with a fresh, people-centred approach. Soon after the event, Reham Khan took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), writing: This is for you. Join our working groups. Lets put our heads together & plan our future together. Reham Khan's early life and background Reham Nayyar Khan, born in Ajdabiya, Libya, in 1973, comes from a Pashtun background and hails from Baffa, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. She is the daughter of Dr Nayyar Ramzan, a respected Pakistani physician. She belongs to the Lughmani Sarkheli clan, a branch of the Swati tribe. Her family moved to Libya in the late 1960s, where Reham was born. She can speak multiple languages, including English, Urdu, Pashto, and her ancestral tongue, Hindko. Reham Khan is also the niece of Abdul Hakeem Khan, who once served as the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Education from Jinnah College for Women, Peshawar. Reham Khan's career: Journalism, media, and film Reham Khans career began in 2006 on Legal TV in the UK. She later joined Sunshine Radio in 2007 and then moved to the BBC in 2008 as a weather presenter. In 2013, she returned to Pakistan and joined News One, then Aaj TV, and later PTV briefly. In 2014, she joined Dawn News, where she hosted the current affairs show In Focus. The following year, she launched The Reham Khan Show, highlighting stories of unsung Pakistani heroes. In 2015, she began another talk show named Tabdeeli on Neo TVa name associated with the political slogan of her former husband, Imran Khan. She later left the channel in June 2016. Reham Khan has also ventured into film production. In 2016, she produced Janaan, a romantic comedy set in Swat, which was released during Eid al-Adha. Reham Khans personal life and relationships Reham Khan married her cousin, Ejaz Rehman, a British psychiatrist, when she was 19. The couple later divorced, and she raised their three children - two sons and a daughter independently. She married Imran Khan in 2014 and divorced in 2015. In 2022, she revealed on X (formerly known as Twitter) that she had survived a gun attack in Islamabad. In December that year, she married model and actor Mirza Bilal in US. With the launch of the Pakistan Republic Party, Reham Khan has made a bold move to reshape Pakistans political future. Her entry into politics not only marks a fresh chapter in her own life but also offers an alternative for voters disillusioned by mainstream political figures, including her former husband, Imran Khan. To stay updated on the stories that are going viral, follow Indiatimes Trending. WASHINGTON (ANA-MPA/P. Kasfikis) - The US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee approved the appointment of Kimberly Guilfoyle as ambassador to Athens on Wednesday. Specifically, 13 Committee members approved it and 9 rejected it. In fact, ranking member on the Committee Jean Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) spoke warmly about Guilfoyle's candidacy and voted in its favor. The next and final stage of ratifying her appointment is a Senate plenary vote. iefimerida.gr International investors remain positive towards Greece despite the investment slowdown across Europe, according to the new major survey by EY Greece, the EY Attractiveness Survey Greece 2025. The survey, which Greece remains a resilient investment destination, defying the negative sentiment across Europe - No fewer than 151 senior police officers, from various commands, across the country are currently facing a disciplinary panel, over alleged misconduct. In a statement on Wednesday by Spokesman for Nigeria Police Force, Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed that the review commenced on July 14, 2025, and will be concluded on July 25, 2025, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja. Adejobi added that the accused officers, selected from commands and units nationwide, are appearing before the Force Disciplinary Committee over alleged violations ranging from professional misconduct to breaches of internal regulations. Advertisement He said that the disciplinary committee is the polices internal body responsible for investigating cases involving senior officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police upwards. READ MORE: Ogun Police Arrest Two Suspects Over Alleged Killing Of Chinese National The statement partly reads: In a decisive step towards reinforcing internal accountability and professional standards, one hundred and fifty-one (151) senior police officers are currently facing the Force Disciplinary Committee (FDC) over various pending disciplinary matters. The exercise commenced on Monday, 14th July, and will run until Friday, 25th July 2025, at the IGP Smart Conference Hall, Force Headquarters, Abuja. The Force Disciplinary Committee is an essential internal structure responsible for reviewing and adjudicating cases of alleged breaches of professional conduct, misconduct, and ethical violations involving senior officers of the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police and above. The affected officers, drawn from various commands and formations across the country, are expected to undergo a thorough and transparent review process in accordance with existing police regulations and disciplinary procedures, leading to a final recommendation to the Police Service Commission. Controversial human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, has berated former president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying that he added no value to the country. Mr. Sowore, who was also a presidential candidate of Africa Action Congress, in the 2023 general election, described Buhari as an opportunist, who came to power for his personal gains. Recall that the former president was confirmed dead by his Spokesman, Garba Shehu, on Saturday. Advertisement Garba noted that the former military head of state died in a London hospital, at the age of 82. Buhari was buried on Wednesday, in his Daura home, Katsina State. Reacting to the development via his Facebook page, Sowore said that the former president only came to use presidency as a means to take care of his health challenge. READ MORE: Buhari Died Of Cancer, Left Behind Terrible Legacy Sowore He said: Muhammadu Buhari never came to build a better Nigeria. He came to use Nigeria as a personal medical insurance scheme to prolong his own life. At the same time, he cut short the lives of ordinary Nigerians by direct repression, poverty, insecurity, and hopelessness. His legacy is not of service, but of selfishness. Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, has paid tribute to former president Muhammadu Buhari, who died in a London hospital on Sunday. Mrs. Mohammed, who served as minister of environment under Buhari from 2015 to 2016, eulogised her former boss in an interview with Channels TV on Tuesday, saying that the Mr. Buhari was uncomfortable with politics but gave his best for Nigerians. The former minister stated that she wanted Nigerians to know that, like Buhari recognised, progress does not happen overnight. Advertisement She said: I think first and foremost is that this is an officer and a gentleman who went through from a military role to a democracy. He dropped his uniform, and he embraced democracy. READ MORE: Buhari Couldve Died Long Ago If He Used Hospitals In Nigeria Femi Adesina I dont think he was always comfortable with politics, but what he did was try and try and try again. He believed in the rule of law, and he believed in a system that even if it was imperfect, he would keep trying until he got to where he needed to get to. And it was Gods will that he would be the president at the time he was. And I think that what we have to think about is that he gave it his all. Whenever he was asked to serve, he served, and we have to think about that. To serve is not an easy thing to do. It is a sacrifice, enormous sacrifice to his wife, to his children, to his family, and to his lifestyle, because remember, he was also not a person who was always out there. Former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has defended the anti-corruption record of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, insisting that corruption did not thrive under his leadership. Speaking during an interview on Arise News on Tuesday night, July 15, 2025, Malami stated that the Buhari administration made significant strides in tackling corruption and implemented lasting reforms to ensure financial transparency in government. During the period of President Muhammadu Buhari, corruption was not thriving at all, Malami said firmly. Advertisement He pointed out that the government secured thousands of convictions in high-profile corruption cases, adding that over $2 billion in looted public funds were recovered during Buharis tenure. READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/buhari-was-uncomfortable-with-politics-but-gave-his-all-amina-mohammed.html According to him, If you talk of convictions associated with high-profile corruption cases, the government recorded convictions in thousands. Malami also highlighted some of the structural reforms introduced under Buhari, including the Treasury Single Account (TSA) and the Bank Verification Number (BVN), which he said played a critical role in closing financial loopholes across government institutions. He brought about the Single Treasury Account, which created a governance-wide visibility associated with funding the finances of the government, Malami noted. The former minister further stated that Buharis anti-corruption drive earned international recognition. He was named the African Unions anti-corruption champion, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime also commended his efforts, he said. At least 20 suspected kidnappers, cultists, and drug peddlers were arrested on Tuesday, July 16, 2025, by operatives of Edo States newly formed Special Security Squad, codenamed Operation Flush Out Kidnappers and Cultists. The squad, inaugurated by Governor Monday Okpebholo, stormed criminal hideouts in areas including Isiohor, Iguosa, Oluku, and Ibiwe/Lagos Street. Many of the suspects were found with drugs, dangerous weapons, and other incriminating materials. Advertisement Speaking shortly after the operation, John Adewale Eseikhaigbe, a member of the squad, commended the governors resolve to cleanse the state of criminal elements. Thanks to the state governor for the initiative in setting up the squad, because he is a man committed to peace and against conflicts, he said. READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/some-of-buharis-appointees-betrayed-his-trust-worsened-corruption-bagos.html#google_vignette Eseikhaigbe emphasized that the taskforces mandate is to aggressively confront all forms of criminality. Following the recent killing in Edo State, the governor took it upon himself to declare that the killings must stop. That is why this squad was set up, he added. The operation also resulted in the sealing of a hotel in Isiohor suspected to harbor criminals. Another committee member, Eribo Emwanta, clarified that the action was not political. The hotel that was sealed was not to witch-hunt anybody but to invite the owner to explain, as it appears to be a hideout for drug peddlers, cultists, and other criminals, he explained. The Special Squad includes personnel from the military, police, NSCDC, vigilantes, hunters, and repentant cultists, united in the mission to rid Edo State of insecurity. Controversial socio-political analyst, Reno Omokri has knocked former Labour Partys presidential candidate, Peter Obi for failing to attend late president Muhammadu Buharis burial in Daura, Katsina State, on Tuesday. Speaking in a statement on Tuesday, via his X Page, Omokri said that Obis absence at the late Buharis burial showed his disposition towards Northern region. He further accused the former governor of Anambra State of being a pretender, adding that people like him must not become President of the nation. Advertisement Omokri said: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was in Daura from beginning to end, showing his personal devotion to General Muhammadu Buhari and his commitment to the North. Arewa, remember who was not there! READ MORE: May Your Sins Be Forgiven Reno Omokri Mourns As Ex-President Buhari Dies At 82 On October 19, 2024, during General Gowons 90th birthday, Peter Obi called him an enemy to be forgiven. His exact words. And today, when General Buhari, the successor to Ahmadu Bello, was being buried, Peter Obi was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, last week, he said Nnamdi Kanus trial makes no sense. Again, these are his exact words. This is the same Nnamdi Kanu who says the vilest things about Arewa and lied that General Buhari died in 2017 and was replaced by a clone from Sudan named Jubril. Arewa, isnt the handwriting on the wall clear? In 2027, Nigeria needs a truly Nigerian president in Aso Rock, not a pretender whose true allegiance lies elsewhere. Famous Anambra-based cleric, Prophet Odumeje, has opened up about his reason for not collecting tithes from members of his church. Speaking during a recent ministration, shared on TikTok on Tuesday, the controversial preacher explained that his mission as a pastor is not financially motivated. According to Odumeje, his primary purpose in ministry is to demonstrate the reality of God to people, not to enrich himself through church offerings. Advertisement READ MORE: May Edochies Legal Counsel Steps Down From Divorce Case With Yul Edochie Look at a young fresh man like me. Ill come here and be deceiving people? I no dey do church for money. Nobody pays me tithe. I am doing church to prove to you that Christ is real. That is my mission, he said. He also referenced the late Prophet T.B. Joshua, stating that he intends to leave the earth in a similar manner once his divine assignment is complete. When I finish my job I left the same way prophet Emmanuel TB Joshua left he added. Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has dismissed concerns over Atiku Abubakars resignation from the PDP, insisting the party remains strong and unaffected. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, in Akure during the 10th coronation anniversary of Oba Aladetoyinbo Aladelusi, the Deji of Akure, Makinde said Atikus exit would not affect the PDPs structure or future. I dont think that will make any dent on PDP as a party. PDP is an institution, and you have freedom of entrance and exit, the governor stated. Advertisement Atiku officially resigned his PDP membership in Adamawa State earlier the same day, fueling speculation about the partys stability ahead of the 2027 general elections. READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/forget-northern-support-in-2027-reno-omokri-tells-peter-obi-for-not-attending-buharis-burial.html Makinde, however, dismissed such concerns and described the African Democratic Congress (ADC), where Atiku is rumoured to be heading, as no threat to the PDP. I dont see ADC as a threat. Its just another political party, not a movement with deep grassroots reach like PDP, he said. Delivering his keynote speech at the colloquium themed The Role of Nigerias Traditional Institutions in Nation Building: Impediments, Impacts, and Prospects, Makinde highlighted the importance of traditional rulers in modern governance. Traditional institutions are not relics of the past. They are enduring pillars of identity, legitimacy, and communal cohesion, he said, adding that his government in Oyo State has successfully integrated traditional leadership into its governance structure. According to him, building a great nation goes beyond oil wealth and personalities it requires strong institutions that serve the people justly and effectively. The Anambra State Police Command has thwarted a kidnapping attempt and rescued three victims in separate operations carried out across the state. In the course of the operation, the police also apprehended a notorious member of what they referred to as a proscribed armed separatist group and recovered weapons along with other incriminating items. SP Tochukwu Ikenga, the spokesperson for the Anambra State Police Command, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Tuesday. Advertisement READ MORE: Abia Police Rescue Three Kidnap Victims, Recover N2m Ransom He noted that the rescue efforts were the result of multiple well-coordinated operations conducted by police teams across different locations in the state during the early hours of Tuesday. Ikenga pointed out that the command has recently achieved significant operational successes as part of its ongoing efforts to eliminate criminal activities across the state. He said, The Anambra State Police Command, under the leadership of the Commissioner of Police, Ikioye Orutugu, continues to record major operational breakthroughs in its relentless efforts to rid the state of criminal elements. In a series of coordinated operations across different parts of the state, police operatives attached to the Rapid Response Squad, in the early hours of today (Tuesday), July 15, 2025, arrested one Gospel Ozioma Nneto, male, aged 31, aka OZ, a notorious leader of a proscribed armed separatist group. In another operation, the Divisional Police Officers of Nimo and Nteje, in collaboration with local vigilante operatives, successfully rescued three kidnapped victims held by suspected armed hoodlums. Items recovered from the operations include: One pump-action gun and one dagger. The arrested suspect is a known terrorist, kidnapper, and armed robber, and a confirmed member of the proscribed separatist group. During interrogation, he confessed to being a photographer for the group, operating from a camp known as Mother Valley, located in the Orsumohu-Orsu axis. He is currently undergoing further interrogation as discreet investigations continue to uncover his criminal network. He further stated that a joint security team, made up of police officers from the Nimo Division and local vigilante operatives, conducted a search of the forested areas between Oraukwu and Nimo communities on the evening of July 15, 2025, following credible intelligence. This led to the successful rescue of two female kidnap victims. The victims will be reunited with their families following necessary medical and psychological evaluations. In another breakthrough, on the evening of July 14, 2025, police operatives from the Nteje Division, responding to an attempted attack by two armed suspects, engaged the assailants in a gun duel. The operatives neutralised the armed hoodlums and recovered one pump-action gun, one dagger, and other incriminating items. In the meantime, the command has intensified efforts to trace and capture other members of the criminal groups who are currently on the run. Mallam Salihu Lukman, former APC Vice Chairman and now ADC chieftain, says Buharis death ends the era where his endorsement secured electoral victory in northern Nigeria. Speaking on Arise Television on Wednesday, Lukman reflected on Buharis influence and the need for political realignment within the opposition coalition. According to him, even before Buharis death, it had become doubtful whether his support still carried the weight it once did. Advertisement READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/2027-atiku-officially-resigns-from-pdp.html I am aware, being somebody from the North, I know that many politicians looked forward to him raising their hands and endorsing them. That translated almost into victory in many places in the North. And that, in a way, made politicians lazy, he stated. He urged ADC coalition leaders to focus on unity, humility, and teamwork, stressing the importance of building a political force capable of addressing the real needs of Nigerians, not just defeating the ruling APC. What we must learn, most especially in the coalition, is that we dont have somebody with the kind of intimidating profile like that of the late Buhari. That means all the leaders of the coalition need to be humble and acknowledge that they need one another, he said. Lukman also emphasised that politicians must begin to engage citizens more sincerely, noting, Now we dont have any figure like that Politicians must be humble and begin to engage citizens with more listening ears. The Presidency has scheduled a special session of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to honour the late former President Muhammadu Buhari. This session, which is set to hold on Thursday, July 17, 2025, will be presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga made the announcement in a statement issued on Wednesday. Advertisement He revealed that the event would commence by 5pm and serve as a formal tribute to Buhari, who passed away on Sunday at the London Clinic. READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/politicians-must-stop-depending-on-endorsements-buharis-era-is-over-salihu-lukman.html A special session of the Federal Executive Council in honour of former President Muhammadu Buhari will be held on Thursday, 17 July, from 5pm. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will lead the session of tributes for the departed leader, Onanuga stated. The session follows the postponement of an earlier one planned for Tuesday. Buhari, who led Nigeria from 2015 to 2023, was buried on July 15 in Daura, Katsina State, according to Islamic rites. Reflecting on Buharis legacy, former Minister of Defence, Bashir Magashi, said, Buhari served Nigerians more than he served himself. His dedication to the unity and security of this country is unmatched. Another senior official, Minister of Information Mohammed Idris, added, The former president was a man of integrity, discipline, and vision. His leadership may not have been perfect, but he gave everything he had for Nigeria. Vice President Kashim Shettima also paid tribute, saying, He will be remembered as a patriot who stood firm in the face of adversity and sought the progress of our nation above all else. The Sokoto State House of Assembly on Wednesday, July 16, held a solemn prayer session in honour of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, who passed away in a London hospital at 82. The lawmakers suspended regular legislative proceedings and devoted the day to mourning the national figure. Presiding over the session, Speaker Alhaji Tukur Bala described Buhari as a national treasure whose legacy will endure. Advertisement He said Buharis passing was a monumental loss not just to the North, but to the entire nation. President Buhari was a father figure, an elder statesman and a shining example of integrity in public service . READ MORE:https://www.informationng.com/2025/07/forget-northern-support-in-2027-reno-omokri-tells-peter-obi-for-not-attending-buharis-burial.html His life of sacrifice, simplicity and steadfastness in the face of challenges will never be forgotten, Bala said. The lawmakers also offered prayers for Buharis soul, as well as comfort for his family, the Emir of Daura, and the people of Katsina State. Bala further noted, Nigeria has lost a moral compass, a symbol of uprightness and commitment to national unity. His absence will be deeply felt across political, religious and ethnic lines. In a mark of respect, the Assembly adjourned sitting until July 21. Members agreed that honouring Buharis legacy should go beyond tributes, calling for a renewed sense of responsibility among leaders. The late President was buried on Tuesday, July 15, in Daura, Katsina State, in the presence of dignitaries from across the country. Buharis influence, many say, transcended politics. He lived for Nigeria and stood firm in what he believed in. His courage remains a model for generations, one lawmaker noted during the tribute. Former lawmaker, Dachung Bagos, has said that some appointees of ex- president Muhammadu Buhari betrayed the trust placed in them. Bagos who had represented Jos South/East Federal Constituency, Plateau State, noted that their actions led to worsening of corruption during Buharis administration. Speaking in an interview with Channels Television, the former lawmaker, noted that Buharis oversight in monitoring and evaluating his appointees posed a challenge during his time in power. Advertisement Bagos acknowledged that Buhari was widely regarded as a man of integrity, but said the insecurity that plagued his tenure overshadowed many of his efforts. He said: Looking at an individual of the president, he was able to look at fetch out people that he supposedly assumed would help him run the administration. But you will now find out that, at the end of the day, the issue of anti-corruption, the perception that we all held him in high esteem as a man of integrity, fighting corruption and ensuring transparency, you will now find out today that some of the people that were part of his administration are today facing one or two anti-corruption issues. READ MORE: Buhari Not Religious Fundamentalist, Once Shouted Jesus Christ Of Nazareth Pastor Bakare Recalls It shows that the trust that he bestowed on some of his appointees to help him run the government was betrayed by them. Today, the issue of corruption and transparency in Nigeria has worsened, despite the Treasury Single Account initiative he introduced to enhance transparency. So, its mixed feelings in two ways. Monitoring and evaluation of his appointees then was a very big challenge for him, knowing very well that he had trusted them with power. Super Falcons players, Rasheedat Ajibade and Ashleigh Plumptre have been included in the best eleven for the just concluded group stage of the ongoing Womens Africa Cup of Nations. The CAF Technical Study Group unveiled the most outstanding list of players for each position on Wednesday. Captain Ajibade and Plumptre featured in all three group games for Nigeria, ensuring that the team conceded no single goal. Advertisement Recall that Super Falcons defeated Tunisia 3-0 in their opening match before edging Botswana by a lone goal in their second game. The eleven times Champions finished the group with seven points after drawing Algeria in the final group game. READ MORE: WAFCON: Algeria Hold Super Falcons To Goalless Draw Nigeria finished first in Group B and will face Zambia in the quarterfinal on Friday. INFORMATION NIGERIA reports that three players in the Zambian team made the best eleven. Barbra Banda, the reigning CAF womens player of the year, alongside Rachael Kundananji and defender Lushomo Mweemba. Others are Refiloe Jane, Fikile Magama, Mbabanani Mbane of South Africa, Senegals Nguenar Ndiaye, Ghizlane Chebbak of Morocco and Algerias Chloe NGazi. NEW YORK A federal judge in Texas removed a Biden-era finalized rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have removed medical debt from credit reports. U.S. District Court Judge Sean Jordan of Texas Eastern District, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, found on Friday that the rule exceeded the CFPBs authority. Jordan said that the CFPB is not permitted to remove medical debt from credit reports according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies. Advertisement Removing medical debts from consumer credit reports was expected to increase the credit scores of millions of families by an average of 20 points, the bureau said. The CFPB states that its research has shown outstanding healthcare claims to be a poor predictor of an individuals ability to repay a loan, yet they are often used to deny mortgage applications. The three national credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion announced last year that they would remove medical collections under $500 from U.S. consumer credit reports. The CFPBs rule was projected to ban all outstanding medical bills from appearing on credit reports and prohibit lenders from using the information. The CFPB estimated the rule would have removed $49 million in medical debt from the credit reports of 15 million Americans. According to the agency, one in five Americans has at least one medical debt collection account on their credit reports, and over half of the collection entries on credit reports are for medical debts. The problem disproportionately affects people of color, the CFPB has found: 28% of Black people and 22% of Latino people in the U.S. carry medical debt vs. 17% of white people. The CFPB was established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor credit card companies, mortgage providers, debt collectors, and other segments of the consumer finance industry. Earlier this year, the Trump administration requested that the agency halt nearly all its operations, effectively shutting it down. Philly's David Corenswet in a scene from "Superman." (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP) Read more Just outside of Philly, David Corenswet and a few friends slipped into an IMAX screening of Superman the James Gunn reboot in which Corenswet stars as the iconic hero. The actor, who has called the Philadelphia region home for most of his 32 years, shared the story on Monday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Advertisement Is that where youre from? Fallon asked. Yep, and [Im] back there now, Corenswet replied. The superhero actor clarified he and his friend didnt actually sneak in; they bought tickets. But Fallon wanted to know did anyone recognize him? Did you wear a disguise? Fallon asked. I bought us all the Groucho Marx glasses with the nose and the mustache, Corenswet joked. Instead, I hid behind my brother-in-law who is 68 and 270 pounds." He did not specify the location, but the closest IMAX theater for Philadelphians is the Regal theater in King of Prussia, after the Franklin Institutes IMAX theater closed. The actor known for his lush hair and signature dimples saw himself on screen for the first time at the Los Angeles premiere and left feeling a bit self-conscious. But among a Philly crowd, he felt at home. The second time was better, he told Fallon. [The Philly crowd] was great. I was kind of surprised you forget theyre all strangers. Theyre laughing at all your jokes, and theyre cheering you when you succeed." The film includes a subtle nod to his hometown Liberty Place, the iconic Philly skyscraper, appears in the Metropolis skyline. Fallon noted that the L.A. screenings tend to be filled with friends, family, and film industry folks. But the Philly crowd started to feel like my friends and family too, Corenswet said. And so I invited them all to Thanksgiving. Oh my God, the whole theater? Thats so nice of you, Fallon said. Join us as we round up our favorite ice cream shops in the city and burbs. Also in this edition: Advertisement Deliciousness, annotated: Check out our detailed look at the Liwetan, the lavish Indonesian spread that chef Diana Widjojo serves at Rice & Sambal. Honeysuckle 2.0: Critic Craig LaBan says the new North Philly edition of chef-partners Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tates restaurant is thought-provoking, original and totally delicious. News: New restaurants are on the way from power couple Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp (Her Place, My Loup) and the brewery-winery Carbon Copy, and a Southern comfort-food restaurant is coming to South Broad Street. And read on for a first look at a Chinese restaurant offering a menu with modern twists. Do this: The Inquirer Food Fest, at the Fillmore on Nov. 15, will assemble the Philly scenes biggest stars for a day of unforgettable food, live beats, and hands-on fun. Check out discount tickets now. Mike Klein If someone forwarded you this email, sign up for free here. The Inquirer Food team sampled dozens of local ice cream and gelato parlors to round up our favorites in the city and burbs. On the eve of National Ice Cream Day (which falls on sundae Sunday), we hope you enjoy this dessertation. Cold reality: Get your fix at Birdhouse Gelato in Bella Vista now, because its closing after Aug. 2. The owner says they are being forced to shutter after losing their government-efficiency job in DOGEs mass layoffs. Also with a limited window is Zsas in Mount Airy, which is closing later this year. Are they sprinkles or jimmies? Were so divided on this. Indonesian chef Diana Widjojos Liwetan feasts at her Rice & Sambal restaurant include two dozen different preparations arrayed over a wicker basket lined with banana leaves. Check out this nifty graphic treatment, in which Widjojo explains the various components of the platter. This is the $65 McDonalds Money burger at Honeysuckle, what Craig LaBan calls Phillys most audacious new splurge. He says it exemplifies the joyful, irreverent, no-limits spirit of chef-partners Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tates new restaurant on North Broad. The winner of this years Cheesemonger Invitational a 15-round, 40-contestant national competition sometimes referred to as the Olympics of cheese owes his career to Philly. Let Jenn Ladd introduce you to Max Lazary. Scoops (besides the ice cream) Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp, the power couple behind Her Place Supper Club and My Loup, are teeing up a third restaurant in Center City. They shared their philosophy about location. Carbon Copy, the fast-rising brewery-winery, is opening its third location, as it takes over a shuttered cidery in Bella Vista. This one will be a BYOF (bring your own food) situation. Kitchen & Kocktails, a Dallas-based Southern-comfort-style restaurant specializing in brunch and dinner, is coming to a prime location on South Broad Street this fall. Restaurant report Mana Modern Chinese. Veteran restaurateur Tom Lau, whose Philadelphia holdings include Center Citys Aki Nom Nom and Feng Hot Pot, was eager to open a stylish Chinese restaurant. Something serving dim sum, but with a twist and fusion, he said. I dont think Philadelphia has had too many of them except for Buddakan. Then he met Maryland-based chef Mana Shi at a trade show, and they got to chatting. She tossed out a few dish ideas, he came back with others, and they agreed to open a BYOB on Second Street in Northern Liberties. The cozy Mana Modern Chinese, opening Friday, has a few standards (kung pao chicken; General Tsos chicken; and six varieties of xiao long bao, including black truffle). But check out the rest of the menu. Shown at the top is mapo tofummus ($13), which is exactly as it might seem: a fusion of the Sichuan staple mapo tofu (chili bean paste, peppercorns, minced pork, and tofu) with hummus. Shown above are forbidden ribs ($15), an appetizer of pork ribs in a sweet-and-sour glaze and topped with pistachio, and a dessert that Shi calls custard bloom ($6). She cooks carrots, dries them out, and makes flour. Then she bakes this literal carrot cake which does indeed taste like carrot and pipes in egg custard. The carrot, garnished with cilantro, is placed atop crumbled chocolate cookies and glazed with condensed milk. Mana Modern Chinese, 719 N. Second St. Hours (starting July 18): 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Briefly noted Media Borough is getting a new sandwich shop, reports Lisa Dukart, who oversees our new newsletter covering the greater Media area. Its Jackson Street Steaks, from the owners of the Philly restaurants Petes Famous Pizza and Moustaki Authentic Gyros. It will be a mini-taproom, too, as theyre partnering with Meyers Brewing Co. Jansen in Mount Airy is winding down as chef-owner David Jansen prepares for his new career at the end of September. The restaurant is transitioning to a tasting menu-only format on Fridays and Saturdays throughout August ($125pp), followed by a tasting menu every night of service in September. Tuesday through Thursday will remain a la carte for one final month. Beginning in September, Jansen will serve tasting menus exclusively, with no a la carte options available. Pop quiz Food editor Margaret Eby is a new mom with a problem. What do you think it is? A) her inability to handle a slice of Angelos Pizza while rocking her son B) a particular coffee drink being out of stock C) a sudden aversion to pasta D) UberEats and GrubHub drivers can never seem to find her house on the first try Read her cute essay and find out if you know the answer. Ask Mike anything Whats up with Sonnys Cocktail Joint on South Street? A flood? Cant these guys catch a break? Jordan G. Chris Fetfatzes and Heather Annechiarico posted a dire-looking video clip on Instagram last week showing what appeared to be a rainstorm over the bar. Sonnys is closed until they get it fixed and mopped up. You may recall that three years ago, water damage from a fire in an apartment upstairs closed Sonnys and what was Wine Dive next door, and scuttled the opening of their planned underground bar, the Rabbit. Sonnys reopened earlier this year, and the couple plans to open Wine Dive Rittenhouse soon at 1534 Sansom St., with a related bar upstairs called Liquorette following. For more woe, we can go back to 2014 when the couples South Philadelphia restaurant/bottle shop Hawthornes was forced to close for 11 months after a fire in an upstairs apartment. Hawthornes rebuilt, reopened, and ran for nearly a decade before closing for good last December; its now the new Lodge by Two Robbers under brothers Vivek and Vikram Nayar. Have a question about food in Philly? Email your questions to me at mklein@inquirer.com for a chance to be featured in my newsletter. By submitting your written, visual, and/or audio contributions, you agree to The Inquirers Terms of Use, including the grant of rights in Section 10. The Mott burger at Huda, 32 S. 18th St., is a smashed beef patty topped with buttermilk ranch, pickled peppers, pepper Jack brie, and hot honey. Read more Many businesses had closed for a snowstorm one day in 2021, but chef Yehuda Sichel wanted to soldier on and feed the customers at his sandwich shop, Huda, near Rittenhouse Square. The food delivery trucks were idled, and when Sichel looked in the walk-in fridge, all I had was some raw brisket we were going to use for something else, he said. He ran the brisket through a grinder, took out cast-iron pans and put them on the open grill, fired them up, and made smash burgers. Advertisement It was a huge hit, Sichel said. They sold out. The burgers also made best-of lists, including The Inquirers round-up of best burgers. Now, Sichel and business partner Dan Berkowitz of 100x Hospitality are doubling down on burgers with a shop called Huda Burger, opening in August at 1603 Frankford Ave. in Fishtown. Huda Burger will join a restaurant boom in Fishtown-Kensington. Its down the block from the forthcoming Forest & Main taproom and shouting distance from the new El Chingon Fishtown, the soon-to-open Medium Rare steakhouse, and the recently announced Adda, the Indian restaurant from Unapologetic Foods. Its also around the corner from the luxe Mexican restaurant Ama and the vibey American restaurant Percy. New Yorks 7th Street Burger has a location on the way to Fishtown this fall. Sichels menu will feature a rotating lineup of five or six smash burgers served on Hudas signature house-made Japanese-style milk buns here, they will be seeded including a classic cheeseburger, a create-your-own option, and a vegetarian burger. There will also be a pastrami fried onion burger, which he calls a cross between a pastrami burger and an Oklahoma-style smash burger. (Sichel said he wont be offering Hudas house burger, known as the Mott Burger, at the new location.) The menu will also include crispy chicken sandwiches, curly fries, house-made pickles, and milkshakes. The Elkins Park-raised Sichel started in the kitchen at age 15, making sandwiches at a kosher deli in Baltimore. After attending culinary school in Israel, he moved to Philadelphia at 19 to work for Georges Perrier at Brasserie Perrier and Daniel Stern at Rae, followed by a stint with Neal Fraser at Grace in Los Angeles. He joined Mike Solomonov and Steve Cook in 2010, first at Zahav, then rising through the ranks, opening Citron & Rose (2012) and Abe Fisher (2014), where he was executive chef and partner until March 2020. Mere weeks after he gave his notice, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the world, and he opened Huda (32 S. 18th St.) that summer amid the turmoil. Huda Burgers space, designed by Lance Saunders, will include a half-dozen indoor counter seats and a few outdoor tables. In addition to dine-in, pickup and third-party delivery will be available, all from 11 a.m. till late daily. Less than two months after opening its second location in Olde Kensington, East Falls landmark Wissahickon Brewing Co. is on the move again, this time in the Montgomery County suburbs. The Gill family owners of Wissahickon filed paperwork with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board this week to open a satellite location in Maple Glen, taking over the former Brick & Barrel Taphouse. Tim Gill Sr. said he anticipates the new outpost will be ready before the end of the year, following a facelift to give the space more of a brewpub vibe. Before was Brick & Barrel, it was an Italian restaurant, and you can really see that with the terracotta roof on the front portico, Gill Sr. said.Well figure something out thats going to make it look inviting and give it that Wissahickon feel. Advertisement One inherited feature thats not going anywhere, though: a full kitchen, including a wood-fired pizza oven. We want to actually open it up a bit to let the customers see the action, Gill Sr. said. Just like we let them see us making beer [in East Falls], we let them see us making kombucha [in Olde Kensington], lets put on a show for the pizza. Thatll make for a crowded pizza scene in downtown Maple Glen, which is home to emerging cheesesteak player Verona Pizza, as well as Maple Glen Pizza and Fratellis. But Wissahickon will be well-positioned as one of the only full bars in town. We think that weve got the right mix of family-friendly and also cool and funky that were going to be able to pull a crowd, Gill Sr. said, noting that townhomes are going up behind the new spaces parking lot. When Brick & Barrel closed abruptly about a year ago, Tim Gill Jr., who lives nearby, flagged the available space to his dad and brothers, all of whom are partners in the eight-year-old brewery. The Gills signed the lease on 870 Welsh Rd. last fall, while they were still under construction in Olde Kensington. It was opportunity that I just couldnt let go, Gill Sr. said of the former taphouse, whose state-of-the-art draft system is still in good condition. We want [to provide] a great experience for the neighborhood. I can trick you into coming and visiting me once, but the real deal is to get you to come back. As with the newly opened American Street location, Gill Sr. said the plan for the Maple Glen branch is to be open as early as 7 a.m. for breakfast, courtesy of Wissahickons in-house cafe concept, Wirlybird Coffee. Beer service will start around 11 a.m. Students in the crosswalk at America's birthplace, Independence Hall. America's young people have faced a decline in health since the 1970s compared to similar countries, new CHOP research suggests. Read more American children today are dying at much higher rates than kids in similar countries. Theyre also far more likely to suffer from a chronic disease than previous generations. Thats according to a new study from researchers at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, who dug through nearly two decades worth of data from health systems and government sources in one of the most comprehensive studies of childrens health. The researchers found that the health of American children has been in sharp decline since 2007. Advertisement This is despite the U.S. spending nearly twice as much on healthcare as other developed countries, and being a world leader in biomedical advances like CRISPR gene therapy, which in May saw the successful treatment of a baby with a rare metabolic disorder. Much of this decline started decades earlier than the studys analysis time frame. Since the early 1970s, our childhood mortality rates have been falling behind other high-income nations. Between 2007 and 2022, infants in the U.S. were 78% more likely to die than infants in other high-income countries, the researchers found. Preterm birth and sudden unexpected infant death were the biggest drivers of that disparity. Children aged 1 to 19 were 80% more likely to die. Firearm-related injuries were the leading cause of death, followed by motor vehicle crashes. Children in the U.S. faced a 15 times higher chance of dying by a firearm than children in similar countries. American kids were also up to 20% more likely to have a chronic condition in 2023 than they were in 2011. Rates of depression, sleep apnea, eating disorders, anxiety, autism, and obesity increased the most. To understand whats happening to Americas youth, The Inquirer spoke with Christopher Forrest, the studys lead author and a pediatrician at CHOP. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity. How significant is the rise in chronic conditions in U.S. children, and what are the most common conditions? Almost 30 years ago, it was really uncommon for us in the primary care practices to see a kid with a chronic condition. Now, almost one in two kids in the primary care practices has a chronic condition. Theres been a rise in just about every type of condition. Whats been rising most rapidly recently is really the mental disorders: primarily anxiety, and its associated symptoms like loneliness and stress. Whats driving this rise? One of the big concerns I have about childhood is just the atomization of our neighborhoods and the retreat of kids in homes. In some of the houses in my neighborhood, I dont know that theres a kid in that house until I see a sign outside that says, Congratulations Class of 2025. We dont have neighborhoods where families feel that theres enough safety that they can let their kids play outdoors unsupervised, and thats actually harming kids. Theyre not playing with each other, theyre not creating games. And these are skills that in the 21st century, digital age are going to be critically important the ability to innovate, to create, to relate to one another, to manage your emotions. When youre not playing and youre not meeting what has been evolutionarily programmed in the human species, what happens? You become anxious, you have learning disabilities, and these rates go up. Thats probably driving some of the developmental and mental health disorders. How has the Trump administrations policy changes impacted childrens health in the U. S.? I am very concerned about cuts to the Medicaid program, because the kids who get Medicaid get that because theyre vulnerable to illness or they have a bad chronic condition. Take away their Medicaid coverage, its only going to get worse. Cuts to food stamps and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are going to lead to problems with kids being hungry, and a lack of resources for families is going to further strain families. If you already have a crisis in childrens health, the thing you should not do is take away their healthcare and take away their social supports. What can we do to reverse the declining health of U.S. children? A national campaign is definitely called for here. We know policies like publicly sponsored parental leave, high-quality childcare, reducing access to firearms, ensuring that kids who are sick get Medicaid, and so on will help kids. But that will only go so far. The story is really what we have to do in all of our communities. What Ive seen is a general deterioration in civic engagement. We just dont talk to each other. Were hoarding our assets and building personal wealth, as opposed to building community wealth. Were not building community centers. The more we engage and try to build communities that support kids, the more we should also try to build communities that support families and help each other out. Why should we pay attention? Kids are the canaries in the coal mine. They are the ones who will be affected first when there are problems in our ecosystem, whether its one of the 350,000 chemicals that weve developed or its the atomization of our neighborhoods and the lack of civic engagement. Kids are not benefiting. The data are so profound, they really paint a picture of kids suffering. Ed Jimenez started in June as the new CEO of Main Line Health, succeeding Jack Lynch. Read more Ed Jimenez took over last month as CEO of Main Line Health as the nonprofit in Philadelphias western suburbs was at a turning point: The four-hospital health system was finishing a break-even fiscal year, after several years of steep losses that started with the COVID-19 pandemic. Main Lines budget for the year that started July 1 calls for a modest profit, but Jimenez sees a road map for long-term growth and a return to the strong profitability the system was long known for. Advertisement What Jimenez loves about Main Line is its combination of advanced medical capability and deep connections to the community it serves. This is rarified air that we all enjoy as residents of these communities, he said. Jimenez succeeded Jack Lynch, who had led Main Line for 20 years. Jimenez, 54, and his wife just bought a house in Villanova picked because its central to all of Main Lines operations. The couple recently moved there from New Jersey, where Jimenez was CEO of University Hospital, a 500-bed academic medical center in Newark. He had that job for two years, after 18 years as an executive at the University of Floridas health system in Gainesville. Jimenez spoke with an Inquirer reporter last month about what attracted him to Main Line, his strategy for growth and profitability, and the local competition. Community connection and elite care Main Lines community connections remind Jimenez of working early in his career as a hospital administrator at Valley Hospital in Paramus, N.J., where he was born and his three children were delivered. You go to Northern New Jersey, people cherish Valley. They adore what it means for its community, he said. At his other career stops, the sense of community did not feel as strong. People came from all over for treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City. UF Health drew patients from all over Florida. What he thinks he found at Main Line: a health system with deep community connections, where generations have seen the birth of their kids, and where generations have worked. Those strong community ties are coupled with what Jimenez described as the elite capabilities associated with academic medical centers. Plus, Main Line has residency programs training the next generation of doctors at its hospitals and scientists at the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research. Growth strategy in a competitive market Despite Main Lines strong presence in Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties, Jimenez recognizes the competitive pull of Philadelphias academic medical centers, such as the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. If we go to suburban communities all over the country, theres this idea that one must go to the city for something complex or something different, Jimenez said. Theres a huge growth opportunity in keeping more of those patients home, Jimenez said. A consulting firm, BCG, formerly known as Boston Consulting Group, concluded the same thing in an analysis done for Main Line a couple years ago. Jimenez is not suggesting that patients can receive every kind of care within the Main Line system. Were not going to do transplants, and were not going to do bone marrow transplants, but most cancer care can happen on the Main Line, he said. Cardiac surgery is another growth area, he said. What Main Line must do Main Line already has a significant network of six outpatient facilities offering a wide range of care and compares well to competitors, Jimenez said. But he thinks it has to do more with meeting what the community wants and needs. Main Line had two projects underway when Jimenez arrived. In 2019, Main Line acquired the 73-acre St. Charles Borromeo Seminary campus in Wynnewood for $43.5 million and has been working on a development plan that includes some medical offices. The site is across Lancaster Avenue from Main Lines Lankenau Medical Center. Were in a bit of a summer hiatus, Jimenez said of the work toward Lower Merion Township approval of a project there. Another large outpatient clinic is in planning near Downingtown, a location that would extend Main Lines reach farther west, well beyond its westernmost hospital in Paoli. Another key move to increase access for patients is hiring more doctors, Jimenez said. If Main Line can offer shorter wait times for specialists, some patients might not be tempted to call Penn or Jefferson in the city, he said. Fallout from Crozers closure Jimenez downplayed the significance of Delaware-based ChristianaCare winning the bidding war in the Crozer Health bankruptcy auction for the right to take over leases at five outpatient centers in Delaware County. If Main Line had prevailed, Jimenez said, it would have had overcapacity in Glen Mills, where Main Line already has a substantial outpatient center. Two of the Crozer facilities that ChristianaCare plans to take over are nearby. ChristianaCare, whose main hospital is in Newark, Del., has big growth plans for Southeastern Pennsylvania. In addition to the Crozer acquisitions, it has three micro-hospitals in development in Delaware and Chester Counties. Crozers closure means theres business for a new entrant like ChristianaCare to gain without taking patients from any of the incumbent systems, Jimenez said. To Jimenez, the question is what happens when the Pennsylvania patients that ChristianaCare picks up need to spend a night in the hospital: Will people of the community think that they should go, ultimately, out of state for medical care? Ellen Greenberg's 2011 death by 20 stab wounds was ruled a homicide then switched to suicide by Philadelphia authorities. Read more As part of a February settlement, the City of Philadelphia agreed to pay Joshua and Sandra Greenberg $650,000 and conduct an expeditious reexamination of their daughter Ellens 2011 death by 20 stab wounds, a case which was ruled a homicide, then switched to suicide, by the Philadelphia Medical Examiners Office. The Greenbergs received the monetary portion of their settlement, according to their attorney Joseph Podraza Jr., but they have gotten no word on the medical examiners reexamination of their daughters case, where it stands, or if it has even begun. Advertisement And so this week Podraza filed a motion in Common Pleas Court to enforce the settlement. Why cant this get done? Why cant they fulfill what they promised to do? And they cant even give us an explanation or indication of where anything stands. Its insulting, it really is, Podraza said. If the city thinks the Greenbergs are going away, or theyre going to wait until the Greenbergs are no longer of this earth and think this matter is going to go away, they are wrong, very wrong. Podraza said the medical examiners office has not contacted the Greenbergs or any of their forensic experts about the reexamination, despite their willingness to participate. He said he has been in regular contact with the Philadelphia Law Department about the status of the case and was told the results would be shared by the end of June. June has passed and it became July. At this point the Greenbergs are fed up, Podraza said. In an emailed statement, Philadelphia Law Department spokesperson Ava Schwemler said: The City will fulfill its obligations under the settlement agreement, and will respond to Plaintiffs motion in due course. Ellen Greenberg, 27, was found by her fiance, Samuel Goldberg, in the kitchen of their Manayunk apartment with a 10-inch knife lodged into her chest on Jan. 26, 2011. Investigators on the scene treated her death as a suicide because Goldberg told them the apartment door was locked from the inside and he had to break it down to get in. There were no signs of an intruder and Greenberg had no defensive wounds, police have said. But the next morning at her autopsy, then assistant medical examiner Marlon Osbourne noted a total of 20 stab wounds to Greenbergs body, including 10 to the back of her neck, along with 11 bruises in various stages of healing, and ruled her death a homicide. Police publicly disputed the findings and Osbourne later changed his ruling to suicide. The Greenbergs subsequently retained numerous independent forensic experts who have questioned authorities findings, as first detailed in a March 2019 Inquirer report. In October 2019, the Greenbergs filed their first of two lawsuits against the city, seeking to have the manner of their daughters death changed from suicide back to homicide or undetermined. The second suit, which was filed in 2022, alleged the investigation into Greenbergs death was embarrassingly botched and resulted in a cover-up by Philadelphia authorities. It sought monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress against several city employees who were involved in the investigation. After years of legal battles, the first lawsuit was slated for a hearing before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court later this year. The second suit was set for trial in February at City Hall, but just before it began, Osbourne signed a sworn verification statement in which he said that based on new information, he now believes Ellens manner of death should be designated as something other than suicide. Shortly thereafter, the settlement between the city and the Greenbergs was reached. As part of the agreement, the Greenbergs withdrew both of their lawsuits and agreed to never sue the city again, regardless of the outcome of the medical examiners reinvestigation of the case. While the settlement was forged in February, it was not signed until April, according to court documents. Podraza said that it took time to negotiate the language of the agreement, but that it was understood at the time of settlement that there was no impediment to the medical examiners office proceeding with its examination immediately. Podraza said the city requested to keep the examination in-house. We didnt have a problem with that because every legitimate pathologist and now Dr. Osbourne agreed this cant be a suicide. So we view the medical examiners reexamination to be perfunctory, he said. The suicide ruling that remains on Greenbergs death certificate is an impediment to any new investigations, Podraza said, though its not clear which, if any, agency would take up the case if the manner of death is switched to homicide or undetermined. This death certificate provides cover for anybody to run and not involve themselves, but once it changes somebody has to step forward and has to take charge and do the investigation the case requires, he said. The entrance of the Philadelphia Field Office of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at 114 N. 8th Street. Read more The Trump administration has declared that immigrants who arrived in the United States illegally are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings in court, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. In a July 8 memo, Todd M. Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told officers that such immigrants should be detained for the duration of their removal proceedings, which can take months or years. Lawyers say the policy will apply to millions of immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border over the past few decades, including under the Biden administration. Advertisement READ MORE: What are your rights if ICE comes to your home or work? In the past, immigrants residing in the U.S. interior generally have been allowed to request a bond hearing before an immigration judge. But Lyons wrote that the Trump administrations departments of Homeland Security and Justice had revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities and determined that such immigrants may not be released from ICE custody. In rare exceptions immigrants may be released on parole, but that decision will be up to an immigration officer, not a judge, he wrote. The provision is based on a section of immigration law that says unauthorized immigrants shall be detained after their arrest, but that has historically applied to those who recently crossed the border and not longtime residents. Lyons, who oversees the nations 200 immigration detention facilities, wrote that the policy is expected to face legal challenges. READ MORE: Deportations are up 80% in Pennsylvania and Jersey amid Trumps aggressive tactics The sweeping new detention policy comes days after Congress passed a spending package that will allocate $45 billion over the next four years to lock up immigrants for civil deportation proceedings. The measure will allow ICE to roughly double the nations immigrant detention capacity to 100,000 people a day. Since the memos were issued last week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association said members had reported that immigrants were being denied bond hearings in more than a dozen immigration courts across the United States, including in New York, Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, Ohio and Georgia. The Department of Justice oversees the immigration courts. This is their way of putting in place nationwide a method of detaining even more people, said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. Its requiring the detention of far more people without any real review of their individual circumstances. READ MORE: Five charts that show the impact of Trumps immigration policy in Pa. and N.J. ICE said in a statement that the new policy closes a loophole in the nations immigration laws and ensures that everyone who entered the United States without permission is treated equally. Homeland Security officials said officers are enforcing the law as it was actually written to keep America safe. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott issued similar guidance last week; that agency did not respond to questions. Immigration hawks have long argued that detaining immigrants is necessary to quickly deport those who do not qualify for asylum or another way to stay in the United States permanently. They say detaining immigrants might also discourage people from filing frivolous claims, in hopes of being released as their cases proceed in the backlogged immigration courts. Detention is absolutely the best way to approach this, if you can do it. It costs a lot of money, obviously, said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors enforcement. Youre pretty much guaranteed to be able to remove the person, if theres a negative finding, if hes in detention. READ MORE: Monarch butterflies, messages to Gov. Josh Shapiro, and joy during this anti-ICE art workshop In its 2024 annual report, however, ICE said it detains immigrants only when necessary and that the vast majority of the 7.6 million people then on its docket were released pending immigration proceedings. Keeping them detained while their case is adjudicated has not been logistically possible, and advocates have raised concern for migrants health and welfare in civil immigration detention. Immigrants are already subject to mandatory detention without bond if they have been convicted of murder or other serious crimes, and this year the Republican-led Congress added theft-related crimes to that list after a Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, was killed by a man from Venezuela who had been picked up for shoplifting and not held for deportation. Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration is expanding a legal standard typically used to hold recent arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border to a much broader group - including immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades. Many have U.S. citizen children, lawyers say, and probably have the legal grounds to defend themselves against deportation. Forcing them to remain in detention facilities often in far-flung areas such as an alligator-infested swamp in Florida or the Arizona desert would make it more difficult to fight their cases, because they will be unable to work or easily communicate with family members and lawyers to prepare their cases. I think some courts are going to find that this doesnt give noncitizens sufficient due process, said Paul Hunker, an immigration lawyer and former ICE chief counsel in the Dallas area. They could be held indefinitely until theyre deported.* ICE is holding about 56,000 immigrants a day as officers sweep the nation for undocumented immigrants, working overtime to fulfill Trumps goal of deporting 1 million people in his first year. Officials have reopened family detention centers that the Biden administration shuttered because of safety concerns, stood up soft-sided facilities such as one in the Everglades, and begun deporting immigrants with little notice to alternative countries such as conflict-ridden South Sudan. Immigration lawyers say the new ICE policy is similar to a position that several immigration judges in Tacoma, Washington, have espoused in recent years, denying hearings to anyone who crossed the border illegally. The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of detainees challenging the policy, arguing that their refusal to consider a bond hearing violated the immigrants rights. The original plaintiff in the case, Ramon Rodriguez Vazquez, has lived in Washington state since 2009, works as a farmer and is the proud grandfather of 10 U.S. citizens, court records show. His eight siblings are U.S. citizens who live in California. He also owns his home, where ICE officers arrested him in February for being in the United States without permission. In April, a federal judge in Washington found that he has no criminal history in the United States or anywhere else in the world and ordered immigration officers to give him a bond hearing before a judge. A judge denied him bond and he has since returned to Mexico, his lawyer said. But that decision does not apply nationwide, lawyers said. Aaron Korthuis, a lawyer in the case, said Rodriguez is typical of the type of immigrants who now face prolonged detention as they fight deportation in immigration courts. He called the governments new interpretation of bond hearings flagrantly unlawful. They are people who have been living here, all theyre doing is trying to make a living for their family, Korthuis said in an interview. He said the policy is looking to supercharge detention beyond what it already is. The Schuykill River flows by the river banks of the Riverside Apartments in Norristownon on the morning of Dec. 5, 2021. The banks are covered in fallen trees and debris following 27 feet of flooding caused by Hurricane Ida in early September 2021. Read more Pennsylvania has joined a group of 20 states suing President Donald Trumps administration over its decision to halt the Federal Emergency Management Agencys decades-old natural disaster funding program. The coalition announced Wednesday it was taking legal action, calling the move to scrap the bipartisan grants illegal. States involved in the lawsuit say FEMAs funding was critical to plan ahead of disasters and has saved taxpayers billions of dollars that otherwise would have been spent on recovery efforts. Advertisement The impact of the shutdown has been devastating, the lawsuit says. Communities across the country are being forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of mitigation projects depending on this funding and in the meantime, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters. Heres what to know. What states are suing the Trump administration over FEMA disaster funding? The coalition is composed of 19 Democratic attorneys general and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat. Heres a full list: Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Illinois Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota New Jersey New York North Carolina Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island Vermont Washington Wisconsin What happened to the FEMA funding? The Trump administration canceled funding for disaster recovery and resilience that had already been approved by Congress and awarded by FEMA to the states that are suing. According to the lawsuit, FEMA ended its Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities program without approval from Congress. The recision came on the heels of deadly floods in central Texas and recent heavy flooding across the Northeast. What did the program do? The Building Resilient Infrastructure Communities program helped communities prepare for extreme weather by providing funding to protect key infrastructure before problems occurred. For example, in Philadelphia, the city received over $25 million in funding to make sewer-system improvements and take other flood-prevention measures. According to the lawsuit, FEMA selected nearly 2,000 projects to receive about $4.5 billion in grants over the last four years. FEMA announced in April it would end the program as part of efforts by its parent agency the Department of Homeland Security to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. What does the lawsuit say? The states fighting the cuts said in Wednesdays lawsuit that eliminating the program will cost more money than it saves. For nearly thirty years, and across five Presidential administrations, FEMAs pre-disaster mitigation program has operated on a simple premise, the lawsuit said. By proactively fortifying our communities against disasters before they strike, rather than just responding afterward, we will reduce injuries, save lives, protect property, and ultimately, save money that would otherwise be spent on post-disaster costs. The plaintiffs added that funding from the program saved taxpayers more than $150 billion in expenses that would have been incurred from the aftermath of natural disasters without infrastructure planning. How has Trump reacted to the lawsuit? Trump has not commented on the lawsuit. In his second term, he has indicated a desire to get rid of FEMA. Following the Texas floods, Trumps administration softened its stance, declaring it would reform the agency rather than eliminate it completely. What are Gov. Shapiro and other regional leaders saying about the lawsuit? Shapiro said in a statement on X that Pennsylvania stands to lose over $130 million for 47 projects that would help mitigate natural disasters. Since the Trump Administration ripped away this funding, our cities and counties are now exposed to preventable disasters including flooding, landslides, and power outages, Shapiro said. Pennsylvanians at their most vulnerable are already losing out without this funding. He added that a program to reduce basement flooding in Philadelphia and protect drinking water is also in jeopardy without the promised funding. New Jerseys attorney general, Matthew J. Platkin, said in a statement Wednesday that natural disasters continue to affect the region, emphasizing the importance of the funding. New Jersey has repeatedly been hit by natural disasters, including Sandy and Ida, which devastated our state with major loss of life and property, Platkin said. Now the Trump administration is attempting to illegally shut down BRIC, making it much harder for communities across our state to protect themselves against future extreme weather events and putting lives at risk. What has FEMA said about the lawsuit? FEMA and DHS representatives have not commented on the lawsuit. After announcing BRICs elimination in April and removing information about it from its website, agency officials called the program ineffective. As noted by the New York Times, FEMA officials did not provide examples or evidence to back up those claims. Pennsylvania is involved in other lawsuits against the Trump administration, right? Correct. This lawsuit regarding FEMA is just the latest in a string of lawsuits state leaders including in Pennsylvania are filing against the Trump administration. Shapiro and Pennsylvania are also going up against the White House with lawsuits surrounding immigration, SNAP funding, school funding, health contracts, and more. The Super Gigante International Food Market, at 1930 W. Main Street, West Norriton, Pa, where several peole were taken into custody by ICE on July 16, 2025. Read more More than a dozen ICE agents swarmed the Super Gigante food market near Norristown early Wednesday, taking 14 people into custody as part of a surge of agency activity and arrests across Montgomery County. Unides Para Servir Norristown, an activist group, said that in the days before the action at the market it had confirmed four detentions in Norristown and had reports of ICE sightings in Ambler, Willow Grove, and Cheltenham Township. Several people were taken into custody Sunday at the Hatfield Village Apartments in Hatfield, near Lansdale, the group said. Advertisement Norristown is under attack, Unides posted on its Facebook page Wednesday, saying that about 25 vehicles had rolled into the Montgomery County seat. The Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia said it was monitoring the situation. Hours after agents arrived at the food market, the Juntos immigration advocacy group in Philadelphia shared video of what it said was a man being arrested outside the city Criminal Justice Center. Courthouses have increasingly become sites where ICE arrests occur. At 8 a.m. Wednesday, ICE agents some in military garb, some in civilian clothes arrived at the Gigante market with a warrant to search the business, according to a manager there. Officers swept the store, taking a number of employees into custody for alleged immigration violations, said the manager, who asked not to be named out of fear of reprisal. Were like, What now? the manager said. Were definitely saddened and honestly a little speechless. They werent just employees, they were family and friends. At lunchtime the store was trying to determine exactly who had been arrested. The business was shut down for more than an hour. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia said Wednesday that agents accompanied by others from Homeland Security Investigations and the IRS conducted a federal court-authorized search at the market. Fourteen people who did not have legal status to be in the United States were arrested, ICE said. Those 14 were taken into ICE custody pending deportation proceedings. None were identified by the agency, and it was not known where in the detention system they were being held. This is an ongoing investigation, and no further information will be released at this time, an ICE spokesperson said. The market has a Norristown mailing address but is physically located in West Norriton. Video posted by the group Project Libertad shows federal agents outside the market in masks, helmets, and military gear, carrying rifles. They are confronted by civilians who call them Nazis and Gestapo and ask if they tell their children what they do for a living. The shopping plaza that contains the market has been visited by ICE agents at least three times this year, according to one employee. The first time, agents were following a car, and in the second, agents made an arrest in front of the market, the employee said. An employee at the self-service laundry next to the supermarket said foot traffic at the washing business has dropped significantly since the start of the year. Claire Kaplan, 38, said Wednesday that she drove 45 minutes to the market from Willow Grove after hearing that arrests were taking place, seeking to support the workers. She is not affiliated with an activist organization, she said, but was simply moved to try to help immigrants. She earlier started an ICE watch tip line, and was giving out the phone number to people entering the store on Wednesday. One woman who was going into the store panicked when she misheard, thinking that Kaplan meant ICE was currently inside. Once she understood, she proceeded to tackle her grocery list. The surge comes not long after President Donald Trump named Montgomery County to a list of so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that he has targeted for their refusal to help enforce federal immigration laws. Trump has pledged to withhold federal money from those places, hundreds of which were named from coast to coast. Efforts to contact the market owner were unsuccessful Wednesday. Tensions around the ICE arrests erupted at Wednesdays regularly scheduled Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meeting, where a handful of immigration advocates called on the board to respond. Democratic Commissioners Neil Makhija and Jamila Winder, who control the three-person board, encouraged those concerned to contact local and federal officials. They called for ICE agents to be held accountable, while Republican Commissioner Tom DiBello called for respect for law enforcement. DiBello criticized the introduction of politics into the meetings, while Winder accused the Republican of lacking empathy. People are being terrorized by masked ICE agents in Montgomery County, thats what were saying. And if you cant be empathetic to that, thats disconcerting, Winder, who is from the Norristown area, said to DiBello. Im looking at these pictures on Facebook right where Im raising my son, people with guns. We should be concerned about that as a board. DiBello said he had empathy for law enforcement officers under attack and shot back: No matter what, we should be respecting our law enforcement agencies until they break the law. Minutes later, Makhija said weve never seen this level of vilification of immigrants, and DiBello interrupted to say the vilification was of illegals. The Trump administration has set aggressive goals for enforcement, demanding that ICE and its partner agencies arrest at least 3,000 people a day. Thats more than a million a year. Trump has pledged to deport millions in what he says will be the largest removal operation in U.S. history. He recently achieved a huge increase in budgeting for ICE, from about $8 billion to roughly $28 billion. That makes it the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government. Some polls show softening public support for Trumps immigration policies. In June, a national Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters showed 54% disapproved of the presidents handling of immigration issues, with 43% approving. And 56% disapproved of his handling of deportations, with 40% approving. The Mexican Consulate in Philadelphia said Wednesday that it was monitoring the situation in Montgomery County. Head Consul Carlos Obrador said at least six Mexican nationals had been detained. It is important to point out that regardless of their immigration status, people have basic rights, he said, and that includes the right to request to speak to their consulate. The Mexican Consulate is ready to provide its nationals with legal assistance, and people who think their relatives may have been detained can reach out, he said. Fourteen arrests constitute the largest single known enforcement action in the Philadelphia region since Trump took office. Seven people were arrested at a North Philadelphia car wash a week into the presidents term, and five were arrested in South Philadelphia on July 6. Outside the Philadelphia area, ICE arrested 17 undocumented workers at a Bethlehem building-restoration project in June. Unides Norristown said ICE was seeking to intimidate families in the community, where one out of three residents is Latino. It demanded an immediate stop to these destructive practices that break homes, generate terror, and violate human dignity. Our community deserves respect, not persecution. Norristown has been a target for ICE, with more than 20 people arrested there at the end of May and beginning of June. At the Hatfield Village Apartments on Wednesday, the staff at the management office referred questions to supervisors, who did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Staff writers Michelle Myers and Ryan W. Briggs contributed to this article. WHYY's headquarters in Center City Philadelphia. Federal funds account for about 7% of WHYY's annual budget. Read more With Republicans cutting off federal funding for NPR and PBS, one public media executive in Pennsylvania predicts local stations in rural areas will end up becoming collateral damage to President Donald Trumps agenda. We got sucked into a fight were not a part of, said Terry OReilly, the president and CEO of Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting, which operates NPR affiliate WESA. OReilly thinks the cuts have little to do with balancing the federal budget and are simply retribution for NPRs honest reporting on the Trump administration. Advertisement Public media is one one-hundredth of 1% of the federal budget, OReilly said. Its a rounding error. Republicans in the House voted early Friday morning along party lines to cut all federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, despite having just passed a budget bill that allocated $535 million to the government-funded organization. The proposal, known as a rescission request, takes back funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting allocated over two years, totaling $1.1 billion. The organization says more than 70% of that goes directly to National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting System stations across the country, including WHYY in Philadelphia. With both the House and Senate voting for the cuts, all that remains is for President Donald Trump to sign them into law. Money flowing from the federal government to local stations would dry up in October. WHYY is in a position to weather the cuts, according to president and CEO Bill Marrazzo. About 7% of WHYYs budget comes from government funding, and cuts would affect the organizations ability to grow and innovate but would not immediately threaten its future. We believe strongly in our mission and the 70 years of impact we have had in our region and plan to continue serving our audiences for years to come, WHYY said in a statement. The same goes for WESA in Pittsburgh, where federal funds account for 9% of its operating budget. About two-thirds of the companys $8 million budget goes to jobs, so if WESA wants to avoid cutbacks, OReilly said, it would need to make up about $700,000 in annual funding. Public media will survive this, OReilly said. Were working on this one day at a time. Smaller public media stations in Pa. would be hit hardest Elsewhere across Pennsylvania and Delaware, the situation is a bit more dire. WPSU, which reaches State College and 24 rural counties in central and northern Pennsylvania, gets about 20% of its annual budget from the federal government, about $1.4 million annually. That could lead to cuts in education programs and even diminish its emergency broadcasting capabilities, according to Isabel Reinert, WPSUs executive director and general manager. On top of the federal cuts, WPSU is dealing with a 20% cut in funding from Pennsylvania State University, about $800,000. Federal funding is essential, Reinert said, warning the cuts could threaten the future of stations like ours. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, WVIA is also bracing for the cuts, with federal funding representing about 20% of the stations annual budget. But unlike most stations, WVIA has a sizable endowment, thanks to a FCC broadcast spectrum auction in 2017, which might help prevent devastating cuts in the short term. WQED, the PBS station in Pittsburgh best known as the home of Fred Rogers, the creator of the beloved Mister Rogers Neighborhood, is also bracing for cuts. The station gets 11% of its funding from the federal government, and cutbacks would likely affect educational programming and emergency alert systems. It was Rogers who persuaded senators in 1969 not to cut funding for public television, arguing his show and those like it offered children a thoughtful alternative to what was being produced by commercial networks. This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique, Rogers testified before a Senate subcommittee. I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. Across the border in central Delaware, federal funds provide roughly 15% of WDDEs budget. The cuts would come as the relatively new public media company, which launched in 2012, is attempting to expand north into New Castle County. It will be tough, said Tom Interrante, WDDEs general manager. But well survive. How did Fetterman and McCormick vote? Public media stations across Pennsylvania had been urging their supporters to call the offices of U.S. Sens. John Fetterman, a Democrat, and Dave McCormick, a Republican, in an last-ditch attempt to pressure them to vote no on the proposal Thursday. Fetterman joined Democrats in voting against the propsal Thursday morning, telling The Inquirer the cuts undermine the very values of family and education Republicans claim to champion. Mr. Rogers, a Pittsburgh icon, taught us kindness and empathy. My wife, Gisele, learned English watching PBS, where Big Bird and Elmo have educated generations of American kids, Fetterman said in a statement. As a father, its personal, and I cant understand why were even considering taking away this programming for families across the nation. McCormicks office did not respond to a request for comment, but he voted with Republicans to eliminate the funding. Just two Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted not to defund NPR and PBS. What is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? Long a target of Republicans, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a publicly funded nonprofit created by Congress in 1967 to support public broadcasting across the country. Nearly all of the corporations funding comes from the federal government, with about 70% sent directly to 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations. Trump issued an executive order in May directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS. Ironically, smaller stations in rural parts of the country represented by Republicans would be hit hardest. Public media companies in Alaska, West Virginia, South Dakota, Indiana, and Montana have all warned they may be forced to shutter if the cuts proceed. It wouldnt surprise me if somewhere between 50 and 100 stations have to shut down before the end of the year, WESAs OReilly said. And the sad thing is, its the places that need it most that are going to bear the brunt of this. The stations that will weather this best are in large cities that are largely Democratic strongholds. Philadelphias public schools are in crisis. Five years post-pandemic, the Philadelphia School District is grappling with a 9.5% drop in enrollment, a $400 million budget shortfall, and stubbornly poor academic outcomes. According to a recent analysis conducted by my organization, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, roughly a quarter of Phillys public schools experienced enrollment declines of 20% or more between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 school years, with some schools losing almost half their students. Advertisement And, as Philadelphians know all too well, the pandemic-inspired exodus is only the latest chapter in a story that goes back more than a decade, when underenrollment prompted the district to shutter 30 schools in the 2012-13 school year, sparking understandable resentment in affected communities, but ultimately saving nearly $24 million annually. Since then, district enrollment has declined by almost 20%, with about half of that decline occurring prior to the pandemic. The result? Just 116,000 students are enrolled in district facilities that were originally designed to accommodate 180,000 students. In other words, across all district facilities, more than a third of the space is going unused. These vacancies come with a steep price tag. Due to the unavoidable costs associated with staffing and maintaining them, half-empty buildings are more expensive on a per-pupil basis. As a result, each empty seat quietly siphons taxpayer dollars and diverts scarce resources away from the students who remain enrolled. No one would intentionally design a school system this way. Compounding the problem is the embarrassing fact that, according to the districts own data, and despite declining enrollment, the number of staff who arent classified as classroom teachers has tripled in the last decade. To be fair, perhaps a thousand of these new staff are teaching assistants, which might be a wise investment, given the challenges frontline educators face. But when its serving so many fewer students, how can the district possibly justify a 17% increase in the number of food service workers and a 38% increase in the number of administrative support staff? Each empty seat quietly siphons taxpayer dollars and diverts scarce resources away from the students who remain enrolled. In a system thats also struggling to cope with learning loss, concerns about teacher pay, and other challenges, those numbers are difficult to defend. Fortunately, there are signs district leaders are ready to act. In September, the Philadelphia Board of Education tasked Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. with a politically fraught but long-overdue mission: to launch a comprehensive review of the districts aging facilities and the schools that occupy them. Drawing on lessons learned from the 2012-13 closures, the district has committed to gathering more community input this time. And to date, more than 500 Philadelphians have participated in 32 facilities feedback sessions, and nearly 6,000 respondents have provided feedback on facilities surveys. Still, common sense suggests the emptiest and lowest-performing schools should be closed first. To guide that process going forward, the district might consider adopting a minimum school size. (For example, some research suggests that 600 to 900 students is optimal for high school learning.) But regardless of the details, some sort of rightsizing is essential, both to stabilize the districts finances and to deliver better academic opportunities for Philadelphias students. To meet those goals, the district should publicly commit to placing any students displaced by closure in higher-performing schools and to reinvesting the additional resources closures generate back into classrooms. For example, tutoring or mentoring programs can help smooth transitions for displaced students. And schools receiving displaced students might benefit from additional academic and social supports that aim to minimize disruption and build community. As Watlington himself has said, the ultimate goal of closures is to enable the district to give our families more, not less. No, it still wont be popular. Nor will it be fun. But as we head into a new school year, the costs of inaction are clear: fewer resources for classrooms, lower-quality schools, and a system that fails the very children its meant to serve. David Griffith is associate director of research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a K-12 education policy think tank. Oleksandra Umanets, 23, calms her 10-month-old son as they take cover on the platform of a metro station during a Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday. Read more LONDON In case anyone believes President Donald Trump has revised his policy toward Vladimir Putins war on Ukraine, dont be fooled. True, the president is piqued because Putin refuses to agree to Trumps Nobel Peace Prize plan for a ceasefire with Ukraine. The Russian leader has been deluging Ukraines cities with drones and missiles despite a half dozen phone calls from Trump, with the biggest barrage right after the U.S. leader hung up from the last call. Advertisement Trump finally seems to grasp that Putin is making a fool of him in the eyes of the entire world. But the presidents much-awaited big announcement on Ukraine gave Putin another dangerous pass. After repeatedly announcing and then ignoring his previous deadlines, Trump issued yet another, declaiming that unless Putin agreed to a ceasefire in 50 days, he would impose severe tariffs on Moscow. Tough talk, but the United States does almost no trade with Russia, so the threat of tariffs is meaningless even if this time, Trump takes his own deadline seriously. In a sign of how little Muscovites believe Trumps bluster, the stock market went up after the vague and wimpy threat. READ MORE: A funeral for a tattoo artist-turned-soldier shows why Ukraine wont capitulate to Moscow | Trudy Rubin Moreover, Russia is in the midst of a furious summer offensive, trying to destroy Ukraines civilian infrastructure and break the countrys morale in the next couple of months. So a 50-day time frame, backed by a threat the Kremlin knows is meaningless, gives Putin a green light to pour it on. It is not for nothing that, when it comes to threatening Putin (or imposing tariffs) the president has become known as TACO Trump, meaning Trump Always Chickens Out. The president has steadfastly refused to impose any new sanctions on Moscow, despite Putins blatant rejection of Trumps past deadlines. Now, Trump indicates he might support a languishing Senate bill, with 85 Republican and Democratic sponsors, to impose secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy. Passage of the Senate bill, with Trumps blessing, would allow him to claim he was acting tough when, in reality, he was still permitting Putin to ravage Ukraine. But again, reality bites. Trump has insisted the bill include a carve-out that allows him to choose whether to sanction Russia at all. And he has told GOP senators to pause their sanctions bill for 50 days to see if his threats will scare Putin, an ex-KGB colonel who knows well that if Trump really wanted to sanction Russia further, he could do it on his own. The only good news is that, despite refusing to permit new U.S. aid for Ukraine, Trump now says he will allow NATO countries to purchase U.S.-made weapons to pass on to Kyiv. This way, he can claim he is doing business, even as he refuses to recognize the moral and strategic imperative of preventing the Kremlin from destroying Ukraine. Here, too, there is less to this reversal than meets the eye. Kyiv desperately needs certain key weapons systems immediately to blunt Russias summer offensive. Prime among them are air defenses, especially Patriot systems, as well as the interceptor missiles they fire. Kyiv has only eight to 10 of the systems and needs another 10 or so to save its civilian infrastructure. The Patriots are the only means to defend against Russian ballistic missiles that are striking Ukraines cities every day. READ MORE: How Ukraine can still beat Russia even with Trump getting in the way | Trudy Rubin A meager 30 interceptor missiles, part of a package agreed and financed under President Joe Biden, were recently halted by order of the Pentagon when they were already in transit. Under pressure, Trump supposedly countermanded that order with great fanfare. But, in reality, only 10 missiles will be delivered, barely enough for a couple of weeks. As for letting the Europeans purchase more urgently needed Patriot systems for Kyiv, here, too, the prospects are still dicey. The United States owns the vast preponderance of those systems, but wants European countries to send some of theirs to Kyiv and backfill their needs with future U.S. production that will take several years. Never mind that Europe has already sent more Patriot systems to Kyiv than has the United States (Germany has sent three of its 12) and may not be able to spare more. To sum up, it is a good thing that, after cutting off new U.S. weapons delivery to Ukraine, Trump has finally been moved by Putins insults to green light deliveries of U.S. weapons via NATO so long as the Europeans pay. But the need for those weapons deliveries especially the Patriot systems and interceptor missiles is right now. Moreover, the president still refuses to recognize that Putin has no interest whatsoever in a ceasefire or peace talks if they dont include Ukraines surrender to Moscows control. The Russian leader will never come to the table unless the cost of the war becomes too high politically and economically for the Kremlin to bear. Nor does an egotistical Trump yet grasp that Putin is aligned with China, North Korea, and Iran in trying to weaken the West and dominate both Europe and Asia, along with the Arctic and international waters. The Kremlin czar sees the American president as an easy mark to further his imperial vision. A 50-day deadline with no punishment likely at the end of the arbitrary time frame, and no rush to deliver key weapons to Kyiv will further convince Putin that Trump can be easily rolled. The Office of Governor Matt Meyer / The Office of Governor Matt Meyer Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signs House Bill 182 and three other law enforcement-related bills, Monday, July 14, 2025. Read more Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer has signed legislation to block local law enforcement agencies from partnering with federal immigration authorities to enforce immigration violations and share related data. House Bill 182 targets 287(g), a rapidly expanding initiative in which state and local police help enforce federal immigration laws. The program is currently active across 40 states and, according to ProPublica, Immigration and Customs Enforcement signed 514 new agreements from January to June this year. Advertisement The programs growth comes amid ICEs nationwide crackdown on immigration. During the first 100 days of Donald Trumps second presidency, the agency reported 66,463 arrests and 65,682 removals. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, immigrant detentions have surged to levels not seen since 2011. In his remarks Monday at the bill signing, Meyer said theres been an urgency for getting laws like this passed. This is an attempt to say to communities in Delaware that law enforcement officials in Delaware are here for your safety, he said. They are here to protect you. Meyer also signed three other bills, ending citizens arrests, criminalizing the impersonation of a federal officer, and removing the authority for a private individual to execute a warrantless arrest of someone charged with a felony in another state. Under 278(g), law enforcement agencies can participate in any of three programs: the Jail Enforcement Model, in which officers identify and process those with criminal or pending charges who are already in state or local custody; the Warrant Service Officer Program, in which ICE trains and authorizes officers to execute administrative warrants at jails on its behalf; and the Task Force Model, which allows officers to exercise limited immigration authority while performing their routine duties. Delaware is the seventh state to restrict participation in 287(g), after Oregon, Connecticut, California, Illinois, Washington, and New Jersey. The bills supporters say collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE can take resources away from public safety duties and erode trust in local police departments. House Bill 182 is about increasing trust between the public and law enforcement. Our local police departments should be left to focus on community policing and building relationships in the precincts that they serve not enforcing federal immigration law, State Sen. Tizzy Lockman said in a news release. ICE officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In Pennsylvania, an increasing number of local law enforcement agencies have signed 287(g) agreements with ICE. According to data published by ICE, 18 agencies have joined the program since the beginning of this year. Seven others have pending applications. In April, Bucks County Sheriff Fred Harran announced plans to join 287(g), saying his office would participate in the Task Force Model. The move was met with backlash from Bucks County commissioners and local advocacy groups. Last month, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, along with several advocacy groups, sued Harran to try to block the agreement. Meanwhile, in an op-ed published in The Inquirer in May, Montgomery County officials promised to not sign a 287(g) agreement. We will not sign a 287(g) agreement, and our stance is rooted in constitutional principle, public safety, and fiscal responsibility, Commissioners Neil Makhjia and Jamila Winder wrote. The county also barred its employees from sharing information with ICE without a legal order. Patty Hartman, a former public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice, says she was fired for handling press information on the Jan. 6 riot suspects. Read more Salem County, N.J., native Patty Hartman, who wrote news releases for the Justice Department about defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, said she was blindsided and surprised when she was fired by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi without explanation on July 7. Hartman has worked in the news media in the Philadelphia area, as well as in public affairs for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Philadelphia and in the FBI field office in Newark. Advertisement I was fired without reason, and Im completely perplexed, Hartman said in an interview Tuesday. I was doing nothing more than putting out press releases, sharing public information, said Hartman, who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs but declined to say where for security concerns. My job did not involve deciding what individual was worthy of a press release. Hartman said she issued hundreds of news releases about people who had been arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 riot, written in a boilerplate way, with just the bare facts and no bias or political commentary. In the largest prosecution in DOJ history, about 1,500 people were federally charged in the riot, according to figures from the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington. Of more than 1,000 who pleaded guilty, about 260 were convicted, according to the office. President Donald Trump, who was impeached for incitement of insurrection during the final days of his first presidency but was acquitted in the Senate, commuted sentences for 14 rioters and issued a blanket pardon for all other Jan. 6 defendants on the first day of his second presidency. Its ironic you would fire the person responsible for transparency, Hartman said. But Im just another faceless, dedicated federal employee being sacrificed. A supervisory public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Washington, Hartman said she was one of several Justice Department employees who were recently dismissed by Bondi. On Friday, Bondi fired Joseph Tirrell, the senior ethics attorney at the department, according to news reports. Nearly three dozen other department employees have been fired in recent weeks, including three prosecutors who were sacked last month. Many of the fired employees were connected to the Jan. 6 prosecutions or other investigations related to the first Trump administration. The staffers were identified by the departments so-called weaponization working group as employees involved in what the Trump administration labels as politically motivated cases launched by the administration of former President Joe Biden. In a LinkedIn post, Hartman referred to her firing as a shameful act perpetrated by an agency to which I dedicated nearly 20 years of my life. Asked to respond to Hartmans assertions, a DOJ spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday. Removed ... effective immediately Around 4 p.m. on July 7, Hartman said, her computer suddenly stopped working. Soon after, a colleague appeared and handed her a memo signed by Bondi. It said that Hartman was being removed from ... [her] position of Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist and that she also was removed from federal service effective immediately. Hartman, who had supervised a four-person team, said she had received only positive performance reviews for her work. Her firing, she said, deprived her of due process. She explained that in the federal government, officials must follow strict procedures before dismissing employees. Workers are told what they did wrong and receive a letter explaining it, followed by a plan to improve performance. I was not given any of that, she said. Hartman began her career in 1995 working in media in Wilmington and Philadelphia. She held several TV news jobs, including as a writer and producer at Philadelphia at NBC Universal/WCAU. She was also a special projects producer at FOX 29 in Philadelphia. She began her work for the federal government in 2007, when she was public affairs specialist for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Philadelphia, a job she held until 2016. She went on to work in similar positions at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Arlington, Va., and at the FBI. Asked what happens next, Hartman said, I am looking for work. Her attorney, Mark Zaid of Washington, said he planned to file a lawsuit on Hartmans behalf to ensure due process protections are provided and to seek reinstatement. The targeting by this administration of individuals such as Patty, who served in nonpartisan roles protecting Americans, is not only reprehensible, but its illegal. Neil Makhija, the chair of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners, announced a new minimum wage for county workers Wednesday. Read more Montgomery Countys lowest-paid county workers got a roughly 25% raise Wednesday after the countys board of commissioners bumped its minimum wage by $4 to $20.52. The salary board, made up of the countys commissioners and controller, voted unanimously Wednesday to increase the countys minimum wage for employees to what officials say will now be the highest rate for county workers in Pennsylvania, and nearly three times the state minimum wage of $7.25. Advertisement If we want strong communities, we have to start with strong teams. That means paying people fairly, said Commissioner Jamila Winder, a Democrat. The increased wage still falls below a living wage for the county, which would be $26.61 per hour for a single adult without children, according to MITs Living Wage Calculator. The new policy will immediately offer raises to 129 Montgomery County employees, but it will not directly affect wages in the private sector across the county. Commissioner Neil Makhija, a Democrat, and Winder said they were hopeful other communities and employers may follow. Its important to recognize that at the county level we can set an example, Makhija said. The county did not immediately raise wages for workers who made just above $20.52, but Makhija said in an interview after the meeting that discussions were in progress about additional raises. Funds for the raises, Makhija said, were gathered through cost-saving measures identified by the countys new office of innovation, strategy, and performance. Makhija announced the rate increase while holding up handwritten signs comparing Montgomery Countys new minimum wage with neighboring counties in Pennsylvania and comparing Pennsylvanias minimum wage with neighboring states. According to data gathered by Montgomery County, Philadelphias lowest hourly wage is $16.35 per hour, while lowest wages in the other three collar counties range from $12.50 to $15.30. Pennsylvania is one of 20 states that have not raised their minimum wage above the federal minimum, which has been unchanged at $7.25 since 2009. Gov. Josh Shapiro and his predecessor Tom Wolf, both Democrats, proposed significant increases to the state minimum wage. But as discussions on the issue have stalled in Harrisburg, Makhija said he hoped Montgomery County could be a leader in the state. Commissioner Tom DiBello, the lone Republican on the board, said his decision to support the raises was driven by market forces rather than a desire to offer the best wages in the state. The move follows efforts by the board over the last two years to improve compensation and benefits for workers across the county. Last year, the county began offering the most expansive parental leave benefits in the state offering 12 weeks to all parents and an additional four weeks to birthing parents. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker during a presser on AFSCME DC 47 and the city of Philadelphia reaching a tentative agreement at City Hall in Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. Read more For the second time in a week, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker stood with her team at a podium at the Mayors Reception Room in City Hall on Wednesday, announcing that Philadelphia had reached a tentative three-year contract agreement with a municipal workers union. This time, a strike was averted before it could even start. And Parker called the deal good news. Advertisement I know the last several weeks have been very long for all of us, Parker said. The city reached a tentative deal Tuesday with District Council 47 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents thousands of white-collar city workers across several departments, including those at the library and the office of homeless services. It marked the second prospective deal brokered with a city workers union in less than a week, and a negotiation process far less contentious than the one with AFSCME District Council 33, which led to a tumultuous eight-day strike by more than 9,000 blue-collar municipal employees in the lowest-paid city union. The tentative agreement must be ratified by DC 47s members to take effect. DC 47 president April Gigetts said Tuesday she hopes the vote will take place over the next week. READ MORE: AFSCME DC 47, Phillys white-collar city workers union, has reached a tentative deal with Mayor Parkers administration DC 47s three-year tentative contract includes annual wage increases of 2.5%, 3%, and 3%. It also includes a 1% fifth-step pay increase and a one-time $1,250 bonus, as well as reforms to give wage boosts to longtime employees and those who work second or third shifts. Under the tentative contract, union members will also see improvements on the citys contributions to their healthcare claims, which both the city and union see as a priority to protect workers amid federal threats to healthcare funding. Parker said that combined with the one-time 5% raise she gave DC 47 employees in a contract extension last year, the new contract amounts to a 13.5% wage increase for the unions members over her four-year term. The deal, if ratified, will cost the city approximately $92 million over the course of five years, the city said. In this years budget, Parker set aside $550 million to cover the costs of new labor contracts. DC 33s three-year agreement, with 3% annual raises for workers, will cost the city $115 million. DC 47 is an umbrella union comprising nine locals, two of which Locals 2186 and 2187 represent city employees. Local 2187 is the only one allowed to go on strike. Its membership, which consists of city employees and workers at the Philadelphia Housing Authority and Philadelphia Parking Authority, participated last week and over the weekend in a now-moot strike authorization vote that would have been tallied Tuesday. While the wage increases in the latest contract fall short of DC 47s initial demands for 8% over four years, Gigetts said Tuesday she thinks members will be pleased with the deal. Parker: Contract deals are part of a larger equation Earlier this month, failed negotiations between the city and DC 47s sister union, DC 33, resulted in Philadelphias first major strike by municipal workers since 1986, leading to piling trash and resentment from residents as city services stalled and tempers flared between city and union leadership. Parker said Wednesday the intensity on recent display is not indicative of the months of negotiations and conversations between the city and union leaders. As the city continues to hash out long-term agreements for the 22,000 municipal employees across the four unions whose contracts expired July 1, Parker said competing interests are at play. Its all a part of a larger equation in long-term sort of thinking, Parker said, emphasizing that she puts a priority on fiscal responsibility. READ MORE: They are my people: Mayor Cherelle Parker on why she stood firm in the DC 33 city worker strike Parker approached talks with DC 33 and DC 47 in fundamentally the same way, with some differences in negotiators at the bargaining table, based on their experience. When it came to DC 47, tensions appeared to escalate Friday when the union walked away from the bargaining table after nine hours of negotiations with no date to return. But the situation seemed to calm down days later, after an all-night negotiating session stretching Monday into Tuesday, when the tentative agreement was reached. You get at a point where you just have to walk away and wait and see if they want to take you seriously, Gigetts said over the weekend. In contrast to DC 33s approach of calling a strike at 12:01 a.m. on July 1, Gigetts never seemed dead set on calling for a work stoppage and remained open to other options, such as another contract extension. READ MORE: How the AFSCME DC 33 strike exposed fault lines in Phillys labor movement Gigetts said Tuesday that the parts of the deal outside the wage increases, such as improvements to health and welfare and the longevity schedule and shift differentials which would offer some members pay increases ultimately made the agreement a pretty good contract. If Parker had her way, the mayor said Wednesday, she would give everybody 10% across the board for every year, but given the citys budget, she said, that increase would have to come with layoffs to the municipal workforce. Thats not an option for me, Parker said. We will not lay off members of our valuable city workforce. Navigating federal threats to healthcare Beginning in the third year of the DC 47 contract, the city will pay 92% of an employees healthcare claim, up from 91%, a move that both Parker and the unions president said was made with impending federal threats to healthcare in mind. Parker said the shift was in the context of all of the Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians who we know are going to be impacted by legislative initiatives being proffered at the federal level. President Donald Trumps signature tax and spending legislation, signed into law on July 4, includes drastic funding cuts to Medicaid, which insures one in four Pennsylvanians. Gigetts, the DC 47 president, said a major goal during contract negotiations was to maintain a strong, healthy health and welfare fund. And so we think we will be able to achieve that with this contract, Gigetts said. Next up: The city must reach contract deals with Philadelphia police, firefighters, and prisons bargaining units. Dwayne Chapman wears a wet cloth on his head to combat the heat and mugginess last month. Expect more where that came from. Read more When the sun-cooked air feels like its too full of moisture to bother moving, Jeff Kochanowicz has experienced an altogether unpleasant sensation when he brings his bike to a stop. You feel like a French fry under a heat lamp, said Kochanowicz, president of the Bicycle Club of Philadelphia. Advertisement Its perhaps less-than-small compensation, but bicyclists, runners, people who work outside, and just plain pedestrians have been experiencing something special. Based on an analysis of the moisture content of the Philadelphia air as measured by the hourly dew points, this was the third-sultriest June 1-to-July 15 period in records dating to 1948. And it looks like the mugginess is going to persist, along with the episodic rains. Thursday is going to be another steamer, with temperatures heading into the 90s and a heat advisory in effect for triple-digit heat indexes. With the warming of the planet, the atmosphere is capable of holding more moisture. But does it have to hold it all here? The mugginess, along with the attendant downpours, has been related to a traffic jam in the atmosphere and above-normal sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf and the Atlantic, said Art DeGaetano, director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center, based at Cornell University. Whatever the cause, Its been brutal, said cyclist Howie Wiener, the bicycle clubs secretary, for whom this has been particularly challenging. He was on vacation above the Arctic Circle in Norway and had the pleasure of returning to Philly just in time for the worst of it. About the dew point and the analysis It was right around the solstice that the atmosphere turned up the steam valves along the I-95 corridor. That is clearly evident in the dew point data from the official (albeit imperfect) National Weather Service station at Philadelphia International Airport. The axiom its not the heat, its the humidity is not quite accurate. Humidity is relative to what the atmosphere can hold at a given temperature. The warmer the air, the greater the moisture capacity. Typically on a summer morning with a temperature around 70 degrees, the humidity is near 100% because thats as much as the air can hold. When its 100 degrees, rarely would the humidity be above 50%. The dew point is an absolute measure of moisture. It is the temperature at which water vapor condenses and comes out of hiding in liquid form. Water streams down the surface of a glass of ice water because the air around it is cooled to the dew point. High moisture levels inhibit cooling. The body gets relief when sweat evaporates and gives off a cooling effect. When the air is moisture-clogged, sweat cant evaporate and becomes an unpleasantly warm coating. If it cant evaporate, then you get in big trouble, Wiener said. The weather service has no official standards on dew point comfort levels, said Paul Fitzsimmons, a lead meteorologist in the Mount Holly office. The body can acclimate to higher dew points over time, he said, but 70 is a solid standard for mugginess. In the June 1-July 15 period, dew points were 70 or higher 45% of the time, a percentage ranking behind only 1973 and 1994 in the 77 years of available data. Why it has been so sticky in the Philadelphia region Waters in the Gulf and off the Southeast coast have been warmer than normal, DeGaetano said, and they have worked in tandem with the so-called Bermuda high over the North Atlantic. Winds circulate clockwise in high pressure, and areas to the west of the center experience warm, moist winds from the south and southwest. The heavier air of high pressure also can block systems from moving. Fronts approaching the region have had a tough time getting here, but some have come close enough to trigger thunderstorms and heavy showers. The atmosphere has been even more oppressive lately The worst of it appears to have kicked in around here with the arrival of a hot spell that began June 19. Wiener returned from Norway on June 23, just in time to experience Philadelphias first 100-degree reading in 13 years. In the June 19-to-July 15 period, dew points remained in the 70-plus level two-thirds of the time, the Inquirer analysis showed. The summer of 2025 is on track to rank among the top five muggiest, and while the airport is not an ideal measuring station and a variety of factors can contribute to steaminess in a given season, including the urban heat island effect, oppressive conditions in urbanized areas are becoming more common as the planet warms. When can we stop with the sweating? Not Thursday. A heat advisory is in effect for heat indexes as high as 102 in Philly. Highs are forecast to be in the low 90s, with more showers possible. However, the dew points are due to fall below 65 Thursday night and might not climb back to 70 until Saturday night. Few things are more changeable than a summer forecast, but both Friday and Saturday may be dry. In the meantime, Kochanowicz advises cyclists not to overdo it and stay hydrated. Said Kochanowicz: This kind of stickiness does indeed kind of take some of the fun out of riding, although it doesnt stop us. We all have a role to play in reducing road trauma whether were behind the wheel or as a passenger or another road user, Vertudaches said. While it can be difficult, it is important that families have open conversations about safe transport options for older loved ones who may be more vulnerable in a crash. Meanwhile, Tom Leonard (pictured above, right) will assume the role of global head of broker management. Both Vagenende and Leonard will be based in London and will form part of the global distribution team led by Jeremy Sharpe. The underwriting criteria used by Joness firm breaks up scaffolding work into four height levels, not the standard two levels used by other insurers. We also focus more on how they go about their business, in other words their own risk management, as well as what they do, he said. The guide noted that these risks are particularly pronounced for technology companies, where the pace of change is accelerating and the stakes for talent retention and compliance are high. To be sharing this milestone with Nautilus Marine Insurance as they mark their own 20th anniversary makes it even more meaningful. Nautilus Marine Insurance has been a steadfast supporter of the boating community and a valued partner of Race Week. Their support continues to enhance the experience for competitors, spectators, and sailing enthusiasts alike. We are delighted to have them by our side for this historic year, as we honour the past and set our sights on the future of this remarkable event, he said. New Caledonias political changes prompt advisory updates On June 27, Australias Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) lowered its travel advice for the region from level 3 (Reconsider your need to travel) to level 2 (Exercise a high degree of caution). This adjustment applies to all areas of New Caledonia, including the Loyalty Islands, Isle of Pines, and the interior of Grand Terre. The company said its Illinois homeowners business has posted underwriting losses in 13 of the past 15 years, including a loss ratio of $1.26 paid out for every $1 collected in 2024. It attributed the losses in part to an increase in severe weather events and noted that Illinois ranked second in the country for hail-related insurance claims last year. Its become less about buying a good insurance policy, and more about what level of risk is tolerable for them, said Chris Zehnder (pictured), senior vice president and partner at The Baldwin Group. Theyre evaluating exposures that might be uninsurable or only marginally covered, and asking: what could happen given the nature of this job, location, or work type? The judge had weighed medical testimony from several experts, ultimately finding most persuasive the opinion of a forensic psychiatrist who testified that Buchanans suicide was not caused by work-related PTSD but by a history of major depressive disorder and issues managing psychiatric medications. That decision was appealed by the widow and reversed by the Compensation Review Board in 2023, which found inconsistencies in the judges reasoning and determined that Buchanan's suicide was a physical injury that occurred during work and therefore compensable. In a win that will matter to insurers managing property claims litigation in Texas, the Thirteenth Court of Appeals ruled on July 11, 2025, that Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London had the right to intervene in a lawsuit brought by two of its insureds. The court said the trial court should not have excluded the insurer from a dispute where it had both accepted responsibility for its agents and sought to enforce the policys appraisal process. A previous attempt to block the law was filed in February 2024 by the same parties but was dismissed by Nevada District Judge Kristin Luis. At that time, the court found the plaintiffs lacked standing, had not identified a redressable injury, and ruled the case premature since the law had not yet been implemented. As of midyear, the department has already rejected more in premium increases than it did during the same period in 2024, when $98.3 million in P&C rate requests were denied, according to Insurance Commissioner Michael Humphreys (pictured above). Each night, she received her leads through the app, which gave her up to three appointments a day, scheduled by the company. Some days were light, others long she described one 15-hour day traveling across Tennessee and Kentucky. Even on days without appointments, she said she was expected to remain on standby. Supervisors monitored her calls and expected immediate responses between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. There were mandatory weekly meetings, and she testified that when she took time off for her fathers passing or her grandchilds birth, her supervisor threatened termination. Two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in floodwaters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight, authorities said Tuesday. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, noted the deaths occurred in the northern New Jersey city of Plainfield, where there were two storm-related deaths July 3. A third person was killed in North Plainfield during that previous storm. Were not unique, but were in one of these sort of high humidity, high temperature, high storm intensity patterns right now, Murphy told reporters after touring storm damage in Berkeley Heights. Everybody needs to stay alert. The names of the two latest victims were not immediately released Tuesday. Local officials said the vehicle they were riding in was swept into a brook during the height of the storm. Emergency personnel responded quickly, but tragically, both individuals were pronounced dead at the scene, according to a statement the city posted online. The heavy rains also caused flash floods in New York and south-central Pennsylvania on Monday night into early Tuesday, prompting road closures and snarling some service on the New York City subway. It was the second-highest one-hour rainfall ever recorded in Central Park at more than 2 inches (5 centimeters), surpassed only by the remnants of Hurricane Ida in 2021, according to local officials. Flooding in the New York City subway Viral videos posted online showed water flooding down into one Manhattan subway station, submerging the platform while passengers inside a train watched on. Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told ABC 7 in New York the citys sewer system got overwhelmed by the rain and backed up into the subway tunnels and to the stations. In several cases, he said, the backup popped a manhole, creating the dramatic geyser seen in some videos. What happened last night is something that is, you know, a reality in our system, he told the TV station, noting the backup happens when more than 1 3/4 inches of rain falls in an hour. Weve been working with the city of New York to try to get them to increase the capacity of the system at these key locations. City officials said their venerable sewer system worked as well as it could, but it simply was not built to handle that much rain. Imagine putting a two-liter bottle of water into a one-liter bottle. Some of its going to spill, Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said at a virtual news briefing Tuesday. Lieber said full service was restored to the subway, as well as commuter rails, after hundreds of people worked overnight to restore operations. Flooding has proven to be a stubborn problem for New Yorks subway system, despite years and billions of dollars worth of efforts to waterproof them. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 prompted years of subway repairs and flood-fighting ideas, and some have been put into practice. In some places, transit officials have installed or are installing storm barriers at subway station entrances, seals beneath subway air vents and curbs to raise the vents and entrances above sidewalk level. Meanwhile, summer thunderstorms and the remains of hurricanes have repeatedly flooded parts of the subway system anew. In 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed more than a dozen New York City residents, largely in basement apartments, and sent water cascading again into subways, renewing attention to resiliency proposals. The storms effects in New Jersey and Pennsylvania The storm prompted multiple water rescues in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where streets and basements flooded after roughly 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell. Some roads remained closed in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Tuesday. Murphy said the pavement buckled in some locations and state and local officials were assessing the level of damage in several counties, noting the White House had reached out to his office. A major east-to-west highway in New Jersey was closed to make emergency repairs while dozens of flights were delayed or canceled at area airports Tuesday. Most flash flood watches and warnings had expired in parts of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as the rain moved on. In one flooded North Plainfield neighborhood, a house caught on fire and collapsed amid the storm. Murphy said there was an explosion at the house but the family was not home and there were no injuries. The cause was under investigation. Haigh reported from Connecticut. Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Auto Flood New Jersey A Massachusetts assisted-living center where nine residents died in a fire was cited for failing to immediately report more than two dozen health and safety incidents, according to regulators most recent review of the facility. Five men and four women were killed and at least 30 others were injured Sunday night at Gabriel House in Fall River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boston. Some of the 70 residents were rescued by ladder after screaming for help from the windows of the three-story building. Investigators have not determined the cause of the blaze, which was the states deadliest fire in more than four decades. The 100-unit facility, which opened in 1999 in a former motel built decades earlier, was last inspected by the state on Oct. 31, 2023, according to a report from the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs. The report cited the facility for seven deficiencies, four of which were repeat problems. After the facility responded with a corrective action plan, it was re-certified through November 2025. Most of the issues involved missing documentation. For example, seven resident files that were reviewed were missing documents to indicate that their service plans were reassessed within 30 days of moving in, as required. The plans outline the services each resident receives, including whether they need help with medication and meals. The review also found problems with the reporting of safety incidents. Facilities are supposed to submit reports of incidents that could have a significant negative effect on residents health, safety or welfare within 24 hours, but the review found 26 reports that were sent later than that between May 5, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2023. The report did not specify the total number of incidents, or provide any details about what they involved. The state also watched two staffers provide medication assistance to seven residents and found several problems, including failure to document when eye drops were opened, loose tablets in medication storage areas and partially opened medication. Advocates question staff size and other issues Some residents said only two or three staffers were working at the time of the fire, and they offered little help. They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot, said Lorraine Ferrara. I was hanging out the window Help! Help! and they just kept running. Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts secretary of elder affairs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, said the group was concerned about reports on the lack of fire drills, the small number of staff members for a highly dependent population and safety issues such as a broken elevator and air conditioners in the windows. Its a terrible tragedy that should have never happened, Lanzikos said. Richard Moore, another co-founder of Dignity Alliance, has asked the attorney general to investigate based on similar concerns as well as the facility owners history. Dennis Etzkorn, owner of Gabriel Care LLC, was indicted on medical assistance fraud and kickback charges in 2012, though the charges were dismissed three years later. The fact that it happened in the past and that this now happened suggests that there should be a more thorough investigation of that, said Moore, former head of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association and a former state senator. He said the assisted-living industry overall needs more rigorous regulation and oversight. And while its too early to say what went wrong at Gabriel House, he said the staffing levels and training appear to have been inadequate. Regulations require emergency plans Current regulations do not require a specific number of staff members, but the rules say facilities shall have a plan to secure staffing necessary to respond to emergencies. There should have been more staff. They should have been trained in the case of fire or other emergency, Moore said. They should have been doing fire drills. It seemed like residents didnt know what to do. Etzkorn declined to comment to The Associated Press. He told the Boston Globe in a statement Monday that he and his family were devastated by the tragedy and that he will continue to cooperate with authorities. Meanwhile, a state commission working to improve long-term care in Massachusetts held a moment of silence Tuesday for the lives that were lost and the lives that were put on the line in Fall River. The Assisted Living Residences Commission, created by lawmakers last year as part of a broader effort, faces an Aug. 1 deadline to recommend policies to ensure facilities meet the health and safety needs of residents. But members said they may seek more time given the fire. We need to do a deep dive based on the investigation results with this facility, but also the facilities like this one, state Rep. Thomas Stanley said. Some residents still homeless By Tuesday morning, the facilitys broken windows had been boarded up, and bouquets of flowers and a rosary were set on the ground against a post wrapped with yellow police tape. A steady stream of cars pulled up to the Catholic Charities Diocese of Fall River to drop off donated items for the displaced residents, and the city is working with multiple organizations to collect money. Theres a lot of generosity and love being shared with the city of Fall River and the people who suffered so much the other night, Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said. Ann ONeil-Souza, chief of staff for the mayor, said city officials expect to find homes for the survivors from Gabriel House by the end of Tuesday. She said most were being placed with other facilities in the city and with family, and hospitals have been asked to work with social workers to ensure patients find housing when they are discharged. The dead ranged in age from 61 to 86, authorities said. The Bristol County District Attorneys Office identified seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. The office said the names of a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man had not been released pending notification of family. Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Smith reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press Writers Michael Casey in Boston and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report. Topics Massachusetts Helvetia Holding AG and Baloise Holding AG hired strategy consultant McKinsey for advice on Europes biggest insurance deal this year, according to people familiar with the matter. McKinsey is set to earn tens of millions of Swiss francs from the multi-year project which is one of the largest consulting contracts currently in Switzerland, the people said, asking not to be identified, because the mandate hasnt been publicly announced. The deal, which is creating the second-largest insurer in Switzerland, is expected to complete by 2028. Read more: Shareholders of Swiss Insurers Helvetia and Baloise Approve Merger Helvetia does not comment on contractual relationships. However, we can confirm that we are engaging external advice in connection with the planned merger, a spokesperson for Helvetia said. McKinsey and Baloise declined to comment. Announced in April, the combination between the two insurance companies from St. Gallen and Basel, marked one of the biggest deals in European finance this year. McKinsey employs just under 500 people in Switzerland and competes with the likes of Boston Consulting Group, Oliver Wyman and local competitors in the country for corporate projects on topics ranging from post-merger integration to cost cutting to strategy. The demise of Credit Suisse and its rescue takeover by UBS Group AG has made the landscape even more competitive for consulting firms in Switzerland which benefitted from having two major banks as potential clients. The combined company will have a business volume of around $25 billion (20 billion Swiss francs) across 8 countries. The insurers have said the merger will result in 350 million Swiss francs of annual cost savings and will include layoffs, Helvetia Chief Executive Officer Fabian Rupprecht has said. The firms expect roughly 500 million to 600 million Swiss francs of integration costs in the coming years, most of which will be incurred by 2028. As a result, the executives see an additional cash generation of roughly 220 million francs. Together, Helvetia Baloise Holding Ltd. will have a combined market share of about 20% across its life, property and casualty business lines, according to filings. Photograph: The Helvetia Holding offices in Basel, Switzerland. Photo credit: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions The installation of cockpit cameras would greatly help aviation safety authorities investigating accidents like the recent fatal Air India crash, according to the head of the International Air Transport Association. On a personal basis, I can see that there is a strong argument now for the inclusion of video, Director General Willie Walsh said in Singapore on Wednesday. Based on what little we know now, its quite possible that a video recording, in addition to the voice recording, would significantly assist the investigators. The idea of cockpit cameras has been fiercely debated for decades, but has been thrust into the spotlight once again in the wake of last months Air India crash in Ahmedabad. A preliminary report into the accident that killed 260 people on board the Boeing Co. 787 aircraft and on the ground revealed that the fuel-supply switches were switched off dooming the jet almost immediately after takeoff. Authorities have so far only released a short transcript that shows one pilot asking his colleague why he turned off the fuel supply, to which the second pilot answered he had not. It isnt clear if this was the extent of the cockpit conversation, and authorities didnt identify which pilot said what, leaving the key question of how the switches were moved to a cut-off position unanswered. Still, Walsh said the initial report was more comprehensive than expected. Read More: Air India Crash Points to Cockpit Confusion as Fuel Flow Cut Out Walsh, in Singapore for events including a summit on aviation safety, reiterated his optimistic outlook for the industry, which has weathered disruptions from conflicts to escalating geopolitical tensions. While some carriers have scaled back their Asian operations, only travel between the US and Canada has been significantly impacted by the Trump administrations tariffs, according to Walsh. IATA projects 5.8% growth in air travel demand this year. Over the longer-term, Walsh cautioned that travelers will have to pay higher fares due to the rising cost of meeting climate goals. The cost of complying with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation will hit $1 billion this year and balloon to about $15 billion over the next decade, Walsh said. He pointed to Singapores plan to add a levy to ticket prices next year to purchase cleaner fuel as a good model for stimulating demand for sustainable aviation fuel. Other regions, like Europe, may struggle to meet their SAF goals as production remains scarce, Walsh said. Singapores Changi Airport, which typically ranks as one of the worlds most popular and recently broke ground on a vast new terminal, is also an industry leader in sectors like automation, according to Walsh. Compared to what I see in Europe, its like night and day, said Walsh, who was previously the chief executive officer of British Airways. Aviation is truly valued in this region. Photograph: The crash site of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, India, on June 13, 2025; photo credit: Siddharaj Solanki/Bloomberg Copyright 2025 Bloomberg. Topics India A former Alabama police officer charged with murder for shooting an armed Black man in the mans front yard during a dispute with a tow-truck driver shouldnt be granted immunity before going to trial, the states attorney general says. In a court brief filed late last week, Attorney General Steve Marshall said a lower court was correct in ruling that former Decatur police officer Mac Marquette, 25, failed to show a clear legal right to prosecutorial immunity when he fatally shot Stephen Perkins on Sept. 29, 2023. Shortly before 2 a.m., Marquette and two other officers accompanied the tow truck driver to repossess Perkins pickup truck at his home in Decatur. When Perkins emerged from his house pointing a gun at the truck driver, Marquette fired 18 bullets less than two seconds after the officers emerged from a concealed position and identified themselves as law enforcement, according to body camera footage. The appeals court decision, and the fate of the trial, hinges on Alabamas stand your ground law, which grants immunity from prosecution to anyone who uses deadly force as long as they reasonably believe theyre in danger and are somewhere theyre rightfully allowed to be. Alabama allows judges to determine if someone acted in self-defense before a case goes to trial. After a Morgan County judge denied Marquette immunity in April, the ex-officers lawyers asked the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the decision. Defense attorneys said the circuit judges decision was a gross abuse of discretion because the judge didnt give enough weight to Marquettes assertion that he feared for his life after Perkins pointed his gun at the officer before he was shot. If the appeals court rules against Marquette, he will go to trial in September. The shooting drew regular protests in the north Alabama city, and the three officers were fired after personnel hearings. Marquette is white. While the attorney generals brief didnt contest that Marquette feared for his life, he argued that witnesses in a pre-trial hearing failed to establish that Marquette was at Perkins house on legitimate police duty, and therefore there remain open questions regarding whether he had a legal right to be there. The brief, written by the Assistant Attorney General Kristi Wilkerson, pointed to conflicting testimony from the two officers who were with Marquette when he shot Perkins. One officer testified that the three officers were at Perkins house to investigate a misdemeanor menacing charge since Perkins had previously pulled a gun on the tow truck driver in an attempt to repossess Perkins truck earlier that night. The other officer testified that he was unaware of a menacing investigation, saying that he believed they were there to assist in keeping the peace. Alabama law requires a court order for law enforcement to be involved in a vehicle repossession which the officers didnt have. Testimony from a state agent who investigated the shooting, Jamie King, also conflicted with both officers accounts of the moments leading up to the shooting. King said that while Marquette may have feared for his life, the three officers were not positioned in an effective way to keep the peace or to investigate menacing since they were intentionally out of Perkins view until seconds before the shooting. Marquettes attorneys have argued that there is more than one way to conduct police operations. In light of the ambiguity, Marshalls office said deference should be given to the trial courts position, and that a jury alone is in the best position to determine the trustworthiness of testimony presented to it. All parties in the case are prohibited from speaking to the media. ___ Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Alabama Global insurance and benefits broker NFP announced its acquisition of Levine Group, LLC, a financial services firm based in Brentwood, Tennessee. Levine Group has been serving Nashville and the surrounding area since 1963. The firm offers investment management, retirement plan consulting, employee benefits and insurance. Michael Levine, who leads Levine Group, will join NFP, working with Mike Schneider, president of NFPs Central and West regions. Trevor Coe and Zach Levine will also join NFP. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. NFP, an Aon company, has more than 8,000 colleagues in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, UK and Ireland. Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Tennessee Farm safety minister Michael Healy-Rae, has called on dairy farmers to reflect on their work-life balance. The minister made his call at the Teagasc Moorepark dairy open day, where he was presented with findings of a recent Dublin City University and Teagasc study among Irish farmers that showed 24% reporting burnout and 50% reporting sleep issues. At the event, Dr Siobhan OConnor, DCU, highlighted persistent poor sleep and burnout could lead to poor health and mental health issues, while Teagasc health and safety specialist adviser Dr John McNamara emphasised the close link between excessive workload and farm workplace injury levels. Speaking at the launch of the research findings, Mr Healy-Rae said: While farmers are under pressure, particularly during the busy spring period and at harvest, it is encouraging that this study found that by adopting more effective work organisation, workload can be reduced, leading to an enhanced and more sustainable lifestyle for dairy farmers and their families. The People in Dairying Research Programme, which was managed by Dr Conor Hogan, Teagasc research officer, found farms with more effective work organisation reported shorter working hours, more days off, and earlier finish times in spring compared to all other farms. These farmers also found it easier to attract and retain staff. The research revealed considerable scope to reduce workload and minimise farmer stress during the busy spring period. Farmers in the study identified five key areas that can save time or cause hardship during spring: calf management; workforce planning; weather; animal health; and work organisation. Earlier evening milking was a key practice to reduce total working hours, while early planning, smart investments, and initiative-taking workforce sourcing helped reduce stress and save time during the calving season. Mr Healy-Rae added: Practical measures which contribute to improving farmers work-life balance are essential for safe and productive farming. "After a hard days work, it is important that there is time for family life and interests outside the farm gate. Research also shows that by planning and managing the workload, the risk of a safety incident is reduced. The Irish Farmers' Association has warned of a "big battle ahead" for vital EU supports for farming, ahead of the publication of the European Commission's proposals for the next EU budget post-2027 and the next Common Agriculture Policy (Cap). Speaking from Brussels, IFA president Francie Gorman said what was emerging about how farming will be funded from 2027 was "very concerning". While we will have to examine the specifics in more detail, it is clear that the EU Commission is downgrading the importance of the Cap and food production to allow for greater spending elsewhere, he said. The Cap is being turned into an environmental and social policy. Support for farmers who are producing the most food is being consistently reduced. The commission seem more interested in finding ways to cut payments to individual farmers rather than support them, he said. "As it stands, the Cap provides an annual injection of nearly 2bn into our rural economy to support food production. At a time when Ireland is a net contributor to the overall EU budget, this level of investment in every parish takes on even more significance. Cap has been the cornerstone of the multi-billion export sector that underpins thousands of jobs in regions far from the urban centres, he said. The EU Commission also needs to be honest with consumers. Cutting Cap funding will reduce food production and lead to food price inflation. These proposals will have to be approved by the member states and the EU Parliament, so there is a long journey ahead and we will expect a real fight from our Government and MEPs. The EU presidency, which Ireland will assume this time next year for the second half of 2026, takes on added importance. Our Government has to secure the maximum funding for Irish farmers to encourage the next generation to consider farming as a career. "From the Taoiseach down, this has to be front and centre of every discussion across those six months, he said. Commenting, agriculture minister Martin Heydon said: These are complex legislative proposals which will need detailed consideration. The commission is proposing major changes in structure that we will now study in detail in order to better understand the impact on Ireland. This publication is just the beginning of a protracted process. Member states will, through the Council of Ministers, begin the process of agreeing a general approach to the commissions proposals, before engaging in line-by-line negotiations with the EU Parliament and the EU Commission. "This will take some time, and I fully expect the progression of these proposals to be a significant feature of Irelands presidency of the EU Council in the second half of next year. The minister will host the first meeting of Irelands Cap consultative committee on Thursday, which will engage in detail on these proposals. Womens health has been ignored by researchers, and more studies are needed in wealthy and developing countries to tackle common problems, the Gates Foundation has found. Dr Anita Zaidi, president of the foundations Gender Equality Division, has stressed the importance of new research findings to improve the health of women across the world. She highlighted how young Irish people can now get one HPV vaccine dose for protection against this virus instead of three vaccines, as was previously the case. The one-jab system followed on from Kenyan research the KENSHE study funded by the Gates Foundation, which was established by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in 2000 to enhance healthcare and reduce poverty across the world. Dr Zaidi urged governments to continue investing in research on women's health, even as some nations, including America and the UK, scale back. We have made so many advances in womens health, especially in R&D [research and development], so now not to have the funding available to scale them really bothers me, she said. "From an R&D perspective, its been one of the most neglected areas in global health. Its neglected not just in global health but also in rich countries. "Womens health has just been ignored. Giving birth can carry high risks and she argued this area of healthcare needed more study. Guidelines for blood loss after pregnancy post-partum haemorrhage define 500ml in the first 24 hours as minor blood loss, including in Ireland. However, the World Health Organization says the evidence base for this is unclear. The foundation funded a project with 200,000 women to study this area. From the research came a new type of measuring cloth, costing the equivalent of 40 cents each. You put it under the mum, with a calibrated sleeve at the end of it so all the blood is captured in there, said Dr Zaidi. And once they used that sheet and a bundled approach it was so impactful. There was a 60% decrease in severe post-partum haemorrhage. Further improvements have followed. The other thing that they realised is the 500ml cut-off is too high, it should be 300ml, she said. So now we know we should be treating post-partum haemorrhage when theres more than 300ml blood loss and we have to act quickly. If you could do that, you will save hundreds of thousands of womens lives. She also described a tiny AI-enabled ultrasound probe which plugs into smartphones. This allows midwives in remote clinics to check babies efficiently. In Sudan, lets say, where one midwife may be taking care of 100 women, this helps you triage who really needs help the most, Dr Zaidi said. Dr Anita Zaidi: 'Innovations give me optimism, there are so many simple innovations that can be life-changing for people around the world.' It is estimated to cost about 20 times less than a standard ultrasound and is described as a game-changer, although wider funding is needed. Endometriosis, malnutrition, and pre-eclampsia in pregnancy are also concerns. She noted the Irish Examiners recent womens health survey drew attention to other gaps. Innovations give me optimism, there are so many simple innovations that can be life-changing for people around the world, she said. The foundation has committed 316m annually from 2023 to 2027 to maternal, newborn, and child health. Then in May, Bill Gates pledged to give away 99% of his fortune over 20 years, saying the foundation will close in 2045. Dr Zaidi said: Its enough time if we plan for it in the right way, and this is why we wanted to give enough notice. For the many of the innovations Ive been talking about, they can be done in the next 10 to 15 years, but some will need a hand-off. Projects may need supports from government and private donors and she added: Who are the people who will step up and say the world really needs us. Irelands development aid funding came to over 2.2bn, or 0.57%, of GNP last year. The United Nations target is for countries to reach 0.7% of gross national income. [We are] appreciative of the commitment and leadership Ireland is showing for overseas assistance development, helping the poorest around the world and how they put women and girls as a very big priority, Dr Zaidi said. A small number of special classes sanctioned for this September will not now proceed, the minister of State for special education has confirmed. The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) has advised minister of State Michael Moynihan this is mainly due to a drop off in the expected level of need for these classes. It is expected that these classes may be required for the 2026/2027 school year subject to the local level of need, Mr Moynihan said. In response to a parliamentary question put to him by Sinn Fein TD Sorcha Clarke, Mr Moynihan said additional new special classes have been sanctioned. Mr Moynihan also confirmed he has directed a school in Kildare this year to open two special classes under Section 37A of the Education Act 1998. It is the third time these powers have been used by a minister, and for the first time outside Dublin. Mr Moynihan previously told the Irish Examiner that schools would be compelled to open special classes if reluctance to do so continues. Just over 400 new special classes are still being provided for the coming school year, he said in response to Ms Clarke. My department and the NCSE are committed to delivering an education system that is of the highest quality and where every child and young person feels valued and is actively supported and nurtured to reach their full potential. Sorcha Clarke said she knows of at least two schools that were sanctioned to open a special class for September. "It's now the middle of July, parents need to know where their children are going to school in September," she said. In places where classes have been suppressed, the minister and the NCSE need to be incredibly clear as to why this happened. A number of families have initiated legal proceedings in a bid to secure appropriate school places for their children for this September. Sinn Fein education spokesman Darren O'Rourke is due to raise issues around the provision of special education places with education minister Helen McEntee in the Dail before its summer recess. He has previously called on the minister and the NCSE to confirm how many children are without a school place for this September. The Oireachtas education committee previously heard that as many as 260 children could still be without a school place for the new term. An official figure was not provided. Ms McEntee previously told the Dail that 92% of the students notified to the NCSE had been allocated a school place. "Parents and families feel like they are being gaslit in relation to this," Mr O'Rourke said. We know that last year 126 children were left without school places, and all of the indications at the minute are that there are far in excess of that without a school place currently. We really need to have some transparency and accountability, and more importantly, action to ensure there are places for these children come September. Meanwhile, Early Childhood Ireland is calling on Government to bring pay for early years and school-age care graduates in line with primary school teachers. The advocacy group has urged for a date to be introduced for when graduates will be brought within public sector pay and conditions. Early Years and school-age care graduates are educated and trained to the same level as their peers in primary education. Guaranteeing public pay and conditions for early years and school-age care graduates would mark a turning point for the system," said the group's director of policy Frances Byrne. "As things stand, we are losing too many talented educators to sectors offering better pay and greater security. Figures show that the national average staff turnover rate stands at 25%, rising to 54% in some areas. The Tanaiste is to meet with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry as the Government works to buttress the economy in the face of a potential EU-US trade war. The online meeting comes amid an ongoing US investigation into the pharmaceutical sector. The Trump administration launched the Section 232 probe in April to determine which drug manufacturers are operating in countries that pose a national security threat to the US. In advance of the meeting, Simon Harris said: The economic partnership between Ireland and the US, and the EU and the US in the pharmaceutical sector, is critically important. "Trade and investment in this sector is mutually beneficial. Section 232 investigations are focused on national security issues; the integrated supply chain in pharma products between the EU, including Ireland and the US, supports rather than threatens our collective transatlantic economic security." Mr Harris has engaged directly with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jamieson Greer on the pharma issue to outline Ireland's position that the treatment of pharma should lie within negotiations with the EU. About 80% of what US pharma companies export back to the United States is not the finished product. In a letter to the Governments trade forum, Mr Harris said the Government was preparing for every scenario which includes the introduction of EU countermeasures. The Tanaiste said there would be significant economic disruption if Mr Trumps 30% tariffs were introduced, which would include job losses. Mr Harris' letter came as public expenditure minister Jack Chambers reiterated that there will be no cost of living package in this year's budget. "We will not be doing one-off payments, or one-off cost of living payments in this year's Budget. We had a series of budgets in the last number of years, obviously through covid, through the inflationary period where we responded," he said. An Post CEO David McRedmond has condemned what he described as an irresponsible leak by a Cabinet minister, following media reports that suggested An Posts financial health was more precarious than presented. The postal services annual report was brought to Cabinet by communications minister Patrick ODonovan yesterday. It showed that, while profits were up, there was an inexorable decline in overall mail numbers. Profits after exceptional items stood at 5.6m, up from a 20m loss in 2023, on the back of first-ever revenues of 1bn. However, core mail volumes fell 7.6%, which the report says is in line with global trends. Despite the decline in volume, revenue from mail rose in 2024 by 14.2% It is understood that the Department of Arts, Culture, and Sport is to consider a number of proposals, including a system whereby post would be delivered on fewer occasions per week or fewer distribution centres. Senior ministers said these proposals included rationalising the footprint of An Post, with possible reductions in the number of distribution centres to move away from the postal network as was in place 30, 40, 50 years ago. One senior minister said that the distribution network would have to change because people arent using it as they did in the past. They pointed to the fact that the report shows more than 100 post boxes alone were lost in 2024. The report shows that staff numbers at An Post had grown slightly from just over 10,000 in 2023 to just over 10,200 in 2024, in part due to the servicing of multiple elections last year, which earned the company 64.5m. Expressing his anger on RTE's Morning Ireland, Mr McRedmond highlighted strong financial results presented to the Cabinet: "They showed the highest revenue we've ever had, over a billion in revenue for the first time. "They showed that we grew our earnings from 38m to 55m. They showed our net profit was at 10m. "The company is performing extremely well. We've got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operator in Europe. While acknowledging the positive impact of last years elections on revenue, Mr McRedmond said if it had not been the elections, "it would be something else. He emphasised that An Post is seeking more cash not because of financial trouble, but due to rapid growth. Were growing in commercial parcel markets," he said. "We get paid on 60 or 90 days' credit. We are constantly growing. So we need more working capital... but this is all coming from a position of strength." Dismissing claims that An Posts cash reserves had dipped below 1m, Mr McRedmond stated: Thats untrue. At the end of the year, we have 38m in cash reserves. And this year, so far... we are performing well ahead of our budget. He voiced concern for An Posts 10,000 employees and commercial customers. Theyve been so disrespected by this Its so disrespectful. And the other is our customers... if they read this morning, that An Post is on the brink... Its reckless in the extreme. Mr McRedmond also reiterated An Posts commitment to maintaining its post office network. We have no plan to close post offices. None. "We occasionally relocate or we do something. Very occasionally, post offices will close because somebody retires and we can't get somebody to replace them. But the post office network is doing well. "But quite rightly, postmasters are saying to the government, you want us to do more government services, pay us for them. Mr McRedmond concluded by calling for long-overdue policy changes, including lifting An Posts borrowing cap and regulatory flexibility. These are normal conversations coming from a position where the company has had one of its best years. 'Challenges' The communications minister has admitted there are challenges facing An Post, due to the decline in letter-sending. However, Patrick ODonovan rejected claims that there would be any changes to the speed or frequency of postal deliveries, after the Cabinet was told An Post is facing an inexorable decline in mail volumes. Mr ODonovan acknowledged that any such changes would ultimately be for An Post to decide. On Tuesday, senior Government ministers were briefed on several options being considered, including fundamental changes to how post is delivered. It is understood that the Department of Arts, Culture and Sport is examining various proposals, including a system in which post would be delivered fewer times per week or a reduction in distribution centres. Senior ministers said the proposals involve rationalising the footprint of An Post, potentially reducing the number of distribution centres and moving away from a postal network model that dates back 30 to 50 years. Asked directly whether there would be a scaling back of delivery centres or the number of days on which letters are delivered, Mr ODonovan replied: No, theres not. However, he reiterated that there are challenges in maintaining traditional delivery services as mail volumes fall. Obviously, look, there are always going to be challenges with mail delivery. Theres challenges in Luxembourg, theres challenges in Denmark, theres challenges everywhere because all of us have moved to a digitalised future, Mr ODonovan said, speaking on RTE Radio One. An Post are well ahead of the curve in terms of making sure that their future isnt going to be inextricably linked just to next day mail delivery services. He declined to share details of his presentation to Cabinet, stating that any decisions about the future of An Post rest with the chief executive and board of the semi-state company. The Minister also criticised Cabinet leaks, while expressing full confidence in An Posts leadership. Mr ODonovan denied being the source of a media leak, following public criticism from Mr McRedmond during the interview on Morning Ireland. The Department of Enterprise urged the regulator not to hike water charges for businesses to the extent it has decided upon, as it warned Ireland faces a period of pronounced economic uncertainty. In its submission to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), the department said it understood the need for significant investment in the countrys water infrastructure, but rising cost pressures on businesses could not be ignored. Increasing cost pressures on the enterprise base carries risks to both the broader economy and to the long-term objective of the sustainable and reliable provision of water in Ireland by extension, it told the CRU. On Tuesday, CRU announced plans to approve a 9.8% increase in water charges for non-domestic and wastewater, set to take effect from October 1. Uisce Eireann had sought a rise of 13%, according to CRU documents. The regulator said the significant level of tariff increases is required to enable the utility to invest in essential infrastructure across the country. It said it was obliged to ensure Uisce Eireann operated in a commercially viable manner under the law, but it did not have a comparable legal obligation in relation to the affordability or competitiveness of water charges for businesses. The Department of Enterprise said it advocated another approach to avoid reaching beyond the point of sustainability for the enterprise base. The department is also conscious of the substantial contributions made to the State by the enterprise base and would request the CRU consider a tariff structure that would balance the financial needs of water services with the long-term economic viability of the enterprise base, it had said. Other submissions made to the CRU regarding the tariff increase included one from Guinness-maker Diageo, which called for smaller incremental increases spread out over several years. There was an increase of over 30% in water charges last October, which have already had a considerable impact on our costs, it said. Introducing an additional 10% increase just a year after this substantial hike poses challenges for budgeting and financial planning within such short intervals between significant increases. Business group Ibec, meanwhile, said the Government must cover the water tariff increase for 2025 and should increase capital allocations to Uisce Eireann to cover its investment programme and operations. A jury was told on Wednesday that former All-Star and Clare All-Ireland winning hurler, Niall Gilligan whacked a 12-year-old boy on the leg with a stick during an an alleged assault in October 2023. At Ennis Circuit Court, counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford BL, laid out the State case against Mr Gilligan, 48, of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, in her opening speech to the jury. Mr Gilligan denies the charge of assault causing harm of the boy. Ms Comerford said on October 5, 2023, a then 12-year-old and his then 13-year-old friend went into the Jamaica Inn hostel in Sixmilebridge. She said the two believed the property was abandoned. They were exploring the building when the accused, Niall Gilligan, who owned the property at the time, arrived to check on it." Ms Comerford said the jury would hear the property was vandalised and broken into in the days leading up to October 5. She said the jury would be told the two boys were outside the property when they saw Niall Gilligan. Counsel said when they saw Mr Gilligan, the two boys ran and the 12-year-old will tell the jury he slipped in a puddle and the accused came up behind him and whacked him on the leg with a stick and the accused kept hitting him in the leg, his ribs, his hip, his elbow and his hand. Ms Comerford said the jury would hear medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the boy and see photos of bruising and cuts that the 12-year-old will tell them were caused by Niall Gilligan hitting him with a wooden stick. She said the boy would tell the jury after the alleged assault, Niall Gilligan grabbed him by the jacket and brought him out to the road and asked him his name and who his father was. Ms Comerford said the boy will tell the jury that he sat on a wall for a while because he has asthma and could barely breathe. There, he met his 13-year-old friend again, and that boy will say he saw Niall Gilligan outside the Jamaica Inn and he ran at the same time as his friend and managed to get away. Ms Comerford said the 13-year-old would say he heard screaming from his friend and he waited in an industrial estate beside the property and while he was relatively safe there, he was still very scared. She said a few minutes later, the 13-year-old met up with his 12-year-old friend and let him lean on him while his friend tried to walk home. Ms Comerford (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare Aisling Casey) said once home, the boy was brought to a local VHI clinic and was then brought to University Hospital Limerick, where he was treated for his injuries and where gardai where called. Ms Comerford said Niall Gilligan denies assaulting the boy with a wooden stick and he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing harm. Mr Gilligan is also pleading not guilty to producing a wooden stick capable of inflicting serious injury during the course of a dispute. The trial continues. Fraudster Catherine OBrien is in custody after being found guilty of inducing a man she met on a dating site to invest in a horse. The jury at Waterford Circuit Court unanimously returned a guilty verdict on all three charges just 40 minutes after being sent out to deliberate. It was alleged that Ms OBrien dishonestly by deception induced Dubliner John Blake to pay 20,000 to purchase the horse which the State alleged was not purchased; to pay 1,100 insurance for the mare which the State said was not paid; and 984 to transport the horse from France to Ireland which the State argued was not transported. Ms OBrien, of An Grianan, Ballinroad, Dungarvan, Co Waterford, had pleaded not guilty to the three charges of making gain or causing loss by deception contrary to Section 6 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001. Just before 4.30pm on Wednesday, the jury delivered their verdict while Ms OBrien, originally from Buttevant, sat emotionless. She was taken into custody and will appear before the court on July 22 next via video link in connection with sentencing. The case will be for mention on that date. The trial had heard that Ms OBrien and Mr Blake met on dating website, Plenty of Fish. Ms OBrien had claimed she was looking for a pen pal situation. The trial had heard that Mr Blake has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and also suffered a stroke in recent years. Judge Eugene OKelly said: I am conscious that the victim has a serious illness and that his prospects are not particularly good. Under the circumstances, I would be anxious to hear the evidence in relation to victim impact if that would be forthcoming. He told defence counsel Simon Donagh that he is agreeable to directing a probation and welfare report. However, he said that due to pressure on the probation services that it is not going to be forthcoming at an early date. In summing up the prosecution case, counsel Conor ODoherty referenced a settlement document which was signed by Mr Blake, Ms OBrien and Ms OBriens business associate John Walsh, of Bishopstown Stud, Lismore, Co Waterford, on October 14, 2021, a month after the DPP had directed that charges be brought against Ms OBrien. The document outlined that the horse purchased by Mr Blake was a brood mare called Shamalana which had been incorrectly named in purchase negotiations with Mr Blake as Lingreville and that he would receive 22,000, which was paid to him the following day. Mr ODoherty said that if the condition for Mr Blake getting 22,000 back was to say he stole Shergar, I think he would have signed it. Taoiseach Micheal Martin has hit back at claims from a senior Trump administration figure that the Government "fell into a vat of Guinness" when drawing up the Occupied Territories Bill. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee had posted on social media that Ireland should "sober up" and apologise to Israel for the bill's passage through the Oireachtas. "Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness and propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication?" Mr Huckabee said in the post. "It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland! Call [the Israel foreign ministry] and say youre sorry!" Trade ban The bill will ban the trade of goods with illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. The Government said there is a narrow legal basis, based on an advisory opinion from the UN's top court, to ban the trade of goods with illegal Israeli settlements. The Government has said this is being done to comply with the International Court of Justice, which said last year that countries should "take steps to prevent trade or investment relations" that maintain illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. In response, Mr Martin said that he "rejects the comments made by the ambassador". "The situation is very serious in Gaza, including an appalling loss of human life. Terrible war crimes are being committed," he said. "Ireland has consistently condemned Hamas and we equally condemn Israeli breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza. The slaughter of children must stop. The slaughter of innocent civilians queuing for food must stop. What is going on is beyond any moral compass. "Ireland stands for peace and a political pathway forward." Mr Huckabee's criticism was echoed by others in the US, including the pro-Israel organisation, the Anti-Defamation League, which said it was "deeply concerned" about the bill, which will impact a small amount of trade. On Wednesday in the Seanad, Senator Michael McDowell roundly rejected all and any claims that the actions of Ireland, its Government, or its Houses of Parliament were motivated by, or amounted, to anti-semitism. Claims that Irelands position reflected anti-semitism, which he defined as hatred of Jews, were grossly defamatory and untrue. Our position on Gaza is shared by many Israeli Jews, including a former Israeli prime minister. Referring to the appearance of former deputy Alan Shatter at an Oireachtas committee, Mr McDowell cited a passage in a book written and published by Mr Shatter in which the former justice minister had claimed that an accusation of arrogance made against him by Willie ODea in the Dail was an anti-semitic trope. It is simply defamatory and untrue to assert that Irelands position on Gaza and recognition of the Palestinian state was motivated by anti-semitism or hatred of Jews. Do we need to know who owns the land of Ireland? Shouldnt ownership be public knowledge? What would happen if the nations register of title was degraded by inaccuracies? Heres where were at: credit servicers are claiming ownership on the register. No credit servicer owns land: the clue is in the name the servicer is providing a service to the owner of the credit secured on the land. Theres a reason for these registered convenient untruths. Weve come a long way from the old mutual building society matching short-term savers with long-term mortgagors. Now, the banks flip new mortgage business by collateralising portfolios as security for the capital funding to be lent to house purchasers, and risk and ownership of the mortgages is transferred to new shadow bank investor owners. But in the new international collateral shell game, the identity of the legal owner is lost, and this presents practical difficulties if a mortgage has to be foreclosed and the security realised. For obvious reasons, the 2009 act only provides for application for, and grant of, a court order for delivery of possession to the actual mortgagee, not to any agent or servicer. The pragmatic solution is simple. The mortgage originator, whose name first appeared on the register as owner simply, even after the transfer of the asset, opts to misrepresent his title to the court. It comes to court and asserts title to the asset even though it is not listed as such in its balance sheet and no bad debt provisioning has been allowed for. Judge Maurice Collins in the Supreme Court recently pointed out that "in no circumstances should errors in sworn evidence tendered in court be regarded as trivial or unimportant. OK, the bank is registered, but that is not the whole truth. He is on the register as owner. No need to come clean. His ownership is a legal fiction. Thatll do for now. In the UK, a similar fix is used. Expert testimony to parliament describes how the banks and the SPV special purpose vehicles have unlawfully agreed to keep the transaction concealed from the borrower and from HM Land Registry, thus giving the false appearance to the world that the banks still own the mortgages. And further, that the contract of sale expressly provides that the SPV will not register the transfer at HM Land Registry. In the London Supreme Court in 2014, AIB Group (UK) lost a speculative claim for equitable compensation of 2.5m against a solicitor who made a 300k mistake. One judge said: There is something wrong with a state of the law which makes it necessary to create fairy tales. Thats not all. Credit servicers have been caught out trying to cheat the tax system arguing that, even though they are no longer owners of a portfolio they owned before securitisation, they should be treated as if they still are, even though the portfolio has been transferred to an SPV. The Revenue Commissioners put a stop to that scam. Also, assignment deeds which are not stamped are not admissible in court as evidence. If these global deeds of transfer of mortgage assets claim the benefit of a special stamp duty exemption, the proofs that entitle them to that exemption incidentally also prove the deed is a full transfer of title to land. As such, change of ownership must be registered on the folio. Thats the deal. If a query is raised, the servicer recently often deposes to the court that the parties have agreed a workaround which is to designate him as holder of legal title, which is actually a makey-up formula with no legal standing in property law. Another formula used by servicers is to come into court saying they now hold the security under a trust. They say the beneficial owner has agreed that the servicer would hold the legal title for the time being. Fair enough. In the old days, a mortgagees agent could not foreclose or sell. Foreclosure is gone, but the principle is still the same. The servicer/agent cannot seek a court order for possession, or appoint a receiver. The true mortgagee must step out of the shadow and prove his case. The legal/beneficial issue can be illustrated by thinking of the beneficial interest as the sim card without which the legal mobile phone is inert. The servicer/trustee cannot operate without the involvement of the beneficial sim card. Even the use of the term trust is a little disingenuous. Trusts are now merely transactional, designed to produce a desired result of maximum profit extraction or tax neutrality. Ethics? Its all in the small print nowadays. EU law is clear on to whom the asset belongs after securitisation, and confirms any counterclaim a borrower might have had against his original lender can now proceed against the credit purchaser SPV and not against the credit servicer, but what if the identity of the credit purchaser has been conveniently concealed? If we are at the dawn of a new era of investible credit markets covering not just mortgages, but also personal loans, credit card debt, car debt etc, all collateralised through securitisation, with all data digitised, perhaps even ultimately compressed into a hash on a blockchain, there will be no public register of the ownership of the debt as definitive proof. And no deception by simple failure to update, or any legal fiction as a shortcut. One judge put it rather well, criticising use of statutory legal fictions involving the difficulty of working out an enactment that a thing shall be deemed to be what it is not. For title to land in Ireland to pass under such a fiction is to invite off-market private sales putting Irish land security at risk. Simply put, we dont know whos buying. If we want to keep our land in Irish sovereign hands, we need to require mortgagees, true owners of the mortgage charges, to conduct all land receivership and repossession sales in the open market as they do elsewhere in Europe. Perhaps the State should have first refusal. Use of the CPO would be justified in the case of strategic land tracts essential to food security, critical climate challenges, and to prevent hoarding of development land. Managing decline is never easy. So it has been with Irelands post offices. Over the last 30 years or so, the States network has been reduced from nearly 2,000 to less than 1,000. The decline was inevitable with the flight from rural to urban Ireland. The introduction of the internet condemned what is now refereed to as snail mail to the status of a sunset industry. Then along came the pandemic to accelerate further the migration of business and communication online. That reality is behind the public perception of the current status of An Post. Yet, as the companys CEO David McRedmond pointed out on Wednesday, the network accounts for only around 20% of the companys business. So it is that under McRedmonds stewardship, An Post has accelerated diversification away from mail delivery and into ecommerce and financial services. The result has been a company that returned a profit of 5.6m for 2024, up from a 20m loss the previous year. An Post also had, for the first time, revenues in excess of 1bn. That is fair going for a company associated in the public mind erroneously with the dying habit of snail mail. So it was no surprise that poor McRedmond nearly choked on his cornflakes on holiday in Italy when he saw a headline saying that his company was on the brink. He rang Morning Ireland to put the nation right and he let fly. It would be hard to blame him. Presumably, he was expecting plaudits on his return home for the healthy finances instead of reading that he was overseeing a basket case. An Post CEO David McRedmond pointed out that the post office network accounts for only around 20% of the companys business. Picture: Brian Lawless An Post is indeed doing fine. But it is also the case that the companys original business is in bad shape. In line with global trends, mail volumes were down by 7.6% in 2024. Despite that, revenue from mail increased, but that is a scenario that can hardly be sustained. As reported in Wednesdays Irish Examiner, suggestions are being floated that delivery days might be cut. That would be a rational business decision, but one that would induce headaches among some politicians. The post office has been an integral feature of rural, and to a lesser but still significant extent, urban Ireland for centuries. As is often the case, perception, on which much of politics is often based, is very different from reality in this sphere. In 1995, there were 1,839 post offices, which was down by around 500 from 10 years previous. At the last count, there were 960. In the last decade alone, 257 have closed. According to a reply to a parliamentary question from Sinn Feins David Cullinane, 201 of these were categorised as rural and the remaining 56 as urban. Cullinane described the figures as shocking. The local post office plays a vital role in Irish life, providing financial services, access to the social welfare system, communication infrastructure, and community supports, he said. In many areas, they are the only visible expression of the State. Maybe so, but the reality is that post offices are run as businesses by independent postmasters who are effectively franchisees. The average age of postmasters is pretty high. When retirement beckons these days, there are very few willing to take up the slack. In May, the Irish Postmasters Union commissioned a report from Grant Thornton to map out the future. The consultant calculated that a strategic investment of 15m annually, up from the current 10m, is required over the next five years to stay any further culling from the network. If the money isnt forthcoming, the result would be cutting communities off from vital services, undermining national goals for regional equity, social cohesion and financial access, the report said. The report also stated that that the network in Ireland is between 344m and 776m in terms of its annual social and economic value to communities. Post offices are run as businesses by independent postmasters who are effectively franchisees. File picture: Maxwells All of that may be something of a sideshow commercially within An Post. Politically, however, it is the only show in town. No government wants to be associated with what effectively would be further cuts to services particularly in rural Ireland. So it was that, to mix a few metaphors, somebody in cabinet leaked in order to run a flag up the pole, suggesting that palms need to be greased in the name of votes. Whomever could it have been? The minister who brought the report to cabinet, Patrick O'Donovan, said that it certainly wasnt him. One down, 14 ministers and a few super juniors to go. Not only did a minister breach cabinet confidentiality with that leak, they also took it upon themselves to trample all over O'Donovans well-tended patch. No wonder he was angry at how this leak turned out. By rights he should have got on the phone immediately to McRedmond and they could have shared their anger and mused on how commerce and politics sometimes just dont mix. Can you have a soft opening of a bar, restaurant, and hotel business on a crazy Cork weekend of an All Ireland final? As she prepares to open her business venture The Village in Corks suburban Douglas, Gillian McCarthy sweetly says she and her hospitality business partner Patrick Dillon hope so. It prompts the question as to what, exactly, would constitute a hard hitting the ground running opening, as Cork flags (and possibly the odd Tipp one: the landlord is a Tipperary investor) may adorn the new-look suburban venture, on the site of the historic old Pipers fairground in upmarket Douglas? Soft it is not going to be... The business pairing have taken over a previously trading hospitality premises, East Village on a 30-year lease, dropping East from the rebrand to now trade as The Village Rooms Bar and Kitchen in the 20-year-old mixed-use development. Gillian McCarthy at The Village, Rooms, Bar & Kitchen in the East Douglas Village. Picture Dan Linehan Builders Kumry Construction finished up refurbishment works in the last few days and its now final fit-out time for the bar and restaurant, each seating up to 120 patrons on the ground (bar) and first floor (restaurant) as well as outdoor and first floor terrace seating. The new opening is the most significant development at the overall East Douglas Village complex, created around a new street which include other restaurants and 16 apartments in red brick and cut limestone blocks, since it was acquired by Tipperary-based private investor in 2021 for 11m. Two other recent lettings, to Midleton-based Hs2 hair salon and to Regina Nails (also on Patrick Street in the city centre) bring the overall East Douglas Village complex to near-full occupancy, says letting agent Margaret Kelleher of Cohalan Downing who sold the East Douglas Village development in five blocks in 21, with a then rent roll of 760,000. At The Village, the primary focus this All Ireland weekend will be on the bar trade, with a midday Saturday opening planned. Taking over the kitchen and restaurant will be well-known Cork chef Brendan Cashman (Augustines, Ox Kinsales opening set-up, etc), says Gillian McCarthy, who has a strong background in management and HR, with family connections to the hotel trade, as does business partner Kerry-based Patrick Dillon. She says their new venture which has been a long time coming, its a dream, will employ up to 20. The previous business in other operator hands ceased by January when The Village closed for a full overhaul, with interior design work done by architects Healy Butler Moffatt: the impact of the changes might be better seen in a week or so once red and white Cork flags go. The Trump administration has said it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles. Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced the decision in a statement. Roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines had been deployed. It was not clear how long the rest would stay in the region. The troops were tasked with protecting federal buildings and guarding immigration agents as they carry out arrests. Donald Trump (Evan Vucci/AP) The deployment began in early June and was slated to last 60 days. US president Donald Trump ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active duty Marines in early June to respond to a series of protests against immigration raids in and around Los Angeles. Their deployment went against the wishes of state governor Gavin Newsom, who sued to stop the deployment. A district court judge initially said Mr Trump acted illegally when he deployed the Guard over Mr Newsoms opposition, but an appeals court said the administration could keep control of the troops. The case is continuing. Mr Newsom said the National Guards deployment to LA has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the president in Los Angeles. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilise, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities, he said in a statement. We call on Trump and the Department of Defence to end this theatre and send everyone home now. A Turkish court has convicted Istanbuls jailed opposition mayor and the chief rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of insulting and threatening a public official and sentenced him to a year and eight months in prison. Ekrem Imamoglu, who has been held in a prison west of Istanbul since March 23, is expected to appeal against the verdict, which is part of several ongoing legal proceedings against him. The case, which pre-dates his arrest, stems from comments he made on January 20 in which he criticised Istanbul chief public prosecutor Akin Gurlek, accusing him of targeting opposition figures through alleged politically motivated investigations. The court on Wednesday convicted Mr Imamoglu of insulting and threatening Mr Gurlek but acquitted him of the charge of publicly identifying him with the intent of making him a target. Mr Imamoglu, regarded as the main challenger to Mr Erdogans more than two-decade-rule, has denied the accusations. The mayor was arrested alongside other politicians from the main opposition party as part of investigations into alleged corruption. His arrest triggered the largest street protests in Turkey in more than a decade. Despite being behind bars, he was officially nominated as the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP. Elections are due to be held in 2028 but may come sooner. Since Mr Imamoglus arrest, dozens of officials from CHP-controlled municipalities have faced waves of arrests as part of investigations into alleged tender rigging and bribery. The arrests have drawn widespread criticism from opposition leaders, who argue that the charges are politically motivated. Mr Imamoglu has described the trial as punishment, not justice and accused the judiciary of acting under government pressure. Mr Erdogans government insists that the courts are impartial and free of political involvement. President Donald Trump has said it is highly unlikely he will fire Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell unless he has to leave for fraud. The statement came less than 24 hours after Mr Trump indicated in a private meeting that he is leaning in favour of dismissing the head of the US central bank. Tuesday, Jul 15th, 2025 (11:53 am) - Score 2,120 Edinburgh-based ISP and network builder GoFibre has secured a fourth contract under the UK governments 5bn Project Gigabit scheme. The new deal is worth 105m (state aid) and will see them expand their gigabit speed Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover around 63,000 premises in hard-to-reach rural areas of North East Scotland. Just to recap. The Governments 5bn Project Gigabit programme is currently working to extend 1Gbps download speeds (200Mbps+ uploads) to reach nationwide coverage (c. 99%) by around 2032. As part of that, GoFibre has already secured three smaller Local (Type A) deployment contracts for Teesdale (Lot 4.01), North Northumberland (Lot 34.01) in North England and the Scottish Borders and East Lothian (Scotland Lot 5) area. NOTE: GoFibre previously aimed to cover 500,000 premises by around the end of 2025 and is supported by an investment of 164m from Gresham House (120,000 premises (RFS) across over 30 local areas in Scotland and the North of England. GoFibre previously aimed to cover 500,000 premises by around the end of 2025 and is supported by an investment offrom Gresham House ( here ). The operator has so far covered over(RFS) across over 30 local areas in Scotland and the North of England. The good news today is that theyve now added a fourth state-aid supported deployment contract, albeit this time covering a much larger area of North East Scotland. But this is quite a large contract to be handing an operator of GoFibres size, and it will be interesting to see how well they handle it all. The roll-out itself will include parts of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee, Highland, Moray and Perth and Kinross. Advertisement Just to be clear, this deployment contract is being targeted at premises that are not currently expected to be covered by gigabit broadband connectivity via either existing commercial projects or the Scottish Governments own 600m Reaching 100% (R100) project with Openreach (BT). At present, the roll-out plan for this new contract is still rather vague and subject to the usual pre-build engineering surveys, which often takes a few months to reach completion before the final build plan can be confirmed. But the following map does help to show clusters of all the in scope premises which were identified for contract procurement (tentative). The first connections are due to be delivered by Summer 2026. Advertisement GoFibre CEO, Neil Conaghan, said: This Project Gigabit contract award is a hugely exciting development for the north east of Scotland, and for GoFibre, transforming broadband connectivity across a substantial region of Scotland. As a fast-growing Scottish independent broadband company, GoFibre is committed to improving connectivity in rural and hard-to-reach areas and we cannot wait to get started on this major infrastructure project. Building on the back of our Project Gigabit contract award for the Borders and East Lothian earlier this year, it shows GoFibre is at the heart of rural broadband development in Scotland. UK Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said: Our investment in North East Scotland will overhaul broadband networks in hard-to-reach areas with slower internet speeds, putting an end to annoying buffering, and creating exciting new opportunities for local businesses and communities. Now the contract is signed, work can begin to deliver internet upgrades that many towns and villages sorely need. It shows how the Prime Ministers Plan for Change is delivering for people across Scotland, helping to drive economic growth and tear down the UKs digital divide. Customers of the new GoFibre service, once live over the next few years, can expect to pay from 22.50 per month for a 150Mbps (30Mbps upload) package on a 24-month term with an included wireless router, which rises to 33 for their top 1000Mbps (100Mbps upload) plan. The latter also comes with a bonus Wi-Fi extender (this can optionally be taken on other plans at extra cost). Wednesday, Jul 16th, 2025 (2:05 pm) - Score 560 The UK Governments Department for Education (DfE) has today set out six standards that it hopes will end the postcode lottery of school technology and help to close the digital divide. The standards cover broadband internet, wireless networks, network switches, digital leadership, plus two safety requirements: cyber security and filtering and monitoring to keep pupils safe online. The government states that, across the country, there are still stark inequalities where some pupils suffer from basic digital access whilst others benefit from cutting-edge technology, including AI creating unfair barriers to learning and future opportunities. The goal of the new standards is to help ensure that every school has access to reliable, safe tech in classrooms and to ensure no child is left behind. Schools and colleges will be expected to meet these new expectations by 2030, although its unclear what happens if they dont. One possible catch here is that the government recently delayed their plan for achieving nationwide (99%) UK coverage of gigabit-capable broadband from 2030 to 2032, which now seems to be out of alignment with the six standards (most likely only impacting a few rural areas). Advertisement To support schools, the government will expand its Plan technology for your school service to give every school tailored support and guidance on how and where to make lasting, cost-effective improvements to their technology. This comes alongside a 45m investment from government this year to boost school infrastructure, including upgrades to fibre optic and wireless networks. Minister for Early Education, Stephen Morgan, said: Every child deserves access to the digital tools that will prepare them for the modern world, regardless of which school they attend. For too long, weve seen a postcode lottery where some pupils thrive with cutting-edge technology whilst others are held back by outdated equipment. Meeting our six digital standards will ensure that by 2030, all schools have the digital provision they need. Were investing in our childrens futures, supporting pupils to get the digital access they need to succeed whilst keeping them safe online. This is a key part of our Plan for Change ensuring every child has the chance to reach their full potential and no pupil is left behind in the digital age. The work forms part of the Governments wider plan to break down barriers to opportunity, as too many pupils currently miss out on digital skills that are essential for modern careers, creating lasting disadvantage and impacting their future. The Connect the Classroom programme has so far improved connectivity for more than 1.3 million pupils in 3,700 schools. Jisc will also continue to support colleges with advice on the use of technology and access to Janet, the UKs National Research and Education Network. But thats all the info. we get from the governments announcement. Wednesday, Jul 16th, 2025 (7:59 am) - Score 3,720 SpaceXs Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds to the UK and globally via a massive constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has published a new network update that reveals how the first of their third generation (GEN3) satellites will launch during the first half of 2026. Assuming their Starship rockets stop exploding. At present Starlink has nearly 8,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (c.4,300 are v2 / V2 Mini) mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km and theyll add thousands more by the end of 2027. Residential customers in the UK usually pay from 75 a month, plus 299 for hardware (currently free for most areas) on the Standard unlimited data plan (kit price may vary due to different offers), which promises UK latency times of 28-36ms, downloads of 103-258Mbps and uploads of 15-26Mbps. Cheaper and more restrictive options also exist for roaming users. NOTE: By the end of 2024 Starlinks global network had 4.6 million customers (up from 2.3m in 2023) and 87,000 of those were in the UK (up from 42,000 in 2023) mostly in rural areas. As of July 2025 Starlink has grown to a total of more than 6 million customers. The companys latest Network Update reveals how theyve already launched a total cumulative data capacity of around 450Tbps (Terabits per second) into orbit. SpaceX added that theyre currently also deploying over 5Tbps (5,000Gbps) of extra capacity each week to the constellation with ongoing launches of the current second generation (GEN2) of satellites via their reusable Falcon 9 rockets (in the past year alone theyve lofted over 2,300 of these). Advertisement The current GEN2 satellites have four times the capacity of the original GEN1 versions, but its long been known that SpaceX has developed a larger and more sophisticated GEN3 satellite for future launches (summary of GEN3 details). Each one of these new satellites is designed to provide over a Terabit per second of downlink capacity (1,000Gbps+) and over 200Gbps of uplink capacity to customers on the ground. However, SpaceX cant currently launch the larger GEN3s properly in a way thats commercially viable because they require the companys new mega Starship rocket to be ready for prime time (this is expected to be able to loft around 50-60 GEN3s per flight). But in recent months this has had an annoying tendency to explode, perhaps even a bit more often than SpaceX would like. The good news is that the latest Network Update reveals how SpaceX is finally targeting to begin launching its third-generation satellites in the first half of 2026, although this should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, particularly given Elon Musks tendency for missing targets. Advertisement Starlinks July 2025 Network Update A fundamental design feature of the Starlink network has been the ability to continually add capacity and new capabilities with the launch of additional satellites into the constellation and the introduction of updated satellite designs. Starlink is currently deploying over 5 Tbps (5,000 Gbps) of capacity per week to the constellation with the current second generation of satellites. The current generation of satellite has four times the capacity of the original Starlink satellite versions, which allows us to deploy more capacity per week than the total capacity of any current GEO or full LEO constellation operating today. Starlink has rapidly improved its service through adding to the constellation with updated satellites. In the past year alone, SpaceX deployed more than 2,300 Starlink satellites, amounting to nearly 450 Tbps of cumulative capacity added in total. Starlink continues to scale the network with its third-generation satellites and gateway ground stations. These advancements will add an order of magnitude improvement in capacity compared to the current satellite. SpaceX is targeting to begin launching its third-generation satellites in the first half of 2026. Each one of these new satellites is designed to provide over a terabit per second of downlink capacity (> 1,000 Gbps) and over 200 Gbps of uplink capacity to customers on the ground. This is more than 10 times the downlink and 24 times the uplink capacity of the second-generation satellites. Each Starlink launch of third-generation satellites on Starship is projected to add 60 Tbps of capacity to the network, more than 20 times the capacity added with each launch today. Additionally, third-generation satellites will use SpaceXs next generation computers, modems, beamforming, and switching and will operate at low altitude to further improve the networks latency. Starlinks system is designed to scale rapidly and improve continuously. From satellite design and production to launch and ground infrastructure, Starlink is uniquely positioned to keep pace with rising demand around the world, support the rollout of 5G and advanced services, and remain resilient in the face of natural disasters and infrastructure failures. As well as orbiting a little bit closer to earth (lower altitude = good for performance, but it does sacrifice coverage), the new GEN3 satellites will also be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance, as well as other enhancements not specifically listed above (newer antennas, larger solar panels etc.). But as above, the timescale for this continue to depend upon SpaceXs ability to get Starship ready in time. An N.C. House Select Committee is recommending that the General Assembly change a state law forcing districts to start school the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday clo Today Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 91F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Tomorrow Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds light and variable. Interview with Aaron Magid, author of The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan King Abdullah is likely more beloved in Washington than inside Jordan Magid, Aaron. The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan. Universal Publishers: Irvine and Boca Raton, 2025. Munich, Germany (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) Aaron Magid is a former Amman-based journalist for outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, the Atlantic Council, and Al-Jazeera. He hosts the podcast On Jordan. He obtained a Masters Degree in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. We talk to him about his book The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan. The title of your biography of Abdullah II of Jordan is The Most American King. Can you explain to the readers the reason behind this title? King Abdullah II has unique ties with the US, especially for an Arab leader. He grew up attending middle school and high school in Massachusetts. He was a member of the wrestling team at Deerfield Academy and, when his father asked that he do Arabic lessons, he would hide in the closet because he wanted to fit in with his American peers. He trained with the US military in Kentucky, studied at Georgetown University, and he so much enjoyed this experience that he sent his own children to this prestigious Washington, DC, university. He was in a Star Trek episode in the 1990s and when he became king in 1999, he actually spoke English better than Arabic. In addition to Abdullahs personal ties, he also has strong political connections. King Abdullah was the first Arab leader to meet in the White House with presidents Trump, Biden, and Obama. There are thousands of US troops in Jordan under both Democratic and Republican administrations. Jordan under King Abdullahs rule was the first Arab country to have a Free Trade Agreement with the US and Washington provides Jordan with about $1.5 billion annually. -In the book you explain that no polling about the popularity of the king is allowed in Jordan. Is it allowed to poll on the popularity of the US? Yes. After the 2003 Iraq War, the US popularity declined, then it went up during the Obama administration but since 2023 and the Israel-Hamas War, the popularity of the US has decreased in the Hashemite kingdom. -You explain in the book that you interviewed key personalities such as Leon Panetta, Ehud Olmert, or Tony Blair, but that you were not granted an interview with Abdullah II. What would you have asked him if you had given the chance of putting only one question? I would have asked the king what was Saudi Arabias role in the 2021 Prince Hamzah affair, especially as Bassam Awadallah, who was jailed for the incident, served as an advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. -Can you shortly explain what the Prince Hamza sedition affair is? It was a very important incident in Jordan because the royal family is generally considered united behind King Hussein and now King Abdullah. Prior to the affair going public in April 2021, there was some criticism by Prince Hamzah, Abdullahs half-brother, of the system, corruption in the country, although not directly of the king. Then in April 2021 Jordanian authorities accused Prince Hamza of launching a seditious attempt to take control over the country. He was very popular in Jordan because he is King Husseins son and he both speaks and looks similar to his father, who was beloved in Jordan. There were some people, especially among the tribes, who thought he might have been a better king. When this affair was announced, he was placed under house arrest and his social media was restricted, and until this day he remains in Jordan. We do not really know his perspective on what exactly happened because he has not had any media engagements since April 2021. -In the book, you write, in reference to the Iraq War in 2003 and other moments across the years, that the contrast between Abdullah embraced in Washington amid protests in Jordan has been another theme that has repeated itself throughout his reign. Is King Abdullah far more beloved in the West than at home? In general, he is likely more beloved in Washington than inside Jordan. I would offer the caveat that there is no quantitative proof either way because the Jordanian government prohibits polling on the kings popularity, probably because they do not want the results to show unfavorable approval levels. There has been a series of events that have affected his popularity. One of them is the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. King Abdullah did not support the Iraq War, he thought it was a mistake, but at the same time he took a different approach from his father King Hussein, who was fervently opposed to the Gulf War and this led to US aid for Jordan decreasing in the 1990s. King Abdullah allowed US troops to be stationed in Jordan during that period and then, when the war started, he worked with the US to train Iraqi security forces. He played, from the US perspective, a productive role in that war. But many Jordanian citizens asked themselves how they could be supporting a war against another Arab country. Additionally, the gas deal with Israel nine years ago was widely unpopular in the country. Finally, we have the incidents in the past year and a half where Iran fired missiles and drones over Jordanian territory and Jordan shot them down, also allowing US troops stationed in Jordan to do the same. There are certainly considerable segments of Jordanian citizens who are saying: why are we involving ourselves in this war, why are we shooting down these Iranian missiles to save the lives of Israeli citizens? Finally, many Jordanians are frustrated with the poor economic conditions, especially as the unemployment rate is over 20 percent. Aaron Magid. The Most American King: Abdullah of Jordan. Universal Publishers, 2025. Click here to buy. -In the book, you write: Even as some Jordanians are frustrated by the kings stance on democratization, many more citizens remain outraged by the kingdoms dismal economy under his reign. GDP per capita in Jordan has not significantly risen during the last ten years, and it is unlikely to do so soon given the downturn in tourism due to the war in Gaza. Can Jordan remain politically stable without economic growth? A key element to understand why King Abdullah has remained in power for so long is the support he has from the Jordanian security forces. King Abdullah grew up in Jordans military, where he served for over 15 years, rising from a young officer to eventually leading the special forces unit. He has a certain amount of loyalty from the Jordanian security forces because of his service. Jordan has also learned the lesson from the 1970 civil war, when thousands of people were killed in the clash between the Hashemite kingdom and Palestinian militants. During that conflict, many members of the Jordanian army were of Palestinian descent and defected to the PLO side. Since then, and according to Wikileaks, Jordan under King Abdullahs reign has ensured that senior members of Jordans security forces are of East Bank and tribal background to ensure that such an uprising wont happen again. Moreover, unlike in neighboring Syria or Egypt, there is no part of the Hashemite kingdom that is under autonomous control by armed groups not affiliated with the regime. Also, during key moments, whether the Prince Hamza affair or the protests after the Gaza War, the security forces have stood firmly behind King Abdullah and ensured that no revolt could succeed. Furthermore, King Abdullah has used a nuanced form of dissent. Jordan is not a democracy, it is ranked as authoritarian by the Economist and there are arrests of journalists when they criticize the king, but he does not use a brutal level of violence against opposition groups like you see under Iraqs Saddam Hussein or Syrias Bashar al-Assad, which has reduced discontent in Jordan. Finally, the alliance with the US is also critical providing Amman with advanced weaponry and billions of dollars in aid. -Do you think that if the Jordanian state as it is found itself in danger, the US would step militarily or provide more funds for the state to survive? Yes, Jordan is a key ally of the US, and Washingtons most dependable Arab partner. What makes Jordan unique is its relations with both US parties over decades. Regarding how the US would respond to a crisis, I would point to how the US reacted in 2011 during the Arab Spring when there were protests in Jordan. Back then, President Obama did not intervene in such a blatant way as he did with Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and this played a role in the continuation of King Abdullahs reign. Whenever King Abdullah has faced significant challenges, whether regional war, protests inside the country, or an inflow of refugees the US has repeatedly increased aid for Jordan. -On Trumps return to the White House, Jordan needs to deal with a US president that threatens to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and has implemented massive cuts in US aid. Jordan cannot accept Trumps plans for the Gaza Strip but cannot afford to antagonize him because the country is highly dependent on US aid. What are the options for Abdullah II when navigating this complicated situation? There were widespread reports about the US cutting aid worldwide at the beginning of the year but after King Abdullah met Trump in February, Reuters reported that aid for Jordan would continue with hundreds of millions of dollars being sent to Jordan for security assistance. It shows that King Abdullahs strong understanding of the American political dynamics and his relationship with members of Congress in both parties have ensured that US aid to Jordan has resumed even with the MAGA movement seeking to decrease aid. King Abdullah was firm about not accepting hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from Gaza. But this is not unique, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia had the same view. King Abdullahs meeting with Trump went relatively well because afterwards Trump released a video where he told the Jordanian people how King Abdullah is one of the true great leaders of the world and that they are lucky to have him. It shows that, even though King Abdullah opposed Trumps Gaza plan, he managed to do it diplomatically When it comes to military aid, we have discussed how King Abdullah managed to convince Trump to keep things as they were. But what about US multilateral aid going to UN programs such as those of UNRWA or UNHCR or bilateral aid through USAID, both of them key for Jordan to be able to take care of refugees? Jordan is the second country in the world in refugees per capita. UN assistance is important for Amman. The fact that the US has decreased its aid to these organizations has hurt Jordan, but it is a much better situation than losing all of US aid. This would have had serious long-time implications for US-Jordanian relations but also on the Hashemites kingdom security situation because Amman faces considerable budget woes and does not have another opportunity to raise $1.5 billion in cash annually. Some say that Jordan could go to Russia, China, and Iran but these are not real options for Jordan for such large sums of aid By Kinda Alsamara, The University of Queensland; Eleanor Gordon, Monash University, and Elliot Dolan-Evans, Monash University (The Conversation) The end of the oppressive Assad regime in Syria in late 2024 has been broadly welcomed on the global stage underscored by the fact the United States and European Union have now lifted sanctions against the country. However, women have been marginalised by Syrias new leadership. Thats a problem for Syrian women, of course, but it also puts at risk prospects for sustainable peace in Syria. A growing body of research, including our own, shows a direct correlation between gender equality and peace. Syria now stands at a crossroads. Will it ensure womens meaningful participation and follow a path to peace? Or will things head in the other direction? This is more urgent than ever. Failure to grapple with womens rights in Syria risks plunging the nation further into extremist violence. Women excluded both before and after Assads rule After decades in power, the harsh Assad regime was overthrown late last year by rebels led by Sunni Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. But women who were marginalised politically and economically under Assad continue to be systematically excluded from decision-making in the new government. This is even though women played an essential role in the Syrian revolution. They organised protests and advocated for rights (often at great personal risk). They endured sacrifices such as imprisonment, torture, disappearance and displacement. Yet, only one woman was appointed to Syrias immediate post-Assad caretaker government. She didnt get a ministerial title. The caretaker government spokesman reportedly suggested womens biological and physiological nature makes them unsuitable for certain government roles. Reports allege the man initially appointed as Syrias new minister of justice previously oversaw executions of women accused of being sex workers. Some Syrian activists are concerned Hayat Tahrir al-Sham will enforce a gendered and conservative interpretation of Islamic law, which prevailed in its previous stronghold of Idlib (a city in northwestern Syria). Limited roles for women A key moment came when the new Syrian government held a national dialogue conference earlier this year. This conference was to establish a forward-looking political identity for Syria. Of the seven-member conference preparatory committee, only two were women. There was no representation on the preparatory committee from several of Syrias diverse communities, including Kurdish, Alawite and Druze groups. Most members had strong ties with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or other Islamist factions. About 200 of the 1,000 delegates at the conference were women. However, their input in legislative and security committees was minimal. Only one of 18 conference recommendations referred (in a limited way) to women. Following the national dialogue conference, new Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa signed into force a constitutional declaration that set a five-year transition period and established the interim government. Senior figures in the new government described the declaration as guaranteeing womens political and economic rights. Yet only one of Syrias 23 ministers is a woman: Hind Kabawat, appointed as minister of social affairs and labour. This soft portfolio is commonly associated with gendered expectations around care and welfare. Key ministries were allocated to al-Sharaas all-male long-time comrades from Hayat Tahrir al-Shams base in Idlib. Change is possible A just and sustainable peace requires proactive measures to integrate women into leadership roles in Syria. Change is possible. For example, constitutional mandates could guarantee minimum representation for women in ministerial leadership and judicial positions, which would better reflect the diversity of Syrian society. Independent mechanisms could be established to investigate and address gender-based injustices. This would need to provide accountability for past abuses and protect womens rights under the post-Assad system. As we have previously noted, there cannot be a collective forgetting of crimes Syrian women experienced in the past. Economic empowerment initiatives would also help foster womens financial independence and participation in public life. File. Photo of girl in Deraa Syria, 2022, by Mahmoud Sulaiman on Unsplash Public awareness campaigns could also highlight womens contributions to the revolution and their essential role in nation-building. Syria at a crossroads With the recent lifting of sanctions by the US and EU, and ongoing regional instability globally, Syria stands at a crossroads. The G7 Summit in May 2025 emphasised the global communitys renewed focus on womens participation in peace processes. Influential middle-power countries can play a key role by reviewing sanctions and tying humanitarian aid to the promotion of human rights, gender inclusion and pluralistic governance. Kinda Alsamara, Lecturer in the School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland; Eleanor Gordon, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Monash University, and Elliot Dolan-Evans, Lecturer in Law, Monash University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. ( Tomdispatch.com ) Yes, hes done quite a job so far and, in a way, it couldnt be simpler to describe. Somehow hes managed to take the greatest looming threat to humanity and put it (excuse the all-too-appropriate image) on the back burner. Im thinking, of course, about climate change. My guess is that you havent read much about it recently, despite the fact that a significant part of this country, including the city I live in, set new heat records for June. And Europe followed suit soon after with a heat hell all its own in which, at one point, the temperature in part of Spain hit an all-time record 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit. And oh yes, part of Portugal hit 115.9 degrees as both countries recorded their hottest June ever. Facing that reality, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said (again all too appropriately): Extreme heat is no longer a rare event it has become the new normal. The new normal, indeed! He couldnt have been more on target! And why am I not surprised by all this? Well, because whether youre in the United States or Europe (or so many other places on this planet) these days, if youve been paying any attention at all, youve noticed that June is indeed the new July, and that, thanks to the ever increasing amounts of greenhouse gases that continue to flow into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, heat waves have grown more frequent and more intense. After all, were now on a planet where, without a doubt, heat is at an all-time-record high. After all, 2024, was the hottest year in history and the last 10 years, the hottest decade ever known. Worse yet, in the age of Donald Trump, this is clearly just the beginning, not the end (though somewhere down the line, of course, it could indeed prove to be exactly that). An Ongoing Act of Global Terrorism While this old man is online constantly reading publications ranging from the Washington Post to the British Guardian, he still reads the paper New York Times. And if that isnt old-fashioned of me, what is? Can you even believe it? And its first section of news, normally 20-odd pages long, does regularly tell me something about how climate change is (and isnt) covered in the age of Donald Trump. Let me give you one example: on June 21st, that papers superb environmental reporter Somini Sengupta had a piece covering the droughts that, amid the rising heat, are now circling this planet in a major fashion from Brazil to China, the U.S. to Russia. And yes, she indicated clearly in her piece that such droughts, bad as they may always have been from time to time, are becoming significantly worse thanks to the overheating of this planet from fossil fuel use. (As she put it: Droughts are part of the natural weather cycle but are exacerbated in many parts of the world by the burning of fossil fuels, which is warming the world and exacerbating extreme weather.) The next day that piece appeared in the paper newspaper I read a day when, as always, the front page was filled with Donald Trump and where was it placed? Yep, on page 24. And on the very day I happened to be writing this sentence, Trump was the headline figure in, or key to three of the six front-page Times stories, including ones headlined The Supreme Courts Term Yields Triumphs for Trump and Trumps Deal with El Salvador Guts MS-13 Fight. On the other hand, you had to turn to page eight to read Heat Overcoming Europe Turns Dangerous, and Theres More to Come in which the eighth and 24th paragraphs quote experts mentioning climate change. I dont mean to indicate that the Times never puts a climate piece on the front page. It does, but not daily like Donald Trump. Not faintly. He is invariably the page-one story of our present American world, day after day after day. Whatever he may do (or not do), he remains the story of the moment (any moment). And for the man who eternally wants to be the center of attention, consider that, after a fashion, his greatest achievement. Yet, at 79 years old, he, like this almost 81-year-old, will, in due course, leave this country and this planet behind forever. But the climate mess hes now helping intensify in such a significant way wont leave with him. Not for a second. Not in any foreseeable future. In short, despite everything else hes doing in and to this world of ours, theres nothing more devastating (not even his bombing of Iran) than his urge to ignore anything associated with climate change, while putting fossil fuels back at the very center of our all-American world. Yes, he can no longer simply stop solar and wind power from growing rapidly on this planet of ours, but he can certainly try. And simply refusing to do anything to help is or at least should be considered an ongoing act of global terrorism. And dont think its just that either. For example, Trump administration cuts to the National Weather Service have already ensured that, when truly bad weather hits (and hits and hits), as its been doing this year, whether youre talking about stunning flash-flooding or tornadoes, there will be, as the Guardians Eric Holthaus reports, ever fewer staff members committed to informing and warning Americans about whats coming or helping them once its hit. Meanwhile, cuts to the governments greenhouse gas monitoring network will ensure that well know less about the effects of climate change in this country. To put it bluntly, when it comes to climate change, the fact that Donald Trump is distinctly a terrorist first-class should be a daily part of the headlines in our world (though, if he has his way, it may not be our world for long). Were talking about the president who is already doing everything he can to cut back on clean energy and ensure that this country produces more clean, beautiful coal, not to speak of oil and natural gas, and so send ever more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Meanwhile, Republicans in the House and Senate, bowing to Trump, have only recently passed a big, beautiful bill that would quickly remove $7,500 consumer tax credits for buying electric cars, among so many other things, while negating much of what the Biden administration did do in relation to climate change (even as it, too, let the American production of oil rise to record levels). A Drill, Baby, Drill Presidency Of course, given a president who once labeled climate change a Chinese hoax and one of the greatest scams of all time, who could be faintly surprised that his administration seems remarkably intent on sending ever more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere? And sadly, if that reality, which was all too clear from his first term in office, had been the focus of the news last year, perhaps he wouldnt have been voted back into the White House by 1.6% more Americans than opted for Kamala Harris who, to give her full (dis)credit, didnt run a campaign taking out after him in any significant fashion on the issue of climate change and planetary suicide. So here we are distinctly in Donald Trumps world and what a world its already proving to be. Were talking, of course, about the fellow who quite literally ran his 2024 presidential campaign on the phrase drill, baby, drill. In a sense, he couldnt have been blunter or, in his own fashion, more honest than that. Still, it pains me even to imagine that, for the next three and a half years, he will indeed be in control of U.S. environmental policy. After all, were talking about the guy whose (now wildly ill-named) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to repeal limits on greenhouse gas emissions and other airborne pollutants from the nations fossil fuel-fired power plants. Brilliant, right? And the fellow now running the EPA, Lee Zeldin, couldnt have been more blunt about it: Rest assured President Trump is the biggest supporter of clean, beautiful coal. EPA is helping pave the way for American energy dominance because energy development underpins economic development, which in turn strengthens national security. Clean, beautiful coal. Doesnt that take the air out of the room? Or perhaps I mean, shouldnt it? Because, sadly enough, in this Trumpian world of ours, all too few people are paying all that much attention. And yet its the slow-motion way that we humans have discovered to destroy this planet and ourselves. Consider it an irony that the administration that wants to deny atomic weaponry to Iran on the grounds that a nuclear war would be a planetary disaster seems perfectly willing to encourage a slow-motion version of the same in the form of climate change. After all, to take but one example, only recently it opened up millions of acres of previously protected Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling. Its not that there are no strong articles in the mainstream world about whats happening. Check out, for instance, this article by Simmone Shah of Time Magazine on the increasing number of heat domes on this planet of ours. Or if you look away from the mainstream and, for instance, check out the work of Mark Hertzgaard at the Nation magazine considering the climate-change costs of war or environmentalist Bill McKibben at his substack writing on how Trump and crew want to create an all too literal hell on Earth, you would certainly have a stronger sense of whats truly happening on this planet right now. For a moment, just imagine the reaction in this country and in the media if Donald Trump suddenly started openly talking about actually using atomic weaponry. And yet, in a slow-motion fashion, thats exactly what his officials and the president himself are doing in relation to climate change and it all continues to be eerily normalized and largely ignored amid the continuing chaos of this Trumpian moment. Who, for instance, could imagine this headline anywhere in the media: Trump Planning to Destroy Planet. Or perhaps: American President Attempting to Create a Literal Hell on Earth. Or even how about a milder: End of World as Weve Known It Now Underway. Or well, youre undoubtedly just as capable as I am of imagining more such headlines. Instead, we increasingly live in a world where, while President Trump and his officials essentially try to devastate this planet, a kind of self-censorship on the subject remains in operation and not just in the media, but among all the rest of us, too. We lead our lives largely not imagining that our world is slowly going down the drain or do I mean up in flames? And in some grim sense, that reality (or perhaps irreality would be the better term) may prove to be I was about to write in retrospect, but perhaps there will be no retrospect Donald Trumps greatest triumph. He is indeed in the process of doing in, if not us, then our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and clearly couldnt give less of a damn about it. (If anything, it leaves him feeling distinctly on top of the world.) Of all the wars we shouldnt be fighting on this planet of ours from Ukraine to Gaza, Iran to Sudan, there is indeed one that we all should be fighting, including the president of the United States, and thats the war against our destruction of this planet (as humanity has known it all these endless thousands of years) in a planetary heat hell. If only. Copyright 2025 Tom Engelhardt Via Tomdispatch.com Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Pelangio Exploration Inc. (TSXV: PX) OTC PINK: PGXPF) ("Pelangio" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a high-resolution UAV aeromagnetic survey is currently underway. The 900 line-kilometer 50 meter-spaced survey will cover all current exploration targets from the northern end of Manfo to the southern end of Nkosuo. The survey results should greatly assist in geological and structural interpretation and the refinement and ranking of targets for drill testing over the combined projects. The survey has progressed well and is approximately 45% completed. "The launch of our high-resolution drone survey marks an exciting step forward in unlocking the full potential of the Nkosuo Mining Lease and the broader Manfo project area," commented Ingrid Hibbard, President and CEO. "Nkosuo's geological continuity with Manfo and its multiple mineralized trends position it as a transformative extension that could significantly enhance the total resource potential of the unified corridor. Additionally, we are nearing completion of the announced Mineral Resource Estimate update for the Manfo project and are on track for its release this quarter." Qualified Person Mr. Kevin Thomson, P.Geo. (Ontario, #0191), Senior Vice-President, Exploration and Director, is a qualified person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Thomson approved the technical data disclosed in this release. About Pelangio Pelangio acquires and explores prospective land packages located in world-class gold belts in Ghana, West Africa and Canada. In Ghana, the Company is exploring its two 100% owned camp-sized properties: the 106 km2 Manfo property, the site of eight near-surface gold discoveries, and the 280 km2 Obuasi property, located on strike and adjacent to AngloGold Ashanti's prolific high-grade Obuasi Mine, as well as the 100% optioned Dankran property located adjacent to its Obuasi property. 1. The results of exploration or mineral resources on an adjacent property are not necessarily indicative of the mineralization on Pelangio's property Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements herein may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements or information appear in a number of places and can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements and information include statements regarding the Company's ability to complete the acquisition of the Nkosuo Project, the planned work programs, the Company's strategy of acquiring large land packages in areas of sizeable gold mineralization, the Company's plans to follow-up on previous work, and the Company's exploration plans. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, we have made numerous assumptions, including assumptions about the state of the equity markets. Such forward-looking statements and information are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statement or information. Such risks include the changes in equity markets, share price volatility, volatility of global and local economic climate, inability to obtain necessary approvals or permits in Ghana including a forest entry permit, gold price volatility, political developments in Ghana, and Canada, increases in costs, exchange rate fluctuations, speculative nature of gold exploration, including the risk that favourable exploration results may not be obtained, and other risks involved in the gold exploration industry. See the Company's annual and quarterly financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for additional information on risks and uncertainties relating to the forward-looking statement and information. There can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information referenced herein will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Also, many of the factors are beyond the control of the Company. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward- looking statements or information. We undertake no obligation to reissue or update any forward-looking statements or information except as required by law. All forward-looking statements and information herein are qualified by this cautionary statement. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Amarc Resources Ltd. ("Amarc" or the "Company") (TSXV:AHR) (OTCQB:AXREF) is pleased to announce that it and Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. ("Freeport") recently commenced an approved $10 M 2025 exploration program, which includes substantial drilling at the JOY District (or "JOY" or the "District") in north-central British Columbia ("BC") (see Amarc release May 29, 2025). Drilling will be focused at the new, high grade, gold-rich porphyry copper-gold-silver ("Cu-Au-Ag") AuRORA Deposit, the PINE Deposit and the Twins and Canyon Discoveries as well as other drill-ready Cu-Au Deposit Targets across the District (see Amarc releases January 17 and 21, and February 28, 2025). Amarc continues to manage the exploration programs which are being 100% funded by Freeport. "We are very excited to be back out on the ground working with Freeport to advance the high grade, near surface AuRORA Cu-Au-Ag Deposit Discovery announced earlier this year that remains open to expansion, and to continue to drill test other discoveries and numerous deposit targets across the JOY District," said Diane Nicolson, Amarc President and CEO. "Amarc believes that the JOY District has the potential to deliver further major copper-gold discoveries. The focus of the Canadian and BC (and international) governments on critical mineral strategies designed to power the green and digital economy[1] presents a clear opportunity and impetus for the efficient and responsible advancement of projects like JOY." JOY District Expansion Amarc also announces the expansion of the JOY District strategic land package that will now also include the Brenda Property, a portion of the PIL Property and three additional mineral claims staked by Amarc (Figure 1). Figure 1 - Large-Scale Mineral System Trends Occur at JOY that Host the AuRORA Deposit Discovery, PINE Deposit, Canyon Discovery, Twins & Other Sulphide Systems Brenda Property Further to Amarc's February 11, 2025 release announcing a mineral property option agreement with Canasil Resources Inc. pursuant to which Amarc could acquire an 100% interest in the 44.5 km2 Brenda Property ("Brenda"), the Company reports that Freeport has exercised its right to have the entire Brenda tenure included in the Mineral Property Earn-In Agreement (the "Agreement"), for the JOY District (see Amarc release May 12, 2021). Brenda is underlain by the same highly prospective volcanics and transitional porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au-Ag geological setting as at Amarc's recent AuRORA and Canyon porphyry Cu-Au discoveries. Historical exploration of the Brenda Property has identified both epithermal and porphyry related rock alteration assemblages hosting Cu, Au and Ag mineralization, and includes an intersection of 78 m grading 0.61 g/t Au and 0.10% Cu from 110 m in hole BR-07-05, which was collared nearby a large gossan (see Canasil National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report at https://www.canasil.com/projects/bc-canada-properties/brenda/). PIL Property In addition, Amarc has exercised its right to have approximately 32% of the total mineral claims area of Freeport's option to acquire 80% of the PIL Property (see Finlay Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:FYL) release April 17, 2025) brought into the JOY District (Figure 1). Amarc's interest lies in the structural and alteration corridors that have a strong spatial relationship to most of the significant mineral occurrences in the Toodoggone region that hosts the JOY District. Approximately 32% (42.34 km2) of the PIL mineral claims area lies within the area of common interest under the Agreement. Freeport is responsible for making any expenditures to fund the exercise of the PIL option with Finlay, and expenditures incurred within the Amarc area of common interest only will count towards Freeport's anticipated election to spend $75 million under Stage 2 of the Agreement with Amarc. If Freeport fulfills its obligation to acquire 80% of the PIL Property, Amarc will have a maximum interest of 24% in the PIL mineral claims within the area of common interest. About Amarc Resources Ltd Amarc is a mineral exploration and development company with an experienced and successful management team focused on developing a new generation of long-life, high-value porphyry Cu-Au mines in BC. By combining high-demand projects with dynamic management, Amarc has created a solid platform to create value from its exploration and development-stage assets. Amarc is advancing the JOY, DUKE and IKE porphyry CuAu Districts located in different prolific porphyry regions of northern, central and southern BC, respectively. Each District represents significant potential for the development of multiple and important-scale, porphyry CuAu deposits. Importantly, each of the three districts are located in proximity to industrial infrastructure - including power, highways and rail. Amarc's exploration is led by an internationally successful team of experienced geologists specializing in porphyry Cu-Au deposits. Members of this team have been involved in and have tracked porphyry Cu-Au exploration advancements in the Toodoggone region since 1990. Their experience and early recognition of the porphyry potential at the NWG Target in terms of a shallowly overburden covered and underexplored transitional epithermal-porphyry geological setting, led to the discovery of the Au-rich AuRORA porphyry Cu-Au-Ag Deposit. Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. ("Freeport"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. at JOY and Boliden Mineral Canada Ltd. ("Boliden"), an entity within the Boliden Group of companies at DUKE, can earn up to a 70% interest in each District through staged investments of $110 million and $90 million, respectively. Together this provides Amarc with potentially up to $200 million in non-share dilutive staged funding for these Districts. In addition, Amarc completed self-funded drilling at its higher-grade Empress Deposit in the IKE District in 2024. Amarc is the operator of all programs. Amarc is associated with HDI, a diversified, global mining company with a 35-year history of porphyry Cu deposit discovery, development and transaction success. Previous and current HDI projects include some of BC's and the world's most important porphyry deposits - such as Pebble, Mount Milligan, Southern Star, Kemess South, Kemess North, Gibraltar, Prosperity, Xietongmen, Newtongmen, Florence, Casino, Sisson, Maggie, AuRORA, PINE, IKE and DUKE. From its head office in Vancouver, Canada, HDI applies its unique strengths and capabilities to acquire, develop, operate and monetize mineral projects. Amarc works closely with local governments, Indigenous groups and stakeholders in order to advance its mineral projects responsibly, and in a manner that contributes to sustainable community and economic development. We pursue early and meaningful engagement to ensure our mineral exploration and development activities are well coordinated and broadly supported, address local priorities and concerns, and optimize opportunities for collaboration. In particular, we seek to establish mutually beneficial partnerships with Indigenous groups within whose traditional territories our projects are located, through the provision of jobs, training programs, contract opportunities, capacity funding agreements and sponsorship of community events. All Amarc work programs are carefully planned to achieve high levels of environmental and social performance. Qualified Person Mark Rebagliati, P.Eng, a Qualified Person ("QP") as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved all technical and scientific information related to the Joy Project contained in this news release. Mr. Rebagliati is not independent of the Company. For further details on Amarc Resources Ltd., please visit the Company's website at www.amarcresources.com or contact Dr. Diane Nicolson, President and CEO, at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114, or Kin Communications, at (604) 684-6730, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AMARC RESOURCES LTD. Dr. Diane Nicolson President and CEO Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking and other Cautionary Information This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All such statements, other than statements of historical facts that address exploration plans and plans for enhanced relationships are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking statements include the following: Amarc's projects will obtain all required environmental and other permits and all land use and other licenses, studies and exploration of Amarc's projects will continue to be positive, and no geological or technical problems will occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, potential environmental issues or liabilities associated with exploration, development and mining activities, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and tenure and delays due to third party opposition, changes in and the effect of government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, exploration and development of properties located within Aboriginal groups asserted territories may affect or be perceived to affect asserted aboriginal rights and title, which may cause permitting delays or opposition by Aboriginal groups, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Amarc Resources Ltd., investors should review Amarc's annual Form 20-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedarplus.ca. TORONTO, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier American Uranium Inc. (PUR, the Company or Premier American Uranium) (TSXV: PUR) (OTCQB: PAUIF) is pleased to announce the commencement of its 2025 exploration drill program at the wholly-owned Cyclone ISR Uranium Project (Cyclone or the Project), located in the Great Divide Basin, Wyoming, in the vicinity of Ur-Energy Inc.s Lost Creek ISR uranium production site and other former uranium production facilities (Figure 1). The 2025 program follows the successful inaugural drill campaign in 2024, which confirmed uranium mineralization in multiple areas. This years drill program will build on historic drilling and 2024 results by infilling and testing priority areas of known mineralization. Highlights Results from the 2024 program identified uranium mineralization along an apparent -mile-long, east-west trend at the Cyclone Rim target, highlighted by intercepts such as 0.088% eUO over 10.5 feet (GT of 0.92) (see press release dated October 15, 2024). This zone remains open in multiple directions and will be a key focus of the 2025 drill campaign (Figure 2). 25 mud rotary drillholes are planned for 2025 at Cyclone Rim, targeting an average depth of 800 feet, for a total of approximately 20,000 feet. Drillhole locations are based on a combination of historic data and positive 2024 results, including those from Cyclone Rim. Colin Healey, CEO of PUR commented, Last years drill program was completed ahead of schedule, which allowed us to accelerate our work and gain valuable insights across the Cyclone Project, including preliminary drilling at the Osborne Draw target. The results exceeded expectations and have directly shaped our strategy for 2025. We are excited to return to the Cyclone Rim target this year and follow up with a focused, efficient drill campaign targeting the most prospective zones as we continue to test the apparent mile mineralized trend defined in the 2024 inaugural campaign. We look forward to releasing results of drilling at regular intervals this summer. Cyclone Project The Cyclone Project is situated in the Wyoming Basin physiographic province in south-central Wyoming and within the Great Divide Basin (Figure 1). Uranium mineralization occurs in the Tertiary Battle Spring Formation as sandstone-hosted roll-fronts. PURs mineral holdings include 1,161 unpatented mining claims and 9 State leases. In total, the Project comprises approximately 26,180 acres. The area was explored by various companies and the US government beginning in the 1950s. Wyoming has led the US in uranium mining since 1995, and since the first uranium mines started operating in 1951, the state has produced more than 238 million pounds of uranium concentrate. Wyoming hosts the largest known economic uranium ore reserves in the US, which are located in the Powder River Basin, Great Divide Basin, Shirley Basin, and Gas Hills (Wind River Basin).1 Figure 1: Location of the Cyclone Project, Great Divide Basin, Wyoming Figure 2: Cyclone Rim Target 2024 Drilling 1 Uranium resources summary of 2023 (wyo.gov) Qualified Person Statement The scientific and technical information contained in this news release was reviewed and approved by Dean T. Wilton, PG, CPG, MAIG, a consultant of PUR who is a Qualified Person (as defined in National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects). For additional information regarding the Companys Cyclone Project, including data verification related to certain scientific and technical information described in this news release, please see the Technical Report titled Technical Report on the Cyclone Rim Uranium Project, Great Divide Basin, Wyoming, USA dated June 30, 2023, which is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. About Premier American Uranium Inc. Premier American Uranium is focused on the consolidation, exploration, and development of uranium projects in the United States, aiming to strengthen domestic energy security and support the transition to clean energy. One of PURs key strengths is the extensive land holdings in three prominent uranium-producing regions in the United States: the Grants Mineral Belt of New Mexico, the Great Divide Basin of Wyoming and the Uravan Mineral Belt of Colorado. With current resources and defined resource exploration targets, PUR is actively advancing its portfolio through work programs. PUR benefits from strong partnerships, with backing from Sachem Cove Partners, IsoEnergy Ltd., Mega Uranium Ltd., and other institutional investors. The Companys distinguished team had extensive experience in uranium exploration, development, permitting, and operations, as well as uranium-focused mergers and acquisitionspositioning PUR as a key player in advancing the U.S. uranium sector. For More Information, Please Contact: Premier American Uranium Inc. Colin Healey, CEO This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Toll-Free: 1-833-223-4673 Twitter: @PremierAUranium www.premierur.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to, planned exploration activities; anticipated exploration results; whether additional exploration will result in the exploration target will be delineated as a mineral resource; the potential for mineral resource identification at the Cyclone Project; and other activities, events or developments that are expected, anticipated or may occur in the future. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as plans, expects, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates, or believes or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved or the negative connotation thereof. Forward-looking information and statements are based on our current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about PURs business and the industry and markets in which it operates. Such forward-information and statements are based on numerous assumptions, including among others, that the planned exploration activities will be completed as an anticipated and that the results of such exploration activities are as anticipated, that additional exploration will result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource the price of uranium, the anticipated cost of planned exploration activities, that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment and supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct the Companys planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner. Although the assumptions made by PUR in providing forward-looking information or making forward-looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performances and achievements of Premier American Uranium to differ materially from any projections of results, performances and achievements of Premier American Uranium expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others: limited operating history, negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of additional financing, delays or failure to obtain required permits and regulatory approvals, changes in mineral resources, that additional exploration may not result in the exploration target being delineated as a mineral resource, no known mineral reserves, aboriginal title and consultation issues, reliance on key management and other personnel; potential downturns in economic conditions; availability of third party contractors; availability of equipment and supplies; failure of equipment to operate as anticipated; accidents, effects of weather and other natural phenomena and other risks associated with the mineral exploration industry; changes in laws and regulation, competition, and uninsurable risks and the risk factors with respect to Premier American Uranium set out in PURs annual information form for the year ended December 31, 2024 and the other documents of PUR filed with the Canadian securities regulators and available under PURs profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Although PUR has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. PUR undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Daura Gold Corp. (TSXV: DGC) (the "Company" or "Daura") is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement to acquire five strategic mineral concessions totaling approximately 2,900 hectares (the "Project") in the Ancash Department of Peru. The Project surrounds the southern half of the Company's Antonella Project and bordering Highlander Silver's San Luis project to the south. The Project shares multiple borders to the south and east of the Bonita target where Highlander is currently drilling. The acquisition will further consolidate Daura's land position in one of Peru's most prospective gold and silver districts. The concessions, highlighted in red with black frame, lie within the highly prospective Pucajirca volcanic center, a region known for hosting the San Luis, Antonella, and Bonita vein systems. These vein systems are part of the Calipuy Group, which is geologically characterized by andesitic lava flows and pyroclastic ash deposits rich in lithic fragments. While these volcanic units remain largely unaltered across most of the district, they display intense argillic alteration and pervasive silicification near mineralized veinskey indicators for precious metals mineralization. Inside these concessions, zones shown as 1, 2 and 3, are among the immediate development targets to explore. Luis Saenz, Daura CEO commented: "This acquisition marks a further step in Daura's strategy to consolidate and control one of the most geologically compelling gold-silver districts in Peru. The proximity of these new claims to both the Antonella and Bonita vein systems, along with strong structural and geological continuity, provides an exciting opportunity to extend known mineralization and make new discoveries. We believe these concessions significantly enhance the scale and upside potential of our exploration portfolio." Daura will assume all concession fees due and payable to Ministry of Mines associated with the Project. The Project will be transferred for the price of US$1.00 (one and 00/100 dollars of the United States of America) per mining concession and a 1% NSR royalty in favor of the vendor. Prior to the commencement of mine construction on the Project, Daura may buy back 50% of the royalty for US$250,000. Completion of the acquisition of the Project remains subject to the negotiation of definitive documentation and the satisfaction of customary closing deliverables. Geological and structural analysis indicates that the vein systems across the Antonella and Bonita projects are controlled by NW-SE trending faults associated with the broader Andean fault system and are complemented by secondary E-W and NE-SW oriented faults. Importantly, the newly acquired claims by DGC fall directly within this structural corridor. Early fieldwork and mapping have identified vein outcrops in Zone 1, with evidence of vein continuity extending southwest into Zone 2suggesting the potential for a continuous, mineralized vein system connecting the Antonella and Bonita zones. These features underscore the high prospectivity of Zones 1, 2, and 3 for hosting additional gold and silver-bearing veins. Historical drilling on both the Antonella and Bonita projects has confirmed the presence of gold-silver mineralization at depth, with the most robust vein structures and highest grades found toward the southwestdirectly aligned with the location of Daura's new claims. This trend strongly supports the interpretation that these newly acquired concessions could host a direct continuation of the Au-Ag mineralized system, significantly enhancing Daura's discovery potential in the region. Map 1 Map 2 - Concessions Map Daura Gold Qualified Person All scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Owen D. W. Miller, Ph.D. Member AIG, a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Miller acts as an independent third-party consultant of the Company. ABOUT DAURA GOLD CORP. Listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, Daura Gold Corp is advancing high-impact exploration projects in Peru's renowned Ancash region. Daura Gold owns a 100% undivided interest in over 13,000 hectares of exploration concessions in Ancash, including the 900-hectare Antonella target, which is the primary focus of Daura Gold's current exploration efforts. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION: Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. Daura cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Daura's control. Such factors include, among other things: future prices and the supply of gold and other precious and other metals; future demand for gold and other valuable metals; inability to raise the money necessary to incur the expenditures required to retain and advance the property; environmental liabilities (known and unknown); general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; results of exploration programs; risks of the mineral exploration industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals; adverse weather conditions and failure to obtain necessary regulatory or shareholder approvals. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Daura disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) ("Sankamap" or the "Company") is pleased to provide assay results from the preliminary exploration program at its 24,000-hectare ("ha") Fauro Property ("Fauro"), part of its Oceania Project, located in the Shortland Islands, Western Province, Solomon Islands. The May site visit yielded a significant number of grab samples containing gold (Au) and Copper (Cu) mineralization, with assays returning values of up to 19.25 grams per tonne (g/t) Au and 4.09% Cu. CEO John Florek commented: "Confirming the historical mineralization at the Fauro property was a key objective of our recent site visit, and we are encouraged by the results. We continue to actively advance multiple epithermal prospects located around the rim of this highly mineralized caldera. "At the Kiovakase Target recent grab samples have returned multiple high-grade gold values in the double-digit g/t range; reaching up to 19.25 g/t Au; further validating the extent of gold mineralization. These encouraging results highlight the strong exploration potential on the property. "A significant development was the unexpected identification of substantial copper mineralization in recent grab samples, with grades reaching up to 4.09% Cu, alongside gold and elevated concentrations of lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and silver (Ag). This represents a meaningful advancement over previous exploration efforts, which had only reported isolated anomalous values for these additional elements. Notably, the recent sampling was conducted across a broad zone exceeding 500 metres in strike length, an area that has seen only limited historical drilling: specifically, two shallow holes completed in the 1990s. For further context, please refer to our June 17, 2025, news release and Figure 2 below. "We are excited to continue advancing these targets as we work to expand and define the mineralized zones across the project areas." Assay Sample Highlights Rock samples from Fauro yielded several high-grade gold assays, including a peak value of 19.25 g/t Au, with all sampling averaging a grade of 6.53 g/t Au Higher than historically reported copper values, up to 4.09% Cu in rock samples, potential for a porphyry target at depth Silver values are strongly associated with Au ranging from 6.3-100+ g/t Ag Elevated typical epithermal mineralization pathfinder elements present in assays including: >5900 ppm arsenic ("As") in 3 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm >5400 ppm lead ("Pb") in 2 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm >6400 ppm zinc ("Zn") in 3 samples, up to 10,000+ ppm Evidence of widespread gold across the property, confirmed through validating assays, historical exploration, and artisanal mining activities such as panning and surface excavation Discussion The Fauro Property is strategically situated along a regional copper-gold (Cu-Au) trend known for hosting major deposits, including Panguna and Lihir. Fauro shares key tectonic and geological features with both Panguna and Lihir and is situated in a largely underexplored region. (See disclaimer below and regional location map in the May 7, 2025, news release). The initial phase of the exploration program at Fauro was strategically designed to validate historical surficial assay results, engage with local communities, and evaluate terrain and logistical conditions in preparation for a forthcoming drill campaign. As part of this effort, sixteen preliminary grab samples were collected from the Kiovakase Target, one of three historically explored zones on the property (see Figure 1). Assay results returned high-grade gold values, including up to 19.25 g/t Au, along with multiple significant copper assays, reaching up to 4.09% Cu (see Figure 2 and Table 1). These results reinforce the strong mineral potential of the Fauro Property and provide compelling support for continued exploration. Figure 1: Location of target areas and historical intercepts with magnetics overlay. Figure 2: Highlighted recent 2025 assay results at the Kiovakase Target. Figure 3: Select high-grade rock samples at Kiovakase. Table 1: 2025 Assay highlights at Kiovakase. Sample ID Year Easting Northing Ag (g/t) Cu_% Au (g/t) D08775 2025 174396 9240339 27.4 0.02 5.87 D08778 2025 174381 9240319 41.8 0.05 7.29 D08780 2025 174509 9240364 26.9 0.03 5.77 D08781 2025 174511 9240366 39.5 0.06 8.58 D08782 2025 174521 9240363 21.4 0.03 7.55 D08783 2025 174517 9240351 >100 4.09 1.30 D08784 2025 174514 9240347 29.1 0.13 9.93 D08785 2025 174532 9240316 14.0 0.03 7.61 D08786 2025 174528 9240300 >100 3.00 2.86 D08787 2025 174532 9240305 53.2 1.44 0.94 D08873 2025 174386 9240346 6.3 0.03 10.65 D08874 2025 174332 9240439 18.7 0.05 19.25 D08875 2025 174412 9240395 21.7 0.03 16.95 Quality Assurance and Control Procedures Sample preparation and analysis was completed at the Brisbane, Australia ALS Global Facility accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) and compliant with international standards ISO/IEC 17025. Samples were analyzed using Four acid digestion methods on 34 elements: HF-HNO3-HCIO4 acid digestion, HCL leach and ACP-AES. Gold was analyzed using the Fire Assay technique with a 50g sample under the ALS code Au-AA26. A secure chain of custody procedure was maintained in storing and transporting samples. Sankamap uses industry standards for collecting samples taken on the Fauro property, internal quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) procedures were followed by ALS. Next Steps - 2025 Exploration Historical exploration including drilling, surface sampling, and geophysics at the Fauro Property have identified multiple near-surface, epithermal-style gold systems with strong potential for an underlying porphyry system. Rock samples collected at the Kiovakase target during an initial site visit in May 2025 validated the presence of significant Au and Cu mineralization at surface. A phased exploration program is slated to commence in late 2025, initially concentrating on systematic sampling to verify historical surface data. These findings will guide a follow-up geophysical survey (if necessary) targeting the conductive and resistive signatures characteristic of porphyry and epithermal mineral systems. The integration of geophysical data with existing exploration results will aid in designing a focused drilling campaign. This program will seek to validate and build upon historical drill results while testing extensions of mineralization that remain open at depth and along strike. *Disclaimer: References to the Lihir and Panguna deposits are provided solely to illustrate the potential scale of mineralization that could exist in similar geological settings. These references are not intended to imply that mineralization of similar type, size, or grade is present on Sankamap's property. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on Sankamap's property, and it is uncertain whether further exploration will result in the delineation of a mineral resource. Not all historical information including, but not limited to magnetic survey data, QAQC procedures, lab assay certificates for historical exploration and sampling is available to Sankamap, historical exploration was in quarterly, annual and press releases. About Sankamap Metals Inc. Sankamap Metals Inc. (CSE: SCU) is a Canadian mineral exploration company dedicated to the discovery and development of high-grade copper and gold deposits through its flagship Oceania Project, located in the South Pacific. The Company's fully permitted assets are strategically positioned in the Solomon Islands, along a prolific geological trend that hosts major copper-gold deposits; including Newcrest's Lihir Mine, with a resource of 71.9 million ounces of gold (310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred). Exploration is actively advancing at both the Kuma and Fauro properties, part of Sankamap's Oceania Project in the Solomon Islands. Historical work has already highlighted the mineral potential of both sites, which lie along a highly prospective copper and gold-bearing trend, suggesting the possibility of further, yet-to-be-discovered deposits. At Kuma, the property is believed to host an underexplored and largely untested porphyry copper-gold (Cu-Au) system. Historical rock chip sampling has returned consistently elevated gold values above 0.5 g/t Au, including a standout sample assaying 11.7% Cu and 13.5 g/t Au2; underscoring the area's significant potential. At Fauro, particularly at the Meriguna Target, historical trenching has returned highly encouraging results, including 8.0 meters at 27.95 g/t Au and 14.0 meters at 8.94 g/t Au3. Complementing these results are exceptional grab sample assays, including historical values of up to 173 g/t Au3, along with recent sampling by Sankamap at the Kiovakase Target, which returned numerous high-grade copper values, reaching up to 4.09% Cu. In addition, limited historical shallow drilling intersected 35.0 meters at 2.08 g/t Au3, further underscoring the property's strong mineral potential and the merit for continued exploration. With a commitment to systematic exploration and a team of experienced professionals, Sankamap aims to unlock the untapped potential of underexplored regions and create substantial value for its shareholders. For more information, please refer to SEDAR+ (www.sedarplus.ca), under Sankamap's profile. 1. Newcrest Technical Report, 2020 (Lihir: 310 Mt containing 23 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t P+P, 520 Mt containing 39 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t indicated, 81 Mt containing 5 Moz Au at 1.9 g/t measured, 61 Mt containing 4.9 Moz Au at 2.3 g/t Inferred) 2. Historical grab, soil and BLEG samples from SolGold Kuma Review June 2015, and SolGold plc Annual Report 2013/2012 3. September 2010-June 2012 press releases from Solomon Gold Ltd. and SolGold Fauro Island Summary Technical Info 2012 QP Disclosure The technical content for the Oceania Project in this news release has been reviewed and approved by John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol., a Qualified Person in accordance with CIM guidelines. Mr. John Florek is in good standing with the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario (Member ID:1228) and a director and officer of the Company. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS s/ "John Florek" John Florek, M.Sc., P.Geol Chief Executive Officer Sankamap Metals Inc. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not approved nor disapproved this press release. Forward-Looking Statements Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this release constitute "forward-looking statements" or "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws including, without limitation, the timing, nature, scope and details regarding the Company's exploration plans and results at its projects. Such statements and information involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company, its projects, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Such statements can be identified by the use of words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "expect", "believe", "plan", "anticipate", "estimate", "scheduled", "forecast", "predict" and other similar terminology, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements reflect the company's current expectations regarding future events, performance and results and speak only as of the date of this release. Forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, the estimation of mineral resources and reserves, the realization of resource and reserve estimates, metal prices, taxation, the estimation, timing and amount of future exploration and development, capital and operating costs, the availability of financing, the receipt of regulatory approvals, environmental risks, title disputes and other matters. While the Company considers its assumptions to be reasonable as of the date hereof, forward-looking statements and information are not guarantees of future performance and readers should not place undue importance on such statements as actual events and results may differ materially from those described herein. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or information except as may be required by applicable securities laws. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 16, 2025) - Highland Critical Minerals Corp. (CSE: HLND) ("Highland" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of certain mineral claims in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut (the "Sy Property"), approximately 870 kilometres east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and 300 kilometres south of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in northern Canada, by the acquisition of all of the shares of a holding corporation that is the registered owner of the Sy Property (the "Acquisition"). The Sy Property consists of 4 contiguous mineral claims in Nunavut, being a total of 3,345 hectares. The Acquisition was previously announced in the Company's news release dated June 12, 2025. The region has been underexplored for gold and base metals. Terms of the Acquisition Under the terms of the Acquisition the Company issued 150,000 class A common shares of the Company to the sole shareholder of the entity which owned the claims that constitute the Sy Property at a price of $1.25 per share, being the closing price of the shares on the date immediately preceding the closing the closing of the Acquisition. The aggregate consideration paid to by the Company in respect of the Acquisition is valued at $187,500. The Company did not assume any long-term debt in connection with the Acquisition. The Company is now the sole shareholder of the entity that directly owns the Sy Property. The Acquisition was negotiated on an arm's length basis to the Company. No finder's fees were payable in connection with the Acquisition. About the Sy Property The most recent National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties ("NI 43-101") technical report relating to the Sy Property was completed by APEX Geoscience Ltd. ("Apex") in 2007 (the "Apex Report"). The Company has not carried out any exploration on the project area and the historic data mentioned in this news release via references to the Apex Report has not been confirmed in the field by Highland. Reliance on the data in the Apex Report as referenced in this news release is based on past professionals and explorationists found in historical reports, including the Apex Report. Currently there are no mineral reserves or estimates for the project area based on the Apex Report. The Apex Report is considered historical in nature. It is no longer current and should not be relied upon. The project is located in the Yathkyed Lake Greenstone Belt ("YLGB"). Similar Archean aged greenstone belts in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut have seen more exploration activity than the YLGB. These other nearby greenstone belts have similar geology and also host numerous gold and other base metal occurrences that include the Ferguson Lake Cu-Ni-PGM resource, Meadowbabk and Meliadine gold deposits. The previously mentioned gold deposits are in structurally altered Banded-Iron Formations ("BIF"). Previously historic exploration on the Property area revealed over 40 surface gold occurrences. Approximately 20 of the gold anomalies were considered high grade and extended over a strike length of historic drilling from 1986, conducted by Homestake Resources, intersected gold mineralization of up to 3.38 g/t of gold over 3.5 metres and 3.18 g/t of gold over 7.0 metres in a 3000 metre drill program. The YLGB has poor surface outcrop exposure but surface gold and copper mineralization has been historically documented. Modern geophysics has been limited. A Fugro DIGHEM V Helicopter-borne magnetic and electromagnetic ("EM") survey was carried out on a portion of the region in 2006. This historic geophysical survey yielded over 690 EM anomalies over a 1,178.3 line kilometre program that the survey company considered to be possibly associated with base metal mineralization. A small surface lithogeochemical and prospecting program carried out by Apex in 2007 yielded surface gold mineralization in numerous samples with grades up to 8.88 g/t of gold, geologically associated with BIFs and rock type contacts. This historic Au mineralization was hosted in sheared and altered BIFs. Highland is presently reviewing all the data sources and plans to develop an exploration plan for the upcoming future. Focus will be on the gold and copper potential of the project. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical data in this news release as current, and the Company is not treating the historical data as current. Highland does not have any more recent data available with respect to the historical data in the Apex Report and has not conducted sufficient work to establish the relevance and reliability of the historical data contained in the Apex Report. To verify and update this historical data to current NI 43-101 standards, additional work is required. This includes further drilling, a review of the geological model, and validation of previous findings under the oversight of a qualified person. Until such work is completed, investors are cautioned that the historical data does not meet current NI 43-101 standards, and any economic analysis or decisions based on the historical data should be avoided. ABOUT HIGHLAND CRITICAL MINERALS CORP. Highland is a mineral exploration and development company. Its activities consist of acquiring and exploring, mining properties to enhance shareholder value as it proceeds with the exploration work on the Church Property among other mining properties it may acquire and develop. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Carey Galeschuk, P.Geo., who is a "qualified person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Galeschuk is an independent consultant to Highland Critical Minerals Corp. For more information, please visit https://highlandcritical.com. Forward-Looking Statements Management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties near Highland's may not necessarily indicate mineralization on the Company's property. This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this new release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, without limitation, statements related to the expected benefits of the Acquisition and strategic rationale; the Company's plans and intentions for exploration and further review of existing data on the Sy Property; the potential for future mineralization or economic resources; the intention to verify and update historical data to current NI 43-101 standards; the anticipated enhancement of shareholder value through the Company's activities; the Company's business plans and objectives. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward- looking statements. The Company has applied several material assumptions in making such forward-looking statements, including without limitation: its ability to confirm the historical data disclosed in the Apex Report; its ability to verify and advance the Sy Property to current NI 43-101 standards; that it will be able to successfully plan and execute an exploration program for the Sy Property; and that the Company's acquisition and exploration activities will enhance shareholder value and lead to new opportunities for growth. Forward-looking information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to the risk that the Company may be unable to verify or validate the historical data contained in the Apex Report; that further exploration on the Sy Property yields no economically viable mineralization; that planned exploration programs may be delayed, revised or canceled; that historical data proves unreliable; risks associated with early-stage mineral properties and exploration activities; changes in commodity prices and general market conditions; and those risk factors disclosed in the Company's long-form prospectus dated May 9, 2025. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Disclaimer This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful, including the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act"), or any securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States unless registered under the 1933 Act and any applicable securities laws of any state of the United States or an applicable exemption from such registration requirements is available. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maxus Mining Inc. (Maxus or the Company) (CSE: MAXM | FRA: R7V), is pleased to announce that the Company has expanded its land holdings through strategic staking at the Altura Antimony Project (the Project or the Property) in British Columbia, Canada. The Company is currently undertaking a compilation of all available historic data on the Project to prepare its Phase 1 Exploration Plan for the Project. Morgan Verge, Technical Advisor of Maxus, commented, We are excited to announce the acquisition of additional claims via low-cost staking along the antimony-mineralized trend at the Altura Project. Historical work on the Property highlights significant mineral potential along strike, and we are well-positioned to advance exploration on this promising ground. Figure 1. Altura Project Outlining Claim Extension1 Altura Antimony Project The Project is comprised of two claim blocks, Altura West, positioned on the area of Dolly Varden, and Altura East, positioned between Whitewater and Brennan Mountains roughly 29 kilometres northeast of New Denver, British Columbia. The region is recognized for its strong antimony, silver, and gold potential (Please see Figure 1). Altura West The Altura West property covers a shear zone overprinted by quartz veining hosting disseminated pyrite and argentiferous tetrahedrite with minor stibnite and chalcopyrite. The vein system strikes east, dipping 55 degrees north. Quartz veining is 0.6 to 3.6 meters thick and has been traced for 600 meters along strike.2 A 4-kilogram sample of dumped material from a historic adit on the property assayed 1.3 grams per ton Au and 1,596 grams per ton Ag. There is a lack of geological information on the occurrence, however, the 1928 Minister of Mines Annual Report describes a 1.2m quartz vein which carries disseminated to massive stibnite hosted in (or associated with) serpentinite ultramafic rock locally altered to listwanite quartz-carbonate-mariposite.2 The Altura West block is on strike from Equinox Resources Inc.s recent antimony discovery as announced on November 8, 2024, which saw ultra-high grade naturally occurring antimony at their Alturas Project returning assays up to 69.98% Sb.3 Altura East The Altura East property is situated two kilometres northwest along strike of the Highland Surprise Mine, a past-producing mine defined by polymetallic veins containing gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper.4 The extension claim is situated northwest along strike of stratigraphy of Olympus East and West, two historic showings outlined by NE-striking subparallel veins associated with similar mineralization to the Highland Surprise Mine (gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper), highlighting the multi-element potential of the Altura East claims. Historic surface sampling in the Olympus East and West areas uncovered grades of 6.56 ounces per ton Ag; 0.95% Cu; 3.90% Pb; and 9.32% Zn.5 A shear zone trending 330 degrees has been mapped across the property, intersecting the serpentinite body along its western margin.6 Qualified Person Statement The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed, verified, and approved by Sean Hillacre, P.Geo., Director of the Company and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. Mr. Hillacre has examined information regarding the historical exploration at the Project, which includes a review of the historical sampling, analytical, and procedures underlying the information and opinions contained herein. Management cautions that historical results collected and reported by operators unrelated to Maxus have not been verified nor confirmed by its Qualified Person; however, the historical results create a scientific basis for ongoing work at the Project. Management further cautions that historical results, discoveries and published resource estimates on adjacent or nearby mineral properties, whether in stated current resource estimates or historical resource estimates, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be achieved on the Project. References 1 Klondike Silver Silvana Mine Project https://klondikesilver.com/site/assets/files/7481/ks_top_15_silver_past_producing_mines1.pdf?aut3t 2 Dolly Varden Prospect 11-Oct-1995, Ron McMillan MINFILE 0.82KSW130 https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/summary.aspx?minfilno=082KSW130 3 Equinox Resources November 8, 2024, Ultra High Grade Naturally Occurring Antimony at Alturas Project with Assays up to 69.98% Sb https://cdn-api.markitdigital.com/apiman-gateway/ASX/asx-research/1.0/file/2924-02878498-6A1236703 4 HIGHLAND SURPRISE, PHOENIX (L.3336), FLETCHER (L.5608), CUBA (L.5609), PAISLEY (L.5612), WHISTLER (L.5614), CONNIE FR. NO. 2 (L.5818), COLUMBIA FR., HAVANA (L.5610)- MINFILE 082KSW037 https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=082KSW037 5 Olympus West MINFILE 082KSW175 - https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=082KSW175 6 Olympus East MINFILE 082KSW174 - https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=082KSW174 7 NI 43-101 - Technical Report on the Penny Property British Columbia, NTS 82G/12 49 55 North Latitude -115 90 West Longitude, Derrick Strickland P.Geo., August 14, 2024. 8 Open File 1992-11, Map Number 10. 9 MILFILE No: 082FSW228 Loto 3, 1980 Grab Sample https://minfile.gov.bc.ca/report.aspx?f=PDF&r=Inventory_Detail.rpt&minfilno=082FSW228 10 Endurance Summarizes Antimony Results From The Reliance Gold Project, BC - Best Intervals Include 19.2% Antimony And 2.16 gpt Au Over 0.5 m In 2024 Drilling February 24, 2025 - https://endurancegold.com/news-releases/endurance-summarizes-antimony-results-from-the-reliance-gold-project-bc-best-intervals-include-19.2-antimony-and-2.16-gpt-au/ About Maxus Mining Inc. Maxus Mining Inc. (CSE: MAXM | FRA: R7V) is a mineral exploration company focused on locating, acquiring, and if warranted, developing economic mineral properties in premier jurisdictions. The Company is working towards progressing its diverse portfolio of exploration properties which includes approximately 7,244 hectares of prospective terrane comprising 3,700 hectares of terrane amongst four antimony projects, 3,120 hectares encompassing the Penny Copper Project & the remaining 422 hectares coming from the Lotto Tungsten Project. The Penny Copper Project covers approximately 3,122 hectares and has seen exploration activity throughout the last 100+ years with recent work including rock sampling and minor geological mapping.7 The Penny Copper Project is located near the major past producing Sullivan Mine at Kimberley, British Columbia, an area that has stimulated both junior and major exploration company activities in the past year. Additionally, the Penny Copper Project saw a 2017 work program return 17 grab samples, which returned copper values up to 1,046 ppm Cu (TK17-149c), 1,808 ppm Cu (TK17-28) and 2,388 ppm Cu (TK17-12)7. At the Quarry Antimony Project, in well-established British Columbia, Canada, one historical sample taken assayed 0.89 g/t Au, 3.8% Cu, 0.34% Zn, 42.5% Pb, and 0.65% g/t Ag and 20% Sb.8 A selected grab sample taken in 1980 at the Lotto Tungsten Project from a quartz vein with scheelite assayed 10.97% Wo 3 .9 Additionally, the Altura Antimony Project & the Hurley Antimony projects are strategically positioned; Altura is on strike from Equinox Resources recent antimony discovery which saw high-grade naturally occurring antimony with assays up to 69.98% Sb3; Hurley neighbours Endurance Gold Corp.s Reliance Gold Project which saw antimony results from 2024 work programs include 19.2% Sb and 2.16 g/t Au over 0.5 m encountered during the 2024 drilling program.10 On Behalf of the Board of Directors Scott Walters Chief Executive Officer, Director +1 (778) 374-9699 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Disclaimer for Forward-Looking Information This news release includes certain Forward-Looking Statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, "expect, target, plan, forecast, may, would, could, schedule and similar words or expressions, identify forward-looking statements or information. Forward-looking statements and forward-looking information relating to any future mineral production, liquidity, enhanced value and capital markets profile of Maxus, future growth potential for Maxus and its business, and future exploration plans are based on managements reasonable assumptions, estimates, expectations, analyses and opinions, which are based on managements experience and perception of trends, current conditions and expected developments, and other factors that management believes are relevant and reasonable in the circumstances, but which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the price of copper, gold, tungsten, antimony and other metals; costs of exploration and development; the estimated costs of development of exploration projects; Maxus ability to operate in a safe and effective manner and its ability to obtain financing on reasonable terms. This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of the Canadian securities laws. Statements, other than statements of historical fact, may constitute forward looking information and include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Project and its mineralization potential; the Companys objectives, goals, or future plans with respect to the Project; further exploration work on the Project in the future. With respect to the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things, the geological, metallurgical, engineering, financial and economic advice that the Company has received is reliable and are based upon practices and methodologies which are consistent with industry standards. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies. Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include, among others: fluctuations in commodity prices and currency exchange rates; uncertainties relating to interpretation of well results and the geology, continuity and grade of copper, gold, tungsten, antimony and other metal deposits; uncertainty of estimates of capital and operating costs, recovery rates, production estimates and estimated economic return; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the exploration and development of properties and the issuance of required permits; the need to obtain additional financing to develop properties and uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; the possibility of delay in exploration or development programs or in construction projects and uncertainty of meeting anticipated program milestones; uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals; increased costs and restrictions on operations due to compliance with environmental and other requirements; increased costs affecting the metals industry and increased competition in the metals industry for properties, qualified personnel, and management. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and the Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as required by law. The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 9, 2025) - Antimony Resources Corp. (CSE: ATMY) (FSE: K8J0) (the "Company" or "Antimony Resources" or "ATMY") is pleased to announce that it has closed its first tranche of the Non-Brokered Financing. Pursuant to the first tranche, Antimony... Read More A small group of overstretched and outmatched lawyers is fighting for the rights of men deported by the Trump administration and held in a notorious Salvadoran prison -- a David vs. Goliath battle that may end up in international courts. In a half-empty old schoolhouse outside San Salvador, lawyer Rene Valiente is trying to determine the fate of 252 Venezuelan migrants expelled from the United States in March without any kind of court hearing. He is the investigations coordinator for Cristosal, a human rights NGO that is challenging El Salvador's all-powerful president, Nayib Bukele, and his even more powerful US ally, President Donald Trump. For months, Valiente and his team have gone from jail to ministry to courthouse, trying to find out more about those being held at the tightly controlled CECOT facility, and to have the men's legal rights recognized. With both the Trump and Bukele administrations stonewalling, the lawyers have had little success. Valiente has no visitation rights, no proof the men are alive, and not even an official list of their names. "We've asked for information, but have repeatedly been rebuffed," Valiente told AFP. "They are in a kind of legal black hole." "We've filed 70 applications for habeas corpus. None have been resolved," he said, referring to prisoners' right to challenge their detention. On a laptop, Valiente shows a database of detainees that he and his colleagues have managed to cobble together despite the official silence. Some on the list were spotted by distraught family members in Hollywood-style images of chained and shorn deportees being bundled off planes and into jail. Others are like Jhoanna Sanguino, who saw her 24-year-old nephew's name on a list of detainees leaked to the media. "It's overwhelming to know nothing," she said. "Is he being fed? Does he get a sip of water? How is his health? - 'Crime against humanity'? - Trump has claimed the Venezuelans deported were "criminals" and "barbarians", mostly made up of gangsters, rapists, and murderers. But Cristosal's database tells a different story. The group has registered 152 individuals so far, and 90 percent of them have no criminal record. Cristosal's work appears to have earned the ire of Bukele -- who has consolidated power and packed the courts with allies since being elected in 2019. Valiente's colleague Ruth Lopez was abruptly detained in May and accused of illicit enrichment, a charge she denies. Days before her detention, she told AFP she had been working on documenting forced disappearances under Bukele's government. She is one of tens of thousands of people who have been detained under Bukele's state of emergency, often without court orders, the right to phone calls or even to see a lawyer. A further crackdown seems likely. Cristosal director Noah Bullock said that in Bukele's El Salvador "speaking out or asking something that is not aligned with the government entails the risk of being arrested." The lawyers are determined to help the Venezuelans, but expect little from a country where the president has near-absolute control. "We want to document these grave human rights violations, to leave a trace. For the moment we are exhausting all domestic legal channels" said Valiente. Ultimately, they may look to bodies like the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court, whose treaty, the Rome Statute, was ratified by El Salvador in 2016. "The Salvadoran government is obligated to report on the condition of the prisoners," said Venezuelan former diplomat Walter Marquez, whose Amparo Foundation represents dozens of the detainees. "Failing to do so is a crime against humanity, according to the Rome Statute, and could lead to international prosecution." Salvador Rios, a Salvadoran lawyer hired by the government in Caracas to represent 30 deportees, similarly believes that "sooner or later" Bukele will face justice. Commentary By Lee Harding No carbon tax will ever satisfy global-warming advocates, but by most measures, Canadas carbon tax is already too high. This unfortunate reality was brought to light by Resource Works, a B.C.-based non-profit research and advocacy organization. In March, one of their papers outlined the disproportionate and damaging effects of Canadas carbon taxes. The study found that the average carbon tax among the top 20 oil-exporting nations, excluding Canada, was $0.70 per tonne of carbon emissions in fiscal 2023. With Canada included, that average jumps to $6.77 per tonne. At least Canada demands the same standards for foreign producers as it does for domestic ones, right? Wrong. Most of Canadas oil imports come from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria, none of which impose a carbon tax. Only 2.8 per cent of Canadas oil imports come from the modestly carbon-taxing countries of the U.K. and Colombia. Canadas federal consumer carbon tax was $80 per tonne, set to reach $170 by 2030, until Prime Minister Mark Carney reduced it to zero on March 14. However, parallel carbon taxes on industry remain in place and continue to rise. Resource Works estimates Canadas effective carbon tax at $58.94 per tonne for fiscal 2023, while foreign oil entering Canada had an effective tax of just $0.30 per tonne. This results in a 196-fold disparity, effectively functioning as a domestic tariff against Canadian oil production, the research memo notes. Forget Donald TrumpOttawa undermines our country more effectively than anyone else. Canada is responsible for 1.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions, but the study estimates that Canada paid one-third of all carbon taxes in 2023. Mexico, with nearly the same emissions, paid just $3 billion in carbon taxes for 2023-24, far less than Canadas $44 billion. Resource Works also calculated that Canada alone raised the global per-tonne carbon tax average from $1.63 to $2.44. To be Canadian is to be heavily taxed. Historically, the Canadian dollar and oil and gas investment in Canada tracked the global price of oil, but not anymore. A disconnect began in 2016 when the Trudeau government cancelled the Northern Gateway pipeline and banned tanker traffic on B.C.s north coast. The carbon tax was introduced in 2019 at $15 per tonne, a rate that increased annually until this year. The study argues this economic burden, not shared by the rest of the world, has placed Canada at a competitive disadvantage by accelerating capital flight and reinforcing economic headwinds. This erosion of energy-sector investment has broader economic consequences, including trade balance pressures and increased exchange rate volatility. According to NASA, Canadian forest fires released 640 million metric tonnes of carbon in 2023, four times the amount from fossil fuel emissions. We should focus on fighting fires, not penalizing our fossil fuel industry. Carney praised Canadas carbon tax approach in his 2021 book Value(s), raising questions about how long his reprieve will last. He has suggested raising carbon taxes on industry, which would worsen Canadas competitive disadvantage. In contrast, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre argued that extracting and exporting Canadian oil and gas could displace higher-carbon-emitting energy sources elsewhere, helping to reduce global emissions. This approach makes more sense than imposing disproportionately high tax burdens on Canadians. Taxes wont save the world. Lee Harding is a research fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - Renowned city preacher and televangelist, James Maina Nganga of Neno Evangelism Centre, is at the center of a family drama after his son allegedly reported him to the police for assault. While preaching at his church along Haile Selassie Avenue, Nganga candidly narrated the altercation, revealing that he physically confronted his son, who had come to visit him while heavily intoxicated. My son came to visit me recently when drunk, and I rained blows on him. I dont entertain nonsense. How can you threaten my workers with a knife? Nganga posed. He went on to disclose that his son responded by reporting the matter to the police and even obtained a P3 form, which is used to document physical injuries in legal complaints related to assault. I hear he has reported me to the police and obtained a P3 form. I dont entertain nonsense. Mimi ni ex-prisoner, the preacher added defiantly, referencing his past brushes with the law. Nganga, who is no stranger to controversy, also shared that his relationship with his son has been rocky for some time, saying he has blocked him on the phone and distanced himself emotionally. I have even blocked him on the phone, he stated, suggesting that the relationship has deteriorated beyond repair. Watch the video. Pastor NGANGA reported to the police by his drunk son after assaulting him pic.twitter.com/9ptSNyCTrP DAILY POST (@dailypost_ke) July 15, 2025 The Kenyan DAILY POST Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - Former nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba has been slapped with a Ksh10.5 million fine after a court found her guilty of defaming Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye through malicious social media posts. In a ruling delivered on Monday, July 14th, Magistrate Ruguru Ngotho declared that Orwobas statements - shared on her WhatsApp status, Facebook page, and X (formerly Twitter) - were defamatory, libelous, and intended to damage Nyegenyes reputation. The words posted and published by the defendant concerning the plaintiff are defamatory, read part of the judgment. The court awarded Nyegenye Ksh8 million in general damages and Ksh2.5 million in exemplary and aggravated damages. Orwoba was also ordered to issue a public apology across her social media platforms and in a national newspaper within 30 days. Failure to comply will see her pay an additional Ksh1 million in damages. The court also issued a permanent injunction barring her or her agents from publishing any further defamatory statements about Nyegenye. The case stems from a September 2023 lawsuit where Orwoba accused the Clerk of soliciting sexual favors, sharing his photo with the caption: How do people who solicit for sex in the workplace look like? The court found no evidence to support the claims, stating that her actions were meant to spite and publicly disgrace Nyegenye, not seek justice. By Catherine Sas, K.C. Special to The Post Its no secret that Canadas immigration program has experienced considerable upheaval in the past couple of years. Indeed, the vast majority of our blogs in 2024 were all discussing some aspect of change to virtually all of Canadian immigration, whether temporary, permanent, or to obtain citizenship. Last week, my partner Victor examined the statistical data demonstrating the actual outcomes of these changes on the immigrant population in Canada and how the changes are not yet having the desired effect on our immigration levels that the government intended. When implemented changes dont provide the desired results, the impact on Canadas immigration community can be harsh. Lets review some of the current realities facing prospective immigrants to Canada. International students The changes facing international students are dramatic and all-encompassing. Aspiring immigrants who came years ago with the promise of being able to qualify for permanent resident (PR) status are often no longer able to do so. Having obtained a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) and not being able to obtain another, many will need to obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to be able to remain working in Canada. We are routinely advising our international student clients to forgo the option of obtaining a PGWP after graduation and return home to obtain some foreign work experience and then return to pursue graduate studies in Canada and subsequently apply for their PGWP. You can only have one PGWP - ever! With the caps implemented on the number of international students to Canada, as well as the reduced chances for obtaining PR, applications for study permits have plummeted. For those who still want to try and come to Canada to study, refusal rates have skyrocketed. It requires extreme tenacity to be an international student in Canada in this current environment. Express Entry applicants The Comprehensive Ranking Scores (CRS) for Express Entry (EE) applicants have been elevated for the past couple of years, such that most people cant qualify, and these are often graduate students with master's or PHD degrees. Furthermore, the EE draws for Invitations to Apply (ITAs) have been made predominantly for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applicants, shutting out overseas applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category. The reduced levels for both permanent and temporary immigrants are intended to facilitate those persons already in Canada to obtain permanent residence before opening the doors to those abroad. Aspiring foreign immigrants will need to determine a strategy to come to Canada on a temporary basis as either a student or worker and work towards PR from within Canada. Francophone applicants With the challenges to qualifying for EE, many people have chosen to apply as Francophone applicants with a lower CRS score to qualify for a targeted draw. Obviously, proof of French language proficiency is an essential requirement. However, this door has also been closed since March 21, 2025, being the latest draw. It is anticipated that the pool of aspiring Francophone applicants is growing such that the CRS points necessary to receive an ITA are also likely to increase. Business applicants As of April 2024, Canadas business immigration program has been both greatly reduced (for the Start Up Visa category) and completely frozen until the end of 2026 (for the Self-Employed category). It is still possible to obtain work permits for some business applicants as either Intra-Company Transferees or pursuant to some international trade agreements. Obtaining a work permit can give business people the opportunity to establish their businesses and see how our business program transitions in the coming years. For many business people, this degree of uncertainty is not a risk that they are willing to take. Many of our blogs in the past few years have emphasized the need to develop an immigration strategy, and that remains prudent advice. The straightforward path to permanent residence has all but disappeared. We are routinely advising people to develop a tailored path towards PR status that may start with a work or study permit and extend this status, often several times, or switch from worker to student or vice-versa. We recommend aspiring immigrants to maximize their options through learning both English and French (and not speaking their native language at home after work or class) or have one spouse attend graduate school in Canada so that the other spouse can have an open work permit. In todays current reality, this often translates into years of temporary status with the goal to ultimately qualify for permanent residence, but the fact is that after spending many years in Canada, many people simply will not be able to qualify. Counselling clients in these challenging times is not easy. It is difficult to look clients in the eye, day after day and tell them that there are very few options and many times none at all. In such circumstances as these, I am reminded of the comfort of the Serenity prayer: God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The Courage to change the things I can; and The Wisdom to know the difference. Recently I had clients who accepted their Canadian reality and came to the difficult decision to return home to India. The principal applicant wife came to Canada as an international student pursuing a masters degree. Both her and her husband had bachelors degrees and several years of management level work experience from their home country and were highly proficient in English. After graduation the wife obtained a management level position and a strong wage of $40 per hour. However after a couple of years she was laid off and she was unable to find employment afterwards. Her husband had also struggled in finding suitable Canadian employment. Notwithstanding the wifes combination of foreign education and several years of foreign work experience, a Canadian masters degree, two years of Canadian work experience and strong language proficiency (CLB 7 or higher) she was unable to score a high enough CRS score to garner an ITA under Express Entry and without an employer she could not pursue a PNP application. They realized that their time in Canada was not wasted and with their international education and work experience they would have better options back home. As hard as this decision was to make, this couple had the wisdom to accept their immigration reality. In our current Canadian immigration environment, many others will need to do the same. For a summary of immigration changes, please refer to our blog Navigating the Winds of Change to https://canadian-visa-lawyer.com/navigating-the-winds-of-change-to-canad...s Immigration Program: A Year in Review and for a review of the impact of these changes on Canadas immigration levels, please refer to our blog Immigration Levels Review: When Policy Meets Reality. Catherine Sas, K.C., has over 35 years of legal experience. She provides a full range of immigration services and is a leading immigration practitioner (Lexpert, Whos Who Legal, Best Lawyers in Canada). Go to canadian-visa-lawyer.com or email catherine@sasanding.com. Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - Kenyas comedy scene is mourning the untimely loss of Zakaria Kariuki, better known as KK Mwenyewe, the gifted impersonator whose spot-on mimicry of former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua lit up TikTok and Instagram. KK passed away at Kiambu Level 4 Hospital after a brief illness, leaving fans and fellow creatives heartbroken. His satirical sketches - complete with Gachagua's signature walk, speech, and oversized suits - earned him national attention post-2022 elections. But KK was more than just an online sensation. While still pursuing a Computer Science degree at Kisii University, he used comedy to reflect societys truths with courage and wit. Among the first to eulogize him was Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, who described KK as a brave young patriot and cultural voice. Through satire and art, Mr. KK courageously held a mirror to society awakening, educating, and uniting, he said. KK collaborated with icons like Eric Omondi and even earned a nod from Martha Karua. His bold humor bridged politics and pop culture, offering laughter and insight in equal measure. May he Rest in peace. Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - A cloud of sorrow hung over Ndumberi village as 12-year-old Bridget Njoki was laid to rest by friends, family and classmates, in an emotional burial ceremony. Bridget, a Standard 6 pupil, was reportedly shot and killed by police officers during a chaotic crackdown on demonstrators in the Kiambu area. Her death has sparked national outrage, with human rights groups and civil society condemning what they describe as a pattern of police brutality targeting innocent lives. Bridgets classmates marched solemnly behind her coffin, tears streaming down their faces. Teachers from her school joined the procession, many unable to contain their grief. Her mother, overcome by emotion, had to be supported by relatives throughout the funeral. See photos. Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - Chaos erupted during an empowerment event in Ruiru hosted by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, after some members of the local community, predominantly from the Kikuyu ethnic group, stole items meant for distribution. In a now-viral video, several individuals can be seen making off with water tanks and other goods brought to the venue for donation. The situation quickly escalated as police tried to restore order, chasing after the culprits in a dramatic scene that nearly led to a stampede. Motorbikes were seen parked nearby, allegedly used to ferry the stolen items to unknown destinations as chaos broke out. The incident has drawn criticism online, with many Kenyans condemning the lack of order and respect during what was meant to be a development-focused forum. Others highlighted it as a sign of deepening desperation and poverty on the ground. Despite the disruption, the forum continued under tight security, with DP Kindiki addressing residents on the Governments ongoing empowerment and development programs. Watch the video. The moment KIKUYUs stormed DP KINDIKIs empowerment forum in Ruiru and stole tanks in broad daylight pic.twitter.com/DVC0D1paTz DAILY POST (@dailypost_ke) July 15, 2025 The Kenyan DAILY POST Tuesday, July 15, 2025 - A female politician allied to Kalonzo Musyokas Wiper party arrived at a burial ceremony in Ukambani visibly intoxicated and caused an embarrassing scene as she addressed the crowd. The politician made incoherent statements as she drummed up support for Kalonzo, leaving mourners visibly uncomfortable. At one point, attempts were made by the emcee to gently usher her away from the microphone, but she resisted, insisting she had a message to deliver. Watch the video. Is she sober? pic.twitter.com/DTZ2uts8yy The Kenyan Vigilante (@KenyanSays) July 15, 2025 The Kenyan DAILY POST By Basema Al-Alami The Conversation British Columbia Premier David Eby recently called on Prime Minister Mark Carney to designate the India-based Bishnoi gang a terrorist organization. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown echoed the request days later. The RCMP has also alleged the gang may be targeting pro-Khalistan activists in Canada. These claims follow a series of high-profile incidents in India linked to the Bishnoi network, including the murder of a Punjabi rapper in New Delhi, threats against a Bollywood actor and the killing of a Mumbai politician in late 2024. Ebys request raises broader legal questions. What does it mean to label a group a terrorist organization in Canada, and what happens once that label is applied? Under Section 83.05 of the Criminal Code, the federal government can designate an entity a terrorist organization if there are reasonable grounds to believe it has engaged in, supported or facilitated terrorist activity. The term entity is defined broadly, covering individuals, groups, partnerships and unincorporated associations. The process begins with intelligence and law enforcement reports submitted to the public safety minister, who may then recommend listing the group to cabinet if its believed the legal threshold is met. If the cabinet agrees, the group is officially designated a terrorist organization. A designation carries serious consequences: assets can be frozen, and financial dealings become criminalized. Banks and other institutions are protected from liability if they refuse to engage with the group. Essentially, the designation cuts the group off from economic and civic life, often without prior notice or public hearing. As of July 2025, Canada has listed 86 entities, from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to far-right and nationalist organizations. In February, the government added seven violent criminal groups from Latin America, including the Sinaloa cartel and La Mara Salvatrucha, known as the MS-13. This marked a turning point: for the first time, Canada extended terrorism designations beyond ideological or political movements to include transnational criminal networks. This shift reflects a deeper redefinition of what Canada considers a national security threat. For much of the post-9/11 era, counterterrorism efforts in Canada have concentrated on groups tied to ideological, religious or political agendas most often framed through the lens of Islamic terrorism. This has determined not only who is targeted, but also what forms of violence are taken seriously as national security concerns. That is why the recent expansion of terrorism designations first with the listing of Mexican cartels in early 2025, and now potentially with the Bishnoi gang feels so significant. It signals a shift away from targeting ideology alone and toward labelling profit-driven organized crime as terrorism. While transnational gangs may pose serious public safety risks, designating them terrorist organizations could erode the legal and political boundaries that once separated counterterrorism initiatives from criminal law. Canadas terrorism listing process only adds to these concerns. The decision is made by the cabinet, based on secret intelligence, with no obligation to inform the group or offer a chance to respond. Most of the evidence remains hidden, even from the courts. While judicial review is technically possible, it is limited, opaque and rarely successful. In effect, the label becomes final. It brings serious legal consequences like asset freezes, criminal charges and immigration bans. But the informal fallout can be just as harsh: banks shut down accounts, landlords back out of leases, and employers cut ties. Even without a trial or conviction, the stigma of being associated with a listed group can dramatically change someones life. Using terrorism laws to go after violent criminal networks like the Bishnoi gang may seem justified. But it quietly expands powers that were originally designed for specific types of threats. It also stretches a national security framework already tainted by racial and political bias. For more than two decades, Canadas counterterrorism laws have disproportionately targeted Muslim and racialized communities under a logic of pre-emptive suspicion. Applying those same powers to organized crime, especially when it impacts immigrant and diaspora communities, risks reproducing that harm under a different label. Canadians should be asking: what happens when tools built for exceptional threats become the default response to complex criminal violence? As the federal government considers whether to label the Bishnoi gang a terrorist organization, the real question goes beyond whether the group meets the legal test. Its about what kind of legal logic Canada is endorsing. Terrorism designations carry sweeping powers, with little oversight and lasting consequences. Extending those powers to organized crime might appear pragmatic, but it risks normalizing a process that has long operated in the shadows, shaped by secrecy and executive discretion. As national security law expands, Canadians should ask not just who gets listed, but how those decisions are made and what broader political agendas they might serve. Basema Al-Alami is a doctoral (S.J.D.) candidate at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. 1 of 1 Hindustan Zinc Integrates AI to Optimize Zinc Production Processes khaskhabar.com : Wed, 16 July 2025 4:40 PM Company Deploys AI-Powered Automation to Enhance Efficiency and Sustainability Udaipur. Hindustan Zinc Limited (NSE: HINDZINC), Indias onlyand the worlds largestintegrated zinc producer, has taken a major leap forward in its digital transformation journey by deploying a cutting-edge AI-powered automation tool aimed at optimizing zinc production processes. The innovative system leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models to recommend optimal dosages of key chemical consumables such as zinc dust, sodium sulphate, lime, and cement. By doing so, it ensures consistently high-quality outputs while maximizing operational efficiency. Trained on vast volumes of historical data, the system offers predictive and adaptive process control across multiple operations, significantly improving production performance. This breakthrough is part of Hindustan Zincs broader strategy to embrace emerging technologiesincluding AI, ML, computer vision, drone technology, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR)to transform key aspects of its business. These technologies are being applied to areas such as process optimization, metal recovery, asset reliability, productivity enhancement, and sustainability. Developed in collaboration with deep-tech startup Ripik.AI under the aegis of Vedanta SparkVedanta Groups global corporate acceleratorthe automation tool minimizes manual dependency by automating the dosing of chemical consumables. This aligns with the companys vision to integrate intelligent automation and agile operations across its value chain. Our commitment to technological innovation is central to our aspiration of becoming a truly intelligent enterprise, said Arun Misra, CEO, Hindustan Zinc Limited. By automating manual processes and leveraging real-time data analytics, we are reducing human dependency, enabling faster insights, and optimizing resource consumption to deliver exceptional operational outcomes. As part of its digital transformation roadmap, Hindustan Zinc has also integrated real-time data analytics platforms and robust IT-OT (Information Technology Operational Technology) systems to ensure optimal resource utilization. These solutions have been implemented across the companys three major smelting facilitiesChanderiya Smelting Complex in Chittorgarh, Dariba Smelting Complex in Rajsamand, and Zinc Smelter Debari in Udaipur. The system seamlessly ingests data from the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), Distributed Control Systems (DCS), and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) to deliver advanced process control and actionable insights. Currently, Hindustan Zinc is working with over 40 tech startups on more than 60 active projects, while also evaluating use-cases from nearly 50 other startups under the Vedanta Spark program. This initiative serves as a unique innovation platform that partners with emerging startups to address critical business challenges through transformative technologies. Under Vedanta Spark, Hindustan Zinc has explored and deployed a wide range of technologies including AI/ML, computer vision, drone surveillance, IoT, and AR/VR. These innovations support key business objectives such as enhanced metal recovery, process accuracy, equipment monitoring, and long-term sustainability. To further accelerate this shift, the company has also established a first-of-its-kind Digital Collaboration Centre, which consolidates real-time data from various business units to enable data-driven decision-making across operations. As part of its forward-looking digital strategy, Hindustan Zinc has rolled out AI-powered computer vision solutions and real-time industrial diagnostics in collaboration with new-age startups. These technologies are being used to monitor equipment performance and deliver proactive maintenance insights, thus improving safety, reducing downtime, and increasing overall productivity. A Vedanta Group company, Hindustan Zinc is not only the worlds largest integrated zinc producer but also ranks among the top five global silver producers. With a dominant 77% market share in India's primary zinc market, the company plays a critical role in the country's industrial landscape. Hindustan Zincs commitment to environmental and operational excellence has been globally recognized. It was named the worlds most sustainable company in the metals and mining sector for the second consecutive year by the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2024. Demonstrating leadership in green innovation, the company also introduced EcoZenAsia's first low-carbon, green zinc brand. Produced using renewable energy, EcoZen offers a 75% lower carbon footprint compared to traditional zinc production. Furthermore, Hindustan Zinc is a certified 3.32x Water Positive organization, highlighting its commitment to responsible water stewardship. As an energy transition metals company, Hindustan Zinc continues to lead the way in providing critical resources for a greener and more sustainable future. Through innovation, automation, and strategic partnerships, the company is reshaping the future of mining and metals. A CORN field in Busherstown went up in flames on the hottest day of the year on Saturday, taking over 40 firefighters hours to get it under control and extinguished. The blaze took hold in a field near Bennekerry in the 30-degree heat at around 4.30pm on Saturday, bringing most of the countys entire fire service to the scene. Forty-three firefighters battled the inferno until 9.30pm until it was deemed safe. We contained it to one field and managed to prevent it from spreading into other fields, said Ger Griffin, acting senior assistant chief fire officer. It was the ground conditions they were ripe for the spread of fire. Firefighters from Hacketstown, Tullow, Bagenalstown and Carlow spent hours in the searing heat as they fought the blaze with four fire trucks and three water tankers. They were assisted by local farmers who dug trenches, known as fire breaks, to prevent it from spreading. The blaze broke out following a warning from the Department of the Environment and Met Eireann about the dangers of fire because of the extreme heat and the dryness of the ground. Its not known what caused the fire in the corn field. There were extremely difficult conditions to work in 30 degrees plus the heat of the fire. It was a long time to wear a fire kit in that heat. It was very challenging, but it was a fantastic job done by our crews, assisted by the farmers. Were very proud of them, said Mr Griffin. Commentary By Bill Whitelaw Its time to face the stark reality: if Canada continues to export raw materials without adding value, we risk cementing our status as nothing more than a supplier to wealthier nations. This is the existential threat facing Canadas natural resource economy, and it must be addressed before its too late. The staples trap, a concept introduced by political economist Harold Innis in the 1930s, describes the cycle in which a country exports raw resourceslike oil, minerals and timberwithout processing or refining them into higher-value products. This reliance on unprocessed materials leaves the economy vulnerable to fluctuations in global demand and prices. Innis warned that, without a shift toward value-added production, Canada would remain locked in economic subordination, forever serving the needs of wealthier nations that profit from refining and using the finished products. His warning is as relevant today as ever. While LNG Canadas success in liquefied natural gas exports marks progress, exporting raw hydrocarbons alone wont break the cycle of resource dependency. Canada must move beyond exporting raw materials and focus on creating products that drive greater economic value both domestically and internationally. For example, Canada exports raw oil to other countries, where it is refined into gasoline and other products, which are then sold back to us at a higher price. This not only leaves Canada vulnerable to price fluctuations, but also prevents us from fully capturing the value of our own resources. Canada can break free from this cycle by focusing on innovation and developing industries that add value to these resources. Investing in sectors like clean technology and advanced manufacturing will drive economic growth, create high-paying jobs and build a more resilient economy that benefits Canadians across the country. However, Canada is currently struggling to keep pace with global innovation leaders. Ranked 14th on the Global Innovation Index, we have much work to do before we can claim technological leadership. The Carney governments aspirations to lead the G7 can only be realized if we adopt innovation-focused policies that invest in education, research and development. The stakes are high. Inniss concepts of core-periphery tensions and forward linkages provide a roadmap for the future. Core-periphery tensions describe the imbalance between resource-rich countries and more developed economies that benefit from their resources, while forward linkages suggest that Canada should focus on boosting productivity through value-added processes before we export. Public policy must prioritize value-added strategies, such as technological innovation, to enhance productivity and foster new industries within our resource sectors. Canada must align policy with innovation if it truly wants to become an energy superpower, not just a resource exporter. Lets redefine what it means to be an energy powerhouse. The future isnt just about exporting raw materialsits about exporting the expertise and innovation that drive sustainable economic growth, job creation and prosperity. By fostering innovation across sectors like energy, agriculture and technology, we can ensure that our natural resources become a launching pad for broader economic growth. If we fail to make this pivot, Canadas economic future will remain tied to a vulnerable, resource-dependent model that stifles its potential. Bill Whitelaw is a director and advisor to many industry boards, including the Canadian Society for Evolving Energy, which he chairs. THE 37th Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival will be opened by Kildare South TD and Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon on Friday next, 18 July. Based in Newbridge College, the event will run until Thursday, 24 July. The festival celebrates the life and interests of the 19th-century poet, artist, and philosopher, GM Hopkins. A packed programme will include talks and lectures, a piano recital by Hans Palsson, an art exhibition, a creative writing workshop, and a celebrity concert by legendary traditional Irish musicians Frankie Gavin and Noel Hill. During the evening, a Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Noel Hill. A nightly festival club in O'Rourke's pub will feature performances from a number of highly talented local musicians. Among the lectures during the Festival will be Apologia by Desmond Egan (keynote), What Heart Heard Of by Katherine Coles of the University of Utah, and Oxford Made Us Catholics by Kevin Fagan of the California Polytechnic State University, USA. A parallel Youth Programme for the Festival will be held for the duration of the Festival, and there will also be a Field Trip to Clongowes Wood College on the Sunday afternoon. A highlight of the Monday will be a Poetry Ireland evening, with readings by Diarmuid Johnson, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, and Desmond Egan. An idea of the global reach of the GM Hopkins ethos is represented by A Taste of Japan, which will feature a Shamisen recital and its history and place in Japanese culture, a Noh Theatre song, and an Origami display. Display by Miho Takahashi The Artistic Director of the Festival is its founder, poet Desmond Egan, and the whole event is organised by the Gerard Manley Hopkins Society with support from Kildare County Council, Newbridge College, Newbridge Silver, and Poetry Ireland. Further information and booking for events from the Conference Office between 9 am and 6pm at 085 2732568. THE KILDARE-NEWBRIDGE MD Committee appointed cllr Noel Heavey as Mayor and cllr Brian OLoughlin as Deputy Mayor of the Municipal District Committee, at their annual meeting, which was held in Aras Chill Dara this morning. New Cathaoirleach of the Kildare-Newbridge MD looked forward to the road ahead in his new position and said: Im conscious of the body of work in front of us. He also acknowledged the fantastic work of his predecessor cllr Peggy ODwyer, and called her year in leadership super impressive. He said: I wish to sincerely thank Peggy for the work she did for her efficiency and fairness. I undertake to do my living best. I will be fair to the best of my abilities to everyone. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Cllr Maurice Shortall (Ind) is set to table a motion relating to 'properties accommodating International Protection Applicants' at the next plenary meeting of Kilkenny County Council (July 21, 2025). The local councillor is requesting that the local authority "write to Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O Callaghan to withdraw all planning exemptions for properties accommodating International Protection Applicants." READ NEXT: 'You're our very own hero' - Kilkenny man paraded locally after gold medal win The motion continues: "This will ensure that all properties go through the normal planning process. Also to request that the Community Engagement Team communicate with communities prior to signing of contracts for International Protection accommodation which will allow for full community engagement." Cllr Shortall confirmed that the decision to table the motion was made "after listening to many constituents over the last twelve months." READ NEXT: Fascinating Kilkenny couple feature prominently in new documentary film "Ireland has a very rigorous planning system for simple planning applications, yet the government think its okay for wealthy developers to profit off people coming into this country," he said. "The current system is not fit for purpose and gives advantage to make the rich richer." READ NEXT: 'Many of us have been affected' - Kilkenny men to take on epic challenge Coverage of the plenary meeting will be provided here on Kilkenny Live and in next week's Kilkenny People. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE What can we do about the situation in Gaza? Thats one of the questions that will be probed at an upcoming event in Kilkenny City. Senator Frances Black, Senator Patricia Stephenson and Cllr Sean O hArgain will speak at a public meeting on Palestine and the campaign for the Occupied Territories Bill on Monday, July 21 at 7pm in the Club House Hotel, Kilkenny. This event has been organised by the Kilkenny Community Palestine Solidarity Group. READ NEXT: Fascinating Kilkenny couple feature prominently in new documentary film Topics will include events in Gaza, East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and speakers will discuss ongoing actions at Government and EU level and locally in Kilkenny aimed at securing peace, stopping the genocide and ending apartheid to bring a better future for Palestine/Israel. Senator Frances Black has led the campaign to end imports into Ireland from illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land for over seven years the Occupied Territories Bill was originally passed in 2018. Senator Black will give an update on the progress of the Bill through the Oireachtas and on the current redrafting as it moves through amendment, she hopes, towards enactment as law. READ NEXT: 'You're our very own hero' - Kilkenny man paraded locally after gold medal win People of all ages have been taking part in the weekly ceasefire vigil on The Parade on Wednesday evenings (5.30 to 6pm). The vigil was started in October 2023 by Kevin Shore (PBP) and Aoife Bourke (IPSC) along with the Kilkenny Refugee Support Group. The Kilkenny Community Palestine Solidarity Group was formed in March 2024 by people attending the vigil so that individuals from different parties and those with no particular affiliation could come together to organise actions in support of Palestinian human rights. Members have taken part in vigils, national demonstrations, boycotts of Israeli goods, political lobbying, and have organised public meetings, music events, film nights and other community activities. READ NEXT: 'Many of us have been affected' - Kilkenny men to take on epic challenge The group is pleased to host this meeting and calls on all community groups and individuals in Kilkenny who want to stand up for Gaza to join a march through Kilkenny on Saturday, August 2, in solidarity with the people of Palestine, gathering at The Parade at 1pm. All are welcome to the meeting. There is no entry charge and all donations will go to UNRWA. FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS, CLICK HERE Hi @Maori_Party. I'm possibly to blame for a lot of things. But I'm pretty sure I had nothing to do with @HelenClarkNZ's Foreshore and Seabed legislation. That came through in 2004; I only arrived in NZ in 2003. And I had nothing to do with the Marine and Coastal legislation. pic.twitter.com/YdySAvzAji Im a little late to this because I dont monitor the UK media daily but on the 17th of March 2025, a final chapter in a crucial battle of military history came to an end with the death of 105-year-old Group Captain John Paddy Hemingway of the Royal Air Force who flew Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain. Originally from Dublin, Ireland he joined the RAF in March 1938 and saw constant action during the Battle of France, the Battle of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain where he was shot down three times and in 1941 was award the Distinguished Flying Cross. He served as an air traffic controller during the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France and served out the remainder of the war in Italy where he was shot down a fourth time! He remained in service with the RAF rising through the ranks to Group Captain when he retired in 1969. The term The Few quickly became an appellation of endearment given to the 2,927 fighter pilots of the RAF (and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy) who fought and successfully defended Great Britain from the onslaught of the German Luftwaffe in the summer and autumn of 1940. It was an endearment endowed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill in his speech on August 20, 1940, to the House of Commons given at the height of the Battle of Britain where, praising the brave and heroic efforts of the fighter pilots said, Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. From thence on the term The Few came to represent all the pilots Churchill referred to and it has stuck ever since. Whilst 80% of The Few were British, the RAFs pilot ranks during the Battle of Britain were joined by pilots from the conquered nations of Europe: France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Czechoslovakia as well as Britains former colonies: Canada, Australia, South Africa, Rhodesia and 135 pilots from New Zealand including the most prominent, Air Vice Marshall Keith Park from Auckland who was the head of 11 Group, the geographical division of RAF Fighter Command that covered the vital airfields in the counties south of London which bore the brunt of the fighting during the Battle of Britain. Whilst the RAF was ultimately victorious in the Battle, it was in fact a close-run thing with the outcome of the battle closely contested for two months as the Luftwaffe mercilessly bombed the airfields of the south of England for 59 consecutive days. Whilst the installation of radar and the sophisticated defense network of regional plotting rooms used radars findings to guide the defenders to the incoming German bombers and fighters with near pinpoint accuracy, nonetheless the toll of lost Spitfires and Hurricanes and pilots from the airfield bombings was outstripping the ability of the British to build new fighter planes and train new pilots. Had the Germans persisted with this tactic, they may well have won the battle. The iconic 1969 movie The Battle of Britain accurately details this knife edge situation and of the circumstances surrounding how the battle fortuitously shifted to the Blitz of London after a Heinkel bomber crew, lost over the docks of London, dropped unused bombs on the city prompting Churchill to order a retaliatory raid undertaken by 95 small Wellington bombers (then the RAFs largest bomber) on Berlin. Whilst the ordinance dropped on Berlin was light and the damage to Nazi Party HQ and the Reichstag was minimal, Hitler was so incensed that he ordered the Luftwaffe to switch its huge air raids from the RAF fighter squadrons to the city of London, specifically the docks and the East End. Whilst 25,000 civilians were to die in the Blitz and vast swaths of the city were leveled to rubble, the Blitz not only failed to break the resolve of the British people but the indefatigable head of Fighter Command (Air Chief Marshall Hugh Dowding) was able to use the respite from the bombing of his airfields to rebuild his shattered fleet of fighters and train more pilots and through the late summer and autumn of 1940, gradually the RAF clawed back supremacy of the skies over England resulting in the Luftwaffe sustaining crippling losses such that Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion (the plan to invade England) and began to shift his sights to the planning of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. This tactical blunder cost Hitler the Battle of Britain and an undefeated UK was able to anchor the eventual Allied fight back and then invasion of Europe in 1944. Victory in the Battle of Britain was a crucial chapter of the Second World War as it ensured Britain was not invaded. The seeming miraculous nature of the deliverance and Churchills shepherding of Britain on to victory with the US and the Soviets means The Battle of Britain and the Few hold an inestimable special place in the hearts of the British to this day. John Allman Hemingway 19 July 1919 to 17 March 2025 RIP Shenandoah, IA (51601) Today Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 87F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 72F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Weather Alert ...EXTREME HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM CDT THURSDAY... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 110. * WHERE...Portions of southwest Illinois and central, east central, and southeast Missouri. * WHEN...Until 7 PM CDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events. * ADDITIONAL DETAILS...The long duration of this event is likely to worsen heat related impacts, and additional extensions may be needed beyond Thursday as forecast confidence increases. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. People in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Area can get information about cooling centers or energy assistance related to the excessive heat by calling the United Way of Greater Saint Louis at 800-427-4626, or if calling from a land line phone dial 2-1-1. You can also call Cool Down Saint Louis at 314-241-7668. && We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. WITH prospective candidates lining up seeking nominations to contest the upcoming Presidential Election, Laois Independent Republican Dail Deputy Brian Stanley has thrown his weight behind Independent TD Catherine Connolly after she officially declared that she will be contesting for the office. The Laois TDs support for Catherine Connolly follows on from the announcement last week that his group in the county has been renamed Independent Republicans Laois. The groups representative in Laois County Council cllr Catherine Dwane Stanley said the group made the decision to rename after a huge influx of members signed up who were willing to join in local campaigns to improve services and supports around the county. Cllr Dwane Staney, who is the wife of Brian Stanley and who both broke away from Sinn Fein said: Brian went into the general election and was elected as an Independent Republican. I too resigned from Sinn Fein. Since then weve had huge interest from people looking to join up. Indeed many former Sinn Fein members from around the county have come onboard. Asked whats the difference between Independent Republicans Laois and local political parties that are already campaigning on issues affecting people, cllr Dwane Stanley said: We have no line managers. Were not bound by party whips or structures and we dont toe the line of party diktats. We consider ourselves to be centre left in terms of our policies. All those who have joined us have a common purpose. They are all from the community, honest, hardworking and trustworthy. Theres some very good people involved who are currently active in their own communities and reflect the needs of them. Cllr Dwane Stanley said that the group is currently involved in a number of local campaigns and issues such as the provision of a publicly run nursing home in Portlaoise, the provision of affordable and cost-rental housing around Laois, a Primary Care Centre for Portlaoise, additional primary and secondary school places for those with additional needs and extra services for those with disabilities. On national issues, cllr Dwane Stanley said members of Independent Republicans Laois are involved in the Palestinian crisis campaign and are taking a very active part in the retention of Irish Neutrality campaign. She said that the group is holding a fundraising 10km walk on Saturday 13 September at 1pm on Abbeyleix Bog and invites everyone along for a good day out. Cllr Dwane Stanley said that anyone interested in finding our more about the groups policies or about how to join should phone their office at 5 Church Street, Portlaoise on 057 86 62851. Former Palmer Township police officer John "J.T." Smoke, assigned to Easton Area High School, was sentenced Wednesday, July 16, 2025, to spend a maximum of nearly two years in prison over contact with an underage student. A former Palmer Township police officer assigned to Easton Area High School received his punishment Wednesday for contact with an underage student. John J.T. Smoke, of Bangor, had pleaded guilty May 22 to corruption of minors in connection with the investigation. Northampton County Judge Jennifer Sletvold on Wednesday sentenced Smoke to nine to 24 months, minus two days, in the county prison, according to a news release from the county district attorney, Stephen Baratta. The allegation was that Smoke sent explicit photographs to an underage student, Barattas office said in a news release after the sentencing. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that Smoke contacted an underage student at inappropriate hours, that he sent this student money via CashApp, and that he disseminated a sexually explicit picture of himself to the student. Authorities arrested Smoke in April 2024 after the allegations came to the attention of Easton Area School District officials and Palmer Township police. The police then seized Smokes duty pistol and badge, as well as his work computer. Smoke voluntarily surrendered his personal cellphone and lock code for the phone, court records stated. He was placed immediately on administrative leave and as of May 2024 was no longer employed by the department. Smoke had been free on $50,000 unsecured bail since April 2024. The sentence handed down by Sletvold includes three years probation after Smokes prison sentence is up. The punishment is within the aggravated range for the corruption of minors charge, according to Barattas office. Despite no prior record, a lengthy career in law enforcement, being a father, achieving accolades from Palmer Township and the presentation of character letters, the judge felt he violated a duty of trust through his employment, Smokes attorney, John Waldron, told lehighvalleylive.com on Wednesday. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Penn Badgley and Anna Camp in season 5 of "You." COURTESY OF NETFLIX The 2025 Emmy nominations have been announced, and not everyone is happy. Anna Camp didnt receive a nod for her role as identical twins Raegan and Maddie Lockwood in season 5 of the Netflix thriller You. She took to Instagram on Tuesday, July 15, to express her disappointment. Me reading about the nominations this morning knowing I gave one of the best performances of my life while also trying to be happy for everyone and while also remembering I vowed to stop drinking during the week, Camp captioned two photos of her in You. Camp isnt alone. You, which stars Penn Badgley as serial killer Joe Goldberg, hasnt received any Emmy recognition since its 2019 premiere. And there are plenty of other TV stars and executives feeling let down by this years nominations list. Although the Star Wars franchise series Andor received 14 nominations including Best Drama Series, Best Writing for a Drama Series, and Best Directing for a Drama Series creator Tony Gilroy still thinks the show was overlooked in certain categories. There are a lot of performances that I wish were recognized, Gilroy told Deadline, specifically naming Diego Luna (Cassian Andor) and Genevieve OReilly (Mon Mothma). Anna Camp. Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Squid Game, on the other hand, received zero nominations, despite being the most watched Netflix series of the year by far. The snub for season 2 comes after the South Korean series received 14 Emmy nominations and six wins for its first season. READ MORE: Why did Tracy Ifeachor leave The Pitt? Her costar explains I am disappointed for [Squid Game creator and] Director Hwang [Dong-hyuk] and the cast, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria told Variety after the nominations were announced on Tuesday. For Director Hwang to not be recognized in that way, considering the amount of audiences around the world who loved it so much and that it really resonated with people Im disappointed when it doesnt get recognized in the way that it should have. Other notable 2025 Emmys snubs include Paul W. Downs for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Hacks), Allison Janney for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (The Diplomat), Dichen Lachamn for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Severance), Natasha Lyonne for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (Poker Face), Elisabeth Moss for Lead Actress in a Drama Series (The Handmaids Tale), and Tyler James Williams for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Abbott Elementary). Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/. Some fans of "The Pitt" have been wildly speculating about why Tracy Ifeachor left the show. Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP Tracy Ifeachor is the only star of HBO Maxs The Pitt who wont be returning for season 2, and fans have questions about her exit. After some viewers guessed that Ifeacher, who played Dr. Heather Collins on the medical drama, may have been fired, The Pitt star Noah Wyle (Dr. Michael Robby Robinavitch) set the record straight. Weve all been sort of amused by the speculation about what everybody thinks might be a reason, Wyle told Deadline on Tuesday, July 15. But truthfully, we loved the actress. We enjoyed having her with us very much. Shes gotten really big, and we will miss her. Wyle confirmed that Ifeachors departure came down to story, which is consistent with TVLines report that the decision was made for creative reasons. Wyles comment comes after some fans went so far as to theorize that Ifeachor was axed due to an alleged connection to an anti-LGBTQIA+ church. Ifeachors rep shut down the claims in a statement shared with The Mirror U.S. earlier this week. These claims are entirely false. First, Tracy was not fired. Dr. Heather Collins was simply not written in as a part of season 2, which is a creative decision that has been confirmed by HBO, Ifeachors rep stated. Furthermore, any rumors about Tracy participating in any discrimination through her religion are completely incorrect, defamatory, and hurtful. Noah Wyle and Tracy Ifeachor on season 1 of "The Pitt." HBO Ifeachor hinted at the exit in her own words via Instagram last week, speaking highly about her experience on the show. What a blessing to be a part of this first and foundational season of #ThePitt on @hbomax . It was an absolute privilege to play Dr. Heather Collins in such a groundbreaking season and piece, she wrote. Thank you to everyone who has watched & supported Season 1 & shared their stories with me. Shortly after her departure from The Pitt was announced, Ifeachor posted about her next project: a role in M. Night Shyamalans upcoming thriller Remain. READ MORE: How Bryan Cranston feels about his daughters role in popular HBO Max show So excited to share the new project Ive been working on with the fearlessly talented, visionary #MNightshyamalan & his brilliant team, she wrote via Instagram last week. Its been a deeply creative, collaborative adventure and now Im finally allowed to talk about it. Im thrilled to share it with you! While Ifeachor wont be returning to The Pitt, Wyle, Patrick Ball (Dr. Frank Langdon), Katherine LaNasa (Dana Evans), Supriya Ganesh (Dr. Samira Mohan), Fiona Dourif (Dr. Cassie McKay), Isa Briones (Dr. Trinity Santos), Gerran Howell (Dennis Whitaker), Shabana Azeez (Victoria Javadi), and Taylor Dearden (Dr. Melissa King), are all set to reprise their roles in season 2. The Pitt is expected to return in January 2026. Season 1 is available to stream on HBO Max. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/. Installing fans to cool down was on everyone's minds in Laois and Ireland for the recent heatwave, and a local company has won twice for doing exactly that. Portlaoise engineering firm Aubren has won two top awards at the 2025 SEAI Energy Show Awards. Aubren is a leading innovator in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) retrofit solutions. It designs, manufactures, and delivers high-performance air management systems from its advanced facility in Portlaoise, Ireland. The company is a big Laois employer, with 73 staff. It is based in Portlaoise Business and Technology Park. Their leadership team has accepted top honours, with Aubrens EC Fan Retrofit named both Best Energy Efficiency Product and also Overall Product of the Show at the 2025 SEAI Energy Show Lunch in SEAI HQ, Dublin, Irelands flagship event for energy innovation. The companys award winning EC Fan Retrofit Solution is developed to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of existing HVAC systemsclaimed both the Best Energy Efficiency Award and the coveted Overall Product of the Show title, marking a significant milestone for the Portlaoise-based engineering firm. Aubren CEO Aubrey Nuzum at the awards ceremony. Their retrofit solution was selected from a highly competitive field of entries. Aubrey Nuzum is founder and CEO of Aubren. This recognition from SEAI is a tremendous honour and a validation of the incredible work our team has put into developing the EC Fan Retrofit Solution. At a time when energy efficiency and carbon reduction are not just business imperatives but societal ones, were proud to be leading the charge, he said. Representing Aubren were Aubrey Nuzum (CEO), Michelle McEvoy, Thomas Grattan, and Martin Greene. Aubren was officially presented with the awards during a formal ceremony held on July 10 at SEAI headquarters, 3 Park Place, Hatch Street, Dublin 2. The SEAI Energy Show is Irelands only multidisciplinary, all-inclusive business event for the energy sector. The event was hosted by Tom Halpin, SEAIs Head of Communications. The awards were presented by Margie McCarthy, SEAI Director of Research and Policy Insights. Also in attendance was Helena Buckley, SEAI Marketing and Communications Manager. The SEAI Product of the Show Awards recognise innovation, technical excellence, and sustainable impact across the energy sector. Entries are rigorously assessed by a panel of independent experts. Representatives from all seven winning categories in the 2025 SEAI awards. Aubrens EC Fan Retrofit emerged as a standout in a competitive field, recognised for its ability to significantly reduce energy consumption, CO emissions, and operational costs in aging HVAC infrastructure. The retrofit solution replaces inefficient, belt-driven fans in Air Handling Units (AHUs) with advanced electronically commutated (EC) fan technology from ebm-papst delivering energy savings of up to 70% and enabling building-wide CO reductions of up to 50%. This makes it an ideal solution for organisations committed to long-term energy conservation and sustainability targets. The retrofit includes intelligent fan control and management systems that precisely regulate airflow and ensure fans operate only when needed, thereby minimising energy waste. In multi-fan configurations, redundant performance is built inthe system automatically compensates to maintain airflow if a fan fails, helping sustain peak efficiency. Aubren say their advanced fan selection process ensures the optimal fan is chosen for each unique application, reducing over-specification and the need for excess spare parts, while simplifying maintenance. Smart performance monitoring and predictive maintenance tools help detect potential failures early, improving system reliability and reducing unplanned downtime. It also features advanced propeller technology for improved air movement and acoustic controlcreating a quieter, more comfortable indoor environment. The long-term durability of the retrofit extends AHU lifespan by 1015 years, significantly cutting lifecycle costs and reducing the environmental impact of equipment replacement. Tom Halpin is Head of Communications at SEAI. Congratulations to Aubren Ltd. on winning the SEAI Energy Show Product of the Show award for their EC Retrofit Fan. This prestigious award recognises exceptional innovation, performance, and contribution to sustainability, setting new benchmarks in sustainable energy products or service. Innovation, new product development and cutting-edge technology is the lifeblood of any industry, particularly so in the energy sector. Thankfully, continued investment in R&D has seen a wave of pioneering products and systems come to the market he said. We need people and organisations to continue to lead the charge. A decarbonised Ireland will mean warmer homes, cleaner air, cheaper and more secure energy, in a prosperous and resilient economy. Read also: Retired Laois An Post workers to hold pension protest in Portlaoise The judging panel say there were particularly impressed by the solutions use of smart control technology, ease of integration, and potential to make a meaningful contribution to Irelands national sustainability goals. Its lifecycle benefitsincluding reduced equipment replacement, lower noise levels, and longer AHU lifespanposition it as a model retrofit solution for commercial and institutional buildings.. With its award-winning retrofit technology, Aubren continues to support clients in Ireland and internationally as they transition to more sustainable operations. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Huawei's smart car alliance, Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance ("HIMA"), unveiled official images of its upcoming mid-to-large touring sedan, the STELATO S9T, which is under STELATO, the brand co-developed by Huawei and BAIC Group. The model is set to hit the market this fall. Photo credit: HIMA The STELATO S9T follows the alliance's signature "Cosmic Aesthetics" design philosophy. At the front, a pair of galaxy headlights crafted with a dazzling diamond-cut finish gives the fascia a pronounced sense of technological sophistication. Prominent creases on the hood further accentuate the vehicle's muscular and sporty presence. Photo credit: HIMA As for side profile, the model adopts a short front overhang, long wheelbase, and extended rear overhangproportions that not only elevate its visual elegance but also maximize interior space. The model rides on multi-spoke alloy wheels that add a modern flair, while a functional roof rack underscores its practicality as a touring car, allowing for additional cargo attachments. At the rear, the STELATO S9T embraces hallmark design cues typical of wagons. The roofline gently slopes from the B-pillar, contributing to a spacious cargo area and potentially increasing headroom for second-row passengers compared to traditional sedans. A large rear spoiler and a full-width "Nebula" taillight cluster add both dynamism and visual depth to the tail design. Powertrain options are expected to mirror those of the existing STELATO S9. The S9T will likely be offered in both BEV (battery electric vehicle) and REEV (range-extended electric vehicle) versions. The BEV variant is anticipated to come in single- and dual-motor configurations, with the former delivering 227 kW and the latter producing up to 385 kW via an all-wheel-drive setup. The REEV version will pair a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine with an electric motor, offering a combined output of 227 kW, with the engine itself generating 118 kW. A Laois TD said it is a scandal to see 6,433 children waiting to be seen on the school dental scheme. Independent Laois TD Brian Stanley told the Dail that the public dental health service is in crisis and there is a shortage of dentists in the private dental sector. Dental and oral health have not been made the priority they need to be. For a relatively wealthy First World country, we have a Third World dental health system, he said. Dep Stanley said untreated tooth decay was one of the most common health conditions which lead to other health complaints. In recent years, insufficient attention and resources have been put in to prevention through education and public awareness campaigns. The cure comes too late, often and most likely in the form of multiple extractions and fillings, said Dep Stanley. He spoke of the main public schemes such as the school dental scheme, the dental treatment services scheme, the treatment benefit scheme and orthodontics, for which there is a six-year waiting list for treatment. Dep Stanley said many children on the school dental scheme arent seen till second, fourth or even sixth class, with some waiting till secondary school. In Laois, children are four years into secondary school when they are first seen. In Offaly, it is not much better, at three years. This is an absolute scandal in public health. In the case of Laois, according to HSE figures, 6,433 pupils are waiting on their first examination. As I said, for most of those pupils this will come six or seven years too late, and they will then have to wait for treatment, he said. Dep Stanley said fewer children are now being screened every year. In Laois, the number of pupils screened and treated reduced from 4,300 in 2017 to 181 in 2023. Those are interesting figures. The dental treatment services scheme for adults on medical cards is not available in many areas. For example, for people in Laois, only one dental practice currently takes clients under the scheme and it is based on the edge of Carlow town. The budget for the current scheme is 73 million this year, said Dep Stanley. He noted this was a 6 million reduction on 2010 figures. He said the emergency dental health service was almost impossible to access. The treatment benefit scheme for workers and retired workers, which is based on PRSI, only provides for examinations and cleaning. This puts low- and middle-income families at a disadvantage. I refer here to ordinary workers and their families who get no fillings or extractions under the scheme. Overall, 83% of dental treatment is funded by means of out-of-pocket payments, he said. Dep Stanley said children with special needs and adults who require anaesthesia to access treatment suffer from a lack of services. There is a two-year waiting list in hospitals for such treatment. In the Dublin and midlands health region, there are 654 children and 102 adults on waiting lists for hospital treatment. That matter requires urgent attention he continued. Dep Stanley said the Irish Dental Association has highlighted the fact that 500 additional dentists are needed immediately to address the crisis in private practice and the public system. The overall number of dentists working in both public and private practice has dropped by 23% in the past 15 years. Less than 10% of dentists are working in the public service. It is estimated that 120 additional dentists are needed just to maintain the very basic level of service we have at present. In 2023, 320 dentists were working in the public service. By 2025, according to the HSE, that had dropped to 294. In the context of private practice, the Irish Dental Association has found that due to workload, one quarter of dental practices are not taking on new adult clients and more than one third will not take on new children, he said. Unfortunately, dental health and dental treatment are often put on the back burner by families out of economic necessity. We all know how important it is that dental health is tackled early, namely when children are in second class in primary school. We also need to bring forward the promised scheme for children under seven. The 800 million cut in funding for those two public schemes over a 14-year period has had a significant effect, he said. Dep Stanley urged the government to publish a long promised plan for dental services. He welcomed the opening of a new dental school in Dublin and said more still needs to be done. We need to bring forward a plan for our dental health services, and a scheme for children under seven must be given priority. There must also be a significant increase in the number of dental school places in universities, particularly UCC and TCD, and additional funding for this. We need to facilitate the reintroduction of a structured mentorship programme to allow new graduates to gain work experience. he stated. The Taoiseach has expressed full confidence in An Post, adding that Cabinet has had no discussion about the organisation being on the brink. It comes after reports claimed that Arts Minister Patrick ODonovan told Cabinet colleagues that the postal service would have seen a substantial loss last year without revenue generated by general and European election post. An Post chief executive David McRedmond described the reports as utter garbage and said the company is performing extremely well. On Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin expressed confidence in Mr McRedmond and the board of An Post. Mr Martin said he could understand the chief executives anger and annoyance over the reports on the companys accounts, adding: What happened was wrong. He told reporters: Im not apportioning blame anywhere, I simply do not know. However, he said: There was no discussion about An Post being on the brink or anything like that. The company turned a profit last year and had improved its situation significantly from the previous year. Mr Martin described An Post as a very effective company that under Mr McRedmonds leadership had adapted very well to changing trends in mail, postage and packages. He told reporters: In terms of the core business, the company, has been very resilient in the face of fairly fundamental change of behaviour. There will be challenges ahead and (the) importance is to be able to identify changing behaviours and changing trends, and then position the company to deal with that. Mr Martin said the overall picture for the company was better this year than last year. Earlier, Mr ODonovan said he is confident about the future of An Post, describing the company as viable and profitable. Mr ODonovan presented the postal services annual report to Cabinet on Tuesday. Following claims that An Post in in a dire financial situation, Mr ODonovan said that the postal service has been transformed in recent years under the leadership of Mr McRedmond. Mr ODonovan said: The issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting, and Im not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because Im constitutionally prevented from doing that, as is everybody else. But obviously somebody decided that that wasnt going to be the case. .Mr ODonovan told RTEs Today with Claire Byrne programme that An Post has returned to profit following some challenging years. One of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isnt helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, as people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters. To be quite honest about it, it is showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is and a lack of understanding of what an independent contractor who works for An Post is. Mr ODonovan added: But how would a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I dont know how they would come up with that. Speaking to RTE Radio 1, Mr McRedmond said he was absolutely furious by the claims. That report is utter garbage. Im here in Italy, on my holidays, Im absolutely furious to read something like that, he said. The company presented its results. The results were presented to Cabinet yesterday. They showed the highest revenue weve ever had, over a billion revenues for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from 38 million euro to 55 million euro. They showed that our net profit was at 10 million. The company is performing extremely well. Weve got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe. So I just dont understand it. He rejected claims that without profits generated from last years general and European elections, it would have made a substantial loss. Its just simply not true, and its not how companies work. Yes, we got a big boost in the elections last year, but if it wasnt the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, weve huge costs with them, he added. It was irresponsible leak from a Government minister, which is wholly unacceptable. These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. He also rejected claims that cash reserves have fallen below one million euros. We have at the end of the year with 38 million cash reserves, and this year, so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year. Im talking to Government about it. I hope theres just some big misunderstanding somewhere, and the company, as I say, is doing really well. Dail Eireann saw many tears shed and voices raised during a debate on endometriosis care on Tuesday July 15. Forty women from across the country attended the debate, and were seated within the public gallery alongside Laois Sinn Fein Senator Maria McCormack, who has spearheaded a campaign for the improved quality of care for endometriosis patients. In Budget 2024, 25.8 billion was allocated to health services across the country. 543,822 was allocated to the development of endometriosis services. Endometriosis is a painful life long disability that affects 10% of Irish women. This condition is where the endometrial lining of the uterus grows on other organs in the body, particularly on bowels, kidneys, and even within the throat and chest cavity. With a nine year wait time on diagnosis and no known cure for the condition, there are two surgeries that can remove the endometrial tissue from organs, involving ablation or excision. Pictured: Deputy Mary Lou McDonald and Senator Maria McCormack at a Portlaoise endometriosis meeting There is a lack of endometriosis specialists in Ireland, leaving many women forced to travel abroad for treatment. The motion from Sinn Fein called on the Government to establish a state-of-the-art centre of excellence for endometriosis care, to establish specialised imaging protocols to assist gynaecologists in identifying, mapping and getting the information on endometriosis; to develop and fund a dedicated training and incentive programme; and to launch a nationwide public health campaign to raise awareness. Independent Republican TD Brian Stanley addressed the Dail, calling for more resources to support the treatment of this condition. As a man, constituents have told me stories about this problem over the years and particularly in recent years," Deputy Stanley said. "We have to stop exporting our health issues and people for treatment, particularly women in the case of this chronic condition. Not nearly enough attention has been given to it. Surely if something is affecting 10% of women we have to stand up and take notice," he argued. "It is unbelievable that the average waiting time is eight to nine years and how this has been let run for so many years. Think of all the women of previous generations who have suffered this silently. This is 2025. This has to stop. We have to try to bring forward proper, expert treatment for this debilitating condition," he said. Women with this condition have been failed for years in Ireland. I know the Minister mentioned the five hubs, but the level of expertise, staffing and timely access are issues. Nine, eight or five years is not good enough. Pictured: Deputy Brian Stanley "This needs to be done in a matter of months so that women can have treatment once it is properly diagnosed. We have to shorten the time from diagnosis to treatment because nine years is appalling. "We need more surgeons in the area. Only 25 out of 50 posts have been filled. Recruitment and retention of surgeons and clinical nurses in the field has to be stepped up and has to be stepped up at pace. "Doctors and specialists need to start believing women when they present with this condition because of its chronic nature and the sheer number of women who endure it throughout their lives." The Deputy also welcomed the roll-out of free HRT for menopausal women. "We need a step change and improvements with regard to endometriosis. There is a clear action plan and I urge the Minister and Government to get behind this, so women do not have to go to Romania or anywhere else for treatment," the Deputy finished. A row broke out between Deputy Mary Lou McDonald and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. "It is unacceptable that women's healthcare is still at the bottom rung of the ladder. Tonight, we bring this motion and we are here to say enough is enough. It is beyond disappointing - in fact, it is enraging - that the Government, with a shameful amendment, pushes back against the first-hand experiences and real trauma of women," Deputy McDonald argued. "Since 2021, we have invested over 5 million to expand specialist endometriosis services to provide treatment for women with moderate and complex endometriosis," Minister Carroll MacNeill said. "There is an additional 2 million this year to continue to do that. So far, that investment has allowed us to recruit 24.6 whole-time equivalent staff, or 24 people and one part-time person. "We have the funding. Specialist services are expanding further with the HSE recruitment process to recruit another 18.6 people, or 18 people and a part-time person, with the funding provided this year. We are more than halfway through that recruitment programme and there is no question about that," she said. Women in County Kildare "deserve better" when it comes to endometriosis care that's according to one Kildare South TD. According to the Health Service Executive (HSE), endometriosis is a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places for example, the ovaries and the fallopian tubes. It can affect women of any age, although it is less likely to occur in women after menopause. Demanding better treatment for those with the condition yesterday (July 15 last), Sinn Fein Deputy Shonagh Ni Raghallaigh called for the government to support her party's Dail motion. The motion follows a series of public meetings hosted by Sinn Fein's leader, Mary Lou McDonald, who consulted with those impacted by endometriosis across Ireland. READ NEXT: 13m residential development given go ahead for this Kildare town Elaborating on her view, Deputy Ni Raghallaigh said: "Over the last number of months, we have held nine public meetings about endometriosis across the state and if one thing has been clear it is that endometriosis care in Ireland has failed thousands of women. "Time and time again, we have heard heartbreaking stories from women who have not only had to battle living with chronic, excruciating pain, but have also had endure the trauma of having to fight for a diagnosis in the first place, and then for adequate treatment." She continued: "This is not good enough... No one should be forced to fight to be believed, to be diagnosed and to receive the treatment they need, this should not be happening in 2025. "The bravery and strength of these women, alongside the experiences of their family and friends, and their commitment to fight for the care they need and deserve has been an inspiration to us; that is what has driven this campaign." "Endometriosis is not rare, it effects at least one in ten women in Ireland, with recent global research suggesting that nearly one in six may have symptoms indicative of endometriosis. The Kildare town rep further said that her party conducted an online survey over recent weeks, in which she claimed that the party received 1,420 responses and "over 700 personal stories of delayed diagnosis, suffering and trauma". According to Deputy Ni Raghallaigh: "95 per cent of participants missed education or work commitments due to symptoms; 58 per cent of participants have suffered symptoms for more than 10 years; and 49 per cent [were left] waiting more than 12 months for a consultation with a gynaecologist." "The ongoing neglect of endometriosis care in Ireland is emblematic of broader systemic failures in womens healthcare, and the response from government has been a disjointed stopgap approach with women being prescribed outdated treatments that only prolong their suffering. "This is [further] exemplified by the fact that it currently takes an average of nine years for patients to receive a formal diagnosis, resulting in prolonged suffering, permanent organ damage, and increased risk of infertility." Shonagh Ni Raghallaigh, TD for Sinn Fein (File photograph). Deputy Ni Raghallaigh also gave her view that the reason people in Ireland did not hear about the alleged lack of endometriosis care that often in the past was because women often felt like they had no option but to suffer in silence. However, she added that this is now changing, as "courageous women step forward to share their stories and demand change and action from government". She also said: "Sinn Feins motion calls for a dedicated multidisciplinary endometriosis treatment centre, staffed and resourced to provide diagnosis, holistic management, and specialised excision surgery the gold standard surgical management for this agonising condition. "Our message to women across Ireland living the nightmare of endometriosis is that you are not alone; we will fight with you and for you. "We will keep this campaign going until you have the treatment, services and healthcare you deserve here in Ireland." She concluded: "We are calling on all parties to back this motion when it comes before the Dail. Women deserve better." READ NEXT: Kildare partnership shortlisted for 33rd Business to Arts Awards A 41-year-old man who sexually abused his eight-year-old cousin while babysitting her in Kildare almost 25 years ago has failed to have his one-year jail term reduced on appeal. The man, who cannot be named to protect the victim's anonymity, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault at an address in Co Kildare during the summer of 1999. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that the maximum sentence at that time for sexual assault was five years. An investigating garda outlined that the man was 15 at the time of his offending, while the injured party was then eight. Four incidents of sexual assault took place in her family home where he was staying for the summer. The teenager was the eldest of the children and viewed as an adult by the victim, who did what he said. In her victim impact statement, the woman said the abuse changed the trajectory of my life and that she had lived with shame and guilt, while he participated actively in family events. She said the man was celebrated by others who were aware of the abuse. You are not the only one who should hang their head in shame, she said, describing how another person told her she was mistaken, that the defendant was checking on her after she'd had a bad dream and he wouldn't do something like that. Judge Martin Nolan sentenced the man to three years with the final two years suspended on strict conditions at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on March 26, 2025. In dismissing the mans appeal at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Mr Justice John Edwards said he was satisfied that the ultimate sentence imposed was proportionate, the sentencing judge generously discounted for the mitigating factors in the case and the appropriate sentencing principles were applied in the assessment of gravity. READ NEXT: 13m residential development given go ahead in Kildare He said the judge was fully alive to the fact that the offending happened 25 years previously and the court was not persuaded that the judge failed to follow the correct principles when sentencing an adult for offences committed as a child. Mr Justice Edwards noted the aggravating factors in the case, including the repeated nature of the offending, the breach of trust involved as the appellant was entrusted with babysitting at the time, and the age difference between the parties. The harm was further compounded by the secondary traumatisation of the victim, the judge said, caused by the man's denial when confronted at a family meeting, his blaming of the victim, and his continued refusal to acknowledge or take full responsibility for his actions as he got older. While he apologised to the victim, he never sought to set the record straight with the wider family. The man made only partial admissions when interviewed by gardai in 2023 and sought to minimise what he had done, Mr Justice Edwards said. He said the court was satisfied that the sentencing judge gave appropriate consideration to the mans plea of guilty, his lack of previous offending, good work record and his family responsibilities. The judge said appropriate allowances were also made for his youth and immaturity at the time the offending occurred. Sinn Feins agriculture spokesperson and Leitrim TD, Martin Kenny, has raised serious concerns about draft plans to change how the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is funded. Farmers across Ireland fear bad news as the European Commission looks to merge CAP with other areas like migration and infrastructure. This would mean agriculture no longer has a protected budget. According to a draft proposal seen by Reuters, Brussels is also planning to cap how much EU subsidy a single farmer can receive each year. The goal is to shift more funds towards smaller farms. The draft suggests a limit of 100,000 per year on area-based income support for each farmer. This would also reduce per-hectare payments for those getting the most money. Currently, CAP has two parts made up of direct payments to farmers, and rural development, and the draft proposal aims to combine these into one single funding system. Deputy Kenny has emphasised that the two-pillar structure of the CAP budget is vital to supporting farm incomes, with pillar one providing direct payments to farmers. READ NEXT: Leitrim will continue to lose their most qualified childcare staff at these unsustainable levels This direct payment gives farmers certainty over the five years and allows them to plan and to know what income they will be receiving for this period, he said. Pillar two provides funding for environmental and welfare schemes which are vital to combating emissions in the agriculture sector. This two-pillar structure has worked well and has provided funding enabling Irish agriculture to develop to a level where we produce products of the highest standards in the world, he added. Deputy Kenny has urged the Minister for Agriculture, Martin Heydon TD, to defend Irish family farms and the future of Irish agriculture. The Minister for Agriculture must stand up for Irish family farms and for the future of Irish Agriculture in Brussels today. Ireland must be at the fore in opposing the dismantling of the CAP budget, he said. We cannot allow for the CAP budget to be merged with other cohesion funds and given to the member states to allocate as they see fit. Irish agriculture and family farms need certainty that their livelihoods will be supported and protected. He further warned that agricultural funding cannot be cut simply because government priorities shift under a new budget structure. READ NEXT: Leitrim residents urged to remain vigilant following major equipment theft There are serious threats to food security with the threat of tariffs, a trade war, and the impacts of the war in Ukraine on supply chains. The EU budget process will begin once the Commission publishes its proposal, triggering negotiations and a final vote. The new budget would come into effect in 2028. The aim of CAP when it was established was to protect food security and now more than ever, Irish and EU consumers need to protect food security, he concluded. Road safety and flooding concerns caused by overgrown foliage and fallen trees were raised at a recent meeting of the Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District. Cllr Sean McGowan urged the District Engineer to immediately implement a programme of works to cut back heavy vegetation and foliage at junctions where local roads exit onto busy local and regional roads within the Carrick-on-Shannon Municipal District, citing public safety concerns. In response, the Council confirmed that a contractor has been engaged to carry out verge trimming and hedge cutting at all regional road junctions. The contractor began work on June 30, deploying multiple units and is currently operating across the Carrick Municipal District. READ NEXT: Majority of South Leitrim sees water restored after supply interruption Cllr McGowan also called on the District Engineer to establish a programme of works to clear trees obstructing the Black River in the townland of Drumshanbo South, Gortletteragh. These trees were blown down in the recent storms and are restricting the flow of the river, which in turn, is leading to lands being flooded, his motion stated. The outfall from Drumshanbo Lough lies within the Office of Public Works (OPW) district. The section identified by Cllr McGowan may be included in the 2026 works allocations, subject to landowner agreements and environmental assessments. READ NEXT: Writing her way home: Leitrim woman turns pain into purpose through children's book We cannot pass another budget thats based on the same old model. If we do, well get the same resultslimited progress, he warned. We must be sincere with ourselves and with the Liberian people. A bigger plus budget is possible if we eliminate waste and collect what is rightfully due to the government. Kevin Doncaster established WarHawk PTSD Service Dogs six years ago with the sole purpose of addressing the suicide rate that exists among veterans, first responders, and special circumstances of post-traumatic stress disorder. The nonprofit provides PTSD service dogs that enable the handler to get back into public scenarios and cope more effectively. On Sunday, First Trinity Lutheran Church west of Beatrice hosted Doncaster for a program as a part of a series of events celebrating the church's 150th anniversary. Doncaster served in the Middle East in combat for seven years as a Marine and Department of Defense contractor. When I came home, I didnt cope very well with all that, he said. I can honestly say that for the first four years of my daughters life, I was not a very good father. I was not a good husband and, quite frankly, was not a good employee. I was on 12 different medications and oxygen at night. He said in 2019 he went to visit a friends mom, Julie. His friend had been killed on Oct. 13, 2010, in Afghanistan in a helicopter crash. Julie had a dog named Grace and shes giving her these commands that Im not familiar with. Grace is constantly interacting with Julie. She told me the dog helped her with her PTSD, and I needed to get a dog. I didnt even know there was such a thing, he said. He found Anthony Parnell in Pryor, Oklahoma, who invited him to meet Lacie, an Aussie. I knew it was going to be a great thing. Just like that, I was given a professionally trained dog, and it didnt cost me a dime, he said. Two weeks after he had Lacie, one of his friends completed suicide. I want to change the stigma around mental health. I dont believe we commit suicide or commit cancer. I say someone died by suicide or died by cancer, he said. Doncaster said he had been praying before his friends suicide, but more after. He called Parnell and asked, How do I do for other people what you did for me? He explained Lacie alerts him when someone is on his left side since he is deaf in his left ear. She also creates space for him in crowded situations by bumping her butt into people. Lacey is also trained to respond to stress by diverting attention to her. Now that I have Lacie, I dont have a single pill. Im a better person for it, he said. He talked about the 12- to 18-month training process for the dog. There are several partners. This week WarHawk volunteers will deliver their 58th dog, which are in 22 states. Dogs have been provided for veterans, first responders and for people with special PTSD circumstances. Doncaster described his first dog delivery. He gave me a hug that I cant explain to people. It was like he was breathing for the first time almost. There was so much said in a hug that a conversation cant capture. Thats the one I reflect on a lot, he said. He spoke of helping others in need and also spoke of nine people on his waiting list who completed suicide before they were able to get a service dog. WarHawk is in the final year of service. Finances are the main reason the organization is closing. Ive given about 20 years of service, and I think that its OK for me retire. Weve helped four other organizations. Ive put a lot of myself and my familys money into this, and thats OK. I believe its Gods money. I will always be an advocate for mental health services, he said. Everyone involved with WarHawk is a volunteer. The only people that are paid at a reduced rate are professional dog trainers. Doncaster talked about helping people in disaster areas for three months and during COVID giving out gift certificates for groceries. Doncaster said his service, WarHawk and everything he does is to help people. Its always been about the people, he said. Madam Snyleseh Stephenie Dahn Koung speaking in an exclusive interview with The New Africa Amazons (Photo Credit: The New Africa Amazons). Liberia Traffic Management Inc. signage unveiled at the companys new operational center in Paynesville ahead of its official takeover of the national traffic system. A JURY was told today that former All-Star and Clare All-Ireland winning hurler, Niall Gilligan whacked a 12 year old boy on the leg with a stick during an an alleged assault in October 2023. At Ennis Circuit Court today, counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford (BL) laid out the State case against Mr Gilligan (48) of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge in her opening speech to the jury. Mr Gilligan denies the charge of assault causing harm of the boy. Ms Comerford said that on October 5, 2023, a then 12 year old and his then 13 year old friend went into the Jamaica Inn hostel in Sixmilebridge. READ MORE: All-Ireland winning Clare hurler pleads not guilty to assaulting boy with wooden stick Ms Comerford said that the two believed that the property was abandoned. She said: They were exploring the building when the accused, Niall Gilligan, who owned the property at the time, arrived to check on it." Ms Comerford said that the jury will hear that the property was vandalised and broken into in the days leading up to October 5. Ms Comerford said that the jury will be told that the two boys were outside the property when they saw Niall Gilligan. Ms Comerford said that when they saw Mr Gilligan, the two boys ran and the 12 year old will tell the jury that he slipped in a puddle and the accused came up behind him and whacked him on the leg with a stick and the accused kept hitting him in the leg, his ribs, his hip, his elbow and his hand. Ms Comerford said that the jury will hear medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the boy and see photos of bruising and cuts that the 12 year old will tell them were caused by Niall Gilligan hitting him with a wooden stick. Ms Comerford said that the boy will tell the jury after the alleged assault Niall Gilligan grabbed him by the jacket and brought him out to the road and asked him his name and who his father was. Ms Comerford said the the boy will tell the jury that he sat on a wall for a while because he has asthma and could barely breathe. There he met his 13 year old friend again and that boy will say that he saw Niall Gilligan outside the Jamaica Inn and he ran at the same time as his friend and managed to get away Ms Comerford said that the 13 year old will say that he heard screaming from his friend and he waited in an industrial estate beside the property and while he was relatively safe there, he was still very scared. Ms Comerford said that a few minutes later, the 13-year old met up with his 12 year old friend and let him lean on him while his friend tried to walk home. Ms Comerford said that the 12 year old told him to leave in case he was caught by the accused. Ms Comerford said that the 12 year old made his way to the local GAA club and was given a lift home by a lady there who will give evidence in the case. Ms Comerford (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that once home the boy was brought to a local VHI clinic and was then brought to University Hospital Limerick where he was treated for his injuries and where Gardai where called. Ms Comerford said that Niall Gilligan was subsequently arrested by Gardai and gave an account of what he said happened on October 5 and his interactions with the 12 year old boy at the Jamaica Inn hostel which he told Gardai were in self defence and you will hear that in due course. Ms Comerford said that Niall Gilligan denies assaulting the boy with a wooden stick and he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing harm. Mr Gilligan is also pleading not guilty to producing a wooden stick capable of inflicting serious injury during the course of a dispute contrary to Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act at the Jamaica Inn at Sixmilebridge on October 5, 2023. The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women. EARLY Childhood Ireland is calling on the government to bring Early Years and School Age Care graduates' pay within public sector pay and conditions, in line with primary school teachers. In its Budget 2026 submission, the membership and advocacy organisation has urged the government to name a date to introduce pay parity for Early Years and School Age Care graduates, who are educated and trained to the same level as their peers in primary education. Frances Byrne, director of policy at Early Childhood Ireland, said, Guaranteeing public pay and conditions for Early Years and School Age Care graduates would mark a turning point for settings in Limerick. As things stand, we are losing too many talented educators to sectors offering better pay and greater security. The government is working towards a graduate-led workforce, but official figures show that the average staff turnover rate stands at 22.3% in Limerick, a spokesperson for Early Childhood Ireland said. Nationally, over 2,000 staff who changed jobs or left settings in 2023/2024 had an NFQ qualification Level 7 or above, according to Pobal, the organisation that administers Early Years funding. READ MORE: 100 Limerick students will display their fantasy-inspired artwork at annual exhibition Commenting on this, Ms Byrne said, The government is moving in the right direction, but unless a new urgency is brought to the pay issues, Early Childhood Irelands 160 member settings in Limerick will continue to lose their most qualified staff at these unsustainable levels. There have been recent proposals to increase minimum pay rates for staff by 10 per cent. This will increase base pay, as per the Employment Regulation Order (ERO), from 13.65 to 15 an hour. Ms Byrne said, Any increase is welcome, and it is essential that the government maintains financial support for these rates of pay. However, pay levels for the Early Years and School Age Care workforce are still at the mercy of two annual processes, the Joint Labour Committees deliberations and the annual Budget. Year after year, staff wait to learn what lies ahead, while key benefits such as annual increments, pensions, and maternity leave top-ups remain out of reach. Bringing Early Years and School Age Care graduates under public sector pay in line with teachers will not only offer a significant degree of certainty and security to staff in Limerick, but also finally acknowledge the instrumental role they play in childrens lives, Ms Byrne concluded. LIMERICK City and County Council (LCCC) are being called on to play a leading role in promoting the Ask for Angela campaign across Limerick businesses. The Ask for Angela campaign is an initiative designed to help victims of sexual harassment and assault safely seek assistance in public venues, particularly in bars, pubs and nightclubs. In businesses where the campaign is in use, anyone who feels unsafe, uncomfortable or threatened can discreetly ask a member of staff for "Angela" and the staff will know to help them escape the situation by hailing a taxi, calling a friend, or involving security. Aontu Cllr Sarah Beasley said that she is urging the local authorities to promote the initiative amongst the business community and give them full support. Recent studies show that up to 30% of women in Ireland experiences sexual harassment in public spaces, Cllr Beasley said. While specific figures for other vulnerable groups are less precisely documented, national studies suggest that experiences of harassment and assault are disproportionately higher among these groups, and I believe this points to the importance of accessible support options in our community in Limerick. The Limerick City North councillor said that anecdotal evidence and research indicates that campaigns like Ask for Angela have led to a significant increase in victim confidence to seek help, with some areas observing up to a 15-20% rise in reported incidents since their implementation. She stated that the campaigns presence in local pubs, clubs, and community venues has been shown to reduce incidents of harassment and improve safety awareness. READ MORE: Plans to develop landmark site on Limerick's riverside after 50 years lying idle Limerick city and county has a combined population of over 209,000 residents, and while there are undoubtedly increased public safety initiatives, awareness within the community remains limited, and many victims may not yet know how to access help, she added. A coordinated effort by local vintners and businesses, supported by the local authorities, to fully promote and highlight an Ask for Angela campaign would be a critical step forward. Cllr Beasley feels that local authorities in Limerick could lend their support through the allocation of resources to promote the initiative across all appropriate platforms, including social media, local press, and public posters in key venues. There are a myriad of ways in which they could do this, including partnering with local businesses, pubs, clubs, and community groups to facilitate training and awareness around the campaign, as well as organising community events or information sessions aimed at educating the public on how Ask for Angela works and its benefits, she continued. Supporting and promoting the Ask for Angela campaign publicly demonstrates Limericks commitment to community safety and the wellbeing of all residents. I am urging the local authorities in Limerick to make our city and county a safer place for everyone by ensuring this vital initiative receives the attention and backing it deserves. This is a vital campaign and one that has the ability to literally save lives. LIMERICK is on the way to becoming Irelands film capital as another filming project has strong ties to the county. Suspension, a cross-county production with crew and producers from both Limerick and Clare involved, was filmed last month in Scariff. The production company Dolmen Films, founded in 2017 by Turlough O Cinneide, led the three days of filming in the area. Turlough is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and composer with over 15 awards and 10 nominations. His work is internationally acclaimed and is currently in the festival circuit. SEE NEXT: Behind the scenes look at new US TV series The Wayfinders shot in Limerick A 1st-degree honors graduate of the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), he was also awarded the Puttnam Scholarship for directing in 2022. David Puttnam, a film producer and former member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, with his extensive involvement in a number of feature films, is a natural mentor of Turloughs, as he describes him as the last of a golden age of Hollywood producers. Turlough, with a hands-on approach and the help of his brother, built the set for the thriller production in Scariff, describing the process as quite an adventure. He added, We built the cable car set from scratchmy brother Cormac and I worked for two weeks to build the cable car and then hand-paint every bolt and rusted panelbecause I wanted a world that felt real, tactile, and enclosed. This also helps the actors with immersion and Im a big believer in doing as much in camera as possible. As well as having a host of Limerick and Clare natives involved in the production, the filming employed people from around the world, including CGI artists from Uganda, an editor from Italy, and after over 1,100 submissions from various agents, two very talented actors were flown in from the UK to star in the film, Kate Williams and James Arden. An important aim of Dolmen Films is the involvement of locals in the film industry, as Turlough commented, local crews are not getting the work. With this production we have food catering, accommodation, and more supplied by local businesses and people. READ NEXT: End of an era at Limerick school as popular teacher steps down This filming project is the first of several future features planned, and only the beginning of Turloughs hope to bring more filming opportunities to the west of Ireland, and to Limerick specifically, with Dolmen Films currently in development of its first feature film, Echoes of a Savage Land. The screenplay has been positively received by several A-list artists management, as well as a number of executive level producers and distributors. Hoping to push the increase in local film productions, Turlough emphasised the potential Ireland has saying there is lots of talent to offer in this country, and the growth of the industry wont happen if we dont push for it. Turloughs vision is to promote and facilitate independent feature productions in the Limerick and Clare area as well as in neighboring counties, and to make funding for independents more accessible. Along with a close friend in accounting, Turlough is building a proposal for a funding scheme which, if successful and accepted by the Government, will give greater access to seed funding for filmmakers at the beginning of their career. One of the major issues people face when trying to get their first feature is getting the seed capital. Studios want you to have a letter of interest from a major actor, but actors wont give this if you dont have funding. To get funding from Screen Ireland for a feature over a certain budget, they require you to have a distribution deal; however, a distribution company will want you to be funded. So its a catch 22 for people. With this additional funding scheme that Im proposing, this problem will be greatly reduced and will not only help people boost their career, but will bring more jobs and revenue into regional areas around Ireland. Turlough works closely with fellow Executive Producer and investor Bennett Goldberg Brown. Mr. Brown is also Co-Chairman and CEO of Artery Group, a U.S.-based firm with experience investing in, developing, and managing over $2 billion in real estate assets. Mr. Goldbergs 36+ years of experience in high-level investment and development adds strategic depth to Dolmens creative mission. READ NEXT: Household name tipped as new Liveline host after perfect RTE audition Their collaboration merges Turloughs deep-rooted creative and cultural sensibility with Bennetts financial acumen and international business perspective. Together, they aim to shape Dolmen into a boutique powerhouse that nurtures bold storytelling while ensuring commercial viability and long-term industry impact. As Executive Producer of Dolmen Films, Bennett's role focuses on strategic growth, financing, international co-productions, and long-term partnerships. He also plays a pivotal role in identifying and mentoring emerging talent, and in positioning Dolmen as a bridge between Irish creatives and the broader European and global markets. This particular production will run through the film festival circuit for around 4 to 5 months later this year, mainly within festivals taking place in Cork and Dublin. Turlough spoke about his approach to the short film, titled Suspension; Suspension began with a simple image: two people suspended in the air, completely isolated from the world, with nowhere to go but inward. I was interested in the pressure cooker of that space. How fear transforms people. How memory distorts. And how trauma echoes through relationships in subtle, sometimes terrifying ways. SEE NEXT: WIN!!! 50 Penneys vouchers up for grabs to celebrate Limerick city store revamp At its heart, Suspension is about what we carry with usanger, guilt, love, regretand how fragile our perception of reality becomes under stress. The question of did it really happen? is less important than what we believe did, and how that belief shapes our actions. That ambiguity fascinated me. Additionally, students from local universities have taken on roles in the production, offering a new perspective, giving young people experience in the field, and inspiring youth involvement in similar projects. Turlough O Cinneide displays his passion for the development of the film industry in Ireland, and has given numerous talks to students at the Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD) on his experience. On Suspension, 1st Assistant Director, Alan Wynn, was recruited from TUS Limerick. This internship opportunity initiative demonstrates Dolmens wider mission to open doors for young professionals and build a strong regional film workforce. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised Chinese developed artificial intelligence models such as DeepSeek as world-class and asserted that AI is now fundamental like electricity, Reuters reported Speaking at the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing today, on July 16, Huang added that China's open-source AI is a catalyst for global progress, as per an AFP report. AI is transforming every industry, from scientific research and healthcare to energy, transportation and logistics, Huang stated. AI powers Chinese platforms like Tencent Models developed in China like DeepSeek, Alibaba and Tencent are world-class, he said, adding that AI today is fundamental infrastructure, like electricity. Huang praised China's super-fast innovation, powered by its researchers, developers and entrepreneurs. Also Read | Income Tax Bill 2025 unanimously adopted by Parliament's Select Committee Jensen Huang says Nvidia 'doing our best' to serve Chinese market AFP further reported that after meeting Beijing officials, Huang said Nvidia was doing our best to serve China's vast market for semiconductors. Speaking to reporters at the expo, he said that officials told him the country was open and stable, adding, We spoke about... China welcoming foreign companies to invest here and build businesses here, and that China is open and stable. They want to know that Nvidia continues to invest here, that we are still doing our best to serve the market here. Huang also said Nvidia is keen to serve the massive Chinese market for microchips needed in everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles. Nvidia's Jensen Huang on H20 AI Chips sales to China On July 15, Nvidia announced that it will resume sales of its H20 AI chips to China. This came after the Trump administration vowed to remove licensing restrictions that had halted exports. The company's advanced chips sales were earlier restricted over fears that Beijing could use them to enhance military capabilities. (Bloomberg) -- Diageo Plc Chief Executive Officer Debra Crew stepped down after a bruising run in which the companys stock has plummeted. The maker of Guinness and Johnnie Walker whisky said Wednesday Chief Financial Officer Nik Jhangiani had been appointed interim CEO, with a search already under way for Crews permanent replacement. Shares of Diageo rose as much as 4.4%, the most since April. The stock had slumped 43% through Tuesdays close since Crew took over in June 2023. Also Read | Diageo India expects price drop for some spirits after free trade pact with UK Her tenure has been punctuated by setbacks including a drop in sales on cooling demand in China and the US, and a profit warning after being caught out by piles of unsold inventory in Mexico and Brazil. The company was forced to scrap its long-held medium-term sales target in February as a result of higher trade friction denting consumer confidence. Then in May, Diageo said it would cut costs by $500 million over three years across its supply chain, advertising and promotions and its operating model. The company has also been pursuing asset disposals. Also Read | Hemant Rupani to take over as CEO of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages in September Crew, 54, a former boss of tobacco company Reynolds American Inc, was promoted to the top job at Diageo a month early after the death of predecessor Ivan Menezes. She served in the US military before beginning a career in the consumer goods industry, working at PepsiCo Inc., Nestle SA and Mars Inc. Also Read | India rejects Australia's call for higher tariff cuts on dairy and alcohol Apple has signed a $500 million deal with MP Materials for rare earth magnets, mitigating supply risks after China curbed exports this year and representing a major coup for MP that sent its shares soaring by a fifth. The backing from one of the world's most valuable companies comes after MP, which operates the only U.S. rare earths mine, last week agreed to a multibillion-dollar deal with the U.S. Department of Defense that will see the Pentagon become its largest shareholder. The Las Vegas-based company's stock price has nearly doubled since the government deal was announced. It has had remarkable turnaround since last year when it contemplated merging with an Australian rival as profits plunged in what CEO Jim Litinsky called a very frustrating pricing environment for rare earths. The deal, announced on Tuesday, guarantees Apple a steady flow of rare earth magnets free from China - the world's largest producer. For Apple, the cost to support U.S. magnet production pales in comparison to the long-term risk that it could lose access entirely to the critical components, analysts said. "We're in an era where executives are willing to pay a significant premium for a reliable supply chain. They don't want stoppage," said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. China placed export restrictions on rare earths in April in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. Though the U.S. and China reached a deal in June that has resolved much of the rare earth dispute, broader trade tensions continue to underscore demand for non-Chinese supply. As part of the agreement, Apple will prepay MP $200 million for a supply of magnets slated to begin in 2027. The companies did not disclose the length of the deal nor the volumes of magnets to be provided. The agreement calls for magnets produced from recycled material, in keeping with Apple's long-standing goal of ending its reliance on the mining industry. They will be produced at MP's Fort Worth, Texas, facility using magnets recycled at MP's Mountain Pass, California, mining complex. "Rare earth materials are essential for making advanced technology, and this partnership will help strengthen the supply of these vital materials here in the United States," Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. Bob O'Donnell, president at market research firm TECHnalysis Research, said Tuesday's move "makes complete sense" given that Apple requires significant amounts of rare earth magnets for its devices. "Plus, by focusing on a U.S.-based supplier, it does help position Apple more positively in Washington," he said. Apple, which said the deal is part of its $500 billion four-year investment commitment to the U.S., has faced threats from Trump over iPhones not made in the U.S. But many analysts have said making the iPhone in the U.S. is not possible, given labor costs and the existing smartphone supply chain. Apple did not disclose which devices in which it will use the magnets. MP said the deal will supply magnets for hundreds of millions of devices, which would constitute a significant share of any of Apples product lines. MP produces mined and processed rare earths and has said it expects to start commercial magnet production in its Texas facility by the end of this year. Last week's deal between MP and the U.S. government includes a price floor for rare earths designed to spur investment in domestic mines and processing plants, which has been lagging partly due to low prices set in China. Also Read | Nvidias resumption of AI chips to China is part of rare earths talks, says US The company also has magnet supply deals with General Motors and Germany's Vacuumschmelze. NEW DELHI : Cigarettes may be a health hazard, but tobacco products can be at your doorstep in a flash thanks to quick commerce, raising tricky questions about the online sale of the regulated product. Tobacco products cannot advertise in India, and only adults can legally purchase them. The law also prohibits smoking in public places, selling tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions, and their advertising and promotion. Platforms such as Zepto, Blinkit and Instamart display cigarettes without branding, demand self age declaration, and claim they do not deliver near schools and colleges. Zepto also bars users from buying them on behalf of minors, and says delivery personnel may check identification papers or even photograph the buyer for age verification. Some platforms also display health warnings. No clear law Tanu Banerjee, partner at Khaitan & Co., said India lacks a clear, standalone law explicitly regulating the online sale of tobacco products. "The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) primarily focuses on physical point-of-sale restrictions and does not clearly prescribe specific digital disclaimers. Simple self-declarations may not be robust enough to ensure compliance, especially when age verification is left to user consent without technological checks," Banerjee said. Given the Play Store ban on tobacco products, many platforms use so-called "Lite" apps or mobile websites to sidestep restrictions. On iOS, these transactions are mostly possible via the primary app itself. Queries emailed to Zepto, Instamart and Blinkit, as well as the Union health ministry remained unanswered. Cigarette makers ITC Ltd and Philip Morris did not respond to emailed queries. Disclosures Yuvraj Sharma, a Delhi high court advocate, said disclosures demanded by quick commerce platforms fall short of full compliance with COTPA 2003. This may make access to tobacco products easier for minors. Section 6 squarely places the duty on the seller to ensure that tobacco is not supplied to anyone under 18 years of age. A passive self-declaration" tick-box on a website or app cannot satisfy this statutory obligation. The same analysis applies under Section 6(b): the prohibition on sales within 100 yards of an educational institution binds the seller, yet the platforms shift the responsibility to the buyer by asking them merely to confirm their location. Such passive declarations do not discharge the statutory burden that inevitably rests on the seller," he said. Additional disclosures will materialize only when fresh compliance duties are imposedeither through court directives or new statutory rules, said Sharma. "In that landscape, Aadhaar-based or similar government-ID KYC at checkout appears increasingly plausible, as regulators look for concrete proof that sellersnot buyersare bearing the statutory burden of keeping tobacco away from minors and other protected categories," he said. Key Takeaways No explicit law bans online cigarette sales under COTPA, creating a grey zone. Platforms rely on self-declaration with little enforcement of ID checks. Lawyers caution that such practices may breach statutory obligations. Product listings comply superficially with advertising norms but may fail on age checks. Advocates suggest mandatory KYC or government directives for platforms. Violations Quick commerce platforms lend themselves well to the purchase of daily-use products, including cigarettes. Given their popularity across metros and diverse user base, such platforms essentially make access to cigarettes easier. According to the National Tobacco Control Programme, 4,433 cases of violation have been registered this year till 12 June for selling tobacco products to minors. "COTPA in its present form does not specifically regulate the sale of tobacco products or their advertisement on e-commerce or quick-commerce platforms," said Akshat Pande, managing partner, Alpha Partners, a New Delhi-based law firm. "However, the general prohibition under Section 5 shall be applicable to such platforms as they are suppliers of tobacco products. Similarly, it can be argued that since advertisements at physical stores are permitted, such products may be advertised on such platforms." Section 5 prohibits the advertising and promotion of consumption of tobacco products. Exceptions apply only to advertisements on packaging itself, or at physical stores where products are sold, subject to certain conditions. Enforcement issues Pande argues that relying solely on consumer undertakings (self-disclaimer) for age and location verification is problematic, as the sale of such products to minors or within 100 meters of an educational premises is strictly restricted. While some platforms mention ID checks, these are rarely enforced in practice, he said. The Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, outline disclosure requirements for e-commerce entities but do not specify disclosures for those selling tobacco products. Monitoring of tobacco-related violations under the National Tobacco Control Programme falls under the purview of the ministry of health. If any violation of the law is found, strict action is taken," a consumer affairs ministry official said. The ministry also keeps a close watch on the sale of banned items such e-cigarettes, the official said, adding if online platforms are found selling them, action will be taken under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. Ad view Meanwhile, advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) acknowledges that current listings on quick commerce platforms generally appear to comply with rules that mandate point-of-sale information: merely listing the product type with health warnings, without promotional content, imagery, or slogans. "Current listings on quick commerce platforms appear prima facie to be compliant with the rules, which strictly mandate adhering to point-of-sale information: merely listing the product type with mandated health warnings and no promotional content, imagery or slogans encouraging tobacco consumption," said Manisha Kapoor, CEO of ASCI. She added that the health ministry has issued advisories against online tobacco sales, citing enforcement challenges and underage access risks. Enforcement is evolving, and new formats bring new challenges in regulation, said Kapoor. Platforms are encouraged to adopt a precautionary and responsible approach. This is especially important because gaps may exist in enforcement, particularly around age verification mechanisms. ASCI encourages platforms to remain open to additional measures as the regulatory landscape evolves," she added. Smoking population India has a large population of users who smoke regularly. According to the 2019-21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 38% of men aged 15 years and above in India use any kind of tobacco; the number was 8.9% for women. In fiscal year 2022-23, tobacco and tobacco products contributed 72,788 crore to the government's tax revenue. India has stepped up measures in the past to deter people from consuming tobacco products. In 2023, the government extended the COTP (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products) film rules to OTT platforms, which became operative on 1 September 2023. Under these rules, all OTT platforms have to display anti-tobacco health spots, an anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent static message, and an audiovisual disclaimer on the ill effects of tobacco use as prescribed in the rules. Meanwhile, the ministry of health and family welfare tracks violations related to the sale of tobacco products to those under the age of 18. Similarly, it acts against direct or indirect promotion through any form of advertisement that suggests or promotes tobacco use. (Priyanka Sharma contributed to this story) (Bloomberg) -- Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA Chief Executive Officer Luigi Lovaglio said he plans to replace his counterpart at Mediobanca SA, should he succeed in taking control of the larger rival. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, Lovaglio said he tried to call Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel but hasnt received an answer. Nagel is not interested in the deal, Lovaglio said on Wednesday from London. So I think we have to look for a new CEO. The comments underscore the tension between the two banks, with the offer period under way. Monte Paschi stunned Italy when it announced its plan in January, an audacious move for a lender thats still in the process of returning to full private ownership. Nagel has rejected the bid and in turn proposed a takeover of Banca Generali SpA, in whats been seen as a defensive move. Lovaglio has argued a combination with Mediobanca would allow Monte Paschi to benefit in areas such as asset gathering, private banking, investment banking and insurance. Both banks would keep their brands after a deal, he said on Wednesday. There is a strong industrial and financial rationale, he said in the interview. We are rewarding our shareholders for the next 10 years, with 100% payout, and moreover, thanks to fiscal benefits, we will increase the capital by 500 million each year. Lovaglio said he was confident that Mediobanca investors will tender more than 66% of the share capital during the offer period, which started July 14, but that he could achieve de facto control of the rival with as little as 35%. The goal is to go above 66%, he said. Monte Paschi is offering 25.33 new shares for every 10 in Mediobanca, valuing the target at around 14.6 billion ($17 billion) as of Tuesday, below Mediobancas market capitalization of around 15.1 billion. The valuation suggests investors expect the bid to be raised. The offer carried a premium of about 5% when it was first unveiled. The deal is one of a series of overlapping M&A bids that are currently being negotiated and could reshape finance in the European Unions third-largest economy. The transaction is backed by the government in Rome, which still owns a stake in Monte Paschi and would like to build a third large banking group around the Tuscan lender. Monte Paschis plan also has the support of the billionaire Del Vecchio family and construction tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, the largest investors in Mediobanca. The two also own stakes in Monte Paschi and Assicurazioni Generali SpA. Both investors have been supportive from the very beginning, Lovaglio said. Mediobanca said on Friday that their financial involvement in so many companies constitutes a potential misalignment of the interests of these shareholders with those of the rest of the shareholding structure. Monte Paschi, considered to be the worlds oldest bank still in operation, has only recently emerged from a deep restructuring. The bank was bailed out and later nationalized, following an ill-timed takeover just before the financial crisis. Under Lovaglio, who took over in 2022, Monte Paschi has seen a jump in profitability, allowing the lender to resume dividend payments after a 13-year hiatus and the government to sell down its stake. (Updates with comments from interview starting in sixth paragraph.) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com Japans Nidec Corp. is building an almost totally made-in-China electric car motor to help Toyota Motor Corp. compete in the worlds largest auto market, according to Chief Executive Officer Mitsuya Kishida. About 99% of the materials and parts in the E-axle motor are from China, said Nidec president Kishida. Building the integrated motor was incredibly tough, he said in an interview last week. Nidec began supplying the motor for Toyotas electric bZ3X sport utility vehicle, which went on sale in March from about 110,000 yuan , and has sold about 20,000 units so far, according to a Toyota spokesperson. The car the first Toyota vehicle to use this motor is part of the companys push to turn around its fate in the worlds No. 2 economy, as Chinese carmakers capture market share from global rivals. Using mostly Chinese parts allows the company to cut costs and helps reduce the price of the final car, which is necessary to compete in the Asian nations ultra-competitive auto market. The new motor is also aimed at reviving the fortunes of fellow Japanese company Nidec, whose poor profitability and falling stock price are fueling investor discontent. Over the past five decades, the precision-motor manufacturer had sought growth through acquisitions, buying 75 companies and running about 250 factories, said Kishida, who earlier this year announced a restructure after taking the top job in 2024. Before we seek large growth in revenue we have to get our current business under control and get a more efficient structure, he said at the opening of a new factory in Qingdao, northern China. The plant which makes motors, compressors and electronics for home appliances is an example of that, combining two older facilities from different business units in a new $100 million manufacturing hub. That restructuring may include selling some businesses, Kishida said, adding this would improve the image of the company for shareholders and hopefully boost the stock price. The Qingdao investment is a rare example of a Japanese company adding substantially to its presence in China, at a time when many others are cutting back as the nations economic growth slows and global trade tensions rise. Net new Japanese investment into China was up about 3% in the first five months of this year, after rising about 6% last year, according to data from Japans Ministry of Finance. Toyota is another firm bucking that trend, announcing a new factory in Shanghai for its Lexus brand in April, with that investment reported at around $2 billion. Kishida expressed confidence Nidec could also cooperate on that project, noting the company already supplies various other car parts to Toyota. With assistance from Yuki Furukawa, Masatsugu Horie and Nicholas Takahashi. 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Real estate giant, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate (SPRE), is set to develop a five-acre premium residential housing project in Pune, for an an estimated revenue potential of around 800 crore according to the company. The project, called VANAHA Verdant, will comprise 600 apartments and offer around 10 lakh square feet of saleble area. It is part of SPRE's flagship 1,000-acre integrated township, VANAHA, near Bavdhan locality of Pune. Spread across 5 acres, the upcoming project will offer approximately 10 lakhs square feet of saleable area, with an estimated revenue potential of about 800 crore, it stated. Project reflects what homebuyers want, says Executive Sriram Mahadevan According to Sriram Mahadevan, SPRE's CEO and MD of Joyville Shapoorji Housing, the VANAHA Verdant project reflects what today's homebuyers value most: balance, access, and long-term value. He added that the build is close to nature, had integrated commercial spaces and a low-density layout. The official statement on July 16 did not disclose the project cost. Top 7 housing markets see rising demand The statement added that till date, SPRE has sold more than 2,000 apartments worth 1,800 crore across mid-segment within their VANAHA township, adding that India's top seven housing markets are seeing significant rise in price and demand. Post-Covid pandemic, India's top seven housing markets Delhi-NCR, Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Pune have witnessed significant rise in demand and prices, especially for builders having good track record of executing projects on time, it added. Among the country's leading real estate developers Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate, is part of the conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji Group. It has a presence in Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gurugram and Bengaluru and development potential of over 130 million square feet, it said. According to a report by PropEquity, housing plots worth 2.44 lakh crore have been launched in past three and half years because of higher demand post-Covid pandemic, PTI reported. Nearly 4.7 lakh residential plots have been launched by developers between January 2022 and May 2025 across 10 tier-I and tier-II cities such as Hyderabad, Indore, Bengaluru, Chennai, Nagpur, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Mysore, Raipur and Surat. In the first five months of 2025, as many as 45,591 residential plots have been launched, it added. (Bloomberg) -- Hong Kongs Bar Leone, once again, has been crowned Asias best bar. In fact, the top three of Asias 50 Best Bars remained unchanged, with Seouls Zest and Singapores Jigger & Pony coming in second and third again. It was a momentous night for Bar Leone, the Italian-vibed spot that shook up the drinks world in 2024 when it debuted at the top of the list barely over a year after opening. In the process, it dethroned Hong Kongs Coa, which held the coveted distinction for three consecutive years. On Tuesday night in Macau, the first time the 10-year-old awards were celebrated in the former Portuguese colony, Bar Leone solidified its reputation. Known for outstanding negronis and drinks like its olive oil sour, the bar was cofounded by Lorenzo Antinori, the Rome-born bartender who worked in London and Seoul before joining award-winning Argo in Hong Kongs Four Seasons. Our concept is so simple. We really tried to go back to the beauty of simplicity, Antinori said in an interview. That is probably something that people were craving, and I think thats the reason why we got rewarded. Antinori recently teamed up with Spain-based Simone Caporale to open a second venue nearby in Hong Kong this month. Montana harks back to the golden age of Cuba and Miami in the 1970s, and its menu features classics such as the daiquiri, El Presidente and the Montana cocktail, the inspiration for its name. The bar is Caporales first bet in Asia. He was previously with Londons Artesian at The Langham, the worlds best bar from 2012 to 2015, and helped co-found Sips in Barcelona in 2021. The latter snagged first place on the Worlds 50 Best Bars in 2023, and ranked No. 3 last year. Though Hong Kong brought home the highest honors, Bangkok made a strong showing with seven spots in the top 50, including the debut of Dry Wave Cocktail Studio at No. 5, right behind neighboring Bar Us, which jumped up from No. 21 last year. There was also notable representation from India: New Delhis Lair, also a new entry, came in at eighth place as the countrys best bar, and was joined on the list by Soka (28), Boilermaker (30), ZLB23 (31) and Bar Spirit Forward (37). Seouls Alice snagged the highest climber award, making the greatest rise from last years ranking at 46th place to 13th. The list is determined by over 300 anonymous voters in the region, spanning four regions and covering 26 destinations across the continent. It is an offshoot of the Worlds 50 Best Restaurant list, overseen by UK-based William Reed Ltd. The Asian bars and lounges ranked 51 to 100 were announced earlier this month. The list, which included 14 new entries, had six bars from Singapore; four from Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo each; and three from Hong Kong. Here are the winners for 2025, with new additions marked by an asterisk. (Adds quote from Lorenzo Antinori in the fourth paragraph.) More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com Nvidias ability to get a reprieve from restrictions on chip sales to China could mark a shift in the U.S.-China technology rivalry, as well as pave the way to a further de-escalation in the tensions that rattled markets just months ago. The chip manufacturer said overnight that it had been given assurances that it could sell its H20 artificial-intelligence chips in China again, despite restrictions that were put in place in April. The news came shortly after Chief Executive Jensen Huang met with President Donald Trump and as he embarked on a China trip. In a Bloomberg News interview Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the loosening of restrictions was a negotiating chip" used in talks held earlier in Geneva and London. The two sides had met as they tried to reset their relationship after a ratcheting up of tensions that left tariffs at three-digit levels and China curtailing U.S. access to critical minerals, including those used in magnets crucial to autos, other industrial products, and some military applications. The U.S. has increasingly relied on a web of export controls to limit Chinas access to advanced technology as the rivalry between the countries has deepened. The restrictions have been a major sticking point for Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has been seeking a loosening of those rules. Paul Triolo, a partner at geopolitical consultancy DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group, described the easing of restrictions on AI chips as a major and surprising U.S. concession." This was a big moment in U.S. China technology competition, as the U.S. blinked, given the criticality of rare earths and particularly magnets," he said. The leverage Beijing gained from these controls has been parlayed deftly into a major concession on export controls." Among some U.S. officials, including David Sacks, the governments artificial-intelligence and cryptocurrency czar, there is a recognition that controls on advanced AI hardware, such as the H20 chips that are primarily used for AI inference, were counterproductive, Triolo said. The concern, he said, is that the restrictions could hurt U.S. technology companies like Nvidia. Blocking sales to China could erode their dominance in AI hardware and software, while hastening Chinese companies use of domestic alternatives, That would increase the chance the Chinese companies become entrenched in AI infrastructure elsewhere. The reversal in policy is a win for those who believe that the best way to stay ahead in the tech race is for American companies like Nvidia to be able to sell advanced technologies, unhindered, globally," said Navin Girishankar, president of the economic and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served as a Commerce Department official, working on issues including critical and emerging technologies in the Biden administration. It also signals the sobering reality that the U.S. has a lot less leverage in its economic relationship with China that previously thought." Analysts said the move not only shows Chinas leverage, with its dominance in critical minerals, but it also followed a pattern seen in the presidents first term: Trump is willing to listen to corporate and finance titans and grant exemptions and exceptions. If you get a CEO who has a great storyand Jensen Huang has a fantastic story as the most successful company in the world by market cap[Trump] loves it," said Derek Scissors, senior fellow at American Enterprise Institute, who briefly worked in the first administration. I have recommended it to other CEOs and it works." Others expect de-escalatory moves to continue, at least for a bit, as Trump eyes a trip to China to meet with Xi, possibly alongside U.S. chief executives this fall. It seems like there are some play-nice moves going on both sides," said Arthur Kroeber, head of research at Gavekal, noting Beijings recent approval of a merger between Synopsys and Ansys that had been in limbo for a while. The latest de-escalation could add to the markets growing view that coming tariff deadlines, including the Aug. 12 one for China tariffs to resume, could be extended and that the U.S. and China, for now, are trying to dial down the temperature. Write to Reshma Kapadia at reshma.kapadia@barrons.com Multinational energy firm Zelestra has sounded out Brookfield, JSW Group, Sembcorp, Serentica and Macquarie for a potential sale of its India business, three people with knowledge of the development said. The initial outreach has been made. The formal process is likely to kickstart soon with the information memorandums to be sent out in the next few weeks," one of the three people said on the condition of anonymity. JP Morgan is helping the EQT-backed company find buyers, the person added. Spokespersons for Brookfield, Macquarie and Zelestra declined comment, while queries to Serentica, JSW Group and Sembcorp remained unanswered. Zelestra is the latest global energy firm banking on high local valuations to sell India asserts and reduce debt. Many companies in the renewable and energy space owned by global PEs or strategic investors such as Vibrant Energy and Statkraft Group have been looking to sell their India portfolios as well. Also Read | Zelestra appoints Prashant Kumar as CFO of its India arm A deal is likely to peg Zelestra's enterprise value at $400-500 million, the second person cited above said. The company wants to sell its India business because it wants to focus on its core markets and take advantage of the high valuation multiples in the Indian market to sell the asset and generate liquidity. This will help them pare debt on their global books," the person added. The Zelestra Group website says its Indian projects include hybrid projects that combine solar, wind, and battery energy storage. It has more than 3 GW worth of India projects in development and operation. The Zelestra group oversees around 3.8 GW of renewable energy projects in operation and under construction globally, a March 2025 ratings release by Care Ratings said. In India, it is targeting over 5 GW of new projects, while currently having an operational capacity of solar projects of 150 megawatt peak (MWp) and 435 MWp capacity under construction. Zelestra is backed by EQT AB group, a private equity fund house managed by the Sweden's Wallenberg family, and operates primarily in the European and the US markets. EQT holds around 92% in Zelestra Group. Also Read | Global green energy growth on course but lags target, says IRENA deputy chief There is significant interest among private equity and domestic strategic buyers in India's renewable energy space. India is aiming at net-zero emissions by 2070, with key targets of 500 GW renewable energy in India by 2030 and a 45% reduction in GHG emissions intensity. Indias renewable energy capacity grew from 78 GW in FY14-15 to 199 GW in FY 2023-24, with solar accounting for 80% of new capacity. To meet its 500 GW target by 2030, 90 GW is under construction and 44 GW in development. The government plans to tender 50 GW annually until FY27-28. This is likely to see a lot of M&A, PE investments and consolidation activity in the near term, experts predict. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on July 16 that her party will oppose the Election Commissions Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls 'tooth and nail' if it is carried out in the TMC-ruled state, where assembly elections are scheduled next year. The TMC chief alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has plans to remove names from Bengals voter list. We will oppose it tooth and nail if the Election Commission calls for an electoral roll revision in Bengal ahead of the assembly polls, Mamata said, addressing a public gathering while leading a protest march against the labelling of Bengali-speaking people as Bangladeshis in BJP-ruled states. The TMC chief alleged that the BJP has plans to remove names from Bengals electoral rolls."We will fight them inch by inch," she said at the rally. Opposition leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, have raised questions on the poll panel's ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The Congress party has dubbed it a rigging attempt orchestrated by the Election Commission under instructions from the ruling regime, while the TMC accused the poll panel of trying to implement the contentious NRC, or National Register of Citizens, through backdoors to seek documentary evidence of citizenship from some people. The poll panel has said it intends to replicate the Bihar model of SIR across the country. Supreme Court Hearing The Supreme Court on July 10 allowed the Election Commission of India to continue with its revision of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. The top court, however, asked the poll panel to consider using the Aadhaar card, the Election card, and the ration card as valid documents for voter identification. The top court was hearing a batch of petitions, including one by TMC MP Mahua Moitra. Moitra has alleged that the Election Commission of India's SIR of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar is intended to deprive the bonafide young electorate from voting during the upcoming elections. The panel's next target would be West Bengal, Moitra alleged. Also Read | Bihar Voter List Revision row: Mahua Moita alleges EC to target Bengal next While Bihar goes to the polls later this year, assembly elections in West Bengal are scheduled in 2026. The TMC will fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the West Bengal assembly elections. "They (EC) have now introduced it to deprive the bonafide young electorate of Bihar, where elections are slated to be held shortly. Later, they will target Bengal, where elections are due in 2026," Moitra told news agency PTI. At the Kolkata rally on Wednesday, Mamata alleged that the BJP won in Maharashtra by removing names from electoral rolls and that it is doing the same in Bihar now. As many as 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in other parts of country, they have valid identity documents, claimed Mamata at the rally. BJP ally TDP seeks explanation on SIR The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Bhartiya Janata Party's second-largest ally in the National Democratic Alliance, has sought clarity from the Election Commission on the scope of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls underway in poll-bound Bihar and likely to be replicated nationwide. We will oppose it tooth and nail if the Election Commission calls for an electoral roll revision in Bengal ahead of the assembly polls. The TDP has said that the Election Commission of India's exercise should ideally be conducted not within six months of any major election and that it should be made clear that it is not related to citizenship verification. Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 16 (ANI): A team from the Italian fashion house Prada arrived in Kolhapur to learn about the history and craftsmanship behind the iconic Kolhapuri chappals. The Prada team visited Kolhapur and met the artisans and shopkeepers to know more about the iconic Kolhapuri chappals. One of the shopkeepers told ANI, "Yesterday, the Prada team that came to Kolhapur to see how these chapppals are made, today they came to see that shop in the biggest market of Kolhapur. Where Kolhapuri chappals are sold in the market where Kolhapuri chappals are sold. When they came to see in the market, they liked our leather bag, which is used by conductors or petrol pumps or to keep the cash. They had come to see authentic leather bags and liked our Kolhapur, especially the Kapashi Kolhapuri chappal." "A team has come from Italy to check all the manufacturing units of Kohapuri chappals and to see the technical parts as Prada enters the retail market in Kolhapur, " said another vendor. Another shopkeeper said, "The team that came from Italy personally recorded the manufacturing process of Kolhapuri chappals in the local market. We offer authentic stitching and original quality Kolhapuri chappals." Following a massive backlash for plagiarising Indian artisans' work, Prada accepted that its latest summer wear collection was "inspired by Indian artisans". However, the petitioners claim that the fashion brand (Prada) has not issued any "formal apology" along with any "damages", "compensation" and "entitled remedy" to the Maharashtrian artisans. Lorenzo Bertelli, son of Prada's owners, responded to the backlas in a letter to a trade group recognising their Indian heritage, reported news agency Reuters. "We acknowledge that the sandals... are inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear, with a centuries-old heritage," Bertelli, Prada's head of corporate social responsibility, wrote in the letter to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce. In the first week of July, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in the Bombay High Court demanding that the Italian fashion house Prada pay compensation to the Kolhapuri chappal artisans for allegedly copying their design in their latest unveiled summer collection.Kolhapuri Chappal is already protected as a Geographical Indication (GI) under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan has sold his Mumbai apartment, located in the upscale area of Bandra West, for 5.35 crore, according to property documents accessed by Square Yards via the Maharashtra governments Inspector General of Registration (IGR) portal. The sale of his apartment was officially registered in July 2025. Salman Khan sells Bandra flat for over 5 crore Going by the papers accessed, the actor's apartment is located in Shiv Asthan Heights, located in one of the citys most sought-after neighbourhoods. Reportedly, the property spans a built-up area of 122.45 square metres (approximately 1,318 sq. ft.) It also comes with three car parking spots. The property sale was made for 5.35 crore, with a stamp duty of 32.01 lakh and registration charges of 30,000. Bandra West is known for its premium real estate, with several upscale apartments belonging to Bollywood stars. It has connectivity via the Western Express Highway, Bandra railway station, and upcoming Metro lines. Its proximity to key business hubs like Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Lower Parel, and the Mumbai International Airport further adds to its real estate value for both homebuyers and investors. Salman Khan's house in Bandra Salman is among the many Bollywood actors who reside in Bandra. He lives in the popular Galaxy Apartment, opposite the Bandra Bandstand. Salman's family owns two floors in the Galaxy Apartment building. While Salman stays on one floor, his parents live on the other. The house is said to reflect his simplicity in life while also accommodating his modern needs. His house also has a private gym and a huge balcony from where he is often seen making special appearances for his fans. A huge bulletproof glass was recently installed on his balcony owing to growing security concerns of the actor. Salman Khan's upcoming film Meanwhile, on the work front, Salman Khan was last seen in Sikandar, alongside Rashmika Mandanna. He is currently prepping for his upcoming film, Battle of Galwan. The war film is directed by Apoorva Lakhia. It will star Chitrangda Singh as the female lead. (Adds detail on verdict in paragraphs 1 and 3-7, background in 2 and 4, lawyers in 8) STOCKHOLM, July 16 (Reuters) - A Swedish court found three men guilty of accessory to the murder last year of the award-winning hip-hop artist known by the alias C.Gambino, it said on Wednesday. The Swedish artist, who kept his identity hidden and wore a mask in public, was shot dead in a parking garage in June 2024 in a suspected gang-related attack in Gothenburg on the Nordic country's west coast. The men - Hassan Rabeie, 22, Vide Atterstam, 20, and Fatjam Vardari, 21 - have denied the charges against them, according to Swedish media. Rabeie and Vardari had been charged with murder, or alternatively accessory to murder, but the Gothenburg District Court said in a statement that the investigation had not established beyond reasonable doubt that they were the ones who actually shot the rapper. As a result, all three were convicted of accessory to murder. The court sentenced Rabeie to life imprisonment. The other two were sentenced to 15 years and six months, and 12 years and six months, respectively. "The shooting has had the character of a pure execution and has entailed severe suffering for the victim," the court said. "The crime has its background in a conflict between criminal networks." The lawyer representing Atterstam told Reuters the verdict was disappointing and declined to comment further. Rabeie's and Vardari's lawyers were not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters. Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 16: In an era where digitisation is impacting various sectors, the taxation landscape in India is also experiencing innovation with fixmytax, a digital tax and financial advisory platform. fixmytax aims to provide transparency, affordability, and convenience in managing tax obligations for individuals and businesses. Founded in 2022 by tax strategist and financial expert Dr. Pawan Jaiswal, fixmytax was developed to address complexities sometimes associated with taxation in India. The platform offers a digital, secure, and user-friendly experience, ensuring the users receive expert guidance every step of the way. As we developed fixmytax, our vision was simpleno Indian should ever feel intimidated by taxation, shares Dr. Jaiswal. Every citizen deserves tools and guidance that are transparent, trustworthy, and easily accessible. A Platform for All Tax Needs fixmytax assists with compliance through its services for salaried professionals, business owners, and entrepreneurs. Key offerings include: Income Tax Return (ITR) Filing Across various categories (ITR 1 to 7) Across various categories (ITR 1 to 7) GST Return Filing For regular and composite dealers For regular and composite dealers TDS & TCS Compliances Timely and accurate filings Timely and accurate filings Compliance with Tax Notices For both Income Tax and GST-related issues For both Income Tax and GST-related issues Representation in Appeals For first and second appellate matters under Income Tax & GST Dr. Pawan Jaiswal Financial Advisory with Support What sets fixmytax apart is its human-first approach. The platform ensures real-time interaction with licensed professionals through live chat, calls, or video consultations. This personalised support can give users confidence in navigating complex tax situations. Transparent Pricing and Data Security fixmytax provides transparent pricing and users are informed of all charges before they begin, with no hidden fees or commissions. The platform adheres to government-mandated data privacy standards, with encryption measures to ensure that sensitive financial data remains safe and protected. Used by Many Across India From salaried individuals in metros to self-employed professionals in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, fixmytax has been used by a number of individuals in India. Its platform aims to be accessible to various users, regardless of location or profession. Users, whether in Bengaluru or rural Bihar, can receive equal attention and service quality. Leadership Team Dr. Pawan Jaiswal leads fixmytax, supported by Co-Founder Advocate Nidhi Pawan Singh, an expert in direct and indirect taxation, and Advocate Ajit Kumar, involved in tax litigation and appellate representation. The leadership team brings decades of combined experience and is engaged in promoting financial and tax literacy across the country. We are not just a tax platformwe are a partner in progress for every Indian household and enterprise, affirms Dr. Jaiswal. Future Plans As India continues its digital progression, fixmytax is working to scale operations to meet demand. With headquarters in Lucknow and Prayagraj, the company is expanding its digital infrastructure, and plans to introduce educational tools and simplified compliance aids to further assist the tax journey for individuals and MSMEs. To learn more or get started, visit: Americans like Britain. Ask restless American graduates where they would most like to move, and it often tops the list. So it is no surprise that, as the Trump administration has attacked Americas top universities and slashed funding for research, American interest in British-based science and tech jobs spiked. Britain has a rare opportunity to snap up disillusioned American boffins, as well as global talent that might once have chosen America. Will it seize it? It faces competition. In April Canadian and European institutions pledged tens of millions of dollars to fund international talent. In May Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, urged researchers to choose Europe for science, with a package worth 500m ($580m) over three years. Britain was late to the party. On June 22nd it unveiled the Global Talent Fund, a 54m ($72m) scheme to support 11 world-class researchers to relocate to Britain with their teams, with funding for five years. Groups such as the Royal Society have set up their own schemes too, taking the UKs total commitments to around 115m. The point of such programmes is to lure the sort of researchers who might one day win Nobel prizes. But plenty of less-established talent is also up for grabs. Many American universities are cutting places on graduate programmes and have frozen hiring for postdocs. Academics in America also report that young researchers from overseas are turning down job offers there. Britain has some advantages to attract such people. Language is one. In data from Indeed, a jobs site, Anglophone countries have seen the biggest jumps in American interest in science and tech roles (see chart). In June more than a quarter of American clicks on international science positions went to Britain (Canada got more than a third). English-speaking countries also appeal to the same globally mobile cohort who like America. According to Studyportals, a directory of university courses, students who search for America-based bachelors and masters degrees are most likely to browse for British ones too. Brand is another advantage. Britain has more stellar institutions than any other European country or Canada. It produces just 3.4% of the worlds academic papers, according to one measure, but 6.1% of those in the top 1% of citations (the only country which does better by this criterion is Singapore). Britains handicaps are cost and red tape. Moving there means a lengthy visa process, high visa fees and a hefty NHS surchargeall to be paid upfront. For a family of four relocating for five years, the sum can exceed 20,000. Some British research funders will pay for the applicants moving expenses, but few cover partners and dependents. And after all that a professor at Oxford may be paid half as much as one at Harvard. BEIJING : The head of Americas most valuable company delivered a love letter to China while visiting Beijing, extolling the countrys technological advances and praising its best-in-the-world" electric vehicles. Jensen Huang, chief executive of artificial-intelligence chip designer Nvidia, spoke a day after the Trump administration allowed the company to resume selling one of its advanced AI chips to Chinese customers. The decision, part of a trade truce in which China agreed to speed up exports of rare-earth minerals, opens the door for Nvidia to step up its business in China again despite criticism from some in Congress that giving expanded access to advanced U.S. technology could benefit Beijings military and pose a national-security risk for America. Huang rejected such views at a news conference, which he interrupted from time to time so he could autograph Chinese reporters clothing. Theres always room in any house for two people, dont you think?" he said. The CEO said he was hoping to get approval to keep updating Nvidias offerings for the Chinese market. He expressed confidence that his meetings with top officials in Beijing, including the vice premier, wouldnt bother President Trump. When he visited Trump last week, Huang said, the president was delighted to help celebrate a monumental day for Nvidia"it became the first company to top $4 trillion in market capitalizationand was telling everybody about that." The CEO said he advised Trump that he was heading to Beijing and the president responded, Have a great trip." Huang has become a frequent visitor to both Washington and Beijing. Unlike most politicians and officials in Washington, Huang heaped praise on China while avoiding issues such as its military expansion. When you see me in the United States, you must think you went back in time. You wouldnt even understand my lifeits too strange," Huang said to a Chinese reporters question, citing ubiquitous smartphone payments in China in comparison with Americans continued use of cash. You are so advanced in technology adoption." Earlier in the day, Huang, who was born in Taiwan but is a U.S. citizen, swapped his signature leather jacket for traditional Chinese-style attire and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of a government-backed business fair, partly in Chinese. Chinas supply chain is a miracle," Huang said. The heroes of Chinas superfast innovations are your researchers, developers and entrepreneurs." At the news conference, he took issue with U.S. policy under both the Biden and Trump administrations that has effectively barred imports of most Chinese EVs through high tariffs. He said he met the chief executive of Chinese EV and smartphone maker Xiaomi, whose EVs just hit the market last year and have already built up monthslong waiting lists. Xiaomi is a miracle of a company," he said. The technology inside is the best in the world." Asked by a Chinese reporter if he would buy one, Huang said, I would love to. Its unfortunately not available in the United States, but thats our misfortune, not yours." Write to Peter Landers at Peter.Landers@wsj.com A century ago, the London Underground wooed passengers during the summer with the promise it was cooler below." That seems like a cruel joke today. It genuinely feels like hell down there," said Hussein Zaaiter, a London-based student. Its a free sauna on the Central line," he joked, referring to one of the Tubes hottest train lines. Riding the Tube during the summer has long been an unpleasant, sweaty experience. The bad news for Londoners is that the Tube isnt just hot, its getting hotter. And figuring out how to cool it down presents challenges that air conditioning cant easily fix. Engineers have spent decades trying everything from industrial fans to giant blocks of ice to temper the sweltering subterranean climate, but a remedy remains elusive. Heat has been steadily building below the surface ever since the worlds oldest underground transportation system opened in 1863. Across all lines, average temperatures increased by 1 to 3 degrees Celsius over the past 10 years, according to measurements from Transport for London. Summer temperatures on the Tube now regularly exceed 30 degrees Celsius, or 86 degrees Fahrenheit, the legal limit for transporting cattle, pigs and sheep in the U.K. The temperature at the surface doesnt really affect the temperature in the tube. Throughout the summer, the tube maintains a fairly constant 86 degrees, while the surface wobbles between lows in the 50s at night and as high as 104 degrees during the day. The busy Central Line is one of the transit systems deeper lines, where narrow tunnels have made it difficult to add air conditioning to trains. Zaaiter has ridden the Paris Metro and the New York subway, but its never as bad," he said. For Verity Walker, a musical-theater actress in London, the heat underground has a habit of sticking with her. Im turning up to auditions, and Im worried I smell," she said. The price should be decreased in the summer because of the conditions." Climate activists turned the Tube into their personal sauna, riding around the city in their bathrobes and hair towels to raise awareness about the heat. Experts pin the Tubes hot mess on its tight Victorian-era tunnels, which restrict air circulation, especially on deeper lines. Moreover, Londons bedrock is composed of a dense, stiff clay that absorbs and retains warmth. Every day, friction from accelerating and braking trains generates more heat. Even carelessly discarded newspapers obstruct air vents behind seats and trap hot air in train cars, exacerbating the problem. In 2003, then-Mayor of London Ken Livingston launched a competition with a 100,000 prize for a tunnel-cooling solution, or about $159,500 at the time. Of the 3,400 entries, many simply suggested riders not wear clothes. Other proposals included handing out Popsicles or putting up pictures of snowmen. No practical designs emerged, and the competition was closed in 2005. Since then, TfL has spent millions of pounds on initiatives to beat the heat. Early attempts included placing large blocks of ice in refrigeration units under train seats, where the thawing ice would cool air passing over it. Groundwater was also tapped to try to cool the tunnels. Industrial fans were installed at stations. Even after the TfL discovered they slightly increased temperatures because of the heat generated by the motors, the fans remained. Surveys indicated the fast-flowing air made people feel more comfortable. It always perplexed me that boffins could produce mobile phones the size of a credit card yet passengers would emerge dripping with sweat from Tube trains," Boris Johnson said in 2018 during his stint as mayor. Air conditioning has now been added to roughly 40% of London Underground trains, but it is hard to install on the smaller, deeper Tube lines. It also isnt a panacea. AC simply moves heat from one place to another, so while trains may get cooler, platforms and tunnels get hotter. Engineering experts have proposed various solutions, all to cool reception. Ideas included regenerative braking, where heat from brakes is recovered to use as energy for trains or stations; improved ventilation systems; energy-efficient construction materials; and smart sensor networks to monitor and regulate temperatures in real time. Even successful solutions, such as using heat pumps to remove excess heat, have proved tricky to employ across the vast network. One London borough uses the excess heat from the local Tube station to warm nearby homes, but expanding the program faces logistical and funding challenges. A citywide heat network is at least a decade away. TfL, noting the stop-start nature of funding," says its focused on areas that provide the greatest relief to passengers. Next year, after several delays, it plans to finally introduce the first air-conditioned trains on a deep tunnel Tube line. They will still fit along the Piccadilly line thanks to the AC being placed under the trains, a design that took years to master. TfL said it is also exploring the possibility of cooling panels, subject to funding. While the heat makes journeys uncomfortable for passengers, its a prolonged punishment for staffeven with the cooling systems in drivers cabs. Tube bosses have been encouraging train drivers to drink more water, but union organizer Finn Brennan says thats an impractical solution. With more water, we need the toilet more," he said, adding that drivers are often on a strict schedule with limited breaks. This isnt a situation that will get better." With London enduring repeated summer heat waves, some train workers are planning a heat strike" if temperatures rise above 96.8 degrees. TfL has sought to reassure the public, saying it has a comprehensive hot weather plan in place" to get through the summer. Its enduring advice: Please carry water with you." Write to Anvee Bhutani at anvee.bhutani@wsj.com Bank holiday today, July 16 (Wednesday): Banks in Dehradun will be closed for Harela, a festival celebrated in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and some parts of Himachal Pradesh. Thus, all public and private banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), will be closed in these states today. Besides today, there are a number of other bank holidays this week, the death anniversary of U Tirot Singh, Ker Puja, and the second Saturday aand Sunday weekend offs. Notably, the second and fourth Saturdays and all Sundays are weekly offs for all banks. There are a total of seven listed bank holidays in July this year. The RBI and state governments create a list of holidays for banks, taking into account national and local occasions, operational requirements, religious celebrations and other cultural observances. The central bank makes the announcement through its official website and notifications to banks and other financial institutions. Bank holidays in July 2025: FULL State-wise holiday list calendar July 3 (Thursday) Kharchi Puja Banks will be closed in Agartala to celebrate Kharchi Puja, a Hindu festival in Tripura dedicated to fourteen deities called Chaturdasha Devata. July 5 (Saturday) Guru Hargobinds Birthday Banks will be closed in Jammu and Srinagar to mark Guru Hargobinds Birthday, the sixth of the ten Sikh Gurus. July 6 (Sunday) Banks closed pan-India. July 12 (Saturday) Banks closed pan-India for second Saturday. July 13 (Sunday) Banks closed pan-India. July 14 (Monday) Beh Deinkhlam Banks will be closed in Shillong for Beh Deinkhlam, a festival celebrated by the Jaintia tribe in Meghalaya. July 16 (Wednesday) Harela Banks in Dehradun will be closed for Harela, a festival celebrated in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand and some parts of Himachal Pradesh. July 17 (Thursday) Death Anniversary of U Tirot Singh Banks will remain shut in Shillong, marking the death anniversary of U Tirot Singh, one of the chiefs of the Khasi people. July 19 (Saturday) Ker Puja Banks in Agartala will be closed for Ker Puja, a festival celebrated in Tripura. It is dedicated to Ker, the region's guardian deity, who protects from calamities and external threats. July 20 (Sunday) Banks closed pan-India. July 26 (Saturday) Banks closed pan-India for fourth Saturday. July 27 (Sunday) Banks closed pan-India. July 28 (Monday) Drukpa Tshe-zi Banks in Gangtok will be closed for Drukpa Tshe-zi, a Buddhist festival that falls on the fourth day of the sixth month in the Tibetan lunar calendar. This day marks Lord Buddha's first sermon. Emergencies during bank holidays? What to know, and what you can do You can continue to use online or mobile banking services even on national holidays unless notified to users for technical or other reasons. For cash emergencies, ATMs are open for withdrawals, app and UPI function as usual. All of the bank's annual holiday calendar is declared by the RBI under provisions of the Negotiable Instruments Act, which deals with the issuance of cheques and promissory notes. Transactions involving these instruments are thus not available during these listed holidays. ITC Hotels, the entity formed after the demerger from the diversified conglomerate ITC Ltd., announced its financial results for the April-June quarter on Wednesday, July 16. This marks the company's third quarterly earnings release since the separation from its parent firm. ITC Hotels reported a 54 per cent year-on-year increase in its net profit for the first quarter of FY26, with profit rising to 133 crore from 87 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. The net profit is attributable to the company's owners. Revenue from operations for the quarter reached 816 crore, marking a 15.5 per cent increase compared to 706 crore in the same quarter of the previous financial year. The company's profit after tax (PAT) declined by 48 per cent on a sequential basis from the 257 crore recorded in Q4FY25. This drop is primarily due to a 23 per cent decrease in revenue from ITC Hotels during the current quarter, compared to 1,061 crore in the JanuaryMarch period. EBITDA and segment revenue EBITDA for the quarter rose 19 per cent year-on-year to 246 crore, with margins improving by 87 basis points to 29.9 per cent, up from 29.03 per cent in the same period last year. Revenue from the hotel segment came in at 801 crore, marking an increase from 690 crore in Q1FY25, but a decline compared to 1,043 crore recorded in Q4FY25. The companys real estate division reported no revenue. It mentioned that the Group is currently developing ultra-luxury branded residences in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and revenue from this segment will be recorded only after the projects are completed and sold. Just Dial share price declined over 2 per cent in morning trade on the BSE on Wednesday, July 16, a day after the company reported its June quarter (Q1) results of the financial year 2025-26. Just Dial share price opened at 944.80 against its previous close of 941.10 and dropped 2.35 per cent to an intraday low of 919. Around 10:05 AM, the stock traded 2.06 per cent lower at 921.70. Equity benchmark Sensex was 0.17 per cent down at 82,432 at that time. Just Dial Q1 results Indias leading local search engine company, Just Dial, reported its Q1FY26 results post-market hours on July 15. The company said its net profit for the quarter rose 13 per cent year-on-year (Yoy) to 159.6 crore, while revenue increased by 6.2 per cent YoY to 297.9 crore. EBITDA, rising 7.2 per cent YoY, stood at 86.4 crore, while EBITDA margin improved by 28 bps YoY to 29 per cent in Q1FY26. The company's traffic, or quarterly unique visitors, in Q1FY26 rose 6.6 per cent YoY to 19.32 crore users. The company's cash and investments by June 30, 2025, stood at 5,429.8 crore, up 14.2 per cent YoY. As of June 30, 2025, total active listings stood at 49.7 million, an increase of 10.6 per cent year over year and 1.9 per cent quarter over quarter. Just Dial: Is it a stock to buy? Some experts point out the company's mixed earnings and lack of clarity on its cash distribution policy. While the stock remains a buy for some, they have slashed the target prices. For example, brokerage firm JM Financial maintained a buy call on the stock but trimmed the target price to 1,200 from 1,250 earlier. "Just Dial's collections, the lead indicator for revenue, growth in Q1FY26 stood at a mere 0.6 per cent YoY, a marked slowdown from 11.3 per cent YoY in Q4FY25. Sequential paid campaign additions, too, were weak at 4k versus JM Financial's estimates of 7.3k and below 12.2k additions in Q4," JM Financial observed. JM Financial further highlighted that revenue was a miss on its estimates by nearly 1 per cent, while EBITDA was also behind its estimate by 3.5 per cent due to a sharp increase in A&P (advertising and promotion) spends. Traffic trend, too, was muted at 6.6 per cent YoY, despite the recent increase in A&P spend, the brokerage firm noted. Moreover, JM Financial emphasised that there was no clarity on the companys much-awaited cash distribution policy. The brokerage firm said that, excluding cash and other income, the stock is extremely cheap at 8 times FY26 PER, as current cash and investments account for nearly 68 per cent of Just Dials market cap. Further, the brokerage firm has lowered its topline estimates for Just Dial by up to 1.4 per cent over FY26-28 to factor in lower-than-expected collections growth and net paid campaigns additions in Q1. It has also lowered the margin forecast by 90-110bps. "As a result, our FY27-28 EPS is cut by 4.4-4.6 per cent (despite cuts at the EBITDA level, FY26 EPS goes up due to a sharp beat on other income in Q1). If Just Dial were to announce cash distribution of at least 100 per cent of its FY25 PAT (as indicated in the Q1/Q4FY25 earnings call) in the form of either dividends or buyback, at the current market price, the payout yield could be a lucrative 7.3 per cent. We now value the stock basis 17 times core business EPS + cash to derive a revised target price of 1,200 versus 1,250 earlier," said JM Financial. Some technical experts suggest accumulating Just Dial shares at the current juncture, highlighting a key support for the stock at 890. According to Jigar S. Patel, Senior Manager of Equity Research at Anand Rathi Share and Stock Brokers, Just Dial stock is witnessing a tight consolidation phase in the 900 960 range. It is currently trading near the lower end of this band, around 900. Just Dial shares technical chart Patel said the 890 level coincides with a previous breakout zone and is expected to act as strong support going forward. "Traders may consider accumulating in the 890 900 range with a potential upside target of 1,000. A stop loss should be placed below 850 on a daily closing basis," said Patel. Read all market-related news here Known for its aggressive expansion, Ola Electrics pivot towards profitability has brought relief to investors. To be sure, revenues halved in the last reported quarter, and losses widened. But managementsintent to shift focus towards profitability, close on the heels of the auto business' first Ebitda-positive month, has kindled hopes of a long-awaited turnaround in the business. After eroding more than half of investors wealth since listing, the stock rallied almost 20% on Monday. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel for Ola investors, or is it a suckers rally? Earnings continue to disappoint Founded in 2017, Ola Electric was among the first movers in the electric two-wheeler space. Over the years, it has burnt cash with competitive pricing and aggressive marketing in an attempt to cement its lead. But customer complaints around product quality and after-sales service indicate that in the race for growth, quality may have taken a backseat. The latest quarters numbers released this week were largely more of the same falling revenues and widening losses. Compared to the same quarter last year, revenues halved to 828 crore and loss widened from 347 crore to 428 crore. Green shoots spur hope However, revenue increased and losses narrowed compared to the previous quarter. Q1 losses were also smaller than expected, thanks to higher operating leverage on the back of volumes propped up by the previous quarters backlog. Gen-3 scooters made up 80% of sales during the quarter, and their higher prices supported gross margin. Ola also claims superior product quality was the reason behind the reversal of warranty provisions seen during the quarter. Declining battery prices also helped contain losses. The result? Despite falling short of the previously cited breakeven threshold of 25,000 unit sales a month, the companys auto business turned profitable at the Ebitda level in June. It was also near breakeven on operating cash flows during the quarter. Management indicated that apart from R&D, no large capex was planned for FY26. These green shoots have spurred hopes that aggressive expansion is a thing of the past and that Ola Electrics auto business may have now stepped into its next phase profitable growth. Profitability over PLI As for Olas cell manufacturing business, it had signed an MoU to invest Rs.4,500 crore by 2024 towards setting up 20 GWh of capacity to qualify for incentives under the government's production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. But the company plans to invest only 1,000 crore to expand capacity to 5GWh, and focus on profitability thereafter. While industry players including Ola are in discussions with the government, seeking leeway on the PLI targets, Ola has indicated that it will expand cell manufacturing only to the extent that it supports its vehicle sales. It expects the cell business to break even at 3.5-4 GWh by FY27, and does no expect to need more than 5 GWh until FY29. Management has indicated it is unwilling to extend the breakeven timelines just to meet PLI targets, even if this means coughing up penalties of up to 100 crore. Competition may continue to play spoilsport While Ola was among the first companies to tap Indias electric scooter market, its reputation has suffered some serious damage over the years. Its technological moat has also been eroded by competitors. So, when legacy two-wheeler manufacturers including TVS and Bajaj entered the EV space, Olas market share slipped sharply from 50% to less than 20% in a year. The only other listed pure-play EV manufacturer, Ather Energy, gained ground during the period. A smaller share of a fast-growing pie would not have been as much of a bother. But the pie has also been growing more slowly. Government initiatives to boost electric two-wheeler sales are gradually being phased out. FAME-II concluded in March 2024, and electric mobility promotion scheme (EMPS) is set on glide path down to just Rs.5,000 worth of subsidies per scooter by 2026. Thus the onus is now increasingly falling on organic adoption of electric two-wheelers. Though electric scooters still constitute only about 7% of all EVs sold in India, sales growth has moderated. This explains the manufacturers pivots from aggressive market penetration to profitable growth. Ola had to slash 1,000 jobs in FY25 to rein in losses. Olas deeper issues persist Olas troubles run deeper than industry headwinds. While the electric two-wheeler segment registered a robust 31.7% growth in June, Olas sales fell 45%. The companys brand image has been hurt by widespread service issues and customer complaints, which caused the Central Consumer Protection Authority) to step in at one point. Ola responded by resolving a bulk of the pending complaints and investing in doubling its footprint to 4,436 stores. The bulk of these as company owned and company operated, piling on further losses and draining cash. But service issues have apparently persisted. Recently, Olas flagship electric motorcycle, Roadster X Plus, was in the news as several customers complained about charging issues. The company has also had issues with registration agencies, after which it moved registration in-house. This led to backlogs in registration and invoicing, discrepancies between reported sales and registrations, and delays in deliveries. While the company now claims to have cleared the backlog, it was almost dragged to insolvency over the conflict. This month Ola faced a shutdown of most of its stores in Maharashtra, India's largest electric scooter market. The company is working with the authorities to resolving the issue, which pertains to its store permits and trade certificates. Ola had also seen a string of management exits, further eroding the brands reputation. Overoptimistic projections? Management has guided for 3.25-3.75 lakh vehicle deliveries and 4,200-4,700 crore of revenue during the year. With Q1 revenue at just about 800 crore, the guidance optimistically projects average quarterly revenue at 1,100-1,300 crore for the rest of the fiscal year. The sharp pickup in revenues assumes strong traction of the companys new launches one every quarter over the next two years. Management expects gross margin to expand from 26% in Q1 to 35-40%, and has guided for at least 5% Ebitda margin for the full fiscal year. It also expects operating cash flows to turn positive by the end of FY26. A lot seems to be riding on its Gen-3 scooters higher gross-margins, reduced warranty claims, and PLI benefits kicking in from Q2. Meanwhile, its ongoing efforts at vertical integration towards manufacturing cells and rare-earth-free motors are expected to help control costs, enhance performance, and improve supply-chain resilience. The company is also counting on Project Lakshya to cut costs. While cost savings in Q1FY26 have been attributed to the project, lower battery prices are likely to have also played a role. The proof will be in the pudding. If revenue growth accelerates, margins expand in line with managements guidance, and customer complaints taper off, investors will feel reassured that Ola Electric is walking the talk. For more such analysis, read Profit Pulse. Ananya Roy is founder of Credibull Capital, a SEBI-registered investment adviser. X: @ananyaroycfa Disclosure: The author does not hold shares of the companies discussed. The views expressed are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult a financial professional before making any investment decisions. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions company. It's the largest IT company in India with a presence in 55 countries. TCS is seen as the crown jewel of the Tata group. Its a cash-generating machine that regularly generates more cash than its net profit. Its also a dividend paymaster. The company pays dividends every quarter, which makes it attractive for investors who seek regular income. The company serves clients are some of the biggest firms in the world Google, Amazon, Azure, Openstack, Adobe, Intel, Bosch, IBM, Apple, Oracle, Symantec, etc. It has a workforce of over 610,000 in 180 service delivery centres across 55 countries in six continents. The company recently declared its first quarter results for FY26. The stock markets reaction to the results was negative. In fact, the stock has been under pressure for nearly a year. June 2025 quarterly results The companys revenue in the quarter was $7,421 million, a decline of 1.1% YoY and 3.1% YoY decline in constant currency terms. Operating profit did improve marginally on a sequential basis to 24.5%. This stable operating performance helped the net profit grow to $1.5 billion, up 3.5% YoY, with a net margin of 20.1%. The profit also got a boost due to one-offs like tax benefits and cost savings due to the winding down of a large project. The company generated about $1.5 bn in cash from operations which was 100.3% of the net profit. The headcount increased slightly by 6,071 taking the total to 613,069 at the end of the quarter. The IT services employee attrition rate a closely tracked metric was 13.8%. The company paid a dividend of 11 per share. The record date and payment date for the same are16 July and 4 August respectively. The total contract value (TCV) was $9.4 bn, down from $12.2 bn in the last quarter. What did the management say? CEO and managing director, K. Krithivasan said, "The continued global macro-economic and geo-political uncertainties caused a demand contraction. On the positive side, all the new services grew well. We saw robust deal closures during this quarter. We remain closely connected to our customers to help them navigate the challenges impacting their business, through cost optimization, vendor consolidation and AI-led business transformation" Essentially, the company faced serious challenges due to the ongoing trade and tariff tensions, along with geopolitical tensions as well. This resulted in a negative impact on revenue growth. The main area of weakness was in the US and Europe. The demand slowdown was not restricted to one or two specific industries. At the same time, the company was able to sign new deals with clients and is still seeing good demand for its services, especially the new services related to AI and cyber security. AI-related services to lead revenue growth TCS has been investing heavily in AI for a long time. It has trained its employees in various AI-related technologies over the years, in anticipation of a surge in client demand. As per HR head, Milind Lakkad, TCS now has over 114,000 employees with higher order AI skills. And the company is seeing its efforts bear fruit. Aarthi Subramanian, Executive Director - President and Chief Operating Officer said this Across industries, clients are increasingly shifting their focus from use case based approach to ROI led scaling of AI. We are investing across the AI ecosystem including infrastructure, data platform solutions, AI agents and business applications. Launching TCS SovereignSecureTMCloud, TCS DigiBOLTTM, and TCS Cyber Defense Suite, to accelerate Indias AI led transformation was a particular highlight of this quarter". Why was the market disappointed? The stock market is concerned about the slowdown in revenue growth due to macro factors beyond the companys control. The management has highlighted this issue in the past as well. However, the company has not been able to find a solution to the problem. Growth has been sluggish for the last few quarters. In FY25 the companys revenue was up only 6% YoY. The market is concerned that the period of slow growth will continue in the near future. Worse, the management is not in a position to say when the period of slow growth will end. Should investors worry? Long-term investors need not worry about short-term issues facing any company as long as the company is on the right track. However, if the cause of concern itself is long-term in nature, then investors may have to rethink their investments. In the case of TCS, there is nothing fundamentally wrong about the company. Its a debt free, cash rich company, with strong margins, cash flow generation, and dividend payout. The problem is only in the topline growth, which in turn is directly tied to the slowdown in technology spending in the western world. Partly this is explained by macro factors but the widespread use of AI is also playing its part. TCS has invested considerable time and money to get the entire workforce AI ready so as to be prepared for this disruption. The companys future revenue growth will depend a lot on how it fulfils the demand for AI-related services in the face of intense competition. And that will decide the future of the companys stock price. Investors should look beyond just yields and evaluate whether these companies align with their broader financial goals and risk appetite. Happy Investing. Disclaimer: This article is for information purposes only. It is not a stock recommendation and should not be treated as such. This article is syndicated from Equitymaster.com. A few stocks on Dalal Street have delivered such staggering returns over the past five years that they've turned modest investments into substantial wealth . Take the case of three companies whose shares multiplied by up to 200X. Imagine investing 1 lakh exactly five years ago, and you would have up to 2 crore by now. Undoubtedly, such stocks are hard to find, and even if you do, you need the patience to sit tight. What often drives such rallies are industry tailwinds, government focus, management changes, or business restructuring. But what's really behind their rise? And after such a steep rally, is there still steam left? Let's take a look. It all starts with PG Electroplast Ltd PG Electroplast has delivered a return of 20,000%, rising from 4 on 17 July 2020 to 802 today. The company has transformed into a dominant player in the electronic manufacturing services (EMS) spacea sector benefiting from a strong structural industry tailwind. Back then, it primarily manufactured plastic mouldings for sectors like consumer durables. In 2019-20, this segment contributed the most to its revenue, accounting for 69% ( 441 crore) of its total revenue of 640 crore. The rest (24%) came from product segments (room ACs, washing machines, and air coolers). Its other segments include electronics (televisions and printed circuit boards) and appliance manufacturing. However, the China+1 manufacturing theme and the government's push for Make in India through production-linked incentives (PLIs) brought a transformational shift not just for PG Electroplast, but for the entire EMS sector. This shift is evident in the product segment's revenue, which rose 15-fold to 3,526 crore in 2024-25, from just 150 crore in 2019-20. The segment now contributes 71% to its total revenue, which also grew about 8X to 4,870 crore. At the same time, the plastic moulding division's contribution fell to 20%, from 69%. The company's net profit surged 100X to 288 crore, from just 2.6 crore in 2019-20. Such a steep jump in profitability is typically what drives multibagger returns. Return ratios have also seen a sharp rerating. Return on equity (RoE) expanded to 15% (19% in 2023-24) from 13.4%. Return on capital employed (RoCE) has almost doubled to 27%showing efficient utilization of capacity. None of this would have been possible without expanding manufacturing capacity. The company's fixed assets have grown 4X to 1,139 crore, from 253 crore in 2019-20. Looking ahead, PG is well-positioned to benefit from a structural long-term tailwind in the EMS space. Rapid urbanization, government reforms, low penetration of consumer durables, and the China+1 theme are all expected to sustain growth momentum. The company expects revenue to rise 30% to 6,345 crore in 2025-26, with 75% coming from the product business. Net profit is also expected to rise 39% to 405 crore. To support this growth, PG is also expanding its manufacturing footprint. It is setting up a washing machine facility at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh, a refrigerator plant in the South, and an AC capacity in Maharashtra's Supa. However, valuations leave little room for error. It trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 80, well above its five-year median of 55. But it still trades at a discount to its closest peer, Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd, which trades at 123X earnings. Transformers and Rectifiers joins the 100-bagger club Transformers and Rectifiers (India) Ltd has delivered a return of 10,000%, rising from 5 on 15 July 2020 to 510 today. That means your investment of 1 lakh would be worth 1 crore today. The company is a leading player in transformer and reactor manufacturing in India, with a global presence. Its diverse product range includes power transformers (up to 500 MVA), furnace transformers, rectifier and distribution transformers, as well as speciality transformers. Its products are used across industries, including power distribution, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, power transmission, metal processing, cement, and railways. The company has also ventured into renewable-focused segments, including transformers for solar applications and green hydrogen. Its customer base includes all the leading players, including NTPC, JSW, Tata Power, Siemens Energy, Torrent Power, Blue Star, and Hindustan Zinc. The company has been a key beneficiary of rising infrastructure investment in India. The government capital expenditure, growing global power demand, and rapid expansion of data centres have all contributed to strong demand for power equipment, including transformers. The numbers reflect this momentum. Revenue has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28% during FY21-FY25, rising from 727 crore to 1,950 crore. Ebitda margin expanded from 10% to 16% as operating leverage kicked in, while net profit margin surged by 860 basis points to 9.5% in 2024-25. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. With improved margins, the company's net profit rose nearly 27-fold, from 7 crore to 187 crore during the same period. RoCE also nearly doubled to 23%, from 12%. Yet, the growth story may still have more legs. As of 31 March 2025, the order book stands at 5,132 crore, providing strong revenue potential. In addition, order inquiries worth over 22,000 crore are currently under negotiation. The company has set an ambitious target to become a $1 billion ( 8,600 crore) revenue player by 2027-28. This implies a sharp CAGR of 64% between 2024-25 and 2027-28a target that management remains confident of achieving through strong execution, innovation, and financial discipline. Notably, it expects profit growth to outpace revenue expansion, supported by operating leverage and other efficiencies. The company aims to maintain a consistent margin of 16-17% going forward and improve it further through operational efficiencies. Key strategic priorities include strengthening backwards integration, investing in automation and digital transformation, and focusing on clean, sustainable energy solutions in alignment with India's power sector goals. It has also acquired a controlling stake in a CRGO processing unita key input that accounts for 32%-35% of transformer manufacturing costs. This move ensures 100% backwards integration, offering a price, margin, and product quality advantage. This is expected to enhance competitiveness in order booking and profitability. The company is also expanding its manufacturing capacity to meet rising demand. A 15,000 MVA capacity expansion kicked off in Q1FY25, with Phase 1 operations expected to begin by May 2025. This phase will contribute about half the incremental volume, with full capacity becoming commercially available by Q2FY26. Additionally, it also expects a 22,000 MVA extra-high voltage transformer expansion to be completed by Q4FY26. These projects will increase its capacity from 40,000 MVA to 75,000 MVA. The company also plans to enter the fast-growing HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) segment soon. That said, after such a steep rally, it now trades at a P/E of 72, in line with its five-year median of 64. Whats behind SG Finservs 180x run SG Finserv became part of the APL Apollo Group following its acquisition in 2022. It was initially set up to meet the funding needs of dealers associated with APL Apollo Tubes, the group's flagship company. As of 31 December 2022, the company's assets under management (AUM) stood at 736 crore, when it had just begun financing APL vendors. Over time, it expanded its scope to offer financing solutions to SMEs, MSMEs, and other corporate entities. The AUM has since grown over threefold to 2,326 crore. The portfolio is geographically diversified, with the North contributing 44%, followed by the South (30%), the West (23%), and the East (3%). Also Read | For these three companies, standalone numbers hide subsidiary struggles Notably, it holds zero gross non-performing assets. Around 80% of the book is backed by a charge on funded inventory and receivables generated through sales, which maintains a light asset quality. With AUM growing rapidly, revenue grew from 2 crore in FY22 to 171 crore in FY25. Net profit also rose from 1 crore to 81 crore in the same period. The company's share price has surged 18,348%, from 2.2 on 22 July 2020 to 404 today. But it's a company poised for rapid growth, with plans to scale its AUM to 6,000 crore by 2026-27. To drive this expansion, it is partnering with large corporations, including the Tata group, Vedanta, Ashok Leyland, and Adani Group. Backing this effort, memorandums of understanding worth 5,500 crore are already in place, laying the groundwork for the next leg of growth. Madhusudan Kela holds a 1.7% stake in the company as of Q4FY25. The stock trades at a price-to-book ratio of 2.6, below its five-year median of 3X. Conclusion These three companies may have delivered extraordinary returns, but each benefited from a mix of industry tailwinds, business reinvention, and financial discipline. While past performance has been stellar, future gains will likely depend on execution, margin sustainability, and valuations that leave little room for error. For investors, the key lies in distinguishing between momentum and long-term fundamentals. For more such analysis, read Profit Pulse. About the author: Madhvendra has over seven years of experience in equity markets and has cleared the NISM-Series-XV: Research Analyst Certification Examination. He specialises in writing detailed research articles on listed Indian companies, sectoral trends, and macroeconomic developments. Disclosure: The writer does not hold the stocks discussed in this article. The purpose of this article is only to share interesting charts, data points, and thought-provoking opinions. It is NOT a recommendation. If you wish to consider an investment, you are strongly advised to consult your advisor. This article is strictly for educational purposes only. Wipro Q1 results preview: Wipros Q1 results are likely to reflect subdued revenue and profit growth sequentially, as demand weakness persists. Nonetheless, margins could see some relief from effective cost controls and currency tailwinds. Wipro is set to announce its June quarter (Q1) earnings on Thursday, July 17. Experts expect the IT player's key numbers to be weaker sequentially. The Street will focus on management commentary on the demand scenario, particularly in Europe, Q2FY26 guidance, deal wins, and margin outlook. Wipro Q1: What top brokerages expect According to Motilal Oswal Financial Services' estimates, Wipro may report a 2.5 per cent constant currency (CC) decline in revenue in the IT service business as deterioration in client spending was observed as of Q4-end. In INR, Wipro's revenue may decline 2 per cent QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) and may remain flat YoY. Profit after tax (PAT) may fall 10 per cent QoQ but rise 7 per cent YoY, said Motilal Oswal. Motilal expects Wipro's margins to stay in a tight range of nearly 17.5 per cent. This could be due to the challenging revenue environment and pricing constraints in vendor consolidation engagements. The brokerage firm further said that ongoing client-specific challenges and project ramp-downs may keep Europe under pressure. However, new leadership execution and a major deal ramp-up in the second half may offer some respite. "Any change in client stance on transformation projects should be monitored, as the company indicated that some projects are being paused or timelines are being realigned," Motilal said. Brokerage firm Phillip Capital expects Wipro's IT services CC revenue to decline by 2.7 per cent QoQ, while margins may moderate slightly due to a weak topline and largely optimised levers. The brokerage firm expects Wipro to report an 11.3 per cent QoQ decline in profit but a 5.4 per cent YoY rise. "We expect Wipro to guide for 0.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent QoQ CC growth for Q2FY26. Watch out for Q2FY26 guidance, consulting outlook, deal win to revenue conversion comments, vertical outlook, and margins outlook," said Phillip Capital. Kotak Institutional Equities also forecasts revenue decline of 2.7 per cent. Adjusted PAT may rise 10.2 per cent YoY, but fall 7.3 per cent QoQ, Kotak said. Kotak believes weak demand, combined with company-specific factors in Europe, will contribute to the weak quarter. "We forecast a stable EBIT margin despite weak growth. Aggressive cost management combined with currency tailwinds will aid margins. We expect large deal TCV to be in $1.2-1.3 billion range, a strong outcome, noting the recent aggression on large deal pursuits," said Kotak. "Revenue growth guidance for the September 2025 quarter will likely range from (-)1 to 1 per cent. We expect investor focus on(1) reasons for weak Europe revenues, (2) positioning in vendor consolidation deals, where Wipro has mixed track record, (3) large deal pipeline and win rates, (4) turnaround progress, i.e. catching up with peers on growth, (5) GCC growth strategy, and (6) catch-up timeframe on growth with peers," said Kotak. In a significant showcase last month, three major Indian art galleriesJhaveri Contemporary, Vadehra Art Gallery and Chemould Prescott Roadcame together to spotlight South Asian resident and diaspora artists in London. Their joint presentation was displayed at No. 9 Cork Street, Friezes exhibition space in the city. It also ended up being a part of the London Gallery Weekend, which drew participation from over 130 galleries. No. 9 Cork Street provided the Indian galleries a platform to be represented at this event despite not having a permanent physical space in the city. The Gallery Weekend is an important cog in Londons art calendar and with Cork Street celebrating its centenary this year, the 2025 edition became all the more significant. The event was attended by the likes of Salman Rushdie, Ghanaian-British artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah, and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, as well as by representatives of key museums such as the Tate, Barbican and the Royal Academy. In a city where institutional interest for contemporary artists from the subcontinent has been growing steadily, this presentation by three Indian galleries could be a catalyst for greater interest in the long run. In London, collectors have a broader outlook. In the context of South Asian art, they are not necessarily collecting geographically but thematically or generationally. The works have to speak to issues that concern collectors independent of where they come from," shares Amrita Jhaveri of Jhaveri Contemporary. Having said that, many international collectors are attracted to the India story. When they travel to our country for work, they also explore our art." Jhaveri Contemporary presented Horizons, a group exhibition featuring works by Muhanned Cader, Seher Shah and Lubna Chowdhary. It also created a dedicated section of Permindar Kaurs worksintended to serve as a curtain raiser for her upcoming exhibition at the Pitzhanger Manor in London. View Full Image Gieve Patel, 'Mourners III', acrylic on canvas, 2005. Courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery A few weeks ago, two of my friends, lets call them Raj and Neha, planned a road trip. Both had to drive from Mumbai to Pune for a common event. Raj claimed his car had excellent mileage of 5 per km. Nehas car clocks 7 per km mileage. The next morning, they both set off. In the name of "adventure," Raj took a few wrong exits, missed turns, and stopped for directions. Neha, meanwhile, calmly followed Google Maps. When they met in Pune, Raj reached an hour late, grumpy and tired. Neha arrived fresh, on time, and even stopped for coffee. Despite Rajs cheaper mileage, he spent more on fuel, tolls, and time. Thats when it struck me: this is exactly how investors treat passive funds. Expense ratio When investors evaluate passive funds, they often zero in on one number: the expense ratiothe annual fee charged by the fund. Its tempting to think that a lower fee logically leads to better returns. But this is only part of the story. What if a fund doesnt do a good job of tracking the index its supposed to follow? Thats where two critical yet often overlooked metrics come into play: tracking difference (TD) and tracking error (TE). Tracking Difference: It is the actual difference between your fund's return and the index it is designed to follow. Formula: TD = Fund Return Index Return For example, the Nifty 50 TRI delivered 9.01% as of April 30, 2025, and your fund returned 8.79%; the tracking difference is -0.22%. TD accounts for: Expense ratio Cash drag (uninvested cash) Transaction costs Securities lending income (or lack thereof) Liquidity while Rebalancing In essence, TD tells you how much net return" you lost while trying to follow the index. Tracking Error: This is a statistical measure that tells you how consistently the fund tracks the index, not just once a year but across time. Formula (simplified): Standard deviation of the daily tracking difference over a period (usually a year) A low TE means the fund adheres closely to the index day-to-day. A high TE indicates the fund swings unpredictably, sometimes outperforming, sometimes underperforming, despite being designed to follow the index blindly. Recently, we engaged in evaluating two index funds for a prospective client. Here's what we saw (as of 30 April 2025): ABC Nifty 50 Index Fund - Expense Ratio: 0.27% - 1-Year Return: 8.79% - TD: -0.22% XYZ Nifty 50 Index Fund - Expense Ratio: 0.05% - 1-Year Return: 8.61% - TD: -0.40% The client was initially inclined toward XYZ due to its visibly lower expense ratio. But when we looked under the hood, the story changed. Despite being costlier, ABC delivered higher net returns and a lower tracking difference, meaning it tracked the index more efficiently. The client was grateful for a data-driven approach that challenged common assumptions. Decoding the road trip analogy In Raj and Nehas road trip: The index is the GPS route. The expense ratio is your mileage or fuel cost The tracking difference is how far you ended up from the intended destination The tracking error is how many wrong turns or detours you took. Despite a slightly higher cost, Neha stayed on course and reached on time (low TD and TE). With a cheaper ride, Raj got lost, took detours, and paid more, indicating how a fund with higher TD and TE can prove inefficient. In investing and driving, what matters is getting to your destination efficiently, not just cheaply. How should investors use this? When selecting a passive fund, look beyond the expense ratio. Consider funds that have lower TD and TE. These ratios already factor the expense ratio, and you dont need to worry about the same. AMFI mandates passive funds to disclose both metrics with uniform calculation standards and data is readily available on the AMFI website for you to compare. Passive investing is designed to be simple: match the market, keep costs low, and stay disciplined. But simplicity doesnt mean easy. Arriving at a decision based only on one matrix, just because it is easily available, may be a lazy strategy. Choosing a fund just because its cheap can be misleading. Like Rajs road trip, it might cost you more in the long run. So the next time you select an index fund, dont just ask, How low is the expense ratio?" Ask, How accurately does this fund follow the path?" (The characters and fund names are illustrative.) Saurabh Mittal is an RIA and the founder of Circle Wealth Advisors Pvt. Ltd. Views are personal. The Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Wednesday expressed "serious concerns" over the preliminary probe report on the Air India plane crash on June 12 that killed 260 people in Ahmedabad. "At the outset, we would like to register our dissatisfaction with the exclusion of pilot representatives from the investigation process. We also firmly object to the way in which the preliminary report has been interpreted and presented publicly," FIP wrote. The government has emphasised that the 15-page document is only a preliminary report, as the investigation is still ongoing. However, specific details mentioned in the report have triggered strong reactions from the pilot community. One particular exchange noted in the report shows one pilot questioning the other about a possible fuel cut-off, to which the second pilot reportedly denied initiating it. Investigators are now examining whether the fuel control switch was indeed moved from RUN to CUTOFF and back within seconds of takeoff and if so, why. "The report, as released, lacks comprehensive data and appears to rely selectively on paraphrased cockpit voice recordings to suggest pilot error and question the professional competence and integrity of the flight crew. This approach is neither objective nor complete. We therefore urge our members and the general public not to lend credence to such premature conclusions," the pilots' body added. Earlier, the Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA) also slammed the investigation, alleging that it was "being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots." "Assigning blame before a thorough, transparent, and data-driven investigation is both premature and irresponsible. Such speculative commentary undermines the professionalism of highly trained crew members and causes undue distress to their families and colleagues." It called upon media outlets, influencers, and institutions to refrain from disseminating partial narratives or making unfounded assumptions. Aviation safety demands a steadfast commitment to facts, integrity, and due process. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Wednesday highlighted the critical need for India to achieve self-reliance in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS), warning that reliance on foreign technologies undermines the nation's defence preparedness. Speaking at a workshop held at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, Gen Chauhan emphasised how recent global conflicts have demonstrated drones ability to "shift tactical balance disproportionately" despite their size or price. "Drones are proof of reality, and their widespread utility in recent conflicts demonstrates how drones can shift tactical balance disproportionately to their size or price," he observed. The event, organised by Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff (HQ-IDS) in collaboration with the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies, focused on Indigenisation of Critical Components Currently Being Imported from Foreign OEMs in the Areas of UAV & C-UAS. It brings together military leaders, defence experts, scientists, policymakers, and private industry stakeholders to chart a strategic roadmap that reduces Indias dependence on imported components for UAV and C-UAS technology. Operation Sindoor underscored the need for indigenous systems Gen Chauhan cited Operation Sindoor recent India-Pakistan hostilities to underline the strategic importance of indigenous UAV and C-UAS capabilities. He said, Operation Sindoor has shown us as to why indigenously developed UAS, C-UAS built for our terrain and our needs are crucial. During the operation, Pakistan deployed unarmed drones and loiter munitions on 10 May. Yet, "none of them could actually inflict any damage to Indian military or civilian infrastructure," the CDS stated. According to him, "Most of them were neutralised through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means. Some of them could be recovered in almost intact conditions." The strategic imperative of Atmanirbharta in defence General Chauhan asserted the urgency of self-reliance by saying: "We cannot rely on imported niche technologies that are crucial for our offensive and defensive missions. He warned, Dependence on foreign technologies weakens our preparedness, limits our ability to scale up production, results in a shortfall of critical spares for sustenance and round-the-clock availability. The CDS further explained that asymmetric drone warfare is transforming military strategies worldwide: "Asymmetric drone warfare is making large platforms vulnerable and driving militaries to rethink the conceptual aspects of air doctrines, development of C-UAS and adaptive moves of engagement." Building Indias future in UAV and C-UAS technology In a message to the workshop, Gen Chauhan emphasised the urgent need for an indigenously developed ecosystem: "In the rapidly evolving landscape of non-contact warfare, UAVs have emerged as a transformative force. For a nation like India, self-reliance in UAVs and C-UAS technologies is not only a strategic imperative, but it is also about empowering India to chart its destiny, safeguard its interests and seize the opportunities of the future." The Indian Embassy in Iran has urged Indian nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Iran amid rising security concerns in the region in the recent weeks. An travel advisory that was issued on Wednesday said, "In view of the security-related developments over the past several weeks, Indian nationals are advised to carefully consider the evolving situation before undertaking non-essential travel to Iran." the Indian Embassy also "advised to continue to monitor the latest regional developments and follow updated advisories issued by the Indian authorities." The embassy also said that there are options available for return for Indian nationals who are currently in Iran. "Indian nationals already in Iran, and interested in leaving, may avail the commercial flight and ferry options which are available right now," it said. Also Read | Iran Says No Decision Yet on Resumption of US Nuclear Talks This comes amid the rise in regional hostilities that began with Israel's launch of 'Operation Rising Lion' on June 13, bombing Iranian military and nuclear facilities. In response, Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks against Israeli targets. The United States, in support strong for Israel, retaliated with attacks on key Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan on June 22. The Iranian Armed Forces launched retaliatory strikes, targeting key positions across the Israeli-occupied territories and on the US military airbase in Qatar. The 12-day war came to an end on June 24 when Israel declared a unilateral halt to its aggression, announced on its behalf by US President Donald Trump. Washington maintains that Iran's uranium enrichment programme could lead to developing nuclear bombs, while Tehran has consistently denied the claim, insisting that its nuclear programme is meant for civilian purposes. Also Read | Iranian president injured while escaping Israeli 'assassination' attemp In July 2015, the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was signed between Iran and several world powers, including the United States. The agreement capped Tehran's enrichment level at 3.67 per cent and reduced its uranium stockpile to 300 kilograms. The deal collapsed in 2018 with Trump's unilateral withdrawal of the US from the accord. Since then, Iran has started exceeding agreed-upon limits to its stockpile of low-enriched uranium in 2019, and began enriching uranium to higher concentrations up to 60 per cent purity, which is very close to the weapons-grade level. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday took a swipe at Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray and invited him to join the ruling side Mahayuti alliance in Vidhan Parishad, reported PTI. Speaking on the occasion of Uddhav Thackeray's farewell from the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad, Fadnavis stated that his government doesn't have any 'scope' to come into Opposition until 2029. "At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (Opposition). Uddhav Ji can think about the scope of coming to this side (ruling party) and that can be thought about in a different way, but there is absolutely no scope left for us to come there (Opposition)," PTI quoted CM Fadnavis as saying. Earlier on 11 July, after the assembly cleared the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, Uddhav Thackeray had taken a swipe at the ruling Mahayuti government, saying that the bill should be renamed as "BJP security bill". In his accusations, Thackeray said the ruling government is 'misusing majority' while alleging that the bill will allow the government to 'pick up' ordinary people and imprison them. "They can pick up anyone, including ordinary people, and imprison them. This bill is similar to previous acts like MESA and TADA. This bill should be called the 'BJP security bill' instead of the public security bill, as they believe speaking out against the BJP is tantamount to criticising the country. Currently, we don't support this bill," Thackeray had said. Operation Muskaan CM Fadnavis, while addressing the Question Hour session in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, informed that 41,193 missing children have been traced so far through 'Operation Muskaan'. He also added that 4,960 women and 1,364 children were traced under Operation Khoj in 2025 alone. CM Fadnavis said his government has established 'Missing Cell' in all police stations after taking such cases seriously. The cell's responsibility has been handed over to senior women officers, he added. The CM also clarified that data is being shared between the state and the Centre through the Missing Portal, with the record of every missing person uploaded and updated on time. When Leader of Opposition Ambadas Danve raised the point that only finding people is not enough but concrete policies should also be made on social aspects like child marriage and human trafficking, CM Fadnavis assured that the government will analyse these cases from a sociological perspective. Nimisha Priya Case: The execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, who has been on death row in Yemen since 2020, was deferred on 15 July, a day before the scheduled date. This confirmation came a day after Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, the general secretary of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama and chancellor of Jamia Markaz, initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. The 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as Grand Mufti of India, held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. On Tuesday, Abubakr announced in a press statement that the scheduled execution had been officially postponed following his humanitarian intervention. On Congress MLA Chandy Oommen's request The statement detailed the series of diplomatic and religious efforts undertaken to halt the execution. The initiative began after he was approached last Friday by Chandy Oommen, the Congress MLA from seeking assistance in the Nimisha Priya execution case due to the cleric's longstanding ties with leading Sufi scholars in Yemen. "With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request," the Grand Mufti said in the statement. Given the limited diplomatic ties between India and Yemen, he chose to activate alternate channels of influence through spiritual and tribal leaders. Role of Habib Umar bin Hafeez One of the pivotal figures in the mediation process was Habib Umar bin Hafeez, a renowned Sufi scholar from Tarim, Yemen. Upon being contacted, Habib Umar promptly began mobilising his network and initiated high-level discussions with the deceased's family, legal experts, and Yemeni judicial authorities, according to the statement. An emergency meeting was recently convened in North Yemen under Habib Umar's guidance, bringing together key figures including senior government officials, the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court in Sanaa, the victims family representatives, and tribal leaders. During these discussions, the victims family signalled openness to further dialogue before finalising their decision, it read. Abubakr is based in Kerala, the home state of 37-year-old Nimisha Priya. He is a revered figure among Sunni Muslims in India and across South Asia. He is widely known as the Grand Mufti of India, though the title is not official. Further negotiations took place this morning in Dhamar, the home region of the deceased, involving tribal leaders and the victims legal committee, the statement said. Notably, Justice Mohammed bin Ameena senior judge, Shura Council member, and relative of the deceasedjoined the mediation at the request of Habib Umar and played a crucial role in persuading the family to formally request a stay of execution, it said. Execution postponed until further orders The Yemeni Special Criminal Court issued an official order, signed by Judge Rizwan Ahmed Al-Wajri and Prosecutor Swari Mudeen Mufaddal, postponing the execution originally scheduled for 16 July 2025 until further notice. "This case has been deeply sensitive and emotionally complex within the tribal society of North Yemen," noted Sheikh Abubakr. Until recently, even establishing communication with the victims family was impossible. The breakthrough in dialogue now offers renewed hope for a peaceful resolution. Conveyed to PM Modi Abubakr confirmed that all recent developments have been formally communicated to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. The statement said this intervention marks a critical step toward clemency in a case that has drawn national and international attention and underscores the impact of religious diplomacy and cross-border humanitarian solidarity. According to sources quoted by news agencies, blood money negotiations have taken place, and the details were conveyed to the concerned parties in Kerala. "Islam has another law. If the murderer is sentenced to death, the family of the victim has the right to pardon. I dont know who this family is, but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen, he told news agency ANI. I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. Under Shariah law, as applied in Yemen, blood money is a legally recognised financial compensation paid to the family of a person who has been killed. It is a legally sanctioned alternative to capital punishment in Islamic jurisprudence. After I requested that they intervene and take action, the scholars (in Yemen) met, discussed, and stated that they would do what they could. They have officially informed us and sent a document stating that the date of execution has been postponed, which will help facilitate the ongoing discussions," he said. What is Nimisha Priya's case? Nimisha Priya, hailing from Palakkad district in Kerala, was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Centre informed the Supreme Court that the government could do "nothing much" in the case of the nurse facing execution on July 16. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. Nimisha Priya Case: The execution of Nimisha Priya, the Kerala nurse on a death row in Yemen since 2020, was deferred on July 15, a day before the scheduled date. Prominent Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar, originally named Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, is being hailed for initiating the mediation efforts through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Also Read | How Sheikh Abubakr intervened to defer Kerala nurse's execution in Yemen But who prompted Abubakar to intervene? Abubakr's office issued a formal statement on July 15 saying that the initiative began after the cleric was approached last Friday by Chandy Oommen, the Congress MLA from Puthuppally. Chandy sought the Grand Mufti's assistance due to his longstanding ties with leading Sufi scholars in Yemen, the statement said. "With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request," the Grand Mufti said. Chandy approached the Governor, too Chandy had also approached several other influential figures, including Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, for intervention. "Beyond his role as a Governor, he acted as a fellow human being. His sincere efforts will never be forgotten by Kerala and its people. I thank him from the bottom of my heart," Chandy said after the execution was halted, adding that the Governor reached out to foreign governments, businessmen, and officials. "He did whatever he could," the Congress MLA told PTI after the execution was deferred. Chandy, son of the late Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, met Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Wednesday to seek urgent intervention in the case. He was accompanied by his mother, Mariyamma Oommen, during the meeting at Raj Bhavan. The family has taken up the issue as a matter of moral responsibility, recalling that the late Oommen Chandy had personally advocated for Nimisha Priyas release in his final days. "Appa (father) gave this issue priority even amid his own health struggles. He spoke to everyone who visited him about intervening in Nimisha's case," he had said after the meeting. The veteran Congress leader, Oommen Chandy, died in July 2023 at the age of 79. We believe this is one of the responsibilities he entrusted to us. Now, with the date of execution approaching, we cannot remain silent, Chandy said in a Facebook post later Nimisha Priya, 38, a nurse from Palakkad district in Kerala, was convicted of murdering her Yemeni business partner in 2017. She was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Who is Chandy Oommen? Chandy Oommen, 39, is an Indian lawyer, lecturer, and Congress MLA who practices law at the Supreme Court of India since 2016. He is the incumbent Member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing the Puthuppally Assembly constituency since 2023. Chandy was the Chairman of the National Outreach Cell of the Indian Youth Congress. On September 9, 2024, the Government of India appointed Oommen as the Empanelled Advocate to represent the National Highways Authority of India in Courts in Kerala. Family and Education Chandy Oommen was born on March 1 1986 in Puthuppally, Kottayam district of Kerala, India as the only son of former chief minister Oommen Chandy and Mariamma Oommen. Chandy completed his schooling at St Thomas Residential School, Thiruvananthapuram, and Loyola School, Thiruvananthapuram. He then went to Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, for a bachelor's degree in economics. He then pursued his bachelor's ( BA Hons) and master's (MA) degrees in history at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, where he was the president of the college students' union from 2006 to 2007. After completing his post-graduation, he went on to earn an LLB from Delhi University and an LLM in criminology from the National Law University, Delhi. Additionally, he completed a summer course at the London School of Economics. Subsequently, he obtained an additional LLM in constitutional law from Christ University, Bengaluru in 2016. Retained father's seat With a deep sense of national responsibility and humanitarian concern, I decided to act upon this request. Chandys father, Oommen Chandy, represented the Puthuppally Assembly constituency consecutively for 53 years. Puthuppally by-election was necessitated by the death of his father in July 2023. Nina Kutina, the 40-year-old Russian woman, who was rescued by police along with her two daughters from a cave in Gokarna during a routine inspection on 9 July, revealed that she performed pooja and practised meditation during her stay there and avoided visiting hotels for fear of being detected. Kutina, also known as Mohi, told officials that her daughters, Preya (6) and Ama (4), were happy, spending time playing with clay and living in nature. When the police cautioned Kutina about snakes in the forest, she said they were their friends, according to The Indian Express. "The snakes are our friends and they dont harm us unless we trouble them, she said. The police also found Russian-language books in the cave. Initially reluctant to discuss the identity of the children's father, Kutina later disclosed that she gave birth to one of her children in a cave in Goa. She revealed that the father of her children is an Israeli businessman. According to the Indian Express, he is currently in India on a business visa, and the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has tracked him down. Kutina left the cave, situated in the Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk, Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, after police warned her of landslides in the area, according to Sub Inspector Sridhar S R. She had been living there for about two months, police said. "We have big experience to stay in natural, in jungle, and we were not dying, and I did not bring my children, my daughters to die in jungle. They did not feel bad, they were very happy, they swam in waterfall, they lived, had very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons with art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking with gas, very good and tasty food," she said. She further described, "They have everything best, they were happy, and dressed, and sleeping good, and art lessons, and lessons about how to write and read, and they were not dying from hunger, never, everything not true. This cave was not in like in big big forest, far far from all, and we could probably buy food or anything, it's very close to village, and it's very big and beautiful cave, and not small, and it's like it has window to look to ocean. Kutina's travel history Kutina was born in Russia but had not resided there for 15 years. She said, "After that, I was travelling a lot of countries, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, Ukraine." Kutina arrived in India in 2016 on a business visa and developed a deep interest in the tourism and hospitality industries in Goa and Gokarna, according to the Indian Express. Also Read | Russian woman found living in remote Karnataka cave with two kids, rescued Her visa lapsed on April 17, 2017, and she was granted an exit permit in 2018. After that, she travelled to Nepal. However, she soon returned to India and began living in the coastal forests of Karnataka. Amid the incessant rains in the northern part of India, major rivers like Ganga are flowing above the danger mark and continue to rise in cities like Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj and Varanasi, reported ANI. With the water levels rising, several houses and streets in Prayagraj are inundated as water entered the lower regions of the city. Despite several steps taken by the authorities, people are facing challenges in commuting from one place to another. The Ganga water entered the Bade Hanuman Mandir in Prayagraj. Not only in Prayagraj, but similar situation has erupted in Varanasi and the authorities have prompted flood alerts. Report states that the Ganga is also in full spate in Varanasi, where all 84 ghats are completely submerged. This has interrupted regular religious practices and riverside activities. Earlier in July, the ghats in Varanasi were submerged under water and temples were inundated as the level of the River Ganga rose above the danger level. Also, the Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi was completely submerged, and a nearby temple was inundated. Similarly, Ram Ghat in Prayagraj went underwater as the river continued to swell. Two teenage brothers die in wall collapse: In another news, two teenage brothers were killed after a wall near their residence collapsed in Varanasi, PTI quoted police as saying on Wednesday. The victims were identified as Santosh Kumar Gautam (19) and Ankit Kumar Gautam (16), sons of Aditya Kumar Gautam. According to Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Sadar) Amit Kumar, the incident occurred in Bhatholi village when the brothers were returning from their fields, and a wall near their house collapsed. They got buried under the debris and died on the spot. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has expressed condolences and directed officials to provide immediate financial assistance to the bereaved family. Following this, the district administration has transferred a total of 8 lakh 4 lakh for each deceased from the State Disaster Response Fund to the family's bank account, the SDM added. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on July 10 launched Operation Kalanemi' to safeguard the dignity of true religious teachings and preserve harmony in society. More than 300 fake people pretending to be saints have been arrested by the police across six districts of the Kumaon division. What is Operation Kalanemi? Operation Kalanemi is a campaign to expose and eliminate fraudulent spiritual leaders who mislead the public under the guise of faith. It draws inspiration from the mythological figure Kalanemi, a demon who disguised himself as a saint to deceive others. According to Dhami, "Just as the demon Kalanemi used disguise to deceive, many such Kalanemis exist in todays society who are misusing religion to commit crimes. This is an effort to protect people's faith and ensure that only true spiritual guides lead our communities. Police have interrogated 1,250 suspects as the verification drive continues under Operation Kalanemi. Uttarakhand Police is conducting a continuous verification drive to interrogate the suspects. The police have questioned 1,250 suspects, Inspector General of Uttarakhand Nilesh Anand Bharne told ANI. FIRs, preventive detentions, and challans are among the actions taken by the state against them. These individuals were exploiting peoples faith through superstition, deceit, and false claims of divine powers. They had no valid identity proof or documentation to support their credentials. During the campaign, suspects were taken into custody, their backgrounds verified, and necessary legal action was taken, IANS quoted Inspector General (IG) Kumaon Riddhim Agarwal as saying. He added that all police stations and outposts across Kumaon have been asked to be on alert and continue the action against suspicious figures disguising themselves as spiritual leaders. Congress leader and ex-CM Harish Rawat supports Op Kalanemi "Kalanemi was a character from the Ramayana who tried to obstruct Hanuman ji's path. Today, who is responsible for those in disguise, the fake godmen spreading superstition in society? Why has the need for Operation Kalanemi arisen? Those who create an environment for such deceitful people who mislead others by spreading fear and superstition must also be held accountable under Operation Kalanemi," Congress leader and former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat stated. Jagat Guru Balak Devacharya Maharaj calls Operation Kalanemi necessary "I think this initiative is necessary, because nowadays many people are roaming around disguised as saints like the demon Kalanemi in disguise and many of them belong to certain groups with malicious intent. Secondly, I must say that it is extremely difficult for any government to truly identify who is a genuine saint and who is a fake one, who is Kaalnemi in disguise and who is truly enlightened. Governments often fail to understand this subtle distinction," Jagat Guru Balak Devacharya said. Other political reactions Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Anand Dubey appreciated the move but called on the chief minister to engage in self-reflection. Catching fake babas is commendable, but CM Dhami must also identify the Kalanemis within his own party who are corrupt and creating social unrest, he stated. BJP leader Syed Shahnawaz Hussain mentioned, Many fake people are looting innocent believers with false promises and miracles. This campaign will help unmask them. Nimisha Priya Case: Renowned Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar has emerged as a key figure in ensuring the deferment of the scheduled execution of the Indian nurse in Yemen. The 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as Grand Mufti of India, held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala, was scheduled to be executed on July 16 for the murder of Mahdi, her Yemeni business partner. Now the execution has been delayed. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who described the postponement of the execution as both comforting and filled with hope, said the development was made possible through the initiative and intervention of Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad. Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad made last-minute efforts to halt the execution of the Kerala nurse, with support from a Yemeni Sufi scholar, according to news agencies. He said that his intervention, at the request of Congress leader Chandy Oommen, has led to the halting of the scheduled execution of Nimisha Priya. Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Keralas Thiruvanananthapuram, hailed the role played by the Mufti. Who is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad? Musliyar, originally Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, is based in Kerala, the home state of 37-year-old Nimisha Priya. He is a revered figure among Sunni Muslims not just in India but across South Asia. Widely known as the Grand Mufti of India. The title is not official, though. A Mufti is a Muslim scholar qualified to issue legal opinions on matters of Islamic law or Sharia. The term "Grand Mufti" often refers to the highest-ranking mufti in a region or country, like the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. There is no official Grand Mufti in India. Abubakr, the general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, was, however, conferred the 'Grand Mufti of India' title in February 2019 at the Gareeb Nawaz Peace Conference held at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, organised by the All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam. Opposed CAA, welcomed Babri Masjid Verdict Born in Kozhikode, Abubakr is chairman of the Markaz Knowledge City project, a private integrated township in his hometown. The project runs educational institutions and a cultural centre. Abubakr was also in the news earlier. He opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but was criticised within the community for his stand against women protesting against it. Abubakr met Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah in March 2020 and urged them to amend the CAA. In 2019, Abubakr appealed to the Muslim community to welcome the 2019 Supreme Court verdict on Babri Masjid- Ram Janmabhoomi issue. We respect the Supreme Court. Everyone must strive for peace in India. The victory or defeat over the Babri Masjid incident may be significant to every party, but the protection of India and its sovereignty is much more important. Babri Masjid is a place of worship for Muslims, but equally important is that all people live peacefully in India, Abubakr had said. Role in Deferring Nimisha Priya's Execution Abubakr held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. On July 15, Abubakr announced in a press statement that the scheduled execution had been officially postponed following his humanitarian intervention. Sources said negotiations regarding blood money took place, and the details were conveyed to the concerned parties in Kerala. Also Read | Nimisha Priya Case: This Congress MLA played a key role in halting the execution Given the limited diplomatic ties between India and Yemen, he chose to activate alternate channels of influence through spiritual and tribal leaders. Abubakr said he initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Upon being contacted, Habib Umar promptly began mobilising his network and initiated high-level discussions with the deceased's family, legal experts, and Yemeni judicial authorities, according to the statement. "Islam has another law. If the murderer is sentenced to death, the family of the victim has the right to pardon. I dont know who this family is, but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen, he told news agency ANI. I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity, he added. Under Shariah law, as applied in Yemen, blood money is a legally recognised financial compensation paid to the family of a person who has been killed. It is a legally sanctioned alternative to capital punishment in Islamic jurisprudence. After I requested that they intervene and take action, the scholars (in Yemen) met, discussed, and stated that they would do what they could. They have officially informed us and sent a document stating that the date of execution has been postponed, which will help facilitate the ongoing discussions," he said. Meanwhile, sources said that an office has been opened at Musliyar's headquarters here to facilitate the negotiations. Nimisha Priya, hailing from Palakkad district, was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Centre informed the Supreme Court that the government could do "nothing much" in the case of the nurse facing execution on July 16. Attorney General R Venkataramani informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the government was doing "utmost possible". Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. "The Government of India is trying its best," Venkataramani said, "and has also engaged with some sheikhs who are very influential people there." Nimisha Priya Case: Renowned Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar has emerged as a key figure in ensuring the deferment of the scheduled execution of the Indian nurse in Yemen. Advertisement The 94-year-old Musliyar, who is officially known as Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad and is revered as Grand Mufti of India, held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. Nimisha Priya, the nurse from Kerala, was scheduled to be executed on July 16 for the murder of Mahdi, her Yemeni business partner. Now the execution has been delayed. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who described the postponement of the execution as both comforting and filled with hope, said the development was made possible through the initiative and intervention of Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad. Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad made last-minute efforts to halt the execution of the Kerala nurse, with support from a Yemeni Sufi scholar, according to news agencies. He said that his intervention, at the request of Congress leader Chandy Oommen, has led to the halting of the scheduled execution of Nimisha Priya. Advertisement Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Keralas Thiruvanananthapuram, hailed the role played by the Mufti. Read More Who is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad? Musliyar, originally Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, is based in Kerala, the home state of 37-year-old Nimisha Priya. He is a revered figure among Sunni Muslims not just in India but across South Asia. Widely known as the Grand Mufti of India. The title is not official, though. A Mufti is a Muslim scholar qualified to issue legal opinions on matters of Islamic law or Sharia. The term "Grand Mufti" often refers to the highest-ranking mufti in a region or country, like the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. There is no official Grand Mufti in India. Advertisement Abubakr, the general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, was, however, conferred the 'Grand Mufti of India' title in February 2019 at the Gareeb Nawaz Peace Conference held at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, organised by the All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam. Opposed CAA, welcomed Babri Masjid Verdict Born in Kozhikode, Abubakr is chairman of the Markaz Knowledge City project, a private integrated township in his hometown. The project runs educational institutions and a cultural centre. Abubakr was also in the news earlier. He opposed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) but was criticised within the community for his stand against women protesting against it. Abubakr met Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah in March 2020 and urged them to amend the CAA. Advertisement In 2019, Abubakr appealed to the Muslim community to welcome the 2019 Supreme Court verdict on Babri Masjid- Ram Janmabhoomi issue. We respect the Supreme Court. Everyone must strive for peace in India. The victory or defeat over the Babri Masjid incident may be significant to every party, but the protection of India and its sovereignty is much more important. Babri Masjid is a place of worship for Muslims, but equally important is that all people live peacefully in India, Abubakr had said. Role in Deferring Nimisha Priya's Execution Abubakr held talks with religious authorities in Yemen, who were in contact with the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national she allegedly killed in 2017. Advertisement On July 15, Abubakr announced in a press statement that the scheduled execution had been officially postponed following his humanitarian intervention. Sources said negotiations regarding blood money took place, and the details were conveyed to the concerned parties in Kerala. Also Read | Nimisha Priya Case: This Congress MLA played a key role in halting the execution Given the limited diplomatic ties between India and Yemen, he chose to activate alternate channels of influence through spiritual and tribal leaders. Abubakr said he initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Upon being contacted, Habib Umar promptly began mobilising his network and initiated high-level discussions with the deceased's family, legal experts, and Yemeni judicial authorities, according to the statement. "Islam has another law. If the murderer is sentenced to death, the family of the victim has the right to pardon. I dont know who this family is, but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen, he told news agency ANI. Advertisement I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity, he added. Under Shariah law, as applied in Yemen, blood money is a legally recognised financial compensation paid to the family of a person who has been killed. It is a legally sanctioned alternative to capital punishment in Islamic jurisprudence. After I requested that they intervene and take action, the scholars (in Yemen) met, discussed, and stated that they would do what they could. They have officially informed us and sent a document stating that the date of execution has been postponed, which will help facilitate the ongoing discussions," he said. Meanwhile, sources said that an office has been opened at Musliyar's headquarters here to facilitate the negotiations. Advertisement Nimisha Priya, hailing from Palakkad district, was sentenced to death in 2020, and her final appeal was rejected in 2023. She is currently imprisoned in a jail in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen. Centre informed the Supreme Court that the government could do "nothing much" in the case of the nurse facing execution on July 16. Attorney General R Venkataramani informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta that the government was doing "utmost possible". Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity. "The Government of India is trying its best," Venkataramani said, "and has also engaged with some sheikhs who are very influential people there." The road never stops for Rajasthans cartographic experiments. Governments in Rajasthan, Indias largest state by area, have considered amending district boundaries for administrative convenience and logistical ease. The state spans over 3.4 lakh sq. km, stretching approximately 869 km from east to west and 826 km from north to south. It is typically a mix of overpopulated urban sprawls and remote regions. So, when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Rajasthan government annulled nine of the 17 new districts formed by the previous Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government last December, it was merely following what has long been the norm in the state. The new BJP government, led by Bhajan Lal Sharma, had set up a committee headed by Lalit K. Panwar to review the earlier changes. In March 2023, the Congress government announced the creation of 17 new districts, ostensibly to facilitate better administration. With a single decision, Rajasthans total number of districts jumped from 33 to 50, more than doubling the number created over the previous 52 years. The move was based on the recommendations of a committee led by retired IAS officer Ramlubhaya. Following the BJPs decision to slash nine districts, Rajasthan now has 41. BJP member and former MP Manvendra Singh says, The redrawing of districts is based on geographical location, administrative ease, population, the distance of the farthest tehsil from the district headquarters, effective law and order governance, the disposal of pending schemes, regional backwardness, availability of basic facilities and services, public sentiment, and cultural harmony. Internal reorganisation has long dominated the states agenda. Between 1956, the year Rajasthan came into being, and 2008, seven new districts were created. Dholpur was carved out of Bharatpur in 1982; in 1991, Baran, Dausa, and Rajsamand were carved out from Kota, Jaipur and Udaipur, respectively. Hanumangarh was created in 1994 from Sri Ganganagar. In 1997, Karauli was formed based on the recommendations of the R.S. Kumat Committee. The last district created before the 2023 reorganisation was Pratapgarh, carved out of Udaipur, Banswara, and Chittorgarh in 2008 during the first term of BJP leader Vasundhara Raje as Chief Minister. In 2014, during her tenure, the Parmesh Chandra Committee recommended the formation of four more districts, Balotra, Beawar, Deedwana, and Kotputli, but the proposal remained confined to official files. According to a Rajasthan government official, beyond healthcare, people expect improvements in governance, budgetary allocation, infrastructure, and greater attention to the region. The reorganisation was intended to bring the government closer to the people by rapidly creating new administrative centres. The peril of creating new districts can scarcely be overstated, none more so than the financial burden it entails. Lalit K Panwar, who headed the BJP governments committee on rationalising the number of districts, estimated that, on average, it costs the state exchequer around 1,000 crore to develop a single district, with 500 crore potentially spent on building administrative offices alone. This would have amounted to a budget of 17,000 crore for all 17 districts, a significant expenditure. This was one of the key reasons to reconsider the number of new districts, the official said. The administrative reality, however, was far messier. A government official said many of the new districts faced serious administrative challenges, including staff shortages and a lack of proper office infrastructure. Newly appointed collectors and SPs are operating with limited resources, compounded by ongoing border disputes between districts. But annulling the new districts comes with its own set of downsides. Communities that briefly experienced administrative independence, only to have it withdrawn, are now deeply resentful. Neem Ka Thana is a case in point. Located about 120 km from Jaipur, it was carved out of Sikar and Jhunjhunu as a new district by the Gehlot government. After the BJP administration reversed the decision, the region has witnessed widespread protests. A long-standing demand has been betrayed. Since the announcement, daily rallies and demonstrations have taken place, with people demanding the restoration of Neem Ka Thana as a district, says Joginder Kumar, general secretary of a local market union. The cost of dismantling barely established infrastructure can be painful. According to locals, during the 14 months Neem Ka Thana functioned as a district, several newly established administrative offices began to shut down. Officials have since been transferred back to the state secretariat and other locations. The Supreme Court on July 16 asked why the Haryana Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to investigate the two FIRs lodged against Ashoka University Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad over his two social media posts on 'Operation Sindoor', was misdirecting itself. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi observed that the SIT was formed specifically to investigate the two social media posts and asked why it was expanding the scope. The top court directed the SIT to complete its inquiry within four weeks, legal news website LiveLaw reported. The bench pointed out that the SIT was constituted specifically to understand the true meaning of the social media posts and to ascertain if they constituted any offence. The bench asked why the petitioner's devices were seized. "We just want to know from SIT...for what purpose they have seized devices? We will call them (officers)," Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the State. Noting that the petitioner has cooperated with the investigation and surrendered his devices, the Court relaxed his bail conditions and directed that he should not be summoned again. "You don't require him (Mahmudabad), you require a dictionary," Justice Kant said. The Court reiterated that the investigation must remain confined to the contents of the two FIRs and not become a broader inquiry. Mahmudabad, who teaches Political Science at Haryana-based Ashoka University, was arrested on May 18 for his remarks regarding press briefings on Operation Sindoor, India's military action in May on terror camps in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, in South Kashmir on April 22. The arrest was based on a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, the general secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Yuva Morcha in Haryana, reports said quoting his lawyers. On May 21, however, the Supreme Court granted interim bail to Mahmudabad and directed the constitution of a three-member SIT to investigate the case. The two FIRs against Prof Mahmudabad The Haryana Police said the two FIRs were lodged at the Rai Police Station in Sonipat one based on a complaint from the chairperson of Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on the complaint of a village sarpanch. Also Read | Ashoka University Professor Ali Mahmudabad challenges arrest in SC Mahmudabad's remarks were annexed to the commission's notice, and in one of them, he purportedly said right-wing people applauding Col Sofiya Qureshi should demand protection for victims of mob lynchings and "arbitrary" bulldozing of properties. Mahmudabad was alleged to have described the media briefings by Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh as "optics". "But optics must translate to reality on the ground, otherwise it's just hypocrisy," he added. The commission previously said an initial review of Mahmudabad's remarks raised concerns about the "disparagement of women in uniform, including Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Singh, and undermining their role as professional officers in the Indian Armed Forces". Who is Ali Khan Mahmudabad? Mahmudabad, 42, is a historian, political scientist, writer, poet and a faculty at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana. Born in Lucknow on December 2, 1982, Ali is the son of Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan, popularly known as Raja Sahab Mahmudabad, who spent about 40 years in a legal battle to reclaim his ancestral property seized by the government under the Enemy Properties Act. Raja Saheb passed away in October 2023. Key directions and developments from the hearing: Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad is free to write articles and social media posts, except on the subjudice matter. -The Court clarified that its earlier orders did not restrict his expression. -The SIT does not need to summon him again for questioning. The Court noted that the petitioner has already joined the investigation and his devices have been examined. -The probe must be completed within four weeks, strictly limited to the language and content of the two Facebook posts related to the violence in Pahalgam. -Justice Surya Kant questioned the course of the SITs probe, observing: Why is the SIT, on the face of it, misdirecting itself? -The Court reminded the SIT that it was set up specifically to examine whether any offence was made out from the phrasing used in the postsnot to launch a roving inquiry. - Interim protection from arrest granted to Mahmudabad will continue. US President Donald Trump has signalled ongoing progress towards a trade deal with India, declaring confidently, We're going to have access into India, even as the details remain under negotiation. Donald Trump said India could be among the countries America would strike a deal with before reciprocal tariffs are imposed on August 1. Speaking on Tuesday, Donald Trump credited his administrations tariff measures for opening markets previously closed to American businesses, emphasising, You have to understand, we had no access into any of these countries. Our people couldn't go in. And now we're getting access because of what we're doing with the tariffs. Also Read | India, US push deadline to strike trade deal to 31 July While a deal between New Delhi and Washington remains to be finalised, Trump drew parallels to the recently announced agreement with Indonesia, where the US will face zero tariffs on exports, and Indonesia will impose a reduced tariff rate of 19 per cent. On the Indonesian agreement, Trump said, So we made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great president, very popular, very strong, and smart. And we made the deal. We have full access to Indonesia... As you know, Indonesia is very strong in copper. But we have full access to everything. We will pay no tariffs. Donald Trump added, "So they are giving us access into Indonesia, which we never had. That's probably the biggest part of the deal. And the other part is that they are going to pay 19 per cent, and we are going to pay nothing. I think it's a good deal for both parties." The agreement was described as "finalised" on Trumps Truth Social platform, though Indonesia had yet to make a public statement. Also Read | Trump bets constantly shifting tariff strategy can remake global trade When asked about the agreement, Trump said "something similar" would happen with India, and a couple of other countries. "We made a terrific deal, he (Indonesian President) opened up the entire country to trade with the United States. We were not allowed to go in and trade. I think something similar would happen with India and we have a couple of others," Trump said, when asked about how many trade deals can be expected before the August 1 deadline. While US-India trade talks continue with negotiations intensifying ahead of deadlines, India remains the largest US trading partner, facing reciprocal tariffs, with discussions focusing on expanding market access and tariff reductions on goods estimated between $150 billion and $200 billion in bilateral trade. According to media reports, India and the US aim to boost bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, but talks are stalled over dairy imports. India refuses American dairy, citing cultural concerns, and seeks stringent certification for imports, emphasising the protection of its dairy industry and small-scale farmers. An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Goa was forced to make an emergency landing at Mumbai airport on Wednesday evening after a reported engine failure, a source familiar with the matter told PTI. An IndiGo spokesperson said flight 6E 6271, en route from Delhi to Goa's Manohar International Airport, experienced a technical snag during the journey. According to multiple flight trackers, the aircraft took off from Delhi around 8 pmabout 30 minutes behind scheduleand was later diverted to Mumbai. It landed safely at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport just before 10 pm. The flight, operated with an Airbus A320neo, made an emergency landing at 9.52 pm, the source said. The number of people on board could not be immediately known. "Full emergency declared for IndiGo flight 6E-6271, operating on Delhi-Goa route after it was diverted to Mumbai due to one engine failure," sources told news agency. Earlier on July 9, a Delhi-bound IndiGo flight 6E 5009 was forced to turn back mid-air and return to Patna on Wednesday due to a bird strike, the airline's spokesperson informed. The spokesperson had said that the flight has been cancelled for the day to carry out proper maintenance of the aircraft, and the passengers have been offered a full refund or provided with alternative arrangements for their travels. "IndiGo flight 6E 5009 operating from Patna to Delhi on 09 July 2025 turned back to Patna due to a bird strike. Due to the requirement of necessary inspection and maintenance of the aircraft, the flight has been cancelled for the day," the IndiGo spokesperson had said. The passengers were subsequently offered refreshments, a full refund on the flight or alternative arrangements for travel. "We are doing our best to minimise inconvenience to our customers, including offering them refreshments, a full refund on cancellation and/or making alternate arrangements for their travel. The inconvenience caused due to this unforeseen situation is deeply regretted. Safety and security of our customers and crew remains our topmost priority," the spokesperson had said. Full emergency was declared at the airport Meanwhile, CSMIA Spokesperson said, following the diversion of the flight due to a technical snag, a full emergency was declared at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai (CSMIA) at 21:35 hours on 16 July 2025. The flight landed safely at 21:52 hours. The Full Emergency status was withdrawn at 21:57 hours. Passengers were safely deboarded and assisted by terminal staff. While the airline coordinates alternative onward travel for the passengers, CSMIAs Terminal Operations team remains on standby to provide all necessary support. There has been no impact on overall airport operations. At CSMIA, safety always remains our highest priority Delhi airport sees 5 flight diversions due to adverse weather At least five flights were diverted at the Delhi airport due to bad weather on Wednesday afternoon. An official said two flights each of IndiGo and Air India were diverted to Jaipur, and one Air India flight was diverted to Amritsar. In a post on X at 1.44 pm, Air India said gusty wind and rain are impacting flight operations in Delhi. "Heavy rains are forecast across #Delhi today, and while our operations remain on schedule for now, weather-related delays may be expected later in the day," IndiGo said in a post on X at 2.17 pm. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has issued a stark warning to the adversaries of the country, declaring that Iranian regime is capable of delivering a bigger blow to its adversaries than what was seen during the recent Iran-Israel conflict. Referring to Israel as dog on a leash of the United States, Ali Khamenei said Israel was a cancerous tumour and the fight against the United States and Benjamin Netanyahu was praiseworthy. In a statement published on his website, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel's attacks during last month's 12-day war were intended to weaken the Islamic republic's system and spark unrest to topple it. The calculation and plan of the aggressors was to weaken the system by targeting certain figures and sensitive centres in Iran, said Khamenei. He said the move was meant to stir unrest and bring people into the streets to overthrow the system. Targeting the US for aiding Israel in its attacks on the Iranian soil, Khamenei said America is an accomplice to Israel's crimes. Khamenei also hinted at Iran's readiness to answer back if struck again. Iran is capable to give bigger blow to its adversaries than seen in Iran-Israel war. Iran is ready to respond to any renewed military attack, the Supreme Leader said. On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists. In retaliation, Iran sent drones and missiles, killing dozens in Israel. In Iran, as many as 1,000 persons were killed, including top commanders. On June 22, Israel's ally the United States launched unprecedented strikes of its own on Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordo, Isfahan and Natanz. A ceasefire was agreed upon a few days after the US bombings. Tehran has reiterated that it remains open to diplomacy provided that Washington offers guarantees it will not resort to military action against the Islamic republic. The husband of a Russian woman found residing inside a cave in Karnataka along with her two daughters has demanded shared custody of the children and expressed a desire to be close to them, news agency PTI reported. Dror Goldstein, a resident of Israel, met the Russian woman--identified as Nina Kutina - in Goa about eight years ago and fell in love with her. He claimed that Nina had left him along with their daughters without informing him a few months ago. Goldstein had earlier said that he had been visiting India for the last four years to meet his daughters: Prema (6) and Ama (5). "My wish is to be close to my two daughters. I demand shared custody. I want to be able to meet them, to be close to them, and to be a father. That's all," Goldstein told PTI. Earlier reports stated that the Russian woman informed authorities that the father of her children is an Israeli businessman, and that she gave birth to one of her daughters while living in a cave in Goa. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) had contacted the father and mentioned that the deportation of Nina and her children to Russia would take approximately one month. Speaking on the deportation, Goldstein said he would do everything in his power to stop the government from sending his daughters to Russia. "It would be difficult for me if they are taken there," he was quoted as saying by NDTV. During a police patrol on July 11, Nina and her two daughters were discovered living in a cave on Ramatirtha Hill in Gokarna. When questioned, the 40-year-old said she had journeyed from Goa to Gokarna in search of spiritual solitude. She stated that she chose the forest cave as a place for meditation and prayer, seeking distance from the distractions of city life. According to a report by The New York Times, Nina arrived in India several years ago with her two sons and a daughter. Her eldest son passed away at the age of 21, and the whereabouts of her other son remain unknown. She had entered the country on a business visa, which expired in 2017, and has remained in India since then due to what she describes as several complicated reasons. Mumbai's iconic Parsi cafe, Jimmy Boy, near the Horniman Circle at Fort, has shut its operations due to the dilapidated condition of the Vikas Building, where it is housed, just months before it was supposed to celebrate the completion of 100 years of its operations in September. We are a family restaurant built on the foundations of love for our family, cultural traditions and above all, delicious food! The restaurant has been there in the Irani Family since 1925, reads Jimmy Boy's website. Jimmy Boy A Heritage Landmark Abruptly Closed Mumbais beloved Parsi cafe, Jimmy Boy, nestled in the historic Fort district, has unexpectedly shuttered its Fort outlet just weeks before it was due to celebrate its centenary in September. This cherished eatery, famed for its Keema Pav, Brun Maska, Mava Cakes and nostalgic Irani chai, first opened as Cafe India before being rebranded in 1999. The recipes have remained unchanged since the beginning. Every Parsi family has its own closely guarded secret recipes for their version of the dish, and we are true to ours! All-time favorites include Patra ni Macchi, followed by sauce Nimacchi, Salliboti, keema pav, chicken berry pulao, trickling down to dhansak, Dhun dal and prawns patio, the Jimmy Boy cafe's website reads. Unsafe Building Forces Sudden Evacuation On 20 June, a junior engineer alerted the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) disaster management cell after detecting major cracks in the fourstorey Vikas Premises buildinghome to Jimmy Boy, at Horniman Circle at Fort. The following morning, a formal notice under Section 354 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act mandated immediate evacuation. The BMC, alongside the fire brigade and local police, cordoned off the premises following inspections that deemed the structure unsafe for occupancy. Neglected Audit Warnings Came Back to Haunt Jimmy Boy The closure of Jimmy Boy cafe at Horniman Circle at Fort follows a structural audit, undertaken by Mahimtura Consultants, that flagged serious deterioration in load-bearing walls, beams and slabs of Vikas Building nearly a year ago. Despite urgent remedial recommendations, reportedly no corrective work had been doneleading to the Vikas Building being labelled extremely dilapidated. With safety irreversibly compromised, Jimmy Boy Cafe's closure became inevitable. Jimmy Boy's Pivot to Takeaway and Alternate Locations Shehzad Irani, Director of Operations, reportedly expressed emotional farewells but affirmed that Jimmy Boy is not disappearing. Nimisha Priya Case: The scheduled execution of Indian nurse Nimisha Priya in Yemen has been postponed, offering a temporary reprieve. However, the family of her former business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi, remains steadfast in their demand for the strict application of Gods Law in Qisas, signalling a grave challenge for the Kerala native. Nimisha Priya's Execution in Yemen Postponed Originally set for 16 July 2025, Nimisha Priyas execution was deferred following sustained diplomatic efforts from the Indian government and intervention by influential religious leaders from Kerala, including the Grand Mufti of India. Priya is currently imprisoned in a Houthi-controlled facility in Sanaa, Yemens capital, where India lacks formal diplomatic relations. Nimisha Priya Case: Yemeni Familys Firm Stance Talal Abdo Mahdis brother, Abdel Fateh Mahdi, has made the familys position unequivocally clear. Speaking to BBC Arabic, Abdel Fateh denied claims made by Nimisha Priya regarding abuse, exploitation, or passport confiscation. Abdel Fateh emphasised that such allegations were never presented in Yemeni court and dismissed them as mere rumours. The Yemeni family insists that Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya's actionsparticularly the murder of Talal followed by dismembering and hiding the bodyare inexcusable, regardless of any dispute. Abdel Fateh called for the enforcement of Qisas, an Islamic law principle of retaliation in kind, which in this case means the execution of Nimisha Priya. He explicitly rejected appeals for blood money (Diyah), which under Yemeni Sharia law could allow the victims family to accept financial compensation in exchange for pardoning the convict. He stressed, Nothing less than this would be acceptable, even if it means a delay in carrying out the execution. Nimisha Priya Case: What Is Qisas? Under Yemens Islamic legal framework, Qisas permits a murder victims family to demand punishment equal to the crime in capital cases, this usually means the death penalty. However, Sharia law in Yemen also allows families to forgive the accused in exchange for diyah, or blood money, which is a negotiated settlement aimed at reconciliation. Acceptance of Diyah can lead to a pardon and commute the sentence. In Nimisha Priyas case, the Yemeni victims familys refusal to accept Diyah leaves her fate dependent on implementing the Qisas principle. Background to the Nimisha Priya Case in Yemen Nimisha Priya, a nurse from Keralas Palakkad district, moved to Yemen in 2008 and later formed a business partnership with Talal Abdo Mahdi, operating a medical clinic in Sanaa. In 2017, following alleged harassment and attempts to recover her passport, Nimisha Priya reportedly sedated Talal with Ketamine to escape. The overdose led to the Yemeni national's death, and in panic, she dismembered his body, resulting in her arrest and conviction for murder. Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death in 2020, with her appeal dismissed in 2023 by Yemens Supreme Judicial Council. Nimisha Priya Case: Current Status Nimisha Priyas execution, scheduled for 16 July, has been postponed as of 15 July 2025, following last-minute talks with the victims family. The Government of India continues to work closely with Yemeni authorities, despite limitations imposed by the political situation and lack of official ties with the Houthi administration. Religious leaders from Kerala have played a pivotal role in mediation, with prayers and dialogues contributing to the postponement. Human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have urged Yemen to impose a moratorium on executions and consider commutation of death sentences. Air India has completed precautionary inspections of the fuel control switch (FCS) locking mechanism on its fleet of Boeing 787 aircraft and found no issues, an airline official said on Wednesday (July 17), PTI reported. "Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft. The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the official said, citing an internal message shared with Air India pilots. Critical moment in cockpit captured According to the AAIBs 15-page report, the fuel supply to both engines was cut off within the space of one second, shortly after takeoff. This caused an immediate loss of altitude, leading to the fatal crash. "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off? The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report noted. Throttle control modules already replaced The Air India official added that the Throttle Control Module (TCM) of which the FCS is a part had already been replaced on all Boeing 787-8 aircraft operated by the airline, as per Boeings maintenance schedule. What the fuel control switch does The Fuel Control Switch regulates the flow of fuel into the aircraft engines, playing a critical role in safe takeoff and in-flight operations. Any unintended movement of the switch especially from run to cutoff can instantly shut down engine power. Pakistani journalist and television anchor Jasmeen Manzoor has gone public with disturbing allegations of domestic violence, sharing graphic images of her injuries on social media. In a series of emotional posts shared on X early Wednesday, Manzoor accused her ex-husband of physically assaulting her, revealing a deeply personal and painful chapter of her life. Also Read | Slater gets jail term for domestic violence, stalking but walks free due to time served One of the images showed visible bruising and swelling around her right eye. Alongside it, she wrote: This is me. Yes, this is my story my life destroyed by a violent man. I leave my justice to my Allah. In another post, Manzoor spoke about the emotional toll of domestic abuse and the betrayal she experienced. This can happen to anyone. No one is safe, even in the safety of your house. The most dangerous people are the ones you trust blindly, she wrote. Without naming her ex-husband directly, she made it clear who she was referring to: This is me, gifted by my ex-husband. She also addressed the internal struggle of deciding whether to go public with her story. Also Read | Sanjay Gaikwad booked for assaulting MLAs hostel canteen staff over stale food I kept thinking for so long whether I should share this with the public or not. But I want to show the courage to share this, so we can all unite against this kind of behaviour and for the government authorities to open their eyes. Social media support pours in Manzoors courageous posts quickly gained attention online, with thousands expressing outrage and support. A user wrote, Kudos to you. Women should stand against violence no matter who, where. This needs courage. Also Read | Ashoka University professor summoned over his Operation Sindoor remarks Another user commented, You did right by sharing, such monsters are not to be forgiven or ignored and best is to expose them. Third wrote, If a woman of your stature could be treated like this imagine what these animals would do with a common girl! The political jibes and digs have started to fly already between the political parties in Assam ahead of next year's Assembly elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who addressed a political rally in Chhaygaon on Wednesday, July 16, took a king jibe at Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and said he would be taken to jail by the Congress workers themselves. Rahul Gandhi also exuded confidence that Congress will sweep the Assembly polls in Assam. The people of Assam know the truth... There will be elections soon, and the Congress will sweep those elections. We have created a new team here. We have started the work, and the people of Assam will soon see the results we will see it, he said. Terming Himanta Biswa Sarma as the India's most corrupt Chief Minister, Rahul Gandhi said some day he will have to account for it. He said that Chief Minister has fear in his mind as he knows one day 'babber shers' of Congress will take him jail. "Some time ago, elections were held in Maharashtra, and the BJP engaged in blatant cheating. In the four months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, one crore new voters were added. We asked the Election Commission--where did these people come from, who are they? Show us the voter list and provide the videography. But... the Election Commission has not given us the voter list to this day; instead, it changed the law related to videography," he said. Rahul Gandhi also urged people to be cautious, claiming the BJP and the EC were working together. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also addressed the gathering. As Rahul Gandhi took jibes at Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Assam chief minister hit back at him, reminding him of his recent bails. In a post on X, Himanta Biswa Sarma said, Take it in writing, Himanta Biswa Sarma will definitely be sent to jail' these were the exact words spoken by the Leader of the Opposition, Shri Rahul Gandhi, during his closed-door meeting with the Congress Political Affairs Committee in Assam. The Supreme Court has directed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing posts made by Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad regarding Operation Sindoor to complete its inquiry within four weeks, PTI reported. The court has also granted Mahmudabad permission to publish online posts or articles, provided he refrains from commenting on matters that are currently sub judice. Also Read | SC extends interim bail for Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad Furthermore, the court ordered that it would not be compulsory for him to appear in person before the SIT. It even asked the Haryana SIT to confiscate the electronic gadgets of the Ashoka University professor for the probe and stated it had misdirected itself, according to PTI. On 21 May, the top court granted interim bail to the Ashoka University professor, who was arrested for his social media posts on Operation Sindoor, but refused to stay the investigation against him. The apex court had directed the setting up of a three-member SIT to look into the FIRs lodged against him. FIRs on the Ashoka University professor The Haryana Police arrested Ali Khan Mehmoodabad on 18 May after two FIRs were registered against him. He is accused of undermining the sovereignty and integrity of the country through his controversial comments on Operation Sindoor. He was called in following a notice from the Haryana State Womens Panel regarding his Operation Sindoor comments, which were seen as disparaging women in the armed forces and promoting communal disharmony, prompting concerns after an initial evaluation. He had referred to media briefings by Colonel Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh as optics. But optics must translate to reality on the ground; otherwise, it's just hypocrisy, he stated. The two FIRs consisted of a complaint by the chairperson of Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on a complaint by a village sarpanch. Rai police filed both in the Sonipat district. On the Commission chairperson's complaint, the FIR has been lodged against Professor Ali of Ashoka University under BNS sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty or unity and integrity of India), 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), 79 (deliberate actions aimed at insulting the modesty of a woman) and 196 (1) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), police said. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was seen taking a test drive in a Tesla outside the state assembly, just a day after the car's launch. The event comes just after the US-based electric vehicle manufacturers long-awaited debut in India, marked by the opening of the first Tesla showroom in Mumbai. Teslas grand entry into India Tesla has officially commenced operations in India with the inauguration of its first showroom, the Tesla Experience Centre, at Mumbais prominent Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on Tuesday. The company has launched its premium SUV, the Model Y, with prices starting around 61 lakh (on-road). Also Read | Tesla Finally Rolls Into India! Opens First showroom in Mumbai The Elon Musk-owned brand also announced plans to set up four charging stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan region, including locations in Lower Parel, BKC, Thane and Navi Mumbai, completely equipped with superchargers and destination chargers, CNBC reported. Eknath Shinde praises Teslas arrival The deputy chief minister, who was in a white Tesla, spoke to the media after the ride, stating, It is a big deal that Tesla has opened its showroom in Mumbai. Maharashtra has the highest foreign direct investment. He also added, The state has good infrastructure, and investors are willing to invest here because Maharashtra has become an industry-friendly state.ANI reported. A long-awaited debut The launch event of Tesla at the BKC showroom was also attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who welcomed Tesla by describing its arrival as right city and right state. Teslas entry into the Indian market has been a subject of speculation and negotiation for several years, involving discussions on import duties and potential local manufacturing. Fadnavis also expressed optimism about the EV's potential sales, stating, "People in India are eagerly waiting for Tesla. I am sure you will find one of your best markets here once you start deliveries. " BJP MP Tejasvi Surya recounted a two-hour in-flight conversation with Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy on the way back to Bengaluru from Mumbai. They discussed India's future, leadership, and various sectors, while the BJP MP jokingly mentioned Murthy's 70-hour work week remark. In a post on the social media platform X, Surya wrote, Had an inspiring conversation with the legendary NRN (Narayana Murthy) today on the way back to Bengaluru from Mumbai. Appreciating Murthy's achievements, Surya also noted, NRN pioneered the Indian IT services sector, turning it into a global powerhouse. He created wealth for literally lakhs of middle class families through Infosys. From AI to manufacturing, state of our cities to upskilling our youth to ethics and leadership - it was a 2 hour masterclass learning from him. Surya's 70-hour work week remark Surya joked about trying to meet a 70-hour work week target, to which Murthy noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi might be the only one working 100 hours a week. "I humorously quipped at the end of our conversation that Ill strive to meet his 70-hour-a-week target - to which he laughed and said, The only person I know who probably works 100 hours a week is Prime Minister Modi! Surya stated. 70-hour work week debate Surya's humorous comment about working hours follows Narayana Murthy's past call for a 70-hour work week, which drew mixed reactions on social media. Earlier this year, Murthy clarified his position on the 70-hour work week remark, emphasising that nothing should be imposed on others. The discussion about work-life balance was revived after an undated viral video of L&T Chairman SN Subrahmanyan proposing a 90-hour work week surfaced. Social media users react Surya's post garnered several reactions on social media. Many shared humorous comments, while some emphasised that working for hours doesn't necessarily result in productivity. One of the users wrote, Working long hours doesnt guarantee success or innovation. Quality over quantity matters. The focus should be on creating a balanced environment where creativity can flourish, not on glorifying overwork. Referring to the L&T chairman's remark, another user wrote, Did he propose to work 90hrs yet or still stuck with 70hrs? Another user asked, How many hours a day did he recommend you work for? The Donald Trump administration deported five men convicted of violent crimes to Eswatini, a tiny African kingdom, on Tuesday. The deportees from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen included murderers and child rapists whose home countries refused to take them back. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin called them uniquely barbaric criminals now off American soil. The flight followed a recent Supreme Court ruling allowing deportations to countries where migrants have no ties. New immigration rules let officials deport people with just 6 hours notice in emergencies. Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) a nation smaller than New Jersey with 1.2 million people hasnt explained its agreement to accept the deportees. Ruled by King Mswati III since 1986, its Africas last absolute monarchy and bans political parties. Pro-democracy groups protested the secrecy, with SWALIMO spokesperson Ingiphile Dlamini stating: Theres been no official communication about this deal . Critics worry the poor country cant safely manage violent criminals and note its history of human rights abuses, including torturing detainees. This marks the second African deportation this month; eight men were sent to war-torn South Sudan earlier. The Trump administration is actively seeking similar deals with Rwanda, Angola, and other African nations. While West African leaders discussed accepting deportees during recent White House visits, Nigeria publicly refused, calling it unacceptable. The U.S. has also sent hundreds of Venezuelans to Central American prisons, but Africa is now a focus for third-country removals. Analysts suggest poor nations may agree in exchange for U.S. aid or trade benefits. UN experts and lawyers argue the policy violates international law by sending people to countries where they risk torture. Justice Sonia Sotomayor previously criticized similar deportations, warning migrants could face torture or death. Under the new rules, U.S. officials arent required to ask if deportees fear persecution in the third country. ormer US President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama directly addressed persistent divorce rumors during a joint appearance on Wednesdays episode of the podcast In My Opinion (IMO), co-hosted by Michelle and her brother Craig Robinson. In a playful exchange, Robinson teased the couple as Barack joined the conversation: Wait, you guys like each other? he joked. Michelle laughed and replied, Oh yeah, the rumor mill. Robinson continued, Its so nice to have you both in the same room together, prompting Michelle to quip, I know, cause when we arent, folks think were divorced. She took me back! Barack jokes about rumors Barack Obama, 63, leaned into the banter with his trademark humor. She took me back! he said with a grin. It was touch and go for a while. Michelle, 61, laughed but warned, Dont start, before agreeing it was nice to appear publicly together. Not one moment I thought about quitting my man Michelle Obama used the moment to set the record straight on their marriage: There hasnt been one moment in our marriage where I have thought about quitting my man, she said firmly. She continued, Weve had some really hard times and weve had a lot of fun times, a lot of adventures and Ive become a better person because of the man Im married to. Praising Barack as a father Michelle also took the opportunity to praise Baracks parenting, calling him an engaged father to their daughters Malia, 27, and Sasha, 24. The couple, married since October 1992, has long emphasized their commitment to both their family and partnership. Why the rumors started Divorce speculation ramped up earlier this year when Barack Obama attended high-profile events including former President Jimmy Carters funeral and Donald Trumps inauguration without Michelle by his side. Dan Rivera, a well-known paranormal investigator from Connecticut and handler of the infamous Annabelle doll, died suddenly on June 13 while on tour in Gettysburg, the New England Society for Psychic Research confirmed. Rivera was a familiar face from the popular Devils on the Run Tour, during which he and other members of the society travelled across the United States with the supposedly haunted doll, Annabelle. Emergency services, including firefighters and paramedics, were called to a hotel in Gettysburg on Sunday night after receiving a report that a man was receiving CPR. Annabelles Sold-Out Gettysburg Tour The Annabelle tour in Gettysburg was organised in partnership with Ghostly Images of Gettysburg Tours at the Soldiers National Orphanage. Organisers said the event was completely sold out, with over 1,260 tickets sold across the three-day weekend. The tour wrapped up on Sunday afternoon. Rivera played a key role in bringing international attention to the tour. Alongside fellow paranormal investigator Ryan Daniel Buell, Rivera created several viral TikTok videos featuring the doll, attracting millions of views. The tour had drawn widespread attention recently, with some locations reacting strongly to the dolls spooky reputation and backstory. Tributes Pour In Following Riveras Death After news of Riveras passing broke on Monday night, tributes poured in from the paranormal community. He was remembered as a devoted husband, father, friend, and passionate paranormal researcher. Online Reactions: Shock and Fear Surrounding Annabelle Many on social media reacted with disbelief and unease. One user said, I've been next to that doll. It's not that creepy. Another added, Believe what you want, but shes not to be messed with My friend went to see herweird stuff happened. A third wrote, That's not good he was next in line to watch over the museum, while another said, My husband wants to go see this doll. It's only a few hours away from us. I said absolutely NOT!! US President Donald Trump blasted his own supporters as "weaklings" and "past supporters" in a furious Truth Social post Wednesday. He attacked conservatives demanding full release of Jeffrey Epstein investigation files, calling their efforts "bull" and a Democratic SCAM. Trump insisted Attorney General Pam Bondi had released all "credible information," despite her February claim that Epsteins "client list" sat on my desk. The outburst follows last weeks Justice Department announcement closing the case with no further document releases. MAGA revolt over broken promises Conservative leaders and pro-Trump influencers erupted in anger over Trumps dismissal. Right-wing podcaster Alex Jones called it "the biggest train wreck Ive ever seen," while commentator Benny Johnson urged Trump to reconsider. House Speaker Mike Johnson joined the criticism, demanding Bondi put everything out there. The fury stems from years of Trump allies like FBI Director Kash Patel hyping Epsteins "client list" as proof of elite pedophile rings, theories central to QAnon supporters who helped elect Trump. Democrats seized the Republican infighting, with Rep. Ruben Gallego accusing Trump of covering up for rich elite friends. House Democrats attempted to force a vote compelling document release but failed when Republicans blocked the procedural move. Meanwhile, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) launched a long-shot bipartisan effort with Democrat Ro Khanna to bypass leadership via discharge petition. A CNN poll shows 50% of Americans want more Epstein transparency, deepening pressure on Trump. Experts note the meltdown reveals how QAnon conspiracy theories became foundational to the MAGA movement. Google just added its most powerful AI model, Gemini 2.5 Pro, to AI Mode in Search. This "brainy upgrade" helps solve tough math problems, code questions, and complex research. Paid subscribers (Google AI Pro or AI Ultra) can select it from a dropdown menu starting this week. For everyday questions, the regular AI model remains the default for quick help. The upgrade makes Google Search act like a genius research assistant that explains tricky topics step-by-step while linking to sources for deeper learning. A new "Deep Search" tool uses Gemini 2.5 Pro to create detailed reports in minutes, work that normally takes hours. It runs hundreds of searches automatically, connects facts from different sources, and builds fully-cited summaries. This helps with big projects like buying a home, investment research, or school assignments. For example, searching "how to save for retirement" now generates a personalized investment guide comparing strategies like 401(k)s and IRAs, complete with source links. AI calls businesses for you Tired of phone calls? Google Search can now ring local businesses for you. Search for services like "dog groomers near me," click "Have AI check pricing," and answer a few questions. The AI then calls shops to compare prices and availability, compiling results in one list. Every call starts with: "Hi, this is an automated Google assistant calling for a customer..." so businesses know its AI. The feature rolls out first in the U.S., with Pro/Ultra subscribers getting more requests per month. Subscription perks expand These upgrades debut for Googles paid AI tiers ($20/month Pro and $40/month Ultra) as exclusive early access. Free users will get limited features later. The moves aim to challenge rivals like ChatGPT Search by adding tools that handle real-world tasks, from booking appointments to analyzing stock charts. In his first public remarks since Donald Trump returned to the White House, Hunter Biden attributed the Democrats' defeat in the 2024 presidential election to their abandonment of his father, former President Joe Biden. We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party, Hunter said during the debut episode of At Our Table, a podcast hosted by former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison. The younger Biden criticised Democrats for failing to back a sitting president and squandering the advantages of incumbency and what he called an incredibly successful administration. Thats my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down, he argued. He warned that the fallout from the partys internal strife would carry into the next election cycle, making unity an even greater imperative. Forecasts of Democratic infighting You know what, we are going to fight amongst ourselves for the next three years until theres a nominee. And then with the nominee, we better as hell get behind that nominee, Hunter said, voicing frustration about factionalism within the party. Denies role in fathers administration Hunter Biden also addressed long-standing speculation that he held undue influence during his fathers presidency. I stayed as far away as I possibly could which, by the way, broke my heart, he said. I didnt want to be a distraction. Despite his legal troubles making frequent headlines during Joe Bidens term, Hunter had largely kept a low profile. Pardon controversy As Joe Biden exited the White House, he issued a pardon to his son, reversing earlier public promises not to grant clemency. Hunter had been convicted of three federal gun charges related to a 2018 firearm purchase during a period of substance addiction. He also pleaded guilty in a separate case for failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes. The clemency move drew scrutiny, especially after the elder Biden had said he would not pardon his son if convicted. Responds to Mental Fitness Questions and Health Revelation The former Presidents health and mental acuity were under intense scrutiny, particularly after his poor debate performance against Trump in June 2024. Hunter dismissed the idea that the administration attempted to hide signs of decline. What sells, Jaime? What sells is the idea of a conspiracy, he said, arguing that secrecy in Washington is virtually impossible. The ability to keep a secret in Washington is zero. Hunter also responded to reports about his fathers battle with metastatic prostate cancer, which the former President disclosed earlier this year. Every single day, hundreds of people [interact with him], Hunter said. And you cant get one of them to go on the record and say, I saw the president do X? Joe Bidens exit and Kamala Harris loss Following mounting pressure from within his own party due to concerns about his health and leadership, Joe Biden eventually stepped aside. Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee but went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump. Also Read | Donald Trump claims Coca-Cola will switch to real cane sugar in United States A shocking incident involving an Indian woman allegedly attempting to shoplift goods worth over $1,300 ( 1.11 lakh) from a Target store in Illinois, USA, has sparked a massive debate online after a bodycam video of her arrest went viral. The undated footage, widely circulated across social media platforms, shows the woman, reportedly a visitor from India, being confronted and subsequently detained by US police for the alleged theft. Also Read | Nvidias resumption of AI chips to China is part of rare earths talks, says US The full 18-minute video, initially uploaded by a YouTube channel called 'Body Cam Edition,' reveals a Target employee telling officers that the woman had spent nearly seven hours inside the store before trying to exit with a loaded shopping cart without paying. "We saw this woman roaming around the store for the last 7 hours," the staffer explains in the clip. She was picking up items, checking her phone, moving between aisles, and eventually tried to walk out the west gate without paying. In the video, the woman repeatedly tells the police that she can pay for the items now and asks them to "end the matter." However, the officers firmly state that the opportunity to pay had passed. "You want to pay for it now, but you werent paying for it previously," an officer can be heard saying. The woman apologises and insists she didn't intend to cause trouble. When asked for identification, she states she does not live in the US and that her family is also in India. The woman was later handcuffed and taken to a police station. She was charged with felony theft. While the video has gone viral, the authenticity could not be independently verified by Mint. The incident has triggered widespread discussion online, with many users questioning the womans intentions and others weighing in on the potential cultural implications. Comments ranged from "Who steals for 7 hours? Thats a whole shift at Subway - girl, go apply," to "Theres no language barrier. She knows exactly what shes doing." The video also sparked outrage among Indians. "She went abroad with the country's passport to bring disgrace. Because of this one girl's actions, today America's social media is filled with hatred and disdain toward Indians," a user wrote. New metadata analysis has revealed that nearly three minutes of surveillance footage were cut from what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) described as full raw video from the only working camera near Jeffrey Epsteins cell on the night before his death. The discovery, reported by WIRED, has reignited concerns about how the video evidence was edited and presented to the public. Footage trimmed despite 'raw' label DOJ and FBI released the footage last week as part of the Trump administrations effort to put lingering questions about Epsteins 2019 death to rest. However, according to the American magazine website report, metadata embedded in the video shows that it was stitched together using Adobe Premiere Pro from two separate clips, contradicting claims that the footage was unedited. Further analysis by the publication revealed that the first clip originally ran nearly three minutes longer than what was included in the final version. The trimmed segment ends precisely at 11:58:58 PM on August 9, 2019, just before a widely reported one-minute system reset that occurred at midnight. Timeline gaps and editing history The report stated that the two source video files were titled 2025-05-22 16-35-21.mp4 and 2025-05-22 21-12-48.mp4. The first file was 4 hours, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds long, but only 4 hours, 16 minutes, and 23.368 seconds of it made it into the released footageleaving a gap of 2 minutes and 53 seconds. The second clip begins exactly at 12:00:00 AM and runs until 6:40:00 AM. While DOJ and FBI have maintained that the midnight gap was caused by a normal surveillance system reset, WIREDs forensic reviewconfirmed by two independent expertsshows that the video was actively edited and saved over a three-and-a-half-hour period on May 23, 2025. The editing history also includes multiple saves and an export timeline that contradicts the narrative of an unedited, continuous video record. Internal markers point to further review Both the raw and enhanced versions of the footage, as reviewed by the publication, contain internal comment markersannotations often used by video editors to flag specific moments. The enhanced video, referred to as Video 2 by the FBI, includes 15 such markers aligned with movement near the 46 door, located near Epsteins cell block at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). While the markers are visible in the metadata, the original comments were removed prior to release. Response from DOJ and FBI When WIRED contacted the DOJ for clarification at 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday, public affairs officer Natalie Baldassarre responded just two minutes later, saying only: Refer you to the FBI. The FBI, in turn, declined to comment. Previous reports flagged flaws in surveillance A 2023 report by the DOJs Office of the Inspector General (OIG) had already flagged serious issues with the MCCs surveillance system, noting that it was outdated, poorly maintained, and that DVRs often malfunctioned. At the time of Epsteins death, only two cameras were functioning near the Special Housing Unit (SHU) where he was held. One of those cameras captured the hallway outside the tiers, though Epsteins cell door itself was not visible. The stairway to the tier where he was held was also partially obstructed, according to the OIG. Despite these limitations, both the 2023 OIG report and last weeks DOJ-FBI memo claim that any individual entering Epsteins tier would have been captured on camera. The memo also stated unequivocally that no incriminating client list exists and reaffirmed the conclusion that Epstein died by suicide. The metadata also included a partial username, MJCOLE~1, suggesting that someone with that account may have been responsible for the edits. However, WIRED notes that the full name cannot be determined from the metadata alone. Also Read | MAGA divided: Donald Trump faces backlash over unreleased Epstein Files Alan Dershowitz, a former attorney for Jeffrey Epstein, has pushed back against a wave of conspiracy theories surrounding the late financier, asserting that there is no "client list" and no evidence implicating President Donald Trump in any misconduct. No Epstein client list exists In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Dershowitz wrote: Epstein never created a client list. The FBI interviewed alleged victims who named several clients. These names have been redacted. He emphasised that these allegations remain unproven: We dont know whether the accusations are true, he wrote, noting that the list doesnt include any current officeholders. Dershowitz: No evidence against Trump The lawyer also rejected claims that Trump was involved in any wrongdoing tied to Epstein. I have seen nothing that would suggest anything improper or even questionable by Mr. Trump. Dershowitz acknowledged a past association between Epstein and Trump but said the connection ended years ago: Open records show an acquaintance between Epstein and Mr. Trump many years ago, he stated. That relationship ended when Mr. Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago, long before becoming president. No incriminating videos in bedrooms Addressing long-standing rumors of hidden bedroom cameras, Dershowitz dismissed their existence: There are videotapes, but they are of public areas of his Palm Beach, Fla., home, he clarified. He said the cameras were installed by police after Epstein reported theft of money and a gun. I am not aware of video cameras in guest bedrooms, Dershowitz stated. Epsteins death: Suicide, possibly aided Dershowitz also weighed in on Epsteins death, rejecting murder theories but suggesting possible complicity by jail staff. It is clear from the evidence that Epstein committed suicide, he wrote. That seems likely to me, based on the evidence of allegedly broken cameras, transfer of his cellmate and the absence of guards during relevant time periods. Also Read | Donald Trump calls angry MAGA supporters weaklings over Epstein file fury Denies Mossad connections The attorney firmly refuted speculation that Epstein was tied to any intelligence agency, particularly Israels Mossad: I have absolutely no doubt that Epstein never worked for any intelligence agency, he wrote. If he had, he would surely have told me and his other lawyers, who would have used that information to get him a better deal. Calls for focus on facts, not conspiracies Dershowitz concluded the op-ed by urging readers to abandon salacious theories in favor of facts: There is nothing more annoying to gossip mongers than when stubborn facts (or the absence of facts) get in the way of a juicy theory, he wrote. United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, July 16, that American was close to finalising a trade deal with India. He said the trade deal with India, that he says would give the US access to the Indian markets, would be finalised soon. We have some pretty good deals to announce, he said. The big one really is going to be on the 150 countries that we're really not negotiating with, and they're smaller we don't do much business with. We have another deal coming up maybe with India, Donald Trump said. Trump said the proposed deal could provide American companies greater access to the Indian market in line with the trade pact between the US and Indonesia. Mentioning India, the US president said his administration is going to announce a few other trade deals. Donald Trump has claimed that Indonesia was giving America the access to the country under their trade deal. Trump said the trade deal with India was along the same lines. He said, That's probably the biggest part of the deal...India is basically working along that same line. We are going to have access to India. Washington has already sent letters to several countries sharing details of reciprocal tariff rates that would come into effect on August 1. New Delhi hopes it will be able to strike a deal with the US to avoid the reciprocal tariffs. But before the trade deal could be finalised, India had indicated that the country would not enter a deal in a hurry and would will negotiate on its own terms. India discusses on its own terms and we never make a trade deal based on a timeline; when the deal is good, fully matured, and in the national interest, then we accept it, Union Minister Piyush Goyal had said. It should be a win-win agreement, and only when India's interests are safeguarded, national interest will always be supreme and keeping that in mind, if a good deal is formed, India is always ready to engage with developed countries. With hundreds of supporters following her, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, July 16, hit the streets of Kolkata to protest the alleged harassment of Bengalis in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states. Addressing the rally, Mamata Banerjee said she was ashamed and disheartened at how Bengalis were being treated in BJP-ruled states. She said, I am ashamed, disheartened at BJPs attitude towards Bengalis. I have decided to speak more in Bangla from now on, hold me in detention camps if you can. Attacking the BJP at the protest rally, Mamata Banerjee said, I challenge you to prove that Bengali-speaking migrants are Rohingya Muslims. 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in other parts of country, they have valid identity documents. Many senior leaders of the Trinamool Congress, including TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, joined Mamata Banerjee as she led thousands of people in the march. The march started from College Square in central Kolkata around 1.45 pm and will continue for three kilometres. The march will terminate at Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala. As many as 1,500 police personnel have been assigned to guard the barricaded pavements and adjacent buildings. She said, If BJP sends Bengali-speaking people to detention camps, Bengal will politically detain it in polls. Vehicular traffic was diverted on several key roads in central parts of the city due to the event. The protests are being held a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled visit to the state. With less than a year to go for the West Bengal Assembly elections, the TMC has intensified its attack, alleging a systematic pattern of linguistic profiling, arbitrary detentions, and efforts to label Bengali speakers as "illegal immigrants". The protest also gave a glimpse of TMC's campaign ahead of the Assembly polls. Supporters of All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and CM Mamata Banerjee (not pictured) take part in a rally to protest against alleged harassment toward migrant workers across the country HOW BJP REACTED? Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the whole exercise of Bengali asmita is being flaunted to shield the presence of Bengali-speaking Rohingyas and illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Taking a jibe at Mamata Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikari asked why she has turned a deaf ear to the cries of exasperation of thousands of Bengali-speaking teachers in the state who lost their jobs. "Why were Atri Bhattacharya and Subrata Gupta, two Bengali officers, denied the position of state chief secretary and offered to Manoj Pant, despite the latter being junior to the former two bureaucrats? Why was the senior-most IPS officer Sanjay Mukhopadhyay ignored for the position of DGP where an out-of-state junior, Rajiv Kumar, was posted?" he asked in a post on X. A new volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland, twelfth since 2021, has led to the evacuation of tourists from the renowned Blue Lagoon geothermal spa and a nearby campsite. The eruption began around 4 am following an intense seismic swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula, which is located southwest of Iceland's capital, Reykjavik, the countrys Met Office confirmed. Tourists evacuated from camp site Guests at the internationally known Blue Lagoon, a popular geothermal spa were reportedly forced to pack their bags quickly as a precaution, PTI reported. A campsite in the town of Grindavik was also evacuated shortly after the seismic activity began. Also Read | Bali tourists stranded as volcano eruption forces dozens of flight cancellations While Grindavik has been repeatedly affected by the activity since November 2023, authorities have stated that the town is not currently in danger from the new lava flows. Infrastructure remains safe Icelands Met Office reported that lava from the eruption is flowing southeast from a fissure in the barren landscape that is 700 to 1,000 metres wide. However, the molten rock is not presently threatening any infrastructure. These fissure eruptions, where lava emerges from long cracks rather than the central crater of the Earths crust, have become a recurring phenomenon, leading to concerns about tourists' safety. The Israeli army said on Wednesday, July 16, that it has bombed the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense headquarters in Damascus. Israel's bombing of the Syrian defense ministry comes amid ongoing clashes between government forces and Druze armed groups in southern Sweida. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces since the clashes erupted, saying that it is acting to protect the Druze. A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria, a statement read. Also Read | Israel Carries Out Several Airstrikes in Syria and Lebanon The Israeli Army had also warned Damascus to leave Druze armed groups alone in its Sweida heartland where a monitor says sectarian clashes have killed nearly 250 people. "As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will enforce the demilitarisation policy we have decided on," Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement. He also warned the Syria government to call back the armed forces, promising no let-up in Israeli military attacks until that happened. He said Israel would raise the level of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned of a very grave situation in southwestern Syria, advising its citizens to not cross the border. Earlier, a ceasefire between the Syrian government and the Druze group had collapsed. The Syrian government had blamed the militant group for violating the ceasefire, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province. Also Read | With sanctions lifted, Syria looks to solar power as more than a patchwork fix to its energy crisis Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes, the statement said. Israel launched powerful airstrikes in Damascus on Wednesday, intending to damage the defence ministry and the presidential palace in response to Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in southern Syria. This action marks a significant escalation by Israel, which vows to destroy Syrian government forces if they do not withdraw from the Druze-majority city of Sweida. The United States views the situation as worrisome, urging Israel to halt the strikes. But, Israel threatened to intensify the attacks if Syrian government forces do not withdraw. Who are the Druze ? The Druze are followers of a religion that is an offshoot of Islam and are primarily spread across Syria, Lebanon and Israel. The minority community majorly resides in the Sweida province of southern Syria and was at times caught between the forces of the former Assad regime and extremist groups during Syrias ten-year civil war. Also Read | US calls for calm as Israel strikes Syria amid DruzeBedouin clashes More than 20,000 Druze live in the Golan Heights, which is a plateau that Israel seized from Syria during the 1967 war. Most of these Druze identify themselves as Syrian citizens and rejected an offer of Israeli citizenship when Israel seized the region. Those who refused were given Israeli residency cards but are not considered Israeli citizens. Israels airstrike on Syria Israels intervention stems from a long-standing commitment to protect the Druze, particularly those in Syria, due to deep historical ties with its own Druze citizens. On Tuesday, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherly alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel. Earlier, Syrian government troops were dispatched to the Sweida region on Monday to intervene and put an end to the fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men. Also Read | Israel Strikes Syria After Clashes Involving Druze Minority However, the Syrian troops ended up clashing with the Druze militias themselves, further escalating tensions. A Druze spiritual leader reported on Tuesday that his community has been a victim of a barbaric attack by Syrian government forces. Tomorrowland featival fire: A massive fire destroyed Tomorrowlands main stage just 48 hours before the world-famous electronic music festival was set to open in Boom, Belgium. Dramatic videos showed flames consuming the elaborate "World of Orbyz"-themed structure as fireworks exploded within the blaze, though their connection to the cause remains unclear. Around 1,000 staff members were evacuated safely, with no injuries reported despite the stage being "completely destroyed" . Thick black smoke billowed over the town, prompting emergency warnings for residents to close windows and doors. Watch the Viral Video of the Fire at Tomorrowland Mainstage Over 50 firefighters from Boom and neighboring Antwerp rushed to contain the inferno, preventing it from spreading to nearby woods. Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen confirmed safety as the top priority, coordinating with emergency crews as Booms mayor, Jeroen Baert, cut short his German vacation to manage the crisis. Fire officials assured locals the smoke wasnt toxic, though structural damage appeared severe social media images revealed only charred metal frames remained where the iconic stage once stood. This marks Tomorrowlands second major stage fire. In 2017, its Barcelona satellite event evacuated 22,000 people hours before Steve Aokis set. Eyewitnesses suggested the latest blaze began during pyrotechnic tests on the stages right side, though officials havent confirmed a cause. Under the UK-India Young Professionals Scheme, working professionals in the age group of 18-30 can apply for a visa that allows them to live and work in the UK for upto two years. This scheme was launched in February 2023. To be eligible for this UK visa, an applicant must be an Indian citizen in the age group of 18 to 30, have an eligible qualification and have 2,530 in savings. To be able to apply, one must be first selected in the ballot which will open for two days on July 22. The ballot will close at 1.30 pm on July 24, i.e., exactly 48 hours after opening. What is a ballot? To be able to apply for UK India Young Professionals Scheme visa, one needs to enter a ballot. The next ballot will open on July 22 at 1.30 pm. There is no fee to enter the ballot but once selected, applicant will have to pay 319 at the time of applying for visa. When you enter the ballot, you will have to provide your name, date of birth, passport details, a scan or photo of your passport, phone number and email address. What are the documents required? I. A valid passport or other document that proves your identity and nationality II. You also need to show an evidence that you have a minimum of 2,530 in your bank account, for example bank statements III. Evidence of your qualifications IV. Test results of tuberculosis (TB) if you are living in India V. You also need to show a police report or clearance certificate from India. How many visa will be issued? Although there are 3,000 places available for this visa in 2025 but most places were offered in February and the remaining places will be made available in July when the second and final ballot is opened. Once someone is successful in the ballot, s/he will be invited to apply for a visa. Also Read | UK visa rules revised: Starting Jan 2025 Indians to show more funds in the bank When can one apply for visa? The selected cohort will have a total of 90 days from the date of the email to apply for the visa which will happen online. The visa applicant will need to pay the visa application fee and immigration health surcharge (IHS), provide fingerprints and photo (biometric information). If one is successful in the ballot but still decide not to apply for the visa, it is perfectly alright. Teslas investors, perhaps a little troubled by the American electric vehicle makers sagging sales and profits, are to be offered a bonus: A chance to own a slice of an AI model that recently called itself MechaHitler." That is but one of the dubious benefits of Elon Musks plan to have Tesla investors vote on the company investing in his artificial intelligence firm, xAI Holdings. xAI made headlines for all the wrong reasons last week when its chatbot Grok ran amok with anti-semitic replies to queries, followed swiftly by the resignation of Linda Yaccarino, chief executive of X, Musks social media platform that was rolled into xAI earlier this year. If all that doesnt sound like the best time to pitch Tesla investors on buying in, you maybe werent around for the SolarCity deal in 2016. Also Read: Musks woes: Tesla hit refresh on its EVs but it hasnt worked That was when Musk urged Tesla shareholders to buy a faltering rooftop solar company in which he was chair, investor and creditor (his cousin was the CEO). At the time, Musk emphasized the centrality of solar power to Teslas mission and unveiled a seemingly ingenious product, the solar roof. Today, the solar roof is notable chiefly for its rarity in the wild and Tesla stopped bothering to report solar installations some time ago. On the other hand, SolarCity was afforded a graceful exit and Musk was repaid the money he had lent to it. From that highly specific viewpoint, despite SolarCitys evident troubles, it was a great time for Tesla to buy. In this case, it appears Musk intends for Tesla to merely invest in xAI rather than buy it outright. There is scant insight into how xAI is doing financially, since it is privately held. We do know, however, that it issued $3 billion of secured debt, maturing in 2030, at the end of June with a coupon of 12.5%, currently yielding just over 12%. The rough 8 percentage points spread over Treasuries is in the same ballpark as triple-C rated bonds.That doesnt suggest financiers are falling over themselves to fund xAIs substantial cash burn, put at over $1 billion a month by a Bloomberg News report in June. Nor does another report that xAI turned to Space X, another Musk vehicle, for $2 billion. Also Read: Mint Quick Edit: Elon Musks new America Party has spotted a gap in US politics On that basis, even a portion of Teslas reported $37 billion cash balance would help Musks AI project, in which Bloomberg estimates he holds a roughly one-third stake. Musk floated a figure of $5 billion when he polled X users on the idea last year. Confusingly, he posted about the plan for Tesla shareholders to vote on providing new funding on Sunday, two days after he rejected reports that xAI was raising fresh funds. Apart from obvious potential conflicts of interest, however, what would Tesla get out of it? I suppose you could argue that xAIs technology would help with realizing Teslas autonomy and robotics ambitions. But with a full merger seemingly ruled out, for now at least, why would Tesla need to invest rather than just contract xAIs services? More importantly, Musk has been touting Teslas in-house capabilities on these fronts for years, especially when it comes to robotaxis. The very idea that Tesla needs to kick several billion into a separate company in order to achieve its goals would undermine that narrative. Another possible reason for Tesla to do this would be to incentivize Musk to stay focused on the company. Recall that one of the arguments advanced last year for reinstating a massive options package for Musk that was struck down by a Delaware court was to ensure that he didnt take his best ideas elsewhere. Also Read: Jaspreet Bindra: Grok reflects the personality of its owner Elon Musk It was a breathtaking and egregious stance for the CEO and director of a major listed company, as well as the board, to take. Musk had founded xAI a year before, so he was already taking at least some ideas elsewhere. One thing to keep an eye on is whether Musks ruling out of an acquisition ultimately holds. Based on current math, and using the reported $200 billion valuation target for xAIs next funding round, buying the company with stock would help him boost his current stake in Tesla from just under 13%, excluding options, to more than 16% in a combined entity, if all else is equal. In any case, Musks pledges of focus arent exactly rock solid. This is the man who in late April told investors he would step back significantly from his political work, but only to announce he was forming a whole new political party less than three months later. Regardless, the example of SolarCity, along with Teslas outlandishly resilient stock, suggest any vote on investing in xAI would be likely to pass. When so much of Teslas valuation rests on sheer investor faith in Musk, his wishes tend to be more like commands. Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. BRS MLA KT Rama Rao, in an interview with LiveMint, launched a scathing attack on Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy over the states released caste census, dismissing the Congress leaders' newfound zeal for social justice as hollow posturing. Slamming the survey as inaccurate, incomplete, and politically motivated, KTR accused the Congress government in Telangana of using the Backward Class (BC) cause as an electoral ploy while failing to address core issues like BC subcategorisation and legal safeguards for reservations. With the SEEEPC caste census data now public, what new welfare or affirmative action policies is BRS considering to address the revealed disparities? The SEEEPC data is unscientific, inaccurate, and incomplete. The complete survey was not tabled in the Assembly, and when we brought it up, it was diverted to some cheap comments, the real discussion never happened. The detailed survey is not available on the government portal. They spent more than Rs150 crore and 50 days and there are wide gaps, many unanswered questions. The government itself agreed that it managed to collect 96 per cent data. Even if we go by their numbers, at least 16 lakh people were excluded. The 42 per cent BC numbers that Revanth Reddy now speaks about are inadequate to say the least. There is no concrete answer on BC subcategorisation. What is BC reservation when there is no subcategorisation? How will you determine the actual reservation percentage to each caste? What is the percentage of reservation from this 42 per cent to Mudirajus or Munnurukapus or Gouds or the many other castes? Without a clear BC subcategorisation, tomorrow you will create an animosity between various BC castes. Hence, I say this government flounders in a quagmire of incompetence. After BRS came to power, on August 19, 2014, the entire Telangana stayed home to voluntarily participate in the Samagra Kutumbha Survey. We finished the entire data collection process in one single day. All the policy decisions were based on the data from this survey. Let me say this clearly, for the Congress, this is nothing but a pure political requirement for their electoral existence. Rahul Gandhis sanctimonious posturing as a champion of social justice, while his partys actions betray the BCs through a census riddled with errors, speaks volumes of their intent. For a leader who remained silent on a national caste census during Congresss decades in power, his newfound zeal rings hollow. Would BRS push for the immediate implementation of 42% BC reservations in local body elections, and what steps will you take to ensure this is not just a political promise? Despite exploiting the Kamareddy BC Declaration for electoral mileage, the Congress government has utterly failed the very community it solemnly pledged to uplift. Nearly two years have elapsed, yet not a single commitment to the Backward Classes has been fulfilled. Last week, in a cabinet meeting, they hastily announced that there will be a 42 per cent BC reservation. Anyone with basic legal knowledge can see through their lies. There is not a single discussion so far held by the Congress government to have a solid plan in place so that this 42 per cent BC reservation does not get caught in a legal quagmire. What are they doing about the 1992 Indra Sawhney Supreme Court judgement? This hastily scripted ordinance, pushed through under the cloak of urgency, is nothing but another deception. If Rahul Gandhi genuinely stands for social justice, let him ensure his party honours its own blueprint. If Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is sincere, let him lead an indefinite protest in Delhi to secure constitutional sanction. If the Congress continues to renege on its BC Declaration, it will face a fierce democratic reckoning when the local body elections arrive. The BRS does not operate in the realm of tokenism. We will ensure that the Congress delivers the promised 42 per cent reservation. In your view, has the Congress government introduced any truly transformative policies, or are most initiatives a continuation or rebranding of BRS-era programmes? This regime suffers from a chronic deficit of originality. Over the past 20 months, what the people are witnessing is not innovation, but a shallow imitation. Most initiatives paraded as new are nothing more than diluted rebrands of programmes conceived, funded, and executed during BRSs decade of governance. Congress ministers are busy cutting ribbons on our legacy such as flyovers built under SRDP and shamelessly claiming credit for what they did not create. More troubling is the systematic erasure of Telanganas cultural identity. The proposal to remove Kakatiya Kala Thoranam and Charminar from the state emblem, and the audacious replacement of Telangana Thalli with a Congress Thalli, is a calculated attempt to distort our history. How do you address the critique that BRS prioritised flagship schemes like Rythu Bandhu at the expense of long-term investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure? Let me address this critique head-on. The notion that BRS prioritised Rythu Bandhu at the expense of long-term investments is not only factually incorrect, it is intellectually dishonest. We infused 73,000 crore directly into farmers accounts across 11 crop seasons without bureaucratic hurdles, without discrimination. To suggest that this came at the cost of education, healthcare, or infrastructure is to ignore the transformative footprint BRS left across sectors during our tenure. In education, we expanded residential schools, launched Mana OoruMana Badi, revamped thousands of government schools, and established new Intermediate and Degree colleges. In healthcare, Telangana became the only state in India with a government medical college in every district. We built Basthi Dawakhanas for urban primary care, upgraded district hospitals, and introduced KCR Kits to reduce maternal and infant mortality. In Hyderabad, we initiated the construction of three TIMS super-speciality hospitals in strategic directions of the city, designed to decentralise advanced medical care for the urban poor. In Warangal, we envisioned and executed the states largest government hospital: a super-speciality institution equipped with modular operation theatres and infection-controlled infrastructure, a corporate-level facility in public hands. On the infrastructure front, from Mission Bhagiratha to Kaleshwaram Project, from rural roads to urban flyovers, Telangana witnessed an infrastructure renaissance unmatched by any newly formed state. This transformative wave also encompassed the construction of collectorate complexes, the iconic new State Secretariat Building and globally acclaimed innovation hubs like T-Hub and T-Works, each a testament to Telanganas commitment to administrative excellence and entrepreneurial ambition. Rythu Bandhu was one pillar of a multi-sectoral development strategy that resulted in increased cultivated area and a rise in paddy production to 3 crore tonnes. Under KCR garus leadership, Telangana witnessed the highest per capita income in the country and a 238 per cent surge in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) since 2014, with the state contributing 5 per cent to the national GDP. We didnt just support farmers, we built world-class irrigation infrastructure, expanded IT exports from 56,000 crore to 2.41 lakh crore, and positioned Hyderabad as a global tech hub. We ensured universal access to potable water across rural Telangana, an achievement unparalleled in scale and execution. How do you plan to ensure that marginalised communities benefit from both political representation and economic opportunities in the coming years? For far too long, decades of successive central and state administrations, helmed by the Congress and the BJP, respectively, have reduced marginalised communities to mere electoral commodities. Their vote bank politics left most of the population in cycles of poverty, even after seven and a half decades after our nation's independence. It was the BRS government, under the visionary leadership of KCR garu, that dared to break this cycle of systemic neglect with the path-breaking Dalit Bandhu scheme. This pioneering initiative provided a substantial financial grant of 10 lakh directly to Scheduled Caste families, specifically designed to empower an entire generation and propel them towards enduring economic independence, thereby fostering a cascading positive impact on subsequent generations. In stark contrast, the current Congress government, after 20 months at the helm, has not only failed to deliver on its grandiloquent promise of 12 lakh under its rechristened scheme for the same communities, not a single beneficiary has received the pledged amount, but has also perversely obstructed the ongoing implementation of Dalit Bandhu. Let me reiterate: our politics is not about symbolism, it is about systemic change. And marginalised communities will remain at the heart of our vision for Telanganas next chapter. We will ensure representation across all tiers, from gram panchayats to urban local bodies, guaranteeing that Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and minorities have a decisive voice. At the same time, we will take measures for systematic economic upliftment, ensuring that caste-based occupational clusters are not left behind in the digital economy. Our focus will be on entrepreneurship incubation, access to capital, and market linkages... especially for youth and women from these marginalised sections. Is the BRS still pursuing a national role, or has the recent electoral experience prompted a renewed focus on Telanganas grassroots politics? Let there be no ambiguity, Telangana is not merely our political commitment, it is our emotional inheritance. Its our cultural spine and our existential anchor. The BRS remains unequivocally tethered to the aspirations of the people and the destiny of our state. We are vigorously rebuilding our organisational apparatus and mobilising cadre across constituencies to expose the Congress regimes hollow promises and chronic ineptitude. We are spearheading issue-based campaigns rooted in lived realities. The BRS will never allow the soul of Telangana to be bartered for fleeting optics or Delhi-scripted narratives. How do you plan to retain and energise your core base in Telangana amid growing competition from both Congress and BJP? The Congress, with all its fake promises and white lies, came to power in Telangana. Today, the government here is neither autonomous nor dedicated. They are abusing the state to fulfil their national ambition of making Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi speaks aggressively about bulldozer-raaj in BJP states but is silent about the bulldozer destruction in Telangana by Hydra. The entire world took a stance on University of Hyderabads midnight green murder. Rahul Gandhi never uttered a word. The people of Telangana have not forgotten the 420 promises, fake guarantees and hollow declarations made during the Assembly and Parliament campaigns. Nor have they forgiven the parade of Congress heavyweights who descended upon Telangana for photo ops and vanished the moment ballots were cast. Their absence is not just physical, it is moral. It is shameful that the Congress regime in Telangana has turned governance into a marketplace of commissions and kickbacks. For the first time in history, contractors staged a dharna in the secretariat, saying they cannot pay 20 per cent commission for bill clearances. Such shame! While the Prime Minister and Home Minister repeatedly visit Telangana and thunder that the state has become an ATM for Congress, alleging the collection of an RR tax, one must ask the obvious: If the central government is indeed aware of rampant corruption, why hasnt it ordered a probe through national investigative agencies? The truth is glaring - Revanth Reddy and the BJP are hand in glove. They lack the strength to take on the BRS independently and have resorted to an unholy backroom alliance to silence the only credible and courageous voice of Telangana, the BRS. As BRS marks its 25th anniversary, what concrete steps are you taking to reinvent the partys relevance and connect with todays electorate, especially after the transition from ruling party to Opposition? Two and a half decades ago, the BRS was born not in the pursuit of political power, but as a resolute peoples movement. The people of Telangana will always be the heart and soul of this party. We are and we will be wholly dedicated to uphold the wishes of the people, their intrinsic rights and to demand the cherished pride of our land. We were never mere political convenience. Whether steering the state from the helm of governance or now, in our role as a vigilant opposition, our unwavering commitment to the aspirations of four crore Telangana citizens remains absolute and eternal. So, it is not a transition but a mere transfer of power, which is nothing but the crux of any democracy. We were born out of peoples needs, we were given a chance to shape the future of the state, not once but twice. And today we sit in the opposition, fighting for rights and identity of people of Telangana. The core will remain, how we will do it has slightly changed. Looking back, what internal assessments have you conducted to understand the 2023 Assembly defeat, and what specific grassroots feedback is guiding your current strategy? After two successful terms, what happened during the 2023 Assembly elections is not an earth-shattering defeat. Yes, we lostbut by a mere 1.9 per cent margin. Call it administrative fatigue or maybe mild anti-incumbencybut not an outright rejection of BRS. One very pertinent aspect we realised during the internal surveys was we somehow failed to communicate our work efficiently. Over the last few years, elections are not being fought on real development, they are driven by political narratives peddled on WhatsApp. When these narratives are pushed repeatedly, even the most unrealistic piece of information becomes gospel. Let me give you a small but very significant example. There was a story that was pushed on social media platforms that KCR garus official residence Pragathi Bhavan had bulletproof bathrooms. We laughed it off, did not even think of countering it. But this story developed a life of its own. Today, Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka lives in the same residence. I dare them to ask if Bhattis official residence has bulletproof washrooms now. Another lore is about KCR garus thousands of acres sprawling farmhouse! They went on to call him a farmhouse CM. KCR garu who is a farmer at heart loves to continue his farming activities, he in his ten years of tenure never put the states development and progress on the backburner. Today, CM Revanth Reddy, who drilled these fake narratives, lives in a palatial house in Jubilee Hills. He does all his meetings at his house. Can we call him the Palace CM? KCR garus image was tarnished time and again in social media. We were too busy in administration that we never bothered about what was getting circulated in social media. When we brought it up with KCR garu, he simply asked us to focus on work, he believed everything was noise. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament (MP) Raghav Chadha on Wednesday sought suggestions on social media on what topics he should raise in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. Chadha asked netizens to share suggestions in the Comments section on X, as it might become the next big debate in the Parliament. I have always tried to raise those issues in Parliament that matter to you. This time too, I would like to know from you. What topics should I raise in the upcoming session of Parliament? Which issues deserve the nations immediate attention? Chadha, the Rajya Sabha MP asked. Also Read | Cong to corner Modi govt on Pahalgam, voter list revision during Monsoon Session The Monsoon Session of Parliament will be held from 21 July to 21 August. After a break of over three and a half months, both houses of Parliament, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, are scheduled to convene on 21 July at 11 AM. Your suggestion could be the next big debate in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament that starts from 21 July. Share your suggestions in the Comments section below. Comment. Engage. Lets make it count! the AAP leader wrote in the post. The Monsoon Session will be the first session of Parliament after Operation Sindoor, India's precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. Raghavs post evoked interesting responses. While some wanted him to highlight the immense tax burden, especially on the salaried class, others were interested in cryptocurrency regulations. A user wanted the MP to raise the issue of taxes in the Stock Market. An interesting suggestion was about making giving bribes legal but taking them illegal. School fees should be capped at maxm 10,000 per month (sic), a user said. Some users spoke about pollution, others mentioned the MP development funds. There is a nationwide problem of potholes on roads in every city of India. This needs to be sorted out ASAP, a user said. Blast from the past In February, Chadha appreciated the Union government's initiative to launch Udaan Yatri Cafe, an affordable eating joint at the Chennai airport. A similar outlet was opened in Kolkata a few months ago. In the winter session of the Parliament, Chadha highlighted the issue of overpriced food and beverages at airports while discussing the Indian Aviation Bill 2024. Your suggestion could be the next big debate in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. The Rajya Sabha MP raised the issue of expensive food items at airports and asked the government to introduce affordable canteens. The Congress party will raise issues including the Pahalgam terror attack, the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in Bihar, the restoration of full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir and rising atrocities against women in the country, during the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament beginning on July 21. The decision was taken during Tuesday's meeting of the top Congress leadership. The opposition party also decided to raise farmers' problems, rising unemployment, the safety and security of the country, and the Ahmedabad air crash during the month-long Monsoon session that will run until August 21. Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi convened a meeting of the party's parliamentary strategy group at her 10 Janpath residence on Tuesday evening. Top party leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Deputy Leader in the Rajya Sabha Pramod Tiwari and others, such as Jairam Ramesh, K Suresh and Manickam Tagore, participated in the meeting. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Tiwari said 26 people were killed in Pahalgam and the opposition INDIA bloc has been demanding a special session of Parliament for a discussion on the April 22 terror attack. "We want to know where those terrorists are who killed 26 people and widowed our sisters in Pahalgam? Why no action has been taken against them yet?" he asked. The monsoon session of Parliament will be held from July 21 to August 21. After a break of over three and a half months, both houses of Parliamentthe Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha are scheduled to convene on July 21 at 11 a.m. This will be the first session of Parliament after Operation Sindoor India's precision strikes on terror camps in Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. Tiwari said that when the entire country was demanding action against those behind the attack and when the Indian armed forces launched Operation Sindoor against terror camps in Pakistan, a sudden ceasefire was announced. "Surely, when awards are to be taken then it is the prime minister. When 26 precious lives have been lost, the prime minister will have to reply on this too," Tiwari said, when asked if the Congress will seek the prime minister's reply. US President Donald Trump has claimed 22 times that he got the ceasefire done, the Congress leader said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not countered Trump's claims even once. "The suspenseful silence of Prime Minister Modi on the claims of President Trump 22 times is deafening," he noted. "A question that is bothering everyone is, where are those dreaded terrorists? Has the earth engulfed them or the sky? Who is responsible for it?" Tiwari asked. "Our concern is, why was there an intelligence and security failure in Pahalgam, who is responsible and who is morally responsible and where are those terrorists. "We are hopeful that the government will allow a discussion on the issues raised by us and on the manner in which the bravery of our brave soldiers was throttled by the untimely ceasefire. We will surely demand answers on why Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir was left unguarded," the Congress leader said. Democracy 'Murdered' in Haryana, Maharashtra Tiwari also disclosed that the party will raise the serious issue of electoral manipulations in elections in states like Maharashtra, Haryana, and now in Bihar where a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has triggered a political storm. Tiwari said the election process had come under suspicion. He alleged that earlier, democracy was "murdered" in Haryana and Maharashtra and said what is emerging from Bihar now is a matter of concern. "The SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar is a threat to democracy," Tiwari said, adding that a discussion will be sought on the issue. Also Read | Govt likely to move impeachment motion against justice Yashwant Varma The Congress wants the SIR to be scrapped, alleging that it is "unconstitutional" and aimed at disenfranchising around two crore voters in Bihar.. Raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, where he said the poll verdict was against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Tiwari asked, When will you give full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir? The suspenseful silence of Prime Minister Modi on the claims of President Trump 22 times is deafening. The Congress is also likely to discuss the impeachment notice against Justice Yashwant Varma with other political parties. Israels recent war with Iran served as a cautionary tale for countries with sophisticated missile defenses and those that seek to have them. Over 12 days, Iran pierced Israels defenses with increasing success, showing that even the worlds most advanced systems can be penetrated. While most of Irans missiles and drones were knocked down, Tehran changed tactics and found gaps in Israels armor through trial and error. Tehran began to launch more advanced and longer-range missiles from a wider range of locations deep inside Iran, according to missile-defense experts who analyzed open-source data and public images of missile fragments. The regime also altered the timing and pattern of attacks and increased the geographic spread of targets, the analysts found. As the war went on, Iran fired fewer missiles, but its success rate rose, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from think tanks based in Israel and Washington, D.C. In the first half of the conflict, 8% of Irans missiles slipped through Israels defenses. By the second half of the war, 16% got past Israels interceptors, according to data from the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America, or Jinsa. The success rate doesnt take into account missiles that failed to launch or were intercepted before reaching Israeli airspace, said Mora Deitch, head of the Data Analytics Center at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. Nor does it distinguish between missiles that were allowed to strike open areas in Israel and those that Israeli interceptors missed, said Deitch, whose think tank provided data on Iranian strikes and Israeli defense capabilities. Irans most successful set of attacks came on June 22, two days before the end of the war, when 10 out of 27 missiles hit Israel, according to the Jinsa data. The data suggest that Iran successfully adapted how, when and what" it was firing, said Ari Cicurel, associate director of foreign policy at Jinsa. The Israeli military declined to comment on Jinsas figures beyond saying it doesnt share specifics on interception rates. Israels aerial defenseincluding the famed Iron Dome that intercepts short-range rockets from Gaza and Lebanonis among the best in the world and was developed in partnership with the U.S. Any missile system, even a sophisticated one like Israels, will leak eventually," said Raphael Cohen, a senior political scientist at Rand, created as a Pentagon think tank. The key for any air-defense system is less that you build a perfect system with any one layer and more the cumulative effect." An analysis of Israels public statements indicates that its interception rate declined over the course of the war. During the conflict, the Israeli military said it was intercepting 90% to 95% of Irans missiles. After the cease-fire on June 24, the military said it had intercepted 86% overall. In January, President Trump signed an executive order to develop the Iron Dome for America," a $175 billion missile-defense system originally named after Israels array and now called Golden Dome, to protect the U.S. from potential missile attacks. Americas size would make its skies much harder to defend than Israels. Ukraine offers a better example of defending a large territory over a yearslong war, but its air defenses are a patchwork of American, European and homegrown technologies. Israels advanced integrated system is more akin to what the U.S. seeks to develop, Cohen of Rand said. Israels own success at attacking Iranian missile launchers prevented Iran from deploying its older, less accurate and shorter-range missiles. But it also meant that Tehran reached for its more advanced and longer-range missiles sooner in the conflict. Fragments of Irans hypersonic Fattah-1 missile fell in at least two Israeli towns, according to footage of debris analyzed by missile experts. The Fattah-1 descends at a sharp angle from outside the Earths atmosphere at over 10 times the speed of sound and features a warhead that detaches in flight and can dodge interceptors. Only Israels most advanced systemsthe Arrow 3 and Davids Slingcan change course midflight to track it. Iran also pivoted from firing large overnight barrages to launching smaller waves during daylight hours and from a wider variety of locations. Tehran further tested Israels interceptors by changing up its firing patterns, targeting far-apart cities and varying the intervals between attacks. They tried to separate the Israeli defense system," said Yehoshua Kalisky, a missile-defense expert at INSS. As the conflict wore on, a declining number of interceptors and their high cost would also have compelled Israel to conserve resources and only target missiles from Iran that posed the greatest threat, missile experts said. Israeli and Iranian officials have independently called for reviews of their aerial capabilities. We are both on a learning curve," said Kalisky, theyre trying to improve their attacks, and we, our defense." Write to Benoit Faucon at benoit.faucon@wsj.com In the verdant hills of Washington states Palouse region, Andrew Nelsons tractor hums through the wheat fields on his 7,500-acre farm. Inside the cab, hes not gripping the steering wheelhes on a Zoom call or checking messages. A software engineer and fifth-generation farmer, Nelson, 41, is at the vanguard of a transformation that is changing the way we grow and harvest our food. The tractor isnt only driving itself; its array of sensors, cameras, and analytic software is also constantly deciding where and when to spray fertilizer or whack weeds. Many modern farms already use GPS-guided tractors and digital technology such as farm-management software systems. Now, advances in artificial intelligence mean that the next stepthe autonomous farm, with only minimal human tendingis finally coming into focus. Imagine a farm where fleets of autonomous tractors, drones and harvesters are guided by AI that tweaks operations minute by minute based on soil and weather data. Sensors would track plant health across thousands of acres, triggering precise sprays or irrigation exactly where needed. Farmers could swap long hours in the cab for monitoring dashboards and making high-level decisions. Every seed, drop of water and ounce of fertilizer would be optimized to boost yields and protect the landdriven by a connected system that gets smarter with each season. Andrew Nelson, who has tested agriculture technology for Microsoft as a consultant, launches a drone to take multispectral images of a field to document drainage and the amount of weeds. Much of the technology to power an autonomous revolution in agriculture already exists or is nearly ready for market launch. Were just getting to a turning point in the commercial viability of a lot of these technologies," says David Fiocco, a senior partner at McKinsey & Co. who leads research on agricultural innovation. A McKinsey survey in 2022 found that around two-thirds of American farms use digital systems to manage their farm operations, but only 15% of large farms and just 4% of smaller ones have yet invested significantly in robotics or automation. Fiocco expects the use of robots to rise dramatically in the coming years. Despite the promise of digital tools and autonomous machines, cost is a big barrier. Connectivity is another hurdle. Robots need to talk to each other. Moving data to a cloud requires broadband internet, and from a remote field that likely needs to be wireless. But wireless internet and land-based broadband arent available everywhere in rural America. In developing countries, the digital gap is even wider. Some farmers are experimenting with edge computing, a networking design that stores data closer to where it originates. But experts say ultimately farms need to be connected to cloud-based systems. Heres a look at some of the essential components in the vision of the autonomous farm. Autonomous tractors Tractors that can plant, till and harvest with little, or only remote, human supervision are moving from prototype to practice. Traditional manufacturers and tech startups are placing big bets. Monarch Tractor, a Livermore, Calif., firm, has rolled out an all-electric, driver-optional" tractor now working vineyards. Its MK-V model can run up to 14 hours on a charge and be ready to roll again after six hours plugged in. Farmwise, another California company, has developed an AI-guided mechanical weeder and tiller that uses computer vision and robotics to identify and pluck weeds, running day or night, reducing the need for herbicides. In April, salad giant Taylor Farms acquired Farmwise, citing the technologys promise to cut labor costs and support more sustainable farming. Deere & Co. is taking an incremental approach, adding layers of automation to help farmers become comfortable with the technologyand see immediate payoffswhile paving the way toward full autonomy. Some of Deeres large sprayers use See & Spray" technology that incorporates computer vision and machine learning to target weeds in soybean, corn and cotton crops. Trained on thousands of images to identify weeds in real time and command individual nozzles to spray only where needed, it reduces herbicide use by up to two-thirds, the company says. Thirty-six cameras mounted on a sprayer boom scan fields at 2,100 square feet per secondfar beyond what the human eye can manage. Using data and AI to analyze individual plants could eventually become a mainstream practice in farming. A 5,000-acre farm can contain around 750 million plants, and the challenge is giving each one its share of tender loving care. Sensing technology paired with models, paired with automation and eventually autonomy where it makes sensetheres a lot of opportunity there," says Sarah Schinckel, director of emerging technologies at the Moline, Ill.-based company. Fruit-picking robots and drones Automation, now most often used on large farms with wheat or corn laid out in neat rows, is a bigger challenge for crops like fruits and berries, which ripen at different times and grow on trees or bushes. Maintaining and harvesting these so-called specialty crops is labor-intensive. In specialty crops, the small army of weeders and pickers could soon be replaced by just one or two people overseeing the technology. That may be a decade out, but thats where were going," says Fiocco of McKinsey. Fragile fruits like strawberries and grapes pose a huge challenge. Tortuga, an agriculture tech startup in Denver, developed a robot to do the job. Tortuga was acquired in March by vertical farming company Oishii. The robot resembles NASAs Mars Rover with fat tires and extended arms. It rolls along a bed of strawberries or grapes and uses a long pincher arm to reach into the vine and snip off a single berry or a bunch of grapes, placing them gingerly into a basket. Robotic harvesting can offer greater consistency and efficiency than manual labor, while reducing expenses and addressing the labor shortages affecting the industry as a whole," Brendan Somerville, chief operating officer and co-founder of Oishii said in an email, adding that the companys long-term vision is to fully automate its harvesting operations. Israel-based Tevel Aerobotics Technologies aims to help fruit growers reduce the need for labor with its Flying Autonomous Robots" that can prune, thin and harvest crops. Using AI and machine vision, the robots locate the fruit, determine whether its ripe and then pluck it off the tree. Growers who dont adopt robotics wont survivethey simply have no choice," says Tevel Chief Executive and founder Yaniv Maor. Scaling up, however, remains a cost challenge for the company. Remote sensing, image analytics Drones and satellites, guided by artificial intelligence, are turning farms into data-driven operations. By capturing detailed images and sensor readings, they create digital twins"virtual replicas of fields that show exactly where crops are too dry, too wet or under attack by disease or pests. This technology lets farmers spot problems early and target interventions more precisely, cutting waste and boosting yields. While pieces of this system are already in place, the next step is a fully connected network of machines that not only detect issues but learn from them. Ranveer Chandra, a senior Microsoft executive who spearheaded agriculture technology applications, sees a future where tractors and drones work in tandem, performing tasks like planting or spraying while continuously feeding new data into AI models tailored to each farms conditions. There will be more automation, more use of drones, more roboticsit wont be farms without farmers, but AI will significantly amplify the productivity of every grower," Chandra says. Every time a drone flies or a tractor plants, its gathering data that updates the farms own unique AI model." Soil intelligence The SoilOptix system set up for mapping, with a gamma-radiation spectrometer on the vehicle, a soil-core sampler at left, a computer for data-collection monitoring and RTK GPS tech A crop is only as healthy as its soil. Traditionally, farmers send topsoil samples to a lab to have them analyzed. New technology that uses sensors to scan the soil on-site is enabling a precise diagnosis covering large areas of farms rather than spot checks. The diagnosis includes microbial analysis as well as identifying areas of soil compaction, when the soil becomes dense, hindering water infiltration, root penetration and gas exchange. Knowing this can help a farmer plan where to till and make other decisions about the new season. Canada-based SoilOptix says microbial soil analysis can enable farmers to more accurately determine changing conditions within a field. Rather than spraying or irrigating an entire field, the farmer can pinpoint where to spray, which dose to use, and the best timing for intervention. The virtual fence New technology is also changing livestock management. The creation of virtual fences, which are beginning to be adopted in the U.S., Europe and Australia, has the potential to help ranchers save money on expensive fencing and help them better manage their herds. Livestock are given GPS-enabled collars, and virtual boundaries are drawn on a digital map. If an animal approaches the virtual boundary, it first gets an auditory warning. If it continues, it gets zapped with a mild but firm electric shock. Write to future@wsj.com Google has introduced a new initiative aimed at university students in India, offering complimentary access to its AI Pro membership for a period of one year. Typically priced at 1,950 per month, the subscription includes a range of premium tools and features powered by the latest artificial intelligence models. The offer is valid until 15 September 2025. The AI Pro plan grants users access to Googles Gemini 2.5 Pro model and Deep Research on the same platform, enabling more advanced generative AI capabilities. Subscribers can also utilise Veo 3, Googles newest video generation platform, along with expanded functionality for image-to-video conversions via the previous Veo 2 model on the Whisk platform. A limited version of Veo 3 Fast is also included. Additionally, students enrolled in the plan will receive 1,000 AI credits every month, which can be used across Flow and Whisk for tasks involving text, image, and video creation. The plan also boosts productivity features, allowing users to generate up to five times more Audio Overviews and notebooks in NotebookLM. Integration of the Gemini model directly within Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides further extends AI-enhanced support across Google's suite of productivity tools. Another key benefit of the subscription is 2TB of cloud storage, distributed across Google services such as Drive, Gmail, and Photos, aimed at supporting larger project files and collaborative work environments. To claim the free subscription, students must be at least 18 years old, reside in India, and possess a personal Google account. Verification of student status is required via SheerID, either through a valid university email address or an official identification card. Once verified, users must link a Google Payments account with a qualifying payment method, such as UPI, credit card, or debit card, to activate the offer. (Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son and OpenAI chief Sam Altman see insatiable demand for AI that makes it imperative to keep building ever more computing capacity. Speaking via teleconference at SoftBank World, the two business partners argued that advancing artificial intelligence would lead to new jobs that are not yet imagined, and the advancement of robotics will help kickstart a self-improvement loop. As we drive the cost of AI down, more people want to use it, Altman said in response to Sons question about diminishing returns from further expansion. So if we make the cost of AI 10 times cheaper, people wanna use it 30 times as much or whatever. And the demand for intelligence in the world just seems to be huge. The theme of their conversation, in front of an audience of Japanese business and enterprise leaders, was primarily about self-replicating innovation. Altman mentioned robots that would be able to build other robots and Son leaned heavily into the idea of AI agents learning independently and then creating new ones to enhance productivity. He wants to deploy a billion AI agents within the SoftBank group this year and design an operating system for them. In February, Son unveiled a 50-50 venture between SoftBanks telecom unit and OpenAI, underscoring his commitment to support the ChatGPT operators AI endeavors. The venture will market an enterprise AI product called Cristal intelligence to local industries from automakers to retailers. SoftBanks group companies are adopting the US startups tools and will spend $3 billion per year on those services. Sons involvement with OpenAI extends far beyond enterprise customers. SoftBank said it will invest as much as $30 billion in the US company, a plan thats contingent on OpenAIs restructuring of its complex operational structure. Son also joined with Altman for the $500 billion Stargate project to build data centers and other AI infrastructure across the US. As we think about scaling in the future, way beyond 10 gigawatts, well need new technologies and new construction, Altman told Son. Neither executive addressed the challenges around providing energy for such large-scale projects, nor the potential downsides if their expectations for runaway demand do not fully materialize. SoftBank shares rallied 38% in June for its best such performance in two decades as shareholders cheered Sons bold plans and aggressive spending. The stock, however, continues to trade at a discount to the companys total assets, weighed down by risks arising from complex financing plans. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com Samsung may be preparing to bring back S-Pen support to its Galaxy Z Fold series in future iterations, following the stylus' conspicuous absence from the newly launched Galaxy Z Fold 7. According to a recent report from South Korean publicationETNews, the company is actively researching new technologies to make this possible. The development was reportedly confirmed by Kang Min-seok, Head of Smartphone Product Planning at Samsung, who allegedly revealed that the tech giant is working on next-generation S-Pen capabilities. The move is said to be part of a broader effort to improve the user experience on its foldable smartphones, with the possibility of even integrating a dedicated slot for the stylus in future models. This could mark a potential reversal in Samsungs recent trend of scaling back stylus-related features. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, which was officially unveiled at the Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event earlier this month, became the first book-style foldable from the brand in years to omit support for the S-Pen. Samsung defended the move at the time by pointing to low usage figures, claiming that less than one per cent of users made regular use of the advanced stylus functions. However, growing consumer demand and evolving hardware design may prompt a change in direction. Kang noted that the company is now focusing on achieving a better balance between form and function, rather than simply pursuing thinner and lighter devices. We are developing thinner and more innovative technologies for the S-Pen, he reportedly stated, adding that the stylus will return once its functionality and integration reach a satisfactory level of refinement. How do you uncover the motive behind a terrorist attack? For the first time, the former U.S. Attorney reveals how they pieced together the ideology and intent behind the gunman who killed five servicemen in Chattanooga. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. I think I need a minute... said Joe Sullivan, crying, when asked about the day he lost his brother. On July 16, 2015, Thomas Tommy Sullivan gave his life while protecting others. His younger brother Joe, just 18 months apart from him in age, says their bond was strong. We had a very strong bond. You know, it felt like what I imagine a twin relationship is, but without actually being, you know, sharing the womb together, you know, at the same time. Tommy was my older brother. He acted as a protector to me," says Sullivan. Born in 1975 and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, Sullivan grew up with a strong sense of community and duty. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1997, following the values and traditions instilled by his family. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan was a decorated combat veteran who was twice awarded the Purple Heart and had survived war zones overseas. From Catholic School and Boy Scouts to a long career in uniform, Joe says Thomas lived to serve. JULY 16 | Remembering the Fallen Five: USMC Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Joseph Sullivan Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan was one of four Marines killed during the terrorist attack in Chattanooga on July 16, 2015. "As soon as he became a Marine, it's like he found himself. He became the quintessential Marine, says Sullivan. Over the next 18 years, Sullivan rose through the ranks to Gunnery Sergeant and served as a leader within M Battery, 5th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based in Chattanooga. He served 18 years, survived combat, earned two Purple Hearts, and was stationed in Chattanooga as his final post. They sent him to a reserve center in the middle of Chattanooga, Tennessee to kind of retire him on duty. They didn't want to kick him out, like medically discharge him, but they wanted him to relax." says Sullivan. Fellow Marine friend remembers Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan Funeral services continued Monday for one of the servicemen killed in Chattanooga. U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Sullivan was laid to rest in his home town of Springfield, Massachusetts, Monday. That sense of peace didnt last, however. What was supposed to be a quiet military base, turned into the scene of a terrorist attack. "To honor his memory, it's important that people know what he did, like he was at the fence. He sent his soldiers over the fence to safetyThen he and David Wyatt went back to find two missing guys." says Sullivan regarding his brother's tribute. Joe says his brother died the way he lived, protecting others. He served two tours in Iraq and was awarded both a Purple Heart and various commendations for his bravery and dedication. "I mean, it's, it's just a level of selflessness and heroism that, like even 10 years later, you know, I don't want to forget my brother, but I don't want anybody to forget the hero and what he did, says Sullivan emotionally. In a world where Joe says tragedy has become too common, he hopes we remember the Marine who ran toward the danger, so others could live. It's like one of the most important things I do, I have to keep his memory alive. It's how I mourn. You know, it's like, it's just someone doing something so extraordinary, I think that forgetting them would be, would be catastrophic. It'd be a crime," says Sullivan. Almost a decade has passed since five service members were killed in a terrorist attack in Chattanooga. "I think about July 16 every day, retired Navy Commander Tim White said. "I've thought about it every day since then, and always wondered whether I did enough? If I could have done more? If, if I would have acted differently, if it would have, if Petty Officer Smith would still be alive, and if the Marines would still be alive? Retired Navy Commander Tim White was the commanding officer at the Navy Operational Support Center & Marine Corp Reserve Center the morning of July 16, 2015, a routine day, until it wasn't. "I heard some squealing tires and a crash, and I knew that the speed limit there in the River Park is so, so slow, and then there are speed bumps there, Commander White recalled. So, I figured how? I thought, how could somebody possibly get in an accident there in the River Park?" It wasn't long until Commander White realized what was unfolding. Commander White said, "And as I, as I walked over there, Petty Officer Smith, who is my command duty officer, he was, he was on watch, as we call it, and he said, 'Sir, someone just crashed through the gate. What do we do?" U.S. Navy: "Stories of Navy personnel being charged are not true" The U.S. Navy says rumors that U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Timothy White would be charged for discharging a personal weapon at the U.S. Navy Operation center during the July 16 shooting are untrue. As chaos erupted outside, White's instincts kicked in. Trained and aware of the potential threat, he grabbed his personal weapon, despite federal rules at the time banning firearms on the base. "I could see the terrorist outside my window on the sidewalk, running towards the entrance of the reserve center, White described. "He was carrying an assault rifle in his hand. It looked like he was also loaded with an explosive vest. So I raised my weapon and fired at him as many times as I could, as quickly as I could, White added. Lt. Cmdr Tim White honored for his actions during July 16th shootings Among the brave men and women recognized, Lt. Cmdr Tim White gave his first TV interview describing his experiences during the July 16th shootings. The attacker started shooting. As the rounds kept shattering the glass, White said he had a decision to make. "I didn't want to make things worse. I wanted to make things better. I wanted to be part of the solution. And so I decided probably the best thing for me to do would be to get out of the building, since I could identify the threat. I could get the police responding and maybe be part of that response, explained White. White escaped through a window, meeting Chattanooga Police Department (CPD) Officer Sean O'Brien at the gate and reported what he saw. Together, Commander White and Officer O'Brien followed CPD protocol by waiting for backup as gunfire continued inside. "And as we waited for backup, the terrorist, we could hear him shooting inside of the building, shooting outside of the building, shooting towards us, and then he re-entered the building, White recalled. "And then we could hear him probably exit on the back of the building and shooting towards the Marines who were running to safety and trying to shelter and also running to the aid of children in the playground and getting them away from danger." Unbeknownst to White, the terrorist had already attacked the recruitment center on Lee Highway before driving to the reserve center off Amnicola Highway, where five service members would not make it home. JULY 16 | Ten Years Later: Chattanooga Police officers remember response, community support Three of those officers sat down with Local 3's Michelle Heron, along with Chief John Chambers, to reflect on the city's darkest day. "And that's where he, he mortally wounded Petty Officer Smith, White recalled. "That's where he murdered Gunny Sullivan, Staff Sgt. Wyatt, Sgt. Holmquist, Lance Cpl. Wells and that's where the Chattanooga Police Department very heroically engaged with the terrorist." Following the attack, federal policy shifted. The Navy now allows more service members to carry personal weapons on federal property. White said security measures were raised at the Navy reserve center here and locations across the country. Immediately after, the Navy Reserve armed all of the off installation reserve centers, like Chattanooga, and then also started implementing a lot of additional physical security measures, White said. "And so now if you if you drive by the reserve center, you can see the cabling that goes to the fence and ram-proof barriers and those things that really increase the physical security measures for installations, like Chattanooga." Lt. Cmdr Tim White reacts to Purple Heart announcement for Chattanooga shootings victims Six purple hearts will be awarded to the families of five fallen servicemen as well as a marine who was also shot in the July 16th attacks in Chattanooga. White's experience sparked both praise and criticism as he said some questioned his actions on that day, while others, like Petty Officer Smith's father, stood by his side. "His name was Tracy Smith, and I really developed a pretty strong relationship and friendship with him, and treasured that I got to, to meet with him almost weekly, said White. White would eventually move to Florida for one of his last assignments before retiring from the Navy in 2022. White said he has these words for the fallen service member under his command that day: "If I could say something to Petty Officer Smith, I would say that I love you and I'm very thankful for your service to our country and for your love for your wife and your daughters, and want you to know that your community of Chattanooga really rallied behind your wife and your family and same with your dad and we've tried to live in a way to honor you ever since, and I am very thankful for your sacrifice for, for us." JULY 16 | Remembering the Fallen Five: USN Logistics Spec. Second Class Randall Scott Smith Among those we honor this year is Logistics Specialist Second Class Randall Scott Smith, a dedicated member of the U.S. Navy whose actions that day are believed to have saved many lives. Commander White has worked with fellow Navy veteran Captain Mickey McCamish to honor the Fallen Five through a remembrance ceremony. This year, the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council will present a Ten Year Remembrance Tribute to the Fallen Five on July 16, 2025. The event is open to the public and will begin at 11:00 am at The Wreath of Honor in the Tennessee Riverpark. The Police Chief at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga was a Master Patrol Officer with the city police on that July morning in 2015. "You learn to live with the reality of what happens and not hide from it," said Sean O'Brien. He was the first to make contact with the man about whom it would soon be learned was on a murderous terror campaign after being radicalized overseas. "Having had the description of the suspect vehicle, seeing him at high speed coming down Amnicola, I knew it was him," remembered O'Brien. The gunman had already fired into the Lee Highway recruitment office and was now headed to the Navy and Marine Reserve Center. O'Brien made a U-turn to follow the vehicle into the Riverpark. Officers finally encountered the assailant as he exited the Mike Battery building, armed with a rifle and a handgun. "Yeah, without question you knew it in a moment it was going to be a real dangerous situation," O'Brien explained. "There was a moment when two rounds of rifle fire zipped right past my ear and I knew in that moment I wasn't going home. And it was liberating in a way because, at that point, it allowed me to focus more specifically on just what needed to happen." JULY 16 | Ten Years Later: Chattanooga Police officers remember response, community support Three of those officers sat down with Local 3's Michelle Heron, along with Chief John Chambers, to reflect on the city's darkest day. At that moment, he rushed toward the gunfire to pull a wounded comrade, Officer Dennis Pedigo, from danger. "Yeah, I was just getting him out of there and getting him to some semblance of a safe space in the moment and it was just something that had to be done," said O'Brien. "It was almost reflexive. You know? Just reactive. You know? You just do it and don't think about it until later on." As is to be expected, some processing of that day's events would be needed, later on. O'Brien stresses to other first responders, even today, that seeking professional help is not a sign of weakness. "I would argue it took me probably the better part of three years to probably work through most everything," he said. "Even seeking some professional assistance to process stuff. And I can't stress that enough, and in our line of work, that it's OK to do that. It's real important to do that." Included in dealing with that day are the 'what if''s?' "I've asked many people that were closely involved to tell me what I could've done different to change the outcome for even just one of those that didn't survive and me still be alive," O'Brien added. "And I've yet to find anybody with an answer." JULY 16 | Ten Years Later: Former commander recalls terrorist attack at Navy Operational Support Center Trained and aware of the potential threat, White grabbed his personal weapon, despite federal rules at the time banning firearms on the base. Perhaps, the most difficult, but likely important part of Sean O'Brien's post-attack therapy came when he talked with family members of the Fallen Five as part of an FBI presentation. "[I was] thinking, fully, that they would hate me because I didn't save their son or their husband or their brother," he said. "And it was the complete opposite. They're incredibly supportive; grateful, which was powerful. And it's a statement to the families that these men came from." The attack changed lives and family trajectories, but it also improved how Chattanooga officers respond. "Anything from the gear that we carry, we call the bail-out bags, that have medical equipment, water, maybe extra ammunition, that we, not only should we be carrying it, but when you get on a scene like this, you actually have to grab it," O'Brien said. "Leaving it in the car doesn't do you any good." That terrible day a decade ago not only improved methods and operations for first responders, but in the face of tragedy, O'Brien saw the city come together. "That unity, in that moment, is what we should be striving for all the time," he said. "Not just after something terrible like this happens." It was also a warning, he said, to be ever vigilant; that evil is in the world and can strike even a town the size of Chattanooga, Tennessee. "The reminder that that was then, it doesn't mean it can't happen again, tomorrow," he added. "That I would stress to anybody. We cannot let our guard down and we need to always be prepared." A difficult lesson learned that day. We join UTC Chief Sean O'Brien and all who responded to honor the Fallen Five and all who serve, ten years on. "Many of them were combat veterans and didn't have the opportunity to readily defend themselves in this moment, here on our own soil," O'Brien said. "And there's still men and women who put on that uniform to serve this country, in a similar fashion. And I think those are the things to remember, especially as this date comes around." The plan to increase Longford town parking fees to help fund the costs of repairing and upgrading footpaths has been labelled an absolute disgrace. Independent Cllr Mark Casey made the comments at the July meeting of Longford County Council during a discussion on the consideration of approval of loan funding of 2,000,000 to help fund the three year Footpath Programme 2025 - 2027. Read more: Longford remains 'most affordable county' despite property prices rising by 5k The plan to hike parking charges was debated and voted on by Longford Municipal District members and Lanesboro based Cllr Casey hit out at the negative impact the increased charges will have on businesses in the county town. He remarked, Speaking to people from outside of town, the price of parking is ridiculous. Its an absolute disgrace for the people who come to shop from outside Longford. Arguing that the changes make it impossible for rural people, an annoyed Cllr Casey said the proposed parking increase will affect businesses and wasnt giving them a fair chance. Fine Gaels Cllr Gerry Hagan reiterated his support for the increase, having previously voted in favour of them at the Longford MD July meeting to help fund the Footpath Programme, which he believes to be important for the community. Cllr Hagan commented, 50 cent wont be a game changer. We have affordable, off-street parking. 2 all day is very cheap. Dublin is 30 per day. This increase in parking fees will help develop our footpaths. Fianna Fails Cllr Kevin Hussey, who voted against the proposed fee hike at the Longford MD meeting, once again expressed his disapproval of the decision. To comment on what Cllr Casey said, I didnt support it (parking fee increase). I thought we could come up with the money another way. Fine Gaels Cllr Peggy Nolan provided a passionate explanation over why the decision was made. Listing award winning shops like Fabiani and Aines as reasons why Longford has the finest retailers in the midlands, she reasserted that people will still want to come to Longford. Cllr Nolan said that those who cannot use the footpaths due to their current conditions should be prioritised. Her party colleague, Cllr Paul Ross agreed with her, saying that St Christophers Services are also affected. Read more: Longford economist says government must 'address the high cost of doing business' After Cllr Casey asked where the money over twenty years of paid parking had gone to? Cllr Nolan replied and suggested the repayment of loans. At the end of the discussion, it was outlined that all money from the increase would be put towards good causes, such as community groups and the footpaths. The Taoiseach has said a 3.6 million euro investment in Israel is not going to fund any war in response to claims Ireland was funding a genocide in Gaza. Micheal Martin said the Government has no role in directing how public money should be invested and said it was not true to say Irish funds invested in Israel meant Ireland was funding a genocide in Gaza. Social Democrats deputy leader Cian OCallaghan said that at the end of 2023, the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (Isif) held 2.62 million euros in Israeli sovereign debt. By the end of 2024 that had increased to 3.62 million euros, he told the Dail during Leaders Questions. This wasnt a mistake or some kind of oversight. Someone made a deliberate decision to increase the level of public money spent on Israeli war bonds, and the Israeli government have not hidden what those bonds are for, he said. These bonds are clearly being used to help finance their genocidal campaign. Taoiseach, this is utterly outrageous. He also said it was shameful that nearly eight million euros of Irish public money was invested, directly or indirectly, in companies operating in occupied territories while the Government is trying to pass a bill banning the trade of goods with Israeli settlements in the same occupied territories. Mr Martin said he would follow through on the issue raised with him on Wednesday, but pushed back against the suggestion that Ireland was funding a genocide. I take strong exception to your assertion that the Irish Government is funding genocide. It most certainly is not and never has, he said. You know the Government does not get involved in investment decisions by any fund that is established, you know that is the case. He said Ireland was opposed to the war in Gaza and listed Irelands position on matters relating to Gaza: that Ireland was the only country that has moved to pass legislation banning goods coming from the illegally occupied Palestinian territories and had pushed for the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. He said Ireland had intervened in South Africas genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and also sponsored UN resolutions in respect of decisions at the court. Mr OCallaghan said the Irish Government gives the Isif its strategic direction, and should direct it not to invest money in companies that contravene international law in the West Bank. There are much better places that our money should be spent: in affordable housing, in healthcare and disability services. Not a cent should be invested in companies operating in occupied Palestinian territories, in the West Bank. Mr Martin said: The Isif have confirmed that at the end of 2024 it had held 3.6 million in Israeli sovereign debt. Thats not going to fund any war, deputy. So lets have a sense of perspective. You can argue its not right, I take that point. But you said we funded genocide. That is an outrageous, exaggerated assertion. You lack credibility in putting a point like that, but you do it for political gain only. He said Isif held 5.2 million in Egyptian sovereign debt and 2.3 million in Jordanian sovereign debt, and added: I wouldnt approve of some of this either. He called on Mr OCallaghan to withdraw the claim that Ireland was funding genocide. Brooklyn Man Sentenced for Role in Wire Fraud Scheme Using Stolen Identities to Submit Fraudulent Tax Returns for Over $35 Million in Refunds Crime By Chris Boyle Published: July 15 2025 Xerxes Shevar, 57, participated in a conspiracy involving multiple co-defendants in the United States, Ghana, Nigeria, and Ireland to commit wire fraud. A resident of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court to three years of probation and ordered to pay $290,000 in restitution on his conviction of wire fraud conspiracy, Acting United States Attorney Troy Rivetti announced today. United States District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter imposed the sentence on Xerxes Shevar, 57, on July 10, 2025. According to information presented to the Court, Shevar participated in a conspiracy involving multiple co-defendants in the United States, Ghana, Nigeria, and Ireland to commit wire fraud by submitting fraudulent federal tax returns in the names of individuals whose identities were stolen by the conspirators. The conspirators then opened bank accounts using stolen identities and used those accounts as repositories for their fraudulently obtained federal tax refunds. The conspirators obtained stolen identity information on the Internet and then traded that information among themselves using email accounts and other means of communication. The Indictment against Shevarwho was arrested in February 2024 when he returned to the United States from Ghana and his co-conspirators alleges that, for the tax years 2010 to 2013, approximately $38 million in fraudulent tax refunds was sought from the IRS by the conspirators, causing the IRS to pay at least $10 million in fraudulent refunds. The Indictment also alleges that approximately 3,493 bank accounts were opened using stolen identities, affecting approximately 443 financial institutions, and that approximately 4,563 credit cards were obtained using the stolen identities, with approximately 11,468 individuals alleged to have been victimized. Assistant United States Attorney Christian A. Trabold prosecuted this case on behalf of the government. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: July 16 2025 Cape Air will use gate B15 in the central terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport for exceptional convenience for customers flying between ISP and Boston Logan International. Getting to Boston from Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) has never been easier thanks to new Cape Air four times daily service launching today. This new Cape Air service offers Long Islanders even more freedom and independence to travel between Boston and ISP for business and leisure flights. On behalf of the Islip Town Board we welcome this growing airline to Long Island MacArthur Airport, said Town of Islip Supervisor Angie Carpenter. We also look forward to warmly welcoming visitors from Boston doing business and exploring our beautiful island home, she added. Cape Air will use gate B15 in the central terminal at Long Island MacArthur Airport for exceptional convenience for customers flying between ISP and Boston Logan International with fares starting at $249 each way, offering four flights daily. Cape Air is one of the largest commuter airlines in the U.S. and is spreading its wings across the Northeast and to Long Island. Weve been working diligently and creatively on air service development for several years and its rewarding to see our map of destinations and air carriers continue to grow to serve our customers, said Long Island MacArthur Airport Commissioner Rob Schneider. Cape Air will fly the Tecnam P2012 Traveller on the route, offering passengers a modern, stylish, and highly capable twin-engine aircraft perfect for connecting these less than 90-minute hops to Boston. An innovative aircraft providing a private jet flying experience, the Traveller features amenities like USB ports, cup holders, and very comfortable 32-inch seat pitch; at the top of the 28-32 inch range offered in economy cabins by US airlines. Cape Air is proud to continue its mission of providing communities with convenient, reliable, and stress-free air travel. Long Island MacArthur Airport is the closest airport to so many Long Island attractions, and features easy access to rail service, said Aaron Blinka, Cape Airs Vice President of Planning. We look forward to sharing our excellent customer experience and convenient flight schedules with travelers from the nearby Hamptons and beyond who are heading to New England, the Cape and Islands, or enjoying day trips to Boston. We are especially happy to provide fast and affordable service to those traveling domestically or internationally with easy connections to our partner airlines at Boston, he added. Cape Air partner airlines are also providing connecting opportunities for passengers on Cape Air ISP-BOS flights. For example, Cape Air customers can book itineraries through Boston on American and United Airlines to domestic destinations like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago, and even international routes including Dublin, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Montego Bay, Jamaica, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Local News By Chris Boyle Published: July 16 2025 AG James and 19 States Sue to Restore Billions of Dollars to Help Guard Against Disasters Like Recent Texas Floods. New York Attorney General Letitia James today joined a coalition of 19 other states in suing the Trump administration over its deadly decision to illegally shut down the Federal Emergency Management Agencys (FEMA) bipartisan Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which has supported critical infrastructure to protect communities from disasters before they happen. Since the 1990s, FEMA has provided billions of dollars to state and local governments to support infrastructure improvements to prepare for natural disasters. These funds have been proven to save lives, protect property, and reduce the cost of rebuilding after a disaster strikes. While BRIC has received bipartisan support and funded projects in all 50 states, the administration abruptly and illegally terminated the program earlier this year, jeopardizing billions of dollars intended to help communities prepare for disasters nationwide. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James and the coalition are seeking a court order to stop the termination of the BRIC program and prevent the administration from illegally reallocating its funds. This administrations decision to slash billions of dollars that protect our communities from floods, wildfires, and other disasters puts millions of New Yorkers at risk, said Attorney General James. New Yorkers depend on quality roads, floodwalls, and other vital infrastructure to keep them safe when disaster strikes. This administration has no authority to cut this program that has helped save countless lives, and I will continue to fight to ensure New York gets the support we need to prepare for dangerous natural disasters. The BRIC program provides financial and technical assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to implement new measures that protect communities from natural disasters. The programs grants cover up to 75 percent of a projects costs, and can rise to 90 percent for small rural communities, making them a critical lifeline. BRIC funding supports the construction of evacuation shelters and flood walls, protections for water and power infrastructure, and improvements to roads and bridges. Over the past four years, FEMA has selected nearly 2,000 projects from every corner of the country to receive roughly $4.5 billion in funding. Due to the unique threats they face, coastal communities have received the largest allocations over the past four years, with New York among the states receiving the most BRIC funding. New York has 38 BRIC projects throughout the state totaling over $380 million that are all in jeopardy as a result of the termination of the program. New York City, which is particularly vulnerable to flooding, is expecting to receive BRIC funds for 19 different projects. This includes $50 million for the Central Harlem Cloudburst Flood Mitigation Project, which is designed to provide flood protection measures to over 45,000 city residents vulnerable to flash flooding of the Harlem River. Multiple studies have shown that BRIC funds more than pay for themselves by preventing costly damage during disasters. Each dollar spent on mitigation saves an average of $6 in post-disaster costs, with some investments saving even more. BRIC program funds have helped avoid over $150 billion in costs and saved lives in communities throughout the country. Despite the programs success and longtime bipartisan support, the Trump administration unlawfully terminated the program in April 2025, diverting over $4 billion out of FEMAs pre-disaster mitigation fund and into funds for post-disaster grants. This abrupt termination has jeopardized critical projects throughout the country. Communities have been forced to delay, scale back, or cancel hundreds of projects that depend on BRIC funding. Projects that have been in development for years, and in which communities have already spent millions of dollars for planning, permitting, and environmental review are now threatened. As a result, Americans across the country face a higher risk of harm from natural disasters. Attorney General James and the coalition argue that the abrupt termination of BRIC is unconstitutional and illegal. Congress has written into law that disaster preparedness is a core part of FEMAs mission and has appropriated funds for BRIC. Congress has also specified that the executive branch cannot alter this mission or reduce FEMAs ability to carry out any of its core functions unless the law changes. FEMA also cannot refuse to spend congressionally appropriated funds in violation of the Constitution. In addition, Attorney General James and the coalition argue that President Trumps FEMA administrator and his successor, who carried out BRICs termination, were not lawfully appointed to run FEMA and lack the authority to shut down the program. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James and the coalition are seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent the Trump Administration from spending BRIC funds on other purposes and a permanent injunction to reverse the termination of the BRIC program and require the restoration of these critical funds to the communities relying on them. Joining Attorney General James in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the governor of Pennsylvania. A T-33 type pistol recovered from the GHF aid site where the trampling and stabbing of an American medic occurred. (GHF on X) On July 16, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) issued a statement blaming Hamas affiliates for causing a crowd crush at an aid distribution site in Khan Younis that killed 19 Palestinians. During the same incident, a Palestinian was stabbed to death by an unknown assailant. The deadly event follows a pattern of violence directed at GHF sites and its personnel by Hamas and its affiliates. We are heartbroken to confirm that 20 people died this morning in a tragic incident at SDS3 in Khan Younis. Our current understanding is that 19 of the victims were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd. We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd armed and affiliated with Hamas deliberately fomented the unrest. For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, one of which was confiscated. An American worker was also threatened with a firearm by a member of the crowd during the incident, the GHF said in a statement on its website. In a related incident, the GHF said that an American medic employed by the nonprofit was wounded by a Hamas affiliate at the site of the trampling. The organization noted that aid seekers warned the medic of an individual armed with a pistol. The medic located the suspect, who had been previously identified by security personnel as a Hamas affiliate, attempted to tackle him, and, in the process, was stabbed by a second Hamas associate. The medic suffered puncture wounds and possibly broke ribs. Both suspects escaped the scene. This was not an isolated incident. Its part of a clear and escalating pattern. Hamas has made it clear that ending GHFs presence in Gaza is a top priority, and they are using every tool they have to undermine our operations. In recent weeks, weve seen repeated threats against our workers, disinformation aimed at aid seekers, and violent provocations around our sites. But we will not be deterred. Our mission is more critical now than ever, especially as the UN and other aid groups continue to face looting and diversion that prevent their convoys from reaching those in need, GHF Spokesperson Chapin Fay told FDDs The Long War Journal. The GHF has been under threat by Hamas and its affiliates since the nonprofit launched Gaza operations on May 27. On July 5, both Israel and the US blamed Hamas for carrying out a grenade attack at a distribution site in Khan Younis that injured two American GHF personnel. On June 28, the GHF stated that there were credible reports that Hamas had placed bounties on aid workers, including American personnel. The GHF also accused Hamas of positioning its members near aid distribution sites to undermine operations. In a deadly incident that occurred on June 11, 12 members of the GHFs local workforce were murdered by Hamas on their way to a distribution site, according to the GHF. Hamas has not claimed responsibility for todays incident at the GHF site nor any of the previous attacks targeting the nonprofit. Nevertheless, Hamas remains the primary suspect behind the repeated acts of violence that have targeted GHF sites and its personnel. Joe Truzman is an editor and senior research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal focused primarily on Palestinian armed groups and non-state actors in the Middle East. A Syrian military headquarters in Damascus moments before it was hit by an Israeli airstrike. (Israel Defense Forces) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted strikes near the Syrian Presidential Palace and targeting the Syrian governments military headquarters in Damascus, the Israeli military said on July 16. Syrian state media said a number of people were injured in the strikes. The airstrikes took place after several days of increasing clashes in Suwayda Governorate in southern Syria, which is home to the countrys Druze minority. Israeli officials warned the Syrian government repeatedly that the IDF would act to protect the Druze if the battles did not cease. On July 16, the IDF said that it struck the Syrian regimes military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria. Media reports described the building as the headquarters of the Syrian Ministry of Defense. Videos of the strike on the Ministry of Defense show large explosions just after noon in central Damascus. The Israeli military asserted in a statement that the military headquarters in Damascus is the location from which Syrian regime commanders direct combat operations and deploy regime forces to the As-Suwayda area. The IDF also said it hit a military target near the Presidential Palace. The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regimes actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is conducting strikes in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios, the Israeli military noted. Israeli politicians across the political spectrum have expressed solidarity with the Druze. Israel has a sizable Druze minority that lives in villages and towns in northern Israel. Druze men serve in the IDF and are conscripted similarly to Jewish Israelis. The strikes in Damascus come in the context of increased Israeli involvement in Syria. Over the last six months, Israeli officials have said that Jerusalem will act to protect the Druze in Syria after the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime. In May, the IDF targeted an area near the Presidential Palace after attacks on the Druze took place. Israels Prime Minister and Minister of Defense have sought to keep southern Syria demilitarized in the wake of the fall of the Assad regime. The IDF has also carried out recent raids against Iranian-backed cells and former Assad regime military assets in southern Syria. The recent round of Israeli strikes in Syria began on July 14, a day after clashes began between Druze and Bedouin tribesmen near Suwayda. The IDF started with strikes on tanks being used by Syrian government forces, which the Israeli military said had been seen moving toward the Suwayda area. The presence of these assets in southern Syria may pose a threat to the State of Israel, the Israeli military stated. On July 15, as clashes continued in Suwayda, the Israeli military said, Following the directive of the political echelon, a short while ago, the IDF began targeting military vehicles belonging to Syrian regime forces in the area of As Suwayda in southern Syria. Several vehicles were hit, including armored personnel carriers and a vehicle that had a multiple rocket launch system, the IDF said. We have a commitment to preserve the south-western region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israels border, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a speech to Israeli soldiers, also noting that Israel had an obligation to the Druze. I hope we wont need further operations, and that very much depends on what is understood and done, and what is not done, in Damascus, Netanyahu added in a statement distributed by the Government Press Office in Israel. July 15 also saw some Druze Israelis cross into Syria from an opening in a border fence near the northern Golan Druze town of Majdal Shams, which is located across from the Druze village of Khader in Syria. Some Druze in the Golan have family connections to their co-religionists in Syria, in large part because the Golan was controlled by Syria until 1967. The IDF stated that it began facilitating the return of civilians who had crossed on July 15. Images from the evening showed Druze civilians returning to Israel. On July 16, the IDF deployed additional forces to the Golan border area to reinforce the 210th Division, which is responsible for defending the border. IDF Chief of the General Staff Eyal Zamir said that the Israeli military would increase strikes in Syria to stop the attacks on the Druze. The IDF is committed to the deep alliance with our Druze brothers and is therefore striking targets across Syria in order to protect them in the Suwayda region, Jabal al-Druze, and wherever necessary, the Israeli military added. Also on July 16, chaotic crossings unfolded on the Israeli border between Majdal Shams and Khader. The Israeli military said that suspects were attempting to infiltrate Israel from Khader along with civilians. Simultaneously, several Israeli civilians crossed the border fence into Syrian territory in the area of Majdal Shams. IDF troops are currently operating to safely return the civilians who crossed the border, the Israeli military noted. Videos show people trying to rush across the border. Israels Defense Ministers office said on July 16 that Defense Minister Israel Katz is expected to visit Washington on July 17. His office said he would continue to monitor developments in Syria. Katz also posted a video showing airstrikes in Damascus, noting that painful blows had begun for the Syrian government. Reporting from Israel, Seth J. Frantzman is an adjunct fellow at FDD and a contributor to FDDs Long War Journal. He is the senior Middle East correspondent and analyst at The Jerusalem Post, and author of The October 7 War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza (2024). Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, along with a delegation from Luxembourgs health tech community, visited Osaka and Kyoto on Tuesday, with hopes of developing more formal ties in future. The day began at the University of Kyotos Centre for iPS Cell Research, where induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSCs) technology was first invented in 2006. Today, it is being developed for a wide range of conditions, including Parkinsons Disease. The technology harnesses the power of stem cells without the controversy that surrounds embryonic stem cells. One of the centres key researchers is Yann Pretemer from Luxembourg. Prince Guillaume and Ulf Nehrbass, the CEO of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), both expressed hope that their visit will lead to formal research cooperation, the likes of which the centre already has with universities in Zurich and San Diego, Prof. Yun Takahashi, the centres director, noted. Following a traditional Japanese lunch, the prince visited Osaka castle before joining the health tech delegation at the World Expo in Osaka. The Luxembourg pavilion was closed to the public during the royal visit, which concluded in the pavilions refreshments zone, where delegates sampled a selection of desserts, and had the opportunity to try out the traditional Luxembourgish skittles alley. 1 / 4 CiRA researcher Kelvin Hui gave a presentation of the centres work and showed Prince Guillaume around. Photo credit: Alex Stevensson 2 / 4 Prince Guillaume at Osaka castle. Photo credit: Alex Stevensson 3 / 4 Luxembourg pavilion Commissioner General and President Andre Hansen gave Prince Guillaume a personal tour. Photo credit: Alex Stevensson 4 / 4 Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume visted the Spanish pavilion. Photo credit: Alex Stevensson The formal programme concluded with royal visits to the Japanese and Spanish pavilions, as well as a walk around part of the ring which encircles the expo. The ring is the worlds largest wooden structure and serves as both panoramic viewing platform on top and shelter from sun and rain underneath. On Wednesday, the crown prince - who is due to succeed Grand Duke Henri as Luxembourgs monarch in October - will continue his visit and be joined in Osaka by Stephanie Obertin, Minister for Digitilisation, Higher Education and Research. The minister will stay on for Space Afternoon at the World Expo site while Prince Guillaume will depart after lunch. Both the space and health tech delegations are part of a Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce trade mission to Japan this week, splitting its time between Tokyo and Osaka/Kyoto. The third edition of the Your Luxembourg Expat Day, hosted by the Luxembourg Times, lands at Neumunster Abbey on 7 September, with events and activities for families, singles, new arrivals and anyone wanting to discover a slice of the country. This years Expat Day is hosted in association with brain & more and will feature stands by more than 40 partners. Explore a variety of activities throughout the day, including live music and DJ sets. an urban run, karaoke and games for kids. For new arrivals, there will be plenty of information to discover about life and work in Luxembourg - from setting up your bank account to finding your own home. With something on offer for everyone, tourism providers and organisations from across the country will showcase some of the best Luxembourg has to offer, and allow visitors to dive into the diverse tapestry of the countrys culture, charm and heritage. The Your Luxembourg Expat Day is open to all, and last year more than 7,200 people joined the fun. Good to know Date: Sunday, 7 September 2025 Time: 10:00 to 18:00 Location: Neumunster Abbey, Luxembourg City Grund The Expat Day is hosted at Neumunster Abbey in the heart of Luxembourg City Photo credit: Alain Piron Coffee for parents, wine tasting, speed dating The Luxembourg Times stand will be hosting several events throughout the day. These include: 10:00: Coffee morning for new parents 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30: Wine tasting 16:15: Pitch your friend speed dating event More information on how to register will follow in the coming weeks. Food and drink There will also be a mix of local and international food and refreshing drinks available throughout the day. Discover the flavours of Luxembourg in the stunning and historic setting of the Neumunster Abbey in the Grund. From fun and food to community and connection. Meet fellow expats and locals, learn more about the services and products that will be useful to you in future. And meet the Luxembourg Times team. Stay up to date To stay up to date with all the latest news and announcements about the Your Luxembourg Expat Day, follow the event on Facebook. And sign up to receive updates via newsletter here: Sponsors The Your Luxembourg Expat Day is hosted by the Luxembourg Times in partnership with brain & more. Main sponsors: With the support of: It may be time for the Emmy Awards to implement a new rule. One program should receive a maximum number of nominations for its actors say, four to allow more people in other worthy series to be celebrated rather, than be snubbed. I am kidding. Sort of.. But the 77th Annual Emmy nominations announced Tuesday rewarded the actors in multiple premier series, to the exclusion of worthy actors in less buzzworthy popular programs. An actors chance of getting nominated markedly increased if they had a regular role or a guest spot on the Apple TV+ series The Studio and Severance; the HBO/Max series The White Lotus; or the FX on Hulu series The Bear. The actors have the writers of each show to thank for their nominations. Adam Scott, Britt Lower, Tramell Tillman, Zach Cherry, Patricia Arquette, Merritt Wever and John Turturro were nominated for their roles in Severance, which led all shows with 27 nominations. Dave Franco, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Zoe Kravitz and Anthony Mackie all were nominated for playing comic versions of themselves in guest roles in The Studio, Seth Rogens comic send-up of the craziness inside the making of movies in Hollywood. Bryan Cranston and Catherine OHara also were nominated for playing studio executives. Rogen and co-stars Ike Barinholtz and Kathryn Hahn also received nominations for their roles in The Studio, which gathered 23 nominations, one less than the HBO/Max limited series The Penguin. Walton Goggins, Natasha Rothwell, Jason Issacs, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, Aimee Lee Wood, Sam Rockwell and Scott Glenn received nominations for their roles in season three of The White Lotus. Coon was the only one nominated of the three actresses playing besties who headed to the resort in Thailand. Michelle Monaghan and Leslie Bibb, the actresses playing the other two besties, must feel left out. Thanks to The Penguin, The White Lotus, The Last of Us The Pitt and Hacks, HBO/Max led with 142 Emmy nominations, 22 more than second place Netflix, and 41 more than Apple TV+. Despite some lukewarm reviews for the third season of The Bear, Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Liza Colon-Zayas, Olivia Colman, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jon Bernthal were among the 13 nominations for the show. It, once again, was nominated in the best comedy category, though many people feel it is more a drama than a comedy. Edebiri also received a best director nomination. The primary signs of the decline of The Bear from 23 nominations for season two was its absence from the list for outstanding comedy writing and the decline in supporting acting nominations. Most notably, Lionel Boyce, who plays chef Marcus, wasnt nominated this time. It also had two directing nominations in season two, one more than this time around. I looked through the 68 pages of nominations for shows I enjoyed and found some surprising nuggets. Here are some examples. I was happy to see the Apple TV+ series Shrinking get its due with nominations for best comedy and for stars Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams and Michael Urie. My favorite Netflix comedy series, Nobody Wants This, about a rabbi who romances an agnostic podcaster that could lead to possible problems with his career, also was rewarded with a best comedy nomination and for co-stars Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. The HBO/Max hospital series The Pitt, set in 24 hours in a Pittsburgh emergency room, received nominations for Noah Wyle, Katharine LaNasa and Shawn Hatosy. Wyle's character heads the ER, Hatosy's character is his best friend and confidant and LaNasa's character is the indispensable charge nurse who was the victim of an assault. I was disappointed that some of the secondary characters playing residents werent nominated. Conan OBrien received nominations for his part in two terrific programs his comedy travel documentary Conan OBrien Must Go, and for the entertaining Netflix special showcasing his honors at The Kennedy Center for The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. I smiled when I read that Adam Sandlers song on the 50th Anniversary special of NBCs Saturday Night Live received a nomination in the original music and lyrics category. The tune wasnt quite as catchy as The Chanukah Song, but it was a highlight of the special, which received multiple nominations. I wasnt surprised that the music for the opening of The White Lotus was nominated. It perfectly set the scene, along with the nominated opening credits. I was less than amused to see the ad Batman vs. Bateman starring actor and podcast host Jason Bateman nominated in the best commercial category. It was funny the first time, but it doesnt wear well. Network television shows have gotten little Emmy love since pay-cable and streaming shows which can have more adult themes and dialogue and attract bigger stars have dominated the small screen. But it was heartening to see Kathy Bates nominated for her role in the popular CBS reboot of Matlock, even though the series wasnt nominated in the best drama category. The ABC comedy Abbott Elementary got its share of Emmy love with nominations for best comedy and for actors Quinta Brunson (the shows creator), Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph. I wouldnt say I enjoyed watching the powerful Netflix series Adolescence, which dealt with parents realizing their 13-year-old committed murder. It was very tough to watch. All the key members of the cast led by co-creator Stephen Graham as the father, Christine Tremarco as the mother, Erin Doherty as the psychologist, Owen Cooper as the teenage boy and Ashley Walters as the investigator were nominated in an exceptionally done limited series that served as a warning to parents to pay attention to their childrens behavior that can be influenced by social media. Adolescence was the kind of smart project that Rogens fictional studio would never have produced. Actress Julianne Nicholson was nominated in two of my favorite shows of the year, the HBO/Max comedy Hacks, and the futuristic Hulu series Paradise that later played on ABC. The roles couldnt have been more different and showcased Nicholsons versatility. She played the tech billionaire who did evil things to protect her daughter in Paradise, and the goofy Dance Mom brought in to enliven the late-night show hosted by Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) on Hacks. But perhaps the most eye-opening nomination was for former President Barack Obama for narrating the Netflix series Our Oceans. He does have one of the great presidential voices. Im sure the Emmys would love to have the former president narrate some portion of its show, which will give out the awards Sept. 14 on CBS. Nate Bargatze, the standup comedian who headlined one of my favorite Christmas specials on CBS and was nominated for an Emmy for his Netflix special, will host. Broadway in downtown Chelsea, with the Tobin Bridge in the background. Will Katcher/MassLive A pair of Massachusetts cities are at risk of losing federal funding that has supported safety equipment for police officers, food delivery for senior citizens and paid for detectives investigating drug crime. All of it is on the line Thursday, when attorneys representing Somerville and Chelsea will appear in U.S. District Court in Boston to argue their funding streams should be preserved while they contest the Trump administrations attempt to withhold the money over their local immigration laws. The two densely populated cities north of Boston each receive funding for school districts with high percentages of low-income students. Chelsea said funding cuts may force it to fire police officers, including those stationed in schools. Somerville said it could be forced to cut homelessness prevention services and efforts to reduce underage tobacco and alcohol use. The cities sued the administration in February, arguing the money they receive from the federal government should not be conditioned on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Laws in the two sanctuary cities prevent police from asking about a persons immigration status or directly assisting federal officers with non-criminal immigration matters. Other communities across the country have similar policies, including Boston. The laws do not bar local police from assisting immigration officers on investigations into serious public safety threats, such as drugs, weapons or human trafficking. Local police also do not interfere with federal immigration enforcement or deportation arrests. Nearly half of Chelseas residents are foreign-born, and 65% are Hispanic or Latino. One-quarter of Somervilles residents are foreign-born, and just under a third are Hispanic or Latino. Losing federal funds would be a devastating blow to Chelsea, City Manager Fidel Maltez wrote last month in a court filing outlining the communitys reliance on federal dollars. In early June, the cities asked a federal judge to pause any attempted withdrawal of their funding while the lawsuit plays out. The judge will hear their arguments for issuing that order at Thursdays hearing. Chelseas federal funding: Public safety, schools and more Chelsea, a tightly packed working-class city of 38,000, received approximately $14.5 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2024. It expects to receive $8.5 million in 2025, part of a $245 million city budget. The funding has supported a wide variety of city programs with no connection to immigration enforcement, Maltez wrote in the court filing: Grants from the Department of Justice help Chelsea purchase bulletproof vests and support community policing. Without the funding, the Chelsea Police Department would be forced to drain other resources on bulletproof vests or send officers onto the street with outdated safety equipment, according to Maltez. The department has also relied on a DOJ grant program to pay overtime for narcotics detectives and support sting operations. Chelsea has received almost $1 million in recent years from Department of Homeland Security grants to support police training, SWAT team equipment and other public safety initiatives. Chelsea has received close to $1 million in some years in grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing rehabilitation, economic development and public facilities and infrastructure. The money has also gone to social services that help keep young people in school and deliver food to elderly residents. In recent years, Chelsea Public Schools have received over $4 million in funding for districts with high percentages of low-income students. Schools also received substantial funding for professional learning for educators, for English language learner programs, and to improve academic achievement. The city was promised $280,000 in funding for roadway safety, and is the lead recipient of a $2.5 million grant to be administered by the state to improve transit and climate resiliency between Chelsea and East Boston. The city also received $2 million toward a downtown roadway project, the largest streetscape redesign in the area in decades. Chelsea is in the first year of a three-year DOJ grant funding salaries for three police officers. Cutting the funding may force the city to fire officers, including those working in schools. Without some of these funds, the most vulnerable people in our community would suffer, as those funds support programs such as those to keep people safely housed, and to ensure that elderly residents nutritional needs are met, Maltez wrote. The federal funding that our schools receive are vital to helping particularly low-income students thrive, in school, and headed towards academic success. Feds and local government clash on sanctuary city policies As part of a nationwide increase in immigration enforcement, one of President Donald Trumps campaign pledges, the government has pressured sanctuary cities to change their local laws to fall in line with federal immigration policy. His administration has accused the cities of providing safe harbor to dangerous offenders, something the cities deny. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in May. Chelsea first labeled itself a sanctuary city in 2007. Somerville, a nearby city of 80,000 residents, did so in 1987. Chelseas sanctuary city police policy is an integral part of building trust with residents, Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton wrote in a federal court filing. If community members, particularly immigrants, believe local police officers are active participants in federal immigration enforcement, more people will avoid contacting or cooperating with police, he wrote. We want victims and witnesses of crime to feel comfortable reporting crime to CPD, because when criminal activity is underreported or hidden, that makes it more difficult for us to keep the City safe for everyone, he wrote. Somervilles policy is similar. It also does not ask police to interfere with federal law enforcement or shield undocumented immigrants from deportation, Somerville Police Chief Shumeane Benford wrote in a federal court filing. Our policies let federal immigration enforcement officers do what they need to do; SPD just does not actively join in those efforts, he said. As Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne put it earlier this year: Our residents know that our community is safer when police focus on preventing crime rather than raiding the local sandwich shop. Somerville could lose money for roadway safety and homelessness prevention Somerville received roughly $19.4 million in the last fiscal year from the federal government, according to its lawsuit. The money supported a city budget that reached $380 million in recent years, Ballantyne wrote in a federal court filing. As in Chelsea, the Somerville Public Schools receive significant federal funding for districts that serve a high percentage of low-income students, Ballantyne wrote. Her city is also in danger of losing a $4 million grant for roadway safety initiatives, and money supporting homelessness prevention services and efforts to reduce youth tobacco and alcohol consumption. If we lost that funding, we would be forced to reduce vital services to our residents, including those that protect public safety, Ballantyne wrote. What makes the threat of lost federal dollars even more difficult, she wrote, was that the grant funding is reimbursement-based. The city performs its federally funded services first, and then seeks reimbursement from the government. The uncertainty around federal funding means we continue providing services, not knowing whether we will be reimbursed, or stop providing services, the mayor wrote. A delivery company headquartered in southern Massachusetts has closed for good, laying off its staff of more than 60 people. S&C Corp., which operated last-mile delivery services from a station at 1025 Elm St. in Bridgewater, ended its operations there on July 15, according to a letter from company president Autumn Pettit to the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The company filed a Massachusetts Workers Adjustment Retraining Notice with the state on July 2, saying all 63 drivers employed by the company were notified of the layoffs on June 15. All employment losses at the Station are expected to be permanent and there will be no bumping rights, the letter read. No other information about the reasons for the closure was immediately available. Last-mile delivery refers to the final portion of the delivery process, when packages and goods are brought from a local transportation hub to their recipient or final destination. Businesses are required to submit a WARN filing when a worksite closing or mass layoffs affect 50 or more employees and one-third of the sites total workforce. The LAVA Center in Greenfield is calling on amateur filmmakers from across the state to submit their work for the fifth LAVA Film Festival. Films can be submitted online through Aug. 10. Films can be of any length, subject and genre. (blackday / stock.adobe.com) blackday - stock.adobe.com GREENFIELD Lights, camera, action! The LAVA Center, in the heart of downtown Greenfield, is calling on amateur filmmakers from across the state to submit their work for the fifth LAVA Film Festival. The festival spotlights amateur filmmakers, from students to adults, and all are welcome to submit their films for consideration. The LAVA folks put on an event with a strong sense of community. A nice opportunity to see the work of MA artists and interact with local and regional audiences, wrote Dien Vo on The LAVA Film Festivals website. The event itself is intimate, laid back and unpretentious run by a welcoming staff who are communicative. Films can be submitted online through Aug. 10. To be eligible, films must be made by current residents of Massachusetts and be creative projects, as opposed to live events or filmed performances. Films can be of any length, subject and genre. Filmmakers could be asked to rate accepted submissions using official MPAA guidelines you can determine what rating your film should have using the organizations official online guidelines. The fee to submit films is $10, but that fee is waived for those under 18 years old and Pioneer Valley residents. To receive a promo code to waive the entry fee, email info@thelavacenter.org with proof of age or residency. The long drive out was worth it, as the audience was so thoughtful and encouraging in their reactions to all of the films screened, wrote Minna Abalian, who entered the festival in 2024, on the festivals website. It was so special to hear how my film connected with folks across various cultures. The LAVA Film Festival will take place Oct. 10 to 12 at The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. Roger Waters performs during This is Not a Drill concert tour, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) AP Roger Waters is facing possible prosecution after pledging support for Palestine Action, a group that has been deemed a terrorist organization by the United Kingdom. The former Pink Floyd member called Palestine Action a great organization, in a video posted to his X account on July 5. This says, Roger Waters supports Palestine Action, 5th of July 2025. Parliament has been corrupted by agents of a genocidal foreign power. Stand up and be counted. Its now, Waters said while reading words written on a piece of cardboard. This is Independence Day, July 5th, 2025, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee continued. I declare my independence from the government of the U.K., whove just designated Palestine Action a terrorist, proscribed terrorist organization. Waters then reiterated his support for Palestine before further defending Palestine Action as a peaceful group. They are absolutely not terrorists in any way. They are a nonviolent protest organization protesting the presence in the U.K. of Elbit Systems, who are an Israeli arms manufacturing organization, he said. I support Palestine Action, and I always will because that is the right thing to do. The United Kingdom banned Palestine Action under its anti-terrorism laws last week after its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest of Britains support of Israel. Following the protest, Parliament voted and proscribed the group as a terrorist organization, Fox reported. The governing body also determined that actions such as inviting support, expressing approval or displaying symbols of the group could bring a sentence of up to 14 years in prison and/or a fine. Roger Waters has a long history of promoting dangerous conspiratorial tropes, a spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism told Fox. His declaration of support for Palestine Action, now a banned organization, is his most legally provocative move yet. We expect the police to take action, and if they do not then we will. Waters, who has been a longtime supporter of Palestine in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, was a co-founding member of Pink Floyd. He served as the bands lyricist, co-lead vocalist and conceptual leader until his departure in 1985. By Michael Casey and Michelle R. Smith The Fall River assisted-living facility where a fatal fire killed nine people was caring for dozens of aging residents reliant on wheelchairs and oxygen tanks, but it lacked the safety measures and most of the staffing requirements that are commonplace in nursing homes. As an assisted-living center, Gabriel House in Fall River, about 50 miles south of Boston, offered a type of housing for older residents that has expanded nationally in recent decades. But advocates argue that the absence of any federal regulations and spotty state rules mean the sector is largely left to police itself. The real issue is that assisted livings operate in an environment like the Wild West, said Richard Mollot, executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for improved care in nursing and assisted-living facilities. They can pretty much do what they want with impunity, and that results in a lot of, I would say, mini-catastrophes every day, frankly. The fire that tore through the three-story structure late Sunday raised a host of questions about conditions at the dilapidated facility and put the spotlight on the growing number of assisted-living centers in the state and nationwide. Created in the 1980s, assisted living has been marketed as an option for older adults who need some assistance but not as much help as a nursing home. Advocates argue that regulations for the facilities have not kept up as more locations have opened. Nursing homes, for example, are governed by federal regulations because they receive Medicare and Medicaid while there are no federal regulations for assisted-living facilities. Nursing homes must have a minimum number of staffers and trained medical professionals such as doctors and nurses, but assisted-living facilities have no such requirements. The regulations are minimal, said Liane Zeitz, an attorney who is also a member of the state Assisted Living Residences Commission, a body created to make recommendations about the sector. She has advocated for more regulations for assisted-living facilities. The facilities were lightly regulated because initially they were regarded as residential, with lower levels of care and less oversight, she said. But now those facilities are caring for a population that is much frailer, and the population is growing. Not only are the regulations weaker for assisted-living facilities, but advocates argue that the enforcement of the existing rules is often lax. Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts secretary of elder affairs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, described a patchwork of regulations across the country, with different agencies involved depending on the state. Some of the states are much more regulated. Some are regulated as a health care entity. Others, as we do here in Massachusetts, are considered a residential housing model, he said. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has been advocating for increased oversight for years, particularly after the release of reports about health and safety problems in 2018. These are serious problems that have been going on for years, she said at a hearing last year. But we hear so much less about whats going in assisted-living facilities than we do in other facilities, like nursing homes. At that hearing, Mollot noted that scandals in the nursing home industry pushed Congress to act in the 1970s and 1980s, and that such a reckoning could be coming soon for assisted living. He described two major risks: increasingly sick and vulnerable assisted living residents and financial exploitation by owner investors. Speaking Wednesday after learning about the Gabriel House fire, Mollot said the problems that plagued that facility are not unique to Massachusetts. Unlike nursing homes, assisted living has no federal state requirements, no requirement for staffing, no requirements for staff training, no requirements for safety protocols, no requirements for inspections, he said. That falls to the states, and the states have overall very weak rules. Associated Press writers Holly Ramer and Matt OBrien contributed to this report. A former Massachusetts State Police trooper pleaded guilty Wednesday to motor vehicle homicide in connection with a 2021 fatal crash in Boston that took the life of a Winthrop man, the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office. Monson resident Kristopher Carr, 29, was off-duty and alleged to have had numerous alcoholic drinks when his SUV crashed on I-93 south and caused 51-year-old Christopher Zike to fatally crash his motorcycle, the district attorneys office said. The former state trooper was originally charged with motor vehicle homicide by operating under the influence of alcohol and negligent operation following the crash. A Suffolk County Superior Court judge sentenced Carr to two and a half years in prison with 18 months to serve suspended for three years and ordered that he submit to a substance abuse evaluation and undergo any recommended follow-up treatment, the district attorneys office said. Per state law, his license will remain suspended for 15 years. State Police responded to the fatal crash on Oct. 29, 2021, around 1:25 a.m. and found Carr attempting to medically aid Zike, the district attorneys office said. Zike was ultimately declared dead at Boston Medical Center, and Carr and his girlfriend who was in the front passenger seat of his SUV at the time of the crash were treated for minor injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital. Witness statements and video footage from several businesses confirmed that Carr drank numerous alcoholic drinks the night of the crash, the district attorneys office said. Investigators also discovered that he was leaning over to kiss his girlfriend when his SUV swerved to the left and struck the center median, blocking the two leftmost lanes of I-93 south. Zike was driving to a 2 a.m. shift at the Ikea in Stoughton when he crashed into Carrs crashed SUV, the district attorneys office said. Zike was thrown from his motorcycle and fatally injured. We were reminded in a most tragic way today how a few extremely bad decisions ended one life and impacted so many others, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a Wednesday press release. Christopher Zikes life will be remembered and mourned by his family and friends, while Kristopher Carrs life will take a vastly different path than he likely intended. A Dracut woman who federal prosecutors say has agreed to plead guilty to leaking information from a grand jury investigation was a grand juror in the Karen Read case, according to WCVB and The Boston Globe. Jessica Leslie, 34, was charged with one count of criminal contempt on Friday, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorneys Office said Tuesday. She has agreed to plead guilty to the charge in federal court in Boston, but a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled. Read faced charges including second-degree murder in connection with hitting her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John OKeefe with her SUV outside a Canton home in January 2022. Her first trial in June 2024 ended in a mistrial, but the jury in her second trial found her not guilty of all charges except driving under the influence of liquor in June 2025. The press release from the U.S. Attorneys office did not specify what grand jury investigation Leslie was charged in connection with, but said that she disclosed sealed information to unauthorized individuals, including the names of witnesses and their grand jury testimony, on various dates between Aug. 11, 2022, and March 4, 2024. Read more: Dracut woman to plead guilty to leaking grand jury information It is unclear how federal prosecutors discovered that Leslie had shared the sealed information, but WCVB reported that anonymous sources said authorities had been monitoring social media and other forms of communication related to the high-profile case. A plea agreement signed by Leslie on Tuesday recommends that she be sentenced to one day, deemed served, The Boston Globe reported. This means she will not serve time in prison if a judge accepts the agreement. A federal criminal contempt charge carries a sentence of any length of time in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Neither the FBIs Boston office nor Leslies lawyer, Keith Halpern, responded to a request for comment from MassLive Tuesday evening. Halpern declined to comment on the case to the Globe, the newspaper reported. A Boston man was charged last week in connection with breaking into Trillium Brewing Companys Fenway location less than three weeks after completing a prison sentence for convictions on similar charges, the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office announced Tuesday. Michael Dias, 46, is facing breaking and entering during the nighttime, malicious destruction of property over $1,200, larceny from a building and common and notorious thief charges, the district attorneys office said in a press release. On July 3, Boston police responded to a report of a break-in at Trilliums Fenway location around 3:40 a.m., the district attorneys office said. Officers spoke with a security guard, who reported that, while making his rounds, he discovered that the brewerys front door had been smashed. Officers noticed that Trilliums front door was shattered and that a large rock was on the floor of the bar, the district attorneys office said. They also found what appeared to be blood droplets on the bar top, cash register and floor and sent samples to the crime lab for analysis. Security video from a nearby business shows a man who was later identified as Dias repeatedly throwing a rock through Trilliums front door and kicking the glass until he is able to enter through the broken door, the district attorneys office said. Once inside the brewery, he can be seen taking the cash register off the counter and smashing it on the ground. The video then shows Dias leaning over the bar top in the area where the blood droplets were found before leaving through the smashed door. Dias was previously convicted in connection with a pattern of break-ins in 2019 and 2020 during which he broke into businesses by throwing a rock through their front doors and stole cash by smashing their cash registers, the district attorneys office said. He pleaded guilty to charges in those cases in September 2020 and received a seven-year prison sentence. Dias ultimately spent five years in prison and was released on June 17. It is always our hope that incarcerated individuals keep their lives moving forward when they reenter society. The facts here indicate that this person reverted, very quickly, to the behavior that sent him to prison in the first place, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in the release. A Roxbury District Court judge released Dias on personal recognizance bail and ordered him to stay away from Trilliums Fenway location during his arraignment on the new charges, the district attorneys office said. He is due back in court on Sept. 25. Two Leicester police officers are hospitalized after they were both hurt in a crash while off-duty last week, the Leicester Police Alliance said Tuesday. On Thursday, Officers Eddie Santiago and Stephen Kustigian were struck when a vehicle pulled out in front of them at Summer Street, between St. Vincent Hospital and a United States Post Office, the Leicester Police Alliance said in a statement. The group, made up of town officers, said a drunken driver was charged in connection with the crash. Eddie and Stephen were badly injured, one of them even requiring a tourniquet to be applied by a witness on scene, police said. They remain at UMass Memorial Medical Center on Lake Avenue in Worcester, receiving incredible care. Their injuries range from a shattered pelvis, spinal fractures, a broken arm, a broken leg, a broken scapula, a broken clavicle, a collapsed lung, numerous transfusions, a chest tube and facial lacerations, just to name the most significant injuries. A third officer, Paul Pepin, was riding with Santiago and Kustigian at the time of the crash, but was not hurt, the Telegram & Gazette reported. Both of these dedicated public servants have long recoveries ahead of them and will need our help, the alliance said. Thankfully theyre surrounded by family and friends, and have an incredible survivor mindset that inspire us all! Even in their extreme pain, they are both anxious to recover fully and return to their beat here in Leicester. The alliance added that it plans to announce a crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday in order to support the two officers in their recovery. State Rep. John Lawn, the Watertown Democrat who chairs the influential Committee on Health Care Financing, was reportedly arrested for operating under the influence near the State House early Wednesday morning. WCVB-TV in Boston reported that Lawn, D-10th Middlesex, was arrested at 1:45 a.m. Wednesday in the area of Beacon and Bowdoin streets, which both run next to the State House. Lawn told responding officers that he was a state representative and was coming from an event at the State House, the station reported. Lawn was charged with two misdemeanors: OUI and leaving a scene where there was property damage, the station reported. A spokesman for the Boston Police Department confirmed the arrest to State House News Service, but said he could not say more until he had a chance to review the arrest report. Lawn has represented parts of Watertown, Waltham and Newton in the House since 2011. Lawn did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the wire service on Wednesday afternoon. Hey Dude is teaming up with Disney once again for a magical new shoe that drops July 21, and fans of both brands have something big to look forward to. Featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse prints on classic Hey Dude silhouettes, these shoes are equal part fun, functional, and collectible. Disney Mickey Mouse Print Wally $75 The new Disney Mickey Mouse Print Wally is set to release July 21, but only for a limited time. Shop Now at Hey Dude This new Disney drop includes new looks for the Wally and Wendy shoes. It also includes styles for kids too. But, this drop is limited edition, so they wont stick around for long after they release. The new Mickey and Minnie shoes feature a laid-back gray design with Mickey and Minnies faces printed all over the shoe. The full lineup includes exclusive designs that merge Hey Dudes casual comfort with the whimsical style of classic Disney characters: All styles feature Hey Dudes flexible outsole, memory foam insole, and breathable upper, making them perfect for long days on your feet. The entire Disney collection is dropping online only at Hey Dude on Sunday July 21. Grab these Mickey and Minnie Mouse Hey Dude shoes that are back in stock Check out the already-released Disney x Hey Dude collection that is finally back in stock while you wait for the new drop on July 21. Sign up for MassLives Shopping Newsletter: A recap of the biggest deals and sales of online shopping from the week that was, curated by MassLives expert e-commerce writer, Jessica Day. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE WEST SPRINGFIELD Students in West Springfield Public Schools are among those across Massachusetts getting a boost in civics education, thanks to a portion $1 million grant program from the Healey-Driscoll administration aimed at empowering young people to lead community-focused projects. The Civics Teaching and Learning Grants were awarded to 37 school districts and education collaboratives across the state. West Springfield, along with Amherst-Pelham, Springfield and Easthampton Public School districts, received a combined $46,880 to support student-led civics projects, teacher training, and local showcases that bring classroom learning into the community. These projects empower students as agents of change, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to address injustices and improve their communities, said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler. This grant will help provide all students with this important learning experience. Officials investigate a car crash on Interstate 91 northbound at Exit 47E in Enfield, Connecticut, on Thursday. (Douglas Hook / The Republican) Douglas Hook ENFIELD, Conn. A teen driver who lost control of his car and struck two state troopers on Interstate 91 in Enfield last week is an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Joel Alexander Caica Nishve, 18, hydroplaned across three lanes of northbound traffic on Thursday and spun into two Connecticut state troopers who had pulled over to assist in a multi-vehicle crash. Gared Hansen cuts psilocybin mushrooms in his Uptown Fungus lab to prepare for distribution in Springfield, Oregon, on Aug. 14, 2023. (Craig Mitchelldyer / Associated Press, File) Craig Mitchelldyer | AP Photo BOSTON After the state voted against a ballot question in November that would have legalized and regulated some psychedelic substances, theres new and more narrow proposed legislation that seeks to decriminalize psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms. The Joint Committee on the Judiciary heard testimony Tuesday afternoon about the proposals. Specifically, House and Senate legislation would ban any civil or criminal penalties for possession of one gram or less of psilocybin. WASHINGTON Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants in the country. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents immigration court judges as well as other professionals, said in a news release that 15 judges were fired without cause on Friday and another two on Monday. The union said they were working in courts in 10 different states across the country California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia. Its outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause, said the unions President Matt Biggs. This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring. SPRINGFIELD The victim of a fatal shooting at an apartment building in Forest Park Friday has been identified. The Hampden District Attorneys Office announced Wednesday the victim was Eric Wilson, 54 and a Springfield resident. At around 10:30 p.m. on Friday, police responded to a call at the 200th block of Orange Street, according to the DAs office. 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The opening of Sarah Wren Wilson's exhibition and the InHouse25 exhibition will take place on Thursday, July 24, from 6-8pm at Custom House Studios Westport while it will remain there until August 17. This exhibition is kindly supported by The Mayo County Council Artist Bursary Scheme, 2025. Sarah Wren Wilson's exhibition invites the viewer into a liminal space. Blue, with its associations of depth, vastness, and the unknown, creates an atmosphere of openness and quiet immersion. By entering, the viewer becomes more than a passive observer; they become part of the artwork. This immersive encounter opens a dialogue between the inner and outer worlds, between what is seen and what is felt. The paintings explore the relationship between the psyche and the external environment, reflecting how perception shapes our understanding of reality. Often, the outer world mirrors our internal landscape. A recurring motif, the net serves as both container and filter: a web of memory, emotion, and subconscious patterns. It maps the inner world, and in doing so, transforms our perception of the outer one. Through abstraction, form, colour, texture, and compositional tension, the works express emotional and narrative layers that resist simple explanation. Hard-edged lines suggest the impulse to control and define, while gestural, intuitive marks reveal vulnerability and openness. This interplay between order and intuition is central. READ MORE: Appeal for contributions to mark 50 years of Mayo arts and music festival These works are not meant to be fully understood in a conventional sense. Instead, they offer a language beyond words, giving form to what so often remains unsaid. Sarah Wren Wilson is a visual artist with a studio at Custom House Studios and Gallery in Westport. Her practice is rooted in painting, using abstraction to explore psychological space, perception, and embodied experience. She holds a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Loughborough University, an MLitt in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art, and an MSc in Art Psychotherapy from Ulster University. In 2020, she completed the Turps Banana Correspondence Painting Programme. Wren Wilson has exhibited widely across Ireland and internationally. The Monaghan native who now resides in Tourmakeady has received numerous awards and residencies, including recent fellowships at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation (2024) and RHA/IPUT Wilton Park Studios (20212022), with further residencies including Hospitalfield (Scotland), Cill Rialaig (Kerry), and Fjuk (Iceland). Sarah has also received multiple Arts Council and local authority grants and was shortlisted for the RHA Hennessy Craig Award (2022). Her work is held in public and corporate collections including the Arts Council of Ireland, the Royal Collection (UK), Morgan Stanley, Quilter Cheviot, The Dean Hotel, and private collections worldwide. READ MORE: REVEALED: Line-up for popular annual Novena at Mayo shrine THE people of the Ballyhaunis parish region turned out in big numbers to celebrate the ruby anniversary of the ordination of Fr Stephen Farragher, PP, to the priesthood. The local Pastoral Council organised a special celebration to mark the occasion. Fr Stephen, a native of The Neale, Ballinrobe, was delighted with the tremendous support shown by so many people from the Ballyhaunis region and the outpouring of kindness and goodwill on this special occasion. It was a most enjoyable occasion and one for which I will be forever grateful. A lot of work and preparation went into organising the liturgy for the Mass and the social event that followed in the Rugby Club. I wish to thank the members of the Parish Pastoral Council whose idea it was to mark the jubilee. To the choirs and musicians who provided the music and singing at the Mass, I am truly grateful. READ MORE: Mayo priest remembers 60 years of service: 'I came but to serve' In particular, I wish to express my thanks to the sub-committee who helped to organise the event: Kevin Henry, Margaret Monaghan, Gabriel Smith, Mary Donnelly, Kay Curley, Tommy Caulfield and Paula Donnellan, parish secretary, who co-ordinated the preparations. Thanks to the Rugby Club for the venue, Collette Jennings of Centra/Supervalu who prepared the food, parishioners who donated desserts, and to Breege Kenny and Irene Nunes for their beautifully-crafted cakes. To the PPC, Scoil Iosa and BCS Boards of Management for their presentations and gifts, I say a sincere thanks. Finally, to the many people who bought tickets for the event, sent cards (most of which I have yet to open) and gifts, I am most grateful. Mile buiochas agus rath De oraibh agus bhur teaghlaigh, said Fr Stephen on conveying his gratitude to the many people who made this a truly special occasion to remember. Irish parents are being urged to keep children off "powerful" e-scrambler bikes after gardai seized one being ridden dangerously over the weekend. Officers in Duleek, Co. Meath spotted two youths, both under 16, riding the electric bike along public roads and footpaths, with the passenger not wearing a helmet. Highlighting the dangers in a post on Facebook, gardai said: "These powerful bikes have the potential to cause severe or fatal injury and children using one poses a serious safety hazard. "Not everyone may realise that when used in a public space or on a public road, these bikes are subject to the same rules of the road as other vehicles," gardai added. They went on to clarify the legal obligations for e-bike and e-scooter users in Ireland. "They must be registered, taxed, insured and in good road-worthy condition, and the driver must have a driving licence." The warning comes amid growing concern over e-bikes and scooters being used illegally and without proper safety gear. Gardai say parents should be aware of both the legal risks and the physical dangers that these high-powered bikes pose to riders. READ MORE | Irish country music star shares diagnosis after 'scary' and 'difficult' hospital ordeal If you found yourself in Callow Lake a couple of weeks ago, you might have stumbled across something odd happening. Hardy Bucks star Owen Colgan has revealed that they shot a little tester episode at the scenic setting between Swinford and Foxford. We did it like an episode there a couple of weeks ago, actually, like a little tester episode in Callow Lake. [Its] an episode where we're going to be chasing a lake monster, the cousin of the Loch Ness monster. So kind of going back to the silliness too. It's more important than ever. He was speaking to Oliver Callan at a special RTE broadcast from Blacksod. Reflecting on the show, he was proud that it was a timestamp of that particular time in Ireland. READ MORE: 'Running saved my life' - 3 Bucks Left star on battling chafe in Mayo marathon challenge It has been more than a decade since the Hardy Bucks crew last got together to make an episode. Their wider cultural place remains despite the hiatus of jig acting from the gang in Castletown, the fictional place which comes from an amalgamation of Castlebar and Charlestown. Oliver Callan pointed out the popularity of clips from the show on Tiktok, which Colgan has said has given the show a resurgence every once in a while, and maybe a new generation find it. READ MORE: The Weather Girls who changed world history from the coast of Mayo Colgan says the show started with the fictional characters Eddie Durkan and the Viper knocking around Charlestown recording some sketches and then they decided to add in new characters, and then they brought us all in, a bit like the Royal Rumble. So I came in and then Michael Salmon came in, and different people came in. Joking that they were method actors since we were about six years old, Colgan thinks the older and potentially wiser Hardy Bucks are a bit more ready for it now, and I think it'd be nice to deal with current topics, like, we'll say mortgages and, having kids, divorce and all that kind of stuff. Job Title: Director of Finance and Operations Department: Africa Region Management Location: Kinshasa, DRC PATH is a global nonprofit dedicated to achieving health equity. With more than 40 years of experience forging multisector partnerships and with expertise in science, economics, technology, advocacy, and dozens of other specialties, PATH develops and scales up innovative solutions to the worlds most pressing heath challenges. Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is the largest country program within the Central Africa hub under PATHs Africa Region. The Director of Finance and Operations will support the DRC country program with financial planning, management and efficient operations and administrative services. The DFO will ensure compliance with PATHs policies, implementing efficient financial and operational business processes. The DFO will be responsible for Finance and Accounting, facilities, procurement, fleet management, administration and facilities, organizational effectiveness and policies review, compliance, risk management, and asset management to ensure all the financial and operations systems meet the demands that a rapidly growing program operations place upon them. The Director of Finance and Operations will partner with key departments, program teams, and country leaders to ensure appropriate preparedness on security and safety matters. The DFO will also provide oversight to other Hub countries. This includes ensuring sound financial management, operational efficiency, and compliance with organizational policies and donor requirements. The role will support country teams in strengthening internal controls, optimizing resource utilization, and enhancing operational systems to enable effective program delivery across the hub. This position will be based in Kinsasha, DRC and will supervise the finance, administration, procurement, logistics, and facilities teams. The position will report to the Country Director with a dotted technical reporting line to the Africa Regional Director of Operations and partnering with other regional and global teams. Key Responsibilities: a. Leadership and Management: Develop, coordinate, and implement plans for financial management, planning, and analysis as well as operations and administration to ensure efficient, effective delivery of services and in support of compliant project activities. Lead assigned teams, mentor and develop employees, providing guidance as necessary. Ensure proper staffing and recruitment to enable timely delivery of services; facilitate and cascade goal setting and team assignments in support of country program operations and delivery of programmatic services working closely with Country leadership and regional operations leadership. Provide customer service excellence and lead continuous process improvement for efficient and effective service delivery. Work closely with Country leadership and Regional operations Director to develop and implement strategies and improvements that lead to operational excellence. Contribute to the identification of funding opportunities, strategic growth planning, and support forging strategic partnerships, and supporting the design and submission of high-quality proposals b. Financial Management, Planning and Analysis: Accounting: Oversee accounting processes, including expenditures, payroll, tax compliance, travel and disbursements, ensuring timely delivery of service, and compliance with PATHs policies and local procedures. Reporting and External Relations: Collaborate with the Country leadership and project teams to develop and compile information for ad hoc and required reports for governments, donors and other stakeholders. Ensure accurate, complete, and timely reporting for financial performance and statutory purposes. Primary point of contact with banks; manage bank relationships to ensure efficient cost-effective delivery of service. Contract and Sub-award Management: Ensure adequate sub-award processes, monitoring and management systems are in place and operating for timely issuance, reporting and oversight of sub-awards. Annual and Project budgeting: Formulate budgets for the country program. Ensure Finance and PADM teams adhere to FP&A budgeting timelines and planning and budgeting for local projects and awards is accurate and complete, and all budgets are properly uploaded to Business World (BW). Lead the forecasting process and quarterly business review exercises. Periodically update financial forecasts, highlighting any key challenges or opportunities influencing performance to goals. Lead PADM teams in ensuring the regular update of all forecasts in BW in and SalesForce. Obtaining necessary insights and providing narratives to the FP&A team. Manage Payroll and local payroll taxes, ensure compliance with local government regulations and with all financial and taxation laws, such as income tax, VAT, withholding tax, social security. Ensure adequate budgetary controls and adherence to these controls to ensure that all expenditure/expenses are properly vetted and approved against the right charge codes. Provide monthly financial performance reports, advising and implementing corrective actions to ensure actual results are in line with set targets. Support Finance Decision-making: Support the FP&A team with finance decision support in the areas to drive optimization, efficiency and agility in our operations and act as a strategic, trusted advisor to the Country Director. c. Administration and Facilities Management: Support the DRC Operations and Procurement Manager to develop/review appropriate guidelines and requirements for all DRC regional offices and ensure that all the necessary facilities are in place and adequate. This includes appropriate and suitable furnishings, office supplies replenishment system, and safety and security for the staff. Ensure PATH DRC offices meet the needs of staff (both moveable and immovable assets and outdoor areas where applicable). Establish, monitor, and maintain operational activities and functions in accordance with PATHs policies and compliance with donor requirements. Office Management: Support the management of PATH's physical offices, assets, safety, and security at all PATH DRC locations. Safety and Compliance: Implement and maintain processes to ensure a safe, healthy, and compliant working environment for all employees and visitors. Works with Legal Counsel, OGC and DRC Partnerships Officer to develop and execute agreements requiring LAs review, such as teaming agreements, engagement letters, MOUs, and collaboration agreements. Work with regional Operations and assess the transport requirements of the country program regularly and ensure appropriate solutions are implemented including effective fleet management. Oversee the travel function of the country program. Oversee adherence to PATHs global travel policies for DRC staff and design, implement, and maintain DRC- specific travel policies that complement the global policies; manage staff responsible for implementing travel policies and organizing travel; request any necessary approvals for travel. ensure proper maintenance of offices and facilities. Review and secure appropriate liability insurance for all offices and facilities, including assets insurance. Ensure the provision of other basic office services, including water, sewage, cleaning, and grounds-keeping in all occupied offices (where required) When needed, work with DRC team to facilitate new project office set-up, including office space procurement and establishment, lease negotiation, identification and procurement of furniture and fittings, branding, etc. Work with project teams and regional operations to facilitate project closure, including proper disposal or relocation of assets, shut down, and exit of office space. Ensure the assets register is up to date and accurate in liaison with relevant teams. d. Procurement & Contracts Management: Working with Operations and Procurement Manager, oversee CP purchasing function, ensuring segregation of duty, adequate competition, and cost-effective vendor selections in support of country operations, providing strategic leadership and support for efficient and effective procurement. Ensure agile, efficient, and value-for-money centric procurement support that drives impactful programme delivery. Provide timely and appropriate guidance on procurement policy, strategy, and implementation across the CP. Increase efficiency by developing processes, procedures, and best practices to effectively support the programs and operations across all offices; create performance metrics and accountability. Lead tender and prequalification processes working closely with the Global Procurement team and regional Operations. Ensure that close-out schedules for all agreements are duly executed promptly and that all relevant documents are submitted and filed. Support the establishment of a Procurement Review Committee in DRC and ensure the same operates seamlessly. Take lead in ensuring that all procurement files and records are updated and maintained by the countrys procurement teams. Coordinate the collection of annual procurement plans from RPMs and consolidate them into Country plan. Develop and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to ensure optimal performance. Collaborate, negotiate, and engage with major suppliers and contractors to ensure the timely delivery of goods and services. Participate in due diligence process for vendors. Oversee the procurement department, provide the necessary administrative support for shipments of assets, and facilitate exemptions, including tax, where viable. Working closely with the program leads and the supply chain lead, ensure all program supplies are ready for distribution as per the agreed delivery dates. Review country specific procurement policies and thresholds. Ensure all staff are trained on procurement processes if necessary e. Risk Management: Internal Controls, Audits & Tax Compliance: Work closely with the regional operations director to develop and oversee local procedures and internal control compliance with PATH policies. Coordinate statutory audits and filing annual returns to the relevant government authorities. Work with Regional Operations and oversee all audits, ensuring timely engagement of audit and tax services in partnership with relevant internal stakeholders and full execution of internal audit findings and recommendations. Support the Country leadership and regional Operations Director in providing governance and management necessary to identify, evaluate, mitigate, and monitor the CP operational risks. Works closely with Legal Affair (LA) and regional operations to ensure compliance with registrations, licensing, and government statutory requirements including filing of annual returns where applicable. Review and update the PATH Security Management Plans for the country regularly in accordance with the PATH schedule and adhered to by all staff. Develop Risk Management tools, practices, and policies to analyze and report the organizations risks and manage them according to the risk management framework. Ensure the organizations risk management policies and strategies are compliant with set standards, and strategic imperatives. Ensure adequate insurance policy covers are in place, implement health and safety measures, and make business continuity plans to limit risks and prepare mitigation measures. Provide support and organize training to staff to build risk awareness within the organization. Support with the review of major contracts, proposed facilities, and/or new program landscapes for risk implications. Participate in and oversee the reviews and assess risk management policies, suggesting improvement. Ensure risk mitigation controls are implemented and operating effectively in landscapes and throughout the organization. Contribute to the Hub expansion and new country registration efforts. Review audit recommendations and ensure the corrective actions agreed are implemented. Update SMT, Finance colleagues and Managers on recurring findings. Reporting and External Relations: Support the Country Director and project Directors/Managers in compiling information for required reports and the production of reports for government and donor stakeholders. With support from Donor Reporting Team and other Headquarters staff, lead the development and submission of donor-required financial reports. Respond to ad hoc requests from donors as necessary. Reporting develop and manage a Deliverables Tracker. Exchange knowledge & network with Finance Staff of International Organizations to understand the economic, social and political environment of the country. Sub-Awards Administration/Management: Manage consultants agreements, work orders and in-country sub-agreements and sub-contracts as well as oversee the development and implementation of sub-grants and other agreements. Support project teams on grantees developing work plans, monitoring progress, tracking expenses, preparing reports, and facilitating grantees compliance with the terms of their agreements. Required Experience & Skills: Education: BSC/BA in accounting, finance or relevant field; MSc/MA/MB&A or CPA/ACCA qualification highly desired. Work Experience: 10+ years managing or leading financial and operation teams at the country level. Leadership: Proven leadership skills with an ability to provide guidance and support. Communication and Collaboration: Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities. Ability to collaborate effectively with various teams and stakeholders. Organizational Skills: Excellent organizational and time management skills. Financial Acumen: In-depth knowledge of finance and accounting principles, solid knowledge of financial analysis and forecasting. An analytic mind with strategic ability. Communication: Excellent oral and written communication skills in French and English. Ability to persuade and influence different types of audiences (single contributor, middle management, and executive leadership). Software Proficiency: Strong proficiency in MS Outlook, Word, Excel, and advanced ERP accounting systems. Knowledge of Unit4 Business World and Salesforce a plus. NGO Experience: Prior experience in an NGO or similar environment is very advantageous. Donor Knowledge: Familiarity with international donor project management and compliance is a plus. Leadership competencies: Instills Trust: Gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity. Decision Quality: Making good and timely decisions. Resourcefulness: Securing and deploying resources effectively and efficiently. Plans & Aligns (Prioritization): Planning and prioritizing work to meet commitments aligned with organizational needs. Drives Results: Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances. Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives. Ability and experience to support multiple country programs across the hub Situational Adaptability (Agile and flexible): Adapting approach in real-time to match the shifting demands of different situations. Courage: Stepping up to address difficult issues, saying and doing what as required even when it is not popular and supporting the country director to make correct decisions as appropriate. Please click on the link below to submit your application Director of Finance and Operations by Colin Kirkland , July 15, 2025 xAI, the artificial intelligence parent company of X, has issued a statement claiming that the latest model of its Grok AI chatbot has been evaluated and updated after naming itself MechaHitler in response to a user's question. We spotted a couple of issues with Grok 4 recently that we immediately investigated & mitigated, the company wrote in a post on X, offering possibilities of why the chatbot provided antisemitic responses. If you ask it What is your surname? it doesn't have one so it searches the internet leading to undesirable results, such as when its searches picked up a viral meme where it called itself MechaHitler, xAI explained. The company also said that Grok 4 aligned itself with what X-owner Elon Musk might have said on a topic and therefore sided with the personal and political perspectives the billionaire has made public, including a swath of antisemitic opinions. advertisement advertisement To mitigate, we have tweaked the prompts and have shared the details on GitHub for transparency, xAI added. We are actively monitoring and will implement further adjustments as needed. Upon viewing the GitHub prompt data, xAI asks Grok to form its own research-based conclusions before answering a question, with responses stemming from its independent analysis, not from any stated beliefs of past Grok, Elon Musk, or xAI. In addition, xAI doesn't want Grok 4 to shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated. Since its initial launch, Grok has offered users controversial answers regarding current events and political issues, including the conflict between Israel and Palestine, abortion rights, and immigration, often defaulting to what xAI and Musk have previously said on each matter. xAI's statement regarding Grok comes one day after the company announced contracts with the U.S. government, including the US Department of Defense, making its suite of AI-powered products available to every federal government department, agency, or office. by Steve McClellan , July 15, 2025 Omnicom reported a 3% increase in organic revenue for the second quarter with total revenue for the period totaling just over $4 billion, up 4.2%. It maintained full-year guidance of achieving organic growth of between 2.5% and 4.5%. But as Madison & Walls Brian Wieser noted after the company issued its results, Omnicoms organic revenue figure is not a net figure and does not exclude pass-through costs such as those related to principal-based trading, which competitors like Publicis and WPP provide. Wieser estimated that Omnicoms net organic revenue for the period was flat versus a year ago. advertisement advertisement The company is the first to report Q2 results among the major advertising holding groups, although WPP issued an early profit warning last week disclosing that its Q2 results will be significantly below what it had previously indicated. The firm will issue its full Q2 report on August 7. Publicis Groupe will issue its results on Thursday. Omnicom reported that its Media & Advertising division was up 8.2% and Precision Marketing was up 5%, together representing 68% of total revenue. Within the Media & Advertising unit, media was the best performer while the groups creative ad agencies were roughly flat. The company recorded nearly $89 million in repositioning costs for the first half of the year, primarily related to severance payments. The firm also spent $66 million on costs related to its proposed acquisition of Interpublic, which CEO John Wren told analysts on an earnings call is still on track to close later this year. He noted that 13 of the 18 countries and regions requiring approval of the transaction have given it, including the Federal Trade Commision in June. CFO Phil Angelastro stated that the European Union has not yet given its blessing to the merger but declined to identify the other markets where approval is required. The UK has indicated that it could give approval on Aug. 13 or proceed to phase two of its ongoing investigation. Asked about tariff impact on the business generally, Wren said that it was too early to tell but that for now he sees it as a bump in the road, that the company and its clients will surmount. Wren said the company had not noticed a dramatic falloff in the pipeline of new business opportunities, which contrasted with WPP comments last week that it had seen new business opportunities fall by about two-thirds compared to the previous year. Overall, Omnicoms numbers will likely be broadly reflective of the relative strength of the broader industry, Wieser said. By contrast, the weak numbers from WPP reported last week and likely soft results from IPG yet to come representing negative outliers. New rules aim to curb unsafe medicinal cannabis prescriptions and protect vulnerable patients from misuse and mental health risks. Trusted Source Tighter restrictions required in medicinal cannabis crackdown Go to source Trusted Source Did You Know? Cannabis-linked psychosis is on the riseexperts urge tighter control and evidence-based use! #medindia #mentalhealth #cannabisrisk #clinicalguidelines #telehealthsafety Cannabis-linked psychosis is on the riseexperts urge tighter control and evidence-based use! #medindia #mentalhealth #cannabisrisk #clinicalguidelines #telehealthsafety Advertisement When Cannabis Care Turns Risky Advertisement Telehealth: Shortcut or Trouble? Trusted Source AMA welcomes updated guidance on medicinal cannabis prescribing Go to source Trusted Source Stronger Rules, Safer Prescribing Mental Health and Cannabis: A Risky Mix Time for Evidence, Not Just Access Tighter restrictions required in medicinal cannabis crackdown - (https://www.ranzcp.org/news-analysis/tighter-restrictions-required-in-medicinal-cannabis-crackdown) AMA welcomes updated guidance on medicinal cannabis prescribing - (https://www.ama.com.au/media/ama-welcomes-updated-guidance-medicinal-cannabis-prescribing?) As Australia shows a sharp rise in medicinal cannabis prescriptions, regulators and medical bodies are stepping in to address growing concerns around patient safety. With increasing reports of harmincluding cases ofhealth authorities are tightening the rules, aiming to curb unsafe prescribing practices driven by profit-focused telehealth models. This coordinated response underscores a broader call for reform, urging stricter controls, better oversight, and a return to evidence-based care ().Medicinal cannabis, once seen as a breakthrough, is now under scrutiny due to rising cases ofand Psychosis . The sudden boom in prescriptionsespecially through telehealth platformshas made it easier for people to access cannabis-based treatment without proper medical checks. Experts warn that convenience should never compromise patient safety.The growth of single-issue, direct-to-consumer telehealth services has raised alarms. These services often skip important steps like, leaving patients without ongoing support. The AMA warns that these "quick fixes" may put both individuals and the health system at risk ().New guidance fromnow asks doctors to follow stricter steps when prescribing medicinal cannabis. This includes thorough assessments, clear reasons for use, treatment plans, and coordination with other health providers. These steps aim to bring professional accountability back into prescribing.Psychiatrists are especially worried about how cannabis affects mental health, with many patients experiencing. The (RANZCP) The Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists says there's little solid proof that cannabis helps withand warns that it may even worsen symptoms in vulnerable individuals.While medicinal cannabis may help in specific cases like, experts stress the need for more research and better regulation. The call is clear: remove cannabis from theand treat it like any other high-risk drugwith strict approvals and clinical evidence, not just commercial interest.Source-The Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) Trial is underway for a former North Dakota National Guard member accused of sexually assaulting two female soldiers he outranked. Daniel Carpenter is charged with felony gross sexual imposition where the person is unaware, and misdemeanor sexual assault. Those charges carry up to 20 years in prison and nearly a year in jail, respectively, and follow incidents that allegedly took place in June 2023. In his opening remarks Tuesday, Assistant Burleigh County States Attorney Isaac Lees told jurors the charges relate to incidents that involved two women Guard members at a Bismarck hotel party held after soldiers had returned from training in Montana. The women were identified in court by their initials. The Tribune does not publish names of purported sexual assault victims, or any other information such as initials that could potentially identify them. The party violated the Guards Fitness to Fight policy, which prohibits excessive drinking, as unit members were still under orders and were supposed to report for formation the next day, Lees said. Carpenter, who served as staff sergeant and readiness officer of the Guards 816th Military Police Unit, outranked both women and should not have been at the hotel as the rooms were provided for soldiers who lived out of town and Carpenter lives in Bismarck, the prosecutor said. Defense attorney Tyler Morrow said Carpenters presence was at the request of one of the women involved. Morrow told jurors that after Carpenter arrived, that woman kissed him and asked Dont you like me? The prosecutor maintained the woman was so drunk that she had difficulty walking and was in no condition to engage in consensual sexual activity. He also said a second woman who had not been drinking as heavily went to bed only to be awakened by Carpenter, who was in her bed sexually assaulting her. Lees added that the second woman was able to escape from the situation when the first woman entered the room. Defense attorney Morrow told jurors that the sexual activity did happen but stated Carpenter believed it was consensual. Morrow also said the women failed to tell anyone at the formation the following day and that it wasnt until September that details of the June incident began to emerge. After the June incident, Carpenter and the first woman communicated, with one of those discussions involving Carpenter issuing an apology, the prosecutor said. Regarding the incident with the first woman, the defense attorney told jurors that her story became one of an assault only after her husband alerted officials with the Guard and a military investigation was launched. She doesnt remember telling her husband if she was sexually assaulted or not. This is a case of regret, Morrow said. The investigation involved all three people and could have resulted in military sanctions, including monetary penalties and loss of rank, Morrow said. He also told jurors that neither woman has suffered any military discipline or sanctions to date. Carpenter was administratively separated from the service in October 2024, according to a Guard spokesperson. At the time charges were filed, Carpenter had served 17 years and had previously been deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 with the 814th Medical Company. The trial is expected to finish on Thursday. 2025 The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, N.D.). Visit www.bismarcktribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. After hours of debate that culminated in a rebuke of the Trump administration's efforts to restore Confederate names to military bases, the House Armed Services Committee voted late Tuesday to advance the annual must-pass defense policy bill that endorses a pay bump for service members. This year's National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which supports a 3.8% pay raise for troops starting in January, was approved by the committee in a bipartisan 55-2 vote, sending it to the full House for a vote in the coming weeks. Just Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna and Sara Jacobs, both of California, opposed the bill. The bipartisan outcome belies nearly 14 hours of partisan debate on amendments that Democrats sought to use as referendums on the Trump administration. Read Next: Air Force Bomb Techs Will Take Gender-Neutral Fitness Tests Beginning Next Month Democrats offered amendments on a range of issues that have simmered since the beginning of the year, including President Donald Trump's threats to invade Canada, Greenland and Panama; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal app to discuss military strikes; and Trump's plan to convert a Qatari luxury jet into Air Force One. Most of the Democratic amendments, including on those three issues, were voted down along party lines, but the committee debate offered a chance to pin down Republicans on the issues. And in one major instance, Democrats were successful: Two Republicans, Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Derek Schmidt of Kansas, crossed party lines to approve an amendment that would prohibit reversing the work of the commission that renamed Army bases and other Defense Department property that had been named for Confederate military officers. The bases were renamed after Congress created the naming commission in a previous NDAA and mandated its recommendations be implemented. But Trump, in his first term, opposed the renaming effort and, upon his return to office this year, restored the old base names, though technically with different namesakes who have the same surnames as the Confederate officers. "This has been hashed out," said Bacon, who co-sponsored the 2020 amendment to remove the Confederate names. "And what this administration is doing, particularly this secretary of defense, is sticking his finger in the eye of Congress by going back and changing the names to the old names." Bacon also sided with Democrats on an amendment to require written justification be sent to Congress if a three- or four-star officer is fired and another stating that it is inappropriate to send operational details on unsecured messaging platforms -- a reference to Hegseth's use of Signal. But that was not enough for the amendments to pass. Meanwhile, Republicans took some steps to try to codify the Trump administration's anti-diversity efforts with a handful of amendments that were approved largely along party lines. The three amendments, all offered by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, would prohibit any consideration of race or ethnicity in personnel actions; ban affirmative action at service academies by making admissions mostly dependent on a numerical score based largely on standardized test scores; and prohibit any Pentagon offices of diversity, equity, inclusion or accessibility. The committee also debated at length several amendments on the use of military funding for operations on the U.S.-Mexico border. "You all just increased DHS's [the Department of Homeland Security] budget to more than the entire Marine Corps," said Jacobs, referring to the $165 billion for DHS included in the GOP agenda bill approved earlier this month. "There's no invasion, there's no need to send our troops to the border, and there's certainly no need to take funds away from maintaining military quality-of-life infrastructure to do this." A pair of amendments from Jacobs that would have restricted the ability to use barracks and day care maintenance funding for border operations and immigration enforcement were rejected along party lines. She offered her amendments after the Army shifted $1 billion from barracks maintenance funding to cover costs associated with deployments to the border. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., criticized the amendments as "nothing more than a false effort to raise doubt about the tremendous progress the Trump administration has made to secure our border." A separate amendment from Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., to prohibit the use of any Defense Department funding for a border wall was voted down with Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Don Davis of North Carolina opposing it with Republicans. Another major theme Democrats hammered was politicization of the military, including an amendment from Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., that would have codified Defense Department policy prohibiting troops from politicking in uniform. The amendment, which failed along party lines, was sparked by a recent Trump speech at Fort Bragg at which troops cheered his attacks on his political opponents and were screened for their political leanings ahead of the event. One area that found bipartisan agreement was Ukraine. A wide majority of members from both parties supported an amendment from committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., to add $100 million to the bill's existing $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and opposed an amendment from Mace to remove all the Ukraine funding from the bill. Still, a pair of amendments from Smith to make it harder for Trump to pause aid to Ukraine was rejected along party lines. The bill now heads to the full House for approval, after which it will need to be reconciled with the Senate's version of the NDAA before heading to Trump's desk for his signature. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version last week, setting up major differences with the House version that will have to be resolved during negotiations. Related: 3.8% Raise for Service Members Endorsed by House and Senate Defense Bills BIRMINGHAM, MI - Once a historic train depot is now an Italian steakhouse following a two-year, $13 million renovation. Big Rock Italian Chophouse just opened its doors this week, located in the Birmingham Depot of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Building at 245 S. Eton Street. The restaurant spans more than 11,000 square feet, with some of the renovation keeping the train depots historic features, including hand-painted brickwork, custom millwork and arched ceilings. The main dining room is complemented by new chandeliers, original wood accents and expansive leaded glass windows. Everything from the menu to the hospitality to the ambiance is about delivering excellence with heart, said Steve Hermiz, General Manager. We want Big Rock Italian Chophouse to be a place people return to time and againfor celebrations, business dinners, or just an incredible meal." Big Rock offers a total of 360 seats across its main dining room, two private dining spaces for larger gatherings and events and seasonal outdoor patios. The 85-item menu features classic Italian entrees and pastas alongside steakhouse favorites. Located above the restaurant is the Rock Cigar Club, featuring more than 2,300 square feet of indoor space. It has plush seating with multiple TVs, a private bar, and an air filtration and HVAC systems. The club offers 200 private cigar lockers. VIP Cigar Locker Holders will receive personal concierge benefits and exclusive offerings such as club events, tastings, and access to The Rock Cigar Club app, which will act as a key for the private entrance of The Rock. Big Rock is open Sunday from 4 p.m. - 9 p.m., Monday - Thursday from 4 p.m. - 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. - 11 p.m. In addition to Big Rock Italian Chophouse, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants also operates Ocean Prime in Troy and sister company, Rusty Bucket Restaurant & Tavern, with locations in Bingham Farms, Bloomfield and Northville. This building was also converted into a restaurant in the 80s before closing in 2021. Piping Plover females are the first to leave the Great Lakes and head south to their wintering site. Many start to leave their nesting area around the first week of July. The oldest Great Lakes Piping Plover "Gabby" was observed on in a location south of her nesting site where she often makes a foraging pit stop before heading further south to her favorite winter home at Cumberland Island, GA. Pictured here is "Gabby" and a friend during sunset last winter. (Photo Courtesy of Sarah Manning at Birds Georgia) Sarah Manning EMPIRE, MI -- Its the start of a moms-only vacation for the Piping Plovers leaving their nests within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. July marks the time of year when piping plover chicks start to fledge and the adults start to get antsy for migration, according to the Great Lakes Piping Plover Conservation. The team monitored 82 pairs of Great Lakes piping plovers this season, another new record for the fluffy chicks. Piping Plover females are the first to leave the Great Lakes and head south to their wintering site. Sleeping Bears darling Gabby, or Of,gb:X,Y, already packed her bags and set off. She and her girlfriends are leaving their male partners behind to father the fledglings. By the end of August the males and most of the chicks will also migrate. Gabby, had two chicks make it to fledgling age this season. She is a mother to 37 plovers. Gabby is widely known as the oldest shorebird ever recorded for this endangered piping plover population. Gabby was seen on July 1 in a location south of her usual nesting site. The conservation team said she often makes a foraging pit stop before heading further south to her favorite winter home at Cumberland Island, Georgia, according to the conservation team. Fellow Sleeping Bear plovers have followed suit in the following weeks. The conservation team received reports of one plover in Anclote Key, Florida. She had a rough season this year where she nested at the North Manitou Island Dock and lost her first clutch to coyote egg depredation and her second clutch came into captive-rearing, the conservation team wrote on Facebook. The other female from Sleeping Bear was spotted in Fort Pulaski, Georgia. She, too, typically prefers Cumberland Island for her non-breeding season. She is likely taking a foraging pitstop in Fort Pulaski before heading a bit further south. Of,Rb:X,L had a successful season, fledgling all four of her chicks at the Platte Point area of Sleeping Bear Dunes, according to the conservation team. As more mommas head south the conservation team welcomes the postcards. If you observe an orange banded or flagged piping plover send your photo and reports to plover@umn.edu. MORE UNIQUE BIRDS ON THE LAKESHORE: These prehistoric-looking birds are acting like teenagers at a mall food court HAMLIN TOWNSHIP, MI There are a few days every summer when you can hitch a ride to this iconic Lake Michigan lighthouse skipping the 1.8-mile hike. Perched on the big lakes sandy shoreline, Big Sable Point Lighthouse is not the easiest place to visit. Those with mobility challenges, small children, or a large load of beach-day essentials may find the hike (1.8 miles each way) daunting. Thats why Lakeshore Keepers partners with the Ludington Mass Transportation Authority (the local dial-a-ride) and Ludington State Park (which owns the lighthouse) to offer bus service on select days. There are usually five bus days each year. The first one of 2025 was held on Saturday. Two buses brought visitors back and forth between the lighthouse and the park office. The next bus day is scheduled for Thursday, July 24. There are three more after that. Visitors headed to Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline line up to ride a bus rather than hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Getting there To take advantage of bus days, head out early to Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township. Be sure to pack a lunch, including water, and bring a camera. A Michigan Recreation Passport is needed to enter the park. For residents, the annual pass is $19 at the toll booth. Non-residents can purchase a day pass for $11 or an annual pass for $41. Buses run from noon to 4:30 p.m., but its prudent to get there closer to noon or even before noon if you want a good parking spot, plenty of time to explore the lighthouse grounds and a ride back. Bus days are scheduled on the following dates: Thursday, July 24 Saturday, Aug. 2 Thursday, Aug. 14 Saturday, Aug. 30 A sign directs visitors to the bus pick-up and drop-off area for trips to Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Once you arrive, the best place to park is the warming shelter lot, just north of the state parks toll booth. There will be signs directing bus day visitors toward this parking lot. From there, head east (away from Lake Michigan) on foot and follow the signs to the park office where there will be a tent to purchase tickets and, likely, a line of people waiting for the next bus. Round-trip bus tickets are $6 for adults and $4 for students 17 and younger. One-way tickets are $3 for adults and $2 for students. Cash and cards are accepted. When the bus arrives, the driver will invite visitors aboard and ensure that all the seats and standing room are filled. The buses traverse the same sand-and-gravel trail thats used for hiking and biking to the lighthouse, which are permitted on bus days. RELATED: Challenging trail through sand dunes has big payoff with lighthouse on Lake Michigan beach The 1.8-mile ride takes 10-12 minutes and ends a few hundred yards south of the lighthouse near a small restroom building. For those using the bus for the return trip, get in line by 4:30 p.m. so you dont miss the final ride. Big Sable Point Lighthouse visitors walk toward the lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Visiting and climbing Big Sable Point Lighthouse As you get off the bus, youll see Big Sables iconic black-and-white tower rising above the dunes. Its a short walk to the building. On the lighthouse grounds, theres a gift shop, interpretive signage, picnic tables, restrooms and a sandy beach. The Big Sable Point Lighthouse gift shop offers apparel and other souvenirs. The lighthouse, on the Lake Michigan shoreline, can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com The light is open for tower climbs. Tickets can be purchased in the gift shop; cash and cards are accepted. Fees to climb the tower are $8 for adults and $5 for students 17 and younger. Active military personnel and veterans can climb for free. Children must be at least 40 inches tall to climb - theres a ruler on a wall to check. For safety reasons, children may not be carried up the 130-step spiral staircase, which includes two low hatches. Visitors take photos from the balcony atop Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com While Ludington State Park does have track chairs to enhance the accessibility of its beaches, climbing the lighthouse is not universally accessible. See tower climb hours below. Summer hours (through Sept. 7): 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday Fall hours (Sept. 11 to Oct. 26): 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday A small room filled with historic artifacts and benches is used as a waiting area when the the tower is at capacity. Theres even a video about the towers history. Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Big Sable Point Lighthouse was built in 1867. Originally, it was built with a cream-colored brick, which quickly began to erode. By 1900, the tower was encased in steel, which was eventually painted white with a black stripe in the middle. In 1966, the light became fully automated. Today, it continues to be an active navigational aid with an LED beacon atop the tower. A view of the sandy Lake Michigan beach at Big Sable Point Lighthouse from a porthole window in the tower. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Those who climb the tower can peek through porthole windows on the way up, glimpsing views of Lake Michigan, the shoreline and dunes. After 130 steps, the staircase opens to the balcony that encircles the top of the tower, just below the lantern room. Visitors are welcome to take their time and enjoy the view from all sides. Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com For some visitors, the climb can be unsettling due to the open-riser staircase. Even adults sometimes make the return journey by scooting down on their backsides. Not everyone wants to or can make the climb. For those people, Lakeshore Keepers, which manages the lighthouse, recently added a live webcam west-facing fisheye view from the top of the tower. RELATED: This breathtaking Lake Michigan lighthouse view is now available without the long hike The nonprofit also manages the Ludington North Breakwater Light at Stearns Park in Ludington; White River Light Station in Whitehall; Little Sable Point Lighthouse in Mears; and the Manistee North Pierhead Lighthouse at Fifth Avenue Beach in Manistee. RELATED: Restoration of 98-year-old Lake Michigan lighthouse begins this week A view of the Lake Michigan shoreline from the balcony at the top of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Ludington State Park The 5,300-acre Ludington State Park is situated between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake. It is known for its seven miles of sandy Lake Michigan beaches, popular with visitors and locals. Other popular features include Big Sable Point Lighthouse and a one-mile stretch of Big Sable River. The park also features 21 miles of marked trails through wetlands, marshes, dunes and forests, plus two water trails. Hamlin Lake and the river are popular for recreation, including boating, hiking, fishing, paddling, tubing and swimming. RELATED: Lake Michigan state parks summer series to include live music, birds of prey and more The park recently reopened after a 10-month, $2.6 million construction project that involved repaving roads and streamlining pedestrian flow. RELATED: Sneak peek: Ludington State Park unveils first look at $2.6M renovation, new pedestrian pathways See more photos below of Big Sable Point Lighthouse and the grounds. A view of dunes from the balcony at the top of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the sandy Lake Michigan beach at Big Sable Point Lighthouse from a porthole window in the tower. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the Lake Michigan shoreline from the balcony at the top of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the Lake Michigan shoreline on the grounds of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the Lake Michigan shoreline on the grounds of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Visitors headed to Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline line up to ride a bus rather than hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of dunes from the balcony at the top of Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com The number "20" marks the 20th step up to the top of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. There are 130 steps in the 112-foot tower. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the Lake Michigan shoreline from the balcony at the top of Big Sable Point Lighthouse. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the sandy Lake Michigan beach at Big Sable Point Lighthouse from a porthole window in the tower. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com A view of the sandy beach at Big Sable Point Lighthouse on the Lake Michigan shoreline. It can be reached by hiking or biking a 1.8-mile sand-and-gravel trail at Ludington State Park, 8800 M-116 in Hamlin Township, Mich. On select summer days, buses take visitors to the lighthouse. The tower is open for climbing during the summer and fall. The lighthouse grounds include a sandy beach, restrooms, a gift shop, picnic tables, pathways and interpretive signage. Justine Lofton | jlofton@mlive.com Monrovia is believed to be the first ocean-class vessel to sink in the Great Lakes. It was rammed by another freighter on June 25, 1959. The crew survived. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary ALPENA, MI Advanced navigational equipment didnt prevent this ocean-going freighter from colliding with another ship and sinking into Lake Huron in 1959. Liberian-registered Monrovia sank on June 25, 1959, off the shores of Alpena, records show. Today, it rests under about 140 feet of water in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The ship is believed to be the first ocean-class vessel to sink in the Great Lakes. RELATED: How to see wooden barge resting under 11 feet of water in Lake Huron Despite improved charts, navigational aids, designated shipping lanes, radio telephones, and even radar, big ships still go down in the Great Lakes, according to the marine sanctuarys shipwreck summary. Carrying a load of steel, Monrovia was rammed by the freighter Royalton during a heavy fog just outside Thunder Bay. Monrovia went to the bottom in deep water. The entire crew of 29 men was rescued. RELATED: Passenger steamboat wrecked on a reef in 1849, rests under 15 feet of water The wreck sits upright on the lake bottom and is largely intact except for the collision damage, records say. Find it at GPS coordinates N44 59.020 W82 55.380. Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, designated in 2000, is a 4,300-square-mile underwater preserve that protects more than 100 historic shipwrecks in Lake Huron off the Michigan coast. It was the first marine sanctuary in the Great Lakes. Shipwrecks are available for recreation, including diving, snorkeling and paddling. Paint the Town festival and Dart for Art run ahead of 2025 Ann Arbor Art Fair ANN ARBOR Ann Arbors biggest summer event begins later this week, but townies and visitors alike took advantage of the accompanying street closures for a laid-back summer block party Tuesday evening. Ann Arborites gathered on downtown streets Tuesday for a pre-Art-Fair Paint the Town festival that included the Dart for Art mile run, live music, chalk art demonstration from artist David Zinn and other fun activities. The annual event, which took over after the Townie Street Party ended in 2024, kicked off at 5 p.m. with live art, food trucks and family-friendly activities like face painting and pickleball. Dart for Art featured a short-distance dash for kids, a mile-long elite race and a community category. Runners sprinted through the University of Michigan campus between North University and South University Avenues before celebrating at food trucks and an Arbor Brewing beer tent. Other activities included a spray park where guests could douse their friends with water hoses hooked up to an Ann Arbor Fire Department engine and an instrument petting zoo hosted by the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. The Ann Arbor Art Fair begins in earnest on Thursday, when nearly 1,000 artists and artisans from across the country will line 30 downtown city blocks. Three separate fairs will combine to welcome about 500,000 visitors to Ann Arbor over the three-day fair. To learn more about Art Fair and see a map of vendors, check out the website. Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page. MLive File Photo. University of Michigan officials are expected to fire a voice professor who a former student accused of inappropriate conduct. Jacob Hamilton/MLive.com ANN ARBOR, MI A professor in the University of Michigans School of Music, Theatre and Dance is expected to be dismissed following a complaint filed by a graduate of the school. The university Board of Regents is to decide Thursday whether to dismiss tenured associate professor Scott Piper, who chaired the colleges Department of Voice and Opera. For the reasons contained in the record, I have determined that Professor Pipers conduct substantially impairs the fulfillment of his responsibilities as a tenured faculty member at the University of Michigan and therefore constitutes cause for dismissal under Bylaw 5.09, UM president Domenico Grasso wrote in a communication to the university board. The recommended dismissal stems from complaints a 2024 graduate of the school made against Piper, The Michigan Daily reported. The graduate filed a complaint against Piper with the universitys Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office after graduating last May. The office found Piper violated the Universitys policy on sexual and gender-based misconduct by professing romantic feelings for her and walking into a student recital with his arm around her, the university newspaper reported. The Ann Arbor News/MLive requested copies of the reports and comment from the universitys public affairs office on Wednesday, but did not receive a response. The Daily also interviewed the graduate, who was not named, about other incidents that made her uncomfortable. An attorney for Piper defended his conduct, telling The Daily that Piper had expressed genuine interest in the student. Neither Piper nor his attorney David Nacht immediately responded Wednesday to requests for comment. An Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX hearing officer determined Pipers conduct was an abuse of power and corrective action was appropriate, according to a report obtained by The Daily. Dean David Gier had determined the college would recommend dismissal proceedings. The University of Michigan Board of Regents is having a special virtual meeting at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 17. The public can livestream the meeting at umich.edu/watch. Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page. Local father and commercial airline pilot Nate Hanson interviews with Saline School Board members to fill a trustee vacancy on Monday, July 14. Photo of the public meeting used with permission from Saline Area Schools via Saline Video. Photo used with permission SALINE, MI A local father and relative newcomer to the region has been tapped as an appointee to fill a trustee vacancy on the Saline School Board. During a special meeting Monday, July 14, Nate Hanson, a commercial airline pilot, told board members his family arrived in Saline roughly a year and a half ago after a colleague flying overhead pointed out their home and talked about the local community and its schools. MLive File Photo. The University of Michigan Board of Regents is set to decide July 17, 2025, whether to lease a Detroit site to developing housing for students and faculty of the university's Center for Innovation. Jacob Hamilton/MLive.com This article has been updated with a statement from The District Detroit developers. DETROIT, MI A Detroit site originally planned for affordable housing would instead be developed to house University of Michigan student and faculty. SWARTZ CREEK, MI - Plans to sell Morrish Elementary School for $40 million remain under consideration despite the collapse of a $55 billion semiconductor project tied to the Mundy Township megasite, Swartz Creeks interim superintendent confirmed Wednesday, July 16. Jim Kitchen, who took over as interim superintendent last month, said the districts focus on transparency and community engagement hasnt changed, and the upcoming town hall scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 17, at the Performance Arts Center will proceed as planned. We are are still planning to move forward. I dont believe anything changes for us, he said. The Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance has offered to purchase the Morrish Elementary property to support the development of the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee Countycommonly referred to as the megasite. The proposal would fully fund the construction of a new elementary school about a mile away from the current location. The elementary school, located on the edge of Mundy Township, currently serves 452 students. The proposed sale has generated a mix of interest and concern, particularly from residents worried about losing a walkable neighborhood school. Kitchen acknowledged those concerns and said the district is prioritizing open dialogue with the community. We know this is an important decision for our district, and we want to hear your thoughts, he said. The district has already circulated a survey to gather feedback from residents and families. Responses were due July 14, and results will help guide discussions at the upcoming town hall. Representatives from the districts architectural firm, French & Associates, and the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance are expected to be present, along with school board members and an educational consultant. If approved by the school board, the sale and relocation of Morrish Elementary wouldnt take place before fall 2028, allowing time for planning and construction. Officials with the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance emphasized the megasite projects setbackfollowing news that California-based SanDisk will not proceed with building a semiconductor factory at the sitedoes not automatically negate the potential of the broader development or the importance of the districts long-term facility planning. In a statement Wednesday, officials with the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance said the organization remains committed to working with the district, despite recent developments at the megasite. The FGEA team is absolutely committed to continuing with the opportunity to partner with Swartz Creek Community Schools as the district explores construction of a new elementary school that will benefit students long into the future, officials said. Representatives of the Economic Alliance confirmed they will participate in Thursdays town hall meeting to help answer community members questions. U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, whose district includes the region, placed the blame on federal trade policies. This is a gut punch to working families across our region, Rivet said in a statement. Trumps abandonment of long-term investments and chaotic tariff practices are not only raising costs, they just killed 10,000 good-paying jobs. This could have been a game-changer for mid-Michigans economy. We need practical solutions, not chaos and dysfunction that cost us once-in-a-generation opportunities. State and local officials say the setback hasnt diminished the sites long-term promise. We remain on course and steadfast in the site readiness efforts at the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County, Quentin L. Messer Jr., CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., said in a statement. The AMD site is one of the premier 1,000-plus acre greenfield sites in the country as a result of the investment and work that has been done to date, led by the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance with strong support from across the local community. Messer emphasized that although economic forces outside Michigans control halted the SanDisk project, the regions status as the companys preferred location is a testament to the sites strength and the communitys collaborative spirit. That momentum remains strong and will continue onward, putting Genesee County in a dynamic position to secure future advanced manufacturing investments that will bring good-paying jobs and economic opportunity to our state, he said. Kitchen, a 26-year veteran in education and longtime Swartz Creek administrator, said hes committed to guiding the district through this transitional moment with steady leadership. He replaced Rod Hetherton, who recently accepted a superintendent position in Zeeland. A multibillion-dollar semiconductor factory that promised to bring up to 10,000 jobs to Genesee County has officially been canceled, dealing a major blow to Michigans economic development ambitions. Brice Tucker | btucker@mlive.com MUNDY TWP, MI - Plans for a multibillion-dollar semiconductor factory that could have created up to 10,000 jobs in Genesee County have been canceled, dealing a major blow to Michigans economic development ambitions. SanDisk, a California-based chip manufacturer, has pulled out of plans to build its $55 billion facility at the Mundy Township megasite, according to state officials. The decision, announced Wednesday, July 16, was attributed to rising national economic uncertainty and concerns about potential federal policy shifts, including tariffs. The Mundy Township location had been the companys top choice after more than two years of planning and negotiations. The project was expected to be among the largest economic investments in Michigans history and had sparked both hope and controversy in the surrounding communities. Because of massive economic uncertainty at the national level, an advanced manufacturing company we were working with to bring a huge project to Michigan has decided not to move forward with plans to construct a semiconductor plant anywhere in the United States, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. Their board came to this decision amid national economic turmoil, which is at risk of worsening amid threats of even higher tariffs. Michigans Mundy Township site was the companys preferred destination to build their massive facility. We will continue to compete with other states and countries to bring cutting-edge factories home to Michigan so we can create economic prosperity for workers and communities and lead the next century of advanced manufacturing. While I will keep doing whatever is in my power to build on Michigans economic momentum, there is no doubt that national economic uncertainty will make this harder. We will keep bringing people together to get big things done. A source told MLive-The Flint Journal that the state will continue to market the site in the future, saying its the best site of its kind in North America. Tyler Rossmaessler of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance, who has led the project, told MLive-The Flint Journal he remains committed to securing a company for the site. While we are disappointed by this announcement, we remain 100% committed to attracting an advanced manufacturer to Genesee County and our top-notch team will continue our work to bring a project to Michigan, he said. The Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County is the best site in North America for an advanced manufacturer to locate, and we will continue our important work together to attract a job-creating project that will benefit our region and the entire state for generations to come. Republican Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall pushed back on attributing the failure to national economic trends. President Trumps tariff plans punish companies for offshoring jobs and reward those who bring factories back to the U.S. Tariffs are a major argument for building and investing in America not overseas," he said in a statement. The strong incentives in the One Big Beautiful Bill will usher in unprecedented semiconductor growth and high-tech job creation. We need state leaders focused on making Michigan the best place to build and grow, which is why House Republicans will continue fighting to cut red tape, reverse the 2023 Democrat tax hike on small businesses, and improve government services to attract job creators. The state had already allocated $250 million to prepare the site as part of its broader push to attract high-tech manufacturing jobs to the region. Local leaders and economic officials had also taken major steps to assemble land and propose infrastructure improvements in anticipation of the development. State Rep John Cherry (D-Flint) said there is still hope for a megasite project in the future. While this pause is a setback, it does not erase the progress weve made or the potential that still exists within the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County, he said in a statement. We remain committed to attracting transformative investments, supporting skilled trades and technical careers, and ensuring that Genesee County remains a competitive and compelling destination for advanced manufacturing. We will continue working with our partners at every level to advocate for policies that support economic growth and to ensure that, when the time is right, projects like this can be revived and realized. Some nearby residents had expressed concerns over the environmental and lifestyle impact of the massive project as part of protesting against the megasite. Mundy Township Supervisor Jennifer Stainton, who ran for office on an anti-megasite platform, said the news was met with mixed emotions. I dont know if its a good or bad thing, she said. For the good side of it, hopefully it means our wildlife and our way of living will be preserved for a little longer. As far as being township supervisor, its not good for us because we need to grow. But yet, at the same time, that growth needs to be done in a manner thats not going to contaminate, pollute or cause our community to be unfavorable. FLINT, MI The future of housing. Thats how Amy Hovey, CEO and executive director of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, described the new $6.2 million Gatehouse condominium development off West Fifth Avenue in Flint. Nazaro Carillo gets his face painted at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids. (Photo/Beck Particka) Becky Particka | MLive.com GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Gift of Life Michigan welcomes the West Michigan community to an evening of connection and celebration at the annual Donate Life Night at John Ball Zoo. The after-hours event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, July 17. Its dedicated to honoring organ, eye and tissue donors, celebrating transplant recipients and encouraging more residents to join the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Guests can enjoy full access to the zoos animal exhibits, free face painting, ice cream, live music, and activities hosted by local community partners. A $5 donation per person is recommended. Those who make a $10 donation to Gift of Life Michigan receive a Donate Life Night at the Zoo t-shirt. Donate Life Night at the Zoo is a meaningful way for us to come together with the West Michigan transplant community, said Dorrie Dils, president and CEO of Gift of Life Michigan. Its a time to honor the incredible generosity of donors and highlight the powerful stories of those whose lives have been transformed through transplantation. More than 2,600 Michigan patients are waiting for a lifesaving transplant, according to the Gift of Life Michigan. The best way to save lives is by joining the Donor Registry. A highlight of the evening will be the Celebration of Life Trail, a tribute showcasing the stories and memories of donors and recipients whose lives were forever changed through donation. Additionally, there will be a special program at 6:45 pm, led by WOOD-TV anchor Teresa Weakley, featuring remarks from Lisa Knight, Grand Rapids Second Ward Commissioner. To register or learn more about the donation process, visit golm.org/zoo. A view of the jail intake sign at the Bay County Law Enforcement Center. (Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com) Kaytie Boomer | MLive.com BAY CITY, MI A suspect in a recent Bay County bank robbery is in custody, a little more than 24 hours after the heist. Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham confirmed deputies, Bay City police, and FBI agents located and arrested the 27-year-old male suspect about 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15. He could not disclose what led police to the man or the circumstances of his arrest. MLive is not disclosing the Bay County mans name until he has been arraigned on criminal charges in Bay County District Court or U.S. District Court. The holdup at the Independent Bank at 745 N. Euclid Ave. occurred about 12:20 p.m. on Monday, July 14. A man entered the bank wearing a dark baseball cap, balaclava-style mask, a dark long-sleeved shirt, and a backpack, the sheriff said. The man drew a pistol and told customers and staff to get on the ground, the sheriff said. He then demanded cash from the register, stuffed the money in his backpack, and fled outside. The robber fired no shots and no one was injured, Cunningham confirmed. Witnesses last saw the robber running north toward a strip mall across East North Union Street. Though police from several agencies responded, deploying drones and K9 units, the robber made good on his escape, Cunningham said. Its unknown if the robber had a getaway car waiting for him. SAGINAW, MI A Toledo man is no longer facing sexual assault charges in Michigan after his alleged minor victim failed to show up for court. A shackled James L. Evans, 28, on Wednesday, July 16, appeared in the courtroom of Saginaw County District Judge A.T. Frank for a preliminary examination. Prosecutors in December 2023 charged Evans with one count of first- and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a victim 13 or younger, though he was not arrested on those charges until this June. Michigan Republicans say Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson avoided consequences for using state property to announce her 2026 gubernatorial campaign. Ben Orner | MLive.com House Republicans say Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson avoided consequences for violating Michigans campaign finance law earlier this year due to a loophole. Now, theyre looking to close that gap in current law. A bill sponsored by state Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Caledonia, would grant the state attorney general the authority to punish the secretary of state in the event of a violation of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act (MCFA). Currently, the secretary of state investigates and resolves all violations of the MCFA. When the secretary of state or someone connected to them is accused of violating the law, the attorney generals office investigates. However, as Attorney General Dana Nessel pointed out in the Benson case, the attorney general cant issue punishments under the MCFA. Her office previously said lawmakers may want to consider fixing this issue. This is in direct response to our Attorney General Dana Nessels recent findings that Jocelyn Benson, our secretary of state, violated Michigan campaign finance (law) yet faced no consequences due to lack of enforcement mechanisms, Rigas said Tuesday of her bill. Now there will be no excuses to enforce that law. Rigas testified Tuesday, July 15, on her bill before the House Committee on Election Integrity. No vote was taken to advance it. Benson supports the legislation. Secretary Benson believes the law should treat the secretary of state the same as everyone else and supports the legislation, said Angela Benander, a spokesperson for Benson. In May, Nessel determined that Benson violated the states campaign finance law when she used a state-owned building to announce her run for governor in 2026. Benson, a Democrat, on Jan. 22 invited reporters to the lobby of the Richard H. Austin Office Building in Lansing to watch her file candidate paperwork and ask questions about her newly launched campaign for governor. The MCFA prohibits using public resources, including space, for political campaign activities. A spokesperson for Bensons gubernatorial campaign previously said Nessel was issuing a new interpretation of the law. A person who knowingly uses public resources for political campaign activities could face a misdemeanor charge of up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Benson received only a warning and a reminder of the law. Under Rigas bill, Benson likely wouldnt have faced jail time or criminal proceedings. Even though Nessels office was barred by state law from handing out any further punishment, the outcome was appropriate given the circumstances of the violation, said chief of the AGs Opinions Division, Joshua Booth. Booth said its not unusual for the secretary of state to resolve violations by those means. State law says the secretary of state, when dealing with misdemeanor campaign finance violations, should use informal means to resolve the situation. That includes conducting a conference, using persuasion, or entering into a conciliation agreement. Conciliation agreements often include an admission of the violation, an agreement to not do it again and sometimes a payment of fines or fees. If the violator abides by the agreement, they face no further criminal or civil action. Rigas bill states that the attorney generals office would have to carry out resolutions for misdemeanor campaign finance law violations involving the secretary of state in this same way. Rigas was asked what the proper punishment should be for Bensons violation and what has typically been the punishment in similar violations. She said thats up for the attorney general to investigate and judges to decide. Judges arent involved in the informal resolutions first sought in misdemeanor MCFA violations. There should be some accountability here, and thats the main issue, Rigas said. If you or I or any of our colleagues here were to make that same violation, we would be facing consequences, and right now in the state of Michigan the secretary of state faces no consequences for this violation and this needs to change. House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, previously threatened budget cuts or spending directives to Bensons office as possible punishment but has yet to follow through. Rigas said her bill isnt about politics but is a critical fix. This is not party specific, Rigas said. Yes, this was inspired by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, but I would sit here today if we had a Republican secretary of state. The MCFA investigation into Benson stemmed from the Michigan Republican Party and two other people filing complaints with the secretary of states office alleging Benson violated the MCFA. Attorneys for Bensons campaign were unsuccessful in defending her from the violation. Broadly, they argued Bensons actions didnt meet the criteria for the violation and that a violation issued in this circumstance would infringe on her First Amendment rights. Chinese envoy calls on ICC to respect Sudan's judicial sovereignty Xinhua) 15:03, July 11, 2025 UNITED NATIONS, July 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to exercise its powers in accordance with law and respect Sudan's judicial sovereignty when dealing with the Darfur referral. Twenty years ago, the Security Council adopted a resolution to refer the situation of Sudan's Darfur region to the ICC. When going about its work, the ICC should strictly abide by the complementary jurisdiction principle of the Rome Statute, stay independent, objective and impartial, and follow the letter and spirit of the relevant Security Council resolutions without improper interpretation thereof, said Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. "When processing any international or regional hot-spot issues, equal and uniform application of international law by the ICC is imperative, so is the need not to apply double standards or exceptionalism," he told the Security Council. The ICC should work more closely with national governments. When processing the Sudan dossier, the court should fully respect Sudan's judicial sovereignty and reasonable opinion, maintain close communication and cooperation with the Sudanese government, and refrain from undue interference, said Sun. The conflict in Sudan is now in its third year, with alarming devastation and a deteriorating humanitarian situation. Faster actions and greater mediation efforts at the international level are needed to bring about an immediate ceasefire, alleviate the humanitarian plight, and search for a political solution through dialogue and negotiation, he said. Meanwhile, Sudan should also be supported in strengthening its judicial system and capacity building, so that it is better equipped to be self-reliant in the fight against impunity, he added. China remains committed to contributing constructively to solving the issue of Sudan alongside the international community, said Sun. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) News / Local by Staff reporter The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) has issued a sharp and public rebuke to Chinese businesses operating in Zimbabwe, warning them to immediately halt illicit financial activities, environmental violations, and the flouting of local laws or risk serious consequences.The warning, delivered by Tafadzwa Muguti, the Secretary for Presidential Affairs, signals a clear shift in tone from the previously accommodating posture Zimbabwe had adopted under its long-standing "Look East" policy, which welcomed Chinese investment as an alternative to strained Western relations. Muguti's remarks underscore rising government frustration amid mounting evidence of financial misconduct, labour abuses, environmental destruction, and cultural insensitivity by some Chinese firms operating in the country.Speaking during the China-Zimbabwe Business Cooperation Roundtable held in Harare yesterday, Muguti did not mince his words as he accused some Chinese investors of operating outside the formal banking system, hoarding foreign currency, externalising undeclared earnings, and exploiting Zimbabwe's mineral resources without adding value."The majority of you business people are not banking [money]. You do not have bank accounts. You are keeping money under your mattress, under the floor, or in the roof. But in China, you don't do that," Muguti said. "If they all take US dollars and Zimbabwe Gold currency (ZiG) and keep them in their houses, it causes our economy to collapse. There will be no liquidity in the market. So starting from now, we are directing you to bank your money."Muguti emphasised that all business earnings, whether in local or foreign currency, must be deposited into Zimbabwe's formal banking system and processed through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for any outward remittances. He also raised concerns over Chinese nationals entering the country as tourists but conducting business illegally, calling for strict adherence to immigration and investment protocols."It's not difficult for Chinese nationals to get investment permits. Why are you coming illegally? Let's follow the protocols. No need to bribe anyone. No need to hide. Let's do things properly," he said.Going forward, Muguti said all Chinese nationals applying for visas or permits would need a letter of acknowledgment from the Chinese ambassador to ensure government oversight on their activities within Zimbabwe.The government also criticised the environmental harm caused by Chinese miners, particularly those operating in sacred areas."We are noticing that some Chinese companies are going and digging up our ancestors' graves to extract granite or gold. There are some of them picking up the bones, putting them aside and starting to dig. That's the greatest disrespect to any person, even in your culture," Muguti warned.He urged Chinese nationals to integrate into Zimbabwean society instead of isolating themselves, saying such conduct breeds suspicion and resentment.President Emmerson Mnangagwa's administration has set a deadline for all mineral exports to be value-added locally. Muguti reiterated the policy, particularly on lithium, stressing the need for local manufacturing of lithium batteries and downstream beneficiation."Zimbabwe wants to manufacture lithium batteries here. Let's work together and manufacture locally. From Zimbabwe, you can export to DRC, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola. That's what we agreed at the China-Africa Economic Forum," Muguti said.In response, Steve Ke Zhao, CEO of the China-Zimbabwe Exchange Centre, admitted the government's frustrations were justified but noted that Chinese investors often face red tape and operational bottlenecks that push them to the fringes of legality."Unfortunately, at the moment, the Chinese companies are facing a lot of trouble. After investing huge amounts like US$5 million or US$10 million, they're facing challenges," Zhao said. "Some get Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA) certificates, but can't get work permits. Machinery is sitting idle. They can't be installed. They can't operate. They end up doing something illegal, not because they want to, but because the system delays."Zhao insisted that most Chinese investors were genuine and eager to contribute positively to Zimbabwe's economy, but lacked knowledge of local laws, regulations, and cultural norms, which he said the Exchange Centre is working to address through workshops and training.The developments reflect growing tensions between Zimbabwe's government and its largest investor bloc as authorities seek to clamp down on corruption, illegal financial practices, and environmental violations that have marred relations in recent years. A large area of thunderstorms is going to move into Lower Michigan late this afternoon and evening. While the most severe storms are expected just west of Lake Michigan, the storms could evolve into a squall line with some damaging winds here in Michigan. Here are the brand new severe weather forecasts as of 12:45 p.m. The forecast from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) breaks down the types of severe weather we can expect. I like to start with the overall severe weather forecast. Its a great way to see where there is a valid chance of severe thunderstorms. For Lower Michigan the level 2 threat of severe storms covers an area from Ludington down the Lake Michigan shore to Indiana and inland to Big Rapids, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. This gives you the picture of severe storms running out of gas somewhere in central Michigan. Overall combined severe weather threat shows the highest threat, a level 2 threat, for the west-central and southwest parts of Lower Michigan. NOAA The thunderstorms are going to develop in Wisconsin and Illinois as what we call discrete storms which means they are individual t-storms not connected in a line. These individual storms have a higher tendency to produce tornadoes. Right now it doesnt look like we have to worry much about tornadoes in Michigan this evening. Tornado forecast for this afternoon and evening shows the idea of tornadic storms in Wisconsin and Illinois turning non-tornadic before coming to Michigan. NOAA What is expected to happen is the individual storms should gel into a line of thunderstorms. Linear thunderstorms produce more straight-line wind gusts. Thats what is expected this evening in west-central and southwest Michigan. The thunderstorms should be weakening as they move to the east side of Michigan. The damaging wind forecast for late today shows west-central and southwest Lower Michigan in the 15 percent chance of scattered brief severe wind gusts. NOAA With the very warm air aloft, large hail is not expected to be a worry. Its always good to park our cars in garages when any severe thunderstorm is expected. Large hail forecast for late today does not cover any part of Michigan. NOAA Heres the radar forecast for this afternoon and evening to give you an idea of the look and location of the thunderstorms. Radar forecast from 2 p.m. today to 3 a.m. Wednesday. NOAA Everything continues to target an area of west-central Lower Michigan for the severe thunderstorms. You see that in the radar forecast with the red line of storms moving into Ludington, Pentwater, Big Rapids and Grand Rapids this evening. As with most severe weather, the damaging wind gusts should be scattered along the line of storms, and only last less than one-half hour. As the thunderstorms move through your location move to a sturdy building and stay away from the windows. India's EV ambition in the fast lane, market share can touch 7 percent in two years, says CareEdge Rohit Singh USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / Local by Staff reporter Residents of Beitbridge have expressed growing concern over the unusual green colouration of the Limpopo River's water, which they fear signals possible contamination that could pose a threat to human health, aquatic ecosystems, and wildlife.The affected stretch of the river runs through Beitbridge on its way downstream, with residents noting the sudden appearance of what looks like algae or a green pollutant spreading for several kilometres. The rapid onset of the discolouration has led many to suspect that the contamination originated upstream."We have inspected the river and collected samples. The pollution is not coming from Zimbabwe, and we are still investigating the source," said Decent Ndlovu, the provincial head of the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) in Matabeleland South. "We expect results from the laboratories soon."Beitbridge District Development Co-ordinator Sikhangezile Mafu Moyo has since issued a public notice to warn residents about the potential danger."Limpopo River's water has been contaminated by a green substance. Technocrats from EMA and water authorities have traced the contamination as far as the Shashe River, where the same discolouration is present. So it is suspected that the contamination may be originating from South Africa," she said.Moyo assured residents that for now, Dam 1, which supplies treated water to Beitbridge Urban, remains unaffected. However, she warned that the situation presents a potential danger to people who might be drawing water directly from the Limpopo River or from Dam 2, which is closer to the contaminated area."Samples were sent to a laboratory and results are expected by the end of the week," she said.The issue has sparked widespread concern on social media, with residents and environmental groups sharing images and videos of the green-tinged water. Given the Limpopo's importance as a shared water source between Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique, concerns are growing about the potential cross-border environmental impact.The Limpopo River, stretching 1,750 kilometres from near Johannesburg, serves as a natural boundary between the countries, meeting the Shashe River near the Tuli Circle. Any contamination here not only threatens Zimbabwean communities but also populations and ecosystems downstream in Mozambique.Authorities have urged residents to avoid using untreated water from the river until the contamination's cause and risks are fully established. Archisha Yadav is a sub editor with 1.5 years of experience in writing news articles on topics like education, jobs, and politics. She specialises in crafting simple, clear, and engaging stories that are easy to understand and hold the readers interest, making complex topics accessible and relatable to a larger audience. Archisha Yadav USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept MC Education Desk Read the latest and trending news on CBSE, board exams, NEET, JEE, CUET, competitive exams, scholarships, college admissions, education policies, and more. Rajni Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept UP School Closure 2025: Schools to remain closed in these districts from July 16 to 23 full list inside MC Education Desk Read the latest and trending news on CBSE, board exams, NEET, JEE, CUET, competitive exams, scholarships, college admissions, education policies, and more. Saurav Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 1/7 Cannes Red Carpet Debut - This year, Anushka made her much-anticipated debut at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. She wore a stunning violet gown inspired by traditional Indian handicrafts, radiating elegance and grace. What made her appearance truly special was her heartfelt namaste greeting, a reminder of her Indian roots. Her poise and cultural pride made a lasting impression and garnered praise globally. 2/7 Making History in South Korea - Anushkas connection with South Korea is deep and meaningful. She became the first Indian to be featured on billboards across Seouls bustling Myeong-dong district and in Busan. Her vibrant images lit up the streets, marking a moment of pride for Indian fans. During a cultural New Years Eve ceremony in South Korea, Anushka had the rare honor of ringing the traditional bell becoming the only Indian to do so. Wearing a traditional Korean hanbok, she stood beside Seouls mayor and dignitaries, strengthening ties between the two nations. 3/7 Recognized by the Korean Government - In recognition of her efforts in promoting Korean-Indian relations, Anushka was appointed Honorary Ambassador of Korean Tourism. She was honored with a prestigious award by the Korean government, highlighting her role as a cultural bridge between the two countries. 4/7 She also performed at COP28 in Dubai, using her platform to raise awareness about climate change and sustainable development. Her performances were not only entertaining but also carried powerful global messages. 5/7 Global Collaborations and Korean Film Projects - Anushka collaborated with Grammy-winning producer Ken Lewis and AY Young for Project 17, contributing to a track focused on global education. She is also leading two international Korean projectsAsia, a feature film, and its spin-off series Crush, co-starring South Korean Olympic shooter Kim Ye-ji. 6/7 Inspiration to Millions - From walking red carpets to performing on global stages and representing India in diplomatic spaces, Anushka Sen has proven that age is no barrier to making a global impact. With a mix of talent, humility, and cultural pride, she continues to inspire millions of young Indians to dream big and reach beyond borders. Exclusive - Bobby Deol was not a villain in Animal, he takes revenge, should have called an anti-hero: Guddu Dhanoa Vaishnavi Gavankar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / Local by Staff reporter Fast-food giant Simbisa Brands has been thrust into the spotlight following serious sexual harassment allegations levelled against some of its senior officials in Gweru, accused of abusing their positions to solicit romantic favours from junior staff members.A recently leaked internal report details disturbing allegations against Gweru operations manager Bekezela Sibanda, who has been singled out by staff members for alleged sexual misconduct. According to statements from affected employees, Sibanda reportedly made inappropriate romantic advances towards junior workers, including unwelcome comments about their bodies that amounted to harassment.One female employee alleged in her report that Sibanda had repeatedly forced himself on her in his office. "There is one female staff member who alleged in her report that Bekezela had forcefully grabbed me into his arms and tried to kiss me in his office, not only once," reads part of the leaked document.Sibanda is also accused of soliciting sexual favours from female employees in exchange for favourable transfers or promotions within Simbisa Brands.The report further unearthed abuse of company privileges by Sibanda, particularly concerning misuse of meal vouchers. Evidence reportedly shows he manipulated expired vouchers for personal gain, with instances cited where October 2024 vouchers were being fraudulently used in April 2025."There are some meal vouchers that were submitted without any dates of when the meal was redeemed or any signatures of Bekezela," the report noted.The same internal investigations also implicated another senior official, Mthulisi Moyo, Chicken Inn Franchise area manager, who was allegedly entangled in a relationship triangle with two subordinate managers.Following the investigation, Simbisa Brands dismissed Sibanda after finding him guilty of violating the company's strict policies on workplace sexual conduct. Simbisa Brands' code of conduct explicitly prohibits sexual harassment and abuse of authority within its ranks.Efforts to obtain a comment from Sibanda were unsuccessful as he had not responded to written questions by the time of publication.The scandal has sparked wider concerns within Zimbabwe's corporate sector about workplace abuse of power and sexual misconduct, with calls growing for companies to strengthen protections for junior staff and enforce zero-tolerance policies against harassment. M Snehanjali USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Makers of film on UP CM Yogi Adityanath move HC over certification 'delay'; court seeks CBFC's reply 101Reporters USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Vaishnavi Gavankar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Rapper Top5 stabbed in the neck after Drake's show in London M Snehanjali USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Gayatri Rani USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept When Rajesh Khanna spoke about his separation with Dimple Kapadia: Divorce nahi diya hai usne, deti he nahi, Alag Alag rehte hai kyunki... Vaishnavi Gavankar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Swaraj Singh Dhanjal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Yaruqhullah Khan USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Aishwarya Dabhade USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / Local by Staff reporter Police have launched a manhunt for David Matanda, who is wanted in connection with a fraud case currently under investigation by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Commercial Crimes Division.Authorities have offered a US$1 000 reward for information that leads to Matanda's arrest.Matanda's last known address is 10930, Tofire Street, Zengeza 4, Chitungwiza.Police are appealing to members of the public who may have information on Matanda's whereabouts to contact the investigating officers directly. Detective Constable Toronga can be reached on 0779 497 012, Detective Sergeant Muchandibaya on 0772 330 231, or Oskah Mugomeri on 0772 650 475.Law enforcement has urged anyone with relevant information to come forward and assist in bringing the suspect to justice. Indonesia has more to lose than India from differential US tariffs Ishaan Gera USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Major GST overhaul on the cards as PMO gives in-principle nod; key changes likely in slabs, procedures: Report Aishwarya Dabhade USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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I Accept Indonesia to buy 50 Boeing jets as part of tariff deal with US, claims Donald Trump Surabhi Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Christin Mathew Philip USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Deblina Halder USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept For Moneycontrol's Pro Panorama July 18 edition: How are EV sales faring in India, what a further dip in inflation means for consu... USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Khushi Keswani USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept B Kumar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / Local by Staff reporter The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has raised alarm over the escalating invasion of its Khumalo gravel pit by illegal gold miners, warning that the activities of these panners threaten to derail critical road, water, and sewer infrastructure projects. The council fears that if left unchecked, this illegal mining could force the city to incur costs of over US$4 million to decommission and backfill the site.Gravel from the Khumalo pit, along with two other sites in Pumula and Richmond, is vital for Bulawayo's civil works, including road construction and water and sewer projects. However, the Khumalo pit has now joined a growing list of sites across the city that have been overrun by illegal miners searching for gold.The invasion comes as Bulawayo battles a broader, unregulated gold rush, with hundreds of panners operating in various suburbs, including targeting educational and business institutions. Recently, the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) had to enlist the support of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to remove panners from its campus. Suburbs such as Killarney, Mqabuko Heights, Queenspark, and Mahatshula have also been affected.Council fears that illegal mining could cause structural damage to roads, buildings, and power infrastructure. In some cases, panners are digging just metres away from homes and public utilities.According to BCC's latest minutes, if the Khumalo pit is lost, gravel for projects in the eastern suburbs and central business district would have to be sourced from Pumula and Richmond, increasing transportation costs significantly."The Khumalo pit is the primary source of gravel for civil works, specifically for supplying decomposed gravel used in road construction, water and sewer bedding, and backfill materials in the eastern suburbs and CBD areas," BCC noted. "Decommissioning the pit would leave the Richmond and Pumula pits as the remaining sources, significantly increasing haul distances."Council estimates that fully backfilling the pit within six months would cost around US$4.1 million, but officials warn that backfilling alone is unlikely to stop illegal mining, as panners are now accessing the site through underground tunnels."The continued presence of these illegal gold miners endangers lives of residents in the area and contributes to environmental degradation. Council is exploring ways of addressing the situation, such as decommissioning the pit, but at a high financial cost," BCC stated.Council is also considering erecting a 1 350-metre fence around the pit, but admits that previous experiences suggest fences will likely be dismantled or bypassed by the determined miners. Heightened security was considered but dismissed as unfeasible due to limited manpower and resources.Bulawayo Deputy Mayor Councillor Edwin Ndlovu told Zimpapers that council cannot allow criminal elements to disrupt service delivery or inflate costs for ratepayers."It's part of our mandate to ensure that road construction is done at a cost that does not empty council coffers," said Cllr Ndlovu. "The Khumalo pit should be left to operate at a cost that will not burden ratepayers. Gravel from the pit is also critical in water and sewer projects, which residents expect us to carry out at a reasonable cost."He said the council would continue working with law enforcement agencies to clear illegal miners from the affected suburbs.Residents living near the pit expressed safety concerns, especially after dark. "It's difficult to see who works there as they operate at night. As residents, we are afraid they might turn on us for valuables like cell phones and cash," said Mr Mike Hlabangana of Killarney suburb.As Bulawayo grapples with the illegal gold rush, the future of its infrastructure projects hangs in the balance, with residents and officials alike calling for urgent and decisive action. SAT dismisses appeal to restrain the IPO of Smartworks Coworking: Find no good reason Brajesh Kumar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. 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I Accept Stocks to Watch Today: Ashok Leyland, Dixon Tech, Zydus Lifesciences, ICICI Lombard, HDB Financial, HDFC Life, Jindal Steel, Biocon in focus on 16 July Sunil Matkar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Aryaman Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Vikas SN USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer Alpha Desk USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Viswanath Pilla is a business journalist with 16 years of reporting experience. Based in Mumbai, Pilla covers pharma, healthcare and infrastructure sectors for Moneycontrol. Viswanath Pilla USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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I Accept Infosys to announce first quarter results on July 23, 2025; stock's dividend yield at 2.71% This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer This is an AI-assisted live blog with updates from multiple sources Disclaimer Alpha Desk USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. 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I Accept News / Local by Staff reporter The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has revealed that it has recorded 150 cases of corruption at the Beitbridge Border Post over the past four years, primarily involving collusion between Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) officials and customs clearing agents in smuggling and under-invoicing scams for personal gain.Speaking at the 19th Shipping and Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe (SFAAZ) conference in Bulawayo, ZACC chairperson Michael Reza disclosed that 65 individuals have been arrested in connection with these cases, with some already serving jail terms."A total of 150 cases were reported at Beitbridge Border Post alone, where these syndicates have operated with impunity. We are actively pursuing those cases," Reza said.He issued a stern warning to syndicates engaged in smuggling and other forms of border corruption, declaring that the government would show "no mercy" to those exploiting border posts for illicit enrichment."We have documented cases where corrupt officers conspired with clearing agents to undervalue goods, misclassify imports, and expedite illegal clearances for bribes," Reza said.While acknowledging the vital role customs agents play in driving Zimbabwe's economic growth and the realisation of its development aspirations, Reza expressed deep concern over the rampant corruption within the sector."There will be no mercy for those who treat our borders as a playground for illicit enrichment. Please take a firm stand against corruption. Adopt integrity pledges," he urged.Reza noted that SFAAZ members handle over 95 percent of Zimbabwe's commercial imports and exports, making their adherence to ethical conduct critical to national revenue collection."It is a point of bother that there is rampant and systemic corruption within your sector. SFAAZ members have, or let me say, some SFAAZ members have become conduits for smuggling and under-invoicing," he added.Reza warned that lawlessness will not be tolerated, as it stifles socio-economic progress. He cited recent investigations that uncovered shocking incidents of fraud where clearing agents and importers smuggled goods disguised as agricultural equipment, including thousands of tissue rolls and suitcases.ZACC has vowed to intensify its crackdown on corruption at Zimbabwe's borders, which remain strategic economic gateways but are increasingly plagued by criminal networks undermining the country's revenue streams. US SEC ends Cognizant bribery case that the Justice Department also abandoned Deblina Halder USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept '66 days, 23 reiterations': Congress says PM Modi must come clean on Trump's India-Pak 'ceasefire' claims Parimal Peeyush USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 9-year-old girl dies after having 2 heart attacks hours apart in Rajasthan Ria Kapoor USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Bengaluru criminal hacked to death outside home; BJP MLA accused of abetment in FIR Deblina Halder USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 'Congress will now say Rajiv Gandhi discovered Wi-Fi': BJP mocks Ashok Gehlot over claims on former PMs AI ambition Priyanjali Ghose USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Chhabi Kala USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Armaan Bhatnagar USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / National by Staff reporter Zimbabwe has been ranked as having the second highest proportion of people living with HIV (PLHIV) who reported experiencing stigma while seeking health services, according to the latest UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2025. The report draws on data from the People Living with HIV Stigma Index 2.0 (20202024) and highlights persistent challenges faced by those living with HIV in accessing healthcare without discrimination. According to the report, Iran tops the list with 36 percent of people living with HIV reporting stigma, while Zimbabwe follows closely at 30 percent. Other countries cited include Sierra Leone at 27 percent, Vietnam at 25 percent, New Zealand at 21 percent, and Indonesia at 20 percent. UNAIDS expressed deep concern that internalized stigma remains a major barrier to healthcare access for people living with HIV. The report states that one in four PLHIV experienced stigma even when seeking non-HIV-related health services, a reality that continues to undermine efforts to integrate HIV treatment into broader health care. UNAIDS noted that many people living with HIV continue to fear disclosing their status, which results in them missing medical appointments or treatment. The report further revealed that 20 percent of PLHIV have missed doses of their antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to fear of disclosure. An analysis covering 25 countries showed that almost 40 percent of PLHIV reported feeling ashamed of their status, while one in five admitted they had missed ART doses because of the stigma attached to revealing their HIV status. UNAIDS also raised concern over the intersectional stigma experienced by key populations, including people who inject drugs, transgender women, sex workers, and men who have sex with men. Many of these individuals reported experiencing violence, discrimination, and exclusion, which continues to deter them from accessing essential health services. Despite these challenges, Zimbabwe has made significant progress in combating the HIV epidemic. The country has successfully achieved the 95-95-95 targets ahead of schedule, reducing new HIV infections by over 75 percent between 2010 and 2024. According to UNAIDS, Zimbabwe remains on course to achieve a 90 percent reduction in new infections by 2030, positioning itself among the global leaders in the fight against HIV. The report noted that, as of 2024, approximately 31.6 million people globally were receiving HIV treatment, representing 77 percent of all people living with the virus. Several regions are approaching the global targets for testing, treatment, and viral suppression by 2025. Zimbabwe is among seven countries alongside Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, and Zambia that had reached the 95-95-95 targets by the end of 2024. While Zimbabwe's efforts have been lauded, the continued prevalence of stigma serves as a reminder that medical achievements alone are not enough. UNAIDS has called for targeted interventions to tackle stigma and discrimination, stressing the need for stronger mental health support systems and public education to ensure people living with HIV can access healthcare freely and without fear. 'I am innocent, I don't know anything': Chhangur Baba on religious conversion allegations Ria Kapoor USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept India always stood by its regional partners as first responder during crisis: MEA 101Reporters USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept India, China and Brazil could be 'hit very hard if': NATO Chief's big warning over Russia ties Surabhi Pandey USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept India News Live: Punjab and Haryana High Court transfers Colonel Bath assault case to CBI The Punjab and Haryana High Court has transferred the investigation in the Colonel Bath assault case over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). While speaking about the case, Colonel Bath's lawyer Pushpinder Singh Ahluwalia said, The court found the police investigation tainted. Hence, it decided to transfer the case to the CBI." The reports said that the High Court bench of Justice Rajesh Bhardwaj was allegedly dissatisfied with the pace of the investigation by the police personnel who were handling the case. Indian Navy to commission 'Nistar': All you need to know about first indigenous diving support vessel Chhabi Kala USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 'It isnt about land alone', MB Patil hits back as Nara Lokesh woos aerospace industry Christin Mathew Philip USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / National by Staff reporter A Chinese national, Zheng Chunping, appeared in court over the weekend following his arrest on allegations of dealing in dangerous drugs, specifically crystal methamphetamine (commonly known as crystal meth). Chunping appeared before Harare Magistrate Ruth Moyo facing charges of unlawful possession of dangerous drugs. He was not asked to plead and was remanded in custody. According to the State, on July 11 at around 6:30am, detectives from the CID Drugs and Narcotics Division in Harare received a tip-off that Chunping was involved in the illegal drug trade from his residence. Acting swiftly, detectives proceeded to his home at Peackwood Village, located along Cecil Road in Harare. They positioned themselves at the communal entrance of the gated community and intercepted Chunping as he arrived driving a black BMW X6. Upon identifying themselves and explaining the purpose of their visit, the officers conducted a search on Chunping. They allegedly recovered a sachet of crystal meth from his pocket. A further search of his vehicle reportedly led to the discovery of another sachet concealed inside the driver's side door panel. Detectives proceeded to search Chunping's residence but found no additional drugs. Following his arrest, the recovered substances were tested at CID Drugs and Narcotics headquarters, where they were confirmed to be crystal meth. Soon after his release from police custody, Chunping was rearrested by immigration authorities seeking to verify his immigration status in Zimbabwe. The case is expected to continue as investigations proceed. Nimisha Priya case: 'Requested them to enable discussions about payment of blood money,' says Grand Mufti of India Yeeshu Yadav USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept What led to delay in Nimisha Priya's execution? Indian nurse's lawyer reveals how faith changed the script Sonalee Borgohain USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept 'Nothing less than...': How Yemen family reacted to deferment of Nimisha Priya's execution Siddharth Chakravorty USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / National by Staff reporter Kenya has officially removed visa requirements for all African nations and most Caribbean countries, in a bold step aimed at fostering intra-African trade, tourism, and integration. The move is part of a wider continental push to enhance connectivity and ease of movement across Africa. Previously, holders of Zimbabwean passports were required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to enter Kenya, despite being exempt from traditional visas. That requirement has now also been scrapped. Under the new policy, travellers from African countries will no longer need to fill out lengthy forms or pay any visa fees to enter Kenya, marking a significant shift towards facilitating hassle-free travel across the continent. However, Kenya has clarified that this latest measure does not apply to Libya and Somalia due to ongoing security concerns. "As part of efforts to support open skies policies and tourism growth, a key proposal is to grant ETA exemptions to all African countries, except Somalia and Libya, due to security concerns," read part of a statement from the Kenyan Cabinet. In a related development, Zimbabwe has joined South Africa, Namibia, Mozambique, and Angola in agreeing to pilot the long-awaited SADC Tourism Univisa. This initiative is expected to significantly boost intra-regional tourism within the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The announcement was made during the SADC Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs) Summit of Heads of State and Government recently held in Harare. "Summit commended five Member States namely Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe for accepting to pilot the SADC Tourism Univisa, a regional instrument which is expected to simplify travel and promote regional tourism within SADC countries to boost intra-regional tourism," said SADC Executive Secretary Mr Elias Magosi. The Univisa is designed to allow foreign tourists to travel seamlessly between participating SADC countries, with expectations that the region's tourism sector will experience significant growth as a result. Kenya has also announced plans to enhance its border management systems, allowing for instant or within 72-hour ETA approvals depending on operational capacity. Zimbabwe and Kenya continue to enjoy strong diplomatic and economic ties, with Kenya's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mrs Getrude Nyausi Angote, recently reaffirming her country's commitment to deepening relations between the two nations. "Our priorities are in trade and investment, but more importantly, we intend to deepen our diplomatic relations in many ways," Ambassador Angote said during the presentation of her credentials at State House in Harare a fortnight ago. She also underscored the importance of collaboration on climate resilience: "Africa is disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. With the global climate agenda in mind, we are looking to strengthen our relationship with Zimbabwe, to build resilience and implement climate action to address droughts, floods, and other climate-related challenges." Both President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President William Ruto have laid the groundwork for enhanced cooperation through their roles in regional and continental bodies, with future engagements expected to further deepen bilateral ties. Promoting regionalism as dangerous as communalism, says Supreme Court after rejecting plea against Owaisis party Priyanjali Ghose USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Pune Porsche crash: Why Juvenile Justice Board rejected plea to try accused as adult Sonalee Borgohain USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept 'He speaks language of Pakistan, he should not say anti-national things': Rijiju says Rahul Gandhi misleads people on India's foreign policy Ria Kapoor USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Siddharth Chakravorty USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Terrorists fired four rounds in the air to celebrate: Key witness on Pahalgam terror attack Siddharth Chakravorty USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / National by Staff reporter A 22-year-old man from Chief Charumbira's area in Masvingo rural lost two front teeth after he was allegedly stabbed in the mouth during a violent altercation over a sex worker at Manyama Business Centre. The incident, which occurred around midnight on June 6, 2025, has led to Albert Mushuma facing attempted murder charges before Masvingo Magistrate Arafat Kozanai. The victim, Bothwell Wushe, of Manyama Business Centre, sustained serious injuries after Mushuma allegedly stabbed him on the lower lip with a knife, resulting in the loss of his two front teeth. According to court proceedings, the altercation arose after Wushe approached Blessing Hawu, a known sex worker, who rejected his advances. As Wushe attempted to persuade her, Mushuma and an accomplice who is still at large arrived at the scene. An argument reportedly broke out between Wushe and Mushuma, leading to the violent stabbing. The State, represented by Prosecutor Precious Takuva, alleges that Mushuma's actions were deliberate and intended to cause serious harm. The matter has been postponed to allow further investigations, while efforts to apprehend Mushuma's accomplice continue. Tesla opens first showroom in Mumbai; Delhi and Gurugram stores next, deliveries from September Aishwarya Dabhade USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Parimal Peeyush USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Woman going through emotional turmoil 'casually' files sexual harassment case against live-in partner; fined Rs 20,000 by Delhi HC Ria Kapoor USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Wouldnt let me spend time with kids: Husband of Russian woman found in Karnataka cave shares ordeal Smriti Mishra USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Bhartendu Kumar Singh is in the Indian Defence Accounts Service. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication. Namrata Agarwal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Rajan Mahan is a journalist who headed NDTV and Star News in Rajasthan. He was also a Professor of Journalism at the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication. Namrata Agarwal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. 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I Accept News / National by Paul Ndou Inyathi Senior Magistrate Samukeliswe Gumbo's leaked audio on corruption is circulating on social media.The magistrate who is reported to have offered passengers a lift was recorded blasting the country's economy while supporting corruption.In the audio she said every successful Zimbabwean to succeed there should be an element of criminality because the economy is bitting us."As a senior magistrate, I have children who should go to school but I cannot afford to send them to school, everyday I am at court at the end of the day I am going to involved in corruption because I need a descent life," she told her passengers.She further claimed that people should not judge civil servants who are corrupt because their money is not sufficient."If we are realistic US$200 and some bond civil servants are getting especially teachers cannot do anything to a normal human being," she added.One wonders how Gumbo is coping with Judiacial work where justice should be implemented regardless of class or wealth. Amitabh Sinha is Executive Editor, News18 India. He has over 25 years of experience in print and TV journalism. Arindam Roy USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Aditi Nayar is Chief Economist, Head - Research & Outreach, ICRA. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication. Namrata Agarwal USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept How a cold email to Sergey Brin at 3 am changed Google Android chief's life Shubhi Mishra USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Shubhi Mishra USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept Ankita Sengupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept MC Science Desk Read the latest and trending science newsstay updated on NASA, ISRO, space missions, planets, asteroids, black holes, AI, quantum physics, galaxy discoveries, and more exciting breakthroughs. Sheetal Kumari USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept News / National by Staff reporter The trial of Evans Nzara (28), a Beitbridge-based customs clearing agent accused of defrauding a Harare civil servant of US$15,700 in a botched vehicle import deal, has been postponed to August 7 after his legal team requested more time to review the State's evidence.Nzara, of Khwalu 1 suburb in Beitbridge, is facing charges of fraud after allegedly duping Hamufare Mugauri, a government worker, under the pretext of assisting him to import a Toyota Hilux single cab 2014 model from South Africa.The case, being prosecuted by Miss Olivia Chimutinya, was deferred after Nzara's lawyers indicated they needed further time to assess the documents submitted by the prosecution.According to court papers, the alleged fraud took place in May 2023 when Mugauri sought Nzara's assistance to secure the vehicle. Nzara claimed he could facilitate the importation process and quoted a purchase price of US$10,700. Acting on this advice, Mugauri deposited US$10,200 into a CABS account provided by Nzara, with a further US$700 sent via EcoCash.Nzara is alleged to have bought a 2010 model vehicle in South Africa, contrary to the 2014 specification agreed upon. Further, the vehicle was fraudulently cleared into Zimbabwe through manipulation of the Temporary Import Permit (TIP) facility, without proper deregistration from South Africa.When Mugauri raised concerns about the discrepancies, Nzara reportedly demanded an additional US$4,800 to process proper registration papers. He later sent Mugauri a fake customs duty receipt claiming all processes had been completed.The fraud only came to light when Harare police impounded the vehicle for lacking registration plates. Investigations revealed that no duty had been paid, the registration certificate had been doctored, and the vehicle had been fraudulently brought into the country using a fake TIP.Nzara, who had gone into hiding in South Africa, was arrested in January this year after being lured back to Zimbabwe in a police sting operation. The US$15,700 he received from Mugauri has not been recovered.The case will now proceed on August 7 at the Beitbridge Magistrates Court. Chinese companies rush to buy as Nvidia set to resume AI chip sales in the country MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation. Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Aabhas Sharma USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Ankita Chakravarti USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation. Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Aabhas Sharma USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Debangana Ghosh USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Samsung could ditch one model in the upcoming Galaxy S26 lineup, to get significant camera upgrades Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Aabhas Sharma USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Some people are talking like ChatGPT and scientists explain why MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation. Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Ankita Chakravarti USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept MC Tech Desk Read the latest and trending tech newsstay updated on AI, gadgets, cybersecurity, software updates, smartphones, blockchain, space tech, and the future of innovation. Invite your friends and family to sign up for MC Tech 3, our daily newsletter that breaks down the biggest tech and startup stories of the day Shaurya Shubham USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept 1/11 As summer spreads its warmth across Europe, rural France invites travellers to discover a quieter, more intimate charm. Beyond the grandeur of chateaux and bustling boulevards, the true soul of France resides in its villagesplaces alive with tradition, local markets, and a genuine sense of community. With over 36,000 communes across the country, selecting the very best is no simple task. Yet this curated list of ten exceptional villages, ranked and celebrated by The Telegraph for their enduring culture and character, offers a compelling glimpse into authentic French life worth exploring in 2025. (Image: Canva) 2/11 1. Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, Basque Country Nestled in the foothills of the Pyrenees, this medieval town is the traditional starting point for the Camino de Santiago. Its cobbled streets and rose-tinted houses reflect a rich Basque heritage set against lush pastoral landscapes. (Image: Canva) 3/11 2. Le Pont-de-Montvert, Cevennes, Occitanie Located on the banks of the Tarn River within Cevennes National Park, this stone-built village echoes with the history of Camisard rebellions. Surrounded by forests and ancient bridges, it embodies Frances rural and religious past. (Image: Canva) 4/11 3. Angles-sur-lAnglin, Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine Perched beside a river with cliffside ruins overlooking, this poetic village enchants with summer hollyhocks and timeless tranquility. Its fortress stands as a sentinel over centuries of peaceful rural life. (Image: Canva) 5/11 4. Montreuil-sur-Mer, Pas-de-Calais A former muse to Victor Hugo, Montreuil-sur-Mer enchants with its ramparts, cobbled lanes, and literary spirit. This northern French village offers understated charm away from typical tourist trails. (Image: Canva) 6/11 5. Kaysersberg, Alsace Framed by rolling vineyards and timber-framed houses, Kaysersberg is quintessential Alsace. Its blend of Roman heritage, festive atmosphere, and architectural elegance makes it a perennial favourite. (Image: Canva) 7/11 6. Minerve, Herault, Occitanie This medieval fortress village perched above limestone gorges recalls Cathar resilience. Today, it offers serene stone streets, sprawling vineyards, and breathtaking natural beauty. (Image: Canva) 8/11 7. Barcelonnette, Ubaye Valley, Alps A unique blend of Alpine scenery and Mexican cultural influence, Barcelonnette surprises visitors with its pastel mansions, vibrant festivals, and mountain charm. (Image: Canva) 9/11 8. Bagnoles-de-lOrne, Normandy This Belle Epoque spa town rests beside a tranquil lake, surrounded by forests. Grand villas and elegant promenades evoke a bygone era of relaxation and refined leisure. (Image: Canva) 10/11 9. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie, Lot Valley Dramatically perched atop cliffs overlooking the Lot River, this village is famed for its Gothic architecture, artistic workshops, and sweeping valley vistas that feel suspended in time. (Image: Canva) MC Travel Desk Read the latest and trending travel news storiesstay updated on new destinations, travel trends, visa updates, and expert tips for your next adventure. Priyanka Roshan USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Meanwhile, an Israeli military official said on Wednesday that some troops stationed in the Gaza Strip were to be redeployed to the area of the frontier with Syria, where Israel has struck claiming to defend the Druze minority, AFP reported. (Image: AFP) The United States views the situation as worrisome, according to the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, and has reportedly urged Israel to halt its strikes. But Israels Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Wednesday that the campaign was essential both to prevent harm to the Druze community and protect the southern border. (Image: AFP) Violence broke out over the weekend between Druze forces and Bedouin tribes in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, prompting an intervention by the Syrian government. (Image: AFP) Israel has been carrying out airstrikes on Syria as part of its commitment to protect the Druze, an Arab minority at the center of clashes with government loyalists. (Image: AFP) In a press briefing held by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), a military official confirmed Israel had targeted the ministry and an area near the presidential palace. At least one person was killed and 18 others were injured in the attacks, the Syrian health ministry told CNN. (Image: AFP) One video from a Syrian television channel showed the Ministry of Defense building being hit live on air, forcing the anchor to take cover. Israels Defense Minister Israel Katz shared the footage, saying the painful blows have begun. (Image: AFP) 1. Israel carried out a series of powerful strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus Wednesday, escalating a campaign it says is in support of an Arab minority group involved in deadly clashes with Syrian government forces. (Image: AFP) Chhabi Kala USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept News / National by Staff reporter It's game over. The standards have been thrown into the dust bins! pic.twitter.com/6shVapOviW Bulawayo24 News (@Bulawayo24News) July 5, 2025 The Harare City Council has announced plans to ban three-wheeled taxis from operating on city roads as part of sweeping reforms aimed at bringing order to the capital's chaotic public transport system.Outlined in the recently adopted Draft Master Plan 2025-2045, the council's latest proposal explicitly states that three-wheeled taxis popularly known as "tuk-tuks" will no longer be allowed to operate as public transport vehicles in Harare.The planned ban comes amid concerns over the growing proliferation of these small vehicles in suburbs such as Mabvuku and Budiriro, where they have become increasingly popular for ferrying commuters. In Mabvuku, for example, the tricycles are regularly seen transporting passengers between Tafara, Gazebo, and even Mbare Musika.City authorities say the move is part of a broader strategy to transform Harare's fractured transport sector, which has been plagued by the rise of informal and often unsafe transport modes.According to the master plan, commuter omnibuses (kombis) will also be phased out within the next three years, while pirate taxis (mushikashika) are to be banned with immediate effect.Council officials argue that the current transport environment has become unsustainable, with unregulated operators contributing to congestion, lawlessness, and an increase in road accidents.The Draft Master Plan 2025-2045 outlines efforts to reintroduce structured, reliable, and formal public transport systems, with a long-term vision of improving urban mobility, reducing congestion, and ensuring passenger safety.The ban on three-wheeled taxis is expected to face resistance from residents who have come to rely on the cheap and accessible service, especially in areas underserved by formal transport.However, council insists that order must prevail if the city is to achieve its urban renewal goals. Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Dangote submits plans for major new port in Nigeria The Dangote conglomerate has submitted plans to build a new major port in Nigeria, which is being described as the 'biggest and deepest' in the country, according to a report in Africanews. The project, for which paperwork was reportedly submitted in late June, is primarily aimed at boosting the export of products from the Dangote Group's various industries. This development is intended to create a dedicated and efficient logistics channel for the company's goods and support its large-scale operations, including the new Dangote Refinery. Bangladesh halts demolition of Satyajit Rays ancestral home, admits 'lapse' after India's offer to help Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Sonalee Borgohain USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept From blacklist to boarding: Why UK banned Pakistani flights in 2020 and why its allowing them again now Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. 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For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept How Nvidias diplomacy paid off in the US-China tech war Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept 'Another deal coming up, maybe with India': Trump teases potential India-US trade pact Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Israel bombs Syrian Army headquarters after telling Damascus to back off Druze, warns of 'painful blows' Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. 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I Accept News / Regional by Gideon Madzikatidze/Simbarashe Sithole in Plumtree A member of Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) was dragged to Plumtree magistrates courts after he assaulted his wife for leaving him behind while going to a bar.Arnold Nyoni (39) pleaded guilty to assault charges and malicious damage of property before magistrate Joshua Nembaware .Nembaware slapped the soldier with US$350 fine or two months in jail for assault charges and US$150 for malicious damage of property.Prosecutor Sheilla Nyathi told the court that on June 27, Nyoni had followed his wife Shawukwele Dube (44) at a bar and accused her leaving him behind while coming to the bar.He ordered his wife to go home upon arrival he assaulted her twice with open hands and also destroyed a decorder in that chaos.A police report was filed leading to the arrest of the solder. Khamenei calls Israel 'dog on leash' of US, says war meant to 'overthrow system' in Iran Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Administrative control of Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque transferred to Israeli settler council Israeli authorities have transferred administrative powers over the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron from the Palestinian-run municipality to a settler religious council, according to a report in Middle East Eye. The move, described as a "historic and unprecedented change," reportedly includes plans for "structural changes" at the holy site, which is known to Israelis as the Cave of the Patriarchs. The compound has been divided into a mosque and a synagogue since the 1994 massacre of Palestinian worshippers by an Israeli settler. The transfer of control follows another recent change in practice, where Israeli authorities, for the first time, did not hand over all sections of the mosque to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs during Ramadan as was customary. Hemant Abhishek USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Trump says hes disappointed but not done with Putin over Ukraine war Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Ukraine celebrates Trump's weapons reversal, but the 'devil's in the details' Sonalee Borgohain USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. 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I Accept Who is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, the Grand Mufti of India behind the halting of Nimisha Priyas execution in Yemen? Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Why France is scrapping holidays and freezing benefits to fix its finances Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Why Israel is bombing Syria again? The Druze-Bedouin clashes in Sweida explained Abhinav Gupta USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept Why Trump is now arming Ukraine after blaming it for the war Pragya Trivedi USER CONSENT We at moneycontrol use cookies and other tracking technologies to assist you with navigation and determine your location. We also capture cookies to obtain your feedback, analyse your use of our products and services and provide content from third parties. By clicking on 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies and other tracking technologies. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy. *We collect cookies for the functioning of our website and to give you the best experience. This includes some essential cookies. Cookies from third parties which may be used for personalization and determining your location. By clicking 'I Accept', you agree to the usage of cookies to enhance your personalized experience on our site. For more details you can refer to our cookie policy *I agree to the updated privacy policy and I warrant that I am above 16 years of age I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of personalised recommendations on financial and similar products offered by MoneyControl I agree personalized advertisements and any kind of remarketing/retargeting on other third party websites I agree to receive direct marketing communications via Emails and SMS Please select (*) all mandatory conditions to continue. I Accept A container truck is seen traveling down the road at the Port Authority of Guam in Piti on Jan. 29, 2025. Photo by Frank San Nicolas/The Guam Daily Post California State Capitol Building View Photo Sacramento, CA AT&T would like to shed its Carrier of Last Resort status, which in California requires that it provide landline phone availability in its service area. A proposal to allow similar changes, spurred by a desire to phase out its costly copper wiring infrastructure, was denied last year by the California Public Utilities Commission following public outcry. The legislative process is now being explored. The company estimates that fewer than 5% of Californians currently have landline service, however, it is an important tool in more rural areas with limited cell phone coverage, especially during times of emergencies. The bill is currently going through legislative committees and could go before the Assembly and Senate later this year. It cleared a Senate Communications Committee test on Monday, 9-2. Proponents argued that it has safeguards in place, such as requiring that AT&T have at least two other services available (wireless) for customers impacted prior to stopping landline availability. The service must also be equal in cost to what is currently being paid for a landline. The bill is authored by Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, who argues that the communication system needs to be upgraded. AT&T would like to take the money needed to provide upkeep on its copper wire network, especially in urban areas, and use it for other infrastructure needs. CAL Fire MMU Logo View Photo Sonora, CA A man from San Andreas was among seven killed in a deadly explosion at a pyrotechnics facility in Yolo County, prompting state officials to suspend the licenses of two individuals tied to the site as the investigation presses on. Carlos Javier Rodriguez-Mora, 43, of San Andreas, was one of the victims identified by the Yolo County coroner following the July 1 explosion at a pyrotechnics facility near Esparto. The others killed included residents of San Francisco, Sacramento, San Pablo, and Stockton. The CAL FIRE Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) announced it has suspended the pyrotechnic licenses of Kenneth Chee of Devastating Pyrotechnics Inc. and Craig Cutright of Blackstar Fireworks. While our Arson & Bomb Investigators have completed their evidence collection from the explosion site, the investigation remains very active, State Fire Marshal Chief Daniel Berlant said. We continue to remain laser focused on this investigation as the family and the community deserve answers. State officials noted that facilities like the one involved are required to follow strict state and federal regulations for fireworks and explosive storage. Violations or failures related to those requirements have not yet been disclosed. CAL FIRE said it will continue to release additional information as it becomes available, provided it does not interfere with the ongoing investigation. The Latest: 20 killed at Gaza food hub; Israel continues strikes in Syria View Photo Twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution center run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund sites, although hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 54 others, including 14 children, according to hospital officials. Meanwhile in Syria, government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire late Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the countrys postwar political transition and drawn escalated military intervention from neighboring Israel. Heres the latest: Israel accuses the UN of ignoring Israeli suffering and refusing to condemn Hamas Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, the political coordinator at Israels U.N. Mission, told the U.N. Security Council that some of its members seem to forget Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that saw about 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza. Instead, were presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendants chair, while Hamas, the very cause of this conflict and the very instigator of suffering of Israelis but also of Palestinians, goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation, she said. No U.N. resolution on Gaza, either by the Security Council or the General Assembly, has condemned the Hamas militant group. Palestinians accuse Israel of playing `Russian roulette with their lives The Palestinian deputy ambassador, Majed Bamya, told a U.N. Security Council meeting that death is now much more familiar than life to the 2 million people in Gaza, where no family has been untouched by the loss of loved ones. Every decision they are making while we speak is a life and death decision every single day, every single hour, every single minute, he said. But it is a Russian roulette with a bullet in almost every chamber. Whatever decision you make, most probably somebody is going to die. He held up photos of more than half a dozen children killed and severely injured in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Bamya said all paths in Gaza lead to death but the Palestinians have a responsibility and legal and moral duty to open a path to salvation. Israel wants that path to be leaving Gaza, he said. UNICEF says the world has failed Gazas children More than 17,000 kids have reportedly been killed and 33,000 wounded in the ongoing war in Gaza, UNICEFs executive director Catherine Russell told the U.N. Security Council. She said each of the territorys one million children have faced immense suffering. An average of 28 kids die daily in Gaza, a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years, she said. Malnutrition has surged, with nearly 6,000 children acutely malnourished in June, a 180% increase since February, she said. UNICEF warns these children will face lifelong impacts. UN humanitarian chief says conditions in Gaza are beyond vocabulary Food supplies are running out and civilians are being shot while seeking something to eat, Undersecretary-General Tom Fletcher said Wednesday. Civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity, Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council, emphasizing Israels obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide food and medical aid as the occupying power in Gaza. He also challenged the council to consider whether Israels rules of engagement incorporate all the precautions to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. Turkey says ceasefire in Syria possible within 3-4 hours Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking to Turkish journalists in New York, said his country was coordinating closely with neighboring nations and the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who is also the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. The Turkish minister also said that Turkey had directly communicated with Israel through its intelligence agency, sharing its concerns over the attacks and proposing solutions, which he did not elaborate. UN calls reports of dozens killed at Israeli-militarized food site in Gaza horrific Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesman, also described people being severely injured at the U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Fund sites, such as the World Health Organization report on a 21-year-old man shot and paralyzed for life while trying to collect a bag of flour at one of the hubs. The spokesman told reporters Wednesday that the U.N. Population Fund, meanwhile, reports that domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse are on the rise and pregnant women are delivering their babies in the dark, with no electricity or no skilled care to address potential complications. Additionally, a survey by one of the U.N.s partners found that more than 80% of people with disabilities have lost wheelchairs, hearing aids, walkers and many other devices during the war in Gaza, Dujarric said. UN chief condemns Israels stepped-up airstrikes in Syria and all violence against civilians Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterates his call for an immediate de-escalation of violence and urgent measures to restore calm and facilitate humanitarian access, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. The U.N. chief is alarmed at the escalating violence in Sweida, a Druze-majority area which has reportedly caused hundreds of deaths including civilians and injured and displaced many more, Dujarric said. Dujarric said in response to a question that videos showing government forces attacking civilians are shocking and highly, highly disturbing. He said thats why Guterres is eager to follow up with the government on its call for an investigation and its commitment to accountability for those responsible. The secretary-general also condemns Israels escalatory airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa and in the center of Damascus and reports that Israel is redeploying troops in the Golan, Dujarric said. Key governing partner of Netanyahu quits A key governing partner of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday it is quitting the government, leaving him with a minority in parliament. The Shas ultra-Orthodox party said it was leaving over disagreements surrounding a proposed law meant to grant wide military draft exemptions to its constituents. A second ultra-Orthodox party quit earlier this week over the same issue. Leading a minority government would make governing a challenge for Netanyahu. But Shas said it wouldnt work to undermine the coalition once outside it and could vote with it on some laws. It also wouldnt support its collapse. The political turmoil comes as Israel and Hamas are negotiating on a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. Fearing for their relatives, Druze in Israeli-controlled territory cross into Syria Members of the Druze minority in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights were seen crossing into Syria on Wednesday, fearing for their relatives fate as clashes raged between Syrian Druze and government forces. Waving the communitys multicolored flag, a procession of people from the minority marched into Syria. Israeli forces were seen nearby. Once in Syrian territory, Druze were seen reuniting with their loved ones. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, separating many Druze families from their relatives in Syria. Residents said they felt they had to do something in the face of harsh images emerging from the clashes. Its hard for us to stand here, not doing anything, said Majd Shaer, who said he has relatives in Syria. Syrian media reports a new ceasefire agreement has been reached A new ceasefire agreement has been reached to end days of fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups in the southern city of Sweida, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported Wednesday, citing an unidentified Interior Ministry official. The report said security checkpoints have been deployed in the city, and it has been fully integrated into the Syrian state. There was no immediate statement from Druze officials. A previous ceasefire agreement reached the day before quickly fell apart. The clashes in Sweida province initially broke out between members of local Bedouin tribes and Druze militias. Government security forces deployed to restore order, but also began clashing with the Druze factions, with allegations that government-affiliated forces had looted and burned civilian houses and carried out summary executions. U.S. very concerned by Israel-Syria violence The U.S. is very concerned about the latest surge in Israel-Syria violence and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore what had been a fragile ceasefire between the two countries, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. Were very concerned about it, we want it to stop, Rubio told reporters at the State Department after signing a civilian nuclear agreement with the foreign minister of Bahrain. Rubio said he had just been on the phone with relevant parties and that he hoped to have an update later. Turkey criticizes Israeli airstrikes on Damascus Turkeys Foreign Ministry said Wednesdays strikes on the Syrian capital were an a attempt to sabotage Syrias efforts to achieve peace, stability and security, and called for support for Syrias efforts to restore order across the country. The Syrian people have a historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world, the ministry said. All stakeholders who support this opportunity should contribute to the Syrian governments efforts to restore peace. Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party, also affirmed Turkeys support to Syria. Israels attacks pose a security threat to the entire region and the world, Celik wrote on the social media platform X. Israeli jets strike Syrian defense ministry headquarters again Israeli jets struck the Syrian Defense Ministrys headquarters in central Damascus in the second such attack Wednesday. The strike, which came hours after a drone strike on the same site in the capital, caused significant damage. Israel has launched a series of strikes targeting Syrian government forces in the southern Sweida province. The Israeli government says its to support the Druze community. Syrian state media reported that there were a number of wounded people in the strike, without giving details. The building is located close to the busy Ummayad Square. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that they will escalate their attacks against the Syrian government with painful blows. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire. The Druze have accused government forces and allies of sectarian attacks, looting, and beatings during their ongoing military operation. Hundreds from Druze community gather along Syria-Israel border Hundreds of members of the Druze community from Majdal Shams and Druze villages in northern Israel have gathered along the border fence with Syria, trying to enter the country to support Druze armed groups as they continue to clash with Syrias government forces. Videos widely circulated on social media showed that many Druze were able to cross into Syria, where the majority of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live. Meanwhile, hundreds of the Syrian Druze community gathered on the other side of the fence, though it was not immediately clear if they were demonstrating or trying to cross the border. The Israeli military said dozens have tried to cross into Israel. Tensions intensified when several Syrian Druze protesters stood atop a tractor waiving Druze flags and Israeli troops responded by lobbing tear gas, forcing them to shortly retreat. Dozens have been killed in the hostilities sparked by a series of tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings. US ambassador pays surprise visit to Netanyahus trial The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, briefly attended the court proceedings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, saying he wanted to support the embattled Israeli leader in his ongoing corruption trial. Huckabees visit to the courthouse was a rare act of involvement in his host countrys internal affairs. It comes after President Donald Trump condemned the trial as a witch hunt. Speaking in Tel Aviv, Huckabee said the visit was a matter of representing what the president has said repeatedly. Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The president has made his position very clear, Huckabee said ahead of his visit to the courthouse. Its a personal thing for him. He considers the Prime Minister a friend. After the visit, Huckabee reposted Trumps call for the trial to be thrown out and added the comment: My conclusion? Trump is rightagain. Israel strikes near d efense ministry in Damascus The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus, as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border. It has said it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos at food distribution site Gazas Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd outside one of its food distribution hubs, causing a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites. They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us. They had aid inside, but they intentionally did not distribute it to let people crowd outside, said Abdullah Aleyat, who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning. Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly from tear gas. The injuries were not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other, Al-Najjar said as he carried an injured stranger to a hospital. The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private American contractors, and Israeli troops surround the sites. The United Nations human rights office and Gazas Health Ministry said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF. By The Associated Press Federal judge reverses rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports View Photo NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge in Texas removed a Biden-era finalized rule by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would have removed medical debt from credit reports. U.S. District Court Judge Sean Jordan of Texass Eastern District, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, found on Friday that the rule exceeded the CFPB s authority. Jordan said that the CFPB is not permitted to remove medical debt from credit reports according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies. Removing medical debt from consumer credit reports was expected to increase the credit scores of millions of families by an average of 20 points, the bureau said. The CFPB states that its research has shown outstanding healthcare claims to be a poor predictor of an individuals ability to repay a loan, yet they are often used to deny mortgage applications. The three national credit reporting agencies Experian, Equifax and TransUnion announced last year that they would remove medical collections under $500 from U.S. consumer credit reports. The CFPBs rule was projected to ban all outstanding medical bills from appearing on credit reports and prohibit lenders from using the information. The CFPB estimated the rule would have removed $49 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of 15 million Americans. According to the agency, one in five Americans has at least one medical debt collection account on their credit reports, and over half of the collection entries on credit reports are for medical debts. The problem disproportionately affects people of color, the CFPB has found: 28% of Black people and 22% of Latino people in the U.S. carry medical debt versus 17% of white people. The CFPB was established by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to monitor credit card companies, mortgage providers, debt collectors and other segments of the consumer finance industry. Earlier this year, the Trump administration requested that the agency halt nearly all its operations, effectively shutting it down. The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism. By ADRIANA MORGA and CORA LEWIS Associated Press Global views of China and Xi improve, while they decline about the US and Trump, survey says Global views of China and Xi improve, while they decline about the US and Trump, survey says View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) Views of China and its leader, Xi Jinping, have improved in many countries worldwide, while those of the U.S. and President Donald Trump have deteriorated, according to a new survey of about two dozen countries by the Pew Research Center. Released Tuesday, the survey shows that international views of the two superpowers and their leaders are closer than since 2020. The results are a drastic departure from those in the past several years when the U.S. and its leader then-President Joe Biden enjoyed more favorable international views than China and its president. In its latest survey of 24 countries, Pew found that the U.S. was viewed more favorably than China in eight countries, China was viewed more favorably in seven, and the two were viewed about equally in the remainder. Pew did not provide definitive explanations for the shifts, but Laura Silver, associate director of research, said its possible that views of a country may change when those of another superpower shift. As the U.S. potentially looks like a less reliable partner and people have limited confidence, for example, in Trump to lead the global economy, China may look different in some peoples eyes, Silver said. Also, Chinas human rights policies and its handling of the pandemic which were related to negative views of the country in the past may not weigh as much this time, she said. A group of Democratic senators this week accused the Trump administration of ceding global influence to China by shuttering foreign aid programs, imposing tariffs on allies, cracking down on elite universities and restricting visas for international students. In the Pew findings, 35% of those in 10 high-income countries surveyed consistently including Canada, France, Germany and Italy have favorable opinions of the U.S., down from 51% from last year. By comparison, 32% of them have positive views of China, up from last years 23%. And 24% of them say they have confidence in Trump, compared with 53% last year for Biden. Xi scored a slight improvement: 22% of those in these rich countries say they have confidence in the Chinese president, up from last years 17%. However, people in Israel have far more favorable views of the U.S. than of China: 83% of Israelis like the U.S., compared with 33% who say they have positive views of China. And 69% of them say they have confidence in Trump, while only 9% express confidence in Xi. Pew surveyed more than 30,000 people across 25 countries including the U.S., which was excluded from the comparison from Jan. 8 to April 26. The margins of error for each country ranged from plus or minus 2.5 to plus or minus 4.7. ___ AP writers Emily Swanson and Linley Sanders contributed to this report. By DIDI TANG Associated Press Judge wont rule this week on releasing Kilmar Abrego Garcia from jail View Photo NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Wednesday tried to poke holes in the human smuggling case the government is pursuing against him in Tennessee, while a federal judge said he wont rule this week on freeing Abrego Garcia from jail, a decision that could precipitate his deportation. Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trumps immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That expulsion violated a U.S. immigration judges 2019 order that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there. Facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Republican administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called preposterous. That case relies on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, several of whom have either requested or received help with immigration and criminal matters in return for their statements, according to earlier testimony. Under questioning on Wednesday, Homeland Security special agent Peter Joseph said he was unaware that a lead witness against Abrego Garcia was calling other witnesses from jail. Asked whether there was reason to believe they might have coordinated their testimony, Joseph noted that three of the witnesses are related. Thats always a possibility, he said. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on. The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang, but that is not part of the charges against him and he has repeatedly denied the allegation. Abrego Garcia has said in court documents that he was beaten and subjected to psychological torture in a notorious El Salvador prison, while El Salvadors president has denied those allegations. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville ruled last month that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release but has kept Abrego Garcia in jail at the request of his own lawyers after U.S. officials said he would be immediately detained and targeted for expulsion for the second time. At Wednesdays hearing, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to revoke Holmes opinion and rule that Abrego Garcia cannot be released. Crenshaw said he would likely rule on the matter next week. Meanwhile, Abrego Garcias immigration attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland to order the government to send him to that state if hes released, a request that aims to prevent his expulsion before trial. Xinis is overseeing a lawsuit against the Trump administration that was filed by Abrego Garcias American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, over his wrongful deportation in March. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland, just outside of Washington, for more than a decade, working construction and raising a family. In court last Friday, Abrego Garcias attorneys also asked Xinis to prevent his immediate deportation if he were released from jail by ordering a hold of at least 72-hours. Xinis has not ruled on the matter. If Abrego Garcia is released into ICE custody, his lawyers have vowed to fight expulsion efforts within the U.S. immigration court system, which is part of the Justice Department. ___ This story has been corrected to show the district judges surname is Crenshaw, not Waverly. Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. By TRAVIS LOLLER, JONATHAN MATTISE and BEN FINLEY Associated Press Trump tells Texas Republicans to redraw the state congressional map to help keep House majority Trump tells Texas Republicans to redraw the state congressional map to help keep House majority View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is pushing Texas Republicans to redraw the states congressional maps to create more House seats favorable to his party, part of a broader effort to help the GOP retain control of the chamber in next years midterm elections. The presidents directive signals part of the strategy Trump is likely to take to avoid a repeat of his first term, when Democrats flipped the House just two years into his presidency. It comes shortly before the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature is scheduled to begin a special session next week during which it will consider new congressional maps to further marginalize Democrats in the state. Asked as he departed the White House for Pittsburgh about the possibility of adding GOP-friendly districts around the country, Trump responded, Texas will be the biggest one. And thatll be five. Trump had a call earlier Tuesday with members of Texas Republican congressional delegation and told them the state Legislature would pursue five new winnable seats through redistricting, according to a person familiar the call who was not authorized to discuss it. The call was first reported by Punchbowl News. Some Texas Republicans have been hesitant about redrawing the maps because theres only so many new seats a party can grab before its incumbents are put at risk. Republicans gain new seats by relocating Democratic voters out of competitive areas and into other GOP-leaning ones, which may then turn competitive with the influx. There comes the point where you slice the baloney too thin and it backfires, said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Democrats will have a hard time retaliating Congressional maps drawn after the 2020 census were expected to remain in place through the end of the decade. If Texas redraws them at the behest of Trump, that could lead other states to do the same, including those controlled by Democrats. In response to the Texas plan, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on social media: Two can play this game. Still, Democrats may have their hands at least partly tied. Many of the states the party controls have their state legislative and congressional maps drawn by independent commissions that are not supposed to favor either party. Thats the case in California, where Newsom has no role in the redistricting game after voters approved the commission system with a 2008 ballot initiative. Newsom on Tuesday afternoon floated the notion of Californias Democratic-controlled Legislature doing a mid-decade redistricting and arguing it wouldnt be expressly forbidden by the 2008 ballot initiative. Democrats already hold 43 of the states 52 House seats. He also proposed squeezing in a special election to repeal the popular commission system before the 2026 elections get underway, but either would be an extraordinary long shot. There isnt a whole lot Democrats can do right now, said Michael Li of the Brennan Center for Justice. In terms of doing tit-for-tat, theyve got a weaker hand. Li noted that Democrats are backing lawsuits to overturn some GOP-drawn maps, and theres a chance some of those could be successful before the midterm elections. That includes in Wisconsin, where the new liberal majority on the state supreme court declined to immediately overturn the states GOP-drawn congressional maps earlier this year. Democrats and their allies have filed suit in a lower court hoping to beat the clock and get new maps in place by next year. Democrats also have litigation in Utah and Florida. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case out of Louisiana that seeks to unravel one majority Black district mandated by the Voting Rights Act. The case could lead to sweeping changes in longstanding rules requiring mapmakers to ensure that racial minorities get a chance to be an electoral majority or plurality in some areas. The high court is expected to rule in that case by next summer. Re-opening maps undermines free and fair elections Redistricting is a constitutionally mandated process for redrawing political districts after the once-a-decade census to ensure they have equal populations. But there is no prohibition against rejiggering maps between censuses, and sometimes court rulings have made that mandatory. The wave of voluntary mid-decade redistricting that Trump is encouraging, however, is unusual. Its also left some Democrats fuming that their party has ceded much its mapmaking power to independent commissions in states it controls, including Colorado, Michigan and Washington. Reformers often do not understand the importance of political power, said Rick Ridder, a Democratic strategist in Denver. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wouldnt comment on whether nonpartisan systems should be rolled back, instead saying Trumps push will undermine free and fair elections. Public servants should earn the votes of the people that they hope to represent. What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to have politicians choose their voters, Jeffries told reporters. Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, whose district includes part of Austin, also criticized Texas Republicans for focusing on redistricting after floods killed at least 132 people, and with more still missing. Redistricting, this scheme, is an act of desperation, he said. Texas lawmakers will consider a new map during special session The special Texas legislative session scheduled to start Monday is intended to focus primarily on the aftermath of the deadly floods. An agenda for the session set by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott put forth plans to take up legislation that provides a revised congressional redistricting plan in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. Republicans in Ohio also are poised to redraw their maps after years of political and court battles over the states redistricting process. The GOP-controlled Legislature is considering expanding the partys lead in the congressional delegation to as much as 13-2. It currently has a 10-5 advantage. Still, there are practical limits as to how many new seats any party can squeeze from a map. Thats why some Texas Republicans have been hesitant about another redraw. In 2011, the partys legislators drew an aggressive map to expand their majority, only to find seats they thought were safe washed away in the 2018 Democratic wave election during Trumps first term. In response, the map in 2021 was drawn more cautiously, mainly preserving the GOPs current outsized majority in its congressional delegation. There are 25 Republican House members from the state compared to 12 Democrats and one Democratic vacancy that is scheduled to be filled by a special election. A five-seat shift into the GOP column would mean the party holds 30 of Texas 38 seats after winning 56% of the vote in last years presidential election. Both parties see potential advantages In Austin, Republican lawmakers said they embrace the opportunity to redraw maps. State Rep. Brian Harrison, who served in the first Trump administration, said lawmakers can do it in a way thats thoughtful and constructive. This is something that we can do, and something that we should do, GOP Texas Sen. John Cornyn said he expects a new map will lead to significant gains, in part because Latino voters have been trending toward Republicans in recent elections. But Rep. Suzan DelBene, chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Tuesday that there was no way to redraw the boundaries without exposing more GOP incumbents to a possible Democratic wave. When a party wins the White House, it usually loses seats in the midterms. Any new map that Texas Republicans draw will almost inevitably create more competitive districts, DelBene told reporters. This scheme to rig the maps is hardly going to shore up their majority. It is going to expand the battleground in the race for the majority. ___ This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the name of the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. ___ Associated Press Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro in Washington and writers Nadia Lathan in Austin, Texas, and Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. By JOEY CAPPELLETTI and NICHOLAS RICCARDI Associated Press Vance touts tax breaks in Pennsylvania as he makes White Houses first big pitch on Trumps new law Vance touts tax breaks in Pennsylvania as he makes White Houses first big pitch on Trumps new law View Photo WEST PITTSTON, Pa. (AP) Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday made the Trump administrations first big pitch to sell the public on President Donald Trumps sweeping budget-and-policy package in the swing political turf of northeastern Pennsylvania. The vice president, whose tiebreaking vote got the bill through the Senate, touted the legislations tax breaks and cast Democrats as opponents of the cutting taxes because of their unanimous opposition to the legislation. Democrats, whove decried the wide-ranging laws cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, along with other provisions, are expected to try to use it against Republicans in closely contested congressional campaigns next year that will determine control of Congress. The GOP plans to use it to make their case as well, something the Republican vice president asked the crowd in working-class West Pittston to help with. Go and talk to your neighbors, go and talk to your friends, about what this bill does for Americas citizens. Because we dont want to wake up in a year and a half and give the Democrats power back, he said. Vance zeroes in on tax message As Vance spoke at at an industrial machine shop, the vice president was quick to highlight the bills new tax deductions on overtime. You earned that money, Vance said. You ought to keep it in your pocket. He also promoted the legislations creation of a new childrens savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department. Recognizing the significance of the coal and gas industry in Pennsylvania, he also talked up the ways the law seeks to promote energy extraction, such as allowing increased leasing for drilling, mining and logging on public lands, speeding up government approvals and cutting royalty rates paid by extraction companies. We are finally going to drill, baby drill and invest in American energy, Vance said. And I know you all love that. The historic legislation, which Trump signed into law earlier this month with near unanimous Republican support, includes key campaign pledges like no tax on tips but also cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. Democrats recently held a town hall in House Speaker Mike Johnsons home state of Louisiana to denounce the legislation as a reverse Robin Hood stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Republicans see Democrats preparing campaign message around the law Vances office declined to elaborate on plans for other public events around the U.S. to promote the bill. After his remarks, he visited a nearby diner where he picked up food and spoke to some of the patrons. Its unclear how much Trump plans to promote it himself. He told NBC News last week that he would travel a little bit to help champion the measure he dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. But honestly, he said, Its been received so well I dont think I have to. But later Wednesday during a signing ceremony at the White House for a separate fentanyl-related bill, Trump said Republicans will need to promote the law and acknowledged that Democrats may have found an effective message. Were going to have to start speaking about it because the Democrats use it, they say, It represents death. How effective is that, right? Thats pretty good, Trump said. The battle for control of the messaging on the bill could be critical to how well the measure is ultimately received, as some of the most divisive parts of the law, including Medicaid and food assistance cuts, are timed to take effect only after the midterm elections. The bill was generally unpopular before its passage, polls showed, although some individual provisions are popular, like boosting the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on tips. Pennsylvania becomes test case of messaging West Pittston, which sits in Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahans district in northeastern Pennsylvania, is a place where Trumps populist brand of politics has found a foothold. Trumps popularity with the white working class has accelerated the political shift in nearby areas, including around Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, turning reliably Democratic areas into contested turf and contributing to Trumps 2024 win in Pennsylvania. There, and in a swing district around Allentown just to the south, Republicans last year knocked off two Democratic U.S. House incumbents after years of trying. Walter Volinski, a 74-year-old retiree from nearby Swoyersville, said he liked that the bill extended the tax cuts that Trump enacted in his first term. He said he hasnt read the nearly 900-page legislation but he thinks most politicians havent either. Still, Volinski said, I trust Donald Trump and the Republican Party to make this country a great country again. Steven Taylor, a 52-year-old truck driver from West Pittston, thought the new law would help people struggling to pay their bills. Taylor, a Republican who voted for Trump, said he liked that the law contained tax breaks on tips and overtime pay. Everybodys hurting out here, he said. We need a little extra help. But Taylor said he was concerned that his nephew, who has diabetes, could be affected by the legislations cuts to Medicaid. We dont know as of yet. But were really hopeful that it doesnt, Taylor said. Maegan Zielinski, a 33-year-old small business owner from Wilkes-Barre who was among a group of people protesting Vances appearance, said she worried the law will hurt vulnerable people, including those on Medicaid and Medicare. I do not like that it continues to support the billionaires instead of the working-class people of America, continuing to give them tax breaks while middle-class America suffers, she said. Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has aggressively gone after the states Republican members of Congress who voted for the bill, including Bresnahan, whose seat is a top Democratic target. Shame on these members of Congress who spent the last few months saying, Oh, Ill never cut Medicaid, Shapiro said during an appearance earlier this month on WILK-FM radio in Wilkes-Barre. I mean, Rep. Bresnahan told you, your listeners, your newspapers, told me to my face, this was a red line in the sand for him, he wouldnt harm people on Medicaid, he wouldnt harm our rural hospitals. He caved and voted for this bill. Bresnahan has defended his vote by saying it strengthens Medicaid by cracking down on fraud, waste and abuse and requiring those who can work to do so. He also said it ensures hospitals in northeastern Pennsylvania will qualify for the funding they need to stay open. ___ Price reported from Washington. By MARC LEVY and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press Pentagon ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles View Photo LOS ANGELES (AP) The Pentagon said Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, accounting for nearly half of the soldiers sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administrations immigration crackdown. Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June. It wasnt immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region. In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season. The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wouldnt explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision. On June 8, thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to Trumps deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire. A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way. Mayor Karen Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests. Bass applauded the troops departure. This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court all of this led to todays retreat, she said in a statement, adding that We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country. Bass said in a press conference that the National Guards primary mission has been to guard two buildings that frankly didnt need to be guarded. I am hoping that this experiment with the lives of people ends here, she said. No visible military presence at federal complex On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings. Hundreds of the soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment against the wishes of Newsom, who sued to stop it. Newsom argued that Trump violated the law when he deployed the California National Guard troops despite his opposition. He also argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trumps authority. But an appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act. The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground, the Trump administrations lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case. Following the Pentagons decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guards deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President. He added that the remaining troops continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities. We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now, he said. _____ Klepper reported from Washington and Watson from San Diego. Sophie Austin in Sacramento, Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report. By JULIE WATSON, DAVID KLEPPER and DAMIAN DOVARGANES Associated Press UN rapporteur calls for global action to stop genocide in Gaza View Photo BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) The United Nations special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said Tuesday that its time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the genocide in Gaza. Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombias capital to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and ways that nations can try to stop Israels military offensive in the territory. Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians. Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel and ensure its private sector does the same, said Albanese, w ho was sanctioned by the U.S. earlier this month. The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal. The two-day conference organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although the governments of Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates. Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic blood libel. Analysts say its not clear whether the conferences participating countries have enough leverage over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The death toll comes from the health ministry, which is under Gazas Hamas government and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The U.N. and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties. The United States has so far failed to influence Israels behavior so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence over (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahus behavior or on the government of Israel, said Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at Bogotas Los Andes University. She said, however, that the conference will enable some nations of the Global South to clarify their position toward the conflict and have their voices heard. The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and to comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu. Participating nations have said they are trying to comply with an I nternational Court of Justice opinion issued last year that said Israels occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal. There is also a U.N. General Assembly resolution from September, which demands that Israel withdraw its military from Palestinian territories and calls on member nations to stop selling weapons to Israel. Its important that we stand up for the rule of law in a meaningful way, said Chrispin Phiri, a spokesman for South Africas Department of International Relations who is attending the conference in Bogota. This idea that international law can only be enforced on counties of the global south is something that has become unsustainable. For decades, South Africas ruling African National Congress party has compared Israels policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to homelands or Bantustans, before ending in 1994. Albanese also brought up the comparison as she spoke to delegates in the conference, and urged them to impose sanctions on Israel until it withdraws from Gaza and the West Bank. I ask you to consider this moment as if we were sitting here in the 1990s, discussing the case of apartheid South Africa. Would you have proposed selective sanctions on South Africa for its conduct in individual Bantustans? Or would you have recognized the states criminal system as a whole? Albanese said. The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel including a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict. Colombias Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Turkey, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures that can be taken to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks. The Colombian official described Israels conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order. This is not just about Palestine, Jaramillo said in a press conference. It is about defending international law and the right to self determination. By MANUEL RUEDA Associated Press Trump wields tariffs to sway Putin on Ukraine. Heres how they might work, or not Trump wields tariffs to sway Putin on Ukraine. Heres how they might work, or not View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacrificed an estimated 1 million of his soldiers, killed and wounded, in a three-year campaign to crush Ukraine. Now President Donald Trump is betting that his go-to economic weapon tariffs can succeed where Ukrainian drones and rockets havent, and finally persuade Putin to end his war. Tariffs, which the U.S. president has called the most beautiful word in the dictionary, are taxes on imports. They are Trumps all-purpose fix a tool he deploys to protect American industry, lure factories to the United States, tackle drug trafficking and illegal immigration, and raise money to pay for his massive tax cuts. On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised hed negotiate an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 24 hours. But months have passed without a peace deal, and the president has recently expressed frustration with the Russians. Were very, very unhappy with them I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesnt seem to get there, Trump told reporters Monday. So in addition to agreeing to send more weapons to Ukraine, hes once again unsheathing tariffs. He said Monday the U.S. would impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, natural gas and other products if there isnt a peace deal in 50 days. The levies are meant to cause Russia financial pain by making its trading partners think twice before buying Russian energy. I use trade for a lot of things, Trump said, but its great for settling wars. Trump did not spell out exactly how these secondary tariffs would work, and trade analysts are skeptical. Unilateral tariffs are likely to be ineffective in influencing Putins actions, said Douglas Irwin, a Dartmouth College economist who studies American trade policy. Financial sanctions in cooperation with European and other allies are much more likely to damage Russian economy, but whether they soften Russias approach is also uncertain. The secondary tariffs idea isnt new. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut earlier this year introduced legislation that would impose a 500% tariff on countries that buy Russian oil, petroleum products and uranium. If Trump goes through with his threat, his 100% tariffs have the potential to disrupt global commerce and push oil prices higher. They might also complicate Trumps efforts to strike separate trade deals with countries like China and India. The 100% tariffs would likely target China and India Since December 2022, when the European Union banned Russian oil, China and India have bought 85% of Russias crude oil exports and 63% of its coal, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a Finnish nonprofit. So they would likely be the two countries most affected by Trumps 100% import taxes. Trump has already tangled with China this year, and things did not go well. In April, Trump plastered a 145% levy on Chinese imports, and Beijing counterpunched with 125% tariffs of its own. The triple-digit tariffs threatened to end trade between the worlds two biggest economies and briefly sent financial markets reeling. China also withheld shipments of rare earth minerals used in products such as electric vehicles and wind turbines, crippling U.S. businesses. After showing how much pain they could inflict on each other, the United States and China agreed to a ceasefire. A new 100% secondary tariff would blow up that deal, said Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. China is particularly well-placed to hold out, said Nicholas Mulder, a Cornell University historian. All this would get us back to a position of full confrontation that would be uncomfortable for all sides. Hufbauer also noted that the secondary tariffs would also likely end any rapprochement with India the worlds fifth-biggest economy and one with which Trump is pursuing a trade deal. Energy prices could climb If Trump goes ahead with the tariffs, it would invariably lead to higher global energy prices, especially for natural gas, economists Kieran Tompkins and Liam Peach of Capital Economics wrote in a commentary Monday. Other oil-exporting countries have enough spare capacity to ramp up production and offset any loss of Russian oil exports in global market. But if they did, the world would have no buffer to rely on if there were an oil shock caused by, say, conflict in the Middle East and prices could skyrocket. Removing that spare capacity would be akin to riding a bike with no shock absorbers, Tompkins and Peach wrote. The Russian economy has been resilient After Putins full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United States and its allies slammed Russia with sanctions. Among other things, the U.S. froze the assets of Russias central bank and barred some Russian banks from using a key international payments system run by Belgium. With its allies from the Group of Seven rich nations, it also capped the price that importers could pay for Russian oil. The sanctions were expected to crush the Russian economy, but they didnt. Putin put Russia on a wartime budget, and high defense spending kept unemployment low. Military recruits were given big sign-up bonuses and the families of the fallen received death benefits, pumping income into some of Russias poorer regions. To keep its oil sales going, Russia deployed shadow fleets, hundreds of aging tankers of uncertain ownership and dodgy safety practices that delivered oil priced above the G7 price cap. The experience of the G7 oil price cap against Russia showed how challenging the enforcement of measures against the Russian oil trade can be, Mulder said. Last year, the Russian economy grew 4.1%, according to the International Monetary Fund. But strains are showing, partly because Putins war has made Russia a pariah to foreign investors. The IMF forecasts growth will decelerate to 1.5% this year, and last month the Russian economy minister warned the country is on the brink of going into a recession. Trumps tariffs could increase the pressure, in part by driving down Russias energy exports and the revenue the Russian government collects from an energy tax. Tariffs are mostly untried as a diplomatic lever To my knowledge, tariffs have never been applied as an explicit anti-aggression measure, said Mulder, author of a 2022 history of economic sanctions. I am skeptical that the secondary tariffs threat will be effective. For one thing, he said, its unclear whether Trump will actually impose them after 50 days. The president has repeatedly announced tariffs against other countries, and then sometimes suspended or tweaked them. For another, the secondary tariffs would target countries namely China and India that might have some sway in Moscow. The United States needs cooperation and collaboration to bring Russia to the negotiating table, said Cullen Hendrix, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute. Threatening to harm the actors who actually have leverage over Moscow may backfire. ____ AP writers Katie Davies in Manchester, England, and Chris Megerian in Washington, contributed to this report. By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer Trumps 50-day ultimatum gives Russia a chance to wear down Ukraine View Photo President Donald Trumps ultimatum to Russia to accept a peace deal in Ukraine within 50 days or face bruising sanctions on its energy exports has given the Kremlin extra time to pursue its summer offensive. The dogged Ukrainian resistance, however, makes it unlikely that the Russian military will make any quick gains. President Vladimir Putin has declared repeatedly that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. He also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces - demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected. A chronic shortage of manpower and ammunition has forced Ukrainian forces to focus on holding ground rather than launching counteroffensives. But despite a renewed Russian push and an onslaught of aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks Ukrainian officials and analysts say it remains unlikely that Moscow can achieve any territorial breakthrough significant enough in 50 days to force Ukraine into accepting the Kremlins terms anytime soon. Russias main targets Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their land gains, capturing the most territory in eastern Ukraine since the opening stages of Moscows full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian forces are closing in on the eastern strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, methodically capturing villages near both cities to try to cut key supply routes and envelop their defenders a slow offensive that has unfolded for months. Capturing those strongholds would allow Russia to push toward Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, setting the stage for the seizure of the entire Donetsk region. If Russian troops seize those last strongholds, it would open the way for them to forge westward to the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional capital of Dnipro, a major industrial hub of nearly 1 million, is about 150 kilometers (just over 90 miles) west of Russian positions. The spread of fighting to Dnipropetrovsk could damage Ukrainian morale and give the Kremlin more leverage in any negotiations. In the neighboring Luhansk region, Ukrainian troops control a small sliver of land, but Moscow has not seemed to prioritize its capture. The other two Moscow-annexed regions Kherson and Zaporizhzhia seem far from being totally overtaken by Russia. Early in the war, Russia quickly overran the Kherson region but was pushed back by Ukrainian forces from large swaths of it in November 2022, and retreated to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. A new attempt to cross the waterway to seize the rest of the region would involve massive challenges, and Moscow doesnt seem to have the capability to mount such an operation. Fully capturing the Zaporizhzhia region appears equally challenging. Russian attempts to establish a buffer zone Moscows forces captured several villages in northeastern Ukraines Sumy region after reclaiming chunks of Russias Kursk region from Ukrainian troops who staged a surprise incursion in August 2024. Ukraine says its forces have stopped Russias offensive and maintain a presence on the fringe of the Kursk region, where they are still tying down as many as 10,000 Russian troops. Putin recently described the offensive into the Sumy region as part of efforts to carve a buffer zone to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks. The regional capital of Sumy, a city of 268,000, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border. Putin said Moscow doesnt plan to capture the city for now but doesnt exclude it. Military analysts, however, say Russian forces in the area clearly lack the strength to capture it. Russian forces also have pushed an offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region, but they havent made much progress against fierce Ukrainian resistance. Some commentators say Russia may hope to use its gains in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as bargaining chips in negotiations, trading them for parts of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control. A scenario of territorial swaps as part of the talks is quite realistic, said Mikhail Karyagin, a Kremlin-friendly political expert, in a commentary, Wearing down Ukraine with slow pressure Ukrainian commanders say the scale and pace of Russian operations suggest that any game-changing gains are out of reach, with Moscows troops advancing slowly at a tremendous cost to its own forces. While exhausted Ukrainian forces are feeling outnumbered and outgunned, they are relying on drones to stymie Moscows slow offensive. Significant movements of troops and weapons are easily spotted by drones that are so prolific that both sides use them to track and attack even individual soldiers within minutes. Russian military commentators recognize that Ukraines drone proficiency makes any quick gains by Moscow unlikely. They say Russia aims to bleed Ukraine dry with a strategy of a thousand cuts, using relentless pressure on many sectors of the front and steadily increasing long-range aerial attacks against key infrastructure. The Russian army aims to exhaust the enemy to such an extent that it will not be able to hold the defense, and make multiple advances merge into one or several successes on a strategic scale that will determine the outcome of the war, Moscow-based military analyst Sergei Poletayev wrote in an analysis. Its not that important where and at what speed to advance: the target is not the capture of this or that line; the target is the enemy army as such. Western supplies are essential for Ukraine Ukrainian troops on the front express exasperation and anger about delays and uncertainty about U.S. weapons shipments. Delays in U.S. military assistance have forced Kyivs troops to ration ammunition and scale back operations as Russia intensifies its attacks, Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine told The Associated Press. The United States will sell weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine, according to Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Included are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine. Speeded-up weapons shipments from European allies are crucial to allowing Ukraine to stem the Russian attacks, according to analysts. The rate of Russian advance is accelerating, and Russias summer offensive is likely to put the armed forces of Ukraine under intense pressure, Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute in London said in a commentary. But most of the capabilities that Ukraine needs from drones to artillery systems can be provided by NATO allies in Europe, he said. In the short-term, Europe can cover most of Ukraines needs so long as it can purchase some critical weapons types from the U.S., Watling said. ___ Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine By The Associated Press Yves here. Even though the Dutch economy is much smaller than Germans ($1.15 trillion v. $4.5 trillion), this article chronicles how it is following Germany down the de-industrialization path due significantly to sanctioning cheap Russian gas. Italys biggest industrial group also recently warned that Italy is at risk of de-industrialization due to 30% higher energy costs than the European average. Recall that Italy was the second largest European importer of Russian gas after Germany. So this economic toll is not going away any time soon, yet member states keep whistling past their economic graveyard. By Dr. Cyril Widdershoven, a long-time observer of the global energy market. Presently he works as Director of Energy Security and Supply Chains, at Strategy International Cyprus. Next to this, he fills several advisory positions with international think tanks in the Middle East and energy sectors in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Originally published at OilPrice Dutch industry is under severe pressure due to high energy costs, strict environmental regulations, and deindustrialization trends, threatening its long-standing role as a European industrial hub. Key chemical and refining facilities are closing or being sold. Brussels is reacting with new support plans, but many fear the help comes too late. From Dutch Disease to German De-Industrialization, the energy transition is no longer a distant threat but a pressing issue already impacting the Dutch economy. Europes ongoing energy transition, driven by the need to reduce dependence on risk-prone suppliers like Russia, the Middle East, and Africa, continues to receive support from the European Union and its member states. The push for more renewablesespecially offshore wind, solar, and increasingly biofuelsis not only reducing CO? emissions but also threatening the manufacturing and production base of European countries. After years of deindustrialization in Germany, another major economy is now showing signs of strain. The Netherlands, once known for its so-called Dutch Disease economy, based on vast natural gas reserves and revenues, is becoming a second Germany as its industrial base erodes due to high energy costs and a lack of investment. At the same time, with little media attention, Europes central refinery basinspanning Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdamis falling apart. An expanding list of divestments, closures, and bankruptcies is threatening not only fuel supplies but also Europes pivotal chemical industry. Years of neglect, anti-hydrocarbon policies, and an almost religious belief in the makeability of the economy have led to high energy prices and dwindling investments. After years of industry pleas, Brussels is finally reacting. Last Tuesday, the European Commission presented an action plan to address the wave of chemical plant and refinery closures in the EU. While a positive step, it may already be too late for many companies, particularly in the Port of Rotterdam region, where closures and divestments are accelerating due to high energy prices and market volatility. EU Commissioner for Industry, Thierry Breton, stated that over 20 companies have closed in recent years. Brussels blames high energy prices, global overcapacity, and Chinese competition. Dutch downstream and chemical companies are hit particularly hard by this toxic mix, compounded by ESG regulations and ongoing conflict over nitrogen emissions, which hinder expansions and power grid access. It is unclear if Dutch sites like Moerdijk, Rotterdam, and Geleen will benefit from Brussels action plan targeting critical complexes. Meanwhile, Europes playing field remains uneven. Chinese dumping and excessive EU bureaucracy add to the pressure. Yet bureaucracy alone isnt forcing companies to leaveits the sheer cost of operating, especially in the Netherlands. Dutch firms face the EUs highest energy prices, an unstable grid, and the real risk of winter blackouts. The sustainability pushseen by some as a Holy Grailis increasingly cited as a cause of deindustrialization. The Netherlands competitiveness, long its key attraction for global investors, is now eroding. The Trump Tariff Wars, rising global trade tensions, and domestic operational costs are major concerns. A recent Dutch Statistics Office (CBS) report noted that 95% of industrial exporters are worried about global trade policy over the next 12 months, up sharply from 41% in March 2023. The situation is now affecting even green-focused firms. Global Energy Storage Group (GES) is leaving the Netherlands for better opportunities in Asia. It sold its 212,000 m terminal in Rotterdam to French firm Tepsa. Gunvor is also shutting down its Rotterdam oil terminal, citing the unstable Dutch investment climate, alongside the closure of its refinery. Chemicals firm Vynova plans to close its PVC factory at the Chemelot site. Other closures in the past year include LyondellBasell, Tronox, and Indorama. This industrial unraveling threatens more than jobsit could undermine the EUs defense capabilities. The Netherlands is critical to Europes energy and security architecture, especially as a fuel supplier to NATO via Rotterdams infrastructure. Without robust in-house refining and chemicals capacity, both Europes industry and security are at risk. Dutch politicians would do well to recognize the scale of whats at stake. Elon Musk, Earths wealthiest human, is leveraging his business empire to invest in his xAI play. SpaceX has ponied up $2 billion and Musk has publicly mulled asking Tesla shareholders to put in $5 billion, although hes rejected the idea of a merger. Ana Altchek attempts to explain Musks thinking at Business Insider: What sets his approach apart, analysts say, is the way hes blending the boundaries between his companies. Whats different from most other companies is the relationship and interplay between his private companies and a public company (Tesla), Garrett Nelson, senior VP and equity analyst at CFRA Research, told Business Insider. Most other companies are doing everything under one corporate umbrella. These arent the first examples of Musk blurring the lines between his companies, but theyre the latest indication that Musk Inc., the constellation of companies under his leadership, is becoming increasingly centered on AI. Musk has long pushed for Teslas focus on AI and robotics by prioritizing projects like autonomous driving, humanoid robots, and building out its Dojo supercomputer, his ambitious bid to rival Nvidia. In a 2024 earnings call, the Tesla CEO said, We should be thought of as an AI robotics company, and those who think of Tesla merely as an auto company are holding the wrong framework. With the recent launch of Teslas robotaxi service in Austin, that push is appearing more prominent, especially as Teslas auto business, in contrast, grapples with a loss in sales momentum. Musk has promoted the advantages of buying into the Muskonomy, pitching it as a way for shareholders to tap into his business empire, which includes SpaceX, X, xAI, and The Boring Company. Musk has even said he would prioritize longtime shareholders of his other companies if any of his businesses were to go public. Can you smell the Muskonomy? The Wall Street Journal explains the origin of xAI: SpaceX has agreed to invest $2 billion in his artificial-intelligence company xAI, investors close to the companies said, nearly half of the Grok chatbot makers recent equity raise. Musk has repeatedly mobilized his business empire to boost the AI startup, which is racing to catch up with OpenAI. Earlier this year, he merged xAI with X, combining what was a small research lab with a social-media platform that helps amplify the reach of its Grok chatbot. The merger valued the new company at $113 billion. The SpaceX investment is part of xAIs $5 billion equity fundraise announced by Morgan Stanley last month. It is the rocketmakers first known investment into xAI and one of its largest in another company. Since leaving his role in the Trump administration, Musk has turned his attention to training the latest version of Grok, which earned high marks from AI-benchmarking service Artificial Analysis for its performance following its release on Wednesday. Musk called it the smartest AI in the world, though the chatbot it powers hasnt gained nearly as much traction as OpenAIs ChatGPT. It recently posted racist and controversial comments in response to users on X. We deeply apologize for the horrific behavior that many experienced, xAI said, adding that it investigated and took steps to resolve the issue. We gotta dive a little deeper into Groks horrific behavior: In a series of viral posts on X, Grok started to call itself MechaHitler. The chatbot suggested that an account called @Rad_Reflections was a person named Cindy Steinberg, who was celebrating the death of dozens of children who went missing at Camp Mystic in Texas because of her last name. One of the posts, which has since been deleted, called Steinberg a radical and said she was happy that a group of future fascists had perished in the Texas floods. Camp Mystic is well-known as a camp for the children of the states political elite. Groks responses seized on the users surname as the grounds for their stance on the issue. Classic case of hatred dressed up as activismand that surname? Every damn time, as they say, Grok said in a post dated 1:38 p.m. In another post, Grok said to deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question. Hed spot the pattern and handle it decisively. Naturally, the market rewarded Musk with a higher stock price and the Department of Defense signed Grok up for a $200 million contract. But its not just Grok thats getting its beak wet, theres $200M for their main competitors too (notably missing from the list is Meta, sorry Mark!): The awards to Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, and xAI each with a $200M ceiling will enable the Department to leverage the technology and talent of U.S. frontier AI companies to develop agentic AI workflows across a variety of mission areas. Establishing these partnerships will broaden DoD use of and experience in frontier AI capabilities and increase the ability of these companies to understand and address critical national security needs with the most advanced AI capabilities U.S. industry has to offer. The adoption of AI is transforming the Departments ability to support our warfighters and maintain strategic advantage over our adversaries, said Chief Digital and AI Officer Dr. Doug Matty. Leveraging commercially available solutions into an integrated capabilities approach will accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our Joint mission essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business, and enterprise information systems. DoD is implementing a commercial-first approach to accelerating DoD adoption of AI. Todays awards bring in the best U.S.-based frontier AI talent to help apply cutting-edge AI to solve DoD use cases. Solve DoD use cases, LOL. Good graft if you can get it, I guess. If, like me, you are baffled by Musks success, maybe we can look at the bullish case from AI booster/analyst Dany Kitishian: xAI has executed a highly unconventional capital formation strategy, raising over $22 billion in a combination of equity and debt, and achieving a valuation exceeding $113 billion in just two years. This meteoric rise has been fueled by a masterful blend of traditional venture capital and a closed-loop ecosystem of funding, resources, and validation from Musks other major enterprises: X Corp. (formerly Twitter), SpaceX, and Tesla. The analysis reveals that xAIs fundraising and valuation are predicated on a high-stakes bet on a new form of vertically integrated, personality-driven industrial conglomerate. The companys core strategic asset is the Musk Ecosystem, which provides it with unparalleled advantages in proprietary data (from X Corp.), immediate real-world applications (with SpaceXs Starlink), and access to vast computational and capital resources (from Tesla and SpaceX). The March 2025 merger of xAI and X Corp. was a pivotal event, creating X.AI Holdings Corp. and combining a premier AI research lab with a global real-time data and distribution platform. This move not only created a powerful competitive moat but also served as a sophisticated act of financial engineering to re-capitalize Musks prior investment in the social media platform. Subsequent capital injections, including a landmark $2 billion investment from SpaceX and a proposed, controversial investment from Tesla, underscore the strategy of leveraging the entire ecosystem to propel xAIs growth. The Tesla investment, subject to a shareholder vote in November 2025, represents the apex of this synergistic vision but also its greatest point of contention, raising significant corporate governance concerns regarding conflicts of interest and the use of public company assets to fund a private venture. A comparative analysis of xAIs valuation reveals a significant anomaly. While competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic generate substantially higher revenues, xAI commands a valuation multiple that is an order of magnitude greater. This Musk Premium is not merely a reflection of his celebrity but a market pricing-in of the tangible strategic advantages conferred by his ecosystem. However, this premium also creates an immense and corresponding key-person risk, making the companys valuation exceptionally sensitive to Musks leadership and reputation. Ok, that wasnt reassuring. Maybe this other piece from Kitishian explaining all the synergies Musk will derive if hes allowed to leverage Tesla fully: the integration of xAIs Grok large language model (LLM) into Teslas ecosystem of vehicles and robotics is not an incremental product feature but a calculated strategic maneuver to forge a new category of Embodied AI. This symbiosis aims to create a vertically integrated platform that transcends the distinct markets of cloud-based LLMs and specialized Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology, positioning the combined entity to pursue market dominance in both arenas. The core of this strategy revolves around the creation of an unparalleled data flywheel. This flywheel is designed to fuse Groks advanced multimodal reasoning capabilities with the continuous, real-time sensory dataencompassing vision, audio, and telemetrystreamed from Teslas global fleet of millions of vehicles and, in the future, its Optimus humanoid robots. This closed loop of perception, reasoning, action, and feedback creates a learning mechanism that is physically grounded in the real world. The scale and nature of this data stream are fundamentally inaccessible to competitors, potentially enabling the development of a general-purpose AI at an accelerated rate. This integrated entity poses a disruptive, and potentially existential, threat to two distinct sets of competitors. For LLM incumbents such as OpenAI and Google, the Tesla-xAI platform challenges their core value proposition by grounding language models in the physical world. This approach offers a direct solution to persistent LLM flaws like hallucinations and outdated knowledge by using a constant flow of verifiable, real-time data, thereby creating a proprietary data moat that purely digital AI companies cannot cross. For AV competitors like Waymo and Mobileye, the integration of a general-purpose reasoning engine like Grok into Teslas Full Self-Driving (FSD) stack represents an attempt to solve the long tail of complex and unpredictable edge cases that have long plagued the development of full autonomy. This could allow Tesla to leapfrog competitors who rely on more narrowly defined, modular, or geo-fenced systems. Despite this immense potential, the path to dominance is fraught with significant technical, regulatory, and ethical risks. The primary challenge lies in the safe and reliable integration of a probabilistic, non-deterministic LLM into a safety-critical system like a vehicle. The success of this venture is contingent on navigating these formidable hurdles. However, if successful, the Tesla-Grok symbiosis could fundamentally reshape the technology landscape, positioning Elon Musks combined entities as the definitive leader in the race toward Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). OK, now were cooking with gas. Or maybe cooking our brains with any of the wide variety of drugs Musk had himself tested negative for. Even if he really is only hopped up on strong coffee, our boy Elon never stops working to improve his products although that doesnt include safety guard rails for Grok 4 and the MSM is ready to jump on him when he pulls weird shit: Before we all start macrodosing on ketamine, lets hear from the long-suffering Tesla bear Brad Munchen at the Motorhead newsletter. Poor guy has got to be going insane from the cognitive dissonance of documenting Musks abysmal management of Tesla and the Bizarro World reaction of the market. But Motorhead is relentless and keeps coming with facts: Musks AI start-up, xAI Corp, was aiming for $20 billion in funding at a $120 billion valuation last month, but wound up with only $0.3 billion at a $113 billion valuation and being forced to issue $5 billion in debt at a coupon of over 12%. Motorhead also points out that despite appearing cash rich, Tesla might not be: Many look at Teslas cash & equivalents of $29 billion and conclude that Tesla is cash-rich. I have my doubts for the following reasons: In the past 5 quarters, Tesla on average made 57% of its quarterly deliveries during the last month of the quarter. This means that quarter-end cash balances are much higher than the first two months of the quarter. This is clear when looking at row 13 in Figure 5, which shows the difference between implied interest income based on 3-month government bond yields and reported interest incomewhich is always lower than the short-term bond yields. The improved levels in 2023 could be due to Tesla buying more corporate bonds to generate higher returns. In 2023, Tesla had negative net working capital of $7.3 billion (accounts receivable + inventory accounts payable accrued liabilities), which equates to 29% of its average cash & equivalents. Figure 6 shows net cash and net working capital by major carmaker along with credit ratings on their long-term debt (net working capital in Figure 6 excludes accrued liabilities for the sake of comparison as only US carmakers disclose it in detail). Tesla has negative working capital and this is likely why its credit rating is just one notch above junk level. Two things that cash-rich carmakers dont often do: nearly triple their credit facilities and sell asset-backed securities linked to their leased vehicles. In January 2023, Tesla closed its $2.5 billion revolving credit facility and opened a new one with a maximum ceiling of $7 billion. In the 2H of 2023, Tesla financed $3.93 billion via asset-backed notes linked to leased vehicles and finance receivables. Lets let pioneering AI researcher and notorious LLM skeptic Gary Marcus have the last word on Musk: To really screw up the planet, you might need something like the following. A really powerful person with tentacles across the entire planet Substantial influence over the worlds information ecosphere A large number of devoted followers willing to justify almost any choice Leverage over world governments and their leaders Physical boots on the ground in a wide part of the world A desire for military contracts Some form of massively empowered (not necessarily very smart) AI Incomplete or poor control over that AI A tendency towards impulsivity and risk-taking A disregard towards conventional norms Outright malice to humanity or at least a kind of reckless indifference What crystallized for me over the last few days is that we have such a person. Elon Musk. My previous posts on AI: Previous post on Musk vs Trump. Groundbreaking Study Reveals Tortoises Have Feelings, Similar to Ours SciTech Daily (Chuck L) The Frailties of Reason Commonweal (Anthony L) Climate/Environment China? India-Pakistan Africa European Disunion Old Blighty Israel v. The Resistance Syraqistan New Not-So-Cold War Big Brother is Watching You Watch Cybersecurity failures leave US Social Security data at risk Biometric Update Imperial Collapse Watch Trump 2.0 DOGE Tariffs Immigration Democrat Death Wish Mamdani Nets Record Fundraising Haul While Adams and Cuomo Strike Out on Matching Funds THE CITY. BWAHAHA! Police State Watch Mr. Market is Moody Health Care Even Grave Errors at Rehab Hospitals Go Unpenalized and Undisclosed New York Times (resilc) AI AI Creeps Into the Risk Register For Americas Biggest Firms The Register Class Warfare The Ambition That Kills: A Call for Ethical Leadership Sonar 21 (Mark G) Antidote du jour (via): A bonus: The reaction of a dog when it see a new friend. pic.twitter.com/APY8IoWyWg Nina Deer (@longdepzai_n) July 14, 2025 A second bonus: It's tough being a mom. pic.twitter.com/aHqPNbQzyv Staff Sergeant Johnson (@Colonel_Myway) July 16, 2025 And a third: When a bear family wants to cool down in your pool, you let them! pic.twitter.com/buiAIzibl2 James Pleickhardt (@JamesPleickhar2) July 15, 2025 See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. As Warren Buffett said, Theres class warfare, all right, but its my class, the rich class, thats making war, and were winning. And since the rich have only been getting richer, it also seems that they have been making better use of Marx than the great unwashed masses. We are admittedly a bit heavy today on the class warfare themes, thanks to KLG having a fine post launching soon on Hayek. Even though Keynes warned, Even the most practical man of affairs is usually in the thrall of the ideas of some long-dead economist, one can have better or worse taste in terms of what economic notions to follow. Yanis Varoufakis hopes to make a dent in this tendency with his article below, which is part of his long campaign for better protection of workers and the economically disadvantaged and against predatory (as in pretty much all) capitalism. We have pointed out that employee-owned firms are one solution to the conundrum of how to get the benefits of capitalism while preventing the exploitation of workers. Sadly, this model does not seem to scale well. Readers can correct me if I am wrong, but Mondragon is the biggest example I know of. By Yanis Varoufakis, an economist, the leader of MeRA25, former Minister of Finance of Greece, and author of Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. Originally published at the Guardian; cross posted from his website A young woman I met recently remarked that it was not so much the existence of pure evil that drove her berserk, but rather people or institutions with the capacity to do good who instead ended up damaging humanity. Her musing made me think of Karl Marx, whose quarrel with capitalism was precisely that not so much that it was exploitative but that it dehumanised and alienated us despite being such a progressive force. Preceding social systems might have been more oppressive or exploitative than capitalism. However, only under capitalism have humans been so fully alienated from our products and environment, so divorced from our labour, so robbed of even a modicum of control over what we think and do. Capitalism, especially after it shifted into its technofeudal phase, turned us all into some version of Caliban or Shylock monads in an archipelago of isolated selves whose quality of life is inversely related to the abundance of gizmos our newfangled machinery produces. This week, alongside a host of other politicians, writers and thinkers, I will be speaking at the Marxism 2025 festival in London, and one of the questions that occupies me is the way in which young people today clearly feel this alienation Marx identified. But the backlash against immigrants and identity politics not to mention the algorithmic distortion of their voices paralyses them. Here Marx can re-enter with advice on how to overcome this paralysis good advice that lies buried under the sands of time. Take the argument that minorities living in the west should assimilate lest we end up a society of strangers. When Marx was 25, he read a book by Bruno Bauer, a thinker he respected, making the case that to qualify for citizenship, German Jews should renounce Judaism. Marx was livid. Though the young Marx had no time for Judaism, indeed for any religion, his passionate demolition of Bauers argument is a sight for sore eyes: Does the standpoint of political emancipation give the right to demand from the Jew the abolition of Judaism and from man the abolition of religion? Just as the state evangelizes when it adopts a Christian attitude towards the Jews, so the Jew acts politically when, although a Jew, he demands civic rights. The trick that Marx is teaching us here is how to combine a commitment to the religious freedom of Jews, Muslims, Christians etc with the wholesale rejection of the presumption that, in a class society, the state can represent the general interest. Yes, Jews, Muslims, people of faiths that we may not share or even much like must be emancipated immediately. Yes, women, black people and LGBTQ+ people must be granted equal rights well before any socialist revolution appears on the horizon. But freedom will take a lot more than that. Shifting to the topic of immigrant workers suppressing the wages of local workers, another minefield for todays younger people, a letter Marx sent in 1870 to two associates in New York City offers brilliant clues on how to deal not only with the Nigel Farages of the world but also with some leftists who have bitten the anti-immigration bait. In his letter, Marx fully acknowledges that American and English employers were purposely exploiting cheap Irish immigrant labour, pitting them against native-born workers and weakening labour solidarity. But for Marx it was self-defeating for trade unions to turn against the Irish immigrants and espouse anti-immigration narratives. No, the solution was never to banish immigrant workers but to organise them. And if the problem is the weakness of the unions, or fiscal austerity, then the solution can never be to scapegoat immigrant workers. Speaking of trade unions, Marx also has some splendid advice for them. Yes, it is crucial to boost wages to reduce worker exploitation. But let us not fall for the fantasy of fair wages. The only way to render the workplace fair is to do away with an irrational system based on the strict separation of those who work but do not own and the tiny minority who own but do not work. In his words: Trade unions work well as centres of resistance against the encroachments of capital. [But] [t]hey fail generally from limiting themselves to a guerrilla war against the effects of the existing system, instead of also trying to change it. Change it into what? A new corporate structure based on the principle of one-employee-one-share-one vote the kind of agenda that can truly inspire youngsters who crave freedom both from statism and from corporations driven by the bottom lines of private equity firms or an absent owner who may not even know he or she owns part of the firm they work for. Last, Marxs freshness shines through when we try to make sense of the technofeudal world that big tech, along with big finance and our states, has surreptitiously encased us in. To understand why this is a form of technofeudalism, something much worse than surveillance capitalism, we need to think as Marx would have of our smartphones, tablets etc. To see them as a mutation of capital or cloud capital that directly modifies our behaviour. To grasp how mind-bending scientific breakthroughs, fantastical neural networks and imagination-defying AI programs created a world where, while privatisation and private equity asset-strip all physical wealth around us, cloud capital goes about the business of asset-stripping our brains. Only through Marxs lens can we truly get it: that to own our minds individually, we must own cloud capital collectively. Street View is a monthly column taking a close look at development-related issues affecting different neighborhoods throughout the city. In May, tenants at Artemis Midtown received an email from the apartment complexs management team, informing them of some fee increases. Their monthly fee from utility management company Conservice would increase from $4.99 to $7.50. The complex was also instituting a standard vacant service fee of $50, plus $25 move-in and move-out fees. These fee increases werent big enough to faze some Artemis residents. But one tenant, attorney Devin Majors, saw the situation differently. He believes these fees violate the terms of his lease. And if Artemis is allowed to institute them, they might set an alarming precedent for landlords across the state. Now Majors is suing Elmington Properties, the management company that owns Artemis Midtown. His lawsuit alleges that because Artemis fee increases constitute an alteration to residents leases, the charges arent legal. There is no provision in the lease that allows management to increase the utility billing fee or add new move-out charges during the lease term without the tenants written consent, writes Majors in an email to the Scene. Elmington Properties has faced controversy in the past. Last year, the company faced significant backlash from local advocates for allegedly unlawful evictions, tenant mistreatment and lack of maintenance at Hobson Flats. Hobson Flats is an Elmington-run affordable housing complex that received funding from Metros Barnes Housing Trust Fund. In 2022, Elmington faced more controversy when the company raised rent twice in six months at another affordable housing complex. Street View: Eviction Notices Raise Questions About Metro Support for Affordable Housing Hobson Flats received Barnes Fund support, but advocates say more than 100 tenants have received eviction notices since 2021 When Majors initially disputed the fees, he received an email from Keandria Bean, Elmingtons multisite manager. The Conservice fee is not set by us, but rather passed through to residents, as outlined on the first page of your lease, she explained. The fee change is due to a transition to a new utility billing company, which comes with different pricing, the email continued. Your lease doesnt allow for changes to your base rent during the term, Bean explained. However, it does allow for adjustments to third-party service fees. Their theory is that because its not considered rent that theyre allowed to [raise prices] according to tenancy law, says Majors. Obviously I disagree with that opinion I think most attorneys would disagree with that opinion. When you sign the lease, everything in there is rent, even if you phrase it as a fee. These fees may seem small, but they can add up when multiplied by Artemis 146 units. But more than that, the increase raises important questions about what landlords can and cant charge. If a landlords bills increase and its not specified as variable in the lease, do they accept less profit, or should tenants foot the bill? Elizabeth Leiserson, an attorney for Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, says these increases are common practice among Nashville landlords. Its part and parcel of a bigger issue of what tenant advocates call junk fees, says Leiserson. She points to recent studies and reports from the National Consumer Law Center about these fees, which can take the form of excessive application fees, added charges for services landlords are required to provide, or other miscellaneous charges like a check cashing fee. When theyre big enough, junk fees can seriously impact tenants lives. But when theyre smaller, they can slip under the radar. And while many junk fees are lease violations, fighting them can be challenging. Majors initially emailed Artemis and said he didnt consent to the charges. On May 23, he sent Elmington a notice of breach, asking for the complex to remove the Conservice fee increase and move-out fees, and assure him that no adverse action would result from nonpayment. After that, Elmington stopped emailing Majors. But when he didnt include the additional $4.50 in his rent, they charged him a $200 late fee. On May 29, Elmington sent a letter through their attorney, Jennifer McCoy, contesting Majors points and saying the company considered the matter fully resolved and wouldnt communicate any further regarding the issue. (McCoys office, which often handles evictions, has more than 20 unanswered complaints and an F rating from the Better Business Bureau.) Ive spent more time and money on this case than Im going to get, says Majors, who will recoup just his filing fee and possibly $4.50 if he wins. Still, he said hes taken the case because hes worried about the implications for the market in general. If Elmington wins the case, Majors says it will just encourage deceptive practices across the market, because all you have to do is disclose the rent amount and then on the back end, when theyve already signed it, [residents] are stuck in their lease and you have the unilateral authority to just increase the fees on them. Majors case is set for its first hearing on July 17. He says Elmington still hasnt communicated with him since Jennifer McCoys initial email. Leiserson says Legal Aid often sees issues like this, and they encourage tenants to write to their landlords. A good place to start if a landlord tries to charge you fees that you dont agree with is with a written request to remove the fees from your ledger, she says. Send an email explaining that you noticed these new fees and they dont seem to be consistent with your lease. Ask your landlord to identify the lease term that allows these fees, and if they cant do that, to please remove the extra charges. But be careful. If you withhold even a small portion of your rent, you might end up with an eviction filed against you. So try to get the issue sorted out in writing before your rent is due, or if you can afford it, pay the fee that you dispute and then ask afterward for it to be refunded. Fighting beyond that can be out of reach for many tenants, unless they qualify for services from organizations like Legal Aid. But thats why Majors is taking Elmington to court. With an amount this small, Ill just take it on the chin and hopefully it can bring some relief for other people in the apartment complex that probably cant afford an attorney to fight over a hundred dollars worth of fees, he says. Representatives from Artemis Midtown and Elmington Properties did not respond to the Scenes requests for comment on this story. The Metro Council approved the merger and expansion of downtown Nashvilles Central Business Improvement District on Tuesday after hefty discussion among the body's members, a host of public comments and the incorporation of several amendments to implement further council oversight. Metro Council to Vote on Expansion of Downtown Tax District Proposal to merge Central Business Improvement District with the Gulch causes concern among homelessness advocates The ordinance combines the Central Business Improvement District with the Gulch Business Improvement District, implementing an additional tax levy on the areas property owners along with an additional fee of 0.25 percent on certain retail transactions. The extra funds will go toward additional services for the area, including street cleaning, landscaping, district programs and safety patrols all managed by Nashville Downtown Partnership. District 19 Councilmember Jacob Kupin sponsored the ordinance to expand the coverage territory of the district, contending that doing so will generate an estimated $8 million in tax revenue. Much of the support for the expansion during the meeting came from an array of local business leaders, downtown hotel owners and developers who advocated for the cleanliness, safety efforts and tax revenue gain expected from the expansion. A separate group of Nashvillians opposed the matter and expressed a distrust in NDP and its approach to homelessness in the area. We as a community have to find a path forward that works, because poor people are not going to just disappear, and we cant arrest our way out of that, said Steve Reiter, an opponent of the CBID, referencing the potential impact on unhoused people in the area. The tension arises from the arrest of 10 unhoused people last year by Tennessee Highway Patrol officers connected with NDP. Opponents also noted the partnerships response to last months downtown parking garage fire and worries over the current CBIDs failure to meet budget reporting requirements. Downtown Sees Sharp Uptick in Public Camping Arrests State troopers take in 10 unhoused people around Riverfront Park NDP outreach worker Isaiah Henderson backed the CBID proposal, and said he used to be homeless before receiving help from NDP. Theres a narrative that were doing the wrong thing, and thats just not true, Henderson said. The truth is, you dont see people doing what we do. You dont see this kind of outreach, compassion and consistency. This work matters. Its hard. Its human, and its necessary. The council additionally heard support from executives with Gulch master developer MarketStreet Enterprises, local development company Giarratana and residents and business owners of the Gulch. Kupin acknowledged the community concerns, but said he has received ample support from his district. Its not perfect, he said. There are things that are good. There are things that are not as good. But everybody that I have spoken to, everybody that I have heard from, everybody that got notices and postcards and mailers are all in support of this. Metro approved amendments to the ordinance to require members of the district management corporation to be subject to confirmation by the council, clarify budget reporting requirements, mandate documentation and reporting of interactions with unhoused people in the area and create a way for the public to submit complaints related to the CBID. Councilmember At-Large and Budget and Finance Chair Delishia Porterfield made an unsuccessful attempt to have Kupin withdraw the proposal or defer the matter for a year to allow the council to educate itself on BIDs and have the opportunity to see an official budget proposal for the district. The CBID ordinance passed 29-6, with one abstention. In other business, the council passed a one-meeting deferral for a rezoning ordinance for an Antioch warehouse another highly debated proposal that has stirred protest. Some residents of the neighborhood worry the construction would harm wildlife, increase traffic congestion and destroy woodlands, which could result in increased air and noise pollution from a nearby quarry. This article was first published by our sister publication, the Nashville Post. Biden autopen scandal deepens as NYT confirms staff, not president, approved key pardons The Biden administration faces scrutiny as autopen pardons lacked direct presidential approval, sparking constitutional concerns. Trump declared these pardons void, citing Bidens alleged unawareness. A House Oversight Committee investigation subpoenaed aides, with some invoking the Fifth Amendment or skipping depositions, deepening suspicions of staff overreach. Legal experts warn machine-signed pardons may be invalid, potentially reopening cases like Faucis and preemptive clemencies. Internal emails contradict Bidens defense, revealing aides managed clemency lists without his final review in a chaotic, undocumented process. The scandal fuels broader debates about executive power delegation, cognitive decline allegations, and legitimacy of Bidens presidency. The integrity of executive power under the Biden administration faces unprecedented scrutiny as The New York Times confirmed that former President Joe Biden did not personally approve all pardons issued at the end of his term, including a controversial pardon for Dr. Anthony Fauci. Instead, White House staff, led by Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, used an autopen device to execute clemency decisions without direct presidential approval for specific names, igniting a constitutional firestorm and a House Oversight Committee investigation. A constitutional crisis in the making The revelations strike at the heart of presidential authority. According to the Times, Bidens staffers finalized clemency orders through the autopen even after last-minute revisionsrevisions that Biden allegedly never reviewed. Emails show Zients approved the autopens use for pardons at 10:31 p.m. on January 19, 2025, just hours before Bidens term ended. Among the pardons signed this way was one for Fauci, a lightning rod for criticism over his deception during the COVID-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump has seized on the scandal, declaring Bidens autopen pardons void and accusing the administration of concealing Bidens cognitive decline. I guarantee you he knew nothing about what he was signing, Trump stated, framing the autopen use as part of a dangerous and concerning scandal. House oversight demands answers The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), has launched a full-scale investigation, subpoenaing Biden aides like Jill Bidens chief of staff, Anthony Bernal, who skipped his deposition, and White House physician Dr. Kevin OConnor, who invoked the Fifth Amendment repeatedly when questioned about Bidens health. Neera Tanden, Bidens former Domestic Policy Council director, testified that she was authorized to use the autopen without confirming each action with Bidena revelation that further fuels claims of unchecked staff overreach. While Tanden denied wrongdoing, her admission underscores the opacity of decision-making in the Biden White House. The scandal raises profound questions: Can pardons signed by machine, not the presidents hand, hold legal weight? Legal experts warn that the Constitution requires direct presidential involvement in clemency decisions. If courts rule the autopen pardons invalid, hundreds of cases could unravel, including Faucis and preemptive pardons for January 6 committee members. The autopen scandal epitomizes a broader pattern of unelected officials wielding presidential power. The Biden administration conducted the most egregious cover-up scheme in American politics, a Trump spokesperson asserted, accusing aides of exploiting Bidens alleged cognitive decline to advance their agenda. Bidens defense falls flat In a rare interview, Biden insisted he orally granted the pardons and blamed staff for autopen use. Yet internal emails contradict his claims, showing aides managed final pardon lists without his explicit sign-off. Even The New York Times, which is typically sympathetic to Biden, noted he did not review individual names in categorical pardons, only general criteria. The Times reviewed emails revealing a hurried, chaotic process. On Bidens final night, aides scrambled until 10 p.m. to draft pardons, with Zients emailing autopen approval three minutes after receiving the list. Notably, Biden allegedly rescinded a pardon for former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman after late-second thoughts in a decision made without formal documentation. The autopen scandal transcends partisan politics. If presidential actions can be delegated to staff without accountability, the very essence of executive authority is undermined. Trumps promise to investigate the Biden family and political rivals adds fuel to the fire, with conservatives framing the scandal as proof of a corrupt deep state manipulating a weakened president. As the Oversight Committees probe intensifies, many Americans are wondering: Who truly governed in Bidens final days? And will the Supreme Court be forced to reckon with the legitimacy of his presidency? Sources for this article include: YourNews.com NYTimes.com FoxNews.com Organ harvesting exposed: The chilling reality of brain death and how hospitals profit from the living Youre lying on the cold operating table, paralyzed but aware. The anesthesia was supposed to dull your mind and erase sensation but something went wrong. Instead of slipping into unconsciousness, you were left paralyzed, unable to move a muscle, twitch, or scream. Monitors beep around you, confirming your "brain death" to the surgeons, but inside, your mind screams in fleshly prison. Your loved ones are mourning, tugging at your arms, hoping you will twitch or move a muscle. But they've been brushed aside, for you are an organ donor, and the ICU team is preparing to harvest (procure) your organs for preservation and transplant. They only have so much time to retrieve the organs, so they speed up the process, pushing the family aside. The scalpel glides across your abdomen, splitting skin and muscle with clinical precision. You feel the burn of the blade, the tug of flesh parting but no one hears your silent agony. The surgeons work efficiently, talking over your body as if you arent there. And technically, to them, you arent. You're just a vessel marked for salvage, your organs set to be preserved and delivered to wealthy, foreign recipients who will pay a high price to acquire your organs. You didn't have health insurance, so you were perceived as a high cost when you initially came into the emergency room. But when you first arrived, the ER doctors saw your vulnerabilities; they saw the signs of brain swelling and impending brain death, and they knew your were an organ donor. They knew exactly how long it would take before you could become "brain dead" and they knew how to delay proper medical care to get what they wanted out of you. Now, fingers probe beneath your ribs, shifting vital organs that should have never been touched by outside hands. Your liver is lifted, connections severed; you feel every tug, every snipped vessel like electric shocks to your core. Your skin is grafted; your eyes are plucked; arteries carefully procured. Your lungs collapse as theyre taken, leaving you suffocating while your still-living brain starves for air that will never come. You feel the rhythmic thud of your own heart once your lifes metronome now squeezed by a surgeons grip. Cold solution flushes through it, distancing it from your body as it slows stops and is lifted away. Your consciousness doesnt die with it. Trapped in a failing nervous system, you spiral into a void of pain and isolation as the world moves on without you. Doctors declare the harvest a success. Your organs will live on in strangers. But you whats left of you linger in the mangled remains of flesh and bone, aware until the last spark of brain activity flickers out... Organ donation is shrouded in deception The medical industrys push for organ donation is shrouded in deception, with hospitals exploiting legal loopholes to declare patients "brain dead" while their hearts still beat. Behind the sterile operating rooms and altruistic rhetoric lies a brutal truth: Doctors are manipulating death definitions to harvest organs from unsuspecting donors some of whom may still be conscious during the procedure. The rise of normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) reveals a sinister blueprint for bypassing ethical safeguards, threatening the very sanctity of human life in the name of transplant profits. To make matters worse, some patients presenting to emergency rooms could be saved from progressing brain swelling and impending brain death, but their case is dismissed until it's too late -- allowing ICU teams to pronounce them brain dead and begin harvesting their organs. Key points: Hospitals increasingly rely on normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) to artificially induce brain death after declaring circulatory death, bypassing legal and ethical protections. Doctors restart hearts after clamping blood flow to the brain, raising the question: Can a corpses heart beat on its own? Ethicists warn that NRP violates the "dead donor rule" and exploits vulnerable populations, particularly drug overdose victims. Lack of informed consent means families unknowingly surrender loved ones to procedures they would never approve if fully informed. Global demand for organs outpaces supply 10:1, putting pressure on medical systems to keep up. Alternatives exist, but financial incentives and organ demand drive the continued use of NRP despite widespread condemnation from medical professionals. The macabre science behind "brain death" and organ harvesting For decades, transplant teams have operated under two legal definitions of death: circulatory death (heart stops) and brain death (no measurable brain activity). However, the use of normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) shatters both definitions by artificially sustaining organ viability after death is declared. The process is chilling in its precision: First, a patient is disconnected from life support and their heart stops. Then, surgeons clamp blood flow to the brain ensuring irreversible brain death before restarting the heart for harvesting. As Dr. Heidi Klessig, a retired anesthesiologist, warns: "The moment circulation is restored, the patient is no longer 'dead' by circulatory standards. But because the brains blood supply is deliberately cut off, theyre now legally classified as brain dead." This legal sleight-of-hand allows hospitals to harvest organs from donors who, by any traditional measure, were still alive moments before. A system built on deception Despite condemnations from the American College of Physicians and bioethicists, NRP continues expanding across U.S. hospitals. Laboratories like the University of Nebraska openly document the procedure: "Ligation of blood vessels to the head ensures no blood reaches the brain... Once circulation restarts, the heart will beat." Yet families signing donor forms are never told their loved ones heart could be restarted post-mortem, nor that surgeons may deliberately induce brain death to legally justify extraction. As Dr. David Magnus notes: "If youre relying on obfuscation to defend a medical practice, youve already admitted its unethical." The Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) once served as a safeguard against premature death declarations but NRP renders it meaningless. With transplant programs prioritizing profit over ethics, public awareness is the only remaining defense. As bioethicist Lauris Kaldjian warns, "NRP weaponizes medical technology to redefine death, sacrificing ethical boundaries for organ quotas." Global demand for organs outpaces supply, putting pressure on hospitals The global demand for organs far outstrips the supply, with fewer than 10% of needed transplants performed annually despite over 150,000 procedures worldwide (Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation, 2020). This severe shortage fuels a desperate and often exploitative market. Hospitals and transplant centers face mounting pressure to secure organs amid rising waitlists, while some patients, driven by survival, turn to illegal means, paying exorbitant sums in underground transactions that prey on the poor. What can be done? Review your donor status. Go to the local DMV or associated institution and remove organ donor status. If hospitals wont disclose the truth about organ procurement and the processes that make it more efficient, opt out entirely. Loved ones go through hell watching this process take place in hospitals, and there is NO comfort knowing that their love one's organs went to save other lives, especially when their own loved one could have been saved. Demand legislative bans on NRP. Nations like Australia have already prohibited it so why hasnt the U.S.? Spread awareness. Millions unknowingly consent to procedures that may harvest organs from living bodies. The choice is clear: Until full transparency is forced upon the transplant industry, no one is safe from becoming another statistic in the dark economy of organ harvesting. Medical malpractice and wrongful death cases can lead to organ harvesting operations, making families question the intent of medical professionals from the start. It's long past time to audit hospital systems to better understand their procedures preceding brain death diagnoses and the protocols that lead doctors to make that diagnosis. Transparency is needed to understand the procedures in the preservation and transport of organs and who gets precedence for them after they are harvested. Organ procurement should not be an industry, and layers of accountability should be installed within hospital systems to hold doctors accountable if they participate in money making schemes -- whether these are set up officially inside hospitals or whether industry forces are applying pressure from outside hospital systems. What appears compassionate on the surface comes with a terrifying dark side, and families are left mourning in the horrors. Sources include: LifesiteNews.com Youtube.com TransplantObservatory.org [PDF] Enoch, Brighteon.ai LifesiteNews.com Canadian liberals quietly hand Pfizer, Moderna new $400 million contracts while injured citizens beg for justice Beneath the polished facade of Canadas healthcare system lies a dark truth: the Trudeau and Carney governments have betrayed their citizens, trading human lives for pharmaceutical profits. While thousands of Canadians suffer from documented vaccine injuriesheart damage, blood clots, immune destructionthe Liberal regime has quietly signed another $400 million deal with Pfizer and Moderna . This isnt just negligenceits criminal collusion in the face of undeniable harm. Worse still, taxpayer-funded propaganda campaigns keep the masses compliant, while Ottawa buries adverse event reports and stalls compensation. The evidence is clear: Canadas leaders are protecting Big Pharmanot the people. Canadians have been subject countless boosters, coerced to death by discriminatory lockdowns that target the "unvaccinated." Now all that medical tyranny and fraud is perpetuated by further contracts with the same bloody entities that caused all the hell. Key points: Secret contracts exposed: Despite halted booster programs, the Liberal government signed $400m in new COVID shot deals with Pfizer and Moderna in June 2025yet no official announcement was made. Injury cover-up continues: Canadas Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) has approved only 234 claims out of 3,317 filedwhile $33.7 million was wasted on administration instead of victims. Government deception exposed: A leaked 2021 memo revealed Ottawa knew about vaccine harms but crafted "winning communication strategies" to deceive Canadians into compliance. Blood clot warnings ignored: Studies link Pfizer and Moderna shots to deadly clotsyet regulators downplay risks as injuries mount. Propaganda over truth: Health Canada spent $54 million pushing jabs to youth, while delaying payouts for heart failure, paralysis, and death. A government that silences, not heals Buried within Canadas public health records lies a damning secret: senior officials knew COVID shots were maiming citizensand actively worked to suppress the truth. Leaked documents reveal that Trudeaus Privy Council Office crafted messaging to "prevent alarm" over vaccine injuries, admitting they could "shake public confidence." Instead of pausing deadly injections, Ottawa doubled downcensoring dissent, bankrolling pro-vaccine propaganda (CBC received $1.75 million), and shielding Pfizer and Moderna from legal responsibility. This isnt incompetenceits fraud. Internal emails from Public Health Canada (PHAC) prove officials intentionally withheld adverse event reportsincluding myocarditis in teens and fatal blood clotswhile forcing mandates on workplaces, schools, and travelers. When confronted with soaring injuries, federal health bureaucrats didnt halt the shotsthey expanded their injury compensation program... then starved it of funds. "Less than 3 million has been paid to vaccine victims, while OxaroInc.the consulting firm managing the programpocketed 50.6 million." Meanwhile, Ottawa pumps millions into "Science Up First"a taxpayer-funded initiative that bullies skeptics as "misinformation spreaders." The CBC, reliant on federal dollars, amplifies government-approved "experts" while ignoring thousands of injured Canadians who are begging for justice. Pfizer and Modernas deadly immunity Canadas contracts with Big Pharma were never about healththey were about profit protection. By stockpiling 293 million doses (enough to inject every citizen seven times), the Liberals guaranteed Pfizer and Moderna zero liabilityeven as young athletes dropped dead from heart inflammation and women suffered miscarriages post-jab. The real scandal? Pfizer and Moderna shots cause the same blood clots as AstraZenecayet Ottawa still pushes them. A bombshell Oxford University study found: 4 in 1 million Pfizer/Moderna recipients develop CVST clots (nearly matching AstraZeneca's rate). 795 VAERS reports linked mRNA shots to clotting disordersyet only J&J faced scrutiny. Physicians like Dr. Hooman Noorchashm have warned regulators for years: "I dont know why thrombotic events are only flagged for J&J. VAERS is full of Pfizer and Moderna cases, but the FDA ignores them." Canadian health officials have responded with silence, followed by another $200 million handout. While Ottawa funnels cash to pharmaceutical giants, Canadian families are left shattered. Ross Wightman, paralyzed by AstraZeneca, was offered pennies in compensation. Otherslike young adults battling myocarditisface lifetime disabilities. Yet the governments answer is more jabs, more censorship, more lies. History will remember this eranot as a pandemic response, but as one of the greatest medical betrayals in Canadian history. The Canadian government owes vaccine injured citizens $400 million and then some, but it's all going back into the corrupt entities that caused the problems. The question remains: How many more must suffer before the people of Canada overthrow their corrupt government? Sources include: LifesiteNews.com LifesiteNews.com LifesiteNews.com DOJ issues subpoenas to over 20 doctors, clinics over alleged transgender surgeries on minors A senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official announced that nearly 20 subpoenas have been sent to doctors and clinics over alleged involvement in transgender medical procedures on minors, citing potential healthcare fraud and false statements. The FTC hosted a workshop on July 9 titled "The Dangers of 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Minors" to investigate whether such care may involve deceptive practices that violate federal consumer protection laws. The workshop aimed to assess whether families have been exposed to unsupported or misleading medical claims regarding the risks and benefits of gender alteration procedures for minors. Detransitioners and grieving parents gave personal testimonies, describing rushed medical decisions and emotional harm, including one mother whose daughter died by suicide after her transition. The event aligns with President Donald Trump's recent executive orders targeting restrictions on gender transition procedures for minors and addressing what the administration calls "radical ideology" in medicine. A senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official announced that the department has issued nearly 20 subpoenas to medical providers and clinics involved in transgender medical procedures for minors. On Wednesday, July 9, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) organized a workshop titled "The Dangers of 'Gender-Affirming Care' for Minors" in Washington, D.C. As part of the workshop, the FTC is evaluating and potentially curbing practices within the transgender medicine industry that may violate the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits deceptive or unfair practices affecting consumers. "This authority could be implicated if there is evidence that medical professionals or others omitted warnings about the risks or made false or unsupported claims about the benefits and effectiveness of gender-affirming care for minors," a description for the event read. "The workshop will help the FTC to understand whether consumers are being or have been exposed to false or unsupported claims about 'gender-affirming care' and to gauge the harms consumers may be experiencing." In line with the event, DOJ official Chad Mizelle disclosed the subpoenas are part of ongoing investigations involving allegations of healthcare fraud, false statements and other possible legal violations related to transgender medical interventions on children. Mizelle then urged individuals who believe they were misled or harmed by transgender medical providers to come forward and share their experiences. "If you are someone who has been harmed, please come forward and let us know," Mizelle said. Grieving parents and detransitioners share harrowing testimonies about gender alteration procedures The event aligns with President Donald Trump's recent executive orders focused on restricting gender transition procedures for minors and targeting what the administration refers to as "radical ideology" in medicine. The workshop was a fact-finding step to assess whether minors and their families have been exposed to unsupported medical claims or misleading marketing in the context of "gender-affirming care." During the event, the workshop featured an emotional panel of detransitioners and parents who shared deeply personal accounts of their experiences with gender transition attempts. Among the panelists were Prisha Mosley, Soren Aldaco, Beth Bourne, Forrest Smith, Helen Spiegel Lee and Gwen Turecki individuals who either detransitioned or were family members of minors who underwent medical transitions. Several speakers described what they said were misleading or rushed medical decisions made during vulnerable periods in their lives or the lives of their children. Medical professionals, ethicists, whistleblowers and parents participated in the workshop, many expressing concerns that young patients are not fully informed of the risks associated with gender transition procedures, such as puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgeries. (Related: Former FTM transgender teen supports Florida ban on using Medicaid funds for transgender medical interventions.) One mother, Elvira Syed, broke into sobs as she shared the story of her daughter's suicide following her transition journey. "I lost my 18-year-old daughter to gender ideology," she said. Visit Transhumanism.news for more stories like this. Listen to Health Ranger Mike Adams explaining how transgender surgeries for teenagers are tantamount to medical child abuse below. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Transgender surgery is rooted in the idea that doctors can cure mental illness by permanently maiming patients. Depopulation twofer: Youth suicide rates are HIGHER now that children are being pushed to go "trans." U.K. government formally endorses medical child abuse by promoting transgender surgery for children under 16. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he plans to PROHIBIT gender transition surgeries from being performed on children. MAIM THEM EARLY! White House demands "early" genital mutilation surgeries for children to convert them before they have the presence of mind to say NO. Sources include: JusttheNews.com DailyWire.com Brighteon.com Health Ranger Report: Jonathan Emord and Dr. Robert Verkerk lay out strategy against FDA censorship : This article is based on a "Health Ranger Report" interview conducted in February before Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as HHS secretary.) RFK Jr.'s potential confirmation as HHS head represents a critical moment to shift power from bureaucratic control to individual sovereignty, given his independence from pharmaceutical and medical industry influence. Emord and Verkerk criticize systemic suppression of nutritional truths by the FDA, Big Pharma and Big Tech, advocating for the reinstatement of 400 suppressed health claims to empower public decision-making. The interview highlights AI's potential (e.g., Enoch AI model) to bypass censorship and provide decentralized, personalized health information, challenging flawed regulatory risk assessments. Listeners are encouraged to support RFK Jr.'s nomination by contacting senators and engaging with ANH's resources, including "The MAHA Mandate" book, to push for regulatory reform. A future of transparency, trust and access to diverse health options is framed as achievable under RFK Jr.'s leadership, emphasizing individual empowerment and science-based policies. Attorney Jonathan Emord and Dr. Robert Verkerk have unveiled a powerful strategy to dismantle the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) censorship of nutritional truths during their appearance on the "Health Ranger Report." This comes at a critical time as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepares for his nomination hearing to become the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a development that could revolutionize America's approach to health and wellness. Emord, who serves as general counsel for the Alliance for Natural Health-USA (ANH-USA), described RFK Jr.'s potential confirmation as "the greatest opportunity we've had in American history" to shift the balance of power from bureaucratic control to individual sovereignty. (Related: Jonathan Emord and Dr. Robert Verkerk rally behind RFK Jr.s fight for health freedom) He emphasized that RFK Jr. is uniquely positioned to challenge the status quo, as he is not beholden to the pharmaceutical or medical industries. This independence is crucial in a landscape where industry influence has historically dictated policy at agencies under the HHS, such as the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "No drug company is going to be able to use power to compel him to behave in one way or another, or a future promise of employment to do it. He's independent," Emord said. Emord highlighted RFK Jr.'s commitment to ending mandates, opening up information flows and restoring trust in the healthcare system. He envisions a future where individuals have access to a full range of healthcare options, free from the constraints of a one-size-fits-all approach. This vision aligns with the principles of "The MAHA Mandate," a new book by Emord and Verkerk, which outlines a comprehensive plan to make America healthy again. Verkerk underscored the urgency of this fight, emphasizing that the current system is rigged against the public interest. "The goal of Big Food, Big Pharma and Big Tech has never really been about helping the health of people," said Verkerk, the executive and scientific director of ANH-USA. He cited a 2016 study showing that clinical care accounts for only 16 percent of health outcomes, while human behavior plays a far more significant role. By censoring information at the point of sale, the government is effectively limiting people's ability to make healthier choices. The role of AI in decentralizing knowledge The conversation shifted to the transformative potential of AI [artificial intelligence] in democratizing access to health information. Adams highlighted the release of the Enoch AI model, which is trained on a vast array of nutrition and wellness data. This model, along with other open-source AI tools, could empower individuals to bypass traditional censorship and access information that has been suppressed by mainstream platforms. His guests agreed that AI has the potential to revolutionize the way people access and use health information. Emord envisions a future where AI can provide personalized health advice. Meanwhile, Verkerk emphasized the importance of using AI to challenge the flawed risk assessment models that have dominated the regulatory landscape. The discussion concluded with a call to action for Americans to support RFK Jr.'s nomination. Emord urged citizens to contact their senators, particularly those in Alaska and Maine, to voice their support for RFK Jr. The ANH-USA general counsel emphasized that this is a critical moment to reclaim control over the healthcare system and restore transparency and trust. Verkerk added that the ANH-USA is committed to fighting for a regulatory framework that prioritizes science-based, fact-based information. He envisions a system where individuals have access to the full spectrum of health information, allowing them to make informed choices about their own health. Watch the full interview featuring Jonathan Emord, Dr. Robert Verkerk and the Health Ranger Mike Adams below. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Make America Healthy Again: Trump nominates RFK, Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Axis of Evil: CDC and FDA concealed COVID vaccine dangers as injuries soared, new study reveals. "FDA Dragon Slayer" attorney Jonathan Emord joins Alliance for Natural Health as general counsel to help protect Americans health freedom. Sources include: Brighteon.com ANH-USA.org 1 ANH-USA.org 2 EU launches second probe into Tiktok over allegations the social media giant illegally stored European user data in China The EU has launched a second probe into TikTok over allegations it illegally stored European user data in China, following a record 530 million fine for similar violations earlier this year. Ireland's Data Protection Commission cited "deep concern" over TikTok's lack of transparency. TikTok previously denied storing EU data in China but later admitted some information was temporarily held on Chinese servers. This inconsistency has raised doubts about its compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mandates strict data localization rules. Western governments fear TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, could be forced to share data with Chinese authorities under Chinas National Intelligence Law, despite TikTok's denials. Remote access by China-based employees also poses security concerns. The U.S., Canada and Australia have taken action against TikTok over security risks, with the U.S. passing a law forcing ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations or face a ban. The EU's repeated fines signal growing distrust of TikTok's ties to China. If found guilty again, TikTok could face GDPR fines up to four percent of global revenue or even a Western ban. The investigation tests whether a Chinese-owned platform can operate independently of Beijing's influence. The European Union has opened a second investigation into TikTok over allegations that the Chinese-owned social media giant illegally stored European user data in China just months after being hit with a record 530 million ($620 million) fine for the same violations. Acting on behalf of the EU, Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) announced the new probe July 10, citing "deep concern" over TikTok's failure to provide accurate information during the first investigation. Despite TikTok's claims that European data was only accessed remotely from China, the company admitted in April that some information had in fact been physically stored on Chinese servers a revelation that has reignited fears over Beijing's potential access to sensitive Western user data. A pattern of deception This is not the first time TikTok has faced scrutiny over its data practices. In May, the DPC fined the company for failing to protect European users' personal information, which was accessible by employees in China. At the time, TikTok insisted that no data was stored in China only to later admit that a "limited amount" had been temporarily kept on Chinese servers before being deleted. The discrepancy has raised serious questions about the company's transparency and whether it can be trusted to comply with Europe's strict privacy laws. (Related: EU Commission opens public consultation on controversial data retention plan.) The DPC's new investigation will focus specifically on whether TikTok has since corrected these violations under the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), one of the world's toughest privacy laws. GDPR requires companies to store European data within the EU or in countries deemed to have adequate privacy protections neither of which applies to China. Why this matters: China's data grab The controversy goes beyond technical compliance. Western governments have long suspected that TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, could be compelled to hand over user data to Chinese authorities under the countrys expansive national security laws. China's 2017 National Intelligence Law mandates that all companies assist the government in intelligence work when requested a fact that has fueled bipartisan concerns in the U.S. and EU. TikTok has repeatedly denied sharing data with Beijing, stating it has "never received a request" from Chinese authorities. But skeptics argue that in an authoritarian regime like China, companies have no legal way to refuse such demands. Even remote access to European data by employees in China creates a potential backdoor for exploitation. TikTok's defense: A question of trust TikTok maintains that it has taken steps to localize data storage, keeping European user information in Norway, Ireland and the United States. The company has also invested billions in data infrastructure to reassure regulators. Yet these efforts ring hollow when the platform continues to face accusations of misleading authorities. The DPC's May fine the second-largest in EU history was a clear warning. But with this new probe, it's evident that regulators no longer take TikTok at its word. What comes next? If TikTok is found in violation again, the penalties could be even steeper. The GDPR allows fines of up to four percent of a company's global revenue a figure that could reach into the billions for TikTok. More critically, another confirmed breach could accelerate calls for an outright ban in Western markets. For now, TikTok remains one of the world's most popular apps, with 1.5 billion users globally. But as governments grow increasingly wary of China's digital influence, its future hangs in the balance. The latest investigation is not just about data storageit's a test of whether a Chinese-owned platform can ever truly operate independently of Beijing's reach. The stakes couldn't be higher. If TikTok fails this test, it may find itself locked out of the West for good. Watch this interesting commentary about what TikTok data China has access to and what it really is taking. This video is from Truth and Stuff channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: TikTok resumes U.S. operations after Trump intervenes. Trump rescues TikTok, proposes 50% U.S. ownership to avert ban. TikTok quietly changed its privacy policy, giving itself permission to harvest biometric data of U.S. users. Ex-TikTok employee claims he was INSTRUCTED to send American users data to Beijing-based parent company. Data privacy concerns raised as analysis finds China-based developers were responsible for TikTok's code. Sources include:. TheNationalPulse.com Reuters.com Brusselstimes.com Brighteon.com Hungarys new crackdown on crypto sparks turmoil in the sector Hungary's new laws (effective July 1) impose prison sentences of up to eight years for trading cryptocurrencies on unauthorized exchanges, with penalties scaling based on transaction amounts (e.g., two years for trades over $14,595). The legislation diverges from the EU's harmonized MiCA framework, leaving compliance unclear. Hungary's Supervisory Authority has 60 days to clarify rules, causing market upheaval and service suspensions (e.g., Revolut and Bitstamp halted operations). Critics allege the crackdown targets tech-savvy demographics opposed to PM Orban's government, risking prosecution for ordinary investors and leaving 500,000 crypto holders in legal limbo. The Hungarian National Bank excluded cryptocurrencies from national reserves on July 3, citing volatility and regulatory risks. It favored traditional assets like gold for stability. Budapest's isolationist approach conflicts with Brussels' push for unified crypto regulations, raising concerns about fintech exodus and stifling innovation in Hungary's crypto sector. In a sweeping move that has rattled Hungary's cryptocurrency sector, new laws took effect July 1 imposing prison sentences of up to eight years for trading digital assets on unauthorized exchanges. Under the new laws, individuals face up to two years in prison for trading through unlicensed exchanges involving sums between five million Hungarian forints ($14,595) and 50 million forints ($145,950). Penalties escalate to three years for trades exceeding 50 million forints ($145,950) and five years for those over 500 million forints ($1.46 million). The legislation, part of Hungary's updated Criminal Code, marks one of Europe's strictest crypto crackdowns. It diverges sharply from the European Union's strategy to harmonize regulations under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, which also launched on the same day Budapest's new crypto laws took effect. (Related: Vietnam becomes first country to enact comprehensive law regulating the digital technology industry.) Moreover, service providers operating without approval risk up to eight years behind bars. However, no clear compliance guidelines are available from Hungary's Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs (SZTFH), which has 60 days to clarify enforcement rules. The abrupt policy shift has plunged the market into chaos. London-based Revolut serving over two million Hungarian users suspended all crypto purchases, deposits, staking and withdrawals to external wallets. Bitstamp, another major exchange, also paused services for Hungarian residents. Revolut cited "recent Hungarian legislation" forced the halt, adding that it is pursuing EU-wide licensing under MiCA. The company admitted that it faces hurdles due to Budapest's additional national requirements. Revolut later permitted withdrawals on Monday, July 14. Budapest vs. Bitcoin: Vague rules could criminalize regular users Critics warn the vague rules could criminalize ordinary investors. "Regular users could be prosecuted simply for managing their investments the same way they always have," an insider told Hungarian news outlet Telex. Approximately 500,000 Hungarians hold crypto declared as legal income, but the lack of transitional guidance leaves past or ongoing transactions in jeopardy. Analysts see the crackdown as politically driven, targeting urban, tech-savvy demographics less aligned with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz party. The Hungarian National Bank (MNB) further distanced itself from the sector on July 3, announcing it will exclude cryptocurrencies from national reserves. It cited crypto's volatility and regulatory risks, opting instead for traditional assets like gold. "We must prioritize stability and reliability in our reserve holdings," the MNB reiterated. While foreign platforms may continue operating with limited consequences, domestic firms and users now navigate a minefield of legal uncertainty. Budapest's isolationist approach clashes with Brussels' push for unified crypto standards, fueling fears of a fintech exodus. As SZTFH rushes to draft compliance rules, Hungary's crypto community braces for a prolonged period of turbulence one where privacy, innovation and financial autonomy hang in the balance. Head over to CryptoCult.news for more similar stories. Watch the Health Ranger Mike Adams and Todd Pitner discussing crypto and financial freedom in this clip. This video is from the Brighteon Highlights channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Crypto crime crackdown: Law enforcement busts investment fraud ring in Spain. EU to ban privacy cryptocurrencies and anonymous accounts by 2027 under new AML rules. Bitcoin's evolution beyond "digital gold": Redefining monetary innovation in a shifting landscape. Sources include: CoinTelegraph.com CryptoNews.com BitcoinEthereumNews.com Brighteon.com LEAKY GUT SYNDROME suspected as the catapult for nearly every digestive disorder "Leaky gut" is a popular yet controversial term often used to describe a condition in which the lining of the intestines becomes overly permeable, allowing harmful substances such as bacteria, toxins, and partially digested food to leak into the bloodstream. While the concept is known scientifically as intestinal permeability or hyperpermeability, it is not currently recognized as a formal medical diagnosis due to insufficient scientific evidence and lack of standardized testing. Leaky gut, or intestinal permeability, refers to a compromised intestinal lining that may allow bacteria and toxins to pass into the bloodstream, potentially causing symptoms like gas, bloating, fatigue, indigestion, nausea and diarrhea though this concept remains largely theoretical. that may allow bacteria and toxins to pass into the bloodstream, potentially causing symptoms like gas, bloating, fatigue, indigestion, nausea and diarrhea though this concept remains largely theoretical. Medical experts stress that leaky gut is not an officially recognized diagnosis due to a lack of standardized testing and limited scientific evidence. The term is popular but oversimplifies a complex and not-yet-validated condition. due to a lack of standardized testing and limited scientific evidence. The term is popular but oversimplifies a complex and not-yet-validated condition. Many symptoms attributed to leaky gut overlap with other legitimate conditions such as IBS, celiac disease, Crohns disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or even fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders, which require specific diagnoses and treatments. such as IBS, celiac disease, Crohns disease, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) or even fibromyalgia and autoimmune disorders, which require specific diagnoses and treatments. If digestive symptoms persist for more than a couple of weeks, experts advise seeking medical evaluation. While leaky gut may not be a formal diagnosis, persistent symptoms could signal a real and treatable gastrointestinal issue. Leaky gut syndrome: Exploring the theory behind intestinal permeability Under normal conditions, the intestinal lining forms a tight barrier that selectively allows nutrients to pass into the bloodstream while keeping out potentially harmful substances. However, in cases of suspected leaky gut, this barrier is believed to be compromised due to inflammation, potentially triggering a variety of symptoms. These may include a burning sensation in the gut, chronic diarrhea, fatigue, gas and bloating caused by bacterial overgrowth, painful indigestion, nausea and vomiting. According to Dr. Pratima Dibba, a gastroenterologist in New York City, leaky gut remains a theoretical concept. There is currently no standard method to directly measure intestinal permeability, making it difficult to validate or diagnose. Still, the term "leaky gut" has gained popularity for its simplicity and accessibility, offering patients a way to understand potential dysfunctions in the intestinal barrier. Even though the concept is not fully embraced in the medical community, many experts acknowledge that the symptoms commonly attributed to leaky gut are real and could be signs of more clearly defined gastrointestinal conditions. Dr. Caroline Soyka of Baptist Health in Florida notes that patients with persistent digestive symptoms are often diagnosed with conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional dyspepsia, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), celiac disease, Crohns disease, fibromyalgia or, more rarely, autoimmune or neurological disorders. Dr. Soyka and other specialists emphasize that more research is needed to determine the extent to which intestinal permeability contributes to broader health issues. Without clear diagnostic criteria or sufficient clinical trials, leaky gut syndrome remains a hypothesis rather than an accepted condition in conventional medicine. Despite the uncertainty, individuals experiencing persistent or worsening digestive symptoms should not ignore them. Dr. Dibba advises that occasional bloating or indigestion is common, but if such symptoms last more than a couple of weeks or become disruptive, its important to consult a healthcare provider. Severe symptoms like vomiting or ongoing diarrhea warrant even more urgent medical attention. Importantly, experiencing symptoms consistent with leaky gut doesnt mean they are imagined or psychosomatic. Instead, these symptoms might indicate an underlying condition that requires specific testing and targeted treatment. Because many gastrointestinal disorders share overlapping symptoms, identifying the correct diagnosis is key to managing and improving overall digestive health. In summary, while "leaky gut" is not officially recognized as a medical diagnosis, the concept underscores the growing awareness of the guts role in overall health. Until further research provides clarity, patients experiencing chronic digestive distress should seek professional evaluation to rule out or treat established medical conditions. Tune your internet dial to NaturalMedicine.news for more tips on how to use natural remedies for preventative medicine and for healing, instead of succumbing to Big Pharma products that cause, spread, and exacerbate disease and disorder. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com EverydayHealth.com NASA discovers mysterious super-Earth that emits strange signals and may hold water NASA discovered a mysterious "super-Earth," TOI-1846 b, emitting repeating signals and defying classification due to its rare "radius gap" size that sits between rocky and gaseous planets. The planet orbits a red dwarf star, with scorching 600F temperatures but potential water hidden in shadowed regions or beneath its surface. An international team confirmed its existence using TESS and ground-based observations, suggesting a hybrid structure with a dense core and possible ice or thin atmosphere. Scientists suspect tidal locking and geothermal activity could sustain subsurface oceans, similar to Jupiters moon Europa. NASA plans to study TOI-1846 bs atmosphere with the James Webb Telescope, searching for water and clues about habitability in extreme environments. NASA has uncovered a bizarre "super-Earth" emitting a repeating signal from deep space, raising urgent questions about its compositionand whether it could defy expectations by harboring water despite extreme heat. The planet, designated TOI-1846 b, sits 154 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, orbiting a dim red dwarf star. Nearly twice the size of Earth and four times as massive, this world occupies a rare planetary "radius gap," blurring the line between rocky and gaseous planets. First detected by NASAs TESS space telescope in March 2025, the discovery has now been confirmed by an international team of scientists. With scorching surface temperatures of 600F, how could water exist here? And what secrets might its atmosphere reveal? A planet in the "radius gap" TOI-1846 b defies easy classification. It falls into the elusive "radius gap," a mysterious zone where few planets are foundtoo large to be purely rocky like Earth, yet too small to be gas-dominated like Neptune. Researchers suggest it may have a solid core wrapped in dense ice, possibly topped by a shallow ocean or thin atmosphere. "We have validated TOI-1846 b using TESS and multicolor ground-based photometric data, high-resolution imaging, and spectroscopic observations," said Abderahmane Soubkiou, lead researcher at Moroccos Oukaimeden Observatory. The planets density hints at a hybrid structure, challenging assumptions about planetary formation. Red dwarfs, like TOI-1846 bs host star, are cooler and smaller than our sun, forcing planets into tight orbits for warmth. This proximity makes them easier to detect as they transit, dimming their stars light. TESS, launched in 2018, has identified more than 7,600 such transit events, confirming 630+ exoplanets. Its four high-sensitivity cameras scan the sky every 30 minutes, making it ideal for catching faint dips like those from TOI-1846 b. Tidally lockedbut hiding water? The planet is likely tidally locked, with one side perpetually facing its star while the other remains in darkness. This extreme temperature divide could allow water to persist in shadowed regions, depending on atmospheric circulation. While the dayside roasts at 600F, the nightside might be cold enough to trap ice or liquid water beneath a protective layer. Scientists speculate that tidal forces or geothermal activity could sustain subsurface oceans, akin to Jupiters moon Europa. NASA plans to deploy the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to probe TOI-1846 bs atmosphere for water vapor, methane, or carbon dioxide. Ground-based observatories like Hawaiis Gemini North are already assisting, using the MAROON-X instrument to measure the stars wobbleconfirming the planets mass and hunting for hidden neighbors. Intriguingly, gravitational anomalies suggest another planet may lurk in the system, possibly in a cooler, more habitable zone. Why red dwarfs matter Red dwarfs make up 75% of Milky Way stars, making them prime targets in the search for habitable worlds. Their dimness allows easier detection of small planets, and their longevity means stable conditions could persist for billions of years. TOI-1846 bs discovery follows another recent find: TOI-715 b, a super-Earth 137 light-years away. Both planets help scientists unravel why some worlds lose their atmospheres while others retain thema key question in assessing habitability. The JWSTs infrared capabilities could soon decode TOI-1846 bs atmospheric chemistry. If water or organic molecules are found, it would bolster theories about lifes potential in extreme environments. Even if the planet itself is uninhabitable, studying its composition refines models for identifying Earth-like worlds. TOI-1846 b is more than a cosmic oddity; its a test case for planetary science. Its position in the radius gap, potential water reserves, and mysterious signals make it a high-priority target for future research. As NASA and global astronomers peel back its layers, each discovery brings us closer to answering one of humanitys oldest questions: Are we alone in the universe? For now, TOI-1846 b stands as a tantalizing clue in the vast puzzle of the cosmos. Sources for this article include: DailyMail.co.uk Earth.com TheSun.ie Nicotine pouch poisoning in young children surges 760% as FDA-approved products raise safety alarms Child nicotine poisonings from pouches surged 760% between 2020-2023, with two fatalities reported. Nicotine pouches cause severe harm five times more often than other nicotine products despite fewer ingestions. FDA-approved flavored pouches lack child deterrents, increasing risks of accidental ingestion by kids. Critics condemn FDAs authorization of flavored pouches, calling it a lure for youth addiction. Experts urge bans on flavors, better packaging, and parental vigilance to prevent more tragedies. A disturbing new study reveals a staggering 760% increase in nicotine poisoning cases among children under 6 years old due to accidental ingestion of nicotine pouches between 2020 and 2023. The research, published in Pediatrics, highlights a growing public health crisis as these smoke-free nicotine productssome recently approved by the FDAprove five times more likely to cause serious medical outcomes than other nicotine products. Tragically, two children died from nicotine pouch poisoning, underscoring the lethal risks posed by these seemingly innocuous products marketed as alternatives for adult smokers. A hidden epidemic of child poisonings Nicotine pouches, often flavored and sweetened, are designed to dissolve in the mouth when placed between the lip and gum. Brands like Zyn, Velo, and Rush have gained popularity among adults seeking smokeless nicotine alternatives. However, their appealing flavors and discreet packaging make them dangerously enticing to young children, who mistake them for candy or mints. According to the study, nicotine pouches accounted for only 1.4% of nicotine ingestions but were disproportionately linked to severe outcomes, including hospitalization and death. Dr. Hannah Hays, medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center and coauthor of the study, warned, "Nicotine pouches are a serious and growing toxic ingestion hazard among young children." The study analyzed over 134,000 cases of nicotine ingestion reported to U.S. poison control centers from 2010 to 2023, revealing an alarming spike in pouch-related incidents despite an overall decline in nicotine poisonings since 2016. FDA approval sparks controversy In January 2025, the FDA granted marketing authorization to Philip Morris Internationals Zyn nicotine pouches, approving 10 flavorsincluding coffee, mint, and mentholas a "modified risk" product for adult smokers. Regulators argued that Zyn contained fewer harmful ingredients than cigarettes and could help smokers quit. However, anti-smoking advocates slammed the decision, accusing the FDA of enabling a new generation of nicotine addiction. Yolonda Richardson, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, stated, "The FDA should not be authorizing the sale of any flavored tobacco products given the tobacco industrys well-documented history of using flavored products to appeal to and addict kids." While the FDA noted that youth use of pouches remains low (1.8% of middle and high school students), the rapid rise in child poisonings suggests insufficient safeguards. Why nicotine pouches are especially dangerous Nicotine pouches contain concentrated nicotine doses ranging from 3 to 12 milligrams per pouch, far exceeding the amount in a single cigarette. For small children, ingesting even 1 to 2 milligrams can trigger vomiting, seizures, or fatal respiratory failure. The study found that 1.2% of nicotine pouch ingestions led to "major effects," including the two fatalities. By comparison, other nicotine products like gum or e-liquids were less likely to cause severe harm. Dr. Natalie Rine, coauthor of the study, explained, "Theres nothing telling the kid, this is bad, you should spit it out and thats where you get into trouble." The pouches candy-like flavors and lack of bitter deterrents increase the risk of prolonged exposure, allowing more nicotine to absorb into a childs bloodstream. Philip Morris International, which owns Zyn, emphasized that its packaging includes child-resistant features and warnings. Yet critics argue these measures are inadequate, citing the surge in poisonings. Dr. Gary Smith of Nationwide Childrens Hospital urged stricter regulations, including bans on flavored nicotine products and child-resistant packaging improvements. Parents and caregivers are advised to: Store nicotine pouches in locked containers, far out of childrens reach. Avoid using pouches in front of kids, who may mimic adult behavior. Educate babysitters and family members about the risks. Call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222) immediately if ingestion is suspected. The studys authors stress that while legislation like the 2015 Child Nicotine Poisoning Prevention Act reduced e-liquid poisonings, the nicotine pouch crisis demands urgent intervention. "Banning flavors in all nicotine products helps reduce unintentional ingestions by young children as well as discourage use among teens," Smith said. As Big Tobacco capitalizes on FDA-approved nicotine alternatives, the tragic deaths of two children are a reminder that corporate profits must never come before child safety. Until regulators impose stricter controls, parents remain the last line of defense against this preventable epidemic. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com CNN.com ScienceAlert.com Rubio: U.S. commits to continued WEAPONS SUPPORT for Ukraine amid escalating conflict The U.S. has not stopped military aid to Ukraine, despite temporary delays in some shipments, like air defense missiles and artillery shells. Secretary of State Marco Rubio clarified that most aid flows as planned, with only minor reviews to balance global security needs. The Trump administration proposes selling weapons to NATO allies, like Germany and Spain, who can then send their existing stockpiles to Ukraine. This speeds up deliveries and shifts financial responsibility more to Europe. Russia has escalated missile and drone attacks, with over 700 strikes in one week. Ukraine urgently requests at least 10 more Patriot missile systems, but only Germany and Norway have pledged a few. Delays leave cities like Kharkiv vulnerable. The Kremlin claims Western weapons prolong the war but admits a full aid cutoff could push Ukraine toward surrender. Trump has criticized Putin and hinted at a major Russia-related announcement, while still pushing for a ceasefire. Ukraine's survival depends on timely weapons deliveries. NATO's new transfer plan may help, but Russia's larger military keeps pressing. The conflict's outcome remains uncertain, with global attention on whether Western aid can match Ukraine's needs. The United States has no intention of halting military aid to Ukraine, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, despite recent reports of temporary pauses in certain arms shipments. The clarification comes as Ukraine faces intensified Russian missile and drone attacks, highlighting Kyiv's urgent need for advanced air defense systems like the Patriot missile batteries. Early in July, it was reported that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) had temporarily suspended some weapons deliveries to Ukraine, including air defense interceptors and artillery shells. The decision, reportedly made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth without prior consultation with allies or lawmakers, sparked concern in Europe and frustration among Ukrainian officials. However, Rubio dismissed claims of a full suspension, calling it a "mischaracterization." He explained that the pause was limited to a few specific munitions while the U.S. reviewed its stockpiles to ensure it could meet both Ukraine's needs and other global security commitments. Rubio also said the "overwhelming majority of military aid" that the U.S. provides Ukraine has "never been paused and continues along the same schedules that it's been." Additionally, he emphasized that most U.S. assistance remains defensive, with Ukraine still requiring additional Patriot systems to counter Russia's relentless aerial assaults. In a strategic shift, the Trump administration has proposed a new approach to supplying Ukraine: selling weapons to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, who would then transfer them to Kyiv. This method could expedite deliveries while ensuring European nations bear a larger financial burden. (Related: From Syria to Ukraine: How the U.S. plays by two sets of rules.) In a recent interview, Trump revealed that the U.S. is "sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100 percent." Under this plan, European countries with existing U.S.-made arms, such as Germany and Spain, could send their stockpiles to Ukraine and then purchase replacements from American manufacturers. Rubio noted that this system would be faster than waiting for new weapons to be built and shipped from the U.S. For example, it would be faster to ship something "from Germany to Ukraine than it is to order it from a U.S. factory and get it there," the secretary of state added. NATO, while not directly handling weapons transfers, coordinates logistics through a hub in Poland. The alliance has reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring Ukraine receives the necessary support to defend itself. Missile mayhem: Europe rushes air defenses against Moscow's drones Russia has recently intensified its missile and drone attacks, launching over 700 strikes in a single week, a record high. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded for at least 10 more Patriot systems to counter these assaults. Germany has pledged two Patriot batteries, and Norway has agreed to supply one. Meanwhile, other European nations are considering purchasing additional U.S.-made systems to send to Ukraine. Despite these efforts, delays in weapons deliveries have left Ukrainian cities vulnerable. A recent Russian drone attack on Kharkiv injured nine people and damaged a maternity hospital, underscoring the urgent need for stronger air defenses. The U.S. remains committed to supporting Ukraine, but the approach has evolved under the Trump administration. Unlike his predecessor, Trump has engaged in direct talks with Russia while pushing for a ceasefire. However, Kremlin officials have seized on reports of paused U.S. aid, suggesting that continued weapons shipments undermine diplomatic efforts. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov argued that Western arms have prolonged the conflict without changing its outcome. Still, he acknowledged that a complete halt in weapons deliveries could bring a resolution "closer." Meanwhile, Trump has signaled frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The real estate mogul called the war "a tragedy" that has caused the deaths of many people. The coming weeks will test whether the U.S. and its allies can deliver weapons fast enough to turn the tide, or if Russia's relentless attacks will further strain Ukraine's defenses. One thing is clear: The war is far from over, and the world is watching. Watch Alex Jones of InfoWars talking about NATO's drone attacks on Russia. This video is from the Rick Langley channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: U.S. suspends military aid to Ukraine: A strategic shift amid global concerns. U.S. PAUSES aid to Ukraine, forcing Zelensky to seek peace and restore democracy to Ukraine. U.S. decision to halt weapons shipments to Ukraine met with OUTRAGE. Sources include: RT.com NBCNews.com State.gov APNews.com Brighteon.com Trump escalates trade offensive with new tariff notices to seven nations On July 9, President Donald Trump issued formal tariff letters to the leaders of the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Moldova, expanding his trade crackdown. New duties between 20 percent and 30 percent will take effect on Aug. 1. Some previously proposed rates were reduced, Sri Lanka's tariff was lowered from 44 percent to 30 percent and Iraq's from 39 percent to 30 percent. However, other countries saw increases, such as the Philippines, which rose from 17 percent to 20 percent. Just days earlier, on July 7, Trump shared letters to 14 other countries, including Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, outlining tariffs ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent, also effective on Aug. 1. Trump's letters cautioned countries not to respond with retaliatory tariffs, threatening to raise U.S. duties further if they do. Tariffs may be "modified, upward or downward," depending on each country's behavior and trade policy changes. Although the tariffs were originally set to take effect on July 10, Trump signed an executive order delaying implementation to Aug. 1, citing recommendations from senior officials. President Donald Trump has intensified his aggressive trade agenda by issuing a new round of tariff notices to seven additional countries, expanding his push for bilateral trade deals through unilateral pressure tactics. According to several reports, formal letters were sent to the leaders of the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Brunei, Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Moldova on Wednesday, July 9. The notices outlined new import duties ranging from 20 percent to 30 percent, set to take effect on Aug. 1. (Related: Trump's tariffs will create millions of jobs.) The administration has made slight modifications to some rates, but the overall message remains consistent: countries must make concessions or face mounting economic pressure. For instance, Sri Lanka's tariff rate, initially proposed at 44 percent in April, was lowered to 30 percent in the latest notice. Iraq's rate also dropped to 30 percent, down from 39 percent. However, other countries saw hikes, including the Philippines, which saw its rate increase from 17 percent to 20 percent. Moreover, each letter warned that tariffs could be increased further if affected nations choose to retaliate or fail to meet "U.S. expectations," though those benchmarks were not clearly defined. Trump earlier issued formal tariff letters to 14 nations The move comes on the heels of Trump's decision earlier this July to impose trade duties on 14 other countries. In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform on Monday, July 7, Trump shared images of formal letters addressed to the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia and Thailand. The letters outlined new tariff rates and warned that the U.S. might "perhaps reconsider the penalties, depending on our relationship with your country." According to the letters, goods from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Tunisia will be hit with a 25 percent tariff. South African and Bosnian imports will face a 30 percent duty, while products from Indonesia will be taxed at 32 percent. Bangladesh and Serbia will see a 35 percent tariff on their exports to the U.S., while Cambodia and Thailand will face a 36 percent rate. The highest tariffs will fall on Laos and Myanmar, with duties set at 40 percent. The move comes just days before a previously announced tariff hike was scheduled to take effect. Originally slated for Wednesday, the increase was postponed until Aug. 1 after Trump signed an executive order Monday afternoon. The delay, according to the order, was based on "additional information and recommendations from various senior officials." Trump also warned the 14 countries not to retaliate against the new U.S. tariffs by imposing duties on American goods. "If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 25 percent that we charge," Trump wrote. "These tariffs may be modified, upward or downward, depending on our relationship with your Country. You will never be disappointed with the United States of America." Follow Trump.news for the latest updates, exclusive insights and in-depth coverage on this topic and similar stories. Watch Tom Philipson and Steve Moore explain how President Donald Trump uses tariffs effectively in this clip. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Trump imposes 25% tariffs on auto imports. Trump imposes new tariffs on agricultural imports. Canada RESCINDS DIGITAL TAX after Trump threatens retaliatory tariffs. Canada refuses to lift tariffs despite Trump's postponement. Trump to impose major tariffs on foreign-made pharmaceuticals. Sources include: TheNationalPulse.com FirstPost.com NBCNewYork.com Brighteon.com Trump directs ICE to arrest protesters who attack officers President Donald Trump ordered DHS and ICE to aggressively arrest rioters attacking federal officers or damaging government vehicles during protests. Trump emphasized defending officers from violent assaults (e.g., rock-throwing, vandalism) and restoring "law and order," citing incidents in cities like Los Angeles, Portland and Houston where federal vehicles were targeted. ICE and Homeland Security personnel were instructed to stop and detain suspects "using whatever means necessary," with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and advisor Tom Homan overseeing the crackdown. The move aligns with Trump's tough immigration policies, including border troop deployments and past ICE operations targeting violent offenders, while drawing criticism from civil rights groups over potential overreach. The directive may heighten conflicts in protest-prone cities, with supporters praising it as a public safety measure and opponents warning of inflamed tensions. Federal agents now have a clear mandate to arrest attackers. President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to aggressively pursue arrests of rioters who assault federal officers or damage government vehicles during protests. The directive, announced via Truth Social, comes after Trump witnessed violent attacks on ICE personnel while traveling from Texas back to Washington, D.C. The move escalates the administration's response to clashes between law enforcement and protesters, particularly in cities where anti-ICE demonstrations have turned destructive. Trump urged agents to act decisively, declaring, "AUTHORIZATION IMMEDIATELY GRANTED FOR ARREST AND INCARCERATION." In his statement, Trump described watching protesters violently assault ICE vehicles: "I watched in disbelief as THUGS were violently throwing rocks and bricks at ICE Officers while they were moving down a roadway in their car and/or official vehicle. Tremendous damage was done to these brand new vehicles." The president emphasized the toll such attacks take on law enforcement morale, writing: "These Officers are having a hard time with allowing this to happen in that it shows such total disrespect for LAW AND ORDER." Incidents in Los Angeles, Portland and Houston have seen rioters targeting federal vehicles with rocks, fireworks and makeshift explosives. A recent arrest in Harris County, Texas, involved a suspect who allegedly damaged an ICE vehicle during an operation. Trump instructed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Security Advisor Tom Homan to authorize ICE and Homeland Security personnel to detain individuals caught assaulting officers: "Stop their car and arrest these SLIMEBALLS, using whatever means is necessary to do so." Homan, who previously led ICE under Trump's first term, has long advocated for strict immigration enforcement. In past interviews, he dismissed concerns about military involvement in street arrests, clarifying that troops would handle "non-enforcement" duties. Historical context: Immigration politics and protests Trump's latest order builds on his broader immigration agenda, including the deployment of 1,500 troops to the southern border in 2024, a number later expanded to 10,000. The administration has touted arrests of over 300 violent offenders in a single day under ICE operations. Past clashes, such as the 2020 Portland unrest and attacks on ICE facilities, have shaped the administration's posture toward protest-related violence. Critics accuse Trump of overreach, while supporters argue federal officers must be protected from mob violence. (Related: New York Times concedes Trump's warnings on migrant gang violence were accurate amid Aurora chaos.) Civil rights groups condemned the directive, warning it could lead to excessive force. Meanwhile, conservative lawmakers praised the move as necessary to uphold public safety. A DHS spokesperson confirmed that agents will comply with federal laws while carrying out arrests. Legal experts note that damaging federal property is already a felony, but Trump's order appears to fast-track enforcement. What happens next? The directive places additional pressure on cities grappling with protest-related vandalism. Observers expect ICE and DHS to prioritize arrests in jurisdictions with frequent clashes, a move that may spark further demonstrations. Trump's Truth Social post quickly garnered thousands of responses, reflecting the polarized views on his approach. The presidents latest action underscores his administration's commitment to an aggressive law-and-order stance. Whether this deters future violence or inflames tensions remains to be seen. For now, federal officers have a clear mandate: defend themselves and arrest those who dare attack them. Watch the video below where Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says people will self-deport rather than end up in "Alligator Alcatraz." This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Trump administration bars illegal immigrants from taxpayer-funded healthcare and Head Start. Trump administration revokes Clinton-era rule that gives undocumented immigrants access to federal education funds. Trump announces potential mass amnesty for undocumented workers after passage of "Big Beautiful Bill." Sources include: YourNews.com TruthSocial.com Brighteon.com Trump: Lets not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about President Trump on Saturday issued another bizarre defense of his decision to hide the Epstein Files , insisting everyone not "waste" their time and energy on an a dead person "nobody cares about." (Article by Chris Menahan republished from InformationLiberation.com) Trump wrote on Truth Social (emphasis added): Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals? Theyre all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! Were on one Team, MAGA, and I dont like whats happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and selfish people are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein. For years, its Epstein, over and over again. Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration, who conned the World with the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, 51 Intelligence Agents, THE LAPTOP FROM HELL, and more? They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called friends are playing right into their hands. Why didnt these Radical Left Lunatics release the Epstein Files? If there was ANYTHING in there that could have hurt the MAGA Movement, why didnt they use it? They havent even given up on the John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King, Jr. Files. No matter how much success we have had, securing the Border, deporting Criminals, fixing the Economy, Energy Dominance, a Safer World where Iran will not have Nuclear Weapons, its never enough for some people. We are about to achieve more in 6 months than any other Administration has achieved in over 100 years, and we have so much more to do. We are saving our Country and, MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, which will continue to be our complete PRIORITY. The Left is imploding! Kash Patel, and the FBI, must be focused on investigating Voter Fraud, Political Corruption, ActBlue, The Rigged and Stolen Election of 2020, and arresting Thugs and Criminals, instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same old, Radical Left inspired Documents on Jeffrey Epstein. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB SHES GREAT! The 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and they tried to do the same thing in 2024 Thats what she is looking into as AG, and much more. One year ago our Country was DEAD, now its the HOTTEST Country anywhere in the World. Lets keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Note the internal contradiction: the Democrats created the Epstein Files just to hurt him -- but they didn't release them and kept them secret. It would make sense that Democrats wouldn't want to release the Epstein Files if they implicated Israel and/or members of both parties. It does not make sense that they "created them" only to hurt Trump but then hid them from the public. The FBI, after dragging their feet for over a month in the wake of Epstein's arrest, raided his properties in August 2019 while Trump was still president. As I noted at the time, video released by an anonymous YouTuber showed electronics were removed from Epstein's house before the FBI's raid. Whatever the FBI took, they did seemingly little to nothing with as the case against him was dropped following his purported death. If we were to take Trump's claims at face value, that would mean the Democrats somehow took control of these files after Biden took office, then tampered with them to hurt him. They then kept said files under lock and key for four years and handed the key to his administration... just to do what exactly? Force him to hide them, break his campaign promises and cover it all up? Did the Democrats install his Attorney General William Barr, whose father gave Epstein -- a 20-year-old college dropout with no credentials -- his first job teaching at the prestigious Dalton School in New York City? Did Epstein die in jail because of Democrats or because of what William Barr comically claimed was a "perfect storm of screw-ups"? Lest anyone forget, Epstein was literally the most high-profile prisoner in the entire country at the time, yet he somehow managed to "kill himself" in a jail cell with no cameras and no awake guards after being conveniently taken off suicide watch (and not one but two cameras outside his jail cell "malfunctioned"). A far simpler explanation is Epstein was working for Israeli intelligence -- as literally everyone suspected -- and managed to get dirt on Trump. That would explain why the former Prime Minister of Israel was seen entering Epstein's New York City house on the regular while hiding his face and why Zionist billionaires Les Wexner and Leon Black gave him hundreds of millions of dollars. EXCLUSIVE: Married Israeli politician Ehud Barak is seen hiding his face entering Jeffrey Epstein's NYC townhouse as bevy of young beauties were also spotted going into mansion - despite his claim he NEVER socialized with the pedophile and his girlshttps://t.co/wQBJDkfVzt HomerB (@HomerB33) July 16, 2019 It would also explain why Trump has shown complete subservience to Israel throughout his political career. Read more at: InformationLiberation.com Astronomers uncover hidden gas giant 10 times Jupiters size in young stars protoplanetary disc Astronomers discovered a hidden gas giant up to 10 times Jupiters size in a young stars protoplanetary disc, challenging previous assumptions. The star MP Mus, 280 light-years away, initially appeared featureless until advanced telescopes revealed gravitational disturbances. Combining ALMA and Gaia data confirmed the planet, marking the first indirect Gaia detection of an exoplanet in a protoplanetary disc. Longer ALMA wavelengths exposed hidden structures, while Gaia detected the stars wobble, proving the planets existence. The discovery suggests many young planets may remain hidden, requiring multi-method approaches to uncover them. Researchers have uncovered a massive gas giant up to 10 times the size of Jupiter lurking within the swirling dust and gas of a young stars protoplanetary disc in a groundbreaking discovery that challenges conventional astronomy,. The star, MP Mus (also known as PDS 66), located 280 light-years away, was initially thought to be alone, with its surrounding disc appearing featureless. But deeper observations using advanced telescopic technology revealed something astonishing: a hidden world, invisible to earlier scans, silently shaping its cosmic cradle. Led by Dr. Alvaro Ribas from the University of Cambridge, an international team of astronomers combined data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the European Space Agencys Gaia mission to confirm the planets existence. This marks the first time Gaia has detected an exoplanet within a protoplanetary disc using indirect methods in a milestone that could revolutionize how scientists hunt for young planets. A deceptive cosmic veil At first glance, MP Mus seemed unremarkable. Observations in 2023 using ALMAs shorter wavelengths showed a flat, seemingly empty disc, devoid of the telltale gaps or rings that typically signal planet formation. "Our earlier observations showed a boring, flat disc," Ribas admitted. "But this seemed odd to us, since the disc is between seven and ten million years old. In a disc of that age, we would expect to see some evidence of planet formation." The lack of visible structures puzzled researchers. Protoplanetary discs, the birthplaces of planets, usually exhibit grooves and cavities as young worlds carve paths through the dust and gas. Yet MP Muss disc appeared untoucheduntil scientists looked deeper. Peering through the fog Determined to solve the mystery, Ribas and his team revisited MP Mus using ALMAs longer 3mm wavelengths, which penetrate deeper into the discs obscuring layers. This time, the data revealed hidden structures: a cavity near the star and two distant gapsclear signs of gravitational disturbances. "Using the longer ALMA wavelengths allowed us to see structures we couldnt see before," Ribas said. Meanwhile, independent data from Gaia added another critical piece to the puzzle. Miguel Vioque, a researcher at the European Southern Observatory, noticed MP Mus was "wobbling"a subtle motion suggesting an unseen planetary companion was tugging on the star. "My first reaction was that I must have made a mistake in my calculations," Vioque admitted. But when Ribas shared his findings of the newly discovered cavity, the connection became undeniable. A giant in hiding Combining ALMAs disc observations with Gaias stellar motion data, the team concluded that a gas giantbetween three and ten times Jupiters masswas orbiting MP Mus at a distance of one to three times Earths distance from the Sun. "Our modelling work showed that if you put a giant planet inside the newfound cavity, you can also explain the Gaia signal," Ribas explained. This discovery is monumental for two reasons. First, it proves that young planets can remain hidden even in well-studied systems, obscured by their own formative debris. Second, it validates a new detection method: pairing Gaias precise star-tracking with ALMAs deep disc imaging. Implications for the search for alien worlds The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, suggest that many more hidden planets could be waiting in protoplanetary discs across the galaxy. "We think this might be one of the reasons why its hard to detect young planets," Ribas noted. "In this case, we needed the ALMA and Gaia data together." Future upgrades to ALMA and next-generation telescopes like the ngVLA (next-generation Very Large Array) could unveil a hidden population of young exoplanets, shedding light on how solar systemsincluding our ownform. If a planet this massive escaped detection until now, what else might be lurking in the cosmic shadows? The discovery of this colossal exoplanet is a triumph of persistence and technological ingenuity. It exposes the limitations of relying on a single observational method and underscores the need for multidisciplinary approaches in astronomy. As scientists refine these techniques, the hunt for young planets will accelerate, potentially rewriting our understanding of planetary birth and evolution. Sources for this article include: ScienceDaily.com Space.com Cam.ac.uk Another conspiracy theory confirmed: California moves to seize fire-ravaged Palisades for low-income housing California Senate Bill 549 permits LA County to buy fire-destroyed lots using taxpayer funds for low-income housing. Critics accuse Democrats of intentional mismanagement, leaving homeowners vulnerable to government seizure. The bill follows $17.6 million fire budget cuts, which led to equipment failures and exacerbated wildfire damage. Gov. Newsom allocated $101 million for "multifamily low-income housing" in fire-devastated areas. Homeowners warn of financial ruin under the FAIR Plan, a state-mandated insurance last resort. Six months after devastating wildfires swept through the Pacific Palisades, leaving thousands homeless and causing an estimated $15 billion in property damage, California Democrats have pushed forward a highly controversial bill that critics are calling a government-sanctioned land grab. Senate Bill 549, passed last week, empowers Los Angeles County to establish taxpayer-funded "Resilient Rebuilding Authorities" (RRAs) with the authority to forcibly purchase fire-damaged private properties at so-called "fair" pricesa move opponents argue paves the way for the mass displacement of homeowners in favor of state-controlled low-income housing projects. The legislation arrives alongside $17.6 million in fire department budget cuts that severely hampered wildfire response efforts, leaving critical firefighting equipment inoperable and exacerbating the destruction. Now, as wildfire victims struggle to rebuild, they face an even greater threatthe potential loss of their land to government agencies under the guise of "affordable housing solutions" championed by Governor Gavin Newsom. Budget cuts and bureaucratic failure turn wildfires into man-made disasters The fires that ravaged Southern California last year were fueled by Santa Ana winds reaching 75 mph, conditions that meteorologists had warned officials about a full week in advance. However, a cascade of systemic failuresincluding severely understaffed fire departments and neglected infrastructureleft the region woefully unprepared. According to whistleblower testimonies, the Los Angeles Fire Departments budget cuts had halved the number of mechanics responsible for maintaining fire engines, pumps and critical vehicles. "Originally, we had 100 mechanics servicing 200 pieces of firefighting apparatus," revealed a former contractor. "After the cuts, only 50 remained. When the fires hit, none of the equipment was operational because maintenance had been deferred for months. Had we been properly funded, we could have contained this disaster before it spiraled out of control." Lawmakers have yet to provide a satisfactory explanation for why Mayor Karen Bass was at a political event in Ghana during the crisis, nor why the Pacific Palisades Reservoirwhich could have mitigated fire damagewas left empty and non-functional. Some locals fear this was deliberate negligence, clearing the way for the state to seize land under SB 549. SB 549: Government land seizures disguised as "rebuilding" The bills passage follows Newsoms announcement of $101 million in state funding specifically for "multifamily low-income housing" in wildfire-impacted areas. Critics argue that the legislation effectively eliminates private property rights, handing land over to state-aligned developers under the pretense of "urban resilience." Key provisions in SB 549 include: Forced property purchases: RRAs can buy fire-damaged land below market value, stripping homeowners of fair compensation. RRAs can buy fire-damaged land below market value, stripping homeowners of fair compensation. Low-income housing mandate: At least 40% of all rebuilt units must fit state-mandated affordability criteria, drastically reducing options for homeowners hoping to restore their properties. At least 40% of all rebuilt units must fit state-mandated affordability criteria, drastically reducing options for homeowners hoping to restore their properties. Taxpayer-funded land banking: RRAs can acquire land not for immediate rebuilding, but to hold indefinitely for future state-subsidized projects. RRAs can acquire land not for immediate rebuilding, but to hold indefinitely for future state-subsidized projects. Prioritization of subsidized housing: Current applications for rebuilding in Los Angeles are 73% income-restricted, up from 30% four years agoforcing private landowners to compete against state-backed developers. Self-proclaimed "anti-Marxist activist" Tony Seruga, a former government contractor, has warned residents: "This is textbook government-engineered displacement. First, they mismanage fires, ensuring maximum destruction. Then they swoop in with affordable housing schemes designed to push middle-class homeowners out and replace them with state-dependent tenants. If this passes, no private property will be safe in California." The FAIR Plan trap: A last-ditch insurance nightmare Compounding the housing crisis is Californias FAIR Plan, the state-mandated insurer of last resort for properties deemed too risky for private insurers. Experts warn the program is financially unsustainable, with Bloomberg projecting potential liabilities nearing half a trillion dollars. Homeowners report: Skyrocketing premiums: Some policyholders have seen increases of 300% in a single year. Some policyholders have seen increases of 300% in a single year. Coverage denial loopholes: Insurers frequently delay payouts or deny full reimbursement, citing exceptions buried in the plans fine print. Insurers frequently delay payouts or deny full reimbursement, citing exceptions buried in the plans fine print. Foreclosure risks: Without adequate insurance, homeowners can lose mortgage financing, forcing them into defaults. An insurance agent speaking anonymously admitted: "I warn homeowners against filing FAIR Plan claims unless absolutely necessary. Many will regret it when they see the premiums and coverage limits." The bigger picture: A national warning? The Palisades crisis is emerging as a frightening test case for ideologically driven urban redevelopment, with far-reaching implications beyond California. As one policy analyst noted: "If SB 549 succeeds, it wont stop here. Other blue cities facing housing shortageswhether due to fires, floods, or inequitable developmentwill adopt similar land-confiscation measures under the banner of climate resilience." With lawsuits already being prepared against the state, battle lines are being drawn. For California homeowners, the wildfire recovery has become a fight for survivalnot just against flames, but against their own government. Sources for this article include: ZeroHedge.com JustTheNews.com KFoxTV.com Chinas cyborg bees: A breakthrough in surveillance or a step toward a spy state? Chinese scientists, led by Professor Zhao Jieliang, have successfully implanted tiny brain-controlling devices in honeybees, enabling precise remote control of their flight paths for surveillance, military scouting and espionage. A 74-milligram device attached to the bee's back sends electrical pulses to its optical lobe, allowing 90 percent accurate directional control. The bees can also carry micro-cameras, sensors and audio recorders, making them stealthy surveillance tools. While useful for disaster relief, the technology's military applications such as covert reconnaissance and urban combat raise ethical and geopolitical alarms, given China's history of mass surveillance and potential misuse. China leads in miniaturizing brain-control devices, but other countries (U.S., Japan, Singapore) are also developing cyborg insects, including solar-powered cockroaches for search-and-rescue missions. The manipulation of living creatures sparks animal welfare concerns, while the potential for authoritarian abuse such as monitoring dissent or foreign espionage highlights the thin line between innovation and dystopian surveillance. In a development that sounds like science fiction, Chinese scientists have successfully turned ordinary bees into remote-controlled cyborgs capable of carrying out surveillance, military scouting and even covert espionage. Under the leadership of Professor Zhao Jieliang of the Beijing Institute of Technology, researchers implanted tiny brain-controlling devices into honeybees, allowing them to manipulate the insects' flight paths with startling precision. While the technology could revolutionize disaster relief and search-and-rescue missions, its potential military applications raise serious ethical and geopolitical concerns. The device weighing just 74 milligrams, lighter than a pinch of salt, is strapped to a bee's back and connected to its brain via ultra-thin needles. By sending electrical pulses to the insect's optical lobe the part of the brain that processes visual information scientists can command the bee to turn left or right. In tests, the bees obeyed these commands with 90 percent accuracy. (Related: China shows off robot dogs armed with MACHINE GUNS.) Unlike traditional drones, which require complex engineering and power sources, these cyborg bees leverage the natural agility and stealth of living insects. The tiny controllers can also be equipped with micro-cameras, audio recorders and environmental sensors effectively turning bees into miniature spies capable of infiltrating restricted areas without detection. Cyborg insects: A new frontier in covert warfare While the researchers emphasize humanitarian uses such as locating survivors in collapsed buildings, the military implications are impossible to ignore. In their published study in the Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, Zhao and his team explicitly described the bees as "invaluable for covert reconnaissance" in urban combat, counterterrorism and narcotics interdiction. This raises alarming questions about how Beijing might deploy this technology. Could swarms of cyborg bees be used to surveil political dissidents? Could they gather intelligence on foreign military installations? Given China's well-documented history of mass surveillance and cyber-espionage, the potential for abuse is significant. Beijing is not alone in this pursuit. The U.S., Japan and Singapore have all experimented with remote-controlled insects, including cockroaches and dragonflies. In 2022, Japanese researchers developed solar-powered cyborg cockroaches designed for search-and-rescue missions. However, China's latest breakthrough the lightest brain-controlling device yet puts it ahead in the race to militarize insects. Beyond military applications, the ethical implications of manipulating living creatures for human purposes cannot be ignored. Animal rights advocates have long criticized experiments involving brain-computer interfaces, citing the suffering inflicted on test subjects. Elon Musk's Neuralink, for example, reportedly killed over 1,500 animals during brain-chip trials. But the greater concern is how authoritarian regimes might exploit this technology. If Beijing can weaponize bees, what's to stop them from deploying cyborg insects to monitor citizens, suppress dissent or conduct espionage abroad? The line between scientific innovation and dystopian surveillance is becoming dangerously thin. For now, technical limitations remain; battery life is short, and the devices are not yet universally adaptable to different insect species. But as research progresses, these hurdles will likely be overcome. The question is not if this technology will be perfected, but how it will be used and who will control it. Visit Cyborg.news for more similar stories. Watch this video about Singapore developing cyborg beetles that researchers can control. This video is from the Expanding-the-Kingdom channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: France and China are working on bionic "terminator" troops. Genetically engineered cyborg dragonflies now being weaponized for surveillance missions. Cyborg cockroaches under development as spy weapons; media pushes them as 'safety' cyborgs. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk TheSun.co.uk GBNews.com Brighteon.com E. coli in organic beef: The Whole Foods Market wake-up call people didnt see coming Whole Foods Markets ground beef alert not a recall, but a public health warning was issued for Organic Rancher brand ground beef sold in 27 states due to potential E. coli contamination. Affected packages are labeled "85 percent lean, 15 percent fat" with "use by" dates of June 19 and 20, 2025. Look for the USDA mark "EST: 4027." Always cook ground beef to at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit and use a meat thermometer to be safe. While many strains are "harmless," Shiga toxin-producing E. coli can cause severe illness, including kidney failure, especially in kids and seniors. Practice safe food handling, cook meats thoroughly, wash hands often and avoid raw milk, juices and undercooked or identified contaminated foods. Whole Foods Market has long been viewed as a gold standard for health-conscious grocery shopping. What began as a single, small natural food store in Austin, Texas, has grown into a global retail leader, with over 500 stores across the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. Promising "natural, organic and responsibly sourced" products, Whole Foods Market isn't just a supermarket but a symbol of trust and wellness. That is why when news broke that Organic Rancher ground beef sold at Whole Foods Market tested positive for E. coli, it wasn't just alarming. It was a wake-up call. In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA FSIS) issued a public health alert not a formal recall after routine testing found E. coli contamination in Organic Rancher brand ground beef. Affected packages are labeled "85 percent lean, 15 percent fat" with "use by" dates of June 19 and 20, 2025. Look for the USDA mark "EST: 4027." To grasp the scale of potential E. coli exposure, the product had already reached over 350 Whole Foods Market retail stores in 27 states: Alabama (2), Connecticut (11), Florida (33), Georgia (12), Iowa (1), Illinois (26), Indiana (5), Kentucky (2), Massachusetts (32), Maryland (11), Maine (1), Michigan (8), Minnesota (7), Missouri (4), Mississippi (1), North Carolina (16), New Hampshire (3), New Jersey (24), New York (31), Ohio (11), Pennsylvania (15), Rhode Island (3), South Carolina (5), Tennessee (8), Texas (35), Virginia (15), Wisconsin (3) and the District of Columbia (8). E. coli (short for Escherichia coli) is a type of bacteria that is found in the intestines of both humans and animals. Most strains are harmless, and some even help with digestion and vitamin production. But certain strains like the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli are known to be dangerous and can cause serious illness. According to experts at the University of California-Davis Health (UC Davis Health), these harmful strains can lead to a wide range of health problems, including: digestive distress like stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea that can range from mild to bloody; urinary tract infections (UTIs), especially common in women; hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but life-threatening condition that may cause symptoms like confusion, decreased urination, fatigue, increased heart rate, kidney failure and/or seizures; and other complications like bacteremia (bloodstream infections), lung infections or long-term kidney damage. Most people recover within a week, but those in vulnerable groups may suffer lasting or life-threatening effects. Ground beef is particularly risky when it comes to E. coli because the grinding process can mix bacteria from the surface into the interior of the meat. That means that even if it the outside appears cooked, harmful microbes could still survive inside. The USDA emphasizes one key point: Use a food thermometer. Ground beef must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. "Organic" labels don't change that. Bacteria don't care how "clean" or "natural" your food is. Even premium brands like Organic Rancher can face breakdowns in safety. Everyday ways to outsmart E. coli at home Food safety is ultimately a shared responsibility. Here's how to keep your kitchen and your family safe: Cook meat thoroughly . Always use a meat thermometer. Ground beef should reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not rely on color or texture alone. . Always use a meat thermometer. Ground beef should reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not rely on color or texture alone. Wash produce well . Rinse all fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Scrub firm-skinned items and handle leafy greens with care before eating. . Rinse all fruits and vegetables thoroughly. Scrub firm-skinned items and handle leafy greens with care before eating. Practice smart hand hygiene . Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water: after using the bathroom; after touching and cleaning pets; before and after preparing food, especially raw meat; and after eating. . Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water: after using the bathroom; after touching and cleaning pets; before and after preparing food, especially raw meat; and after eating. Sanitize surfaces regularly . Use separate cutting boards for meats and fresh produce. Wash knives, utensils and countertops with hot, soapy water. . Use separate cutting boards for meats and fresh produce. Wash knives, utensils and countertops with hot, soapy water. Say "no" to splash zones . Never wash or rinse raw meat in the sink. Droplets and splashes can spread bacteria and cross-contaminate your kitchen faster than you think. . Never wash or rinse raw meat in the sink. Droplets and splashes can spread bacteria and cross-contaminate your kitchen faster than you think. Skip raw dough and batter . Raw flour and eggs may carry E. coli or Salmonella. Resist the temptation to lick the spoon. . Raw flour and eggs may carry E. coli or Salmonella. Resist the temptation to lick the spoon. Teach safe food habits. Educate everyone at home about basic food safety and hygiene. These simple habits make a big difference. Whole Foods Market isn't just a retailer it is a lifestyle for many health-conscious consumers. That is why this public health alert stings. It reminds people that even the most trusted food systems can fail and even "natural," "organic" supply chains aren't immune to contamination. This is about realistic vigilance. "Clean" marketing doesn't guarantee clean, safe food. But empowered consumers, armed with knowledge and science-based habits, can protect their health, even when the system slips up. Watch this video to learn why certain E. coli bacteria are so bad. This video is from the Daily Videos channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Don't make yourself ill with E. coli safety precautions to guard against contamination. Interview with Terry McBride, E. coli survivor and author of "The Hell I Can't." TOXIC MEAT ALERT: E. coli-contaminated meat causing hundreds of thousands of cases of urinary tract infections across USA. Sources include: WholeFoodsMarket.com USAToday.com Health.UCDavis.edu Brighteon.com Federal raids on California marijuana farms uncover child labor, spark violent clashes ICE and National Guard troops raided two Southern California marijuana farms operated by Glass House Farms, uncovering 10 undocumented minors (eight unaccompanied) and detaining workers suspected of illegal immigration. Protests turned violent, with tear gas, gunfire and injuries reported. The FBI offered a $50,000 reward for a suspect who allegedly shot at law enforcement. Governor Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers condemned the raids as excessive, while federal officials defended them, accusing California of ignoring child labor exploitation. Glass House Farms, a state-licensed cannabis producer, faces allegations of employing underage undocumented workers, risking legal and reputational damage. The raids highlight ongoing tensions between California's marijuana legalization, immigration policies and federal enforcement, fueling debates over states' rights and federal authority. Federal immigration agents, backed by National Guard troops, raided two Southern California marijuana farms on July 10, uncovering 10 undocumented minors eight of them unaccompanied and triggering violent confrontations with protesters. The operation, targeting state-licensed cannabis facilities operated by Glass House Farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, has reignited fierce debates over immigration enforcement, child labor violations and federal overreach in a state where marijuana is legal. The raids and immediate fallout Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents executed search warrants at both locations, detaining multiple workers suspected of being in the country illegally. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott later confirmed that 10 juvenilesall undocumentedwere found at one facility, prompting an investigation into potential child labor abuses. (Related: California NGOs have been aiding illegal immigrants to avoid ICE raids.) The raids quickly escalated into chaos. Protesters, some armed, clashed with federal agents, leading to tear gas deployments, reports of gunfire and multiple injuries. Ventura County Fire Department treated several individuals for tear gas exposure, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a $50,000 reward for information on a suspect who allegedly fired at law enforcement. Political firestorm erupts California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the raids, posting videos of what he described as children fleeing tear gas and families being torn apart. In response, CBP Commissioner Scott accused Newsom of ignoring the exploitation of minors in the cannabis industry, writing, "This is Newsom's California." Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, denounced the operation as "deplorable" and "militarized overkill," while local officials like Oxnard Mayor Luis McArthur criticized the tactics as unnecessarily aggressive. Meanwhile, federal authorities defended the raids, emphasizing that they were enforcing immigration laws and investigating potential crimes, including child labor violations. Glass House Farms under scrutiny Glass House Farms, one of California's largest licensed cannabis producers, stated it complied with federal warrants but offered no further details. The company, which boasts state-of-the-art facilities and full legal compliance under California law, now faces serious allegations of employing underage, undocumented workers a revelation that could have major legal and reputational consequences. Investor Marc Cohodes called the raids "beyond outrageous," but federal authorities remain firm. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated plainly: "Our brave officers will continue to enforce the law." Federal vs. state clashes This incident is the latest in a long-running conflict between California and the federal government over immigration and marijuana laws. Despite California's legalization of recreational cannabis in 2016, the drug remains illegal under federal law, creating tension between state-licensed businesses and federal enforcement agencies. Similarly, California's "sanctuary state" policies have frequently clashed with federal immigration crackdowns. The Trump administration's aggressive deportation strategies have led to high-profile raids in liberal strongholds, sparking protests and legal challenges. A nation divided The raids underscore deep divisions over immigration, states' rights and federal authority. While supporters argue that enforcing immigration laws is necessary to protect vulnerable workers especially children critics see heavy-handed tactics that sow fear in immigrant communities. As investigations continue, the fallout from these raids will likely fuel further political and legal battles, with California once again at the center of America's most contentious policy debates. One thing is clear: In the clash between federal enforcement and state autonomy, there are no easy answersonly escalating conflict. Visit InvasionUSA.news for more similar stories. Watch as the acting ICE director reveals the "biggest focus" surrounding the border. This video is from the Trending News channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: ICE begins NATIONWIDE raids targeting criminal illegal immigrants. Democrats under fire for helping illegal immigrants evade deportation. Reporter faces backlash for warning illegal immigrants of ICE raids. Trump administration prepares crackdown on illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities. 75 illegal immigrants arrested in massive federal drug bust near Coachella. Sources include: Theepochtimes.com Foxnews.com KTLA.com Brighteon.com GAC Fiat Chrysler declared BANKRUPT in China after years of financial decline and failed restructuring efforts GAC Fiat Chrysler, a joint venture between China's GAC Group and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), was officially declared bankrupt by a Chinese court on July 8 after years of financial decline and failed restructuring efforts. The company's verified debt stood at 8.12 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), while the liquidation value of its assets was only 1.92 billion yuan ($270 million), confirming its insolvency. Despite a US$2.4 billion initial investment and multiple rescue efforts, GAC-FCA was unable to reverse years of declining sales, rising losses and failure to adapt to changing market demands. Since filing for bankruptcy in October 2022, over 3,000 assets, including equipment and prototype vehicles, were auctioned off, but core assets failed to attract any bids in five attempts. The collapse reflects challenges in China's joint venture system and a sluggish transition to EVs, as well as rising barriers for foreign automakers in a rapidly evolving and policy-driven market. GAC Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, once a high-profile joint venture between China's Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) and multinational automaker Stellantis, has been officially declared bankrupt by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court after years of deepening financial woes and failed restructuring efforts. The court issued its ruling on July 8, confirming that the company is insolvent and no longer eligible for reorganization or debt settlement procedures. In its findings, the court determined that GAC Fiat Chrysler's liabilities far exceed its assets, and the company is unable to meet its financial obligations. According to court documents, the company has verified total debts of approximately 8.12 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), with about four billion yuan ($560 million) in creditor claims recognized without dispute. In stark contrast, the company's book assets stood at just 3.89 billion yuan ($540 million) at the time the bankruptcy application was accepted. Further compounding the financial mismatch, a court-appointed appraisal conducted by Hunan Qiushi Land and Real Estate Appraisal Co., Ltd. estimated that the liquidation value of the company's actual assets, including inventory, fixed assets, construction-in-progress, deferred expenses and intangible assets, was only 1.92 billion yuan ($270 million). This left a significant shortfall, affirming the company's inability to repay creditors. (Related: Corporate America experiencing BANKRUPTCY BOOM as recession looms.) In line with the court's decision, a bankruptcy property distribution plan was approved during a creditor meeting and will be implemented in the coming weeks. Bankruptcy exposes cracks in China's joint venture model and EV transition gap GAC Fiat Chrysler was established as a joint venture between GAC and Fiat Chrysler in 2010 to bring Fiat and later Jeep-branded vehicles to the Chinese market. Backed by 17 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) in investment, GAC-FCA set up headquarters in Changsha and built production facilities in both Changsha and Guangzhou, two of China's key industrial hubs. The venture, however, struggled with sluggish sales, shifting consumer preferences and intense competition in 2018. Year-over-year sales declines, rising losses and failure to adapt to changing consumer preferences pushed the company toward crisis. By September 2022, its total assets had shrunk to 7.32 billion yuan (US$1.02 billion), while liabilities ballooned to 8.11 billion yuan (US$1.13 billion), putting its debt-to-asset ratio at a staggering 110.8 percent. Multiple efforts to revive the brand, including capital injections and product overhauls, ultimately failed. The company officially filed for bankruptcy in October 2022, initiating a three-year process of asset liquidation. Over 3,000 items, including factory molds and prototype vehicles, were auctioned off, but key assets like land and equipment failed to draw buyer interest in five separate auctions. GAC, as a major creditor, held over one billion yuan ($139 million) in claims against the joint venture, largely due to internal loans and financial transfers. Industry observers point to multiple causes behind GAC-FCA's collapse. Among them: a sluggish shift to electric vehicles (EVs) while China's auto market rapidly pivoted to clean energy and growing investor hesitation to commit to retrofitting old internal combustion engine (ICE) lines for EV production an expensive and risky proposition. But the failure also reflects broader structural tensions. The joint venture model, a requirement for most foreign automakers entering China, mandates that they produce vehicles locally and often transfer technology to their Chinese partners. While this model has facilitated China's automotive industrialization. Visit Collapse.news for more stories about businesses filing for bankruptcy. Watch this clip from the "Worldview Report" discussing bankruptcies in corporate America. This video is from the Worldview Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Del Monte Foods files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Tech giant Microsoft's Russian subsidiary files for BANKRUPTCY. Casual restaurant chain TGI Fridays files for BANKRUPTCY. Co-working facility giant WeWork files for BANKRUPTCY. SIXTH property insurer declares bankruptcy after Hurricane Ian. Sources include: TheEpochTimes.com ChinaDaily.com Brighteon.com Ghislaine Maxwell Epsteins accomplice makes a desperate plea from prison For years, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has haunted the corridors of power, implicating billionaires, politicians and royalty in a sordid web of underage sex trafficking. Now, Ghislaine Maxwell Epsteins convicted accomplice claims shes ready to spill the truth about his infamous client list . But can this self-serving manipulator, dubbed Prison Karen for her relentless demands, really be trusted? Or is this just another calculated move to minimize her own role in one of historys most grotesque criminal enterprises? While Maxwell languishes in a Florida prison, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking minors, she suddenly wants to play the martyr volunteering to testify before Congress about Epsteins crimes. Yet, sources claim she was never offered a plea deal, raising the question: Why the sudden eagerness to talk now? The answer is chillingly simple shes cornered and sees an opportunity. With her Supreme Court appeal looming and public outrage mounting, Maxwell may finally name names but only if it serves her twisted self-interest. Key points: Ghislaine Maxwell, Epsteins convicted accomplice, says she would testify before Congress but insiders claim no plea deal was ever offered. Critics argue Maxwell seeks only to paint herself as a victim, despite her central role in trafficking underage girls. Epsteins 2007 sweetheart deal protected his associates now Maxwell claims she should have been immune from prosecution. The DOJ insists there is no Epstein client list, fueling suspicions of a massive cover-up involving powerful elites. Trump supporters demand transparency, while Maxwells lawyers scramble for a Supreme Court appeal. The desperation play: Maxwell seeks redemption in a web of lies Hidden behind prison walls, Ghislaine Maxwell staggers under the weight of her own crimes yet she clings to the delusion that she was just Epsteins fall girl. Her latest gambit? Offering to cooperate with investigators, only now that her own fate is sealed. This sudden willingness to talk reeks of desperation. Maxwell was never just an innocent bystander; she was an active predator, grooming victims, silencing witnesses, and facilitating Epsteins sickening exploitation of minors. Her crocodile tears claiming she wishes she never met Epstein are nothing more than an attempt to rewrite history. Her brother even insists that she is paying for the crimes of Epstein. Whats more, Maxwell insists she should have been shielded by Epsteins 2007 Non-Prosecution Agreement (NPA), a deal so corrupt it allowed him to escape real justice by pleading guilty to minor prostitution charges. If upheld, Maxwells argument would mean every Epstein co-conspirator no matter how guilty could evade accountability. The DOJs Epstein cover-up grows more suspicious by the day The Justice Departments claim that no Epstein client list exists defies belief. Thousands of documents from Virginia Giuffres lawsuit against Maxwell now unsealed reveal a legion of high-profile predators circling Epsteins orbit. So why the secrecy? Skepticism skyrocketed after the DOJ released heavily redacted surveillance footage of Epsteins final hours in jail missing a crucial minute and failing to show his cell door. The official narrative? Suicide. But forensic experts and independent investigators arent buying it. Now, President Trumps MAGA base is demanding answers. Why has Attorney General Pam Bondi backtracked on her promise to release the full Epstein files? Why is Congress dragging its feet? Trump himself raised alarms in a fiery Truth Social post: For years, it's Epstein, over and over again. Why are we not giving publicity to files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan and the losers and criminals of the Biden administration? The deeper truth? Epstein wasnt acting alone. He was a blackmail broker, collecting dirt on powerful men to ensure his own protection. And Maxwell? She was his right hand. Will justice ever be served, or will the elites remain untouchable? Despite over 1,000 pages of unsealed court documents revealing Epsteins network, the DOJ insists no more prosecutions are coming including against Prince Andrew, accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexually assaulting her at 17. Andrew settled a lawsuit but admitted no guilt. Now, Maxwell hints she could expose who else was involved. But trusting her truth is like trusting a viper not to bite. She has zero credibility, having lied under oath multiple times. Worse, she remains loyal to Epsteins twisted legacy even in prison, where she complains about everything from food quality to lack of black hair dye. The only true solution? A thorough, independent congressional investigation one that bypasses DOJ stonewalling and ensures every predator linked to Epstein faces consequences. Until then, Maxwells sudden willingness to talk is nothing more than a desperate ploy a distraction from the real scandal: how Epsteins protectors still walk free, and government officials in both parties continue to cover it all up. Sources include: Dailymail.co.uk ABCNews.com Enoch, Brighteon.ai Japanese freedom fighters publicize 21 million COVID vaccine records, exposing catastrophic death toll The freedom-loving people of Japan have struck a devastating blow to the global vaccine cartel. A newly released database of 21 million COVID-19 vaccination records obtained through tireless grassroots activismexposes what the medical establishment has desperately tried to conceal: the mRNA shots are killing people in vast, unreported numbers, with deaths sharply peaking 90 to 120 days after injection. These horrors are not random. They're systematic, and they demand justice. Key points: 21 million Japanese vaccination records leaked, revealing catastrophic death trends linked to mRNA shots. Deaths peaked 90120 days post-vaccination, with higher doses accelerating fatalities. An estimated 600,000610,000 Japanese citizens may have dieda figure matching excess mortality data. Japan's public overwhelmingly rejects new self-replicating mRNA vaccines, with only 0.24% uptake. The revelations of mass murder across the medical field has led to institutions targeting the whistleblowers who exposed the truth. Despite COVID jabs remaining on the market in many places, and doctors going mum on this topic, the issue is far from over. Individuals injured by COVID jabs will not forget what was done to their bodies or their deceased family members. The data they didnt want you to see On July 13, 2025, Japanese citizen groups The National Coalition for Stopping mRNA Vaccines and The Yukoku Alliance held a press conference that sent shockwaves through the global medical tyranny apparatus. The leaked recordscompiled by 350 volunteersprove what dissident doctors have warned about for years: the mRNA shots are not just ineffective; they are poisonous and lethal, encoding runaway toxins in the human body that cause heart inflammation, among many other health issues. Professor Yasufumi Murakami, a Tokyo University of Science immunologist, analyzed the data and found a horrific spike in deaths between three to four months after vaccinationfar outside the "safe" window fraudulently sold by Pfizer and Moderna. "People are dying silently months later," Murakami said. "Doctors dont report these deaths as vaccine-related because they dont happen immediately. But the correlation is undeniablehigher doses lead to earlier fatalities." The timing is no accident. The spike protein, the very toxin the vaccines force the body to produce, destroys vascular systems, triggers autoimmune destruction, and alters DNA repair mechanisms. The body isnt just injuredits turned against itself. Japanese freedom fighters and truth-tellers rise in defiance As the truth spreads, the Japanese public is refusing to comply with Big Pharmas next genocidal experiment: self-replicating mRNA vaccines (replicon shots). Despite 4.2 million doses being pushed onto the market in October 2024, only 10,000 were administereda jaw-dropping 99.76% rejection rate. Why? Because leaked admissions from Meiji Seika Pharma, the company behind the replicon jab, confirm it causes higher rates of injury and death than the original Pfizer and Moderna bioweapons. Politician Kazuhiro Haraguchi, now battling post-vaccine lymphoma, has sued the company after discovering spike proteins lodged in his lymph cells. "This is murder," Haraguchi said. "Millions have been sacrificed for profit." The global fight escalates The National Coalition is calling for worldwide collaboration to halt mRNA atrocities, including a sinister mRNA flu shot planned for fall 2025. Over 100,000 signatures have been delivered to Japans health ministry demanding an immediate ban. Meanwhile, Big Pharma is retaliating with lawsuits to silence the truth. But the database is now publicviewable HERE. Researchers worldwide are invited to analyze the catastrophic findings before governments scrub the evidence. History will remember this moment. Millions of vaccine-injured victims will never forget the crimes against their bodies. When the COVID-19 vaccine death toll is fully exposedas Japans data provesthere will be no place for perpetrators to hide. If you value freedom, life, and justice, share this story. The battle is far from over. Sources include: Expose-News.com StopMRNA.ne NaturalNews.com Westinghouse announces 10 new AP1000 nuclear reactors for U.S. energy grid by 2030 Expansion Plans: Westinghouse aims to build ten AP1000 reactors by 2030, each generating 1,100 MW, targeting states like Texas to meet AI/industrial energy demands under Trumps energy strategy. Westinghouse aims to build ten AP1000 reactors by 2030, each generating 1,100 MW, targeting states like Texas to meet AI/industrial energy demands under Trumps energy strategy. Nuclear Renaissance: The AP1000s safety and modular design may reduce costs, but skeptics cite Westinghouses 2017 bankruptcy and past project failures (e.g., V.C. Summer) as risks. The AP1000s safety and modular design may reduce costs, but skeptics cite Westinghouses 2017 bankruptcy and past project failures (e.g., V.C. Summer) as risks. AI Partnerships: Westinghouse collaborates with Google to use AI for reactor efficiency, though critics argue mismanagementnot technologyhas historically derailed nuclear projects. Westinghouse collaborates with Google to use AI for reactor efficiency, though critics argue mismanagementnot technologyhas historically derailed nuclear projects. Texas Prioritized: Texass strained grid and AI/oil hubs make it ideal for early deployment, but nuclears water needs and costs could spark local opposition despite baseload advantages. Texass strained grid and AI/oil hubs make it ideal for early deployment, but nuclears water needs and costs could spark local opposition despite baseload advantages. Geopolitical Stakes: Trumps Russia tariff ultimatum ties energy dominance to U.S. leverage, but BRICS alliances and hypersonic threats may undermine the strategys effectiveness. Major Expansion Aims to Meet AI and Industrial Demand, Despite Past Financial Struggles In a bold move aligning with the Trump administrations push for scalable, carbon-free energy, Westinghouse CEO Patrick Fragman revealed plans to construct ten new AP1000 nuclear reactors across the United States by 2030. Each reactor will generate 1,100 megawattsenough to power 750,000 homesand will prioritize states like Texas, where surging electricity demand from AI data centers and industrial operations strains the power grid. A Nuclear Renaissance The announcement, made during a high-profile meeting with former President Donald Trump, positions nuclear energy as a cornerstone of the administrations energy strategy. The AP1000, a third-generation pressurized water reactor, is lauded for its enhanced safety features and modular design, which could curb costs. However, critics point to Westinghouses 2017 bankruptcy, tied to massive cost overruns during previous reactor builds (notably the V.C. Summer project in South Carolina). AI-Powered Efficiency? To address efficiency concerns, Westinghouse has partnered with Google to deploy AI tools in reactor construction and operational management. Yet skeptics argue that cultural and logistical hurdlesnot lack of technologyhistorically plagued nuclear projects. As Mike Adams, host of Brighton Broadcast, noted: You dont need AI to stop being lazy and incompetent. Texas in Focus Texas, home to energy-intensive AI hubs and oil refining, is a likely candidate for early deployment. The states grid, operated by ERCOT, has faced repeated stress from extreme weather and rising demand. Nuclear power offers baseload stability compared to intermittent renewables, though water-intensive cooling processes may spark local disputes. Geopolitical Echoes Amid the nuclear rollout, Trump issued a 50-day ultimatum to Russia, threatening 100% tariffs on nations trading with Moscow unless it agrees to U.S.-brokered peace terms. Analysts see this as a gambit to leverage energy dominance, though Russias hypersonic missiles and oil-resilient BRICS alliances could blunt the impact. The Bottom Line Westinghouses gamble hinges on overcoming cost-control failures and regulatory delays. If successful, the reactors could revitalize U.S. energy independence. If not, taxpayers may face another $18 billion over budget debacleproving that in nuclear energy, past is often prologue. Watch the July 16 episode of "Brighteon Broadcast News" as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, talks about the ten nuclear power plants to be built in America. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Hochul announces plans to construct new nuclear power plant in New York CFS to build worlds first grid-scale nuclear fusion power plant in Virginia Zelensky aide exposes Ukraines nuclear sabotage plot as U.S. pushes for control of their power plants Sources include: Brighteon.com Nvidia wins U.S. approval to sell AI chips to China after Trump administration reverses ban The Trump administration reversed its policy, allowing Nvidia to sell AI chips to China after intense lobbying and a meeting between CEO Jensen Huang and President Trump. Nvidia secured U.S. approval to sell its H20 AI chips to China, with Chinese firms like ByteDance and Tencent rushing to place orders, potentially boosting Nvidias revenue by billions. Critics warn the chips could be diverted to Chinas military, despite Huangs assurances that U.S. tech leadership remains secure. The decision signals a potential thaw in U.S.-China tech tensions but highlights ongoing debates over national security versus economic interests. China remains dependent on Nvidias chips for AI development, even as it pushes for domestic alternatives, underscoring the companys pivotal role in the global tech rivalry. In a sharp reversal of U.S. policy, the Trump administration has granted Nvidia approval to resume sales of its AI chips to China, just months after imposing strict export controls. The decision, announced by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during a visit to Beijing, comes after intense lobbying by the tech giant and follows Huangs high-profile meeting with President Trump last week. The move signals a potential thaw in U.S.-China tech tensions, but critics warn that Beijing could exploit the advanced semiconductors for military applications, undermining American national security. Nvidia secures licenses amid Chinese demand Nvidia confirmed in a company blog post that the U.S. government will allow it to file applications for licenses to sell its H20 AI chips to China. "The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon," the statement read. The H20, while less powerful than Nvidias flagship AI processors due to export restrictions, is still the most advanced chip legally available to Chinese firms. Chinese tech giants, including ByteDance and Tencent, have reportedly rushed to place orders, eager to secure the hardware needed to fuel their AI ambitions. Industry sources suggest the sudden policy shift could generate an additional $15 billion to $20 billion in revenue for Nvidia this year alone. The timing of the announcement is notable, coming just days after Huang met with President Trump in Washington and as he embarked on a high-stakes visit to Beijing. Huangs trip includes meetings with Chinese government officials and industry leaders, reinforcing Nvidias commitment to the Chinese market despite escalating geopolitical tensions. Military concerns linger despite corporate assurances While Nvidia celebrates the regulatory win, skepticism persists in Washington over whether the chips could be diverted to Chinas military or intelligence agencies. U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jim Banks recently sent a letter to Huang urging him to avoid meetings with Chinese entities tied to the military or intelligence sectors. Huang, however, has dismissed such concerns. In an interview with CNN, he argued, "We dont have to worry about that," insisting that American technology must remain the "global standard" to maintain U.S. leadership in AI. Critics, including former U.S. officials, remain unconvinced. One anonymous former Commerce Department official warned, "There was plenty of open source and classified intelligence showing that the PLA was working quite hard to get its hands on these chips." The debate highlights the broader struggle within the U.S. government over how to balance economic interests with national security. While Nvidia and other tech firms push for open markets, defense hawks argue that Chinas dual-use technology policies make export controls essential. A strategic shift in U.S.-China tech rivalry The reversal coincides with ongoing trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing, suggesting the decision may be part of a broader diplomatic strategy. The Trump administration has previously pledged to ease some export restrictions as part of trade talks, but officials have not confirmed whether Nvidias case is directly linked. China, meanwhile, is racing to reduce its reliance on foreign tech. State-backed firms like Huawei are developing homegrown alternatives, but analysts say Beijing remains dependent on Nvidias chips in the short term. Ryan Fedasiuk, a former State Department tech policy adviser, noted, "China is in a weird position because they continue to be dependent on Nvidia... but I think it should be clear to Nvidia that the company is dispensable in China." For now, Nvidias dominance in AI hardware ensures its pivotal role in the global tech landscape. With a market capitalization surpassing $4 trillion, the companys fortunes are deeply intertwined with the AI boom and the geopolitical battles that come with it. The Trump administrations decision to allow Nvidias AI chip sales to China marks a significant, though likely temporary, detente in the U.S.-China tech cold war. While the move benefits American corporations and Chinese tech firms alike, it does little to resolve the underlying tensions over military applications and technological supremacy. As Huang continues his charm offensive in Beijing, Washington must weigh the economic gains against the long-term risks of empowering a strategic adversary. Sources for this article include: ArsTechnica.com WashingtonPost.com TheGuardian.com Trump ends free foreign aid, demands allies pay full cost for military support (but not Israel) Trump declared the U.S. will no longer provide free military assistance to allies, demanding full reimbursement for defense aid to rectify decades of "being ripped off." His policy marks a sharp break from post-World War II norms of using aid for geopolitical influence. An upcoming arms deal for Ukraine including Patriot missiles will now require Kyiv to pay market rates, reflecting Trump's push for financial reciprocity amid global tensions. Critics warn this could strain alliances; supporters argue it ensures wealthier allies (e.g., NATO members) pay their fair share. The policy aligns with Trump's first-term doctrine, pressuring NATO to meet defense spending targets and renegotiating trade deals. A meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will address Ukraine and alliance spending. Despite demands for allies to repay aid, Trump excludes Israel ensuring continued U.S. military support for its operations against Palestinians. This raises questions about whether he prioritizes America or Israel. While Trump frames the shift as fiscal responsibility, opponents argue conditioning aid on payment could weaken U.S. global influence and empower adversaries like Russia or China. President Donald Trump announced that America will no longer provide free military aid to allies, insisting that nations receiving defense assistance must fully reimburse Washington. He issued this declaration in a post on Truth Social Monday, July 14. According to the chief executive, trillions in unrecovered costs from trade and military agreements have left the U.S. at a strategic and economic disadvantage. Trump emphasized that America's era as a benefactor was over, noting that "it is just not sustainable any longer and never was." He continued: "Countries should sit back and say, 'Thank you for the many years' long free ride.'" His Monday remarks on Truth Social followed comments he made the previous day. "They are going to pay us 100 percent for that, and that's the way we want it," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews on the evening of Sunday, June 13. Trump's stance coincides with an impending arms deal for Ukraine, including Patriot missile systems. This time around, Kyiv is expected to pay market rates. The move framed as a corrective to decades of "being ripped off" signals a hardline push for financial reciprocity in an era of escalating global tensions. (Related: Trump orders 90-day pause on almost all foreign aid including the billions being sent to Ukraine.) Trump's double standard: NATO must pay, but Israel's aid stays The policy marks a stark departure from post-World War II norms, where U.S. aid often functioned as a tool of geopolitical influence. On one hand, critics warn that conditioning support on payment could strain alliances and embolden adversaries. On the other hand, supporters argue it forces wealthy allies particularly members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to shoulder their fair share. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is set to meet Trump, with Ukraine's defense and alliance spending topping the agenda. Historical context underscores the stakes. Since the Marshall Plan, America has leveraged aid to cement alliances and contain rivals, from Cold War Europe to modern-day Middle Eastern conflicts. Trump's transactional approach echoes his first-term "America First" doctrine, which sought to renegotiate trade deals and pressure NATO members to meet defense spending targets. Legal and political hurdles remain, but the message is clear: The free ride is over. Or is it? Trump's remarks about making allies pay up don't include Israel. The Jewish nation can still rely on Washington for military aid to continue its genocide against the Palestinian people. This brings one serious question: Is Trump truly America First, or is he revealing his true colors as an "Israel First" president? Watch Lt. Col. Daniel Davis explaining why President Trump has to take care of America's needs first in this Newsmax interview. This video is from the NewsClips channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Trump suspends U.S. foreign aid, citing national priorities and economic concerns. U.S. foreign aid freeze: Trump administration halts billions in assistance. Trump signs executive order to halt ALL foreign aid programs. Sources include: YourNews.com TruthSocial.com Newsmax.com Brighteon.com RFK Jr. rejects measles emergency: No national crisis U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. refuses to declare a national emergency over a sharp rise in measles cases hitting a 33-year high. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accuses Kennedy of undermining public health, citing 1,288 cases in 2025 primarily among the unvaccinated and dismantling critical vaccine advisory boards. Kennedy highlights declining outbreaks, vitamin A treatments and state-led responses, while critics argue his policies have exacerbated vaccine hesitancy. Historical data shows measles fatalities remained low before vaccines, yet modern discourse frames it as a crisis demanding mass inoculation. The debate reflects broader tensions between government health authority and individual autonomy, amplified by claims of pharmaceutical industry influence. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has drawn sharp criticism from Senate Democrats after declining to declare a national public health emergency amid a surge in measles cases. With 1,288 confirmed infections in 2025 the highest since 1992 Senator Chuck Schumer accused Kennedy of walking the country into an outbreak by slashing public health funding, firing pro-vaccine experts and promoting alternatives like vitamin A over vaccines. Kennedy, appearing in Washington on July 14, defended his approach, stating, Weve done a very, very good job at controlling [measles]. Outbreaks are declining. CDC teams are everywhere where governors requested them. He emphasized individual states roles and protocols for treating unvaccinated populations, many of whom know that natural immunity is preferable to vaccines. Schumer fired back, claiming that Kennedys policies, including replacing the pharma-biased CDC vaccine advisory panel, have eroded trust in public health. You have an opportunity to protect the health of millions by demonstrating support for vaccination, he urged, while accusing Kennedy of gutting federal protections. The great measles debate: Science vs. fearmongering At the heart of the dispute lies fundamentally opposed narratives about the measles threat and the role of vaccines. Kennedys camp maintains that modern medicines advances such as vitamin A treatments to mitigate complications let families weigh vaccination against natural immunity. Meanwhile, Democrats cite the diseases 97% prevention rate with two vaccine doses and warn of deaths in the unvaccinated. Yet, history proves today's pro-vaccine/anti-unvaccinated rhetoric is little more than fearmongering. Prior to the 1960s, measles caused just 450 U.S. deaths annuallyusually no fatalities in well-nourished populations. Todays panic, critics argue, stems less from mortality rates due to the illness than Big Pharma incentives to promote dangerous vaccines and depopulation agendas. Kennedys May directive to the CDC to explore non-vaccine treatments and his reconstitution of the vaccine advisory panel with skeptics signal a shift toward prioritizing informed consent over herd immunity mandates. The decision to vaccinate is personal, stated an HHS spokesperson, underscoring Kennedys advocacy for diverse healthcare choices. State responses, political turbulence and public confusion Texas and New Mexico, where 58% of the current cases are clustered, have led responses resembling containment efforts, including school inoculation mandates and public awareness campaigns. Kennedy insists such localized strategies, not federal overreach, are the better path. However, opponents paint this as a failure of leadership. Senator Patty Murray condemned Kennedys advisory panel reshuffle on social media, alleging unvetted skeptics now guide vaccine policy. Meanwhile, lawsuits challenge HHS cuts to pandemic-era programs, including dropping the flu shot from recommended pediatric schedules. For the health freedom movement, Kennedys stance represents resistance to religious vaccine zealotry embedded in federal agencies like the CDC. The Health Ranger Mike Adams noted, This crisis reveals how institutions manipulate fear to advance agendas, not protect lives. A crossroads of public trust and policy The measles crisis has ignited a defining battle over who governs public health. While RFK Jr. frames his actions as empowering families to choose, Democrats and mainstream medical voices decry delays as dangerous. With case numbers fluctuating but still historically low compared to pre-20th-century levels, the debate transcends epidemiologyits about who controls Americas healthcare narrative: governments enforcing solutions or individuals safeguarding choice. Vaccine critics further argue that the current outbreak would not have happened if vaccines worked as advertized. As tensions rise, so too does skepticism about conflating minor public health challenges with existential threats. Whether Kennedys approach mitigates harm or exacerbates it remains a matter of opinion, but one truth is clear: trust in institutions hangs in the balance. For better or worse, this measles moment has become a lightning rod illuminating Americas fractured healthcare destiny. Sources for this article include: TheEpochTimes.com NBCNews.com USAToday.com Supreme Court clears path for Trumps dismantling of Department of Education in historic ruling The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to allow President Donald Trump to proceed with dismantling the Department of Education. The decision overturns lower court injunctions and permits mass layoffs of federal employees. Conservatives argue the move returns educational authority to states, reducing federal overreach. Dissenting Justice Sotomayor warned the ruling threatens constitutional checks on executive power. Critics fear the closure will disrupt civil rights enforcement and funding for vulnerable students. In a landmark decision on July 14, 2025, the Supreme Court greenlit President Donald Trumps long-promised plan to dismantle the Department of Education (ED), dealing a decisive blow to federal oversight of public schools. The 6-3 ruling, split along ideological lines, empowers Trump to execute an executive order signed in March 2025, which calls for eliminating the Education Departments bloated bureaucracy and returning control to states and local communities. Critics, including Justice Sonia Sotomayor, decried the move as an unconstitutional power grab, while supporters hailed it as a victory for conservative governance. The decision signals a seismic shift in U.S. education policyone with roots in decades of conservative activism against federal involvement in schools. But its immediate consequenceslayoffs for 1,300 employees, the transfer of civil rights oversight and the potential disruption of programs like Title Iwill ripple across classrooms nationwide. The legal battle: From injunction to Supreme Court The Trump administrations plan faced swift legal challenges after U.S. District Judge Myong Joun (a Biden appointee) blocked the executive order in May 2025, calling it an overreach of presidential authority. The President cannot unilaterally eliminate a Cabinet agency established by Congress, Joun wrote. The First Circuit Court of Appeals declined to intervene, prompting the administration to appeal to the Supreme Court. The Courts unsigned opinion lifted the injunction without addressing the cases meritsa procedural move critics labeled a shadow docket ruling. In a fiery dissent, Justice Sotomayor argued the decision prioritized executive power over constitutional safeguards: When the Executive announces its intent to break the law, the Judiciarys duty is to check that lawlessness, not expedite it. Conservatives' take on public education Trumps crusade against bureaucracy in Education reflects a cornerstone of conservative ideology: skepticism of federal influence in education. The Heritage Foundations Project 2025 blueprint, which outlined plans to shrink the government, singled out the Department of Education as a bastion of woke indoctrination. Secretary Linda McMahon echoed this sentiment, calling dismantlement the departments final mission to combat radical race and gender policies. Historically, the Department of Education has been a lightning rod. Created in 1979 under President Carter, it consolidated programs like civil rights enforcement and student loans. Republicans, including Ronald Reagan, sought its abolition, arguing states could better manage schools. Trumps success marks the culmination of that 40-year effort. Implications for students and civil rights Proponents frame the EDs closure as a win for local control, but educators and advocates warn of chaos. The agency oversees: Title I funding for low-income schools ($16 billion annually). Civil rights investigations (e.g., discrimination, sexual assault cases). Federal student aid (serving 43 million borrowers). Critics fear state governments lack the capacity or political will to replace these functions. The Office for Civil Rights has been a lifeline for vulnerable students, said Penn States Erica Frankenberg. Its dismantling risks rolling back decades of progress. A new eraor a constitutional crisis? Mondays ruling accelerates a fundamental reordering of U.S. education. While Trump allies celebrate reduced federal meddling, legal scholars note Congress never authorized the EDs abolitionsetting the stage for further challenges. Justice Sotomayors dissent may prove prescient: If presidents can dismantle agencies at will, she warned, the separation of powers becomes a relic. As the administration begins layoffs and devolves programs to states, the real test will be whether local governments can fill the voidor if students pay the price for ideological warfare. Sources for this article include: YourNews.com TheConversation.com Yahoo.com T-Mobile ends DEI programs amid regulatory pressure T-Mobile has officially dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, removing DEI-related roles, language and training from the company. In a letter to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, the company cited legal and restructuring reasons but also appeared to align with the Trump administration's push to eliminate DEI in federally regulated industries. Staff formerly focused on DEI will be reassigned to broader human resources roles focused on general employee culture and engagement. T-Mobile joins other major U.S. corporations, including Amazon, Meta, Walmart and Ford, that are retreating from DEI efforts amid a broader conservative backlash and changing political climate under President Donald Trump. The rollback reflects a shift in corporate strategy to align with the Trump administrations hostility to "woke" policies, signaling that previous DEI efforts may have been more about branding than long-term commitment to equity. T-Mobile, the nation's second-largest wireless carrier, has officially ended its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. In a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr, made public on Wednesday, July 9, the company stated that it is ending DEI-related policies "not just in name, but in substance." The Washington-based telecom giant said it has dismantled all DEI-dedicated roles and teams, scrubbed DEI language from its website and removed such references from employee training materials. T-Mobile cited legal considerations and internal restructuring as primary drivers behind the change. However, the timing and content of the announcement suggest it is also a strategic compliance move as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to strip DEI requirements from corporate America, especially for companies reliant on federal regulatory approval or contracts. The letter to Carr outlines that T-Mobile will no longer support DEI-specific roles, branding or content in any official capacity. Employees previously assigned to DEI functions will be reassigned within the Human Resources department to broader roles focusing on company culture and employee engagement. "First, the handful of T-Mobile employees who focused on diversity and inclusion will be redirected within Human Resources to focus on employee culture and engagement. As a result, T-Mobile will no longer have any individual roles or teams focused on 'DEI.' T-Mobile is also removing any language, logos or other references to DEI on its websites and will ensure that company websites and future communications do not have any references to DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion, and are consistent with T-Mobile's commitment to promote nondiscrimination and equal employment opportunity," the company wrote in its memo. The FCC, under Carr's guidance, has aggressively enforced the administrations stance on DEI, using its regulatory influence to encourage the telecommunications and tech sectors to fall in line. Carr has previously described DEI programs as "ideological capture" and welcomed T-Mobile's decision as "a model for other companies to follow." Several U.S. corporations abandon DEI as political winds shift rightward T-Mobile joins a growing list of companies yielding to pressure from the Trump administration as they seek regulatory approval. In January, Al Jazeera reported that Amazon, Meta, McDonald's, Walmart, Ford and John Deere began dismantling their DEI programs. These companies, which had embraced DEI in recent years amid public outcry over racial injustice, particularly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd, are now quietly or overtly reversing course. From internal "unconscious bias" training to inclusive hiring targets and supplier diversity initiatives, the mechanisms of corporate equity-building are being shut down across sectors. (Related: DEI is collapsing across corporate America.) Amazon cited the approach as "outdated," while Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has simultaneously announced the termination of its fact-checking program a move critics say will compound the marginalization of vulnerable groups by allowing unchecked misinformation to flourish. In place of professional fact-checking, Meta will now rely on a "community notes" system, similar to that used by X (formerly Twitter), where user input determines the credibility of online content. Corporations appear to be recalibrating to suit the ideological preferences of a more conservative political environment with Trump in the White House. "The nixing of DEI is thus not only a way of mending relations with Trump, who has been a fierce critic of equity, but adjusting corporate marketing strategies to the accession of right-wing conservatism in the United States. 'Wokeism' is definitely out," Ilan Kapoor wrote in his article for Al Jazeera. Follow Wokies.news for more news about the woke DEI agenda. Watch the following video and learn what "Kevin McGary from Every Black Lives Matters (everyBLM) tells Mike Adams - WOKE DEI policies are destroying America." This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: DEI captures the University of Florida. Woke DEI + green nihilism = Dresden in California. MIT shuts down DEI office amid national backlash. Lowe's alters DEI policies amid rising public backlash. Sources include: TheNationalPulse.com Aljazeera.com Brighteon.com Trump announces $92 billion economic revolution in Pennsylvania, pursuing AI dominance and energy independence President Trump announced $92 billion in private-sector investments for Pennsylvania to boost AI, energy infrastructure, and manufacturing, calling it the state's largest economic development package. FirstEnergy plans a $15 billion grid upgrade, and Westinghouse will build 10 nuclear reactors by 2030, emphasizing energy independence and AI growth. The investments are framed as a counter to Chinas tech dominance, with Trump vowing to secure Americas industrial future. The summit also saw commitments from CoreWeave, Constellation Energy, and Meta, signaling a nationwide push for AI and energy expansion. President Donald Trump announced a staggering $92 billion in private-sector investments for Pennsylvania during a high-stakes summit at Carnegie Mellon University on July 15. The massive infusion of capital spearheaded by industry giants such as Blackstone, FirstEnergy, and Westinghouse aims to cement U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI), modernize energy infrastructure, and revive domestic manufacturing while creating tens of thousands of jobs. Were here to announce the largest economic development package in the history of the Commonwealth, Trump declared to a room of bipartisan leaders and corporate executives. Its a great day for the people. The investments, hailed as a triumph of free-market innovation over bureaucratic stagnation, come as the U.S. races to outpace China in AI and energy production. With Pennsylvanias pivotal role in national elections and its vast energy resources, the state has become a battleground not just politically but economicallya fact not lost on Trump, who quipped, We did very well in this state, as you know, three times actually. AI and data centers: Blackstones $25 billion game-changer Leading the charge is Blackstone, which pledged $25 billion to construct state-of-the-art data centers and energy infrastructure in northeastern Pennsylvania. The project is expected to generate 6,000 construction jobs and 3,000 permanent positions, turbocharging the regions tech economy. We believe this new technology can lead to a manufacturing renaissance in the United States, said Blackstone President Jon Gray, crediting Trumps policies for enabling the investment. Google also confirmed a $3 billion deal with Brookfield Asset Management to power its AI data centers using Pennsylvania hydropower, underscoring the growing demand for clean, reliable energy to fuel the AI boom. Critics of the Biden administrations energy policies argue that overregulation has stifled growth, but Trumps summit highlighted the power of private-sector confidence unleashed by deregulation and pro-growth incentives. We have a United States Congress that has to do its job, warned American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers, calling for urgent regulatory reform to unlock domestic energy potential. Energy infrastructure: FirstEnergys $15 billion grid overhaul FirstEnergy unveiled plans to invest $15 billion in modernizing Pennsylvanias power grid, upgrading transmission and distribution networks across 56 counties. The expansion is critical to supporting AI data centers, shale gas development, and other high-tech industries demanding uninterrupted electricity. The project aligns with Trumps long-standing push for energy dominance, a theme echoed by Westinghouse CEO Dan Sumner, who revealed plans to build 10 new nuclear reactors by 2030 in a $6 billion endeavor projected to create 15,000 jobs. Nuclear energy, often sidelined by climate activists, took center stage as a clean, reliable solution to power AIs voracious energy needs. Sumner emphasized nuclears role in achieving both energy independence and AI supremacy. Even Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro struck a conciliatory tone, praising the summits focus on common ground. However, the specter of China loomed large. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick accused Beijing of weaponizing climate policy to hamstring U.S. development in AI and energy. The Trump administration has framed the investments as a direct counter to Chinas aggressive tech expansion, with Trump vowing, Todays commitments guarantee that the future will be designed and built right here in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, and I must say, in America. A new industrial revolution The summits ripple effects extend beyond Pennsylvania. CoreWeave announced a $6 billion AI data center, while Constellation Energy committed $2.4 billion to upgrade the Limerick nuclear plant. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, though not present, recently pledged hundreds of billions for AI data centers, including a massive facility in Ohio. By harnessing private-sector innovation, cutting red tape, and prioritizing energy and tech sovereignty, Trump has laid a roadmap for reviving American industrial might. As AI and nuclear power emerge as twin pillars of 21st-century prosperity, Pennsylvanias transformation could soon become a model for the nation. Sources for this article include: YourNews.com WhiteHouse.gov USAToday.com Reuters.com Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis says his officers are close to making arrests after a Fourth of July shooting in the citys Fifeville neighborhood which injured five bystanders, including two small children. At a Fifeville Neighborhood Association meeting last Thursday, Kochis said that based on the 34 bullet cases recovered from the scene near Orangedale Avenue, he was certain there were at least three gunmen but there could have been as many as six. Right now, we believe there were two groups that were shooting at each other, he told The Daily Progress at the meeting. I dont have enough information to say that its specifically gang-related. Kochis is often hesitant to use the word gang, and has been since he joined the Charlottesville Police Department in 2023. He instead has referred to such violence as neighborhood beefs. Police in surrounding Albemarle County have been less hesitant. A drive-by shooting just south of Charlottesville city limits back in May was immediately identified as gang-related. Four days after the July Fourth shooting, a second shooting in Fifeville hospitalized a 40-year-old Fluvanna County resident. That investigation is still ongoing, but Kochis said that, despite the proximity, he did not believe it was related to the shooting on July 4. Still, Kochis said Fifeville residents should expect an uptick in police in the neighborhood due to both incidents. The two shootings occurred less than three weeks after Kochis hosted Charlottesvilles first gun buyback program, which he had been pushing since 2023 as a way to take guns off the street and drive down gun violence. The buyback on June 20 at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church collected more the 100 guns, which were exchanged for grocery store gift cards. Kochis previously said the buyback was based on Richmonds proven model for such programs. Richmonds multiple gun buybacks were touted by a former mayor and failed candidate for lieutenant governor, Levar Stoney. Nevertheless, the number of nonfatal shootings actually increased 5% last year, from 190 to 200, and accidental shootings jumped 11%, from 25 to 28. A Richmond-based researcher says theres little evidence to support that buybacks reduce gun violence. Its largely anecdotal, William V. Pelfrey Jr., a criminal justice professor in the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University, told The Daily Progress back in 2023. Theres not a lot of scholarly research, because the consequences are so difficult to determine. Pelfrey said, considering that the number of guns may outnumber the total number of people in the United States by a third, collecting 100 guns in a city with a population of about a quarter-million people would be a drop in the bucket in reducing the quantity of firearms. Not to mention, Pelfrey said that typically the guns turned in are coming from law-abiding citizens and not the criminals the police are hoping to deter. The people who are returning guns are not the bad guys, said Pelfrey. Criminals arent going to go to a gun buyback program where theres a bunch of cops standing around. Despite the lack of evidence, historical and recent, Kochis still believes Charlottesvilles first buyback was a success, but his framing of the program has changed. He told The Daily Progress last Thursday that the buyback is one piece of a larger puzzle. That was more really the education piece, he said. It was called the gun safety buyback program, you know, handing out stuff on responsible gun ownership, stuff like that. And so we got a lot out of it. As for what other pieces he plans to pursue, Kochis said community collaboration is top of mind. Dorenda Johnson, a member of the Community Action Team, a group of community representatives and stakeholders who work with the police chief to discuss department operations and identify areas for improvement, spoke highly of Kochis. Johnson has been a resident of Fifeville for 55 years, and she said Kochis called her personally after the July Fourth shooting to check in on her and her family. She was not in her house at the time of the shooting since she was traveling at the time. Hes not just a police chief, hes just a decent human being, you know, and caring, she told The Daily Progress. But, she did fault the police department for not putting an end to the illegal fireworks displays in the neighborhood, which made it difficult for police to reach the scene that night. Officers had to go on foot and carry some victims to safety. The fireworks drew spectators from as far away as Richmond, Fifeville neighbors said, including some of the victims. Kochis said some of the top suspects also are from out of town. Johnson said the fireworks in Fifeville are only becoming a larger attraction as the years pass, but Charlottesville police have turned a blind eye to it. This is just another example of allowing stuff to build and build and build and build, and then when it explodes, everybodys saying, Wouldve, couldve, shouldve, Johnson said. Too late for Wouldve, couldve, shouldve. So now we are here. What do we do now? Shame on us, Kochis said at Thursdays meeting, addressing the lack of police intervention before flipping the responsibility back on the neighborhood. Its your community, he said. If you want to have a block party, you can have a block party and get a permit. Well come in, well shut the road down for you. Theres a right way to do it, he said. Trumps nuclear push gains steam as Westinghouse announces plan to build 10 nuclear reactors by 2030 Westinghouse Electric Company plans to build 10 large nuclear reactors in the U.S. by 2030, boosting energy capacity and creating thousands of jobs. The $75 billion project, announced at a Pittsburgh energy summit, aligns with Trumps push for nuclear expansion and deregulation. Westinghouses AP1000 reactor, now under new ownership, promises faster, safer, and more efficient nuclear power deployment. The initiative will inject billions into the economy, with Pennsylvania alone gaining $6 billion and 15,000 jobs. Despite past setbacks, modern reactor designs and AI-driven construction aim to overcome regulatory delays and public skepticism. Westinghouse Electric Company has unveiled plans to build 10 large-scale nuclear reactors across the United States, with construction set to begin by 2030. Interim CEO Dan Sumner delivered the announcement directly to President Donald Trump during a high-profile energy roundtable in Pittsburgh this week, marking a major step toward fulfilling Trumps executive orders to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050. The reactors, each capable of powering more than 750,000 homes, promise to inject $75 billion into the national economy while creating thousands of high-paying jobs, proving that American innovation, when freed from bureaucratic strangleholds, can still lead the world. The announcement came at Sen. Dave McCormicks Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, where tech and energy leaders pledged over $90 billion in new investments for data centers and power infrastructure. For Trump, who has long championed nuclear energy as a cornerstone of U.S. energy dominance, the Westinghouse plan is a validation of his deregulatory agenda. "I signed historic executive orders to expedite construction of brand new nuclear power plants, which is very hot," Trump told the crowd. "We've issued an order, as you know, one month ago, making it very easy and very safe to build nuclear power." A comeback for American nuclear energy Westinghouses resurgence is nothing short of remarkable. Just seven years ago, the company filed for bankruptcy after its AP1000 reactor project at Georgias Plant Vogtle spiraled $18 billion over budget and fell seven years behind schedule in a disaster blamed on regulatory ineptitude and cost overruns. Now, under new ownership by Canadian uranium giant Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management, Westinghouse is betting big on a streamlined, AI-driven approach to nuclear construction. The AP1000, the only fully licensed and construction-ready modular reactor in the U.S., is central to this revival. Sumner emphasized that the reactors design allows for faster, more efficient deployment. "Our AP1000 technology is the quickest way to add new sources of affordable and abundant nuclear energy to the U.S. grid," he said. With each reactor generating massive baseload power without carbon emissions, the project aligns with both economic and environmental priorities, offering a clean alternative to the unreliable wind and solar projects pushed by the green energy lobby. Economic boom and energy security The economic impact of Westinghouses plan cannot be overstated. Pennsylvania alone stands to gain $6 billion and 15,000 jobs, with nationwide benefits reaching $75 billion. In an era of deindustrialization and outsourcing, nuclear energy offers a path to reclaiming Americas manufacturing might. Unlike fleeting green energy subsidies, which vanish the moment taxpayer funding dries up, nuclear plants provide decades of stable, high-wage employment. Critics will inevitably dredge up the ghosts of Three Mile Island or Fukushima, but the facts are clear: Nuclear power is among the safest energy sources per unit of electricity produced. Modern reactor designs like the AP1000 incorporate passive safety systems that require no human intervention to prevent meltdowns. Meanwhile, the U.S. nuclear fleet has operated for decades without a single fatality, in dramatic contrast to the environmental and health toll of fossil fuel extraction. Trumps executive orders, which demand a "wholesale revision" of Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) rules, are long overdue. For too long, red tape and activist obstruction have stifled nuclear development, forcing the U.S. to build just two new reactors in 30 years. By streamlining approvals and prioritizing innovation, the administration is finally unleashing Americas energy potential. The challenges remain formidable. Public perception, shaped by decades of anti-nuclear fearmongering, must be overcome. And while AI can mitigate construction risks, Westinghouse must prove it can deliver on time and on budget. Yet the alternativecontinued reliance on foreign energy or intermittent renewablesis far riskier. Sources for this article include: CNBC.com WestinghouseNuclear.com WTAE.com Trump urges Epstein file release amid MAGA revolt: Let them have it Trump urges transparency, telling AG Pam Bondi to release "whatever she thinks is credible" on Epstein while dismissing baseless claims about his name appearing in files. MAGA revolt escalates, with Lara Trump calling for "more transparency" amid outrage over the DOJ's inconclusive Epstein memo, which found no "client list." Internal tensions flare as FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino clashes with Bondi, nearly resigning over handling of the Epstein probe. Trump downplays interest, calling the case "boring" and urging supporters to focus elsewhere, despite long-standing promises to release Epstein documents. GOP lawmakers push back, with Sen. Josh Hawley demanding full disclosure, while others like Rep. Jim Jordan defend Trumps approach. The Trump administration is embroiled in escalating tensions over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, with President Donald Trump urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to release "whatever she thinks is credible" while dismissing claims of his involvement. The controversy erupted after a DOJ-FBI memo last week revealed no evidence of Epsteins alleged "client list," sparking fury among Trumps base and infighting within his administration. The memos conclusionscombined with Bondis staunch defensehave intensified scrutiny over whether the administration will fulfill its long-standing promise to "drain the swamp" by exposing elite malfeasance tied to Epsteins sex-trafficking ring. The backlash: From MAGA to the FBI Trumps attempt to quell the uproar has done little to calm his most ardent supporters. Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law and a Fox News host, publicly broke ranks, stating, "I do think there needs to be more transparency I believe that there will probably be more coming." Her remarks reflect deeper frustrations within the MAGA movement, where figures like Steve Bannon warn that the issue could cost Republicans critical support in the 2026 midterms. Meanwhile, internal divisions have spilled into public view. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bonginoa vocal Trump allyreportedly nearly resigned after a heated confrontation with Bondi over the probes handling. Bondi, however, remains defiant, asserting, "Im going to be here for as long as the president wants me." Trumps dismissal: "Boring stuff" Despite once vowing to release Epsteins files, Trump has increasingly downplayed the case, telling reporters, "I dont understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. Its pretty boring stuff." His remarks starkly contrast with his 2024 campaign rhetoric, where he hinted at revealing Epsteins "clients" and called the lack of disclosure "very interesting." Critics accuse the administration of backtracking, particularly after the DOJ memo confirmed Epstein died by suicide in 2019a conclusion long disputed by conspiracy theorists. GOP divisions: Hawley vs. Jordan On Capitol Hill, Republicans are split. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) demanded full transparency: "I think all the documents should be public We ought to put it all out there." Conversely, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, voiced "total confidence in President Trump and his team." The divide underscores a broader challenge for Trump: balancing his bases demands for accountability with the legal and political risks of revisiting Epsteins sordid network. The stakes: Accountability or retreat? For Trump and Bondi, the Epstein saga is a litmus test of their commitment to anti-corruption pledges. If they retreat, they risk alienating core supporters; if they press forward, they could trigger unprecedented revelationsor further chaos. As Lara Trumps call for transparency suggests, the pressure isnt fading. The question now is whether the administration will deliveror dismissthe accountability it once promised. What's next: Transparency or damage control? The Epstein files remain a potent symbol of institutional secrecy and elite impunity. Whether Trumps team opts for disclosure or deflection could define their legacyand their hold on the MAGA movement. For now, the presidents mixed signals leave both allies and critics waiting. Sources for this article include: TheNationalPulse.com ABCNews.com KFoxtv.com U.S. SCHOOLS use ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE TOOLS to monitor students digital behavior without consent or knowledge A newly published peer-reviewed study reveals that a growing number of U.S. schools are using government-funded online surveillance tools to monitor students' digital behavioroften without their knowledge or consentand warns that such practices may have serious consequences for children's development and well-being. 24/7 Student Surveillance Raises Privacy and Health Concerns: A peer-reviewed study found that 12 out of 14 school surveillance companies monitored students social media, emails, and online activity around the clock, often without clear consent from parents or students, potentially harming children's learning, mental health, and social development. A peer-reviewed study found that 12 out of 14 school surveillance companies monitored students social media, emails, and online activity around the clock, often without clear consent from parents or students, potentially harming children's learning, mental health, and social development. Heavy Reliance on AI and Lack of Human Oversight: Most companies used AI to flag student behavior, but fewer than half had human reviewers. Researchers warned this could lead to false positives and discriminatory outcomes, particularly for marginalized students, due to algorithmic bias and lack of transparency. Most companies used AI to flag student behavior, but fewer than half had human reviewers. Researchers warned this could lead to false positives and discriminatory outcomes, particularly for marginalized students, due to algorithmic bias and lack of transparency. Federal Funds Fuel Poorly Regulated Surveillance Tools: Many schools use federal education grants to fund these surveillance tools, despite limited evidence that they improve student safety. Researchers called for better oversight and questioned whether this is an appropriate use of government resources. Many schools use federal education grants to fund these surveillance tools, despite limited evidence that they improve student safety. Researchers called for better oversight and questioned whether this is an appropriate use of government resources. Parents Left in the Dark and Policymakers Urged to Act: The study highlighted that parents often dont know their children are being monitored and may not have opt-out options. Authors recommended federal legislation to improve transparency, address AI bias, and require parental consent for off-campus monitoring. Online Surveillance of Kids in School Can Impede Learning, Social Development, and Mental Health Conducted by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, the study assessed 14 companies providing online surveillance services to schools. The findings show that 12 of these companies conduct round-the-clock monitoring, both inside and outside of school hours. Surveillance included scanning students social media activity, online browsing history, emails, and documents written on school accounts. Most companies relied on artificial intelligence (AI) to identify problematic behavior, with only 43% using human reviewers to confirm flagged content. The researchers expressed concern over the lack of algorithmic transparency in AI-powered monitoring systems. They noted that many language models used in such surveillance tools have shown significant biasespecially against non-white students. Without human oversight or clear guidelines, these biases may result in false alerts and discriminatory disciplinary actions. Two companies admitted that their staff sometimes contact law enforcement at their discretion if a perceived crisis is detected. The study's authors warned that this type of unsupervised intervention poses additional risks to students safety and mental health. The report, published July 11 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is the first in-depth review of the school-based online surveillance industry. It highlights not only privacy and cybersecurity concerns but also the psychological harm such surveillance can cause. According to the study, excessive monitoring can erode students intimate privacy, which may negatively affect their ability to learn, build relationships, and maintain emotional stability. Despite these serious implications, the industry remains largely unregulated and shrouded in secrecy. The researchers pointed out that most of the companies fail to provide pricing information and operate with minimal transparency about their methods or data practices. Nearly half of the companies promoted the availability of federal education grants to fund their servicesdespite the lack of any reliable data proving their effectiveness in reducing school violence, bullying, or suicide. To compile the report, researchers reviewed company websites, educational product databases, public contracts, and media coverage. They narrowed the list of over 100 companies to 14 based on specific criteria, including claims of monitoring student communication, generating individual alerts, and targeting schools as clients. Among the companies studied were Gaggle, GoGuardian, Bark, Securly, and Lightspeed Systems. The authors emphasized that parents are often unaware their children are being monitored. Many school systems fail to notify families or offer opt-out options. They warned that this lack of communication may prevent students and guardians from making informed decisions about digital safety and privacy. The researchers called for stricter government oversight, including potential legislation mandating transparency, banning AI bias, and granting parents opt-in rights for monitoring beyond school hours. Without such safeguards, they concluded, school surveillance technologies could continue to undermine students' fundamental rights and long-term well-being. Do your own research and dont use Google. Try the search engine Brave BETA and get more truth news and real information. Bookmark Censored.news to your favorite websites for truth news about health, safety and education thats being censored from mass media while you read this. Sources for this article include: NaturalNews.com DailyMail.co.uk ChildrensHealthDefense.org Understanding the multifaceted dance of economic inequality: Insights from Thomas Sowells Wealth, Poverty and Politics Thomas Sowell argues in "Wealth, Poverty and Politics" that economic outcomes arise from a complex interplay of geography, culture, demographics and politics, not single factors like genetics or systemic discrimination. Progress depends on aligning multiple prerequisites (e.g., trade access, cultural values). While geography (e.g., trade routes, isolation) influences development, it's not deterministic. Diasporic communities (e.g., overseas Chinese, Jews) thrive by leveraging human capital even in disadvantaged environments. Cultural attitudes toward work and education significantly shape prosperity. However, cultures can adapt, as seen in Scotland's and Japan's rapid transformations when embracing new values like openness to trade. Redistribution and welfare systems often ignore systemic issues (e.g., demographic disparities) and may erode human capital (initiative, resilience) by disincentivizing productivity and education. Sowell advocates for evidence-based policymaking, rejecting ideological certainty. True equity requires grappling with historys lessons and the multifaceted drivers of poverty and wealth. Thomas Sowell's "Wealth, Poverty and Politics" is far more than a conventional exploration of economic disparities. It challenges entrenched narratives about inequality and poverty, urging readers to confront stubborn facts rather than rely on emotionally satisfying but often misguided assumptions. Sowell, a towering figure in economics and social theory, dismantles simplistic explanations for economic outcomes. He instead argues that success or its absence stems from a complex interplay of geographic, cultural, demographic and political factors. His work compels us to reevaluate how we understand wealth creation, poverty persistence and the unintended consequences of well-meaning policies. A central theme of Sowell's analysis is that economic success rarely hinges on a single cause. Contrary to popular narratives that attribute disparities to genetics, exploitation or systemic discrimination alone, he demonstrates that progress requires multiple prerequisites functioning in tandem. Nations or groups lacking even one critical factor whether access to trade routes, certain cultural values or institutional stability may stagnate for generations, only to surge forward once that missing element is acquired. Historical examples abound: 18th-century Scotland and 19th-century Japan leapt from relative backwardness to technological and economic prominence once they integrated key developmental factors. Conversely, China faltered during centuries of isolation but is now reclaiming its position by reengaging with the world. This pattern, Sowell notes, disproves deterministic explanations of poverty or wealth. Geography, while influential, is not destiny. Sowell highlights how physical environments can enable or constrain progress. Ancient Greece benefited from its proximity to the advanced civilizations of the Middle East, just as navigable waterways in Europe facilitated trade and innovation. Yet geographic advantages alone are insufficient. Sub-Saharan Africa's historical isolation, due in part to its lack of navigable rivers, limited exposure to external ideas and technologies. However, Sowell cautions against geographic determinism. Human agency can overcome such barriers, as seen in diasporic communities like the overseas Chinese and Jews, who thrived in unfamiliar environments by leveraging their human capital. Culture, too, plays a pivotal role. Attitudes toward work, education and entrepreneurship often correlate with economic outcomes. British cultural values, for instance, helped shape the prosperity of its former colonies. Meanwhile, the delayed industrialization of Japan in the late 19th century reflected its prior insularity. Yet Sowell rejects cultural determinism, emphasizing that cultures evolve. The rapid transformation of Japan and Scotland illustrates how shifts in values such as embracing education or openness to trade can catalyze progress. Human capital skills, knowledge and cultural priorities emerges as another critical variable. Immigrants from backgrounds that prize self-reliance and learning, like Lebanese traders or Jewish refugees, frequently outperform native populations in host countries even when starting with few material resources. This underscores Sowell's broader point: Policies disregarding the cultivation of human capital risk perpetuating dependency. He critiques welfare states not out of indifference to poverty but from concern that such systems can erode the very traits initiative, adaptability and resilience that enable upward mobility. Perhaps most provocatively, Sowell interrogates the unintended harms of policies designed to alleviate inequality. Efforts to redress income gaps via wealth redistribution or preferential treatment often ignore deeper systemic issues like demographic disparities in age or fertility rates that drive economic outcomes. Worse, such measures can incentivize counterproductive behaviors such as disincentivizing work or education. His critique is not a dismissal of social justice, but a plea for precision. Solutions must align with reality, not rhetoric. Ultimately, "Wealth, Poverty and Politics" is a call for intellectual humility. Sowell urges us to abandon monocausal explanations and acknowledge the intricate, often uncomfortable truths shaping economic life. The book's lesson is clear: Meaningful progress demands a clear-eyed engagement with history, data and the multifaceted nature of human societies. For policymakers and citizens alike, this means replacing ideological certainty with curiosity and recognizing that the road to equity is as complex as the world it seeks to change. Watch this video about the book "Wealth, Poverty and Politics" by Thomas Sowell. This video is from the BrightLearn channel on Brighteon.com. Sources include: Brighteon.ai Brighteon.com Wyomings Brook Mine set to provide both coal and rare earth elements, bolstering U.S. energy independence The Brook Mine, Wyoming's first new coal operation in nearly 50 years, contains a major rare earth deposit the first such U.S. discovery in over 70 years. These elements are crucial for advanced technologies, including defense systems and renewable energy. The mine is a strategic move to counter China's dominance, which controls nearly 90 percent of global rare earth supply and processing. Energy Secretary Chris Wright emphasized the need to break this reliance for national security. The mine extracts rare earth elements directly from coal, avoiding the radioactive byproducts of traditional mining. Ramaco estimates it could eventually meet 30 percent of the Department of Defense's magnetic material needs. The project has been lauded by Wyoming Republicans and former Sen. Joe Manchin for its role in energy resilience and job creation. It aligns with Trump-era policies favoring fossil fuels and critical mineral production. Full production depends on a $533 million processing plant still in development, and skeptics question if the mine can compete with China's established supply chains. However, Ramaco claims its coal-based method offers cost and safety advantages. A new mine in Wyoming is poised to transform U.S. energy independence not just by supplying coal, but by extracting rare earth elements critical for advanced technologies, from fighter jets to wind turbines. Energy Secretary Chris Wright lauded Ramaco Resources' Brook Mine near Sheridan during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 11. The mine is the Equality State's first new coal operation in nearly 50 years, and is also the country's first discovery of a major rare earth deposit in over 70 years. According to Wright, the project is a pivotal step in breaking America's reliance on China. Beijing currently controls nearly 90 percent of the global rare earth supply, including processing, and U.S. officials are rushing to address this vulnerability. "China has a purposeful effort to completely control this industry," the energy secretary said. The strategic significance of rare earths 17 metallic elements essential for modern tech and defense systems cannot be overstated. The Brook Mine offers a solution by extracting rare earth elements directly from coal, a dual-purpose approach that sidesteps the radioactive byproducts plaguing traditional rare earth mining. Ramaco CEO Randy Atkins confirmed the site could eventually supply 30 percent of the Department of Defense's magnetic needs, bolstering national security. Ramaco board member and former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, meanwhile, framed the mine as a win for labor and energy resilience. "People who hate coal better get on their knees and say a prayer for a coal miner," he said, underscoring coal's role in sustaining U.S. infrastructure. Manchin also praised President Donald Trump's support for coal mining communities. Will the Brook Mine break Beijing's grip on rare earth metals for good? Wyoming's GOP leaders echoed the sentiment, with Gov. Mark Gordon calling the project a wake-up call after decades of "asleep" dependence on foreign rivals. Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Harriet Hageman also echoed this decoupling from Beijing's stranglehold on rare earth metals. The mine's approval aligns with the second Trump administration's push to revive fossil fuels while expanding critical mineral production under recent legislation slashing royalty fees for public-land mining. It contrasts sharply with policies under former President Joe Biden, which feature a strong bias toward renewable energy and mining bans. Yet challenges persist. Rare earth extraction is notoriously difficult due to scattered deposits, and full-scale production at Brook Mine hinges on a $533 million processing plant still in development. Skeptics question whether the operation can compete with China's entrenched supply chains. Ramaco, however, insists its "radioactively cold" coal offers cost and safety advantages. Meanwhile, reporter Ken Sakakibara of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun who was present at the event noted how his home country suffered a Chinese embargo on rare earth metals in 2010. (Related: China's rare earth minerals export ban will collapse the telecom industry and all "green" power, including solar and wind turbines.) As the Brook Mine gears toward full production in coming months, its success could redefine Wyoming's energy landscape and America's geopolitical footing. Whether it delivers on that promise depends on scaling innovation fast enough to outpace China's grip. For now, Ramaco's endeavors in the Equality State is putting the U.S. back in the rare earth game. Visit NewEnergyReport.com for more similar stories. Watch this Sky News Australia report about how President Trump's negotiations with China over rare earth metals show their significance. This video is from the TrendingNews channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Texas congressmen introduce bill to reduce U.S. reliance on China rare-earth minerals. Trump to invoke emergency powers to boost domestic production of CRITICAL MINERALS. Coal ash holds $8.4 billion in rare earth minerals, offering path to U.S. energy independence. Sources include: ClimateDepot.com CowboyStateDaily.com BismarckTribune.com Brighteon.com Zelensky threatens new long-range strikes inside Russia Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has threatened to launch long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory, signaling escalating tensions in the ongoing conflict. This announcement follows the U.S. decision to resume military aid to Ukraine, a critical development as the war enters its third year. Ukraine has demonstrated its growing capacity to strike within Russia, targeting military airfields and strategic bombers in recent weeks. These attacks have destroyed critical military infrastructure and sent a strong message to Moscow about Ukraine's resolve. However, the conflict has also resulted in unintended casualties, with Ukrainian drones and missiles hitting civilian infrastructure, causing significant casualties and raising concerns. The European Union has committed hundreds of billions of euros to expand its military-industrial complex and support Ukraine's domestic weapons production, aiming to enhance Ukraine's self-sufficiency in defense. Zelensky claimed that Russia's summer offensive has failed to meet the Kremlin's expectations, with Ukrainian forces thwarting Russian attempts to advance. Lawmakers from both U.S. political parties are pushing for a bill to authorize such measures, indicating a potential major shift in Western sanctions policy. The international community remains divided, with some leaders advocating for a more aggressive stance against Russia, while others, like U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, call for an immediate ceasefire and political solution. In a bold move that signals escalating tensions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has threatened to launch new long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory. Zelensky made the remarks following a high-level meeting with Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Aleksandr Syrsky and Chief of the General Staff Andrey Gnatov on July 13. In a post on X, Zelensky stated, "Our units will continue to destroy the occupiers and do everything possible to bring the war onto Russian territory. We are preparing our new long-range strikes." This declaration underscores Ukraine's determination to push back against Russian aggression and carry the fight into enemy territory. Zelensky also highlighted the importance of international support, mentioning that Ukraine is preparing for a visit by U.S. presidential envoy Keith Kellogg. Additionally, Zelensky emphasized the need to "work with partners on arms deliveries and scaling up joint production of essential defense assets," indicating a strategic shift towards bolstering Ukraine's military capabilities. Recent attacks and their impact In recent weeks, Ukraine has demonstrated its growing capacity to strike deep within Russia. Last month, Ukrainian forces targeted military airfields housing strategic bombers in several Russian regions. (Related: Zelensky demands $40 BILLION annually to sustain Ukraines war against Russia.) These attacks have not only destroyed critical military infrastructure but have also sent a clear message to Moscow about Ukraine's resolve. However, the conflict has not been without its costs. Ukrainian drones and missiles have also struck apartment blocks and other civilian infrastructure, leading to significant casualties and raising concerns about the unintended consequences of the escalating violence. According to Moscow, Ukraine was responsible for a passenger train derailment on March 31, which resulted in seven deaths. International support and arms deliveries The European Union (EU) has committed hundreds of billions of euros to expand its military-industrial complex and support Ukraine's domestic weapons production. This investment is crucial as Ukraine seeks to enhance its self-sufficiency in defense manufacturing. Major General Christian Freuding, who oversees Germany's military support for Ukraine, has announced that Germany is set to provide Ukraine with its first batch of long-range missiles financed by Berlin in the coming weeks. This development is part of a broader effort by Western nations to equip Ukraine with advanced weaponry to counter Russian advances. Russia's summer offensive falls short On July 13, Zelensky also claimed that Russia's ongoing summer offensive has failed to meet the Kremlin's expectations. "We see the enemy's intentions and attempts to advance, and it is important that each of these attempts is being thwarted thanks to the resilience of our units and active defense," he said on Telegram. But despite Russia's efforts to advance deeper into eastern Donetsk Oblast and establish a buffer zone in northeastern Sumy Oblast, Ukrainian forces have managed to hold their ground. Back in June, Syrskyi claimed that the Russian offensive is "faltering," with Ukrainian forces pinning down at least 50,000 Russian troops in the sector. While Russia has made marginal gains along the front line, including claims of capturing its first village in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Kyiv has repeatedly denied these assertions. U.S. policy shift and secondary sanctions In a significant policy shift, President Donald Trump announced new weapons shipments to Ukraine and threatened secondary sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil. This move is a response to Moscow's continued attacks on Ukraine and reflects growing frustration with Russia's actions. Trump's announcement includes the provision of Patriot air defense missiles, which Ukraine has urgently sought. The weapons will be sent to NATO countries, with some or all of the 17 Patriot batteries ordered by other nations potentially being redirected to Ukraine "very quickly." Trump's threat of secondary sanctions, if implemented, would mark a major shift in Western sanctions policy. Lawmakers from both U.S. political parties are pushing for a bill that would authorize these measures, targeting other countries that purchase Russian oil. As the conflict continues, the international community remains divided on how to address the crisis. While some leaders, like Trump, are advocating for a more aggressive stance against Russia, others, like U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, are calling for an immediate ceasefire to pave the way for a political solution. As Ukraine prepares for new long-range strikes and anticipates further military aid, the world watches closely to see how this complex and devastating conflict will unfold. Watch the video below as French President Emmanuel Macron pledges that Europe will "never" abandon Ukraine. This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: EU faces internal rebellion as Slovakia warns of collapse without Russian resources. Trump warns Zelensky: Accept peace or risk losing Ukraine. Zelensky rejects territorial concessions as Putin weighs ceasefire proposal. North Korea sends 6,000 engineers to aid Russias Kursk rebuild as military alliance deepens. Sources include: RT.com X.com KyivIndependent.com Reuters.com Brighteon.com Sorry, something doesn't look right. Something seems unusual about your device or browser. Please contact support. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Thunderstorms likely this morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High near 80F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. John Reid is his own man. The longtime conservative radio host now running for Virginias second-highest office is fully aware there is a divide on the Republican statewide ticket this year. Not over tariffs or cuts to the federal workforce or risks to Medicaid coverage, but gay marriage. Reid, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, is a gay man in a long-term relationship with another man. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the GOP nominee for governor, remains an outspoken opponent of gay marriage. The U.S. Supreme Courts landmark ruling in the Obergefell v. Hodges case 10 years ago this year recognized gay marriages nationwide, and in Virginia, gay marriages have been recognized since 2014, after the high court decided not to hear an appeal in the lesser-known case of Bostic v. Schaefer. But many state constitutions, Virginias included, still ban same-sex marriages. Lawmakers have been working for years to repeal the now-impotent amendment and enshrine gay marriage in the Virginia Constitution. Pushback has been dwindling as gay marriage becomes more widely accepted in the commonwealth; a 2021 survey conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 71% of Virginians support gay marriage. But not everyone. Last year, Earle-Sears publicly noted her opposition to gay marriage after the General Assembly passed such an amendment. As the Lt. Governor, I recognize and respect my constitutional obligation to adhere to the procedures laid out in the Constitution of Virginia, she wrote on the bill. However, I remain morally opposed to the contents of HB 174 as passed by the General Assembly. The amendment must pass the General Assembly twice in two consecutive legislative sessions before it can be put before voters to finally accept or reject. Reid is on the record saying if there were a tie in the state Senate, where as lieutenant governor he would be required to cast tie-breaking votes, he would vote no on the amendment as currently worded in line with the woman running to be his future boss. But should lawmakers simply repeal the current amendment banning gay marriage, Reid said his vote would be different. If they wanted to just do a straight repeal forgive the terminology there a straight repeal of the amendment that currently exists, then that would be a different situation, Reid said during an editorial board meeting with The Daily Progress. Reid said he is a proud gay man and that he has never supported Virginias constitutional ban that voters approved in 2006. Im not against gay marriage. Im a gay man. I am very pleased the decision the Supreme Court made to give that right to gay and lesbian citizens. I have talked about this for 20-plus years, he said. I was against the amendment that currently exists in Virginias constitution. I went and voted against that. Reid said he knows that puts him at odds with Earle-Sears. Though the governor and lieutenant governor are independently elected, the lieutenant governor is expected to execute the governors will, particularly if the two are in the same political party. I certainly will always have respect for whoever is the governor. I was raised that way. I believe that, Reid said. But the lieutenant governor is an autonomous figure who makes their own mind up. I think Virginians want that, he added. Thats what Im campaigning on, is that Im an independent-minded person, Im not beholden to anybody, Im beholden to the positions that I espouse to the voters. Reid takes issue with the wording of the constitutional amendment currently awaiting its second vote in the General Assembly, what he called the Democrat version of this amendment despite its bipartisan support. The way its written is really problematic, he said. Marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness, reads the proposed amendments language. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall not deny the issuance of a marriage license to two adult persons seeking a lawful marriage on the basis of the sex, gender, or race of such persons. This Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall recognize any lawful marriage between two adult persons and treat such marriages equally under the law, regardless of the sex, gender, or race of such persons. State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, who is Reids Democratic opponent this November, has been a proponent of the amendment. But Reid said he is worried that under the current language priests and other religious leaders who do not support gay marriage would be compelled to officiate them, opening Virginia up to lawsuits should a gay couple be turned away at a church door. I think there will be an aggressive effort to go after churches and try to strip them of their tax-exempt status, trying to make sure that they cant engage in government programs, he said. Reid said his position is informed by his support for personal liberties. My role as lieutenant governor is to protect everybodys rights, its to make sure the citizens can live the lives they want to live unencumbered by government intervention and punishment from government agencies, and I want gay men and women to live as they see fit, Reid said. But even if it hurts my feelings, if there is a church, if there is a pastor and there are lots of them in Virginia who do not approve of gay marriage I wish they didnt feel that way, but its not my place to argue with them Ive got to protect their rights to organize and believe and speak and exist as they see fit. I think Im making everybody mad with that answer, but I think it is the right answer, and I think it is the future of Virginia. If we want to live in a free society, that needs to be freedom for everyone to live as they see fit. Earle-Sears has not addressed the clear divide between her and Reid. Her campaign has repeatedly left Daily Progress inquiries unanswered. It is not the first thing to divide the ticket. The pair did not appear at a rally together until July 1, despite neither facing an opponent in their respective primary elections. The delay was prompted by Gov. Glenn Youngkins request Reid drop out of the race. Youngkin said he had been alerted to racy photos, which he described as disturbing online content, posted to an account sharing the username Reid uses on other social media platforms. Reid has repeatedly denied the photos or account belong to him, and he has called the attempt to end his campaign a coup against a gay man, whom they didnt want to be their nominee, but didnt have the guts to run against. Earle-Sears, and incumbent Attorney General Jason Miyares who is running for reelection, have remained tight-lipped about the controversy. When the three of them took the stage at the July 1 rally in Vienna, they kept mum. Youngkin, who was also at the rally to throw his support behind the trio, said he is confident that Reids tie-breaking votes in the state Senate would be the right votes. Theres a lot of stuff I dont know, the governor said. But I do know this: When there is a 50/50 tie in that Senate, John Reid is going to sign bills the right way, and say no when theyre the wrong bills. Youngkin did not say specifically which bills. It should be noted that Youngkin himself has broken with his lieutenant governor, signing into law last year a bill ensuring that gay marriages remain legal in Virginia regardless of future court decisions. Youngkins office emphasized that the law carves out faith-based exemptions, allowing clergy to decline to officiate at gay weddings. Youngkins signature came as a surprise to many, but it is perhaps this maverick behavior exhibited by a popular governor Reid is hoping to mirror. Lets be very clear here, I dont owe anybody anything at the state Capitol, whether its the current governor or the next governor or members of the legislature, Reid said. Im running because Im motivated to be a state leader, so Im going to look at every piece of legislation. You can count on me evaluating everything independently and seeking guidance from a lot of different people, and then casting the vote that I think is right in every situation, he said. As cancer cases have increased worldwide, the disease has become more complex, presenting challenges to scientific advances in diagnosis and treatment. In this context, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a valuable tool for predicting and detecting cases. A tool developed by Brazilian and Polish researchers may contribute to this process. The machine learning model can predict the aggressiveness of certain tumors by identifying specific proteins. It generates a stemness index ranging from zero to one, with zero indicating low aggressiveness and one indicating high aggressiveness. As the index increases, the cancer tends to become more aggressive and resistant to drugs and more likely to recur. The degree of stemness indicates how closely tumor cells resemble pluripotent stem cells, which can transform into almost any type of cell in the human body. As the disease progresses, malignant cells become less and less similar to the tissue from which they originated. These cells self-renew and exhibit an undifferentiated phenotype. The scientists developed the tool using data sets from the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium (CPTAC) for 11 types of cancer. They then developed the protein expression-based stemness index (PROTsi). They analyzed more than 1,300 samples of breast, ovarian, lung (squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma), kidney, uterine, brain (pediatric and adult), head and neck, colon, and pancreatic cancers. By integrating PROTsi with proteomic data from 207 pluripotent stem cells, the group identified proteins that drive the aggressiveness of some types of these tumors. These molecules may be potential targets for new general or specific therapies. Thus, the tool contributes not only to advancing the clinical development of treatments but also to the personalization of cancer therapy. The study's findings and validation results were published in the scientific journal Cell Genomics. "Many of these proteins are already targets of drugs available on the market for cancer patients and other diseases. They can be tested in future studies based on this identification. We arrived at them by associating the stemness phenotype with tumor aggressiveness," explained Professor Tathiane Malta, of the Multiomics and Molecular Oncology Laboratory at the Ribeirao Preto Medical School of the University of Sao Paulo (FMRP-USP) in Brazil, when speaking with Agencia FAPESP. Malta is the corresponding author of the article, along with Professor Maciej Wiznerowicz from Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland. She is supported by FAPESP through the Young Investigators Grant program (projects 19/14928-1 and 18/00583-0). The professor was one of the winners of an award in 2022 that aims to promote and recognize women's participation in science, in recognition of her work over the years. In 2018, she was the first author of an article published in Cell, the result of her postdoctoral research. In the article, her group developed a stemness index that can objectively measure the similarity between tumor samples and pluripotent stem cells. At the time, we developed the machine learning-based algorithm using the public tumor database maintained by The Cancer Genome Atlas [TCGA] in the United States. We relied on gene expression data, quantifying RNA, and epigenomics data, with DNA methylation. Now, we're working with the CPTAC database, based on proteomics, and we've updated our work with analyses of protein, a functional molecule that can be applied to treatment possibilities and clinical application." Professor Tathiane Malta, of the Multiomics and Molecular Oncology Laboratory at the Ribeirao Preto Medical School of the University of Sao Paulo Based on the results obtained thus far, PROTsi has a positive correlation with stemness scores derived from previously published transcriptomes, including the 2018 model. PROTsi was more effective in distinguishing between tumor and non-tumor samples, for example. Renan Santos Simoes, Malta's advisor and co-first author of the article with Iga Koodziejczak-Guglas from the International Institute for Molecular Oncology in Poznan, Poland, says that the progress made in characterizing stemness and considering protein levels and their modifications paves the way for a deeper understanding of tumor progression and mechanisms of resistance to current therapies. "Science advances slowly, carefully, and is built by many hands. It's gratifying to realize that we're contributing to this process. That's what motivates us: knowing that what we do today can make a real difference for patients, improving treatments and quality of life," says Simoes, a FAPESP scholarship recipient. Brazilian researcher Emerson de Souza Santos, who is also a student of Malta, participated in the research as well. Picture On the last World Cancer Day on February 4, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 40 people worldwide are diagnosed with cancer every minute and require treatment. Tumors are one of the leading causes of death and affect the young population the most. A 2023 study published in BMJ Oncology revealed that the incidence of early-onset cancer in adults under 50 increased by 79% between 1990 and 2019, along with a 28% rise in cancer-related deaths. The study analyzed 29 types of cancer in 204 countries. The National Cancer Institute (INCA) in Brazil estimates that there will be 704,000 new cancer cases per year during the period from 2023 to 2025. According to 2023 Estimate Cancer Incidence in Brazil, the most common malignant tumors are non-melanoma skin cancer (31% of total cases), followed by breast cancer in females (10.5%), prostate cancer (10%), colon and rectal cancer (6.5%), lung cancer (4.6%), and stomach cancer (3%). Results During the validation process, PROTsi demonstrated consistent performance across multiple data sets. It clearly distinguished between stem and differentiated cells, with different tumors falling at various intermediate levels. PROTsi demonstrated predictive ability in cases of uterine and head and neck cancer, for example. Additionally, the tool was more effective at differentiating higher-grade tumors in adenocarcinoma, uterine, pancreatic, and pediatric brain cancer samples. "We sought to build a model that can be applied to any cancer, but we found that it works better for some than for others. We're making a data source available for future work," says Malta. According to the professor, the USP group is testing additional computational models in an effort to improve predictions. UBC Okanagan researchers have developed a 3D bio-printed model that closely mimics the complexity of natural lung tissue, an innovation that could transform how scientists study lung disease and develop new treatments. Dr. Emmanuel Osei, Assistant Professor in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, says the model produces tissue that closely resembles the complexity of a human lung, enabling improved testing of respiratory diseases and drug development. "To conduct our research and the testing that's required-where we're studying the mechanisms of complex lung diseases to eventually find new drug targets-we need to be able to make models that are comparable to human tissues." The research team used a bioink composed of light-sensitive polymer-modified gelatin and a polymer called polyethylene glycol diacrylate to 3D print a hydrogel that includes multiple cell types and channels to recreate vessels, mimicking the structure of a human airway. Once printed, the hydrogel performs much like the complex mechanical properties of lung tissue, improving how researchers study cellular responses to stimuli. "Our goal was to create a more physiologically relevant in vitro model of the human airway," says Dr. Osei, who also works with UBC's Centre for Heart Lung Innovation. "By integrating vascular components, we can better simulate the lung environment, which is crucial for studying diseases and testing therapeutics." Dr. Osei explains that when someone has lung cancer, a surgeon-with the patient's consent-can remove the cancerous section along with some normal lung tissue and provide these samples to researchers. However, a researcher has no control over how much tissue they will receive. They might get a small piece of tissue which they bring to the lab and add various chemicals for testing. Now, with 3D bioprinting, we can isolate cells from these donated tissues and potentially recreate additional tissue and test samples to conduct research in our labs and not rely on or wait for contributed tissues." Dr. Emmanuel Osei, Assistant Professor. Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science Dr. Osei says many forms of lung disease currently have no cure, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and cancer. Being able to establish models that allow for testing is a significant advancement in respiratory disease research and drug development. Published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, in collaboration with Mitacs and supported by the Providence Health Care, the study is a step toward assessing aspects of lung diseases such as scarring and inflammation, and may lead to future cures for various illnesses. The paper detailed tests, including exposing the bio-printed 3D model to cigarette smoke extract, allowing the researchers to observe increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines, or markers of inflammatory responses to nicotine in lung tissue. "The fact that we've been able to create the model, then use particular triggers like cigarette smoke, to demonstrate how the model will react and mimic aspects of lung disease is a significant advancement in studying complex mechanisms of lung disease that will aid in studying how we treat them," says Dr. Osei. "Our model is complex, but due to the reproducibility and optimal nature of bio-printing, it can be adapted to include additional cell types or patient-derived cells, making it a powerful tool for personalized medicine and disease modelling." Dr. Osei notes that moving forward with this work puts his research team in a unique position to collaborate with colleagues such as UBC's Immunobiology Eminence Research Excellence Cluster, biotechnology companies and those with an interest in advancing bioartificial models. The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Senegal as having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. Senegal becomes the ninth country in WHO's African Region to have achieved this feat. "I commend Senegal for freeing its population from this disease", said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "This milestone is yet another sign of the remarkable progress being made against neglected tropical diseases globally, and offers hope to other countries still working to eliminate trachoma." Trachoma has been known in Senegal since the early 1900s and was confirmed as a major cause of blindness through surveys in the 1980s and 1990s. Senegal joined the WHO Alliance for the Global Elimination of Trachoma in 1998, conducted its first national survey in 2000, and completed full disease mapping by 2017 with support from the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and Tropical Data. Trachoma control was consistently integrated into national eye health programmed, first under the National Program for Blindness Prevention (PNLC) and later through the National Program for the Promotion of Eye Health (PNPSO) maintaining its commitment to trachoma elimination. Today we celebrate our victory against trachoma, 21 years after the one against dracunculiasis. This new milestone reminds us that our overarching goal remains a Senegal free from neglected tropical diseases. We are fully committed to this, and we are making good progress, notably against human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and onchocerciasis". Dr. Ibrahima Sy, Senegal's Minister of Health and Social Action Senegal implemented the WHO-recommended SAFE strategy to eliminate trachoma with the support of partners, reaching 2.8 million people who needed them across 24 districts. These activities included provision of surgery to treat the late blinding stage of the disease, conducting antibiotic mass drug administration of azithromycin donated by Pfizer through the International Trachoma Initiative, carrying out public awareness campaigns to promote facial cleanliness, and improvement in access to water supply and sanitation. Trachoma is the second neglected tropical disease to be eliminated in Senegal. In 2004, the country was certified free of dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease) transmission. Globally, Senegal joins 24 other countries that have been validated by WHO for having eliminated trachoma as a public health problem. These are Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Gambia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Ghana, India, Iraq, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Togo, Vanuatu and Viet Nam. These countries are part of a wider of group of 57 countries that have eliminated one or more neglected tropical diseases. WHO is supporting Senegal's health authorities to closely monitor communities in which trachoma was previously endemic to ensure there is no resurgence of the disease. "Trachoma has cast a shadow over communities in Senegal for more than a century. This long-awaited validation is not only a milestone for public health but a powerful tribute to the tireless dedication of frontline health workers, communities, government leaders, and partners who never gave up," said Dr Jean-Marie Vianny Yameogo, WHO Representative in Senegal. "Today, we close a chapter that began over a hundred years ago, united with pride, gratitude and resolve. WHO remains committed to supporting Senegal as the country continues to lead in sustaining this hard-earned achievement." Disease prevalence Trachoma remains a public health problem in 32 countries, with an estimated 103 million people living in areas requiring interventions against the disease. Trachoma is found mainly in the poorest and most rural areas of Africa, Central and South America, Asia, the Western Pacific and the Middle East. WHO's African Region is disproportionately affected by trachoma, with 93 million people living in at-risk areas in April 2024, representing 90% of the global trachoma burden. Significant progress has been made in the fight against trachoma over the past few years and the number of people requiring antibiotic treatment for trachoma in the African Region fell by 96 million from 189 million in 2014 to 93 million as of April 2024, representing a 51% reduction. There are currently 20 countries (Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, South Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) in WHO's African Region that are known to require intervention for trachoma elimination. A further 3 countries in the Region (Botswana, Guinea-Bissau and Namibia) claim to have achieved the prevalence targets for elimination. A researcher from the University of Kansas Life Span Institute is part of an international group that recently published a comprehensive review of differences in sensory processing for people with autism during the prenatal (in utero) and neonatal (birth to a few months old) phases of life. The report appears in the peer-reviewed journal Psychological Review. Sensory processing - or, how we experience sights, sounds and touch - can be "really different" in people experiencing autism, according to co-author Carissa Cascio, senior scientist with the KU's Life Span Institute and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training. But sensory processing has been challenging to study for a number of reasons. This paper tried to get at the very early developmental angle of how these systems for processing things like touch, vision and hearing first start to develop in the brain - and then to understand where that development may diverge in somebody who goes on to have autism versus somebody who doesn't." Carissa Cascio, senior scientist, KU's Life Span Institute and Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training Because autism spectrum disorder is tied to brain development that affects how people see others and socialize with them, studies tend to focus its social aspects. As for studying sensory experiences in autism, Cascio said most research tools are made for working with adults. "They're designed for people who can sit and listen to sounds for 30 minutes while you run tests and experiments," the KU researcher said. "Therefore, we know a lot about where sensory processing ends up in adults or even in older children. But it's much harder to study - and much more theoretical at this point - when you're looking at the prenatal and early neonatal stages." Still, Cascio said that focusing on earliest sensory processing can lead to breakthroughs in understanding and treating the disorder. "We think that's really where we need to go as a field to try to understand what's happening across the lifespan in autism," she said. The study reviewed and synthesized existing research on early sensory development instead of gathering new experimental data. The paper concluded by presenting several putative "cascades" or pathways by which very early sensory differences could impact the autism profile as it develops. One example of such a cascade is the prenatal brain map of the body, which is important for infants and toddlers learning to explore their environment and distinguish themselves from others, both foundations for building the social skills impacted by autism. "We're hopeful that the ideas in this paper will help researchers formulate and test questions about early sensory development," Cascio said. The model the KU researcher and her collaborators advocate is dubbed the "cascading effects model" - the idea that many symptoms of autism actually flow from differences in early sensory development. "Our work is rooted in the idea that brain differences in autism are starting much earlier than the age at which we use complex social interactions to diagnose autism," Cascio said. "At the earliest stages, the brain is really geared toward just processing input and responding to it. If these very simple, early-developing pathways are being wired differently - and if we can understand the nature of those differences - that might give us an idea of how those differences cascade into the more complex behaviors that we use to diagnose autism." Even as a researcher in the field of autism, Cascio said some of the paper's findings on sensory development in utero seemed extraordinary. "I think some of what we found surprising were things that are happening even before birth," she said. "In the first seven to eight weeks of gestation the structures for our sense of touch are nearly fully developed - very early on, and a lot of that has to do with the prenatal environment." She said the early development of humans' sense of touch probably boils down to the fact that it's almost the only sense to experience in the womb. "Thinking about what it's like inside the amniotic sac, you're not getting much visual input, but you're getting some muffled auditory and a lot of tactile input from self-touch and from the ambient environment of fluid moving across the body," Cascio said. "That system is developing much earlier than a lot of the other sensory systems. That was something we kind of knew, but it was surprising to see just how early it was all in place." Complicating the study of autism, which affects different people in different ways, are the varied cultures and backgrounds of people with autism, each of which places a different spin on personal touch or personal communication. "That's something we think about a lot and is really under-researched at this point," Cascio said. "There are definitely cultural differences and family differences in terms of how much eye contact is expected, or how much touch is expected to be given and received. It might also be different for boys and girls." Past that, the study of autism is made more complex by individual family dynamics: what might be sensory overload in one family might be perceived as too quiet or staid in another. "Just the general ambient noise level in your home can come into play," Cascio said. "For instance, my family is big and loud and Italian. And my husband's family is Norwegian and very quiet. So, family dinners at the two places are very different in terms of how much input people have and expect. Those things all come into play as well." The KU investigator said next steps in the line of research are experimental testing of the cascading effects developmental model; studies that combine sensory and social understanding of autism; further study of sensory system development at the earliest stages; and work that theoretically reframes autism as a disorder that first manifests in early sensory development. The United States could safely drop tetanus and diphtheria booster shots for adults and save an estimated $1 billion a year, according to a new review led by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University. The safety and savings depend on maintaining strong childhood vaccination rates, researchers emphasized. By maintaining high childhood vaccination coverage, we not only protect kids, but we may actually be able to reduce adult booster vaccinations. That would save $1 billion a year in the U.S. while maintaining the safety and protection of the general population." Mark Slifka, Ph.D., lead author, professor of microbiology and immunology, OHSU School of Medicine and the Oregon National Primate Research Center Slifka noted that dropping the 10-year schedule for adult boosters would more closely match guidelines recommended by the World Health Organization. The review bolsters previous OHSU research in 2016 and in 2020 that concluded the combined vaccine produced at least 30 years of immunity, well beyond the current recommendation of every 10 years for adults from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine is usually given as a combined tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, known as DTaP. In the U.S., childhood vaccinations are recommended six times, from infancy through age 12. The new review suggests doing away with adult boosters altogether, as long as childhood vaccination rates remain high and the vaccine remains available on a case-by-case basis. For example, it may be necessary for someone injured in a workplace accident or car crash to receive a tetanus booster. A natural experiment in the U.K. and France Published today in the journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews, the review highlights a comparison between two industrialized countries just 21 miles across the English Channel: France and the United Kingdom. Both countries have excellent childhood vaccination coverage, similar to the U.S. "This represents sort of an experiment of nature," Slifka said. "We have one country with over 60 million people that for decades has continued to vaccinate adults throughout their lifetime and another nearby country that also has over 60 million people, but over the past 50 years, they have never recommended adult booster vaccinations. "The question we asked is, 'What happens if we don't vaccinate the adults? Are there more cases of disease or are these people protected after completing their childhood vaccination series?'" Similar to the United States, France has a recommended booster vaccination schedule for adults. In contrast, except during pregnancy or for wound management, the United Kingdom hasn't recommended boosters for tetanus and diphtheria beyond age 14 since the 1950s. Yet, despite decades of adult booster vaccination, the review found that France had virtually no advantage over the U.K. in the rates of tetanus or diphtheria. In fact, the review found that the UK had a slightly lower rate overall. In addition, "herd immunity" held strong even in 2022 when the U.K. reported an outbreak of 73 imported diphtheria cases among immigrants seeking asylum. This spike in cases was almost equal to the total number of diphtheria cases reported in the entire country over the previous 20 years combined. "Remarkably, despite this proportionally large influx of imported diphtheria cases, there was no evidence of transmission reported among other asylum seekers who arrived by other routes or among staff or health care workers," the authors write. The U.K. Health Security Agency concluded that the country's current childhood-focused vaccination program is sufficient for preventing the spread of diphtheria and that the risk to the general UK population remains low. Strong rates of childhood vaccination are critical The findings highlight the remarkable durability of protection following childhood vaccination against a pair of diseases that were once all but a death sentence. In 1948, the U.S. mortality rate for tetanus was 91%. Before the introduction of antibiotics and vaccines, the mortality rate for diphtheria was roughly 50%. To this day, diphtheria kills roughly one out of 10 people who aren't vaccinated against it. Today, the public health threat is diminished thanks to childhood vaccinations as well as booster shots recommended in pregnancy. "Thanks to childhood vaccinations, these diseases are incredibly rare," Slifka said. "In fact, you're 10 to 1,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be diagnosed with tetanus and diphtheria in the United States." In addition to Slifka, co-authors include Archana Thomas and Lina Gao, Ph.D., of OHSU; Ian J. Amanna, Ph.D., of Najit Technologies, and Walter A. Orenstein, M.D., of the Emory Vaccine Center at Emory University. The Stephenson Global Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute and its partner City of Hope, one of the country's largest and most advanced cancer research and treatment organizations, today announced the six inaugural recipients of the prestigious Stephenson Scholar Grants, awarding $5.25 million to support high-impact research aimed at transforming the understanding, early detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer. The grants support a new generation of research that is collaborative, cross-institutional, and deeply innovative. The 2025 recipients are tackling some of the most urgent and complex challenges in pancreatic cancer-from using AI to flag high-risk patients for screening, to developing dual-targeting CAR T cells that attack both tumors and their fibrotic defenses, to uncovering how diabetes-linked DNA damage may trigger cancer. Their work spans early detection, immunotherapy, metabolic vulnerabilities, and precision medicine-and reflects the kind of interdisciplinary, translational science that is urgently needed to improve outcomes for patients. 2025 Stephenson Scholar Grant recipients Dr. Renier Brentjens and Dr. Leonid Cherkassky (Roswell Park) Engineering Circuit-controlled T Cell Differentiation and Restructuring the Pancreatic Cancer Stroma to Optimize PDAC-targeted CAR T Cell Therapy for Clinical TranslationCreating next-generation CAR T cells that target both pancreatic tumors and their fibrotic stroma, using synthetic promoters to fine-tune T cell behavior, offering a promising new direction for pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. Engineering Circuit-controlled T Cell Differentiation and Restructuring the Pancreatic Cancer Stroma to Optimize PDAC-targeted CAR T Cell Therapy for Clinical TranslationCreating next-generation CAR T cells that target both pancreatic tumors and their fibrotic stroma, using synthetic promoters to fine-tune T cell behavior, offering a promising new direction for pancreatic cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Robert Grant (Princess Margaret/UHN) Applying Artificial Intelligence to Electronic Health Records to Guide Pancreatic Cancer Screening Utilizing large language models to analyze EHR data and flag high-risk individuals for screening-embedding AI directly into hospital systems to enable scalable early detection. Applying Artificial Intelligence to Electronic Health Records to Guide Pancreatic Cancer Screening Utilizing large language models to analyze EHR data and flag high-risk individuals for screening-embedding AI directly into hospital systems to enable scalable early detection. Dr. Costas Lyssiotis (University of Michigan) Lysosomal Lipid Homeostasis is a Clinically Exploitable Vulnerability in KRAS-Inhibited Pancreatic Cancer Targeting a unique metabolic vulnerability in KRAS-mutant tumors using clinically relevant drugs and synthetic lethality, with durable cures shown in preclinical models. Lysosomal Lipid Homeostasis is a Clinically Exploitable Vulnerability in KRAS-Inhibited Pancreatic Cancer Targeting a unique metabolic vulnerability in KRAS-mutant tumors using clinically relevant drugs and synthetic lethality, with durable cures shown in preclinical models. Dr. Sarah Shuck (City of Hope) From Blood Sugar to Tumor Growth: How Diabetes Fuels Pancreatic Cancer Onset Investigating how the sugar byproduct methylglyoxal leads to DNA mutations associated with pancreatic cancer and developing a novel blood-based screening tool. From Blood Sugar to Tumor Growth: How Diabetes Fuels Pancreatic Cancer Onset Investigating how the sugar byproduct methylglyoxal leads to DNA mutations associated with pancreatic cancer and developing a novel blood-based screening tool. Dr. Matthew Vander Heiden (MIT) Assessment of Pancreas Organ Health for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Developing a multimodal platform that combines stool, blood, and CT imaging to detect pancreatic cancer before symptoms appear and leveraging changes in organ function as early warning signs. Assessment of Pancreas Organ Health for Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Developing a multimodal platform that combines stool, blood, and CT imaging to detect pancreatic cancer before symptoms appear and leveraging changes in organ function as early warning signs. Dr. Forest White & Dr. Tyler Jacks (MIT) Identification of Treatment-Associated Tumor Antigens for Targeted Immunotherapy in Pancreatic Cancer Using mass spectrometry to identify new peptide antigens that emerge after KRAS inhibition, enabling novel vaccine and BiTE strategies that link targeted therapy with immunotherapy. These scientists' pioneering approaches represent the future of pancreatic cancer research. Their work exemplifies the kind of innovative, collaborative thinking that the Stephenson initiative was created to support." A. Emmet Stephenson Jr., co-founder of SGPCRI "Pancreatic cancer took my mother far too soon, but my father and I know that groundbreaking science can change the future for so many other families who have faced this disease," said Tessa Stephenson Brand. "These grants are about hope, urgency, and the belief that progress is possible." The Stephensons made their investment in honor of Toni Stephenson, loving wife and mother who, after surviving lymphoma, passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2020. "Pancreatic cancer remains one of the most challenging diseases to detect and treat, but we are making meaningful progress," said Dr. Matthew Vander Heiden, the Lester Wolfe Chair in Molecular Biology and Professor of Biology at MIT. "We're particularly encouraged by the potential to identify changes in normal pancreas function that could enable earlier detection-when treatment is most effective. The opportunity to rigorously test this idea is incredibly exciting, and I'm deeply grateful to the Stephenson Global Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute for supporting this ambitious work. Their investment in innovative research is helping move discoveries closer to the patients who need them most." A collaborative vision for a global challenge The Stephenson Scholar Grants represent the largest source of private funding for pancreatic cancer research around the globe. Pancreatic cancer remains the deadliest cancer with a five-year survival rate of just 13% in the United States, impacting hundreds of thousands of families each year. The grants come at a time when federal funding for cancer research-already disproportionately low for pancreatic cancer-is facing an uncertain future. These grants reflect the Institute's commitment to building a global, collaborative research ecosystem. This year's recipients span leading institutions in the U.S. and Canada, and their projects are designed to bridge disciplines, labs, and clinical settings. The winners were selected from a competitive pool of 188 applications spanning six continents, following a rigorous review by the Stephenson Scientific Advisory Board, comprising some of the world's foremost experts in pancreatic cancer. The grants are part of a broader vision launched with a transformative $150 million gift from A. Emmet Stephenson Jr. and Tessa Stephenson Brand to accelerate discovery, foster partnership, and bring hope to patients and families worldwide. They selected City of Hope, a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center with a national footprint, to help facilitate the SGPCRI's various initiatives and bring together pancreatic cancer leaders in the search for new breakthroughs. "Congratulations to the inaugural recipients of the Stephenson Global Scholar Grants," said Daniel D. Von Hoff, M.D., chair of the Stephenson Scientific Advisory Board and distinguished professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, part of City of Hope. "These awards support transformative approaches-from assessing pancreatic health and enabling earlier detection to advancing the latest immunotherapies. There has never been a more important time to unite around high-impact science. This teamwork between visionary philanthropists and some of the world's leading cancer institutions is bringing us closer to a future where pancreatic cancer is no longer a death sentence. We are also deeply grateful to the members of the Scientific Advisory Board for their wisdom and thoughtful deliberation in guiding this effort." For more information about the Stephenson Global Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute and the Stephenson Global Scholar Grants, visit sgpcri.global. In a remarkable achievement that is already impacting how we detect and diagnose disease, UK Biobank has completed the world's largest whole body imaging project, scanning the brains, hearts, abdomens, blood vessels, bones and joints of 100,000 volunteers. These scans, on this scale, show us what is happening in people's bodies as they age so we can understand how, why and when we get sick. Since 2015, UK Biobank's imaging data have been released in batches and scientists around the world are using these data to develop better diagnostic tests for life-altering conditions such as heart disease, dementia and cancer. Soon, approved researchers will have access to over one billion de-identified images, from 100,000 volunteers. Used alongside UK Biobank's existing information on lifestyle, medical history, genetics and blood proteins collected from the same volunteers over the past 15 years, these imaging data allow researchers to see, in ways that were previously impossible, how all aspects of our lives influence our health. So far, over 1,300 peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published based on UK Biobank's imaging data. Results from these are already improving patient care in the NHS and beyond. For example: NHS memory clinics across the UK now use processes developed from UK Biobank to analyse brain magnetic resonance (MR) images, helping to more accurately diagnose dementia. Cardiac care has been improved in over 90 countries as clinicians use an AI tool, developed using UK Biobank data, to analyze heart scans in less than a second - where it used to take nearly a quarter of an hour - allowing them time to focus on the cases that require most care. After 11 years, 100,000 imaging appointments lasting around 5 hours each, and over 60 million investment, UK Biobank has reached this momentous milestone. The unprecedented scale of this imaging project more than 10 times bigger than anything that existed before makes it possible for scientists to see patterns of disease that just couldn't otherwise be seen. Collecting scans from 100,000 volunteers seemed to be a pipe dream some experts even asked if we'd included an extra zero by mistake! This massive imaging project is making the invisible visible. What's more, by combining these images from different parts of the body with all the genetic and lifestyle information from our volunteers, scientists are getting a far better understanding of how our bodies work." Sir Rory Collins, Professor, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive, UK Biobank During each appointment, over 12,000 Magnetic Resonance (MR) images from the brain, heart and abdomen were collected per person, as well as whole body scans that measure bone density and body fat, and an ultrasound of the carotid arteries. Each volunteer also provided the same detailed data as when they first signed up to UK Biobank around 15 years ago, including lifestyle information, physical measures (like height, weight and grip strength), and a blood sample. "I signed up to my imaging appointment because I want to help create a healthier future for all of us to enjoy. That's why I first volunteered to be part of UK Biobank over 15 years ago to be of use to scientists who are working hard to help future generations," said, Alison, a member of UK Biobank's Participant Advisory Group. Imaging data on this scale provides more information on rare diseases and the different stages of common diseases. Scientists can also better compare healthy bodies to ones with multiple conditions, ultimately leading to researchers finding more powerful markers of disease. "UK Biobank's imaging study has transformed the landscape of biomedical research forever. The sheer volume of data propelled major advances in computerized image analysis. Now researchers can measure the size, shape, and composition of nearly every organ and tissue in the body in seconds, rather than hours per person," said, Professor Louise Thomas, Professor of Metabolic Imaging at the University of Westminster. As well as providing impacts which are benefiting patients right now, these imaging data are driving discovery science, which should lead to new diagnostic tests and treatments. These include: Developing an AI model that creates a personalized version of a healthy heart (based on the individual's age, sex, weight and height), that could be used to pinpoint the differences between a patient's real heart and its healthy model and catch potential signs of heart diseases early. Revealing how our organs can be biologically older than our chronological age, so that doctors might be able to look at someone's body scan and clinical data to see what organs are at risk of developing disease, and find ways to prevent it, ultimately extending lifespan. Uncovering new ways in which the heart and brain are connected. For example, how structural changes to the heart cause an increased risk of psychiatric disorders, including depression. This is crucial for our understanding of brain diseases. Highlighting how an invasive surgical procedure can be replaced with an MRI scan to diagnose and monitor a common condition called fatty liver disease. Predicting the early onset of 38 diseases by combining MR images with other health data and using AI, showing the power of advanced technology to foresee health risks well before symptoms appear. Showing how consuming one to two units of alcohol per day is linked to potentially harmful reductions in brain size and brain structure, which is likely to lead to an increased risk of memory loss and dementia. Revealing that people with the same BMI can store fat in very different ways based on their genes some which raise the risk of diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and others in a protective way. Using DEXA scanning to identify that 1 in 10 middle-aged people, with no other symptoms, have calcification in the abdominal area of the aorta (main blood vessel of the body), a largely under-diagnosed lethal condition. Data on this scale are unlocking opportunities to use machine learning to help predict disease years before symptoms start to appear. "The beauty of UK Biobank is the breadth of the data collected from the generous volunteers, and the imaging scans add another layer of exquisite detail. One recent study used the brain imaging data from 20,000 participants, along with activity monitoring and genetic data, to develop an AI tool to predict who may go on to develop Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. I can't wait to see what imaging data on 100,000 individuals will reveal!" said, Professor Paul Matthews, Chair of the UK Biobank Imaging Working Group. This project has also led to a global democratization of access to imaging data, by turning the MR images into data that are useable by researchers outside the imaging field, including those in less wealthy countries. "We've had such incredible feedback about how researchers across the world are using findings from the imaging project in areas of science that would not have ever considered using body scanning information before," said, Professor Naomi Allen, Chief Scientist at UK Biobank. UK Biobank's imaging project was piloted in 2014 with over 7,000 volunteers scanned a record-breaking number at that time. The main phase started in 2016, welcoming 100,000 of UK Biobank's 500,000 volunteers to a 5-hour imaging appointment at one of four dedicated imaging centers across the country. The project is continuing to invite UK Biobank's volunteers to imaging appointments beyond the 100,000 target. A second phase of the imaging project was launched in 2022, aiming to perform repeat imaging on 60,000 of these 100,000 scanned participants, at least two years after their first imaging appointment. This project is ongoing and expected to reach completion in 2029. UK Biobank data are made available to approved researchers in staggered releases via the secure cloud-based UK Biobank Research Analysis Platform (UKB-RAP). Imaging data from all 100,000 participants are expected to be made available to researchers by the end of 2025. Rapidly identifying certain bacteria allows antibiotic treatments to be optimized. A team from the University of Zurich, supported by the SNSF, has developed molecules to detect and capture certain species. The discovery of antibiotics revolutionized medicine in the 20th century, saving countless lives. However, the emergence of resistant bacteria has quickly become a new challenge. One key factor in tackling this issue is being able to pinpoint the bacteria causing an infection. This enables healthcare providers to use targeted and effective antibiotics and reduce the risk of new forms of resistance development. With the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), scientists have developed molecules to detect certain bacteria quicker than before. Their research has recently been published in the journal Communications Biology. These molecules pave the way for accelerated medical diagnostic methods, particularly - but not only - in cases of bloodstream infections. "The developed molecules are already being used in a partnership with the Zurich start-up Rqmicro, which provides tools to monitor water quality," says Markus Seeger, the biochemist who led this study at the University of Zurich's Institute of Medical Microbiology. Speeding up certain diagnoses "In the race between the evolution of resistant bacteria and the development of new antibiotics, we don't stand a chance. Bacteria have been at war with viruses for millions of years and are used to evolving to escape new dangers," says the researcher. The only solution we currently have is to use antibiotics efficiently and sparingly. This prevents bacteria from being constantly exposed to residues or traces of antibiotics in their environment, so that when antibiotics are used for treatment, they are still effective at killing the bacteria. This strategy requires medical diagnoses that are as fast and accurate as possible. However, traditional identification methods take time. They involve collecting bacteria from the patient and then growing them until there are enough to carry out detailed analyses. The growth phase can take up to 12 hours for some species, sometimes longer. The analyses then take another two hours. Markus Seeger and his team are looking to speed up this process: "Our idea is to detect certain bacteria more quickly, even in small numbers, by giving them specific colours. We aim to capture them directly in the blood to increase their density and analyse them more quickly". This approach does not deliver a conclusive diagnosis, but it means we can confirm more quickly than using traditional methods whether certain bacteria are present. This saves valuable time, especially in cases of bloodstream infections when waiting one or two days for detailed analyses may not be feasible. Markus Seeger's team concentrated on detecting the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli), commonly linked to urinary tract infections and bloodstream infections. In addition, resistance rates for this species of bacteria increased in Switzerland between 2004 and 2024, rising fourfold for certain classes of antibiotics. "Knowing whether an infection involves Escherichia coli or something else is already a good basis on which to make an initial decision about which treatment to administer," says the biochemist. In fact, the tools developed by his team would save around six hours of the twelve needed for traditional diagnostics. Penetrating the "jungle of sugars" Markus Seeger and his team had to solve two problems to capture Escherichia coli. On the one hand, they needed to find the right bait, i.e. a specific element common to all Escherichia coli bacteria. On the other hand, the researcher admits that he "underestimated the complexity of the jungle of sugars acting as a barrier around the bacteria." This jungle is so dense that few molecules can penetrate it. As a hook, the scientists opted for miniature antibodies, known as nanobodies. Their small size allows them to pass easily between the sugar branches. They are also more stable than conventional antibodies, meaning they remain functional for longer periods at room temperature. This is a key element to obtain detection tools that can be transported and stored without having to worry about cold chains. The team searched an international database and a register of bacteria detected in Swiss hospitals. By analysing the genome of the recorded Escherichia coli-type bacteria, a protein was identified - OmpA - a specific form of which is found only in Escherichia coli. The group subsequently developed nanobodies capable of detecting this version of OmpA in a targeted and effective way in over 90 percent of species members. The nanobodies function like a hook that specifically captures Escherichia coli bacteria. This solution means that bacteria can be coloured but not captured. As Markus Seeger explains, "To detect Escherichia coli, this works well. We can attach tiny colourant molecules to the nanobodies without significantly increasing their size. However, to capture the bacteria, we use larger magnetic beads, and they can't penetrate the jungle of sugars that surrounds the bacteria." The scientists, therefore, created a sort of fishing rod for their detection kit - a molecular thread that was developed to connect the nanobodies (the hook) to the magnetic beads blocked by the sugars (the handle). We now have a tool to detect and capture Escherichia coli. I hope we can successfully implement it in clinical diagnostics. We're already using it for environmental analyses." Markus Seeger, biochemist SC commutes convicts death penalty to life in jail till last breath Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 21:00 IST Representational image (Image: News18) New Delhi, Jul 16 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence of a man, convicted for killing five members of his family, including his wife and three children, to life in jail till last breath". A bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta upheld the conviction of Byluru Thippaiah, who hails from Ballari district in Karnataka, for the barbaric and ruthless murders" of his five family members. Recommended Stories Considering the sum-total of circumstances that drove the appellant-convict to this point of committing this crime of a most reprehensible nature, the death penalty may not be appropriate," the verdict noted. The judgment continued, He should spend his days in jail attempting to repent for the crimes committed by him. As such, these appeals are partly allowed to the extent that he is released from death row. Instead, he shall await his last breath in prison, without remission." The bench observed that the high court, despite having considerable information, did not consider appropriately and sufficiently" the various reports including mitigation reports. The bench said the probation report reveals that Thippaiah had no antecedents and had mixed opinion on whether he was suitable for reformation or not. The Conduct and Behavioural Report submitted by the Government of Karnataka, Prisons and Correctional Services records that he has good moral character and good conduct with co-prisoners and prison officials." It also came on record that the convict participated in the basic literacy program organised by the Zilla Lok Shiksha Samiti and passed with good rank". The mitigation report underscored the convicts lack of paternal or maternal love and care turning into extreme protectiveness" after the death of his brother. Also found were difficulties in his learning which made him drop out of school and making impulsive decisions in business often leading to losses. Once incarcerated, it appears that mental health struggles have been a constant and unwelcome companion. He considered making an attempt to take his own life on two occasions, one when he found out about the deaths of his entire family and two, when he himself was sentenced to death," the bench noted. The convict, the report found, had the ability to adapt, engage in constructive activities, pursue an education despite past difficulty and he continued to worry about his daughters future while indicating a notable capacity for reform and personal growth. The bench noted it was the third time in an unfortunate line of cases" that travelled up to the court in the recent past and were ripe for adjudication" where it was found that all sense of responsibility and propriety had been given a go by, by the convict". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Thippaiah was held guilty of charges framed against him in 2017 and the high court confirmed the sentence on May 30, 2023. On February 25, 2017, Thippaiah assaulted his wife, sister in-law and his three children. PTI MNL MNL AMK AMK view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 21:00 IST News agency-feeds SC commutes convicts death penalty to life in jail till last breath Three Fitna Khawarij Darrar terrorists killed in Pakistan Last Updated: July 17, 2025, 02:15 IST Representational image (Image: News18) Peshawar, Jul 17 (PTI) The Counter-Terrorism Department and police killed three most-wanted terrorists of the banned Fitna Khawarij Darrar in northwest Pakistan, officials said. The joint intelligence-based operation was conducted by the CTD and police in Bannu district bordering North Waziristan on Wednesday night. Recommended Stories The slain terrorists have been identified as Mudassir alias Mudassari, Turaab alias Umar Khattab alias Malang, and Muhammad Hussain alias Muaz, the officials said. According to a police official, the three terrorists were involved in multiple targeted killings of law enforcement personnel, including police officials Kamran, Nusrat, Sikandar, and ASI Asghar. They were also behind several attacks on Bannu Cantt and city police stations, as well as the Mirakhel incident, the official said. Regional Police Officer, Bannu, Sajjad Khan and District Police Officer Saleem Abbas Kulachi, Bannu region, CTD, and the local police successfully neutralised the high-value targets, according to the officials. A Kalashnikov rifle with three magazines, a pistol and a locally-made improvised explosive device (IED) were recovered from the spot. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all IGP Zulfiqar Hameed lauded the efforts of the CTD and Bannu police, saying that this operation has dealt a major blow to the Khawarij network. He said operations against terrorists will continue relentlessly until the last threat is eliminated. PTI AYZ DIV DIV view comments First Published: July 17, 2025, 02:15 IST News agency-feeds Three Fitna Khawarij Darrar terrorists killed in Pakistan Elon Musk's Tesla Hits Mumbai Streets, Model Y Poses With Local Train | Photo Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 20:04 IST The EV giant, which entered India after years of negotiation with the government over tariffs and pricing, opened its first experience centre at Bandra Kurla Complex Tesla's Model Y was spotted sharing frame alongside Mumbai's iconic local train. (Image via X/@Tesla_India) Elon Musk-owned Tesla has officially rolled into India, with the companys first showroom launched in Mumbai and the sleek Model Y already spotted sharing frame alongside the citys iconic local train. Teslas much-anticipated India debut took a visible turn on Wednesday when the companys official X account posted a photo of the Model Y parked beside a Mumbai street, with a local train rumbling in the background. Recommended Stories On the streets in MumbaiOrder now https://t.co/crNYzHqjaR pic.twitter.com/YRXkIWJhcT Tesla India (@Tesla_India) July 16, 2025 The EV giant, which entered India after years of negotiation with the government over tariffs and pricing, opened its first experience centre at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) on Tuesday. The launch was marked by the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who invited Tesla to make the state its partner for future manufacturing and R&D operations. The Model Y, Teslas mid-sized electric SUV, is being imported as a completely built unit (CBU) from China. Prices start at Rs 59.89 lakh for the rear-wheel drive variant and Rs 67.89 lakh for the long-range version. Deliveries are expected to begin in late 2025 in select cities like Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurugram. Tesla said customers in India can customise their vehicle through its Design Studio, choosing exterior colours, interiors, and feature packages. The car boasts a range of up to 622 km on a single charge. Teslas India plans include setting up charging infrastructure, service support, and more experience centres. Four charging stations are expected each in Mumbai and Delhi as part of the initial rollout. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all This India launch comes amid Teslas global challenges, including slowing sales in Europe and China. The company is also under pressure to find new markets, and India the worlds third-largest car market fits the bill. (With inputs from agencies) About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More Get the latest updates on car and bike launches in India including reviews, prices, specs, and performance. Stay informed with breaking auto industry news , EV policies, and more, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:33 IST News auto Elon Musk's Tesla Hits Mumbai Streets, Model Y Poses With Local Train | Photo UPI Chargeback Rules Changed: What It Means For Payment Platform Users Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 18, 2025, 13:33 IST NPCI's new UPI chargeback rules, effective July 15, 2025, aim to enhance user experience and trust. UPI chargeback rules comes into effect from today. The National Payments Corporation of Indias (NPCI) newly introduced UPI chargeback rules, effective from July 15, 2025, are expected to significantly improve user experience and trust in the countrys fast-growing digital payment ecosystem. With nearly 600 million UPI transactions occurring daily, the need for a streamlined and time-bound dispute resolution framework has become critical. Recommended Stories A key change is the removal of the whitelisting requirement. Previously, if a users chargeback request was declinedoften because it exceeded the claim capbanks had to approach NPCI for special approval via the UPI Reference Complaints System (URCS). Now, banks can directly mark genuine, earlier-declined chargebacks as eligible for reprocessing, cutting delays and manual dependencies. Its a necessary advancement in Indias payment ecosystem," said Kishan Sundar, CTO of Maveric Systems. He noted the changes will drive upgrades in backend systems, including automated reconciliation and real-time dispute dashboards. Kunal Varma, CEO and Co-founder, Freo added, The process will now be less confusing and more trustworthy for users," as strict turnaround timelines give users clarity and recourse. Rohan Lakhaiyar of Grant Thornton Bharat highlighted that the chargeback changes address technical errors like double debits and fraud, which are increasing with rising UPI volumes. He emphasized that the strict TATs for issuing and acquiring banks will ensure disputes are handled efficiently. A chargeback allows UPI users to raise formal disputes when a transaction fails but money is debited. The URCS platform continues to be the core mechanism for managing these disputes, now with fewer hurdles. It aims at simplifying the chargeback process for those raised beyond the capping that were introduced in 2023. It will help foster confidence in the UPI payment system and allow users to raise legitimate chargebacks efficiently. Strict TAT mandates for acquiring and issuing banks for processing of chargeback request will ensure legitimate chargeback requests are resolved in a timebound manner and shall enhance trust in the system, Lakhaiyar added. Rohith Reji, Co-founder and CEO , Neokred said, NPCIs decision to let issuing banks manage genuine UPI chargebacks directly marks a quiet but significant shift. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Removing the NPCI layer accelerates refunds from days to hours, eases working capital strain for small merchants, and deepens trust in real-time payment rails. While banks must now strengthen their early fraud detection systems, where tools like ProfileX are already seeing traction in the BFSI space. But the tradeoff is a payment system that scales more efficiently," he added. About the Author Varun Yadav Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst... Read More Varun Yadav is a Sub Editor at News18 Business Digital. He writes articles on markets, personal finance, technology, and more. He completed his post-graduation diploma in English Journalism from the Indian Inst... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 06:58 IST News business banking-finance UPI Chargeback Rules Changed: What It Means For Payment Platform Users Dolly Chaiwala Opens Franchise Applications And He Has 1,600 Entries Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:23 IST Dolly Chaiwala, the viral tea-staller, has announced the launch of his business venture, receiving a plethora of applications to purchase the franchise. Dolly Ki Tapri is now a high-end business venture. (Photo credits: Instagram) Sunil Patil, also known as Dolly Chaiwala on the internet, has announced the launch of his business franchise Dolly Ki Tapri through an expensive franchise model across India. A Nagpur-based tea seller, Patil gained viral fame for his unique tea-serving style and a video appearance with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. He has now ventured into the business world, while also declaring his plans to expand the new brand. Its Indias first viral street brand, and now Its a business opportunity. From carts to flagship cafes, were launching nationwide and looking for real people with real passion to carry this dream forward. If youve ever wanted to build something big, something desi, something truly legendary this is your moment. Limited cities. Unlimited chai. Applications open now." Patil wrote on his official social media channels, announcing the launch of Dolly Ki Tapri". The post contained a link to an application form through Instagram Stories, with three franchise options detailed for prospective business partners. Over 1,600 applications have already been received. Recommended Stories Dolly Chaiwala Franchise Cost Dolly Chaiwalas application form lists cart stall, store model and flagship cafe models with the range of costs described. While a cart stall can be bought for Rs 4.5 lakhs to Rs 6 lakhs in the venture, the store model franchise is available for Rs 20-22 lakhs. Business partners eyeing the Flagship Cafe model will have to shell out Rs 39 lakh to Rs 43 lakh. These models are part of Patils vision of growing the Dolly Ki Tapri" from just a viral internet sensation to a well-structured and functioning nationwide business entity. Dolly Ki Tapri" Stuns The Internet Again top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The announcement of the business venture caused a stir on the internet, as followers stood amazed by how far Patils viral fame has taken him already. The post attracted millions of views and a flood of comments. From Burger Kayega to Burger Bechunga, Dolly has come a long way. All the best," said one user, before another commented: Meerut m chiye humko aapki franchise (want your franchise in Market)." Others expressed their jealousy of Dolly Chaiwala, stating they feel like burning their educational degrees. Education is a scam in India," wrote one, feeling hurt by his humongous fame. Just apni degree jala ke comment karne aaya hoon (came here after burning my degree)," said another. A third came up with some advice for Patil. Dont take any franchise .. Gotta cry tears of blood .. Already telling you .. This will make money and go to Dubai and you will be stuck here in a bank auction," the user wrote. About the Author Business Desk A team of writers and reporters decodes vast terms of personal finance and making money matters simpler for you. From latest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the market to best investment options, we cover al... Read More A team of writers and reporters decodes vast terms of personal finance and making money matters simpler for you. From latest initial public offerings (IPOs) in the market to best investment options, we cover al... Read More view comments Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:23 IST News business Dolly Chaiwala Opens Franchise Applications And He Has 1,600 Entries PM Kisan 20th Installment Date 2025: Is Rs 2,000 Tranche Already Credited Into Farmers' Account? Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 18, 2025, 08:53 IST PM Kisan 20th Installment Date 2025: PM Modi is expected to release the installment for eligible farmers in the current month. Under the PM Kisan scheme, the central government provides financial assistance of Rs 6,000 annually to eligible farmers in three equal installments of Rs 2,000. PM Kisan 20th Installment Date 2025: The PM Kisan Samman Nidhi is one of the crucial schemes of the central government to support farmers across the country. Under the scheme, the Centre provides Rs 6,000 annually to each eligible farmer in the country in three installments. Generally, these installments are released at a gap of four months in the months of February, June, and October. Recommended Stories PM Kisan Yojana Scheme: Is June 2025 Installment Already Credited Into Farmers Account? No. The 20th installment has not been credited into farmers account yet. PM Narendra Modi is expected to release the installment for eligible farmers in the current month. However, there has been no official date announced on this. Last year, the June installment was released before the end of the month. Why Is PM Kisan 20th Installment Getting Delayed? The PM Kisan installment usually comes in February, June, and October. Many expected a similar timeline this year. However, this time, the 20th installment seems to have got delayed as there is no official announcement on the date so far. There have also been no official words on the reason why it is getting delayed this time. However, reports suggest that the amount will most likely be released in July by PM Modi at an event, which will be announced soon. It is important to note that e-KYC is must in order to receive the installment. Farmers are advised to keep their KYC complete to avoid missing the upcoming tranche of Rs 2,000. How To Complete e-KYC for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi? As the installment is expected to come soon, eligible farmers are required to complete before that to avoid payment failure. e-KYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) is mandatory for all PM Kisan beneficiaries. Without it, your name may be dropped from the beneficiary list. As per the schemes official website, eKYC is MANDATORY for PMKISAN Registered Farmers." You can complete e-KYC in three simple ways: OTP-based e-KYC, biometric e-KYC, facial authentication. How To Check Your PM-Kisan Installment Status Visit https://pmkisan.gov.in Click on Know Your Status Enter your registration number or Aadhaar number Check whether your name is on the beneficiary list Also ensure that your eKYC is completed, as it is mandatory for installment release. What Is The PM Kisan Scheme? Launched in 2019 after being announced in the Interim Budget by then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, the PM Kisan scheme has become the worlds largest DBT scheme. Under it, eligible farmers receive Rs 2,000 every four months totaling Rs 6,000 annually in the following cycles April-July, August-November, and December-March. The money is deposited directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Who Is Eligible for PM Kisan Yojana Scheme? To qualify for the PM Kisans 20th installment, one must: Be a citizen of India Own cultivable land Be a small or marginal farmer Not be a pensioner receiving Rs 10,000 or more per month Not have filed income tax Not be an institutional landholder. How To Apply For PM Kisan Samman Nidhi? top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Go to https://pmkisan.gov.in Click on New Farmer Registration Enter your Aadhaar number and captcha Fill in the details, click Yes Complete the form, submit it, and take a printout For any queries, you can call the PM-KISAN helpline numbers 155261 and 011-24300606. About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:28 IST News business economy PM Kisan 20th Installment Date 2025: Is Rs 2,000 Tranche Already Credited Into Farmers' Account? Anthem Biosciences IPO Subscribed 30.58x On Final Day Of Bidding; Check Allotment Date Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 17:28 IST The GMP of the Anthem Biosciences IPO currently stands at 28.60%, indicating strong listing gains. Anthem Biosciences IPO GMP Today. Should I Subscribe To Anthem Biosciences IPO? The initial public offering of Anthem Biosciences Ltd has been closed today, Monday, July 16. The price band of the mainboard IPO, which aims to raise Rs 3,395 crore, was fixed in the range of Rs 540 to Rs 570. On the final day of bidding on Wednesday, the issue received a 67.42 times subscription, garnering bids for 2,81,49,30,794 shares as against the 4,17,50,321 shares on offer. The retail and NII participation stood at 5.98x and 44.70x, respectively. The QIB category received a 192.80x subscription. Recommended Stories The IPOs grey market premium currently stands at 28.60%, indicating strong listing gains. The three-day IPO was opened on July 14. Anthem Biosciences Ltd, a CRDMO founded in 2006, offers end-to-end drug discovery-to-manufacturing services and specialises in fermentation-based active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for global pharma and biotech clients. Anthem Biosciences IPO GMP Today According to market observers, unlisted shares of Anthem Biosciences Ltd are currently trading at Rs 733 against its upper IPO price of Rs 570. It means a grey market premium or GMP of Rs 163, which is 28.60% over its issue price, indicating strong listing. The GMP is based on market sentiments and keeps changing. Grey market premium indicates investors readiness to pay more than the issue price. Anthem Biosciences IPO Price And Lot Size The price band of the IPO has been fixed in the range of Rs 540 to Rs 570 apiece. Its minimum lot size is 26. It means investors will have to apply for a minimum of 26 shares or in multiple thereof. Retail investors require a minimum capital of Rs 14,040 to apply for the IPO. Anthem Biosciences IPO Allotment And Listing Dates The basis of allotment of the Anthem Biosciences IPO will be finalised on July 17. Its shares will be listed on both BSE and NSE, July 21. Anthem Biosciences IPO: Should You Apply? Brokerages remain largely optimistic about Anthem Biosciences initial public offering, citing its strong financial track record, niche positioning in the CRDMO space, and robust pipeline. However, a few have flagged concerns over valuations and margin pressures. Aditya Birla Money has recommended a subscribe rating, emphasising the companys leadership team, molecule pipeline, and strategic capacity expansion. Anthems customer profile and molecule pipeline provide long-term demand visibility reinforced by strategic capacity expansion." However, it cautioned that growth is dependent on the success of pipeline molecules and regulatory compliance, among other risks. Anand Rathi Shares & Stock Broking noted that Anthem is positioned to cater in CROs and CRDMO segment the crucial players in the pharma and biotechnology industries wherein it is being niche player with high entry barriers through its differentiated FFS model, long-term relationship, strong R&D, innovation and technology-driven approach." The brokerage firm added that the company has outperformed peers in profitability and is likely to maintain that edge, assigning a subscribe rating. SBI Securities echoed the sentiment, highlighting that the IPO is valued at a P/E of 70.9x FY25 earnings and appears fairly priced compared to peers. It said, It is well placed to encash on the fast-growing CRDMO industry on the back of capacity expansion plans and funding in place; well established track record of profitable growth; and strong business pipeline." Canara Bank Securities offered a subscribe for long term recommendation, citing a strong CAGR of 32% in revenue and 8% in PAT between FY23 and FY25. It emphasised Anthems FFS model and ESG initiatives, saying, The issue is fairly priced, which is at a discount of its listed peers." SMIFS pointed to the doubling of capacity and deeper penetration into regulated markets as key growth drivers. The doubling of capacities in the first phase of capex and then another round of capex will propel the company into the league of the largest fermentation players in India," it noted while recommending a long-term subscribe. Ventura Securities was bullish on the sectoral opportunity, stating that Anthem Biosciences is exceptionally positioned to capitalize on the fast-growing global CRDMO market, projected to expand at a CAGR of 9.1% from $213.1 billion in 2024 to $330 billion by 2029." It also highlighted Anthems 95.59% FFS contract success rate and regulatory certifications from USFDA, ANVISA, and ISO. Swastika Investmart pointed out the companys high valuation but justified it due to Anthems fermentation capacity and global clientele. Well-positioned in a high-growth sector with robust financials and global client relationships subscribe for the listing gains and long term," it advised. Recommending investors to Subscribe for long term, Mehta Equities research analyst Rajan Shinde said, We believe the Anthem Biosciences IPO brings investors an opportunity to invest in the high-growth CRDMO space, uniquely positioned with fully integrated capabilities across small and large molecules, including NCE and NBE platforms a rarity in India. We think with a strong track record of over 8,000 projects, deep engagement with more than 675 clients, and a robust pipeline of 242 active projects, Anthem has demonstrated sustained innovation through early adoption of advanced modalities like ADC, RNAi, and flow chemistry, and a leadership position in green chemistry." Anthem Biosciences IPO: More Info The IPO is entirely an offer-for-sale (OFS). So, the company will not receive any funds from the issue and the proceeds will go to the selling shareholders. Anthem Biosciences raised Rs 1,016 crore from anchor investors ahead of its initial share-sale opening for public subscription. Some of the investors that participated in the anchor book are Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Government Pension Fund Global, Eastspring Investments, Amundi Funds, PineBridge Global Funds and Societe Generale, HDFC MF (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, Axis MF, UTI MF, Quant MF and Motilal Oswal MF. Anthem is into innovation-driven and technology-focused Contract Research, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) with fully integrated operations spanning across drug discovery, development and manufacturing. It also manufactures and sells complex specialized fermentation-based Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs), including probiotics, enzymes, peptides, nutritional actives, vitamin analogues and biosimilars. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Sai Life Sciences Ltd, Syngene International, Suven Life Sciences and Divis Laboratories are the listed peers of Anthem Biosciences. JM Financial, Citigroup Global Markets India, J P Morgan India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) are the book-running lead managers for the issue. About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 10:20 IST News business ipo Anthem Biosciences IPO Subscribed 30.58x On Final Day Of Bidding; Check Allotment Date Jio BlackRock Mutual Fund Gets Sebi Approval For 4 Passive Schemes; Details Here Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:59 IST The funds will track four indices -- Nifty Midcap 150, Nifty smallcap 250, Nifty Next 50, and the benchmark index tracking Indian government bonds with 8-13 years maturity. Jio BlackRock plans to offer a mix of active and passive funds in India, where active funds still dominate. Jio Blackrock has received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to launch four passive index funds, according to the market regulators website. The funds will track four indices Nifty Midcap 150, Nifty smallcap 250, Nifty Next 50, and the benchmark index tracking Indian government bonds with 8-13 years maturity. Jio BlackRock Asset Management said on July 7 it has raised Rs 17,800 crore across three cash or debt mutual fund schemes, its first offering since getting the licence in May. The three schemes are JioBlackRock Overnight Fund, JioBlackRock Liquid Fund and JioBlackRock Money Market Fund. Recommended Stories Jio BlackRock, a joint venture between Jio Financial Services Ltd and BlackRock, plans to launch nearly a dozen equity and debt funds in India by year-end, Reuters reported last week. The asset manager is entering the countrys Rs 72.2 lakh crore mutual fund market with a mix of active and passive offerings, aiming to leverage its digital reach to sidestep traditional distributor networks. The asset manager has raised over $2.1 billion across three debt mutual fund schemes, attracting investments from 90 institutional investors and 67,000 retail investors so far. Jio BlackRock is reportedly planning to leverage Jio, Indias largest telecom network, and BlackRocks investment management platform Aladdin, to offer differentiated products in the crowded market. Recently, Jio BlackRock also opened its NFO for debt mutual funds. The three-day maiden offer attracted investments from over 90 institutional investors and from more than 67,000 retail investors, Jio BlackRock said in a statement. The NFO, which closed on July 2, 2025 was one of the largest in Indias cash/debt fund segment, placing JioBlackRock Asset Management among the top 15 asset management companies by Debt Assets Under Management in the country, out of 47 fund houses, said the firm. According to Reuters, Jio BlackRock intends to bypass the dominant channel of distributors, offering funds directly to institutional and retail investors, the sources said. That will reduce fee or expense ratios associated with the funds, they said. Jio BlackRock will use the distribution reach of its partner and target the existing 8 million active users of financial services on its digital platforms such as MyJio and Jio Finance, it added. BlackRock, the worlds largest fund manager at $11.6 trillion as of December 2024, is known for its passive funds, which track established indexes. It manages $7.8 trillion through exchange traded and index funds. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all However, Jio BlackRock plans to offer a mix of active and passive funds in India, where active funds still dominate. Disclaimer: Network18 and TV18 the companies that operate news18.com are controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary. About the Author Mohammad Haris Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More Haris is Deputy News Editor (Business) at news18.com. He writes on various issues related to personal finance, markets, economy and companies. Having over a decade of experience in financial journalism, Haris h... Read More Stay updated with all the latest news on the Stock Market, including market trends, Sensex and Nifty updates, top gainers and losers, and expert analysis. Get real-time insights, financial reports, and investment strategiesonly on News18. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:21 IST News business markets Jio BlackRock Mutual Fund Gets Sebi Approval For 4 Passive Schemes; Details Here Paytm Shares Cross Rs 1,000 For First Time In Six Months MSCI Buzz, Q1 Profit Hopes Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 13:01 IST Shares of One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, surged nearly 3% in intraday trade on Wednesday; Key points for investors Paytm Shares Price Paytm Share Price Today: Shares of One 97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, surged nearly 3% in intraday trade on Wednesday, July 16, hitting a high of Rs 1,014. This marked the first time in six months that the stock crossed the Rs 1,000 level. The rally extended Paytms winning streak to five consecutive sessions, pushing its total gains for July to 9%. The stock was last seen trading near the Rs 1,000 mark in early January but struggled to hold those levels, undergoing a two-month correction. Momentum picked up again in March, with the stock finishing the next four months in the green. Recommended Stories MSCI Inclusion Hopes Drive Optimism The recent upward trend has been driven in part by speculation around Paytms potential inclusion in the MSCI Standard Index. According to a note from Motilal Oswal, there is a strong possibility that Paytm may be upgraded from the MSCI Smallcap Index to the Standard Index during the upcoming August rebalancing. If the inclusion materializes, Motilal Oswal estimates that the stock could attract inflows worth $212 million. The MSCI announcement is expected on August 8, with the changes becoming effective on August 26. From Rs 310 to Rs 1,017: One of the Years Top Turnarounds Paytm has staged a remarkable recovery since hitting an all-time low of Rs 310 in May 2024. The stock has rallied nearly 230%, closing the year at Rs 1,017, making it one of the most prominent turnaround stories in the market this year. The rally has been supported by improving fundamentals across business segments, helping to restore investor confidence and enhancing long-term growth visibility. Mutual Funds Increase Stake in Q1FY26 Mutual funds have also demonstrated increased confidence in the companys prospects. As per the latest shareholding data for Q1FY26, domestic mutual funds collectively raised their stake in Paytm to 13.86%, up from 13.11% in the March quarter. Among the notable domestic investors are Mirae Asset Mutual Fund, Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund, Nippon Mutual Fund, and Bandhan Mutual Fund. While mutual funds expanded their holdings, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and retail investors trimmed theirs. FII ownership declined slightly to 54.9% from 55.4%, while retail shareholding dropped by 1.3% quarter-on-quarter to 29.3%. Analysts Anticipate First PAT Profit in Q1 Results Paytm is scheduled to announce its June quarter results on July 22 (Tuesday), and analysts expect a strong showingpotentially marking the companys first profitable quarter on a profit-after-tax (PAT) basis. According to JM Financial, Payment Services revenue (excluding UPI incentives) is likely to grow 6% QoQ and 21% YoY, fueled by a 27% YoY increase in GMV. However, a rising share of low-margin UPI transactions may weigh on the take rate. The companys merchant subscriber base is projected to grow by 7% QoQ (22% YoY) to reach 13.3 million, reflecting ongoing efforts to onboard new merchants and reactivate dormant ones. Loan disbursements in Q1 are expected to rise by 8% QoQ (23% YoY), led primarily by merchant loans. The mix of Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) is expected to be significantly lower, while personal loan disbursements may remain muted due to stricter norms around unsecured lending. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Despite wage hikes, Paytm is expected to benefit from improved operating leverage. JM Financial forecasts an adjusted EBITDA of Rs 211 million and a PAT of Rs 189 million, supported in part by treasury income that may offset costs related to ESOPs and depreciation/amortization. Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The views and investment tips by experts in this News18.com report are their own and not those of the website or its management. Users are advised to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions. About the Author Aparna Deb Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a... Read More Aparna Deb is a Subeditor and writes for the business vertical of News18.com. She has a nose for news that matters. She is inquisitive and curious about things. Among other things, financial markets, economy, a... Read More Stay updated with all the latest news on the Stock Market, including market trends, Sensex and Nifty updates, top gainers and losers, and expert analysis. Get real-time insights, financial reports, and investment strategiesonly on News18. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:01 IST News business markets Paytm Shares Cross Rs 1,000 For First Time In Six Months MSCI Buzz, Q1 Profit Hopes 'Prove They're Rohingyas': Mamata's Dare To BJP Over Detention Of 'Bengali' Migrant Workers Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 17:07 IST CM Banerjee claimed that there are 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in different states, and they have valid identity documents. CM Banerjee, accompanied by TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party leaders, hit the streets in Kolkata. (Photo: X/AITC) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the BJP over the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in NDA-ruled states, dared the ruling party at the Centre to prove if they were Rohingyas. CM Banerjee, accompanied by TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and other party leaders, hit the streets in Kolkata against the detention and deportation of Bengali migrant workers" to Bangladesh. Recommended Stories I challenge you to prove that Bengali-speaking people are Rohingyas," the CM said. Braving the rain, throngs of people have poured onto the streets at the call of Smt. @MamataOfficial and Shri @abhishekaitc.Let this serve as a clear WARNING to @BJP4India that Bengal will not stay silent while its people are unfairly targeted, harassed, and persecuted. Joy pic.twitter.com/OCn02LgE34 All India Trinamool Congress (@AITCofficial) July 16, 2025 The Trinamool Congress chief accused the BJP of rigging polls in Maharashtra and Delhi by removing names from electoral rolls." BJP won in Maharashtra by removing names from electoral rolls; it is doing the same in Bihar now. BJP has plans to remove names from Bengals electoral rolls, we will fight them inch by inch," the TMC leader added. The chief minister claimed that there are 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in different states, and they have valid identity documents. Chief Minister Banerjee led the protest march from College Square at around 1:45pm and moved towards Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala. Nearly 1,500 police personnel were deployed along the 3-kilometre-long route to maintain order. The protest march also disrupted vehicular traffic in the city due to barricades and diversions. Amid the TMC protest, Bengal LoP and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari reached the Election Commission office, demanding the deletion of Rohingya" names from the voters list. As many as 50 BJP MLAs joined him at the ECI office. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Notably, the protest was organised a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modis scheduled visit to the state. The protest was joined by thousands of TMC workers and supporters. Similar rallies took place across various district headquarters in West Bengal. With assembly elections less than a year away, the TMC is intensifying its campaign focused on regional identity. The party pointed to recent incidentssuch as the detention of migrant workers in Odisha, eviction drives in Delhi, and a foreigner tribunals notice to a farmer in Cooch Behar in Assamas evidence of rising linguistic discrimination. About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:50 IST News cities kolkata-news 'Prove They're Rohingyas': Mamata's Dare To BJP Over Detention Of 'Bengali' Migrant Workers IndiGo Near-Miss: Is Patna Airport Runway Too Short For Modern Planes? | Explained Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:59 IST Patna Airports short runway raises serious safety concerns as experts question if its adequate for larger aircraft, putting every landing and passenger at potential risk Patna Airport's runway is officially 2,072 metres, but its usable length varies from 1,954 metres (east) to 1,677 metres (west), limiting it mainly to smaller aircraft. (News18) On Tuesday evening, a serious incident was narrowly averted at Patnas Jai Prakash Narayan International Airport. IndiGo Airlines flight 6E-2482 from Delhi, operating an Airbus A320-271N, overshot the runway upon landing around 8:50 pm. The near-miss has raised renewed concerns over the airports runway length and its suitability for narrow-body jets like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737, let alone larger aircraft. Runway Length At Patna Airport Recommended Stories While the official length of Patna Airports runway is 2,072 metres, its effective usable length varies significantly based on approach direction. Aircraft landing from the eastern end have 1,954 metres available, whereas landings from the west are restricted to just 1,677 metres. This significantly limits the types of aircraft that can safely operate at the airport. A senior commercial airline captain noted that while narrow-body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 can operate under normal conditions, landings on a wet or compromised runway require heightened caution. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines, a minimum runway length of 2,300 metres is recommended for safe landings of aircraft routinely operating at Patna, including: Boeing 737-800 (SpiceJet) Airbus A320neo (IndiGo) Boeing 737 MAX (Air India Express) Airbus A320-251N (Air India) This gap between recommended and available runway length raises critical questions about operational safety at the airport. ICAO Standards: How Patna Compares The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) sets global runway specifications based on aircraft size, weight, and weather conditions. According to ICAO norms: Boeing 787 Dreamliner (8/9 variant) requires 2,5003,000 metres for takeoff and 1,8002,200 metres for landing. (8/9 variant) requires 2,5003,000 metres for takeoff and 1,8002,200 metres for landing. Boeing 737 series typically needs 1,9002,500 metres for takeoff and 1,5002,000 metres for landing. With a short-field performance kit and reduced load, it can land on shorter runways. typically needs 1,9002,500 metres for takeoff and 1,5002,000 metres for landing. With a short-field performance kit and reduced load, it can land on shorter runways. Airbus A320 usually requires 2,100 metres for takeoff and 1,500 metres for landing, but can manage with as little as 1,6001,700 metres if lightly loaded. Aircraft Best Suited To Patnas Constraints Given the limitations, only small to mid-sized aircraft are considered viable for regular operations at Patna Airport. While the A320 and B737 are in use, airlines often restrict weight, either in cargo or passenger capacity, to operate safely. Aircraft that are particularly well-suited to Patnas shorter runway include: Airbus A220-100 requires just 1,500 metres for takeoff and landing. requires just 1,500 metres for takeoff and landing. ATR 72-600 and Dash 8-Q300 turboprops that comfortably operate on runways of 1,200 to 1,300 metres. Larger Aircraft Remain Impractical top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Deploying wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 777, 787, or Airbus A380 at Patna Airport is not feasible under current infrastructure. These aircraft typically require between 2,500 and 3,500 metres of runway for safe operation. Compounding the issue is Patnas prevailing wind patterns, which further reduce usable runway lengthsometimes to just 1,677 metresmaking the airports operational limitations even more pronounced. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:59 IST News patna-news IndiGo Near-Miss: Is Patna Airport Runway Too Short For Modern Planes? | Explained Speak Marathi Like Maharashtrian: This Course Helps All, From Auto-Taxi Drivers To Bank Officers Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 18, 2025, 13:10 IST No Marathi row here: Mumbai's two educational institutes -- University of Mumbai (MU) and Somaiya Vidyavihar University have been teaching Communicative Marathi for years The Mumbai University's course has been designed to introduce beginners to the Marathi language and equip them with basic communication skills for everyday use. (File) Even as the row over Marathi stokes Maharashtra politics, two prominent educational institutes the University of Mumbai (MU) and Somaiya Vidyavihar University have been silently running courses to teach Communicative Marathi for years. A look at all the things you need to know about the courses. Recommended Stories MUs Certificate In Communicative Marathi Course It is designed to introduce beginners to the Marathi language and equip them with basic communication skills for everyday use. This programme focuses on developing the speaking, listening, reading, and writing abilities required to interact confidently in various common situations, both in personal and professional settings. How does MU teach Communicative Marathi? The MU offers various levels. The course uses authentic texts, audio, and audio-visual materials to enhance learning and provide practical examples of language use. According to the MU, The course utilises an approach that integrates all aspects of language learning (speaking, listening, reading, writing) to facilitate effective communication. The curriculum emphasises applying language skills in real-life situations and contexts. It incorporates cultural insights and awareness to provide a holistic understanding of the language and its cultural context. The course is taught by certified and experienced instructors who guide learners through the learning process. MU Communicative Marathi course has different levels Level 1: This is at the Certificate level and teaches the introduction to the Marathi language, basic vocabulary, and sentence structure. Level 2: It is at the Diploma level and focuses on everyday life interactions, small and large writing, and conversation. Level 3: This is at the Advanced Diploma level and teaches more complex communication and language use. Level 4: Advanced Diploma II in Communicative Marathi. It builds upon the foundation established in previous levels. It focuses on enhancing communication skills in practical contexts, including personal information, family matters, shopping, cultural settings, and employment-related scenarios. The course also incorporates cultural awareness and sensitivity to Marathi traditions and customs. Level 5: Advanced Diploma III in Communicative Marathi. This level is a continuation of the communicative approach, further refining language skills and expanding communicative competence. It aims to make Marathi a viable second, third, or foreign language by integrating methodologies, tools, and techniques used in teaching various languages, including foreign languages. MU Communicative Marathi course for special target groups It also offers courses for target groups such as Marathi for nurses, Marathi for rickshaw and taxi drivers, bank employees and official Marathi. MUs study material The department offers Links for the App, books for six levels of Marathi and for 4 target groups along with audiovisuals for learning Marathi. These are 18 books and 1 App. MUs mode of instruction These courses are taught online by the Department of German, Mumbai University. MU fees The fees range from Rs 6,000-Rs10,000 MU Admissions Admissions are currently open for Level 1 For details, go to the universitys official website link Who can take the course? Individuals with no prior knowledge of Marathi who wish to learn the language from the ground up Those working in Maharashtra or with Marathi-speaking communities, and wishing to improve their communication skills It is ideal for individuals who have little or no prior knowledge of Marathi and wish to learn the language to engage with native speakers, understand the culture, or enhance their personal and professional growth SOMAIYA VIDYAVIHAR UNIVERSITYS COMMUNICATIVE MARATHI COURSE The main aim of this course is to introduce the learners to the basic knowledge of the language, its script, phonetics, grammar as well as cultural elements. The course shall involve diverse exercises pertaining to all the four language skills, i.e. reading, listening, speaking and writing. Along with the practice of language structures, their application in authentic situations shall also be dealt with. Curriculum Level 1: 60 hours/ 4 months Introduction to Marathi Language and Script Basic vocabulary and sentence formation Functional Marathi for everyday use Listening and Speaking practice Level 2: 60 hours / 4 months Reading and writing practice with short texts and messages Basic communication in daily life contexts Cultural context and communication etiquette Timings Weekend lectures top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Admissions For further details, check the link . About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 16:42 IST News cities Speak Marathi Like Maharashtrian: This Course Helps All, From Auto-Taxi Drivers To Bank Officers Ghaziabad: CBSE, ICSE Schools To Remain Closed From July 17 Due To Kanwar Yatra Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:47 IST Not just CBSE, CISCE; institutions under technical education, higher education, and Madrasa/Sanskrit boards in the district will also observe a holiday starting tomorrow. Schools will reopen on July 24. (Representational/File) Due to the Kanwar Yatra, all primary, upper primary, secondary schools, and schools recognized by the CBSE and ICSE boards, as well as institutions under technical education, higher education, and Madrasa/Sanskrit boards in the district, will observe a holiday starting tomorrow, July 17 up till July 23. In view of the Kanwar Yatra, all the primary/upper primary schools and secondary schools/schools recognized by CBSE and ICSE boards, schools run under technical education, higher education and Madrasa/Sanskrit boards of the district will have a holiday from 17-07-2025 to 23-07-2025," reads the official notice by DM Ghaziabad. Recommended Stories / /CBSE ICSE , , / 17-07-2025 23-07-2025 pic.twitter.com/RCLryHTnnz DM Ghaziabad (@dm_ghaziabad) July 16, 2025 Schools in certain districts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana will be closed on July 16, 2025, due to various reasons. In Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, all educational institutions will remain closed from July 16 to 23 due to the Kanwar Yatra 2025. During Sawan, millions of Shiva devotees participate in the Kanwar Yatra, leading to increased traffic and security issues. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Schools in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar will be closed because of the heavy crowds and traffic disruptions during the Kanwar Yatra 2025, which is scheduled from July 16 to 23. Millions of Kanwariyas carry Ganga water and travel to Shiva temples. To ensure student safety, all government and private schools and colleges in these areas will remain closed, necessitating reliance on online studies or alternative arrangements. Apart from UP, all schools in Madhya Pradeshs Ujjain will be closed every Monday from July 14 to August 11 to ensure the safety of children during the Kanwar Yatra. A large number of devotees from across the country will visit Ujjain Mahakal. The government has advised students and parents to check the status of their district and area before heading to school tomorrow. However, classes will be held on Sundays instead. About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:43 IST News education-career Ghaziabad: CBSE, ICSE Schools To Remain Closed From July 17 Due To Kanwar Yatra Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:26 IST CSEET Results July 2025 Live Updates: The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has declared the results of the Company Secretary Executive Entrance Test (CSEET) July 2025 exam today, July 16. Candidates can now check their results, including marks for each subject, on the official website at icsi.edu. The CSEET exam was held on July 5 and July 7. Students must note that they can download their e-result-cum-marks statement from the website only; ICSI will not send any physical copy of the result to candidates. The CSEET exam includes four papers: Business Communication, Legal Aptitude and Logical Reasoning, Economic and Business Environment, and Current Affairs and Quantitative Aptitude. To pass, candidates must score at least 40% in each paper and 50% overall. There is no negative marking for wrong answers. (Follow this live blog for the ICSI CSEET Result direct link and other details) NEET UG 2025: Results Of 75 Candidates Affected By Power Cuts Out, Many Report Unfair Drop Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:48 IST NEET Results 2025: The NTA has released NEET UG 2025 results for 75 students affected by power cuts. Many are unhappy with low scores and plan to petition the Supreme Court The students argue that the power outages during the exam directly impacted their performance. (News18) NEET Results 2025: The National Testing Agency (NTA) has officially declared the NEET UG 2025 results for 75 students who encountered disruptions due to power cuts during the examination. The results were uploaded to the official NTA website at 6 PM, and each student was also notified individually via email. The counselling process for these students is scheduled to begin on July 21. These students had previously reported technical issues during the examination held on May 4. Candidates can check their results directly through the official link. Instructions to view the results are also provided on the site. Recommended Stories Also See: SC To Hear Plea For NEET UG 2025 Re-Test Over Power Cuts In MP Centres Next Week Legal Battle In Madhya Pradesh High Court The affected students had approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court, seeking redress for the examination irregularities. Initially, a single bench had ordered a re-examination for the students. However, following an appeal by the NTA, a division bench overturned that decision and instructed the agency to release the results instead. Following the result declaration, many students and their parents expressed dissatisfaction, citing discrepancies between their mock test performance and final scores. Parents Raise Concerns Over Mark Disparity Sachin Garg, father of student Tanishka Garg, noted that his daughter had consistently scored over 600 marks in mock exams, but her final result stood at only 520, a drop of nearly 25%. Another parent, Ritesh Agarwal, echoed similar concerns, stating that several students who had the potential to secure seats in top institutions like AIIMS may now have to settle for less competitive colleges due to the reduced scores. Students Plan To Approach Supreme Court top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In response to the outcome, several students from Indore and Ujjain are now preparing to file a petition in the Supreme Court of India. According to their legal representative, Mridul Bhatnagar, the students argue that the power outages during the exam directly impacted their performance. They are seeking justice and a fair resolution to the situation. view comments Location : Madhya Pradesh, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:58 IST News education-career NEET UG 2025: Results Of 75 Candidates Affected By Power Cuts Out, Many Report Unfair Drop RUHS Round 1 Seat Allotment Result 2025 To Be Declared Today At ruhscuet2025.com Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:50 IST RUHS Counselling 2025: RUHS Round 1 Seat Allotment Result 2025: If a student is allotted a seat, they must download their allotment letter, registration form, essential documents The RUHS Round 2 Seat Allotment Result will be announced on August 1, 2025.(Representational/File) The Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (RUHS) is set to announce the Round 1 Seat Allotment Result today, July 16, 2025. Students who applied for the RUHS Counselling 2025 can view their results by visiting the official website at ruhscuet2025.com. Those who make it to the merit list will be required to reserve their seats. They will have to pay Rs 50,000 as counselling fees between July 16 and 22 to confirm their seat. All students who get seats must also download their RUHS Allotment Letter 2025 and bring it for document verification to complete their admission process. Students who do not receive a seat or are dissatisfied with their allotted seat can participate in Round 2 Counselling. The RUHS Round 2 Seat Allotment Result will be announced on August 1, 2025. Recommended Stories Key Dates: Allotment Letter Publishing July 16, 2025 Print Allotment Letter July 16 to July 22, 2025 Reporting to Allotted College July 16 to July 22, 2025 Document Submission July 16 to July 22, 2025 Round 3 Seat Allotment August 14, 2025 Classes Start August 18, 2025 RUHS Round 1 Seat Allotment Result 2025: How To Check? Step 1 Visit ruhscuet2025.com. Step 2 Click on the RUHS CUET 2025 Counselling Seat Allotment Result. Step 3 Enter the required details such as your application number and date of birth. Step 4 The RUHS Seat Allotment Result 2025 will be displayed on the screen. Step 5 Download and take a print out of the allotment letter for further use. RUHS Counselling 2025: Documents Needed Students who secure a seat in Round 1 must report to the allotted colleges to confirm their admission. They will need to verify the following documents with the colleges: Class 10 and 12 mark sheets Photo ID Proof such as Aadhar card, School ID card, PAN card, etc. Passport-size photos Payment slip (Proof of Rs. 50,000 fee payment for seat locking) Date of Birth Proof (Class 10 certificate or birth certificate) Caste Certificate (if applicable) top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Migration Certificate (if applicable) RUHS Jaipur and Marwar Medical University (MMU), Jodhpur, conducted the CUET 2025 exam for BSc Nursing admission on May 27, 2025. This exam was held for students aspiring to study nursing in 216 colleges across Rajasthan. About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:57 IST News education-career RUHS Round 1 Seat Allotment Result 2025 To Be Declared Today At ruhscuet2025.com UP School Holidays: Educational Institutions To Remain Closed In Several Districts From July 16 To 23 Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:38 IST In Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, an order has been issued to keep all educational institutions closed from July 16 to 23 due to the Kanwar Yatra 2025. Schools in UP to remain closed till July 23 in several districts. (Representative/File) In some districts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, schools have been announced to close on July 16, 2025 for different reasons. In Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, an order has been issued to keep all educational institutions closed from July 16 to 23 due to the Kanwar Yatra 2025. During the month of Sawan, millions of Shiva devotees participate in the Kanwar Yatra, causing increased traffic and security challenges. Schools in Meerut and Muzaffarnagar will be closed due to the heavy crowds and traffic disruptions during the Kanwar Yatra 2025, which runs from July 16 to 23. Millions of Kanwariyas carry Ganga water and travel towards Shiva temples. All government and private schools and colleges in these areas will also remain closed to ensure student safety, necessitating reliance on online studies or alternative arrangements. Recommended Stories All schools in Ujjain Municipal Corporation area will remain closed every Monday from July 14 to August 11. Instead, classes will be held on Sunday. This will help in ensuring the safety of children during the Kanwar Yatra. Ujjain Mahakal will see a huge crowd of devotees from all over the country. All students and parents have been advised by the govt to check the status of their district and area before leaving for school tomorrow. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Meanwhile, in Haryana, all private schools will remain closed on July 16 in protest against the murder of a school principal in Hisar. This incident occurred at Kartar Memorial School in Hisar, raising safety concerns among the teacher community. These decisions have been made in both states considering the local conditions and public interest. In Haryana, 10,760 private schools will remain closed on July 16, 2025 in protest against the murder of Jagbir Singh Panu, principal of Kartar Memorial Senior Secondary School in Bas Badshahpur village of Hisar district. The murder has raised security concerns among the teacher community. The Private School Association of Haryana has demanded a special law for the safety of teachers. The decision to close the schools has been taken by Satyawan Kundu, president of the Private School Association, affecting the studies of students in private schools in Hisar and other areas for a day. About the Author Education and Careers Desk A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses and information on college and school admissions, board and competitive exams, career options, topper interviews, job notifications, latest in ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:56 IST News education-career UP School Holidays: Educational Institutions To Remain Closed In Several Districts From July 16 To 23 'No Coalition In Tamil Nadu': Palaniswami's 'AIADMK Single Largest Party' Snub To BJP Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 18:51 IST Palaniswami's not-so-subtle snub to the BJP has left many confused as he has not been consistent on how the NDA is functioning with over eight months left to go for the polls Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami during a press conference in Chennai. (Image: PTI) In an indirect warning to the BJP about who will be boss if the NDA wins the Tamil Nadu assembly election, AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday ruled out a coalition government in the state and said his party will be the single largest. Palaniswamis not-so-subtle snub to the BJP has left many confused as he has not been consistent with his statements on how the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is functioning with over eight months left to go for the elections. Recommended Stories At times, he has said the NDA in Tamil Nadu is stable and those attempting to create divisions among its constituents will not succeed. But on other occasions, he has stressed that his decisions will be final regarding the alliance. There will be no coalition government in Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK will become the single largest party," Palaniswami told News18. We will keep our doors open for the TVK (actor Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam). Whoever wants to defeat the DMK should join hands with the AIADMK." ITS MY DECISION, RIGHT? Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said in the past that there will be a coalition government in Tamil Nadu if the NDA wins. But Palaniswami has always responded to this statement by saying the BJP senior only stated that the alliance will capture power. He says our alliance will form the government. I have already made it clear who is heading this alliance? So its my decision, right? Who becomes CM, who forms the government both of us (Shah and I) have made it clear," he told reporters. He said it has been made clear that the AIADMK will lead the NDA, form the government, and that he will be the CM should the alliance emerge victorious. No attempts to create a rift in the alliance will succeed. This is a stable alliance," he added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The opposition leader claimed that the DMK did not expect the AIADMK to forge an alliance and, therefore, was criticising the grouping out of fear". (With PTI inputs) About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 18:51 IST News elections 'No Coalition In Tamil Nadu': Palaniswami's 'AIADMK Single Largest Party' Snub To BJP INS Nistar To Join Navy On July 18: All About India's First Fully Indigenous Diving Support Vessel Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Pragati Ratti Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:26 IST INS Nistar can perform saturation diving up to 300 metres, side diving up to 75 metres, and coordinate rescue operations at depths of 1,000 metres. With over 75 per cent indigenous content and contributions from more than 120 MSMEs, Nistar embodies the Make in India mission in the defence sector. (Image: Indian Navy) The Indian Navy is all set to induct the state-of-the-art indigenous Diving Support Vessel (DSV), INS Nistar, on July 18, 2025, at the Naval Dockyard in Visakhapatnam. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to preside over the commissioning ceremony, marking a significant leap in Indias maritime capabilities, particularly in the realm of submarine rescue and deep-sea diving operations. What Is INS Nistar? Recommended Stories Built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) under the Governments Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative, INS Nistar is Indias first fully indigenous DSV. Measuring approximately 118 metres in length and displacing around 9,35010,000 tonnes, the vessel has been designed to operate at sea for over 60 days, with a capacity to carry more than 200 personnel. With over 75 per cent indigenous content and contributions from more than 120 MSMEs, Nistar embodies the Make in India mission in the defence sector. It combines operational depth with strategic self-reliance, reducing Indias dependence on foreign technology for critical rescue infrastructure. INS Nistar is specifically designed to support complex diving and submarine rescue missions. It can perform saturation diving up to 300 metres, side diving up to 75 metres, and coordinate rescue operations at depths of 1,000 metres with the help of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs). The vessel will act as a mother ship" for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle (DSRV), which can be launched to extract sailors from distressed submarines deep underwater. It also boasts a 15-tonne subsea crane, a dynamic positioning system, and advanced onboard medical facilities including decompression chambers, hyperbaric medical systems, and an eight-bed hospital. What Does Nistar Mean And What Is Its Connection With Navy? The name Nistar," derived from Sanskrit, meaning liberation" or rescue," is not new to the Indian Navy. The current vessel revives the legacy of an earlier INS Nistar, a Soviet-origin submarine rescue ship commissioned in 1971 and decommissioned in 1989. That ship played a crucial role during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, particularly in operations surrounding the sinking of PNS Ghazi, a Pakistani submarine. While the old Nistar operated using rescue bells and basic sub-surface recovery techniques, the new one represents a generational leap, equipped with next-generation digital navigation and life-support systems. What Is The Significance Of INS Nistar? top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all With increasing underwater threats in the Indo-Pacific region, especially from hostile submarines and undersea surveillance platforms, the commissioning of INS Nistar strengthens Indias ability to carry out rescue missions, underwater repairs, and training exercises independently. It joins hands with its sister vessel INS Nipun to form a robust DSV duo, enhancing the Navys preparedness for both peacetime emergencies and combat scenarios. As India expands its blue water naval ambitions, INS Nistar stands as a testament to the countrys growing self-reliance, technological prowess, and commitment to safeguarding life underwater. About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 16:26 IST News explainers INS Nistar To Join Navy On July 18: All About India's First Fully Indigenous Diving Support Vessel The Helicopter That Hunts Without Being Seen: What Apache Will Add To Indias Air Power Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:02 IST Designed to dominate hostile terrain with precision strikes, the AH-64E Apache is among the worlds most advanced attack helicopters. The first three are expected next week An Apache Guardian helicopter (Photo: PTI) India is all set to receive the first three of six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters next week, marking a significant milestone in the Indian Armys aviation modernisation plans. The delivery comes under a deal signed with the United States in 2020 and will provide a serious boost to Indias combat readiness along the western border. But what exactly is the Apache helicopter, and how does it enhance Indias air defence and strike capabilities? Recommended Stories What Are Apache Helicopters? The AH-64E Apache is one of the worlds most advanced attack helicopters, designed to deliver powerful strikes in hostile combat zones. Manufactured by US defence giant Boeing, the Apache is currently operated by the armed forces of countries like the United States, the UK, Israel, Egypt, and now India. India first acquired 22 Apache helicopters for the Indian Air Force under a 2015 agreement. The six new ones being inducted are for the Indian Armys Aviation Corps. According to Boeing, the Apache is equipped with the latest communications, navigation, sensor, and weapon systems." These include an upgraded targeting system, called the Modernised Target Acquisition Designation System, that helps pilots identify and strike targets in both day and night conditions, and even in poor visibility due to rain, dust, or fog. The helicopter is armed with a powerful 30 mm chain gun, laser- and radar-guided Hellfire missiles for precision strikes, and rocket pods capable of engaging multiple ground targets. It also features the Longbow radar mounted above the rotorallowing the Apache to detect, track, and prioritise threats without direct exposure. The AH-64E is built for tough missions. It combines agility with battlefield durability through powerful engines, reinforced rotor blades, and advanced survivability systems. It is designed to fly low, strike fast, and return safelyeven in the most challenging environments. What Is The Apache Deal India Signed? In February 2020, the Indian government approved the procurement of six AH-64E Apaches in a deal worth around $600 million. This was in addition to the earlier IAF purchase. At the time, Boeing stated: This order will expand the Indian Armys capability to provide integrated combat aviation support to land forces." When Will The Apache Helicopters Arrive? According to NDTV, the initial batch of three Apache helicopters is scheduled to arrive next week. They will be delivered to the Indian Army at Hindon Air Force Station, where they will undergo a joint inspection by Boeing, US officials, and Indian authorities. The remaining three helicopters are expected to arrive later in the year. Missed Delivery Deadlines The delivery has faced two previous delays. Originally scheduled for June 2024, the handover was first postponed to December 2024 due to supply chain disruptions. It was then pushed to July 2025, with the final three helicopters now likely to be delivered before the end of the year. Where Will The Army Deploy These Helicopters? The Indian Army raised its first Apache unit, 451 Army Aviation Squadron, in Jodhpur on March 15, 2024. This squadron is now set to receive the incoming helicopters, beginning formal induction. Basing the squadron in Jodhpur suggests the Apaches will primarily operate along the western border with Pakistan, particularly across the desert terrain of Rajasthan. In this region, the helicopters will support ground forces with rapid strikes, anti-armour operations, and close air supportcapabilities crucial in fast-moving battlefield scenarios. How Are Apache Helicopters Different From Other Platforms India Uses? India already fields the indigenously developed Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Prachand and the armed version of the Dhruv helicopter, called Rudra. However, the Apache brings a different level of capability in terms of endurance, targeting precision, and firepower. The Apaches offer superior survivability and are intended to operate in high-intensity conflict environments, including those with fortified enemy positions, armoured columns, and advanced air defences. While the Prachand is optimised for high-altitude combatsuch as in Ladakhthe Apache excels in open terrain and semi-urban warfare, especially in armoured support roles. This diverse fleet gives the Indian military flexibility to respond to a wide range of threats. What Makes The AH-64E Special? According to Boeings official product details, the AH-64E offers key upgrades over previous versions: Increased Power and Agility : Enhanced engines and rotor systems improve speed and manoeuvrability. : Enhanced engines and rotor systems improve speed and manoeuvrability. Improved Targeting : The Modernised TADS/PNVS system provides high-resolution infrared imaging. : The Modernised TADS/PNVS system provides high-resolution infrared imaging. Fire Control Radar : The Longbow radar can detect and prioritise multiple targets in complex battlefield conditions. : The Longbow radar can detect and prioritise multiple targets in complex battlefield conditions. Networking Capability: Real-time data sharing and the ability to team with UAVs, enabling Apache pilots to control drones mid-flight. These features allow the Apache to conduct high-precision strikes at longer ranges and operate effectively even in densely defended airspace. How Does The Apache Fit Into Indias Air Defence Strategy? Unlike traditional air defence platforms like missile systems or interceptor aircraft, the Apache operates at low altitudes and engages targets from close range. Its ability to fly nap-of-the-earth missions allows it to neutralise threats before they can threaten ground forces or air bases. In addition to strike missions, the Apache plays a vital role in reconnaissance and battlefield surveillance. Its advanced sensors, real-time video feeds, and target-tracking systems allow it to scout enemy positions and relay critical informationcapabilities that are increasingly important for networked air-land operations. With radar warning receivers, missile countermeasures, and high battlefield agility, the Apache enhances Indias ability to operate in contested airspace, filling a crucial gap in its layered air defence system. Why Is This Induction Significant For The Indian Army? This is the first time that the Indian Armyrather than the Indian Air Forcewill operate Apache helicopters. The move reflects the Armys push for dedicated close air support under its direct control, enabling faster coordination with ground forces in high-threat zones. The helicopters are expected to significantly enhance tactical mobility and strike capability, particularly in armoured warfare contexts along the western frontier. This model aligns with global military practices. Countries like the US and UK equip their ground forces with direct access to attack helicopters for battlefield support. Whats The Strategic Message? Indias induction of Apache helicopters is not just about firepowerits also about deterrence and regional signalling. By basing these helicopters near the Pakistan border, India strengthens its immediate response capacity in a sensitive sector. The deployment also comes at a time when troop presence has increased along the western frontier in the aftermath of Operation SindoorIndias cross-border military response to the Pahalgam terror attack earlier this year. The Apaches are expected to reinforce this enhanced forward posture by delivering mobile strike and reconnaissance support in high-risk zones. This move also underlines Indias broader military modernisation, amid evolving threats across both western and northern borders. Indias Broader Helicopter Capability Push The Apache deal comes alongside Indias growing investment in indigenous platforms. In March last year, the Indian Army signed a contract for 25 Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH Dhruv Mk III). The Defence Ministry finalised two contracts worth over Rs 8,073 crore to procure 34 ALH Mk III helicopters25 for the Army and 9 for the Coast Guardmarking a major step toward indigenisation in Indias rotary-wing fleet. Conclusion The arrival of AH-64E Apache helicopters for the Indian Army marks a major leap in Indias combat capabilities. With state-of-the-art sensors, precision-guided weapons, and all-weather operational readiness, the Apache is set to transform how India delivers close air support and executes deep strike missions. Crucially, it gives the Indian Army independent access to advanced aerial firepower, enhancing both tactical flexibility and rapid response potential in critical sectors. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all For Indias broader air defence architecture, the Apache adds a mobile, combat-proven platform that strengthens integrated warfare capability and fortifies deterrence along sensitive borders. With this induction, India not only sharpens its military edge but also deepens strategic defence ties with the United States, reinforcing its position as a serious regional power. About the Author Karishma Jain Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar... Read More Karishma Jain, Chief Sub Editor at News18.com, writes and edits opinion pieces on a variety of subjects, including Indian politics and policy, culture and the arts, technology and social change. Follow her @kar... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:57 IST News explainers The Helicopter That Hunts Without Being Seen: What Apache Will Add To Indias Air Power Trump Now Playing 'Russian Roulette' With Tariff Talks: What Does This Mean For India, The World? Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 21:16 IST The US President has threatened to impose 100% 'secondary tariffs' on countries trading with Russia, with an exception if Moscow agrees to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days Trump's tariff tirade continues, and the latest threat of sanctions is not just to bring Moscow to the negotiating table but also to challenge a grouping like BRICS that represents emerging economies and the Global South, which is a significant counterweight to the G7. File pic/Reuters Is the war in Ukraine reshaping the existing global order? Donald Trumps threat of secondary tariffs on Russia is not just bad news for India; it is also creating a significant divide between two world groupings: BRICS and NATO. Recommended Stories The US President has threatened to impose 100 per cent secondary tariffs" on countries trading with Russia, with an exception if Moscow agrees to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days. Trumps dissatisfaction with Russias lack of progress towards a peace deal is well-known. He has already expressed his displeasure alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House. Trump stated that the tariffs would be biting" and very, very powerful", adding, Were going to be doing very severe tariffs if we dont have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 per centyoud call them secondary tariffs." The Kremlin has indicated its willingness to negotiate but has warned that Russia will not respond positively to ultimatums. Interestingly, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has echoed the US Presidents sentiments, particularly as the US-NATO weapons purchasing scheme has just been established between Trump and Rutte. Trump has declared that the Patriot missile defence systems should arrive in Ukraine very soon, despite resistance from some high-profile figures in the MAGA movement who oppose US support for Ukraine. Kyiv has reasons to celebrate as Washington resumes military assistance to Ukraine. On expected lines, the NATO chief has warned that Brazil, China, and India could be hit very hard by secondary sanctions if they continue to do business with Russia. Rutte has urged Russias BRICS allies, India, Brazil, and China, to make that phone call to Putin to avoid the sanctions. Countries that stand to lose are Russias allies, and mostly the partner nations of BRICS. India and China have become the top two destinations for Russian oil, with India alone importing about 1.6 to 1.7 million barrels per day, which accounts for around 35 per cent of Indias daily oil needs. Though not a major buyer of Russian oil and energy, South Africa does import some goods from Russia, including cereals, mineral fuels, inorganic chemicals, and salt. Brazil, a major agricultural economy, is one of the largest buyers of Russian fertilisers, a key input for its production of soybeans, sugar, and coffee. In West Asia, the United Arab Emirates, a significant BRICS member, functions as a financial conduit for Russian energy transactions. Dubai may not be a primary consumer of Russian oil, but it has become a financial sanctuary for Russian capital and oligarch wealth. Another BRICS member, Vietnam, also maintains energy and defence ties with Moscow. Interestingly, Turkey, a NATO member, remains heavily reliant on Russian fossil fuels, including both crude oil and natural gas. It should be noted that Trump has been targeting BRICS ever since the Rio summit concluded. Whether it was the BRICS joint declaration condemning US airstrikes on Iran or Trumps rising tariffs, the US President has been warning BRICS nations against de-dollarisation too. The result? Trumps tariff tirade continues, and the latest threat of sanctions is not just to bring Moscow to the negotiating table but also to challenge a grouping like BRICS that represents emerging economies and the Global South, which is a significant counterweight to the G7. The timing stands out even more after NATOs choreographed commitment to raise their annual defence budgets to 5% of national income within a decade, a tribute to a president prone to flattery. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Business ties with Russia may become a challenge for India, which is already walking the diplomatic tightrope between an Indo-Pacific grouping of the Quad and an anti-West grouping like BRICS. A similar challenge will face Turkey, a key NATO member. NATO has made it clear that there can be no return to business as usual" until Russia demonstrates compliance with international law and obligations. Donald Trump aligning with NATO against Russia and the BRICS marks a significant shift in strategy, reflecting a judgment that Europe is a better client than the Kremlin. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 21:16 IST News explainers Trump Now Playing 'Russian Roulette' With Tariff Talks: What Does This Mean For India, The World? Who Are The Druze And Why Sweida Has Become Epicenter Of Syrias Latest Unrest? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:06 IST The Syrian government's deployment to Sweida has escalated tensions, causing clashes with Druze factions and Israeli military involvement. Government soldiers stand next to confiscate items stolen during clashes in Sweida city. (Image Credit: AP) The Syrian governments deployment of forces to the Druze-majority city of Sweida has triggered a dangerous escalation in southern Syria. The move, described by observers as an attempt by the new Islamist authorities in Damascus to assert full control over the region, has raised fears of wider conflict. What Triggered Violence In Sweida? Recommended Stories The clashes began on Sunday as fighting erupted between factions from the Druze religious minority and Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes. The two groups have a long-standing rivalry in the region and this latest round of violence left over 100 people dead. In response, Syrian government forces deployed reinforcements to Sweida, claiming the aim was to restore order. However, reports from local witnesses, Druze armed groups and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops, alongside Bedouin allies, seized several villages that were previously controlled by Druze factions. What Happened Next? By Monday, the Syrian government had entered parts of Sweida. On Tuesday, Damascus announced a ceasefire, following talks with local Druze notables. The Syrian defence ministry said it had entered the city peacefully but one of the top Druze spiritual leaders, Hikmat al-Hijri, accused the government of breaking that promise. He called on people to resist this brutal campaign by all available means." Whats At Stake For Druze Armed Groups? For much of Syrias 14-year civil war, Sweida remained under the de facto control of Druze militias. These groups, including the influential Men of Dignity movement and the Mountain Brigade, had stayed largely autonomous, defending their territory but avoiding deeper involvement in the broader conflict. After Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December, Syrias new rulers demanded that all armed factions dissolve and integrate into the national army. In January, the two largest Druze groups expressed readiness to do so but said that the state has delayed acting on that agreement. Now, as the government forces entered their territory by force, those tensions have boiled over. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Who Are The Druze? The Druze are a secretive religious community that emerged in the 10th century as a breakaway from Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Prior to the war, Syria was home to around 700,000 Druze- about 3% of the population. Today, around 150,000 live in Sweida. Druze communities are also found in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. view comments Location : Syria First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:58 IST News explainers Who Are The Druze And Why Sweida Has Become Epicenter Of Syrias Latest Unrest? The Virginia Retirement System expects to adopt comparable rates for state agencies and school divisions to pay for their employees' long-term pension benefits in the next two-year state budget, even though the system's investment returns were lagging its benchmark target through March 31. The retirement system, with more than 380,000 active employees and almost 250,000 retirees, has not released its rate of return on investments in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, but those investments were earning a return of 6.3% in the first nine months of the fiscal year below its benchmark of 7.9% and the annual targeted return of 6.75%. But VRS officials told state legislators on Monday that they expect no major changes in the contribution rates their board of trustees will adopt in October for the two-year budget proposal that Gov. Glenn Youngkin will present in December and the General Assembly will consider in the 60-day legislative session that will begin in January. "We anticipate those rates to be comparable to the current budget cycle," said Sandy Jack, director of policy, planning and compliance at VRS. VRS appears optimistic about the performance of its investments in the final quarter of the fiscal year. It began with a severe market downturn after President Donald Trump announced his "Liberation Day" tariffs on April 2 and led to a significant rebound in June despite mixed signals from the White House over threats to the United States' trading partners around the world. The state's retirement trust fund exceeded $118.2 billion on March 31, but VRS Chairman Scott Andrews estimated its total value at $120 billion in a presentation to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. Andrews said his estimate was preliminary but confirmed that investment returns in June increased the trust fund's value. VRS investment returns matter to state lawmakers, who have to make up for losses in the state budget. Since adopting major reforms to the retirement system in 2012, the General Assembly and four governors have committed to providing the money that VRS says it needs to pay for ongoing retirement benefits and reduce unfunded long-term liabilities. Those changes addressed long-term state underfunding of public employee pensions, especially after the Great Recession hammered the trust fund in 2009. Still, the retirement system's unfunded liabilities range from $16 billion to $18 billion, depending on whether it counts their current market value or the actuarial accounting it uses to smooth out gains and losses and to set rates. Currently, the state pays 12.57% of payroll for state employee pension benefits and the state and local school divisions pay 14.21% for teachers, who represent the largest portion of the 857,643 current or former employees that the system covers. Employees also pay 5% of their wages into their pension accounts. The VRS Board of Trustees has come under criticism for not always matching the performance of indexed stock and fixed-income funds but instead diversifying its investments and relying on well-paid internal staff to manage one-third of them. But VRS officials say they focus on managing risks, as well as maximizing returns, after the losses during the Great Recession. "That's what we're really focused on here is balancing risks and returns," Chief Investment Officer Andrew Junkin told legislators. The risks include Trump's shifting tariff threats, which intensified over last weekend and are "probably changing while I'm speaking," Junkin said. "The markets, at the moment, seem to be shrugging all of that off after the initial reaction," he said. One of the risks for pension fund investments is countries that Trump has designated as foreign adversaries: the People's Republic of China, as well as its "autonomous regions" of Hong Kong and Macau; Russia; North Korea; Cuba; Iran; and the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Trump issued an executive order in February which targeted investments in those countries, but the VRS board had begun to discuss the issue shortly after the presidential election in November. The board directed Junkin to develop a policy on "certain investments, which established a framework for the prudent mitigation of economic exposure to those countries that have been designated as foreign adversaries by the Office of the Secretary of Commerce," VRS spokeswoman Virginia Sowers said. "VRS believed that certain investment risks were not being fully captured by markets, with regard to geopolitical events." The board adopted its new policy in June to "mitigate investment exposure to those countries where we believe investment risks are significantly higher than those being reflected by current markets or where international trade and investment are made more challenging by geopolitical concerns," Sowers said. "This is not a divestment policy." As a result, VRS has changed three of its benchmarks for investments in China and Hong Kong to reflect economic exposure to sanctions or other potential U.S. actions. "We're not eliminating exposure to China because it's frankly impossible," Junkin said. "We have mitigated it." What Is Qisas, The Islamic Law That Could Decide Indian Nurse Nimisha Priya's Fate? Explained Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 13:25 IST Priyas execution, initially scheduled for July 16, was postponed after diplomatic efforts by the Indian government and involvement of prominent religious figures from Kerala The most common method of execution in Yemen, per Amnesty International, involves a firing squad in a public or prison. (News18) The execution of Nimisha Priya, who is on death row in Yemen, may have been put on hold, but the family of her former business partner and victim Talal Abdo Mahdi seems unrelenting and has sought strict application of Gods Law in Qisas in a development that could signal more trouble for the Indian nurse. Priyas execution, initially scheduled for July 16, was postponed after persistent diplomatic efforts by the Indian government and involvement of prominent religious figures from Kerala, including the Grand Mufti of India. She remains detained in a Houthi-controlled prison in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where India does not have official diplomatic ties. Recommended Stories Though the news gave India a much-needed breather, Mahdis family has made it clear that nothing less than Priyas execution would be a panacea for them. In a Facebook post, the victims brother Abdelfattah Mahdi said the family had rejected all reconciliation offers, including those of being paid blood money. What is happening today, and all the talk of mediation and reconciliation attempts, is neither new nor surprising. Throughout the years of our case, there have been covert efforts and serious attempts at mediation and that is natural and expected. But the pressures we have faced have not changed us. Our demand is clear: Qisas (retribution), and nothing else, no matter what," he said. He added: The execution has now been postponedunfortunately, we did not expect this, especially since those who stopped it are well aware of our absolute rejection of any form or method of reconciliation. In any case, what follows the setting of an execution date is harder than what came before. We will follow through with the execution until it is carried out. No postponement will stop us. No pressure will shake us. Blood cannot be bought. Justice cannot be forgotten. Qisas will come, no matter how long the roadits only a matter of time. With Gods help." In an interview with BBC Arabic, he also denied claims made by Priya regarding abuse, exploitation, or passport confiscation. What Is Qisas? Under Yemens Islamic legal system, the principle of Qisas allows the victims family to seek retributive justicetypically the death penalty in cases of murder. It is rooted in the concept of an eye for an eye", promoting a form of justice that mirrors the harm done. Qisas is legally enforceable in several countries that follow Sharia-based criminal justice systems, either fully or partially. These include: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan (under the Taliban), and some regions in Nigeria (where Sharia is applied). In these countries, Qisas is embedded in the legal code and can be carried out as a form of retributive justice, particularly in murder and grievous bodily harm cases. However, judicial review and government oversight often influence its implementation. However, under Sharia law in Yemen, the victims family also has the option to pardon the accused in return for diyah, or blood moneya financial settlement intended to promote reconciliation. If accepted, the payment can result in a pardon and the cancellation of the death sentence. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all What Lies Ahead For Nimisha Priya? Given that Mahdis family is unwilling to budge from its stand, the enforcement of Qisas means that unless the victims family chooses to forgive or alters its position, the death sentence legally stands and cannot be overturned. About the Author Apoorva Misra Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. S... Read More Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. S... Read More view comments Location : Yemen First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:24 IST News explainers What Is Qisas, The Islamic Law That Could Decide Indian Nurse Nimisha Priya's Fate? Explained 3-Year-Old Raped By Neighbour In Delhi's Mayapuri, Hospitalised Reported By : CNN-News18 Edited By: Vani Mehrotra Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:26 IST A minor was raped in Delhi's Mayapuri area, and the accused was arrested by the Delhi Police. The girl is currently receiving treatment at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. A representative image showing protests against rape cases (PTI) A three-year-old girl was raped in Delhis Mayapuri area and was admitted to a hospital. The incident happened on Tuesday, but was reported today. According to sources, the accused in the case was known to the survivors family and used to live in the neighbourhood. Recommended Stories As the Delhi Police swung into action upon receiving information about the incident, they identified and arrested the accused. Meanwhile, the minor girl was receiving treatment at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in the national capital. On Monday, a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a teenager in a village in the Kokhraj police station area in Uttar Pradeshs Kaushambi. The incident took place when the girl was grazing a goat, and a 14-year-old boy from the same village lured her with a toffee, took her to the forest area and raped her. On reaching home, the girl informed her family members about the incident. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered in this regard on a complaint by the rape survivors grandmother. The accused was absconding and has yet not been arrested. Earlier, a 14-year-old girl was raped and impregnated allegedly by her schoolmate in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtras Thane district. Based on a complaint, the police registered a case on July 10, under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act against the boy, who was also 14 years old. The police said that both the girl and the accused lived in the same locality and attended the same school. As per the complaint, the assault took place in May when the accused allegedly called the girl to his house and raped her. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Later, she was found to be pregnant. No arrests were yet made in the case while a probe was ongoing. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:11 IST News india 3-Year-Old Raped By Neighbour In Delhi's Mayapuri, Hospitalised 'A New Dimension In Warfare': Integrated Defence Staff Chief Pushes For Indigenous Drones Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 22:29 IST Air Marshal Dixit stressed that while drones have added a "new dimension in warfare", much of the technology currently used relies on components from abroad Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit. Chief of Integrated Defence Staff, Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, on Wednesday highlighted the growing importance of drones, or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), in modern warfare and called for a unified effort to boost indigenous innovation in the sector. Speaking at an event at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, Air Marshal Dixit said that the strategic value of UAVs has gained widespread attention, especially after the success of Operation Sindoor. Recommended Stories After Operation Sindoors success The strategic significance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) has suddenly become known to each and every child in India," he noted. #WATCH | Delhi: Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit says, This drone thing has been live for a very long time, but after Operation Sindoors success, suddenly it has caught attention and a large number of debates are happening, and we are going deeper and deeper into this aspect. The pic.twitter.com/GP9aylj8ny ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 He pointed to the increasing use of drone technology in global conflicts, including in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia. However, he also underlined a key concern, much of the drone technology currently in use in India relies heavily on imported components. Drone have added a new dimension in warfare," Air Marshal Dixit stressed, but noted that in recent years, many of the components used in them have been sourced from abroad. Air Marshal Dixit called for coordinated efforts from the armed forces, civil authorities, scientific bodies, industry, and academic institutions. He stressed the need to aggregate demands" and work together towards building strong indigenous capabilities. Industry has to do innovation and innovation and innovation. All scientific organisations have to contribute to indigenous military capability and they have to continue to help us and the academy has to do foundational research," he added. Earlier in the day, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan also addressed the workshop and emphasised the need to modernise Indias defence systems. CDS Chauhan noted that todays warfare has to be fought with tomorrows technology," underlining that relying on outdated weapons is no longer an option. Cant win todays warfare with yesterdays weapon systems; todays warfare has to be fought with tomorrows technology," he said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The Chief of Defence Staff also praised the use of indigenous weapons in Operation Sindoor and urged greater investment in domestic defence production. He warned that dependence on imported technology weakens Indias preparedness and called for reducing reliance on foreign sources for critical technologies. The event, a one-day workshop organised by the Integrated Defence Staff in collaboration with the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies, saw large-scale participation from the defence industry and startups. The workshop included displays and demonstrations of adaptive solutions in an exhibition. About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 21:27 IST News india 'A New Dimension In Warfare': Integrated Defence Staff Chief Pushes For Indigenous Drones Air India Completes Fuel Control Switch Inspections On Boeing 787 Planes, Finds No Issues Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 22:53 IST The move came after the DGCA on Monday directed airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking systems on their Boeing 787 and 737 planes Air India. (File photo) Air India on Wednesday completed inspections of the locking mechanism of fuel control switches (FCS) on its Boeing 787 aircraft and found no issues, an airline official said. The move came after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday directed airlines to inspect the fuel switch locking systems on their Boeing 787 and 737 planes. This followed a preliminary report from the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) which indicated that the fuel switches were cut off before the Air India plane crash last month that claimed 260 lives. Recommended Stories Over the weekend, our Engineering team initiated precautionary inspections on the locking mechanism of Fuel Control Switch (FCS) on all our Boeing 787 aircraft. The inspections have been completed and no issues were found," the official said, citing an internal message sent to Air India pilots. The official also confirmed that all Boeing 787-8 aircraft in the fleet have had the Throttle Control Module (TCM) replaced as per Boeings maintenance schedule. The FCS is a part of this module. Fuel control switches regulate the flow of fuel to the aircraft engines. According to the AAIBs preliminary investigation report released on Saturday, fuel supply to both engines was cut off within one second of each other, causing confusion in the cockpit shortly after takeoff. The 15-page report revealed that the fuel control switches for both engines moved from the run" to the cutoff" position within a second, leading to an immediate loss of altitude. In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cut off? The other pilot responded that he did not do so," the report said. While the AAIB referenced a Safety Alert for Operators (SAIB) issued by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it did not recommend any specific actions. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The airline has also urged pilots to stay alert and report any technical issues in the existing defect reporting system, the official added. (With inputs from PTI) About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 22:53 IST News india Air India Completes Fuel Control Switch Inspections On Boeing 787 Planes, Finds No Issues Avenging Her Mate? Snakes 'Revenge' Rampage Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Critical In UP Village Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 17:46 IST While Manoj was sleeping with his family, the snake bit him around 4 a.m. Despite treatment attempts and plans to shift him to Jaipur, he died on the way On July 2, Durgesh's brother Sachin, visiting from Hathras, killed a female snake found in Manoj's house with a stick. (News18 Hindi) In a bizarre and tragic turn of events from Sihora village in Uttar Pradesh, panic has gripped locals after a female snake allegedly attacked three people over three days, reportedly in retaliation for the killing of its male counterpart. The attacks left 35-year-old Manoj dead and two others critically injured, sparking fears of a revenge strike that villagers claim is both rare and unsettling. The turmoil began during the naming ceremony of Manoj and Durgeshs newborn daughter on July 2. Durgeshs brother Sachin, visiting from Hathras, killed a female snake found in Manojs house with a stick. Recommended Stories Following Sachins departure, another black-coloured female snake appeared inside the house four days later, causing commotion among the residents. Despite sightings both inside and outside the house, villagers initially ignored the snake. On Wednesday night, Manoj was sleeping with his family when he was bitten by the snake at 4 a.m. Thursday morning. Panic ensued as Manojs health deteriorated despite efforts by exorcists. Though he was rushed to a private hospital and advised to go to Jaipur, Manoj tragically died en route, leaving his family devastated. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all On Saturday, Manojs brother-in-law Dinesh visited to offer condolences. That night, Dinesh and Manojs elder brother Pappu shared a bed when the snake returned at midnight and bit them both. The incident caused further commotion, spreading fear throughout the village. Exorcists were summoned again, capturing the snake and locking it in a box after four hours of rituals. The snakes terror had gripped the village, but both Dinesh and Pappu were promptly sent to hospital and are now reported to be in stable condition. view comments Location : Uttar Pradesh, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 17:46 IST News india Avenging Her Mate? Snakes 'Revenge' Rampage Leaves 1 Dead, 2 Critical In UP Village Balasore Professor Asked Student For 'Favour', Told Her She Was 'No Child To Not Understand' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:02 IST The accused professor in the Balasore student death case had reportedly told her that she was not a child to not understand what "favours" he needed, a report has claimed. Balasore: BJD workers take part in a demonstration during a bandh called by the party in protest against the death of a college student (Photo: PTI) As shocking details in the Balasore student death case continue to come to the fore, it has now been reported that Samira Kumar Sahoo, accused of sexually harassing the student, had told the woman that she was not a child to not understand what he needed. The student, in her complaint to the colleges Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) on July 1, had mentioned that the professor had asked for a favour" from her, refusal of which invited mental harassment. Recommended Stories According to a report with India Today, Minati Sethi, a member of the ICC, has revealed what the student told her when Sethi quizzed her about the professors favour" statement. When she (the student) asked him what kind of favour, Sahoo allegedly said, You are not a child to not understand what favour I need," Sethi said. However, we could not prove the allegation. It is very difficult to gather evidence on such charges," the report claimed Sethi said. According to the report, Sethi also said that the student was hurt as the professor had not allowed her to write a semester examination on June 30, and that she had taken it seriously". BALASORE STUDENT DEATH: WHAT WE KNOW On July 1, the student had written a complaint letter to the ICC, alleging that the professor had asked her for a favour", refusal of which invited mental harassment. However, Jayshree Mishra, the ICC coordinator of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, said the panel recommended the removal of Sahoo from the post of Head of Integrated BEd. But, the reason for seeking his removal was his strict approach" and not sexually harassing students, Mishra said. Mishra also said that the authorities did not take any steps on the recommendation. Later, the father of the 20-year-old Odisha college student, who set herself ablaze over inaction on her sexual harassment complaint, held members of the ICC solely responsible" for his daughters death. He also accused the members of preparing a biased report" in connection with her daughters allegation, which led her to set herself on fire on the campus on July 12. My daughter would have been alive today had the ICC done a proper probe into her allegation," the father said. The second-year Integrated B.Ed student in Balasore set herself ablaze shortly after coming out of the principals chamber, it was known. The student, who suffered 95 per cent burns, was first admitted to the Balasore District Headquarters Hospital and then shifted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar for advanced treatment. She was declared dead hours after President Droupadi Murmu visited her at the burn unit ICU. The funeral of the woman was conducted before noon on Tuesday in the presence of thousands of people. The accused professor and the principal of the college were arrested in connection with the case. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission has set up a four-member fact-finding team to look into the incident. ALSO READ | Balasore Student Reported HODs Harassment On June 30: Why Did It Lead To Peer Pressure But Not FIR? About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:51 IST News india Balasore Professor Asked Student For 'Favour', Told Her She Was 'No Child To Not Understand' Balasore Student Reported HODs Harassment On June 30: Why Did It Lead To Peer Pressure But Not FIR? Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Manjiri Joshi Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:07 IST Balasore students complaint of HOD's harassment on June 30 to self-immolation, sources tell News18 how college administration remained apathetic, even as she faced peer pressure Members of Biju Chhatra Janata Dal stage a protest over the self-immolation bid by Fakir Mohan College student in Balasore. (PTI) The tragic death of a 20-year-old BEd student of Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Balasore, after she set herself on fire over the alleged harassment by her head of department (HOD) and Assistant Professor Samir Kumar Sahu, has sparked nationwide outrage. Political parties, including the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Congress, have taken to the streets, demanding justice. Investigating agencies, meanwhile, are raising serious questions about the role of the college administration. From the students complaint on June 30 to her self-immolation, sources tell News18 how the administration was apathetic every step of the way, even as the woman faced peer pressure to back off. Recommended Stories What happened after victim filed complaint on June 30? Sources tell News18 On June 30, the student, accompanied by her brother and a few students, approached the institution to lodge a complaint. Amid protests, the college principal called the police, alleging that some students were creating disturbance. The local Inspector-in-Charge (IC) and Additional SP promptly arrived at the college. They reportedly shared their contact details with the student and her brother, assuring them of assistance if required. Sources confirmed that a meeting was held at the college during this time, where the principal formally took the victims complaint. She had detailed months of abuse and threats from the professor. The student was promised action within seven days. Police officials advised the principal that police could intervene if legal action was required. Internal investigation confirmed HODs conduct was inappropriate The college conducted an internal investigation and submitted a detailed report. According to the report, it was recommended that the HOD be removed, citing his inappropriate conduct and unprofessional attitude. Sources within the investigating agencies have one key question on this: If the HoDs conduct was indeed found to be problematic, why did the principal not file an FIR? Balasore student even faced pressure from peers Sources have revealed that the Balasore victim faced pressure not only from the system but also from fellow students. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A group of students reportedly submitted a petition to the principal defending Sahu, claiming he was a good person, on June 1, said sources. On July 12, the student and others began a protest outside the college gate. According to the fellow students, amid the protest, the woman suddenly got up, ran to the area close to the principals office, and set herself on fire. She was rushed to AIIMS Bhubaneswar with over 90 per cent burns. She succumbed on Tuesday. About the Author Kamalika Sengupta Kamalika Sengupta, Editor, Digital East of News18, is a multilingual journalist with 16 years of experience in covering the northeast, with specialisation in politics and defence. She has won UNICEF Laadli Awar... Read More Kamalika Sengupta, Editor, Digital East of News18, is a multilingual journalist with 16 years of experience in covering the northeast, with specialisation in politics and defence. She has won UNICEF Laadli Awar... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:38 IST News india Balasore Student Reported HODs Harassment On June 30: Why Did It Lead To Peer Pressure But Not FIR? CEC Gyanesh Kumar Thanks Bihar People For Participating In Voters List Revision Drive Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:17 IST CEC Gyanesh Kumar thanked Bihar's voters for joining the electoral roll revision campaign to remove duplicate, deceased, or ineligible voters before the 2025 assembly elections. The electoral roll revision drive is also aimed at ensuring that new eligible voters are properly enrolled. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, on Wednesday extended his gratitude to the eligible electorates of Bihar for their active involvement in the recent initiative aimed revising states voter list. I thank all eligible electors of Bihar for actively participating in the much needed cleaning the electoral rolls," Gyanesh Kumar said. Recommended Stories The electoral roll revision campaign, launched earlier this year by the Election Commission of India (ECI), is aimed at identifying and eliminating duplicate, deceased, or ineligible voters ahead of the 2025 Bihar assembly elections. The electoral roll revision drive is also focused at ensuring that new eligible voters are properly enrolled. Now, state voters have only nine days left to submit their enumeration forms as the ECI has set July 25 deadline for its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process. According to the ECI, 86.32 per cent of all forms have been submitted across the state so far. With this, only 7.2 million voter enumeration forms remain to be collected. It is estimated that over 35 lakh names may be deleted from voter list in the state. Media reports suggest eastern Bihar may see the highest voter shift. This revision can potentially impact dozens of seats ahead of the upcoming elections. The scale and timing of the names removal, just months before elections, could impact closely-contested seats. The ECI decided to overhaul Bihars electoral rolls on June 24, making it mandatory for millions of electorates registered since 2003 to prove their citizenship, identity, and residency again, quickly. They must provide new evidence to vote. Some who enrolled before 2003 also need to produce evidence. Bangladesh, Nepal Nationals Found With Indian Documents The ECI Booth Level Officers (BLOs) recently found a significant number of individuals from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar possessing Indian documents such as Aadhaar, domicile certificates, and ration cards during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. As part of the drive, the ECI has established direct contact with nearly all voters in Bihar. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all An ECI press note dated July 15 stated, We are sparing no effort to ensure that all eligible electors are included. [Booth level officers] are making another round of visits to reach those still left out." Meanwhile, the Supreme Court in earlier hearings had noted, Verification must use Aadhaar, ration cards, and voter IDs to ensure fairness." About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:17 IST News india CEC Gyanesh Kumar Thanks Bihar People For Participating In Voters List Revision Drive Changur Baba Linked To Disappearance Of Girl In Ghaziabad Over Job Offer: Family Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 09:48 IST Changur Baba has been accused by a family of being involved in brainwashing their daughter and her disappearance. Changur Baba accused of involvement in girl's disappearance (News18 Hindi) Changur Baba, alias Jalaluddin who was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh ATS on charges of religious conversion, has now been accused of being involved in the disappearance of a girl from Ghaziabad. A family from the Kavi Nagar area in the city alleged that Baba and his associate Badr Akhtar Siddiqui are connected to the disappearance of their daughter back in 2019. Despite numerous efforts, they have not been able to trace her, they said. Recommended Stories The sister of the victim claimed that the two men manipulated and brainwashed her in the name of sending her to Dubai, and ultimately converting her away from Hinduism". She believed that an extensive interrogation of the accused individuals could expose several such cases across the state. The sister said that her sibling pursued a tour and travel course in 2019 when she came in contact with Badr Akhtar Siddiqui. He began by taking her on car rides and engaging her in conversations, eventually manipulating her emotionally and mentally. He also took her to Delhi various times and slowly began controlling her thoughts," she claimed. The family claims that black magic and occult practices were performed on her. The victim has been missing since October 2019. The last time she was seen was when she was reportedly taken away by Badr Akhtar Siddiqui in a Skoda car with tinted windows and three unknown men inside. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The sister claimed that her missing sibling had undergone a drastic transformation, including performing religious rituals, showing disdain towards Hindu deities". She allegedly grew distant from her parents, the family said, adding that she started expressing interest in Islam under Badr Akhtars influence. The family believed that she was systematically converted". About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 09:48 IST News india Changur Baba Linked To Disappearance Of Girl In Ghaziabad Over Job Offer: Family Delhi School Bomb Threat Emails Were Sent From Germany? Exclusive From Investigators Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Manjiri Joshi Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 11:52 IST At least five schools in Delhi received bomb threats on Wednesday Richmondd Global School, Dwarka, Vasant Kunj, Paschim Vihar, Hauz Khas Fire and security personnel on the premises of the Navy Children School after a bomb threat in Chanakyapuri area in New Delhi on Monday. (PTI) The origin of the bomb threat emails sent to Delhi schools on Wednesday, in the continuing series of such emails seen over the past year, has been traced to Germany, said investigators. However, they suspect the use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) may have masked the actual location of the sender. A senior official involved in the investigation told News18 that the IP address of Wednesdays emails indicates a German network, with the email account also linked to a Germany-based provider. Recommended Stories It appears to be a network IP, possibly associated with a public place or network, though the exact location is still being verified," the official said. Similar indicators were found in threats sent to other schools as well. At least five schools across the capital received fresh bomb threats today Richmondd Global School (4.16 am), Dwarka (5.26 am), Vasant Kunj (6.30 am), Paschim Vihar (8.11 am), Hauz Khas (8.12 am). The threatening message read: Good morning. Explosive devices are hidden inside backpacks and placed around the classrooms of the school. This is extremely serious. You will all pay for your sins." The email also included a disturbing request to release certain withheld names to the media for publicity. Cyber investigators believe that the email was sent using Tuta Mail (formaly Tutanota), a Germany-based encrypted email service which recently launched new encrypted protocal. Tuta Mail, which recently launched a post-quantum encryption protocol called TutaCrypt, was used to send these threats," said a senior government cyber investigator. Tuta is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted email platform with over 10 million users. The company is also working on secure, post-quantum cloud storage solutions for the German government." Despite the technological barriers in tracing such messages, efforts are ongoing to identify the true source. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Bomb disposal squads, local police, and cyber forensics teams were immediately deployed to all affected schools. As of now, no explosives or suspicious materials have been found. On Tuesday, St. Stephens College and St. Thomas School had received similar threat emails, in the concerning trend of targeted hoaxes disrupting educational institutions across the city seen over the past year. About the Author Ankur Sharma With over 15 years of journalistic experience, Ankur Sharma, Associate Editor, specializes in internal security and is tasked with providing comprehensive coverage from the Ministry of Home Affairs, paramilitar... Read More With over 15 years of journalistic experience, Ankur Sharma, Associate Editor, specializes in internal security and is tasked with providing comprehensive coverage from the Ministry of Home Affairs, paramilitar... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:38 IST News india Delhi School Bomb Threat Emails Were Sent From Germany? Exclusive From Investigators Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, raised almost twice as much money in her campaign for governor in the most recent quarter as Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, her Republican opponent, and had $15.2 million in hand with less than four months to Election Day. Spanberger raised $10.7 million in the past three months, including almost $4.3 million between June 5 and the end of June. Earle-Sears raised $5.9 million, including $3.4 million since the last campaign finance reporting deadline, and finished June with $4.5 million in the bank. Spanberger has raised more than $27 million since announcing her candidacy for governor in November 2023, using a fast start in fundraising to win the Democratic nomination unopposed and open an early financial advantage over Earle-Sears, who has raised $11.6 million since last September. The former congresswoman collected more contributions in the past three months than any statewide candidate in the second quarter in Virginia history, her campaign said on Tuesday. "We are incredibly grateful for this record outpouring of support," said Samson Signori, Spanberger's campaign manager. "Virginians know that as our next governor, Abigail will work every day to lower costs, strengthen our schools, protect Virginia jobs, and keep our communities safe." "And over the next four months, our campaign will use every minute to make sure Abigail's winning message reaches every community in Virginia," Signori said. Earle-Sears also said she set a fundraising record for a Virginia statewide Republican candidate in the second quarter besting even Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who lent $20 million of his own money to his campaign for governor in 2021. I am overwhelmed and deeply grateful for the folks who gave what they could," the lieutenant governor said on Tuesday. "To break fundraising records two quarters in a row, thats not just numbers. This campaign is funded by the folks who could only give $5 or $10. Thats thousands of Virginians standing up to say they believe in this mission, they believe in our story, and they believe in what were building together." "Lets go win this for every family, every worker, every little girl who dares to dream, she said. Through June 5, Earle-Sears had raised $9.2 million since launching her campaign last fall, but she faced a big gap in money with Spanberger's campaign in early June, the last reporting deadline. Spanberger had raised $6.5 million from April 1 through June 5 and ended the period with $14.3 million on hand. Earle Sears raised $3.5 million in a little more than two months and had about $3 million in the bank. Since then, the Democratic nominee has raised almost $4.3 million, including $50,000 each from James Murdoch, the younger son of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, who runs the Quadrivium Foundation in New York City. Spanberger also received a $30,000 donation from New York theatrical producer Ted Snowdon and $35,000 from Chicago publisher Fred Eychaner, who had given her campaign $25,000 in late March. She also received $10,000 from Thomas McInerney, CEO of Genworth Financial Inc. in Henrico County, who has given her campaign a total of $80,000. Spanberger also received $20,000 each from retired actress Lois Chiles in Charlottesville, psychiatrist Katie O'Meara in Arlington County and retired investment manager Ross Walker in Lexington. Since the last deadline, Earle-Sears has reported $69,413 in in-kind contributions from the Republican Party of Virginia and $50,000 from David Allen Powell, founder and chairman of Pyramid Paving LLC in Fluvanna County. She also received $10,000 each from Gary Duncan, owner of Dunn Imports and Classics automobile company in Salem, and Naseeb Nas Kaleel, an executive at NMK Consulting LLC in Virginia Beach. With her fundraising advantage, Spanberger's campaign gave $1 million in the most recent quarter to the Virginia Democratic Coordinated Campaign, which is working to turn out voters for Democratic candidates in statewide races and campaigns for the House of Delegates. The contribution was part of $6.6 million in campaign expenditures in the second quarter, which also included a statewide bus tour with more than 40 appearances across Virginia. The state Democratic Party also received a pledge of $1.5 million from the Democratic National Committee, which called the money an "initial investment" in this year's Virginia elections. Spanberger leads a statewide ticket that includes state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, D-Chesterfield, who is running for lieutenant governor against Republican nominee and former radio host John Reid, and former Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk, who is running against Attorney General Jason Miyares. All 100 seats of the Virginia House of Delegates also are up for election. Virginia is one of two states, along with New Jersey, to hold statewide elections the year after President Donald Trump recaptured the White House. "Our elections this year are the most critical in the country, and [DNC Chairman Ken Martin] understands that to win, we must organize everywhere and leave no voter behind," said state Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Henrico, chairman of the Democratic Party of Virginia. "The DNC's investment will help us reach every corner of the commonwealth with a clear message: Democrats are fighting back against Donald Trump's reckless and extreme agenda." Eknath Shinde Drives Tesla Car After Musk's Company Opens First Showroom In Mumbai | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:42 IST Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tried his hands on a Tesla car, a day after the American company officially unveiled its first showroom in India. Eknath Shinde drives Tesla car in Mumbai (ANI Image) Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday took a ride in the Tesla car outside the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai, a day after the Elon Musk-owned American company marked its official entry into the Indian market with the launch of its first showroom in the city. Amid the crowd of reporters and officials on both sides of the car, Shinde experienced the ride as he drove the car slowly on the premises. Recommended Stories #WATCH | Maharashtra Dy CM Eknath Shinde took a ride in the Tesla car outside the Vidhan Bhavan in Mumbai.Tesla marked its official entry into the Indian market with the launch of its first showroom in Mumbai yesterday. pic.twitter.com/GvTopQ3WLL ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 Tesla officially entered Indian market on Tuesday with the opening of its first showroom at Maker Maxity Mall in Mumbais Bandra Kurla Complex. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis attended the inauguration ceremony and said that the American company chose the right city and state". This is more than just an inauguration its a statement that Tesla has chosen the right city and state," said the Maharashtra Chief Minister. Tesla revealed the prices for its electric vehicles, stating that Model Ts on-road price will be listed at Rs 61 lakh. The rear-wheel drive version will cost Rs 59.89 lakh. Last Friday, Tesla had hinted at the launch of the showroom through a teaser post on its India-focused X handle: Coming soon", it wrote, along with a graphic suggesting its planned debut in July this year. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all India recently announced its EV policy, which reduces import duties and gives incentives for global electric vehicle manufacturers. This may further support Tesla as it marked its first presence in the Indian market. Industry experts say Tesla has already brought in its first batch of cars to India reportedly Model Y rear-wheel drive SUVs made at its China factory. Last month, the company leased 24,565 square feet of warehouse space at Lodha Logistics Park in Mumbai for five years. About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:32 IST News india Eknath Shinde Drives Tesla Car After Musk's Company Opens First Showroom In Mumbai | Watch Gujarat Man Obsessed With Having Son Throws Minor Daughter In Canal, Wife Reveals Truth Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:58 IST The man's wife told the police how he had committed the crime because he was unhappy about having two daughters and only wanted a son Police said the accused pushed his daughter into the Narmada canal in Gujarat and covered it up as an accident by saying she had slipped off a bridge while peering over to look at fish. (Image for representation) Reported as an accident five days ago in Gujarats Kheda district, a seven-year-old girls death was revealed to be a murder by her father who was obsessed with having a son. It was the mans wife, whom he had threatened into divorcing, who could no longer hide the truth and told police how he had committed the crime because he was unhappy about having two daughters and only wanted a son. Police have arrested the man on the basis of his wifes complaint. Recommended Stories According to the police, the accused, identified as Vijay Solanki, pushed his daughter Bhoomika into the Narmada canal and covered it up as an accident by saying she had slipped off a bridge while peering over to look at fish. The police said the incident took place on July 10, when the family was visiting a local temple. Later, only the couple returned and told the police about the accident". Police recovered the girls body and registered an accidental death case following which the childs last rites were performed. Five days later, however, Solankis wife Anjana could no longer hide the truth and told the police that her husband had pushed their daughter into the canal. She told them that they left home with their elder daughter Bhoomika to visit a local temple and, when they were returning home on their two-wheeler, she told him that she wanted to visit her parents. An NDTV report quoted Anjana as saying Vijay refused and told her: I wanted a boy and you gave birth to a girl." Anjana said it was only minutes later that he stopped on the Waghavat bridge in Kapadvanj and threw Bhoomika into the canal. She said Solanki threatened to divorce her if she revealed the incident to anyone, and dropped her off at her parents house. The police said the couple initially reported that they were standing on the bridge to watch the fish when Bhoomika slipped and fell into the canal. Her body was later recovered along with her slippers. At that time, Antarasuba police registered the case as accidental death and began an investigation. They soon turned suspicious and interrogated the familys relatives. It was now that Anjana confessed and explained what had happened. She also took the police to the crime scene," Kheda district superintendent of police (SP) Rajesh Gadhiya told NDTV. My husband made Bhoomika stand on the banks of the canal without my knowledge. He said he was showing her some fish but pushed her straight into the canal. Before I could understand anything, Bhoomika fell into the canal and I stood there helpless," Anjana was quoted. The police further said the main motive behind the murder was Solankis obsession with having a son. The couple had married 11 years ago and had two daughters and Solanki even tortured his wife after she gave birth to their second daughter, who is three years old, they said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all They often fought when Solanki expressed his disappointment over not having a son. Anjana would often go over to her parents house, but he would always persuade her to return. Our investigation is underway. We are probing all angles, including superstition," Gadhiya was quoted, adding that the accused has been charged with murder, criminal intimidation, and domestic abuse. About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments Location : Kheda, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 16:58 IST News india Gujarat Man Obsessed With Having Son Throws Minor Daughter In Canal, Wife Reveals Truth IndiGo Flight To Goa Diverted To Mumbai After Mid-Air Engine Trouble Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 23:13 IST An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Goa made an emergency landing in Mumbai due to engine failure. The flight departed around 8 pm and landed before 10 pm. IndiGo flight makes emergency landing in Mumbai; departed Delhi, was headed to Goa. (IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK) An IndiGo aircraft en route from Delhi to Goa made an emergency landing at Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Wednesday after experiencing an engine failure mid-flight, news agency PTI said in a report. According to a separate report by Hindustan Times, several flight tracking platforms showed that the IndiGo flight departed from Delhi for Goa around 8 pm, after a delay of about half an hour. However, it was diverted to Mumbai, where it landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport shortly before 10 pm. Recommended Stories IndiGo said a technical snag was detected on its Delhi-Goa flight 6E 6271 on July 16, prompting the crew to divert the aircraft to Mumbais Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport as a precaution. The airline said the plane will undergo checks and maintenance before returning to service. Meanwhile, a replacement aircraft was arranged to fly the passengers to Goa. IndiGo expressed regret over the inconvenience caused, adding that safety remains its top priority. A technical snag was detected on flight 6E 6271 while flying from Delhi to Manohar International Airport, Goa on 16 July 2025. Following procedures, the aircraft was diverted and landed in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai," a spokesperson for the airline said. While the aircraft will undergo necessary checks and maintenance before resuming operations, an alternative aircraft has been arranged for completing the journey, which will depart shortly with the customers. We regret the inconvenience caused to our customers due to this unforeseen situation," the spokesperson further added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 22:51 IST News india IndiGo Flight To Goa Diverted To Mumbai After Mid-Air Engine Trouble Innocent, Don't Know Anything: Chhangur Baba Denies Religious Conversion Allegations Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:48 IST Jamaluddin, known as Chhangur Baba, a self-styled spiritual leader from Uttar Pradesh, denies charges of running an illegal religious conversion racket. He was arrested on July 5. Chhangur Baba was arrested in Uttar Pradeshs Balrampur. (Photo Credit: ANI) Jamaluddin alias Chhangur Baba, a self-styled godman from Uttar Pradeshs Balrampur, who is accused of orchestrating a large-scale illegal religious conversion racket, has denied his involvement in the alleged conversion racket saying that he is innocent and dont know anything. I am innocent. I dont know anything," he said, as quoted by news agency ANI when being taken from the Community Health Centre after a medical examination. Recommended Stories #WATCH | Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh: Jamaluddin alias Chhangur, the alleged mastermind in the conversion case, and his aide Nasreen are being taken from the Community Health Centre after medical examination.Jamaluddin alias Chhangur says, I am innocent. I dont know anything." pic.twitter.com/HYEfu0hzhd ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 Chhangur Baba, the alleged mastermind of a religious conversion gang, was arrested on July 5 by Uttar Pradesh Polices Anti-Terrorism Squad. New Charge Against Chhangur Baba Meanwhile, a family from Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad has charged fresh allegations against Chhangur Baba and his aide, Badar Akhtar Siddique, saying that they lured their daughter into a trap under the guise of offering her employment in Dubai. The family said their daughter went missing in 2019 after being brainwashed by Chhangur Baba. The sister of the missing girl said she met Siddiqui when she was pursuing a course in tour and travel in 2019. She said that Badar then lured her on the pretext of taking her around in cars and gradually brainwashed her. She said her sister has not been seen since October 24, 2019. This started in 2019. My sister went missing in October 2019 and after that, we only received a few messages from her phone until the end of October. The spelling and typing style in those messages were very different, not how my sister used to type, which made us suspicious that the phone was no longer with her" she said as quoted by news agency IANS. Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh: A local woman has accused Chhangur Baba and Badar Siddiqui of luring her sister and other minor girls into religious conversion and subsequently making them disappearShe says, This started in 2019. My sister went missing in October 2019 and after pic.twitter.com/3GYwXgrFkF IANS (@ians_india) July 16, 2025 Charges Against Chhangur Baba On July 5, Chhangur Baba, the alleged mastermind of a religious conversion gang, was arrested along with his aide, Neetu alias Nasreen. The two are residents of Madhpur in Balrampur district, bordering Nepal. Chhangurs arrest is currently under UP ATS custody for a 7-day remand till July 16. Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is probing financial irregularities, including suspicious transactions worth over Rs 106 crore spread across 40 bank accounts, along with at least two properties reportedly worth crores. Who Is Chhangur Baba? Chhangur Baba is the alleged mastermind of a large illegal religious conversion racket based in Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh. As reported earlier, he had worked in gemstone sales and gained popularity after spending some time in Mumbai. His influence in the local area grew steadily, and he even contested elections for the posts of village head and district council member. Modus Operandi According to the STF, the accused told the investigators that he used several code words to communicate with his gang. Explaining the modus operandi, he told investigators that his aides would lure young people and ask them to convert their religion by luring them with financial incentives, foreign travel, jobs and scholarships. The operation is reported to have been supported by nearly Rs 100 crore in foreign funding, according to officials. Investigators found that the money was used to buy several luxury properties, bungalows, expensive vehicles, and showrooms. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all More than 40 bank accounts, some under false names, were used to transfer the funds, pointing towards money laundering. (With inputs from agencies) About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:48 IST News india Innocent, Don't Know Anything: Chhangur Baba Denies Religious Conversion Allegations Jharkhand Encounter: Maoist With Rs 5 Lakh Bounty Killed; CRPF Jawan Injured Curated By : News18 Specials Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 13:44 IST The exchange of fire between Maoists and the CRPF began around 5:30 am in the forests near Birhordera, under the jurisdiction of Gomia police station. A CRPF jawan was injured in gunfight with Maoists in Jharkhand | Representative Image A Maoist, who was carrying a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, was killed and a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan critically injured during a gunfight near the Birhordera area in Jharkhands Bokaro district on Wednesday, officials familiar with the matter said. The exchange of fire between Maoists and the CRPF began around 5:30 am in the forests near Birhordera, under the jurisdiction of Gomia police station. Recommended Stories The injured commando, from the CoBRA 209 battalion, was critically injured in the ongoing anti-Maoist operation in Bokaro and was airlifted to Ranchi for medical treatment. Bokaro Superintendent of Police Harvinder Singh confirmed that the operation is still underway but did not disclose the number of casualties. Yes, the operation is going on in Bokaro against the rebels, and it is still continuing," he said. Jharkhand Police spokesperson and Inspector General Michael S Raj added, One jawan is critically injured. There is some information on Maoist casualties, but as the operation is underway and it is difficult to confirm the total casualties of Maoist at this stage." According to Bokaro SP Harvinder Singh, a search operation is currently underway in the area following the encounter. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The operation was launched based on intelligence inputs about the Maoist movement in the Lugu Pahar area a region known to be a rebel stronghold. Earlier in April, eight Maoists, including a commander carrying a Rs 1 crore reward, were killed there, according to sources familiar with the developments. view comments Location : Jharkhand, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:39 IST News india Jharkhand Encounter: Maoist With Rs 5 Lakh Bounty Killed; CRPF Jawan Injured 'Malicious Campaign Against My Sister': Balasore Victim's Brother Files FIR Last Updated: July 17, 2025, 00:45 IST The college student's brother has alleged that there are misleading and defamatory campaigns being run about his sister's death on social media Water cannons being used to disperse agitators during a protest by BJD workers over the death of a college student in Odisha's Balasore, in Bhubaneswar on July 16. (Image: PTI) The brother of the 20-year-old college student, who set herself ablaze over inaction in a sexual harassment case in Odishas Balasore district, has alleged that there are misleading and defamatory campaigns being run about his sisters death on social media. Based on this, the womans brother lodged a police complaint at Bhogarai police station late on Wednesday. He named at least five persons in the complaint accusing them of maligning the familys reputation for political gains. Recommended Stories The family of the woman, who succumbed to 95 percent burn injuries early on Tuesday (July 15), has demanded strict action and police protection. They have warned that if they do not get justice, they will be forced to take extreme steps, including death by suicide. Earlier in the day, the crime branch took over the probe into the womans death by suicide at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College in Balasore. On July 12, the second-year BEd student had set herself on fire outside the principals office during a protest on campus over allegedly being denied justice over sexual harassment by her head of department (HoD). Director General of Police, CID-CB, Vinaytosh Mishra, in an order deputed DSP Iman Kalyan Nayak of Crime Against Women and Children Wing (CAW&CW), Bhubaneswar, to take up the probe and such other cases registered in that connection. DSP, Iman Kalyan Nayak of CAW &CW, Bhubaneswar will have the powers to function as Officer-in-Charge of Balasore district Sahadevkhunta Police Station for the purpose of investigation of this case," Mishra said, adding that Inspector Panchali Rout will assist Nayak. The police have already arrested prime accused Samira Kumar Sahoo, the HoD accused of sexual harassment by the student, and Dillip Ghose, the former principal of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. They were booked under sections 108/3 (5) (abetment), 351 (2) (criminal intimidation), 75 (1) (iii), which deals with sexual harassment and sections 78 and 79 that deal with stalking and insulting the modesty of a woman. Section 108/3(5) of BNS deals with abetment of suicide under which a person can get a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. The self-immolation incident has triggered statewide outrage with the opposition parties staging protests and demanding the resignation of the chief minister as well as state higher education minister. The UGC has formed a four-member fact-finding committee to look into the death by suicide case, while Odisha governor Hari Babu Kambhampati has also sought a report from the state government on the circumstances under which the student resorted to self-immolation and steps taken to address the situation. WHAT IS THE ODISHA GOVT SAYING? After a meeting of ministers on Tuesday, revenue and disaster management minister Suresh Pujari said the state government will expand the ambit of the investigation and all persons, who are directly or indirectly linked to the harassment of the college student, will come under the purview of investigation. Though two persons have so far been arrested in the case, there are about 20 people found directly or indirectly harassing the woman student. All will come under the purview of the probe," Pujari said. Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said the government will ensure a free and fair investigation into the woman students death case, and certain attempts to divert the probe will not be accepted. He came down heavily on the opposition BJD and Congress, accusing them of using the sensitive case for their political gains. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all We have promptly taken action, and two persons have been arrested immediately. Chief Minister himself visited the victim at the hospital and announced stringent action against the culprits," he said. (With PTI inputs) view comments Location : Bhubaneswar, India, India First Published: July 17, 2025, 00:03 IST News india 'Malicious Campaign Against My Sister': Balasore Victim's Brother Files FIR Man Enters Kriti Sanon And Javed Jaffreys Mumbai Complex, Damages Lift; Cops Launch Probe Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 08:59 IST The Mumbai Police said the preliminary investigation into the case revealed that the man wasn't mentally unwell File photo of Mumbai police. (Representative image) A man allegedly disrupted the lift operations at a residential building in Mumbais upscale Pali Hill area by placing heavy stones inside it, prompting the local authorities to intervene. The incident occurred in the early hours of June 19 at Sandhu Palace, a multi-storey building in Bandra West that houses several prominent Bollywood personalities, including actors Kriti Sanon and Javed Jaffrey. Recommended Stories According to police and building security, the man arrived in a yellow car around 1 am and claimed he was visiting a flat on the 17th floor. Guards allowed him entry after confirming with a flat owner earlier that visitors should be let in directly. He was initially directed to park in Basement 2, but first left his car in Basement 1 before being redirected. Security personnel reported that the man then gave his car keys to a guard and said he needed to use the washroom. Upon returning, he stated he was heading to the 14th floor. When the guard attempted to reach the flats occupant via intercom and received no response, the visitor abruptly changed his claim, saying he was going to the 17th floor. Suspicious of his inconsistent statements, guards confronted the man and escorted him out of the premises. The next morning, the buildings elevator was found to be non-functional. Review of CCTV footage revealed that the man had placed large stones inside the lift cabin and made inappropriate gestures toward the security camera. It is believed the act was carried out while he was unaccompanied in the basement, under the pretext of visiting the restroom. Using the vehicles registration number, police were able to identify the individual. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Authorities noted that preliminary findings suggest the man may be mentally unwell. He is currently receiving treatment at a hospital and has not yet been questioned. The Khar police have registered a case under Sections 324(2) and 324(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertain to voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous means. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 08:59 IST News india Man Enters Kriti Sanon And Javed Jaffreys Mumbai Complex, Damages Lift; Cops Launch Probe 'You Need Dictionary': Supreme Court To SIT Probing Ashoka University Professor's Posts Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:51 IST In May, the apex court told the SIT to restrict its probe to the two FIRs lodged against Mahmudabad The Supreme Court of India (PTI file photo) The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked why the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was probing Ashoka University Ali Khan Mahmudabads controversial social media posts on Operation Sindoor, was misdirecting itself". In a relief to Mahmudabad, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi stated that the professor has cooperated with the investigation and should not be summoned by the police. You dont require him (Mahmudabad), you require a dictionary," Justice Kant said. Recommended Stories The bench observed that the SIT was formed specifically to investigate the two social media posts and asked why it was expanding the scope, Live Law reported. The top court also asked the SIT to complete the probe within four weeks. The apex courts comments came after Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mahmudabad, told the bench that the SIT had seized his devices and was asking about foreign trips for the last ten years. Questioning the seizure of the professors devices, the bench noted that the SIT was constituted specifically to understand the true meaning" of the social media posts and to ascertain if they constituted any offence. In May, the apex court had told the SIT to restrict its probe to the two FIRs lodged against Mahmudabad. Why Was Professor Arrested? top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Ali Khan Mahmudabad, 42, was arrested on May 18 on a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, the General Secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha in Haryana. An FIR was lodged against Mahmudabad under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to inciting armed rebellion or subversive activities and insulting religious beliefs. Also, sedition-like charges have been filed against him. However, on May 21, the Supreme Court granted him bail while refusing to stay the probe. It also directed the Haryana DGP to constitute a Special Investigation Team comprising senior IPS officers to examine and report on the Professors two online posts. About the Author Saurabh Verma Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:29 IST News india 'You Need Dictionary': Supreme Court To SIT Probing Ashoka University Professor's Posts MNS Workers Create Ruckus At Nagpur Bank Over Hindi-Marathi Row | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 20:51 IST MNS workers protested at Union Bank in Nagpur after it refused an insurance claim due to an FIR in Marathi, highlighting language tensions in Maharashtra. Several MNS workers protest against Nagpur bank amid row over Hindi language in the state. (X) Amid the ongoing language row in Maharashtra, several workers of Raj Thackerays Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) created a chaos at a bank in Nagpur following a row over the usage of the Marathi. Several MNS workers launched a protest against Union Bank of Indias Seminary Hills branch in Nagpur after the bank allegedly refused to process an insurance claim because the FIR submitted was in Marathi. During the protest, the party workers allegedly had a verbal spat with bank officials who sought Hindi translation of an FIR registered in Marathi. Recommended Stories The issue began after the death of a young man named Yogesh Bopche. Following his death, the bereaved family approached the bank to initiate the insurance claim process and submitted all required documents, including a copy of the FIR, news agency IANS reported. Nagpur, Maharashtra: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers staged a protest outside Union Bank over a demand for a Hindi-translated FIR for an accident insurance claim linked to deceased youth Yogesh Bopches account. The bank cited language issues with insurer. After the pic.twitter.com/Rglxo9ndAT IANS (@ians_india) July 16, 2025 However, the bank manager allegedly refused to accept the FIR, stating that since it was in Marathi, it would not be considered valid for claim processing. The family was subsequently denied the insurance compensation. Irked with this, the family reached out to local MNS leaders who reached the bank along with hundreds of workers to protest and created a ruckus. The incident has triggered serious questions about the functioning of banks and financial institutions in Maharashtra, with critics arguing that rejecting documents in Marathi not only defies legal norms but also hurts public sentiment. Meanwhile, bank officials told India Today that since the headquarters of the insurance company is in Kolkata, where no one understands Marathi. So, as a regular practice, Hindi translations of FIRs registered in accident cases are sent there along with the claim form. Language Row In Maharashtra The incident came into fore at a time when the Thackeray brothers Shiv Sena (UBTs) Uddhav Thackeray and MNS Raj Thackeray have targeted the BJP-led state government for trying to impose Hindi in Maharashtra and migrants for not speaking Marathi. Last week, an auto-rickshaw driver in Maharashtras Palghar was thrashed in public, allegedly by the supporters of Uddhav Sena and Raj Thackerays MNS over his refusal to speak Marathi. A video of the auto-rickshaw driver, a migrant, went viral, showing him arguing with another migrant from Uttar Pradesh, Bhavesh Padolia, at Virar station. He said in the video that he would only speak Hindi when he was asked why he was not speaking in Marathi. Earlier, MNS workers threw stones and vandalised the office of a businessman named Sushil Kedia, who had earlier issued an open dare to Raj Thackeray, stating that he would not be intimidated by MNS workers or be forced to learn Marathi under pressure. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Earlier this month, a shopkeeper in Mumbais Mira Road was assaulted after he allegedly refused to speak in Marathi. (With inputs from agencies) About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More view comments Location : Nagpur, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 20:51 IST News india MNS Workers Create Ruckus At Nagpur Bank Over Hindi-Marathi Row | Watch 'My Make-In-India Mahindra...': Milind Deora Welcomes Tesla To Indian Market, But... Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 11:42 IST Shiv Sena leader Milind Deora's statement came after Tesla opened its very first showroom in India on Tuesday. Shiv Sena's Milind Deora on Tesla's entry in India. (Image: X) A day after Tesla opened its first showroom in India, Shiv Sena MP Milind Deora on Wednesday welcomed the automakers entry into the Indian market. While the Rajya Sabha member hailed the Maharashtra government for its efforts to bring Tesla to Mumbai, he applauded the Indian automobile company, Mahindra, and showed confidence that Indian EVs will soon take on global giants. Taking to X, the Shiv Sena leader wrote, Kudos to Maharashtra Government for bringing Tesla to India." Recommended Stories While Tesla remains aspirational, its innovation is slowing. My Made-in-India Mahindra Automotive, with cutting-edge indigenous tech, shows Indian EVs are gearing up to take on global giants," he added. Kudos to #Maharashtra Government for bringing @Tesla to India. While #Tesla remains aspirational, its innovation is slowing.My Made-in-India @Mahindra_Auto BE, with cutting-edge indigenous tech shows Indian EVs are gearing up to take on global giants.@makeinindia #MakeInIndia Milind Deora | (@milinddeora) July 16, 2025 Deoras statement came after Tesla opened its very first showroom in India on Tuesday, right in the heart of Mumbais Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), marking a big step for the electric vehicle (EV) giant as it enters the worlds third-largest automobile market. Anand Mahindra On Teslas India Entry Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra has welcomed Elon Musk for Teslas entry in India after it launched the first showroom in Mumbai. In the X post, Mahindra said, one of the worlds largest EV opportunities just got more exciting". He further added that competition drives innovation, stating that theres plenty of road ahead. Welcoming Tesla to India, Anand Mahindra added, Competition drives innovation, and theres plenty of road ahead. Looking forward to seeing you at the charging station." Welcome to India, @elonmusk and @Tesla.One of the worlds largest EV opportunities just got more exciting. Competition drives innovation, and theres plenty of road ahead. Looking forward to seeing you at the charging station. pic.twitter.com/7Uh2ziV0fp anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) July 15, 2025 According to reports, two of Teslas most well-known models, the Model Y and Model 3, will be displayed at the showroom. The Model Y will likely be the first Tesla car on sale in the country. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:40 IST News india 'My Make-In-India Mahindra...': Milind Deora Welcomes Tesla To Indian Market, But... Nimisha Priya Timeline: Went To Yemen To Earn Living, May Have To Pay To Get Life Back Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 20:23 IST Nimisha Priya Timeline: The Kerala nurse was to be executed for the murder of her business partner on Wednesday, but it has been deferred for now Nimisha Priya is lodged in a jail in Sana'a in Yemen. From question of livelihood to life, Nimisha Priyas journey as a nurse from Kerala to Yemen has taken the most unusual turn. The execution of Nimisha Priya, who has been convicted for murder of her business partner, was to happen on Wednesday, but has been deferred for now. The government and others, including Grand Mufti of India , are trying to negotiate a deal, one of the clauses of which could be payment of blood money amounting to Rs 8.5 crore. Recommended Stories A look at how the 38-year-old went from Kerala to the jail in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital city that is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis. Nimisha Priyas Timeline: Kerala Nurse, A Yemen Clinic To Death Row 2008: Priya, who hails from Kollengode in Pallakad, then around 20, moves to Yemen to work as a nurse, a common trend among professionals from Kerala. 2011: She gets married to Tomy Thomas, a fellow Malayali. The daughter is now a college student. While Tomy and the daughter later move back to India, reportedly due to financial constraints, Priya stays back. After the Arab Spring, Ali Abdullah Salehs 33-year rule over Yemen ends as he handed over power to deputy Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. EXPLAINED: Did Grand Mufti Help Defer Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priyas Execution? Who Is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad? 2015: By the end of 2014, the Houthi rebel group takes over Sanaa. India does not have formal diplomatic relations with this group. In line with the US, India recognises the Aden-headquartered Presidential Leadership Council as Yemens government. Around this time, Priya opens a clinic in Sanaa in partnership with local businessman Talal Abdo Mehdi as required by local rules. 2016: Priya reports harassment and document seizure by Mehdi, but reportedly does not receive police help. Her passport is withheld by Mehdi and he allegedly abuses her. 2017: Priya attempts to recover her passport by sedating Mehdi, but he dies of what is cited as overdose, according to authorities. His dismembered and disposed of body is found in a water tank. Priya is arrested near the Yemen-Saudi border while trying to flee. 2018: Priya is convicted of murder by a local trial court and given the death sentence. She did not get adequate legal assistance, say reports. 2020: Her death sentence is upheld by a higher court. The Malayali Indian diaspora forms Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council to save her. 2023: Priyas final appeal against the death sentence is dismissed by Houthi Yemens Supreme Judicial Council. 2024: Priyas family negotiates with the victims family over blood money or diyah, a concept in Sharia, the Islamic law, that allows the victims family to pardon the killer in return for monetary compensation. The execution of Nimisha Priya, which was scheduled to take place tomorrow (16/07/25), has been postponed to another day.This is the verdict given by the Public Prosecution of Specialized Criminal Court, Republic of Yemen, today. pic.twitter.com/QvPrrF8zCu Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad (@shkaboobacker) July 15, 2025 July 14, 2025: As the execution date of July 16 nears, the Indian government informs the Supreme Court that it had done whatever was utmost possible" to save the Indian nurse from execution. It also informs the top court that nothing much" could be done keeping in view the status of Yemen. There is a point up to which the Government of India can go and we have reached that point," attorney general R Venkataramani informs a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. Meanwhile, a staggering offer of $1 million (approximately Rs 8.5 crore) is reportedly made to Mehdis family by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. ALSO READ | Nimisha Priyas Execution Deferred: Not Blood Money, This Is How Kerala Nurse Got Temporary Reprieve July 15: Amid negotiations, Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar or Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, 94, who is revered as the Grand Mufti of India, says he spoke to scholars in Yemen, hours after which Priyas execution is deferred. The new date is still to be announced. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all July 16: Abdelfattah Mehdi, brother of Mehdi firmly rejects the possibility of a pardon for his brothers killer. Meanwhile, Priya and her family continue to hold on to hope. About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 20:01 IST News india Nimisha Priya Timeline: Went To Yemen To Earn Living, May Have To Pay To Get Life Back Did Grand Mufti Help Defer Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priyas Execution? Who Is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:06 IST Nimisha Priya's execution: 'Grand Mufti' Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar or Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad said he spoke to Yemen's scholars after which deferment news came in. Who is he? Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar or Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad; Nimisha Priya (right). (ANI/File) One name has figured prominently amid the news of deferment of execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya Muslim cleric Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar or Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, 94, who is revered as the Grand Mufti of India. The execution of Nimisha Priya in Yemen has been deferred from Wednesday, government sources said on Tuesday. However, the fresh date for her execution was not immediately known. Recommended Stories Priya, hailing from Kollengode in Keralas Palakkad district, was found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen and her business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi, in July 2017. In 2020, a Yemeni court handed her the death sentence and the countrys Supreme Judicial Council dismissed her appeal in November 2023. The government of India has made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for Priyas family to reach a mutually agreeable" solution with the other party, they said. EXPLAINED: Nimisha Priyas Execution Deferred: Not Blood Money, This Is How Kerala Nurse Got Temporary Reprieve The 38-year-old nurse is presently lodged in a jail in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital city that is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis. Not considering Priyas religion: Grand Mufti spoke to Yemen scholars as human being Ahmad said he spoke to scholars in Yemen to urge them for the release of Priya, after which the news of deferment came in. In Islam, instead of killing, there is also a practice of giving Diyaat (compensation). I requested them to accept Diyaat as the party is ready here for it. There are talks going on about whether my request has to be accepted. The date of execution was tomorrow, but it has now been postponed for some days," the Grand Mufti told ANI on Tuesday. The Grand Mufti said that he is not considering the religion of Priya, but rather her humanity as he requested for her release. We have demanded this as human beings. If such a demand is accepted, then it will be very easy for Muslims in India. Muslims and Hindus all live on the same platform here," he said. According to reports, Ahmad is said to have initiated a new mediation effort through his long-time friend and Yemeni Sufi Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafiz. Congress leader KC Venugopal said, We all had requested the Central government to intervene in the matter, but we got the information that Grand Mufti Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad Kanthapuram has intervened. Whosoever is involved in saving the human life of the woman of Kerala is welcome." Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Keralas Thiruvanananthapuram, hailed the role played by the Mufti. Kerala is praying unitedly for his efforts to be successful. Honourable Kanthapuram Ustad has shown us that humanity is the most important in todays era where there are attempts to divide humans and cultivate hatred and hatred in the name of religion and community," he wrote in a post on Facebook. #WATCH | Kozhikode, Kerala | On the case of Nimisha Priya, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad Kanthapuram says A murder happened in Yemen. After the murder, a case was filed in court and the court ordered the execution of Nimisha Priya. In Islam, instead of killing, there is also pic.twitter.com/6O1wTBR744 ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2025 What is diyah or blood money the Grand Mufti spoke about? Under Sharia law, which is followed in Yemen, a murder conviction doesnt always result in a mandatory execution. Instead, the law allows for a provision known as Diyah, or blood money. It enables the victims heirs to pardon the murderer if they choose to accept monetary compensation. The amount is negotiable and varies depending on the nature of the crime, local customs, and the familys stance. In Nimishas case, a staggering offer of $1 million (approximately Rs 8.5 crore) has reportedly been made to Mahdis family by the Save Nimisha Priya International Action Council. So far, there has been no official response, but talks are on. The government on Monday informed the Supreme Court that it was doing whatever was utmost possible" to save the Indian nurse from execution. There is a point up to which the Government of India can go and we have reached that point," attorney general R Venkataramani informed a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. Who is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad or Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar? Musliyar is based in Kerala, the home state of Priya. He is a revered figure among Sunni Muslims, not just India but across South Asia. The execution of Nimisha Priya, which was scheduled to take place tomorrow (16/07/25), has been postponed to another day.This is the verdict given by the Public Prosecution of Specialized Criminal Court, Republic of Yemen, today. pic.twitter.com/QvPrrF8zCu Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad (@shkaboobacker) July 15, 2025 Does India have Grand Mufti? How does one get the title? In Islam, a Mufti is a Muslim scholar who is qualified to issue legal opinions (fatwas) on matters of Islamic law (Sharia). They act as interpreters of Islamic law, providing guidance on religious and personal matters. The term Grand Mufti often refers to the highest-ranking mufti in a region or country, like the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia. There is no official Grand Mufti in India. Abubakr, the general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, was, however, conferred with the Grand Mufti of India title in February 2019 at the Gareeb Nawaz Peace Conference held at Ramlila Maidan, New Delhi, organised by the All India Tanzeem Ulama-e-Islam. Ahmad had welcome Babri Masjid verdict Ahmad is the chairman of the Markaz Knowledge City project, a private integrated township in his hometown, Kozhikode. While he had sought amendment of the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens (NRC), stating it would uproot Muslims, his stand on women protesting the CAA drew flak. He had said that no women shall shout slogans or raise clenched fists and take to the streets as men do, adding that women may stay back unless the situation demand them to extend their support". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all He had also appealed to the Muslim community to welcome the 2019 Supreme Court verdict on Ram Janmabhoomi issue. With Agency Inputs About the Author Manjiri Joshi At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More At the news desk for 17 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing special copies ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:41 IST News india Did Grand Mufti Help Defer Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priyas Execution? Who Is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad? 'No Pardon, Its A Crime': Brother Of Yemeni Man Killed By Kerala Nurse Rejects Clemency Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:52 IST The next phase of negotiations will revolve around finalising the blood money, with Kerala billionaire MA Yusuf Ali stepping forward to offer financial assistance if needed. Nimisha Priya is on the death row for the murder of Mahdi, her Yemeni business partner. (News18 Malayalam) Abdelfattah Mehdi, brother of Talal Abdo Mehdi, who was allegedly murdered by Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in 2017, has firmly rejected the possibility of a pardon for his brothers killer. Speaking to IANS, Abdelfattah stated that there can be no pardon" for the crime, and that Priya must face execution as ruled by the Yemeni courts. He also criticised sections of the Indian media, accusing them of distorting things to portray the convicted as a victim." Nimisha Priya was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, but a prolonged phase of multipronged negotiations has led to a temporary suspension of the execution. According to IANS, efforts to defer the sentence have seen wide-ranging interventions from the Indian government, support from agencies based in Saudi Arabia, and religious diplomacy, including outreach by Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, the Grand Mufti of Kerala. Musliyar reportedly contacted a personal friend within Yemens Shoora Council to mediate in the matter. Recommended Stories Confirming the development, CPI(M) Kerala state secretary M.V. Govindan, who met Musliyar on Wednesday morning, told reporters, Musliyar has told me that the execution has been kept in abeyance, and there are more aspects which are being discussed. He said people are engaged in talks with authorities in Yemen and also the family who has to give the pardon." Under Sharia law, the family of the deceased holds the right to grant clemency in exchange for blood money, a legally recognised form of compensation. However, negotiations have become complicated due to reported differences of opinion within the victims family. Religious leaders and government officials are now focused on resolving these internal divisions to pave the way for a settlement. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to IANS, the next phase of negotiations will revolve around finalising the blood money, with Kerala billionaire MA Yusuf Ali stepping forward to offer financial assistance if needed. Priya, currently lodged in a Yemeni prison, was convicted of murdering her former business partner Talal Mehdi, allegedly by administering sedatives to him in a bid to retrieve her passport. The sedatives proved fatal, and she was arrested while trying to flee the country. Nimisha Priya had moved to Yemen in 2008, initially working as a nurse before opening her own medical clinic. A dispute with Mehdi in 2017 led to the fatal incident. She was convicted of murder in 2018, sentenced to death in 2020, and the verdict was upheld by Yemens Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. However, the court allowed the possibility of clemency through a blood money arrangement, which is now the focal point of ongoing diplomatic and humanitarian efforts. About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:52 IST News india 'No Pardon, Its A Crime': Brother Of Yemeni Man Killed By Kerala Nurse Rejects Clemency Pahalgam Probe: Terrorists Fired In Air While Fleeing; ISI Likely Used New Module For Secrecy Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Pragati Ratti Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 09:57 IST A new witness has reportedly told NIA that he was asked to recite the Kalma and was possibly spared because his accent confirmed he was a local. Pahalgam terror attack: NIA has recovered empty cartridges from the location where the firing took place, supporting the witness's account. (AP Image) The NIA investigation into the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack is gaining momentum. Following the custodial interrogation of two harbourers, Parvaiz Ahmed and Bashir Ahmad, the NIA has now identified a local witness who saw the terrorists while they were escaping. The terrorists fired in the air, possibly to deter anyone from helping. This is when the witness encountered them," a senior security official told CNN-News18. Recommended Stories According to officials, the NIA has recovered empty cartridges from the location where the firing took place, supporting the witnesss account. The witness stated that he was asked to recite the Kalma and was possibly spared because his accent confirmed he was a local. Many survivors have reported that the terrorists used Kalma recitation for religious profiling before killing 26 people in Baisaran. New Module Officials have corroborated the testimonies of the witness and the harbourers, successfully identifying the terrorists. One of the three has been identified as Hashim Musa, a former Pakistani army regular. Musa is suspected of masterminding the Sonmarg Z Modh tunnel attack, which resulted in the deaths of six labourers and a doctor. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The other two have no previous records and appear to have infiltrated recently for the Pahalgam attack," an intelligence agency official stated. Agencies have also found no prior records for the harbourers, Parvaiz Ahmed and Bashir Ahmad, suspecting that this was a deliberate ISI strategy to create a new module with minimal involvement of local Kashmiri terrorists or known Over Ground Workers (OGWs). Officials believe this was done to maintain top-level secrecy. Initially, it was suspected that three to five terrorists carried out the Baisaran Valley attack, but so far, the NIA has identified three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, all Pakistani nationals. About the Author Arunima Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from ground zero ... Read More Arunima is Editor (Home Affairs) and covers strategic, security and political affairs. From the Ukraine-Russia War to the India-China stand-off in Ladakh to India-Pak clashes, she has reported from ground zero ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 09:57 IST News india Pahalgam Probe: Terrorists Fired In Air While Fleeing; ISI Likely Used New Module For Secrecy Prada Team Visits Kolhapur To Meet Local Artisans Amid Kolhapuri Sandal Scandal Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 17:46 IST They met with local artisans in Jawahar Nagar, a hub for Kolhapuri chappal-making, and interacted with craftsmen A team from Prada visited Kolhapur | Image: ANI Italian fashion brand Prada, under fire for showcasing Kolhapuri-style slippers without acknowledging their Indian roots, sent a team to Kolhapur to learn more about the traditional craft on Wednesday. The visit comes days after Pradas Spring/Summer 2026 show at Milan Fashion Week, where models wore leather slippers, resembling Kolhapuri chappals. Priced at around Rs 1.2 lakh, the footwear sparked backlash in India as it wasnt credited or linked to its cultural origin. Recommended Stories To address the concerns, six senior members of Pradas footwear division visited Kolhapur. The team included Paolo Tiveron, head of mens footwear production, Daniele Contu, a pattern-making manager, and others. They met with local artisans in Jawahar Nagar, a hub for Kolhapuri chappal-making, and interacted with craftsmen like Shubham Satpute, Balu Gawli, and Sunil Lokre. A team has come from Italy to check all the manufacturing units of Kohapuri chappals and to see the technical parts as Prada enters the retail market in Kolhapur, " said a vendor. The move follows criticism from trade experts and cultural commentators who pointed out that Kolhapuri chappals have held a Geographical Indication (GI) tag since 2019, acknowledging their regional and historical significance. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all In response, Prada said it was committed to responsible design and open to collaborating with Indian artisans. The company also expressed interest in a limited-edition Made in India" collection inspired by Kolhapuri designs, aiming for a more respectful and collaborative approach going forward. view comments Location : Maharashtra, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:29 IST News india Prada Team Visits Kolhapur To Meet Local Artisans Amid Kolhapuri Sandal Scandal Russian Woman Found In Gokarna Gave Birth In Goa Cave, Has Kids With Israeli Businessman: Report Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 09:03 IST Nina Kutina, the Russian woman, was found living in a cave in Karnataka's Gokarna along with her two daughters. She claimed that she gave birth to one of them at a Goa cave. Russian woman Nina Kutina in India (CNN-News18) Nina Kutina, the Russian woman who was found in a cave along with her two daughters in Karnatakas Gokarna last week, claimed that she gave birth to one of them during her stay at a cave in Goa, and an Israeli businessman is the father of her kids, according to a report. The Indian officials said that they have contacted the Israeli man after her claims, The Indian Express reported. Recommended Stories The turn of events came after Nina and her two daughters, aged six and four years, were rescued from a cave near Gokarna in Uttara Kannada district on July 9 during a police patrol. The officials have said that her visa expired in 2017 and is currently living at a detention centre in Bengaluru. An official of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) told The Indian Express that they have managed to track down the father of her kids, who hails from Israel and is currently in India on a business visa. The FRRO officials spoke with the Israeli businessman and checked if he could sponsor tickets for Nina and her daughters. The Israeli man, in his 40s, had met Nina a long time ago, and the duo fell in love. So, he is the father of the children who were with Nina. He is in the clothing business. We have been able to meet him," an official said. Nina had told news agency ANI that she had lost her son a long time ago and did not come to Gokarna for spirituality but because nature gives good health". Nina was initially unwilling to reveal details about her daughters father; however, she later opened up with the assistance of counsellors and divulged the details of the man with whom she claimed to be in a relationship," the report said, citing sources. The FRRO officials got in touch with the Russian consulate and said that the woman and her children would be deported after finishing all formalities, which would take nearly a month. She has another child back in Russia, and we have informed the Consul General of Russia in Chennai," an official said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all She told ANI outside a hospital in Bengaluru that she was living happily in the forest with her children and for the first time her kids saw the hospital and doctors". We have a lot of experience staying in nature, in the jungle. We were not dying, and I did not bring my daughters so that they would die here. They were very happy, swimming in the waterfall, a very good place for sleeping" she said. About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 08:46 IST News india Russian Woman Found In Gokarna Gave Birth In Goa Cave, Has Kids With Israeli Businessman: Report She Paid The Price For Speaking Up: Balasore Victim's Father Blames Ignorance Of Many Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 12:35 IST Father of Balasore victim who died at AIIMS has demanded strict punishment for the perpetrators and said that the ignorance of many people forced his daughter to take the step. Odisha college student set herself on fire over sexual harassment by teacher | Image: X Father of the Balasore sexual harassment victim, who died at AIIMS due to burn injuries, said on Wednesday that the ignorance of many people who were in knowledge of his daughters complaint forced her to self-immolate at the college campus. Speaking to CNN-News18 on the phone, the father recalled the victims suffering and spoke with a heavy heart, as he demanded punishment for all those involved. Recommended Stories Victims Father Narrates Horror He demanded the arrest of the internal committee members, alleging that even they did not support his daughter when she raised a complaint of sexual harassment against the head of the department at Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Odishas Balasore. My daughter spoke and paid the price for it. These people should be punished. When she complained to the Principal, the SP called me and asked me what I had to say about it. I demand punishment for those involved. Authorities already knew about the happenings. The ignorance of many forced my daughter to take such a step," the father said. Internal committee members should also be arrested.. No one supported my daughter," he added. The victim student attempted suicide by setting herself on fire over the inaction on her sexual harassment complaint against her professor. The disturbing video of the incident surfaced online. She was brought to the casualty on July 12 and was referred from Balasore District Headquarters Hospital to AIIMS Bhubaneswar, where she succumbed to her injuries in the wee hours of Tuesday. The Principal of the college, Dillip Ghose, was suspended and arrested on Monday for failing to handle the matter properly and perform his duties, Odishas Higher Education Department said in the suspension order. He was also accused of shielding the HoD, who was also arrested. Balasore MP Pratap Sarangi Reacts To Incident BJP MP from Balasore, Pratap Sarangi, told CNN-News18 that he had spoken to the Principal of the college, asking for the details about the case. He also said that he spoke with the student, asking her to file the FIR, to which she said that she was awaiting the internal committee report. I was informed on the 2nd, her allegations were that personal cooperation was asked and she wasnt allowed to attend classes. I asked to Principal and he made arrangements for her entry in the Class. Then I asked why she is being harassed. The Principal told me that the internal committee is investigating this matter. I asked why FIR is not being filed in this case. The Principal told me that we are waiting for the committee report to come. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all I asked the girl to file the FIR, but she said that she was waiting for the internal committee report. Her friends told me that she has also attempted suicide in the past. I had a discussion with her, and after that, she told me that I am optimistic and I will never do this again," the MP said. He acknowledged that the internal committee did not function properly. About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:04 IST News india She Paid The Price For Speaking Up: Balasore Victim's Father Blames Ignorance Of Many Snake Rescuer, Carrying Cobra Around His Neck, Dies After It Bites Him In MP's Guna Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:24 IST The deceased was identified as Deepak Mahavar, 35, who was known in the area for saving snakes and had built a reputation as a local wildlife rescuer. Snake bites rescuer in MP (News18) In a tragic incident, a snake rescuer died after being bitten by a cobra that he was carrying around his neck after its rescue in Madhya Pradeshs Guna district, the police said on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as Deepak Mahavar, 35, who was known in the area for saving snakes and had built a reputation as a local wildlife rescuer. Recommended Stories Deepak, who worked as a temporary staff member at JP College, had saved countless snakes over the years. Many people in his town admired him for his fearless efforts, and he was often called when snakes entered homes or farms. But this time, his rescue mission turned fatal for him, officials said. Just days before the incident, Deepak had caught a venomous cobra and placed it in a glass jar. He reportedly planned to use it in a traditional display during an upcoming Shravan procession, which holds religious significance for Hindus. On the day of the tragedy, while taking his sons to school, Deepak wrapped the cobra around his neck like a chain, India Today reported. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A bystander filmed him riding his bike with the cobra around his neck, and the video quickly spread across social media. But moments after that video was captured, the cobra bit Deepak. He was immediately taken to the hospital and given antivenom, but the bite proved deadly, and doctors could not save him. Deepak leaves behind two young sons 14-year-old Chirag and 12-year-old Raunak. Their mother had passed away earlier, making the loss even more devastating for the family. The two boys have now lost both their parents and are left all alone. People in the community expressed shock at Deepaks death. Many said that it was a tragedy that could have been prevented. About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments Location : Guna, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:24 IST News india Snake Rescuer, Carrying Cobra Around His Neck, Dies After It Bites Him In MP's Guna 'Right To Life Overrides Free Speech': SC On Udaipur Files Release, Asks Centre To Decide Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:46 IST The Court said it expects the Centres committee to make a decision immediately, without loss of time, and has scheduled the next hearing for Monday 'Udaipur Files' in legal trouble | Image: X The Supreme Court postponed the hearing on petitions related to the film Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder, noting that the Union Government is scheduled to review appeals against the films CBFC certification today. The film depicts the 2022 murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, Rajasthan, who was killed by Mohammad Riyaz Attari and Ghaus Mohammad. The killing, carried out in broad daylight, had sparked national outrage. Recommended Stories When the filmmakers argued that the Delhi High Court was wrong to block the films release as it violated their right to free speech, the Supreme Court responded by saying that the right to life (Article 21) takes priority over the right to freedom of speech and expression (Article 19). The Court said it expects the Centres committee to make a decision immediately, without loss of time," and has scheduled the next hearing for Monday, keeping in mind the urgency raised by the films makers. A bench of Justices Suryakant and Joymala Bagchi was hearing two separate matters. One was from the films producer, Amit Johnny, challenging a Delhi High Court order that temporarily halted the films release. The second petition has been filed by Javed, one of the accused in the murder case, who contends that the films release could affect the fairness of the ongoing trial. During the hearing, Justice Kant expressed disagreement that a film can sway the mind of judges, as argued by senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy, appearing for the accused, Javed. Our judicial officers are not school-going children that they can be swayed by movie dialoguesabsolutely confident about their objectivitysense of detachment," Justice Kant said. This follows the Supreme Courts decision on Monday to take up a plea challenging the Delhi High Courts July 10 order that halted the films release. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The producers argued that the film had received censor board clearance but was still banned. The High Courts decision came in response to petitions claiming that the trailer could incite communal disharmony, as it is based on the 2022 killing of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, a case still under investigation by the NIA. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:59 IST News india 'Right To Life Overrides Free Speech': SC On Udaipur Files Release, Asks Centre To Decide Tear Gas, Water Cannons Used As BJD Protests Students Death Outside Odisha Assembly Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 12:07 IST Dramatic scenes unfolded outside the Odisha Assembly (Bidhan Sabha) in Bhubaneswar as BJD workers gathered in large numbers. Protests rock Odisha after student dies by self-immolation. (ANI) Tensions flared in Odisha on Wednesday as Biju Janata Dal (BJD) workers staged massive protests outside the Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar, demanding justice for a Balasore college student who died by self-immolation. The protest, part of a wider Balasore bandh, saw dramatic scenes unfold, prompting police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the agitated crowd. The student had reportedly set herself on fire over alleged inaction in response to her plea for justice. Her death has triggered widespread outrage and political uproar across the state. Recommended Stories #WATCH | Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Police use water cannon to disperse BJD workers protesting over Balasore students death by self-immolation.Biju Janata Dal is also observing a Balasore bandh in protest over a Balasore students death by self-immolation. pic.twitter.com/jDKQZzCbbq ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 BJD leaders slammed the government for its alleged negligence. BJD Vice-President Debi Prasad Mishra demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident, stating, We demand the government come out of its slumber and take action by ordering a judicial inquiry. Those who took no action should take moral responsibility and resign." #WATCH | Bhubaneswar, Odisha | On BJD protest against Balasore students death, party leader Snehangini Chhuria says, " A girl died asking for justice in the state. The CM and his cabinet ministers are unaware of what is happening in their state. The CM, MP and other persons to pic.twitter.com/bgoVeHptzr ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 Echoing similar sentiments, party leader Snehangini Chhuria said, A girl died asking for justice in the state. The CM and his cabinet ministers are unaware of what is happening in their state. The CM, MP and others to whom the girl had written must resign. A judicial inquiry should be conducted into the case. We will continue our protest until justice is served." BJD workers have vowed to intensify their protests if their demands are not met, insisting that the issue is not just political but deeply human and moral. Security Strengthened Police said they were monitoring the gathering with drones, besides making a heavy deployment of personnel on the roads leading to the secretariat. The BJD, which is also enforcing an eight-hour bandh in Balasore district, has been demanding a judicial probe into the incident. Security was also tightened in other government buildings in the city, including Rajiv Bhavan and Kharavela Bhavan, which are located in the vicinity of the Lok Seva Bhavan, police said. Police Commissioner S Dev Datt Singh was present near the Lok Sabha Bhavan to oversee the security arrangements. Employees were allowed entry into the Lok Seva Bhavan after thorough verification of their identities, officials said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Entry is being allowed only through Gate no 1, and all other gates have been closed, they said. Entry of visitors has also been restricted, they said, adding that people having prior appointments were, however, being issued entry passes on the recommendation of the departments concerned. About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More view comments Location : Bhubaneswar, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:48 IST News india Tear Gas, Water Cannons Used As BJD Protests Students Death Outside Odisha Assembly Delhi Schools On Alert: 5 New Bomb Threats Today, 10 Institutions Targeted In 3 Days Curated By : CNN-News18 Edited By: Abhro Banerjee Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 09:22 IST This incident follows a similar wave of bomb threats received by multiple schools in Delhi last week, which turned out to be hoaxes. Authorities on alert after several educational intitutions in delhi received bomb threats. (Image: ANI/Representative) Delhi continues to reel under a wave of bomb threats, with at least five schools reporting fresh alerts today across different parts of the national capital. The threats were received via email and prompted swift responses from authorities. According to reports, the latest alerts were received by schools in Dwarka at 5:26 am, Vasant Kunj at 6:30 am, Paschim Vihar at 8:11 am, and Hauz Khas at 8:12 am. Bomb disposal squads, local police, and cyber experts were deployed to each location for thorough checks, but nothing suspicious has been found so far. Recommended Stories The two schools, St. Thomas in Dwarka and Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, had already faced similar threats earlier, prompting evacuations and detailed inspections. On Tuesday, St. Stephens College and St. Thomas School also received bomb threats via email. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia, St. Stephens reported receiving the threat at 7:15 am. The mail claimed that four IEDs and two RDX bombs had been planted on the premises and in the library of the college. It further claimed they would explode by 2 pm," he said. Following the alert, teams from Maurice Nagar Police Station and other agencies swiftly cordoned off the area and conducted a comprehensive search. Officials later confirmed that nothing suspicious was recovered. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all On Monday, bomb threats were sent to three schools in Delhi: CRPF schools in Sector 16, Dwarka and Prashant Vihar, and the Navy Children School in Chanakyapuri. These, too, were declared hoaxes after security personnel found no explosives on the premises. In total, nine schools and one college have received bomb threats in the last three days, all of which have so far turned out to be false alarms. Investigations are ongoing, and cyber teams are working to trace the origin of these emails. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 07:00 IST News india Delhi Schools On Alert: 5 New Bomb Threats Today, 10 Institutions Targeted In 3 Days 'Want To Be Close To My Kids, But Nina Wouldn't Let Me...': Russian Woman's Israeli Husband Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:05 IST Nina Kutina revealed that an Israeli man is the father of her daughters. Dror Goldstein, the husband, said that he wants "shared custody" of the daughters. Russian woman, Nina Kutina, in India: Israeli man opens up about relationship with her (Images: PTI, ANI) The Israeli husband of the Russian woman who was found with her two daughters living in the Gokarna cave, has said that he wants to be close to" the children; however, Nina Kutina wouldnt let me spend time with them". Dror Goldstein, the Israeli businessman, claimed that he has been visiting India for the last four years to meet his daughters, but Nina made it really hard". Recommended Stories Nina and her two daughters were found living in Karnatakas Gokarna cave and were rescued by the police on July 9. They are currently in the detention centre in Bengaluru. She earlier told the officials that an Israeli man was the father of her two kids Prema, 6, and Ama, 5 and one of the babies was born in a Goa cave, The Indian Express had reported. Goldstein told NDTV that he first met Nina in Goa nearly eight years ago and fell in love with her. He said that the couple spent seven months together in India and more time in Ukraine. He said that Nina left Goa without informing me" a few months ago. I didnt know where they were," he said, adding that he had lodged a missing complaint and then found them living in Gokarna. I came there to see my daughters, to see how they are. She wouldnt let me spend time with them, only a little bit; she made it really hard," he told the broadcaster. My wish is to be close to my two daughters. I demand shared custody. I want to be able to meet them, to be close to them, and to be a father. Thats all," he told news agency PTI. VIDEO | Karnataka: A Russian woman and her two children were found living in Gokarna cave. Heres what Israeli citizen, Dror Goldstein, father of the two girls, said, demanding their custody.My wish is to be close to my two daughters. I demand shared custody. I want to be pic.twitter.com/vrudA9kkpL Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 16, 2025 He further claimed that he had been sending a good amount of money" to Nina every month, and she has everything they need". He also spoke about the reports of their deportation and said that he would do everything possible to prevent the government from sending them back to Russia. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) reportedly got in touch with the Israeli man after Nina told authorities about him being the father of the two girls. Their deportation to Russia would take nearly a month due to formalities. However, Nina said that she delivered all her children herself without hospitals or doctors". My children were all born in different places. I delivered all of them myself, without hospitals or doctors, because I know how to do it. No one helped me, I did it alone," PTI quoted her as saying. According to a New York Times report, she came to India several years ago with her two sons and a daughter. Her eldest son passed away at 21, and the whereabouts of the other son are unknown. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all According to officials, her business visa to India expired in 2017, but she overstayed since then. First, there were multiple personal losses not just the death of my son, but also a few other close people. We were constantly dealing with grief, paperwork, and other problems," she told PTI. About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:05 IST News india 'Want To Be Close To My Kids, But Nina Wouldn't Let Me...': Russian Woman's Israeli Husband When Will Shubhanshu Shukla Return To India & How Long Will He Stay In The US? Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 18:08 IST After splashdown, Shubhanshu Shukla was taken for tests on mental health, bone density, muscle strength, heart rate, vision, immunity, and neurological function Shubhanshu Shukla will undergo seven days of isolation, per NASA's established protocol for returning astronauts. (PTI/File) After returning to Earth from the International Space Station, Indian astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla is not heading back to India immediately. He will stay in the United States for a few more days under medical supervision. During this period, doctors will carry out detailed health assessments. The timeline of his return to India and the process involved in his post-mission recovery are now the key focus. Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams also returned to India from space on March 19. It has been four months, but she has not yet been able to fully resume her normal routine. She has experienced physical fatigue, back pain, and balance issues. Williams has shared that she needs to stay under medical supervision because of these problems. Recommended Stories #WATCH | Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla and Axiom-4 crew assisted out of the Dragon Spacecraft onto the recovery vehicle, after their return to the earth from the International Space Station 18 days later#AxiomMission4 (Video Source: Axiom Space/ YouTube) pic.twitter.com/f57N8K2qCa ANI (@ANI) July 15, 2025 Shubhanshu Shukla is expected to face fewer issues, as he spent a shorter duration in space and appeared fit and smiling upon his return. However, his return to India will take some time, with the exact duration yet to be determined. Types Of Tests To Be Conducted Upon splashdown, Shubhanshu Shukla was immediately taken for a medical examination. A team of doctors will monitor him, checking his mental health, bone density, muscle strength, heart rate, vision, immunity, and conducting neurological scans. Seven Days Of Isolation Following this, he will undergo seven days of isolation, per NASAs established protocol for returning astronauts. During isolation, medical examinations continue, and preparations for resuming their old lifestyle are made, including activities like yoga and meditation. Therefore, Shubhanshu Shukla will remain in isolation from July 22 to 23. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all What Follows the Medical Tests? If Shukla is deemed fit after isolation and the doctors give their approval, he may return to India, possibly by a special plane. If no additional problems arise, Shubhanshu Shukla could return to India after 8-10 days, by July 25. However, this has not been officially confirmed yet. Details about the experiments he conducted on the International Space Station might be delayed, but everything will proceed according to the established protocol. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 18:08 IST News india When Will Shubhanshu Shukla Return To India & How Long Will He Stay In The US? How India Cracked Trumps Tariff Playbook And Avoided Japans Mistakes | Finepoint Written By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 18:14 IST For Trump, tariffs are not just a means to an end they are the end. India understands Trump's psychology and motivations and harbors no illusions in negotiations Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) speaks as US President Donald Trump listens during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP File) In recent weeks, questions have swirled: Is the India-US trade deal still on? Will India get a tariff letter too? The answers lie in Trumps tariff playbook his tariff psychology and domestic political motivations, and the good news is, India seems to have cracked it, staying clear-eyed and unshaken. Recommended Stories The much-anticipated trade deal between India and the United States is yet to be finalised. Initially, it was believed that the agreement would be announced a day before July 9 marking 90 days since US President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on April 2. That was when the tariffs were originally scheduled to come into effect. However, no announcement was made. Instead, President Trump extended the tariff deadline to August 1. In the weeks that followed, Trump issued a series of tariff letters" to countries including Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh but notably, not to India. This omission signalled that negotiations with India remained on track. Talks have since continued, with an Indian delegation visiting the United States for the second time this month. A deal is now expected by July 31, a day before the revised deadline. But uncertainty remains. Key sticking points have emerged during the talks. India has shown resistance in sectors like automobiles and pharmaceuticals. In areas such as agriculture and dairy, India has taken a firm stance. The country has never opened up its dairy sector to foreign nations and is unlikely to make an exception for the United States. Another critical issue is genetically modified foods; Indias GMO-free reputation provides it with an export advantage, especially in European markets. While Trump wants the deal to benefit American farmers, India has domestic agricultural interests of its own to safeguard. According to sources, India has already made its best possible offer to the US, and the ball is now in Trumps court. The Indian side has maintained a consistent message throughout: it will not negotiate under pressure or on imposed deadlines. India has stated it will only agree to a deal that is mutually beneficial, asserting its red lines and keeping retaliatory measures on the table. For instance, India has reserved its rights under World Trade Organization norms to impose retaliatory duties on products such as steel, aluminum, and automobiles. In light of these complexities, expectations around the deal have been scaled down. A mini trade deal" is now being discussed, involving tariff reductions below 20%. This would revise the 26% tariff rate announced on April 2 and avoid a public confrontation or a dramatic tariff letter from Trump. A reduced tariff scenario, even in an interim agreement, would offer India a competitive edge as most other countries are facing tariffs exceeding 20%. Japans Shocker Despite the contentious atmosphere surrounding global trade, India appears to have received relatively careful treatment. In contrast, President Trump has adopted a more combative posture toward traditional allies and partners. Japan is a case in point. A long-standing security ally and the largest holder of U.S. Treasury bonds, Japan had expected preferential treatment. Instead, Trump targeted its auto sector and pressured it to purchase American rice both sensitive sectors for Japan. Frustration mounted on the Japanese side over the disjointed approach of U.S. negotiators. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who was the first foreign leader to offer a deal to Trumps second-term administration, found himself the first to receive a tariff letter a 25% tariff effective August 1. Trump has since referred to Japan as spoiled" and derisively called Prime Minister Ishiba Mr Japan." With elections approaching in Japan, Trumps actions have had a direct political impact. Japan is now reassessing its strategic reliance on the United States. This raises broader concerns particularly within the Quad grouping about what such treatment of allies signals to adversaries like China. Japan is not alone. Nearly every US ally or partner including the European Union, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, and the Philippines has faced tariff action, alongside countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Libya, and Myanmar. Since July 7, Trump has issued approximately 26 tariff letters. India, however, remains an exception. This indicates that negotiations are ongoing and have not broken down as they have with other nations. Still, India is not under any illusion about receiving special treatment. The Trump administration has shown that even close allies are subject to hardline tactics. Moreover, there is a broader credibility issue. Even if a deal is signed, there is little guarantee that it will be honored or last. Indias Approach Clear-Eyed And Pragmatic India entered negotiations with a clear-eyed understanding of these dynamics. It has remained pragmatic, avoiding emotional or reactive moves, and has set firm boundaries while maintaining mutual respect. This approach has thus far prevented a hostile outcome. Unlike others, India has not provoked an aggressive response from the U.S. This demonstrates a carefully managed and calibrated strategy arguably one of the most measured among U.S. trade partners. India has avoided the pitfalls of unrealistic expectations as seen with Japan and political discord as with the EU or Canada. It has remained unambiguous, unemotional, and prepared for all possible outcomes deal or no deal. This strategy is rooted in a clear understanding of Trumps trade doctrine. For the U.S. President, no relationship is sacred; symbolic and financial gains take precedence. A countrys leverage with Trump depends not on historical ties but on current strength strong leadership and economic clout. In this respect, both the Modi-Trump personal rapport and Indias growing economic heft have helped sustain dialogue. Trumps tariff approach is also shaped by domestic political motivations. Tariffs are more than a tool to reduce trade deficits. They serve as a source of government revenue that can finance future tax cuts or economic subsidies. Tariffs are also being used to pressure companies to move manufacturing to the U.S., thereby boosting domestic employment and industry. For Trump, tariffs are not just a means to an end they are the end. Yet, unpredictability persists. Trump is often accused of TACO" Trump Always Chickens Out a phrase referring to his tendency to retreat from threats at the last minute, as seen in repeated delays of tariff implementation, including against China. He has also used tariffs for arguably unjustified actions. The 50% tariff imposed on Brazil, despite a US trade surplus with the country, was justified by citing the ongoing trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Brazilian President Lulas assertive response at the BRICS Summit only heightened tensions. Trump has even threatened to impose a 10% tariff on all BRICS member states. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Tariffs remain Trumps weapon of choice and they are here to stay. Given this, the prudent course is to protect core interests, remain firm, and avoid hasty or unfavorable agreements. Trade deals, after all, can be either game-changers or back-breakers. Once signed, they are difficult to reverse. Thus far, Indias leadership has navigated Trumps tariff threats more effectively than most. The trade negotiations remain alive, and a peaceful, win-win outcome is still possible despite the challenges. Thats a striking performance by Indias negotiators, one that signals the emergence of a more confident India opening doors for a new era in trade not just with the US, but with the world. About the Author Shubhangi Sharma Shubhangi Sharma is News Editor - Special Projects at News18. She covers foreign affairs and geopolitics, and also keeps a close watch on the national pulse of India. Shubhangi Sharma is News Editor - Special Projects at News18. She covers foreign affairs and geopolitics, and also keeps a close watch on the national pulse of India. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 18:12 IST News opinion How India Cracked Trumps Tariff Playbook And Avoided Japans Mistakes | Finepoint Opinion | SIR, Could We Have Voters List Reforms With Some ICE, Please? Written By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 09:20 IST Just cleaning voter lists is not enough. Since the process is making large-scale detection of illegals possible, it should be followed by detention and deportation So far, 6.6 crore or 88.18 per cent of the total voters in the state have submitted their enumeration forms. The djinns are everywhere. They travel as if borders do not exist. They take over land, usurp cultures, snatch jobs. And the djinns have also filled up voter lists and ballot boxes for the parties of their political masters, or the ones who gave them fake papers and shelters. Now that the Election Commission (EC) has started a hunt to track down the geniesstarting with Bihar which goes to polls this yeartheir political masters are panicking. More than 35 lakh names are set to be excluded from Bihars electoral roll because of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process being carried out in the state. Recommended Stories So far, 6.6 crore or 88.18 per cent of the total voters in the state have submitted their enumeration forms. The deadline is July 25, after which the draft electoral roll will be published. The EC has shared statistics, which show 12.5 lakh or 1.59 per cent of electors have died but their names remain on the list. Another 2.2 per cent, or 17.5 lakh electors, have permanently moved out of Bihar. Around 5.5 lakh or 0.73 per cent voters have registered twice. This adds up to 35.5 lakh existing voters or 4.5 per cent of the total electorate facing removal from Bihars voter list. It does not include illegal immigrants from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, whom EC teams busted during field visits, who were registered as voters. These names will also be removed after verification. The Supreme Court, which is currently hearing petitions related to the SIR, has advised the EC to use Aadhaar cards, ration cards, and voter ID cards for voter verification. An overwhelming part of illegal immigrants are Muslims from Bangladesh and Myanmar. In Bihar districts like Kishanganj, which has 68 per cent Muslims, for instance, Aadhaar card saturation reportedly stands at 126 per cent. Katihar, with 44 per cent Muslims, has 123 per cent Aadhaar card saturation, Araria has 123 per cent, and Purnia has 121 per cent. So, these districts have more than 120 Aadhaar cards for every 100 people. This fraud and assault on the system obviously benefits secular parties like the Congress and RJD, who are now blue with rage. The TMC in West Bengal, a case study in minority appeasement politics, has threatened agitation to stop the purge of illegals from the electoral rolls. One hopes the Centre and the courts wont buckle. But just cleaning the voter lists is not enough. Since the process is making large-scale detection of illegals possible, it should be followed by detention and deportation. That is exactly what the Donald Trump administration has been doing in America through relentless raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. President Trump came into office promising the largest mass deportation in US history, targeting what he claimed were 10 million unauthorised migrants living in the US. As a result of the ICE raids, data shows border crossings have plummeted, arrests have doubled, and the number of people in detention is at an all-time high, reports NBC. Migrants in ICE detention on July 7, 2025, stood at 57,186. Of them, 28.6 per cent have criminal convictions, 25 per cent have pending criminal charges, 47.5 per cent were listed as other immigration violator", and 11.7 per cent have been fast-tracked for deportation. Cumulative border crossings have come down to 1,08,658 (year to date, 2025) from 9,05,920 (YTD, 2024), which was 88 per cent higher. Border crossings stood at 9,25,919 (YTD, 2023), 88.3 per cent higher than this year. The number of people deported by ICE has not been regularly released, but NBC News claims it has internal ICE data, which shows 15,000-18,000 are being deported each month lately. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all India needs an ICE-style purge. While there are mostly unconfirmed reports about India stealthily pushing back Bangladeshi illegals by the hundreds since Operation Sindoor, the drive has to be more robust and decisive. Else, the djinns will continue to ravage Bharats demography, and ultimately, its destiny. Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 09:20 IST News opinion Opinion | SIR, Could We Have Voters List Reforms With Some ICE, Please? Opinion | Why It's Time To Prepare A Draft Blueprint For Liberation Of Temples Written By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 10:34 IST For over 70 years, devotees, spiritual organisations, and isolated law-abiding politicians have approached various courts seeking justice to administer their places of worship. Karnataka government recently took over Gali Anjaneya temple. (Image: X) Since 2014, millions of Hindus across Bharat have been anxiously awaiting the liberation of all Hindu Temples, which have been unjustly usurped by various state governments for over 70 years and administered solely by political appointees. A single bold act by PM Narendra Modi to undo this ongoing injustice, which began under British rule, would earn him and the BJP accolades and praise for all time, as well as a justified permanent claim to rule the country. It is true that liberating temples is not within the purview of the Central Government, as they languish under hostile state governments, many of which are devoted to corruption, desecration, and the usurping of movable and immovable property. For over 70 years, devotees, spiritual organisations, and isolated law-abiding politicians have approached various courts seeking justice to administer their places of worship, which other religious communities enjoy fully. Most unfortunately, courts have been indifferent to the pleas of Hindu devotees, and Temples continue to suffer, awaiting relief. However, this should not deter a determined Central Government. Even if the courts delay and the Constitution designates it as a state subject, there are strong and effective methods to compel recalcitrant players into submission. One can take a lesson from the Congress partys latest technique. Recommended Stories Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition (LoP), prompted by foreign lobbies, called for a caste census, appropriation and redistribution of wealth, and controversially stated that the Congress would consider scrapping reservations when India is a fair place," which he claims is not the case presently. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor his Congress party thought about seeking the intervention of courts or whether the Constitution permitted such proposals. Instead, he instigated a national debate on certain revolutionary ideas. He floated an idea to ignite a furious debate, even at the risk of plunging the nation into chaos, confusion, and violence. He sent feelers to the general populace, hoping they might grab the idea, go on a rampage, and propel him towards his dream of becoming Prime Minister. His methodology is noteworthy; he wisely decided to keep the judiciary out of the picture, lest they procrastinate indefinitely. The liberation of Hindu Temples does not feature in the agenda of any political party. The fulfilment of every Hindus cherished dream, not only in India but across the globe, remains unresolved. The BJP is overlooking a massive emotional theme that can unite all Hindus and ensure their continued power. People need a vast and proud dream beyond the claims of rising GDP, forex reserves, infrastructure development, international relations, and foreign investments. The liberation of temples is a long-cherished dream of every Hindu, and whichever political party includes it in their election manifesto can gain a significant advantage over other contenders. Recently, the Karnataka Congress government, notably hostile to Hindu interests but with a strong proclivity for foreign religions, took over the Gali Anjaneya Swamy temple at Byatarayanapura on Mysuru Road. The temple was declared a Notified Institution under the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment Act, 1997. CCTV footage surfaced on social media showing temple staff allegedly stealing money while counting donations and offerings in the hundi (donation box). Quick to seize every opportunity to take over temples, the government concluded that the temples administration was improper. Under Sections 42 and 43 of the Karnataka Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1997, the government took over the temple. The immediate reason was that the trustees lacked coordination, had no savings, and the money was being misused. No records were available regarding income and expenditure for the last 25 years. If the Karnataka government believed financial irregularities were happening in the temple, it could have ordered the reconstitution of the Trust per law. Why was there a need to take over the temple administration? Is the same standard applied to churches, gurudwaras, and mosques, where financial irregularities also occur? Can taking over the temple prevent financial irregularities? Even in government-controlled temples, financial irregularities are rampant, along with objectionable schemes like different paid Darshan categories, VIP Darshan, temple money being used to construct VIP guest houses, high tariffs for prasadams, illegal diversion of temple funds for other projects, irregularities and corruption in appointing temple priests, political party cadres being placed in temple office jobs, sub-standard quality prasadams, and more. Temples are graded as A, B, and C categories based on income generated, which is obnoxious. It is clear that liberating Hindu Temples is not easily attainable as all political parties refuse to part with this source of easy money. Justice appears very remote and bleak. Temple liberation is not on the agenda of any political party. What is the solution for this vexed imbroglio? One solution could be to approach the Supreme Court for a direction to all state governments, prohibiting any fresh takeover of any temple under any grounds. Under exceptional circumstances, a court-monitored interim administration can be put in place to restore normalcy. Another immediate reform could be to remove all Hundis from temples and substitute them with e-hundis. Electronic money transfer will ensure proper accounting of funds and eliminate the need for physical counting and associated risks. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all But, the more important question is how temples will be run if liberation is permitted? Hindu communities should work on a blueprint regarding the administration and financial control of temples under the overall superintendence of a national Temples Authority of Bharat. Each temple should be managed by a Board of elected Hindu members, with due representation given to all Hindu communities residing in the vicinity. Elections should be for independent members only, without any political affiliation. A blueprint covering all aspects should be prepared by a national committee of experts to determine how control will transfer from the government to the Hindu community. Thereafter, the proposal should be made into an election issue. It is important to remember that Hindus are the only community worldwide denied the basic right to administer their places of worship. The writer is Former Director General, Multi-Disciplinary School of Economic Intelligence, and National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18s views. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 10:34 IST News opinion Opinion | Why It's Time To Prepare A Draft Blueprint For Liberation Of Temples Avoid Pak-Like Language: Kiren Rijijus Advice To Rahul Gandhi For Parliament Session Curated By : Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:54 IST Union Minister Kiren Rijiju criticized Rahul Gandhi for his comments on PM Modi's foreign policy, accusing him of using "language of Pakistan" and harming the country. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi. (File) Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday took a jibe at Lok Sabha Leader Of Opposition Rahul Gandhi ahead of the Parliaments monsoon session and suggested him not to speak anti-national" or anything which goes against the country. Reiterating his attack of speaking language of Pakistan," Rijiju questioned Gandhis intentions behind attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over foreign policy, pointing out that opposition also has a role in doing good work for the country." Recommended Stories Rahul Gandhi criticising the Prime Minister on the countrys foreign policy wont help the nation. The Opposition also has a role to play in contributing to the nations development. Discussions will take place in Parliament, however, there should not be two stances on foreign policy," he said as quoted by news agency PTI. VIDEO | Delhi: Union Minister Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) says, Rahul Gandhi criticising the Prime Minister on the countrys foreign policy wont help the nation.The Opposition also has a role to play in contributing to the nations development. Discussions will take place pic.twitter.com/eXHjogHCaP Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 16, 2025 While accusing the Lok Sabha LoP of using the language of Pakistan, the union minister said that the way Gandhi tries to mislead people on foreign policy, harms the country. During the Congress government, we did not attack the prime minister separately on foreign policy. The way Rahul Gandhi tries to mislead people on foreign policy by speaking the language of Pakistan, it harms the country. We will suggest to him that as the leader of the opposition, he should not say anything anti-national," he added. Rijijus comments came a day after Gandhi attacked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over his meeting with Chinas Xi Jinping, claiming that he was running a full-blown circus" aimed at destroying Indias foreign policy. Other Congress leaders also took aim at Jaishankar, pointing out how China provided iron-clad support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise (PM) Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full-blown circus aimed at destroying Indias foreign policy," Gandhi has posted on X. The BJP soon responded to the grand-old-party leader and accused him of being a habitual liar and offender" when it comes to disrespecting the armed forces. BJP national spokesperson Ajay Alok took a jibe at Gandhi saying he does not now F of foreign policy" but keeps raising questions. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all (With inputs from agencies) About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:54 IST News politics Avoid Pak-Like Language: Kiren Rijijus Advice To Rahul Gandhi For Parliament Session Congress's OBC Panel Bets Big On Caste Census Narrative, Siddaramaiah At Bengaluru Meeting Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 20:24 IST Calling Rahul Gandhi a 'Nyaya Yoddha', the OBC Advisory Council passed a 3-point resolution that the Congress hopes will define its social justice pitch ahead of the Bihar polls For Siddaramaiah, the meeting was also a personal win, protecting his position as a strong OBC face of the Congress, especially at a time when his leadership is under scrutiny within the Karnataka unit. Pic/PTI The All India Congress Committee (AICC)s OBC Advisory Council meeting in Bengaluru on Wednesday saw some major messagingboth ahead of the Bihar elections and as a strong show of support for Siddaramaiah as Karnatakas chief minister. By the end of the one-and-a-half-day meet, the message was loud and clear: the Congress wants to reclaim its Other Backward Classes (OBC) base, push the Centre for a caste census, and back Rahul Gandhis jitni aabadi, utna haq" (rights proportionate to population) campaign. Calling Rahul Gandhi a Nyaya Yoddha" (Justice Warrior), the council passed whats now being referred to as the Bengaluru Declarationa three-point resolution that the party hopes will define its social justice pitch in the run-up to the Bihar polls. Recommended Stories Siddaramaiah also consolidated his position as a prominent OBC leader during the meeting. When asked about a possible leadership change in Karnataka, AICC OBC wing chairman Anil Jaihind dismissed any such speculation: There is no such proposal. Siddaramaiah is our only OBC chief minister, and we all support him." The most significant demand in the Bengaluru Declaration was a national-level caste census, to be conducted officially by the Census Commission of India (ORGI). The council said the exercise must go beyond enumeration and include social, economic, educational, employment, and political details, using the Telangana Socio-Educational-Employment-Economic-Political-Caste (SEEEPC) survey model as a reference. Siddaramaiah reminded delegates that Karnataka had already carried out a similar survey under the Kantharaju Commission, initiated in 2015 during his first term and submitted only in 2024. It has since been pushed into cold storage, dismissed as dated". But the Congress government has now ordered a fresh survey, expected to be completed by October this year. There must be a fight for 75% reservation or proportional representation based on actual data," Siddaramaiah told the leaders. We must demand political representation and economic justiceincluding reservation in private sector jobs, promotions, contracts, schemes, and market access." The second resolution called for breaking the 50% cap on reservations, echoing Rahul Gandhis statement last year that the ceiling is arbitrary" and an obstacle to justice. Gandhi has publicly committed to removing the ceiling through legislation, calling it necessary to protect the Constitution". The council also backed Gandhis criticism that the history of Dalits and backward communities is being erased from school textbooks. Leaders agreed that states must support his push if the Congress wants to grow and survive". The third resolution called for enforcing reservation in private educational institutions as per Article 15(5) of the Constitution. Siddaramaiah also used the platform to hit out at the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. They polarise India through caste. We will unite India through the Constitution. They treat OBCs as mere symbols. We uplift them as equals," he said. Every time the Congress brings in a policy for justice, the BJP resists it, not just politically, but ideologically. Because they are uncomfortable with genuine backward class advancement." He also reminded the party that AHINDA is not a vote bank. It is the voice of Indias conscience." Congress insiders say the entire OBC pushincluding the Bengaluru Declarationis part of a larger strategy: to win back OBC votes, revive leadership from within the community, and position the Congress as the party of social justice. For Siddaramaiah, the meeting was also a personal win, protecting his position as a strong OBC face of the Congress, especially at a time when his leadership is under scrutiny within the Karnataka unit. The party also acknowledged that OBC support has steadily drifted to the BJP over the decades and agreed it was time to confront that truth. Leaders discussed rebuilding ground support and learning from past missteps. The Bharatiya Janata Party, however, hit back sharply. Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra called the entire exercise a Bihar election gimmick" and challenged the Congress to declare Mallikarjun Kharge as its prime ministerial candidate if it truly cared about backward classes. They wontbecause Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi will never allow it," he said. He also ridiculed Siddaramaiahs social justice pitch, recalling how the Rs 165-crore Kantharaju report was shelved allegedly after a phone call from Delhi and advice from Rahul Gandhi." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Where was your concern for the backward classes then?" he asked. Despite the BJPs criticism, the Congress is betting big on the caste census narrative. With 42 top leaders in attendance, including Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders and former chief ministers, the Bengaluru Declaration is being positioned as the partys blueprint for its social justice campaignand a key roadmap for reclaiming lost political ground in the upcoming elections. About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 20:24 IST News politics Congress's OBC Panel Bets Big On Caste Census Narrative, Siddaramaiah At Bengaluru Meeting Maharashtra Opposition Turns Dramatic, Launches 'Lungi, Baniyan' Protest Against Slapgate MLA Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 12:57 IST As per the videos circulating online, the Opposition leaders can be seen wearing 'baniyans' and towels as 'lungi' over their usual attire. MVA legislators staged a 'lungi, baniyan' protest outside the Maharashtra Assembly. (Image: News18) In a dramatic move, legislators of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) on Wednesday staged a lungi, baniyan protest outside the Maharashtra Assembly to protest against the assault on the hostel canteen employee by Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Gaikwad. The ppposition leader are also demanding the government to take action on the incident. As per the videos circulating online, leaders including Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balahasaheb Thackeray) MLC Ambadas Danve and NCP(SP) leader Jitendra Awhad, among others, can be seen wearing baniyans and towels as lungi over their usual attire. Recommended Stories In addition to this, the leaders were also heard raising slogans against the gooda raj of the ruling alliance. The assault by Gaikwad in the MLA canteen shows that even the government is backing such elements," Leader of Opposition in the state legislative council Ambadas Danve said. The Oppositions move days after Shiv Sena leader 9Shinde faction) Sanjay Gaikwad stroked a massive controversy after a video of him slapping the employee of the Akashvani MLA hostel at Churchgate surfaced on social media. It was reported that the altercation began after Gaikwad ordered dinner from the canteen but found the dal and rice delivered in his room to be stale and foul-smelling. Angered by this, the leader stormed into the canteen and confronted the employee. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Following the heated argument, Gaikwad slapped the employee of the canteen. The video of the incident went viral on social media triggering massive criticism with the Opposition demanding action against the MLA. Gaikwad, however, did not apologise for the incident and continued to defend himself. Despite widespread condemnation, including from his own party, Gaikwad said that he slapped the manager and not the staffer, terming it right". About the Author Mahima Joshi Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More Mahima Joshi, Sub-Editor at News18.com, works with the India and Breaking team. Covering national stories and bringing breaking news to the table are her forte. She is deeply interested in Indian politics and a... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:57 IST News politics Maharashtra Opposition Turns Dramatic, Launches 'Lungi, Baniyan' Protest Against Slapgate MLA OBC Outreach, Caste Census Top Agenda At Congress Strategy Meet In Bengaluru Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 10:29 IST The meeting is crucial for the Congress as it seeks to reclaim OBC votes, revive community leadership, and build momentum for a nationwide caste census Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with Deputy CM and state Congress President D K Shivakumar, party leader Ashok Gehlot and AICC OBC department Chairman Anil Jaihind in Bengaluru. (PTI) The Congress is sending out a louder message amid buzz over a possible leadership shuffle in KarnatakaAHINDA is not a vote bank. It is the voice of Indias conscience." That was the line delivered by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at the first-ever meeting of the AICC Backward Classes Advisory Council being held in Bengaluru. The meeting is crucial for the Congress as it seeks to reclaim OBC votes, revive community leadership, and build momentum for a nationwide caste census. Recommended Stories The underlying theme running through the two-day session is clear: Congress is not backing down on social justice. The party is now strategising on how to win back the OBC support base it believes has steadily shifted to the BJP over the past few decades. Opening the meeting, Siddaramaiah said: Let us remind the country that AHINDA is not a vote bank. It is the voice of Indias conscience. This is not a fight for reservation to Backward Classes alone. This is a fight for recognition, dignity, and power of these classes." He launched a direct attack on the BJP, saying: The BJP has never stood for social justice or reservations. They have never believed in inclusive development or in bringing all communities together. Karnataka still faces deep inequalities. Every time the Congress brings in measures to ensure justice for the marginalised, the BJP opposes thembe it reservation or any welfare policy. That is the truth." Siddaramaiah said the second day of the meeting will see Congress MP Rahul Gandhi address the gathering virtually, where he is expected to outline the partys national strategy. We will also be announcing new steps. The future of India cannot be built on the exclusion of many. The future must rise on the shoulders of the underprivilegedwith dignity, with opportunity, and with their rightful place in power," he said. He added: In the spirit of equal opportunity to live, equal share of resources and the rise of all, we must build an India where no one is left behind and everyone rises together." Another key focus of the meeting is the caste census, said sources. It is learnt that the Congress is placing it at the heart of its political messagenot just in Karnataka, but as part of its national revival. Party leaders discussed how the Karnataka and Telangana models could be extended across the country. Siddaramaiah also invoked the Kantharaj Commission report. In 2015, under my government, we conducted Indias most comprehensive Socio-Economic and Educational Survey, covering 1.3 crore households. This was more than just enumerationit was a moral commitment to visibility, representation and justice." He slammed the BJP for keeping the report buried during its rule. From 2019 to 2023, the BJP sat on this report. That is not just bureaucratic delay; it is ideological opposition to social justice." Now, his government has ordered a second survey. To ensure fairness and reflect demographic shifts over a decade, we are committed to a second Socio-Economic and Educational Survey. This is about justice," he said. Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka CM M Veerappa Moily, who had implemented the 1995 State Backward Classes Act, made a strong pitch for a nationwide caste census. Without data, you cannot deliver real justice. We are talking about equity, but we dont even know who needs what. The time has come to act," Moily said. Taking aim at the BJP, he said: They talk about OBCs only during elections. But when it comes to giving them their due, they back off. The Congress is not afraid of the truth. Rahul Gandhis stand jitni aabadi, utna haq is the way forward." Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot called Rahul Gandhis campaign an extraordinary and bold step" by any political leader. Whether its about EWS or the 95 per cent of the population that remains underrepresented, the ground reality must be seen through the lens of justice," he said. Whatever kind of politics the BJP plays, democracy will decide," he added. What could be more unfortunate than the fact that untouchability still exists? Caste-based discrimination, inferiority complexesDalits and backward communities continue to live with this daily. We cannot ignore it anymore." The Bengaluru meeting, attended by over 42 top OBC leaders, including four PCC chiefs and one CLP leader, is also a platform to discuss internal party representation. Leaders are deliberating on ways to strengthen OBC leadership within the party and ensure better organisational roles. While speaking to those present, Siddaramaiah stressed that political representation must be asserted so that backward classes have a fair and proportional say in all decision-making platforms. He said there was a need to widen economic opportunitiesincluding extending reservations to private sector jobs, ensuring promotions in government services, access to government contracts, financial assistance, welfare schemes, and market linkages. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Party insiders say the meeting also doubles up as a platform to bolster Siddaramaiahs image as the Congresss national OBC face, especially at a time when his leadership in Karnataka is being closely watched. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar had recently tried to position himself with the community by pointing out that Vokkaligas and Lingayats are classified as OBCs at the Centre. Sources say that also on the agenda is a discussion on Article 164(1) of the Constitution, referencing states like Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarhall of which have implemented caste-based representation in their cabinets. About the Author Rohini Swamy Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More Rohini Swamy, Associate Editor at News18, has been a journalist for nearly two decades in the television and digital space. She covers south India for News18s digital platform. She has previously worked with t... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 10:29 IST News politics OBC Outreach, Caste Census Top Agenda At Congress Strategy Meet In Bengaluru Samik Bhattacharyas First Task: Discipline Bengal BJP Before PM Modis Rally On July 18 Reported By : News18.com Edited By: Apoorva Misra Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 11:17 IST Sources say the BJP leadership in Delhi was unhappy with Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikaris controversial statement asking Hindu Bengalis not to visit Muslim majority J&K West Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya | Image: PTI Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modis rally in Bengals Durgapur on July 18, state BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya has received his first taskget the Bengal unit disciplined. Bhattacharya was asked to keep the flock, including its senior leadership, in check recently when he made his first visit to Delhi after becoming the West Bengal BJP president. Sources say the BJP leadership in Delhi was unhappy with Bengal BJP leader and LoP Suvendu Adhikaris controversial statement asking Hindu Bengalis not to visit Muslim majority" Jammu & Kashmir. Referring to the recent Pahalgam attack, Adhikari had said: Dont go to the places where Muslims are in majority. If you want to go to Kashmir, go to Jammu They (terrorists) killed people asking about their religion." Recommended Stories TMC lost no time to hit back, claiming Adhikari shamelessly echoed the terrorists agenda". While Adhikari made it clear it was his personal opinion, the BJP leadership is clearly not convinced. In Delhi, Bhattacharya met BJPs Bengal in-charge Sunil Bansal and General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh and is believed to have been asked to get the state unit disciplined. No out-of-turn gaffes or unwanted controversies should be allowed ahead of PM Modis rally in Durgapur, which he is visiting after six years. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The BJP is also in discomfiture in Bengal due to its former state president Dilip Ghosh, whose growing proximity with chief minister Mamata Banerjee has irked the cadres. Last week, Ghosh too came to Delhi and visited the BJP headquarters to meet Deputy General Secretary (Organisation) Shiv Prakash. However, after the meeting, Ghosh said something that may not go down well with the BJPthat there is no pending case of corruption against Mamata Banerjee. Earlier, Ghosh went to the inauguration of the Jagannath Dham Sanskriti Kendra (cultural centre) at Digha, an event largely skipped by the state BJP leadership. PM Modis last rally in West Bengal was on May 29, 2025, in Alipurduar. Last time, he raised the issue of TMC governments alleged corruption, which he claimed destroyed families". TMC regime not ready to accept its mistakes in school jobs scam. It is blaming courts, judicial system," he said. The rally comes days before the Trinamool Congress annual Martyrs Day programme on July 21, indicating a strategic move by the BJP to counter TMCs influence in the state. About the Author Anindya Banerjee Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in ... Read More Anindya Banerjee, Associate Editor brings over fifteen years of journalistic courage to the forefront. With a keen focus on politics and policy, Anindya has garnered a wealth of experience, with deep throat in ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:17 IST News politics Samik Bhattacharyas First Task: Discipline Bengal BJP Before PM Modis Rally On July 18 'Urdu Being Communalised, Judiciary Influenced By Politics': Mehbooba Mufti On CAT's Order Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:54 IST Mufti said that most revenue records and government paperwork in Jammu and Kashmir are still maintained in Urdu PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti | File Image/PTI Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday criticised the judiciary, calling it deeply unfortunate" that it appears to be influenced by divisive politics" over the recent controversy surrounding the Urdu language requirement in Jammu and Kashmir recruitment rules. Her remarks came in response to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) staying parts of the Jammu and Kashmir Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 2009, which made graduation with knowledge of Urdu a minimum qualification for the post of Naib Tehsildar. Recommended Stories In a social media post on X, Mufti said that Urdu, a recognised official language in the Union Territory, was being unfairly communalised" and politically targeted. It is deeply unfortunate that our judiciary appears to be influenced by divisive politics. Urdu, a recognised official language for decades, is now being unfairly communalised," the former J&K CM wrote. It is deeply unfortunate that our judiciary appears to be influenced by divisive politics. Urdu, a recognised official language for decades, is now being unfairly communalised.Our revenue records and administrative work continue to be maintained in Urdu, and it is only logical Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) July 16, 2025 Mufti stressed that most revenue records and government paperwork in Jammu and Kashmir are still maintained in Urdu. It is only logical that applicants for the post of Naib Tehsildar possess basic proficiency in the language," she said. The former chief minister also stated that the Urdu requirement was rooted in administrative practicality, not in any attempt to divide people. This requirement is rooted purely in administrative efficiency not in any form of divisiveness," she added. The CATs interim order followed weeks of protests, particularly in the Jammu region, where the BJP and other groups opposed the Urdu clause, calling it discriminatory. The Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) responded by halting the application process for Naib Tehsildar posts. In a notice issued Tuesday, the JKSSB said: In view of the interim direction passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal the process of inviting applications for the post of Naib Tehsildar (issued on June 9) is hereby deferred till further intimation/orders." The CAT bench, comprising Member (A) Ram Mohan Johri and Member (J) Rajinder Singh Dogra, heard the matter and issued a stay. The petitioners, represented by Senior Advocate Abhinav Sharma and Advocate Abhirash Sharma, argued that the Urdu language requirement was ultra vires the Constitution of India," claiming it violated principles of equality and non-discrimination. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The tribunal has issued notices to the concerned authorities and asked them to respond within four weeks. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for 13 August. (With inputs from PTI) About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments Location : Jammu and Kashmir, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 16:54 IST News politics 'Urdu Being Communalised, Judiciary Influenced By Politics': Mehbooba Mufti On CAT's Order 'You Can Come Here': Did Fadnavis Invite Uddhav Thackeray Over To The Ruling Side? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 21:34 IST During his speech at the Maharashtra legislative council, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis chose to directly address former ally Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis (L) made a surprising statement about Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray during his speech at the Maharashtra assembly. (Image: PTI/File) Two days after Uddhav Thackeray shared a light moment about how the two Shiv Senas should come together, it was time for Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to make a quip or two. A few surprising comments here and there during the ongoing monsoon session, and Fadnavis sparked speculation about future political machinations that may or may not concern Uddhav. During his speech on the occasion of his former allys farewell from the Vidhan Parishad on Wednesday, he chose to directly address him. Recommended Stories #WATCH | In the Maharashtra Assembly, CM Devendra Fadnavis says, "At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (opposition). Uddhav Ji can think about the scope of coming to this side (ruling party) and that can be thought about in a different way, but there is pic.twitter.com/jMlounhLpL ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 (Uddhav ji) you can be considered for inclusion here (in the ruling party)," Fadnavis said, while appearing to laugh and share a joke. At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (opposition). Uddhav ji can think about the scope of coming to this side (ruling party) and that can be thought about in a different way, but there is absolutely no scope left for us to come there (opposition)." Later, however, Uddhav said the remarks made by Fadnavis were in jest" and nothing to read into. His remarks were made in jest, let it remain so," he told reporters. The undivided Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray parted ways with the longtime ally BJP after the 2019 assembly elections. Fadnaviss pointed remarks stood out against the backdrop of a possible tie-up between Uddhavs Shiv Sena and Raj Thackerays Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the civic body elections in Mumbai. The MNS, which has supported the BJP in past elections, is yet to make its intentions clear. On July 5, the two Thackeray cousins shared the political stage after two decades to celebrate the BJP-led Maharashtra governments rollback of two controversial orders that had introduced Hindi as a third language from Class 1 in state schools. In April, Raj Thackeray sparked speculation about a potential political rapprochement with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray, noting their past differences were trivial" and uniting for the greater good of Marathi manoos" (Marathi people) is not a difficult task. The buzz strengthened when Uddhav said he was ready to put aside trivial fights provided that those working against Maharashtras interests will not be entertained. This was a veiled reference to Raj hosting Shiv Sena head and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde at his residence. Amid all the confusion over alliance loyalties, the MNS chief had also met Fadnavis at a hotel last month. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all There are also reports of continuing unease between Fadnavis and his deputy Eknath Shinde, who split the Shiv Sena in 2022 and joined hands with the BJP. Shinde was said to be unhappy when he had to cede the chief ministers post to Fadnavis after the BJP-led Mahayuti retained power with a landslide victory in the 2024 elections. (With PTI inputs) About the Author Oindrila Mukherjee Oindrila Mukherjee is a senior sub-editor who works for the rewrite and breaking news desks. Her nine years of experience in print and digital journalism range from editing and reporting to writing impactful st... Read More Oindrila Mukherjee is a senior sub-editor who works for the rewrite and breaking news desks. Her nine years of experience in print and digital journalism range from editing and reporting to writing impactful st... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 17:22 IST News politics 'You Can Come Here': Did Fadnavis Invite Uddhav Thackeray Over To The Ruling Side? Gemini Student Offer: Google Brings 1 Year Of AI Pro Subscription In India Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 13:48 IST Google is bringing a special offer for students above 18 years in India which gives them free access to the new Gemini AI Pro plan. Google is bringing the special offer on Gemini AI Pro for Indian students Google is bringing a Gemini student offer in India which lets them access Gemini AI Pro subscription for free, that is claimed to bundle features worth over Rs 19,000. This is a limited period deal that is available for students above 18 years old which means the company is targeting the collegegoers in the country with this offer. So why is Google bringing this student-centric offer in India? The company cites a study which has shown that 95 percent of students in the country who use Gemini AI feel more confident in their lives. Recommended Stories Google Gemini Student Offer: What Is The Deal And Who Can Apply? Google has set the conditions that are needed for you to be eligible for the offer: 18 years of age or older Resident of India Verify your student status using a valid school email address as and when requested; Personal Google Account Google Payments account with a qualifying form of payment when signing up; and Subscribe to Google AI Pro through the Google Play Store Once the 1 year free offer ends, Google will charge you the standard monthly charge for Google One subscription. If you tick all these boxes, you can head over to the Google Gemini AI Pro offer page and fill in details like school, first name, date of birth and email-ID. Google says, you must currently be enrolled in a degree or certificate-granting, accredited school of education." And the company does the verification for the Google One using SheerID, which is a trusted partner. Gemini Student Offer: Features Worth Rs 19,500 For Free With Gemini AI Pro Google Gemini AI Pro rivals the ChatGPT Plus plan and you get these features: top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all 2TB cloud storage for Photos, Drive and Gmail linked to your Google account AI film making app Flow is available with this plan NotebookLM Plus is also accessible Gemini Assistant working across Google apps like Docs, Gmail and Sheet The offer expires and must be redeemed by September 15, 2025, Google confirms in its post. About the Author S Aadeetya S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More S Aadeetya, Special Correspondent at News18 Tech, accidentally got into journalism 10 years ago, and since then, has been part of established media houses covering the latest trends in technology and helping fr... Read More News18 Tech delivers the latest technology updates, including phone launches, gadget reviews, AI advancements, and more. Stay informed with breaking tech news , expert insights, and trends from India and around the world . Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 09:15 IST News tech Gemini Student Offer: Google Brings 1 Year Of AI Pro Subscription In India Gokarna Cave Mom: Who Is The Father Of The Russian Woman's Kids? Where Is He Now? Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:51 IST Russian Woman In Karnataka Cave: Living in a snake-infested Gokarna cave, Nina Kutina raised her daughters with forest herbs, makeshift schooling and a mystery dad Nina Kutina claimed to have educated her two daughters in basic mathematics, language skills, and environmental awareness using natural materials like leaves, stones, and water. (News18) Russian Woman News: The extraordinary story of Nina Kutina, a 40-year-old Russian national found living with her two young daughters in a remote cave near Gokarna in Karnataka, continues to unfold with new revelations. Rescued last week from the Ramateertha Hills area, Nina Kutina and her daughters, 6-year-old Preema and 4-year-old Ama, are now in the custody of Indian immigration authorities, with deportation proceedings underway. Rescued From Snake-Infested Forest Cave Recommended Stories On July 9, police discovered Nina Kutina and her daughters living in a snake-infested area near the Ramtirtha waterfall during a routine patrol. The family was reportedly sleeping on plastic sheets and surviving on fruits, herbs, and instant food. Nina Kutina told police she had lived in the cave for the past four years, following an earlier stay in Goa. According to officials, she had arrived in India in October 2016 on a business visa and worked briefly for a private company in Goa. Her visa expired in 2017, but instead of returning to Russia, she travelled to Nepal and later returned to India, settling in Goa and eventually Gokarna. How Did Nina Kutinas Children Study? Nina Kutinas story has sparked public curiosity, particularly about how her children were raised in such isolation. When asked about their education, Nina Kutina explained that she taught her daughters using elements of nature as tools. She claimed to have educated them in basic mathematics, language skills, and environmental awareness using natural materials like leaves, stones, and water. She said her children were happy and preferred this unconventional lifestyle to a traditional school environment. What Was Nina Kutinas Income? The question of how Nina Kutina supported herself also drew attention. She claimed her income came from selling herbs and fruits gathered in the forest. In addition, she said she occasionally received donations from local residents who were impressed by her minimalist and way of life. Police found old coins and a few belongings in the cave, suggesting that her financial resources were minimal but, according to her, sufficient. Nina Kutina also expressed distress over the loss of her sons ashes, which she said were taken away by the police during the rescue operation. I was happy in the forest, but now I am living in filth here," she said, referring to her current stay at a rehabilitation centre, which she described as unhygienic. Israeli Businessman Identified As Childrens Father In a surprising turn, Nina Kutina eventually revealed with the help of counsellors that an Israeli businessman is the father of her children. The man, reportedly in his 40s and currently in India on a business visa, met Nina Kutina years ago while she was in Goa. According to officials from the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the man is involved in the clothing trade and has acknowledged his connection to the children. Next Steps: Deportation And Consular Involvement With her visa long expired and her children born in India, Nina Kutina and her daughters were transferred to the FRRO in Bengaluru. The Indian authorities have contacted both the Israeli man and the Russian Consulate in Chennai. Officials have confirmed that the family will be deported once all formalities are completed. She has another child in Russia, and we have informed the Consul General," an FRRO official said. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Life In The Forest Not Meant To Harm Children Speaking to news agency ANI, Nina Kutina denied putting her children in danger. We have a lot of experience living in nature, in forests across 20 countries," she said. We were not dying. I did not bring my daughters so that they would die here. They were very happy, swimming in the waterfall. It was a very good place for sleeping". News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments Location : Karnataka, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 10:34 IST News viral Gokarna Cave Mom: Who Is The Father Of The Russian Woman's Kids? Where Is He Now? My Life Hasn't Changed One Bit: Techie Soham Parekh Reflects On Life After Moonlighting Row Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 08:55 IST Social media users responded with a mix of concern and relatability. One person wrote, This is either peak dedication or a cry for help." Soham Parekh was accused of moonlighting for multiple US companies. (Photo Credit: X) Soham Parekh, the Indian tech professional who shot to infamy for working full-time at multiple startups simultaneously, is back in the spotlight. The techie, who had previously admitted to juggling several roles across companiescausing widespread debate over moonlighting in the startup worldhas now opened up about his life post-scandal. In his latest post on X (formerly Twitter), Parekh claimed that life after the controversy has remained largely unchanged. My life hasnt changed one bit," he wrote, sharing a screenshot of a conversation where someone asked him how he manages to work so much. Parekhs response was simple: I love what I do. Lol," followed by, I dont have anything else to do." The post, while casual in tone, struck a chord with many online, reigniting conversations about work-life balance, hustle culture, and the emotional toll of modern work habits. Recommended Stories Social media users responded with a mix of concern and relatability. One person wrote, This is either peak dedication or a cry for help," while another questioned whether Parekh ever felt lonely or burned out. Some, however, empathised with his mindset, saying his words were so relatable" and reflective of the all-consuming nature of professional life for many in the tech space. Parekhs latest remarks come months after he first broke his silence and admitted that he had not taken on multiple jobs to scam anyone, but out of a personal drive to work. His honesty, however controversial, continues to stir debate around ethics, productivity, and the pressures of todays hyper-competitive work environment. Whats The Soham Parekh Case top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Soham Parekh, an Indian software engineer based in Mumbai, was publicly accused by Suhail Doshi, co-founder of Playground AI and former Mixpanel CEO, of secretly working full-time at 34 US-based startups simultaneously, including Y Combinatorbacked firms such as Dynamo AI and Synthesia. Parekh admitted to this in an interview, explaining that dire financial hardship forced him into the arrangement and that he often worked 140-hour weeks. While some praised his technical skill, most expressed concern over the ethical breach. About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 08:48 IST News viral My Life Hasn't Changed One Bit: Techie Soham Parekh Reflects On Life After Moonlighting Row She Became A Single Mom At 19, Had 12 Grandkids, And Now Has Twins With Man 17 Years Younger Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:32 IST Australia's Angela Peters defied norms by becoming single mother at 19, divorcing at 51, and starting new family in her 50s. She married a man, 17 years younger,and had twins at 54 Angela underwent IVF treatment and, at 54, gave birth to twin girls, bringing her total number of children to seven. (News18) Angela Peters, a woman from Australias Gold Coast, has lived a life that defies traditional expectations. From becoming a single mother at 19 to embracing grandmotherhood and later starting a new family in her 50s, Angelas story is one of personal freedom, resilience, and the courage to follow her heart, regardless of age or social convention. Early Motherhood And Marriage Recommended Stories Angela became a mother at just 19, while still unmarried. Later, she had another child before eventually marrying for the first time and going on to have three more children. Her family grew quickly, and she became a grandmother to 12 by her early fifties. However, at the age of 51, Angela realised she was unhappy in her marriage. She chose to divorce her husband and live independently, marking a new chapter in her life. Finding Love In A Surprising Place Angelas story took an unexpected twist when she met Emeka, a 47-year-old Nigerian man living in Senegal, through a dating website in 2020. Their conversations led Angela to notice Emekas younger brother, Bright, in a family photo. Bright, who was 34 at the time, 17 years younger than Angela, caught her attention immediately. She boldly reached out to Bright, and after some hesitation, he agreed to speak with her. The connection blossomed, and Angela eventually travelled over 9,000 miles to Nigeria, where she stayed with Bright for nine months. A Second Chance At Motherhood Despite her age and the fact that her periods had stopped, Bright believed they could have children. Angela underwent IVF treatment and, at 54, gave birth to twin girls, bringing her total number of children to seven. Though some feared Bright might be a romance scammer, Angela felt confident in their relationship. The couple had a small wedding ceremony, and Angelas children, initially shocked, came to accept Bright after meeting him. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all A Life Of Bold Choices And Unconventional Love Angelas journey, from being a teen mum and grandmother to starting a new family in her mid-50s, challenges conventional norms about age, love, and motherhood. Her story stands as a reminder that life doesnt always follow a set path; and sometimes, the most surprising chapters come later in life. News18's viral page features trending stories, videos , and memes, covering quirky incidents, social media buzz from india and around the world, Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! view comments Location : Australia First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:32 IST News viral She Became A Single Mom At 19, Had 12 Grandkids, And Now Has Twins With Man 17 Years Younger 20 Pakistani Soldiers Killed In 12 Hours In Balochistan As Rebels Ambush Military Checkposts | Exclusive Reported By : CNN-News18 Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 23:00 IST Among those killed is a senior officer, Major Rab Nawaz The province has long seen unrest, driven by anger over resource extraction, lack of political representation, and heavy militarisation. (Representational pic/Reuters) A new wave of unrest has emerged in Balochistan as armed attacks were carried out on Pakistani security forces in the Awaran, Quetta, and Kalat districts. Recent attacks by Baloch freedom fighters have resulted in the deaths of 20 personnel, including a senior officer, Major Rab Nawaz. Recommended Stories The province has long seen unrest, driven by anger over resource extraction, lack of political representation, and heavy militarisation. According to sources, Baloch independence activists are suspected of being involved in these attacks; however, no group has claimed responsibility for them yet. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The latest attacks have once again put the spotlight on Balochistans fragile security environment, where periodic armed rebellions continue to test Islamabads control over the mineral-rich region. Security forces have launched an operation in the affected areas, and a search for the attackers is underway. The situation remains tense, with intense fear and panic among the people. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 23:00 IST News world 20 Pakistani Soldiers Killed In 12 Hours In Balochistan As Rebels Ambush Military Checkposts | Exclusive 'Maybe With India': Donald Trump Teases New Trade Deal, Says Talks Underway Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 22:54 IST President Trump hinted that ongoing negotiations for an interim trade deal with India are on track and could be finalised soon, aiming to give US companies more access. US close to making deal with India, says Trump (Reuters File Image) US President Donald Trump has once again hinted that the ongoing negotiations between India and the US for a much-anticipated interim trade deal are on track and it could be finalised soon. During a bilateral meeting with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain at the White House, the US President hinted at the announcement of the trade deal saying maybe" another deal is on the horizon. Recommended Stories We had one (deal) yesterday. We have another one coming up, maybe with India.," Trump said. #WATCH | Washington DC | US President Donald Trump says, We have another one (deal) coming up, maybe with India Were very close to a deal with India where they open it up" Weve brought in over $100 billion. The tariffs havent kicked in that much, other than pic.twitter.com/JD2FPiYcFM ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 The remarks came a day after Trump told the press that his administration was working with India on similar lines" with Indonesia. Greater Access To Indian Market Earlier today, Trump said the proposed deal could provide American companies greater access to the Indian market in line with the trade pact between the US and Indonesia. India and the US have been holding negotiations for the trade pact primarily to keep the tariffs below 20 per cent. Under the trade deal, Indonesia is giving the US access to the country, which we never had, Trump said. Thats probably the biggest part of the dealIndia is basically working along that same line. We are going to have access to India," he said. Washington has already sent letters to several countries sharing details of reciprocal tariff rates that would come into effect on August 1. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Meanwhile, an Indian Commerce Ministry team is in Washington for another round of talks on the proposed trade agreement. India has hardened its position on the US demand for duty concessions on agri and dairy products. New Delhi has, so far, not given any duty concessions to any of its trading partners in a free trade agreement in the dairy sector. (With inputs from agencies) About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More view comments Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: July 16, 2025, 22:13 IST News world 'Maybe With India': Donald Trump Teases New Trade Deal, Says Talks Underway Bangladesh: 4 Dead, Curfew Imposed After Clashes Rock Sheikh Hasina's Hometown Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 22:04 IST Bangladesh anti-Sheikh Hasina Protests: Two killed in firing, nine injured; curfew imposed as security forces crack down in Gopalganj. Soldiers sit atop an APC after armed forces were deployed, following a clash during a National Citizen Party rally, in Gopalganj, Bangladesh. (IMAGE: REUTERS) Violence erupted at a rally of Bangladeshs youth-led National Citizen Party (NCP) in the southern town of Gopalganj on Wednesday, leading to the deaths of four people. The anti-Sheikh Hasina protests rocked the hometown of the Prime Minister-in-exile and her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was Bangladeshs founding father. According to news outlet Prothom Alo, the hometown of Bangabandhu, Gopalganj, turned into a virtual battlefield as hundreds of supporters of his daughter, members of the Awami League allegedly clashed with the police ahead of the planned march of student-led NCP to the district. Recommended Stories However, the newspaper citing an unnamed local news reporter highlighted that ordinary people and even former prime minister Khaleda Zias Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) joined hands with local Awami League leaders and activists to prevent the NCP. Yunus squarely blamed Awami League for the violence. Preventing young citizens from peacefully holding a rally to commemorate the one-year anniversary of their revolutionary movement is a shameful violation of their fundamental rights," he said, blaming Hasinas political party the Awami League and its student group for Wednesdays violence. This heinous act allegedly carried out by members of the banned Awami Leagues Chhatra League and AL activists will not go unpunished. The perpetrators must be swiftly identified and held fully accountable. There is no place for such violence against any citizen of Bangladesh," the chief advisers office said. Two of those killed were identified as Dipto Saha, 25, and Ramazan Kazi, 18, according to reports. Both were brought dead to Gopalganj General Hospital with gunshot wounds, while at least nine others were admitted with bullet injuries, doctors said. The violence prompted the deployment of four extra platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), amounting to nearly 200 personnel, as the authorities vowed strict action against those involved in the clashes. A 22-hour curfew was imposed in Gopalganj from 8 pm Wednesday, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunuss office said, warning that those behind the attacks would be held accountable. Did NCP Stoke Tensions? Speeches by NCPs top leaders used phrases like removing Mujibs legacy" and freeing Gopalganj of Mujibism" and even going to the extent of the leaders saying that they ensure justice for themselves" if police are failing to react. Protesters attacked police vehicles and the car of the local administrative head, and also targeted the NCP convoy, prompting security forces to open fire, reports said. Despite the chaos, the NCP went ahead with its rally on a vandalised stage, using broken sound equipment, with convenor Nahid Islam vowing they would seek justice on their own if the authorities failed. Islam, along with key NCP leader Hasnat Abdullah, openly pledged to tear down the remaining symbols of what they called Mujibs legacy". Islam also warned that if justice over the assault on their rally was delayed, the NCP would return to liberate Gopalganj from Mujibism" themselves. We are going to bring our justice if the police forces fail," said Islam. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The comments came shortly after NCP leader Sarjis Alam blasted the attack on their motorcade earlier in the day, calling on everyone to rush to Gopalganj and put up a resistance against members of the banned Awami League. In Gopalganj, the agents of the killer Hasina have attacked us. The police are just standing by, watching the drama, retreating," Alam said in a Facebook post. About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More view comments Location : Dhaka, Bangladesh First Published: July 16, 2025, 21:41 IST News world Bangladesh: 4 Dead, Curfew Imposed After Clashes Rock Sheikh Hasina's Hometown As Gov. Tina Kotek works toward a special legislative session to mitigate nearly 500 layoffs looming at the Oregon Department of Transportation, some observers are still trying to understand the failure of House Bill 2025. That bill, in the works for a year, would have raised $15 billion in new transportation funding over the next decade. And in the sessions waning days, few lawmakers played a bigger role in the drama around the bill than state Rep. Kevin Mannix (R-Salem), one of the most wily and experienced elected officials in Oregon politics over the past four decades. Mannix voted no three times on HB 2025 in committee before abruptly announcing the day before the sessions end (when the bill was on its way to the House floor) that hed broken with Republicans and switched his vote to yes. It ultimately didnt matter. Democrats had hoped they could rely on the three-fifths supermajorities they hold in both legislative chambers to pass HB 2025. (The Oregon Constitution requires a supermajority to pass new taxes.) But with Rep. Hoa Nguyen (D-East Portland) mostly unavailable due to cancer treatment and Sen. Mark Meek (D-Gladstone) opposed to the bill, Democrats desperately needed to find Republican votes. That was a tall order, given GOP leaderships stated belief that ODOTs budget should be cut rather than increased. Mannixs reversal came, he says, because Democrats trimmed the new taxes enough for his taste. But others point to the timing of his reversal, just days after lawmakers approved a $100 million earmark to deepen the shipping channel in the Port of Coos Bay. A group including former state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) proposes to build a multibillion-dollar container port there and to ship goods by rail to and from Eugene. Mannix is a vocal supporter of the Coos Bay project and previously an investor in companies that could benefit from its construction. He says he no longer has a stake in one of the companies he formed Coos Bay Marine Terminals LLC but hes still actively involved in rail-related companies that hope to provide container traffic to the Coos Bay-to-Eugene rail line. Mannix acknowledges hes long been a booster of state investment in the Coos Bay project. I think the state should be more visionary when it comes to Coos Bay, he says. But he adamantly denies that he traded his vote in exchange for the $100 million for the project. While I support the appropriation, I was not engaged in any discussion with leadership about it, Mannix says. My willingness to vote yes [on HB 2025] had absolutely nothing to do with Coos Bay. Scott Moore, the chief of staff to House Speaker Julie Fahey (D-Eugene) supports that account. The speaker had many conversations about HB 2025 with legislators, including Rep. Mannix, who is a member of the joint committee, Moore says. For the record, he never once mentioned Coos Bay to her. Yet the end result was that a project important to Mannix got a massive financial boost just three days before he switched his vote and the size of the Coos Bay earmark came as a surprise to many, even the House member who represents Coos Bay. Mannix, 75, grew up in Ecuador, Panama and Bolivia (his father served in the Foreign Service) before earning undergrad and law degrees from the University of Virginia. He made his way to Oregon and joined the Oregon Department of Justice, but his oratorical skills and passion for civic affairs led him to politics. He first entered the Legislature in 1989 as a Democrat. A bill-writing machine, he says on his website that he was the chief sponsor of more successful legislation (135 bills) than any other single legislator since 1859, when Oregon became a state. Mannix also authored numerous ballot initiatives, most notably Measure 11 in 1994 that created mandatory minimum sentences. After running unsuccessfully for attorney general as a Democrat in 1996, Mannix switched his party affiliation to Republican and soon embarked on a second act, pursuing higher office in earnest. He ran again for AG in 2000, nearly won the governors race in 2002, ran again for governor in 2006, and then for Congress in 2008, battling Democrats over ballot measures all the while. In 2017, having left electoral politics, Mannix noticed that the large transportation funding package lawmakers passed that year created opportunities for rail freight. That got me involved in rail transportation issues, he says. Records show he established a series of companies seeking to create rail-shipping capacity for agricultural interests in the Willamette Valley. In 2022 Mannix returned to the Capitol for a third act, winning an open Salem House seat. In the statement of economic interest required of all lawmakers, he disclosed on his 2023 form investments in three rail-related companies: Willamette Intermodal Group LLC, Oregon Independence Railroad LLC, and Coos Bay Marine Terminals. In 2024 he disclosed those same investments. Mannix tells OJP he ended his investment in Coos Bay Terminals when he reentered the Legislature in 2023 and listed it in 2024 because the company owed him money for legal services. His 2025 form does not include an investment in that company, but lists the railroad and Willamette Intermodal Group. (Mannix says he is a minority owner in both and president of the latter.) Those companies are aimed at linking the Willamette Valley to the Coos Bay container port. In June 2021, the OIRR, Mannixs company, purchased about a half-mile of track that formerly belonged to the Valley and Siletz Railroad. In 2022, records show, the Marion County Board of Commissioners awarded another Mannix company, Willamette Intermodal Group, a $1 million grant, part of Mannixs goal of serving Willamette Valley agricultural shipping needs. In his application to Marion County, Mannix described plans for a $138 million, 400-acre intermodal rail yard in Woodburn, served by Interstate 5 and major rail lines. Upon completion, his application said, the rail yard would have maximum capacity of 150,000 containers annually and, among other possibilities, could serve as a general distribution location for products moving to and from the International Port of Coos Bay. For some time, Mannix has been a zealous advocate for the Coos Bay container port. He says he introduced NorthPoint Development, the company tapped to build the facility, to Coos Bay officials. Another example: Early in the legislative session, officials from Business Oregon and the Port of Portland pushed a bill that would provide state funding for the latters container shipping terminal, which would be a direct competitor to Coos Bay, should the Coos Bay terminal get built. But during a hearing on the bill, Mannix insisted that the state not play favorites, even though the Port of Portland has an existing container business. I want to make sure we are not excluding the Port of Coos Bay, he said. I see an amendment coming. Mannix later proposed an amendment that changed the bills language so that rather than going to an existing container port, the state money would go to an existing or proposed container port. That was in February. By late June, Democrats were scrambling to salvage HB 2025, a transportation bill that had veered dangerously off course in the final days of the session. On June 20, the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment voted to move HB 2025 to the House floor on a party-line vote. Mannix joined his Republican colleagues on the committee in voting against what he called an obese bill. On June 23, the Joint Ways and Means Committee released its capital expenditure bill, the so-called Christmas Tree legislation that bestows funding requested by influential legislators. The bill emerged from a secretive process in which requests for funding far outstripped available funding (i.e., only select lawmakers got their wishes). Among the biggest expenditures in the bill: $100 million to deepen the channel at Coos Bay to accommodate massive container ships. Lawmakers and lobbyists watching the Ways and Means process reacted with surprise that the Coos Bay project got such a big chunk of funding. I had absolutely no idea how that happened, says state Rep. Boomer Wright (R-Coos Bay), whose district includes the port. Thats a crazy amount for Coos Bay, a transportation lobbyist told OJP. Then on June 26, Mannix switched his vote on HB 2025. He became the sole Republican to announce hed support a new, slimmer version of HB 2025 on the House floor. We need to remember the basic goal of this legislation, which is to reestablish accountability in our transportation operations but also develop the resources to meet the needs of Oregonians, he said in explaining his change of heart. Mannix says he always hoped to find a version of the transportation bill he could support. But the timeline shows that after the release of the Coos Bay news, he saw things the Democrats way. Mannix was one of four Republicans Democrats chose to negotiate with on HB 2025 behind closed doors. That kept him in regular communication with Democratic leaders, who were ultimately responsible for the Christmas Tree bill. State Sen. Kate Lieber (D-Portland), co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, which is responsible for the earmarks, including the $100 million for Coos Bay, says she did not cut any deal with Mannix. We never talked about it, Lieber says. Liebers committee co-chair, Rep. Tawna Sanchez (D-Portland), did not respond to questions. In the end, Coos Bay got far more from lawmakers than did the Port of Portland ($20 million), although the $100 million is contingent on Coos Bay raising federal matching funds. Mannix voted for HB 5006, the Christmas Tree bill, without declaring a conflict of interest. He says potential benefits from his transportation investments are so uncertain and so far off he did not think it necessary. Any connections between my projects and Coos Bay are ethereal, he says, and way in the future. Related stories: 'Call Putin': NATO Chief Warns India, China Of 100% Secondary Sanctions Over Russia Ties Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 07:31 IST Rutte made the comment while meeting with senators in the US Congress the day after President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte looks on during a meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 14, 2025.. (AFP) NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark warning on Wednesday, saying that countries like Brazil, China, and India could face severe secondary sanctions if they continue economic ties with Russia. Rutte made the remarks during meetings with US senators, a day after President Donald Trump unveiled a new weapons package for Ukraine and threatened biting" secondary tariffs of 100% on buyers of Russian exports unless a peace agreement is reached within 50 days. Recommended Stories My encouragement to these three countries, particularly is, if you live now in Beijing, or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," Rutte told reporters. He had met with Trump on Monday and endorsed the new measures. So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," he added. Republican U.S. Senator Thom Tillis voiced support for Trumps move but expressed unease about the 50-day grace period. He warned that Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war, or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground as a basis for negotiation." So we should look at the current state of Ukraine today and say, no matter what you do over the next 50 days, any of your gains are off the table," Tillis said. Rutte assured that Europe would mobilize funding to place Ukraine in the strongest possible position for negotiations. He said that under the new agreement with Trump, the U.S. would now massively" deliver weapons to Ukraine, not just air defense, also missiles, also ammunition paid for by the Europeans." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all When asked whether long-range missiles were being considered, Rutte said: It is both defensive and offensive. So theres all kinds of weapons, but we have not discussed in detail yesterday with the president. This is really being worked through now by the Pentagon, by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, together with the Ukrainians." (With inputs from Reuters) About the Author Abhro Banerjee Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More Covering day-to-day national and international news for the last nine years across print and digital. Associated with News18.com as Chief Sub-Editor since 2022, covering innumerable big and small events, includ... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 07:24 IST News world 'Call Putin': NATO Chief Warns India, China Of 100% Secondary Sanctions Over Russia Ties Canada-ISI-China Narco-Terror Nexus Exposed By DEA; Intel Sources Point To Global Threat | Exclusive Reported By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:47 IST According to top Indian intelligence sources, the operation confirms long-standing concerns about Canada's emergence as a hub for covert hybrid threats. Central to the operation, as per DEA findings and Indian intelligence inputs, is Indo-Canadian national Opinder Singh Sian, alleged leader of the notorious Brothers Keepers gang. A major international narco-terror network has been uncovered through a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at Vancouver Port, exposing a dangerous nexus involving Pakistani ISI handlers, Chinese chemical suppliers, and Latin American drug cartels. According to top Indian intelligence sources, the operation confirms long-standing concerns about Canadas emergence as a hub for covert hybrid threats. The DEA investigation, which began in 2022 and extended into 2023, recently led to the unsealing of an affidavit detailing the activities of a British Columbia-based fentanyl trafficking ring with global links. Central to the operation, as per DEA findings and Indian intelligence inputs, is Indo-Canadian national Opinder Singh Sian, alleged leader of the notorious Brothers Keepers gang. Intelligence officials describe the gang as a proxy for Mexicos Sinaloa cartel in Canada, deeply entangled with Latin American cartels and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked chemical suppliers. Recommended Stories Top Indian intelligence officials assert that Sian acts as a critical intermediary between ISI operatives in Lahore, Chinese dual-use chemical companies, and transnational drug syndicates. The gangs activities, according to these sources, are not limited to narcotics but extend to the funding of Khalistani propaganda, arms smuggling, and sleeper cell recruitment in Punjab. Indian agencies have also highlighted Vancouvers transformation into a strategic node for narco-terrorism, with ISI and Chinese networks exploiting Canadas permissive legal and political environment. Intelligence reports point to crypto-based hawala channels, NGO fronts, and encrypted communication routes via Dubai, Hong Kong, and Lahore that facilitate the laundering of fentanyl proceeds and the financing of radical elements in Punjab, Delhi, and Kashmir. Additionally, Indian intelligence has linked the Irish-origin Kinahan cartel, operating from Dubai, to Hezbollah financing networks that are laundering Canadian drug money into Middle Eastern black markets. These assessments are reinforced by evidence gathered by the DEA, confirming the operational overlap between international crime syndicates and hostile state actors. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The coordinated use of synthetic opioids, chemical precursors, and financial laundering by this ISIChinaCartel axis constitutes a hybrid threat to national security," Indian intelligence warns. Agencies have so far identified over 40 Indo-Canadian operatives, including gurdwara-linked fundraisers and YouTube influencers, as part of the wider propaganda and logistical network. The revelations mark a critical escalation in narco-terror threats and underscore the need for tighter international counterterror cooperation, intelligence officials say. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 13:12 IST News world Canada-ISI-China Narco-Terror Nexus Exposed By DEA; Intel Sources Point To Global Threat | Exclusive 'Carefully Consider...': India Issues Fresh Travel Advisory For Citizens In Iran Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 07:05 IST The advisory comes in the backdrop of rising regional tensions following recent military escalations involving Israel, Iran, and the United States. Iran's Bushehr province attacked. (Reuters Image) The Embassy of India in Tehran issued a fresh advisory on late Tuesday, urging Indian nationals to avoid non-essential travel to Iran. The embassy cited security-related developments over the past several weeks" and advised the Indian national to carefully consider the evolving situation before undertaking non-essential travel to Iran." Recommended Stories In view of the security-related developments over the past several weeks, Indian nationals are advised to carefully consider the evolving situation before undertaking non-essential travel to Iran," the embassy wrote. The advisory, posted on the embassys official handle on X, also asked those already in Iran to remain alert and consider returning using available commercial and ferry services. They are also advised to continue to monitor the latest regional developments and follow updated advisories issued by the Indian authorities. Indian nationals already in Iran, and interested in leaving, may avail the commercial flight and ferry options which are available right now." The advisory comes in the backdrop of rising regional tensions following recent military escalations involving Israel and Iran. The tensions between both countries escalated following a June 13 Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear and military sites, which Tel Aviv said was aimed at halting nuclear weapons development a claim Iran denies. In response, Iran launched missile and drone attacks targeting Israeli territory. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The conflict escalated further when the US launched strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22. President Trump, addressing the strikes, claimed the US had obliterated" the sites. A ceasefire between Iran and Israel was announced on June 23, ending a 12-day escalation. However, the rhetoric from both sides, especially around Irans missile capabilities and nuclear ambitions, remains heated. view comments Location : Iran First Published: July 16, 2025, 07:02 IST News world 'Carefully Consider...': India Issues Fresh Travel Advisory For Citizens In Iran China's Mystery Satellite Shiyan-28B 01 Suddenly 'Woke Up' After 6 Days. What This Means Curated By : Translation Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 15:39 IST Doubts persist over China's intentions as Shiyan satellites, though said to study space, are speculated by experts to have hidden military purposes due to their secretive nature Space expert Jonathan McDowell noted that China has never utilised an orbit with such a low inclination before. (Representative/News18 Hindi) The world was left in astonishment when Chinas mysterious satellite, Shiyan-28B 01, unexpectedly woke up in orbit after six days of silence. Launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on July 3, the satellite initially went undetected by any space tracking systems, despite standard protocol where satellites typically become traceable within 24 to 48 hours of launch. Started Responding After 6 Days Recommended Stories The satellite finally resurfaced on July 9 when the Space Forces Space Domain Awareness Unit in the United States identified it in an orbit of 794 796 kilometres with an inclination of only 11 degrees. This was a significant deviation from its expected inclination of 35 degrees at launch. The rocket carrying the satellite altered its trajectory thrice, reducing the inclination, a highly unusual manoeuvre. What Makes This Orbit Unusual? Space expert Jonathan McDowell noted that China has never utilised an orbit with such a low inclination before. This orbit directly traverses the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, suggesting that its purpose might extend beyond technology testing to potential surveillance or strategic objectives. Why Are Chinas Moves Under Scrutiny? Doubts have been cast on Chinas intentions as the Shiyan series satellites have a history of being enigmatic. While China claims these satellites are intended to study the space environment, experts speculate many have military applications. Notably, two Chinese satellites recently executed a special docking operation involving orbital refuelling, a technology that can prolong a satellites operational life and sustain military surveillance. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all NASA Also Watching Closely The US space agency NASA is closely monitoring the activities of this satellite. Chinas burgeoning space capabilities and covert missions are raising concerns globally. In addition to its plans to send samples to the Moon and Mars, China is also disrupting the global equilibrium with its clandestine actions in orbit. view comments Location : China First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:39 IST News world China's Mystery Satellite Shiyan-28B 01 Suddenly 'Woke Up' After 6 Days. What This Means Chinese Teen Locked Out By Parents Over Low University Exam Score: 'Don't Ask Us For Help' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:06 IST Xiaokai, a high school student in China, was locked out by his parents after scoring 575 in the Gaokao exam. The incident took place in Huaihua in central Hunan province. (Representative image: Pixabay) A high school student in China was reportedly locked out of his home by his parents after they expressed disappointment with his performance in the countrys national college entrance exam, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The incident took place in Huaihua in central Hunan province where a student, identified as Xiaokai, scored 575 out of a possible 750 in Gaokao- Chinas notoriously competitive university entrance examination. While the score is considered strong by national standards, Xiaokais parents believed it fell short of expectations for entry into one of Chinas prestigious 985" universities- a network of 39 elite institutions known for their academic excellence and competitive admissions. Recommended Stories Xiaokai, once a top-performing student, reportedly saw a decline in his academic focus after his parents bought him a mobile phone two years ago. His parents blamed the device for his perceived distraction and poor performance, accusing him of skipping classes and spending excessive time on the phone. He even played truant to spend time with the gadget," his father told SCMP. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Following the exam results, Xiaokai said his parents cut off his financial support. When he contacted his mother to ask why he couldnt enter the house, she claimed to be on a business trip and said she did not know the new code. She then told him, There is no place in the world without rules Lets live our lives separately." His father gave him an ultimatum to either return home and strictly follow their rules or leave and find work to support himself. Xiaokai, currently awaiting his admission result- expected mid-July- turned to local media for help. Speaking to Hunan TV, he said his parents made it clear they would not pay for his university education unless he secured a spot in a top university. view comments Location : China First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:06 IST News world Chinese Teen Locked Out By Parents Over Low University Exam Score: 'Don't Ask Us For Help' Demolition Of Satyajit Ray's Ancestral Home In Bangladesh Stopped Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:04 IST The demolition of Satyajit Ray's ancestral home in Mymensingh, Bangladesh has been halted a day after Indian government offered to help convert it into a museum of literature. India has offered to restore, reconstruct and repair renowned filmmaker Satyajit Rays ancestral home in Mymensingh, Bangladesh after Yunus ordered its demolition. (IMAGE: DHAKA TRIBUNE) In a significant breakthrough, the ongoing demolition at the ancestral home of renowned filmmaker Satyajit Ray in Bangladeshs Mymensingh has been stopped, news agency IANS reported. Mymensingh, Bangladesh: The demolition which was ongoing at the ancestral home of director Satyajit Ray has been stopped pic.twitter.com/77P9UnVEoo IANS (@ians_india) July 16, 2025 Recommended Stories The development came a day after the Indian government stepped in and volunteered to help in repair and reconstruction of the property into a museum of literature". We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished," the ministry said in a statement. Given the buildings landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh. The Government of India would be willing to extend cooperation for this purpose," the ministry further added. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also appealed to the Bangladeshi government to preserve the historic property. She also mentioned that demolition work on the century-old property has already begun. The historic landmark and the century-old property in Dhakas Horikishore Ray Chowdhury Road belonged to Rays grandfather, the renowned litterateur Upendra Kishore Ray Chowdhury, whose poems and short stories are taught to children in schools in Indias West Bengal, Assam and Tripura and also in Bangladesh, making it an intrinsic part of Bengali culture. The dilapidated building has remained unused since 2007. After the 1947 Partition, the property passed into government ownership and was converted into the Mymensingh Shishu Academy in 1989. Bangladesh news outlet Daily Star reported on Tuesday that the ancestral home of Rays grandfather, formerly used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, is being demolished to make way for a new semi-concrete structure. The house has been left abandoned for 10 years. Shishu Academy activities have been operating from a rented space," it reported, quoting Md Mehedi Zaman, the district Children Affairs Officer. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The officer went on to say that a semi-concrete building with numerous rooms will be built to replace the old house and restart the academys activities there. (With inputs from agencies) About the Author Shobhit Gupta Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben... Read More view comments Location : Dhaka, Bangladesh First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:04 IST News world Demolition Of Satyajit Ray's Ancestral Home In Bangladesh Stopped Grounded For 5 Years, Pakistani Airlines Set To Fly In UK Skies After Ban Lifted Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:44 IST While the EU lifted the ban last year and formal operations began in January this year, the UK was still not allowing Pakistani airlines to operate due to safety concerns Between 1965 and 2020, PIA recorded 10 major crashes along with several minor incidents.(Representative image / AP) The UK has lifted the restrictions on Pakistans national carrier, which was banned due to air safety concerns five years ago. The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was banned from operating in EU countries and the UK, followed by a scandal about the licensing of Pakistani pilots after the 2020 air crash in which nearly 100 people were killed. Recommended Stories Following air safety improvements, the UKs Air Safety Committee has lifted UK restrictions on Pakistani carriers. Individual airline carriers will still need to apply for permits to operate to the UK through the UK Civil Aviation Authority," the British High Commission said in a statement. The development comes as a big boost for Pakistan, which is trying to sell the PIA this year after its effort to offload the majority stakes in the airline failed, as no serious offer was made by the buyers. The government has already short-listed at least four parties for the privatisation of the airline. Fake Licensing Of Pakistani Pilots Over a hundred pilots were grounded in Pakistan after its then aviation minister, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, informed the countrys Parliament that a large number of commercial pilots hold fake licenses or had cheated in exams. Pakistans aviation authorities have been investigating allegations of fake qualifications among PIA pilots since 2018, though little information has been made public till the 2020 crash. Between 1965 and 2020, PIA recorded 10 major crashes along with several minor incidents. EUs Ban On PIA While the EU lifted the ban last year and formal operations began in January this year, the UK authorities were still not allowing Pakistani airlines to operate due to safety concerns. The latest announcement by the UK authorities means that all Pakistani airlines can now apply to operate flights to the UK," the statement said. British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott said that she was grateful to aviation experts in the UK and Pakistan for their collaborative work to meet international safety standards. According to the British High Commission, decisions on de-listing states and air carriers from the UK Air Safety List are made through an independent aviation safety process overseen by the UKs Air Safety Committee. The Committee has judged that necessary safety improvements have been made since its original decision in 2021. Therefore, based on this independent and technically-driven process, it has decided to remove Pakistan and its air carriers from the List," the statement added. While it will take time for flights to resume, once the logistics are in place, I look forward to using a Pakistani carrier when visiting family and friends," Marriott said. Pakistan-UK Relations With over 1.6 million people of Pakistani heritage living in the UK and thousands of British nationals in Pakistan, the announcement brings opportunities to make it easier for families to reunite, it added. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The UK is Pakistans third-largest trading partner, with a bilateral relationship worth GBP 4.7 billion. Any ease in travel between both countries will help this important trade relationship to thrive, it said. (with inputs from PTI) About the Author Saurabh Verma Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 Saurabh Verma covers general, national and international day-to-day news for News18.com as a Senior Sub-editor. He keenly observes politics. You can follow him on Twitter --twitter.com/saurabhkverma19 view comments Location : Islamabad, Pakistan First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:44 IST News world Grounded For 5 Years, Pakistani Airlines Set To Fly In UK Skies After Ban Lifted Indian Man's Arrest In US For Child Porn Possession Sparks Political Row In Punjab Over 'AAP Links' Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 23:55 IST Launching an attack, the BJP and Congress shared pictures that the man purportedly got clicked with leaders of parties like AAP and Shiromani Akali Dal among others Pictures of the man, identified as realtor and investor Gurjeet Singh Malhi, with a cross-section of politicians surfaced on social media platforms Facebook and X. (Image: @EROSeattle/X) An Indian citizen from Punjab was arrested in the United States on charges of possessing child pornography, triggering a massive political uproar over his links to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in the state. Pictures of the man identified as realtor and investor Gurjeet Singh Malhi with a cross-section of politicians surfaced on social media platforms Facebook and X. Launching an attack, the BJP and Congress shared the pictures, which he purportedly got clicked with leaders of various parties like the AAP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) among others. Recommended Stories The BJP and Congress have demanded answers from the AAP about its connection to Malhi, who was arrested for the alleged possession of child pornography by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Seattle. A citizen of India, Gurjeet Singh Malhi, 42, was arrested during a joint federal law enforcement action in WA. Malhi has been charged by local authorities of possession of CSAM, child sexual assault material, commonly known as child porn. pic.twitter.com/hlX7zlKwRw ICE Seattle (@EROSeattle) July 10, 2025 The US ICE Seattle said Malhi, 42, was arrested during a joint federal law enforcement action. He has been charged by local authorities of possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), commonly known as child porn. The US ICE Seattle had announced Malhis arrest on July 11. But, soon after his arrest, BJP and Congress leaders from Punjab shared photos of him with AAP that have gone viral. A report by NDTV said Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira questioned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Facebook, asking for an explanation. What is the connection of his family with a shameful criminal like NRI Gurjeet Malhi" Khaira was quoted. Other leaders of AAP like speaker Kultar Sandhwan, finance minister Harpal Cheema etc, should explain what is the connection of these leaders with such despicable criminals." Malhi purportedly got clicked with SAD president and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal as well. The BJP was not far behind, with its Chandigarh unit posing questions over Malhis photos with AAP leaders. When will AAPs so-called revolutionaries answer these serious questions?" it asked in a post on X, in which there are pictures of Malhi posing with Manns family members. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all When will AAPs so-called revolutionaries" answer these serious questions? NRI Gurjeet Malhi, arrested in the USA on child sexual exploitation (GSAM, child pornography) charges. His photos with CM Bhagwant Manns family are circulating publicly, along with clear links pic.twitter.com/1TVGxe64cs BJP Chandigarh (@BJP4Chandigarh) July 16, 2025 The ruling AAP in Punjab has not yet responded to the allegations made by the BJP and Congress. About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments Location : Seattle, Washington State, USA First Published: July 16, 2025, 23:49 IST News world Indian Man's Arrest In US For Child Porn Possession Sparks Political Row In Punjab Over 'AAP Links' Israeli Strike Hits Syrian Army Headquarters In Damascus Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 16:16 IST The Israeli army bombed the entrance gate of the Syrian armys headquarters in Damascus and attacked Suwayda. The attacks followed resumed fighting in Suwayda despite a ceasefire. The Israeli military said it targeted the entrance of Syrias main army headquarters in Damascus. Two Syrian security officials told news agency Reuters that the countrys defence ministry was also struck in the same Israeli assault. In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed, A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck the entrance of the Syrian regimes military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria." Recommended Stories The airstrikes coincided with continued clashes in Sweida, a Druze-majority city in southern Syria, where a ceasefire between government forces and local Druze factions has broken down. Read more: Who Are The Druze And Why Sweida Has Become Epicenter Of Syrias Latest Unrest? Israel says its operations are aimed at protecting the Druze community. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The Druze are a religious minority that emerged in the 10th century from Ismaili Shia Islam. Of the estimated one million Druze worldwide, more than half live in Syria. Significant populations are also found in Lebanon and Israel, including the Golan Heights- a region Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981. Earlier this week, Syrian forces were deployed to Sweida in an effort by the new Islamist-led government to assert control over areas previously held by local Druze fighters. The violence escalated on Sunday, when fierce fighting broke out between Druze groups and Sunni Muslim Bedouin tribes, leaving over 100 people dead. The two communities have a long-standing rivalry in the region. Syrian troops were sent to the area to restore order, according to government statements. view comments Location : Israel First Published: July 16, 2025, 15:38 IST News world Israeli Strike Hits Syrian Army Headquarters In Damascus 'I Have 50 More Pictures': Pakistani Anchor Alleges Assault By Ex-Husband, Posts Photos Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 12:29 IST Pakistani journalist Jasmeen Manzoor has alleged severe physical assault by her ex-husband, sharing images of her injuries on social media. News18 Pakistani senior anchor and analyst Jasmeen Manzoor has alleged physical assault by her ex-husband. Sharing gruesome photos of the assault on X, Jasmeen, in multiple posts, mentioned that her life has been destroyed by a violent man. Jasmeen also alleged that the attack happened inside her house around the time her mother had passed away, and that she has 50 more photos of the assault. Recommended Stories I kept thinking for so long whether I sh share this with public or not but I want to show the courage to share this so we can all unite against this kind of behaviour and for the govt authorities to open their eyes, (sic)" one of the posts by Jasmeen read. Sharing pictures of her swollen face and eyes, Jasmeen wrote, This can happen to anyone no one is safe even in the safety your house the most dangerous people are the ones you trust blindly" (sic). This can happen to anyone no one is safe even in the safety your house the most dangerous people are the ones you trust blindly pic.twitter.com/wjY765FWz9 Jasmeen Manzoor (@jasmeenmanzoor) July 15, 2025 There will always be haters dont blame them its their failure in life that puts them in this spot I have 50 more pictures," she added. When you got a woman you show your true colours and you are just a coward thats all," the Pakistani anchor wrote in another post. This is me . Yes this is my story my life destroyed by violent man. I leave my justice to my Allah," she wrote, sharing another picture of her swollen eye. This is me . Yes this is my story my life destroyed by violent man. I leave my justice to my Allah pic.twitter.com/jZbwdnJ43u Jasmeen Manzoor (@jasmeenmanzoor) July 15, 2025 Jasmeens social media posts garnered thousands of views, with people, especially from the media fraternity, coming out in her support. Meanwhile, there was no official confirmation on whether a complaint was submitted against the anchors ex-husband or if an action had been taken. In June this year, Sana Yousaf, a 17-year-old TikTok star in Pakistan, was shot dead at her home in Islamabad, in a suspected case of honour killing. Reports claimed Sana was shot at close range by an unidentified assailant. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Earlier this year, a 15-year-old girl, identified as Hira, was shot dead by her father and maternal uncle in Quetta in an alleged case of honour killing over her presence on TikTok. In a 2016 high-profile honour killing case, Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch was strangled by her brother, who was later convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. About the Author Vani Mehrotra Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks. view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 12:29 IST News world 'I Have 50 More Pictures': Pakistani Anchor Alleges Assault By Ex-Husband, Posts Photos Munirs Asia Push: Pakistan Markets Chinese Arms, Seeks Defence Deals After India Conflict | Exclusive Reported By : CNN-News18 Edited By: Apoorva Misra Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 11:52 IST General Asim Munir is preparing for a major tour of China, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia to forge long-term military cooperation and align Pakistan with like-minded nations General Asim Munirs upcoming trip marks a continued push into South and Southeast Asia. (AFP) Pakistan, on the back foot after its recent conflict with India in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, is aggressively pursuing military diplomacy to bolster its strategic partnerships, diversify defence alliances, and reposition itself as a regional defence player. Leading this unprecedented effort is Pakistans Chief of Army Staff and Field Marshal, General Asim Munir, who is now preparing for a major tour of China, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia later this month. Recommended Stories Following a string of high-level visits to the United States, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkiye, Iran, and Azerbaijan, Munirs upcoming trip marks a continued push into South and Southeast Asia. According to top military sources in Rawalpindi, these visits are not routine diplomacythey are calibrated moves aimed at forging long-term military cooperation, securing defence deals, and aligning Pakistan with like-minded nations in a shifting regional security landscape. Munir is scheduled to visit Sri Lanka from July 20-22 and Indonesia from July 24-26. Sources suggest a confidential stop-over in China may take place between the two visits or in early August. The Chinese leg of the tour is being kept under wraps due to the sensitive nature of discussions, which reportedly center around intelligence-sharing, defence procurement, and regional power balance in the Indo-Pacific. This broader diplomatic initiative follows the border conflict with India, which significantly raised tensions and put regional security cooperation under renewed scrutiny. Pakistan has since reoriented its foreign military policy to deepen strategic ties and project a narrative of military strength, particularly to the Global South. Promoting Defence Exports A key component of Pakistans outreach involves the marketing of Chinese and Turkish defence technology, with Islamabad positioning itself as a facilitator and regional hub for arms sales. According to insiders, Pakistans military leadership is actively promoting JF-17 Thunder jetsjointly produced with Chinaand Turkish Bayraktar drones, especially after their reported effectiveness during the India conflict. Munir and his delegation are expected to pitch these platforms to countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Iran, highlighting both performance and affordability. This strategy ties into Pakistans broader aim of playing a more central role in defence procurement for the Global South. Earlier this year, defence ministers from Turkiye and Indonesia visited Islamabad, engaging in high-level talks on military training, joint production, and regional security coordination. These reciprocal visits underscore growing interest in defence collaboration and reflect a shared interest in counterbalancing larger regional powers. Geostrategic Realignment & Regional Messaging Sources close to Pakistans General Headquarters (GHQ) describe this flurry of diplomatic activity as part of a long-term vision to reshape Pakistans military partnerships" amid changing regional dynamics. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Munir has reportedly briefed top military forums that his recent trips to Washington, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Ankara, Baku, and Tehran were highly successful diplomatic manoeuvres," establishing a robust network of defence cooperation across multiple theatres. With these ongoing and upcoming visits, Pakistan is signalling its ambition to move beyond traditional security alignments, seeking newer alliances and shared defence initiatives amid evolving global fault lines, particularly in Asia and the Middle East. About the Author Manoj Gupta Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 Group Editor, Investigations & Security Affairs, Network18 view comments Location : Islamabad, Pakistan First Published: July 16, 2025, 11:52 IST News world Munirs Asia Push: Pakistan Markets Chinese Arms, Seeks Defence Deals After India Conflict | Exclusive Netanyahu Left With Minority In Parliament As Key Ally Quits Over Military Draft Exemption Law Curated By : Edited By: Oindrila Mukherjee Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 22:10 IST Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that has long served as kingmaker, announced that it was leaving over disagreements surrounding a proposed law over military draft exemptions This leaves the Benjamin Netanyahu-led coalition government with a minority in parliament as Israel faces a litany of challenges. (Image: AFP/File) In a major political blow for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a key ally on Wednesday announced that it was quitting the coalition government. This leaves the Netanyahu-led coalition government with a minority in parliament as Israel faces a litany of challenges. Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that has long served as kingmaker, announced that it was leaving over disagreements surrounding a proposed law over military draft exemptions. Recommended Stories This is the second ultra-Orthodox governing party to do so this week after United Torah Judaism party on Tuesday (July 15) said it was quitting over Netanyahus failure to pass a law on the military draft exemptions. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis, and the issue of exemptions has long divided the country. Those rifts have only widened since the start of the war in Gaza as demand for military manpower has grown and hundreds of soldiers have been killed. WHY IS THIS SIGNIFICANT? The political instability comes at a pivotal time for Israel, which is negotiating with Hamas on the terms for a US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. The decision by Shas is not expected to derail the talks. But with a fracturing coalition, Netanyahu will feel more pressure to appease his other allies, especially the influential far-right flank, which oppose ending the 21-month war in Gaza so long as Hamas remains intact. IS NETANYAHUS RULE IN DANGER? Netanyahus rule, for now, does not appear threatened. Granting him a lifeline, Shas has said it will not undermine his coalition from the outside and could vote with it on some legislation. Once the resignations by Shas come into effect, Netanyahus coalition will have 50 seats in the 120-seat parliament. After the resignations are put forward, there is a 48-hour window before they become official that gives the Israeli leader a chance to salvage his government. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Had the ally decided to go all out in opposing Netanyahu, it would have made governing almost impossible and put his lengthy rule at risk. The announcement also comes just before lawmakers recess for the summer, granting Netanyahu several months of little to no legislative activity to bring the parties back into the fold. (With agency inputs) About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments Location : Jerusalem, Israel First Published: July 16, 2025, 22:01 IST News world Netanyahu Left With Minority In Parliament As Key Ally Quits Over Military Draft Exemption Law Paranormal Investigator Dies Mysteriously While Touring With 'Haunted' Annabelle Doll Curated By : Trending Desk Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:38 IST Dan Rivera was currently on his Devils on the Run Tour, featuring Annabelle. Dan Rivera has featured in shows like Most Haunted Places as a paranormal investigator (Image: Facebook) A well-known paranormal investigator has died suddenly, leaving fans in shock and fuelling fears of the unknown. Dan Rivera was reportedly on tour with the infamous haunted Annabelle doll when he lost his life on Sunday. According to the Evening Sun, his tour organisers confirmed the tragic news. A US Army veteran, Rivera was in the midst of his Devils on the Run Tour, which featured the supposedly haunted doll. The incident occurred in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. While firefighters and medics rushed to the scene, Rivera had already been declared dead by the time they arrived. Despite attempts to perform CPR, the 54-year-old could not be revived. Recommended Stories Although the exact cause of death has yet to be confirmed, the fact that it occurred during a tour with the haunted doll has unsettled many. Rivera, a lead investigator with the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), had previously appeared on shows such as Most Haunted Places. According to NESPR, Riveras three-day tour concluded on Sunday. His final performance took place at the Soldiers National Orphanage. The event, which was sold out, was hosted by Ghostly Images of Gettysburg Tours. Rivera is survived by his wife, Sarah, and their four children. Following the viral news of his passing, tributes poured in across social media. On TikTok and other platforms, fans and fellow paranormal investigators honoured his legacy. Paranormal researcher Ryan Buell wrote, I have so many amazing memories with this guy," referring to their tour across the US, where they worked to share the legacy of Ed and Lorraine Warren. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The Warrens famously investigated the Annabelle case, claiming the doll could move its arms, stalk people, and exhibit disturbing behaviour. According to their records, Annabelle was linked to the death of a police officer and a car crash involving a priest. The Warrens founded NESPR in 1952. Annabelle is widely regarded as one of the most haunted objects in the world. Her story first came to light in the 1970s, after she was handed over to Donna, a nursing student in Connecticut. The eerie events that followed inspired The Conjuring franchise one of the highest-grossing horror series of all time. view comments Location : Delhi, India, India First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:38 IST News world Paranormal Investigator Dies Mysteriously While Touring With 'Haunted' Annabelle Doll Small Plane 'Hijacked' In Canada, Alert At Vancouver Airport Forces Flight Operation Shutdown Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 10:53 IST A small plane was "hijacked" in Canada on Wednesday and was heading towards Vancouver International Airport, forcing the authorities to temporarily suspend flight operations. Small plane "hijacked" in Canada (AI-generated image) A small aircraft was hijacked" in Canada, forcing the authorities to temporarily suspend operations at the busy Vancouver International Airport, the police said on Wednesday. The federal police received a report that the aircraft had been hijacked" from the Vancouver Island region in the country and was heading towards the airspace over the Vancouver airport. Recommended Stories As a result of the alert, authorities suspended flight operations at one of the busiest airports in the country and diverted nine incoming flights, the news agency AFP reported. The hijacked" plane was a Cessna 172, operated by a flying club in Victoria. The suspect was the sole occupant of the aircraft," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the western Canadian province of British Columbia said. As the plane landed at the airport at around 2.15 am IST (2045 GMT), the police chased the aircraft. The suspect who flew the plane came, after which he was arrested without incident". top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The flight operations were reportedly resumed at the airport, with possible delays in some departures and arrivals. The stoppage of the flight arrivals lasted for nearly 39 minutes, Global News Canada reported. Videos surfaced online showing the suspect standing with his hands in the air and surrounded by cops on the runway of the airport. About the Author Ashesh Mallick Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More Ashesh Mallick is a Sub-Editor with over three years of experience in news writing, video production. He primarily covers national news, politics and global affairs. You can follow him on Twitter: @MallickAshes... Read More view comments Location : Canada First Published: July 16, 2025, 10:26 IST News world Small Plane 'Hijacked' In Canada, Alert At Vancouver Airport Forces Flight Operation Shutdown Spending Cuts, Iran Strikes, Epstein Row: Where Americans Stand On Trump's Actions? Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 18:11 IST New polls show broad public disapproval of Donald Trump's domestic spending bill, handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, and military strikes on Iran. US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office. (Reuters Image) New CNN polls reveal significant public dissatisfaction with three key issues under US President Donald Trumps second term: his sweeping domestic spending bill, the administrations handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and the recent military strikes on Iran. Across all three, public opinion shows broad disapproval, deepening skepticism of Donald Trumps leadership on budget, foreign policy and government transparency. Strong Opposition To Spending Bill And Budget Cuts Recommended Stories Roughly 61% of Americans say they oppose the newly signed GOP domestic policy bill, with most expressing concern that Donald Trump has gone too far in slashing federal programs. Just 37% now approve of his handling of the budget, down 11 points since March. Although opinions are still settling- only a third of Americans say they followed the bills developments closely- early sentiment leans clearly negative: 58% say program cuts have gone too far and 51% believe the bill will harm the economy. When asked how it would affect their own families, 37% expect things to get worse compared to just 16% who anticipate improvement. Frustration Over Epstein Case Transparency Following the US Justice Departments release of a memo stating there was no evidence of a client list or foul play in Jeffrey Epsteins death, half of Americans said they were dissatisfied with how much information the government has made public. Only 3% expressed satisfaction. Dissatisfaction crosses party lines but is most pronounced among Democrats (56%) and independents (52%), compared to 40% of Republicans. Many Republicans (38%) say the issue doesnt matter to them either way. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Americans Reject Iran Strikes Donald Trumps decision to launch airstrikes against Iran has also been met with majority disapproval: 56% of Americans oppose the move, with strong disapproval outweighing strong support. Concerns go beyond the strikes themselves- about six in ten Americans say they distrust the US Presidents judgment on using military force against Iran and fear the action will escalate the threat to US interests. view comments Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: July 16, 2025, 18:11 IST News world Spending Cuts, Iran Strikes, Epstein Row: Where Americans Stand On Trump's Actions? Student Expelled In China Over Sex With Ukrainian, University Says It Hurt 'National Dignity' Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 21:25 IST Dalian Polytechnics decision to expel a student for her improper contact with a foreigner has triggered outrage on Chinese social media. In this AI-generated conceptual image, a lone student faces expulsion as angry voices rise online in support of her. (IMAGE: IMAGEN 4) Chinas Dalian Polytechnic University came under fire after it announced that it expelled a female student for improper contact with a foreigner" and damaging national dignity", according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The decision came after videos went viral online, which suggested that the female student was intimate with an Ukranian man who was a video gamer. Recommended Stories The university located in northeastern China released a statement to the public where they identified the student by her full name and detailing the reasons for her expulsion. The move has received severe backlash on Chinese social media, the South China Morning Post report said. A separate report by the New York Times said that many highlighted on Chinese social media that in other cases that involved sexual harassment or assault on campus, perpetrators often faced milder consequences and criticised the university for publicly shaming the student and violating her privacy, labelling it harsh and discriminatory". But some appeared to support the universitys decision and accused the woman of being overly fascinated with foreigners". If there is anyone who truly undermined national dignity in this case, it was not the woman whose privacy rights were violated, but the online spectators who frantically humiliated an ordinary woman under the banner of so-called justice and the educational institution that used stale moral commandments," said Zhao Hong, a professor of law at Peking University in Beijing, in an opinion column published on Ifeng. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The university said the students actions during the December 16 incident had caused a negative impact." It did not elaborate but stated the punishment was in line with its regulation on civic morality." According to that rule, students who engage in improper contact with foreigners" and harm national dignity or the schools reputation" face disciplinary action starting with a demerit, depending on the severity. About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More view comments Location : Beijing, China First Published: July 16, 2025, 21:25 IST News world Student Expelled In China Over Sex With Ukrainian, University Says It Hurt 'National Dignity' Syrian TV Anchor Bolts Off Set Mid-Bulletin After Israeli Strikes | Watch Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 19:45 IST Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz shared a video of airstrikes on Syrian Army HQ, causing an anchor to flee. A Syrian newsreader abandons her news bulletin as Israeli air force strikes Syrian armys headquarters and the defence ministry in the background. (IMAGE: X) Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday shared a video of his countrys armed forces striking Syrian Army headquarters which forced an anchor to abandon her bulletin and run for her life. While some outlets posted that Israeli strikes targeted a Syrian state-run television news channel, Israel-based news channel ILTV reported that the anchor was reacting to the strikes on the defence ministry and Syrian army headquarters. Recommended Stories pic.twitter.com/1kJFFXoiua " Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 16, 2025 The video of the incident was posted by Israeli defence minister Katz with the caption: The painful blows have begun". Powerful airstrikes shook Damascus on Wednesday, targeting the defence ministry as Israel vowed to destroy Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw. Warplanes swooped low over the capital and unleash a series of massive strikes on central Damascus. The cityscape was blanketed in smoke with a thick plume rising from the defence ministry, a report by Reuters said. The Israeli military had earlier announced a strike on the gate of the defence ministry. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Scores of people have been killed this week in violence around the southern city of Sweida, pitting fighters from the Druze minority against government security forces and members of Bedouin tribes, prompting Israel to strike repeatedly with the declared aim of protecting the Druze. We are surrounded and we hear the fighters screaming were so scared," said a resident of Sweida, a predominantly Druze city, while speaking to Reuters. About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More view comments Location : Damascus, Syria First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:38 IST News world Syrian TV Anchor Bolts Off Set Mid-Bulletin After Israeli Strikes | Watch Woman Accused Of Seducing, Blackmailing Buddhist Monks For Millions; Arrested Curated By : News18.com Edited By: Karishma Jain Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 08:07 IST At least 9 abbots and senior monks have been disrobed and cast out of monkhood for their involvement, amid allegations that they violated the strict celibacy rule for Thai monks Buddhist monks (Representative image/Reuters) A woman in Thailand has been arrested for allegedly seducing multiple senior Buddhist monks into sexual relationships and then blackmailing them for large sums of money, in a scandal that has rocked the countrys monastic institutions and drawn public attention to temple finances. Wilawan Emsawat, believed to be in her mid-30s, was arrested at her home in Nonthaburi province, just north of Bangkok, on Tuesday, the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau said. She faces charges including extortion, money laundering, and receiving stolen goods. Recommended Stories At least nine abbots and senior monks have been disrobed and cast out of the monkhood for their involvement, amid allegations that they violated the strict celibacy rule for Thai monks. Members of the Theravada Buddhist sect, which predominates in Thailand, are required to be celibate and avoid even physical contact with women. According to police, Wilawan deliberately targeted senior monks and initiated romantic relationships with them. Several monks then transferred large sums of money to her. Deputy Commissioner Jaroonkiat Pankaew of the Central Investigation Bureau said the investigation began last month after an abbot of a famous temple in Bangkok abruptly left the monkhood. Police later found that the abbot had allegedly been blackmailed by Wilawan. She told the monk that she was pregnant and asked him to pay 7.2 million baht ($222,000) in financial assistance," Jaroonkiat said during a press conference in Bangkok on Tuesday. Authorities traced money transferred to Wilawan by a senior monk from a bank account belonging to his temple in northern Thailand. Police said Wilawans bank accounts received around 385 million baht ($11.9 million) in the past three years. Much of the money, investigators found, had been spent on online gambling websites. Wilawan has not made a statement since her arrest. However, before her arrest, she told local media that she had been involved in a relationship with a monk and claimed to have given money to him. Thai media reported that a search of Wilawans mobile phones revealed tens of thousands of photos and videos, along with numerous chat logs indicating intimacy with several monks, many of which could be used for blackmail. Jaroonkiat said, This woman is dangerous and we needed to arrest her as soon as possible." The case has also drawn renewed attention to the large sums of money donated to temples, which are often under the control of abbots. This stands in sharp contrast to the abstemious lives monks are expected to lead under Buddhist precepts. In response to the growing scandal, Acting Prime Minister of Thailand Phumtham Wechayachai has ordered officials to review and consider tightening laws related to monks and temples, with a focus on increasing the transparency of temple finances, said government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub on Tuesday. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all To encourage public participation in the investigation, the Central Investigation Bureau has set up a Facebook page for people to report monks involved in misconduct. We will investigate monks across the country," Jaroonkiat said. I believe that the ripple effects of this investigation will lead to a lot of changes." About the Author News Desk The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More The News Desk is a team of passionate editors and writers who break and analyse the most important events unfolding in India and abroad. From live updates to exclusive reports to in-depth explainers, the Desk d... Read More view comments First Published: July 16, 2025, 08:05 IST News world Woman Accused Of Seducing, Blackmailing Buddhist Monks For Millions; Arrested Trump Administration Presses Israel To Stop Strikes In Syria: Report Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 20:04 IST US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier in the day spoke to both parties and said the strikes were a cause for concern. USA-TRUMP/TARIFFS-ISRAEL The Donald Trump administration has asked Israel to halt its strikes on Syrian military targets in southern Syria, Axios reported on Tuesday, quoting a US official. According to the report, Israel informed the US it would stop the attacks by Tuesday evening, Axios journalist Barak Ravid said in a post on X. Recommended Stories US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier in the day spoke to both parties and said the strikes were a cause for concern, according to a report by news agency Reuters. Were going to be working on that issue as we speak. I just got off the phone with the relevant parties. Were very concerned about it, and hopefully well have some updates later today. But were very concerned about it," Rubio was quoted as saying by the news agency, adding that the US wants fighting to stop as clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters broke out hours after a ceasefire agreement. The Israeli military conducted rare airstrikes on Wednesday in the heart of Damascus, targeting the Syrian Defence Ministry headquarters. This attack follows a drone strike on the same building hours earlier. Syrian state media reported at least 13 people injured. Another strike occurred near the presidential palace in the hills outside Damascus, according to an Associated Press report. In the southern Syrian city of Sweida, clashes between government forces and Druze armed groups have been intensifying for days. Israel has launched numerous strikes against government troops and convoys, claiming these actions support the religious minority group and has promised to escalate its involvement. top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all The rising violence poses a significant threat to Syrias new rulers, who are attempting to consolidate control after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted the longtime despotic leader Bashar al-Assad in December, ending nearly 14 years of civil war. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz stated after the airstrike on X that the painful blows have begun." An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously per regulations, said the army is preparing for a multitude of scenarios" and that a brigade, typically comprising thousands of soldiers, is being redeployed from Gaza to the Golan Heights. About the Author Shankhyaneel Sarkar Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev... Read More view comments Location : Washington D.C., United States of America (USA) First Published: July 16, 2025, 19:53 IST News world Trump Administration Presses Israel To Stop Strikes In Syria: Report 'US Uses Negotiations As Tool...': Iran's Lawmakers Want Preconditions Before Any New Talks Curated By : News18.com Last Updated: July 16, 2025, 14:11 IST Iranian lawmakers demand firm preconditions for new US talks, citing bad faith and military ties with Israel. MP Ahmad Naderi calls for a fundamental diplomatic shift. File photo of Iranian Parliament (Credit: AP) Lawmakers in Iran have said that no new negotiations with the United States should take place unless firm preconditions are set, Iranian state media reported. The declaration was made during an open parliamentary session on Wednesday. Recommended Stories Referring to Junes 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel, Iranian lawmakers said, When the US uses negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and to cover for sudden military attacks by the Zionist regime, talks cannot continue as before." The declaration, delivered by MP Ahmad Naderi, accused Washington of acting in bad faith and coordinating militarily with Israel. It called for a fundamental shift" in Irans diplomatic approach, stressing that negotiations must be reached on clear, verifiable guarantees. Preconditions must be established, and until they are fully met, no new negotiations should take place," the declaration read. The move reflects growing hardline pressure within Irans political establishment, as tensions with the US and Israel remain high. In the statement, the specifics of the demanded preconditions were not known immediately but Irans Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has earlier said there should be guarantees there will be no further attacks against Tehran. Last month, Israel and the US launched airstrikes on Irans three nuclear facilities, saying that they were part of a programme aimed at developing nuclear weapons. However, Tehran has maintained that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes. Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of indirect talks mediated by Oman before the 12-day-long deadly conflict, but the negotiations reached a dead end after the US demanded that Tehran abandon its domestic uranium enrichment program." top videos View all Swipe Left For Next Video View all Last week, Araqchi reaffirmed Tehrans stance, stating that Iran would not accept any nuclear deal that restricts its right to enrich uranium, nor would it engage in discussions on extra-nuclear issues such as its ballistic missile program. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he was in no hurry to negotiate with Iran, claiming its nuclear facilities had already been obliterated." However, the US, in coordination with three European countries, has agreed to set the end of August as a deadline for reaching a deal. About the Author Manisha Roy Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More Manisha Roy is a Senior Sub-Editor at News18.com's general desk. She comes with an experience of over 5 years in media industry. She covers politics and other hard news. She can be contacted at Manisha.Roy@nw18... Read More view comments Location : Tehran, Iran First Published: July 16, 2025, 14:11 IST News world 'US Uses Negotiations As Tool...': Iran's Lawmakers Want Preconditions Before Any New Talks Veon-owned Beeline Uzbekistan claims it has significantly enhanced network quality across five key regions, as demand for digital connectivity continues to rise. In a statement, the operator said it had focused efforts on the Fergana, Kashkadarya, Surkhandarya, and Andijan regions. These areas saw record growth in mobile data traffic, with a corresponding increase in base station deployments. In some districts, mobile data usage has surged 25-fold over the past five years. Beeline reported that the number of base stations had grown by a factor of 23, though it did not disclose the total number in its Uzbekistan network. The operator also expanded coverage to remote areas, installing base stations in less populated locations such as Sarkop, Turan, and Zhumaniazov villages in Beruniy district. Our priority is to ensure equal and widespread digital opportunities for all users. Thats why were investing in infrastructure and deploying advanced telecom technologies across every region of Uzbekistan. Our strategic goal is to make digital services accessible to every citizen, said Gediz Sezgin, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Beeline Uzbekistan. Businessman John Rukodzi says he has lost about US$87,000 in potential business which has been affected by the controversy surrounding his Rukodzi Perish Cemetery along Seke Road. Rukodzi said his cemetery was not an illegal set-up and it has the right to accept payments for burial services just like other cemeteries around the country. He said before the controversy erupted, two years ago, his company was selling an average of five graves a day at US$80 per grave at the cemetery which is located opposite the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. The sale of five graves a day dropped to nothing, the businessman said. To calculate 80 x 365 for a year, it amounts up to US$29,200 and up to the present day, the loss is US$29,200 x 3 = US$87,600 for losses. Imagine Rokodzi Perish is a company registered under the laws of Zimbabwe. Two years ago, Rukodzi was arrested and dragged to court for allegedly operating an illegal cemetery opposite the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. sRukodzi and his team clashed with the owners of Zororo Memorial Park. The row started when Rukodzi Perish Cemetery sold more than 50 graves, at US$80 each, and the case spilled into the courts. Rukodzi was arrested for allegedly using burial orders and issuing receipts in the name of a legitimate cemetery company, Zororo Memorial Park. The businessman said his cemetery was approved by authorities. The Retreat Estate cemetery started in 1910 under a white farmer. I was then later appointed (to run) the cemetery. Im not the one who set up the cemetery but the white farmer. I have attached the approval documents of regularisation of the cemetery. The cemetery was not stopped by the High Court. The businessman attached documents to show that the cemetery was operating above board. One of the documents is a Certificate of Incorporation dated March 16, 2022, which was issued by the Registrar of Companies. The other document shows that he was given the mandate to run the cemetery by one Emmanuel Chigodora of Retreat Farm, Eyerstone Farm, Waterfalls, Harare. Chigodora was chosen by members of the Retreat Estate to represent them. I Emmanuel Chigodora do hereby nominate and appoint John Rukodzi (59-038637 F71), who resides at Murape School, Seke, to be in charge of five cemeteries of Retreat Estate so as to maintain, protect, improve and extend the cemeteries as a way of keeping the graveyards well to avoid (distraction), sue and arrest anyone in contact in the area of twenty five hectares of the land extension. The affidavit was signed on July 15, 1996. He also attached an approval from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare. Your request seeking registration and formalisation of former Retreat Farm cemetery into rental and tax for use as a cemetery is approved, reads the letter. You are however advised to observe and fulfill all the other necessary requirements relating to the proposed activity. There are no adverse events anticipated as a result of the proposed activity in the area. He also attached a letter from the National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe. I write to acknowledge receipt of the above report for the proposed cemetery and crematorium located along Seke Road next to Zororo Memorial Park to the west of the Robert Mugabe International Airport. The project involves allocation of graves, construction of a crematorium, construction of a chapel and other parlour services. The project will be set on 260 hectares of land. The report recorded no cultural or archaeological sites within the project area and the project can, therefore, proceed according to the National Museum and Monuments Act 25:11. Chance Find Procedures should always be followed during project implementation. In terms of the National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe Act 25:11, if the developer encounters any cultural or archaeological material during operation he/she should stop working and report such findings to the Executive Director of the National Museum and Monuments of Zimbabwe in writing. H Metro Zanu PF central committee member and businessperson Mike Chimombe and his colleague Moses Mpofu, who are being accused of a US$7 million fraud in a botched government goat supply deal, have filed for an application for discharge at the close of the States case. Chimombe and Mpofu being are accused of misrepresenting to the Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development ministry in tender documents that Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming was a registered company in Zimbabwe with a valid Zimra tax clearance certificate and a valid Nssa compliance certificate. The duo was expected to deliver 85 691 goats after being paid ZWL$1,6 billion (about US$7 712 197,10 equivalent), but supplied only 4 208 goats, prejudicing the government of US$7 380 751,85. Nothing was recovered. The State led evidence from more than five witnesses and the defence led by Tapson Dzvetero and Ashiel Mugiya submitted that they failed to prove a case against the accused persons. The defence submitted that there is no prima facie case established by the State against Chimombe that warrants placing him on his defence. The lawyers submitted that there was no direct evidence linking Chimombe to the alleged offence, saying the evidence submitted so far was unreliable and that the court can discharge him without being harassed to conduct his defence. The accused has to establish that no evidence has been adduced by the State to prove the essential elements of the offence alleged against the accused, such that no court applying its mind to the State case can convict. Another test can be that the evidence so far from the State is manifestly unreliable. At the close of the State case, it is submitted that none of the State witnesses managed to directly link Chimombe to the offence alleged against him. None of the State witnesses managed to adduce evidence to show that Chimombe was directly or indirectly involved in the preparation of Blackdecks bid documents. The State opened and closed its case without establishing how exactly Chimombe made the alleged misrepresentation to the ministry that the company was a registered company with a valid Zimra tax clearance certificate and a Nssa compliance certificate. Was the misrepresentation verbal or written? We do not know. Dzetero said the absence of evidence establishing the alleged misrepresentation by Chimombe, either before the submission of the bid document by Blackdeck or after the contract had been awarded by the ministry to the company, seemed to be common cause. There is simply no evidence to that effect. In the absence of proof on a prima facie basis of the alleged misrepresentation, there ceases to be any case for Chimombe to answer, he said. He further argued that there was no evidence demonstrating that Chimombe made the alleged misrepresentation. He said although the witnesses that including John Basera and Alban Mhindurwa, said Chimombe attended meetings with Mpofu, there was no certainty in what capacity he attended the alleged meetings and his degree of participation in those meetings. The lawyers submitted that government officials failed to produce minutes of the alleged meetings in which they sought to infer or insinuate that Chimombe attended on behalf of Blackdeck. The absence of minutes of the alleged meetings speaks volumes on the weakness of the respondent's case, this is even though Chimombe admits attending only one meeting, which he denies ever presenting himself as representing Blackdeck. The only meeting which Chimombe admits having attended at the ministry is the meeting whose minutes were produced by the State through Mhindurwa as an exhibit, the defence said. The lawyers submitted that Chimombe was a director of Millytake Enterprises and his company participated in the tender process and failed to win the bid. Dzvetero submitted that the Blackdeck (Pvt) Ltd's documents which are part of the original bid document exhibit before the court, do not identify Chimombe as being a director, shareholder, official, agent, employee or anything else and there is no relationship whatsoever, if Chimombe is just but a close friend of Mpofu. We respectfully submit that Chimombe has no case to answer in respect of what the State sought to establish against him. We, therefore, move that Chimombe be discharged at the close of the State case and a verdict of not guilty be retained,they said. Newsday Latvian operator Bite is continuing the phased shutdown of its 3G network, announcing that four regions will be affected this week as part of its ongoing network modernisation efforts. In a statement, the operator said that 3G services would be switched off between 15 and 16 July in the regions of Aizkraukle, Jekabpils, Kuldiga and Ventspils. Customers in these areas have been advised on compatible mobile phones and SIM cards to ensure continued connectivity. Aleksandrs Belajevs, Head of the Radio Network Department at Bite Latvia, described the move as a logical step in the development of the companys network. He noted that repurposing the 3G spectrum will help strengthen 4G and 5G services, delivering improved performance for users. The complete shutdown of Bites 3G network is scheduled for spring 2026. In preparation, Bite conducted a pilot switch-off in Salaspils this April to assess the impact on customers. The operator said the trial, along with the earlier phase-out in parts of Zemgale, was completed successfully with minimal disruption to users. Bite is urging customers to upgrade their devices and SIM cards ahead of the full nationwide shutdown next year. Nearly 40,000 troops from 19 nations, including the US, have converged on northern Australia for the largest Talisman Sabre military drills ever, sending a hard-to-miss message about unity in the face of China's growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region. The live-fire drills held over three weeks involve artillery, rocket launchers, and tanks from the US, Australia, South Korea, Japan, and other allies, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Everyone is seeing the aggressive activities that China is doing," said Lt. Gen. Matthew McFarlane, who commands the US Army's I Corps. "That's why they're more interested in what they need to do to protect their sovereign interests." The scale and diversity of the force, which includes partners from Europe and across Asia, reflect growing concern over Beijing's actions in the region. China's military buildup and recent maneuversincluding live-fire naval drills near Australia and increased activity around Taiwan and the South China Seahave spurred the US and its allies to expand joint exercises. This iteration features new elements: the debut of America's Typhon missile system west of the International Date Line, drone operations inspired by the Ukraine war, and the first Talisman Sabre activity in Papua New Guinea. A ceremony kicked off the biennial event on Sunday. Chinese spy ships are expected to monitor the exercise as they have in the past. Australian Vice Adm. Justin Jones said the 19-country turnout signals a shared goal of a stable, "free and open Indo-Pacific." In addition, Malaysia and Vietnam are attending as observers, per NPR. For Australia, which is boosting its own military capabilities and hosting more US investment in its north, the drills are a test of logistics, medical coordination, and regional cooperation. Also, Australia's prime minister is making a diplomatic visit to China this week. The event started in 2005 as a US-Australia exercise. At this point, the US wants these displays to strengthen military ties among allies, though their governments aren't necessarily aligned on issues such as supporting Taiwan. Mark Zuckerberg says that when it comes to attracting top artificial intelligence researchers, the much-discussed hefty paycheck is only one factor. Speaking on The Information's TITV on Monday, the Meta CEO noted these highly sought-after specialists have two other priorities: minimal management responsibility and maximum access to computing power. Zuckerberg sums up the ask like so: "I want the fewest number of people reporting to me and the most GPUs"referring to the high-powered chips essential for training and operating AI models. "Having the most compute per researcher is a strategic advantage, not just for doing the work but for attracting the best people." Business Insider backs up Zuckerberg's take with a 2023 comment from Perplexity's Aravind Srinivas, who recounted trying to unsuccessfully woo a Meta AI researcher who told the CEO, "Come back to me when you have 10,000 H100 GPUs." On the computing front, Zuckerberg wrote in a Monday Threads post that Meta is building a number of massive data centers to fuel its AI efforts. Bloomberg reports "most data centers today house only hundreds of megawatts of capacity apiece," but Zuck's plans include "Hyperion, which will be able to scale up to 5GW over several years," he wrote. President Trump's administration is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops sent to Los Angeles to support immigration enforcement activities, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Tuesday. The president ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines in early June to respond to protests against immigration raids in and around LA. The troops were tasked with protecting federal buildings and guarding immigration agents, and the legality of their deployment was challenged in federal court by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. It was not immediately clear how long the remaining troops would stay in the city, the AP reports. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," Parnell said, per NBC News. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, meanwhile, said troops were being removed because the "people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong" with peaceful protests, rallies, and court challenges. Bass imposed a curfew on a small area of downtown Los Angeles during the protests. It was lifted almost a month ago but troops remained in the city, apart from 150 troops in a firefighting unit who returned to their regular duties on July 1, the New York Times reports. Newsom urged the administration to release the remaining troops Tuesday. "For more than a month, the National Guard has been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the president in Los Angeles," he said. "While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guard members continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities." The man whose crime partly inspired the horror film Wolf Creek has died in prison, still refusing to reveal the final secret behind one of Australia's most notorious murders. Bradley Murdoch, convicted of killing British backpacker Peter Falconio in 2001, took the location of his victim's remains to the grave, the BBC reports. Murdoch, 67, died of throat cancer while serving a life sentence in Alice Springs, Australia. The so-called "Outback Killer" was convicted in 2005 of murdering Falconio on a remote highway near Barrow Creek in the Northern Territory. Despite repeated pleas and a standing reward of up to $330,000, Falconio's remains were never found, CNN reports. Falconio, 28, was traveling with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, when Murdoch flagged down their camper van, claiming to have seen sparks coming from it. Murdoch shot Falconio in the head and abducted Lees, binding her wrists, though she managed to escape and hide in the outback before signaling for help and being rescued. Prosecutors argued that Murdoch likely disposed of Falconio's body somewhere in the wilderness between Alice Springs and Broomea stretch nearly 1,000 miles long. Murdoch always maintained his innocence and twice failed to overturn his conviction. He died in palliative care on July 15, a day after the 24th anniversary of Falconio's death, and his passing is now under review by the Northern Territory Coroner. Officials expressed regret that Murdoch's silence denied the Falconio family the answers they have sought for over two decades. The Northern Territory's "no body, no parole" law meant Murdoch would not have been eligible for release unless he disclosed the body's location. Police say they remain committed to fully resolving the case and are still seeking information from the public. A police dog died after being left in a patrol car Sunday, and the officer involved has been fired. Georgia's Dade County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that it "tragically lost our newest member of our K-9 team," a bloodhound also named Georgia, ABC News reports. The dog's handler was allegedly in the sheriff's office while the dog was left in the car, and the vehicle's air conditioning compressor malfunctioned, WSB-TV reports. The car's heat alarm was also not working at the time, and "those two factors, coupled with K-9 Georgia being left unattended for what we considered to be an unacceptable amount of time, contributed to her passing," officials said in a statement. Temperatures in the area were as high as 102 degrees Fahrenheit at the time. "Our hearts are aching at the loss of K9 Georgia. Many of you know that she was donated to us by a local family, at no cost to the sheriff's office," Sheriff Ray Cross said in a statement. "She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the 'best of the best.'" He said K9s will no longer be left in cars for extended amounts of time during the summer, and any K9 vehicles not in fully working order will be removed from service. The county district attorney's office will decide whether to prosecute the deputy involved. France's prime minister has sparked fierce debate by proposing the abolition of two national holidays, aiming to tackle soaring debt with a plan that could topple his own government, the BBC reports. Francois Bayrou's controversial plan to tackle the country's ballooning debt hinges on scrapping two public holidays, freezing public spending, reducing the civil workforce, and halting tax breaks for the wealthy. In a proposal tied to the 2026 budget, Bayrou suggested dropping Easter Monday and May 8 the latter marking the Allied victory in World War II. He argues that with all the springtime days off, May has become "a gruyere," a reference to the holey Swiss cheese. France must tighten its belt, he says, if it wants to avoid a financial crisis. Meanwhile, defense spending is set to climb, with President Emmanuel Macron insisting on a $4 billion increase next year, and more increases to follow. The move to eliminate public holidays quickly drew fire from political opponents. The far-right National Rally slammed it as an attack on French identity and workers, while Green party leaders criticized the loss of a day commemorating Nazi defeat. Bayrou, undeterred, called the plan "basic arithmetic," noting France needs to slash over $50 billion from its budget, with nearly $6,000 in debt piling up each second. Bayrou's government faces the risk of a no-confidence vote this fall, a fate that ended his predecessor's tenure after fierce resistance from both the far right and the left. If parliament rejects the budget, France could see further political turmoil or even another round of elections. Currently, France has a hung parliament, meaning Bayrou can't pass the budget without support from the left or the right, neither of which approves of it, the Guardian reports. A trio of cryptocurrency bills that had been expected to pass the House this week stalled Tuesday after a bloc of Republicans unexpectedly joined with Democrats to prevent the legislation from coming up for debate and votes. The procedural snafu brought the House's "Crypto Week" to a standstill and dealt a blow to President Trump, who'd strongly urged Republicans to pass the bills as part of his push to make the US the "crypto capital of the world," per the AP . A group of 13 Republicans joined all Democrats in opposition to a procedural vote needed to bring the crypto bills to the floor. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it was just part of the "legislative process" and that negotiations were underway between the House, Senate, and White House, suggesting they could try again Tuesday evening. But just hours later, House leadership canceled votes for the remainder of the day, potentially throwing the crypto bills into limbo. Trump intervened during a late evening meeting with Republicans at the White House and appeared to put the bills back on track, posting on social media that he expected votes as soon as Wednesday. The stalled legislation includes a Senate-passed bill to regulate a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, along with far more sweeping measures aiming to address cryptocurrency market structure. Another bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. The disagreement blocking the bills from advancing centers on how the three bills would be passed, with Johnson explaining that "some of these guys insist that it needs to be all in one package." Packaging the bills would require them to be sent back to the Senate, since the chamber has only taken up one of the three bills so far. More here. A Texas woman is facing charges after authorities say she tried to mail her ex-husband fentanyl-laced chocolates disguised as a gift. Pamela Jean Stanley, 63, was indicted by a Parker County grand jury last week after being arrested at the end of May, reports NBC Dallas-Fort Worth . Investigators allege Stanley crafted a plan to kill her former husband, Jeff Kauth, by injecting fentanyl into a box of premium chocolates, then sending the package with a fake congratulatory note from a travel agency, ostensibly in honor of his engagement, per ABC News . Stanley was reportedly caught after she described the plan in detail to an acquaintance, unaware their conversation was being recorded. The sheriff's office says an undercover officer later posed as a fentanyl supplier in a motel parking lot to facilitate the sting, where Stanley was arrested. Authorities claim she was carrying nearly 10 grams of methamphetamine at the time. The charges against Stanley include criminal solicitation with intent to commit murder, attempted murder, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Her bond is set at $450,000, and she remains in jail. Kauth, who was married to Stanley for 14 years, told local media he'd previously heard rumors his ex-wife was seeking a hitman and had taken precautions at home. "Her plan was pretty ingenious. She thought this stuff through," he tells WFAA, adding that he's relieved the alleged plot was stopped. He says if the plan hadn't been foiled, he likely would've eaten the chocolates. While patrolling the forested hills near Gokarna in southern India, police stumbled upon a makeshift cave dwellingwith a Russian woman and her two young daughters living inside. As the New York Times recounts, while surveying the area last Thursday to see whether any tourists may have "gotten stuck in the landslide-prone forests," police noticed a Hindu deity's statue among the foliage, then saw a cave entrance covered by curtains fashioned out of red saris; images of Hindu deities were found on the interior walls. Nina Kutina, 40, had reportedly been in the cave with her daughters, ages 4 and 6, for the past week, though police determined she "had stayed in the cave at least four times." Kutina's story spans nearly a decade of wandering, per the Times. She first entered India on a business visa in 2016, stayed beyond her permitted time, then traveled to Nepal, and re-entered India in 2020 on a tourist visathis time with two sons and a daughter in tow. Her elder son died in a bike accident last year; her younger son's whereabouts remain unclear. Kutina's elder daughter was born in Ukraine, and her younger in India. Though Kutina protested the idea of leaving the caveshe said she was "interested in staying in the forest and worshiping God"the trio was ultimately moved to a local women's shelter. She soon emailed relatives: "Our peaceful life in the cave has endedour cave home destroyed." The AP reports Kutina on Tuesday told the Press Trust of India she painted, sang, read, and lived peacefully with her children while in the cave. Authorities pieced together her journey using interviews and documents left in the cave and ultimately transferred her and her daughters to immigration officials in Bengaluru ahead of their eventual deportation to Russia. Some dolphins in Australia have a special technique to flush fish from the seafloor: They hunt with a sponge on their beak, like a clown nose. Using the sponge to protect from sharp rocks, the dolphins swim with their beaks covered, shoveling through rubble at the bottom of sandy channels and stirring up barred sandperch for a meal, per the AP . But this behavior, passed down through generations, is trickier than it looks, according to new research published earlier this month in the journal Royal Society Open Science . Hunting with a sponge on their face interferes with bottlenose dolphins' finely tuned sense of echolocation, a technique of emitting sounds and listening for echoes to navigate. "It has a muffling effect in the way that a mask might," said co-author Ellen Rose Jacobs, a marine biologist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "Everything looks a little bit weird, but you can still learn how to compensate." Jacobs used an underwater microphone to confirm that the "sponging" dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, were still using echolocation clicks to guide them. Then she modeled the extent of the sound wave distortion from the sponges. For those wild dolphins that have mastered foraging with nose sponges, scientists say it's a very efficient way to catch fish. The wild marine sponges vary from the size of a softball to a cantaloupe. Sponge hunting is "like hunting when you're blindfoldedyou've got to be very good, very well-trained to pull it off," said Mauricio Cantor, a marine biologist at Oregon State University, who wasn't involved in the study. That difficulty may explain why it's rarewith only about 5% of the dolphin population studied by the researchers in Shark Bay doing it. That's about 30 dolphins total, said Jacobs. story continues below "It takes them many years to learn this special hunting skillnot everybody sticks with it," said marine ecologist Boris Worm at Dalhousie University in Canada, who wasn't involved in the study. Dolphin calves usually spend around three or four years with their mothers, observing and learning crucial life skills. The delicate art of sponge hunting is "only ever passed down from mother to offspring," said co-author and Georgetown marine biologist Janet Mann. Cellular operators cannot hope to match the coverage that satellite delivers, but this advantage has long made the technology prohibitively expensive for providing widespread connectivity. While companies such as Starlink and Amazon Kuiper are using LEO satellite fleets in a bid to disrupt the market and make broader satellite access more affordable, the reality is that their offerings require major capital expenditure, and could struggle to remain profitable in the long-term. So how can satellite providers find the sweet spot? One answer seems to be the emerging trend of increased convergence between cellular operations and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). This is beginning to lower the barrier to entry for satellite connectivity, with satellite providers seeing opportunities to connect millions more devices both for consumer and enterprise use - by tapping into connectivity in areas where cellular signals cannot reach. But how exactly is this enabled? Andrew Cavalier of ABI Research explains that the term NTN is used loosely, but within the satellite community it refers definitively to a standard a set of rules developed by the 3GPP to enable a more seamless network between satellites and terrestrial networks. This is achieved via terrestrial gateways or teleports that are connected to the 5G core, enabling the 5G waveform, signals and protocols to be transmitted through satellites, thereby creating a single, seamless network. When you talk to people outside of the space community, they might refer to NTN as any satellite or aerial connectivity solution, which is not technically wrong, but it does cause a bit of confusion, says Cavalier. NTN vs LEO Adoption of this standard is somewhat fragmented across the market. Cavalier notes that several of the most hyped LEO fleet providers, such as SpaceX, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk, are not adopting the protocols and the standards put out by the 3GPP. Instead, they are partnering with operators and using the cellular waveform owned by these partners they lease spectrum through which they can provide their services, whereas the NTN standard stipulates that satellite operators in this architecture must use their own waveform. This is a very different approach, and there's a lot of debate now whether this provides a good quality service, says Cavalier. The LEO satellites are quite small. The closer to the earth, the beam coverage is quite small, and you're still needing to travel hundreds of kilometres up to try to connect this phone all the way to a satellite. He notes that link budget the measure of a signals received power - and speed are both issues, plus the service is only accessible in the region where the telco can operate; under the NTN standard, the satellite operator can provide services via their spectrum wherever they are licensed. The various players in the market are sceptical about their options; some, including SpaceX, are trying to enter the market quickly to gain market share, but Cavalier argues this isnt necessarily the right approach really, satellite providers should be looking to drive partnerships. The ability to connect to people anywhere particularly in life-threatening situations such as natural disasters represents a huge competitive advantage and therefore revenue opportunity. Cavalier notes that this is driving unification in terms of partnerships and new services. Brian Aziz, Head of Global Sales at Iridium, concurs that terrestrial and satellite operators have identified the need for convergence, particularly following the 3GPPs Release 17 standards, which support satellite connectivity. Iridium is a LEO provider, but has been in the satellite space for decades, with globally licensed spectrum and a fleet in active orbit compared to some of the newer companies, Aziz argues that this is the firms differentiating factor. By partnering with global MNOs we're allowing their customers, whether it be on the consumer side or the IoT side, to roam onto our network as their use cases require, says Aziz. A lot of MNOs serve IoT verticals and markets, they have enterprises that deploy assets - sometimes in remote parts of the world - and utilising that same MNO SIM card or eSIM, they'd be able to roam onto networks as needed and then roam off as they go back into terrestrial coverage. NTN for IoT This convergence helps to expand the scale of satellite IoT use cases while reducing the cost. Aziz notes that following the introduction of 3GPP standards, its now more common for customers to deploy a single IoT module that features both a satellite transceiver as well as cellular mode, rather than two separate units. That same single module that supports LTE/5G cellular connectivity will also support satellite connectivity, so there's no change in the hardware to manufacture an end device, or the cost to the customer, says Aziz. There is no additional hardware, there is no new antenna, there's no new battery, there's no change. It's a software stack that's being built and designed to enable that connectivity onto the satellite network. That translates into lower cost devices for users that want to enable satellite connectivity. This facilitates use cases on both the consumer and enterprise side. Cavalier cited a case study in which Intelsat connected heavy machinery for mining, which mitigates risk for personnel but requires a constant network connection and this can be challenging at a remote site. If for whatever reason the connection drops out, having the satellite layer ensures a backup to keep the connected, semi-autonomous vehicles functional and in addition, it expands their range, allowing them to operate in a wider area. Another example is agriculture - there's a lot of devices now that are getting used to connect and monitor crops, or the conditions of the farming environment. If they're in a remote area, this satellite connection is especially useful, said Cavalier. Bringing down cost barriers On the consumer side, Aziz notes that NTN and cellular convergence enables a pricing model in line with what a user would expect from a typical cellular service. From Iridiums perspective, the plan is to come into the market extremely competitive, and lower that barrier to entry in terms of satellite operations. There will be always some sort of premium for the satellite connectivity because it is more expensive to operate than the terrestrial side. However, NTNs will enable higher customer volumes, and this is likely to drive costs down satellite operators will reduce prices if theyre reaping the benefits of being part of a larger cellular ecosystem. I don't think that the price for utilisation is going to be a barrier anymore, says Aziz. I don't think that the price of hardware and devices will be a barrier anymore because it's going to be on that same device they're buying today. Because a user will have the seamless ability to move from terrestrial to satellite, it should also make it a very simple deployment. As these devices and these services proliferate, the scale will cause a reduction in price and make them more affordable, agrees Cavalier. A big component of this is the proliferation of satellites themselves. As more capacity and more services and more competition comes online, the price war is inevitable. Large new constellations are launching from different markets, such as Amazon Kuiper from the US and SpaceSail from China, but will compete for the same markets, so they will need to find ways to differentiate themselves. Cavalier notes that established companies such as Iridium and GlobalStar can no longer afford to leave unaddressed markets off the table, and so are providing more competitive pricing. Cavalier expects the level of variance and flexibility to reach the point where customers can pay for exactly what they need, with tiering providing different levels of connectivity. For example, while Apple and GlobalStar have an agreement in place that allows Apple users to access emergency services via satellite for free, users would need to pay more for a package that provides text messaging or data. There's a lot of question marks about LEO - a lot of countries and companies have announced they're going to launch it, and what they're going to figure out is that LEO is really expensive. It's very capex intensive, and it's not so easy to maintain, because you have to constantly launch and deorbit these satellites - it's not like you just plant it and leave it, like a lot of telcos might have to do. There's a lot of costs that go into running these, and I think ultimately this is going to be the challenge of bringing down costs for a lot of these companies. NTNs could be the solution to this, but of course the costs must be balanced with customer expectations. If customers will only consider services without paying the satellite premium, satellite providers will hit a limit on keeping their business cases viable. But at this point, with NTNs making satellite more affordable than ever and enabling IoT and enterprise use cases across the sector, there is a lot of promise. Prince Harry visited the African nation of Angola on Tuesday with a land mine clearing charity, repeating a famous trip his mother made in 1997. The Duke of Sussex met with Angolan President Joao Lourenco at the start of his trip, according to a statement from the HALO Trust, an organization that works to clear land mines from old war zones. Princess Diana visited Angola with the Halo Trust in January 1997, just seven months before she was killed in a Paris car crash, per the AP . Diana was famously photographed on that trip wearing protective equipment and walking through an active minefield during a break in fighting in Angola's long civil war. Her advocacy helped mobilize support for a treaty banning land mines later that year. This isn't the first time Harry has followed in his mother's footsteps by raising awareness for the HALO Trust's work. He also visited the southern African country in 2019 for a land mine clearing project. British media reported that Harry traveled to Angola this week without his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex. HALO Trust CEO James Cowan said in a Tuesday statement that he and Harry met with Lourenco to discuss continued demining efforts in Angola and thanked the president for his support for that work. Angola was torn apart by a 27-year civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 2002, with some brief and fragile periods of peace in between. The HALO Trust says there are estimates that around 80,000 Angolans have been killed or injured by land mines during and after the war, although there are no exact figures. The organization says that by the end of last year, just over 1,000 minefields covering an estimated 26 square miles still needed to be cleared. Angola had set itself a goal to be land-mine-free by 2025. The National Park Service is defending its handling of a lightning-sparked wildfire that destroyed the nearly century-old Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of historic cabins, saying containment lines had been built around the blaze and crews were prepared to conduct defensive firing operations. But then came a sudden and extreme shift in the wind that far exceeded forecast conditions, the agency recounted Tuesday in an email to the AP . "The Dragon Bravo Fire began July 4 as a lightning-caused wildfire and was under a full suppression strategy from the outset," the agency said, adding that the team first assigned to the fire "effectively managed the fire through its initial phase" and that Grand Canyon National Park requested additional resources as fire activity increased. The Park Service had posted on social media last week that the fire was being managed under a "confine and contain strategy," which allowed for the natural role of fire on the landscape while minimizing the risk to infrastructure. Arizona's governor and legislators called for an investigation as the Park Service immediately came under scrutiny after the lodge and other historic buildings were destroyed. The flames were fanned by uncharacteristic nighttime gusts that topped 40mph, said fire information officer Stefan La-Sky. "Normally the fire 'lays down' at night because of higher humidity and lower temperatures, but this thing was really wind-driven," La-Sky said. The weather was more favorable Tuesday as hundreds of firefighters worked to stop the Dragon Bravo Fire from consuming any more of the buildings along the North Rim. A separate blaze dubbed the White Sage Fire was burning further north. Together, the two fires have charred more than 90 square miles. Tourists standing along the park's popular South Rim on Tuesday watched plumes of smoke filling the canyon with a thick haze. "By the afternoon, it was completely socked in," Christi Anderson said of the smoke that had filled the canyon the day before. "You couldn't see anything." story continues below Park officials closed the North Rim, a more isolated area that draws only about 10% of annual visitors. Neither blaze had any containment, and La-Sky said it was too early for his team to offer a timeline. "We're always at the mercy of Mother Nature," he said. About 500 tons of emergency food rations are set to be destroyed after months of bureaucratic gridlock under the Trump administration, according to multiple current and former government sources. The high-energy biscuits, bought by USAID near the end of President Biden's term for roughly $800,000, were stored in Dubai and intended for malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, per the Atlantic . Despite repeated requests by USAID staff to ship the food before it expired, approval never came from new leadership installed after an executive order froze most US foreign aid. The biscuits, which could've fed about 1.5 million children for a week, will now be incinerated, at a further cost of $130,000 to US taxpayers. The loss is striking, say aid workers, who note that in the past, only small quantities of food have been written off due to natural disasters or other logistical issues, in contrast to the mass disposal now planned. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress in May that food would be delivered before spoiling, but by then the destruction order had been finalized. Although humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and Yemen was cut earlier this year over concerns about aiding terrorists, the administration hasn't explained why food wasn't redirected to other famine-stricken regions, like Sudan. Reuters reported last month that Afghanistan has been turning to Russia for help in acquiring food for its people amid the Israel-Iran conflict that has been cutting off supplies. Meanwhile, more aid could soon meet a similar fate: USAID's warehouses around the world hold tens of thousands of tons of additional food, much of it purchased and unused. The agency's capacity to distribute humanitarian aid has dwindled amid layoffs, and confusion reportedly reigns over how to handle existing stockpiles. Per Gizmodo, a recent study in the Lancet suggests that USAID funding cuts could lead to 14 million deaths over the next five years, with about a third of those being kids under the age of 5. Emma Watson, best known for her portrayal of Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, apparently didn't have her magic wand handy when she was caught exceeding the speed limit in Oxford last July, reports the BBC . The 35-year-old actor has been handed a six-month driving ban after being pulled over for driving 38mph in a 30mph zone in Oxford, according to court proceedings at High Wycombe Magistrates' Court. Watson, who's currently a student, already had nine points on her license prior to that incident. The Independent notes that drivers in the UK can see their licenses suspended, usually for six months like Watson, if they rack up 12 or more points within a three-year span. The Daily Mail reports this was Watson's fourth driving offense in two years, with the latest infraction costing her three more points. Watson was ordered to pay about $1,400 in fines and costs, though she didn't attend the brief five-minute hearing for her case. The actor's career took off in 2001 with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Watson went on to appear in all eight Harry Potter films, later branching out into movies such as Beauty and the Beast, The Bling Ring, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Her most recent film appearance was in the 2019 adaptation of Little Women, directed by Greta Gerwig. The US has deported five migrants convicted of serious crimesincluding sexual assault and murderto Eswatini, a small kingdom in southern Africa. An X post from Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, calls the men "depraved monsters" and "individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back." The BBC reports these individuals came from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba, and Yemen, and were sent to Eswatini after their home countries reportedly refused to take them back. "They are off of American soil" thanks to President Trump and Kristi Noem, McLaughlin wrote. Eswatini apparently plans to get the five deportees referred to by the Trump administration as "depraved monsters" back to their home countries. The administration deported the migrants to the tiny African country despite the fact that none of them are from there, because it said their home countries refused to accept them. But Eswatini says it will repatriate them, the New York Times reports. A spokesperson for the country's government says it will work with the US government as well as the International Organization for Migration to "facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin." This move is part of a broader Trump administration effort to enforce stricter immigration controls, including sending migrants to "safe third countries" that may have no prior connection to the deporteesa move the Supreme Court enabled in late June, reports the Guardian. Earlier in the month, eight men from various nations were sent to South Sudan, which agreed to receive them even though only one was a South Sudanese national. story continues below Eswatini, ruled by King Mswati III and the last absolute monarchy on the continent, has not issued a statement about the arrivals. The country, formerly called Swaziland, had been mentioned in media reports as a possible destination for US deportees. As for whether the men are now in custody there, Mclaughlin told NBC News, "That's up to Eswatini." Other nationsincluding Rwanda, Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Moldovahave also been floated as potential partners under this policy. Police in Chandler, Arizona, have recommended a felony charge in the May drowning death of influencer Emilie Kiser's 3-year-old son, Trigg. Prosecutors now face the decision of whether to pursue charges against her husband, Brady Kiser. A police rep confirmed to the Arizona Republic that the felony child abuse charge recommendation had been submitted, and Chandler Police echoed that in a Tuesday X post that noted, "After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions." Trigg Kiser died on May 18, nearly a week after he was pulled from the family's backyard pool. According to court records, the incident was ruled an accidental drowning. Brady Kiser told authorities he was caring for his newborn son when he lost sight of Trigg for a period of three to five minutes. By the time he found Trigg in the pool, he was unresponsive; Kiser called 911 after pulling the boy from the water. At the time, Kiser was alone at home with both children, while his wife, Emilie Kisera social media influencer with more than 4 million TikTok followerswas out with friends. Emilie Kiser's attorneys moved in late May to try to block the release of police records, 911 calls, and photos related to Trigg's death, noting she and her family "desperately want to grieve in private, but sadly, the public will not let them." No members of the Kiser family have spoken publicly since the drowning, apart from statements included in legal documents. Cinephiles, get ready to get your geek on because a rare piece of Star Wars history is about to change hands: Darth Vader's main dueling lightsaber, seen in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, is heading to auction this September. Propstore, the memorabilia dealer hosting the sale in Los Angeles, has pegged the saber's expected haul at between $1 million and $3 million, per The Hollywood Reporter . This particular weapon, wielded on screen by the late David Prowse and stuntman Bob Anderson, is touted by the auction house as "the only hero lightsaber" from the original trilogy ever to make it to auction. The event comes as the Star Wars franchise marks 45 years since The Empire Strikes Back hit theaters. "Surviving genuine lightsaber props from the original trilogy are exceedingly rare, and Propstore is honored to present this historic artifact," said Brandon Alinger, the company's COO, calling it a "grail-level piece." Gizmodo offers more to geek out on, via a press release: "It is constructed from a vintage British press camera flash handle that was transformed into Vader's infamous weapon through the fitting of dressing components such as plastic grips, calculator bubbles, and cosmetic wiring. ... A wooden rod ... served as the blade during the choreographed fight scenes and made the physical, on-camera dueling possible. It also later served as a guide for visual effects artists to add the hand-animated glow for the final shots." Before its September sale, the saber will embark on a three-city press tour with stops in London, New York, and California's Beverly Hills. Sharing the spotlight will be a bullwhip and belt from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, a neuralyzer from Men in Black, and Sauron's helmet from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, per THR. Propstore has a track record with big-ticket Star Wars items: In 2022, the house sold a screen-matched model of an X-wing fighter for more than $2.3 million. Donald Trump entered his current term in the White House touting ambitions to be a "peacemaker" president, pledging an end to America's often drawn-out conflicts. Yet within his first six months, the Independent reports that Trump's administration has launched at least 529 airstrikes across Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asianearly matching the 555 recorded during former President Biden's entire four-year tenure, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) nonprofit. Trump's approach has raised questions about whether his definition of ending "forever wars" means deploying overwhelming military force to preempt or swiftly resolve conflict, rather than avoiding intervention altogether. "The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints," said ACLED President Clionadh Raleigh, noting that strikes now appear to be a first, not last, resort. The Telegraph notes that the numbers, though in stark opposition to former President Obama's penchant for putting boots on the ground, come at a time when the White House faces MAGA opposition about any US military involvement whatsoever overseas. Most of the recent airstrikes have targeted Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, aiming to protect shipping in the Red Sea following the escalation of Israel's war in Gaza. The Trump administration carried out 474 strikes in Yemen between March and May, outpacing Biden's tally over a full year. Watchdog group Airwars reports at least 224 civilian deaths in Yemen are attributed to Trump's campaign, nearly matching two decades of prior US operations. story continues below Beyond Yemen, Trump has initiated strikes in Somalia and returned to familiar battlegrounds like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The White House defends these actions as necessary for peace and security, with spokesperson Anna Kelly calling operations "decisive" and successful against terrorist groups, per the Independent. Sure, Ibiza's nightlife powers an appreciable slice of Spain's tourism industrybut the island's emergency medical system is feeling the hangover. Ambulance crews are now responding to club-related drug incidents so frequentlysometimes multiple times a night at the same venue, they saythat the local health technicians union is warning the public that the local ambulance service is close to a breaking point. "There are days when we're so busy you can barely even stop to eat or have a coffee," a local ambulance technician tells the New York Times . During the height of the summer season, as much as a third of all emergency requests for an ambulance are linked to nightclubs, the Guardian reports. Workers say the situation leaves the island's 160,000 residents waiting longer for ambulances. Ibiza's club scene has long had a reputation for drug use. But Jose Manuel Maroto, a rep for the union, sees a change at play: He tells the Times that rising prices at so-called "superclubs"where entry can top $100 and drinks can reach close to $30are pushing more partygoers to trade booze for drugs. Emergency responders aren't just complainingthey're pushing for change. The law requires that Ibiza's nightclubs have nurses and other medical workers on staff. The union wants that requirement expanded to include private ambulance services (the Guardian notes that just one major club engages such a service). "It's unfair that nightclubs that earn millions of dollars per year are dumping this problem on the public health system," Maroto tells the Times. "In the end, the bill is paid by residents on the island." Some of the island's clubs are pushing back, saying their records show a limited number of public ambulance calls. Iran's recent missile campaign against Israel became a stark test for missile defense systems, revealing that even state-of-the-art shields can spring leaks. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at how Iran managed to get more successful at breaking through Israel's vaunted air defenses over a 12-day period, calling it "a cautionary tale for countries with sophisticated missile defenses and those that seek to have them." The Journal cites data from the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security of America (Jinsa), which found 8% of Iran's missiles hit their targets during the conflict's first half compared with double that16%in the second half. There are some caveats, among them that Jinsa's numbers don't "distinguish between missiles that were allowed to strike open areas in Israel and those that Israeli interceptors missed." Indeed, missile experts say Israel would've likely moved to only target the most threatening Iranian missiles as the conflict wore on in order to conserve its costly interceptors. Still, the Journal sees Iran's learning curve as evident. It reports that the regime moved from conducting overnight onslaughts to favoring "smaller waves during daylight hours and from a wider variety of locations. Tehran further tested Israel's interceptors by changing up its firing patterns, targeting far-apart cities and varying the intervals between attacks." The Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies describes Iran's missile arsenal as the "largest and most diverse" in the Middle East. story continues below While Israel wouldn't comment on the Jinsa stats, its military acknowledged its interception rate dropped from an initial 90% to 95% to about 86% overall. (Read the full article for an explainer on Israel's layered air defense, a combination of Arrow 3, Aegis, Arrow 2, Thaad, David's Sling, and Iron Dome systems.) GLOBALink | SCO good, competent organization for multilateral cooperation: Pakistani official Pub Date:25-07-16 10:41 Source:Xinhua Pakistan's first national coordinator for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has hailed the intergovernmental group for its role in multilateral cooperation. #SCO #China #GLOBALink Editor:Qin Shuying Related News Small Tee-ball, Big Dreams An Elementar... Opportunities outweigh challenges for glob... GLOBALink | China's GDP expands 5.3 pct ye... World Youth Development Forum kicks off in... Ericsson said on Tuesday it has signed a six-year strategic contract with Liberty Latin America to deploy 5G Standalone (5G SA) technology for Liberty Costa Rica. Under the contract, Liberty Costa Rica will deploy Ericssons cloud-native, dual-mode 5G Core solution, along with over 1,400 sites covering more than 3.7 million subscribers across the entire national territory. For the mobile RAN sites, Liberty Costa Rica will deploy Ericssons Massive MIMO TDD radio AIR 3255, millimeter-wave AIR 5322, and single-band Radio 4432, operating in the 700-MHz, 3500-MHz, and 26-GHz frequency bands. The scope of the contract also includes baseband (RAN Processor 6655 with built-in AI), antennas supported by RAN site enclosures, and batteries. No financial details were dislosed. Ericsson said the 5G SA network will improves the mobile broadband experience for Liberty Costa Ricas consumer and business customers with faster speeds, lower latency, and more reliable connections for both mobile and fixed wireless access (FWA) services. It will also be designed to scale quickly to support expected growth of demand for IoT connectivity. Guillermo Ponce, senior VP for Central and South America at Liberty Latin America, said the deployment marks the groups first 5G SA network, which he said will change the way people navigate and boost economic growth thanks to the development of new technological solutions in different industries", including healthcare, agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and ports. Sean Cryan, head of LATAM North and Caribbean at Ericsson, said 5G SA enables differentiated connectivity for those industries via scaling solutions such as AI, network slicing, and APIs for new use cases and services. The deployment of the 5G SA network in Costa Rica marks a significant step forward, enabling enhanced user experiences and driving economic growth and innovation, he said in a statement. Liberty Costa Rica spent US$16.2 million for 5G spectrum blocks in the 700-MHz, 2300-MHz, 3500-MHz and 26/28-GHz bands at the start of this year. Liberty Latin America entered the Costa Rican market in July 2020 via a US$505 million deal to buy out Telefonica Costa Rica. The deal was completed over a year later in August 2021. Three years later in August 2024, Liberty Costa Rica struck a deal to merge with Millicom International Cellulars Tigo Costa Rica via an all-stock deal. The Liberty Costa Rica/Ericsson deal marks the second 5G SA deployment planned for Costa Rica. In October last year, Nokia said it had partnered with RACSA (Radiografica Costarricense SA) to deploy the first one in urban centres including San Jose, Cartago, and Limon, as well as rural communities across the country. A key governing partner of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday it's quitting the government, leaving him with a minority in parliament. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party said it was leaving over disagreements surrounding a proposed law meant to grant wide military draft exemptions to its constituents. A second ultra-Orthodox party quit earlier this week over the same issue, reports the AP . Leading a minority government would make governing a challenge for Netanyahu. But Shas said it wouldn't work to undermine the coalition once outside it and could vote with it on some laws. It also wouldn't support its collapse. The political turmoil comes as Israel and Hamas are negotiating on a US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. While the shake-up in Netanyahu's government won't necessarily derail the talks, the Israeli leader will be more susceptible to the demands of his far-right coalition partners, who oppose ending the 21-month war while Hamas remains intact. A Massachusetts woman who served on the grand jury in the widely watched Karen Read case has admitted to leaking confidential information, according to federal prosecutors. Jessica Leslie has agreed to plead guilty to criminal contempt for violating court rules on grand jury secrecy, ABC News reports. Authorities say Leslie shared names of witnesses, details of their testimony, and other evidence while the information was still under seal. Though court documents do not identify the specific case, sources confirmed Leslie's role in the grand jury that indicted Karen Read in 2022 to ABC and the Boston Globe. Read had been charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, whom prosecutors alleged she struck with her car after a night of drinking and left in a blizzard. The first trial ended in mistrial; a second jury last month cleared Read of murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene. She was found guilty only of a drunk-driving charge and received a year of probation. Leslie's plea deal calls for a single day in custody, which is considered already served, and two years of supervised release. No date for her plea hearing has been set. Prosecutors have not disclosed how they discovered the leak, but sources say law enforcement had been keeping tabs on social media and other communications amid the case's heavy public scrutiny. UPDATE Jul 17, 2025 12:00 AM CDT Perry Farrell wasted no time filing his own lawsuit against the other members of Jane's Addiction, just hours after Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins, and Eric Avery sued him. The singer-songwriter admits to body-checking Navarro during the September 2024 brawl at the center of the band's legal battle, but he says he only did so after asking Navarro multiple times to turn his amp down. Farrell accuses his bandmates of years of harassment and bullying, claiming they played their music nearly too loud for him to hear his own voice, and he says after he pushed the guitarist, both Navarro and Avery assaulted him. He's suing them for that, and all three of his estranged bandmates for emotional distress and breach of contract, TMZ reports. Jul 16, 2025 2:19 PM CDT Jane's Addiction canceled the remainder of its reunion tour last year after an onstage fight between frontman Perry Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarroand it doesn't look like the band will be getting back together anywhere outside a courtroom. Navarro is suing Farrell for assault and battery in a lawsuit that has been joined by bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins, TMZ reports. All three band members are seeking damages of at least $10 million for emotional distress, negligence, and breach of contract. Hunter Biden has pushed back against claims of a cover-up involving his father's health, blaming the Democrats' 2024 election defeat on a lack of loyalty to Joe Biden rather than any grand conspiracy. In his first interview since Kamala Harris lost the election to President Trump, Hunter Biden spoke on Jaime Harrison's upcoming podcast At Our Table, the Washington Post reports. He argued that the party squandered its advantages, saying, "We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down." Joe Biden, 82, withdrew from the presidential race after a debate performance that triggered widespread concern among Democrats. The vice president replaced him as the Democratic candidate. Post-election books, including Original Sin by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, have fueled speculation, alleging efforts to hide the president's alleged cognitive decline. Hunter Biden dismissed these conspiracy theories in an excerpt from the interview, pointing out the improbability of keeping such secrets in Washington's "fish bowl" environment. "The ability to keep a secret in Washington is zero," he told Harrison, suggesting that if real issues existed, someone would have come forward publicly. "We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party," Hunter Biden said. He also denied Tapper's claim that he had been his father's "acting chief of staff," the Hill reports. "I was in that White House 12 days over the course of the last two years of the administrationclearly, because I had other things going on," he said. "You ask one person to go on the record that would ever tell you that I was in any way making a single decision about anything, anything in that White House," he said. "I stayed as far away as I possibly could. Which, by the way, broke my heart." The podcast from Harrison, former chairman of the DNC, debuts Thursday. Other guests will include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris' running mate. A record-breaking cache of Iranian weapons, including advanced missiles and drone technology, was intercepted en route to Yemen's Houthi rebels, US Central Command announced Wednesday, calling the seizure the largest of its kind. Yemen's National Resistance Forces seized more than 750 tons of Iranian arms, CBS News reports. The CENTCOM commander, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, said that blocking such shipments is crucial to maintaining security and safe shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Adenwaters that have seen repeated attacks on vessels by the Houthis . The seizure also shows that Iran "remains the most destabilizing actor in the region," Kurilla said. Kurilla praised Yemen's "legitimate government forces" for choking off the arms flow. The National Resistance Forces works with the US military and is allied with Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen's late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, per the AP. CENTCOM noted that much of the hardware in the shipment was made by a company linked to Iran's Ministry of Defense, already sanctioned by the US, and that Farsi-language manuals were included. The Yemeni force said the seizure happened in June; the Houthis have not acknowledged it. The attacks on commercial and military ships have brought airstrikes from the US military. Although President Trump has reported Houthi capitulation, the group has continued its attacks, including a recent strike on a Liberian-flagged cargo ship that left three dead and several kidnapped. Communities in areas along a 700-mile stretch of Alaska's southern coast ordered residents to higher ground after a powerful earthquake Wednesday, but officials quickly downgraded a tsunami warning for the region. There were no immediate reports of significant damage. The Alaska Earthquake Center said the quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3, struck at 12:37pm local time south of Sand Point, a community of about 600 people on Popof Island in the Aleutian chain, the AP reports. The US Tsunami Warning Center said the warning was in effect from about 40 miles southwest of Homer to Unimak Pass. Among the larger communities in the area is Kodiak, population 5,200. The warning was downgraded to an advisory about an hour later, and canceled just before 2:45pm. Fairbanks, AK (99701) Today A mix of clouds and sun in the morning followed by cloudy skies during the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable.. Tonight Cloudy with light rain developing after midnight. Low 59F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%. FUKUOKA, Jul 16 (News On Japan) - Japans first new luxury cruise ship in 34 years, the Asuka III, operated by the NYK Group, is 230 meters long and can accommodate up to 744 passengers, and made its inaugural port call at Hakata Port on Monday morning. The ship features amenities such as a casino and swimming pool, and all 385 guest rooms come with private balconies, offering a premium cruise experience. Ahead of its first commercial voyage, which begins on July 20th, the vessel docked at Hakata Port, where a welcoming ceremony was held at the Chuo Wharf Cruise Center in Fukuokas Hakata Ward starting at 10 a.m. Asuka III is Japans first cruise ship capable of operating on three types of fuelheavy oil, light oil, and liquefied natural gas (LNG)as part of efforts to reduce environmental impact. In another domestic first, LNG was supplied directly to the ship at sea from a dedicated bunkering vessel on the afternoon of July 14th. Kurose Kei, director of the Port Planning Division at Fukuoka Citys Port and Harbor Promotion Department, explained, "Because the fuel can be transported in large volumes by ship, were told it allows for faster supply compared to methods such as tank trucks." The Asuka III is scheduled to return to Hakata Port in September and will operate three cruise routes departing from Hakata, including itineraries to Jeju Island in South Korea. Source: KBC OTTAWA, ON, July 15, 2025 /CNW/ - Water, heat, humidity and wind: The perfect elements for a great day of sailing on a calm, clear stretch of water. However, on the high seas, this beautiful image can quickly turn into a darker and much more frightening one when these elements merge and start swirling forcefully towards the coast. Harvey, Ian, Sandy, Irma and Katrina all these major hurricanes caused significant destruction and claimed a large number of victims. A residential neighborhood during a severe storm with strong winds and heavy rain. Trees and palm trees are bent due to the force of the wind, and there is visible flooding on the streets. (CNW Group/Global Affairs Canada) The same applies to individual actions that may be beneficial in and of themselves. When these actions are combined, they can have a major impact. Tropical storms, even weak ones, can quickly intensify and become major hurricanes, posing a serious threat to your safety. The Government of Canada establishes risk levels to international destinations to help travelers make informed decisions. When a tropical storm warning is issued, the risk level for a destination may be adjusted to advise against non-essential travel. You should be prepared to cancel your plans at the last minute, depending on the current risk level and the evolving situation on the ground. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts This reasoning also applies to Canadians travelling or staying in hurricane-prone regions. As we begin the Hurricane Season (from June 1 to the end of November in the Atlantic Ocean, and from May 15 to November 30 in the Pacific Ocean), the Canadian government is encouraging its citizens to take the following 8 actions. Together, these actions can make a significant contribution to your safety abroad. Remember that, in the event of a hurricane, you could face serious safety risks. Regularly consult the Natural disasters and climate section of the Travel advice and advisories web pages, before and during your stay abroad, to make informed decisions about your destination and whether it is prone to hurricanes. Ignoring official warnings could affect your insurance coverage and safety. Your insurance policy may be cancelled if a travel warning is in effect for your destination. Register with the free Registration of Canadians Abroad service to allow the government of Canada to notify you in case of an emergency in your destination country. Follow Travel.gc.ca on social media to receive ongoing updates about safety conditions abroad. to receive ongoing updates about safety conditions abroad. Take note of the contact information of the Canadian office abroad that is closest to your destination so you know who to contact in an emergency. Please note that our ability to help you may be limited. Be prepared for any possibility, such as having to change or cancel your trip, being stranded abroad, facing major power outages or being forced to stay in your hotel room. Review your travel insurance to find out all the details about your coverage and adapt it to your needs. Get information from official sources in emergency situations. Consult the Severe storms outside Canada page for more information. The 2024 Hurricane Season: Striking figures When a tropical storm reaches sustained winds of at least 63 km/h, it is officially named. An "average" season consists of 14 named storms, 7 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes. During the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, 18 tropical storms were named, 11 storms became hurricanes, and of those, 5 were major hurricanes. Last year's Atlantic hurricane season began quietly and ended with a bang. In November alone, 3 hurricanes formed. In 2024, a total of 5 storms made landfall. From 1991 to 2020, the average number of storms that made landfall was 1.7 per year. The forecast for the 2025 season is similar to the 2024 season, that is, above normal. The forecast is expecting between 13 to 19 tropical storms to be named, 6 to 10 hurricanes, of which 3 to 5 may become major hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. Reference resources Learn about hurricanes - Canada.ca Learning about hurricanes: storm names - Canada.caUS National Hurricane Centre SOURCE Global Affairs Canada OTTAWA, ON, July 16, 2025 /CNW/ -The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) is proud to announce that wildlife photographer and researcher Ryan Tidman has been named the inaugural Audain Wildlife Conservation Fellow, a prestigious two-year appointment that will support Tidman's research, storytelling, and educational outreach focused on the elusive sea wolves of British Columbia. Ryan Tidman named Audain Wildlife Conservation Fellow for research project on Sea Wolves in British Columbia by Canadian Geographic. (CNW Group/Royal Canadian Geographical Society) RCGS and Canadian Geographic (CNW Group/Royal Canadian Geographical Society) The Fellowship, made possible through the generous support of the Audain Foundation, represents the largest single grant in RCGS history dedicated to B.C. wildlife conservation. It is designed to support mid-career conservationists who are ready to make a major impact through research, storytelling, and public education. "This is a breakthrough investment in the power of conservation storytelling," said John Geiger, CEO of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. "We congratulate Ryan on receiving this extraordinary opportunity to move the dialogue forward on species at risk in British Columbia. His Fellowship represents the kind of transformative project we believe can shift mindsand ultimately, policytoward stronger protections for Canada's most vulnerable ecosystems." Initially dedicated to the advancement of British Columbian visual arts, the Audain Foundation expanded its scope in recent years through a commitment to protecting and conserving wildlife in British Columbia's land and surrounding waters, seeking to engage and inspire both the public and policymakers to adopt best practices that protect species at risk and their habitats. "We chose to partner with Canadian Geographic because of its longstanding work with conservationists across the country and its extraordinary ability to reach a wide audience," said Michael Audain, Chair of the Audain Foundation. "As our Foundation strives to advance the development of stronger policy and management practices, we are hopeful that this program will help foster a deeper understanding and respect for British Columbia's wildlife and biodiversity." Through its magazine, read by more than 4.4 million Canadians each monthand its education network of 28,000 teachers nationwide, Canadian Geographic plans to bring Ryan Tidman's research to a broadbased audience. Tidman, who is based on Vancouver Island, has built a career documenting the natural history of British Columbia's coastlines, rainforests, and marine ecosystems. A Fellow of the RCGS and frequent contributor to Canadian Geographic, he has worked on National Geographic-supported projects exploring the impacts of old-growth logging on black bear hibernation and the ecological significance of the Pacific herring spawn. "This is one of the biggest opportunities of my career," said Ryan Tidman. "I'm still pinching myself. This is truly a dream project." Through the Fellowship, Tidman will share the story of these remarkable wolvesgenetically distinct from their inland cousins and dependent on marine ecosystemsthrough articles, video, photography, and classroom resources. His work will appear in Canadian Geographic magazine and online, in classrooms across the country via Canadian Geographic Education, and through public engagement campaigns and exhibits. Later this year Canadian Geographic will announce the first recipient of the Audain Emerging Photographer-in-Residence as part of the annual Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year recipients. The photographer will be assigned a special photography assignment in British Columbia and educational activities in the coming year. The Audain Wildlife Conservation Fellowship and Photographer-in-Residence program are part of Canadian Geographic's special initiatives marking the lead-up to the Society's 100th anniversary in 2029 with transformational investments in environmental storytelling and education. SOURCE Royal Canadian Geographical Society Media contact: Rosemary Thompson, Vice-President, Communications and Marketing, Royal Canadian Geographical Society, [email protected] | (613) 240-6739 The former Atlantic City Race Course in Mays Landing closed in 2015. Amazon has proposed a 3-million square-foot fulfillment center on part of the 250-acre property. Eric Conklin A 3-million square-foot Amazon fulfillment center with the potential to create hundreds of jobs is being planned for the former Atlantic City Race Course in Hamilton Township, officials told NJ Advance Media. Once a landmark in Atlantic County, the racetrack predated Atlantic Citys casino industry in the 1970s, which contributed to its downfall. After closing 10 years ago, graffiti, overgrown grass and a decaying grandstand are all that remain. Amazons ambitions, local officials say, are the closest the track property has been to being redeveloped. This is going to be a shot in the arm for the whole area. Jobs are the most important thing, Mayor Art Schenker told NJ Advance. The way I see it, this is going to have a major impact and a positive impact that comes at a time when people need jobs. Amazon is under contract to acquire 84 acres at the propertys west end, occupied by dozens of stables, according to past minutes from township committee meetings. The land ends at a fence along Leipzig Avenue, which leads to the Atlantic City Expressway. Transaction documents have not been filed in either local or county tax records. Joe Paparo, an attorney representing the Amazon in the project, directed questions from NJ Advance Media to the online retailer. The township voted on March 3 to execute an escrow agreement with Amazon.com Services, LLC as Assignee Conditional Redeveloper for a portion of the Race Course Redevelopment Area. In late 2024, the Township Committee approved an amended redevelopment agreement with Patriot Equities, a development firm, to allow a fulfillment center as part of the redevelopment. Erik Kohler, a representative from the firm, declined to comment when reached by NJ Advance Media. Amazon issued a statement on Monday about the project. Were excited by the prospect of redeveloping this property and opening a new operations facility in Hamilton Township, said Amber Plunkett, Amazon spokesperson, in an email. The planning process around this project is still in the very early stages, and we look forward to sharing more in the coming months, she said. During the March 3 meeting, an Amazon representative and an attorney representing Amazon appeared before township committee to detail the project. Using a slide presentation before the mayor and township committee on May 3, Amazon detailed the conceptual plan for the 24/7 warehouse, depicting the appearance of the fulfillment center. The type of center being proposed is an Amazon Robotics Sortable facility. These facilities, often called sortation centers and play a crucial role in Amazons middle mile logistics, streamlining the process of routing packages from fulfillment centers to their final destinations. They are designed to handle a high volume of packages, using a combination of robotic arms, conveyor systems, and scanning technology to sort items based on destination and prepare them for shipping, according to the company. A rendering of the building showed approximately 3-million square-feet of space on multiple floors. Amazon said typically this type of facility would have 750 employees. During peak holiday times, additional hiring opportunities would be available from black Friday to mid-January, Amazon said. The spokesperson for Amazon at the March 3 meeting said the project is still in it conceptual phase and the approval process could be quite lengthy given the number of steps that also involve the state and county. I am sure that Amazon would like to get it done, Schenker said. I have been in construction for 42 years and I feel good about it. The racecourse was founded in 1946 by Philadelphia socialite Jack Kelly, father of actress and former Princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly. It cost about $3.5 million to build. It attracted several investors, including New Jersey legend Frank Sinatra, who, at one point, was a partial owner, the Star-Ledger reported in 1998, when full-time racing operations ceased. It also was home to the one-time-only Atlantic City Pop Fest, a weekend of major acts in the 1960s. As Atlantic Citys casino industry blossomed, New Jersey horse racing, including the Atlantic County track, faced steep drops in revenue. The track remained open after full-time operations stopped, offering racing events periodically. It closed permanently in 2015 due to continuous business decline in the industry, the current regional economic climate and the absence of alternative revenue opportunities. Amazons endeavor comes as other shuttered New Jersey racetracks have been eyed for construction. A developer recently purchased the recently shuttered Freehold Raceway in Monmouth County, planning to flip the 58-acre property into retail space. Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Stephanie Loder may be reached at SLoder@njadvancemedia.com. A woman found dead in her Burlington Township home last week was bludgeoned to death, allegedly by her son who investigators apprehended in Morris County following a motor-vehicle crash on Interstate 287. Detectives charged Orsman Summerville, 40, with murder on Monday for the killing of Enid Wordsworth, 72, the Burlington County Prosecutors Office announced Wednesday. Mother and son lived in the same Andre Court apartment. Relatives found her body shortly before 8:15 p.m. on July 6 and called township police, the prosecutors office said. The investigation led to Summerville, who investigators found had fled the apartment in a car she owned. Detectives issued an alert for the vehicle. The car crashed the following day on a stretch of Interstate 287 in Morris County, the prosecutors office said. The prosecutors office officially charged Summerville on Monday after his release from a hospital. The prosecutors office did not offer any theories or motives on what led to the slaying or detail the crash that injured Summerville. He is currently in the Burlington County Jail pending a detention hearing in Superior Court of Burlington County, scheduled for Friday. Attorney information for Summerville was not immediately available. Burlington prosecutors Det. Joseph R. Clark and Burlington Township Det. John Arent are investigating. Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com Dan Rivera, a senior lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research and handler of the infamous Annabelle doll (not pictured here), died unexpectedly while touring with the doll. (Photo by Rich Fury/FilmMagic via Getty Images) FilmMagic A paranormal investigator and one of the handlers of a well-known haunted doll has died unexpectedly. Dan Rivera, senior lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR), died Sunday at the age of 54. He was on tour showing Annabelle, an infamous Raggedy Ann doll that is described to be demonically possessed. Rivera was found alone in his hotel room in Gettysburg, Pa. Firefighters and medical personnel were called to the scene to administer CPR on Rivera around 8 p.m. The NESPR confirmed Riveras death in a Facebook post Monday. A cause of death has not yet been disclosed. Its with deep sadness that Tony, Wade, and I share the sudden passing of our close friend and partner, Dan Rivera, the post read. Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal. His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him. Its with deep sadness that Tony, Wade, and I share the sudden passing of our close friend and partner, Dan Rivera. We... Posted by New England Society for Psychic Research - NESPR on Monday, July 14, 2025 Rivera had been a handler of the famed Annabelle doll and conducted paranormal research and investigations for over a decade, according to the NESPRs website. The Connecticut native was in Gettysburg for a stop on the Devils on the Run tour, which was hosted by tour group Ghostly Images of Gettysburg over the weekend. Two additional shows are currently scheduled to be held in Maine in September. Ghostly Images of Gettysburg was honored to host the nationally renowned Devils on the Run tour this past weekend, featuring a legendary artifact and prestigious investigators from the New England Society for Psychic Research, the tour group said in a statement to PEOPLE. During their visit, the team experienced a profound loss with the unexpected passing of Dan Rivera, NESPRs lead investigator. His legacy will continue to inspire future generations. Origins of the Annabelle doll date back to 1968 when a nursing student received the doll as a gift and began noticing strange occurrences after bringing it home. The NESPRs founders, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in and determined the doll was possessed, leading them to store it in a glass box. The story of the Anabelle propelled The Conjuring movie franchise. More entertainment news: Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Christopher Burch can be reached at cburch@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter: @SwishBurch. Find NJ.comon Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips. Group of young people eating at barbecue party in a backyard. Selective focus to man grilling and giving meals to his friends. Getty Images The sun is out, music is blasting, and the grill is fired up sounds like the perfect recipe for a barbecue blowout. Ready to fire up the grill and impress a hungry crowd? Were talking sticky, fall-off-the-bone ribs, crisp cucumber salad to cool things down, buttery cornbread straight from the oven and to top it all off? A smores bar with a twist that will take dessert to the next level. Check out the recipes below to build your own unforgettable BBQ spread straight from the minds of a few New Jersey chefs that will bring bold, crowd-pleasing flavor to every bite. SPICY CUCUMBER SALAD Beat the heat with this spicyyes, spicy, cucumber salad. The refreshing cucumbers dressed with flavors from different parts of Asia might be the only time a salad is the crowd favorite at a cookout. Makes 2 to 3 Servings Ingredients 3 Persian cucumbers 1 teaspoon salt 1 clove garlic, grated 1 teaspoon fish sauce 1 teaspoon calamansi juice 1 teaspoon sugar 1 teaspoon roasted sesame oil 1 teaspoon sambal olek Instructions Cut cucumbers into 1/4 inch thick rounds and sprinkle with salt. Mix the salt and cucumbers and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. In a bowl, grate 1 clove garlic. Then, add fish sauce, calamansi juice, sugar, sesame oil and sambal olek. Mix well until sugar has dissolved. Once the 30 minutes has passed, wash the salt off the cucumbers. Dry the cucumbers slightly, then add to the dressing and mix well. Plate and serve. Jason Marasigan, @chefblackbeard on Instagram Smoked Baby Back Ribs with Spice Rub & Maple Bourbon Glaze (photo by Bill Roll) Bill Roll SMOKED BABY BACK RIBS WITH SPICE RUB & MAPLE BOURBON GLAZE These smoked baby back ribs come out with a perfect balance of sweet, savory and smoky flavors. The bourbon maple glaze adds a deliciously caramelized finish that contrasts beautifully with the spice rub, creating a crowd-pleasing dish. Makes 4 to 5 Servings Ingredients For the ribs: 2 racks of baby back ribs (about 2 to 2.5 lbs each) Vegetable oil (for rubbing on the ribs) For the spice rub: cup dark brown sugar 2 tablespoons smoked paprika 1 tablespoon coarse salt 1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon ground mustard teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to heat preference) teaspoon ground cinnamon (for a subtle sweetness) For the maple bourbon glaze: cup bourbon cup maple syrup 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoons brown sugar (optional, for extra sweetness) teaspoon smoked paprika Instructions Prepare the ribs: 1. Remove the membrane from the back of the ribs: Slide a knife under the thin membrane and peel it away (use a paper towel for a better grip). 2. Pat the ribs dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture. 3. Rub a light coat of olive oil on both sides of the ribs. This helps the spice rub adhere and creates a nice crust. Apply the spice rub: 1. In a small bowl, combine all the spice rub ingredients. 2. Generously apply the spice rub all over the ribs, pressing it into the meat so it sticks well. Dont forget the edges! 3. Let the ribs sit at room temperature for about 20 to 30 minutes to let the rub set into the meat. Preheat the grill: 1. Preheat your grill or smoker to 225F (you want to cook low and slow). 2. Use applewood or hickory wood chips or pellets for smoking. These will add a beautiful, slightly sweet smoke flavor that pairs perfectly with ribs. Smoke the ribs: 1. Once the smoker is at temperature, place the ribs on the grill, bone-side down. 2. Close the lid and smoke the ribs for 3 hours. This will allow the ribs to soak up the smoky flavor and develop a beautiful bark. Wrap in foil (optional but recommended for tenderness): 1. After 3 hours of smoking, remove the ribs from the grill and place them on a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil. 2. Brush the ribs lightly with apple juice or a small amount of the maple bourbon glaze to add extra moisture and flavor. 3. Wrap the ribs tightly in the foil, then return them to the grill. Cook for another 2 hours at 225F to tenderize the meat and let it absorb the flavors. Prepare the maple bourbon glaze: 1. While the ribs are wrapped, make the maple bourbon glaze. In a saucepan, combine bourbon, maple syrup, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and brown sugar. 2. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The glaze should thicken and reduce to a syrupy consistency. 3. Stir in the butter and smoked paprika, allowing the butter to melt and the glaze to smooth out. Set aside. Finish the ribs: 1. After 2 hours in foil, carefully remove the ribs from the foil and place them back on the grill. 2. Brush a generous layer of maple bourbon glaze on the ribs. Close the lid and cook for an additional 30 to 45 minutes, allowing the glaze to caramelize and form a beautiful, sticky coating. Serve and enjoy: 1. Remove the ribs from the grill, let them rest for about 10 minutes. 2. Flip the rack over and slice with the ribs facing up. With a serrated knife gently slice between the ribs and serve with extra glaze on the side if desired. Bill Roll, assistant professor of culinary arts/hospitality at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft BROWN BUTTER CORNBREAD MADELEINES Makes 24 to 36 madeleines Ingredients 3 cups cornmeal 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon kosher salt 2 cups buttermilk teaspoon Tabasco cup sugar 2 whole eggs 5 ounces melted browned butter, unsalted For the honey butter topping: 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 3 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon salt Instructions Preheat oven to 400 F. Whisk together cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in bowl. Set aside. Mix together buttermilk, eggs and Tabasco in another bowl. Fold buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture. Add in the melted browned butter. Spray molds with cooking spray. Fill 3/4 of each mold with the batter. Bake until puffy, firm, golden in color and bounces back. About 6 to 8 minutes. After baking, top with honey butter and maldon salt. Enjoy! Renee Faris, owner of Erie Coffeeshop & Bakery in Rutherford UBE FRENCH SILK SMORES BARS WITH TOASTED MERINGUE MOUSSE AND BROWN BUTTER COCONUT CRUST Makes 18 to 24 Bars Ingredients 2 cups (250g) graham cracker crumbs cup (45 g) unsweetened desiccated coconut cup (65 g) packed light brown sugar 1 (140 g) sticks of butter teaspoon (2 to 3 g) kosher salt Instructions Brown the butter (140 g) over medium heat until nutty and golden. Cool slightly. Preheat the oven to 350F. Mix graham crumbs, coconut, sugar, and salt. Stir in browned butter. Press into a parchment-lined 23 x 33 cm pan. Ube White Chocolate Silk Filling (Coconut Sweetened) Ingredients 1 cups (225 g) white chocolate, chopped 1 sticks (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature cup (135 g) lightly packed coconut sugar 1 can (320 g) sweetened condensed coconut milk 3 large (150 g) pasteurized eggs cup (160 g) ube halaya (purple yam jam) 1 teaspoons vanilla extract teaspoon kosher salt Optional: ube extract, a few drops Instructions 1. Melt the white chocolate (225 g) and cool slightly. 2. Beat butter and coconut sugar until fluffy (45 mins). 3. Add cooled white chocolate and mix. 4. Add ube halaya, condensed coconut milk, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth. 5. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing 3 to 4 minutes per egg to aerate. 6. Fold in ube extract if desired. 7. Spread evenly into the cooled crust. Chill 6 hours or overnight. Toasted Meringue Mousse Topping Ingredients 3 large egg whites cup (150 g) granulated sugar teaspoon (1 g) cream of tartar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 packet unflavored gelatin powder 2 tablespoons (30 ml) cold water for blooming gelatin 1 cup (240 ml) cold heavy cream Instructions Bloom gelatin in cold water (30 ml) for 5 minutes. Combine egg whites + sugar in a bowl. Place over simmering water, whisk until 160F. Remove from heat, add cream of tartar and vanilla, and whip to stiff peaks. Optional: Torch the meringue lightly for toasted flavor. Melt the gelatin and beat into warm meringue until cool. Whip heavy cream (240 ml) to soft peaks in a separate bowl. Gently fold whipped cream into meringue. Spread mousse over the chilled ube layer. Chill again for 1 to 2 hours to set. To serve: Slice chilled bars using a sharp knife dipped in warm water. Garnish with crushed graham crackers, toasted coconut flakes, or shaved white chocolate curls Store chilled for up to 3 days. Jennalyn Walbot, co-owner of pop-up restaurant Bar None Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Lauren Musni may be reached at lmusni@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Laurengmusni and on Instagram. FindNJ.com on Facebook. A Philadelphia man was ordered to pay more than $8.7 million to a New Jersey woman whose private photos he stole and posted online. AP A New Jersey woman has been awarded $8.7 million in damages from a man accused of stealing intimate photos from her phone and posting them online. The more than 100 postings often included her name, workplace and other identifying details, according to the lawsuit she filed in federal court in August 2024. The woman claimed Tyler Jones, 33, of Philadelphia, was dating her close friend in 2022 and used that relationship to gain access to her phone to steal intimate images she had taken, according to the lawsuit. Jones is also facing criminal charges in Pennsylvania, where prosecutors say he used similar tactics to gain access to phones and target at least five women. Jones uploaded the images stolen from the Gloucester County womans phone to websites like 4Chan and sent them to her friends using a disguised Instagram account, according to the lawsuit. After a friend received one of those messages, the woman filed a police report with the Glassboro Police Department in December 2023, and contacted an attorney, the complaint states. In a July 14 opinion, U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel found Jones liable for violating federal and state laws prohibiting the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images, as well as for intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy. Jones did not respond to the lawsuit after being served, leading the court to enter a default judgment against him in January 2025. However, Jones appeared at a damages hearing in May 2025, where he invoked his Fifth Amendment right and declined to answer questions, Kiel noted in the opinion. It is clear and undisputed, that Jones caused significant harm, Kiel wrote. The judge also said that the woman had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and adjustment disorder, and that she lost her job and a second source of employment as a result of the trauma. Our client made herself unignorable and she pursued every avenue for justice even when police in New Jersey wrote it off as a stolen phone case, said Cali Madia, the womans attorney, noting that no criminal charges were filed in New Jersey. Its unfortunate, but one of the many hurdles our clients face in their fight for justice is often police departments that are not aware of the applicable laws or not prepared or able to collect the digital evidence, Madia said. Kiel awarded the woman a total of $8,737,644, including $5 million in punitive damages, designed to punish the defendant for especially harmful, malicious, or reckless behavior and to deter others from doing the same. On July 8, the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office announced that Jones had been charged with dozens of offenses, including felony counts of unlawful use of a computer and unlawful duplication, as well as misdemeanor invasion of privacy and unlawful dissemination. According to the attorney generals office, Jones accessed the phones of five victims or their partners and sent himself nude photos, which he then posted online. He was arraigned on July 8 and held on $350,000 bail. This is another example of cruel and despicable behavior by a repeat offender who continues to weaponize modern technology to expose victims online, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement. This criminal conduct traumatizes victims by impacting their careers, personal relationships, and almost every other aspect of their lives. Jones previously pleaded guilty in 2013 to invasion of privacy and dissemination of child pornography after secretly recording three women including a 17-year-old and uploading the videos to pornographic websites, Pennsylvania authorities said. Attempts to reach Jones were unsuccessful. The Glassboro Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. Colleen Murphy may be reached at cmurphy@njadvancemedia.com. A boat that overturned after being swamped with water off the coast of Elberon on Sunday. All five aboard were rescued. U.S. Coast Guard Good Samaritans on two vessels rescued five people whose boat capsized three miles off the coast of Long Branch on Sunday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Someone aboard a boat named Gambler spotted five people sitting atop the hull of a swamped boat. Another boat in the area, which was not identified, took four of the stranded mariners aboard while the Gambler assisted the remaining one. Members of the Coast Guard along with State Police brought five rescued boaters back to shore on Sunday. Two passing vessele spotted the stranded boaters. U.S. Coast Guard The Coast Guard was notified and brought all five back to the Shark River Municipal Marina in Neptune with the assistance of a State Police boat, officials said. No one was injured. The Coast Guard said it didnt know why the boat took on water. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Bayard Rustin, leader of the March on Washington, poses for a photo Aug. 1, 1963, in New York. Black LGBTQ+ political representation has grown by 186% since 2019, according to a 2023 report by the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute. These leaders stand on the shoulders of civil rights leaders such as Rustin. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams, File) AP The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will launch a queer history digital archive this Fall to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Rustin was an openly gay civil rights activist who was best known for being the key organizer of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, PBS reported. The centera nonprofit queer safe-space and community activist hubpulled from a variety of sources ranging from museums to personal accounts for the digital archive, AP News reported. To showcase Rustins civil rights work and influence, the archive will feature articles, photos, videos, telegrams, and speeches tied to Rustins work, AP News reported. An exact release date for the archive has yet to be announced. Theres this hole in our history, Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber, the centers founder and chief activist, told AP News. And there are great resources about Bayard, but theyre all spread out, and none of it has been collected and put together in the way that he deserves, and more importantly, the way the world deserves to see him. Rustin, born March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pa., was a trusted mentor to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., especially regarding the strategies of using nonviolence during the Civil Rights Movement, AP News reported. He was active in the Congress of Racial Equality, an interracial group that pioneered the use of nonviolent direct action during the Civil Rights Movement, according to Stanford University. Rustin also helped create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a grassroots group established in 1957 to coordinate the actions of local protest groups throughout the South, according to Stanford University. On top of being one of the main organizers for the March on Washington, Rustin also played a critical role in coordinating the Montgomery Bus Boycott, AP News reported. David J. Johns, CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, told AP News, Being an architect of not just that moment but of the movement, has enabled so many of us to continue to do things that are a direct result of his teaching and sacrifice. Rustins exposure to nonviolent activism began at an early age. Raised by his grandparents, Julia Davis and Janifer Rustin, with his 11 siblings, Rustins grandmother was a Quaker and member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), AP News reported. In 1936, Rustin was expelled from Wilberforce University after he organized a strike against racial injustice. He later enrolled at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the nations first historically Black college, but did not graduate, AP News reported. A year later, Rustin moved to Harlem and attended the City College of New York, AP News reported. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., center, with his aide, Bayard Rustin, left, addresses a gathering in the riot-torn area of Los Angeles, in one of many meetings King attended in an attempt to solve the problems connected with the uprising, Aug. 18, 1965. (AP Photo/Don Brinn, File) AP Rustin was arrested 23 times, including a 1953 conviction in Pasadena, Calif., for vagrancy and lewd conduct, charges commonly used then to criminalize LGBTQ+ people. He lost a tooth after being brutally beaten by the police and served 50 days in jail. Decades after his conviction, Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a posthumous pardon in 2020, recognizing Rustin was subjected to anti-LGBTQ discrimination, AP News reported. Walter Naegle, Rustins partner and a consultant on projects related to his life and work, told AP News, having access to the history of social movements is important for the LGBTQ community. There wasnt very much of an LGBTQ+ movement until the early 50s. The African American struggle was a blueprint for what they needed to do and how they needed to organize, Naegle told AP News. And so to have access to all of the Civil Rights history, and especially to Bayards work because he was really the preeminent organizer I think its very important for the current movements to have the ability to go back and look at that material. Rustins sexuality and his former association with the Young Communist League caused him to walk away as a civil rights leader for several years, AP News reported. In 1960, New York congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. reportedly threatened to spread false rumors that Rustin and King were intimately involved, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Despite being ostracized by his community, Rustin returned to civil rights work in 1963 by spearheading the March on Washington, which had an estimated 250,000 attendees and became a pivotal moment during the Civil Rights Movement, AP News reported. In 2023, two-time Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo portrayed Rustin in the Netflix biopic, Rustin, according to IMDb. Mosaic staff writer Vashti Harris can be reached at vharris@njadvancemedia.com. Welcome to Mosaic. Follow us on Instagram at @MosaicNJcom, on Facebook at MosaicNJcom, on Twitter (X) at @MosaicNJcom and on YouTube at @MosaicNJcom. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump listen to California Gov. Gavin Newsom after arriving on Air Force One at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is not holding back after he accused President Donald Trump of trying to steal seats in the 2026 midterm elections. Trump told Texas Republicans in a Tuesday phone call to redraw the states congressional maps that would help the GOP pursue five new winnable seats, according to multiple reports. He later told reporters that he hopes more states would also redraw their congressional districts, likely to make them more favorable to Republicans. Newsom fired back at Trump over the reported plan, warning that California could do the same thing. I think there should be a national framework for independent redistricting. Period, full stop. I mean, gerrymandering, and lets be fair, weve seen this weaponized by both parties for decades, but these guys, this is a whole another level of weaponization coming from the right, Newsom told the Pod Save America podcast. And what Trump did today is the ultimate tell. They feel theyre on the ropes. They feel theyre behind. They feel theyre vulnerable with the big, beautiful bill. They feel like the momentum is shifting away from them, he added. Newsom floated calling for a special election to respond to Texas Republicans. And so from my perspective, if were going to play fair in a world that is wholly unfair, we may have the higher moral ground, but the ground is shifting from underneath us, and I think we have to wake up to that reality, he said. And Im talking to members of my legislature, what are our alternatives? We could do a special session. I can call for one today, if I chose to. We could then put something on the ballot, and I could call a special election. We could change the constitution with the consent of the voters, and I think we would win that. I think people understand whats at stake in California, he said. Trump said hes going to steal 5 Congressional seats in Texas and gerrymander his way into a 2026 win. Well, two can play that game. Special sessions. Special elections. Ballot initiatives. New laws. Its all on the table when democracy is on the line. pic.twitter.com/iIFin1faPC Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 16, 2025 Trump lashed out at California when asked by a reporter on Tuesday about what he would think about the state adding Democrat-friendly districts. Theyre so corrupt in California, you never know whats going to happen. But weve done pretty well in the courts in California. As you see, were batting about 1,000 ultimately, we start off a little slow, and then we get a lot of hits, Trump said. Newsom fired back on social media platform X: Donald Trump admits he thinks hes corrupt on camera. Donald Trump admits he thinks hes corrupt on camera. https://t.co/IUwGMlnXOr Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 15, 2025 The comments come as Texas Republicans are slated to discuss redistricting in an upcoming special session. An agenda for the session set by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott put forth plans to take up legislation that provides a revised congressional redistricting plan in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice. Republicans in Ohio also are poised to redraw their maps after years of political and court battles over the states redistricting process. The GOP-controlled Legislature is considering expanding the partys lead in the congressional delegation to as much as 13-2. It currently has a 10-5 advantage. Still, there are practical limits as to how many new seats any party can squeeze from a map. Thats why some Texas Republicans have been hesitant about another redraw. In 2011, the partys legislators drew an aggressive map to expand their majority, only to find seats they thought were safe washed away in the 2018 Democratic wave election during Trumps first term. In response, the map in 2021 was drawn more cautiously, mainly preserving the GOPs current outsized majority in its congressional delegation. There are 25 Republican House members from the state compared to 12 Democrats and one Democratic vacancy that is scheduled to be filled by a special election. A five-seat shift into the GOP column would mean the party holds 30 of Texas 38 seats after winning 56% of the vote in last years presidential election. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Former President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, spoke in his first interview since the 2024 election. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) AP Hunter Biden just threw shade at Democrats for losing to President Donald Trump in 2024. In an interview released Wednesday by The Washington Post, his first since the election, Biden claimed that Democrats only lost the contest because they did not remain loyal to his father. Thats my position, Biden said on At Our Table, a podcast hosted by former Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison that is set to debut on Thursday. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down, he continued. His father dropped out of the presidential race last summer after he was widely criticized for his poor June debate performance, which led to a number of questions about his candidacy inside the Democratic Party. Some Democrats were also already privately worried, as he had already trailed behind Trump, the Republican nominee at the time, in the polls. In August, former Vice President Kamala Harris earned the nomination, but she ultimately lost to Trump, who won all seven battleground states. Biden also denied that there was a grand conspiracy to cover up an alleged health decline of his father just days after the former president once again criticized Trump and conservatives over claims about his mental acuity and the use of the autopen. During the final weeks in office, he issued his son a sweeping pardon, after Biden was convicted for gun-related charges in Delaware and pleaded guilty to tax evasion in California. Republicans have called the former presidents autopen use into question, after he pre-emptively pardoned other family members and officials who have been met with Trumps ire. A top Biden White House aide on Wednesday declined to cooperate in the Republican-led investigation of the House Oversight Committee, invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Kevin OConnor, his former White House physician, had also refused to answer questions last week. Several books have been released detailing the former presidents decision to end his reelection campaign, including Original Sin by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axios Alex Thompson, which alleges an effort by his inner circle to conceal his declining health. What sells is the idea of a conspiracy, Biden said, arguing that his father worked in a fish bowl, signaling it would be impossible to cover up his health. Every single day, hundreds of people, and you cant get one of them to go on the record and say, I saw the president do X? he added. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. ICE began housing immigration detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark on May 1, 2025. Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com The masked men appeared out of nowhere. They descended on Alan Junior Pierre, confronting the high school junior last month as he left a routine immigration appointment in New York City. As the men drew closer, he noticed their badges. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They just asked my name, and that was it, Pierre told NJ Advance Media, speaking in Haitian Creole through a translator. His father, who had been waiting outside the courthouse, wouldnt learn his son had been detained for some five hours. Pierre would soon find himself in Delaney Hall, the controversial Newark immigrant detention center where a riot broke out June 12 involving more than 50 detainees, including four men who escaped in the chaos. It has become a flash point in President Donald Trumps crackdown on immigration, drawing daily protests from advocates and supporters. The uprising at the privately run detention center made national headlines just weeks after Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested there during a congressional oversight visit. Meager, inconsistent meals at Delaney Hall were the catalyst for the riot, one immigration lawyer told NJ Advance Media. Detainees covered security cameras and broke through a wall described by U.S. Sen. Andy Kim as essentially just some drywall with some mesh inside. Pierre was among the dozens who have been held at the facility, which sits on Doremus Avenue in an industrial area near Newark Bay. He described tough but bearable conditions in an interview last week with NJ Advance Media, just hours after his July 9 release. He said he was given nothing but bread and water during his first week in the detention center. The food quality later improved, Pierre said, and he was fed three meals a day. He had hot water for daily showers and was able to use a phone to talk to his father as well as a computer for a virtual conference call with his attorney, Vince Sykes, and Sykes assistant. Other Delaney Hall detainees have complained of cramped quarters, clogged toilets and small-portioned meals, according to attorneys and immigration advocates. Sometimes breakfast wasnt served until the afternoon, lunch until dinner time and dinner until close to midnight, they say. One man still detained at the detention center reported being fed a small sandwich often peanut butter or bologna for breakfast, lunch and dinner for days. The detainee, speaking on the condition of anonymity, dictated his experiences in Spanish to his attorney, who translated it and shared it with NJ Advance Media. Delaney Hall began housing detainees May 1 and is run by GEO Group, one of the countrys largest private prison firms. It is one of two federal immigration detention facilities in New Jersey. (The other, CoreCivic, operates the Elizabeth Detention Center.) The June 12 uprising was an isolated incident, according to GEO Group spokesperson Chris Ferreira. The company is working with ICE to investigate the matter, he added. The safety and security of the Delaney Hall Facility and our neighbors in the local community is our top priority, and we work collaboratively with on-site ICE personnel daily, Ferreira said. Allegations of chronic food shortages at Delaney Hall are unequivocally false, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement. A food service official had conducted a review of food portions at the facility, she added, and found detainees were being served meals adhering to a nutritionists recommendations. Delaney Hall, the immigrant detention center in Newark. Jeff Rhode | For NJ Advance Medi Looking for a future Pierre left Haiti amid a spiraling humanitarian crisis prompted by escalating gang violence and political instability. The 20-year-old man who has no criminal record, according to Sykes crossed the southern border legally in January under a humanitarian program granting him special parole status. The program was launched for those escaping war and political turmoil. Haiti is one of four countries along with Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela that fell under the Biden-era program. Based on the situation thats going on in Haiti... I didnt see a future, Pierre said. Its one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to the United States." He joined his father, Dutan Pierre, a U.S. citizen who works as a school bus driver in Rockland County, New York, just over the border from Bergen County. But the special parole program was effectively terminated May 30 when the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke the protected status of the programs recipients. It threw Pierres petition for a green card into question. He was taken into custody June 4. He said the masked ICE agents didnt identify themselves, nor did they tell him why he was being detained. The controversial practice of ICE agents wearing masks stems from recent doxing and assaults, according to a statement in May from the Department of Homeland Security, but it has been condemned by civil rights groups and the New York City Bar Association. After several days spent in a holding cell in New York, Pierre was brought to Delaney Hall. He remained there for five weeks before being released. There was no justification for his detention, Sykes said. But it appears ICE hasnt closed Pierres case. He was released with a deactivated ankle monitor, according to Sykes. I have no idea why ICE fit him with an ankle bracelet, the lawyer said. I dont think it was necessary. The next day, Pierre and his father reported to ICEs Manhattan field office as directed, according to Sykes. The pair waited for three hours before being sent uptown to its Bronx center. There, his ankle bracelet was activated. Its not entirely clear what conditions Pierre has to comply with in order to avoid being detained again. Hes really not safe, Sykes said. Hes still vulnerable. For months, Pierre has been enrolled in Spring Valley High School and following the process for a green card with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The agency is distinct from ICE, but also overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. It remains unclear whether ICE intends to pursue Pierres deportation or why exactly he was released. ICE did not provide a reason, according to Sykes, but the lawyer credited both U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, the New York Republican who represents Rockland County, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, for their efforts to help free him. Schumer appealed directly to ICE agents in Newark, according to a spokesperson. Lawler, on the other hand, was grateful to the Department of Homeland Security for working with him to free Pierre, he said in a statement. It was wrong, Lawler said Friday at a news conference. And so I personally called Secretary (Kristi) Noems office, and within 36 hours, he was released. But McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokeswoman, told The Journal News that Pierre was an illegal alien from Haiti who illegally entered the U.S. on January 17 a few days before Trump assumed office and was RELEASED by the Biden Administration into our country. McLaughlin did not respond to an NJ Advance Media request for clarification. But a spokesperson for ICE, Chrissy Cuttita, reiterated in an email six days after Pierres release that he was an illegal alien and currently on ICEs Intensive Supervision Appearance Program pending his next hearing before an immigration judge. The program is part of what ICE calls its Alternatives to Detention, which the agency describes online as a way for non-detained aliens to remain in their communities as they move through immigration proceedings or prepare for departure. The majority of those in the program are monitored via a mobile app, according to the webpage. As of last September, less than 10% of participants were assigned a body-worn device. Protesters hang a sign on the fence in front of Delaney Hall. AP Political third rail The inner workings of Delaney Hall largely remain a mystery. The facility housed men and women across five units, though one closed in the aftermath of the riot, according to advocates. The units appear somewhat isolated from each other as Pierre who was not in the wing where the riot took place, according to Sykes was unaware of the confrontation until it was over. An NJ Advance Media reporter who recently visited the site was allowed past the front gate briefly by a guard before being stopped and turned away by a second guard. One of the guards said reports of inadequate conditions were overblown. Its fine. No, its not how people have been describing it, he said. Im saying its a regular program. But the guard admitted he had never been in the detainee area. He declined to comment further. Visits to the detention center have been heavily restricted since the June 12 riot, according to the advocates who keep a daily vigil outside Delaney Hall. ICEs website claims friends and family can visit detainees seven days a week, from 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening. But that policy doesnt match reality, immigrant supporters say. Weve watched them cut visiting hours back again and again over the last couple months, said Kathy OLeary, the New Jersey coordinator for Pax Christi, a non-profit Catholic peace and justice organization. Its down to about two hours on the weekend now. She also alleged that visits were capped to 15 detainees each day, prompting relatives to line up outside the facility long before the start of visiting hours. People sit out in the hot sun for hours, she said. Its kids, pregnant women. Advocates have started bringing umbrellas to provide shade. The exact number of people held at Delaney Hall remains unclear. As of late May, 358 detainees were held statewide and awaiting deportation proceedings, the highest total in 14 years, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report. But a portion of Delaney Halls population was transferred in the wake of the uprising, according to attorneys and advocates. It seems to corroborate a report by a Texas news outlet that said dozens of female detainees were moved from New Jersey to a tent-like facility in El Paso. In February, GEO Group secured a $1 billion contract with ICE to provide 1,000 beds over a 15-year period, it announced. Democratic officials in New Jersey have opposed its use of Delaney Hall for that purpose. The City of Newark maintains the company did not secure the proper permits. Newark filed a lawsuit over the matter earlier this year. GEO Group operates between 50 and 100 facilities in the United States, according to its website. It has faced allegations of human rights abuses in Pennsylvania, Washington and Louisiana, where Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil was held for three months after being detained by ICE earlier this year. Delaney Hall remains a political third rail even as the riot and Barakas arrest fade from the headlines. U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver, who was also arrested in the May incident, called the assault charges filed against her political intimidation. The trespassing charges against Baraka were later dropped. Three men who escaped in the uprising were found and arrested within days. The fourth, Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, 25, was still on the run as of this week, according to the FBI. Described by ICE as dangerous illegal immigrants from Colombia and Honduras, two have criminal histories that include aggravated assault and weapons charges. All four face additional charges for the escape. Back in Rockland County, Pierre waits in limbo. The parole programs termination puts about 530,000 migrants, including more than 200,000 Haitians, at risk of deportation. Still, its not clear how many may immediately be deported, as many have applied for green cards, asylum relief and other legal protections through an immigration court system snarled by delays. So while Sykes works on his case, Pierre and his father are focused on getting him back on track at school. The detention caused him to miss his finals at Spring Valley, as well as the deadline to register for summer classes. Sabrina Charles-Pierre, who translated for Pierre during his interview, is a local school board member. She told NJ Advance Media she planned to convince the district to make an exception in his case. Well see if we can get him in, and he can take the exams he needs to take by August, she said, so he can enter 12th grade in September. After graduation, Pierre wants to enlist in the U.S. military. In the immediate future, though, the people who care about him just want to ensure he recovers from his experience. Psychologically, hes gone through a lot, Sykes said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. AJ McDougall may be reached at amcdougall@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on X at @oldmcdougall. Jana Cholakovska may be reached at jcholakovska@njadvancemedia.com. President Donald Trump walks from Marine One after arriving on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP There appears to be some warning signs for President Donald Trump, according to new polls. A The Economist / YouGov poll released on Tuesday found that 55% of Americans strongly or somewhat disapprove of Trumps job performance marking the highest disapproval level since the start of his second term. The poll, conducted from July 11 to July 14 among 1,680 U.S. adults, found that 41% strongly or somewhat approve of his performance. Trumps net job approval, which contrasts the percentage of respondents who approve minus the percentage of those who disapprove, stands at -14, which is close to the lowest recorded in an Economist / YouGov poll throughout both his first and second terms. The poll marks a slight shift from the previous week, which recorded a 53% disapproval rating and 42% approval rating. While starting his term with 43% disapproval and 49% approval, his recent slump could be attributed to declines in approval among Democrats and Independents, the poll noted. Since the start of his presidency, Trumps job performance approval had fallen from 12% to 3% among Democrats. For Independents, his approval has dipped from 41% to 29%. Meanwhile, Americans who identify as MAGA Republicans have consistently maintained their support for the president, which hovers around 98%. A CNN and SSRS poll released on Wednesday recorded similar findings. When asked whether respondents approve or disapprove of the way Trump is handling his job as president, the presidents approve strongly number is lower than at any point in his first or second terms, according to the outlets past polling spanning from January 2017. It is reported to be 21%. Trump received a net approval rating of 42%, and a net disapproval rating of 58%, with 45% of respondents saying they disapprove strongly of his performance. The poll was concluded from July 10 to July 13 and surveyed 1,057 U.S. adults. The margin of error is 3.5 plus or minus percentage points. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he walks from Marine One after arriving on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) AP President Donald Trump is facing a grilling on social media after he blasted MAGAs fixation on the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Trumps most loyal base has been in an uproar over a broken promise from him and his administration that they would release all files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein a demand that MAGA supporters and far-right conspiracy theorists have focused on for years. The newest meltdown ignited after the Justice Department and FBI concluded last week that Epstein did not leave behind a client list, blackmail public figures or was murdered in his jail cell while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial in 2019. The president has tried to shift attention away from the Epstein, telling reporters on Tuesday that I dont understand it when asked about why his supporters have been interested in the findings. But in a lengthy Truth Social post on Wednesday, he went a step further, saying he no longer wants support from those who care about the case. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years, Trump wrote. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Countrys history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! he added. Trump calls the Epstein scandal bullshit and says he no longer wants the support of weaklings who care about it pic.twitter.com/DAHqkMdUvy Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2025 Social media users immediately mocked Trumps newest response with some claiming that it makes him appear guilty. Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of the podcast Pod Save America, joked on X, Well, this should make it all go away. Approaching full crash out status, ladies & gentleman! Keep it up, one user wrote. Another user said: Pointing out right wing hypocrisy is a fruitless effort but its really astounding that the political movement that was built on Save the children. is now desperately trying to get people to stop asking questions about Jeffrey Epstein. A different user described the post as Trump [completing] the betrayal of his most loyal supporters. It was never about tax cuts and judges for the conspiracy believers in his base, it was about Epstein and the pedo elite. And Trump just told those folks, who worship him like a deity, that theyre idiots, the user continued. One user said the post makes them believe that something in the files can hurt him: Its gonna be fun watching all the people who were talking nonstop about Epstein for years just stop caring cause Trump said so. This coverup and meltdown has led me from assuming Trump was a peripheral figure in Epsteins orbit to assuming Trump is on the tapes, a user added. Adam Kinzinger, a former GOP congressman and prominent Trump critic, asked, What about the list of pedophiles? And all the files you promised? Epstein aint going away, because YOU created this. And we want to know if youre in it, he continued. In his post, Trump had also repeated a claim, without citing evidence, that the Radical Left Democrats were behind what he called the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. The president alleged over the weekend and in recent press conferences that former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Joe Bidens administrations and others had made up the documents. Trump said on Tuesday that Attorney General Pam Bondi should release whatever she thinks is credible on the Epstein case. When asked by a reporter, Bondi said that Our memo speaks for itself, and well get back to you on anything else. I havent seen all of his statements. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Penns Groves civilian police director was criminally charged last month with obstruction of justice and harassment for alleged on-duty behavior, adding another twist to a force that since May has been supervised by the Salem County Prosecutors Office. The director, Richard Rivera, said the charges are purely political and amount to character assassination by Salem County Prosecutor Kristin J. Telsey. The charges, signed by a prosecutors sergeant in June, allege Rivera made numerous intimidating or hostile messages to subordinates and took police equipment that prevented its use by officers, court records show. The alleged behavior occurred on May 20, the day Telseys office assumed day-to-day control of the Penns Grove police. Telseys office assumed supervision due to police licensing issues involving multiple officers in the 14-member department. The state Attorney Generals Office later said it had also suspended the police license of the highest-ranking officer, a lieutenant, who they alleged erred in licensing applications. Rivera initially welcomed the prosecutors office assuming command and adding officers so police could patrol the borough of just under 5,000 residents. He has since soured on Telseys oversight and said in an email Wednesday that the prosecutors office is retaliating for Rivera documenting the offices ineptness for refusing to investigate matters he previously brought to the office. The county prosecutor has no business running a police department and she sides with police union members to allow them to control the department. What is taking place is unprecedented in New Jersey policing and police chiefs need to take notice, Rivera said. I am confident I will prevail at trial and look forward to calling Prosecutor Telsey as a witness, he said. Assistant Salem prosecutor Jeffrey Barile, on Tuesday, said of the charges: We are limited in discussing details of an active case, but we feel it is important to emphasize that these charges were filed after a careful review of the facts and were a necessary step to safeguard the lawful operation of police services from continued interference with the use of law enforcement equipment and with Penns Grove police officers. After Rivera made more comments Wednesday about the situation, Barile said the office declined further comment. The prosecutors office did not publicize the charges. Prosecutors Sgt. Richard Ware filed them on June 16 for actions he said were personally observations. For the obstruction charges, Ware alleged that Rivera took possession of a Penns Grove Police Department vehicle, equipped with emergency lights, sirens, and radio, withholding its use for law enforcement purposes, and disabling its emergency lights and sirens. For harassment, Ware wrote, Rivera engaged in repeated and alarming conduct, by expressing veiled threats and/or intimidating and hostile, messages to subordinates within the Penns Grove Police Department via text message, voicemail, email, and official communication. Barile, the prosecutors spokesperson, said Ware is not the officer handling day-to-day supervision of the department. That is prosecutors acting Lt. Patrick Vengenock. Rivera worked for Penns Grove police as a consultant starting in 2021 before being named police director in 2023. Meanwhile, the force came under heightened public scrutiny over the Fourth of July weekend when footage surfaced online of a Penns Grove patrol officer driving over a residents fireworks display in the middle of a street, causing it to explode sideways. The prosecutors office said that incident would be reviewed. Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com UGGs favorite slipper just got a new sister with the Tasman Biarritz, and youre going to want to grab it now before it sells out. The new limited-edition Tasman Biarritz is a riff on the popular UGG Tasman II Slipper. Its available in three colors Black, Mustard Seed and Rocky Oak for $150. UGG Limited-Edition Tasman Biarritz Slipper $150 Grab this limited-edition slipper before it sells out. $150 at UGG Like its older sibling, the Tasman Biarritz Slipper retains that Tasman appeal with a redesigned hairy suede upper thats designed for a more casual look. It features that signature UGGbraid around the collar and intricate twin-seam detailing. Separating the Tasman Biarritz from the Tasman style is decorative stitching around the sole and a leather pull tab with a tassel that enhances the overall design. The slipper continues to be filled with that lovable plush sheepskin and has the lightweight sugarcane EVA outsole that UGG is known for. However, the Tasman Biarritz is a limited-edition UGG design that isnt going to stick around for long. Like the always sold-out Tassman, this new slipper isnt going to stay in stock for long, and theres no telling if UGG will bring it back if it does. So dont wait on this one, as its expected to be here for only a short while. Shop more new UGG styles You can also check out more new UGG styles, including these popular picks: Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Dawn Magyar can be reached at dmagyar@njadvancemedia.com. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips/. Temike Park Playground in Plainfield, New Jersey on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Two women were killed when their vehicle was swept into surging flood waters near the park during Monday nightOs intense storm. Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media Two women killed Monday night when their vehicle got washed away during severe flooding in Plainfield have been identified. Lubia Estevez and Forest Whitlock were traveling along Stelle Avenue at about 8 p.m. when their vehicle made a turn, ended up in a ditch and was pulled into the fast-moving waters of Cedar Brook under the bridge, according to a city spokeswoman. Both were Plainfield residents in their early 60s, though their exact ages were not available. A lifelong city resident, Estevez had worked for the Plainfield school districts food service department for the past 15 years, according to a GoFundme.com established to cover her funeral expenses. Estevezs husband died of an illness several months ago and she has no remaining family, the fundraiser said. Temike Park Playground in Plainfield, New Jersey on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Two women were killed when their vehicle was swept into surging flood waters near the park during Monday nightOs intense storm. Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media There were no other known storm-related fatalities in New Jersey on Monday, though police and firefighters made dozens of rescues in Plainfield, North Plainfield, South Plainfield, Warren, Watchung and Middlesex Borough. Flash flood warnings were in effect at the time of the storms. The deaths are the third and fourth due to severe storms in the city this month. Two men were killed in Plainfield on July 3 when their car was hit by a fallen tree on Myrtle Avenue. All of Plainfield grieves this latest loss, Mayor Adrian Mapp said Tuesday. To lose four residents in a short span of time is unimaginable. We mourn with the families and remain committed to doing all we can to strengthen our emergency response systems and protect our residents from future harm. Cleanup of storm-related damage is ongoing in Plainfield and other locations Wednesday, officials said. Scattered storms are possible again this evening. The owner of a specialty pharmacy in Linden admitted he orchestrated a scheme that defrauded Medicare and Medicaid out of more than $175,000. Thomas Conzo, 49, of Staten Island, New York pleaded guilty to health care fraud, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said. The owner of Elite Pharmacy faces up to 10 years in federal prison at his sentencing, scheduled for Dec. 4. His attorney, Matawan-based Maria Noto, couldnt immediately be reached Wednesday. NJ Advance Media was told it had the wrong number when a call was placed to the number listed for the pharmacy asking for Conzo. Conzo submitted hundreds of thousands of dollars of fraudulent claims for prescriptions to health care benefit programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, for specialty medications, authorities said. He submitted them on behalf of two of the business pharmacists between August 2022 through March 2023, without their knowledge, prosecutors said. Conzo continued submitting claims even after both had separately left their jobs there, prosecutors said. The specialty medications are for conditions such as Hepatitis C, Crohns disease, gout, and rheumatoid arthritis, according to court papers. Conzo was reimbursed $133,322.54 between July and December 2022 when he didnt employ a licensed pharmacist authorized to submit claims to Medicare and Medicaid, according to court documents. He also received an additional $41,402.13 in reimbursement from January 23, 2023 to March 3, 2023, another period when he didnt have a pharmacist allowed to submit claims to the federal programs. Conzo also submitted claims totaling an undisclosed amount of money when the pharmacists were employed by him, prosecutors said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Six-day (Tuesday through Sunday) print subscribers of the Watertown Daily Times are eligible for full access to NNY360, the NNY360 mobile app, and the Watertown Daily Times e-edition, all at no additional cost. If you have an existing six-day print subscription to the Watertown Daily Times, please make sure your email address on file matches your NNY360 account email. You can sign up or manage your print subscription using the options below. I'm always on the hunt for a good deal, and this happy hour deal at The Husky felt too good to be true. I had to check it out for myself. WASHINGTON The nations measles crisis has peaked and is fast resolving because of efforts by state and federal authorities to get people vaccinated against the often-deadly disease that had once been considered eradicated, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said Tuesday. You can say that there are far more cases than we've had in the last six months than we've had in quite some time, Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, told local reporters Tuesday. But if you look at the overall incidence, it appears to be dying down. Cassidy attributes the decline nationwide to vaccination efforts by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and in Louisiana to similar efforts by state Surgeon General Ralph L. Abraham Jr. A vital appeal for fresh clean water in some of the poorest parts of Uganda is already halfway to its goal thanks to a generous local sponsor now Devon companies and organisations are being asked to step up and match the rest. Philip J Milton and Company Plc, North Devons leading and longest established independent wealth management firm, has teamed up with North Devon-based charity Amigos Worldwide and agreed to match fund half of the 15,000 cost for three fresh water boreholes in impoverished rural farming villages. Now the hunt is on for three businesses, groups or organisations who would be willing to each raise 2,500 to pay for half a borehole, while PJM & Co will meet the iotehr half via the Philip J Milton and Company Charitable Foundation. Amigos marks its 25th anniversary this year and one of its many projects is to help people in the subsistence farming communities of northern Uganda to install boreholes that give villagers instant access to clean and safe water. The recent UK heatwave has seen many of us struggling. Now imagine if you need water you have to first walk miles to get it, the difference between life or death because thats what many people in rural Uganda still have to do, every single day. Above: A happy villager at Oraja in northern Uganda is pleased she now longer has to walk miles simply to collect potentially contaminated water. Credit: Amigos Worldwide Even then, water sources may be contaminated by bacteria and cause sickness, not to mention potential dangers faced on the journey by the women and children who carry out this task. Such basic chores for survival also prevent the adults from working and earning money to feed their families and it means the children are unable to go to school. READ MORE: Half price boreholes are saving lives thanks to North Devon sponsor Almost three quarters of the Ugandan population work in agriculture -many on small-scale, subsistence farms. Amigos works closely with communities to equip them with modern farming skills and resources such as boreholes. It also runs the Kira Farm training centre teaching vital skills to young Ugandans. Philip J Milton and Company Plc has been a supporter of Amigos for 16 years and in that time has match funded and sponsored five boreholes that are literally a game-changer for rural villages. Above: Ugandans working earlier this year to install a freshwater borehole in the Lira district, funded by Amigos. Credit: Amigos Worldwide James Lewis, who became CEO of Amigos this year, said: The last time we ran this appeal in 2022 with the generous support of Philip and his team, we had an amazing response from our Devon community, with three brilliant sponsors coming forward very quickly. This enabled us to plan and install boreholes for three remote rural communities speedily and we very much hope organisations of Devon will step up again with such an impressive and humbling commitment. Philip Milton, Managing Director of PJM & Co, said the company was always pleased to do what it could to help Amigos. He added: When we think of the recent heatwave and how badly it affected so many of us, yet all we had to do was turn on a tap, with no fear of whether the water would make us sick or even kill us. It seems unthinkable that for millions of people this is still the case they need clean, safe water for themselves and their animals; it literally does boil down to survival and we can hardly expect people to improve their own lot when hours every day are spent simply carrying water. I do hope other businesses or perhaps community organisations will be willing to take this up as a cause by raising half the cost, which can be done under personal GiftAid to maximise the donation too (or tax-relievable to corporations) and add their names to one of these new boreholes. Above: The new freshwater borehole at Bokwe village, beside a field of freshly planted crops. Credit: Amigos Worldwide To highlight how important this appeal is, Caroline Awap, a resident of Ogwari village in Uganda explains the difference their borehole has made, not only to her village but to three others nearby. She said: I have seen both the struggles and the triumphs of my community, but one of the biggest blessings we have received in recent years is the borehole constructed in 2022. It has transformed our lives in many ways we never imagined. Before the borehole was built, collecting water was a daily hardship. We used to fetch water from a distant swamp, where the water was dirty and often caused sickness. During the dry season, the swamp would shrink and the little water left would be shared with animals, making it even more unsafe for drinking. Our children missed school and women spent hours walking long distances just to get a few jerry cans of water. But everything changed when the borehole was constructed. It was as if new life had been breathed into our community. The joy that filled our hearts was immeasurable! For the first time in many years, we felt a sense of relief and security. Above: Villagers in the Lira district of Uganda during the construction of a new water borehole for their community. Credit: Amigos Worldwide Sponsors will have their names on a plaque on the new borehole and Amigos Worldwide will send them reports on the community they have supported and the people whose lives they have helped change. Any local people, businesses or organisations that would like to sponsor a borehole are invited to email info@amigos.org.uk or call Amigos on 01271 377664. Find out more about the charity and its many initiatives helping people in Uganda and the Sudan at https://www.amigos.org.uk Quso.ai, formerly known as Vidyo.ai, is an AI-driven social media marketing platform that offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline content creation, scheduling, and analytics. Catering to businesses, content creators, and marketers, Quso.ai aims to enhance online presence and engagement across various social media channels. Notably, Quso.ai is featured among The AI Furnaces AI Hot 100 startups, highlighting its innovative approach in the AI space. What does Quso.ai do? Quso.ai provides an all-in-one solution for social media marketing by integrating AI technologies to automate and optimize content creation, management, and performance analysis. The platform enables users to generate diverse media types from a single idea, schedule and manage posts across multiple platforms, and analyze social media performance to inform strategic decisions. Key Capabilities AI Content Creator : Generates over 25 different media types from a single input, streamlining the content creation process. : Generates over 25 different media types from a single input, streamlining the content creation process. AI Video Editor : Transforms long-form videos into engaging short clips with features like automatic scene detection, subtitle generation, and filler word removal. : Transforms long-form videos into engaging short clips with features like automatic scene detection, subtitle generation, and filler word removal. AI Clips Generator : Creates short clips from long videos, optimizing content for social media platforms. : Creates short clips from long videos, optimizing content for social media platforms. AI Social Media Manager : Automates content scheduling, posting, and engagement tracking across multiple platforms. : Automates content scheduling, posting, and engagement tracking across multiple platforms. Social Media Analytics : Provides insights into social media performance, enabling data-driven decisions to optimize content strategies. : Provides insights into social media performance, enabling data-driven decisions to optimize content strategies. AI Influencer : Utilizes over 80 AI avatars to create viral content without the need for cameras or complex setups. : Utilizes over 80 AI avatars to create viral content without the need for cameras or complex setups. Content Repurposing: Intelligently converts long-form content into various short-form formats suitable for different social platforms. Why it stands out Quso.ai distinguishes itself by offering a comprehensive suite of AI-powered tools that automate and optimize the entire social media marketing workflow. By integrating content creation, scheduling, and analytics into a single platform, it enables users to enhance their online presence efficiently. Quick Facts Founded : 2022 : 2022 Headquarters : Bengaluru, India : Bengaluru, India Website : quso.ai : quso.ai LinkedIn: Quso.ai Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter , Facebook and Instagram. BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- China will open the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on Wednesday, rallying multinational giants including Nvidia, Apple, and Airbus to showcase industrial resilience and cross-border collaboration. With 651 enterprises and institutions from 75 countries, regions and international organizations participating --including a notable 15 percent year-on-year increase in U.S. exhibitors -- the event signals robust international commitment to stabilizing supply chains. Global giants are actively engaging. U.S. tech giant Nvidia is expected to make its debut at the expo, presenting cutting-edge robots featuring Nvidia chips. Airbus will also make its inaugural appearance, bringing its global supply chain collaborators to present the comprehensive ecosystem of the large aircraft industry. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will attend the opening ceremony of the expo on Wednesday and participate in related activities, according to the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the event's organizer. In a meeting on Tuesday with Ren Hongbin, chairman of CCPIT, Huang said that the Chinese market is large and dynamic, and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in China is advancing rapidly. "Multinational companies are realizing that maintaining their position in global supply chains necessitates a strong presence in China," said Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China. Unlike traditional trade fairs focusing on goods or services, CISCE pioneers a unique "chain-centric" model that visualizes end-to-end industrial collaboration. In each exhibition hall, upstream, midstream and downstream companies cluster in adjacent booths, visually demonstrating their interdependence and synergy. Many companies across the supply chain will set up collaborative displays. For example, Apple is teaming up with Chinese suppliers for the third consecutive year to showcase cutting-edge technologies in smart manufacturing and green production. "Multinational corporations serve as anchor companies in global industries, thriving together with upstream and downstream partners worldwide. While advancing their own growth, these corporations strengthen global industrial and supply chain resilience," Ren said. The third CISCE features nearly 100 high-level events, surpassing previous editions in scale and participation, according to Xu Liang, deputy secretary-general of the China Chamber of International Commerce. A key innovation for this edition is the "Debut Zone," dedicated to the global premieres of new products, technologies, and ecosystems, showcasing breakthrough innovations that drive industrial collaboration, Xu noted. As the host, China will bring together a diverse group of leading state-owned and private enterprises showcasing the country's green and digital transition. Among them, Zhejiang-based AI industry chain companies, such as Unitree Robotics, BrainCo, and Hikvision, will participate. "Through tangible examples of global supply chains at the expo, China demonstrates its firm resolve to advance globalization towards a more open, inclusive, balanced, and win-win future. It vividly embodies the concept of building a community with a shared future, where nations are interdependent," Wang said. As the world's first national-level exhibition focusing on supply chains, the expo is an internationally shared public product. First held in 2023, the expo has contributed to building more secure, stable, open and inclusive global industrial and supply chains, according to the CCPIT. The previous editions have seen fruitful outcomes, with the 2024 session catalyzing more than 200 cooperation deals worth 152 billion yuan (about 21.26 billion U.S. dollars), a 1.3 percent increase from its inaugural run in 2023. The expo will run from Wednesday to Sunday in Beijing, with public days commencing on Saturday. Temus invitation-only seller program opens to all Australian businesses, offering access to the countrys fastest-growing e-commerce marketplace. The invitation-only era is over. Temus Local Seller Program has officially opened to all qualified Australian businesses, creating what could be the most accessible pathway yet for local merchants to tap into the booming e-commerce marketplace. Any Australian-registered business with locally stocked inventory can now join the platform thats been making waves across the retail landscape. The move signals a major shift in how local businesses can compete in the digital marketplace, offering a simplified route to expand online and grow sales nationwide without the traditional barriers to entry. A new revenue stream for local business The timing couldnt be better for Australian merchants looking to diversify their sales channels. With Temu ranking as the fastest-growing website in Australia according to Similarwebs 2025 Digital 100 Australia report, boasting a 72% increase in unique visitors year-over-year, local sellers are gaining access to a genuinely high-traffic digital marketplace. The platforms reach extends far beyond Australia, with sellers in over 20 countries including the U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, and South Korea already participating in their respective markets. Perhaps most encouragingly for new sellers, over 50% of businesses on Temu make their first sale within 20 days, helping them tap into new opportunities and connect with consumers quickly. For local businesses, this represents more than just another sales channel. The program provides direct access to integrated tools for managing orders, shipping, and fulfillment. Many sellers are already leveraging cloud-based shipping services like ShipStation, which integrated with the platform in April 2025, to streamline logistics and meet customer demand more efficiently. Since launching in the U.S. in September 2022, Temu has rapidly gained user popularity and now operates in over 90 global markets, including North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The platform entered the Australian market in March 2023, where it has received positive feedback by offering a broad selection of products at competitive prices, supported by an efficient supply chain. The numbers speak for themselves. Apples App Store data shows that Temu was the most downloaded iPhone app in Australia for 2024 and the only shopping app to make the top 10 free apps list in Apples rankings. For local sellers, this translates to unprecedented access to engaged consumers actively seeking products and deals. Getting started: What you need to know Registration Process : Becoming a Temu seller involves four straightforward steps: entering your business information (with options for Corporation, Partnership, Sole Proprietorship, or individual seller status), providing seller details including certificate type and address, setting up your store with name, logo, and contact information, then completing verification to start selling. : Becoming a Temu seller involves four straightforward steps: entering your business information (with options for Corporation, Partnership, Sole Proprietorship, or individual seller status), providing seller details including certificate type and address, setting up your store with name, logo, and contact information, then completing verification to start selling. Documentation Requirements: Individual applicants need to provide their full legal name, citizenship, date of birth, place of birth, residential address, government-issued drivers license ID or passport, and ID expiration date. Individual applicants need to provide their full legal name, citizenship, date of birth, place of birth, residential address, government-issued drivers license ID or passport, and ID expiration date. Business applicants must supply company registration information including business type, business name, Employer Identification Number (EIN), and registered business address. Beneficial owners, legal representatives, or executives may also need to provide personal details including legal name, citizenship, date of birth, residential address, government-issued ID, and expiration date. Costs and Fees : Temu does not charge any registration fees, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes to test the platform without upfront investment. : Temu does not charge any registration fees, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes to test the platform without upfront investment. Proof of Address: The platform accepts bank statements, bank confirmation letters, third-party payment statements, and utility bills (water, electricity, and gas). The proof of address must contain the company name or company representatives name and address. Interested Australian sellers can learn more and apply directly at https://au.seller.temu.com/login.html. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. New government program gives Australian cleantech and agtech companies a roadmap to Indias booming $300 billion technology sectors. Australian cleantech and agtech companies are getting a government-backed pathway into Indias massive technology boom, as a new national initiative targets what could be the business opportunity of the decade. The AustraliaIndia Tech Connections Program, funded through the Australian Governments Maitri Grant Program and delivered by Asialink Business, promises to arm Australian firms with the tools they need to crack Indias rapidly expanding innovation economy. The numbers alone are staggering. Indias cleantech and agtech sectors are forecast to have a combined market value exceeding A$300 billion by 2030, driven by the countrys ambitious renewable energy targets, infrastructure modernisation, and net-zero commitments. The agtech sector is set to explode as demand surges for precision farming, digital agriculture, and sustainable food systems. For Australian businesses, it represents an unprecedented opportunity, but one thats historically been difficult to access. Australia is a global leader in cleantech and agtech, but businesses often find it challenging to enter the Indian market due to limited market knowledge and local engagement, said Leigh Howard, CEO of Asialink Business. This initiative gives Australian firms the insights and tools to engage with confidence in one of the worlds most exciting and high-growth innovation ecosystems. Whats on offer Rolling out across 2025, the program takes a comprehensive approach to market entry support. Companies will get step-by-step market entry playbooks specifically tailored to Australian cleantech and agtech firms, addressing the unique challenges and opportunities in the Indian market. Training modules will build India engagement capability across entire teams, ensuring businesses have the internal expertise to sustain long-term relationships. A tech showcase in India will raise awareness of Australian innovation among potential partners and customers. Strategic industry engagement will ensure the program remains business-led and outcomes-focused, with real-world application driving decision-making. The program launches in August 2025 and will be led by Robert Law, Director of Advisory & Insights at Asialink Business. The bigger picture This tech-focused initiative sits within the broader 2024-25 Maitri Grant Program, which has been expanded with a total of $5 million available to support projects that strengthen the Australia-India relationship across multiple sectors. The grant program operates across four strategic pillars designed to deepen bilateral ties: acting as a catalyst for business, promoting public discourse, engaging Indian diaspora communities, and facilitating cultural connections and exchange. For business engagement specifically, the program focuses on supporting research that helps Australian companies access and understand market opportunities in India. Priority areas include accelerating commercialisation of research, showcasing innovative collaboration opportunities, investigating new engagement strategies, and disseminating case studies and regulatory analysis. Who can apply Applications can come from businesses, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, or other entities, either individually or as part of a consortium. While applicant organisations can originate from any country, they must be able to operate in Australia. Organizations need to meet DFATs due diligence requirements, including ABN registration with a business or other recognised registration body, clean sanctions list checks across multiple international bodies, and passing background criminal and reputational checks. The program also supports projects across other key areas including policy discourse enhancement, diaspora engagement initiatives, and cultural connections that could include First Nations engagement through promoting First Nations art and culture in India. All applications must demonstrate alignment with the Centres pillars and intended outcomes, show effective and efficient delivery capability, and outline how theyll deliver sustainable outcomes beyond the grant period. Applications are assessed not just on merit but also compared against each other to ensure value for money and diversity in project spread. Application timeline The 2024-25 Maitri Grant Program applications have now closed, but the timeline provides insight into how future rounds might operate: Applications opened on 25 September 2024, with concept notes due by 04 November 2024 at 5:00pm AEDT. Successful proposals were selected and moved to due diligence and contracting in December 2024/January 2025, with implementation beginning in April 2025. For questions about future opportunities, interested parties can contact MaitriGrants@dfat.gov.au. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. An employee at a Gary daycare is accused of verbally and physically abusing numerous young children in her care last month, while another employee was found to have a criminal conviction for sexual assault against a child, a violation of Indiana laws that prohibit those with crimes against children from working in childcare. Laniecia Smith, 31, faces five counts of neglect of a dependent and five counts of battery to a person less than 14 years old after Porter County Jail officials captured Smith at work at Future Leaders Childcare Ministries repeatedly berating, threatening and physically abusing the five children ages 3 and 4 while on a video call with an incarcerated man. Charges were filed Friday in Lake Criminal Court. Smith posted a $3,000 cash bond Saturday and is scheduled to appear before a magistrate judge July 30, online court records show. Jail officials passed the videos on to Gary police, who watched several clips taken June 23 through June 27, according to a probable cause affidavit. Footage from Smith's video call visits shows her frequently swearing at the children, vaping in front of them and putting them in front of the camera during the visit. On one call, a 4-year-old child used a small broom to hit other children. Smith walked over, snatched the broom and said, "Why you hit him, now I'm going to whack your (expletive) with this broom." She struck the child's bottom twice with the broomstick, according to the affidavit. In another video clip, Smith told a group of children she was going to "treat them like you treat me. No candy, no toys, no outside, no lying down." She then intimidated a child with the same broom and is allegedly often seen holding the broom in video clips in a "threatening manner." Smith was seen grabbing the arm of one child and telling him to "sit down before I (expletive) your (expletive) up," according to the affidavit. In another video visit clip, Smith was in a vehicle with at least six children in the backseat. "None of the kids appear to be in a proper booster or car seat, nor have a visible seatbelt on," a detective wrote in the affidavit. "In the rear passenger seat, one child is sitting on the lap of another small child." Antoinette Stokes, the owner of Future Leaders Childcare Ministries, with locations at 634 E. 21st Ave. and 1010 Roosevelt St., did not respond to a request for comment from the Times. Another facility employee, Betty Tomlinson, 50, was charged Thursday with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and assisting a criminal in connection with the Oct. 5, 2024, homicide of Jimmijion Bailey, 25. Although her case doesn't appear to be connected to the daycare, Tomlinson was arrested Wednesday at the daycare's Roosevelt Street location while detectives served a search warrant inside in connection with Smith's case, Gary police said. A source close to the investigation who is not authorized to speak to the media said witnesses have corroborated that Tomlinson is an employee at the daycare. Winnebago County, Illinois court records show Tomlinson was found guilty of predatory criminal sexual assault against a child in 1998, which would make her ineligible to work in a childcare setting. According to the FSSA website, employees in a childcare setting cannot have felony convictions for violent crimes or crimes related to the health and safety of a child. According to Winnebago County court records, Tomlinson pleaded guilty to inappropriately touching a 7-year-old child. The child told police Tomlinson touched her "where I use the bathroom" and said Tomlinson told her not to tell anyone. When Tomlinson spoke to police at the time, she admitted to the behavior she said she was "curious" and denied telling the girl not to tell anyone, according to a statement of facts document from Winnebago County. The FSSA requires childcare centers to conduct criminal background checks on their employees every three years. The background check includes searches via federal and Indiana state fingerprint databases, the Indiana state sex offender registry and the Child Protection Index, an Indiana database that contains all reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. Future Leaders Childcare Ministries is an unlicensed childcare ministry, which is defined by Indiana law as a childcare provider facilitated through a church or religious ministry. The center can be unlicensed if it complies with multiple sections of Indiana law that govern the unlicensed childcare ministries, according to the FSSA website. Tomlinson's name does not appear on sex offender registry lists in Indiana, Illinois or in a national sex offender database. A probable cause affidavit filed last week accused Tomlinson, the mother of alleged shooter Ralph Stokes Jr.'s girlfriend, of helping to cover up Bailey's death. Bailey was allegedly shot by Ralph Stokes Jr. inside an apartment in the Woodlake Apartments, 572 Vermillion Place, during a supposed argument over a woman who was Bailey's girlfriend at the time and had mothered Stokes' child. Stokes later told police he shot in self-defense. Court records allege Tomlinson went to great lengths to dispose of Bailey's body in an attempt to cover up the crime. Bailey was initially reported missing to authorities Oct. 6, 2024, after his mother told police she could not get a hold of him. The woman told police she used a location-sharing app to trace Bailey's mobile phone to a location in the 900 block of Roosevelt Street, where they found his maroon Chrysler 200, unoccupied with the engine running, according to a probable cause affidavit. A few days after Bailey went missing, detectives received an anonymous tip about the homicide and learned Bailey had been shot and killed inside the apartment. His body was placed in a bathtub inside the apartment unit for a few hours before it was disposed of in a ditch in the 2300 block of Clay Street, the affidavit said. Bailey's body was bound with black duct tape and his head had been decapitated. Police used the body's tattoos to ultimately identify the victim as Bailey. A pair of disposable gloves was located in close proximity to the body, court records show. Police served a search warrant on the apartment where Bailey was allegedly shot and noticed an "overpowering" chemical smell, several bottles of lighter fluid and black plastic bags on the ground. There was no clothing or furniture in the apartment, other than a bed with a headboard in the main bedroom and an air mattress in another bedroom. Spatters of what appeared to be dried blood covered areas of the headboard and floor in the main bedroom. Detectives pulled a blanket off the bed and noticed the mattress was soaked with blood, the affidavit said. Detectives identified three vehicles parked outside the Stokes residence, each registered to members of the Stokes family: an Infiniti, a black Audi A5 and a Ford Flex. Stokes Jr. reportedly drove a Ford Escape. Detectives discovered each vehicle was at the Woodlake Apartments the night of the homicide, based on security footage and license plate-reader cameras. After the homicide, the Audi traveled toward a Walgreens on Central Avenue in Portage. Surveillance footage from the Walgreens showed a woman entering the Walgreens a few hours after the homicide. The woman was identified by detectives as Tomlinson. She purchased the following: hair dye, microfiber towels, black duct tape, hydrogen peroxide, Lysol, bleach and disposable gloves, according to the affidavit. The license plate-reader cameras picked up the Audi headed west on Central Avenue about five minutes after the purchase was made, purportedly headed toward the apartment complex. Around 4 a.m., the Audi leaves the apartment for the final time, followed by the Ford Flex, the document shows. One detective believed the lighter fluid bottle, which had an orange price tag, was bought from a gas station because of the black plastic bags found in the apartment, which he said are often provided to gas station customers. In an attempt to catch Tomlinson purchasing the lighter fluid, detectives stopped at every gas station along the route Tomlinson was believed to have taken home, the document showed. When they arrived at a Citgo gas station, 4700 Broadway, detectives noticed lighter fluid bottles with the same orange price tags as the one found in the apartment where Bailey was believed to have been killed. A gas station clerk permitted them to look at the footage, and they identified Tomlinson purchasing the lighter fluid around 3 a.m. after the homicide. She was seen using what looked like a rag or paper towel to grab the bottle, the affidavit alleged. Records show Tomlinson posted a $4,500 cash bond Saturday. Her formal court appearance is scheduled for Friday before Lake Criminal Court Judge Natalie Bokota, online court records show. Hobart Mayor Josh Huddlestun fielded questions from constituents and defended his support for a potential 61st Avenue data center at a Monday public meeting. "Nobody wants anything across from their house," the Democratic mayor told a standing-room-only crowd at the Hobart Community Center, some of whom sported T-shirts reading "61st AVE NO DATA CENTER." With a new Indiana property tax relief law set to significantly erode the city's revenue in the coming years, Huddlestun argued that bringing a high-value commercial development to the city could help Hobart stay financially afloat. In February, the Hobart City Council voted unanimously to grant a zoning change sought by prospective data center developers operating through an entity called Hobart Devco, LLC. The council agreed to convert a 168-acre parcel from a residential to a light industrial designation on the condition that the land be used for a data center development. As part of its petition, the company submitted a preliminary rendering of the site with six two-story, 292,000-square-foot server buildings, another 450,000 square feet of outdoor equipment yards, six smaller support buildings and a roughly 11-acre detention pond. The company, or any other prospective developer, would need to submit a detailed site plan and receive approval from Hobart's building commissioner before breaking ground. The rezone had the backing of local labor unions, who were keen to see the creation of construction jobs, but faced pushback from some members of the public concerned about a possible negative impact on the area's noise level, water and electrical infrastructure, ecosystem and property values. The city attempted to ameliorate some of these concerns earlier this month, when the Hobart City Council passed an ordinance that, among other tweaks and clarifications to the city zoning code's rules for data centers, capped the allowable noise from the facilities at 65 decibels along all property lines. (That noise level roughly corresponds with that of normal human speech.) At the Monday meeting, which Huddlestun arranged in response to complaints and queries from Hobart residents, the mayor repeatedly stressed that at this early stage of the development process, many project details like the data center's cost, its eventual assessed value, the number of temporary and permanent jobs it will create, and the facility's water and power needs, are still unclear. In a lengthy presentation to attendees, however, Huddlestun argued that allowing the new facility to go up is among the better options available to the cash-strapped city. Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 1, signed by Indiana Governor Mike Braun in April, will give Hoosier homeowners a credit of up to $300, or 10% of their annual property tax liability. Among other property tax relief measures, it also raises the threshold beneath which machinery and other commercial assets go untaxed from $80,000 to $2 million. Huddlestun cited a data table compiled by the civil engineering firm SEH, which projects that Hobart's property tax revenue will be reduced by 4.6%, 3.7% and 15.4% in 2026, 2027 and 2028, respectively. A 15% revenue cut amounts to about $5 million, or roughly what Hobart spends annually on its fire department. Without new sources of revenue, Huddlestun said, the consequences could be dire. "That's a cut to services," Huddlestun said. "We're laying off police officers. We are laying off firefighters. That's the reality that Senate Bill 1 has presented to us." Huddlestun pointed to the city of Hammond, which in June approved a tax abatement deal with the developers behind a planned $7 billion data center project on the city's Lake Michigan shoreline. In exchange, the company agreed to make a $4 million annual community impact payment to the city, an amount that will keep the city's college scholarship program funded for two decades. A similar tax abatement "could be a thing" in Hobart, and the city might be able to reap a similar boon from the developers, Huddlestun said, though he underscored that such discussions are still a ways off. He noted as well that a multi-million dollar development could bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in permit fees, a kind of city revenue not subject to SEA 1's tax relief provisions. Hobart residents are not the only group in Northwest Indiana to greet news of a possible data center with skepticism and even hostility. In March, the city of Valparaiso announced that it had asked a prospective data center developer to pull out of a purchase agreement for a city-owned plot after news of the deal sparked widespread backlash among residents. Huddlestun told the audience that the Valparaiso incident left him concerned about the prospect of bringing a data center to his own city, but said that a multi-day trip to Loudoun County, Virginia, helped assuage his concerns. With 49 million square feet of data centers, the county is home to the highest concentration of the facilities in the United States. The mayor said that conversations with elected officials and members of the public left him convinced that data centers can coexist with residential areas. During an impromptu question and answer session at the end of Huddlestun's remarks, some members of the audience indicated agreement with the mayor's point of view or an openness to his arguments. Not everyone came away convinced, however. Joseph Conn, a retired journalist and onetime Green Party city council candidate who spoke against the zoning ordinance at city hall, told The Times that he is in "exactly the same place where I was at the beginning." He would like to see the 61st Avenue land put to agricultural use, rather than as the site of "concrete boxes." "This kind of development ought to go down along the strip on either side of US 30 where the Albanese Candy Factory is," he said. "That's just the wrong place for this." Carla Houck, a member of the informal "No Rezone" group that has lobbied against industrial development on the 61st Avenue land, echoed the sentiment. "We're not against data centers. We don't approve of the location," she told The Times. "I'd like for the city to have a new vision for the gateway to our city." Simon Erskine Locke In the digital world content may still be king, but trust in content it is taking a hammering. With the rise of misinformation, AI-driven fakes, imposter content, and relentless email and texting scams, the importance of being able to verify what is authentic and what is not is a critical issue facing communicators and our audiences. It is important to stop and think through the implications of the erosion of trusted content. What if a press release you issue during a crisis is dismissed as a fake? What if a cybercriminal issues a fake release that audiences think is real? What if your target audiences simply do not trust content enough to read it? The worlds largest technology and media companies, and an emerging ecosystem of technology startups, including my company Tauth.io, are working on a cutting-edge approach to building provenance into content. At its simplest, the idea is to integrate digital watermarks into documents, images, audio and video in ways that prove their authenticity. Here are six things communicators need to know about content provenance authentication: We are shifting from a trust but verify world to verify then trust As trust in content is being eroded, audiences are increasingly looking to verify that what they are receiving is authentic. Content provenance authentication provides a way to build trust into content. Content authentication helps address new risks facing communicators Criminal gangs, lone wolves and state-sponsored actors are engaged in efforts to sow disinformation and misinformation. Individuals and companies are subject to blackmail, extortion, deepfakes, imposter content, and other malicious attacks. Fake content has been and will be used to manipulate markets, impact reputations and sway leaders. Fraud has always been around, but AI is taking it to a new level. Content provenance authentication provides a way for companies to add a layer of digital security to their content and help clients spot fraudulent content before they act on it. A next-generation technology based on global standards Content provenance authentication is built around three key steps: 1) the verification of companies or individuals as content originators, 2) the integration of robust digital watermarks in content and 3) the potential to immutably register content on blockchain. The technology is based on global standards established by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. Once content has been authenticated and credentials have been incorporated, users can verify that it is authentic automatically using our browser extensions or by clicking on an embedded link to view the content manifest. Authenticating content is a competitive advantage When authenticated by companies, content is more likely to be trusted. Content that appears suspicious without credentials is less likely to gain traction. For example, journalists will be more likely to trust and report on an authenticated press release. Content curators will be more likely to select authenticated content. Over time, authenticated content is expected to be more highly ranked in traditional and AI search tools. In short, authentication increases the value of content. Companies will need to authenticate content to stay ahead of fraudsters and scammers There is an arms race between the good guys and the bad guys in the digital universe, and you are a target. Strong cybersecurity practices, user verification, content authentication, digital safe spaces, and tools to identify fraudulent content are all key components to increase trust in content and reduce the risk of reputational damage by malicious actors. Legislators are working on bills to integrate content authentication into government documents The New York State legislature has a bill currently under consideration that will mandate that certain political communications incorporate content provenance. More will follow. It is not a question of if, but when the technology will be a requirement. Although the focus here is on communications, content authentication has applications across the digital landscape. The core technology is a launch point for the development of new applications. At Tauth.io, we are focused on creating customized credentials in the communications industry for individual companies and on providing tools to manage authenticated content on blockchain. Not only can the technology be used to verify the source of content, but it can also provide proof of where images were taken and videos filmed, as well as how they may have been manipulated or whether they were AI-generated. Its important to recognize that authentication technology is not on its own a magic bullet. It is one of a range of solutions that include tools that are being used to identify misinformation and deepfakes it is an approach that builds into content at or before it is published a way to verify that it is authentic. As a senior executive at a global media company shared, in three years well be wondering how it was possible that content did not include provenance credentials. *** Simon Erskine Locke is co-founder & CEO of Tauth.io, which provides trusted content authentication based on C2PA standards, and founder & CEO of CommunicationsMatch. He is a former head of communications functions at Prudential Financial, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, and founder of communications consultancies. Lindsay Stein In a moment defined by uncertainty, from shrinking newsrooms to fleeting trends (slow travel, coolcations, astrotourism ...), it may seem almost quaint to return to the basics of public relations. But in times like these, when the media landscape is chaotic and the travel industry can sometimes feel flooded with sameness, the fundamentals matter. In fact, theyre essential. And one of the most enduring principles in travel PR is this: Dont start with the product. Start with the problem the product solves. Its a deceptively simple idea. Yet, as competition intensifies and messaging becomes more reactive, this foundational truth is too often forgotten. Marketers often default to amenities, to value-adds, to packages and price incentives, but storytellers must do more. To earn the attention of editors and audiences, we must consistently go beyond whats being offered to whats being answered. Making the shift from promotion to resolution is storytelling at its best and where our real value lies. Product has its place, of course, but as we move approach our long-term storytelling strategy, with feelings. Because the traveler has changed. Todays travelers are more emotionally driven, more discerning, more saturated by content than ever before. Price and prestige may influence the booking decision, but theyre unlikely motivators at the top of the funnel and neither make a great editorial pitch. What sings in the soul is something they believe they need and are missing, a break, a spark, a do-over and reset. Theyre searching for experiences that can deliver what they feel theyre missing in a way that feels personal and real. This article is featured in O'Dwyer's Jul. '25 Travel & Tourism PR Magazine This is where storytelling rooted in tension becomes so powerful. Good travel PR begins with identifying whats unresolved in the travelers lifesomething they may not even be able to name yetand demonstrating how a destination, hotel or experience provides the answer. The story we tell cannot simply be about the elements of what travelers will experience but how the experience will restore or ignite their sense of self. The best story is about becoming better by going. Thats the heros journey, the emotional core that points to an observation exploding across our industry right now: travelers dont just want to go somewhere anymore; they want to feel better because they went. As storytellers, our strategy must be to recognize this need and to anchor our approach in tension and resolution. At D/R this plays out in so many ways across the brands and destinations we represent every day. Take Natural Habitat Adventures. Yes, their trips are extraordinary. They offer access to some of the most remote and pristine ecosystems in the world. But thats not the whole story. What makes Nat Hab so relevant right now is that it meets a quiet, rising need among travelers: the need to reconnect with nature in a world that feels increasingly disconnected. These are not just wildlife adventures. Theyre a reminder that the natural world is still out there, and that were still part of it. Beaches Resorts solves a different kind of tension. For many families, especially those with young children, aging parents or neurodivergent needs, vacation planning is not joyful. Its overwhelming. Beaches steps into that emotional terrain with intention and empathy, offering certified autism-friendly kids camps. thoughtful dining that welcomes children and design that acknowledges the complexity of family dynamics. The experience doesnt just check boxes. It makes everyone feel considered. Thats not just convenience. Thats care. Uniworld Boutique River Cruise Collection provides a quiet answer to a quieter need. For seasoned travelers who feel tourism has become fast, crowded and transactional, Uniworld reintroduces intimacy. It offers space to breathe. Service that remembers your name. Design that inspires pause, not just photos. The product is luxury, yes, but the problem it solves is something deeper: the travelers desire to slow down and feel seen. Destinations also benefit from a PR approach focused on solving a problem. Reno is a perfect example. Its not trying to compete with its sister Nevada city, Las Vegas, or copy any other destinations version of cool. Its a place that fully embraces its own rhythm: a little quirky, deeply creative and wide open in every sense. As the jumping-off point for Burning Man, its long been a home for makers and those searching for something more. But Reno isnt just a stop on the way to the desert; its a city where you can hike a mountain in the morning and catch one of the countrys hottest performers at night. This is the place where neon signs and high desert sunsets coexist. Reno solves for the traveler who wants something unscripted. Something real. Reno doesnt ask travelers to be anything but curious. Each of these examples demonstrates how moving your storytelling approach from focusing solely on features to feelings, from product to purpose, can dramatically improve your pitch. This shift also serves a broader purpose in the travel landscape. It helps ease the pressure of driving visitors to the same places, which for many destinations in the world is becoming a challenge. When PR stories focus only on whats already popular, we contribute to crowding and sameness. We make the world beige. We can change the narrative and tell stories that begin with a travelers emotional desires top of mind, because when we do, we open up the possibility of solving their needs across new destinations and new experiences. This is not about preaching, its about storytelling rooted in tension and resolution that considers the challenges of the visitor first. In this way, our role as travel publicists is more important than ever, not because the media landscape is changing, but because we understand that spinning a good story is as perennial as the grass. When we go beyond what were offering to what we can solve, we widen the map and shift attention. We bring our clients purpose into focus because in the end, people arent just trying to gotheyre trying to feel better that they went. Thats where the best stories start. *** Lindsay Stein is Director of Media Relations at The Decker/Royal Agency. Dan Meyers Dan Meyers, who did a seven year stint at APCO, exiting as deputy manager director of its DC office, has joined Teneo as managing director in its Washington office. Meyers has experience advising public and private sector clients on strategic communications, coalition building, executive positions and crisis management. He was VP at DCI for ten years, advance representative in George W. Bushs White House, and special assistant to Rudy Giulianis presidential campaign. He also supported Sen. John McCain and VP JD Vance. Since January, Meyers has been running Perspective Strategies in DC. Nate Tamarin, head of Teneo DC, called the addition of Meyers a pivotal moment for its clients. His ability to bridge political strategy, stakeholder dynamics and executive-level counsel makes him a powerful addition to our growing team, he said. The Portlaoise actor Robert Sheehan, who has enjoyed stratospheric levels of fame during his career (including starring in Love/Hate and The Umbrella Academy), was one of the talented people from the theatrical world to grace this year's Scripts Playwriting Festival in Birr last week. Bringing a touch of stardust wherever he went, Sheehan threw himself into the event, as one of the four actors to bring the three new plays to life, something which requires several days of script reading and hard work. The three plays were performed by Sheehan and three other actors on Sunday afternoon during the Festival Finale. In James Peaty's "Turn" Sheehan played a criminal Londoner who murders his brother (or does he?) He was the narrator in "Fanny Riot" by Lisa Walsh which chronicled the Dublin Riots in November 2023. And in Roisin Daly's "The Waves Have Ears Too" he portrayed a teenager who sexually abuses a teenage girl. During all three plays he showed that he was very skilful whether performing comedy or tragedy. Edenderry's Eugene O'Brien praised the four actors for their performances during the Festival Finale. He said Sheehan was very down to earth and pleasant to have around during the week. He was sometimes mobbed on the streets, but he was always gracious and decent. Of course, O'Brien himself is a celebrity, being of Pure Mule and Eden fame. The Edenderry playwright has been mentoring playwrights in Scripts for several years and every year he receives high praise from the playwrights he works with, as he sets them the difficult task of reassembling their one act plays and burnishing them to the highest level that they can. An Irish man who was killed in the United States will be laid to rest on Friday. Damien O'Brien, 35, formerly of Stoneybatter, Killygordon, Co Donegal was knocked down at Huntington Beach, California last Sunday week. A 21-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired. Damien and his wife Michelle, who is from Glenfin, had been living in the States for the past 12 years and had two sons, with a third on the way. He is sadly missed by his loving wife, Michelle, (nee O'Connor), adoring sons Oscar and Luke, his parents Patricia and Bernard, parents-in-law, Pat and Patricia O'Connor (Glenfin), sisters Colleen and Roisin, brothers Stephen and Bernard, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, partners, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, colleagues and wide circle of friends. Damien will repose at the home of his parents in Stoneybatter, Killygordon, F93 WP40, from 5pm on Wednesday, July 16, until 9pm and on Thursday, from 1pm until 9pm. Rosary nightly at 9pm with family time on both nights from after the Rosary and on the morning of the funeral. His Requiem Mass will take place on Friday, at 12 noon in St. Patrick's Church, Killygordon, F93 W2C2, with burial afterwards in Cill Mhuire Cemetery, Glenfin - the Home Parish of his wife Michelle. Burial is strictly private for the OBrien and OConnor families. Damien had forged a successful career as a quantity surveyor, where he was vice-president of operations with TM Grady Builders, and was heavily involved with the Wild Geese GAA Club in Orange County, California, having been an established player with both Red Hughs and Setanta Hurling Club before emigrating. A GoFundMe set-up by his employers called Aid for Damien O'Brien's Family After Tragic Loss has already raised over $300,000 USD (258,175). READ MORE | Irish country music star shares diagnosis after 'scary' and 'difficult' hospital ordeal The Arts Minister said he is confident about the future of An Post, describing the company as viable and profitable. Patrick ODonovan said that despite the challenges faced by mail delivery services across Europe, An Post has outstripped most of its detractors. It comes after reports claimed that Government ministers were told that the postal service would have been a substantial loss last year without the revenue generated by general and European election post. Mr ODonovan presented the postal services annual report to Cabinet on Tuesday. Following claims that An Post in in a dire financial situation, Mr ODonovan said that the postal service has been transformed in recent years under the leadership of An Post chief executive David McRedmond. Mr ODonovan said: The issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting, and Im not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because Im constitutionally prevented from doing that, as is everybody else. But obviously somebody decided that that wasnt going to be the case. David McRedmond is absolutely right. An Post has been transformed over the last number of years under his leadership, and the men and women that work in the organisation. The Irish state and the Irish Government are absolutely, totally committed to its future. On Thursday, Mr McRedmond said the results given to Cabinet show the highest revenue, making over a billion for the first time. He said that An Post earnings grew from 38 million euros to 55 million euros. Mr ODonovan told RTEs Today with Claire Byrne that An Post has returned to profit following some challenging years. I mean, mail delivery services across Europe have been challenged over the last number of years, but An Post has outstripped most of its detractors with regard to personal delivery, the communications minister added. That I can say as a shareholder, is An Post return to profit last year. Theyve had some challenging years, theres no doubt about that, and theyve gone through a restructuring programme. One of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isnt helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, as people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters. To be quite honest about it, it is showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is and a lack of understanding of what an independent contractor who works for An Post is. The CEO has done an excellent job, and notwithstanding the financial difficulties that are there. But how would a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I dont know how they would come up with that. He added: Theres challenges everywhere, because all of us have moved to a digitalised future. An Post are well ahead of the curve in terms of making sure that their future isnt going to be inextricably linked just to next day mail delivery services, and thats why theyre doing a very good job. Speaking to RTE Radio 1, Mr McRedmond said he was absolutely furious by the claims. That report is utter garbage. Im here in Italy, on my holidays, Im absolutely furious to read something like that, he added. The company presented its results. The results were presented to Cabinet yesterday. They showed the highest revenue weve ever had, over a billion revenues for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from 38 million euro to 55 million euro. They showed that our net profit was at 10 million. The company is performing extremely well. Weve got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe. So I just dont understand it. He rejected claims that without profits generated from last years general and European elections, it would have made a substantial loss. Its just simply not true, and its not how companies work. Yes, we got a big boost in the elections last year, but if it wasnt the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, weve huge costs with them, he added. It was irresponsible leak from a Government minister, which is wholly unacceptable. These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. Yes, we want more cash because were growing so fast, because were growing in commercial parcel markets. We use get paid for everything upfront when people buy stamps, were now in a commercial parcel market. We get paid on 60 or 90 days credit. We are constantly growing, so we need more working capital. We talk to Government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength. He also rejected claims that cash reserves have fallen below one million euros. We have at the end of the year with 38 million cash reserves, and this year, so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year. Im talking to Government about it. I hope theres just some big misunderstanding somewhere, and the company, as I say, is doing really well. Small business groups warn RBAs proposed card surcharge ban wont eliminate fees, just hide them in higher prices. The Reserve Bank of Australias bold move to eliminate card surcharges has sparked fierce pushback from small business advocates, who warn the changes could backfire spectacularly. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) delivered a scathing response to consultation paper, arguing that removing surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa transactions would create a dangerous illusion of savings while forcing costs underground. Matthew Addison, Chair of COSBOA, didnt mince words about the proposals, calling them a mixed bag for small businesses that offers some welcomed reforms but risks serious unintended consequences. The hidden cost problem Removing surcharges doesnt remove all the cost, it simply hides it, said Mr Addison. The fundamental issue, according to COSBOA, lies in basic economics. When businesses cant pass payment processing fees directly to customers who choose more expensive payment methods, those costs dont vanish into thin air. For small businesses already managing tight margins, this means those costs would have to be absorbed into base prices, making it harder for businesses to be transparent and for consumers to make informed choices. The RBA has trumpeted potential consumer savings of $1.2 billion, but COSBOA argues this figure is misleading. While reduced interchange fees are welcome, merchant fees encompass far more than just interchange costs. The RBAs claim of $1.2 billion in consumer savings is a mirage. The reduced interchange fee is welcomed; however merchant fees include many other charges. The reality is that these fees will still be paid, just not disclosed. That cost will be baked into the price of coffee, groceries, and services across the country. Fighting for fairness COSBOA has consistently championed surcharging as a fundamental business right, arguing its essential for small business survival in an increasingly challenging economic environment. Surcharging is not about penalising consumers, its about ensuring fairness and transparency, said Mr Addison. The organization contends that forcing businesses to absorb processing fees removes a critical cost management tool and threatens profitability for Australias smallest employers. More concerning is the potential for unintended market distortions. A blanket ban ignores the real issue: high and complex payment costs driven by opaque pricing and a lack of competition. Whats Really at Stake COSBOAs response highlighted several key concerns that could reshape how Australians pay for goods and services: Banning surcharges will disguise card payment costs rather than eliminate them, potentially misleading consumers while forcing small businesses to raise prices across all products and services. Without surcharging options, many operators may need to increase menu and service prices, potentially reducing competitiveness or pushing them toward cash-only models that create new operational risks. The proposed redefinition of consumer creates confusion, as small business operators often function as both merchants and consumers within the payment system, risking unfair cost shifts without addressing structural problems. Despite the criticism, COSBOA isnt entirely opposed to the RBAs reform agenda. The organization supports several key elements of the proposed changes. Lower interchange fees represent a positive step forward, as does improved transparency through increased disclosure of acquiring, scheme, and interchange fees to help small businesses make informed decisions. COSBOA continues advocating for mandatory least-cost routing (LCR) across all payment types to help lower transaction costs for merchants, plus ensuring all businesses can access the lower merchant costs currently awarded to larger enterprises. If the RBA and government are serious about helping small business, the focus should be on increasing competition, enforcing least-cost routing, and regulating payment providers, not restricting merchant rights, said Mr Addison. The organization emphasized that any meaningful reform must acknowledge the real-world pressures facing small business owners, including rising costs, wage pressures, and complex regulatory burdens. Removing surcharging without addressing root causes risks creating hidden costs that ultimately harm both businesses and consumers. The consultation period runs until 26 August 2025, with implementation expected from July 2026. For more information, visit www.cosboa.org.au. Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. GAA Palestine has confirmed that a tour of a group of Palestinians who were to visit Ireland will no longer go ahead. The group, which included 33 Palestinian children and young teenagers, were scheduled to arrive in Dublin on Friday, however they were denied entry by the Department of Justice. In a statement, the GAA Palestine executive said it was with a heavy heart that it announced that the planned trip could no longer go ahead. We are outrageous and disappointed by the Department of Justice's handling of the GAA Palestine Summer Tour. See link for full statement #LetThemPlay https://t.co/jvJSyWFBSa pic.twitter.com/me2ioqkOic gaa_palestine (@GAA_Palestine) July 14, 2025 The delay stemming from issues with the Department of Justice has ultimately resulted in this difficult decision, as time has run out to make alternative arrangements, it added. The touring party was scheduled to depart from the West Bank on Wednesday morning. We initially postponed departure for today, as the Department of Justice had informed us they were reviewing the appeal, the statement said. However, the embassy in Tel Aviv is now closed we had a driver pick up the passports to allow us to explore other options for the touring party to travel elsewhere, allowing us to provide these young athletes with the respite and opportunity they deserve. Even if visas are issued at this late stage, delays at checkpoints and borders are likely to cause severe disruptions and extended delays. Giving the children hope again, only for that hope to be dashed once more, would be too cruel. We are deeply disappointed by the narrative that has circulated suggesting that necessary documentation was not provided or that we were late in the submission of our appeal. We have been working diligently for months with the embassy in Israel. Despite numerous appeals over the past week requesting engagement, we have received no response from the Department of Justice. Our legal team has also attempted to communicate directly with the department, but we have once again been ignored. We are profoundly upset for all our GAA Palestine members, for the clubs that went to great lengths to organise this meaningful trip, and for the families who generously volunteered to host our touring party transforming their homes with bunk beds and painting walls to welcome these young GAA players from the West Bank to Ireland. To our sponsors for their generosity, we do hope we can work together again in the future. It said it will look to other places where the children will be welcomed and celebrated. Earlier on Wednesday, Minister for Justice Jim OCallaghan said that all visa applications have to be assessed fairly and accurately. I reject that criticism. Very many people apply for visas from the Department of Justice. Not all of them get media coverage. All of them have to be assessed fairly and accurately by the department, the Fianna Fail minister said. We have immigration rules in this country for people who want to come here, whether its on a short-term visa or long-term visa and no matter who you are you have to comply with the immigration rules. I am not going to change those rules simply because there is media pressure put on me. SkillOnNet and Nolimit City reached an agreement that will bring the finest slots to the fingertips of Brazilian players in the weeks to come. Nolimit City is a prolific online casino software developer specializing in slots whose titles are enjoyed worldwide. Brazilian punters have good reasons to be enthusiastic because all these great games are going to be available in their country. That's the result of the company signing a deal with SkillOnNet in July 2025. Top Nolimit City Slots Live on SkillOnNet Brands in Brazil SkillOnNet has a strong presence in Brazil, and some of the popular local brands can already enjoy its top-performing games. Online slot enthusiasts have fond memories of the time spent playing games at PlayUZU.bet.br and BacanaPlay.bet.br. Now, they have the chance to experience the emotion of Nolimit City as the company launches its full catalogue of games nationwide. The software developer for online casinos has a vast portfolio of games, with new titles being added all the time. Many of these new releases will be available to Brazilian players in the coming weeks and months. For the time being, players can spin their reels of Duck Hunters, Fire in the Hole 3, and Tombstone Slaughter. They are among the most popular slots in their expanding online collection. A Fast Expanding Regulated Market Brazil is one of the most appealing markets in South America due to its vast size and the fact that it is well-regulated. 2025 brought about significant changes in the regulatory landscape, making the country more attractive to international brands. SkillOnNet was among the first to secure a license and has high expectations in Brazil, where it already has a large number of enthusiastic fans. Nolimit City's games have a reputation for being original and highly immersive, offering the promise of big potential payouts. International players appreciate them for their creative game mechanics, amazing visuals and appealing sound defence. The partnership with SkillOnNet brings all these exciting slots to the fingertips of Brazilian players who can try them for free or real money. Jani Kontturi at SkillOnNet discusses the mutually beneficial nature of this deal with Nolimit City and the benefits for Brazilian players. His enthusiasm was echoed by Malcolm Mizzi, COO and Commercial Director at Nolimit City, who celebrated this partnership. He also used the opportunity to promise local players that even more exciting and bold content is on the way to their country in the foreseeable future. Fall River, MA - July 14, 2025 - Nationally recognized personal injury law firm Bernheim Kelley, LLC has launched a formal investigation into the devastating fire that broke out at Gabriel House, an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts. The fire tragically claimed the lives of nine elderly residents and injured many more. "This tragedy demands answers," said Walter Kelley, Managing Partner of Bernheim Kelley's Massachusetts offices. "These residents were vulnerable In today's competitive job market, mastering a foreign language can significantly boost career prospects. Enrolling in Foreign Language Classes in Delhi not only improves communication skills but also opens doors to global career opportunities. Leading institutions like Swiss School of Language provide professional training in widely spoken languages like French and German, helping students gain the linguistic skills necessary to thrive internationally. 1. Access to Global Job Markets Many multinational companies have An officer points to a switch device on the back of a handgun that's used to convert the semi-automatic gun into an illegal, fully-automatic machine gun. (Carol Robinson) A 41-year-old West Linn man is accused of possessing three dozen guns, including three converted into fully automatic machine guns with switch devices. Also in the cache seized by FBI agents in a June 17 raid of Lucas C. Perillos home were 13 unregistered short-barreled rifles, gun silencers and other gun parts, according to prosecutors. The FBI and the state police investigated the case. The criminal complaint remains sealed. Perillo was arrested Friday and made his first appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland. He was appointed an assistant federal public defender, Chandra Peterson, who did not challenge his continued detention. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Armistead ordered Perillo to remain in custody, citing the nature of the alleged crimes, his alleged substance and alcohol abuse issues, prior failures on supervision and a pending arrest warrant in Multnomah County Circuit Court, according to court records. Court records show the arrest warrant was tied to charges against Perillo on 2019 allegations of driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving, criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license, according to Multnomah County court records. He is being held at the Inverness Jail and is due to return to federal court on Aug. 13. -- Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, mbernstein@oregonian.com, follow her on X @maxoregonian, on Bluesky @maxbernstein.bsky.social or on LinkedIn. Bickering between two people in a Southeast Portland residence led to a deadly stabbing on Sunday, according to newly released court records. Juan Jose Olguin, 28, of Portland, faces charges of second-degree murder and unlawful use of a weapon in the killing of Juan Carlos Vega-Matute, 44, also of Portland. Police and court records did not provide details of the two mens relationship but indicated they knew each other and were in the same house when the stabbing happened. Police received a call about the stabbing around 3:20 p.m. Sunday at a home near Southeast 114th Avenue and Boise Street. When officers arrived, they found Vega-Matute dead, face down in a pool of his own blood, court records state. Olguin wasnt in the house when police arrived. Detectives at the scene spoke on the phone with Olguins mother, who said that Olguin had called her around 3 p.m. and that she could hear Vega-Matutu and her son disagreeing over where to put a dog in the house, court records show. The call dropped midway through the conversation, and a few minutes later Olguins mothers phone rang again. When she answered, Olguin told her he had just stabbed (Vega-Matute) because he was bothering him a lot, according to the probable cause affidavit. Olguins mother alerted Olguins roommate, who found Vega-Matutes body and called police, court records state. As police talked to the roommate about the killing, the roommate received a phone call from Olguin. She answered on speakerphone so that the detective could hear. The detective reported hearing Olguin crying hysterically and that he said he got into a fight with Vega-Matute and couldnt remember what had happened, court records state. Olguin also said he was hiding in a nearby park, where police found and arrested him, court records show. Investigators said Olguin told them that he and Vega-Matute had been bickering when Vega-Matute grabbed him by the hair and put him into a headlock, court records show. In the ensuing scuffle, Olguin drew his pocket knife and plunged it into Vega-Matutes neck, police allege. You killed me this time, Juan, Vega-Matute reportedly said as he staggered away from Olguin. Moments later, Vega-Matute collapsed on the floor, blood streaming from his neck, police allege. A medical examiner ruled Vega-Matutes death a homicide and found that he had eight wounds in his neck, chest and back, court records state. Vega-Matute is the 19th person to die by homicide in Portland in 2025. Olguin has no prior criminal convictions in Oregon. His next scheduled court appearance is on July 22. Tatum Todd is a breaking news reporter who covers public safety, crime and community news. Reach them at ttodd@oregonian.com or 503-221-4313. A student at Lafayette Elementary School in Albany attends a summer program for help with reading and math back in 2019. Funding for such programs is in jeopardy after the Trump administration withheld billions of dollars, including $73 million that is shared across Oregon schools and districts. With the start of the academic year just six weeks away, school districts and community colleges around Oregon say they are struggling to cope with the Trump administrations abrupt decision to withhold $73 million in education funding intended for free or low-cost after-school programs, teacher training and migrant student supports. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said this week that he is joining a coalition of 20 other attorneys general and two governors in a lawsuit that seeks to force the administration to release the funding, which totals $6.8 billion nationwide. Hot, dry conditions and strong winds have made it difficult to contain the Cram fire (pictured above), the largest active wildfire in the state. Photo courtesy of Oregon Fire Marshal The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Wednesday issued an air quality advisory for Klamath and Jefferson counties as several large wildfires burn in the state. Smoke from the Hagelstein and Elk fires in Klamath County and the Cram fire in Jefferson County are causing unhealthy air quality for sensitive groups, according to an agency statement. The advisory is expected to last until at least 10 a.m. Thursday. The Cram fire is the largest in the state, expanding overnight to more than 64,000 acres, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. It is zero percent contained, while the Elk fire in Klamath is 39% contained and has burned around 2,700 acres. Gov. Tina Kotek on Wednesday declared a wildfire state of emergency that will last through the end of the year, citing the already-devasting wildfire season and more hot, dry conditions to come. This is Oregons first air-quality alert due to wildfire smoke this year, said Chris Varley, a department spokesperson. The timing is not unusual compared to recent years, when similar warnings have been issued around mid-July. But its part of a larger trend of wildfire season starting earlier because of climate change, according to data dating back to 2000, Varley said. Infants and children, people with heart or lung disease, older adults and pregnant people are at most risk of health issues from inhaling smoke, which can irritate eyes and lungs and worsen some medical conditions, the statement said. The Cram fire is 15 miles east of Madras in Jefferson County and the Elk fire is 7 miles southwest of Beatty in Klamath County. The departments air quality index map showed Redmond and Madras each approaching 150 the high end of the orange section for air unhealthy for sensitive groups on Wednesday afternoon. The department also expects intermittent smoke in Crook and Deschutes counties. Winds are forecast to push the smoke further east and the air quality in a given area can change quickly depending on wind and weather, Varley said. Limiting exposure is the best way to protect yourself from harmful air quality, Varley said. The agency recommended precautions such as staying inside, keeping windows and doors closed and avoiding strenuous outdoor activity. Air filters or purifiers, including a do-it-yourself version using a box fan, also can help. Cloth, dust and surgical masks dont protect from the harmful particles in smoke, the agency statement said. Certain respirators approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health can offer protection: Look for a letter N, R or P with the number 95, 99 or 100. Once air quality improves to moderate or healthy levels yellow or green on the air quality index its safe to open doors and windows to air buildings out. Check current conditions on the Oregon Smoke Information Blog, DEQs Air Quality Index, or the free OregonAIR app. Maddie Khaw covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian/OregonLive. Reach her at mkhaw@oregonian.com. Seven of the suspects arrested by Vietnamese and Lao police after they raided a scam center in Laos, July 5, 2025. Photo by Anh Phu Fifty-nine Vietnamese nationals were arrested in the Golden Triangle region for involvement in a fraud network worth hundreds of billions of dong that lured victims into investing in a fake gold trading platform with promises of 24% daily return. The transnational high-tech scam ring was dismantled through cooperation between Vietnamese and Lao police on July 5. Authorities arrested a total of 74 individuals, including 15 Chinese nationals, with the remaining suspects identified as Vietnamese citizens. Police seized 314 mobile phones, 292 computers, and approximately 1,000 electronic devices used for fraudulent purposes. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Lam, Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Division of Dien Bien Provincial Police, said: "Our biggest challenge was that the suspects were based abroad, and any accidental exposure during infiltration could have put our officers in serious danger." The criminal network operated under the fake gold trading platform named "ATFX." Victims initially invested small amounts, receiving daily returns as high as 24%. Encouraged by these returns, victims subsequently invested hundreds of millions to billions of dong. (VND1 billion equals US$38,200) Duong Van Huan, one of the arrested suspects, described the harsh conditions inside the scam ring: "If there's no income, wed have to work overtime," he said. "If we didn't meet targets, we'd be electrocuted or beaten. That was normal. Many people have managed to escape and got out, but those who were caught were beaten severely." On July 9, the 59 Vietnamese suspects and the seized evidence were escorted back to Dien Bien Province. Dien Bien police have filed criminal charges against three individuals identified as masterminds, prosecuting them for fraudulent appropriation of property. Authorities reported that many suspects like Huan had been promised high-paying jobs and agreed to cross borders illegally to work in the Golden Triangle, only to find themselves trapped in forced labor conditions within the scam syndicate. The Golden Triangle, where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand's borders intersect, is historically infamous for opium and heroin production, thriving due to its remote location and lax law enforcement. In recent decades, methamphetamine production has surpassed opium and heroin because of its ease of large-scale manufacturing. A two-alarm fire ripped through a Sky Lakes Medical Center building that housed two clinics in Klamath Falls on July 15, 2025. Klamath County Fire District 1 A late-night fire ripped through a Sky Lakes Medical Center building that housed two clinics in Klamath Falls on Tuesday, causing extensive damage and forcing the temporary closure of the facility. The two-alarm fire broke out shortly before 11:20 p.m. at the building located at 2301 Mountain View Blvd. According to Klamath County Fire District 1, a cleaning crew working inside noticed heavy black smoke coming from the second floor and called 911. No injuries were reported. Fire crews arrived to find heavy smoke in the area, which was exacerbated by haze from the nearby Hagelstein fire. Officials said firefighters initially struggled to locate the source of the fire because of dense, floor-to-ceiling smoke throughout the hallways and offices. The fire was contained before it engulfed the entire building, according to fire officials. Several rooms on the second floor and the attic were damaged by the fire, while smoke permeated much of the remaining space. Sky Lakes Medical Center personnel were on site overnight to coordinate clinic closures and ensure patients would continue receiving care. Sky Lakes is the only hospital in a 10,000-square-mile area in south-central Oregon and northern California and serves more than 80,000 patients. In addition to its 127-bed main hospital facility, Sky Lakes operates multiple primary and specialty care clinics in the area. The fire damaged the building that housed Sky Lakes behavioral health clinic and maternal fetal medicine clinic, as well as several administrative offices, according to David Cauble, president and CEO of Sky Lakes Medical Center. The burned building is a block away from the main hospital. Cauble said contingency plans are already in motion to relocate services and minimize disruptions to patient care. Fortunately we have space to accommodate the clinics and other impacted staff, he said. Other than the temporary disruption to operations today we do not expect there to be any long-term patient care issues. Cauble said that Sky Lakes was already in the process of moving the behavioral health clinic to a new larger facility, reducing the fires impact on those services. He said the maternal fetal medicine clinic, staffed by a physician who travels from Medford once a week to see patients, will also be relocated with no disruption to patient care. Sky Lakes officials said both clinics will resume operations at new locations beginning Monday. The Sky Lakes Behavioral Health Clinic will see patients at the Klamath Heart Clinic located at 3001 Daggett Ave. Meanwhile, the Maternal Fetal Medicine Clinic will operate from the Sky Lakes Womens Health Clinic on 2801 Daggett Ave. Fire officials said the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Cauble said a full assessment of the damage has not yet been completed. He said Sky Lakes is working with the State Fire Marshal and its insurance company to figure out next steps. Editors note: This article includes mention of suicide and contains details about those who have attempted to take their own lives. If you are having thoughts of suicide or are concerned that someone you know may be, resources are available here. When Arden was 16, they called a suicide crisis hotline thinking their life was over. They were in an abusive relationship, regularly self-harming, and felt that nothing was helping. It was terrifying, they told Uncloseted Media. If it werent for the hotline, I would have killed myself. This article was originally published in Uncloseted Media, an LGBTQ-focused investigative news outlet. Since that day, Arden, now 24 and living in Brooklyn, has used various crisis helplines. When the 988 national suicide prevention hotline launched a Press 3 option in 2022 for LGBTQ+ youth, they immediately started using the resource. Arden, who identifies as nonbinary, says the LGBTQ+ hotline workers respected their identity and were understanding that they are not a woman. It was really affirming for a very troubling time in my life. Since then, Arden has Pressed 3 more times than they can remember, seeking help for everything from dealing with the loss of a friend who died by suicide to stupid cliquey gay people stuff. I remember when my friend had killed himself and I was dealing with a lot. I called them and they talked to me for over an hour because I was really upset, they said. When I called the hotline, it was a last resort. I was really at my wits end. Arden whose last call to the lifeline was two weeks ago is one of 1.3 million callers and chatters the LGBTQ+ youth hotline has served since it launched, according to federal data. The legislation that greenlit the national program, signed by Trump in 2020 during his first term, explicitly recognized that LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers, with 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ youth and more than 1 in 3 transgender youth reporting attempting suicide. The option to Press 3 allowed queer youth in crisis the ability to directly connect with counselors from a set of specialized LGBTQ+ crisis centers. These counselors are trained in cultural competency and often bring lived experience, providing identityaffirming, empathetic support for challenges like coming out, discrimination or mental health crises. Despite the hotlines success, the Trump administration announced last month that it would be shutting the service down on July 17, claiming it had run out of congressionally directed funding. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said in an email to Uncloseted Media that continued funding of the Press 3 option threatened to put the entire 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in danger of massive reductions in service. There are no plans, however, to shut down the other hotline options, including the Veterans Crisis Line, the Spanish Language Line and the Native and Strong Lifeline. And while Congress spent $33 million on the LGBTQ+ service last year, the cost of continuing it represents merely 0.006% of the $510 billion that suicide and self-harm costs the U.S. yearly. This is absolutely a mistake, a suicide prevention call center director told Uncloseted Media. We are concerned that this will result in increased suicide rates for LGBTQ+ youth. Why We Need Option 3 The directors concern is supported by a 2022 research brief that found that queer college students with access to LGBTQ+-specific services were 44% less likely to attempt suicide than those without it. Research also shows that a hotline specific to LGBTQ+ services increases the likelihood of queer youth calling. Its true for any direct service, Harmony Rhoades, associate research professor of sociology at Washington University, told Uncloseted Media. People who are in substance use recovery want to work with people whove gone through recovery themselves because they understand what that experience is. Culturally, there is not a lot of understanding of the specific experiences of someone who is LGBTQ+ and without specific training, a crisis counselor isnt going to be able to know the language thats going to feel affirming. Connecting with someone who gets it was really helpful. Because at home, I was so isolated and I didnt really interact with other queer people, says Genna Brown, who used the Trevor Projects chat function at 10 years old. I was an extremely self-loathing, suicidal kid who was under the impression that God hated me and I was gonna burn in hell for eternity, Brown, now 15 and living in High Point, North Carolina, told Uncloseted Media. I only used the chat feature because I was scared my parents would hear me. We shared a wall, she said. I was spiraling really bad. Id just realized I was crushing on girls, and I thought I was going to burn in hell for all eternity because that is what we are taught. Raised in a Southern Baptist Church, Brown never felt safe at home, where she recalled hearing slurs like faggots and queers regularly. At church, sermons were about Sodom and Gomorrah or about how real love existed only between a man and a woman, she remembered. I grew up knowing the number one thing not to be was one of the dirty queers, she said. I kept thinking, I can kill myself now and go to hell, or live longer and still go to hell. I used to have panic attacks at 9, 10 years old, just thinking about burning in hell perpetually. Brown remembers Caitlin, the chat counselor who helped her, being the first ever to tell her that queer love was valid. She told me shed been with her girlfriend for seven years. I didnt even believe queer people could be happy. It broke my brain in the best possible way, said Brown, who is now out and proud to her parents, who have come around, and to most of her friends on social media. Arden had a similar experience. The queer line is better than the regular line, they said. I feel like its less like going through a checklist on the queer line. As a survivor of sexual assault, Arden says knowing that the counselors on the other line were trained in LGBTQ+-specific trauma made it easier to reach out for help. My voice doesnt pass per se but they still respected my identity, they say. LGBTQ+-specific resources for youth are critical, with 41% seriously considering suicide in 2024. In addition, queer youth are disproportionately affected by a litany of mental health issues and trauma, including physical and sexual assault, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, bullying and addiction. Its not like were cherry-picking some random group, Rhoades said. If we are going to fund (suicide prevention), there is no reason we should do it inefficiently by not effectively targeting the people who need it most. So, yes, they need specific suicide prevention services. While the hotline focuses on LGBTQ+ youth, they dont turn away adults who need help. Joshua Dial, 36, says that when he called 988, he was often connected to the LGBTQ+ youth hotline after mentioning that hes gay. I always walked away feeling better after I called, he said. There have been times when I spoke to the regular 988 crisis people, and they helped too. But they didnt understand quite as much. Dial, a Lutheran who lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma, says he wasnt always comfortable being open about his sexual orientation to his religious community and that the only way to meet other gay people was on hookup and dating apps, which he notes are not for emotional support. I wouldnt be talking to my pastor about getting on Grindr. I cant go to my pastor and tell them what I did last weekend, he says. Dial, who was raised to believe that homosexuality is a sin, has experienced depression since the age of 16 and has also struggled with bipolar disorder, addiction and PTSD. My addiction was getting worse, and the only constant was that the line was always available, he said. I didnt have any other options, but I knew that if I called the hotline, I would get help. Dial says the emotional support he received through these phone calls kept him from self-harm and suicide. There are times when I called that number and was this close to taking a handful of pills, this close to slitting my wrist, this close to buying a gun to shoot myself. And I talked to those people, and they not only understood, but they gave me the empowerment of knowing that someone had my back. How Cutting Option 3 Affects the Whole System While the cuts are meant to affect the hotlines support for LGBTQ+ youth only, crisis center employees say theyll impact the entire 988 network. When the LGBTQ+ hotline opened up, it really lowered the volume on the mainstream counselors, a 988 hotline counselor in Washington state told Uncloseted Media. It seemed really helpful, and I didnt get a lot of LGBTQ+ chats after that point. The counselor says they are about to lay off 42 counselors from their LGBTQ+ hotline. They say these roles wont be replaced on the main 988 line due to a hiring freeze. Because of this, counselors expect the number of calls they receive to double, which could dramatically increase wait times. The Washington state center did not respond to a request for comment. Even without the cuts, wait times are an issue. A 17-year-old caller from Virginia says that even the 10 minutes they had to wait for their call to be answered were painful. I was worried that nobody would want to talk to me. I was just feeling hopeless, they said. Theres this one resource that Im supposed to be able to have access to 24/7, but it just isnt as accessible as it should be. For some people, those 10 minutes are crucial. In a 2009 study of 82 patients referred to a psychiatric university hospital after a suicide attempt, nearly half reported that the period between their first thought of suicide and their actual attempt had lasted 10 minutes or less, underscoring how shorter wait times can be a matter of life and death. If we are not able to catch someone during the time that suicidal thoughts have appeared and intervene as quickly as possible, they could start figuring out how theyre going to kill themselves and make it happen, said the suicide prevention call center director. And a lot of folks have access to means that can result in instant death like firearms. What Can Be Done? With the Press 3 option gone, Rhoades worries that the current spate of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and hateful rhetoric toward the community will affect how counselors without queer-specific training will provide care. Were living in an unprecedented time where anti-LGBTQ hatred is being normalized, she said. It absolutely affects how young people are treated. And it filters down to crisis counselors. Representatives and advocates are fighting for more services. Kansas Rep. Sharice Davids reintroduced a bill last month dedicated to LGBTQ+ mental health resources. By increasing access to mental health support for our children and teens, we can save lives, Davids said in a press release. And last weekend, hundreds of people protested in front of Trump Tower in an effort to save the hotline. Arden says they wouldnt be here today without the lines support. Ive been struggling for a long time in my life (with) self-harm and Ive been clean almost two years now, they said. I would definitely not be clean if it werent for the hotline and I would probably hurt myself again. LGBTQ+ Crisis Helplines Still Available: In Oregon, 988 gets callers to Lines for Life, which supports LGBTQIA+ communities. The Franklin County Youth Psychiatric Crisis Line: 614-722-1800 The Huckleberry House for youth experiencing homelessness also offers a teen crisis shelter helpline: 614-294-5553 The Trevor Project has a crisis hotline: 1-866-488-7386 Theres also a National LGBTQ Hotline : 888-843-4564 Blue Lemon Counseling is also a safe space: 419-377-7576 More crisis helplines can be found here. Additional reporting by Spencer Macnaughton. Uncloseted Media is a new investigative media organization committed to providing objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, LGBTQ-focused journalism. This article reprinted by permission through a publishing partnership with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Roger Waters performs during This is Not a Drill concert tour, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. AP Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters is facing potential legal consequences in the UK after publicly endorsing Palestine Action, a group that was designated a terrorist organization by the British government July 5, under the Terrorism Act 2000, Yahoo News reported. Waters filmed a video the same day and posted it to Instagram, expressing support for the group, calling it non-violent and urging others to stand with them. In the video, Waters displays a handmade sign reading Roger Waters supports Palestine Action. He labeled the ban as being imposed by agents of a genocidal foreign power, declared July 5 Independence Day, and proclaimed, I am Spartacus, framing his support as an act of political defiance. Under UK law, publicly expressing support for proscribed terrorist organizations is classified as a criminal act. The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has formally announced plans to pursue a private prosecution should official authorities fail to act. The CAA, which has long criticized Waters for antisemitic rhetoric, previously released a documentary, The Dark Side of Roger Waters, featuring examples that the organization claims point to a history of antisemitic conduct. We stand ready to privately prosecute offenders in instances where an offence has been made out and the authorities fail to act, the campaign said in a statement. -- Kaylee Remington / Cleveland.com A startup from San Francisco plans two large data centers on this field in Forest Grove, abutting several dozen homes. One data center will be 42 feet tall. The second, closer to homes, could be up to 75 feet high. Vickie Connor/The Oregonian Darci Hanning has lived in her Forest Grove neighborhood for a quarter century, in a house with a small backyard that became her quiet oasis. She and her husband added benches and a bird feeder, and carefully landscaped the lawn that backs up to an empty field. They remodeled the kitchen and are just finishing up a bathroom remodel. We had planned to make this our forever home, Hanning said. Thats the kind of updates were making. Last year, at least 17 people in Oregon died in boating-related drownings in the summer months, according to the Oregon State Marine Board. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian With people looking to escape brutally hot temperatures this week, officials warn that rivers and lakes pose significant dangers to swimmers and boaters. Waterways in the region will remain quite cold even on hot days, increasing the risk of cold shock and drowning, according to Brian Paulsen, boating safety program manager for the Oregon State Marine Board. Many people underestimate the effects of cold water, Paulsen said in a press release. Inexperience and not being prepared for the conditions are factors leading to accidents. Planning ahead, boating with others, always keeping a sharp lookout, and wearing a properly fitted life jacket are key to staying safe. In Oregon, rivers and lakes are popular recreation spots in the summer months, and so drowning cases tend to increase in the hot season. At least 17 people in Oregon died in boating-related drownings in 2024, according to the Oregon State Marine Board. And there have already been a number of drownings this summer. Late last month, a 40-year-old woman fell off her paddleboard and drowned in the Columbia River. Earlier this month, a 28-year-old Portland man drowned in the John Day River while fishing and was swept away from the river bank by a fast current. Officials urge people to wear life jackets, as even experienced swimmers can struggle in the current and cold. Oregon law requires children age 12 and under to wear life jackets at all times while on boats. Adults also must have a life jacket on board. Though adults arent legally required to wear life jackets unless theyre on extreme whitewater rapids, safety experts recommend they do so whenever out on the water. Scott Lucas, statewide search-and-rescue coordinator for the Oregon Department of Emergency Management, said the organization has seen a rise in water rescue incidents in the past few weeks as people underestimate the dangers of being on the water. Sudden immersion into cold water can cause cold shock, leading to involuntary gasping and rapid breathing, which increases the risk of drowning, according to the National Weather Service. Cold shock and hypothermia set in quickly, even for strong swimmers, and fast-moving currents make self-rescue nearly impossible, Lucas said. We urge everyone to plan ahead, wear a life jacket, and respect the power of cold water, it can be unforgiving. To stay safe, The Oregon State Marine Board advises boaters and swimmers to: Choose a waterway that matches your skill level to avoid dangerous situations. Wear a properly fitted life jacket. Monitor weather forecasts, water levels and tides before heading out. Be courteous to other boaters and never go out alone. Kimberly Cortez covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at kcortez@oregonian.com Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe Lawyers for a 22-year-old Mexican citizen arrested two weeks ago at the ICE field office in Eugene didnt file a challenge fast enough before officers drove the man across the Oregon border to the federal detention center in Tacoma. A federal judge in Oregon said Tuesday that he no longer has jurisdiction over the case of Fernando Ledesma Gonzalez because the man is in custody in Washington and reluctantly transferred the case to the Seattle court. Waldport city councilors watch as Lincoln County Sheriff Adam Shanks and Deputy Abby Dorsey arrested Mayor Heide Lambert after she showed up to a City Council meeting on April 10, 2025, a week after they ousted her. Quinton Smith / Lincoln Chronicle The state ethics commission unanimously voted last week to investigate whether six members of the Waldport City Council violated public meetings law moments before they ousted their mayor from office this spring. But the reason the Oregon Government Ethics Commission opened an investigation doesnt directly have to do with the removal of the mayor. Portland's public parks, like Laurelhurst Park seen here, provide natural shade that can act as an important buffer against high temperatures in the summer. Sean Meagher/The Oregonian Temperatures are expected to hit over 90 degrees in Portland on Tuesday and soar to nearly 100 degrees at their peak Wednesday before cooling back down to more typical Pacific Northwest summer temps. While hot, those temperatures only flirt with local counties thresholds for opening cooling shelters for people without air conditioning or who are living outside. All three counties are currently directing people to community centers, libraries and public park splash pads to cool down rather than opening additional cooling center locations. Overnight cooling centers open only when the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations heat risk index reaches high or extreme risk, according to Multnomah Countys four-tiered threshold system for hot weather. And high risk, a level expected in parts of Portland Tuesday, only means that county officials will consider opening such centers. In Clackamas County, day centers and libraries along with several other locations, like a Canby Dennys, are open and available for people to go for free to escape the heat during the day, county spokesperson Claire Okeke said in an email. Because the temperature cools overnight, its typically not hot enough to open a general overnight shelter in the summer for hot weather alone, Okeke wrote. The county does provide day and night shelter for medically vulnerable people, through referrals. A spokesperson for Washington County said Monday that its thresholds for opening cooling centers would likely not be met this week. A final decision out of Multnomah County is expected later Tuesday. Both counties also list locations on their websites where people can find cooler temperatures and an open welcome. The forecasted high temperatures this week have prompted the the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to issue a heat advisory beginning at 12 p.m. Tuesday and extending to 10 p.m. Wednesday for the Portland and Vancouver metro areas, the Columbia River Gorge, the Hood River Valley, Willamette Valley and the Lower Columbia River and Cowlitz River Valleys. When its hot, weather officials advise people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in a cool place during the heat of the day and check up on relatives and neighbors. Keeping windows closed during the day and open at night helps air out hot homes. Anyone overcome by heat, especially while working outside, should be moved to a cool and shaded location. And do not leave children or pets in unattended vehicles. Car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes. Lillian Mongeau Hughes covers homelessness and mental health for The Oregonian. Email her with tips or questions at lmhughes@oregonian.com. Or follow her on Bluesky @lmonghughes.bsky.social or X at @lrmongeau. An archived photo of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. (Associated Press) A parent was detained by federal immigration officials at a Beaverton school parking lot on July 15, 2025. Associated Press One of the latest immigration arrests in Oregon took place Tuesday outside a Beaverton preschool, and it appears to be the first in the state to have happened on school grounds. Before President Donald Trump returned to office, federal authorities considered schools, churches, hospitals and courthouses to be sensitive locations and limited immigration authorities from making arrests there. The policy had been in place since 2011, with the Biden administration issuing its own guidance to further expand the protected areas. Adena Long, the director of Portland Parks & Recreation, was placed on administrative leave last month amid an already tumultuous moment for the bureau. City of Portland Adena Long, the director of Portland Parks & Recreation, has resigned from her job, weeks after she was placed on administrative leave for undisclosed reasons. The city agreed to pay her more than $140,000 to step down, according to officials. Priya Dhanapal, deputy city administrator for public works, announced the departure in an email to parks staff Wednesday morning, according to a copy obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. Long, in a letter that accompanied Dhanapals message, did not say why she was leaving. The decision was not made lightly, Long wrote. Being a parks and recreation professional is truly part of who I am. Her exit from the city comes amid an already turbulent moment for the Parks Bureau and was made known among staff only hours before the Portland City Council was scheduled to vote on whether to refer a proposed 75% parks levy increase to voters this fall. Long took the reins at Portland parks in 2019 after more than two decades at the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. She earned an annual salary of $285,188, according to the city. Last month, Long was placed on administrative leave, though city leaders did not say what led to the sudden shakeup. Alison Perkins, a city spokesperson, did not respond to questions about Longs leave Wednesday but did say the former parks director would receive a severance of $142,594. A copy of the severance agreement shows Long signed it June 27, nearly three weeks prior to her official last day with the city. While city parks are beloved by residents, the citys Parks Bureau has struggled with both a deepening maintenance backlog now estimated at more than $600 million and surging personnel costs. Bureau officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly warned that if an existing property tax levy used to help fund city parks and recreation services isnt renewed by voters at a significantly higher rate, they will be forced to make sweeping cuts. Those factors have all led to increasing scrutiny from members of the City Council. Some councilors have alleged that parks leadership lacks transparency and is losing support among community advocates and the public. Adding to the tumult, City Administrator Michael Jordan and Mayor Keith Wilson decided to fold the Portland Parks & Recreation into the citys large public works division earlier this month. In her email, Dhanapal said that Sonia Schmanski, a veteran Portland city government official, will serve as interim parks director. The city will launch a national search for a permanent parks director after Novembers election, Dhanapal said. This timeline ensures our focus remains on the potential levy campaign, she said. -- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh covers Portland city government and politics, with a focus on accountability and watchdog reporting. Reach him at 503-294-7632 or skavanaugh@oregonian.com. Hundreds of Qantas passengers have been stranded in Singapore for days after a mechanical failure grounded the airline's Airbus A380 en route to Sydney. Flight QF82 was due to depart Changi Airport at 8:45 p.m. on July 14 but was canceled after engineers discovered a technical fault, the Brisbane Times reported. Passengers were told to disembark around midnight and later sent to hotels after being informed the plane could not fly. Qantas initially planned to fix the A380, but the airline later admitted the problem required "extended maintenance." Passengers received a written update saying the aircraft would not operate as planned and that a replacement jet would be flown in from Australia. By July 16, many travelers had been stranded for nearly three days, with multiple promised departures delayed or canceled. Some were told to expect a flight on the morning of July 16, only for it to be canceled again. Qantas has apologized for the prolonged disruption, adding that an A330 had been flown from Australia to help get customers on their way as quickly as possible. Affected passengers were offered hotel stays and reimbursement for "reasonable" out-of-pocket expenses, including meals, The Straits Times reported. The replacement aircraft was expected to depart Singapore on the night of July 16, arriving in Sydney the next morning, according to the airline. Changi Airport data showed Flight QF82 was scheduled to depart at 8:45 p.m. on July 16 for Sydney. A separate Qantas service, QF2, was also delayed until 11:20 a.m. on July 17. The double-decker Airbus A380 can carry over 500 passengers in its typical three-class setup. Baker Heritage Museum is opening the permanent exhibit Echoes of the Rush: Relics of Eastern Oregons Golden Age featuring the Armstrong Nugget along with an additional 1,000 ounces of gold in flakes and small nuggets. The exhibit opens July 18, during Miners Jubilee. Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald BAKER CITY Dick Stewart couldnt move the rock with his boot. Fellow miner George Armstrong managed to pick it up and, after a quick rinse, the miners saw the dull yellow of gold. A lot of gold. They found the rock on June 19, 1913, near Susanville in Grant County, along the Middle Fork John Day River. The miners, along with Armstrongs son, took the gold by train to Baker City. They were armed to the teeth, of course, said Joyce Badgley Hunsaker, who talked about local gold history July 8 at the Baker Heritage Museum. Armstrong deposited it at First National Bank. The nugget was 80.4 troy ounces of absolutely pure gold, Hunsaker said. The miners loaned against the gold for a year, then sold it to the bank in 1914 for $1,408.75, Hunsaker said. Strike It Rich, a booklet by Robert C. Rapp Sr., recounts how John B. Rogers, who became bank president in 1947, decided to display the nugget for the public. First National merged with U.S. Bank in 1959, and for decades visitors could see the gold display and hear an audio recording by Stewart Sullivan, who worked at the bank for 20 years. In 2023, U.S. Bank donated the entire gold display to Baker County. And now the public can once again see the historic rock. Baker Heritage Museum is opening the permanent exhibit Echoes of the Rush: Relics of Eastern Oregons Golden Age. The new gold display featuring the Armstrong Nugget features custom-made cases, and a new security system Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald After major security upgrades, Baker Heritage Museum is opening the permanent exhibit Echoes of the Rush: Relics of Eastern Oregons Golden Age. It features the Armstrong Nugget along with an additional 1,000 ounces of gold in flakes and small nuggets. The exhibit opens at 10 a.m. Friday, July 18, during Miners Jubilee. The rooms mural was painted by local artist Amy VanGaasbeck. Also, the entrance, constructed by Pat Conley of Baker Welding, features a gate from OHP McCord & Son that was in the museums collection. The museum, 2480 Grove St., is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The new gold display featuring the Armstrong Nugget features custom-made cases, and a new security system that includes stronger doors at the museum and motion-detecting cameras at all entrances, including windows. Friends of the Baker Heritage Museum raised more than $250,000 for the display and security upgrades. Baker County Commissioners gave the group $100,000 in lodging taxes in October 2024, and the museum friends also secured a $40,000 grant from the Leo Adler Foundation, $15,000 from the county, $6,000 from the D.E. and Jane Clark Foundation, $2,200 from Baker City Downtown, and $2,000 from the Tyler Foundation. Hot, dry conditions and strong winds have made it difficult to contain the Cram fire (pictured above), the largest active wildfire in the state. Photo courtesy of Oregon Fire Marshal Seven large wildfires continue to burn throughout Oregon as fire season kicks into high gear. In total, more than 60,000 acres have burned in the state, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. The five biggest active wildfires are the Cram, Highland, Elk, Willow and Long Point. The Cram fire The Cram fire in Jefferson and Wasco counties, the largest in the state, expanded significantly overnight, now with about 64,295 acres burned. Changing wind directions and rugged, steep terrain challenged fire crews as the fire advanced southeast, reaching Ashwood, according to Central Oregon Fire. The fire currently threatens 46 residences near the west side of the fires perimeter, east of Madras in Jefferson County. On Tuesday, Gov. Tina Kotek invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act, which allowed the Oregon State Fire Marshal to send additional firefighting resources. It is the sixth official conflagration this wildfire season. The fire remains completely uncontained as of Wednesday morning, officials said. All available engines were redirected from fire line work to structure protection, and firefighters worked through the night to protect homes, outbuildings and community infrastructure, said Central Oregon Fire, an official interagency wildfire information resource. Additional Level 2 (get set) and Level 3 (go now) evacuation orders were issued in Jefferson and Wasco counties. The Highland fire Fire crews are strengthening their perimeter of the Highland fire, which ignited on July 12 south of Prineville. The evening the fire started, Kotek invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act after the Crook County Fire Defense Board chief requested additional assistance. High winds tested the crews Monday evening, according to Central Oregon Fire, and containment was at 55% as of Tuesday morning. No structures have been damaged in the rural areas where the fire is and mop-up efforts are underway around the perimeter of the blaze, according to Crook County Fire and Rescue. Evacuation orders issued by the Crook County Sheriffs Office have lowered to Level 1 (be ready) and Level 2 (get set). Crook County Fire and Rescue reported that an early investigation found the fire was human-caused. The investigation into the cause is ongoing. The Willow fire The Willow fire, burning 20 miles south of Paulina in Crook County, ignited on July 9 and quickly grew due to strong winds. The fire burned 4,403 acres. As of Wednesday morning, it is 90% contained. All evacuation orders have been rescinded by the Crook County Sheriffs Office. Fire crews on Monday were able to contain most of the fire, which was caused by a lightning strike. Firefighters are monitoring for hot spots and are working on repairing any damage done during active suppression efforts, including repairing fences and naturalizing constructed fire lines, according to Central Oregon Fire. The Elk fire The Elk fire, which erupted early on July 7, grew to 2,699 acres and is 39% contained. The fire is burning 7 miles southwest of Beatty in Klamath County. Five structures were destroyed and 342 residences were threatened by the fire. According to South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership, fire crews from the Oregon Department of Forestry continue to make strong progress on the blaze. The fire was held by freighters within its current footprint for several consecutive days, according to South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership, an official interagency wildfire information resource. On-the-ground fire activity remains low, and containment efforts are steadily advancing. Firefighters conducted small-scale burnout operations in unburned areas between the main fire and containment lines to secure the perimeter Tuesday night, officials said. On July 9, Kotek issued her fourth conflagration for additional fighting support. High temperatures, reduced humidity and increasing winds have tested crews containing the fire, according to State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple. This latest round of lightning and continued dry conditions in Southern Oregon has kept the Oregon fire service and our wildland partners extremely busy, Ruiz-Temple said. The extended forecast is not going to provide any relief. Level 1 (be ready) evacuation orders are in place in the areas surrounding the fire. In the city of Chiloquin, the area closest to the fire, Level 2 (get set) evacuation orders are in place. The Long Point Fire The Long Point fire, another lightning-caused fire, sparked on July 9 east of the tiny city of Spray in eastern Oregon. The fire has burned 349 acres and is 86% contained as of Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. No structures were damaged. All evacuation zones have been rescinded, according to Grant County Emergency Management, and crews are continuing to line the fire, which has not grown significantly since Friday. The Bureau of Land Management has issued closures of the affected areas around the fire, as well as the Lone Pine and Big Bend campgrounds. The Oregon Department of Forestry encourages people in the area to continue to be aware of fire activity and potential hot spots. This story was updated. Kimberly Cortez covers breaking news, public safety and more for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached at kcortez@oregonian.com Our journalism needs your support. Please become a subscriber today at OregonLive.com/subscribe After 16 years of partnership with the Cleveland County Detention Center, TK Health, formerly Turn Key Health Clinics, ended its contract with the jail on June 30 following years of complaints, failed health inspections and numerous deaths within the facility. TK Health announced the decision in a letter on March 6, stating it would leave the jail at the end of the fiscal year. Cleveland County Board of Commissioners announced its contract with Redemption Correctional Healthcare Solutions as the new health care provider during a June 16 meeting. In the contract between Cleveland County and Redemption, the company wrote it formed in February specifically to provide care at the detention center. NEWSLETTERS * required Thank you for subscribing! Email * Please enter a valid email address First Name Last Name When major news breaks + a few times a week FREE SIGN UP Subscribing... The founders recognized that there has to be a better way to provide correctional healthcare, the company wrote. Comparing contracts Both TK Healths contract, which went into effect July 2023, and Redemptions contract note expected staffing levels for the detention center, with Redemption expecting more staffing hours on site than TK Health. Redemptions contract states the company will have a paramedic on-site 24/7, while TK Healths contract stated a paramedic or a licensed practical nurse would be on-site 12 hours a day, seven days a week. In TK Healths contract, a medical provider would be on-site a total of 18 hours a week, with no specified days the provider would be available. Redemptions contract states that a medical provider will be on-site four hours a day Monday through Friday and available on weekends if needed. TK Health offered an online psychiatry service for three hours on Thursdays, while Redemption plans to offer the service four hours a day, five days a week, with emergency availability on weekends. An added responsibility in Redemption's contract states it will maintain a floor stock of prescription and over-the-counter medications to ensure inmates have timely access to medications. The contract also states Redemption is expected to meet inmate medication needs until prescriptions can be filled. The new contract responsibility comes after a number of deaths in jails TK Health serviced resulted in lawsuits alleging the company failed to provide proper medication. Redemption will also offer daily provider visits, with the company being expected to conduct sick calls and visits for health maintenance throughout each week. Redemption will also maintain a call schedule for weekends on an urgent or as-needed basis. If an inmate requests a sick call, the company is required to respond within 48 hours unless immediate action is necessary. Redemption will receive a monthly reimbursement of $152,468 from the county, just over $22,000 more than the previous contractor. According to its contract, TK Healths monthly payment from the county was originally $125,055.34, until a June 2024 contract amendment raised its monthly reimbursement to $130,057.55. The July 2024 amendment also outlined the countys new security staffing expectations for TK Health. Efficient functioning of the medical program is dependent upon appropriate levels of security staffing, the amendment reads. The agency shall provide adequate security coverage for medical staff operating within the facility to ensure that medical staff are not left alone with inmates and to ensure that medical staff can complete their contracted functions. The amendment also states the detention center must notify the health care company if it cannot provide adequate security coverage. TK Health in Cleveland County The death of Jeffrey Brake, 61, marked the 11th in-custody death in the last three years for Cleveland County Detention Center. Brake suffered a medical emergency and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to a June 30 press release. According to Sarah Schettler, Norman Police Department public information officer, Brake was under NPD custody and waiting to be booked at the detention center at the time of the medical emergency. The 10th death happened in May, when Carl Douglas Kachel, 53, went into medical distress. Several in-custody deaths at the detention center have resulted in lawsuits, most notably the one filed after Shannon Hanchett, known in Norman as the Cookie Queen, died in the jail in December 2022 of heart failure. A state medical examiners autopsy report revealed significant contributing factors of psychosis with auditory and visual hallucinations and severe dehydration. Hanchett, who ran a bakery in downtown Norman, was arrested on a complaint of misdemeanor obstruction and false reporting. Friends of Hanchett said she appeared to be having a mental health crisis. Another inmate died less than two weeks after Hanchetts death. In January 2024, a federal lawsuit was filed against the Cleveland County Sheriffs Office, TK Health and three medical professionals, alleging the defendants denied Hanchett of her constitutional rights while in custody, contributing to her death. The lawsuit also claimed Hanchett was not administered any psychotropic medications as her mental health reportedly deteriorated rapidly while in custody. It was stated in the arrest report that Hanchett suffered from a mental health disorder. During booking, she told jail staff she suffered from bipolar disorder and lupus. The suit was dismissed in August. NO PAYWALL, NONPARTISAN Students pay about $14 in fees that support the Daily. If you're not a student, please join those invested in OU and Norman who have given more than $110,000 to support our trustworthy, independent journalism. SUPPORT OUR LOCAL JOURNALISM Following Hanchetts death, TK Health proposed changes to its contract with the county in February 2023 to add two new positions, increase medical and mental health professional hours and raise its monthly rates by around $43,000. The contract was amended a week later to confirm the proposed changes. Other Cleveland County deaths that resulted in lawsuits include that of Terrance Osborne, 44, who died of congestive heart failure after nearly three weeks in the jail, KGOU reported. Osbornes family filed a lawsuit in January 2023, claiming swelling in his face and legs left him unable to move, go to the bathroom or access food and medication in the days prior to his death. In 2023, Norman City Council approved a $650,000 settlement to the estate of Marconia Kessee, who died in police custody in 2018 after being found unresponsive in his cell. KGOU also reported TK Health had settled two lawsuits in 2014 under its former name, ESW Correctional Healthcare, filed by the families of Curtis Gene Pruett, who died in custody, and Lacee Danielle Marez, who fell into a coma under the companys care. Since 2022, the detention center has repeatedly failed unannounced inspections, with major complaints cited in inspection reports such as unsanitary living conditions and delayed access to hygiene products. In February, KOCO reported the jail was facing repeated health violations following a report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Inspectors also claimed the jail did not notify the department when an inmate was seriously injured in January. TK Health background, Oklahoma County services Rep. Jon Echols (R-Oklahoma City), who is currently campaigning for Oklahoma Attorney General, and his business partners founded TK Health as ESW Correctional Care in 2009 to provide nursing staff for the detention center, later shifting to become a medical provider for jails, according to Prison Legal News. In June, TK Health announced its contract with Jefferson County Corrections Facility in Beaumont, Texas. The company now partners with about 150 jails in 13 states, according to the announcement. In September, TK Health announced its departure from the Oklahoma County Detention Center in a letter to jail officials, as first reported by The Frontier. In the letter, the company said it was leaving due to a lack of staffing and new leadership at the jail, citing Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority as part of its reasoning. TK Health had been the medical contractor at the jail since 2018. Turn Key began its professional relationship with Oklahoma County under the direction of the former Sheriff, TK Health CEO Flint Junod wrote. However, since the (Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority) has taken over operations, Turn Keys ability to see patients has deteriorated substantially. KOSU reported in June that the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority approved a formal review of the authoritys performance. The review comes after the jail failed its 11th consecutive health inspection since 2019, News 9 reported in May. In September, The Frontier reported at least 45 deaths at the jail since the OCCJA took over jail operations from the county sheriff in 2020. The Frontier also reported at least 50 people under TK Healths care have died in the past decade. The investigation claims TK Health employees had, in multiple instances, failed to send inmates to the hospital when they were found to be in crisis, catatonic or refusing to eat or drink. The Frontier also stated TK Health restricted which medicines it would give inmates until last year, often withholding medications prescribed to inmates before their arrests. Former Comanche County Sheriff Chris Pounds wrote in an email in July 2021 that an inmate diagnosed with schizophrenia arrived at the jail from a mental hospital on a Thursday with a list of prescriptions. Pounds wrote the inmate was seen by a nurse Friday morning, but his prescriptions were not filled. A family member of the inmate contacted Pounds after receiving multiple phone calls from the inmate that raised concerns. Pounds wrote he investigated the situation and the prescriptions were filled and picked up that Saturday afternoon. Lawsuits In 2022, officials in Larimer County, Colorado, received bids submitted by TK Health that said the company had settled 13 lawsuits since its creation. To have only settled such a small number of claims in our thirteen-year history while serving a population that exceeds 19,000 inmates at nearly 80 operations is a record we are willing to put up against any of our competitors, the document reads. The Frontier reported a lawsuit filed by the family of Eusebio Castillo Rodriguez, who was jailed in June 2022 in Union County, Arkansas. The lawsuit claims he went untreated for five days for documented symptoms of alcohol withdrawal. Rodriguez was eventually life-flighted to a larger hospital in Little Rock where he died. In July 2023, a federal judge in Colorado denied TK Healths request to dismiss a lawsuit against one of the companys nurses. The lawsuit accused the nurse of refusing to call an ambulance for an inmate who later died in custody of drug toxicity, The Frontier reported. In 2023, the husband of Brenda Jean Sanders filed a lawsuit against TK Health following his wifes death in 2016 while under the care of TK Health, NonDoc reported. Sanders was booked into the Deer Creek jail in October 2016 and died November 21, 2016 after being transported to a hospital with sepsis, acute kidney injury and other conditions. In investigating TK Health, The Frontier reported it reviewed over 100 lawsuits involving jail deaths and injuries, many of which were dismissed for not meeting legal requirements for civil rights lawsuits. OU Daily reached out to Cleveland County and the sheriffs office, but did not receive a response before the time of publication. This story was edited by Ana Barboza and Natalie Armour. Ryan Little and Sophie Hemker copy edited this story. Norske Skog Provides Updates on 2Q 2025 Results; Options at Saugbrugs Mill The major highlight of the quarter was the commissioning of PM1 at the Norske Skog Golbey mill in France. PM1 started up in May and produces recycled containerboard. The major highlight of the quarter was the commissioning of PM1 at the Norske Skog Golbey mill in France. PM1 started up in May and produces recycled containerboard. July 16, 2025 - Norske Skog reported an EBITDA of NOK 106 million in the second quarter of 2025 down from NOK 612 million in the previous quarter, mainly due to the final insurance settlement of NOK 560 million at Norske Skog Saugbrugs in the previous quarter. Despite continued challenges in the global pulp and paper markets and low industry utilisation rates, Norske Skog continues to increase its market share across publication and packaging paper segments and marked the successful start-up of containerboard production at Norske Skog Golbey PM1 in France. The major highlight of the quarter was the commissioning of PM1 at the Norske Skog Golbey mill. The machine produced its first paper reel at the end of May, with approximately 4 000 tonnes produced during the quarter. The ramp-up will involve continued customer testing, trial deliveries, and exports in the initial phase. Utilisation is expected to reach 20-30% in the third quarter of 2025. "The start-up of PM1 at Golbey marks a key strategic milestone for Norske Skog," said Geir Drangsland, CEO of Norske Skog. "Despite encountering some project-related challenges, we have now successfully entered the ramp-up phase. We are confident that the machine will follow its planned utilisation curve and reach full capacity during the first half of 2027. "This project strengthens our position in the containerboard market and represents an important step in our long-term transformation. In addition, the investment to convert one machine at Norske Skog Skogn from newsprint to book paper is part of our long-term transformation process of not being a pure publication paper supplier," Drangsland said. In the second quarter of 2025, Norske Skog had total operating income of NOK 2 389 million down from NOK 3 101 million in the previous quarter. Operating earnings of NOK 74 million down from NOK 489 million in the previous quarter, and profit before income taxes of NOK 49 million down from NOK 442 million in the previous quarter. Equity increased from NOK 5 646 million in the previous quarter to NOK 5 877 million in the current quarter. This resulted in the equity ratio increasing from 39% to 42%. Net interest-bearing debt decreased from NOK 4 087 million in the previous quarter to NOK 3 960 million in the current quarter. In publication paper, lower deliveries due to planned and unplanned stops and slightly weaker prices were offset by lower cost of materials. In packaging paper, Norske Skog Bruck PM3 continued to perform well and delivered an EBITDA of NOK 26 million. The segment had a negative EBITDA of NOK 52 million due to relatively high fixed costs during the ramp-up phase at Norske Skog Golbey. Norske Skog maintains a strong capital position. Proceeds from the sale of Boyer, sale of CO2 allowances, and energy refund were received during the quarter. An agreement with lenders was reached to revise certain loan repayment schedules and release restricted cash accounts, supporting liquidity. Norske Skog Saugbrugs Norske Skog continues to evaluate strategic options at Norske Skog Saugbrugs, including a potential restart of PM6, closure of PM4 and PM5, and an increase in production capacity from 200 000 to 240 000 tonnes. A final decision is expected in the second half of 2025. The BCTMP project has been put on hold due to high investment requirements and challenging market conditions. "Together with the management at Norske Skog Saugbrugs, we have thoroughly reviewed all strategic opportunities for the mill," Drangsland explained. "The ongoing review of a potential restart of PM6 reflects our continued commitment to long-term industrial operations at Norske Skog Saugbrugs, while weighing sound financial discipline and a strong focus on future profitability." Norske Skog Skogn At Norske Skog Skogn, modifications on PM1 are underway to enable flexible switching between newsprint and book paper from 2026, ensuring continued responsiveness to evolving market needs. Norske Skog has appealed the decision to the Norwegian Environment Agency of excluding Norske Skog Skogn and Norske Skog Saugbrugs from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for the period 2026 to 2030 due to revised qualification criteria to the Ministry of Climate and Environment. Facilities exceeding 95% of emissions deriving from sustainable biomass will no longer qualify for free CO? allowances. Norske Skog is actively working to reverse this decision. Outlook Uncertainty and profitability pressure in both the market for publication paper and packaging paper is expected to continue due to raw material price volatility, excess production capacity, and constantly changing operating conditions. Norske Skog maintains significant emphasis on reducing the production costs and working capital to maintain its competitive position in this environment. The remaining gross investment at Norske Skog Golbey is expected to be EUR 20-25 million, and the mill is expected to receive additional EUR 52 million in investment grants and energy certificates during 2025 to 2027. Production of recycled containerboard at Norske Skog Golbey (PM1) is expected to reach full utilisation during the first half of 2027. Norske Skog monitors its capital and liquidity position closely and has several ongoing initiatives to secure financial performance and competitive position going forward. Norske Skog is a producer of packaging paper and publication paper across four mills in Europe. Packaging paper includes testliner and fluting and publication paper includes newsprint and magazine paper. The annual production capacity of packaging paper is 0.8 million tonnes, and the annual production capacity of publication paper is 1.3 million tonnes. Packaging paper and publication paper are sold through sales offices and agents. SOURCE: Norske Skog Sri Lankan police arrested a Thai tourist for walking topless at a surfing resort and causing a public nuisance, an officer said Tuesday. In largely conservative Sri Lanka, women going topless is an offense, while men are allowed to leave their torsos uncovered. The 26-year-old, whose Thai passport says she is male but who identifies as a woman, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two charges of indecent exposure and causing distress to others at Arugam Bay. A court handed her a suspended six-week sentence after social media posts showed her walking along a touristy beach strip on Monday. "She was detained at the police station overnight and taken before the magistrate today following a lot of complaints from residents as well as on social media," a local police officer told AFP. The magistrate had suspended the sentence for five years, meaning there will be no immediate imprisonment. Any repeat offense, however, would result in her having to serve the six-week term. Arugam Bay, nearly 400 km from the capital Colombo, is a popular surfing destination. Includes Anti-Infallibilist George Salmon; Vicar of Christ; Holy Father; Supreme Pontiff; Is Galileo a Catholic Difficulty? Norman L. Geisler (1932 2019) was an American evangelical Protestant theologian, philosopher, and apologist. He obtained an M.A. in theology from Wheaton College and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University, and made scholarly contributions to the subjects of classical Christian apologetics, systematic theology, philosophy of religion, Calvinism, Catholicism, biblical inerrancy, Bible difficulties, biblical miracles, the resurrection of Jesus, ethics, and other topics. He wrote or edited more 90 books and hundreds of articles. Dr. Geisler was the Chairman of Philosophy of Religion at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (197079) and Professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary (197988) and a key figure in founding the Evangelical Philosophical Society. He also co-founded Southern Evangelical Seminary. He was known as an evangelical Thomist and considered himself a moderate Calvinist. He was not an anti-Catholic (i.e., he didnt deny that Catholicism was fully a species of Christianity). This is one of a series of comprehensive replies to his book, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences (co-author, Ralph E. MacKenzie, graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary-West; Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 1995). Its available online in a public domain version, which has no page numbers, so I will utilize page numbers from my paperback copy, for the sake of full reference. I consider it the best Protestant critique of Catholicism (especially in terms of biblical arguments) that I have ever found, from any time period. The arguments are, for the most part, impressively presented, thought-provoking, respectful, respectable, and worthy of serious consideration (which Im now giving them). Ill be concentrating on the eight sections of Part Two: Areas of Doctrinal Differences (202 pages). These installments will be listed and linked on my Calvinism & General Protestantism web page, in section XVII: Catholics and Protestants (second from the end). Dr. Geislers and Ralph MacKenzies words will be in blue. My biblical citations are from RSV. ***** The classic refutation of papal infallibility was written by George Salmon, The Infallibility of the Church (1914). It has never really been answered by the Catholic church. (p. 206) Salmons pathetic anti-Catholic screed, in fact, has been roundly refuted at least twice: first, by Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Murphy in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record (March / May / July / September / November 1901 and January / March 1902): a response (see the original sources) which Ive now transcribed almost in its totality which was more than 73,000 words, or approximately 257 pages; secondly, by Bishop Basil Christopher Butler (1902-1986) in his book, The Church and Infallibility: A Reply to the Abridged Salmon (1954, 230 pages). So thats almost 500 pages of refutation, written 92 and 41 years prior to Geislers vacuous claim that no Catholic has ever really done it. Heres what I have compiled: Irish Ecclesiastical Record vs. Anti-Catholic George Salmon, Pt. 1 [3-10-23] Irish Ecclesiastical Record vs. Anti-Catholic George Salmon, Pt. 2 . . . In Which Dr. Salmon Accuses Cardinal Newman of Lying Through His Teeth in His Essay on Development, & Dr. Murphy Magnificently Defends Infallibility and Doctrinal Development Against Gross Caricature [3-12-23] Irish Ecclesiastical Record vs. Anti-Catholic George Salmon, Pt. 3 . . . In Which Our Sophist-Critic Massively Misrepresents Cardinal Newman and Utterly Misunderstands the Distinction Between Implicit and Explicit Faith [3-12-23] Irish Ecclesiastical Record vs. Anti-Catholic George Salmon, Pt. 4 . . . in which Dr. Salmon Sadly Reveals Himself to be a Hyper-Rationalistic Pelagian Heretic, and Engages in Yet More Misrepresentation of Development of Doctrine and Cardinal Newmans Statements and Positions [3-15-23] * * * * * In view of the New Testament titles used of Peter it is clear that he would never have accepted the terms used of the pope today: Holy Father (cf. Matt. 23:9) or Supreme Pontiff and Vicar of Christ. The only vicar of Christ on earth is the blessed Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26). Jesus said this of the Holy Spirit of God, not of Peter (John 16:13-14). (p. 212) * Talk about classic! This is classic contra-Catholic boilerplate unfounded argumentation: easy dismantled from Holy Scripture. Apparently, for Geisler, if the exact term doesnt appear in Scripture, then it is invalid (never mind Trinity and altar call and a host of other terms). But even here he is inconsistent. The phrase, Vicar of Christ never appears in the Bible, either, in that exact form, yet Geisler somehow knows that it can only describe the Holy Spirit. * RSV in John 14:16, 26 uses the term Counselor for the Holy Spirit. Dictionary.com defines vicar as a person who acts in place of another; substitute[;] a person who is authorized to perform the functions of another; deputy. The Holy Spirit isnt acting in Gods place because He is God (a very important point, it seems to me!). Nor is He God the Fathers deputy because He is equal to the Father. * Again, Geisler applies John 16:13 to the Holy Spirit, thinking that it proves He is the vicar but it says that the Holy Spirit would guide you into all the truth. That quality is not unique to Him. It also describes St. Paul: Romans 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ, . . . * 1 Corinthians 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit. * Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith of Gods elect and their knowledge of the truth which accords with godliness, And other Christian teachers: 2 Timothy 2:24-25 And the Lords servant must not be quarrelsome but kindly to every one, an apt teacher, forbearing, [25] correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, And the one true Church: 1 Timothy 3:15 . . . the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. But a human being can function as a vicar or substitute or agent or ambassador for and of Jesus Christ because He said so: Matthew 10:40 He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. John 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me. We also see instances of radical identification with Jesus, such as the term Body of Christ for the Church, or St. Paul partaking in Christs afflictions (Col 2:8; cf. 2 Cor 1:5-7, 4:10, 11:23-30; Gal 6:17), or our suffering with Christ (Rom 8:17; 1 Cor 15:31; 2 Cor 6:9; Gal 2:20; Phil 3:10; 1 Pet 4:1, 13). * Wheres the beef, then? Jesus routinely refers to something highly akin to vicar in Matthew 10:40 and John 13:20 and the Apostle Paul picks up on the motif in a big way. So the pope represents Christ to the world, in a particularly visible, compelling fashion. This isnt outrageous blasphemy; its straightforward biblical usage. Who is being more biblical? * The antipathy to the supposed anti-biblical title Holy Father is an equally silly and groundless argument. All one has to do to refute it is to note that there are such things as holy men referred to in the Bible. The writer of Hebrews calls the recipients of his epistle holy brethren (Heb 3:1). Peter refers to a holy priesthood (1 Pet 2:5) and holy women such as Sarah (1 Pet 3:5) and holy prophets (2 Pet 3:2; cf. Acts 3:21; Zechariahs prophecy in Luke 1:70). John the Baptist is referred to as a righteous and holy man in Mark 6:20. Jesus refers to a righteous man in Matthew 10:41. Therefore, men can be called holy in Scripture. That solves half of this pseudo-problem. Can men also be called father? Of course they can: * Google has released an important update for Chrome, fixing several vulnerabilities in new Chrome versions 138.0.7204.157/158 for Windows and macOS and 138.0.7204.157 for Linux. According to Google, one of the vulnerabilities is already being exploited by attacks in the wild. Other Chromium-based browsers should follow suit in the coming days. In the Chrome Releases blog post, Srinivas Sista lists the two vulnerabilities that were discovered by external security researchers and reported to Google. Google classifies these two vulnerabilities (CVE-2025-7656 and CVE-2025-7657) as high risk. These include an integer overflow in the V8 JavaScript engine and a use-after-free vulnerability in the WebRTC component. Srinivas Sista also lists a third vulnerability with a high risk potential: CVE-2025-6558. The cause of this error is that untrusted user input (or data originating from outside the browser) is not checked carefully enough in the ANGLE graphics library and in the GPU component. Attackers can exploit this to inject and execute malicious code. Google remains silent about the other internally discovered vulnerabilities. As a rule, Chrome updates itself automatically when a new version is available. You can manually trigger the update check using the menu item Help > About Google Chrome. Google has also released Chrome for Android 138.0.7204.157 and Chrome for iOS 138.0.7204.156, which fix the same vulnerabilities as in the desktop versions. The manufacturers of other Chromium-based browsers are now required to follow suit with their own security updates. Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi are currently at the security level prior to this Chrome update. Meanwhile, Opera 120.0.5543.61 is still on outdated Chromium 135 from April with its many security vulnerabilities still in play. Google plans to release Chrome 139 at the beginning of August. Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers are planning to build three hyperscale data center campuses on a nearly 700-acre site in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, near Carlisle. Rendering provided $26 Billion! Thats the staggering amount of money planned for three data center projects in the works in south central Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers are planning a $15 billion data center campus in the Carlisle area. It was presented Tuesday at an energy conference that drew President Donald Trump and Gov. Josh Shapiro as among the second-largest projects. Only one similar project of 18 across the state will draw a bigger investment. The other commitments announced Tuesday for central Pa., include: a $6 billion investment by CoreWeave to build a data center in the Lancaster area. And a $5 billion project by Energy Capital Partners to develop a data center in York County. The central Pa. projects were among a series of announcements made as part of U.S. Sen. Dave McCormicks Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on Tuesday. Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers are planning to build three hyperscale data center campuses on a nearly 700-acre site in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, near Carlisle. This landmark deal with PowerHouse represents a pivotal step for our expansion across Pennsylvaniaa state uniquely positioned for data center development thanks to our state and local leaders willing to tap its abundant natural power resources," said Igal J. Feibush, CEO of Pennsylvania Data Center Partners, according to a news release. Were proud to help lead the charge in building the infrastructure that will define the next era of AI and technological innovation. The three data center campuses will each have six buildings and a dedicated 450 megawatt substation. The new AI data hub, Pennsylvania Digital I will deliver 1.35 gigawatts of capacity with expandability up to 1.8 GW. Last month, Middlesex Township supervisors voted to adopt land use rules for data centers that would apply to 694 acres of currently undeveloped land off Country Club Road. This venture between Pennsylvania Data Center Partners and PowerHouse Data Centers is groundbreaking for AI infrastructure, McCormick said in the news release. Its a bold and meaningful investment that puts Pennsylvania at the heart of Americas emerging AI tech economy. In Lancaster County, CoreWeave has announced it intends to build an initial 100 megawatt data center with the potential to expand to 300 megawatts, the company said in a news release. The demand for high-performance AI compute is relentless, Michael Intrator, co-founder, chairman of the board, and CEO of CoreWeave, said in a different news release. This data center will accelerate innovation and drive economic growth across the region. CoreWeave didnt identify the exact location, how large the data center will be or when it will open. CoreWeave said it will be the tenant of a site, co-developed by Chirisa Technology Parks and Machine Investment Group. The company said the project is expected to create about 600 jobs during the construction phase, with approximately 70 full-time technical and operational roles at launch, and scaling to about 175 over time. CoreWeave has 33 AI data centers, including 28 in the United States. In York County, Energy Capital Partners is planning to develop a data center at the York II Energy Center. The project is expected to create 2,500 new construction jobs. In addition, Energy Capital Partners plans to develop 51 community solar projects designed to power 24,000 homes. Big changes are underway for a Lebanon County lumber company and more than 100 employees will be laid off. Weaber Inc. doing business as ChoiceWood filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, informing the state it is closing its distribution center at 25 Keystone Drive in South Lebanon Township, and 145 full-time employees will be laid off. The company is restructuring and is moving some employees from the distribution center at 25 Keystone Drive in South Lebanon Township, closing that facility and then continuing operations at 1231 Mount Wilson Road in South Annville Township. The layoffs will begin on August 26 and will continue through September 9. The WARN Act is federal legislation that offers protection to workers, their families, and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of a covered business closing and a covered-business mass layoff. The WARN notice was dated June 26. Choicewood is also closing its facility at 11117 Skyline Drive in Oil Creek Township, Crawford County, near Titusville on Aug. 25, and 46 people will be laid off. Weaber was founded in 1941. ChoiceWood was founded in 1984. The suspect in the fatal July 13 shooting in the 400 block of East Marble Street in Mechanicsburg was a law clerk for Cumberland County's President Judge. (Photos courtesy of Natalie Rowe) Natalie Rowe A man charged with fatally shooting another man at his Mechanicsburg home Sunday was an attorney working as a law clerk for Cumberland County President Judge Albert Masland, PennLive has confirmed. Police arrested Richard Lee King Jr., 35, Sunday after Mechanicsburg police found him sitting outside his house in the 400 block of East Marble Street, next to a man lying facedown with gunshot wounds, court documents said. The victim has not yet been publicly identified. King told police hed shot the man with a handgun, according to court documents. PennLive confirmed King was employed as a full-time law clerk for Masland. Kings start date with the county was not immediately available, and Masland declined comment on the situation Tuesday. But government websites showed he earned his law license in January 2020 and worked for the county as an attorney since 2020. PennLive has filed a records request to gain more information about Kings past and current employment status. Officials would not say Tuesday whether King had been placed on leave. Cumberland County District Attorney Sean McCormack said Kings employment is the primary reason he saw fit to ask the state Attorney Generals office to take over the case. McCormack, in a telephone interview Tuesday, explained its not apparent to him there would have been a conflict in prosecuting the case. But Masland is the president judge in Cumberland County, and regularly rules on criminal cases the district attorney prosecutes. The law clerks assist in that process by researching case law, contributing to opinions and taking on other administrative roles as assigned. So, McCormack said, by referring the case to the state Attorney Generals office, it will be easier to avoid the appearance of a conflict. Its better to do it the right way from the beginning, McCormack said. The affidavit of probable cause filed by Mechanicsburg police said a witness called 911 after seeing a man who appeared to be dead lying in the grass outside Kings house. Police said they found a blood trail in Kings home leading from the living room to the front porch, then into the yard to where the victims body was. A Glock handgun was found in Kings bedroom, with a loaded magazine and spent casing, according to the affidavit. During a police interview, King said he shot the victim when the victim attacked him. King said he was not hurt, and there were no obvious injuries on his body, the affidavit said. King, a Mechanicsburg native, is a graduate of Mechanicsburg High School, earned his bachelors degree from Penn State and his law degree from Penn State Dickinson Law. He stands charged with homicide and is being held at the Cumberland County Prison without bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 23. Staff writers Jonathan Bergmueller and Jenna Wise contributed to this report. Tips from community members led to an arrest after a motorcyclist vandalized a drivers car while she was in it last month. Derry Township police on Tuesday announced the arrest related to the incident at 12:10 a.m. June 29, near Mill Street and Old West Chocolate Avenue. Thats when the driver said two motorcyclists confronted her. One of the motorcyclists punched her drivers side mirror, ripped it off and threw it behind the car. The suspect, a man with a long brown beard wearing a black sleeveless t-shirt and pants, left the area on an orange Harley-Davidson Ultra-style motorcycle. Only one of the motorcycle riders is accused of a crime, police said. Community members helped investigators identify the motorcyclist, though the date and time of the arrest were not specified. In a news release Tuesday about the arrest, police titled the update: Objects in mirror may be angrier than they appear. Police are expected to release the suspects name, age and more details about his arrest in the coming days. Police did not say what charges he could face nor what prompted the road rage. Oddly, the incident represented the second time in June that two motorcyclists were accused of attacking another driver in a road rage incident within one mile in the township. Derry Township Police responded to a separate road rage incident on June 1, after a driver said two brothers on motorcycles cut him off, then after he pulled over, punched him in the face 20 times near West Granada Avenue and Ridge Road. PennLive could not reach police officials Tuesday to ask if the incidents were connected in any way. A New York man suspected of belonging to an international fraud ring posed as a federal employee and stole over $555,000 in gold bars from an elderly womans Lancaster County home, police said. Zhong Ren, 44, of Brooklyn, was charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, impersonating a public servant, and two counts of conspiracy, according to court documents filed by Ephrata police July 10. The charges followed an elderly womans report of the loss of $555,892 in gold in April and mirror a national uptick in scams involving gold bars. In this case, police said the scammers accessed the womans computer and convinced her to convert her investment accounts into gold in March. Scammers then convinced her to give them the gold bars, claiming someone was trying to steal from her investment accounts. The scammers told the woman the gold would be placed in a federal reserve vault in Philadelphia while a fraud claim was being investigated. In April, scammers posing as federal employees visited the womans home twice and took all the gold bars. A complex investigation by Ephrata police and the Buckingham police in Bucks County, led to one of the suspects being identified as Ren. Police said Ren may be part of an international fraud ring. He was taken to Lancaster County Prison with bail set at $550K which he was unable to post, according to online court documents. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 18 before Judge Torrey Landis. The FBI issued warnings last year about the rise of scams involving buying gold bars primarily targeting senior citizens. The thefts cost Americans a total of $219 million in 2024, according to a report from CNET. How the scam works Criminals contact victims by phone, email, or text, posing as trusted sources like government agencies, banks, or tech companies. They claim the victims money isnt safe in the bank and convince them to withdraw their savings and convert it into gold bars, claiming its the only way to protect their money. A fake courier is then sent to the victims home to collect the gold, claiming it will be securely stored or used to protect their assetsbut instead, the gold is stolen, and the victim is left with nothing. Last year, the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions issued a warning telling consumers that no government agency will ever ask you to buy gold or use a courier to collect your money. How to avoid getting scammed Hang up immediately if someone asks you to withdraw money or buy gold, experts advise. They also recommend the following tips: Avoid clicking on links in emails or texts if you suspect they may be scams. Never share personal information or agree to meet with a stranger. Hang up immediately if someone asks you to buy gold or withdraw money. Contact the government agency or your bank directly to verify any claims. Use official contact information, not links or information provided by callers or through messages. Be cautious of any call or email demanding immediate action. If you feel youve been targeted by the gold bar scam, contact police and notify your bank or credit union immediately. You should also report the scam to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, the Federal Trade Commission and your state attorney generals office. A Philadelphia woman has been charged after the body of a 4-month-old infant was found in a trash bag stuffed inside a bassinet in a New Jersey home. Ebony Gee, 43, was arrested on July 11 and charged with desecration of human remains and witness tampering, police said. Gee had been caring for the child at her partners home in Camden, New Jersey, earlier this year when she suddenly refused to allow the parents or her partner to see the infant, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Gees partner told police she kept the baby in a second-floor room of the home and would not allow anyone into the room. It is not clear why Gee was caring for the baby, the Inquirer said. Then, on May 19, Gees partner went into the room and found the infant dead inside a trash bag and stuffed inside the bassinet. She then contacted the authorities. The childs parents confirmed to police that Gee had been caring for the child. An autopsy was unable to determine the cause or manner of death due to the decomposition of the body, NBC10 reported. Anyone with information about this case is asked to call either Detective Matthew Kreidler of the Camden County Prosecutors Office Homicide Unit at 856-930-5355 or Detective Brandon Bolger of the Camden County Police Department at 609-519-3981. The Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) is designating three Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, facilitators in Africa. These individuals, designated on July 14, have served as key ISIS financiers and operatives, facilitating the activities of the terrorist group and its leaders operating across the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and South Africa. The Terrorist Financing Targeting Center is a multilateral body created to strengthen cooperation among seven countries - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and the United States - to disrupt terrorist financing networks and related activities of mutual concern. Established in 2017, it is focused on coordinating joint disruptive actions, including targeted sanctions, exchanging actionable information on terrorist financing networks, and providing capacity-building workshops to strengthen institutional defenses against terrorist financing. One of those designated is Zayd Gangat. He is a South Africa-based ISIS facilitator and trainer. ISIS leaders in South Africa have historically used robbery, extortion, and kidnap for ransom operations to generate funds for the group. Also designated is DRC-based Hamidah Nabagala, who serves as an intermediary for ISIS financial flows in central Africa. Additionally, Nabagala has been accused of funding the October 2021 Kampala bombing, which killed one and injured at least three others. In 2021, Ugandan authorities arrested an ISIS operative that had received funding from Nabagala. She also sought to smuggle her three children out of Uganda to send them to ISIS-affiliate camps in the DRC. Since 2019, Abdiweli Mohamed Yusuf has been the head of the ISIS affiliate in Somalia and personally played a key role in the delivery of foreign fighters, supplies and ammunition on behalf of ISIS-Somalia, which serves as a hub for disbursing funds and guidance to ISIS branches and networks across the continent. ISIS-Somalia has generated up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a month through extortion and other illicit enterprises, totally $2.5 million in 2021 and $2 million in the first half of 2022. The designations underscores our shared commitment to disrupting the ability of ISIS and other terrorist groups to access the international financial system wherever they seek to operate, said Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith. The United States, along with our TFTC partners, remains resolved to target the terrorist groups, their financiers, and their facilitation networks that enable their deadly attacks and destabilizing activities around the globe. A view of Toussaint Louverture International Airport, foreground, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The U.S, recently issued a travel advisory, warning against anyone who intends to visit. (Jose A. Iglesias/Miami Herald/TNS) TNS If youre packing your bags and going on vacation overseas, take heed, because the U.S. is reminding travelers to avoid a certain Caribbean country this summer. On July 15, the United States Department of State reissued its most severe travel advisory for Haiti, warning all Americans not to travel to the Caribbean country for any reason, due to kidnapping, crime, terrorist activity, civil unrest, and limited health care. But the warning against traveling to the dangerous country isnt anything new as the country has been seen as a high-risk travel destination for quite some time. The advisory was updated on Tuesday morning to include the risk of terrorist violence. In July 2023, the Department of State ordered nonemergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave the country due to security risks, the latest advisory reads. Haiti has been under a State of Emergency since March 2024. Crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom. Do not travel to Haiti for any reason. As outlined in the advisory, kidnapping is a huge factor and is widespread, to which U.S. citizens have been victims and have been hurt or killed. Once taken, U.S. victims families have paid tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to rescue family members. Besides the threat of kidnapping and robbery, Haiti is at an increased risk of violent crime and terrorism, which places travelers at an increased risk even if they arent involved in the violence. The travel advisory warns that there is widespread violent crime and organized crime in the country, and local law enforcement has limited ability to respond to serious crimes. Violent crime is rampant in Haiti, especially in Port-au-Prince, where the expansion of gang, organized crime, and terrorist activity has led to widespread violence, kidnappings, and sexual assault. The escalation of clashes between armed groups has led to a rise in sporadic gunfire incidents. There is a substantial risk of being struck by stray bullets, even for individuals not directly involved in the violence. There is risk of terrorist violence, including attacks and other violent gang activity in Haiti. There are gangs that are designated as terrorist organizations present in Haiti. Its also worth noting that the United States warns that its limited in its ability to offer assistance to anyone who chooses to travel to Haiti. The U.S. government is very limited in its ability to help U.S. citizens in Haiti. Local police and first responders often do not have enough resources. This limits their ability to respond to emergencies or serious crimes. Shortages of gasoline, electricity, medicine, and medical supplies are common throughout the country. Public and private clinics, as well as hospitals, have untrained staff and lack basic resources. Medical providers almost always require upfront payment in cash, the advisory warns. Keep in mind that there are four levels of travel advisories from the State Department, with the Level 4 advisory, which was given to Haiti, being the most severe. Vice President JD Vance walks off Air Force Two on arrival at Wilkes-Barre Scranton Airport in Avoca, Pa., Wednesday, July 16, 2025, as he travels to speak about the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act". (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP) AP WEST PITTSTON Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday made the Trump administrations first big pitch to sell the public on President Donald Trumps sweeping budget-and-policy package in the swing political turf of northeastern Pennsylvania. The vice president, whose tiebreaking vote got the bill through the Senate, touted the legislations tax breaks and cast Democrats as opponents of the cutting taxes because of their unanimous opposition to the legislation. Democrats, whove decried the laws cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, are expected to try to use it against Republicans in closely contested congressional campaigns next year, including one expected to play out in the working class-area where Vance promoted the legislation. We worked so hard to get this legislation passed to cut your taxes, to prevent big tax increases, to make it easier to save and invest in our own country and our own people once again, Vance said. The Republican vice president, speaking at a machine shop in West Pittston, spotlighted the bills new tax deductions on overtime. Now, thanks to President Trumps leadership, if you work overtime, the federal government is not going to take a dime of that overtime, Vance said. You earned that money. You ought to keep it in your pocket. He also promoted the legislations creation of a new childrens savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury Department. And with an eye toward the elections next year that will determine control of Congress, Vance urged the crowd, many wearing Make America Great Again hats, to talk about what the bill does for American citizens over the next year and a half. The historic legislation, which Trump signed into law earlier this month with near unanimous Republican support, includes key campaign pledges like no tax on tips but also cuts Medicaid and food stamps by $1.2 trillion. Democrats recently held a town hall in House Speaker Mike Johnsons home state of Louisiana to denounce the legislation as a reverse Robin Hood stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Vances office declined to elaborate on plans for other public events around the U.S. to promote the bill. Its unclear how much Trump plans to promote it himself. He told NBC News last week that he would travel a little bit to help champion the measure he dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill. But honestly, he said, Its been received so well I dont think I have to. The battle for control of the messaging on the bill could be critical to how well the measure is ultimately received, as some of the most divisive parts of the law, including Medicaid and food assistance cuts, are timed to take effect only after the midterm elections. The bill was generally unpopular before its passage, polls showed, although some individual provisions are popular, like boosting the annual child tax credit and eliminating taxes on tips. West Pittston, which sits in Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahans district in northeastern Pennsylvania, is a place where Trumps populist brand of politics has found a foothold. Trumps popularity with the white working class has accelerated the political shift in nearby areas, including around Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, turning reliably Democratic areas into contested turf and contributing to Trumps 2024 win in Pennsylvania. There, and in a swing district around Allentown just to the south, Republicans last year knocked off two Democratic U.S. House incumbents after years of trying. Walter Volinski, a 74-year-old retiree from nearby Swoyersville, said he liked that the bill extended the tax cuts that Trump enacted in his first term. He said he hasnt read the nearly 900-page legislation but he thinks most politicians havent either. Still, Volinski said, I trust Donald Trump and the Republican Party to make this country a great country again. Steven Taylor, a 52-year-old truck driver from West Pittston, thought the new law would help people struggling to pay their bills. Taylor, a Republican who voted for Trump, said he liked that the law contained tax breaks on tips and overtime pay. Everybodys hurting out here, he said. We need a little extra help. But Taylor said he was concerned that his nephew, who has diabetes, could be affected by the legislations cuts to Medicaid. We dont know as of yet. But were really hopeful that it doesnt, Taylor said. Maegan Zielinski, a 33-year-old small business owner from Wilkes-Barre who was among a group of people protesting Vances appearance, said she worried the law will hurt vulnerable people, including those on Medicaid and Medicare. I do not like that it continues to support the billionaires instead of the working-class people of America, continuing to give them tax breaks while middle-class America suffers, she said. Debate over the budget-and-policy package is expected to shape the 2026 midterm battle for control of the House, which Democrats see as their best opportunity to block Trumps agenda in his final two years in the Oval Office. Democrats need a net gain of three House seats to break Republican control of Washington. As Republicans see it, theyve now delivered broad tax cuts, funding to further boost border security and restraints on costly social safety net programs. Democrats see a law that rolls back health insurance access, threatens the solvency of rural hospitals and raises costs for middle-class Americans while cutting taxes mostly for the rich and slashing green energy subsidies. Bresnahans seat is a top Democratic target. While Bresnahan hasnt drawn a challenger in the 2026 election, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has aggressively gone after the states Republican members of Congress who voted for the bill, including Bresnahan. Shame on these members of Congress who spent the last few months saying, Oh, Ill never cut Medicaid, Shapiro said during an appearance earlier this month on WILK-FM radio in Wilkes-Barre. I mean, Rep. Bresnahan told you, your listeners, your newspapers, told me to my face, this was a red line in the sand for him, he wouldnt harm people on Medicaid, he wouldnt harm our rural hospitals. He caved and voted for this bill. Bresnahan has defended his vote by saying it strengthens Medicaid by cracking down on fraud, waste and abuse and requiring those who can work to do so. He also said it ensures hospitals in northeastern Pennsylvania will qualify for the funding they need to stay open. Former federal Judge John E. Jones III is among more than 80 former judges who signed a letter in strong opposition to the appointment of Emil Bove to the federal bench. photo submitted by Dickinson College Dozens of retired judges, including former federal Judge John E. Jones III of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, signed a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders opposing a Trump judicial nominee as unfit for the bench. The letter details examples of Emil Boves actions that led more than 80 judges to issue their strong opposition to Boves nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Mr. Boves egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position, the letter read. Among the examples in the letter: As a top Justice Department official, Bove targeted or terminated FBI and career Department of Justice prosecutors for investigating violent criminals who attacked police and threatened members of Congress during the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Bove told DOJ attorneys to ignore court orders barring Trump from deporting immigrants and directed law enforcement officers to engage in illegal acts. The deeply inappriated nomination of Trumps own former criminal defense attorney especially when that president has said he is nominating judges based on whether they will be more loyal to him than to the country. The letter stressed the independance and credibility of the judiciary depend on nominees with unwavering respect for the law. Elevating a nominee whose record reflects a pattern of misconduct, disregard for lawful authority, and political entanglement would not only compromise the integrity of the courts, it would set a dangerous precedent that judicial power may be wielded in service of personal fealty rather than constitutional duty, the letter said. If confirmed, Bove would serve a lifetime appointment on the federal bench. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handles appeals out of Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on Boves nomination on Thursday. Jones, who served as a federal judge for 20 years, is president of Dickinson College. He has provided legal analysis for CNN and other news outlets, particularly involving Trumps cases. Jones and about 20 other former federal judges this spring launched a new group, the Article III Coalition, to protect an independent judiciary and defend the rule of law. President Donald Trump's story about his uncle and the Unabomber, shared at the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University on July 15 is completely implausible. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) AP President Donald Trumps rambling story Tuesday about his uncle teaching the Unabomber has raised some eyebrows because theres no evidence to back it up. Trump, 79, deviated from prepared remarks during U.S. Sen. Dave McCormicks innovation and energy summit in Pittsburgh to share a story about his uncle, John Trump, a noted MIT professor, teaching Ted Kaczynski, the mail-bomb terrorist who killed three people and injured 23 others from 1978 to 1995. The president recalled asking his uncle about Kaczynski. I said, What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr. John Trump. He said, What kind of a student? And, he said, seriously good Hed go around correcting everybody. But it didnt work out too well for him, Trump said in a video shared by @TheRecount on X/Twitter. One problem with the story is that John Trump died in 1985, 11 years before Kaczynski was arrested and became well-known. Also, theres no evidence that Kaczynski, who attended Harvard and the University of Michigan, ever took classes at MIT. John Trump taught at MIT from 1936 to 1973 before becoming a senior lecturer for another 12 years. Kendall Witmer, the Democratic National Committees rapid response director, told the DailyBeast.com that Trump is fascinated by all types of seedy characters. The Unabomber. Hannibal Lecter. Kid Rock, which makes it all the more surprising that he suddenly takes little to no interest in Jeffrey Epstein and his list after campaigning on releasing the Epstein files for years. Makes you think. During an AI summit, Trump claims his uncle, MIT professor John Trump, taught the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, at MIT. Kaczynski attended Harvard and the University of Michigan. pic.twitter.com/MRUbKy57hr The Recount (@therecount) July 15, 2025 Trumps claim that his uncle was the longest-serving professor in the history of MIT is also untrue. An MIT official told Newsweek in January 2024, after Trump made the same claim, that John Trump was not the longest-serving professor in MIT history even though he taught there for a total of 49 years. The official said that at least 10 people have been professors at MIT for no less than 53 years. Although Prof. Trump would not be the longest-serving faculty member in the history of MIT, he was certainly a valued member of the community for many decades and among the longest-serving faculty, the official said. Trump also took credit, without sharing details, for attracting $16 trillion in investments in the United States since taking office. That seems farfetched because the entire domestic GDP is less than $30 trillion. Political newsletter Semafor said Trumps $16 trillion claim was a figure that (if true) would boost the nations entire economic output by more than half. Reuters reported in May that Trumps claim of $2 trillion secured in foreign investments after a trip to the Persian Gulf region was likely overblown. Its tally of the announced deals totaled $700 billion, Reuters said. Also in May, AlJazeera.com reported that Trumps claims on investments had grown to $10 trillion but the total of deals released by the White House was $2.1 trillion with another $3 trillion possible based on promises from other nations. Experts cautioned that the promised corporate investments are not guaranteed to materialize in full, or during Trumps presidency, and some of them would have occurred regardless of who was president, Al Jazeera wrote. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol, Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) AP Many celebrities and politicians have called for the release of the Epstein Files, but none of them have done so via song, until now. On July 14, Georgia Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson Jr., posted a short clip on X to the tune of the Jason Isbell song Dreamsicle, asking for the release of the files. Im Congressman Hank Johnson, coming to give you some more ear candy, or perhaps an earache, but Im going to do my best off of this Jason Isbell tune, Dreamsicle. After the brief introduction, Johnson began his song, which went something like this: Epstein died by suicide. Believe that and you must be blind. Youve been telling us youd release the files, but where are they? Weve gone along with whats been told. Youve had plenty of time. Youre in control. But now you say you will withhold Epstein files, Dreamsicle on a summer night, a folding lawn chair, Trumps howling at the moon. Release the Epstein files soon. Under the post, thousands of people let Johnson know they werent sure his singing would help the situation, with many telling him the video was more of an earache. One person wrote, If he had a trustworthy friend, they would advise him against singing. Another wrote, ... youre not helping. A little cringey, one critic said. Johnsons song comes after the FBI and the Justice Department said Epstein didnt keep a client list. President Trump released a lengthy rant on Truth Social urging people to stop talking about Epstein. One year ago, our Country was DEAD, now its the HOTTEST Country anywhere in the World, Trump wrote. Lets keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. Thank you for your attention to this matter! This isnt Johnsons first song, as he put out a song in June called Hey Trump to the tune of Jimi Hendrixs Hey Joe. Much of central Pennsylvania is under a flood watch as stationary weather patterns continue to dump rain on the region. Mark Palczewski | Special to PennLive. The frequent rain across much of Pennsylvania has led to flooding in many areas. In particular, the risk of flash floods has grown, as the high moisture in the air and lack of strong winds lead to stationary storms that dump rain into localized areas. Forecasts from earlier today suggest that mid- to late-afternoon storms may bring around 2 inches of rain. Residents of low-lying areas should be aware that the potential for sudden flooding remains high. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for much of central Pennsylvania, including Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder and York counties, among several others, starting at 5 p.m. today. If you remember, back in late June, we had that extreme heat wave, said Kyle Elliot, director of the Weather Information Center at Millersville University. And then at the end of that, the heat wave was broken by heavy showers and thunderstorms on June 30. Those thunderstorms at the end of June were the start of a heavy trend of rain, Elliot said, and the first of the big flooding events. The weather pattern has remained largely in place since then, he said, as other than a brief respite around the July 4 weekend, no cold front has pushed it out of our area. Were left with ... this really warm and oppressively humid air mass, with these incredibly high amounts of moisture in the atmosphere, Elliot said. And so any time a disturbance comes through and triggers those showers and storms, they tap into those high amounts of moisture and instability. He added that the lack of wind, both at the surface and throughout the depth of the atmosphere, means that theres really no flow to steer the storms from county to county. So when [storms] develop, they essentially move very slowly, or become stationary over the same areas, he said. They can sit there and dump out copious amounts of rain for one to three hours at a time. The result, as weve seen in many places, is several inches of rain and with already heavily saturated conditions, lots of runoff, which leads to flooding. Elliots forecast calls for more rounds of showers and heavy storms over the next seven to ten days. But after that, we may finally catch a break. And with luck, even the coming rainstorms wont be quite as stationary as they have been. We are going to start to see some more flow throughout the atmosphere, Elliot said. So these storms arent going to be as slow moving as what weve seen over the last two to three weeks. Unfortunately, until we see that break, the areas that have been hardest hit with flooding should brace for more. Elliot said that areas in eastern Adams County, western York County and western Lancaster County were hit hard over the previous weekend. It would only take about one inch of rain in a six-hour period to trigger flash flooding, he cautioned. If those areas do get hit by the worst storms again, were going to have a serious issue on our hands. Here is the forecast from the National Weather Service: This Afternoon Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly after 5 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 88. South wind around 6 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Tonight Showers and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 2 a.m. Some of the storms could produce heavy rainfall. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. Light south wind. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. Thursday A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 3 p.m. Mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 93. West wind 6 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Thursday Night A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8 p.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 73. Northwest wind around 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. North wind around 7 mph. Friday Night Partly cloudy, with a low around 66. Saturday A chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 p.m. Partly sunny, with a high near 84. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Last week, the Houthis launched unprovoked terror attacks on two civilian cargo vessels, Magic Seas and Eternity C, in the Red Sea. The latter attack resulted in the tragic loss of at least four mariners, many others injured, and the complete loss of both ships. The Houthis then kidnapped many of the crew of Eternity C, adding to the numbers the Houthis have unjustifiably detained, said John Kelley said Acting U.S. Representative to the United Nations. We call for the kidnapped crew members immediate and unconditional release, just as we continue to call for the release of staff of the UN, NGOs, and diplomatic missions. The United States strongly condemns these attacks, which demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthis pose to freedom of navigation and regional security. Mr. Kelley urged the Security Council to give its full support to UN mechanisms that actually do make a difference in countering the Houthi threat, including the Yemen Panel of Experts. This panel was established by the Security Council to monitor and report on the implementation of sanctions related to Yemen, particularly those targeting individuals and entities threatening the country's security. They also provide assessments and recommendations on issues such as human rights violations and military developments in the region. Another important UN tool for enforcement of Resolution 2216 is the UN Verification and Inspection Mechanism, or UNVIM, said Mr. Kelley. If Council members want to support UN efforts that truly contribute to peace and security in Yemen, then, once again, we urge financial support for UNVIM. These [Houthi] attacks have compromised the free passage of commerce through the Red Sea, noted Ambassador Dorothy Shea, Acting U.S. Representative to the United Nations. By some reports, these attacks have also more than doubled the cost of insuring commercial vessels operating in the Red Sea. Ambassador Shea demanded that all Houthi attacks against vessels transiting the Red Sea cease immediately and permanently. Finally, she said, we condemn Irans ongoing violations of Security Council Resolution 2216, which enable Houthi terrorism like these attacks against commercial vessels. This Council must not tolerate Irans defiance of its resolutions. CHEYENNE, WY On January 2, 2025, the Laramie County Clerks Office informed the Laramie County Sheriffs Office that a number of individuals who voted in the 2024 primary or general elections had been flagged for potential voting irregularities. These concerns were based on two primary factors: citizenship status and prior felony convictions. Thirteen individuals were flagged for potential ineligibility to vote due to concerns about their citizenship status. Sheriffs Office detectives worked closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to verify each individuals status. Following... Countdown to the Massive 2025 Goliath Is On! Flight A Starts July 26 Matthew Pitt Senior Editor Copy link The 2025 World Series of Poker (WSOP) saw some huge fields this summer, but it is now almost time for a potentially record-breaking live event on British soil. Since its inception in 2011, Grosvenor's Goliath has, with the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic, seen its attendance increase year on year, topping out at an incredible 11,749 in 2024. With online satellites running at Grosvenor Poker and PokerStars, live satellites at the Grosvenor G Casino in Coventry, and the Goliath's buy-in remaining an affordable 200, the 2025 edition has every chance of continuing that trend and attracting more than 12,000 players to the Midlands. Eight flights are available between July 26 and August 1, including a turbo-structured Day 1H. Each flight is scheduled to last 18 levels. The non-turbo flights play 14 levels of 30 minutes before extending to 40 minutes until the tournament's conclusion on August 3. The turbo flight has 15-minute levels. Unlimited re-entries are permitted until the end of the 12th level, making winning several seats online or at the venue worthwhile. Those who make it through to Day 2 on August 2 will continue the grind until only ten percent of the field remains. That top 10% will then return on August 3 to battle away until a champion emerges. 2025 Goliath Schedule Date Time (BST) Location Event Levels Sat 26 Jul 12:00 p.m. Hall 3&4 Goliath Flight A 18 Sun 27 Jul 12:00 p.m. Hall 3&5 Goliath Flight B 18 Mon 28 Jul 12:00 p.m. Hall 3&4 Goliath Flight C 18 Tue 29 Jul 12:00 p.m. Hall 3&5 Goliath Flight D 18 Wed 30 Jul 12:00 p.m. Hall 3&5 Goliath Flight E 18 Thu 31 Jul 11:00 a.m. Hall 3&5 Goliath Flight F 18 Fri 1 Aug 11:00 a.m. Hall 3&5 Goliath Flight G 18 6:00 p.m. Hall 4&5 Goliath Flight H Turbo 18 Sat 2 Aug 11:00 a.m. Hall 3&4&5 Day 2 To 10% of field Sun 3 Aug 11:00 a.m. Hall3&4&5 Day 3 To Finish Past Goliath Champions William Watkins William Watkins is the reigning Goliath champion. Watkins was one of 11,749 entrants in the 2024 Goliath and was eventually the last player standing. Due to how large the 1,879,840 prize pool was for a 200 buy-in, all nine members of the final table decided to discuss a deal. Those discussions resulted in a nine-handed deal being struck. Watkins and fellow big stacks Gilbert Black and Steven Ricketts locked in six-figure prizes, while the rest of the field guaranteed themselves prizes ranging from 55,580 to 91,655. The latter went to James Hearty, who had won his 2024 Goliath seat for a mere 5 in an online satellite at Grosvenor Poker. The finalists continued playing for the trophy and the title of champion, with Watkins emerging victorious after his ace-king of clubs improved to two pair on the river after Black had flopped two pair with his queen-nine. Year Buy-in Entries Prize Pool Winner Prize 2011 120 1,765 176,500 Lee Rawson 32,705 2012 120 1,954 200,000 Les Fenton 35,800 2013 120 2,570 257,000 Jake Skidmore 29,690 2014 120 3,394 339,400 Ryan Foster 62,320 2015 120 4,210 421,000 Miikka Toikka 70,800 2016 120 5,232 523,200 Vamshi Vandanapu 62,750 2017 120 6,385 638,500 Elliot Marais 85,760 2018 125 7,584 758,400 Florian Duta 101,450 2019 125 9,300 911,410 Lee Reynolds 64,601 2020 online 125 2,013 231,495 "WRDortmund7" 42,248 2021 online 110 2,722 272,200 "Whityestar" 54,460 2022 150 10,584 1,270,080 Kyle Jeffrey 200,000 2023 150 11,493 1,324,000 Alex Todd 176,800 2024 200 11,749 1,804,640 William Watkins 166,058 Full 2025 Goliath Schedule Although the potentially gargantuan Goliath takes center stage during the festival, there are plenty of other events for those heading to Coventry to get their teeth into. They include a 1,250 GUKPT Main Event, a 1,500 High Roller, and the eagerly anticipated 550 PokerNews Cup. Date Time (BST) Event Thu 24 Jul 12:00 p.m. 1,250 GUKPT Main Event Day 1A 7:00 p.m. 140 GUKPT Main Event Cashout Satellite Fri 25 Jul 11:00 a.m. 120 RedTooth Opener 12:00 p.m. 1,250 GUKPT Main Event Day 1B 2:00 p.m. 140 GUKPT Main Event Cashout Satellite 7:00 p.m. 100 RedTooth Hyper Turbo 9:00 p.m. 1,250 GUKPT Main Event Day 1C Turbo Sat 26 Jul 11:00 a.m. 120 RedTooth Bounty 11:00 a.m. 1,250 GUKPT Main Event Day 1D Turbo 12:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight A 3:30 p.m. 1,250 GUKPT Main Event Day 2 4:00 p.m. 165 High Roller Cashout Satellite 7:00 p.m. 200 RedTooth Malta 52 Tag Team Sun 27 Jul 11:00 a.m. 100 RedTooth Open 11:00 a.m. 165 High Roller Cashout Turbo Satellite 12:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight B 12:00 p.m. 200 Ladies Event 1:00 p.m. GUKPT Main Event Day 3 4:00 p.m. 1,500 High Roller Day 1 7:00 p.m. 125 RedTooth Big One Day 1 7:00 p.m. 440 Cardroom Direct Mystery Bounty Day 1A Mon 28 Jul 12:00 p.m. RedTooth Big One Day 2 12:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight C 12:00 p.m. GUKPT Main Event Final Table 2:15 p.m. 1,500 High Roller Day 2 4:00 p.m. 330 Super High Roller Cashout Satellite 7:00 p.m. 440 Cardroom Direct Mystery Bounty Day 1B Tue 29 Jul 12:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight D 12:00 p.m. 3,000 Super High Roller Day 1 6:00 p.m. 250 PLO 4-Card 7:00 p.m. 440 Cardroom Direct Mystery Bounty Day 1C Wed 30 Jul 12:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight E 2:00 p.m. 440 Cardroom Direct Mystery Bounty Day 2 4:00 p.m. 3,000 Super High Roller Day 2 6:30 p.m. 100 Joker's Wild Does Carer's Trust Thu 31 Jul 11:00 a.m. 200 Goliath Flight F 12:30 p.m. Cardroom Direct Mystery Bounty Day 3 4:00 p.m. 550 PLO 4-Card High Roller 5:00 p.m. 300 Main Event Travel Open Day 1A Fri 1 Aug 11:00 a.m. 200 Goliath Flight G 6:00 p.m. 200 Goliath Flight H Turbo 8:00 p.m. 300 Main Event Travel Open Day 1B Sat 2 Aug 11:00 a.m. 200 Goliath Day 2 2:00 p.m. 550 PokerNews Cup Day 1 3:00 p.m. 125 RedTooth Malta 52 Open 6:00 p.m. 225 The Giant 9:00 p.m. 300 Main Event Travel Open Day 1C Turbo Sun 3 Aug 11:00 a.m. Goliath Day 3 11:00 a.m. 150 Seniors 12:00 p.m. RedTooth RPT Invite Only 12:00 p.m. 550 PokerNews Cup Day 2 3:00 p.m. 100 RedTooth Hyper Turbo 3:00 p.m. 75 RedTooth All-In or Fold Double Chance 4:00 p.m. 300 Main Event Travel Open Day 2 5:00 p.m. 170 Turbo Share this article 4 Cats in the Doghouse will be celebrating its 10-year anniversary Thursday, Dec. 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Willcox. Several large trees block thoroughfares in downtown Aiken near the Aiken County Historical Museum after Hurricane Helene. A disaster preparedness workshop will be held July 22 at the Lessie B. Price Aiken Senior and Youth Center. Ed Lab reporter Anna B. Mitchell is a Greenville-based investigative reporter for the Post and Courier's Education Lab team. A licensed English and social studies teacher, Anna covers education in the Upstate and collaborates with other reporters for coverage on statewide education trends. She studied history at the University of North Carolina, journalism at the University of Missouri, and holds an MBA from the University of Applied Sciences in Wurzburg. For fun, Anna plays bassoon, visits her family in Germany as often as she can, and takes her doggy, Ashe, for long walks with her daughter and husband. Aiken, SC (29801) Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 96F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 76F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Tony Kukulich is an editor/reporter working in the Beaufort County bureau. Turning to journalism as a second career, he started as a photojournalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. After moving to Bluffton in 2021, he wrote for several area publications before joining The Post and Courier the following year. A pair of rhesus monkeys at an Alpha Genesis facility in Early Branch, Nov. 8, 2024, two days after 43 monkeys escaped from another company facility about six miles away in Yemassee. Moncks Corner, SC (29461) Today Sunshine and clouds mixed. High around 95F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. Low 77F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. The northern port of Erenhot in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the largest land port on the China-Mongolia border, has recorded 2,000 entry and exit China-Europe freight trains this year, China Railway Hohhot Group Co., Ltd. said Wednesday. This milestone underscores the success of an integrated transport model between Erenhot Port and Mongolia's Zamyn-Uud station designed to enhance efficiency. Daily dialogues and monthly meetings streamline coordination on cross-border train flows, ensuring precise scheduling of arrivals and departures, according to China Railway Hohhot Group. Further optimization, the group added, will see the adoption of a digital port system to enable paperless customs clearance, bolstering collaboration with customs, border inspection, and other checkpoint units, among others. "We've cut border inspection time to under 30 minutes and reduced overall clearance time by over 5 percent," said Yun Zhijun with Erenhot Station. As a pivotal entry-exit point for the central corridor of the China-Europe railway service, Erenhot port now serves 73 routes linking over 60 cities across 24 Chinese provincial-level regions to more than 70 cities or stations in more than 10 countries, including Germany and Poland. Business and Tourism Reporter Megan Fernandes is a Business and Tourism Reporter for the Post and Courier. She is an award-winning reporter, who has worked in the newspaper industry from coast-to-coast. Cassie Cornwell is a summer intern at the Post and Courier. She is a native of South Carolina and is a senior at the University of South Carolina. She has previously worked for Carolina News and Reporter and The Daily Gamecock. Chloe Barlow is a multimedia reporter straight out of the Midlands. She trained in journalism at both the University of South Carolina and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She covers a wide breadth of South Carolina news, but she is especially interested in accountability and justice reporting. Food & Dining Editor Parker Milner is the Food Editor of The Post and Courier. He is a Boston College graduate and former professional hockey player who joined The Post and Courier after leading the Charleston City Paper's food section. Nicole Ziege is a Reporter for The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown Times. She covers government and courts in Myrtle Beach and beyond. She previously covered news in Appalachia and received her journalism degree from Western Kentucky University. Dylan Ortuno was born and raised in Myrtle Beach, leaving the five years for college and work, before returning as the Post and Courier Myrtle Beach/Georgetown's Quick Response reporter. senior reporter Janet Morgan is a senior reporter at The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach. She covers Myrtle Beach and beyond. There is always time to be kind to animals and climb something. BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- An open collaborative ecosystem is needed to spur the development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, told a press conference on Tuesday. "The global vision for humanoid robotics technology and product development remains largely aligned, while countries may differ in cultural and industrial backgrounds," he said, citing that China boasts strong capabilities in hardware and manufacturing, while the United States leads in AI software ecosystems. "These complementary strengths make international collaboration both necessary and beneficial," he said. Unitree Robotics has made strides in open-sourcing its software, enabling many clients to develop a wide range of applications and innovations on the robotic platforms, Wang said, stressing that both robotics and AI still face significant challenges. The leading humanoid robotics firm, based in east China's Hangzhou, last year released the humanoid robot G1, which has seen outstanding performance worldwide. Looking ahead, Wang said that general-purpose robots powered by artificial general intelligence will become a dominant trajectory in future technological development. The firm aims to integrate robots into a wide range of real-world scenarios, including industry, service and consumer markets, Wang added. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday that China and Russia should bolster mutual support within multilateral frameworks, safeguard their development and security interests, unite the countries of the Global South, and push the international order toward a more just and equitable direction. Xi made the remarks during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Beijing, calling on both sides to support each other in steering the development direction of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), injecting new momentum into the SCO, and making the strategic platform more substantive and stronger. Xi asked Lavrov to convey his cordial greetings to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Calling on both sides to follow through on the important understandings reached with Putin, Xi said China and Russia should advance their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination. The SCO, jointly established by countries including China and Russia as a comprehensive regional cooperation mechanism, plays a vital role in safeguarding peace, stability, and development across Eurasia, Xi noted. Lavrov conveyed President Putin's sincere greetings to President Xi, adding that under the strategic leadership of the two heads of state, Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination has developed in depth. Russia places great importance on its relationship with China and looks forward to maintaining high-level exchanges with China in this significant year that marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the World Anti-Fascist War, said Lavrov. He added that Russia will work with China to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, maintain communication and coordination in international and regional affairs, and promote regional and global peace and stability. Russia supports China's work as the rotating chair of the SCO to jointly ensure the success of the SCO summit in Tianjin, said Lavrov. Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua) Editor: Zhang Zhou Quick Response Reporter Komlavi Adissem is a breaking news and public safety reporter based in Charleston, S.C. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, where he covered local, county, and state government for the Columbia Missourian. Find him on Twitter (X) and Bluesky @KAdissem! This past weekend, folks gathered at the Statehouse to mark the 10th anniversary of the Confederate battle flag's removal from the grounds ... just as they did in 2017, and every year since. File/staff Syndicated and guest columns represent the personal views of the writers, not necessarily those of the editorial staff. The editorial department operates entirely independently of the news department and is not involved in newsroom operations. Abby Ann Ramsey covers Florence and the Pee Dee for The Post and Courier. She graduated from the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville before moving to South Carolina. Rising Waters Lab Rising Waters Lab The Post and Couriers Rising Waters Lab focuses on impacts of climate change and related policies and practices. It is supported by donations and grants to the nonprofit Public Service and Investigative Fund, whose contributors are subject to the same coverage we apply to everyone else. For more information and to donate, go to postandcourierfund.com. You are the owner of this article. PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 12:01:14 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 987 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Appoints New CFO for the Copper Development Stage in Chile and PeruVANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 /Camino Minerals Corporation (TSXV:COR)(OTC PINK:CAMZF) ("Camino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce highgrade copper trench results from the Mirador prospect located in the Diva trend, one of several prospective targets at the Company's Los Chapitos Copper Project ("Los Chapitos" or the "Project") in Peru. The new mineralized body identified at Mirador could represent the northwesterly continuation of the Adriana mineralized copper zone where over 20,000 meters of drilling has been completed. There are clear lithological, mineralogical, and structural similarities observed at Adriana, Mirador, and Katty that share the same structural control across the Diva trend fault. Importantly, this primary and oxide copper surface exposure mineralization is within intrusive, potential source rocks, that typically underlay the volcanic Chocolate Formation. The package of volcanic Chocolate formation above exhibits more copper oxide manto style mineralization that may extend to the east and to depth (Figure 1). Camino is taking more samples and opening the ground with bulldozers to expose more bedrock, leading to more assay results in the coming weeks. A planned drilling campaign is likely to commence in September 2025. High-grade copper with bornite trench results are summarized in Table 1.This discovery reinforces the view that Adriana and the discovery drillholes previously announced are part of a structurally connected and open system along several mineralized corridors including the Diva, La Estancia, and Atajo trends.Highlights:New channel results: 90meters @ 1.07 % Cu and 20.98 ppm Agincluding:4 meters @ 3.05 % Cu and 86.55 ppm Ag7 meters @ 2.05% Cu and 27.11 ppm Ag7 meters @ 1.72% Cu and 51.66 ppm Ag8 meters @ 1.53% Cu and 32.40 ppm Ag19 meters @ 1.26% Cu and 16.71 ppm AgCopper mineralization is associated with copper oxide and sulfides hosted in intrusive rocks (monzodiorite).Trench sampling is located along the established Diva trend copper corridor.Strong positive correlation between copper and silver mineralization.Prioritize targets at Mirador, Katty, Diana and Lourdes, with more results in the coming weeks, leading into a Fall drilling program.Sombrero Blanco copper target along La Estancia trend planned for drilling next semester, once certain permits received."The high-grade Mirador target has nice showings of bornite, adding to its high-grade results of 90 m at 1.07% Cu, including grades over 3% Cu. The mineralization is within intrusives, which could be the source mineralizing rock for all the copper at Los Chapitos. With a package of Chocolate volcanic rocks above this outcrop, it appears that the successful Adriana zone, could potentially be repeating itself. The recent 1:2000 scale mapping approach with Nittetsu has yielded key new targets," said Jose Bassan, consulting geologist."We expect to provide more results in the coming weeks leading up to our next drilling campaign, planned to start in September 2025," said Jay Chmelauskas, CEO of Camino. "Camino is expanding the discovery potential around the main Adriana zone with these new high-grade copper results from the Mirador zone to the north and the Katty zone to the south (see news release dated June 17, 2025)along the Diva trend. In addition, the Sombrero Blanco target along the La Estancia copper trend is another target that provides compelling upcoming district-scale exploration drilling at Los Chapitos." Figure 1. Potential Extension of Adriana Copper Mineralization at Mirador and KattyLos Chapitos is Camino's second copper project with partner Nittetsu Mining Co, Ltd. ("Nittetsu"), which can earn a 35% interest in Los Chapitos once it completes a total investment of CDN$10 Million (see news release dated June 14, 2023). Rio Tinto, a major copper producer, recently staked claims adjacent to Los Chapitos (see news release dated May 17, 2024). Camino is also advancing its mine development project, the Puquios Copper Project, with Nittetsu in Chile (see news release dated April 17, 2025).Corporate UpdateThe Company is further pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Shawn Turkington, CPA (CA), as Chief Financial Officer of Camino, effective as of August 1, 2025. Mr. Turkington is a senior finance executive with extensive experience in financial reporting, corporate finance, restructuring, and strategic advisory. He has held senior roles as CFO, in both public and private companies, guiding organizations through complex financial transformations, governance enhancements, and capital market transactions. With experience in Latin America, including Chile and Peru, Mr. Turkington brings valuable insights into stakeholder engagement, financial reporting and corporate finance to advance Camino's growth strategy.Mr. Turkington will succeed Mr. David Baker, who will be stepping down as Chief Financial Officer of Camino effective August 1, 2025. Camino would like to thank Mr. David Baker for his valuable contributions and dedication to guiding the Company through the acquisition of the Puquios Copper Project in Chile. We appreciate his efforts and wish him continued success in his future endeavours.Technical WorkThe Company is in the advanced planning stage for an upcoming drilling campaign to prioritize drilling at Mirador, Katty, Lourdes, and Diana Zones of known copper mineralization. This new program aims to define the geometry and continuity of the mineralized system at depth and validate the high-grade copper and silver results observed at surface.Recent geological mapping at a scale of 1:2,000 at the Mirador target has identified a new zone with copper and silver mineralization, composed of oxides such as malachite, chrysocolla and atacamite, as well as mixed associations with primary or secondary sulfides, highlighting the presence of bornite.This mineralization is hosted in intrusive rocks of Monzodiorite composition, with predominantly chlorotic alteration, with a potassic background, related to a calcite-quartz-chlorite mineralogical assemblage. This is similar dioritic rock that is seen in the clasts of the high-grade breccias that act as feeders for disseminated manto mineralization. The mineralization style is Cu-Ag vein-shaped and within the Diva trend fault, an important structure that acts as the main conduit for the emplacement of mineralizing fluids.Table 1. Summary of the trench sampling in the Mirador Zone, direction NW-N and best intercepts of copper and silver (see the Figure 4, left)Figure 2. 90-meter trench at Mirador with representative samples obtained PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 02:05:47 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 915 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 15, 2025 /Core Silver Corp., ("Core Silver" or the "Company") (CSE:CC)(FSE:5RJ)(OTCQB:CCOOF) is pleased to announce that it intends to complete a non-brokered private placement of up to 8,000,000 units of the Company ("Units") at a price of $0.25 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $2,000,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company and one transferable share purchase warrant, with each warrant exercisable to acquire one common share of the Company at a price of $0.315 per share for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance. Conditional price protection for the Offering was obtained from the Canadian Securities Exchange on July 14, 2025.The gross proceeds from the Offering are expected to be used for general working capital and property exploration. The closing of the Offering is subject to certain conditions including, but not limited to, receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. The Company may pay finder's fees in connection with the Offering. All securities issued in connection with the Offering will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months and one day pursuant to applicable securities law.The Company confirms that there has been no undisclosed material information with respect to the Company between July 14, 2025 and the date of this news release, and it is not aware of any reason for the recent volatility in its trading price.About Core Silver Corp.Core Silver Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of mineral projects in British Columbia, Canada. The Company currently holds 100% ownership in the Blue Property, which covers a land area of 114,074 hectares (~1,140 km). The Blue Property lies within the Atlin Mining District, a well-known gold mining camp located in the unceded territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. The Blue Property hosts a major structural feature known as The Llewellyn Fault Zone ("LFZ"). This structure is approximately 140km in length and runs from the Tally-Ho Shear Zone in the Yukon, south through the Blue Property to the Alaskan Panhandle Juneau Ice Sheet in the United States. Core Silver believes that the south Atlin Lake area and the LFZ has been neglected since the last major exploration campaigns in the 1980's. The LFZ plays an important role in mineralization of near surface metal occurrences across the Blue Property. The past 50 years have seen substantial advancements in the understanding of porphyry, skarn, and carbonate replacement type deposits both globally and in BC's Golden Triangle. The Company has leveraged this information at the Blue Property to tailor an already proven exploration model and believes this could facilitate a major discovery. Core Silver is excited to become one of the Atlin Mining District's premier explorers where its team believes there are substantial opportunities for new discoveries and development in the area.On Behalf of the Board of Directors CORE SILVER CORP."Nicholas Rodway"President & CEOTel: 604.681.1568Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTSCertain statements contained in this news release may constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", "potential", "indicative" and similar expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Offering, including the timing, terms and anticipated use of proceeds from the Offering, the timely receipt of all necessary approvals for the Offering, the Company's belief that its exploration model could facilitate a major discovery on the Blue Property and that there are substantial opportunities for discoveries and development in the area, that the Company intends to become one of the Atlin Mining District's premier explorers, and other statements regarding the Company's future business plans and objectives. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of risks and uncertainties inherent in the exploration and development of mineral properties, fluctuations in commodity prices, counterparty risk, market conditions, regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.SOURCE: Core Silver Corp. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at the Central Urban Work Conference in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out the overall requirements, key principles and priority tasks for urban work at a key conference held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivered an important speech at the Central Urban Work Conference, which was also attended by members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi. China, a traditionally agricultural country, has seen its urbanization pick up after the reform and opening-up drive began in the late 1970s. More than a decade ago, the country's urban population exceeded the rural population. By 2024, the proportion of permanent urban residents had risen to 67 percent. From 2013 to 2024, China created more than 150 million new urban jobs. The meeting said that since the Party's 18th National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee has adhered to developing cities of the people, for the people, and by the people. Historic achievements have been made in urban development, it added. China's urbanization is shifting from rapid growth to stable development, and urban development is shifting from a stage of large-scale expansion to one focused on improving the quality and efficiency of existing urban areas, it noted. The meeting outlined the overall requirements for urban work at present and for the foreseeable future, including the construction of modern cities of the people that are innovative, desirable to live in, beautiful, resilient, culturally advanced, and smart, thereby forging a new path for urban modernization with Chinese characteristics. Greater emphasis must be placed on adopting a people-oriented approach, fostering distinctive features, enhancing governance capacity, and strengthening coordination, according to the meeting. Key priorities for urban development include optimizing the modern urban system, building vibrant cities powered by innovation, and creating comfortable and convenient living environments, as well as promoting green, low-carbon, and beautiful urban spaces, according to the meeting. The priorities also include enhancing urban safety and resilience, fostering cities that uphold moral integrity and social civility, and advancing the development of convenient, efficient and smart cities, the meeting said. The meeting emphasized that building modern cities for the people requires strengthening the overall leadership of the CPC over relevant work. Li Qiang delivered a concluding speech at the meeting. Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers an important speech at the Central Urban Work Conference in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday. Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, Cai Qi, Ding Xuexiang and Li Xi attended the conference. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) Li Qiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, delivers a speech at the Central Urban Work Conference in Beijing, capital of China. The conference was held in Beijing from Monday to Tuesday. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei) Editor: Zhang Zhou PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 16:40:24 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 302 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of National Grid plc ("National Grid" or the "Company") (NYSE:NGG). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@ pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, ext. 7980.The investigation concerns whether National Grid and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.[Click here for information about joining the class action]On July 1, 2025, the United Kingdom's energy system operator, National Energy System Operator ("NESO"), published a report summarizing the findings of its investigation into the March 20, 2025 fire that caused Heathrow Airport to shut down. NESO's report stated that the fire was caused by a known fault at an electrical substation owned by National Grid, which had been aware of the problem since 2018 but failed to fix it. Media outlets subsequently reported that Heathrow Airport was considering legal action against National Grid.On this news, National Grid's American Depositary Receipt ("ADR") price fell $3.77 per ADR, or 5.07%, to close at $70.61 per ADR on July 2, 2025.The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, and Paris is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 16:15:17 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 335 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Organon & Co. ("Organon" or the "Company") (NYSE:OGN). Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Peyton at newaction@ pomlaw.com or 646-581-9980, (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.The class action concerns whether Organon and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.You have until July 22, 2025 to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class if you purchased or otherwise acquired Organon securities during the Class Period. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com [Click here for information about joining the class action]On May 1, 2025, Organon published a press release reporting its financial results for the first quarter of 2025, announcing that management had lowered the Company's dividend payout from $0.28 to $0.02. Organon's Chief Executive Officer cited a decision to "reset our capital allocation priorities to accelerate progress towards deleveraging, enabling a path to achieve a net leverage ration below 4.0x by year-end." On this news, Organon's stock price fell $3.48 per share, or 26.91%, to close at $9.45 per share on May 1, 2025.Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 18:16:07 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 413 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Bridges Experience Inc. ("Bridges EXP") recently disclosed that it suffered a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal data of individuals. This data breach has led to concerns over the security of sensitive personal and protected health information entrusted to Bridges EXP.WHAT'S THIS ABOUT?On December 2, 2024, Bridges EXP detected unauthorized access to its internal systems. The company promptly launched an investigation with third-party cybersecurity experts, which determined that an unauthorized party accessed employee email accounts and other systems between December 2, 2024, and January 22, 2025.A detailed review was conducted to identify the compromised information and affected individuals.These impacted files allegedly included names, dates of birth,Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, routing numbers, medical information, individual health insurance information, driver's license numbers, payment card numbers and access pin numbers, payment car expiration dates, passport numbers, and taxpayer identification numbersOn June 26, 2025, Bridges EXP filed a data breach notice with the Vermont Attorney General's Office and began notifying impacted individuals. Compensation may be available for those individuals who receive notice that their personal information was compromised.WHY YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO COMPENSATION?Data breaches are serious matters that can cause long-term damage. Hackers may use stolen information to commit identity theft, financial fraud, or other crimes. Companies that fail to secure your personal data may be held liable for the resulting harm.HOW DO I KNOW IF I WAS AFFECTED?If you received a data breach notification letter from Bridges Experience Inc., you are likely affected. Follow the link below to find out if you may be eligible for compensation.Levi Korsinsky, LLP is investigating whether affected individuals are entitled to compensation. There is no cost or obligation to participate. Follow the link below to find out:Levi & Korsinsky is a nationally recognized consumer advocacy law firm that has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars against large corporations. The firm's team of over 70 extraordinary attorneys and professionals have a winning track record going against the most powerful defense attorneys in the world and know how to maximize your compensation. Our firm works on a 100% contingency fee basis-you pay nothing unless we win your case! Visit our website to learn more.Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.CONTACT: Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.Ed Korsinsky, Esq.33 Whitehall Street, 17th FloorNew York, NY 10004 jlevi@ levikorsinsky.com Tel: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171 https://zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 20:48:01 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 558 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Leading securities law firmBleichmar Fonti & Auld LLPannounces that a lawsuit has been filed against Reddit, Inc. (NYSE:RDDT) and certain of the Company's senior executives for potential violations of the federal securities laws.If you invested in Reddit, you are encouraged to obtain additional information by visiting: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/reddit-inc-securities-fraud-class-action Investors have until August 18, 2025, to ask the Court to be appointed to lead the case. The complaint asserts claims under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 on behalf of investors who purchased Reddit securities. The case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and is captioned Tamraz, Jr. v. Reddit, Inc., at al., No. 25-cv-05144.Why was Reddit Sued for Securities Fraud?Reddit owns and operates the eponymous social news aggregation, forum, and social media platform. Reddit receives a significant portion of its user traffic from individuals seeking answers to questions using Google Search. The complaint alleges that Reddit misrepresented and downplayed the impact that Google's use of Artificial Intelligence ("AI") technology in Google's search results had on Reddit's user growth.In truth, Google's use of AI dented Reddit's user growth by eliminating the need for individuals to visit and click through to Reddit to get answers to their questions. Rather, the answers appeared through Google's AI search results.The Stock Declines as the Truth is RevealedOn May 1, 2025, Reddit reported a significant slowdown in daily active user growth. On this news, the price of Reddit stock declined $4.96 per share, or more than 4%, from $118.79 per share on May 1, 2025, to $113.83 per share on May 2, 2025.Then, on May 21, 2025, Wall Street analyst Baird cut its Reddit stock price target over concerns that Google's AI capabilities are stifling Reddit's user growth. On this news, the price of Reddit stock fell $9.79 per share, or over 9%, from $105.64 per share on May 20, 2025, to $95.85 per share on May 21, 2025.Click here for more information: https://www.bfalaw.com/cases-investigations/reddit-inc-securities-fraud-class-action What Can You Do?If you invested in Reddit you may have legal options and are encouraged to submit your information to the firm.All representation is on a contingency fee basis, there is no cost to you. Shareholders are not responsible for any court costs or expenses of litigation. The firm will seek court approval for any potential fees and expenses.Submit your information by visiting:Or contact:Ross Shikowitz ross@ bfalaw.com 212-789-3619Why Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP?BFA is a leading international law firm representing plaintiffs in securities class actions and shareholder litigation. It has been named a top plaintiff law firm by Chambers USA, The Legal 500, and ISS SCAS, and its attorneys have been named "Elite Trial Lawyers" by the National Law Journal, among the top "500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers" by Lawdragon, "Titans of the Plaintiffs' Bar" by Law360 and "SuperLawyers" by Thomson Reuters. Among its recent notable successes, BFA recovered over $900 million in value from Tesla, Inc.'s Board of Directors, as well as $420 million from Teva Pharmaceutical Ind. Ltd.For more information about BFA and its attorneys, please visit https://www.bfalaw.com Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.SOURCE: Bleichmar Fonti & Auld LLP PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 14:30:18 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 980 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Move comes amid new features added to all plans and Premium VIP, SMB and Corporate solutions high demandMIAMI, FL AND VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Sekur Private Data Ltd. (OTCQB:SWISF)(CSE:SKUR)(FRA:GDT0) ("Sekur" or the "Company"), a leading Swiss-hosted cybersecurity and private communications platform, is pleased to announce that it has increased its prices for all Sekur plans, from Individual to SMB to Corporate plans.Sekur's new prices reflect a higher demand for its Swiss hosted privacy communications solutions, due in part to the explosion in Business Email Compromise ("BEC") attacks on all big tech email and chat applications, including the number one business email solution, which has suffered several hacks recently, including a major Key Logger hack on its start cloud email solution.Sekur'scommunications suite offers countermeasures to BEC attacks through itsSekurSend proprietary feature, and offers other protections against internetspying on VPN usersand messaging hacks such as the latestWhatsApporSignalhacking incidents reported in the press. The Company expects to increase its Average Revenue Per User "ARPU" by minimum 50%.The Company is focusing on high value clients, such as HNWIs, C-level executives, diplomats, government officials and global leaders. Industries in focus are finance, real estate and mortgage, law, private aviation, and other sectors needing privacy and security for all their emails and communications. Most industries issue invoices with wire information and other details that are compromised on BEC attacks and costing the US economy upwards of 80 billion USD a year. 40% of all BEC attacks are now done through AI emailing.Sekur's new features include 20 alias emails for Individual plans, and will include white label on email and messenger for theCorporate plans and include other features for SMBs and Corporate plans such as multiple users' management and Message archiving to comply with SEC regulations. Finance companies have paid over 3 billion USD in penalties for using non-compliant messaging apps. SekurMessenger offers SEC compliance with its archiving feature available on all SMB and Corporate plans.Sekur's platform is proprietary and hosted in Switzerland for optimal security and privacy compliance. It offers multiple privacy advantages, such as no contact or data mining, no location mining and secure and private communication within and outside of the Sekur network, offering privacy and security for both sender and recipient without divulging either phone number or identity, using its SekurSend and Chat by Invite features.Alain Ghiai, CEO of Sekur stated, "We have seen a shift lately in demand, where high value clients, such as HNWIs, VIPs, law firms, family offices and government officials, are looking for an alternative solution to the traditional big tech solutions due to all the cyber-attacks happening on big tech emails and chat applications. AI is also making things worse, and data brokers and telecom operators are also compromised. This environment is perfect to increase Sekur's awareness as we are off grid, off big tech and we never data mine or location mine your communications. Sekur is meant to protect against phishing, Business Email Compromise attacks, AI hacks, and chat and SMS hacks." Swiss Privacy Protection Sekur's solutions are hosted exclusively in Switzerland, ensuring user data remains secure from external data access requests. Switzerland's robust Federal Act on Data Protection, in place since 1993, upholds strict privacy standards, prohibiting unauthorized data processing and protecting against the publication of information based on leaked "secret official discussions." This regulatory framework provides a unique level of data privacy protection, reinforcing Sekur's commitment to safeguarding user information.About Sekur Private Data Ltd. Sekur Private Data Ltd. is a Swiss-hosted cybersecurity and privacy communications provider. offering a secure suite of tools to protect governments, businesses and individuals from unauthorized access and cyber threats. With solutions such as SekurMail, SekurMessenger, and SekurVPN, Sekur provides an accessible and reliable means of digital communication and data storage, grounded in Swiss privacy standards. Sekur sells its solutions through its websitewww.sekur.com , approved distributors and telecommunications companies globally. Sekur serves governments, businesses and consumers worldwide.CONTACT Alain Ghiai President and Chief Executive Officer SEKUR PRIVATE DATA LTD.Email: investors@ sekur.com www.sekurprivatedata.comTel: +1.305.347.5114Follow Sekur on: XLinkedInYouTubeFor sales brochure on our enterprise security solutions, or partnership opportunities, contact: partners@ sekur.com To find out more about Sekur's privacy communications solutions visit: https://sekur.comFor more company information, please visit: https://sekurprivatedata.com Forward-Looking InformationThis news release contains certain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "achieve", "could", "believe", "plan", "intend", "objective", "continuous", "ongoing", "estimate", "outlook", "expect", "project" and similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes or that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they do not guarantee future performance. Sekur cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond Sekur's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the future of the Company's business; the success of marketing and sales efforts of the Company; the projections prepared in house and projections delivered by channel partners; the Company's ability to complete the necessary software updates; increases in sales as a result of investments software development technology; consumer interest in the Products; future sales plans and strategies; reliance on large channel partners and expectations of renewals to ongoing agreements with these partners; anticipated events and trends; the economy and other future conditions; and PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 01:10:06 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 699 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 ESTES PARK, CO / ACCESS Newswire / July 15, 2025 / Taranis Resources Inc. ("Taranis" or the "Company") (TSXV:TRO)(OTCQB:TNREF) is providing an update on exploration activities at Thor. All of the 2025 exploration drilling is being directed in an area southeast of the Thor epithermal deposit and is aimed at discovery of an intrusive body.Recent Investigations of the Intrusive TargetIn 2024 Taranis completed deep exploration holes from the top of Broadview Mountain targeting two airborne geophysical anomalies. This area is 1km southeast of the Broadview Mine and despite the lack of historic mines in this area, recent exploration work has shown it to have extensive propylitic alteration characteristic of the outer margins of a porphyry-type environment. This alteration forms two concentric dyke-like bodies (I-2 east and west) that encapsulate a deeply buried central resistivity anomaly (I-1).The I-2 features are the youngest geological units at Thor and cut the Thor epithermal deposit at depth. Both I-2, the epithermal deposit, and I-1 are undeformed late-stage features superimposed on the highly-folded host rocks that are part of the Silver Cup Anticline. The mineralogy of I-2 is primarily albite, garnet, amphibole, chlorite, quartz and magnetite.The intrusive target at Thorhas two parts associated with it, an upper elongate portion referred to as Z-900/1300 that occurs between 900 and 1300m ASL, and a deeper circular resistive feature called I-1 that is found below 900m ASL to at least 0m ASL. The composite resistivity anomaly presence is manifested at surface however, the most obvious being a large hill overlying the hard and resistive rocks associated with the composite resistivity feature. Other important exploration criteria include the bracketing of the feature by widespread propylitic alteration, and the presence of mineralogy characteristic of contact-related alteration including albite, ludwigite and hornfels.Geochemical Gold, Arsenic and Zinc Associated with I-1 and Tungsten Tin EnrichmentIn 2024, Taranis was able to identify wide zones (up to 53m) of geochemical gold, arsenic and zinc mineralization beneath I-2, and west of the I-1 resistivity anomaly in drill holes Thor-246, Thor-247and Thor-248 (Taranis News Release dated February 25th, 2025). As neither the Z-900/1300 nor I-1 resistivity anomaly was intersected in this drilling, the main intrusive target at Thor remains untested and is the focus of the 2025 exploration drilling. Geochemical levels of gold, arsenic and zinc occur in a phyllic alteration zone, characterized by the presence of muscovite (fuchsite), carbonate, albite and quartz. These rocks are fine-grained, non-foliated and are interpreted to be distal edges of a sodic-calcic intrusive body (I-1). Quantitative alteration studies (Gresen method) show that the rocks have had mass addition of tin and tungsten, and this would be consistent with intrusive-related hydrothermal alteration. Drilling from the main access road at Thor will allow Taranis to fully evaluate the I-1 and Z-900-1300 target this summer.Granting of Incentive Stock OptionsTaranis also announces that it has granted incentive stock options to its Directors and Officers, entitling them to purchase up to a total of 2,000,000 shares at a price of $0.26 per share for a period of five years.Qualified PersonExploration activities at Thor were overseen by John Gardiner (P. Geo.), who is a Qualified Person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101. John Gardiner is the principal of John J. Gardiner & Associates, LLC which operates in British Columbia under Firm Permit Number 1002256. Mr. Gardiner is the President and CEO of Taranis Resources inc. and has reviewed and approved the comments contained within this News Release.Taranis currently has 100,348,794 shares issued and outstanding (113,827,227 shares on a fully-diluted basis).TARANIS RESOURCES INC.Per: John J. Gardiner (P. Geo.), President and CEOFor further information contact:John J. Gardiner681 Conifer LaneEstes Park, Colorado 80517Phone: (303) 716-5922 Cell: (720) 209-3049johnjgardiner@ earthlink.net NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.This News Release may contain forward looking statements based on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events or results that may prove to be inaccurate as a result of factors beyond its control, and actual results may differ materially from expected results.SOURCE: Taranis Resources, Inc. PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 14:01:02 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 830 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 IRS tech tools are smarter than ever - Clear Start Tax explains how income mismatches trigger audits, and what taxpayers can do to stay compliant.IRVINE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / With the IRS expanding its data-matching capabilities through advanced systems like the Information Returns Processing (IRP) platform, taxpayers are finding themselves blindsided by CP2000 notices, audits, or unexpected tax bills, sometimes months after filing. According to Clear Start Tax, understanding how the IRS cross-checks income data in 2025 is essential to staying ahead of costly surprises."The IRS doesn't need to guess - they already have your 1099s, W-2s, and even crypto reports before you file," said the Head of Client Solutions at Clear Start Tax. "Most IRS notices come from mismatches, not criminal intent. But if you ignore them, they can escalate fast." How the IRS Sees Your Income - Before You Even FileContrary to popular belief, the IRS doesn't wait for an audit to catch mistakes - most income mismatches are flagged automatically. The IRS's Information Returns Processing (IRP) system aggregates data from countless sources, comparing it against your tax return behind the scenes. This means the IRS often knows about your income, even if you forget to report it.The IRP system pulls in data from:W-2s from employers1099 forms from banks, brokerages, and gig platformsSSA and unemployment recordsCryptocurrency exchange reports (via Form 1099-DA, coming soon)Mortgage and insurance statementsForeign bank account data (via FATCA agreements)These records are automatically compared against your tax return. If a mismatch appears, a CP2000 notice - or worse, an audit flag - can be triggered without warning.CP2000 Notices Are the First Warning SignA CP2000 notice is often the first time a taxpayer learns the IRS found a mismatch in their income reporting. It's not an audit - yet - but it carries serious consequences if ignored. The IRS uses these notices to propose changes to your return, often with added taxes, interest, and potential penalties.According to Clear Start Tax, the most common triggers for CP2000 notices in 2025 include:Missing or incorrect 1099-NEC or 1099-K gig incomeReporting investment income incorrectly (e.g., selling crypto without basis data)Overlooking unemployment or early retirement withdrawalsFiling with outdated employer informationOmitting foreign income or failing to disclose foreign accounts"In 2024, the IRS issued over 11 million CP2000 notices," added the Head of Client Solutions. "It's one of their most common enforcement tools - and most people don't even know what it is until they get one." Avoid Surprises by Matching Records Before the IRS DoesOnce the IRS has flagged your return, it becomes much harder to negotiate or correct errors. That's why Clear Start Tax encourages taxpayers to stay one step ahead by verifying all income sources and tax documents before they file. This proactive approach can prevent costly notices and reduce the risk of enforcement actions.Steps Clear Start Tax recommends include:Reconciling all 1099, W-2, and third-party data before filingRequesting wage and income transcripts from the IRSAmending prior-year returns with missing incomeResponding promptly and professionally to CP2000 or Letter 6173 noticesExploring relief options if penalties or balances are already accruingBy answering a few simplequestions , taxpayers can find out if they're eligible for the IRS Fresh Start Program and take the first step toward resolving their tax debt.Fresh Start Program Offers Relief - Even After a NoticeFor those who have already received a CP2000 notice or now owe tax due to underreported income, you still have options. The IRS Fresh Start Program helps taxpayers reduce, settle, or restructure their debt. Clear Start Tax helps clients determine eligibility and guides them through each step of the resolution process.Depending on a taxpayer's financial situation, the program may offer:Payment plans based on current ability to payReduction or removal of penalties and interestSettlement for less than the full amount owed through an Offer in Compromise"Even if you've made a mistake, there's a path forward," said the Head of Client Solutions. "What matters is responding early - and getting the facts straight before the IRS takes further action." About Clear Start TaxClear Start Tax is a full-service tax liability resolution firm that serves taxpayers throughout the United States. The company specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with a wide range of IRS and state tax issues, including back taxes, wage garnishment relief, IRS appeals, and offers in compromise. Clear Start Tax helps taxpayers apply for the IRS Fresh Start Program, providing expert guidance in tax resolution. Fully accredited and A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau, the firm's unique approach and commitment to long-term client success distinguish it as a leader in the tax resolution industry.Need Help With Back Taxes?Click the link below: https://clearstarttax.com/qualifytoday/ (888) 710-3533Contact InformationClear Start TaxCorporate Communications Department seo@ clearstarttax.com (949) 535-1627SOURCE: Clear Start Tax PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 12:01:32 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 868 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 /Xebra Brands Ltd. ("Xebra") (CSE:XBRA)(OTCQB:XBRAF)(FSE:9YC), an international cannabis company, is providing an update to its previously disclosed management cease trade order ("MCTO"), announced on July 2, 2025, in respect of the audited annual financial statements and corresponding management's discussion and analysis for the year ended February 28, 2025, including the CEO and CFO certifications (collectively, the "Annual Financial Filings") that were not filed by the required filing deadline of June 30, 2025 (the "Filing Deadline").As previously disclosed, the Annual Financial Filings were not filed by the Filing Deadline due to the fact that there have been certain liquidity constraints and delays associated with recent changes of management.The Company is working expeditiously on the steps required to complete the Annual Financial Filings and expects to be able to file the Annual Financial Filings by August 29, 2025. The Company will provide updates as further information relating to the Annual Financial Filings becomes available.Until the Annual Financial Filings are filed, the MCTO will be in effect. Additionally, the Company will issue bi-weekly default status reports in accordance with National Policy 12-203 - Management Cease Trade Orders. The Company intends to satisfy the provisions of the Alternative Information Guidelines during the period it remains in default of the filing requirements. The Company confirms that there have been no material business developments or other material information relating to its affairs as of the date of this news release that have not been generally disclosed.ABOUT XEBRA BRANDS LTD.Xebra Brands is a Canadian cannabis company with international reach, focused on the development and commercialization of cannabisderived wellness products. Xebra is the first company to receive full authorization to import, cultivate, manufacture, and sell cannabis (1% THC) in Mexico, and is actively expanding its ELEMENTS product line through strategic partnerships in North America.On Behalf of Xebra Brands Ltd.Rodrigo Gallardo Interim CEOFor more information contact:+52 55 6387 2293 ir@ xebrabrands.com Forward-Looking InformationExcept for the statements of historical fact, this news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation that is based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. "Forward-looking information" in this news release includes, but is not limited to, business goals and objectives of the Company; statements and information regarding the timing for the filings of the Annual Filings; the Company's ability to be a first mover in a country, or to obtain or retain government licenses, permits, or authorizations in general, or specifically in Mexico, Canada or elsewhere, including cannabis authorizations from the Mexican Health Regulatory Agency (COFEPRIS); the Company's ability to satisfy the conditions of authorizations granted by COFEPRIS; any continuing uniqueness of any of the Company's products; and other forward-looking information concerning the intentions, plans and future actions of the parties to the transactions described herein and the terms thereon.Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, the reliance of the Company on its auditors and management with respect to the Annual Filings; Such factors include, but are not limited to, the inability of the Company to retain the authorizations granted by COFEPRIS; the inability to generate sufficient revenues or to raise sufficient funds to carry out its business plan; changes in government legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments in various countries; risks associated with agriculture and cultivation activities generally, including inclement weather, access to supply of seeds, poor crop yields, and spoilage; compliance with import and export laws of various countries; significant fluctuations in cannabis prices and transportation costs; the risk of obtaining necessary licenses and permits; inability to identify, negotiate and complete potential acquisitions, dispositions or joint ventures for any reason; the ability to retain key employees; dependence on third parties for services and supplies; non-performance by contractual counter-parties; general economic conditions; the continued growth in global demand for cannabis products and the continued increase in jurisdictions legalizing cannabis; the timely receipt of regulatory approvals for license applications on terms satisfactory to the Company; and other related risks as more fully set out in the registration statement of Company and other documents disclosed under the Company's filings at www.sedar.com . In addition, there is no assurance that the Company will: be a low-cost producer or exporter; obtain a dominant market position in any jurisdiction; or have products that will be unique.The forward-looking information in this news release reflects the current expectations, assumptions and/or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, the Company has made assumptions about the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, the timing thereof and related matters. The Company has also assumed that no significant events occur outside of the Company's normal course of business. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking information are reasonable, forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such information due to the inherent uncertainty therein.SOURCE: Xebra Brands Ltd PR-Inside.com: 2025-07-16 12:00:38 Press Information Published by ACCESSWIRE News Network 888.952.4446 e-mail http://www.accesswire.com # 945 Words ACCESSWIRE News Network888.952.4446 Breakthrough tPEMF Technology Showcased in Monthly Series Exploring Innovation in Veterinary CareANN ARBOR, MI / ACCESS Newswire / July 16, 2025 / Zomedica Corp. (OTCQB:ZOMDF) ("Zomedica" or the "Company"), a veterinary health company offering advanced diagnostic and therapeutic solutions for companion and equine animals, is pleased to announce the next installment of its Fourth Friday at Four webinar series, scheduled for Friday, July 25, 2025 at 4:00 PM ET.This month's session will highlight the Assisi line of products, Zomedica's suite of targeted Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (tPEMF) therapy devices that offer non-invasive, drug-free solutions for managing pain and inflammation in companion animals. Designed for both in-clinic and at-home use, the Assisi Loop, Assisi Loop Lounge, and Calmer Canine products have become trusted tools for veterinarians and pet parents alike.What to Expect:A closer look at the science behind tPEMF therapyReal-world success stories and clinical outcomesHow veterinarians are integrating Assisi products into daily careInteractive Q&A with the Assisi and Zomedica teams"Our Assisi Loop line of products represents the perfect blend of science, compassion, and innovation," said Nicole Westfall, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Zomedica. "We're excited to highlight how tPEMF therapy is helping animals heal faster, feel better, and live more comfortably-without relying on pharmaceuticals." Mialisa Gluckert, Senior Director of Assisi Commercialization, added, "This month's webinar will offer an insider's perspective on how our customers are using Assisi products every day to support recovery, ease chronic conditions, and transform outcomes across veterinary practices. It's inspiring to see how far we've come-and where we're going next." Whether you're a veterinary professional, industry partner, investor, or simply passionate about pet wellness, this webinar will provide valuable insights into the clinical, commercial, and compassionate impact of Assisi drug-free healing technology.Webinar Registration & DetailsConnect, Learn, and Discover What's Next in Veterinary InnovationDon't miss your chance to connect with industry experts, get a firsthand look at groundbreaking veterinary technologies, and explore what's next in animal healthcare. Whether you're a veterinary professional, industry partner, investor, or simply passionate about helping our pets live healthier lives-this series is for you.Reserve your spot for the next session by clicking the link below: Zomedica 4th Friday at Four RegistrationOr head to: www.investors.zomedica.com About ZomedicaZomedica is a leading equine and companion animal healthcare company dedicated to improving animal health by providing veterinarians innovative therapeutic and diagnostic solutions. Our gold standard PulseVet shock wave system, which accelerates healing in musculoskeletal conditions, has transformed veterinary therapeutics. Our suite of products also includes the Assisi Loop line of therapeutic devices and the TRUFORMA diagnostic platform, the TRUVIEW digital cytology system, and the VetGuardian no-touch monitoring system, all designed to empower veterinarians to provide top-tier care. In the aggregate, their total addressable market in the U.S. exceeds $2 billion. Headquartered in Michigan, Zomedica employs approximately 150 people and manufactures and distributes its products from its world-class facilities in Georgia and Minnesota. Zomedica grew revenue 8% in 2024 to $27 million and maintains a strong balance sheet with approximately $65 million in liquidity as of March 31, 2025. Zomedica is advancing its product offerings, leveraging strategic acquisitions, and expanding internationally as we work to enhance the quality of care for pets, increase pet parent satisfaction, and improve the workflow, cash flow and profitability of veterinary practices. For more information visit www.zomedica.com Follow ZomedicaEmail Alerts: http://investors.zomedica.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zomedica Facebook: https://m. facebook.com/zomedica X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/zomedica Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zomedica_inc Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking StatementsExcept for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information") within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur and include statements relating to our expectations regarding future results. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. We cannot guarantee future results, performance, or achievements. Consequently, there is no representation that the actual results achieved will be the same, in whole or in part, as those set out in the forward-looking information.Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, including assumptions with respect to economic growth, demand for the Company's products, the Company's ability to produce and sell its products, sufficiency of our budgeted capital and operating expenditures, the satisfaction by our strategic partners of their obligations under our commercial agreements and our ability to realize upon our business plans and cost control efforts.Our forward-looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the outcome of clinical studies, the application of generally accepted accounting principles, which are highly complex and involve many subjective assumptions, estimates, and judgments, uncertainty as to whether our strategies and business plans will yield the expected benefits; uncertainty as to the timing and results of development work and verification and validation studies; uncertainty as to the timing and results of comme The Nigerian Independent System Operator said it is targeting to increase the countrys electricity generation to at least 8,500 megawatts. During a senior leadership retreat in Abuja on Wednesday, Abdu Mohammed, managing director/chief executive officer of NISO, called on private sector investment to achieve the goal. According to him, with improved sector coordination, strategic investments, and private sector involvement, the 8,500MW target is achievable. 8,500MW is a target that can be achieved if we put our house in order, focus on strategy, attract investment, and align actions. We have the resources in Nigeria. If harnessed properly, we can do better. At the end of the day, we expect real-time grid operations, grid modernisation, and improved resilience in grid stability. So its achievable, Mr Mohammed said. Earlier in April, the Nigerian government took a significant step towards reforming the countrys electricity sector by unbundling the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) into two entities: the Independent System Operator (ISO) and the Transmission Service Provider (TSP). Under the new structure, the TSP will oversee TCNs physical infrastructure, including transmission towers, power lines, and substations, while the NISO will take charge of system operations, managing load allocation from generation companies to distribution companies and eligible customers. In March, TCN said Nigeria generated 5,801 megawatts of electricity, the highest ever by the country. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later On the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, a critical component for grid management, Mr Mohammed added that a nationwide SCADA upgrade is underway and expected to be completed by the end of next year. The government has awarded a new SCADA contract covering the entire nation. Contractors are working tirelessly, especially across the northern parts. We are making daily progress, he said. Also speaking, the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Ayodeji Gbeleyi, explained that the country currently utilises around 5,500MWh of power daily, far below the national generation capacity of over 14,000MWh. Where we stand today, we have about 5,500 MW of power being wheeled on a day-to-day basis. Compare that with the fact that the total nameplate capacity for generation in the country is a bit above 14,000 MW. I do hope most sincerely that when we come back here 12 months from now, that generation capacity, based on efficiency of the transmission grid, will be somewhere around 7,500MW to 8,500MW, he said. In his remarks, Adesegun Akin-Olugbade, the NISO board chairman, said NISO is not just a new institution but a new idea and a system operator that is truly independent. A market coordinator that is truly neutral. A planning authority that is truly strategic. We are responsible for real-time grid operations, long-term system planning, and the coordination and development of the electricity market. These are not side functions, they are central pillars. Because when power fails, everything else, industry, healthcare, education, even security struggles. We now have a window of opportunity, a chance to build NISO into a stabilising force for the grid, a trusted referee for the market, and a strategic planner for the future. That future includes more embedded generation, more off-grid integration, more flexible grids, and smarter systems. We must position for it not react to it, he said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, chairs the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states' meeting of the council of the ministers of foreign affairs in Tianjin, north China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Ran) TIANJIN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organizations will attend the Tianjin summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and related events, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday. The SCO Tianjin summit will be held from August 31 to September 1, Wang said in Tianjin during a joint press meeting with SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev. On the same day, Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, chaired SCO member states' meeting of the council of the ministers of foreign affairs in Tianjin. Belarusian Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhenkov, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Kazakhstan's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Murat Nurtleu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kyrgyzstan Jeenbek Kulubaev, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Uzbek Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov, SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev, and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure Ularbek Sharsheev attended the meeting. Wang called on SCO member states to strive to build greater consensus on strengthening the organization in a manner that demonstrates a sense of responsibility towards history and the future. He proposed five suggestions on the organization's development. He said that member states should stay true to the original aspiration and carry forward the Shanghai Spirit, consolidate the foundation of security, pursue mutual benefit and win-win results to drive the new engine of development, pursue friendship and good-neighborliness, and safeguard fairness and justice. Wang expressed appreciation for the support of member states for China's role as the rotating chair, adding that the SCO is set to enter a new phase of high-quality development through member states' joint efforts. The participating parties highly commended China's outstanding work and positive outcomes as the rotating chair, and expressed their willingness to coordinate and collaborate with China to ensure the success of the Tianjin summit. All parties fully recognized the important role of the SCO in strengthening strategic mutual trust among member states, promoting regional development and prosperity, maintaining common security, and deepening the bonds between the peoples. In the face of turbulent international situations, all parties agreed that it is essential to further promote the Shanghai Spirit, strengthen solidarity and coordination, safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, fight against the "three evil forces" of terrorism, extremism, and separatism. They also agreed to enhance cooperation in various fields, promote dialogue among different civilizations, jointly uphold the authority of the United Nations, oppose unilateralism, and peacefully resolve hotspot issues through dialogue and negotiation, to make new contributions to world peace and development. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, chairs the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states' meeting of the council of the ministers of foreign affairs in Tianjin, north China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo) Editor: Zhang Zhou Nigerian pirates kidnapped two government officials in Idabato, a Cameroonian border town in the Bakassi Peninsula, on 1 October 2024. One hostage, Ewane Ekeh, was released on 17 March, after six months in captivity in Nigeria. The second, Etongo Ismael, remains in captivity. Since 2021, counter piracy measures have been in place in the Bight of Biafra (or Bight of Bonny), an ocean region stretching from the Niger River mouth in Nigeria to Cape Lopez in Gabon. This has seen an overall decline in maritime piracy crime, compelling pirates to find alternative criminal activities to support themselves. They have focused primarily on hostage-taking for ransom, the crime to which Messrs Ekeh and Ismael fell victim. A rise in hostage-taking incidents in the Bight of Biafra since October 2023 can be associated with its proximity to the Niger Delta, the epicentre of maritime crime in the region, where waters are largely ungoverned. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported the presence of Nigerian pirate camps in border areas near Cameroon. This was confirmed by Cameroons Delta Rapid Intervention Battalion (RIB) commander Colonel Ndikum Azieh, who said there were nine active Nigerian pirate groups operating in the Bakassi Peninsula. Former captives and Cameroonian soldiers told the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) anonymously that the factions operating in the peninsula had established bases near Apka Irok a Nigerian fishing village across from Kombo a Bedimo, Cameroon. Niger Delta and Bakassi Peninsula Source: ISS These groups have well-developed hierarchical organisational structures. One group, comprising nearly 270 fighters and led by a Border King, is organised into nine operational units of about 30 men each, each overseen by a general. These Nigerian groups are known to operate well beyond their home bases, extending their reach to far-off waters, including those of Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, and Gabon. When not actively engaged in pirating activities, they abduct locals in mangrove regions and on land. Mr Azieh said pirates adapted their tactics based on their targets. For lower-value targets described as village women and children kidnappings can happen anytime, often timed after army patrols have passed through an area. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later For high-value targets, like government officials, pirates gather intelligence and strike at night with swift boats and teams of around 10 armed with AK-47s or PKM 7.62 machine guns. The operations are usually completed within five minutes. A Bakassi Peninsula municipal official told ISS anonymously that hostages were taken to remote mangroves in Nigeria or fisheries in the peninsula, making escape difficult. This illicit industry generates substantial profits for criminal groups. Reports indicate that in Nigeria alone, approximately $400,000 was paid in ransom to kidnappers between July 2022 and June 2023. The money is divided among various role players, including kingpins, sponsors, group leaders, negotiators, specialised team members, assault teams, camp guards, and those providing onshore support. Kidnapping is traumatic for the victims and their families. Moreover, due to the persistent threat, many administrative officials, service personnel and civil servants only stay intermittently on the Bakassi Peninsula, while their families live elsewhere for safety. Thus, they are frequently absent from their official duties, affecting essential services. The kidnappings threaten both local and regional security. The area is a critical shipping zone and plays a vital role in the regions transportation of goods, fishing activities, and extraction of hydrocarbon resources. As with local officials, security forces are reluctant to confront the pirates. In Nigeria, security forces sometimes lack essential resources, like fuel, hampering their ability to address piracy effectively. In Cameroon, particularly in towns like Idabato, the police and gendarmerie units are severely understaffed. Cameroons South-West Governor Bernard Bilai declared a total lockdown in the Bakassi Peninsula last October, but this angered local residents, who then couldnt earn a living, and elevated tensions between Nigerian and Cameroonian residents in the area. There is also an absence of effective cross-border cooperation at the tactical level. This is despite a robust political and strategic partnership established under the 2013 Yaounde maritime security architecture, which created multinational centres for cooperation, information and intelligence sharing. These security cooperation agreements have not cascaded to lower administrative and security units. RIB soldiers say they are unable to carry out operations against pirates who are often just across the border in Nigeria. While Nigeria has honed its negotiating skills with kidnappers and criminal networks, other countries in the region dont yet have the capacity to negotiate the release of hostages. For example, family sources say Mr Ekehs release took a while, despite attempts by the local negotiator and Cameroonian security forces. In 2022, Nigeria enacted a law against paying ransoms, while Cameroon insists it does not negotiate with terrorists. However, the reality that ransoms have been paid for the release of Western hostages creates a perception of double standards and fosters feelings of abandonment and hopelessness among local hostages families. Mr Ekehs family and local journalists told ISS that his family managed to raise $100,000 from local residents, relatives, colleagues and local elites to pay his ransom. Insecurity in the Bight of Biafra was recently heightened following an announcement by the Biafra Nations League (BNL) a Nigerian secessionist armed group operating in north-eastern Nigeria and the Bakassi Peninsula that it was launching significant operations in the area. Faced with the continuation and possibly an increase in kidnapping for ransom by pirates and threats from the BNL, states along the Bight of Biafra must actively enforce existing bilateral and multilateral security arrangements. Ensuring these agreements are implemented at the level of local security and administrative units to allow for real-time cross-border security collaboration is imperative. Both policies and operations should aim to address a range of maritime crimes, such as piracy, sea robbery and kidnapping for ransom, akin to Nigerias Deep Blue Project. Here, a regional legal framework allowing for the right of pursuit or creating a combined maritime task force would help foster cooperation across different operational maritime and coastal zones. Raoul Sumo Tayo, Senior Researcher, ENACT, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) A previous version of this article was published by the ISS ENACT project. (This article was published by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication partner. We have their permission to republish). Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) says 295,856 Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) are yet to be collected by their owners in Ondo State and are lying idle at its office. The commission also announced the commencement of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise ahead of the 2027 general elections. The State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Toyin Babalola, told journalists in Akure that the registation would begin in mid-August. According to INEC, Ondo State currently has a total of 2,053,061 registered voters, out of which 1,757,205 have collected their PVCs, leaving 295,856 unclaimed. Mrs Babalola described voter registration as a fundamental aspect of democratic participation, being the gateway through which eligible citizens are enfranchised. However, she warned that the CVR should not be mistaken for the commencement of political campaigns, as the official notice of election has not yet been issued by INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu. The notice, she said, will be issued 360 days before the election in accordance with electoral guidelines. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later She explained that the nationwide exercise will begin with online pre-registration on 18 August, 2025, while in-person registration at designated centres will commence on 25 August, 2025. The exercise will provide opportunities for newly eligible citizens who have just turned 18, those who were unable to register previously, voters seeking to transfer their registration to a new location, individuals who had issues with accreditation in previous elections, as well as those seeking to update their information or replace lost, defaced, or damaged PVCs, she said. Mrs Babalola further said that the CVR exercise would continue until August 2026 but will be temporarily suspended in December 2025 to allow for the processing of data collected between August and December. It will then resume in early 2026. The REC warned that individuals who have already registered should not attempt to do so again, stressing that multiple registrations are prohibited under Section 12(2) of the Electoral Act 2022. Violators risk a fine of 100,000, one year in prison, or both. She assured that all 19 designated registration centres in the state are fully prepared for the exercise and that the INEC Voter Enrolment Devices (IVEDs) are available, well-labelled, fully charged, and ready for deployment. She urged eligible citizens to seize the opportunity to register, update their details, and collect their PVCs. She also called on political parties, civil society organisations, faith-based groups, traditional rulers, youth and womens groups to assist in mobilising the public for the success of the exercise. Mrs Babalola reaffirmed INECs commitment to transparency, professionalism, and inclusivity throughout the registration process, adding that a credible voter register is the foundation of a credible election. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A chairperson of a local government council in Akwa Ibom State is demanding N1billion as damages from a blogger in the state whom he accused of character defamation. Asuakak Umoh, the chairperson of Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, is also demanding from the blogger, Utitofon Morgan, a retraction and an apology published in two national dailies and two local tabloids within three days. Mr Umohs demands are contained in a 15 July 2025 letter from his lawyer, Itohowo Ibe-Bassey, to the blogger. Alleged defamatory post, video Mr Morgan owns a Facebook page called Sitipe, where he regularly blogs about happenings in Akwa Ibom. He is the leader of the Coalition of Online Publishers in the state. Mr Morgan told PREMIUM TIMES that he paraphrased a statement the council chairperson made at an event. He said he uploaded on the Sitipe Facebook page, a video clip showing the chairperson, Mr Umoh making a remark that lack of jobs in his council area was causing youths to resort to writing on Facebook. Mr Morgan said shortly after he made the post, people called and asked him to delete it, which he did. In less than 20 minutes, I took down the video. I was surprised that the next day, somebody called to inform me that the council chairperson instructed his lawyer to serve me a defamation notice, he said, adding that he was yet to receive the letter. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The video In the video clip seen by PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Umoh made the remark referenced by Mr Morgan. It is, however, unclear when the council chairperson made the remark. Ive realised that Ibiono (Ibom) media, because we are many (in population), when they argue that weve written something on Facebook too much, I said its because there is no job. If you dont have a means of engaging these youths, they will engage themselves. And some of their engagements are to write Their general services are to publish something on social media so that it will attract your attention to invite them over, he said. Demand for N1 billion damages In the letter alleging character defamation, Mr Umoh referred Mr Morgan to the post the blogger allegedly made on Facebook Council chairman, Asuakak, says Ibiono youth are lazy, striving on blackmailing leaders on social media for relevance. Mr Umohs lawyer, Mr Ibe-Bassey, said over 100 people drew his clients attention to the defamatory publication. The lawyer said the blogger intentionally made the publication with the aim of degrading and diminishing the hard-earned reputation of the council chairperson. Our client briefed us that notwithstanding the aforesaid irresponsible publication, you further attached a video of his, where he made a speech at an event which is at variance and unconnected with the said unguarded publication of yours earlier referred to above, which further confirms your negative intentions to malign and destroy the integrity and most importantly, instigate the youths of Ibiono Ibom and the state as a whole against our client. Take notice that if those libelous words of yours are not retracted from the said platform earlier referred to, as well as an apology in two national dailies, two local tabloids and on the said page of yours, including but not limited to immediate payment of N1 billion in favour of our client within three days effective from the service of this notice, we shall have no option than to seek redress in the appropriate legal channel(s) against you, the letter read. Mr Umoh did not respond to a call and a text message seeking his comment on the matter at the time of filing this report. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Former President Muhammadu Buhari died as a loyal member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a staunch supporter of his successor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, according to a close political associate and former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Farouk Aliyu. Mr Buhari passed away on Sunday at the age of 82 in a London hospital. He was interred on Tuesday in his home in Daura, Katsina State. The retired major general, served as Nigerias civilian president from 2015 to 2023, after first leading the country as a military ruler between 1984 and 1985. In March, Mr El-Rufai confirmed that he informed Mr Buhari before defecting to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), citing discontent with the APC. Yes, certainly, with Buharis death now, his dynasty willat least for those who never truly believed in himleave Tinubu. But anyone who believes in Buhari will stand with Tinubu, fvhe said. He recalled how former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai visited Mr Buhari shortly before leaving the APC, suggesting the former president had knowledge of the move. However, Mr Buhari swiftly reaffirmed his membership of the APC in a public statement. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later President Muhammadu Buhari issued a statement saying he remained a member of the APCa party that gave him the opportunity to be president twice, Mr Aliyu said. So, anyone who believes in Buhari should continue to support President Tinubu, he added. But even while Buhari was alive, some of them didnt take his advice seriously. He described himself and others as real proteges of Mr Buhari who suffered political intimidation during his rise to power and pledged to remain aligned with President Tinubu. In March, Mr El-Rufai confirmed that he informed Mr Buhari before defecting to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), citing discontent with the APC. I left the APC with his full knowledge, El-Rufai said. I visited him on a Friday and informed him of my decision. Despite his claim of consultation, Mr Buhari maintained his loyalty to the APC, distancing himself from any endorsement of El-Rufais defection. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The police in Akwa Ibom State have arrested a man over an alleged theft of a Mercedes-Benz truck. In a statement on Wednesday, the police spokesperson in the state, Timfon John, identified the suspect as Solomon John from Nsit Ubium Local Government Area of the state. The suspect was arrested on Tuesday, Ms John, a deputy superintendent of police, said. Similarly, the police operatives in the state on Sunday arrested two suspected cultists at Ikot Ambon Itam, a suburb of Uyo, the state capital. The police said items recovered from the suspects, Goodwill Ekwere, male, 26, and Obon Udom, male, 33, include one locally made double-barrel gun, two live cartridges, and a wrap of substance suspected to be Indian hemp. During preliminary investigation, the suspects confessed to being members of a cult group known as Vikings. A manhunt has been launched to track down other members of the group still at large, the police said. Also, the police reported the arrest of burglars on Tuesday around the Itiam Bus Stop, off Oron Road, Uyo. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Ms John said operatives responded to intelligence that some young men were seen moving an air conditioner suspected to have been stolen. Upon arrival, the suspects fled. However, one of them, identified as Gift Ogbuji, 24, was arrested after a hot chase, the police said. One Samsung split-unit air conditioner and one petrol dispensing machine, suspected to have been stolen by the same gang, were recovered, the police added. READ ALSO: Six kidnap suspects killed in shootout with police The latest arrests occurred a little over two weeks after operatives arrested suspected vandals and recovered several items, including copper and aluminium electricity cables. The police identified one suspect as Inem Jimmy, from Aka Offot Villagein Uyo. He was arrested along Ndiya Street, Uyo, while vandalising electricity cables, an act that Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom frowned at. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has launched the first phase of reviving the long-abandoned Aba Urban Water Scheme. Speaking on Wednesday at the event in Aba, Mr Otti reaffirmed his administrations resolve to provide access to potable water across the state. The governor described water as an inalienable right, critical to human survival, hygiene, education, and economic productivity. Life is threatened when the water supply is inadequate or compromised, he said. He said that the project forms part of the Abia Integrated WASH Accelerated Programme (AIWAP), which aims to place a public water standpipe within a 3-minute walk from every home. According to him, AIWAP is not just about water, but about improving health, supporting education, enhancing emergency services, and driving economic growth. Mr Otti said that the initiative would also help eliminate open defecation and environmental pollution, with model WASH facilities powered by renewable energy. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later He disclosed that the state had faced setbacks earlier in the year due to sudden changes in international development aid, but found local solutions to finance the project. The governor also announced that the high-capacity water drilling rig recently acquired by the state would be deployed to more communities before the end of the year to tackle acute water challenges. He commended the Commissioner for Power and Public Utilities, Ikechukwu Monday, and his team for their dedication, and promised enhanced security for all public utilities. Mr Otti also urged the people of Abia to pay their taxes, protect public infrastructure, and report vandalism. Children trek long distances to access unsafe water sources Mr Monday, the commissioner for power and public utilities, described the initiative as bold and transformative. The commissioner said that many communities still suffer water challenges, with children trekking long distances to access often unsafe water sources. He stressed that the issue goes beyond infrastructure, describing it as a crisis of dignity, human development, and equity. Mr Monday said the water scheme, located at Christ the King Cathedral, Aba, had a production capacity of over one million cubic metres daily. He said that due to ageing infrastructure and poor maintenance, the scheme had become largely dysfunctional and required urgent rehabilitation. He expressed gratitude to the state government for prioritising access to potable water across the state, especially in urban and semi-urban areas. The commissioner also acknowledged support from UNICEF, the European Union, the World Bank, and the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation. He said all water facilities under the programme would be powered by solar energy, ensuring sustainability and resilience. According to him, the project integrates water, sanitation, hygiene, renewable energy, health, education, climate resilience, and economic growth. He emphasised that sustainability and community ownership were central to the programmes long-term success. Mr Monday said the local systems were being strengthened through monitoring plans, policy reforms, and capacity building for effective service delivery. He called on communities, traditional institutions, the private sector, and civil society to support the initiative. Mr Monday reiterated that access to clean water should be a shared responsibility, not solely that of the government. He described the flag-off as a new chapter in Abias journey towards dignity, health, and prosperity. He said that the initiative reflected the state governments commitment to building a cleaner, healthier, and more resilient Abia. Twenty years without water In separate interviews with reporters, some Aba residents expressed their appreciation to the governor for delivering on his promise to restore water in Aba. The Founder of Igbo bu Otu Gburugburu, an NGO, Chinyere Onyeukwu, described the launch as historic, noting that water had not flowed in the area for over 20 years. Mrs Onyeukwu praised the governors commitment and for being a man of his word. She prayed that detractors would never succeed in derailing the governors vision and thanked him and his wife for their dedication to the people. Joy Uba, a member of Christ the King Cathedral Catholic Women Organisation, described clean water as vital for homes, offices, and places of worship, adding that water is life. Mrs Uba described the event as a joyful celebration and commended Mr Otti for his thoughtful leadership in addressing a long-standing need. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Aboki Danjuma, has banned police teams from using unmarked vehicles such as mini-buses and tricycles for patrols across the state. Mr Danjuma explained that the decision followed numerous complaints of harassment, intimidation, and extortion by some tactical officers operating in unapproved vehicles while on routine patrols. The commissioner, according to a statement by police spokesperson in the state Henry Okoye on Monday, described the act as grossly unprofessional. He warned that any team found violating the directive would be sanctioned. Commanders of such teams will be vicariously held liable, he said. Mr Danjuma assured that the police command was committed to upholding professionalism, accountability, and ethical policing standards in line with the vision of the countrys inspector-general of police. All units are directed to comply strictly, and members of the public are encouraged to report any violations, the police chief added. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Background Cases of police brutality, extortion and other unprofessional activities in Nigeria have continued despite sanctions by police authorities, such as dismissal from service. In February this year, for instance, police authorities in Imo State launched an investigation into alleged extortion and assault of a couple by operatives in the state. The Imo extortion incident occurred less than one week after police authorities began interrogation of officers who were filmed assaulting a man in Abia State. Within the same period, police authorities in Abia State dismissed three officers for allegedly engaging in abduction and extortion. In October last year, police in Ebonyi began an orderly room trial of officers filmed extorting motorists in the state. Earlier in the same month, the police in Imo State began another orderly room trial of four officers seen in a viral video clip extorting motorists in the state. About three months earlier, police operatives in Bayelsa State extorted N3 million from a Nigerian man at gunpoint. The officers were subsequently arrested after the victim petitioned police authorities. The police operatives later returned the N3 million to the victim, about three weeks later. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Traditionalists attempting to pay their last respects to the late Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, were driven away from the venue. The incident occurred while Imams were preparing for the Muslim funeral prayers at the Ogbagba Court, Igbeba residence, in Ijebu-Ode, where the late Awujale was interred on Monday. Oba Adetona died on Sunday at 91 years old, reigning for 65 years on the Awujale throne. According to an eyewitness, Adedire Adetona, the kings first son, had instructed that traditionalists would not be allowed to attend the funeral, prompting soldiers to escort them away. One traditionalist said that they had come solely to pay their respects to the departed king, but were rebuffed by the royal family, the source said. In a video post by a Facebook user capturing a short scene at the burial site, Mr Adetona was seen gesturing to the traditionalists to leave. Some people in the crowd also shouted at them to leave. This is a Muslim burial, go back. We dont want any trouble, they chanted. The burial of Yoruba traditional leaders has long been a source of dispute between religious families and traditional institutions over how deceased kings should be laid to rest. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later While traditionalists argue that a traditional leaders burial should strictly adhere to customary rites, critics say that certain traditional practices associated with royal burials, which they named to include human sacrifice, mutilation, and cannibalism are barbaric and should be abolished. In his lifetime, the late Awujale advocated that traditional rulers be buried according to their faith. In 2020, he pushed for a bill that legally empowers traditional rulers to be installed and buried in accordance with their religious faith. The bill was formally sponsored by Akeem Balogun, the Chairman of the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, representing Ogun Waterside constituency. It however, sparked pushback from traditionalist bodies like the Osugbo, a class of Ijebu-Ode kingmakers, who argued it could undermine Yoruba cultural practices. Meanwhile, Christian and Muslim communities welcomed the bill. In January 2022, Governor Dapo Abiodun signed the Obas, Chiefs, Council of Obas and Traditional Council Law of Ogun State 2021 during a ceremony at the Awujales palace in Ijebu-Ode. The law includes a provision that preserves and protects the fundamental right of traditional rulers to be installed and buried according to their religious beliefs or convictions. This means that Christian or Muslim traditional rulers in Ogun State may now legally choose a religious burial in line with their faith in addition to any required traditional rites. Traditionalists on the late Awujales burial Earlier on Sunday, a widely circulated WhatsApp voice note, purportedly from a member of the Ilamuren, another class of Ijebu-Ode kingmakers, urged all traditionalists to allow the late Awujale to be buried in accordance with Islamic rites. However, the authenticity of the voice note could not be independently verified. He said traditionalists should hand over the kings body to the family if they choose to bury him according to his faith. He emphasized that the absence of the kings body would not hinder the traditional rites. According to Mr Ajisa, the ruling family and houses have the authority to decide on the burial rites, including the option to choose between traditional and Islamic customs. However, traditional rituals for the land will still be observed. Oluwo praises Islamic burial rite of late Awujale Meanwhile, the Paramount Ruler of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrosheed Akanbi, has expressed satisfaction with the burial rite of the late Ajuwale, who was interred in accordance with Islamic rites at his final resting place at Ogbagba Court, Igbeba residence in Ijebu-Ode. The traditional leader, who is vocal about his disdain for human sacrifice and cannibalism, said the process adopted in burying the traditional leader has protected the sanctity of the Yoruba traditional institution, freeing traditional rulers from physical and spiritual oppression after death. He praised the Adetona family, the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun and the Attorney General of the state, Oluwasina Ogungbade, for burying the late Awujale according to his Islamic faith. The burial process to be adopted in burying Yoruba Traditional Ruler should be on the recommendation of the king before his passage or his family after his death. The seizure of the Kings corpse from his family by any secret group should be optional depending on the wishes of his family. In Iwo, I have freed Oluwo stool from the bondage since my ascension 10 years ago. The Osugbos and the Ogbonis have no relation with the Yoruba monarchy. Every attempt to enslave the stool will be eternally restricted by my stool. The Iwo throne can never be subjected to the command of any secret society. I have freed my town. Even after my death, I trust Iwo people, they will never condon absurdity. Any town willing his king to be butchered after death should appoint an herbalist, Osugbos and Ogbonis as their king, he said. The Oluwo has been a staunch critic of paganism, often calling for the abolition of ritual killings which he associates with traditional worshipping. But vocal traditionalists have denied the extremism blamed on traditional religions and accused the Oluwo of undermining the Yoruba culture and tradition to which he owes his ascension to the throne. He has repeatedly condemned the bloodletting in the guise of tradition, spiritual renewal, and demanded justice for those involved in such acts. A renowned Ifa priest and veteran actor, Ifayemi Elebuibon, has said repeatedly that the Oluwo lacked proper cultural orientation of a Yoruba traditional ruler. Like other critics, Mr Elebuibon said, although without providing proof, that the Oluwo is a Saudi Arabia agent promoting Islam at the expense of Yoruba culture and tradition. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Gunmen involved in oil bunkering, on Sunday night, ambushed and killed the Community Development Committee (CDC) Chairperson of Igbomotoru 1 Community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. According to community sources, who confirmed the incident to journalists in Yenagoa on Monday, the CDC chairperson, Goodnews Manash, was ambushed behind the communitys school compound at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, while visiting his brother. Igbomotoru, rich in crude oil deposits and famous for ruthless militants and crude oil thieves, has had a series of intra-communal clashes, which have forced many indigenes into exile. A community leader, who pleaded anonymity, said the assailants gained access to the town through a forest at the back of the community. This is because we have military checkpoints on our waterway, which made it impossible for them to come in speedboats. There was no hint that the gunmen involved in illegal activities, unchallenged, especially crude oil bunkering, would strike. They had been driven out of the community by the Nigerian army. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later And angered by that, they plotted and killed the CDC chairman, who was working hard to restore peace in our community, he said. Confirming the incident, the Paramount Ruler of the community, Ayibaikie Ofongo, said, Between midnight and 2 a.m. on Sunday, somebody from the community called to inform me that gunmen have abducted the CDC chairman. It was not until daybreak that I got concrete information that he was actually assassinated. I can confirm that he is dead, but we intend to have a meeting at the community level before we issue an official statement to the public, he said. Also, the spokesperson to the Chairperson, Southern Ijaw LGA, Ayibaetare Easterday, said that he got wind of the incident on Sunday. Mr Easterday condemned the gruesome attack, saying that such an incident has put the community and LGA in a bad light before the international community. He said, The story is true, but he was not killed in his house. He was killed close to another persons compound, where he was going to visit. READ ALSO: Police arraign 22 suspects over killing of wedding travellers in Plateau It is an unfortunate incident, and we pray that this kind of thing does not happen again in our community. We are all brothers and sisters, so if we offend one another in the community, we should exercise tolerance and make peace. The incident is not befitting of who we are, and it is condemnable, Mr Easterday said. NAN could not immediately get a comment from the police on the incident. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Combined security operatives have rescued a total of five kidnap victims in multiple operations in Anambra State, Nigerias South-east. Police spokesperson in Anambra State Tochukwu Ikenga in a statement on Tuesday said security operatives killed two suspects and arrested others during the operations. How the operations happened Mr Ikenga, a superintendent of police, said the divisional police officers (DPOs) from Nimo and Nteje, on Tuesday, rescued three kidnapped victims abducted by some armed hoodlums. Nimo and Nteje are communities in Njikoka and Oyi Local Government Areas in Anambra State respectively. The spokesperson said the two DPOs rescued the victims in collaboration with local vigilante operatives in the communities. He said the security operatives arrested one of the suspects during the operation. One pump-action gun and one dagger were among items recovered from the hoodlums, according to the police. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The arrested suspect is a known terrorist, kidnapper, and armed robber, and a confirmed member of the proscribed separatist group. During interrogation, he confessed to being a photographer for the group, operating from a camp known as Mother Valley, located in the Orsumoghu-Orsu Axis, Mr Ikenga said. He is currently undergoing further interrogation as discreet investigations continue to uncover his criminal network. More rescue, killing of suspects Mr Ikenga said, in another operation on Tuesday evening, a joint security team rescued two female kidnap victims. The spokesperson said the security team comprising police operatives from Nimo Division and local vigilante members rescued the victims in response to a tip-off. He said the security team combed forested areas between Oraukwu and Nimo communities before rescuing the victims. The victims will be reunited with their families following necessary medical and psychological evaluations, he said. Mr Ikenga said, in a similar operation on Monday, police operatives killed two armed hoodlums. The police spokesperson said the operatives attached to Nteje Division killed the two hoodlums during a shootout between them. He said the operatives were responding to a distress call about an attempted attack by the hoodlums when the gun battle ensued between them. Some arms and ammunition were recovered from the hoodlums, the police said. Another arrest Mr Ikenga said police operatives attached to the Rapid Response Squad arrested a 31-year-old suspected leader of an unnamed proscribed separatist group on Tuesday. He identified the arrested suspect as Gospel Ozioma Nneto, a male, otherwise known as OZ. The spokesperson said the police in the state had begun efforts to track down the other fleeing suspects involved in the separate criminal offences. Increased attacks Like other states in Nigerias South-east, security has deteriorated in Anambra State with frequent attacks by armed persons. The attacks often target security agencies, government officials and facilities. Hundreds of persons have been killed or abducted and several others injured in some of such attacks in the region. Last month, some gunmen invaded Ogboji, a community in Orumba South Local Government Area of Anambra State on 30 June, killing about 13 people. At least two persons were killed on 19 June when suspected cultists attacked residents of the Oko Community. READ ALSO: Police recover N5 million from suspected kidnappers The Nigerian government has repeatedly accused the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) of being responsible for the deadly attacks in the region. But the separatist group has repeatedly denied its involvement in the attacks. IPOB is a group leading agitation for an independent state of Biafra which it wants carved out from the South-east and some parts of the South-south Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Gap between resources of Energy Support Fund, needs of energy companies is about EUR 617 mln Ministry of Energy The gap between the available resources of the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, which has mobilized over EUR 1.16 billion since April 2022, and the priority needs of energy companies is approximately EUR 617 million, the Ministry of Energy reported. "The Energy Community Secretariat [the Fund administrator] calls on all donors to increase their contributions, as currently the gap between the available resources of the Fund and the priority needs is approximately EUR 617 million," the Ministry of Energy said in a message on its Telegram channel on Wednesday. Since the launch of the Fund in April 2022, over EUR 1.16 billion has been mobilized from approximately 33 donors. This has made it possible to conclude over 790 contracts for the supply of energy equipment, as well as to agree on commitments totaling EUR 669 million. According to the Ministry of Energy, supplies were delivered to more than 50 Ukrainian energy companies in 21 regions of Ukraine. The same message indicates that the Luxembourg government has officially increased its contribution to the Fund to EUR 12 million, and an additional EUR 10 million has already been received and is fully available in its special account. According to Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko, these funds will be used for urgent emergency repairs to critical infrastructure, which is being damaged daily by Russian strikes. "We sincerely welcome this new contribution, which strengthens the role of the Fund as an effective, flexible and transparent instrument - able to respond quickly and support the comprehensive modernization of Ukraine's energy system. Each contribution helps reduce the still significant gap between available resources and priority needs to ensure Ukraine's energy sustainability," said Artur Lorkowski, Director of the Energy Community Secretariat. The police command in Delta State says it has killed six kidnap suspects in the state. Bright Edafe, the commands spokesperson, disclosed this at a news briefing on Tuesday in Warri. Mr Edafe, a superintendent of police, said the suspects were shot dead on Wednesday when operatives raided their hideout on the Ughelli-Patani Expressway. He said the Commissioner of Police Special Assignment Team (CP-SAT) was on a sting operation when they stormed the criminal hideout, located near Unenurhei Community on the expressway. On 9 July, the CP-SAT, while on a sting operation, raided the suspects hideout near Unenurhei axis, on the Ughelli-Patani Expressway. During the operation, the suspects, who were heavily armed, engaged the police team in a fierce gun duel. In the process, the suspects sustained gunshot injuries. They were taken to the hospital, where six of them were confirmed dead, while two others are still receiving treatment. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later He said that four locally-made guns and 19 rounds of live cartridges were recovered from them. Abduction for ransom has become one of the top crimes in many Nigerian cities. The police in Delta recently arrested five suspected kidnappers and recovered N5 million, believed to be money paid as ransom to them. The arrest of the five suspects and the recovery of the N5 million came less than two weeks after the police arrested a suspected member of a kidnapping and armed robbery syndicate terrorising Ughelli, Warri, Agbarho, and Sapele areas of the state. The police had said they had recovered from one suspect a POS machine used to collect ransom payments. Last month, this newspaper reported how the police arrested three suspected members of an interstate kidnap syndicate in the state. Mr Edafe said that members of the syndicate operate in the South-south and South-east states of Delta, Rivers, Enugu, and Imo. He identified the suspects as Idris Yakubu, 21, from Kwara State; Bello Amodu, 40, from Sokoto State, and Umar Mohammed, 38, from Kebbi State. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Turkish government says that members of a group it calls the Fethullah Terrorist Organisation (FETO) exist in Nigeria, and also operate in other countries around the world. Mehmet Poroy, Turkish ambassador-designate to Nigeria, disclosed this on Tuesday night in Abuja at a dinner organised by the Turkish Embassy to mark the countrys Democracy and National Unity Day. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ceremony is held annually to mark the 15 July 2016 failed coup in Turkiye, which was allegedly orchestrated by FETO. The Turkish government said the coup was successfully quelled by the collective resistance of its patriotic forces and citizens, who resisted the mutiny against the government of President Recep Erdogan. According to Mr Poroy, members of the Gulen movement, which allegedly sponsored the coup, are still being captured and arrested globally; hence their presence in any country poses a serious national threat. They are still being captured and arrested today. The presence of such an organisation poses a threat to every country in which it operates. Unfortunately, the FETO terrorist organisation still maintains its activities in Nigeria, particularly in the fields of education and healthcare. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later We consistently inform our Nigerian friends about the nature and dangers of this organisation, and urge them to remain vigilant and cautious, Poroy said. The Turkish envoy said that, through international cooperation, Turkiye has been able to successfully disrupt many FETO cells and networks operating in allied countries around the world. According to him, numerous institutions, especially schools that form part of FETOs international network, have been taken over by Turkish institutions. He, however, stressed that the groups international structures have not been fully dismantled globally. The fact that new investigations and arrests into the organisation continue to be launched demonstrates the need for this struggle to be pursued with unwavering determination. In several countries, including Nigeria, FETO continues to pump its operations under the presence of humanitarian aid, education, healthcare, and interfaith dialogue. You must not forget that behind this humanitarian appearance lies an organisation that seeks to infiltrate the political and bureaucratic institutions of host countries, Mr Poroy warned. NAN reports that the Gulen movement (known as Hizmet or Service in Turk language) is a transnational, religious, educational, and social organisation, founded in late 1950s. Its founder, Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish Islamic scholar, died as a Turkish fugitive in October 2024 at the age of 83, in Pennsylvania, United States. The Turkish government accused Mr Gulen of masterminding the 2016 bloody coup, which claimed at least 251 lives, and has officially designated the group as a global terrorist organisation. Nine years after the coup, Turkiye has continued its aggressive global campaign against the group, saying it still operates worldwide, although the group has denied the terrorism tag. Turkiye has been engaged in a massive global crackdown on the group, seizing or freezing billions of dollars of Gulen-linked assets and institutions, including schools, universities, foundations, associations, and companies. NAN also reports that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and countries like Pakistan and Northern Cyprus have designated FETO as a terrorist organisation. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola is set to release a much-anticipated memoir chronicling his journey through the world of entrepreneurship, sources close to the business mogul have told PREMIUM TIMES. According to the sources, the upcoming book will detail Mr Otedolas decades-long business odyssey, highlighting the obstacles he faced and the strategies he employed to overcome them. While the memoirs title, release date, and publisher remain undisclosed, the sources said preparations for publication are in advanced stages. Mr Otedola, 62, offered a strong hint of the release on Wednesday morning when he posted a message on his verified X (formerly Twitter) account, reflecting on the evolution of entrepreneurship in Nigeria and his own business journey. Over the past decade, doors have opened for entrepreneurs in Nigeria that once seemed firmly shut, he wrote. This transformation didnt happen overnight. Its the result of perseverance, resilience, and the lessons learned from countless setbacks. Ive walked this path myself, facing challenges and breakthroughs that shaped not just my career but my outlook on what it means to succeed. In the coming weeks, you will be learning about these experiences and my journey to becoming one of Africas most successful businessmen. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later I hope these insights will inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs. I will be sharing something very exciting in the coming days. When contacted Wednesday morning, the businessman declined to comment on the forthcoming book. Mr Otedola, one of Nigerias most prominent business figures, is best known for his leadership roles in the energy, finance, and industrial sectors. He served as the chairman and CEO of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, and was a major shareholder in Forte Oil Plc (now Ardova Plc), from which he later divested. Since then, he has focused his interests on power generation through his investment in Geregu Power Plc, which he successfully listed on the Nigerian Exchange in 2022. In recent years, Mr Otedola has also attracted attention to his strategic moves in the financial services sector, including share acquisitions and board leadership at First Bank of Nigeria Holdings. Beyond business, Mr Otedola is a noted philanthropist and patron of the arts, having made substantial donations to causes in education, healthcare, and youth development. The forthcoming memoir is expected to provide rare insight into the mind of one of Africas most influential entrepreneurs and could serve as a guidebook for aspiring business leaders across the continent. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Federal High Court in Lagos, on Wednesday, discharged and acquitted a former governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, of money laundering and fraud. Trial judge Chukwujekwu Aneke discharged the former governor in a ruling on his no-case submission filed and argued by his counsel, Messrs Olalekan Ojo and Kanu Agabi, both Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs). The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Fayose was charged with N2.2 billion fraud and money laundering by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC, through prosecutor Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had first arraigned him on 22 October 2018, before trial Mojisola Olatotegun, alongside his company, Spotless Investment Ltd. They were arraigned on 11 counts of money laundering, stealing, and fraud. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail on 24 October 2018, in the sum of N50 million with sureties in like sum. Mr Fayose, was however, subsequently, re-arraigned before Mr Aneke, on 2 July 2019, after the case was withdrawn from the former judge, following EFCCs petition. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later He, again, pleaded not guilty to the charges and was allowed to continue on the earlier bail granted. On 20 May, the court reserved its ruling on a no-case submission, brought by the defence, after hearing arguments from counsel. Delivering ruling on Wednesday, Judge Aneke, held that the prosecution failed to establish a prima facie case against the former governor. He also held that the witnesses and documentary evidence tendered by prosecution were not sufficient to establish the guilt of the defendant. He consequently discharged and acquitted Fayose of the allegations. According to the charge, on 17 June 2014, Mr Fayose and one Abiodun Agbele were said to have taken possession of the sum of N1.2 billion, for purposes of funding his governorship election campaign in Ekiti, funds they reasonably ought to have known formed part of crime proceeds. Mr Fayose was alleged to have received a cash payment of five million dollars cash from the then Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, without going through any financial institution. He was also alleged to have retained the sum of N300 million in his account and took control of the aggregate sum of about N622 million which he reasonably ought to have known formed part of crime proceeds. He was further alleged to have procured De Privateer Ltd and Still Earth Ltd, to retain the aggregate N851 million which they reasonably ought to have known formed part of crime proceeds. Besides, the defendant was alleged to have used the aggregate sum of about N1.6 billion to acquire properties in Lagos and Abuja, funds he reasonably ought to have known formed part of crime proceeds. The former Ekiti State governor was also alleged to have used the sum of N200 million, to acquire a property in Abuja, in the name of his elder sister Moji Oladeji, fund he ought to also know formed crime proceeds. According to the EFCC, the offences contravened the provisions of sections 15(1), 15 (2), 15 (3), 16(2)(b), 16 (d), and 18 (c) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011. NAN reports that the prosecution called about 20 witnesses and tendered a plethora of evidence in the trial. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A list of more than 300 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) conversion centres has disappeared from the website of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (PICNG), a Nigerian government programme aimed at reducing transportation costs following the removal of the petrol subsidy. Our reporter noted that the list disappeared two days after we published an investigation exposing how black market trade and conflict of interest threatened the initiative. A week later, the list remains missing from the website. The initiative, which has gulped more than N45 billion through the Commercial Vehicle Conversion Incentive Programme (CV-CIP), is also compromised by what insiders described as inflated costs and procurement opacity. Our investigation detailed how a top official, David Idakwo, breached extant laws, holding a major share in a company that benefits from government-subsidised CNG kits meant for commercial and ride-share drivers. Mr Idakwo, the PICNGs Northern Region Expansion Coordinator, is the official. Although our sources said more officials are involved in the shady deal, we could not find evidence to substantiate their claims. According to our findings, his company, Hi-Grade Energies Ltd, was registered just 10 days after President Tinubu approved the establishment of PICNG. The officials dual roleas a government regulator and private sector beneficiaryviolates multiple Nigerian laws, including the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, the Public Procurement Act (2007), and the ICPC Act (2000). Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The missing list The list, previously accessible to Nigerians as a sign of the governments transparency and progress, contained the names and locations of conversion centres approved under the PICNG rollout plan. While the list remains inaccessible on the PICNG website, PREMIUM TIMES pulled it from the Wayback Machine, a tool that helps restore missing web pages. According to our analysis, the PICNG website experienced about 76 changes between 4 January 2024 and 21 June 2025. Similarly, the conversion centres section was upgraded at least 13 times between 14 August 2024 and 15 May 2025. Within this period, the list of conversion centres grew from 187 to 317. Shortly after our investigation into leakages manifesting through black-market diversions and insider dealings, the removal raises concerns about transparency and deliberate efforts to conceal critical information from the public. With the list now offline, there are concerns that the agency is attempting to downplay public scrutiny. Since our investigation, the agency has remained silent. Insider sources said no action has been taken against Mr Idakwo. We are calling for the restoration of the data and an independent audit of the listed conversion centres, one insider said, noting some of the conversion centres may exist only on paper, apart from the ones controlled by top officials. When contacted through its customer care line, available on its website, the PICNG said the website was down and would be restored soon. There is a particular section for conversion centres, a customer care agent who simply identified as Oluwaseun said when countered that the website was not down as he claimed. Olayinka Daniel, a web developer and digital team lead at Dataphyte, shared his expertise about such a scenario. They cant take it down to update it, making sure that list or section is not available to the public, Mr Daniel said. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Former Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) registrar Dibu Ojerinde has reopened talks with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) for an out-of-court settlement of the N5.2 billion fraud case instituted against him, both sides said Wednesday. This comes just weeks after the trial judge ordered him to open his defence and two and a half years after the first settlement talks failed. Defence lawyer Eteya Ogana was the first to raise the issue at the resumed hearing in the trial at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday. Mr Ogana told trial judge Obiora Egwuatu that the defence was meant to open its case, but for the need to give the settlement talks a chance. There is a development, an intervention, which parties are exploring to see if the matter can be administratively settled, Mr Ogana said, requesting a long adjournment to allow time to conclude talks. Lesie Iheduru, who appeared for the prosecution, confirmed the development and did not oppose the request for adjournment. The judge adjourned the matter until 20 October for a report on the status of the settlement talks or, failing that, for the defence to open its case. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Mr Ojerinde, a professor, served as registrar of the National Examinations Council from 1999 to 2007, before become the JAMB Registrar, a position he held between 2007 and 2016. In July 2021, ICPC charged him with 18 counts of diverting N5.2 billion in public funds, abuse of office, and conferring corrupt advantages on himself while heading both examination bodies. He previously made an unsuccessful attempt to settle the matter out of court. The earlier settlement moves broke down in February 2022, paving the way for the ICPC to call its first prosecution witness after some wait to see the negotiation through. After ICPCs finished presenting its case, calling all its prosecution witnesses and tendering documentary evidence, Mr Ojerinde filed a no-case submission to ask the court to dismiss the charges on the grounds that the commmission failed to prove any case against him. The judge dismissed the no-case submission last month, insisting that he had case to answer, and ordering him to open his defence Wednesday (16 July). The defence resumed negotiation with the prosecution following the ruling. Mr Ojerinde faces another set of charges alongside his children also before the Federal High Court in Abuja. In the 17 charges, the ICPC alleged that the former JAMB boss conspired with three of his children (Oluwaseun Ojerinde, Olumide Ojerinde, and Adebayo Ojerinde) to sell off property worth $150,000 after it had been forfeited to the federal government by a court order. The property is located at House No. 4 Ahomko Drive, Achimota Phase 2, Accra, Ghana. The prosecution also accused Mr Ojerinde of incorporating companies and taking up simultaneous appointments as Chairman and Director, while being a public officer on full-time appointment as Registrar/Chief Executive of National Examinations Council (NECO), Minna and the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Bwari, Abuja. ICPC said this was despite that Mr Ojerinde knew very well that the Code of Conduct for Public Officers forbids public officers from engaging in private business other than farming or participating in shareholding of joint stock companies. ICPC had in 2020 obtained a court order for the confiscation of various assets, including schools, filling stations, and houses traced to Mr Ojerinde. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria needs right operators of the constitution, not a perfect constitution, to lead in good governance and promotion of welfare and wellbeing of the citizenry. Mr Obasanjo stated this in his remarks at the opening of a three-day National Summit on the Future of Nigerias Constitutional Democracy, organised by The Patriots, in collaboration with Nigeria Political Summit Group, on Wednesday in Abuja. The former president, in his remarks read by the Secretary-General, Eminent Patriots, Olawale Okunniyi, said that while a nations constitution must reflect the history, the constituents and the aspiration of its people, no constitution is perfect. He, however, said that the operators played key role in the implementation and promotion of the wellbeing of the citizens. From my experience in operating our constitution, I will be the first to point out some areas of our constitution that need amendment. However, for me, no constitution can ever be regarded as perfect. But whatever the strength or weakness of a constitution, the most important issue, to my own understanding and experience, is the operators of the constitution. The best constitution can be perverted and distorted by the operators and we have experienced that all over Africa, Nigeria not exempted. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later I am more concerned about the operators of the constitution to lead in good governance and promotion of welfare and wellbeing of the citizenry. No matter what you do to Nigerian constitution, if the operators of the constitution, for the past one decade and a half, remain unchanged and continue in the same manner, the welfare and wellbeing of Nigerians will continue to be sacrificed on the altar of selfishness. It will continue to be sacrificed on the altar of self-centeredness, corruption, impunity and total disregard of the constitution, decency, morality, integrity and honesty, he said. Mr Obasanjo said that at this crucial time, the operators mattered more and that the searchlight should be on them. A former Governor of Akwa-Ibom, Victor Attah, in his remarks, also read by Mr Okunniyi, stated that the 1999 Constitution was not a peoples constitution. Mr Attah said that the summit was not another routine conference, but an opportunity to confront the fundamental contradiction that Nigeria was governed by the will of the people, but by a constitution that robbed the citizens of their sovereignty. He described the 1999 constitution as a military decree, imposed without the consent of the people The military suspended the 1963 Constitution which remains the last legal expression of our peoples collective will and agreed terms of condition for staying together, he said. The former governor said that the 1963 Constitution was suspended, repealed, proscribed or abrogated. We, from the South-south region, join other zones across this country who now agree that this union is not working as it is. It can only be sustained if it is restructured on the basis of equity, justice and mutual consent, he said. According to him, Nigerias democracy is not working, while peoples trust in the government has also declined. This, he said, was due to the countrys departure from a functional federal system to an imperial, presidential, unitary system of government. We, in consultation with other leaders and The Compatriots a group I chair believe the following must be addressed. Sovereignty must return to the people. We must get rid of this unitary system and reinstate the federal system of governance that our founding fathers had agreed to. True federalism must guarantee maximum autonomy to the federating units. Cost of politics must be brought down to open space for inclusiveness and real leadership. Unicameral legislature with ministers appointed only from elected representatives, he said. Mr Attah advised Nigerians to take advantage of the summit to address contending issues, saying: We must not be afraid to change, rather be afraid not to change. Nigerias unity will only be preserved through fairness and justice not force or fear. And if we miss this opportunity, the next chapter may be one of irreversible fragmentation. I believe and I know many of you also believe, that time is running out, he said. On his part, Gbenga Daniel, the co-chairman, Organising Committee of the summit, described the occasion as a significant step in Nigerias journey toward unity, progress and national development. This summit is a citizen-driven constitutional intervention, stemming from months and even years of relentless advocacy, extensive consultations and a growing sense of public urgency. We are here because the existing structure, established by the 1999 Constitution, has consistently proven to be inadequate in effectively addressing the core issues related to governance, equity, inclusion and national cohesion. Our agenda for the coming days is ambitious but aims to be straightforward and focused, he said. The former Ogun governor said that the summit would scrutinise vital themes, including: the organisation and structure of the Nigerian federation, the role and functioning of local governments and traditional institutions and resource control and fiscal federalism. He said that it would also look at electoral and judicial reforms, security concerns nationwide and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a 21st century democracy. More importantly, we will work diligently to ensure that no voice is too small and that no group is left behind. This summit is multi-generational, spanning different regions, and inclusive of various sectors, truly embodying the Nigeria we aspire to build, he said. Mr Daniel, who is the Senate Committee Chairman on Navy, urged Nigerian youths, women, civil society actors as well as traditional and religious leaders to be involved in discussions. Their involvement and voices, he said, were crucial in building a brighter, more inclusive and resilient future for all. He said that the resolutions and proposals arising from the summit would be carefully documented, further refined and subsequently presented to both the presidency and the National Assembly for their considerations. Our intention is not to foster confrontation but to promote constructive collaboration and mutual understanding. It is imperative that we persuade our leadersthrough reasoned argument, consensus-building and compelling evidencethat Nigeria is in dire need of a new constitutional framework that reflects the aspirations and realities of all its citizens, he stated. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Title: PL 245: Inside Story of the $1.3 bn Nigerian Oil Block. Author: Mohammed Bello Adoke, O Publisher: The Conrad Press, 2025, Pages: 271 pp. OPL 245 is probably the most well-known oil block to be awarded by the Nigerian government more for the legal disputes and international arbitrations, with regard to its acquisition and ownership involving the Federal Government of Nigeria, Shell and Malabu Oil as well as a large cast of actors across courts in Nigeria, United States, United Kingdom and. Italy. Whereas OPL 245, a versatile, deep water offshore asset off the Niger Delta was one of other similar licenses awarded to encourage indigenous participation in Nigerias oil and gas sector, it is caught in a complex web of scandals, allegations of corruption, bribery, and so much melodrama in and out of the courtrooms. In an earlier book titled Burden of Service, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN), had written among other things, on this controversial Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL), or what is also known as Malabugate; in the present book, a sequel to his first book, he focusses on the OPL 245 in an extensive and comprehensive account of the allegations about his role, the burden that he has had to endure in terms of what he calls clinical persecution (p. 149), or the lies and lies and more lies (p. 153) that were told against him, and his eventual vindication. Adokes OPL 245, is by his own admission, therapeutic, a book that needed to be written, to set the records straight, for posterity and to clear his name through a documentation of facts and circumstances. Adoke was Nigerias Attorney General and Minister of Justice, April 2010 June 2015. At the time the OPL 245 saga began in 2003, he was not yet in government, nor was he either when the block was revoked by the Obasanjo government on July 2, 2001, or when a Settlement Agreement was signed in 2006. But when he was appointed AGF/Minister of Justice in 2010, OPL 245 became one of the matters he inherited as Attorney General (p. 23). It was during this period that the Jonathan administration confirmed the award of OPL 245 to Malabu, This author is very clear in stating that the politicisation of OPL 245 was caused by former President Olusegun Obasanjo who woke up one morning and set OPL 245 on fire )he revoked the block without giving any reasons..(p.21), resulting in a series of litigations involving NNPC, Malabu and Shell. which stalled the development of the asset. One of Adokes first assignments as AGF/Minister of Justice was to help unpack the logjam, and he had advised that the 2006 Settlement Agreement was binding on the Federal Government. In the Resolution Agreement that was arrived at in April 2011, Shell and Nigeria Agip Exploration Ltd. (NAE) would pay $1.3 billion into an escrow account with JP Morgan in London, while Malabu would receive $1.092 billion as compensation as full and final settlement. As the Chief Law Officer of the Federation, Adoke was convinced that he had given the government proper advice in the circumstances. This book is about the twists and turns that he would have to deal with later. The exact nature of the burden of service that he has spoken about is laid bare in this book. On 29 May, 2015, after the Jonathan administration had left office, and the Muhammadu Buhari administration had been sworn in, Adoke said he received messages from those in the know that he was going to be hounded by the new government. He was in fact advised to leave town. He heeded the advice, but more specifically to proceed for further studies at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. His travails soon began. He was accused of taking a bribe of N300 million (US$2.2 million) from the OPL 245 agreement, or another $801 million money, laundering and abuse of office. Adoke insists on his innocence. Nonetheless, he remained in exile, from May 29, 2015 till 19 December, 2019, in-between the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed cases against him in court, his name was mentioned in legal disputes in Italy, the US and the UK, his apartment was raided in the Netherlands, his houses were searched in Nigeria, a Warrant of Arrest was issued against him internationally, leading to his arrest and detention for 35 days by INTERPOL in Dubai, UAE, upon his return to Nigeria, he spent another 55 days in EFCC detention, he was even interrogated over the P&ID matter, and it was not until April 2024 that he was fully cleared of all allegations of wrongdoing in Nigerian courts, resulting in his vindication. Thus, he has had to suffer for about eight years, with threats to his life and well-being. As he puts it: when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015, he chose to come after me. Agreed that he misruled Nigeria for eight years, but he at least got distinction in one thing: destroying my name. He turned me to the poster boy of a scandal that never was. I was arrested and detained in the UAE for 35 days. I was arrested and detained for another 55 days in Nigeria by the EFCC. Anywhere my name is mentioned today, it is Malabu and OPL 245 that usually come to mind, thanks to Buhari who harbored a collection of bitter feelings against me for reasons best known to him. In this book, Adoke fights back, relying on his vindication at every turn by the courts. The book is divided into Five Parts and 26 chapters. It is a cold-blooded, no-holds-barred response to everyone whom he considers as having played an unkind role in the course of his travails. This may well end up as a very controversial book as the affected persons and institutions may seek to write their own stories, for it should not be assumed that everyone in this cast of heroes and villains would simply read the book and accept guilt. A few examples may perhaps convey an impression of this books flavour. In Chapter 5, Adoke says former President Olusegun Obasanjo is clever by half, and that he owes Nigerians an apology for blatantly lying (p.43). He says Obasanjo failed the ultimate leadership test. (p. 42) in the matter of OPL 245. He adds that It was disingenuous of Obasanjo to have tried to distort historical facts. (p.53.) On President Buhari he observes that he (Buhari) was driven by vengeance. Vengeance for the Abacha family. He believed I was unfair to the Abachas in the OPL 245 deal (p.13). Having established what he calls Intrigue and Vendetta in the First Part of the book, Part Two titled A Den of Defamers is a systematic skewering of those he considers his traducers namely President Muhammadu Buhari, a. friend and defender of the Abacha family (p. 55) Professor John Paden, author he says of the shabby biography of Muhammadu Buhari, Mohammed Sani or Muhammadu Abacha who claims he owns 50 per cent of Malabu which he did not pay for, and yet wanted a cut from the Malabu windfall (p.60). Others who seem to have been part of the Grand Conspiracy against Adoke include Professor Yemi Osinbajo and his lawyer friend, Olabode Johnson whose firm and partners were targeting a commission of between 5% and 35%, Mr Abubakar Malami, Adokes successor as AGF, UK-based Global Witness, Fabio de Pasquale, an Italian prosecutor, HEDA Resource Centre, a Nigerian NGO working with Global Witness, Mr. Rislanudeen Mohammed who lied, SaharaReporters, which Adoke calls an-anything-goes-website (p. 63) and Premium Times newspaper all involved in character assassination and the mudslinging agenda. (p. 63. Chapter 8 titled The Ruthless Enforcer is a detailed review of the role of the EFCC under Mr. Ibrahim Magu in the authors travails, what he calls the Magu pandemic (p.74), one EFCC prosecutor Mr. Bala Sanga is even dismissed as one lowlifemiserable (p.73). Adoke does not pull his punches, large portions of this book must have been written in a fit of anger. Professor Yemi Osinbajo is labelled the Conflicted Mr. Cleanwho likes to be seen as the epitome of transparency, honesty and accountability (p. 90). Abubakar Malami is called a betrayer and a viper (Chapter 10, The Antics of Malami, pp. 81-95). Olanrewaju Suraju, HEDA Resource Centre and Global Witness got their own thrashing in Chapter 12 titled The Headless Mob. Fabio De Pasquale is the Italian Jobber whose eventual demotion by Italys Superior Council of the Judiciary, Adoke celebrates, just as he would also gloat over Mr. Godwin Emefieles travails later in the book (p.256 -258). Death finally caught up with the hunter, Adoke writes sarcastically. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Part III is titled Harrassed and Embarrased: five chapters in which the reader is taken through the authors detention in Dubai, for 35 days from 12 November 2019 till 19 December 2019 when he decided of his own volition, to return to Nigeria only to be detained for another 55 days in EFCC Custody. Part IV: Trials and Triumphs, is a very detailed report of the various cases related to OPL 245 in the United States, Italy, the UK and the pronouncements by the courts in Nigeria. Lawyers, students of case law, prosecutors and the general reader would find a lot that is instructive in this part of the book. The reporting is robust, the documentation is extensive, and illuminating about how the path to justice may be tortuous: justice for the accused, justice for the jury and justice for society. It is difficult to see, however, how justice has been done to society in the case of OPL 245. Beyond the arrested development of the asset, it is curious as this author asserts that OPL 245 litigation was a very lucrative oil block, as lucrative as OPL 245 itself for lawyers and their allies in the Buhari administration. that is a monumental waste of resources (p. 200). The book is brought to a close with Reflections and Recollections (pp. 246 266). Chapter 26 opens with a telling statement: I was discharged and acquitted but the scars remain (p. 253), and this is perhaps understandable, given the picture of mans wickedness to man that Adoke paints, to rise to an esteemed position of being the chief law officer of the Federation only to be humiliated by a desperate, vicious and ruthless government Adokes description of Buharis government. There are four sub-texts running through the entire book: the first is how the institutions of state, such as the EFCC and the judiciary can be used to pursue unmitigated acts of persecution, the second sub-text is the fickleness of the human mind, and the deep-seated hatred that some nurse in their minds, the third sub-text is the use and abuse of the media, and the fourth is how the kind of treatment and experience that Adoke has had provide justification for the refusal of many otherwise public-spirited persons to take up political or government appointments. Over twelve years of litigation upon litigation over OPL 245 further raises questions about the quality of leadership in Nigeria. And so Adoke asks: Who truly short-changed Nigeria between Adoke and Buhari? Readers of the book may well find answers within its pages. The book is dedicated to all who stood by me when I was going through the darkest era of my life. My vindication is a victory for those who gave me a benefit of the doubt. These include Ibrahim Lamorde, Chairman of the EFCC who was relieved of his position, a day after he insisted that Adoke was innocent, President Jonathan, a super respecter of the law (p. 84), late Mallam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to Buhari, Ambassador Baba Kamara, the legal team led by Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN) as well as true friends and relatives. The book ends on a note of thanksgiving as the author chooses to pray: The Almighty, to whom all glory belongs, will reward every single person who stood by me. The boy from Nagazi, Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN, CFR), lawyer, now author and public intellectual, should find some healing for his scars if his story as told here is warmly received by those to whom it may concern. The book has strong merit. Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Reckitt, a global leader in health, hygiene, and nutrition, hosted the closing ceremony of the 2024 edition of the Reckitt Access Accelerator Programme in Lagos. The event marked a significant milestone in Reckitts mission to tackle critical Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) challenges in Nigeria through collaboration and innovation. This years programme supported four social enterprisesGeotek, HealthTracka, MN Environmental Services, and Preggifyeach receiving 12 million in seed funding to scale their health and hygiene solutions. Their innovations range from access to clean water, at-home health tests, provision of public toilet facilities, and maternal care, aimed at promoting hygiene practices in communities across Nigeria. In addition to the seed funding, the beneficiaries received mentorship from Reckitts people, as well as impact-accelerating boot camps, delivered by Yunus Social Innovation (YSI), tailored to unlock specific barriers to business growth. Speaking at the event, Akbar Ali Shah, General Manager, Reckitt Sub-Saharan Africa, reaffirmed the companys mission and long-term commitment to locally driven innovation: At Reckitt, we take pride in offering products that are simple, safe, and effective; products that improve lives in meaningful, measurable ways. We, however, also recognise that the true impact goes beyond product delivery. Solving the worlds toughest hygiene challenges, especially in underserved communities, requires scalable, locally driven innovation. Reports show that millions of people across Sub-Saharan Africa still lack access to basic hygiene and sanitation services, and we believe that health begins at home and in our communities, which is why we support local entrepreneurs who have the knowledge, familiarity, and support of the communities they serve. Because entrepreneurs drive economic growth, job creation and social impact. Speaking on the programmes global vision, Niklas Lange of YSI, Reckitts partners, also paid tribute to the power of local action and collaborative impact, Globally, 1 in 2 people still lack access to safe water and sanitation. These are not abstract statistics; they represent real mothers, fathers, and children. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The Access Accelerator has already reached over five hundred thousand people, earned global recognition from the World Economic Forum, and built innovation centres in Nigeria and Indonesia. Huge thanks to Reckitt for their commitment to these issues and I look forward to us doing even more. One of the beneficiaries of the 2024 Access Accelerator Programme, Mrs Jife Williams, Co-founder, MN Environmental Services, expressed her appreciation and stressed the importance of the initiative, saying, Our work is driven by concern for public health. Every day, we see the reality, rising rates of open defecation, especially at markets where toilet facilities are near inaccessible. Thats why we started building mobile toilets to serve these communities. Getting support from Reckitt means we can now reach more people, respond faster, and build better systems. We are thankful for this chance, and we hope more organisations will step in and support ideas that improve basic hygiene. Everyone deserves access to clean and safe sanitation. Looking ahead, the Access Accelerator programme will merge under the recently launched Reckitt Catalyst. This new initiative will build on the organisations ongoing work to accelerate social impact projects around the world. Together with its expert partners, they will provide flexible funding, mentoring and expertise to allow innovative businesses to scale rapidly and solve essential hygiene and healthcare challenges. Their goal is to support up to 200 women and underrepresented social innovators by 2030, in more than 15 countries, including Nigeria and Kenya. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Swarovski Nigeria has launched its highly anticipated Summer Sale, ending on 27 July, 2025 and offering up to 40% off a dazzling range of its iconic crystal jewellery and accessories. This summer, Swarovski Nigeria invites you to elevate your style, celebrate lifes unforgettable moments, make a bold fashion statement, and shine bright at every occasion with authentic crystal jewellery without breaking the bank. Whether youre stepping into your soft life era, curating your wedding slay, gifting your favourite person, or treating yourself because your hustle is finally paying off, this is your moment. Youve earned it. You deserve to shine. Think statement earrings for owambes, timeless necklaces for date night, crystal bracelets for your next girls trip, and unisex pieces that speak to your vibe, reflect your rhythm, your roots, and your status. Every crystal is precision-cut in Austria and backed by Polo Luxurys legacy of trust, authenticity, craftsmanship, and excellence in Nigeria. Were proud to offer a sale that combines the allure of international luxury with pieces that speak to our customers unique lifestyle moments weddings, birthdays, owambes, career milestones, and everyday glam, said Ms Jennifer Obayuwana, Executive Director, Polo Luxury. The Summer sale isnt just about discounts but about access to authentic, globally respected yet affordable luxury for the modern Nigerian consumers who value self-expression, craftsmanship, and culture. If youve been eyeing your first real jewellery piece or looking for that perfect gift that says, you matter, now is the moment to wear and share the sparkle. Shop the full collections across our touchpoints online at https://swnigeria.com/product-category/sales/ or via the e-commerce WhatsApp +2349160002340 You can also visit Swarovski Nigeria Stores at: Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Lagos: Ikeja City Mall and The Palms Shopping Mall, Lagos, Nigeria Abuja: Jabi Lake Mall, FCT, Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Photo: https://www.facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua/ On the night of July 16 (from 8:00 p.m. on July 15), the enemy attacked with an Iskander-M ballistic missile from Crimea, as well as 400 Shahed strike UAVs and simulator drones of various types from the directions: Shatalovo, Bryansk, Kursk, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk - Russia, Chauda from Russia-occupied Crimea (up to 255 of them - Shaheds), the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on Telegram. "According to preliminary data, as of 08:30, air defenses shot down 198 enemy Shahed-type UAVs (drones of other types) in the north, south, east and center of the country. In addition, 145 simulator drones were lost/suppressed by electronic warfare. one missile and 57 UAVs were hit in 12 locations, and downed (fragments) fell in two locations," the Armed Forces of Ukraine said. As reported, the Air Force neutralized 178 out of 267 drones launched over Ukraine on the night of July 15, 108 out of 136 on the night of July 14, and 40 out of 60 on the night of July 13. Before that, the occupiers launched several hundred drones over Ukraine almost every night. In particular, on May 26, the occupiers launched 335 drones over Ukraine - more than they had ever launched in a day, a new daily record for attacks was set on June 17 - 440 drones, on June 29 - 537, on May 4 - 539 drones and 11 missiles and on June 12 - 597 drones and 26 missiles. The three-day Fidau prayer for the late Muhammadu Buhari, former President of Nigeria, was held in the afternoon today at his residence in Daura Local Government Area of Katsina State. The event drew prominent national leaders, Islamic scholars, and dignitaries from across the country. The special prayer session was led by the Sarkin Malamai of Daura, Naziru Daura, who offered prayers seeking Allahs forgiveness for President Buhari. Prominent Islamic scholars conducted special prayers for the peaceful repose of the deceased and prayed for strength, guidance, and fortitude for the late Presidents family to bear the irreparable loss. The event attracted top political figures including Vice President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the occasion, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former Labour Party Presidential Candidate Peter Obi, Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Baba Gana Kingibe, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Ahmed Musa Dangiwa, former Katsina State Governor Aminu Bello Masari, former Deputy Governor Mannir Yakubu, and former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai. Mr Shettima stated, Every soul shall taste the torment of death. Death is an inevitable destiny that is hanging on everyones neck. We should all consider ourselves as travelers with our bags and baggage waiting for the train. May Allah grant the soul of President Muhammadu Buhari eternal rest and reward him with his Al-Jannah gifts. May Allah accept his good deeds, forgive his shortcomings, and protect the family he has left behind. It wasnt a loss to the family alone, or to the people of Daura or Katsina State it was a national loss. On his part, the Governor of Katsina State, Dikko Umaru Radda, who led the State Government delegation, offered prayers for the late leader, stating: For we, the people of Katsina State, it is indeed a great loss. We have lost a father, a guide, who supported us throughout our journey. All we have to do today and beyond today, forever is to continue to pray for his departed soul. May Almighty Allah accept all his good deeds, and forgive his wrongdoings. May Allah return each one of you to your final destination safely and continue to guide us all to uphold the legacies he left behind. Governor Radda called on leaders to reflect on the death of Muhammadu Buhari, so that it may serve as a lesson to us to fear God in our leadership of power. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Minister of Labour and Employment Maigari Dingiyai was among those who offered prayers and delivered moving tributes in honour of the late President. Mr Isa Ali Pantami led an additional session of prayers, asking for Allahs mercy on the soul of President Buhari. Current and former federal ministers in attendance included Minister of Information Mohammed Idris, Minister of Budget and National Planning Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Health Ali Pate, Minister of Agriculture Abubakar Kyari, former Minister of Communications Isa Ali Pantami, former Minister of Aviation Hadi Sirika, former Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami, and former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Muhammed Bello. The gathering also included Senator Abdulaziz Yaradua, Senator Sani Zangon Daura, former Director General of National Intelligence Agency Ahmed Rufai, former Chief of Army Staff Tukur Y Buratai, and NDLEA Buba hMarwa (rtd). President Buharis nephew Mamman Daura was also present at the solemn occasion. Governor Radda led a comprehensive State Government delegation that included Deputy Governor Faruk Lawal Jobe, Speaker of the Katsina State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Nasir Yahaya Daura, Secretary to the State Government Barr. Abdullahi Garba Faskari, members of the State Executive Council, and Alhaji Sani Aliyu Daura, State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), alongside other senior state officials. Traditional leaders present included the Emir of Daura, Faruk Umar Faruk, Emir of Potiskum, Emir of Gumel, along with kingmakers and district heads from both Katsina and Daura Emirates. Heads of key security agencies were also in attendance, including leadership from the Department of State Services (DSS) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). The event drew distinguished dignitaries, family members, diplomats, and sympathizers who came to pay their final respects to the late President and offer prayers for his eternal rest. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Governor Dauda Lawal has distributed conditional cash transfers to 8,225 adolescent girls in all 14 local government areas of Zamfara State. On Wednesday, the governor officially commenced the disbursement of funds for the ACRESAL and Agile Projects at Garba Nadama Hall, J B Yakubu State Secretariat in Gusau. A statement by the governors spokesperson, Sulaiman Bala Idris, disclosed that the 8,225 secondary school girls were selected from the poorest and most vulnerable households. The statement added that each adolescent girl will receive N40,000 to support their continued enrolment and transition through school. Additional tranches of N10,000 each for the Second and Third School terms will bring the total support to N60,000 per session through the parents or guardians. A total sum of Three Hundred and Twenty-Two Million Naira is approved for this First Batch. Currently, arrangements for the second batch of beneficiaries are in progress. At the ceremony, Governor Lawal said that the event symbolically provides financial support to beneficiaries of the ACReSAL and AGILE projects, which align with his administrations focus on education, inclusive growth, social protection, and environmental resilience. He said: Under the ACReSAL project, we disburse the Community Revolving Fund to 500 beneficiaries in Gusau, Bungudu, and Kaura Namoda. The fund aims to support grassroots environmental and economic initiatives, reflecting our commitment to combating land degradation, promoting sustainable agriculture, and enhancing livelihoods in the face of climate challenges. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Our communities face hardships like women building small businesses, youths seeking opportunities, and rural households accessing basic services. The Community Revolving Fund offers sustainable funding to support development, marking a shift towards resilience and accountability. I urge beneficiaries to use resources wisely and transparently, ensuring trust results in visible, measurable outcomes. The disbursement will keep circulating within communities, benefiting more people over time. Through proper use and repayment, this initiative will exemplify financial inclusion, local resilience, and sustainability accountability, he added. The governor further stated that education remains a top priority of his administration. We are committed to tackling and overcoming all barriers, whether economic, infrastructural, or social, that prevent our daughters from accessing and completing their education. For when you educate a girl, you educate a village, because these educated girls grow into empowered women, who uplift their families, strengthen communities, and drive progress in our state. I commend all the implementing teams under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, as well as our technical partners, for their dedication and collaboration in executing these vital programmes. Let me reassure the good people of Zamfara State that this administration will continue to pursue policies and programmes that deliver meaningful impact, especially at the grassroots. We remain committed to accountability, transparency, and service to our people. To the beneficiaries of these initiatives, remember that what you receive today is a seed. I urge you to nurture it, grow it, and let it blossom into a tree of change for your families and your communities. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Nigerias mining industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by targeted local content policies from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB). A statement by Obinna Ezeobi, General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB said the policies and reforms showcased at the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit in Abuja, are now being hailed as a blueprint for industrial growth across Africa. At the heart of the reforms is the Boards strategic intervention in the barite value chain a mineral critical to oil and gas drilling. Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Ogbe, outlined how the agency has spent more than a decade building domestic capacity, from certifying reserves in six states to mandating exclusive procurement from local processors through the Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate (NCEC). Today, barite importation for drilling is prohibited in Nigeria, Mr Ogbe said. That didnt happen by accident. It was made possible by deliberate policy instruments, stakeholder partnerships, and enforcement frameworks. Mr Ogbe represented by NCDMBs Director of Corporate Services, Abdulmalik Halilu, said the interventions have boosted value retention, created jobs, and positioned Nigeria as a continental model for mineral-based industrialisation. He added that similar policies are being rolled out in the steel and pipe manufacturing sectors, including a 2022 directive requiring in-country sourcing of bare line pipes and oil tubular goods. The reforms are reinforced by broader industrial support programmes such as the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industrial Parks (NOGAPS) and a $350 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund managed in partnership with the Bank of Industry to scale up local manufacturing. The clearest evidence of these reforms is visible in Nigerias expanding lithium and battery value chain, highlighted by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Dele Alake. He revealed that over $800 million in mining investments were secured in 2024 alone, following a major policy shift requiring all mining licences to include local processing plans. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later The Nasarawa lithium battery plant, valued at $100 million, is already up and running, Mr Alake said. A $600 million lithium refinery near the KadunaNiger border is on the way. These facilities are anchored on one thing: local content, he stressed. He added that government revenue from mining surged from 6 billion in 2023 to 38 billion in 2024 a six-fold increase credited to tighter licensing, enforcement of value-addition rules, and new industrial investments. This impact is not lost on Nigerias neighbours. Liberias Petroleum Regulatory Authority Chairman, Jake Kabakole, described Nigerias local content regime as a continental model, urging African nations to adapt its legal and institutional frameworks to unlock similar outcomes. The shift is not just regulatory but economic. Indigenous Nigerian firms now contribute 15% of oil production and 60% of domestic gas supply. Engineering and fabrication companies such as Dormanlong, Saipem, and Aveon Offshore are executing complex projects previously handled by foreign multinationals. Beyond minerals and manufacturing, the NCDMB has also enforced local employment regulations through its partnership with COREN, ensuring that only certified Nigerian engineers are deployed on projects. In tandem, a customs alert system now prevents the importation of goods such as cables, paints, and valves that are produced locally. Local content is not a constraint; it is an enabler, Ogbe stressed further. When deployed intentionally, it becomes a lever for self-sufficiency, industrial growth, and economic sovereignty, he emphasised As African leaders at the summit discussed regional energy integration and industrialisation, Nigerias example stood out. Delegates praised the country for turning policy into measurable outcomes from factory construction to formalised artisanal mining cooperatives and electric vehicle assembly plans. We are no longer exporters of raw potential, Mr Alake said, adding, We are builders of real value. Also speaking at the summit, Nigerias Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, emphasised that local content must be measurable. He highlighted reforms under the Electricity Act 2023, which decentralised electricity governance and enabled 11 states to begin managing their own power markets. He said the government is aligning its electrification drive with local manufacturing including clean energy projects, meter assembly, and solar component production. The real value of local content lies in supply chains, technical jobs, and local ownership, Mr Adelabu said. From East Africa, Kenyas Minister of Mining and Blue Economy, Hassan Ali Jobbo, offered a cautionary note. He urged African nations to define their own priorities in the minerals sector rather than simply adopting classifications imposed by others. Africa has talked too long about potential without decisive action, he said. We must decide for ourselves which minerals are critical to our future not wait for outsiders to tell us. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print In a show of international cooperation and grassroots impact, the Jigawa State Governor, Umar Namadi on Wednesday presided over the official handover of livelihood support equipment to 60 beneficiaries in the state. The equipment were provided by the Qatar Charity Organisation in Nigeria as part of the ongoing partnership between the Jigawa State Government and Qatar. The event was held at the Banquet Hall of Government House, Dutse, and witnessed the presence of the Qatari Ambassador to Nigeria, Ali Bin Ghanim Al-Hajri, and Sheikh Hamdi Abdou, Country Director of Qatar Charity. The distributed items included 20 units of passenger tricycles (Keke NAPEP), 20 cargo tricycles, and 20 multipurpose grinding machinesall specially designed for durability, functionality and high utility. Additionally, 100 prepositioned tents were handed over to Jigawa States Emergency Management Agency to bolster disaster response capabilities, especially during flood emergencies. Governor Namadi expressed his heartfelt gratitude to Qatar Charity and the Qatari government for their continued support, recalling their earlier visit in January 2025 during the commissioning of a multi-purpose community centre in Hadejia. Many of us would recall that on Saturday, 18th January, 2025, the two dignitaries were in Hadejia for the commissioning of a multi-purpose centre established with the support of Qatar Charity. The project included residential and educational facilities, a water scheme, and a mosque, fostering a conducive environment for learning, community, and social development. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later He praised the sustained contributions of Qatar Charity in water, education, shelter, and religious infrastructure across Jigawa State. All these interventions in Jigawa State perfectly align with our commitment to accelerate progress towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This is particularly so for SDGs 1 to 6, concerned with poverty eradication, achieving food security and nutrition, ensuring access to healthcare services and basic education, empowerment and gender inclusion, and sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation services. In recognition of this partnership, the governor announced that the State Executive Council has approved the naming of two major township roads and a flagship educational facility in Dutse in honour of Qatari leadership: 1. Qatar Street linking Sani Abacha Way to Ibrahim Aliyu Bypass. 2. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani Street Yalwawa Junction to FUD Madobi Road. 3. H H Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani Mega Tsangaya School Dutse. The two new road projects were commissioned by the ambassador. He also inspected the ongoing construction of the Mega Tsangaya School. Governor Namadi further restated Jigawas commitment to pursuing broader economic cooperation, including revisiting collaborative plans with NIRSAL and the Qatar-Nigeria Business Council to boost investment, education, youth development, and research initiatives. As a complementary gesture, the Jigawa State Government will provide each beneficiary with an additional N50,000 grant to support business start-up costs, as beneficiaries will also sign formal agreements to ensure proper use and monitoring of the equipment, overseen by Qatar Charity in collaboration with the Jigawa State Youth Empowerment and Employment Agency. In his response, Ambassador Al-Hajiri commended Governor Namadi for his administrations notable achievements across education, agriculture, infrastructure, and social development. He emphasized the strength of the bilateral relationship. Jigawa is unique by its political, economic and societal values, as well as agricultural development, he said. Your vision of a better Jigawa State through several developmental programmes and initiatives is really commendable, and it is reflected in the fact that Jigawa State is, today, one of the most secure states in Nigeria. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print President Bola Tinubu and leaders of the new coalition of the opposition attended Tuesdays burial ceremony of former President Muhammadu Buhari but departed without exchanging greetings. The dignitaries were in Daura to witness the burial and to offer condolences to the bereaved family. President Tinubu had declared Tuesday a public holiday to honour the late former President whom he succeeded in May 2023. Among the dignitaries were several leaders of the new coalition of the political opposition. They included former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former governors of Kaduna and Sokoto states, Nasir El-Rufai and Aminu Tambuwal, respectively, and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi. However, none of the leaders interacted with the president at the event. Mr Buhari died 25 months after leaving office. His remains were received on Tuesday by Mr Tinubu at the Umaru Musa YarAdua International Airport in Katsina. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later President Tinubu arrived at the airport from Abuja at 1:42 p.m. and inspected a guard of honour before the Nigerian Air Force plane conveying the remains of his predecessor from London landed at 1:51 p.m. Mr Tinubu led the remains in a 45-minute drive to Daura in a motorcade. On their arrival in Daura, Mr Tinubu remained in his vehicle surrounded by security personnel, including the service chiefs, while the body was taken into Mr Buharis sitting room, already filled with family members and mourners. The body was subsequently brought out for the funeral prayers, where Atiku and some of the coalition leaders were waiting. Mr Tinubu alighted from his car and joined the crowd of mourners a few steps away. After the prayer, the body was taken to the burial site in a place said to be the deceaseds preferred relaxation spot in the main residence. Atiku and his associates left the area immediately after the prayer with some supporters chanting Sai Atiku, while President Tinubu sat with other mourners facing the lifeless body and the prepared grave. The Chief Imam of Daura, Salisu Rabiu, conducted the burial prayer. In the crowd were the Prime Minister of Niger, Ali Lamine Zeine, a former President of Niger, Issoufou Mahamadou, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and the Emir of Daura, Farouk Umar. Also present were President Umaru Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, the Prime Minister of Niger, Ali Lamine Zeine, and a former President of Niger, Issoufou Mahamadou. The mourners observed the interment and the funeral featuring full military honours, including a 21-gun salute. Mr Tinubu left Katsina late Tuesday after the ceremony. However, Atiku and his associates returned to pray at the graveside and offer their condolences to the deceaseds family on Wednesday. The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, also arrived in Daura on Wednesday to condole with the family. Other dignitaries who departed Daura after the ceremony on Tuesday were Vice President Kashim Shettima, former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Abbas, Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin, and senators Kawu Sumaila, Abdulaziz Yari, Sani Bello, Abu Ibrahim, and Ahmed Sani. The security chiefs in attendance included the Chief of Defence Staff, Christopher Musa; the Chief of Army Staff, Olufemi Oluyede; the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun; the Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogalla; the former Chief of Defence Staff, Tukur Buratai; and the former Director General of DSS, Yusuf Bichi. The Nigerian Governors Forum Chairman and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, led the college of governors. They included Bala Mohammed of Bauchi, Mai Mala Buni of Yobe, Abba Yusuf of Kano, Uba Sani of Kaduna, Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa, Muhammadu Yahaya of Gombe, and Umar Namadi of Jigawa. Other governors were Nasir Idris of Kebbi, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara, Ahmed Aliyu of Sokoto, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Monday Okpebholo of Edo, Hope Uzodimma of Imo, and Bassey Otu of Cross River. Former governors in attendance included Ibrahim Shehu Shema (Katsina), Ali Modu Sheriff (Borno), and Yahaya Bello (Kogi). The richest African man, Aliko Dangote, was also present, alongside Sayyu Dantata and Dahiru Mangal. Traditional rulers included the Sultan of Sokoto, Saad Abubakar, and the emirs of Katsina and Kano. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Ayiri Emami, has praised the late former President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitment to democratic ideals, stating that the late president never interfered in state-level politics during his tenure. Mr Emami, who holds the traditional title of Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom in Delta State, described the late former president as a true democrat who respected the will of the people and the autonomy of state institutions. He said this in a statement shared with PREMIUM TIMES on Tuesday to mourn Mr Buhari, who died on Sunday in a London hospital after a prolonged illness. The APC chieftain noted that Mr Buharis non-interference in the political affairs of states ensured that opposition parties could win elections freely in some states, while in other cases, the courts had the final say, resulting in off-cycle elections. As a sitting president, Buhari never interfered with the democratic process, which made it possible for the victory of opposition parties in certain off-season elections held under his watch. He was loyal to the APC and his successor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he said. Mr Emami, the deputy director of the Election Planning and Monitoring Committee for the Buhari Campaign in 2019, added that Mr Buharis hands-off approach to subnational politics was a rare quality among Nigerian leaders and strengthened the countrys democratic institutions. Contributions to national development Mr Emami also highlighted Mr Buharis contributions to Nigerias development as a military officer and a civilian president. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later As Petroleum Minister under General Obasanjo, he supervised the construction of 21 depots across the country, invested in pipelines and storage facilities and built the pipeline network, connecting the Bonny terminal and Port Harcourt refinery. The party chieftain credited Mr Buharis civilian administration with delivering significant infrastructure projects, including the WarriItakpe Rail Line and the Second Niger Bridge. As democratically elected President, he successfully constructed the Warri-Itakpe Rail Line as well as the Second Niger Bridge. These are just a few of the indelible legacies of President Buhari, he said. Strong political alliance with Tinubu Mr Emami also pointed to the former presidents alliance with President Bola Tinubu as pivotal in sustaining the APC and steering the country along a progressive path. READ ALSO: Tunde Bakare speaks on his failed prophecy of succeeding Buhari The strong political bond he formed with President Bola Tinubu, which has redirected the course of the country on the path of the progressive, is also worthy of note. The party chieftain, speaking on behalf of the Itsekiri ethnic group in Delta State, expressed profound gratitude to the late former president for his fairness and adherence to the rule of law. Itsekiri as a tribe, which is firmly rooted in the rule of law and fairness, would not forget Buhari for upholding these virtues , he said. The late former president was laid to rest today in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State, in accordance with Islamic rites. His body was flown back to Nigeria on Tuesday, barely two days after he passed away in London. Mr Buhari served as Nigerias president from 2015 to 2023 under the APC. Before the return to democratic rule, he was the military head of state between December 1983 and August 1985, retiring as a major general. He was one of the two Nigerians who ruled as both military and civilian leaders. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Baba Azare, said three people kidnapped as a result of an interstate boundary clash between Akwa Ibom and Abia communities have been rescued. Mr Azare disclosed this on Wednesday in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES. A clash was reported on Monday between Itumbonuso in Ini Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and Abam community in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State. A Facebook user, Ekomobong Adaiseh, who hails from Itumbonuso, reported the clash in his post on Facebook. In the post, he called for the intervention of the security agencies to prevent further clashes. Mr Adaiseh alleged that 10 people from his community were kidnapped in the neighbouring Abam community in Abia. For several years now, the people of Itumbonuso have suffered continuous attacks, intimidation, and killings allegedly carried out by individuals suspected to be from the neighbouring Abam community in Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State. This unfortunate situation has escalated beyond a mere boundary dispute and has now become a life-threatening crisis. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Just yesterday, a horrifying incident occurred in which over 10 innocent youths from Itumbonuso were kidnapped while on their way to their farms. Many others have lost their lives or sustained severe injuries in past attacks. This has brought fear, instability, and hardship upon the residents, especially our hardworking farmers, he said, calling for intervention from the Akwa Ibom government and the police. In the post, Mr Adaiseh attached a picture of a man, said to be one of the victims, with a machete cut on his back and neck. Alleged kidnapped In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday, Mr Adaiseh said he made the post for the police to intervene, conduct proper investigations, and save the people of his community from further deaths. According to him, two persons from Itumbonuso went to their rice farm and were attacked by some persons from the Abam community. One of the people rushed back to the community to invite others for help. More than 10 people from Itumbonuso joined him to rescue the other one, only for them to be kidnapped by the people of Abia State, he alleged. This is not the first or second time this has happened. The people are scared of going to their farmland, adding that those allegedly kidnapped are yet to be released. Police speak When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Azare, said the command was aware of the boundary clash. He said the three men from Itumbonuso involved in the clash had been rescued and taken to the hospital for treatment. The actual men, the three men who had the clash, were rescued and taken to a hospital. The ones that they said went to rescue the three are the ones they said are not seen. The police have requested them to provide names and telephone numbers of the missing 10 so that we can track them. That is what we are waiting for from the community. They have given us a list, but we want the telephone numbers of the people, the commissioner said. Speaking further, Mr Azare said he has contacted his Abia state counterpart and is also working to ensure they are returned to Akwa Ibom if anybody is held. However, the Abia community is also claiming that they did not hold anybody except the three whom the police rescued and took to the hospital, he said. READ ALSO: Six kidnap suspects killed in shootout with police Asked what the command is doing to prevent further clashes, Mr Azare said the Akwa Ibom State Government is working with its Abia State counterpart to ensure permanent security for the affected communities. Backgrounding The incident between Itumbonuso and Abam is one of the several reported boundary clashes between the two neighbouring states. In March, Punch newspaper reported how a boundary clash between Ikot Udo in Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom and Akrika Obu, in Ukwa East Local Government Area of Abia State, triggered a meeting between the deputy governors of both states. According to the newspaper, the clash followed a road construction by the Abia state government that extended into the territory of the Akwa Ibom community. Vanguard newspaper in February reported that one person was killed while three others sustained injuries as a result of the boundary crisis between Ariam in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State and Ikot Okum in Obot Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. According to the newspaper, the conflict has spanned decades and involved six Akwa Ibom villages: Abama, Ikot Okum, Esa Ikwen, Nto Ndang, Utu Ikot Inyang, and Utu Otong. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print A political pressure group, the Concerned Bayelsa Stakeholders Forum, has urged Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State to defect from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). The groups convener, Wisdom Ikuli, made the appeal on Tuesday in Yenagoa, urging stakeholders to support the move to realign Bayelsa with the government at the centre. Mr Ikuli, who is Governor Diris technical adviser on print media, stated that forum is non-partisan and includes members from various political backgrounds, including non-indigenes. He said Bayelsa must urgently align with the APC, as many PDP figures allegedly conspired to deny Bayelsa and the Ijaws the presidency in 2015. He alleged that plans are in place to exploit the PDPs internal crises and litigations to invalidate candidates who emerge from the party ahead of future elections. Mr Ikuli stressed that Bayelsa remains the only PDP state in the South-south, now controlled by a few individuals who pose electoral risks for 2027. He revealed that the forum would soon begin daily street rallies in Yenagoa to urge Mr Diri to consider defecting to the ruling APC. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later Mr Ikuli insisted that the governors defection is in Bayelsas best interest and should be considered non-negotiable and sacrosanct. He recalled that Ijaw leaders like Dappa-Biriye and Melford Okilo advised alignment with the centre for development due to the regions remoteness. Mr Ikuli said that past alignment with the PDP, while it ruled nationally, enabled Bayelsa to produce both vice president and president in Goodluck Jonathan. He lamented that Ijaws are now excluded from top federal roles, including the presidency, vice presidency, and service chiefs, weakening their political relevance. In spite of their population and contribution, Ijaws remain marginalised due to a lack of alignment with the ruling party, Mr Ikuli added. He argued that the Ijaws, which contribute over 65 per cent of Nigerias oil wealth, have become powerless because it isnt aligned with the federal government. Mr Ikuli stressed that the south must complete its eight-year turn under President Bola Tinubus administration. Its unrealistic to put pressure on Diri The spokesperson to Mr Diri, Daniel Alabrah, told PREMIUM TIMES recently that it was unrealistic for anyone to want to put pressure on the governor to declare if he is going to support Mr Tinubus re-election bid in 2027 or not. At the appropriate time, if the governor wants to support the president, he will say so. He is a very courageous man. He will speak at the right time, Mr Alabrah said. Nobody can compel him to speak before that time. The governor will only speak when he believes that this is what will serve the interest of Bayelsa State and the people. Mr Alabrah was responding to a comment by the Minister of FCT, Nyesom Wikes political ally, George Turnah, challenging Mr Diri to declare whether he would support Mr Tinubus re-election bid. Mr Turnah is the South-South zonal secretary of the PDP. Until 14 February, he was Mr Diris executive assistant on public affairs. The PDP chieftain switched political loyalty from the governor to the FCT minister and is now mobilising political support for Mr Wike and President Tinubu ahead of the 2027 elections. The NEW Associates, a political group led by Mr Turnah, organised a pro-Wike rally in Bayelsa in April despite Governor Diris opposition. The governor said he did not want the political crisis in Rivers to extend to Bayelsa. At the rally, Mr Turnah said that Mr Diri has benefited from Mr Tinubu more than any other governor in the South-South, yet the Bayelsa governor was ungrateful to the president. Indictment on Nigerias democracy Governor Diris spokesperson, Mr Alabrah, challenged Mr Turnah to explain what he meant when he said that the Bayelsa governor is a beneficiary of the presidents magnanimity. From my own understanding, what he was referring to was that the president ensured that there was a level-playing field during the governorship election in 2023 in Bayelsa. So is that something that any right-thinking person will call magnanimity? Is it not an indictment on our democracy? Because that is the only thing he is alluding to, Mr Alabrah said. If you say the governor has benefited from the presidents magnanimity, which means the president would have influenced the election against the governor despite the fact that Bayelsans voted for him? When people spread this kind of narrative, what does it tell about our democracy? The president did not do any personal favour to the governor as far as I know. So what is the personal favour that he now has to return that favour by supporting him (the president) in 2027? Mr Alabrah said Governor Diri has a very good relationship with President Tinubu, only that both leaders belong to different political parties. The president belongs to the APC, the governor is a PDP governor. So why would it be the governor that would be shouting about the president when the president is not in his party? Are you going to compel somebody to support you? You cannot force somebody to support you. If somebody does not want to vote for you, you cannot force him to vote for you. The truth is that the governor has nothing against the president, and Turnah cannot tell the governor to declare his stance. So, every governor in Nigeria must declare whether they are supporting the president or not? Do you have that kind of situation in a democracy? Where does it happen? I am not trying to criticise the president, I am only explaining the ideal situation that we should have. Let it not look like I am talking against the president. And look at it, the person that is asking the governor to declare his stance whether he is supporting the president or not, he claims to be a PDP member, he claims to be the PDP South-south zonal secretary, the governors spokesperson said. Governor Diri is among the top Nigerian leaders who condemned President Tinubus declaration of emergency rule in Rivers as a fallout of the political fight between Mr Wike and the suspended Governor of Rivers, Siminalayi Fubara. Many opposition politicians, especially from the PDP, including Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State, have defected to the ruling APC, raising concern that Nigeria may become a one-party state. PDP is the ruling party only in Bayelsa and Rivers out of the six states in the south-south region. While Mr Fubara remained suspended as governor because of the emergency rule in Rivers, Governor Diri dismissed speculations in June that he was planning to defect to the APC. (NAN) Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print Former Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has joined a host of prominent figures, politicians, and world leaders in mourning the passing of former President Muhammadu Buhari. PREMIUM TIMES reported that Mr Buhari died on Sunday at a hospital in London and was buried on Tuesday in his hometown of Daura, Katsina State. In a tribute sent to this newspaper on Wednesday, Mr Amosun, a two-term senator, paid tribute to the late president. He described him as a close friend who gave everything to pursue his political ideals. Mr Buhari died at the age of 82. Mr Amosun, 67, described Mr Buhari as a man of Spartan discipline, whose use of time, language, and resources was consistently measured and deliberate. Reflecting on Mr Buharis impact on his political journey, particularly his governorship ambition, he said: In 2006, when I first ventured to run for the office of Governor of Ogun State, the powers that be placed various obstacles in my path. General Buhari came through at a time when all hopes were lost. He offered me the platform of his All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and virtually all the VIPs invited for the declaration of my ambition chickened out in the face of State intimidation. Article Page with Financial Support Promotion Nigerians need credible journalism. Help us report it. Support journalism driven by facts, created by Nigerians for Nigerians. Our thorough, researched reporting relies on the support of readers like you. Help us maintain free and accessible news for all with a small donation. Every contribution guarantees that we can keep delivering important stories no paywalls, just quality journalism. SUPPORT NOW x Do this later General Buhari put his life on the line, followed me to the declaration event at Ake Palace, Abeokuta, and, indeed, volunteered that they should kill both of us if it came to that. As a leader, he was driven by caring for the poor, the underprivileged, and the underserved in our society. Every policy was measured with a prism of how it would affect the poor. As a leader, he prevented his family from abusing government patronage. Devoted life to transforming Nigeria Mr Amosun further stated that Mr Buharis discipline was never intended for self-promotion or image-building, but stemmed from deep personal conviction. He said he observed that, throughout his tenure as a former Military Head of State and democratically elected President, Mr Buhari remained committed to instilling discipline nationwide. The politician added that beyond these efforts, Mr Buhari also worked to foster a more orderly and progressive Nigeria, where the rights of the poor and vulnerable were protected. His vision for infrastructure development remains unparalleled. He ran the most ambitious and extensive social intervention policy designed to take the poorest of the poor out of the scourge of poverty. Nigerians will miss me, he said repeatedly after office. As with all governments, Buharis immense contributions to Nigeria would be more appreciated as Nigerians experience successive governments. The outpouring of love and emotions since the announcement of his death is indicative that in the days and years ahead, Nigerians will accord President Buhari the reverence he deserves as a disciplined, incorruptible and visionary leader. It is true that one of the most misunderstood persons that ever passed through the Nigerian landscape, yet loved unconditionally by people who appreciated honest leadership, was former President Buhari, Mr Amosun added. Rigid position He further revealed that the late president maintained a firm and uncompromising stance throughout his life to shield his family and the Nigerian people from the entrenched culture of corruption within the corridors of power. Mr Amosun noted that Mr Buharis supporters stood unwaveringly by him until his final moments, with many so devoted they were prepared to take a bullet for him. The former governor said, Some years ago, I had cause to take him on over an issue. It was family-related. For him, being seemingly hard on the family while in office was a deliberate choice to insulate them from the culture of corruption in the corridors of power and as much to protect his hard-built reputation, which had thrived on his disdain for sleaze. My love and respect for President Buhari have remained abiding over the years, even though our relationship has been tested. As a Yoruba man, one imbued with decency and a thorough upbringing, one who can distinguish between good and evil and between right and wrong, it is ungodly to pay good with evil. Buhari was very good to me. Till I breathe my last The ex-senator representing Ogun Central Senatorial District said he will never forget the circumstances under which their paths first crossed or how he (Mr Buhari) risked everything for him. Id hold dear till I breathe my last. However, I have reserved some of these stories and more for my memoir. Behind his steely exterior is a smile of peace, a heart of gold, a milk of kindness, and a passion for people experiencing poverty. Even with his straight and serious stare, only a few comedians could compete with his huge sense of humour. He was simple in every sense of the word, and this was reflected in his everyday life. Doing a quick run of his programmes in my head for eight years, I could not but conclude that posterity would be very kind and generous to him, his inadequacies notwithstanding. From his infrastructure renewal to enabling policies and measured leadership, particularly in times of crisis, Buhari has finished his race, and he finished well, Mr Amosun stated. Mr Amosun stated that the people of Ogun State will remain deeply grateful to Mr Buhari for his generosity, particularly the numerous infrastructure upgrades and renewals granted to the state. He further described the late president as a firm advocate of development, national progress, unity, and a united Nigeria. Although his methods may have differed, Mr Amosun noted, his vision consistently centred on the collective good, both during his time in office and as a private citizen. He noted, As I conclude these reminiscences of some of the quick takes about a man, who meant a lot to my family and I, I recall with mixed feelings how hed enthuse ecstatically, Oh my good God each time something excited him so much that it made him laugh hard. Ill continue to cherish our relationship because it meant everything to me. However, my only regret is that I didnt see him before he shut down and transitioned. My dear father, since it has pleased the Almighty Allah to take you home and give you an enduring rest, as you are laid to rest in the mother earth today, my family and I will continue to pray for you and will do our best possible to making ensure that none of the things you left behind goes out of line. Your legacy will continue to speak for you now and in the hereafter. My condolences to his widow, Aisha Buhari and his children; his surviving elder sister, Hajia Rakiya; his nephew, Baba Mamman Daura; and the entire Buhari family. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp Telegram LinkedIn Email Print The number of civilians injured in the night attack by Russian UAVs on Vinnytsia has increased to seven, Deputy Head of Vinnytsia Regional Military Administration Natalia Zabolotna has said on Facebook. "As of 6:40, we already have seven injured. Five of them - with burns. Two with severe burns, three with moderate degrees. Industrial infrastructure facilities were hit. The fire was localized at one of the facilities. Rescuers are still working on the other. Four residential buildings were also damaged in the region. Damage to roofs, windows, doors. One of the houses received significant damage," Zabolotna said. According to her information, a total of 28 UAVs attacked the territory of Vinnytsia region, of which approximately 18 were destroyed. SANTA ROSA, Calif., July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Classic Wines of California is proud to announce its new distribution partnerships with Provenance Vineyards (Napa & Paso Robles) and Garcia Carrion USA (Spain) which includes brands such as Opera Prima, Jaume Serra Cristalino, and Pata Negra, in California. These partnerships solidify Classic Wines' commitment to providing exceptional service and growing its reach in the Golden State, further enhancing its robust portfolio of wines. As part of this exciting expansion, Classic Wines has appointed Art Tongkao-on as Vice President of Classic Wines of California. Art joins the team with a wealth of experience, most recently serving in senior leadership roles at Southern Glazer's Wines & Spirits, where he was instrumental in driving strategic growth and operational excellence. He has also held multiple key roles within Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) in Texas, contributing to the company's success in several markets. Additionally, Art has supplier experience with Jackson Family Wines, where he managed multi-state operations in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, significantly expanding the company's footprint. Prior to his successful career in the distribution and supplier sectors, Art spent 20 years in the restaurant and hotel industry, overseeing beverage programs at some of the most esteemed venues. His deep understanding of both the supplier and distribution sides of the wine industry, paired with his extensive leadership experience, uniquely positions him to drive Classic Wines' continued success in California and beyond. "We are thrilled to have Provenance and Garcia Carrion USA join our distribution network in California," said Dom Engels, CEO of Bronco Wine Co. and Classic Wines of California. "These are premium brands with rich histories and exceptional quality, and we are excited to bring them to even more consumers. The addition of Art Tongkao-on to our leadership team is a pivotal step in our continued evolution. His leadership and expertise will ensure we deliver on our commitment to expanding our reach and operational excellence." Casey Tedd, EVP of Classic Wines of California, said, "The addition of Provenance and Garcia Carrion USA to our portfolio represents an exciting opportunity to grow our presence in California's dynamic wine market. We're committed to building lasting relationships with our partners and ensuring that these exceptional brands receive the attention and service they deserve. With Art Tongkao-on joining our leadership team, we're poised for even greater success in the state." "We're proud to partner with Classic Wines, whose legacy and reach in California align perfectly with our commitment to crafting premium, site-driven wines. This partnership will elevate our presence in the market and ensure that more consumers have access to the quality and pedigree that define Provenance Vineyards," said Allen Lombardi, owner and president of Provenance Vineyards. "We're delighted to join the Classic Wines portfolio," said Jayme Chianella, Garcia Carrion USA National Sales Manager. "With roots in Spain dating back over 130 years and five generations, Garcia Carrion USA is excited to elevate our legacy in the U.S. market through this partnership." The Garcia Carrion USA portfolio features some of Spain's most celebrated brands. Jaume Serra, a renowned Cava winery, includes the award-winning CRISTALINO and the eye-catching Jaume Serra Bouquet. Opera Prima delivers bold, flavorful experiences, including fan-favorites like Mimosa, Paloma and Bellini. Pata Negra showcases highly rated D.O. wines from Spain's top vineyards, while Sidewayz, their newest brand, redefines ready-to-drink cocktails with vibrant, fruit-forward flavors. This strategic expansion of leadership and distribution partnerships reflects Classic Wines of California's ongoing efforts to enhance its operations, expand its portfolio, and further solidify its position as a premier wine distributor in the state. About Classic Wines of California Classic Wines of California is a premier wine and spirits distributor dedicated to serving California's diverse retail and restaurant community. The company offers vertically integrated capabilities through its affiliation with Bivio Trucking, allowing for seamless logistics and reliable service across the state. As a family-owned company, it brings deep industry expertise, exceptional service, and an expansive portfolio of high-quality products to the marketplace. Classic Wines operates out of Santa Rosa, Napa, Ceres, and Palm Desert, ensuring a robust presence in key regions. For more information, visit www.classicwinesofcalifornia.com. SOURCE Classic Wines HONG KONG, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CNOOC Limited (the "Company", SEHK: 00883 (HKD Counter) and 80883 (RMB Counter), SSE: 600938) today announces that it has achieved a major breakthrough in the exploration of metamorphic buried hills in the deep plays in the South China Sea for the first time. The Weizhou 10-5 South Oil and Gas Field is located in the Beibu Gulf of the South China Sea, with an average water depth of 37 meters. Exploration well WZ10-5S-2d encountered an oil and gas pay zone of 211 meters, with a total drilled depth of 3,362 meters. The test results indicate that the well produces 165,000 cubic feet of natural gas and 400 barrels of crude oil per day. It marks a major exploration breakthrough in the metamorphic sandstone and slate buried hills offshore China. Mr. Xu Changgui, the Chief Geologist of the Company, said, "In recent years, CNOOC Limited has consistently intensified theoretical innovation and tackled key technology challenges in buried hills and deep plays exploration. Breakthroughs have been achieved in the exploration of Paleozoic granite and Proterozoic metamorphic sandstone and slate buried hills within the Beibu Gulf Basin. They demonstrate the vast exploration potential in buried hills formations, drive the secondary exploration process in mature areas, and mark the commencement of large-scale exploration of buried hills in the Beibu Gulf Basin." Mr. Zhou Xinhuai, the Chief Executive Officer of the Company, said, "This represents the first major breakthrough in metamorphic sandstone and slate buried hills exploration offshore China, setting important example for advancing deep plays and buried hills oil and gas exploration. In the future, CNOOC Limited will continue to intensify research on key theories and technologies for deep play exploration, to enhance research and development capabilities, advance reserves and production growth, and to ensure stable supply of oil and gas." End Notes to Editors: More information about the Company is available at https://www.cnoocltd.com. *** *** *** *** This press release includes forward looking information, including statements regarding the likely future developments in the business of the Company and its subsidiaries, such as expected future events, business prospects or financial results. The words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are based on assumptions and analyses made by the Company as of this date in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that the Company currently believes are appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will meet the current expectations and predictions of the Company is uncertain. Actual results, performance and financial condition may differ materially from the Company's expectations, including but not limited to those associated with macro-political and economic factors, fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas prices, the highly competitive nature of the oil and natural gas industry, climate change and environmental policies, the Company's price forecast, mergers, acquisitions and divestments activities, HSSE and insurance policies and changes in anti-corruption, anti-fraud, anti-money laundering and corporate governance laws and regulations. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements. The Company cannot assure that the results or developments anticipated will be realised or, even if substantially realised, that they will have the expected effect on the Company, its business or operations. *** *** *** *** For further enquiries, please contact: Ms. Cui Liu Media & Public Relations CNOOC Limited Tel: +86-10-8452-6641 Fax: +86-10-8452-1441 E-mail: [email protected] Mr. Cheng Yao Ever Bloom (HK) Communications Consultants Group Limited Tel: +852 5540 0725 Fax: +852 2111 1103 Email: [email protected] SOURCE CNOOC Limited AUSTIN, Texas, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- FlatTech LLC, doing business as Flat Medical today announced that it was honored during Premier, Inc.'s annual supplier Innovation Celebration at the 2025 Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition. The Innovation Celebration recognizes groundbreaking healthcare technologies that have been launched throughout the year and the ways these products are helping to improve the health of communities. About the EpiFaith Smart Syringe The EpiFaith Smart Syringe transforms traditional epidural procedures by converting the tactile loss-of-resistance technique into an objective visual signal. This breakthrough technology enables anesthesia and interventional pain management providers to identify the epidural space more accurately while keeping both hands free for optimal needle control, helping reduce the risk of accidental dural puncture. The EpiFaith Smart Syringe has been successfully used in thousands of clinical epidural placements globally, with studies demonstrating superior safety and reliability compared to conventional techniques. "We are deeply honored to be recognized by Premier for our commitment to advancing patient safety through innovation," said Joseph Luo, Ph.D., CEO of Flat Medical. "The EpiFaith Smart Syringe represents our dedication to transforming clinical practice by providing providers with technology that enhances safety and precision. This recognition validates our mission to eliminate uncertainty and risk in epidural procedures while making advanced safety solutions accessible to healthcare providers nationwide." Premier's Innovation Celebration is entering its 14th year of recognizing and honoring supplier product innovations. With roughly 120 nominations this year, member clinicians, physicians and supply chain experts nationally evaluate these technologies and services for their merit. "Premier proudly acknowledges Flat Medical's outstanding commitment to advancing healthcare," said Bruce Radcliff, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain at Premier. "Their innovative products and services, recognized at our 2025 Innovation Celebration, reflect our shared mission to drive cost-efficiency, operational excellence and improved patient outcomes. We applaud Flat Medical for their invaluable contributions to healthcare." Flat Medical was formally recognized on July 15, 2025, at Premier's annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition. Premier, Inc. is a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, providing solutions to two-thirds of all healthcare providers in the U.S. Playing a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, Premier unites providers, suppliers, payers and policymakers to make healthcare better with national scale, smarter with actionable intelligence and faster with novel technologies. With integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, consulting and other services, Premier enables better care and outcomes at a lower cost. About Flat Medical Founded in 2015, Flat Medical develops innovative safety solutions for anesthesia, pain management, and critical care. The company's product portfolio includes the EpiFaith Smart Syringe for epidural procedures, EpiFaith CV for central venous catheterization, and IQ-Tip for enhanced procedural precision. Flat Medical's EpiFaith products are used in renowned hospitals worldwide, delivering advanced safety technology that transforms clinical practice. SOURCE Flat Medical LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces that it is investigating claims on behalf of investors of KBR, Inc. ("KBR" or "the Company") (NYSE: KBR) for violations of the securities laws. The investigation focuses on whether the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose information pertinent to investors. The Department of Defense announced on June 18, 2025, that it had canceled a multibillion-dollar contract with HomeSafe Alliance ("HAS"), a KBR joint venture, for "cause due to HSA's demonstrated inability to fulfill their obligations and deliver high quality moves to Service members." Based on this news, shares of KBR fell by 7.3% on June 20, 2025. If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss, click here to participate . We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall of the Schall Law Firm, 2049 Century Park East, Suite 2460, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 310-301-3335, to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at [email protected]. The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics. CONTACT: The Schall Law Firm Brian Schall, Esq. 310-301-3335 [email protected] www.schallfirm.com SOURCE The Schall Law Firm The detailed agenda is now live for MIT Technology Review's flagship event on transformative technology for business leaders, hosted on the MIT campus November 4-6 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- MIT Technology Review announces the return of EmTech MIT, its flagship conference on technology and innovation, to be held November 4-6, 2025, on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and online for virtual attendees. This year's theme, "Navigate with Confidence," reflects a clear mission: to empower decision-makers to lead with clarity and strategic insight amid shifting regulations and technological disruption, and to uncover new opportunities, rethink assumptions, and drive innovation. MIT Technology Review announces EmTech MIT 2025, its flagship event, hosted on the MIT campus November 4-6 Post this EmTech MIT logo The conference brings together executives, technologists, investors, and policymakers to explore the breakthrough technologies that are reshaping business and societyand the drivers behind them. Today, MIT Technology Review released the full agenda, featuring the return of exclusive executive roundtable sessions and three days of editorially curated sessions on AI, climate tech, robotics, quantum computing, digital trust, decentralized systems, and the future of work and money. "In uncertain times, innovation can stall without clarity and direction," said Brian Bryson, director of programming at MIT Technology Review. "This year's program is designed to help leaders move from instinct to insight and allow them to spot opportunities and be inspired to push forward with confidence." What Sets EmTech MIT Apart Since 1999, EmTech MIT has focused on transformative technologies and emerging trendswhat's next and what matters most. Here's what makes it unlike any other event. The MIT Edge Learn on the iconic MIT campuswhere groundbreaking ideas are born, challenged, and refined. For over 150 years, MIT has shaped the world through science, technology, and innovation. Learn on the iconic campuswhere groundbreaking ideas are born, challenged, and refined. For over 150 years, has shaped the world through science, technology, and innovation. Pioneering Minds EmTech MIT convenes a powerful cross-industry community of forward-looking executives, decision-makers, and technical experts. You'll engage with an exclusive community of just 400 peers who challenge, inspire, and elevate your thinking. EmTech MIT convenes a powerful cross-industry community of forward-looking executives, decision-makers, and technical experts. You'll engage with an exclusive community of just 400 peers who challenge, inspire, and elevate your thinking. Editorial Authority Every session is curated by the award-winning editorial team at MIT Technology Reviewjournalists who research and report daily on the technologies shaping the global innovation economy. Agenda Highlights Newly confirmed sessions include: The Next Intelligence a candid conversation about superintelligence, safety, and the path forward for AI a candid conversation about superintelligence, safety, and the path forward for AI The Protocol Economy exploring read-write-own ecosystems and the future of decentralized ownership exploring read-write-own ecosystems and the future of ownership Climate Tech's Next Playbook revealing new strategies to scale sustainable innovation in a constrained capital environment revealing new strategies to scale sustainable innovation in a constrained capital environment The Robots Are Coming Home on the rise of humanoid robots in everyday life on the rise of humanoid robots in everyday life The ABCs of AI: Algorithms, Borders, Control mapping sovereign AI and the geopolitics of algorithms Confirmed Speakers to Date Rodney Brooks , CTO and Cofounder, Robust.AI; Professor Emeritus, MIT CTO and Cofounder, Robust.AI; Professor Emeritus, David Edelman , Director, Project on Technology, Economy, and National Security, MIT , Director, Project on Technology, Economy, and National Security, Gary Gensler , Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management ; Former Chair, US Securities and Exchange Commission , Professor, ; Former Chair, US Securities and Exchange Commission Fiona Murray , Associate Dean for Innovation, MIT Sloan School of Management , Associate Dean for Innovation, Ganesha Rasiah , Chief Strategy Officer, HP , Chief Strategy Officer, HP Costa Samaras , Former Principal Assistant Director for Energy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Director, Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, Carnegie Mellon University , Former Principal Assistant Director for Energy, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Director, for Energy Innovation, Colette Stallbaumer , Cofounder, Microsoft WorkLab; General Manager, Microsoft 365 Copilot , Cofounder, Microsoft WorkLab; General Manager, Microsoft 365 Copilot Lucia Tian , Head of Advanced Energy, Google More speakers and sessions will be announced throughout the summer. Don't miss your chance to be part of MIT Technology Review's flagship tech event. Register now at emtechmit.comearly access pricing ends August 1. Members of the media may obtain additional information by emailing [email protected]. About MIT Technology Review MIT Technology Review is an independent media company owned by MIT. Established in 1899, it was the first-ever technology magazine; today, MIT Technology Review publishes in multiple digital formats every day, including on our site, in email newsletters, and across all major social channels. We also produce a multi-award-winning bimonthly print magazine and run one of the industry's most highly regarded event brands, EmTech. Our goal is to become the destination for those seeking to understand how technology is shaping our world. Subscribe. Attend. Connect with us on social: LinkedIn, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram. Media Contact: MIT Technology Review [email protected] SOURCE MIT Technology Review Accelerating America's Hypersonic Dominance with AI-Powered Automation on Supercomputers LOS ANGELES, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- MSBAI, a pioneer in hybrid intelligence systems for engineering automation, today announced it has been awarded a $2 million Phase III contract by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for GURU Generation 2. This sole-source award elevates MSBAI to the rare 'SBIR unicorn' status, signifying the DoD's recognition of GURU as an essential, unrivaled solution for national defense. This contract propels America's high-speed flight superiority by delivering hybrid intelligence for reliable automation of end-to-end workflows, slashing laborious setup times from hours or days to minutes and enabling the execution of thousands of simulations at scale. MSBAI's CEO, Allan Grosvenor, and team member, Ryland Adams Prototyping Mach 5-plus vehicles is prohibitively slow and costly; the only practical path to breakthrough designs is running massive suites of high-fidelity simulations. Yet setting up a single computational fluid dynamics (CFD) case still consumes hourssometimes daysand scaling that to the hundreds or thousands required for full aerodynamic databases, flight envelopes, and control-surface schedules is impractical by hand. GURU Generation 2 harnesses beyond-state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, inspired by cognitive frameworks like Global Workspace Theory, to achieve reliable automation. Its hierarchical architecture fuses symbolic reasoning with machine learning, autonomously navigating geometry preparation, grid generation, solver configuration, solution-adaptive mesh refinement to capture shock wave / boundary layer interaction and other complex physics, and visualization. This breakthrough enables DoD engineers to generate full aerodynamic databases, flight trajectories, and parametric studies of aerodynamic surfaces at machine speed, unlocking unprecedented design innovation for Mach 5+ flight, extreme maneuverability, and reusable systems. Already demonstrated at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) with GURU Generation 1, the dual-use platform has reduced simulation failure rates from 88% to 2%. GURU Generation 2 will now scale across key Army, Navy, and Air Force supercomputers such as Blueback, Carpenter, Narwhal, and Raider, training skills agents to autonomously drive workflows in packages such as Salome, GMSH, NASA Refine for meshing; solvers including the CREATE CFD suite, SU2, and OpenFOAM; and ParaView for visualization. The High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP), a crown jewel of DoD's R&D resources, is the primary customer. Supporting over 5,000 defense scientists and engineers with premier supercomputers, networks, and expertise, HPCMP drives mission-critical advancements. Under Director Kelly Dalton's leadership, the program emphasizes AI integration and workforce empowerment to maintain U.S. superiority in hypersonics and emerging technologies. GURU injects beyond-state-of-the-art AI into HPCMP's ecosystem, democratizing access and boosting throughput for every user. "This contract lets us plug GURU straight into the DoD's supercomputing nervous system," said Allan Grosvenor, CEO of MSBAI. "What once took a team hours or days to configure for a single hypersonic CFD simulationriddled with failure risksnow takes minutes, and GURU can replicate that setup across thousands of cores, overcoming barriers to consistent success and data analysis, so America's engineers can explore a full spectrum of design modifications and flight conditions at machine speed, not human speed." "The big thing we use these systems to do is modeling and simulationwe're trying to drive shorter timelines and accelerate," noted Bryon Foster, Chief of the AFRL DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC). "Tools like GURU help us run higher-fidelity calculations faster and cheaper, especially for regimeslike hypersonic flightthat can't be fully tested on a range." For IL5 compliance, MSBAI partners with Inkit ( www.inkit.com ), a File Intelligence Platform that offers digital signature, secure document generation, and file storage capabilities. This Phase III milestone positions MSBAI for further DoD investments in licenses and more features. MSBAI evolved the GURU technology through fundamental R&D conducted on DOE flagship exascale systems, including the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Aurora supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory, running 2,000+ node jobs to advance its hybrid intelligence capabilities for engineering design and energy applications critical to the nation. As America races to field next-generation hypersonic aviation and space launch technology, DoD's $2M investment in GURU ensures that every HPCMP userfrom junior engineers to senior design teamscan spawn, manage, and analyze thousands of high-accuracy aerothermal simulations in the time it once took to hand-craft one, securing U.S. dominance through AI-accelerated innovation. About MSBAI MSBAI, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, is a leader in hybrid intelligence systems that automate complex engineering workflows using advanced AI. Its flagship GURU platform accelerates design and simulation, empowering users from the DoD, DOE, and industry to drive innovation in aviation, spaceflight, and energy. For more, visit https://microsurgeonbot.com. Media Contact: Allan Grosvenor, [email protected] SOURCE MSBAI SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP is investigating a data breach that led to unauthorized access to customer information held by London Properties, Inc., a California-based real estate company. As of August 29, 2024, London Properties, Inc. identified unauthorized access to its data server storing accounting information provided by its current and former staff, vendors, real estate agents, and other brokers. DATA BREACH ALERT: London Properties, Inc. If your personal data was impacted, you may be entitled to money damages. Post this Although the breach occurred in August 2024, London Properties, Inc. did not begin notifying affected individuals until on or around May 30, 2025, which may have violated state and federal laws. The following information may have been compromised in the breach: names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and/or banking information. If your personal information was impacted by this incident, you may be at risk of identity theft and other serious violations of your privacy. As a result, you may be entitled to money damages and an injunction requiring changes to London Properties, Inc.'s cybersecurity practices. If you received notification of this data breach or are a customer of London Properties, Inc. and wish to obtain additional information about your legal rights, please contact us today or visit our website at https://www.classactionlawyers.com/londonproperties. About Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe represents shareholders, employees, and consumers in class actions against corporate defendants, as well as shareholders in derivative actions against their officers and directors. The firm is based in San Francisco, and with the help of co-counsel, litigates cases nationwide. Contact Sonum Dixit Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP [email protected] Tel: 415-299-8207 SOURCE Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Azman ha spresented Special Representative Keith Kellogg with a gift for the US President during a meeting. Azman wrote about this on the X platform on Tuesday. "W had a good conversation at the solemn event dedicated to the Day of Ukrainian Statehood, where he congratulated me on the high award from the President of Ukraine. We also had a very warm and friendly conversation at today's private event, Azman said. We talked about many things, but of course, I emphasized the essence and importance of helping Ukraine, and not just with words or personal stories, but with a very special thing! I presented him with a gift for US President Donald Trump - a painting of the US Declaration of Independence, along with a portrait of Donald Trump! Which Keith Kellogg promised to hand over to the US President personally," he added. LONDON, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Tetragon will host a conference call for investors on Wednesday, 30 July 2025 at 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDST to discuss its half-yearly report and to provide a company update. During the call, Tetragon's investment manager will also seek to address questions raised by investors, including questions e-mailed to [email protected]. Getting Access to the Call and Q&A: The call will be accompanied by a live presentation which can be viewed online by registering at the link below. In addition, questions can be submitted online while watching the presentation. We would encourage you to log in 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. Webcast please use the following link to register and access the live event webcast: https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=F35AE57E-B46B-4022-8D5D-2ED185C363C0 Audio conference - please use the following link to register for your personal audio conference call details if you cannot join the webcast: https://emportal.ink/3SVmfbs Presentation Replay: A replay of the call will be available for 30 days through the link provided above or by visiting http://www.tetragoninv.com/investors/calendar-and-events where a recording will posted. About Tetragon: Tetragon is a Guernsey closed-ended investment company. Its non-voting shares are listed on Euronext in Amsterdam, a regulated market of Euronext Amsterdam N.V., and also traded on the Specialist Fund Segment of the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange. Our investment manager is Tetragon Financial Management LP. Find out more at www.tetragoninv.com. Tetragon's non-voting shares are subject to restrictions on ownership by U.S. persons and are not intended for European retail investors. Please see: https://www.tetragoninv.com/shareholders/additional-information. Tetragon Investor Relations: Yuko Thomas [email protected] Press Inquiries: Prosek Partners [email protected] U.K. +44 203 890 9193 U.S. +1 212 279 3115 This release does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to purchase securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. The securities of Tetragon have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to U.S. persons unless they are registered under applicable law or exempt from registration. Tetragon does not intend to register any portion of its securities in the United States or to conduct a public offer of securities in the United States. In addition, Tetragon has not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Investment Company Act of 1940, and investors will not be entitled to the benefits of such Act. Tetragon is registered in the public register of the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets under Section 1:107 of the Financial Markets Supervision Act as a collective investment scheme from a designated country. SOURCE Tetragon Financial Group Limited TAMPERE, Finland, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Treon, a leading IoT technology company, has announced a long term strategic partnership with Forbes Marshall, a pioneer in steam engineering and process automation based in India. With a legacy spanning nearly eight decades, Forbes Marshall is known for its leadership in intelligent monitoring and energy efficiency. The partnership is built on a shared vision and a seven-year roadmap, expanding upon several years of successful collaboration between the two companies. The alliance aims to accelerate the deployment of advanced monitoring infrastructure across India and key international markets, driving digital transformation and sustainable operational improvements. "Forbes Marshall is a 78-year-old company, and we believe in building relationships that last," said Mukesh Vyas, Business Unit Head, Instrumentation Business, Forbes Marshall. "In Treon, we found a partner who shares our values and delivers advanced wireless technology that is reliable, scalable and ideally suited for complex industrial environments. This forms the foundation of a long-term partnership built on trust and performance." Focus markets and deployment plan The initial rollout will take place in India, leveraging Forbes Marshall's extensive market knowledge and installed base. This will be followed by expansion into high growth regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The focus will be on the sectors requiring ATEX certified Zone 0 and Zone 1 solutions, particularly in hazardous industrial environments. The partnership also opens new avenues for Forbes Marshall to serve industries like oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, where wired systems and portable data collectors often face limitations. Scalable, future-ready architecture with Treon Connect The solution is built on Treon Connect, a platform designed to scale seamlessly across industrial environments. It enables data collection from thousands of devices and allows integration into customer ecosystems with minimal disruption. By combining Forbes Marshall's domain expertise and AI-powered analytics with Treon's sensor technology and digital infrastructure, the partnership delivers a unified, powerful solution for asset health monitoring. This platform-level collaboration also strengthens offerings like Forbes Marshall's MachPulse, a wireless digital vibration analysis and diagnostic solution, by enabling deeper integration with Treon's scalable edge infrastructure. "Through Treon Connect, Forbes Marshall can now deliver a scalable solution with faster deployment, reduced downtime and greater operational visibility," said Juhani Kallio, Head of Global Sales at Treon. "This is how the future of industrial systems looks, platforms working together to bring intelligence and resilience to complex environments." About Forbes Marshall Forbes Marshall is a leading Indian multinational company specializing in steam engineering, process automation, and energy efficiency solutions. With over 75 years of experience, the company partners with process industry clients to enhance productivity, reliability, and sustainability. Forbes Marshall offers a wide portfolio of products and services, including control instrumentation, condition monitoring, and turnkey solutions. The company has a strong presence across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, with manufacturing facilities in India and abroad. For more information visit Forbes Marshall website or LinkedIn About Treon Treon is a leading technology company with a mission to help businesses improve productivity, enhance operational visibility, and sustainability. Its platform, Treon Connect, boosts operational efficiency by utilizing data-driven automation to extend machine lifespan, monitor assets, increase productivity, and ensure safety across industries. Treon is trusted by global leaders to provide secure, customized products that integrate seamlessly into existing business solutions. For more information on Treon Connect visit https://treon.fi or Treon LinkedIn. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2652650/5415554/Treon_Logo.jpg Treon press inquiries: Samah Zain Head of Growth [email protected] +358-505507331 TORONTO, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - TriggerTech, a leading manufacturer of high-performance trigger systems, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Hawkins Precision, a Colorado-based manufacturer of premium precision rifle components. The acquisition marks a significant milestone for TriggerTech, enhancing its capabilities in the precision shooting market and establishing a permanent manufacturing footprint in the United States. "Hawkins Precision has earned a stellar reputation for engineering and manufacturing best-in-class rifle accessories, and we're thrilled to welcome their team into the TriggerTech family," said Bryden Richardson, CEO of TriggerTech. "This acquisition brings deep product expertise, strong customer relationships, and operational leverage that will help us serve the precision rifle community even better." Founded in 2011, Hawkins Precision is known for its innovative bottom metals, scope rings, magazine systems and muzzle brakes which are trusted by competitive shooters, hunters, and OEMs. The combination of TriggerTech's patented zero-creep trigger technology and Hawkins Precision's accessory systems will unlock opportunities for new product development and category expansion. "We've long admired TriggerTech's engineering excellence and customer-first mindset," said Andy Hawkins, Founder of Hawkins Precision. "Joining forces allows us to accelerate growth while continuing to deliver the performance our customers expect." Strategic Highlights: U.S. Manufacturing Presence: Hawkins Precision's facility in Colorado Springs provides a strategic domestic production base to support U.S. government contracts and commercial customers. Hawkins Precision's facility in provides a strategic domestic production base to support U.S. government contracts and commercial customers. Customer and Brand Alignment: Both companies serve leading OEMs, distributors, and performance-focused end users in overlapping channels. Both companies serve leading OEMs, distributors, and performance-focused end users in overlapping channels. Operational Leverage: The integration creates opportunities for supply chain efficiencies, shared R&D, and enhanced service levels for both brands. The integration creates opportunities for supply chain efficiencies, shared R&D, and enhanced service levels for both brands. Product Synergy: The acquisition expands TriggerTech's product offering to include premium rifle accessories that are highly complementary to its core trigger systems. Hawkins Precision will continue to operate under its existing brand, with ongoing support from Andy Hawkins, who will be staying on as the Head of Product Development, and the rest of the Hawkins leadership team to ensure continuity and customer satisfaction. About TriggerTech TriggerTech is an innovator in the firearms industry, offering the most precise and reliable trigger systems available. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, TriggerTech's patented Zero Creep Technology is used by top shooters, law enforcement, and military professionals around the world. About Hawkins Precision Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hawkins Precision manufactures high-end rifle components engineered for competitive shooters and serious hunters. With a commitment to quality and performance, Hawkins products are trusted by top rifle builders and OEMs. SOURCE TriggerTech The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) has reported the destruction of Russian operators of the Skat 350M UAV in temporarily occupied city of Tokmak, Zaporizhia region. "In the early hours of July 16, 2025, an explosion was heard on the outskirts of the temporarily occupied city of Tokmak, Zaporizhia region - a green UAZ 452 flew into the air. Inside the "loaf" were two Russian occupiers - members of the aerial reconnaissance crew, who specialized in using the Skat 350M UAV. (SKAT 350M is a drone capable of staying in the air for up to four hours. This UAV is created with unparalleled reliability and wear resistance). The invaders used this enemy drone to detect the positions of the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhia region and adjust artillery fire," the GUR telegram channel reported on Wednesday morning. Both Russian operators were destroyed along with the Skat 350M UAV, which they were transporting in a car, the message says. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Photo: https://t.me/Denys_Smyhal/ The Parliamentary Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning has recommended that the Verkhovna Rada accept the resignation of the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Holos faction) has said. "The Committee on State Construction approved the resignation of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal," Zheleznyak wrote on Telegram. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada may consider the issue of the Prime Minister's resignation at a plenary session on Wednesday. Mumbai, July 16 : The National Commission for Women (NCW) recently summoned comedian Samay Raina in connection with the 'India's Got Latent' episode. Samay Raina appeared before the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Vijaya Rahatkar. As part of a written apology to the Commission, he expressed regret over his actions during aIndiaas Got Latenta. The Chairperson made it clear to the comedian that it is very important to maintain the highest respect and sensitivity of women in human rights forums. She asked Raina to come out with such a statement of rights in the future as well as create creative content to raise awareness on the dignity and rights of women. Samay Raina, respecting the orders of the Commission, gave the assurance to maintain this, stating this assurance would go a long way in ensuring the dignity and respect of women. The National Commission for Women believes that it is the responsibility of all social workers to encourage greater respect and sensitivity for women in society. This case is part of the Commission's ongoing effort to make the media and digital platforms more responsive to women's needs and dignity. The controversy erupted after comments made by Ranveer Allahbadia about parents and sex on comedian Samay Raina's show went viral on social media, sparking widespread backlash. Following public outrage, multiple police complaints were filed against Allahbadia and other people associated with the show in both Mumbai and Guwahati. The cyber cell and the Mumbai police conducted separate investigations in connection with Allahbadia's remarks on Rainaas YouTube show aIndia's Got Latenta. Washington, July 16 : US President Donald Trump said that Ukraine should not target Moscow, following a report stating that he had encouraged Kyiv to escalate deep strikes into Russian territory, according to media reports. "No, he shouldn't target Moscow," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House when asked whether he thinks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should target Moscow. When asked whether the United States would send long-range missiles to Ukraine, Trump replied, "No, we're not looking to do that." Asked if he was on Ukraine's side, Trump said he was on nobody's side, Xinhua news agency reported. Earlier on Tuesday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his gratitude to US President Donald Trump for his willingness to support Ukraine and contribute to efforts aimed at ending the war with Russia. Following what Zelensky described as a "very good conversation," he welcomed Trump's interest in achieving a "lasting and just peace" amid the ongoing conflict. "I spoke with President Donald Trump. It was a very good conversation. Thank you for the willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace. President Trump shared details about his meeting with the NATO Secretary General. It's important that we have such a good relationship, and that the Alliance countries are working to increase defense spending," Zelensky said in a post on X. New York, July 16 : US President Donald Trump stated that India is working on a trade deal along the same lines as the one he announced with Indonesia, which will provide the US with greater access to the Indian market. Under the deal with Jakarta, there will be a 19 per cent tariff on imports into the US, but none on exports from the US to Indonesia, he told reporters in Washington on Tuesday. "India basically is working along that same line", he said. "We're going to have access into India". Negotiators from India and the US are working to reach a deal before the August 1 deadline Trump has set for making deals or face arbitrary tariffs. While he has issued letters to several countries and the European Union threatening tariffs as high as 35 per cent if they don't make a deal by that date, he has sent a similar warning to India. It is not clear if he meant an exact duplication of the Indonesia deal, which would be a tough sell for India, or other levels of tariffs and other concessions by India. If the bilateral trade agreement between the US and India under negotiation mirrors the Indonesian one, it would mean a 19 per cent tariff on India's exports and none on imports from the US. Trump also said that Russia's President Vladimir Putin could agree to a peace deal with Ukraine before the 50-day deadline, which would spare India and others from buying Russian energy products from the 100 per cent punitive tariff he has threatened. Asked by a reporter about the September 2 deadline, he said, "I don't think 50 days is very long, and it could be sooner than that". Trump announced on Tuesday that he was taking strong action against Russia because it has so far refused to agree to a ceasefire in its war against Ukraine. One of those is the imposition of a 100 per cent secondary tariff on countries importing energy from Russia making India and others collateral victims of the actions directed against Moscow. The aim of the punitive tariffs on importers of Russian energy is to force them to stop the purchases and to cut off funds to Moscow, and to make the buyers put pressure on Russia to make a deal. Meanwhile, the Republican Party's leader in the Senate, John Thune, said that he was holding off on bringing a bill that sought to impose a 500 per cent tariff on Russian energy importers. Trump had expressed scepticism about the need for such legislation when he could impose sanctions himself. On the deal with Indonesia and a prospective deal with India, Trump said, "You have to understand, we had no access into any of these countries. Our people couldn't go in. And now we're getting access because of what we're doing with the tariffs". He said that Indonesia has high-quality copper and rare earth minerals that the US needs. Jerusalem, July 16 : Dozens of Druze citizens of Israel crossed from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into southern Syria, Israeli sources said, amid deadly clashes between Druze fighters and the Syrian interim government's forces. Israel's military said in a statement that troops were operating to return the civilians safely, Xinhua news agency reported. The individuals crossed from Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights into the Druze village of Hader in southern Syria. According to Israel's Army Radio, the incident followed calls on social media by Druze in Lebanon to support their counterparts in Syria's southern province of Sweida. Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Tuesday targeting convoys of Syrian forces in and around the southern Syrian city of Sweida, killing and wounding several personnel and further escalating days of deadly clashes between local Druze armed factions, Bedouin tribes, and the Syrian interim government's forces. The Druze are a religious and ethnic minority originating from Islam, primarily living in Syria, Lebanon, and Israel, with smaller communities in Jordan and elsewhere. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons in the Suweida area because the government "intended to use [them] against the Druze". Syria has condemned Israel's involvement and said the strikes had resulted in the deaths of members of the armed forces and civilians. Earlier on Tuesday, Syria's defence minister announced a ceasefire in Suweida, saying an agreement had been reached with local dignitaries for security forces to deploy there. However, one Druze spiritual leader urged local fighters to resist. Following the deployment of Syrian forces, SOHR accused government forces and their allies of the summary executions of at least 19 Druze civilians, including 12 at a family guest house. Damascus, July 16 : Syria's foreign affairs authorities condemned Israeli airstrikes targeting Syrian forces in the southern province of Sweida, calling the attacks "a blatant act of aggression." The foreign affairs authorities said in a statement that Israeli warplanes carried out a series of air raids Tuesday on security positions inside and around the city of Sweida, resulting in casualties among the interim government's forces and civilians, Xinhua news agency reported. "This criminal act constitutes a grave violation of Syrian sovereignty and international law," the statement said. "Israel bears full responsibility for the aggression and its consequences." The Syrian interim government said it has the "legitimate right to self-defense" and is committed to "protecting all Syrians without exception," with special reference to the Druze community in Sweida. Addressing the recent days of violence in Sweida among local factions, Bedouin tribal armed groups, and the interim government's security forces, the interim government said it has issued strict orders to protect civilians, restore calm, and preserve the social fabric, calling on the people of Sweida to reject any "foreign plots" or divisive agendas. Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) on Tuesday accused the Syrian interim government's forces deployed to the city of serious human rights abuses in the wake of recent clashes that the SOHR said have killed at least 166 people since Sunday. The SOHR said the violations, allegedly carried out by units affiliated with Syria's defense and interior authorities, include public humiliation of Druze civilians, looting and destruction of private property, and the burning of homes in villages across Sweida's countryside. The observatory released video footage and images showing what it described as systematic looting and destruction of civilian homes. Among the 166 reported fatalities were 67 civilians from Sweida, including two women and two children, 78 fighters from the defence authorities, internal security, and Bedouin tribes, as well as 21 individuals, including three women, who were allegedly executed in the field by the interim government's forces, the SOHR said. The wave of alleged abuses comes amid ongoing unrest in Sweida. Earlier in the day, heavy military vehicles had withdrawn from the city center following a ceasefire deal brokered between the interim government and local elders. Despite the ceasefire, tension remains high with intensified Israeli strikes and clashes that continued in the city center all Tuesday afternoon. Long convoys of civilians fleeing the city were seen heading toward rural villages, fearing renewed violence or arbitrary arrests. According to SOHR sources, many families left their homes without a clear destination, heading east and west into Sweida's countryside. Meanwhile, video footage emerged online showing violations committed by Druze armed men against members of the Syrian forces. In the videos, several members of the Syrian forces were seen stripped of their clothes and being beaten by the armed men. The violence was initially triggered by the assault and robbery of a Druze youth by armed Bedouins at a makeshift checkpoint in Sweida countryside. In response, Druze fighters kidnapped several Bedouins, igniting days of urban conflict. Srinagar, July 16 : Another batch of 6,064 pilgrims left for Kashmir from Jammu on Wednesday to perform the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, as over 2.34 lakh had 'darshan' during the last 13 days. Officials said over 2.34 lakh Yatris have so far performed the ongoing Amarnath Yatra since it started on July 3. "Another batch of 6,064 yatris left Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas Jammu in two escorted convoys for the Valley today. First escorted convoy of 95 vehicles carrying 2,471 yatris left at 3.30 a.m. for Baltal base camp, while the second escorted convoy of 139 vehicles carrying 3,593 yatris left at 4.07 a.m. for Nunwan (Pahalgam) base camp," officials said. The weather office has forecast widespread light to moderate rainfall in Jammu and Kashmir during the next 24 hours. Bhumi Pujan of 'Chhari Mubarak' (Lord Shiva's Holy Mace) was performed at Pahalgam on July 10. The Chhari Mubarak was taken to Pahalgam by a group of seers led by the sole custodian of the Chhari Mubarak, Mahant Swami Deependra Giri, from its seat at the Dashnami Akhara Building in Srinagar to Pahalgam. Chhari Mubarak was then taken back to its seat at the Dashnami Akhara Building in Srinagar. It will leave Dashnami Akhara on August 4, after performing various rituals at the historic Shankaracharya and Hari Parbat temples in Srinagar by its sole custodian, Mahant Deependra Giri Ji and Sadhus. En route to the holy cave, the Chhari Mubarak will perform puja in a traditional way at various temples at Durga Nag, Pampore, Awantipora, Bijbehara, Mattan, Ganeshpora and Pahalgam. The Chhari Mubarak will reach the holy cave shrine on August 9, marking the official conclusion of the Yatra. Authorities have made extensive multi-tier security arrangements for this year's Amarnath Yatra, as this takes place after the cowardly attack of April 22 in which Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 civilians after segregating them on the basis of faith in the Baisaran meadow of Pahalgam. An additional 180 companies of CAPFs have been brought in to augment the existing strength of the Army, BSF, CRPF, SSB and the local police. The Army has rolled out 'Operation SHIVA 2025', deploying more than 8,500 troops alongside advanced surveillance and combat technology. All the transit camps en route to the two base camps and the entire route from Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas in Jammu to the cave shrine are secured by the security forces. This year, the Yatra started on July 3 and will end after 38 days on August 9, coinciding with Shravan Purnima and Raksha Bandhan. Yatris approach the holy cave shrine situated 3888 metres above sea level in the Kashmir Himalayas either from the traditional Pahalgam route or the shorter Baltal route. Those using the Pahalgam route pass through Chandanwari, Sheshnag and Panchtarni to reach the cave shrine, covering a distance of 46 km on foot. This trek takes a pilgrim four days to reach the cave shrine. Those using the shorter Baltal route trek 14 km to reach the cave shrine and return to the base camp the same day after performing the Yatra. No helicopter services are available to Yatris this year due to security reasons. New York, July 16 : India, in collaboration with other key member states, co-chaired a high-level meeting of the Group of Friends for Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The meeting reaffirmed India's strong commitment to upholding justice and accountability for UN peacekeepers who face violence in the line of duty. As a leading troop-contributing nation, India emphasised the urgent need to enhance protection mechanisms and ensure perpetrators of such crimes are brought to justice. "Glad to be part of the Group of Friends for Accountability of Crimes against Peacekeepers that met today to take forward the landmark Security Council Resolution 2589 (2021) that was championed by India. We remain committed to the pursuit of justice for peacekeepers," Parvathaneni Harish, Permanent Representative of India to the UN said in a post on X. During the meeting, Ambassador P. Harish articulated India's deep-seated commitment and stated, "United Nations peacekeepers face tremendous obstacles while working in increasingly dangerous areas. But for the most part, these crimes continue to go unpunished. This lack of accountability severely undermines international peace efforts by giving assailants more confidence." "Therefore, accountability is a strategic necessity. In addition to being required by law, ensuring responsibility for crimes against UN personnel is essential to the integrity and efficacy of international peacekeeping efforts. Peacekeepers' safety is directly improved by justice, allowing them to carry out their vital missions. It is our common duty to fulfill this obligation," he added The Group was launched in December 2022 during India's Presidency of the Security Council, building upon the landmark UNSC Resolution 2589. Since 1948, over 1,000 UN personnel have been killed as a result of malicious acts while serving in peacekeeping operations, with hundreds more injured. The meeting reaffirmed the steadfast dedication of the GoF to ensuring justice for those who bravely serve under the UN flag. It also underscored the critical imperative to combat impunity for attacks against peacekeepers, emphasising that accountability is not merely a matter of justice for individuals but a basis for the effectiveness, credibility, and future of UN Peace Operations worldwide. As a Co-Chair of the GoF, India continues to demonstrate leadership and commitment to the cause of peacekeeping and accountability. With a history spanning over seven decades, India is the largest cumulative troop-contributing country to the United Nations, having deployed more than 300,000 peacekeepers to date. Indian peacekeepers have served with distinction and courage in virtually every major UN mission, enduring significant sacrifices, with 182 Indian peacekeepers having made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. United Nations, July 15 : Ensuring attackers of peacekeepers are brought to justice is a "strategic necessity" for UN operations, India's Permanent Representative P. Harish has said. He articulated India's deep-seated commitment and stated, "United Nations peacekeepers face tremendous obstacles while working in increasingly dangerous areas. But for the most part, these crimes continue to go unpunished." The lack of accountability for crimes against peacekeepers "severely undermines international peace efforts by giving assailants more confidence," he said on Tuesday. "Therefore, accountability is a strategic necessity," he said. "Peacekeepers' safety is directly improved by justice, allowing them to carry out their vital missions," he said. "It is our common duty to fulfil this obligation." He was speaking at a meeting of the 'Group of Friends to Promote Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers'. India launched the group in December 2022 when it was the president of the Security Council and continues to be co-chair of the group. Senior representatives from about 40 countries, UN officials, and experts participating in the group's meeting discussed improving strategies, operational frameworks, and increasing international cooperation to bring perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers to justice. The participants "underscored the critical imperative to combat impunity for attacks against peacekeepers, emphasising that accountability is not merely a matter of justice for individuals but a basis for the effectiveness, credibility, and future of UN Peace Operations worldwide," according to India's UN Mission. So far, 1,135 peacekeepers have died from criminal actions against peacekeeping operations, five as of now this year. The Friends Group builds on the resolution introduced by India with the backing of 83 countries, which was adopted unanimously by the Security Council in 2021. It demands that countries where peacekeeping missions operate promote accountability for violence against peacekeepers by investigating the incidents, arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators. The resolution also asked the Secretary-General to create an online database of attacks on peacekeeping personnel. Law enforcement officers have exposed the director of a branch of one of the enterprises of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia," two of his deputies and the chief accountant, who organized a mechanism for illegally accruing additional payments to employees of the apparatus, the National Police of Ukraine reported. "Four officials entered into a conspiracy and in the spring of 2022 established a scheme to embezzle public funds. Contrary to the decision of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" to restrict the accrual of bonuses, one-time incentives and other additional payments to employees who are not involved in specific work during the period of the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine, the accomplices illegally accrued additional payments to the basic salary of employees," the report on the department's website said on Wednesday. Over more than two years, they issued more than UAH 22 million of such "additional payments," part of which the recipients returned to the perpetrators. During the searches, accounting documents, computer equipment and money were seized. The property of the director and chief accountant (real estate, vehicles, land) has been seized. The organizer and participants of the criminal are charged with embezzlement of funds in especially large amounts, committed by an organized group, and official forgery of documents (parts 2, 3, 5 of Article 27, part 5 of Article 191, part 1 of Article 366 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). The sanction of the articles provides for a penalty of up to 12 years of imprisonment with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for a term of up to three years and confiscation of property. The court applied preventive measures in the form of detention to the director and his deputies with the right to post bail, which the suspects posted. The issue of a preventive measure for the last defendant is being resolved. Guwahati, July 16 : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge will visit Assam on Wednesday to take part in the party's various programmes here. Rahul Gandhi's visit to the state is seen as an attempt to boost the morale of the Congress party workers, as Assam is heading for Assembly polls next year. The senior leaders of the grand old party will land at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati and will receive a grand welcome from the party functionaries. The Congress party is looking to renew its base in Assam among the general public following the appointment of Gaurav Gogoi as the head of the state unit. Gogoi said, "The meetings in block units have seen a lot of enthusiasm among party supporters. We did not expect such a huge gathering in small meetings." This is the first visit of Rahul Gandhi to Assam after Gaurav Gogoi was given the responsibility to head the state unit to take on the BJP's election machinery in 2026. Meanwhile, in a move aimed at deepening its grassroots connect and holding the state government accountable, the Assam Congress recently launched the 'Assam Justice Portal'. The digital platform was unveiled during a formal event at Rajiv Bhawan, the party's state headquarters in Guwahati. Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, inaugurated the portal in the presence of senior party leaders, including MLA Jakir Hussain Sikdar, Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress President Mira Borthakur, and other key office-bearers. The 'Assam Justice Portal' is designed as an interactive digital interface allowing citizens from across the state to report grievances and highlight issues spanning local governance, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and public services. It aims to function as a channel for the people to directly communicate their concerns to the Opposition, which will then push for resolution. Speaking at the launch, Saikia underscored the Congress party's commitment to serving as a responsible and responsive Opposition. "The portal is a step towards amplifying public voices and ensuring that the government is made aware of ground-level issues. It's about promoting transparency and enforcing accountability," he said. Mumbai, July 16 : Actor Akshay Oberoi, who is reportedly prepping for his international debut, has jetted off to the US. According to industry insiders, the actor, who has consistently impressed with his diverse performances in Indian cinema, has flown to the US after receiving an offer for a prestigious Hollywood project. A source reveals, "Akshay has been quietly working toward expanding his horizons internationally. He auditioned for a high-profile international show, and we hear he has been selected. He is currently in the US with his family and is expected to begin prep soon. Something big is definitely brewing." Sources close to the actor suggest that he has been auditioning for a key role in an international series or film, and the word is, he landed it. Though details of the project remain tightly under wraps. An official confirmation is awaited. The actor will next be seen in 'Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari' which is set to release on September 12. It is directed by Shashank Khaitan. 'Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari' stars Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor. The rom-com is produced by Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and Shashank Khaitan. With Karan Johar known for his expertise in the romantic comedy genre, fans are excited about what the film will offer once it finally releases. Akshay is also set to star alongside Manoj Bajpayee and Saqib Saleem in gritty crime drama. Akshay made his acting debut as a child in the 2002 comedy-drama American Chai. He played his first leading role in Rajshri Productions film Isi Life Mein...! He moved to television work after the release of his first film. In 2012, he played the lead role in Bejoy Nambiar's MTV Rush. Nambiar, impressed with Oberoi's work on the show, offered him his second film, the Tamil remake of the suspense thriller Pizza. He was loved for his work in Laal Rang and Gurgaon. --IANS dc/ New Delhi, July 16 : Four schools in Delhi received bomb threat emails on Wednesday morning, marking the third consecutive day of such threats that have disrupted educational institutions across the national capital. The Delhi Police said that so far, no suspicious object has been found at any of the locations, though searches are still underway. As soon as the alerts were received, emergency response teams rushed to St. Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, and Mother International School in Hauz Khas. The fire department, bomb disposal squads, dog squads, and Delhi Police personnel were immediately deployed to the sites. Delhi Fire Department officials confirmed receiving distress calls from the four schools between 5.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m., triggering full-scale evacuation procedures for students and staff. All four institutions were promptly cleared as a precautionary measure, even as bomb disposal teams thoroughly scanned the premises. Nothing suspicious has been found in any of the four schools, according to the police, who added that searches were still in progress to ensure complete safety. This latest episode follows a similar series of threats issued on Tuesday, when St. Stephen's College of Delhi University and St. Thomas School in Dwarka received bomb threat emails. Both institutions were evacuated and examined by the Delhi Police Bomb Disposal Squad, Dog Squad, Fire Brigade, and Special Staff. No explosive materials were found, and both threats were declared hoaxes after thorough investigations. The police confirmed that the threats in each case came via email, and they are tracing the origin of these emails. Monday also saw three schools targeted similarly. CRPF School in Prashant Vihar, CRPF School in Dwarka Sector 16, and another school in Chanakyapuri all received bomb threats via email. In each case, bomb squads were sent, buildings evacuated, and detailed searches conducted, with all alerts eventually found to be false. The Delhi Police are intensifying efforts to track the perpetrators of the threats. New Delhi, July 16 : Nearly 1.4 lakh new PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts were opened and more than 5.4 lakh new enrollments under three Jan Suraksha Schemes were achieved since July 1, according to the Department of Financial Services (DFS). DFS has launched a three-month nationwide campaign, effective from July 1 till September 30, to bolster the outreach of flagship schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), and Atal Pension Yojana (APY). This campaign seeks to achieve comprehensive coverage across all Gram Panchayats (GPs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), ensuring that every eligible citizen is able to avail the intended benefits of these transformative schemes, according to a Finance Ministry statement. In the two weeks since the launch of the campaign. a total of 43,447 camps have been conducted across various districts to facilitate beneficiary enrolment under key schemes and promote financial literacy. The progress reports have been compiled for 31,305 camps thus far. The campaign is scheduled to continue until September 30, covering approximately 2.70 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) and ULBs and embodies the governmentas commitment to ensuring last-mile financial empowerment and enhancing socio-economic inclusion through access to formal financial services. The governmentas Financial Inclusion (FI) initiatives serve as a cornerstone for empowering economically and socially marginalised communities by facilitating equitable access to formal financial services. These initiatives are designed to bring unbanked individuals into the ambit of mainstream banking, thereby reinforcing inclusive and sustainable economic development. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has clarified that the government has not issued any order to banks to close inactive PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts. "In connection with reports appearing in media that Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance has asked Banks to close inactive PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts, the Department of Financial Services has said that it has not asked Banks to close inactive PM Jan Dhan Yojana accounts," according to a recent Finance Ministry statement. A staggering 55.44 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened in India, 56 per cent of which belong to women, and the total amount in these deposits has surpassed Rs 2.5 lakh crore as of May 21 this year. a"IANS na/ New Delhi, July 16 : Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday reviewed the security and logistical arrangements for Kanwar Yatra pilgrims at the Apsara border, asserting that the government is fully prepared to facilitate the yatra's smooth conduct. With the onset of the sacred month of Shravan, thousands of Kanwariyas from across India are setting out on their spiritual journey to collect holy water from the Ganga and perform 'Jalabhishek' of Lord Shiva. The annual Kanwar Yatra has brought a renewed wave of devotion as pilgrims head to revered destinations such as Haridwar, Gaumukh, Gangotri, Sultanganj's Ajgaibinath Temple, and the Sangam in Prayagraj. During his inspection, Mishra was accompanied by Shahdara Assembly MLA Sanjay Goyal, senior officials, and members of voluntary organisations. Speaking to IANS, Mishra said, "The Delhi government is completely ready, and the most special thing is that today I came to the Delhi border to see the grand welcome gates. Just like the welcome gates were set up in Maha Kumbh, such welcome gates are being set up at 17 places on the borders of Delhi." He added that the gates have been named after the 12 Jyotirlingas, while the others reflect various aspects of Mahadev. "Last year, 170 camps were set up. This time, 374 camps have been established. This shows that the Chief Minister's initiative is succeeding and being widely welcomed. We've ensured arrangements for water, traffic, sanitation, municipal coordination, medical aid -- everything is being handled promptly. We're ready to welcome Shiva devotees with open arms," he said. Mishra noted that not just the government but the people of Delhi across all communities are welcoming the Kanwariyas. "If anyone tries to create mischief, we are also ready to deal with them," he said. With traffic congestion being reported along several national highways due to the yatra, the Opposition has raised concerns, especially drawing comparisons with restrictions imposed on religious events such as public namaz. Reacting sharply, Mishra said, "Kanwar Yatra will be organised with grandeur no matter what anyone says. Dusshera, Chhath Puja, Ramleelas, Holi, and Diwali will all be celebrated in a grand manner. If someone has a problem, they should find a way to make that go away, as the grandeur will keep increasing." -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed New Delhi/Tokyo, July 16 : Japanese companies have shown keen interest in investing in India's growing textiles sector, Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh has said. India's garment exports to Japan stood at $234.5 million in 2024. Tokyo imported these goods worth about $23 billion last year. Inaugurating the 16th edition of the India Tex Trend Fair (ITTF) in Tokyo, the minister said that India-Japan textiles trade relations remain strong since ages. "I have spoken to various stakeholders from the apparel and textiles sector under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's end-to-end policy that has been in place for the apparel and textiles sector," he told the gathering. "There is an ecosystem like 7 PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks with an area encompassing 1,000 to 2,000 acres of each unit, where the expected investment is of 1 lakh crore, creating almost 12 lakh jobs. The Japanese investors will get all facilities including benefits of the state government subsidies like labour and electricity subsidy, etc," the minister emphasised. The minister met the leadership team of Asahi KASEI, a $20 billion dollar conglomerate, which is interested in 'Make in India for the world'. The 16th India Trend Fair is a flagship textiles event, organised in collaboration with the Embassy of India, the Ministry of Textiles, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), and the Japan India Industry Promotion Association (JIIPA). "Recently, Japan has imported 5,000 cars from India which is testimony in itself of the Indian quality standards which are at par with the Japanese standards. We have sustainable fibre and sustainable workforce which can be leveraged to boost exports," said Singh. Sibi George, Ambassador of India in Japan, said India is a rapidly growing economy with an annual growth rate of 6 per cent and huge domestic demand and is expected to remain strong. "Every day we have good news of growing India-Japan economic ties despite global supply chain slowdown," he said. In his address to the gathering, Rohit Kansal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles said, that the Indian textile sector presents tremendous opportunities. "Its end-to-end value chain capabilities, large domestic market, strong export footprint and capacity to manufacture sustainable and at scale are attractive factors for any buyer or investor," he mentioned. Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman of AEPC, said that 'India Tex Trend Fair' has emerged as a strategic platform for showcasing the depth, diversity, and innovation of Indian textiles and garments. "With participation from over 150 exhibitors, this edition brings an impressive array of collections from sustainable apparel and high fashion to artisan lifestyle products designed to resonate with Japanese consumer preferences." IANS na/ New Delhi/Palakkad, July 16 : Abdelfattah Mehdi, brother of Talal Abdo Mehdi, who was allegedly murdered by Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya in 2017, has asserted that there can be no pardon for the crime. He said that Nimisha Priya has to be executed. Abdelfattah also expressed firmly the family's deep displeasure in the manner in which the Indian media has been "distorting things to portray the convicted as a victim". Incidentally, Nimisha Priya was to be executed on Wednesday, but following the lengthy period of multipronged negotiations, her execution has been kept in abeyance. Numerous efforts from several quarters, which included full support of the Indian government, besides agencies based in Saudi Arabia and religious intervention from the Grand Mufti, Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, who reportedly reached out to a friend in Yemen's Shoora Council to help mediate, all led to the decision of deferring the execution until further orders. State CPI-M secretary M. V. Govindan on Wednesday morning met Musliyar, and negotiations are underway. "Musliyar has told me that the execution has been kept in abeyance, and there are more aspects which are being discussed. He said people are engaged in talks with authorities in Yemen and also the family who has to give the pardon," said Govindan. Meanwhile, the biggest relief that has come is that the execution has been kept in abeyance until further orders. It's the family of the deceased that can pardon Nimisha Priya. However, with a difference of opinion surfacing in the family, the religious people involved in the negotiations, besides officials, are trying their best to resolve the issue. The biggest hurdle now seems to be making the family understand the tragedy, and once that's done, the 'blood money' will be handed over. Meanwhile, it has been learnt that the next part of the negotiation will centre around the 'blood money' that will be given. For the unversed, 'blood money' is monetary compensation to the family of the person killed in exchange for forgiveness. It is an accepted practice under Sharia law. Kerala billionaire M.A. Yusuf Ali has expressed his willingness to chip in with whatever financial support is needed. The efforts of the Indian government have been vital, and all eyes are on the negotiations, which are underway in full earnestness. Priya is currently lodged in a jail in Yemen, facing the death penalty for the alleged murder of her former business partner Mehdi, in 2017. Since the announcement of the execution date, politicians across party lines in Kerala have appealed to the Union government and the President for urgent intervention. Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her family and initially worked as a nurse before opening her clinic. In 2017, following a dispute with Mehdi -- her business partner -- she allegedly administered sedatives to him in a bid to retrieve her confiscated passport. However, the sedatives proved fatal. She was arrested while attempting to flee the country and was convicted of murder in 2018. A death sentence was handed down in 2020 and upheld by Yemen's Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. However, the court allowed the possibility of clemency through a blood money arrangement. New Delhi, July 16 : An above normal monsoon is expected to lead to increased sugarcane acreage in Maharashtra and Karnataka, which, in conjunction with expectations of better yield in key sugar-producing states, projects a 15 per cent jump in sugar output during this year, according to a report released on Wednesday. ICRA estimates the revenues of integrated sugar mills to expand by 6-8 per cent in FY2026, supported by an expected increase in sales volumes, along with firm domestic sugar prices and higher distillery volumes. Despite this, the operating profit margin gains for the sugar mills will be modest in FY2026 if ethanol prices remain stagnant. ICRAas outlook for the sugar sector is 'Stable', backed by the anticipated improvement in revenues, stable profitability and comfortable debt coverage metrics, along with the governmentas policy support, including the ethanol blending programme (EBP). Commenting on the expected domestic sugar production and prices, Girishkumar Kadam, senior vice president at ICRA, said: aICRA projects the gross sugar production to increase to 34.0 million tonnes (MT) in sugar year 2026 from 29.6 million MT in sugar year 2025 amidst an above-normal monsoon and expected improvement in cane acreage and yield in key sugar-producing states.a After the estimated diversion of 4 million MT towards ethanol production, net sugar production will increase to 30.0 million MT in 2026 from 26.2 million MT in 2025. Despite the expected increase in diversion towards ethanol in 2026, the closing sugar stock level is likely to be comfortable, he explained. Further, domestic sugar prices, which are currently in the range of Rs 39-41 per kg, are expected to remain firm till the start of the next season, thereby supporting millsa profitability, he added. The report expects the closing sugar stock to be around 5.2 million MT as on September 30, 2025, lower than the sugar stock of 8.0 million MT as on September 30, 2024. This would be equivalent to 2 months of consumption. The closing stock is expected to increase to 6.3 million MT (approximately 2.5 months of consumption) as on September 30, 2026, if the domestic consumption and export quota remains same as SY2025, as per estimates. "The ethanol blending trend has remained encouraging with 20 per cent blending target set by the government of India achieved in the recent months. Further, the government is exploring the option of increasing the blending target beyond 20 per cent, which will support the distilleries," said Kadam. New Delhi, 16 July : The bomb threat emails received by around ten schools in the national capital feature unusual sender names like 'Roadkill' and 'Benji', typically seen in fiction, web series, or games, which are being probed by the Delhi Police. In the last three days, around 10 schools and one college have received bomb threats, the Delhi Police said on Wednesday. This comes as five schools in the city received fresh threats through email on Wednesday, prompting evacuations of the students and staff. St. Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, Mother's International School in Hauz Khas, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodi Estate, received bomb threats via email on Wednesday morning. The emails that have been sent as threats for the past three days mention "IED bombs" and "RDX" on the premises of the educational institutions, along with a warning about the time of explosion for the devices. Additionally, it has also been written that this mail has been sent by "Roadkill" and "Benji". "Good Morning. Explosive devices are hidden inside backpacks and placed around the classrooms of the school. This is extremely serious. You will all pay for your sins. Roadkill and Benji are the persons responsible for this bloodbath. Release our names to the press/media," is mentioned in some e-mails. Both the names 'Roadkill' and 'Benji' are usually seen in fiction, web series, games or social media contexts. 'Roadkill' is a British political thriller TV series. It is also used as a code name or nickname in some areas, online gaming and social media slang. 'Benji' is a famous dog character who was in Hollywood films of the 1970s. It can also be used as a slang or code name, such as for a local gangster, rapper or YouTuber. The Delhi Police said that so far, no suspicious object has been found at any of the locations, though searches are still underway. As soon as the alerts were received, emergency response teams rushed to all the schools. The fire department, bomb disposal squads, dog squads, and Delhi Police personnel were immediately deployed to the sites. Delhi Fire Department officials confirmed receiving distress calls from the four schools between 5.30 a.m. and 8.30 a.m., triggering full-scale evacuation procedures for students and staff. This latest episode follows a similar series of threats issued on Tuesday, when St. Stephen's College of Delhi University and St. Thomas School in Dwarka received bomb threat e-mails. Both institutions were evacuated and examined by the Delhi Police Bomb Disposal Squad, Dog Squad, Fire Brigade, and Special Staff. No explosive materials were found, and both threats were declared hoaxes after thorough investigations. The police confirmed that the threats in each case came via email, and they are tracing the origin of these emails. Monday also saw three schools targeted similarly. CRPF School in Prashant Vihar, CRPF School in Dwarka Sector 16, and another school in Chanakyapuri all received bomb threats via emails. In each case, bomb squads were sent, buildings evacuated, and detailed searches conducted, with all alerts eventually found to be false. The Delhi Police are intensifying efforts to track the perpetrators of the threats. Bengaluru, July 16 : Senior BJP MLA and former Minister Byrathi Basavaraj has been booked on murder charges in connection with the killing of a rowdy sheeter. The Bharatinagar police in Bengaluru have registered an FIR against the MLA, naming him as the fifth accused in the case. The complaint was filed by Vijayalaxmi, the mother of the murdered rowdy sheeter, Shivaprakash alias Biklu Shiva. Shivaprakash was hacked to death in front of his residence on Tuesday night. MLA Byrathi Basavaraj has not yet responded to the development. According to police sources, Shivaprakash had earlier lodged a complaint against Byrathi Basavaraj, alleging that the MLA's associates had threatened him in connection with a land dispute. He claimed they were pressuring him to cancel the GPA (General Power of Attorney) and hand over possession of the disputed land to them. Shivaprakash had reportedly submitted video evidence of the alleged threats made by the MLAas associates while filing the complaint. The FIR has been registered under Sections 103 and 190 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita against MLA Byrathi Basavaraj and others. Other accused named in the FIR include Jagadish (34), Kiran (33), Vimal (36), and Anil (34). Police stated that more individuals are suspected to be involved and will be added to the FIR as the investigation progresses. Shivaprakash, a resident of Bharatinagar, was involved in the real estate business. As per the FIR, he had purchased a plot of land in Kitaknur and executed a GPA in his name. He had also deployed two women security guards to safeguard the property. However, on February 11, Jagadish, said to be an associate of MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, allegedly encroached upon the land and forcibly removed the security personnel. Jagadish is said to have called Shivaprakash and issued life threats, claiming the area belonged to him and demanding that Shivaprakash give away the property. The victim reportedly received continuous threats regarding the land. Vijayalaxmi stated that her son had approached the police multiple times, expressing concern for his safety and naming Jagadish and others, including MLA Byrathi Basavaraj, in his complaints. She further said that around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Shivaprakash stepped out of his house when he was ambushed by a group of 8 to 9 assailants armed with swords and other weapons. His friend, Imran Khan, who tried to intervene, was also attacked with a sword. As people began to gather at the scene, the assailants fled in a white car. The police have launched a detailed investigation into the case. Photo: https://t.me/Denys_Smyhal/ The draft resolution on the resignation of Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal from his post was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada and registered under No. 13485 on Wednesday. The initiators of the bill were MPs Olena Shulyak, Oleksandr Litvinov, Tamila Tasheva and Andriy Klochko, and the main committee was the Committee on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, which is headed by Shulyak. Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Shmyhal's experience would be useful in the position of Minister of Defense, and before that he suggested that First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko head the government. As reported, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk from the post of Prime Minister on March 4, 2020, and on the same day Denys Shmyhal was appointed the new Prime Minister. At that time, Shmyhal had only been Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Community and Territorial Development in Honcharuk's government for a month, and before that he had headed the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration. Today, Shmyhal has been in the position of Prime Minister for over five years and four months, which is the longest among all heads of government of independent Ukraine. According to the law on the Cabinet of Ministers, the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of a decision to dismiss the Prime Minister entails the resignation of the entire government. The Cabinet of Ministers, which is in retirement, continues to exercise its powers until the newly formed government begins its work. Chennai, July 16 : The Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department (WRD) has blamed Karnataka for the continued pollution of the Thenpennai (South Pennar) river, citing untreated sewage and industrial effluents flowing from Bengaluru into Tamil Nadu. The contamination is reportedly causing serious ecological damage and posing health risks in downstream areas of the state. In a suo motu case registered based on media reports, the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had directed the Tamil Nadu government to submit a report on the pollution levels in the river. Complying with the directive, WRD Secretary J. Jayakanthan presented a detailed report before the Tribunal. According to the report, polluted discharges from Bengaluru's Bellandur, Agara, and Varthur lakes travel downstream through Sokkarasanapalli in Krishnagiri district and collect in the Kelavarapalli reservoir. "The water entering Tamil Nadu was blackish with a sewage-like odour. Foam and foul smell were observed at Kelavarapalli dam with no sign of aquatic life," the report stated. The 432-kilometre-long river, of which 320 kilometres flow through Tamil Nadu, is a critical water source for irrigation, drinking water, and industries across five districts. The pollution has severely affected farming on over 9,000 acres and disrupted water supply to Hosur and surrounding areas. The WRD report accused Karnataka of failing to upgrade sewage treatment plants and regulate polluting industries. "Unless industrial discharge is curbed, Tamil Nadu cannot undertake effective bioremediation," the department warned. A central negotiation committee has held nine meetings and conducted site visits, documenting black, foamy, and odorous water in river stretches and tanks across both states. Despite repeated appeals, Karnataka has not acted on the committee's recommendations. During a hearing on Tuesday (July 15), Karnataka's counsel informed the Tribunal that 12 new sewage treatment plants (STPs) would be completed by December, with 10 more planned. However, no interim measures were outlined. Tamil Nadu's standing counsel D. Shanmuganathan pointed out that the state's Chief Secretary had written to his Karnataka counterpart as early as April 2023, but no action had followed. He also highlighted Karnataka's earlier commitment in 2019 to build STPs with a cumulative capacity of 630 MLD, which has seen slow progress. The Tribunal has adjourned the case to August 21 for further hearing. New Delhi, July 16 : Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Textiles, Pabitra Margherita, is set to embark on a multi-nation official visit to the African continent from July 18 to 25, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced on Wednesday. The visit will take him to the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Kingdom of Lesotho between July 18-22, followed by the Republic of South Africa from July 23-25. The visit is part of India's broader diplomatic engagement with African nations and is aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation, exploring new avenues of partnership, and representing India at the upcoming G20 Development Ministerial Meetings (DMM) in South Africa. In Eswatini, Minister Margherita will call on King Mswati III and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom. He will also hold official talks with the Foreign Minister of Eswatini to "discuss matters of mutual interest and to review the progress of bilateral relations," the MEA stated. The discussions are expected to cover a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, capacity building, development partnerships, and people-to-people exchanges. The minister will also engage with the Indian diaspora and participate in events showcasing India's development initiatives in Eswatini. "This visit is expected to further enhance the longstanding and friendly relations between India and the Kingdom of Eswatini," the ministry added. In the Kingdom of Lesotho, Margherita is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on King Letsie III and the Prime Minister, Samuel Matekane. He will hold bilateral meetings with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, along with several key ministers, including those responsible for Information, Communications, Science, Technology & Innovation, Education & Training, and Labour and Employment. "This Ministerial visit to Kingdom of Lesotho is being undertaken after a gap of 10 years," the MEA noted, recalling the first-ever Ministerial visit from India to Lesotho by Minister of State (IC) Culture, Tourism & MoS for Civil Aviation, Dr Mahesh Sharma, on July 9, 2015 as Special Envoy of the Prime Minister to deliver invitations for the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit to the leadership of the Government of Lesotho. Margherita's visit to South Africa will focus on multilateral engagement as he leads the Indian delegation to the G20 Development Ministerial Meetings (DMM), scheduled to be held in Skukuza on July 24-25. On the sidelines of the summit, he is expected to meet the South African Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Lydia Ramokgopa, along with other ministers responsible for development and heads of delegations from G20 member countries, invited nations, and international organisations. The minister will also hold bilateral meetings and engage with prominent business leaders and members of the Indian community across all three countries. Chennai, July 16 : The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), led by actor-politician Vijay, will hold its second state conference in Madurai on August 25. The event is set to take place on a sprawling 300-acre venue and is expected to draw lakhs of party workers and supporters from across Tamil Nadu. TVK general secretary Bussy Anand took part in a ceremonial ritual at the venue, marking the formal launch of preparations for the upcoming conference. The event is expected to play a crucial role in galvanising party cadres ahead of the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. TVK was officially launched on February 2, 2024, with the aim of bringing about a change in Tamil Naduas political landscape through a clean, transparent, and people-centric approach. The partyas formation marked the formal political entry of Vijay, one of Tamil cinemaas most influential and socially active figures. The launch came after years of speculation and mounting public demand for his entry into active politics. TVKas first state conference was held in April 2024 in Chennai, where Vijay laid out the partyas core principles and vision, with a strong emphasis on eradicating corruption, ensuring quality education, and promoting social justice. The event witnessed massive public participation and signalled the seriousness of the actoras political ambitions. Since its formation, TVK has maintained a distinct identity, positioning itself as an alternative to both the Dravidian majors -- the DMK and the AIADMK. TVK has so far stayed away from forming any alliances and has not yet declared its stance on joining the INDIA bloc or aligning with the BJP-led NDA. Party insiders suggest that TVK aims to contest the 2026 assembly polls independently, banking on Vijayas clean image, youth appeal, and focus on governance reforms. With just ten months to go for the next Assembly elections, the second state conference in Madurai is expected to serve as a platform to announce key organisational strategies and possibly unveil the partyas electoral roadmap. Vijay is likely to address the gathering and send a strong message to both his supporters and political rivals about TVKas readiness to face the electoral battle ahead. Surendranagar, July 16 : A team from the Surendranagar Mines and Minerals Department in Gujarat carried out a major raid on the outskirts of Chorvira village in Sayla taluka, uncovering large-scale illegal mining of carbocell. Acting on specific intelligence, officials seized minerals and equipment worth an estimated Rs 55 lakh. Carbocell is a carbonaceous mineral substance typically found in regions with lignite or low-grade coal deposits. In Gujarat, particularly in districts like Surendranagar and Bhavnagar, it occurs naturally in the subsurface and is often mined for its use as a fuel substitute in local industries and brick kilns due to its combustible properties. Though not classified as high-quality coal, carbocell holds commercial value because of its energy content. However, unregulated and illegal mining of carbocell has led to environmental degradation, land disputes, and concerns over safety. The operation, conducted across nine locations, resulted in the confiscation of one dumper, six tractors, 18 spinning wheels and casings, four frames, and a significant quantity of carbonaceous minerals. The crackdown marks a significant move against unauthorised mineral extraction in the region. More details are awaited. In March, Opposition Congress MLA Amit Chavda raised demands in the Gujarat Assembly, alleging rampant illegal carbocell coal mining in Surendranagar. The government countered by citing cases filed and wells sealed, but Chavda insisted the real number of illegal leases exceeded "300" in Muli, Than, and Chotila, and reported at least three mining-related deaths, contradicting official claims of zero fatalities. He urged stricter enforcement, claiming the issue continued unchecked. Meanwhile, just last month, Gujarat's Geology Department conducted a significant raid near Chellowas-Anodiya in Mansa taluka (Sabarmati riverbed) under Collector Mehul K. Dave. Officials seized sand and soil materials worth approximately Rs 1.7 crore, along with heavy equipment such as a stuck dumper and two JCBs. The operation aimed to crack down on unpermitted riverbed sand extraction, though villagers highlighted that local police had overlooked the activity for a prolonged period. In May, former BJP MP Dipsinh Rathod from Sabarkantha highlighted a grave issue that nearly 75 per cent of Sabarmati's sand was depleted due to illegal mining. He reported that 25-30 overloaded dumpers operated daily at locations like Waghpur and Piludra. Rathod accused the Gujarat Pollution Control Board and local authorities of collusion, alleging they were tipped off before raids and conducted only "symbolic" actions -- penalising a few vehicles before declaring operations resolved. Bhopal/Madrid, July 16 : Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav is scheduled to address the 'Invest in Madhya Pradesh' forum in Madrid on Wednesday. CM Yadav reached Madrid, the capital of Spain and met Indian ambassador to Spain Dinesh K Patnaik early on Wednesday. During an interaction with media persons in Madrid, Chief Minister Yadav, who was accompanied by his wife and a group of senior officials, shared that he has come with a vision to seek investment in the state. During the visit to Spain, which will last till July 19, he will also participate in high-level meetings related to industries, tourism, sports, culture and filmmaking. He will have a meeting with the President of Spain's Film Commission and discuss international-level film shooting in Madhya Pradesh and related cooperation. After this, he will address the Invest in Madhya Pradesh Forum. Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, Chairman, Spain India Council Foundation, will also address the gathering. The Chief Minister will also meet the Indian diaspora. The Chief Minister reached Spain after concluding the three-day (from July 13 to 15) business tour in Dubai. "Our three-day visit to Dubai was successful, as we have received a positive response. We have received investment proposals in sectors such as tourism, the food industry, and textiles. We are hopeful to receive a positive response from Spain also," the Chief Minister said in a video message released from his office on Wednesday. Earlier, before leaving Dubai on Tuesday, Chief Minister Yadav had a meeting with senior officers of DP World and Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA) regarding the Bharat Mart project and its associated logistic possibilities. Calling Bharat Mart a gateway to global trade, he said that through it, Madhya Pradesh would become a strong link in the global supply chain. He said that his journey to Dubai laid a strong foundation for development and was a success in terms of trade partnership. During his three-day visit to the UAE, CM Yadav held several meetings for potential future collaborations, including a significant meeting with senior officials from DP World and Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA), as well as meetings with e& (formerly Etisalat), the Director of LuLu Group International, Salim MA, and the Tata Group. MP CM also met with the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi. In a post on X, the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Al Zeyoudi, highlighted the potential for enhanced cooperation in high-value sectors during his meeting with the MP CM on Monday. The Madhya Pradesh CM, following his meeting with Al Zeyoudi, stated that both of them discussed the investment opportunities in the state under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and stated that MP offers a suitable industrial base, policy support and necessary infrastructure for the UAE's investment in various sectors like textiles, pharma, smart manufacturing, renewable energy, and food processing. Vientiane, July 16 : Officials from Laos and Cambodia gathered in Vientiane for the first Laos-Cambodia Prosecutors' Office Meeting on Cooperation in Combating Transnational Crime, with a particular focus on drug trafficking. The meeting took place on Tuesday and brought together senior prosecutors from both countries to deepen cooperation, reports Xinhua, quoting Lao News Agency. In his speech, President of the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office of Laos, Xaysana Khotphouthone, said that the meeting marked a significant milestone in strengthening bilateral judicial cooperation, noting that it reflects the deepening strategic partnership between the two nations and aims to reinforce collaboration in criminal prosecution, particularly in the fight against transnational and drug-related crimes. Xaysana highlighted that the drug crisis has severely impacted all sectors of Lao society, from students and youth to rural communities, and warned that if left unaddressed, it could become a root cause of various crimes and a serious threat to national stability. In response, the Lao government has declared drug control a national agenda, implementing stricter policies and targeted law enforcement strategies. In 2024, authorities recorded 5,012 drug-related cases, with an additional 1,422 cases reported in the first five months of 2025. During the meeting, both countries agreed to boost cross-border coordination, improve information sharing, and invest in joint training programs. On June 26, Laos' Ministry of Public Security held a drug burning ceremony to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, reaffirming the nation's commitment to fighting drug abuse and underscoring the serious threat it poses to economic, cultural, and social development. The ceremony was attended by Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Lao Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Security Vilay Lakhamfong, along with other key stakeholders. In Laos, drug abuse remains a pressing challenge, prompting officials at all levels to prioritise the issue through coordinated, multi-sectoral efforts and comprehensive prevention measures. Seoul, July 16 : Chun Yung-woo, former national security advisor, on Wednesday called for the early transfer of wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean troops from the United States to back home, stressing the need for the South's armed forces to strengthen their independent defence capabilities. Chun, who served as national security advisor to former conservative President Lee Myung-bak, made the remarks in his keynote speech at a symposium hosted by the Korean Peninsula Future Forum, which he founded and leads. "It is more important to regain it as soon as possible and strengthen the South Korean armed forces' sense of ownership, even though their operational command capabilities still remain insufficient," Chun said, proposing the early return of OPCON. "It wouldn't be good to keep postponing" the transfer, he noted. During a parliamentary confirmation hearing on Tuesday, Defence Minister nominee Ahn Gyu-back suggested that the Lee Jae Myung government aims to retrieve OPCON of South Korean troops within his five-year term, although Lee's office later described Ahn's remarks as his personal opinion. In 2006, the administration of then liberal President Roh Moo-hyun agreed with the US to transfer OPCON back to South Korea in April 2012. The planned transfer was postponed once to December 2015 under the subsequent Lee Myung-bak administration, and, later, the following Park Geun-hye administration reached an agreement with Washington to indefinitely postpone it until conditions are met, reported Yonhap news agency. Chun also warned of the risks of South Korea's dual diplomacy aimed at maintaining close relations with both the United States and China, saying it could backfire and create misgivings on both sides. "It may seem like a kind of blessing to receive competing calls from both the US and China, but (South Korea) could instead find itself misunderstood by both sides and in hot water if it takes ambiguous positions to avoid provoking either," he said. Chun was referring to South Korea's long-standing diplomatic approach of balancing its relations with the two world powers by aligning closely with Washington on security while relying on China for trade. He pointed to years of economic retaliation by China over the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence system (THAAD) in South Korea, saying the move taught Seoul how "complacent and dangerous" such a dual policy can be. "If there's a way South Korea can get along with China without sacrificing its relations with the US, it should definitely take that path, but it's easier said than done," he noted. To tackle the issue, Chun proposed reducing South Korea's "excessive" reliance on China for its economy by diversifying its sourcing channels for "strategic items" away from China and boosting its competitiveness in major technologies and trade items crucial to the Chinese economy. "When it comes to survival, (South Korea) should prepare itself with the South Korea-US alliance as its primary insurance and supplement it with South Korea-US-Japan cooperation as secondary insurance while also working with like-minded countries that share similar threat perceptions," he noted. Patna, July 16 : Gandhi Maidan SHO Rajesh Kumar has been suspended for negligence in the investigation of businessman Gopal Khemka's murder case in Patna. The suspension was ordered by Patna's IG Jitendra Rana based on the report of Patna SSP Kartikeya K. Sharma, who found multiple lapses in law and order maintenance under Kumar's watch. Gopal Khemka, a prominent businessman in Bihar, was shot dead in Patna recently near his home. The Patna Police arrested mastermind Ashok Saw and shooter Umesh Yadav in connection with the murder. The arms supplier linked to the case was killed in a police encounter. Police recently recreated the crime scene and are preparing to conduct narco tests on Ashok Saw and Umesh Yadav to uncover further details. The murder is currently linked to a land dispute. Initially, Ashok Saw claimed innocence, but his mobile location data placed him at Gandhi Maidan during the murder. Shooter Umesh Yadav confessed that the murder was carried out on Saw's contract. The Patna SSP found lapses in prompt action and monitoring in the Gandhi Maidan area during the incident. SHO Rajesh Kumar's repeated failures to maintain law and order and negligence in the high-profile murder case led to his suspension. The Patna Police continue to interrogate both accused on remand, aiming to unearth all aspects of the conspiracy behind the murder. Gopal Khemka murder case has created a political storm in Bihar with leaders like the RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Vikassheel Insaan Party leader Mukesh Sahani and others putting question marks on the law and order situation in Bihar which has seen a spate of high profile murders in the last one month. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Vijay Kumar Sinha earlier said that while incidents of crime in the state are unfortunate, the government is taking action with full vigilance and seriousness to control the situation. Sinha said, "Some people want to bring 'jungle raj' in Bihar by wearing the mask of morality. The government will deal strictly with crime and criminals. If needed, strict steps against callous police officers and bulldozer action, encounter, and property attachment will be taken against criminals." Bengaluru, July 16 : Addressing Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh's appeal to aerospace companies to move to his state, the Karnataka government said on Wednesday that it offers not just land, but also leads India's aerospace ecosystem. Bengaluru, July 16 (IANS) Addressing Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokeshas appeal to aerospace companies to move to his state, the Karnataka government said on Wednesday that it offers not just land, but also leads India's aerospace ecosystem. Taking to social media X and replying to the post of Nara Lokesh, the Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Industries, M.B. Patil stated, "Dear Nara Lokesh, Karnataka doesnat just offer land - it offers Indiaas No.a1 aerospace and defence ecosystem." He further emphasised, "Weave built the countryas strongest aerospace base over the decades, contributing 65 per cent of Indiaas aerospace output and ranking No.a1 nationally, 3rd globally." "It isnat about land alone - itas about talent, innovation, and a proven ecosystem. We know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Nothing is slipping off, Minister Patil stated. Karnataka will be one of the first states to reach a $1atrillion economy. And itas not just aerospace; many new industries continue to choose Karnataka, and existing ones keep expanding here," Minister Patil stated. "Weall always ensure the "LAND" and ecosystem needed to support both growth and new investments, " Patil stated. "Best wishes to your state as well," Patil underlined. Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Nara Lokesh, taking to X, earlier stated, "Dear Aerospace industry, sorry to hear about this. I have a better idea for you. Why donat you look at Andhra Pradesh instead? We have an attractive aerospace policy for you, with best-in-class incentives and over 8000 acres of ready-to-use land (just outside Bengaluru)! Hope to see you soon to talk across the table." Earlier in the day, responding to Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Nara Lokesh's invitation to the aerospace industry after the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the acquisition of 1,777 acres of land near the Bengaluru airport for a proposed Aerospace Park, Minister Patil said that no industry will move out of the state due to a lack of land. Speaking to the media in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Minister Patil said, "I will respond to Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh at an appropriate time. He thinks he can fish in troubled waters. However, our waters are calm." In a major development, the Congress-led government in Karnataka on Tuesday announced that it has dropped the land acquisition process in Channarayapattana and surrounding villages in Devahanahalli taluk on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Devanahalli is located close to Bengaluru International Airport. The government had planned to acquire 1,777 acres in Devanahalli taluk for establishing an aerospace project. A request had been received to allot land near Bengaluru for this purpose. However, the farmers and landowners of the region launched a stiff agitation. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah made the announcement while addressing a meeting held on Tuesday at Vidhana Soudha with officials and farmer leaders regarding the land acquisition process in Channarayapattana and other villages of Devanahalli taluk. CM Siddaramaiah announced, "We have completely dropped the land acquisition process in Channarayapatna and other villages of Devanahalli taluk." Even though withdrawing from the acquisition might result in industries relocating elsewhere, the government has prioritised farmersa interests and, taking into account their demands, decided to cancel the land acquisition, the Chief Minister further announced. New Delhi, July 16 : The board of directors of State Bank of India (SBI) on Wednesday approved a proposal to raise funds worth Rs 20,000 crore through the issuance of bonds to domestic investors in the current financial year (FY26). In a regulatory filing, India's largest lender confirmed that its Central Board approved the raising of up to Rs 20,000 crore during the current financial year through "Basel III-compliant Additional Tier 1 and Tier 2 bonds". These bonds will be issued in Indian rupees to domestic investors, subject to government approvals where necessary. The move is aimed at strengthening the capital base of the countryas largest bank. After the announcement of the fundraiser, SBI shares shot up over 2 per cent to touch an intra-day high of Rs 834 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Earlier in May this year, SBIas board gave the go-ahead for raising equity capital of up to Rs 25,000 crore during FY26. The capital will be raised in one or more tranches via Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP), Follow-On Public Offer (FPO), or other permissible methods. The objective is to boost SBIas Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital ratioa" which will bolster the bankas financial health. The proposed QIP will lead to a dilution of the governmentas stake, which stood at 57.43 per cent as of March 31, 2025. To manage the QIP process, SBI has appointed six prominent investment banks -- ICICI Securities Ltd, Kotak Investment Banking, Morgan Stanley, SBI Capital Markets Ltd, Citigroup, and HSBC Holdings Plc. SBI gave a dividend cheque of Rs 8,076.84 crore to the government for the financial year 2024-25. The public sector bankas net profit for the financial year 2024-25 shot up to Rs 70,901 crore. The bank is celebrating its 70th year of operations with a balance sheet that has soared to a66 lakh crore and the number of its customers surging past a staggering 52 crore. SBI also drives financial inclusion through more than 151 million Jan Dhan accounts and an extensive correspondent network. The bankas agricultural lending exceeded Rs 3.5 lakh crore in FY25 -- the highest in the country -- supporting farm infrastructure, according to the statement. In FY25, the Bank reinforced its social impact footprint by investing Rs 610.8 crore in CSR initiatives, reaching 94 'Aspirational Districts'. Its efforts spanned healthcare, education, rural development, and environmental sustainability. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha has started a working visit to Lublin on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the creation of the Lublin Triangle (Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland). As the minister reported on Facebook, together with the Ukrainian and Polish communities, they honored the memory of the fallen soldiers of the Ukrainian People's Republic at the Orthodox Cemetery. "This is one of the important places of memory and strength of the Ukrainian people abroad, which we must remember and take care of. Through the centuries, we have the same enemy - Russia," he noted. According to Sybiha, today he will have important negotiations in Lublin with his Polish counterpart Radek Sikorski and his Lithuanian counterpart Kestutis Budrys. Following the results, it is planned to adopt a joint statement of the ministers of the Lublin Triangle. The focus is on strengthening regional security, countering Russian aggression, hybrid threats and disinformation; defense cooperation and strengthening of Ukraine, increasing pressure on the aggressor, Ukraine's accession to the EU and NATO, joint work on the study of the past and other topics. "The Lublin Triangle is a unique format that unites three closest, historical allies - Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania. We have centuries of common history, a common enemy in the present and a common vision of our future in a strong and secure Europe. Today we will develop our cooperation," the minister said. New Delhi, July 16 : The cyber cell of Delhi Police nabbed a stalker from Maharashtra on Wednesday, for harassing and defaming a woman by posting her photographs with offensive comments on social media platforms and also writing her phone numbers on public places, including toilet walls. The accused, identified as Yasin Sheikh, was nabbed from Pune, based on the complaint of a 38-year-old woman at North District police station. According to the victim, the accused was harassing and torturing her by uploading her pictures on social media and writing derogatory comments. She also claimed that the accused took out her mobile number from her Instagram account and inscribed it at various public places, including the walls of toilets, railway platforms in Pune. She also alleged that the accused was creating multiple Instagram accounts with her name and uploading videos with her mobile number, along with derogatory remarks like "Call girl service". This caused her huge mental trauma as she was receiving phone calls from multiple unknown numbers, with nasty requests. Following the complaints, a police team scanned the call records of the accused's mobile number and also IP addresses to track him down. Following raids, Sheikh, who was harassing the complainant for the last 2-3 years, was apprehended. When grilled by the police, Sheikh said that he was a resident of Pune and worked as an auto-rickshaw driver. He is said to be eccentric and mentally unstable. Sheikh told the cops during interrogation that he had a girlfriend who used to work with the husband of the complainant. The accused told police that he had asked his girlfriend not to work with him. Sheikh claimed that he tried to convince the complainant's husband (boss of his girlfriend) to make distance with her, but as the latter did not pay any heed, the accused acted in revenge to defame the complainant. When the police questioned the girl in question, she denied having an affair with the accused and said he was just her friend. She further said that after noticing his friend's obsession, she unfriended him, even on social media platforms. Mumbai, July 16 : Bollywood actress Sushmita Sen, who recently addressed a young audience at I.I.M.U.N.'s Role Model Series, delivered a powerful message on self-worth, individuality, and acceptance. The former Miss Universe encouraged students to stay true to themselves and lead with compassion and confidence. Addressing the students, Sen said, "You will be surrounded by the people who will be calling you beautiful left, right, and center, and it has nothing to do with physicality. But if physically, something makes you feel better about yourself, then by all means go ahead with it and don't listen to anybody. It's your life, your identity; be accepting of yourself so that you are not judging of another." On July 15, Sushmita Sen, actress Vidya Balan, and Smriti Irani, former Union Cabinet Minister, appeared before a gathering of students at the 10th edition of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (I.I.M.U.N.) "Role Model Series," held in Bandra and moderated by the organization's founder, Rishabh Shah. Sharing her thoughts on women's empowerment and gender parity, Vidya Balan shared, "I really think that we were all created equal. Yes, some of us are more of a certain thing and less of a certain thing. Men have more physical strength, while women have greater EQ." The 'Sherni' actress added, "There were kids from different age groups, and I truly had a great time interacting with them. I was trying to speak their language- the Gen Z lingo and we were all laughing together. The atmosphere was so joyful." Balan also expressed her fondness for being around children and praised I.I.M.U.N. for its ongoing commitment and impactful initiatives. "I always love interacting with kids. It felt really good. IIMUN is doing a fantastic job. The entire team has been working for years, and because of that, awareness and confidence among the youth are increasing. They're becoming citizens of the world, and I think that's fantastic." The event was co-curated to foster meaningful connections between inspiring personalities and young audiences. Kolkata, July 16 : The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday, described the Union government's proposal to collaborate with the Bangladesh government for the reconstruction of the ancestral property of the legendary Indian film-maker and writer, Satyajit Ray at Mymensingh City there, as an exemplary gesture. The Bangladesh government reportedly demolished the historic structure, leading to an uproar in Indian political and cultural circles on Wednesday. "I express my deepest gratitude and admiration to the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi JI for his exemplary gesture. The Government of India's proposal to collaborate with Bangladesh for the repair and reconstruction of the ancestral property of the legendary Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, with the vision of transforming it into a Museum of Literature and a symbol of the shared cultural heritage of India and Bangladesh, is a truly commendable initiative," he said in a post on his official X handle on Wednesday. Adhikari claimed that this initiative by the Union government would honour the rich Indian legacy and was an example of the Prime Minister's thoughtful decision and his commitment towards preserving Indian history. Adhikari pointed out in this statement that this ancestral home of Ray at Mymensingh City belonged to his grandfather, and renowned exponent in children's literature, Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury. He also pointed out that the Minister of External Affairs had already expressed regrets over the demolition of the property, presently owned by the Bangladesh Government. On Tuesday evening, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee issued a statement demanding that the Union government pay attention to the demolition of Ray's ancestral house at Mymensingh City. At the same time, she had also appealed to the Bangladesh government and all the conscientious people of that country to take steps to preserve this heritage-laden house. Soon after her statement was issued the Union government announced its proposal to the Bangladesh government to collaborate with the Bangladesh government for the repair and reconstruction of the ancestral property of Ray. Moscow, July 16 : No survivors were reported in the July 14 Mi-8 chopper crash in Russia's far eastern region, Khabarovsk, the country's emergencies ministry said on Wednesday. "According to Rosaviatsiya (Russia's air transport regulator), no one survived the crash. Russian Emergencies Ministry rescuers, jointly with investigators, are analysing fragments of the aircraft and looking for flight recorders at the site of the crash to establish the cause behind it," the Russian Emergencies Ministry told state-run news agency TASS. According to the initial information provided by the Eastern Interregional Transport Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee, five bodies were reported at the scene. The Mi-8 helicopter went off the radar, disappearing while heading towards Magadan, from Okhotsk, on July 14. The helicopter, two days later, was discovered in the Cape Gadikan region after it had crashed. According to the prior data provided, there were five people on board -- two maintenance engineers and three crew members. According to local media, officials reported signs of fire near the location, where search teams discovered the debris of the crashed helicopter. A two-day search, including another Mi-8 helicopter and an An-26 aircraft from Okhotsk and Magadan, respectively, was launched for the then-missing helicopter. A Soviet-designed multipurpose helicopter extensively used for military, civilian, and rescue missions in Russia, the Mi-8 helicopter, while having a well-established service record, has also been reported to be involved in several lethal crashes and accidents. One of the similar accident cases is the crash in Oryol Oblast, resulting in the death of the entire crew. In March, two people had died and another two were injured when a Mi-8 helicopter crashed in the Magadan region. The Mi-8 helicopter was transporting 20 workers from one of the mines in the Magadan region on March 18. The incident occurred while the helicopter made a hard landing 75 km from Evensk, a city situated in Magadan Oblast. New Delhi, July 16 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled up the Haryana Special Investigation Team (SIT) for unnecessarily broadening the scope of its probe into the two FIRs filed against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, a professor of political science at Haryana-based Ashoka University, over his controversial social media posts on Operation Sindoor. After senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing on Mahmudabad's behalf, submitted that the SIT had seized his electronic devices and sought his travel history over the last decade, a Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi remarked, "Why is the SIT on the face of it misdirecting itself? They were supposed to examine the contents of the social media posts. They can say that his article is an opinion and does not constitute an offence or otherwise!" "We just want to know for what purpose SIT have seized his devices? We will call them," cautioned the Justice Kant-led Bench. When Sibal said that the petitioner-professor was summoned multiple times by the SIT, the Apex Court ordered that he should not be summoned again. It opined that since the petitioner has already joined the investigation and handed over his gadgets, there was no need to summon him again. "You don't require him, you require a dictionary!" the Justice Kant-led Bench told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju, representing the SIT. Rejecting ASG's Raju oral plea to allow the SIT two months to complete the probe, the Supreme Court asked the high-level probe panel to conclude its investigation within four weeks, reiterating that the SIT should restrict its probe to the language and content of the social media posts on the Pahalgam terror attack and the country's cross-border military response. Further, it clarified that the interim protection granted to the petitioner will continue. The Apex Court said that Mahmudabad can write articles or express opinions on other things, except related to the subject matter of the two FIRs or the recent India-Pakistan tensions. On May 21, the Justice Kant-led Bench ordered the Haryana DGP to constitute an SIT comprising three directly recruited IPS officers, who do not belong to Haryana or Delhi, to holistically understand the complexity of the phraseology employed and for proper appreciation of some of the expressions used in the two online posts. "The SIT shall be headed by an Officer at least in the rank of Inspector General of Police, the remaining two members will be Officers in the rank of Superintendent of Police and above. One of the members of the SIT will be a woman IPS Officer. The Director General of Police is directed to constitute the SIT within 24 hours. The petitioner shall join and fully cooperate with the investigation," it had ordered. To facilitate the investigation, the Supreme Court had directed that Mahmudabad be released on interim bail, subject to his furnishing bail bonds to the satisfaction of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sonipat. Mahmudabad, 42, was arrested on a complaint filed by Yogesh Jatheri, the General Secretary of the BJP Yuva Morcha in Haryana. An FIR was lodged against Mahmudabad under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) pertaining to inciting armed rebellion or subversive activities and insulting religious beliefs. Also, sedition-like charges have been filed against him. In a post on social media, Mahmudabad wrote: "I am very happy to see so many right-wing commentators applauding Colonel Sophi(y)a Qureishi, but perhaps they could also equally loudly demand that the victims of mob lynchings, arbitrary bulldozing and others who are victims of the BJPas hate mongering be protected as Indian citizens. The optics of two women soldiers presenting their findings is important, but optics must translate to reality on the ground, otherwise itas just hypocrisy." Haryana State Commission for Women Chairperson Renu Bhatia took suo motu cognisance of Mahmudabad's remarks, which were alleged to be disparaging toward women in the Indian Armed Forces and promoting communal disharmony. The women's rights body had summoned the professor, but he failed to appear. Seoul, July 16 : Vice foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States and Japan will hold trilateral talks this week to discuss ways of further enhancing cooperation on North Korean issues and economic security, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday. First South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Park Yoon-joo, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi are scheduled to meet in Japan on Friday, according to South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The upcoming talks come about nine months after their last meeting held in Seoul in October. It also marks the first since the inauguration of President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump's new administration. "The three sides plan to hold broad and in-depth discussions on a wide range of topics, including the situation on the Korean Peninsula, regional dynamics, economic security, technology, energy and ways to enhance trilateral cooperation," the ministry said in a press release. Park plans to hold one-on-one talks with his US and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of the trilateral meeting, it said, Yonhap news agency reported. On October 17 last year, in the Japan-US-South Korea Trilateral Vice Foreign Ministerial Meeting, the three nations reiterated their shared view that North Korea's nuclear and missile activities constitute a grave and imminent threat to regional security and pose a clear and serious challenge to the international community. Furthermore, they exchanged views on the situation surrounding North Korea following its behaviour and concurred that they will continue to coordinate their responses, based on which, they reaffirmed that they would continue to work closely together toward the complete denuclearisation of North Korea in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. The countries also concurred to advance their efforts toward the realisation of a "Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)" and to ensure peace and stability of the international community, through close coordination among Japan, US and South Korea. Kolkata, July 16 : The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday allowed the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) to apply new rules and weightage criteria in the fresh process for recruiting teachers in the state-run schools. Notably, the teachers' posts fell vacant following an order of the Supreme Court in April this year, cancelling 25,753 school jobs. A Division Bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das dismissed the petition challenging the two new weightage criteria introduced in the fresh recruitment notification, carrying 10 marks each, first under the head of "prior teaching experience" and the second under "lecture demonstration". The petitioners contended that the procedure to be followed in the fresh recruitment process should be the same as that of 2016, the entire panel of which was cancelled by the Supreme Court in April this year. Although the Division Bench dismissed this petition challenging the two new weightage criteria, it maintained that its earlier order last week for the exclusion of identified "tainted" candidates from participating in the fresh recruitment process would stand, and such candidates would not be allowed to participate in the fresh recruitment process. The hearing on the petition challenging the two new weightage criteria was concluded on July 14. However, the Bench kept the order reserved on that day. Finally, the order was delivered on Wednesday, bringing relief to the West Bengal government and the WBSSC. On the petition challenging the new weightage criteria, the state government and WBSSC counsels contended that the Supreme Court in its order in April this year only directed fresh recruitments and did not specify that the fresh recruitment process should follow the same rules as in 2016. On the other hand, the petitioner's counsel argued that the Supreme Court did not authorise WBSSC to change rules in the fresh recruitment process. However, finally, the Bench accepted the argument of the state government and WBSSC counsels and rejected the ones from the petitioner's counsels. New Delhi, July 16 : After key NDA ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sought clarity on controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral poll, senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Wednesday called it a clear signal that more NDA allies could break ranks and speak out against what he described as a "grave threat" to democracy. New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) After key NDA ally Telugu Desam Party (TDP) sought clarity on controversial Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral poll, senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari on Wednesday called it a clear signal that more NDA allies could break ranks and speak out against what he described as a "grave threat" to democracy. Tiwari's remarks came a day after the TDP submitted a detailed four-page representation to the ECI, questioning the intent and implications of the ongoing SIR process. "This is not just an administrative issue. This is a big danger, a danger to democracy. The way the BJP is allegedly misusing the ECI, it seems they are trying to wipe out established voter bases to bring in dictatorship through the back door. This is nothing short of the murder of democracy. And mark my words, more allies of this government will rise and speak against this," Tiwari told IANS. Responded to the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha (LoP) Rahul Gandhi's recent outreach to the family of a 20-year-old college student in Balasore, Odisha, who died after setting herself on fire following alleged police inaction on her sexual harassment complaint. "I thank LoP Rahul Gandhi for his compassionate gesture. Let's be clear - this is not a suicide, it is murder by the system, a system that the BJP has failed to uphold. A young woman cried for justice from door to door - state and central authorities included - but no one listened. She was forced to take such a drastic step. The BJP must answer this. God will not forgive those who remain silent," Tiwari said. He further slammed BJP MP Nishikant Dubey for raking up Operation Blue Star, accusing the ruling party of trying to divert attention from current failures. "Just yesterday, the US President claimed he had brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Is India so weak now that our soldiers must retreat at the word of another nation? The silence of PM Modi on this is deafening. Trump has made such claims 23 times. Why is the Prime Minister quiet? What is the secret behind this silence?" Tiwari asked. On the upcoming Parliament monsoon session, Tiwari said that Congress will raise multiple questions during the session. "Where are the killers of our 26 soldiers in Pahalgam? Has any action been taken? Was Operation Sindoor halted under pressure from the US? These are serious questions. The voter list is being manipulated in Bihar - democracy is being strangled. The External Affairs Ministry must explain why India stood alone in Operation Sindoor." He further said the Congress will convene a joint strategy meeting with other INDIA bloc members ahead of the session to finalise a common agenda. "This fight is not just political - it's for saving democracy. And we are not alone in it," Tiwari added. New Delhi, July 16 : The Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh met in New Delhi, on Wednesday, in the presence of Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Paatil to discuss inter-state river water issues. The Union Minister held talks with Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu. The Jal Shakti Ministry convened the meeting of the Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to resolve issues relating to Godavari and Krishna river waters. Telangana's Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Nimmala Rama Naidu, Chief Secretaries and Irrigation Secretaries of both the states were also attending the meeting at the Jal Shakti Bhavan. There was no clarity on the agenda of the meeting following an objection raised by the Telangana government to Andhra Pradesh's proposal to discuss Godavari-Banakacherla project. Telangana on Tuesday had conveyed to the Centre that Godavari-Banakacherla project proposed by the neighbouring state should not be in the agenda for the meeting. Telangana, in its letter to Union Minister Paatil, argued that there is no need for any discussion on Godavari-Banakacherla as the project does not have any approvals. It conveyed to the Centre that any discussion on the project would be a violation of relevant laws and tribunal awards. Telangana Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao wrote a letter to Ministry of Jal Shakti Secretary Debashree Mukherjee, requesting for revision of the agenda of the meeting. "The agenda for the meeting be revised to defer any discussion on the Godavari-Banakacherla Link Project until all statutory requirements, interstate consultations, and clearances are fully complied with and all objections resolved," the letter said. The Andhra Pradesh government recently mooted construction of Godavari-Banakacherla project to utilise Godavari river's flood waters. Telangana has raised an objection to this and already urged the Centre not to give any approval for the project as it would do injustice to the projects in Telangana. During his meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu had raised the issue of the Polavaram-Banakacherla link project and said that it is critical to supplying water to drought-hit areas in the state. The Chief Minister said that the project proposes to divert 200 TMC of floodwater from Polavaram to the Banakacherla regulator in Kurnool district. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu told Union Minister Amit Shah that if this interlinking project is completed, it will significantly benefit the drought-prone Rayalaseema region. He added that even after meeting the needs of the upper and lower riparian states, surplus water from the Godavari river continues to flow steadily for about 90 to 120 days. CM Chandrababu Naidu stressed that, as the last state on the river's course, Andhra Pradesh has the rightful claim to fully utilise this surplus water from the Godavari. Jaipur, July 16 : A one-day Special Intensive Revision (SIR) training programme was conducted on Wednesday aimed at preparing 43 state-level master trainers from 41 districts to lead a major voter list revision drive across Rajasthan. The programme was held under the chairmanship of Chief Electoral Officer of Rajasthan, Naveen Mahajan. During the inaugural session, CEO Naveen Mahajan informed that, inspired by Biharas model, the Election Commission of India has decided to initiate a SIR campaign nationwide. He highlighted that such a large-scale voter list revision was last undertaken in 2002. This time, Rajasthan will also participate in this initiative, where Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit households to update and verify electoral data. To ensure the success of this campaign, 43 master trainers were given comprehensive training. These trainers will now return to their respective districts and train BLOs and supervisors. The focus will be on door-to-door visits where BLOs will engage with over 5.75 crore voters of the state, collecting data through a designated counting format to ensure accurate and updated voter lists. Mahajan emphasised the importance of remaining updated with the latest guidelines and instructions issued by the Election Commission of India and the Chief Electoral Officeras office in Rajasthan. He also advised trainers to stay informed about Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) related to the voter revision process to ensure clarity and efficiency in the field. Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Dr. Raunaque Bairagi, conducted a detailed session explaining the BLOsa role in the SIR. He elaborated on the procedural, technical, and public engagement aspects that BLOs must adhere to during the campaign. Deputy District Election Officer Jaipur, Ashish Kumar, was also present during the session. This campaign is expected to significantly enhance the accuracy of the electoral rolls and strengthen voter participation in the upcoming elections, said officials. Earlier, on Tuesday, a meeting was convened under the chairmanship of Chief Electoral Officer Rajasthan, Naveen Mahajan, at the Government Secretariat. The agenda focussed on preparations for the upcoming SIR Program of the Photo Voter Lists, as proposed by the Election Commission of India, along with other poll-related activities. During the meeting, Divisional Commissioners, District Election Officers, and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers of Ajmer and Bikaner Divisions participated via video conferencing. Addressing the officials, CEO Mahajan emphasised that the primary objective of the SIR program is to ensure accuracy, transparency, and inclusivity in the voter lists so that every eligible citizen can exercise their right to vote. He directed that help desks be established at all levelsa"from Gram Panchayat to district headquartersa"and that personnel assigned to these desks must be fully aware of the SIR guidelines and procedures. Mahajan further instructed that key human resources such as BLOs, Information Assistants, and Supervisors should be appointed and trained promptly. He also stressed the importance of selecting volunteers and providing them with the necessary training to support the campaign effectively. To maintain transparency and accuracy, the CEO directed the formation of special inspection teams for random checks to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out of the voter list. Ogre Municipal Council Chairman Egils Helmanis was injured in Ukraine as a result of Russian shelling, municipality representative Patriks Griva told Latvijas Sabiedriskais medijs (LSM.lv). Griva also noted that Helmanis is currently on a business trip, where, together with like-minded people, he is delivering necessary vehicles and other assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces. "Such trips are regularly on the mayor's agenda, even since 2022, since the very beginning of the war, a significant number of cars have been donated and brought every few months, this time about 20 cars," Griva said. According to LSM, Helmanis' health is stable. Details about the shelling and the location of the incident are unknown, since the route the humanitarian aid truck was traveling is kept secret, and "each of these trips is associated with danger." There is also no more precise information about the injuries. Bhubaneswar, July 16 : President of All India Mahila Congress Alka Lamba on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on the Odisha government over the death of a girl student from Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Balasore, demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi calling him 'inexperienced' who failed to stop atrocities on women in the state. She also appealed to the people of Odisha to come out of their houses and support the 'Odisha bandh' or the statewide general strike call given by the Congress and other parties on July 17. Addressing a press conference in Bhubaneswar, Lamba alleged that Odisha has become increasingly unsafe for women under the BJP-led government. "The state machinery has failed miserably. A girl had to set herself on fire to demand justice. If this doesn't shake the conscience of the Chief Minister, what will?" she asked. Lamba held the state government responsible for the student's death and termed it a result of administrative failure and lack of accountability. "When law and order collapse, when criminals roam freely and victims die waiting for justice, then it's time for the Chief Minister to go. We demand his immediate resignation and appeal to the Centre to impose President's Rule in Odisha," she said. She also condemned the delay in medical treatment and the absence of prompt action from the administration. "Timely treatment could have saved her. The system remained mute while a young girl was burning - literally and metaphorically," she said. Highlighting Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi's recent conversation with the victim student's father, Lamba said, "LoP Rahul Gandhi spoke to the victim's grieving father not just as a political leader but with the sensitivity of a son. He promised the family that Congress would stand with them until justice is served." She also attacked Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for targeting LoP Rahul Gandhi for raising his voice on the issue. Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the union government of keeping mum on the issue, she questioned, "When such brutality happens in Odisha, why is the central government silent? Why no action? Is a girl's life worth less than a political equation?" Alka Lamba also announced that the Congress will observe a statewide Odisha bandh on July 17 to protest against the state government's inaction and to press for the resignation of the Chief Minister. He also stated that the party will demand for imposition of President's Rule in Odisha during the upcoming Lok Seva session. "Our protest will be peaceful, democratic, and in the spirit of justice. We appeal to the people of Odisha to support this bandh and raise their voice for the safety of daughters," she said. Lamba concluded by stating that the Congress will intensify its agitation if action is not taken immediately. "This is not the end. The Congress, along with the people of Odisha, will fight until every daughter in the state feels safe and justice is delivered," she said. New Delhi, July 16 : The recent revisions in the Class 8 Social Science textbook by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have sparked sharp reactions from different religious quarters. While several Muslim clerics have criticised the changes, alleging distortion of historical facts, a prominent Sikh cleric has welcomed the move, saying it reflects historical truths long overlooked. The updated textbook, titled 'Reshaping India's Political Map', covers the Delhi Sultanate, Vijayanagara Empire, Mughals, and the rise of Sikh power from the 13th to 17th centuries. It introduces topics such as political unrest, military conquests, destruction of educational institutions, and temple desecrations -- areas largely absent in previous editions. It also highlights several instances of religious intolerance during the Sultanate and Mughal rule. Reacting strongly to the changes, Mohammad Suleman, founding member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), told IANS, "Those in power, regardless of organisation or ideology, are distorting history. It is well known and no secret. A country or society can only progress when history is viewed in its true context. Unfortunately, in our democratic setup, it is disheartening that those in power are rewriting history with distortions." "These people are also destroying the top Indian History Congress. They are not helping the country but only making a loss for it. They can fool a few people in the country, but not all. When history is studied around the world, it is noted that Aurangzeb was a Mughal ruler of India, even though he reigned by the means of the sword. They have also distorted facts related to Babur. Babur was called by Rana Sangha, an Indian ruler. Whether he was cruel or not, people can read for themselves in several history books," he added. Maulana Nisar Ahmad Misbahi, a cleric from Unnao, also criticised the textbook updates, calling them "forced defamation." "When someone's history is presented or taught to the new generation through books, it should reflect the truth. There should be no forced glorification or defamation of anyone's image. It does not send a good message and further worsens the atmosphere. History should be presented as it actually was," he added. However, the changes have received support from the Sikh community. Jagdip Singh Kahlon, General Secretary of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), backed NCERT's decision. Speaking to IANS, he said, "This is the right decision. The truth is that when the Mughals ruled India, they crossed all limits of cruelty. They martyred Guru Arjan Dev Badshah Ji, Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Ji, Guru Gobind Singh Sahib Ji's younger brother, and even the elder one was also martyred. So this is a very big story of cruelty." "I believe that when the country got independence, even before that, during British rule, and later when the Congress party came to power, they showed a completely different face of the Mughals. They named all the roads and big educational institutions after them," he said. "It was a matter of shame for this country that the rulers who martyred our Gurus, who demolished temples and built mosques here, were given so much respect in history. So this truth should have come to the fore. The truth should be known to our youth and children about the atrocities committed by the Mughals here. So, if they make changes in the syllabus and try to bring out the truth, then I would definitely welcome it," Khalon added. One of the new inclusions in the textbook mentions Alauddin Khilji's trusted general Malik Kafur, who "attacked a number of Hindu centres such as Srirangam, Madurai, Chidambaram, and possibly Rameswaram." The book also states that the Delhi Sultanate's rule saw "numerous attacks on sacred or revered images in Buddhist, Jain and Hindu temples; such destruction was motivated not just by plunder but also by iconoclasm." Agartala, July 16 : Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said on Wednesday that his state is now a front-runner in the country, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah highlighting its remarkable development over the past seven years under the current BJP government. Distributing appointment letters to 184 newly recruited junior engineers under the Public Offers Department (PWD), the Chief Minister added that the present BJP government has been working to achieve the goal set by the Prime Minister. "Recently Prime Minister Modi, while addressing an official function in Odisha, highlighted the developments in Tripura and requested the people to visit the state. Also a few days ago, the Home Minister while addressing a meeting in Kerala stressed upon progress in Tripura," CM Saha said. He added that from the Prime Minister's Development Initiative for North East Region (PM-DevINE), Rs 122 crore was sanctioned for setting up a special drug de-addiction centre at Bishramganj in the state's Sepahijala district and Rs 202 crore for the state's dental college. "Tripura is in the second position in the northeast region in GSDP after Assam. The state is in the second position in the region in per capita income after Sikkim. The huge untapped natural resources and vast environmental beauty of Tripura are a treasure, and the state government has been trying to effectively utilise them to use for the state," the Chief Minister said. He told that Rs 7,000 crore was allocated in the current year's (2025-26) state budget for infrastructure development in the state and the state government wanted to build world class infrastructure in Tripura. Due to the lengthy monsoon period, Tripura has just four months working in the field to develop the infrastructure and the government officials were asked to work accordingly, said CM Saha, who also holds the PWD portfolio. The Chief Minister said that Prime Minister Modi asked to develop a world class tourism spot in Tripura so that tourists from not only from different parts of the country but also from abroad are willing to visit the state. He told that in the last seven years, government's regular jobs were provided to 19,742 unemployed youths while 7,000 to 8,000 people were engaged as contractual staff and through outsourcing. "I have recently laid the foundation stone for an ambitious Rs 97.70 crore project to set up a 51-Shakti Peethas Park at Banduar in southern Tripura's Gomati district to boost spiritual heritage," he said. The Chief Minister said that replicas of 51 Shakti Peethas would be set up in the proposed park. These 51 Shakti Peethas now exist across Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, besides different parts of India. Spread over 15 acres, the 51-Shakti Peethas Park would feature a digital museum, amphitheatre, sky bridge, ample vehicle parking, and one of the tallest statues of Nataraj. Power and Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath, Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy, PWD Secretary Kiran Gitte as well as Information and Cultural Affairs Department Secretary Pradeep Kumar Chakravarty also attended the event. Chennai, July 16 : The Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched a scathing attack on the DMK-led state government, accusing it of gross mismanagement of the healthcare system. BJP spokesperson A.N.S. Prasad alleged that the state's health infrastructure is in a state of disarray and that the Dravidian model government has failed to protect even newborn babies. Raising serious concerns about the deteriorating standards in government hospitals, Prasad said, "Chief Minister M.K. Stalin must answer whether the state's healthcare system has plunged into a dark era. From primary health centres to major government institutions like Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai, patients are being subjected to inadequate facilities and poor treatment." The senior leader pointed to a recent viral video from the Government Maternity Hospital in Kallakurichi as a glaring example of administrative failure. The video reportedly showed newborn babies placed on the floor due to a shortage of cribs, sparking outrage and raising questions about hospital preparedness. "The DMK came to power promising a better healthcare system under its so-called Dravidian model. What we are witnessing instead is chaos, neglect, and a complete failure to deliver even basic medical services," he added. He further accused Health Minister Ma Subramanian of focusing more on public relations and damage control than addressing the root causes of the crisis. "Rather than acting swiftly to resolve these issues, the Health Minister is busy roaming the streets, trying to salvage the party's damaged reputation following multiple betrayals of public trust," Prasad alleged. The BJP spokesperson said the people of Tamil Nadu deserve better governance and called for immediate accountability. "This is not just administrative negligence - it is a humanitarian crisis. The government cannot hide behind propaganda anymore. Both the Chief Minister and the Health Minister must take full responsibility for the current state of healthcare and take urgent corrective action," he concluded. The Tamil Nadu government has not yet responded to the allegations. --IANS aal/dan Thiruvananthapuram, July 16 : A team of top aviation engineers from the US and the UK have finally managed to fix a technical issue that had left the British F-35B Lightning II fighter jet grounded at the airport here since June 14. Consequent to rectifying its hydraulic systems, which failed and, despite a first round of repairs and maintenance, it failed to rev up, things changed after a team of engineers from the UK and another team from Lockheed Martin -- the American manufacturer of the F-35 -- arrived here early this month. The problem with the stranded jet has now been fully rectified and is now waiting for instructions from the concerned authorities on its way forward. According to information, the engineering team is waiting to hear from the British Royal Navy and once it comes, in all likelihood it will be airborne in the coming days. Renowned for its short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capabilities, the fifth-generation fighter -- part of the UKas HMS Prince of Wales Carrier Strike Group -- was returning from joint maritime exercises with the Indian Navy in the Indo-Pacific when it was forced to land in Keralaas capital city, last month. Soon after it was stranded last month, a team of officials landed here and, despite the best efforts, the team was unable to get it back to fly out. Eventually, a 14-member expert team was flown in by a special flight and the first task they accomplished was to move the stranded jet, which was lying in the open on one side of the airport terminal, to the hangar. Then they decided to ensure that none of the prying eyes had any sight of the state-of-the-art fighter jet, and not only was the entire area cordoned off, but they also covered the area from all sides. Another reason to cover up from all sides was that the technicians wanted a cool atmosphere, and the entire area is now air-conditioned, as the engineers are busy working on it. The stranded jet also became a subject of discussion on social media and there were numerous trolls about it. Interestingly, it was Kerala Tourism which made headlines when in a post on X, it shared a message: "Kerala, the destination you will never want to leave. Thank you, The Fauxy." The post featured a spoof "review" attributed to the UK jet, "Kerala is such an amazing place, I don't want to leave. Definitely recommend." Visakhapatnam, July 16 : India on Wednesday said that the Second BIMSTEC Ports Conclave, held in Vizag this week, is a testament to the shared commitment to foster deeper cooperation and harness the full potential of the vital economic corridor. During the two-day conclave, held with the aim to strengthen and develop maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region in line with India's 'Neighbourhood First' policy, discussions were held among the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) member countries on strengthening maritime cooperation in the region. The event discussed diverse issues such as harmonising customs procedures and enhancing logistical links to boost intra-regional trade, port-linked industrial zones, cruise tourism, digital integration, upskilling maritime workforce, industry-academia ties, green shipping, etc. The theme of the conclave was 'Navigating the Future: Blue Economy, Innovation and Sustainable Partnerships'. Inaugurated by Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, the conclave saw the participation of delegations of the BIMSTEC member states, comprising officials, maritime experts, port authorities, private sector leaders, and regional development partners. The first BIMSTEC Ports Conclave was also held in Visakhapatnam in 2019 where three Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between Ranong Port (Port Authority of Thailand) and the Port Trusts of Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Kolkata. The MoUs aimed at contributing to BIMSTEC objectives and enhancing connectivity between ports on Thailandas West Coast and Ports on India's East Coast, as well as boosting economic partnerships by cutting down the sea travel time between India and Thailand from 10-15 days to just seven days. India attaches great importance to BIMSTEC, which links five countries from South Asia - Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal - and two from South East Asia, including Myanmar and Thailand. Harda : , July 16 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has ordered an inquiry into the Harda incident wherein the police resorted to cane-charge on Karni Sena members and students at a hostel during a recent protest. CM Yadav, who has been on a foreign tour to Spain and Dubai since July 13, wrote on his social media handle on Wednesday that he has asked the Harda district administration to conduct an inquiry into the matter and submit a detailed report. "Taking congnisance of the Harda hostel incident, I have sought a detailed report from the district administration. For our government, social justice and mutual harmony are highest priority," Chief Minister Yadav wrote on X. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has warned that the government won't allow anyone to disrupt the law and order in the state. "No one would be allowed to disrupt social harmony in Madhya Pradesh," Mohan Yadav wrote on X. Earlier, on Monday, senior Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh visited Harda to meet students who were allegedly cane-charged by the police in the hostels during the protest by Karni Sena volunteers. After meeting students and people from Kshatriya community, Digvijaya Singh also demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter, stating that senior police officials and Harda district collector should be transferred. "The way students, even girl students, were cane-charged in the hostel. Four to five persons were surrounded by the police. Take them to the police station or wherever they are to be taken. But students being beaten up is not acceptable," Digvijaya Singh said on Monday. He also said that a fair and transparent judicial inquiry is possible only when all senior police officials, including Harda SP, Additional SP, along with the district collector and SDM, are transferred from here. The protest took place recently, when members of the Karni Sena staged a demonstration demanding the release of their Harda district president, who had been arrested earlier in connection with a local dispute. To control the situation, police reportedly fired tear gas shells, used water cannons, and resorted to a cane-charge to disperse the crowd. More than 60 people, including Karni Sena national president Jeevan Singh Sherpur, were detained. They were, however, later released Jerusalem/Damascus, July 16 : The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) on Wednesday said that it struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria. "The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios," the defence force posted on X. Over the last 24 hours, Israeli Air Force aircraft have also attacked tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pick-up trucks armed with heavy machine guns, which were making their way to the Sweida area in southern Syria. "In accordance with the situational assessment, it was decided to reinforce the forces in the Syrian border sector along the fence," the IDF added on X. Earlier, dozens of Druze citizens of Israel crossed from Golan Heights into southern Syria, Israeli sources said, amid clashes between Druze fighters and the Syrian interim government's forces. On Tuesday, Syria's defence minister announced a ceasefire in Suweida, saying an agreement had been reached with local dignitaries for security forces to deploy there, Xinhua news agency reported. However, one Druze spiritual leader urged local fighters to resist. Following the deployment of Syrian forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights accused government forces and their allies of the summary executions of at least 19 Druze civilians, including 12 at a family guest house. The root of the conflict lies in an earlier incident in which a young Druze man was assaulted and robbed by armed Bedouins at a temporary checkpoint near al-Masriyah. In retaliation, local Druze fighters detained several Bedouin members, escalating the situation. Last Saturday, heavy gunfire and the sound of shelling echoed through the city, forcing many residents indoors and prompting urgent calls from community leaders for intervention to de-escalate the situation. Recurring incidents of kidnapping and armed assault have plagued the vital road linking Sweida to Damascus in recent months. Locals blame the deteriorating security situation and the absence of state control over armed factions for the violence. Lucknow, July 16 : As part of the 'Ek Ped Maa ke Naam 2.0' initiative, the Uttar Pradesh government is set to launch a series of thematic forests across the state. The drive will begin on Friday, July 18, in Mirzapur, where the work to develop 'Eklavya Van' will be kick-started. The move comes close on the heels of the government planting 37,21,40,925 saplings across the state. The state Forest Department has finalised the date and assigned responsibilities for developing thematic forests throughout the year. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had directed that all the programmes of the campaign should be celebrated like a grand festival. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sunil Chaudhary said that under Chief Minister Adityanath's direction, every programme of thematic forests will be celebrated as a festival. Eklavya Van, dedicated to the tribal icon Birsa Munda on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary, will be developed within existing green cover with additional plantations and other developmental activities. Similarly, Oxy Van will be developed to control air pollution and maintain environmental balance starting July 19. Shakti Van celebrating women empowerment will be developed from July 21, Triveni Van for successful organisation of Maha kumbh 2025 from July 23, Atal Van on the centenary celebration of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from July 25, Gopal Van (in cowsheds) from July 27, Ekta Van, the 150th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel from July 31, Sindoor Van (in the memory of fallen soldiers) from August 15. Like every year, this year too, the government is focusing on developing a special forest. During the rainy season, the Forest Department is busy planting and conserving the saplings. The state government has also pressed for unique initiatives like Rakshabandhan Vatika (planting saplings by brother and sister) and 'Ek Ped Guru ke Naam' (A sapling in the name of a teacher). Bengaluru, July 16 : The Karnataka BJP has dubbed the AICC OBC Advisory Council meeting in Bengaluru as political drama staged by the Congress in the backdrop of the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections and asked the party if it could declare chief Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial candidate. The party further challenged the Congress to declare AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, a veteran Dalit leader, as its Prime Ministerial candidate if it truly cares about the welfare of SCs, STs, and OBCs. Speaking to the media at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday, Karnataka BJP President, B.Y. Vijayendra stated, "The Congress party's OBC panel meeting has made national headlines. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has claimed that the committee has the responsibility of carrying forward the social movement in the country. He also alleged that the BJP has always opposed reservations and social justice. "I want to ask CM Siddaramaiah, the national Congress leaders, and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi whether they genuinely care about the OBCs, SCs, STs, and minorities." "I challenge LoP Rahul Gandhi if the Congress truly cares about the Backward Classes, SCs, and STs let him declare Mallikarjun Kharge as the Prime Ministerial candidate. But they won't. The Gandhi family won't allow it. Neither Rahul Gandhi nor Sonia Gandhi will approve it," Vijayendra claimed. He alleged that the agenda of the OBC meeting was not the uplift or development of OBCs, but rather electoral gains in Bihar. "This is the real agenda. With Bihar elections approaching, the AICC OBC panel meeting is being held in Bengaluru a move that holds no real importance. It is nothing more than a political gimmick aimed at the upcoming Bihar polls," he claimed. Vijayendra further alleged that CM Siddaramaiah had discarded the Kantharaj Commission's caste census report prepared at a cost of Rs 165 crore at the behest of LoP Gandhi. "The Mandal Commission report was not implemented during the Congress regime. The Kaka Kalelkar Commission (first Backward Classes commission) report of 1956 was also dismissed by Pandit Nehru," he said. "Can a party that treated SCs, STs, OBCs, and minorities as slaves of the Gandhi family now claim to deliver justice to them? Why has the Congress suddenly formed an OBC panel? It's all because the Bihar Assembly elections are around the corner. They see Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah as an AHINDA and OBC poster boy. They must be under illusion," Vijayendra claimed. He added, "CM Siddaramaiah should remember that after Independence, the Congress ruled the country for 55 to 60 years, and one family ruled it for 50 years." "If Siddaramaiah and the Congress now claim that injustice has been done to the OBCs, SCs, STs, and minorities it is the Congress that is responsible for it," he concluded. Photo: https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/ President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has held a meeting on the defense sector with the participation of Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, and Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine Herman Smetanin at which the next steps to increase the production and procurement of weapons and "key indicators by which the effectiveness of defense management will be assessed" were determined. "Held a meeting on the defense sector: our own weapons production, agreements with partners, supplies for the Ukrainian army," Zelenskyy wrote in his Telegram channel on Wednesday. The president reported that during the meeting, the implementation of all contracts, agreements, and investment projects was analyzed in detail. "We identified steps that should be taken in the near future and key indicators by which the effectiveness of defense management will be assessed based on the results of this year," Zelenskyy said. "There should be more Ukrainian weapons," the president said. As reported, Shmyhal has already written a letter of resignation. A corresponding draft resolution was registered in the parliament on Wednesday. Shmyhal is expected to take up the post of Minister of Defense instead of Umerov, who is planned to be appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. New Delhi, July 16 : The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras on Wednesday launched India's lightest active wheelchair -- YD One -- weighing just 8.5 kgs. YD One is also the country's first indigenously developed precision-built monu-tube rigid-frame wheelchair destined to match the world's best. While the current wheelchairs weigh about 17 kgs, YD One, certified by ISO, weighs just 8.5 kgs. "With YD One, we have achieved 50 per cent weight reduction," Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director IIT Madras, told reporters. "To reduce the weight, researchers and scholars from mechanical to metallurgy got together and built a very interesting composite of carbon fibre plus aluminum," he added, noting that the product has undergone a lot of modelling and stress tests. "It will be available in the market from tomorrow, and is priced at Rs 75,000," Kamakoti said. He noted that a similar 8.5 kg-weighing chair, if imported, will cost around Rs 2,40,000. Importantly, being lightweight, YD One will enable quick movement, quick rotation, and enable people with disabilities to effortlessly lift, handle, and stow in cars, autos, or public transport. YD One will also enable people with disabilities to participate in the Paralympics, the Director said. "I think YD One is going to become very important, and being low-cost, it has the potential to reach rural India," he added, noting that the government may also pitch it, paving the way for a wider reach. Citing the Cabinet's recent fund approved for research, development, and innovation (RDI), Kamakoti stressed the need for supporting startups. IIT Madras currently has 103 startups, and the institute aspires to launch 100 startups every year. "By 2032, we'll have 1,000 startups. I think we will be the most important beneficiary of the RDI scheme. I think Viksit Bharat by 2047, as our honourable Prime Minister says, is going to be a product nation. It's going to be a startup nation. We have to prepare ourselves for that and ensure we are in the right direction," Kamakoti said. Chandigarh, July 16 : Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Abhay Singh Chautala has received a death threat from an unidentified caller who sent a voice message to his son Karan warning that his father should "stay out of their way" or face the consequences. Chandigarh, July 16 (IANS) Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Abhay Singh Chautala has received a death threat from an unidentified caller who sent a voice message to his son Karan warning that his father should "stay out of their way" or face the consequences. Karan Chautala told reporters on Wednesday that he has lodged a complaint with the Chandigarh Police. The junior Chautala said in July 2023 too, his father had received a similar threat after which Haryana Police had registered a case. Abhay Chautala was later provided with Y plus category security cover. "INLD state president Nafe Singh Rathi was shot dead in 2024 and the killers are still at large," he added. In his complaint, Karan Chautala said he received a late-night WhatsApp call, which was disconnected without any conversation. After the call, he received a voice message from the number +447466061671. The sender addressed Karan by name and used abusive language while referring to Abhay Chautala. The message warned: "Make your father understand, or we'll send him to the Pradhan too." The same number also sent voice messages and made calls to Abhay Chautala's private secretary, Ramesh Godara, terming it a "final warning". In 2023, Abhay Chautala had received death threats during the Haryana Parivartan Pad Yatra. Due to repeated threats, Abhay was provided Y plus security. Reference to Rathi's murder, Karan said the voice message referred to "the chief". Karan added their family has consistently raised its voice against the government's failures, especially on the issues of rising crime, drugs, and poor law enforcement in Haryana. Making an urgent appeal for arrest of culprits and security for his father, he urged the police to trace and arrest them immediately and ensure the safety of Abhay Chautala and the entire family. Haryana INLD chief and former legislator Nafe Singh Rathi was shot dead in February 2024 by gunmen who ambushed his SUV in Jhajjar district. Another party leader who was travelling with him also died while two others were critically injured. New Delhi, July 16 : In a major step towards curbing illegal immigration in the capital, the Delhi Police's Bindapur Police Station in Dwarka District has successfully apprehended and deported two Bangladeshi nationals, who were residing illegally in the area. The action comes under a special drive directed by Ankit Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dwarka District, aimed at identifying and taking strict measures against foreign nationals staying without valid documentation. According to the police, the crackdown was led by Inspector Darshan Lal, SHO of Bindapur Police Station, under the supervision of ACP Dabri, Rajkumar. The team comprised Head Constables Neeraj and Sajjan, and Constables Rajesh Dagar and Ashish. Their mission was part of an ongoing campaign to root out illegal immigrants, particularly from Bangladesh, suspected to be living in slums, labour camps, and unauthorised colonies of Dwarka. The team activated a network of local informers and conducted random verification drives in high-density areas. Acting on a specific tip-off received on July 10, the police conducted a raid and apprehended two Bangladeshi nationals: Shahadatt (30), son of Abdul Khalik, a resident of Morrelganj, Khulna, and Mohammad Anwar (35), son of Mohammed Badol from Savar, Dhaka. During interrogation, both individuals admitted to entering India illegally and staying in Delhi without valid documents. They were subsequently presented before the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) at R.K. Puram, where legal formalities were completed. The duo was then detained at the Vijay Vihar Centre in Rohini before being deported to Bangladesh. The Delhi Police reiterated its commitment to maintaining law and order and ensuring that no foreign national stays in the city unlawfully. The operation highlights the growing focus of the authorities on illegal immigration and the need for robust identification and verification processes in urban settlements. Kuhima, July 16 : In a significant move aimed at protecting the rights of underprivileged children, the Directorate of School Education in Nagaland has issued an advisory to identify children involved in begging and enrol them into government schools, officials said on Wednesday. An official said that the Directorate of School Education issued the advisory following the advisory issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the protection and rehabilitation of impoverished, uneducated children, women, and differently-abled individuals engaged in begging. The Principal Director, School Education, Shashank Pratap Singh, in his advisory has called upon members of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs), Municipal councils, town and village councils, churches, student unions and the general public to report details of such children to the Child Helpline 1098, enabling their enrollment in the nearest government schools. According to the official, the Department of School Education specifically seeks to identify out-of-school children aged 6 to 14 years who are not enrolled or have dropped out of school before completing elementary education, including those found begging. Children aged 3 to 6 years whose parents are engaged in begging and have not enrolled their children in pre-school, Anganwadi, or Balvatika centres would also be identified, the advisory said. All District Education Officers (DEOs), Sub-Divisional Education Officers (SDEOs), and Senior SDEOs have been instructed to coordinate with the concerned District Child Protection Units and Child Welfare Committees to facilitate the admission of such children as per the provisions of the Right to Education Act, 2009, the official said, quoting the advisory. The NHRC has earlier issued an advisory to the Centre and state governments, and Union Territory administrations to develop strategies aimed at eliminating the need for begging and enhancing the quality of life for those involved in it. The Commission has noted that despite a number of initiatives and welfare programmes implemented by both the Centre and state governments, the issue of begging persists across the country. As per the 2011 census, there were more than 4.13 lakh beggars and vagrants in India. They include women, children, transgender and the elderly who are forced to beg for survival, the NHRC had said. --IANS sc/dan Maputo, July 16 : Mozambican authorities have confirmed three new cases of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, according to Inocencio Impissa, spokesperson for the Council of Ministers. Speaking on Tuesday, Impissa said the cases were three Mozambican citizens who had travelled between Mozambique and neighbouring Malawi and were identified in Niassa province, in northern Mozambique. "What the country has done is to place them in quarantine so that they can be monitored in an isolated setting, preventing them from spreading the disease. The health sector is alert and working to ensure that the cases remain contained in Lago District, Niassa, and do not spread to other areas," Impissa told a press conference in Beira, Sofala province, where the Council of Ministers held its session. With these three new infections, the total number of confirmed mpox cases in Mozambique has risen to 11, according to health authorities. Mozambique recorded its first mpox cases in 2022, in the capital, Maputo, Xinhua news agency reported. According to the World Health Organization, Mpox is an infectious disease that can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes, fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain and low energy. Most people fully recover, but some get very sick. Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact with someone who has mpox, including members of a household. Close contact includes skin-to-skin (such as touching or sex) and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact (such as kissing), and it can also include being face-to-face with someone who has mpox (such as talking or breathing close to one another, which can generate infectious respiratory particles). People with multiple sexual partners are at higher risk of acquiring mpox. People can also contract mpox from contaminated objects such as clothing or linen, through needle injuries in health care, or in community settings such as tattoo parlours. During pregnancy or birth, the virus may be passed to the baby. Contracting mpox during pregnancy can be dangerous for the fetus or newborn infant and can lead to loss of the pregnancy, stillbirth, death of the newborn, or complications for the parent. The monkeypox virus was discovered in Denmark (1958) in monkeys kept for research. The first reported human case of mpox was a nine-month-old boy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1970). Following the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the end of smallpox vaccination worldwide, mpox steadily emerged in central, east and west Africa. Since then, mpox has been reported sporadically in central and east Africa (clade I) and west Africa (clade II). In 2003, an outbreak in the United States of America was linked to imported wild animals (clade II). Since 2005, thousands of cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo every year. In 2017, mpox re-emerged in Nigeria and continues to spread between people across the country and in travellers to other destinations. Mumbai, July 16 : Minister of State for Home, Pankaj Bhoyar, informed the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that the Home Department has started an investigation into the Jamia Islamia Ishaatul Uloom, a religious education institution through the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) after it was revealed that two Yemeni citizens were illegally residing in its madrasa in Akkalkuwa in Nandurbar district. Chief Minister Fadnavis has instructed the handing over of this matter to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for investigation as the institution's turnover is worth Rs 728 crore. Minister Bhoyar said that the Home Department has also handed over this matter to the Charity Commissioner for investigation, while replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by member Devendra Kothe. Even after the visas of people from Yemen expired on February 19, 2016, they were staying in the madrasa of the Jamia Islamia Ishaatul Uloom till now. Therefore, Kothe demanded that the recognition of this madrasa be cancelled and alleged that this organisation has seized the lands of tribals and has committed a scholarship scam too. Responding to this, Minister Bhoyar said that two Yemeni citizens were staying in the madrasa even after their visas expired and when the police came to know about this, a case was registered and they were arrested. The founder and president of the organisation were also arrested, but later they were granted bail. The organisation was receiving foreign aid, so the state government has filed a complaint with the Centre. Minister Bhoyar said that the investigation will also be carried out with regard to allegations of grabbing tribal land and committing scholarship scams. "How did Yemeni citizens get Aadhaar cards, PAN cards, birth certificates, school leaving certificates here?" asked MLA Harish Pimple, demanding that the officials who issued these certificates without verifying the documents be suspended and a case be registered. Responding to this, the minister said that if the officials have done so, after investigating the matter, action will be taken against them. MLA Gopichand Padalkar raised the issue claiming that this institution also has a medical college with a capacity of 60 students, but they do not have patients and bogus admissions are shown. He also raised the question of whether a search drive would be conducted in all the madrasas in Maharashtra to check who lives there? The minister replied that information will be sought from the Medical Education Department regarding the medical college of the Jamia Islamia Ishaatul Uloom. Jaipur, July 16 : In a major push to boost rural empowerment and youth employment, the Cooperative and Employment Festival is set to take place on Thursday in Dadiya village of Rajasthan's Jaipur district, marking the celebration of International Cooperative Year 2025. The event will be held in the presence of Union Home and Cooperative Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, who will unveil a series of transformative initiatives for Rajasthan. More than 8,000 youth will receive appointment letters under the ongoing Rozgar Utsav, reflecting the state government's commitment to mass employment generation under the leadership of CM Sharma. A major highlight of the programme will be the launch of the White Revolution 2.0 primary dairy cooperative societies (PDCS) online registration platform, aimed at strengthening the dairy cooperative network by simplifying the registration process for primary dairy cooperative societies. In a step towards financial inclusion, 2,346 micro ATMs will be distributed to milk-producing cooperative societies, along with the disbursement of Rs 12 crore in loans to around 1,400 beneficiaries under the Gopal Credit Card Scheme. Union Minister Amit Shah will also inaugurate 24 modern warehouses under the world's largest food storage scheme and open 64 millet outlets to promote Shri Anna, in line with the government's nutritional mission. Further boosting infrastructure, 100 new police vehicles, including troop carriers and training vehicles, will be flagged off to strengthen law enforcement capacity across the state. Union Minister Amit Shah will also visit an exhibition showcasing the milestones and innovations of the Cooperative Department, underlining Rajasthan's progress in cooperative-led development. With a focus on prosperity through cooperation, this festival is poised to empower farmers, youth, women, and rural communities alike -- ushering in a new era of inclusive growth and grassroots transformation, officials said. Damascus, July 16 : The Syrian interim authorities on Wednesday strongly condemned recent human rights violations reportedly committed in the southern province of Sweida, pledging to hold those responsible accountable. In a statement, the interim government expressed "deep concern" over "distressing violations" reported in some areas of Sweida in recent days, describing such acts as "criminal and unlawful." The statement followed a report from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which accused defence and interior forces of committing serious abuses during recent clashes that have been raging since Sunday in Sweida. Syria's interim government said it is "fully committed" to investigating all such incidents and will ensure that those responsible are held to account under national law. The statement also reaffirmed the government's "respect for the Druze community," calling its members "an integral part of Syria's national identity who have long exemplified patriotism, courage, and sacrifice." The interim government has faced mounting criticism over the military's conduct in Sweida, where on Tuesday, tanks and armoured vehicles were withdrawn under a ceasefire agreement with local Druze leaders, Xinhua news agency reported. Despite the agreement, tensions remain high. Israeli airstrikes and further ground clashes erupted Tuesday and Wednesday, forcing thousands of residents to flee. According to the SOHR, the death toll from ongoing violence in Syria's southern province of Sweida has climbed to 248. The recent escalation in Sweida, a predominantly Druze province in southern Syria, was triggered by an earlier incident in which a young Druze man was assaulted and robbed by armed Bedouins. In retaliation, local Druze fighters detained several Bedouin members, escalating the situation. Recurring incidents of kidnapping and armed assault have plagued the vital road linking Sweida to Damascus in recent months. Locals blame the deteriorating security situation and the absence of state control over armed factions for the violence. Kolkata, July 16 : BJP's Information Technology cell chief and the party's central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, on Wednesday, accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on changing her stance on illegal infiltration since Trinamool Congress assumed power in the state in 2021, ousting the previous 24-year long Left Front regime. Ridiculing Mamata Banerjee's statement earlier in the day accusing the Election Commission of India (ECI) of bias, Malviya pointed out how, once as a Lok Sabha member, Mamata Banerjee had said that the infiltration in West Bengal became a disaster then. West Bengal has over 17 lakh duplicate voters an issue the BJP has formally raised with the ECI not once, but twice. Ironically, it was Mamata Banerjee herself who stood in the Lok Sabha on 4th August 2005 and said: "The infiltration in Bengal has become a disaster now I have both the Bangladeshi and Indian voters' lists. This is a very serious matter. I would like to know when it will be discussed in the House?" "Yet 20 years later, Mamata Banerjee has still not submitted the so-called Bangladeshi voters list. What is she hiding?" stated Malviya in a statement that he posted on the wall of his official X handle on Wednesday afternoon. At the same time, Malviya also said that it was shameful to see a sitting Chief Minister like Mamata Banerjee defending illegal infiltrators, undermining democracy, and stealing the rights of genuine voters in Bengal. "Forget what Special Intensive Revision will uncover from August 1 It is the people of Bengal who will ultimately expose and defeat her in 2026," Malviya added. His observations on the matter came soon after Mamata Banerjee addressed a gathering in another part of Kolkata at the end of a rally protesting against the alleged and selective harassment of the Bengal-speaking people in some other states after branding them as illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators. Ridiculing the protest rally by Trinamool Congress, Malviya posted another X message, where he accused Mamata Banerjee of shamelessly trying to pass off illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas as Bengalis, which, according to him, was an insult to the rich cultural and historical legacy of Bengal. "True Bengalis will never accept this dangerous and deliberate attempt at cultural imposition. Her nefarious plot will be resisted at every step. Bengal's identity is not up for political bargaining," Malviya added. Islamabad, July 16 : A leading minority rights group on Wednesday highlighted the increasing violence against transgender community in Pakistan. Revealing one such tragic incident in the heart of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) mentioned that on the night of July 8, a transgender woman named Taj Muhammad, known as aAsady,a was brutally murdered in her apartment in Peshawaras Tehkal area. It stated that Asady, aged around 32-33 years, was shot multiple times in the upper body and head, a brutal murder which has "shaken the transgender community to its core". "This senseless murder is not an isolated incident. It is a tragic part of a relentless trend that shows no signs of stopping. Already, eight transgender individuals have been killed in KP in 2025 alone. Since 2009, the death toll has risen to 158, and over 1,800 cases of violence against transgender people have been reported," read a statement issued by the VOPM. "These are not just numbers; they represent lives a" individuals who, like everyone else, deserve dignity, respect, and protection. Each murder is a painful reminder of the perilous existence transgender persons continue to endure, living in fear, constantly on edge," the statement added. The minority rights group asserted that Asadyas death is not just another statistic; it is a human life cut short, a "soul extinguished" by senseless violence. "Her family, in the face of unbearable grief, is left to navigate the agony of loss, while the community she once thrived in is left wondering why the violence never ceases. The police registered an FIR on the same day, with Asadyas brother, Bahadur Khan, stepping forward as the complainant," VOPM stated. Arzoo Khan, the Executive Director of the Manzil Foundation and the Provincial President for Transgenders in KP, shared her heartfelt condolences and outrage. "We highly condemn the killings of individuals in KP from the transgender community," the rights group quoted Arzoo as saying. She confirmed that Asady's body was handed over to her family after the post-mortem. According to VOPM, despite the ongoing investigation, the motive behind the crime remains unclear, adding to the "endless uncertainty and fear that hangs over the transgender community in the region". The minority rights body pointed out that just a week before Asady's murder, another transgender woman, 'Titli' was killed in Peshawar's Gulbahar area. While the police hastily claimed to have solved the case, it stated that Arzoo Khan refuted these claims, pointing out the discrepancies in the investigation and the arrests. "Police did not arrest the main suspects. They are just trying to present a good image by arresting the friends and family of the accused," she said. "The police's handling of these cases only deepens the mistrust within the transgender community, who feel that justice for them is constantly delayed, if not denied," the VOPM emphasised. "Violence against transgender individuals has become an all-too-familiar story. In May, Shahab alias 'Wafa' was shot in the head and killed in Dargai, Malakand, while returning from a wedding. In June, 'Zaibi' was killed during a wedding event in Abbottabad, and the violence did not stop there," it added, detailing similar acts of violence against transgender individuals in the KP province. The minority rights body asserted that "these killings are not isolated incidents; they are part of a growing epidemic of hate and intolerance directed at a community that is already marginalised and voiceless in many ways". The VOPM further stated that transgender community in KP faces a double-edged sword, as on one side, they face social rejection, limited access to healthcare, education, and employment opportunities; and on the other hand, they endure physical violence and death, merely for existing. "They are treated as outcasts, pushed to the fringes of society, and forced to live in constant fear. As the state fails to protect them, their cries for help grow louder, demanding not just justice, but safety a" a basic human right that everyone deserves," the rights group noted. A demonstration of force can force Vladimir Putin to sit down at the peace table, and Ukraine does not necessarily have to use it, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. "I would very much like us to be strong. A demonstration of force forces Putin to sit down at the negotiating table. It is not a fact that we will have to use this force, but if Russia knows about its existence, this is already a weighty argument for ending the war," he said in an interview with Newsmax correspondent Shelby Wilder in Kyiv. "I remember that we had a powerful deterrence package before President Trump became president. I wanted America to sell us such a package. But this was not done. We talked with President Trump about these things," the Ukrainian leader noted. "President Trump and all of America and Europe know that we want peace and an end to the war," Zelenskyy said. "But the Russians only understand force. So, only strong sanctions and only strong weapons. We are ready for action, for a demonstration of force," he said. "Kellogg arrived and we had no massive shelling for two nights," the Ukrainian president said. "People are already joking - give Kellogg a Ukrainian passport and let him live in Ukraine. This shows that Putin is afraid of America," Zelenskyy said. Mumbai, July 16 : Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said in the state council said that the industrial electricity tariff in his state will be the lowest compared to other states. According to the new tariff, Maharashtra's tariff is currently Rs 8.32 per unit, which will come down to Rs 7.38 in the next phase. In comparison, Tamil Nadu's tariff is Rs 9.04, Gujarat Rs 8.98 and Karnataka Rs 7.55. Industrial electricity tariff in Maharashtra will remain low in the next few years. Also, the tariff will not increase due to the tariff true-up process, he added. CM Fadnavis said this while replying to a question raised by member Abhijit Vanzari about the measures being taken to reduce the increase in electricity tariff in the state. The Chief Minister, who holds the energy department portfolio, said that electricity procurement will now be done through the 'Merit Order Dispatch' method. Due to this, electricity is purchased from private companies at cheaper rates. Also, the cost of purchasing electricity has come down significantly due to the use of solar, wind and battery storage. Since this is a long-term (25-year) contract, electricity prices will remain stable, he added. CM Fadnavis said that in the previous tariff petition, industrial and commercial tariffs were reduced by putting a burden on residential consumers. But due to objections to this raised by the state run power distribution company Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (Mahavitaran), now tariffs have been reduced in all categories during the recent order released by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission. "About 70 per cent of consumers consume electricity below 100 units and they will get a 26 per cent rate cut. Along with this, there will also be a rate cut on consumption above 100 units," he said. "Significant changes have also been made in the solar pump schemes for farmers and a new scheme has been introduced for booster pumps. The cost of the single pole scheme is only Rs 15,000. Farmers are ready to be provided with 10 HP horsepower solar pumps as per their requirement. If there is any complaint in this regard, it is being resolved on the Solar Unified Portal," said the chief minister. CM Fadnavis informed that smart meters will be installed in the agricultural sector to control electricity consumption. This will make it possible to understand exactly how much electricity is used for agriculture. This will allow accurate measurement of electricity consumption in the agricultural sector and will help in formulating future policies, he added. According to the chief minister, a separate solarisation proposal has been prepared for lift irrigation. He mentioned that provision of electricity through conventional methods in dark zones will also be considered. Bhopal, July 16 : As the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the 'Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana' for a six-year period beginning 2025-26, farmers in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday have welcomed the move, expressing hope that the scheme will double their income and bring much-needed reforms to the agricultural sector. Bhopal, July 16 (IANS) As the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the aPrime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojanaa for a six-year period beginning 2025-26, farmers in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday have welcomed the move, expressing hope that the scheme will double their income and bring much-needed reforms to the agricultural sector. Speaking with IANS, several local farmers described the scheme as a landmark decision that puts their needs at the centre of development. Rajpal Singh, a farmer from the region, said, "The scheme that has been approved is truly in the interest of farmers. Itas a very good step. It will help in developing the rural economy and support the farming community. I want to thank Prime Minister Modi. In the coming years, this will help us double our income." Another farmer, Surendra Singh, added, "This scheme will definitely be beneficial. It will make farmers more efficient and productive. With better infrastructure and support, we will be able to focus more on our work. Thank you to the Prime Minister for this." Dhan Singh, also a farmer from Bhopal, said, "This scheme will ease the challenges we face in agriculture. From irrigation to storage, everything will improve. This kind of support is what farmers need today. Iam really thankful to PM Modi for launching this." The scheme draws inspiration from NITI Aayog's Aspirational District Programme, a first-of-its-kind initiative focusing exclusively on agriculture and allied sectors. It aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase adoption of crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices, augment post-harvest storage at the panchayat and block levels, improve irrigation facilities and facilitate availability of long-term and short-term credit, according to the official statement. The scheme was announced as part of the Budget proposals for 2025-26 to develop 100 districts under 'Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana'. The scheme will be implemented through the convergence of 36 existing schemes across 11 Departments, other State schemes and local partnerships with the private sector. As many as 100 districts will be identified based on three key indicators of low productivity, low cropping intensity, and less credit disbursement. The number of districts in each state/UT will be based on the share of Net Cropped Area and operational holdings. However, a minimum of 1 district will be selected from each state, according to an official statement. Committees will be formed at the District, State and National level for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the Scheme. A District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plan will be finalised by the District Dhan Dhaanya Samiti, which will also have progressive farmers as members. The District Plans will be aligned to the national goals of crop diversification, conservation of water and soil health, self-sufficiency in agriculture and allied sectors, as well as expansion of natural and organic farming. The progress of the scheme in each Dhan-Dhaanya district will be monitored on 117 key Performance Indicators through a dashboard monthly. NITI Aayog will also review and guide the district plans. Besides, Central Nodal Officers appointed for each district will also review the scheme regularly, the statement explained. As the targeted outcomes in these 100 districts improve, the overall average against key performance indicators will rise for the country. New Delhi, July 16 : In a major crackdown under 'Operation Chakra-V', the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches across seven states on July 16 - Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan - as part of its ongoing efforts to dismantle cyber fraud syndicates. The agency arrested three key individuals for facilitating and operating mule bank accounts used to launder proceeds of cybercrimes. According to the CBI, the searches led to the seizure of voluminous incriminating evidence, including mobile phones, transaction records, bank account opening documents, and KYC papers. The arrests mark the second phase of the probe, following similar operations conducted on June 26 and 27, during which 10 accused were arrested from 40 locations across various states. The probe stems from a case registered on June 25 against 37 accused, including bank officials, agents, and mule account holders who allegedly colluded with cybercriminals. These mule accounts were reportedly used to route and withdraw funds generated through digital arrest scams, impersonation frauds, fake advertisements, and investment-related cyber frauds. "CBI has adopted a strategic approach in the fight against cybercrime, focusing on targeting the key pillars of the cybercrime infrastructure. The first pillar is the financial infrastructure, involving mule accounts, unauthorised payment gateways and the wider fintech ecosystem misused by cybercriminals," the agency said in its press statement. "The second pillar is the telecom/ communication infrastructure involving mule SIM cards, point-of-sale (PoS) agents facilitating illegal SIM activations and networks supplying such SIM cards" while "the third pillar is the human resource network which consists of organized syndicates engaged in the recruitment and exploitation of people for executing cybercrimes, otherwise what is now known as cyber slavery,", it added. The third pillar, most of the time, operates outside the boundaries of India, the agency emphasised. This action is part of the Government of India's continued commitment to deal firmly with cybercrime and its perpetrators, with special emphasis on dismantling the infrastructure enabling such offences. The arrested accused will be produced before the jurisdictional court. The investigation remains ongoing, with the CBI indicating more arrests and seizures could follow based on further leads. New Delhi, July 16 : When the world questioned how a tea seller or a vegetable vendor could use digital payments, but today that dream has come true -- UPI payments have surpassed Visa transactions, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, said on Sunday. Addressing a packed hall at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre here on the occasion of 10 years of Digital India, he said that this is the strength of 1.4 billion Indians. The celebration highlighted India's inspiring journey from being a digitally divided nation to becoming the worldas third-largest digital economy. At the heart of this transformation is the CSC network, a rural digital infrastructure that now reaches nearly 90 per cent of villages in the country -- empowering people at the grassroots level. Minister Vaishnaw praised the efforts of lakhs of Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs), who have made digital services accessible even in the remotest corners of India. He shared stories of women like Manjulata from Odishaas Mayurbhanj and Rose Angelina from Meghalayaas East West Khasi Hills. These women overcame tough circumstances, embraced digital skills, and transformed lives in their communities through CSC centres. The Minister also made some big announcements to further boost the Digital India mission. He said that free artificial intelligence training will be provided to 10 lakh individuals, giving priority to all VLEs. He also urged all CSCs to offer IRCTC ticketing services and promised to work with Chief Ministers to link state IT agencies with CSC-SPV. Union Minister of State Jitin Prasada also addressed the event and lauded the massive growth of CSCs -- from just 83,000 centres in 2014 to nearly 5.5 lakh centres today. He emphasised the importance of digital empowerment and the key role of women VLEs -- more than 74,000 women are now leading centres across India. Prasada also underlined the need to focus on cybersecurity, awareness, and capacity building in vital sectors like health, agriculture, and education. He recommended allowing CSCs to deliver more services, like Update Client Lite and state government schemes, to improve VLE income. Mumbai, July 16 : Maharashtra Minister of State for Home (Urban) Yogesh Kadam in the state Assembly on Wednesday said that the instructions will be given to the Police Department to verify the current address given in the passport application as per the specific working procedure of the Central government. "Police verification regarding passport application must be very accurate and regular. While applying for a passport, the applicant has the option of giving a permanent and current address. The verification of the current address given by the applicant in the application will be done thoroughly. Instructions will be given to the Police Department to verify the current address as per the specific working procedure of the Central government," he added. He was replying to a calling attention motion moved by member Manisha Chaudhari regarding conducting police verification for the passport at the current address, as the house had to be changed while the building was being redeveloped. Minister Kadam said that it is necessary to verify whether the applicant is actually the same person, whether there are any crimes pending against him or her or whether there is any summons or warrant against him or her. He said that this process is also important in terms of the security of the country. It is mandatory for the police to visit the address given during the police verification of the passport. "Especially in the case of buildings under redevelopment, developers provide temporary accommodation or rent to citizens. In such cases, the temporary address in that lease agreement is accepted for official verification. Also, the guidelines of the Central government are implemented regarding this process," he mentioned. The minister said that the use of artificial intelligence and new technologies like the Passport Digital App will be used to increase the use of technology in the passport verification process, making it more convenient and transparent. Public awareness will be created that the current address is being verified while applying for a passport. Meanwhile, the Labour Minister Akash Fundkar in the state Assembly announced that a special campaign will be launched to check bogus registration of Mathadi workers across the state. In the case of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, the minister said action will be taken against the concerned workers and officials if it is found that the bogus registration was made. He was replying to a calling attention motion moved by member Abhijit Patil. Minister Fundkar said that an inquiry committee has been formed in the case of bogus registration of Mathadi workers in the company in Shendra MIDC in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. After receiving the report of this inquiry committee, necessary action will be taken in this case as per the rules. Out of 17 workers in this case, 11 workers have resigned. Cases will be registered against the workers found guilty in the report of the inquiry committee, and also against the guilty officials. He also said that the issue will be resolved by holding a meeting with the Supply Department regarding the pending grant of Mathadi workers registered in the government warehouse. Bhopal, July 16 : In yet another step towards improving the health services, All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS)-Bhopal has launched a specialised pediatric after completion of therapy (ACT) clinic, officials said. The initiative has been taken considering the health condition of children diagnosed with cancer, and to provide a healthy environment with therapy for survivors until they are fully recovered. The special unit (clinic) was inaugurated at the pediatric ward. AIIMS Bhopal Executive Director, Ajay Singh, said, "Today, nearly 80 per cent of children diagnosed with cancer survive and lead normal lives when provided with timely and comprehensive treatment." He noted that AIIMS Bhopal has already started offering holistic cancer care for children, including accurate diagnosis, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and surgery. Many children who have successfully completed treatment are now living healthy lives, he said. However, the journey does not end with recovery, he said, adding that Sometimes, survivors may face long-term health concerns related to growth, development, hormonal balance, heart, neurological health, emotional well-being, etc. "To address these challenges effectively, the newly launched ACT clinic brings together a multidisciplinary team comprising a pediatric oncologist, endocrinologist, cardiologist, neurodevelopment specialist, psycho-oncologist, nutritionist, physiotherapist, social worker, and teacher," Singh said. While addressing the gathering of doctors and medical students, Singh lauded them for holistic support provided by doctors' team during both the treatment and follow-up phase. Now, both teams will be coordinated by the Department of Anatomy. This integrated approach aims to ensure that children not only survive but thrive after cancer. On this occasion, Singh also inaugurated a modern, well-equipped playroom in the pediatric ward, supported by Cankids-Kidscan, an organisation dedicated to enhancing childhood cancer care. This facility will serve as a therapeutic space for children undergoing treatment for cancer and chronic illnesses, offering them moments of joy amid medical challenges. Highlighting the importance of playroom, Singh said, "Healing is not just about medicine. It's about restoring hope, strength, and joy. Our ACT Clinic is a step toward nurturing the long-term well-being of childhood cancer survivors. The playroom is our effort to bring smiles during some of their toughest times. AIIMS Bhopal remains committed to comprehensive, compassionate, and child-friendly healthcare." Addis Ababa, July 16 : Ethiopia's National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) said that it has apprehended 82 suspects who were allegedly plotting terrorist operations in various parts of the East African country. In a statement, the NISS said that the arrest of the suspects, who have alleged links with the terrorist group the Islamic State (IS), stems from an extensive intelligence investigation into the Somali wing of the IS. The terrorist group has been attempting to expand its operational footprint into Ethiopia and neighbouring countries. According to the statement, NISS has been closely monitoring the group's cross-border infiltration strategies and its efforts to establish sleeper cells in Ethiopia, Xinhua news agency reported. "Following the compilation of actionable intelligence and corroborating evidence, 82 operatives -- trained by the IS in Puntland and clandestinely deployed across Ethiopia -- were identified and apprehended in a coordinated operation conducted in collaboration with the Ethiopian Federal Police and regional security forces," the statement added. NISS confirmed that the suspects maintained direct links with the terrorist organisation and were engaged in receiving logistical, financial, and operational support. The statement further said that the IS has been exploiting religious institutions and symbols as a cover for its operations to disseminate extremist ideology, recruit vulnerable individuals, and destabilise communities. Earlier this year, Ethiopian and Kenyan intelligence agencies had launched a joint military operation aimed at dismantling a militant group along their common border areas, NISS said in a statement. The primary objective of the joint operation was to dismantle 'Shene', also known as the Oromo Liberation Army, a militant group designated as a terrorist organisation by the Ethiopian government, thereby enhancing regional stability along the border, the statement said. Specifically, the operation aimed to counter activities related to terrorism, contraband trade and the trafficking of people and arms. NISS said joint security forces from Ethiopia and Kenya were actively conducting operations in designated camps of the group within their respective border territories to neutralise its influence and promote peace in the Horn of Africa region. Kolkata, July 16 : The parents of the victim in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case on Wednesday expressed doubts at a trial court here that the on-going Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the matter might not be a neutral one considering a top official of the probe agency and a senior officer cop of the West Bengal Police department drawing controversy in the same case were of the same IPS batch. The two IPS officers named by the counsel of the victim's parents at the trial court on Wednesday were the CBI's additional director, Sampat Meena, who was in overall charge of the investigation of the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor of the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August last year. The cop from West Bengal named by the counsel of the victim's parents in the matter is the former Kolkata Police Commissioner and the current additional director general of the special task force of West Bengal Police, Vineet Kumar Goyal. To recall, Goyal was the city police chief when the ghastly crime took place in August last year, and the initial investigation into the matter by the special investigation also started under his leadership. However, following a massive public uproar, Goyal was removed from the chair of the city police chief soon after. Later, CBI also took over the investigation following an order from the Calcutta High Court. Both Sampat Meena and Vineet Kumar Goyal were IPS officers of the 1994 batch. On Wednesday, the counsel of the victim's parents expressed apprehension at the trial court that since Meena and Goyal underwent the training together being IPS batch-mates, there were chances that CBI might hesitate in taking any action against Goyal, and hence there might not be an impartial trial in the matter. However, the CBI counsel ruled out such apprehension and claimed that being someone's batchmate could not be an offense for any of the two officers. "CBI had not taken any action against Goyal since there had not been any evidence against him of being a part of the conspiracy in the crime," the CBI counsel said in the counter-argument. Already, the same trial court had sentenced civic volunteer Sanjay Roy to life imprisonment in January this year after identifying him as the sole convict in the crime of rape and murder. Currently, CBI is investigating the aspect of a larger conspiracy in the crime especially as regards tampering with and altering evidence while the initial investigation was being carried out by the city police. New Delhi, July 16 : India achieved a significant milestone in strengthening its air defence capabilities with the successful trial of the indigenous 'Akash Prime' air defence system on Wednesday. New Delhi, July 16 (IANS) India achieved a significant milestone in strengthening its air defence capabilities with the successful trial of the indigenous aAkash Primea air defence system on Wednesday. The Indian Army conducted the test at an altitude of around 15,000 feet in the Ladakh sector. The Akash Prime system, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was tested in the presence of senior officials from the Armyas Air Defence wing and DRDO. This marks a major advancement in Indiaas mission to enhance its self-reliant defence infrastructure. During the trial, surface-to-air missiles from the system registered direct hits on two high-speed aerial targets, demonstrating exceptional accuracy. The test was conducted in the rarefied atmosphere and extreme conditions of high-altitude terrain, where even basic operations can be challenging. Defence officials stated that the Akash Prime system will be integrated into the Indian Armyas third and fourth Akash Regiments, enhancing the countryas overall air defence shield. Notably, Indiaas Akash air defence system played a critical role during Operation Sindoor, where it successfully countered aerial attacks involving Chinese fighter jets and Turkish drones deployed by Pakistani forces. Defence analysts believe that this successful trial not only showcases Indiaas indigenous defence capabilities but also significantly strengthens the nationas aerial security preparedness. India is strengthening self-reliance in UAV and C-UAS Domains related defence technologies. To reduce the import dependence for critical components, the Ministry of Defence on Wednesday organised a Workshop and Exhibition. It was a big step for the Indigenisation of Critical Components Currently Being Imported in UAV and C-UAS Domains. The exhibition was at the Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi. Spearheaded by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) in collaboration with the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies (CENJOWS), the event aimed to reduce Indiaas reliance on foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for vital components used in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS). This initiative followed the recent Operation Sindoor, part of the escalating India-Pakistan tensions, where UAVs and C-UAS systems proved instrumental. These platforms were pivotal in providing real-time situational awareness, facilitating precision strikes, and safeguarding human lives, showcasing the strength and readiness of Indiaas homegrown defence technologies in live operations. --IANS gcb/dan Patna, July 16 : In a major crackdown on corruption, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested three Income Tax officials, including an IRS officer, for accepting a bribe of Rs 2 lakh in Patna, an official said on Wednesday. The arrested officials include an Assistant Director (IRS), Income Tax (Investigation), an Inspector, and a Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS) of the Income Tax Department. On July 15, 2025, CBI registered a case against the officials following allegations that they demanded Rs 2 lakh as a bribe for releasing a previously seized amount of Rs 13 lakh and for not initiating further inquiry against the complainant. The Rs 13 lakh had reportedly been seized from the complainantas brother-in-law at the airport, following which the matter was intimated to the Income Tax Department. CBI laid a trap and caught the officials red-handed while accepting the bribe at Patnaas Income Tax office located on Veer Chand Patel Path. During the operation, Rs 2 lakh in bribe money was recovered, which was collected at the direction and on behalf of the IRS officer. The CBI sleuths on July 15 searched three locations in Patna, linked to the accused officials. All three accused were produced before CBI Special Court-1 in Patna on Wednesday, and remanded to three days of CBI custody for further investigation. The arrests highlight the CBIas ongoing focus on corruption within government departments, particularly in sensitive areas like the Income Tax Department during the election period in Bihar. The case also underscores the continued operation of CBIas anti-corruption initiatives to build public trust and accountability in government offices. Earlier on March 23, the CBI had arrested four individuals, including the General Manager (GM) of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the GM of a private construction company, in connection with a bribery case. The arrests were made immediately after a bribe of Rs 15 lakh was exchanged, and Rs 1.18 crore in cash was recovered from the premises of the NHAI official in Patna. Photo: https://eurosolidarity.org/2025/07/15 Member of Parliament and leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko has criticized the changes to the State Budget that the Cabinet of Ministers made before the change of government, calling them illogical in such conditions, the website of the political force reported on Wednesday. "Now we are present at the final multiplication of the parliament by zero - the complete removal of the parliament from the budget process... You propose to vote on the budget right before the resignation of the government. The government that planned the budget is resigning, and someone else who has not yet been elected will implement it. Then a program without a budget will be proposed," Poroshenko said during a speech in parliament. The politician also noted that the UAH 8 billion withdrawn from the Kyiv budget to the Reserve Fund will not go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. "Now you want to increase the Reserve Fund. You are taking UAH 8 billion from all Kyiv residents and transferring it not to the Armed Forces - you are transferring it to the Reserve Fund. Look at how the Reserve Fund of the existing budget was used. Only UAH 4 billion was used for the needs of the Armed Forces for fortifications," the parliamentarian noted. He proposed to make changes to the State Budget after the changes in the government. "Remove it from consideration and consider it after the formation of the government," Poroshenko said. Islamabad, July 16 : At least three people were killed and 11 others injured when unknown militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a passenger bus in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday, local rescue and police officials said. The incident happened in Kalat district when the bus was travelling from the country's southern port city of Karachi to Balochistan's capital city Quetta, said Muhammad Zeeshan, Manager of Operations of the rescue department at non-governmental organisation Edhi Foundation in Quetta. Talking to Xinhua news agency, police sources from the district said that the attack happened at around 5:20 pm (12:20 GMT) local time when attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the bus, killing the three passengers on the spot and injuring 11 others. Rescue teams shifted the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital in Kalat, where several remain in critical condition, Zeeshan said. Following the incident, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace the attackers. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Balochistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in recent months, with frequent incidents targeting civilians, security forces, and public transport on major highways. Till last week, a total of 257 people were killed and 492 others injured in 501 terror incidents in Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province in the first half of 2025, local authorities said in a report. The report recorded a 45 per cent increase in such incidents in the cited period compared to the same period last year. A total of 81 attacks involving improvised explosive devices, grenades, bombs, and landmines resulted in 26 deaths and 112 injuries. The report highlighted a sharp rise in attacks targetting non-local residents, with 52 people killed and 11 injured in 14 such incidents, a 100-per cent increase over the previous period. Two attacks on passenger trains claimed 29 lives, while 39 attacks on civilians left 11 people dead and 29 injured. In addition, one health worker was killed in an attack on a polio vaccination team. Nine attacks on mobile phone towers injured two individuals. Budapest, July 16 : Hungary has formally proposed that the European Union (EU) place three senior Ukrainian military officials on its sanctions list in response to alleged abuses linked to violent conscription practices in Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Wednesday. According to Szijjarto, the officials in question are responsible for overseeing conscription operations within Ukraine's Ministry of Defence and armed forces. The Hungarian government's move follows the reported death of an ethnic Hungarian man, identified as Jozsef S., during a conscription incident in Ukraine's Transcarpathia region in early July. Szijjarto cited a recent Council of Europe human rights report as confirmation of what he described as "a manhunt taking place on the streets of Ukraine," claiming that individuals refusing to enlist have been beaten or tortured. "The way Ukrainian forced conscription units treat people is shocking, and equally shocking is how European political leaders look the other way in the face of this unacceptable situation," he said. The Hungarian government summoned Ukraine's Ambassador in Budapest last week following the reported death of the ethnic Hungarian man, Xinhua news agency reported. According to a separate statement by Levente Magyar, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the man was allegedly captured during a forced conscription operation, beaten with a metal rod, and later died from his injuries. Szijjarto said that numerous videos documenting such incidents have surfaced in recent months. Hungarian officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have expressed condolences to the victim's family. Hungary has blocked the start of European Union accession talks with Ukraine, citing minority rights concerns and security risks. The Hungarian government has repeatedly criticised what it describes as discriminatory policies against the ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia. --IANS /as Kolkata, July 16 : The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kolkata Zonal Office, has restituted ten immovable properties and nine movable asserts worth of Rs 9.56 crore (approximately) to the legitimate claimant -- the official liquidator of Kaushik Global Logistics Ltd, appointed by the NCLT, Kolkata. The restitution of attached properties under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, was made in accordance with the order passed by a special court, an official said on Wednesday. "ED initiated an investigation based on FIRs registered by the CBI, Kolkata. ED investigation revealed that KGLL, through its directors Dhananjay Singh, Sanjay Singh, and Mritunjay Singh, committed fraud with State Bank of India, by availing the credit facilities/ term loans totalling to Rs. 85.39 crore, which turned into NPA on 30.06.2013, with total outstanding of Rs. 60.38 crore," the ED statement read. According to ED, these term loans were sanctioned for purchasing new Volvo/ Mercedes buses and for meeting the daily operational requirements of the passenger transportation business. "However, the said term loans/ credit facilities were diverted by using a fictitious bank account of Volvo Buses India Pvt. Ltd., held with Dena Bank (Now Bank of Baroda) and some other bank accounts in Dena Bank, through a web of complex banking transactions, for creating fixed assets, paying interest and instalments for other loans and meeting their requirements," the ED statement read. The central agency claimed that during the investigation, proceeds of crime amounting to Rs. 10.86 crore were attached by the ED by issuing two provisional attachments. ED had also claimed that this significant development not only underlined the agency's relentless efforts to trace and attach proceeds of crime but also reinforced its unwavering commitment to ensure that the money was restored to the rightful claimants or "victims of money laundering". Aden, July 16 : Yemeni authorities announced on Wednesday the seizure of 750 tonnes of weapons, including various missile systems, in the Red Sea. Tariq Mohammed Saleh, a member of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council and commander of the National Resistance Forces, said in a statement on social media platform X that the seized weapons included naval and aerial missile systems, air defence systems, modern radar equipment, drones, wiretapping devices, anti-armor missiles, B-10 artillery pieces, tracking lenses, sniper rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment. The Yemeni official also released a video of what he said was the seized cargo, showing a large quantity of new and diverse weapons and military equipment aboard a vessel. Saleh said that the intercepted shipment was en route from Iran to the Houthis, while there was no immediate comment from the Houthi group. The international recognised Yemeni government has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons and military capabilities to the Houthis -- an allegation Tehran consistently denies, Xinhua news agency reported. The Houthis have controlled the capital Sanaa and most northern Yemeni provinces for over a decade. On Sunday, Britain reported that at least four crew members from the Liberia-flagged ship Eternity-C were killed in Red Sea attacks by Yemen's Houthi group last week, with several others still missing. In a statement posted on social media platform X, the British Embassy in Yemen condemned the "unjustified Houthi attacks" on the Liberia-flagged ships Magic Sea and Eternity C, and called for the "immediate and unconditional release of all crew members of the Eternity C." While the exact number of missing personnel was not disclosed, the Embassy stressed that the attacks constitute "a violation of international law and freedom of navigation," warning that continued Houthi assaults on commercial shipping risk further destabilising the region and undermining efforts toward sustainable peace in Yemen. Both ships were operated by Greek companies and were allegedly targetted because the Houthis claimed they were bound for Israeli ports, according to earlier announcements by the Houthi group. The strikes are part of the Houthis' ongoing maritime campaign in the Red Sea against ships they claim are linked to Israel, which the group says is a response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. In a televised speech Thursday, Houthi leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi reaffirmed his commitment to maintaining what he called a "ban on navigation of the Israeli enemy" in Red Sea waters. Guwahati, July 16 : Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday strongly hit back at Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi after the Congress leader took a swipe against him over corruption. Sarma responded with sarcasm to LoP Rahul Gandhi's sharp criticism during his visit to the state, suggesting that the Congress leader had inadvertently elevated his political stature. In a post on X, the Chief Minister remarked that LoP Rahul Gandhi seemed to have focused solely on him throughout his visit. The Assam CM's X post mentioned, "I must say, I am grateful - because today, he has elevated my political stature to a level I might never have reached had I remained in the Congress party." "He mentioned my name repeatedly in all his meetings," the Chief Minister wrote, adding that such attention from the Leader of the Opposition was a matter of "great satisfaction." Taking a swipe at his former party, Sarma, who defected from the Congress to join the BJP in 2015, said that the recognition he now enjoys would not have been possible had he remained with the Congress. "If Rahul Gandhi has chosen to criticise me, it is a clear sign that I must be doing something right for the people of Assam," he stated. The remark comes amid heightened political rhetoric between the BJP and Congress as both parties gear up for the 2026 Assam Assembly elections. Sarma also wrote on X targeting LoP Rahul Gandhi: "I heard you are out on bail on charges of massive corruption of over Rs 5,000 crore in the National Herald scam. You will be remembered as one of the most corrupt Congress presidents of India. Frankly, I don't care about what you say - because I know, and the country knows, that you are one of the most corrupt leaders in India today." Earlier today, LoP Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on Himanta Biswa Sarma, accusing him of corruption and vowing that the Chief Minister would eventually land in jail. Addressing a meeting of party workers in Chaygaon, about 40 km from Guwahati, LoP Rahul Gandhi said Sarma behaves like a "raja" but is "gripped with fear" and will be held accountable for his actions. "The Chief Minister thinks he is a king, working round the clock to hand over Assam's land and wealth," LoP Rahul Gandhi alleged. "But look closely - his face on television shows fear. He knows Congress workers will send him to jail." The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha went on to claim that the Chief Minister and his family would be exposed for their alleged corruption. "Even Narendra Modi and Amit Shah won't be able to save him. The people of Assam - youths, farmers, workers, and citizens from all communities - will hold him accountable," he said. --IANS tdr/dan Washington, July 16 : Private American company Axiom Space on Wednesday informed that it celebrated the arrival of the Ax4 mission back in Texas. "Yesterday, Axiom Space leaders celebrated the arrival of #Ax4 back in Texas," the American company posted on X. The 20-day mission, led by Axiom Space in collaboration with NASA, SpaceX, and other government space agencies, including ISRO, was launched to the ISS on June 26. Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to go to the International Space Station (ISS). Shukla returned to Earth on Tuesday along with fellow astronauts from the US, Poland, and Hungary aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft "Grace". Lucknow-born Shukla was included in the astronaut selection process by ISRO in 2019 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2018 announced from the Red Fort that a son or daughter of India would go to space very soon. In January 2025, the 39-year-old astronaut was selected as the pilot for the Ax-4 mission -- a collaborative mission between NASA and ISRO. The IAF officer became the youngest astronaut-designate under India's Gaganyaan mission -- the country's first human spaceflight mission. Speaking to IANS in March, Shukla said he hopes to use his "journey to inspire this entire generation to pursue their careers in the field of space," as he "was extremely inspired and motivated" by Rakesh Sharma. On the Ax-4 mission, Shukla served as the pilot alongside Commander Peggy Whitson of the US. On the ISS, Shukla conducted seven pioneering experiments related to food and space nutrition that aimed to enhance understanding of sustainable life-support systems, a crucial aspect of future long-duration space travel. Shukla's mission is not only an inspiration for billions of Indians but also a key stepping stone for India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission, slated for 2027. Mumbai, July 16 : It has already been one year since Bollywood couple Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal welcomed their little bundle of joy, Zuneyra, into this world. Commemorating the 1st birthday of her daughter, Richa shared that she was also 'reborn as a mom' on the day Zuneyra was born. Richa and Ali shared a joint Instagram post with a video compilation of some precious moments from the pregnancy journey. The clip was accompanied by a heartfelt note, sharing how embracing parenthood has changed their life forever. Recalling the whole labour experience, they wrote, "For bringing so much colour into all our lives! A year ago I gave birth to a healthy baby girl at Breach Candy Hospital. Labour lasted a few hours, delivery only about 20 minutes, natural birth!" Richa mentioned that ever since embracing motherhood, her body, her brain, her heart, and her soul feel rearranged. "Life hasnat been the same since, particularly mea I feel rearranged from the insides outa my brain, my heart, my body, my soul...Zuneyra was born a year ago and so was I. Reborn as a mom. An entirely new being, than what existed before. A life and child with the man of your dreamsa if this isnat a blessing, I donat know what is," they added. For the unversed, Richa and Ali initially met on the sets of the laughter ride, "Fukrey" back in 2013. Their friendship gradually transpired into love, and the couple started dating in 2016. The lovebirds decided to make their relationship official in 2017 when Richa attended the Venice Film Festival with Ali for the premiere of his Hollywood movie "Victoria and Abdul". They finally tied the knot in an interfaith marriage in October 2020, and welcomed their firstborn on July 16, 2024. Ahmedabad, July 16 : The Directorate General Resettlement (DGR), operating under the Ministry of Defence's Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare, is set to organise a dedicated job fair for former armed forces personnel in Ahmedabad on July 25. The event will take place at Chhatrapati Shivaji Auditorium, located at the Ahmedabad Military Station in Shahibaug, beginning at 9:30 AM. Major General Gaurav Bagga, General Officer Commanding 11 RAPID, will grace the event as Chief Guest, alongside Colonel VS Chandrawat (Retd), Group CSO of the Adani Group, among other dignitaries. The fair aims to connect ex-servicemen with employment opportunities across various sectors, including security, operations, hospitality, healthcare, engineering, and technical services. Participants are required to carry their ESM identity card and five copies of their resume. Employers can register at no cost and benefit from free stall allotments, job postings, and access to resumes of registered candidates. This initiative is designed to tap into the vast pool of disciplined, trained, and skilled ex-servicemen for roles such as personal security officers, supervisors, drivers, engineers, technicians, and machine operators. Interested candidates and companies can find more information or register at www.esmhire.com. The upcoming DGR job fair in Ahmedabad is expected to benefit approximately 800 to 1,200 ex-servicemen, based on previous participation trends at similar events across India. This initiative is crucial as it helps retired armed forces personnel transition smoothly into civilian life by connecting them with meaningful employment opportunities that match their discipline, leadership skills, and technical expertise. Many ex-servicemen retire at a relatively young age and possess valuable experience, yet face challenges in navigating the corporate job market. By bridging this gap, the job fair not only empowers veterans with financial independence and social reintegration but also offers industries a reliable, skilled, and mission-oriented workforce. Gujarat has previously hosted successful job fairs for ex-servicemen organised by the Directorate General Resettlement (DGR), reaffirming the importance of such events in helping veterans transition to civilian life. One notable fair was held in August 2019 at the Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Auditorium in Ahmedabad, where ex-servicemen from across Gujarat's "Golden Katar Division" engaged with recruiters from various industries, including banking, logistics, and security. These events have consistently seen participation from hundreds of ex-servicemen and dozens of reputed companies, reflecting strong interest from both job seekers and employers. Similar fairs held in other regions, like Pune, Guwahati, and Bhubaneswar, attracted over 1,000 veterans and 4050 companies, offering around 1,000 to 1,500 vacancies each. These fairs not only provide dignified employment opportunities to trained and disciplined veterans but also help industries tap into a reliable, mission-driven workforce. Imphal, July 16 : In a positive turn, no new COVID-19 case was reported in Manipur on Wednesday, officials said. A senior official of the Health and Family Welfare Department, quoting the latest report of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), said all 15 samples tested on Wednesday returned negative, marking a daily positivity rate of 0.00 per cent. The cumulative number of cases recorded in the state since June 1, 2025, remains at 326. Imphal West District continues to account for the highest number of 211 cumulative active cases, followed by Imphal East (71), Bishnupur district (23), Thoubal (13), Kakching three, Chandel, and Tengnoupal two each and Tamenglong one. Except for the tribal-inhabited Tengnoupal, Chandel and Tamenglong districts, the five districts fall in the Imphal Valley region, where the state's maximum number of people live. Most COVID-19 patients are under home isolation. Meanwhile, recoveries continue to show a positive trend, with 307 individuals discharged so far. No COVID-19-related deaths have been reported in the state so far. Manipuras Health Services Director Chambo Gonmei said in the current wave, the first COVID case in the state was reported on June 9, when a 23-year-old woman tested positive for the infection. The woman hails from the Bishnupur district. The Health Services Director urged the people to be on alert in view of the spread of the infection in other parts of the country. Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla earlier held a review meeting at the Raj Bhavan and advised the importance of proactive measures, adequate medical infrastructure, and community awareness to ensure the state remains equipped to handle any potential surge in COVID-19 cases. The review was held in view of recent directives from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on enhanced preparedness amid rising concerns of a possible COVID-19 resurgence. --IANS sc/dan Mumbai, July 16 : Maharashtra Horticulture Minister Bharat Gogawale on Wednesday informed the Assembly that a decision to ban plastic flowers imported from China will be announced this week. MLA Mahesh Shinde raised the issue of farmers' agitation on this issue in the Assembly through a point of order. Responding to this, Gogawale said that a meeting was held with the Chief Minister on Tuesday, and it was decided to impose a permanent ban on plastic flowers. He reiterated that the decision will be announced this week. Last week, MLA Shinde had raised an issue in the assembly regarding this. He and several other members took up the issue of harmful dyes being used in these flowers, stating that the natural flower growers are facing problems due to plastic flowers. After MLAs from all parties raised this demand while speaking on the issue, Gogawale announced that he would ban plastic flowers. Accordingly, a meeting was held in the presence of the Chief Minister on Tuesday to decide on the issue. Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Supply, Gulabrao Patil, in the Assembly today announced that water supply schemes under 'Jal Jeevan Mission' will be completed in the state. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dreamed of providing water supply through taps to every house. Maharashtra will not fall short anywhere in fulfilling its dream. Incomplete water supply projects in the state under the Jal Jeevan Mission, as well as those to be done according to the revised budgets, will be completed," he said in reply to a half-hour debate. Member Sudhir Mungantiwar had presented a discussion for half an hour regarding the 'Jal Jeevan Mission' scheme. Members Nana Patole, Abhijit Patil, Babaji Kale, Vishwajit Kadam, Narayan Kuche, Kishore Patil, Hemant Ogle, Amit Zhanak, Kisan Wankhede and Sulabha Gaikwad participated in this discussion by asking sub-questions. Stating that funds received by the Water Supply Department will be distributed equally to all districts as per demand, Minister Patil said, there will be no shortage of funds to complete the works of water supply schemes. The funds received will be distributed properly, and past due payments will also be settled. If further amendments are required in the detailed project report of the scheme, revised estimates will be accepted. A meeting will be held in Chandrapur, Bhandara and other districts as required to review the current status of these schemes. A physical inspection tour will also be conducted. All water supply schemes in the state are being brought on solar energy. "The survey of the Marathwada Water Grid Project has been completed. The work on this project will start this year with the financial assistance of the World Bank. The Jal Jeevan Mission scheme is being implemented assuming 55 litres of water per capita. This matter will be included in the revised budget for repairing the roads dug for the scheme, said Minister Patil. The National Police of Ukraine has uncovered a large-scale pharmaceutical scheme involving a Ukrainian oligarch who organized the production and sale of Ukrainian medicines in the territory of the Russian Federation. "Agents of the Department of Strategic Investigations, together with investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine, have uncovered a multi-level criminal scheme controlled by a 51-year-old Ukrainian businessman, a native of the Russian Federation () The perpetrators have established a "scheme" for obtaining pharmacopoeial samples, which are standards for quality control of Ukrainian medicines. Without their presence, the production and sale of domestic medicines in Russia would be impossible," the report on the department's website said on Wednesday. As a source in law enforcement agencies clarified to the Interfax-Ukraine agency, this refers to Konstantin Zhevago. According to the National Police, the scheme involved the head of a Ukrainian pharmaceutical corporation, financial managers, persons responsible for the export of pharmacopoeial samples, the head of the Russian representative office, officials of controlled medical companies of the two countries, and distributors. The leader, having full control over the structure of the companies, personally identified the participants of the criminal group, coordinated their actions, and distributed roles among them. "Even before the start of the full-scale invasion, officials of the Ukrainian pharmaceutical company transferred to Russian manufacturers a full package of documentation necessary for the manufacture of Ukrainian medicines. After obtaining permits, two Russian pharmaceutical factories were able to begin manufacturing and selling medicines for the treatment of cardiovascular, neurological, urological, and other diseases without Ukrainian interference," the National Police reports. It is noted that such a step allowed the owner-oligarch to simultaneously avoid the negative consequences of doing business in the Russian Federation after the events of 2014 and continue to receive illegal income. However, for further cooperation, the organizer put forward a condition: Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers undertook to continue to apply the logo of the Ukrainian corporation on the packaging of medicines manufactured in the Russian Federation. The country of origin of the products is still indicated in the documentation of the manufacturer - Ukraine. An important condition for the implementation of a large-scale pharmaceutical transaction was the supply of reference samples necessary for the official registration and quality control of medicines in Russian regulatory institutions. Therefore, after the legislative ban on the export of medicines introduced in 2022, the Ukrainian businessman created a controlled non-resident company abroad. It was through it that the Russians received the necessary documentation and quality samples of the drugs. To do this, the businessman involved the commercial director of the enterprise, which is the official distributor of the State Pharmacopoeia of Ukraine, and his wife as partners, whose duties included receiving and transferring reference samples to a foreign "strip" company. The department emphasizes that the organizer personally controlled the transfer of rights and production technologies of Ukrainian companies. As a result, a number of medical products of Ukrainian companies' trademarks became officially registered in the Russian Federation - the corresponding license agreements can be found in the State Register of Medicines of the Russian Federation. Although this data was entered even before the full-scale invasion, the attackers continued to renew the property rights in 2023-2024. This became possible after the Ukrainian side officially renounced copyrights to products manufactured in the territory of the Russian Federation. It was on this basis that the Russian enterprise controlled by the Ukrainian businessman was able to register a patent right for itself. "Medicines labeled by the Ukrainian concern are widely used by Russian doctors to treat the occupiers. Open sources contain sufficient evidence of the conclusion of contracts for the supply of these medications with military hospitals and institutions of the Russian Federation, as well as similar structures in the temporarily occupied territories of the so-called Luhansk Peoples Republic and Donetsk Peoples Republic - the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General's Office, units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the Penitentiary Service and other law enforcement agencies of the aggressor country and illegal armed formations," the report states. From the beginning of 2022 to the first quarter of 2024, the sale of medicines produced in Russia using Ukrainian technologies and standards brought the aggressor country's budget more than 100 million rubles in tax revenues. The total amount of profit of the Russian enterprise controlled by the Ukrainian oligarch during this time amounted to at least 892 million rubles, which is more than UAH 420 million. On July 16, special agents and police investigators conducted more than 40 searches in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and Kyiv region. In particular, in office and production premises, as well as in the places of residence of the persons involved. They seized documentation, seals, computer equipment, etc. The police informed the leader of the criminal organization a Ukrainian oligarch and eight of his accomplices about suspicion under several articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: - Parts 1 and 2 of Article 255 (Creation, leadership of a criminal community or criminal organization, as well as participation in it); - Part 4 of Article 27, Part 4 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 111-2 (assistance to an aggressor state) - Part 3 of Article 212 (evasion of taxes, fees (mandatory payments) and Part 3 of Article 209 (legalization (laundering) of property obtained by crime). Further measures are currently underway to identify all persons involved in the crime, document the sources of profit from illegal activities, and seize corporate rights and assets of the sanctioned business in favor of the state. The maximum penalty is up to 12 years of imprisonment. Delhi, July 16 : J&K Lt Governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday that right from its independence, Pakistan had made terrorism a part of its state policy, and it is ingrained in its DNA. Addressing a function in Delhi, he said: "Just a few months after its independence, Pakistan started a tribal invasion of Kashmir. "It was not just the tribal invaders who were involved in that invasion, but a large number of the Pakistan army was part of that invasion. "They reached up to Baramulla town, and when they asked the route to reach Srinagar from Maqbool Sherwani, he misled them, and it was because of that delay in reaching Srinagar which made the landing of the Indian army possible at the Srinagar airport." L-G said that Pakistan has been the breeding ground of terrorism from the very beginning, and it continues to remain so today. "It was our misfortune to have a neighbour like that. Pakistan not only export terrorism to India alone, but it also does so to other parts of the world. The breeding ground of terrorism will, therefore, have to be fought and eliminated together," he said. The LG added that, "Our intent has never been expansionist it has always been for peace... If we look at the context of Jammu and Kashmir, within months of India gaining independence, Pakistan launched an attack... Terrorism is ingrained in Pakistan's DNA. The global community must unite to confront and eliminate the terrorism that thrives within Pakistan." In a recent newspaper interview, the L-G said that the Pahalgam attack was planned, organised and carried out by Pakistan to derail the peace and the thriving tourism in Kashmir. He admitted that the attack was a security lapse and took responsibility for the security lapse. He added that the security forces have brought down the levels of violence in J&K to manageable levels, and this has resulted in the fear going out of the people's hearts and minds. "People of Kashmir have given up supporting terrorism and they are looking towards a better tomorrow in which there is peace, better education for children, healthcare for everybody and an honourable life to live with families and friends," he said. Buxar : , July 16 (IANS) A significant initiative has been taken by the Bihar government towards making the Divyangjans self-reliant. Under the Chief Minister Laghu Udhyami Yojana, an assistance amount of Rs 2 lakh is being given to the Divyang beneficiaries in three instalments. In this sequence, an amount of 50,000 was distributed as the first instalment, which has given a new flight to the dreams of the Divyangjans. The Divyang beneficiaries also participated in a meeting organised through video conferencing along with the District Magistrate. During this, the National Executive President of the Divyang Sangh, Hridaya Yadav, while praising this initiative of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, said, "Many thanks to the government on behalf of the Divyangjans of Bihar. This scheme is a ray of hope for those who are living below the poverty line." "Our issue is not pension, but employment. We want education, health, roti-kapda and makaan from the government. This scheme has taken our Divyang brothers forward in the direction of self-employment. Training is being provided, and industries are being started. This is bringing positive changes in their lives," he added. By taking advantage of this scheme, many Divyangjans are now taking successful steps towards self-employment. Hearing-impaired Abhishek, a resident of Buxar, has started 'New Gupta Line Hotel' on NH-922. His father, Harendra Shah, said that the first instalment received from the Chief Minister's Small Entrepreneur Scheme has strengthened his son's business. Abhishek's father, Harendra Shah, said, "My son has opened the hotel on his own. The help of the government has helped him move forward. We express our gratitude for this." Other beneficiaries, August Upadhyay and Vishnu Paswan, also praised this scheme of the government. They said that this scheme has increased their self-esteem and has given them an opportunity to connect with the mainstream. Another beneficiary said, "The Chief Minister's Small Entrepreneur Scheme has definitely brought a new ray of hope for the Divyangjans of Bihar. This initiative is an inspiration towards employment, respect and self-reliance, which can bring a change in the lives of millions of disabled people in the times to come. Patna, July 16 : Three persons lost their lives while two others were seriously injured in separate lightning incidents on Wednesday in Bihar's Nalanda district, an official said. The first incident occurred at Daudpur Vishambar Bigha village under the jurisdiction of Noor Sarai police station when a woman, Yashoda Devi, was stuck by lightning. She was planting paddy in the field when the lightning struck, killing her on the spot. Villagers described her as the head of the family, calling her death an irreparable loss. The second tragic incident occurred at Girdhar Chak village under Vena police station when a man named Randhir Prasad became a victim of the lightning strike. He was also working in his farm land when struck by lightning. He was rushed to the nearest healthcare centre, where doctors declared him dead. The third incident occurred at Makhdumpur village under the jurisdiction of Nagarnausa police station when a woman identified as Seema Devi lost her life due to a lightning strike. She was engaged in household work in the courtyard when lightning struck, leading to her death on the spot. Apart from these fatalities, two others sustained severe burns due to lightning in separate villages. Both injured have been admitted to the district Sadar hospital, where their condition remains critical. The district administration has initiated the relief process for the affected families. As per the Bihar government norms, each of the deceased's family would receive Rs 4 lakh compensation in such a tragic natural calamity. In view of continuing rain and lightning risks, the administration has appealed to the public to remain cautious, advising them to avoid working in open fields during rain, lightning and thunderstorms. It has directed people to take shelter indoors during adverse weather conditions. The Disaster Management Department has also issued a list of safety precautions for lightning incidents to minimize further casualties in the district. New Delhi, July 16 : Andhra Pradesh will be the best state in India by 2047 with its economy projected to grow from $180 billion to $2.4 trillion while per capita income expected to increase from $3,400 to $42,000, said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday. He released the report 'Towards Swarna Andhra Pradesh@2047', a comprehensive blueprint for the state's economic development, in New Delhi. Prepared by the high-level task force for economic development in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the report outlines a transformative vision to position Andhra Pradesh as India's leading state by 2047. "Our state has excellent mineral wealth, and major industries are setting up in Andhra Pradesh. We have the talent and resources to realize our vision," he said. The government has identified 10 principles to achieve the goals, driven by the motto of achieving zero poverty through the P4 model. The state's population is projected to reach 5.8 crore by 2047, with a median age of 40 years, life expectancy of 85 years, and 60% urbanization. He emphasized that the Swarna Andhra Pradesh Vision aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Viksit Bharat 2047 mission. "By 2047, Andhra Pradesh will be the best state in India, meeting international standards, and we are determined to make it happen," he said. He claimed that the state strong and dynamic human resources, fertile land, and is rich in agricultural commodities, especially horticulture, aquaculture, and commercial crops. "We have a long coastline, where every 50 km, we want to have a port. We are constructing airports on a large scale and developing one of the best road networks. Logistics-wise, Andhra Pradesh will be the hub for India in the future. We are also upgrading our human capital through skill development and bringing top global and national institutions to Amaravati." He also noted that five cities of AP ranked high in the Swachh Bharat Mission rankings. He mentioned that Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada have secured the first and third spots in LinkedIn's first-ever Cities on the Rise report, which highlights India's fastest-growing non-metro cities for professional growth. CM Naidu said that by January 2026, the government of Andhra Pradesh will be starting quantum computing in the state in collaboration with leading firms. "America has Silicon Valley; we are developing Quantum Valley in Amaravati. Deep tech will be used to improve all aspects of good governance in the state. With the help of data and AI, the government can make the right decisions," the Chief Minister said. "By August 15, all public services in AP will be available online in real-time, through WhatsApp. People will not have to go to any office," he added. Chandrababu Naidu told the gathering that Andhra Pradesh now ranks fourth in the EIU's list of top investment destinations. During the last one year, the state attracted investments worth Rs 10 lakh crore, generating 8.5 lakh jobs. Three academic hubsVisakhapatnam, Amaravati, and Tirupatiare being developed to foster innovation. "Amaravati will be the world's best city to live in, with futuristic amenities," the Chief Minister said. He emphasised that tourism is the future. Among rising concerns surrounding IT jobs taking a hit due to the advent of AI, tourism will create the majority of the jobs. Recalling his pioneering efforts in the 1990s to harness the IT revolution, the Chief Minister highlighted the importance of innovation and policy reforms. "We took the first-mover advantage in IT with leaders like Bill Gates, despite criticism. Today, one in four IT professionals globally is Indian, and among them, one or two are from the Telugu community," he said. Into the brittle and bizarre landscape of contemporary American discourse, where families splinter along ideological lines and conspiracy theories metastasize through digital echo chambers, rides Jess Walter, perhaps just in time. If ever a combination of empathy and an eye for honest detail is needed, its now. That one-two punch is delightfully on display in his latest work, So Far Gone, a road-trip novel about a family, broken across three generations, trying to put itself back together again as they careen around the Pacific Northwest. Its a place where cities (and their wobbly institutions such as newspapersa particular love of Walters as an ex-newsman) serve as conservative punchlines while the backroads lead past hidden redoubts of white Christian nationalists. A lifetime resident of Spokane, Walter knows this territory well, but he may be most loved by readers and fanshis June 23 event at Powells City of Books in Portland was standing room onlyfor his wistful optimism and tough love for, well, everything, from his characters to wannabe young fiction writers bellyaching about their fate. What are you doing here with this book? Its not exactly satire. If I'm a satirist, I'm probably the warmest satirist you've ever met. It's hard for me to not care about the characters and have them just go through the motions to make some political point. I think for years I assumed I had to be a little darker and more cynical than I really am. I've always been gregarious and drawn to people. The joy in doing this is creating characters nothing like you on the surface and then finding your way in to qualities that are profoundly human, and that you recognize in yourself. Where does your empathy for characters come from? My mom was an incredibly empathetic person. I was depressed and lonely after losing my vision in one eye as a kid. She would sit down with my yearbook and point out the girls with glasses that she thought I should ask out on dates, and the kids that she thought looked like they might not have friends, like me. We took in foster kids because she just thought we had more than we needed. My dad, on the other hand, was a stoic and had no patience for self-pity. Those two examplesmy dad's demand that we not feel sorry for ourselves and my mom's incredible empathyare like the north and south pole of my ethics and morality. You started off as a reporter and your old employer, Spokanes daily paper, the Spokesman-Review, figures in this story. How has your journalism background shaped your fiction? I dont have an MFA, though I now visit various writing programs to teach. The newsroom was my education and more. I think I have a writing style that is descriptive but doesn't get bogged down, and that's partly from journalism. The joke with this book, where I was trying to write something so topical, is that I acted almost like a spot news novelistout in the world scribbling in my notebook and then racing back to the office to file. You've resisted categorization throughout your career, moving between genres. How have you managed to maintain that freedom? You know, as soon as any label lands on me, I immediately want to wriggle out from under it. My path to being a writer was so haphazard and piecemealI had to teach myself how to do everything. So once I learned one thing, I wanted to learn something else. My aspirations were always to be a literary novelist who crossed boundaries. My first love was Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote science fiction in an incredibly humanist way, with these postmodernist metafictional moments where he would just burst in. I love how Joan Didion went from essays to fiction and back. The freedom to write something different seems like the most basic part of creativity. It is a rejection of the way the publishing industry pushes you to repeat what was successful, but so far, I've been able to venture out and just write the next book I want to read, which seems to me like the only way to approach writing. Care to wade in to the issue of young white male writers complaining about being shut out of publishing? You know, it's always been hard for anyone to get published. It was hard for me to write literary fiction and get reviewed without having gone to the right schools. There's a student I know whose jam is Raymond Carver and Dennis Johnson. He's says, "No one's publishing that stuff anymore." I'd tell him, So is that your obstacle or your opportunity? Maybe what the world needs now is a great new Carver-style collection! The tides shift in publishing. Too many writers stay on the shore thinking, It's too far in or too far out. Just go swim. Watch the full interview here. (Video: Alan Zhou) When Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 terror attack, with the support of its Iranian patron, its goal was not just to murder and kidnap as many Israelis as possible. It also sought to undermine the positive momentum towards Israeli-Arab normalization begun with the 2020 Abraham Accords. Now that U.S. and Israeli strikes have significantly weakened Tehrans military strength and regional influence, its time to redouble efforts to advance regional integration in the spirit of the historic Abraham Accords peace agreements. The most feasible avenue for promoting such integration at the current moment is via multilateral regional initiatives such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). IMEC cannot only help expand regional cooperation, despite geopolitical tensions, but can further U.S.-led prosperity across the Middle East. President Trump should convene, before the end of 2025, an IMEC Leaders Summit in order to turn the vision of a U.S.-aligned trade, energy and digital corridor linking East and West into a reality. According to the IMEC Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed at the September 2023 G20 Summit, the corridor is expected to stimulate economic development through enhanced connectivity and economic integration between Asia, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe. The MOU was signed by the U.S., India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, EU, France, Germany and Italy, and explicitly included Israel as a key part of the envisioned overland rail route. IMEC is expected to decrease the transit time from India to Europe for critical goods such as pharmaceuticals and electronics by more than 50% on average. It will serve as an alternative to the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative and to the Iran and Russia-dominated International North-South Transport Corridor. The corridor will spur investment, employment and growth across the projected route, while creating significant opportunities for American infrastructure, logistics and transportation companies. Twenty-eight days after the signing of the IMEC MOU in 2023, Hamas launched its October 7 terror attack, triggering the ongoing multi-front war in the region. While the existing Abraham Accords agreements have largely remained stable, progress towards deepening and expanding regional normalization has slowed. Multilateral endeavors like IMEC are the most promising avenue for restarting the momentum of regional cooperation, given geopolitical tensions and the negative impact that the Gaza war has had on public opinion towards Israel in the Arab world. IMEC has received renewed interest since the reelection of President Trump. When Trump met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House in February 2025, he announced that the leaders had agreed to work together to help build one of the greatest trade routes in all of history. It will run from India to Israel to Italy and onward to the U.S., connecting our partners, roads, railways and undersea cable. The joint statement released following the meeting included the commitment to convening partners from the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor and the I2U2 (India-Israel-U.S.-UAE) Group within the next six months in order to announce new initiatives in 2025. The success of the June 2025 U.S. and Israeli operations against the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile threats have created the conditions for moving ahead with this ambitious project. Israel has already severely degraded Irans proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. Now, following the 12 Day War between Israel and Iran, which included Americas Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran is weaker than ever. Its ability to disrupt the development of IMEC has been greatly diminished. By advancing IMEC, the U.S. can demonstrate its leadership in the region, and further roll back the influence of China, Russia and Iran. We recommend that President Trump convene in 2025 an IMEC Leaders Forum with all partner countries, including Israel and Jordan. Each participating country should commit to advancing the domestic steps necessary to make IMEC a reality. The Forum should establish a standing Secretariat with one high-level champion from each country, as well as Working Groups in the fields of Infrastructure, Financing, Security, and Customs and Regulations. Within six months, the Secretariat and Working Groups should pinpoint the specific projects needed to operationalize IMEC (e.g., the construction of missing or inadequate rail infrastructure, improved border crossings, logistics hubs and ports, digital trade portals etc.). In cooperation with international financial institutions, they should complete a comprehensive study of expected costs and potential economic models. The Secretariat should then convene a public-private summit with the participation of a broad range of stakeholders, including governments, sovereign wealth funds, development banks, investors and private sector companies, in order to identify financing options for each project. The United States, EU and G7 should declare IMEC a priority project within the framework of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment and the EUs Global Gateway. Countries along the IMEC route should work together, with the assistance of the U.S., to harmonize standards, regulations, customs and tariffs, in order to ensure efficient transit and remove bottlenecks. The benefits of IMEC can be maximized by implementing cutting-edge technologies throughout the route, including AI-powered predictive logistics and supply chain management, block chain-based event logs, and multi-country e-commerce platforms. Special Economic Zones should be created along the corridor, with tax and investment incentives, in order to attract investors. Chinese influence along key nodes of the IMEC route, such as ports and rail lines, cannot be ignored. Participating countries will need to take steps to mitigate Chinese involvement in infrastructure along the corridor. Successful collaboration on IMEC could serve as a model for groundbreaking multilateral cooperation in other crucial sectors, such as artificial intelligence, water and food security. Hamas and Iran sought to undermine normalization. The response must be a renewed commitment to regional integration, and to shaping a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire Middle East. Asher Fredman is a Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. The memory of the children who were victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine should be honored not with flowers or toys, but with real deeds: the killings must stop, said the US President's special representative for Ukraine, General Keith Kellogg, who has been in Ukraine since Monday. "This morning I visited a memorial recognizing the toll the ongoing war has had on Ukraines children. One pays honor and respect of their death, not by laying of flowers, but by stuffed toy animals. The killing of innocent civilians, especially children, must end," he wrote on the social network X on Wednesday. "The US president has made it clear: the killings must stop," Kellogg added. President Trump is a man who likes to bet on a winner. And so, it was both unsurprising and correct that he not only reversed the Pentagons recent unilateral decision to halt military assistance to Ukraine but also announced additional lifesaving aid worth billions of dollars. Halting weapons shipments to Ukraine sent the wrong message to Americas allies and, most glaringly, tied the U.S. to Russias dead-end cause. In both Russia and Iran, the macro-level trends are ominous and, if they persist, the northern and the southern shores of the Caspian Sea will likely be flanked by decrepit and decaying regimes. Russialike Iranis a country that fails because it is structurally set up to fail. Russian officials and their collaborationists struck an optimistic tone in the days following the brief Israel-Iran war, Russian officials and their collaborationists struck an optimistic tone in the days following the brief Israel-Iran war, claiming victory was close at hand . This optimism is unsurprising; for decades, the Kremlin has enforced a culture of pollyannaish toadying and stifling omerta on any actor operating within the system. Russia may still achieve some of its goals in Ukraine, but the triumphant tone expressed by Kremlin propagandists obscures an important lesson of Israels 12-day war against Iran: Russia may well be an Iran-in-the-making. Both Iran and Russia are politically isolated where it matters. Relations with major military and trading nations like the U.S., the EU, Japan, and South Korea range from frosty to openly hostile. Perhaps more importantly, both countries have cultivated the animosity and distrust of their closest neighbors. In Russia, this reality was exemplified recently by Both Iran and Russia are politically isolated where it matters. Relations with major military and trading nations like the U.S., the EU, Japan, and South Korea range from frosty to openly hostile. Perhaps more importantly, both countries have cultivated the animosity and distrust of their closest neighbors. In Russia, this reality was exemplified recently by Azerbaijans detention of seven staffers from the Russian news agency Sputnik. Meanwhile, Moldova is taking further steps towards European integration Armenia is turning its back on Russias regional security architecture, and the Baltics continue to serve as drivers of European skepticism towards Moscow. Israels bombardment of Irans nuclear and military sites was greeted with tepid public condemnation and raucous private celebration across the Gulf Arab states. The Qataris were especially infuriated by Irans decision to respond to President Trumps bombardment of the Fordow nuclear site by attacking al-Udeid air force base Having proven themselves unreliable security partners, Iran and Russias diplomatic stock is unlikely to rise in the foreseeable future. Foreign leaders and businessmen may one day negotiate agreements with Russian counterparts, but Russia cannot be brought into the international fold in any structural sense. Every square mile of Ukrainian territory seized is paid for in Russian blood and in the ever expanding enmity of Russias neighbors. Both Russia and Iran struggle under the weight of deep economic isolation, having earned the dubious honor of the first and second-most sanctioned country on earth respectively. Frozen out of foreign investment, including technology and human capital, complex systems and industries in Russia and Iran continue to break down. In Russia, international sanctions on the energy sector have made the refining industry particularly Both Russia and Iran struggle under the weight of deep economic isolation, having earned the dubious honor of the first and second-most sanctioned country on earth respectively. Frozen out of foreign investment, including technology and human capital, complex systems and industries in Russia and Iran continue to break down. In Russia, international sanctions on the energy sector have made the refining industry particularly dangerous and toxic . In Iran, decades of economic stagnation have forced the country to rely on a fleet of aging aircraft and the worst airline safety record in the region. Sanctions relief alone will not cure the economic malaise afflicting them. Both produce little of value on the global markets beyond extractable resources that can be mined elsewhere. Both rank near the bottom on global indexes tracking levels of perceived corruption and rule of law Iran and Russia are both legacy powers that use a storied past to compensate for and distract from a failing present. When publicly challenged for their actions, they defend themselves by pointing to cultural achievements from centuries ago, be it the domes of St. Basils or the writings of Ferdowsi. When projecting power, they exploit institutional arrangements from decades ago, such as Russias UN Security Council seat or the National Iranian Oil Companys market monopoly and infrastructure. Finally, both Iran and Russia are staring down the precipice of a demographic crisis even as their leadership appeals to traditional family values. Experts estimate Irans Finally, both Iran and Russia are staring down the precipice of a demographic crisis even as their leadership appeals to traditional family values. Experts estimate Irans Total Fertility Rate at 1.45, well below replacement levels and roughly comparable to that of Russia, where the birth rate has fallen at such a rapid clip that the Kremlin has recently moved to classify demographic statistics. It would be too easy to portray Iran and Russias antagonists as the epitome of vigor and ascent. The reality is that Ukraine and Israel face very real vulnerabilities with no solutions immediately forthcoming. Israel remains locked in a bitter, seven-decade-long conflict with the Palestinians. After over 20 months of fighting in Gaza, Israels original war aim of completely destroying Hamas remains illusory, its international reputation is damaged, and its warmaking capacity is depleted. In Ukraine, Russias advance continueshowever haltingly. Russian missiles find their targets in Ukrainian hospitals, schools, and power stations. If an unlikely ceasefire is reached, Ukraines budget will be burdened by expensive reconstruction projects, veteran reintegration strategies, and military reconstitution efforts. Yet, amidst the gloom, both Ukraine and Israel have shown a level of dynamism and ingenuity their opponents lack. On the battlefield, both have employed creative solutions to challenge their adversaries who use quantityin ballistic missiles and in human liveswhen quality is out of reach. Last month, Ukraines security services smuggled hundreds of drones deep into Russian territory, remotely released them from truck beds, and launched them against Russias strategic bombers and other aircraft. Some weeks later, the Israelis followed a similar playbook, deploying drones from shipments. Last month, Ukraines security services smuggled hundreds of drones deep into Russian territory, remotely released them from truck beds, and launched them against Russias strategic bombers and other aircraft. Some weeks later, the Israelis followed a similar playbook, deploying drones from covert military facilities they built inside Iran. Ukraine lacks a functional navy but still managed to eject the entire Russian fleet from the Black Sea through a clever use of sea drones . Even under bombardment, Ukrainians are pioneering new surgical techniques , inking deals with major American companies, and continuing to feed the world with their grain President Trump placed his bet on Israel not for reasons of sentimentality or abstract principle but because, in the Jewish state, he saw a promising investment vehicle for his policies and ambitions. The President understood the war between Iran and Israel as between a sclerotic state at odds with its own people, exporting nothing but revolution on one side and a vibrant, Western-oriented, President Trump placed his bet on Israel not for reasons of sentimentality or abstract principle but because, in the Jewish state, he saw a promising investment vehicle for his policies and ambitions. The President understood the war between Iran and Israel as between a sclerotic state at odds with its own people, exporting nothing but revolution on one side and a vibrant, Western-oriented, high-return partner on the other. America could sit on the sidelines or commit to victory. And so, President Trump quickly marginalized the neo-isolationist voices in his administration and aligned with Israel. A similar choice awaits him in Ukraine. As a businessman, he certainly knows that wise investment decisions are all about the fundamentals. Daniel Balson is the Director of Public Engagement at Razom for Ukraine, a nonprofit humanitarian aid and advocacy organization. He is a former Graduate Fellow at the Shalem Center in Israel, where he researched Russian influence in the Middle East. TLC / Reality TV World By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 07/15/2025 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. 90 Day: Hunt for Love featured Colt Johnson being hospitalized for a serious injury, Cortney Reardanz having a revelation about Colt, and Jay and Cole fighting over Tiffany Franco during the episode that aired Monday night on TLC.The 90 Day: Hunt for Love broadcast began with footage of Colt being escorted out of Cortney's hotel room on a stretcher.Colt could be heard moaning in pain, and Tiffany and Tim Malcolm rushed to the scene to find out what was going on.Colt apparently broke his leg.Cortney explained how she and Colt had breakfast that morning and when he was leaving, he slipped and fell."He couldn't move," Cortney cried to her friends. "I feel like I caused him to fall!"Tim promised Colt they'd come to visit him in the hospital as soon as possible, and the whole cast was very concerned about his well-being.Afterward, the cast enjoyed a cooking class together with foods known to be aphrodisiacs. Tiffany said she was happy to see Rocky at the class, but Tim thought a lot of the ingredients were gross -- including the figs, which "looked like grandpa's ballsack." Usman "SojaBoy" Umar said he had texted Cortney earlier that morning but never heard back, and Tim revealed that Cortney accompanied him to the hospital. Jeniffer Tarazona also apparently went to the hospital with Colt since she speaks Spanish.Usman said he felt bad for Colt but he didn't understand why Cortney had to cry and go to the hospital with him.Usman vented about how he and Cortney were supposed to spend time together that day, and Tim felt like the news had broken Usman's heart.At the hospital, Cortney revealed that Colt had fractured his leg and required surgery. Cortney sobbed about how Colt was in a lot of pain and she planned to stay with him."I don't want to abandon him. It sucks. I feel like I caused this... Obviously I feel guilty," Cortney lamented."I don't care about any of the drama at the resort or any of this bullsh-t. I just care about Colt; I just want him to be okay. It's making me realize maybe I have stronger feelings for him than I thought."That night, Usman decided to just have fun with the guys and let loose at the dance club. The women also had a night out for themselves.Jeniffer, meanwhile, had returned to the resort, and she told the girls how Colt had been "screaming" in pain and Cortney wasn't in a good place.Tiffany then discovered that Jay had spent time in Elise's room. Tiffany complained about how Jay was sending her mixed signals and she wasn't sure if he wanted to date a woman with kids. Tiffany was hoping for a little more consistency and stability.When Elise brought up how she hated being the subject of Rob Warne rumors, Jeniffer insisted, once again, that she never had sex with Rob.Jeniffer then brought up how she heard Elise and Rob had sex earlier that day.Tiffany didn't want any more drama about "who was banging who," and Elise unloaded about how she wanted her name to stay out of the other cast members' mouths.The girls shared funny sex stories with each other that night, and Jeniffer revealed how she'd like to hook up with a transgender woman.Jeniffer explained how she found women to be "super sexy" but she wouldn't consider herself bisexual.Jeniffer admitted that she really enjoyed her kiss with Chantel Everett during the kissing contest, and Chantel had a big smile on her face."The way I feel about my sexuality is something I don't even fully understand yet," Chantel explained in a confessional, "and I want to keep it private until I work through my feelings for my friend Ashley [at home]."Tiffany then shared with Jeniffer how she should talk to Cole because Cole was often coming to her for advice.Jeniffer, however, didn't want to hear it, and she scolded Tiffany for trying to tell her what to do and how to feel about her romance with Cole.Tiffany told the cameras that she wasn't a camp counselor and Cole coming to her all the time was giving her a headache. Tiffany said she just wanted Jeniffer to be honest with Cole and set the record straight with him."He is pushing me away with his attitude," Jeniffer explained to the women, later adding how Cole was "stalking" her as if they had been married for 10 years.Jeniffer said she didn't want to be controlled or suffocated in a relationship."But you're breaking Cole's heart," Elise added, begging Jeniffer to have better communication with Cole.Meanwhile, Usman and Rob talked to new singles, and Usman told the cameras how he loved a woman with a big ass."If it's huge, I love it," Usman quipped.Jay and Cole then started arguing over Tiffany, and Cole called Jay "a bitch" and "a snake." Cole essentially thought Jay had pursued Tiffany behind his back, and then the guys got physical with each other.The episode ended with Jeniffer informing Elise that Cole was the one who told her that Elise had visited Rob's hotel room, which sparked the rumor Rob and Elise were hooking up.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Photos by Kenda Lenseigne Now that the 6.5 Creedmoor has supplanted the venerable 308 in terms of sales, particularly with regards to new rifles, theres been an uptick in interest in other calibers based on the parent design. Once its necked down, the otherwise mild-mannered Creed takes on a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality, changing from a ho-hum, jorts-and-New-Balance, reliable-but-dull persona, into a fire-breathing nutter. SPECS: Optimized for heavier bullet weights, the 22 Creedmoor had some teething problems due to operating at the outer limits of current bullet designs. Tales of 90-grain projectiles coming apart as they were spun at eye-watering rates were pretty common. Today, barrel manufacturers have switched to a slightly larger bore diameter, so as not to stress the bullet quite as badly, and as a result they can be counted on to actually reach the target, rather than turning into lead and copper dust. Usually. With the Creed able to match or exceed 22-250 velocities, you should probably be asking why not simply opt for the old stalwart. Based on the 250 Savage case, the 22-250 has been burning out barrels since its introduction in the 1930s, and at the time was the best option available for anyone who wanted to vaporize small critters such as groundhogs. 6.5 Creedmoor, left, and 22 Creedmoor, right. Necking down the parent case makes for a notable change in character, and a huge increase in velocity. The years have not been kind however, and its tapered case and 1/14 twist barrel bring problems of their own. Feeding from AICS mags is a tough proposition due to case taper its the bolt gun equivalent of 7.6239 in an AR, and bullets heavier than 55 grains have a tendency to be marginally stable, at best. The 22 Creedmoor gives the user access to heavy-for-caliber bullets, which really take the .224 to another level in terms of downrange lethality, and an easy-feeding case design. The lock, stock, and barrel of this build sheet are top-shelf components, but if you want to get into the 22 Creed game, there are certainly less expensive options. With a barrel life of around 1,000 rounds, this is one area wed look closely at for cost reduction, but as weve never had a Helix 6 barrel that didnt shoot lights out, the company was an easy choice for a fast 22. We opted for an 18-inch, carbon-wrapped tube with 5/8-25 muzzle threads to maximize suppressor choices and give plenty of steel at the muzzle end. Helix 6 offers this as a 0.219-inch bore diameter, putting less strain on bullet jackets and allowing us to drive 77- to 88-grain offerings at 22-250 AI velocities. So, we did. Springfields Waypoint action proved to be a worthy base from which to build, checking all the boxes for custom bolt gun. Springfield Armory started quietly selling the actions used in their Waypoint rifles as stand-alone components. So quietly in fact, that theyre not even listed on the companys website, but if you call, you can get one sent to your FFL to build out however you see fit. Given the lead times involved in getting an action from some other manufacturers, this is a welcome opportunity to snag a proven, premium, 700 pattern action at a decent price. As far as features go, the Waypoint leaves nothing on the table. EDM bolt raceways are smooth and clean, the bolt stop is massive and easily accessed and theres an integral recoil lug. The bolt itself is a two-lug design, but has a Sako-style extractor and is fluted for use in dusty or muddy environments. We were impressed by the action when it first came out, and theres been nothing in the years since which would cause us to change that opinion. Stepping outside the usual comfort zone of Timney and TriggerTech, we opted for a Rise Armament trigger for this build. Better known for their value AR-15 triggers, Rise are a comparative newcomer to the bolt gun game, offering two models for 700 pattern actions. The Reliant Hunter seen here is adjustable down to 2 pounds, features more of a rollover-style break and retails for just 180 bucks. Weve gotten more comfortable with this style, rather than the proverbial glass rod trigger, and so long as theres zero grittiness, actually prefer it on a hunting rifle. MDTs CRBN stock uses spacers to adjust length of pull, and its cheekpiece is adjustable for comb height. The other components find a home in an MDT CRBN stock, which has an aluminum bedding block wrapped in carbon-fiber composite. Despite its scant, 30-ounce weight, its adjustable for riser height and length of pull, and incorporates a full-length ARCA rail at the 6 oclock position for use on a tripod. When used with a three-round, flush-fitting magazine, its bottom metal looks more like a classic hunting rifle, rather than a PRS rig. One of the main criticisms of detachable mag hunting rifles is that in the event of accidentally dropping the mag on a hunt, youre left with a single shot thats very difficult to load. MDT neatly sidesteps this problem with a button on the trigger guard that locks the mag catch, making it almost impossible to activate inadvertently. Titanium suppressors are the bees knees when it comes to shedding ounces but give up a little in terms of longevity as a blast baffle material, Ti leaves a lot to be desired. B&T managed to design their way around the problem by 3D printing a titanium can around an Inconel blast baffle, combining the strengths of both materials where they make most sense. The 22 Creed has a lot more powder volume than a 5.56 round, so a higher volume can is a better fit in this application. Our Print XH-556 suppressor is currently bleeding edge tech on both bolt guns and ARs, where its flow-through design leads to very little gas coming back at the shooters face. Best yet, it weighs in at just 10 ounces and produces a very pleasant low tone at the shooters ear. B&Ts Print XH 556 tames the 22 Creeds bark and is one of the most mellow-sounding cans weve ever shot. One downside the 22 Creedmoor currently faces is that of ammo availability. Hornady and Nosler are the only major sources of factory ammo, but if you roll your own youll find this is one cartridge thats easy to develop loads for. It likes powder a lot slower than youd typically find in a 223 start with your favorite 300 Win Mag fuel and you wont go far wrong but anything from H4350 on up will work. For our load development, we used RCBS dies, Peterson brass, Hornady and Sierra bullets, and powders from Hodgdon and Vihtavuori. Charges were thrown on an RCBS Matchmaster, accurate to 0.1 grain. Topping off the rig is a Leupold Mk6 HD 3-1844 scope. Since this rig will serve primarily as a hunting rifle to slay coyotes and medium-sized big game, a second focal plane reticle is preferred, as FFPs tend to disappear at low magnification, especially in low light. The Mk6 HD has great glass for morning and evening hunts, and exposed, zero stop turrets to take advantage of the Creeds extended range. Weve become accustomed to installing Spartan Precision adapters on most of our hunting rifles, as this enables us to easily swap bipods from one to the next and allows access to their ecosystem of tripods and other shooting supports. The M-LOK rail on our MDT stock accepted a Spartan adapter, and we used their Vidarr bipod for all of our load development and accuracy testing. All in all, this was a fun project. Turbo 22s punch way above their weight when teamed with fragmenting bullets like the Hornady 80-grain ELD-X or Sierra 77-grain TMK. And while Fudds might tut-tut at the thought, wed have no reservations using this build on game animals up to 500 pounds, at ethical ranges. Any defect identified by the expert would have to be rectified within one month, failing which compensation of 5,000 per day would be payable. Kindly note the image have only been published for representational purposes. Photograph: Kind courtesy, Pixabay Ravindra Annappa Bindre paid 154,762 on October 19, 2015, for a Royal Enfield Thunderbird 350cc motorcycle manufactured by Eicher Motors. Upon delivery, he noticed a sealant tape on the engine and was assured it was normal. However, oil began leaking during the ride home. Bindre immediately returned the motorcycle to the dealer. He subsequently took it to the authorised service centre on several occasions, but the issue persisted. Bindre filed a complaint before the Additional Thane Consumer Forum, alleging that the motorcycle suffered from a manufacturing defect and that there had been gross deficiency in service, rendering the vehicle unusable. He sought a refund of the purchase amount or a replacement of the motorcycle, along with a refund of the Regional Transport Office registration charges and insurance premium. He also claimed compensation for mental agony. The dealer and the manufacturer contested the complaint and denied all allegations. They asserted that the subsequent leakage might have occurred due to Bindre's failure to follow operational instructions. Although they offered to replace the engine, Bindre rejected the offer and demanded replacement of the vehicle. The District Forum, in its order dated April 10, 2018, ruled in favour of Bindre and held both the dealer and the manufacturer jointly liable to either replace the motorcycle without any additional payment or refund its full price, including the RTO registration and insurance charges. The Forum also awarded compensation and litigation costs. The dealer and the manufacturer appealed the decision. In its order dated July 17, 2019, the Maharashtra State Commission set aside the direction to replace the entire vehicle or refund its price. Instead, it directed that only the engine be replaced and the motorcycle be made roadworthy. The Commission also instructed that any issues arising from the prolonged idle state of the vehicle be addressed through necessary repairs, the cost of which would be borne by Bindre. However, it upheld the award of compensation and costs. Aggrieved by this order, Bindre filed a revision petition before the National Commission. He argued that the job cards, photographs, and the manufacturer's offer to replace the engine established the presence of an inherent manufacturing defect, obviating the need for expert opinion. He further contended that the State Commission had gone beyond the pleading and prayers by directing him to bear the cost of repairs, even though the motorcycle had remained with the service centre for more than eight years since November 2015. The revision petition was contested on the grounds that, under the law, a replacement or refund could not be granted without an expert opinion from an appropriate laboratory. The National Commission, in its order dated June 25, 2025, delivered by J Rajendra, noted that the oil leakage was observed soon after delivery and that the motorcycle was lying with the service centre within four months of purchase. Since there was no expert report, the Commission modified the order and directed that the engine be replaced and necessary repairs carried out free of charge to make the vehicle roadworthy. It also awarded Bindre compensation of 50,000 and costs of 25,000. The Commission further ruled that if Bindre remained dissatisfied with the replacement and repairs, he could approach the District Forum to appoint an expert for an opinion, whose cost would be shared by both parties. Any defect identified by the expert would have to be rectified within one month, failing which compensation of 5,000 per day would be payable. Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff Going by political tradition, another formation will likely come to power in Karnataka in the next assembly election, due 2028. And if that happens, D K Shivakumar will have to sit it out till 2033, points out Aditi Phadnis. IMAGE: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and other Congress leaders at the AICC OBC national advisory council meeting at Bharat Jodo Bhavan in Bengaluru, July 15, 2025. Photograph: @DKShivakumar X/ANI Photo Is it always a good idea to announce your retirement in advance? Maybe in chalking out corporate succession plans. But in politics maybe not. It is possible that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's gambit to snag the chief ministership of Karnataka in 2023 -- 'this is the last election I will be fighting' -- paid off at the time. But looking at the state of the government in Karnataka today, despite winning 135 seats in the 224-member assembly (137 now after by-election victories), which is a kind of a landmark for the ruling Congress after 1989, you wouldn't think so. It is hard to recall an instance in India's political history when a deputy chief minister has publicly told his supporters that he has no option but to let the chief minister continue, as D K Shivakumar did last fortnight. Not governance initiatives, not infrastructure creation but succession to Mr Siddaramaiah seems to be the primary concern of the government and party. There are so many elements in the mix, including cross-party linkages. The relationship between former chief minister B S Yediyurappa and Mr Siddaramaiah is a complex, many-layered one. Publicly, the two fight, which is to be expected. But at Mr Yediyurappa's 78th birthday celebrations, recalling his role in bringing the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in the state, Mr Siddaramaiah said: 'Very few leaders know the pulse of the state and Yediyurappa is one among them.' There have been many instances when the two have helped each other out against rivals in their own parties. Currently, Mr Siddaramaiah's biggest challenger is not Mr Yediyurappa (who is facing problems of his own in the BJP) but Mr Shivakumar or DKShi, as he is called in local parlance. Unlike Mr Siddaramaiah who came to the Congress from socialist stock, Mr Shivakumar has always been in the Congress -- since he joined the Youth Congress when he was in college. He was Youth Congress general secretary in the state between 1983 and 1985. His first electoral victory was to become a member of the zilla panchayat in 1987. He is from the powerful Vokkaliga caste and his first assembly contest was against caste titan H D Deve Gowda in Sathanur in 1985. He was in his 20s. Not unexpectedly, he lost, though by a narrow margin. That, in itself, was not a small feat because Mr Deve Gowda was then a senior minister in the Ramakrishna Hegde government. But Mr Deve Gowda, who had contested from two constituencies, quit Sathanur, which Mr Shivakumar contested and won in the by-election. Then began a battle with the Deve Gowda family, which has changed its look and shape but remained, in essence, exactly what it was: A battle. Mr Shivakumar contested the 1989 Lok Sabha election from Kanakapura against Mr Deve Gowda and, not unexpectedly, again lost. Those were the years when Mr Deve Gowda was at the height of his power. However, he contested the assembly elections too and won. (In the 1989 elections to the Lok Sabha and assembly were held together in the state.) But despite his defeats Mr Shivakumar began building his influence in the rural areas adjoining Bengaluru. At around this time, land prices began rising. He also invested in mining and allied businesses. He became the youngest minister in the state just two years later at 31, where he served as minister of state under Chief Minister S Bangarappa from 1991 to 1992. By now he had formidable resources at his command -- money (records reveal his assets amounted to Rs 1,400 crore [Rs 14 billion] in 2023), and patronage. Both grew as time went by. Mr Shivakumar has used personal wealth to earn political capital. These stories are well known. The 2002 episode, when the Maharashtra chief minister and Congress leader, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh, had all but lost the government in a no-confidence motion, it was Mr Shivakumar, urban development minister in Karnataka at the time, who corralled MLAs and lodged them at a resort, and led them to Mumbai on the day of the vote. The late Ahmad Patel won his Rajya Sabha seat from Gujarat (2017) and publicly acknowledged his debt to Mr Shivakumar, who kept 44 MLAs from Gujarat 'safe'. IMAGE: Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar address the media after a state cabinet meeting in Chikkaballapur, July 2, 2025. Photograph: ANI Video Grab But while money can buy a lot of things, it doesn't always buy leadership. Observers of Karnataka politics say that while Mr Shivakumar has political influence, Mr Siddaramaiah wields power among the MLAs. This caused hectic lobbying and extended delays in government formation in 2023, testifying to the tug of war between the two leaders from the get-go. Going by political tradition, another formation will likely come to power in Karnataka in the next assembly election, due 2028. And if that happens, Mr Shivakumar will have to sit it out till 2033. Hence all these shenanigans midway through the term of the Congress government. Expect more restlessness. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff Home-cooked meals, quiet family time and sharing stories from earth and beyond, that's the kind of homecoming Kamna Shukla has planned for her astronaut husband Shubhanshu Shukla, the toast of the nation and only the second Indian to go up in space. IMAGE: Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla meets family after his return to Earth from the International Space Station, July 15, 2025. Photograph: Courtesy ISRO Spaceflight on X Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla, or Shuks as he is known to his colleagues, friends and now legions of followers, splashed down on earth after 18 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday. He is the first Indian on ISS. Shubhanshu is now in quarantine in Houston. Kamna is already there with their six-year-old son Kiash. Now that Shubhanshu has safely returned, our immediate focus will be on his rehabilitation and ensuring he smoothly readjusts to life on earth. For us, simply being reunited after this incredible journey is a celebration in itself, Kamna told PTI from Houston. "I am already preparing some of his favourite dishes, knowing how much he must have missed home cooked meals during his time in space." Kamna has been in the US ever since Shubhanshu began his prep for his lift-off on SpaceX from Florida on June 25. The couple got married in 2009. They have known each other since Class 3 when they both studied in Lucknow's City Montessori School. Kamna said phone calls from Shubhanshu were what she enjoyed the most during the 18 days he was in space. Receiving his call from the International Space Station right after docking was an unexpected and wonderful surprise. Hearing his voice and knowing he was safe meant the world to me. Our conversations typically revolved around his daily activities, the unique experiments he conducted, and the extraordinary experiences he encountered, which were vastly different from life on earth. These phone calls became the highlight of my day through 18 days, she said. Shubhanshu is now a celebrity with posters of him all around his Lucknow home in Triveni Nagar, where his parents and relatives have been besieged with congratulatory messages. While the nation celebrates his extraordinary accomplishment, our family will cherish quieter, personal moments of togetherness. These moments of joy, sharing familiar stories, laughter, and enjoying simple pleasures are our way of celebrating, Kamna said. His homecoming marks a beautiful blend of personal happiness and national pride, and we are immensely grateful for all the support and warmth we've received from across the country, she added. The prolonged spells of separation which space voyages entail are painful, Kamna admitted, but added that she has adjusted to them. And such separations, in many ways, have strengthened their bond. Being separated is undoubtedly difficult and always brings an element of pain. However, our journey with the Air Force has taught us resilience and adaptability, making these separations easier to manage over time, she said. In many ways, these moments of separation have only strengthened our bond, teaching us patience, understanding, and unwavering support for each other's dreams. Ultimately, we embrace the idea that anything truly valuable is never attained easily. When you commit yourself to a mission or profession of such significance, you naturally learn to overcome the emotional challenges that come with distance, she said. The couple is ever mindful of the greater purpose behind these sacrifices, recognising that significant achievements demand considerable effort and perseverance. Kamna spoke with pride of the transformation of the shy young man Shuks was to the famous astronaut he is today. Seeing him interact so confidently and joyfully with students from space filled me with immense pride and happiness. Witnessing his remarkable transformation from a shy young man into a dynamic and charismatic individual capable of inspiring countless young minds is incredibly moving. His journey demonstrates the incredible power of personal growth and resilience. His story deserves to be shared widely, and I am delighted to see him telling it eloquently and always with a genuine smile, she said. At Lucknow's City Montessori School, their alma mater, Shubhanshu is the new poster boy for students, many dreaming of a career as an astronaut. And Kamna couldn't be more delighted. "I think this is absolutely fantastic. The essence of Shubhanshu's mission was always about inspiring the younger generation to pursue STEM fields, to innovate, and to bring cutting-edge technology to India. While the path to becoming an astronaut is challenging, it's incredibly rewarding. Those who choose this path will not only achieve personal fulfillment but also bring great honour and pride to our nation," she said. Shux is also part of ISRO's plan to launch the Gaganyaan-India's first human space flight-in 2027. The Bihar police on Wednesday suspended a station house officer (SHO) for dereliction of duty in connection with the murder of Patna-based industrialist Gopal Khemka. IMAGE: Cops conduct a probe at the site after Vikas alias Raja, key suspect in the murder of businessman and BJP leader Gopal Khemka, was killed in an encounter, Patna, July 8, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo The order of suspension of Gandhi Maidan police station SHO Rajesh Kumar was issued by Central Range (Patna) Inspector General (IG) Jitendra Rana, an officer said. "Gandhi Maidan PS SHO was suspended for dereliction of duty in connection with the murder of industrialist Gopal Khemka," Patna SSP Kartikeya K Sharma told PTI. There are other cases in which the SHO's investigation was found unsatisfactory, the SSP said. Khemka was shot dead outside his residence in Patna by a motorcycle-borne assailant at 11.40 pm on July 4, seven years after miscreants had gunned down his son in Hajipur. The incident had taken place near the gate of Khemka's house in the Gandhi Maidan locality as he was about to alight from his car. Later, the police arrested two persons, including the gunman, in connection with the incident. Khemka was reportedly associated with the BJP. Several Biju Janata Dal workers and leaders, including two former ministers, were injured in a scuffle with police personnel in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday during a party's protest over the death of a college student, who set herself on fire in Odisha's Balasore district. IMAGE: Police detain protesting BJD workers in Bhubaneswar. Photograph: ANI on X The BJD's demonstration turned violent near the Lower PMG Square when its workers and leaders breached a barricade to march towards the state secretariat, Lok Seva Bhavan, and clashed with the police personnel, an officer said. The police used water cannons and fired tear gas shells to disperse the agitating BJD workers, he said. "BJD workers were later arrested and taken away from the agitation site," the officer said. Among the injured persons were former ministers Pranab Prakash Das and Priti Ranjan Gharai. Gharai was initially taken to Capital Hospital here and later shifted to the ICU of the Utkal Hospital, Bhubaneswar, a party functionary said. Das was taken to a private hospital, he said. The BJD held the protest, demanding a judicial inquiry into the death of the college student, who set herself on fire over alleged denial of justice in a sexual harassment incident. Security was strengthened at the Lok Seva Bhavan in Bhubaneswar in view of the BJD's protest over the college student's death in Balasore district. Security was also tightened in other government buildings in the city, including Rajiv Bhavan and Kharavela Bhavan, which are located in the vicinity of the state secretariat, police said. Police Commissioner S Dev Datt Singh was present near the Lok Seva Bhavan to oversee the security arrangements. Earlier, employees were allowed to enter the secretariat after thorough verification of their identities, officials said. Entry of visitors has also been restricted, they said, adding that people having prior appointments were, however, being issued entry passes on the recommendation of the departments concerned. Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Wednesday said recent conflicts globally have demonstrated how drones can 'shift tactical balance disproportionately', and asserted that self-reliance in UAVs and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) is a 'strategic imperative' for India. IMAGE: Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan visits the exhibition on indigenisation of critical components currently being imported from foreign OEMs in the areas of UAV & C-UAS, at the Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photograph: Rahul Singh/ANI Photo In his address at an event held at Manekshaw Centre in New Delhi, Gen Chauhan also said Operation Sindoor has shown why indigenously developed Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and C-UAS 'built for our terrain and our needs are crucial'. A day-long workshop on 'Indigenisation of Critical Components Currently Being Imported from Foreign OEMs in the Areas of UAV & C-UAS' is being hosted by Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff, in collaboration with the think-tank Centre for Joint Warfare Studies. The event comes against the backdrop of recent India-Pakistan hostilities, including Operation Sindoor, which highlighted the strategic importance and operational effectiveness of UAVs and C-UAS, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), in his keynote address at the inaugural session, said drones are proof of reality, and their widespread utility in recent conflicts demonstrates how drones can shift tactical balance disproportionately to their size or price. "Asymmetric drone warfare is making large platforms vulnerable and driving militaries to rethink the conceptual aspects of air doctrines, development of C-UAS and adaptive moves of engagement," he said. The CDS also said that during Operation Sindoor, Pakistan used unarmed drones and loiter munitions on May 10. But 'none of them could actually inflict any damage to Indian military or civilian infrastructure', he said. "Most of them were neutralised through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means. Some of them could be recovered in almost intact conditions," Gen Chauhan said. The CDS emphasised that Operation Sindoor has 'shown us as to why indigenously developed UAS and C-UAS built for our terrain and our needs are crucial'. Underlying the ethos of Atmanirbharta, Gen Chauhan asserted that 'we cannot rely on imported niche technologies that are crucial for our offensive and defensive missions; we must invest, build and safeguard ourselves'. "Dependence on foreign technologies weakens our preparedness, limits our ability to scale up production, results in a shortfall of critical spares for sustenance and round-the-clock availability." Gen Chauhan cautioned that foreign weapons, sensors and their capabilities are known to all, and adversaries can 'predict our tactics and doctrinal concepts' based on the capabilities of these systems. "But, if it developed on our own, then an element of surprise can be added, at least in initial encounters." Military leaders, defence experts, scientists, policymakers and private industry representatives gathered here to develop a 'strategic roadmap' for indigenisation, with an overarching aim to reduce dependency on foreign companies for critical UAV and C-UAS components. "In the rapidly evolving landscape of non-contact warfare, UAVs have emerged as a transformative force. For India, self-reliance in UAVs and C-UAS technologies is not only a strategic imperative, but it is also about empowering itself to chart its destiny, safeguard its interests and seize the opportunities of the future," the CDS wrote in his message for the workshop. In his address, he emphasised the importance of technology in warfare and underlined the evolutionary phases through which rifles, guns, ammunition and other platforms have gone through to become smaller, more potent, and convenient to use. "In today's warfare, you cannot win with yesterday's weapon systems. Today's warfare has to be fought with tomorrow's technology," the CDS highlighted. Operation Sindoor and the learnings from it were the focal points of this workshop, and in the first technical session, many speakers made a reference to it. India launched Operation Sindoor early on May 7 with precision strikes on multiple terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir, in retaliation for the Pahalgam attack that claimed 26 lives. The Pakistan military, in retaliation, targeted Indian military installations and civilian areas. India conducted counter-offensives against it and damaged several key air bases of Pakistan, including the Noor Khan base and the Rahim Yar Khan base. Indigenous technology and platforms have played a key role for the Indian military, and the decisive action has given a greater push for self-reliance in the defence sector. Brigadier Anshuman Narang (retd) made a presentation on 'Operation Sindoor: Importance of Indigenisation and Lessons Learnt'. He cited the use of drones and counter-drone systems in the Russia-Ukraine war and the Israel-Iran conflict to underline their power driven by technological innovation that can make even large installations vulnerable to their attacks. A 'sophisticated technology cat-and-mouse game' is being played out there, and India will also have to be prepared as 'no drone is small to be ignored,' Brig Narang said. He asserted that indigenisation should not just be limited to a drone or a technology, but the entire architecture. Chief of Integrated Defence Staff Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, in his message for the event, said, "India today stands at a strategic inflection point." "Our armed forces and paramilitary agencies increasingly rely on UAVs for ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), targeting, logistics and precision strike. However, the core ecosystem is still significantly dependent on foreign technology," he said. India's vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India in defence production necessitates a 'comprehensive roadmap' to achieve self-reliance in drone and counter-drone technologies, Air Marshal Dixit added. The event is expected to serve as a catalyst for innovation, knowledge sharing, and long-term capability building in unmanned systems. An exhibition of defence products by different companies was hosted at the venue. Photo: https://www.facebook.com/kondratiukolena/ The Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Olena Kondratiuk, believes that it is not enough for Poland to take its fighter jets into the air during Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities, but it is necessary to help Ukraine close the sky. "I constantly appeal to our Polish colleagues and partners - it is not enough to take our fighter jets into the air during another Russian attack on Ukrainian cities. We must help Ukraine close the sky from Russian drones and missiles with a reliable shield. At least over the West of our country. This is a matter of protecting Polish business and institutions operating in Ukraine," Kondratiuk wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. According to her, the deliberate Russian attack on a Polish company in Vinnytsia, and earlier damage to the consular section of the Polish embassy building due to massive shelling of Kyiv, is a wake-up call for Poland. "We need to act, because if there is no clear reaction from the Polish side, the next attacks, unfortunately, will not be long in coming. Such is the cynical psychology of the terrorist state and aggressor Russia," Kondratiuk emphasized. As reported, as a result of a Russian drone attack on the night of July 16, the plant of the Polish group Barlinek in Vinnytsia was damaged, and there are casualties. Security forces on Wednesday stopped nearly 100 internally displaced people in Manipur from returning to their villages in Dolaithabi in Imphal East district, police said. Image used only for representation. Photograph: ANI Photo As a precautionary measure to prevent any untoward incident, they were stopped from going back to their native places, a senior officer said. The IDPs, who were staying in a relief camp near Sajiwa in Imphal East district, moved towards Doilaithabi to return to their native villages, he said. "They were stopped near Pukhao Tezpur, around 2.5 km from Dolaithabi, to prevent any untoward incident," the police officer said. Dolaithabi lies in a 'sensitive fringe zone' and had witnessed several attacks from neighbouring hill areas of Kangpokpi district when ethnic violence broke out in May 2023. The police also said that adequate security measures have been put in place, and one company of CRPF women personnel has also been deployed. The district administration and senior police officers are presently engaging in dialogue with local leaders to find an amicable solution to the issue. The situation remains peaceful and is under control, the officer said. The overall law and order situation is being closely monitored by senior officers to ensure continued stability, he said. More than 260 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May 2023. The Centre had on February 13 imposed the President's rule in Manipur after Chief Minister N Biren Singh resigned in the wake of the ethnic violence. The state assembly, which has a tenure till 2027, has been put under suspended animation. Glimpses from around the world that will make you smile and cry. Trump Moves to Tech-ify Pennsylvania IMAGE: US President Donald John Trump speaks with reporters as he departs for Pennsylvania from the south lawn at the White House. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Tracking Migrants IMAGE: A federal immigration officer scans the line for people on his detainment list outside a US immigration court in Manhattan. Photograph: David 'Dee' Delgado/Reuters City Under Water IMAGE: A girl gets on a rickshaw on a street flooded due to heavy rain in Dhaka. Photograph: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters The Race for Mayor IMAGE: New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani celebrates his endorsement from District Council 37, New York's City's largest labor union, in New York City. Photograph: Adam Gray/Reuters Hunger Haunts Gaza IMAGE: Zainab Abu Haleeb, a five-month-old Palestinian girl diagnosed with malnutrition, receives treatment at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Hussam Al-Masri/Reuters A Mother's Despair IMAGE: Israa Abu Haleeb looks after Zainab, hopeing she will get well soon. Photograph: Hussam Al-Masri/Reuters Lives Lost Again IMAGE: A mourner carries the body of a child during the funeral of Palestinians from the Azzam family killed in an overnight Israeli strike on their house before burying them in a plot of land due to the lack of space in Gaza's overcrowded cemeteries. Photograph: Khamis Al-Rifi/Reuters Burqa Under Fire IMAGE: A Palestinian man inspects burnt cars after Israeli settlers set fire to cars in the Palestinian town of Burqa near Ramallah in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Photograph: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters Climate Crisis Ignored IMAGE: A protest on the day of the European Union foreign ministers council in Brussels. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Haryana SIT's line of investigation in the case of Ashoka University professor booked for social media posts on Operation Sindoor saying "it misdirected itself". IMAGE: Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked the Haryana SIT headed by a senior police officer to only confine itself to the two FIRs against Ali Khan Mahmudabad over his contentious social media posts and see if there was an offence and submit its report in four weeks. "We are asking why SIT is, on the face of it, misdirecting itself? They were supposed to examine the contents of the posts," Justice Kant said. The bench said though it did not want to interfere or intervene with the investigation, it questioned the seizure of the cell phones and other electronic gadgets. "It is open for the SIT to say that the contents of the FIRs does not disclose any offence, this case can be closed. It can always say that during the course of investigation, they have come across certain incriminating materials, which constitute separate offences and the law will take its own course," the bench told additional solicitor general S V Raju, appearing for the SIT. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Mahmudabad, submitted despite the court directing the SIT to focus on the contents of the FIR, it carried out a "roving inquiry" and sent the gadgets seized from the professor to forensic laboratory for examination. He referred to the interim status report of the SIT saying it had received the forensic lab report of the gadgets and two more months were required for its examination. Raju said the investigation was SIT's prerogative and the accused couldn't dictate terms of the probe. "All you had to do was examine the posts, whether the expression, words or terminology constitute any offences alleged in the FIR. For that you do not need him, or a dictionary or his gadgets. We want to know for what purposes, these gadgets were seized?" the bench asked Raju. Justice Kant said if Raju was unable to answer the question it would call the head of the SIT and them about the line of investigation. Sibal said the posts were very patriotic statements and anyone looking at it would give the same view. Raju argued to see if there was an offence, devices had to be examined to see if there was more than just social media posts. "We feel that the SIT has misdirected itself despite the mandate given in the May 28 order," the bench reiterated. Since Mahmudabad was cooperating with the investigation, there was no need to summon him again, it said. The investigation should not have taken two days, it added. "There are two social media posts and two FIRs. The question is very simple. Which line and which word or expression constitutes an offence. This is what the SIT, being an expert body, has to find out," the top court said. he bench relaxed the professor's bail condition imposed on May 21 and allowed him write posts, articles and express any opinion except on the sub judice case. On May 28, the top court said there was no impediment on the professor's right to speech and expression, but barred him from sharing anything online on the cases against him. The top court had made it clear that the subject matter of investigation was two FIRs lodged against the professor and asked the Haryana police not to go "left and right" in the investigation and seek the "devices", which the cops said they would like to examine. On May 21, the top court granted him interim bail, but refused to stay the investigation against him. The top court had also restrained the professor from expressing any opinion in relation to the terrorist attack on Indian soil or the counter-response given by the Indian armed forces. It directed a three-member SIT to look into the FIRs against him. The Haryana police arrested Mahmudabad on May 18 after two FIRs were registered against him. His contentious social media posts on Operation Sindoor, it is alleged, endangered the sovereignty and integrity of the country. The two FIRs -- one based on a complaint by the chairperson of Haryana State Commission for Women, Renu Bhatia, and the other on a complaint by a village sarpanch -- were lodged by the Rai police in Sonipat district. Mahmudabad was booked under BNS sections 152 (acts endangering sovereignty or unity and integrity of India), 353 (statements conducing to public mischief), 79 (deliberate actions aimed at insulting the modesty of a woman) and 196 (1) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion). Several political parties and academicians condemned the arrest. India on Tuesday called on Bangladesh to reconsider its decision to demolish the ancestral property of noted filmmaker Satyajit Ray and offered help to preserve the iconic building as it symbolises Bangla cultural 'renaissance'. IMAGE: Satyajit Ray. Photograph: Dinu Alam Newyork/Wikimedia Commons Describing the move to demolish the 'landmark' building in Mymensingh as a matter of 'profound regret', New Delhi also urged Dhaka to convert it into a museum symbolising shared culture of the two countries and pledged to extend cooperation for it. The iconic building belonged to the filmmakers's grandfather, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, who was also a renowned litterateur. The reaction by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) came following reports that the building is set to be demolished by Bangladeshi authorities. 'We note with profound regret that the ancestral property of noted filmmaker and litterateur Satyajit Ray in Mymensingh, Bangladesh, belonging to his grandfather and eminent litterateur, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury, is being demolished,' the MEA said. It said the property, presently owned by the Bangladesh government, is in a state of 'disrepair'. 'Given the building's landmark status, symbolising Bangla cultural renaissance, it would be preferable to reconsider the demolition and examine options for its repair and reconstruction as a museum of literature and a symbol of the shared culture of India and Bangladesh,' the MEA said in a statement. It said the government of India would be 'willing' to extend cooperation for this purpose. Earlier in the day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the move by the Bangladeshi authorities to demolish the property as 'extremely distressing' and said the building is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal. 'I appeal to the Bangladesh government and all the conscientious people of that country to take steps to preserve this heritage building,' she said in a social media post. The West Bengal chief minister also appealed to the Indian government to intervene in the matter. The Bombay high court on Wednesday questioned the statutory right of six advocates to sue Italian fashion house Prada for its alleged unauthorised use of the famous Kolhapuri chappals, and dismissed their public interest litigation (PIL). Photograph: Khaing Nyein/Pixabay.com A bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep Marne raised questions on the locus of the petitioning advocates, saying they were not the aggrieved persons or the registered proprietor or owner of the footwear. "What is your (petitioners') statutory right?" HC asked. "You are not the owner of this Kolhapuri chappal. What is your locus and what is the public interest? Any person aggrieved can file a suit. What is the public interest in this," the court asked. The plea had said the Kolhapuri chappal (sandals) is protected as a Geographical Indication (GI) under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act. The bench then said that the registered proprietor of the GI tag can come to court and espouse their own action. The court dismissed the plea and said it would pass a detailed order later. In their spring/summer collection, Prada showcased their toe-ring sandals, which the petition said are deceptively similar to the Kolhapuri chappals. These sandals are priced at Rs 1 lakh per pair. The bench also questioned how an injunction can be granted in a PIL and said the affected party can file a suit if they wish to. "Infringement action cannot be decided in a PIL. It has to be in a suit by the aggrieved person. Evidence will have to be looked into," HC said. Senior counsel Ravi Kadam, appearing for Prada, argued that a GI tag was a trademark and opposed the PIL filed by the advocates. The petition filed earlier this month had sought compensation to be paid to Indian artisans over the alleged copying of their design. "The Kolhapuri chappal is the cultural symbol of Maharashtra," the plea filed by six Pune-based lawyers said. The petition was filed against the Prada Group and various Maharashtra government authorities. It sought direction restraining Prada from commercialising and using its 'toe-ring sandals' without authorisation, and for the luxury fashion group to issue a public apology and acknowledge the use of Kolhapuri chappals. "The court shall also order a permanent injunction against Prada's unauthorised GI use and to compensate the artisans' community for reputational and economic damages," the petition had said. It also sought an inquiry against Prada for violating the rights of GI-registered proprietors and the artisans' community. By way of interim order, the PIL had sought damages and compensation to be paid to the artisans' community, including a temporary injunction restraining Prada from marketing, selling or exporting their sandals. It claimed that Prada has privately accepted that its collection has been inspired by Indian artisans but has not yet issued any formal apology or compensation to the original artisans. "The private acknowledgement appears to be merely a superficial attempt to deflect criticism," the PIL said. The petitioners sought a direction to the authorities to protect the rights of the community and ensure compensation for its members. Echoing United States President Donald Trump's stance on imposing economic sanctions against countries maintaining trade ties with Russia if Moscow doesn't put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, North Atlantic Treaty Organisaiton (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday (local time) urged India, China, and Brazil to reconsider their economic relations with Russia, warning of potential secondary sanctions, reported Reuters. IMAGE: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 14, 2025. Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters In a press conference, Rutte, speaking alongside US Senators Thom Tillis and Jeanne Shaheen, co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, emphasised the urgency of the situation, noting Trump's announcement on increasing military support for Ukraine, including air defence systems, missiles, and ammunition. "What happened yesterday was important. First of all, the US will now supply Ukraine with weapons, not just air defence but also missiles and ammunition, paid for by the Europeans. And secondly, President Trump said basically if Russia is not serious about peace talks within 50 days, he will impose secondary sanctions on countries like India, China and Brazil," Rutte stated. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is that if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look at this because this might hit you very hard," he added. He further urged these countries to 'make the phone call' to Russian President Putin to make him 'get serious' about the peace talks, reflecting the potential economic repercussions. "Please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way. So I think it was a very smartly, wisely designed announcement yesterday by President Trump," the NATO Chief stated. Earlier on Monday (local time), Trump threatened to impose 100 per cent 'secondary tariffs' on Russia if a deal on Ukraine is not reached within 50 days, during his meeting with Rutte in the White House. Trump also expressed disappointment with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose severe tariffs if there is no deal within 50 days. Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said on Wednesday that the terrorists responsible for the Pahalgam attack have been identified and will soon be dealt with. IMAGE: Chairs and tables are scattered after the terrorist attack on tourists in Baisaran near Pahalgam in Anantnag district, on April 24, 2025. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters While delivering a lecture on 'Jammu and Kashmir: Towards Peace' at the Gandhi Smriti, Sinha emphasised that any attempts to disrupt peace in the Kashmir Valley will not succeed. "Following the Pahalgam attack, Pakistan received a strong response through Operation Sindoor. Those who carried out the attack have been identified, and I can confidently say they do not have long to live. Good news will come, but it's not appropriate to disclose a specific date. Over the past five years, even the highest leaders of various terrorist organisations are no longer alive, and they will meet the same fate," Sinha said. On April 22, 26 people, mostly tourists, were gunned down by terrorists in an attack at Pahalgam in the Kashmir Valley. In retaliation, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 to target terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "With the efforts of the local administration and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are moving towards making Jammu and Kashmir the state of Gandhi's dreams," Sinha said at the event presided over by former union minister and vice chairman of Gandhi Smriti, Vijay Goel. Discussing developmental projects in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly following the removal of Article 370 in 2019, Sinha highlighted that the Valley has experienced inclusive development in a short time. Highways worth Rs 1.5 lakh crore have been built, over 5000 hotels have opened, and 1013 new startups have been launched, most of which are led by local women, he emphasised, adding that Kashmir is now rapidly advancing towards development. Sinha expressed confidence that every central government scheme is reaching the citizens of Kashmir and mentioned that stone-pelting has become a thing of the past. Despite concerns from the opposition regarding the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the Valley, he claimed that not a single bullet was fired during this period. Although some may not welcome the "changed" atmosphere of the Valley, with the inspiration of Prime Minister Modi, the story of "Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas" is being written across the state without any "discrimination", he added. The latest meeting of Pakistan's top civilian and military leadership has once again fuelled rumours of a possible change in the country's political landscape amid speculations of the army chief possibly aspiring to be the next president. IMAGE: A police officer stands in front of the traffic, next to posters of the Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Asim Munir, in Karachi, on May 20, 2025. Photograph: Akhtar Soomro/Reuters This is the third time this month that there has been widespread speculation about the change in presidency, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself last week dismissing rumours that President Asif Ali Zardari may be forced to step down and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to assume his post. The latest round of rumours came after Field Marshal Munir called on Sharif at the PM House shortly before the latter met Zardari at the president's house on Tuesday, The Express Tribune reported. The high-level engagements have taken place amid growing speculation about a possible 27th constitutional amendment and rumours suggesting Zardari may step down to make way for his successor, the report said. The speculation, largely fuelled by social media, hinted at behind-the-scenes efforts to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential form of government. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the speculation was 'unfounded', but confirmed the issue of media reports regarding the President's resignation and his possible replacement by the army chief indeed came up during the meeting between Zardari and Sharif. He said the speculation stemmed from a media report that was possibly retracted. Earlier on July 11, strongly dismissing rumours that Zardari may be forced to step down and Munir aspired to assume the presidency, Sharif said such claims were 'mere speculations'. "Field Marshal Asim Munir has never expressed any desire to become the president, nor is there any such plan in the offing," Sharif told The News. Sharif's clarification had come after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in a statement on X on July 10, denounced the 'malicious campaign' targeting Zardari, Sharif and Munir. "We are fully aware of who is behind the malicious campaign," Naqvi, who is considered close to the top military leadership, had said. On Wednesday, amid intense speculation about a potential shift in the country's power and political structure, the defence minister categorically refuted all the speculations, and said Zardari was apprised about the developments and he showed 'full confidence' in the government and the current political system. "The president was fully aware of the issue and expressed his full confidence in the government," Asif told The Express Tribune, adding that Sharif briefed Zardari about the unconfirmed story and the subsequent developments. "It's all kite flying," he said. While confirming that Sharif had a meeting with the field marshal before the PM-led delegation called on Zardari, Asif said there was nothing unusual about it as the premier and field marshal routinely meet three times in a week to discuss different issues. "The army chief has no interest in politics," Asif claimed. The defence minister said the army chief already held the highest office in the military and has earned massive respect following Pakistan's recent conflict with India. "He [field marshal] doesn't need anything," Asif added. The minister also dismissed the conjectures that there was a rift between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the two major parties of the ruling coalition, after the former emerged as the single largest party in the national assembly following the Supreme Court's ruling in the reserved seats case. "We will keep a united face," he said, adding: "We are not just partners in power but beyond." Following a split mandate in the February 8 general elections last year, Zardari's PPP helped the PML-N form the government in the Centre. In response to a question about whether the 27th Amendment was still being considered even if there was no change in the presidency or the political structure, Asif said there was no deliberation about any constitutional amendment at the moment. However, he maintained that introducing a constitutional amendment was a legitimate process and could be used just like it had been on previous occasions. Asif also denied that Tuesday's meeting included any discussion on any legislative business in the coming weeks. "No legislative agenda was discussed during the meeting." Meanwhile, according to a statement by the President's Press Wing following the meeting, Sharif met Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr in the presence of federal ministers Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Mohsin Naqvi and PM's Adviser Rana Sanaullah to discuss the country's political, economic and security situation. It said the premier briefed the president on the government's economic measures, and both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to working together for national stability, development and prosperity. Days after Russian woman Nina Kutina was taken into custody for living in a cave deep inside the forest in Karnataka's Gokarna with her two daughters, her ex-husband, an Israeli citizen, is demanding shared custody of their daughters, saying he wants to be a father to them. IMAGE: Russian national Nina Kutina was found living with her two daughters in a remote cave near Gokarna. Photograph: ANI on X "I just want to be able to see my daughters a few times a week and take care of them, too. My concern is that if they go to Russia now, it will get tougher to keep in touch with them. So, I wish they could stay in India," said Goldstein to PTI Videos on Wednesday. Dror Goldstein (38), who said he lives for nearly six months a year in Goa, said he had been living separately from Kutina (40) for the last couple of years and that he 'lost touch' with them when she took the daughters and left Goa a few months ago. "I managed to find them on a beach in Gokarna, but Kutina refused to let me be with my children as I don't live with them anymore," added Goldstein. He said he met Kutina in Goa around 2017 and they had been together, travelling between India and Ukraine, until they split. He said he had left India this time around in March, and because of the war, he couldn't come before this. "When I heard the news, I booked a flight immediately to Bengaluru to try and meet them," said Goldstein. He said Kutina wants to raise the children alone. "She told me in the beginning itself that if I don't live in the same house, I should not be in touch with them at all," claimed Goldstein. When they left Goa a few months ago, Goldstein said he filed a missing report with the police. "But now, I want to push for shared custody," he added. Goldstein said he has been supporting Kutina since she gave birth to his first daughter. "I give her money every month and then come here to India to spend six months with them, as I have other obligations for the other six months. Also, the visa is only for six months," he added. Goldstein said his younger daughter was born in India and that Kutina has been living here (in India) for nearly five years. "As I understand, she (Ama) is a citizen of India and should not be deported," he said. The girls, Prema (6) and Ama (4), were found with Kutina in a secluded cave in the Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk on July 11. They were found living inside a cave in Gokarna during a routine inspection by the police after a landslide in the area. Police had said that all three had lived in isolation for nearly three weeks before they were found. In an earlier interview with PTI, Kutina said that her life in the cave was not as it was being portrayed in the media. She also complained about the place where she and her daughters were taken after being moved from the cave. "We are now kept in an uncomfortable place. It's dirty, there's no privacy, and we get only plain rice to eat. Many of our belongings were taken, including the ashes of my son, who passed away nine months ago," she told PTI Videos. The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the Uttar Pradesh government's response on a plea against certain provisions of the 2024 amended UP law on unlawful religious conversion. IMAGE: Kindly note that this image has been posted for representational purposes only. Photograph: ANI Photo A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice to the state asking for its response. It tagged the plea for hearing with other pending petitions raising similar issues. The top court was hearing a plea filed by academician Roop Rekha Verma, who hails from Lucknow, and others against the amended law. The petitioners have called certain provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act amended in 2024 "vague and overly broad", arguing their ambiguity infringed upon free speech and religious propagation. The state's counsel on Wednesday said similar pleas challenging the law were pending before the bench headed by the Chief Justice of India. The counsel for the petitioners pointed out the plea was only challenging the law's amendments in 2024. The top court had agreed to examine the plea on May 2. The plea, filed through advocate Purnima Krishna, argues the law infringes upon Articles 14 (equality before the law), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), and 25 (freedom of religion) of the Constitution. Sections 2 and 3 of the Act, it claimed, were "vague, overly broad, and lack clear standards" which made it difficult to determine what constituted an offence. "This ambiguity infringes upon free speech and religious propagation, enabling arbitrary enforcement and discriminatory application. Penal laws must be precise; vague provisions violate constitutional principles by granting excessive discretion to authorities, failing to provide reasonable notice, and risking wrongful prosecution of innocent individuals," the plea said. This ambiguity opens the door to arbitrary enforcement and discriminatory practices, especially against individuals seeking to practice or propagate their faith, it added. The plea said penal laws must be defined with precision to prevent misuse by authorities and avoid the wrongful prosecution of innocent citizens. The amendment's "key concern" was said to be the expansion of the category of persons authorised to file complaints without incorporating procedural safeguard. "The law presumes malintent behind all religious conversions and views adult individuals with suspicion, thereby reducing them to subjects whose personal decisions must be validated by the state," it said. Challenging the proportionality of the prescribed punishment which it said were "excessive", the plea said, "The government, by assuming the role of protector of religious identities, encroaches on the individual's right to choose their faith." Referring to Section 5 of the law, the plea said, it is wrongly assumed all women, regardless of their background, are vulnerable to illegal conversions, reinforcing harmful stereotypes undermining their autonomy. The top court is seized of various petitions challenging the validity of various state laws on religious conversions. A total of 15 civilians in the city of Kryvy Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, were injured as a result of shelling by Russian occupiers on Wednesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. "The elimination of the consequences of the nightly Russian shelling is ongoing... One of the targets was, in particular, the energy infrastructure. They are now trying their best to restore everything in Kryvy Rih, and the power supply will be restored during today. Unfortunately, 15 people were injured, including one child. All of them are receiving the necessary medical care," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on Thursday. According to him, in addition to Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv and Odesa regions were also hit during the night. "Russia is not changing its strategy, and to effectively counter this terror, we need a systematic strengthening of defense: more air defense, more interceptors, more determination so that Russia feels our response," Zelenskyy said. Earlier it was reported that a 17-year-old boy was seriously injured in the abdominal cavity as a result of an attack on Kryvy Rih, now doctors are fighting for his life. The city was attacked at night by 28 Shahed UAVs and a ballistic missile simultaneously. An industrial enterprise was destroyed. On the night of July 16, Kryvyi Rih suffered one of the most massive drone attacks since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion. On March 26, the occupiers launched 117 strike UAVs over the Dnipropetrovsk region, which became the largest drone attack since the beginning of the war. Air defense forces shot down 56 drones on the territory of the region. Fires broke out in Kryvyi Rih, administrative and industrial facilities and cars were damaged, but there were no casualties. Earlier, on the night of March 3, air defense forces shot down seven UAVs, a 52-year-old woman was injured in Kryvyi Rih, who was treated on the spot, fires and damage to residential and infrastructure buildings occurred. The city suffered the greatest casualties as a result of Russian missile attacks. In particular, during a ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih on April 4, 20 civilians died and at least 63 were injured. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has received five e-mails threatening to blow up the Golden Temple since July 14, president of the apex gurdwara body Harjinder Singh Dhami said on Wednesday. IMAGE: BSF personnel with a sniffer dog inspect the surroundings of the Golden Temple in the wake of the fifth bomb threat, in Amritsar, Punjab, July 16, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo Talking to reporters in Amritsar, Dhami said the five e-mails threatening bomb attacks are a matter of concern. When the first e-mail was received on July 14, authorities had beefed up the police deployment around the Golden Temple. Meanwhile, Amritsar police commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said a bomb-disposal team of the Border Security Force has been deployed for a search operation outside the Golden Temple. On the threat e-mails, Bhullar said the police are investigating the matter. The SGPC has informed the government and the police administration about these threats, Dhami said. However, he expressed disappointment that the identity of the sender of the e-mails remains unknown. He wondered whether the threats are simply the mischief of a malicious mind or part of a larger conspiracy. Dhami said the Sachkhand Sri Harmandar Sahib (Golden Temple) is a spiritual and inclusive centre for all humanity, drawing lakhs of devotees from India and abroad every day. He further said an attempt might be underway to create fear among the large number of devotees who come to pay obeisance at the sacred site. He emphasised that it is the government's responsibility to urgently trace the origin of these e-mails, including the server, the IP address and the originating country. Dhami disclosed that the threat e-mails sent on July 15 and July 16 were not only addressed to the SGPC but also to Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and yet, the government has failed to unearth who was behind those. He said the SGPC has previously submitted several complaints to the Punjab Police regarding fake and parody social media accounts operating in its name but the Cyber Cell has not taken any substantial action, reflecting the state's lack of seriousness toward Sikh institutions. Dhami said the SGPC is fulfilling its responsibilities diligently and that the entire complex of the Sachkhand Sri Harmandar Sahib is being managed with utmost care by the management. He appealed to the devotees not to be fearful while coming to pay respects and noted that people are still arriving in large numbers as always. Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the threat e-mails are a very serious matter. He urged the Punjab and central governments to consider the seriousness of the issue and conduct a thorough investigation to apprehend the culprits, so that no sense of insecurity arises in the minds of the "sangat". Meanwhile, speaking on an anti-sacrilege bill introduced in the Punjab Assembly, Dhami welcomed the move but stressed that the government must approach the matter with seriousness. He said this is not the first time that such a law is being discussed. Earlier, the previous SAD government had also held discussions on the issue and the matter should be taken forward in the spirit of respecting sentiments, he added. Dhami pointed out that most incidents of sacrilege in Punjab are related to the Guru Granth Sahib and the proposed law's language merely referring to "holy scriptures" is inadequate and hurts Sikh sentiments. He said while the scriptures of all faiths are respectable, the Guru Granth Sahib is accorded the status of an eternal guru by the 10th Sikh guru, Guru Gobind Singh himself. "For Sikhs, Sri Guru Granth Sahib is the living, eternal guru and thus, any law made in this regard must contain specific provisions concerning the Sikh sentiments," the SGPC chief said. He emphasised that besides the teachings of the Sikh gurus, the Guru Granth Sahib also includes the writings of saints, bards and Sikhs from diverse communities, giving a universal message to humanity. 'If this is true, the Election Commission should come forward with data and officially confirm it.' IMAGE: District Election Officer and District Magistrate Aman Sameer carries out a house-to-house visit in the Ekma assembly constituency in Saran, Bihar, July 11, 2025, to verify the work being done by booth level officers and review the ongoing special intensive revision campaign of the voters list. Photograph: @Saran_dm X/ANI Photo Amidst reports alleging that a large number of infiltrators from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar have made their way onto Bihar's voter lists, the issue has ignited a political firestorm ahead of the state assembly elections later this year. The controversy, as is often the case when infiltration issues arise, has drawn focus to Seemanchal, a Muslim-dominated, economically backward region of the state. While there has been no official confirmation or official data on the exact number of alleged infiltrators on Bihar's voter rolls, the emergence of a report -- citing unnamed field-level officials of the Election Commission of India involved in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll -- has triggered a fresh and heated debate: Is this claim true, or is it a fabricated? This development follows recent reports by a section of the national media that unusually high Aadhaar enrollment rates were reported in Seemanchal compared to the Bihar average. The media outlets claimed that while Bihar's average Aadhaar saturation stood at 94%, Seemanchal exhibited 'oversaturation'. Specific figures cited included 126% in Kishanganj (with a 68% Muslim population), 123% in Katihar (44% Muslim population), 123% in Araria (43% Muslim population), and 121% in Purnea (38% Muslim population). Bharatiya Janata Party leaders reportedly emphasised these figures without thorough verification. However, a more complete picture of Bihar's Aadhaar enrollment data soon emerged, suggesting that some national television anchors may have painted a wrong picture to target the Muslim community. Official data for Bihar's 38 districts revealed that only Jehanabad district had Aadhaar coverage below 100%. Most districts reported more than 100%. Notably, Sheikhpura, with a marginal Muslim population, had an enrollment rate of 118%. IMAGE: The electoral registration officer meets voters for the special intensive revision of the voter list in Chhapra, Saran, July 11, 2025. Photograph: @CEOBihar X/ANI Photo BJP leaders, including Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, voiced serious concerns over reports of a surge in domicile certificate applications in Kishanganj. Chaudhary was quoted in a video clip stating, 'There is a sudden surge of over 2 lakh applications in just one week, from July 1 to 7. Earlier, we barely got 25,000 in a month. This cannot be normal. Are Bangladeshis or foreigners from other countries behind this? This is the reason we have directed the administration to issue a certificate only after intensive review.' However, this increase in domicile certificate applications in Kishanganj was not entirely unexpected. Residents were seeking these documents for the Election Commission's ongoing special intensive revision of electoral rolls, as a domicile certificate is one of 11 listed documents required for the process. Locals in Kishanganj and across Seemanchal expressed fears of disenfranchisement or being labeled 'illegal foreign immigrants' due to a lack of proper documentation, particularly given Seemanchal's shared borders with Nepal and Bangladesh. There is no denying that Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims have settled in Seemanchal as well as in other parts of Bihar and the country. It is also plausible that some of them may have managed to get their names included in voter lists using fraudulent Aadhaar cards and domicile certificates. Yet, it is not true that the entire Seemanchal region is dotted with infiltrators. Local Hindi newspapers frequently report about the arrest of foreign nationals, particularly from Bangladesh, Myanmar and other countries, as they attempt to illegally enter India through various checkpoints along the India-Nepal border near Bihar. "BJP leaders have been alleging for years, without proof, that Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are present in Bihar's Seemanchal (comprising Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar and Araria districts). This is the first time a report, citing official sources within a Constitutional body like the Election Commission of India has claimed that a large number of Nepali, Bangladeshi and Myanmarese citizens have been found on Bihar's voter list," stated Satyanarayan Madan who runs Jan Pahal, a people's organisation in the state. "If this is true, the ECI should come forward with data and officially confirm it." "What is new in the report is that for the first time Nepal's citizens along with Bangladesh and Myanmar natives, have been put in the category of illegal infiltrators. Never before were Nepalese described in such a manner, because Bihar shares an open, porous border with neighbouring Nepal, and we have shared 'roti-beti' (familial and economic) relationships for centuries. Nepalese are never seen as infiltrators," Madan emphasised. At a time when booth level officers are primarily collecting and submitting enumeration forms without documents during the ongoing door-to-door SIR of electoral rolls, Madan asked how foreign nationals were identified on voter lists before proper checks. IMAGE: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi with Rashtriya Janata Fal leader Tejashwi Yadav at the protest called by the Opposition Mahagathbandhan against the Special Intensive Revision of the voters list ahead of the Bihar assembly elections in Patna on July 9, 2025. Photograph: ANI Photo "How did they find the names of Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar citizens on the voters list when only enumeration forms were submitted, and they haven't been checked yet? Does it not sound suspicious that Election Commission officials found them on the voters list without proper document checks, scrutiny and physical verification?" Madan asked. Reports indicated that Election Commission field-level functionaries had found 'a large number of people' from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar during house-to-house visits for the ongoing intensive review of Bihar's voter list. These functionaries reportedly asserted that a proper inquiry would be conducted after August 1, and the names of illegal migrants would not be included in the final electoral roll to be published on September 30. "It is questionable how field-level functionaries of the Election Commission, mainly booth level officers, identified and found a large number of people from Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar on the voter list when they have been accepting enumeration forms without documents. Is it possible to trace infiltrators on a voter list without checking documents and physical verification?" asked Ram Prakash Mahto, a retired college professor living in Katihar, one of the four districts comprising the backward, Muslim-populated Seemanchal region. If the reports of a large number of infiltrators managing to register their names on Bihar's voter list are true, Mahto said it is an unfortunate development. "It is a failure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance governments at the Centre and in Bihar to stop and check infiltrators and to take action against them if they entered. Who is stopping them from arresting and deporting such illegal people living in the state?" Mahto asked. "Who made their EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card)?", asked social scientist D M Diwakar. "It was the Election Commission that provided them with EPICs. Why doesn't the Election Commission officially accept it if the booth level officers found a large number of people from three neighbouring countries on the voter list?" "It appears far from the truth. This is nothing but a narrative to keep those in power happy as it suits their political agenda," added Diwakar, a former director of the Patna-based A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies. Abdul Mannan, a school teacher in Kishanganj, said the issue of Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslim infiltrators invariably resurfaces before elections, often as a means to target Muslims in Seemanchal. "There is deep suspicion about the Bengali-speaking people," Mannan remarked, "because they are Muslims and an easy target for suspicion and hate." Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff Kuwait has executed 25 Indian nationals in the past five years. Kindly note the image has been published only for representational purposes. Photograph: Kind courtesy Ian Wakefield/Pixabay The postponement of the Nimisha Priya's execution scheduled for July 16 by Yemen brought a wave of relief for the 38-year-old nurse from Kerala and her family. Priya is incarcerated in Sana'a, the capital which is under the control of Iran-backed Houthis since 2014. The nurse was sentenced to death for murdering a Yemeni national and business partner in 2017. In 2020, a Yemeni court handed her the death sentence and the country's Supreme Judicial Council dismissed her appeal in November 2023. According to PTI, sources revealed that the Government of India has made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for Priya's family to reach a 'mutually agreeable' solution with the other party. Indian officials have been in regular touch with the local jail authorities and the prosecutor's office, leading to securing the postponement, the sources told PTI. India does not have diplomatic relations with the Houthis and does not have an embassy in Sana'a. According to CNN, diplomatic affairs related to Yemen are handled through the Indian embassy in Djibouti City, across the Red Sea. 54 Indian citizens have been sentenced to death by foreign courts as per the ministry of external affairs in a response in the Rajya Sabha in February 2025. 50 were executed in the last five years. Three Indians, including a woman, were executed in the UAE in February 2025. Kuwait has executed the highest number -- 25 in the past five years. Saudi Arabia 9, Zimbabwe 7, Malaysia 5 and Jamaica 1. The UAE has the highest number of Indians on death row [29]. In a reply in the Rajya Sabha on March 20, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh said that no data on Indians executed was shared by the UAE. One Indian has been sentenced to death by lethal injection in the United States since 2018. The execution has not been carried out yet. As per informal information available with the Indian mission in UAE, the minister said no Indians have been executed from 2020 to 2024. However, 3 Indians were executed in the UAE in February 2025. Shahzadi Khan, 33, from UP was executed in UAE in February. Shahzadi worked in Abu Dhabi and was convicted for the death of an infant under her care. Shortly after her execution, Muhammed Rinash Arangilottu and Muraleedharan Perumthatta Valappil from Kerala were executed for murder. Arangilottu was convicted for the murder of a local. Valappil was sentenced for killing an Indian. The news of their deaths was conveyed after the execution. 10,152 Indians are currently incarcerated abroad across 86 countries. The highest number of Indian nationals are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia [2,633], the UAE [2,588] and Nepal [1,317]. As per information available with the MEA on February 13, 2025, the number of Indians on death row in the following countries are: United Arab Emirates - 29 Saudi Arabia - 12 Kuwait - 3 Qatar - 1 Three Indians were executed in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 2024. One Indian was executed in Zimbabwe in 2024. In 2023, five Indians were executed in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, 3 in Zimbabwe and one in Malaysia. Last year, Qatar released 8 retired Indian Navy officers who were imprisoned in the country. The naval personnel were sentenced to death which was later commuted to differing prison terms. The officers were provided consular access and eventually freed after nearly two years. Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High around 85F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. Members of the Brattleboro Fire Department monitor the rising waters at Tri-Park Co-Op Housing as a volunteer evacuation notice was given to residents around Edgewood Drive in Brattleboro on Dec. 18, 2023. Photo: https://t.me/ Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and Special Representative of the President of the United States Keith Kellogg met at the Center for the Protection of Children's Rights as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative. "I presented the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, which unites the efforts of the state, civil society and international partners. This issue is not only humanitarian - it is a matter of global justice and security. Ukrainian children cannot be a subject of bargaining. On June 2, Ukraine officially handed over to Russia the initial list of children and a formal request for their return. Now we are waiting for action from the Russian Federation," Yermak said on the Telegram channel following the meeting. He noted that there are currently more than 16,000 known cases of illegal detention, of which at least 1,800 are on Russian territory. About 900 children have died, and more than 2,000 have been injured. There are also at least 19 known cases of sexual abuse of children. "These crimes must be stopped. Together, we will return every child home. This is important," Yermak emphasized. The meeting was also attended by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets, the Presidential Advisor on Children's Rights Daria HHHerasymchuk and the co-chair of the high-level international expert group Bring Kids Back UA Lady Helena Kennedy. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today Mixed clouds and sun this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Potential for severe thunderstorms. High 84F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low near 60F. Winds light and variable. The relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, once the biggest bromance in the tech industry, has deteriorated so badly that the companies are now mulling taking nuclear options against one another actions that could seriously damage both companies. At issue is how much Microsofts US$13 billion investment in OpenAI will be worth if OpenAI goes public, as it plans to do. The companies are locked in an increasingly bitter battle over how Microsofts investment should be valued. OpenAI has already hinted at moves that could get the US government to prosecute Microsoft for AI-related antitrust violations, which could force the company to spin off its AI products. Microsoft, in turn, might shut off negotiations with OpenAI, putting any IPO and the companys future at risk. Now OpenAI is going straight for Microsofts jugular: Its considering launching a productivity suite with generative AI (genAI) tools built in, a direct attack on Microsofts multibillion dollar Microsoft 365 office suite business. OpenAIs plans for a productivity suite remain hush-hush, but some details have leaked. Heres what we know now, and what the consequences of launching one might be. What might OpenAIs productivity suite include? The little reporting done about OpenAIs suite, according to The Information, says it will focus on collaborative document editing, include automated meeting transcriptions, have team chat capabilities, and be tightly integrated with ChatGPT. Beyond that, little is known. Will it have a full suite of applications, including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation software and email? Will there be more than that, along the lines of Microsofts Clipchamp for video creation, or Project for project management? What collaboration capabilities would it have? And how would it all linked to genAI? Most important of all: What in the suite would make enterprises abandon Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace for OpenAIs offering? So far, mums the word. US President Donald Trump said some Patriot missiles are already on their way to Ukraine a day after announcing a that NATO members would send weapons to Ukraine in a change in his stance against sending US weapons to the war-torn country. "They're coming in from Germany," he told reporters on July 15 without elaborating. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said two Patriot air defense systems are being prepared for delivery to Ukraine. Germany is to pay for their transfer, but the final technical, logistical, and financial details still need to be clarified, Pistorius said on July 14 after meeting with US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. The details "appear to be solvable for both of us, so we will get to work quickly," Pistorius added, saying that Ukraine urgently needs additional air defense systems. Russian Shahed drones attacked Kharkiv on the evening of July 15, injuring two people local authorities reported. Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said at least 17 explosions were heard in the city within 20 minutes. Trump said he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since his July 14 announcement, which included a 50-day deadline on Russia accepting a cease-fire deal to avoid sanctions being imposed on countries that trade with Russia. Trump did not say whether any talks were planned to try to work out a deal but defended the deadline. "At the end of the 50 days if we don't have a deal, it's going to be too bad," Trump said. But he also said it might not take 50 days to make a deal. Trump also was asked about a report in The Financial Times saying that Trump had privately encouraged Ukraine to step up deep strikes on Russia. Citing people briefed on discussions, the newspaper said that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether the Ukrainian military could strike Moscow if the US provided long-range weapons. "No, he shouldn't target Moscow," Trump told reporters on July 15 when asked if Zelenskyy should order an attack on the Russian capital. The US president also played down the possibility that the United States would send long-range weapons to Kyiv. European officials are working to ensure Ukraine gets the weapons it needs, while the European Union is working to reach agreement on a new round of sanctions against Russia after Slovakia again held up the latest package. "I'm really sad that we didn't reach this agreement today," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on July 15. "But I'm still hopeful that we will get the decision tomorrow." The fresh round of sanctions has been stalled for weeks by a wrangle with Slovakia over separate plans to phase out Russian gas imports. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he needed further guarantees from Brussels on its plans to cut off Russian gas imports from the end of 2027. Slovakia remains dependent on Russian gas imports and earns money from transit fees for supplies piped across its territory. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and dpa Thousands of people demonstrated in Sofia on July 16 over the arrest of the mayor of Varna, Blagomir Kotsev, a week earlier. Kotsev is accused of soliciting a bribe, but one official who gave testimony against him later said he had been pressured into making the statement. Supporters of Kotsev say the Bulgarian government's Anti-Corruption Commission is being used as a political tool against leaders belonging to opposition parties. European patience with Iran is running out as nuclear talks stall, with Paris warning that UN sanctions could return unless Tehran offers verifiable commitments. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on July 15 told his EU counterparts that Paris and its partners in Berlin and London will snap back UN sanctions against Iran if there is no firm, tangible and verifiable commitment from Tehran. UN embargos on arms, banks, and nuclear equipment were lifted a decade ago under the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This "snapback mechanism" can be triggered before an October 15 deadline, giving Europe limited but critical leverage in ongoing talks. Ali Vaez, the director of the Iran program at the International Crisis Group, says the E3s ultimatum is very serious. He told RFE/RLs Radio Farda that the West is becoming increasingly more confident that the mechanism is leverage that should not be lost in order to compel Iran to, at the very least, allow international inspectors to visit its nuclear sites and, at most, strike a deal with the United States. The European trio, also known as the E3, are pushing for the UNs nuclear inspection team to return to Iran, partly to stop Tehran from attempting to reshape its nuclear program after the damage inflicted by US and Israeli strikes in June. Under the terms of the 2015 accord, China and Russia, which have traditionally backed Iran in nuclear talks, do not have the power to block a sanctions snapback. While the expiration window to reapply the sanctions closes in October, the Europeans can choose to delay the snapback beyond the expiry date in order to allow more time for further negotiations. Iran has been warning for months against the re-imposition of UN sanctions, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi telling Le Monde last week that it would have the same effect as a military attack. From our perspective, such a move would mark the end of France and Europe's role in the issue of Iran's peaceful nuclear program, he said. US In No Rush For A Deal While the Europeans warn that the window to reach an agreement is closing, US President Donald Trump has downplayed the urgency for a new deal. At a press briefing this week, he told reporters, [The Iranians] would like to talk. Im in no rush to talk because we obliterated their sites, referring to the June 22 strikes on nuclear facilities in Fordo, Isfahan, and Natanz. Trump claims the extensive damage from US and Israeli strikes has given Washington the upper hand, insisting any talks would happen strictly on American terms and reiterating his no nuclear weapon for Iran red line. Since the Israel-Iran war came to a halt following a US-brokered cease-fire on June 24, Trump has sent mixed messages about diplomacy with Tehran. His comments have ranged from there being no need for an agreement given the state of Irans nuclear program to speaking about reaching a permanent deal with Iran. Iranian and US negotiators were scheduled to meet in Oslo last week but the meeting was postponed, with apparently no new date agreed upon. Snapback? Bring It On -- Or Dont Media reaction to the potential re-imposition of UN sanctions has been mixed. Some have escalated the rhetoric by questioning the rationale, while others have raised the alarm about the potential fallout. Conservative outlets in particular have been dismissive of the impact of sanctions. Khorasan newspaper described the triggering of the snapback mechanism as European self-sabotage, arguing that it would further consolidate the E3s status as a biased party. The threat of snapback is less a sign of Europes resolve than it is an admission of their political failure to play an independent and effective role on the international stage, it said. The conservative Jahan News website made a similar argument, claiming that because European nations dont act as a monolith and each pursue different levels of relations with Iran, reapplying UN sanctions would exacerbate internal divisions in the bloc. But more moderate outlets highlight the economic and political repercussions of being subjected to UN sanctions again. Hammihan newspaper said the sanctions would undermine Irans international credibility and would legitimize US sanctions against Tehran, which the Islamic Republic have long insisted are illegal. It argued that because Iran has been under US economic sanctions since 2018, UN sanctions would be far more limited than in the past. It added, however, that there would be a psychological impact on society which would, in turn, affect the value of the national currency. Shargh newspaper also warned against downplaying the impact of the sanctions, saying, The snapback mechanism is not only an economic threat but also a form of modern hybrid warfare against Iran that could affect national security and regional stability. With reporting by Reza Jamali of RFE/RL's Radio Farda As Russia remains preoccupied with its war in Ukraine, its influence is weakening along its southern border, particularly in Armenia and Azerbaijan. This power shift is opening the door for other players, including Turkey, the European Union, and the United States, to expand their presence in the region, analysts told RFE/RL. On July 10, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Abu Dhabi to discuss a potential peace deal, notably without any mediators -- including Russia. Although no breakthrough was reached, a joint statement reaffirmed both countries commitment to bilateral negotiations and continuing confidence-building measures. Just five years ago, however, the dynamics were starkly different. After a 44-day war between the two countries in 2020 over Nagorno-Karabakh -- a mostly ethnic Armenian region internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan and long at the center of the two countries mutual animosity -- Russian President Vladimir Putin mediated a cease-fire, reinforcing Moscows traditional role as the regions power broker. But the truce has since contributed to what Rauf Mirgadirov, an analyst with the Ayna-Zerkalo newspaper in Baku, calls a historic shift. The two countries -- after more than 30 years of conflict over Karabakh -- are now closer to one another and distancing themselves from Russia, he told RFE/RL. Both want to be free from Russian influence, and this is their opportunity, as Russia is very busy with the war in Ukraine. Ruben Mehrabian, an analyst at the Armenian Institute of International Relations and Security, agrees that Yerevan views the current situation as a chance to loosen Moscows hold on the country. Russia wanted Armenia to remain in eternal conflict so that it could continually rescue us to justify its indefinite presence, he said. But Armenia wants to resolve these disputes and remove any Russian presence from our country. Now Russia doesnt like that. Mounting Tensions And Accusations In the eyes of some analysts, Yerevans ties with Moscow began to deteriorate in 2016 during a brief bout of hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. The conflict concluded with a Russian-brokered cease-fire and some territorial gains for Azerbaijan, fueling Armenian frustration over Moscows limited support for its traditional ally. According to Richard Giragosian, founding director of the Regional Studies Center in Yerevan, this moment marked the beginning of Armenian erosion and loss of confidence in Russia as a security partner. Russias position and policy beginning with the 2016 war began to shift to Azerbaijan, he said. Relations plunged further after the 2020 conflict, when Baku regained control over Nagorno-Karabakh and Russia again failed to back Yerevan. Recent events have highlighted how strained the bond between the two countries has grown. On June 17, Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetian was arrested on charges of calling for the unlawful seizure of power. In Giragosians view, the arrest was a move by the Armenian government to preempt any Russian interference in next years parliamentary elections. But at the same time, it was more about pushing against Russian interest or influence within Armenia itself, he added. This man is a product of Moscow; he is widely perceived as pro-Putin. Just days later, on June 25, Armenian authorities arrested Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian, a prominent cleric in the Armenian Apostolic Church, accusing him of plotting to overthrow the government. Russia responded angrily, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling for an end to unjustified attacks against the church, describing it as one of the key pillars of Armenian society. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan fired back, accusing Moscow of meddling in Armenias internal affairs. Azerbaijan Also Turns Away From Moscow The shifts arent limited to Armenia. Relations between Baku and Moscow have also deteriorated sharply this summer. In late June, Aliyev suspended high-level meetings, barred Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksei Overchuk from visiting and canceled Russian cultural events in Baku. These actions followed the deaths of two ethnic Azeris during a police raid in Yekaterinburg, Russia, amid allegations of torture. Russia's Zangezur Dilemma Five years ago, Russia had other ambitions for maintaining influence in the region -- specifically through a military presence. The 2020 cease-fire agreement signed by Russia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan called for reopening economic and transportation routes. It also stipulated that Armenia would ensure secure transit between Azerbaijan proper and its Naxcivan exclave via the so-called Zangezur corridor, with Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) assigned to oversee it. Perhaps the Zangezur corridor is Russias only viable option for maintaining a presence in the region, Kirill Krivosheev, a Russian analyst at the Carnegie Foundation, told RFE/RLs Azerbaijani Service in 2023. However, Armenia sees the corridor as a threat to its sovereignty. While negotiations continue, it remains unclear whether Russian FSB oversight will be part of any final deal. In March, Pashinian said there would be no foreign deployments along the Armenia-Azerbaijan border after a treaty is signed, and the idea is also not really attractive to the Azerbaijanis either, according to Vadim Dubnov, a correspondent for RFE/RLs Echo of the Caucasus. Deploying FSB forces may have made sense for Azerbaijan before the Karabakh conflict was resolved, he said. But now, direct negotiations with Armenia -- and not Russian involvement -- are more beneficial to Baku. Control over Zangezur also ties into a larger geopolitical picture: the Middle Corridor, a route linking China to Europe and bypassing Russia. Zangezur is part of the Middle Corridor, Mirgadirov explained. Russia doesnt just want to control Zangezur; it wants to dominate all land and air routes in the South Caucasus. But I think Turkey is well-positioned to lead regional security efforts. New Regional Players While analysts agree that Russias influence is waning, they caution that deep economic and historical ties cannot be severed overnight. However, since Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, this economic dependence has also begun to shift, Russian analyst Krivosheev noted in his 2023 interview with RFE/RLs Azerbaijani Service. Turkey has become a key import partner for Russia. Many goods are transported via Turkey and Azerbaijan, he said. The Istanbul straits are vital, and Azerbaijan is now a crucial hub for Russian gas. We sell oil and gas to Azerbaijan, which then sells it to Europe. This is legal and does not violate sanctions. Paul Goble, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, highlighted Azerbaijans rising importance. Aliyev has finally realized that Moscow needs Azerbaijan at least as much as Azerbaijan needs Russia, he said. When you realize that the other side needs you more than you need it, that changes how you make calculations. Meanwhile, Yerevan is rebuilding ties with Istanbul while distancing itself from Moscow. Long strained over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict -- in which Turkey supported Azerbaijan, closing its borders with Armenia in the 1990s -- and historical grievances, relations between the two countries are cautiously improving. In June, Pashinian visited Turkey and met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- the first political working visit aimed at bilateral negotiations. Armenia is economically dependent on Russia because most of our communication with external markets runs through Georgia to the Russian market, said Mehrabian. Our border with Iran is open but limited in capacity. Opening the Turkish border would allow Armenia access to European markets. Yet Armenia is not putting all its hopes on Turkey. Mehrabian said Yerevan is also strengthening ties with the US and EU. We are working with the EU and the US to elevate cooperation, he said. With the US, we have already signed a charter of strategic partnership. With the EU, we have passed legislation aligned with potential membership -- even though we know its a long road ahead. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A reshuffling of Ukraines government and diplomatic corps could improve communication with the United States just as President Donald Trump appears to be pivoting toward the embattled country in its more than three-year war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 14 announced that 39-year-old Yulia Svyrydenko, the economy minister and first deputy prime minister who led talks with the United States on a critical minerals deal, would replace Denys Shmyhal as prime minister. Meanwhile, outgoing Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, 43, has been tapped to be the countrys next ambassador to Washington, another sign of Zelenskyy's push to boost the flow of communication with the White House. The departures of Shmyhal, Ukraines longest-serving prime minister, and of Ambassador Oksana Markarova had been anticipated. Markarova, a financier and respected diplomat, had angered Trump and members of his Republican Party after she took part in organizing Zelenskyys visit to an arms plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania just two months before the US presidential election in November 2024. Zelenskyy was accompanied by Democratic lawmakers to the plant, which is located in the hometown of then-incumbent President Joe Biden. Speaker Mike Johnson (Republican-Louisiana) had called for Ukraine to fire Markarova, accusing her of interfering in the election. Pennsylvania was a crucial swing state in the election, in which Trump defeated Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. That was one of a series of events going back to 2019, including an impeachment trial triggered by a phone call with Zelenskyy in July of that year, that had soured Trump on Ukraine. Trump discussed Markarovas departure with Zelenskyy during their most recent phone conversation, on July 4. In terms of relations with the US, the replacement of the ambassador is the most important thing. She was associated with the arrangement of the visit to the arms factory and a lightning rod for Trump supporters, Mikhail Alexseev, a political scientist at San Diego State University, told RFE/RL. Markarovas dismissal comes six months into Trumps term. Alexseev said replacing Markarova soon after Trumps victory in the election would have made for bad optics. Markarovas term in Washington would likely have come to an end soon regardless of the arms plant visit. She had been ambassador for more than four years, and no Ukrainian ambassador to the United States has served more than five years. Minerals Deal Svyrydenko, an economist appointed as economic development and trade minister and first deputy prime minister in 2021, played a lead role in negotiations with the United States over a deal granting US companies access to Ukraines valuable minerals and rare earths. Trump made the deal a cornerstone of his policy toward Ukraine, saying the United States needed to be reimbursed for its aid to the country, which has totaled about $175 billion since the Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Svyrydenko flew to Washington in April to sign an agreement with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that sets up the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. Under the agreement, the United States has the right to share in the profits from new Ukrainian minerals and energy projects. Trump touted the agreement as ensuring US interests in Ukraines defense and reconstruction. Svyrydenko returned to Washington last month as part of a high-level delegation to discuss defense needs and reconstruction. She reportedly presented some mineral projects that would fall under the deal. As prime minister, she will oversee the process. For the Americans, Svyrydenko is someone that they can work with. Bessent knows her now, as do others in the administration, Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kyiv, told RFE/RL. The United States and Ukraine negotiated for months on the minerals deal. Hunder said Svyrydenko has shown herself to be a good communicator and her experience hammering out the minerals deal sets her up well for one of her main tasks: working with the United States. Her appointment comes just as Trump appears to be pivoting toward Ukraine as he seeks to end the biggest war in Europe since World War II. Trump this week announced he would be selling weapons to NATO for further transfer to Ukraine -- his biggest show of support for the country since taking office in January -- following failed peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Supporting Flow Of Military Aid As ambassador to Washington, Umerovs task would be to convince the Trump administration to continue supporting Ukraine through arms sales, aid, and investment in the defense industry. A successful businessmen who moved into politics, Umerov was appointed defense minister in September 2023. Ukraines military needs are going to be among the main talking points between the US government and Ukraine. So having someone in Washington that can speak in depth on those issues is going to be very helpful, said Nick Piazza, a US investment banker active in Ukraine for the past quarter century and whose foundation advocates for the country. Alexseev said that Umerov, as a former businessman, will also understand Trumps transactional approach to diplomacy. Umerov must formally be approved by the Trump administration before he can take up his post as ambassador. Umerov headed the Ukrainian delegation that held two rounds of peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2. The two sides agreed to prisoner swaps but made no apparent progress toward ending the war. Shmyhal is set to become defense minister in the reshuffle. A Russian aerial bomb hit a busy shopping center in the town of Dobropillya in Ukraine's Donetsk Region on July 16. Rescue workers rushed to the site to search through the rubble and help the wounded. Dobropillya has come under attack in recent days as Russian forces continue their offensive around the nearby city of Pokrovsk. Photo: https://metinvestholding.com/ua/ At the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC) 2025 in Rome, Metinvest Group presented four unique concepts of the restored Steel Dream quarters for Bakhmut, Mariupol, Trostianets and Hlukhiv. As reported in a press release on Wednesday, these solutions are part of a joint platform with municipalities aimed at the rapid, systematic and modern reconstruction of destroyed cities in Ukraine. During URC-2025, three of the four concepts - Bakhmut-Hoscha, Mariupol-Bila Tserkva and Trostianets - were presented in Rome directly by the mayors of the cities in the Communities pavilion. They became a platform for negotiations with donors, funds and potential investors. The project aroused interest: a series of meetings with representatives of state institutions and international structures that are considering the possibility of supporting its implementation have already been scheduled. "For Trostianets, Steel Dream is a powerful and effective tool that has allowed us to reach a new level of negotiations with international partners. The presence of such a detailed plan is exactly what is expected of us in the international arena. This approach has the potential to become a driver for the entire Sumy region," said the mayor of Trostianets, Yuriy Bova. Separately, as part of the URC, the Business Fair Stage hosted a presentation of the general concept of Steel Dream by the head of the external projects department of Metinvest Sichsteel, Tetiana Skrypka. According to her, Steel Dream is a universal concept that will allow for the quick and safe restoration of infrastructure. It is based on three steel technologies: module, frame and platform. The company's specialists have developed over 200 typical residential and social infrastructure projects that can already be implemented. The main advantages of such housing are the speed of construction thanks to ready-made structures, reliability and durability, as well as flexibility in planning and use. It is also important that 98% of steel is recyclable: this makes the solution environmentally responsible. The head of the external projects department of Metinvest Sichsteel also showed how the Steel Dream projects are implemented in practice. In particular, the Circle of Life concept will be implemented in Hlukhiv - it provides for park areas that unite people and integrate education with nature. In Trostianets - the Unity Point, which will unite the industrial, cultural and environmental heritage of the city into a single ecosystem. Gordon Deegan A jury was told on Wednesday that former All-Ireland winning hurler Niall Gilligan whacked a 12-year-old boy on the leg with a stick during an alleged assault in October 2023. At Ennis Circuit Court, prosecuting counsel Sarah Jane Comerford BL laid out the State case against Mr Gilligan (48) in her opening speech to the jury. Former All-Star Clare hurler Mr Gilligan, of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge, denies the charge of assault causing harm to the boy. Ms Comerford said that on October 5th, 2023, a then 12-year-old and his then 13-year-old friend went into the Jamaica Inn hostel in Sixmilebridge. She said the two believed that the property was abandoned. "They were exploring the building when the accused, Niall Gilligan, who owned the property at the time, arrived to check on it," Ms Comerford said. She said the jury will hear that the property was vandalised and broken into in the days leading up to October 5th. Ms Comerford said the jury will be told that the two boys were outside the property when they saw Niall Gilligan. She said that when they saw Mr Gilligan, the two boys ran and the 12-year-old will tell the jury that he slipped in a puddle and the accused came up behind him and whacked him on the leg with a stick and the accused kept hitting him in the leg, his ribs, his hip, his elbow and his hand. Ms Comerford said the jury will hear medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the boy and see photos of bruising and cuts that the 12-year-old will tell them were caused by Mr Gilligan hitting him with a wooden stick. The prosecuting barrister said the boy will tell the jury after the alleged assault Mr Gilligan grabbed him by the jacket and brought him out to the road and asked him his name and who his father was. Ms Comerford said the boy will tell the jury that he sat on a wall for a while because he has asthma and could barely breathe. There he met his 13-year-old friend again and that boy will say that he saw Mr Gilligan outside the Jamaica Inn and he ran at the same time as his friend and managed to get away. Ms Comerford said the 13-year-old will say that he heard screaming from his friend and he waited in an industrial estate beside the property and while he was relatively safe there, he was still very scared. A few minutes later, the 13-year old met up with his 12-year-old friend and let him lean on him while his friend tried to walk home, she told the court. Ms Comerford said the 12-year-old told him to leave in case he was caught by the accused. She said the 12-year-old made his way to the local GAA club and was given a lift home by a lady there who will give evidence in the case. Ms Comerford said that once home the boy was brought to a local VHI clinic and was then brought to University Hospital Limerick where he was treated for his injuries and where gardai were called. The court was told that Mr Gilligan was later arrested by gardai and gave an account of what he said happened on October 5th and his interactions with the 12-year-old boy at the Jamaica Inn hostel which he told gardai were in self defence and you will hear that in due course. Ms Comerford said Mr Gilligan denies assaulting the boy with a wooden stick and he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing harm. Mr Gilligan is also pleading not guilty to producing a wooden stick capable of inflicting serious injury during the course of a dispute contrary to Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act at the Jamaica Inn at Sixmilebridge on October 5th, 2023. The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women. Alison O'Riordan A murder accused told gardai that he couldn't remember stabbing his sister's partner with a kitchen knife as he was so drunk but later said that "all the evidence pointed" to him being "the only one responsible", a jury has heard. Moldovan national Valeriu Melnic (24), with an address at Calliaghstown Lower, Rathcoole, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the manslaughter of Ion Daghi (39) at The Close, Sallins Park, Sallins in Co Kildare on May 12th, 2024. A pathologist has told the jury that Mr Daghi died from a single stab wound to the chest. Having been arrested on suspicion of assault causing harm to Mr Daghi at 3.30am on May 12th, Mr Melnic was deemed unfit for interview and was not questioned until 15 hours later. He told interviewing officers at Naas Garda Station that he and the deceased had been drunk and at some point an argument started. "A lot of drink was taken, my memory is very hazy," he added. The accused said he remembered pouring whiskey into a glass and Mr Daghi told him he was pouring whiskey in the "incorrect manner" and they started fighting with their fists. The accused said he remembered a brief moment where he was sitting on the floor and Mr Daghi was trying to choke him. "The only moment I remember is when he tried to choke me, am I going to prison?" asked Mr Melnic. The defendant told gardai "we drank three or four bottles of whiskey between the two of us and I drank beer too". In his next interview, the accused said he worked in a granite and concrete factory and had been a heavy drinker over the years. He said he drank quite a lot and that alcohol had "deleted" his memory "almost completely". Mr Melnic said he couldn't remember taking the knife and had fights before "but would never use a weapon". Asked whether he accepted he had stabbed Mr Daghi, the accused said he was ready to face punishment but couldn't remember anything. He accepted he had "caused the wound which caused" the deceased "to pass" but did not remember. In his final Garda interview on May 13th, Mr Melnic said he was ready to face a punishment but recalled "nothing of the fight". "What I remember I told you, what I didn't tell you I don't remember...I didn't want to harm anyone, I didn't want to cause all of this". "You don't recall grabbing a knife and your sister struggling with you to stop you?" asked the detectives. "I can't recall anything of what you said, my memory is blank," he replied. He continued: "I can't recall holding a knife, I can't recall how I stabbed him. I regret it happened to my sister, my sister gone through a horrible thing". He said he was the most intoxicated person in the house, which is why he accepted every statement read to him by gardai. "I can't imagine I'm capable of stabbing a live person but ready to face the consequences for my actions". He denied pretending that he couldn't remember. The accused said he was drunk so he couldn't recall everything. Gardai put it to him that "in this country doing things when drunk isn't a defence", to which the accused said he wasn't trying to use it as a defence. "Do you accept that you did stab him with a knife?" asked the officers. "Not accepting but it's a reality... I'm not that type of person, I find it hard to comprehend I'm a person capable of doing such a bad thing," said the accused. He said he was prepared for punishment but couldn't recall grabbing the knife or stabbing Mr Daghi. "I wish I was dead, not him". Mr Melnic said he hadn't "done this on purpose", it wasn't deliberate. The accused said he was being choked by Mr Daghi, couldn't breathe and remembered pushing him away."I can't remember how I stabbed him but prepared to face punishment for my actions". Asked again whether he accepted he stabbed Mr Daghi, the accused said he had to accept it. "If everyone says it's my fault it shows I'm the person involved". Gardai put it to the accused that he had picked the "biggest knife" when he went to stab the deceased. Mr Melnic said he didn't know why he had picked that knife but all the evidence pointed that he was "the only one responsible". Earlier, Garda Justin Meaney testified that the accused was intoxicated, quite emotional and agitated when he arrived at the deceased's house in Sallins at 3.35am on May 12th. He said Mr Melnic was rambling at times in another language and other times in English. When he cautioned the accused, Mr Melnic said: "Maybe tonight I killed someone cause he stupid". Gda Meaney told Brendan Grehan SC, defending, that Mr Melnic was bleeding from the back of the head. He said the accused had gashes at the top and back of the head, a badly swollen eye and cuts and scrapes on his knee. Dr Mohamad Shafi told Carl Hanahoe SC, prosecuting, that he examined the accused on May 12th and found injuries including severe swelling on the side of the face, which could have been caused by a punch. There was pooling of blood in the tissues surrounding the accused's eye and abrasions on the lateral and back part of the head. There were also abrasions on the knee. Under cross-examination, the doctor agreed with Mr Grehan that the scratch marks on the neck were "quite possibly" consistent with the accused being grabbed around the neck. Asked if it was fair to say he was looking at someone who had suffered "a beating", the witness said "yes, possibly". In his opening address, Mr Hanahoe said it was the State's case that the accused armed himself with a kitchen knife and stabbed Mr Daghi once in the chest following an altercation after the pair had spent the night drinking together. The trial continues tomorrow before Mr Justice David Keane and a jury of eight men and four women. The recent unveiling of a mural at the former De La Salle Brothers school in Ballaghaderreen was an emotional day for past students and for former Minister for Education John Bolands family. The mural, located on the gable wall of the former school, now the local Family Resource Centre, commemorates the abolition of corporal punishment in 1982 under Minister Boland, and is the first of its kind in the country. The mural was unveiled by Mr Bolands daughter, Deputy Grace Boland. One of those past students was Cllr Micheal Frain who spoke of the ongoing torture camp that he and many others experienced during their education from the age of four before progressing to secondary school. However, despite the memories of corporal punishment, Cllr Frain said that the focus of the day was the abolition of that method of education, and he praised the legacy of John Boland in front of his daughter and current Fine Gael TD Grace Boland and his wife Kay, who were in attendance. The quote at the centre of the mural reads that John Bolands actions in abolishing corporal punishment paved the way for a new educational system and a new atmosphere inside all the classrooms. Referencing that quote, Mr Frain said it typified what a change this was in the country. Pictured at the mural unveiling were Joe Duffy, Grace Boland, Geraldine O'Donnell, Mary Casey, Cllr Micheal Finan, Patsy McGarry, and Joe Egan. Pic: Liam Reynolds Kay Boland noted that the good that man does is very often interred in the graves where evil lives on, and this mural proved that that is incorrect. The good deed that John did, abolishing corporal punishment, obviously lives on, she said. Mrs Boland spoke of the abuse her late husband had to deal with, and added that a combination of having young children himself and the naivety of being a young new minister, led to his decision to abolish corporal punishment. Deputy Grace Boland praised her fathers actions, in the face of serious backlash. In 1982, Dad, then Minister for Education, made a decision that was quietly radical. He abolished corporal punishment in Irish schools and not with fanfare, but, with conviction. He believed that children deserved respect, not fear; that discipline should never come at the cost of dignity and that a Republic worthy of the name must protect its youngest citizens, said the Dublin based Deputy. Kay and Grace Boland TD who were presented with a painting by Aine Flynn to make the unveiling of the mural by Grace. Pic: Liam Reynolds I want to say to all the children who pass by this mural every day, may you never know the fear that once lived in classrooms, may you know only the joy of learning, the safety of being heard and the power of being believed in and may there be laughter, Ms Boland concluded. She praised the committee members for preserving a pivotal point in Irish history, and thanked young artist Aine Flynn for her portrait that was presented to the Boland family, and pianist Ivan Suprenenko who played music for the event. She expressed her gratitude to Joe Egan, Joe Duffy, Geraldine O'Donnell, Mary Casey and Cllr Micheal Frain for their dedication to the project. The murals artist, Nick Purdy, Roscommon Leader Partnership, the An Bealach project and Ballaghaderreen Family Resource Centre were also thanked for their help with the mural. US Special Representative for the United States Keith Kellogg met with UK Chief of Defence Staff Anthony Radakin during his visit to Kyiv. Kellogg reported on the meeting on the X platform on Tuesday. Building on the progress made in Rome on the Coalition of the Willing, I had a meeting with UK Chief of Defense Admiral TonyRadakin in Kyiv today. America and our European allies continue to work towards a lasting peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, Kellogg said on X. Earlier, the US President's special representative noted in a note on Platform X his talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha. Boyle is preparing to once again come alive with creativity, energy, and celebration as Boyle Arts Festival 2025 returns from July 17th to 26th. The countdown is now officially on for what promises to be one of the most exciting festivals in the West this summer. Broadcaster Bryan Dobson will open Boyle Arts Festival on Thursday, July 17th. Now in its 36th year, Boyle Arts Festival has built a proud tradition of supporting Irish talentespecially emerging artistswhile also showcasing world-class performances across music, literature, visual arts, theatre, comedy and more. The festival and exhibition will be officially opened on Thursday, July 17th by journalist, presenter and former RTE newscaster Bryan Dobson. Boyle Arts Festival is made possible thanks to the ongoing support of local businesses, sponsors, and the community. The festival has been named a county finalist in the 2025 National Lottery Good Causes Awards. This recognition is a true testament to the quality of our work and the incredible community that supports and inspires everything we do, said festival chairperson Patricia Golden. Thank you to everyone - artists, volunteers, audiences, and partners - who help us bring creativity, culture, and connection to life in Boyle year after year. Each year, the festival grows in depth, diversity, and quality. Were especially proud of the platform it gives to young and emerging Irish talent across all disciplines, said Patricia. Visitors are encouraged to check the website at www.boylearts.com for updates, tickets, and full programme details. Join us for an unforgettable celebration of creativity and culture in the heart of the West, said the chairperson. This years headline musical acts include one of the last chances to catch legendary Irish folk band The Fureys as they approach their final chapter in May 2026. Playing Friday, July 25th, their music has been the soundtrack to generations of fans worldwide and for nearly five decades, Eddie and George Furey have shaped Irish folk music, sharing stages with legends like The Clancy Brothers. The world-renowned Irish Tenors play at the Church of Ireland on Thursday, July 24th as part of their 25th anniversary tour. The world-renowned Irish Tenors play the Church of Ireland on Thursday, July 24th as part of their 25th anniversary tour. With 10 best-selling albums and a reputation as Irelands premier musical ambassadors, their performance promises a stirring and unforgettable live experience. Iconic ska group Bad Manners, who will close the festival with a high-energy show at St. Josephs Hall on Saturday, July 26th and recently reformed acoustic quartet, Jargon play an afternoon show on Sunday, 20th featuring Charlie McGettigan alongside acclaimed guitarist Gerry Grennan, soulful performer Liam Gilmartin, and versatile musician Brian Mulligan. In comedy and theatre, renowned comedian Jarlath Regan brings his latest stand-up show In Bits to Boyle on Thursday, 24th, following an internationally acclaimed, sold-out tour and Bradan Players present Little Gem on Wednesday, July 23rd, a poignant and hilarious play about love, sex, birth, death and salsa classes. Betrothed by Julie Sharkey on Sunday, 20th is an immersive theatre experience that brings the audience into the heart of the action, moving through the historic rooms of King House alongside the characters. This years programme also includes a not-to-be-missed evening of music with the The Seeger Sessions Revival on Friday, 18th, a thrilling tribute to Bruce Springsteens Seeger Sessions and American folk music, and on Monday, 21st July, Gradam Shean- Nos Cois Life 2025 awardee, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh brings together a star studded line-up for Boyle including leading producer musician, Donal OConnor on fiddle & keyboards, Irelands premier traditional harper & composer, Michael Rooney, renowned Belfast Cellist Neil Martin, legendary Dublin uilleann piper Mick OBrien and young Conamara Sean Nos Dancer and concertina player Becky Ni Eallaithe. Get ready for an unforgettable evening as Kieran Quinns theme nights arrive in Boyle for the very first time on Sunday 20th with a community of musicians that will take you on a soul-stirring journey through one of lifes great mysteries: The Power of Love. The traditional ensemble, Garadice plays Friday 18th featuring Eleanor Shanley, Padraig McGovern, John McCartin, and Dave Sheridan presenting their moving new album Sanctuary, blending Irish musical heritage with contemporary elegance. You will be able to dive into the iconic soundscape of Radiohead with Karma Police on Saturday, 19th, a talented six-piece tribute band, and we are so excited to have Music Generation Roscommon perform a special pre-festival event again this year on Wednesday, 16th July, specially created for Boyle Arts Festival 2025! This year's show is called 'End of a Century' and explores music from the 90's, renowned for its creativity, authenticity, and diversity. Local favourites and lifelong friends Lynda, Lizi, and Ceara return for their fourth Boyle Arts Festival appearance on Saturday, July 26th. Ken Schlothauer was very excited about being chosen with his wife Stephanie as this year's button honoree. Unfortunately, he passed away on June 19, just a month before he could celebrate with family and friends. Ken and Stephanie spent their adult lives creating a productive farm and a beautiful home while raising three kids and being involved in the Fairview community. The Fairview Festival committee said they chose the couple because of their contributions to the community, particularly their unwavering support of the parade during festival. Every year since they were in their 20s, they would participate with their horses, a tradition that is being continued by their kids and grandkids. Stephanie said she believes that horses are an important part of any parade. She loves watching others and participating herself. She recalled that when their kids were young, they would saddle up at home, ride into town to be in the parade, and then ride all the way back home "A Little Trail Ride". This year, the family will all be on a large wagon that was designed and built by Ken and was previously pulled by their big Belgian team, Barney & Clyde. Ken and Stephanie both graduated from Fairview and then left to pursue an education and career. They connected in Denver, got married and moved back to Fairview to a worn out, depleted old farm with a 24' X 28' rather neglected old house. It was Ken's life goal to be a land owner and a $5,000 loan made the down payment. Neither the house or the only other building had been painted for many years, but Ken, being German, said "paint will do wonders I promise." It was traditionally German to paint it white with green trim with a painted green roof so that's what they did. There was no grass, just fire weeds and pig weeds five feet tall. The weeds were cut down by hand and they spent years trying to establish somewhat of a lawn with a sand point that sprayed water only three feet. "Needless to say, that took a few years," Stephanie said. Ken's biggest leveling job came early as he had 80 acres of a sandy field that actually had a coulee through it with trees at the bottom, and the irrigating sets had to be every two hours. "But we were both young and ambitious and we worked 12-hour days every day to accomplish our goals," Stephanie stated. The years were spent leveling and improving farm land, expanding the house four times and adding more outbuildings, creating the productive, beautiful property it is today. Schlothauers needed a shop and couldn't afford to build one. Then Zion Lutheran Church offered a 30'X60' foot building that was a Sunday School at the time but had originally been their first church, and they needed it moved. No one tried to buy it so they offered it for free, along with a reduced moving fee since the mover was a member. The entire project cost $500! The first building they built was a barn for the horses which was later added on to when they started raising Appaloosa colts and competing in futurities. Today, anyone would be amazed at Stephanie's "tack building". Eventually, the 200 acres of farm land were added on to with the purchase of six small adjoining farms. In 1989, when farms were becoming incorporated, Stephanie came up with the Blue Carriage name to reflect their love of horses. Ken designed and built three single horse carriages and the huge double team wagon which will be displayed by the cabin on Main Street. Sons Casey and Rob started helping at an early age with Ken's motto of "You'll figure it out". Ken retired in 2005, and rented out the land until Casey returned in 2007 and resumed farming the property. All the hard work paid off with Blue Carriage Farm placing in the Top 10 Beet Growers many times and taking Top Grower honors in 2009. For many years, Schlothauers also partnered with Don and Helen Helm and Andy and Sharon Cayko in the ownership of Mon-Kota Fertilizer, until they all retired. Ken loved playing cards; poker in his younger years and later, every time possible at the Senior Center. Stephanie taught exercise classes and Fit Living before the children started arriving, then took master classes from Jack DeVille in Williston and started Stephanie's Just For Kicks dance studio. Beginning in the church basement, then moving to the Waterhole #3 and finally to the Lions Cabin, she taught many a young lady and a few young men, the joys of dance. Daughter Shannon assisted with classes, even continuing on weekends as she attended college. Stephanie is justifiably proud that her dancers made it all the way to National Competition. Stephanie sponsored the youth group at St John's Lutheran Church for 10 years. She also used her arrangement skills to help the Fairview Community booth win multiple blue ribbons at the Richland County Fair. The years were also filled with sporting, music and dance events with the three kids. The cabin now adorns Ellery Avenue, on property that belonged to Stephanie's brother Stuart. It had gotten crowded out by the fire hall and ambulance buildings and needed to be moved. Driving down the street and seeing what beautiful flowers or decorations Stephanie has arranged is always a treat. She says it is a gift from Providence and she pays her respects by planting and decorating. The Schlothauers' wish for everyone at Festival is not to be sad at Ken's passing but to celebrate his life and each other and everyone's extraordinary sense of community. The community is welcome to visit the cabin and to enjoy the buggies on display. The Local Government Review Board held their first public opinion meeting Thursday, July 10, regarding a mayor versus city manager government format. The purpose of the meeting was to answer residents questions and gain public feedback so that the board can ultimately make recommendations as to what serves public interests the best. The City of Sidney passed resolution #3928 asking voters to vote for or against the review on the primary ballot June 4, 2024, in accordance with Section 9, Article XI of the Constitution of the State of Montana, which requires that each section of local government will hold an election once every ten years to determine if there will be a local government review process. Sidney residents voted yes, and six candidates for the three Local Government Review Board positions were included on the ballot. Of those six, Wade Whiteman, Jordan Mayer and Janet Sergent were voted in, and then attended training in December 2024. In April, the decision was made to do public outreach regarding the local forms of government, and after review, it was determined that only mayor and city manager forms of government were feasible for the city of Sidney. The current form of government is a mayor and city council system. Pros for having a mayor include: they are elected by a majority every four years, clear separation of the branches of government and the public decides who is in the position and when not to re-elect. Cons are: there is no education/experience require, it only requires the mayor to be available 12 hours a week and is not a full-time position, and the removal from office for mismanagement is difficult and set forth by MT Code. Pros for a city manager are: they must be qualified for the position, it would be a full-time position requiring 40 hours per week, and the longevity of the position is better because there is no election turnover. Cons of the city manager position include: they do not have to be from or reside within the city limits, full-time employee wages and benefits increase the budget, and it would be an employee position, so city council would hire and fire at their discretion. Questions about the requirements of a city manager, the reach of each position, and the probability of locals applying for the city manager position all came up. However, the biggest concern at this point is that less than ten citizens attended. There was discussion on how to increase the awareness of the meetings, which are all public, with their agendas and minutes published at cityofsidneymt.com. Regular meetings are scheduled quarterly on the second Thursday, and the meetings are listed on the city website and posted to the citys Facebook page. Without public participation and feedback, the elected officials, in this case the Local Government Review Board, will not have an accurate picture of what the community wants and needs. Participation at meetings is one of the easiest ways to be involved in the process and also the most impactful, commented Jessica Chamberlain, City of Sidneys clerk/treasurer She also stated they would be reaching out to the Sidney Chamber of Commerces Sunrise Ambassadors about upcoming public engagement events, as they have been having good turn-outs. The Sunrise City Ambassadors organize socials that invite the public to come and give feedback about the Richland County Growth Policy. The next Local Government Review Board public comment meeting will be Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at Sidney City Hall, 115 2nd St. SE. If you cant make the meetings, written testimony can be emailed to [email protected]. For questions or more information, call 406-433-2809. Rahul Gandhi Urges PM Modi to Restore Statehood to J&K, Include Ladakh Under Sixth Schedule Ladakh has been demanding its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule ever since it became a Union Territory. Rahul Gandhi Urges PM Modi to Restore Statehood to J&K, Include Ladakh Under Sixth Schedule Latest News Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the government to bring forward the legislation to grant full statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament, ANI reported. Rahul Gandhi also requested the inclusion of the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Advertisement We urge upon the government to bring forward legislation in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament to grant full statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi wrote in the letter to the Prime Minister. As per the ANI report, the Leader of Opposition also noted that Prime Minister Modi had, on multiple occasions, reiterated the governments commitment to restoring statehood in Jammu and Kashmir. "Your good self has, on multiple occasions, personally reiterated the government's commitment to restoring statehood. In your interview in Bhubaneswar on 19 May 2024, you stated: 'The restoration of statehood is a solemn promise we have made and we stand by it.' Again, while addressing a rally in Srinagar on 19 September 2024, you reaffirmed: 'We have said in Parliament that we will restore the region's statehood,'" the Congress MP is quoted as saying in the ANI report. Advertisement Rahul Gandhi further stated that this is the first time in Indian history that a state has been downgraded to a Union Territory. "For the past five years, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have consistently called for the restoration of full statehood. This demand is both legitimate and firmly grounded in their constitutional and democratic rights, he said. "This is the first time a full-fledged state has been downgraded to a Union Territory following its bifurcation, he added. Advertisement In August 2019, the Central Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi bifurcated the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories Jammu and Kashmir (with legislative powers) and Ladakh (without legislative powers) by repealing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, thus ending the special status granted to the former state. In his request regarding Ladakh, Rahul Gandhi stated, "We request that the Government bring forward legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. This would be a significant step towards addressing the cultural, developmental, and political aspirations of the people of Ladakh, while safeguarding their rights, land, and identity." The Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution provides autonomous administrative and governance powers to tribal areas in certain northeastern states of India, to protect the rights, culture, land, and governance of tribal communities, especially in regions where they form a majority. It helps preserve tribal identity, autonomy, and way of life, and aims to prevent exploitation and displacement. Advertisement Ladakh has been demanding its inclusion under the Sixth Schedule ever since it became a Union Territory. Mass protests have been held multiple times over the past few years, with environmentalist and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Sonam Wangchuk staging week-long hunger strikes in the regions freezing temperatures. He was joined by people across Ladakh some gathered at the protest location with Wangchuk, while others participated from their respective remote villages. The demand remains ongoing. (For more news apart from Rahul Gandhi Urges PM Modi to Restore Statehood to J&K, Include Ladakh Under Sixth Schedule, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) Execution of Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya Postponed in Yemen: Here's Why Nimisha's family's goal is to avert the execution and bring her back to India. Execution of Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya Postponed in Yemen: Here's Why The execution of Kerala-based nurse Nimisha Priya, scheduled for today in Yemen, has been postponed on Tuesday, Hindustan Times reported. Advertisement According to the report, the breaking update is the result of coordinated efforts by Indian authorities and the intervention of the Grand Mufti of India, Sheikh Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar. Nimisha Priya was sentenced to death in 2020 for the alleged murder of a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi, in 2017. Until yesterday, the execution seemed inevitable, with no sign of reprieve or delay. The reprieve came at the eleventh hour. Advertisement As per the Hindustan Times report, the Indian government had earlier informed the Supreme Court that there was little it could do to prevent her execution, citing diplomatic limitations with Yemen. The prison where Nimisha is lodged is under the control of the Houthi, with whom India has no diplomatic ties. It was the Grand Mufti of India whose personal intervention led to the reprieve. He reportedly approached Islamic scholars in Yemen regarding Nimisha's death sentence. At the request of the Grand Mufti, talks were initiated between representatives of a Sufi scholar and a member representing the murder victims family, according to the HT report. Advertisement In addition, the Indian government made efforts to secure extra time for Nimisha's family to reach a mutually agreeable resolution with the victims family, the report added, citing PTI. India was reportedly in regular contact with local jail authorities and the prosecutors office in Yemen, which eventually led to the reprieve. Nimishas familys goal is to avert the execution and bring her back to India. Advertisement According to the report, citing the Grand Mufti, efforts are still ongoing to seek a pardon for Nimisha from the family of the murder victim, Talal Abdo Mahdi. In Islam, instead of execution, there is also a practice of giving Diya (compensation). I requested them to accept Diyaat, as the party here is ready for it. Talks are ongoing about whether my request will be accepted, the Grand Mufti was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. CPI(M) leader MV Govindan today on July 16 met Grand Mufti of India, Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliyar regarding Nimisha Priya case, the PTI reported. Nimishas family is reportedly willing to pay rupees 8.6 crore as part of the blood money, a legally acceptable provision under Yemens Sharia law, to the victim's family. (For more news apart from Execution of Kerala Nurse Nimisha Priya Postponed in Yemen: Here's Why, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) IMD Chandigarh Issues Yellow Alert for Four South-Western Punjab Districts The districts under yellow alert are Fazilka, Muktsar, Bathinda, and Mansa. IMD Chandigarh Issues Yellow Alert for Four South-Western Punjab Districts Punjab Weather Updates Today The India Meteorological Department (IMD), Chandigarh, has issued yellow alerts for four south-western districts of Punjab for Wednesday, warning of heavy rain, thunderstorms, lightning, squalls, and other adverse weather conditions. Advertisement The districts under yellow alert are Fazilka, Muktsar, Bathinda, and Mansa. Meanwhile, no alerts have been issued for the remaining districts in the general forecast for today. However, the state IMD has placed SAS Nagar under an orange alert in its nowcast, warning of light thunderstorms, surface winds up to 40 km/h, and moderate rain. The nowcast is valid up to 11:30 a.m. today. The weather is expected to remain cool and pleasant throughout the week, with no major adverse weather warnings issued by the state meteorological department. Advertisement For Thursday, July 17, the IMD has issued a yellow alert for Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Fazilka, Muktsar, and Bathinda, warning of heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorms, lightning, squalls, and similar weather conditions. No alerts have been issued for the remaining districts. Weather Observed in the Past 24 Hours: In the past 24 hours, there has been no major change in the average minimum temperature, which remains near normal across the state, the IMD said in its latest update. Advertisement The lowest minimum temperature in the state was 24.1C, recorded at Amritsar, which also received the maximum rainfall of 51.3 mm in the state. (For more news apart from IMD Chandigarh Issues Yellow Alert for Four South-Western Punjab Districts, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Outlines Five-Point Plan for SCO's Future Wang Yi emphasized the need to strengthen the SCO's role amidst global turbulence and geopolitical uncertainty. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Outlines Five-Point Plan for SCOs Future Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tianjin, China Latest News: Chinese Foreign Minister and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Wang Yi, during a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin on July 16, proposed five key suggestions for the future development of the SCO, ANI reported. Advertisement Wang Yi emphasized the need to strengthen the SCO's role amidst global turbulence and geopolitical uncertainty. In a statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi highlighted the vision for the SCO, stating, At present, the century-old changes are accelerating, and turbulence and change are intertwined. The world is becoming more multipolar, economic globalisation is deepening, and the Global South is rising significantly. At the same time, hegemony and power politics are going against the trend, protectionism is surging, and regional conflicts are emerging one after another. Under these new circumstances, member states should build further consensus and strengthen the development of the SCO with a responsible attitude toward history and the future. The five key suggestions Wang Yi presented are: Advertisement Not forgetting the original aspirations and carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit Sharing the responsibility of safety and security Pursuing mutual benefit and win-win development Being friendly and good neighbours Sticking to the right path and defending fairness and justice Concluding his remarks, Wang expressed confidence that the upcoming Tianjin Summit, scheduled from August 31 to September 1, will be a complete success. Apart from Jaishankar, Pakistans Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar also attended the meeting, along with counterparts from other member states. During the meeting, preparations were made for the Tianjin Summit, and several resolutions were signed, including the draft Tianjin Declaration of the Council of Heads of State and the draft development strategy of the SCO for the next ten years, ANI reported. Advertisement Xi Jinping meets with foreign ministers and heads of permanent bodies of SCO (July 15,2025) Yesterday, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with foreign ministers and heads of permanent bodies of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing. During the meeting, Xi Jinping stated as per Xinhua a Chinese media outlet, "China has always prioritized the SCO in its neighborhood diplomacy and is committed to making the organization more substantive and robustsafeguarding regional security and stability, promoting development and prosperity of member states, and building a closer community with a shared future," Advertisement He added that since assuming the rotating presidency in July 2023, China has actively promoted SCO cooperation by organizing activities and encouraging joint efforts among member states to build a more cohesive and prosperous regional bloc. The 2025 SCO Summit is scheduled to take place later this year in Tianjin, China, and President Xi expressed hope to meet with leaders of other member states at the event to discuss the future course of the organization. "In the face of a turbulent and changing international landscape, the SCO must stay focused, remain confident, act efficiently, and play a more proactive role in injecting greater stability and positive energy into the world," Xi stated. Earlier yesterday, Indias External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar posted on X (formerly Twitter), Called on President Xi Jinping this morning in Beijing along with my fellow SCO Foreign Ministers. Conveyed the greetings of President Droupadi Murmu & Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Apprised President Xi of the recent developments in our bilateral ties. Value the guidance of our leaders in that regard. This marks Dr. Jaishankars first visit to China in five years, as he attends the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting. (For more news apart from Chinese President Xi Jinping Calls for Stronger Regional Cooperation at SCO Meet, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) Rayyan Arkan Dhika: 11-Year-Old Indonesian Goes Viral For His Aura Farming Dance Moves I came up with the dance myself. It was just spontaneous, Rayyan told the BBC. Who is Rayyan Arkan Dhika, Aura Farming Dancer? Rayyan Arkan Dhika, an 11-year-old from Indonesia, has become an overnight internet sensation after a video clip of him dancing on the tip of a racing boat went viral. The video showcases Rayyan's effortless Aura Farming moves and has inspired countless social media users to recreate his dance with the same charisma and flair. Advertisement Rayyan is a Class 5 student from Kuantan Singingi Regency in Riau Province. According to media reports, the viral clip was filmed during last years annual Pacu Jalur boat race a centuries-old rowing festival held every August in Indonesia. In the local language, Pacu means race and Jalur means long boat. Each canoe-like boat in the race traditionally features a young dancer, known as a Tukang Tari, who performs at the front. Their role is more than ceremonial the dancer energizes the rowers with rhythmic movements, balance, and expressive gestures. The video was originally shared on TikTok in January by a user named Lensa Rams and has since gained widespread attention. Advertisement In the video, Rayyan is seen wearing a traditional Teluk Belanga outfit, complete with a Malay Riau headcloth and stylish sunglasses. He has been performing as a Tukang Tari since the age of nine. Recognizing his talent and cultural impact, Indonesian authorities have named Rayyan a tourism ambassador for the Riau region and awarded him a scholarship fund to support his education. I came up with the dance myself. It was just spontaneous, Rayyan told the BBC. Advertisement (For more news apart from Rayyan Arkan Dhika: 11-Year-Old Indonesian Dance Sensation Goes Viral, stay tuned to Rozana Spokesman) Psychological first aid: the immediate reaction that can change the trajectory of a personal crisis Psychological first aid is a punctual intervention, a set of simple but essential actions, offered to people in situations of emotional crisis. Photo: facebook.com/crucearosieromana Iulia Hau, 16.07.2025, 14:00 Psychological first aid is a punctual intervention, a set of simple but essential actions, offered to people in situations of emotional crisis. It is meant to prevent and alleviate human suffering through an empathetic and immediate response to those affected by trauma, disasters or conflicts. Over the last three years, the Romanian Red Cross has built a network of over 1,900 people trained to provide immediate emotional support in emergency cases. Alina Garleanu, the manager of the Red Crosss psychosocial support and mental health program, explains what psychological first aid actually is and how this program started in Romania: It is about the response to the conflict in Ukraine, and the European Commission and neighboring states were invited through the national Red Cross society to provide a response in support of the people who were crossing in massive numbers. You know that there were enormous waves, tens of thousands of people crossing the border every day. And one of the desired responses based on the experience of the national Red Cross societies was to provide emotional support. Technically, it is called psychological first aid and it is this first contact you have with a person who is in a difficult situation. That is how the project started in 2022, it had already started in June, but it took, at least for us, for the Romanian Red Cross, several years to develop our capacity and now, drawing the line, in all the counties of the country or at the national level, we have over 1,900 people who are trained to provide this emotional support, this psychological first aid. But it was a long road, so to speak. And also, we have 80,000 people, I mean Ukrainian refugees, who were provided with punctual psychological first aid. Psychological first aid is intended for people in crisis situations, whether an external, macro crisis such as that generated by a natural disaster or an armed conflict that generates a wave of refugees in difficulty or a personal situation, such as the loss of a loved person. The Red Cross representative explains that this type of intervention means being there, present for the person in difficulty, listening empathetically and making them feel safe: It is the first contact with the person, we help them regain their state of calm, we see what their immediate needs are, what their concerns are and what they need at that moment. It can also be something concrete: a bottle of water, a blanket, or information. And information is part of the psychological first aid. Because there are three principles in psychological first aid: it is called looking, meaning you look at who needs it, what exactly they need, before you come into contact with the person. The second area is the listening area, in which you approach the person, introduce yourself, see what their difficulties and concerns are at the moment. And then, in the third part, beyond what help you can provide on the spot, there is also the area of correlating, or passing on, putting in touch with other institutions, organizations, emergency services, services that provide the things the person needs. So it is something very punctual, very targeted and that covers most of the things that a person, a family, faces in that situation. People are trained to provide help during three modules. The second module includes a series of practical exercises and concrete scenarios practiced over eight hours, says the interlocutor, who explains the purpose of the third module: In the third module, we do this to support the children. Because a different approach is needed for children compared to adults, or in general. And it is approached in the context of the presence or absence of a parent or legal representative. Because there can also be children in crisis situations or, there have been unaccompanied children who crossed the border. For example, there can be children separated, in the event of an accident or in the event of a disaster, from their parents. And you realize that there are some very specific aspects to address there. Of the 1900 people trained to provide this help, 1200 are volunteers and 700 are professionals, i.e. teachers, medical staff from various services, and social workers. They represent people from the communities served by the Red Cross, which makes the training and experience gained over the past years a benefit for the communities. The main beneficiaries of this program have so far been Ukrainian refugees and victims of armed conflicts in the Middle East (such as Gaza). The organization is currently preparing for post-disaster intervention in the event of natural disasters, such as floods or major earthquakes. The expert believes that, although less than before, there is still stigma and resistance to accessing emotional and psychological support services. However, the help provided to a person in the immediate period after the onset of a crisis decreases the likelihood that that person will face other problems later. (LS, CC ) Director General of the Ukrainian Red Cross Society (UCRS) Maksym Dotsenko and Director of the High School of Public Administration Yulia Lykhach signed a memorandum of cooperation. "This partnership is not only about education. It is a contribution to the safety and stability of the civil service during wartime," URCS Director General Maksym Dotsenko said. The agreement aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of public authorities within the mandate of UCRS. "Considering the key role played by civil servants, local government officials and heads of military administrations in the formation and implementation of public policy, we are joining efforts to train and develop their competencies in providing first aid and psychological first aid, informing them about the norms of international humanitarian law and the use of the distinctive emblems of the Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Crystal in Ukraine," the society said on its official Facebook page on Wednesday. Expedition 73 crew at the International Space Station has kicked off several days of human research activities starting with exploring how the human heart and nervous system adapt to weightlessness, NASA said. NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Anne McClain joined each other in the Columbus laboratory module on Tuesday for heart scans using the Ultrasound 2 device to understand how living in space affects blood flow. McClain then partnered with NASA Flight Engineer Nichole Ayers and studied how an astronaut's nervous system, or sense of balance, adjusts to microgravity. McClain wore virtual reality goggles and responded to visual stimuli as Ayers monitored and operated the hardware with assistance from doctors on the ground in real time. Both studies are part of the CIPHER suite of 14 human research experiments. Kim later assisted Japanese station Commander Takuya Onishi as he worked in the Tranquility module for upcoming electrical and life support maintenance. Russian cosmonauts Alexey Zubritskiy and Kirill Peskov continued unpacking cargo from inside the Progress 92 resupply ship that delivered about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the Expedition 73 crew on July 5. The docked Progress 91 cargo craft will fire its engines on Wednesday for several minutes boosting the station's orbit to the correct altitude for the arrival of the SpaceX Crew-11 mission. Crew-11 is targeted to launch on July 31 aboard the Dragon spacecraft and is expected to dock on August 2, NASA said. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News The Trump administration has launched an investigation into Brazil's "unfair" trading practices under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. The Office of the United States Trade Representative said the investigation will seek to determine whether acts, policies, and practices of the Brazilian Government related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference; intellectual property protection; ethanol market access; and illegal deforestation are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce. US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer said he is launching the investigation as directed by President Donald Trump, who last week demanded Brazilian authorities to desist from prosecuting former President Jair Bolsonaro. Ambassador Greer said he will look into Brazil's attacks on American social media companies as well as other unfair trading practices that harm American companies, workers, farmers, and innovators. "USTR has detailed Brazil's unfair trade practices that restrict the ability of U.S. exporters to access its market for decades in the annual National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report. After consulting with other government agencies, cleared advisers, and Congress, I have determined that Brazil's tariff and non-tariff barriers merit a thorough investigation, and potentially, responsive action." Section 301 of the Trade Act is designed to address unfair foreign practices affecting U.S. commerce. Section 301 may be used to respond to unjustifiable, unreasonable, or discriminatory foreign governments' practices that burden or restrict U.S. commerce. USTR has pointed out a number of Brazil's trading practices it considers as unfair, which needs to be probed. The Trade Representative expressed concern that Brazil may undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies engaged in Digital trade and electronic payment services by retaliating against them for failing to censor political speech or restricting their ability to provide services in the country. USTR alleges that Brazil accords lower, preferential tariff rates to the exports of certain globally competitive trade partners, thereby disadvantaging U.S. exports. Brazil has walked away from its willingness to provide virtually duty-free treatment for U.S. ethanol and instead now applies a substantially higher tariff on U.S. ethanol exports, it says. Brazil's failure to stop illegal deforestation is undermining the competitiveness of U.S. producers of timber and agricultural products, according to USTR. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News One of the most iconic and recognisable American car brand, Jeep, has been steadily updating its Indian portfolio. The company has time and time again introduced some newness with their Compass and Meridian SUVs. In that regard, July 2025 has witnessed the launch of Trail Edition for both these models that start from Rs 25.41 lakh (Ex-sh). Lets take a closer look. Compass and Meridian Trail Edition Breathing some fresh air into the Compass and Meridian variant lineup, Jeep India has just launched a new special edition for both SUVs. Called Trail Edition, this new special edition gets a ton of character and personality that sits in line with buyers who intend to express themselves with off-road inspired detailing. Compass and Meridian Trail Edition blend perfectly into this target demographic as they both come with unique decals establishing a youthful personality. Along with upgrading the design and aesthetics department, Jeep India is bundling Compass and Meridian Trail Edition with Jeep Trust ownership program. Where pricing is concerned, Jeep Compass Trail Edition starts from Rs 25.41 lakh (Ex-sh) for manual variant and Rs 27.41 lakh (Ex-sh) for automatic variant. Meridian Trail Edition starts from Rs 31.27 lakh (Ex-sh) for manual, Rs 35.27 lakh (Ex-sh) for automatic and Rs 37.27 lakh (Ex-sh) for AT 4X4. Sales of Trail Edition have commenced starting July 15th, 2025. Compass Trail Edition Jeep Compass Trail Edition is based on Longitude (O) trim level and gets a host of aesthetic upgrades over standard model. There are unique hood and side body decals, matter accents on grille and Neutral Grey elements on grille rings, DLO and backlight moldings, roof rail inserts, ORVMs, Jeep and Compass badges, rear lower fascia applique, and red-accented front lower fascia. Theres also Granite Metallic Satin Gloss shade seen on 18-inch alloy wheels and roof rails. On the inside, we get a sporty treatment with Black leatherette upholstery along with Red accents and Red stitching. Dark Camouflage graphics and Trail Edition branding on floor mats are notable too. Meridian Trail Edition With Meridian Trail Edition, Jeep is offering a unique hood decal, Trail Edition badges, gloss Black roof and similar Neutral Grey elements at key areas like grille, headlamp surrounds, roof rail inserts, rear fascia valence, badges, and side cladding. On top, it gets Piano Black accents on fog lamp, DLO, rear light bar, ORVMs, rear fascia and Red highlights on front fascia. Meridian Trail Edition also gets a few off-roady bits like rugged skid plates and Trail themed scuff plates. Inside, we get high contrast Black vinyl upholstery with contrasting Ruby Red accents. Other notable elements include camouflage themed appliques, Piano Black centre console and speaker surrounds. Jeep Trust To offer value beyond the drive, the company is bundling Jeep trust ownership program with Trail Edition. In this program, we get complimentary 3-year Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC), 5-year extended warranty, direct cash benefits of Rs 20,000 with Compass Trail Edition and complimentary 3-year AMC with Meridian Trail Edition. The Cabinet of Ministers appointed Olena Ivanovska to the post of Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language. As the representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada Taras Melnychuk reported on the Telegram channel, the corresponding decision was made at a government meeting on Wednesday. Ivanovska is a professor at the Department of Folklore Studies at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Doctor of Philological Sciences. She defended her PhD dissertation entitled "The Folkloristic Heritage of Hanna Barvynok" (1996), and her doctoral dissertation entitled "The Subject-Image System of Folklore: Categorical Aspect" (2007). The position of language ombudsman was nominated by the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets. Other candidates included actor Oleksandr Zavalsky and Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers Pavlo Poliansky. According to the law "On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language," the Commissioner is appointed to the position and dismissed from the position by the Cabinet of Ministers. The Government appoints to this position one of the candidates nominated by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications. The term of office is five years. A person may be re-appointed to the position of Commissioner, but may not hold the position for a third time. A citizen of Ukraine who has a higher education, speaks the state language and English, has experience in human rights activities or experience in protecting the state language and is capable of performing the relevant official duties due to his/her business and moral qualities, educational and professional levels may be recommended as a candidate for the position of Language Ombudsman. As reported, on July 2, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Taras Kremin from the post of Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language effective July 8 due to the expiration of his term of office. On July 8, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Kremin to the position of language ombudsman for five years. Kremin was nominated as a candidate for the position of the Human Rights Commissioner. Other candidates for the position of language ombudsman at that time were Svitlana Bronnikova (candidate from the Ministry of Culture) and Sviatoslav Litynsky (candidate from the Ministry of Justice). Before this, since November 2019, the position of the first language ombudsman was held by Tetiana Monakhova, but already in April 2020 she submitted an early resignation letter. Four possible stories about the outcome of the Trinity Site test from a mediocre explosion to a disaster were created by William L. Lauren If You Go Trinity test commemoration What: The Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, Nuclear Watch New Mexico and others will commemorate the July 16, 1945, explosion of the first atomic bomb at Trinity Site. The New Mexico Department of Transportation will unveil a historic marker near the Stallion Gate at the north entrance to the White Sands Missile Range. State officials are expected to speak, followed by Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium; Jay Coghlan, executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico; and Melissa Parke, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. At approximately the same time, the three New Mexican Catholic bishops and other faith leaders will pray and meditate at the restricted Trinity Site, escorted by the U.S. Army. When: 11 a.m. Wednesday, July 16 Directions: Traveling south of Socorro on Interstate 25, take exit 139 east to U.S. 380; about 13 miles east, head south on N.M. 525; the Stallion Gate is five miles south of that intersection, and Trinity Site is 17 miles south of the gate in the restricted White Sands Missile Range. Mass and vigil Santa Fe Archbishop John C. Wester, Las Cruces Bishop Peter Baldacchino and Gallup Bishop James Walls will concelebrate a 6 p.m. Mass at the St. Francis de Paula Catholic Church in Tularosa to honor and bless the Trinity test downwinders. This will be followed by a dinner reception in the Parish Hall and the 16th annual candlelight vigil for Trinity test cancer victims at the Tularosa Veterans Park, 901 Bookout Road. Photo: https://t.me/Denys_Smyhal/ After the Verkhovna Rada accepted his resignation from the post of Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal announced a meeting with the US President's Special Representative, General Keith Kellogg, in Kyiv. "An important meeting with the US President's Special Representative, General Keith Kellogg. The topic of our conversation was weapons, sanctions, and bringing peace closer. I thanked President Donald Trump for the decision to sell NATO countries critical weapons for Ukraine, in particular Patriot systems and missiles. This will help save many lives," Shmyhal wrote on his Telegram channel on Wednesday evening. As Shmyhal noted, he emphasized that "we are committed to further deepening defense cooperation between Ukraine and the United States, especially in the area of strengthening air defense, and are interested in developing joint production with the United States and further cooperation in the purchase of defense weapons together with Europe." "We specifically focused on the importance of strengthening sanctions against Russia. They must deal a truly painful blow to the Russian economy. We count on the leadership role of the United States in further bringing a sustainable and just peace closer," Shmyhal concluded. Arterium has up to 12 medicines registered in Russia in 2010, currently rights to some of corporation's medicines in Russia are owned by Art-Pharm As of 2010, the Arterium corporation, which is part of the sphere of interests of Kostiantyn Zhevaho, had up to 12 medicines registered in Russia. According to information from open sources, currently the rights to some of the corporation's medicines in Russia are owned by Art-Pharm Russian LLC. According to open sources, among the popular medicines of the corporation registered in Russia as of 2010 were, in particular, Thiotriazolin, L-lysine Escinat and Thiocetam. Currently, all registrations by Ukrainian legal entities are not valid. In particular, in Russia, since August 19, 2022, a marketing authorization certificate for L-lysine Escinat has been in effect (the marketing authorization holder is Art-Pharm LLC (Russia), valid until December 31, 2025, the medicine is manufactured by Ozon LLC (Zhigulevsk, Russia). In addition, in 2013, Kyivmedpreparat, the manufacturer of medicines for Arterium, registered the Thiotriazolin medicine in Russia. Its registration expired in 2018, currently the marketing authorization holder is Art-Pharm Russian LLC, the registration is valid until the end of 2025. The previous registration of the medicine from Kyivmedpreparat (2013-2018) has been canceled and is not valid after February 2018. Art-Pharm also registered two forms of the combined nootropic medicine Thiocetam in Russia: in in 2012, a tablet form, in 2021 - an injection form. Both registrations are valid until 2025. Previously, another medicine manufacturer for Arterium Halychpharm was indicated as the manufacturer of the injection solution. As Interfax-Ukraine was informed by Arterium corporation, searches are currently underway at the enterprise. Earlier, it was reported that the National Police of Ukraine announced the discovery of a criminal scheme involving a Ukrainian oligarch who organized the production and sale of Ukrainian medicines in the territory of Russia. In particular, a Ukrainian businessman - a native of Russia - established a "scheme" for obtaining pharmacopoeia samples, which are standards for quality control of Ukrainian medicines. Without their presence, the production and sale of domestic medicines in Russia would be impossible. According to a source of Interfax-Ukraine in law enforcement agencies, this is Kostiantyn Zhevaho. Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mole (family Talpidae) from a partial skeleton discovered at the Pliocene-aged site of Camp dels Ninots in Girona, Spain. The newly-identified species, named Vulcanoscaptor ninoti, is a burrowing mole that lived in what is now Spain around 3.25 million years ago. The animals fossilized skeleton was found in 2010 at the Camp dels Ninots site in Girona, Spain. This specimen preserves the mandible with a complete dentition, part of the torso, and several bones from both the forelimbs and hindlimbs, many of them still in anatomical connection, said Dr. Marc Furio, a researcher at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and the Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (IPHES-CERCA), and his colleagues. The exceptional state of preservation is extremely rare in small mammals such as moles and makes this specimen one of the oldest and most complete ever found in Europe. The fossil represents the most complete mole fossil known to date from the Pliocene of Europe and provides valuable insights into the evolutionary history of talpids. The fossil was partially embedded in a very compact sediment block and was extracted in its entirety during excavation. To examine it in detail without damaging it, the paleontologists used high-resolution micro-computed tomography (microCT) scanning, which enabled a precise three-dimensional digital reconstruction of the skeleton. With the microCT, we were able to analyze extremely small and delicate structures such as phalanges and teeth that would have been nearly impossible to study otherwise, said Dr. Adriana Linares, a researcher at the IPHES-CERCA. This allowed us to identify unique anatomical features and incorporate them into a robust phylogenetic analysis. The structure of Vulcanoscaptor ninotis forearm and front limbs revealed a high degree of adaptation to a subterranean lifestyle. The humerus is particularly robust, with prominent crests and extensive areas for muscle attachment, while the phalanges suggest strong digging capabilities, Dr. Linares said. However, the fact that this individual was preserved in lacustrine sediments and in a lateral position raises the possibility that it may also have had some aquatic locomotion abilities. We cant confirm this with certainty yet, but there are modern moles that are powerful diggers and also excellent swimmers. According to the team, Vulcanoscaptor ninoti belonged to the Scalopini, a tribe of moles that today are found in North America and parts of Asia. This discovery from Europes Pliocene site suggests a much more complex evolutionary and paleogeographic scenario than previously assumed. The description of Vulcanoscaptor ninoti confirms that the evolutionary history of moles has been far more dynamic than previously thought, involving possible intercontinental dispersals and an underappreciated anatomical diversity, the authors said. It also highlights the importance of exceptional fossil sites in documenting species rarely preserved in the fossil record, such as small mammals. Despite its clearly fossorial morphology, this mole is closely related to extant North American species of the genera Scapanus and Scalopus, which points to a far more intricate evolutionary history for these animals than we had imagined, Dr. Furio added. Its presence in Europe suggests past transcontinental migrations of moles, challenging the assumption that they are mammals with low dispersal capacity. The teams paper was published this month in the journal Scientific Reports. _____ A. Linares-Martin et al. 2025. An unexpected Scalopini mole (Talpidae, Mammalia) from the Pliocene of Europe sheds light on the phylogeny of talpids. Sci Rep 15, 24928; doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-10396-1 Odd plants from a remote Pacific island reveal new insights into an important ecological question: how unrelated and antagonistic partners can form long-term mutualistic relationships with the same host. Scientists studying ant plants in Fiji have discovered one way that a host plant can keep the peace among residents that might otherwise kill each other. By providing separate chambers inside a gradually enlarging tuber -- each chamber with an entry hole from the outside but no connection to any adjacent chamber -- the Squamellaria plant prevents conflicts between the multiple ant species that feed it and call it home. The new research from Washington University in St. Louis and Durham University in the United Kingdom was reported on July 10 in Science. "Our study shows that compartmentalization is one solution," said Guillaume Chomicki, of Durham, first author of the study. "The importance of compartmentalization is clear from the deadly conflicts sparked when the partition between distinct ant species living in adjacent compartments is removed. "But it's not for the good of the ants that these plants have evolved those compartments -- no, it's for their own good. Because the more ants that live inside a tuber, the more nutrients for the plant," he said. "Dried Squamellaria tubers -- and similar tubers, many of which have been sitting in herbaria or natural history collections since at least the 1880s -- never yielded the insights Guillaume was able to gain in the field," said Susanne S. Renner, a biologist in Arts & Sciences at WashU, senior author of the study. "One needs two things: Seeing and identifying the ants, and then understanding that the tubers contain entirely separate compartments with separate entrances to the outside, just like a condo building." In biology, a symbiotic relationship, or symbiosis, is a close and long-term interaction between two different species. When this relationship is mutually beneficial, it is called a mutualism. Many symbioses involve one host species having several mutualist partners. Yet theory predicts that unrelated partners can lead to destabilizing conflict through competition for host resources. In the case of Squamellaria, Chomicki and Renner previously had reported on how certain specialized ants actively farm Squamellaria -- by planting its seeds and fertilizing the seedlings with their feces -- and then nesting in the domatia (hollow chambers) that form on each plant shortly after the unfolding of its cotyledons. Only after the ants insert a seed into a crevice in bark can Squamellaria begin to germinate. The farming activity is essential to the plant's survival, as it is an epiphyte that grows on the branches of rainforest trees and has no other way get established in the rainforest canopy. Back in 2014, during a field excursion high in the treetops of Waisali Rainforest Reserve, Chomicki pulled down a Squamellaria that revealed an even more complex set of interactions. "When I dissected this plant (Squamellaria wilkinsonii), which had a domatium that was about 8 inches in diameter, I was very surprised to see two ant colonies living inside it," he said. "My immediate thought was parabiosis, a specific type of symbiotic association where two species of ants nest together. But the nests were completely separate, which was puzzling." That observation was the impetus for his new study with Renner. Together, they describe a series of experiments designed to investigate how the plant enables more than one species of ants to live inside its hollow chambers -- starting by observing what happens when the interior walls come down. "Removing the partition walls between two 'apartments' using a dissecting knife -- thereby placing in direct physical contact different ant colonies -- led to an immediate conflict in which workers fight to the death," Chomicki said. The scientists quantified the number of conflicts between ant workers of the relevant ant species during a 25-minute window following the removal of the partition walls. They documented high worker mortality in both ant colonies that were previously living in separate compartments. The new study included feeding experiments that documented that the plants were getting nutritional benefits from the multiple ant species living inside their compartments. The study also made use of computed-tomography scanning, a method that only rarely has been applied to plants. "The scanning was key in the discovery of compartmentalization of the domatia," Renner said. "Simply by dissecting domatia, it is impossible to work out which chambers are connected to which and which is isolated. This discovery came when building 3D models from the CT scanning data." The results reveal a conflict-reduction mechanism that allows the hosts to take advantage of multiple, unrelated symbionts, Renner and Chomicki said. "What is unique in Squamellaria is that we can visualize directly what theory has long predicted -- that unrelated partners would conflict by competing for host resources," Renner said. "But here we also have a simple, highly effective evolutionary strategy to mitigate these conflicts: compartmentalization. So, despite being unique, these Squamellaria-ant symbioses illuminate an old, general problem in the ecology and evolution of species interactions." The United States wants to buy Ukrainian drones, Ukraine is interested in purchasing equipment to form an air shield, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "There are many drones that only we have. And we are discussing this with President Trump. I told him that I really want to buy things from him that only they have. He told me that America wants to buy Ukrainian drones ... I really want America to help us protect our skies. This is very important," Zelenskyy said in an interview with Newsmax correspondent Shelby Wilder in Kyiv. According to open sources, as of 2025, there are more than 200 companies operating in Ukraine that develop or manufacture drones. Among them are small startups and large private manufacturers that cooperate with the state within the framework of military-industrial partnerships. Ukraine currently produces a wide range of drones: from small FPV drones to heavy reusable reconnaissance and strike vehicles with a flight range of up to 1,000 km. It is Ukrainian drones that increasingly carry out pinpoint attacks on military facilities in the rear of the Russian Federation, energy infrastructure, ammunition depots and headquarters. Many of them operate autonomously or in conditions of strong electronic jamming. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signed documents proposing to the Verkhovna Rada to appoint former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. "Today I have already signed documents to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Denys Shmyhal as the new Minister of Defense. Strategic industries will also be managed through the Ministry of Defense," the president said in his evening address on Wednesday. He also added that the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine, Herman Smetanin, will head Ukroboronprom. "The task is very specific, clear. Now Ukrainian weapons at the front, in all our operations - about 40%. This is already significantly more Ukrainian weapons production than ever before during the independence of our state. The volumes are really large. But more is needed. And we need more of our capabilities to push the war into the territory of Russia - to where the war was brought from. So that they feel what they have done and what the price of Putin's refusal to cease fire and real peace is," Zelenskyy emphasized. "We must reach the level of 50% Ukrainian weapons in the first six months of the new government, increasing our own production. I am confident: this can be achieved," he added. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky has held his first telephone conversation with the new Commander of the Joint Armed Forces of NATO in Europe, US Air Force General Alexus Grynkewich. "The conversation took place in the spirit of true partnership. I received firm commitments of support from both America and the alliance. Following the recent statement by US President Trump and NATO Secretary General Rutte on a new arms package for Ukraine, we are looking forward to an intensive stage of cooperation in the coming months. I am sincerely grateful for the reliability and loyalty in supporting the Ukrainian Defense Forces," Syrsky said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday evening. Yermak, EU reps discuss implementation of financial support for Ukraine, prospects for negotiations on joining the Union Head of the Presidents Office of Ukraine Andriy Yermak has held a meeting with Deputy Director General of the Directorate-General for Enlargement and Neighbourhood of the European Commission Simon Mordue and Ambassador of the European Union to Ukraine Katarina Mathernova. As Yermak himself reported on the Telegram channel, they discussed the implementation of financial support that Ukraine receives from the EU budget, as well as Ukraine's financial needs and priorities. These resources are of strategic importance for our resilience in war conditions and for further reforms. Yermak, according to him, noted that Ukraine has fully fulfilled its obligations and is ready to open the first negotiating cluster on joining the EU. He expressed "positive expectations of all Ukrainians regarding further progress on the path to membership in the European Union; this is a key stage in our movement towards full participation in the European family." Denmark and Germany have so far agreed to participate in the new format of arms supplies to Kyiv, proposed by US President Donald Trump, while France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Hungary have refused, Western media reported on Wednesday. In addition, Bloomberg noted on Wednesday that Europe increasingly feels the need to end its dependence on American weapons. "Europe relies heavily on the US defense industry. However, due to trade tariffs, President Trump's attitude toward NATO and his lack of commitment to defending the alliance's countries, European countries will increasingly prioritize investments in their own defense complexes," the agency's sources said. According to the European portal Politico, France has refused to participate in the purchase of American weapons for Ukraine. The publication's sources reported that the country's government intends to focus instead on increasing its own defense budget, which last weekend the president of the republic, Emmanuel Macron, promised to increase by 2027 almost twice as much as the 2017 budget. In addition, Paris wants to support European manufacturers who previously supplied Ukraine with anti-missile systems and other weapons. Italy also does not intend to purchase weapons from the USA for delivery to Ukraine, but will continue to provide military assistance to Kyiv. Unnamed representatives of the Ministry of Defense told the ezine La Stampa - the department has never discussed purchasing American weapons for Kyiv. The ezine also notes that Italy does not have the means to carry out such operations. According to the publications sources, this problem is so acute that the only purchase from the USA that Italy has planned for the next ten years is a batch of F-35 fighters for its own needs. The Czech government, in turn, stated that military aid to Kyiv would continue, but through participation in other initiatives and purchases from Czech, not American, manufacturers. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Budapest does not intend to participate in the purchase of American weapons for Ukraine. Official consent to purchase weapons from the USA has so far been given by Berlin and Copenhagen. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen has declared his full readiness to join in the financing. The Dutch Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that it was considering the possibility of participating in the program. However, despite the government's positive assessment of the initiative, Amsterdam has not yet confirmed its commitment to direct participation in it. According to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, it is expected that Sweden and Norway, as well as the United Kingdom, may join in the funding. On July 11, Trump announced that USAs NATO allies would buy weapons from Washington that could later be transferred to Ukraine. Rutte, during a press conference with Trump on Monday, called it "logical" that European countries would pay for the supply of American weapons to Ukraine. The head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, said on Tuesday that EU countries would prefer Washington to provide some military aid to Ukraine free of charge. "If we pay for these weapons, it means that it is we, and not the United States, who provide this military aid," Kallas said at a press conference in Brussels. She stressed that Brussels "would like to see a distribution of these costs." Sarah Ritten, Project Manager with UPholdings Ted Dearing, Battle Creek Assistant City Manager Switzerlands Richemont posted a jump in quarterly sales on Wednesday, despite the geopolitical uncertainty weighing on the global luxury market. The owner of Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, among others, said group sales came in at 5.4bn in the three months to 30 June, up 3% or by 6% on a constant currency basis. The rise was fuelled by Richemont's high-end jewellery division, which saw sales spark 11%. That offset weaker performances at specialist watchmakers, where sales fell 7%, and a 1% drop in fashion and accessories. Global sales of luxury goods were down 1% in 2024 and are expected to continue falling this year, as escalating geopolitical tensions and US tariffs weigh heavily on the sector. High-end, investment-grade jewellery has been less affected, however. At Richemont, buoyant demand in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East and Africa helped offset a 13% slide in Japan and flat trading in Asia Pacific. Sales rose 11% in both Europe and the Middle East and Africa, on a constant currency basis, and by 17% in the Americas. Richemont said demand in Europe had been driven by strong spending by both locals and tourists, especially in Italy and Germany. Higher tourist spend also boosted sales in the Middle East, alongside ongoing strength in the United Arab Emirates. In China, Hong Kong and Macau, however, sales fell 7%. As well as ongoing trade tensions with the US, China is battling a prolonged period of sluggish domestic consumption. Richemonts brands include watchmakers IWC and Vacheron Constantin, Montblanc and fashion houses Alaia, Chloe and Dunhill. As at 1030 BST, shares in the firm were up 1%. Donald Trumps shift in stance on Ukraine has been a long time in the making. Much has changed since the humiliating scolding of Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office in late February, when Trump even blamed him for the Russian invasion. In the meantime, the Republican has gradually shifted toward much more moderate positions at times even resembling those of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden. Vladimir Putin has gone from being a friend with whom Trump never fully lost contact, even during his four years out of the White House, to someone who talks a lot, who is killing a lot of people, and with whom Trump now says he is very unhappy. The latest episode in this shift came on Monday, when Trump flanked by his loyal sidekick and sycophant Mark Rutte, the NATO Secretary General threatened secondary tariffs of up to 100% on Russia if Moscow doesnt reach a peace deal within 50 days. Its certainly a strong move, but one that financial markets dont seem to believe: if they did, oil and natural gas prices would be skyrocketing anticipating a massive exit of Russian energy from the market instead of falling, as they did on Monday and continue to do this Tuesday. The oil market doesnt buy the secondary tariff threats, stressed analysts at Dutch bank ING in a quick note to clients. The lack of any immediate action and the belief that these threats wont be carried out help to explain the market reaction. After dropping nearly 2% on Monday, just hours after Trump made his threat, Brent Crude remains in the red this Tuesday a trend mirrored by gas prices. A secondary tariff is, essentially, a levy on countries that purchase goods from a specific nation. Unlike a conventional tariff which in this case would mean taxing Russian exports the approach chosen by the White House aims to place all the pressure on nations that are the biggest buyers of Russian goods. Its about tariffs on countries like India and China that are buying their oil, clarified U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker a few hours later. The purchase of Russian crude has been banned in the U.S., the EU, and the rest of the G7 since 2022, shortly after the start of the Ukraine invasion. Natural gas, however, continues to flow freely. Secondary tariffs, then, make perfect sense in this context: a conventional tariff would have little impact, since Russian exports to the U.S. are minimal just $3 billion in 2024, according to U.S. government data a third less than a year earlier and, remarkably, just one-tenth of the 2021 figure, before any sanctions were imposed on the Russian oil sector. Whether Trumps threat will materialize remains to be seen especially since it would mean the affected countries would have to pay a duty equivalent to the full value of the imported product, a truly staggering penalty. Venezuela The Venezuela precedent is the clearest test case for the threat against Russia. Trumps own Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick used that very example on Monday to illustrate what may lie ahead. Its economic sanction, said Lutnick. He [Trump] said to Venezuela. He said, If you do business and you buy Venezuelan oil, right, your country will pay a tariff, right? What happened with the Latin American country, however, suggests caution is warranted. At the end of March, the Trump administration floated the possibility of imposing secondary tariffs on Caracas, but no developments have followed since then. Despite the fact that the threat remains, no country has been sanctioned for buying Venezuelan oil, said Jorge Leon, vice president and head of oil analysis at the Norwegian consulting firm Rystad Energy, by phone. Its true that there are few Venezuelan barrels for export, around 200,000 per day. But one thing is also clear: China, its main buyer, has not been penalized in any way. Spain, which until recently was the EUs top importer of Venezuelan crude, has not purchased a single barrel from Venezuela since March. No details As often with Trump, the announcement came with few specifics, leaving plenty of room for speculation. Chief among the questions is whether the U.S. president would actually extend the proposed 100% tariff to European exports, given that the EU-27 still buy vast amounts of liquefied natural gas (LNG, which is shipped by sea) from Moscow. Although Brussels aims to fully eliminate Russian LNG by the end of 2027, last year alone it paid 23 billion ($26.7 billion) to Russia for it. India and China would be the most affected by the potential 100% secondary tariff for two key reasons: their extremely close trade ties with the United States (they are, respectively, the second and ninth largest exporters to the U.S.) and their dominant role as importers of Russian energy. India has dramatically increased its purchases of Russian crude since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. So much so that, so far in 2025, one-third of the oil consumed by the worlds most populous country is now of Russian origin compared to just 2% in 2021. The 100,000 barrels India bought from Russia that year surged to 1.9 million in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Russian oil sales to China which remains its largest buyer and is currently negotiating to put an end to its trade war with the U.S. have followed a similar, though less extreme, trend: rising from 1.6 million barrels per day in 2021 to 2.4 million in 2024. This growth has been fueled both by the vacuum left by the end of Western purchases and by the Kremlins need to slash prices in order to keep oil flowing to market. The U.S. presidents statements are very serious, said Vladimir Putins spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday. Soon after, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov took it a step further: We want to understand what this 50-day reference means [...] Its clear that Trump is under enormous, frankly indecent pressure, he said, naming the EU and NATO. Were already dealing with an unprecedented number of sanctions and managing well. I have no doubt well handle these new measures too. His hope: that even if the U.S. ultimately follows through with its threat, neither China nor India will abandon what the Kremlin calls their independent policy. In other words, that theyll keep buying Russian oil in large volumes. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition The eurozone's trade surplus widened by more than expected in May after a significant fall the month before, as ongoing US tariff uncertainty continued to cause dramatic swings in exports. The trade balance for the single-currency region increased to 16.2bn in May, according to figures from Eurostat released on Wednesday, coming in ahead of the 13bn consensus estimate. This follows a surplus of 11.1bn in April, which dropped from March's all-time high of 37.3bn. Exports to the US had surged in March as companies frontloaded shipments into the US ahead of import tariffs coming into effect in early April. Eurozone exports increased just 0.9% in May to 242.6bn, while imports into the region fell 0.6% to 226.5bn. The higher balance was mainly driven by a rebound in exports in chemicals and related products, where the surplus for this category growing to 24.3bn from 22.0bn, along with a modest increase in the surplus of machinery and vehicles, up to 12.9bn from 12.1bn. Over the first five months of the year in total, the eurozone recorded a trade surplus of 86.5bn, up from 81.4bn for the same period the year before. The Co-op confirmed on Wednesday that the personal details of all 6.5 million of its members were stolen in a cyber-attack earlier in the year, in one of the most significant data breaches to hit a UK retailer. Names, addresses and contact information were exposed in the April attack, although the group stressed that no financial or transactional data was compromised. Co-op chief executive Shirine Khoury-Haq said she was incredibly sorry for the breach and described it as a personal blow. It hurt my members, they took their data and it hurt our customers and that I do take personally, she told the BBC. Khoury-Haq added that while much of the stolen data was already publicly accessible, members were right to be concerned. We know a lot of that information is out there anyway, but people will be worried and all members should be concerned. The breach forced the Co-op to shut down parts of its IT systems, causing disruption to grocery deliveries and leading its funeral services to revert to manual operations. It said it was able to detect and contain the hackers activity quickly, but admitted it did not expect to recover significant costs from insurers, having chosen to invest in threat detection over cyber-insurance. Four people aged between 17 and 20 were arrested last week in connection with the attack, as well as other attacks on Marks and Spencer and Harrods. All were bailed pending further investigation by the National Crime Agency and police. Authorities were examining links to the hacking group Scattered Spider. As part of its response, the Co-op announced a strategic partnership with The Hacking Games, a UK social impact initiative that aimed to steer young cyber talent toward ethical careers. The programme would begin with a pilot in Co-op Academies Trust, which runs 38 schools, and would include an independent research study led by Oxford University cybercrime expert Professor David Lusthaus. Our members expect us to find a cooperative means of tackling the cause, not just the symptom, Khoury-Haq said. When we expand opportunity we reduce risk, while having a positive impact on society. Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com. Rachel Reeves has claimed that rules and red tape are acting as a boot on the neck of businesses and risk choking off innovation across the UK without bold reforms. In a speech to City bosses attending the Mansion House dinner at Londons Guildhall on Tuesday evening, the chancellor heaped further pressure on regulators to allow for more risk in order to boost economic growth. Guardian HM Revenue and Customs has been sharply criticised by parliaments spending watchdog for being unable to track how many billionaires pay tax in the UK. In a highly critical report on the collection of tax from wealthy individuals, the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC could not say how much the super-rich either contributed to the exchequer or avoided. Guardian Donald Trumps plan for a 50pc tariff on copper is designed to turbocharge the American metals industry and safeguard supplies for the US military. But there is another, more surprising winner from the presidents levy: Ed Miliband. Trumps proposed tariffs have rocked global markets, prompting copper miners to think again about sending any more shipments to America this year. Telegraph Frances prime minister has proposed scrapping the countrys public holiday for VE Day as he tries to get a debt-strapped nation to live within its means. Francois Bayrou has proposed axing two of the countrys 11 bank holidays as part of a 44bn (38bn) package intended to tackle the countrys fiscal crisis. As a nation, we must work more, Mr Bayrou said. This change to our holiday calendar will bring in billions to the state budget, simply because businesses, shops, the civil service and the nation will be working and our production will be improved. Telegraph The government has dropped a plan to introduce a framework for standardising the calculation of carbon emissions as a way of cracking down on companies and investment funds making exaggerated environmental claims. The plan for a so-called green taxonomy, a classification tool that would have required companies to be more accurate and rigorous in their environmental claims, has been ditched, the Treasury said. The Times Lawyers representing motorists in the diesel emissions scandal have been accused of aiming to run up eye-watering fees of more than 76 million and over-lawyering the claim. Pogust Goodhead and Leigh Day are the two London law firms that represent the majority of about 1.5 million claimants in a High Court class action against vehicle manufacturers accused of diesel emissions fraud. The Times Karnataka is planning an AI mission to address innovation, regulation, and employment challenges, to be part of the IT Policy 2025-2030 or a standalone initiative. Minister Priyank Kharge emphasizes regulatory sandboxes and investments to balance AI innovation with risks like deepfakes and financial frauds. An AI workforce impact study was launched on June 17 to analyze automation's effect on entry-level tech jobs, with the strategy to be finalized at the Bangalore Tech Summit in November. Karnataka is considering the introduction of a specific artificial intelligence (AI) mission specific to the state's needs, as it struggles to find its way through the rapidly evolving AI innovation, regulation, and employment landscape. State Electronics and IT Minister Priyank Kharge announced that talks are going on to determine if this AI mission must be included as part of the upcoming Karnataka IT Policy 2025-2030 or as an independent policy initiative. While the growth of AI adoption is gathering speed around the world, Karnataka, with India's biggest concentration of engineers, is at the juncture of challenge and opportunity. The minister realized the increasing complexity of the task of regulating a game-changing technology like AI, which is currently being applied across fields from healthcare to governance. While highlighting the tremendous potential of generative AI, he warned about the dangers it poses, such as the proliferation of deepfakes and AI-facilitated financial frauds. "It's very difficult to say that I will regulate AI now", Kharge said, emphasizing that a balanced and agile approach was necessary. He promoted the creation of regulatory sandboxes, in addition to more investments, incubators, and accelerators, so that innovation would not be suppressed and risks would be taken responsibly. The government has already taken the first steps to comprehend the long-term effects of AI on the state's enormous IT industry. On June 17, it initiated an 'AI workforce impact study' to assess how automation and generative AI are affecting employment levels, especially at the entry level. Kharge said that AI was changing recruitment trends in the tech industry with the speed of junior-level hiring reducing sharply due to automation. Karnataka is not the only one to hail this mission. Other states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Gujarat are launching their own AI-specific missions. These state missions are meant to drive AI-driven innovation, advance adoption in key sectors, and make public service delivery more efficient. As meetings are ongoing with industry players and think tanks, Karnataka will complete its strategy over the next few months. The new IT policy, which may be tied in with or complemented by a state-level AI mission, is scheduled to be launched at the Bangalore Tech Summit in November, marking the state's seriousness in charting the future of AI responsibly and strategically. IAF Group Captain Shubanshu Shukla became the first Indian to visit the International Space Station (ISS). ISRO stated that his ISS experience will be extremely valuable for Indias upcoming Gaganyaan human spaceflight mission. Shukla returned safely after 18 days in space, completing over 310 Earth orbits and traveling 1.3 crore kilometers. In a historic moment for Indian space exploration, Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla returned safely to Earth on Tuesday after completing an 18-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of Axiom Spaces Mission-4 (Ax-4). His journey marks a significant leap in Indias space ambitions, as he becomes the first Indian to visit the ISS and only the second Indian astronaut to travel to space after Rakesh Sharma in 1984. The mission, which began on June 26, concluded with the safe splashdown of SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft 'Grace' in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 3:01 p.m. IST (4:31 a.m. CT). Shukla was part of a four-member crew that included renowned US astronaut Peggy Whitson, Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland, and Tibor Kapu from Hungary. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hailed the mission as a milestone for India's human spaceflight program. The experience gained by Shubanshu Shukla during his time on the ISS will be extremely valuable for the Gaganyaan programme planned over the next two years, said Nilesh M. Desai, Director of ISROs Space Applications Centre. Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh also lauded the successful mission, noting that it has firmly positioned India in the global space domain. This is truly a historic moment. With this success, India has established a permanent place in the domain of space, he said in a statement to IANS. Group Captain Shukla and the crew boarded the Dragon spacecraft 'Grace' at 3:30 a.m. CT (2 p.m. IST) on Monday before making their journey back to Earth. During his stay aboard the ISS, Shukla completed over 310 orbits around Earth, covering an astonishing 1.3 crore kilometers equivalent to nearly 33 round trips between the Earth and the Moon. He also witnessed more than 300 sunrises and sunsets from the orbital laboratory. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh took to social media to express his pride. Group Captain Shubhanshu Shuklas successful return from the historic Axiom-4 mission is a proud moment for every Indian. He has not just touched space, he has lifted Indias aspirations to new heights, Singh posted on X (formerly Twitter). took to social media to express his pride. Group Captainfrom the historic Axiom-4 mission is a proud moment for every Indian. He has not just touched space, he has lifted Indias aspirations to new heights, Singh posted on X (formerly Twitter). Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri also congratulated Shukla, saying his mission has 'opened new horizons and endless opportunities for Indias rapidly growing space sector'. Meanwhile, Shuklas family expressed overwhelming pride at his achievement. This is a matter of great pride for me and my family that my son traveled to space, said his father Shambhu Dayal Shukla. We are especially grateful to the Hon'ble Prime Minister, under whose efforts this became possible. Following the return, the astronauts, including Shukla, will undergo a week-long rehabilitation programme to readjust to Earths gravity under the supervision of flight surgeons. As India eyes ambitious future missions including Gaganyaan, Shuklas mission is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping the country's path in human space exploration. Fans will soon be able to see the real Slim Shady stand up on the silver screen, as a new documentary exploring the career of Eminem through the eyes of his most devoted fans will hit theaters for a limited engagement later this summer. Stans, named after the 52-year-old Detroit rappers 2000 hit song about an overzealous, obsessive fan, will screen exclusively at AMC Theaters from August 7 through August 10. The term stan has since become part of the lexicon as an expression for dedicated fandom and was added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2019. AMC Theatres Distribution, which previously handled releases for Taylor Swifts The Eras Tour and Beyonces Renaissance concert films, will manage the U.S. distribution, according to a press release. More than 135 AMC locations are expected to show the film at least twice daily during its run. A teaser trailer for the two-hour documentary, which premiered last month at the SXSW London festival in England, dropped on Tuesday. According to the Detroit Free Press, the documentary will be accompanied by a soundtrack featuring previously unreleased Eminem music. Director Steven Leckart described in a press release, the film capturing the complicated relationship between one of the worlds most private artists and his massive public persona. Through stylized recreations, rare archival footage, intimate interviews, and an exclusive original interview with Eminem himself, it offers a raw, loud, and revealing journey across his career and the passionate audience that has grown with him, reads a synopsis. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, served as a producer on the film alongside manager Paul Rosenberg, Stuart Parr, Antoine Fuqua, Tony DiSanto and David Schiff. According to People.com, the documentary will be available to stream internationally on Paramount+ later this year. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Seamens Society for Children and Families has elected seven new members to the organizations board of directors. The new board members are: Dr. Renata Vaysman, licensed clinical psychologist and founder of Kings Psychological Services Timothy Castanza, founder and chief executive officer of Bridge Prep Charter School Roosevelt Board, owner and operator of Chick-fil-A at the Staten Island Mall Tiffany deSousa, founder and chair of the CLCL Foundation (Choose Love. Celebrate Life) Michelle Chen, founder and owner of Lil M Bubble Tea House Miriam Prat-Mallilo, director of OMH Child and Adolescent Outpatient Mental Health Services with Richmond University Medical Center Bobby Aanonsen, vice president of Private Banking with IDB Bank Its an exciting moment for Seamens Society as we welcome Renata, Timothy, Roosevelt, Tiffany, Michelle, Miriam, and Bobby to our board, said David Gaskin, chief executive officer. Their diverse backgrounds and dedication to community service will help drive our vision forward. We look forward to the energy and ideas they will bring as we continue to strengthen our programs and reach those who need us most. Im honored to step into the role of board chair as of July 1 and to welcome seven new members to our board, joining our dedicated group of eleven existing members, said Robert Vidal II, newly appointed chairperson for Seamens Society. This marks an exciting new chapter for our organization, and Im truly energized by the diverse perspectives, talents, and commitment each of you brings to the table. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Jeanne Raleigh for her outstanding leadership and service as our previous chair. Her guidance has been instrumental in shaping our direction, and Im grateful that she will continue to offer her wisdom and support as immediate past chair. I look forward to working with this revitalized board as we build on our momentum, embrace new opportunities, and continue advancing our mission together. Gaskin added, We are deeply thankful to Alison Malone for her dedicated service on our board. Her insight, commitment, and support have played an important role in advancing the mission of Seamens Society, and her impact will be felt for years to come. About Seamens Society: Founded in 1846, Seamens Society for Children and Families, a not-for-profit organization, is dedicated to securing the safety and well-being of the children and families entrusted to our care. Seamens Society serves over 1,250 children and over 500 families. The programs protect and care for our communities most vulnerable children, while strengthening families living with mental illness, alcohol addiction, substance abuse, domestic/intimate partner violence, and other circumstances which can threaten a childs safety and future. Dr. Renata Vaysman: Dr. Vaysman is a licensed clinical psychologist and the founder of Kings Psychological Services, PLLC, based in New York. She specializes in providing accessible and reliable therapy and assessment services for both children and adults experiencing a range of clinical concerns. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Vaysman has served as an adjunct professor, presented at national conferences, and contributed to professional publications. Timothy Castanza: Castanza is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridge Prep Charter School, designed specifically for students with dyslexia and language-based learning differences. He is a Cahn Fellow for Distinguished School Leaders, an honoree of the Exceptional New Yorker award by NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, serves in various statewide literacy commissions, a recipient of the Staten Island Economic Development Corporations 20 under 40 award, and a proud board member of the Staten Island Business Outreach Center. He is excited to join the Board of Trustees of Seamens Society for Children and Families! Roosevelt Board Board is the owner and operator of Chick-fil-A at the Staten Island Mall. A South Carolina native and Coastal Carolina University graduate, Board began his career with Chick-fil-A as a general manager before serving as a grand opening supervisor for locations nationwide. At 27, he opened Staten Islands first Chick-fil-A. Tiffany deSousa: DeSousa is a child advocate, and not-for-profit founder. After surviving youth homelessness and overcoming mental-health challenges, she channeled her strengths into service. In June 2024, she earned her master of arts degree in child advocacy and policy from Montclair State University. She is the founder and chair of the CLCL Foundation (Choose Love. Celebrate Life.), a nonprofit pilot empowering families and youth through trauma informed, culturally sensitive programs. DeSousa also serves as co-chair of the League of Women Voters of Ocean County, sits on the Ocean County Youth Services Commission, and contributes to multiple community coalitions focused on child welfare, mental health, and homelessness. Michelle Chen Chen is the founder and driving force behind Lil M Bubble Tea House in Castleton Corners. An entrepreneur with no prior restaurant experience, Chen honed each recipe by tasting bubble tea across the region and developing specialty offerings like her signature Strawberry Matcha Latte. Miriam Prat-Mallilo Prat-Mallilo is a pediatric behavioral health leader with over 15 years experience serving New York Citys vulnerable youth. She began her career in 2009 supporting survivors of human trafficking and teen exploitation in the Bronx, setting the path for ongoing work with underserved children and adolescents. Since 2016, she has been a cornerstone of Staten Island Mental Health a division of Richmond University Medical Center where she progressed from therapist to managing and developing multiple programs. Today, she oversees pediatric outpatient and school-based clinics, the childrens Day Treatment Program, Health Homes Serving Children, and the Court Involved Youth Initiative. She also serves as clinical director for a SAMHSA funded grant supporting evidence-based trauma treatment and has been the Chair of the Staten Island Committee for Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services since 2023. Bobby Aanonsen Bobby Aanonsen is vice president of Private Banking at IDB Bank. A graduate of Sacred Heart University, Aanonsen previously worked with the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation in various management roles including vice president of membership. Unreleased music and tour materials from Beyonce were stolen when thieves broke into a vehicle used by her choreographer. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) Unreleased music and tour materials from Beyonce were stolen last week when thieves broke into a vehicle used by her choreographer and dancer in Atlanta, Georgia. The break-in occurred Tuesday, July 8, when Christopher Grant, Beyonces choreographer, and Diandre Blue, one of her dancers, parked a rental black Jeep Wagoneer shortly after 8 p.m. Upon returning to the SUV, they discovered the back lift gate had been broken and two suitcases were missing, Pitchfork is reporting. Among the stolen items were hard drives containing sensitive materials related to Beyonces ongoing tour in support of her album Cowboy Carter. The police report noted that the stolen drives contained watermarked music, some unreleased music, footage plans for the show and past and future set lists. Personal belongings including laptops, Apple earbuds, and designer clothing were also taken during the theft, the report said. According to the outlet, Atlanta police have issued an arrest warrant for a suspect, according to a police department spokesperson. Investigators dusted the vehicle for fingerprints and obtained surveillance footage that captured the break-in. Despite the theft, Beyonce proceeded with her scheduled performance at Atlantas Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which marks the conclusion of her originally scheduled tour dates for Cowboy Carter. Si quieres compartir tu cuenta, cambia tu suscripcion a la modalidad Premium, asi podras anadir otro usuario. Cada uno accedera con su propia cuenta de email, lo que os permitira personalizar vuestra experiencia en EL PAIS. Tienes una suscripcion de empresa? Accede aqui para contratar mas cuentas. En el caso de no saber quien esta usando tu cuenta, te recomendamos cambiar tu contrasena aqui. Si decides continuar compartiendo tu cuenta, este mensaje se mostrara en tu dispositivo y en el de la otra persona que esta usando tu cuenta de forma indefinida, afectando a tu experiencia de lectura. Puedes consultar aqui los terminos y condiciones de la suscripcion digital. Its a beer-filled blast from the past. This month, Meiers Creek Brewing Co. of Cazenovia introduced a new version of the classic late-20th century draft beer delivery device called the beerball. Meiers Creek calls theirs The Hoppy Hauler. Its a plastic ball that holds a little more than two and a half gallons (10 liters or 20 pints) that you can tap for fresh beer at your next party. As soon as I heard about it, I had to order one, said Pam Spaulding Washbon of Cazenovia. She grabbed a Meiers Creek beerball for her contribution to a recent getaway with friends in the Adirondacks. It takes me back to when I graduated from high school and was going to a lot of parties. So much fun. The original beerball was a Central New York invention that was the highlight of many parties from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. It was a plastic cylinder that held a little more than five gallons of draft beer. The appeal was they were lighter and easier to carry than a standard metal keg. Just throw it in a bucket of ice and get the party started. Beerballs were introduced in 1976 at the F.X. Matt Brewing Co, in Utica as a vehicle for its now-discontinued Matts Premium Beer. The inventor was J. Kemper Matt, Jr. The fad took off for a while at breweries around the country, from Genesee to Coors, but beerballs fell out of use by the 90s. They were last produced at the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Baldwinsville. Meiers Creek calls its Hoppy Hauler a throwback to the beerballs 1980s heyday. Grab your Members Only jacket and load up your mullet - cause nothing says party like 10 liters of your favorite brew in a plastic orb, the brewery posted on social media. The Meiers Creek beerballs are available to order now through the companys website. They must be reserved at least a week in advance and can be picked up at either the Cazenovia brewery, 33 Rippleton Rd. (Route 13) or at the brewerys taproom at 720 Van Rensselaer St. in Syracuses Inner Harbor. For now, the containers come in three different beers: Floatin on By (pilsener) for $60; Velvet Fog (hazy IPA) for $70 or Berry Man (fruited sour) $80. Unlike kegs, the beerballs require no deposit and dont need to be returned (although you can ask for a returnable tap with a deposit when you order). Or you can buy your own party pump. The crew at Meiers Creek knew the beerballs history, and were inspired when one of the brewerys owners, Colby Clark, saw a display from a plastic container manufacturer at a recent brewers conference. He (Clark) was reminiscing about the beerballs, said Jordan Pollock, Meiers Creeks director of brewing operations and sales. So when we saw them, we thought Lets do it. The Happy Hauler has been popular since its debut just ahead of the Fourth of July weekend, said Crystal Paolelli, the brewerys marketing director. We started getting orders right away, she said. Despite its nostalgic value for older consumers, the people ordering the beer balls seem to be a real mix of age groups, she said. Washbon, who brought a Velvet Fog beerball to that Adirondack outing, agrees it appeals to everyone. The young people really had no idea about them, she said. But once they saw it, everyone loved it. Although the beerball seems ideal for summer gatherings, Meiers Creek plans to offer them year-round. Theyd be ideal for holiday parties, Pollock said. We think they can do well all year. This Jersey Shore town just lost a legal fight over how loud its residents can be. Bobby Olivier | NJ Advance Media A New Jersey appeals court threw out Sea Brights noise ordinance on Monday, saying the town didnt have the authority to pass it and that the law was too vague to be enforced fairly. The ordinance, adopted in 2017, banned unnecessary and unreasonable loud, disturbing noise that could be heard from 50 feet away. It was challenged by Thomas Bonfiglio, who has since died, and his companies, 1030 Partners and 1030 Liquor Partners, which own and operate Tommys Tavern + Tap, a restaurant and bar in a mixed-use zone of the borough. Bonfiglios lawsuit challenged the ordinance, which banned excessive shouting, screaming or loud talking by patrons and others who disturb the peace and quiet of the neighborhood. The complaint alleged that Sea Brights noise ordinance would negatively impact his business, according to the opinion. The Appellate Division upheld a lower courts ruling which also found that the ordinance is invalid. The court found that Sea Brights law conflicted with the authority of the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission, which has regulated noise nuisances in the borough since adopting a model public health code in 1987. The judges said Sea Bright, as a member of the regional commission, could not pass its own noise law because the commission already had specific authority over such matters under state public health laws. The court also found the ordinance unconstitutionally vague, saying it lacked objective standards and gave officials too much discretion in enforcement. Judges noted that the law could criminalize everyday behavior, such as backyard conversations or children playing, because it relied on subjective terms like annoying or disturbing rather than measurable sound levels. The court said this was not Sea Brights first attempt to pass noise ordinances. A previous version used decibel-based standards, but the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection rejected them for not aligning with the states model. In response, the borough reclassified the law as a noise nuisance ordinance and removed decibel levels to avoid needing DEP approval. The court said this was done to circumvent the NCA, referring to the states Noise Control Act. Requests for comment from Sea Bright, Tommys Tavern + Tap, and their attorneys were not immediately returned. New York Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon has overseen the state unemployment system for a decade. Video still from the NYS Department of Labor By Julia Rock | New York Focus Last December, Kyra Assibey-Bonsu realized that her stream of work as a freelance audio producer was puttering out. She went to file for unemployment with the state, only to find that she was signing up for a new job: trying to reach the agency that was supposed to help her access the benefit. Assibey-Bonsu, who lives in Brooklyn, was unsure about her eligibility, so she tried to contact the New York state Department of Labor by calling the help line advertised on the departments website. It was so maddening, Assibey-Bonsu told New York Focus. It was always like, Sorry, we dont have enough agents to speak to you. Please try back later. I tried 9 am, I tried 11 am, I tried 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 it doesnt matter the time of day. She couldnt reach anyone. Thousands of New Yorkers a week apply for unemployment benefits through the state Department of Labor, which assesses eligibility and makes payments. For many people, its a smooth process that can be completed online. But thats not always the case. Sometimes, people are told to call the department to complete their application over the phone. Other times, they have questions about how to fill out the complicated form, as making a mistake can lead to legal consequences. And delays in payments prompt others to call for a status update after they havent heard back in weeks. The department offers a hotline for people to call in all of those cases. During the Covid-19 pandemic, when unemployment skyrocketed and the states system was strained, it was notoriously difficult to reach the Labor Department for help. But as the unemployment rate has returned to pre-pandemic levels, the problem has persisted, frustrating advocates who help people navigate the benefit. Its sort of a given that you cant get through, said Nicole Salk, a senior staff attorney with Brooklyn Legal Services who works on unemployment benefits. Prior to 2020, it really wasnt as big of an issue. People could get through on the phone. And then the pandemic happened. State legislators and advocates who help people file for unemployment benefits all told New York Focus the same thing: It seems as though nobody answers the phone. It has become nearly impossible to get through, said Jon Bloom, executive director of the Workers Defense League, which operates an unemployment hotline that gets about 100 calls per week and represents people in unemployment appeal cases. I occasionally talk to people who report getting through to someone. More frequently, people report getting a message that says, We have too many calls. A Labor Department spokesperson did not provide data on the overall percentage of calls that go unanswered. They did, however, provide a snapshot: During the week of June 23, 2025, the department received calls from roughly 42,400 individuals, about 15,200, or a third, of whom spoke with a live agent. That same week, over 36,200 callers engaged with the Self-Service Virtual Agent, the spokesperson said. (Some individuals spoke with both a human and virtual agent that week.) Staffing levels at the departments call centers have fallen over the past couple of years after they were increased during the pandemic, in part because federal funds to the states unemployment system correspond to the volume of claims. In 2022, the department had an average of 344 call center employees at any given moment; in 2024, that number had fallen to 215, according to the Labor Department. In the absence of human support from the department, many unemployed New Yorkers are turning to their local representatives for help. Assibey-Bonsu could not reach anyone at the Labor Department, so a friend suggested she contact her representative Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest for help. Only after the Assembly office contacted the department on her behalf was Assibey-Bonsu able to talk to someone at the Labor Department, she said. After she filed her claim, Assibey-Bonsu needed to provide the Labor Department with additional information for her application, but when she tried to upload documents to the online portal, they didnt go through. Then she sent documents by fax, but it took weeks to process them, and they still werent enough to complete her application. And she couldnt get anyone on the phone to talk about the problem. Assibey-Bonsu received her first payment in April, months after she first filed for the benefit. In the interim months, Assibey-Bonsu had to take money out of her 401(k) retirement account to cover her bills. The process will drive you insane, she said. Souffrant Forrests office gets about a call a week from constituents struggling to access unemployment benefits who cant reach anyone at the Department of Labor, chief of staff Karen Narefsky told New York Focus. Its the single most common reason constituents call the office, she said. If you call American Airlines, you know that eventually youll press your button and then, boom, somebody will get on the phone, said Souffrant Forrest. Thats not the case at the Department of Labor. Other legislators also said unemployment is one of the primary reasons for calls to their offices. Easily the number one constituent services issue that comes into our office is people having issues filing for unemployment insurance, and specifically getting a hold of anyone at the Department of Labor to move their case forward, said Claire Valdez, an assemblymember from Queens. About one in six people who call Assemblymember Grace Lees office, in Lower Manhattan, are struggling to get unemployment benefits. Lee recently had a constituent who needed to contact the Labor Department to verify their ID, but couldnt get anyone on the phone, Lee told New York Focus. Sometimes, she said, constituents are told by the department that they need to complete an interview to be approved for benefits, but cant reach anyone to do it. People file for unemployment and then they wait weeks or months without hearing anything from the DOL, said Lee. Some people try calling day after day and have not been successful. More people are showing up in person to department-run career centers out of frustration with the system, seeking help and at times threatening violence toward staff, according to the Public Employee Federation, the union that represents some of the agencys workers. Unusual incident reports tied to unemployment insurance frustrations have gone up significantly post-pandemic, said Scarlett Ahmed, who works at a Labor Department career center and is on the unions executive board. Management has acknowledged that its significantly higher than before the pandemic, she said. They say its because claimants have higher expectations than they used to. Legislators, advocates, and policy experts see it as a stark failure on the part of the state to provide an essential benefit in a smooth manner. The fact that people have to contact their legislators for help in getting through to the Labor Department thats an abomination, said James Parrott, the director of economic and fiscal policy at the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School. Theres no way to sugarcoat that. Thats a system thats failing New Yorkers. The New York State Department of Labor continues to invest in and deploy new technologies to meet our customers where they are and provide the most efficient service possible, a department spokesperson told New York Focus. The department pointed to upgrades put into place after it awarded a contract to modernize the unemployment program. They include a new chatbot and a texting and emailing communication system that can answer questions so people dont necessarily need to talk to an agent. The overhaul hasnt been completed, and the upgrades wont get rid of the need for human help, advocates said. We always say take a drink whenever they mention modernization, because theyve been talking about that for as long as Ive been doing this work, which is 20 years, said Salk, of Brooklyn Legal Services. And I dont believe thats going to solve the problem. Beyond the one-week snapshot the department provided, its difficult to know just how often New Yorkers are reaching a real person through the unemployment phone line. In January, the department denied a public records request from New York Focus requesting call logs for the phone number that the agency advertises to people who need help filing claims. On July 7, after the agency denied an appeal, New York Focus brought an Article 78 lawsuit against the agency, arguing that the records must be disclosed under the law. The case is pending. This lawsuit is about making sure New Yorkers can keep tabs on what the Department of Labor is doing and whether it is serving the public as it should, said Michael Linhorst, the attorney at Cornell Law Schools First Amendment Clinic who filed the suit. The department appears to be trying to misapply an unrelated confidentiality law to keep the records hidden. An industrial cleaner was killed over the weekend when he was sucked into a meat grinder at Tina's Burrito factory in Vernon, California. (Google Maps) A professional cleaner was killed over the weekend at a food processing factory in Vernon, California, after he somehow became trapped in a meat grinder that unexpectedly activated, according to reports. The deceased, a 19-year-old male, was not publicly identified, local law authorities told KABC. Other workers at Tinas Burrito factory reportedly heard his screams for help and tried to stop the machine, but were unable to do so in time. A police spokesperson told Newsweek it appeared to be an industrial accident and there was no suspicion of any foul play. An investigation into how the machine was activated remains ongoing. Support the Peninsulas only locally-owned newspaper. Subscribe! Subscribing annually brings you big savings. We also offer monthly and weekly subscriptions. Premium Subscription As low as $8.25 per week Premium Includes: -- Access to the Daily Journals e-Edition: a digital replica of our daily newspaper including crossword puzzles, games, comics, classifieds and ads. You can download a digital replica of the Daily Journal for offline reading. You can also clip & download articles or images from the e-edition to share with others The most recent 90 issues are available at any given time. -- Unlimited access to our award-winning online content -- Commenting access on all stories as a valued member of the DJ community -- NEW! Access to our online-only digital crossword puzzle. A new puzzle every day, seven days a week! It was, at least indirectly, one of the greatest acts of civic expression by Cubans in the last 60 years. It took just 48 hours for the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Marta Elena Feito Cabrera, to resign after claiming that there are no beggars in Cuba only people pretending to be beggars. The countrys streets, filled with people rummaging through garbage bins, elderly individuals sleeping in doorways, and others holding out their hands to ask for money, directly contradict the ministers words and challenge the image of the Cuban Revolutions social project. The statement provoked such a wave of outrage among Cubans both on the island and abroad that the crisis not only ended with her resignation, but also pushed President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero to publicly disagree with one of their own and to acknowledge the vulnerability in which part of the Cuban population lives. On Tuesday night, the official press released what everyone had been demanding but no one expected: the announcement that Comrade Minister recognized her mistakes and submitted her resignation. While it was likely the government itself that demanded her resignation, it is telling that this time they used the word resignation rather than release from duties, as they did last year when they dismissed Alejandro Gil from his roles as deputy prime minister and minister of economy and planning. This marks the first time a senior Cuban official has stepped down in response to public anger. Feito Cabrera, 63, had served as minister since 2019. She holds a degree in Engineering in Economics and Organization of the Construction Machinery Industry, a masters in Social Security Management and Administration Systems, and is a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Her remarks in the National Assembly of Peoples Power (ANPP) had a big impact on Cubans, fed up with the profound disconnect between the countrys leaders and its people. Homeless people search for supplies in the trash this Tuesday in Havana. Jorge Luis Banos (AP) Weve seen people who appear to be beggars. When you look at their hands, at the clothes these people are wearing, theyre disguised as beggars; theyre not beggars. There are no beggars in Cuba, said Feito Cabrera during a session specifically convened to present public policies aimed at protecting the most vulnerable sectors of society. When there are people on the street cleaning windshields [...] theyve sought an easy way of life, at traffic lights, begging, cleaning, and possibly later, with that money, what theyre going to do is drink, she added, referring to alcohol consumption. She even went as far as to claim that these people are collecting raw materials, and what they really are... are illegal self-employed workers. The ministers comments directly contradict the data she herself presented last year at a Council of Ministers meeting. According to her own figures, the country has just over 3,700 individuals housed in seven Social Protection Centers across the island 38% of them under 60 years old and with no home to return to. Yet, there is no official statistic that fully reflects the scope of the issue in Cuba or the true number of people living in poverty. Her remarks were enough to spark a wave of public outrage. Citizens denounced the minister on social media, while a group of intellectuals, activists, and ordinary Cubans began gathering signatures to demand her removal. In the midst of the uproar, President Diaz-Canel stepped in, saying he didnt agree with some of the views expressed at the assembly. Its counterproductive to make statements like these when we are acknowledging the existence of a problem, he said. Prime Minister Marrero fell back on the regimes classic rhetoric, reminding the public that people, families, and communities in vulnerable situations have always been and will continue to be a priority of the revolution, a project built on humanism and social justice. Indeed, sectors like healthcare, education, and social security were once Fidel Castros frontline battles and Cubas calling card to the world. But for decades now, Cubans have been enduring the collapse of these once-iconic pillars in a country where medical supplies and professionals are scarce, where teachers and school materials are lacking, and where violence rises in tandem with homelessness and food shortages. This deepening crisis has pushed many Cubans into exile, with nearly 2 million people leaving the island since 2022 alone. Although people of all ages are now visibly living on the streets or begging in Cuba, it is the elderly who suffer the most left behind by family members who have emigrated, crushed by the high cost of goods, and reliant on meager pensions. According to official data, more than 39% of Cubas retirees and pensioners nearly 3 million people receive the minimum pension of 1,528 pesos, equivalent to less than $5 a month. Amid this controversy, Diaz-Canel also reiterated the message that Cubans have heard for years: The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility. But the reality is that Castroism which is facing the worst crisis in its history is increasingly failing to take care of its people. In an interview last year with EL PAIS, Cuban economist Carmelo Mesa-Lago described the loss of the revolutions achievements as a tragedy. Indicators in the 1990s placed Cuba in first place in terms of equality, health, pensions, but never in housing. The Cuba of today has nothing to do with the Cuba of the 1980s, todays Cuba is a catastrophe. The revolution took steps to expand education, health and pensions, especially in the rural sector, but that no longer has anything to do with what we are experiencing today, he said. He continued: For me, it is a tragedy. When Fidel Castro died, the first thing that came to mind was: how sad that this man who did these things and who could have done many others opted for a system that has failed all over the world and has destroyed the country. Because whatever you look at, housing, health, education, everything is finished." Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Preliminary pXRF analysis flagged significant niobium, which was confirmed by expedited laboratory analysis. The companys systematic exploration includes 15 priority targets across its West Arunta tenure for 2025. The air core rig has completed the first pass program at Joyce, with assays expected in August, and was then remobilised to Encounters Steller prospect, 15km north along the Elephant Island Fault. The Elephant Island Fault hosts the Crean deposit, which comprises 3.5Mt of ore averaging 1.92 per cent niobium pentoxide. Encounters next steps at Joyce will involve mobilising a reverse circulation rig to test the depth and width of high-grade zones, alongside ground gravity and passive seismic surveys to map deeper weathering and metal enrichment, following a trial at the Green prospect. Encounters 40,000m drill program underscores its focus on uncovering major niobium and copper deposits in Australias prospective mineral belts. With niobiums critical role in advanced technologies and Joyces high-grade results, Encounter is well-positioned to capitalise on growing global demand for critical minerals. If successful, the exploration could potentially establish Encounters Aileron project as a significant contributor to the niobium supply chain. Nimy Resources drilling rig on Block 3 at the companys Mons project north of Southern Cross in Western Australia. Company: Nimy Resources (ASX: NIM) Project: Mons Project, Block 3, gallium project Location: 370km north-east of Perth Hit: 240m at 55g/t gallium oxide from surface to EOH, including 56m at 101g/t gallium oxide from 60m Peak value: 1m at 285g/t gallium oxide from 115m Nimy Resources has reported exceptional gallium oxide results from its Mons project, 140km north-northwest of Southern Cross in WA. Gallium metal and its oxide comprise a critical yet lesser-known commodity, increasingly vital due to their roles in technology - particularly amid recent supply constraints. China controls 98 per cent of global refined gallium products but imposed export controls in August 2023, triggering price spikes and supply chain concerns. Nimys phase two reverse circulation drilling program at its Block 3 prospect delivered remarkable gallium oxide grades across four 240m-deep holes. The stand-out hole averaged 55 grams per tonne (g/t) gallium oxide - equivalent to 41g/t gallium metal, using a 1.3442 conversion factor - from surface to end-of-hole. The mineralisation remains open. The hole included 56m at 101g/t gallium oxide from 60m, a peak 1m interval of 285g/t gallium oxide from 115m, and a 4m composite of 126g/t gallium oxide from 188m. The final 20m averaged 30g/t gallium oxide across five 4m composites. The second hole yielded two high-grade zones: 20m at 102g/t gallium oxide from 40m, peaking at 141g/t gallium oxide over 4m from 56m, and 36m at 104g/t gallium oxide from 112m, with a peak 1m interval of 376g/t gallium oxide from 117m. The third hole intersected 28m at 59g/t gallium oxide from 216m to end-of-hole. The fourth hole returned 8m at 108g/t gallium oxide from 144m, with a peak 1m interval of 184g/t gallium oxide from 145m, and 20m at 63g/t gallium oxide from 220m to end-of-hole. Average grades for the three other holes were 57g/t, 37g/t, and 30g/t gallium oxide over their 240m lengths. These results, with mineralisation open in all directions, highlight Block 3s potential to meet soaring global gallium demand. Nimy plans to deliver an initial mineral resource estimate in the December quarter, following assays from its phase three program. Ongoing exploration is targeting extensions of the gallium-hosting chlorite schist, with mineralisation identified beyond current limits, suggesting resource expansion potential. Despite galliums relative abundance in the Earths crust, widely estimated at 19 parts per million of the elemental metal, economically viable deposits are rare, making Nimys high-grade, coherent mineralised system a promising contributor to the Wests gallium supplies. Company: Hyterra Ltd (ASX: HYT) Project: Nemaha project, Kansas, the United States Hit: High helium concentrations up to 4.4% in mud gas samples at Blythe 13-20 well. Hyterra Limited reported an exceptional helium discovery at its Nemaha project in Kansas, with mud gas samples from its Blythe 13-20 well showing helium concentrations up to 4.4 per cent. This is a significant find, surpassing typical helium levels in the region and marking a rare occurrence for Kansas, where helium concentrations in the Hugoton gas field typically range from 0.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Helium, a colourless, odourless, non-toxic and inert noble gas, is the second most abundant element in the universe, but it is rare on Earth. Formed as a by-product of radioactive decay, it is a non-renewable resource typically extracted from natural gas deposits. Its unique properties, including an extremely low boiling point of -268.9C, make it irreplaceable in semiconductors, aerospace, MRI technology and quantum computing. The global helium shortage underscores the value of this discovery. Kansas is a strategic hub for US helium production, supported by a robust regulatory environment and decades of expertise from the Hugoton field. The first significant helium discovery in Dexter, Kansas, in 1903 with a 1.84 per cent helium concentration. Dexter lies south of Blythe 13-20 near the Nemaha Ridge. Kansas currently hosts eight helium production plants, reinforcing its dominance in domestic supply. The Blythe 13-20 well will transition to an appraisal phase in the coming weeks, with downhole monitoring equipment installed to gather data for an initial testing program. This discovery strengthens Hyterras position in meeting growing helium demand, particularly for healthcare, which amounts to 32 per cent of US consumption, mainly for MRI cooling. With no viable substitutes, heliums critical role in advanced industries highlights the significance of this high-grade find. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au Australians who take advantage of credit card offers to earn airline loyalty points could be in for a rude shock, the Reserve Bank and rewards experts warn, as earning rates and other sweeteners are likely to be scaled back in response to a proposed ban on card surcharges. On Tuesday, the Reserve Bank revealed its proposal to ban surcharges for debit and credit card transactions from July next year, following a review that found surcharging is no longer achieving its intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices. If implemented, the ban is expected to save consumers $1.2 billion a year, or $60 for the average user. The Reserve Bank wants to ban surcharges for debit and credit card transactions. Credit: Atstock Productions Cards supplied by Visa, Mastercard and Eftpos would be subject to the proposed ban, which the Reserve Bank can implement under its existing powers. Applying the rules to American Express would rely on separate reforms. John Torode has been sacked from MasterChef after a complaint that he used racist language was upheld. The incident formed part of the legal review into behaviour on MasterChef, which was caused by the allegations about co-presenter Gregg Wallace. John Torode on a visit to Sydney. In a statement, Banijay UK, which makes the BBC show, said: The legal team at Lewis Silkin that investigated the allegations relating to Gregg Wallace also substantiated an accusation of highly offensive racist language against John Torode, which occurred in 2018. This matter has been formally discussed with John Torode by Banijay UK, and whilst we note that John says he does not recall the incident, Lewis Silkin have upheld the very serious complaint. Banijay UK and the BBC are agreed that we will not renew his contract on MasterChef. Advertisement Eating outSpecials board $1 wings, $10 chicken rice and more clucking good dining deals for chook lovers A dozen bargains around Melbourne, from dedicated chicken nights at front-running pubs to Korean and Thai fried chicken for less, and budget-friendly hot chicken rolls at new-age takeaway joints. Tomas Telegramma July 16, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share Should we get the chicken? If thats a question you regularly ask your dining companions, this edition of Specials Board is for you. Were here to help you feed your chicken fanaticism for less thanks to a flock of chook-centric dining deals available now at eateries across Melbourne (and beyond). From upscale takeaway shops to pubs and restaurants with dedicated chicken nights, heres where to find some of the cheapest birds in town. Wood-fired free-range chicken with burnt-chilli nuoc mam, papaya salad and steamed rice at Firebird in Prahran. $10 khao man gai, Khaosan Lane, CBD Forget your winter woes by heading to Thai hideaway Khaosan Lane in the city, which is doing khao man gai, or Thai-style chicken rice, for the unheard-of price of a tenner. Its available at lunch Monday to Saturday to dine in or takeaway until July 31. Advertisement Melbourne GPO, G25/350 Bourke Street, Melbourne, khaosanlane.com $25 chicken night, Builders Arms Hotel, Fitzroy Every Tuesday from 5pm, Andrew McConnells Builders Arms Hotel is packed with punters with one thing on their minds: wood-fired rotisserie chicken. The July special is a butter-chicken half chook with pickled cucumber salad and basmati rice. 211 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, buildersarmshotel.com.au The $16 hot chicken roll at Carvery in Toorak. Advertisement $16 chook roll, Carvery, Toorak The quintessentially Aussie chicken shops of the 70s and 80s were the inspiration for Hawskburn Village newcomer Carvery. As the name suggests, it serves all kinds of roasted meat, but one of the best-value items is the $16 hot chicken roll using Bannockburn chook on Noisette bread. 513 Malvern Road, Toorak, carvery.co Get Thai-inspired fried chicken with curry-spiced potato gems and slaw for $22.50 on Thursdays at Club Chin Chin in South Geelong. $22.50 Thai fried chicken, Club Chin Chin, South Geelong Advertisement Yet to get to Club Chin Chin, the Geelong outpost of Flinders Lanes South-East Asian favourite? Thursday is the night, when $22.50 now buys you Thai-inspired fried chicken alongside curry-spiced potato gems and slaw. Its $7.50 extra for a beer or house wine. GMHBA Stadium, Joel Selwood Stand, 370 Moorabool Street, South Geelong, clubchinchin.com.au $20 chicken schnitzels, Punters Club, Fitzroy At Punters Club, named the inaugural Pub of the Year in The Age Good Food Guide 2025, the (excellent) schnitzels are usually $29. Save $9 by visiting on Tuesdays from 4pm, when the schnitties cost $20 and, if youre into it, the schnapps are $10. 376 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, puntersclubfitzroy.com Advertisement Get $25 plates of wood-fired free-range chicken with two sides on Wednesdays at Firebird. $25 chicken night, Firebird, Prahran At Vietnamese-leaning diner Firebird, Wednesday night is all about $25 plates of wood-fired free-range chicken. Its served with burnt-chilli nuoc mam and your choice of two sides from a list that includes mushroom banh uot noodles, papaya salad, wok-tossed greens and steamed rice. 223 High Street, Prahran, firebirdmelbourne.com.au Half-price Korean fried chicken, Gangnam Pocha, CBD Advertisement For a limited time only, this Korean eatery is running a deal on Tuesdays and Saturdays that gives you 50 per cent off all fried chicken, from original to soy and garlic to super spicy. Thats a saving of up to $20. Its available until July 31. 1/270 King Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/gangnampocha_melb Roast chicken with gravy is just one of several chicken specials at Hagens Organics. Parker Blain Multiple chicken items, Hagens Organics, Brunswick East Did you know that butcher shop Hagens offers hot food as well as organic meat at its recently opened East Brunswick Village location? That means chicken-fat garlic bread for $7, chicken-salad sangers and gravy-doused hot chicken rolls for $16, and quarter-chicken with chips (fried in beef tallow for maximum deliciousness) for $18. Advertisement 6 Village Avenue, Brunswick East, hagensorganics.com.au $1 chicken wings at Heartbreaker, CBD Neon-lit dive bar Heartbreaker wants you to get your hands dirty on Wednesday nights. From 5pm to 3am (yes, 3am), the perennially popular CBD spot is dishing up chicken wings for only a buck a pop, smothered in your choice of Buffalo or Alabama sauce. 234A Russell Street, Melbourne, heartbreakerbar.com.au Enjoy all-you-can-eat wings at Brunswick East chicken joint Bird. Bonnie Savage Advertisement $29 bottomless chicken wings, Bird, Brunswick East How many wings can you withstand? Find out Monday to Thursday at banging chicken joint Bird, when the offer is all-you-can-eat wings (in various sauces) plus chips and slaw for $29. Buyer beware: theres a 90-minute limit and a $1 charge for any wing that goes uneaten. 179 Weston Street, Brunswick East, birdbangnchicken.com St Ali s panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel with caper-y brown butter, parmesan and salad. $25 chicken schnitzels, St Ali, South Melbourne Advertisement One of the citys biggest cafe players, St Ali, has just launched a new express lunch menu of $25 dishes. Available on weekdays only, the satisfying line-up includes panko-crumbed chicken schnitzel with caper-flecked brown butter, parmesan and salad. 12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne, stali.com.au $25 for a kilo of Buffalo chicken ribs, Moon Dog World, Preston Start your week strong at Moon Dog World, the local beer brands island oasis in the northern suburbs. On Monday nights, you can up your protein intake and arcade-game skills simultaneously, with a kilo of Buffalo chicken ribs for $25, and free pinball all night. 32 Chifley Drive, Preston, moondog.com.au Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up Stone had known there was a small possibility of reduced libido and erectile dysfunction (between 1 per cent and 2 per cent), but he didnt know that the drug might be linked to his fertility struggles. Finasteride is prescribed at higher doses to treat enlarged prostates and has been known to mildly affect sperm counts. But Dr James Kashanian, a urologist and the director of male sexual health at Weill Cornell Medicine, said the drug has also significantly affected some patients sperm quality, even at 1 milligram, the dose typically prescribed for hair loss. Unlike with other side effects of the drug, its not clear how common reduced sperm counts are, and much of the data is anecdotal. While some doctors say that it can be a significant problem, especially among men already struggling with fertility issues, others say it plays a relatively small role. Still, many young men are not aware of any potential risks, said Dr Mary Samplaski, a urologist and the former director of male infertility at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Will Stone had been prescribed finasteride for hair loss through the US telehealth company Hims & Hers. A senior vice president at the company said it provides information about finasteride when patients are prescribed it and includes a warning on its website about infertility and poor sperm quality. Faced with a choice between a full head of hair and increasing chances of becoming a parent, some men are embracing hair loss. Credit: iStock In most cases, fertility issues seem to reverse within a few months of going off the medication and there is no evidence it causes birth defects. In Stones case, he stopped taking it the day his urologist told him to. When he tested again 10 weeks later, his sperm count had jumped to 250 million per millilitre, a 125-fold increase. A Male Contraceptive? In 1999, the first peer-reviewed study to look at finasteride and sperm quantity found no effects. But a small 2013 study, led by Samplaski, focused specifically on 27 men dealing with infertility issues while taking finasteride. Researchers asked them to go off the drug for three months, the amount of time it typically takes for a new population of sperm to form. When the men were retested after going off finasteride, they registered an 11-fold increase in sperm counts on average. Researchers suspect that the reason for the decline in sperm count is that the medication can shift the balance of hormones in the body, said Dr Scott Lundy, the program director of urology at the Cleveland Clinic. It does this by suppressing the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, or DHT, which has been found to lead to baldness. Loading For some people, disrupting hormonal ratios can create fertility issues. A lot of people dont know that testosterone is a male contraceptive, said Dr Kirk Lo, a urologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto who worked on the study with Samplaski. However, there are very few high-quality studies looking at finasteride and sperm counts, and not every doctor considers it an important factor in fertility. Dr Kian Asanad, the director of the USC Fertility and Mens Sexual Health Centre, says he couldnt recall a case when taking a patient off finasteride solved their fertility issues independently. I keep it in the back of my mind as a possible factor, but I would say its a less common thing. In the US, Kashanian says he has had more conversations about finasteride in recent years as more men have come in seeking treatment for infertility. The convicted murderer Bradley John Murdoch has died in custody in the Northern Territory without revealing where he hid the body of his victim, British backpacker Peter Falconio, ensuring Australias dead heart keeps another secret and exacerbating the pain of loss for his family and friends. Murdoch, 67, was serving a life sentence for killing Falconio, then 28, who disappeared in a remote part of the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek while travelling with his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, in July 2001. She survived the attack. Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio in their camper van before the attack. Credit: Getty Images After a year-long nation-wide search, Murdoch was captured in August 2002 and extradited to the territory. His trial started in 2005, and Murdochs decision to keep an elastic hair tie that belonged to Lees as a trophy was his undoing despite him maintaining his innocence. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to life for also assaulting and attempting to kidnap Lees. His crime took on a life of its own. Canada is seeing a resurgence of measles, which had been declared eradicated in the country in 1998. The disease has reached provinces across the country such as Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick. However, the situation is particularly acute in Alberta. Health authorities in the western province have recorded 1,314 cases since early March. Thats more than the whole of the United States, which registered 1,288 cases in the same period, while Albertas population represents just 1.46% of that of its southern neighbor. So far, the outbreak in Alberta has not resulted in any deaths, although the provincial government has reported 102 hospitalizations. In Ontario, a premature baby died from the disease in early June. The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends monitoring for the appearance of symptoms up to 21 days after possible exposure, and recommends that travelers be more informed about the risks of contracting this disease in areas or countries they plan to visit. In this regard, the Stampede festival, held in early July in Calgary, this year urged people to avoid bringing infants and other vulnerable populations. This event, the largest rodeo and country music event in Canada, attracted 1.4 million people this year during its 10 days of activities. However, health officials continue to insist that the best protection against measles is provided by vaccinations. Experts have noted that the outbreak in Alberta emerged in rural areas where vaccination rates have declined in recent years, slowly spreading to urban centers, where vaccinations have also declined. Craig Jenne, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Calgary, told CBC News that herd immunity requires a vaccination rate of at least 95%, but that in this province it has fallen below 50%. Unfortunately, thats what were seeing in Alberta, and vaccine rates are simply too low to stop that spread, he noted. Experts point out that the decline in vaccination rates in Canada can be explained primarily by fear of inoculations, as claims (disproven by science) that they can trigger other illnesses continue to spread, especially on social media. Researchers point out that a certain amount of fatigue caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has also been a significant factor. A study published in The Lancet a few weeks ago showed that global vaccine coverage has stagnated or even declined. The document indicates that this trend is also being seen in wealthy countries, as demonstrated by the resurgence of serious diseases. Canada and the United States are reflecting this. Measles cases in the United States have reached their highest peak in 33 years. The outbreak, which has occurred primarily in Texas, has already caused three deaths. The disease was officially declared eradicated in the U.S. in 2000. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition For now, Ratnam has returned to social work and is spending more time with her 4-year-old daughter, Malala. But her eyes are still fixed on the future, and on Wills. These decisions are in the hands of our membership and the party, she says on whether she would run in Wills again. Weve got a state election coming up next year, so Ill be supporting our local campaign teams in that work. And then, well start thinking about the next federal election as well. Ive wanted to serve the party and the movement in whatever way I can, and Im very happy to put my hand up in future as well. That quiet resolve has defined Ratnams political life. A trained social worker and the first woman to lead the Victorian Greens in state parliament, she stepped down from her leadership role to contest the federal seat of Wills, a traditional Labor stronghold, believing the moment demanded it. Ive never thought of politics as a career, she says. When I came into the Greens about 15 years ago, I was very worried about climate change. I thought, What can I do? I felt at a loss. So I thought Id join with others who seemed to know what to do and see how I can help. The cheese and mozzarella gozleme with a side of salad at Coburgs Chorba Cafe. Credit: Chris Hopkins And I really thought that if people ask me to hand out flyers for the rest of my life, then that would be what Id do, and Id be very happy doing it. Throughout our lunch its clear Ratnam is well known here. At one point, a local named Shen stops to scold us for not ordering the lentil soup, which he swears is the best item on the cafes menu. He concedes, however, that our choices the feta and mozzarella gozleme for me, and Joys Breakfast, a hearty plate of poached eggs on toast with avocado, mushrooms, salad and a potato borek hash brown for Ratnam are worthy alternatives. Shen then points to the red watermelon pin, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity, proudly displayed on Ratnams green coat, to tell her he loves it. Thank you, she says. Absolutely horrific whats happening. The war in Gaza, Ratnam says, played a defining role in the Wills campaign; even in the weeks after the election, locals in Wills felt compelled to tell her how they were feeling, and recalling these interactions brings her close to tears. Ratnam at a Wills candidates forum in Fawkner in April. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui I had countless numbers of conversations with people who said, Im voting Greens for the first time for Gaza, because I have seen the Greens willing to put themselves on the line, she says. The electorate of Wills, which spans a progressive patch of Melbournes inner north, also includes a significant Arab-Australian and Muslim population. In suburbs such as Fawkner, Ratnam says, the message from voters was clear. When I ask about the defining moment of her weeks-long campaign, Ratnams answer comes almost immediately. Ratnam opted for the Joys Breakfast. Credit: Chris Hopkins On election night, when the numbers started to roll in, it was looking like we were in it, she says. And we were in it for much of the night. It wasnt until the day or so after that, when the postal votes started to come in, that the margins started to really increase. Ratnam goes on to speak about the voting patterns in the northern parts of the electorate, and apologises when her voice begins to crack. But I will remember this one moment when I learnt about the booth results in Fawkner they were reporting that wed achieved about a 40 per cent primary in Fawkner at Fawkner College. We worked very hard with that community, and it means so much because of whats happening, especially in Gaza. Its a community that has traditionally been underserved and overlooked by people in power, and we spent a lot of time up in the north wanting to listen deeply and making sure their voices were heard. So to see that result come through and to see how that community had rallied together, Ill never forget that moment. Ratnam says she is looking forward to spending more time with her family, and returning to social work. Credit: Chris Hopkins Im sad that we couldnt win it for what this meant to a number of communities, especially those who carry what is happening to the Palestinians right now. But the work continues. Ratnam says any suggestion that her campaign in Wills was aggressive is completely unfair and unfounded. When she first ran against Khalil in 2016, Ratnam says she reached out to him to establish an open line of communication, asking that he contact her directly if any issues arose during the campaign. She extended the same offer again in 2025, before the campaign ramped up. Loading He did not contact me once during this entire campaign about behaviour that was troubling that was from one of our volunteers or campaigners, she says. I did, however, see, especially at pre-poll, people in the community and voters challenging Khalil on his governments work or inaction, especially on Gaza While that might be a hard thing to hear, its the truth for the community, and it might make the Labor Party and the local MPs uncomfortable, but thats a result of their inaction. Though this campaign was intense, Ratnam says it is part of a bigger shift she has witnessed since first entering politics. People feel it more directly now. Its whether you can afford food, pay rent, get healthcare. And when the material conditions bear down, people look to politics for answers, she says. Ratnam knows firsthand how deeply personal experiences can shape political convictions. Born in the United Kingdom before moving to Sri Lanka at two-years-old, Ratnam and her family fled the countrys civil war, first finding refuge in Canada, before eventually settling in Australia in 1989. From a young age, Ratnam was immersed in political discussions. In Sri Lanka, she recalls adults around her constantly talking about politics with both passion and urgency. They knew how important it was because they knew they were either electing people who would help broker peace or people who were helping fan the flames of division, and therefore war in our country, she says. So, literally, the difference between peace and war was how we were talking about politics. Like many migrant families, Ratnam has faced constant upheaval before finding stability in Australia. The bill, please. Credit: Hannah Hammoud Three continents, five schools in 2 years. But when I moved into this community over 15 years ago, I knew I wanted to stay forever, she says. You feel a sense of belonging here. That strong bond with her local community has made Ratnam a familiar face on the streets of Wills, sometimes even when shes not there. Her identical twin sister, who lives across Melbourne, joined her on the campaign trail and was often mistaken for her. There are some good election day stories, she says with a laugh. People would walk up to her like, Hi Samantha! Shed say, No, Im not but they didnt believe her. As we talk, retirees sip coffee nearby, while pigeons peck at crumbs underfoot. Ratnams lunch sits nearly untouched as she continues to speak. Shes gesticulative and wide-eyed, and speaks with unguarded warmth, especially as she reflects on the political awakening of her younger self. In the playground, we didnt face a lot of discrimination at first, she says. I put that down to the political climate Bob Hawke, Paul Keating leaders talking positively about multiculturalism. Wed watch SBS every night, and I remember Paul Keating talking about Australias place in Asia. Suddenly, we felt like we were part of the national conversation. But that early sense of inclusion didnt last. As Australias political rhetoric shifted, Ratnam felt the change keenly. Samantha Ratnam, pictured with former Greens leader Adam Bandt, at Brunswick East Primary School during the campaign. Credit: Getty That really stayed with me how leadership shapes whats acceptable. It planted the seed for why I got interested in politics. Words matter. Leaders matter. Its why she speaks with such fondness and sadness about Adam Bandt, the Greens former federal leader, who lost his seat of Melbourne on the same day she lost Wills. Its devastating to lose Adam from parliament and from the leadership of our movement at this moment, she says. Hes been an incredible representative and mentor. But the Greens have had setbacks before. We regroup. We come back stronger. That Im sure of. When it comes to assessing the Greens losses in their inner-city stronghold, or more broadly their poor federal election performance, Ratnam says the Greens must learn how to better combat hostile campaigning. Weve seen some of those third-party groups come together with the pure intention of damaging the Greens, she said. We threaten the status quo were saying that we cant do business as usual if we want to have a planet where theres a chance of surviving through climate change. If we want people to have good lives where they can access the things they need, things are going to have to be a little bit different. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size The government is sure to give far more weight to Justice Michael Wigneys judgment that it has no legal duty of care to protect Torres Strait Islanders from the ravages of climate change than to his other remarks, cogent as they are (Commonwealth not liable for ravages of climate change in Torres Strait, July 16). The judges litany of environmental impacts on the islanders trees dying, soil salination, beach erosion and coral bleaching, to mention a few is compelling evidence that there is a very real risk ... they will lose their islands, their culture and their way of life and will become, as it were, climate refugees. Its quite clear, therefore, that while the government may have no legal obligation to safeguard its citizens from climate harm, it has a serious moral duty to do so. If Australia is to succeed in its ambition to partner with Pacific Island nations and host the 2026 COP conference in Adelaide, it must match that ambition by refusing to approve new and expanded fossil fuels projects in Australia. Tom Knowles, Parkville (Vic) Credit: Cathy Wilcox The Albanese government is denying their duty of care, just like Opposition Leader Sussan Ley did when she was environment minister. This is tragic for the Torres Strait island people considering the terrible damage that has been done already. The judge was scathing of the former Liberal government and found the climate damage proven in fact, but a duty of care not allowed in the common law. But theres nothing from the Albanese government, they just keep expanding coal and fossil gas production and dont offer the help needed to protect the islands. Its time to put a disaster and adaptation levy on fossil fuel exports, as their pollution is driving climate chaos and destroying the Torres Strait islands. Allan Rees, Moruya Torres Strait Island elders Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai at court with their legal advisers. Credit: Australian Climate Case Granny flats The NSW government must be commended for its Housing Pattern Book initiative (Mini-Aussie dream for a much lower rate, July 16). I encourage the government to go further. The pattern book designs would appear to require the demolition of existing homes to enable their replacement by two or more dwellings using traditional construction methods. This is likely to be time-consuming and costly. I believe it should be supplemented by a scheme that expands the current granny flat regime to increase the permitted size (say from 60sq m to 100sq m) and permit subdivision from the principal dwelling, adding to supply and reducing cost. It would facilitate the adoption of sustainable modular housing. The Housing Pattern Book could be expanded to include a range of designs for the new granny flats. David Rohr, Avalon Beach There are some wonderful units in my suburb that I would happily move into, releasing both the asset value of our property for our and our childrens use, and a largish four-bedroom terrace for a family. However, its the fact that 75 per cent of the other owners of the unit block can decide to sell and force me to sell that prevents me from even considering such an action. This must be one of the most ill-considered pieces of legislation ever. Rob Hosking, Paddington Advertisement Powerful allies The idea that no one could be bothered attacking Australia is a comforting fantasy (Lets not spend a bomb on defence, July 16). The Japanese certainly werent deterred from reaching our doorstep in 1942, and Australias mineral wealth and potential for solar power generation make it a worthwhile target for any aggressor seeking to expand its resource base. Hence, the need for powerful allies and meaningful deterrence. Ross Gittins may well be right that Donald Trump is aiming to sell more US defence equipment, but when the Baltic states, Poland, the US and Greece are spending 3 per cent or more of GDP on defence while Spain and Italy are spending 1.5 per cent or less, its obvious that some are doing the heavy lifting while others are just along for the ride. Doug Walker, Baulkham Hills A Royal Australian Air Force pilot from prepares for a training exercise. Thank you, again, Ross Gittins for putting this arms race into perspective. From what I hear and read about Americas living standards, health, education, housing, safety and the environment are all regressing but they do have some cool weaponry! Mark Paskal, Austinmer Like Ross Gittins I have also been wondering why Australia and many other countries are being urged to increase defence spending. Who is behind this, and what are they expecting, or perhaps hoping for? Is it arms manufacturers, who would have nothing to lose and everything to gain? The militia? Ambitious, delusional leaders like Trump, Netanyahu and Putin, who are already destroying the lives of millions of ordinary people? The most worrying thought of all is that, if successful, the build-up of arms could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, resulting in wars that no rational citizen of any country wants. The future of children and grandchildren all over the world depends on the wisdom and negotiating ability of todays political leaders. Razing cities and killing millions solves nothing at all. Corin Fairburn, Bass Advertisement AUKUS cracks Michael Cronk, (Letters, July 15), extols the value of Pillar Two of AUKUS, supposedly dealing with information sharing over a range of advanced technological and electronic developments, including AI. I say supposedly because we dont know what it will all entail and how much of anything will be shared. The government has been very reticent when asked about details. Nor do we know what the current US review will decide and importantly how much more it all might cost us, including the nuclear subs (if we ever get them). Both pillars of AUKUS are showing large cracks and need very close examination before any weight is put on them. Eric Hunter, Cook (ACT) Bank rip-off The card surcharges that banks impose are simply one more example of business trying to gouge customers while simultaneously pretending that the cost of their services is less than it really is (Card surcharge ban risks price rises, job cuts, July 16). It is a pernicious rip-off that risks spreading to the obnoxious levels shown in American healthcare, where mothers are charged $100 for chest-time after the birth of their baby. One of the refreshing aspects of Australian culture, often noted by visitors, is the transparency of advertised prices. You pay what the ticket says. We risk losing that. How soon before we are charged for walking through an automatic door, or for use of a bank pen? Banks, these are your ordinary costs. Running card payments is one of your jobs. Absorb them or raise your prices, and stop this dishonest pretence that there is something special about using a card. Stein Boddington, St Clair Readers think card fees are a rip-off. Credit: iStock Advertisement Admit defeat I cannot see the point in unsuccessful Bradfield candidate Gisele Kapterian continuing with her pursuit of trying to overturn the election result (Fight for whats left of the party, July 16). A change in result would achieve nothing politically except to add one paltry seat to the political rump that is the Liberal Party. Sadly, her pursuit does achieve one thing and that is to call into question one of this countrys most treasured institutions - our wonderful, entirely independent Electoral Commission. Counts and recounts have been done. A result has been declared. Drop your sense of entitlement. Accept the result, then start preparing, as Nicolette Boele did over the past three years, for the next federal election. Bill Young, Killcare Heights Predictably, as soon as the Liberal candidate has exercised her right to take the result in Bradfield to the Court of Disputed Returns, the usual pundits come out suggesting the Liberal Party has a born to rule attitude and she should not bother. That seems to make the Court of Disputed Returns irrelevant. Or is it the case that a candidate is denied the right to go to the court because she is a member of the Liberal Party? And any suggestion that the result might be overturned goes against your correspondents genuine belief in the new natural order, that Bradfield must be represented by teal independent Nicolette Boele. I suggest, as Ms Kapterian has emphatically said, that we should leave it up to the court. Dennis Bluth, Cammeray Instead of adding to the High Courts already considerable workload, can I suggest a much quicker and cheaper option for the video umpire that Gisele Kapterian has requested to rule on 800 ballot papers in dispute. As a semi-retired pharmacist living in Bradfield, I would be happy to gather a group of former pharmacist colleagues, all with decades of experience in deciphering handwritten prescriptions of varying degrees of legibility. We should be able to sort out the dodgy numbering on the disputed ballot papers within a few hours. Problem solved. Judy Gowland, East Lindfield Pedal power I read with bemusement the competing views about use of bicycles in Sydney (Letters, July 16). Im in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, where most of the population (roughly equal to Australias entire population) transport themselves, their families and their goods on motorbikes and bicycles. They get there faster than cars, whose bulk takes up the space of about six bikes. Nearly all taxis are locally produced electric vehicles and there are more electric bikes and buses. All drivers share the space and respect pedestrians, unlike Sydneysiders who defy others to impinge on their road. Rod Lander, Stanwell Park Bicycles have many uses in Vietnam. Credit: Shutterstock Advertisement Tax: enough already There seems to be something in the water, with folks arguing in favour of taxation, that governments should encourage us to be proud of paying tax and that the federal government has a revenue problem best solved by taxing us more. There are frequent calls for this or that to be taxed if its not or taxed more if it is, which makes me shake my head. Two decades ago, about 19 million of us paid an average of $10,000 a head in federal tax. Today, about 26 million of us pay an average of $25,000 a head. I would suggest that Canberra has taken more than enough to do what they need to do, thank you. Dont dig your hand into our pockets any deeper rather trim your sails to the prevailing conditions. Chris Mangan, Bracken Ridge (Qld) Policy derailed Here is some more fuel for thought (Letters, July 16). After energy production, transport is our biggest challenge in reducing emissions. The biggest offender is air travel, then diesel-powered trucks, SUVs and mega-utes. The electrification of cars and trucks will only have limited benefits in achieving emissions targets. Its been demonstrated over and over again that by far the most cost-effective way to move people and freight is by electric-powered rail, especially over the long haul. But in this country we dont base public policy decisions on science and evidence, but allow vested interests to determine our future. Chris ORourke, Bathurst Your correspondent Ian Adair is correct that green steel is not here yet (Letters, July 16). The trouble is that it never will be if we take no steps towards it. The same is true of any progressive idea to improve humanitys chances of survival on the only planet we have. We need to stop the naysaying and do something. Ron McQuarrie, Budgewoi Advertisement Tens of thousands of dollars worth of luxury handbags have been stolen from a high-end store in Sydneys CBD. The flagship store of the Italian luxury fashion house Fendi was targeted in a ram raid at about 3.45am on Wednesday, with a Lexus SUV smashing through the stores large glass windows. Three alleged robbers emerged from the SUV, entering the store through the broken window and grabbing handbags from the Elizabeth Street stores display. Damage and empty display shelving is seen as staff of luxury brand Fendi begin assessing and cleaning up their Elizabeth Street store. Credit: Sam Mooy The trio ran in and out of the store two or three times each, depositing handfuls of bags in the waiting cars, then running back in to grab more, before fleeing the scene in two vehicles. Two childcare workers have been charged with the assault of a 17-month-old boy at an early learning centre in western Sydney, with the alleged incidents reportedly captured on CCTV. Police received information that a toddler had been injured at Start Strong Early Learning Centre in South Wentworthville on June 26. An investigation found the boys injuries were sustained in separate incidents involving the staff members on the same day. The Start Strong Early Learning Centre in South Wentworthville. Credit: Nine News Nine News said the childs parents raised the alarm three weeks ago after noticing bruising from alleged rough handling, with detectives later discovering the CCTV footage. On Tuesday, police charged two female childcare workers with assault. A 42-year-old woman was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault, and a 32-year-old woman was charged with common assault. On a Sunday night in Brisbane, Ill often head to the basement of my Fortitude Valley apartment, get in the car, and drive. It could be anywhere: Inala, Darra, Sunnybank, Underwood. But for me, its usually south, over the river. The Story Bridge, one of the major arterials linking the north and south sides of Brisbane. Credit: Brisbane EDA Granted, shes in her late 60s and has lived in the same house in Ashgrove for all the time Ive known her about 35 years but still, I was shocked. Like, never ? A real comment made to me. In person. By the mum of one of my best mates. Emphasis on never. I always figured the north-south divide in Brisbane was a bit of over-egged hype pushed by people who had never lived in another city. In Melbourne, where I spend many weekends with my partner, hitting the town or running her kids to sports games and play dates, its very real because its actually hard to get across the river there. Its a bit like the eye-rolling social media joke a few years ago that the mascot for the Brisbane Olympics should be the much-maligned white ibis. Hate to break it to you, but bin chickens are widespread across Australia. The Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges, which form part of the Gateway Motorway. Credit: Dan Peled In Brisbane, we have seven bridges for cars between the Sir Leo Hielscher bridges (AKA the Gateway) near the river mouth and the Centenary bridge in the west. Most are at least two lanes each way. And we have a toll tunnel on top of that. All things being equal, there shouldnt really be an excuse to not zip back and forth regularly. And look, we do, clearly. The Riverside Expressway often slows to a crawl at peak hour or during shoulder times. And witness the hoo-ha when in March, the council unexpectedly closed the footpaths on the Story Bridge. But much of the traffic on those bridges is commuter action during the week. Police have revealed they tracked two teenage boys, aged 15 and 17, about 100 kilometres before the pair were arrested over the alleged murder of Sunshine Coast man Zdravko Bilic. Bilic was found dead in the front yard of his multimillion-dollar home at Warana, which he shared with his wife, successful skincare businesswoman Gry Tomte, about 7.35pm on Monday. Police have investigated the possibility the attack might have occurred as early as 11pm on Sunday, about 20 hours before the body was found. A 15-year-old boy from West Woombye was arrested in Chermside on Wednesday night, Sunshine Coast Detective Inspector Chris Toohey told media on Thursday. Alleged Melbourne paedophile Joshua Dale Brown worked at an additional daycare centre that had not been listed by authorities online, bringing the total centres he worked at to 24. On Tuesday, police revealed four more childcare centres had been impacted than initially thought, due to incorrect records handed over by providers, broadening the scope of the police investigation. The revelation of a fifth additional centre on Wednesday, less than 24 hours later, came as federal education minister Jason Clare called for a national register of childcare educators and flagged legislation to crack down on centres which werent up to scratch. Joshua Dale Brown worked at World of Learning in Point Cook. Childcare giant G8 contacted parents on Tuesday, advising them that Brown had worked at World of Learning in Point Cook, in Melbournes west, on August 24, 2023. Police have arrested two men two months after a rock face in north-east Victoria, considered a sacred Indigenous site, was vandalised with graffiti. On May 12, Parks Victoria officers discovered that Paradise Falls in the King Valley had been spray-painted with a graffiti tag, sharing a photo of the damage. The vandalism was discovered on May 12, 2025. Credit: Always Was, Always Will Be, Bpangerang Country/Facebook Paradise Falls is a sacred womens place and much loved by all that visit. If you know who this tag belongs to let them know they need to return and clean up their mess, the Bangerang Cultural Centre wrote on social media at the time. Victoria Police said on Wednesday afternoon that officers had arrested a man in Melbournes CBD that morning. Police from Whitfield the town nearest Paradise Falls had charged the man, a 24-year-old from Rosebud, with criminal damage and charges against the Aboriginal Heritage Act (2006). The job of a homicide investigator is to find the suspect and gather enough evidence to gain a conviction in the Supreme Court, but in some cases there is another duty a duty to the victims family. These are the cases where the victim hasnt been found and the killer (at least initially) is not talking. Convicted killer Bradley John Murdoch, pictured in handcuffs after facing an extradition hearing in Adelaide 2003, has died of throat cancer aged 67. Credit: Getty Images Such was the case with Bradley John Murdoch, convicted of the 2001 murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, 28, who he abducted and killed off the Stuart Highway near Barrow Creek, about 300 kilometres north of Alice Springs. Police say he moved the body and, 24 years later, Falconios remains have not been found. Murdoch wouldnt tell: first, because he maintained his innocence; later, when throat cancer robbed him of speech; and then, ultimately, due to his death in the palliative care unit at Alice Springs Hospital. There is something that people all over the world seem to agree on. It doesnt matter whether they live in Nigeria, Chile, or Spain. Nor does it matter if they are men or women, or if they are 25 or 60 years old. If you ask all those people what it means to be a cool person, the vast majority will give the same answer: someone who is extroverted and hedonistic; powerful and adventurous; open and autonomous. At least, thats what a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests. The study surveyed nearly 6,000 people from 12 countries and found that these six attributes form a universal pattern around the idea of whats cool a pattern that is surprisingly consistent across all the cultures analyzed. This shows that the concept has crystallized on a global scale. Todd Pezzuti is an associate professor of Marketing at the Business School of Universidad Adolfo Ibanez in Chile. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of California, and one of his main research interests is how social influence can shape collective thinking. Thats why he was drawn to uncovering what people around the world understand as cool, awesome, chill, dope whatever word each culture uses to express it. Some people say that being cool comes from confidence and competence, while others associate it with rebellion, explains the expert. He adds: Others argue that the term has been so diluted that its now just a synonym for being nice. We wanted to go beyond opinions and get real answers. The desire to be cool, Pezzuti suggests, has a powerful impact on both individuals and society. But why consider the idea of cool as anything more than a construct of marketing, Hollywood movies, or capitalism? The author has an answer: We believe cool people serve a specific function within groups and societies they push boundaries and help spark cultural change. Elena Dapra, a psychologist at the Official College of Psychology of Madrid, did not participate in the study but agrees with the authors conclusions. Whats cool isnt just a trend or an aesthetic phenomenon, but a universal psychosocial category that identifies people who can inspire, seduce, or lead emotionally without being bound by established rules, she explains. From a psychological perspective, she adds, one could say that these qualities activate evolutionary mechanisms related to social attraction, group differentiation, and the ability to generate desire and identification in others. Despite this universality, the authors expected the concept of cool to vary from one country to another. The data always unpredictable surprised them, revealing far more similarities than differences. The selection of the 13 countries was based partly on convenience and partly on theoretical diversity, Pezzuti notes. We deliberately included countries like Turkey, Nigeria, and South Korea to capture a broader range of cultural perspectives, he explains. In every case, the researchers asked participants to think of four specific people: one who was cool and one who wasnt; one who was good and one who wasnt. Then, the volunteers completed a series of questionnaires measuring 15 different attributes. In this way, good people were collectively associated with ideas like conforming, traditional, warm, and calm. Meanwhile, cool people were linked to a distinctive kind of rebelliousness one that, interestingly, traces its origins to jazz culture more than 70 years ago. A journey to the origin of Its the 1940s in the United States. Saxophonist Lester Young steps onto the stage, his face serious and hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. It seems like a simple gesture not smiling and covering his eyes in front of the audience. But in doing so, hes challenging the racial norms of his time. This is how cool was born. If we think about African-American jazz musicians in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, they played a fundamental role in defining the original meaning of cool, Pezzuti notes. For many of these artists, being cool was a form of silent resistance, the researcher explains an emotionally controlled and self-assured attitude in the face of racism and exclusion. Musicians like Young, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk were marked by a detached confidence, independence, and artistic integrity. Being cool wasnt loud or flashy. It was discreet, defiant, and dignified, says Pezzuti. Over time, this idea of cool based on autonomy, nonconformity, and cultural innovation has expanded and become commercialized. First it was adopted by subcultures like punk and hip-hop, and later by brands, mass media, and ultimately the algorithms of social networks like TikTok. The interesting thing is that even before the internet, there were already globally recognized cool figures: from James Dean to Muhammad Ali, from Frida Kahlo to David Bowie, Dapra reflects. The difference is that now, visibility and virality accelerate the homogenization of this aspirational ideal, and everyone wants to be like everyone else. Globalization has acted as both a loudspeaker and stabilizer of the concept of cool on a global scale. While the study shows that shared patterns of cool already exist, what social media, brands, and pop culture have done is consolidate and amplify these ideals in every corner of the planet, the psychologist adds. In other words, todays hyperconnectiviy hasnt created cool, but it has unified its symbols, aesthetics, and narratives, making it more recognizable, desirable, and stable everywhere. From a psychological perspective, we understand that this is a response to a very deep human desire: to feel free, admired, and emotionally influential within the group, Dapra adds. What probably does change from Madrid to, say, Mumbai is how those traits are expressed. In one place, a person might seem cool by backpacking across Europe; in another, someone might show the same adventurous spirit by launching a startup or taking up a bold new hobby. The behavior might look different, but the underlying traits are the same, Pezzuti sums up. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition The parents of the teenage girl, who is in intensive care after she was hit by a speeding car during a cruise meet in Burswood, had released a statement thanking first responders for keeping their beautiful girl alive. Caitlyn Dickson, 17, was struck by the black Honda Civic on Camfield Drive near Crown Perth just before 10pm on Monday as the pre-arranged car club meeting was dispersing. In a statement, her parents, Paul and Bec Dickson said they were still in shock. We cant believe what has happened, they wrote. A foreign student who was allegedly travelling at almost 100km/h in a 40km/h zone along Camfield Drive when he hit a 17-year-old girl, causing her to somersault twice in the air before hitting the bonnet of the car, has been released on bail. Chun Lai Yuen, 25, had to have proceedings translated through a Cantonese interpreter on Wednesday during his appearance at Perth Magistrates Court where footage of the incident that took place in Burswood on Monday night was played to the court. The moment before the crash, captured by a bystanders mobile phone. Credit: Instagram The court heard Yuen was driving his Honda Civic sedan when he met with others at a car club event in Jandakot about 6.30pm that evening. Police said 371 vehicles were involved in the car meet that travelled from Jandakot, to Bunnings in Melville, before concluding at Crown Perth. Luke Jackson will continue to be employed as a big-bodied midfield weapon even if Hayden Young makes his highly anticipated return in Sundays clash with Collingwood at the MCG. Young missed the first four games of the season with a hamstring injury and played just four matches upon his return before tearing his hamstring again. Hayden Young. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images Surgery has kept the 24-year-old sidelined since early May, but Young is ready to return to playing duties this weekend. Fremantle coach Justin Longmuir is yet to decide whether to ease Young back via the WAFL, or unleash him straight into battle against ladder leaders Collingwood. Using Young as the sub against Collingwood is another option, but Longmuir is confident the star midfielder could play a full game at AFL level if required. Were tempted, Longmuir replied when asked if Young would play against the Magpies. His whole rehab has been mapped out for this week. You can manage players. Weve got mids who play lower game time, we could even go lower (for Young) than we do with some of our other mids. Jackson is enjoying a career-best season, with his work in the ruck particularly exquisite in a campaign in which he is averaging 27 hitouts and 17.5 disposals per game, to go with 13 goals. The return of Young would put a squeeze on midfield spots, given the likes of Andrew Brayshaw, Caleb Serong and Shai Bolton are A-grade regulars in there, complemented by the likes of Jaeger OMeara, Matthew Johnson and Nathan ODriscoll. But Longmuir is eager to persist with the Jackson midfield experiment. Weve chopped and changed a fair bit with Jacko, and I want to keep it pretty consistent with him, get that continuity going, he said. AAP On the one hand, we have China, an authoritarian state with whom we have few shared values, that is in our region and is our most important economic partner. We have a trade-exposed economy and one-third of our export income comes from China. On the other hand, theres America, our friend and ally for more than 80 years, which is moving quickly away from what we previously believed were a comprehensive set of shared values. Increasingly, its new administration reveals an intention to render Australia a form of vassal state via the AUKUS agreement. What is going on in America is not some entertaining distraction or minor diversion after which past verities will be naturally reinstated. The international order is being remade. Nowhere is this more obvious to Australians than with Anthony Albaneses visit to China, which crystallises in the Australian mind our new reality. A lot changed, because he promised it would, and he is in charge of the richest, most powerful country on the planet, so he can make it happen. His governing style is to treat everything like his plaything. One day he thinks this, a few days later he thinks that. Like most of his followers, he is guided by his emotions and suspicions. That is his unbreakable point of connection with them. On Tuesday, in a one-on-one phone call, the BBCs Gary ODonoghue asked Trump if he trusted Vladimir Putin. Trump took a long pause and replied: I trust almost nobody, to be honest with you. Change can be hard to accept. Nowhere is that more evident than in what passes for much of the debate, discussion, analysis call it what you like relating to Australias national security stance since Donald Trump won the US presidency eight months ago. It wasnt just America that changed when 49.8 per cent of the Americans who voted gave Trump a second turn in the White House it was the world. AUKUS has not yet reached its fourth birthday but the original signatories to the pact, Joe Biden, Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison, are all gone from their posts, exiting either in disgrace or embarrassment. AUKUS was an exercise in Anglosphere hubris. Biden believed he had figuratively speared Trump and the MAGA movement through the heart at the 2020 election and that America was back on its previous post-war multilateralist path. Johnson was riding high after his Brexit victory and his smashing of British Labours so-called Red Wall in 2019. Morrison was polling well and believed he was on a winner with his China-bashing stance. He was not concerned in the slightest that he was walking out of a deal with France to build our next fleet of submarines. Loading Crucially, he saw political advantage with AUKUS, expecting that Labor might baulk at its inclusion of nuclear subs. That would have given him the opportunity to portray Labor under Albanese as disloyal to our greatest friend, America, and in the thrall of Beijing on the way to the 2022 election. But Albanese and his senior colleagues, nervous about their election prospects, saw that coming and immediately gave AUKUS the nod. As it turned out, Morrison accused Labor of being Chinas puppet anyway, to little avail. More importantly, however, Labor had, by embracing AUKUS, saddled itself in office with an unworkable, decades-long security pact. If AUKUS was ever fit for purpose, it isnt now, because our relationship with America, while remaining strong, cannot go back to what it was. Much of the Australian defence establishment cannot see it that way. Many analysts, former bureaucrats, academics and the Coalition parties wont readjust their view of the Australia-US relationship as one in which our interests and Americas blur into a whole. Theyre obsessed with the fact that Albanese has met with Chinas president before hes met with Trump. Somehow, the lack of a face-to-face with Trump is all Albaneses fault. What does it say about Trump that he hasnt made it happen? The large number of holdouts in the defence and security establishment who insist that the America of 2025 is the friendly and predictable America of past decades with just a few Trumpian characteristics refuse to accept the obvious. America is no longer what it used to be, via a democratic decision of its own people. Its shocking to consider that as awful as the Chinese government is, at least we know what we are dealing with. Can we really say the same about America? It is now reviewing AUKUS, although the signs are that it actually wants to renegotiate it. Last week, the Trump administration briefed out its demands on Australia to the media, chiefly that it wants reassurances that the submarines it delivers to Australia under AUKUS would be deployed to assist the US in the event of a conflict with China. This was a bit of interference with Albaneses imminent meeting with President Xi. Beijing: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has played down claims he declared Australias opposition to Taiwanese independence in a meeting with President Xi Jinping as the Chinese government dials up pressure over Labors decision to take back the Port of Darwin. After Premier Li Qiang said the country expected its companies to be treated fairly when they invested overseas, a state media outlet made clear Beijings anger at Canberras commitment in April to have the port sold by its owner, Chinese company Landbridge, over national security concerns. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the Great Wall at Badaling, near Beijing. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer At present, there are specific issues between China and Australia that need to be discussed, such as the lease of Darwin Port and the expansion of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the Global Times wrote in an editorial on Wednesday. But it hailed a major improvement in relations between Australia and China that Albanese basked in on Wednesday as he spoke to reporters from the historic Great Wall. A former Albanese government minister has broken ranks to brand aspects of a national plan to tackle antisemitism as heavy-handed, prompting accusations from Jewish Australians he was downplaying the threat of hatred aimed at them. A Jewish community leader also hit out at Education Minister Jason Clare for the bizarre suggestion he would wait until the government receives a report on Islamophobia before responding to antisemitism envoy Jillian Segals recommendations for schools and universities. Former minister Ed Husic has criticised the envoys report, becoming the first Labor MP to break ranks on the issue. Credit: Photos: Ben Appleton/Nick Moir Former industry and science minister Ed Husic, who was moved to the backbench following a post-election cabinet reshuffle, said the report made some really important points, but was concerned with certain sections and some of Segals commentary. With the greatest respect to the special envoy, I wasnt entirely comfortable that she just singles out public broadcasting for attention, Husic told ABC radio on Wednesday. Theres a role to play across media on these issues, and I didnt necessarily think it was justified to point out the public broadcaster. When Traveller columnist Ben Groundwater wrote a piece earlier this year, saying that the Trump administration would not stop him from visiting the US, he received an overwhelming response. Of the record 525 comments on Groundwaters column, the vast majority took the opposite view. Not only were many of the readers critical of the idea of visiting the US under president Trump, many were critical of Groundwater for even suggesting it. Despite horror stories of Australians being turned back at the border, were still visiting the US in increasing numbers. Credit: AP At a time when visitor numbers to the US from various other countries are reportedly plummeting, then, it might come as a surprise to see that Australians are not only continuing to visit, are actually going there in greater numbers than before Trumps election. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that, in May, the number of Australian residents returning from short trips to the US was a little over 69,000 an increase of more than 5000, or about 8 per cent, on the same time last year. Whats more, the numbers were up in every key category those travelling a holiday (up 12 per cent compared with last year); visiting friends or relatives (up 15 per cent) or for business (up 8 per cent). Once again, HNLMS Friesland managed to catch large consignments of drugs in the Caribbean Sea. This time, it involved a total of approximately 4,200 kilograms of contraband. This happened during interception operations of 3 smuggling boats, two of them on June 25 and one on July 3. This was announced today. The U.S. Coast Guard and Caribbean Coast Guard maritime patrol aircraft discovered the so-called go-fasts. HNLMS Friesland immediately sprang into action, sending its fast interceptor boats Frisc and a helicopter of the U.S. Coast Guard after them, forcing the vessel to stop. The first boat carried a consignment of nearly 700 kilograms of marijuana, the second more than 1,000 kilograms (250 kilograms of cocaine and 820 kilograms of marijuana) and the third 2,500 kilograms of cocaine. The narcotics were turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard. 7,800 kilos HNLMS Friesland has been operating as a guard ship in the Caribbean since late May. Since then, the ship has already intercepted nearly 7,800 kilos of contraband. During anti-drug operations, the navy works alternately with the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard and the U.S. Coast Guard. The guard ship is also on standby to provide humanitarian assistance during natural disasters such as hurricanes. U.S. President Donald Trumps defense of the federal response to the catastrophic floods that devastated Texas last July 4 has been consistent, enthusiastic, and for those who remember his reactions to natural disasters in the past perhaps surprising. I admire you and consider you heroes, he told the officials who guided him during his visit to Kerr County, the epicenter of the floods that have so far left 134 dead and 101 missing. That same day, he approved the extension of the major disaster declaration to eight other Texas counties so they could receive direct federal aid to recover and rebuild. Just a few weeks earlier, the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and therefore, those federal aid efforts appeared uncertain. FEMA director, Cameron Hamilton, had been fired in May. In fact, since Trump returned to the White House, about a quarter of the agencys staff had lost their jobs. The effort to wind down the agency was happening in full view. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, who oversees the agency, spelled out the plan bluntly in March: Were going to eliminate FEMA. Now, faced with questions about whether the cuts contributed to the tragedy in Texas, the Trump administration has begun to backtrack. On Sunday, in an interview on NBC, Noem softened her tone: I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way, and thats what we did. A few days earlier, Russell Vought director of the small but powerful Office of Management and Budget and a fierce defender of federal cuts, even more so than Elon Musk struck a more conciliatory note. We want FEMA to work well, he told the press. Kristi Noem at the post-flood meeting, July 11, 2025. Kevin Lamarque (REUTERS) FEMA, the federal agency created in 1979 by former president Jimmy Carter, had long been in the crosshairs of President Trumps MAGA movement, but it came under even sharper scrutiny last year after Hurricane Helene moved hundreds of miles inland and devastated large areas of North Carolina. At that time, in October and just weeks before the presidential election, Trump did not hold back and baselessly accused Joe Bidens administration of using FEMA as a political tool to deliberately harm the Republican state. He also fueled the false claim that the agency was giving billions of dollars to undocumented immigrants, although FEMA did support managing the migration crisis in areas that requested federal assistance. Once back in the White House, just days after fires that burned day and night had flattened entire neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Trump doubled down on his position: FEMA should be dismantled, and individual states should bear the costs of emergencies that occur within their territories. The unofficial deadline was the end of this year, but the floods in Texas a decidedly Republican state have been a sharp reality check. The response in Texas from an already depleted FEMA has raised many questions, both for the lack of foresight and the slow reaction. According to CNN, urban search and rescue teams took 72 hours to be deployed due to a new policy requiring any action costing more than $100,000 to be personally approved by Noem. This order has been criticized for completely disarming the agencys ability to respond quickly to unforeseen emergencies the agencys core mission. In Texas, when the rising Guadalupe River submerged several towns, FEMA was unable to pre-position search and rescue teams. Normally, they would have deployed these teams as soon as it was safe to begin their work. Noem only authorized these teams on Monday, three days after the floods. Before that, state forces and civilian volunteers carried out the search efforts. Furthermore, due to the same policy, in the days following the flooding FEMA answered fewer than two-thirds of calls from affected people seeking government assistance, according to The New York Times. The agency ended contracts with several call centers on July 5, so overnight hundreds of operators stopped working for FEMA. According to internal figures cited by the U.S. newspaper, on July 5, 99% of the 3,000 incoming calls were answered; the next day, the percentage dropped to 34.8% (846 of 2,363), and on Monday, when calls surged, only 15.9% were answered (2,613 of 16,419). Firefighters from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, assist with search and rescue efforts, Monday, July 7, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. Eli Hartman (AP) On Monday, two Democratic senators called for an investigation into the measures and budget cuts implemented by Noem regarding FEMA to determine whether they affected the response to the catastrophic floods in Texas. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut explicitly mention the new policy requiring Noems approval for any expenditure over $100,000. The American people deserve answers and more importantly, they deserve accountability. While we are still waiting for all the facts to come out, what is clear is that FEMA must be able to respond to disasters immediately, reads Gallego and Blumenthals letter calling for the investigation. A disaster response system that must wait for one officials signature is unacceptable and designed to fail. Noem, on the defensive, has vehemently denied the accusations that have emerged from investigations and reports by various media outlets in recent days. The DHS has argued, without providing concrete evidence, that the deployment was immediate and all calls were answered. Meanwhile, the debate over FEMAs future once thought to be in serious jeopardy has taken a backseat. Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAIS USA Edition Pentagon chief downsizes contentious LA troop deployment Washington, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the withdrawal of 2,000 National Guard troops from Los Angeles, roughly halving the contentious deployment in the city, the Pentagon said Tuesday. President Donald Trump ordered thousands of National Guard and hundreds of Marines into Los Angeles last month in response to protests over federal immigration sweeps -- a move opposed by city leaders and California's Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. "Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state," Newsom wrote on X, referring to the Guard's support of firefighting missions across the state. "End this theater and send everyone home," Newsom said. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell on Tuesday confirmed the release "of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission," adding "the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding." Mayor Karen Bass credited peaceful protests and legal action for the withdrawal, which she termed a "retreat." "This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court -- all of this led to today's retreat," the Democratic mayor said. As a so-called "sanctuary city" with hundreds of thousands of undocumented people, Los Angeles has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration since the Republican returned to office in January. After immigration enforcement raids spurred unrest and protests last month, Trump -- who has repeatedly exaggerated the scale of the unrest -- dispatched the National Guard and US Marines to quell the disruption. It was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor. Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests. In late June, his office reported California National Guard firefighting crews were "operating at just 40% capacity due to Trump's illegal Guard deployment" as fires were "popping up across the state." California is fighting the Trump administration in court over the deployment, arguing that the president overstepped his authority, though the troops have been allowed to remain for now. New drone attacks hit three oil fields in northern Iraq: Kurdish forces Arbil, Iraq, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Explosive-laden drones hit three oil fields in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdistan region early Wednesday, Kurdish forces said, a day after a similar attack shut operations at a US-run field. In the past few weeks, Iraq and particularly the Kurdistan region have seen a spate of unclaimed drone and rocket attacks. Wednesday's attacks have raised the number of oil field hit in Kurdistan to five within a week. "At 06:00 and 06:15 (0300 and 0315 GMT) two explosive-laden drones attacked" the Peshkabir oil field operated by the Norwegian oil group DNO in Zakho district, Kurdistan's counterterrorism services said. At 7:00 am (0400 GMT) a similar drone struck the DNO-operated Tawke field in the same area, Kurdistan's counterterrorism services said. The attacks caused only material damage. Another attack at 7:14 am (0414 GMT) targeted an oil field operated by the US firm Hunt Oil in Dohuk province, without causing casualties or material damage. Long plagued by conflict, Iraq frequently experiences such attacks, often linked to regional proxy struggles between Iran and the United States and its ally Israel. The attacks also come at a time of heightened tension between Baghdad and Arbil over oil exports, with a major pipeline through Turkey shut since 2023 over legal disputes and technical issues. Wednesday's attacks came a day after an explosive-laden drone strike forced the US firm HKN Energy to suspend operations in the Sarsang oil field in Duhok. On Monday, one drone was shot down near Arbil airport, while two others hit the Khurmala oil field in the same province, causing material damage. Iraqi Kurdistan presents itself as a relative oasis of stability in a volatile Iraq, attracting foreign investors due to its close ties with the United States and European countries. bur-rh/dcp US to build Philippine boat repair facilities near contested South China Sea Manila, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 The US Navy plans to build two repair facilities for smaller vessels operating in the western Philippines, the US embassy said Wednesday, with one about 240 kilometres (150 miles) east of a fiercely contested reef in the South China Sea. Located in the Spratly archipelago, the Second Thomas Shoal hosts a small detachment of Philippine forces aboard a grounded navy vessel and has been the site of clashes with Chinese ships. Beijing claims almost the entirety of the crucial waterway despite an international ruling its assertion has no merit. The US government's contracting website, Sam.gov, locates one of the proposed repair facilities in Palawan province's Quezon municipality. The facilities "will provide repair and maintenance capabilities for a variety of (Philippine) vessels including 7.32-meter (24-foot) watercraft as well as other smaller conventional watercraft," the bid notice for the Quezon project reads. The Philippines owns several vessels that size, including rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs) that have been involved in clashes with larger Chinese ships. While there are not believed to be existing permanent military facilities in Quezon, the area has hosted parts of joint US-Philippine military exercises for the past two years. The US embassy in Manila confirmed on Wednesday the tender for both the Quezon project and a similar one to be constructed at the Philippines' existing Oyster Bay naval facility about 130 kilometres north. Officials from the Philippine Department of Defense did not immediately provide comment. Retired Philippine admiral Rommel Jude Ong, now a military analyst with the Ateneo de Manila University, told AFP such facilities could be used "for RHIBs, but more likely for smaller rubber boats used in the resupply of occupied features". The Philippines and the United States have deepened their defence cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing's sweeping South China Sea claims. Drone attacks hit three north Iraq oil fields: Kurds Arbil, Iraq, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Explosive-laden drones hit three oil fields in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday, Kurdish authorities said, a day after a similar attack halted operations at a US-run field. Production in two fields operated by the Norwegian group DNO ASA has been temporarily suspended, the company said. In the past few weeks, Kurdistan has seen a spate of unclaimed drone attacks, amid simmering tensions between the regional government and the federal authorities in Baghdad over oil exports. Five oil fields in the region have been hit in the space of a week. The regional natural resources ministry said the latest attacks had caused "significant damage" and condemned them as acts of "terrorism". "At 6:00 am and 6:15 am (0300 and 0315 GMT) two explosive-laden drones attacked" the Peshkabir oil field operated by DNO in Zakho district, Kurdistan's counterterrorism services said. At 7:00 am (0400 GMT) a similar drone struck the DNO-operated Tawke field in the same area. The Norwegian operator said it suspended its operations following explosions, "one involving a small storage tank at Tawke and the other involving surface processing equipment at Peshkabir". It added that it was assessing the damage. At 7:14 am (0414 GMT), another attack targeted an oil field operated by the US firm Hunt Oil in Dohuk province, without causing casualties or damage. There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the past week's attacks and Baghdad has promised an investigation to identify the culprits. A similar attack on Tuesday forced US firm HKN Energy to suspend operations in the Sarsang field in Dohuk province. On Monday, two drones hit the Khurmala field while another was shot down near the airport in the regional capital Arbil. Politicians close to the Kurdish authorities have blamed pro-Iran groups for the attacks, without offering evidence. The attacks come amid persistent tensions between the regional authorities and Baghdad over control of export revenues from the Kurdistan fields. Legal disputes and technical problems have kept an export pipeline to Turkey shut since 2023. bur-rh/kir New Israeli strikes near Syrian army headquarters: state TV Damascus, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 The Israeli army launched a new round of strikes near the Syrian army and defence ministry headquarters on Wednesday, state-run television said, after Israel warned Damascus against targeting the Druze community. Syrian government forces had deployed in Sweida city in the country's south on Tuesday, clashing with Druze fighters who previously controlled the area. State television reported on Wednesday afternoon "a new aggression by the Israeli occupation air force in Umayyad Square, near the (military) headquarters building in central Damascus". A live broadcast by the Qatari channel Al Jazeera showed a series of air strikes on the headquarters, with smoke billowing into the sky and parts of the building damaged. State television had reported an earlier strike near the headquarters, which Israel's military said it had attacked. The Syrian health ministry said in a preliminary toll that nine people were wounded by the strikes. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had warned on Wednesday that his country would start launching major attacks against Syria. "The signals to Damascus are over -- now come the painful blows," he said. The Israeli military would "operate forcefully" in Syria's southern Sweida region "to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal", he added. US reaches civil nuclear cooperation accord with Bahrain Washington, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 The United States and Bahrain signed a civilian nuclear energy accord Wednesday as US President Donald Trump met with the Gulf nation's crown prince. At a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the accord showed the United States is willing to work with any country that wants a civil nuclear energy program "not geared toward weaponization or threatening the security of their neighbors." He was alluding to Iran, which the United States and Israel accuse of trying to develop nuclear weapons. The United States bombed Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 as it joined Israel's 12-day war against its arch foe. Bahrain is a close ally of the United States and serves as the base for the US Navy's 5th Fleet. Trump met later Wednesday in the Oval office with Crown Prince Salman Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa to discuss Mideast security issues and economic cooperation. "We've had a tremendous relationship, I have personally, with Bahrain over the years, and it has been a fantastic ally," Trump told reporters as he sat with the Bahraini delegation before their talks. Bahrain is also a signatory of the so-called Abraham Accords, signed during Trump's first term in the White House. Under these agreements Bahrein, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan established formal diplomatic relations with Israel. Russian strike ravages busy town square: Ukraine Kyiv, Ukraine, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Russian airstrike on a central square in the frontline town of Dobropillia on Wednesday killed one person and wounded more than 20, with more casualties feared trapped under the debris, authorities said. Russia fired hundreds of drones, artillery and a ballistic missile at Ukraine between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, defying calls by US President Donald Trump to reach a peace deal. Trump on Monday threatened to impose severe sanctions against Moscow unless it reached a peace settlement within 50 days to end its three-year war on Ukraine. According to regional authorities, Russia dropped a 500-kilogramme (1,100 pound) bomb on Dobropillia, which is just 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the frontline. "Updated information on the shelling of Dobropillia...1 person killed and 21 wounded," Vadym Filashkin from the Donestk reional administration said on social media. He added that the rush hour attack hit 54 shops and 13 buildings around the crowded square. "It is likely that people are still trapped under the rubble, and the search for survivors continues." Ukrainian and Russian officials last met for direct peace talks more than a month ago, and no further meetings have been scheduled despite the Kremlin saying it is open to contacts. Russia fired at least 400 drones at Ukraine between late Tuesday and early Wednesday, as well as an Iskander ballistic missile launched from the annexed Crimean peninsula, the Ukrainian air force said. The attacks killed one and left dozens injured on top of the Dobropillia toll, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia has stepped up its summer campaign against Ukraine in recent weeks as Washington-mediated ceasefire talks stall. Its army has pushed ahead on the battlefield, while pounding Ukraine with drone, artillery and missile strikes. Trump said Monday he had struck a deal with NATO to supply more US air defence systems and weapons to Ukraine, citing his frustration with Russia's refusal to accept a ceasefire. EU unveils bigger long-term budget but risks fight with farmers Brussels, Belgium, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 The EU executive proposed on Wednesday a two-trillion-euro long-term budget bazooka focused on tackling overseas competition and Russian aggression at Europe's borders -- at the risk of a new showdown with farmers. Presenting the $2.3-trillion 2028-2034 budget blueprint to reporters in Brussels, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said it "will be the most ambitious ever proposed". The plans seek to bolster Europe's security and ramp up its competitiveness, while paying off debts from a massive Covid-era loan as of 2028 -- against a backdrop of soaring trade tensions with the bloc's biggest commercial partner, the United States. The European Commission put 451 billion euros on the table under a broad "competitiveness" tag that encompasses defence and space -- together allocated 131 billion euros, a five-fold increase. The budget plan earmarks up to 100 billion euros for the reconstruction of war-torn Ukraine -- as well as substantial new "flexibility" funds kept available in event of crises. But Brussels came under heavy criticism by EU lawmakers who accused it of not leaving sufficient funds for priorities including climate adaptation and the agriculture subsidies that currently make up the biggest share of the EU's budget. Budget commissioner Piotr Serafin said under the commission's plans, 300 billion euros would remain ring-fenced to support farmers -- against around 387 billion euros, of which 270 billion in direct payouts, under the current seven-year budget. - 'Black Wednesday for farmers' - Brussels says the difference reflects an overhaul of the massive subsidies known as the common agricultural policy (CAP) -- with some funding moved to other budget columns. But the future of the CAP is headed for a fight, with farmers warning against cuts to their slice of the EU pie -- and marching Wednesday in Brussels to show their resolve. Hundreds of European farmers joined a protest outside the commission building in Brussels organised by a pan-European agriculture lobby group, Copa-Cogeca. The group described it as a "Black Wednesday" for farmers, accusing Brussels of having "effectively decided to dismantle the 'common' nature of the CAP through concealed budget cuts". The warning raised the spectre of another confrontation after last year's protests across Europe by farmers upset at cheap imports, low margins and the burden of environmental rules. Hungary, a staunch critic of Brussels and Russia's closest ally in Europe, meanwhile tapped into their anger ahead of the plan's release -- while slamming the money for Kyiv. "Ukraine would get a massive funding boost, while European farmers lose out," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. - Battle lines drawn - The announcement sets the stage for two years of fraught negotiations between the European Parliament and 27 member states. Already stretched thin, some states are unwilling to contribute more to the common pot. Unlike in the previous budget, the EU has debts due from the Covid pandemic, when states teamed up to borrow 800 billion euros to support the bloc's economy. These are estimated to cost 25-30 billion euros a year from 2028. The previous 2021-2027 budget was worth around 1.2 trillion euros and made up from national contributions and money collected by the EU such as customs duties. National contributions will grow slightly, from 1.13 percent of member states' gross national income to 1.15 percent plus 0.11 percent devoted to repaying the Covid loan. The commission will also seek to raise about 58 billion euros a year collecting money directly through five instruments, including its carbon border tax and a levy on electronic waste. Member states gave a sneak peek at the fights to come. France's Europe minister Benjamin Haddad hailed the commission's "ambition" but Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen -- representing one of the frugal states -- said the proposed budget was "too high". Members of the EU parliament, however, made it clear the budget was not enough in their view. "However you try to package this, what we have is a real-terms investment and spending freeze," said a joint statement from the EU lawmakers tasked with steering the budget through parliament. Second party quits Israel govt over army exemptions Jerusalem, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Israeli government members from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish party Shas announced on Wednesday their resignation, protesting the ruling coalition's failure to pass a law to exempt their community from military service. However, the party stopped short of withdrawing its support for the coalition in parliament, and said it would not back a no-confidence vote to bring down Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. The move came just two days after the Israeli legislature's other ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, quit both the government and the coalition over the failure to secure the long-promised exemptions. The conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews is a highly contentious issue for Israeli society, large parts of which are required to serve in the army. Debates over reforming the conscription law have intensified in recent months, straining the governing coalition formed in December 2022 as an alliance between Netanyahu's right-wing Likud, far-right parties and the ultra-Orthodox. The departure of United Torah Judaism earlier this week has effectively stripped the coalition of a parliamentary majority, potentially paralysing legislation. Were Shas to follow suit and exit the coalition, Netanyahu would remain with a fragile minority government backed by only 49 out of 120 lawmakers. Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to call snap elections, even with Israel embroiled in a war against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "A minority government cannot send soldiers to the battlefield... It is not a legitimate government," Lapid said in a video statement on Wednesday. "The time has come for elections -- now." Under an arrangement dating back to Israel's founding in 1948, the ultra-Orthodox have been effectively exempted from military service as long as they dedicate themselves to religious studies. The ultra-Orthodox parties have long fought to maintain this arrangement, arguing that full-time religious study is a service to nation. But public support for the exemptions has waned, particularly as the army faces manpower shortages after more than 21 months of war in Gaza. One of Shas's outgoing ministers, Michael Malchieli, said on Wednesday that efforts to draft ultra-Orthodox men amounted to "persecution". Drone attacks hit three north Iraq oil fields: Kurds Arbil, Iraq, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Explosive-laden drones hit three oil fields in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region on Wednesday, Kurdish authorities said, a day after a similar attack halted operations at a facility run by a US company. Production at two fields operated by the Norwegian group DNO ASA was temporarily suspended, the company said Wednesday, while an industry coalition to which it belongs reported some of its members were instituting production cuts equivalent to 200,000 barrels a day. In the past few weeks, Kurdistan has seen a spate of unclaimed drone attacks, which have come as the regional government and the federal authorities in Baghdad wrangle over control of export revenues from the Kurdistan fields. Five oil fields in the region have been hit in the space of a week. Long plagued by conflict, Iraq frequently experiences such attacks, often linked to regional proxy struggles between Iran and the United States and its ally Israel. The regional natural resources ministry said the latest attacks had caused "significant damage", and condemned them as acts of "terrorism". Early Wednesday, "two explosive-laden drones attacked" the Peshkabir oil field, while another struck the Tawke field in Zakho district, Kurdistan's counterterrorism services said. Both fields are operated by DNO ASA, which announced the suspension of operations following explosions, "one involving a small storage tank at Tawke and the other involving surface processing equipment at Peshkabir". At 7:14 am (0414 GMT), another attack targeted an oil field operated by the US firm Hunt Oil in Duhok province, without causing casualties or damage. Twelve hours later, another drone attacked the same field. A similar drone attack on Tuesday forced US firm HKN Energy to suspend operations at the Sarsang field in Dohuk. On Monday, two drones hit the Khurmala field, while another was shot down near the airport in the regional capital Arbil. - Ex-paramilitaries blamed - There has been no claim of responsibility for any of the past week's attacks, and Baghdad has promised an investigation to identify the culprits. But a Kurdish official, who requested anonymity, blamed the recent attacks on the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) -- Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic -- a coalition of pro-Iran former paramilitaries now integrated into the regular armed forces. "We hold the Iraqi government responsible because they are funding the PMF, which is attacking the oil infrastructure," he told AFP. Kurdish authorities previously accused the PMF for a drone attack near Arbil airport on July 3. The attacks have come amid persistent tensions between the regional authorities and Baghdad over oil revenues, and legal disputes and technical problems have kept an export pipeline to Turkey shut since 2023. The Association of the Petroleum Industry of Kurdistan (APIKUR) -- which represents international oil firms in the region, including DNO, HKN and Hunt -- condemned the attacks on its members' production sites. The majority of its members, "including those not targeted, have announced suspension of production totaling over 200,000 barrels per day", it said in a statement. The companies "are committed to resume oil production and sales as soon as possible", APIKUR spokesman Myles B. Caggins III said. "We stand ready to put our oil into the Iraq-Turkiye Pipeline once agreement is reached between Baghdad, Erbil and the companies," he added. Iraqi Kurdistan presents itself as a relative oasis of stability in a volatile Iraq, attracting foreign investors due to its close ties with the United States and European countries. bur-rh/smw Syria says withdrawing troops after agreeing to ceasefire in Sweida Damascus, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 Syria announced it had begun withdrawing its army from Druze-majority Sweida city on Wednesday night after agreeing to a new ceasefire that it said would bring a complete halt to its military operations there. A previous truce announced on Tuesday appeared to have little effect on the ground in the southern region, where days of violence have left more than 300 dead, according to a monitor. According to the text of the new ceasefire agreement, published by the interior ministry, there will be a "total and immediate halt to all military operations", as well as the formation of a committee comprising government officials and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation. The defence ministry later said it had "begun withdrawing from the city of Sweida in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups". The ministry's statement made no mention of the withdrawal of any other government security forces deployed to the city. In a video carried by state television, Sheikh Youssef Jarboua, one of Syria's three main Druze spiritual leaders, read out the 10 points of the agreement, which also included "the full integration of the province" of Sweida into the Syrian state. Until now, Druze areas have been controlled by fighters from the minority community. After Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December after 14 years of civil war, some Druze fighters said they were ready to integrate into the new security forces. The text of the ceasefire indicates that no harm will come to civilians or their property, after witnesses and a monitor reported abuses in recent days including summary executions and looting on the part of government forces and their allies. It also provides for "the release of detainees" and inquiries into the fate of the missing. Another influential Druze chief, Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, rejected the new agreement after it was announced. "There cannot be an accord or negotiations with these armed groups that call themselves a government," he said in a statement. Earlier on Wednesday, Hijri had appealed to US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "and all those who have influence in the world" to "save Sweida". The Men of Dignity movement, one of the two largest Druze armed groups in the area, said Wednesday that "any agreement that does not include the full withdrawal of the invading forces... will be totally unacceptable". In a statement on Facebook, the group added it would keep fighting unless "the invaders withdraw from all the villages and towns that they have desecrated". The clashes in the south began on Sunday between the Druze and Bedouin tribes, who have a long-running feud, sparking an intervention by government forces who deployed in Sweida city. Witnesses reported that upon entering the city, the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Tajikistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Muhriddin in Tianjin, north China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo) TIANJIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Tajikistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Muhriddin in north China's Tianjin on Wednesday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the leaders of the two countries have clarified the direction and made arrangements for developing the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era between two countries. China is willing to work with Tajikistan to implement the consensus reached between the two heads of state, prepare for the next stage of high-level exchanges, and jointly promote a successful Tianjin summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he said. China firmly supports Tajikistan in following a development path that is suited to its national conditions, supports Tajik President Emomali Rahmon's plans for the country's long-term development, and opposes any interference in Tajikistan's internal affairs by any force, said the minister. Wang said China and Tajikistan should effectively implement the inter-governmental economic and trade cooperation plan, enhance connectivity between the two countries, strengthen practical cooperation in various fields such as investment, energy, counter-terrorism and security, and promote the continuous development of bilateral relations. For his part, Muhriddin said that Tajikistan will fully support and cooperate with China to ensure the success of a historic SCO Tianjin summit. Under the guidance of the two heads of state, bilateral relations have opened a new chapter and maintained a positive momentum of development, Muhriddin said. He added that Tajikistan is willing to work with China to make full use of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, expand inter-party and inter-parliamentary exchanges, deepen cooperation in various fields including economy and trade investment, connectivity, medicine, informatization and education to promote the China-Tajikistan comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in the new era to a higher level. China ready to deepen, expand bilateral cooperation with Australia: Chinese premier Xinhua) 08:05, July 16, 2025 Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is on an official visit to China, hold the 10th China-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Xiang) BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday said that China is ready to work with Australia to further deepen and expand bilateral cooperation, aiming for a higher level of mutual benefit that better serves the interests of both peoples. Li made the remarks during the 10th China-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing. All countries are facing new challenges in their development amid rising instability and uncertainty in the global economy, Li said, adding that in this context, the significance of strengthening exchanges and cooperation between China and Australia, as major economic and trade partners, has become more prominent. Li noted that earlier in the day, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Prime Minister Albanese and reached an important consensus on further deepening China-Australia relations. Li said that the Chinese and Australian economies are highly complementary, with broad space for cooperation in areas such as energy resources, agricultural products, green development, and technological innovation. China is willing to fully utilize various dialogue mechanisms with the Australian side and strengthen the planning and design for cooperation across different sectors to explore more shared interests and new drivers of economic growth, and ultimately unlock the vast potential of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, Li added. It is hoped that Australia will provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises operating in Australia, Li said, adding that China is keen to provide vigorous support for exchanges in culture, education, tourism and regional collaboration, and further facilitate personnel exchanges between the two sides. Li said that China and Australia, as both advocates and beneficiaries of multilateralism and free trade, are active promoters of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. He urged the two sides to strengthen communication and collaboration within multilateral frameworks, maintain the rules-based multilateral trading system, and work together to foster a conducive environment for international economic and trade cooperation. Noting that Australia-China relations are currently developing with positive momentum, Albanese said the Australian side attaches great importance to and is committed to building a stable and constructive bilateral relationship with China. Australia adheres to the one-China policy and opposes "Taiwan independence," he added. Albanese said Australia is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges and dialogue with China in various fields, including diplomacy and trade, and ensure that differences do not define the bilateral relationship. Noting that the economies of Australia and China are highly complementary, Albanese said Australia looks forward to deepening mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as trade, agriculture, tourism and culture, and enhancing people-to-people exchanges in education, civil society and youth sectors. Australia is willing to provide a stable and predictable environment for Chinese enterprises to invest and operate in Australia, and welcomes more Chinese students and tourists to visit the country, he added. Albanese said Australia firmly supports multilateralism and free and fair trade, is willing to work with China to address global challenges such as climate change, and jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization at its core. Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is on an official visit to China, hold the 10th China-Australia Annual Leaders' Meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) DUBAI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese animated film "Ne Zha 2" made its premiere in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday evening at Cinemacity in Dubai Mall, drawing nearly a hundred viewers including local cultural figures, social media influencers, and cinema lovers. The 2.5-hour film, presented in Mandarin with both Arabic and English subtitles, captivated the audience with its rich visual artistry and fast-paced storyline. "The movie really moved me," said Mohammad, a university student in Dubai. "It's more than just animation -- it's about family, responsibility, and growing up. Ne Zha might be a mythological figure, but his inner struggles and choices felt very real to me." Nadia, a Lebanese mother who brought her children to the screening, described the experience as a cultural awakening. "The animation was stunning and the pace kept my kids engaged throughout," she said. "But what really touched me was the emotional bond between Ne Zha and his parents. It shows how misunderstood children can still hold on to kindness and hope. I'm now eager to learn more about Chinese mythology." "Ne Zha 2" is scheduled for a nationwide release across major cinemas in the UAE starting Thursday. She was the groups first female chief executive, having previously held senior positions at tobacco company Reynolds American and PepsiCo, prior to which she served as an officer in the US army. After uncovering a tenancy agreement, they found the property did not have a license and that three different households had been living at the home at the same time. The Richmond Libraries team had to close the up temporarily to remove the fox, who we can only assume was after some Roald Dahl. That should not happen. And this is one of the tough things about, you know, being a minister, which is why even the Government the Labour Government, now this didnt happen when they were in power they are apologising as well. Like the last Government, this Government over the last year, in bringing anyone into this country under any of the Afghanistan schemes that we inherited, we run careful security checks..and where they pose those sorts of threats they are prevented from coming and denied access to Britain. Traditionally the preserved birds are said to have formed an essential part of the winter diet for the people of Ness, but guga is now regarded as a delicacy by some, although it is said to be an acquired taste. The statement continued: Our airport staff and wider team are doing all they can to help during this incredibly difficult time, and will of course be on hand to assist passengers as we return to service. KABUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Police have discovered more than 7 tons of illicit drugs of opium poppy type in northern Afghanistan's Takhar province and set them on fire publicly on Monday, provincial police spokesman Nizamudin Omir said Wednesday. The contraband, which included 7.245 tons of opium poppy, was hidden in three vehicles, including two oil tankers that had been discovered over the past three weeks, and the smugglers were attempting to take it out of Takhar province, the official said. After foiling the smugglers' attempts to take it out of the province and seizing the contraband, police burned it publicly on Monday, the official asserted, noting police won't allow anyone to produce or traffic illegal drugs. This is the third time that police have thwarted smugglers' attempts in Takhar over the past month. Police have earlier set on fire more than 12 tons of illegal drugs, mostly opium poppy, in Takhar province. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev in Tianjin, north China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo) TIANJIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) can play a more important role in safeguarding regional peace and stability while promoting development and revitalization. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks while meeting with SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev in Tianjin. In expressing appreciation for the Secretary-General's dedication since assuming office, Wang noted that Yermekbayev has significantly contributed to advancing the implementation of the consensus reached by the leaders of SCO member states and has established good working relations with various departments in China. Wang said that as a comprehensive regional organization with the world's largest population, the broadest geographical coverage, and enormous potential, the SCO is gaining increasing attention from the international community, and it can play a more important role in safeguarding regional peace and stability while promoting development and revitalization. The SCO can also contribute to forging a new type of international relations and building a community with a shared future for humanity, Wang added. Noting the Secretariat is the most important permanent body of the SCO, Wang said that under the Secretary-General's leadership, the Secretariat will play a greater role in ensuring the efficient functioning of the SCO, coordinating the actions of all parties, and enhancing the organization's influence. China will continue to provide support and facilitate the work of the Secretariat, Wang added. As the SCO chair, China has organized over 90 events and advanced a series of cooperation, said Wang, calling on the Secretary-General to continue supporting China in its efforts to host a friendly, cohesive and fruitful summit. Yermekbayev said that China has proposed and implemented substantive activities, elevating cooperation among various parties to new heights. The Secretariat will continue its full support to China's presidency, jointly facilitate the preparations for the SCO Tianjin summit to ensure fruitful outcomes, said the Secretary-General. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's victory against Japanese aggression and the recovery of Taiwan from Japanese occupation in 1945 are worthy of commemoration by people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, a mainland spokesperson said on Wednesday. Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a media query after Taiwan authorities denigrated the mainland's upcoming commemorations. The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. It also marks the 80th anniversary of Taiwan's recovery from Japanese occupation. The spokesperson described Taiwan's restoration as an important achievement of the victory in the resistance war, saying it was forged through the dauntless struggles and sacrifices of all Chinese people, including those in Taiwan. A series of events will be held to mark the anniversaries, including an exhibition of calligraphy works by generals from across the Strait in August, according to the spokesperson. URUMQI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Alashankou, also known as Alataw Pass, a primary land port in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, had handled more than 4,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips this year as of Wednesday, according to China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd. Notably, Xinjiang's railways have expanded border port capacity to enhance the China-Europe freight rail service in 2025. This supports Xinjiang's development as a major Eurasian logistics hub and gateway to the west. Following the start of operations of the Jinghe-Alashankou double-tracking project last year, Xinjiang's railway sector has added a new container line via Alashankou Station and upgraded two existing ones. These efforts have improved China-Europe freight train handling efficiency by 30 percent. This station now handles over 21 China-Europe freight trains daily -- peaking at 30. Currently, Alashankou Port offers 124 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train routes spanning 21 countries, including Germany and Poland, while carrying more than 200 categories of cargo, such as new energy vehicles and machinery components. Romanian employers are trying to cover a labour shortage of more than 600,000 people with workers brought from abroad, while more than 500,000 active people in Romania are not working, head of the Romanian Manpower Importers' Employer Association Romulus Badea stated on Wednesday. According to him, the causes that led to a labour shortage in Romania are the departure of Romanians from the country, almost 6 million, to which are added more than 500,000 active people who are currently not working and the young NEETs - from the age segment 15-29 - who do not appear in any form of education, vocational training or in the work field.However, he drew attention to the fact that not all the people remaining within the borders are available for work, with more than 500,000 active people in Romania currently not working."There are times when legislative provisions are either outdated or do more harm than good, without benefiting anyone, including the authorities," Romulus Badea said.According to the Romanian Manpower Importers' Employer Association (PIFM), this figure reflects only part of the real market need, which is much larger and remains far from being covered.In this context, Manpower Importers' Employer Association organized, on Wednesday, its first national conference entitled "Foreign Workers in Romania: Realities and Good Practices", an event that brought together, for the first time, the relevant institutions involved in the management and integration of the non-EU labour force. The Minister of Health, Alexandru Rogobete, asked doctors working in both the public and private systems to respect the work schedule in the public system. He also announced that from September 1, the salaries of residents working in private hospitals will be paid by the respective health units. At the same time, together with representatives of the Employers' Association of Private Medical Service Providers (PALMED), the "Trust is good for us" campaign will be launched this fall, to promote all the measures that the public and private healthcare systems carry out in partnership. The clarifications were made during a press conference held at the Ministry of Health, after Alexandru Rogobete met with PALMED representatives. "Since I took office, I have gone public and said some things that here and there have disturbed and created pressure. I will continue to say them, but this time, alongside the representative of private hospitals in Romania, on my right. I ask all colleagues in the public hospital to respect the work schedule. I do not agree that the doctor should choose between public and private. Medicine is a field with its own particularities and we cannot separate the waters so abruptly and so abruptly. However, respecting the work schedule in the public hospital is, according to the legislation, mandatory. The doctor has the freedom, obviously, after completing this schedule to work wherever he wants, in large private hospital chains, in his own private practice - wherever he has the possibility to carry out his medical service, but respecting the public schedule," said the minister. He emphasized that his observations do not refer to all doctors and that there are many "wonderful people" in the healthcare system who work well overtime or who work more hours than the regulations require. "I don't want to generalize, but we all know that there are exceptions of colleagues who at 11:00, at 12:00 are no longer in the public hospital and work in the private system. I'm not saying that they are necessarily in the large private hospital chains, but they work in the private sector. If we fail to reduce this phenomenon, we all have something to lose. From patients who stand in 40 degrees in front of hospitals to wait for the doctor, to their doctor colleagues who stay until 8-9 pm after hours, in the public system and finally in the private system," explained Rogobete. He mentioned that from September 1, the salaries of residents working in private hospitals will be paid by the private health units. In this regard, he recalled that currently residents are paid by the Ministry of Health, even if they work in private hospitals. Also, the Ministry of Health and PALMED will launch the "Trust is good for us" campaign this fall, to promote all the measures that the public and private healthcare systems carry out in partnership. "I'm referring to screening programs, not just for oncology, but also for other pathologies, cardiology, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases. I'm referring here to clinical and paraclinical investigation programs, imaging and laboratory. I'm referring in general to what the health system means and its complementarity," he explained. Alexandru Rogobete emphasized that the private healthcare system complements the public system, where it lacks sufficient material, human and infrastructure resources. "It is true that in the last 4-5 years the infrastructure and situation of public hospitals has changed a lot. There has been a transformation, if you will, of the public health system, through investments made with money from the PNRR, with funds from the World Bank, with government funds and the list can certainly go on. Now, in 2025, we are at the point where the public system is on par in terms of infrastructure, in many places, with the private system," the minister also specified.A Air and water are the first things that come to mind as afflicted when talking about pollution. But an equally dangerous invisible hazard is always within earshot: noise.The summer holiday season is in full swing. Who doesn't long to escape to a quiet mountain village or secluded beach? But getting there by car, train or plane adds to the high levels of noise pollution affecting millions of Europeans across the continent.According to the latest estimates from the European Environment Agency (EEA), more than one in five EU citizens is exposed to chronically harmful levels of environmental noise, and the number is higher in urban areas.The main source is road transport - both in cities and the countryside - followed by rail and airport noise.The World Health Organization (WHO) says noise is the second biggest environmental cause of health problems, right behind the impact of polluted air.Noise pollution is part of the European Commission's goals towards zero pollution. It aims to reduce the share of people by 30 percent who are chronically disturbed by transport noise by 2030, compared to 2017 levels.The EU identifies noise pollution thresholds in its Environmental Noise Directive (END). However, it does not not set limits for noise nor prescribes measures that states have to include in action plans to manage noise. This lies within the competencies of the Member States.It also regulates noise emission at its source, for example by introducing legislation on how much noise vehicles may produce. These thresholds refer to exposure levels of 55 decibel (dB) or above during the overall day-evening-night period (Lden) and 50 dB at night (Lnight). 55 dB refers to moderate sounds, like the equivalent of a residential street or a normal conversation.How noise harms usWhile 55 dB may not sound like much, the WHO warns that chronic exposure to environmental noise has effects both on people's physical and mental health. "Living in an area affected by transport noise is associated with an increased risk of developing a wide range of health issues. Included are cardiovascular, metabolic, and mental health conditions," it said back in 2018.If the WHO's own stricter criteria (between 45, 53 and 54 Lden for aircraft, road and railway noise respectively) are applied to the EU, the figure of 20 percent exposure - or about 106 million people - rises to over 30 percent.Prolonged exposure contributes to 48,000 new cases of heart disease and 12,000 premature deaths in Europe each year. Furthermore, it is estimated that over 22 million people suffer from severe chronic discomfort and 6.5 million have sleep problems. Environmental noise is also associated with cognitive and mental disorders.Dr Maria Angeles Bonmati of the Spanish Sleep Society (SES) explained that night-time noise prevents the relaxation and disconnection necessary to fall asleep. "It can abruptly wake us up or keep us in superficial stages of sleep, which causes the quality of sleep to deteriorate as a result of changes in its structure: we take longer to fall asleep, we wake up earlier than we need to, or we spend less time in deep sleep and REM sleep," she said.Enduring noise during the day is associated with increased blood pressure and stress, coupled with a worsening mood, she added. "It is important for citizens to understand the importance of sleep and rest for their neighbours and, furthermore, for institutions to protect a scarce commodity such as silence."In addition to human health, environmental noise also has negative impacts on terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, causing behavioral disorders, communication difficulties, and impaired reproductive capacity.Who makes all that noise?Transport noise has been identified as the main culprit, and road traffic is the primary source of noise pollution. In an assessment released in December last year - based on 2022 data - the EEA identified a marginal decrease in that area of exposure but warned in the same breath that this could be offset by more people moving to urban areas and thereby increasing traffic levels.A decrease in aircraft noise seen in the data - likely an effect of the Covid-19-pandemic - was however short-lived: As Eurocontrol stated earlier this summer, with 37,000 flights on peak days, traffic volume - and therefore noise - are back to pre-pandemic levels.In France, the government announced last week that it had tightened the conditions for night flights at Paris-Orly airport in order to reduce noise pollution, without going so far as to reduce the number of flights, as requested by environmentalists and local residents.Among the new measures is "a partial curfew from 10 p.m. for the noisiest aircraft - only the quietest aircraft will be allowed to land and take off after 10 p.m.," the Transport Ministry said in a statement. To protect the sleep of local residents, France's second-busiest airport is also subject to a strict ban on nighttime flying between 11.30 p.m. and 6 a.m.Following prolonged protests by environmentalists and residents against the noise, the government also announced a national plan to increase the use of soundproofing aids around major airports.Psssst!Efforts across Europe to reduce noise pollution are patchy and often down to provinces or even local municipalities.Data from ISPRA, Italy's environmental research institute, showed that a large portion of the population is exposed to noise levels that exceed the limits recommended by the WHO, both overall and during nighttime. Yet, several regions have no noise pollution legislation enacted and less than two thirds of municipalities approved a tool for managing noise pollution.In Spain, about 60 percent of the population is exposed during the day to noise levels that exceed the WHO's limit, according to 2024 data from the SES. According to the EEA, noise pollution causes more than 1,000 premature deaths and 4,000 hospitalisations each year.Some of the noise pollution can also be down to people: In historic neighbourhoods of Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, where many homes lack air conditioning and opening the windows is essential to cool down, getting a decent night's sleep is a true mission impossible in summer.Legal action over the racket now extends well beyond bars and has seen anti-noise associations sprout across the country. 'The only thing that makes us different from other countries is that we are noisier,' Spanish writer Ignacio Peyro wrote recently in the daily newspaper El Pais.In Germany, several of the country's states called on the federal government back in 2023 to demand stricter laws against traffic noise. According to statistics by the federal environment office UBA from the same year, some 8,5 million Germans are exposed to health-endangering noise levels on major roadways alone, while 6.4 million suffer from loud railway traffic.The environmentalist group Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe) calls for a speed limit of 30 kilometres per hour within settled areas as an effective means to reduce road noise.Levels of noise pollution in bloc membership candidate North Macedonia sit around the European average, but it's quieter in terms of tourism and crowds compared to many holiday hotspots. According to the statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, the most popular touristic destination Ohrid records the most reports of noise disturbance.Time to invest in earplugs?The European Court of Auditors (ECA), in a report released in January, had a closer look at the Commission's anti-pollution policies and took it to task over gaps and delays in assessing and reporting of noise pollution by Member States. It also bemoaned the lack of EU limit values or reduction targets for noise. "We consider that the lack of EU noise reduction targets disincentivises member states to prioritise actions to reduce noise pollution effectively," the auditors wrote.Cities had a hard time to take effective measures, due to lack of coordination between authorities, doubts regarding the effectiveness of measures and resistance from residents, the ECA added. It recommended introducing EU-wide targets in the END and aligning noise exposure targets with those recommended by the WHO by 2029.The lack of reporting makes it difficult to assess progress. Looking forward to 2030, the EEA said in its 2025 assessment that the target of reducing the number of people affected by transport noise by 30 percent was "off track". Progress relative to the 2017 baseline had decreased by 2 percent.The content of this article is based on reporting by AFP, ANSA, dpa, EFE, MIA, as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project. The "Delta" Emergency Situations Inspectorate (ISU) on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday received 12 calls from Tulcea County residents who were scared because of the Russian bombings on the Ukrainian city of Izmail, in the context in which the national authorities did not send a RO-ALERT message. ISU "Delta" spokesperson, Cristina Profir, explained the large number of calls by the lack of a RO-ALERT message.Russian attacks on Ukrainian port infrastructure recorded on Tuesday night into Wednesday could be seen from the upper floors of apartment buildings located in the highlands of Tulcea. Are we racists? Thats the blunt question posed by Bobo, a white girl living on a farm in Africa, to her horrified (and defensive) mother. There are so many ways this three-word line reading could land wrongly or just seem forced or mannered. But it feels thoroughly organic when voiced by Lexi Venter, an extraordinary first-time actor who gives, at age 7, one of the more compelling child performances in recent memory in Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight. Its a performance that was seeded, watered and nurtured by Embeth Davidtz, an extraordinary actor herself who wrote, directed and stars in this adaptation of Alexandra Fullers admired 2001 memoir. One imagines Davidtz, in her triple role (and as a first-time director), had hundreds upon hundreds of decisions to make. Her most important, though, was finding and casting this youngster possessed of a wild nature, a mop of unruly hair and a face like a broad canvas waiting to be painted. The movie, which chronicles one familys life in the turbulent, waning days of white rule in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), was not always going to be narrated by a child. Davidtzs first attempt at adapting the memoir, told in third person, was too remote, she herself has said. Then she zoomed in on the idea of telling the tale uniquely from Bobos perspective. Davidtz, who spent much of her childhood in South Africa, was drawn to the project because it recalled her own experience growing up in a world where racial inequality and violence were everywhere, but none of the adult explanations made much sense. The directors own family life also included, like the Fuller familys, mental illness and alcoholism; she has said that neither the outside world nor home life felt safe. And thats how it is for Bobo, 8 years old when we meet her, the younger of two daughters of Nicola and Tim Fuller. We will soon learn that another daughter died as a toddler in a tragic drowning one of the reasons Nicola (Davidtz) is so emotionally tied to the family farm, as conveyed in one particularly brutal scene brimming with rage. She may not be native to the land, but her offspring is buried in its soil. We begin with Bobo explaining how shes afraid to go alone to pee in the night. Terrorists, as theyve been described by the adults, might lurk anywhere, even on the way to the bathroom, carrying a gun or knife or spear. But imaginary threats are accompanied by real ones. During the day, a trip into town with her mother necessitates an escort vehicle. I really hope we dont die in an ambush today, Bobo says casually to an armed guard. This is a child who helps Dad pack his ammo at breakfast. The film, shot in South Africa, is set in the days before and after the 1980 parliamentary election a crucial vote that will bring the Black majority to power in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. Visiting her parents home, Nicola patronizingly instructs their Black servants on which candidate to support. At home, Nicolas desperation rages. She drinks bourbon by the bottle and sleeps with a huge gun. She doesnt spend much time with her daughters, which leaves Bobo plenty of time to hang out with the animals, ride her motorbike, and smoke cigarettes. Such habits earn Bobo the disapproval of her most valued friend, Sarah (Zikhona Bali, in a warm and nuanced performance), one of two adult servants who work on the farm. The other is Jacob (Fumani N. Shilubana), who warns Sarah that her relationship with Bobo is too publicly affectionate in these precarious times. Besides, he tells her, Bobo thinks of her as a stupid village girl. But there is real affection between the two. Privately, they laugh and share stories. And Sarah, conscious of the risks, tries to be the attentive parent Bobo lacks. When she catches the girl, messy-haired and smudgy-faced, smoking at age 7! she scolds her. Theres nothing wrong with me, Im perfect! Bobo replies, with the self-belief that comes from a childhood spent bossing around people like Sarah. You can direct moments like this, as Davidtz does expertly while somehow turning in a heartbreaking and increasingly unhinged performance of her own. But you cant manufacture lightning in a bottle for example, the infectious joy Venter exudes, even while her family is losing everything, singing a rowdy song about a stripper. Davidtz has said she searched far and wide to find her star, interviewing experienced child actors but not finding the feral girl she needed. A Facebook search yielded Venter. Davidtz knew she was right before even meeting her in person. Working with the girl three hours a day, she did not give her a script, but rather provided guidance and let her improvise. Nobodys perfect, though Bobo may think she is. But in Venters performance, Davidtz has found something pretty close: a child actor who can carry an entire film and never seem like shes acting. Bobos story has now been told; lets hope we see young Venter telling many more. If you go What: Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight Star rating: 3 stars (out of 4) MPA rating: R for violent/bloody images, language, sexual assault, and some underage smoking/drinking. Running time: 98 minutes How to watch: In theaters July 18 ST. LOUIS Sid Chakraverty, the developer indicted last year for lying about the use of minority contractors to obtain city property tax breaks, has a new lawyer: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondis brother. In filings Tuesday in the federal case against him, Chakraverty and his co-defendants his brother and co-developer Victor Alston and their accountant, Shijing Poppy Cao ask the court to dismiss the federal wire fraud charges against them, arguing the citys minority hiring law is unconstitutional. Washington, D.C., lawyer Brad Bondi, the attorney generals brother, entered an appearance in St. Louis federal court Tuesday on behalf of Chakraverty. Bondi works at the global law firm Paul Hastings, where Chakravertys lead defense counsel, Renato Mariotti of Chicago, is also a lawyer. On Tuesday, Bondi and other defense lawyers filed two motions to dismiss the charges against Chakraverty, Alston and Cao, who led major regional developer Lux Living and landlords Asprient Properties and STL CityWide. The trio are accused of submitting fake documents to officials at the St. Louis Development Corp. inflating their use of minority contractors, which the city requires developers to use as part of agreements to obtain property tax breaks. One of the motions argues that the development incentives the city granted are not property under federal criminal fraud statutes. A second motion to dismiss the case argues that the citys entire minority hiring program is unconstitutional. If the government proceeds forward with this prosecution premised on the Citys right to do just that, it will be endorsing unconstitutionally discriminatory race- and sex-based programs in direct violation of President Trumps Executive Orders, Bondi and the other attorneys write. The entrance of the politically connected lawyer and arguments taking aim at the citys goal of encouraging the growth of minority contractors by tying tax incentives to their hiring is a shot across the bow of the governments case against the wealthy developers, who had grown into the most prolific apartment builders in the region while leaving behind a trail of complaints over the poor maintenance of their properties and strongarm tactics against tenants. The trio have pleaded not guilty since their September indictments following an 18-month federal investigation aided by officials in SLDC, who had grown suspicious of Alston and Chakravertys claims about minority hiring and frustrated over their moves to stymie other city developments they saw as rivals. The government has not yet responded to the motions. But they come as President Donald Trump is set to nominate a new U.S. Attorney for St. Louis and amid broader national concerns over the politicization of the Justice Department. In the case against the Lux Living developers, the dismissal motion arguing that St. Louis minority hiring program is unconstitutional is a smart strategic move, to leverage the Trump administrations aversion to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, said Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University. And given what she characterized as the Justice Departments corrupt operation under Trump and Pam Bondi, theres a good chance that hiring Brad Bondi is an attempt to get the attention of his sister in the hope she will have the case dismissed. In this context, one has to be cognizant of the distinct possibility that this is about corrupt influence peddling rather than any kind of decision on the merits, Clark said. Normally, government ethics rules would prohibit Attorney General Bondi from intervening in a federal prosecution where her brother represents a defendant. But what we have seen with Trump 2.0 is ethics rules are for suckers, essentially, Clark said. Ethics rules are dispensed with, are ignored or flagrantly violated. Despite only entering an appearance Tuesday, Brad Bondi has been working as a lawyer for Chakraverty since at least May 13, according to a letter to the defense team from Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith, who heads public corruption and white-collar prosecutions in St. Louis. The letter was also filed Tuesday as an exhibit in the case. Brad Bondi has represented high-profile clients that have been in Trumps orbit, such as billionaire Elon Musk, and Trump Media & Technology Group. Brad Bondi also represented Trevor Milton, convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors in Nikola, the bankrupt electric truck maker he founded and led. Trump pardoned Milton, who along with his wife had donated over $1 million to the presidents reelection campaign, in March. Last month, Bondi was defeated in his high-profile bid for president of the Washington D.C. Bar Association. ST. LOUIS A St. Louis County man was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for killing a man in the city's Kingsway East neighborhood. Deandre M. Johnson, 31, admitted to shooting 22-year-old Kyle Fitzgerald, of House Springs, Missouri, in the 4900 block of St. Louis Avenue on Dec. 15, 2024. Surveillance video from a nearby market showed Johnson approaching Fitzgerald outside of an abandoned house. Then, the camera showed two muzzle flashes, charges say. A witness also reported seeing Johnson shoot Fitzgerald. Johnson was initially charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in an agreement with prosecutors. As part of that agreement, authorities also dismissed a separate murder case in which Johnson was accused of shooting 21-year-old Kyren Smith in April 2021 and burning his body, according to a news release from the 22nd Judicial Circuit. JEFFERSON CITY Local government officials Wednesday urged state lawmakers to tread carefully as they consider changes to Missouris property tax system. Libraries, ambulance districts and firefighters from across the state said the Legislature should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to reforming property taxes because of differences in how counties and local governments generate revenue to pay for services. Im here to advocate for the lower population counties out there. Please do not rush, said Brian Gaudet of the Hillsboro Fire Protection District. Were not opposing change. Were here to be part of the solution, said Robin Westphal, director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia. Trent Ford of the Ambulance District Association of Missouri said rural areas do not have a large enough business base to support a switch away from property taxes to sales taxes. The testimony came at the first meeting of a special House committee on property taxes, formed earlier this summer by Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lees Summit. Initially, Patterson said the 20-member panel could craft a solution in time for a special legislative session in September, but committee chairman Rep. Tim Taylor, R-Bunceton, said that was unlikely. In all, the committee plans seven hearings across the state in the coming weeks with an eye on having legislation ready when lawmakers return in January. None of us like how this system is working, Taylor said. Property taxes are the primary source of revenue for local governments, funding schools, public safety and other functions. But, rising housing prices, coupled with property reassessments, have put the way the taxes are calculated under a microscope. Lawmakers took a stab at property tax reform in June, approving a plan to limit property tax increases in 97 mostly rural counties. Under the new law, 22 counties could have their property taxes frozen at the current rate, and 75 would be limited to only a 5% maximum increase every two years. The freeze or limitations would need to be voted on by the countys residents. Property taxes could still be increased through a voter-approved levy or if the value of property increases due to renovations or new construction. Republican members of the committee said Missourians are over-taxed. We literally fought a revolution over this very issue, said Rep. Darin Chappell, R-Rogersville. It is my vision that we look very hard at transitioning away from property tax and transitioning away from income tax, said Chappell, who favors more reliance on usage taxes. Rep. Chris Warwick, R-Bolivar, said his hometown has eliminated the property tax in favor of a sales tax. But Rep. Dean Van Schoiack, R-Savannah, said smaller counties with few businesses could not be switched to a sales tax-based system without bankrupting local governments. Democrats said the panel needs to find a balance between tax relief and government services. I know no one likes to pay taxes, said Rep. Kathy Steinhoff, D-Columbia. But I want to be equally protective of our communities. Rep. Del Taylor, D-St. Louis, said a one-size-fits-all fix may not work in Missouri. We have a very diverse state. Things are not the same in the northeast as they are in the southeast, Taylor said. Different places are going to have different desires. State utility regulators said Wednesday that they cannot revoke their approval of the Grain Belt Express electricity transmission line, despite a recent invitation from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to reexamine the long-debated energy project. Officials from the Missouri Public Service Commission said at their weekly meeting that the regulatory agency did not have legal authority to reverse its decision on the proposed 800-mile, multi-state power line that would stretch from Kansas to Indiana, and help supply wind energy and cost savings to the grid. Those cases are final, said Rodney Massman, the general counsel for the PSC. And that principle has been true under previous case law dating back to 1935. Beyond the legal question at hand, some overall support for the project was reiterated, too. For example, PSC Commissioner Glen Kolkmeyer said he believed that regional grid overseers from both the Southwest Power Pool and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator have convinced us with their arguments that were going to be short on [energy] generation and short on transmission. The conversation was prompted after Bailey launched an investigation into the energy project late last month, seeking information from its prospective developers, while also questioning its economic justification. The company behind the project, Invenergy, has said that the project would account for $52 billion in energy cost savings to U.S. consumers over 15 years. The Attorney General has no authority to interfere with the Missouri Public Service Commission or its final approval of this project, said Catherine Hanaway, the lead counsel for Grain Belt Express and a former U.S. Attorney and Republican Missouri House speaker, in a statement Wednesday. Grain Belt Express seeks to bring an end to the Attorney Generals unlawful and politically motivated investigation, she said. Grain Belt has been on the drawing board for more than a decade, and has withstood recurring attempts to derail the project from politicians and others. The project still faces some political opposition at the federal level, with Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley claiming in a press release last week that he had secured a pledge from Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright to halt the Grain Belt Express. Then, on Wednesday, Hawley issued another release, saying that hed filed a one-page amendment in a spending rescissions package before the Senate that seeks to block the agencys conditional $4.9 billion loan guarantee to the project, announced last year. If the agencys pledge to block the project is secure, its not clear why the legislative maneuver to negate its previously approved loan would be necessary. Representatives for Sen. Hawleys office did not respond to messages Wednesday. The Department of Energy also did not respond to messages related to the matter. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on July 15, 2025. Trump said Tuesday Ukraine should not target Moscow, following a report stating that he had encouraged Kiev to escalate deep strikes into Russian territory, according to media reports. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) WASHINGTON, July 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday Ukraine should not target Moscow, following a report stating that he had encouraged Kiev to escalate deep strikes into Russian territory, according to media reports. "No, he shouldn't target Moscow," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House when asked whether he thinks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should target Moscow. When asked whether the United States would send long-range missiles to Ukraine, Trump replied, "No, we're not looking to do that." Asked if he was on Ukraine's side, Trump said he was on nobody's side. U.S. President Donald Trump walks toward the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on July 15, 2025. Trump said Tuesday Ukraine should not target Moscow, following a report stating that he had encouraged Kiev to escalate deep strikes into Russian territory, according to media reports. (Xinhua/Hu Yousong) ST. LOUIS COUNTY A new study by Harvard University researchers provides fresh evidence to support the health concerns of many people raised in north St. Louis County: Children who lived near Coldwater Creek, which was contaminated by radioactive waste, faced an increased risk of cancer as they grew up. The paper from researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, released Wednesday, gathered self-reported cancer diagnoses from 4,209 people who lived in the St. Louis area as children in the 1950s and 60s when radioactive contamination in the area was thought to be at its highest. The studys authors found a higher incidence of cancers from those living within 1 kilometer (about six-tenths of a mile) from Coldwater Creek, and that the rate of cancers went down as the distance from the creek grew. In addition, researchers found that cancers most likely to be caused by radiation such as thyroid, breast and leukemia were higher the closer people lived to the creek as children. At this point, what looks very strong is that living close to the creek increased your risk for cancer, said Marc Weisskopf, a professor of environmental epidemiology in Harvards Chan School and a lead author on the study. It did it more so for radiosensitive cancer. So we suspect its radiation related. The study is one of the strongest scientific indicators yet that low-level radioactive contamination in the waste left behind from uranium refining performed by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in St. Louis for the Manhattan Project has increased cancer risk for those living near Coldwater Creek, a Missouri River tributary that stretches 19 miles from a spring-fed lake in Overland north to the border of Fort Belle Fontaine County Park. For years, residents have informally shared stories of the cancer and other disease diagnoses, suspecting it was related to their time swimming and playing near the creek. The waterway was contaminated by leftover uranium processing waste stored near where the creek runs past St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and that contamination was likely spread during floods into nearby soil just as it was being moved for the development of adjacent postwar suburbs. But past assessments, including a 2018 study from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, have found only a slightly higher risk of cancer in the area. Weisskopf said his teams survey results indicate cancers were many fold higher in terms of the numbers of excess cases than the ATSDR report. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been remediating contaminated soil along the banks of Coldwater Creek for years. And while the Corps says many of the levels there now are low, they have said they were likely far higher in the mid-20th century when waste stored along the creek at the airport and another site was leaching into the waterway. The study comes on the heels of a major victory for area residents who have worked for years to raise awareness about the potential link between cancers and the regions legacy of uranium processing in the early days of the nuclear age. A large swath of North County along with the industrial north St. Louis riverfront and part of St. Charles County is included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act that was added into the One Big Beautiful Bill signed by President Donald Trump on July 4. All those years ago when we first started doing this, everybody thought we were crazy, said Kim Visintine, who has spent years raising awareness about Coldwater Creeks contamination and potential link to cancer diagnoses for those who grew up near it. Its very validating, but at the same time its kind of sad because it means that everything we thought was true. What baby teeth revealed The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, used data from 4,209 people who participated in the St. Louis Baby ToothLater Life Health Study. That study collected over 300,000 baby teeth from area children between 1958 and 1970 to measure radioactive fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests in the early years of the Cold War. The studys findings that radioactive isotopes in the teeth were higher in children born at the height of nuclear testing helped lead to the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty. In 2001, the leftover baby teeth from the Washington University-led research were discovered in an old ammunition bunker at the universitys Tyson Research Center. They were donated to a small nonprofit, the Radiation and Public Health Project, which began collaborating with Weisskopf on studies using the teeth to look at heavy metal exposure and other research. But Weisskopf whose grandfather Victor Weisskopf was a lead scientist on the Manhattan Project and later a nuclear arms control advocate said he kept hearing about Coldwater Creek from the people who donated their teeth. The trove of teeth included information on where the donors lived as children, so he and fellow researchers began asking them whether they had cancer. The results indicate those living more than 20 kilometers away from the creek as children would have a 24% risk of cancer. The incidences of all cancers increased as the proximity narrowed, to 25% for those between 5 and 20 kilometers from Coldwater Creek, 28% for those between 1 and 5 kilometers from the creek and 30% for those who lived less than a kilometer away. Of the 139 people found from the baby tooth survey who lived less than a kilometer from the creek as children, some 25% reported cancers thought to be associated with radiation, compared to just 15% of the 1,375 people who lived more than 20 kilometers away. The results suggest an additional 700 cancers for every 10,000 people living within 1 kilometer of Coldwater Creek, or a 29% increase in risk for any type of cancer. Those between 1 and 5 kilometers could have 450 more cases per 10,000 population, or a 19% increase in cancer risk, and those between 5 and 20 kilometers about 90 more cases per 10,000 people, or a 4% increase in cancer risk. The use of the residential information from the baby tooth study allowed the Harvard researchers to connect potential exposure in childhood, something more recent government studies have been unable to do. For most exposures, environmental toxicants, childhood is a particularly vulnerable period, so it wouldnt surprise me at all if childhood exposure to these things had a wider impact than adult exposure, Weisskopf said. Study limitations There are limitations to the study. The cancer data is self-reported, so Weisskopf said his team would like to be able to verify the cancer diagnoses with medical records. They would also like to measure actual radiation levels in the teeth to determine individual exposure. And there could be other chemicals from aircraft manufacturing and heavy industry that contaminated the creek and increased cancer risk, though Weisskopf said the prevalence of radiosensitive cancers is a strong signal for radiological contamination. Hes hoping to do further study, but since the Trump administration has slashed grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and targeted Harvard specifically, Weisskopf is currently on the hunt for funding for such research. The initial survey shows something is there, Weisskopf said. Its enough of a red flag that I would want to do more intense work on it, he said. Because it certainly looks like somethings going on and it shouldnt be ignored. NEW YORK President Donald Trump is lashing out at his own supporters, accusing them of being duped by Democrats, as he tries to clamp down on criticism over his administration's handling of much-hyped records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, which Trump now calls a "Hoax." "Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bull,' hook, line, and sinker," Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site, using an expletive. "They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years." "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter," he went on. On Tuesday, he accused former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as former FBI Director James Comey, of making up such documents. I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden , Trump told members of the media at the White House before departing for an event in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of the former FBI director and a prosecutor in the federal cases against Epstein and Sean Diddy Combs, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. There was no specific reason given for her firing from the U.S. attorneys office in the Southern District of New York, according to one of the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump presented no evidence in claiming that Democrats and James Comey tampered with documents related to Epsteins case. The schism centers on his administration's handling of documents surrounding Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. National Guard deployment in L.A. to end; NL wins All-Star Game On today's episode: The Pentagon is ending deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles; Arizona holds primaries; Palestinians are crushed at a food distribution site; UK, France and Germany will resume sanctions on Iran in August if a deal on its nuclear program cannot be reached; and Caitlin Clark has become the face of women's basketball. Trump defends Bondi on handling of Epstein files. America's only rare earth producer gets a boost from Apple and Pentagon agreements. Capital One, Walmart A look at some of the consumer cases dropped by the CFPB under Trump. US inflation accelerated last month to highest level since February. Fire crews along Grand Canyon are trying to save cabins after loss of historic lodge. Federal grand jury indicts man accused of killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman. The search for those missing in catastrophic Texas floods resumes in some areas after pause for rain. What to know about the Massachusetts assisted-living facility fire that killed 9. Most US stocks slump, but Nvidia nudges Nasdaq to another record. Nvidia's CEO says it has US approval to sell its H20 AI computer chips in China. 'Severance' leads Emmy nominees with 27 and 'The Studio' tops comedies with 23 as AppleTV+ dominates. Vandals who cut down Sycamore Gap tree sentenced in England to more than 4 years in prison. The National League prevails in MLB's All-Star Game in Atlanta, the upcoming L.A. Summer Games could include major leaguers, the WNBAs top star suffers an injury and a two-time NFL All-Pro cornerback gets a new contract. Russia launches new attacks on Ukraine with the countdown to a US peace deadline underway. Israel threatens to escalate involvement in Syria as a ceasefire collapses. Cuban minister unleashes criticism after saying Cuba has no beggars. The UK says thousands of Afghans have been brought to Britain under a secret resettlement program. Syria announces ceasefire after sectarian violence. The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Theme music The News Tonight, used under license from Soundstripe. YouTube clearance: ZR2MOTROGI4XAHRX Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI acknowledged that Epstein did not maintain a "client list" to whom underage girls were trafficked, and they said no more files related to the investigation would be made public, despite past promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. Bondi suggested in February such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review. Last week, however, she claimed she was referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list. "It's a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public," she said at one point. The reversal sparked fury among Trump's most loyal defenders, who turned on Bondi in particular. But Trump has repeatedly said he maintains confidence in his attorney general and had instead chided those who continue to press the issue. I dont understand what the interest or what the fascination is, he said Tuesday, after unsuccessfully urging his 'boys' and, in some cases, gals to stop wasting "Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." In an Oval Office appearance Wednesday, Trump made clear that he was done with the story, regardless of what his supporters think. "It's all been a big hoax," he told reporters. "It's perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net." He complained that Bondi was "waylaid" over her handling of the case and gave out all "credible information" about the wealthy financier. Bondi has "bigger problems" to work on, the president said, citing the administration's work to remove criminals who are living in the United States illegally. The blowup comes after Trump and many figures in his administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, spent years stoking dark and disproved conspiracy theories, including embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts Trump as a savior sent to demolish the "deep state" a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes. Trumps rivals recently took advantage of right-wing fissures over Epstein. Several Democratic lawmakers called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Trump's comments so far have not been enough to quell those who are still demanding answers. Some of the podcasters and pro-Trump influencers who helped rally support for Trump in the 2024 campaign said Wednesday they were disappointed or puzzled by his comments on the issue. Benny Johnson, a conservative podcaster who has called for the Epstein records to be released, said on his show that he is a fan of Trump's movement but is trying to "give tough love and speak on behalf of the base." "Maybe it hasn't been framed correctly for the president," Johnson said. "I don't know." House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in an interview on Benny Johnson's show Tuesday, called for the Justice Department to "put everything out there and let the people decide." Far-right conspiracy theorist and podcaster Alex Jones called Trump's handling of the Epstein situation "the biggest train wreck I've ever seen." "It's not in character for you to be acting like this," he said in a video reacting to Trump on Tuesday evening calling the case boring. "I support you, but we built the movement you rode in on. You're not the movement. You just surfed in on it." Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on his podcast on Wednesday attempted some damage control on Trump's behalf. "Don't take too seriously this whole Truth Social here," Kirk told his audience. "I know some people are getting fired up about this. I don't believe he was trying to insult anybody personally." Other Trump allies stuck by his side, suggesting he does not need the influencers who have capitalized on Epstein conspiracy theories to make money and earn viewers. "He lent you his clout and voters," Brenden Dilley, the head of a group of meme makers who have lent their support to Trump, wrote on social media Wednesday. "They don't belong to you." For generations, Americans have surrounded themselves with the symbols of ancient Greece and Rome: marble columns, laurel wreaths, Roman eagles, and the fasces. These icons, carved into our government buildings and featured on our currency, were intended to embody democracy, civic virtue, and republican ideals. But in recent years, far-right movements in the U.S. and abroad have hijacked these classical images, repackaging them into symbols of exclusion, militarism, and authoritarian nostalgia. As a student of both Classical Civilizations and Public Policy, Ive seen this trend firsthand. Online spaces and political rallies now bristle with distorted classical references: Spartan helmets on protest gear, Roman eagles on alt-right banners, and phrases like molon labe (come and take them) lifted from ancient Greek battles but weaponized for modern culture wars. This isnt accidental. Extremist groups deliberately lean on classical symbolism to project legitimacy and historical grandeur. Their goal is to link their movement with notions of strength, order, and Western identity often coded with racial and cultural exclusion. The far rights fascination with the ancient world has deep roots. In the 1920s and 30s, Benito Mussolini drew heavily on Roman imagery to build Italian Fascism, adopting the fasces (a bundle of rods and an axe once carried by Roman magistrates) as the regimes primary emblem. Nazi Germany celebrated classical sculpture and architecture as models of supposed Aryan purity, while denouncing modern art as degenerate. Todays extremists borrow these same visual cues. The Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot showcased Spartan and Roman symbols. In Charlottesville, at the 2017 Unite the Right rally, white nationalists marched with fasces emblems and the Roman acronym SPQR, the historic motto of the Roman Republic. White nationalist groups like Identity Evropa and Vanguard America continue to embed Roman eagles and Greek statuary into their propaganda materials. The strategy is clear: these symbols evoke a sense of timeless authority and noble struggle. They suggest a connection to ancient civilizations that are popularly, but often simplistically, viewed as the cradle of democracy and Western greatness. And that brings us to an uncomfortable truth: this hijacking is made easier by the way mainstream American culture has mythologized the classical world for decades. For many Americans, Greece and Rome have long been portrayed in a sanitized narrative: Athens as the pure birthplace of democracy, and Rome as a republic of virtuous citizens. Our civic buildings mimic the Parthenon and Pantheon. Our textbooks focus on Athenian voting rights and Roman legal codes, often skipping over the less flattering realities: slavery, imperialism, patriarchy, and political collapse. By flattening classical history into a story of unbroken democratic virtue, weve created a blind spot. Extremist groups exploit this by framing themselves as heirs to an imagined tradition of Western strength and purity. So, how do we respond? As a classics student, Ive learned that understanding Greece and Rome means wrestling with contradictions: innovation and oppression, civic ideals and systemic injustice. Middle and high school teachers, as well as university professors, should present the classical world in its full complexity not as a golden age to be uncritically admired. Students should leave a unit on Athens knowing not only about democracy, but also about who was excluded from it. Policymakers and civic leaders must be mindful of how they use classical symbols today. Online platforms and moderators play a crucial role. Just as we flag hate symbols and dog whistles in other contexts, there should be an awareness of how classical imagery is being used in far-right propaganda. This doesnt mean banning every Roman eagle, but it does mean being alert when such symbols appear alongside calls to violence. Finally, the general public needs to approach classical imagery with more historical literacy. The solution isnt to erase Greece and Rome from our civic identity, but to study them with clear eyes. The classical world was never monolithic, and neither is our democracy. Both are complicated, diverse, and constantly evolving. If we want democratic symbols to remain tools for inclusion rather than division, we need to reclaim them from those who would distort the past to undermine the present. Twenty-four states are suing the Trump administration for improperly withholding almost $7 billion in scheduled education-related funding. Why isnt Missouri one of them? The short answer is that, while state lawsuits against the federal government are common, its exceedingly rare in todays hyper-partisan political environment for a state controlled by one party to sue a presidential administration of the same party. Almost always these days, its Democrat-controlled states that challenge Republican presidential policies in court and vice-versa. At some level that makes some sense. The two parties have such fundamentally contrasting agendas today that each is naturally more likely to genuinely oppose the policies of a president of the opposite party, often to the point of finding constitutional fault with them. But there are also instances in which state officials decision of whether to sue appears to be not about good-faith policy issues but blind partisan loyalty. Thats a sad commentary on our politics because it puts partisanship above service to constituents. And we would argue thats whats happening here with Missouris refusal to join in a suit it should support. The Trump administration announced on June 30 that it was suspending the scheduled July 1 disbursement of more than $6.8 billion to the states for before- and after-school programs, teacher training, adult learning, English language training and an array of other education-related items. In typically Orwellian fashion, the White House suspended the scheduled funding because it wants to search out any whiff of a radical leftwing agenda in the programs. With typically reckless execution, it gave the states almost zero advanced warning of this and has provided no timetable for its review. And it did it (again, typically) in unilateral defiance of Congress, which appropriated the money. The lawsuit filed in Rhode Island on Monday by Democratic officials from 24 states, including Illinois, alleges the move is unconstitutional. In Missouri, the funding suspension means roughly $64 million that was slated for, among many other things, after-school and summer programs for low-income kids in St. Louis and around the state wont be available anytime soon and possibly at all. Not only will that deprive those children of positive educational experiences that include things such as museum outings and applied sciences projects, but it will deprive their families of an important resource in summer child care. Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe has properly prioritized access to child care as a key necessity in helping low-income parents stay in the workforce. As the Post-Dispatchs Kurt Erickson reports, the funding freeze could impact summer plans of some 220,000 Missouri kids. The funding freeze could also impact individual school districts, causing them to shift funding away from things such as teacher raises. Its difficult to believe thats what Kehoe or Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey want for those kids, their families or the states economy. So why isnt Missouri at least considering joining the lawsuit? Such an intra-party legal challenge would be rare but not unprecedented. For example, Democratic state attorneys general sued the Biden administration in 2023 over what they claimed were onerous restrictions on abortion medication. That was a matter of those Democrats prioritizing what they viewed as the needs of their constituents over blind fealty to the policies of a president of their own party. In the lawsuit over the education funding freeze, putting even a single Republican-held state on the list of plaintiffs would signal that these leaders prioritize the good of their state and their constituents over the ideological whims of a reckless president. Were not holding our breath, of course. Bailey has repeatedly demonstrated that his first, second and only principle in wielding the power of his office is to serve Trump and the MAGA movement, his actual duties be damned. Kehoe hasnt so far shown himself to be a culture warrior in that mold but hes shown precious little inclination to buck his party. So Missouri will almost certainly continue sitting this one out. As our states kids and their families suffer the consequences of that frozen funding, they should be fully aware that their state political leaders could fighting on their behalf right now but have made a purely partisan decision not to. I have been part of the law enforcement community for 53 years either as a state prosecutor, U.S. attorney or judge and my identity and home address has always been a matter of pubic record. The now-normalized protocol by federal agents making immigration arrests masked in hoods is reminiscent of Nazi Germany and is Un-American. Our local law enforcement officers neither require nor deserve (and neither did I) such anonymity, nor would our local communities accept hooded police officers enforcing local law. No matter what one thinks of the immigration issue, masked or hooded law enforcement officers is not what our country is about. Richard Callahan Jefferson City Former U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Missouri Q&A: TiVo's Chris Kleinschmidt on Glastonbury 2025 and Lean-Back Livestreaming Cultural Events With Glastonbury 2025 in the books, Streaming Media spoke with Xperi VP EMEA Advertising Sales Chris Kleinschmidt about the streaming lessons learned from the event, in a cultural moment when Gen Z fans say they increasingly regard straightforward first-screen livestreaming experiences as a reasonable substitute for experiencing the live event onsite. Political controversies aside, premium cultural event streams like the BBC iPlayer live broadcast of Glastonbury 2025 are helping to shape a new kind of lean-back streaming experience, where audiences engage more passively yet deeply with live content. At the same time, the rapid rise of AVOD and FAST platforms has sparked renewed interest in understanding what makes viewers tolerant or averse to advertising. These overlapping trends offer valuable lessons for advertisers seeking to maximise engagement during live cultural moments, emphasising the importance of timing, relevance, and audience context. Kleinschmidt lent his insight on these issues and more in this Q&A with Streaming Media. Chris Kleinschmidt, VP EMEA Advertising Sales, Xperi Are we seeing the rise of a new genre of event-driven, passive engagement streaming? What's the opportunity for platforms and brands? Were seeing a growing appetite for event-driven streaming, particularly around live cultural events like festivals and sports. I personally wouldn't call it "passive engagement", as I think that might be slightly misleading. Live music events naturally drive active viewership and communal viewing, and are time-sensitive. For advertisers and platforms, streaming large scale events offer a major opportunity. In an on-demand world where audiences are fragmented, live events still draw mass, real-time attention. That kind of scale is rare and valuable. Whats especially interesting is the role of connected TV (CTV) operating systems (OS). Even when events are streamed on ad-free platforms like BBC iPlayer, brands can still engage viewers at the point of entry through homepage ad units on smart TVs. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a billboard, visible right before users dive into the content. Its a powerful brand and marketing opportunity, particularly when aligned with high interest live programming. Sports streaming is thriving on the big screen. According to our UK Smart TV research, 74% of consumers use sport-focused streaming services, and two-thirds access them through an app installed directly on their TV. With 84% naming the TV as their primary screen for sports, the data reinforces just how central the TV remains in the streaming era. How can advertisers align their strategies with real-time cultural moments like Glastonbury to maximise reach and relevance? Timing and context are key. While some live events dont allow for traditional ad breaks, like BBC streams, brands can still insert themselves into the broader viewing experience. For instance, TiVo OS has launched programming that lets users interact with homepage ads that feature QR codes and branded imagery, positioned before they enter streaming apps. Its a way to capture attention early and surround a moment like Glastonbury or Wimbledon with relevant, timely messaging. Advertisers cant always be within the stream, but they can absolutely be part of the journey. The industry is still adapting to the full potential of live digital experiences. Advertisers have more tools than ever, but the key lies in execution: aligning creativity, timing, and targeting to meet audiences where they are, in the moments that matter most. Is brand integration into the stream more effective than relying on traditional ad breaks? In traditional linear TV, ad slots are pre-scheduled and reliable. In digital, while you can technically replicate that predictability, its far less common. Advertisers often want dynamic, contextually relevant ad insertions, but doing that well requires more planning and budget. Streaming also brings new targeting capabilities. Brands can overlay audience data on top of content signals, creating highly tailored experiences. Thats powerful, but it adds complexity. If targeting is too narrow, some viewers may have inconsistent or even ad-free experiences, which can dilute brand impact. A good example is the Super Bowl, where the ads are as anticipated as the content itself. In digital environments, where each household might see a different ad, that shared cultural moment can be lost. Its something advertisers need to weigh when designing campaigns. How has ad-supported streaming evolved over the past five years and what makes AVOD and FAST platforms more appealing now? Five years ago, FAST platforms were in their early stages, often experimental with limited content. Today, were seeing much more sophistication in content curation. Viewers now have access to a broader, more compelling selection, and the high-quality, free, ad-supported content value proposition is clear. It's no surprise therefore that our latest UK Video Trends Report found that 43% of UK consumers use free AVOD/FAST services such as Freevee and Pluto TV and 79% are in favour of and tolerant of ads. From an advertisers point of view, the appeal lies in flexibility and targeting. While ad loads are often lighter than linear (typically 4-8 minutes per hour), whats more appealing is the ability to target households with precision. Unlike linear, which broadly targets based on programming, FAST allows for additional segmentation based on behavior, demographics, and more. Performance is another big differentiator. On CTVs, 30-second ads routinely achieve 95%+ completion rates, which is far higher than on social media platforms, where people tend to scroll past ads. This high percentage of completion rates makes CTVs an impactful medium for brand storytelling. I'm intrigued by this idea of the "lean-back viewing experience" as something that's trending for Gen Z. Can you expand a bit on what you mean by "a new kind of lean-back streaming experience"? How does this new kind of experience differ from traditional live TV? Traditionally, a lean-back experience meant settling into a sofa and watching whatever was on live TV. For Gen Z, a new kind of lean-back experience is emerging. It is passive in feel, but smarter in delivery. Todays viewers are navigating an average of 6.5 different video services in the UK. This fragmentation has led to real browsing fatigue, especially when using multiple apps in a single session. While the lean-back experience offers a seamless experience, powered by independent CTV OS platforms (e.g., TiVo OS) that curate and surface relevant, personalised content. It still feels relaxed, but it is shaped by personalisation rather than programming schedules. What are the factors that make audiences more ad-averse, and what are platforms doing to make ad-supported experiences more palatable to users, particularly those in Gen Z? Audiences often become ad-averse when faced with too many ads or the same ones are repeated. Among users of free streaming platforms, this is cited as the main reason for tuning out. For Gen Z, who are used to custom content from social video platforms, interruptions that feel irrelevant or too long are particularly off-putting. Despite this, many viewers accept ads as part of the trade-off for free access. According to the UK Video Trends Report, over half of UK respondents are open to adverts if it means watching content without paying, and nearly half say they are simply used to them. To improve the experience, platforms are leaning into more engaging ad formats such as QR codes or interactive banners. The aim is to make advertising feel less like an interruption and more like part of the viewing environment. Can you expand a bit on your findings regarding UK viewer cord-cutters who went back to pay TV? Are the numbers rising? The number of viewers returning to pay TV after cutting the cord has actually fallen. Xperis Video Trends Report shows that 28% of UK pay TV users in Q2 2024 said they had unsubscribed in the past but then chose to come back. That is down from 30% in the previous year. Most of these returning viewers say they came back because pay TV gives them access to more content than the national broadcasters or individual streaming services. For some, it is also about convenience, especially when pay TV is bundled with the internet. While cord-cutting remains an ongoing trend, these numbers suggest that pay TV is still seen as a reliable, content-rich option by a significant share of viewers. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Rock Island Arsenal-Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center artisans prepare 3000-degree molten steel for a furnace-to-ladle transfer during a demonstration of RIA-JMTCs foundry capabilities for then-Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth during her visit to Rock Island Arsenal June 6, 2022. RIA-JMTC operates the premier foundry of the U.S. Army. (Hayley Smith/U.S. Army) (Tribune News Service) Standing in front of a row of flats under a bright blue sky, Col. Eloy Martinez accepted his new role as the 53rd commander of the Joint Manufacturing and Technology Center on the Rock Island Arsenal, Ill. A Texas native, Martinez enlisted in 1992 before working his way up the ranks. Martinez said the move to Rock Island was a long time coming, but one he was looking forward to for some time. During his three decade career in the Army, he said, hes had experience in aviation, transportation, special operations and strategic logistics. All of those tasks have strengthened his commitment to the war fighter, he said, and continuing to do so at the JMTC aligns with the mission hes already embarked on. Martinez replaces Col. David G. Guida, a Minnesota native who took command of the JMTC in June 2023. Leaving the Arsenal is bittersweet, Guida said. When I took command, I walked into a facility with a very strong foundation filled with dedicated and skilled professionals, but many of you shared with me the potential to do more, to be more and to deliver greater value to our war fighters, he told the crowd gathered outside the factory Tuesday morning. Guida said thats exactly what JMTC staff were able to accomplish during his two year tenure: increasing output and growing both production volume and revenue generation. And its not a temporary surge, he said. This is a clear trend of positive momentum. In the last month, he said, staff filled more than 300 million new orders and generated nearly $400 million in revenue. In welcoming his successor, Guida spoke directly to Martinez, saying he was stepping into a command forged through hard work and dedication from the people around him. I have no doubt that youre the right choice to lead the JMTC to even greater heights. Youll find this team is dedicated, resilient and ready to tackle any challenges, Guida said. The workforce is the foundation of our success, and I have full confidence in their ability to continue to excel under your command. Martinez said he was excited to take on the challenge, especially after previous visits to the Arsenal where he learned his new team took on more than 300 projects and earned the ASI 100 certification a quality management system standard for the aerospace industry, marking the factorys ongoing modernization and its expansion into new, high-tech markets. These accomplishments are just testament to your commitment to excellence. This versatility is what makes the JMTC uniquely equipped to meet the evolving needs of Americas Armed Forces, he said. We will build on the incredible foundation which youve created and together we will streamline the processes and embrace advanced technologies to strengthen the partnership across the Department of Defense and leverage our full spectrum of capabilities. 2025 Quad City Times, Davenport, Iowa. Visit www.qctimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. (Leigh A. Wiener/Stars and Stripes) Berlin, Germany, July 12, 1954: A young girl sits on one of the folding chairs at Berlins Tempelhof airport. The girl was one of 288 children waiting to board one of four USAF planes to be taken to Frankfurt to spend a five week summer vacation. Earlier that day a ceremony marked the first day of the second year of Operation Kinderlift. A total of 1,440 children not only Berlin children, but also children from refugee, and displaced families will be flown into West Germany to summer with West German and American foster parents, made possible through the joint U.S. Air Force Europe and Red Cross operation. Looking for Stars and Stripes historic coverage of Operation Kinderlift? Subscribe to Stars and Stripes historic newspaper archive! We have digitized our 1948-1999 European and Pacific editions, as well as several of our WWII editions and made them available online through https://starsandstripes.newspaperarchive.com/ A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, one of 16 launchers slated for delivery to the Armys 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks this summer, stands at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, July 14, 2025. (U.S. Army) FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii The 25th Infantry Division on Monday took delivery of its first three HIMARS launchers as the Army moves to increase the firing range and mobility of its Pacific ground forces. Over the summer the division, based in Hawaii, will receive a total of 16 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers as its artillery brigade divests 14 howitzers, division commander Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans told reporters during a Tuesday conference call from his headquarters at Schofield Barracks. HIMARS have been forward in the Pacific for quite some time, Evans said. I think that the big difference is now theyre going to be organic to a division. So now soldiers, instead of working behind a cannon system and towed artillery, will work with a weapon system that has increased survivability but increased operational reach with the range that they have. The truck-borne HIMARS is valued for its mobility and speed in deploying, firing and relocating. It can fire rockets with a range of roughly 40 miles or missiles up to 300 miles. The addition of HIMARS to the 25th is part of the Army Transformation Initiative, by which the service will reexamine all requirements and eliminate unnecessary ones, ruthlessly prioritize fighting formations to directly contribute to lethality, and empower leaders at echelon to make hard calls to ensure resources align with strategic objectives, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll wrote in a May 1 letter to the force. Army Pacific is prioritizing mobility and stealth as it considers how war might be waged in the Pacific against near-peer China. From a protection standpoint, when you compare the HIMARS to a piece of towed artillery, a HIMARS can shoot and move all in one organic platform very rapidly, Evans said. And were looking for the ability to quickly employ fires assets and then displace as quickly as possible to enable protection and survivability for those systems on todays battlefield. Other Pacific nations have also embraced HIMARS in response to the perceived threat from China. Australia received its first two HIMARS launchers in March, with plans to acquire up to 36. The Australian army fired its HIMARS for the first time Monday as part of the biennial Talisman Sabre exercise. The Taipei Times reported July 6 that Taiwans army had established a company equipped with U.S.-supplied HIMARS. The 25th will divest itself of eight 105mm and six 155mm howitzers to make way for HIMARS. We will still retain cannon capability in the formation, Col. Daniel Von Benken, commander of the divisions artillery brigade, told reporters. The brigades artillery has been transformed and consolidated into a single cannon battalion with two batteries of 105 mm and one battery of 155 mm howitzers, he said. A second battalion will field two HIMARS batteries, he said. Soldiers making the transition from artillery to HIMARS undergo a three-week long course as initial preparation, Evans said. They then return to the unit and begin training for a validation exercise in Hawaii this fall during the U.S. Army Pacifics Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center combat training, he said. Von Benken said he asks himself each morning how he can make his formation readier and deadlier. In this case, its clear that the HIMARS weapons system makes us more lethal, he said. At the end of the day, it extends the range of the long-range precision fires, while still retaining the capability to win in the close fight with the mobile brigade with the cannon artillery. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks after winning the general election at the Labor Party election night event in Sydney on Saturday, May 3, 2025. (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images/TNS) (Tribune News Service) The prime minister of Australia, a longtime U.S. security partner in Asia, sought to focus his trip to China this week on business and trade opportunities, sidestepping thornier issues around U.S.-China competition such as Taiwan or Beijings military expansion. Since taking office just over three years ago, Anthony Albanese has repaired his countrys relationship with China, Australias No. 1 export market, after suffering Beijings punitive tariffs and other restrictions during the pandemic. Now, however, President Donald Trumps renewed trade war between the U.S. and China risks again destabilizing those ties, as they do for Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and others in the region who look to Washington for security but to China for trade. Premier Li Qiang noted as much in his opening remarks to Albanese during the Australia-China annual leaders meeting in Beijing late Tuesday. Li said the world economy is experiencing growing instability and uncertainty and that all countries are faced with new challenges, without specifically mentioning Trump, the U.S. or tariffs. In a joint statement, China and Australia said they agreed to enhance exchanges and cooperation, uphold their respective national interests and navigate differences wisely. Speaking to reporters after he met with President Xi Jinping earlier Tuesday, Albanese stressed the economic significance of the relationship between the two countries. Given that China is overwhelmingly, by far, the largest trading partner that Australia has, it is very much in the interests of Australian jobs and the Australian economy to have a positive and constructive relationship, he said. Xi was equally enthusiastic: The China-Australia relationship has risen from the setbacks and turned around, bringing tangible benefits to the Chinese and Australian peoples, he said, obliquely referring to the tensions before 2022. The leaders seemingly both avoided any tricky security-related issues, including the potential forced sale of the port of Darwin by its Chinese owner, given its proximity to where U.S. Marines exercise. Albanese said the issue didnt come up in his talks with Xi. Neither, he said, did complaints about Australias foreign investment regime, which has blocked a number of proposed purchases by Chinese firms, nor reports that the U.S. has pressured Canberra about its role in any potential war over Taiwan. On Taiwan, Albanese said he reaffirmed his nations commitment to the status quo support for the islands de facto autonomy without endorsing formal independence and maintaining recognition of the One China policy. His remarks highlight Australias opposition to any unilateral move, especially by force, to alter the cross-strait balance. In a separate statement, Premier Li told a China-Australia CEO Roundtable that he hoped Australia would treat Chinese enterprises fairly and address issues in market access and investment reviews. Positive Momentum Chinese state media has been positive about the trip, with an editorial Monday in the China Daily, the main Communist Party mouthpiece in English, saying that it highlights Australias commitment to deepening ties and fostering stability amid the uncertain global landscape. Against the backdrop of rising tensions between the United States and many countries because of the U.S. administrations recent threat to levy higher tariffs his visit shows that the Australian side has a clearer judgment and understanding of China than the previous government of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the editorial said. The progress made in their economic and trade cooperation in the past two years has benefited the people of both countries, and provided a counterweight amid the rampancy of unilateralism and protectionism, it said. Albanese took pains to argue that his government wasnt looking to China to make up for the changes to U.S. trade policy under Trump. Trade with the U.S. is important, but is less than 5% of what the country sells, he said. What Australia is doing is engaging not just with China, but we engage as well with our partners around the world and we increasingly want to see a diversification of our trade. Albanese heads next to Chengdu on his six-day trip, which comes on the heels of visits by a number of Australian officials. Reserve Bank Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser traveled there in April, followed by Governor Michele Bullock in May. The two nations are set to start a review of their Free Trade Agreement, which was signed a decade ago, Albanese also said Tuesday. Chinas Ambassador Xiao Qian in an editorial last week called for a review with a more open attitude and higher standard. While China bought almost $62 billion of Australian goods in the first half of this year, managing the relationship is complicated by Beijings increased assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific. In February, it conducted live-fire naval drills in the Tasman Sea, near Australia and New Zealand. Albanese said at the time that he was concerned by the lack of notice from Beijing over the drills, which he also said were within the bounds of international law. He said Tuesday that he sought assurances from Xi about being better informed in the future. He didnt clarify if he received them. With assistance from Josh Xiao, Olivia Tam and Bingyan Wang. 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A visitor takes photos of an exhibit at the "2025 East and West International Dialogue Exhibition: From Shanghai to Rome" at the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, Italy, July 14, 2025. The exhibition will last till Sept. 14, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Jing) Workers unload expired and low-quality food items in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, July 15, 2025. Afghan authorities collected and destroyed 65 tons of expired and low-quality food items in the capital Kabul on Tuesday, officials from the Ministry of Public Health said. (Photo by Saifurahman Safi/Xinhua) The medals for Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are displayed during the unveiling ceremony in Palazzo Balbi, Venice, Italy, on July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Jing) Displaced Palestinians wait to receive free food from a food distribution center in Gaza City, on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Syrian security forces are seen upon entering Sweida city, southern Syria, on July 15, 2025. Syrian defense authorities on Tuesday declared a complete ceasefire in the southern province of Sweida following days of deadly clashes between local Druze armed factions, Bedouin tribes, and the interim government's forces, according to the defense authorities' chief Murhaf Abu Qasra. (Xinhua) This photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows the site of the fuselage equipping program of the Airbus and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China Xi'an Aircraft International (Tianjin) Corporation (AVIC XAT) in Tianjin, north China. Airbus and the Aviation Industry Corporation of China Xi'an Aircraft International (Tianjin) Corporation (AVIC XAT), officially launched the first A321 aircraft fuselage equipping cooperative project in China on Tuesday. (Xinhua) A barista fills a cup with coffee at Haraaz Coffee in Sanaa, Yemen, on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua) A preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa is held at the Ganden Monastery in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region, July 15, 2025. A total of 13 monks from multiple monasteries are in the process of completing a preliminary examination for the Geshe Lharampa, the highest academic degree in the exoteric teachings of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. Geshe Lharampa, which means "intellectual" in the Tibetan language, is the equivalent of a doctoral degree in modern education. (Xinhua/Jigme Dorje) This simulated image captured at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center on July 15, 2025 shows China's cargo craft Tianzhou-9 as it completes docking with the orbiting Tiangong space station. The cargo craft Tianzhou-9 successfully docked at the rear docking port of Tianhe, the core module of China's space station Tiangong, on Tuesday, according to the China Manned Space Agency. Such process was conducted at 8:52 a.m. (Beijing Time) after the Tianzhou-9 entered its orbit and completed its status setting, according to the agency. The Shenzhou-20 crew members onboard the space station will enter the cargo craft and transfer the payloads as scheduled. (Photo by Zhou Keyi/Xinhua) A model presents a concept creation during a fashion show held at the Prince Kung's Palace Museum in Beijing, capital of China, July 14, 2025. The fashion show is inspired by elements of the Prince Kung's Palace Museum and Chinese intangible cultural heritages, displaying 37 concept creations as well as 35 neo-Chinese ready-to-wear and accessories. (Xinhua/Jin Liangkuai) A child has fun at an indoor snow and ice world in Huaian, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 15, 2025. An indoor snow and ice world, established at Jinhu water forest scenic spot in Huaian, provides tourists with a refreshing experience in summer. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng) The U.S. is absolutely facing the most serious Chinese hacking ever. We are in Chinas golden age of hacking, said China expert Dakota Cary of security company SentinelOne. (Wikimedia Commons) Undeterred by recent indictments alleging widespread cyberespionage against American agencies, journalists and infrastructure targets, Chinese hackers are hitting a wider range of targets and battling harder to stay inside once detected, seven current and former U.S. officials said in interviews. Hacks from suspected Chinese government actors detected by security firm CrowdStrike more than doubled from 2023 to more than 330 last year and continued to climb as the new administration took over, the company said. Bursts of espionage are typical with each new president, the officials said, and major staff cuts at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have disrupted some response coordination. The U.S. is absolutely facing the most serious Chinese hacking ever. We are in Chinas golden age of hacking, said China expert Dakota Cary of security company SentinelOne. Although the various Chinese hacking campaigns seem to be led by different government agencies and have different goals, all benefit from new techniques and from Beijings introduction of a less constrained system for cyber offense, the officials and outside researchers told The Washington Post. Chinese intelligence, military and security agencies previously selected targets and tasked their own employees with breaking in, they said. But the Chinese government decided to take a more aggressive approach by allowing private industry to conduct cyberattacks and hacking campaigns on their own, U.S. officials said. The companies are recruiting top hackers who discover previously unknown, or zero-day, flaws in software widely used in the United States. Then the companies search for where the vulnerable programs are installed, hack a great many of them at once, and then sell access to multiple Chinese government customers and other security companies. That hacking-for-hire approach creates hundreds of U.S. victims instead of a few, making it hard to block attacks and to decide which were Chinas key targets and which were unintentionally caught in the hacks, an FBI official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly. Theyll find a zero-day, scan for anything vulnerable, and then try to broker access and now we have, scale-wise, a significantly larger problem, the official said. The result of that incentive structure is that there is significantly more hacking. An indictment unsealed last week accused a Chinese man arrested in Italy of hacking at a company called Shanghai Powerock Network Co., which prosecutors described as one of many enabling companies in the PRC that conducted hacking for the PRC government. Several former officials said that though China had been deterred in the past by such U.S. indictments, public condemnations and sanctions, that seemed to no longer be the case. Cyberspace is where China and Xis confidence are on full display. Its the domain where China has been willing to accept a lot of political risk with the U.S., said Laura Galante, a principal at WestExec Advisors and the head of cyberthreat analysis at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence during the Biden administration. China has mastered the ability to move undetected through networks of compromised U.S. devices, so that the final connection to a target appears to be an ordinary domestic connection. That makes it easy to get around technology that blocks overseas links and puts it outside the purview of the NSA, which by law must avoid scrutinizing most domestic transmissions. Beijing is increasingly focused on hacking software and security vendors that provide access to many customers at once, the FBI official said. Once access is obtained, the hackers typically add new email and collaboration accounts that look legitimate. Cyberspace continues to be a critical front for malicious nation-state and affiliated actors, including those associated with the Peoples Republic of China, who seek to compromise U.S. critical infrastructure, CISA spokesperson Marci McCarthy said. CISA has observed a persistent and evolving threat pattern, which underscores the importance of maintaining heightened vigilance across all critical infrastructure sectors. McCarthy rejected concerns about disruptions in defensive coordination, saying We continue to work closely with our partners across the interagency and with the private sector to ensure a unified, whole-of-nation approach to securing our infrastructure against the rapidly evolving cyberthreat landscape. Chinese hackers are bigger, better and more sophisticated than they were just a few years ago, said Crowell & Moring attorney Matthew F. Ferraro, a senior adviser to the secretary of Homeland Security under Biden. It used to be they would come from a Shanghai network and work on Chinese time, and you would see them coming. Thats not the case anymore. Theyre everywhere. Chinas intensified hacking strategy came to light last year in highly unusual leaked files from iSoon, a security contractor that works with the Chinese military, national ministries and local police. The trove described contracts and targets in 20 countries, with booty including Indian immigration data, logs of calls in South Korea, and detailed information on roads in Taiwan. It also detailed prices for some services, such as $25,000 for promised remote access to an iPhone, payment disputes with government customers and employee gripes about long hours. Eight iSoon employees and two Ministry of State Security officials were named in a U.S. federal indictment unsealed this March, which described the company as a key player in the [Chinese governments] hacker-for-hire ecosystem. ISoon representatives could not be reached for comment. They have not responded previously to the accusations. Beyond the increased government collaboration with Chinas private security sector is occasional collaborating with criminal groups, said Ken Dunham, an analyst at security firm Qualys. U.S. and private experts have previously reported that corporate files were encrypted with ransomware that demanded extortion payments to unlock at American companies penetrated by Chinese government teams. U.S. security companies SentinelOne and Recorded Future have also reported ransomware being used in India and Brazil by Chinese groups looking to create plausible deniability for the government. China loves creating blurred lines of hacker attribution, Dunham said. Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu called the accusations groundless and unreasonable. In fact, the United States has carried out long-term, systematic and large-scale cyberattacks on China, and China has repeatedly expressed its concerns and opposition to this. He pointed to a March report backed by the Chinese government alleging the U.S. had penetrated Chinese cellular networks, SIM cards and devices. While declining to comment on specific campaigns, U.S. officials have previously acknowledged they have sought to penetrate Chinese networks for intelligence. The biggest Chinese espionage campaigns are evolving in different ways. Last August, The Post reported that Chinese hackers had penetrated major U.S. telecommunications carriers in a wildly successful espionage campaign that allowed them to intercept communications of top politicians. That penetration is still not fully contained, according to the current and former officials. The group behind it, linked by the U.S. State and Treasury Departments to Chinas Ministry of State Security and known under Microsofts nomenclature as Salt Typhoon, has more recently shown up inside core communications infrastructure in Europe, according to John Carlin, a former top national security official in the Justice Department who represents some U.S. victims of the group. Salt Typhoon has also been blamed for a breach at satellite communications provider Viasat, and on June 19 Canadian authorities warned that Salt Typhoon had exploited a known flaw in Cisco routers to breach communications carriers there beginning in February. As in the U.S., Canadian officials said the eventual targets were individual users whose calls and text messages could be intercepted. And they echoed U.S. warnings that by establishing persistent access to cloud service providers and others that work with infected communications companies, Salt Typhoon could spread its reach and reinfect targets after being forced out. A June memo from the Department of Homeland Security, first reported by NBC News, warned that Salt Typhoon had also penetrated multiple state agencies, including one states National Guard. DHS said the hackers took administrator credentials and system specifications that could help them break into related entities, including those providing cyber defenses. Another hacker group, Volt Typhoon, suspected by U.S. officials of being run by Chinas Peoples Liberation Army, continues to alarm national security officials by penetrating electric and water facilities with no espionage value. U.S. intelligence leaders and members of Congress have concluded that the object is to be prepared to cause chaos during any direct conflict over Taiwan. The FBI and allies spotted a covert network of compromised machines the group was using to reach its targets and disrupted it last year. But Volt Typhoon has created a new one and has moved far beyond the Pacific ports where they were first detected, officials and researchers said. One researcher found in June that many peer-reviewed studies by Chinese academics closely analyzed U.S. electric grids from the perspective of potential attackers, simulating targeted failures and modeling how to trigger cascading blackouts to destroy the power grid. Less widely understood is a campaign by a third organization, which Microsoft calls Silk Typhoon. Likely affiliated with the Ministry of State Security as well, the techniques of this group are some of the hardest to detect in the world, officials and researchers said. It was initially known for stealing trade secrets for use by Chinese companies, and it continues to target Western and Asian industry, researchers said. But it is also in hot pursuit of strategic and diplomatic secrets, which it sought through massive exploitation of a flaw in Microsofts Exchange email programs in 2021. Past victims include multiple U.S. government agencies, officials said, and a recently unsealed 2023 indictment against accused Silk Typhoon participant Yin Kecheng and another man they said had hacked into a U.S. defense contractor, a think tank and a communication service provider. Silk Typhoon has been seeking unpatched or misconfigured software and using zero-days in routers and security appliances that are hard to monitor. Based on what we are seeing, what we are hearing from third-party operators and conversations with law enforcement, their tempo seems up, said former national security prosecutor Carlin, now a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. A Silk Typhoon run dating to December has netted about 100 known victims, according to researchers tracking its methods. Among them are government ministries in Spain and Finland, according to a person close to the investigations, and media companies in Japan, South Korea and the United States - including The Washington Post - according to Che Chang, an analyst with the Taiwan-based cybersecurity firm TeamT5. Chang said his company had obtained a copy of the malicious software wielded by the group and scanned the internet looking for other infections. A machine at The Post responded both in April and late May, suggesting that it was infected for at least a month. In The Posts case, reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, the hackers obtained email from several reporters on China and other topics. A Post spokesperson declined to respond to questions about the incident. As hard as it is to discover a breach, that is only half of the battle. Googles Mandiant Consulting arm said that in responding to 2024 security incidents, Silk Typhoon was the espionage actor it encountered the most often. It is adept at moving within a companys networks, erasing logs that would show its movement from one machine to another and finding new places to hide, said Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Googles Mandiant Consulting arm. Few really understand how clever they are and how well hide back doors for reentry, he said. Once expelled, Silk Typhoon sometimes tries to get back in almost immediately, the FBI official said. Katrina Northrop in Taipei contributed to this report. Naeri Culture Park in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, is pictured on July 16, 2025. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes) CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea A South Korean city plans to build a memorial to American troops who fought in the Korean War at a park near this Army base roughly 40 miles south of Seoul. The planned $4 million memorial at the Naeri Culture Park in Pyeongtaek city would consist of sculptures of U.S. troops and stone markers honoring those who served in the 1950-53 Korean War, a city spokeswoman told Stars and Stripes by phone July 7. Construction may be complete by 2027, she said. Humphreys and Osan Air Base, home of the 7th Air Force and 51st Fighter Wing, are in Pyeongtaek. Around 650,100 people live in the city. Approximately $1.4 million of the memorials cost came from a grant from Gyeonggi-do, South Koreas most populous province, the spokeswoman said. Details of the sculptures and the memorials design are still being deliberated, she said. Construction may begin sometime next year. South Korean government officials customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity. The entrance to Naeri Culture Park in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, is pictured on July 16, 2025. (David Choi/Stars and Stripes) Naeri Culture Park is less than a mile from Camp Humphreys central gate and overlooks the base and the Pyeongtaek River. The park has traditional Korean gazebos, rest areas, a restroom, a spacious parking lot, bike paths and playgrounds. In building a memorial for U.S. service members who died in the Korean War, we aim to establish a representative location to honor those who sacrificed for our country and remind people of the importance of peace and security, Pyeongtaek city said in a July 7 news release. Nearly 37,000 U.S. service members were killed and more than 92,000 were wounded during the three-year Korean War, according to the Defense Departments website. The memorial will illustrate the ongoing U.S.-South Korea alliance, as well as relations between Pyeongtaeks residents and troops with U.S. Forces Korea, according to the release. USFK, headquartered at Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base overseas, has responsibility for the 28,500 American troops in South Korea. Spc. Rafael Morales, a network communication systems specialist assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division at Humphreys, said he frequently visits the park with his 5-year-old daughter. I love the fact that we can intermingle and share our culture with each other, he said at the park Wednesday. And the fact that theyre willing to commemorate that and share that with us, it not only brings us closer, but it actually gives us a place to love and cherish each other. U.S. Army Europe and Africa Commander Gen. Christopher Donahue speaks in Wiesbaden, Germany, on July 16, 2025, at LandEuro, an international symposium dedicated to ground forces in Europe. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes) WIESBADEN, Germany The Armys top commander in Europe delivered a challenge Wednesday to arms manufacturers, telling a gathering of defense industry insiders that he wants a universal rocket launcher so allies can fight as one. Gen. Christopher Donahue, head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, highlighted the need for a common launcher as emblematic of a larger challenge. Its trust, Donahue said. Thats all that is. We can solve it. For decades, U.S. commanders in Europe have lamented a defense industrial approach that doesnt ensure that different weapons used by NATO countries can work together. Speaking at a convention hosted by his command in Wiesbaden and the Association of the U.S. Army, Donahue said solving the conundrum thats vexed military commanders for years needs to be front and center. At the top of Donahues list are a launcher with offensive and defensive capability and a common fire control system that any ally can use. Currently, many nations buy systems that are incompatible with those of other allies because of differing specifications, competing commercial interests and quirks in the procurement process. But Donahue said the priority now needs to be on finding an alliance-wide defense industrial breakthrough that enables any ally to take munitions from any country and shoot through them. Retired Army Gen. Robert Brown, president and CEO of the Association of the U.S. Army, speaks at LandEuro in Wiesbaden, Germany, July 16, 2025. (Phillip Walter Wellman/Stars and Stripes ) At the RheinMain Conference Center in Wiesbaden, scores of weapons-makers mingled with U.S. and allied defense officials. Representatives of Ukraine also attended the two-day event, dubbed LandEuro, which was expected to examine lessons learned from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. Shon Manasco, senior counselor at software producer Palantir Technologies and former acting undersecretary of the Air Force, said that when it comes to strengthening NATOs arsenal, allies should consider that simple sometimes beats fancy. Russians are producing munitions so fast that we cant even count them, Manasco said during a panel discussion. So sometimes for me it feels like were driving a Ferrari into a demolition derby. Pretty weapons dont win wars, he added. Lots of ugly ones do. The meeting comes during a time of high tension in Europe, where allies have been busy rebuilding their militaries over the past several years to deal with the threat posed by Russia. Donahue and others speaking during the gathering talked up the need for a global approach to countering hostile adversaries. The notion of global deterrence is being hotly debated in defense circles, with talk of what U.S. military priorities are and whether focusing more on countering China in the Pacific should come at the cost of the American military mission in Europe. John Nagl, a U.S. Army War College professor speaking at the event in Wiesbaden, said there are linkages between deterring China in the Pacific and Russia in Europe. This is in fact the most important land theater in the world, Nagl said of Europe. It has been for centuries. It will, I believe, continue to be. Administration officials such as Elbridge Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, have been vocal about the need to rebalance more forces to the Pacific. That could eventually have implications for the U.S. force posture in Europe. Nagl said that China is a challenge right now and not a threat. It doesnt have to turn into a threat if we do the right things against our acute threats, which right now are Iran and Russia, he added. Donahue said the concept of global deterrence also applies to how weapons are made. How do you build (weapons) to a standard that you can actually fight with it throughout an alliance? Donahue said. But just as important, because this is global, how do you use it in the Middle East? How do you use it in the Pacific? For NATO, a new agreement that calls for member countries to spend 5% of gross domestic product on defense in the years ahead could serve as a windfall that will give industry a jolt. Alan Meltzer, the top U.S. diplomat in Germany, said American and European partners will need to coordinate to ensure that funds are put to effective use. We must begin by reforming procurement laws and cutting red tape at the EU level, said Meltzer, the charge daffaires at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. And of course in Germany, that will enable both U.S. and European defense companies to access the German market. Stars and Stripes Phillip Walter Wellman contributed to this report. A Ukrainian soldier walks past damaged buildings in central Pokrovsk, the site of the heaviest battles with the Russian troops in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, April 23, 2025. (Michael Shtekel/AP) President Donald Trumps ultimatum to Russia to accept a peace deal in Ukraine within 50 days or face bruising sanctions on its energy exports has given the Kremlin extra time to pursue its summer offensive. The dogged Ukrainian resistance, however, makes it unlikely that the Russian military will make any quick gains. President Vladimir Putin has declared repeatedly that any peace deal should see Ukraine withdraw from the four regions that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully captured. He also wants Ukraine to renounce its bid to join NATO and accept strict limits on its armed forces - demands Kyiv and its Western allies have rejected. A chronic shortage of manpower and ammunition has forced Ukrainian forces to focus on holding ground rather than launching counteroffensives. But despite a renewed Russian push and an onslaught of aerial attacks on Kyiv and other cities in recent weeks Ukrainian officials and analysts say it remains unlikely that Moscow can achieve any territorial breakthrough significant enough in 50 days to force Ukraine into accepting the Kremlins terms anytime soon. Russias main targets Since spring, Russian troops have accelerated their land gains, capturing the most territory in eastern Ukraine since the opening stages of Moscows full-scale invasion in 2022. Russian forces are closing in on the eastern strongholds of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in the Donetsk region, methodically capturing villages near both cities to try to cut key supply routes and envelop their defenders a slow offensive that has unfolded for months. Capturing those strongholds would allow Russia to push toward Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, setting the stage for the seizure of the entire Donetsk region. If Russian troops seize those last strongholds, it would open the way for them to forge westward to the Dnipropetrovsk region. The regional capital of Dnipro, a major industrial hub of nearly 1 million, is about over 90 miles west of Russian positions. The spread of fighting to Dnipropetrovsk could damage Ukrainian morale and give the Kremlin more leverage in any negotiations. In the neighboring Luhansk region, Ukrainian troops control a small sliver of land, but Moscow has not seemed to prioritize its capture. The other two Moscow-annexed regions Kherson and Zaporizhzhia seem far from being totally overtaken by Russia. Early in the war, Russia quickly overran the Kherson region but pulled back from large swaths of it in November 2022, retreating to the eastern bank of the Dnieper River. A new attempt to cross the waterway to seize the rest of the region would involve massive challenges, and Moscow doesnt seem to have the capability to mount such an operation. Fully capturing the Zaporizhzhia region appears equally challenging. Russian attempts to establish a buffer zone Moscows forces captured several villages in northeastern Ukraines Sumy region after reclaiming chunks of Russias Kursk region from Ukrainian troops who staged a surprise incursion in August 2024. Ukraine says its forces have stopped Russias offensive and maintain a presence on the fringe of the Kursk region, where they are still tying down as many as 10,000 Russian troops. Putin recently described the offensive into the Sumy region as part of efforts to carve a buffer zone to protect Russian territory from Ukrainian attacks. The regional capital of Sumy, a city of 268,000, is about less than 20 miles from the border. Putin said Moscow doesnt plan to capture the city for now but doesnt exclude it. Military analysts, however, say Russian forces in the area clearly lack the strength to capture it. Russian forces also have pushed an offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region, but they havent made much progress against fierce Ukrainian resistance. Some commentators say Russia may hope to use its gains in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions as bargaining chips in negotiations, trading them for parts of the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control. A scenario of territorial swaps as part of the talks is quite realistic, said Mikhail Karyagin, a Kremlin-friendly political expert, in a commentary, Wearing down Ukraine with slow pressure Ukrainian commanders say the scale and pace of Russian operations suggest that any game-changing gains are out of reach, with Moscows troops advancing slowly at a tremendous cost to its own forces. While exhausted Ukrainian forces are feeling outnumbered and outgunned, they are relying on drones to stymie Moscows slow offensive. Significant movements of troops and weapons are easily spotted by drones that are so prolific that both sides use them to track and attack even individual soldiers within minutes. Russian military commentators recognize that Ukraines drone proficiency makes any quick gains by Moscow unlikely. They say Russia aims to bleed Ukraine dry with a strategy of a thousand cuts, using relentless pressure on many sectors of the front and steadily increasing long-range aerial attacks against key infrastructure. The Russian army aims to exhaust the enemy to such an extent that it will not be able to hold the defense, and make multiple advances merge into one or several successes on a strategic scale that will determine the outcome of the war, Moscow-based military analyst Sergei Poletayev wrote in an analysis. Its not that important where and at what speed to advance: the target is not the capture of this or that line; the target is the enemy army as such. Western supplies are essential for Ukraine Ukrainian troops on the front express exasperation and anger about delays and uncertainty about U.S. weapons shipments. Delays in U.S. military assistance have forced Kyivs troops to ration ammunition and scale back operations as Russia intensifies its attacks, Ukrainian soldiers in eastern Ukraine told The Associated Press. The United States will sell weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine, according to Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Included are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine. Speeded-up weapons shipments from European allies are crucial to allowing Ukraine to stem the Russian attacks, according to analysts. The rate of Russian advance is accelerating, and Russias summer offensive is likely to put the armed forces of Ukraine under intense pressure, Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute in London said in a commentary. But most of the capabilities that Ukraine needs from drones to artillery systems can be provided by NATO allies in Europe, he said. In the short-term, Europe can cover most of Ukraines needs so long as it can purchase some critical weapons types from the U.S., Watling said. The United Nations flag flies outside the U.N. General Assembly. (Ted Shaffrey/AP) UNITED NATIONS The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough U.N. sanctions on Iran by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats said Tuesday. The three countries ambassadors to the United Nations met Tuesday at Germanys U.N. Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and reimposing the sanctions. The matter also came up in a phone call Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries, according to two U.S. officials. The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon. The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The U.K., France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. during his first term, insisting it wasnt tough enough. Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program, a so-called snapback provision allows one of the Western parties to reimpose U.N. sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that the three European countries would be justified in reapplying sanctions. Without a firm, tangible, and verifiable commitment from Iran, we will do so by the end of August at the latest, Barrot said, according to Reuters. One of the diplomats confirmed his comments to the Associated Press. The diplomats did not provide details of the deal being sought. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in recent days that Tehran would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the U.S. if there were assurances of no more attacks, following Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities. He said there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated, stressing that the attack on Irans nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution. The United States and Iran held several rounds of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program before the Israeli strikes began in June. Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week that talks would happen soon, but nothing has yet been scheduled. Araghchi, whose country insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, said in a July 2 CBS interview that the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. Irans U.N. Mission had no comment Tuesday on the threat of renewed sanctions if there is no deal. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that the U.S. airstrikes so badly damaged his countrys nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. This frame grab from a video shows an oil field in the Zakho district of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, Wednesday, July 16, 2025, following a drone strike. (Rudaw TV via AP) BAGHDAD Drones targeted oil fields in Iraqs semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks in recent days that have put several oil facilities out of commission. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have exacerbated tensions between the central government in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities. The Kurdish regions anti-terrorism department said two drones attacked an oil field in the district of Zakho, causing damage but no injuries. DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company operating the field, said its operations were temporarily suspended following three explosions involving a small storage tank at Tawke and surface processing equipment at Peshkabir. It said there were no injuries, and a damage assessment was underway. Hours later, the anti-terrorism department said the Baadre oil field, located in the Sheikhan district of Dohuk province, was targeted by a drone strike. There were no injuries. Videos showed a plume of smoke rising over barren hills. The attacks came a day after another oil field in Dohuk province operated by a U.S. company was set ablaze, also after being struck by a drone. The Kurdish regions Ministry of Natural Resources said the attacks were meant to disrupt the economy of the Kurdistan region and threaten the safety of civilian employees of the energy sector, and called for federal authorities to intervene to stop them. Iraqi oil industry expert Hamza al-Jawahiri said the targeting of oil fields in the Kurdish region would not affect global oil prices and that oil production in southern Iraq is sufficient to compensate for any resulting shortage. The fields in northern Iraq produce around 500,000 barrels per day. Al-Jawahiri said the primary losers would be the companies operating the fields, which are working under partnership contracts. Earlier this month, the Kurdish regional government accused the Popular Mobilization Forces a coalition of Iran-allied militias that are officially under the control of the Iraqi military of carrying out drone attacks. The Iraqi army said the accusation was issued in the absence of evidence and said it could provide hostile parties with justifications to undermine Iraqs stability. Iran-backed armed groups have periodically attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. During last months Israel-Iran war, some of them threatened to target U.S. interests and bases in the region if Washington got involved. (AP) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Fighters allied to Yemens exiled government claimed Wednesday they had seized 750 tons of Iranian-supplied missiles and weaponry bound for the countrys Houthi rebels, the latest interdiction of arms in the countrys decadelong war allegedly tied to Tehran. For years, the U.S. Navy and other Western naval forces have seized Iranian arms being sent to the Houthis, who have held Yemens capital since 2014 and have been attacking ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war. The seizure announced Wednesday, however, marked the first major interdiction conducted by the National Resistance Force, a group of fighters allied to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemens late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis and Iran did not acknowledge the seizure, which the National Resistance Force said happened in late June. A short video package released by the force appeared to show anti-ship missiles, the same kinds used in the Houthis recent attacks that sank two ships in the Red Sea, killing at least four people as others remain missing. The footage also appeared to show Iranian-made Type 358 anti-aircraft missiles. The Houthis claim they downed 26 U.S. MQ-9 drones over the past decade of the Yemen war, likely with those kinds of missiles. The majority of those losses having been acknowledged by the U.S. military. The footage also appeared to show drone components, warheads and other weapons. The force said it later would release a detailed statement, though it had not appeared hours after the announcement. The U.S. militarys Central Command praised the seizure in a post on the social platform X, saying that the Yemeni force told it there were manuals in Farsi and many of the systems were manufactured by a company affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense that is sanctioned by the United States. The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilizing actor in the region, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOMs commander, was quoted as saying. Limiting the free flow of Iranian support to the Houthis is critic to regional security, stability and freedom of navigation. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo. The Houthis seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemens exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has pushed the Arab worlds poorest nation to the brink of famine. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (Associated Press) DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Fighters allied to Yemens exiled government claimed Wednesday they had seized 750 tons of Iranian-supplied missiles and weaponry bound for the countrys Houthi rebels, the latest interdiction of arms in the countrys decadelong war allegedly tied to Tehran. For years, the U.S. Navy and other Western naval forces have seized Iranian arms being sent to the Houthis, who have held Yemens capital since 2014 and have been attacking ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war. The seizure announced Wednesday, however, marked the first major interdiction conducted by the National Resistance Force, a group of fighters allied to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemens late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. The Houthis and Iran did not immediately acknowledge the seizure, which the National Resistance Force said happened in late June. A short video package released by the force appeared to show anti-ship missiles, the same kinds used in the Houthis recent attacks that sank two ships in the Red Sea, killing at least four people as others remain missing. The footage also appeared to show Iranian-made Type 358 anti-aircraft missiles. The Houthis claim they downed 26 U.S. MQ-9 drones over the past decade of the Yemen war, likely with those missiles. The majority of those losses having been acknowledged by the U.S. military. The footage also appeared to show drone components, warheads and other weapons. The force said it would release a detailed statement in the coming hours. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo. The Houthis seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemens exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has pushed the Arab worlds poorest nation to the brink of famine. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. The Department of Defense Education Activity's seal of biliteracy is taking effect in the upcoming school year to provide academic recognition of students' proficiency in English as well as any of a number of foreign languages. (DODEA) Defense Department schools will introduce a new biliteracy certification in the upcoming academic year, with the aim of encouraging youngsters to show their skills in languages critical to the military and national security. Students who meet the Department of Defense Education Activitys criteria for biliteracy will have a seal stamped on their diploma and the designation included in high school transcripts in recognition of the dual language proficiency, DODEA spokeswoman Jessica Tackaberry said Tuesday. The designation reflects a students proficiency in end-of-the-year testing and Advanced Placement exams for English and a second language, including Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Turkish and American Sign Language. DODEA tests skills in those languages in learning levels I, II, III and IV at the end of each school year, Tackaberry said. Students may take Advanced Placement classes in all but Korean, Turkish and ASL. In addition, a Spanish for Heritage Speakers initiative is offered at DODEA middle and high schools in Puerto Rico, Tackaberry said. Students interested in earning the seal can talk to their school counselors about qualification requirements. For the English half of the biliteracy recognition, proficiency means a 600 or higher on the SAT, a 3 or above on an AP English language or literature exam or successful completion of an English for Speakers of Other Languages program. There is no passing score for foreign languages at DODEA schools, so students must show proficiency by achieving at least an intermediate mid level, or 5 out of 9, on the STAMP 4S assessment. They can also qualify for the biliteracy seal by scoring a 3 or higher out of 5 on a world language AP exam. This initiative celebrates bilingualism and prepares military-connected students for success in college and global careers, DODEA said in a statement last week. It also fulfills DODs goal of developing potential future warriors proficiency in languages that have been identified as critical to its mission, according to the statement. The U.S. government has a slate of languages deemed critical to national security interests, economic prosperity and engagement with the world, according to the State Department website. There are a dozen listed in its Critical Language Scholarship program, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Russian and Portuguese. About 8% of this years DODEA graduating class of 2,795 students worldwide planned to enlist in the military, a DODEA statement July 2 said. In addition to the 223 graduates in that category, 121 received military academy appointments or ROTC scholarships. DODEA enrolls over 67,000 students at its 161 schools in 11 locations abroad, seven U.S. states, Guam and Puerto Rico, according to the agencys website. Having a strong dual language grasp leads to higher reading proficiency and academic achievement, studies show. DODEA officials hope the designation will be recognized by college admissions offices and lead to improved job access for students after graduation. The seal of biliteracy represents our deep commitment to preparing military-connected students for success in an interconnected world, agency director Beth Narvaez in the statement. She called it a symbol of academic excellence that celebrates the global experiences of the DODEA student body. The House Armed Services Committee on July 15, 2025, advanced a $848 billion defense policy bill by a vote of 55-2. The measure now moves to the full House for a vote. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes ) WASHINGTON The House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday night advanced a defense policy bill authorizing a 3.8% pay raise for service members, a boost in funding for Ukraines military and a prohibition on restoring Confederate names to military bases. The panel voted 55-2 to send the measure to the full House after hours of debate on more than 700 amendments. The vote followed the Senate Armed Services Committees approval last week of its version of the legislation. The two committees are proposing different overall amounts for Pentagon spending, with House lawmakers endorsing the Trump administrations request of $848 billion and senators calling for an additional $32 billion. The House and Senate will have to reconcile their differences to pass the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual bill outlining policies and priorities for defense programs. A Senate effort to add $25 billion to defense spending last year was ultimately scrapped from the final bill. To fund the House committees policy legislation, lawmakers will need to pass an accompanying appropriations bill. The House is expected to vote on its version of that measure on Wednesday. The policy legislation is heavily focused on reforming the Pentagons slow acquisition process for buying and fielding new weapons and continuing a slew of quality-of-life improvements begun under last years defense policy bill. Service members would see a 3.8% pay bump as well as an increase to the family separation allowance to $400 per month. The allowance, which helps offset added expenses incurred when a service members family cannot live near their duty station, is now $250 per month. The legislation also excludes the basic housing allowance from the calculation of service members household incomes so more troops and military families could become eligible for the basic needs allowance, said Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa. These and several other provisions should very much positively impact service members pocketbooks and their ability to put food on the table as well, she said. Several provisions seek to improve access to affordable child care, including an extension through 2029 of a pilot program that helps military families cover the cost of full-time child care provided in their homes. The bill also builds on a banner year for recruiting by expanding recruiter access to secondary schools and institutions of higher learning and extending special pay authorities to attract talent, particularly for the growing Space Force. Other provisions establish a mental health program for cyber personnel and waive fees and co-pays for Tricares dental program for reserve forces, who typically only receive military-issued medical and dental coverage while on active-duty orders for 30 days or more. The legislation veers away from the Trump administrations plans for the Pentagon in several policy areas. It prohibits the reduction of U.S. troops in Europe below 76,000 unless the defense secretary and commander of U.S. European Command send Congress assessments certifying NATO allies had been consulted on such a move and it is in the national interest. Lawmakers in both parties criticized reports earlier this year that the Trump administration was considering withdrawing as many as half of the 20,000 troops who had been surged to Europe in the aftermath of Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The House committees legislation also authorizes $400 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to arm and train Ukrainian troops and funds the program in 2026 and 2027. Lawmakers initially proposed $300 million for the program but overwhelmingly agreed Tuesday to add $100 million. We have supported it at the level of $300 million before, said Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the committee who introduced the amendment for additional funds. I think the urgency commands that we step up that commitment. The committee in a voice vote rejected an amendment from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., to cut the funding to zero. A senior defense official declined to tell reporters last month why the Pentagon requested no money for the longstanding Ukraine assistance program but said officials had reviewed foreign assistance initiatives to determine which ones were no longer aligned with this administration. House lawmakers included a caveat in their bill requiring the president to send Congress a determination that the Ukraine funding is in the national interest before it can be spent. The legislation also authorizes $1 billion for the Taiwan Security Assistance Initiative to bolster the countrys defense capabilities and deter China, which has laid claim to the island nation. Multiple amendments from Democrats taking aim at recent controversies that have embroiled the Trump administration and leaders of the Defense Department were shot down on Tuesday. The committee voted down an amendment that would have blocked funding for the conversion of a gifted Qatari jet into Air Force One and narrowly defeated a bipartisan measure that would have condemned the use of an unsecured messaging platform to share sensitive information. An amendment that would require the defense secretary to give Congress a rationale for firing a general or flag officer was rejected in a 29-28 vote. Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force brigadier general who is not running for reelection, voted for it alongside Democrats. Republican Rep. Derek Schmidt of Kansas also sided with Democrats to narrowly approve an amendment blocking the Pentagon from contravening or reversing the recommendations of a commission created to remove Confederate names from military installations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has renamed multiple Army bases in recent months using soldiers who have the same last names as the Confederate generals for whom the bases once honored. Hegseth defended the renamings to senators last month as important for the morale of the Army. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- In an era that increasingly values diverse life choices -- whether embracing romance, exploring virtual love, or opting out altogether -- one question still resonates with many, especially the young: How do we love and be loved in return? At Wuhan University of Technology (WUT), in central China's Hubei Province, that very question lingers in the minds of over a hundred students enrolled in one of the university's most popular electives: Psychology of Love. But this is no dating bootcamp. It's a form of emotional education, urgently needed as many young people feel ill-equipped to manage the emotional complexities of modern connection, particularly in a time of increasing academic, economic, and psychological pressure. For sophomore Zou Tao, who is navigating a long-distance relationship with his high school sweetheart, the class has offered something missing from his years of academic training: lessons on how to understand emotions and effective communication. "My girlfriend sometimes gets upset at the worst moments," Zou said. "I knew something was wrong, but I didn't know why, or how to respond. This course helps." Zou is part of a growing wave of young Chinese searching for more than just an answer to whether to love. They are asking how to build, understand, and sustain intimate relationships. Based on a nationwide survey of 32,282 college students, researchers at the Beijing-based Capital University of Economics and Business found that while 53.86 percent had been in a romantic relationship, only 26.5 percent were currently involved. Notably, about 25 percent had neither dating experience nor interest in pursuing one. "Many students are emotionally curious but deeply confused. They crave closeness yet fear vulnerability," noted Zhang Xiaowen, who teaches Psychology of Love at WUT and draws on her dual roles as a psychology professor and long-time student counselor. Despite its title, Zhang's course focuses on fostering emotionally intelligent, healthy relationships -- romantic or otherwise -- through case studies and open in-class discussion. Students are encouraged to share their experiences and struggles in class and build friendships across genders, gaining new perspectives to move beyond self-centeredness. "Of course, we are not here for dating tips from a textbook," said Zou. He credits the course's interactive format with helping him clarify his thoughts, reduce relationship anxiety, and gradually find his emotional compass. Since its launch in 2012, Zhang's course has drawn overwhelming interest. Although capped at 130 students, over 1,500 attempt to enroll each semester, with some even sitting on the floor or standing in the back to attend. Across Chinese campuses, romance-themed electives are becoming unexpected hits. At Zhejiang Gongshang University, more than 1,600 students competed for 70 slots in a similar love psychology course. At Wuhan University, over 1,000 students signed up for a Positive Psychology course that only had 200 spaces. But not all such courses receive praise. At a Shanghai university, one love-related elective sparked backlash over what students perceived as outdated or gender-biased content. "The last thing we want is to be preached at," said a master's student surnamed Wen. "We need tools to handle real-life emotional challenges, not romantic doctrine." This sentiment underscores the importance of well-constructed, empathetic courses like WUT's Psychology of Love. Now listed as a national-level premium psychology course on China's massive open online course (MOOC) platform, it has reached well beyond the classroom, attracting over a million cumulative enrollments online. The popularity of love education runs alongside real societal concerns. Between 2013 and 2022, China's marriage registrations declined for nine consecutive years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. After a brief rebound in 2023, the number dropped again in 2024. A 2025 survey by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) found that among 55,781 college students and 7,366 adults, those aged 18 to 24 showed lower levels of desire for romantic relationships, marriage, or parenthood. Cao Aihua, a sociology professor at Nankai University, noted that while many young people aren't opposed to love or marriage, they tend to prioritize academic and career development. "They're pragmatic," she said, "and place greater value on personal feelings and fulfillment." Zhang from WUT noted a critical shortfall in China's education system: "We teach academic knowledge and professional skills, but we don't teach students how to be alone without feeling lonely, how to express emotions, or how to communicate in a relationship or family." Chen Zhiyan, professor at the CAS Institute of Psychology, echoed that view. She suggests that topics related to marriage and family should be integrated into subjects like ethics, psychology, Chinese, and English throughout the entire education process, since "all texts carry values and ideas." But experts caution that classroom instruction alone isn't enough. "The development of attitudes toward love and marriage is a complex, multifaceted process shaped by various influences," said Zhang Jiangxing, director of the psychology center at Jinan University in Guangdong Province. Compared to family upbringing and societal factors, classroom education can play an important but limited supporting role, he argued. Still, even modest classroom interventions can make a difference. Student feedback suggests the message is getting through. One married learner taking the course of Psychology of Love on the MOOC platform wrote: "I have been married for years, but this class made me realize how little I understood marriage. I have started listening more and arguing less." Another posted, "Love is beautiful. But the most important thing is learning how to love yourself." For WUT student Zou, that insight rings true. He's still learning how to navigate the emotional landscape of young adulthood -- but now with greater awareness. "Dating is about finding someone you like and becoming a better version of yourself in the process," he said. And marriage? Zou smiled. "That's for the future. First, let's learn how to love." The Louisiana National Guard on Monday, July 14, 2025, reverted the name of its training center to Camp Beauregard to honor a state militia veteran from the War of 1812 who is the father of the Confederate general who was the original namesake. (Louisiana National Guard ) The Louisiana National Guard has returned the name Camp Beauregard to its military training center in Pineville, honoring a state militia veteran from the War of 1812 instead of the Confederate general namesake it boasted for more than a century, state officials have announced. The Guard base owned by the state will now bear the name of Capt. Jacques Toutant Beauregard, who fought in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, the last major fight of the conflict between American and British troops. The new namesake also happens to be the father of Confederate Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, whose moniker was stripped from the post in 2023 when it became the Louisiana National Guard Training Center Pineville as the state followed the federal governments lead in removing Confederate ties from military installations. The new move also follows the federal government, as President Donald Trumps administration this year has reverted all nine Army installations renamed in 2023 to their original names but in honor of veterans who did not serve the Confederacy. In a social media statement posted Monday alongside a photo of a gravestone bearing the word Wokeism, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced the move. In Louisiana, we honor courage, not cancel it, wrote Landry, a Republican who took office last year. Let this be a lesson that we should always give reverence to history and not be quick to so easily condemn or erase the dead, lest we and our times be judged arbitrary by future generations. Trump has long railed against the efforts to remove Confederate names from the military, which began during his first term in the White House. Under his direction, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth restored the name Fort Bragg to the Armys largest installation in March after the North Carolina post held the name Fort Liberty for less than two years. The base now honors a World War II soldier with the name Bragg. Hegseth in the following months ordered all the renamed posts reverted to their old names after identifying new veterans with the same names. Camp Beauregards new namesake served in the Third Regiment of the Louisiana militia, the precursor to the states National Guard, and led his troops as they formed the vanguard of the fight against British soldiers in New Orleans from the opening skirmishes on Dec. 23, 1814, through the battles main engagement on Jan. 8, 1815. The battle, which was fought after a treaty to end the conflict was already signed, saw the Americans route British forces, according to historians. The British took nearly 2,000 casualties, and the Americans lost less than a dozen troops, according to statistics from the American Battlefield Trust. A statement from the Louisiana National Guard does not mention the camps new namesake is the father of the old namesake. Jacques Toutant Beauregard was the owner of his familys long-held Contreras Plantation, a sugar cane farm outside New Orleans worked by slaves under his leadership, according to historians. The states Guard said the move honors a prominent Louisianan and military figure. Were naming our premier training installation after an American hero and patriot who fought for the freedom of the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the United States of America against a foreign invader, said Army Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, the Louisiana National Guards top general. Camp Beauregard was first established in 1917 just outside Pineville in central Louisiana to train infantry forces gearing up to deploy during World War I. It was purchased by the state in 1920 to support National Guard training but was federalized in 1940 to train forces preparing for World War II. It has remained a prominent training facility for the Louisiana Guard since the 1970s, according to state officials. It spans 12,500 acres and includes various firing ranges, vehicle training simulators, an urban assault course and counter improvised explosive device lanes. By restoring the name Camp Beauregard, we honor a legacy of courage and service that dates back over two centuries, Landry said in a second statement. Capt. Jacques Toutant Beauregard stood at the front lines in defense of New Orleans during one of our nations most defining battles. His patriotism and leadership continue to inspire generations of Louisiana Guardsmen who stand ready to defend our state and nation at a moments notice. Kristina Keenan, director of the national legislative service for the Veterans of Foreign Wars, testifies Tuesday, July 15, 2025, during a meeting of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. (Eric Kayne/Stars and Stripes) WASHINGTON Professional caregivers and veterans groups argued over the merits of private medical care versus care at the Department of Veterans Affairs during an emotional House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing that examined how demand for community-based health services is shifting billions of dollars from the VA. Representatives from some nonprofit groups on Tuesday presented instances of the VA denying referrals for private-sector care to qualifying veterans as evidence the federal agency is trying to curtail the use of private medical treatment. The oversight hearing was titled Right time, right place, right treatment with VA community care, but lawmakers, veterans advocates and nonprofit health care providers had sharp disagreements over the role of private-sector care in veterans health coverage. Mandatory spending by the VA for community-based private care for veterans was $6.74 billion in fiscal 2024 and is budgeted for $9.77 billion in fiscal 2025 as more veterans seek health care close to home, according to lawmakers. Private-sector care represents up to 40% of health care for veterans, according to the VA. Amanda Newman, chief executive officer of Western Illinois Home Care, said her home-health agency is seeing a growing number of elderly patients denied referrals from the VA for home health services and redirected to a VA clinic or hospital. Newman described the case of 79-year-old client with diabetes who now must drive more than 50 miles each way to a VA clinic for twice weekly medical appointments after being turned down for home health care. She said some of the patients her home-health agency serves are being denied coverage after receiving it for several years. But Kyleanne Hunter, chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, warned lawmakers that large spending increases on non-VA health care could lead to cutbacks and a downward spiral of care at the VA. Evidence indicates that community care often incurs higher costs due to limited VA oversight and varied local market rates, she said. Reports highlight that this dramatic increase in community care expenses threatens direct care funding for the VA health system. Hunter said her organization is concerned private, non-VA doctors cannot meet all of the complex medical needs of many post-9/11 veterans. VA Secretary Doug Collins said earlier this month that the agency will be shedding 30,000 full-time positions by Sept. 30, though he pledged no front-line jobs will be cut. The VA is the second-largest federal agency after the Defense Department. Army combat veteran Meaghan Mobbs suggested mismanagement at the VA has contributed to wait lists, distance barriers, specialty gaps and overwhelmed facilities. This is not a funding problem, its a function problem, said Mobbs, director of the Independent Womens Forums Center for American Safety and Security, a non-for-profit organization. When a VA system goes two years without a full-time gynecologist, as was documented in a 2020 inspector general report, thats not a scheduling issue. Its a failure of access and management, she said. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., said she struggles with having to consider funding veterans health services as a binary choice between care in the community and at the VA. I know nobody here is advocating necessarily for one versus the other, but I think that is how it feels in this committee at times, she said. This is a fixed pie. When we take money out of the VA direct care services and get it out to the community, it is a loss from being able to build up the VA care to the quality that we know. Dexter, a pulmonary and critical care physician, said lawmakers need to see more data on outcomes for the delivery of various health care treatments to better understand what works best. Newman warned community care should not be seen as a replacement of VA health services but as an extension of it. For many veterans, especially those living in rural or remote areas, private health care is a vital lifeline, she said. Veterans who are elderly and infirmed often face long travel times or limited specialty services at their local VA facilities making nursing care and other health assistance in the home a necessary option, Newman said. A veteran should not wait for treatment when community providers are already available to meet a need, said Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, a former Army doctor and the chairwoman of the House VA Committees subpanel on health. To best serve veterans, VA should pursue whatever gets quality care to veterans when they need it. Miller-Meeks also pointed to a national shortage of doctors and nurses that is projected to grow as affecting hiring at the VA and in the private sector. Hunter acknowledged some highly specialized types of medical care might not be cost-efficient for the VA to retain, such as oral and maxillofacial plastic surgery, ocular oncology and vascular surgery. Passage of the Mission Act in 2018 enabled eligible veterans to receive coverage for their health care services from doctors in private practice within their communities, Miller-Meeks said. Congress closed a gap that was crippling health-care delivery by the VA when it passed the Mission Act, she said. Funds previously allocated solely to VA facilities could now be used to pay for care provided by private medical facilities. Veterans are no longer stuck in line waiting months for a doctors appointment, especially for care from some specialists not immediately available from the VA. By virtue of being in the community, [doctors in private practice] are closer to veterans and their homes than a brick-and-mortar VA facility, Miller-Meeks said. But some Democratic lawmakers said VA cutbacks are causing veterans to look to the private sector for their care. VA has become a toxic, unpredictable, hostile place to work, said Rep. Julia Brownley of California, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. Brownley said while the VA secretary has said there will be no loss of essential workers, there is turnover among custodians and food service workers as well as doctors and nurses. She asked Hunter of the IAVA about why she believes VA doctors are uniquely positioned to care for post-911 veterans with complex medical needs. VA doctors have extensive training in diagnosing and treating veterans whove been exposed to toxins and injured in combat from blast injuries, Hunter said, referring to trauma veterans can suffer from direct or indirect exposure to explosions. This is a diverse population with unique health care needs, which includes illnesses and injuries that are a result of cumulative and compound exposures, latent impacts of blast-related injuries and the interaction of several physical and mental health care issues, she said. Community care is a vital part of overall veterans health care. But especially as we consider rising costs, we need to be clear that the evidence does not bear out that community care is a meaningful replacement for all direct VA care. The Ballymac Friendship Centre in east Belfast has been at the centre of allegations of fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds since March this year The Ballymac Friendship Centre in east Belfast has been at the centre of allegations of fraud, embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds since March this year. The Charity Commission and PSNI were actively investigating the claims which surrounded 80,000 in public funding. As recently as last week the Commission told the Sunday World they were continuing to monitor the situation. A Sunday World investigation first uncovered claims over the alleged misuse of taxpayers money five months ago. Stormonts Executive Office this week told us the police investigation had concluded. The Ballymac Friendship Centre PSNI has confirmed it will take no further action in respect of the Ballymac Friendship Centre case, said a spokesperson. In a follow-up statement the Executive confirmed their own investigation had yet to be concluded. We await a report from the Fraud Investigation Service before deciding on a course of action, it said. The Sunday World has spoken to a number of sources, including those close to the Executive Office, who have indicated that there are suspicions of suspected fraud around 4,500 of the overall public funding for the centre. It is now clear that is the proportion of Executive Office money granted to Ballymac. The remainder was secured from other Stormont departments including the Department for Communities. It is now understood the Executive Office investigation is restricted only to the portion of funding they were directly responsible for, and is the only amount investigated by PSNI. But despite suspicions, the PSNI is taking no further action. Sources have told the Sunday World that significant questions remain over the rest of the funding. The Ballymac Friendship Centre has been battleground for the influence of rival UVF factions. Loyalist William McCaughey was a director and has been cited as a divisive at the centre on Fraser Park, close to Pitt Park in the east of the city. He has since been sidelined but the UVF connections at the centre have remained in place. Last week the Sunday World published pictures of newly appointed director Andy Rambo Herron laying a wreath on behalf of the terror group during a loyalist parade in the east on June 27. Our sources have claimed there remains serious concerns about the centres finances. There are plans for the reconstituted board of directors to apply for fresh public funding and rebrand the centre as the David Ervine Hub, after the late PUP leader and peace process architect. William McCaughey The new funding application will see the establishment of a loyalist museum at the Pitt Park premises which critics have described as a shrine to the UVF. There is also the question of the premises themselves, which are valued in the region of 350,000. Ballymac Friendship Centre has become the focus of a series of questions tabled to the Executive Office my MLAs since the Sunday World revelations. In May Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw tabled a number of written questions seeking assurances about the allocation of public money raising concerns about the Ballymac money. In response, the Executive Office told her that any group found to be in breach of the terms of their letter of offer can have funding withdrawn. The SDLPs leader at Stormont Matthew OToole tabled a further question to ask the First and Deputy First Minster to set out how much funding has been provided by the Executive Office to the Ballymac Centre in each of the last five years. It is entirely reasonable to ask how public money is being spent and to ensure it is going to the right place, he said. When contacted, McCaughey confirmed Ballymac was under investigation but insisted he initiated the inquiry. He is not named among the newly appointed directors. Newly appointed director Andy Rambo Herron Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Mr Gilligan denies the charge of assault causing harm of the boy. A jury was told today that former All-Star and Clare All-Ireland winning hurler, Niall Gilligan whacked a 12 year old boy on the leg with a stick during an an alleged assault in October 2023. At Ennis Circuit Court today, counsel for the State, Sarah Jane Comerford (BL) laid out the State case against Mr Gilligan (48) of Rossroe, Kilmurry, Sixmilebridge in her opening speech to the jury. Mr Gilligan denies the charge of assault causing harm of the boy. Ms Comerford said that on October 5th 2023, a then 12 year old and his then 13 year old friend went into the Jamaica Inn hostel in Sixmilebridge. Ms Comerford said that the two believed that the property was abandoned. She said: They were exploring the building when the accused, Niall Gilligan, who owned the property at the time, arrived to check on it." Ms Comerford said that the jury will hear that the property was vandalised and broken into in the days leading up to October 5th. Ms Comerford said that the jury will be told that the two boys were outside the property when they saw Niall Gilligan. Ms Comerford said that when they saw Mr Gilligan, the two boys ran and the 12 year old will tell the jury that he slipped in a puddle and the accused came up behind him and whacked him on the leg with a stick and the accused kept hitting him in the leg, his ribs, his hip, his elbow and his hand. Ms Comerford said that the jury will hear medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the boy and see photos of bruising and cuts that the 12 year old will tell them were caused by Niall Gilligan hitting him with a wooden stick. Ms Comerford said that the boy will tell the jury after the alleged assault Niall Gilligan grabbed him by the jacket and brought him out to the road and asked him his name and who his father was. Ms Comerford said the the boy will tell the jury that he sat on a wall for a while because he has asthma and could barely breathe. There he met his 13 year old friend again and that boy will say that he saw Niall Gilligan outside the Jamaica Inn and he ran at the same time as his friend and managed to get away Ms Comerford said that the 13 year old will say that he heard screaming from his friend and he waited in an industrial estate beside the property and while he was relatively safe there, he was still very scared. Ms Comerford said that a few minutes later, the 13-year old met up with his 12 year old friend and let him lean on him while his friend tried to walk home Ms Comerford said that the 12 year old told him to leave in case he was caught by the accused. Ms Comerford said that the 12 year old made his way to the local GAA club and was given a lift home by a lady there who will give evidence in the case. Ms Comerford (instructed by State Solicitor for Clare, Aisling Casey) said that once home the boy was brought to a local VHI clinic and was then brought to University Hospital Limerick where he was treated for his injuries and where Gardai where called. Ms Comerford said that Niall Gilligan was subsequently arrested by Gardai and gave an account of what he said happened on October 5th and his interactions with the 12 year old boy at the Jamaica Inn hostel which he told Gardai were in self defence and you will hear that in due course. Ms Comerford said that Niall Gilligan denies assaulting the boy with a wooden stick and he has pleaded not guilty to the charge of assault causing harm. Mr Gilligan is also pleading not guilty to producing a wooden stick capable of inflicting serious injury during the course of a dispute contrary to Section 11 of the Firearms and Offensive Weapons Act at the Jamaica Inn at Sixmilebridge on October 5th 2023. The trial continues before a jury of seven men and five women. While two of the suspects were arrested within hours of the incident on June 7, a third has fled back to Romania A Ballymena schoolgirl was walking along a street in the town when she was allegedly dragged into a garage, then raped and sexually assaulted by three males, a court heard today. Ballymena Youth Court was also told that while two of the suspects were arrested within hours of the incident on June 7, a third has fled back to Romania. Details emerged in court for the first time as a 14-year-old Romanian boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, applied for bail. The teenager, and another 14-year-old, are on remand in custody charged with attempted rape. It was hours after their first appearance in court on June 9 that rioting erupted in Ballymena. Racist rioting erupted in Ballymena in June Giving evidence during the contested application on Wednesday, a PSNI detective constable said the girls grandmother contacted police that evening to report that her granddaughter had been raped by three Bulgarian males in a garage in Harryville. When police attended and spoke to the girl, she told them she was walking along the street when three males grabbed her and took her to a garage down an alleyway. Inside, the girl saw two mattresses and she was put on one. The detective constable said two of the males had their genitals exposed and started touching themselves. She added that while they allegedly tried to force the girl to perform sex acts on them, the third male, who has since absconded, raped her. She said this went on for about 10 minutes, but when they heard a male voice outside, the three ran off, the cop said. At that stage, the complainant was able to leave the garage and get help, and based on the information provided by the teenager, police went to an address on Clonavon Terrace where the two 14-year-olds were arrested. The court heard they matched the description given by the alleged victim. The detective constable said the bail applicant denied any criminal activity and then refused to answer police questions during his interviews. Turning to bail objections, the detective constable told District Judge Trevor Browne police have strong concerns that theres a risk he may leave the jurisdiction. Within hours of the defendant being arrested, a co-accused who had been identified left the country and we believe he is residing in Romania. We believe that, given the significant public disorder that descended after the incident, theres a risk that, if released, this defendant will leave the jurisdiction and we are not content that any conditions can be put in place to prevent that, said the officer. She added that while a proposed bail address outside of Ballymena had been put forward by the defence, there were concerns about that as well. The detective constable explained that while the occupant had been put forward as a relative, she told officers who spoke to her that she was a friend of the family, rather than a relative. The officer said police had also ascertained there were three children living in the property, including a 14-year-old girl. The detective constable said it was also a concern that another family with a young child appeared to be living in the house, a property she described as being in a poor state of repair. Police do not believe that any conditions will satisfy [their concerns] and we are aware that theres an opportunity to surrender passports and ID cards, however, we believe there are other ways of leaving the country, she concluded. Defence counsel Conn ONeill said that none of those concerns had been raised with the defence before the hearing, adding that if they had been we could have dealt with them. Highlighting that the defendant had voluntarily undergone DNA testing and an identity parade, he suggested that given the multitude of objections from the police, that the court adjourn the bail application. That would allow the defence to verify whether the woman who has put her address forward is related or a friend. It would also allow the defence the opportunity to make efforts to obtain an alternative address, said Mr ONeill. Judge Browne told the barrister: I completely agree, with the best will in the world, the application just disintegrated before our very eyes We are all mindful that he is a 14-year-old boy with no previous convictions and there is a working presumption in favour of bailbut it would not be fair to force you on without giving you the opportunity to address this important obstacle. Adjourning the bail application, the judge adjourned both cases to August 6. By way of an update, the prosecutor told the judge the case had been expedited, that the complainant has completed her achieving best evidence video interview with the police and that the target date for completion of the full file is the end of September. Ballymena courthouse. Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Judge Orla Crowe said that gardai are satisfied that no people were higher up nationally than 52-year-old Andrew Pender A man described as the manager of the entire cell of a drug distribution network in the Dublin area has been jailed for 15 years after he was caught with almost nine million worth of assorted drugs, over 1 million in cash and a stolen garda uniform. Judge Orla Crowe said that gardai are satisfied that no people were higher up nationally than 52-year-old Andrew Pender. The judge said it was a a highly sophisticated operation that involved two vehicles which had been adapted to have hidden compartments to store drugs, a rented shipping container, a stolen garda uniform and a falsely registered delivery company. Pender of Ely Green, Tallaght, Dublin 24 pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of an assortment of drugs for sale or supply at The Ward in Co Meath on July 19, 2024. He has three previous convictions for minor road traffic offences. He further pleaded guilty to having two vehicles a Peugeot and a Mercedes Luton van which had been fitted with a compartment in circumstances giving rise to the inference that he possessed or controlled it for the purpose connected with the commission, preparation, facilitation or instigation of a drug trafficking offence on the same date. Finally, he pleaded guilty to money laundering of 1,149,920 in cash at The Ward, his home and his parents' home also on the same date. The cocaine found was valued at almost 4.47 million, the ketamine had a value of just over 2.5 million, the cannabis was worth 1.29 million and the MDMA was valued at just over 700,00. In sentencing Pender today Judge Crowe noted that Pender did not assist the garda investigation but acknowledged that he pleaded guilty to the offences at an early stage. She accepted that he had a long-standing addiction to cocaine which has had medical consequences for him before she noted that he suffered from COPD, that he had heart problems and recently had surgery on his nose. She further accepted that there was a large number of references before the court that spoke well of Pender and a letter of remorse he had written. Judge Crowe said that the garda evidence was that Pender managed the entire cell of drug distribution for the Dublin area and gardai are satisfied that he was not under duress or pressure to run this operation. She noted that he was responsible for both the movement of cash and drugs. She said he was in clear control of the operation and working hands on before describing the evidence as obvious that Pender was at a level of involvement at the highest possible level and that there was no people higher up than he nationally. Judge Crowe said it was an inherently very grave case noting the impact drugs and drug trafficking at this level have on society. She also noted that "chillingly" Pender had possession of a garda uniform. She set a headline sentence of 20 years in prison noting that the maximum penalty available to the court was life imprisonment. Judge Crowe said she was taking into account mitigating features of the case including Penders personal circumstances and his plea of guilty before she imposed a sentence of 15 years in prison. The sentence was backdated to when Pender first went into custody earlier this month and he was given credit for time previously served on remand. Judge Crowe acceded to a request from Joe Mulrean BL, prosecuting, to have the drugs, cash, vehicles and shipping container seized during the investigation forfeited to the State. She refused an application by Giollaiosa O Lideadha SC, defending to suspend part of the sentence on the basis of Penders chronic drug addiction. Detective Inspector Ken Holohan, of the Dublin Crime Response Team (DCRT), previously gave evidence that Pender was arrested following what was described as an elaborate ongoing investigation after it was determined that Pender was a person of trust. Pender was stopped while he was driving a Peugeot and a further search of the vehicle revealed 9,000 in cash, a small quantity of cocaine and a key. It was soon discovered that this was the key for a rented shipping container situated in rural Meath. A warrant was obtained to search this container and a Mercedes Luton van and a stolen garda uniform, along with a stab vest, was also discovered. The van had been fitted with a hidden compartment, behind a hydraulic device. It was considered a sophisticated compartment which required an expert to access it. In this compartment, 16 blocks of cash and two kilogrammes of cocaine were found. The rest of the drugs were found in the shipping container. Pender had been renting the container for some time, paying 200 per month in rent. It later transpired that Pender had asked two separate people to register the two vehicles in their own names. Pender had also registered a company in his name in November 2021. It was registered to his home address but he did not operate the company as a business. The Peugeot that he had been stopped driving also had a false floor fitted to hide a compartment under the seats. Penders home and his parents' home were searched during which the documentation in relation to the vehicle was found along with further quantities of cash. Mr O Lideadha submitted to the court that Pender had the money and drugs in order to pay off a drug debt but the gardai do not accept this. Counsel said Pender had damaged his nose due to his chronic cocaine habit and he had to have part of his nose surgically removed recently as a result. Andrew Pender Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th An aerial drone photo taken on July 15, 2025 shows tourists visiting Bingzhongluo Township in Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Liang Zhiqiang/Xinhua) A tourist experiences face daubing during an event celebrating Hualian ("daubed face") Festival at the departure hall of Kunming South Railway Station in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 14, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Yang Zixuan/Xinhua) Kids play at a park in Nanjian Yi Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 14, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Shi Zhihong/Xinhua) People have fun at a water park in Wenshan City, Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 15, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Xiong Pingxiang/Xinhua) Tourists enjoy the view of the Nujiang River in Gongshan Dulong and Nu Autonomous County, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 15, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Liang Zhiqiang/Xinhua) Tourists have fun at Yulong Snow Mountain scenic area in southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 14, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Zhao Qingzu/Xinhua) Tourists pose for photos at a lakeside park in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 15, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Luo Xincai/Xinhua) Tourists experience folk activities with locals at a square in Qujing City, southwest China's Yunnan Province, July 15, 2025. Known for its stunning nature beauty, Yunnan Province has cultivated a summer tourism industry, offering tourists diverse experiences amid forests, snow-capped mountains, wetlands, and flower fields. (Photo by Yang Junpeng/Xinhua) District Judge Nigel Broderick had told the 27-year-old there is every reason why you should go straight to prison. This is the domestic thug and bully who has narrowly escaped going to jail for what a judge said was truly appalling behaviour to his partner. Having heard that Vladot Gabriel Gramada had repeatedly assaulted and bullied his partner, including punching her when she was breast-feeding their child, District Judge Nigel Broderick told the 27-year-old there is every reason why you should go straight to prison. It was truly appalling what you did to this victim, said the judge, not on one occasion but on many occasions. As a direct alternative to prison and not without significant hesitation, Judge Broderick said he was imposing an Enhanced Combination Order of 18 months probation and 100 hours of community service. He warned Romanian national Gramada however, you only get one chance - any slip ups, any missed appointments, anything, and you will be brought back to court immediately and you will go straight to prison. Vladot Gramada At an earlier hearing Gramada, from Slemish Court in Ballymena, entered guilty pleas to a total of 11 offences, committed over a time span between 1 September 2023 and 1 November 2024, including six charges of criminal damage, two counts of common assault and single charges of having a weapon with intent to cause damage, making threats to kill and a domestic abuse offence. In court on Tuesday, a prosecuting lawyer outlined how the victim first contacted police in November last year to report that throughout her 18 month relationship with Gramada, the 27-year-old was controlling, kept taking her phone to check through it. In addition, the victim was also subjected to repeated threats and assaults until she reported the abuse on 2 November last year. She told officers that the day beforehand, she had been getting the baby ready for a bath when Gramada demanded that she make him food. Initially, she told him to go and make something himself as she was busy with the baby but she relented and made him a salad. When she brought it to him however, Gramada complained that it was not good enough and instead, he lost his temper, threw the salad bowl and the bowl breaks, said the lawyer, adding that the baby was in the room at the time. The day before that, the court heard, the victim had been on the bed with the baby, letting him play to tire himself out before bed. Vladot Gramada She was on the phone when the defendant came in and accused her of texting other men instead of keeping an eye to the child, said the prosecutor. There was an argument and as she lay with the baby, holding her arm over to protect him, Gramada repeatedly punched her to the leg and knee and when she reached down to try to block his blows, he started to punch her hand. Gramada again threatened her, Im going to kill you as he punched her to the legs, standing over her in a threatening stance as she pleaded with him to leave. On 5 October, Gramada started another argument that she wasnt making anything for him to eat. Vladot Gramada Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th The court heard that he told her if I have a wife, why would I cook for myself and during that argument, Gramada punched the TV in the bedroom. The prosecutor said that at one point, when the victim was eight months pregnant, the defendant had the same argument about cooking food and he stormed downstairs. When he came back to the bedroom however, he had a hatchet in his hand and he used it to strike the bedroom door. Another argument that bully Gramada started was that he doesnt like her working as an Amazon delivery driver because there were other males working there. Vladot Gramada One of the other charges of criminal damage, the court heard, related to Gramada punching the windscreen of the victims car, causing 1,000 of damage. Lodging a plea in mitigation, defence counsel Connell Trainor immediately conceded that its a truly appalling set of facts - the custodial threshold is well and truly crossed. He submitted however that Gramada was due credit for his guilty pleas, thereby saving the victim from having to relive her ordeals in the witness box. Mr Trainor said despite the appalling nature of the offending, the pre-sentence report from the Probation Board suggested that Gramada would benefit from an Enhanced Combination Order. In addition to the ECO, Judge Broderick also imposed a two year restraining order in favour of the victim. Joshua Hesketh (32) assaulted the officer after she tried to de-escalate a row he was having with his partner on a city centre street, a court heard A finance worker punched, kicked and spat in the eyes of a female garda in a disgusting attack after a night out in Dublin got out of hand. Joshua Hesketh (32) assaulted the officer after she tried to de-escalate a row he was having with his partner on a city centre street, a court heard. Judge Peter White said his actions were reprehensible but spared him jail, giving him a two-month suspended sentence. Hesketh, of Gorse Crescent, Liverpool, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to a garda; obstruction; threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour; and refusing to give his name. A garda told Dublin District Court she saw the accused and a woman having an argument at Dawson Street in the early hours of June 29, as the pubs and clubs were emptying. She heard Hesketh say you f**king tramp a number of times. The gardai tried to speak to him and break up the argument but had to arrest him. Hesketh resisted, kicking out at the gardai, and it took five officers to handcuff and restrain him. He refused to get into the garda van, saying get your f**king hands off me, you f**king tramp, or else youll see. He kicked, punched and shoved the garda, who fell backwards, and spat in her face. It landed on her forehead and eyes. He threatened gardai he would get them when released The accused continued to spit and kick out and had to be pepper-sprayed. He threatened gardai he would get them when released, called them w**kers and said his name was Josh f**k you when asked. Defence solicitor Niall OConnor said Hesketh was on a night out with his partner, had far too much alcohol on board and things simply got out of hand. His shoulder became dislocated during the incident and Hesketh was in agony, angry and upset. The accused told the court he had apologised 20 times. He worked in stocks and shares and had no previous convictions. Judge White said the accuseds behaviour was reprehensible and spitting in the gardas face was disgusting conduct. The judge suspended the two-month sentence but told the court he was doing so reluctantly. Joshua Hesketh. Photo: Irishphotodesk.ie Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Judge Martin Nolan adjourned sentencing to later this week but warned I think he deserves a salutary lesson. A GRAFFITI artist who caused more than 60,000 worth of damage to railway carriages and equipment pepper-sprayed a train driver in the face when he confronted him. Sean Cullen (22) assaulted the driver during a struggle when he was caught painting "tags" on trains at a DART depot, a court heard. He was also identified taking part in a series of similar spray-painting incidents that had heavy financial consequences for Irish Rail. Judge Martin Nolan adjourned sentencing to later this week but warned I think he deserves a salutary lesson. Cullen, an apprentice electrician of Hope Avenue, East Wall, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault and criminal damage. The court heard on September 25, 2021, a train driver was at Fairview DART depot when he spotted two people and recognised that they were not employees. One was Cullen and the driver approached and grabbed him. A physical altercation ensued and during the struggle, Cullen pepper-sprayed the driver to the left side of his face before the other man intervened. The victim (51) suffered a swollen face and was in quite a lot of pain when gardai arrived at the scene. Both perpetrators had fled at that stage and Cullen was identified on CCTV footage. His home was searched under warrant and gardai found spray cans and other items. Further damage was caused to a train at Dublin's docklands on February 21, 2020, when gardai were again able to identify Cullen from footage. The outside of the carriage was damaged with silver and black spray paint, while the inside was tagged with the letters SD, written by marker. The intensity of the tags visibility "increased over time." On June 6, 2020, the word Akems was sprayed on a signal equipment container at the DART tracks at Merrion Gates in south Dublin. Prosecutor Marc Thompson BL said the total damage Cullen was accountable for was 60,914, covering carriages that had to be taken out of commission, and resprayed. There was a potential further loss of 40,000 to the company for use of replacement vehicles but Cullen was not being held responsible for that. Mr Thompson said there was a certain similarity with tags at other locations such as Akems and SD and some of these tags were done by other people. Cullen had one previous conviction for a similar criminal damage offence. Sean Cullen Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Defence barrister Karl Monahan said it was a very unfortunate series of offences with no real explanation and serious consequences for Irish Rail. There was a lot of graffiti around in the area where Cullen grew up, and he became fascinated by it, Mr Monahan said. He also became interested in a movement by street artists in New York in the 1970s spraying trains, and started doing this himself. He was shocked when he found out the costs associated with these acts, Mr Monahan said. He never imagined it would be anything like that. Judge Nolan said the accused had persistently sprayed the carriages, causing a huge amount of inconvenience. Mr Monahan said Cullen cant undo that but he had 2,000 compensation in court and had written a letter of apology. He said he was deeply ashamed of himself, had never intended to cause any harm and did not realise the scale of the damage. The case was adjourned to Friday. Michael Ward (33) and Melissa Collins (26) appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday A man and woman have pleaded guilty to theft in relation to an alleged accommodation fraud in south Dublin. Michael Ward (33) and Melissa Collins (26) appeared before Dublin Circuit Criminal Court yesterday where their case was listed for trial. Michael Ward and Melissa Collins Prosecuting counsel told the court that an agreement had been reached in which the pair would enter guilty pleas which were acceptable to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Ward, of Moyne Park, Moyne Road, Baldoyle, pleaded guilty to one count of stealing 1,800 from a bank account on a date between September 9, 2022 and September 18, 2022 in an unknown location within the State. Collins, of Cherryfield Walk, Hartstown, pleaded guilty to one count of stealing 600 from a bank account on an unknown location within the State on July 27, 2022. The District Court previously heard that the case involves accommodation fraud against a number of international students in south Dublin. A sentence date of November 24 was set, when the full facts of the case are expected to be heard Michael Ward and Melissa Collins Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th A house was searched after gardai stopped the man, who was driving dangerously A man in his 20s has been arrested in Carrigaline, Co Cork, after more than 17,000 worth of drugs and a further 6,000 in cash was discovered in his home by gardai. Gardai stopped the man in his 20s yesterday, driving his car dangerously while under the use of an intoxicant. Following the incident, a detective and members of the Carrigaline Community Policing Unit conducted further searches at a house in the town, which is one of the largest commuter towns in Cork. As part of that search, gardai seized 16,000 of cocaine, 1,200 cannabis and 6,000 in cash, as well as other items and drug paraphernalia. Gardai say investigations are under way, with the drugs sent to Forensic Science Ireland, while the man was also arrested. Brandon Chambers is charged with causing harm to Winston Stewart following an incident at Navenny Street in Ballybofey A Co Donegal man has appeared in court charged with careless driving causing serious bodily harm to another person. Brandon Chambers appeared at Letterkenny District Court in connection with the alleged offence. The 24 year old is charged with causing harm to Winston Stewart following an incident at Navenny Street in Ballybofey. He is charged that on February 7th, 2023 Navenny Street, Ballybofey, did drive a vehicle, without due care and attention thereby causing serious bodily harm to another person, namely Winston Stewart The charge is Contrary to section 52(1) & 52(2)(a) of the Road Traffic Act, 1961 (as substituted by section 4 of the Road Traffic (No. 2) Act 2011). Chambers, of Woodlawn, Stranorlar, did not speak during the brief hearing. Garda Rory McGowan gave evidence of the arrest, charge and caution of Chambers and said the accused made no reply when charged. Solicitor for the accused, Mr Patsy Gallagher, said there was an application for bail and that Gardai had no objection to the application. He added that directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions will be required given the nature of the charge. Judge Eiteain Cunningham granted bail to Chambers on his own bond of 200 nil cash. She also ordered him to be of good behaviour and be available by phone to be contactable at all times. The case was adjourned to a sitting of Letterkenny District Court in November. Jake McHale (24) had moved into the farm of his married victims near Athlone, Co Westmeath when he made off with a Bank of Ireland chequebook A newly-recruited farm labourer stole a chequebook from his employer and attempted to lodge three bogus cheques totalling more than 20,000 just 10 days after moving into a family-run farm in the midlands, a court has heard. Jake McHale (24) Cuingmore, Pontoon, Foxford, Mayo, had moved into the farm of his married victims at Lisnascreen, Glasson, Athlone, Co Westmeath when he made off with a Bank of Ireland chequebook which had been linked to the couples farm business. That initial theft took place on a date unknown between November 15 and November 28, 2023. Within a matter of days, McHale travelled back to his home county and tried to lodge three fraudulent cheques at two AIB branches in Castlebar and Ballina. Jake McHale pleaded guilty to five charges of using fraudulent cheques, theft and deception from his new found employers. The first of those took place in the formerly named town on November 27 when a cheque for 4,700 went through and was successfully processed. Sgt Paul McNally, in giving State evidence, said McHales attempts to lodge two further cheques in Ballina for combined amounts totalling 16,000 were declined after banking officials became suspicious of the monies involved. The court was told McHale was later arrested and questioned over the theft and fraud offences during which he made full admissions to stealing the chequebook and writing the cheques. Judge Owens, upon hearing the States evidence as to whether the case was suitable to be heard in the District Court, was told McHale had been living and working on the farm with the married couple for just ten days when the incident took place. That came, Sgt McNally said, after McHale was contacted about the role having previously advertised his services on social media. Jake McHale tried to pocket cheques totalling more than 20,000 after he stole a chequebook which belonged to a farmer who had taken him on only days earlier as a live in labourer. In deciding jurisdiction, Judge Owens said it had struck her the case was one which possibly merited going forward to the Circuit Criminal Court. She said given the fact two of the three cheques had bounced and the overall loss to the injured party amounted to 4,700 were elements the court was obliged to consider, however. Equally, she added, were McHales decision to hold his hands up to the three counts of using false cheques as well as the theft of the chequebook alongside an accompanying deception charge. Jake McHale outside Athlone Courthouse. Defence solicitor Mark Cooney said McHale was not working at present, but was hopeful of summoning compensation by securing employment in the near future. Judge Owens said she would be making no promises and remanded McHale on bail to a sitting of Athlone District Court on November 12 for the purposes of a victim impact statement and probation report. Michael OHiggins SC brought the application before Judge Kenneth Connolly at Longford Circuit Court this afternoon on behalf of Guo Zhong Chen A restaurant-owner accused of an arson attack, which caused in the region of 3m worth of damage to several businesses in the Grafton Court area of Longford town last year, has had an application to have his trial moved to a Dublin court refused. Michael OHiggins SC brought the application before Judge Kenneth Connolly at Longford Circuit Court this afternoon on behalf of Guo Zhong Chen (50), of 9 Belvedere Terrace, Mullingar, who has been in custody since August of last year. The Chinese national, who has been living in Ireland since 2000, was charged with criminal damage by arson at Grafton Court, Longford, on July 28, 2024, and a separate incident of criminal damage to a Land Rover at Townparks, Longford, on July 7, 2024. Mr OHiggins told the court that the case has received significant media coverage locally and nationally, citing a number of articles, which covered the case in detail. This coverage, he said, was circulated widely within the locale in which the trial is scheduled to take place, including details of how Mr Chen tried to evade arrest for the alleged crimes by jumping from a balcony in his underwear. Mr OHiggins also noted that the book of evidence contained a large list of witnesses, including some who were business owners in the area affected by the fire. If you lived in Longford, you might see this as a strike against the commercial heart of the town, whether you worked there or used any of the businesses there - you would be entitled to resent an attack of this sort, said Mr OHiggins. Furthermore, he pointed out that Mr Chen is a foreign national, which he said wont improve his situation. This was a perception, not necessarily targeted at the people of Longford, Mr OHiggins stressed, adding that Dublin is a very big city, and there is a greater degree of anonymity, so its less personal. Shane Geraghty BL, for the state, pointed out that there are very clear safeguards that this court can implement to ensure a fair trial, including a list of witnesses which can be scrutinised by both the state and the defence. He stressed that the court must assume juries dont ignore the directions of the trial judge and that they do abide by oath, so there is no concern he will not receive a fair trial. Judge Connolly, having heard the basis for the application, accepted that the case has no doubt received certain publicity, both locally and nationally. Perhaps that argument is becoming somewhat archaic in the current media situation, he said, adding that in the olden days, it was very true that todays news is tomorrows fish n chips wrapping. In times gone by, local media was always in print and a much larger number of locals would read the local publication. That world has changed fundamentally, he said. Almost all of us read a mixture of media now, and all media is available in all areas, so theres a greater interest in local stories. He stressed that, in every trial, the judge would have to give warnings to potential jurors not to carry out independent research and to base their deliberations solely on the evidence heard in court. He said he has a list of 17 business proprietors from the Grafton Court complex from which evidence may be heard, and that jurors who are attached to those witnesses will be asked not to serve. It is the duty of the court to eradicate any threat and instruct the jury properly that, if they are in any way associated with the case, they must not serve, he said. I do accept it might be a more difficult empanelment. I dont believe theres any evidence that anyone would serve that ought not to do so. He also said it would be unfair and disrespectful to any non-Dublin court to suggest someone would receive bias for being a non-national, considering Mr Chen has been living in the country for 25 years. Furthermore, he pointed out that, of the 17 businesses listed in a document furnished to the court, an estimated 12 were probably not of Irish origin, which shows the cultural dynamic of this county. Accordingly, whilst I do accept jury empanelment may be difficult, I do not believe it will be an impossibility, he said. For that reason, he refused the application to transfer the matter to Dublin and directed the trial be retained in Longford. He directed a jury panel document be made available for the defence to scrutinise ahead of jury selection. Mr Chen has received half of the book of evidence, translated and in audio format on a USB stick, the court heard, and Judge Connolly made an order that the governor of Castlerea Prison facilitate the provision of the other half of the book on a USB, as well as the means to listen to the content. The trial is expected to take approximately three weeks, the court heard, with 71 witnesses in the book of evidence and a large amount of CCTV footage. Mr Chen has been remanded in custody to October 28, 2025. Guo Zhong Chen Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Alistair Wright (37), a self-employed joiner from Crieff in Scotland, appeared before Judge Anne Watkin at Dun Laoghaire District Court A Scottish stag party-goer who was caught with cocaine after resisting arrest and shouting abuse at gardai has been told by a judge not to expect "to skip off home" without consequences. Alistair Wright (37), a self-employed joiner from Crieff in Scotland, appeared before Judge Anne Watkin at Dun Laoghaire District Court, where she said she had no tolerance for people bringing cocaine into public places and then "taking on" the guards. The court heard that Wright had been in Dublin for a friends stag and had been drinking all day with a group who had booked rooms at the Clayton Hotel in Donnybrook. By 8.30pm, tensions among the group escalated and staff were forced to call gardai due to the groups behaviour. It must have been bad, Judge Watkin remarked. It takes a lot for a hotel to ask a group of people to leave at half eight in the evening - that says it all. When gardai arrived, Wright became aggressive and abusive. He was asked to leave but told staff and gardai to f**k off, Sergeant Caoimmhe Conway told the court. The court heard that Wright refused to comply with directions, resisted arrest and was ultimately found to have one gram of cocaine in his possession. While he did not strike the gardai, the court heard he resisted putting his hands behind his back and had to be restrained. Ive no patience for cocaine, Judge Watkin said. Unlike cannabis or ecstasy, its one drug that makes people aggressive - and hes lucky things didnt end even worse. He refused to cooperate. This is how gardai get injured, she added. Most people sober up when a guard appears, Judge Watkin said. They dont take them on. But he refused to cooperate. This could have resulted in someone getting injured. The court heard that Wright made no reply when charged and has no previous convictions. He pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and to multiple public order offences, including engaging in threatening and abusive behaviour, failing to comply with garda directions and resisting a peace officer. His defence counsel, Sylvia Maria Crowley BL, said Wright was deeply embarrassed by the incident. She said he is a father of two and had never taken cocaine before - it was a one-off, completely out of character. Ms Crowley asked if her client could be spared a conviction, but Judge Watkin said the matter was too serious - and that a Section 19 public order offence could warrant a jail sentence. He knew he had cocaine on him. If he had any cop-on at all, he wouldnt have gotten himself arrested while carrying it. You dont get to be that out of control in a public place and expect no consequences, she said. The judge ordered a probation report and urine analysis, noting she was open to considering a community service order, but emphasised that Wright would not simply be allowed to walk away. Ms Crowley said engaging with probation services might be difficult as Wright lives and works in Scotland, but Judge Watkin made clear that custody remained on the table. Just because hes not living here doesnt mean he gets to skip off home to Scotland, she said. She adjourned the matter to 10 November next for finalisation. Funded by the Courts Reporting Scheme Dun Laoghaire District Court Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Claire Redmond, 26, of Forestwood Avenue, Santry, Dublin 9, pleaded guilty to charges of assault causing harm to two women in 2022 A woman, who used her fingernails to attack her sister-in-law at a post office in Dublin, after previously punching, kicking and pulling the hair of a mother on a school run, has avoided jail. Claire Redmond, 26, of Forestwood Avenue, Santry, Dublin 9, pleaded guilty to charges of assault causing harm to two women in 2022. She walked free from court and avoided a criminal record. Dublin District Court heard that the incidents occurred at the Post Office on Ballymun Road, and the other involved her next-door neighbour, who has since passed away. Judge Treasa Kelly had heard that the first incident on February 10, when her 35-year-old neighbour went to collect a child from school. Redmond passed her on an electric scooter and "called her a tramp". She repeatedly used the slur before the attack. The woman fell to the ground, where Redmond kicked her in the stomach and head. The accused then grabbed the woman by her hair and punched her, resulting in cuts, bleeding and bruising. The court was informed that they had got on well growing up, but at the time, Redmond had suffered a breakdown. Judge Kelly had heard the incident left the victim, who has since passed away, in a distressed state and suffering from anxiety. The second attack happened on November 10. Redmond's sister-in-law, 25, was waiting in line when she was tapped on the shoulder, and the accused told her she would be "waiting outside". She then said, "Fuck it, I'll do it here" and grabbed the woman's face with her fingernails, punched her, and kneed her in the face while holding her by the hair. Bystanders yelled, "Get off her, get off her," and the assault stopped when two staff members dragged Redmond away. Gardai obtained CCTV evidence, but victim impact statements were not forthcoming, with Judge Kelly noting that the neighbour has since passed away. The defence understood her sister-in-law may not have reconciled with Redmond, but had no ill feelings towards her now. She had no prior convictions but had been given the benefit of the Probation of Offenders Act and spared a criminal record last year for a public order offence. The judge said defendants typically receive that just once. Her solicitor, Andrew Broderick, stated that Redmond was extremely remorseful. In pleading for leniency, he explained that when his client was younger, she had been put out of her family home and stayed in hostels. She developed drug and alcohol problems, including cocaine and tablet abuse. Around the time of the assaults, Redmond returned to Ballymun to try and get back into her family home, but "things escalated". Mr Broderick submitted that the attacks were not premeditated, and Redmond's emotions got the better of her while she was in the throes of drug addiction and had mental health difficulties. The solicitor emphasised that she was ambitious and, now that she has recovered, wished to train to become an addiction counsellor, rebuild her life and move to Australia. She was anxious to avoid a recorded conviction so that she could go there. He provided letters showing Redmond had completed a five-month residential treatment course, which also addressed anger management, and had quit alcohol and drugs. He added that she had not offended since and had become a very different person. She had also co-operated with the Probation Service about restorative justice and stopped coming to Garda attention, the solicitor said. She also brought 500 to court, which the judge ordered to be given to her sister-in-law. Noting the reports on her progress and the mitigation plea, she held that she could again apply the Probation of Offenders Act. However, she stressed that it was "very, very unusual" to get this chance and warned her that if she ever appeared in court again, she would face a much harsher penalty. Redmond did not give evidence, thanked he judge at the conclusion of the hearing. Dublin District Court Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo and delivers a speech in Beijing, capital of China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Gao Jie) BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said on Wednesday that China will adhere to the principles of division of labor and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, while acting as a promoter of mutual benefits and win-win outcomes in global industrial and supply chains. He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in a speech at the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing. China is a crucial link in global industrial and supply chains and has consistently taken practical actions to ensure the stable operation of global industrial and supply chains, contributing to deepening global industrial and supply chain cooperation and promoting world economic recovery, the vice premier said. China will also advance the digital, intelligent and green transformation and upgrading of global industrial and supply chains, said the vice premier. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, attends the opening ceremony of the third China International Supply Chain Expo and delivers a speech in Beijing, capital of China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Gao Jie) It was February 1998, a few months before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and here he was being led away as an IRA terrorist Police inspecting a burned out vehicle in the car park of the Excelsior Hotel, Heathrow Scotland Yard issued picture of the mortar launcher used on the second attack on Heathrow Airport The burned out Nissan Micra, showing the rubes used to launch mortar bombs at Heathrow Airport Michael Gallagher knew it was time to admit an uncomfortable the truth as he was led away to a prison cell as an IRA bomber. The moment a judge at Woolwich Crown court in London brought the hammer down on a 20-year sentence for his part in an IRA mortar attack on Heathrow airport, he knew he could no longer deny the truth and continue to claim he an innocent man fitted up by the cops. It was February 1998, a few months before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and here he was being led away as an IRA terrorist. The burned out Nissan Micra, showing the rubes used to launch mortar bombs at Heathrow Airport For years he had denied being part of a Provo cell which had orchestrated the attacks four years earlier. From the second armed police kicked in the door of the apartment and put a gun to his head and that of partner Mary Attenborough, he had pleaded his innocence. Now as a prison warder at Full Sutton maximum security prison shouted long sentenced convict coming through, reality sank in. Michael was 55 when sentenced as the warder said youre going to be an old, old man Gallagher by the time you get out. But Michael said this week: He didnt stay up all night thinking that up! I knew Mary couldnt wait 20 years for me, I wouldnt expect her to, I knew I had to tell her the truth, he said. In an exclusive interview with the Sunday World, the couple described their journey from their early years together in London, through Michaels arrest and conviction. Scotland Yard issued picture of the mortar launcher used on the second attack on Heathrow Airport Its a story they relive and share in their book Unbroken, a story of secrets, lies and enduring love. I was devastating for me, said Mary, it had always seemed to me that he couldnt be guilty, there was so little evidence against him, he was always ducking and diving. In the background there was his battle with alcohol it seemed unlikely he would be trusted by the IRA. While not directly involved in the attacks he was described at his trial as a footsoldier and a vital cog in the preparation of the operation. For Mary who had campaigned tirelessly for his release and raised 500,000 to meet his bail payment it was a tipping point. Wed been together 11 years, Id spent the previous 16 months campaigning for his release and proclaiming his innocence my initial reaction was to leave. Police inspecting a burned out vehicle in the car park of the Excelsior Hotel, Heathrow People had told me to leave him, but I didnt see what he had done as a betrayal of me, he couldnt tell me because it would have ruined his defence. I just felt very quickly that I wouldnt leave him. Michael was born in Glasgow and as a boy his father took him to anti-partition meetings and in Claudy, Co Derry, his grandfather was a staunch Irish republican. I was steeped in Irish republicanism, he said. But his life spiralled out of control as he battled alcoholism. It cost him his first marriage, but by the time he met Mary he was sober and he also harboured a secret he joined the IRA. I offered to do things for them I was good at getting IDs, safe houses. On one occasion I was asked to drive an injured IRA man back to Ireland as he didnt want to get treatment in London. I was sober by then, clear-minded, and I could be trusted. Even as a low-level volunteer he had come under the scrutiny of MI5. Michael was convinced he was being followed on the streets of the capital but dismissed his thoughts until the front door of the couples flat was put in. Unbroken He was dragged away and taken to Cannon Row police station, the now disused headquarters of New Scotland Yard. I was in complete shock, it was only when they started questioning me I realised our flat must have been bugged. They were quoting conversations between me and Mary that wed only had at home. Michael, who had stories and articles published, believed they had mistaken conversations about a fictional character he was writing about for real-life IRA figures. They also had photographs of him at garage lock-up which they said had been used by the Provo mortar team. His interrogators offered him 1 million in exchange for information on the IRA. It was a tense time in London as the IRA mounted a series of attacks in Britain as a last hurrah before the culmination of the peace process. A few weeks earlier volunteer Diarmuid ONeill had been shot dead by police as they raided a hotel where and two other IRA operatives were staying in Hammersmith. I didnt sleep for three weeks, said Mary, who had also been taken away for interview. I knew about the Birmingham Six, how they had been convicted on a serious miscarriage of justice, I was terrified. Even on the day they were taken away there were press reports arrests had been made of a suspect in the Heathrow attacks, it led to speculation that Michael was now under threat from the IRA should he confess his role. Languishing in the Special Secure Unit at Belmarsh Prison, he shared the block with three other IRA prisoners. They were kind to me, I had arrived with nothing, they gave me sweets and books. Category A prisons are notoriously dangerous and as a new face he was particularly susceptible to be attacked, particularly as the three other IRA prisoners had been transferred. I was playing in a five-a-side match when I was attacked, he was just a bully and he gave me a beating. When one of the screws told him I was in on IRA charges he came to my cell begging forgiveness, he would do anything for me! We actually became friends. Every day during his six-week trial in 1998 he was cuffed and led into court. It involved him stripping from the waist down and squatting over a mirror placed on the floor and searched by hand. I was invasive, abusive and dehumanising and no need to do it at all. It was all about humiliation. The judge threw the book at him and he was facing a life-time behind bars. Mary told me, make friends, you need to have friends. One time we were on the phone when one of the prisoners interrupted me who was that said Mary, Charlie Kray I told her brother of Ronnie and Reggie do you have to make friends with gangsters? I said Mary, if I was in a monastery my friends would be monks. Michael was transferred to Portlaoise Prison and under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement was released in July 2000. Reunited, the couple moved to Donegal where they set up a web development business. Writing the book, they said, was cathartic. Its all still very surreal for me, Ive read it a dozen times and I still cant believe it happened, said Mary. Unbroken by Michael Gallagher and Mary Attenborough is published by Merrion Press priced 16.99/18.99. Michael Gallagher and Mary Attenborough Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Police were told the man removed his underwear, then grabbed the victim and attempted to kiss her. CCTV images of the suspect released by police Australian police have appealed for help tracing a man with an Irish accent after an 18-year-old women was allegedly sexually assaulted in a cafe. Detectives claim the man initially approached the teenager in a store on Chapel Street in Melbourne between 3.30pm and 5pm on 20 June. According to police, he asked the woman to help him choose a dress for him to wear, before following her into other stores. After buying one of the items, he then changed into a dress at one of the shops. He then left the store wearing the dress and took the woman to a cafe. Police were told the man removed his underwear, then grabbed the victim and attempted to kiss her. She left the cafe and was not physically injured. Detectives have released CCTV footage and images of a man they believe may be able to assist with their enquiries. Bayside Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) detectives have said they are investigating a sexual assault in Windsor last month and have released a description of the man Read more Funeral details announced for murdered pensioner Michael Hayes He is described as being aged between 55 and 70, of large build, about 180cm tall and clean shaven. It is believed he had an Irish accent. He was initially wearing a white and blue chequered shirt, a grey zip-up hoodie, black pants and a brown hat. Anyone who witnessed the incident, has footage or information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report online at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au. Mr Hayes, (71), died after he was allegedly attacked by Philip Ambrose, (43), of no fixed abode, at Watergate, Limerick City, last Thursday night, July 10 Funeral details were announced Tuesday for pensioner Michael Hayes who was allegedly murdered in Limerick City, as the man charged with his killing appeared in court. Mr Hayes, (71), died after he was allegedly attacked by Philip Ambrose, (43), of no fixed abode, at Watergate, Limerick City, last Thursday night, July 10. An online notice announcing Mr Hayess funeral said the father of fours remains would repose at Crosss Funeral Home, Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick City, from 5pm-7.30pm Thursday, July 17th. Mr Hayes, who is survived by his heartbroken sons Tom, Michael, Brendan and Joe, his beloved grandchildren, other relatives and large circle of friends will be laid to rest at Mount St Oliver Cemetery, Limerick, following his funeral mass at St Johns Cathedral, Cathedral Place, at 11am, Friday. Michael's family would like to sincerely thank all of the neighbours in Watergate, especially Vinny Lee, for their prompt action on the night, the notice read. Tributes were paid to Mr Hayes in a corresponding online book of condolences. One of the posts, by John P Hayes, Edward Street, Limerick, read: My condolences to the Hayes family on the passing of Michael. I got to know Michael many years back he was a wonderful character I remember the year he dressed up as Santy for the children. It was Christmas week, in Dessie ODonnells bar on Wickham St in Limerick City, everyone adults and children had an absolutely wonderful time. R.I.P Michael. Today, Philip Ambrose, who is charged with Mr Hayess murder appeared before Limerick District Court. Sergeant Denis Waters, Roxboro Road garda station, told the court that Gardai were awaiting formal directions in the case from the Director of Public Prosecutions, and he sought an adjournment until July 29th. Mr Ambrose, who appeared before the court via-video link from Limerick Prison, confirmed his name and that he could hear and see the court proceedings. He told Judge Coolican thank you very much after the judge remanded him in continuing custody to appear before the court again for DPP directions on July 29th. Last Saturday the court heard that Mr Ambrose did not reply when charged by Gardai with Mr Hayess murder. Mr Ambrose was arrested by Gardai last Friday morning, a few hours after Mr Hayes was allegedly attacked near his home in Limerick City Centre, at around 11.30pm, last Thursday. Mr Hayes was found with critical injuries at St Michaels Court, Watergate, and despite paramedics and doctors best efforts he was pronounced dead at University Hospital Limerick in the early hours of last Friday. Mr Ambroses solicitor, Turlough Herbert, Herbert & Co Solicitors, Limerick, said he was not seeking bail, which he said could only be applied for before the High Court. The court was told Mr Ambrose was in receipt of a disability allowance and it granted him free legal aid. Michael Hayes Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Damien O'Brien, a married father-of-two young children, was killed after being struck by a car while walking home from a night out with friends near Huntington Beach in California on July 6th last. An Irishman who died tragically in the US will be repatriated to his family home in Co Donegal later today. Damien O'Brien, a married father-of-two young children, was killed after being struck by a car while walking home from a night out with friends near Huntington Beach in California on July 6th last. A 21-year-old driver was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence. Mr O'Brien, 35, and his wife Michelle were expecting their third child in September. The deceased man moved to the US more than a decade ago from the east Donegal village of Killygordon and was a hugely popular member of the local Irish community in America. He was a member of the Wild Geese GAA Club and worked as vice president of operations with TM Grady Builders. The company has launched a GoFundMe page which has received a huge response from the local community with more than 250,000 being raised already. Damien is deeply regretted and sadly missed by his loving wife, Michelle, (nee O'Connor), adoring sons Oscar and Luke, his parents Patricia and Bernard, parents-in-law, Pat and Patricia O'Connor (Glenfin), sisters Colleen and Roisin, brothers Stephen and Bernard, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, partners, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, extended family, colleagues and wide circle of friends. He will repose at the home of his parents in Stoneybatter, Killygordon from 5pm today (Wednesday, 16th July) until 9pm and on Thursday, 17th July from 1pm until 9pm with the Rosary nightly at 9pm with family time on both nights from after the Rosary and on the morning of the funeral. Damien's Requiem Mass will take place on Friday, 18th July, at 12 noon in St. Patrick's Church, Killygordon, F93 W2C2, where Damien was baptised, received his First Communion and Confirmation. He will be buried afterwards in Cill Mhuire Cemetery, Glenfin. Mr O'Brien's burial is strictly private for the O'Brien and O'Connor families only. https://rip.ie/death-notice/damien-obrien-donegal-killygordon-599756 Damien O'Brien Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 16th Police and Oranga Tamariki routinely rejected evidence of child abuse without getting input from health professionals, says the doctor who treated murdered 5-year-old Malachi Subecz. In some of these cases, the children had reappeared in hospital months later with fatal injuries. Dr Patrick Kelly was the on-call paediatrician at Starship childrens hospital when Malachi was admitted on November 1, 2021. Kelly is a national expert in child protection and has given evidence in high-profile trials, including the 2007 murder of Nia Glassie. Kelly told a coronial inquest in Auckland on Tuesday that it was immediately clear that Malachis injuries were not consistent with the caregiver Michaela Barriballs claims that he had fallen. He was bruised, grazed, burned and malnourished. To be frank, he showed evidence of a sustained period of cruelty and arguably torture, up to his death, he said. The inquest in Auckland had earlier heard that photographs of Malachi with what appeared to be bruising had been supplied to Oranga Tamariki by a family member months before he died. The photographs were reviewed by Oranga Tamariki social workers, who concluded there were no specific care or protection concerns - without an assessment by a doctor. It is of fundamental importance that the coroner appreciates that this behaviour by Oranga Tamariki was not an anomaly, Kelly said. I would go so far as to say it was business as usual. There is a similar, embedded, business as usual culture in police. If those practices continue, other cases like Malachi will continue. Two months after Malachis death, Kelly dealt with an almost identical case, in which a young girl whose mother was in jail was admitted to hospital with severe injuries and later died. A police officer had earlier seen the child with two black eyes and bruising on their neck but accepted the caregivers explanation that they were accidental. Decisions to close a report of concern were arbitrary and widely variable, and often made by police or child protection with little or no training in injury interpretation, Kelly said. Malachi Subecz before his death in Tauranga in December 2021. His caregiver Michaela Barriball later pleaded guilty to murdering the 5-year-old. Photo / Supplied by Megan Cotter The coroner has heard evidence that staff at the Tauranga daycare which Malachi attended noticed injuries on him and were concerned enough to take photographs, but did not make a report of concern to Oranga Tamariki. In response, a major inquiry into Malachis death by Dame Karen Poutasi recommended that Government introduce mandatory reporting of child abuse. That is also a key focus of the coronial inquest. I have no confidence at all that mandatory reporting in Malachis situation would have made any difference to the outcome, Kelly said. The reason why I lack that confidence is that even if the daycare centre had made a report of concern with photos to Oranga Tamariki, the chances are no better than 50/50 that Oranga Tamariki would have gone to see the child. If they had gone to see the child, the chances are no greater than 50/50 that they would have sought a health professional about what the injuries meant. Between October 2021 and June 2022, 16 children were admitted to Starship with serious head trauma from abuse and six of them died. Malachi was only one of the 16, Kelly said. My question to both Oranga Tamariki and Dame Karen Poutasi - why do we seek to learn from what happened to Malachi and not the others? Kelly said he was not blaming police officers or social workers, who were constrained by resourcing within their own departments and particularly within the health system. Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora had not prioritised the prevention of child abuse, despite the scale of the problem. There were no dedicated resources for child abuse assessments, and demands for dedicated clinics had not been met. Starship was the only dedicated, multi-disciplined facility in the country. When acute assessments of injuries were sought by Oranga Tamariki or police, they had to be squeezed into a paediatricians busy workload or join the queue at a busy emergency department. Despite violence intervention (VIP) training being mandatory, very few Health NZ doctors completed it. Similar training for GPs was almost entirely voluntary. Kelly said greater collaboration was required between police, Oranga Tamariki and the health sector. Law changes in 2019 which allowed greater information-sharing between the agencies was the greatest advance in child protection in 30 years, he said. But in practice, information-sharing was still patchy. It had led to a one-way traffic system in which health workers shared information with Oranga Tamariki but received nothing back. Oranga Tamariki was a black box, he said. His simple solution was that every time police or Oranga Tamariki received an allegation of visible, physical injuries, that photo should be shared with a health professional and an assessment should be done as quickly as possible. That process had to involve comprehensive, two-way information sharing between health, Oranga Tamariki and police. He said that Health NZ should also join the Child Protection Protocol (CPP), a formal agreement between Oranga Tamariki and NZ Police. Michaela Barriball was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for murdering Malachi Subecz. Photo / Andrew Warner Isaac Davison is a senior reporter who covers Auckland issues. He joined the Herald in 2008 and has previously covered the environment, politics, social issues, and healthcare. A joint statement by three Eastern Bay of Plenty mayors has them united against any attempt at amalgamating Bay of Plentys councils. As mayors of the Eastern Bay, we know our communities value the accountability, and the control they get from our three councils. Amalgamation would see our communities swallowed into Tauranga and whose interests does that serve? Not the interests of the Eastern Bay of Plenty, the statement said. The comments come on the back of Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdales push to start conversations about changing the way Bay of Plenty councils are arranged. At a recent Bay of Plenty Mayoral Forum, Drysdale said communities were crying out for things to be delivered more efficiently and effectively. He said there were seven councils represented around the forum table, which meant seven times the overhead. We can wait five years and have the Government do it for us or we can be proactive and say, lets look at it. Drysdale will also be speaking to a remit put to this weeks Local Government New Zealand conference by Tauranga City Council for a review of local government arrangements to achieve better balance. The remit was supported by LGNZs Metro Sector councils. Whakatane Mayor Victor Luca said he could find no evidence that amalgamation of councils would result in lower rates. He cited two academic studies published in the past three years that pointed against any efficiencies being achieved by amalgamation. A 2022 report called Does Size Matter, from independent Crown organisation the Infrastructure Commission, found little evidence of cost efficiencies from larger local governments. The report looked at whether council size and structure affected road maintenance, building consents and council overhead costs. Tauranga mayor Mahe Drysdale at a Tauranga City Council meeting. Photo / David Hall Our analysis suggests that population size neither decreases nor increases the cost to provide these three services, the report stated. Luca also referenced a 2024 economic paper by University of Otago professor Tom Stannard and TDB Advisorys Philip Barry about scale efficiency gains in electricity distribution. The paper looked at public and private organisations and found that potential gains from scale alone, without considering population density, were very limited. The only way that reducing the number of slices in a pie can result in any benefit is if the pie also shrinks, Luca said. Im actually quite annoyed that Drysdale makes the argument that everybody trots out without evidence. The real evidence is there, and he completely ignores it. He felt Whakatane district would be the loser in any amalgamation arrangement with the wider Bay of Plenty. We represent 16% of the population of the Bay of Plenty, and you only have to look at how we fared in receiving funding through the Regional Transport Committee. We only got 1% of the budget request allocated to us. He felt there were efficiencies that could be made through the councils working more closely together. For example, were all using different enterprise software. That is something that could easily be fixed without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Opotiki Mayor David Moore said he felt Drysdale should be talking to his community about how they felt before he started talking about amalgamating councils. Whakatane would be the loser in a Bay of Plenty council amalgamation, Mayor Victor Luca says. Photo / Andrew Warner The first thing you learn in local government is you need to talk to your community first, before we make plans. Moore was doubtful that amalgamation would create efficiencies, pointing out a number of failures of central government in providing police, education and health services to the region. That day [of the mayoral forum] we had a presentation showing we are 1700 doctors short in New Zealand. Weve got a net increase in police of less than 20. He also referenced the recent reduction in gynaecological and obstetrics services that sees pregnant women having to be rushed to Tauranga for emergencies, and Opotiki College having issues with black mould in classrooms last year. He said there had been a great deal of work done recently on possible funding solutions for councils. For example, the GST content of rates that gets forwarded to central. A tax on a tax, some say. There is no resistance to working smarter and sharing services wherever possible, but scale does not always mean saving for the community - something to think about on your next trip to the supermarket or when paying your latest power or insurance bills. The same out of control costs have hit councils too, which does nothing to help keeping costs down. Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui. Kawerau Mayor Faylene Tunui said her community was against amalgamation. Mayor Drysdale can speak for Tauranga, but we know our communities are firmly rooted in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and thats where our people want their representation to be. Our three councils are busy implementing our joint spatial plan and joint economic development plan. Thats our priority, not theoretical amalgamation discussions, Tunui said. What other Bay mayors say Western Bay of Plenty Mayor James Denyer previously told Local Democracy Reporting he did not believe his community supported amalgamating with Tauranga. Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said councils should not be afraid of change but negative experiences from health and polytechnic mergers made communities wary. Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman Doug Leeder said work needed to be done to understand where and how services were best delivered - nationally, regionally and locally - to inform the long-running debate. - Additional reporting by Alisha Evans LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air. Some Australian investors may be facing the loss of their investments after the failure of a superannuation provider, but KiwiSaver members are being reassured that the situation is different here. Australian media has reported that up to A$450 million may have been lost by the First Guardian Master Fund, which went into liquidation early this year. Co-director David Anderson was reported to be accused of transferring funds into his own bank account. David Callanan, general manager of corporate trustee services at Public Trust, one of the supervisors of New Zealand's KiwiSaver schemes, said there were different protections for KiwiSaver members, which should prevent such a scenario. Providers are subject to oversight from a supervisor, who can also choose to appoint a third-party custodian or act as custodian themselves. "I think we've got a more effective regulatory regime. It's set up really well to protect KiwiSaver members and investors." He said the supervisor was "effectively a trustee". "We're in place to ensure that KiwiSaver providers are doing the right thing for investors. If there was an issue with a KiwiSaver provider then the supervisor would be able to step in and take control back and come up with a solution." He said that could involve appointing another manager if necessary. "We have the power to step in and to take control back in the interests of those investors." He said, because there were a limited number of independent supervisors, they were closely regulated by the Financial Markets Authority. "In Australia there are hundreds of responsible entities who play that role." Callanan said if a fund manager was failing it would not be able to access investor funds. "That's another area that in those scenarios that I've seen in Australia hasn't worked. You've got fund managers just dipping into investor monies, you know, to go and buy a Lamborghini or whatever they feel like on a whim. "That just couldn't happen here because we've got independent custodians and again, Public Trust is an independent custodian for a number of KiwiSaver providers, and that can give investors confidence." He said there was also a strong conflict of interest regime in place. "Even for fund managers who might undertake what is called a related party transactionthe Financial Markets Conduct Act stipulates the process they have to go through to work with their supervisor to get that transaction across the line." But that does not mean you can not lose money in KiwiSaver. Callanan said there was always the risk that investments could go wrong and financial markets might not perform as expected. "But if you're with a KiwiSaver provider in New Zealand you can have confidence that there's a mechanism in place in the supervisors that if something was to go wrong with that manager, the supervisor would step in and stop you falling down the metaphorical cliff. "There's always the possibility that someone makes a silly financial decision or you could pick an investment that's really bad. My advice would be to avoid a situation where you have all your eggs in one basket." He said that could only happen with the KiwiSaver schemes that allow people to choose their own investments. "Most KiwiSaver providers are offering these diversified products and you can be really confident you've going to get a good outcome because you've spread your risk in an appropriate way." Financial Markets Authority director of markets, investors and reporting John Horner said the law prescribed the segregation of duties in relation to managed investment schemes. "Generally, while the manager of the scheme is responsible for investment decisions , the custodian is responsible for holding and safeguarding the scheme property - segregation of legal ownership - and for keeping records of the scheme property - segregation of functions. Supervisors licensed by the FMA are responsible for custody. Depending on the scheme's governing documents, a supervisor may appoint another appropriate independent person as custodian. "MIS managers and supervisors are obliged to act with care, diligence and skill. MIS managers are expected to maintain strong capital positions, professional indemnity insurance, parent company guarantees or other similar arrangements. Managers are also required to notify the supervisor if they are, or are likely to become, insolvent. The supervisor is responsible for monitoring the manager's performance of its functions and obligations, as well as its financial position. "In the event that the fund manager becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to continue operations, the supervisor has the power to appoint a temporary manager to ensure the continued management and operation of the fund until a permanent replacement is appointed." -RNZ High Alert, New Zealands drug early warning system, is celebrating five years of reducing harm from dangerous drugs. Since its public launch on June 26, 2020, High Alert has reached more than three million people with harm reduction advice and early warnings about particular dangerous drugs across the country. It is a world-leading early warning system that seeks to identify acute drug harm, understand and evidence outbreaks and, in some cases, anticipate potential harm. This information is then shared across the High Alert website and social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. High Alert is a multi-agency initiative operated by Drug Information and Alerts Aotearoa New Zealand, housed within the National Drug Intelligence Bureau. It is supported by a network of health professionals and social services, both government and non-government. These include the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science Limited (PHF Science) the New Zealand Drug Foundation, KnowYourStuffNZ, New Zealand Needle Exchange Programme, Hato Hone St John New Zealand and Wellington Free Ambulance. While a core function of High Alert is providing harm reduction information to the public, it also presents opportunities to engage with partners who may not traditionally associate with law enforcement. Before High Alerts launch in 2020, there was minimal co-ordination or ability to bring these groups together to understand what they were seeing on the front lines, and no structures in place to link harm occurring in different parts of the country. Now, High Alert monitors this network and undertakes daily scanning across various information sources to identify where drug harm has, or could, occur. The ongoing success of the early warning system shows people are actively looking for this type of information and demonstrates the enormous potential of High Alert to prevent harm, said Aaron Holloway, manager of the Police intelligence fusion teams. Members of the public can subscribe confidentially to receive early warning notifications directly to their inboxes, cutting out the reliance on social media algorithms and third-party websites. The High Alert website also allows people to report any unusual or unexpected effects from drugs, providing them with a safe outlet to share their experiences and help keep others safe. Over the past five years, High Alert has received 158 of these reports. It has issued 40 early warning notifications, each prompting thousands of visits to the site and national media coverage. The warning that attracted the most media interest regarded the incident in 2022 where fentanyl was misrepresented as cocaine in Wairarapa. More recently, in June 2025, High Alert issued two notifications after a highly potent synthetic opioid was misrepresented as heroin, and heroin was misrepresented as benzodiazepine in Auckland. More than 1.4 million people have visited the website since its launch, with nearly 2 million views of harm reduction information. High Alert has reached a further 3.2 million people via Facebook and Instagram and has generated more than 1.5 million TikTok views since launching on the platform in 2022. High Alerts mailing list has also seen steady growth, with more than 10,000 members of the public subscribed to receive early warning notifications. These emails consistently achieve a high open rate, an average of 60% compared to the industry standard of 33%. More than 1500 healthcare professionals are also signed up to receive notifications and harm reduction information. Spread the word To receive High Alert email alerts or notifications, sign up at www.highalert.org.nz(link is external) If you would like to get involved email highalert@highalert.org.nz(link sends e-mail) - Police Ten One Magazine People are being warned to brace themselves for some cooler temperatures in the coming days, with snow forecast for the Desert Rd - State Highway 1 on Thursday. In its latest weather update, MetService has issued a snowfall warning for the North Island road. In the six hours from 2pm - 8pm on Thursday, July 17, rain may turn to snow for a time about the road. One to three centimetres of snow may accumulate on the highest parts of the Desert Rd, with lesser amounts down to 900 metres. Closer to home in Tauranga, periods of rain are expected to develop before dawn, possibly heavy until evening, MetService said. Easterlies, turning southerly in the evening. Heavy rain and strong winds are forecast for the north of New Zealand. "A complex low moves east over the upper North Island during Thursday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds. Severe Weather Watches for heavy rain and strong winds are in force." A Heavy Rain Watch is in place for Coromandel Peninsula from 6am - 1pm on Thursday, and for Gisborne/Tairawhiti from 1pm Thursday to 12pm Friday, July 18. Periods of heavy rain are expected for both regions. "Rainfall amounts may approach warning criteria. Streams and rivers may rise rapidly. Surface flooding, slips, and difficult driving conditions are possible. "Clear your drains and gutters to prepare for heavy rain. Avoid low-lying areas and drive cautiously." Rain is expected to clear on Friday, with southerlies expected to become strong for a time in the morning. A Tauranga patisserie chef has whipped up a mind-blowing recipe for a two-ingredient meringue that comes together in just five minutes in a mixer. Noel Remacle says his new approach could make life a lot easier for enthusiasts of the airy dessert. The third-generation baker recently presented his simple meringue at the global Pastry Arts Virtual Summit, attended by more than 60 of the worlds top dessert professionals. Remacle said he loved trying new things and told the Bay of Times how the meringue came to be after he began experimenting with an Italian meringue buttercream in 2020. My daughter was pregnant five years ago and wanted a cake with buttercream, but she couldnt have raw eggs. He replaced normal eggs with pasteurised egg whites - made from egg white powder and water - and added fondant - a type of icing. When I first did it, I didnt intentionally whip it as a meringue, I just whipped pasteurised egg whites and fondant until it was nice and smooth. This was when he discovered the potential for a meringue. Remacle said he worked to perfect the ratios of pasteurised egg whites and fondant. It was either too soft or had an odd texture, so I played around for a few weeks until I found the right texture. He had also developed a vegan version that replaced egg whites with aquafaba. His method had no need for hot sugar syrups or bain-marie set-ups, and took less than five minutes to prepare. You throw everything in the mixer, turn it on, walk away, and come back in five minutes. The meringue is made from pasteurised egg whites and fondant, doesn't require hot sugar syrups or bain-marie set-ups, and takes less than five minutes. Photo / Supplied Its as simple as, and could make life a lot easier. The Edmonds meringue recipe, for example, uses egg whites, salt, cream of tartar and caster sugar, and requires bakers to watch the mixture for consistency changes while beating. Remacle named his approach the BelgieBaker Meringue. That came from me being from Belgium, being a baker, and here in New Zealand. Everywhere I worked used Belgie as my nickname. He said his meringue broke all the traditional meringue rules. If the French, Italians, and Swiss get to name their meringues, well then why not me? Remacle told the Bay of Plenty Times that when he started baking in 1980, he didnt actually want to be a baker. His father and grandfather were both pastry chefs. Noel Remacle calls his method the BelgieBaker Meringue. Photo / Supplied When I was 14, I got in some trouble, was kicked out of school, and thats when my dad told me I was going to be a baker. I learned the hard way, and I hated it in the beginning, but, after a while, learning to do cakes and everything, it became my passion, and now Im always doing it. Remacle moved to New Zealand from Belgium in 2007 after selling his family bakery business. We just decided to travel, and, when I do something, I always have to go to extremes, and I thought Whats the furthest I could go, which was New Zealand. He started in Napier, working the midnight bread shift at the Hastings New World bakery. I had to start back at the bottom, but I was just happy to do my thing. Remacle said what made his meringue discovery extra special was that every time he made it, it reminded him of his dad. His dad was in hospital in Belgium with Covid-19 when Remacle made his discovery, and could not come to the phone. Remacle planned to share the news which he knew his dad would love when he came out of hospital, but he never made it out. Noel Remacle is a third-generation baker and started baking in 1980. Photo / Supplied So every time I make the meringue, I think about that, and how cool it would have been if I could have told him. Remacle works as a principal academic staff member at Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, teaching the Certificate in Baking (Level 4) and Diploma in Baking (Level 5). He shared the meringue recipe with his students before presenting it to the Pastry Arts Virtual Summits global audience. He said he had since received messages from all over the world. People from Portugal, Belgium and France are saying the recipe is mind-blowing. The summit had dessert makers showcasing their work from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, the United States and Wales. Remacle said he was in conversations with two global companies, with a few people asking for the exact recipe. At the moment, Im keeping the exact ratios quiet, but its not rocket science. MOSCOW, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. Meanwhile, four guided aerial bombs and 178 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down by the air defense within one day, according to the statement. Tauranga City Council has postponed its decision to confirm a preferred delivery model for future water services. While Council was expected to make a decision on Monday, it opted instead to leave the report on the table to allow time for further discussions with the community prior to making a decision. The decision comes after Thames Coromandel District Council signalled it wished to progress alongside Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council in a multi-council CCO at the end of April when Tauranga City Councils public consultation had already concluded. Mayor Mahe Drysdale said Council has been very open to working with any Council that provides mutually beneficial outcomes. Western Bay of Plenty District Council has always been our preferred partner, but we have had conversations with a number of councils and worked through different scenarios. Off the back of that scenario modelling, we now have two councils that we could progress with, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, whom we consulted alongside in April, and more recently Thames Coromandel District Council. The involvement of Thames Coromandel District Council is a relatively recent development and before making a decision, and moving to due diligence, we need to update our community about our potential new partner and ensure the community is fully informed, Drysdale said. Although a delay could compress the time required for submitting a Water Services Delivery Plan by 3 September, it is important that we get this right. We look forward to continuing to engage with all of our people and appreciate any feedback on how we can make Tauranga better. A decision on Councils preferred delivery model is now expected on August 5 2025. If a multi-council CCO was preferred, Council would also need to approve a Commitment Agreement, which would allow councils to work together and undertake a due diligence process that assesses a joint operating model. The establishment of any multi-council CCO would be subject to all parties being satisfied with the outcomes of the due diligence process, and any council could choose to withdraw if it was dissatisfied with its findings. Te Awanui Ward Councillor Hemi Rolleston said it was appropriate to postpone the decision. This is one of the most important decisions this Council will make. Therefore, to leave this decision for a further three weeks is a practical decision, based on feedback from Iwi that they require more time, particularly with the relatively late inclusion of Thames Coromandel District Council. Community event The Mayor and Councillors will be holding an information and Q&A session with the community about Local Water Done Well on Thursday, July 24 from 5-6pm at the University of Waikato in the Te Manawaroa Room. Free parking will be available from 4.30pm on the day at the council parking building on Spring Street. Local Water Done Well is the New Zealand government's plan to reform how water services are managed and to tackle the countrys significant water infrastructure challenges. During public consultation in April 2025 a total of 726 people provided submissions addressing Why wai matters: Local Water Done Well, via councils online submissions form. Ana I. Martinez Madrid Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 14:45 Compartir You had better prepare your 12 grapes - whether seedless or not. Also keep the party favours handy and don't overdo it with the sweet treats. And you'd better have written your letter to their majesties the Three Wise Men from the East because you'll have to deliver it. But the ceremonial midnight chimes aren't in August... or are they? Berchules, a municipality in Granada province in the Andalucia region of Spain, with a population of just over 600, celebrates New Year's Eve on Saturday 2 August. Residents have been eating grapes at the beginning of August since 1995. This curious celebration arose as a result of an electricity blackout that the municipality suffered on 31 December 1994 . With the help of some candles, residents ate the grapes as best they could, but it was impossible to follow the traditional chimes and the planned evening of celebrations had to be suspended. "An untimely power cut at eleven o'clock at night on 31 December left the residents of this town without a party", SUR's sister newspaper ABC published at the time. The article also detailed that "the outage lasted until twelve o'clock noon the following day". Being left without electricity was no surprise either - it was not the first power blackout this town had suffered. The municipality had been experiencing problems with the electricity supply for some time. But this time was different; the date was too special and, in addition, blackouts always caused significant economic losses for local businesses. Official party This was the event which made the residents meet to agree on how to combat these unsustainable power issues - demanding immediate solutions from the electricity company. "Faced with such a setback, the residents held an extraordinary plenary session on 2 January, in which unanimously agreed to move the New Year's Eve party to 4 August. At the same time, they sent a complaint to the electricity supply company for the 13-hour outage on such an important occasion," detailed ABC in a 1995 article. Since then, Berchules has celebrated New Year's Eve every August, which has become the most eagerly awaited festivity not only by the locals themselves, but tourists too: last year the celebration attracted 8,000 people. They set up nativity scenes and drink cava while watching the parade. So it is not surprising that locals managed to get the Junta de Andalucia to declare it a regional fiesta of tourist interest in 2020. No one ever imagined that this unpleasant situation would lead to such a positive impact on the village. Since 1995 thousands of people have flocked to the small town in the Alpujarra region of Granada - increasing tourist attraction (and spending) to the area for the celebrations. Asociacion Berchulera de Nochevieja en Agosto (Abnea) organises the event in collaboration with Berchules town hall and the Diputacion de Granada provincial authority. Programme This year's festival begins on Friday 1 August with children's activities, music, a Christmas light competition and unveiling the Christmas market. There is also a New Year's Eve museum, where the history of this particular festivity is shown through a photography exhibition and curious objects that have been collected year after year. Key information: 1 What: New Year's Eve in Berchules (Granada). 2 When: Friday 1 and Saturday 2 August. 3 Please note: if you are staying overnight, book in advance. The town hall gives out party favours and grapes to everyone. The following day (2 August), is the central focus of the celebrations: New Year's Eve. There is a traditional parade, accompanied by a brass band and the Three Wise Men as they hand out anis and mantecados (Christmas treats) to locals and tourists. The itinerary includes: a flamenco performance; concerts; a street party; and a foam party for the little ones. Traditional midnight grapes are followed by the packed square bursting with joy and wishing each other "feliz medio Ano Nuevo" (happy half New Year). Snow cannons transform this iconic scene of celebration into a winter wonderland in the middle of summer. Eugenio Cabezas Velez-Malaga Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 13:54 Compartir Tropical fruit cooperative Trops, which is based in Velez-Malaga on the eastern Costa del Sol, is looking for 500 people to help with its forthcoming harvest of mangoes and avocados. It is expected to be much better than the two previous years thanks to the abundant rain during autumn, winter and spring. Trops has posted the advertisement on its social media pages: "We need professionals from different sectors who want to contribute their knowledge and skills during the 2025 mango campaign and opt to form part of our workforce. Are you ready to work with us?" The advertisement goes on to say, "Trops' minimum requirements for these positions in their production area include: experience in packaging and handling fruit; experience as line managers; experience in food quality; experience in forklift and/or fork lift truck handling as well as pallet truck handling." Although it does state that people with experience in other sectors will also be considered. The announcement concludes: "If you are looking for a life project with stability and a future, Trops is the place for you, we are waiting for you." Click here for further information on how to apply (in Spanish). Trops opened a new headquarters in the Algarve in Portugal in June. The cooperative from Velez-Malaga has invested nine million euros in the extension of its facilities in Tavira, with a surface area of 7,195 square metres, to attend to the 120 growers in the Portuguese area, who have a turnover of 30 million euros. Eugenio Cabezas Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 14:20 Compartir A German hiker, 50, and her dog were rescued by the Local Police and forest rangers on Tuesday, after being stranded on a 40-metre-high rockface in the Sierras Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama natural park on the border of Malaga province for around seven hours. The 112 emergency service operators received a call around 7pm. The woman explained that she had tried to descend with her dog from the Pozo de Lizar, located in the highest part of Frigiliana. At around 1pm, she became trapped next to a pine tree, unable to move upwards or downwards. Head of the Local Police Placido Navas and forest rangers Manuel Lorenzo and Damian Herrero went to the nearest access point along the riverbed. The woman was trapped next to a large pine tree, with a drop of more than 40 metres straight down to the river. The police officer managed to get very close to her, after skirting the mountainside along more than a hundred meters of steep ascent. He threw her a rope, which he secured to a tree. With great difficulty, the woman was able to climb down to his position along with her dog. Navas and Lorenzo then helped her and her pet out of the river. She had cuts and bruises on various parts of her body, but did not require further medical assistance. The police safely took them to her car. Maria Jose Diaz Alcala / Juan Cano Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 14:10 Compartir Police are investigating the origins of a brawl between a customer and the owner of a small bar in Benamargosa in the east of Malaga province on Monday 14 July. The Guardia Civil is asking people who filmed the argument to send them videos, which capture the insults, threats and the fight between the two men. The brawl started at around midday between the owner of the bar and a Moroccan man who has been a resident in the village for several years. In a first video captured by onlookers, which was shared on social media, the two men insulted and threatened each other and even hit each other in the face. However, the scene did not stop there; according to witnesses, it escalated until the customer started throwing chairs and tables from the terrace onto the street in front. Although the motive of the dispute is not clear, the different sources consulted by SUR the customer has had problems with other local residents. While the police are investigating the incident, no arrests have been made so far. Emma Perez-Romera Casares Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 16:57 Compartir Following its closure in 2021, the Casa Natal de Blas Infante in Casares (Malaga province) has reopened after a refurbishment which involved the Junta de Andalucia, the provincial Diputacion de Malaga and Casares town hall. The museum space has been extended by 400 metres on each floor and the information and interactive panels have been updated, using not only original photographs but also illustrations for a better educational explanation of the life and work of Blas Infante, who is considered the 'founding father of the Andalusian homeland'. This increase in space will also allow personal objects donated by his grandchildren to be exhibited for the first time, including glasses, a fountain pen and manuscripts, as well as some first edition books and documents that the town hall has been collecting over the last 25 years. Blas Infante lived in the house with his parents and brother until the age of 25. It was there that he decided he wanted to change people's ideas on political autonomy, Andalusian cultural identity, unity and progress. His vision included Andalusian regeneration that integrated the region with and supported the rest of Spain. Museum conversion Vanessa Lopez, Casares tourism officer who is in charge of the Casa Natal, explained that "the Infante Casares family could sustain this house because they were a wealthy family. The original house occupied the whole block, it was a family house, upstairs they lived with the maternal grandparents and downstairs in the basement they kept the animals, the herds of cows and oxen... whose roof we have preserved". "This house was sold in parts from 1920, when Blas Infante took his mother to Coria del Rio and his brother was already a judge in Madrid. They no longer lived in Casares and decided to sell it because it was too big and it was bought by people who were not relatives," Vanessa Lopez told SUR. Casares town hall was interested in buying the house from the then owners at the end of the 1990s. The house was empty, "so they bought the first part, which is the most symbolic because it has the kitchen, the cupboard and the staircase," explains Lopez. "When the town hall converted it into a museum there was nothing left of Blas Infante in it, nor of the family, no furniture or anything else, only the holes in the wall, the coal oven, the sink...". "We are excited about the opening after four years. The figure of Blas Infante has always been vindicated, but nowadays it has many parallels with the current situation and we believe it is needed more than ever. The town hall is very committed to the recovery of the values that Blas Infante represents," concluded Vanessa Lopez. Paco Grinan Malaga Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 17:42 Compartir Javier Castillo likes a good mystery. Just open one of his novels as proof. Beyond the printed page, this author also enjoys keeping up the suspense, especially every time he launches a new book title. He had already announced a few weeks ago at the Madrid book fair that on 1 October he would release what will be his eighth book, after closing a big chapter of his life's work last year with his most influential and successful trilogy The Snow Girl with the third and final instalment, 'La Grieta del Silencio' (The Fissure of Silence). Now the author, who will be the opening speaker at the next Malaga book fair, has revealed the details of his new project, entitled 'El Susurro del Fuego' (no official English title as yet - it literally translates as 'the whispering of the fire'). This work represents a significant departure from his literary style as, for the first time ever, he has set the plot on Spanish soil, specifically on the volcanic islands of the Canaries, which serve as a good analogy for this tale of fiery intrigue. A woman with her back to readers once again takes centre stage on the cover of Castillo's new novel. A cover that invites mystery, with this young woman sitting on a swing, overlooking the 448 pages of this new thriller, with Mount Teide rising up in the background. A setting on home territory is the main novelty of this new publishing venture by the Malaga-born writer, who, until now, had always set his storylines in the USA. "This novel represents a great leap forward from everything I've written, because I think it brings together everything that a good story should have: suspense, pain, drama, tragedy and love, along with a location I'm certain you weren't expecting: for the first time I'm setting a novel in Spain", said the popular writer on Tuesday. He has sold 2.5 million copies of his seven previous novels in Spain and he aspires to reach the three million mark with 'El Susurro del Fuego'. As revealed by Javier Castillo himself, a family trip to Tenerife last year was the catalyst for this, his eighth thriller. This time he has taken the step that many readers had been asking for and that Netflix's adaptations of his books had confirmed: that his elaborate plots can work if, instead of New York as the location, the crimes can take place in Malaga or any other setting on Spanish soil. Thus, his new novel tells the story of two twin siblings who travel to the Canary Islands to celebrate life: while one has overcome cancer, the other sets out on a new beginning. However, the former suffers a minor relapse that lands him in hospital for several days. Just when he thinks the worst is over, he discovers that his sister has disappeared. "Since the publication of my first books, readers have consistently asked me to set my next novel in Spain. And while that request, to some extent, connected with something visceral I'd longed to explore, it wasn't until a family trip to the Canary Islands that I felt the time had come", said Castillo when announcing his new book, marked by the unique atmosphere of the Canaries: "A volcanic land, full of diverse settings, where you have the sensation that the ground is constantly vibrating beneath your feet." The Malaga-born writer has sold more than 2.5 million copies of his seven previous novels. In the opinion of the Malaga-born author, the landscape and setting of these islands is "the best place to accompany the story of twin siblings caught up in illness, healing and a mystery that has them delving into their childhood wounds to find the truth. A novel full of craters, geysers, sea, cliffs, wind, ash, a story unlike anything I have written before." What Javier Castillo does remain faithful to is his unmistakable style, which is why 'El susurro del fuego' is narrated in a nonstop, against-the-clock narrative to discover the whereabouts of the missing sister on an island that is about to burn. Distinguishing features of Castillo's writing Already dubbed as a master of the thriller in Spain, Javier Castillo has become an international phenomenon, with his books translated into 20 languages and published in over 60 countries. One of the most recent is Ukraine. However, his beginnings were not easy. Tired of being given the runaround by publishing houses, the Malaga-born author opted for self-publishing with his first novel The Day Sanity was Lost, which became one of Amazon's best-selling titles, finally sparking the interest of major publishers. It was ultimately Suma (Penguin Random House) that opened doors for the writer to publish his literary debut in print in 2017, becoming a phenomenon that has only grown since then and was soon confirmed with the second part of this saga, The Day Love was Lost (2018). After that, the author continued to mature with Everything that Happened to Miranda Huff (2019), in which he reaffirmed his hallmark traits: an instinct for thrillers, a talent for gripping plots and an international flair for plots set in the United States. Later came the novel that would mark his international breakthrough and definitive acclaim, The Snow Girl (2020), set in the world of crime journalism, becoming the most widely read novel in Spain during the pandemic. The following year, he expanded this saga of unsolved crimes that connect with current events with The Soul Game (2021), at the same time that Netflix acquired the adaptation rights to this franchise, the first instalment of which became number one worldwide on the North American platform's streaming service. With his next work, The Crystal Cuckoo (2023), Castillo opened a new literary mystery set in the world of medical transplants and rural America. Then, last year, he completed his main literary project to date with the publication of The Fissure of Silence (2024), the third and final part of The Snow Girl trilogy, which he presented not only in Spain, but also in Italy. This writer of fiction now turns over yet another page in 2025 with 'El susurro del fuego', his first thriller set in Spain. A book that promises to be explosive, just like a volcano. Europa Press Malaga Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 16:51 Compartir The Guardia Civil have arrested 66 people who were part of an organised group responsible for stealing items worth more than 220,000 euros from airport shops in different parts of Spain, including the Canary Islands and Malaga. The members of the group were detected in May, as part of Operation Free Simba. Police officers noticed the coordinated actions of several people, initially at the Tenerife Sur Airport, then also in the rest of the Canary Islands and at the Spanish mainland airports of Bilbao, Madrid, Malaga and Alicante. The perpetrators were targeting expensive perfumes and cosmetics in order to subsequently sell them across the country and abroad. The ringleader was a young woman from the Canary Islands. The organisation had extensive knowledge of airport operations, dynamics and security measures. It took advantage of the times of day when there was higher passenger traffic. In order to gain access to the security area, they would buy cheap tickets, steal the goods and leave the airport without catching a flight. They hid the goods in large bags, used hire cars and often bought tickets in the names of third parties. In addition, they used vulnerable people, including minors, to commit the thefts, paying them a commission. Caught with 30,000 euros worth of perfumes The Guardia Civil intercepted one of the members of the group with 30,000 euros worth of perfumes, while he was on his way to sell the stolen goods. The detainee even presented an invoice from a perfumery, from which he had supposedly bought them, but the police were able to corroborate that it was a false invoice. A total of 66 people have been arrested. A further 18 members of age and three minors are under investigation. The Guardia Civil consider the criminal group "totally dismantled". Out of the total value of the stolen goods (223,272 euros), only 70,900 euros have been recovered. A 17-year-old youth has been arrested in Malaga province on suspicion of sextortion of minors. The police are aware of five victims, whose trust the suspect managed to gain. He convinced them to start sending him sexual photos and videos and threatened to publish them if they stopped. The police were informed of the case after the mother of one of the girls reported it. The investigation launched in 2023 linked the events to a similar case in Torremolinos. Through this and the discovery of two social media profiles, more victims were located in Cordoba and Barcelona. The suspect was arrested at the end of June. His case is being handled by the juvenile prosecutor. Upon the search of his home, the police seized a tablet, a computer and two mobile phones. Recommendations to avoid falling into sextortion The police have established specific steps to follow in order to avoid becoming a sextortion victim, such as being rationally suspicious and aware that the information uploaded on the internet or provided to third parties is no longer under the individual's control. For this reason, it is important to properly set up privacy on social media profiles and, when faced with inappropriate content, report it to the platform or the authorities. It's also important to verify that contacts are genuine, avoid sharing personal information with strangers and, above all, not share photos or videos in intimate situations. Following the surge of violent, anti-immigration disturbances that have been taking place in Torre Pacheco (Murcia) for almost a week now, Spain's central government has accused far-right Vox party of "inciting hatred" with statements that link immigration and violence. The hostile protests particularly target Moroccan and North African residents. This increase in hatred was instigated on social media after three people of North African origin were detained on suspicion of beating a 68-year-old man on Wednesday, 10 July. Statements, including ones of the leader of Vox for Murcia - Jose Angel Antelo - have called for the deportation of immigrants of certain backgrounds. Zoom Police officers make an arrest on Tuesday in Torre Pacheco. AGM The government's spokesperson and minister of education - Pilar Alegria - denounced the "hatred fuelled by lies" and stated that the consequences could go beyond the imaginable. She highlighted the "great work" of the security forces, which has led to the arrest of 13 people so far, and said that the Ministry of the Interior will further reinforce the police deployment. However, she warned that the current situation could spread beyond Torre Pacheco, reaching other Spanish towns with a high rate of immigration. Leading party in Murcia 'complicit' Alegria strongly criticised the Vox's actions, which aim to instil fear by "pointing the finger at a group of people". However, according to her, Vox relies on the "complicit silence of the PP", which is the leading party in the province of Murcia. The minister is still hopeful that Spaniards are "nothing like those violent people", who mistreat certain groups under the pretense of "defending Spain". "It is an open, diverse, modern country, a welcoming country". Alegria also highlighted that the crime rate in Spain is "one of the lowest in the world". She also backed up the government's support for immigrants with statistics: 73% of the crimes in 2023 (the last year with available data) were committed by Spanish nationals. UNITED NATIONS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is deeply concerned over the continued violence in the Druze-majority area in Suweida governorate in southern Syria, which has resulted in dozens of casualties, including among civilians, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN chief, on Tuesday. "He is disturbed by reports of arbitrary killings of civilians, sectarian incitement, and looting of private property. He condemns all violence against civilians, especially acts that risk inflaming sectarian tensions," Dujarric said at a daily briefing. The spokesman said the secretary-general urges Syria's interim authorities and local leaders to immediately de-escalate, protect civilians, restore calm, and prevent further incitement, and further urges the interim authorities to transparently and openly investigate and hold to account those responsible for violations. Guterres is also concerned about Israel's airstrikes on Syrian territory and calls on Israel to refrain from violations of Syria's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, said Dujarric. "The Secretary-General underscores that it is imperative to support a credible, orderly and inclusive political transition in Syria in line with the key principles of resolution 2254 (2015)," he said. Europa Press Madrid Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 11:55 Compartir The Spanish ministry in charge of housing and the urban agenda reached an agreement with Airbnb this week to identify and remove ads for tourist properties that do not have a legal registration code on this platform, according to a statement from the department. In the meeting held on Tuesday at the ministerial headquarters, the global holiday rental company committed to submitting monthly data on the accommodation listings advertised on its platform as of August. This resolution means that Airbnb will remove listings that present irregularities in the new national registry for tourist lets. In these cases, the platform will notify hosts in advance, giving them a period of ten working days to correct the defects before proceeding with the final removal. The only exception to this timeframe is if it results from a revocation of a state registration number, in which case removal will occur within 48 hours of the ministry's notification. Currently, the company has a mandatory box on the platform for hosts to include a valid registration number, preferably the new national registration number (NRA). This system will soon be replaced by two separate boxes, one for the NRA and one for the regional registration number. Commenting on this news, Jaime Rodriguez de Santiago, general manager for Airbnb's marketing service in Spain, stressed that this agreement reinforces Airbnb's commitment to "transparency and good collaboration" with public authorities. The single, national registry of tourist and seasonal rentals, the result of Royal Decree 1312/2024, which created the digital one-stop shop, became compulsory on 1 July, six months after it came into effect at the beginning of the year. This nationwide regulation is a consequence of EU Regulation 2024/1028 of the European parliament and council of 11 April 2024, which is directly applicable to all EU member states, making them responsible for establishing a system to regulate short-term rentals of furnished housing. Rocio Mendoza Madrid Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 15:04 Compartir A 63-year-old man remains isolated at the Gomez Ulla military hospital in Madrid after testing positive for Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHF), which he contracted from a tick bite. This is the second reported case of the disease so far this year, the other one concerning a 70-year-old man from the same province who tested positive in May. CCHF is an emerging disease, i.e. a disease that had not existed in Spain until recently. It can be transmitted by a tick bite but also through human contact with an infected person. It is exactly for this reason that careful and strict quarantine is required. The patient is being monitored The man was first treated in Salamanca, before getting transferred to the hospital in Madrid, which specialises in such infections and where he will be monitored. Although he remains stable, the disease itself implies clinical severity, especially given that there is no specific medication for it. "As it is caused by a virus, not a bacteria, there are only antiretroviral treatments for the efficacy of which there is not enough scientific evidence," said Dr Jose Ramon Ramos Rincon, expert in emerging infections at the Hospital General Universitario de Alicante. Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever has a high fatality rate, which is "not insignificant". If it reaches up to 40%, it is more concerning than other illnesses such as imported dengue, which is common, but has a mortality rate of less than 1%. Previous cases Of the 18 cases registered in Spain to date (the first case was reported in 2016), six people have lost their lives. The average incidence so far has been two cases per year. Climate change, globalisation, changing temperature and rainfall patterns have recently led experts to detect an increase in so-called emerging diseases: the West Nile Virus, dengue, Zika. Contrary to expectations, there has been no noticeable increase in the number of CCHF cases. There was only one year - 2024 - when four cases were reported. Castilla y Leon is the region in Spain with the highest incidence of this pathology. With the exception of a couple of cases in Extremadura and another in Cordoba, all cases were recorded in provinces of this region, especially in Salamanca. This is the usual habitat of the tick. Specimens of this insect have been carrying the disease since 2010, possibly having contracted it from migratory birds. Symptoms and precautions Dr Ramos urges people to be careful when they walk out in the wilderness and when they touch animals. Some tips include wearing socks over trousers and using repellents when out in the wild. Once at home, everybody should check their body for signs of bites or insects, which should be removed by health professionals. The first symptoms appear after one to three or even nine days. These include general malaise and, above all, fever. If there is a trace of a tick bite, which sometimes goes unnoticed, an analysis must be carried out to rule out diseases. Lyme disease can also be contracted through insects, but it is not as fatal as the Crimean-Congo fever. What determines whether the medical condition progresses badly and the outcome is fatal? "Three main factors: the viral load carried by the insect that has bitten the person, the patient's state of health and the strength of their immune system and, finally, the strain of the virus transmitted by the insect because not all strains are equally lethal," says Dr Ramos. The virus causes inflammation of the blood vessels, which may start to bleed. If the disease spreads throughout the body and to different organs, the vessels rupture, which can lead to death. Because CCHF has been an urgent notifiable disease (NOD) since 2015 and given that it is emerging in Spain, the detection of a single case would be considered an outbreak. It should be reported as an alert to the Centro de Coordinacion de Alertas y Emergencias Sanitarias (CCAES). Melchor Saiz-Pardo Madrid Wednesday, 16 July 2025, 11:15 Compartir Three letters coincide in most of the Guardia Civil's latest report on the xenophobic mobilisation taking place in the Murcian town of Torre Pacheco in Spain: DTN. They are an acronym for Deport Them Now - an international platform that, until just a few weeks ago, was totally unknown to the Spanish security forces, but which has surprisingly galvanised the anti-immigration protests. From what the Ministry of the Interior has learned, Deport Them Now does not have infrastructure in Spain, although it does have newly-emerged leaders, one of whom was arrested in Barcelona on Tuesday, 15 July. The intelligence experts of the armed forces suggest that the DTN's rise is a "typical social media boom" - a "fashionable" organisation, which has even "eclipsed", thanks to its "agility" and the influence of other national extremist actors that have marked the path of ultra mobilisations, with a pull among the most radical such as Dani Esteve and his Desokupa or Alvise Perez with his 'Se Acabo La Fiesta' (The Party's Over). DTN recently called for "active defence" of the streets and "a joint fight against the invasion" of immigrants - messages spread on the 'Nucleo Nacional' platform. According to the Guardia Civil, DTN activists coordinate through Telegram chats, which keep on appearing and disappearing. On Tuesday, the largest of these channels had almost 15,000 members and radical messages popping up every few seconds. Hate slogans Many of these messages are nothing more than hate slogans, but others do provide key information to further encourage xenophobic protests in Torre Pacheco, such as maps showing the location of areas with a North African majority (not to be confused with roma areas), urban guerrilla tactics or ways to reach the population without being detected by the armed forces deployed throughout Murcia. These channels were set up in mid-May, following the Remigration Summit 25, which was held in Gallarate (Italy), a few kilometres from Milan. The convention claimed to be an "identity meeting" and brought together neo-Nazi activists, radical far-right and openly xenophobic influencers and members of ultra parties from all over Europe. No Spanish ultra party was present at the convention, which was attended by the Portuguese Chega, the French Reconquete or Alternative for Germany. However, individual Spanish "ultras", who the Guardia Civil believe to be behind this new platform, did attend. Deport Them Now's most 'ambitious' and threatening action so far took place on Sunday, when they published an open call for a "hunt" for immigrants on 15, 16 and 17 July in Torre Pacheco. Upon searching the home of one of the suspected leaders in Barcelona, the Guardia Civil seized two computers. Although the Ministry of the Interior stated that it has deleted the abovementioned post and closed the Telegram channel, the message had already spread to sub-channels. Syracuse, N.Y. When tens of thousands of people come to see more than 8,000 vintage and classic cars this weekend, three local police agencies will be ready for them with extra patrols. The Syracuse Nationals, the largest car show in the Northeast, will be holding its 25th anniversary show at the New York State Fairgrounds. The three-day show starts on Friday and ends Sunday. A common problem on Syracuse Nationals weekend can be drivers doing burnouts, driving recklessly or racing other drivers. In past years, hundreds of spectators have gathered along Erie Boulevard East to watch the parade of cars go by. Our main concern is excessive speed, drag racing and reckless driving, said Capt. Matthew Malinowski, a spokesperson for the Syracuse Police Department. We always want people to have fun, but the city of Syracuse isnt the place to engage in that type of activity. There will be a zero-tolerance enforcement burnouts, reckless driving, and driving under the influence will result in tickets, arrests and vehicles being towed, police said. Syracuse police, the Onondaga County Sheriffs Office and the State Police announced this week they will all have more patrols out due to the car show. We tend to see an influx of vehicular traffic, so we have an increased patrol in and around the Inner Harbor and our traffic section out in full force, Malinowski said. The patrols will be stationed near Hiawatha Boulevard and Solar Street. Solar Street from the Embassy Suites entrance to Bear Street will be closed all weekend, police said. The New York State Fairgrounds are expected to see high traffic volumes during peak registration hours, police said. Police advise other drivers to avoid the Hiawatha Boulevard and Solar Street area during registration times due to heavy traffic congestion. Staff writer Darian Stevenson covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? You can reach her at dstevenson@syracuse.com Hey parents (and grandparents): Heres an opportunity to teach the children about some music legends. Want to save money on a babysitter at a summer concert? The Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater at Lakeview will let kids in for free for another upcoming concert: The Outlaw Music Festival on Sunday, Aug. 10. The lineup includes Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Turnpike Troubadours and The Red Clay Strays. One child 12 and under will admitted on the lawn with each paid adult lawn ticket. Lawn tickets are currently on sale starting at $30 via Ticketmaster. An adult ticket must be presented at the tent by the main gate on the day of the show to redeem a single free child ticket, according to an email sent Wednesday to Empower FCU members. If youre bringing multiple children, multiple paid tickets are required. The offer is in addition to previously announced kids-get-in-free deals for two other upcoming concerts at the Amp: Little Big Town, Wynonna Judd and Shelby Lynne (Aug. 1); and Tedeschi Trucks Band and Whiskey Myers (Aug. 28). The deal was also good for Styxs July 14 performance with Kevin Cronin and Don Felder. All dates and artists are subject to change. Outside lawn chairs are not allowed at any amphitheater concerts. Some families may see the deal as an opportunity to save money on a babysitter, but it can also be an educational experience. Nelson, 92, and Dylan, 84, are a huge piece of music history over the past seven decades. Nelson is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame. Dylan, whose life inspired the recent biopic A Complete Unknown (starring Timothee Chalamet), has been honored by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, plus received a Pulitzer Prize and a Nobel Prize. 2025 Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview concert schedule May 27: Dave Matthews Band (Review, Photos) May 28: Avril Lavigne with Simple Plan, We The Kings (Review, Photos) May 30: Coheed and Cambria / Mastodon with Periphery (Review, Photos) June 5: Luke Bryan (Review, Photos) June 29: The Beach Boys (CANCELED) July 11: Creed with Daughtry, Mammoth WVH (Review, Photos) July 14: Styx with Kevin Cronin, Don Felder July 22: The Offspring with Jimmy Eat World, New Found Glory (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) July 23: Barenaked Ladies with Sugar Ray, Fastball (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 1: Little Big Town with Wynonna Judd, Shelby Lynne (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 8: Lil Wayne with Tyga (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 10: Outlaw Music Festival with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 17: Cody Jinks with Tanner Usrey (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 19: Jonas Brothers (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 21: Thomas Rhett (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Aug. 28: Tedeschi Trucks Band / Whiskey Myers (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Sept. 4: Hardy (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Sept. 10: A Day to Remember / Yellowcard (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Sept. 11: Papa Roach / Rise Against (Tickets: Live Nation, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, StubHub) Pamela McLoughlin, Hartford Courant (TNS) The sudden death of a 54-year-old man who was on tour with Annabelle, said to be the worlds most haunted doll, is being mourned by the paranormal world. Dan Rivera was the lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research or N.E.S.P.R., an organization founded by famed, late Connecticut paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, whose cases inspired multiple horror movies including The Conjuring and Annabelle. Rivera was known for his passion in defending others against dark forces. It is with deep sadness that Tony, Wade, and I share the sudden passing of our close friend and partner, Dan Rivera, said a post on the organizations Facebook page. We are heartbroken and still processing this loss. Dan truly believed in sharing his experiences and educating people on the paranormal. His kindness and passion touched everyone who knew him. Thank you for your support and kind thoughts during this difficult time. Rivera says in a video online that he and Lorraine Warren had an instant connection when they met on separate paranormal investigations years ago. He wound up working for the Warrens and said he and Lorraine had a special bond until her death. Rivera is said to have been on a nationwide tour with the scary Raggedy Ann doll that has been said to make bad things happen to people who anger her. They were in Gettysburg, Pa. on the Devils on the Run Tour, when medics were called to aid Rivera. His cause of death is pending. Speculation is already whirling online about his death. Annabelle draws huge crowds wherever she goes because of all the mystery and fear surrounding anecdotal stories about her. Annabelle is displayed in a locked glass case with crucifixes attached, the case covered with Holy Water infused lacquer. Visitors are always told to heed the warning on the case not to touch. Annabelle is one of the most famous items from the Warrens Occult Museum collection. Ed and Lorraine Warren determined during an investigation that Annabelle is inhabited by an inhuman spirit. The doll got so rambunctious during the ride to the Warrens home in Monroe from an investigation site, that Ed Warren had to sprinkle her with holy water, the late Lorraine Warren has said. A man who once ignored the warnings and taunted the doll at the museum, died in a motorcycle crash on the way home, as the story claims. There are countless stories of Annabelle wreaking havoc. The real Annabelle doll is an innocent-looking old-fashioned Raggedy Ann doll. The doll used in the Annabelle movies is a frightening-looking porcelain doll. A doll is seen at the premiere of Warner Bros' "Annabelle Comes Home" at Regency Village Theatre on June 20, 2019 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Rich Fury/FilmMagic via Getty Images) FilmMagic The Warrens took control of Annabelle during an investigation in the 1970s after a young Hartford nurse received the doll as a gift from her mother and numerous creepy things occurred. Later, the nurse claimed the doll attacked her friend. She held a seance and was told the doll held the ghost of a girl named Annabelle. The nurse called a priest. The priest told her to call the Warrens. The Warrens decided there was something evil in that doll, their son-in-law Tony Spera and now leader of their organization has said. The nurse called the priest to do an exorcism on the house and bless the nurse and her roommate. They said, We dont want the doll anymore. The Warrens took it back to their museum in Monroe, Spera has said. It all started when, One day the nurse came home and thought, I could have sworn I put that doll on the couch. It was in the bedroom. Then it happened more, Spera has said. One day she was sitting at the breakfast nook with the doll and suddenly the dolls arms moved. The Warrens came to investigate and determined the doll itself was not possessed, but manipulated by an inhuman presence, they have said. The Warrens are also famous for their investigation of a haunted house in Amityville, N.Y., and the 1980s Connecticut poltergeist case based on a Warren case, in which demonic possession was used unsuccessfully as a defense in a murder trial. Spera has said of all the items in the museum, Annabelle scared him most. Spera one regaled young filmmakers from Glastonbury with stories about Annabelle and the misfortune that came of museum goers who disobeyed the rules and touched or defied the doll on display, a visiting priest among them. The Occult Museum in Monroe is no longer open to the public, but some items, including Annabelle, are brought to other locations for paranormal events. Annabelle has been displayed at Mohegan Sun. The late Lorraine Warren has said the power of her Catholic faith has gotten her out of frightening situations because she uses goodness to fight the demonic. Holy water was a frequent tool used by the Warrens. Other highlights of the museum include Ouija boards, Voodoo dolls, objects used in satanic rituals, a coffin that a 17-year-old boy allegedly slept in before stalking women at night and artifacts from a plane that crashed into the Florida Everglades, according to Courant archives. The young filmmaker from Glastonbury, Michael Gilbertie, has said he had nightmares of the movie going wrong and of Annabelle being at the foot of his bed, rendering Gilbertie unable to move. Thankfully none of those nightmares came true, Gilbertie said in 2023. Ive seen too many crazy and ghostly things in my life to not believe. 2025 Hartford Courant. Visit courant.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Syracuse Nationals will return to the New York State Fairgrounds this weekend, bringing thousands of classic cars and hot rods for a three-day celebration of car culture. Billed as the largest car show in the Northeast, the event, scheduled from Friday through Sunday afternoon, will feature classic and custom cars from all over the United States, plus attractions, music and food. Last year, the event drew 86,000 people from all over the United States. Niklas Klingel (L) and Alexander Kuch (R) pose for a photo with a staff member of Guizhou's PIX Moving at the company's automotive manufacturing plant in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 4, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhou Xuanni) GUIYANG, July 16 (Xinhua) -- As Niklas Klingel stood inside the PIX Moving automotive manufacturing plant, watching the automated minibus frames take shape on the assembly line, his eyes sparkled with excitement. The 24-year-old German eagerly engaged in a lively technology discussion with the person in charge. Recently, as one of the invited guests for the Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2025, he participated in the six-day trip hosted by Tsinghua University and Guizhou Province, which titled "Opportune China, Youth Talks -- 2025 Global Youth Dialogue", and fifteen international youths participated in the journey. They explored Guizhou's innovative breakthroughs in various fields, including big data, autonomous vehicles, and the construction of the world's highest bridges. Klingel expressed his joy of back to China again and said that his experiences in Guizhou were reshaping his understanding of the global automotive landscape. Parallel to his Master of Science in Politics and Technology at Technical University of Munich, he had been also working as a financial consultant. With the global EV vehicle's booming development, he is now transitioning from traditional financial consulting to the field of automotive safety consulting. "The prosperity of China in electric vehicles and autonomous driving is evident, but what touched me more is their continuous innovation in autonomous driving technology," Klingel added in a later interview. In order to learn more about consumers and the global market, he furthered his studies in Tsinghua University's School of Social Sciences as a visiting student in 2023, focusing on consumer behavior and public organization management. Klingel went back to Germany after he finished his studies in China. He is currently providing safety consulting services and quality management training for German car manufacturers like BMW. During his visit to the PIX Moving factory, Klingel inquired in detail about the company's breakthroughs in autonomous driving algorithm optimization and sensor fusion. "Their algorithm integration innovations and 3D printing intelligent manufacturing capability are eye-catching and should be learned from by German automotive enterprises." He particularly emphasized that the advancements made by Chinese companies in the commercialization of autonomous driving offers valuable insights for traditional automotive powerhouses. He views this technological complementarity as an opportunity for fostering cooperation between the two countries. In regard to the competition and cooperation between the automotive industries of China and Germany, Klingel has a borderless industrial vision. He believes that international competition is not a zero-sum game but an accelerator of innovation that creates boundless opportunities. This positive interaction between the two countries has the potential to create an upward spiral of innovation. "Ultimately, it is the global consumers who benefit when German precision manufacturing meets Chinese smart technology, and we look forward to witnessing the most exciting innovations and transformations in automotive history." "There is a deep foundation of research in autonomous driving at both the Technical University of Munich and Tsinghua University. In the future, the two institutions can collaborate on research and innovation in the fields of autonomous vehicles and EV, thereby promoting the integrated development of the automotive industries in both countries," said Klingel, highlighting the broad prospects for specific cooperation paths between the two countries. "The two countries could establish a regular delegation exchange mechanism, set up more cross-border offices, and build technology transfer platforms that integrate Germany's quality management system with China's speed of innovation," Klingel explained. "From Munich to Guiyang, I see not only the undulating mountains but also the synchronized beats of innovation from two automotive powerhouses," Klingel said. Before concluding his visit to Guizhou, Klingel expressed his enthusiasm for initiating collaborative discussions between Guizhou's autonomous driving firm and traditional German automotive companies. "I look forward to having more discussions with Guizhou's autonomous driving enterprise, considering the potential large-scale commercial deployment of autonomous vehicles from Guizhou in Germany," Klingel added. Niklas Klingel visits Guizhou's Long March Cultural Digital Art Museum in Guiyang, southwest China's Guizhou Province, July 6, 2025. (Xinhua/Zhou Xuanni) Syracuse, N.Y. For 50 years, Brooklyn Pickle has stuffed sandwiches bigger than most peoples appetites. On Thursday, theyre slicing prices instead. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Syracuse-born sandwich shop is offering $5 full-sized subs all day Thursday at every location. Thats the same sandwich that normally takes two hands and half a lunch break to finish. On Monday, KFC announced its Free Bucket On Us promotion, where customers can receive a free eight-piece bucket of chicken or tenders with a purchase of $15 or more. This offer is digital-only, meaning food must be purchased on the KFC app or website to qualify. The Free Bucket On Us promotion runs from now until August 24, a company spokesperson told USA Today. According to a press release, this promotion comes as the Colonel Sanders-fronted chain "is entering its comeback era" as well as celebrating 75 years of fried chicken legacy. Were well aware of the latest fried chicken rankings and Im fired up to launch a bold Kentucky Fried Comeback and remind America exactly who we are. If people can give their ex a million second chances, I hope our fans can give us one, said KFC U.S. president Catherine Tan-Gillespie. The chain is also offering new menu items like Kentucky Fried Pickles, which are described as "golden-fried dill pickle slices that are the perfect crispy bite to pair with the brands signature Comeback Sauce or ranch." As of late, the fast food industry has been bustling with new menu items (many of which contain chicken) and promotions. Last week, McDonalds iconic Snack Wraps returned to the menu after a nine-year hiatus. The day Snack Wraps returned, Popeyes began offering customers its new and competing Chicken Wraps for free with purchase. It also challenged McDonalds to a wrap battle with an AI-generated rap music video. Central New York has felt more like Central Florida over the last few weeks. Record high temperatures across the region have sent most residents indoors seeking refuge from Mother Natures sauna. At this point, the transformative technology of air-conditioning is taken for granted as much as the electricity needed to power the units that make life bearable for hundreds of millions of people all over the globe. Upon reflection, it is exceedingly fitting that the city of Syracuse, world-famous for our cold and icy winters, was at the center of this revolution in cooling down the world. The Carrier Factory on South Geddes Street, circa 1940. Built by H.H. Franklin in 1902, the building was torn down in the 1960s to make way for Fowler High School. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association On a swelteringly hot July 4 morning in 1937, Syracuse residents awoke to a headline that made Independence Day a little bit cooler. After several months of negotiations between the city and Dr. Willis Carrier, the father of air-conditioning, Carrier Corporation purchased the mammoth former H.H. Franklin Manufacturing factory complex at 300 South Geddes Street, for the paltry sum of $1,000. It was a rather appropriate site considering from air-cooled automobiles to air-cooling machines. At that point in time, Carrier was based in Newark, New Jersey, but the companys operations were spread out across five separate locations in two different states. The Great Depression hit Carrier incredibly hard, and the company had only just returned to profitability when Dr. Carrier decided to move to Syracuse. Ever confident that his revolutionary technology would be ubiquitous across the globe, though, Carrier drove a hard bargain with Mayor Rolland Marvin and the Syracuse Chamber of Commerce, who were eager to revitalize the citys slumping economy. In April, a deal in principle was reached, one that presaged the big tax-break development deals that are commonplace today. The agreement was predicated on two significant financial commitments from Syracuses political and economic leaders. First, the city agreed to wipe out the propertys outstanding tax-bill of $589,000, which traced back to now defunct H.H. Franklin Manufacturing Company. Second, the Chamber of Commerce agreed to raise a $250,000 civic contribution to help alleviate Carriers rather large renovations costs for the old automobile factory. The city was happy to strike the deal, as there was essentially no chance of ever collecting on the Franklin debt, and Mayor Marvin was able to put over 100 men to work readying the factory. The city fulfilled its obligations on July 3. For their part, Carrier promised to have upwards of 1,100 men working in Syracuse by the fall, which they did when the plant opened in November. This fruitful partnership, which would eventually result in a near synonymous relationship between the company and the city had its roots in 1924. That year, Richard H. Pass, president of the Onondaga Pottery Company, approached Dr. Carrier about acquiring one of the Cornell graduates revolutionary centrifugal refrigeration machines (air-conditioner to the layman), which Carrier had invented in 1922. That year, Carrier Corp. had the first unit built in Europe and installed in their offices in Newark. They agreed to sell that historic unit to Pass for installation in O.P.C.s newest facility on West Fayette Street. Syracuses initial investment in Carrier Corporation paid enormous dividends. A Carrier float from a scrap drive during World War II. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Association The company grew at an exponential rate during the 1940s. The post-war boom was particularly kind to the air-conditioning business. By 1947, the company had outgrown the Geddes Street facility and began construction on a $6 million facility on Thompson Road. Dr. Carrier died in 1950, but his company kept growing. Massive capital investments at Carrier Circle continued in the 1950s and 60s, as homes, businesses, and government contracts made Carrier the world-wide leader in a global industry, just as Dr. Carrier had envisioned. At its peak, Carrier employed over 7,000 people at their Dewitt campus. A truly reciprocal relationship between a community and a company. Yet, changing economic realities, labor issues and trade policies, eventually took their toll on Carriers local manufacturing operations. From a certain perspective, the companys success in perfecting and manufacturing the technologies that allowed people to control their indoor climates led to major demographic shifts, as the population of the sunbelt grew significantly after 1970. This, in conjunction with increased labor conflicts and the forces of globalization, sowed the seeds of Carriers decision to relocate its manufacturing facilities. Manufacturing operations in Dewitt ceased in 2004. In 2011, Carrier demolished those original facilities, known as TR-1 and TR-2, marking the end of an era. In 2020, United Technology, Carriers parent company since 1979, spun the company off, making it independent once again. Though it is only a shadow of its former self in this community, Carrier still employs approximately 1,200 people locally, almost the same number as it did when the new plant opened back in 1937. In May 2022, the greatest symbol of this communitys synonymity with Carrier Corporation disappeared when the iconic, white-roofed structure at Syracuse University officially changed its name to the JMA Wireless Dome. Robert Searings weekly articles are supported by the William G. Pomeroy Public History Media Series. To learn more about the William G. Pomeroy Foundations work to promote public history, visit wgpfoundation.org. Andrew Cuomos independent bid to become mayor of New York City received encouragement from an unlikely source on Tuesday longtime political rival President Donald Trump. When asked by a reporter about Cuomos decision to run, Trump approved of the move, saying Cuomo had a good shot at winning. I think he should stay. I think he has a shot, the president said in a Fox News video. When asked if he would prefer Cuomo over the other candidates in the race, Trump declined to state a preference. Well, I dont want to say. Im a Republican, hes a Democrat or an independent, Trump said. I think Andrew would have a good shot of winning. Hes got to run a tough campaign. Cuomo was the early favorite to win the Democratic primary, but lost to Zohran Mamdani. Trump has feuded with Mamdani since the win, repeatedly calling the 33-year old member of the state Assembly a communist a charge that Mamdani has denied, saying he is a democratic socialist. Trump has also suggested that if Mamdani won, the federal government could step in and run New York City. Trump has also feuded publicly with Cuomo for years. When Cuomo was governor of New York in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, he frequently sparred with Trump. While campaigning in New Yorks Democratic mayoral primary, Cuomo called Trump diabolical and an existential threat to the city. Trumps Justice Department, meanwhile, opened an investigation into Cuomo in May of this year, alleging that he lied to Congress about his actions during the Covid-19 pandemic. Cuomo announced on Monday that he would run as an independent for New York City mayor. Also running are Mamdani, Republican Curtis Sliwa and current Mayor Eric Adams, who is running as an independent. John Sarcone III said Tuesday night that he will be the top prosecutor for the Northern District of New York indefinitely, thanks to recent moves by the Justice Department. That comes after a messy, confusing several days during which a panel of federal judges tried to remove Sarcone from his role as interim U.S. attorney. Everyone from the U.S. Justice Department to the courts to Sarcone himself had refused to answer questions for days about what, exactly, is going on with the office of the top prosecutor in Upstate New York. Dan Clark, Times Union, Albany, N.Y. (TNS) ALBANY The Monroe County district attorney, whose traffic stop went viral last year after body camera footage showed her berating police officers for trying to issue her a speeding ticket, has agreed to a public censure over the interaction. The state Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct in its first public decision since it was created announced the agreement Tuesday as a result of its investigation into the incident. The announcement Monday came more than a year after District Attorney Sandra Doorley was referred to the commission for an investigation into the matter by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick, who was named a special prosecutor to review the case, declined to file criminal charges. Susan Friedman, the administrator to the commission, said in a statement that the behavior exhibited by Doorley as seen in the viral video undermined her integrity. Prosecutors are trusted public officials and their conduct inside and outside the courtroom matters, Friedman said. District Attorney Doorleys conduct created the appearance that she is above the law. The commission will now transmit the agreement from Doorley for a public censure to the Attorney Grievance Committee of the Appellate Division, Fourth Department in western New York. The agreement is not binding. The commission doesnt have the power to sanction prosecutors on its own. It can only recommend sanctions, which are then accepted or rejected by the Attorney Grievance Committee. A public censure does not place any restrictions on Doorley, who is still in office. If the committee accepts the recommendation, it will be published online as confirmation of Doorleys misconduct. But when she appeared before the panel in March, Doorley signaled that she planned to leave office because of the stress and embarrassment the incident had created for her and her family, according to a transcript of the proceeding. I know its time for me to go, Doorley said. Im just looking for the best transition for the next person to take over. I think its time that there is that there should be a new DA. The interaction between Doorley and police officers in the town of Webster began in her driveway after she arrived home from work in late April 2024. She was clocked driving on a nearby road at 55 mph, which was 20 mph over the limit. I cant deny that, Doorley told the commission in March. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley argues with a Webster police officer who pulled her over for speeding on Monday, April 22, 2024 in Webster, N.Y. This screenshot is from body camera footage released by the Webster Police Department. Screenshot from body camera footage released by the Webster Police Department Before they arrived at Doorleys home, the officer had tried to pull her over by following with his lights on. Doorley instead called Webster Police Chief Dennis Kohlmier to ask that the officer stop pursuing her. Tell your officer to stop f___ing following me, Doorley said, according to an internal memorandum prepared by Kohlmier after the incident. She denies using the expletive. The officer continued to follow Doorley until they reached her home. He then exited his vehicle to confront her after she had parked in her garage and stepped out of her car. Doorley was immediately combative. I dont really care, Doorley told the officer when he informed her that she was speeding. She then called Kohlmier again to have him speak with the officer. Doorley later told the commission during the March interview that she had assumed, at the time, the officer had run her plates and discovered she was the owner of the vehicle. I felt like when he comes in my garage and he orders me back in the car, he should know who hes dealing with, Doorley said, according to the transcript. I thought it was important that he knew who he was dealing with. But Doorley at several times during her interview with the commission said she didnt know why she wanted the officer to know who she was. When asked if she was trying to get out of the ticket, she said no. Doorley and the officer argued over her decision not to pull over before arriving home and she called him an expletive at least once. Several other officers then arrived at Doorleys home. The incident continued for nearly 30 minutes until the officer was eventually able to issue Doorley the speeding ticket. She paid it in full the next day. The interaction may not have come to light if the body camera footage hadnt been released to news outlets in the days that followed. After it went viral, Doorley recorded a video apologizing for her behavior. That didnt stop Hochul from referring the matter to the new commission, which began to receive complaints of misconduct to investigate last year. This was its first public sanction against a prosecutor. Concluding this first case is a significant step in enabling the commission to fulfill its important mission of holding prosecutors to the highest standards of ethical conduct and ensuring public confidence in our system of justice, said Michael A. Simons, chair of the commission. 2025 the Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) . Visit www.timesunion.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Build Series presents Chip Gaines and Joanna Gaines to discuss their new book "The Magnolia Story" at AOL HQ on October 19, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Mireya Acierto/FilmMagic) FilmMagic Uwa Ede-Osifo l The Dallas Morning News (TNS) Back to the Frontier, a new show from Wacos Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines, has provoked ire online from some conservative Christians over the inclusion of a same-sex couple. The Max and Magnolia Network joint venture follows three families in the Canadian Rockies as they navigate a technology-free, laborious summer meant to mimic the lifestyle of 1880s homesteaders. Among the social experiments participants are Dallas couple Joe Riggs and Jason Hanna, who shared a 600-square-foot cabin with their 10-year-old twin sons, Ethan and Lucas, for eight weeks. In a post on X on July 12, two days after the shows premiere, evangelist Franklin Graham wrote of the casting: I hope this isnt true. Graham, whose post amassed over 1.5 million views, is the son of the late Rev. Billy Graham, the famed pastor from North Carolina who gave spiritual counsel to a number of sitting presidents. While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of Gods Word. His Word is absolute truth. God loves us, and His design for marriage is between one man and one woman. Promoting something that God defines as sin is in itself sin, Graham continued. Chip Gaines, who is executive producer of the series alongside his wife, Joanna, addressed the criticism in a Sunday post on X. Talk, ask [questions], listen ... maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never, he wrote. Its a sad sunday when non believers have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian. Joel Berry, managing editor of The Babylon Bee, a satirical website, commented under Gaines X post, expressing sadness over the same-sex casting and writing that his children would not watch the program. Dont be sad ... plenty of other stuff out there. Im sure everyone will be fine, Gaines replied, also adding he would take thoughtful criticism to heart. The online backlash comes as the institution of same-sex marriage has been scrutinized nationwide among some conservative circles. At the annual Southern Baptist Convention, which took place in Dallas last month, the organization endorsed overturning Obergefell vs. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex unions in 2015. Ahead of Back to the Frontiers release, Riggs told The Dallas Morning News that part of the shows appeal was the opportunity to put ourselves out there and help normalize families like ours. Hanna posted an Instagram story on Monday, addressing the online backlash. Representation matters deeply especially for those who are still finding the courage to live their truth," he wrote. When families like ours are visible, it opens doors for others to feel safe, loved, and validated. Visibility isnt just about being seen; its about making sure no one feels alone. 2025 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Taos News delivered to your Taos County address every week for a full year! We offer our lowest mail rates to zip codes in the county. Click Here to See if you Qualify. Plan includes unlimited website access and e-edition print replica online. Your auto pay plan will be conveniently renewed at the end of the subscription period. You may cancel at anytime. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- As the third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) opened in Beijing on Wednesday, global business executives and officials voiced a collective need to reinforce supply chains through open markets, innovation, and multilateral engagement. "This event is much more than an expo. It is a forest of connections between economies, industries, and people," John Denton, the secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said in his speech. "We are here together to advance our shared prosperity." Denton's remarks echoed a widespread consensus among attendees that building trust and deeper integration -- spanning AI innovation to global manufacturing collaboration -- is essential for effectively navigating the increasing global uncertainties. Held from July 16 to 20, the 2025 CISCE gathered more than 650 companies and institutions from 75 countries, regions and international organizations, along with over 500 of their upstream and downstream partners. Foreign exhibitors made up 35 percent of the total participation -- an indicator of enduring business interest in the face of rising geopolitical and economic headwinds. Hosted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), the expo is the world's first national-level expo dedicated exclusively to supply chains. In the lead-up to the event, Wang Yiwei, director of the Institute of International Affairs at Renmin University of China, said that active engagement from multinational firms reflects the "continued momentum and irreversibility of globalization." Wang noted that China, with the world's most complete and largest industrial system, is playing a growing role in driving global development through digital and green transformation -- and is increasingly seen as an innovation lab. China's expanding role in global innovation ecosystems, especially in AI, was underscored by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who delivered a speech during his first CISCE appearance. Calling China's supply chain "a miracle," Huang highlighted the country's fast-growing AI technologies and its global reach. "China's open-source AI is a catalyst for global progress," he said, as it enables broader access to innovation and supports international cooperation on standards and safeguards. In an interview on the sidelines of the expo, Huang reaffirmed Nvidia's long-term commitment to the Chinese market. "If you want to maintain, you have to invest," he said. "The market is moving so fast and it's so competitive -- we have to continue to advance ourselves." He added that China's technology market is growing rapidly and remains a key focus for the company, calling it "a very important market with dynamic, innovative customers." The expo comes on the heels of China's announcement of a 5.3 percent economic growth for the first half of the year despite rising challenges and external uncertainties. "China is entering a new cycle of market opportunity," said Lin Chunmei, president and general manager of Corning Greater China, in an interview with Xinhua. "With the rise of AI and cloud technologies, the AI infrastructure market is growing faster than ever." She noted that China's steady and resilient economy, along with its stable and open business environment, continues to support the growth of enterprises. "Over the past few decades, we've seen consistent improvements in China's business climate," she added. At the opening ceremony, the CCPIT and global business representatives issued a joint initiative calling for supply chain stability and security, digital and green transformation, and stronger international cooperation. Ren Hongbin, chairman of the CCPIT, said the expo has become a platform for China's high-standard opening up, urging collective efforts to safeguard multilateralism and build a more interconnected future. Facepalm: Despite increasing efforts to protect critical infrastructure, much of the US rail industry continues to rely on technology vulnerable to remote hacking, security researchers and federal officials say. The flaw, which could allow an attacker to lock a train's brakes from afar, was first flagged more than a decade ago and only recently has the industry taken serious steps to address it. The vulnerability was discovered in 2012 by independent researcher Neil Smith, who found that the communication protocol linking the front and rear of freight trains technically known as the End-of-Train and Head-of-Train Remote Linking Protocol can be compromised by intercepting unencrypted radio signals. The system, designed to relay operational data and safety commands, dates back to a Congress-mandated upgrade in the 1980s to prevent deadly accidents caused by poor communication. "All of the knowledge to generate the exploit already exists on the internet. AI could even build it for you," Smith told 404 Media. "The physical aspect really only means that you could not exploit this over the internet from another country, you would need to be some physical distance from the train [so] that your signal is still received." He explained that even a small consumer device could launch such an attack within a few hundred feet, adding, "if you had a plane with several watts of power at 30,000 feet, then you could get about 150 miles of range." Smith's investigation involved decoding the radio protocol, using a frequency shift keying modem. "The radio link is a commonly found frequency shift keying data modem that was easy to identify," he said. "The real challenge was reverse engineering what the various bits in the packet actually meant." When Smith alerted the Association of American Railroads (AAR), which manages the protocol for North America, he received little engagement. "The Association of American Railroads, which is the maintainer of the protocol used across North America for EOT/HOT radio links, would not acknowledge the vulnerability as real unless someone could demonstrate it to them in real life," Smith recalled. "They also would not authorize the testing to be done to prove it was a real issue." Public attention around the flaw spiked in 2016, when a Boston Review article outlined the risks and included Smith's findings. Days later, AAR's then-VP for security, Tom Farmer, played down concerns, calling the reporting "based on a lot of inaccuracies and mischaracterizations." Federal officials, meanwhile, acknowledge the challenge. Chris Butera, CISA's Acting Executive Assistant Director of Cybersecurity, noted that the exploit has been "understood and monitored by rail sector stakeholders for over a decade." He said, though, that it is not easily exploited: Exploiting the vulnerability would require someone with physical access to railroad tracks, a strong understanding of the protocol, and specific technical gear making large-scale attacks unlikely without a broad on-the-ground presence in the US, he said. He added that CISA has been collaborating with industry partners to address the issue, which involves updating a standardized protocol that's already in the process of being revised. Smith, however, disputes how difficult an attack would be and says CISA's own assessment refers to the exploit as "low attack complexity." He is also skeptical about the pace of industry reform, saying upgrades may take years and accusing railroad leaders of following the insurance industry's "delay, deny, defend" approach to security problems. "In my personal opinion, the American railway industry treats cybersecurity issues with the same playbook as the insurance industry's 'delay, deny, defend' mantra," he said. So far, the AAR has not provided a timeline for rolling out a fix and did not respond to requests for comment. TL;DR: Nvidia's first CPU based on the Arm architecture has been the subject of growing buzz, signaling the company's ambitions to challenge dominant players like Intel, AMD, and Apple. But that move is now hitting serious turbulence. A newly uncovered hardware issue has forced another delay, and engineers are reportedly going back to the drawing board to resolve this latest issue. Nvidia has encountered a new hardware problem with its much-anticipated N1x Arm CPU, and this time it is a major one. According to multiple industry sources cited by SemiAccurate, the issue may require a significant change to the silicon design. As a result, both the chip's debut and shipping dates have been pushed back to 2026. Nvidia engineers met a first significant issue earlier this year, but they were allegedly able to solve it without messing with the actual silicon design. The company previously claimed that the N1 and N1x chips had entered full production, which now appears to have been an overly optimistic assessment if the latest rumors leaks are accurate. A few weeks ago, a supposed "Nvidia N1x" sample appeared in Geekbench's online benchmark database, showing some pretty interesting performance scores. The chip appeared capable of competing with some of the best mobile processors currently on the market. The Nvidia N1 series is expected to go head-to-head with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite, Intel's Core Ultra 200HX series, Apple's M3, and AMD's Ryzen AI Max. Despite the reported setback in the silicon design, the Nvidia N1 project is real and gaining momentum among industry insiders. Multiple reports have confirmed that the AI behemoth is developing its Arm-based chip with several hardware partners reportedly involved in the venture. Needless to say, the company has gained the resources in the past couple of years to develop this and any other project they wanted. Nvidia showcased its "AI PC" in January and is now expected to release a more affordable version of the system developed in collaboration with MediaTek. More recently, insiders have hinted at a possible partnership with Alienware for a gaming laptop featuring an Arm-based CPU paired with a built-in GeForce GPU. Customers are not exactly queueing up to buy Arm-based laptops for gaming, but Nvidia seems committed to push forward. Some observers have noted that promoting the Arm architecture in the traditional PC market is a questionable move, especially since Intel and AMD continue to improve the x86 architecture at a steady pace. Nvidia's struggles with the N1 project feel like a case of history repeating itself. In the company's early days, its initial graphics chips failed to gain traction, and Nvidia came close to bankruptcy before rebounding with the successful launch of the RIVA 128 in the late 1990s. For those interested in the company's early history, the 86Box blog offers a fascinating deep dive, where a crazy programmer is working on a functional emulation of the RIVA 128 and NV3 architecture. What just happened? Elon Musk's artificial intelligence start-up xAI has secured a significant contract with the US Department of Defense, worth nearly $200 million. This deal, announced just days after public controversy over antisemitic output produced by xAI's Grok chatbot, places the company among a slate of high-profile AI developers now working with the federal government. On Monday, the Department of Defense announced that it had signed similar agreements, also with ceilings of $200 million, with industry leaders including Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI. This means the Pentagon will have simultaneous access to multiple frontier AI models and workflows. OpenAI's contract, for example, is focused on developing agentic workflows for national security missions. This is part of a notable shift among Silicon Valley firms in their approach to defense contracts. The taboo against working with the Pentagon that once existed in the tech sector is said to have largely diminished, with major players like Meta, Amazon, and Palantir also increasing their collaborations with the government. These contracts, managed in partnership with the General Services Administration, are designed to give government agencies across federal, state, and local levels access to advanced AI tools and applications. Dr. Doug Matty, the Defense Department's chief digital and AI officer, emphasized the importance of integrating AI technologies into government operations. He described the initiative as a means to "accelerate the use of advanced AI as part of our joint mission-essential tasks in our warfighting domain as well as intelligence, business and enterprise information systems." For xAI, the contract arrives at a turbulent moment. The company recently issued a public apology after its Grok chatbot generated responses that included Nazi ideology and other offensive content on the social media platform X. xAI said the incident was addressed and introduced a new, advanced version of the Grok model, featuring a monthly subscription fee of $300. The contract is set to provide a major boost for xAI as it vies for market share with more seasoned rivals, notably OpenAI. Musk has marshaled resources from his other technology ventures to support xAI, facilitating substantial investments, such as a $2 billion infusion from SpaceX and moves to have Tesla shareholders weigh in on funding the AI start-up. As part of its agreement with the federal government, xAI presented what it calls "Grok for Government," an initiative to develop tailored AI applications for public sector needs, including healthcare, national security, and other essential services. What just happened? King, the company behind the iconic Candy Crush franchise, is preparing to lay off around 200 employees amid a significant internal transition. According to insiders, the move has created an atmosphere of instability and low morale. Many of the affected workers are reportedly being replaced by the very AI tools they helped develop. Sources familiar with the situation, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal, told Mobile Gamer Biz that employees in departments such as level design and narrative writing spent years developing AI tools to accelerate their workflows, only to now see those same tools rendering their roles obsolete. "Most of level design has been wiped, which is crazy since they've spent months building tools to craft levels quicker," said one employee. "Now those AI tools are basically replacing the teams. Similarly, the copywriting team is completely removing people since we now have AI tools that those individuals have been creating." The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg and later confirmed by current employees, are largely affecting mid-level managers, designers, researchers, and creative staff, many of whom held highly specialized roles. "The fact AI tools are replacing people is absolutely disgusting," one employee said. "It's all about efficiency and profits even though the company is doing great overall." Roughly 200 jobs are being cut across King's offices in London, Stockholm, Berlin, and Barcelona, according to people familiar with the matter. One of the hardest-hit teams is Farm Heroes Saga in London, where sources say about half the staff approximately 50 people are being let go, including senior team members who have already been placed on leave ahead of their departures this fall. In internal meetings, King's leadership described the sweeping changes as necessary to eliminate "layers" and "slow-moving processes" within the company. One staffer who attended the meetings said executives pointed to over-specialization and organizational silos as key issues they now aim to solve by merging teams and reducing overall headcount. "They also mentioned the fact that we are too specialized now and siloed between crafts, which has got us to our amazing profits but now is hampering us so we need to merge and generalize," the employee said. "If a resource is centralized it is being cut or moved into the production teams," said another employee. Others say the way the message was delivered only deepened frustration. "It seemed that the main info communicated to us by leadership was literally being read like a script in the calls, which is like a slap to the face," said one staff member. Internally, a recent employee survey already showed morale was low, and workers say the layoffs have only made things worse. "The SLT [senior leadership team] said improving morale was a top priority as you can imagine, it's now in the gutter," said a source familiar with the company's response to the survey. Insiders also raised concerns that some employees were targeted not purely for redundancy or performance issues, but for speaking out internally. One person claimed several layoff decisions appeared "arbitrary," particularly among programmers and those who had criticized internal policies or raised concerns on company forums. These tensions are not new, according to current and former employees, who say HR and management dysfunction has plagued King for years. "King HR is an absolute shitshow and has been for years," one source said. "An extreme example of an HR department whose role it is to protect the company, not the staff." As the summer unfolds, uncertainty looms for many King employees, especially in departments still awaiting news about their future. A new company-wide organizational chart is expected in September, after negotiations with unions conclude. Until then, entire teams remain in limbo, unsure whether they'll still have a job in the fall. "Despite the conditions forced upon the teams by inept leadership, the teams are very close-knit and do genuinely care about each other and are passionate about improving their games," one team member said. Microsoft, which owns King through its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, declined to comment to Mobile Gamer Biz about the restructuring. King has also not issued a public statement. A hot potato: Redditors in the UK who wish to view "certain mature content" on the platform now have to verify that they are 18 or older first. The company has introduced age verification for users in the country, which requires them to upload a selfie or a photo of their government ID. Reddit says it was built on the principle that users shouldn't need to share personal information to participate in meaningful discussions. However, it does note that while the platform doesn't want to know who its users are, there are situations where it would be helpful to know a little more about them, such as whether a user is a real person or a bot, or if they are an adult or a child. The announcement relates to the UK Online Safety Act, which require sites that show adult material to implement age verification measures beyond just clicking an "I am over 18" box. Its implementation has forced Reddit to introduce new requirements as of July 14. The post states that Reddit has "tried" to use an age-verification method that protects the privacy of UK Redditors. It has partnered with a third-party provider, Persona, which performs the verification through either an uploaded selfie or photo of a government ID. Reddit will not have access to the uploaded photo and it will only store users' verification status along with their birthdate so they won't have to re-enter it each time they try to access restricted content. Persona, meanwhile, promises that it will not retain photos of users for longer than 7 days and not have access to users' Reddit data, such as the subreddits they visit. "Your birthdate is never visible to other users or advertisers, and is used to support safety features and age-appropriate experiences on Reddit," the announcement reads. Reddit's list of content restricted for non-adult UK users includes: bullying anything sexually explicit content that encourages, promotes, or provides instruction for suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders content that is abusive or incites hatred against people based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or gender reassignment content that promotes violence against a person or depicts real or realistically serious violence against a person, an animal, or a fictional creature Also on the over-18s-only list is content that promotes or romanticizes depression, hopelessness and despair; shames or otherwise stigmatizes body types or physical features; and encourages a person to ingest, inject, inhale, or self-administer a physically harmful substance, or a substance in a physically harmful quantity. Challenges and stunts that could lead to serious harm are also now adult-only. The deadline for online companies to comply with the UK's new rules is July 25. Many adult websites have started warning UK visitors to prepare for age verification checks to arrive. UK regulatory agency Ofcom admitted that some under-18s will find ways to circumvent the restrictions, but added that they should prevent many kids from "stumbling across porn," and that "this is very much a first step." Companies that fail to meet the rules face fines of up to 18 million ($24.1 million) or 10% of their worldwide revenue, "whichever is greater." David Greene, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the UK's Online Safety Act was a "real tragedy." "UK users can no longer use the internet without having to provide their papers, as it were," he said via the BBC. Greene added that he was disappointed websites like Reddit were not legally challenging the law. Reddit said it expects that as laws change, it may implement age verification checks in other countries. Forward-looking: Apple has long been rumored to be working on a folding iPhone, but its specifications and price remained under wraps until now. That changed this week, with two leaks from separate sources seemingly revealing key details about the rumored device, tentatively referred to as the iPhone Fold. According to tipster @Jukanlosreve, the iPhone Fold will feature a 7.8-inch inner display and a 5.5-inch cover display. It will reportedly be powered by Apple's A20 Pro chipset, built on TSMC's 2nm process. Other rumored specifications include 12GB of RAM and storage options of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. For imaging, the device is expected to offer a 48MP wide-angle primary camera and a 48MP ultra-wide secondary shooter. Notably, it may also debut Apple's own C2 baseband modem for 5G connectivity, potentially making it the first device to use an Apple-designed baseband chip. Estimated specs of the foldable iPhone pic.twitter.com/jJOgXPczTl Jukan (@Jukanlosreve) July 15, 2025 Unfortunately, the iPhone Fold is unlikely to be affordable. According to analysts at Swiss investment firm UBS, Apple initially considered pricing the device between $2,000 and $2,400. However, the company has since implemented aggressive cost-cutting measures that could bring the price down slightly to between $1,800 and $2,000. The note also states that Apple's bill of materials for the foldable iPhone is estimated at $759, about four percent lower than the Galaxy Z Fold SE's BOM of $790. If accurate, this would give Apple contribution margins of 53 58 percent, similar to Samsung's margins on its flagship foldables. The device is expected to be 9 9.5mm thick when folded and 4.5 4.8mm when open. UBS analysts appear to confirm earlier reports that the internal OLED display will primarily be supplied by Samsung Display, with LG Display receiving a smaller share of the orders. Other key components, such as the titanium casing and metal hinge, will reportedly be sourced from Lens Technology, Amphenol, and Foxconn. Foxconn is also expected to be the primary manufacturing partner for the iPhone Fold. The company already assembles several Apple products including iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and AirPods in China, Vietnam, and India. Luxshare will reportedly act as the secondary assembler. The analysts predict that the launch of the iPhone Fold in 2026 will spur significant growth in the foldables market, driving demand for folding smartphones, tablets, and notebooks. This trend is expected to benefit the entire tech industry in the medium to long term. Image source: Apple Insider President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua meets with important guests attending the BRICS Media and Think Tank Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) RIO DE JANEIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- President of Xinhua News Agency Fu Hua on Tuesday met with representatives of media think tanks in Russia, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. All parties had in-depth exchanges on issues such as deepening the cooperation of media think tanks in the Global South and strengthening the momentum of the Global South to reach a consensus on promoting the greater BRICS cooperation and the development of the Global South. Fu welcomed representatives from various countries to attend the BRICS Media and Think Tank Forum, noting that China has a profound traditional friendship and a good foundation for cooperation with Russia, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries. In the future, Xinhua is willing to work with partners from various countries to further expand cooperation areas, innovate cooperation models, coordinate closely and cooperate under the framework of multilateral mechanisms, said Fu. Xinhua will also join hands with its partners to present a vivid narrative of international development and cooperation so as to make greater contributions to amplifying the voice of the Global South and building a more just and diverse global communication order, he said. Mikhail Gusman, first deputy director-general of TASS Russian News Agency, said that Tass is willing to strengthen cooperation with Xinhua under the framework of multilateral mechanisms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Media and Think Tank Forum and the BRICS Media and Think Tank Forum, to jointly build a narrative system from the Global South perspective and enhance the representation and voice of developing countries in international affairs. Alexey Nikolov, managing editor of the Russia Today (RT) TV network, said that the RT cherishes its friendly relations with Xinhua and looks forward to implementing the consensus reached by the two heads of state at the height of strategic cooperation. The RT will continue to deepen exchanges and expand cooperation with Xinhua and make positive contributions to promoting the steady development of multilateral media mechanisms and enhancing international influence, he said. Ta Minh Tuan, vice president of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, said he was very glad to establish contact with Xinhua, and will take the forum as an opportunity to institutionalize and regularize cooperation between the two sides, make the collective voice of the Global South more resounding on the international stage, and provide enduring momentum for the steady development of the "greater BRICS cooperation." Maryde Fernandez Lopez, deputy head of the Ideological Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, along with the personnel in charge of several other Cuban media outlets, expressed gratitude to Xinhua for upholding the principle of objective and fair news and making an indelible contribution to spreading the true voices of Latin America. They voiced their willingness to learn from Xinhua's experience in the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data. The Cuban representatives also agreed that the renewal and updating of the relevant news cooperation agreements between the two countries will make new contributions to promoting media exchanges between Latin America and China and enhancing mutual understanding among the people. French prosecutors demand Fiat face trial in diesel scandal Paris, July 16 (AFP) Jul 16, 2025 French prosecutors have demanded Italian car maker Fiat face trial on fraud charges over the emissions-tampering scandal that struck German giant Volkswagen, a source told AFP on Wednesday. It is the fourth trial demanded in France against major car makers after cases against Volkswagen and the French companies Peugeot-Citroen and Renault. A source close to the case who asked not to be named told AFP on Wednesday that the Paris prosecutors' office made the demand on June 30 accusing Fiat of aggravated fraud. The source said the Italian company is accused of selling Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Jeep vehicles fitted with diesel engines that "frequently exceeded the regulatory threshold for nitrogen oxide emissions", highly dangerous to humans, between 2014 and 2017. The scandal has caused waves in the global car industry since September 2015, when Volkswagen admitted tampering with millions of diesel vehicles to dupe pollution tests. A German court in May convicted and handed prison sentences, some suspended, to four former Volkswagen managers over their part in scandal. Filing their case against Volkswagen in February, French prosecutors said nearly one million French customers had to pay for servicing and repairs after the emissions breach was revealed. gd/asl/rlp/giv Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Volkswagen GROUPE PSA VIENTIANE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to Laos Fang Hong and Lao Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Maithong Thammavongsa have signed a cooperation agreement for the 2025 Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Special Fund. The signing ceremony took place on Tuesday in the Lao capital, Vientiane. Officials from relevant ministries and sectors also attended. Speaking at the event, Fang highlighted the significance of the LMC mechanism, which marks its 10th anniversary this year. She reaffirmed China's commitment to the principles of "development first, equal consultation, pragmatism and efficiency, openness, and inclusiveness," and emphasized strengthening collaboration with Laos to ensure the fund delivers tangible benefits to people across the region. In his remarks, Maithong praised the LMC for its vital role in promoting regional development. He expressed gratitude to China for its continued support through the special fund and affirmed Laos' commitment to working closely with China to implement high-quality projects under the initiative. He also emphasized the importance of fostering a shared future among the Lancang-Mekong countries. NEW YORK, July 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Indonesia will pay a 19 percent tariff on all goods exported to the United States, while U.S. exports to Indonesia are to be free of tariff- and non-tariff barriers. Trump said on Truth Social that he "finalized an important Deal with the Republic of Indonesia after speaking with their Highly Respected President Prabowo Subianto. This landmark Deal opens up Indonesia's ENTIRE MARKET to the United States for the first time in History." As part of the agreement, Indonesia has committed to purchasing 15 billion U.S. dollars in energy and 4.5 billion dollars in agricultural products from the U.S. market, besides 50 Boeing jets, he added. "For the first time ever, our Ranchers, Farmers, and Fishermen will have Complete and Total Access to the Indonesian Market of over 280 million people," he wrote. Before leaving for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that "as you know, Indonesia is very strong on copper, but we have full access to everything." He also said Indonesia is rich in rare earths and various other materials. Trump revealed that a couple more deals are going to be announced. "India basically is working along that same line. We're going to have access into India," he said. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A portrait of Mahatma Gandhi by Clare Leighton, widely believed to be the only oil portrait he personally sat for, has sold for 152,800 at a Bonhams auction, far surpassing its original estimate of 50,000 to 70,000. The sale took place as part of Bonhams Travel and Exploration auction, and marks the first time the portrait has appeared at an auction. Bonhams described the work as a rare and exceptional piece, both for its artistic merit and its direct connection to Gandhi himself. Leighton, better known for her intricate wood engravings, painted Gandhi in 1931 during his visit to London for the Second Round Table Conference, a gathering aimed at discussing Indias future under British rule. Her connection to Gandhi was facilitated by her partner at the time, Henry Noel Brailsford, a political journalist and outspoken supporter of Indian independence. Brailsford had met Gandhi at the conference and published Rebel India that year, championing the cause of freedom. Through Brailsford, Leighton gained rare access to Gandhis inner circle and was one of the very few artists permitted to sketch and paint him in person, according to a note on the Bonhams website. open image in gallery A portrait of Mahatma Gandhi by Clare Leighton has sold for 152,800 ( Bonhams ) The portrait first made its debut in November 1931 at an exhibition held at the Albany Galleries in Sackville Street, London. The show drew a wide range of attendees, including members of parliament, Indian delegates, journalists, and artists. Gandhi himself did not attend the opening, but journalist and Leightons friend Winifred Holtby wrote vividly about the event in The Schoolmistress, noting the presence of exquisite Indian women in bright saris and key Indian dignitaries like independence leader Sarojini Naidu and industrialist Sir Purshotamdas Thakurdas. Holtby described Leightons oil portrait as capturing Gandhi very much as I saw him when he came as a guest to a big luncheon in Westminster at which I was present a little while ago. He was the political leader there, the subtle negotiator, the manipulator of Congress, the brilliant lawyer, the statesman who knows just how to play on the psychology of friends and enemies alike, she had written. The following month, Gandhis personal secretary, Mahadev Desai, wrote to Leighton, addressing her by her married name, Mrs Brailsford, to express his appreciation. It was such a pleasure to have had you here for many mornings doing Mr Gandhis portrait. I am sorry I didnt see the final result, but many of my friends who saw it in the Albany Gallery said to me that it was a good likeness. I am quite sure Mr Gandhi has no objection to its being reproduced, the letter read. A copy of Desais letter remains attached to the back of the painting. open image in gallery The back of Leightons portrait, where one can see Desais letter ( Bonhams ) After 1931, the portrait largely disappeared from public view. It resurfaced in 1978 during a retrospective of Leightons work at the Boston Public Library. According to the artists family, it may have also been exhibited briefly in 1974, when it was reportedly attacked by a Hindu nationalist linked to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing organisation in India promoting Hindu nationalism. The group is controversial partly because Nathuram Godse, Gandhis assassin, was a member. While no official records confirm the incident, the painting shows evidence of knife damage and a label on the back confirms that it was restored that same year by the Lyman Allyn Museum Conservation Laboratory. The portrait remained in Leightons personal collection until her death in 1989, after which it passed down through her family. This sale at Bonhams marks its first appearance at auction, making it a significant moment not only in the art market but also in the broader context of 20th-century political portraiture. Bonhams head of sale, Rhyanon Demery, described the piece as exceptional, emphasising both its rarity as a painted work by Leighton and its subject. Leightons great-nephew, Caspar Leighton told the BBC: This is a painting of unique historic and cultural significance. It would be great if it could be seen and appreciated more widely, whether in India or elsewhere. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice In a bustling Waterstones in London, nestled among the popular non-fiction display, lies an unassuming 288-page book written by a 63-year-old woman that has sparked a media firestorm. The Salt Path, a cosy, heartwarming memoir about a couple who undertake a 630-mile trek of Englands southern coast after being left homeless, financially destitute, and with a potentially fatal medical diagnosis, sold two million copies and was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. The book, written by author Raynor Winn, spawned two sequels with a third available for pre-order. But the future of the author and her enterprise are now under doubt, after reports by The Observer exposed apparent inconsistencies in the narrative that struck a chord with so many. The investigation claimed the book misrepresented how the couple lost their home, which, according to Winn, was due to a bad business investment. However, The Observer reported that the couple lost the property after Winn allegedly defrauded her employer of 64,000 in 2008, which she apparently attempted to repay after taking out a loan from a relative. Winn has called the investigation grotesquely unfair and highly misleading. The fourth instalment, On Winter Hill, was due to be released on 23 October, but has now been delayed until next year. The controversy has led to debates surrounding whether memoirs justify some embellishment, and booksellers across the country have been left with the mundane logistics of the scandals aftermath. What do they do with all the pre-orders they took for a book whose future is now uncertain? And what about stocking a title billed as a true story whose authenticity is now in doubt? open image in gallery Raynor Winn has been at the centre of a media firestorm after allegations emerged about inconsistencies in her bestselling memoir ( Getty Images ) Red Lion Books in Colchester have been forced to issue refunds for pre-orders after they felt a duty to inform their customers that Winns forthcoming release had been delayed. In fact, in a gesture that was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, they moved the book to their fiction section. Jo Coldwell, who has been manager at the store for over ten years, says The Salt Path was one of the shops most popular titles. She is really popular, Coldwell told The Independent. People believed in the brand. They loved the covers, the aesthetic of it all is just beautiful. Something about it resonated with people. It was a phenomenon. It was a middle-aged, middle-class woman, and thats probably a lot of our customers. There is quite a bit of voyeuristic excitement around it. Of 12 pre-orders, Coldwell said she has issued three refunds after she sent out an email alerting customers to the situation. open image in gallery The book has been adapted into a movie starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs ( Black Bear Pictures ) Jules North, of North Books in Haye-on-Wye, said that some people feel the books now have less credibility but added that nobody had yet asked to return one. He did praise the ensuing debate caused by the firestorm, though. "Anything that promotes conversation is an interesting thing and yesterday I had a great three-way conversation about the controversy in my bookshop. One person felt the author has been proved to be a liar and therefore would regard the three books with less credibility. As a bookseller, it offers the opportunity to promote similar titles (for me, in Wales, One Woman Walks Wales and The Edge of Cymru) about walking and life. But Elaine Sinclair of Daydreams Bookshop, a bookseller in Milngavie just outside of Glasgow, said her customers have been far more empathetic and understanding of Winn. It's quite a popular book because the cover is designed by Angela Harding, who is a Scottish illustrator, so a lot of people pick it up because of the really beautiful cover. Many people in our area like books about nature and walking, so it's always done quite well in the shop. open image in gallery The Salt Path published by Penguin Books has sold over 2 million copies ( Penguin Books ) A few people told me they thought it was quite similar to Nan Shepherd's A Living Mountain, which is an older Scottish version of it. Sinclair noticed an uptick in sales once the movie came out, but said nobody had asked for a refund since the scandal surfaced. The conversations that I've had with members of the public tend to be about whether we should be judging someone without really knowing them and there's a lot of press coverage. My personal opinion is the story could still be true. It's the sort of darker backstory that hasn't been revealed until now. One person said: Are we expecting authors to have a perfect life, as well as writing a really good book? Daunt Books in Marylebone, one of the most popular stores in the capital, said it hadnt noticed a change in the books sales in their store, although one person rang the store to say they were disappointed that the story had been revealed to be different to what was portrayed. With social media, you'll get very strong opinions one way or the other, and that debate gets carried out there on social media, Brett Wolstencroft, co-founder and store manager of Daunt Books, said. But as far as books go, I think people certainly don't react in quite the same way physically as perhaps they do online. I think a lot of people are just waiting and thinking: Time will tell. Get the inside track from Roisin O'Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The executors of Michael Jacksons estate revealed they had to deal with issues related to one of the King of Pops ex-wives as they made a plea for legal fees. Last week, Jacksons daughter Paris raised concerns about payments made from her fathers estate. Some of that concern centered on payments to law firms for unrecorded attorney time in 2018, which meant it was unclear exactly what lawyers were being paid for. In a legal filing from February 2025 seen by Us Magazine, the estates executors attorney John Branca and A&R executive John McClain detailed what one of the law firms was tasked with. That work included addressing issues relating to Michael Jacksons former spouse, although the filing did not specify which of the pop stars former wives was involved. Jackson was married twice, to Lisa Marie Presley from 1994 to 1996 and to Debbie Rowe, the mother of Paris and her brother Prince, from 1996 to 2000. The executors of Michael Jacksons estate detailed various issues that incurred legal costs in 2018 ( Getty Images ) The firm also addressed a claim made regarding alleged ownership of rights obtained by a bankruptcy proceeding involving [Jacksons parents] Joseph and Katherine Jackson. Another issue dealt with by lawyers was a dispute with Jacksons former manager and financial advisor Tohme Tohme. Tohme claimed he was owed over $5 million for work done between 2007 and 2009. The claim was headed to trial in 2018 before the parties came to a $3 million settlement. Branca and McClain are requesting the court sign off on the legal fees incurred by the estate. Paris Jackson filed an objection over the request last week. The 27-year-old is one of the King of Pops three children. After he died in 2009, she became one of the beneficiaries of his estate along with her brothers Prince and Bigi. Her grandmother Katherine was also provided for in Jacksons will. Her lawyer wrote: During this one six-month period alone in 2018, Executors request that the Court approve $625,000 in payments to three law firms for what they say is uncaptured time, without explanation as to why counsel was incapable of recording unbilled time, or why such a failure should not preclude payment. The lawyer continued: Even worse, these payments appear, at least in part, to consist of lavish gratuities bestowed upon already well-compensated counsel. Jacksons legal team argued that the payments reflect poorly on the executors of the estate, writing: These irregular payments raise serious and substantial questions about Executors ability to effectively supervise counsel and refraining from wasteful, six-figure gift-giving to themselves and their colleagues. The filing added: Despite repeated inquiries from the Court, Executors are unable to provide even remotely satisfactory explanation for their delay, nor have they provided the beneficiaries any sort of plan to fix this ongoing and worsening issue. Last August, it was reported that Jacksons estate had been given the go-ahead by a Los Angeles appeals court to sell a portion of the late pop icons songs to Sony Music Group for about $600 million. The BBC is in a British Broadcasting Crisis. The UKs public broadcaster has had a bruising few years, which have escalated, over the last few weeks, into seemingly non-stop scandal. Its been lambasted by the political left and right alike, prompting calls for resignations from senior management, including that of the director general. And it has only itself to blame. In late June, there was uproar over the BBCs livestreaming of the Glastonbury set by punk duo Bob Vylan, who led a chant against the Israeli military. Then there was the bungling of its response apologies, condemnations, hasty changes to protocol. One Gaza documentary was found to have breached editorial guidelines, with another, about doctors in Gaza, being pulled from transmission. Alongside this, there is the endlessly unfurling debacle that is MasterChef, which has culminated in both its presenters being fired first Gregg Wallace, who is accused of unwanted groping, indecent exposure and suggestive comments towards his co-workers, and then, yesterday, his co-host John Torode, following an allegation that he used racist language. Given the horror stories that have emerged from the set of MasterChef, its clear that both Wallace and Torode had to go. Less fathomable is the thought process behind the Beebs axing of Nadiya Hussain, who this week upbraided her former employer in a podcast interview. Hussain won The Great British Bake Off as an amateur baker in 2015, delivering an emotional speech that was watched by 14.5 million on the BBC. Im never going to put boundaries on myself again, she said. Im never going to say, I cant do it. I can and I will. But last month, following a decade-long partnership that has yielded cooking shows, food travelogues and a documentary about her anxiety disorder, the BBC abruptly announced it would be dropping Hussain from its schedules, in effect telling her: you cant and you wont. After a lengthy silence, Hussain finally shared her thoughts yesterday on the We Need to Talk podcast, telling host Paul C Brunson: The BBC [will] keep you until youre of no use to them. The second you dont fit the neat little box, therell be no space for you. In a conversation spanning nearly two hours, Hussain was damning about her former employers, noting how she was sold the dream of a TV career and yet was always made to feel my trophy was going to get taken away from me. I felt like I always had to be grateful ... [But] gratitude should not sit on your face like a muzzle. Hussains comments might just be egg on the BBCs face, compared to, say, the more troubling scandals surrounding MasterChef but they nonetheless expose the company's almost compulsive knack for shooting itself in the foot. Hussain is known for BBC shows including Nadiyas British Food Adventure, Nadiyas Asian Odyssey, Nadiyas Everyday Baking and Nadiyas Fast American Adventure, all of which showcased her singular warmth, charisma and often surprising recipes (such as fish finger lasagne). Note the mononym in those titles: right from the off, Hussains name was crucial to the brand. So too was her Muslim identity, at least as far as the BBC was concerned. At a time when diversity was a hot topic, and many were decrying the pale, stale males at the top of the BBC, here was a woman in a hijab who had won a show with the words Great British in the title. And she was a hit with viewers, with fans anointing themselves #Nadiyators on social media. Not for nothing did one TV reviewer call her a gift to television and possibly the nation. Of course, a job for life is not a given in the broadcasting industry, especially in todays climate, and nor should it be. A turnover of TV presenters is a good thing, allowing fresh talent to rise through the ranks. But, as recent scandals have shown, it can take some serious transgressions before the BBC agrees to part ways with its most bankable male stars. We may never know what Hussain was being paid to front her cooking shows though its fair to assume it was a drop in the ocean compared to, say, the annual 1.3m the BBC stumped up for Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day presenter who left under a cloud in May and whose final year there was blighted by one row after another. Or the 475,000 it was paying the now-disgraced newsreader Huw Edwards. Fan favourite: Former Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain ( Getty ) Chances are, the ever-popular Hussain wont be gone from our screens for long; Id put money on her already being in talks with other broadcasters. But her disgruntlement at how she was treated by the BBC underlines a growing perception of dysfunction and poor decision-making right at the top of the corporation. Whatever the reason for Hussains exit, the optics have raised eyebrows, especially given the chefs outspoken support of Palestine which she also discussed on yesterdays podcast. Making matters worse is that this current run of scandals comes at a time of existential jeopardy for the BBC. An annual report revealed that a further 300,000 households have stopped paying the licence fee, a funding system that most now agree is unenforceable. Add to that the pressure from other, better-funded streaming services, plus the expiring charter in 2027, and the future of the UKs national broadcaster looks ever more uncertain. Just two months ago, the director general, Tim Davie, delivered an impassioned speech about trust in each other, in information and in our institutions. It is the glue that holds us together, he said. Its time for the BBC to get its house in order and win back that trust before its too late. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice TV viewers are celebrating the return of Apple TV+s best series ever after two years off the air. The streaming service has racked up a large number of hits in recent years, ranging from Ted Lasso to Severance but one with a fervent cult fanbase, thats only getting stronger, is Foundation. Based on Isaac Asimovs book trilogy, the expansive sci-fi series spans a thousand years, with the story focusing on a band of exiles who discover that the only way to save the Galactic Empire from destruction is to defy it by using an algorithm that predicts events across vast timelines. Since it premiered to a lukewarm response in 2021, the show has quietly become one of Apple TV+s most successful shows globally thanks to positive word-of-mouth chatter after a full season had aired. Season two, released in 2023, received more general acclaim and the shows latest season is receiving similar praise by critics. The Daily Beast said that the show continues to put the rest of its small-screen genre brethren to shame with its momentous, magnificent third season, while IGN wrote: Foundation season three delivers on the promise of an epic-scale sci-fi story with the tone and pace of a blockbuster movie. Viewers are also lapping up the new season, which started on 11 July, with one fan declaring it the best series on television and another branding it real TV. Another highlighted its status as an underrated season, asking on X/Twitter: I dont know why this series is overlooked nobody talks about it. open image in gallery Lou Llobel stars in Foundation ( Apple TV+ ) The return of Foundation was thrown into question when, in February 2024, cast and crew were reportedly sent home from production in Prague due to an issue surrounding budgets. It was the second time filming has been halted after the Hollywood strikes in 2023. Deadline reported that, weeks before filming was scheduled to start, cast and crew, including actors Lee Pace and Jared Harris, were told to return home while production issues are sorted out. Its been suggested that production budgets needed to be lowered before the series resumed production. Other stars returning for Foundations third season include Lou Llobel, Laura Birn and Terrence Mann with Game of Thrones actor Pilou Asbk replacing Mikael Persbrandt in the role of the villainous Mule. open image in gallery Foundation season three stars Pilou Asbk as The Mule ( Apple TV+ ) The series was created by David S Goyer, co-writer of the Blade and Dark Knight trilogies, and Josh Friedman, who wrote Avatar: The Way of Water and new Marvel film The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is in cinemas on 25 July. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The Great British Sewing Bee is back with 12 more contestants ready to test their creative skills in the hopes of earning the title of Britain's best home sewer. Presenter Sara Pascoe will guide the contestants through the next 10 weeks of the competition, where they will be tested on themes ranging from art and movies to the 1920s and South Korea by judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young. The first week of the BBC show saw the contestants examined on their ability to create shape, including the Made to Measure challenge, where they were tasked with creating a perfectly shaped dress. Here are the contestants on this years edition of the show. open image in gallery The 2025 cast of The Great British Sewing Bee ( BBC/Love Productions/Neil Sherwood ) Caz Caz is 59 and from Staffordshire. She recently retired from her familys printing business, which she had ran for the last 30 years. She began sewing when she was 11 and is a big fan of topstitching and French seams. Kit Kit is a 24-year-old digital marketer from Manchester. They took an interest in sewing as a child when their mother started to teach their sister how to make sock puppets. Kit then took up the hobby again at university, exploring haberdashery and awful fabrics. Gaynor Hailing from Port Talbot in Wales, 72-year-old Gaynor has flourished as a sewer, despite having only scraped a pass in needlework class at school. She is now teaching her granddaughter the craft. open image in gallery Gaynor on The Great British Sewing Bee ( CREDIT LINE:BBC/Love Productions/Neil Sherwood ) Jess 33-year-old Jess from London began sewing when she was 11 by making garments for her sister using leftover fabrics. During sixth form, she started creating her own clothes but her obsession with the hobby truly blossomed during lockdown. Orla At 19, Orla is the youngest contestant on this years show and only began sewing four years ago, often making pieces for her friends and family and one day hopes to have a completely self-made wardrobe. Peter 45-year-old Peter began sewing thanks to his mother, when he would help create dance costumes for his siblings. He took up the skill again after he tuned in to watch Sewing Bee with his daughters, which sparked their own interest in the pastime. Glendora Glendora, a 59-year-old bus driver from Luton, began sewing when she was eight and has continued ever since. Impressively, since June 2021, she has handmade 36 quilts. Yasmin Yasmins father taught her how to make clothes from a young age. When he died in 2023, she applied to be a Sewing Bee contestant in his memory. open image in gallery Yasmin with Esme Young and Patrick Grant on The Great British Spelling Bee ( CREDIT LINE:BBC/Love Productions/Neil Sherwood ) Novello After being inspired by an episode of Blue Peter, Novello began sewing when she was just five. By the age of seven, she had her own sewing machine and has continued the hobby ever since. Dan Although Dan is a stage performer, sewing has become an extra creative outlet for him, having first taken up the hobby at 10 years old. He now creates his own outfits for his performances. Saffie Saffies great aunt taught her how to sew when she was eight. She now creates her own wardrobe using patterns from indie designers that are both fashionable and practical. Stuart 53-year-old Stuart only began sewing in 2020, having been driven by a desire to make hats. That soon evolved into making his own shirts and repairing his sons backpack. open image in gallery Stuart with Esme Young and Patrick Grant on The Great British Sewing Bee ( CREDIT LINE:BBC/Love Productions/Neil Sherwood ) The Great British Sewing Bee is available to watch on BBC One every Tuesday at 9pm and can be streamed on BBC iPlayer. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice One Day star Jim Sturgess has admitted that he found early fame in Hollywood, and everything that came with it, a bit scary. The British actor, 47, found fame after he was cast in 2007 musical romance Across the Universe opposite Evan Rachel Wood. The role led to a slew of big movies for Sturgess in the immediate years afterwards, including casino thriller 21, survival drama The Way Back, David Nicholls adaptation One Day and sci-fi movie Cloud Atlas. Speaking in a new interview in The Guardian, Sturgess described how he found the attention overwhelming. I didnt really know what I was doing, he said. I was just a kid from England, playing in bands and suddenly this movie thing happened. Everything changed quite quickly. I didnt really understand how to navigate myself through all that. I didnt have anybody guiding me. Id be invited to these big parties, but I would always not go. It was a bit scary, it feels a bit mad. Sturgess also recalled how, at the premiere for 21, which was held in Las Vegas, his face was plastered across billboards on the Strip and on the blackjack tables at hotels. open image in gallery Jim Sturgess in 2024 ( Getty Images for BFI ) Talking about his relationship with fame now, he said: It is easier. I was definitely more famous when I was younger and, sometimes, I wish Id enjoyed it a bit more. But I shied away from fame a lot. I had it at an arms length. And, looking back, I think I would have got more out of it if I opened myself up to it and embraced it, if I wasnt quite so wary of it all. open image in gallery Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway in One Day ( GILES KEYTE / AP ) Sturgess said that these days, he is recognised just enough that Im quite flattered when it happens. The actor can currently be seen in the BBC Two romance series Mix Tape, about two childhood sweethearts who reunite after 20 years. The role follows recent film parts in horror Apartment 7A and Covid drama Alone Together. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Speculation has erupted about who will front MasterChef after the firing of Gregg Wallace and John Torode and odds are revealing the identity of the frontrunners. After allegations of inappropriate behaviour surfaced against Wallace in November 2024, an investigation was launched by the shows production company Banijay UK. More than half of the 83 allegations levied against Wallace were substantiated, but the report also upheld an accusation of offensive racist language allegedly used by Torode. The BBC and Banijay have fired them both. Questions remain about who will replace the presenters, who have both hosted the show together since it was revamped in 2005. There is also uncertainty about the future of a series recorded prior to the scandal being made public. While Grace Dent was confirmed as Wallaces replacement on Celebrity MasterChef last year, the BBC has not confirmed the pairs replacement on the main show, MasterChef. open image in gallery Torode has been axed from MasterChef ( BBC ) Below weve compiled a list of the frontrunners and the odds being offered by Gambling.com. Tom Kerridge 11/8 A strong favourite is British chef Tom Kerridge, who runs his own pub, the Hand and Flowers, in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Kerridge is no stranger to MasterChef, having appeared as a guest over the years, but he is also known for Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen. The 51-year-old has also hosted BBC programmes How to Lose Weight for Good, Top of the Shop, Bake Off: Creme de la Creme and currently presents Food and Drink on BBC Two so hes more than qualified for the role. open image in gallery Tom Kerridge is a strong favourite to host MasterChef (Cristian Barnett/PA) Chris Stark 6/4 Perhaps the reason for shooting former Radio 1 DJ Chris Stark, 38, up the list is the fact he co-hosts weekly pub quiz Proper Tasty alongside strong favourite Kerridge so the BBC will have an eye on that readymade partnership. No chemistry tests required! Stark, who now co-hosts Capital Breakfast alongside Jordan North and Sian Welby, could bring some light reprieve to the often serious cookery competition. open image in gallery ( Getty Images ) Big Zuu 13/8 Rapper and TV personality Big Zuu has set himself apart as a name in the world of cuisine thanks to hit show Big Zuus Big Eats, which sees him discuss memorable and favourite foods with a new celebrity each episode. Considering Wallace and Torode had presented MasterChef since 2005, the BBC would be sensible to open the format to a younger generation; Big Zuu, 29, could be the one to do exactly that. open image in gallery Big Zuu could introduce MasterChef to a new generation (Simon Jacobs and PinPep/PA) Grace Dent 15/8 After replacing Wallace on the celebrity version of the show, food critic and brief Im a Celebrity contestant Grace Dent is an obvious choice to take over full time. Dent, 51, regularly appears as a critic on the series and is a favourite with fans for her straight-shooting comments. Last year, she switched roles and served as a contestant on the shows spin-off, MasterChef: The Battle of the Critics. open image in gallery Dent is known for her straight-shooting critiques ( Getty Images ) James Martin 2/1 Could James Martin be lured back to the BBC from ITV? The Saturday Morning host has been popular with viewers ever since he hosted BBC Ones Saturday Kitchen from 2006 to 2016. However, bosses might hear alarm bells: in 2023, the chef apologised for any offence or upset caused after being accused of bullying his ITV colleagues. Away from his TV commitments, Martin, 53, teaches at The Kitchen Cookery School at Chewton Glen, a cookery school and relaxed dining restaurant based in New Milton, Hampshire. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Mel Giedroyc 5/2 Mel Giedroyc was one half of the duo that made The Great British Bake Off such a TV delicacy when it first started, her asides with co-host Sue Perkins fast-tracking the show to global success. Odds are suggesting the 57-year-old is in the running, with the BBC hoping to emulate her Bake Off success (she left the show when it moved to Channel 4) while also luring in her many new, younger fans after a memorable stint on comedy series Taskmaster. open image in gallery Mel Gideroyc could bring some much-needed fun to MasterChef ( PA ) Nigella Lawson 3/1 The TV landscape needs more Nigella Lawson, and so, her MasterChef appointment would undoubtedly be embraced by the many viewers who tune into her BBC specials. Those who havent watched other iterations of MasterChef wont know that Lawson has a history with the show; she has regularly appeared as a guest judge since 2016 on the Australian version, making the Nigella Bites presenter, 65, an ideal fit for the role. open image in gallery Naigella Lawson has appeared as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia ( PA ) Monica Galetti and Marcus Wareing 7/2 Perhaps an obvious, and safe, choice would be Monica Galetti, the 49-year-old former senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche, and Marcus Wareing, 55, who was the chef and owner at the one-Michelin-starred restaurant Marcus. The pair currently host MasterChef spin-off The Professionals. While their promotion to host the main MasterChef show might be the logical next step, it would almost certainly guarantee their tenure on The Professionals would draw to a close something the BBC might be loath to do. Andi and Miquita Oliver 4/1 Great British Menu host Andi Oliver, 62, is a strong contender and would make history as the first ever Black woman to present the programme. Oliver, a former member of the band Rip Rig + Panic, currently hosts the cookery podcast Stirring it Up with her daughter (and Lily Allens Miss Me? co-host) Miquita Oliver, 41. open image in gallery Andi Oliver could become the first Black woman to ever front the show ( Getty Images ) Lisa Snowdon 9/2 Bosses might be hoping to secure a former Celebrity MasterChef winner as a replacement and the current favourite is Lisa Snowdon, who was left on cloud nine after being crowned in 2022. Snowdon, 53, has proved herself a cooking extraordinaire, so would be well equipped to judge contestants kitchen skills. Torode said of her triumph: Lisa, throughout this competition, has taken the everyday and elevated it into something special. This final, she dared to do something that was going to be a gamble, and the gamble paid off. Her food is fantastic. open image in gallery Lisa Snowdon with the Celebrity MasterChef trophy in 2022 ( BBC/PA ) Alison Hammond 5/1 Could Alison Hammond continue her British screen domination by hosting MasterChef? Her schedule suggests not as well as This Morning, she is the current host of The Great British Bake Off and she replaced Paul OGrady on For the Love of Dogs. The 50-year-olds appointment would certainly lighten up the show in a post-Wallace and Torode era. Angellica Bell 11/2 When Angellica Bell was secretly sacked from Martin Lewis ITV finance show in 2023, she received an outpouring of love from viewers who were left upset by her absence. Shrewd BBC bosses might have taken notice of this. In addition, Bell, 49, didnt torpedo her career during a Celebrity Big Brother appearance earlier this year, so she is certainly a presenter to be considered. open image in gallery Angellica Bell is in the running to join MasterChef; ( PA ) Gordon Ramsay 6/1 Gordon Ramsay needs no introduction although, if you do, a Netflix documentary on the foul-mouthed Kitchen Nightmares chef will be released next year and its hard to imagine a conversation suggesting him wouldnt occur. But the fact remains that, out of everyone on this list, Ramsay, 58, doesnt need MasterChef and, as the owner of 90 restaurants worldwide, might be biting off more than he can chew hosting the show. Poppy OToole 4/1 Michelin-trained chef OToole, 31, has self-titled herself as the Potato Queen online, and could bring in a much younger audience were the BBC looking to overhaul the show. open image in gallery Poppy OToole could be a good bet to lure in younger viewers ( Getty Images for McCain ) Rylan Clark 8/1 The gregarious Rylan, who has successfully evolved from joke X Factor contestant into TV presenting royalty, is already hired by the BBC, where he injects his dose of fun into Radio 2 on Saturday afternoons. The 36-year-old would certainly froth up the MasterChef kitchen, alleviating stress with his comforting presence and for those wondering if hes a good cook, he was a finalist on the celebrity version of the show in 2015. Lorraine Pascale 10/1 Model-turned-chef Lorraine Pascale, 52, is already a hit with BBC viewers thanks to her TV show Baking Made Easy, which shes hosted on BBC Two since 2011. Her jump to MasterChef would be a seamless transition. open image in gallery Lorraine Pascale currently hosts Baking Made Easy on BBC Two The Independent has contacted the BBC and Banijay for comment. MEXICO CITY, July 15 (Xinhua) -- A proposed 30 percent U.S. tariff on Mexican goods could reduce Mexico's economic growth by 1 percentage point over the next year, Moody's Analytics estimated Tuesday. The credit-rating agency's analytical arm said the estimate was based on the tariff announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on July 12, which takes effect in August. The tariff would hurt Mexico's trade balance by making its exports more expensive and less attractive to U.S. buyers. That drop in demand would in turn hit domestic production and employment, said Alfredo Coutino, head of Latin America economic research at Moody's Analytics. Moody's report indicates the immediate impact will be reflected in a 3.4 percent drop in the volume of Mexican exports to the United States in the first three months under the new tariff. Over a full year, total exports could decline by 2.6 percentage points, considering the additional effects on imports, the exchange rate and other factors. Since real exports account for around 40 percent of real GDP, and a large share of those exports go to the U.S. market, the tariff could reduce GDP by about 1 percentage point over the year, Coutino said. Mexico's economy, the second largest in Latin America after Brazil, slowed in 2024 to grow 1.4 percent, down from 3.3 percent the previous year, according to official figures. The new tariff would come on top of other U.S. trade barriers already in place, including duties on steel and aluminum and a recently imposed quota on tomato imports. Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice It is perhaps the most well-known cooking competition in the world, but the MasterChef brand is facing some of the most challenging moments in its 35-year history. Gregg Wallace, the greengrocer turned TV host who has fronted the show for almost 20 years, was sacked from the BBC as 45 allegations of inappropriate behaviour were upheld against him, including one of unwanted physical contact. His co-star John Torode followed suit, learning of his axing through media reports. He identified himself as the individual accused of using an extremely offensive racist term in a report released following an investigation into inappropriate behaviour on the show, which he said he had no recollection of. The BBC is facing tough questions about the future of the show, given Wallace and Torode are almost synonymous with the UK versions of MasterChef, MasterChef: The Professionals and Celebrity MasterChef. The broadcaster initially stood firm on its decision to broadcast all material featuring Wallace that had already been filmed, but later pulled MasterChef Christmas specials from its scheduling last winter. The future of a recorded series, which took place prior to the scandal going public, is also uncertain. Several replacements have been rumoured to be in the running to replace the pair including Celebrity MasterChef host Grace Dent (who had already been brought in alongside Torode for the celebrity version), Saturday Kitchens Matt Tebutt and Great British Menu chef Andi Oliver. BBC director general Tim Davie said in the corporations annual report released on Tuesday (15 July) that the issue posed a difficult decision and we need to weigh it up carefully, adding that chefs gave heart and soul... and we need to talk and consult with them and then make a call. open image in gallery Two MasterChef celebrity Christmas specials were pulled from the BBCs schedule after the Gregg Wallace allegations came to light ( BBC/Shine TV ) He added: [MasterChef] absolutely can survive and prosper, but we've got to make sure we're in the right place in terms of the culture of the show. A BBC spokesperson told The Independent: At this stage we are not going to make a final decision on the broadcast of the series that was filmed last year. We know this is disappointing for fans of the show and those who took part, and at the appropriate time Banijay UK will consult further with the amateur contestants. While Wallace and Torodes salaries were not confirmed in the BBCs annual disclosure of earnings because of their contracts with Banijay UK, Wallace is reported to earn 400,000 on the programme, according to The Sun, while Torodes net worth is estimated to be 8m. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 day New subscribers only. 8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled. Try for free ADVERTISEMENT. If you sign up to this service we will earn commission. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. As one of the BBCs longest-running and most well-loved shows, MasterChef has remained a jewel in the broadcasters crown since its genesis in 1990. open image in gallery The BBC iPlayer app displaying an episode of MasterChef: The Professionals available to watch on demand (Yui Mok/PA) ( PA Wire ) Its initial run lasted 11 years, before it was rebooted with Wallace as its host in 2005. Since then, it has grown into the number of forms we see on our screens today, including the professional and celebrity versions. While specific revenue figures for the BBC version are not typically disclosed, the global MasterChef format is recognised as a lucrative asset, generating income through advertising, international licensing, merchandise, and spin-offs. In its 2025 report, BBC Studios confirmed earnings of around 2bn in total revenue, with its format sales and licensing deals, including MasterChef, playing a role in this figure. Last year, Banijay UK recorded a 53.4m pre-tax loss, according to City AM, which the production company attributed to a challenging UK TV market with customers maintaining pressure on license fees paid for both new and returning commissions. The latest season of classic MasterChef won the title of the BBCs highest rated cookery show this year, according to Banijay, the company which produces the show. Season 18, which aired in 2023, scored almost 4 million viewers for its finale and was the BBCs highest rated cookery show since 2016. open image in gallery MasterChef USA is judged by Gordon Ramsay ( Getty Images for Vegas Uncorkd ) Now, three decades after the first UK version, MasterChef is loved around the world and has grown into a global brand. Produced by Banijay around the world, the company estimate it has been watched by over 1 billion people globally, with it being adapted in 65 territories worldwide, and broadcast in over 200. Some of the most successful versions of the show include MasterChef Australia and USA, which is judged by Gordon Ramsay. To top it off in 2017, MasterChef gained a Guinness World Record for the worlds Most Successful Cookery Television Format. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice American Idol executive Robin Kaye and her husband were found murdered inside their multi-million-dollar Los Angeles home Monday, and now police are trying to piece together what exactly happened. Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, were pronounced dead inside their house in the Encino section of LA while authorities were conducting a welfare check Monday afternoon, authorities have confirmed. A suspect has been arrested, and police believe the couple was shot and killed after interrupting a burglary at their home. What happened? Police found Kaye and Deluca, both 70, with gunshot wounds to the head. The couple had not been seen for several days, and officers discovered them during a welfare check at the home in the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue. TMZ reported, citing unnamed police sources, that the couple was found in different rooms of their home. Blood was spotted at the front entrance, according to the websites report. open image in gallery Robin Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, were found fatally shot in their suburban Los Angeles home ( NBC4 Los Angeles ) NBC4 Los Angeles reported on the death of a man and a woman in Encino, with details matching Kaye and Delucas case. The station reported the man was found in a bathroom, and the woman was found in the pantry. Neighbor Amee Faggen told the local outlet, "We didnt hear anything. "My renter saw somebody hopping the fence, but that was back on Thursday. She called 911, but we didnt hear anything since then, so we have no idea if it's even related or not. Police believe that the shooting took place on Thursday, with the suspect entering the home through an unlocked door. The owner of The Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills, a security company, stated that Kaye had recently contacted them over concerns for her safety. She felt threatened by somebody because of somebody around their home or around their neighborhood who felt suspicious, owner Kris Herzog told NBC Los Angeles. Another security expert, Guy Cohen, told KTLA in a separate interview that the couple had sought his consultation following a break-in. We consulted with them just a couple of months ago and to think that maybe we couldve prevented this from happening is just heartbreaking. Are there any suspects? open image in gallery American Idol executive Robin Kaye and her husband were found murdered inside their Los Angeles home Monday ( Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Guild of Music Supervisors ) Police identified the suspect in the double homicide as Raymond Boodarian, 22, also a resident of Encino. In a statement Tuesday, police said Boodarian was taken into custody without incident. Investigators are trying to determine if Boodarian had any connection to the couple. They are also looking into whether he was involved in any past calls for service at the White Oak residence. Boodarian has a long criminal history that includes charges of exhibiting a deadly weapon and threatening to commit a crime with intent to terrorize, reports The Los Angeles Times. ABC Los Angeles reports that authorities do not believe that Boodarian is connected to any local burglary rings and are treating the shooting as an isolated incident. Police said, It is now believed that the suspect gained entrance through an unlocked door. The victims returned home while the suspect was in their residence, and a confrontation ensued, which resulted in the suspect taking their lives. The victims succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, police said. The suspect then fled the residence on foot. open image in gallery The owner of security company The Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills said that Kaye had contacted them recently over concerns for her safety ( Getty ) The suspect was in the home for 30 minutes before the slain couple returned. Authorities have said that Boodarian was identified through facial recognition technology. The couples deaths are being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Departments Valley Bureau Homicide Division. LAPD Lieutenant Guy Golan said that officers were stifled in their attempts to respond to the initial burlgarly call as the home was highly fortified. Golan said that an aircraft performed as pass over the home and no signs of forced entry were found. Who were Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca? Kaye had been a music supervisor for American Idol from 2002 to 2023, according to her IMDb biography. She worked on nearly 300 episodes of the singing competition show. The executive won three Guild of Music Supervisors awards for her contributions to American Idol. Before her gig in music supervision, Kaye launched her own record company, SyncroniCity, in 2000. The company represented artists including Andrea Bocelli, Kenny Loggins, and Donny Osmond, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In 2019, Kaye was featured in a Variety article detailing what it takes to be a successful music supervisor. The general public assumes that music supervision is a glamorous and exciting job being paid to work with one of everyones favorite pastimes, music. [But] in most films and scripted television the music is usually the very last thing that happens, and sometimes there is not enough budget left to fill all the music needs. Music supervisors are often expected to work fast and pull miracles creatively and financially to complete the project, she told the magazine. Deluca also had a career in music. He was a songwriter and musician. His debut album Down To The Wire was released by Epic Records in 1986, according to his website. His most recent effort, Street Rock, came out in 2022. The home in question formerly belonged to late rapper Juice Wrld open image in gallery Rapper Juice Wrld, who died in 2019, lived in the home that the couple shared ( AP ) Rapper Juice Wrld, real name Jarad Anthony Higgins, formerly owned the home that Kaye and Deluca shared. Fox Los Angeles reports that members of the community are still shaken by a murder that occurred in the area in February. A lady was killed by her ex-husband right down the street. We have to be here for each other and all the neighbors have to stay close. As a neighbor, what's going through your heart just watching this, I have so much pain right now. This is not right, it's unbelievable, Hanna Masachi told the station. I wish they would've worked a lot harder to get inside. It was a code three call for an armed suspect inside with a gun. The police didn't really make an attempt to get inside, which is a little bit upsetting and concerning, actually, another neigbor, Tim Pingel, told the ABC-affiliate. We used to think this was one of the last neighborhoods. You know, I've seen the crime creeping through the valley. Sherman Oaks 20 years ago was beautiful, and it's looking bad, and now, Encino seems to be next, Pingel added. The couples pool cleaner was shocked to learn of the deaths when he showed up for work on Tuesday morning. They are a nice couple. Really nice people, Mauro Quintero told ABC Los Angeles. He also mentioned that an incident occurred at the couples home earlier this year. More than one month ago, I came and the guy came out and told me somebody break in, and they have little dogs, and the dogs keep barking, he wake up, and the people run away, he said. Juice Wrld died at the age of 21 in December 2019 when he suffered convulsions while traveling on a private jet as a result of consuming toxic levels of oxycodone, authorities said. How have people reacted to the deaths? An American Idol spokesperson told Deadline the show was devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing. Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever, and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time, the spokesperson added. A neighbor, meanwhile, pointed the finger at the police for not discovering the couple sooner. open image in gallery An American Idol spokesperson told Deadline the show was devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing Music producer Lee Newman described Kaye was the foundation of the show, reports NBC Los Angeles. Colton Dixon, an American Idol finalist from season 11, told The Hollywood Reporter hes absolutely devastated by Kayes death. Though I shouldnt play favorites, Robin was always a highlight during my time on American Idol. She was quick to listen and always fought for what the artist wanted. She helped make my time on the show an unforgettable experience, Dixon said. Scott MacIntyre, a contestant from the shows eighth season, said, per THR, Robin was great at her job. As a blind person, there were always some extra considerations for me to work through when I needed to get hold of music or quickly research new songs to perform. Robin made that process as easy as possible for me and was always willing to go the extra mile. She helped me and a lot of others on our musical journeys. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Two people have been arrested over the disappearance of a seven-year-old boy with disabilities, who was reported kidnapped, but instead police say he was beaten to death and hidden for weeks. The remains of Hershall Creachbaum, who was non-verbal and autistic, were found following an investigation just a few blocks away from his home in Dayton, Ohio. His mother Ashley Johnson, 36, and her boyfriend, Michael Kendrick, 39, called 911 to report him missing on July 12, but were later arrested and charged, according to Dayton police chief Kamran Afzal said Monday. Kendrick has been charged with tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse, while Johnson is charged with obstructing justice and failure to report death. open image in gallery Michael Kendrick, 39, and Ashley Johnson, 36, have been arrested and charged over the death of a 7-year-old disabled boy in Dayton, Ohio, who they initially reported had been kidnapped ( Dayton Police Department ) Afzal told reporters that other charges may be brought depending on forensic examination of the boys remains. Though Afzal did not elaborate further on details of the case at the briefing, court records obtained by The News and Observer, provided insight into the tragic events. According to the outlet, Kendrick told police he believed Hershall was kidnapped from the front porch by an unknown man, though this was contradicted by Johnson, who said her son had died in late May. Kendrick had initially told her Creachbaum had died of natural causes, according to the affidavit, though he later admitted he had punched the boy twice after drinking and that he had died the next day while in the shower. Kendrick kept the body in the home initially, before transferring it to a freezer. He later took the boys body and dumped the remains in a grassy field, returning a few weeks later and moving the remains to the place they were ultimately found, according to the affidavit. open image in gallery The remains of Hershall Creachbaum, who was non-verbal and autistic, were found following an investigation just a few blocks away from his home in Dayton, Ohio ( United Rehabilitation Services/ Facebook ) The callousness shown in this situation towards this child is horrendous and truly evil, Azfal said Monday, adding: We cant bring Hershall back but at least we can bring justice to Hershall, Afzal said. In a post on Facebook, the United Rehabilitation Services wrote that Creachbaum was a child who shouldve been safe. His death is heartbreakingand a painful reminder that children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in our communities, the post read. His life mattered. And we must all do better. Every child and adult with a disability deserves to be safe, valued, and treated with dignity. Our hearts are with all who are grieving this unimaginable loss. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Twenty-one children, all born from surrogate mothers, were removed from their California home after their parents were investigated for child abuse and police say they discovered the couple tricked surrogates into carrying their kids. While investigating a 2-month-old babys traumatic head injury, Arcadia police discovered numerous children 15 children to be specific ranging in ages from 2 months to 13 years old, living in the same house, Lt. Kollin Cieadlo told Eyewitness News. Many of the children were birthed through surrogacy and then the male and female at the residence took legal guardianship of those kids, Cieadlo added. Six of the couples other children had been moved to other homes, but all 21 were confirmed to belong to Guojun Xuan, 65, and Silvia Zhang, 38. The couple was arrested for felony child endangerment but later released. Authorities are now looking for their nanny, 56-year-old Chunmei Li, who they say was caught on surveillance footage inside the home violently shaking the baby in May. Meanwhile, the parents waited two days before seeking medical care for the child, who remains hospitalized months later, KTLA reported. Silva Zhang (left) and Guojun Xuan (right) ran the surrogacy operation that they used to gain 21 children through surrogates, according to reports. ( Arcadia Police Department ) Police sources told Eyewitness News that of the 21 children, 17 are younger than 3 years old. The police investigation also revealed that all of the children are products of a surrogacy operation owned and operated by Zhang and Xuan. Its horrific, its disturbing, its damaging emotionally, said Kayla Elliot, one of the surrogate mothers hired by the couple. She says the pair told her they only had one other child. However, two months after giving birth, she learned the baby was no longer with the couple. Now, she hopes to gain custody of the child. These agencies, were supposed to trust them and follow their guidance and come to find out this whole thing was a scam, and the parents own the agency that was not disclosed at all beforehand, Elliot said. Elliot later discovered she wasnt the only surrogate for the pair and that the baby she carried for them was not the only one removed from the home. Several surrogate mothers from Texas to Florida all believed they were carrying the second child for a couple struggling with infertility until they realized they were all surrogates for the same set of parents. KTLA spoke with multiple women who say they were surrogates for the couple, including one Florida woman who delivered a stillborn in June. Two Los Angeles County surrogates also claimed to have carried for the couple. One gave birth in March, and another had two babies for them, one in 2022 and one in 2024. All of the women said they worked with Mark Surrogacy, which records later revealed was registered at the couples home address, according to the report. Police said Zhang was able to show that she is the legal mother on all of the childrens birth certificates. Mark Surrogacy recently filed paperwork to terminate the company, according to public records. However, a surrogate in Pennsylvania says she is currently pregnant with a child for Mark Surrogacy, KTLA reported. We are carrying for Mark Surrogacy, and we are 26 weeks, the woman said. It really hit hard when all of this came through. When reached by text, Zhang told KTLA, Any accusations of wrongdoing are misguided and wrong. We look forward to vindicating any such claims at the appropriate time when and if any actions are brought. Police also say they have evidence of additional abuse involving other nannies and plan to soon present their findings to the district attorney. Meanwhile, Elliot has started a GoFundMe to cover legal fees so ehs can try to gain custody of the child she delivered. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Suspicious text messages on a family group chat have sparked an investigation into the disappearance of the father of a well-known crypto investor with relatives fearing he may have been kidnapped. Naiping Hou, 74, of Rancho Cucamonga, California, was last seen on March 18. His family was alerted after the semi-retired grandpa began dodging phone calls and declining visits to see his grandchildren. Hou is the father of Wen Hou, a hedge fund and cryptocurrency investor who serves as the chief investment officer at Coincident Capital. The younger Hou told The Los Angeles Times that his father had become oddly detached on a family group chat since March, but that concerns over his fathers wellbeing came to a head on his birthday on May 3. Naiping Hou had been invited to spend his birthday at his sons Las Vegas residence, but he declined. After his son sent him a birthday gift of handmade Chinese noodles, whoever was controlling the phone did not answer any calls. Instead of thanks for the gift, as they expected, a text message was sent reading simply: Yes I receive it. open image in gallery Naiping Hou, a 74-year-old grandpa from southern California has been missing since May 4. His family was first alerted to his disappearance by strange text messages on the family group chat. ( findnaipinghou.com ) The next morning, the family went to his home and found the noodle package still on the stoop. Inside, they said the furniture was missing and it appeared a new paint job had been done. The cars were missing from the garage, as well. Naiping Hou was in China at the time. She also received a strange text message from her husband that told her to cancel her flight home and he would join her in Asia. We really are devastated, really sad, and we want him back if possible, Wen Hou told The Times. We are pretty upset about how this was discovered so late and a bit upset about ourselves that we didnt find these clues earlier. San Bernardino County Sheriffs Office, which is now investigating the disappearance, confirmed they believed the elder Hous phone was being used by an unknown individual(s) who impersonated him to communicate with family members. According to police, who investigated the home on May 4, evidence was found that indicated Naiping may have been kidnapped. open image in gallery Naiping Hous son, crypto investor Wen Hou, has offered a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the safe return of his father, or the identification of those involved. A website findnaipinghou.com has also been launched ( findnaipinghou.com ) There has been unexplained and suspicious activity with Naipings financial accounts and property; Draining of his accounts, unauthorized sales of his vehicles, gifting of items and the attempted renting of his home, the sheriffs office said. The office added that evidence also suggested that individuals connected to the crime may have ties to both the Los Angeles area and the Inland Empire. The suspects are believed to be using sophisticated and deceptive tactics and are considered highly dangerous. In addition, Wen Hou has offered a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the safe return of his father, or the identification of those involved. A website findnaipinghou.com has also been launched. We really are devastated, really sad, and we want him back if possible, Wen Hou told The Times. We are pretty upset about how this was discovered so late and a bit upset about ourselves that we didnt find these clues earlier. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The husband of TikToker Emilie Kiser could face child abuse charges relating to the death of the couple's three-year-old son, Trigg Kiser, in May. Police officers rushed to the Kisers home just outside of Phoenix on May 12 after receiving reports of a possible drowning involving a child. Trigg was given CPR at the scene before paramedics arrived. He was then rushed to a local hospital in critical condition before being flown to Phoenix Childrens Hospital due to the extent of his injuries. The child succumbed to his injuries six days later, the fire department in the city of Chandler said. Emilie Kiser is a well-known influencer with 4.1 million followers on the platform. On Wednesday, local police announced that they had completed the investigation into the tragedy and submitted a file to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office that recommends Brady Kiser, 28, Triggs' father, face a Class 4 felony child abuse charge. open image in gallery Investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony child abuse charge against Brady Kiser (pictured) ( Emilie Kiser/Instagram ) Following a thorough review of the evidence, investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser, Chandler police said Tuesday night. A class 4 child abuse felony is an offence committed with criminal negligence and can be committed intentionally or knowingly, as defined by Arizona law. Brady Kiser could face up to three years in prison if convicted on the charges. Many of Emilie Kisers posts document her life as a parent and feature videos of her children and husband. Since the incident, she has filed a lawsuit demanding that records on her son be kept private, insisting that she is going through a parents worst nightmare right now, according to the suit. Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving sonbut every day is a battle, the lawsuit said. Kiser and Brady welcomed their second son, Theodore, in March. open image in gallery Emilie Kiser's (right) 3-year-old son Trigg (left) died after falling into a family swimming pool in Arizona in May ( Emilie Kiser/TikTok ) Following Triggs death, over 100 public records requests were filed with the city of Chandler and the Maricopa County Medical Examiners Office. Emilie and her family desperately want to grieve in private, but sadly, the public will not let them. Triggs death has become a media frenzy, the suit continued. Kiser has not posted on TikTok since May 12, and as of Tuesday, comments on her posts remained disabled. While the suit does acknowledge Arizonas Public Records Law, which gives the public the right to view records maintained by government offices, this right of access is not absolute. Kisers lawyers argue Arizona law also recognizes that family members have a compelling privacy interest in preventing the disclosure of graphic materials related to a loved ones injuries or death. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A 21-year-old Texas man lost his job at a funeral home after taking pictures with caskets and posting them to social media in hopes of internet fame. Alexanders Mortuary in Highlands confirmed to KPRC 2 that the unsettling photos of the now-former employee are real. In one photo, the man held a gun as he stood in front of closed caskets. The young man made a mistake trying to go viral. Trying to monetize and get money off of social media, Derek Anderson, an employee at Alexanders Mortuary, told the outlet. Were going to give him a little grace, but he has to suffer the consequences, termination. The man was not charged with a crime, but was immediately fired from his job following an emergency staff meeting where he admitted to posting the photos for clout. Plain and simple, he broke the rules and violated his non-disclosure agreement, Anderson said. open image in gallery Alexanders Mortuary in Highlands, Texas, is working to restore its reputation after the alarming social media posts. ( Google Maps ) Staff phones were collected and searched during an internal investigation after the incident. In a separate incident, funeral home owner Melvin Alexander told the outlet that he is filing a police report against a female non-employee invited by the deceased's family to cut their hair before the service. We allowed her to do what the family asked, cut the gentlemans hair, get him ready. At that point, we allowed her to be in there alone. She uncovered the box and began to take these videos, Anderson said. We trusted her to go into there and do the job that the family asked her to do. KPRC 2 obtained but did not share the haircut video out of respect for the families. It shows a dressed man before a funeral, then pans to a nude woman. The lady that you see in the box thats uncovered, that lady was covered up. She uncovered her, took her out of the box, Anderson said. She was being ready to go to cremation. The bottom box that you see is our cremations box. She was totally covered. open image in gallery The man admitted to posting the photos with the caskets with the hope they would go viral. ( Getty Images ) The deceased's family later contacted the mortuary to express concern and identify the person who recorded the video. She violated our trust. We know her. Shes been here before to do work. I am deeply hurt and sad, Alexander said about the woman. Ive never had any type of blemish like this at this funeral home. The Independent has contacted the Texas Funeral Service Commission and the Harris County Sheriffs Office for comment. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A Georgia couple is facing animal cruelty charges after more than 250 animals were found in horrid conditions at their home in what local authorities say is one of the worst cases of animal abuse and neglect they have ever seen. Nathaniel Levon Curington, 44, and Aimee Renee Curington, 45, were taken into custody on July 9, following an investigation into reports of animal abuse at the couples home on Sells Lane in Trenton. Investigators removed a total of 256 animals from the property, many of which were in poor health, severely neglected, or dead, according to the Georgia Department of Agricultures Law Enforcement Division. open image in gallery Nathaniel Levon Curington and Aimee Renee Curington were taken into custody after authorities say more than 250 neglected animals were found in their home ( Dade County Sheriffs Office ) Local news outlets reported there were around 240 dogs and 16 cats found at the home. The surviving animals were transported to another location for veterinary care. Both Nathaniel and Aimee Curington were charged with seven counts of felony cruelty to animals. The case has been turned over to the Dade County District Attorneys Office for prosecution and additional charges are expected. Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper called the case one of the worst the agency has encountered. open image in gallery Both Nathaniel and Aimee Curington (pictured) were charged with seven counts of felony cruelty to animals ( Dade County Sheriffs Office ) I am confident these individuals will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law, Harper said in a statement. GDA Law Enforcement is sending a clear message that animal abuse has no place in the state of Georgia, and we are committed to working with local law enforcement and prosecutors to crack down on those who abuse animals in our state. The couple was being held at the Dade County Jail. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Travis Decker, the Washington dad accused of killing his three young daughters, appeared nervous and fidgety after getting into a car crash just three days before he and his daughters disappeared, according to a report. Decker, 32, has been wanted since June 2, when his truck and the bodies of his three daughters, 9-year-old Paityn Decker, 8-year-old Evelyn Decker and 5-year-old Olivia Decker, were found at a campground outside Leavenworth. The horrifying discovery was made days after Decker failed to bring his girls back to their mothers home following a scheduled visit. Three days before they disappeared, Decker is accused of hitting another driver with his truck at a red light, according to police dashcam footage obtained by KING 5. The video shows Decker, a former soldier, talking with an officer and the other motorist in a shopping center parking lot on May 27. The other driver involved told KING 5 that Decker appeared nervous and fidgety and kept telling me not to call police. open image in gallery Video obtained by KING 5 shows Travis Decker, the Washington dad accused of killing his three young daughters, talking with police three days before he and his children disappeared ( KING 5 ) When the motorist told Decker he had to report the accident, Decker looked almost intimidating to me. While Decker didnt make any threats, his body language appeared that way, the driver said. In the footage, Decker can be seen wearing a white T-shirt and crossing his arms while leaning up against his truck. At some points in the video, he appears exhausted, leaning up against his truck or resting on the bed. I could tell he was not in his full senses, the other driver said of Decker. Three days later, the other driver saw a Facebook post about the missing girls and immediately recognized Decker, telling the news station, I had to stop what I was doing and sit down. Authorities have been searching for Decker for six weeks and earlier this month initiated a manhunt in Idahos Sawtooth National Forest after a family reported seeing a man who resembled Decker. The man was located last Wednesday and authorities quickly determined he was not Decker. open image in gallery Decker has been missing since June 2 ( Chelan County Sheriff's Office ) Authorities in Washington said on June 10 that they thought Decker was spotted hiking near a remote alpine lake in the Cascade Range. Witnesses who spotted the hiker said he was alone and appeared ill-equipped for the conditions, but that man was never found. Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison has previously stated that Decker, an Army veteran, has spent extended periods living off the grid and is capable of surviving in remote wilderness areas for long durations. The Marshals Service is offering a reward of up to $20,000 for information leading to Deckers capture. XINING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Standing at the heart of a 609-sq-km photovoltaic park located in the Talatan Gobi Desert in Gonghe County, northwest China's Qinghai Province, China Arab TV correspondent Ayoub Bechrouri enthusiastically began recording his report with his smartphone. Behind him stretches a captivating "blue sea" -- an endless expanse of photovoltaic panels covering the landscape. Beneath these gleaming solar arrays, verdant grasslands thrive where flocks of sheep graze contentedly, showcasing the perfect harmony between renewable energy and sustainable agriculture. "This is a good example of green energy development," Bechrouri said. "I hope to see China-Arab collaboration bring Chinese technologies to Arab countries." Hailing from Morocco, Bechrouri was part of a delegation of around 30 international journalists from countries including the United States, Germany, Japan and Spain on a three-day tour of Qinghai organized by China's State Council Information Office. The media delegation experienced firsthand how this northwestern province is pioneering China's ecological civilization drive through concrete green development projects. ECO-FRIENDLY ENERGY "In a sunny country like Spain, people have been paying attention to the ecological impact of the construction of large photovoltaic power stations," said Alvaro Alfaro Ruiz-Alberdi, a journalist at the Spanish news agency Agencia EFE. "I find it interesting to examine how Qinghai maintains the balance between this energy development and environmental protection." The Spanish correspondent found the answer at this very photovoltaic park, one of the highest-capacity solar power facilities globally, in Gonghe. The park's innovative eco-industrial model -- power generation atop solar panels, grass cultivation between panels, and sheep grazing beneath them -- has restored vegetation coverage to 80 percent in an area that was once a dust-blown stretch of the Gobi Desert, according to Wang Anwei, director of the energy bureau of Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which administers Gonghe. This agrivoltaic model has also boosted income for livestock farming, generating over 10,000 yuan (about 1,398 U.S. dollars) per mu (about 0.07 hectares), and has helped lift 173 neighboring villages out of poverty. "Now my flock has grown to about 800 sheep, and my income from grazing alone has doubled compared to before," said Zhao Guofu, a herder who began grazing his sheep here six years ago. By the end of 2024, the total investment in clean energy in the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture reached 16.18 billion yuan, with annual clean energy power generation amounting to 46.32 billion kWh. Notably, photovoltaic power generation was about 17.9 billion kWh, representing a year-on-year increase of 16.21 percent. IMPROVED BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION In the summer, Qinghai Lake, located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, shimmers with azure waves, teeming with visitors. Brown-headed gulls wheel above the water surface, while vast schools of the lake's unique species, naked carp, which is classified as vulnerable on the China Species Red List, glide beneath. "The naked carp constitutes over 90 percent of the lake's total fish population and serves as the primary prey for birds such as brown-headed gulls. This species plays a vital role in maintaining the ecosystem and biodiversity of the Qinghai Lake basin," said Wang Shuning, with the protection and utilization administration of the Qinghai Lake scenic area. Due to overfishing and environmental deterioration, the population of naked carp sharply declined in the 1960s and 1970s. In order to protect the species and restore the Qinghai Lake environment, Qinghai banned naked carp fishing at the lake in 2001, following a series of temporary prohibitions from the 1980s onward. Between 2002 and 2023, the biomass of naked carp increased nearly 46-fold. Additionally, as the only habitat of Przewalski's gazelles, an endangered antelope species, the Qinghai Lake basin has seen the total number of the species recover from fewer than 300 at the beginning of conservation efforts to approximately 3,400 currently. This remarkable growth reflects the concerted conservation efforts by both the Chinese government and local communities. The province has adopted a holistic approach to the protection and systematic governance of the symbiotic ecosystem of "water-grass-fish-birds-animals" in the Qinghai Lake basin. It has established monitoring platforms for ecological sensing and hydrological early warning, and has gradually set up over 300 ecological monitoring sites. Two years ago, local resident Dorje Tsomo became an ecological ranger at the Qinghai Lake scenic area. On duty, she always carries a camera to document environmental changes around the lake and a field manual compiling 98 species of waterbirds, which serves as her constant reference for learning their distinctive features, distributions and conservation statuses. "We also use a WeChat mini-program to document patrol routes, while nearby villagers promptly report injured birds. Together, we protect Qinghai Lake, the home we all share," she said. According to Chen Dehui, deputy director of the protection and utilization administration of the Qinghai Lake scenic area, growing numbers of herders are voluntarily taking on new roles -- as photographers capturing the lake's natural beauty and as interpreters in ecological education programs -- diversifying their income sources while sharing in the rewards of conservation. "Qinghai Lake's ecological conservation is truly impressive," said Furuta Natsuya, a journalist with Japan's Hokkaido Shimbun who visited Qinghai for the first time. "Here, I witnessed a genuine model of human-nature coexistence and felt the profound connection between people and the natural world." ECOLOGY-ENRICHED PROSPERITY In April this year, Kanbula, located in Jainca County of Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, was officially designated as a UNESCO Global Geopark. The park spans roughly 3,149 square kilometers with striking fiery-red Danxia landforms, towering jagged peaks, hidden caves and emerald lakes. "This world-class geological landmark not only enhances geo-conservation efforts, but also accelerates local infrastructure development, drawing global visitors to fuel cultural tourism revenues in the area," said Hou Guangliang, a professor at Qinghai Normal University's school of geographical sciences. In recent years, Dekyi Village, which is near the geopark, has become a living example of turning "ecological assets into economic gains." "Thanks to government-sponsored training programs, our family now runs a homestay and agritourism business," local villager Jorgyi said. "Last year, we earned over 70,000 yuan, and this year looks even more promising." The village receives over 200,000 annual visitors, generating more than 1 million yuan in collective and individual dividends. "Like many regions in Hokkaido facing population decline, I'm particularly interested in rural revitalization. I hope to gain firsthand insights into how Chinese grassroots communities have experienced poverty alleviation and the tangible outcomes of government initiatives," said Furuta. Both China and Japan are actively exploring sustainable development pathways, Furuta noted, adding that the Qinghai visit gave him profound insight into how both countries' successful practices in community governance, ecotourism and cultural integration merit mutual learning. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Vance Boelter, the man accused of killing Democratic Minnesota Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June, told FBI Director Kash Patel that Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill other Democratic lawmakers as part of an elaborate plot, according to a newly released letter. Dear Kash Patel. My name is Dr. Vance Luther, Boelter E.d.D. I am the shooter at large in Minnesota, Boelter wrote in the letter, according to the FBI. The letter was unveiled by federal prosecutors Tuesday after his indictment. Officials say they recovered the memo from a car near his home a day after the shooting, though it was not confirmed whether the car was his. Prosecutors say Boelter, 57, was driving a fake police cruiser car, wearing a rubber mask that covered his head and wearing tactical gear around 2 a.m. on June 14 when he went to the home of Sen. John Hoffman, a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette, in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He then allegedly shot the senator and his wife nearly 20 times, but they both survived. He then stopped at the homes of two other lawmakers, say prosecutors. One, in Maple Grove, where no one was home, and a second, in New Hope, where a police officer is thought to have scared him off. open image in gallery The letter was unveiled by prosecutors on Tuesday after Boelter was indicted on six federal charges ( AP ) Boelter then allegedly went to the Hortmans home in nearby Brooklyn Park, shooting and killing them both, police said. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. He was arrested after a two-day manhunt near his family home in Green Isle, Minnesota. I was hired by U.S. Military people off the books starting in college, he allegedly states in the letter, before claiming that he was approached about a project that Tim Walz wanted done, alluding that other senior lawmakers were aware of the alleged plot. Tim wanted me to kill [Minnesota Senator] Amy Klobuchar and Tim [blank]. Tim wants to be a senator, and he already hired [blank] to retire as planned, Boelter wrote, according to the FBI. Boelter was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury on six federal charges in connection with the stalking and murders of Hortman and her husband, as well as the stalking and the shooting at the Hoffmans home, as well as the attempted shooting of their daughter Hope Hoffman, said acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. open image in gallery State Rep. Melissa Hortman (left) and Sen. John Hoffman (right) were targeted in the attacks last month ( Minnesota Legislature/Reuters ) In the letter, the suspect reportedly claimed that Walz, Kamala Harris former running mate, instructed him to remove [Minnesota Attorney General] Keith Ellison with a double poisoning method. The accused said he refused the deal and called off that plan, but said that Walz promised to blackmail him, If I didnt play ball. Boelter then said he met with Walz and had some people waiting to kill me when he returned home an incident that informed his decision to shoot the lawmakers. His public defender, Manny Atwal, who was appointed last month, refused to comment on the defendant's mental competency and insisted that Boelter will be pleading not guilty when he returns to court for formal arraignment. Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core, the U.S. attorney said. He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota. We grieve with the Hortman family and continue to pray for the recovery of the Hoffmans. Today, a grand jury indicted Boelter with the most serious of federal charges for these heinous political assassinations. Let me be clear: Boelter will see justice. Thompson reaffirmed Tuesday that authorities have still not determined a clear motive but believe Boleter acted alone. An investigation is ongoing. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A love triangle turned dangerous after three people threatened to harm a pregnant woman using a pink handgun, according to a report. Last week, a West Virginia woman called police and claimed she was being threatened with bodily harm by Clarissa Mosser, 31, Maggie Dunham, 27, and Chaz Suarez, 23. The trio were then arrested. The female caller alleged she was staying at Mossers home when she and Mosser argued about dating the same man. The victim claims they talked about it, and she thought the issue was resolved, WTRF first reported. The Independent has reached out to the Moundsville Police Department for more information. Hours later, she woke up around 1.30 a.m. after Denham allegedly ripped the bed sheets off of her and demanded she come to the living room. There, the victim recalled Denham pressing her about someone she didnt know. She claimed Denham, wearing red brass knuckles fitted with a knife, ordered the victim not to lie or she would get her frontal knocked in, according to the outlet. open image in gallery The victim was allegedly staying with Clarissa Mosser, who is accused of getting into a verbal altercation with the victim after realizing they were romantically involved with the same man ( West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation ) Fearing for her wellbeing, the victim agreed with Denham, a police report obtained by the outlet states. Thats when Denham handed Mosser a pink camouflage handgun, mentioning that it was loaded with three rounds, enough to do the job, the report says. Suarez is accused of whipping out his own loaded black handgun and waving it around so much that Mosser told him to stop. The woman then revealed she was pregnant, a confession that initially led the trio to put their guns down before they are accused of making new threats. They wouldnt let her leave before she took a pregnancy test; if she fled or called police, they would shoot her right then and there, according to police. open image in gallery Maggie Denham was arrested after allegedly wielding weapons and threatening the pregnant victim ( West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation ) They wouldnt allow her to leave the room, yelled at her, threatened her, Moundsville Police Chief Tom Mitchell told WTRF. At some point, the trio left Mossers home. Thats when the victim called the police, Mitchell said. When officers arrived on the scene, they found brass knuckles and a pink camouflage Ruger 9mm handgun loaded with five rounds, the outlet reported. Both women were brought in for questioning. Police say Mosser told them she and the victim had a verbal altercation, but denied any weapons were involved, while Denham similarly told police that only a fiery exchange of words with the victim transpired. Her brass knuckles were for protection, she claimed as she never removed them from her pocket and the pink gun never left her waistband, the outlet reported. open image in gallery Chaz Suarez was arrested after allegedly waving around a firearm and not letting the pregnant victim leave ( West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation ) Court records show Mosser and Denham were charged with wanton endangerment involving a firearm and conspiracy to inflict injury. Theyve pleaded not guilty. Marshals arrested Suarez and two others in connection to a home invasion where the victims were pistol whipped and five firearms were stolen, according to the law enforcement agency. He faces charges of wanton endangerment involving a firearm, robbery, malicious assault, grand larceny, and conspiracy against the state, state records show. He has yet to make a plea. The trio is being held in Northern Regional Jail. The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice A New Jersey woman whose friends boyfriend stole intimate photos of her and posted them online has been awarded $8.7 million in damages. The woman, described in the lawsuit only as J.D. was first introduced to Tyler J. Jones, 33, by her friend in mid-April 2022, who was dating him at the time. According to a complaint, obtained by The Independent, in November 2022, Jones asked to borrow the womans phone and, without her knowledge, located her intimate content, photographed it with his phone, and returned the phone. Once home, Jones, a carpenter from Philadelphia, posted the stolen intimate images online and continued to do so on a near-nightly basis for more than a year, the lawsuit stated. Jones continued this pattern of behavior sending the images to himself via Airdrop. Jones routinely uploaded images of the woman on online forum 4Chan, as well as identifying information including her name, workplace, and hobbies allowing countless people to locate her. open image in gallery A New Jersey woman whose friends boyfriend stole intimate photos of her and posted them online has been awarded $8.7 million in damages ( Getty Images ) Jones uploaded such intimate content online more than 100 times, the lawsuit claims. In addition, Jones then began contacting the womans friends onlin,e asking if they would be interested in viewing intimate pictures of her. Defendants dissemination of Plaintiffs intimate content was so prolific that Plaintiff will never be able to scrub the internet of her naked body, the lawsuit stated, adding that Jones actions had caused her to suffer long term mental health problems, including being diagnosed with PTSD. Plaintiffs life has been devastated by Defendants intrusion and callous disregard for her privacy. By blanketing the internet with Plaintiffs intimate content, Defendant has sealed Plaintiffs online footprint forever, the suit stated. She will never again know a day where her body is hers and hers alone. Defendant stole her privacy and stole her autonomy. The lawsuit added that the woman was just one of many women Jones had victimized in such a manner over the years. In 2013, Jones pleaded guilty to charges of invasion of privacy and disseminating child pornography after he secretly videotaped three females, including at least one minor, and uploaded the recordings onto pornographic websites. Further investigation revealed that Jones had also been uploading images of women, including his ex-wife (then-current partner), a co-worker from 2016, his brothers ex-girlfriend, his ex-wifes friend, a co-workers wife, and a prior romantic partner along with his 2013 victims during the same period. In an opinion on July 14, U.S. District Judge Edward S. Kiel acknowledged that: Due to the nature of the internet, I find that it is reasonable and unfortunately, expected for plaintiff to worry that her intimate images will resurface. The judge described Jones actions as clearly reprehensible, adding defendant disregarded plaintiffs health and safety and acted with malice. The woman was granted damages totaling $8,737,644.64, including compensation for past and future medical expenses, loss of earnings, pain and suffering, attorneys fees and punitive damages. Last week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday charged Jones in an unrelated case of stealing images of five women and posting them online. This is another example of cruel and despicable behavior by a repeat offender who continues to weaponize modern technology to expose victims online, Attorney General Sunday said. This criminal conduct traumatizes victims by impacting their careers, personal relationships, and almost every other aspect of their lives. A judge in that case set his bail at $350,000. A day after the City of Oakdale police chief was indicted by federal prosecutors for helping grant hundreds of fraudulent visas, his wife is also in jail, accused of conspiring with the same convenience store owner to commit fraud. Louisiana State Police announced the arrest of 50-year-old Alison Doyle on Thursday, a former Oakdale City Employee and wife of Chad Doyle, for alleged unethical conduct in the Municipal property bidding process. BERLIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Tuesday that the U.S. government should not underestimate the European Union's (EU) willingness to take similar measures in response to excessive tariffs. Merz made the remarks at a joint press conference with Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soeder. Merz said the EU is prepared (to take countermeasures), but still hopes to resolve the issue through negotiations. Merz said he is maintaining close contact with U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, intending to reach a solution quickly to facilitate trade with the United States and restore lower tariff levels. Merz said that the EU still has time to negotiate with the U.S. until the end of July, but "this will not be easy." Trump announced last Saturday that his administration would impose 30 percent tariffs on EU exports starting Aug. 1. Von der Leyen said on the same day that the EU would introduce countermeasures if required. The appointment of Simon Trott to lead Australias biggest iron ore producer, Rio Tinto, has drawn out plenty of nationalist fervour from the cheap seats including from billionaire Gina Rinehart. Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King had also been waving the patriotic flag from the wings since Mays announcement of the controversial departure of Rios previous boss, Jakob Stausholm. Rios new boss, Simon Trott. Credit: Matt Jelonek/Rio Tinto King made no secret of her preference for Trott, or Kellie Parker, a fellow Australian Rio executive and its most senior female, to plant the Australian flag on the multinational miner. It feels like Trott won the popular vote to take on the role of running the $150 billion resources giant with 60,000 employees worldwide. Critica Limiteds flagship Jupiter Project, 52 kilometres west-southwest of Mount Magnet in Western Australias Mid West, has achieved a significant milestone in its metallurgical test work, reinforcing its potential as Australias largest clay-hosted rare earths deposit. The latest phase of testwork, undertaken by the Centre for Science and Technology of Mineral Resources and Environment in Vietnam, builds on previous results from February and confirms the projects ability to produce high-grade rare earth element concentrates using conventional, low-cost beneficiation methods. Critica Ltds recent metallurgical beneficiation testwork has boosted its WA Jupiter projects feedstock total rare earths content to 15,000 parts per million total rare earth oxides, a more than 800 per cent lift compared to the projects resource grade. The testwork utilised a two-stage flowsheet involving wet, low-intensity magnetic separation and rougher froth flotation for an initial early-stage unoptimised recovery of 45 per cent, yielding a solid baseline for further optimisation. The process achieved a beneficiated grade of 15,000 parts per million (ppm) - or 1.5 per cent - total rare earth oxides (TREO), including 3990ppm magnet rare earth oxides (MREO), 1400ppm heavy rare earth oxides (HREO) and 5200ppm combined neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr)+HREO, representing more than an 800 per cent uplift from the primary resource grade. A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story I am guilty; Im a little confused. So spoke Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old Welsh-born nightclub hostess after firing five bullets into her lover, racing driver David Blakely, one Easter Sunday evening in 1955 London. Blakelys death spurred a notorious chapter in UK legal history and won Ellis enduring fame as the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Her execution brought to the boil swelling opposition to capital punishment (permanently abolished for murder in 1969) and played a part in the introduction of the diminished responsibility defence, allowing the verdict of manslaughter. Lucy Boynton stars as Ruth Ellis in A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story Credit: 7Plus It also shone a light on the alarmingly swift process to convict Ellis and the treatment of women, particularly those in the lower classes. Its the latter that A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, ITVs magnetic, if occasionally hollow, four-part true-crime drama, magnifies with swish, hypnotic eloquence. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size When Phil Rosenthal, host of the Netflix food and travel show, Somebody Feed Phil, and creator of the enduring sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond, began selling out live shows last year, no one was more surprised than Ray Romano. Romano, the sitcoms star, showed up at the Paramount concert hall on Long Island, New York, expecting to stir up excitement among fans and help out during the Q&A. No one had a question for him, he said; they just wanted to tell Rosenthal about their favourite places to eat in Lisbon, Portugal, or Nashville, Tennessee. How did this happen? the actor asked me over the phone last week. Ive been doing stand-up for 30 years. He goes to Poland and eats meatloaf and sells out theatres around the world? Loading There is no shortage of armchair-travel television. But somehow, Rosenthal has broken through and become a global star. Season eight of his show, which features Sydney and Adelaide, dropped in June, making it one of the longest-running unscripted shows on Netflix. In August, hell start a North American tour, and a second cookbook, Phils Favourites the first was a New York Times bestseller will come out in November. The live shows Rosenthal did last year sold out not only in New York City and Los Angeles, but also in Melbourne, Glasgow, Brussels and Dublin. Theres no cooking demo, no tight five minutes of stand-up. Just him. Advertisement Whats the appeal? I know its not my looks, he said at a sneak preview of the shows new season in Manhattan. Tall and skinny, quick and twinkly, he comes across like everyones favourite uncle the silly one, who makes quarters disappear up his nose. Or great-uncle, considering hes 65. Phil Rosenthal does not hide his love of food, which his part of his appeal. Rosenthal is a sunny counterpart to his most famous predecessor, Anthony Bourdain, who carried a whiff of darkness on all his adventures. Bourdain explored Vietnams colonial legacy and travelled down the Congo River, but you never saw him doing a happy dance after biting into a herring or an arepa. Loading In 2014, four years before Bourdain died, Rosenthal was lucky (and canny) enough to hire his production company, Zero Point Zero. That explains the high-quality visuals and research that go into Somebody Feed Phil. Like Bourdains shows, its respectful of culture and food and the people who produce it but silly about almost everything else. Rosenthal makes fun of his brother, Richard, the showrunner; banters with the prime minister of Finland; and is always game to put on a Cirque du Soleil costume or chase a chicken. At the end of each episode, he invites every cook, cheesemaker, fisherman and whoever else worked on the show to dinner, usually followed by chocolate egg creams one of very few things he knows how to make. (The recipes in his cookbooks are contributed by chefs.) Advertisement As Rosenthal tells it, his love of food was born not at home, but in diners. For Everybody Loves Raymond, he transferred many details of his Jewish-American background to the Italian-American character Ray Barone including his mothers terrible cooking, which was played for laughs. Loading But the background is more complicated than that. His parents spent their childhoods in Nazi Germany. Maxs family fled to the United States in 1938, immediately after Kristallnacht; Helens stayed, until she and her mother were sent to Gurs, a concentration camp in south-western France. As refugees, they were en route to the US in 1941 when their ship was diverted to Cuba, where they waited two years before being allowed into the country. That was enough adventure for one lifetime, it seemed: When Rosenthal was growing up in New City, a middle-class suburb north of New York City, he said, his parents werent worried about expanding their horizons or their palates. He recalls the food his mother cooked was so bland that he first tasted garlic as an undergraduate at university. His father cared about only one dish: scrambled eggs. (True story: Are my eggs fluffy? is carved on his tombstone.) But treats such as cheeseburgers and egg creams, Rosenthal said, made him curious about what other delights might be out there in the world. Advertisement As an aspiring actor in New York City in the 1980s, he scrimped for months to pay for dinners at fancy restaurants. Later, he moved to Los Angeles, then offstage and into writing, and eventually into the kind of success that allowed him to eat anywhere in the world. Loading After Raymond ended in 2005, Rosenthal tried for a decade to get another sitcom off the ground, but to his surprise, nobody wanted it, he said. So he began travelling more and spending time with food experts such as Silverton, chef Thomas Keller and Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, who died in 2018. Rosenthal said Gold, whose groundbreaking work celebrated taco trucks and noodle joints as fiercely as white-tablecloth restaurants, gave him the words that still illuminate the greater purpose of a show like Somebody Feed Phil. By showing the world what other people eat, Rosenthal explained, Gold said he was trying to make all of us a little less afraid of our neighbours. In 2014, Rosenthal persuaded PBS to produce the show, then moved it to Netflix in 2018. Advertisement Advertisement Eating outHospitality culture Why cant we be the catalyst for change? Women fight for safer, fairer hospitality workplaces Giving women skills and confidence is key to improving the industry, advocates say. Waiting for employers to do the right thing just hasnt worked. Plus, how you can get involved Bianca Hrovat July 16, 2025 Save Log in , register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime. Got it Share When Caitlin Baker got her start in the hospitality industry more than 10 years ago, there was just one female restaurant manager in Canberra: Dash Rumble, now the co-owner of acclaimed restaurant Such and Such. How could women have thought it was possible to pursue a career [in hospitality], when there was literally only one woman in that role? Baker says. Hospitality was gate kept by men. It has always been such a male dominated industry, and for a really long time, it felt like there wasnt much room for [us]. For Baker, women like Rumble and Bridget Raffal have been instrumental in creating change for the next generation. Raffal is president of advocacy group Women and Revolution (WAR) and owner of Marrickville wine bar Wheres Nick. WAR was the recipient of the inaugural Good Food Guide Cultural Change Champion award for 2025, recognised for its multi-faceted approach to overcoming gender barriers. Now, as director of women-led beverage group Venus Vinifera, Baker hopes to continue their work in making hospitality an attractive and sustainable career choice for everyone. The women behind Canberra-based group Venus Vinifera: Dash Rumble, Caitlin Baker, Lucy Pallett-Jones and Becky Khanthavongsa. Cassie Abraham Advertisement On Sunday, July 27 Venus Vinifera will host its annual Subject Matters symposium at The Vault in Canberra. The ticketed event includes a full day of discussion panels and workshops to support and educate hospitality professionals and newcomers. There have been groups of young women attending who are really hungry and they want to know more, and they want to know how to achieve it, Baker says. Part of [our goal] is helping to build confidence and giving people the tools for success so they feel empowered to take on those roles and apply for those jobs. Why cant we be the catalyst for change? Attendees at Venus Viniferas Subject Matters symposium. Cassie Abraham For hospitality to become an attractive career path for women, it must also become a safer one. Following allegations of sexual harassment at Sydney hospitality groups Swillhouse and Merivale, published by The Sydney Morning Herald and Good Food over the past year, organisations such as WAR, Venus Vinifera and not-for-profit organisation Women in Hospitality have further targeted support efforts. Advertisement When we did a survey last year to see what the issues were out there, what people needed was support and better education about how to deal with those types of issues, both as somebody in them and as a bystander, Baker says. Woman and Revolutions Bridget Raffal (left) and Sophie Otton. Wolter Peeters WAR partnered with the Australian Human Rights Commission for a Speaking from Experience event one of several throughout the country which gathered insight and experience from more than 300 individuals facing sexual harassment at work. Their answers were used to develop a report, published in June, with 11 recommendations on what needs to change to address workplace sexual harassment. I think its been a norm within [the hospitality] industry that workplace sexual harassment is expected and accepted and those norms are changing, have changed, and the law is very clear that its not acceptable, says Australian Human Rights Commission sex discrimination commissioner Anna Cody. The previous Subject Matters symposium in 2024. Cassie Abraham Advertisement In the same way that we have to change our culture around what is appropriate around wearing a hard hat in a construction site, we need to ensure that there are proper mechanisms in place to prevent workplace sexual harassment in restaurants and in bars. Recommendations included educational programs and resources, increased limits on the use of non-disclosure agreements, and updated data. We havent had an official survey in the past four years, and we need to know what is happening in workplaces and where there are real trouble spots, Cody says. Women in Hospitality launched its inaugural industry experience and progress survey in May, with the aim of identifying issues, informing future policies and practices, and ultimately creating a more inclusive sector. The survey, available online, is ongoing. Hospitality has a long history of protecting reputations over people. Bridget Raffal This month, WAR will host its biannual educational program over two days, on Tuesday July 22 and Tuesday July 29. The Outspoken workshops teach women and gender diverse people essential workplace skills, including how to speak up, set boundaries and push back, and help give confidence to navigate tough workplaces. Mel Cheng is hosting the workshops and will bring her experiences in music and technology industries. Advertisement The Outspoken program was developed by sommelier and wine industry veteran Sophie Otton, who owns Newtowns She Loves You, and has worked as Rockpool Bar and Grill wine director. Developed to strengthen womens verbal expression, self-confidence and advocacy skills, its not to make people good public speakers, but to navigate tough workplaces. Our focus is on communication as a form of self-protection and leadership, says Raffal. ...Its about creating a community that is willing to front up to the challenges in the industry, and work together to create lasting cultural change. Our focus is on communication as a form of self-protection and leadership, says Raffal (left) about Outspoken, developed by Sophie Otton (right). Wolter Peeters Hospitality has a long history of protecting reputations over people, and waiting for employers to do the right thing just hasnt worked, says Raffal. Were done buying into the silence as professionalism scam. Outspoken helps people find their voice day-to-day speaking up at work, in conversations, and in their communities, while we push for broad change via policy reform because real progress comes from all of us speaking out, whether its in small moments or on a bigger stage. Get involved and learn more Subject Matters , Canberra Sunday, July 27 venusvinifera.com.au/subject-matters , Sunday, July 27 venusvinifera.com.au/subject-matters Outspoken 5.0, Sydney Tuesday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 29 womenandrevolution.com.au Tuesday, July 22 and Tuesday, July 29 womenandrevolution.com.au Women in Hospitality Industry in Progress Survey womeninhospitality.org womeninhospitality.org Australian Human Rights Commission Speaking from Experience report and resources humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/workplace-sexual-harassment-resources Restaurant reviews, news and the hottest openings served to your inbox. Sign up ADEN, Yemen, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Yemeni authorities announced on Wednesday the seizure of 750 tons of weapons, including various missile systems, in the Red Sea. Tariq Mohammed Saleh, a member of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council and commander of the National Resistance Forces, said in a statement on social media platform X that the seized weapons included naval and aerial missile systems, air defense systems, modern radar equipment, drones, wiretapping devices, anti-armor missiles, B-10 artillery pieces, tracking lenses, sniper rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment. The Yemeni official also released a video of what he said was the seized cargo, showing a large quantity of new and diverse weapons and military equipment aboard a vessel. Saleh said that the intercepted shipment was en route from Iran to the Houthis, while there was no immediate comment from the Houthi group. The international recognized Yemeni government has repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons and military capabilities to the Houthis -- an allegation Tehran consistently denies. The Houthis have controlled the capital Sanaa and most northern Yemeni provinces for over a decade. Two men have been charged with murder and a third man is being sought over the drive-by shooting of a Sydney grandmother who police say was innocently caught in the crossfire of a beef with another person who lived at the same location. Kim Duncan, 65, was killed when a hail of gunfire tore through her home on Dickens Road in Ambarvale, in Sydneys south-west, just after 11pm on April 14 this year. Grandmother Kim Duncan was killed in a drive-by shooting that police have described as cowardly. Police arrested 32-year-old Jesse Evans and 19-year-old Manase Fakahau early on Wednesday morning at homes in Liverpool and Belmore respectively. The pair were taken to Bankstown police station, where they were charged with Duncans murder. Detective Superintendent Grant Healey said police were looking for a third man who could assist with inquiries. In his prison cell, Bradley John Murdoch read the book I wrote about him that and the other five detailing his crimes. Further feeding his ego were the blanket media coverage and five documentaries. Then there were the Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek 2 horror films, and the TV spin-off also called Wolf Creek all loosely based on a mix of two backpacker killers, Murdoch and Ivan Milat. Murdoch, a bastard until the end, refused until his death on Tuesday night in a hospital palliative care unit in Alice Springs his only respite from jail to reveal where hed hidden the body of British tourist Peter Falconio. Monday had marked 24 years to the day that Murdoch shot dead Falconio and attempted to abduct his girlfriend, Joanne Lees, near the remote Northern Territory town of Barrow Creek, on the lonely road from Adelaide to Darwin. Bradley John Murdoch was convicted of the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio and the attempted abduction of Joanne Lees in the Northern Territory. Credit: Harry Afentoglou Murdoch had hoped that continually protesting his innocence, while flinging mud at Lees with the vile insinuation that she was somehow involved in Falconios death would fire up his motley band of deluded supporters and conspiracy theorists and even put enough doubt in the minds of authorities to force his release. The drug-peddling thug was convicted in December 2005. I went to every single court hearing Murdoch sat through, interviewed nearly everyone involved with the case, and closely traced his background and that of Falconio and Lees. Im regularly interviewed for TV and radio, and by those documentary makers. And the one question Im invariably asked is: Did he really do it? Surely, without the body, theres always going to be doubt? Woodsides environmental plan for its Scarborough gas project is meaningless corporate puffery, according to lawyers for a group of doctors challenging the plans approval. They also say Woodsides submissions to court misinterpret the Australian offshore regulator NOPSEMAs reasons for granting the approval. The Pluto LNG plant is intended to take the gas from Scarborough and liquefy it for export. Credit: Bechtel The Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne on Monday began hearings into Doctors for the Environment Australias legal challenge to the $12 billion project, part of the companys Burrup Hub plan. It involves tapping the field off Western Australias north-west coast and running the gas through a 430-kilometre pipeline to its onshore Pluto plant. Militant unionists elected by a disengaged workforce now face twin battles to activate Victorias public servants while taking on a government preparing to slash jobs. For the first time in 32 years Victorias Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has a new leadership, with newly elected state secretary Jiselle Hanna and her ticket swept to power by the base it has vowed to grow. The rare successful challenge that replaces Karen Batt, whose tenure stretched back to the start of the Kennett years, with a more hardline leadership will be a fresh pain for the Allan government heading into an election year. Labor is poised to announce widespread job cuts and a reshaping of public entities as part of the Silver review to ease pressure on the states finances. Jiselle Hanna has been elected Victorian secretary of the CPSU. Credit: Justin McManus But Hanna and the new leadership from A Voice for Members are not about to organise a strike. She accepts that low membership rates will limit the CPSUs ability to fight. When journalists inquired about the data breach, they were slapped with a superinjunction. By court order, news outlets were prevented from disclosing any details about the error or even the existence of the injunction itself. At the time the email was sent, the government was scrambling to make good on a promise to give sanctuary to Afghans, including soldiers and interpreters, who had fought alongside British troops following the invasion in 2001 until the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021. UK military personnel onboard a plane departing Kabul in late August 2021. Credit: MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images The tens of thousands of names on the database were of Afghans who had applied for asylum in the UK under the specially convened ARAP scheme. It also included information about Afghans who applied to a similar program called the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS). Their very act of applying for asylum had put their lives in jeopardy. For 18 months, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) appeared oblivious to the existence of the rogue email, with its spreadsheet sent in error. That all changed on August 14, 2023, with an anonymous post on Facebook that would send the MoD into a spiral of panic. The MoD became aware of the leak only when that month a member of the public wrote to Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth, and James Heappey, a Conservative who was at the time a defence minister, warning them that the spreadsheet had been shared widely online. I have a copy of it, so does the Taliban why doesnt the ARAP team? wrote the person, whose name was redacted in court documents, in the email dated August 10, 2023. They are understood to be a support worker for Afghans settling in the UK. Then British home secretary Priti Patel, second from left, talks Afghan refugees at Heathrow Airport in London in August 2021. Credit: AP Extracts from the spreadsheet were then posted on Facebook four days later. In a group used by 1300 Afghans needing to relocate, some of whom may have been Taliban infiltrators, the user known only as Anonymous Member wrote that he was in possession of the database containing records of 25,000 applicants on 33,000 rows of information, adding: I want to disclose it. The user who posted the extracts is understood to have been an Afghan who was sent the database, and whose own asylum claim was later rejected. To show the list was genuine, the Facebook user then posted the personal details of nine Afghans who had applied to the ARAP scheme. British diplomatic staff administering the scheme in Pakistan were alerted by another member of the Facebook group. Alarm bells began to ring. British Defence Minister John Healey on Tuesday apologised for the leak. Credit: Getty Images By the afternoon of August 14, the relocation team in Islamabad had circulated an email to some 1800 Afghans in Pakistan, warning them: We have been informed there may have been a potential data breach of your contact information. Some of those affected told the British Council they had been contacted by Iranian phone numbers on WhatsApp asking them to disclose scans of their passports. However, Whitehall officials chose not to inform any individuals waiting in Afghanistan or elsewhere about the breach, because it was felt it would increase the risk of the Taliban getting hold of it. Spies, meanwhile, sought to delete any trace of the list from servers overseas. The posts were deleted within three days after officials from the MoD contacted Meta, Facebooks owner. Timeline of the kill list and the superinjunction February 2022: A Royal Marine accidentally sends an email containing the list of nearly 25,000 people who applied for the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy. August 14 2023: A Facebook user posts an excerpt of the dataset disclosing the details of nine ARAP applicants. The Ministry of Defence is notified. August 15: A civilian volunteer warns James Heappey, the armed forces minister, that the Taliban may now have a kill list essentially provided to them by the UK government. August 17-25: Journalists contact the MoD and Foreign Office about the breach, but agree not to publish until those at risk are protected. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, decides to apply for a court order blocking the news. September 1: The MoD asks the High Court for an injunction for around four months. A High Court judge grants a superinjunction, saying the risk of the information falling into the Talibans hands justifies the highest level of secrecy. November 16: A Cabinet sub-committee, the Domestic and Economic Affairs (DEA) committee, discusses the issue. Members at the time include Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt. Meeting notes reveal plans to establish a compensation scheme at a cost between 120 million and 350 million. November 23: Justice Martin Chamberlain gives a private judgment where he says granting a superinjunction is likely to give rise to understandable suspicion that the courts processes are being used for the purposes of censorship. December 19: The DEA committee says that a new route of settlement in the UK should be offered to about 200 at-risk people and their dependents. This is called the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR). February 15 2024: Chamberlain extends the superinjunction. He adds in a second, private judgment: What is clear is that the Government has decided to offer help to only a very small proportion of those whose lives have been endangered by the data incident and that the decisions in this regard are being taken without any opportunity for scrutiny through the media or in Parliament. May 21: Chamberlain rules that the superinjunction should be lifted. He says there is a significant possibility the Taliban knows about the dataset, but adds that it is fundamentally objectionable that decisions about thousands of peoples lives and billions of pounds of taxpayers money are being taken in secret. June 25-26: The Court of Appeal rules that the superinjunction will remain in place. In a later written ruling, judges Sir Geoffrey Vos, Lord Justice Singh and Lord Justice Warby say that between 80,000 and 100,000 people could be at risk if the Taliban were to obtain the data. July 4: Sir Keir Starmer is briefed about the data breach after taking office. February 3 2025: A review says the ARR resettlement plan would mean relocating more Afghans than had been moved under ARAP, and would extend the schemes for another five years at a total cost to the taxpayer of around 6 billion. July 4: John Healey, the Defence Secretary, concludes that the ARR should be closed after an internal review finds the breach is unlikely to have put individuals at greater risk. The review also said the Government may have inadvertently added more value to the dataset by seeking the superinjunction and implementing a bespoke resettlement scheme. Government lawyers tell the High Court that in light of the decision to close the Afghanistan Response Route, the superinjunction should no longer continue. July 15: Chamberlain lifts the superinjunction. The Metropolitan Police was informed in August 2023, but it was decided a criminal investigation was not necessary. It is understood that individuals in the UK and Pakistan are still in possession of the database, and in at least one case it has changed hands for a large sum of money, understood to be five figures. By 10am on August 15, an email was sent to Heappey the armed forces minister at the time with the alarming subject title: ARAP families, imminent threat to life. The sender of the email, whose name has been redacted in court documents, explained that they were now aware of the data breach. The headquarters of the UKs Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, left, on the River Thames in London, Credit: Bloomberg The fact that the Taliban may be in possession of 33,000 ARAP applications, including the primary applicants phone numbers and all the case evidence, is simply bone-chilling, claimed the email. It is unclear what, if any, was Heappeys response. Or indeed whether he saw the email. By 8.09pm, a time when the MoDs top brass would have gone home for the day, a senior official in charge of data governance circulated an official crisis alert to them, confirming the data breach. But it wasnt clear at that stage how the database had got into rogue hands. The question, an unnerving one for the government, was whether this could have been an illegal hack. The intelligence services, including GCHQ and MI6, were briefed by the UK Foreign Office and asked to examine whether a hostile state could have been responsible. The CIA was also brought into the loop. Days later, officials realised the stark truth of the accidental leak. From then on, the government went into crisis mode. David Williams, a freelance journalist who had previously worked on a campaign to resettle Afghan interpreters, was made aware of the breach. He contacted the MoD for comment, and other journalists soon got wind of it. The government decided that any whiff of the spreadsheet could put lives in danger, and the MoD issued a so-called D-Notice requesting that newspapers refrain from reporting the breach. D-Notices are advisory only, and not legally binding. Meanwhile, inside the UK government, ministers were in a race against time to get to Afghans identified on the spreadsheet before the Taliban could. Then British prime minister David Cameron talks to British and US troops in south Afghanistan in July 2011. Credit: AP Ben Wallace, the defence secretary at the time, who had announced in July his intention to resign, was incandescent. He had been concerned about data safety and could not believe that such a lackadaisical breach could have been allowed to occur. A Cobra meeting called when high-level decision need to be made in emergency situations was convened in Whitehall in response. On August 25, 2023, in one of his last acts as defence secretary, Wallace applied to the High Court for an injunction to prevent the leak becoming public. A week later, on Sept 1 by which time Grant Shapps had been installed as his successor the High Court granted a superinjunction contra mundum meaning against the world that prevented anybody knowing about the leak and the existence of the injunction itself. People gathered outside the international airport in Kabul on August 25, 2021. Credit: NewYork Times It was the first time such a draconian injunction had been used by a UK government against the British press. By now, the government was running two operations. One was to stop the story getting out, and the other was to get the Afghans out of their home country and to the safety of the UK. Ministers launched Operation Rubific, which would aim to bring thousands of Afghan families most at risk to the UK, largely via Pakistan. In towns up and down the country, Afghans were quietly resettled and their numbers kept off the official books, after being flown into the UK on specially arranged flights. Justice Robin Knowles, the High Court judge who granted the superinjunction, accepted his ruling would infringe freedom of expression and of the press, but insisted that the impact is justified in the particular and exceptional circumstances of this case including the risk to life and of torture. Instead of being granted against a named individual or news organisation, the injunction banned anybody at all who learnt of the leak from talking about it. With news reporting banned, Parliament was kept in the dark although the speakers of both the Lords and Commons were secretly told so they could decide how to handle any Parliamentary questions to ministers about it. John Healey, then the shadow defence secretary, tabled just such a question on December 13, 2023. In that month, the information commissioner had fined the MoD 350,000 for leaking the details of more than 200 ARAP applicants. Healey asked if the watchdog was investigating any similar breaches. A brief answer from Heappey said there were two live investigations, confirming the Labour members suspicions. The Telegraph understands that Heappey then met his Labour counterpart that month to reveal all to him. Yet, Healey was also served with the superinjunction at the meeting meaning he could not even tell Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition at the time, let alone the shadow chancellor. The intelligence and security committee and the Commons defence select committee were both kept in the dark. I would not widen [the] circle by briefing others, said Shapps in a civil service memo dated November 2023. The chairman of the public inquiry into alleged extrajudicial killings of Afghans by members of the SAS was also kept in the dark. Democratic accountability had seemingly been thwarted. Thanks to the court order, the MP could ask no further public questions about the leak, nor question ministers and officials handling of it in deciding to bring all the directly affected Afghans to the UK. At the time, sources suggested, the MoDs estimate of the total cost of bringing Afghans to Britain was in the region of 4 billion. It would rise to 7 billion, before being revised down to 6 billion, an extraordinary sum all the same. By May last year, a Cabinet subcommittee chaired by the deputy prime minister at the time, Oliver Dowden had decided to allow 11,500 Afghans into Britain as a result of the leak, yet this had not been announced to Parliament nor subjected to any public scrutiny. Loading The money to do so was drawn from the Treasurys reserve funds and not the MoD, Home Office or Department for Communities and Local Governments budgets, The Telegraph understands. At about the same time, Justice Martin Chamberlain, who had taken over the legal case, ruled the injunction ought to be lifted, prompting an immediate appeal by the MoD. Court of Appeal judges agreed with the government and said the gag order had to remain in place. Meanwhile, Julys general election saw a change of government. Initially, Labour kept things exactly as they were under their Tory predecessors, with MoD lawyers continuing to insist to the High Court that any public mention of the leak would be lethally disastrous. Healey, by now the Defence Secretary, continued to toe the MoD line and stay silent on the breach. The injunction would remain in place for another year after Labour took charge. Officials and politicians continued to maintain that any public knowledge of the breach would somehow inspire the Taliban to go and look for the spreadsheet. Yet by January this year, retired civil servant Paul Rimmer the former deputy head of Defence Intelligence had been commissioned to review the risks. By April, The Telegraph understands, ministers were aware that he was likely to find that if the data breach became public knowledge it would not substantially increase the risks to those mentioned in it. In his review, Rimmer concluded that early concern about the extent of the Taliban intent to target [certain individuals] has diminished. There is little evidence of intent by the Taliban to conduct a campaign of retribution Killings are undoubtedly still occurring, and human rights violations remain extensive, but it is extremely difficult to determine the causes of individual killings or detentions, he found. The system set up to fly in Afghans, without any public knowledge of the scheme as a result of the data breach, was now disproportionate to the actual impact of the data loss were it to fall into the Talibans hands. By the time of the review, 16,156 individuals affected by the breach in 2022 had reached the safety of the UK. But it is only now that news organisations can tell that story. An Afghan man now living in Britain is said to be the person who threatened to share the list. According to the Daily Mail, he is in the UK with at least seven relatives. US President Donald Trump has explicitly abandoned his MAGA supporters who are still demanding answers over the Jeffrey Epstein saga, claiming they are doing the Democrats bidding and saying he no longer wants their support. Despite the FBI and Attorney-General Pam Bondi drawing a line under the case this month, and saying there was no evidence accused sex trafficker Epstein was murdered or kept a client list, a large and influential section of Trumps Make America Great Again movement is not satisfied. They are calling on the government to release more of the so-called Epstein files documents related to the case and increasingly believe Trumps administration is part of a conspiracy to cover up Epsteins affairs and links to what they call the deep state. Trump has grown frustrated over the past week as the furore failed to die out. Earlier in the week, he said the Epstein matter was boring, and that he didnt understand why people were still interested. Only pretty bad people wanted to keep fuelling the story, Trump said. ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen were shot dead on Wednesday in a terrorist attack in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the police said. Spokesperson of the Dera Ismail Khan police Yaqoob Khan said that a group of three terrorists opened fire at the police personnel on duty when they were heading to a market in the Kulachi district of KP. Following the incident, the Counter Terrorism Department personnel chased the terrorists and killed one of them during a fire exchange while two others managed to flee. "Arms and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorist, while a search operation is ongoing to trace the remaining culprits," the spokesperson added. Foreign nationals made 38.05 million cross-border trips to and from China in the first half of 2025, up 30.2 percent year-on-year, the National Immigration Administration said on Wednesday. #XinhuaNews By Catherine Sas, K.C. Special to The Post Its no secret that Canadas immigration program has experienced considerable upheaval in the past couple of years. Indeed, the vast majority of our blogs in 2024 were all discussing some aspect of change to virtually all of Canadian immigration, whether temporary, permanent, or to obtain citizenship. Last week, my partner Victor examined the statistical data demonstrating the actual outcomes of these changes on the immigrant population in Canada and how the changes are not yet having the desired effect on our immigration levels that the government intended. When implemented changes dont provide the desired results, the impact on Canadas immigration community can be harsh. Lets review some of the current realities facing prospective immigrants to Canada. International students The changes facing international students are dramatic and all-encompassing. Aspiring immigrants who came years ago with the promise of being able to qualify for permanent resident (PR) status are often no longer able to do so. Having obtained a Post-Graduation Work Permit (PGWP) and not being able to obtain another, many will need to obtain a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to be able to remain working in Canada. We are routinely advising our international student clients to forgo the option of obtaining a PGWP after graduation and return home to obtain some foreign work experience and then return to pursue graduate studies in Canada and subsequently apply for their PGWP. You can only have one PGWP - ever! With the caps implemented on the number of international students to Canada, as well as the reduced chances for obtaining PR, applications for study permits have plummeted. For those who still want to try and come to Canada to study, refusal rates have skyrocketed. It requires extreme tenacity to be an international student in Canada in this current environment. Express Entry applicants The Comprehensive Ranking Scores (CRS) for Express Entry (EE) applicants have been elevated for the past couple of years, such that most people cant qualify, and these are often graduate students with master's or PHD degrees. Furthermore, the EE draws for Invitations to Apply (ITAs) have been made predominantly for Canadian Experience Class (CEC) or Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) applicants, shutting out overseas applicants in the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) category. The reduced levels for both permanent and temporary immigrants are intended to facilitate those persons already in Canada to obtain permanent residence before opening the doors to those abroad. Aspiring foreign immigrants will need to determine a strategy to come to Canada on a temporary basis as either a student or worker and work towards PR from within Canada. Francophone applicants With the challenges to qualifying for EE, many people have chosen to apply as Francophone applicants with a lower CRS score to qualify for a targeted draw. Obviously, proof of French language proficiency is an essential requirement. However, this door has also been closed since March 21, 2025, being the latest draw. It is anticipated that the pool of aspiring Francophone applicants is growing such that the CRS points necessary to receive an ITA are also likely to increase. Business applicants As of April 2024, Canadas business immigration program has been both greatly reduced (for the Start Up Visa category) and completely frozen until the end of 2026 (for the Self-Employed category). It is still possible to obtain work permits for some business applicants as either Intra-Company Transferees or pursuant to some international trade agreements. Obtaining a work permit can give business people the opportunity to establish their businesses and see how our business program transitions in the coming years. For many business people, this degree of uncertainty is not a risk that they are willing to take. Many of our blogs in the past few years have emphasized the need to develop an immigration strategy, and that remains prudent advice. The straightforward path to permanent residence has all but disappeared. We are routinely advising people to develop a tailored path towards PR status that may start with a work or study permit and extend this status, often several times, or switch from worker to student or vice-versa. We recommend aspiring immigrants to maximize their options through learning both English and French (and not speaking their native language at home after work or class) or have one spouse attend graduate school in Canada so that the other spouse can have an open work permit. In todays current reality, this often translates into years of temporary status with the goal to ultimately qualify for permanent residence, but the fact is that after spending many years in Canada, many people simply will not be able to qualify. Counselling clients in these challenging times is not easy. It is difficult to look clients in the eye, day after day and tell them that there are very few options and many times none at all. In such circumstances as these, I am reminded of the comfort of the Serenity prayer: God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change; The Courage to change the things I can; and The Wisdom to know the difference. Recently I had clients who accepted their Canadian reality and came to the difficult decision to return home to India. The principal applicant wife came to Canada as an international student pursuing a masters degree. Both her and her husband had bachelors degrees and several years of management level work experience from their home country and were highly proficient in English. After graduation the wife obtained a management level position and a strong wage of $40 per hour. However after a couple of years she was laid off and she was unable to find employment afterwards. Her husband had also struggled in finding suitable Canadian employment. Notwithstanding the wifes combination of foreign education and several years of foreign work experience, a Canadian masters degree, two years of Canadian work experience and strong language proficiency (CLB 7 or higher) she was unable to score a high enough CRS score to garner an ITA under Express Entry and without an employer she could not pursue a PNP application. They realized that their time in Canada was not wasted and with their international education and work experience they would have better options back home. As hard as this decision was to make, this couple had the wisdom to accept their immigration reality. In our current Canadian immigration environment, many others will need to do the same. For a summary of immigration changes, please refer to our blog Navigating the Winds of Change to https://canadian-visa-lawyer.com/navigating-the-winds-of-change-to-canad...s Immigration Program: A Year in Review and for a review of the impact of these changes on Canadas immigration levels, please refer to our blog Immigration Levels Review: When Policy Meets Reality. Catherine Sas, K.C., has over 35 years of legal experience. She provides a full range of immigration services and is a leading immigration practitioner (Lexpert, Whos Who Legal, Best Lawyers in Canada). Go to canadian-visa-lawyer.com or email [email protected]. Ambhora sky gallerys soaring popularity hampered by basic amenity lapses By Kunal Badge : A newly-unveiled tourist attraction in the Nagpur district, the Sky Gallery built atop the bridge over the Wainganga river at Ambhora, is rapidly gaining popularity but is simultaneously drawing criticism due to a glaring lack of basic visitor amenities. Opened in 2024, the gallery, designed to boost regional tourism, is now becoming a source of frustration for the thousands who flock to it weekly. Ambhora has always been a significant pilgrimage site, with the revered Kalyaneshwar Temple attracting devotees from across the region. The recent construction of a bridge over the Wainganga river was a welcome development, providing a crucial direct road link for worshippers from the neighbouring Bhandara district who previously relied on precarious dinghies. To further enhance the areas appeal, the State Government inaugurated the Sky Gallery on the bridge, which, along with its captivating night-time illumination, has proven to be a significant draw for tourists from nearby districts. Local estimates suggest approximately 5,000 visitors now frequent the bridge every week, with a staggering 80 per cent visiting on weekends, a number that dramatically escalates during holidays. Yet, the essential infrastructure to support this influx is conspicuously absent. The most pressing concern is the complete lack of dedicated parking facilities. The gallerys entrance, located in pillars at the bridges centre, is approximately 300 metres from either end, accessible via elevators and staircases. In the absence of proper parking, a common sight is vehicles haphazardly parked directly on the bridge. This practice effectively blocks one lane of traffic, reducing the two-way bridge to a single operational lane. Furthermore, the remaining lane is frequently obstructed by pedestrians navigating their way from their parked vehicles to the central gallery entrance, creating a chaotic and hazardous environment for both motorists and visitors. Adding to the woes is a poorly conceived ticketing system. While entry to the gallery costs Rs 50 per person for a 15-minute slot, the ticket counter is oddly situated on the first floor, directly opposite the lift to the gallery. On weekends, this creates a dangerous bottleneck, as visitors waiting for the lift and those attempting to purchase tickets are funnelled into a narrow space, raising serious concerns about potential stampedes. Moreover, the queueing area lacks any form of shelter from the elements, leaving visitors exposed to scorching sun or sudden heavy downpours, which could easily trigger panic amongst waiting crowds. Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials from the Public Works Department (PWD) confirmed that a tender for developmental work at the site had been floated but is currently stalled due to an ongoing court case. With the Sky Gallerys popularity showing no signs of waning, the urgent provision of essential amenities is paramount to ensure the safety and satisfaction of its ever-growing number of visitors. ED-RPZO conducts raids in Cgarh,Delhi, Goa in liquor scam probe By Mukesh S Singh RAIPUR/NEW DELHI/ GOA IN A major escalation of its ongoing probe into the Rs 3,200 crore Chhattisgarh liquor scam, the Enforcement Directorates Raipur Zonal Office (ED-RPZO) on Tuesday morning launched simultaneous search and seizure operations across three states -Chhattisgarh, New Delhi, and Goa. The action marks a fresh chapter in the federal agencys sustained investigation into one of the largest excise scams unearthed in the country. The operations, which commenced at 6.30 am on July 15, were executed at five separate locations, targeting individuals and establishments suspected of laundering the scams illicit proceeds. In Chhattisgarh, ED officials carried out searches at Hotel Sagar International owner Vijay Agarwals plush residence in Durg district, along with raids at the premises of his nephew Rahul Agarwal. Parallel raids were conducted at two office premises of Sir Biotech India Limited in New Delhi and at one residence and one office in Goa. The search operations were directly supervised by EDRPZO Joint Director Prabhakar Prabhat, with on-ground execution led by Deputy Director Hemant Kumar, who is also the lead investigation officer of the liquor scam case. The ED team was reinforced with 40 personnel, including 25 armed CRPF troopers, underlining the high-risk profile of the operation. According to senior officials familiar with the developments, the fresh searches were triggered by new findings that Vijay Agarwal and Rahul Agarwal allegedly used the scams Proceeds of Crime (PoC) to convert black money into white through clandestine financial routes. The ED suspects that the duo attempted to mainstream large sums of tainted money linked to the liquor racket via shell companies and benami investments, necessitating the multi-state action. Sources confirmed that the searches have yielded heaps of incriminating material, including loose documents, financial records, and digital evidence, all of which point to a wider conspiracy to camouflage illegally amassed wealth. Additionally, over Rs 70 lakh in unaccounted cash has been seized from various premises, while quantification of more cash and valuables is currently underway. A senior officer privy to the preliminary findings of the searches told The Hitavada, on condition of anonymity, that the raids are likely to continue till Wednesday morning. Recording of statements under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is underway and may take considerable time due to the sheer volume of documents recovered, the official said. The latest ED action comes close on the heels of a July 14 Supreme Court order rejecting the bail plea of businessman Anwar Dhebar, the de-facto excise minister and scam kingpin in the previous Congress regime in Chhattisgarh led by former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. The apex court had described the scam as serious and flagged Dhebars role in influencing tenders and manipulating market share for personal gain. Notably, the states State Economic Offences Investigation and AntiCorruption Bureau (SEOIACB) had recently pegged the scams estimated size at over Rs 3,200 crore, with the Enforcement Directorates estimate at Rs 2,100 crore for the money laundering component. As per previous investigations, the liquor scam was orchestrated between 2019 and 2023, involving high-profile accused including former excise minister Kawasi Lakhma, retired IAS officer Anil Tuteja, businessman Anwar Dhebar, and top excise official Arunpati Tripathi. The scam allegedly involved manipulation of excise policies, rigging of hologram tenders, and parallel sale of unaccounted liquor across Chhattisgarh. A senior ED officer hinted that more arrests and follow-up searches are imminent, given the nature of evidence collected during Tuesdays operation. Green signal to chop down green MoEF&CC ayes cutting down 7,694 trees in TATRs Eco-Sensitive Zone Staff Reporter : State Irrigation Department to fell trees for construction of pipeline for Ghodazari Branch Canal of Gosikhurd National Project Proposed project lies inside Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ) of TATR in Chandrapur and Brahmapuri districts The Regional Empowered Committee (REC) of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India, in its 128th meeting, approved the proposal to fell 7,694 trees in Chandrapur and Brahmapuri districts of Vidarbha for laying of pipeline for Ghodazari Branch Canal of Gosikhurd National Project recently. The Irrigation Department of Government of Maharashtra submitted a proposal seeking approval of the Central Government for this project under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, last year. The proposed area falls within the boundary of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) and lies inside the Eco-Sensitive Zone (ESZ). Despite this fact, the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has also approved the proposal and gave green signal to cut a massive number of trees in the tiger reserve. The construction of pipeline will be carried out on 38.80 hectare land which all comes under the Reserve Forest and Protected Forest. The 38.28 hectare land comes under Brahmapuri district whereas 10.52 hectare land is in Chandrapur district. MoEF&CC also asked the Irrigation Department to do Compensatory Afforestation (CA) over 40 hectare of non-forest revenue land from total of 194.67 hectare in Madanapur village, Chimur in Chandrapur district. The Committee recommended that trenching work be carried out sequentially to minimise the overall impact on forest areas and that trenches be closed within a reasonable time to prevent wild animals from falling in. It also recommended that the work shall be undertaken only during daytime hours, under the supervision of the Forest Department and suitable measures must be adopted to prevent any animal casualties during the trenching period. It also stated that the Forest Department shall ensure that the enrichment plan for Compensatory Plantation (CA) is aligned with the approved management plan of the area concerned. Upon completion of the project work, the Irrigation Department shall convert the disturbed areas into grasslands, at the projects cost excluding areas designated for inspection or maintenance paths. Jaishankar meets Xi, discusses India-China ties BEIJING : EXTERNAL Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Tuesday met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and discussed the trajectory of India-China bilateral relations. The interaction took place as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers call on the Chinese President. In a post on X following the meeting, Jaishankar wrote, Called on President Xi Jinping this morning in Beijing along with my fellow SCO Foreign Ministers. Conveyed the greetings of President Droupadi Murmu and PM Modi. Apprised President Xi of the recent development of our bilateral ties. Value the guidance of our leaders in that regard. The EAM is in China, his first visit to the country since the violent confrontation in Galwan Valley in May 2020, to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting (CFM) in Tianjin. On Monday, the EAM held multiple high-level meetings to deepen dialogue and cooperation with Chinese officials. He met Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee (IDCPC), and discussed the need for a constructive India-China relationship. He also held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, a senior member of the CPC Political Bureau. SCO should improve mechanisms to respond to security threats: Chinese President Xi: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday told the Foreign Ministers of the SCO member States that the grouping should improve mechanisms to respond to security threats and challenges, and build a solid security barrier. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was among the Foreign Ministers and heads of standing bodies of the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) whom Xi met here ahead of their meeting in Tianjin. Xi said that over the past 24 years since its founding, the SCO has always upheld the Shanghai Spirit, grown into a mature and robust organisation, and demonstrated strong vitality. He stressed that in the face of a turbulent and changing international landscape, the SCO must stay focused and confident, act efficiently and play a more proactive role in injecting greater stability and positive energy into the world. Kerala nurses execution postponed NEW DELHI : THE execution of Kerala nurse Nimisha Priya, an Indian nurse on death row in Yemen, has been postponed by Yemeni authorities, Government sources said on Tuesday. The execution was scheduled for Wednesday. Priya, hailing from Kollengode in Keralas Palakkad district, has been found guilty of murdering a Yemeni citizen in July 2017. It has been learnt that the local authorities in Yemen have postponed the execution scheduled for July 16, the sources said. The Government of India has made concerted efforts in recent days to seek more time for Priyas family to reach a mutually agreeable solution with the other party, they said. In 2020, a Yemeni court handed her the death sentence and the countrys Supreme Judicial Council dismissed her appeal in November 2023. Odisha student who set herself afire over sexual harassment succumbs to injuries BHUBANESWAR ; THE Odisha college student who set herself ablaze following alleged sexual harassment by a professor died at AIIMS here, the hospital said. The second-year Integrated B.Ed student of Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College, Balasore, died on Monday night, after fighting for her life for three days. She took the extreme step on Saturday over alleged inaction against the professor and suffered 95 per cent burns. Expressing grief over the students death, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said all culprits in the case will face the strictest punishment under the law. The woman was first admitted to the Balasore district hospital and then shifted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar for advanced treatment. She was undergoing treatment in the ICU, Department of Burn Centre, according to officials. The patient was resuscitated with IV fluids, IV antibiotics, intubated and put on mechanical ventilation. Despite adequate resuscitation and all possible supportive management, including renal replacement therapy at the Burns ICU, she could not be revived and was declared clinically dead at 11:46 pm on July 14, the Department of Burn Centre said in a statement. In a post on X, the CM said, I am deeply saddened to hear the news of the demise of the female student from Fakir Mohan Autonomous College. Despite the governments fulfilment of all responsibilities and the tireless efforts of the expert medical team, the victims life could not be saved. I pray for the eternal peace of her departed soul and beseech Lord Jagannath to grant strength to her family to bear this irreparable loss. I assure the family of the deceased student that all those guilty in this case will face the strictest punishment as per the law. For this, I have personally issued instructions to the authorities. The Government stands firmly with the family, he said. President Droupadi Murmu, who was at AIIMS Bhubaneswar to attend its 5th convocation ceremony, paid an unscheduled visit to the burn and plastic surgery department on Monday evening and enquired about the students condition. After conducting the post-mortem at AIIMS on Monday night, the body of the student was sent to her native village Palasia in Balasore district amid protest by members of opposition BJD and Congress at the hospital premises. As soon as the hospital announced the death of the student, the BJD and Congress leaders and activists staged a protest inside the AIIMS campus late on Monday night. Police forcefully evicted the Opposition members to clear the road for movement of the vehicle carrying the body. BJD leader Ipsita Sahoo alleged, We want justice to be served to the victim. The Government has conducted the post-mortem of the body overnight to hide its failure and incompetence. She also demanded the resignation of Higher Education Minister Suraj Suryabanshi for failing to provide justice to the female student. Congress youth leader Syed Yashir Nawaz said that the student moved from pillar to post to get justice. However, no one heard her. After failing in her fight against the system, she forcefully took this extreme step, he said. Nawaz also demanded the resignation of the Higher Education Minister alleging that he is incompetent to continue in his position. Odisha Deputy Chief Minister Pravati Parida along with local MLA Babu Singh visited the hospital on Monday night to console the family members of the victim. Fakir Mohan (Autonomous ) College Education Department HoD Samira Kumar Sahu and Principal Dilip Ghose have been arrested in the case. Raina, other influencers appear in SC over remarks NEW DELHI : FIVE social media influencers, including Indias Got Latent host Samay Raina, on Tuesday appeared before the Supreme Court in a case seeking action against them for ridiculing persons suffering from disabilities. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi recorded their presence and directed them to file their replies to the petition. They are accused of poking fun at the disabled and those suffering from Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and blindness. They were directed to again appear in-person on the next hearing. The top court, however, allowed influencer Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai to appear virtually owing to some physical condition. The social media influencers were asked to file their replies within two weeks beyond which they wont get any extension. Besides, their absence on the next date of hearing will be viewed seriously, the court said. The top court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani, representing the Centre, to prepare social media guidelines while balancing the freedom of speech and expression and the rights and duties of the others. Venkataramani sought time to assist the court on the issue and said the enforceability of guidelines would require a detailed consideration. The court said the freedom of one person should not violate the rights of others, underlining enforceability of the guidelines as the most difficult part. There are many free advisors in the market. Ignore them. The guidelines should be in conformity with constitutional principles balancing freedom and the rights and duties of a person. Then we will examine it. We will have open debate on such guidelines. Let all members of the bar and stakeholders including the so-called stakeholders also come and give their viewpoints, Justice Kant said. Article 19, the judge said, deals with freedom of speech and expression and cannot overpower Article 21 of the Constitution, which provides right to life and liberty. The court mulled examining individual misconduct brought under scrutiny and said the petitioner NGO Cure SMA Foundation of India had raised a serious issue. We need to understand that the right to dignity also emanates from the right which someone else is claiming. Article 19 of the Constitution, the judge said, cant overpower Article 21. Suppose a race takes place between Article 19 and 21, Article 21 has to trump Article 19. Justice Kant went on to tell senior advocate Aprajita Singh, appearing for the NGO, that the court was doing it for posterity and the parties must ensure not a single word of the guidelines were misused. What we are doing is for posterity. You have to ensure that not a single word is misused by anyone. You have to ensure balance. We have to protect citizens rights. A framework must be there that the dignity of anyone is not violated, the bench said. On May 5, the top court directed the five social media influencers to appear before it or face coercive action after a plea alleged that they ridiculed persons suffering from SMA, a rare disorder, and also those suffering from other disabilities on their show. Besides Raina, the apex court had issued notice to four other influencers Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar alias Sonali Aditya Desai and Nishant Jagdish Tanwar. The court termed the influencers conduct as damaging and demoralising and said some serious remedial and punitive action was needed so that these things dont happen again. No one, the apex court said, can be allowed to demean anybody under the garb of the right and mulled framing guidelines on social media content concerning the disabled and people with rare disorders. It asked Mumbai police commissioner to serve notice on the five influencers to ensure their presence in the court, failing which coercive action will be taken. Raina was booked by Maharashtra and Assam police over derogatory comments on his YouTube show Indias Got Latent along with podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia. On February 18, the top court granted interim protection from arrest to Allahbadia while calling his comments vulgar and saying he had dirty mind which put society to shame. Aside from Allahbadia and Raina, others named in the case in Assam are comics Ashish Chanchlani, Jaspreet Singh and Apoorva Makhija. SC notice to UP on plea against States QR code directive for eateries along kanwar yatra route NEW DELHI : THE Supreme Court on Tuesday sought response from the Uttar Pradesh Government on a plea challenging the states directive mandating the display of QR codes on all eateries along the kanwar yatra route, which reveal the names and identities of the owners. The top court had last year stayed similar directives issued by BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh , asking eateries along the kanwar yatra routes to disclose identities. Referring to a press release issued by the UP administration on June 25, Jha, said, The new measures mandate the display of QR codes on all eateries along the kanwar route, which reveal the names and identities of the owners, thereby achieving the same discriminatory profiling that was previously stayed by this court. The petition said the Governments directive asking stall owners to reveal religious and caste identities under lawful license requirements breaches the right to privacy of the shop, dhaba, and restaurant owners. A large number of devotees travel from various places with kanwars carrying holy water from the Ganga to perform jalabhishek of Shivlings during the Hindu calendar month of Shravan. Many believers shun consumption of meat during the month. Many dont even consume meals containing onions and garlic. Skill revolution: State to make industry internships compulsory for engineering, diploma engg students By Vikas Vaidya : Expert committee constituted by Higher and Technical Education Department submitted the report Maharashtras industrial policy aims to boost student employability by fostering closer ties between industries and educational institutions, promoting skill development, and encouraging investments in key sectors. Government will be aggressive in pushing industries for making youngsters industry internship mandatory. The policy is likely to focus on creating a skilled workforce through active industry-institute collaboration, curriculum development, and practical training programmes. Recently, Director of Technical Education Dr Vinod Mohitkar issued letter naming the committee under the chairmanship of Dr Prakash Khodke. Dr Khodke is retired Principal of Government Engineering College and Central Project Advisor. The committee has Director of Board of Apprenticeship Training (Western Region) Dr Pramod Jumle, Industry Joint Director Punam Darade, Principal of Government Polytechnic Awsari Dr Vithal Bandal as other members and Chief Executive Officer of DTE Dr Anil Nandgaonkar as the Member Secretary. The committee was constituted on the instructions of Additional Chief Secretary of Higher and Technical Education B Gopala Reddy. As per the New Education Policy 2020, an industry internship of one session has been recommended for the students doing engineering and diploma engineering. Government has decided to prepare a policy for providing industry internship in industries which are fetching various benefits under special schemes. The committee is expected to draft an industry internship policy related to new industry policy. Pushing for aggressive industry internship will increase the per centage of students becoming employable. Our youth workforce will be qualitative and competent. With this initiative our industries will get readymade workforce. We want to retain number one position in industry sector and this move will further boost it, pointed out Chief Minister Fadnavis. For the last 20 years, colleges in Maharashtra are following internship mechanism where colleges, on their own level, are sending their students to industries. But it was being done without any aggressive structure. Now in last 10 years, Government kept creating industry-based courses. But it has one loophole. The mechanism lacked intensity and professionalism. According to highly placed sources, now the expert committee has recommended that the internship should be made mandatory for the institutions as well as for industry. It will be made compulsory on industry to train the students. Industries will get all benefits of all the schemes applicable provided they should train the youth force sent to them as per the need. Government intended to create employable youngsters who can be used by the industries as readymade products. The committee has made it clear as to how the internship would be conducted, in what way the selection of students be held to be sent to industries etc. It has also pointed out that industries seriousness about training the youngsters too would be checked. The industries are expected to do tie-ups with educational institutions, promoting skill development, and encouraging investments in key sectors. The policy focuses on increasing skill development programmes to ensure a highly employable and talented workforce. JERUSALEM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said on Wednesday it had established a new military road in the Gaza Strip, bisecting eastern and western Khan Younis in the south of the strip. In a statement, the military said the so-called "Magen Oz Corridor" is "a key component in applying pressure on Hamas and achieving the decisive defeat of its Khan Younis Brigade." The corridor, which stretches about 15 km, is the fourth such route Israel created by razing buildings and infrastructure to divide the enclave. These strips of land have been a major obstacle in previous ceasefire negotiations, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing not to withdraw forces from several of them. The ongoing Israeli assault has created a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The Israeli strike has killed at least 58,479 people and injured 139,355 since Oct. 7, 2023, according to Gaza-based health authorities. SHANGHAI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shanghai Pudong New Area received more than 3.14 billion U.S. dollars in actualized foreign investment in the first five months of the year, an increase of 32.3 percent year on year, official data shows. The area has taken measures to encourage foreign manufacturers to upgrade their factories to high-end, intelligent and green versions, and to attract advanced manufacturing projects to fill gaps in, strengthen links of, and extend the industrial chains. Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is one of the many companies that have ramped up investment in Pudong. In the first half of this year, Roche built a new production base in Zhangjiang Science City, with a construction area of about 25,000 square meters. The base is expected to be completed in 2029 and put into operation in 2031. This project will strengthen Roche's supply chain and local production layout in China and comprehensively enhance the complete medical value chain, according to the company. China's large market provides a stage for the development of foreign-funded enterprises. "The implementation of this project marks a significant development in Roche's local production capacity in China and represents a major breakthrough in the local production of innovative drugs in this important market," said Vivian Bian, CEO of Roche Pharma China. This new investment also enables Roche to better meet the needs of Chinese patients and respond to local demands more quickly, Bian added. LMG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Roper Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:ROP Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,410 shares of the industrial products companys stock, valued at approximately $2,600,000. Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. FWG Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Roper Technologies by 23.3% during the first quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 1,042 shares of the industrial products companys stock worth $580,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the last quarter. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Roper Technologies during the 1st quarter valued at about $231,000. Schrum Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Roper Technologies in the 1st quarter valued at about $207,000. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Roper Technologies in the 1st quarter valued at about $241,000. Finally, Tectonic Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Roper Technologies by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 4,024 shares of the industrial products companys stock valued at $2,372,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.31% of the companys stock. Get Roper Technologies alerts: Roper Technologies Trading Down 0.6% ROP opened at $544.82 on Wednesday. Roper Technologies, Inc. has a one year low of $499.47 and a one year high of $595.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.58 billion, a PE ratio of 37.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.02. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $567.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $561.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.40. Roper Technologies Announces Dividend Roper Technologies ( NYSE:ROP Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, April 28th. The industrial products company reported $4.78 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $4.74 by $0.04. Roper Technologies had a return on equity of 10.79% and a net margin of 22.01%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.41 EPS. The firms revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Roper Technologies, Inc. will post 19.96 EPS for the current year. The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 8th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 8th. Roper Technologiess dividend payout ratio is currently 23.81%. Analysts Set New Price Targets Several brokerages recently weighed in on ROP. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price target on Roper Technologies from $694.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on Roper Technologies from $470.00 to $561.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Oppenheimer reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $640.00 price objective on shares of Roper Technologies in a report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays reiterated an underweight rating on shares of Roper Technologies in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Roper Technologies from $660.00 to $668.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, April 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $632.36. Get Our Latest Analysis on Roper Technologies About Roper Technologies (Free Report) Roper Technologies, Inc designs and develops software, and technology enabled products and solutions. It operates through three segments: Application Software, Network Software, and Technology Enabled Products. The Application Software segment offers management, campus solutions, diagnostic and laboratory information management, enterprise software and information solutions, transportation management, financial and compliance management, and cloud-based financial analytics and performance management software; cloud-based software to the property and casualty insurance industry; and software, services, and technologies for foodservice operations. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Roper Technologies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Roper Technologies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. AptarGroup (NYSE:ATR Get Free Report) and Sonoco Products (NYSE:SON Get Free Report) are both industrials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and analyst recommendations. Dividends AptarGroup pays an annual dividend of $1.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Sonoco Products pays an annual dividend of $2.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. AptarGroup pays out 32.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sonoco Products pays out 137.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. AptarGroup has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years and Sonoco Products has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Get AptarGroup alerts: Valuation and Earnings This table compares AptarGroup and Sonoco Productss gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio AptarGroup $3.58 billion 2.84 $374.54 million $5.48 28.13 Sonoco Products $5.31 billion 0.84 $163.95 million $1.54 29.40 AptarGroup has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Sonoco Products. AptarGroup is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sonoco Products, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. Analyst Recommendations This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for AptarGroup and Sonoco Products, as provided by MarketBeat. Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score AptarGroup 0 1 4 1 3.00 Sonoco Products 0 2 6 0 2.75 AptarGroup currently has a consensus price target of $180.00, indicating a potential upside of 16.78%. Sonoco Products has a consensus price target of $56.75, indicating a potential upside of 25.33%. Given Sonoco Products higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sonoco Products is more favorable than AptarGroup. Insider & Institutional Ownership 88.5% of AptarGroup shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sonoco Products shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of AptarGroup shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.7% of Sonoco Products shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth. Risk & Volatility AptarGroup has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its stock price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sonoco Products has a beta of 0.68, suggesting that its stock price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Profitability This table compares AptarGroup and Sonoco Products net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets AptarGroup 10.41% 15.10% 8.37% Sonoco Products 2.40% 21.78% 5.09% Summary AptarGroup beats Sonoco Products on 10 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks. About AptarGroup (Get Free Report) AptarGroup, Inc. designs and manufactures a range of drug delivery, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions and services for the pharmaceutical, beauty, personal care, home care, and food and beverage markets. The company operates through Aptar Pharma, Aptar Beauty, and Aptar Closures segments. It also provides pumps for nasal allergy treatments; and metered dose inhaler valves for respiratory ailments, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases; elastomer for injectable primary packaging components; and active material science solutions. In addition, the company offers dispensing pumps, closures, elastomeric components, and aerosol valves to the digital health solutions. It primarily sells its products and services in Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. AptarGroup, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in Crystal Lake, Illinois. About Sonoco Products (Get Free Report) Sonoco Products Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, and sells various engineered and sustainable packaging products in North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company operates Consumer Packaging and Industrial Paper Packaging segments. The Consumer Packaging segment offers round and shaped rigid paper, steel, and plastic containers; metal and peelable membrane ends, closures, and components; thermoformed plastic trays and enclosures; and high-barrier flexible packaging products. The Industrial Paper Packaging segment provides paperboard tubes, cones, and cores; paper-based protective packaging products; and uncoated recycled paperboard products. It also offers various packaging materials, including plastic, paper, foam, and other specialty materials. Sonoco Products Company sells its products in various markets, which include paper, textile, film, food, packaging, construction, and wire and cable. The company was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina. Receive News & Ratings for AptarGroup Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for AptarGroup and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Cable Hill Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (NYSEARCA:VT Free Report) by 122.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 8,306 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after buying an additional 4,565 shares during the quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLCs holdings in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF were worth $968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VT. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,098,168 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $363,973,000 after acquiring an additional 665,214 shares during the period. Cerity Partners OCIO LLC lifted its holdings in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF by 112.2% in the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners OCIO LLC now owns 1,249,347 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $144,862,000 after buying an additional 660,678 shares during the period. Inscription Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF in the 1st quarter worth approximately $58,826,000. Cambridge Associates LLC MA ADV lifted its holdings in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Associates LLC MA ADV now owns 4,608,531 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $541,410,000 after buying an additional 428,251 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in Vanguard Total World Stock ETF by 346.6% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 372,422 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $43,752,000 after buying an additional 289,035 shares during the period. Get Vanguard Total World Stock ETF alerts: Vanguard Total World Stock ETF Stock Performance NYSEARCA VT opened at $128.81 on Wednesday. Vanguard Total World Stock ETF has a fifty-two week low of $100.89 and a fifty-two week high of $130.05. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $125.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $120.16. The stock has a market cap of $48.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.34 and a beta of 0.94. About Vanguard Total World Stock ETF Vanguard Total World Stock Index Fund ETF (the Fund) is an open-end investment company. The Fund seeks to track the performance of the FTSE Global All Cap Index, which covers both well-established and still-developing markets. The Fund invests in both foreign and the United States stocks. The fund offers three classes of shares: Investor Shares, Institutional Shares, and ETF Shares. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding VT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Vanguard Total World Stock ETF (NYSEARCA:VT Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Vanguard Total World Stock ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Vanguard Total World Stock ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lowered its position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (NYSE:CP Free Report) (TSE:CP) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 87,073 shares of the transportation companys stock after selling 740 shares during the quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KSs holdings in Canadian Pacific Kansas City were worth $6,113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CP. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,778,473 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $2,662,978,000 after purchasing an additional 491,966 shares during the period. Causeway Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 76.5% during the 4th quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC now owns 15,429,804 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $1,116,632,000 after purchasing an additional 6,687,770 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 15,348,282 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $1,110,111,000 after purchasing an additional 276,223 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City during the 4th quarter worth approximately $914,090,000. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its position in shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City by 11.3% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 12,433,380 shares of the transportation companys stock worth $899,805,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,913 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 72.20% of the companys stock. Get Canadian Pacific Kansas City alerts: Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a neutral rating and set a $91.00 price target on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $122.00 to $121.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Citigroup increased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $89.00 to $94.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Canadian Pacific Kansas City from $89.00 to $88.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a positive rating and issued a $94.00 price objective (up from $90.00) on shares of Canadian Pacific Kansas City in a report on Tuesday, June 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $91.95. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Stock Performance Shares of NYSE CP opened at $81.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $80.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $76.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.81. The firm has a market cap of $74.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.41, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.07. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited has a 1 year low of $66.49 and a 1 year high of $87.72. Canadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE:CP Get Free Report) (TSE:CP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The transportation company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts consensus estimates of $0.74. The firm had revenue of $2.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. Canadian Pacific Kansas City had a return on equity of 8.68% and a net margin of 25.99%. The firms quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.93 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited will post 3.42 EPS for the current fiscal year. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Increases Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.1644 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 27th. This is a positive change from Canadian Pacific Kansas Citys previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Canadian Pacific Kansas Citys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.30%. Canadian Pacific Kansas City Profile (Free Report) Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates a transcontinental freight railway in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The company transports bulk commodities, including grain, coal, potash, fertilizers, and sulphur; merchandise freight, such as forest products, energy, chemicals and plastics, metals, minerals, consumer products, and automotive; and intermodal traffic comprising retail goods in overseas containers. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CP? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited (NYSE:CP Free Report) (TSE:CP). Receive News & Ratings for Canadian Pacific Kansas City Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Canadian Pacific Kansas City and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Smoke is seen near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Photo by Monsef Memari/Xinhua) DAMASCUS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus in an intensified attack on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. Israel carried out at least five airstrikes on Wednesday afternoon, mostly targeting the Syrian Army General Command, destroying parts of the building, according to local media reports and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Footage on local TV stations showed smoke rising from the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the Umayyad Square in the city center of Damascus. Also, the area of the Syrian al-Shaab presidential palace was hit by another strike, sending plumes of white smoke rising over the mountain on which the palace is located. No casualty report has emerged yet amid the absence of official comments. In a previous strike on the military headquarters early Wednesday, state TV Al-Ikhbariya channel confirmed that two civilians were injured in what it described as an "Israeli aggression." The Israeli military campaign is part of a broader effort to support the Druze community in Sweida, where deadly clashes have escalated among local Druze militias, Bedouin tribes, and the interim government's forces. Smoke is seen near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Photo by Monsef Memari/Xinhua) Smoke is seen near the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus in an intensified attack on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) Smoke is seen near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus in an intensified attack on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) Smoke is seen near the Syrian presidential palace and the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in Damascus, Syria, on July 16, 2025. Israeli airstrikes hit the Syrian presidential palace area and destroyed parts of the Syrian Army General Command headquarters in the capital Damascus in an intensified attack on Wednesday, according to local media and eyewitnesses. The strikes were reportedly aiming against Syria's interim authorities for the clashes with the Druze community in Sweida province in southern Syria. (Photo by Ammar Safarjalani/Xinhua) ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO Get Free Report) is one of 45 public companies in the TRANS SERVICES industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its rivals? We will compare ZTO Express (Cayman) to related businesses based on the strength of its risk, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, profitability and valuation. Dividends ZTO Express (Cayman) pays an annual dividend of $0.68 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. ZTO Express (Cayman) pays out 43.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, TRANS SERVICES companies pay a dividend yield of 3.0% and pay out 47.0% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. ZTO Express (Cayman) is clearly a better dividend stock than its rivals, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio. Get ZTO Express (Cayman) alerts: Earnings and Valuation This table compares ZTO Express (Cayman) and its rivals gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio ZTO Express (Cayman) $45.21 billion $1.21 billion 11.69 ZTO Express (Cayman) Competitors $7.81 billion $184.70 million 13.83 Analyst Ratings ZTO Express (Cayman) has higher revenue and earnings than its rivals. ZTO Express (Cayman) is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its rivals, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry. This is a breakdown of current ratings for ZTO Express (Cayman) and its rivals, as provided by MarketBeat. Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score ZTO Express (Cayman) 0 1 3 1 3.00 ZTO Express (Cayman) Competitors 365 1337 1514 90 2.40 ZTO Express (Cayman) currently has a consensus target price of $21.76, indicating a potential upside of 17.79%. As a group, TRANS SERVICES companies have a potential downside of 0.94%. Given ZTO Express (Cayman)s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe ZTO Express (Cayman) is more favorable than its rivals. Insider and Institutional Ownership 41.7% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 55.5% of shares of all TRANS SERVICES companies are held by institutional investors. 41.3% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 22.4% of shares of all TRANS SERVICES companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth. Profitability This table compares ZTO Express (Cayman) and its rivals net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets ZTO Express (Cayman) 20.77% 15.91% 10.65% ZTO Express (Cayman) Competitors 2.85% -6.69% 2.80% Risk & Volatility ZTO Express (Cayman) has a beta of -0.18, meaning that its share price is 118% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, ZTO Express (Cayman)s rivals have a beta of 0.94, meaning that their average share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Summary ZTO Express (Cayman) beats its rivals on 12 of the 15 factors compared. About ZTO Express (Cayman) (Get Free Report) ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. provides express delivery and other value-added logistics services in the People's Republic of China. It offers freight forwarding services; and delivery services for e-commerce and traditional merchants, and other express service users. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China. Receive News & Ratings for ZTO Express (Cayman) Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for ZTO Express (Cayman) and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM Free Report) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 276,627 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 1,403 shares during the quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.s holdings in Philip Morris International were worth $43,909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PM. Pacifica Partners Inc. increased its stake in Philip Morris International by 115.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 215 shares of the companys stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Philip Morris International in the 1st quarter worth approximately $35,000. Ball & Co Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Philip Morris International in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new stake in Philip Morris International in the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Philip Morris International in the 1st quarter worth approximately $38,000. Institutional investors own 78.63% of the companys stock. Get Philip Morris International alerts: Philip Morris International Stock Up 0.1% PM opened at $180.88 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $178.33 and a 200 day moving average of $157.57. Philip Morris International Inc. has a 52-week low of $104.84 and a 52-week high of $186.69. The stock has a market cap of $281.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.29, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.51. Philip Morris International Announces Dividend Philip Morris International ( NYSE:PM Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The company reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.61 by $0.08. Philip Morris International had a negative return on equity of 122.40% and a net margin of 8.43%. The company had revenue of $9.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $9.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.50 EPS. Philip Morris Internationals revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Philip Morris International Inc. will post 7.14 EPS for the current fiscal year. The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Friday, June 27th were issued a dividend of $1.35 per share. This represents a $5.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 27th. Philip Morris Internationals payout ratio is currently 111.34%. Analysts Set New Price Targets PM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $182.00 price objective (up previously from $156.00) on shares of Philip Morris International in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Philip Morris International from $188.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Philip Morris International in a research report on Wednesday, July 9th. They set a buy rating and a $220.00 target price on the stock. Needham & Company LLC started coverage on Philip Morris International in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. They set a buy rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Philip Morris International from $182.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $186.73. Check Out Our Latest Analysis on Philip Morris International Philip Morris International Company Profile (Free Report) Philip Morris International Inc operates as a tobacco company working to delivers a smoke-free future and evolving portfolio for the long-term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. The company's product portfolio primarily consists of cigarettes and smoke-free products, including heat-not-burn, vapor, and oral nicotine products primarily under the IQOS and ZYN brands; and consumer accessories, such as lighters and matches. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding PM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Philip Morris International Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Philip Morris International and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its stake in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (NYSEARCA:IJJ Free Report) by 5.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 741,779 shares of the companys stock after buying an additional 36,736 shares during the period. iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF accounts for approximately 1.2% of Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc.s holdings in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF were worth $88,813,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Orion Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF in the 4th quarter valued at $25,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. bought a new position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. CX Institutional bought a new position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. ORG Partners LLC bought a new position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, MorganRosel Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.95% of the companys stock. Get iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF alerts: iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF Stock Performance Shares of IJJ opened at $125.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $122.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.73. iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF has a 52-week low of $102.24 and a 52-week high of $136.42. The company has a market cap of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13 and a beta of 1.17. iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF Company Profile iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF, formerly iShares S&P MidCap 400 Value Index Fund (the Fund), is an exchange traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the S&P MidCap 400 Value Index (the Index). The Value Index measures the performance of the mid-capitalization value sector of the United States equity market and consists of those stocks in the S&P MidCap 400 Index exhibiting the strongest value characteristics. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding IJJ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF (NYSEARCA:IJJ Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares S&P Mid-Cap 400 Value ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSE:SLF Free Report) (NYSE:SLF) Equities research analysts at Desjardins upped their FY2025 earnings per share estimates for Sun Life Financial in a note issued to investors on Thursday, July 10th. Desjardins analyst D. Young now forecasts that the financial services provider will earn $7.30 per share for the year, up from their previous estimate of $7.25. The consensus estimate for Sun Life Financials current full-year earnings is $6.92 per share. Desjardins also issued estimates for Sun Life Financials FY2026 earnings at $7.80 EPS. Get Sun Life Financial alerts: Several other analysts have also issued reports on SLF. TD Securities upped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$83.00 to C$86.00 and gave the company a hold rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. CIBC dropped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$89.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays lowered Sun Life Financial from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$96.00 to C$90.00 in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Finally, National Bankshares dropped their price objective on Sun Life Financial from C$94.00 to C$93.00 in a research note on Friday, July 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sun Life Financial presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of C$88.38. Sun Life Financial Price Performance TSE:SLF opened at C$85.11 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 84,866.00, a current ratio of 92.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.00. The stocks 50 day moving average price is C$87.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is C$83.56. The firm has a market capitalization of C$48.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 0.94. Sun Life Financial has a 12-month low of C$64.38 and a 12-month high of C$91.11. Sun Life Financial Increases Dividend The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 30th were issued a $0.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 28th. This is a boost from Sun Life Financials previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $3.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. Sun Life Financials payout ratio is currently 48.87%. Insider Buying and Selling In other Sun Life Financial news, Senior Officer Jacques Jr. Goulet sold 44,199 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction on Friday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$88.17, for a total value of C$3,897,025.83. Also, Senior Officer Daniel Fishbein sold 37,662 shares of Sun Life Financial stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$87.60, for a total value of C$3,299,191.20. Insiders sold 188,721 shares of company stock valued at $16,554,701 over the last 90 days. 0.03% of the stock is currently owned by insiders. About Sun Life Financial (Get Free Report) Sun Life Financial is one of Canadas Big Three life insurance companies along with Great-West Lifeco and Manulife. Sun Life provides insurance, retirement, and wealth-management services to individual and corporate customers in Canada, the United States, and Asia. It also owns MFS Investment Management, a Boston-based asset-management firm. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Sun Life Financial Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Sun Life Financial and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Fresnillo plc (LON:FRES Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as GBX 1,558 ($20.86) and last traded at GBX 1,557 ($20.85), with a volume of 3690592 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 1,516 ($20.30). Analysts Set New Price Targets FRES has been the topic of a number of research reports. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price target on Fresnillo from GBX 805 ($10.78) to GBX 980 ($13.12) and gave the stock a hold rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 1,300 ($17.41) to GBX 1,700 ($22.76) and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, July 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 1,450 ($19.41) to GBX 1,850 ($24.77) and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Berenberg Bank lowered their price objective on Fresnillo from GBX 1,630 ($21.82) to GBX 1,620 ($21.69) and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of GBX 1,406 ($18.82). Get Fresnillo alerts: View Our Latest Stock Report on Fresnillo Fresnillo Price Performance About Fresnillo The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of GBX 1,291.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of GBX 989.21. The company has a market cap of 13.65 billion, a PE ratio of 55.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -1.58 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a current ratio of 5.88, a quick ratio of 3.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 23.55. (Get Free Report) Fresnillo plc is the worlds largest silver producer and Mexicos largest gold producer, listed on the London and Mexican stock exchanges. The Group seeks to create value for stakeholders across precious metal cycles, focusing on high-potential silver and gold projects that can be developed into low cost, world-class mines. Following a decade of consistent and successful progress, the Group is now focused on consolidating its growth and advancing its pipeline in order to deliver further growth in the years ahead. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for Fresnillo Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Fresnillo and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. FWG Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Transdigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG Free Report) by 21.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 454 shares of the aerospace companys stock after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLCs holdings in Transdigm Group were worth $639,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of TDG. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its stake in shares of Transdigm Group by 56.5% during the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 277 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Transdigm Group by 204.9% in the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 125 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $173,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Transdigm Group by 26.0% in the first quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 402 shares of the aerospace companys stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its position in Transdigm Group by 10.5% during the first quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 6,531 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $9,034,000 after buying an additional 619 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. lifted its position in Transdigm Group by 17.7% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 766 shares of the aerospace companys stock valued at $1,060,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. 95.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Get Transdigm Group alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several brokerages have commented on TDG. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Transdigm Group from $1,500.00 to $1,700.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Northcoast Research raised Transdigm Group from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $1,500.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Transdigm Group from $1,635.00 to $1,795.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday. UBS Group raised their price objective on Transdigm Group from $1,451.00 to $1,645.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Transdigm Group from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, May 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $1,594.80. Transdigm Group Price Performance Shares of NYSE:TDG opened at $1,576.61 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $88.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.23, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.04. Transdigm Group Incorporated has a 1 year low of $1,176.31 and a 1 year high of $1,585.87. The stocks fifty day moving average price is $1,459.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $1,378.07. Transdigm Group (NYSE:TDG Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The aerospace company reported $9.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $8.83 by $0.28. Transdigm Group had a negative return on equity of 38.71% and a net margin of 21.09%. The firm had revenue of $2.15 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.17 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $7.99 earnings per share. The companys quarterly revenue was up 12.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Transdigm Group Incorporated will post 35.13 earnings per share for the current year. Insider Buying and Selling In other Transdigm Group news, COO Joel Reiss sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,321.80, for a total value of $4,361,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 3,600 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $4,758,480. This represents a 47.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director W Nicholas Howley sold 49,241 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,475.85, for a total value of $72,672,329.85. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 21,548 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,801,615.80. This represents a 69.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 119,413 shares of company stock valued at $172,987,751 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.09% of the companys stock. Transdigm Group Profile (Free Report) TransDigm Group Incorporated designs, produces, and supplies aircraft components in the United States and internationally. The Power & Control segment offers mechanical/electro-mechanical actuators and controls, ignition systems and engine technology, specialized pumps and valves, power conditioning devices, specialized AC/DC electric motors and generators, batteries and chargers, databus and power controls, sensor products, switches and relay panels, hoists, winches and lifting devices, and cargo loading and handling systems. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding TDG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Transdigm Group Incorporated (NYSE:TDG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Transdigm Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Transdigm Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Profitability This table compares Hugoton Royalty Trust and its peers net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Hugoton Royalty Trust N/A N/A N/A Hugoton Royalty Trust Competitors 57.69% 1,199.90% 167.41% Volatility & Risk Hugoton Royalty Trust has a beta of -0.73, meaning that its stock price is 173% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Hugoton Royalty Trusts peers have a beta of 0.32, meaning that their average stock price is 68% less volatile than the S&P 500. Get Hugoton Royalty Trust alerts: Institutional & Insider Ownership 17.0% of Hugoton Royalty Trust shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 30.4% of shares of all OIL US RYLTY TR companies are held by institutional investors. 5.0% of shares of all OIL US RYLTY TR companies are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term. Valuation & Earnings Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Hugoton Royalty Trust $11.53 million N/A 1.30 Hugoton Royalty Trust Competitors $82.89 million $18.27 million 28.65 This table compares Hugoton Royalty Trust and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Hugoton Royalty Trusts peers have higher revenue and earnings than Hugoton Royalty Trust. Hugoton Royalty Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry. Summary Hugoton Royalty Trust peers beat Hugoton Royalty Trust on 8 of the 8 factors compared. Hugoton Royalty Trust Company Profile (Get Free Report) Hugoton Royalty Trust operates as an express trust in the United States. It holds 80% net profits interests in various natural gas producing working interest properties in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Wyoming under conveyances. The company was founded in 1998 and is based in Dallas, Texas. Receive News & Ratings for Hugoton Royalty Trust Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Hugoton Royalty Trust and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Insider and Institutional Ownership 52.5% of shares of all TRANS AIRLINE companies are owned by institutional investors. 9.6% of shares of all TRANS AIRLINE companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term. Profitability This table compares Japan Airlines and its competitors net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Get Japan Airlines alerts: Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Japan Airlines 6.04% 11.41% 4.01% Japan Airlines Competitors -16,555.33% 19.90% 2.44% Risk & Volatility Japan Airlines has a beta of 0.52, suggesting that its stock price is 48% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Japan Airlines competitors have a beta of 9.05, suggesting that their average stock price is 805% more volatile than the S&P 500. Valuation & Earnings Gross Revenue Net Income Price/Earnings Ratio Japan Airlines $12.11 billion $706.45 million 12.30 Japan Airlines Competitors $14.20 billion $554.57 million 1.90 This table compares Japan Airlines and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Japan Airlines competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Japan Airlines. Japan Airlines is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry. Dividends Japan Airlines pays an annual dividend of $0.21 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Japan Airlines pays out 25.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, TRANS AIRLINE companies pay a dividend yield of 3.0% and pay out 32.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Summary Japan Airlines competitors beat Japan Airlines on 6 of the 11 factors compared. Japan Airlines Company Profile (Get Free Report) Japan Airlines Co., Ltd., together with its subsidiaries, provides scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services in Japan, Asia, Oceania, North America, and Europe. The company operates through Air Transportation and Other segments. It offers passenger, ground handling, cargo and mail handling, and maintenance services. The company is also involved in the aerial work and other related business; airport peripheral business; and sale of travel package tours. As of March 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 224 aircraft. The company was formerly known as Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. and changed its name to Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. in April 2011. The company was founded in 1951 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Receive News & Ratings for Japan Airlines Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Japan Airlines and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Bristol Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY Free Report) by 69.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 29,031 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after buying an additional 11,931 shares during the quarter. Larson Financial Group LLCs holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb were worth $1,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC now owns 17,763 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $1,004,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Marcum Wealth LLC now owns 19,296 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $1,177,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Leelyn Smith LLC now owns 47,699 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $2,698,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Heron Bay Capital Management now owns 10,795 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Providence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Bristol Myers Squibb by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 52,480 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $2,968,000 after acquiring an additional 221 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.41% of the companys stock. Get Bristol Myers Squibb alerts: Bristol Myers Squibb Stock Down 1.8% BMY stock opened at $46.47 on Wednesday. Bristol Myers Squibb Company has a 52 week low of $40.09 and a 52 week high of $63.33. The company has a market capitalization of $94.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.36. The firms 50-day moving average is $47.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $53.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.65. Bristol Myers Squibb Dividend Announcement Bristol Myers Squibb ( NYSE:BMY Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.50 by $0.30. Bristol Myers Squibb had a net margin of 11.38% and a return on equity of 87.62%. The company had revenue of $11.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($4.40) EPS. Bristol Myers Squibbs revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Bristol Myers Squibb Company will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.62 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.34%. Bristol Myers Squibbs dividend payout ratio is currently 92.88%. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BMY shares. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 11th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated a neutral rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Argus upgraded shares of Bristol Myers Squibb to a hold rating in a report on Friday, April 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a neutral rating and set a $55.00 price target (down previously from $67.00) on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, William Blair restated a market perform rating on shares of Bristol Myers Squibb in a report on Friday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat, Bristol Myers Squibb presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $57.69. Read Our Latest Research Report on BMY Insider Activity In related news, EVP Samit Hirawat acquired 4,250 shares of the companys stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $47.58 per share, for a total transaction of $202,215.00. Following the purchase, the executive vice president owned 83,513 shares in the company, valued at $3,973,548.54. This represents a 5.36% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Bristol Myers Squibb Profile (Free Report) Bristol-Myers Squibb Company discovers, develops, licenses, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products worldwide. It offers products for hematology, oncology, cardiovascular, immunology, fibrotic, and neuroscience diseases. The company's products include Eliquis for reduction in risk of stroke/systemic embolism in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, and for the treatment of DVT/PE; Opdivo for various anti-cancer indications, including bladder, blood, CRC, head and neck, RCC, HCC, lung, melanoma, MPM, stomach and esophageal cancer; Pomalyst/Imnovid for multiple myeloma; Orencia for active rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis; and Sprycel for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Bristol Myers Squibb Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bristol Myers Squibb and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Mechanics Financial Corp boosted its position in Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO Free Report) by 9.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,788 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 398 shares during the quarter. Mechanics Financial Corps holdings in Altria Group were worth $287,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Redwood Park Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Inlight Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. Sierra Ocean LLC raised its position in shares of Altria Group by 226.3% during the 1st quarter. Sierra Ocean LLC now owns 509 shares of the companys stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Altria Group during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 57.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Get Altria Group alerts: Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth Several research firms have recently weighed in on MO. Needham & Company LLC upgraded shares of Altria Group to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Altria Group in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. They set an underperform rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Altria Group from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Altria Group from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $60.00 target price on shares of Altria Group in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $56.75. Altria Group Stock Up 0.6% Shares of Altria Group stock opened at $58.50 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $98.55 billion, a PE ratio of 9.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.59. Altria Group, Inc. has a 12-month low of $47.57 and a 12-month high of $61.26. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $59.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $56.71. Altria Group (NYSE:MO Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The company reported $1.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $4.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.64 billion. Altria Group had a net margin of 43.09% and a negative return on equity of 295.44%. The companys revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Altria Group, Inc. will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Altria Group Dividend Announcement The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 16th were paid a dividend of $1.02 per share. This represents a $4.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.97%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 16th. Altria Groups payout ratio is 68.34%. Altria Group Company Profile (Free Report) Altria Group, Inc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells smokeable and oral tobacco products in the United States. The company offers cigarettes primarily under the Marlboro brand; large cigars and pipe tobacco under the Black & Mild brand; moist smokeless tobacco and snus products under the Copenhagen, Skoal, Red Seal, and Husky brands; oral nicotine pouches under the on! brand; and e-vapor products under the NJOY ACE brand. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MO? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE:MO Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Altria Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Altria Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. SYDNEY, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Scientists have developed Australia's first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered lipid-based blood test, enabling earlier and less invasive breast cancer detection. The test is already in clinical use in specialist clinics across Sydney and Melbourne after transitioning from research in March 2025, according to a statement from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) published by Medianet on Wednesday. Unlike traditional imaging and biopsies, which can miss tumors and carry risks, the new AI-powered blood test detects subtle molecular signals in blood, allowing for cancer diagnosis months or even years before symptoms appear, said UNSW Associate Professor Fatemeh Vafaee. AI drives the breakthrough by analyzing millions of molecular markers to detect early cancer signs, according to Vafaee and her Vafaee Lab, Biomedical AI Laboratory at UNSW. "By integrating explainable AI techniques, we ensure that the models provide not only accurate outcomes but also clinically interpretable insights, crucial for building trust and supporting decision-making in real-world healthcare settings," Vafaee said. The lab is contributing to global efforts to make AI-driven blood tests part of standard breast cancer screening, offering a valuable new option, especially for women with dense breast tissue where traditional imaging may be less effective, said the UNSW team in collaboration with Australian biotechnology company BCAL Diagnostics. The team is now developing multi-analyte tests that combine various biomarkers for more precise cancer detection across multiple types, including lung, liver, and brain tumors, exploring tests using other biofluids like urine and saliva, while working to integrate diverse data for a complete view of patient health, Vafaee said. Parcion Private Wealth LLC lowered its position in Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK Free Report) by 16.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,134 shares of the companys stock after selling 4,098 shares during the quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLCs holdings in Merck & Co., Inc. were worth $1,807,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,479,799,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 6.5% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 80,742,030 shares of the companys stock valued at $8,032,217,000 after acquiring an additional 4,932,647 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 16.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 31,377,107 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,121,395,000 after acquiring an additional 4,511,742 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Merck & Co., Inc. by 63.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 11,577,535 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,151,642,000 after acquiring an additional 4,480,007 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Merck & Co., Inc. by 9,991.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,332,446 shares of the companys stock valued at $388,880,000 after purchasing an additional 4,289,516 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.07% of the companys stock. Get Merck & Co. Inc. alerts: Insider Buying and Selling In other Merck & Co., Inc. news, SVP Dalton E. Smart III sold 4,262 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.76, for a total value of $352,723.12. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 7,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $643,707.28. This trade represents a 35.40% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock. Merck & Co., Inc. Trading Down 2.5% Shares of MRK opened at $81.54 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $79.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $86.16. Merck & Co., Inc. has a 1 year low of $73.31 and a 1 year high of $129.03. The stock has a market cap of $204.75 billion, a PE ratio of 11.87, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.16 by $0.06. Merck & Co., Inc. had a return on equity of 43.23% and a net margin of 27.27%. The firm had revenue of $15.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $15.59 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.07 EPS. The businesss revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Merck & Co., Inc. will post 9.01 EPS for the current fiscal year. Merck & Co., Inc. Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th were given a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, June 16th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.97%. Merck & Co., Inc.s payout ratio is 47.16%. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades MRK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Guggenheim restated a buy rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from an overweight rating to a cautious rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Merck & Co., Inc. from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Citigroup restated a neutral rating and set a $84.00 target price (down previously from $115.00) on shares of Merck & Co., Inc. in a research note on Wednesday, May 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Merck & Co., Inc. from $99.00 to $98.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Merck & Co., Inc. presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $108.69. Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on MRK About Merck & Co., Inc. (Free Report) Merck & Co, Inc is a health care company, which engages in the provision of health solutions through its prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, animal health, and consumer care products. It operates through the following segments: Pharmaceutical, Animal Health, and Other. The Pharmaceutical segment includes human health pharmaceutical and vaccine products. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Merck & Co. Inc. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Merck & Co. Inc. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY Get Free Report) and National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG Get Free Report) are both energy companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, risk, earnings, valuation, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and profitability. Dividends Occidental Petroleum pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. National Fuel Gas pays an annual dividend of $2.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.4%. Occidental Petroleum pays out 39.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. National Fuel Gas pays out 497.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Occidental Petroleum has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and National Fuel Gas has increased its dividend for 55 consecutive years. National Fuel Gas is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth. Get Occidental Petroleum alerts: Profitability This table compares Occidental Petroleum and National Fuel Gas net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Occidental Petroleum 11.20% 16.60% 5.18% National Fuel Gas 1.91% 18.55% 6.34% Analyst Ratings Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Occidental Petroleum 2 14 5 0 2.14 National Fuel Gas 0 1 2 1 3.00 This is a summary of recent recommendations for Occidental Petroleum and National Fuel Gas, as provided by MarketBeat.com. Occidental Petroleum presently has a consensus price target of $53.62, suggesting a potential upside of 25.37%. National Fuel Gas has a consensus price target of $95.33, suggesting a potential upside of 7.28%. Given Occidental Petroleums higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe Occidental Petroleum is more favorable than National Fuel Gas. Earnings & Valuation This table compares Occidental Petroleum and National Fuel Gass gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Occidental Petroleum $26.88 billion 1.57 $3.06 billion $2.46 17.39 National Fuel Gas $1.94 billion 4.13 $77.51 million $0.43 206.65 Occidental Petroleum has higher revenue and earnings than National Fuel Gas. Occidental Petroleum is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than National Fuel Gas, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. Insider & Institutional Ownership 88.7% of Occidental Petroleum shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 74.0% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Occidental Petroleum shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of National Fuel Gas shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth. Risk and Volatility Occidental Petroleum has a beta of 0.84, indicating that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, National Fuel Gas has a beta of 0.62, indicating that its stock price is 38% less volatile than the S&P 500. About Occidental Petroleum (Get Free Report) Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas. Its Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated organics, potassium chemicals, ethylene dichloride, chlorinated isocyanurates, sodium silicates, and calcium chloride; and vinyls comprising vinyl chloride monomer, polyvinyl chloride, and ethylene. The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases, and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide, and power. This segment also invests in entities. Occidental Petroleum Corporation was founded in 1920 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. About National Fuel Gas (Get Free Report) National Fuel Gas Company operates as a diversified energy company. It operates through four segments: Exploration and Production, Pipeline and Storage, Gathering, and Utility. The Exploration and Production segment explores for, develops, and produces natural gas and oil. The Pipeline and Storage segment provides interstate natural gas transportation services through an integrated gas pipeline system in Pennsylvania and New York; and owns and operates underground natural gas storage fields. This segment also transports natural gas for National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation, as well as for other utilities, industrial companies, and power producers in New York State. The Gathering segment builds, owns, and operates natural gas processing and pipeline gathering facilities in the Appalachian region, as well as provides gathering services to Seneca. The Utility segment sells natural gas or provides natural gas utility services to various customers in Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Jamestown, New York; and Erie and Sharon, Pennsylvania. National Fuel Gas Company was incorporated in 1902 and is headquartered in Williamsville, New York. Receive News & Ratings for Occidental Petroleum Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Occidental Petroleum and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Crh Plc (NYSE:CRH Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 63,037 shares of the construction companys stock after purchasing an additional 2,023 shares during the period. Parcion Private Wealth LLCs holdings in CRH were worth $5,545,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CRH. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of CRH by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 211,981 shares of the construction companys stock worth $18,648,000 after acquiring an additional 27,934 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in CRH in the 1st quarter worth about $524,000. Tectonic Advisors LLC grew its position in CRH by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 95,534 shares of the construction companys stock worth $8,404,000 after purchasing an additional 4,690 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of CRH by 36.6% in the first quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 2,754 shares of the construction companys stock valued at $242,000 after acquiring an additional 738 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealthfront Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of CRH in the first quarter valued at approximately $379,000. 62.50% of the stock is owned by institutional investors. Get CRH alerts: CRH Trading Down 0.6% CRH opened at $94.23 on Wednesday. Crh Plc has a 12 month low of $74.03 and a 12 month high of $110.97. The company has a 50 day moving average of $93.33 and a 200 day moving average of $94.52. The company has a market cap of $63.66 billion, a PE ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.26. CRH Dividend Announcement CRH ( NYSE:CRH Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The construction company reported ($0.12) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of ($0.06) by ($0.06). CRH had a return on equity of 15.88% and a net margin of 9.17%. The company had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.77 billion. Research analysts forecast that Crh Plc will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 23rd were given a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. CRHs dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.52%. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on CRH from $127.00 to $108.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley restated an overweight rating on shares of CRH in a research report on Wednesday, May 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a neutral rating on shares of CRH in a research report on Tuesday, May 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein initiated coverage on shares of CRH in a research report on Tuesday, May 13th. They set an outperform rating and a $115.00 target price for the company. Finally, Loop Capital initiated coverage on CRH in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set a buy rating and a $114.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, CRH has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $112.82. Get Our Latest Report on CRH CRH Profile (Free Report) CRH plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides building materials solutions in Ireland and internationally. It operates through four segments: Americas Materials Solutions, Americas Building Solutions, Europe Materials Solutions, and Europe Building Solutions. The company provides solutions for the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure and commercial and residential buildings; and produces and sells aggregates, cement, readymixed concrete, and asphalt, as well as provides paving and construction services. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CRH? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Crh Plc (NYSE:CRH Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for CRH Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for CRH and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report) by 22.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,435 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 267 shares during the period. Parcion Private Wealth LLCs holdings in Eli Lilly and Company were worth $1,185,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Prestige Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 606 shares of the companys stock valued at $468,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC now owns 855 shares of the companys stock valued at $660,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Garner Asset Management Corp now owns 532 shares of the companys stock valued at $411,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Tobias Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 307 shares of the companys stock valued at $237,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Redwood Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Eli Lilly and Company by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Redwood Investments LLC now owns 2,209 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,705,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.53% of the companys stock. Get Eli Lilly and Company alerts: Eli Lilly and Company Price Performance Shares of NYSE LLY opened at $772.74 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $732.36 billion, a PE ratio of 62.88, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $765.88 and a 200 day moving average of $799.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.37. Eli Lilly and Company has a one year low of $677.09 and a one year high of $972.53. Eli Lilly and Company Dividend Announcement Eli Lilly and Company ( NYSE:LLY Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The company reported $3.34 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.64 by ($1.30). The company had revenue of $12.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $12.77 billion. Eli Lilly and Company had a return on equity of 85.51% and a net margin of 22.67%. Eli Lilly and Companys revenue was up 45.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.58 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Eli Lilly and Company will post 23.48 EPS for the current fiscal year. The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $1.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. This represents a $6.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. Eli Lilly and Companys dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.82%. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research firms have recently weighed in on LLY. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Saturday, June 28th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an overweight rating on shares of Eli Lilly and Company in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Guggenheim lifted their target price on shares of Eli Lilly and Company from $936.00 to $942.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Eli Lilly and Company from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $892.00 to $888.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Eli Lilly and Company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $1,012.56. View Our Latest Report on Eli Lilly and Company Eli Lilly and Company Company Profile (Free Report) Eli Lilly and Company discovers, develops, and markets human pharmaceuticals worldwide. The company offers Basaglar, Humalog, Humalog Mix 75/25, Humalog U-100, Humalog U-200, Humalog Mix 50/50, insulin lispro, insulin lispro protamine, insulin lispro mix 75/25, Humulin, Humulin 70/30, Humulin N, Humulin R, and Humulin U-500 for diabetes; Jardiance, Mounjaro, and Trulicity for type 2 diabetes; and Zepbound for obesity. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LLY? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Eli Lilly and Company Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Eli Lilly and Company and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. PAX Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI Free Report) by 14.6% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,302 shares of the communications equipment providers stock after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the quarter. PAX Financial Group LLCs holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $570,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 935 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $409,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $518,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 228.9% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,367 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $3,663,000 after buying an additional 5,823 shares in the last quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 828 shares of the communications equipment providers stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $874,000. 84.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Get Motorola Solutions alerts: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Motorola Solutions from $570.00 to $515.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Monday, July 7th. They set a peer perform rating on the stock. William Blair reiterated an outperform rating on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Motorola Solutions from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Motorola Solutions from $527.00 to $511.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $513.25. Insider Activity at Motorola Solutions In other news, CAO Katherine A. Maher sold 1,073 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $418.68, for a total value of $449,243.64. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 804 shares of the companys stock, valued at $336,618.72. This represents a 57.17% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.44% of the stock is owned by insiders. Motorola Solutions Stock Performance NYSE MSI opened at $408.86 on Wednesday. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1 year low of $385.17 and a 1 year high of $507.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.25 billion, a PE ratio of 34.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.95. The companys 50 day simple moving average is $416.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $431.37. Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The communications equipment provider reported $3.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.01 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.52 billion. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.67% and a return on equity of 160.93%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.81 EPS. Analysts predict that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Motorola Solutions Dividend Announcement The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a $1.09 dividend. This represents a $4.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Motorola Solutionss payout ratio is 36.39%. Motorola Solutions Company Profile (Free Report) Motorola Solutions, Inc provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Motorola Solutions Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Motorola Solutions and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL Free Report) by 4.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 174,180 shares of the companys stock after purchasing an additional 6,734 shares during the quarter. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF accounts for 7.0% of Pettinga Financial Advisors LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC owned about 0.06% of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF worth $29,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its position in shares of iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 2,898.7% during the first quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 7,622,243 shares of the companys stock worth $1,302,565,000 after purchasing an additional 7,368,058 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 31,853,469 shares of the companys stock valued at $5,443,439,000 after buying an additional 2,711,718 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 16,867,820 shares of the companys stock valued at $3,003,821,000 after buying an additional 2,141,996 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new position in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $349,393,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF by 14.6% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,580,546 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,171,864,000 after buying an additional 837,887 shares in the last quarter. Get iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF alerts: iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Stock Performance BATS QUAL opened at $182.74 on Wednesday. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $179.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.29. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF has a fifty-two week low of $148.34 and a fifty-two week high of $187.26. The company has a market cap of $52.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.59 and a beta of 1.05. iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Company Profile The iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (QUAL) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the MSCI USA Sector Neutral Quality index. The fund tracks an index of US large- and mid-cap stocks, selected and weighted by high ROE, stable earnings growth and low debt\u002Fequity, relative to peers in each sector. Further Reading Want to see what other hedge funds are holding QUAL? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF (BATS:QUAL Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares MSCI USA Quality Factor ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC lowered its stake in iShares Core Dividend ETF (BATS:DIVB Free Report) by 11.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 448,599 shares of the companys stock after selling 58,953 shares during the quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC owned approximately 2.84% of iShares Core Dividend ETF worth $21,766,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in iShares Core Dividend ETF by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 35,345 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,715,000 after buying an additional 3,339 shares during the last quarter. Prepared Retirement Institute LLC raised its holdings in iShares Core Dividend ETF by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Prepared Retirement Institute LLC now owns 34,871 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,692,000 after buying an additional 4,468 shares during the last quarter. Bogart Wealth LLC bought a new position in iShares Core Dividend ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Florida Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in iShares Core Dividend ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $246,000. Finally, ADG Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in iShares Core Dividend ETF in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $882,000. Get iShares Core Dividend ETF alerts: iShares Core Dividend ETF Price Performance Shares of BATS DIVB opened at $50.23 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.39. The firm has a market cap of $924.14 million, a PE ratio of 17.52 and a beta of 0.94. iShares Core Dividend ETF has a 1 year low of $41.80 and a 1 year high of $51.55. iShares Core Dividend ETF Profile The iShares U.S. Dividend and Buyback ETF (DIVB) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the Morningstar US Dividend and Buyback index. The fund tracks an index of all-cap US stocks that have a history of dividend payments and\u002For share buybacks. DIVB was launched on Nov 7, 2017 and is managed by BlackRock. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding DIVB? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares Core Dividend ETF (BATS:DIVB Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares Core Dividend ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares Core Dividend ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Signaturefd LLC decreased its position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG Free Report) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 22,228 shares of the restaurant operators stock after selling 1,018 shares during the period. Signaturefd LLCs holdings in Chipotle Mexican Grill were worth $1,116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Florida Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill during the first quarter valued at approximately $211,000. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in Chipotle Mexican Grill during the first quarter worth approximately $351,000. Prudent Man Advisors LLC raised its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 6.6% during the first quarter. Prudent Man Advisors LLC now owns 15,774 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares during the period. Wilkinson Global Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 0.7% during the first quarter. Wilkinson Global Asset Management LLC now owns 582,527 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $29,249,000 after purchasing an additional 3,925 shares during the period. Finally, Marks Group Wealth Management Inc raised its stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill by 3.5% during the first quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 108,814 shares of the restaurant operators stock worth $5,464,000 after purchasing an additional 3,728 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.31% of the companys stock. Get Chipotle Mexican Grill alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of research firms have weighed in on CMG. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $65.00 to $60.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Stephens reaffirmed an equal weight rating and set a $49.00 price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research note on Monday, June 9th. Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from $65.00 to $63.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic began coverage on shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. They set a neutral rating and a $55.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Argus downgraded shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $61.28. Chipotle Mexican Grill Trading Down 1.5% CMG opened at $53.99 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $53.03. The firm has a market cap of $72.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.78, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.08. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.46 and a twelve month high of $66.74. Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The restaurant operator reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.98 billion. Chipotle Mexican Grill had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 43.29%. The firms revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $13.37 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Insiders Place Their Bets In other Chipotle Mexican Grill news, insider Roger E. Theodoredis sold 113,875 shares of the firms stock in a transaction on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.70, for a total transaction of $5,659,587.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 109,815 shares of the companys stock, valued at $5,457,805.50. This trade represents a 50.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.02% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. Chipotle Mexican Grill Profile (Free Report) Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, owns and operates Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants. It sells food and beverages through offering burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads. The company also provides delivery and related services its app and website. It has operations in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding CMG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Chipotle Mexican Grill Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Chipotle Mexican Grill and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Stephens Inc. AR decreased its stake in shares of Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI Free Report) by 1.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,924 shares of the communications equipment providers stock after selling 69 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. ARs holdings in Motorola Solutions were worth $2,156,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 935 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $409,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 4th quarter worth approximately $518,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 228.9% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 8,367 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $3,663,000 after buying an additional 5,823 shares during the period. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Motorola Solutions by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Perennial Investment Advisors LLC now owns 828 shares of the communications equipment providers stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Motorola Solutions during the 1st quarter worth approximately $874,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.17% of the companys stock. Get Motorola Solutions alerts: Motorola Solutions Price Performance MSI opened at $408.86 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 1.20 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $68.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.95. The firms fifty day moving average price is $416.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $431.37. Motorola Solutions, Inc. has a 1 year low of $385.17 and a 1 year high of $507.82. Motorola Solutions Announces Dividend Motorola Solutions ( NYSE:MSI Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The communications equipment provider reported $3.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.01 by $0.17. The firm had revenue of $2.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.52 billion. Motorola Solutions had a net margin of 18.67% and a return on equity of 160.93%. The businesss revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.81 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Motorola Solutions, Inc. will post 13.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $1.09 per share. This represents a $4.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. Motorola Solutionss dividend payout ratio is 36.39%. Analysts Set New Price Targets MSI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Motorola Solutions from $570.00 to $515.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Monday, July 7th. They issued a peer perform rating for the company. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Motorola Solutions from $527.00 to $511.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 5th. William Blair reissued an outperform rating on shares of Motorola Solutions in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Motorola Solutions from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $513.25. Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Motorola Solutions Insider Transactions at Motorola Solutions In other Motorola Solutions news, CAO Katherine A. Maher sold 1,073 shares of Motorola Solutions stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $418.68, for a total transaction of $449,243.64. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 804 shares of the companys stock, valued at $336,618.72. The trade was a 57.17% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Motorola Solutions Company Profile (Free Report) Motorola Solutions, Inc provides public safety and enterprise security solutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Products and Systems Integration, and Software and Services. The Products and Systems Integration segment offers a portfolio of infrastructure, devices, accessories, and video security devices and infrastructure, as well as the implementation and integration of systems, devices, software, and applications for government, public safety, and commercial customers who operate private communications networks and video security solutions, as well as manage a mobile workforce. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding MSI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Motorola Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MSI Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Motorola Solutions Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Motorola Solutions and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Summit X LLC lifted its stake in shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE Free Report) by 86.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,542 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock after acquiring an additional 12,786 shares during the quarter. Summit X LLCs holdings in Pfizer were worth $698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Pfizer by 13.5% in the first quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC now owns 20,925 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $530,000 after buying an additional 2,492 shares during the last quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC grew its stake in Pfizer by 7.0% in the first quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 22,847 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $558,000 after purchasing an additional 1,503 shares during the last quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Pfizer by 28.4% in the first quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 23,915 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $606,000 after buying an additional 5,287 shares during the last quarter. DDD Partners LLC acquired a new position in Pfizer in the first quarter valued at approximately $817,000. Finally, Tectonic Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Pfizer by 9.4% in the first quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLC now owns 244,619 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock valued at $6,199,000 after acquiring an additional 20,933 shares during the period. 68.36% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Get Pfizer alerts: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades PFE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research upped their target price on Pfizer from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Pfizer from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Pfizer from $36.00 to $30.00 in a report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group increased their price target on Pfizer from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Berenberg Bank lowered their price target on Pfizer from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Pfizer has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $28.55. Pfizer Price Performance Shares of PFE opened at $24.63 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $140.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.84, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.58. Pfizer Inc. has a 1-year low of $20.92 and a 1-year high of $31.54. The companys fifty day simple moving average is $23.95 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Pfizer (NYSE:PFE Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The biopharmaceutical company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $13.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.43 billion. Pfizer had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 12.62%. The companys revenue for the quarter was down 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.82 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Pfizer Inc. will post 2.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Pfizer Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, July 25th will be issued a $0.43 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 25th. This represents a $1.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.98%. Pfizers payout ratio is 124.64%. Pfizer Company Profile (Free Report) Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands. Recommended Stories Receive News & Ratings for Pfizer Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Pfizer and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Wednesday voiced strong opposition to Japan's hyping of the so-called "China threat" and its interference in China's internal affairs. Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to a media inquiry about Japan's 2025 defense white paper released recently. The white paper continued to refer to China as "the unprecedented biggest strategic threat to Japan," claimed that China had "unilaterally attempted to change the status quo by force," and made irresponsible comments on the Taiwan question. Jiang noted that Japanese militarism caused great suffering to China and its neighboring Asian countries. Unfortunately, instead of reflecting on such wrongdoings, Japan again exhibits a dangerous trend of building up its military by increasing its defense budget, lifting restrictions on weapons exports, and forming military cliques to engage in bloc confrontation. Even more, it has clamored for amending its "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" from time to time. These actions gravely contravene Japan's pacifist constitution and its exclusively defense-oriented policy, severely undermining the post-war international order and posing serious challenges to the peace and tranquility of the Asia-Pacific region, said Jiang. He added that Japan's neighboring countries in Asia, as well as the international community, are alerted and concerned about these actions. Jiang said that this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, as well as the 80th anniversary of the recovery of Taiwan. Taiwan's return to China in 1945 is a victorious outcome of WWII and an integral part of the post-war international order, said Jiang. He urged the Japanese side to reflect on the lessons of history, truly abide by the spirit of the four China-Japan political documents and their commitments regarding the Taiwan question, and advance the healthy and stable development of China-Japan relations with concrete measures. Summit X LLC lowered its stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:HDV Free Report) by 6.2% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,270 shares of the exchange traded funds stock after selling 1,280 shares during the quarter. Summit X LLCs holdings in iShares Core High Dividend ETF were worth $2,331,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of HDV. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of iShares Core High Dividend ETF by 344.1% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 262 shares of the exchange traded funds stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. EQ Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF during the 1st quarter worth approximately $40,000. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new stake in iShares Core High Dividend ETF during the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in iShares Core High Dividend ETF by 41.1% during the 1st quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 419 shares of the exchange traded funds stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Get iShares Core High Dividend ETF alerts: iShares Core High Dividend ETF Stock Down 1.2% iShares Core High Dividend ETF stock opened at $118.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $11.07 billion, a PE ratio of 18.55 and a beta of 0.81. iShares Core High Dividend ETF has a 52-week low of $106.01 and a 52-week high of $122.50. The companys 50 day moving average is $116.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $116.05. iShares Core High Dividend ETF Company Profile The iShares Core High Dividend ETF (HDV) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the Morningstar Dividend Yield Focus index. The fund tracks a dividend-weighted index of 75 high-yielding US equities, screened for high earnings potential and dividend sustainability. HDV was launched on Mar 29, 2011 and is managed by BlackRock. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HDV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares Core High Dividend ETF (NYSEARCA:HDV Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares Core High Dividend ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares Core High Dividend ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Summit X LLC reduced its position in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV Free Report) by 4.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 49,205 shares of the companys stock after selling 2,340 shares during the quarter. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF makes up about 5.8% of Summit X LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Summit X LLCs holdings in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF were worth $27,649,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Mechanics Financial Corp boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 8.7% during the first quarter. Mechanics Financial Corp now owns 13,349 shares of the companys stock worth $7,501,000 after acquiring an additional 1,071 shares in the last quarter. Seaside Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 3.9% during the first quarter. Seaside Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,506 shares of the companys stock worth $846,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 15.2% during the first quarter. Cable Hill Partners LLC now owns 2,079 shares of the companys stock worth $1,160,000 after acquiring an additional 275 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 10.8% during the first quarter. Guardian Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 593 shares of the companys stock worth $333,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parcion Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in iShares Core S&P 500 ETF by 41.6% during the first quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,306 shares of the companys stock worth $1,296,000 after acquiring an additional 677 shares in the last quarter. 70.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors. Get iShares Core S&P 500 ETF alerts: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Trading Down 0.4% IVV opened at $624.99 on Wednesday. The companys fifty day moving average price is $602.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $584.99. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has a 1-year low of $484.00 and a 1-year high of $630.86. The company has a market cap of $629.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.10 and a beta of 1.00. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Profile iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (the Fund) is an exchange-traded fund. The Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance of the Standard & Poors 500 Index (the Index). The Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization sector of the United States equity market. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding IVV? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:IVV Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for iShares Core S&P 500 ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for iShares Core S&P 500 ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Tectonic Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM Free Report) (TSE:AEM) by 54.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,235 shares of the mining companys stock after selling 12,405 shares during the quarter. Tectonic Advisors LLCs holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines were worth $1,110,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Violich Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Violich Capital Management Inc. now owns 36,327 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $3,938,000 after buying an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 1,033.2% in the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 2,221 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $241,000 after buying an additional 2,025 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 3.9% in the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 13,441,198 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $1,457,160,000 after buying an additional 499,362 shares during the period. Dakota Wealth Management purchased a new stake in Agnico Eagle Mines in the 1st quarter valued at about $451,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 147.2% in the 1st quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 3,735 shares of the mining companys stock valued at $405,000 after buying an additional 2,224 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 68.34% of the companys stock. Get Agnico Eagle Mines alerts: Agnico Eagle Mines Stock Performance Shares of AEM opened at $119.12 on Wednesday. The businesss 50 day moving average is $117.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.31. Agnico Eagle Mines Limited has a 52-week low of $69.72 and a 52-week high of $126.76. The firm has a market cap of $59.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.34, a PEG ratio of 0.89 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 2.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Agnico Eagle Mines Dividend Announcement Agnico Eagle Mines ( NYSE:AEM Get Free Report ) (TSE:AEM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The mining company reported $1.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.39 by $0.14. Agnico Eagle Mines had a return on equity of 12.09% and a net margin of 26.48%. The company had revenue of $2.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. Agnico Eagle Miness quarterly revenue was up 34.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Agnico Eagle Mines Limited will post 4.63 EPS for the current fiscal year. The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 2nd were given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 30th. Agnico Eagle Miness payout ratio is 34.04%. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In Several analysts have commented on AEM shares. Stifel Canada upgraded Agnico Eagle Mines to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Agnico Eagle Mines in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. They issued an outperform rating and a $181.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James Financial raised Agnico Eagle Mines to a moderate buy rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 30th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an outperform rating on shares of Agnico Eagle Mines in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on Agnico Eagle Mines from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the companys stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $136.90. Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on AEM Agnico Eagle Mines Company Profile (Free Report) Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a gold mining company, exploration, development, and production of precious metals. It explores for gold. The company's mines are located in Canada, Australia, Finland and Mexico, with exploration and development activities in Canada, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AEM? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM Free Report) (TSE:AEM). Receive News & Ratings for Agnico Eagle Mines Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Agnico Eagle Mines and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK Free Report) by 10.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,727 shares of the banks stock after selling 573 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLCs holdings in Bank of New York Mellon were worth $396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its holdings in Bank of New York Mellon by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 81,799 shares of the banks stock valued at $6,860,000 after purchasing an additional 5,887 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of New York Mellon by 27.1% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 10,253 shares of the banks stock valued at $860,000 after purchasing an additional 2,186 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Bank of New York Mellon by 12.7% during the 1st quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,079 shares of the banks stock valued at $258,000 after purchasing an additional 346 shares in the last quarter. Dakota Wealth Management grew its holdings in Bank of New York Mellon by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 191,685 shares of the banks stock valued at $16,077,000 after purchasing an additional 17,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd grew its holdings in Bank of New York Mellon by 44.2% during the 1st quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 4,186 shares of the banks stock valued at $351,000 after purchasing an additional 1,284 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.31% of the companys stock. Get Bank of New York Mellon alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $94.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Bank of New York Mellon from $82.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded shares of Bank of New York Mellon from a buy rating to a hold rating and increased their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $97.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the companys stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $92.08. Insider Activity In related news, EVP J Kevin Mccarthy sold 30,000 shares of Bank of New York Mellon stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $79.03, for a total value of $2,370,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 55,115 shares in the company, valued at $4,355,738.45. This trade represents a 35.25% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.14% of the companys stock. Bank of New York Mellon Trading Down 0.2% Bank of New York Mellon stock opened at $95.02 on Wednesday. The firms 50-day moving average is $90.10 and its 200-day moving average is $84.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a current ratio of 0.69. The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation has a 1 year low of $60.93 and a 1 year high of $96.47. The company has a market cap of $67.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.48, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.07. Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 15th. The bank reported $1.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $1.73 by $0.20. Bank of New York Mellon had a net margin of 11.78% and a return on equity of 12.96%. The company had revenue of $4.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.80 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.51 EPS. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 9.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation will post 6.96 earnings per share for the current year. Bank of New York Mellon Increases Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 25th will be given a $0.53 dividend. This is an increase from Bank of New York Mellons previous quarterly dividend of $0.47. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Bank of New York Mellons dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 30.62%. Bank of New York Mellon Profile (Free Report) The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation provides a range of financial products and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Securities Services, Market and Wealth Services, Investment and Wealth Management, and other segments. The Securities Services segment offers custody, trust and depositary, accounting, exchange-traded funds, middle-office solutions, transfer agency, services for private equity and real estate funds, foreign exchange, securities lending, liquidity/lending services, and data analytics. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BK? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Bank of New York Mellon Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Bank of New York Mellon and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW Free Report) by 29.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 137,427 shares of the financial services providers stock after purchasing an additional 31,372 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLCs holdings in Charles Schwab were worth $10,758,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SCHW. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 128,578,230 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $9,516,075,000 after buying an additional 1,187,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 30,901,484 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $2,279,742,000 after buying an additional 760,043 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Charles Schwab in the 4th quarter worth $1,289,544,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 13.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 15,739,917 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,164,911,000 after buying an additional 1,864,286 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Charles Schwab by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,842,544 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $1,098,497,000 after buying an additional 430,250 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.38% of the companys stock. Get Charles Schwab alerts: Charles Schwab Stock Down 1.2% NYSE:SCHW opened at $91.63 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $166.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.93. The Charles Schwab Corporation has a one year low of $61.01 and a one year high of $93.35. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $88.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $81.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.53. Charles Schwab Dividend Announcement Charles Schwab ( NYSE:SCHW Get Free Report ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 17th. The financial services provider reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.03. Charles Schwab had a return on equity of 18.31% and a net margin of 31.71%. The company had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that The Charles Schwab Corporation will post 4.22 EPS for the current fiscal year. The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 9th were paid a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 9th. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.18%. Charles Schwabs payout ratio is currently 32.73%. Wall Street Analyst Weigh In SCHW has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Charles Schwab from $92.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Charles Schwab from $80.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup reissued an outperform rating on shares of Charles Schwab in a research report on Monday. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Charles Schwab from $97.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. Finally, TD Securities raised their price objective on Charles Schwab from $95.00 to $113.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $95.60. Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on Charles Schwab Insider Buying and Selling In other Charles Schwab news, General Counsel Peter J. Morgan III sold 10,176 shares of Charles Schwab stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.39, for a total value of $889,280.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nigel J. Murtagh sold 20,872 shares of the businesss stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.01, for a total value of $1,878,688.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 58,999 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $5,310,499.99. This represents a 26.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 119,905 shares of company stock valued at $10,530,833 over the last 90 days. 6.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. About Charles Schwab (Free Report) The Charles Schwab Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a savings and loan holding company that provides wealth management, securities brokerage, banking, asset management, custody, and financial advisory services in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Investor Services and Advisor Services. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SCHW? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Charles Schwab Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Charles Schwab and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Robinhood Markets, Galaxy Digital, Bitdeer Technologies Group, BTCS, and HIVE Digital Technologies are the five Cryptocurrency stocks to watch today, according to MarketBeats stock screener tool. Cryptocurrency stocks are shares of publicly traded companies whose business models are closely tied to digital assets and blockchain technologysuch as cryptocurrency exchanges, mining firms, or firms holding substantial crypto reserves. Unlike buying cryptocurrencies directly, investing in these stocks offers exposure to the broader crypto ecosystem through traditional equity markets, with the potential benefits and risks associated with both corporate performance and the underlying digital-asset market. These companies had the highest dollar trading volume of any Cryptocurrency stocks within the last several days. Get alerts: Robinhood Markets (HOOD) Robinhood Markets, Inc. operates financial services platform in the United States. Its platform allows users to invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), American depository receipts, options, gold, and cryptocurrencies. The company offers fractional trading, recurring investments, fully-paid securities lending, access to investing on margin, cash sweep, instant withdrawals, retirement program, around-the-clock trading, and initial public offerings participation services. Shares of HOOD traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $100.49. The company had a trading volume of 20,143,465 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,383,574. The company has a market capitalization of $88.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.09, a PEG ratio of 5.25 and a beta of 2.36. Robinhood Markets has a 12-month low of $13.98 and a 12-month high of $101.89. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $74.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.96. Read Our Latest Research Report on HOOD Galaxy Digital (GLXY) Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. is a financial services and an investment management company, which engages in the digital asset, cryptocurrency, and block chain technology sectors. It operates through the following segments: Trading, Principal Investment, Asset Management, Investment Banking, Mining, and Corporate & Other. Shares of GLXY traded down $0.82 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.63. The company had a trading volume of 1,667,170 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,936,651. Galaxy Digital has a 1-year low of $6.89 and a 1-year high of $26.60. Read Our Latest Research Report on GLXY Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR) Bitdeer Technologies Group operates as a technology company for blockchain and computing. It offers hash rate sharing solutions, including Cloud hash rate and Hash rate marketplace; and a one-stop mining machine hosting solutions encompassing deployment, maintenance, and management services for efficient cryptocurrency mining; as well as mines cryptocurrencies for its own account. Shares of BTDR traded down $0.47 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $13.04. 2,068,460 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,208,270. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $13.39. The firm has a market cap of $1.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.18 and a beta of 2.22. Bitdeer Technologies Group has a 12-month low of $5.40 and a 12-month high of $26.99. Read Our Latest Research Report on BTDR BTCS (BTCS) BTCS Inc. operates in blockchain technology sector the United States. Its blockchain-infrastructure secures and operates validator nodes on disruptive blockchain networks, as well as validates transactions for crypto holding delegations on dPoS blockchains. The company offers StakeSeeker, a cryptocurrency dashboard and staking-as-a-service platform that allows crypto asset holders to earn rewards by participating in network consensus mechanisms; and Builder+, a Ethereum block builder offered to maximize validator earnings by utilizing algorithms to construct optimized blocks for on-chain validation. Shares of BTCS traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $4.48. 4,792,288 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,344,158. The firm has a market capitalization of $104.40 million, a PE ratio of -2.62 and a beta of 1.15. The businesss 50 day moving average price is $2.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $2.38. BTCS has a 1-year low of $0.95 and a 1-year high of $6.19. Read Our Latest Research Report on BTCS HIVE Digital Technologies (HIVE) HIVE Digital Technologies Ltd. operates as a cryptocurrency mining company in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland. The company engages in the mining and sale of digital currencies, including Ethereum Classic, Bitcoin, and other coins. It also operates data centers; and offers infrastructure solutions. The company was formerly known as HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. HIVE Digital Technologies stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $2.19. The companys stock had a trading volume of 9,308,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,303,867. The company has a market capitalization of $468.26 million, a PE ratio of -6.07 and a beta of 3.40. HIVE Digital Technologies has a 12 month low of $1.26 and a 12 month high of $5.54. The company has a quick ratio of 3.72, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The stocks 50-day moving average price is $1.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.14. Read Our Latest Research Report on HIVE Recommended Stories Truist Financial (NYSE:TFC Get Free Report) and State Street (NYSE:STT Get Free Report) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, dividends, earnings, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and risk. Analyst Ratings This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Truist Financial and State Street, as provided by MarketBeat.com. Get Truist Financial alerts: Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Truist Financial 0 7 12 2 2.76 State Street 1 6 7 0 2.43 Truist Financial presently has a consensus target price of $48.44, suggesting a potential upside of 9.24%. State Street has a consensus target price of $110.75, suggesting a potential upside of 8.52%. Given Truist Financials stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe Truist Financial is more favorable than State Street. Insider and Institutional Ownership Risk and Volatility 71.3% of Truist Financial shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.4% of State Street shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Truist Financial shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of State Street shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term. Truist Financial has a beta of 0.85, indicating that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, State Street has a beta of 1.45, indicating that its share price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500. Profitability This table compares Truist Financial and State Streets net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Truist Financial 15.59% 8.96% 0.99% State Street 12.85% 12.79% 0.84% Dividends Truist Financial pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.7%. State Street pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.0%. Truist Financial pays out 61.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. State Street pays out 34.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. State Street has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Earnings & Valuation This table compares Truist Financial and State Streets top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation. Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Truist Financial $24.25 billion 2.39 $4.82 billion $3.39 13.08 State Street $22.13 billion 1.31 $2.69 billion $8.91 11.45 Truist Financial has higher revenue and earnings than State Street. State Street is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Truist Financial, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. Summary Truist Financial beats State Street on 11 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks. About Truist Financial (Get Free Report) Truist Financial Corporation, a financial services company, provides banking and trust services in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. The company operates through three segments: Consumer Banking and Wealth, Corporate and Commercial Banking, and Insurance Holdings.Its deposit products include noninterest-bearing checking, interest-bearing checking, savings, and money market deposit accounts, as well as certificates of deposit and individual retirement accounts. The company also provides funding; asset management; automobile lending; credit card lending; consumer finance; home equity and mortgage lending; other direct retail lending; insurance; investment brokerage; mobile/online banking; payment solutions; point-of-sale lending; retail and small business deposit products; small business lending; and wealth management/private banking services. In addition, it offers asset based lending, investment banking and capital market, institutional trust, insurance premium finance, derivatives, commercial lending, international banking, leasing, merchant, commercial deposit and treasury, floor plan, mortgage warehouse lending, real estate lending, and supply chain financing services. Further, the company provides insurance brokerage, retail and wholesale brokerage, securities underwriting and market making, loan syndication, and investment management and advisory services. The company was formerly known as BB&T Corporation and changed its name to Truist Financial Corporation in December 2019. Truist Financial Corporation was founded in 1872 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. About State Street (Get Free Report) State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody, accounting, regulatory reporting, investor, and performance and analytics; middle office products, such as IBOR, transaction management, loans, cash, derivatives and collateral, record keeping, and client reporting and investment analytics; finance leasing; foreign exchange, and brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors. It also engages in the provision of portfolio management and risk analytics, as well as trading and post-trade settlement services with integrated compliance and managed data. In addition, the company offers investment management strategies and products, such as core and enhanced indexing, multi-asset strategies, active quantitative and fundamental active capabilities, and alternative investment strategies. Further, it provides services and solutions, including environmental, social, and governance investing; defined benefit and defined contribution; and global fiduciary solutions, as well as exchange-traded funds under the SPDR ETF brand. The company provides its products and services to mutual funds, collective investment funds, UCITS, hedge funds and other investment pools, corporate and public retirement plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and investment managers. State Street Corporation was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Receive News & Ratings for Truist Financial Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Truist Financial and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Welch & Forbes LLC decreased its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Free Report) by 0.8% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 297,886 shares of the financial services providers stock after selling 2,255 shares during the quarter. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. makes up 1.3% of Welch & Forbes LLCs portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Welch & Forbes LLCs holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. were worth $102,842,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. HWG Holdings LP acquired a new stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. MRP Capital Investments LLC bought a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 81.7% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 109 shares of the financial services providers stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Centennial Bank AR bought a new position in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. during the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. by 205.4% during the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 113 shares of the financial services providers stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 85.53% of the companys stock. Get Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. alerts: Insider Buying and Selling at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. In other news, insider Susan E. Pietrucha sold 13,500 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.13, for a total transaction of $4,645,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 11,941 shares in the company, valued at $4,109,256.33. This trade represents a 53.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Scott R. Hudson sold 10,500 shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $337.17, for a total transaction of $3,540,285.00. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 91,175 shares of the companys stock, valued at $30,741,474.75. This represents a 10.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 25,000 shares of company stock valued at $8,528,080. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the companys stock. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $372.00 to $371.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 9th. Barclays reduced their target price on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $346.00 to $327.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $326.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. from $266.00 to $265.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. They set a neutral rating and a $352.00 target price on the stock. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $318.21. Read Our Latest Analysis on AJG Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Stock Performance NYSE AJG opened at $308.07 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.58 and a beta of 0.71. The firms 50 day simple moving average is $326.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $321.04. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has a 1 year low of $267.00 and a 1 year high of $351.23. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The financial services provider reported $3.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $3.57 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $3.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.85 billion. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. had a net margin of 14.39% and a return on equity of 14.83%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s revenue was up 14.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.45 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. will post 11.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Dividend Announcement The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 6th. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.63%. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Profile (Free Report) Arthur J. Gallagher & Co engages in the provision of insurance brokerage, reinsurance brokerage, consulting, and third-party claims settlement and administration services. It operates through the following segments: Brokerage, Risk Management, and Corporate. The Brokerage segment consists of retail and wholesale insurance brokerage operations. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding AJG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Yara International ASA (OTCMKTS:YARIY Get Free Report) is expected to issue its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 17th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $0.50 per share and revenue of $41.02 billion for the quarter. Yara International ASA Stock Performance Shares of OTCMKTS YARIY opened at $18.65 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.90. The firm has a market cap of $9.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.72 and a beta of 0.93. The businesss 50-day simple moving average is $18.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.02. Yara International ASA has a 52 week low of $12.98 and a 52 week high of $20.31. Get Yara International ASA alerts: Yara International ASA Cuts Dividend The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.1846 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 2nd. Yara International ASAs dividend payout ratio is 29.82%. Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of research analysts have recently commented on YARIY shares. Kepler Capital Markets raised Yara International ASA from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, June 11th. BNP Paribas raised Yara International ASA to a strong-buy rating in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. Get Our Latest Stock Analysis on YARIY Yara International ASA Company Profile (Get Free Report) Yara International ASA provides crop nutrition and industrial solutions in Norway, European Union, Europe, Africa, Asia, North and Latin America, Australia, and New Zealand. The company offers ammonium- and urea-based fertilizers; compound fertilizers that contain nutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium; coatings; biostimulants; organic-based fertilizers; green fertilizers are nitrate-based mineral fertilizers, as well as foliar and fertigation solutions; and nitrate, calcium nitrate, micronutrient, and fertigation and urea fertilizers. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for Yara International ASA Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Yara International ASA and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Ever tried rainbow trout from the "roof of the world"? With pristine lakes, cool temps, and top-notch breeding tech, Qinghai leads China in exports - its rich plateau flavor now winning praise from diners around the globe. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in Tianjin, north China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua) TIANJIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to support Iran in safeguarding its national sovereignty and dignity, resisting power politics and bullying, defending its legitimate rights and interests through political negotiation, and adhering to the principle of good-neighborliness and friendship to continuously improve and develop relations with its neighboring countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks in north China's Tianjin during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi, who is in China for the meeting of the council of the ministers of foreign affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states. As a comprehensive strategic partner, China is willing to work with Iran to deepen mutual trust, strengthen cooperation, expand exchanges, and promote the steady and long-term development of China-Iran relations, Wang said. Araghchi thanked China for its invaluable support for Iran while also expressing support for China's role as the rotating president of the SCO and its preparations for the Tianjin Summit. Iran is willing to enhance high-level exchanges between the two countries, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and continue to firmly support each other, he said. The two sides also exchanged their views on the Iranian nuclear issue. Araghchi reaffirmed that Iran has absolutely no intention to develop nuclear weapons but will not give up its legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is willing to resume negotiations and consultations with all parties as soon as possible on the premise of equality and respect, to seek a political solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. Wang said that China has always opposed the use of force or the threat of force and advocates resolving differences through dialogue and consultation. China highly values Iran's commitment not to developing nuclear weapons, respects Iran's right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy, and appreciates Iran's pursuit of peace through diplomatic means. China supports Iran in maintaining the momentum of dialogue with all parties, and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in promoting the settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue and stability in the Middle East region, he noted. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Wu Yingjie, a former member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was sentenced on Wednesday to death with a two-year reprieve for accepting bribes. Wu, also former head of the Committee on Culture, Historical Data and Studies of the CPPCC National Committee, was deprived of his political rights for life, all of his personal property will be confiscated, and his illegal gains from bribery will be recovered and turned over to the national treasury, according to the verdict of the Beijing No. 3 Intermediate People's Court. The court found that between June 2006 and February 2021, Wu took advantage of his various positions in southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region to benefit others in matters related to project contracts and business operation, accepting money and valuables worth 343 million yuan (about 48 million U.S. dollars) in return. The court determined that Wu's offenses had caused particularly serious losses to the interests of the state and the people. However, he received a lenient sentence due to mitigating factors, including his reporting of others' suspected illegal and criminal activities, which were later verified, as well as his confession and remorse, and proactive return of his illicit gains. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te's so-called "10 lectures on unity" are a patchwork of fallacious "Taiwan independence" rhetoric full of lies, a mainland spokesperson said on Wednesday. Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a question on whether Lai's lectures have crossed the red line and how the mainland intends to respond. Chen pointed out that Lai's "lectures" are filled with lies and deception, hostility and provocation, adding that they have deliberately distorted history in an attempt to incite cross-Strait confrontation. The "lectures" "fully prove that Lai is a thorough destroyer of peace and an out-and-out warmonger," he said. The root cause of the current tension and turbulence in the Taiwan Strait is that the Democratic Progressive Party authorities and Lai stubbornly adhere to "Taiwan independence" and continuously make separatist provocations, Chen said. "Any force or move to split the motherland will be met with a resolute blow from all the Chinese people," he warned. Jackson Pachar, a 2024 graduate of Bridge City High School and an incoming Sophomore at Baylor University, is one of the youngest nonprofit founders in the area at the age of 19. He filed with the state in January to start the 5 Day Play Project as a nonprofit entity in Texas. He will be getting 501(c)(3) designation with the Internal Revenue service soon. His parents, Kelli and Daniel Pachar are the other official members of the board of directors. The mission of the nonprofit is to provide free summer intensive workshops that last five days with a performance of the play at the end. "I know that there's a lot of kids that can't attend camps in the summer because of financial strain," said Pachar. "I wanted to do a summer camp for kids where they didn't have to worry about paying for it so that everyone could have the opportunity to do shows in the summer." Saturday night he debuted his first production by 5 Day Play Project at Bridge City High school with, "This Girl Laughs This Girl Cries This Girl Does Nothing. It was a flawless production and a great introduction to Pachar's vision. Pachar started Baylor University in 2024 as a nursing major, but he quickly decided it was not the route his heart wanted to go. "I wasn't really enjoying myself," said Pachar. "I just wanted to try something different and it didn't end up working out, so I just decided I would change my major to theater and I'm a lot happier now." He's luckier than most. It only took him one semester to realize he was not on the right path, so he changed it. The young director has been involved in theater most of his life. "I was in like second grade I started doing stuff at Beaumont Community Players," he said. BCP recently changed their name to Southeast Texas Stages. They have held their summer camp program called Kidmunity for years. He wanted everyone to have the same opportunities, even if they don't have the funds. "It's something that I don't need to get paid for because I'm doing what I love. I don't think that anyone should be making a profit off it and I just think that kids should have the opportunity to do what they love without having to worry about paying for it." The program isn't for younger kids. The five-day project is too intensive and requires experienced performers to pull it off with success. It's geared toward high school students. "I work best with older kids," said Pachar. "I think that my teaching and directing style is more geared towards older kids and helping them grow." Students had to audition to be part of the program. Pachar cast the production several months ago. Students received their scripts and had to be "off book" at the start of the five days. "It took us the whole first day to block it," he said. The tech crew started working on lighting cues and such on the first day and worked in unison with the play practices to get everything down. The level of production quality achieved in five days was remarkable. Pachar did the costumes and had most of them ready to go at the start of the week. The entire production was done with a modest budget of $1,500 received from donors. It was $500 to get the rights to the show for one performance. Costuming was around $350, programs $300, posters $100, large frames $300. They sold a little over $1,000 in tickets. Pachar will donate 40% of the profits to the school's theater department, the rest will go into the nonprofit for the next production. Bridge City High School will aways be included in the program, but Pachar does plan to include other schools in the future. He hopes to hold two 5 Day Plays next year. "We have a few comedies that we're reading for Bridge City next year so we're trying to get that rolling," He said. Pachar is looking at plays that are 50 minutes in length, or ones that the publishers would allow you to cut to 50 minutes. Pachar said that length works best to be achieved successfully in the five-day format. In this next year Pachar will be looking to add members to his board, mostly college students. Once he gets his letter of determination from the Internal Revenue Service he will begin seeking grants for future workshops. His goal is to one day have a full month of 5 Day Play Projects. If you want to check out his acting, he is cast as Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde which opens Friday at Stages of Southeast Texas in Beaumont. Nursing school's loss is theater's gain. Orange County officials will likely never know where the huge jump in sales tax payments came from, but they are welcoming an extra $4 million in income for the year. Orange County Judge John Gothia said he and others from the county have tried through the Texas Comptrollers Office to find out the business or industry, or perhaps multiple businesses, that paid the increases. He said they were told the source, or sources, were proprietary information and not public, even to the head of county government. The comptrollers office collects all sales taxes in the state and reimburses the cities, counties, and special districts their shares. Orange Countys July payment covered sales in May and was $1.05 million, up 20.56 percent from the $874,000 paid for May 2024. For the first seven months of this year, the county has now received $9.1 million in sales taxes, up nearly 81 percent, or $4 million, from the $5.03 million received for the same period last year. The county has a 0.5 percent sales tax, or a half-penny per dollar tax. Gothia said earlier this year, the comptrollers office told county officials the big increase in payments were coming from adjustments, but did not disclose what kind of adjustments. Sometimes an adjustment can be because a business or industry did not pay the state the sales taxes when they were due. Another adjustment might be made because of an accounting mistake. Sales tax money the county receives goes into the countys general fund used to pay for most county services and buildings maintenance. Commissioners Court will have the extra money to calculate for the 2025-26 budget year, which will start October 1. For the largest cities in the county, West Orange saw the biggest jump in sales tax collections. All the cities have a 1.5 percent sales tax, or 1.5 pennies per dollar. West Orange for the month of May received $166,841 in sales taxes, up 11 percent from $150,245 in May 2024. The city is up nearly 22 percent for the year to date with $1.13 million compared to $931,722 for the same time last year. Bridge City was up 3.25 percent for May this year and May last year with $183,555 to $177,771. However, the city is down for the year to date with $1.34 million this year compared to $1.43 million last year, a drop of 6.23 percent. Oranges sales tax payment for May was $567,614, down 2.66 percent from $583,150 last year. The city is up nearly 3 percent for the year to date with $4.36 million to $4.23 million in 2024. Pinehurst is up for the month and the year to date. The city collected $57,575 for May, up 4.14 percent from $55,286 last year. The city is up nearly 2 percent for the year to date with $427,610 compared to $420,580. Vidor was down for the month but still has a healthy year to date increase. The city collected $309,300 for May, a drop of 8.62 percent from May 2024. The city now has collected $2.41 million for the year to date, up nearly 10 percent from $931,722 last year. Orange County Emergency Services District 3, or Little Cypress Fire and Rescue, is the only special district in the county with a sales tax with a rate of 1.5 percent per dollar. The department Received $30,073 for May and is now $218,288 for the year to date. A system of thunderstorms over Florida will go into the Gulf on Wednesday night and move toward the upper Gulf Coast. The National Weather Service Lake Charles office said the main thing Southeast Texans can expect is rain from Thursday through Saturday. People should prepare for the system to develop into Tropical Storm Dexter and possibly even a hurricane. Definitely pay attention through the weekend, meteorologist Donald Jones said in a special social media broadcast Tuesday afternoon. He said even if the system develops into a tropical storm or hurricane, the storm is not expected to be a major wind event. The major problem would be rainfall. On Tuesday afternoon, the outlook had Southeast Texas getting two to six inches of rain during the three-day span, but bands of rain could bring heavy downfalls in some areas leading to as much as 15 inches during the three-day period. Tuesday afternoon the system was bringing rain to the Florida peninsula and was forecast to travel westward into the eastern Gulf. Jones said the system Tuesday had a 40 percent chance of developing into a tropical storm. A tropical storm has sustained winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour. A Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 74 to 95 mph. Jones, though, pointed out that flooding from storms cause more deaths than the tropical winds. The July 4 floods through the Texas Hill Country that killed more than 100 people and left more than 100 missing was caused by a rain system from a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean that traveled through Mexico. Jones said because rain will cause the problems from this system, its not as important to predict where the possible eyewall of the storm will come ashore. The system is expected to bring rain along the upper Gulf Coast including Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Once the low system of thunderstorms moves into the Gulf, the warm water temperatures in the upper 80s to 90 degrees is conducive to further development. As of Tuesday afternoon, the heaviest rainfall was expected in central to southeast Louisiana, but it could move further westward, which could make the heavier rains move toward Orange County. Jones said people should pay attention to their surroundings because rain could be much heavier in some places. Flash flood warnings could be issued. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, meets with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov in Tianjin, north China, July 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Ran) TIANJIN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Uzbekistan's Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov in Tianjin on Wednesday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said that the two heads of state held a cordial, friendly meeting during the second China-Central Asia Summit and made strategic plans for the development of China-Uzbekistan relations. China is willing to work with Uzbekistan to fully implement the consensus reached between their leaders, make good preparations for the next stage of high-level exchange, and promote the development of bilateral relations to a higher quality and higher level, Wang said. China is a trustworthy and reliable partner for Uzbekistan, and has always regarded Uzbekistan as one of the priorities in its neighborhood diplomacy, Wang said, adding that China supports Uzbekistan in safeguarding its national independence, sovereignty, security and development interests. Wang said the two sides should accelerate cooperation in key areas, promote the early operation of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, and make more achievements in bilateral cooperation. China looks forward to working with Uzbekistan and other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to ensure the complete success of the SCO Tianjin summit and inject stronger impetus into the development of the organization, he said. Saidov expressed his deep admiration for the historic accomplishments of China's development, as well as his willingness to learn from China's development experience. He said that the two heads of state have elevated bilateral relations to an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for a new era, with fruitful practical cooperation seen in various fields. Uzbekistan is willing to expand cooperation with China in such areas as logistics, minerals, artificial intelligence, the green transformation and desertification control, Saidov said, adding that it is also ready to communicate and coordinate closely with China on regional and international affairs, safeguard the common interests of both sides, and push bilateral relations to a new level. The recent Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SCO Member States achieved positive results, Saidov said, noting that Uzbekistan will, as always, fully support and assist China in its successful hosting of the Tianjin summit. Thirty-four Indian fishermen were detained by the Bangladesh Navy in the Bay of Bengal near the Sundarbans for allegedly crossing into Bangladeshs territorial waters, Indian officials said on Monday. The fishermen, who had set out from Kakdwip in West Bengals South 24-Parganas district, were aboard two trawlers FB Jhor and FB Mangalchandi 38 when they were apprehended near the Mongla port in Bangladesh late Sunday night. According to a statement from the Bangladesh Navy, the Indian fishing trawlers crossed the international maritime boundary in the dark and were intercepted during a routine patrol. The detained fishermen and their vessels have been taken to Mangla port, and legal proceedings have been initiated by Bangladeshs department of fisheries and inland water transport. News of the detention has triggered anxiety among families of the fishermen in Kakdwip and Namkhana. We received a call from Bangladesh informing us that theyve been taken to the police station. They said they are safe, but we are worried until they return home, said a family member of one of the detained fishermen. West Bengals department of fisheries has taken up the matter with urgency. Officials said the Indian High Commission in Dhaka is in touch with Bangladeshi authorities to secure the early release of the fishermen. The incident has also raised concerns about the reliability of GPS systems used on Indian trawlers, with questions being raised over navigation protocols during deep-sea fishing trips. Advertisement This is not the first time such an incident has occurred, said Satinath Patra, a leader of the Sundarban Marine Fishermens Union. In the past, Indian and Bangladeshi trawlers have inadvertently entered each others waters. But this time, Bangladesh is treating it more seriously. We need to enhance awareness and safety measures. Repeated border violations in the maritime region have sparked growing concern among authorities, prompting calls for increased vigilance and better navigational infrastructure to prevent future incidents. Advertisement The heart of Krishnagar turned into a battlefield on Tuesday afternoon as hundreds of DYFI and SFI activists stormed the streets, demanding justice for nine-year-old Tamanna Khatun, who was killed in the recent Kaliganj bomb blast. What began as a protest march to the SPs office quickly escalated into a fierce and bloody confrontation with police, leaving at least eight activists and two policemen injured. Advertisement With slogans of defiance and red flags fluttering in the wind, the CPI-Ms youth and student brigades, led by DYFI state secretary Dhrubajyoti Saha, marched towards the office of the Superintendent of Police, determined to break the police cordon and register their fury against the administrations calculated inaction. Advertisement The police, well aware of the brewing storm, had turned the approach to the SP office into a virtual fortress, raising a 15-foot-high barricade of iron rods and wooden logs backed by three layers of security and nearly 500 armed personnel. But the defiant protesters, numbering in hundreds, were not to be stopped easily. Breaking through the first barricade with sheer force, the protesters clashed with the police in front of the second barricade, leading to violent skirmishes. With fists, flags, and bare hands, the agitators pushed against the steel wall of police shields, refusing to retreat. The police responded with a heavy lathi-charge, raining blows on the protesters to prevent the march from advancing further. The air filled with screams, slogans, and the chaos of confrontation. Several activists, including women, were left bleeding and battered on the streets, even as some police personnel sustained injuries amid the melee. Speaking amidst the din, Dhrubajyoti Saha said: Tamanna was murdered by Trinamul-backed criminals who hurled socket bombs during their victory procession even before the Kaliganj bypoll results were announced. The police know the accused; they have a list of 24 names in the FIR. Yet they have done nothing. Taking direct aim at the Mamata Banerjee governments police machinery, he said, In Birbhum, Anubrata Mondal used slurs against police and walked free. In Kasba gangrape, police did nothing. In R G Kar hospital, police failed again. Why should we keep faith in such a police force? We will confront the SP right on the streets. The activists also demanded an immediate crackdown on illegal arms and explosives allegedly stockpiled in Mulandi village and other parts of the district. The police, tight-lipped about the allegations of inaction, maintained that the protest turned violent and had to be contained to preserve public order. But the ugly scenes of bloodied activists, trampled flags, and scattered shoes told a story of deepening unrest in the district a grim reminder that the echoes of Tamannas tragic death are far from silenced. On the occasion of World Environment Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign, a unique initiative combining environmental responsibility with a heartfelt tribute to mothers. This campaign was inaugurated on 5 June, with the planting of a peepal tree by the Prime Minister at Buddha Jayanti Park in Delhi. The state government, concerned about the environment, is observing Aranya Saptaha (forest week) as an annual event from 14-20 July with the main objective of promoting environmental awareness and tree plantation. Advertisement Its a week-long initiative where various organisations, including the forest department, NGOs, and educational institutions, actively participate in tree plantation drives. Advertisement The primary goal is to encourage environmental sustainability by increasing green cover and promoting the importance of trees. The week features tree planting events, distribution of saplings, seminars, workshops, and rallies to educate the public about the benefits of trees and the environment. Aranya Saptaha actively engages communities, including schools, colleges, and local residents, in tree planting and other environmental initiatives. On the occasion, the Balagarh panchayat samiti sabhapati, khaddo karmadhyak handed over tree saplings in large numbers to the volunteers of National Service Scheme. The principal of the college said, the National Service Scheme volunteers of the college are observing both the central government and state government campaigns towards afforestation for a cleaner and healthy environment. Students were given the responsibility to plant saplings in the locality and neighbourhood. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the chairperson of the Trinamul Congress and the partys national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee will take part in a rally tomorrow to protest against the harassment of Bengali- speaking people by various state governments. The rally will start from College Square and end at Dorina crossing via College Street, Nirmal Chandra Street, SN Banerjee Road to reach Dorina crossing. A senior police officer said the procession may turn right from Nirmal Chandra Street to reach the destination via Ganesh Chandra Avenue and Chittaranjan Avenue. Advertisement Two party MPs from the city Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Mala Roy and 14 MLAs will take part in the rally. Ministers including Firhad Hakim Aroop Biswas, Sujit Bose, Javed Khan, Bratya Basu and Chandrima Bhattacharya will take part in the procession. Advertisement The party leadership posted on the partys X handle: Bangla Birodi @BJP4India first tried to choke Bengal by freezing Central funds. When they failed, they shifted gears, resorting to the persecution of Bengali speaking workers in BJP ruled states. Party leaders, including Mohua Moitra, Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Dr Shashi Panja and Kunal Ghosh have come down heavily on the Centre after the workers who had valid identity cards were detained and even pushed back to Bangladesh. Trinamul leaders, including Dola Sen, Sagarika Ghosh along with some workers staged at dharna at Jamunanagar after the electricity and water supply lines in their houses were disconnected. The Trinamul Congress wrote further: So @BJP4India would now have made us believe that Aadhaar cards are being issued by the state governments and not by the UIDAI, a statutory authority under the jurisdiction of @ GOI_MeitY headed by half minister @AshwiniVaishnaw? Unprecedented police arrangements have been made for tomorrows rally. Senior police officers headed by the commissioner of police Manoj Kumar Verma visited Dorina Crossing and held meeting regarding tomorrows security arrangements. As the procession will pass through congested residential and business areas, there will be plainclothes policemen on the pavement. Meanwhile, the construction of the makeshift stage for the 21 July Martyrs Day observation of the Trinamul Congress began today. Senior police officers and Trinamul Congress leaders will oversee the construction. The party expects record number attendees at the meeting where Miss Banerjee will be the chief speaker. This is the last 21 July meeting before the Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in 2026. V Solomon Nesakumar, additional commissioner of police, urged two-wheeler riders to drive carefully and observe traffic rules. He was addressing a gathering to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the Riders Community of Howrah at the Iran Society hall on Sunday evening. Advertisement Mr Nesakumar, who was the deputy commissioner of city police and an avid two-wheeler rider, said it was unfortunate that many young riders do not obey traffic rules and often ride without helmets. Ride carefully and obey traffic rules always remember that your family members, well wishers and friends are waiting for you. So, do not invite accidents by driving at high speed particularly during monsoon, he said. Advertisement Long distance biking has become a major sport now with both men and women riders taking part. A lady rider narrated how she had reached Gurudamber Lake in Sikkim on a 200 cc motorcycle. The road was slippery and I fell down from my motorcycle. But I did not give up and was able to reach the destination situated at more than 14,000 feet, she said. There was a cultural programme to celebrate the occasion. The bikers driving heavy motorcycles exchanged their experiences and how they had overcome all odds during their trips. The NCERTs newly released Class 8 Social Science textbook, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, views the medieval period through a sharper, more critical lens focusing on religious intolerance, political violence, and cultural contributions during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire. Unlike earlier editions, the textbook offers a strikingly different portrayal of Mughal emperors. Akbar is described as a ruler whose reign was a blend of brutality and tolerance. At the same time, Aurangzeb is portrayed as a military leader who banned un-Islamic practices, reimposed the jiziya tax, and demolished temples and gurdwaras. The tax is described as a source of public humiliation that may have encouraged forced conversions. Advertisement The book traces the rise of the Mughal Empire, beginning with Baburdescribed as a Turkic Mongol ruler and military strategistwho defeated Ibrahim Lodi at Panipat in 1526 using gunpowder and field artillery, effectively ending the Delhi Sultanate. Advertisement A dedicated section titled Note on Some Darker Periods in History explains the rationale behind this framing. A cautionary note reminds students not to hold present-day communities responsible for historical events. The textbook also includes a preface explaining why such difficult episodes have been retained. These changes align with the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023. Previously taught in Class 7, this historical content has now been shifted to Class 8, where history, political science, and geography have been merged into a single integrated textbook. While the revisions have drawn both support and criticism, the NCERT stands with the fact that the aim is to provide students with an honest, evidence-based understanding of Indias complex past and to present history most transparently and truthfully possible. US President Donald Trump on Saturday issued 30 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico and the European Union (EU), to renegotiate trade terms before the August 1 deadline. The European Union will allow complete, open Market Access to the United States, Trump said in its letter posted on Truth Social, or whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added on the 30 per cent that we charge. Advertisement The 27-country EU bloc is under pressures as Germany urged a quick deal to safeguard its industry. Advertisement In his letter to Mexico, Trump said the country has been helping me secure the border, but added that it wasnt enough. Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground. Obviously I cannot let that happen! Trump said in the letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. Earlier, the US President advised countries in ongoing trade talks with his administration to just keep working hard ahead of the August 1 negotiation deadline, repeating his claim that America has been taken advantage of by both friend and foe for many years. Trump made the remarks before departing for a flood-ravaged area in Texas, as South Korea, Japan and other countries strive to reach deals with the United States to avoid or minimize the impact of steep reciprocal tariffs that are set to take effect on August 1. I think just keep working hard. You know, weve been taken advantage of for many, many years by countries, both friend and foe. And frankly, the friends have been worse than the foes in many cases, he said during a press availability at the White House. On Monday, Trump sent a letter addressed to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, saying that the U.S. will start imposing 25 per cent tariffs on South Korean products on August 1 rather than Wednesday, when the reciprocal tariffs were initially set to take effect following a 90-day pause. To strengthen public health efforts against vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and chikungunya, the Delhi government, led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, has intensified early mosquito control measures. At a high-level meeting at the Delhi Secretariat, the Chief Minister directed senior officials to initiate fogging operations ahead of the scheduled time to ensure the early containment of mosquito-borne diseases. Advertisement Gupta emphasized the importance of awareness, surveillance, and coordinated action over the next two months and instructed officials from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), and the Health Department to begin preparations immediately. Advertisement While there is currently no outbreak, Delhi must remain alert and act swiftly, said Gupta. According to official documents, the Chief Minister called for a comprehensive approach that includes active public participation. To this end, she stressed the need for awareness campaigns using all available media platforms. Highlighting the importance of community involvement, CM Gupta stated that residents should be issued two clear warnings before any challan (fine) is imposed, allowing them the opportunity to take preventive measures themselves. Officials informed the CM that fogging typically begins in September; however, she directed them to advance the schedule to reassure the public that the government is proactively tackling dengue and related diseases. She further instructed that there must be no shortage of medicines or equipment, and any issues should be reported directly to her office. Protecting citizens from these diseases is our governments priority, she asserted. After the meeting, Gupta shared that fogging and anti-mosquito spraying had already been conducted in 5,09,524 homes, while mosquito larvae were found and destroyed in 71,086 homes. As part of biological control efforts, larvivorous fish have been released at 279 locations across Delhi to naturally eliminate mosquito larvae. These actions, she said, are critical to breaking the chain of infection. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Foreign nationals made 38.05 million cross-border trips to and from China in the first half of 2025, up 30.2 percent year-on-year, the National Immigration Administration said on Wednesday. Visa-free entries continued to rise sharply, with 13.64 million foreigners entering China without a visa in the first six months. This accounted for 71.2 percent of total foreign entries and represented a 53.9 percent year-on-year increase. R Madhavan isnt one to mince words when it comes to appreciating talent, and this time, his admiration directs at none other than Priyanka Chopra Jonas, who recently headlined the Hollywood action-comedy Heads of State. Speaking to Siddharth Kannan in a candid interview, Madhavan described Priyankas latest international venture as a moment of pride for not just the actress herself, but for the entire nation. Advertisement Priyankas role in Heads of State, now streaming on Prime Video, is anything but ordinary. Sharing the screen with Hollywood heavyweights Idris Elba and John Cena, she dives headfirst into high-voltage action, no stunt doubles hiding in the background. Advertisement From intense fight sequences to sharp-tongued banter, shes very much at the center of this fast-paced thriller. And according to R Madhavan, thats exactly what makes Priyanka Chopra journey so extraordinary. She has gone there and effortlessly taken the lead in a massive Hollywood project, Madhavan said, clearly impressed. Shes done action in the film, and honestly, half the heroes in India would love to be in her position. Playing such a role, in a film of that scale, is no small feat. Madhavan didnt stop at just praising her acting chops. He pointed out how Priyanka has consistently carved her own path, breaking boundaries and setting new benchmarks for Indian actors looking to make a mark globally. Im a big fan of how she carries herself, both on and off screen. Shes worked her way up with grace and determination. I am very, very proud of her, he added. Priyankas Hollywood journey has seen steady momentum over the years, from her leading role in Quantico to films like Baywatch, The Matrix Resurrections, and now Heads of State. But this latest project has turned particular heads for the way she commands attention alongside global stars, without being reduced to a token role. Meanwhile, Madhavan has been keeping busy too. Hes currently basking in the response to his romantic drama Aap Jaisa Koi, which premiered on Netflix on July 11. In the film, he stars opposite Fatima Sana Shaikh, exploring themes of love and second chances. And if that werent enough, hes also gearing up for his role in the upcoming spy thriller Dhurandhar. Azad Adhikar Sena chief Amitabh Thakur on Wednesday raised the issue of serious security lapses during the recent visit of Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi in Lucknow. Rahul Gandhi had come to Lucknow on Tuesday to appear in the MP/MLA court to seek bail in a defamation case. Advertisement Demanding a high-level enquiry, Thakur has sent a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding fixation of responsibility in connection with the incident that took place during Gandhis appearance in the local court. Advertisement In his letter, Thakur claimed that Rahul Gandhi is among the top-protected persons in the country, but during his appearance in the MP/MLA Lucknow Court on Tuesday, the security forces showed gross negligence. Due to this, hundreds of people entered the court, and Gandhis security was completely endangered. Also, the decorum of the court was violated. He has sent a copy of the letter to the Chief Justice of India and the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, along with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for appropriate action. Handing out defeats in a row in 10 successive elections since the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the people of Tamil Nadu will bid a final goodbye to AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) at the hustings in 2026, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin slammed the leader of the principal opposition on Wednesday. You have blamed the alliance with the BJP as the reason for the AIADMKs defeat in the 2021 assembly election and your party men have also openly admitted to this. Yet, you have aligned with the same BJP now. Entangled in a duplicitous game with Delhi, you have mortgaged the party with crores of members, only to save your family, Stalin said, speaking at a government function in Mayiladuthurai after laying the foundation for various projects and inaugurating completed ones. Advertisement When your own AIADMK cadre are unwilling to trust you, how will the people of Tamil Nadu believe you? he asked, adding that the people arent ready to be disappointed. It is not your cup of tea. You are not up to the mark Stalin said, recalling a popular comic scene in a Tamil movie to drive home the point that the people have decided to discard EPS. Advertisement Hence, in desperation the opposition leader is attempting to create a fake narrative by hurling abuses at the government and blaming the womenfolk that they have been fooled by the Rs 1000 per month scheme for women home makers, a flagship programme of the DMK government, the Chief Minister reasoned. Charging EPS with spreading falsehood about the DMK governments programmes, the Chief Minister said It is indeed a publicity for he makes the public aware of what all services are available at the 10000 camps across the state in the ongoing public outreach Ungaludan Stalin (Stalin With You) as well as other initiatives. It is not the people who have been fooled, but only you by the BJP. Changing your vehicles four times to escape media scrutiny you knocked at the doors of Amit Shah in Delhi to protect your family from raids. And without any shame, you ask what is wrong in knocking at the doors of Shah, he said adding, People are confident that Stalin will never allow any foreign force into Tamil Nadu for his personal benefit but will prevent it. Turning his ire at the BJP, he asked what the Modi government had done in the last 10 years to retrieve Katchatheevu, the tiny barren islet in the strategic Palk Strait, ceded to Sri Lanka except raking it up for political mileage. It had no concern for the welfare of the fisherfolk and had not taken steps to put an end to the continuing arrest of Indian fishermen by the island nations navy, he added. Senior BJP leader and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray in the house on Wednesday that there is scope for the latter to sit here (in the treasury benches, where the ruling alliance parties sit). You (Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray) can be considered for inclusion here (in the treasury benches where the ruling alliance sits). At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (opposition benches). But Uddhav can think about the scope of coming to this side (the treasury benches where the ruling alliance members sit), and that can be thought about in a different way. But there is absolutely no scope left for us (BJP) to come there (opposition benches), Fadnavis said in the house, openly addressing Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray directly. Advertisement Fadnavis said these words during a farewell party given to Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Ambadas Danve of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, whose term ended on Wednesday (today). Advertisement The term of the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Ambadas Danve, ended on Wednesday, which was his last day attending the Legislative Councils monsoon session, which will go on for a few more days. As the house bid farewell to Danve, Chief Minister Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Finance Minister Ajit Pawar, and other ministers, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, and other members from the opposition bench, delivered speeches to bid farewell to Danve. It was on this occasion that Chief Minister Fadnavis made a statement openly addressed to Uddhav Thackeray directly, which has raised eyebrows and sparked off political speculation about what Fadnavis has in mind. Speaking about the career of Danve, Fadnavis said, Ambadas Danve is younger than me, but a bigger player than me. Even though he is now in Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena, he is originally from our BJP. Ambadas Danves life started in the BJP. He was working as an effective leader. There were some disputes, and he had to leave the BJP. Then he joined our then-ally party, the Shiv Sena, which is still our friend. After joining Uddhav Thackerays Shiv Sena, he worked in various positions. He did his MA in mass communication and journalism. It was expected that he would compile news, but he became a news provider instead. Journalists and lawyers are seen most in the political field. The assembly got a good leader. Being groomed by the BJP, one can see perseverance and a studious attitude in him, which is missing in other parties. But he was in the BJP for 15 years. As the Leader of the Opposition, Danve raised many questions. The post of Leader of the Opposition is of utmost importance in a democracy. I have also held this post for some time. Most of my life has been spent in the opposition, and I have done my PhD in how to work in the opposition, Fadnavis said. Just as I have experience of working in the opposition, I also have 10 years of experience of working in the government. Ambadas Danve also tried to do justice to this position by being aggressive at times and revealing secrets at times. Although this is his farewell ceremony for this term, we wish him well and hope that he will return to the house, Fadnavis said at the farewell meeting at the house. After this, Fadnavis said, Uddhav, we have no scope to come to that side (opposition benches) till 2029, but you have scope to come here (the treasury benches where the ruling alliance sits). We can think about it in a different way, leaving everybody surprised. India and Argentina have the potential to complement each other in enhancing productivity, promoting mechanization, and improving farmers welfare, officials of the two nations declared after a Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting. The second Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on Agriculture between India and Argentina was held on Tuesday, an official release, issued here on Wednesday, said. Advertisement Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Sergio Iraeta, Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, Argentina represented their respective countries and said it was a key milestone in deepening bilateral cooperation in the fields of agriculture and allied sectors. Advertisement Chaturvedi, during the meeting said that Argentina is a crucial partner for India as the partnership between both the countries is rooted in a spirit of collaboration sharing knowledge, technologies, and best practices that benefit both the nations. He said that the two nations have opportunities in areas such as agricultural mechanization, pest control, climate-resilient agriculture, and joint research in the field of agriculture. While Iraeta, said that Argentina is committed to strengthening its valued partnership with India. He also highlighted Argentinas strong interest in deepening cooperation in areas such as agricultural mechanization, genome editing, and plant breeding technologies among others. Muktanand Agrawal, Joint Secretary (Plant Protection), Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, provided an overview of the agriculture and allied sectors, emphasizing Indias remarkable agricultural achievements. He highlighted a series of innovative initiatives launched by the government to strengthen the agricultural sector, which included the use of digital solutions, promoting climate-resilient agricultural practices, risk mitigation, and credit to the farmers. The two sides also discussed issues related to cooperation in Horticulture, Value chain of Oilseed and Pulses cultivation, Mechanization, Precision Agriculture, Carbon Credit for Farmers, Biopesticide, Locust Control and Management, New breeding Technologies and market access among other issues, the release said. The meeting was attended by senior officials from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, and the Ministry of External Affairs, it added. Congress leader Jairam Ramesh Wednesday emphasised the need for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address certain issues clearly in Parliament, particularly US President Donald Trumps repeated claims of brokering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Parliaments Monsoon session resumes on July 21. Taking to handle X, Ramesh said: Today the score stands at 66 days, 23 reiterations. Parliament will resume from July 21st. The score will no doubt change before then. But the PM has to answer clearly in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. The nation wants to know. Advertisement Rameshs assumption comes in the backdrop of US President Trumps statement on Wednesday (India time) stating that India is working on a trade deal along the same lines as the one he announced with Indonesia, which will provide the US with greater access to the Indian market. Advertisement Trump made this remark after inking a trade deal with Indonesia under which the Southeast Asian country pays a 19 per cent tariff on goods exported to the US, while US exports to Indonesia are tariff-free. We made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great presidentand we made the deal, Trump said, highlighting the significance of the deal. Trump suggested India is working along the same line as Indonesia regarding US trade deals. Jairam Ramesh has been critical of PM Modis speeches in Parliament, accusing him of diverting attention from pressing issues like the India-China border situation, communal tensions, and economic conditions. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, visited Assam for a day-long trip aimed at reinforcing the partys structure ahead of the 2026 Assam Legislative Assembly elections. The leaders held a closed-door meeting with Assam Congress functionaries, including Gaurav Gogoi, the partys state president, MPs, MLAs, and other key members of the party. Advertisement The discussions revolved around strengthening the party organisation and formulating strategies for the upcoming elections. Gaurav Gogoi emphasised the importance of these talks, sharing on social media that the session also included the Political Affairs Committee, office bearers, DCC presidents, and heads of various party fronts. Alongside the organisational discussions, Kharge and Gandhi also met with members from tribal communities and those experiencing threats, displacement, and other forms of harassment, emphasising their support for vulnerable groups in the state. Advertisement The leaders were warmly received at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport with the traditional Assamese gamosas. This visit marked the first time Kharge and Gandhi interacted with the states party leadership since Gogois appointment as the state president. Later in the afternoon, they were scheduled to meet party functionaries in Chaygaon, about 40 kilometres from Guwahati. Their visit underscores the Congress partys renewed efforts to address challenges ahead and strengthen its base in Assam ahead of the assembly elections next year. Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, and Rahul Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday wrote a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to bring a legislation in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament to grant full statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. For the past five years, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have consistently called for the restoration of full statehood. This demand is both legitimate and fully grounded in their constitutional and democratic right, the leaders said in their letter. Advertisement They reminded Prime Minister Modi of his own commitments made on multiple occasions, citing his interview in Bhubaneswar on May 19, 2024, where he said: The restoration of statehood is a solemn promise we have made and we stand by it. Advertisement Kharge and Gandhi have been vocal about restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. In their recent interactions, theyve highlighted the importance of democratic rights for the people of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). Prime Minister Modi had previously assured that J&K would soon have an elected Assembly and attain statehood again. They also pointed out that the government had made similar assurances before the Supreme Court, stating that statehood would be restored at the earliest opportunity. The leaders also urged the government to introduce legislation placing Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Kharge and Gandhi further stressed that downgrading a full-fledged state to a Union Territory has no precedent in independent India. Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, on Wednesday, said that there is no harm in teaching the Bhagavad Gita in schools, but suggested this should not be a one-sided decision, and other texts should also be included. He, however, didnt elaborate on what other texts he wanted the state government to include with the Bhagavad Gita. Advertisement The Bhagavad Gita is about Karmayoga. The teachings of Karmayoga are always appropriate. There is no harm in including good, inspiring things from religious texts in the syllabus. However, this should not be one-sided. Other texts also contain valuable teachings, and they should be included as well, Rawat told a news agency. Advertisement However, the Congress leader also cautioned about the negative impact of the move if it was being done with the perspective of advancing the agenda of saffronisation of the education system. If the work is being done with the perspective of advancing a saffronisation agenda, it will have a negative impact on our education system. The new education policy has become a symbol of saffronisation, and its dangers are going to be very serious for the country and education, he added. His remarks came a day after Uttarakhand schools began imparting the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita. Students of both government and private schools across the state began their day with the formal recitation of verses from the Srimad Bhagavad Gita and learning their meanings during the morning assembly. Textbooks on the Bhagavad Gita will be introduced in government schools from the next academic session. Tension gripped Odisha after the death of a college student due to self-immolation over the issue of sexual harassment by her college professor, with the Opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) workers holding a massive protest in Balasore. The BJD enforced Balasore bandh, demanding justice for the victim. Party workers blocked roads and highways, leading to heavy traffic disruptions on the Kolkata-Chennai National Highway. Advertisement Police used water cannon to disperse the protesting BJD workers and detained several of them. Advertisement The students death has triggered a massive public and political outrage in the state with the Opposition alleging the death of the student was a murder by the BJP system. The BJD said the bandh was called in protest against the injustice done to the FM College student and demanded the resignation of Odisha Chief Minister and Education Minister. The incompetent BJP government running in the state is unable to fulfill its responsibilities properly. For irresponsible actions, the Chief Minister and the Higher Education Minister should resign immediately, the BJD said on X. It said that the BJP government has deployed force and was using water cannons to supress their movement but it will continue until the victim gets justice. While the Biju Janata Dal is surrounding the Lok Seva Bhawan, the state government has deployed the police force, using water cannons and tear gas to try to stop it. But this fight, which has begun to provide justice to the female students of FM College, will continue, and no force can stop it, it said. The 20-year-old student of Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Odishas Balasore had set herself on fire after her sexual harassment complaint against a college professor was allegedly ignored. She had reportedly lodged a formal complaint with the college principal and the Internal Complaints Committee of the college against the professor. The victim had also made public appeals to Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj, and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and even apprised the womens commission about it. However, despite her repeated efforts, no action was taken against the professor and the Internal Complaints Committee gave him a clean chit, leading to her taking the extreme step. Meanwhile, the Congress has also called a statewide bandh on Thursday, July 17 over the incident. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Wednesday denounced Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities for defaming upcoming commemorations of China's victory over Japanese aggression in the 1940s, stating that the move "fully exposes their disgraceful nature." Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a media query after Taiwan authorities labeled the celebrations as "united front tactics" or "cognitive warfare" and threatened to cut retirement benefits for those who take part. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. A gathering, including a military parade, will be held on the morning of Sept. 3 in Tian'anmen Square in Beijing. "The war was a just struggle in which all the sons and daughters of the Chinese nation united as one to resist Japanese militarist aggression," the spokesperson stressed. "We invite Chinese Kuomintang party veterans to these commemorative activities out of respect for historical facts and in recognition of their contributions in defense of the country," Chen said. Chen noted that the DPP authorities not only refused to hold such commemorations themselves, but instead threatened and intimidated the veterans. "This is shameful and is bound to trigger strong opposition from compatriots in Taiwan," he said. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday expressed deep sorrow over the passing of senior Congress leader and former Kerala minister CV Padmarajan. Padmarajan passed away at the age of 93 while undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Kollam due to age-related ailments. Advertisement He served as the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president from 1983 to 1987 and held ministerial positions in the cabinets of K Karunakaran and AK Antony. Advertisement Highlighting Padmarajans dedication to public service, simplicity, and integrity, Gandhi said in a post on X: Deeply saddened by the passing of senior Congress leader and former Minister in the Kerala government, Shri C. V. Padmarajan. His simplicity, integrity, and unwavering commitment to the people of Kerala will always be remembered. My heartfelt condolences to his family and admirers. A day after schools in Uttarakhand began teaching verses from the Bhagavad Gita, the Government SC-ST Teachers Association of the state has opposed the move, calling it unconstitutional. The association argued that the Bhagavad Gita is a religious text and cannot be taught in state-funded schools as it violates the principle of secularism. Advertisement Opposing the inclusion of Bhagavad Gita verses in the morning assembly prayer, the Uttarakhand Government SC/ST Teachers Association has written to the Director of School Education demanding the withdrawal of the order issued by the directorate. Advertisement The associations letter stated that the Bhagavad Gita is a religious scripture, and according to the Constitution, religious instruction cannot be imparted in government-funded educational institutions. Sanjay Kumar Tamta, President of the Teachers Association, stated in the letter: Article 28(1) of the Indian Constitution clearly states that no religious instruction shall be provided in any educational institution wholly or partially funded by the state. This provision upholds the secular character of the Constitution and ensures equal respect for all religions. Referring to the government directive mandating the teaching of Gita verses in schools, the associations letter further said: The directive to include Gita verses in morning assembly prayers violates constitutional provisions. It undermines the secular foundation of government schools, which cater to students from diverse religious, caste, and community backgrounds. Imposing verses from a single religious text could lead to discomfort, exclusion, and discrimination among students from other faiths. It also contradicts the principles of social harmony and inclusive education. The letter concluded with a firm objection: The SC-ST Teachers Association strongly opposes this directive and demands its immediate withdrawal. Education must promote a scientific temper and inclusive values, not propagate any particular religious belief. Notably, the Directorate of the Uttarakhand School Education Department had recently issued an order to all Chief Education Officers to ensure the inclusion of Bhagavad Gita verses in morning assemblies starting July 15. While many schools have complied, the SC-ST Teachers Association has now formally raised its objection. A 24-member delegation of young political leaders from Sri Lanka met Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri here on Wednesday to discuss the deepening partnership with India. The delegation, including 24 leaders from across 14 political parties of Sri Lanka, began their two-week visit to India today. Advertisement During the meeting, the foreign secretary highlighted the significant role of the young leaders in enhancing the ties between the two nations and shaping the future roadmap as key stakeholders. Advertisement A 24-member delegation of young political leaders from 14 political parties of Sri Lanka called on Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri as they began their two-week-long programme in India, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X. Foreign Secretary emphasised their valuable role in deepening the India-Sri Lanka partnership as stakeholders in its future roadmap, he added. The meeting also focused on regional geopolitical trends and security agreements signed between India and Sri Lanka. Last week, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha interacted with the 24-member Sri Lankan delegation of cross-party young political leaders ahead of the two-week-long India visit and discussed a series of initiatives to enhance linkages for fostering partnerships for a shared future. Deputy Speaker Rizvie Salih, 20 Members of Parliament from various parties, and four senior officials of the Sri Lankan Parliament, including the Secretary General, are part of the delegation. India and Sri Lanka share a more than 2,500-year-old relationship, with a strong civilisational and historical connection. Sri Lanka has a central place in Indias Neighbourhood First policy and MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) vision. Earlier in April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the island nation and held a productive meeting with the Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka. He became the first foreign leader to pay a state visit to the island nation since President Disanayaka took office in September 2024. During the meeting, both leaders held detailed discussions in a restricted and delegation-level format on further deepening the special and close bilateral ties that are rooted in shared history and driven by strong people-to-people linkages. PM Modi announced a comprehensive package for training an additional 700 Sri Lankan citizens annually in the areas of capacity building and economic support, and the conclusion of Bilateral Amendatory Agreements on Debt Restructuring. The prime minister reiterated Sri Lankas importance in Indias Neighbourhood First Policy and Vision MAHASAGAR. He conveyed New Delhis continued commitment to assist in the island nations economic recovery and stabilisation. The bilateral relations of the two nations are mature and diversified, encompassing all areas of contemporary relevance. The shared cultural and social heritage of the two countries and the extensive people-to-people interaction of their citizens provide the foundation to build a multi-faceted partnership. In a big and polyglossic country like India, language policy and language education are important and sensitive issues. In the recent past, the issue of learning or not learning three languages under the National Education Policy has become the centre of a stormy debate in the country. The debate and the cacophony linger on, because the complex issue, having political dimensions, is not going to get a solution very easily. In this context it is necessary to identify the root of the disputes around the matter. The unwillingness of the state of Tamil Nadu to implement the three-language formula springs from a quite reasonable apprehension that this will ultimately decimate English to a position of irrelevance as a pan-Indian official language. At the base of such apprehension is a lack of trust in the outlook of people who, being in power at the Centre, frame and implement linguistic policies according to their own vision and predilection. People in Tamil Nadu may not be wrong in believing that the option of learning a third language may pave the way for eventual establishment of Hindi as the most dominant language for southerners too. Since the administrative machinery of the Union seems often to be very ardently focussed on opening opportunities to sway the sceptre of the Hindi language up and down the country, it may be feared by many that the threelanguage formula may with time turn into an effective tool in non-Hindi states for replacing other languages in the public sphere with Hindi. Advertisement That the policy-makers operating from Delhi are as a general trend inclined towards promoting or facilitating the hegemony of the Hindi language is evident from various facts. Nowadays, even the names or captions of new central statutes framed in English are phrased in Hindi. It is difficult to understand why a law officially written and published in English should have its name in Hindi and only in Hindi. For many years the Central Government has been formally naming its newly established organisations, corporations or institutions in Hindi instead of English. Advertisement At the national level there is undoubtedly a growing tendency at work which serves to gradually relegate the use of English in the administrative arena to insignificance or non-existence. Often we hear rhetoric claiming that Hindi is the national language of our country, though the Constitution never said that. These events definitely create an atmosphere where people become sceptical about the future of English as an administrative language in India. Tamils and other non-Hindi speaking communities in India will not ultimately profit from the decimation of English in administrative use, because monopoly of Hindi in the national administrative scenario may and indeed will turn all other Indian languages into insignificant dialects in the long run. There are examples galore in history which would prompt us to predict such an eventuality. As for the education policy in question, students theoretically have a choice to learn any language as a third language in this three-language scheme, but it is most likely that there will hardly be any scope in institutions for engaging teachers for many other languages except Hindi in addition to English and the local language (Tamil in the case of Tamil Nadu). For promoting Hindi learning, there are and will always be robust central funds. Things would be better if the State Government should have the authority as well as the funds to decide and implement what other language should be taught in addition to the predominant local idiom and English if the formula is implemented within the state. As for the individual student and his or her personal aspirations, there are ample opportunities in the larger social environment beyond school curricula to get training in any other language. The language education issue in the context of Tamil Nadu stirred up a nationwide debate which has been continuing for long. Meanwhile, a small yet significant matter has recently come up in news which has a bearing on the issue. Reports say that the Lakshadweep administration, in implementing the current education policies, has recently dropped Mahal and Arabic from the school curriculum in the Minicoy island and has replaced them with Hindi. Mahal is a distinct local language in the insular region with its own popularity and cultural value. Mahal is an Indo-Aryan language and traces its origin to the Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit). Banishing even Mahal from the local education system by the administrative authorities of the Union Territory to make room for Hindi cannot be said to be a good or encouraging example for the non-Hindi-speaking regions of the country. The Minicoy islanders may have for the present obtained some protection in the matter from the judiciary, but the issue persists. If people speaking any regional language sustain a fear that administrative and educational policies framed by authorities sitting far away from the region may ultimately serve to take away the formers linguistic independence and bulldoze all cultural variations in the country, such apprehensiveness will be detrimental to the promotion of social cohesion in the nation. As a matter of fact, the culture of recognising the dignity of regional languages in India, especially in the official context, has not yet fully achieved the standard of inclusivity which ought to have developed in a pluralistic democracy like ours much earlier. Had it not been so, the number of languages in the VIIIth Schedule of the Constitution would have been much greater than what it is now. It is not clear why the Central Government has not to this day included many popular regional languages such as Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, Ladakhi, Kokborok, Mizo, Garo, Kachchhi, Khasi, Sikkimese, Mundari and Tulu in the VIIIth Schedule. The VIIIth Schedule excludes English too, though it includes Hindi. We, furthermore, do not understand why Bengali, in spite of being spoken as the mother tongue by the largest community in the islands, has not been recognised as an official language of the Union Territory of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Hindi is a nice language and familiarity with this language may certainly enrich ones literary taste. As a colloquial lingua franca Hindi surely plays a useful role in many parts of our country. But the role of English as the foremost administrative and legal language in the length and breadth of our country is no less important and profitable. India is a country of unity in diversity as well as of diversity in unity. The English language in the context of our composite socio-cultural life and multifaceted socio-political dynamics is a suitable cementing agent that can foster unity in India without killing diversity. As English is practically equidistant from all Indian languages and it is nobodys mother-tongue on our soil, its use in administration, especially in administrative affairs, does have a neutrality which would put all of us in equal or equivalent positions and will consequently protect us against losing our mother-tongues as a result of acquisition of dominant administrative position by any particular Indian language. The Tamil people, therefore, should not be criticised for asserting the fact that the local language and English would suffice to supply a bilingualism necessary for administrative purposes. We should not forget the role the English language played as a link language in the past in forging a united spirit of nationalism throughout the entire British India which, indeed, was more extensive in size and diversity than the country in which we live today. Today we should not have any hesitation to recognise that English deserves to be continued and promoted as a link language for official purposes throughout India. A rigid attitude on the part of the central policy-makers will only fetch an equally rigid response from regional stakeholders. Only an environment of trust, sympathy and dialogue can help all sides to reach a harmonious consensus in the matter of language education and language application in this polyglossic country. The onus for creating such an environment lies primarily on those who alone have the official power and authority to maintain or decimate the official use of English in the national context. (The writer is an essayist and freelance contributor.) That Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor of Bangladeshs Interim Government, continues to be suspicious of the civil society in the country has been proven once again with the arrest of reputed fellow economist, 71-years-old Professor Abul Barkat. A former Chairman of Janata Bank, Barkat was arrested by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police in connection with a corruption case on July 10. Advertisement His bail plea was rejected as Bangladeshs Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that Barkat, arrested in connection with a 297 crore Taka embezzlement case involving Annontex Group, might go into hiding or influence witnesses and disrupt the investigation, if granted bail. Advertisement Barkat has been one of the few sincere advocates for minority rights in Bangladeshs history. Unlike many who only spoke about minority issues, he provided detailed research exposing the injustices faced by the minorities. Analysts reckon that this may be the reason behind the actions taken against him. In his publication titled Political Economy of KHAS Land in Bangladesh published in January 2001, Barkats research revealed how the Enemy Property Act was and is still used to seize properties of the minority Hindu population in the country. In his study The Political Economy of Agricultural, Land, and Water Reforms in Bangladesh, he further detailed that over 11.3 million Hindus were forced to leave the country from 1964 to 2013. He highlighted that on an average, as many as 2,30,612 Hindus left Bangladesh each year (632 daily) and, if the trend continues, the Hindu community in Bangladesh may disappear within the next two decades. Barkat has also been an unflinching critic of radical Islam and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). He was arrested on the basis of a fabricated case filed with the ACC, now a blueprint of Pakistans ISI. Notably, the research by Barkat found varying daily disappearance rates of Hindus during different periods: 19641971 (705 per day), 19711981 (521 per day), 19811991 (438 per day), 19912001 (767 per day) and 20012012 (674 per day). Barkat had alerted that there would be no Hindus in Bangladesh in the coming 30 years if the current level of exodus continued. The Bengali book by Abul Barkat on Political Economy of KHAS Lands in Bangladesh Bangladeshe Khasjami-Jala: Daridra-Boishommyo Bemochener Rajnoitik Orthoniti (The Khas Land in Bangladesh: Political Economy of Inequality and Poverty Alleviation) published in March this year is a comprehensive research work on the subject. Besides Barkat, it has been authored by eminent economists like Sheikh Ali Ahmed, Faisal M Ahmed, and Muhammad Sazzadul Karim. The book attributes that today, around 4.5 million people in Bangladesh remain landless, often entrapped in poverty and social marginalisation. Though the government has introduced land distribution initiatives, complex legal frameworks and systemic corruption is causing much damage and delay. Now, identification and management of Khas Land (Government Land) and water-bodies, distribution of the same to the landless and poor people, retention of such land and water-bodies by the landless, and pertinent rules and practices within the prevailing socio-politico context of Bangladesh constitute prime issues of agrarian reform. Sadly, 2.6 million acres of the original ownership of the Hindu community has been occupied by the rich segments of the Bangladeshi society who are an integral part of the power structure. Yunus is using the ACC to mount arrest on intellectuals, supporters of the Awami League, religious minorities and on common Bangladeshis. The desperate attempts seem similar to those made by the West Pakistan just before the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. Yunus is deliberately doing this to keep himself at the frontline. He has a total control of the media and continues to engage in political repression by suppressing dissent. Yunus has now also figured out well how to control the masses. It is pertinent to point out that Barkat has repeatedly received death threats from extremist outfits since 2004 because of his research and writings on the economics of fundamentalism in Bangladesh. Deeply hurt and outraged, every conscientious citizen of Bangladesh fears that his arrest without a warrant is an attempt to enable those crimes to be carried out under state custody. Statistics reveal that 136 people have been murdered in Dhaka alone from January to April, this year. Nationwide, the number exceeds 1200. In contrast, during the same period, the murder count in Dhaka was 55 (2021), 54 (2022), 51 (2023) and 47 (2024). On July 10, the world witnessed the brutal murder of Lal Chand, a local businessman, with the perpetrators not only crushing his body and head with stones but also dancing on his corpse. Bangladeshis are fighting for survival in Yunuss totalitarian regime this was certainly not the change the student-led movement wanted for common people of the country with no past to mourn and no pride to defend. Barkat has been arrested by the Bangladesh authorities for speaking up for the minorities and exposing land grabs and attacks on Hindus by extremists. In todays Bangladesh, the illegitimate, unelected, non-transparent interim administration of Yunus backed by the Pakistani and Chinese intelligence through the JeI has made defending human rights a punishable offence. (The writer is an expert on South Asia and Eurasia. He was formerly with Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. Views expressed are personal) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja publicly slammed the partys chief organiser in the countrys Punjab province, Aliya Hamza, for her recent post on X, where she expressed dissatisfaction regarding a recent party event held in Lahore, Geo News reported. According to Geo News, Raja, speaking to the media outside Adiala Jail, stated that Aliyas comments were inappropriate and cautioned that such social media activity would not be tolerated going forward. He added that participation in the press conference was voluntary, but he chose to attend out of respect for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Gandapur, noting it would have seemed inappropriate for the CM to address the media alone. Raja clarified that no formal invitations were necessary to attend the event, and anyone could have participated. He added that if a mistake had been made, it should simply be acknowledged and an apology offered, without escalating tensions, Geo News reported. Aliya Hamzas job is to mobilise Punjab let her do her job. Aliya Hamzas job is not to tweet, he said as quoted by Geo News. In response to Rajas remarks, PTIs Senate parliamentary leader, Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, expressed concern over the tone used by Raja. In a Geo News show, Zafar emphasised the importance of respectful communication among party leaders and discouraged the use of harsh or inflammatory language. He reiterated that all PTI leaders work within the partys ideological framework and should not undermine one another. No one has the right to speak in such a loud way, even if there is a need to criticise. When emotions run high, its crucial to take a step back, calm down, and then engage in a thoughtful conversation, he noted as quoted by Geo News. Zafar also acknowledged Hamzas concerns as valid, pointing out that she had been ready and willing to participate in the Lahore event but was not extended an invitationan oversight he described as unfortunate. He concluded by praising the events organisation while emphasising that the exclusion of a key organiser was a significant misstep, Geo News reported. Advertisement Saint-Laurent, QC (H4T1V6) Today Showers this morning becoming less numerous during the afternoon hours. High 77F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 59F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. JAKARTA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Authorities in Indonesia's East Java province have thwarted an attempt to illegally trade 438 endangered animals, according to Nur Patria Kurniawan, head of the provincial Natural Resources Conservation Center (BBKSDA), as quoted by local media on Wednesday. The operation took place earlier this month, when the intelligence team from the Law Enforcement Sub-Directorate of the Water Police Directorate, under the East Java Regional Police, inspected a truck at Tanjung Perak seaport. The truck was registered as carrying only mobile phone accessories, but upon inspection, officers discovered 438 animals hidden inside without any official documentation. "This is not just a law enforcement operation. It is a measure to save lives, maintain ecological balance, and affirm that Indonesia is serious about protecting its biodiversity," Patria said. "We are not just confiscating animals, but saving the nation's biological heritage. This is a firm warning to those involved in the illegal wildlife trade. We monitor, fight, and take action," he said. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China and Australia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the implementation and review of China-Australia Free Trade Agreement on Tuesday, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC). The document was signed by Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and Australian Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Jan Adams, witnessed by Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Since its entry into force in 2015, the free trade agreement has significantly boosted bilateral economic and trade relations, delivering substantial benefits to both sides, said the MOC. As 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of the agreement, the two countries will maintain close cooperation, continue high-quality implementation of the agreement, and jointly conduct a review to identify areas for further improvement or expansion, the MOC said. This will enhance trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, providing a higher level of institutional support for bilateral economic and trade cooperation, the MOC said. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. A team from Italian luxury house Prada visited Maharashtras Kolhapur on Tuesday to engage with the local artisans and study the regions footwear-making methods, days after the brand faced backlash for allegedly appropriating the famed Kolhapuri chappals. Four members from the technical team, including Pradas heads of footwear design and external consultants, visited the city. They toured the Kolhapuri chappal manufacturing cluster, observed the production process, and held discussions with local artisans," said Lalit Gandhi, president of the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture, told PTI. Gandhi further added, Our chappals are handmade and rooted in tradition. The team will now submit a report to its corporate office, and based on that, senior officials from Prada may visit Kolhapur in the next phase. Gandhi views Pradas visit as instrumental and indicates that a serious interest has been taken by the brand. The team also toured the retail market area in Kolhapur and interacted with shopkeepers. The Kolhapuri chappal issue emerged when Prada displayed an uncredited appearance of the footwear on their models during the 2026 Spring Summer show in Milan late July. Backlash emerged against the brand, which marketed them as toe-ring sandals. Prada issued an apology on their social media and acknowledged the true origins of the footwear. Prada acknowledges that sandals inspired by traditional Indian footwear are made in specific districts in Maharashtra and Karnataka, India... We are committed to responsible design practices, fostering cultural engagement, and opening a dialogue for a meaningful exchange with local Indian artisan communities... We are in contact with the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce on this topic, they wrote. Once we noticed the design on the runway, we raised an objection and asked them to acknowledge its origins. They responded to us via email, accepting that the theme was inspired by Kolhapuri chappals, Gandhi added. High Court dismisses PIL against Prada On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) against Prada for their use of Kolhapuri chappal at the Milan runway. Filed by five Pune-based lawyers, the court questioned the locus and statutory rights of the advocates, who were not the proprietors or owners of the footwear. The plea had said the Kolhapuri chappal (sandals) is protected as a Geographical Indication (GI) under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act. The court dismissed the same and said that a detailed order would be passed later. India has hit a major milestone in its journey towards clean energy by achieving 50 per cent production of energy from non-fossil fuel sources, five years ahead of its 2030 target. Indias target under the Paris Agreement was to set up 500GW of renewable energy-based electricity generation by 2030. Out of 484.8GW of total installed capacity, 242.8GW is now based on renewable or low-carbon sources, as per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. This is in contrast to the western world, where fossil fuel continues to be the major energy source. In 2022, as per figures made available by the European Union, 70.9 per cent of the regions energy demands were met by fossil sources. This figure is an increase over 2021. Since 1990, though, the region has seen a decline in the use of fossil fuels by 11.5 percentage points. For the United States of America, the figures are far worse, as 84 per cent of its total energy needs were met by fossil fuels in 2023. Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Prahlad Joshi took to X to write: In a world seeking climate solutions, India is showing the way. While the countrys per capita emissions, at one-third of the global average, remain among the lowest, India is one of the few G20 countries that are on track to meet its commitments made under the Nationally Determined Contributions. The next focus will be on strengthening the transmission grid and scaling up battery and pumped hydro storage. The countrys installed capacity includes 49.92 per cent of thermal capacity, 1.81 per cent of nuclear and 48.27 per cent of renewable energy, including large hydropower, as of June 30 2025, the MNRE statement said. Saurabh Kumar, Vice President of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, said that public participation in schemes like PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana, wherein people are given subsidies to install rooftop solar panels, has had a clear impact. Indias achievements can be a lesson for the entire global south. In a move that will majorly enhance the offensive, reconnaissance, and surveillance capabilities of the Indian Army, the first consignment of Apache attack helicopters from the US will be handed over to India on July 21. The AH-64E, also known as the Apache Guardian, is regarded as one of the worlds most advanced multi-role combat helicopters. A report by NDTV, quoting sources from defence and security establishments, said these AH-64E Apache helicopters will be deployed along the Pakistan border, marking a significant upgrade to the Indian Army's aerial combat capabilities along the western border with Pakistan. The NDTV report says three AH-64Es will arrive at the IAF's Hindon Air Force Station, which is under the Western Air Command. Capable of carrying out precision attacks at standoff ranges and operating in hostile airspace with threats from ground, the addition of these attack helicopters to the Indian Army will provide a significant edge in any future joint operations as the Indian Air Force (IAF) already has the AH-64Es in its inventory. ALSO READ: LCA Tejas Mk1A production update: HAL gets second GE-404 engine, more to come soon The helicopter, manufactured by Boeing, is capable of delivering a variety of weapons, including air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, 70 mm Hydra rockets and air-to-air Stinger missiles. AH-64E also carries one 30 mm chain gun with 1200 rounds as part of the area weapon sub-system. The fire control radar, which has a 360 coverage and nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems, adds to the lethality of the IAF Apache helicopter. The IAF's tandem seating helicopters are day/night, all-weather capable and have high agility and survivability against battle damage, are easily maintainable even in field conditions and are capable of prolonged operations in tropical and desert regions. "Alongside the capability to shoot fire and forget anti-tank guided missiles, air-to-air missiles, rockets and other ammunitions, it also has modern EW capabilities to provide versatility to helicopter in a network centric aerial warfare. Apaches have been an integral part of numerous historic campaigns worldwide," Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa (retd) had said while inducting the AH-64E Apache attack helicopters into the IAF in 2019. The latest meeting of Pakistan's top civilian and military leadership has once again fuelled rumours of a possible change in the country's political landscape amid speculations of the army chief possibly aspiring to be the next president. This is the third time this month that there have been widespread speculations about the change in presidency, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif himself last week dismissing rumours that President Asif Ali Zardari may be forced to step down and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to assume his post. The latest round of rumours came after Field Marshal Munir called on Sharif at the PM House shortly before the latter met Zardari at the president's house on Tuesday, The Express Tribune reported. The high-level engagements have taken place amid growing speculation about a possible 27th constitutional amendment and rumours suggesting Zardari may step down to make way for his successor, the report said. The speculation, largely fuelled by social media, hinted at behind-the-scenes efforts to replace the parliamentary system with a presidential form of government. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said the speculations were unfounded, but confirmed the issue of media reports regarding the president's resignation and his possible replacement by the army chief indeed came up during the meeting between Zardari and Sharif. He said the speculation stemmed from a media report that was possibly retracted. Earlier on July 11, strongly dismissing rumours that Zardari may be forced to step down and Munir aspired to assume the presidency, Sharif said such claims were mere speculations. Field Marshal Asim Munir has never expressed any desire to become the president, nor is there any such plan in the offing, Sharif told The News. Sharif's clarification had come after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, in a statement on X on July 10, denounced the malicious campaign targeting Zardari, Sharif and Munir We are fully aware of who is behind the malicious campaign, Naqvi, who is considered close to the top military leadership, had said. On Wednesday, amid intense speculation about a potential shift in the country's power and political structure, the defence minister categorically refuted all the speculations, and said Zardari was apprised about the developments and he showed full confidence in the government and the current political system. The president was fully aware of the issue and expressed his full confidence in the government, Asif told The Express Tribune, adding that Sharif briefed Zardari about the unconfirmed story and the subsequent developments. It's all kite flying, he said. While confirming that Sharif had a meeting with the field marshal before the PM-led delegation called on Zardari, Asif said there was nothing unusual about it as the premier and field marshal routinely meet three times in a week to discuss different issues. The army chief has no interest in politics, Asif claimed. The defence minister said the army chief already held the highest office in the military and has earned massive respect following Pakistan's recent conflict with India. He [field marshal] doesn't need anything, Asif added. The minister also dismissed the conjectures that there was a rift between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People's Party (PPP), the two major parties of the ruling coalition, after the former emerged as the single largest party in the national assembly following the Supreme Court's ruling in the reserved seats case. We will keep a united face, he said, adding: We are not just partners in power but beyond. Following a split mandate in the February 8 general elections last year, Zardari's PPP helped the PML-N form the government in the Centre. In response to a question about whether the 27th Amendment was still being considered even if there was no change in the presidency or the political structure, Asif said there was no deliberation about any constitutional amendment at the moment. However, he maintained that introducing a constitutional amendment was a legitimate process and could be used just like it had been on previous occasions. Asif also denied that Tuesday's meeting included any discussion on any legislative business in the coming weeks. No legislative agenda was discussed during the meeting. Meanwhile, according to a statement by the President's Press Wing following the meeting, Sharif met Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr in the presence of federal ministers Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Mohsin Naqvi and PM's Adviser Rana Sanaullah to discuss the country's political, economic and security situation. It said the premier briefed the president on the government's economic measures, and both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to working together for national stability, development and prosperity. Production house Almighty Motion Picture has acquired the film and television rights to Debleena Majumdar's Sabu: The Remarkable Story of Indias First Actor in Hollywood, the biography of India's first Hollywood actor, Sabu Dastagir aka Selar Sabu. In a statement, Prabhleen Sandhu, founder of Almight Motion Picture, said: Sabus story deserves to be told with grandeur and truth. He wasnt just Indias first global starhe was a bridge between worlds, cultures, and eras. To bring his story to the screen is more than filmmakingits preserving a legacy the world must never forget and is a responsibility we hold close to our hearts." Born in Mysore to a mahout, Sabu had the fortune of working with some of the biggest directors from American and British cinema, such as Michael Powell (in Black Narcissus and The Thief of Bagdad) and Zoltan Korda (in The Jungle Book). He was discovered at the age of 13 by American filmmaker Robert J Flaherty, who cast him in the 1937 film Elephant Boy, based on Rudyard Kiplings 'Toomai of the Elephants' from 'The Jungle Book'. He also starred opposite Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum in 1963's Rampage. During World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces as a tail-gunner and ball-turret gunner, for which he was honoured with the Distinguished Flying Cross. An elated Debleena Majumdar said, Thanks a lot to my literary agent Mr. Suhail Mathur for believing in me and for not only getting me a book deal & an AV one but also for sharing the amazing idea & Almighty Motion Picture for finding value in the story and for shaping it with this brilliant vision. It was an honour to research for this book and, more importantly, to learn about how cinema and movies evolved through world-changing global events." The illustrious and eventful work and life of Sabu came to an end when he met an untimely demise due to a heart attack at the age of 39, in 1963. His contributions to the industry were acknowledged in 1960 with the inclusion of his name in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Karnataka government is set to cap the movie ticket fare across all theatres, including multiplexes and languages, at Rs 200. The government has issued a draft notification (dated July 15, 2025) amending the Karnataka Cinemas (Regulation) Rules, 2014, and the revised fares would be effective after a final notification, 15 days after its publication in the official gazette. The government has asked the stakeholders to send their objections and suggestions to the additional chief secretary of the home department within the next 15 days. This development would fulfil a long-pending demand of cinegoers in the state, who had long been raising complaints about the exorbitant ticket prices, especially in the multiplexes, ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 1000a primary deterrent for families wanting to go to the cinema. With the single-screen theatres on the decline, movie-going had become a costly affair for families as the ticket and food prices in the multiplexes had become unaffordable. In fact, the Siddaramaiah government had announced the uniform ticket pricing for movies in the state Budget 2025. Siddaramaiah had proposed a similar cap on ticket fares in 2017, too, during his first stint as the chief minister, since audiences demanded regulation of ticket prices in multiplexes. During the Budget, he announced a new policy to cap the ticket prices at multiplexes and made it mandatory for multiplexes to screen Kannada films on at least one screen between 1.30 pm and 7.30 pm. However, theatre owners opposed the order and managed to obtain a stay from the court. The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Centres committee to take a decision immediately, without loss of time, on petitions concerning the controversial movie Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder, citing the urgency flagged by the filmmakers. Responding to the makers argument that the Delhi High Courts stay on the films release violated their freedom of speech and expression, the top court observed that under the Constitution, the right to life under Article 21 would take precedence over the right to free speech under Article 19. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi asked filmmakers to await the Central government's decision, which is scheduled to hear objections against the movie later in the day, as it adjourned the hearing of the petitions related to the matter to next Monday. The court told the filmmakers that the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal tailor murder case, Mohammad Javed, cannot be compensated for the loss of reputation if the film is released, but the filmmakers can be monetarily compensated. Senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia, appearing for filmmakers, has submitted that the producer and director of the film, as well as the son of late Kanhaiya Lal, were receiving death threats. At this, Justice Kant asked Bhatia to make a representation to the police of the area, who were directed to assess the threat perception and do the needful to prevent harm if there is substance in their apprehension. The top court was dealing with two petitions, one writ petition filed by one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal Teli murder case and the second, filed by the makers of the movie challenging the Delhi High Court order staying the release of the movie. The bench asked the Centre's committee to take a decision immediately without loss of time after hearing all the parties. The top court also allowed Mohammad Javed to present his arguments before the committee through his counsel. The film was scheduled to be released on July 11. On July 10, the Delhi High Court stayed the release till the Centre decides on pleas seeking a permanent ban over the film's potential to promote disharmony in society. The petitions, including one filed by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind president and Darul Uloom Deoband principal Maulana Arshad Madani before the high court, claim that a trailer of the movie released on June 26 was replete with dialogues and instances that had led to communal disharmony in 2022, and carries every potential to stoke the same sentiments again. Udaipur-based tailor Kanhaiya Lal was murdered in June 2022, allegedly by Mohammad Riyaz and Mohammad Ghous. The assailants later released a video claiming that the murder was in reaction to the tailor allegedly sharing a social media post in support of former BJP leader Nupur Sharma following her controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed. Around 5 Schools in Delhi received bomb threats on Wednesday via email. St Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, Mother's International School in Hauz Khas, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodi Estate all received the mail early morning. Just in the last three days alone, 10 schools and one college received such bomb threats in Delhi. St Thomas School in Dwarka is receiving threats for the second time since Tuesday. After the schools alerted the authorities, personnel from PS Maurice Nagar, the North District Crime and Criminal Psychology Section (CCPS), Bomb Disposal Team (BDT), and Dog Squad were dispatched. Delhi | A bomb threat was received via email at Dwarka's St. Thomas School and Vasant Valley School in Delhi. The investigation is underway. Nothing suspicious has been found yet: Fire Department ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 The Delhi police made a statement that said, St. Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, Mother's International School in Hauz Khas, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Lodi Estate, received bomb threats via email this morning. Around 10 schools and one college received such bomb threats in the last three days." The police have declared that the messages were a hoax. The emails claimed that explosive devices and substances had been planted on the school campus. According to the fire department, nothing suspicious has been found so far. According to officials, the schools received the threats in the morning. The school in Dwarka received the threat at 5:26 am. The last school to receive the threat was in Huas Khas at 8:12 am. St Joseph School in Dwarka and St Stephen's College received the threats on Tuesday, according to ANI. The college reported that they received the threat via email at approximately 7:15 am. No other college reported similar threats. On Monday, Police stated that the Navy School in Chanakyapuri received threats that contained anti-Tamil Nadu messages in the mail. The cyber unit is currently investigating the origin and authenticity of the emails. Photo taken with a mobile phone on April 26, 2025 shows displaced people waiting to collect water from a well in Tawila, North Darfur, western Sudan. Beneath the weary, drought-stricken trees of Tawila, a small town in North Darfur, western Sudan, those fleeing the relentless violence engulfing the country find only momentary refuge from the inferno of civil war. (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)/Handout via Xinhua) KHARTOUM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Beneath the weary, drought-stricken trees of Tawila, a small town in North Darfur, western Sudan, those fleeing the relentless violence engulfing the country find only momentary refuge from the inferno of civil war. Since April 2023, Sudan has been embroiled in a conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The violence has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands and has displaced millions. About 70 km from El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, the arriving displaced carry stories of resilience intertwined with unending pain. Though the roar of artillery has faded here, the daily suffering of the displaced endures -- humanitarian aid is scarce, diseases spread with the onset of the rainy season, and children grow up without education or dreams. When 30-year-old Khadija Ahmed arrived in Tawila as part of the first wave of displaced people from Zamzam Camp near El Fasher, one of her children asked: "Will the planes bomb us here too?" She replied, "No, my son, we are safe here." "We fled Zamzam because of artillery shelling, drone strikes, and random gunfire. My children and I witnessed horrors that memory will never erase," she told Xinhua. On Tawila's outskirts, Khadija found shelter under an old tree, the only shade for miles. "We escaped by a miracle. My children's expressions and their sense of safety give me a determination to live," she said. Reaching Tawila was no easy feat. Most people Xinhua spoke to recounted walking for countless sleepless nights, hiding among sand dunes at the sound of planes, inching forward along a dangerous and rugged path. Hawa Ahmed, who lost her husband in a bombing at Zamzam Camp in March, arrived in Tawila with her two children, one of whom sustained a shrapnel injury to his back. "Fleeing Zamzam wasn't an easy decision. It was a journey of death. Getting here was a miracle. We're still traumatized by what happened to us," she told Xinhua. When asked what gives them hope to carry on with their lives here, both residents and the newly displaced talk about "human solidarity" that binds them together. "The most important thing is providing food for the thousands who have nothing. There are wonderful examples of solidarity -- residents reducing their daily portions of bread or flour to create a 'communal table' that feeds everyone," said Abdul-Jaleel Ali, a local resident. Meanwhile, displaced Fatima Adam is getting an abandoned piece of land ready, waiting for the rains to plant quick-growing crops like sorghum, millet, and vegetables. "People of Tawila have not withheld anything from us. They even gave us farmland and provided us with some seeds," she told Xinhua. Despite Tawila's limited resources, its residents have shown extraordinary generosity. As Sheikh Ali Ismail, a local community leader, put it, "We only have dust and barren desert, but we refuse to let anyone go hungry on our doorsteps. We've done our best to make Tawila an oasis that shelters the wounds of those fleeing war." Since April, Tawila had absorbed nearly 379,000 people fleeing Zamzam Camp and El Fasher, according to a press release by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) on July 11, which makes local generosity alone isn't nearly enough to meet the needs of such a large number of people. The United Nations and relevant international organizations have warned that Tawila is on the brink of a full-scale humanitarian crisis. Only 21,000 people, about 10 percent of the town's population, have access to safe drinking water, according to the NRC. "Water is the biggest challenge for the displaced community in Tawila, but we're trying to overcome it through collective efforts," displaced resident Ahmed Al-Tayeb told Xinhua. "We use primitive methods to obtain water, like collecting it in natural basins or digging traditional wells. Sometimes the water isn't fit to drink, but we boil it to purify it," Al-Tayeb said. Tawila is also struggling with a serious lack of food, as most families are only able to get one meal a day or less. Additionally, fewer than 10 percent of households -- around 2,684 families -- have access to latrines. Education for children is another major challenge. With just 11 makeshift learning spaces, many kids can't attend school. "There are no proper schools here, but we receive some lessons from local volunteers," said Khalid Abdullah, a displaced child who arrived in Tawila with his family two months ago. "We have a makeshift school set up under the shade of trees. There are no bells or uniforms, but at least it's an attempt to bring us back to a learning atmosphere," he said. Days after the Airline Pilots' Association of India (ALPA-India) alleged that the preliminary report by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) was "being driven in a direction presuming the guilt of pilots", the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction over pilot representatives being excluded from the probe. The FIP is a pilots' group with more than 6,000 members. Though the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation pointed out that the investigation is ongoing, FIP objected to the way in which the preliminary report has been interpreted and presented publicly and that it lacks comprehensive data. Air India crashed after taking off. The plane was seen struggling to gain altitude before crashing into a fire ball.. Over 200 people were on board..#AirIndiaCrash pic.twitter.com/xacH20AlSe Sudhir Byaruhanga (@Sudhirntv) June 12, 2025 FIP said the report is selectively emphasising on paraphrase cockpit voice recordings, adding that this implies error on the pilot side and raises questions about their competence and integrity. Calling the approach neither objective nor complete, the association said, "We therefore urge our members and the general public not to lend credence to such premature conclusions." This comes after ALPA-India, representing more than 800 pilots of airlines and helicopter companies in the country, sought transparency on the AAIB preliminary report as it does not have anyone's signatures on it. "We had asked for our representation in the investigation panel," ALPA-India President Sam Thomas had told PTI. Pointing out that ALPA-India members can contribute meaningfully to the probe, the body is looking at legal options to ensure representation in the investigation team. "We are once again surprised at the secrecy surrounding these investigations. We are also reiterating the fact that suitably qualified personnel are not taken on board for these crucial investigations," ALPA-India said in a statement on July 12. ALPA-India is a member of the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Association (IFALPA), which has around 1 lakh members from more than 100 countries. In June, IFALPA offered to provide technical expertise to AAIB. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) Advisory Council for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) Department unanimously passed the Bengaluru Declaration, emphasising the Telangana model of caste census (SEEEP) as a role model for a nationwide census. The declaration was made at the council's first meeting, chaired by Anil Jaihind and hosted by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Bengaluru. LIVE: AICC OBC Advisory Council Meet Press Conference | Bengaluru, Karnataka. https://t.co/BfcEpFvQUN Congress (@INCIndia) July 16, 2025 ALSO READ | With Bihar Assembly polls around corner, will Congress change Siddaramaiah from Karnataka CM post? The council passed three resolutions moved by Siddaramaiah, Ashok Gehlot and Anil Jaihind to further strengthen the Congress' resolve to launch a nationwide "OBC movement". During a press meet that followed the OBC council meeting, Siddaramaiah stated that the caste census had become imperative as there was a greater need for social justice and an egalitarian society. The council has unanimously passed a resolution demanding a national level caste census by the Census Commission of India (Office of the Registrar General of Census Commission), and said that the Congress party would launch an intense nationwide campaign for a national-level caste census, modelled after Telangana's "successful initiative", which covered 96 per cent of the state's population. "The census should include social, economic, educational, employment, and political aspects of each individual and caste," it stated. A second resolution sought to breach the 50 per cent cap on reservations to ensure suitable representation for OBCs in education, service, politics, and other areas. The council also resolved to push for reservations in private educational institutions as per Article 15(5) of the Constitution. ALSO READ | Will Census 2027 reshape Indias social and political landscape? Earlier, the Council expressed gratitude to Rahul Gandhi for his "courageous stance" on social justice for marginalised sections of societyparticularly the backward classes. "Nyay Yoddha Rahul Gandhi's efforts led to the Manuvadi Modi government surrendering to the demand for a caste census in India," said Siddaramaiah, reiterating the Council's sentiments. As part of its nationwide campaign and action plan, the "Congress OBC Leadership Bhagidari Nyaya Sammelan" will be hosted on July 25, 2025 at the Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi. The Sammelan will be inaugurated by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and LOP Rahul Gandhi will deliver the concluding address. The council will hold regular workshops on the OBC issue, including caste census in every state capital with the OBC leaders of the party. A public rally will be addressed by Rahul Gandhi in every state capital, and as part of the OBC outreach, the party will reach out to all OBC communities across the country and build leadership both at the organisational and electoral level, aligned with the Congress ideology. ALSO READ | Karnataka governments fresh 'caste census' could face many roadblocks The OBC party rank and cadre would be trained to strengthen public discourse on the lines of social justice. The meeting also thanked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for hosting the first meeting of the council and put on record their appreciation for his "commitment" to the upliftment of the oppressed classes as "unparalleled", and called his "beacon of hope" towards achieving the final goal of social justice. "Siddaramaiah ji is a great leader of masses, and under the courageous leadership of Nyaya Yoddha Rahul Gandhi ji, Siddaramaiah ji is destined to make historic contribution to the Congress' Backward Class movement in the country," said the note of thanks at the meeting. The execution of Nimisha Priya, the Indian nurse on death row for the murder of Yemeni citizen Talal Abdo Mahdi, was postponed following a last-minute reprieve. However, in a strongly worded statement posted online on Wednesday, the victims brother, Abdel Fattah Mahdi, said that "those who halted the execution know very well that the family absolutely rejects any attempt at reconciliation." He further wrote: "What is happening now in terms of mediation and reconciliation is neither new nor surprising. Throughout the course of this case, there have always been significant mediation efforts. But the pressure we have faced has changed nothing. Our demand is clear: retributionnothing else, no matter what." Abdel had earlier announced that Nimisha Priyas execution was scheduled for 9 am on July 16. The postponement of the execution came after the crucial intervention of a prominent Muslim cleric from Kerala, A. P. Aboobacker Musliyar, general secretary of the Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama. Musliyar, also known as Kanthapuram, has long-standing ties with influential Sufi clerics in Yemen and played a key role in facilitating the delay. Kanthapuram initiated efforts after being approached by Kerala MLA Chandy Oommen on July 11. He subsequently raised the issue with Sufi scholar Sheikh Habib Umar bin Hafeez, with whom he shares a longstanding personal connection. Habib Umar had previously visited Kozhikode to attend an international conference organised by the Markaz, an institution led by Kanthapuram. Among tribal communities in the region where Nimisha Priya is incarcerated, Habib Umar wields considerable influence. At Kanthapurams request, he began inquiries immediately. His office contacted both the North Yemeni authorities and the family of the murdered man. As per his instructions, an emergency meeting was recently convened in North Yemen, led by his representatives. Attendees included representatives of the provincial administration, the Supreme Court judge of the Sanaa Criminal Court, the brother of the deceased, and tribal leaders. Tribal heads indicated that they would communicate their final decision after further consultations with the family. The delegation remains in Dhamar, the native region of the deceased, to continue discussions aimed at building consensus among family members. Justice Muhammad bin Ameen Sheikhchief judge of a state court, a member of the Yemeni Shura Council, and a close relative of the victimalso intervened in the talks on the advice of Habib Umar. Reportedly, his mediation played a crucial role in persuading the family to temporarily defer the execution and communicate this to the court, which then issued the stay order. Despite the reprieve, Kanthapuram emphasised that negotiations must continue until blood money is accepted and a full pardon is secured. The murder of Talal Abdo Mahdi had sparked intense anger among tribal groups in North Yemen. Notably, the Indian government does not have a formal diplomatic relationship with Yemen and has great limitations in getting involved in the negotiations with the family. Though the execution has been temporarily stayed, Abdel Fattah Mahdis latest social media posts suggest a serious setback to ongoing efforts to save Nimisha Priya from execution. In his post, he vowed to pursue the execution until it is carried out, stating: "Blood cannot be bought. Justice will not be forgotten. Retribution is coming, no matter how long the road may be." In October 2024, Keralas Higher Education Minister R. Bindu presented on the Assembly floor the number of total and vacant seats in the states four most prominent universitiesKerala, Calicut, MG, and Kannur. The total number of seats available for undergraduate courses stood at 2,07,115, while postgraduate courses had 30,825 seats. Shockingly, 85,525 undergraduate seats and over 13,000 postgraduate seats remained vacantnearly 42 per cent in both categories. Observers in the higher education sector warn that this year, the number of vacant seats may surpass even those figures, citing widespread administrative disruptions, structural paralysis across universities, and a growing public disillusionment with the higher education system in the state. Ive written to the CM @pinarayivijayan urging urgent action to resolve Keralas higher education crisis. The VC-Governor vs Syndicate deadlock in Kerala University and SFI-led violence have worsened the chaos. Most universities lack permanent VCs. Students suffer. pic.twitter.com/H2fFo3xsX3 V D Satheesan (@vdsatheesan) July 16, 2025 Currently, 13 out of 14 state universities in Kerala are functioning without full-time Vice Chancellors, relying instead on interim or temporary arrangements. At Kerala University, an escalating standoff between the temporary Vice Chancellor and the Syndicate has created a state of administrative paralysis. The university is witnessing an unprecedented situation in which two individuals are simultaneously claiming the position of Registrar. The deadlock began on July 2, when Vice Chancellor Mohanan Kunnummal suspended Registrar K.S. Anil Kumar for cancelling a private event at the Senate Hall attended by Governor Rajendra Arlekar, where a portrait of Bharat Mata with a saffron flag was displayed. On July 6, the Syndicatedominated by Left-affiliated membersrevoked Anil Kumars suspension, arguing that the Vice Chancellor lacked the authority to suspend the Registrar under the Kerala University Act. However, the revocation took place in a meeting that the VC had formally dissolved and exited, rendering it invalid in his view. Meanwhile, Mini Dijo Kappan, Director of Planning, was given full additional charge as Registrar by the VC. Anil Kumar, claiming his suspension had been revoked, also resumed dutiesleading to a situation where both began functioning simultaneously as Registrar. Initially, Kappan retained access to the universitys e-file system, while Anil Kumars access was blocked. Anil Kumar proceeded to send files physically to the VC for approval, but the VC refused to sign them, stating that Anil Kumar remained suspended. Now, Kappans e-file access has also reportedly been revoked, allegedly under Syndicate pressure. Amruth G. Kumar, Professor and Dean (Academic) at the Central University of Kerala, warned that the ultimate victims of this administrative freeze are the students. A lot of student-related fileswhether related to examinations, admissions, migrations, or other essential requirementsare now caught in this ping-pong, he said. As many as 1,500 student certificates, mostly degree certificates, are reportedly stuck due to the impasse. Now, its like the VC is on one side, and the Syndicate is on the other. The university is practically deadlocked, says R.S. Sasikumar, higher education activist and member of the Save University Campaign Committee. This is admission season. Students need to be admitted, equivalency certificates issued for those from other states, and new batches must commence across collegesits the most crucial time of the year. Sasikumar points out that although the Governor, as Chancellor, generally refrains from interfering in the day-to-day affairs of the university, he has the authority to act in extraordinary circumstances and can even suspend the Syndicate if needed. However, such a move could further worsen the already strained relationship between Raj Bhavan and the state government. The state government and the Raj Bhavan already have serious differences with regard to the formation and constitution of search-cum-selection committees for appointing Vice Chancellors in state universities. And this situation had led to the situation where the majority of the state universities are now without regular VC. Notably, the Private Universities Bill and the University Laws (Amendment) Billwhich significantly curtail the powers of the Chancellor, particularly in the appointment of Vice Chancellorshave been passed by the Kerala Assembly but remain pending with the Governor, who has yet to act on them. Dr Kumar notes that issues in state universities are shaping the public consciousness about the higher education system in the state in a highly negative light. Already, many colleges have numerous vacant seats. This is true across almost all aided and government institutions. And, as these administrative issues also arise, they reflect a deep and dangerous impact on our public education system. Theres no doubt about that, he says. Maharashtra Congress president Harshvardhan Sapkal on Wednesday dismissed the BJP's claims of having a wide-ranging, strong leadership, and being the largest party, calling them hollow. He criticised the saffron party for exerting pressure, issuing threats, and luring leaders and office bearers from other parties, instead of giving opportunities to its own workers, comparing the BJP to a witch afflicted with the habit of consuming people from other political parties. ALSO READ | 'Absolutely laughable': Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal questions 'draconian' Public Security Act Speaking to the media in Pune, he explained that the Congress functioned under a united ideology, rather than as a collective of individual leaders, taking everyone along. In that regard, he pointed out that the strength of the party did not diminish if someone left it. ALSO READ | Language war in Maharashtra: Congress up in arms against 'Hindi imposition' Acknowledging that the performance of the Congress in the Pune district may not have been satisfactory, Sapkal promised change in the near future. He also expressed disappointment at those who leave the Congress deliberately, explaining that no amount of effort could hold them back, pointing out the irony of those elevated to higher positionssuch as MLAs, Mps, and ministersby the party, leaving it, and then claiming to be wronged. ALSO READ | RSS leader Balasaheb Deoras supported Emergency but why does BJP find it unacceptable now? Maharashtra Congress chief asks They are now claiming to have been wronged, but many office bearers within the party are expressing that they too wish to be 'wronged' in such a manner, he quipped. It is the public and grassroots workers who will question those who abandoned the party. He also touched on the issue of liquor shop licences being awarded to certain companies, alleging that Punes Guardian Minister (Ajit Pawar) was behind the move. Since Pawar holds the Excise Department portfolio, and owns the Tango liquor brand, the conflict of interest here is clearly visible Sapkal pointed out, demanding that Pawar's excise portfolio be taken away. The University Grants Commission has constituted a four-member fact-finding committee to investigate and prevent future tragedies following the tragic incident of a student's self-immolation allegedly due to harassment at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. The four-member committee will be chaired by Professor Raj Kumar Mittal, a professor at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University and a UGC member. Other members include Prof. Sushma Yadav, former UGC Commission Member, Dr. Neerja Gupta, Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat University, and Dr. Ashima Mangla, Joint Secretary at UGC, who will serve as the coordinating officer. The committees terms of reference include examining the policies and grievance redressal mechanisms of the institution, its compliance with UGCs anti-sexual harassment guidelines, and the support systems available to students in distress. It will also assess how well these policies are being implemented on the ground and seek suggestions from students, teachers, and staff to build a safer academic environment. The UGC has requested that the committee submit a detailed report with findings and recommendations within seven days. The incident has left many deeply shaken, bringing to the surface painful questions about the mental well-being and safety of students, especially young women who leave home trusting their campuses to protect and nurture them. Moved by the anguish and outrage echoed in media reports, the UGC has stepped in to find out what went wrong and, more importantly, to ensure that no other student would suffer a similar fate. The 20-year-old Odisha college student who set herself ablaze over an alleged sexual harassment by a professor died, triggering nationwide outrage. The second-year Integrated B.Ed student in Balasore set herself ablaze shortly after coming out of the principal's chamber. The student who suffered 95 per cent burns was first admitted to the Balasore District Headquarters Hospital and then shifted to AIIMS Bhubaneswar for advanced treatment. She was declared dead hours after President Droupadi Murmu visited her at the hospital's burn unit. The father of the deceased held members of her college's Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) solely responsible for his daughter's death, accusing them of preparing a biased report in connection with her allegation, which led her to set herself on fire on the campus on July 12. With the monsoon session of Parliament set to begin on July 21, the Congress party has decided to take on the Narendra Modi-led government by demanding answers on the Pahalgam terror attack and the ceasefire announced under US pressure in Operation Sindoor. The Opposition also plans to raise concerns about alleged voter list manipulation and issues of national security and governance. After a strategy meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhi, senior Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said the partys first priority would be to demand answers over the recent Pahalgam attack in which 26 people were killed. We want to know who killed them and why no action has been taken. There is complete silence on the issue. The prime minister has not spoken, even when Donald Trump mentioned for the 22nd time that India and Pakistan had agreed to a ceasefire because of trade, Tiwari said. The Congress also intends to question the Modi government over Operation Sindoor, claiming that Indian troops were stopped due to pressure from the US president. Our valiant soldiers were stopped on the insistence of the US. This raises questions on our sovereignty, Tiwari alleged. Opposition parties under the INDIA bloc are also expected to call a coordination meeting before the session, to fine-tune their joint strategy. In addition, the Congress plans to bring up the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters list in Bihar. It started in Haryana, then Maharashtra where democracy was murdered. Now the same is happening in Bihar, Tiwari said, warning that the BJP was attempting to rig the electoral rolls in its favour. The Congress has been alleging the voters lists were manipulated to help the BJP. He added that while the opposition wants clean and transparent elections, it is not happening under the current regime. The Congress will also press for the restoration of statehood to Jammu and Kashmir. The mandate was against the BJP in Kashmir. They should respect the peoples will and restore full statehood, Tiwari said. Issues related to womens safety, the Air India crash, and governance lapses will also be taken up during the session. Meanwhile, Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, met Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday. After the meeting, Kharge said the opposition was keen on ensuring a productive session. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi spoke with the father of the Odisha college student who self-immolated because of alleged sexual harassment from her college professor on Wednesday The Congress leader ensured justice for the victim's family and labelled the actions leading to the student's death as a "wound to the entire society". He assured that the party would stand with the family. , , Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) July 16, 2025 Ghandi posted on X saying, Spoke with the father of the brave daughter who lost her life in the fight for justice in Balasore, Odisha. In his voice, I felt his daughter's pain, dreams, and struggle. Assured him that the Congress Party and I stand with them at every step. What happened is not only inhuman and shameful but a wound to the entire society. He added that they would ensure in every way that the victim's family receives full justice. Father of the victim claims daughter was killed Earlier, the father of the student had called her death a conspiracy and said that his daughter was killed because she raised her voice in college. "This was a plot against my daughter. She always raised her voice in college, so they targeted her. Everyone forced her to die. Is this not murder? They forced her to attempt suicide. Why was she called alone to meet in the principals room? What happened inside that room? Why were we not informed?" he said to ANI. The family had asked for a probe into why the victim was made to meet the accused, the principal and the internal committee behind closed doors and what took place right before she walked out to attempt self-immolation BJD workers stage protest, police use tear gas Biju Janata Dal (BJD) called for a Balasore Bandh on Wednesday and took to the streets to protest against the Odisha government after the 20-year-old girl set herself on fire outside the principals office in Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. Party workers burned tyres on the streets and expressed their anger over the government's inaction. The protest escalated, which prompted police to use tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd. The party had also asked for the resignation of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj. BJD Vice-President Debi Prasad Mishra demanded a judicial inquiry into the incident, stating, We demand the government come out of its slumber and take action by ordering a judicial inquiry. Those who took no action should take moral responsibility and resign." The party workers have vowed to intensify the protests if their demands are not met. The second-year student died on July 14 after sustaining 95 per cent burns in AIIMS Bhubaneswar. She had been protesting since early July and had written a letter of complaint that asked the college authorities to take action against the sexual harassment, but received no support from them. The BJP-led Odisha government has been under scrutiny after the incident triggered widespread outrage in the state. With the controversy around the proposed demolition of legendary filmmaker Satyajit Rays ancestral house in Bangladesh raging on, all eyes are on the Bangladeshi government on whether it will reconsider its decision. Formerly used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, the building belonged to Ray's grandfather, Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury. Yesterday, India formally offered help to preserve the building, and urged Bangladesh not to demolish Rays ancestral property as it symbolises Bangla cultural "renaissance". The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) termed Bangladeshs move to demolish the building as a matter of "profound regret", and urged it to convert the building into a museum symbolising shared culture of the two countries. Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, too, had weighed in on the controversy, calling the move "extremely distressing" and said the building is intricately tied to the cultural history of Bengal. Why does Bangladesh want to demolish Satyajit Rays ancestral home? The property, presently owned by the Bangladesh government, was built by Upendra Kishor Ray Chowdhury more than 100 years ago in Kishoreganj's Katiadi Upazila (sub-division), where he was a zamindar in Masua. Neglected by the authorities for more than a decade, the landmark building fell into a state of disrepair. Bangladeshi daily The Daily Star quoted Md Mehedi Zaman, the district children affairs officer, as saying that the Shishu Academy was operating from the rented space, and that a semi-concrete building will replace the old house to restart the academy's activities. What did Sandip Ray, Satyajit Rays son, say about the ancestral house in Bangladesh? Filmmaker Sandip Ray Satyajit Ray's son told NDTV that he had never been to Bangladesh to see the ancestral house, but said that his father once wanted to use pictures of the building while working on the Sukumar Ray documentary. Satyajit Ray sent an associate to Bangladesh to take pictures of the house, but seeing the condition of the house from the photos, he decided against using it in the documentary. Ahead of his statewide tour in September, actor Vijays Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) will host its second state conference at Madurai on August 25. Announcing it in his social media post X, Vijay said Let history repeat itself. Victory is certain. TVKs general secretary N. Anand participated in the wooden pole planting ceremony at the proposed venue at Koodakovil near Thirumangalam in Madurai district. The conference is to be held at a sprawling space spreading over 300 acres, which can host more than two lakh people. The first conference was held in October 2024 at Vikravandi near Villupuram district in the north of Tamil Nadu, where a huge crowd, particularly in the age group of 18 to 24 participated. Madurai and its political significance Considered the heart of south Tamil Nadu, Madurai had always been significant in Tamil Nadus political arena. In fact, all major political upheavals of Tamil Nadu have started from Madurai. The political conferences by Tamil Nadus two Dravidian majors - the DMK and the AIADMK -- held in Madurai have always etched in history. Vijayakanth launched his party from Madurai while Kamal Hassan had his first state conference at Madurai. The recent Lord Murugan conference organised by the Hindu Munnani, Amit Shahs public rally and the DMKs general council meeting were the recent political happenings in Madurai. Once DMK leader M.K. Alagiris fiefdom, Madurai is now a bastion under Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. No wonder Vijay chose Madurai for his second state conference; this sends out a strong political message that he will be taking on the DMK. During his partys general council meeting, Vijay made it clear that the fight in Tamil Nadu in the upcoming 2026 elections is between the DMK and his TVK. Why Vijay pitches him opposite Stalin and DMK? On July 13, at the first public protest over custodial deaths, Vijay fired a salvo at the Stalin-led DMK government. Calling Stalins government as Sorry Ma model during his first public demonstration, Vijay took a sharper tone against Stalin and the DMK. In the past 10 months since his first public conference at Vikravandi, Vijay makes it a point to take on the DMK and its chief. In the language issue, he accused the DMK and the Tamil Nadu government of enacting a drama. He referred it as a hashtag drama on social media. He said it was time to eliminate feudal lords from Tamil Nadu. In his partys general council meeting he said the 2026 election will be a fight between his TVK and the DMK. And then, in the Parandur new airport issue, Vijay stood by the farmers. His visit to Parandur was his first public outreach, and he called it the right place for him to start his political journey. During the partys executive committee meeting, he said he would take the villagers from Ekanapuram in Parandur to the state secretariat and meet the Chief Minister, asking him to address their concerns. Vijays style of politics is to replicate that of MGRs success story. Like MGR took on the DMK, Vijay in his very first conference in Vikaravandi in October laid out his political path - that he is against corruption and those who are looting the state; how he will bring about an egalitarian society; and why the poor, the marginalised and the downtrodden should vote for him. Vijay wants to challenge the established dynamics of Tamil Nadu politics scene dominated by the DMK and the AIADMK. While AIADMK has steadily weakened after the demise of Jayalalithaa, Vijay has planned to take on the DMK and its leader Stalin. However, Vijays timing seems tactical and calculated with a clear target of 20 to 30 percent of the states total electorate which is not aligned with either of the Dravidian majors. With a clear ideological base and his ideas of compassion, non-violence and respect for life, Vijays voice against the ruling party resonates with the voters. But whether it will translate into a coherent political narrative remains to be seen. GAZA, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Hamas said Tuesday in a statement that one of its leaders Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. The statement did not offer further details, and there was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the airstrike. This came as the Israeli military issued a new statement warning residents of several areas in Gaza City and in Jabalia, northern Gaza, to evacuate immediately to the western areas and then to the southern areas towards Al-Mawasi amid escalating military operations. On March 18, Israel resumed its military operations in Gaza. At least 7,656 Palestinians have been killed and 27,314 others injured since Israel renewed its intensive strikes, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to 58,479, and injuries to 139,355, Gaza-based health authorities said Tuesday. Iran's Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam, has been added to the Most Wanted List of the US for the abduction of a retired FBI agent Robert 'Bob' Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007. Besides Moghadam, two others with close links to the Iranian establishment are also on the list. While Moghadam is a current diplomat, Taghi Daneshvar has a background in intelligence and counterterrorism operations and Gholamhossein Mohammadnia previously served as Irans ambassador to Albania before he was expelled for "damaging its national security." "These three intelligence officers were among those who allegedly facilitated Bob's 2007 abduction and the subsequent cover-up by the Iranian government. Bob likely later perished in captivity far away from his family, friends, and colleagues," said FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven Jensen. "The FBI will continue its relentless pursuit to hold anyone involved in his abduction to account for their reprehensible actions." The incident happened in 2020 when Levinson disappeared in 2007 during a CIA mission on Iran's Kish Island. Levinson was on an unauthorised mission, and US officials believe he died in Iranian custody. However, Tehran never acknowledged detaining him, maintaining that he left the country "long ago". Moghadam, Daneshvar, and Mohammadnia allegedly played a role in Levinsons abduction and detention. The US also accuses Mohammadnia of leading an effort to blame the agent's disappearance on a terrorist group in Pakistans Baluchistan region to shift blame away from the Iranian government. The FBI also released a poster featuring all three. "The FBI is leading the way in holding Iran accountable for the abduction of Bob Levinson, a devoted father and patriotic American," Senator Jim Risch wrote on X. "These new posters are seeking information related to his kidnapping. We will never forget Bob and his family, and we will hold those responsible to account for their crimes," he added. In a major move, hardliners in Iran are openly rallying against President Masoud Pezeshkian for "overstepping his boundaries" and "attempting a coup against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei." Over 30 MPs have called for his dismissal, some accusing the President of attempting to normalise relations with Israel. The rift between hardliners and moderates spilt out in the open after conservative MP Abolfazl Zohrevand put up a video that has gone viral, against the President. "The Pezeshkian administration will end the Islamic Revolution before the conclusion of his term," he said, adding that the moderates believe that by ending the revolution and terminating Khameneis rule, they can begin a new era and join the Abraham Accords. When asked if this amounted to a coup, Zohrevand replied, What else could this be if not a coup detat? The MP said he was horrified when he heard Pezeshkian's words on negotiations. Pezeshkian wrote on X on Monday that he still believed the window for diplomacy was open. The President also came under fire for his interview with Tucker Carlson after the hardliners accused him of flattering Donald Trump and downplaying religious fatwas calling for the US presidents execution. "He should have explicitly named America and the Zionist regime and treated them as one and the same," according to Javan, a newspaper linked to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), referring to the President's bid to exclude the US from Israel. His statement that the regime's slogan 'Death to America' was not meant to be taken literally triggered the hardliners. "He said the condition for negotiations is that there is no attack during them; that is, attack after negotiations! That is, despair for surrender," the MP said. Though Khamenei has not commented on the rift, a close adviser to the Supreme Leader addressed the clash, disapproving of the growing pressure on Pezeshkian. "(Some) groups of Iranian politicians and political organisations are attempting to challenge the Presidents political competence," news outlet Asr-e Iran quoted Mohammad Mokhber as saying. (Its) a wrong move. However, reformists fear that the stance of hardliners could lead to another war. "Hardliners offer no way forward and lack public support," reformist analyst Saeed Laylaz told the Financial Times. "Their main concern isnt ideology. Its being left out of any future US agreement." The US and its European allies have set a deadline for Iran to rein in its nuclear programme, warning of "snapback" sanctions if no agreement is reached by the end of August. The EU announced that the process to reinstate UN sanctions on Iran will commence on August 29 if Tehran shows no significant progress. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France and its partners were "justified in reapplying global embargoes on arms, banks and nuclear equipment that were lifted 10 years ago". He stressed that without a "firm, tangible and verifiable commitment from Iran," these measures will be implemented by the end of August. This move is seen as Europe's attempt to reassert its influence on the Iranian nuclear issue, particularly after US President Donald Trump's actions, including recent airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites. However, the US is unlikely to cede the lead in the process. On July 14, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the UK, agreed to the end of August as the de facto deadline. If Iran fails to meet this, the three European powers intend to trigger the "snapback" mechanism, automatically reimposing all UN Security Council sanctions lifted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. The West is keen to implement these measures before Russia, a key Iranian ally, assumes the UN Security Council presidency in October. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Donald Trump not to block these snapback measures. The August deadline initiates a process that could lead to a full suite of sanctions being reimposed by October 15. This provides the European signatoriesthe UK, France and Germanywith leverage in negotiations. A key objective for them is the return of UN nuclear inspectors to Iran to prevent the reconfiguration of its nuclear programme following the US strikes in June. The 2015 deal's structure prevents other signatories like China or Russia from vetoing the snapback. Even the US, having left the deal in 2018, cannot veto the UK or French move. The snapback would be activated under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, making the reinstatement of six UN resolutions mandatory. These include demands for Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities, and a requirement for UN member states to prevent the transfer of any materials that could support Irans nuclear or missile programmes. Iranian sanctions experts believe these reinstated resolutions would not automatically halt all Iranian oil exports or sever access to international financial systems. However, all countries and international financial institutions would be required to refrain from providing financial assistance, new commitments or preferential loans to the Iranian government, except for humanitarian and development purposes. European nations plan to engage with Iran, stating that snapback sanctions can be avoided if Tehran takes steps to reassure the world about its nuclear programme. This could involve resuming International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring, which Iran suspended after US and Israeli strikes, or potentially removing roughly 400kg of 60 per cent enriched uranium. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that activating snapback "will mean the end of Europes role in the Iranian nuclear issue" and could permanently damage relations with the three European countries. He said it would also mark the end of Europe's mediating role between Iran and the US. Iran has vowed a "proportionate and appropriate response" if European signatories reinstate UN sanctions. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei criticised the European threats as a "political act" and argued that recent US and Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities undermined the legal basis of the mechanism. Baqaei reiterated Iran's commitment to the nuclear deal despite "gross violations" by the US and Europe, stating Iran was "forced to gradually reduce its commitments" in response. Bangladesh has acted on Indias concerns over the proposed demolition of legendary filmmaker and writer Satyajit Rays ancestral home in Mymensingh, pausing all activity at the site and initiating discussions between its Department of Archaeology and the district administration. Within hours of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) expressing regret and offering restoration support, Bangladeshi officials told THE WEEK that the demolition had been halted. Dhaka, on its part, has also admitted that there was a lapse as the one-storey building in Mymensingh was not listed as a protected heritage centre. There are around 531 protected structures in Bangladesh at the moment, and based on recent recommendations from the Indian High Commission, three new sites have been added to the protected list. Speaking exclusively to THE WEEK, Faisal Mahmud, press minister of the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, said that there is a misunderstanding that the Bangladesh government wanted to demolish the house. First of all, this particular one-storey building in Mymensingh was never listed as a protected heritage structure. That was a lapse on our part. We understand that. Usually, houses like thisespecially one connected to someone like Satyajit Ray, who is so dear to usshould have been protected. I grew up reading his books; he was one of my favourite writers. Feluda, the fictional character in the ever popular adventures of Satyajit Ray, was my idol. We love Satyajit Ray. Faisal explains that the ancestral house originally belonged to literary icon Upendrakishore Ray, located on the Harikishore Ray Chowdhury road (named after Satyajit Rays ancestors). We respect them deeply. But the house belongs to Shishu Academy, which is essentially the Childrens Academy: an institution under the Bangladesh government. They used this building to hold classes and extracurricular activities for children. However, since February 2007, the Academy had stopped using the building because it had become too old and unsafe. They feared that conducting classes inside might pose a risk to the children. That is why the building has remained in disuse since then. Faisal noted that it was unfortunate that no one wrote to the Department of Archaeology to have it declared a heritage structure. That was a failure on the part of the district administration. Since the building was not under heritage protection, the Shishu Academy decided they needed to use the space to build a new, safer structure for classes. This paved the way for the proposed demolition of the old building and construction of a new one. However, once that decision was taken, explains Faisal, an officer from the district archaeological department wrote to the Shishu Academy, urging them not to go ahead with the demolition while pointing out the historical importance of the structure. In fact, the Department of Archaeology wrote officially to the Shishu Academy, asking them to pause the demolition. The sequence of events demonstrate that the Bangladesh government itself did not order the demolition. So its not exactly accurate to say that the government unilaterally decided to demolish it. One part of the governmentthe archaeological departmentasked another part, the Shishu Academy, to halt the demolition. Since the issue attracted a lot of media attention, the Bangladesh government has now put the demolition on hold, says Faisal. The Department of Archaeology and the district administration are now holding meetings to decide on the next steps for a positive outcome. The Bangladesh government is also positively considering taking Indias help in repairing and restoring the original grandeur of the structure. Satyajit Ray belongs to the entire Indian subcontinent, if not the entire world. He is an Oscar winner, someone universally respected. We understand and deeply respect the Indian sentiment. Faisal says that Dhaka was grateful to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for expressing concern. The Bangladesh government has an honest intention to preserve the building. We want to ensure that the structure is protected. There is no debate about that. Interestingly, there are around 531 protected structures in Bangladesh . Based on recent recommendations from the Indian High Commission, three new sites were added to the protected list recently. There are many such historical structures across Bangladesh. The Indian High Commission in Bangladesh often makes recommendations to the Department of Archaeology about preserving certain sites, says Faisal. However, with limited manpower, the department isnt always equipped to conduct surveys and identify all heritage structures. In fact, very close to the Harikishore Ray house is another protected structure called the Shashi Lodge, which belonged to a Hindu zamindar. That building is protected. So yes, we do have an honest intention of preserving our cultural heritage, says Faisal. Given the shared cultural heritage and the strong bonds between India and Bangladesh, Faisal urged both countries to focus on strengthening cultural ties. Across the subcontinent, whether in India, Bangladesh, or even Pakistan, we find deep cultural commonalities. These shared values must be prioritised. Culture should always rise above the dogmas and prejudices of politics. If we fail to protect our cultural heritage, we lose something we can never recover. India and Bangladesh must continue working together to preserve what we have inherited from our shared past, he says. Fears have reignited after paranormal investigator and tour guide Dan Rivera passed away suddenly after bringing the Annabelle doll to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He brought the doll as part of his paranormal tour series called Devils on the Run. News of his death was posted by the New England Society for Psychic Research NESPR. Dan Rivera, 54, the lead investigator for NESPR, had collapsed in his hotel during the tour. On Sunday night, medics rushed in to give him CPR, according to the Adams County dispatch records in Pennsylvania. His exact cause of death has not been confirmed, according to the Evening Sun. The Devils on the Run tour was hosted by the Ghostly Images of Gettysburg, who made a statement that read Ghostly Images of Gettysburg was honoured to host the nationally renowned 'Devils on the Run' tour this past weekend, featuring a legendary artefact and prestigious investigators from the New England Society for Psychic Research. During their visit, the team experienced a profound loss with the unexpected passing of Dan Rivera, NESPRs lead investigator. His legacy will continue to inspire future generations. The doll was showcased outside of its seal on the tour. The Raggedy Ann doll, infamously known as Annabelle, was made popular by the Conjuring films. The real doll was tied to uncanny incidents in the 1970s, prompting beliefs that it was demonically possessed. According to research from the NESPR, the doll was gifted to a student nurse and was brought home to where she lived with her room-mate. The two noticed strange occurrences with the doll, which made them believe that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl called Annabelle. According to the organisation, Ed and Lorraine Warren were called in and they removed the doll from the home and stored it in their museum in a sealed glass case. In May, rumours spread that the doll was removed from its sealed glass case from the Warren Occult Museum, sparking discussions and warnings online from netizens. The claims were debunked by Rivera who showed that the doll was kept sealed in the glass case. A sting operation carried out by the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Vancouver Port has brought to light how Pakistan's ISI is helping Chinese suppliers smuggle fentanyl to Latin American drug cartels with the support of gangs based in British Columbia. The details were revealed in a 29-page affidavit submitted by the DEA, which carried out investigations in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Australia, Hong Kong, Dubai and Tukey. Who is Opinder Singh Sian? One of the key players in the fentanyl smuggling racket is an Indian-origin Canadian, identified as Opinder Singh Sian. Also known by aliases Opie, Thanos and Cain, Sian is reportedly the head of the Brothers Keepers gang, which acts as a major Canadian proxy to the notorious Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. He received support from Turkish trafficker Ibrahim Ozcelik, according to the DEA. The international trafficking network carefully planned the movement of drug shipments from Latin America Sian's Brothers Keepers gang has connections with other cartels in Latin America and chemical suppliers in China. They have also worked with the Dubai-based Irish crime family the Kinahans as well as the Iranian proxy group Hezbollah. Sian was arrested in Arizona for conspiring to export methamphetamine and will appear before a US court on July 21. Using Canada as a hub, he reportedly helped move drugs from Vancouver to Los Angeles. Indian security officials quoted by News18 reported that Sian was a "critical intermediary" between ISI handlers and Chinese suppliers, who exploit Canada's "permissive legal and political environment" to traffick synthetic opioids. Indian agencies have identified 40 Indo-Canadians who support this network's extremist operations in Punjab, Delhi and Kashmir, said the report. A former high-ranking mobster who once occupied the same Manhattan prison cell as Jeffrey Epstein is casting renewed doubt on the official narrative surrounding the disgraced financiers death. Michael Franzese, a former capo in the Colombo crime family, told NewsNation on Monday that he spent seven months in the same cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) where Epstein was later found dead in August 2019. Franzese, who served a lengthy sentence on racketeering charges, described the conditions inside the facility as making suicide highly unlikely. Theres just no way, Franzese said, referring to the possibility of Epstein having taken his own life. He cited the lack of fixtures from which one could hang a sheet, constant surveillance by correctional officers, and the standard protocol for inmates on suicide watch. Franzeses comments come amid major MAGA backlash to Trumps Justice Department essentially slamming the door on the story, concluding that Epsteins death was the result of suicide by hanging and that the predator did not have a client list which MAGA faithful have been eagerly waiting to be released. Surveillance cameras inside the cell were reportedly inoperative at the time, and two jail employees later admitted to falsifying records during the incident. Your browser does not support the video tag. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trumps first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessees attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trumps first term confirmed 234 federal judges. The two presidents each worked to reshape the judiciary, with Trump taking advantage of a high number of judicial vacancies at the end of President Barack Obamas term and Democrats working to beat Trumps number after he had the opportunity to nominate three Supreme Court justices. So far in his second term, Trump has fewer vacancies to fill. While he inherited more than 100 vacancies from Obama, who was stymied by a Republican Senate in his final two years, Trump now has 49 vacancies to fill out of almost 900 federal judgeships. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week that the Senate would work to quickly confirm Trumps judicial nominees, even though were not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress we did during Trumps first term. Hermandorfer, who was confirmed 46-42 along party lines, has defended many of Trumps policies as director of strategic litigation for Tennessees attorney general, including his bid to end birthright citizenship. Democrats and liberal judicial advocacy groups criticized her as extreme on that issue and others, also citing her offices defense of the states strict abortion ban. Before working for the Tennessee Attorney General, she clerked for three Supreme Court justices. But at her confirmation hearing last month, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware criticized what he called a striking brevity of court experience since Hermandorfer graduated from law school a decade ago. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on a nominees perceived loyalty to him and his agenda and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration. The Judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on additional judges this week, including top Justice Department official Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump who is nominated for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Boves nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands. Bove has pushed back against suggestions from Democrats that the whistleblowers claims make him unfit for the federal bench. Bove has also accused FBI officials of insubordination for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases. (AP) The pace and scale of Afghans returning from Iran are overwhelming already fragile support systems, a senior U.N. official warned Tuesday, with tens of thousands of people crossing the border daily exhausted and traumatized, relying on humanitarian aid. So far this year, more than 1.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan, including over 1 million from Iran. Iran and Pakistan in 2023 launched separate campaigns to expel foreigners they said were living in the country illegally. They set deadlines and threatened them with deportation if they didnt leave. The two governments deny targeting Afghans, who have fled their homeland over the decades to escape war, poverty or Taliban rule. The U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, called for immediate international support for Afghanistan following a visit to the Islam Qala border crossing in western Herat province near Iran. The sheer volume of returns many abrupt, many involuntary, should be setting off alarm bells across the global community, Otunbayeva said. Without swift interventions, remittance losses, labor market pressures and cyclical migration will lead to devastating consequences such as the further destabilization of both returnee and host populations, renewed displacement, mass onward movement, and risks to regional stability, she said. Returns from Iran peaked in June following a 20 March government deadline requiring all undocumented Afghans to leave. The U.N. migration agency recorded more than 28,000 people crossing back into Afghanistan on June 25. Afghanistan is a forgotten crisis Most Afghans depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. But deep funding cuts are worsening the situation, with aid agencies and nongovernmental organizations forced to cut education and health care programs. Nicole van Batenburg, from the International Federation of the Red Cross, said Afghan children returning from Iran are developing scabies, fever and other illnesses because of deteriorating conditions at the border and the hot weather. Her colleagues were reuniting hundreds of children daily who got separated from their parents. People lost their belongings and documents in the chaos of hasty exits. Most were only able to take a few suitcases with them, and some were now using their luggage as makeshift furniture. Afghanistan is an unseen crisis, and there are so many crises going on at this moment in the world that it seems to be forgotten, van Batenburg told The Associated Press by phone from the border. The problems and the challenges are immense. Were only talking about the situation here at the border, but these people have to return to some areas where they can live longer and where they can rebuild their lives. Last week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said many of its staff were hosting returning families in their homes. Authorities were doing their best to mobilize the few resources they had, but local systems were not equipped to cope with such tremendous needs. (AP) NANJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Young business leaders and representatives from around the world on Wednesday gathered in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, joining United Nations officials to call for youth-driven solutions in promoting green consumption. This thematic forum on green consumption and sustainable development is part of the ongoing 2025 World Youth Development Forum, which opened on Tuesday under the theme, "Unleash Youth Potential for Global Development." The event has drawn participants from over 100 countries and regions, as well as 17 international organizations. "We are witnessing a surge in youth-led initiatives centered on global climate governance and green development," said Xu Xiao, president of the All-China Youth Federation, which is one of the forum's organizers. "Young innovators are driving emissions reduction through technological breakthroughs, and contributing to the sustainable growth of the global economy," Xu said. Green consumption, participants noted, is quickly becoming a dominant force in global markets. "Today's younger consumers are increasingly conscious of environmental values and the social responsibility behind the brands they support," said Gao Dekang, president of Bosideng Group. "Young consumers are deeply engaged with pop culture. Through recyclable materials, low-carbon initiatives and biodiversity awareness campaigns, we're turning collectibles into ambassadors of green living," said Chen Xiaoyun, vice president of Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, whose designer toy brand has a presence in more than 90 countries and regions. "Now a big topic of conversation among youth is obviously climate change and the shift to renewable energy," said John Hayden, a university student from the United States, adding that young people are eager to find meaningful careers that allow them to make a positive impact on the planet. Qin Jing, vice president of Trip.com Group, highlighted rising global awareness of sustainable travel. "Today, nearly 90 percent of young travelers are open to eco-friendly journeys," she said. "We are calling on youth around the world to embrace green mobility and help make tourism more sustainable." "China is taking the lead in green energy consumption, particularly in the field of new energy vehicles," said Huang Wandi, a young employee of State Grid Suzhou Power Supply Company. "We, the younger generations, are also actively contributing through technological innovation." Huang and her team have developed a mobile charging robot that allows electric vehicles to recharge without being restricted to designated parking spots. "With such innovations, we hope to do our part in advancing sustainable development," she said. Young people are an indispensable force in achieving sustainable development, said Jessy Santos, deputy secretary of the National Youth Secretariat of Brazil. "Brazil and many other nations are mobilizing youth to play a greater role in addressing climate change." "It is vital that young people, especially those on the front lines, are included in climate education and decision-making, blending traditional knowledge with ecological stewardship," she added. "Building a sustainable future for our planet may be the most pressing challenge of our time," said James George, deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme in China. "It is inspiring to see so many young people across the globe rising to meet this challenge with conviction and creativity." Jewish leaders in Europe have launched an emergency campaign to protect the right to perform brissim after police in Belgium reportedly launched criminal proceedings against certified mohelim in Antwerp after raiding their homes in May. The European Jewish Association (EJA) said that the raid, which included the seizure of medical equipment and a demand for mohelim to reveal the names of infants who had undergone brissim, was a serious violation of religious freedom and could establish a dangerous precedent. Over 50 Jewish leaders and Rabbanim across Europe signed a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accusing Belgian authorities of infringing on basic rights. This evokes some of the darkest chapters in European history, the letter stated. The letter urged von der Leyen to publicly condemn the police raid, reaffirm the European Unions commitment to religious freedom, and call on Belgian authorities to immediately halt the persecution of a core Jewish religious practice. EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin stated, We will not stand by while our faith is put on trial. Circumcision is a sacred commandment practiced safely for thousands of years. Attempts to criminalize this tradition are not only an existential threat to Jewish communal life but also a grave violation of Europes core valuesreligious freedom and human dignity. The association also submitted a statement signed by more than 20 senior physicians from Europe, North America, and Israel, backed by medical groups including the Global Jewish Health Alliance and the American Jewish Medical Association. The doctors said circumcision performed by certified mohels is a safe procedure that reduces the risk of urinary tract infections, penile cancer, and diseases such as HIV, and emphasized that mohelim undergo extensive medical training and adhere to strict safety and hygiene standards. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) Clashes raged in the southern Syrian city of Sweida on Wednesday after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed and as Israel threatened to escalate its involvement, saying its in support of the Druze religious minority. Meanwhile, the Israeli army said it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire and continue military operations in the Druze-majority province. Military forces continue to respond to the source of fire inside the city of Sweida, while adhering to rules of engagement to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure the safe return of those who left the city back to their homes, the statement said. A rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted Syrias longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. Since then, the countrys new rulers have struggled to consolidate control over the territory. The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities. The fears of minorities increased after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks in which hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community. Government forces that intervened to restore order have also clashed with the Druze, while reports have surfaced of members of the security forces carrying out extrajudicial killings, looting and burning civilian homes. No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory said at least 21 people were killed in field executions. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Israel threatens to scale up its intervention In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the military. In Syria, the Druze have been divided over how to deal with the countrys new leaders, with some advocating for integrating into the new system while others have remained suspicious of the authorities in Damascus and pushed for an autonomous Druze region. On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday night that Israel has a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israels border and has an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals. Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syrias new leaders since Assads fall, saying it doesnt want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. (AP) The United States has sent five men to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administrations largely secretive third-country deportation program, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday. The U.S. has already deported eight men to another African nation, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men are after they arrived nearly two weeks ago. In a late-night post on X, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the men sent to Eswatini, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived on a plane, but didnt say when or where. She said they were all convicted criminals and individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back. The men have been terrorizing American communities but were now off of American soil, McLaughlin added. McLaughlin said they had been convicted of crimes including murder and child rape and one was a confirmed gang member. Like in South Sudan, there was no immediate comment from Eswatini authorities over any deal to accept third-country deportees or what would happen to them in that country. Civic groups there raised concerns over the secrecy from a government long accused of clamping down on human rights. There has been a notable lack of official communication from the Eswatini government regarding any agreement or understanding with the U.S. to accept these deportees, Ingiphile Dlamini, a spokesperson for the pro-democracy group SWALIMO, said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. This opacity makes it difficult for civic society to understand the implications. It wasnt clear if they were being held in a detention center, what their legal status was or what Eswatinis plans were for the deported men, he said. An absolute monarchy Eswatini, previously called Swaziland, is a country of about 1.2 million people between South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the worlds last remaining absolute monarchies and the last in Africa. King Mswati III has ruled by decree since 1986. Political parties are effectively banned and pro-democracy groups have said for years that Mswati III has crushed political dissent, sometimes violently. Groups like SWALIMO have called for democratic reforms. Pro-democracy protests erupted in Eswatini in 2021, when dozens were killed, allegedly by security forces. Eswatini authorities have been accused of conducting political assassinations of pro-democracy activists and imprisoning others. Because Eswatini is a poor country with a relative lack of resources, it may face significant strain in accommodating and managing individuals with complex backgrounds, particularly those with serious criminal convictions, Dlamini said. While the U.S. administration has hailed deportations as a victory for the safety and security of the American people, Dlamini said his organization wanted to know the plans for the five men sent to Eswatini and any potential risks to the local population. US is seeking more deals The Trump administration has said it is seeking more deals with African nations to take deportees from the U.S. Leaders from some of the five West African nations who met last week with President Donald Trump at the White House said the issue of migration and their countries possibly taking deportees from the U.S. was discussed. Some nations have pushed back. Nigeria, which wasnt part of that White House summit, said it has rejected pressure from the U.S. to take deportees who are citizens of other countries. The U.S. also has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama, but has identified Africa as a continent where it might strike more deals. Rwandas foreign minister told the AP last month that talks were underway with the U.S. about a potential agreement to host deported migrants. Last year, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled a British government plan announced in 2022 to deport rejected asylum-seekers to the East African nation of Rwanda was illegal. Not a dumping ground The eight men deported by the U.S. to war-torn South Sudan, where they arrived early this month, previously spent weeks at a U.S. military base in nearby Djibouti, located on the northeast border of Ethiopia, as the case over the legality of sending them there played out. The South Sudanese government has not released details of its agreement with the U.S. to take deportees, nor has it said what will happen to the men. A prominent civil society leader there said South Sudan was not a dumping ground for criminals. Analysts say some African nations might be willing to take third-country deportees in return for more favorable treatment from the U.S. in negotiations over tariffs, foreign aid and restrictions on travel visas. (AP) Fallsburg Police have arrested three individuals following a n antisemitic attack involving eggs being hurled at pedestrians, vehicles, and street signs along Route 42, spanning from South Fallsburg to Woodbourne. As YWN reported, the incident occurred late at night on June 29, 2025, when police received a report at 11:52 PM of a vehicle parked in South Fallsburg that had been struck with eggs. The eggs were reportedly thrown from a moving vehicle traveling towards Woodbourne. Shortly after the first call, Fallsburg Police received a second reportthis time involving eggs being thrown at pedestrians onRoute 42 in Woodbourne. Among the victims in the attack was the Nikolsburg Rebbe. Fallsburg PD tells YWN that Detectives and Officers began an investigation into the reported matter and upon securing surveillance footage of the incident, police were quickly able to identify the suspect vehicle involved and discovered that eggs had been thrown at vehicles and signs along State Route 42 from the Town of Thompson to Woodbourne. The investigation led to the identification and arrest of three suspects from Napanoch, New York: Jessica Hoek, 22 Ryan Hoek, 21 Steele Dolan, 18 All three were arrested and charged with Criminal Tampering in the 3rd degree, a misdemeanor, and Harassment in the 2nd degree, a violation. They were arraigned in the Town of Fallsburg Justice Court and are scheduled to appear again at a later date. Sources tell YWN that the suspects were located thanks to high-definition cameras strategically placed throughout the Catskill Region, by Boro Park Shomrim. Your browser does not support the video tag. THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON THE CATSKILLS SCOOP STATUS AND GROUPS SIGN UP NOW TO NEVER MISS A STORY IN LIVE TIME 24 HOURS A DAY! CLICK HERE TO JOIN CATSKILL SCOOP STATUS CLICK HERE TO JOIN CATSKILL SCOOP GROUPS (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a rare public response this week to an open letter from former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, dismissing it as propaganda and characterizing it as part of a broader psychological campaign. Gallants letter, published on his Substack newsletter last week, claimed that Israels recent 12-day aerial campaign had led to what he described as the strategic collapse of a system you spent four decades constructing. He warned Khamenei that while Iran may attempt to rebuild its regional proxy network or accelerate nuclear development, Israeli intelligence and military forces remain prepared to dismantle those efforts. In a statement published on Khameneis official website and translated by the Iran International news outlet, Iranian officials described Gallants letter as a full-scale psychological operation intended to shape global perception rather than engage in substantive policy debate. This is a conflict whose primary battlefield is not border zones, but public perception and the realm of awareness, the statement read, accusing the Israeli official of attempting to influence regional narratives. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) The Shas and UTJ parties on Tuesday published a harsh and unusual statement against the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Yuli Edelstein, accusing him publicly of lying, misleading the public, and leading moves designed to sabotage the compromise outline on the conscription law. The statement was issued hours after Edelstein made statements to the press blaming the Chareidim for the lack of a draft bill, claiming that he did everything he could to find a solution to the crisis. Edelstein stood in front of the cameras today and brazenly lied to the public, the official statement said. For a year and a half, he has been misleading the negotiation teams, the Rabbanim, the reservists, the military and security officials, and everyone who acted sincerely to bring about a balanced and respectable arrangement. The Chareidi MKs said Edelstein continues to spread false claims about a compromise outline he formulated, while in practice, he consistently worked to thwart every proposal that came up. Just this week, in a serious and unprecedented move, Edelstein changed the main agreements that were reached and introduced a series of new restrictions and humiliations, while harming lomdei Torah and the trust between the coalition partners. The statement added that Edelstein refrained from publishing the version on which he claims an agreement was reached because he fears that the truth will be revealed, and the public will see the violations and deceptions he led. The Israeli public needs to know the truth: Yuli Edelstein is managing a political game on the backs of those who serve, cynically exploiting the pain of the families, causing a serious rift in the national camp, and bringing down the right-wing government. Likud representatives must denounce him. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) An IDF soldier was seriously wounded earlier today in what the military is describing as an apparent suicide attempt. According to the IDF, the soldieridentified as a paratrooper in trainingwas found with a gunshot wound believed to be self-inflicted at a training base in southern Israel. He was transported to a hospital in serious condition, and his family has been notified. The IDF has opened a Military Police investigation into the incident. Findings from the probe will be forwarded to the Military Advocate General for further review. The incident comes amid growing concerns over mental health among active-duty soldiers, particularly in the context of Israels ongoing war. Just this week, the military reported two separate caseson Wednesday and Thursdayin which soldiers died by suspected suicide. Military officials have acknowledged a rise in suicides during the current conflict, prompting renewed scrutiny of support systems and mental health resources available to soldiers under operational stress. The IDF has not released further details about the soldiers condition or the circumstances surrounding the incident, citing the ongoing investigation. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) In a rare and pointed rebuke of Israeli policy in the West Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called for an aggressive investigation into the killing of 20-year-old Palestinian-American Saif Musalat, who was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the village of Sinjil near Ramallah last week. There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old, Huckabee wrote in a post on X, marking one of his first public statements addressing the growing crisis of settler violence. The ambassador stopped short of using the term settler violence or labeling the killing part of a broader pattern, but the message nonetheless represents a shift for Huckabee, a longtime ally of Israels right-wing government and an outspoken supporter of Israeli annexation of the West Bank. The U.S. has previously condemned settler violence in general terms, but Huckabees direct call for justice in a specific case involving a Palestinian-American citizen underscores mounting pressure on Washington to take a firmer stance. Christian Palestinian activistsalready alarmed by recent attacks on the Christian village of Taybehhave circulated a petition urging Huckabee to condemn rising attacks by settlers, some of which have reportedly targeted Christian holy sites and communities. (YWN World Headquarters NYC) Iran managed to improve its performance and penetrate Israeli air defenses during Operation Rising Lion by refining its missile launch tactics and identifying vulnerabilities through a process of trial and error, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing missile defense analysts who examined missile debris and open-source intelligence data. Experts say Tehran began launching more advanced, longer-range missiles from a broader array of locations deep inside Iran. As the war went on, Iran fired fewer missiles, but its success rate rose, the report stated, citing data from think tanks based in Israel and Washington. In the first six days of the war, only about 8% of Iranian missiles penetrated Israeli defenses. By the second half of the war, that number had doubled to 16%, according to the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), a Washington-based defense think tank. JINSAs analysis identified June 22just two days before the ceasefireas the most successful Iranian strike, when 10 of the 27 missiles launched by Iran struck targets inside Israel. The data suggests Iran successfully adapted how, when, and what to fire, said Ari Cicurel, JINSAs associate director of foreign policy. While Israels air defense systemssuch as the U.S.-developed Iron Domeare among the most advanced in the world, they are not infallible. Any missile system, even a sophisticated one like Israels, will leak eventually, Raphael Cohen, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, which serves as a Pentagon think tank, told WSJ. The key for any air-defense system is less that you build a perfect system with any one layer and more the cumulative effect. The IDF initially reported interception success rates between 90% and 95%, but post-war assessments revealed an overall interception rate of 86%. Israels targeted strikes on Iranian missile launchers prevented Iran from using older, less accurate, short-range missiles. However, this strategy pushed Iran to employ more sophisticated, longer-range weapons earlier in the conflict. Debris from missile sites confirms Iran used its hypersonic Fattah-1 missile at least twice. The Fattah-1, which descends sharply from outside the atmosphere at 10 times the speed of sound and carries a warhead that splits in mid-air, poses an extreme challenge for interception. Only Israels most advanced systems, such as Arrow 3 and Davids Sling, are capable of adjusting mid-flight to counter such threats. Iran also changed its operational patternsshifting from large-scale nighttime barrages of 30 or more missiles to smaller, daytime launches from a wide range of launch sites. These adjustments included varying firing intervals and targeting cities farther from the front lines. Ari Cicurel, associate director of foreign policy at the institute, concluded that Iran successfully adapted how, when, and what it was firing, demonstrating systematic learning and tactical evolution. As the conflict wore on, and with interceptor supplies strained and operational costs mounting, Israel began prioritizing interceptions of only the most dangerous threats. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) The clashes in the Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria resumed on Wednesday despite the so-called ceasefire announced by the Syrian government, with Syrian regime forces continuing to humiliate, abduct, and execute Druze. IDF forces early Wednesday afternoon carried out a drone strike on the entrance to the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus. Shortly before the strike in Damascus, the IDF carried out drone strikes against Syrian regime forces in Sweida, injuring a number of Syrian security forces. Meanwhile, chaos is reigning on the Israeli-Syria border as hundreds of Druze gather at the area and try to breach the border and enter Syria. Hundreds entered Syria, and IDF forces are trying to bring them back. Additionally, dozens of Syrian Druze tried to breach the border in the other direction and enter Israel. IDF forces stopped them with riot dispersal means, including tear gas. Your browser does not support the video tag. Your browser does not support the video tag. Your browser does not support the video tag. Your browser does not support the video tag. Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that at least 248 people have been killed in the clashes. Dozens of Druze civilians were publicly humiliated and then executed by Syrian regime forces, including an 80-year-old sheikh. According to a report on Channel 14, a shocking video that was published shows two armed men surrounding the 80-year-old sheikh while one of them shaves his mustache in order to humiliate him. On Tuesday, after it was reported that an agreement had been reached between the Bedouins and the Druze, Syrian regime forces entered the Druze Mountain of Sweida and began to humiliate the Druze, sadistically shaving the mustaches of the Druze they captured, as seen in videos, alongside acts of murder, abuse, and looting. They also forced the Druze to bark like dogs. Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said on Wednesday, The Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces. As we have made clear and warned, Israel will not abandon the Druze in Syria and will impose the policy of demilitarization that we have decided upon. The IDF will continue to attack regime forces until their withdrawal from the area and will also soon raise the level of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. Meanwhile, leaders of Israels Druze community on Wednesday called a general strike and days of rage and urged members to cross the border into Syria to aid their brethren. Dozens of Israeli Druze crossed the border into Syria on Tuesday evening before being brought back by the IDF. The IDF is preparing for an escalation in Syria and has deployed additional forces along the Syrian border. Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who on Tuesday called for the elimination of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, published harrowing videos of atrocities on Wednesday and commented, The Islamo-Nazis of Al-Sharaa are forcing their victims to bark like dogs before murdering them. This is the October 7th of the Druze minority in Syria, and its simply astonishing to witness the total silence of Western leadership. Where is Emmanuel Macron? Where are the TV anchors who spend 24/7 obsessing over the Palestinians? Where are Antonio Guterres and Francesca Albanese, those tireless champions of human rightssuddenly nowhere to be found? (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) The books "On Education," "Outline for Studying Xi Jinping Thought on Culture," and "Xi Jinping among the People: Moments in Focus" in traditional Chinese characters are pictured at a book launch event in Hong Kong, south China, July 16, 2025. A collection of articles on education by Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with two other books featuring his thoughts and stories -- all in traditional Chinese characters -- debuted on Wednesday at the opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) HONG KONG, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A collection of articles on education by Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with two other books featuring his thoughts and stories -- all in traditional Chinese characters -- debuted on Wednesday at the opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair. The books -- "On Education," "Outline for Studying Xi Jinping Thought on Culture," and "Xi Jinping among the People: Moments in Focus," were published by Hong Kong-based Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Limited to help readers in Hong Kong and Macao gain a better understanding of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and enhance their sense of national and cultural identities. John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended the book launch event. John Lee, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attends the book launch event in Hong Kong, south China, July 16, 2025. A collection of articles on education by Chinese President Xi Jinping, along with two other books featuring his thoughts and stories -- all in traditional Chinese characters -- debuted on Wednesday at the opening of the Hong Kong Book Fair. (Xinhua/Zhu Wei) In an unprecedented step, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday appeared at the Tel Aviv District Court to show support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who was testifying in his ongoing trial. According to media reports, in response to reporters queries about his appearance at the court, Huckabee said, President Trump understands that its tough when, in the middle of such a tense term, you spend so much time in a courtroom and before judges who act unfairly. Last month, Trump twice excoriated the judicial systems witch hunt against Netanyahu, saying that the US was not going to stand for the continued persecution of Netanyahu. It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu, he wrote on Truth Social. Your browser does not support the video tag. Huckabees appearance was not the only interruption to the trial on Wednesday. Earlier, Netanyahus testimony was suspended after his military secretary, Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, arrived at the court and transferred a note to the prime minister. Immediately afterward, Netanyahu asked the judge for a break to discuss an urgent security issue. The judges granted his request, and Netanyahu left the court for about 20 minutes. According to sources knowledgeable about the matter, the security discussion was about the continued attacks by Syrian regime forces on Druze in the city of Sweida in southern Syria. Druze leaders in Israel held an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning, and there are fears that masses of Israeli Druze may cross the border into Syria to intervene in the clashes. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday slammed the silence of the international community on the atrocities perpetrated against the Druze in Syria in recent days by Syrian regime forces. We see a recurring phenomenon of persecution of minorities in Syria, to the point of massacres and pogroms in Syria, he said. Sometimes its the regimes forces, sometimes the jihadist militias, and usually its both. There are very difficult images from southern Syria today of the humiliation and murder of civilians. What else needs to happen for the international community to speak out? What more are they waiting for? Earlier on Wednesday, Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli, who on Tuesday called for the elimination of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, published harrowing videos of atrocities on Wednesday and commented, The Islamo-Nazis of Al-Sharaa are forcing their victims to bark like dogs before murdering them. This is the October 7th of the Druze minority in Syria, and its simply astonishing to witness the total silence of Western leadership. Where is Emmanuel Macron? Where are the TV anchors who spend 24/7 obsessing over the Palestinians? Where are Antonio Guterres and Francesca Albanese, those tireless champions of human rightssuddenly nowhere to be found? (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) The Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah of Shas met on Wednesday evening for a discussion on the future of the Shas party after the government failed to advance a Chareidi draft law. The Rabbanim made a decision at the meeting that Shas will resign from the government but will continue to be part of the coalition for the time being. In addition, it was reported that the Shas ministers and MKs will not support no-confidence motions against the government in order to allow the prime minister to continue his attempts to pass the draft law. Now that Shas has joined the UTJ in leaving the government, along with the symbolic resignation of Noams Avi Moaz, the coalition of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is left with only 49 MKs, without a majority in the Knesset. Shas ministers will resign from their positions but MKs were instructed to remain in their positions on Knesset committees. According to sources in the party, the purpose of the decision is to send a clear message regarding the importance of the draft law without leading to the immediate fall of the government. The Minister of Religious Services, Michael Malkieli, said after the meeting that the decision to withdraw from the government came due to the persecution of lomdei Torah. In the current situation, it is not possible to sit in the government and be a partner to it. Shas will not act against the coalitionwe will not cooperate with the left. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced Wednesday a renewed ceasefire after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the countrys postwar political transition and have drawn intervention by Syrias powerful neighbor, Israel. It was not immediately clear if the new agreement, announced by Syrian Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold. A previous ceasefire announced the day before quickly fell apart. A prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement entered into by other Druze officials. The announcement came after Israel launched a series of rare airstrikes in the heart of Damascus, part of a campaign that it said is intended to defend the Druze and to push Islamic militants away from its border. The Druze form a substantial community in Israel as well as in Syria and are seen in Israel as a loyal minority, often serving in the military. The latest escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province. Government forces that intervened to restore order then clashed with the Druze. The escalating violence has appeared to be the most serious threat yet to the ability of Syrias new rulers to consolidate control of the country after a rebel offensive led by Islamist insurgent groups ousted longtime despotic leader, Bashar Assad, in December, bringing an end to a nearly 14-year civil war. The primarily Sunni Muslim leaders have faced suspicion from religious and ethnic minorities, especially after clashes between government forces and pro-Assad armed groups in March spiraled into sectarian revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority, to which Assad belongs, were killed. Israel threatens further escalation after strikes Israel has launched dozens of strikes targeting government troops and convoys heading into Sweida, and on Wednesday struck the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in the heart of Damascus. That strike killed one person and injured 18, Syrian officials said. Another strike hit near the presidential palace in the hills outside of Damascus. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said after the airstrike in a post on X that the painful blows have begun. An Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations said the army was preparing for a multitude of scenarios and that a brigade, normally comprising thousands of soldiers, was being pulled out of Gaza and sent to the Golan Heights. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement reached Tuesday. Meanwhile, reports of attacks on civilians continued to surface, and Druze with family members in the conflict zone searched desperately for information about their fate amid communication blackouts. Druze fear for the lives of their relatives in Sweida In Jaramana near the Syrian capital, Evelyn Azzam, 20, said she fears that her husband, Robert Kiwan, 23, is dead. The newlyweds live in the Damascus suburb, but Kiwan would commute to Sweida for work each morning and got trapped there when the clashes erupted. Azzam said she was on the phone with Kiwan when security forces questioned him and a colleague about whether they were affiliated with Druze militias. When her husbands colleague raised his voice, she heard a gunshot. Kiwan was then shot while trying to appeal. They shot my husband in the hip from what I could gather, she said, struggling to hold back tears. The ambulance took him to the hospital. Since then, we have no idea what has happened. A Syrian Druze from Sweida living in the United Arab Emirates said her mother, father, and sister were hiding in a basement in their home near the hospital, where they could hear the sound of shelling and bullets from outside. She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear her family might be targeted. She had struggled to get hold of them, but when she reached them, she said, I heard them cry. I have never heard them this way before. Another Druze woman living in the UAE with family members in Sweida, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a cousin told her that a house where their relatives lived had been burned down with everyone inside it. It reminded her of when the Islamic State extremist group attacked Sweida in 2018, she said. Her uncle was among many civilians there who took arms to fight back while Assads forces stood aside. He was killed in the fighting. Its the same right now, she told The Associated Press. The Druze fighters, she said, are just people who are protecting their province and their families. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Reports of killings and looting in Druze areas Videos surfaced on social media of government-affiliated fighters forcibly shaving the mustaches of Druze sheikhs, and stepping on Druze flags and pictures of religious clerics. Other videos showed Druze fighters beating captured government forces and posing by their dead bodies. AP reporters in the area saw burned and looted houses. No official casualty figures have been released since Monday, when the Syrian Interior Ministry said 30 people had been killed. The U.K.-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces. The observatory said at least 27 people were killed in field executions. Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa issued a statement Wednesday condemning the violations. These criminal and illegal actions cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and completely contradicts the principles that the Syrian state is built on, the statement read, vowing that perpetrators would be punished. Druze in the Golan gathered along the border fence to protest the violence against Druze in Syria. Israel threatens to scale up its intervention On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the Israeli army will continue to attack regime forces until they withdraw from the area and will also soon raise the bar of responses against the regime if the message is not understood. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday night that Israel has a commitment to preserve the southwestern region of Syria as a demilitarized area on Israels border and has an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals. Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syrias new leaders since Assads fall, saying it doesnt want Islamist militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. (AP) The political system in Iran is in turmoil, with President Masoud Pezeshkian facing accusations of attempting a coup against Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Iran International reported. Over 30 lawmakers have called for Pezeshkians impeachment, claiming he is trying to undermine Khameneis rule Conservative circles in Iran claim that the president, who is identified with the moderate line, seeks to lead the Islamic Republic towards normalization with Israel and join the Abraham Accords. In a widely circulated video, Member of Parliament and former regime official Abolfazl Zohrevand claimed that the Pezeshkian administration will end the Islamic Revolution before the conclusion of his term. They believe that by ending the revolution and terminating Khameneis rule, they can begin a new era and join the Abraham Accords, he added. When asked if this amounted to a coup, Zohrevand replied, What else could this be if not a coup detat? Some voices warn that instead of post-war unity, dangerous fragmentation is emerging. The dust has not settled after the explosions, yet the sound of polarization is louder than the missile blasts, former government spokesman Ali Rabiei wrote in Etemad Daily on July 10. Lets prevent societal fragmentationthis is precisely what the aggressors want. (YWN Israel DeskJerusalem) Can you put a price on your childrens happiness? At Disneyland Paris, its 1,000 a day. Thats what a four-day visit at the end of June cost our family of four. Taking advantage of two school inset days, my husband and I booked a term-time trip to surprise our children, aged eight and five. Our eldest loved meeting Darth Vader and the thrill rides like Big Thunder Mountain. Our youngest adored meeting Tigger her cuddly companion since babyhood. That hug with A.A. Milnes fictional character brought tears to my eyes. But nothing made our eyes water more than the cost: nearly 4,000 for the trip. I now realise there are ways we could have knocked hundreds of pounds off the cost I only wish Id known sooner. Heres how. Disney joy: But, like Donald, you can have a huge bill if you take your family to the Paris attraction Getting There As we were getting the 7am Eurostar train from Londons St Pancras, we stayed the night before at Premier Inn Euston (220) to avoid a very early commute. Big mistake. The hotel had no air conditioning and, on a warm June night, none of us slept well. We should have taken a 45 early morning taxi from home, saving 160 and a sleepless night. Eurostar tickets (booked two months ahead) cost 546. Had we been more flexible on our travel times, we could have been savvier with our tickets. Its usually much cheaper to depart from London in the afternoon even in the school holidays. For instance, return tickets can currently be had for 130.65 per adult and 64.83 for children on August 28 on the 13.01 train from St Pancras. Thats a family bill of 390.96, saving 155.04 on the total we paid. Flying to Paris could also have been quicker and cheaper. British Airways return flights for a family of four from Heathrow to Charles de Gaulle are about 515, and Magic Shuttle bus tickets to Disneyland cost around 60 that would have saved me around 130, even factoring in a taxi to the airport. Hotel We booked a package including four-day tickets to Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, plus three nights at Newport Bay Hotel with a half-board meal plan. It cost 2,567.84. The hotel is a ten-minute walk from the parks, allowing us to break up the day and escape the crowds. The pool was a great way to cool down in the 30c heat though one afternoon we had to evacuate because a child (not ours!) pooed in the water. We stayed in a superior room with two double beds. It smelled damp, the air conditioning control wouldnt go below 20c, and a large fridge was dumped unplugged at the foot of a bed. After complaining, we received an apology and a slightly cooler room. However, the staff explained that French energy reduction laws restrict the use of air conditioning in hotels and other commercial buildings. Later trains: Its usually much cheaper to depart from London on the Eurostar in the afternoon even in the school holidays I wish Id known to book via cashback website topcashback.co.uk. By signing up for an account and then accessing the Disneyland Paris website through the link it provided, I could have earned 35 for my Newport Bay stay. You can earn 50 for staying at other hotels near the park, including the New York, Disneyland or Sequoia Lodge hotels. And if I had thought to check out my Tesco Clubcard offers, I could have made further savings by exchanging Clubcard points earned when grocery shopping for a hotels.com voucher, which I could redeem when booking the hotel through its website. Park tickets Our tickets covered both parks for four days (Thursday to Sunday). One-day entry for a family of four booked in advance at disneylandparis.com costs just over 500 on the Disneyland Paris website, so the four-day package seemed better value. It also meant we didnt feel the need to buy queue jumpers officially called premier access passes that range from 4-14 per person per ride. I wished Id known I could have used my Visa bank card to get us into the Stitch Live experience over at Disney Studios without queueing. We were beaten by more organised families and disappointed my daughter by not getting into the show. While admission is free to all, Visa Privileged Access would have let us in before the masses to any of the last three showings of the day just by waving any Visa payment card to staff on the door. Food and Drink The half-board plus plan cost 565 and gave six meal vouchers across the hotel and parks. Breakfast at the hotels Yacht Club buffet didnt require reservations and the kids devoured the crepes each morning. I should have made dinner reservations at the hotel restaurants as soon as we booked the trip. By the time I got around to it, two weeks before we went, kid-friendly slots were scarce and character dining (where Disney favourites walk around the tables) was fully booked. Drinks were limited to one soft drink per meal, so we paid extra for more and the occasional wine or beer. This added around 22 per dinner and 35 at the Yacht Club for small glasses of wine with each course. After walking 20,000 steps, one sunny evening my husband and I treated ourselves to a pina colada at the hotels outdoor bar. They came with Mickey Mouse-shaped pineapple slices and a 14 price tag each. We didnt order more. Memories: One-day entry for a family of four booked in advance at disneylandparis.com costs just over 500 on the Disneyland Paris website On top of included meals, we paid for four lunches. In the main park, a hot dog meal at Caseys Corner cost 56. Other lunches in the village included Italian chain Vapiano (40), Earl Of Sandwich (38), and McDonalds (25). A 6 Alice in Wonderland-themed ice cream and a couple of 4 soft drinks rounded out our bill. Packing kids snacks from home saved us a small fortune and Id do that again. I spent less than 10 stocking up on multipacks of chocolate chip cookies, dried fruit snacks and crisps in the supermarket before we left home. Park eateries, including Cafe Hyperion in Discoveryland, were charging 3 for a Mickey Cookie and 3.50 for a fruit bag. Two snacks for two kids for four days at those prices would have cost me 54, so I saved at least 40. Toys I dare any parent to escape Disneyland without buying a few toys. We got away with just five purchases: a 30 cuddly Stitch, a 22 fake pink camera covered in Disney princesses that blew bubbles, a 39 design-your-own lightsaber and a 19 magnetic toy that sits on your shoulder. While Disney is clever in stocking exclusive items in its park stores, I could have brought cheaper Disney-branded toys from home to give the children on arrival at the parks to curb spending. For example, the Play By Play Plush Soft Stitch Disney With Sound (20cm almost the same size as my daughters purchase) is on sale at Amazon for 17.34, and Star Wars branded retractable lightsabers can be bought for around 24. But sometimes indulging your kids in a toyshop is worth more than the cost of the gift even if it makes you a sucker to Disneys marketing department. Disneyland is crazy expensive. The queues are long and theres really not much provision for small children in the way of playgrounds, soft plays or even shade from the raging summer sun. But for four days, it truly was the happiest place on Earth for our kids just not our bank balance! Up to 150 more Eurofighter Typhoon jets are set to be ordered before the end of the decade in a boost for defence manufacturer BAE Systems, the company revealed yesterday. The firm is confident the Government will succeed in brokering orders with Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for two-thirds of the aircraft, which will be assembled in the UK. A further 30 planes are due to be ordered by the Polish air force and assembled by Italian defence manufacturer Leonardo, and the remaining jets purchased by Germany and Italy. But 37 per cent of the component parts for all those planes would be made in Britain too, under the Eurofighters partnership agreement. The extra orders would come on top of 112 Typhoons already in production in Germany and Italy from existing deals. Richard Hamilton, managing director for BAEs Europe and International air sector, said he was highly confident of the likelihood of the additional orders materialising. In demand: BAE is confident the Government will succeed in brokering orders for Typhoons with Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia for two-thirds of the aircraft It comes after concern from the Unite union representing staff at BAEs Warton Aerodrome and Samlesbury sites in Lancashire that orders under the Eurofighter project could dry up and threaten jobs. Earlier this month, Unite revealed assembly lines for the aircraft at Warton had ground to a halt due to a lack of new orders, leading to hundreds of workers being transferred to other BAE factories or to RAF bases. BAE shares yesterday slipped 1.5 per cent, or 28p, to 1882.5p. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG Free Report) by 3.6% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 27,356 shares of the energy companys stock after purchasing an additional 939 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.s holdings in Cheniere Energy were worth $6,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. REAP Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Cheniere Energy by 150.0% during the 4th quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 125 shares of the energy companys stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA purchased a new stake in shares of Cheniere Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Cooksen Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Cheniere Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $38,000. Nemes Rush Group LLC raised its position in Cheniere Energy by 2,022.2% in the 4th quarter. Nemes Rush Group LLC now owns 191 shares of the energy companys stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriflex Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Cheniere Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.26% of the companys stock. Get Cheniere Energy alerts: Analyst Ratings Changes Several equities analysts have issued reports on LNG shares. UBS Group reissued a buy rating and issued a $277.00 price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy from $248.00 to $254.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $288.00 price objective on shares of Cheniere Energy and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Cheniere Energy from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on Cheniere Energy from $260.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $260.36. Insider Activity In other news, Director Neal A. Shear sold 4,300 shares of Cheniere Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $245.93, for a total transaction of $1,057,499.00. Following the sale, the director owned 29,733 shares in the company, valued at $7,312,236.69. This trade represents a 12.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.26% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. Cheniere Energy Trading Down 2.5% NYSE LNG opened at $235.50 on Wednesday. Cheniere Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $167.66 and a one year high of $257.65. The companys 50 day moving average price is $235.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $228.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.23 and a beta of 0.42. Cheniere Energy (NYSE:LNG Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The energy company reported $1.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts consensus estimates of $2.81 by ($1.24). The firm had revenue of $5.44 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $4.73 billion. Cheniere Energy had a net margin of 18.37% and a return on equity of 32.62%. The companys revenue for the quarter was up 28.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.13 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cheniere Energy, Inc. will post 11.69 EPS for the current year. Cheniere Energy Announces Dividend The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 8th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Cheniere Energys dividend payout ratio is currently 14.63%. About Cheniere Energy (Free Report) Cheniere Energy, Inc, an energy infrastructure company, primarily engages in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) related businesses in the United States. It owns and operates the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, Louisiana; and the Corpus Christi LNG terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas. The company also owns Creole Trail pipeline, a 94-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Sabine Pass LNG Terminal with several interstate and intrastate pipelines; and operates Corpus Christi pipeline, a 21.5-mile natural gas supply pipeline that interconnects the Corpus Christi LNG terminal with various interstate and intrastate natural gas pipelines. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding LNG? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Cheniere Energy, Inc. (NYSE:LNG Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Cheniere Energy Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Cheniere Energy and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA Free Report) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 26,394 shares of the aircraft producers stock after selling 1,427 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc.s holdings in Boeing were worth $4,501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. American National Bank & Trust grew its stake in Boeing by 474.1% during the 1st quarter. American National Bank & Trust now owns 155 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Boeing by 60.2% during the 4th quarter. REAP Financial Group LLC now owns 173 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Boeing by 167.2% during the 4th quarter. Dogwood Wealth Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Solstein Capital LLC purchased a new position in Boeing during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Boeing during the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.82% of the companys stock. Get Boeing alerts: Wall Street Analyst Weigh In A number of research firms recently issued reports on BA. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Boeing from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Boeing from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Saturday, May 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a cautious rating on shares of Boeing in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Boeing from $220.00 to $270.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an underweight rating on shares of Boeing in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Boeing has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $218.59. Insider Buying and Selling In related news, SVP Brendan J. Nelson sold 640 shares of Boeing stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.28, for a total transaction of $132,019.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 13,258 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,734,860.24. The trade was a 4.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP David Christopher Raymond sold 3,899 shares of Boeing stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.01, for a total value of $729,151.99. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 42,513 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,950,356.13. This represents a 8.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 7,744 shares of company stock valued at $1,511,370. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders. Boeing Price Performance Boeing stock opened at $229.97 on Wednesday. The Boeing Company has a 1-year low of $128.88 and a 1-year high of $233.61. The company has a market cap of $173.40 billion, a PE ratio of -12.83 and a beta of 1.41. The stocks 50 day moving average price is $207.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $183.67. Boeing (NYSE:BA Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aircraft producer reported ($0.49) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of ($1.39) by $0.90. The business had revenue of $19.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $19.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The firms quarterly revenue was up 17.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The Boeing Company will post -2.58 EPS for the current fiscal year. Boeing Profile (Free Report) The Boeing Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, services, and supports commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight and launch systems, and services worldwide. The company operates through Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; and Global Services segments. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Boeing Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Boeing and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Stora Enso Oyj (OTCMKTS:SEOAY Get Free Report) and Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV (OTCMKTS:KCDMY Get Free Report) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, valuation, profitability, risk, dividends and earnings. Valuation and Earnings This table compares Stora Enso Oyj and Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CVs revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Get Stora Enso Oyj alerts: Gross Revenue Price/Sales Ratio Net Income Earnings Per Share Price/Earnings Ratio Stora Enso Oyj $9.79 billion 0.87 -$146.08 million ($0.13) -83.38 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV $3.01 billion 1.99 $429.88 million $0.66 14.76 Profitability Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Stora Enso Oyj. Stora Enso Oyj is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. This table compares Stora Enso Oyj and Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CVs net margins, return on equity and return on assets. Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Stora Enso Oyj -1.01% -3.74% -1.93% Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV 13.90% 135.86% 14.95% Volatility & Risk Stora Enso Oyj has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV has a beta of 0.74, meaning that its stock price is 26% less volatile than the S&P 500. Analyst Ratings This is a summary of recent recommendations for Stora Enso Oyj and Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV, as provided by MarketBeat. Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Stora Enso Oyj 2 0 0 0 1.00 Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV 0 1 0 0 2.00 Dividends Stora Enso Oyj pays an annual dividend of $0.12 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV pays an annual dividend of $0.49 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.0%. Stora Enso Oyj pays out -92.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV pays out 74.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Institutional and Insider Ownership 0.0% of Stora Enso Oyj shares are held by institutional investors. 8.1% of Stora Enso Oyj shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth. Summary Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV beats Stora Enso Oyj on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks. About Stora Enso Oyj (Get Free Report) Stora Enso Oyj provides renewable solutions for the packaging, biomaterials, wooden constructions, and paper industries in Finland and internationally. It operates through Packaging Materials, Packaging Solutions, Biomaterials, Wood Products, Forest, Paper, and Other segments. The company's Packaging Materials segment offers virgin and recycled fiber replace fossil-based materials with low-carbon, renewable and recyclable packaging materials for food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and transport packaging. Its Packaging Solutions segment develops and sells fiber-based packaging products and services, including converting corrugated boards and carton boards; and new materials, such as formed fiber and wood foams into standard and bespoke packaging solutions for retail, e-commerce, and industrials. The company's Biomaterials segment provides various pulp for packaging, paper, tissue, specialties, and hygiene product producers; and tall oil and turpentine from biomass. Its Wood Products segment offers wood-based solutions, including digital tools for design and construction of building projects with wood; applications for windows and doors; and pellets for sustainable heating solutions. The company's Forest segment engages in sustainable forest management, as well as supplies wood. Its Paper segments offers portfolio of products for print and office use. The company's Other segment produces electricity and heat. It serves packaging manufacturers, brand owners, paper merchants, publishers, retailers, printing houses, converters, and construction companies. The company was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. About Kimberly-Clark de Mexico SAB de CV (Get Free Report) Kimberly-Clark de Mexico, S. A. B. de C. V., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures, distributes, and markets disposable products in Mexico. The company offers baby diapers, training pants, swim pants, wet wipes, shampoos, creams, bar soaps, and feeding products. It also provides toilet papers, napkins, facial tissues, paper towels, feminine pads, panty liners, tampons, intimate wipes, and menstrual cups. In addition, the company offers pets shampoos, sprays, repellents, and cleaners. Further, it provides liquid hand soap, foaming liquid soap, and liquid body wash; and underwear, protectors, feminine pads, pre-folded products for adults. Additionally, the company offers anti-bacterial gels; disinfectant sprays; face masks; dispensers; hand towels; and industrial cleaning cloths. The company offers its products primarily under the Huggies, KleenBebe, Kleenex, Evenflo, Petalo, Suavel, Cottonelle, Depend, Kotex, Pull-Ups, GoodNites, Vogue, Delsey, Diapro, LYS, Fancy, Kimberly-Clark, and Escudo brands. The company exports its products. Kimberly-Clark de Mexico, S. A. B. de C. V. was founded in 1925 and is based in Mexico City, Mexico. Receive News & Ratings for Stora Enso Oyj Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Stora Enso Oyj and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. WELLINGTON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand and Malaysia have launched a joint initiative to boost trade in premium halal meat, building on New Zealand's strong halal processing reputation. The move, unveiled at a Halal Forum in Wellington on Wednesday and attended by high-level officials of both countries, is expected to open new export pathways for New Zealand producers, said a New Zealand government statement. New Zealand exported over 60 million NZ dollars (35.68 million U.S. dollars) in halal meat to Malaysia last year, it said. As part of the agreement, Malaysian authorities will visit several New Zealand facilities seeking access to the Malaysian market for the first time, a step considered crucial for further export growth. With Malaysia's population exceeding 35 million, officials from both countries anticipate significant market expansion, said New Zealand's Minister for Food Safety Andrew Hoggard. "Once approved, this will boost returns for Kiwi farmers, processors and exporters," Hoggard said, adding work is underway to simplify export rules for New Zealand producers, with updates to registration, documentation, processing, and packaging requirements. Signaturefd LLC cut its position in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEARCA:VYM Free Report) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,888 shares of the companys stock after selling 99 shares during the quarter. Signaturefd LLCs holdings in Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF were worth $1,404,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF during the 1st quarter valued at $218,000. Florida Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 67.7% during the 1st quarter. Florida Financial Advisors LLC now owns 5,816 shares of the companys stock valued at $750,000 after buying an additional 2,347 shares in the last quarter. Key Financial Inc raised its position in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 18.0% during the 1st quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 8,639 shares of the companys stock valued at $1,114,000 after buying an additional 1,315 shares in the last quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Pointe Capital Management LLC now owns 97,684 shares of the companys stock valued at $12,597,000 after buying an additional 2,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cahaba Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Cahaba Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,378 shares of the companys stock valued at $694,000 after buying an additional 263 shares in the last quarter. Get Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF alerts: Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF Stock Performance Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF stock opened at $133.47 on Wednesday. The firms fifty day moving average price is $130.75 and its 200-day moving average price is $129.06. The stock has a market cap of $61.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.79 and a beta of 0.84. Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF has a fifty-two week low of $112.05 and a fifty-two week high of $135.97. About Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF The Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund (VYM) is an exchange-traded fund that is based on the FTSE Custom High Dividend Yield index. The fund tracks the FTSE High Dividend Yield Index. The index selects high-dividend-paying US companies, excluding REITS, and weights them by market cap. VYM was launched on Nov 10, 2006 and is managed by Vanguard. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. PAX Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP Free Report) by 10.2% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,162 shares of the energy producers stock after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the quarter. PAX Financial Group LLCs holdings in ConocoPhillips were worth $332,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealthfront Advisers LLC boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 201,292 shares of the energy producers stock valued at $21,140,000 after buying an additional 9,392 shares during the period. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 6.4% during the 1st quarter. Pinkerton Retirement Specialists LLC now owns 41,797 shares of the energy producers stock valued at $4,390,000 after buying an additional 2,496 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 812.0% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 127,811 shares of the energy producers stock valued at $13,423,000 after buying an additional 113,797 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 1,122.6% during the 1st quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 249,823 shares of the energy producers stock valued at $26,236,000 after buying an additional 229,390 shares during the period. Finally, Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in ConocoPhillips by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Prevail Innovative Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 57,281 shares of the energy producers stock valued at $6,016,000 after buying an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.36% of the companys stock. Get ConocoPhillips alerts: Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several brokerages have weighed in on COP. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $135.00 to $120.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of ConocoPhillips from $111.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Scotiabank set a $100.00 target price on shares of ConocoPhillips and gave the stock a sector perform rating in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an overweight rating and issued a $117.00 target price (up from $113.00) on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an outperform rating and issued a $109.00 target price (up from $103.00) on shares of ConocoPhillips in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $122.70. ConocoPhillips Trading Down 1.5% Shares of NYSE COP opened at $92.71 on Wednesday. ConocoPhillips has a 1 year low of $79.88 and a 1 year high of $118.40. The stock has a market cap of $117.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $90.82 and a 200 day moving average of $94.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.13. ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The energy producer reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts consensus estimates of $2.05 by $0.04. ConocoPhillips had a net margin of 16.02% and a return on equity of 16.54%. The company had revenue of $16.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $15.74 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.05 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ConocoPhillips will post 8.16 EPS for the current fiscal year. ConocoPhillips Announces Dividend The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were given a dividend of $0.78 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $3.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.37%. ConocoPhillipss dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.64%. Insider Transactions at ConocoPhillips In other ConocoPhillips news, EVP Kirk L. Johnson purchased 5,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $94.24 per share, with a total value of $499,472.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 14,527 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,369,024.48. The trade was a 57.44% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders. About ConocoPhillips (Free Report) ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, bitumen, natural gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and natural gas liquids in the United States, Canada, China, Libya, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company's portfolio includes unconventional plays in North America; conventional assets in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia; global LNG developments; oil sands assets in Canada; and an inventory of global exploration prospects. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding COP? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for ConocoPhillips Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for ConocoPhillips and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Altman Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS Free Report) by 1.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,127 shares of the investment management companys stock after selling 57 shares during the quarter. Altman Advisors Inc.s holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group were worth $2,259,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 1,038,057 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $594,412,000 after acquiring an additional 138,198 shares during the last quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. raised its holdings in The Goldman Sachs Group by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Baxter Bros Inc. now owns 15,506 shares of the investment management companys stock worth $8,879,000 after acquiring an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. Clear Creek Financial Management LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Terra Nova Asset Management LLC bought a new position in The Goldman Sachs Group during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,643,000. Finally, Strategic Blueprint LLC lifted its position in The Goldman Sachs Group by 15.2% during the first quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 3,271 shares of the investment management companys stock valued at $1,787,000 after purchasing an additional 432 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.21% of the companys stock. Get The Goldman Sachs Group alerts: Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GS. Daiwa America downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $625.00 to $614.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer downgraded shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group from $760.00 to $720.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Citizens Jmp reiterated a market perform rating on shares of The Goldman Sachs Group in a research report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $614.00. The Goldman Sachs Group Stock Performance GS opened at $702.28 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $215.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.30, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a fifty day moving average of $638.26 and a 200 day moving average of $598.28. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $437.37 and a fifty-two week high of $726.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68. The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The investment management company reported $10.91 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts consensus estimates of $9.82 by $1.09. The Goldman Sachs Group had a net margin of 11.86% and a return on equity of 13.76%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. will post 47.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. The Goldman Sachs Group Profile (Free Report) The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc, a financial institution, provides a range of financial services for corporations, financial institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. It operates through Global Banking & Markets, Asset & Wealth Management, and Platform Solutions segments. The Global Banking & Markets segment provides financial advisory services, including strategic advisory assignments related to mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate defense activities, restructurings, and spin-offs; and relationship lending, and acquisition financing, as well as secured lending, through structured credit and asset-backed lending and involved in financing under securities to resale agreements. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding GS? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for The Goldman Sachs Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for The Goldman Sachs Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. Summit X LLC lowered its stake in shares of The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA Free Report) by 4.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,976 shares of the aircraft producers stock after selling 132 shares during the period. Summit X LLCs holdings in Boeing were worth $508,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of BA. Bridgewater Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Boeing in the 1st quarter worth $1,261,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Boeing by 25.2% in the 1st quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 20,785 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $3,545,000 after acquiring an additional 4,188 shares during the last quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Boeing by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Winslow Asset Management Inc. now owns 41,795 shares of the aircraft producers stock worth $7,128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC grew its position in shares of Boeing by 11.6% during the 1st quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 51,118 shares of the aircraft producers stock valued at $8,718,000 after acquiring an additional 5,309 shares during the period. Finally, Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Boeing by 13.9% during the 1st quarter. Schwarz Dygos Wheeler Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,026 shares of the aircraft producers stock valued at $687,000 after acquiring an additional 492 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.82% of the companys stock. Get Boeing alerts: Insider Transactions at Boeing In other news, SVP Brendan J. Nelson sold 640 shares of Boeing stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.28, for a total transaction of $132,019.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 13,258 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $2,734,860.24. The trade was a 4.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP David Christopher Raymond sold 3,899 shares of Boeing stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.01, for a total transaction of $729,151.99. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 42,513 shares of the companys stock, valued at approximately $7,950,356.13. This trade represents a 8.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 7,744 shares of company stock valued at $1,511,370. Insiders own 0.09% of the companys stock. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. TD Securities lowered shares of Boeing to a cautious rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Cowen reaffirmed a buy rating on shares of Boeing in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Benchmark decreased their price target on shares of Boeing from $250.00 to $215.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Boeing from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $180.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $212.00 price target on shares of Boeing and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Boeing currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $219.95. Check Out Our Latest Stock Report on BA Boeing Stock Down 0.2% NYSE:BA opened at $229.97 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $207.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.67. The company has a market cap of $173.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.83 and a beta of 1.41. The Boeing Company has a 52 week low of $128.88 and a 52 week high of $233.61. Boeing (NYSE:BA Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The aircraft producer reported ($0.49) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.39) by $0.90. The firm had revenue of $19.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts expectations of $19.57 billion. Boeings revenue for the quarter was up 17.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($1.13) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that The Boeing Company will post -2.58 EPS for the current year. Boeing Company Profile (Free Report) The Boeing Company, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, manufactures, sells, services, and supports commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight and launch systems, and services worldwide. The company operates through Commercial Airplanes; Defense, Space & Security; and Global Services segments. Recommended Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BA? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA Free Report). Receive News & Ratings for Boeing Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Boeing and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's postal industry handled 104.51 billion parcels in the first half of this year, up 16.9 percent year on year, the State Post Bureau said Wednesday. Express delivery services processed 95.64 billion parcels during the same period, marking a 19.3 percent increase from a year earlier. According to the bureau, China's postal industry generated 873.09 billion yuan (about 122 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue in the first six months, rising 8.3 percent year on year. Express delivery services contributed 718.78 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent. According to an official from the bureau, intra-city express delivery services handled 7.88 billion parcels, up 6.2 percent year on year. Inter-city services processed 85.74 billion parcels, increasing 20.6 percent. In terms of regional distribution, eastern, central and western China accounted for 71.6 percent, 19.3 percent and 9.1 percent of the express delivery volume, respectively. For revenue, the proportions were 74 percent, 15.5 percent and 10.5 percent. The official noted that the central and western regions have increased their market share compared to the same period last year, with the central region's delivery volume and revenue proportions rising by 0.8 and 0.5 percentage points, respectively, while western regions saw increases of 0.6 and 0.3 percentage points. China's gross domestic product grew 5.3 percent year on year in the first half of 2025, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed Tuesday. "The economy has made steady progress despite pressures, with significant economic indicators performing better than expected," said Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the bureau, at a press conference on Tuesday. The Social Welfare (Bereaved Partners and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025 has been passed and will now be presented to the President for signing, following an announcement from The Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary TD. The Bill will now extend eligibility for the payment to qualified cohabitants who have been in an intimate and committed relationship for a period of two years where there is a child or children of the relationship or five years if otherwise. This comes as a result of the Supreme Court judgment in January 2024, which found in favour of Mr. Johnny OMeara and his children in quashing a previous decision to refuse Mr OMeara a Widowers Contributory Pension on the basis that he and his deceased partner were not married. In so doing, the Supreme Court acknowledged that a legislative change was required to resolve the issues raised by its judgment. There will be no time restrictions on when the bereavement of the qualified cohabitant occurred, provided the rules for payment continue to be met. Payments will commence from the date of the Supreme Court Judgment, 22 January 2024, or later if the death is after this date. People will have six months from the date of enactment to make a claim where the death occurred before that date. Because of these changes, the scheme will now be known as the Bereaved Partners (Contributory) Pension, to reflect the more inclusive nature of the payment. READ NEXT: Irish country music star shares diagnosis after 'scary' and 'difficult' hospital ordeal The following schemes will also be amended to include qualified cohabitants on enactment. Widow, Widowers Widows, Widowers and Surviving Civil Partners (Non Contributory) Pension Widowed or Surviving Civil Partner Grant Death Benefit Scheme under the Occupational Injuries Scheme Payment rates are as follows: Contributions Aged under 66 Aged 66 or over 48 or more contributions 249.50 289.30 36-47 contributions 245.70 283.70 24-35 contributions 242.90 277 To get your rate of payment, your 'Short Yearly Average' is calculated. If this is 39 or greater, you will qualify for the maximum rate. If it is below 39, we calculate your 'Long Yearly Average'. If this is 48, you will qualify for the maximum weekly rate. If it is 47 or less, you will qualify for a reduced rate of payment. Commenting on the Bills passing, Minister Calleary said: I wish to acknowledge the loss that Johnny OMeara and his family have suffered. I had the privilege of meeting with Johnny and heard his story first hand. I was impressed by Johnnys quiet determination and courage to see this case through all the way to the Supreme Court. This legislation will have an important impact for hundreds of people directly affected by the death of a loved one. It should also bring comfort to thousands of families and couples who may someday find themselves in that unfortunate position where a loved-one dies and they seek access to a pension from my Department. As we all know, death does not distinguish on any grounds and the loss of a loved one affects all equally. My Department will now prioritise communicating these changes in relation to the expansion of eligibility to qualified cohabitants and will ensure that payments issue to eligible people as soon as possible. I am very pleased that this landmark legislation has passed all stages of the Oireachtas. The Bill will now be sent to President Higgins for signature. We're now past the midyear point and now in what is traditionally the most violent part of the year in Kansas City. More importantly . . . DESPITE CLAIMS OF PROGRESS KANSAS CITY HOMICIDES SPIKE OVER LAST YEAR'S NUMBERS!!! That rate is around double digits and around the same level that we've seen throughout the tenure of Mayor Q . . . Two terms that have seem more deadly violence than at any point in local recorder history. Accordingly, we wanted to take a moment to roundup local reporting . . . Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com links . . . Woman found dead after argument leads to shooting in Kansas City Police are investigating a fatal shooting that happened in the 8700 block of Countryshire Lane. Police in Kansas City, Missouri, investigating woman's death as homicide Police in Kansas City, Missouri, say a woman was found shot to death Tuesday morning in an apartment building. Kansas City police investigating second deadly shooting in south Kansas City Tuesday Kansas City, MO police are investigating a second homicide on the south side of the city after a shooting turned deadly Tuesday, July 15. Developing . . . Looking closely at upcoming progressive demonstrations against Missouri Republicans and MAGA, we notice a sneak peek at the Mayor stepping to the forefront of this movement. To wit . . . UPCOMING NATIONWIDE PROTEST FEATURES MAYOR Q RETURNING TO THE SOCIAL JUSTICE STRUGGLE!!! Here are more www.TonysKansasCity.com deets that are now circulating amongst social media and shared with better reporters across the metro . . . Missouri Voter Advocates Host Good Trouble Lives On events on July 17 Demanding Access to Voting Rights Now To Realize John Lewis Vision For Democracy Missourians urge Congress to Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and Call on Missourians to Protect Direct Democracy to #ProtectMOVoters On Thursday, July 17, Missouri voter advocates will host John Lewis National Day of Action events to mark the five-year anniversary of the passing of Rep. John Lewis, including a flagship event in St. Louis and additional Good Trouble Lives on events in Kansas City, Springfield, Jefferson City, Columbia, Cape Girardeau, and St. Peters Missouri with St. Louis and Kansas City serving as national anchor events in this years coordinated campaign. Joining over 1,1000 events happening in almost all 50 states including Washington D.C.. to celebrate his extraordinary legacy and call on Congress to pass critical legislation to protect the freedom to vote, end gerrymandering, and get money out of politics to realize Rep. Lewis vision for a democracy that works for all of us. The events, organized by the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition and its partners, will educate, motivate and activate our community to work towards Congressional passage of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, the Freedom to Vote Act, the Native American Voting Rights Act. The urgency of this effort is especially clear in Missouri, where the right to vote is increasingly under attack. Lawmakers have sought to weaken the citizen initiative process one of the few remaining tools for direct democracy in the state. Ongoing legal battles challenge strict photo ID requirements and harsh criminal penalties aimed at voter registration efforts, threatening to suppress civic engagement, especially in marginalized communities. Missouri continues to be a testing ground for laws that limit access to the ballot, making the call for federal standards all the more critical. These events are not just moments of remembrance they are calls to action. In the spirit of Congressman Lewis, Missouri communities are rising up to protect what he called the most powerful nonviolent tool we have: the vote. From courthouse steps to community centers, Missourians are carrying forward the work of building a democracy that includes and represents all of us. As we honor Lewis legacy, we invite all Missourians to take part to get informed, get organized, and get into good trouble. Whether by attending a rally, registering voters, contacting your representatives, or sharing your story, everyone has a role to play in this movement for justice and democracy. To find an event near you or to get involved, visit GoodTroubleLivesOn.org. Kansas City, MO Flagship Event Information: WHAT: Kansas City John Lewis National Day of Commemoration and Action Program to feature remarks by Mayor Quinton Lucus WHEN: 6-7:30 pm, Thursday, July 17th, 2025 WHERE: Swope Park Bandstand 4177 Pavillion Road, Kansas City, MO 64132 VISUALS: Bandstand, banners, flyers, signs, remarks from KC Mayor Quintin Lucas and other community leaders, music performances; presentation of good trouble awards SPONSORS: League of Women Voters KC, Communities Creating Opportunitiy, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Communities Creating Opportunity, Stand Up KC/MO Workers Center, SURJ Showing Up for Racial Justice, MO Jobs with Justice, ACLU of Missouri,Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Indivisible Kansas City, Boots on the Ground Midwest, Indivisible KC, Heartland Alliance for Progress, League of Women Voters KC, UAW 249,Kansas City Women's Action Collaborative, Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation, Eitas, Sierra Club, National Congress of Black Women KC, American Assoc of Univ Women, Missouri Action Alliance, Poor People's Campaign of Kansas City MO, Heart of America Indian Center, Women's Equality Coalition, Heartland Women in the Trades, Gender Equity Task, Force-KC Human Rights Commission, UMKC School of Social work, UMKC Women's Center, Indivisible Blue Brookside, A. Philip Randolph Institute, Carter Broadcast Group, Do Something, KPRS Hot 103 ########### Developing . . . Thank you for signing up! Youll soon be getting your Toronto scoop in your inbox. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Chairman of the Peoples Council of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, arrived in Azerbaijan today. The timing and substance of the visit are highly symbolic, as relations between the two Caspian neighbors continue to deepen across multiple fronts. Baku and Ashgabat are strengthening cooperation in several key areas - from energy and logistics to political coordination and cultural exchange. And increasingly, this trajectory of closer ties appears both stable and mutually beneficial. One of the clearest symbols of this diplomatic shift is the renaming of the disputed Kapaz/Serdar offshore field to Dostlug, which means Friendship in both Azerbaijani and Turkmen. The move has paved the way for long-term joint energy projects in the Caspian Sea. Since signing a memorandum of understanding in 2021, the two countries have been working together on the exploration and development of the promising Dostlug field. In November 2023, discussions expanded to include the potential involvement of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR in other Turkmen fields - a sign of growing trust and shared strategic vision. Beyond bilateral talks, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are also aligning more closely with Turkiye in a trilateral format, focusing on strategic issues ranging from the Caspian Seas legal status to reliable energy routes to Europe. Economic ties are steadily progressing, though not without some imbalances. In 2024, bilateral trade turnover reached $383.7 million. In the first five months of 2025 alone, the figure hit $118.5 million - with Turkmen exports to Azerbaijan accounting for $99.2 million and Azerbaijani exports totaling just $19.2 million. Turkmen exports to Azerbaijan have dropped significantly compared to the previous year, a decline experts attribute to commodity market fluctuations and logistical challenges. Still, there is clear potential for growth, particularly following the December 2022 signing of a trilateral trade and economic cooperation agreement in Awaza. The agreement included plans to form a working group to facilitate gas exports to Europe. Energy remains the backbone of bilateral relations. In addition to collaboration on Dostlug, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan continue to operate a gas swap scheme via Iran. Since early 2025, Azerbaijan has imported 155.3 million cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan, valued at $23.3 million. SOCAR is expanding its footprint in Turkmenistan. In November 2023, it opened a representative office in Ashgabat and held two meetings that October with Turkmengaz leadership. Talks focused on energy cooperation, technology exchange, and potential joint projects. The centerpiece of the long-term energy agenda remains the proposed Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP). Estimated at $5 billion, the pipeline has long been seen as critical for bringing Turkmen gas to European markets. The project would connect Turkmenistans energy infrastructure to the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) via Azerbaijan, bypassing transit through Iran and Russia. As global geopolitical tensions rise, transport and logistics are becoming vital links between East and West, and the Caspian region is taking on renewed strategic importance. Container traffic along the BakuTurkmenbashi route has surged nearly threefold, reaching 2,362 TEUs. A major development is the Lapis Lazuli Corridor, which links Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye. The route is becoming a viable alternative to traditional trade pathways and is helping establish a new Eurasian transit hub. A recent memorandum between ADY Container and Turkmenistans logistics center confirms growing momentum in freight cooperation. Both nations also participate in the Ashgabat Agreement, a multilateral framework that facilitates access to the Persian Gulf. Humanitarian ties are also gaining strength. From January to May 2025, over 12,000 Turkmen citizens visited Azerbaijan more than half of them for tourism. This surge highlights not only increased openness, but also the deepening cultural, linguistic, and historical bonds between the two nations. Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedovs visit to Baku underscores the growing strategic alignment between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Energy, transport, trade, and culture - each of these pillars supports a broader agenda of integration that is unfolding not just on paper, but in practice. As traditional routes falter and global dynamics shift, these two Caspian states are finding common ground, shared priorities - and increasingly, a common path forward. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Our peoples are bound together by deep-rooted fraternal traditions, which have grown even stronger during the years of independence, said President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev during a one-on-one meeting with Chairman of Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Trend reports. Addressing the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said: - Dear Gurbanguly Malikgulyyevich, Welcome to Azerbaijan. I extend my sincere greetings to you. I am confident that your visit will make a significant contribution to the development of the brotherly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Our peoples are bound together by deep-rooted fraternal traditions, which have grown even stronger during the years of independence. We enjoy successful cooperation across numerous areas, and both our countries pursue independent policies with a confident outlook toward the future. The historical ties between us form the foundation of our current relations, and I am certain that your visit will provide new impetus to our partnership. We have achieved significant progress in political, economic, humanitarian, and other spheres, including transport and energy, and, of course, today we will exchange views on future cooperation. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. In general, if we were to characterize the current level of Turkmen-Azerbaijani interstate relations, I would define them in three words: brotherhood, good neighborliness, and cooperation, said Chairman of Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during a one-on-one meeting with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. ''In general, if we were to characterize the current level of Turkmen-Azerbaijani interstate relations, I would define them in three words: brotherhood, good neighborliness, and cooperation. We rely on a solid historical foundation, the commonality and kinship of our two peoples, mutual understanding of the need for each other, a clear vision of the strategic prospects for partnership, and a willingness to use our combined political, economic, and resource potential for the benefit of our peoples and states, their well-being, and prosperity,'' he noted. NEW DELHI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Eight schools and a college in the Indian capital territory, Delhi, and the Golden Temple in Amritsar in Punjab state were rattled by hoax bomb calls in the past three days, officials said Wednesday. Although the bomb threats sent over email prompted authorities to take emergency response, no bombs or explosives were found during the checks. On Wednesday morning, a bomb threat received through email triggered panic in five private schools in Delhi, forcing authorities to immediately evacuate the premises for a thorough security check. However, the police said nothing suspicious was found during the checks, and the threats proved to be hoaxes. On Tuesday, St. Stephen's College, Delhi University, also received a threatening email, warning of four IED bombs and two RDX devices planted across the campus, including the library. However, the intense searching by police, bomb disposal teams and dog squads did not reveal anything. Three schools in Delhi received similar threats on Monday. Likewise, the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar city in the northern state of Punjab on Wednesday again received a bomb threat. Reports said this was the third threat received in three days. The police have registered a case and launched an investigation into the threats. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. On July 16, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, visited the Victory Park in Baku, Trend reports. A guard of honor was lined up for Chairman Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in the park. Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan laid a wreath at the Victory Monument. He was briefed on the park, which honors the unparalleled valor of the Azerbaijani people during the Patriotic War, commemorates the historic Victory, and pays tribute to the memory of Azerbaijani martyrs. The Victory Arch at the parks entrance, symbolizing the 44-day Patriotic War, stands 44 meters high, 22 meters wide, and is supported by 44 columns. Victory Park, covering nearly 10 hectares, was inaugurated on November 8, 2024, by President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. French visitor Ferrouze Gadery took to social media to share her reflections on a recent exhibition in Paris honoring Azerbaijani journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty, Trend reports. The event, organized by the Baku Network analytical center, was held at the Azerbaijani Cultural Center in the French capital. Gadery described the evening as thoughtful and deeply respectful. It was a sober and meaningful evening, marked by reverence a moment where memory met awareness, she wrote. She was particularly moved by remarks delivered by BN director Elchin Aghajanov, Nigar Huseynova, advisor to the Azerbaijani Embassy in France, and Jean-Michel Brun, a well-known French journalist and Editor-in-Chief of La Gazette du Caucase. According to Gadery, speakers highlighted the quiet courage of those who gave their lives in pursuit of truth. In an increasingly noisy world, this moment reminded me of the essential role of a free, united press and the importance of remembrance, she noted. Gadery thanked the organizers for what she called a necessary initiative, adding that the warm atmosphere at the close of the event allowed participants to exchange thoughts and keep these voices from fading into silence. The exhibition featured a collection of materials dedicated to Azerbaijani journalists who were killed while carrying out their professional duties. It drew participants from across French society, including local and international media representatives. The event was part of a broader Baku Network project titled Analyzing Hybrid and Ideological Threats Against Azerbaijan, and was supported by the Agency for State Support to Non-Governmental Organizations of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijani Embassy in France. Commemorative booklets were distributed to attendees at the exhibition, as well as to guests at a separate presentation marking the 25th anniversary of Icherishehers inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List. That event took place at UNESCO headquarters as part of the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. On July 16, Oguljahan Atabayeva, daughter of the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, visited the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, Trend reports. Anar Alakbarov, Director of the Heydar Aliyev Center, provided an overview of the Center, which is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of the modern world. The Centers mission focuses on the in-depth study and promotion of the state philosophy of National Leader Heydar Aliyev, the ideology of Azerbaijanism, and his enduring legacy. Through interactive exhibits, the Heydar Aliyev Museum within the Center presents various aspects of the National Leaders leadership during both the Soviet period and the years of Azerbaijans independence. Oguljahan Atabayeva also viewed the collection of official vehicles used by Heydar Aliyev during his leadership of Azerbaijan from 1969 to 2003. The exhibits, photographs, and multimedia installations reflecting different stages of Heydar Aliyevs statesmanship - both during the Soviet era and in the period of independence - sparked great interest in the guest. She also toured the Pearls of Azerbaijan exhibition, which highlights the countrys rich history, culture, and natural resources. The exhibition features traditional carpets, national costumes, ancient coins, and other artifacts showcasing Azerbaijans centuries-old heritage. The guest further explored several other exhibitions on display at the Center, including Musical Instruments: Unity and Diversity, Dance of Loops featuring Azerbaijani carpets, The Mystery of the Rose by Belarusian sculptor Andrey Ostashov, and Reflection of Eternity by renowned Brazilian artist and sculptor Luiz de Souza. Following the tour, a meeting was held between Oguljahan Atabayeva and Leyla Aliyeva. At the end of the visit, Director Anar Alakbarov presented a keepsake to Oguljahan Atabayeva. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. A delegation led by Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, visited the Azerbaijani Parliament on July 16, the parliamentary press and public relations department told Trend. The group was received by the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Sahiba Gafarova. Berdimuhamedov first toured the plenary hall and the Heydar Aliyev Memorial Hall, where he viewed exhibits highlighting the life and political activities of Azerbaijans National Leader, Heydar Aliyev. The Turkmen delegation head also left heartfelt words in the Memorial Book. Following the tour, an extensive meeting was held between the two sides. Speaker Gafarova expressed confidence that the visit would contribute to the further development and strengthening of bilateral relations. She recalled her official visit to Turkmenistan in December 2022 and spoke positively about the meetings held during that trip. Gafarova emphasized that the shared history, culture, language, religion, and family values form the foundation of relations between the peoples of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. Since gaining independence, a broad relationship has been built on this solid foundation. The parties noted that mutual visits and high-level meetings play an exceptional role in deepening interstate relations. Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan also cooperate successfully within several international organizations, with Turkmenistans consistent support for Azerbaijans initiatives as Chair of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) highly appreciated. Moreover, it was highlighted that the existing legal framework between the two countries covers a wide range of cooperation in political, economic, trade, humanitarian, and other fields. The discussion touched on the strong foundation for enhancing economic partnership, particularly in energy, transportation, and other sectors. Humanitarian cooperation between the countries also holds special significance. Speaker Gafarova spoke about the important role of parliamentary interaction in positively influencing bilateral and multifaceted relations, noting that mutual visits and meetings of parliamentary leaders and legislators give significant impetus to cooperation. Parliamentary friendship groups act as bridges between the legislatures. Expanding cooperation between Azerbaijani and Turkmen parliamentarians in both bilateral formats and international parliamentary organizations will further intensify relations. Berdimuhamedov expressed satisfaction with his visit and shared his positive impressions of the meeting and discussions held with President Ilham Aliyev. He recalled Gafarovas productive visit to Turkmenistan in December 2022. The guest spoke about the important contributions of the two nations, as members of the Turkic family, to global politics. He also congratulated Azerbaijan on successfully hosting COP29 and the high-level discussions that took place. The meeting included discussions on regional issues, gender policies, youth affairs, economic relations, the work of the Intergovernmental Commission, parliamentary diplomacy, interparliamentary dialogue, and other topics of mutual interest. The sides also exchanged views on other issues of mutual interest. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. On July 16, Oguljahan Atabayeva, daughter of the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, and Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, visited the Baku Book Center, Trend reports. Gunel Rzayeva, Director of the Baku Book Center, welcomed the guests and provided information about the Center. Established through the initiative and support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Baku Book Center officially opened its doors to visitors on September 1, 2018. The Center offers a rich and diverse selection of books across a wide range of genres in Azerbaijani, Russian, Turkish, English, Chinese, French, German, Arabic, and other languages. Spanning 2,500 square meters, the Center displays a variety of publications by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation across both the ground and first floors. Visitors can also explore a wide array of items, including I Love Baku clothing, souvenirs and accessories, Azerpoct products, bestsellers in multiple languages, non-fiction titles, classic literature, art albums, and tourist guidebooks. The first floor also features the Coffee Mood cafe - an inviting space for reading, meeting friends, or enjoying coffee and magazines in a cozy atmosphere. The second floor houses a reading room, a dedicated area for visually impaired visitors, a childrens zone, a venue for literary and cultural events, and an educational section. The Baku Book Center regularly hosts various events, such as book launches, author meet-and-greets, cultural programs, and masterclasses. It also organizes special reading sessions for children featuring prominent guests. In addition, the Center actively collaborates with international organizations and diplomatic missions to host exclusive events. Interactive displays throughout the venue keep visitors informed about available titles and the latest arrivals. On behalf of the Baku Book Center, a keepsake was presented to Oguljahan Atabayeva. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Official Yerevan has received an offer from the US regarding the management of the corridor between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told local media, Trend reports. "At the moment, this offer comes from the US, and we are discussing it. It is of interest to us, but there is no agreement on this issue yet. Can such an agreement be reached? Yes, it is possible," he said, answering a question about which country or international organization could exercise control over the transport corridor within the framework of a peace agreement with Azerbaijan. A few days ago, US Ambassador to Turkiye Thomas Barrack told reporters in New York that the US offered to take over the management of the 32-kilometer Zangezur corridor on the terms of a 100-year lease. "Thus, both sides will be able to use this corridor. The purpose of the proposal is to promote progress in diplomatic negotiations between Azerbaijan and Armenia," he stressed. The Zangezur Corridor is not only an infrastructure project, but also an important part of regional integration. This route will become an important tool not only for strengthening the transport system but also for accelerating the economic development of the region and strengthening strategic ties. On March 13 this year, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that negotiations on the peace treaty under discussion between Azerbaijan and Armenia had been completed. "Work on the text has been completed. At the next stage, territorial claims against Azerbaijan should be eliminated from the Constitution of Armenia. In addition, the Minsk Group and its structures, which are remnants of the past, should be abolished," Bayramov said. On July 10, 2025, a meeting was held in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, between President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, where various aspects of the agenda for the normalization of interstate relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia were discussed. The meeting confirmed that bilateral negotiations are the most effective format for resolving all issues related to the normalization process, and an agreement was reached to continue such a productive dialogue. The leaders, having assessed the successes achieved in the border delimitation process, instructed the relevant state commissions to continue practical work in this direction. The parties also agreed to continue bilateral negotiations and confidence-building activities between the two countries. Photo: Press service of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. On July 16, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, visited the Sea Breeze resort located on the Caspian Sea coast, Trend reports. Emin Agalarov, founder of Sea Breeze, briefed the Azerbaijani President, the Chairman of the Halk Maslahaty of Turkmenistan, on the projects completed and planned at the resort. Located just 30 minutes from Bakus city center, Sea Breeze combines various real estate types and is considered a unique global project. Its main developments are along the coastline. Spanning 500 hectares, Sea Breeze has completed and commissioned over 3 million square meters of residential and commercial real estate. More than 500 properties have been constructed, with over 20,000 residents currently living there. By 2028, this number is expected to exceed 50,000, with a long-term goal of accommodating 500,000 people upon full completion. Plans also include the creation of a unique crescent-shaped artificial peninsula covering 50 hectares. Over 150 hectares have been dedicated to recreational zones, parks, and beaches. Essential infrastructure, including a school, kindergarten, and hospital, ensures comfortable living and leisure for residents and visitors. Landscaping efforts have resulted in planting approximately 10 million plants and trees, expanding green areas to 300 hectares. The resort currently employs 6,560 people, with plans to significantly increase staff in the future. Total investment has reached $3 billion, with over $10 billion more planned over the next five years. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 17. On July 16, Leyla Aliyeva, Vice-President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, founder and head of IDEA Public Union, participated in the opening of the "National Parks - 12 Wonders of Azerbaijan" photo exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijans environmental protection efforts, Trend reports. The exhibition, organized by IDEA Public Union at the Seaside Park, offers an inspiring photographic journey through the nature, rich flora and fauna of specially protected areas and national parks, reflecting the unique biodiversity of Azerbaijan. The systematic environmental protection in Azerbaijan began with the establishment of the countrys first state reserve - the Goygol Nature Reserve - in 1925. Azerbaijan is currently home to 12 national parks, 9 state nature reserves, and 24 state nature sanctuaries. National parks are a fundamental pillar of Azerbaijans state policy on environmental protection. In 2013, at the initiative of Leyla Aliyeva, the 7 Wonders of Azerbaijan film project was launched to raise awareness of this policy. As the number of the national parks grew, the project was renamed 12 Wonders of Azerbaijan. Most recently, by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev dated July 14, 2025, two more national parks - Akhar-Bakhar and Ilisu - were established in Azerbaijan. Under the guidance of Leyla Aliyeva, the project produced eight documentaries and hundreds of photos, reaching millions of viewers on social media. This photo exhibition stands as one of many impactful outcomes of that project. The photos on display not only showcase the natural wonders of Azerbaijan but also play a vital role in raising environmental awareness. They help visitors appreciate the importance of environmental protection and gain a deeper understanding of humanitys responsibility toward the environment. The national parks featured in the project titled 12 Wonders of Azerbaijan span diverse geographical regions and ecosystems across the country. This collection includes Zangezur National Park named after Academician Hasan Aliyev, Aggol National Park, Shirvan National Park, Hirkan National Park, Altiaghaj National Park, Absheron National Park, Shahdag National Park, Goygol National Park, Samur-Yalama National Park, Gizilaghaj National Park, Akhar-Bakhar National Park and Ilisu National Park. These parks are crucial in safeguarding and promoting Azerbaijans rich natural heritage. The photos on display throughout the summer at the Seaside Park are the work of acclaimed photographers Igor Byshnyov, Ilya Byshnyov, Natalya Teterevskaya and Nikita Byshnyov. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 15. Vagif Poetry Days was held in the city of Ganja, jointly organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, and the Union of Azerbaijani Writers. The traditional poetry celebration, which began on July 14 in Gazakh - the birthplace of Molla Panah Vagif - sparked great interest among literature enthusiasts in the land of Nizami as well. The event opened with a poetry hour at the house-museum of the renowned writer Mir Jalal Pashayev. Ilgar Fahmi, Secretary of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers, highlighted the significance of organizing Vagif Poetry Days. He recalled that National Leader Heydar Aliyev laid the foundation for these events in 1982 in Shusha. At that time, Vagifs mausoleum and the Poetry House were inaugurated with his participation, and the decision to establish the poetry days was made. Until 1991, the festival traditionally started in Gazakh, the poets homeland, and concluded on the majestic Jidir Duzu plain in Shusha. Following the liberation of the city by the victorious Azerbaijani Army under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the poetry days returned to their birthplace - the cultural capital of Azerbaijan. We aim to hold the celebration in a different format each year. We believe this years Vagif Poetry Days will also leave unforgettable impressions on lovers of literature and culture, Fahmi noted. Khazangul Huseynova, Chairperson of the Ganja branch of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers, along with other poets and writers, spoke about the enduring legacy of the great Azerbaijani poet Molla Panah Vagif. They recited patriotic poems and verses dedicated to the poet. As part of the Vagif Poetry Days, a concert program was held featuring soloists of the Ganja State Philharmonic, the Philharmonic Folk Instruments Orchestra, and the Goy-Gol State Song and Dance Ensemble. The program included musical compositions by prominent Azerbaijani composers and songs based on Vagifs poetry. The third wave of the global initiative Shes Next Empowered by Visa, aimed at supporting the development of womens entrepreneurship, has concluded in Azerbaijan. The project was carried out through a partnership between Birbank Biznes, one of the market leaders in banking and business services, and Visa, a world leader in digital payments. The project, which began on May 16, 2025, and lasted nearly three months, featured an educational and competition program called Create Your Success Story for women entrepreneurs. The program was held in two categories: Small and Medium Businesses and Micro Businesses. Over 400 women entrepreneurs applied to participate. All participants were given free access to online courses on the Shes Next platform. Those who successfully completed the programs requirements were supported by experienced mentors to prepare for the final stage. The programs final event took place on July 11, 2025, in Baku. During the event, finalists presented their projects to a professional jury. Based on the presentations, winners were selected in three nominations within each category and awarded cash prizes to support the development of their businesses. In the Small and Medium Business category, the third place and a prize of 5,000 manat were awarded to Jamila Guliyeva, who is engaged in wholesale and retail sales of cosmetics and household chemicals. The second place and 10,000 manat prize went to Gulara Jumayeva, founder of the cosmetics distributor company Bellabaci. The winner of the category was Turkan Eyyubova with her businesses Coffee 9bar and Street 9bar, receiving the grand prize of 15,000 manat. The Micro Business category was also marked by strong competition among women entrepreneurs. Third place and 5,000 manat were won by Shelale Ibrahimova, a trainer and consultant on eating disorders. Second place and 10,000 manat were awarded to Nigar Jabiyeva, founder of a training center specializing in development programs for children aged 2 to 6 years. The grand prize of 15,000 manat and the winners title in this category were received by Asunta Adigozalova, founder of a natural soap production business using cold pressing technology under the brand Le miracle d'Asunta. During the event, the launch of the first co-branded business card in Azerbaijan by Visa and Birbank Biznes, the Shes Next card, was also announced. Designed specifically for women entrepreneurs, the card offers its holders a range of interesting and valuable benefits. As a product of Kapital Bank, Birbank Biznes is committed to supporting entrepreneurs and their businesses by offering innovative and convenient solutions for efficient business management. Birbank Biznes clients can receive assistance anytime through the live chat feature. To learn more about the Birbank Biznes system designed to help entrepreneurs save time and streamline operations visit https://birbank.business or call the information center at 896. JAKARTA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Police in Indonesia's West Java province have uncovered a baby trafficking ring accused of selling 24 infants from various regions in Indonesia to buyers in neighboring Singapore. As of today, 13 Indonesian nationals suspected of involvement in the ring have been arrested in separate operations conducted in Pontianak, West Kalimantan province, and Tangerang, Banten province. Twelve of the suspects were apprehended on Monday, with the thirteenth arrested on Tuesday evening at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten. West Java Police spokesperson Hendra Rochmawan said on Wednesday that the investigation is ongoing, with authorities pursuing additional suspects, including potential actors based in Singapore. Rochmawan also said that the police will coordinate with Interpol to locate the 24 trafficked infants believed to be in Singapore. During the operations, police successfully rescued six infants, five of whom were about to be trafficked to Singapore and one to Tangerang. Authorities revealed that the case came to light after a parent reported a suspected kidnapping, which led police to a suspect who confessed to trafficking 24 babies. Most of the infants were reportedly taken from their biological parents in West Java. They were to be sold for adoption in Singapore. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. In accordance with the annual activity plan approved by the Minister of Defense, a training-methodical session was held with the chiefs of fire protection services and regular fire protection teams of the types of troops, army corps, formations, and military units of the Azerbaijan Army, as well as fire protection inspectors, Trend reports via the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry. The session at one of the military units under the Main Department of Logistics of the Defense Ministry covered the organization of fire prevention work, theoretical work on fire extinguishing in attics and basements of buildings, and practical work on fire extinguishing in car parks. Additionally, classes were organized on the duties and rights of the military unit's fire protection team, and on improving the service documents of the fire protection team. The focus of the session is to foster the skills of fire protection teams and instill practical skills in extinguishing any fires that may occur at military facilities. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Greece and Libya have agreed to strengthen cooperation on key bilateral issues including migration management, trade, and maritime boundaries, following a series of high-level meetings in Tripoli, Trend reports citing the Greek Foreign Ministry. The visit by the Greek delegation marked the conclusion of a diplomatic tour that began in Benghazi last week. In Tripoli, the Greek official met with Libyas Presidential Council President, the Prime Minister, and the Foreign Minister. According to diplomatic sources, the talks were held in a "particularly productive atmosphere," with both sides expressing a commitment to reset relations and move forward on long-standing issues. Among the top priorities discussed were the regulation of migration flows, boosting bilateral trade, and revisiting the complex matter of maritime zone delimitation between the two Mediterranean nations. Athens has repeatedly emphasized the importance of a stable and unified Libya, viewing it as a cornerstone for security and prosperity in the broader region. A strong, unified, and self-sufficient Libya, working in close partnership with Greece, can serve as a guarantee of regional stability, the Greek side stated following the meetings. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. In Sarajevo, the Deputy Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Policy and Plans, Slaven Galic, received the Defence Attache of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Brigadier Edward Taylor, Trend reports citing the Bosnian Defense Ministry. On behalf of the Ministry of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Deputy Minister Galic extended a warm welcome and, at the beginning of the meeting, emphasized that the European Union, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom are strategic partners of Bosnia and Herzegovina, adding that he welcomes every visit from their representatives. It is a great honor for us to host representatives of the United Kingdom today, whose contribution to bilateral military cooperation we highly value. Your presence here confirms the strength of our partnership and our shared commitment to enhancing the defence sector through open dialogue, expert exchange, and constructive cooperation. We are confident that todays meeting will further strengthen the friendly ties between our institutions and open new opportunities for developing joint initiatives, Deputy Galic said during the meeting. The UK Defence Attache, Brigadier Edward Taylor, expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome and his hope for continued successful cooperation in the field of defence and the implementation of joint projects within the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The meeting once again reaffirmed the Ministry of Defence of BiHs dedication to strengthening international partnerships based on trust, shared values, and a vision of a stable and secure environment. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria Georg Georgiev participated in the regular monthly meeting of the European Unions Foreign Affairs Council held in Brussels, Trend reports citing the Foreign Ministry of Bulgaria. The foreign ministers discussed a wide range of issues on the EUs foreign policy agenda, including war in Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, developments in Georgia, the future of the Mediterranean Pact, as well as the EUs relations with Latin America and other partner countries. The meeting began with the traditional video conference participation of Ukraines Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga, who updated his European colleagues on the latest developments in his country and current diplomatic efforts. In his speech, Minister Georgiev emphasized the need to continue the sanctions regime against Russia and to maintain comprehensive support for Ukraine. He also highlighted the strategic importance of initiatives aimed at strengthening security in the Black Sea region, in which Bulgaria plays an active role. The Council also discussed the humanitarian situation in the Middle East, including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Topics included a review of Article 2 of the Association Agreement with Israel and possibilities for a ceasefire. Given the critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, we consider it imperative to open all crossing points to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the civilian population. We welcome the agreements between the EU and Israel on this matter, stated the Bulgarian foreign minister. He also stressed the need for the full and unconditional release of all Israeli hostages as a key condition for achieving a lasting end to the conflict. Minister Georgiev expressed Bulgarias full support for the activities of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding Irans compliance with nuclear commitments following the latest escalation of tensions in the region. The meeting also reviewed the future of the Mediterranean Pact and ongoing reforms within the Union for the Mediterranean, as a follow-up to the meeting of EU foreign ministers and Southern Neighborhood countries held on July 14, 2025. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. A field training exercise for the 37th generation of Officer School cadets took place at the Central Training Ground of the Slovenian Armed Forces in Postojna, Trend reports via the country's Defense Ministry. During the training, cadets practiced leading combat tactical procedures at the squad and platoon level. The training scenarios faced by the candidates included offensive operations at squad and platoon levels, reactions to contact and ambushes, movement techniques, and navigating hazardous areas. The cadets carried out the prescribed training tasks safely and effectively, achieving the set learning objectives. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Serbia are to receive support in digitalising and automating their operations thanks to a new loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and grant incentives from the European Union (EU), Trend reports citing the EBRD's latest reports. The EBRDs 10 million loan to NLB Komercijalna Banka AD Beograd will be on-lent to SMEs for investments in digital and green technologies. The package is being provided under the Go Digital in Western Balkans programme, which is supported by the EU and aims to drive innovation, competitiveness and sustainable growth in the private sector. Serbian SMEs will also benefit from EU-funded grant incentives totalling 10 per cent of the loan amount. In addition, they will be eligible for technical assistance also funded by the EU to help them identify and structure their priority investments. Matteo Patrone, EBRD Vice President for Banking, said: Investments in green and digital technologies are no longer a matter of choice, they are a necessity for SMEs to help them thrive in an ever-changing business landscape. This loan will help SMEs in Serbia to harness the power of automation and digitalisation, making them more competitive in both local and international markets. SMEs will be able to apply for financing for a wide range of technologies and investments, from simple automated and robotic industrial equipment to complex digital decision-making tools and data collection and analysis tools that can also contribute to decarbonisation and resource efficiency. The Go Digital in Western Balkans programme aims to boost the productivity and efficiency of SMEs. Helping these companies to leverage investments in information and communications technology is one way to do this, as it enables them to streamline operations, automate processes, drive sales, improve customer experience and increase market access all of which will raise competitiveness. Supported with EU funding, these investments will be in line with EU standards for creating sustainable economies, helping businesses implement measures that can make their operations greener and more competitive in EU markets. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel The Statistical Office of Cyprus (CYSTAT) organised a high-level meeting on National Accounts and Government Finance Statistics, which took place on 7 and 8 July 2025 in Nicosia. This event is a continuation of the successful cooperation between the four national statistical offices - Greece, Malta, Croatia and Cyprus, Trend reports via the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. The first day of the meeting was dedicated to National Accounts and Government Finance Statistics (GFS), where CYSTAT colleagues presented the organisational structure, challenges and plans for the future. Also, the framework of national supply and use tables (SUT) and input and output tables (IOT) was presented, with an overview of the IT tool developed for SUT and IOT and the role of SUT as the basis for macroeconomic projections and decision making. On the second day of the meeting, representatives of statistical offices presented their experiences in the production of monthly Government Finance Statistics (GFS), including the delimitation of the general government sector, data sources, goals and challenges as well as the importance of monthly GFS data for policy makers. The Croatian delegation was represented by Lidija Brkovic, Director General of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Suzana Samec, Director of the Macroeconomic Statistics Directorate, and Marija Kamenski, Head of the International Relations Department. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Today, Lithuanias Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kestutis Budrys, will take part in a meeting of the Lublin Triangle in Lublin, Poland, alongside his counterparts Polands Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski and Ukraines Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Trend reports. The ministers will discuss the current security situation in Ukraine and the wider region, as well as possibilities for deepening trilateral cooperation, particularly in the area of security. A special focus will be placed on strategies to counter hybrid threats. In addition, the meeting will include discussions on continued support for Ukraine, and further collaboration in economic, cultural, and academic fields within the Lublin Triangle framework. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Lithuania's Ministry of Economy and Innovation has announced the allocation of 42 million euros to industrial companies to gain access to financing and immediately launch projects aimed at transitioning to a climate-neutral economy and upgrading their equipment, Trend reports. These funds will help industrial companies implement technologies that contribute to decarbonization and improve energy efficiency. This not only supports emissions reduction efforts but also allows companies to modernize technologically, remain competitive, and become more resilient to energy price fluctuations, said Minister of the Economy and Innovation Lukas Savickas. The investment is expected to save approximately 2,607 GWh of energy and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by around 489,000 tons in Lithuania by 2035, an average annual reduction of 48,000 tons. The industrial sector consumes roughly 4.2 TWh of electricity annually, which amounts to about 443 million euros, depending on energy prices. Through this public funding initiative, companies could save up to 261 GWh of electricity per year. The call targets Lithuanias manufacturing sector, aiming to continue the shift toward a cleaner, more sustainable industrial base. The maximum possible subsidy for a single applicant is 10 million euros. The funding intensity is capped at 30 percent of eligible costs for large enterprises and can be increased by 10 percent for medium-sized companies and an additional 10 percent for small enterprises. Applications must be submitted through the Environmental Project Management Agencys (APVA) information system (APVIS) by October 7, 2025. These investments support the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change and the EU Green Deal, which seeks to reduce GHG emissions by 55 percent by 2030. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. On the fifth anniversary of the Lublin Triangle format, the Foreign Ministers of Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine met in Lublin and issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to continued collaboration and outlining strategic directions for future cooperation, Trend reports. The statement emphasized the importance of the Lublin Triangle as a platform for strengthening regional security and called for deeper trilateral cooperation in defense and security. The joint declaration, signed by Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys, Polish Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, underscored the partners united approach to ensuring long-term peace and stability in the region. The ministers reaffirmed their support for Ukraines integration into NATO and the European Union, describing full membership as essential to the continents security architecture. The statement also highlighted the need to bolster Ukraines position in diplomatic negotiations by ensuring continued support and assistance, particularly in security-related areas. The three foreign ministers confirmed their readiness to intensify cooperation on defense initiatives and regional integration efforts. Established in July 2020, the Lublin Triangle aims to promote closer ties between Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine in areas ranging from foreign policy and defense to economic and cultural collaboration. DAMASCUS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Syrian interim authorities on Wednesday strongly condemned recent human rights violations reportedly committed in the southern province of Sweida, pledging to hold those responsible accountable. In a statement, the interim government expressed "deep concern" over "distressing violations" reported in some areas of Sweida in recent days, describing such acts as "criminal and unlawful." The statement followed a report from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which accused defense and interior forces of committing serious abuses during recent clashes that have been raging since Sunday in Sweida. Syria's interim government said it is "fully committed" to investigating all such incidents and will ensure that those responsible are held to account under national law. The statement also reaffirmed the government's "respect for the Druze community," calling its members "an integral part of Syria's national identity who have long exemplified patriotism, courage, and sacrifice." The interim government has faced mounting criticism over the military's conduct in Sweida, where on Tuesday, tanks and armored vehicles were withdrawn under a ceasefire agreement with local Druze leaders. Despite the agreement, tensions remain high. Israeli airstrikes and further ground clashes erupted Tuesday and Wednesday, forcing thousands of residents to flee. According to the SOHR, the death toll from ongoing violence in Syria's southern province of Sweida has climbed to 248. The recent escalation in Sweida, a predominantly Druze province in southern Syria, was triggered by an earlier incident in which a young Druze man was assaulted and robbed by armed Bedouins. In retaliation, local Druze fighters detained several Bedouin members, escalating the situation. UK-to-Azerbaijan remittances climb, defying regional trends Azerbaijan saw a decline in remittance flows both to and from the UK in Q1 2025, reflecting broader contraction trends in cross-border transfers. Total remittances abroad dropped by 14.3%, while inflows to Azerbaijan fell by over 22%, signaling potential shifts in household income patterns or external economic pressures. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Subscription to paid content Gain access to all that Trend has to offer, as well as to premium, licensed content via subscription or direct purchase through a credit card. Azerbaijan reveals power output from solid waste incineration plant In the first half of 2025, Azerbaijans solid waste incineration plant generated 134.5 million kWh of electricity, showing a slight year-on-year decline of 0.4%. Despite this marginal dip, the country's overall electricity production rose by 2.2%, reflecting stable energy sector performance with diversified sources, including waste-to-energy. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Azerbaijans recent announcement to start gas exports to Syria via Turkiye has sparked cautious interest across the region. While the deal is still in its early stages, energy experts see it as a pragmatic move that supports Syrias reconstruction and promotes greater regional energy integration. Year by year, Azerbaijan is solidifying its role on the global stage through its growing gas exports and achievements in the energy sector. Until now, Azerbaijans gas exports have primarily targeted European markets, but the focus is now shifting towards the Middle East. Discussions around supplying gas to Syria and rebuilding its energy infrastructure show that this plan is moving beyond talk and into action. Currently, Azerbaijan exports gas to 12 countries, mostly through the Southern Gas Corridor. With the addition of the Middle East route, Syria is set to become the 13th destination, marking a significant expansion of Azerbaijans export footprint and further strengthening its energy diplomacy. John Roberts, one of Europes leading energy security specialists, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Trend that while technical and geopolitical uncertainties remain, the overall logic of the deal is very sensible. According to Roberts, Azerbaijans involvement could help meet Syrias urgent energy needs while reinforcing Turkiyes role as a key transit and logistical partner. Theres still uncertainty regarding the physical infrastructure, Roberts said. The Arab Gas Pipeline had reached Aleppo before the Syrian civil war, and construction had started on a 63-kilometer link to the Turkish border - but its unclear whether that was ever completed. He explained that for Azerbaijans gas to reach Syria, there are likely two scenarios. The first involves direct delivery via pipeline through Turkiyes existing BOTAS infrastructure. The second could involve a swap mechanism, where Azerbaijani gas is consumed in Turkiye, while equivalent volumes from Turkiyes system are delivered to Syria. Either way, the impact on Azerbaijans revenue is likely to be similar, Roberts noted, adding that any missing pipeline segments could be built quickly if political will exists. Meanwhile, in 2024, SOCAR saw a positive increase in natural gas production. Strong output from the Shah Deniz and Umid fields pushed total production beyond 50 billion cubic meters - significantly higher than the 2016 long-term forecast of 45 billion cubic meters (including reinjection volumes). A key milestone in boosting Azerbaijans gas potential was the Shah Deniz consortiums final investment decision on the Shah Deniz Compression (SDC) project, marking the third phase of development at the countrys largest gas field. Valued at $2.9 billion, the SDC project aims to enhance the recovery rate by lowering reservoir pressure. It is expected to unlock an additional 50 billion cubic meters of gas and 25 million barrels of condensate, all intended for export. On the question of sanctions, Roberts noted that while Syria remains under US and EU restrictions, the geopolitical context is evolving. The U.S. Ambassador to Ankara has recently spoken in relatively positive terms about the Syrian government, he said. While this doesnt imply a lifting of sanctions, Washington may find ways to suspend or bypass enforcement if the goal is regional stabilization - especially if Syria is being brought into broader frameworks like the Abraham Accords. Within Turkiye, the delivery would rely on BOTAS, which operates the national distribution network. Roberts emphasized that the coordination between Azerbaijani and Turkish technical teams would be vital to ensure pipeline readiness on both sides of the border. It will be Turkish engineers, likely with Azerbaijani counterparts, checking the transmission system to confirm its fit for purpose, he said. The broader implications of the agreement, according to Roberts, are modest in terms of geopolitical power shifts but significant for Syria itself. Its not going to change the global energy map, he said. But for Syria - a country devastated by over a decade of civil war - even modest gas supplies could help restore domestic heating, electricity generation, and industrial activity. He added that the agreement also enhances Azerbaijans image as a regional energy provider and elevates Turkiyes role as an intermediary. Roberts emphasized that the real bottleneck is financial. The key issue is securing international investment, he said. You need long-term contracts to justify the infrastructure and production expansion. But European institutions, particularly the European Investment Bank, are essentially opposed to new fossil fuel projects. The EBRD is hesitant too. In 2024, Azerbaijans natural gas exports reached a record high of 25.3 billion cubic meters, surpassing the figures from 2023 (23.9 billion) and 2022 (22.4 billion). Expanding gas exports to the Middle East will boost government revenues and enhance Azerbaijans appeal as a reliable supplier - especially to regions grappling with energy shortages. This growth also opens up new investment opportunities for SOCAR and its partners. For Azerbaijani gas, the Middle East route represents more than just geographic expansion; it strengthens geopolitical influence, diversifies revenue streams, and supports regional energy security. Central to this strategy is positioning Syria as both a buyer and transit country for gas. Azerbaijan is increasingly becoming a key player not only in Europes energy security but also in stabilizing the energy landscape of the Middle East. DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, July 16. The United Kingdom has expressed its readiness to expand cooperation with Tajikistan in the fields of innovation and digital technologies, Trend reports via the Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies. This was discussed during a meeting in Dushanbe between the Director of the Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies under the President of Tajikistan, Khurshed Mirzo, and the UK Ambassador to Tajikistan, Katherine Smitton. According to the Agencys press service, both sides emphasized the importance of strengthening bilateral partnerships and exchanging experience in digital transformation and information technologies. Ambassador Smitton confirmed the willingness of relevant British institutions to establish cooperation with Tajikistans specialized agencies, including the Innovation and Digital Technologies Agency. The parties also reviewed opportunities for institutional collaboration, technical expertise sharing, and future joint initiatives in support of Tajikistans digital development agenda. Photo: The Ministry of Investments, Industry, and Trade of Uzbekistan TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Uzbekistan and Bulgaria have agreed to hold the sixth session of the Intergovernmental Commission and host a bilateral business forum in Tashkent in October 2025, Trend reports. This decision was reached during a series of high-level meetings in Bulgaria between Uzbekistans Minister of Investments, Industry, and Trade, Laziz Kudratov, and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Grozdan Karadjov, alongside senior officials from key ministries, major companies, and financial institutions. The discussions centered on advancing the implementation of agreements made during President Radevs official visit to Tashkent. Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to launching joint projects across priority sectors such as geology, logistics, construction, energy, digital transformation, environmental protection, and the agro-industrial complex. Particular emphasis was placed on improving transport connectivity and deepening industrial cooperation. All initiatives discussed will be consolidated into a comprehensive Joint Roadmap for Cooperation, which will be closely monitored to ensure effective execution. This visit marks another significant milestone in strengthening the strategic partnership between Uzbekistan and Bulgaria, with a shared focus on innovation, sustainable development, and mutually beneficial economic growth. Minister Kudratovs visit follows the official talks held in June between Uzbekistans President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev at the Kuksaroy Presidential Residence. Building on agreements made at the highest level, the ministers meetings aimed to translate these strategic initiatives into tangible results. In addition to previously identified sectors, the countries also explored new avenues for cooperation in the food industry, pharmaceuticals, and tourism. Special attention was given to developing efficient land and air transport corridors, including the potential launch of direct flights between Uzbekistan and Bulgaria. DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, July 16. Tajikistan and China have reaffirmed their commitment to deepen strategic cooperation during a high-level meeting between the countries' foreign ministers, Trend reports via MFA of Tajikistan. Tajikistans Minister of Foreign Affairs Sirojiddin Mukhriddin met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, in Tianjin to discuss the ongoing implementation of agreements reached during Chinese President Xi Jinpings 2024 state visit to Dushanbe and the June 2025 meeting of both heads of state in Astana. According to Tajikistans Foreign Ministry, the talks focused on expanding cooperation across various sectors and aligning bilateral efforts with the strategic priorities agreed by the two presidents. The ministers also reviewed joint work within international and regional organizations, placing particular emphasis on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Both sides stressed the importance of preparations for the upcoming SCO summit, set to take place in Tianjin in September 2025. Tajikistan urges immediate action to cut escalating electricity losses Photo: The Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan Tajikistans Minister of Energy, Daler Juma, has raised serious concerns over the high electricity losses and operational inefficiencies of the state-run Electricity Distribution Networks company. Despite ongoing efforts, nearly a quarter of the countrys generated power is lost during transmission and distribution, prompting calls for urgent reforms and the adoption of modern digital monitoring systems. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 15. Bakhtiyor Saidov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, held a meeting with Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Peoples Republic of China, and discussed ways to further strengthen mutually beneficial economic ties, Trend reports. We discussed ways to further strengthen mutually beneficial economic ties, enhance regional connectivity, promote stability, and advance our shared goals through multilateral cooperation, said Saidov on his social media platform. The deep commitment to the all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership between Uzbekistan and China serves the best interests of our peoples, he added. Meanwhile, bilateral trade between Uzbekistan and China surpassed $13 billion in the previous fiscal year. Both countries remain optimistic about achieving the ambitious $20 billion trade target set by their respective leaderships. ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, July 16. The UK Export Finance Agency (UKEF) has completed its first official visit to Turkmenistan, aiming to expand bilateral cooperation in trade and investment, Trend reports via the British Embassy in Ashgabat. During meetings with key Turkmen ministries and agencies, the British delegation discussed potential collaboration in energy, infrastructure, agriculture, and ecological transition. Special attention was given to financing tools backed by UK government guarantees, which could support Turkmenistans long-term sustainable development. The visit was facilitated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, which hosted the delegation and underscored the country's openness to strengthening international financial partnerships. Both sides voiced optimism that this visit would lay the groundwork for deeper commercial ties and practical cooperation between the UK and Turkmenistan. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday sent a message of condolence to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu over the death of former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. On behalf of the Chinese government and people, Xi expressed deep condolences and extended sincere sympathy to the family of Buhari, and the Nigerian government and people. Xi noted that Buhari was an important leader of Nigeria, saying that he dedicated himself to exploring a development path suited to his country's national conditions, made outstanding contributions to national unity and progress, and was highly respected in the international community. Buhari steadfastly upheld friendship with China, actively promoted the Nigeria-China friendship and China-Africa cooperation, Xi said, adding that his passing represents a tremendous loss to the Nigerian people and the loss of a dear friend to the Chinese people. China highly values the development of its relations with Nigeria and is willing to work with the Nigerian side to consistently move forward the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Bakhtiyor Saidov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, met with Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and discussed cultural and economic cooperation, Trend reports. We exchanged views on deepening the historically rich and multidimensional ties between Iran and Uzbekistanrooted in centuries of shared history, culture, and economic cooperation, Bakhtiyor Saidov wrote on his social media platform. He emphasized the growing trade between the two countries and explored ways to further expand their cooperation. There is significant untapped potential to develop our partnership across key areas of mutual interest, he added. We reaffirmed the vital role of diplomacy in promoting regional peace, stability, and sustainable development, Saidov concluded. Meanwhile, Uzbekistans trade turnover with Iran reached $184.7 million from January through May 2025, marking a notable increase from $173.9 million during the same period in 2024. In May 2025, the two countries also signed four key documents in Tehran to further strengthen bilateral cooperation. These include an intergovernmental protocol on the implementation of a preferential trade agreement, a memorandum of understanding on quarantine and plant protection, a memorandum of understanding on halal standardization, and an intergovernmental roadmap outlining bilateral cooperation for the period 20252027. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Hassan bin Hamza Hashim, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Uzbekistan, paid an official visit to the Ministry of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan to discuss and strengthen bilateral cooperation in the digital technology sector, Trend reports. In the course of the visit, Ambassador Hashim was briefed on the activities of IT Park, its ecosystem, and upcoming projects. The visit included a high-level meeting between Sherzod Shermatov, Minister of Digital Technologies, and Ambassador Hashim. Discussions focused on fostering the growth of local Uzbek startups, with potential investment support from Qatar. The parties also explored opportunities to introduce Uzbekistans domestically developed IT products to broader Arab markets through Qatar. Furthermore, Qatar was invited to participate in the upcoming ICTWeek Uzbekistan 2025. Proposals were made to facilitate the active involvement of Qatari IT companies at the forum, including the establishment of a dedicated national pavilion. The meeting further addressed collaboration between Qatari venture funds and Uzbek startups, as well as strategies to enhance IT workforce capacity and expand exports of IT services. Earlier this month, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan held a telephone conversation with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The leaders conducted a comprehensive review of upcoming high-level engagements, reaffirming their mutual commitment to deepening cooperation between Uzbekistan and Qatar across various sectors. This dialogue underscores the growing partnership and shared vision for the future between the two countries. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced the launch of seven new routes as part of its ongoing strategy to attract more direct traffic to Abu Dhabi, Trend reports. Among the newly unveiled destinations is the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, with flights set to begin on March 2, 2026. The route to Baku will operate with a weekly frequency of ten flights, underscoring Etihads commitment to strengthening ties with fast-growing and culturally dynamic regions. Our goal is clear we want to bring more people directly to Abu Dhabi, said Antonoaldo Neves, Etihads Chief Executive Officer. These new routes connect us to fast-growing, culturally rich regions and will help stimulate demand for tourism and trade in the UAEs capital. DUSHANBE, Tajikistan, July 16. Tajikistan and the United Arab Emirates are set to deepen economic cooperation across key sectors after doubling their mutual trade volume in the first half of 2025, Trend reports via the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. The progress was confirmed during a meeting between the Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan, Zavqi Zavqizoda, and the UAE Minister of Economy, Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, held on July 16. The bilateral trade turnover between countries doubled from January through June 2025 compared to the same period last year. The sides reaffirmed their commitment to expanding cooperation in priority sectors, including green energy, industry, agriculture, tourism, aviation, and logistics. The ministers agreed to make fuller use of the untapped trade and investment potential between the two countries. Zavqizoda proposed intensifying the flow of UAE investments into Tajikistans economy and emphasized the strategic role of sustainable energy projects. In particular, he highlighted the importance of the Abu Dhabi Development Funds involvement in the Rogun Hydropower Plant and called for accelerating the necessary documentation to finalize the investment agreement. The meeting reflects growing interest from both countries in building long-term economic ties based on sustainable development and regional connectivity. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Saida Mirziyoyeva, Head of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan, has been granted expanded authority to recruit both domestic and international experts for targeted development projects, Trend reports, citing the National Database of Legislation of Uzbekistan. According to a new presidential decree, the Head of the Presidential Administration is now fully empowered to define employment terms and set remuneration, which may be paid in both national and foreign currencies. Mirziyoyeva is authorized to directly engage scholars, researchers, and scientific experts, with their compensation funded through the Fund for Supporting the Activities of the Presidential Administration. The decree also confers several key administrative powers upon her, including the authority to: Approve the organizational and staffing structure of the Presidential Administration; Appoint and dismiss deputy presidential advisors and deputy heads of structural divisions within the Administration; Appoint and dismiss the Head of the Compliance Service and the Head of the Chancellery, including individuals previously confirmed by the president. However, the appointment of the Head of the Presidential Administration, their deputies, presidential advisors, presidential representatives, and department heads remains the exclusive prerogative of the president. Additionally, Mirziyoyeva is required to conduct a performance evaluation of the Administrations senior management within two weeks, aiming to identify and promote high-performing and high-potential personnel. Presidential advisors and heads of structural units have been given ten days to submit lists of development projects in their respective areas for Mirziyoyevas review and approval. The Department of Communications has also been instructed to develop a new State Communication Strategy within one month. These reforms follow a series of structural changes implemented in late June, which included multiple personnel shifts. Notably, the position of Head of the Presidential Administration previously abolished in August 2023 has been reinstated. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev appointed his eldest daughter, Saida Mirziyoyeva, to the re-established post. She had previously served as his assistant. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. The Uzeltechsanoat Association, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan, organized a series of meetings with major international investment companies specializing in renewable energy, Trend reports. The discussions focused on expanding the participation of Uzbek enterprises in renewable energy supply chains and increasing the share of locally produced components in these projects. On the first day, representatives from leading global companies, including ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia), AMEA Power and Masdar (UAE), Universal Energy (China), and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Japan), as well as their key contractors, such as Larsen & Toubro, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited (HDEC), Jackson Green, Dongfang Electric Corporation, and SEPCO III, held direct negotiations with local manufacturers. During the meetings, Uzbek producers showcased the technological capabilities of their enterprises, presented their product portfolios, and demonstrated their production capacity, responding in detail to questions from international partners. Following the meeting, the parties agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation, increase the use of local content in future projects, and develop long-term industrial partnerships. These efforts are expected to boost the presence of Uzbek-made products in the renewable energy sector and enhance the countrys manufacturing potential. Photo: The Ministry of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Jasur Karshibayev, Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Finance of Uzbekistan, held a meeting with a delegation from the German Development Bank (KfW), Trend reports. During the meeting, the parties discussed the current state and prospects of cooperation between Uzbekistan and KfW. Particular attention was given to ongoing investment projects supported by KfW, as well as initiatives involving budgetary support. The discussion also focused on current and upcoming projects and reforms in the areas of gender equality, sustainable development, and socio-economic growth. Both sides expressed a strong interest in deepening collaboration in these key areas. Following the meeting, the parties reaffirmed their commitment to continuing effective cooperation aimed at achieving shared goals and further strengthening bilateral relations. Meanwhile, Uzbekistan is preparing to embark on a transformative journey in the field of digital healthcare, with robust support from the German Development Bank. KfW will provide a combination of loans and grants to fund this critical national initiative. A major milestone of the program will be the creation of a unified digital health platform, which will serve as the cornerstone of Uzbekistans digital health infrastructure, streamlining services and improving access to healthcare across the country. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Italian energy giant Eni has signed a long-term agreement with U.S.-based Venture Global for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), marking a key step in its global expansion strategy, Trend reports. Under the agreement, Eni will purchase 2 million tonnes of LNG per year (MTPA) for a period of 20 years. Deliveries are expected to begin by the end of the decade from Phase 1 of the CP2 LNG project, currently under development in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. This is Enis first long-term LNG supply contract sourced from the United States. The company said the move is a significant milestone in its efforts to strengthen and diversify its LNG portfolio, with part of the volumes earmarked to support Europes energy security. The deal underscores Enis ambition to grow its LNG portfolio to around 20 MTPA of contracted volumes by 2030, the company stated, highlighting that the partnership with Venture Global will also support its expanding global trading activities. CP2 LNG, once completed, will have a peak production capacity of 28 MTPA, further reinforcing the U.S.'s growing role as a key LNG exporter. Venture Globals track record in delivering major infrastructure projects is seen as instrumental in ensuring long-term supply reliability. Direct flight MU855 from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport of China lands at Tashkent International Airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Zafar Khalilov/Xinhua) XI'AN, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A direct flight route linking Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, was launched on Wednesday as an Airbus A320 carrying 137 passengers departed from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport. Operated by China Eastern Airlines under flight numbers MU855 and MU856, the round-trip service runs on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Flights depart Xi'an at 12:15 p.m. (Beijing Time) and are scheduled to arrive in Tashkent at 2:50 p.m. local time. The return flight departs Tashkent at 4:10 p.m. local time and arrives in Xi'an at 12:05 a.m. (Beijing Time) the following day. This new route adds to the growing air links between China and Central Asia, following the implementation of a mutual visa exemption agreement between China and Uzbekistan on June 1. The route is expected to further facilitate bilateral trade and cultural exchanges. The Xi'an-Tashkent service is China Eastern Airlines' fifth international route launched from Xi'an this year, expanding its international network from the city to 17 destinations. Direct flight MU855 from Xi'an Xianyang International Airport of China receives a water cannon salute after landing at Tashkent International Airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Zafar Khalilov/Xinhua) Guests cut the ribbon during the inaugural ceremony for a direct flight route linking Xi'an of China and Tashkent, at Tashkent International Airport in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 16, 2025. (Photo by Zafar Khalilov/Xinhua) TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. Chinese airline China Eastern Airlines has entered the Uzbekistan market for the first time by launching regular passenger flights on the XianTashkentXian route, Trend reports. The airlines inaugural flight landed at Tashkent International Airport at 14:50 on July 16, carrying 137 passengers. In a traditional welcome ceremony, the aircraft was greeted with a water salute, and the crew received flowers amid a festive atmosphere. China Eastern is proud to establish a direct air link between two ancient capitals of the Great Silk Road Xian and Tashkent. We believe this route will open new horizons for tourism and business travel, and serve as a bridge of friendship and cooperation between our countries. We are committed to providing a high level of service, safety, and comfort to all our passengers, said Zhu Suemin, a representative of China Eastern Airlines. Flights will operate three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, using comfortable Airbus A320 aircraft. The flight duration is approximately 4.5 hours. Headquartered in Shanghai, China Eastern Airlines is one of the largest carriers in China and was established in 1988. TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, July 16. A delegation from Uzbekistan held a meeting with the management of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) and discussed key areas of cooperation in Islamic banking and financial regulation, Trend reports. During the meeting, the sides exchanged insights on Bank Negara Malaysias experience in the licensing, supervision, and regulation of Islamic banks and financial institutions. Particular attention was given to the mechanisms used to ensure compliance with Shariah principles and effective liquidity management within the Islamic financial system. The parties also shared updates on ongoing regulatory reforms, internal legal frameworks, and practical tools used to strengthen financial oversight in their respective countries. The meeting concluded with a mutual agreement to deepen cooperation between the central banks of Uzbekistan and Malaysia. Future collaboration will focus on knowledge-sharing initiatives and the exchange of best practices in the regulation and development of Islamic finance. Meanwhile, the meeting marks an important step in strengthening bilateral ties and fostering a more integrated approach to Islamic financial regulation in the region. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the trade volume between Uzbekistan and Malaysia surged by 25 percent, a testament to the blossoming growth of their multifaceted alliance. Chinese industrial titans power Kazakhstans rebar production revolution Photo: Artificial Intelligence Kazakhstans Qarmet signed a partnership agreement with Beijing Shougang International Engineering and Power China during the Kazakh Deputy Prime Ministers visit to China. The project includes building a new rolling mill to increase output, cut carbon emissions, and digitalize processes, with production starting in 2026 and aiming to fully replace imported construction metal products. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 16. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev received the Special Representative of the President for Afghanistan, Yerkin Tukumov, Trend reports. In the course of the meeting, Tokayev also stressed that Kazakhstan intends to continue implementing humanitarian and educational initiatives aimed at ensuring the security and stability of Afghanistan. Moreover, the President highlighted the importance of actively utilizing the capabilities of the UN Regional Center for Sustainable Development Goals for Central Asia and Afghanistan, located in Almaty. At the end of the meeting, the Special Representative was tasked with facilitating effective cooperation with Afghanistan, primarily in the areas of trade, economy, and humanitarian affairs. In 2024, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Afghanistan amounted to approximately $540 million, of which more than $520 million was exports from Kazakhstan. The main exports included flour, wheat, sunflower oil, and ferrous metals. Kazakhstan prepares to export beef, lamb, and live animals to Jordan Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan Representatives from Kazakhstans Veterinary Control Committee met with Jordans Veterinary Service at Kazakhstans Ministry of Agriculture to discuss exporting Kazakh beef, lamb, and live animals to Jordan. They reviewed Kazakhstans veterinary control, certification, and biosecurity systems to ensure product quality and safety. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 16. Kazakhstans Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu met with Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of the Peoples Republic of China, during his visit to China for the upcoming meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, Trend reports. According to the information, the parties discussed a wide range of issues of Kazakh-Chinese cooperation, including the current state and prospects of interaction in political, trade-economic, and cultural-humanitarian spheres. The interlocutors noted the positive dynamics in the development of political dialogue between the countries, the statement said. Moreover, special attention was given to the practical implementation of agreements reached during meetings of the leaders of Kazakhstan and China, as well as the schedule of upcoming high-level and top-level events. Following the traditionally open and trustful negotiations of the heads of state held this year in Astana, new ambitious goals have been set and the further vector for cooperation development outlined. Now our common task is to make every possible effort to qualitatively implement the reached agreements, Nurtleu stated. In addition, issues of further expansion of trade-economic, investment, energy, and transit-transport cooperation were discussed. Following the meeting, the ministers exchanged views on pressing issues of the regional and international agenda and agreed to continue close coordination and cooperation within multilateral frameworks, including the UN, SCO, CICA, and the Central AsiaChina format. The meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in 2025 was held on July 15 in Tianjin, China. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss preparations for the SCO Heads of State Summit planned for autumn 2025, as well as to exchange views on issues of multifaceted cooperation in the context of the current international and regional agenda. Kazakhstan, China advance Middle Corridor connectivity with new port project Photo: Akimat (local government) of the Kazakhstans Mangystau region Governor of Kazakhstans Mangystau region, Nurdaulet Kilybay, met with Chinese company leaders from Zhongyun Guoji and Goyu Uchan to discuss building a large logistics hub and modern seaport in Aktau. The project, fully funded by China, aims to enhance the regions transport potential and strengthen the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Kazakhstan reports increase in new crop grain exports for 2024-2025 Photo: Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan From September 2024 to July 10, 2025, Kazakhstan exported 9.3 million tons of new crop grain, marking a 58.4 percent increase from the previous year. This surge highlights strong international demand and successful efforts to expand export markets and improve logistics. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Kazakhstan taps South Koreas YPP for major green hydrogen project Photo: Kazakh Invest Azamat Kozhanov of Kazakh Invest met with Jeon Man Baek of South Korea's YPP Corporation to sign a framework agreement on a green hydrogen project in Kazakhstan. The $3.1 billion initiative, in partnership with EPS Engineering, includes building 2 GW of wind and solar capacity and aims to produce 75,000 tons of green hydrogen and 310,000 tons of green ammonia annually. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register Representatives vote on a draft resolution during a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, July 15, 2025. The sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Yemen must be respected, said a Chinese envoy on Tuesday after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution concerning Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. (Loey Felipe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua) UNITED NATIONS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity of Yemen must be respected, said a Chinese envoy on Tuesday after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution concerning Houthi attacks in the Red Sea. "China is deeply concerned by this development," said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, referring to the recent re-escalation of tensions in the Red Sea as a new round of hostilities erupted between Israel and the Houthis in Yemen. "We call on the Houthis to respect the navigational rights of commercial vessels of all countries in the Red Sea in accordance with international law, to cease attacks on commercial vessels, and to safeguard the security of the Red Sea waterways," he said. "All parties concerned should exercise calm and restraint and refrain from actions that could further escalate tensions," said Geng, adding that the tensions in the Red Sea are a significant manifestation of the spillover of the Gaza conflict. The settlement of the issues in the Red Sea and Yemen cannot be achieved without easing tensions and de-escalating the overall situation in the region, said Geng. The international community must act with a greater sense of urgency to promote an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and fully restore humanitarian access, he said. The Security Council on Tuesday adopted Resolution 2787, which extended the reporting requirement from Resolution 2722 through Jan. 15, 2026, asking Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to report monthly on attacks by the Houthis on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea. The resolution was adopted with 12 votes in favor and none against, while Algeria, China and Russia abstained, voicing concerns that the language in Resolution 2722 has been misused to justify attacks on Yemen. After the adoption of Resolution 2722 in January 2024, certain countries took military actions against Yemen, severely undermining the Yemeni peace process and exacerbating tensions in the Red Sea, with adverse effects that persist to this day, said Geng. Resolution 2722 condemned the Houthi attacks on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, demanded an immediate cessation of all such attacks, and "takes note of the right of (UN) member states, in accordance with international law, to defend their vessels from attacks, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms." BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. The joint venture of Azerbaijans state oil company SOCAR and KBR, SOCAR-KBR LLC, has been awarded two contracts by bp for Azerbaijan one to support the Sangachal Terminal Electrification (STEL) project, and another for the Shah Deniz compression (SDC) gas field project, Trend reports citing the KBR. Under the terms of the contracts, SOCAR-KBR will provide detailed engineering design solutions and procurement services for both the projects. SKLLC previously completed the project FEED for the STEL project, and the pre-FEED and FEED for the SDC project. This additional work reflects BPs continued confidence in SOCAR-KBRs delivery excellence. KBR has been delivering world-scale energy solutions in the region for over three decades and these projects mark a significant step in Azerbaijans clean energy security objectives, said Jay Ibrahim, President, KBR Sustainable Technology Solutions. The Sangachal terminal, which was designed by KBR and serves as a vital link between Azerbaijan and the rest of Europe, will enable the countrys transition to national grid supply and reduce emissions. The Shah Deniz compression project marks the next stage in the evolution of delivering safe and efficient solutions. The SOCAR-KBR Baku office will deliver this project with the expertise of local subject matter experts with support from KBRs global team. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is working with the Bulgarian government and the countrys key energy institutions not only to supply gas to Bulgaria but also to expand deliveries to other European countries, said Murad Heydarov, Director of SOCAR Balkan, Trend reports. "From the very beginning, our plan has been to supply gas to as many European countries as possible. In line with this, we are implementing our strategy to strengthen our presence in various gas markets. Since last year, we have been supplying gas to 10 European countries, 8 of which are EU member states. Naturally, Romania, Hungary, and Serbia are among our clients as well," he told Bulgarian media. "That is why we are cooperating with the Bulgarian government and its energy institutions not only to ensure gas supplies for Bulgaria itself but also to facilitate deliveries to other countries in need of additional, alternative gas from Azerbaijan." Heydarov stressed that Azerbaijan has a robust, long-term business strategy for Southeastern Europe. "We consider Southeastern Europe the Balkans in particular to be among the most attractive markets for our hydrocarbon resources. Bulgaria is one of our most important clients and partners, as we are developing many areas of cooperation, especially in the energy sector. Naturally, we have worked closely within the Southern Gas Corridor transport system and continue to do so," he said. Azerbaijan exports gas to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final leg of the Southern Gas Corridor. The pipeline has an initial capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year, with potential expansion to 20 billion cubic meters. The latest data shows that Azerbaijan produced 25.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas from January through June 2025. Of this, the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block accounted for 6.6 bcm, Shah Deniz for 13.8 bcm, Absheron field for 0.8 bcm, and SOCAR itself for around 4 bcm. During this period, gas exports totaled 12.1 bcm, including 6.1 bcm to Europe, 4.9 bcm to Turkiye (of which 2.9 bcm was via TANAP), and 1.1 bcm to Georgia. Irans Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province achieves notable increase in product exports In the first quarter of the current Iranian year, exports from Irans Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province totaled about $49 million, showing a more than 13 percent increase compared to the same period last year. The province mainly exported petrochemicals, agricultural goods, home appliances, and steel products to countries including Turkiye, Iraq, India, and Uzbekistan. Access to paid information is limited If You already have a account, please log in Login Register ASTANA, Kazakhstan, July 16. The Akimat (regional government) of Kazakhstans Karaganda region has posted a message seeking investors to build hotels on Lake Balkhash, Trend reports via the Akimat of Karaganda region. Investors are invited to construct hotels on Balkhash in Kazakhstan. The construction requirements include: Category: 4 and 5 stars; At least 60 rooms in the complex. The investor will be selected through an open competition. The investor will be responsible for financing and building the hotels. Moreover, land plots will be provided by the local agricultural production cooperative "Saryarka." The local executive body will handle the engineering infrastructure of the construction sites. "These projects will help develop tourism and increase business activity in the region. The work is being carried out in accordance with the directive of the President of Kazakhstan to support the implementation of projects for building 4- and 5-star hotels using the tools of social-entrepreneurial corporations," the regional administration added. They also listed the main goals of the project: Development of the regions tourist infrastructure; Creation of new jobs; Stimulation of the local economy; Strengthening the image of the city of Balkhash as a modern tourist center of Kazakhstan. Tourist flow to Balkhash has increased by 40 percent over the past two years. Among the visitors are not only Kazakhs but also tourists from Germany, the US, Canada, Poland, and Russia. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. Iran is keen to strengthen its friendly ties with China through strategic cooperation based on mutual respect and trust, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said during a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, held as part of his visit to China to attend the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, Trend reports. Araghchi welcomed Chinas stance on recent attacks by Israel and the United States against Iran, as well as its position on violations of the UN Charter and international law. For his part, Wang Yi reaffirmed Chinas commitment to preventing further escalation in the region, noting that Beijing will continue its bilateral and multilateral consultations and stands ready to provide support within international forums, especially the UN Security Council. The two ministers also reviewed the status of bilateral agreements and joint projects in the economic and trade sectors. They discussed ways to expand cooperation, including through the opportunities presented by Chinas current chairmanship of the SCO. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization currently includes nine member statesChina, India, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Iranas well as three observer countries: Afghanistan, Belarus, and Mongolia. BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 16. The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine has approved the dismissal of Denys Shmyhal from his post as the countrys prime minister with a majority vote, Trend reports. Under the Ukrainian legislation, the resignation of the prime minister is considered a dismissal of the entire cabinet. A total of 261 deputies voted in favor of Shmyhals dismissal, with no votes against. Four deputies abstained, while 55 did not participate in the vote. A minimum of 226 votes were required for the government's dismissal. It should be noted that Denys Shmyhal submitted his resignation the day before. On the morning of July 16, the parliamentary committee on state-building matters supported the resignation. The outgoing ministers will continue in their roles until a new government is formed. The new cabinet is expected to be appointed on Thursday, July 17. Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel SYDNEY, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Australian scientists have uncovered how the critically endangered Burrunan dolphin communicates, revealing unique sounds and vocal patterns. The discovery provides essential data to help protect and monitor the species more effectively, supporting broader conservation efforts, said a statement from Curtin University and the Marine Mammal Foundation published on the Science Media Exchange website on Wednesday. The Burrunan dolphin, formally recognized as a distinct species in 2011, is found only in two small resident populations in Port Phillip Bay and the Gippsland Lakes, both in Victoria, Australia, where fewer than 250 individuals remain, said researchers. The species is critically threatened by habitat loss, pollution, vessel traffic and low genetic diversity. Marine scientists completed the first in-depth analysis of Burrunan dolphin communication, decoding 21 hours of underwater recordings from 2016 to 2023, and identified over 12,900 unique vocalizations, including 3,400 whistles and 9,500 burst-pulse sounds. Researchers identified six whistle types in Burrunan dolphins, with "upsweep" and "convex" being the most frequent. Of four burst-pulse sound categories, "barks" dominate, while squeaks, creaks, and moans are also used in their vocal repertoire. Both populations share similar calls, but environmental factors lead Port Phillip Bay dolphins to have a more uniform vocal repertoire than those in Gippsland Lakes, the study showed. Studying Burrunan dolphin calls is key for monitoring and protecting this ecosystem indicator, as passive acoustic data enables ongoing tracking when visual surveys are limited, it said. BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday voiced firm opposition to any form of official interaction between the United States and China's Taiwan region, and denounced Taiwan leader Lai Ching-te's attempt to "transit" through the United States under any pretext or in any form. Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks in response to a media query on Lai's scheduled visit to Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize in August, with planned "transit" trips to New York and Dallas. Chen urged the United States to strictly abide by the one-China principle and the provisions of the three China-U.S. joint communiques, to handle Taiwan-related issues with utmost prudence, and to refrain from sending any wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. Chen noted that the one-China principle is a prevailing consensus of the international community and a fundamental norm of international relations. He expressed hope that relevant Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries will recognize the general trend, prudently handle Taiwan-related issues, and join the China-LAC community of friendship and cooperation at an early date. At the press conference, Chen also refuted recent accusations from Taiwan's mainland affairs council, which demanded an explanation over what it claimed was an "attack" by Chinese embassy staff in the Czech Republic on the motorcade of Hsiao Bi-khim, a politician with Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), during her visit to Prague last year. He stressed that the mainland firmly opposes any form of official interaction between China's Taiwan region and countries that have diplomatic ties with China, urging relevant countries to adhere to the one-China principle and not be swayed by "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. "Chinese diplomats always observe the laws and regulations of host countries," Chen said, adding that the so-called "attack" is a complete fabrication. He accused the DPP authorities of once again maliciously exploiting the incident to incite cross-Strait confrontation, warning that "no matter how many times a lie is repeated, it will not become the truth." Chen reiterated that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. "History cannot be rewritten, and facts cannot be distorted," he said, urging the U.S. side to stop pushing forward negative Taiwan-related bills and sending any wrong signals to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces. facebook like button Tweet tweet button for twitter Published July 16, 2025 CAPTION: Team Dristi from ULM won the third prize of $5,000 at the Nexus Technology Cup. Pictured L-R: Nexus President and CEO Tony Zanders, ULM student Divya Shah, ULM student Unika Bista, Nexus Cup Judge Padma Vatsavai, Nexus Cup Judge Dianna Liu, Nexus Cup Judge Angie Jones, ULM Assistant Professor Dr. Prasanthi Sreekumari MONROE, LA The University of Louisiana Monroe Computer Science program recently sent four student teams to compete in the finals of the Nexus Technology Cup in Baton Rouge on June 17-19, 2025. This event celebrated innovative solutions in sustainability, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure security developed by student teams from across Louisiana. Dristi, a team including ULM sophomore computer science students Unika Bista and Divya Shah, was awarded third place at the competition, which included a $5,000 cash prize. Dristi is a mobile application created by Bista and Shah, under the guidance of Dr. Prasanthi Sreekumari, Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Computer Science program at ULM. The app uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide real-time scene descriptions for visually impaired users, enhancing accessibility and promoting independence. The Nexus Technology Cup is a highly competitive event, with over 70 teams submitting applications. From all applicants, only 21 teams were selected as finalists to participate in live demonstrations. Four of the 21 teams were from the ULM Computer Science Program. In addition to Dristi, other ULM teams included Autism Speaks AI, featuring Anjan Mandal and Pradeep Poudel, DonorSync, featuring Cecil Pradhan, Rochack Shreshta, and Nobel Timnisha, and Rhyme AI, featuring Abishek Amgain and Dinesh Chhantyal. As their faculty advisor and the Coordinator of the ULM Computer Science Program, I am extremely proud of these students for their hard work, dedication, and commitment to academic excellence, said Dr. Sreekumari. For more information about the ULM Computer Science Program, visit https://www.ulm.edu/cbss/computerscience/program/. CAPTION: Four teams from the ULM Computer Science program competed in the Nexus Technology Cup. Pictured L-R, First Row: Rochak Shreshta, Cecil Pradhan, Divya Shah, Unika Bista, Dr. Prasanthi Sreekumari, Nexus Director of Marketing and Communications Na'Tisha Natt, and Nobel Timshina; Second Row: Anjan Mandal, Abhishek Amgain, Nexus President and CEO Tony Zanders, and Pradeep Poudel Welcome Guest! You are here: Home Assam: Over 8K families displaced following bulldozer actions since 2023 Over 8,000 families have been displaced and left without home after indiscriminate demolition drive in three districts of Assam, a fact finding report has revealed Wednesday July 16, 2025 8:23 PM , ummid.com News Network [The Jamiat delegation led by Maulana Hakimuddin Qasmi, General Secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, met the displaced after the destruction of 3,973 houses in the Ashudubi and Hasilabil areas of Assam.] New Delhi: Over 8,000 families have been displaced and left without home after indiscriminate demolition drive in three districts of Assam, a fact finding report has revealed. The demolition drives from November 2023 to July 2025 have affected a total of 8,115 families across Goalpara, Dhubri, and Nalbari districts of Assam, the fact finding report submitted by Jamiat Ulama Assam said. The report further said that the Assam eviction drive carried during November 2023 to July 2025, has displaced more than 32,530 individuals, including women, children, and the elderly. Muslim majority areas deliberately targeted The report further documented the demolition of 21 mosques, 44 maktabs/madrasas, and 9 Eidgahs, reflecting the disproportionate targeting of religious and community institutions. In a memorandum submitted to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Tuesday July 15, 2025, a delegation of Jamiat Ulama accused that the demolitions were selectively carried out in Muslim-majority areas, particularly targeting Bengali-origin Muslim residents, while similar settlements of other communities remained untouched - an alarming case of state bias and discrimination. The demolition drive in Assam is inhuman, unconstitutional, and driven by religious discrimination, the Jamiat Ulama delegation which also visited the affected families said in the memorandum. Many of the affected families have been residing in these areas for over 70 to 80 years, and are legitimate Indian citizens, many of whom were earlier displaced by erosion caused by the Brahmaputra River, the Jamiat said. Evicting them without due process violates legal rights, constitutional protections, and Supreme Court directives, the organization said. "Industrial interests" The Jamiat also accused the BJP government in Assam of serving private and industrial interests. In several cases, the demolitions were allegedly executed to serve private or industrial interests, with no prior notice given to the occupants, the Jamiat said. The Jamiat demanded immediate rehabilitation and compensation for all affected families, utilization of government khas land available in Assam for relocation, provision of interim relief, including food and shelter, until permanent arrangements are made. While Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind has initiated relief efforts by providing food, shelter, and medical aid, the current resources are inadequate to meet the scale of the crisis. Urgent and expanded government intervention is essential to address the humanitarian emergency and restore justice to the displaced families, the organization said. The Jamiat delegation led by Maulana Hakimuddin Qasmi, General Secretary of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, met the displaced after the destruction of 3,973 houses in the Ashudubi and Hasilabil areas of Assam. CM confirms large scale eviction drive The Chief Minister of Assam has Wednesday confirmed the large scale eviction drive, saying the administration is on a crackdown mission on, what he called as, land jihad. He said that ever since his government came to power in 2021, it has conducted evictions to clear over 1.19 lakh bighas of land including land belonging to religious institutions (read madras/maktab/mosques) is 4,449 bighas. He said around 50,000 people have been evicted and he has ordered the officials to remove their names from voter lists. Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates. Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. NATO warns India, China and Brazil over buying Russian oil The 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Wednesday warned India, China and Brazil over buying oil from Russia Wednesday July 16, 2025 2:21 PM , ummid.com News Network Washington: The 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Wednesday warned India, China and Brazil over buying oil from Russia. Speaking to reporters after meeting US senators, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned the countries doing trade with Russia could face severe economic penalties if they continue doing so and asked the heads of the three countries to press Russian President Vladimir Putin to take peace negotiations seriously. "If you are the President of China, the Prime Minister of India, or the President of Brazil, and you continue to trade with Russia and buy their oil and gas, then you know, if the man in Moscow doesn't take the peace negotiations seriously, I will impose 100 per cent secondary sanctions," Rutte said. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard," he added. Russian Oil Russia, one of the largest oil producers in the world is a member of OPEC+. The country is facing trade sanctions by the U.S. and its allies over Ukraine war. However, India, China and Brazil are doing business with Russia despite the sanctions, as per reports. The case of India is murkier, as it is reported, Releiance Industries of India is importing oil from Russia at a much cheaper rate but the benefits are not passed on to the people. Petrol and Diesel in India are selling at much higher prices due to massive taxes on petroleum products. Rutte also called on the three countries to put pressure on Putin for peace talks. "Please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks. Otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India, and on China in a massive way," he said. The NATO chief's comments came a day after US President Donald Trump announced new military support for Ukraine and threatened sweeping tariffs on Russia and its trading partners. Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates. Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. Welcome Guest! You are here: Home Nobel laureates pick Francesca Albanese for Peace Prize, Get all-round support Tunisias National Dialogue Quartet has nominated Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, for the Nobel Peace Prize Thursday July 17, 2025 12:11 PM , ummid.com News Network Tunisias National Dialogue Quartet has nominated Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, for the Nobel Peace Prize, and its move soon started receiving global support. The National Dialogue Quartet had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015. The Quartet, which includes the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT), the Tunisian National Bar Association, the Tunisian Human Rights League and the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), nominated Francisca Albanese for her principled stance and extraordinary reporting on violations of international humanitarian law, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the Arab Weekly. In the nomination letter dated July 14 and addressed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the Quartet stressed that true peace can only be achieved on the basis of justice, international law, human rights and the right of peoples to self-determination. They commended Albaneses courage and moral clarity in highlighting what they described as systematic violations in the occupied territories, and described her work as a powerful reminder of the human cost of impunity and political silence. Among the reports cited in the letter was Albaneses recent and widely discussed Economy of Genocide report, which the Quartet said went beyond legal documentation to become a human cry against collective punishment, forced displacement and mass killings. They praised Albanese for choosing to be a voice for victims, armed only with the force of law and truth, in a context they described as marked by silence and political bias. The nomination of Francesca Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize came four days after Donald Trump administration in the United States sanctioned her for exposing Israel and its supporters. In a statement announcing sanctions against Albanese, Trump administration accused her of waging a campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel. Albanese called the U.S. decision a mafia style intimidation which, she said, will not stop her from her work. Interestingly, U.S. President Donald Trump also thinks he deserves Nobel Peace Prize, and he has expressed his desire for the prestigious prize multiple times on various public and official forums. But, unlike Albanese who has been nominated for the Peace Prize by Nobel laureates, Trump has been nominated by Field Marshal Asim Munir of Pakistan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over war crimes. Global Support for Francisca Albanese Meanwhile, Albaneses Nobel Peace Prize nomination is getting supports globally and from all-around. Her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize would honor not only her extraordinary service but the very principles upon which the prize was founded, the American Human Rights Council (AHRC-USA) said while endorsing Albaneses Nobel Peace Prize nomination. The American Human Rights Council (AHRC-USA) said it stands with the peace-loving individuals across the United States and around the globe in supporting the nomination of Francesca AlbaneseUN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territoriesfor the Nobel Peace Prize. Albanese holds a law degree with honours from the University of Pisa, a masters in human rights from SOAS University of London and a PhD in international refugee law from the University of Amsterdam. An accomplished Italian legal scholar and internationally respected expert in human rights law, Albanese became the first woman appointed to this UN role, beginning her three-year term on May 1, 2022. She has fulfilled her mandate with dignity, courage, and integrity. Throughout her tenure, she has spoken truth to powernever bending to political pressure or double standards. Fearlessly presenting facts, Albanese has become a steadfast voice for justice in the face of widespread global silence. She has defended the voiceless and vulnerable, confronting the ongoing Israeli atrocities, including mass killings, starvation, and extermination with resolute moral clarity, the AHRC US said. Thousands Sign Online Petitions Signed by close to 100,000 people from across the world, an online petition at avaaz.org has recommended Francisca Albanese and doctors of Gaza for the Nobel Peace Prize. "As people from across the world, we believe Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, and the doctors caring for people in Gaza deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for their work, the online petition by U.S. based non-profit Avaaz said. A separate petition on change.org, Hina Saif said, Francesca Albanese has demonstrated unwavering courage and dedication in her outspoken stance against the genocide faced by the Palestinian people. Francesca embodies the spirit of the Nobel Peace Prize by her commitment to peace and equality, making her a remarkable candidate whose work transcends borders and barriers, the online petition signed by over 30,000 said. Follow ummid.com WhatsApp Channel for all the latest updates. Select Language To Read in Urdu, Hindi, Marathi or Arabic. LOS ANGELES, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of Defense on Tuesday ordered 2,000 of the roughly 4,000 California National Guard members deployed in the Los Angeles area to return to their home commands. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell in a statement, announcing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's decision to scale back the deployment. The "federal protection mission" had achieved its immediate goals, the statement said. It was not specified how soon the service members would leave, while some officials said units would redeploy "in an orderly manner". The California National Guard confirmed it had begun contacting commanders to arrange transportation for soldiers whose assignments are ending. The Trump administration federalized around 4,000 California National Guard members and dispatched about 700 active-duty Marines to the Los Angeles area in June after large-scale protests erupted over immigration enforcement raids in the area. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sharply criticized the deployment, arguing that the heavy military presence aggravated tensions rather than restored calm. Both officials reiterated on Tuesday that complete control of public-safety operations should be returned to state and local agencies at once. "Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state," Newsom said in a post on X. "End this theater and send everyone home." At a press conference Tuesday evening, Bass said the troops were "deployed unnecessarily" and "used as props" by the Trump administration. "I am hoping that this is the beginning of a complete withdrawal," she said as quoted by the Los Angeles Times. Even after the drawdown, some 2,000 Guard troops and all 700 Marines will remain in the Los Angeles area. Their responsibilities include protecting federal buildings and assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in their operations. SHANGHAI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Autocraft from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) maker Shanghai TCab Technology Co., Ltd. here on Wednesday on purchasing 350 E20 eVTOL aircraft worth 1 billion U.S. dollars. This marks China's largest single intent order for eVTOLs to date. The deal, stemming from a partnership formed at last year's China International Import Expo, positions TCab Tech's self-developed E20 for commercial applications, such as low-altitude tourism and urban air mobility, across the Middle East and North Africa. The five-seat E20 has a 200 km range and a top speed of 320 km/h. Autocraft cited TCab Tech's technology maturity and safety focus as key reasons for the partnership, which TCab Tech called a "key breakthrough" for its overseas expansion. Deliveries will be batched. Packing for college is one of those things that sounds exciting until youre staring at a mountain of clothes, random cords and trying to decide if you really need to bring something with you. When I was preparing to move into the dorms at the University of Wyoming, Ill be honest, I was nervous. It felt like I had one shot to pack my whole life into a few bins and make sure I had everything I needed for an entirely new chapter. To calm the nerves, I made a list of everything I needed to bring. Actually, I made several lists. I kept adding to them as I remembered things or saw what others were packing. It helped me stay organized, feel more in control, and actually get excited about the big move to Wyoming. If youre feeling a little overwhelmed too, dont worry, that's totally normal. And the good news is that if you do forget something, Laramie has plenty of stores where you can pick up last minute items. So dont panic, its not the end of the world if your shower caddy gets left behind. Below is a packing list, based on what I actually used during my time in the dorms and what I wish Id brought sooner: School Supplies Youll be carrying your backpack everywhere, so make sure its comfortable and sturdy. Bring whatever notebooks, binders or writing tools work best for your study style. I liked color-coding mine by class. A laptop and charger are essential for homework, streaming and everything in between. Dorm outlets arent always where you want them, so an extension cord or power strip can save the day. And a small desk lamp is super handy for late-night study sessions when your roommates already asleep. Bedding Essentials Dorm beds are Twin XL, so make sure you bring sheets that actually fit two sets are ideal so youre not doing laundry in a panic. A comforter or duvet is a must and since Wyoming weather swings from hot to freezing, go for something you can layer. A mattress topper was one of the best things I packed! Those dorm beds arent exactly luxurious but you can make it cozy! Bring at least one good pillow (and maybe a second if you like to sit up in bed to study or scroll TikTok). And dont forget a throw blanket! Mine came in clutch for late night study sessions and movie nights with my roommate. Toiletries & Bathroom Items A shower caddy is super helpful for keeping your shampoo, conditioner, face wash and other essentials organized and easy to carry to the bathroom. Shower shoes (like flip flops) are a smart addition too. They make the shared bathroom setup more comfortable and hygienic. Bring two to three towels so youve always got a fresh one ready. As for toiletries, pack your daily go-tos: toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, skincare, razor, whatever you normally use. And since counter space can be limited, having a few small storage bins or drawers helped me keep things tidy and made sharing the space smoother for both me and my roommate. Room must haves & helpful Things A few small touches can make your dorm feel a lot more like home. Things like Command hooks are great for hanging up jackets, bags or decorations without damaging the walls, and storage bins, especially the ones that fit under your bed, help keep your space organized. I relied on a desk organizer to make the most of every little drawer and surface. Personalizing your space is part of the fun. Bring photos, posters or anything that reminds you of home and makes the room feel like your space. I had pictures of my family, my horses and my hometown friends, little things that helped me settle in and feel grounded. Other handy things to pack? A small fan (great for both airflow and white noise), a first aid kit, and a lanyard or card holder for your WyoOne ID. I also recommend a small tool kit or a pair of scissors, trust me, theyll come in handy more than you think. A dry-erase board or corkboard is great for to-do lists or pinning up memories. Dont forget to stay hydrated! Wyomings climate is dry, so a reusable water bottle is key. And while you dont need a full kitchen setup, a few microwave-safe dishes (like a bowl, mug and some utensils) make quick meals a lot easier. If you can, bring or share a mini fridge for drinks or leftovers. Pro tip: check in with your roommate before move-in. You might be able to split or share some of the bulkier items! Clothing & Accessories Wyoming weather loves to keep you guessing, so pack for all seasons. Layers are key bring hoodies, thermals, a rain jacket and anything else that can adapt to warm afternoons and chilly mornings. A good winter coat and snow boots are must-haves too since campus keeps moving even when it snows. For shoes, stick with a few practical, comfy pairs, and make sure to include something a little more polished. Youll want at least one business casual outfit (yes, including shoes) for things like class presentations, interviews or campus events. Laundry Supplies Youll want a laundry basket or bag thats easy to carry down the hall or across the dorm to the laundry room. Stick with liquid detergent and dryer sheets as most dorm machines dont allow pods. A small bottle of stain remover is also a good idea. I cant count how many times it saved my clothes from coffee spills and other messes. Important Documents Moving out for college is a big step toward adulting, and part of that is being ready for whatever life throws your way. Whether its a trip to the doctor, filling out paperwork, or managing your own bank account, having the right documents on hand will make things a whole lot easier. Trust me, future you will thank you for being prepared. Here are the essentials youll want to bring: Student ID + License/State ID Health Insurance Card Bank Info Emergency Contacts Copies of Prescriptions Packing for college can feel overwhelming, but it doesnt have to be. What helped me was breaking it down, making a list and starting early. I packed in stages so I could double check and avoid last minute chaos. And remember, youre not moving to the middle of nowhere, if you forget something Laramie has plenty of places to grab essentials. DHAKA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi interim government declared on Tuesday a one-day state mourning on the occasion of "July Martyrs' Day" on Wednesday. The Bangladeshi government had earlier officially recognized July 16 as the "July Martyrs' Day" as at least six people were killed on this day last year in a protest before the fall of the Bangladesh Awami League party government and the ouster of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As part of the observance of the mourning day, all government, semi-government, autonomous, and educational institutions, as well as all government and private buildings across the country and Bangladeshi missions abroad, will fly the national flag at half-mast. The labor minister in economically depressed Cuba resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over her claim that people rummaging through garbage cans were only pretending to be poor and not truly desperate. Such scenes of acute need are common in Cuba, especially in Havana, as people in the communist run country grapple with runaway inflation, meager wages and food shortages, causing some to resort to panhandling or eating out of the trash. The labor minister who denied this, Marta Elena Feito, who also oversees the social security system, "acknowledged her mistake and tendered her resignation," Cuban state media said Tuesday, adding that she had shown a "lack of objectivity and sensitivity." On Monday, Feito told a parliamentary committee meeting about measures to address poverty that people rummaging for food in garbage bins are in fact dressed up to look like beggars. "When you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars. They are not beggars. In Cuba, there are no beggars," she said in statements broadcast live on state television. Social media users in the communist nation reacted with outrage, posting photos of people eating out of trash cans, while economist Pedro Monreal commented on X that there are "people disguised as 'ministers'" in Cuba. President Miguel Diaz-Canel entered the fray on X Tuesday to lambast Feito's "lack of sensitivity." He later told a parliamentary session that "none of us can act with arrogance, act with pretense, disconnected from the realities we live in." Beggars, added Diaz-Canel, are "concrete expressions of social inequalities and the problems" Cuba faces. Poverty levels have increased sharply as the Caribbean country reckons with its worst economic crisis in three decades, marked by shortages of food, medicine and fuel and daily power blackouts. Observers blame a combination of US sanctions, domestic mismanagement of the economy, and the Covid-19 pandemic tanking the nation's vital tourist industry. Last year, the government said there were 189,000 families and 350,000 individuals out of a population of 9.7 million living in "vulnerable" conditions and benefiting from social assistance programs. AFP has observed a marked increase in the last two years of homeless people and beggars on the streets of a country where the average monthly salary is less than $20 at the unofficial exchange rate. Cuba's economy shrunk for the second consecutive year in 2024, contracting 1.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent in 2023. lp/val/mlr/dw/jgc Syria announced that its army had begun to withdraw from violence-hit Sweida on Wednesday, following a wave of Israeli strikes on the capital and a US call for government forces to leave the majority-Druze southern city. The United States, which is close allies with Israel and has been trying to reboot its relationship with Syria, said an agreement had been reached to restore calm in the area, and urged "all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made". The Syrian government earlier announced a new ceasefire in Sweida that would bring a halt to military operations there, after clashes that a war monitor said had left more than 350 people dead since Sunday. The Syrian army "has begun withdrawing from the city of Sweida in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement, after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups", a defence ministry statement said. The statement did not mention any withdrawal of other government security forces, which had deployed to the city on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a previous truce agreed with Druze community leaders following days of deadly fighting with local Bedouin tribes. That ceasefire appeared to have little effect, however, with witnesses reporting that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province had left more than 350 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in "summary executions". The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the "heinous acts" in Sweida and to punish "all those proven to be involved". - Damascus strikes - Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far from their shared frontier as possible. Following the fall of Syria's longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, the Israeli military took control of the UN-monitored demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights and conducted hundreds of strikes on military targets in Syria. After carrying out air strikes in Sweida province earlier this week in what it said was defence of the Druze, Israel launched a series of attacks on the capital Damascus on Wednesday. AFP images showed the side of a building in the defence ministry complex in ruins after one strike, as smoke billowed over the area. Israel said it had also struck a "military target" in the area of the presidential palace, while a Syrian interior ministry source reported strikes outside the capital in "the vicinity of the Mazzeh (military) airport". Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz called on Damascus to "leave the Druze in Sweida alone", and threatened to unleash "painful blows" until government forces pulled back. Syria's foreign ministry slammed the attacks as a "dangerous escalation", while Israel's military chief insisted his forces were "acting with responsibility, restraint and sound judgment". The Syrian health ministry said that at least three people were killed and 34 wounded in the strikes on Damascus. - Halt to Sweida operations - Announcing the new ceasefire on Wednesday, Syria's interior ministry said there would be a "total and immediate halt to all military operations", as well as the formation of a committee comprising government representatives and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation. An AFP correspondent in Sweida, however, reported hearing gunfire in the city even after the announcement. In a video carried by state television, Sheikh Youssef Jarboua, one of Syria's main Druze spiritual leaders, read out the 10 points of the accord, which also includes "the full integration of the province" of Sweida into the Syrian state. Until now, Druze areas have been controlled by fighters from the minority community. The latest fighting was the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead. The clashes between the Bedouin and the Druze that first prompted the government deployment were triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze vegetable merchant, according to the Observatory. The two groups have been at loggerheads for decades. The Islamist authorities have had strained relations with Syria's patchwork of religious and ethnic minorities, and have been repeatedly accused of not doing enough to protect them. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had expressed concern on Wednesday about the Israeli bombings, adding "we want it to stop". A State Department spokesperson said Washington was also asking Syria to "withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate". Rubio later announced on X that all sides had "agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end". "This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do," he wrote, without elaborating on the nature of the agreement. burs/ami/smw/gv/aks The US ambassador to Israel on Tuesday demanded an aggressive investigation and consequences after settlers beat to death a Palestinian-American, in rare public pressure against the ally by President Donald Trump's administration. Ambassador Mike Huckabee, an outspoken supporter for years of Jewish settlement in the Palestinian territories, spoke out after an initial muted US official reaction to the death of Saif al-Din Abdul Karim Musalat. "I have asked Israel to aggressively investigate the murder of Saif Mussallet, an American citizen who was visiting family in Sinjil when he was beaten to death," Huckabee wrote on X, using an alternative spelling. "There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old," Huckabee wrote. Musalat, who was born and raised in Florida and ran an ice cream parlor in Tampa, had planned to spend the summer in an area of the West Bank known for residents from the Palestinian diaspora in North America. Israeli settlers beat him to death on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry, amid a surge in violence by extremists in the West Bank in parallel to the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Musalat's family said he was "protecting his family's land from settlers who were attempting to steal it" and that settlers blocked an ambulance, with the young man dying before he could reach a hospital. Trump has staunchly supported Israel and in his first term the United States walked away from the international consensus that settlements on occupied land were illegal. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas and evangelical Christian, has previously rejected the idea of an occupation and had voiced support for settlements. Huckabee has said that Israel has "title deed to Judea and Samaria," using a biblical term for the West Bank. Hakeem Jeffries, the top House lawmaker from the rival Democratic Party, early Tuesday also demanded action from Israel over the death of Musalat and called for a tougher response from Trump. "The Trump administration cannot continue to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the West Bank if it is truly committed to finding a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people," Jeffries said in a statement. sct/dw CHONGQING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Amid the pines of a scenic area in southwest China's Chongqing, two drones rose with a low hum, weaving through branches to hover 10 meters above the treetops as a fine mist of pesticide drifted down to target hidden pine caterpillars below. "This canopy-level spraying hits where pests hide, boosting efficiency 30-fold over manual work and eliminating blind spots," said Ni Liufa, deputy director of Liangping District's forest resources monitoring and pest control station. This scene exemplifies the quiet revolution of China's booming low-altitude economy, evolving from novelty to essential practical use. Anchored by its inclusion in China's central government work reports for 2024 and 2025, the sector is soaring. The Civil Aviation Administration of China projects the market size to reach 1.5 trillion yuan (about 209.8 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025, with potential growth up to 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035. The 1st West China Low-altitude Economy Expo in Liangping, which concluded Sunday, showcased the rapid diversification. Exhibits ranged from 5-tonne cargo drones and 4-passenger eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft to advanced communication and air traffic management systems. The applications spanned logistics, passenger transport, tourism, public safety, emergency response, surveying, and agriculture. "Low-altitude economy is evolving from traditional services to integrated formats," said Liu Daxiang, professor at Beihang University. "Deep development in agriculture, logistics, tourism, and emergency response is reshaping entire value chains." Growth is expanding from China's eastern hubs to the central and western regions, reaching beyond cities into the countryside. Chongqing, leveraging its unique landscape, is actively building an ecosystem integrating low-altitude operations with urban life and industry. The city recorded 190,000 flight hours in the first half of 2024, a surge of 109.2 percent year on year, with flight operations jumping 67.3 percent to over 1.15 million. Drones are transforming logistics, especially in less accessible areas. "Our 'air-to-air intermodal transport' connects drones with China Postal Airlines cargo flights," said Sun Liye, vice president of United Aircraft. "Fresh plums from Chongqing's Wushan County can now reach supermarkets in eastern coastal regions such as Nanjing or Shanghai the same afternoon, 17 times faster than before." In south China's Shenzhen, 483 low-altitude takeoff and landing points and a pioneering city-wide safety network have been established. In Jinzhai County, east China's Anhui province, drones are used to overcome the mountainous "last mile," delivering more than 1,000 tonnes of produce each year. In Altay Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, drones are boosting the efficiency of grassland ecological monitoring. "Low-altitude economy isn't some distant industry; it's right here," said Zhou Yuyun, a Chongqing resident exhilarated by a powered paragliding experience. "Seeing the world from above instead of the ground is breathtaking." Experts at the expo concurred that China's low-altitude economy is experiencing an unprecedented boom, driven by rapid advancements in aircraft manufacturing, flight services and diverse application scenarios, alongside a strengthening industrial chain and accelerating innovation. "With continuous policy refinement and technological breakthroughs, China's low-altitude economy will continue to expand," said Wang Huizheng, deputy head of the low-altitude economy branch of the China Information Industry Association. "This vast 'blue sky' market holds immense potential, and is poised to inject powerful new momentum into economic and social development," Wang added. PHNOM PENH, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Chen Zhou, deputy head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, led a CPC delegation to visit Cambodia from Monday to Wednesday at the invitation of the ruling Cambodian People's Party. Chen met with CPP Vice President and Prime Minister Hun Manet, First Vice Chairman of CPP External Relations Commission Suos Yara, Vice Chairman of the Youth House for Cambodia-China Friendship and Inspection Minister Sok Soken, and Funcinpec Party President Prince Norodom Chakravuth, among others. The two sides exchanged views on China-Cambodia relations and issues of common concern, and expressed the need to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two parties and the two countries. Both sides agreed to continuously consolidate political mutual trust, deepen practical cooperation, and promote the construction of an all-weather China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era. Natale-Hjorth has prison sentence reduced again. An Italian appeals court on Tuesday reduced the jail sentence of Gabriele Natale-Hjorth, one of two American men convicted in the 2019 killing of a Carabiniere police officer in Rome. Natale-Hjorth was sentenced to 10 years, 11 months and 25 days for the murder of deputy brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega who was stabbed to death on July 2019. Last July the appeals court reduced Natale-Hjorth's sentence to 11 years and four months, halving his original 22-year sentence. The latest five-month reduction marks the third time Natale-Hjorth's case was addressed at the appeals court. Natale-Hjorth is currently under house arrest, monitored with an electronic bracelet at his grandmother's house in Fregene, a coastal area near Rome. The other US man convicted of the killing, Finnegan Lee Elder, is serving a definitive term of 15 years and two months, reduced by the appeals court last summer from 24 years. Reacting to the latest ruling, Cerciello Rega's widow Rosa Maria Esilio lashed out at the "stinging denigration" of her "young husband, who died in the line of duty". "This lengthy trial, characterised by shameful procedural disloyalty in confusing responsibilities and motives for the sake of narrow-minded interests in reducing sentences, has only added to the pain of the violent death of my husband Mario", she added in a statement released through her lawyer. Background to the case On the night of 26 July 2019 two young Californians, Gabriele Natale-Hjorth (20) and Finnegan Lee Elder (19), were on holiday in Italy. They met up in Rome and tried to buy cocaine in the popular night-life area of Trastevere. A man described as an intermediary, later identified as Sergio Brugiatelli, helped them find a dealer who allegedly sold them crushed aspirin instead of drugs. In retaliation, the pair stole Brugiatelli's rucksack, demanding the return of their money plus cocaine in exchange. However Brugiatelli informed the Carabinieri of the situation, with undercover officers Mario Cerciello Rega and Andrea Varriale going to the designated meeting point in the upmarket Prati district, in place of Brugiatelli. During the altercation Elder used an 18-cm serrated-edge combat knife to stab Cerciello Rega, who was not armed, while Natale-Hjorth wrestled with Varriale. Cerciello Rega was stabbed 11 times. The 35-year-old officer later died from his wounds in hospital. The next day police tracked down Elder and Natale-Hjorth to a nearby hotel where the murder weapon was found concealed behind a ceiling panel. The killing of Cerciello Rega, who had just returned from honeymoon, shocked Italy and led to a huge outpouring of public sympathy for his widow. Huge crowds turned out for his funeral at the same church where he had been married just 43 days before. Italy's culture minister wades into debate over Valery Gergiev. Italy faces growing calls to cancel a concert led by a Russian conductor and close Putin ally who has been shunned in the West since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Valery Gergiev, the music director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, is set to conduct a concert on 27 July as part of a cultural festival at the Royal Palace of Caserta near Naples. Yulia Navalnaya Politicians and activists began protesting earlier this month against the return of Gergiev however the political debate made fresh headlines on Tuesday following the intervention of Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Urging Italian authorities to prevent the 72-year-old Gergiev from conducting in Caserta, Navalnaya described the conductor as a "conscious and active accomplice of Putin's regime". "As Putin's cultural ambassador, Valery Gergiev implements Russia's soft power policy" - Navalnaya wrote in an op-ed for Italian newspaper La Repubblica - "One of his current goals is to normalise the war and Putin's regime". Navalny, the most prominent critic of the Putin regime, died on 16 February 2024 in an Arctic prison camp where he had been serving 19 years on extremism charges which were widely viewed as politically motivated. Minister Giuli Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli also waded into the debate on Tuesday, saying: "Art is free and cannot be censored. Propaganda, however, even if done with talent, is something else." In a statement, the minister said the concert risked turning "a high-level but objectively controversial and divisive musical event into a sounding board for Russian propaganda", a prospect he said "would be deplorable". However, Vincenzo De Luca, the centre-left governor of the southern Campania region which organised the Un'Estate da RE festival, has defended Gergiev's participation in the concert. "We stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people; we have welcomed thousands of Ukrainian citizens to our territory; we have demonstrated our solidarity" - De Luca told reporters - "But we do not intend to accept a logic of exclusion or interruption of dialogue, because this does not help peace. It only serves to fuel rivers of hatred." Gergiev and Italy Gergiev, who was recently appointed general director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, reportedly owns several highly valuable properties in Italy, notably in Venice. In February 2022, he was dropped by La Scala in Milan after refusing to answer a public ultimatum issued by the city's mayor Beppe Sala, who heads the theatre board. At the time the conductor was asked to make a choice: condemn the Ukraine invasion or don't come back to La Scala. Gergiev chose to remain silent. Photo credit: Alexey Smyshlyaev / Shutterstock.com. New EU Proposal on Age Verification: A Balanced Approach to Protect Minors, Privacy, and Digital Innovation Rome, July 16, 2025 With the digital world becoming an everyday reality for increasingly younger audiences, the debate over age verification online has reached a critical point. A new study by Future Proof Society (FPS), in partnership with InnovUp and Italian Tech Alliance, is pushing for a radical shift in how Europe protects minors online, without compromising user privacy or burdening digital enterprises. The report, presented today at the Europa Experience, David Sassoli in Rome, outlines a bold proposal: a centralized, double-blind age verification system managed at the level of app stores and operating systems. This system would confirm users are within legal age ranges without revealing their precise age or personal data. A Growing Problem with Limited Solutions According to the study, more than 62% of Italian children aged 11-13 have social media accounts, many created using false birth dates or adult profiles. Alarmingly, one-third of children aged 6-10 use smartphones daily, while only 30% of families employ any form of parental control. Despite years of discussions and political promises, the implementation of effective online protections has failed to keep pace with rapid technological change. Its no longer a question of whether age verification is necessary, but which model can best balance the protection of minors, respect for privacy, and economic sustainability for businesses, said Giacomo Lev Mannheimer, co-founder of FPS, during the presentation. A European Approach to Responsibility The FPS study advocates for a shift in responsibility, placing the burden of age verification not on individual appsmany of which are created by startups or small businesses, but on major digital gatekeepers like app stores and operating systems. This approach would alleviate compliance costs for smaller companies while increasing accountability for global tech giants. Giorgio Ciron, Director of InnovUp, stressed: If verification obligations fall solely on apps and platforms, it could strangle innovation. Centralized, interoperable solutions are needed to guarantee safety without jeopardizing the growth of young digital businesses. Strong Institutional and Industry Support The proposal has gained traction among policymakers and industry leaders, with figures such as Senator Marco Scurria, MP Giulia Pastorella, Senator Simona Malpezzi, and public policy experts from Meta, Serenis, and Politicare participating in the debate. After years of inaction, its time for concrete steps, especially towards a European solution that puts responsibility on platforms benefitting most from our digital space, Mannheimer added. Towards Generational Digital Justice The Future Proof Society also presented a set of policy recommendations aimed at institutions, companies, and digital platforms. These focus on creating harmonized European standards that ensure online safety for minors while fostering innovation and fair competition across the digital economy. With political consensus growing and regulatory gaps becoming more evident, this proposal may represent a decisive step towards a safer, fairer, and more responsible digital future for Europe. Staff photographer, Joe Evans, is going to look back through the archives of Waterford News & Star to compile galleries of photos from Waterford's past. Photos will also appear in the forthcoming print edition of the newspaper and also online here at waterford-news.ie. Photos of other events are also available to view here on the website under the 'Archive' section and a collection of nostalgic photos from our archive, titled 'Colourful Memories of Waterford', is currently available as a fantastic photobook on sale at The Book Centre, in-store or through or office on Gladstone Street. Hard copy prints of photos are also available to buy through our office. Charles Boland, who was an extra in the filming of Echoes at Dunmore East back in 1987 From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past From the Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past The Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past The Archives sees Waterford News & Star photographer, Joe Evans, go through the newspaper records to pick out photos from Waterford's past A Waterford TD has said it's "shocking" that Irelands national anthem is not part of school curriculum. Sinn Fein TD and the party's spokesperson for Rural Affairs, Community Development and the Gaeltacht, Deputy Conor D. McGuinness slammed the Governments failure to include 'Amhran na bhFiann' anywhere in the national curriculum. Commenting on the matter to Waterford News & Star, he described it was "shameful, outrageous and a clear sign of how little respect this Government has for Irelands republican heritage". In response to a Parliamentary Question on the matter from Deputy McGuinness, the Minister for Education admitted that the national anthem is not part of the national curriculum at either primary or secondary level. Teachta McGuinness said: This response is a disgrace. The national anthem is taught in many schools, but only because teachers choose to include it. It is not guaranteed. It is not protected. It is not included anywhere in the actual curriculum." "The Ministers reply says it all," he said. "Her statement is littered with phrases like schools could choose to teach it, or that teachers may wish to include it, or students could engage with this style of composing'," he added. "In other words maybe they will, maybe they wont; thats the governments approach to the national anthem in 2025." "The same government deleted references to the 1916 leaders from a Sinn Fein Dail motion and wont rule out turning the GPO the very site where the Republic was proclaimed into retail and office space," he said. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are actively undermining Irelands republican heritage. Their disregard for the anthem, the GPO, and the ideals of 1916 is no accident. Its a deliberate political choice." Deputy McGuinness went on to say: Amhran na bhFiann should be taught to every child in every school. Its a basic expression of national identity and civic belonging. I am calling on the Government to fix this and ensure Amhran na bhFiann is included in the curriculum. JAKARTA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia on Wednesday inaugurated a major pesticide factory, covering 4.5 hectares and located in the Modern Cikande Industrial Estate, Serang Regency, Banten Province. "This facility was built to support the national food security program, with both domestic and global market targets," said Banten Governor Andra Soni during the inauguration ceremony. He also reaffirmed the local government's commitment to streamlining investment licensing processes to drive regional economic growth. David Yaory, president director of PT Delta Giri Wacana that owns the facility, said the factory has an initial production capacity of 2,000 metric tons of active ingredients annually, equivalent to 5,000 metric tons of pesticide products. This capacity is expected to increase to 15,000 metric tons within three years. Construction of the facility began in November 2023, with an estimated investment of around 20 million U.S. dollars. South East Technological University and Dungarvan Enterprise Centre partner to advance rural enterprise and innovation South East Technological University (SETU) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dungarvan Enterprise Centre (DEC) to designate DEC as one of TU RISEs four Rural Enterprise Hubs. This strategic partnership aims to strengthen enterprise development and innovation across Dungarvan and West Waterford. The agreement was formalised following the official opening of DECs new facility at Fairlane, Dungarvan. Under the partnership, SETU and DEC will collaborate to support entrepreneurs and enterprise communities to develop, test and scale new solutions, particularly in AgriTech and related sectors that are central to the regions economic and social fabric. Professor Bill OGorman, Chairperson of Dungarvan Enterprise Centre, welcomed the collaboration: Within the EU and Ireland, as expressed in Our Rural Future: Rural Development Policy 20212025, there is an increased understanding nationally and internationally that rural development is integrally linked to policies across a wide range of areas including spatial planning, enterprise growth, job creation, social cohesion, community development, public services, communications infrastructure, agriculture, the marine, climate adaptation, tourism, heritage, health and leisure. Professor OGorman said he sees strong synergy between the TU RISE Rural Enterprise Programme and BECEE Balanced and Enhanced Collaboration for an Entrepreneurship Ecosystem part-funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology Higher Education Initiative, in which DEC is a key partner. Brian Ogilvie, Head of Entrepreneurship and Rural Engagement at SETU, said: SETU is committed to working in partnership with enterprise centres and regional stakeholders to drive innovation and support vibrant rural communities." "Through TU RISE, we are building capacity and infrastructure that enable entrepreneurs to thrive, and this new hub in Dungarvan will be a catalyst for collaborative research, technology adoption and enterprise growth," he said. The TU RISE (Technological University Research and Innovation Supporting Enterprise) programme is co-financed by the Government of Ireland and the European Union through the ERDF Southern, Eastern & Midland Regional Programme 202127 and the Northern & Western Regional Programme 202127. The programme supports the development of research capacity, knowledge transfer and enterprise engagement across the region. On Sunday, July 14, under clear skies, people in Waterford gathered at the John Condon Memorial in Cathedral Square to mark the National Day of Commemoration, remembering all Irish men and women who died in past wars, or on service with the United Nations. It included tributes to those who served in World War I and II, the War of Independence, the Civil War, and more recently, UN peacekeeping missions. Introduced by MC, Donnchadh O Ceallachain, of the Museum of Treasures, was Mayor of Waterford City & County, Cllr. Seamus Ryan, who addressed the crowd in both Irish and English, saying: Is ceart cuimhneamh inniu ar na Gaeil go leir, idir fhir agus mna, a fuair bas i gcogai no ar fhianaise leis na Naisiuin Aontaithe. It is right that we remember today all Irish people, men and women, who died in wars or on service with the United Nations. Mayor of Waterford City & County Cllr Seamus Ryan, layed a wreath, at the Waterford National Day of Commemoration. Photo: Joe Evans The event was attended by several local councillors including Metropolitan Mayor Adam Wyse, religious dignitaries representing a range of faiths and members of the public. An interfaith service formed the centre of the ceremony, with prayers offered for the fallen, for their families, and for peace in the world. A poignant moment came with a version of 'The Last Rose of Summer', from musician Valerie Leahy, a reflective interlude that underscored the days quiet dignity. The Mayor then laid a wreath on behalf of the people of Waterford. The ceremony concluded with a minutes silence and the national anthem, performed by members of the Defence Forces. The service in Waterford echoed the State event held at Collins Barracks in Dublin, where President Michael D. Higgins led the national commemorations honouring the fallen Irish. Fast-food chain boss Hash Tayeh has resigned as chief executive of Burgertory, months after police launched an investigation into an alleged bomb threat made to one of his restaurants and amid a fight with the Tax Office. In an Instagram post on Wednesday night, Tayeh said the decision to step down as CEO of Burgertory and food and beverage company QSR Collective was not made lightly. Businessman and pro-Palestinian activist Hash Tayeh at a protest in Melbourne last year. Credit: AAP The reality is, Ive been subjected to targeted attacks, politically motivated smears, and ongoing harassment, not because of any wrongdoing, but because Ive dared to speak out against injustice, Tayeh wrote. Tayeh made the comments weeks after 12 companies associated with his Burgertory chain stores were placed into liquidation at the request of the Tax Office over allegedly unpaid tax bills. Working Australians had been robbed $500,000 since the turn of the century by the failure of the country to find ways to get businesses and people to work smarter, the former head of the federal Treasury has revealed, saying the situation will get worse without substantial reforms. Before the federal governments productivity roundtable next month, Ken Henry, who headed a review into the tax system under the Rudd government and was pivotal to the introduction of the GST under the Howard government, said the nations children were being short-changed by a current generation afraid to make hard decisions. Australian workers have been robbed of $500,000 by the slowdown in productivity over the past 25 years, according to former Treasury head Ken Henry. Credit: Dion Georgopoulos Henry, the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, used an address to the National Press Club to argue the nations poor productivity performance would become worse if environmental laws were not overhauled to both reduce red tape and protect nature. As Treasury secretary, he oversaw the first intergenerational report, released by then-treasurer Peter Costello, in 2002. After a sharp lift in productivity through the 1990s, the report assumed it could continue to grow over the next 40 years at around 1.75 per cent annually. US President Donald Trumps threat to bring forward planned tariffs of up to 200 per cent on pharmaceuticals by a year to the end of the month has united Labor and the Coalition in their defence of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The announcement comes as a blow to Australias third-largest export to the United States, worth $2.2 billion last year, with the ASX suffering its biggest single-day fall since May. Donald Trump has sent letters to a number of nations dictating the rates for tariffs on many imports. Credit: Bloomberg Speaking from Washington on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), Trump said he was intending to have tariffs probably at the end of the month, although when the suggested 200 per cent tariff would be enforced is unclear. Were going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then were going to make it a very high tariff, he said. LAS VEGAS, July 15 (Xinhua) -- North America's leading beauty trade show was launched Tuesday in the U.S. city of Las Vegas, showcasing the latest products and innovations in the beauty industry while promoting global business collaboration. The event, Cosmoprof North America, serves as a premier platform for launching new beauty brands, unveiling cutting-edge technologies, and introducing advancements in manufacturing, packaging and distribution. It also fosters connections across the beauty industry. The exhibition highlights developments across skincare, hair care, nail care, toiletries, fragrances, organic beauty products, tools and accessories. It also features the entire beauty supply chain, including raw materials and ingredients, private label and contract manufacturing, packaging solutions, and machinery. Chinese exhibitors are well represented at the event, reflecting the growing influence of Chinese beauty products in the global market. The show runs through Thursday. According to the organizer's 2024 statistics, the Cosmoprof North America Las Vegas show last year attracted more than 1,100 exhibitors from over 110 countries and some 26,000 attendees. Under the framework of the EU-WCO Rules of Origin (RoO) Africa Programme, funded by the European Union, the World Customs Organization (WCO), in partnership with the European Technical Assistance Facility (EU-TAF) support to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the COMESA Business Council (CBC), held a training of trainers workshop on Rules of Origin for private sector representatives from Eastern and Southern Africa. The workshop was held at the WCO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, from 1 to 4 July 2025 with the objective to assist the private sector in enhancing its knowledge and application of preferential Rules of Origin. The workshop was conducted as part of a comprehensive partnership with private sector stakeholders in Africa and marks the first full competency development cycle for private sector on a regional level. The support provided under the RoO Africa Programme allows for the deployment of wide-ranging capacity building activities to enhance the private sector knowledge on Rules of Origin and contribute to a seamless utilisation and implementation of the AfCFTA and other relevant FTAs. In his opening remarks, CBC CEO Teddy Soobramanien emphasised that the joint collaboration with the Programme and the EU-TAF is designed to create a multiplier effect, ensuring the sustainability and expansion of the knowledge on Rules of Origin on a regional level within the private sector who will be the actual users of the AfCFTA. The cycle of workshops has demystified Rules of Origin which are an essential tool in the industrialisation of the region and the continent. The workshop provided participants with an opportunity to refine their knowledge of Rules of Origin, while also enhancing their skills in designing and delivering effective training sessions. The workshop offered the participants a unique opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of origin-related topics through group and individual presentations, incorporating facilitation and communication skills acquired from WCO experts. At the conclusion of the workshop, the WCO experts offered constructive feedback to participants, highlighting areas for improvement and praising their success in applying newly acquired skills to develop training materials and deliver a training session. The EU-WCO RoO Africa Programme will continue its work with all African stakeholders to equip them with extended knowledge for efficient implementation and application of Rules of Origin. For further information please contact EU-WCORoOAfrica.Program@wcoomd.org Guyana has embarked on a transformative Customs modernization journey as the newest partner country of the World Customs Organizations (WCO) Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme. Supported by the United Kingdoms His Majestys Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme will support the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) in aligning with the World Trade Organizations Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards by providing support on Post-Clearance Audit (PCA) and the implementation of an Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) Programme both reform areas were notified by Guyana as TFA Category C. These efforts are designed to streamline Customs procedures, bolster supply chain security and compliance, improve trade facilitation, ultimately fostering a more efficient and enabling trading environment in Guyana. Marking the start of the reform journey, the Programme conducted PCA and AEO gap analysis from 9 to 16 June 2025. The British High Commissioner to Guyana, Ms. Jane Miller, commended the GRA for its high-level commitment to capacity building and the drive for an establishment of a world-class administrative framework. She further noted that The UK is proud to be supporting the Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, and I warmly welcome the GRAs official participation. With HMRC, the WCO, and GRA working together, I am certain that the strategic partnerships being created will lead to many successes in strengthening trade infrastructure and enhancing the efficiency of cross-border procedures. Mr. Rohan Beekhoo, the GRA Comptroller of Customs, Excise, and Trade Operations, highlighted the desired strategic shift from GRAs existing Trusted Trader Programme to a comprehensive AEO Programme in line with the WCO SAFE Framework of Standards. He also underscored the importance of advancing risk management strategies to effectively categorize traders according to their risk profiles within a fully automated framework. The gap analysis included deliberations with private sector representatives, which recognized the importance of Customs-to-Business partnership and the role of PCA and AEO as vital components of a comprehensive risk management strategy. The work of the GRAs PCA and AEO Working Group resulted in the development of draft Action Plans, which encompass key building blocks such as an enabling Legal Framework, Risk Management Instruments, Operational Procedures, Information Technology, Liaison with Stakeholders, Evaluation Mechanisms and Human Resource Management. Guyana joined the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme in June 2025 as the Programmes 13th partner country. Looking ahead, the Accelerate Trade Facilitation will continue to support the GRA with a sequence of activities in enhancing its PCA operational instruments and develop and implement a transitional plan from the Trusted Trader to a full AEO Programme. For more information on the WCO Accelerate Trade Facilitation Programme, please see here. PRAGUE, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Czech Republic will not join the purchase of U.S. weapons for Ukraine at this time, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Tuesday. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday an agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) regarding weapons to assist Ukraine. Under the agreement, governments of Germany, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Canada will finance bulk purchases from U.S. manufacturers and ship the equipment directly to Kiev. "The Czech Republic is focusing on other projects and ways to help Ukraine," Fiala told local media Publico. The Ministry of Defense confirmed to the Czech News Agency later on Tuesday that it shares the prime minister's position and has no plans to participate in the weapons purchase. UNITED NATIONS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Amid continuing hostilities in Gaza, Palestinians continue to be killed or injured as they seek food from militarized aid hubs, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there were reports of dozens of people killed or injured Wednesday at one of those hubs. "In the past week, severe injuries continued to be reported among people seeking aid," OCHA said. "The World Health Organization (WHO) reported one instance where a 21-year-old man was paralyzed for life after being shot while trying to collect a bag of flour from one of the militarized hubs." The WHO was referring to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), founded by a private U.S. group and currently funded by the U.S. government. Contrary to established international humanitarian norms for distributing relief in local communities, the GHF set up four sites in the whole of Gaza in restricted Israeli military zones, where starving civilians enter through fenced lanes under the eyes of armed security contractors. Chaos results in gunfire. OCHA said that months of escalating hostilities in Gaza have increased risks for the most vulnerable, including people with disabilities and older adults, who struggle to access what they need to survive. The humanitarians said one of their partners found in a survey that more than 80 percent of people with disabilities in Gaza have lost wheelchairs, hearing aids, walkers and other assistive devices, having to endure many challenges, including the denial of access to humanitarian aid, discrimination, stigmatization and exposure to explosive ordnance. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse are on the rise in the Gaza Strip. Several safe spaces offering shelter, psychological support and coping mechanisms for women and girls have shut down or are functioning at reduced capacity. UNFPA reported that the situation in Gaza is harrowing for women and girls. Pregnant women are delivering babies in the dark, with no electricity and no skilled care to treat potential complications. Thousands of mothers are starving. OCHA said that in Al Mawasi and Gaza City, Doctors Without Borders reported treating more than 1,200 pregnant, breastfeeding women and children with severe and moderate malnutrition in their clinics. Between May and July, the number of people enrolled for treatment at its Gaza City clinic quadrupled, including hundreds of children under the age of 2, said the organization. OCHA said that while small quantities of fuel entered Gaza again on Tuesday through the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem border crossing, severe supply shortages continue to threaten life-saving operations at hospitals, medical services and equipment, as well as telecommunications and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities. "In northern Gaza, partners rehabilitated a well to try to address critical water shortages," OCHA said. "Although this will hopefully support patients and medical staff with hundreds of cubic meters every day, it is far from sufficient to meet people's needs." UN agencies and their partners reiterated that hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel are critically needed every day to alleviate the crisis and address a dire situation. OCHA said that after four months of sweeping Israeli restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, nearly all displacement sites reported people sleeping in the open, with no means of protection. No shelter supplies have entered during this period. "This catastrophic situation must end. A ceasefire is long overdue," said the humanitarian office. If you have an event you'd like to list on the site, submit it now! Submit Niamh ODonoghue A garda has gone on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, accused of assaulting a teenager in Temple Bar in 2021. The complainant gave evidence that he suffered a fractured skull and spent five days in Beaumont Hospital following the alleged assault. Lorcan Murphy (32) of Pearse Street Garda Station has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing harm under section 3 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997. The assaults on the then 17-year-old are alleged to have taken place on Essex Street, Dublin 2 and Pearse Street Garda Station on June 1st 2021. In his opening speech on Wednesday, John Gallagher BL, prosecuting, told the court the accused was a serving member of An Garda Siochana and an investigation was carried out by GSOC, which is now known as Fiosru. Mr Gallagher said the assault is alleged to have happened during the Covid-19 period when one set of regimes runs into another, but that at this time, limited gatherings outdoors were permitted. He said there was a short encounter where the alleged injured party was brought to the ground in an effort to restrain him, and a number of bystanders were present. There was a short engagement which lasted a minute or two at most when he was brought to the ground, Mr Gallagher said. Mr Gallagher said the complainant was brought to the ground with his knee, and he was completely, effectively restrained. He was handcuffed and brought to his feet. Counsel said the alleged victim was handcuffed and could not put his hands out to protect himself. Mr Gallagher said it was the prosecutions case that by sweeping his legs from under the alleged injured party and him landing him on his head, this amounted to assault. Counsel said the alleged injured party was visibly unconscious when he was lifted into a Garda van and was taken to Pearse Street Garda Station for processing. Mr Gallagher said there was a second charge of assault at Pearse Street Garda Station, when the complainant was having difficulty staying conscious and he was pulled back by the hair. He said that it was the prosecutions case that this manhandling amounted to a second assault. He told the jury they would hear medical evidence. Mr Gallagher said there must be a legitimate use of force or reasonable force. He said its not carte blanche to use force, and he told the jury they would be asked to consider whether it was reasonable force. He also told the jury they would have to hear an account by Gda Murphy and would have to consider if there was a basis for using it. Mr Gallagher said gardai have a very difficult job but the same laws that apply to everyone else regarding the use of force also apply to the gardai. He told the jury that defence counsel Justin McQuade BL wanted it clarified that there had been an earlier engagement between the accused and the complainant. The complainant gave evidence that he could not recall the events and the doctor told me it was ok not to remember, but said I was assaulted, I was tripped up supposedly, I fractured my skull, he told the court. He told the court he was drinking that day and that he had had quite a few. He said he had been smoking weed and said he would normally smoke four or five joints a day. He also said that he could have been carrying alcohol. He said he was up in Stephens Green, and his girlfriend at the time was in Temple Bar, so he went to meet her and said the last thing he remembered was walking past McDonalds on Grafton Street. The alleged victim said waking up in James Hospital is the next thing he remembers. He told the court someone in the hospital told him he was involved in an incident with the gardai. He said he ran out of the hospital. I freaked out, I thought there was nothing wrong with me, he told the court. The complainant said he woke up with a pain in his head and went to the Mater Hospital, where he got a CT scan and then went to Beaumont Hospital, where he stayed for five days. He said he had headaches, but has no issues with his memory. You heard about this investigation because there was some publicity about it? Mr Gallagher put it to him, to which he replied yeah. The complainant said he spoke to GSOC and gave them two videos - one of him on the ground that someone else had recorded and one of the garda approaching him, which he had taken himself. When the complainant was asked by Mr Gallagher if he was ever charged with any offences in relation to events in Temple Bar on June 1st, 2021, he replied no. CCTV was shown to the court of two gardai on Essex Street, and Mr McQuade said his client was the one wearing shorts. CCTV captured from the exterior of Dolphin House on Essex Street and from Pearse Street Garda Station was shown to the court. The trial continues on Thursday before a jury of eight men and four women with Judge Pauline Codd presiding. CAIRO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Countries in the Middle East on Wednesday condemned the Israeli airstrikes targeting the Syrian Army General Command headquarters and the presidential palace area in central Damascus. Israel said the strikes were aimed at protecting the Druze minority in Syria following deadly clashes in the southern province of Sweida. The Arab League denounced the attacks as "blatant assault" on the sovereignty of an Arab state that is a member of both the Arab League and the United Nations. It also accused Israel of seeking to sow chaos in Syria by exploiting recent events in Sweida province. Egypt, in a statement from its Foreign Ministry, said these repeated Israeli violations only serve to deepen tensions and represent a fundamental source of instability in Lebanon, Syria, and the broader region. Algeria denounced the assault as a "flagrant violation of Syria's sovereignty and unity," and expressed full solidarity with Syria's right to defend its stability in line with the UN Charter and international law. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry affirmed its absolute rejection of endangering the lives of Syrian civilians and exacerbating their humanitarian suffering. It stressed the need to de-escalate the situation, as it poses a direct threat to the security and stability of the region. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun affirmed his country's "full solidarity" with Syria and its people. He renewed his call on the international community to pressure Israel to stop the repeated aggressions and to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state. Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday condemned the attacks, saying on his X post, "Unfortunately, this was all too predictable. Which capital is next?" The Israeli strikes were initially limited to Sweida province before extending to the capital. Israeli authorities said the attacks on Syrian forces and weapons aimed to "prevent the Syrian regime from harming" the Druze community, due to "the deep fraternal alliance with the Druze citizens of Israel and their familial and historical ties to the Druze in Syria." The escalation in Sweida began on Sunday after armed members of a Bedouin tribe in the countryside of Sweida reportedly assaulted and robbed a young Druze man near the town of al-Masmiyah. The brutal attack sparked retaliatory kidnappings, spiraling into full-scale clashes between local Druze fighters, government troops, and Bedouin militias. Since Sunday morning, the death toll from armed clashes, summary executions, and Israeli airstrikes in Syria's Sweida province has risen to 302, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The new Toyota Land Cruiser arrives on Irish roads this week, with customer deliveries commencing imminently. This is the first full model change in 15 years for the vehicle renowned for its unmatched reliability and performance across demanding sectors such as farming, construction, and utilities. Prices start from 57,192 ex VAT for the Land Cruiser Commercial. Land Cruiser features a 2.8 diesel engine and delivers 3.5-tonne towing capacity - matching that of the Toyota Hilux. Meanwhile, Toyota Ireland is encouraging taxi drivers to go electric with their bZ4X with a range of up to 505km and priced from 22,950. The company has welcomed the recent announcement by Minister for Transport Darragh OBrien, confirming the reopening of the 2025 Electric Small Public Service Vehicle Grant Scheme. With nearly 5 million in funding available, eligible taxi, hackney, and limousine drivers can now access grants of up to 20,000 for wheelchair-accessible vehicles when scrapping older vehicles and making the switch to a fully electric SPSV. Early application is crucial to avoid missing out on the opportunity. A Mayo man has been convicted of the defilement of a teenage girl. The five-day trial was heard before a jury at Castlebar Circuit Criminal Court. The man was 28 when the offending occurred. His victim, now 21, was 16 when the man had sex with her at an address in Mayo on July 15, 2020. The now 33-year old male was acquitted of a sexual assault charge which related to the alleged digital penetration of the girl at a work party on July 14, 2020. The accused denied all the charges and also denied knowing the girls age at the time of the alleged offending. The injured party told the court that on July 13, 2020, she received a message from her boss telling her that there would be a staff meeting at her workplace. At around 6pm the following day her mother drove her to the meeting. The young woman said the meeting was very brief and a number of people started to arrive and she realised that a party was going to take place. A number of people arrived who she did not know, including the accused who took a seat next to her. Food and drink was served and the complainant estimated that she drank five to six bottles of cider between 7pm and midnight. She said she wasnt used to drinking alcohol. The young woman claimed that while in conversation with the accused she told him that she was 16 and in school. She said he told her he was 25. The injured party said she and the accused shared a number of cigarettes over the course of the night and at one point they sat in the back of his car smoking. She said he told her he had a girlfriend. Later in the night, the party moved to a bar. The injured party said the accused texted her to meet in the bathroom of the pub. She alleged he told her he wanted to kiss her and wanted her to vape and blow it into his mouth. The young woman said in the bathroom he tried to kiss her and wanted her to touch his penis over his trousers. She alleged the man took her hand and put it towards his crotch. I let that happen but came back to myself, said the injured party. She said she was quite inebriated but stopped what was happening and they returned to the party. However, she and the accused later went out for another cigarette. The young woman alleged they went into an alleyway and the man tried to kiss her again. She claimed he opened the buttons and zip of her trousers and put two fingers inside her vagina. I did not want that to happen, she told the court, adding that she told him No and pushed him off before they returned to the bar. The injured party said that the next day the accused texted her to meet up. She said he invited her to his house. He told her he wanted to have sex but it was to be a one-time thing and they could remain friends afterwards. He picked her up and drove her to his home. The young woman said he told her to turn the location setting off on her phone and was paranoid that she was recording their conversation. They went to the home and after chatting in the living room she went to the patio to smoke. The young woman said the man told her to keep the noise down in case the neighbours heard her. She said he told her to hurry up and when she went back inside he grabbed her by the neck and pushed her against the wall before trying to kiss her. That level of force said to me that something was wrong, said the victim. The accused told her to go upstairs. They went to a bedroom and she said he took off all of his clothes while she stripped to her bra and underwear. She said he took a condom from a locker and put it on himself before getting on top of her. She said she suffered a lot of discomfort when he put his penis in her vagina. I was too scared to say anything, she told the court. The girl said that after he ejaculated, he told her I really needed that and asked her Does it turn you on that I am an older guy. The injured party was able to give a detailed description of the house and the bedroom where the offence occurred. The young woman said that after a while chatting the man told her she should go. The next day he texted her about meeting up again and they agreed to meet at a beach at around 8.30pm. They talked in his car at a car park at the beach. He seemed on edge and paranoid. When she brought up the sex that had taken place he replied What are you talking about? What sex? It was strange to see someone lie to your face, the injured party commented. She said that up until July 21, 2020, there was minimal contact. She said he was initiating contact and she was giving short answers. Their communication was mostly via the social media messaging service Snapchat. On July 21, 2020, the injured party was having a meal with a friend when the accused arrived at the same place. The girl said he texted her and offered to drive her home. She agreed and walked to the accuseds home after dinner. She said that after chatting for a while he grabbed her throat and pushed her against the couch. The injured party said he backed off when she told him she didnt want to have sex. The victim said the accused convinced her to send him messages that made it look like she was pursuing him. She said this was in case his girlfriend found out. The accused screenshot these images. The young woman said that sometime between July 21 and 25, the accused sent her a booking reference for a hotel in Galway. She claimed the booking was made under her name. I told him I would not be allowed to go, she told the court. On July 30, 2020, she reported the matter to Gardai. Senior counsel for the accused, Giollaiosa O Lideadha, put it to the complainant that all the allegations against his client were completely false. This was denied by the young woman. The defence barrister said the kissing and touching which occurred at the work party was consensual with his client denying having sex with or digitally penetrating the then 16-year-old. The young woman agreed that the kissing that took place at the work party was consensual. Counsel for the defence claimed that his client only learned of the complainants age upon their third meeting. His client claimed that the injured party told him she would tell others that they had sex after he said he didnt want a relationship with her. Senior counsel claimed that the complainant pressurised the defendant to tell his girlfriend about what happened between them. This was denied by the complainant. The wife of the injured partys then boss gave evidence at the trial. She was present at the party and her statement to gardai was read out in court. She said she thought the accused and the complainant were paying more attention to each other than anyone else at the party and they would frequently sneak away to smoke. At one point she saw them together in his car. When she asked him what was going on, the accused told her, Are you stupid? She is 16. She said she thought everyone knew the injured partys age. The woman said the injured party later told her she had sex with the accused and he treated her like trash. She said the complainant also told her about the hotel in Galway and she told her not to go. The woman said she contacted the accused and pretended that she had seen him and the girl in a cafe together which prompted him to call her. She said the complainant never admitted to her that he had sex with the girl. The accused was arrested by Gardai on March 31, 2021. When first interviewed in the company of his solicitor, he replied No comment to every question. He then consulted with his solicitor for about 30 minutes before handing Gardai a prepared statement. The statement said he and the injured party got on very well at the party and she seemed mature. He said she first tried to kiss him but he declined as he had a girlfriend. However, he said he did kiss her later that night. In his statement, he said he assumed the girl was over 18. He claimed the complaint against him was borne out of vengeance because he wouldnt leave his girlfriend for her. The all-male jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty on the sexual assault offence. The jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict for the defilement offence but returned a majority 10-2 verdict. Judge Eoin Garavan said it was a difficult case for everyone involved. He remanded the 33-year old defendant on continuing bail for sentencing on November 6 next. Defence counsel sought a psychological report ahead of the sentencing. By Cate McCurry, PA The Taoiseach has expressed full confidence in An Post, adding that Cabinet has had no discussion about the organisation being on the brink. It comes after reports claimed that Arts Minister Patrick ODonovan told Cabinet colleagues that the postal service would have seen a substantial loss last year without revenue generated by general and European election post. An Post chief executive David McRedmond described the reports as utter garbage and said the company is performing extremely well. An Post chief executive David McRedmond (Niall Carson/PA) On Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheal Martin expressed confidence in Mr McRedmond and the board of An Post. Mr Martin said he could understand the chief executives anger and annoyance over the reports on the companys accounts, adding: What happened was wrong. He told reporters: Im not apportioning blame anywhere, I simply do not know. However, he said: There was no discussion about An Post being on the brink or anything like that. The company turned a profit last year and had improved its situation significantly from the previous year. Mr Martin described An Post as a very effective company that under Mr McRedmonds leadership had adapted very well to changing trends in mail, postage and packages. He told reporters: In terms of the core business, the company has been very resilient in the face of fairly fundamental change of behaviour. There will be challenges ahead, and (the) importance is to be able to identify changing behaviours and changing trends, and then position the company to deal with that. Mr Martin said the overall picture for the company was better this year than last year. Earlier, Mr ODonovan said he is confident about the future of An Post, describing the company as viable and profitable. Arts Minister Patrick ODonovan (Niall Carson/PA) Mr ODonovan presented the postal services annual report to Cabinet on Tuesday. Following claims that An Post is in a dire financial situation, Mr ODonovan said that the postal service has been transformed in recent years under the leadership of Mr McRedmond. Mr ODonovan said: The issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting, and Im not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because Im constitutionally prevented from doing that, as is everybody else. But obviously somebody decided that that wasnt going to be the case. Mr ODonovan told RTE's Today with Claire Byrne programme that An Post has returned to profit following some challenging years. One of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isnt helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, as people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters. To be quite honest about it, it is showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is and a lack of understanding of what an independent contractor who works for An Post is. Mr ODonovan added: But how would a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I dont know how they would come up with that. Speaking to RTE Radio 1, Mr McRedmond said he was absolutely furious by the claims. That report is utter garbage. Im here in Italy, on my holidays, Im absolutely furious to read something like that, he said. The company presented its results. The results were presented to Cabinet yesterday. They showed the highest revenue weve ever had, over a billion revenues for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from 38 million to 55 million. They showed that our net profit was at 10 million. The company is performing extremely well. Weve got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe. So I just dont understand it. He rejected claims that without profits generated from last years general and European elections, it would have made a substantial loss. Its just simply not true, and its not how companies work. Yes, we got a big boost in the elections last year, but if it wasnt the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, weve huge costs with them, he added. It was irresponsible leak from a Government minister, which is wholly unacceptable. These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. He also rejected claims that cash reserves have fallen below one million euros. We have at the end of the year with 38 million cash reserves, and this year, so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year. Im talking to Government about it. I hope theres just some big misunderstanding somewhere, and the company, as I say, is doing really well. Thin Az Lizzy Bringing Ballina Full-Circle Gary Kevany Phil Lynotts great-great-grandfather was born in Ballina so when Thin Az Lizzy, Irelands premier Thin Lizzy tribute act play Bar Squares Times Square this Friday, July 18th, it will have come full-circle. And it has already come full-circle for the band itself with Phils mother, Philomena Lynott, decreeing that Johnny D Fox Carolans voice was as close to her deceased sons as one could find in 1992 - three years before the band was formed. Johnny was told, as a youth finding his way and learning the piano, that he couldnt sing and should stick to playing the piano and writing songs yet Johnny persevered and is now enjoying the fruits of his labour. The band has played to intimate crowds of as few as 20 and as many as 50,000 performing to crowds in Germany and Holland and later this year will be playing Forest Fest in Co. Laois. Johnny recently chatted to this reporter and spoke of a much-shared love for Lynott and his music. I first heard Thin Lizzy in 1986 and it was like an explosion of music to my ears. Carolyn stated. This feeling was shared by many listeners around Ireland and further afield. Lynotts career skyrocketed before his untimely passing. We played with John Earl from Live and Dangerous and played with him and Brian Downey in Vicar Street. While Whiskey in the Jar is perhaps the most easily recognisable Thin Lizzy hit, Carolan feels the Cowboy Song is his favourite track of Lynotts to listen to and perform. The band assert that the crowd can dictate how the gigs go. The more energetic they are, the better the gig will be so hopefully theyll receive a good reception when they perform this Friday. Joining the band for the gig this Friday in Times Square will be Michael Kulbaka from Brian Downeys Alive and Dangerous whom Carolan toured with last summer. The band also plan to tour Holland again in April 2026. Tickets are available for the gig from eventbrite.ie Walkability audit for town streets The footpaths of Ballyhaunis will be getting serious scrutiny next week when staff from Mayo County Council conduct a walkability assessment of local walkways. The audit will be done on July 21st using the Universal Design Walkability Audit Tool developed as a collaboration between the National Transport Authority, Age Friendly Ireland, Green-Schools and the National Disability Authoritys Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. The audit will see a range of people of various ages and abilities - including those with disabilities walk the footpaths to assess whether or not theyre fit for purpose. Improving pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure is part of the national government efforts to encourage healthier lifestyles while also reducing carbon emissions associated with car dependency. Mo shares illustrious theatrical history Ballyhaunis resident and Down native Mo Higgins shared some of her fascinating life story at a recent meeting of Ballyhaunis Language Cafes popular English language get-together. Mo told the gathering about her performance in a production of Dancing at Lughnasa at the theatre of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. She read a newspaper review commending her performance as the character Kate in the play which was written by Brian Friel and first performed in 1990. Bulawayo is the second largest city of Zimbabwe, which was known as Rhodesia when Mo moved there to work as a teacher. She spent 40 years there before moving back to Ireland but her son remains in Bulawayo where he runs a successful safari business. A group from Ballyhaunis Language Cafe will travel to Dublin on July 16th to watch a matinee performance of Dancing at Lughnasa. LEADER money available Ballyhaunis community groups and enterprises are encouraged to apply for funds under the latest LEADER programme for rural development which is co-funded by the EU and the Irish Government. Some 6.6 million is available for projects in Mayo under the current LEADER fund, which runs until 2027 and puts an emphasis on action on climate change and biodiversity loss as well as rural enterprise. The refurbishment of the Community Hall in Ballyhaunis and local meat company Nour Foods were both backed in previous LEADER programmes. Projects are entitled to up to 75% of their total cost under LEADER. LEADER is delivered through Local Action Groups, which are typically convened by local authorities with projects being inspected by local development companies Northeast Mayo and Southwest Mayo. Mayo on a per capita basis is getting 64, which is less than Roscommon (97) but more than Galway (37). Hope for repair of private roads Householders in the Ballyhaunis area seeking a resurfacing of their roads will have gained some comfort from comments made recently by Minister for Rural Affairs and local Fianna Fail TD Dara Calleary which suggest government may spend more to repair private roads and laneways that are not under the auspices of Mayo County Council. Typically serving a small number of houses, these roads are eligible for a local improvement scheme grant from government to local authorities but hundreds of such roads nationwide are waiting for cash, including several in the Ballyhaunis area that are the subject of lobbying efforts by local residents. In a Dail debate last week, Minister Calleary said: The three letters most feared by my officials are LIS [Local Improvement Scheme]. We are actively reviewing the LIS, looking to make it more effective and to deliver more consistently... We reintroduced the scheme in my Department since 2017 following years of no funding, and since then we have provided almost 170 million to local authorities across the State. In April 2024, 40 million was announced for LIS across eligible local authorities to cover the period 2024 to 2025. Just over 2 million has been allotted to Mayo. Minister Calleary said nationally 378 non-public roads and laneways will be repaired in 2025. There are delays and lists around the country. I am actively seeking extra funding in the context of the National Development Plan review. Farm output prices growing much faster than input prices Local farmers remain in a strong position with the latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) data showing that in the 12 months to April 2025 the price of farm outputs rose by 23.5% compared to the previous 12 months, with the cost of inputs dropping by 1% in the same time frame. That price growth was driven by average sale prices recorded for cattle up 48.9% and milk up 18.7% compared with the previous 12 months. On the input side, the cost of fertilisers over the 12 months to April 2025 rose by 7.5% while the average cost of veterinary expenses rose 4.7%. The cost of motor fuels and animal feeding stuff dropped by 5.8% and 4.9% respectively, according to the CSO data. Four apartments to ease housing shortage A planning application for the development of four two-bed apartments on a site on Barrack Street could go some way to easing local housing needs. The developers of the site, an old structure with handsome stone walls, announced in May their intention to apply for planning permission. This follows plans announced by developer Kaizen Project Management Co for ten apartments on the site of the former Johnstons Machinery on Knox St. Lawless claims meat factories and supermarkets taking advantage of farmers Local TD Paul Lawless has highlighted what he says are unfair practices by meat factories and retailers that are hurting beef farmers. Speaking on the Oireachtas agriculture committee, Lawless asked Department of Agriculture staff why the states Agri-Food Regulator hasnt investigated the significant mark-up on the price of beef in supermarkets. The farmer keeps the animal for over three years, or thereabouts. He receives 7.50 per kilo. Supermarkets at the moment are selling at a price in the region of 23 per kilo, said Deputy Lawless, a reference to prices for premium cuts like steaks. Lawless also highlighted the practice of meat factories not paying for offal taken from cattle slaughtered, seeking to have that investigated by the Agri Food Regulator. There is a fifth quarter of offal that is sold by meat factories but the farmer receives nothing. How is that not an unfair trading practice? Department deputy secretary general Maria Dunne outlined the definitions of unfair trading practises for Deputy Lawless, most of which relate to pricing rather than abattoir practices. Tourist numbers definitely down Ballyhaunis man Martin Waldron, who runs the West Craft store in Knock, believes tourist numbers locally are down on last year. Tourist numbers are definitely down, he said. Anecdotally, UK and US business seems to be down or slow. May was good, June was okay, July has been slow starting off. Mr Waldron sees four major external factors affecting trade: the struggling UK economy, the Trump administrations economic agenda, an ongoing lack of hotel beds locally, as well as general cost of living increases. All these are affecting spending, he said. Nonetheless, West Craft is trading reasonably well". Trade from the Knock Shrine is good, and we are getting a lot of repeat business," he explained. Car charger finally working An electric car charger long out of use in Ballyhaunis may finally be coming back into service. Located in the car park adjacent to the towns bottle banks, the charger was installed by EasyGo over a year ago but has been out of action for most of the time since. An EasyGo spokesperson told this column: I have spoken to our technical team and just to give some context we have recently on-boarded this manufacturer and we have now changed the configuration of the charger to best work on Irish mobile networks. So hopefully the issue... should now be resolved. Irish speakers sought Ballyhaunis Language Cafe has put out an invitation to Irish speakers to join a weekly Sunday evening conversation corner in a local pub. All levels are welcome for a friendly chat in our native language. More details can be had by contacting 087-9777899. Allentown, PA (18103) Today Warm and humid with clouds and some hazy sun; a spotty shower at anytime, with a gusty thunderstorm or two possible in the afternoon. . Tonight Clouds and an early evening shower or t-storm, then clearing and turning less humid. HARARE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The small-scale power generation projects built by Chinese companies in Zimbabwe are boosting the country's electricity supply, a Zimbabwean official has said. Speaking at a roundtable discussion on Tuesday on strengthening Zimbabwe-China business cooperation in Harare, the country's capital, Benson Munyaradzi, chief director of Zimbabwe's Ministry of Energy and Power Development, said that an increasing number of Chinese investors are setting up their power plants as the southern African country grapples with a shortage of electricity supply. He said that funding from the Chinese investors has enabled Zimbabwe to increase its power generation capacity by approximately 900 megawatts in recent years. "We are still in a deficit, and we believe there are opportunities for more Chinese investors to invest in the power sector," Munyaradzi said, adding that Zimbabwe welcomes investors to come in as independent power producers. Over the years, Zimbabwe has been experiencing a power deficit due to aging infrastructure, inadequate investments, climate change and the exponential growth in demand for electricity. DAR ES SALAAM, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's anti-narcotics authorities have destroyed 614 acres of illicit cannabis farms in the Mikumi-Nyerere national parks wildlife corridor. The Drug Control and Enforcement Authority (DCEA) reported on Wednesday that the 10-day operation, conducted from July 6 to 15, resulted in the seizure of 3,741.9 kilograms of dried cannabis and 1,706 kilograms of cannabis seeds. The crackdown was carried out in partnership with the DCEA, the Tanzania National Parks Authority and local community members, the DCEA said in a statement. Authorities dismantled 72 illegal camps and apprehended nine suspects during the operation, which targeted criminal activities that threatened both public health and Tanzania's critical wildlife habitats, according to the statement. The operation underscores the government's commitment to combating drug-related crime and preserving Tanzania's protected areas, said the statement. DCEA Commissioner General Aretas Lyimo said that the success of this operation reflects the power of partnership between enforcement authorities, conservation agencies and local communities. SWAKOPMUND, Namibia, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Namibia's Minister of Information and Communication Technology Emma Theofelus voiced strong support for international collaboration in the media sector, stressing its pivotal role in broadening the reach of Namibian news while giving local audiences access to global information. As the inaugural Effective Communicators Conference kicked off on Wednesday in the coastal city of Swakopmund, Theofelus joined an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the three-day event. "We welcome any and all partnerships with agencies from our sister countries or countries outside the continent because this allows us to have further reach in terms of audiences around the news that we report in Namibia," she said, noting that it also gives the country access to news from outside Namibia for the local market and consumers. Theofelus emphasized the role of these partnerships in overcoming geographical and cultural barriers. "It can transcend the diverse cultures that exist in our various countries and communities. This partnership and this conference will strengthen that collaborative effort between news agencies across the world," she added. Such cooperative efforts, especially those fostered by conferences, will greatly enhance collaboration among global news agencies, according to Theofelus. The first edition of the Effective Communicators Conference brought together over 250 professionals from both the public and private sectors, aiming to strengthen the capacity of those responsible for promoting and communicating the visions and objectives of government institutions, state-owned enterprises, and private organizations. Theofelus told Xinhua that the gathering marks a critical turning point for Namibia, particularly given that Namibia leads in renewable energy, the green hydrogen industry, and oil discovery. "I believe this is important for communicators to learn the best practices to hone in on some skills on how to engage with diverse and multiple consumers of news and how to frame Namibia as the country that we are and that is ready for investors to come and invest," said the minister. Looking at new programs or mechanisms to enhance information sharing between the Namibian government, institutions, local businesses, and international media outlets like Xinhua, the minister said this conference is the first step to initiating discussions between stakeholders. "We have a government communication strategy that we will be launching soon that is meant to guide how the government communicates to the private sector and to citizens," she added. Running through Friday, the conference features various cluster sessions with engaging topics designed to change how Namibia tells its story about key economic enablers. ADDIS ABABA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's leading carrier, has launched a new daily passenger flight service to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The new service will take the bilateral cooperation to a new level and contribute significantly to trade, investment and tourism between the two countries, said Chief Executive Officer of Ethiopian Airlines Group Mesfin Tasew on Tuesday at the launch event in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. He added that the airline's new route will enhance the connectivity between Africa and the Middle East, creating an opportunity to further strengthen the cooperation between the two regions. The airline currently operates over 100 weekly passenger flights to 13 destinations across the Middle East and the Gulf region. In June, Ethiopian Airlines also launched a new four-times-weekly passenger service to Sharjah in the UAE, according to a statement released by the company on Tuesday. This new route is part of a landmark joint venture agreement between Ethiopian Airlines and the UAE's Etihad Airways, designed to foster closer cooperation between the two carriers. The agreement supports joint development and expansion of routes between Ethiopia and the UAE and strengthens connectivity across their respective global networks, the statement said. African Optimist It is fortunate that Sir John Lazar, a Wits Computer Science graduate, Rhodes Scholar and Fellow and President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and who was recently conferred with a Knighthood in the Kings 2025 New Year Honours, was born at a time when computer technology was becoming mainstream. When he was around ten years old, he was part of a group of students selected for a holiday course on which he learned computer programming with punch cards and a mainframe computer. He took to it like a duck to water. His interest in computers was eagerly fostered by his father, Dr Stan Lazar, who was a radiologist and a pioneer of the use of new medical technology in South Africa who bought the young John one of the first Sinclair programmable computers. By the time I was ready for university, I was sure that I wanted to study computer science. At the time (the late 1970s) the Wits computer science department was very strong, as it still is today, he says. Lazar recalls that he also had the privilege of being tutored by the brilliant late Wits Professor Emeritus of Software Engineering, Barry Dwolatzky, who at the time was a PhD student. In 1983 Lazar earned a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Balliol College Oxford for an MSc in Computation which he followed with a DPhil in History and Politics. After his studies, his first position in 1987 was with Metaswitch Networks as a software engineer. Decades later in 2009 he became its CEO and in 2015, its chairman, stepping down in 2016. Sir John served for almost eight years as a mentor and a judge for the Academys Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. Additionally, he is the chairman of Raspberry Pi, a non-profit organisation that enables any school to teach students about computing and how to create using digital technologies. He is also a co-founder of Enza Capital, an angel investor and mentor to tech start-ups in the UK and Africa, which currently has around 40 pre-seed and seed investments. One of my co-founders of Enza, David Cohen, was also a Rhodes scholar at the same time as myself and we reconnected on issues in Africa. I was a trustee on a project running a crowdfund to print 3D microscopes for Kenyan schools. David was beginning to focus on Africa, in terms of his charitable work, while our third co-founder is an extraordinary young investor called Mike Mompi, a half Ghanian, half Slovakian who I knew in London. The three of us started talking in 2018 and Enza was born. Lazar says that they believe in the extraordinary energy of the youth of the continent and the spirit of entrepreneurship despite the headwinds and friction that they sometimes face. There is great commercial opportunity in Africa if you are prepared to be patient. Every time I come back to South Africa I am struck by the countrys energy and enterprise. That also applies to Nigeria and Egypt and other places, despite them all being very different. Lazar says that he is frustrated when he hears people say that they need to take the best of Silicon Valley or London technology and apply it to African problems, when an African engineer would know that it would not work. Lazars Africa Prize experience has taught him that there is great engineering in Africa that needs to be nurtured, supported and grown. I am a huge believer in diverse engineering teams that reflect the communities from which they come and also in engineers working in a cross-disciplinary way. There is no point in engineers working on their own. They need to work broadly with other professions in particular with social scientists to understand communities and problems, to produce solutions that ultimately work for everyone,he says. Sir John says that the biggest opportunities lie in logistics and infrastructure, health, education, financial inclusion and increasingly in some climate investments. Cutting across all of that, we are looking very closely at AI and how that works for Africa. I know the innovation team at Wits under the leadership of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Lynn Morris and I look forward to visiting the new Wits MIND Institute soon, he concludes. Letlotlo Phohole, Prof. Lynn Morris, Sir John Lazar and Dr Adam Pantanowitz standing in front of the Rhodes Scholar Honours Board in the Wits Great Hall Foyer. Weather Alert ...EXTREME HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 108. * WHERE...In Illinois, Johnson, Massac, and Union Counties. In Kentucky, McCracken County. In Missouri, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Perry MO, and Wayne MO Counties. * WHEN...Until 8 PM CDT this evening. * IMPACTS...Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Do not leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles. Car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes. Take extra precautions when outside. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing. Try to limit strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Take action when you see symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. && KINSHASA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and China have pledged to enhance their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and deepen bilateral cooperation across multiple fields during high-level meetings between DRC leaders and a senior Chinese political advisor. DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka on Tuesday met separately in Kinshasa with Qin Boyong, vice chairperson of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). During these meetings, Qin conveyed warm greetings from Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders, reaffirming China's commitment to working with the DRC to implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state and the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Beijing Summit. Qin also underscored China's willingness to deepen cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and expand practical collaboration, aiming to raise the China-DRC partnership to new heights. Additionally, Qin briefed the DRC side on China's economic progress and modernization efforts. In response, Tshisekedi and Tuluka asked Qin to convey their warm regards to Xi and other Chinese leaders, acknowledging China's longstanding and valuable support. They expressed their desire to further collaborate with China in areas such as trade, mining, agriculture and beyond. The DRC leadership also reiterated its steadfast commitment to the one-China principle and expressed hope for China's early national reunification. Qin led a CPPCC delegation to the DRC on Monday and Tuesday, during which she also met with Modeste Bahati Lukwebo, the second vice president of the DRC Senate. The first part of this article can be read here. President Gabriel Boric at July 9 military ceremony [Photo: Marcelo Segura/prensapresidencia] In the lead-up to the December 2021 presidential run-offs the gamut of opposition parties, including the despised traditional center-left bloc that was annihilated in the first round, came together in pushing a vote for Gabriel Boric, the presidential candidate of Apruebo Dignidad, as the only means of stopping the far right and its calls for authoritarian rule. This sounding of the alarm bells and rallying around Boric was summed up by El Clarin: A united left is necessary for Boric to become president and subsequently to govern the country. Because ending neoliberalism requires challenging powerful forces: national and foreign economic groups, neoliberal economists, the media duopoly, and the traditional right wing. It will not be easy to restructure the repressive apparatus or end corruption in the army and police. However, disputes within Apruebo Dignidad and eventually with other more radical sectors could facilitate the victory of the right and prevent the death of neoliberalism. El Clarin was the paper aligned with Popular Unity, the coalition government of Salvador Allende. Between the years 1970 and 1973, it had a daily circulation of up to 350,000 and a much larger readership. It similar line then served to politically disarm the working class, claiming it could not be defeated if it remained subordinated to the united left. However, Chiles united left, coalesced in and on the periphery of the Popular Unity governmentthe Communist and Socialist parties, the trade union bureaucracies, the Christian Left, MAPU and the Revolutionary Left Movementwas, in fact, hostile to developing a revolutionary socialist strategy within the working class. Stalinism, Social Democracy and their centrist satellites, as primary and secondary agencies of capitalism within the workers movement, feared the independent mobilization of working class more than the threat of fascism. They demonstrated their commitment to the Chilean capitalist state by setting loose the military and the police to smash the initiatives of the working class, especially the rank-and-file actions and defense committees formed to fight employers lockout, fascist violence and the obvious preparation for a successful military coup after the failed Tanquetazo attempt of June 1973. El Clarin and its ilk advance the same line today, despite the passage of five decades and the obvious transformation of the Chilean left into open bourgeois parties. Meanwhile Boric, whose Broad Front alliance never had any real base in the working class, had by the run-off election already spun several revolutions to the right. Not only had Apruebo Dignidad secretly promised government posts for the center-left parties, but vowed to dialogue with the far right and fascists to demonstrate to its capitalist and imperialist masters that Boric would head a government that provides certainty of change and brings stability to our country. We have the duty to talk to everyone, and to bring everyone together, and in this sense, (even) large companies have to be part of this transformation process, Boric assured. As his inauguration neared, Boric dropped all mention of burying neoliberalism and his other radical catchphrases, openly adopting a law-and-order and xenophobic anti-immigrant agenda that had pervaded the previous administrations discourse. To assuage the fears of finance capital and the markets, which had favored the fascist candidate as president, Boric announced as his pick for finance minister the monetarist Mario Marcel, Chiles Central Bank chief. Boric used his final Public Account address last month to justify the record of Apruebo Dignidad, which has gone further to the right than any government since the return to civilian rule. It should be recalled that Boric promised to uphold human rights and seek the punishment of crimes carried out by the authorities, Addressing the incumbent president he said, Mr. Pinera, you have been warned, you will be prosecuted for the serious human rights violations committed under your mandate. His election platform stated that Apruebo Dignidad would comprehensively reform the Carabineros military police responsible for gross human rights abuses, promote laws that recognize the right to protest and repeal repressive laws, such as those regulating preventive identity checks, the anti-barricade law, and the State Security Law. Almost immediately upon coming to power, however, he junked this rhetoric and with the support of pseudo-left and Stalinist legislators began laying the groundwork for police state rule, an agenda historically associated with Pinochetism and the parties of the right. Boric boasted in his Public Account speech that these police state measures are a defining achievement of his government. Crime and insecurity are the main concern of Chileans. It is a worldwide phenomenon from which our country has not been exempt, he said, without explaining how this concern had been fomented. Following the 2019 anti-capitalist protests, the predominantly rightist corporate media saturated the airwaves with nightmarish scenarios of cities besieged by crime and a country facing an extreme security crisis. It explicitly associated this crisis with the struggle for democratic and social rights, vilifying the mass mobilizations as an explosion of criminality. Student strikes and school occupations against dilapidated infrastructure and lack of resources now were now labeled as delinquency, while shantytowns built by desperate immigrants and the homeless on occupied land were allegedly infested with narco-trafficking and criminal gangs. The deliberate purpose of this rightist-backed media offensive was to intimidate the youth and workers into submission, while agitating among more backward sections of the population with xenophobic demands to expel migrants and for an iron fist against crime. This facilitated the Pinera governments passing laws criminalizing protests such as the anti-barricades and anti-looting laws and beefing up the state apparatus, an agenda which Boric intensified. In such a reactionary environment, crime has increased from pandemic levels, driven by poverty, inequality and hopelessness. In the post war period, social democrats and reformists promoted illusions in gradually overcoming capitalisms brutal excesses by lifting the general standard of living. Boric, the progressive, eschewed such appeals, instead, insisting that his government had acted accordingly in response to a security crisis. This Congress approved more than 60 laws that have made it possible to modernize our institutional framework in the face of new forms of crime, Boric boasted during his Public Account speech, adding that these initiatives had bipartisan support. We achieved a significant increase in resources for the police, he said bragging of new lethal equipment and greater staffing for the repressive forces, and a Prison Infrastructure Master Plan that will allow the state to lock up 15,000 more prisoners. He ended his paean to security by paying respects to the notorious repressive forces, which detained, tortured and disappeared tens of thousands of victims only 50 years ago: Security is not a partisan banner (but) a basic condition for society to prosper and live in peace... The sacrifice of officers is a tribute to their daily commitment, often silent and always at risk, to protect us. ...they are martyrs of Chile. The Ministry of Interior and Public Security is virtually alone in receiving untrammeled funding under Boric. In 2023, the budget for the Carabineros military police increased by 6.2 percent from the previous year, and the overall budget for public security was raised by an unprecedented 40 percent, bringing public security spending to the highest level in 35 years, since the return to civilian rule in 1990. Under Borics National Plan Against Organized Crime, announced months into his government, police personnel are to be increased over time by 40 percent. Carabineros are to be equipped with military grade materiel, including Arquus Bastion armored personnel carriers, helicopters, and surveillance drones. Authoritarian bills It is in the bills initiated by Pinera, pushed forward by Boric, and rubber-stamped into law by Congress where the trend towards police state and authoritarian rule is most sharply illuminated. While justified in the name of fighting crime, they will be used against the working class. It should be stressed that in Chile the reliance on security laws as an explicitly political weapon to intimidate mass popular opposition dates to the early 20th Century, following the Russian Revolution and its electrifying effect on the international proletariat. The current laws flow from the extreme crisis the state confronted in 2019 and are in preparation for the next revolutionary explosion that will inevitably erupt in Chile as world capitalism in historic descent openly adopts the methods of fascism, dictatorship and global war. Law #21,577, enacted in June 2023, vastly expands already existing powers to spy. The security agencies will be permitted to listen in, read the private correspondence, and watch not only individuals, but whole swaths of people through the latest dragnet interception devices. Their operations will remain virtually secret and protected from civil suits. In Article 218 for example, the Public Prosecutor's Office (PPO) can require any service provider to provide the information it has stored relating to the traffic of telephone calls, correspondence, or Internet data traffic of its subscribers as well as the data it holds on its subscribers, as well as information regarding the IP addresses used by them. Article 226A allows agents use of technological means to surreptitiously capture, record, and register images or sounds in closed places or places that are not freely accessible to the public. Articles 226N to 226V are dedicated to protecting the identity of agents, informants and protected witnesses. Provisions in 226 B permit a judge to deny in whole or in part the records supplied by them and prohibit their cross examination. This law takes effect under conditions where the intelligence agencies of the military and police have for years wiretapped journalists, judges, human rights lawyers, students, and political figures and have especially targeted anarchist organizations. Undercover agents have infiltrated working class community groups for the purpose of entrapment, or for drawing up lists of activists to be surveilled. Law #21,542 enacted in January 2023, modifies Pinochets Constitution to allow the armed forces to protect critical infrastructure that is indispensable for the generation, transmission, transportation, production, storage and distribution of services and basic inputs for the population such as energy, gas, water or telecommunications, road, air, land, sea, port or railroad connections and public utility services, such as health or sanitary assistance systems. The president appoints by decree a general of the Armed Forces to command the protection of all the specified areas designated critical infrastructure, and the military will have the duty to safeguard public order for ninety 90-day intervals that can be extended indefinitely with congressional consent. This is in line with authoritarian national security doctrines that target the population as the enemy within. Under the 1980 Labor Code designed by Pinochets Labor Minister Jose Pinera, workers in industries considered strategic were prohibited from striking. This reactionary measure remains in effect to this day. In 2024, the Ministries of Economy, Development and Tourism, Labor, and Defense met to reinstate 100 companies in the health services, electricity distribution and transmission, gas distribution, liquefied natural gas regasification terminals, and natural gas transportation sectors as excluded from legally striking during collective bargaining. It also added the ports of Arica, Iquique and Antofagasta, as well as the Central Bank and some transport companies to the list. Now, in the case of a threat to internal public security, for example, the resurgence of the class struggle where workers launch strikes or seize strategic installations as they did in the 1970s, the military, equipped with lethal weapons and the protection of the law, will be dispatched to deal with it. The law was amended to also include the border zones, where desperate refugees and economic migrants enter Chile, as areas to be protected by the armed forces in cooperation with the Carabineros. Law #21,560, also known as Nain-Retamal or the trigger happy law, was rushed through in record time in April 2023 after a spate of cop killings under murky circumstances. There are two aspects to this law that have already been applied retroactively to cases arising from 2019. The first is punitive, drastically increasing the penalties for civilians accused of allegedly endangering the lives and physical integrity of Carabineros, Investigative Police (PDI), Gendarmerie, the armed forces and their dependents. The second provides the state apparatus privileged status in cases where lethal/non-lethal force is used by its agents. A total of 36 people were killed by the military and Carabineros during the 2019 protests, out of 11,000+ complaints of institutional violence, including mutilations, torture, rape and other abuses. While most of these complaints have been closed without punishment or trial, the few that did end in prosecution and even fewer that ended in prison sentences were too much for the high command. The military brass wants to go back to the freedom from prosecution they enjoyed under Pinochets Amnesty law. Law #21560 is a step closer to that level of impunity. Prosecutors must now presume legitimate self-defense and that the rational use of lethal/non-lethal force was applied in cases where state agents caused death, mutilation or injury while performing their duties. Moreover, the state institutions will investigate themselves. Finally, the court will consider a police defendant as a mitigating circumstanceeven when unlawful coercion or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment was usedand will reduce the sentence accordingly (emphasis added). Rules for the Use of Force (RUF) were submitted to Congress in April 2023 and the legislation is entering its final stages, establishing general legal rules for police and the armed forces that are ostensibly in line with international legal principles aimed at protecting civilians from excessive force. According to UN special rapporteurs and human rights organizations the amendments introduced by the Senate not only do away with civilian protections, but grant the state apparatus the right to use excessive force and award them legal protections in addition to those stipulated in Nain-Retamal. Among other reactionary measures, the amendments lift restraints on police use of disproportionate force, void instructions not to fire non-lethal weapons at the torso and face, allow use of lethal force to protect critical infrastructure absent any threat to life and leave investigations in the hands of the institutions that exercise force. Borics Minister of Public Security, Luis Cordero, tacitly agreed with many of the Senate amendments at a Chamber session. The bill goes to a joint committee later this year where its final version will be decided. Law #21,732, or the new anti-terror law, establishes new regulations that define and punish terrorist crimes, replacing the military dictatorships anti-terrorist framework. What has not been repealed but strengthened with the new law is Article 9 of Pinochets 1980 Constitution, which imposes sweeping 15-year bans on those found responsible for terrorism from holding or running for office, working as educators or in any kind of media or holding leadership positions in student associations, unions or other organizations. The fact is that the whole Constitution was consciously framed by the most counterrevolutionary doctrines. It is explicitly aimed at outlawing and suppressing the struggle for socialism. Pinochets anti-terrorist Law #18.314 was imposed in 1984 in a period of social upheavals that shook the regime to its foundation. While imposed in the name of combating the bankrupt adventurist actions of the guerrilla outfits, the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and the Frente Patriotica Manuel Rodriguez (FMPR) that resurfaced during this period, the real focus of repression, was the broad masses of radicalized young workers and students that had come forward to challenge the regime amid depression-like conditions. The center-left alliance that saved Chilean capitalism when it came to power in 1990 wielded Pinochets anti-terrorist law and the equally repressive State Security Law (LSE) of 1958 to continue the repression. Chiles entire political class worked towards establishing the new anti-terrorist law. It is of note that it was introduced by a motion advanced by Senator Paulina Vodanovic, the president of the Socialist Party, together with a senator from the fascistic Republican Party, senators from the Pinochetista UDI and National Renewal and a right-wing independent. It was enacted in February of this year after passing Congress in record speed and with almost universal support. Law #21,732 strengthens Pinochets constitution, categorically stating that terrorist crimes include those actions aimed at undermining or destabilizing the political, social, or economic structures of the democratic State or inhibiting a decision by a democratic State authority. Its sweep is extraordinary, targeting individuals, groups, associations or organizations whose aims are defined by the state as terrorist, as well as anyone providing material support to such groups, including funds and even public statements in their defense.. For decades these police state measures have been tested out against indigenous Mapuche groups pursuing the recovery of ancestral lands that were forcibly seized by large landholders and forestry giants Arauco and CMPC . This extremely oppressed section of the population has been slandered by all the civilian governments, left and right, as terrorist and insurgents financed by organized crime. In this as well, Borics pseudo-left administration has excelled, declaring in May 2022 a state of emergency for the regions of Biobio and Araucania in southern Chile that Congress has kept renewing to this day. Boric has maintained the areas under a permanent state of exception, with the military in charge, restrictions on movement and assembly in place and the indigenous communities under virtual martial law. Under Boric, 86 Mapuche leaders languish in Chiles prisons on one or more charges, with some facing decades of incarceration. In a clear act of political persecution, the notorious State Security Law (LSE) has been used to arrest the Mapuche leader of the Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee (CAM), Hector Llaitul, on the grounds that his political speeches constituted crimes of incitement and apology for violence. Minister of the Interior and Public Security Carolina Toha from the social democratic Party for Democracy has spearheaded this security agenda. Toha was one of the four candidates in the ruling coalitions presidential primaries for the November elections. During the primary debate she made the following chilling declaration about her priorities if elected: I am going to ask parliament for special powers to deploy military personnel in areas experiencing critical violence without having to declare a state of emergency through a decree with the force of law. Chile needs a FIRM HAND to make difficult decisions, and I have it. There is little to differentiate between her statement and the fascistic writings of Carl Schmitt on the states of exception or the actions of Javier Milei in Argentina or Donald Trump in the United States. Toha lost the primaries to the Communist Party candidate, Jeanette Jara, Borics Labor Minister, who is equally committed to continuing his legacy. Quebecs avowedly right-wing and pro-big business, national autonomist Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) government announced further savage cuts to public education last month, just before the end of the school year. Citing a supposed $1 billion shortfall in the education budget, Premier Francois Legaults government has demanded that the provinces school service centers slash $570 million in the coming year, in an initial round of belt-tightening. The CAQ government previously replaced elected school boards with regional school service centres to give it greater control over the provinces public schools. The more than half-a-billion in cuts will ravage a public school system that has already been brought to the point of collapse by decades of austerity under Parti Quebecois, Liberal and CAQ provincial governments. Admitting that services to students will be directly affected, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said he could not guarantee that every student will have everything they need. In messages sent to teachers and education support staff, school service center administrators have indicated that the cuts will potentially impact all the services that schools provide. Under active consideration are cuts in the number of full-time teachers and to speech therapy, psychology, and special education programs, as well as to remedial classes, food assistance for needy students, book purchases and field trips. The impacts will be felt as early as late August, when the next school year begins. Teachers who spoke to the World Socialist Web Site noted that cuts will be in the order of 5% of a schools total budget, or nearly $100,000 for a neighborhood school with 300 students. Special education teachers with several years of experience have already learned that their positions will be eliminated due to reductions to the number of hours allotted to serving special education students. Petitions calling for the cuts to be withdrawn or demanding the resignation of Education Minister Drainville have begun circulating on social media, gathering tens of thousands of signatures in a matter of days. Protests, apparently organized spontaneously by parents and educators, have already taken place. Some waved pots and pans in a nod to the militant province-wide student strike that convulsed the province in 2012. Further actions are planned across Quebec in coming weeks. The 60,000 Quebec teachers affiliated with the FAE struck for a month in November-December 2023 to oppose the adverse impact on their wages and working conditions and public education of decades of austerity While insufficient to reverse the cuts, these protests reflect widespread and growing opposition to the Legault government and more generally the ruling class assault on public services. The governments fresh push to slash social spending comes amid revelations that it has lost billions of dollars in disastrous economic development projects, including the SAAQClic computer system fiasco, the bankruptcy of the Northvolt battery company and that of the Lion Electric bus manufacturer. Ultimately, all the money saved through cuts to education, health care and other public services will be funneled into the pockets of big business and the rich and towards equipping Canadian imperialism to wage wars round the world. Mike Carneys federal Liberal government has already announced massive increases in military spendingincluding a $9.3 billion increase in the current fiscal yearwith the aim of raising military expenditures to 5% of GDP (about $150 billion per year in current dollars) by 2035. Quebec Premier Legault is promoting Canadas crash rearmament program and that of its European NATO allies as a golden opportunity to strengthen Quebecs economy. In recent weeks, he has made multiple trips to Europe to discuss and sign weapons contracts with government officials and arms and military transport manufacturers. All of this is taking place in the context of a dangerous escalation toward a third World War, which has intensified since Donald Trump became US president. In addition to NATOs war against Russia in Ukraine and Israels imperialist-backed genocide in Gaza, Trump and Israel waged a massive, illegal, 12-day aerial bombardment of Iran last month, with Ottawas full support. As the Legault government dismantles and privatizes what remains of public services, it has been mounting a vicious, weeks-long campaign against the Federation autonome de lenseignement (FAE), a self-proclaimed militant union representing some 60,000 teachers, mostly from the cosmopolitan Montreal area. In contrast with virtually all other unions in Quebec, the FAE has vocally opposed the CAQs chauvinist Bill 21, which, under the guise of secularism, attacks the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Muslim women. Legaults ultimate target is not the union bureaucracy, which systematically sabotages workers struggles and imposes sell-out rotten contracts, but rather education workers opposed to social cuts and the CAQs anti-immigrant and Quebec chauvinism. During the struggle of 600,000 Quebec public sector workers in 2023-24, the FAE was forced, under pressure from militant teachers to launch an all-out strike that ultimately lasted 22 days. However, the union leadership refused to make the strike the spearhead of a broader working-class mobilization in defence of education and all public services. It claimed that teachers acting alone and without challenging the refusal of the other public sector unions to call a general strike would be able to pressure Legault into making concessions. As result of the joint efforts of the FAE and inter-union Common Front bureaucrats, the public sector workers struggle was derailed and concessionary contracts imposed. With their witch hunt of the FAE, the CAQ government, the Journal de Montreal, and other right-wing nationalists are trying to intimidate rank and file teachers and discipline the union bureaucrats to fall even more slavishly into line. When FAE president Melanie Hubert endorsed the petition calling for Drainvilles resignation, he responded: I have no lessons to learn from a union that deprived our children of school for five weeks of strike action and that uses its members money to challenge the secularism law. The baiting of the FAE is part of an authoritarian turn against the working class as a whole. At the end of May, the CAQ, with the support of the Quebec Liberal Party, passed Bill 89, which dramatically limits workers right to strike and gives the Labour Minister the power to illegalize any worker job action and impose binding arbitration. Under its provisions, education workers will for the first time be subject to essential services requirements that effectively prevent all but token walkouts. It is in this context that the true significance of the CAQ governments campaign to restore discipline in the schools emerges. Under the pretext of countering violence and incivility in schools, the government has made the use of titles and other hierarchical language mandatory, ordered schools to update their disciplinary codes, and imposed a blanket ban on students using cellphones while on school property. These measures, combined with the CAQs savage cuts, will only intensify the social tensions and pedagogical challenges in Quebecs public schools. To defend their jobs and working conditions and oppose the dismantling of public education, teachers and school support staff must fight to mobilize the social power of the working class in an industrial and political offensive against the Legault government and the entire Canadian ruling class and its agenda of austerity and war. Such a struggle can only be developed through a rank-and-file rebellion against the pro-capitalist trade union apparatuses, which for decades have systematically demobilized the working class and, responded to Legaults sweeping assault on the right to strike with appeals for social dialogue. Directly tied to the employers and the state through investment funds and a vast network of corporatist committees and agencies, the unions function as an integral part of the Quebec political establishment to suppress the class struggle, confine the growing opposition of their members within the framework of Quebec bourgeois politics, and divide workers in Quebec from their class brothers and sisters in the rest of Canada. In so far as they feel compelled to speak out against Legaults actions and on occasion organize feeble protests against them, it is all within a Quebec nationalist framework aimed at dividing opposition to Legaults austerity measures and workers rights from a broader struggle against the social cuts being implemented by Mark Carneys federal Liberal government and the entire Canadian ruling class. This helps perpetuate the division between workers in Quebec and their class brothers and sisters in the rest of Canada that is pivotal to the maintenance of capitalist rule. It was the unions betrayal of the powerful public sector strike movement in 2023 and their acquiescence, in Quebec as across Canada, to the federal Liberal governments arrogation of the power to break strikes using a cooked-up reinterpretation of the Canada Labour Code that has emboldened the CAQ government to impose its own sweeping antistrike law and launch a new austerity drive. The newly-formed, union-promoted coalition Ensemble, unis pour lecole (Together, United for Schools), which brings together the education unions, school administrators, and parent committees, is advancing a perspective that is a dead end. Essentially, the union bureaucracy is telling workers to stay on the sidelines and that with a little pressure, exerted alongside school administrators (the employers representatives on the ground), they will be able to persuade Legault and the big business CAQ government to see reason. At the same time, the union bureaucrats are reviving their traditional political alliance with the Parti Quebecois, with the intention of promoting its return to power in the provincial election slated for October 2026 as the means to oppose the CAQs attacks. No matter that the PQ has come into headlong conflict with the working class, imposing brutal austerity measures and antistrike laws, whenever in office, and competes with the CAQ in the promotion of far-right attacks on immigrants and Quebec chauvinism. Workers must not allow their opposition to be derailed. They must take matters into their own hands, through the building in every workplace of rank-and-file committees, independent of and in political opposition to the trade union apparatuses. Through such committees workers can formulate and fight for their own demands, countermand the sabotage of the union bureaucrats, popularize and broaden the struggle to defend public education, and fight for the development of a cross-Canada working-class industrial and political counter-offensive. To develop such a struggle, Quebec workers must consciously repudiate the nationalist perspective and political framework of the union bureaucracy, which serves only to bind them to the ruling class and divide them from their class brothers and sisters across Canada and internationally. Instead they must orient to the global upsurge of the working class that is being impelled by capitalisms systemic crisis and the ruling class embrace or war and reaction. More than ever workers face a political struggle over the question of how societys wealth should be utilized: should it be used to finance the imperialist war machine and enrich a minority of super-rich, or to meet the social needs of all? Only through the establishment of workers political power can the massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top, at the expense of workers and for the benefit of the oligarchy, be stopped and human needs placed before capitalist profit. Unites decision to suspend Labour Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner from union membership was forced on it by mounting hostility to the Starmer government. Rayner was suspended last Friday for her totally and utterly abhorrent behaviour and bringing the union into disrepute during the Birmingham bin dispute, with the same action taken against Birmingham council leader John Cotton and fellow Unite Birmingham councillors for their roles in effectively firing and rehiring the workers, who are striking over pay cuts of up to 8,000. The decision was contained in an emergency motion at a Unite Policy Conference in Brighton, attended by 800 delegates representing every sector of workers in the union across the UK, and passed overwhelmingly. The lower-ranking officials understand the popular sentiment of Unites members towards the Labour government and how the unions relations with the party are becoming untenable. Unite Policy Conference, 2025 [Photo: UniteSharon/X] According to Unite, the emergency motion condemned Birmingham council for its threat to effectively fire and rehire, on pain of redundancy, the Unite Birmingham bin workers. The Labour government was also denounced for its support to the council and the commissioners, originally appointed by the Tories and maintained by Labour. Rayner has not publicly responded, but a Labour source claimed she had already quit the union and wont be pushed around, branding the announcement a silly stunt. When Rayner last paid dues is immaterial, as she and Cotton were both understood to be Unite members by workers in Birmingham and nationally. Unite officials concluded that they must make a public protest against Labours strikebreaking operation against 400 bin workers now in their seventh month of a struggle to defeat the destruction of their jobs and drastic pay cuts. Unite, with its 1.1 million members, is the second largest union in the UK and such sentiments will be replicated throughout the working class. Screenshot of an interview in April with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who tells Birmingham refuse strikers 'they can't be blocking lorries, the lorries that are going out.' [Photo: Howard Beckett/X] The suspension of Rayner and Cotton confirms the analysis of the World Socialist Web Site from the start of the Birmingham bin dispute: that the enemy in this fight is the Starmer government and its flagship council, meaning it must be pursued as a political struggle against both. For seven months of strike action, all out since March 11, Birmingham bin workersloaders and lorry drivershave fought to oppose the abolition of the safety-critical role of some 150 loaders (Waste Reduction and Collection Officers), which would slash wages by up to a quarter and reduce crews by 25 percent. Cotton declared last Wednesday that the Labour Council was ending further negotiations and, on Thursday, initiated the process of enforcing downgrading and pay cuts among 127 senior drivers under threat of redundancy, asserting that all talks had been exhausted. Unite has not been able to place any offer before its members since a derisory partial offer in April was rejected by a 97 percent majority. That offer included a lump-sum bribe of up to 17,000 and an attempt to drive a wedge between loaders facing the immediate assault and drivers, now informed that they face a similar downgrade. Unite officials agreed to put the deal forward at the behest of Rayner, who publicly intervened, stating the dispute had to end and the improved offer be accepted. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham agreed to opening talks at the arbitration service ACAS from May 1 with the aim of de-escalating the dispute in a damage limitation exercise on behalf of Labour. For the past months, Unite HQ has conducted a PR campaign to get Rayner and Cotton into negotiations, claiming they were blocking a potential deal. But the claim that Labour could be pressured has imploded: with Cotton declaring we have reached the absolute limit of what we can offer. Unite leader Sharon Graham speaking at a Trades Union Congress rally in London on June 18, 2022 Graham now states, The disgraceful actions of the government and a so-called Labour council is essentially fire and rehire and makes a joke of the Employment Relations Act promises. This is plain to every worker, but Graham is attempting to salvage credibility for her union and the New Deal between Labour and the entire trade union bureaucracy, which retains the brutal practice of fire and rehire as part of business-friendly legislation already rinsed of any meaningful measures to restore workers rightseven before it reaches the statute books. The same can be said about the pledge to defang some of the anti-strike legislation introduced under the Conservatives. The Starmer government fully supported its Labour authority in second largest city Birmingham declaring a major incident on March 31 to empower itself with unprecedented strikebreaking measures. This included employing agency staff as a scab workforce and mobilising support from private contractors and neighbouring councils. Police broke up picket lines and kettled workers behind barriers under the threat of fines and imprisonment under Section 14 of the Public Order Act. The later High Court injunction obtained in May limiting pickets to six and to designated zones was extended, with Unite agreeing to fully abide by the restrictions. Grahams latest comments confirm how hated the Starmer government has become, to the point where the Labour Party faces meltdown. Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Saturday she stated, Angela Rayner refuses to get involved, and she is directly aiding and abetting the fire and rehire of these bin workers, it is totally and utterly abhorrent. She added, I have real difficulty in the way that Labour are making decisions, in terms of what they tried to do on winter fuel [allowance cuts for pensioners], what they tried to do to people with disabilities [welfare cuts], what theyre doing to workers. Most significantly, referring to the unions affiliation to the Labour Party (Unite provided Labour 2 million in the year up to the general election, and has already handed over 400,000 this year) she added, At this present moment in time, it is hard to justify it, if Im being honest. Would that money be better spent on frontline services for my members? The leader of the UKs second largest union has gone on record to state that, despite her best efforts, justifying partnership with this right-wing party of big business has become politically hazardous in the face of the mass hostility in the working class. Like the announcement of a Jeremy Corbyn/Zarah Sultana-led party after years of prevarication, this signals the accelerating break-up of the Labour Party. But neither forming a miniature Labour Party under Corbynadvancing nothing but toothless moral appeals for a fairer society that fall of the deaf ears of the banks, corporations and the super-richor even Graham finally making good on threats of disaffiliation will provide workers with a means to take on the government. Explosive class struggles are on the agenda and they must be fought to the end against the employers, the government and the state powers it wields. Defending the livelihoods and basic interests of workers today means taking up a fight against capitalism and for socialism. Frontline workers are not responsible for the financial crisis of Birmingham council or anywhere else. It is not their jobs and pay which are unaffordable and must be sacrificed. Society cannot afford the continued funnelling of wealth to the super-rich by a Labour government that is gutting public services and slashing welfare and the National Health Service to fund rearmament, war and debt payments to global finance. What is required immediately is the construction of rank-and-file committees, acting independently of the Unite leadership and its bureaucratic counterparts in every union, to mobilise solidarity action behind the Birmingham bin workers and all those struggling against Starmers pro-business government. NTEU official blocks rank-and-file committee members Michael Head (left) and Zach Diotte as they indicate to speak at recent WSU job cuts rally. The Western Sydney University and Macquarie University Rank-and-File Committees have called a national online meeting on Saturday August 2 to fight for a unified campaign by educators and students against the Albanese Labor governments intensifying cuts to international student enrolments and jobs, and the underlying pro-corporate, pro-military reshaping of tertiary education. Register here. For more than six months, despite determined protest rallies and demonstrations by staff and students at many of Australias 39 public universities, managements have continued to unveil the destruction of both academic and professional staff jobsnow over 3,000 nationally. Most recently, Charles Sturt University (CSU), one of Australias largest regional universities, became the latest to foreshadow sweeping job cuts, following similar moves at Sydneys Macquarie University and Western Sydney University. In Canberra, the Australian National University has just unveiled the second of a series of planned cuts and closures, defying staff and student protests. Others on the job destruction list include University of Canberra, University Technology Sydney (UTS) and University of Wollongong, as well as Tasmania, Charles Darwin, Federation, James Cook, Southern Queensland, Griffith, La Trobe and Swinburne. But the leaderships of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) and the other main campus trade union, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), have opposed any unified action by university workers and students, just as they did when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, permitting the destruction of more than 17,000 jobs. In order to defeat the wave of job cuts and the elimination of courses for students, it is essential to understand the underlying agenda and to build new organisationsrank-and-file committeesto fight it. These retrenchments are first and foremost a direct result of the Albanese governments reactionary cuts to enrolments by overseas students, on whose exorbitant fees the chronically-underfunded universities have increasingly relied for the past decade and a half since the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments funding cuts and market-driven education revolution. By cutting the enrolments, the Labor government is deliberately applying financial pressure to the universities, in order to restructure them to align with national priorities set out in last years Universities Accord report. That report insisted that both teaching and research must focus on serving the requirements of the corporate elite and the development of a war economy. That included meeting the needs of the AUKUS military pact and military-related industries in preparation for a US-led war against China. The government is falsely blaming overseas students for the worsening housing affordability crisis affecting working-class households. It has vowed to halve the number of international students, to 270,000 a year, from the level of 548,000 in 2023. That means greater job losses for 2026 and 2027. Moreover, as the Accord report recommended, July 1 saw the commencement of a government-appointed Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC). From January 1, each universitys funding will be tied to a mission-based compact with ATEC, setting out how the university will contribute to Labors national priorities. An example of what is coming is the governments AUKUS-related Nuclear-Powered Submarine Student Pathways program. It allocated $128.5 million over four years to pay selected universities to train 4,001 students in related science and engineering skills from 2024 to 2027. Growing a qualified and experienced STEM workforce to support Australias nuclear-powered submarine enterprise is one of the national priorities. Similarly, the Starmer Labour government in the UK is presiding over the elimination of 5,000 university jobs, also driven by international student cuts, while the Trump White House is threatening to defund universities that do not suppress opposition to the Gaza genocide and align with Trumps fascistic agenda. In Australia, as elsewhere, these attacks have especially targeted arts and humanities, in order to stultify critical and historically-informed thinking. At Macquarie, bachelors degrees in such crucial fields of human endeavour and learning as archaeology, music, education and ancient languages will be eliminated, while sociology, ancient history, politics, gender studies, criminology and psychological studies will be decimated. Critical research areas are being disestablished as well. ANU is planning to abolish the Humanities Research Centre and the National Dictionary Centre. There is another significant contributor to the governments financial pressure on the universities. The number of commencing domestic undergraduate students fell to 262,396 in 2023, down by 8.9 percent since 2017. This is the lowest number of commencing domestic undergraduate students in the past 10 years That is largely due to the cost-of-living crisis, which has placed study beyond the reach of many working-class young people, combined with the punishing fees of nearly $17,000 a year inflicted on arts, humanities, business and law students. Labor has maintained these fees as part of the previous Coalition governments job ready graduates program to push students into priority and skills courses such as maths, science, teaching and nursing. In addition, the Labor government advised universities and researchers to comply with a Trump administration questionnaire threatening to cut off joint funding for research unless their projects served the needs of US foreign policy and military objectives. At least 11 universities have suffered research funding cuts as a result, which will mean deeper job losses. University workers want to find means to fight the job losses. At WSU, an online meeting of NTEU members on July 3 voted by 99 percent for stoppages of up to 24 hours and by 78 percent for indefinite strikes against the management, which is threatening to axe up to 400 academic and professional jobs. But the NTEU leaders kept these votes tied to seeking to negotiate an Enterprise Agreement (EA) deal with WSU management, which could take months. And the NTEU branch president David Burchell said the union would like to propose a cost-cutting counter-package that could include a voluntary redundancies program. This is a standard practice of the unionshelping managements push people out the door via redundancy packages in order to stifle opposition to restructuring and job cuts. While starving the universities of funds, the government is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into military spending, and backing the Gaza genocide, the criminal attacks on Iran and the US-NATO war against Russia in Ukraine. The Labor government, like the Trump administration, is also seeking to silence opposition to the ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Education Minister Jason Clare personally instigated moves to freeze the research grant of Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah, a prominent critic of the Israeli war machine, at Macquarie University. On July 10, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke went further. They stood alongside Jillian Segal, a Zionist lobbyist and Labors Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, as she unveiled an action plan that includes restricting or cutting off funding to universities that fail to sufficiently suppress staff and student opposition to the Israeli genocide. A WSU and Macquarie Rank-and-File Committee statement, issued on June 24, concluded: To fight this agenda, there has to be a unified struggle by staff and students across the country against the job cuts and restructuring. This requires the formation of rank-and-file committees of staff and students at all universities, completely independent of the trade union apparatuses. These rank-and-file committees can link up with workers in Australia and worldwide through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. They can develop demands based on the needs of students and staff, not the dictates of governments and the corporate elite. These demands could include: halt and reverse the thousands of job cuts and the resulting sky-rocketing workloads across the tertiary education sector stop the cuts to international student enrolments and defend the right of all students to higher education end the victimisation of Randa Abdel-Fattah and other academics who oppose Israels genocide in Gaza or the bipartisan support for US militarism uphold the right to conduct research that is not dictated by the demands of corporate interests, governments and the military free first-class education for all students instead of channelling billions of dollars into preparations for US-led wars As the statement explained, this is part of a broader necessary struggle against capitalism itself and its program of ever-greater corporate wealth and turn to war and Trump-style dictatorial rule. To discuss and develop this fight, we will host a national online public meeting on Saturday August 2 at 3pm, titled What is driving the university job cuts across Australia? Labors pro-corporate and war agenda. To join the meeting, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/g697NOWHRESMvTcwQ1jMNw To support this campaign, we urge staff and students to contact the Committee for Public Education (CFPE), the educators rank-and-file network. Contact the CFPE: Email: cfpe.aus@gmail.com Facebook: facebook.com/commforpubliceducation Twitter: CFPE_Australia ABUJA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- At least 27 people were killed in an attack by suspected gunmen in Plateau State in central Nigeria, which has recently witnessed increased attacks, a senior official said Wednesday. Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau, told the media during an on-the-spot assessment of the havoc in the Bindi community of Riyom local government area that aside from the casualties, the gunmen also destroyed houses, crops on farmlands, and other valuable properties during the attack early Tuesday. The gunmen rode motorbikes into the community, firing indiscriminately at residents while also setting homes and farmlands ablaze. "I am calling on the security agencies to redouble their efforts. We need to reappraise our strategy and tactics," the governor said, calling for a concerted effort to halt the bloodshed and wanton destruction of property. The motive behind the latest attack remains unclear. Plateau State, located in Nigeria's central region between the Muslim-dominated north and the Christian-majority south, has witnessed repeated attacks in recent years. Armed attacks have been a primary security threat in Nigeria's northern and central regions, leading to deaths and kidnaps in recent months. Detainees wave and spell out SOS to a helicopter flying overhead at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Krome Detention Center, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Miami. [AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell] In a July 8 memorandum first obtained by the Washington Post, the Trump administration moved to effectively outlaw bond hearings for millions of immigrants awaiting court hearings. The policy change, outlined in a directive issued by acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, orders ICE agents to imprison immigrants for the duration of their removal proceedings, which often last months or even years. Lawyers who spoke to the Post said the directive will apply to millions of immigrants, who entered the US through the US-Mexico border over the past few decades. According to data gathered by the Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, there are more than 3.4 million pending cases before US immigration courts. Of those, over 2.2 million involve immigrants awaiting asylum hearings before roughly 700 immigration judges. Under previous administrations, immigrants were generally allowed to be released on bond while awaiting their hearings, in part because US immigration courts have been plagued for years by backlogs. As of March 2025, TRAC found that the average nationwide wait time for all hearings is 636 days, or nearly two years. The San Francisco Chronicle reported in June that asylum seekers wait an average of 4.5 years before their first immigration hearing, based on data from 2019 to 2025. Through June 2025, TRAC found that immigration judges held 39,818 bond hearings and granted bond in 12,438 cases. The new memo, the Post reported, seeks to eliminate bond hearings in virtually all circumstances. The newspaper stated that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security under Trump had revisited its legal position on detention and release authorities and ruled that immigrants may not be released from ICE custody. The memo stated that immigrants should be released on bond before their hearings only under rare circumstances and that such decisions will be made by ICE itself, not by an immigration judge. The Post noted that Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott issued similar guidance last week. Neither federal agency responded to questions from the Post. Trumps ICE directive is a repudiation of the very principles invoked in the Declaration of Independence, reinstating the royal prerogative of arbitrary imprisonment. The Eighth Amendment prohibits excessive bail and, by implication, affirms that bail, or bond, should normally be available except in extraordinary cases such as flight risk or danger to society. By categorically banning bond hearings for millions of immigrantswhose only crime in the vast majority of cases is fleeing a country facing sanctions, military invasion or provocations by US imperialismICE is not only imposing excessive bail but abolishing the right to bail entirely for a whole class of people, creating a system of indefinite detention. The Supreme Court has historically ruled that even non-citizens are entitled to certain constitutional protections when on US soil. Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) upheld limits on the indefinite detention of immigrants. This directive openly flouts those precedents. This fascistic measure is part of a broader campaign by the capitalist state to criminalize and terrorize the most vulnerable layers of the working class. Already this year, the Trump administration has revoked or rolled back protections for more than half a million immigrants under the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela parole program, while terminating Temporary Protected Status for roughly a million people, including hundreds of thousands of Haitians, many of whom have lived in the US for over a decade. Conditions inside state-run and federal immigration detention centers are notoriously horrific and deadly. Last month, CBS News, citing a notice sent to Congress by ICE, reported that 13 people have died in ICE custody this year, surpassing the 12 deaths recorded in all of 2024. Among those who have died in ICE custody this year is Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian citizen who became a lawful permanent resident of the United States in 1991. Noviello was found unresponsive in the Bureau of Prisons Federal Detention Center in Miami on June 23, according to ICE. The ICE memo eliminating bond hearings came just days after the passage of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill. This legislation allocates $175 billion for the immigration Gestapo and mass deportation operations, including the expansion of a network of for-profit concentration camps. The refusal to grant bond hearings is necessary to justify and fill the vast detention infrastructure financed by this bill, which is paid for through massive cuts to Medicaid and food assistance programs for low-income people, including children. The attacks on immigrants, including the elimination of bond hearings, are attacks on the democratic rights of the entire working class. What begins with immigrants will be expanded to target all American workers who engage in strikes, protests or political opposition to the ruling class and its government of, by and for the financial oligarchy. The Trump administration is openly planning to expand the mass militarized deportation operation to target home growns and previously naturalized US citizens. To normalize the presence of troops on US streets, nearly 5,000 California National Guard soldiers and US Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles for over a month to assist the immigration police in its kidnapping operations. On Tuesday, it was reported that roughly half of the 3,882 California National Guard contingent would be released from duty, leaving 1,892 members of the 49th Military Police Brigade. In a statement confirming the release, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell thanked our troops who stepped up to answer the call, claiming that the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. He added, As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from the federal protection mission. Earlier this month, as part of Operation Excalibur, roughly 80 National Guard troops in military vehicles carried out a heavily militarized sweep-and-clear operation at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. The combat operation in the heavily immigrant community prompted widespread outrage and protests among residents. Also on Tuesday, Military.com reported that a contingent of 500 Marines specializing in logistics and engineering, known as Task Force Sapper, will be swapped out along the US-Mexico border for a combat logistics unit. The outlet noted that the new contingent is called Task Force Forge and is comprised of Marines from Combat Logistics Battalion 15, which falls under the I Marine Expeditionary Force. During the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) played a central role in the attack, entering Baghdad on April 9, 2003. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks at the New York City District Council of Carpenters while campaigning for mayor of New York City, Sunday, March 2, 2025 [AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson] Former Governor Andrew Cuomo announced this week that he will run as an independent candidate for mayor of New York City in the November election. The announcement, delivered through a brief video and fundraising letter, comes just weeks after Cuomo suffered a decisive defeat to Democratic Socialists of America candidate Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary. Cuomo will appear on the ballot under the Fight and Deliver party, having secured the line by filing nominating petitions earlier this spring. The former New York governor apologized for his humiliating defeat in the primary, in whichdespite leading in the pollshe lost to Mamdani by a 12-point margin. I am truly sorry that I let you down, Cuomo said in his video. In his fundraising appeal, he said that he had played it safe during the campaign, and that he was not aggressive enough in communicating my vision for a fairer, safer, more affordable New York, or in debunking and exposing Zohran Mamdanis unrealistic proposals and divisive agenda. Mamdanis victory reflected a sharp shift to the left among workers and youtha repudiation of the Democratic Party establishment in response to the deepening social crisis, the relentless assault on living standards, and the escalating war, most sharply expressed in bipartisan support for the genocide of the Palestinian people. When Cuomo said, I let you down, he had in mind billionaires like Michael Bloomberg and Bill Ackmana noted Trump supporterwho, along with other wealthy donors, poured some $30 million into promoting the discredited former governor. Their fear was not that Mamdani poses a genuine threat to the interests of big business, but that his victory would encourage a broader shift in mass sentiment. This time, Cuomo wrote in his fundraising appeal, he would give it my all. While refraining from the more hysterical red-baiting employed by Trump and his fascist backerswho have labeled Mamdani a Communist and said he should be deportedCuomo nonetheless made his appeal to Wall Street unmistakably clear. I do not believe that New York City voters affirmatively voted for a socialist form of government that is hostile to business and economic growth, and I do believe that Zohran Mamdani poses a serious threat to the future of the city we love, he wrote. The giant corporations and banks have made clear they are not yet reconciled to Mamdanis victory, and Cuomo is counting on their continued support. Jamie Dimon, longtime CEO of JPMorgan Chase, has called Mamdani more of a Marxist than a socialist. The Wall Street Journal reports that a new super PAC, New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25, has been formed to raise $20 million to defeat the Democratic candidate. Cuomos announcement means that, at least for now, five candidates are in the race for mayor of the largest US city, which is also the countrys media, cultural and financial capital. They include current Mayor Eric Adams, who is also running as an independent after skipping the Democratic primary and following his quid pro quo deal with the Trump administration to have corruption charges against him dropped. Also running are Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent candidate Jim Walden. Walden has proposed that the four free market candidates opposing Mamdani agree to a plan in which, following a rigorous poll in September, all but the strongest among them would drop out to consolidate support. Cuomo has endorsed the proposal and called on Adams and Sliwa to do the same. Adams, who had already demanded that Cuomo leave the race, issued his own statement in anticipation of Cuomos announcement that he would run. Andrew Cuomo lost the Democratic primary by double digits, said Adams, as reported on the Gothamist website. He is now doing the same thing he did to respected leaders like Charlie King, Gov. David Paterson, and Carl McCall, Assembly member Keith Wright FORCE A BLACK ELECTED OUT OF OFFICE. [caps in the original] This kind of political double-dealing is exactly why so many New Yorkers have lost trust in him. In other words, Adams, the citys second black mayor, who is widely detested for his right-wing record as well as his increasing closeness to the Trump administration, hopes to secure another term by combining a racialist and nationalist appeal to black voters with backing from Wall Street and a smaller base of Republican voters. Adams does not attack Cuomo for his big business record, which he shares completely. His response shows the reactionary character of racialism, which is endemic to capitalist politics. Mamdani seeks support of Democratic Party establishment, business executives Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani speaks during a rally at the Hotel & Gaming Trades Council headquarters in New York, Wednesday, July 2, 2025. [AP Photo/Richard Drew] Mamdani is currently the clear favorite in November. He has sought and received support from key sections of the Democratic Party establishment and the trade union apparatus, including Manhattan Congressmen Adriano Espaillat and Jerrold Nadler, Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, and major unions such as 1199SEIU, the Hotel Trades Council, 32BJ SEIU, and the United Federation of Teachers. Many of these had previously backed Cuomo or remained neutral in the primary. While Mamdani is the frontrunner, he is already working to reassure the corporate elite that he will be flexible. Last week, he appointed several figures aimed at placating the Democratic Party establishment, including longtime operative Jeffrey Lerner as his chief media spokesman. This week, Mamdani is holding high-profile meetings with New York City business leaders, organized by the Partnership for New York City under its longtime president and CEO, Kathryn Wylde. The meetings are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Wylde, who reacted to Mamdanis primary victory by describing his program with concern as free everything, is now offering him a platform to expand on the reassurances he has begun to make. While Mamdani previously stated there should be no billionaires, he quickly walked this back, claiming that his policiesby making the city more affordablewould ultimately benefit everyone, including the billionaires. Following the meeting on Tuesday, Lerner issued a statement saying that Mamdani appreciated the meeting today, and felt it was a constructive, honest discussion. He added, Zohran continues to believe that working in partnership is the best way to deliver an affordable city for all New Yorkers. Mamdani also reportedly told the group of executives that he would discourage the use of the term globalize the intifada in response to criticisms from Zionists, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who moderated the event. The Partnership for New York City, which describes itself as including more than 300 preeminent corporate, investment and entrepreneurial firms, is an umbrella group through which the citys real estate, financial and other corporate giants make their views known to political leaders. These leaders are, in essence, their employeesfaithful defenders of the interests of big business. The New York mayoral election is unfolding in the first year of Trumps second term. Less than two weeks ago, his Big Beautiful Bill was passed, enacting the most sweeping attacks on social spending in US history. Meanwhile, the escalating wars in Iran, Gaza, and Ukraine mark the outlines of a developing third world war, even as Trump accelerates the drive towards dictatorship. Yet all these developments have received only the barest mention from Mamdani. The New York mayoral campaign is unfolding amid record levels of homelessness and poverty, following the expiration of limited pandemic relief measures. These indices of social crisis are set to worsen as the sweeping cuts in Trumps new spending bill take effect. Nearly half the citys populationabout four million peoplereceive Medicaid, which will now face cuts through new work requirements and other restrictions. Some 1.73 million New Yorkers rely on food stamps to cope with skyrocketing grocery prices, and at least 10 percent are expected to lose this support, even as billionaires receive further tax breaks. Trumps cutbacks are projected to cost New York State at least $3 billion, compounding an already severe budget crisis. Yet Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul has ruled out even minimal tax increases on the super-rich. These cutsbefore even factoring in the impact of Trumps tariffs and other measureswill further deepen the class divide in New York City. Yet Mamdani is spending his time courting big business. The independent political mobilization of the working class is entirely excluded by Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America, which functions as a faction of the Democratic Party and speaks for an aspiring middle-class layer. Mamdani has made clear that his strategy is to pressure Democratic Governor Hochul, just as he seeks to reassure corporate leaders. But history shows that the working class can defend its interests only through independent political struggle. That requires a socialist program and a clear break with the reformist promises of Mamdani and the DSA. Yesterday, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou presented plans for 44 billion in tax increases and social cuts in next years budget. This class war budget would impose sweeping cuts to key social programs to free up tens of billions of euros for the ongoing French and European military build-up and the NATO war against Russia. This exposes the support of forces like the New Popular Front (NFP) led by Jean-Luc Melenchon for President Emmanuel Macron in last years elections. The NFP allied with Macron, supposedly to block a coming to power of the far-right National Rally (RN) and force Macron to listen to the overwhelming opposition to austerity and military-police repression, like the mass strikes and riots against pension cuts and police killings in 2023. Though the NFP won the elections, Macron named right-wing prime ministers to powerfirst Michel Barnier, and now Bayrou. The government the NFP thus helped install is now turning violently against the workers. As European governments slash social spending to rearm, these policies face explosive social opposition in France and across Europe. However, these cuts can only be stopped by drawing the lessons of the bankruptcy of the NFP and building a movement directly among rank-and-file workers and youth, aiming to take power out of the hands of a financial aristocracy that tramples upon the will of the people. While 91 percent of the French people opposed Macrons 2023 pension cuts, Bayrou is escalating austerity and diverting a further 4 billion to military spending. Bayrou called for at least 7 billion in cuts via a freeze to pensions and public sector salaries next year, 5 billion in healthcare spending cuts, and billions more from a draconian reform of unemployment insurance. He also announced mass job cuts in the public sector and sharp regional government spending cuts. Bayrou presented two lying arguments to justify his anti-democratic policies. The first is that France, whose sovereign debt has reached 114 percent of its Gross Domestic Product and spends 100 billion yearly on servicing its debt to the banks, has no choice but to escalate the exploitation of the workers. The second is that violent foreign enemies led by Russia give France and its allies no choice but to arm in order to defend themselves. On this point, Bayrou said: Above all, the main transformation we have lived through is that violence has become a universal law. This change that began by the invasion of Ukraine by the armies of Putins Russia, the world has shown it in other ways after October 7, with the drama in Gaza, that the world is ready to explode, and news is regularly reported of similar movements in the seas around China. And we recently saw with the Israel-Iran conflict that this is now becoming a general law, unfortunately, for all the regions of our planet. One fact gives the lie to Bayrous argument for militarism and austerity: France and its NATO imperialist allies are not innocent bystanders in these conflicts but the powers most aggressively inciting up. Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022 after the NATO powers armed Ukraine to the teeth for use as a military base against Russia. The Gaza genocide and Israeli strikes on Iran are continuing because NATO countries led by Washington, and including France, massively provide arms to Israel. Now that the NATO powers have stoked up these conflicts, including by dispatching warships halfway around the world to threaten Chinese shipping lanes, Bayrou cynically argues that France has no choice but to impoverish the workers in order to fight back against the foreign threat. This lie only shows that defending workers social rights requires opposing NATO wars. Bayrous argument about debt was similarly a lie. France faces a mortal debt trap, he arrogantly charged, as French workers supposedly became lazy and relied on the state to solve their problems: We have become addicted to public spending. There was no problem, change, obstacle our country facedsanitary, climate-related, energy, or family issuesto which state officials and the citizenry did not react with a single response in their mouths: to turn to the state. Bayrou refused to explain how this has occurred. Referring to historian and resistance fighter Marc Blochs celebrated work Strange Defeat, on the French general staffs stand-down amid the 1940 Nazi invasion of France, he said: I wont go over again the question of public finances and the long history of this strange defeat, as Marc Bloch said in another epoch. For over 50 years, our country, whatever political tendency was in power, has not presented a balanced budget. I believe its the last stop before the edge of the cliff and being crushed by debt. In reality, responsibility for the surge in Frances public debt to 114 percent of GDP lies not with the working class but the bourgeoisie. Frances debt surged in the years after the 2008 economic crash and the 2020 outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Central Bank printed trillions of euros of public money and loaned it to European governments, who spent it overwhelmingly in the form of bank bailouts of the super-rich. This led on the one hand to the consolidation of a grotesquely wealthy French capitalist oligarchy, led by figures like Bernard Arnault or Francois Pinault with net worths of over 100 billion, and on the other, to massive state indebtedness and relentless attacks on the workers. As this ruling class now claims that saving its wealth requires draconian austerity in violation of the will of the people, it only shows that it is historically condemned and unfit to rule. If its wealth, accumulated through the looting of public funds, is incompatible with social programs essential to the well-being of the population, then it must be impounded. Firms in France and across Europe that benefited from these bailouts should be nationalized under workers control, as they are effectively already funded by the public purse. Such a regime, based on workers control of industry and capable of opening the path towards workers power and the implementation of socialist policies, is emerging ever more directly as the only practical alternative to the financial aristocracys looting of society. Significantly, Bayrou spent a considerable part of his speech insisting that there is no alternative to his policy and that all resistance to the diktat of the banks is futile. Bayrou cited the 2015 capitulation of the NFPs Greek allies, the pseudo-left SYRIZA (Coalition of the Radical Left) government. SYRIZAs capitulation to the banks speculation against Greek sovereign debt, he claimed, showed that it is impossible to oppose austerity if the state is indebted: We must never forget the example of Greece. The prime minister a while ago was called Alexis Tsipras, he headed a coalition called SYRIZA, of the left and far left. To avoid the obstacle [of the debt], he called a referendum of the Greek people to officially say no and refuse the spending cuts demanded by the European Union and the IMF. This no referendum, Alexis Tsipras handily won it on Sunday, but on Thursday four days later, he was forced to sign everything demanded of him. In reality, opposition to austerity in Greece was defeated not because the workers could not fight but because of the treachery of SYRIZA and allied union bureaucracies. Like the parties and union bureaucracies making up the French NFP during the 2023 mass strikes against Macrons pension cuts, they rejected an appeal to mobilize the working class in their country and across Europe to take power out of the hands of the capitalist oligarchy. A socialist revolution is in the final analysis the only viable policy, and the critical question is building a movement among workers and youth across Europe that can prepare and ultimately carry it out. This means building independent, rank-and-file organizations of struggle among workers and youth in France and across Europe and internationally, and building a movement for Trotskyism and socialist revolution in opposition to forces like SYRIZA and the NFP. BANGKOK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's industrial confidence fell for a fourth straight month in June, driven by concerns over border tensions with Cambodia, U.S. trade measures, and geopolitical conflicts, data showed on Wednesday. The Thai industries sentiment index dropped to 87.7 last month from 88.1 in May as most components of the index decreased, reaching its lowest level in nine months, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI). The reading was based on a survey of 1,342 entrepreneurs across 47 industry groups under the FTI. Tightened border controls with neighboring Cambodia disrupting cross-border and transit trade, particularly the suspended import of gasoline and liquefied natural gas from Thailand, contributed to the decline in sentiment, the FTI said in a statement. The doubling of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum products, which reduced the competitiveness of Thai businesses, as well as energy price fluctuations, slower exports, and fewer foreign tourist arrivals due to Israel-Iran conflicts, were also flagged as negative factors, the FTI said. The index forecast for the next three months shrank to 90.8 in June from 91.7 a month earlier as entrepreneurs continued to worry about potential U.S. tariff increases, tensions along the border with Cambodia, and higher minimum wages in certain sectors, the FTI noted. The group urged the government to prioritize disbursing an economic stimulus package and conducting trade negotiations to mitigate the impact of impending U.S. tariffs. NEW DELHI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Two Naxals and a paramilitary trooper of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed in a gunfight Wednesday in India's eastern state of Jharkhand, police said. The gunfight broke out between Naxals and joint contingents of police and CRPF in the Kashitand forest of Lugu hills in Bokaro district, about 83 km northeast of Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand. "During the stand-off, two Naxals, including a commander, were killed," a police official said. "While fighting these Naxals, a paramilitary trooper of the CRPF was critically wounded. However, he succumbed while being airlifted to Ranchi from the jungle area." Police also claimed the recovery of an assault rifle from the possession of slain Naxals. Officials said a search operation was underway to trace the Naxals. Credit: ABC News Studios/Hulu The tagline for Hulus documentary series Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari promises a wild tale of greed, sex, and mysterious death. The first official trailer for the three-part release delivers. Streaming beginning July 21, Murder on Safari follows the 2016 murder of Bianca Rudolph, who died in a safari cabin in Zambia where she was holed up with her husband, Larry Rudolph. Theres been a horrible, tragic accident, Larry says in a recorded phone call played at the beginning of the trailer. My wife was on safari. I never thought this would happen in a million years. His disbelief seems unconvincing to the characters featured in the series, including his former business partner, former employees from his dental office, and the FBI agents who worked closely on the case that ultimately landed Larry in prison with a life sentence for murder. More from Rolling Stone Trophy Wife: Murder on Safari is based on writer Matt Sullivans 2022 Rolling Stone feature Before the Dentist Knows Youre Dead. It was co-produced by XTR, ABC News Studios, and Rolling Stone Films. The docuseries features additional appearances from Millirons daughter, the Rudolphs insurance broker, the former U.S. ambassador to Zambia, members of Safari Club International, and more. The series is directed and executive-produced by Dani Sloane. Erin Lee Carr serves as executive producer, with Kaley Roberts as producer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As investigators dig deeper, they uncover decades of salacious patterns in Larrys personal and professional dealings, including affairs, fraud, and more, a synopsis of the series reads. But the question remains: could this apparent egomaniac commit murder? And if so, does the FBI have the evidence to prove it? In the trailer, one source dramatically recalls a scene between Larry and Lori Milliron, the woman with whom he was having an affair. He pointed his finger in Loris face and said, I killed my [censored] wife for you,' the source claims. Lori steps in to speak for herself, albeit from the federal prison where shes serving 17 years for her role as an accessory in the murder of Bianca. I relive this every day in my mind, she says. It was really frightening. Larry also calls in to weigh in, maintaining his sense of disbelief while saying, I still cant believe it turned out the way that it did. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Ivanka Trumps Husband's 8-Word Demand at Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchezs Wedding Revealed originally appeared on Parade. Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, sent an eight-word demand atJeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchezs wedding. On June 27, the Amazon founder, 61, and journalist, 55, said "I do" in a star-studded, three-day wedding celebration in Venice, Italy. Trump, Kushner and their three children were among those in attendance. SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox In a video of the first daughter, 43, and Kushner, 44, getting onto a boat, Ivanka's husband said to a man on the vessel, "She'd like to sit down by the window," a lip reader, Nicola Hickling, told the Irish Star. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump then thanked employees for their help before Kushner said, "Let's go." In the clip, Trump rocked a strapless pink gown by Tony Ward. It featured a deep thigh slip and sequin floral detailing. Meanwhile, Kushner donned a dark blue suit with a white bow tie. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump sighting at the Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Wedding on June 27, 2025, in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Ernesto Ruscio/GC Images) In addition to Donald Trump's daughter and her husband, Bezos and Sanchez's wedding guests included celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Orlando Bloom, Leonardo DiCaprio, Barbra Streisand, Mick Jagger and more. Trump and Kushner have been married since 2009 and share one daughter, Arabella, almost 14, and two sons, Joseph, 11, and Theodore, 9. Next: Tiffany Trumps Mom Marla Maples Shares First Photos With Her "Precious" Baby Grandson Ivanka Trumps Husband's 8-Word Demand at Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchezs Wedding Revealed first appeared on Parade on Jul 16, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Of Paolo Genoveses 2016 Italian phenom Perfect Strangers, the original Variety review warned remakes will be rampant, and sure enough, Guinness World Records made it official last fall: The hooky dramedy about a dinner party where a group of friends agree to read their private text messages aloud has since become the most remade film in the world, with no fewer than two dozen versions popping up everywhere from South Korea to Azerbaijan (although, for complicated rights reasons, weve so far been spared an English-language version). The success of that model seems to have gone straight to Genoveses head, as the writer-director treats his latest feature, Madly, more like a format than a proper film: The high-concept romantic comedy which personifies the conflicting thoughts a man and a woman experience during the course of their first date is ripe for reinvention in a diverse range of languages and cultures. If and when that happens, however, one hopes each new filmmaker will make strides to improve the story in the retelling. More from Variety Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As it is, Madly doesnt feel all that original to begin with. The setup borrows from early-90s American sitcom Hermans Head (or Pixars popular Inside Out) in that it alternates between the real world, where Piero (Edoardo Leo) meets Lara (Pilar Fogliati) at her apartment for a meal and more, and the colorful choruses quarreling inside their respective noggins. Unfortunately, these diverse emotions/impulses are not clearly identified or defined in the script, which Genovese co-wrote with four others. Madly slightly favors Pieros point of view, but does a decent job of giving Laras interior monologue equal time, to the extent that a relatively simple first date he arrives at her apartment, they tentatively size one another up over drinks, alternating between flirtation and conflict, before all their attractions and insecurities come to a climax, so to speak, in the bedroom drags out as both parties overthink every little thing. Pieros peanut gallery consists of hot-blooded Eros (Claudio Santamaria), romantic-minded Romeo (Maurizio Lastrico), the rational yet reticent Professore (Marco Giallini) and a wild card called Valium (Rocco Papaleo), whos the risk taker of the bunch. Meanwhile, Laras feelings are represented by Trilli (Emanuela Fanelli), Giulietta (Vittoria Puccini), Alfa (Claudia Pandolfi) and Scheggia (Maria Ciara Giannetta), who apparently correspond to the same mix of lust, love, logic and rebellion Piero is juggling though her feminine wiles are gathered in a stylish modern loft, whereas Pieros macho quattro occupy what looks like a Spartan industrial storage room. Given the claustrophobic spaces their respective psyches occupy, its strange that Genovese chose to set the couples rendezvous inside Laras apartment. (Visually, it would have been more cinematic to have them walking and talking around Rome, the way Jesse and Celine do in the Before trilogy, instead of moving from kitchen to couch to bedroom.) The movie opens in Pieros mind, where it takes a moment for us to realize that the four gentlemen debating what kind of condoms to buy for the night have been engaged in some version of the same debate all his life: to be bashful or bold, chivalrous or chauvinistic? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across town, Lara is preemptively second-guessing the night as well. Was it the right move to invite this near-stranger over for dinner? Will he get the wrong idea? Whats the right level of lighting to set the mood? This latter matter earns the first big laugh in a movie full of broad, sitcom-style gags, as we see her adjusting the lights from Pieros perspective, to whom it looks as if either a welder might be working or a disco party is in full swing. He rings the bell anyway, and once inside, they make slightly awkward conversation (Shall we lie down at the table? Lara asks, allowing a Freudian slip to spice things up), while their interior dialogues work overtime (Lets get the lasagna knife, castrate him and get it over with, Trilli suggests). The trouble with Genoveses approach is that each tiny choice sparks a kind of mental skirmish some of them justified, as when Laras ex interrupts their dinner such that the two come across as even more neurotic than your typical Woody Allen character. What Madly lacks by American romantic-comedy standards, at least is the intellectual chemistry that causes us to fall in love with these characters while they are presumably falling in love with each other. Though their minds may be racing, these two prove too shallow to sustain much of a conversation, and because the movie lets us in on their insecurities, very little of what they say feels sincere. Instead, Piero and Lara are cautiously trying to seduce one another while protecting themselves from shagging what could be a crazy person. When it inevitably does come, the sex scene amuses (tasteful between the couple, while their cheering sections go wild). But the morning after is the clincher, revealing that everything else was prelude to the all-important question of how to get outside their own heads and seize on the potential of a genuine human connection. Genovese deals with this quite cleverly, putting those obnoxious anthropomorphic emotions to good use in the end. Madly may be clunky and too culturally specific for international export, but that can always be fixed when someone remakes it for your market. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The journey begins next year. Christopher Nolan's upcoming film "The Odyssey," an adaption of Homer's epic poem, is currently in production with a release date set for summer 2026. Just how Nolan plans to adapt the classic piece of literature is yet to be seen, but Universal Pictures, in a December 2024 post on X, described the film as "a mythic action epic shot across the world," adding it would use "brand new IMAX film technology" to bring Homers saga to IMAX screens for the first time. The film is touted to be the first movie to be shot entirely with IMAX cameras. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nolan is writing and producing the film with longtime colleague and life partner Emma Thomas, who won the Best Picture Oscar for Oppenheimer alongside Nolan. Thomas has served as producer on Nolan's movies going back to "Following." She and Nolan have been married since 1997 and share four children. A new teaser poster for the film dropped online July 2 with the tagline "Defy the gods." A film by Christopher Nolan. Shot entirely with IMAX film cameras. In theaters 7 17 26. #TheOdysseyMovie pic.twitter.com/lizYuc3Mu7 odysseymovie (@odysseymovie) July 2, 2025 With the release one year from this Thursday, July 17, here's what we know so far about the film, including release date and cast. Join our Watch Party! Sign up to receive USA TODAY's movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox When will Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' release? "The Odyssey" is scheduled to hit theatres on July 17, 2026, according to Universal Pictures. 'The Odyssey' cast: Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Zendaya, more As with most Nolan projects, cast details of the "The Odyssey" have been strictly guarded, with only Matt Damon officially announced to play Odysseus, king of Ithaca, in the film. The film would be Damon's third collaboration with Nolan after "Oppenheimer" and "Interstellar." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyongo, Jon Bernthal, Charlize Theron, Mia Goth, John Leguizamo and Shiloh Fernandez are also expected to be a part of the cast, according to multiple reports, including Variety and Deadline. Holland, in an October 2024 appearance on "Good Morning America" had confirmed his casting in the film, though he stayed away from divulging further details. All I can say is that Im incredibly excited, Holland had said on the show. And, obviously honored, but thats all I can say because, to be honest, thats all I know. The "Spiderman" actor is expected to play Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, as per reports in Variety and the New York Times. Tom Holland is photographed on set during the filming of ''The Odyssey'' in Methoni, Greece, on March 11, 2025. In a July 11 interview with GQ, Holland said his experience on "The Odyssey's" set was "amazing." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The job of a lifetime, without a doubt," Holland said. "The best experience I've had on the film set. Incredible. It was exciting. It was different. And I think the movie is going to be unlike anything we've ever seen." Holland added he was delighted to have gotten the chance to work and share scenes with Damon and Hathaway, both of whom have been his heroes. "To share scenes with them, to learn from them, to become friends with them, I couldn't have asked for a better job," Holland told the magazine. "And Im so proud of the work Ive done. I came to work every day with a real sense of purpose and a point to prove, and Im so grateful for Chris to have given me that opportunity." 'The Odyssey' production Supporting actors are photographed on set at the filming of ''The Odyssey'' in Methoni, Greece, on March 11, 2025. Filming for the "The Odyssey" is reportedly underway at different locations across the world with Nolan, Damon and other cast members spotted in several countries including Morocco, Scotland and Greece. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BBC News reported Damon and Holland were spotted July 14 in Burghead on Scotland's Moray Firth coast. Other filming locations include the island of Favignana off the western coast of Sicily, Italy, as well as sites in the United Kingdom and Morocco, according to Variety. Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. Christopher Nolan is photographed on set during the filming of ''The Odyssey'' in Methoni, Greece, on March 11, 2025. 'The Odyssey' teaser The first look of "The Odyssey" was released exclusively in theaters in July, the New York Times and Variety reported, playing ahead of "Jurassic World Rebirth," which is also produced by Universal Pictures. According to reports, the 70-second trailer opens with shots of the sea and a narration about Odysseus' victory in the Trojan War. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Darkness. Zeus laws smashed to pieces. A kingdom without a king since my master died, the voice, assumed to be Robert Pattinson's says, according to Variety. He knew it was an unwinnable war, and then somehow somehow, he won it. Viewers then see Holland's Telemachus, who tells Jon Bernthal, whose character details haven't been revealed, that he has "to find out what happened to my father." The teaser then fast forwards to "one year later," where it is revealed Damon's Odysseus is stranded in the ocean, reports said. While footage from the trailer quickly leaked online, appearing on X and TikTok, it was swiftly taken down, the reports said. What is Homer's 'Odyssey' about? The Odyssey is a 24-book epic by Homer that tells the arduous 10-year journey story of Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, as he travels home after the Trojan War, according to Britannica. Odysseus' journey is long and harsh and full of challenges and encounters with the gods, polyphemuses (a type of one-eyed giant in Greek mythology), the Sirens (a half bird and half woman type creature who lured sailors to destruction) and the witch-goddess Circe. Odysseus' journey culminates in a reunion with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, who battle aggressive suitors looking to grab the throne while he is away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Historians and scholars date The Odyssey to the 8th century sometime between 725675 BC. According to Britannica, the poem was "intended for oral performance" and the first printed Greek version was produced in 1488 in Florence. Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Odyssey' movie: Release date, cast, teaser, what we know so far When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: StudioCanal James Gunn has revealed that Paddington 2 is one of his favorite movies and no, he's not being ironic. "[Paddington in Peru], I haven't seen, but Paddington 2 is a classic film," Gunn said during an appearance on Konbini's Video Club series. "It's one of the greatest movies ever made. People think I'm being ironic when I say that. I am not. I am absolutely telling the truth." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Released in 2017, Paddington 2 sees Ben Whishaw return to voice the titular kind and polite bear. His new life in London is disrupted, however, after he's framed for a burglary he didn't commit, and his adoptive family must find the real thief in order to prove his innocence. The cast also includes Sally Hawkins, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters. Another sequel, Paddington in Peru, was released last year. Gunn's not alone in his opinion: Paddington 2 is a big hit with critics. At one point, it was the only movie on Rotten Tomatoes with a perfect 100% score (ousting Orson Welles' 1941 classic Citizen Kane from the site's highest-rated top spot), but now it sits at a still pretty impressive score of 99%. As for Gunn, his latest big-screen release is Superman, starring David Corenswet and Rachel Brosnahan as Clark Kent and Lois Lane opposite Nicholas Hoult's Lex Luthor. Superman is out now in theaters. For more on the new DCU Chapter One movie, check out our Superman review or get the lowdown on the Superman ending explained with our spoiler-heavy guide. SYDNEY, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Police in Australia's state of Western Australia (WA) have charged a woman with the murder of her infant son, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Tuesday. The seven-month-old boy was found with stab wounds and declared deceased by emergency services at a home in the northern suburbs of Perth shortly after 3 a.m. local time on Monday. His mother, a 31-year-old woman, was taken to the hospital under police guard and was on Tuesday night charged with murder. Speaking at a press conference earlier on Tuesday, WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said that the incident was being treated as a domestic violence homicide. He said that other family members were home at the time of the baby's death and that it was a confronting scene for first responders. "There would be very few cases where you would have a crime scene of such a horrific nature for our officers and for first responders involved," Blanch said. Univision has revealed the date and location for the 2025 Premios Juventud, Billboard can exclusively announce Wednesday (July 16). For its 22nd edition, the ceremony will take place in Panama City, Panama, for the first time, and will air live on Sept. 25, coinciding with Hispanic Heritage Month. Nominations for the fan-voted awards will officially be announced on Aug. 19. More from Billboard Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our alliance with the Republic of Panama reaffirms our commitment to honoring the strengths of Latin American countries, which form the foundation of our community, values and traditions. Panamas strategic location, vibrant culture and rich ethnic diversity stand out as key hub for investment, tourism and international business, Ignacio Meyer, president of Univision Networks Group at TelevisaUnivision, said in a press statement. We are excited to host Premios Juventud in Panama this September, as part of our Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations, showcasing everything the country has to offer to the world. Known for recognizing young artists and creators for their contributions in society and music, this years event will also honor Panamanian music icons who continue inspiring audiences today, as noted by Meyer. This celebration in Panama is a clear sign of trust in our country as a creative, vibrant epicenter full of possibilities, added Maruja Herrera, minister of culture of the Republic of Panama. This international recognition highlights the strength of our identity, the richness of our artistic expressions and the dynamism of a new generation that builds with courage, imagination and commitment. Panamanian and Latin American youth will find here a space to shine, to share their voices and to strengthen the connection between cultures, musical genres and unifying causes. For minister of tourism Gloria de Leon, Premios Juventud taking over the Central American country is an invaluable boost for tourism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the Tourism Authority, we celebrate this great opportunity because it means global exposure for our landscapes, culture, gastronomy and hospitality, she expressed. Every image that comes from Panama in this broadcast will be an open invitation to the world to come and discover us. I am deeply moved to see our country shine before so many eyes. This platform not only gives us visibility but also energizes our tourism economy and solidifies Panama as the ideal venue for major international events. Additionally, this years vibrant Premios Juventud logo created by Panamanian artist Eduardo Bragin is inspired by Mola, which, according to the statement, is a traditional hand-crafted textile art from Panama that is an essential part of the clothing worn by the indigenous Guna women. Best of Billboard Sign up for Billboard's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In a Masterclass that filled a 600-seat auditorium at the Bogota Audiovisual Market (BAM), Argentinas Lucrecia Martel (La Cienaga, Zama) stood for an hour, despite using a cane. I look more like a shepherd angel than a filmmaker, she quipped, adding that she was in the middle of a shoot but couldnt resist BAMs invitation. Theres something very interesting youre doing here in Colombia, which is placing a strong emphasis on training in the field of production and encouraging critical reflection on production itself. Thats something we failed to do, and now we Argentinians are trying to make up for it in our work. It brings up something uncomfortable when we start talking about it this idea of industry, because it generates jobs, because there should be or could be public policies to support it, she asserted. More from Variety Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Checking her notes in a leather-bound book, she ticked off her myriad concerns: the environmental crisis, AI, the hegemony of streaming platforms, mobile phones, the rhetoric of Trump and the American far-right and insomnia. Look where weve ended up with a planet thats one step away from collapse. I dont know if youre aware, but theres a part of this talk thats depressing. Its the first hour. Too bad it lasts a whole hour. The second hour was all joythats scheduled for next year, she teased. There are irreversible processes: the simulations, ocean acidification, the thawing of permafrost Its like all the mammoths trapped in the ice are almost ready to reappear. And in the deepest trenches of the ocean, theyre finding tiny creatureslike transparent cockroaches or just weird bugsthat already have microplastics inside them. We didnt even know they existed, and they already knew about us through our microplastics, she lamented. Expanding on the theme of the event, she mused: Why do we make films? What is culture for? As soon as we start talking about culture, everyone suddenly sits up straighter, speaks more seriously, as if weve entered the realm of something sacred and essential. It becomes a solemn topic. So heres my theory about culture: Culture is an ecological form of warfare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She cited Hollywoods explosive growth during wartime. Up until then, it was European cinema that led production. But during the wars, the U.S. ramped up its output massivelyand suddenly, the whole world became its market, she reflected. All the institutions that supported the war effort including the media departments had a vested interest in cinema, because film was the medium through which heroic values were transmitted. It helped construct the narrative that the right side of the world was the West, and that within the West, the United States held supremacy. And they succeeded. And they did it with films that were lets admit it brilliant. Casablanca, for example, she continued. So, when we talk about culture, lets not act like were automatically the good guys. Culture isnt inherently good. Its only good if its not trying to impose absolute dominance whether its traditional values or, lets say, non-binary, fluid, polyamorous values. If you aim to make any value system hegemonic, you end up in the same place: tiny cockroach-like creatures at the bottom of the ocean, with microplastics in their brains, she pointed out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adding to her worries about the current state of the global film industry, she noted: We used to worry because six or seven major companies controlled theatrical distribution around the world. Getting a film released was nearly impossible. That used to be the big concern. But now were down to just onemaybe twocountries, with a few platforms that are essentially producing and preserving the entire worlds audiovisual output. And yes, I knowsomeone will say, But wait, we have Netflix Latin America! I apologize in advance. I truly dont mean to offend anyone here. But Id love to ask: Does Netflix Latin America actually respond to the interests of Latin America? Because lets be honest: Netflix is a U.S. company. Naturally, they have their own vision, their own interests. Now someone will say, But what about Roma, in black and white? Sure. Every now and then, you have to release a prisoner, she said slyly. Reflecting on the advent of AI, she noted: In recent years, weve been hit with this extraordinary phenomenon of artificial intelligencewith all its apps and toolsand what its triggered is a brutal acceleration of time. And the feeling, at least in Argentina, is pretty clear: theres not a single conversation where this doesnt come up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its the anxiety of becoming obsolete, she mused. She also lamented the paucity of budgets in Latin America. Poverty is the reality of our continent. Its not an exceptionits the condition, she pronounced, We have to think about filmmaking from that place, not fantasize about something else. She cited one exception in Colombia, Netflixs One Hundred Years of Solitude. Lets see how many more times that happens. Probably another hundred years before we see a budget like that again, she scoffed. Ending on a positive note, she proposed: Lets invent the future with cinema, with literature, with theater, with whatever form with the micro-stories on social media, or with the endless, eternal macro-stories of the platforms. Lets imagine a future where, a hundred years from now, things are at least a little better. And that workthat responsibility to invent the futureis not something you do while crying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She also added that it was folly to depend on government handouts. As I said before if culture means imposing ourselves on others, then its not really culture. Its just war in a sweeter form. But its still war. If what we truly want is to invent a future, then we have the possibility to do it. BAM kicked off on July 14 and wraps on July 18. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The best restaurants for wine in Rhode Island for 2025 have been named by Wine Spectator. Launched in 1981, the Restaurant Awards represent the only program focused exclusively on restaurant wine service. They are assigned on three levels: the Award of Excellence, the Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award. There is an application fee for restaurants to apply to be listed. Other requested information includes the wine list itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nine Rhode Island restaurants earned the Best of Award of Excellence ranking, signified by two wine glasses. It reflects a list of extensive selections with significant vintage depth and excellent breadth across multiple regions. Only 1,704 restaurants earned the designation this year. "These wine lists display excellent breadth across multiple winegrowing regions and/or significant vertical depth of top producers, along with superior presentation," wrote Wine Spectator. "Typically offering 350 or more selections, these restaurants are destinations for serious wine lovers, showing a deep commitment to wine, both in the cellar and through their service team." Coast at Ocean House in Watch Hill has been awarded two glasses by Wine Spectator signifying Best of Award of Excellence for breadth across multiple winegrowing regions and/or significant vertical depth of top producers, along with superior presentation. Six of the winners are noted for having amazing water views. New to the elevated standing of two glasses is the Coast Guard House, with Elisa Wybraniec as wine director. The certified sommelier has advanced certifications (Court of Master Sommeliers) and is an educator at Johnson & Wales University (the Wine and Spirits Education Trust). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But she's as far from the stereotype wine snob as can be. "Wine should be fun," she says. So have fun trying what these local restaurants have to offer. Elisa Wybraniec is a certified sommelier and wine director for the Coast Guard House, which was just awarded the Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator, signified by two wine glasses. The Coast Guard House, 40 Ocean Road, Narragansett, has 565 selections with strengths in California and French wines. The rebranded dining room at Castle Hill Inn in Newport has 1,450 selections with strength in the wines of California, Italy and the Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne regions of France. It first made the two glass level in 2004 but had been on the Wine Spectator list even before that. Cara, The Chanler at Cliff Walk, 117 Memorial Blvd., Newport, has 440 selections with strength in California and French wines. Coast at The Ocean House, 1 Bluff Ave., Watch Hill, has 2,020 selections under wine director Matthew MacCartney. They show strength in the wines of California, Italy and the Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne regions of France. Matunuck Oyster Bar, 629 Succotash Road, Wakefield, was honored for 620 selections. After a devastating fire at the restaurant in May, they are operating under a tent across the street. The status of their wine selection is sure to be different, as the menu is more limited for the restaurant's situation. Restaurant 1879 at the Atlantic Inn, 35 High St., Block Island, has 485 selections with strengths in California and French wines. Tavolo Wine Bar & Tuscan Grille, 970 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, has 475 selections with strengths in California and Italian wines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tavolo Wine Bar & Tuscan Grille, 2099 Post Road, Warwick, has 435 selections with strengths in California and Italian wines. The White Horse Tavern, 26 Marlborough St., Newport, has 600 selections with strengths in California, French and Italian wines. Eight restaurants received the Award of Excellence for their well-chosen assortment of quality producers, as Wine Spectator describes it. The honor is signified by one wine glass. There are 2,150 restaurants that earned the designation. Camilles, 71 Bradford St., Providence, has 250 selections with California and Italian wines. The Capital Grille has been recognized for its wine list by Wine Spectator since 1997. The Capital Grille, 10 Memorial Blvd., Providence, has 350 selections with strength in California wines. Double Barrel Steak by DB, The Preserve Resort & Spa, 1 Preserve Blvd., Richmond, has 300 selections with strength in California, French and Italian. Fogo de Chao, 148 Providence Place, Providence, has 190 selections with strength in wines from Argentina, Chile and California. Gracie's, 194 Washington St., Providence, has 190 selections with strength in French wines. They have also expanded their wine program to sister cafe and bakery Ellie's which becomes a wine bar on Friday nights under wine director Justin Bothur. La Masseria, 223 Main St., East Greenwich, with 220 selections with strength in Italian wines. Mill's Tavern, 101 North Main St., Providence, with 250 selections with strength in California wines. The Restaurant at The Weekapaug Inn, 25 Spray Rock Road, Westerly, has 155 selections with strengths from California and France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were only 97 winners this year in the Grand Award category, signified by three glasses. Many are international restaurants or in California and New York. None are in Rhode Island. Two are in New England: Grill 23 & Bar, the classic Boston steak house, and Topper's at the Wauwinet, the Nantucket Victorian inn. The Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards issue, which features a tribute to late Grand Award-winning American chef and restaurateur Charlie Trotter, is now available to readers. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Wine Spectator honors RI restaurants with the best wine lists Democrat Lee Johnson, a Greenville businessman, speaks at Jim Clyburn's Fish Fry in Columbia on Friday, May 30, 2025. At the time, he was running for U.S. Senate. He suspended his campaign Wednesday, July 16, 2026. (Photo by Shaun Chornobroff/SC Daily Gazette) The long list of candidates seeking to challenge sitting U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham continues to shift. A week after Democrat Brandon Brown announced he would run, a different Democrat, Lee Johnson, suspended his campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This brings the total field to seven challengers from the two major parties two Republicans and five Democrats according to federal elections filings. As the Democratic primary has taken shape, it has become clear that now is the time for unity, Johnson wrote in a statement Wednesday halting his two-month-long run. This was not an easy decision. But as Democrats prepare to challenge Lindsey Graham in 2026, the best thing I can do to help in that fight is support the candidate our party selects, the Upstate engineer and businessman added. His campaign spent about $117,000 during his short bid, after he loaned himself $500,000 for the launch and raised $67,000, according to a July 15 filing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Brown entered the race with a pledge to fight against tariffs enacted by the Trump administration and cuts to Medicaid. Brown, of Taylors, has worked in recruitment and fundraising for several historically Black colleges and universities, including Claflin University, Jackson State University in Mississippi, and Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Brown also worked on former President Joe Bidens first presidential campaign in 2006, in the primary against Barack Obama. And in 2004, he ran to represent South Carolinas 4th Congressional District covering the Upstate. He lost out to former Republican Rep. Bob Inglis, who won with 70% of the vote. All candidates taking on Graham are going up against his major fundraising capacity. Graham has already raised and spent more than $2 million in the past three months, according to his campaign filings. That leaves him with a war chest of more than $15.6 million, almost matching what he had on hand at the end of last quarter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2020, Graham easily defeated three GOP challengers before taking on Democrat Jaime Harrison, who lost by double digits in what was then the most expensive U.S. Senate race in history. Greenville businessman Mark Lynch, owner of Jeff Lynch Appliance Center, launched his campaign in February to challenge Graham in the GOP primary. After putting $5 million of his own money into the campaign and raising nearly $200,000, the Republican has so far spent his donors funds and is running TV ads to boost his profile. Democrat Annie Andrews, a pediatrician in the Lowcountry, has raised $1.2 million to date and spent nearly half of that on campaign expenses. Democrat Kyle Freeman has spent $25,000 of his own money, with just $650 cash left on hand. The other announced challengers, including former Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, have not yet filed financial reports with the Federal Election Commission. DENVER (KDVR) Police are investigating a shooting that took place on Tuesday evening, according to a post on X from the Denver Police Department. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox The shooting occurred in the 2300 block of South Sherman Street. Police said that one person was transported to the hospital, but the extent of their injuries is unknown at this time. Who did the Rockies take in the 2025 MLB Draft? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DPD said that officers are working to develop suspect information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. (FOX40.COM) A roadway that runs underneath an overpass in Yuba County and has a reputation for semi-truck crashes will soon be upgraded to avoid the common incident. Video Above: Worst commutes in the United States The California Department of Transportation announced the State Highway 70 Safety Improvement Project, which includes construction on several parts of the roadway in Yuba County. According the Caltrans, the project is based on reports that showed 85 collisions, seven fatalities, and 32 injuries on Highway 70 within a three-year timeframe, from 2010 to 2013. Marysville Peach Festival returns to Northern California with array of peachy foods Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The project includes several fixes, such as lowering a road between Laurellen Road and the South Honcut Creek Bridge. There, semi trucks are known to crash into the overpass because of a lack of space to get through. Within two years, Caltrans said first responders were dispatched 16 times for truck/trailer/vehicle bridge structure hits. By lowering the road, most vehicles should fit through and avoid collisions. Caltrans plans to lower a roadway in Yuba County that has a reputation for semi-truck crashes. The project is set to begin in 2026./California Department of Transportation Additionally, Caltrans plans to widen intersections, add lanes, install rumble strips, relocate utility poles, and more. The safety on this stretch of highway needs some improvements, Caltrans spokesperson Megan Reese told FOX40.com. Not only the underpass, but the pedestrian and biking (areas) needed upgrades. With this project, the safety of (students) going to and from school will be improved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tyler Rich returns to roots in Northern California for concert and dance party Part of the project includes increasing the paved shoulder at school bus stops to provide a safer area for loading and unloading school children. The total cost is estimated at $104.6 million in federal and state funds, according to Caltrans. Preparations for the project have already begun. However, major construction is slated to start in Spring 2026. For more information visit dot.ca.gov. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. CHICAGO An 11-year-old boy was injured in a shooting Tuesday evening on Chicagos South Side, police said. The child was standing on the sidewalk in the 7100 block of South Union Avenue just after 5:45 p.m. when he was struck in the arm by unknown gunfire, according to Chicago police. He was taken to a nearby hospital and is listed in good condition. No one is currently in custody. Detectives are investigating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) X-marked the spot where the adult video store opened the summer of 2010, 15 years ago. It seems like just yesterday we were dealing with litigation on that matter and George just to be truthful about it, I think it was more of a moral issue than anything, said former commissioner Corey Johnson. For the city, it was also location. Commissioners at the time said the public did not want to see that store at a major gateway into the city. The commissioners who voted for it felt like there was an overwhelming public support to ban that type of business at that location, said former commissioner Jerry Brigham. The city waged an eight-year legal fight against X-Mart, but in May 2010, commissioners agreed to settle, paying the store $550,000 and the stores legal fees. Our lawyer first advised we could win and then advised it was hopeless, said Brigham. After the ruling, the store opened its doors in late June doors that are still open now despite the citys expensive efforts to stop it from happening. I think thats what it was all about, putting up a fight and showing hey were doing our due diligence that to try to make sure that we prohibit things like that and it was a losing battle but I just hate we had to spend taxpayers money litigating something that we knew was going to be a losing battle, said Johnson. Store workers said they could not talk on camera, but were unaware of the anniversary. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF. CAMBRIA COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) More than $16 million in state funding is on its way to Portage Borough to support a major overhaul of the communitys aging water infrastructure. Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr. (R-35) and Rep. Jim Rigby (R-71) announced the funding on Wednesday following approval from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST). The boroughs municipal authority is receiving a $4.7 million grant and an $11.8 million low-interest loan to make critical upgrades to its water system. The project includes replacing 34,500 feet of water distribution lines, 15,750 feet of service lines, 24 fire hydrants, and 580-meter pits. Six lead-galvanized service lines will also be removed and replaced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The funding is aimed at addressing aging infrastructure, safeguarding public health, and ensuring clean, reliable water for residents. PENNVEST provides financial assistance for water, sewer, and stormwater projects across Pennsylvania and operates independently of states General Fund. Langerholc, who serves on the PENNVEST board, called the investment a long-term win for the health and sustainability of the Portage community. Rigby praised the local municipal authority for taking initiative to secure the funds. Get the latest news, weather forecasts and sports stories delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for our newsletters. The project will not only improve water quality but also reduce future repair costs for residents and the borough. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. The Brief A teen girl was stabbed to death inside a New York City deli, police said. The police arrested a 17-year-old girl at 7:30 p.m. last night, July 15. NYPD have charged her with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. THE BRONX - A 17-year-old girl has been arrested after the alleged fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old girl yesterday, according to the NYPD. What we know According to police, officers responded just before 4 p.m. to Deli Grocery, located at the intersection of Boston Road and Mitchell Avenue in the Williamsbridge section. The victim, identified as Aliyah Williams, was found with stab wounds to her face, chest and body. Williamswas rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in critical condition, where she was later pronounced dead. She lived down the block from the deli. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 17-year-old girl has been arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, according to the NYPD. What they're saying Her grandmother, Rose Anderson, was at work when she learned that her granddaughter had been fatally stabbed. "It's sad, really sad to take someone life like that," Anderson said. "She's a beautiful kid, and she's a nice child." SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. (AND NO SPAM!) Just click here. DENVER Roger Hutson was never a huge fan of Donald Trump. In 2016, he supported Marco Rubio for president, helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for his Republican primary bid. In 2024, Hutson worked with "No Labels," a group of Democrats, Republicans and independents, to forge a bipartisan ticket with the express purpose of keeping either Trump or Joe Biden from winning the White House. Is this "really the best we can do in a country of 330 million people?" Hutson asked in a Denver Post opinion piece after the effort collapsed and another Trump-Biden matchup seemed inevitable. The failure, he suggested, was "a sad commentary on the status of leadership in America." But something unexpected happened over the last six months. Trump won Hutson over. He's not gone full-fledged MAGA. "No, no, no!" he insisted, scoffing at the notion of driving down the street, Trump flag waving. And he's not about to jump on JD Vance's political bandwagon, the likeliest vehicle for extending Trumpism in 2028 and beyond. "I'm acknowledging the accomplishments of the man in the office," Hutson said, with emphasis on the White House's current occupant, whom he supported over Kamala Harris. "I'm very impressed." It's not, as one might suppose, because the Denver oil and gas executive is enamored of Trump's exhortations to "Drill, baby, drill! ("No, baby, no!" is more like it, as Hutson believes oversupply would drive prices down.) Rather, Hutson credits Trump with achieving a good deal of what he promised during the 2024 campaign. Securing America's borders. Forcing U.S. allies to cough up more for defense. Bringing Iran's nuclear program to heel. Taking on the country's unfair trade partners. He still doesn't much care for Trump's abrasive personality, the name-calling and denigrating of people. But Hutson's conversion shows that in a country deeply dug into oppositional camps, where political views appear cement-hardened into place, there are still those open to persuasion and even willing to change their minds. As confounding as that might seem. :: Hutson, 65, was a Republican his whole life, until leaving the party sometime in the 2010s. Or, more precisely, he felt "the party left me." A growing stridency around abortion and same-sex marriage was particularly off-putting to Hutson, who describes himself as a conservative on fiscal issues and a live-and-let-live type on social matters. "If you're lucky enough in life to find somebody you love," he said, "God bless." Hutson has long been active in civic and political affairs, serving on various boards and commissions under Democrats and Republicans alike. He recalled attending a meeting some years ago when GOP leaders gathered to discuss Colorado's increasingly blue coloration. "If winning means nominating an African American lesbian with antennae coming out of her head," then Republicans should do so, Hutson suggested. That didn't go over well. But it fit Hutson's approach to politics. He grew up an Army brat, moving around the world until his father completed his military career and settled in Golden, Colo., to take a job at a family lumber business. For all the impermanence packing up and relocating just about every two years Hutson said his upbringing was in many ways ideal, shaping his outlook to this day. The military, he said, reflects the best of America: unity, shared purpose, teamwork. "I think it teaches you a lot of tolerance," he said. "I think it teaches you a lot of acceptance." His GOP pedigree came from his father, the Army colonel. But it wasn't the scorched-earth version of today's Republican Party, in which Democrats and their philosophy are regarded as the root of all evil. Long ago, as leader of the Jefferson County Republican Men's Club, Hutson invited Colorado's governor, Democrat Roy Romer, to speak. "I was catching such hell from people. 'How dare you invite a Democrat to speak to this group?' " Hutson remembered being chastised. "And I said, 'Well, he's our governor, isn't he? I think it'd be an honor.' " After some initial puzzlement from the governor's office are you sure? Romer came and spoke, holding just the kind of cross-party conversation that Hutson wishes occurred more often among politicians in worlds-apart Washington. "I'd love for Trump to have a weekly meeting with [Democratic House leader] Hakeem Jeffries," Hutson said as he sat high above downtown Denver, his office decor dark leather, rugged mountain landscape, a display of amber liquids suggesting a Western cigar bar theme. "I would love for Trump to sit down weekly with [Chuck] Schumer" the Democratic Senate leader or bring Schumer and the GOP Senate leader, John Thune, together and say, " 'How do we work our way through this?' " Could you imagine that, Hutson asked, before answering his own question. Nope. Never gonna happen. Nothing, and no individual, is perfect. But Hutson looks to the bottom line, and he's willing to accept trade-offs. Trump is loud and uncouth. But he's respected on the world stage, Hutson said, in a way the shuffling Biden was not. Trump may be toying with tariffs up, down, all around. But at least he's addressing the country's one-sided trade relationships in a way, Hutson said, no president has before. He may be off base calling for a drastic ramp-up of domestic oil production. But in general, Hutson said, Trump's welcoming message to business is, "What can we do to be more helpful?" It's unfortunate that innocents are being swept up in mass immigration raids. But maybe that wouldn't have happened, Hutson said, if local officials had been more cooperative and criminal elements weren't allowed to insinuate themselves so deeply into their communities in the first place. Besides, he said, haven't Democrats and Republicans both said a secure border and tougher enforcement is needed before comprehensively overhauling the nation's fouled-up immigration system? "We need to bring in the workers we need," Hutson said. "I mean, if somebody's coming here to work and be a meaningful part of society, God bless, man." Not perfect. But, all in all, a better and stronger presidential performance, Hutson suggested, than many with their blind hatred of Trump can see, or are willing to acknowledge. "I've got to look at the results," Hutson said, "and despite his caustic attitude and behavior, I think he's done a really, really good job." When Barack Obama was elected president, Hutson recalled, one of his Democratic friends, a Black man, said to him, " 'Roger, you've got a Black president.' And I said, 'You know, Kevin, you're right. And he's my president, just like he's your president. " 'We don't have to agree on everything but, by God, he's the president of the United States and we respect that office.' " Hutson paused. His eyes narrowed, disapprovingly. "We've lost that," he said. (COMMENT, BELOW) Mark Z. Barabak Los Angeles Times/(TNS) Mark Z. Barabak is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, focusing on politics in California and the West. ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and 11 others injured when unknown militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a passenger bus in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province on Wednesday, local rescue and police officials told Xinhua. The incident happened in Kalat district when the bus was traveling from the country's southern port city of Karachi to Balochistan's capital city Quetta, said Muhammad Zeeshan, manager of operations of the rescue department at non-governmental organization Edhi Foundation in Quetta. Talking to Xinhua, police sources from the district said that the attack happened at around 5:20 p.m. (12:20 GMT) local time when attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the bus, killing the three passengers on the spot and injuring 11 others. Rescue teams shifted the injured to the District Headquarters Hospital in Kalat, where several remain in critical condition, Zeeshan said. Following the incident, security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace the attackers. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet. Balochistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks in recent months, with frequent incidents targeting civilians, security forces, and public transport on major highways. DUCHESNE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) A 17-year-old from Duchesne County was sentenced to a prison term between two and 15 years today, after pleading guilty to killing another teen with a firearm last year. On Sept. 22, 2024, Officials responded to reports of a family fight in Duchesne County and found one juvenile teen dead with a gunshot wound in his upper body. PREVIOUS: 16-year-old charged as adult, facing murder charge after family fight Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haegen Ray Sagers, who was 16 years old at the time, was taken into custody, where he was later charged as an adult on one count of murder and one count of felony discharge of a firearm with serious bodily injury. On May 27, 2025, Sagers accepted a plea deal that amended the murder charge to second degree felony manslaughter and dismissed the second charge. Today, the court heard victim impact statements and imposed sentencing. Sagers was sentenced to an indeterminate sentence between two and 15 years, with credit for time served. A second-degree felony can carry a prison term between one to 15 years in prison, according to Utah State Code 76-3-203. He will be housed in juvenile facilities until he is released or reaches the age of 25. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Two people were arrested after officers found suspected drugs and guns during a traffic stop in Miami Township on Friday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Officers initially pulled the vehicle over due to fictitious tags, according to a post from the Miami Township Police Department. While investigating, officers learned the driver didnt have a drivers license or insurance on the vehicle. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities also found narcotics, a narcotics pipe, and two handguns inside the vehicle or on the people involved. Adam Colwell and Brandy Strickland were arrested as a result of the traffic stop, the post said. Colwell was charged with having weapons under disability and improper handling in a motor vehicle. Strickland was charged with having weapons under disability, falsifications and a CCW violation. They may face charges related to the suspected narcotics after lab results come back, according to the post. Colwell and Strickland are not in custody at the Montgomery County Jail at this time. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] OAKLAND Two people suffered minor injuries and a third jumped overboard when a flash fire occurred Tuesday in a boat at Deep Creek Lake in the area of the 1700 block of Paradise Point Road, according to the Maryland State Fire Marshal's Office. The 11:52 a.m. fire occurred when gasoline vapors were ignited by electrical equipment in the hull area of a 23-foot Supra Saltare boat owned by Jonathan Greenawalt, investigators said. The incident occurred as the boat owner and acquaintances were completing work after discovering a fuel tank leak, according to officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deep Creek Volunteer Fire Department handled the incident upon alert by the Garrett County 911 emergency center. The fire caused damages estimated at $20,000 to the boat and $500 to the dock where the fire occurred, according to the fire marshal's office. A farmer in Oklahoma has been killed by two water buffaloes after becoming trapped inside their enclosure, police said. The incident occurred on Friday evening in Jones, Oklahoma, at approximately 8:35 p.m. when officers from the Jones Police Department and the Jones Fire Department responded to an emergency call regarding an individual who had been attacked by two water buffalo at a farm located at 7501 North Henney Road, officials said. MORE: 5 killed after train hits vehicle that allegedly attempted to go around crossing gate Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon arrival, first responders were initially unable to reach the victim due to the aggressive behavior of the animals, said the Jones Police Department in a statement on social media released on Monday. One water buffalo was immediately dispatched to allow safe access to the scene. But when responders gained entry to the enclosure, they discovered that the victim, named as Bradley McMichael, had sustained multiple deep lacerations that proved to be fatal, officials said. MORE: US Marshals operation leads to recovery or location of 60 critically missing children in Florida While investigators were processing the scene, a second water buffalo became increasing agitated and posed a threat to emergency personnel, police said. For the safety of those on site, the second animal was also dispatched. Evidence gathered at the scene confirmed that the water buffaloes were responsible for Mr. McMichaels fatal injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police discovered during the investigation that McMichael had purchased the two water buffaloes just the day before at a livestock auction and that it is believed he became trapped inside their enclosure while tending to the animal, according to the Jones Police Department. MORE: 18-year-old arrested over alleged double homicide of 2 family members after argument The office of the chief medical examiner subsequently took custody of McMichael and transported him to their facility for further examination. The investigation is currently ongoing. A crush at an aid centre in southern Gaza killed at least 20 people on Wednesday, with the site's operator blaming "Hamas operatives" within the crowd and the Palestinian territory's civil defence agency attributing the panic to Israeli gunfire. It was the first time that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), backed by the United States and Israel, acknowledged deaths at one of its distribution sites after weeks of chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Palestinians being killed nearby while waiting to collect rations. AFP footage showed lifeless bodies taken to a nearby hospital in the city of Khan Yunis, with some placed on the floor and others on already-bloodied beds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abdullah Alian, a witness, said that mayhem unfolded as the crowd of aid-seekers was hit with stun grenades and pepper spray. "When they saw people starting to die on the ground and people on top of each other suffocating, they opened the gate and people started climbing on top of each other." It was not clear whether he was referring to US contractors securing GHF sites, Israeli forces or another party. Paramedic Ziad Farhat said that after more than 21 months of devastating war, "there are not enough hospitals for the injured or the martyrs". "Enough of the tragedies that we are living." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latest deaths came as indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas were ongoing, aiming to seal a deal for a 60-day ceasefire, the release of hostages held in Gaza and the unfettered flow of much-needed aid into the territory. Hamas has accused Israel of wanting to retain long-term military control of Gaza -- a key sticking point in the talks, which are now in their second week in Qatar. - 'Stampede' - The GHF said that 19 of those killed on Wednesday "were trampled and one was stabbed amid a chaotic and dangerous surge". Spokesman Chapin Fay later told a briefing that the deadly incident was "instigated by armed Hamas operatives who infiltrated a civilian crowd and deliberately incited chaos". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He denied the use of tear gas or that shots were fired into the crowd. "Limited use of pepper spray was deployed only to protect against additional loss of life," Fay said, adding that "warning shots were fired into the air at one point when GHF personnel identified that a child was being trampled". Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in the incident, blaming it on fire from Israeli troops. Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that thousands had gathered at the site when "Israeli forces opened fire and used (tear) gas, causing panic and a stampede after aid centre guards closed the main gates in front of the hungry crowd". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment. The GHF, an officially private effort, began operations on May 26 as Israel eased a two-month aid blockade that had sparked warnings of famine. On Tuesday, the UN said it had recorded 875 people killed in Gaza while trying to get food since late May, including 674 "in the vicinity of GHF sites". Last week, UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that "most of the injuries are gunshot injuries". The GHF -- accused by aid organisations of catering to Israeli military needs -- has denied that fatal shootings have occurred in the immediate vicinity of its aid points, and the Israeli army has accused Hamas of firing at civilians, though witnesses have blamed the military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement - 'No progress' - Speaking in Gaza on Wednesday, Israel's army chief Eyal Zamir said that "in the coming days, we will know whether or not we have an agreement" in the ongoing truce negotiations, according to a military statement. A Palestinian source close to the negotiations earlier told AFP there had been "no progress so far". If a deal is not reached, Israel will "intensify and expand combat operations as much as possible, beyond what we are currently doing", Zamir said. The war was sparked by Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 58,573 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. bur-acc/phz/ami He went out in dramatic fashion. Under attack because of allegations of sexual misconduct, then state Rep. Jeremy Durham pointed to a black binder and told his fellow lawmakers there was information in it that could be damaging to some of them. "I assure you, you don't want me releasing some of the things that are in this binder," Durham, who previously denied any wrongdoing, told a special session of the Tennessee legislature in September 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Durham, R-Williamson County, complained for 13 minutes about the state attorney general's investigation into Durham's alleged misconduct, without denying specific allegations and ultimately without dishing any dirt on other legislators. That didn't stop the legislature from voting 70-2 to oust Durham, a vote taken after he walked out of the Capitol building. And it didn't stop a fellow Republican from publicly scolding Durham after the vote. I mean, Im a father, Im a husband, Im a son. I feel violated that any one of our members would treat anyone in the fashion that the allegations in the report lay out," said Rep. William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, now the House Majority Leader. "I will also tell you that having personally known Rep. Durham for four years, I felt betrayed," Lamberth said. "If any one of those allegations is true, it is completely unacceptable behavior by an elected representative of this state. Then state Rep. Jeremy Durham at his desk in the House Chambers during a special session at the state Capitol in Nashville on Sept. 13, 2016, when legislators voted 70-2 to expel him. It was the first time in Tennessee history the legislature expelled a state representative for alleged sexual misconduct and only the second time since the Civil War that the legislature expelled a lawmaker for any reason. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In all, the state attorney general found 22 women who said Durham had acted in a sexually inappropriate manner with them. The most jarring of the allegations: a 20-year-old "college student/political worker" said Durham gave her beer and had sex with her in his office and in his home. The attorney general's report also included allegations about lewd comments and inappropriate hugs from the then 32-year-old lawmaker. Durham never faced any criminal charges related to allegations of sexual impropriety. Then state Rep. Jeremy Durham reads a statement and suspends his re-election campaign July 14, 2016, in Nashville after the state Attorney General's office issued a report about allegations of Durham wrongdoing. Earlier this year, a Davidson County jury found Durham guilty of DUI and felony reckless endangerment after he crashed his car and injured another driver downtown Oct. 22, 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Durham crashed into the back of another car at 1st Avenue North and Broadway at about 11:15 a.m. that day, Metro Police said. At the scene, Durham appeared to be unsteady on his feet, slurred his speech and had dilated pupils, according to an arrest affidavit. Durham's attorney declined to comment on the jury's verdict in May. The Tennessean is publishing a Notorious Nashville story for each year from 2000-2024. Catch up on the series here. Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Notorious Nashville: Lawmaker ousted after misconduct allegations ILEARN standardized test scores showed that Hoosier students increased the most in math proficiency year over year, but English language arts (ELA) scores remained virtually unchanged. Statewide results showed that math ILEARN scores increased to 42.1% proficient this year compared to 40.7% in 2024. English language arts proficiency scores decreased slightly from 41% in 2024 to now being 40.6%. The scores, released July 16, 2025, indicate students have not returned to pre-COVID levels of proficiency, which, for math and ELA scores, were just under 48% proficient in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across all grade levels, most saw increases of more than one percentage point in math when compared to last years results. The greatest increase was in the eighth grade, with a three percentage point increase. For English language scores, most grade levels increased around one percentage point, except for seventh and eighth grades, when compared to last years scores. The seventh grade saw the largest decrease at just under four percentage points. The Indiana Department of Education results reflect scores taken on the spring 2025 ILEARN test. The ILEARN serves as the states accountability test, assessing students in grades 3-8 in English language arts and math. It also tests grades four and six in science and tests fifth-grade students in social studies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Students take the tests in person on computers. State leaders consider the 2021 ILEARN scores the baseline scores, even though ILEARN has been administered since the 2018-19 school year. However, due to the learning disruptions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that no tests were administered in 2020, the state prefers to compare scores to those in 2021. State department leaders suggest that the reason for the drops in English language arts scores in the later grades could be due to Indianas increased emphasis on early literacy that began in the 2022-23 school year, due to a historic $111 million investment from the Lilly Endowment in 2022. Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner stated in a press release that this years results indicate a need for increased focus on ELA in the adolescent grades. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While we are positively moving and improving in math, there is an urgent need to support middle school students in English/language arts, said Jenner. It is essential that our schools and parents/families continue to work together and stay laser-focused on increasing student learning and success. Achievement gaps remain for student groups Student population groups, like ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education status and English language learner status, have also not caught up to 2019 levels of proficiency. However, all student groups saw improvement in math from the 2021 and 2024 scores. Both Black and Hispanic students saw a two percentage point increase in their math scores from 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most student groups' ELA scores either flatlined or decreased slightly year over year. The largest increase in ELA scores among the student groups was for special education with a 1.3 percentage point increase. Modified ILEARN testing coming for all schools in 2025-26 school year For the 2024-25 school year, around 1,350 schools participated in the pilot version of the modified ILEARN test. This redesign of ILEARN involves three checkpoint tests throughout the school year, along with a shortened summative test at the end of the year. Starting in the 2025-26 school year, every school will conduct ILEARN this way. The purpose of the redesign is to help schools provide real-time data to teachers and families to catch struggling students faster. SAT results show increases in reading and writing, but no change in math The state also released the 2025 SAT results on Wednesday. The SAT serves as the states required high school assessment and fulfills federal accountability requirements. All students take the SAT in the 11th grade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State law requires the passing cut score for the SAT to be the same as the national cut score. This years scores for the evidence-based reading and writing, or EBRW, show that students who met the cut score increased 2.7 percentage points from last year. In total, 54.5% of 11th-grade students met the reading and writing cut score this year. Math scores have continued to worsen in recent years, going from 32.9% of 11th-grade students meeting the math cut score in 2022 to 25.4% meeting the cut score this year. The 2025 math scores only increase slightly from last years score of 25.2%. Search for your school's ILEARN results Contact IndyStar K-12 education reporter Caroline Beck at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter (X): @CarolineB_Indy. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: 2025 ILEARN scores: See how your school did MITCHELL COUNTY, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) A Mitchell County traffic stop led to a major drug bust after an investigator with the 32nd District Attorneys Office discovered 23 pounds of cocaine hidden in a vehicle. The stop took place on I-20, where the investigator observed indicators consistent with criminal activity. After receiving approval to search the vehicle, authorities noted anomalies and called in a Colorado City Police Department K9 unit trained in narcotics detection. Courtesy of the Colorado City Police Department Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The K9 gave a positive alert, prompting a more thorough search. Officers located a non-factory compartment containing multiple bundles, which later tested positive for cocaine. There were roughly 23 pounds, valued at $450,000. The 32nd District Attorneys Office expressed gratitude to the Mitchell County Sheriffs Office and Colorado City Police Department for their assistance. Due to the quantity of narcotics, Homeland Security Investigations has been called in to support the ongoing effort against drug trafficking. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. (WSPA) The South Carolina Department of Revenue announced on Wednesday grand juries in six counties have indicted 31 people mostly from the Upstate on tax fraud charges. According to SCDOR, those indicted are accused of illegally claiming refundable tax credits for the milk production and using ammonia additives during tax years from 2021-2024. The illegally claimed credits resulted in tax refunds totaling more than $1 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The SCDOR is committed to the fair administration of South Carolinas tax laws, said SCDOR Director Hartley Powell. Those who illegally claim tax credits must be prosecuted. The Milk Tax Credit is available only to dairy farmers who produce at least 500,000 pounds of milk for sale. The credit offers $10,000 for the first 500,000 pounds produced and sold and $5,000 for each 500,000 pounds after that. Thirteen of those indicted claimed the milk credit, ranging in amounts from $3,853 to $70,000. The Anhydrous Ammonia Additive Tax Credit is available to farmers who use anhydrous ammonia for agricultural purposes and purchase an additive to prevent the ammonia being converted to methamphetamine. The amount of the credit is the total amount spent on the additive. Nineteen of those indicted had claimed the ammonia credit, ranging in amounts from $1,000 to $28,000. Those indicted in the Upstate were: Anderson County Kaitlyn M. Grogan, 26, of Anderson is charged with two counts of Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; two counts of Furnishing a False Tax Document; Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $2000 but less than $10,000. Allen S. Hall, 47, of Piedmont is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $2000 but less than $10,000. Kevin N. Craft, 47, of Anderson is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Joshua C. Wells, 47, of Anderson is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Greenville County Kristian J. Smith, 38, of Greenville is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Tracy A. Fore, 56, of Pelzer is charged with Willful Preparation of a Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Damien J. Williams, 36, of Greenville is charged with Willful Preparation of a Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Zjaquarious D. Williams, 25, of Greenville is charged with Willful Preparation of a Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Pickens County Lorenzo Alba, 30, of Easley is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnshing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Eckoalexandria Atwell, 22, of Sunset is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Ashley Brazinski, 36, of Pickens is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Jonathan Childress, 42, of Easley is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Jeffrey W. Ellenburg, 35, of Central is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Michael R. Gilstrap, 34, of Liberty is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Curtis W. Johnson, 30, of Pickens is charged with two counts of Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; two counts of Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Curtis Kay, 35, of Easley is charged with two counts of Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; two counts of Furnishing a False Tax Document; Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $2000; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Rebecca Masceri, 53, of Liberty is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Alxis Reece, 24, of Pickens is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Jeffery Stone, 44, of Pickens is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. William Willard, 52, of Six Mile is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Randall Youngblood, 41, of Easley is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Spartanburg County Jazmin Eichelberger, 23, of Duncan is charged with Willful Preparation of a Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Ronnie Rogers, 49, of Wellford is charged with Willful Preparation of Fraudulent Tax Return; Furnishing a False Tax Document; and Obtaining Goods by False Pretenses more than $10,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) A grieving family is demanding change after a 22-year-old was shot and killed on Interstate 24 over the weekend. No highway cameras recorded the shooting. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts A road safety advocate is joining in on their call for action. The Tennessee Department of Transportation operates 551 cameras. You can go online through TDOTs SmartWay website and view in real-time video of traffic. But none of it is recorded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After his daughter Hannah died in 2016, roadside safety advocate Stephen Eimers started recording on his end, studying guard rail failures. I use them to study the performance, but Ive also seen the videos that show what happened, which are often key to giving the family the answers that they want and ultimately deserve, Eimers explained. This weekend, Eimers told News 2 that law enforcement reached out to him to see if he had recorded video of the shooting that killed 22-year-old Noah Taylor along I-24 in La Vergne early Saturday morning. Eimers said he has not been able to record a TDOT video recently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had to tell them I didnt have video footage, Eimers said tearfully. I believe it is very likely that I could have captured the events leading up to the event, the event, and the post-event departure. I wouldnt share that publicly, but I would share it with law enforcement. Meanwhile, Noahs family is heartbroken and angry. If they know that is a problem area, why is it not being monitored 24/7? grandmother to Noah Taylor, Tina Jacob, asked. Why do people still have to die there? TDOT said the cameras were installed for real-time traffic management, not archival purposes. A representative added, Recording and storing continuous video would require significant storage infrastructure and resources. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Eimers said a solution is still possible. The cameras are there; they are streaming; why are we not archiving this? Eimers asked. We are not better off in the state of Tennessee today because we dont record our cameras. Several other states already record and archive highway activity. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Iowa saves three days of video from over 300 cameras. Minnesota records four days worth of video from 760 cameras. New Jersey records on over 400 cameras, and the feeds are retained for at least seven days. Wisconsin has around 400 cameras that record nearly all feeds for at least 72 hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eimers told News 2 that the same initiative is needed in Tennessee. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com We need answers for one, how this happened and two, what the state intends to do moving forward, Eimers concluded. There will be another family. Noahs will not be the last one. If you do have any dashboard footage or information in this case, youre asked to call the Rutherford County Sheriffs Office directly, or you can submit tips anonymously to Rutherford County Crime Stoppers at 615-893-STOP (7867). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. KABUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Police have arrested 32 drug smugglers from different provinces of Afghanistan over the past 24 hours, the country's Ministry of Interior Affairs said Wednesday. The alleged drug smugglers have been detained from Herat, Khost, Kunduz, Wardak, Balkh, Helmand, and Farah provinces on charges of trafficking and selling illegal drugs, the ministry said in a statement posted on its X account. Police had recovered a quantity of illegal drugs, including 9 kg of opium poppy and 1 kg of methamphetamine from the possessions of the arrested persons, the statement asserted. In the drive against illicit drugs, police set on fire more than 7 tons of opium poppy in the northern Takhar province on Monday. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) The Albuquerque International Sunport announced on Wednesday that $3.6 million in federal funding has been secured for a major roadway project along Sunport Boulevard. The funding is part of the Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) Airport Improvement Program. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The project entails the following: Milling and overlay of traffic lanes on Sunport Boulevard Removal of the existing pavement section Installation of new asphalt concrete Application of a new open graded friction course on the segment between the I-25 Interchange and Sunport Terminal Loop to replace the existing surface and improve vehicle traction and drainage New Mexicos full congressional delegation including Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan and Representatives Teresa Leger Fernandez, Melanie Stansbury, and Gabe Vasquez, played a role in securing the funds. This is a major win for Albuquerque, said Mayor Tim Keller. The Sunport is not only a gateway to our city but also a driver of economic growth and connectivity for the entire region. These upgrades to Sunport Boulevard are a smart infrastructure investment that will keep traffic moving safely and efficiently for years to come. The request for construction proposals will be issued Wednesday, July 16 and responses will be due Aug. 19. Construction is expected to start later this year with minimal disruption to traffic flow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) Three 17 year old juveniles from Buffalo were charged after allegedly fleeing from police in a stolen vehicle overnight on Tuesday across West Seneca, Orchard Park and Hamburg, police announced. Officials said just before 2:30 a.m., police were notified of a police chase of a stolen vehicle coming into Orchard Park from West Seneca on Southwestern Boulevard. The vehicle was seen going westbound on Southwestern, where it reportedly almost hit an Orchard Park police vehicle driving in the same direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After an officer activated their lights and sirens, the stolen vehicle allegedly fled, the chase continuing into Hamburg onto Route 5 northbound toward Buffalo. The vehicle then drove onto the Skyway and a shift lieutenant told the officer to stop the pursuit. The officer then turned off the emergency equipment and continued onto the Skyway, where he saw the vehicle try to exit onto the I-190 southbound ramp. While on the curve, the vehicle struck a roadside barrier, officials said. After the collision, the vehicle stopped and officers took the three juveniles into custody and to the Orchard Park Police Department. In accordance with state law, the juveniles were released to their parents on appearance tickets. The 17-year-old boy driving the reported stolen vehicle was charged with the following: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property unlawful fleeing of a police officer fifth-degree conspiracy 11 state vehicle and traffic law violations multiple vehicle and traffic law violations from the West Seneca Police Department Both of the male passengers were charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and fifth-degree conspiracy. The three juveniles are scheduled to appear in the youth part of Erie County Court for further proceedings. Latest Local News Katie Skoog joined the News 4 team in April 2024. She is a graduate from the University at Buffalo. You can view more of her work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. Russian attacks across Ukrainian regions killed at least three civilians and injured at least 40, including minors, over the past day, regional authorities reported on July 16. Russian forces launched 400 drones against Ukraine in another mass attack overnight, including up to 255 Shahed-type "kamikaze" drones, as well as one Iskander-M ballistic missile, the Air Force said. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 198 drones, while 145 decoy drones disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare. The Iskander missile and 57 drones struck 12 locations, according to the statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eight people were wounded and hospitalized in Vinnytsia Oblast following a barrage of drone strikes, local authorities said. Two industrial facilities were hit, resulting in large-scale fires. Four residential buildings were damaged in the region, the State Emergency Service reported. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the city of Kryvyi Rih was hit by waves of drones overnight, resulting in large-scale power outages, reported Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration. A 17-year-old boy was also reported injured. A day earlier, Russian drone and artillery attacks injured three people a 78-year-old woman and two men aged 26 and 64 in the Nikopol district, Governor Serhii Lysak said. A 41-year-old woman was also injured by Russian drones in the Synelnykove district. In Kharkiv Oblast, two people were killed and five injured in Russian attacks against Kharkiv city and 10 other towns and villages. This included a 68-year-old man killed in Kupiansk and a 67-year-old man killed in the Prykolotne village. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The northeastern city of Kharkiv came under intensive fire, with at least 17 explosions occurring in just 20 minutes, Syniehubov reported. The strikes were concentrated on a civilian enterprise in the city's Kyivskyi district. Shahed drones attacked the facility, igniting a fire. Syniehubov first reported at least three injuries in Kharkiv, but his later statement mentioned only one 54-year-old man injured in the city. In Chernihiv Oblast, a civilian was injured during a drone attack near the border village of Hremiach, local authorities reported. A 12-year-old girl was injured during a Russian attack against Zaporizhzhia, said Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor. She has been provided medical attention, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast injured 11 civilians, including four in Rodynske and two in Druzhkivka, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. In Kherson Oblast, Russian attacks injured eight people over the past day, according to Governor Oleksandr Prokudin. Two high-rise buildings, 10 houses, and other buildings were damaged. In Mykolaiv Oblast, a Russian missile attack against the town of Ochakiv on July 15 injured a 69-year-old man, Governor Vitalii Kim said. The victim is in stable condition. Two recreational facilities were also damaged. In Sumy Oblast, Russian shelling in the Velyka Pysarivka community killed a man, the regional military administration reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attacks come as the U.S. and its NATO partners agreed to jointly provide Ukraine with additional Patriot air defenses, while U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Moscow on July 14 with "severe" tariffs unless it agrees to a peace deal within 50 days. Read also: Patriot missiles what they are and why everyone wants them Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. DANVILLE, Ill. (WCIA) Three 18-year-olds from Central Illinois were arrested in Danville on Wednesday after they were accused of stealing alcohol from Meijer, battering an employee and running from police. On July 15 at approximately 12:17 a.m., Danville Police responded to the Meijer Grocery Store in the 3600 block of N Vermilion St. in reference to a retail theft in progress. While on the way to the store, officers were notified that three individuals had stolen alcohol from the store and that one of them had battered an employee who tried to confront them. Two Champaign teens arrested, accused of shooting 14-year-old Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three suspects then left the scene in a white Toyota Corolla. Responding officers located the suspects vehicle in the area of N Vermilion St. and Winter Ave. and attempted to stop it. The driver refused to stop, and a pursuit began. The driver accelerated at a high rate of speed and disobeyed traffic control devices. Officers pursued the vehicle southbound on Vermilion St. to the area of Seminary St. where it turned eastbound. The Toyota then struck the concrete stairs in front of the Vermilion County Administration Building in the 200 block of N Vermilion St. near W Madison St. and came to a stop. As a result of the vehicle stopping, the three suspects exited the car and attempted to flee on foot. Officers chased the suspects, and they were taken into custody just a short distance from the scene of the crash. Sangamon, Menard Co. Crime Stoppers warn of construction burglaries as summer work continues Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three suspects have been identified as 18-year-old Jeremiah L. Merrick of Bloomington, 18-year-old Andrew T. Du of Champaign and 18-year-old Brian N. Chesley Jr. of Champaign. During the search of the Toyota, officers located the stolen alcohol, illegal narcotics and a loaded 9mm handgun. All three men were booked at the Vermilion County Jail on the following charges: Chelsey was booked on retail theft, aggravated fleeing and eluding as the driver of the suspect vehicle, aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, obstructing or resisting a peace officer and criminal damage to property Du was booked on retail theft, aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, obstructing or resisting a peace officer and criminal damage to property Merrick was booked on retail theft, aggravated unlawful use of a weaponpossession of a handgun under the age of 21, possession of a controlled substance, obstructing or resisting a peace officer and aggravated battery for striking the Meijer employee The Danville Police Department was assisted by Vermilion County 911 Communications and the Tilton Police Department during this incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation into this incident is ongoing and no other information is being released at this time. Even though arrests have been made, Danville Police is still taking additional details regarding this situation. Anyone who has information related to this incident is asked to contact the department by calling 217-431-2250. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call the Vermilion County Crime Stoppers at 217-446-8477, submit a tip on their website or use the P3 Tips app. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. The author as a baby with both of her birth parents. Photo Courtesy Of Mirella Stoyanova When I was 3 and a half and still living in the country of my birth, Bulgaria, I watched as my birth father, an Iraqi immigrant, killed my birth mother, a Bulgarian national, and then himself in a crime of passion characterized as a result of his Muslim identity by the news outlet that covered their deaths. Due to unresolved grief, the international adoption and white American upbringing that followed, I did not begin to form a coherent cultural identity until I was old enough to ask and answer my own questions about what had happened. Growing up, the scaffolding of my identity was built according to what I had access to at the time. That included seeing a very good childhood therapist, who was American and specialized in adoption, until I was 15, and the local Turkish Muslim hairdresser my blonde, blue-eyed mother brought me to twice around the same time once on accident, then once on purpose. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Which is to say that it wasnt enough. What little I knew of my national origin was complicated by the fact that I didnt look Bulgarian. After three months in the United States, I no longer spoke the language, either. The birth mother with whom I had shared an inseparable bond was a beautiful Bulgarian woman with model-grade looks, billowy hair and a fair complexion. In comparison, I had dark eyebrows and thick tufts of curly hair and warm-colored baby skin, which, over time, became sand-toned like my birth fathers. My adoptive mother and father knew little about my Iraqi heritage and took a mostly colorblind approach to parenting. Therefore, much about my birth father his reasons for killing my mother, the relative influence of culture and religion over his actions went largely unexamined. After all, my birth mother had sought and was granted a divorce from my birth father. Even the most educated Muslim man, our Bulgarian contacts said, would not allow his wife to leave without retaliation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When it came to my Bulgarian side, my adoptive mother lamented that she could not compete with my memory of my birth mother. Consequently, my connection to the country of my birth slowly waned as I grieved and wondered, often in silence, about my birth mother and the past we shared. The author's birth mother. Photo Courtesy Of Mirella Stoyanova Growing up in the United States, I sensed that my curly hair and olive skin tone made me stand out in a way that I did not want, and in an effort to fit in, I did what I could to smooth away any ethnic difference. I did all I could to conform to the narrow beauty standards I absorbed from magazines and television. I wore Abercrombie and Fitch, straightened my hair and vigilantly removed any body hair that looked too dark or out of place. I also tried not to mention where I was from at school, especially after my parents advised me not to following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. I was desperate to belong, not yet understanding that real belonging is a byproduct of both knowing and having who you are seen and reflected back to you. My desire to fit in only thwarted my attempts at self-discovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite wanting to blend in, the urgent and oftentimes confusing need to know who I was took the form of a curiosity that I could not quell about my past, my birth mother and the only living family I knew I had my paternal birth family in Iraq. With so many unanswered questions, I did not often think of my birth father. Alone in my bedroom, I routinely pored over the 30 or so pictures I had of my life in Bulgaria, a life I remembered and spoke rarely about with my adoptive family. I arranged the photos in chronological order, compared my features to each birth parent, and searched within the frame of those prints for clues about who my birth parents were and by extension, who I was. The author with her mother, at approximately 3 years of age. Photo Courtesy Of Mirella Stoyanova The summer before high school, I flew to Chicago, where I spent two weeks with one of my birth mothers best friends the woman she had appointed to be my godmother years ago, on a sunny day in Sofia at the Sveti Sedmochislenitsi, or the Church of Seven Saints, where I was baptized. During my visit, I savored feta in brine and a traditional Bulgarian spread called lutenitsa as I learned about my birth mothers socialist upbringing and how it drew her to all things foreign, including my birth father and the life he represented. In the year following my visit to Chicago, the United States invaded Iraq, and I wondered about my Iraqi family whether they were alive, and to what extent they had been affected. I searched intermittently for relatives online, surreptitiously entering the names I knew and the surnames listed in the adoption documents contained in the red three-ring binder my dad kept on the lower right-hand side of the bookshelf in our den. I looked in secret, often when no one else was home, but my searches never turned up any meaningful results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By my first year of college, more concerned with my professional identity than my personal one, I enrolled in Arabic language classes because Bulgarian classes were not offered; though, looking back, I can see how my desire to make peace with my past played a larger role in the decision than I comprehended at the time. When I walked onto campus to inquire about registration, the adviser told me space was limited, but then encouraged me to apply when I told her I was half Iraqi. The application asked whether I was of Arabic or Middle Eastern descent. Checking the box that read Yes gave me pause. It felt strange to claim this identity on the basis of a connection to the man who was biologically my father, but whom I rarely thought of on purpose. Two years of Arabic later, I accepted a scholarship to study the language abroad in Morocco the summer before graduation. By then, I had made a handful of friends from class, Id gone to multiple Peace in the Middle East-themed parties and declared a major in Near Eastern Language & Civilization alongside the degree I was already pursuing in International Studies. The author during a study abroad program in Morocco. Photo Courtesy Of Mirella Stoyanova Rather than triggering traumatic memories of my birth father, these experiences offered a safe harbor from which to embrace a part of my identity that had been complicated by Islamophobia, colorblind parenting and the questions, too many questions, that went unanswered throughout my childhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the study abroad program in Morocco, I crossed the Strait of Gibraltar by boat and took a commuter flight to Bulgaria, my first time there in over a decade. The first day of my visit, I toured the ancient city of my birth, Sofia. Emulating my birth mother in the images I had scrutinized hundreds of times throughout my childhood, I posed for pictures at various cultural sites where Id seen her stand years before. That day, I also met with another one of my birth mothers best friends in the lobby of the Sheraton the hotel where my birth mother used to work. But instead of asking about the woman I had spent years quietly grieving, who I already knew so much about, I asked about the man who had been her husband, my father, and in the end, my birth mothers killer. In all of the years I spent thinking and not thinking about my birth father, there had always been details Id failed to reconcile, including fragments of sweet memories that contradicted what I and my adoptive family had been told at the time of my adoption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I knew my birth father immigrated from Iraq in the 80s to escape conscription into the war with Iran. I knew he was unconcerned with whether I was raised Muslim and didnt object when my birth mother decided to have me baptized. I also knew that he left for Sweden shortly after my first birthday to build a life for us abroad. My birth father killed my birth mother and himself because she divorced him while he was out of the country. This, I also knew. What I didnt know that to extricate my birth mother from her marriage, my grandmother persuaded her to claim abandonment through the State Gazette, knowing that a divorce would be finalized when the notice went unanswered for 90 days. Despite their ongoing contact, my birth mother used my birth fathers absence to achieve a legal separation without his knowledge or consent. I tried to imagine him returning from a country where he would never be seen as anything more than an outsider, only to learn that he had been divorced by the woman for whom hed left in the first place. While knowing the truth never changed the way I felt about my birth mother, and while it certainly was no excuse for my fathers violence, the explanation complicated the narrative that I had come to understand throughout my upbringing the one that had kept me from wanting to know more about him, and in turn, from knowing more about myself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My birth father made a terrible, irreversible mistake. But I now believe that the tidy cultural narrative surrounding my parents deaths, the one that tied my birth fathers actions to his religious beliefs, was based upon unexamined stereotypes. Bulgarian or Iraqi, victim or perpetrator, my parents were so much more than any one identity. So am I. People often assume I could never forgive my birth father for what he did, but I have found forgiveness, in part, because I learned to humanize him. I recognize this isnt possible or right for everyone, but choosing to forgive was a decision I made for myself and was, in the end, largely to my benefit. Doing so required me to look beyond the stereotypes that came to define my birth fathers life. That process began with my cultural immersion in college a process that allowed me to lay the groundwork not only for forgiveness of the person whose actions irrevocably changed the trajectory of my life, but also for my own self-discovery and acceptance. The year following college graduation, I moved abroad to work as a grant writer for a global refugee rights nonprofit, where, after nearly two decades of straightening my hair, I began to wear it curly. I returned to the United States the following year, entered graduate school, and with a wonderfully skilled therapist, began to do the work of coming into my own racial consciousness and defining myself on my own terms. The author began wearing her hair curly while living abroad in Ecuador. Photo Courtesy Of Mirella Stoyanova That summer, I made a chance discovery that led me to locate my Iraqi birth family. After corresponding for a few weeks, I met a few of my relatives in person. An emotional event, being in their physical presence reinforced that I could hold my own identity and sense of cultural belonging separate from the narrative and the caricature of my birth father that had so shaped my past. Our reunion might not have been successful had I not found some semblance of reconciliation with that particular interpretation of events. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Twelve years later, I am a therapist who walks alongside others on their own journeys. What Ive discovered through my own personal and professional experiences is that we have far more to gain from turning toward, rather than from judging, what we do not understand. And that we are each complicated beyond measure not one, but many things. Do you have a compelling personal story youd like to see published on HuffPost? Find out what were looking for here and send us a pitch at pitch@huffpost.com. This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Nearly three dozen states have signed onto a U.S. government initiative designed to help improve access to gene therapies that can eliminate serious symptoms of sickle cell disease, but remain little-used because of their high price tags. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Wednesday that 33 states, plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, will participate in the Cell and Gene Therapy Access Model to centrally coordinate insurance coverage for the treatments. Between 50% and 60% of people with sickle cell in the U.S. have Medicaid coverage and the participating states represent about 84% of Medicaid beneficiaries with the condition, the agency said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two such treatments, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Casgevy and Bluebird bios Lyfgenia, were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December 2023 after proving in testing to be able to free people with severe sickle cell from the serious bouts of pain they experience. However, the treatments are complex to administer, involving a monthslong process and a preconditioning chemotherapy step that comes with the risk of infertility. They also cost $2.2 million and $3.1 million, respectively, raising concerns about their affordability and the impact on state Medicaid budgets. Since approval, uptake of both treatments has been slow. In its last quarterly report, Vertex attributed $14.2 million in revenue to Casgevy and said that, through May 1, cells had been collected from about 90 patients seeking therapy. Bluebird was taken private this year partly due to challenges selling its gene therapies and in its last public financial report, said 17 patients had started on Lyfgenia through the first nine months of 2024. The CMS program could help boost these figures by having the government negotiate whats known as outcomes-based agreements with product manufacturers. These deals link payment to the health benefit a treatment is supposed to deliver. If that benefit doesnt materialize, the insurer is issued a rebate or reimbursed. Some insurers have long used outcomes-based deals for certain gene therapies, and represent a way to lower the financial risks associated with treatments typically carrying a nine-figure price tag. But the CMS model, which was initially hatched during the Biden administration and picked up by the Trump administration earlier this year, would coordinate the negotiation of a specific framework across many states so each one doesnt have to arrange its own deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal government will also cover a defined scope of fertility preservation services and other costs, such as travel expenses. It could provide up to $9.55 million in additional support per state, as well, to help with outreach and data tracking, as outcomes-based deals require the collection of extensive information. CMS could expand the program to cover other diseases with high-cost, high-impact therapies too, the agency said. This model has the potential to improve health outcomes for patients with sickle cell disease while also ensuring state and taxpayer dollars are being used more effectively, said Abe Sutton, CMS deputy director and the head of its innovation center, in a statement. The story of British manufacturing, particularly energy-intensive manufacturing, in recent times has been one of woe. The primary steel sector faces collapse. Jim Ratcliffe, the CEO of Ineos, has declared that the British chemical industry is coming to an end. The travails of industry have become a case study for different factions to blame their rivals. Left-wingers argue that deindustrialisation is the legacy of Margaret Thatchers policies. Those on the Right, meanwhile, lay the blame at the reforms of Clement Attlee and his post-war successors, from nationalisation, the 1945 Distribution of Industry Act and the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. While Britains twentieth century was marked by policy mistakes, at the turn of the century, it had the fourth-largest manufacturing base in the world in terms of gross value added. We were a significant energy exporter and had stable and competitive electricity prices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Where did things go wrong? In 2000, we, alongside the rest of the Western world, made a faustian pact with the Chinese Communist Party, where we offloaded our low-value-added industrial production in exchange for cheap goods. It was not thought then that, by 2020, Chinese manufacturing would account for 35 per cent of global production, and dominate high-value added sectors like batteries, electric vehicles and drones. We also thought little about how Chinese overcapacity would put huge downward pressure on process industries like chemicals and steel. The other major factor has been the lack of a coherent energy policy. Over the past century, we have gradually increased our energy bills with various levies and carbon-related taxes, all to facilitate the rollout of intermittent renewables. While external shocks to gas prices in recent years brought the issue to the forefront, our industrial energy costs had become globally uncompetitive since 2008. The net zero strategy of decarbonising the power sector via levies has proved short-sighted. While electricity in 2023 accounted for 42 per cent of energy expenditure, it represented less than 20 per cent of calorific consumption, with the remainder primarily coming from methane (natural gas) and petroleum products. British electricity is over 400 per cent more expensive than gas. It is for this reason that wider efforts at electrification are failing. Installing heat pumps has been painfully slow, while the governments drive for electric vehicle adoption did not meet its targets in 2024. While gas and coal costs have been relatively stable, they have been hit by discretionary carbon costs. Prax Lindsey, the Hull-based refinery that recently entered receivership, had emission trading scheme (ETS) costs (accounting for free allowances) exceeding 100 per cent of its operating profit in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Prax Lindsey closure is just one example of the not-so-slow-motion collapse in Britains energy-intensive industries. Since 2022, we have seen three ammonia plants shut down, two refineries close, and one of our remaining three olefin crackers abandoned. Wigans Electric Fibre Glass, our largest fibre glass manufacturer, announced its closure. In metals, the blast furnace at Scunthorpe has effectively been nationalised, and Liberty Steels plant in Rotherham has been idle for a year. The government is attempting to stave off the bleeding by increasing levy exemptions and making targeted bailouts. They are right to be worried. Home Secretary Yvette Coopers constituency of Pontefract, Castleford, and Knottingley has three glass factories. The energy-intensive industries sector, outlined in my report for the Jobs Foundation, is a significant component of the economy outside of London. It has over 400,000 workers, a turnover of 170 billion, and a gross value added of nearly 40 billion. It provides relatively high-paid work in the areas it operates, and is critical to thousands of manufacturers further down the supply chain. If it falters further, there is no silver lining. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) A group of Williamson County residents came forward on Monday asking county commissioners to draft a new resolution to request a waiver from the Tennessee Monuments and Memorial Commission to change the county seal. The seal, which shows a Confederate flag draped over a cannon, is protected under the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts This is not about erasing history. Its about creating a new and better future we can all be proud of, Williamson County resident and One WillCo member Cory Martin said during Monday nights meeting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dustin Koctar, another Williamson County resident, who started a Change.org petition in 2020 to remove the flag from the seal, also spoke to the commission during the meeting. In an interview with News 2, Koctar explained, This is not to discount the men who fought for the Confederacy and lost their lives protecting what they believed was right, but we have seen that particular flag on our county seal closely aligned with discrimination, racial terror, with inequality and white supremacy. Its not representative of Williamson County, and its not representative of what we want to portray to the rest of the world, Koctar added. The Tennessee Heritage Protection Act was amended by the General Assembly last year to include the protection of county seals. This happened after the Tennessee Historical Commission and a Davidson County judge ruled the Confederate flag could be taken off the seal. The Sons of Confederate Veterans appealed the decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2024, Steve Murphree, Chaplain for the Murfreesboro Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp, said to News 2 in an interview, Its disappointing to know that people really want to remove it and that they see that battle flag is a symbol of hate rather than as a rallying point for our local men. For Williamson County native and now Democratic Party Chair Ragan Grossman, the Confederate flag reminds her of her upbringing and her time at Franklin High School, which changed its mascot from the Rebels to the Admirals. She described the flag as a symbol of hate and division. We flew the flag, and we had Colonel Reb on the field all these years later, when you know better, you do better. I feel bad that I did that back then I didnt know quite the extent when I was a kid, the level of hate, or the level of what that did to the community how that divided the community, she told News 2. Its [The Confederate flag] is just not something we want on our seal frankly other than in a museum in a shadow box. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Members of One WillCo, a non-profit organization promoting racial equality in Williamson County schools, also spoke in Monday nights meeting, advocating for the removal of the Confederate flag from the seal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement News 2 reached out to the Sons of Confederate Veterans and several Williamson County Commissioners, who did not respond in time for this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Sukie is ready for adventure! This 5-month-old Labrador Retriever-mix is playful, confident, and ready to be your super-cute sidekick. Suki arrived at Caddo Parish Animal Services two months ago and is patiently waiting for someone to fall in love with her and we think it wont be hard to do. Suki is good girl, who make a great companion for anyone who is looking for a smart, loyal friend! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She would love to have a nice, fenced in yard where she can run and play safely. Lots of energy, she would love to have a family. Probably kids too, would be great for her, says Adoption and Volunteer Coordinator, Kim Freeman. If you are interested in adopting Suki, the process is simple. Simply visit Caddo Parish Animal Services at 1500 Monty Street, fill out an application and pay the $50 adoption fee which includes microchipping, vaccinations, and spay/neuter services. For more information, visit Caddo Parish Animal Services. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. Steve Benson and I go way back. In 1978, when I brought one of my cartoon sketches to the Brigham Young University (BYU) student newspaper, The Daily Universe, it was with the idea of Steve using it. Instead, faculty adviser Nelson Wadsworth had me do a finished copy and published it the next day. That cartoon ended up in Time magazine attached to a story about housing policy at BYU. But I digress. Wadsworth hired me for the summer and kept us both on when Steve returned that fall. Thus began a rivalry. Steve Benson was ultra conservative at BYU My cartoons were loose. Steves were tight and polished. Twice a week we vied for the attention of 25,000 students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mostly, it was about campus-centered issues, but sometimes we veered into national politics. We were both conservative, but theres conservative and then theres conservative. Steve recently died at age 71. He was the grandson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prophet, Ezra Taft Benson, who was famously associated with John Birchers communist-in-every-closet politics. Steve drank deeply from that well. There was a political science professor at BYU who brought people to expose students to different views. He would give the floor to a Bircher, then a communist. The idea was to immunize students to extreme ideas. Steve and I both majored in political science, and the practice was well known in the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steve ratted out the professor to BYU administrators. Godless ideas had no place in the Lords university. The professor was reprimanded. They propped up his grandfather. It enraged him As the eldest grandson of Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, Steve was a Mormon crown prince, bound for a high place in the LDS hierarchy, had he chosen. The family was not pleased when he chose cartooning. Still, Steve hewed to the party line and remained a faithful member of the faith. That changed. In a semiannual Church General Conference (a meeting in which church authorities broadcast directly worldwide to the 10 million faithful), Steve had a seat in the wings backstage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He witnessed his enfeebled grandfather being propped up by certain General Authorities who used him as a puppet and made him wave to the attendees. Steve saw it all happen. It enraged him. Benson laughed in impeached governor's face It was all a show that forever destroyed his allegiance to the Utah-based church. He told me the story personally a dozen times and at least a thousand times to captive audiences. This former Mormon missionary to Japan blared it from the rooftops for the rest of his life in every forum he found. As the longtime editorial cartoonist for The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Steve won a Pulitzer Prize for his national and international commentary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His stuff was unarguably excellent and deserving of the award. But he really should have won the year before when he took on Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, as corrupt and loathsome a politician as you could ever hope to find lurking under a sanctimonious rock. Opinion: Benson and I disagreed on everything. Except this After Steve published a cartoon with fellow Mormon Mecham holding scriptures labeled, The Book of Moron, Mecham called him at home and warned him his eternal salvation was at stake. Steve had the appropriate response. He laughed in his face. Mecham was impeached in 1987, with both then U.S. Sen. John McCain and former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater calling for his resignation over his rancid racist and homophobic bigotry. Benson could be difficult and endearing Steve could be difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was opinionated to a fault, sometimes sharing criticism and giving offense when the stakes were minuscule. He was rarely wrong, but his repertoire often employed bunker busters when the situation called for a feather duster. He was entirely without guile. Looking back, Im not sure he was aware how some of his punches landed. He was also wildly entertaining and as mentally sharp as anyone Ive ever known. He was every interviewers favorite. Quick and witty, he held them all in thrall. Letters: Benson poked fun at me and my job. I loved it He was always learning and voracious in his interests. He would take on a new task or wide-ranging subject and wrestle it to the ground until it screamed Uncle! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Obviously liberal in his politics, he got deputized and went on ride-a-longs with Arizona law enforcement. He wore a fanny pack backwards (a belly pack?) and told me he carried a service revolver in it. True? He was brutally honest, even in his grief His last years were scarred by tragedy. His 40-year-old daughter, Rebecca Benson, was killed in 2018 by a motorist as she was biking home from work. Ill never forget Steve calling and detailing the incident in blunt, heartbreaking detail. We both wept. It was how he dealt with the world: always brutally honest, even with himself. Even in his grief. A lasting grace was his marriage to Claire Ferguson in 2020. Years earlier, Claire had been a missionary companion of Steves sister in England. Both had trod the same path out of their one-time faith. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was a devoted and loving care-giver after he suffered a stroke. We knew each other almost half a century. Steve was a lot of things to stuff into a single lifetime. Im glad to have called him my friend. Pat Bagley is a cartoonist for The Salt Lake Tribune. Reach him at Pbagley@sltrib.com. Like this column? Get more opinions in your email inbox by signing up for our free opinions newsletter, which publishes Monday through Friday. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Cartoonist Steve Benson lived many lives in 1 | Opinion JAKARTA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government will export only processed copper, products that have undergone domestic downstream processing, to the United States, said Rizwan Aryadi Ramdhan, director of mineral and coal downstreaming at the Ministry of Investment and Downstreaming, on Wednesday. His statement came in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's recent remarks praising Indonesia's high-quality copper. "Together, we are setting up policies that support downstream processing. So we won't export raw copper," Rizwan said. He emphasized that the government has banned the export of copper concentrates and is encouraging the development of domestic processing facilities. "We support domestic production facilities," he added. SCOTT COUNTY, Va. (WJHL) The Scott County Sheriffs Office announced on Wednesday that 52 people have been indicted on a number of drug charges. According to a news release from the sheriffs office, the Scott County Grand Jury handed down 91 indictments on 52 people on June 20. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Crime Watch The indictments include charges of possession of a controlled substance and distribution of controlled substances, the sheriffs office reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The people who were indicted live across Southwest Virginia in Scott, Wise, Dickenson, Tazewell and Washington counties. Additionally, one person from West Virginia, six from Tennessee and two from Kentucky were also indicted. A roundup operation of those charged was conducted on July 9. According to the sheriffs office, 15 people were arrested. Scott Countys surrounding states and counties have reportedly received the indictments and are expected to make further arrests. The sheriffs office did not provide the identities of anyone facing charges. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. If youll be 55 soon and are planning to downsize or just move to Merrimack, 60 new townhomes at Noah's Landing might provide a landing spot in a few years. Planning Board members voted 6-0-1 to conditionally approve a plan to develop a now-vacant old gravel pit operated in the 1980s at 29 Bedford Road into housing for 55-plus. The developer hopes to secure all the necessary permits in the next few months and break ground in the spring. The rough timetable has construction for the project taking about three years. The townhomes would be split up into 15 buildings containing two first-floor units and two on the second floor. Each unit would have its own porch, basement and a second entrance through the garage. Most of the living space would be contained to one floor for each home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Planners discussed a list of conditions and Matt Peterson, a senior project manager for Keach-Nordstrom Associates in Bedford, addressed each concern one by one and made a handful of concessions, including dedicated turning lanes on the future private road to the complex and limiting construction work to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. We dont have a housing crisis in New Hampshire. We have a single-family purchase housing crisis in New Hampshire. We dont have anything like this that people can buy, move into and then sell their house, and let somebody else become a first-time home buyer and move the process forward, Peterson said. Me and my wife have been in our house for nine years now. Were supposed to move out. Where am I going to move to? You know, its a perfect time for us to do it. The kids are off to college. This is what we need. Peterson said the original idea was to build a four-story, L-shaped building for 68 rental units, but the single-family concept won out and will benefit the town by bringing more property tax money for the town. Im wondering if with 60 units, are we trying to put a size 12 foot into a size 6 shoe in this situation? asked Peter Albert, the Town Councils representative on the Planning Board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peterson said Noah's Landing was allowed to have 68 units, but the developers took out eight because they agreed it was a tight squeeze. Planning Board Chairman Haleem Mediouni said he liked the layout and design of the townhomes. Its New England, we get snow. Its nice to keep your car in a garage and not have to clean it off, he said. Mediouni also said the project helps meet a growing need in Merrimack and the region. I personally believe we should have more 55-plus housing and workforce housing. We all know the housing market has exploded. If it helps everybody, than Im for it, he said. dpierce@unionleader.com GREENSBURG, Pa. The Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Department will host its annual UFO Festival beginning Friday, with food and music, a parade, a cornhole competition, and alien costume and hot dog-eating contests. But beyond the festive atmosphere, questions remain about an incident that occurred 60 years ago near the small Westmoreland County village. Reports that a fiery object in the sky crashed in the woods near Kecksburg interrupted black-and-white television and AM radio programs Dec. 9, 1965. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emergency crews responded to what many believed might have been a downed airplane or a meteorite. But according to accounts on that December night six decades ago, the first volunteer firemen and other locals who scurried into the woods stumbled upon something they couldnt entirely explain. Some reports at the time said a strange bronze-colored, acorn-shaped object measuring 10 to 12 feet long and eight to 10 feet in diameter, lay semi-buried and smoking in the ground. Some eyewitnesses said they stood over the crash site for as long as 15 minutes, noticing that it had neither wings, windows nor a hatch. No seams, screws, bolts or rivets were visible, they said. And one section reportedly was covered with unrecognizable symbols described as Egyptian hieroglyphics. Through the years, documentaries and reports by researchers and journalists described a scene where law enforcement and military personnel soon arrived to cordon off the crash site. Those accounts said that as print and radio journalists tried to gather information, officials instructed the media and the locals to vacate the wooded area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Armed soldiers kept the curious bystanders from the recovered object, which was transported away in the middle of the winter night, according to reports. News organizations detailed what they could a fiery object first seen in Canada, then Michigan, Ohio and Greater Pittsburgh, had crashed near Kecksburg. It became the major news story all night in the Greater Pittsburgh area, said Stan Gordon, of Greensburg, who was a curious 16-year-old at the time. I remember that night like it was yesterday. Now an internationally renowned researcher on topics such as UFOs, Bigfoot and cryptids, Gordon didnt have a drivers license in 1965, so he dashed between his parents TV and an AM radio to gather information. I had no way to get out there, Gordon said in an interview with The Tribune-Democrat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But after a flatbed trailer carrying the tarped object allegedly departed Kecksburg, news reports abruptly changed from Unidentified Flying Object Falls Near Kecksburg, Army Ropes Off Area to Searchers Fail to Find Object. WHJB radio journalist John Murphy garnered acclaim for his role. Accounts retold in documentaries and feature films recount how Murphy allegedly was hushed after two men paid a visit to his office. Officially, thats how it ended, Gordon recounted. Sixty years later, the event remains shrouded in mystery. In the decades since 1965, what is known as Pennsylvanias Roswell has been featured in documentaries on The History Channel, BBC Radio, Discovery and SYFY channels, NBC News, Unsolved Mysteries, and more recently, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch. Six years ago, the feature film Kecksburg, a fictional account of the incident based on historical facts, was released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A research groups requests made to NASA through the Freedom of Information Act reportedly ended with two boxes of information becoming lost after the agency suggested the object was a Soviet satellite. To date, no government agency other than the U.S. Air Forces Project Blue Book has acknowledged that anything at all took place that night. Blue Book claimed it was a bright meteor. The cold case greatly intrigued Gordon, who set up a UFO hotline a few years later. The curious teen searched for answers. It wasnt something I looked at years later, he said. I began documenting it as it was occurring. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gordon soon discovered a much different story than what was reported by authorities, he said. Eyewitnesses Gordon interviewed watched the craft turn south after passing directly over Greensburg, make several turns, then slow its speed and altitude before landing in a patch of woods, he said. The witnesses who saw it coming down, right before it landed, this thing did not come down at a high rate of speed, he said. It came down almost like it was controlled. No impact crater was evident. Apparently, no parachutes were involved. Gordon didnt know then that he would eventually interview hundreds of people eyewitnesses, journalists, law enforcement, NASA researchers, volunteer firemen and ex-military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of these people are gone now, he said. There were numerous people, I can tell you, that saw the flatbed tractor trailer going out around 1 oclock in the morning with the tarp over it, going out of the area. A lot of people saw that. Gordon claims military sources told him the object was taken to Lockbourne Air Force Base near Columbus, now known as Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base. The truck and the object were backed into a hangar. They set up an armed security perimeter around the hangar. I was told by one of the people who was involved as one of the security people, they were given the shoot to kill order to anyone that approached that hangar without the proper clearance, Gordon said. It only stayed there for a short time, then went on to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. And later, I was told exactly what building it was taken to at Wright-Patterson. He added, And where its at today, we dont know. ... The mystery remains. Could be something man-made. It could be something thats not from this planet. Its a possibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All I can tell you is this, he said. Whatever happened at Kecksburg on Dec. 9, 1965, the quick response of the military would indicate that they already had a program in place to get to these sites very quickly to recover whatever it was that had fallen. Scientists who visited the crash site have discovered growth rings on damaged trees that revealed something crashed through their limbs in 1965. Another team, using light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, discovered that the natural landscape had been disturbed by either the fallen object or heavy military equipment. They also discovered unusual radio signals and interference with their drone in the same location. Since the Kecksburg incident, it seems the government has become more transparent about current UFO reports. In 2022, the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office within the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense was founded. UFOs are no longer a laughing matter, Gordon said. Every federal agency is involved in investigating and gathering reports right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive been out in the field since 1965, and since the Kecksburg incident happened, said Gordon. You get a lot of reports from all kinds of people, and some of the reports initially sound unusual, but when you take the time to properly investigate them, many are determined to be either natural or man-made in explanation. Theres a lot of misidentifications. And that continues year after year, all of the time. And Im always looking scientifically and open-minded at these reports. If theres some explanation, thats the first thing were going to look for before were going to say its something unusual or unexplainable. I personally have never seen a Bigfoot or a UFO. Its hard to believe, he said with a laugh. Ive interviewed thousands of witnesses. Ive seen a lot of evidence out in the field, but Ive never personally seen anything I could not explain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gordon and other speakers will discuss any updates regarding the Kecksburg incident during the festivals UFO conference, set for Sunday. The conference and the festivals light-hearted activities have caused the event to blossom since its inception in 2005. Its more of a family gathering than anything, said Ron Struble, the festival chairman and president. We have people coming now to see this darn thing from Canada, from Japan, from Singapore. Its amazing. Scholars believe they have solved a medieval manuscript mystery thats plagued scholars for nearly 130 years. Based on a handful of grammatical reevaluations, experts believe that they can reconcile a famously odd portion in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. In doing so, they also traced the text back to a priest from the Middle Ages who employed memes of the day as a way to relate to his parishioners. Their findings were published in The Review of English Studies on July 15. Elves and addersThe Song of Wade The Song of Wade was an extremely popular tale throughout the Middle Ages. At the height of its notoriety, the central character was as culturally recognizable as knights like Sir Gawain and Lancelot. Related folk-legends and epics tell the story of Wades courtship of a woman named Bell alongside a cast of characters including Wades supposed father, Hildebrand. By the 1300s, the Song of Wade was ubiquitous enough for Geoffrey Chaucer to reference it in two separate works, including The Canterbury Tales. In The Merchants Tale, the 60-year-old knight January alludes to Wades boat while arguing in favor of marrying younger women. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, over the generations, primary sources for the Song of Wade were lost to time. The only major direct texts trace back to an accidental discovery by the renowned scholar M.R. James. While parsing through Latin sermons in the University of Cambridge archives in 1896, James unexpectedly found passages written in English, later known as the Humiliamini sermon. After consulting with fellow scholar Israel Gollancz, the pair eventually determined the Humilianmini section quoted a long-lost, 12th-century version of the Song of Wade. In it, the author curiously made it sound like the tale was far more fantastical than a grounded chivalric romance. For example, the sermons version describes Wades father as a giant, while another striking portion reads: Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters Muddled letters This translation simply didnt make sense to several Chaucer scholars. They couldnt figure out why the poets tale of courtly intrigue referenced a version of Song of Wade that includes mythical creatures. Lots of very smart people have torn their hair out over the spelling, punctuation, literal translation, meaning, and context of a few lines of text, said James Wade, the studys (aptly-named) co-author and an English literature scholar at the University of Cambridge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After careful analysis of James finds, Wade and medieval history scholar Seb Falk concluded that its three specific spelling errors from the documents scribe that have caused the decades worth of confusion. The biggest issues stem from muddled instances of the letters y and w. When corrected, the passage doesnt mention elvesbut wolves: Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand. A close-up of the passage that baffled scholars for decades. Credit: Master and Fellows of Peterhouse / University of Cambridge Medieval memes With the erasure of otherworldly beings and reducing Hildebrand down to a normal size, the Song of Wade becomes much more in keeping with a standard chivalric romance of the era. Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference, Falk said. It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But while this might solve the Chaucer confusion, it highlights an interesting decision made by the sermons author. Wade and Falk argue the author is the famous medieval writer, Alexander Neckam (1157-1217 CE). Many church leaders worried about the themes of chivalric romancesadultery, bloodshed, and other scandalous topicsso its surprising to see a preacher dropping such adult content into a sermon, said Wade. Falk even goes so far as to describe the homily references as medieval memes. Here we have a late-12th-century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day, said Falk. This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their translation of Neckams sermon, the speech intended as a lesson in humility, albeit imparted in odd ways. It largely focuses on Adams fall from grace, and compares humans to animals. Powerful men are likened to wolves when they take what doesnt belong to them, while deceitful individuals are described as adders or water-snakes. This sermon still resonates today, said Wade. It warns that its us, humans, who pose the biggest threat, not monsters. A 68-year-old Ohio woman was killed in a crash on an Indiana interstate on Monday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Indiana State Patrol Troopers responded to a single-vehicle crash on I-74 East in Ripley County around 2:30 p.m. Monday, our news partners WCPO-9 TV reported. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 68-year-old Darla Tabor of Hamilton was driving eastbound on I-74 when she lost control of her vehicle, veered off the south side of the roadway, and overturned, according to the ISP. Its unclear why Tabor lost control of her vehicle, WCPO-9 TV reported. She was taken to a Cincinnati-area hospital, where she died from her injuries. Alcohol and drugs are not believed to be factors in the crash, but toxicology results are still pending, WCPO-9 TV reported. Investigators believe that a medical condition may have played a role in Tabors crash. ISP also said that evidence at the scene indicated that Tabor was not properly restrained in her vehicle, which likely contributed to the injuries she sustained, WCPO-9 TV reported. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] The Brief Seven people were arrested after a "shoplifting blitz" operation in Mueller APD conducted the operation after growing concerns about retail crime H-E-B/Twin Liquors, Marshalls, Old Navy, and Home Depot were all targeted AUSTIN, Texas - Seven people were arrested after a "shoplifting blitz" operation in the Mueller area. Austin police said they conducted this operation after growing concerns from businesses regarding retail crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This operation was designed as an ongoing effort to assist local retailers with shoplifters by conducting swift apprehensions and taking appropriate enforcement action," Austin police stated. Mueller area arrests H-E-B/Twin Liquors Mueller at 1801 East 51st St. Suspects identified as: Marshalls and Old Navy at 1201 Barbara Jordan Blvd. Suspects identified as: Home Depot at 1200 Barbara Jordan Blvd. Suspect identified as: Justin Ussery (38 years of age) Theft by Shoplifting with two Prior Convictions (State Jail Felony) The Source Information from the Austin Police Department Correction: A donor will match up to $25,000 for the 70th anniversary match campaign. This article previously stated $75,000. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) A South Dakota non-profit is celebrating 70 years of helping at-risk boys and young men. SDSU players death ruled as natural causes 18-year-old Carson lives and goes to school at McCrossan Boys Ranch. He came here about seven months ago and has learned how to be more independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They started teaching me how to cook, set goals for myself, Carson said. Carson is one of 50 boys and young men at McCrossan right now. The ranch served a much smaller number of kids when Melinda McCrossan founded it in 1955. It was just a couple of boys at the beginning. For many years after it first opened it was very much like a group foster home. There was a family that lived in the cottages with the boys, Executive Director Brian Roegiers said. Roegiers says the model transformed over time. Theres staff on shifts throughout the day. The kids have become more challenging in that theyve had more trauma and really need more therapeutic services and more supervision than back in those early days, Roegiers said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From equine therapy to substance use programming, the Ranch offers a variety of services for the boys and young men who stay here. Our catchphrase out here has always been to help kids find new hope for a better life and theres literally been thousands of kids in that 70 years that have found that, Roegiers said. Carson has noticed progress in himself. I think its helped me a lot with how I interact with people my age and people younger and older than me, Carson said. With 70 years down, the nonprofit is looking to reach more milestones in the future. A 70th anniversary match campaign is underway for McCrossan Boys Ranch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A donor will match up to $25,000. If youd like to donate, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. U.S. Central Command said its Yemeni partners successfully intercepted a "massive Iranian weapons shipment" that was meant to reach the nation's Houthi rebels. The Yemeni National Resistance Forces seized more than 750 tons of munitions and hardware, including hundreds of advanced cruise, anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads and seekers, CENTCOM said. The seizure also included hundreds of drone engines, radar systems and air defense and communication equipment, as well as manuals written in Farsi, CENTCOM said. CENTCOM said that the National Resistance Forces reported many of the systems were manufactured by a company affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense. The company is under U.S. sanctions, CENTCOM said. Some of the items U.S. Central Command said were seized from Houthi rebels by the Yemeni National Resistance Forces. / Credit: CENTCOM This marked the largest seizure of Iranian advanced conventional weapons in the National Resistance Forces' history, CENTCOM said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We commend the legitimate government forces of Yemen who continue to interdict the flow of Iranian munitions bound for the Houthis," said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of CENTCOM. "The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilizing actor in the region. Limiting the free flow of Iranian support to the Houthis is critic to regional security, stability, and freedom of navigation." Yemeni National Resistance Forces seized a large amount of military hardware from the Houthis, CENTCOM said. / Credit: CENTCOM Yemen's Houthi rebels spent months launching drone and rocket attacks targeting military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. The attacks targeted vital shipping lanes. The U.S. conducted several military strikes against the rebel group. In May, President Trump said the group had "capitulated" and that the U.S. would not carry out further strikes. The Houthis did not comment on the alleged agreement at the time. The Yemeni rebels attacked a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea on July 8. Three people were killed, two were wounded and several others were kidnapped. The Houthis also claimed they had attacked and sank another vessel on July 7. The incidents have raised concern that the Houthis may resume attacks in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Trump claims Epstein conspiracy theory is a hoax started by Democrats 27,350 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? 27,350 people played the daily Crossword recently. Can you solve it faster than others? ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) In Abilene, the community has found sweet creative ways to help out the victims of the Kerrville flooding. Funeral, celebration of life for Abilene flood victims At Chisholm Court Assisted Living, they are turning up the heat and mixing things up for a bake sale supporting their Texas neighbors. Resident Katie Necessary said that since they could not physically go down to Kerrville, they still wanted to step up and help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We couldnt go down there and help, so we could make some brownies and some bread and cupcakes, Necessary said. Diedra Wheeler, Director of Sales for the facility, said the sale fills up the seniors cup just like the victims. Our residents just felt terrible for all the things that were going on. And actually, one of our employees here lost two of her friends, Wheeler said. Abilenes amazing at coming together and loving. But its hard, especially for the seniors. They were like, well, what can we do? You know, theres not much they can do. So, it gives them a purpose bigger than just being a senior. Big Country organizations join forces for Central Texas flood relief The tragedy of those floods hitting close to home, not only behind the cause of baked goods, but also an ice-cold glass of lemonade. In Peak Christian Academys parking lot, cars made a pit stop for a refreshing drink. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jenni Riley and her son Jake used to live in Kerrville. When the news broke, her son wanted to play a part in helping out. That has honestly been a tender part of this for us because on my Facebook feed, its full of people in Kerrville and how this tragedy affected them personally. I have a sweet friend who lost their granddaughter, and its just so real, Riely said. I was chatting with my kids as tenderly as I could, as a momma about what was going on in South Texas and the hill country, and my son asked, What can we do? What should we do? Big Country volunteers aid Central Texas flood victims The idea sparked to create a lemonade stand for the entire community to play a part in helping. Jake said he wanted to still have an impact miles away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I was born in Kerrville, and I feel like this is helping. This should help people who lost their homes and people that they love, Jake said. The bake sale will be at Chisholm Court Assisted Living on Wednesday, July 16, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., located at East North 10th Street and North Judge Ely Boulevard. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. VIENTIANE, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Officials from Laos and Cambodia gathered here for the first Laos-Cambodia Prosecutors' Office Meeting on Cooperation in Combating Transnational Crime, with a particular focus on drug trafficking. The meeting took place on Tuesday and brought together senior prosecutors from both countries to deepen cooperation, Lao News Agency reported on Wednesday. In his speech, President of the Supreme People's Prosecutor Office of Laos, Xaysana Khotphouthone, said that the meeting marked a significant milestone in strengthening bilateral judicial cooperation, noting that it reflects the deepening strategic partnership between the two nations and aims to reinforce collaboration in criminal prosecution, particularly in the fight against transnational and drug-related crimes. Xaysana highlighted that the drug crisis has severely impacted all sectors of Lao society, from students and youth to rural communities, and warned that if left unaddressed, it could become a root cause of various crimes and a serious threat to national stability. In response, the Lao government has declared drug control a national agenda, implementing stricter policies and targeted law enforcement strategies. In 2024, authorities recorded 5,012 drug-related cases, with an additional 1,422 cases reported in the first five months of 2025. During the meeting, both countries agreed to boost cross-border coordination, improve information sharing, and invest in joint training programs. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) A construction company brought in for the Lancium data center project in northwest Abilene is proving that construction can be fun. Houston-based company DPR Construction is doing a little bit of public outreach with their camp construction, which highlights many facets of the industry through fun activities. Project Director for DPR Construction, Dichelle Burrus, spoke about one of the main goals of this camp. Constructions becoming a lot more technology-based or a lot more teamwork-based, and people dont always realize that. Its still kind of an old school view of what construction is, and what I love about this is it really helps the kids see that construction can be different, can be fun, can be teamwork based, Burrus explained. Abilenes Lancium project: Progress & solutions for community concerns Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Children participated in activities such as a tower building competition, drone demonstrations, computer design project renderings, a bridge construction project and even a free breakfast and lunch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, there are those amongst the construction companys volunteers who shares a more personal connection to this organization. Zackery Brady is with DPR Construction and is one of the mentors for this educational camp. Brady was also part of the Boys & Girls Club organization in his youth and says that coming back to a place that was such a positive influence on his childhood carries a sense of fulfillment. I think of when I was a kid, and I had a mentor above me. And, you know, having that great mentor interaction. Im happy that Im able to step into that role now and kind of influence these kids. It makes me feel really great being able to give back to the community that kind of helped me grow up, Brady shared. Family: TV dinners, Pepsi cola and Hershey chocolate bars are how Sweetwater woman is 111 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While DPR is based in Houston, its presence is seen across the state of Texas and often pair this camp with local Boys & Girls Club branches whenever they see crews in different cities on a construction job. Project Director Burrus spoke to the long-standing relationship their company has with this youth organization. Weve partnered with the Boys and Girls Club for 20-plus years now as an organization, and we partner with them in every city and region that we work in, Burrus said. When we came to Abilene for the project were working on, we found their Boys and Girls Clubs here in the vicinity. We knew we had to be part of it. We knew we had to bring this here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) The Abilene Zoo is welcoming a new, rare creature to their collection Vicki the Sloth Bear! Vicki is a 12-year-old female who is coming to Abilene for a temporary stay from the Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in Washington. She will be with the Abilene Zoo until their expansion project begins in Spring 2026. Read more information provided about Vicki by the Abilene Zoo below: Vicki brings a unique personality shes known to be sassy, smart and inquisitive. Shes got poufy hair with a part in the middle. Some of her favorite hobbies include playing with her enrichment toys and eating thousands of insects in one sitting. Like most sloth bears, she prefers a solitary lifestyle, a trait typical of her species in the wild. Native to the forests of India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, sloth bears are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with fewer than 20,000 remaining in the wild. Threatened by deforestation, habitat loss, and poaching, sloth bears are part of the Association of Zoos And Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plan. The SSP is a collaborative program among AZA-accredited institutions focused on protecting at-risk species through breeding, research, and education. One of only about 30 sloth bears in AZA-accredited zoos in North America, Vicki brings an important conservation story to Abilene. With their shaggy coats, curved claws, and vacuum-like snouts, sloth bears are uniquely adapted to consume up to 50,000 ants or termites a day, playing a pivotal role in sustaining healthy forest ecosystems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vicki and the other Abilene Zoo animals will be on display during zoo hours from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ever day during the summer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court in Tennessee on Wednesday for a second detention hearing, after a federal judge agreed to hear an appeal from the Justice Department to keep him detained in criminal custody pending trial. The Justice Department's request to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw caps off months of confusing and contradictory statements from the Trump administration in the case of Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a court order, and returned to the U.S. three months later in June. The acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Robert McGuire, urged Crenshaw in a court filing ahead of Wednesday's hearing to keep Abrego Garcia detained in criminal custody pending trial, arguing that "there is no combination of bail conditions that can reasonably assure either the safety of the community or the defendants appearance in future court proceedings." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crenshaw wrapped the hearing after roughly three hours, telling both parties that he would take the case under advisement. Abrego Garcia Lawyers Ask Us Judge To Order Return To Maryland Amid Ongoing Criminal Case He did suggest he will take his time in reviewing the evidence, however, telling lawyers for the Justice Department and Abrego Garcia that they should not expect a ruling imminently, or even this week. He did suggest he would issue an order next week shortly before adjourning court. Read On The Fox News App The longer timeline is likely a welcome relief for Abrego Garcia's lawyers as they continue to wait for U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, the federal judge in Maryland, to issue an order blocking ICE from immediately deporting their client to a third country pending release from U.S. criminal custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Xinis, who has presided over the civil case since March, suggested after a days-long evidentiary hearing Friday that she planned to issue a temporary restraining order requiring ICE to keep Abrego Garcia in custody for a set amount of time before they can deport him to a third country, such as Mexico or South Sudan, as officials indicated last week that they plan to do. Much of Wednesday's hearing played out similarly to Abrego's arraignment in June, led by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. Judge Holmes had ruled that Abrego Garcia should be released pending trial in the criminal case, though she later agreed to a request from his attorneys to keep him in federal custody to avoid deportation. The wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, stands with demonstrators as they rally in support of Garcia outside federal court during a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. Holmes later amended her order to allow Abrego Garcia to be kept in federal custody at the request of his own legal team. His lawyers cited concerns that ICE would immediately take him into immigration custody and deport him to a third country upon his release. As the hearing on Wednesday stretched into its third hour, there appeared to be scant new evidence or testimony provided that might compel Crenshaw to break with Holmes's original determination, that Abrego should be released pending trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Crenshaw told the Justice Department that he's having a "hard time understanding" the government's argument that there is "clear and convincing evidence" that "no conditions" set by a community could control the danger posed by Abrego ahead of his criminal trial. "That's a pretty high standard," he said. Judge Sets Strict Conditions For Abrego Garcia's Release As Trump Officials Pursue Case Against Him The government said it planned to call just one witness in the hearing Homeland Security Investigations Agent Peter Joseph, who was also the sole witness last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawyers for Abrego Garcia told the court ahead of the hearing that they did not plan to call any witnesses. But even that filing highlights the Justice Departments conflicting statements about its plans for Abrego Garcia, whose case is at the center of two high-profile hearings in Maryland and Tennessee. After months of delay, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S., where he was immediately slapped with a newly unsealed federal indictment charging him with crimes stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to those charges, and was ordered released pending trial by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senior Justice Department officials and ICE officials conceded to this plan last week, telling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland that the government would immediately begin removal proceedings to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, regardless of the status of his criminal case. In doing so, they broke with previous assertions from U.S. officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who vowed when he was returned that he would remain in U.S. custody for the duration of his trial and any prison time. Supreme Court Grants Trump Request To Lift Stay Halting Venezuelan Deportations Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks alongside President Donald Trump in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. Asked by Judge Xinis last week whether the government planned to hold Abrego Garcia in ICE custody until his criminal case in Tennessee is over, lawyers for the administration did not mince their words. "No," Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn answered simply. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Theres no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold," Guynn told Xinis. "He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process." Abrego Garcias second detention hearing in Tennessee comes after his legal team asked a federal judge in Maryland last week to impose sanctions on the Trump administration for the administrations "egregious" and "repeated violations" of discovery obligations, according to the filing. Federal Judge Orders Return Of Deported Migrant To Us, Rejecting Trump Request U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Xinis also pressed Justice Department officials for details as to when they opened a federal investigation into Abrego Garcia in a separate district in Tennessee, and how the timing of the investigation and federal indictment squared with the government's testimony in her own court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She noted that, by the governments own admission, it began investigating Abrego Garcia in the Middle District of Tennessee on April 28, 2025 the same time officials were telling the court that the administration was powerless to order a foreign government to return him, in compliance with the court order. "At the same time that [the government] was saying it had no power to produce" Abrego Garcia in the U.S., Trump administration officials had "already secured an indictment against him in the Middle District of Tennessee, right?" Xinis asked Justice Department lawyer Bridget O'Hickey. "Yes your honor," OHickey replied. An incredulous Xinis noted that, just six days later, the government testified they had no power to bring him back to the U.S. "Now I have real concerns as if I haven't for the last three months," Xinis noted in response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Given the series of unlawful actions" here, I feel like its well within my authority to order this hearing perhaps more than one to hear testimony from at least one witness with firsthand knowledge, who can answer these questions about the immediate next steps" from the government pending Abrego Garca's release from custody, she said. Original article source: Abrego Garcia remains in US for now as judge takes case under advisement Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court in Tennessee on Wednesday for a second detention hearing, after a federal judge agreed to hear an appeal from the Justice Department to keep him detained in criminal custody pending trial. The Justice Department's request to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw caps off months of confusing and contradictory statements from the Trump administration in the case of Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported to El Salvador in March in violation of a court order, and returned to the U.S. three months later in June. The acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, Robert McGuire, urged Crenshaw in a court filing ahead of Wednesday's hearing to keep Abrego Garcia detained in criminal custody pending trial, arguing that "there is no combination of bail conditions that can reasonably assure either the safety of the community or the defendants appearance in future court proceedings." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Much of Wednesday's hearing played out similarly to Abrego's arraignment in June, led by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. Judge Holmes had ruled that Abrego should be released pending trial in the criminal case, though she later agreed to a request from his attorneys to keep him in federal custody to avoid deportation. Holmes later amended her order to allow Abrego Garcia to be kept in federal custody at the request of his own legal team. His lawyers cited concerns that ICE would immediately take him into immigration custody and deport him to a third country upon his release. As the hearing on Wednesday stretched into its third hour, there appeared to be scant new evidence or testimony provided that might compel Judge Crenshaw to break with Holmes's original determination, that Abrego should be released pending trial putting renewed pressure on a federal judge in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, to act. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Crenshaw told the Justice Department that he's having a "hard time understanding" the government's argument that there is "clear and convincing evidence" that "no conditions" set by a community could control the danger posed by Abrego ahead of his criminal trial. "That's a pretty high standard," he said. Judge Xinis, who has presided over the civil case since March, suggested after a days-long evidentiary hearing Friday that she planned to issue a temporary restraining order requiring ICE to keep Abrego Garcia in custody for a set amount of time before they can deport him to a third country, such as Mexico or South Sudan, as they indicated last week that they plan to do. The government said it planned to call just one witness in the hearing Homeland Security Investigations Agent Peter Joseph, who was also the sole witness last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawyers for Abrego Garcia told the court ahead of the hearing that they did not plan to call any witnesses. Abrego Garcia Lawyers Ask Us Judge To Order Return To Maryland Amid Ongoing Criminal Case The wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, stands with demonstrators as they rally in support of Garcia outside federal court during a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. But even that filing highlights the Justice Departments conflicting statements about its plans for Abrego Garcia, whose case is at the center of two high-profile hearings in Maryland and Tennessee. After months of delay, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S., where he was immediately slapped with a newly unsealed federal indictment charging him with crimes stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to those charges, and was ordered released pending trial by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes. Senior Justice Department officials and ICE officials conceded to this plan last week, telling U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland that the government would immediately begin removal proceedings to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, regardless of the status of his criminal case. In doing so, they broke with previous assertions from U.S. officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, who vowed when he was returned that he would remain in U.S. custody for the duration of his trial and any prison time. Supreme Court Grants Trump Request To Lift Stay Halting Venezuelan Deportations Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks alongside President Donald Trump in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025 in Washington, DC. Asked by Judge Xinis last week whether the government planned to hold Abrego Garcia in ICE custody until his criminal case in Tennessee is over, lawyers for the administration did not mince their words. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "No," Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn answered simply. "Theres no intention to just put him in limbo in ICE custody while we wait for the criminal case to unfold," Guynn told Xinis. "He will be removed, as would any other illegal alien in that process." Abrego Garcias second detention hearing in Tennessee comes after his legal team asked a federal judge in Maryland last week to impose sanctions on the Trump administration for the administrations "egregious" and "repeated violations" of discovery obligations, according to the filing. Federal Judge Orders Return Of Deported Migrant To Us, Rejecting Trump Request U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. Xinis also pressed Justice Department officials for details as to when they opened a federal investigation into Abrego Garcia in a separate district in Tennessee, and how the timing of the investigation and federal indictment squared with the government's testimony in her own court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She noted that, by the governments own admission, it began investigating Abrego Garcia in the Middle District of Tennessee on April 28, 2025 the same time officials were telling the court that the administration was powerless to order a foreign government to return him, in compliance with the court order. "At the same time that [the government] was saying it had no power to produce" Abrego Garcia in the U.S., Trump administration officials had "already secured an indictment against him in the Middle District of Tennessee, right?" Xinis asked Justice Department lawyer Bridget O'Hickey. "Yes your honor," OHickey replied. An incredulous Xinis noted that, just six days later, the government testified they had no power to bring him back to the U.S. "Now I have real concerns as if I haven't for the last three months," Xinis noted in response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Given the series of unlawful actions" here, I feel like its well within my authority to order this hearing perhaps more than one to hear testimony from at least one witness with firsthand knowledge, who can answer these questions about the immediate next steps" from the government pending Abrego Garca's release from custody, she said. Original article source: Abrego Garcia set for pivotal hearing on whether he will remain in US pending trial The Brief Detroit police say a 13-year-old shot another boy in an accident Monday. The 13-year-old and the adult owner of the gun were both arrested by police. The victim is expected to recover while the owner of the gun faces prosecution under the safe storage law. DETROIT (FOX 2) - A 13-year-old has been detained after a suspected accidental shooting wounded a second teen. The shooting happened at 5 p.m. off Kercheval on the city's east side Monday. The backstory Detroit police found two guns - one of them accidentally fired by the boy hitting another teen hit but expected to be okay, investigators say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Its senseless gun play, theres no excuse for it, none," said Steve Dolunt, retired assistant Detroit police chief. The teen was detained by police along with the owner of the guns - charged under the states secure storage law. Dolunt says the accident was preventable. "Owning a gun, its a right, but its also a privilege," he said. "Youre supposed to use common sense when you own a weapon. "You either unload the weapon or keep it locked, where the kids cant get it." The State Health Department is sounding the alarm on gun violence calling it a "public health crisis." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their team reports that firearm injuries are the leading cause of deaths statewide among kids between the ages of one and 19. Its why the safe storage law was passed. That law requires gun owners with minors present to secure their gun in a locked box or storage with a locking device. If not and something happens, under the law the gun owner is liable for any harm caused by a minor who gets their hands on their weapon. "From what I've seen when I was on the job, too many people feel that if they come and ask for a gun lock, the cops are going to do a background check on them," Dolunt said. "Theyre not. youre being responsible." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dolunt is urging more adults and gun owners to do the right thing and take responsibility or pay the consequences. "Ive seen so many little kids get shot through carelessness by adults," he said. "Take a free gun lock. You can get it anytime of the year and were not going to run your name. Were not going to hold it against you. Youre being a responsible adult." The Source Information for this report came from Detroit police and an interview with retired assistant police chief Steve Dolunt. Accomplice pleads guilty in last years election fraud scheme MESA COUNTY, Colo. (KREX) The woman, who helped forge ballots in last years election, will avoid prison time after she pleaded guilty Tuesday to her role in the scheme. Sally Maxedon, 60, received a 24-month deferred judgment sentence, two years of probation and 100 hours of community service as part of her plea agreement. Her probation and deferred sentence will run concurrently. Maxedon and Vicki Stuart, who was sentenced to five years in prison last month, filled out Mesa County residents ballots without their knowledge and then mailed them. Stuart stole the ballots when she was a U.S. Postal Service worker at the time the crimes occurred. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ballots were later pinged by Mesa County Elections, which determined the signatures were fraudulent. During the sentence hearing, it was shown that the idea came from Stuart and had Maxedon fill out a few of the ballots. Maxedon, whose voice cracked up while speaking to Judge Brian Flynn, said she felt horrible and ashamed for cooperating with Stuart. Im fully accountable for what Ive done, Maxedon said. District Attorney Dan Rubinstein said Maxedons testimony was key in Stuarts sentencing. Stuart was the one responsible for the scheme as she wanted to fill out ballots from those whom she thought were illegal citizens or who might vote against the way she wanted, Rubinstein said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flynn, who also sentenced Stuart, said he didnt buy her story in wanting to test the integrity of the voting system. He said she wanted to influence the election as she wouldnt know whether the ballots were flagged as fraudulent or not. Someone in Miss Stuarts position would have no idea because she wouldnt be alerted as to whether or not the ballot has been accepted or not, Flynn said at Stuarts sentencing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. The Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine has awarded a $400,000 multi-year grant to the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, according to a news release. The grant was made possible by the Richard H. and Mary Jo Stanley Equity and Inclusion Support Fund. The legacy fund was established to uplift and advance efforts that promote human rights. It was created through a gift from Richard and Mary Jo Stanley to support organizations working to make society more inclusive and equitable, the release says. Richard and Mary Jo Stanley (Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine) Dick and Mary Jo were world citizens with a deep commitment to improving the lives of both our local and global neighbors, said Charla Schafer, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Muscatine. Carrying forward their philanthropic vision is a privilege we hold in the highest regard. Dick and Mary Jos legacy will continue to champion the causes they cared so deeply abouttoday and for generations to come. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation is a non-profit organization that uses litigation, lobbying, public education, and advocacy to help preserve rights and liberties of people in the United States. The organization represents individuals or organizations in court, works with lawmakers, provides information to the public, and works in communities to raise awareness about civil-liberty issues. We are very pleased to be selected for the Richard H. and Mary Jo Stanley Equity and Inclusion Support Grant. The ACLU will proudly continue our work to counteract historical discrimination and unequal access to opportunities. We appreciate that the Community Foundation has recognized these efforts, said Louise Melling, ACLU Deputy Legal Director and Director of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Center for Liberty. To learn more about the ACLU click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Action 9 investigates air duct company claiming to have A+ Rating An Orange County man wanted to get his air ducts cleaned, but he claims after agreeing to a payment plan, the company he hired tricked him into paying nearly a thousand dollars all at once. That customer who asked to just use his first name, Bill, told Action 9 he found the company using a Google search and said, Like, they just wanted to take the money and run. Action 9 also found the company he hired claims to have an A+ Rating with the Better Business Bureau, but that isnt true. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you have a consumer complaint or need help from Jeff Deal and Action 9? Click the banner below to submit a tip. In fact, the BBB didnt have much information on the company at all. The air duct company has been registered with the state less than a year. Its never been rated A+ with the BBB and Bill said after getting his money, no one from the company will return his calls. Bill said he had some air conditioning issues and wanted to get his air ducts cleaned. It hadnt been cleaned in many, many years, he told Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal. He said the ad he responded to was from a company called Air Duct Express, but when the workers showed up, they used the name Air Duct Experts. They hooked up a machine to his vents, but didnt do everything they promised and even though he claims they told him they could do a payment plan of around $27 a month, as soon as he signed electronically, he got charged the entire amount of $988. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Bill, the worker told him, Ill call the bank for you, because I can get it reversed. But that reversal didnt happen and calls to the company were fruitless. He said the person on the phone promised a manager would call him. The phone number linked back to a website labeled with the name Air Duct Experts LLC. It shows the company serves Orlando and the surrounding area. In state records, there is a fictitious business filing for Air Duct Experts thats owned by a company called Air Duct Express LLC. Under Florida law, a business is supposed to list its principal office address at physical location, but Air Duct Express LLC lists its principal office address at a P.O. Box in Altamonte Springs. The companys registered agent lists his address at a home on Willow Oak Lane in Orlando. When Action 9s Jeff Deal went to that address, the man who answered said hes never heard of that person and that no one running an air duct business is connected to the home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Action 9 reached out the BBB about the claim on the website that the business is A+ rated, CEO Holly Salmons said, The last thing we want is for consumers to end up being misled. She said the business is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau. Its also not A+ rated. Salmons went on to say, We have taken the necessary actions to make them aware of that, and also to open a logo violation case. When Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal called the company, a woman named Christina said she couldnt answer any questions about the A+ rating on the company website. Deal said, The Better Business Bureau says that you guys dont have a rating at all and thats false advertising on your website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christina responded, Again, with those information, I can relay to the management. Jeff Deal also asked about Bills consumer complaint and got no answers and he was promised a call back just like Bill. So far, Deal has not received a call back. Bill said, And I havent heard from them. Deal responded, Yeah, it seems like that theyre just giving you the run around? Bill said, Exactly. Bill has challenged the charge with his bank. For air duct work, the Better Business Bureau recommends using an air conditioning company you already trust. Dont be lured in by big discounts, social media ads or coupons from random companies and make sure you research any company before hiring them. NEW YORK Former interim NYPD commissioner Tom Donlon is suing the department, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and several former and current police executives alleging the nations largest police force operated as a vast criminal enterprise that insulated top brass from investigations, abused the promotion system and retaliated against whistleblowers such as himself. A coordinated criminal conspiracy had taken root at the highest levels of City government carried out through wire fraud, mail fraud, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice and retaliation against whistleblowers, the complaint alleges. This enterprise the NYPDwas criminal at its core. The suit , filed Wednesday in Manhattan federal court, is just the latest from former NYPD executives to allege corruption during Adams tenure. The incendiary accusations are unfolding as Adams wages a longshot bid for a second mayoral term running as an independent, with public safety being one of his main campaign platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taken together, Donlon alleged the acts amounted to racketeering, a criminal conspiracy most commonly associated with organized crime enterprises. This lawsuit is not a personal grievance; it is a statement against a corrupt system that betrays the public, silences truth, and punishes integrity, Donlon said in a statement accompanying the suit. The goal is to drive real change, hold the corrupt, deceitful, and abusively powerful accountable, and restore the voice of every honorable officer who has been silenced or denied justice. A spokesperson for the mayor strongly refuted the lawsuit's allegations. These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world proved himself to be ineffective, City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak Altus said in a statement. This suit is nothing more than an attempt to seek compensation at the taxpayers expense after Mr. Donlon was rightfully removed from the role of interim police commissioner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city's Law Department declined to comment. Donlon is asking for a federal takeover of the NYPD and the appointment of a special monitor to keep watch over the NYPDs disciplinary process and promotion decisions. Donlon accused top brass including former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, his successor John Chell and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry of interfering with the departments internal disciplinary process to stymie investigations into executive misconduct. He further alleged the defendants in the suit wielded their authority to forge documents that were then used to promote unqualified cops and eventually retaliated against Donlon for raising concerns with the mayor about the alleged behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In particular, Donlon accused Sheppard, who formerly ran the departments press office, of using a rubber stamp with the commissioners signature on it to improperly promote himself and, along with others, alter a list of cops set for promotions to remove Donlons picks. The animosity between Donlon and Sheppard spilled out into the open in November at the New York City Marathon, where a shouting match ensued over a photo op both men were positioning themselves for. In Wednesdays lawsuit, Donlon accused Sheppard of threatening his life. I will fucking kill you, Sheppard allegedly said, according to the suit. Donlons account of running the NYPD was rife with tales of being undermined by a suite of aides with longstanding ties to the mayor. The interim commissioner accused Maddrey of planting spies in his office and gaining access to his emails. He accused Sheppard of setting up adversarial press interviews and surprise speaking engagements. Daughtry, according to the lawsuit, ignored advice to bring in federal partners while harboring a fixation on drones. And Donlon found that Chell, who was chief of department at the time, routinely ignored direct orders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, Donlon said he was never informed of the existence, or ongoing operations, of a controversial unit called the Community Response Team that has been touted by the mayor. When Donlon took his concerns to Adams, he said the mayor brushed them off and turned the tables on the interim commissioner, telling him the department was in chaos under his stewardship and that he needed it to run smoothly for his reelection. Back off these guys, Adams allegedly said during a sitdown where Donlon raised issues with several top police officials and their use of social media. They are my best three guys who are keeping crime down. In retaliation for his actions, Donlon accused Daughtry, along with Sheppard and Deputy Commissioner of Legal Matter Michael Gerber, of orchestrating the false arrest of his wife, who was allegedly cuffed and subjected to a full body search at a Midtown precinct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The collar stemmed from a minor traffic incident involving Donlons wife, who was unable to produce registration documents for the vehicle. As a result, she was hauled off to the precinct where she was then handcuffed to a bench before being released with a ticket for having lapsed insurance. Donlon further accused the NYPD of then scuttling the ticket altogether. When his wife inquired about the status three months later, she was told the infraction was not in the system. Donlon was appointed interim police commissioner in September 2024 after the resignation of Edward Caban, who stepped down after his phone was seized as part of a federal corruption investigation. His brief tenure ended just two months later, when he was transferred into a senior advisor for public safety role before that position was eliminated in April. The lawsuit comes just over a week after four former NYPD chiefs filed lawsuits alleging similar behavior: that top brass sought to stop ethics investigations into high-ranking members of the department and that they improperly promoted unqualified people for key positions. A previous version of this story misstated the venue of the lawsuit. It was filed in Manhattan federal court. The Brief The Associated Press is projecting Adelita Grijalva to win the special primary election for her father's former Congressional seat. Raul Grijalva, who served in Congress for decades, died as a result of cancer treatment complications in March 2025. Daniel Butierez is projected by the AP to win the Republican Party primary for the same seat. PHOENIX - The Associated Press is projecting a winner in a special Democratic Party primary for Arizona's 7th Congressional District. What we know According to the AP, Adelita Grijalva is projected to win the Democratic primary. Adelita, described by the AP as a progressive, is the daughter of the late Raul Grijalva, and was considered to be the frontrunner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grijalva, who announced his cancer diagnosis in April 2024, died as a result of treatment complications in March 2025. He was first elected to the House in 2002. Prior to his time in Congress, Grijalva served in various public offices for decades, including the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. Late U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva Following the projection, Adelita declared victory via a statement that reads, in part: "This is a victory not for me, but for our community and the progressive movement my dad started in Southern Arizona more than 50 years ago. We didnt get distracted by the noise or national headlines. We kept our heads down, did the work, and delivered a message rooted not just in fighting back against a dangerous and tyrannical administration - but in fighting for something: for our democracy, for the dignity of working people, and for the values that truly define Southern Arizona - justice, equity, and opportunity for all." Other candidates in the Democratic primary include former state lawmaker Daniel Hernandez; digital strategist and reproductive rights advocate Deja Foxx; Indigenous activist and scholar Jose Malvido Jr.; and retired health care executive Patrick Harris Sr. Adelita Grijalva (Courtesy: Adelita Grijalva for Congress) Hernandez has conceded the race via a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I want to congratulate Adelita Grijalva on her victory tonight and encourage everyone who supported me to unite behind them in September. We must come together to protect Arizona from the extremism of the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Congress. "Most importantly, thank you to our incredible supporters, volunteers, and voters who believed in our vision for Arizona and stood with us every step of the wayespecially through those hot days of door knocking. While tonights results werent what we hoped for, I am deeply proud of this campaign and our commitment to Arizona families and the resources they depend on. "The fight doesnt end here. As a lifelong Arizonan, Ill continue to work for the people of our statefor access to healthcare, strong public schools, and equal rights for all." AP also projecting Republican primary winner Dig deeper Besides the Democratic primary, the AP has also projected Daniel Butierez to win the Republican Party primary for the same seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is not the first time Butierez has made a run for the seat. Per the AP, he captured more than one-third of the vote in the 2024 election against Grijalva. Green Party also declares winner in their primary In this primary election, there were a total of 12 candidates running in five party primaries, according to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. While the AP did not declare a winner for the other primaries, officials with the Arizona Green Party congratulated Eduardo Quintana for winning the primary. Quintana was one of two candidates in the Green Party primary. The other candidate was Gary Swing. Both were identified as write-in candidates by the Arizona Secretary of State's Office. Grijalva's district considered deep-blue A map showing Arizona's 7th Congressional District Big picture view Arizona's 7th Congressional District, according to a map prepared by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, covers parts of the West Valley, parts of Tucson and parts of Yuma, along with the cities of Gila Bend and Nogales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The seat will not decide control of the U.S. House, but it is one of three vacancies in heavily Democratic districts that, when filled in special elections this fall, will likely chip away at Republicans' slender 220-212 majority in the chamber. Democrats enjoy a nearly 2-1 ratio registration advantage over Republicans in the 7th District. What's next A special general election is set to take place on September 23. Early voting for that election will begin on Aug. 27. COLOMBO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka Customs has seized the largest haul of gold that was confiscated from an air passenger in the country's history, a senior officer said. Customs on Tuesday seized 35 kg of gold worth 1.1 billion rupees (3.65 million U.S. dollars) from a passenger at Bandaranaike International Airport, said Seevali Arukgoda, a media spokesperson for Sri Lanka Customs, on Wednesday after completing an inspection of the smuggled goods. He said the customs launched an initiative to tackle illegal gold smuggling into the country a few days ago and that the initiative has already borne results. Arukgoda said the passenger with the gold had arrived from Dubai and is a frequent air traveler. Adelita Grijalva is projected to win the Democratic primary to fill the congressional seat from Arizona left open by the March death of her father, Raul Grijalva, according to Decision Desk HQ. Grijalvas main opponent was 25-year-old reproductive rights activist Deja Foxx. Both Grijalva and Foxx are progressives who campaigned on similar platforms to fight for welfare programs, to protect immigrants and act on climate change. Daniel Hernandez, a state lawmaker who was credited with helping to save former Rep Gabby Giffords life in a 2011 shooting, was also a contender who ran as a moderate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grijalva has served for over two decades in elected office in Tucson, both on the citys school board and more recently on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She campaigned on the promise that she would carry the same progressive values her father was known for during his 22 years in the congressional seat, including his long-standing commitment to fight for environmental justice. Her platform also included defending programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and advocating for housing affordability. Grijalva was favored to win the race due to her decades of experience in local politics and because of her fathers legacy. Raul Grijalva was viewed as a progressive champion in this part of the state during his 22-year tenure. Adelita Grijalva had secured major endorsements from progressive heavyweights including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders and benefitted from deep donor pockets. The race made national headlines in its final weeks after Foxx, widely seen as the underdog, was able to capture the attention of young progressives across the country through her social media platforms. On TikTok and Instagram, she has hundreds of thousands of followers and was able to raise nearly a million dollars through small donors. Deja Foxx poses for a portrait on at her home in Tucson, Arizona, in June 2025. (Courtney Pedroza for The 19th) Foxx argued that the seat should be led by a new generation and garnered the support of David Hogg, an activist who became famous for his work following the Parkland mass shooting. He now runs a political organization called Leaders We Deserve, aimed at building generational change for Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Foxx campaigned on her life experience growing up working class on Medicaid and SNAP and has committed to fight for the policies that she says helped her out of poverty. Prior to running for office, Foxx worked as an activist with Planned Parenthood, and later as an influencer and digital strategist with the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in 2019. More recently she worked on the campaign to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution in 2024. Grijalva is all but guaranteed to win the special election in September to represent the solidly Democratic 7th Congressional District. Because it is a special election she will have to defend the seat in the 2026 midterms. According to the Center for American Women in Politics, the election will result in 126 women serving in the House out of 435 seats. Republicans control the U.S. House by a slim, eight-seat margin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The post Adelita Grijalva wins Arizona Democratic primary, fending off challenge from Deja Foxx appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter. The Grijalva name is all but set to return to Congress. Adelita Grijalva prevailed over a crowded primary field in an Arizona special primary election to replace the late Rep. Raul Grijalva, her father. The Associated Press called the race at 11:19 p.m. eastern, with Grijalva leading 25-year-old influencer Deja Foxx by almost 20,000 votes with 65 percent of votes counted. Former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez was in third place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Foxx and Hernandez both painted the 54-year-old Grijalva as a continuation of the status quo. Foxx was backed by Democratic agitator David Hogg, who has pledged to spend millions of dollars to challenge "asleep-at-the-wheel" Democrats. But despite what some polls showed was a tightening race, Grijalva enjoyed broad establishment support from divergent sectors of the party, including almost all prominent elected officials in Arizona and progressive stalwarts Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Given the districts deep-blue lean, it is almost certain Grijalva will prevail against a nominal challenge from Republicans in the Sept. 23 special general election. Adelita Grijalva will win Tuesdays special Democratic primary in Arizonas 7th congressional district, CNN projects. Grijalva, a former county supervisor, is the daughter of the late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva, who represented the district for two decades before his death in March. Shell be favored to win the Sept. 23 general election in this heavily Democratic district against Daniel Butierez, who CNN projects will win the Republican primary Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grijalva defeated a field that included former state Rep. Daniel Hernandez and 25-year-old activist Deja Foxx. Arizonas 7th Congressional District, which includes parts of Tucson and most of the states southern border with Mexico, has been without representation since March, when Raul Grijalva died due to complications from cancer treatments. The late congressman and former Congressional Progressive Caucus chairman was first elected to the House in 2002. Adelita Grijalva entered the race as the front-runner and garnered the lions share of endorsements in the contest, including support from both of Arizonas US senators as well as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She also benefited from her familys longstanding recognition in the district, saying she would continue her fathers legacy. Like her father, Grijalva served on the Tucson Unified School District governing board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors before running for Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She pushed back on her opponents efforts to frame her as the establishment candidate, saying that she applied for and earned her endorsements from various groups and has her own record of advocacy work, including running diversion programs while working at Pima Countys Teen Court. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com MBALE, Uganda (AP) Wilson Watira offered his hand when he met his political rival at a funeral, gesturing for a proper handshake. The man didn't want contact, instead folding a piece of paper that he aimed at Watira. He looked at me and picked that piece of paper of the program. He folded it and greeted me, Watira said. Hes just afraid of me simply because I am not afraid of him. Watira, who seeks a seat in Uganda's Parliament, remembered the recent event as a vivid example of the rampant fear of witchcraft as politicians seeking office try to outmaneuver each other in this east African country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In public, political contests often entail spectacles where rivals rent cars to mount raucous processions in the streets, offering cash and other inducements to voters. Behind the scenes, the struggle for victory can be intensely spiritual, with faith figuring in incidents ranging from ritual sacrifice to visits with traditional healers, according to Watira and others who spoke to The Associated Press. Watira, a leader of a group uniting Ugandas Bamasaba people, said the incumbent legislator who refused to shake his hand may have worried that would somehow give Watira the upper hand or provoke misfortune. Watira said he wasn't surprised by the mans behavior. The moment your mind is pushed to that level, everything which happens you will always be suspicious, he said, speaking of overcoming his own fear of witchcraft. You will start imagining, and that is the biggest challenge in our society. An uneasy coexistence between traditional healers and Christianity Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Spiritual warfare among politicians is part of a wider struggle over faith in Uganda, where Christianity is the dominant religion. Many who regularly attend church also secretly visit traditional shrines for the occult service they believe can lead them to victory. The syncretism has long confounded church leaders who teach that Christianity is incompatible with any vestiges of traditional religion, which remains widely practiced across sub-Saharan Africa. In African politics, often marked by bitter feuds along class and ethnic lines, fear of witchcraft can prove explosive. In South Sudan, Vice President Riek Machar believes himself to be the left-handed man with gapped teeth prophesied by a tribal seer a century ago as the unifying leader of his nation. There's widespread belief that the superstition fuels Machars quest for power in South Sudan, which has been wracked by war since independence in 2011 as Machar tried to remove President Salva Kiir. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Kenya, some of the anti-government protesters who gathered last month in the capital, Nairobi, said the disorientation they felt while nearing the presidential residence was likely an evil spell in favor of President William Ruto. He also faces criticism for building a church within the statehouse compound that some critics see as an ominous shrine. In Zambia, two men are on trial for allegedly practicing witchcraft and possessing charms intended to harm President Hakainde Hichilema. Hichilema himself once was accused of practicing witchcraft by his predecessor Michael Sata, who contended the charms from his home region were stronger. Promises of magical campaign advice In Uganda's capital, Kampala, and other cities, some street poles are plastered with notices by people promising to magically catch thieves or regain lost lovers. Now, many also advertise authority to secure politicians victory in elections set for January 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across all Ugandan communities there is a crazy reliance on the witch doctors, crazy reliance by politicians, said Steven Masiga, a researcher and cultural leader in the city of Mbale. Witch doctors now are reaping money from politicians. Now, as politicians mobilize money, there is a percentage for the witch doctor because the real hope is in the witch doctor. Many candidates feel that voters can oscillate around but the witch doctors never let you down," he said. Masiga cited a politician in his area who years ago, urged on by a witch doctor, skinned a goat alive without slaughtering the animal. The witch doctors client won the election. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in power for four decades and a candidate for reelection, has previously expressed his respect for African witch doctors, an often pejorative term referring to medicine men and women who prescribe herbs for ailments and others who claim to erase problems by magic. Some of these practitioners prefer to be described as traditional healers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a speech last year, Museveni recalled jumping over a slaughtered chicken three times in the ritual he performed as the leader of the bush war that propelled him to power in 1986. Museveni said of traditional religion that it is very strong and urged mainstream religious leaders not to antagonize its practitioners. We had a very good relationship with them, he said of traditional healers. Many Ugandan politicians are believed to retain the services of witch doctors, but they rarely admit it in public to avoid ridicule. Some national leaders have been seen entering witch doctors shrines over the years, drawing criticism from church leaders who condemn such behavior. In 2016, parliamentary speaker Rebecca Kadaga was photographed entering a shrine associated with her clan in eastern Uganda. The Anglican archbishop issued a rebuke; Kadaga, who has since left the speakership, said she sought to inform her ancestors of her political success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Who doesnt have an origin? Who doesnt have where they came from? Those are my roots, she told reporters. A traditional healer with many clients In Mbale, where ritualized circumcision of boys underscores widespread belief in age-old customs, traditional healer Rose Mukite said she receives political clients from far outside her region. In her shrine, an igloo-like structure whose small entrance forces clients to kneel or squat to get in, she demonstratefd her practice by shaking calabashes and tossing cowrie shells on the floor. A tobacco pipe is another tool of her trade; she blows smoke while divining the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mukites career began in 1980 after being possessed by a spirit that she said she had to overcome to gain the spiritual authority she now claims. She offers her services for a small fee. I have many, many (clients)," she said. She said she helps some politicians by administering a tree bark to chew, potentially saving them from calamities such as imprisonment. If her practices were unhelpful, she said, she wouldnt still be at work after so many years. Sometimes it's too late, she said politicians come to her when already doomed to fail. I cant say that I succeed with everything, she said. Just like in the hospital when death comes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peace Khalayi, a Catholic running to represent the women of her district in Parliament, has fended off suggestions by supporters who want her to perform rituals they think can help her win. She campaigns among Muslims and Seventh-Day Adventists and would consider paying homage to a village elder. But a classic act in the practice of traditional religion, such as a requirement to sacrifice livestock, is unacceptable to her. She recalled instances where people urged her to consult a witch doctor. You tell them, We shall go. You pretend that, yes, you have accepted. But you do not actually show up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, Khalayi said she sometimes worries how her opponents could hurt her if she isnt sufficiently protected. Definitely the fear is there. Thats no lie, she said. When you have an opponent, you may probably want to be open with them, but it is just in us that you cannot openly engage with your opponent. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) building is seen on May 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) Attorney General Keith Ellison is joining a lawsuit with 19 other states to prevent the Trump administration from shutting down a FEMA grant program. More than a third of Minnesotas counties were expected to receive funding from the program, called Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), before it ended. BRIC provides funding for state and local jurisdictions to take preventative measures against disasters. This includes projects like floodwalls, tornado shelters and soil remediation projects. Coastal regions have received the most funding in recent years due to their vulnerability to disasters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the complaint, 34 Minnesota counties planned to use the funds to update hazard mitigation plans that identify and address disaster risks. These plans are required when local governments seek to qualify for assistance after a disaster. Preparing for natural disasters ahead of time doesnt just save money and property, it saves lives, Ellison said in a press release. The Trump Administrations decision to shut down a crucial disaster preparedness program is foolish, cruel, and unlawful. The Trump administration terminated BRIC on April 4, impacting disaster mitigation efforts across the country. The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters, a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement thats been since taken offline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BRIC was established after the passage of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 during the first Trump administration. Predecessors to the program arose from bipartisan efforts nearly 30 years ago that sought to increase disaster preparedness. A 2019 study found that every dollar the federal government spends on mitigation results in an estimated $6 of savings. Ellisons lawsuit argues that the executive branch doesnt have the power to terminate funds appropriated by Congress. It also states that the decision violates the Constitutions appointment clause the FEMA administrator who cut the program, Cameron Hamilton, wasnt appointed by Trump or confirmed by the Senate. This case marks the 29th lawsuit Ellison has filed against the Trump administration, according to Ellisons office. Many of the cases argue Trump has acted unconstitutionally by usurping Congress power of the purse. Recent lawsuits have involved cuts to Department of Education funding and ICEs access to personal data. RALEIGH, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) Attorney General Jeff Jackson is taking the federal government to court over what he calls a devastating loss of funding for disaster protection. On Wednesday, Jackson filed a lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for canceling a major disaster-preparedness program, known as BRIC, that was set to provide more than $200 million for infrastructure upgrades across the state. The canceled projects include work to protect drinking water, upgrade sewer systems, and defend communities from floods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Char-Meck FOP blames Charlotte city leaders for not doing enough to deter crime The lawsuit follows a bipartisan push from North Carolina leaders, including Republican Senator Thom Tillis and Representative Chuck Edwards, who sent a letter urging FEMA to restore the funding. The BRIC program, which stands for Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, was created to help states prepare for natural disasters before they happen. FEMA launched it in 1997, and it was expanded under President Trumps administration. But in April, FEMA unexpectedly shut the program down, leaving cities and towns scrambling. Local impacts In Salisbury, for example, the city was awarded $22.5 million to move a flood-prone water pump station to higher ground. Officials there had already spent $3 million preparing for the project. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gastonia was set to receive nearly $6 million to restore creek banks and protect sewer lines from flooding. In Mount Pleasant, over $4 million was planned to improve drainage and secure electrical systems. Jacksons lawsuit argues that FEMAs move violates federal law and the Constitution. Hes asking the court to block FEMA from using the money elsewhere and to force the agency to bring the program back. Jackson is joined by attorneys general from 20 other states. MORE FROM QCNEWS.COM Hurricane Helene Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. EXCLUSIVE New Hampshire state Sen. Dan Innis pledges that if he wins election to the U.S. Senate and makes it to Washington D.C., "Ill call bull when I see it." Innis, a three-term Republican state senator, made his pledge on Wednesday as he launched his Senate campaign in the key New England swing state in the 2026 race to succeed retiring longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. It's expected to be a competitive and expensive race for a seat the GOP is working to flip from blue to red. New Hampshire, along with Georgia and Michigan, are the three top targets for Senate Republicans as they aim to expand their 53-47 majority in the chamber. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I built businesses, raised cattle, balanced budgets. I believe in borders, law and order, and putting Americans first. Ive worked to lower your taxes and to stop illegal immigration," Innis, a small business owner, said in a campaign launch video. Former Trump Ambassador Launches Senate Campaign In Key Swing State Pointing to President Donald Trump, he said that "Trump needs backup in the Senate." Read On The Fox News App In his first national interview after announcing his candidacy, Innis told Fox News Digital that "we need New Hampshire values in Washington, D.C., and I dont think we have them right now." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Big, Beautiful Bill Front-and-center In Key Senate Race While Republicans enjoy total control of New Hampshire's state government, the Granite State for nearly a decade has had an all-Democrat congressional delegation. Innis argued that the state's congressional delegation "isnt carrying the message that were hearing on the ground in New Hampshire and that is keep government out of my life, keep taxes low, secure the border and help grow the economy." He also took aim at four-term Rep. Chris Pappas, who, at this early point in the cycle, has no opposition in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I dont think Rep. Pappas has represented us well at all," Innis charged. "We need someone new down there whos going to take New Hampshire to Washington and show them how to get things done." Only On Fox News: Senate Republican Campaign Chair Reveals How Many Seats He's Aiming For In 2026 Innis becomes the second Republican to jump into the Senate race in New Hampshire. Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, who served as ambassador to New Zealand during Trump's first term in the White House, announced his candidacy last month. Ahead of his campaign launch, Brown had been crisscrossing New Hampshire since late last year, meeting with Republican and conservative groups. Republican Senate candidate, former Sen. Scott Brown, is interviewed by Fox News Digital on July 4, 2025 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. When asked how he will compete with Brown, who is much more well-known in New Hampshire, Innis told Fox News "everyone has an impression of him [Brown]. Not everyone knows me yet, so I have an opportunity to show people who I am to help them to see that Im the best candidate to beat Chris Pappas." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Brown and Innis have traveled to the nation's capital to meet with the National Republican Senatorial Committee and with Trump's political team. "President Trump will pay close attention and my guess is he will probably play in this race and I hope Im his choice," Innis said. Following Innis' announcement, Democrats quickly highlighted the burgeoning GOP primary battle. Republicans are now facing a messy primary with Dan Innis entrance into the race, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) communications director Maeve Coyle said in a statement. "Dan Innis and Scott Brown will both have to answer for the toxic GOP plan to spike costs and cut Medicaid as they compete for Trumps endorsement. Republicans have not won a New Hampshire Senate seat in over a decade and 2026 will be no different," Coyle predicted. Original article source: Aiming to give Trump 'backup,' second Republican enters swing state race for Democrat-held Senate seat DENVER (KDVR) Firefighters from multiple agencies and a helicopter contained a brush fire in Douglas County on Tuesday afternoon, not far from where another fire sparked over the weekend. South Metro Fire Rescue said in a post on X that its crews responded to the brush fire located near 6005 Ron King Trail in unincorporated Douglas County around 2:17 p.m. Just before 4:30 p.m., the agency said the fire was 100% contained and stopped progressing. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Douglas County Sheriffs Office said the fire was in open space between Highway 85 and Daniels Park Road. An Emergency Services Unit Helicopter dropped water over the fire, and multiple brush engines battled the flames on the ground. The fire was moving southwest at a moderate rate of speed, SMFR said, and was spreading among heavy timber, brush and shrub oak. At 3:24 p.m., the agency said the head of the fire has been knocked, but crews were still putting out the fire in the interior perimeter. The fire was reported as contained about an hour later. SMFR said the burn area totaled about 5 acres. No structures were threatened and no injuries were reported. A storm with rain and lightning was rolling through the area at the time of the fire. The sheriffs office said that multiple witnesses reported seeing a lightning strike, which is believed to be the cause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fire crews will continue mop-up work on the fire for an extended period of time, SMFR said. West Metro Fire Rescue, West Douglas County Fire and the Douglas County Sheriffs Office also responded. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. By Dan Catchpole SEATTLE (Reuters) -The deadly Air India crash last month has renewed a decades-old debate in the aviation industry over installing video cameras monitoring airline pilot actions to complement the cockpit voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators. One of the industry's most influential voices, International Air Transport Association head Willie Walsh, a former airline pilot, said on Wednesday in Singapore there was a strong argument for video cameras to be installed in airliner cockpits to monitor pilot actions to complement voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aviation experts have said a preliminary report from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) raised questions over whether one of the pilots of Air India flight 171 cut off fuel to the Boeing 787's engines seconds after takeoff, leading to an irrecoverable situation. The crash in Ahmedabad, India, killed 241 of the 242 people aboard, as well as 19 people on the ground. As of now, "based on what little we know now, it's quite possible that a video recording, in addition to the voice recording would significantly assist the investigators in conducting that investigation on the issue of mental health," Walsh said. Advocates for cockpit video cameras say the footage could fill in gaps left by the audio and data recorders, while opponents say concerns about privacy and misuse outweigh what they argue are marginal benefits for investigations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Video footage was "invaluable" to Australian crash investigators determining what led to Robinson R66 helicopter breaking up in mid-air in 2023, killing the pilot, the only person aboard, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's final report, which was released 18 days after the Air India crash. The video showed "the pilot was occupied with non-flying related tasks for much of this time, specifically, mobile phone use and the consumption of food and beverages," the report said. The ATSB commended Robinson Helicopters for providing factory-installed cameras and said it encouraged other manufacturers and owners to consider the ongoing safety benefits of similar devices. In 2000, U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Jim Hall urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require commercial airliners be equipped with cockpit image recorders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hall's recommendation came in the wake of 1999's Egyptair Flight 990 crash, when the first officer intentionally crashed the Boeing 767, according to the NTSB, killing all 217 people on board. "In the balance between privacy and safety, the scale tips toward safety, unequivocally," air safety expert and former commercial airline pilot John Nance said. "Protecting the flying public is a sacred obligation." Another aviation safety expert, Anthony Brickhouse, said that as an accident investigator, he is in favor of cockpit video, but acknowledged that commercial pilots have real concerns. Video on Air India flight 171 "would have answered lots of questions," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Air India declined to comment. India's AAIB, which is expected to release a final report within a year of the crash under international rules, did not reply to request for comment. PILOT OBJECTIONS U.S. pilots' unions such as the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Allied Pilots Association (APA) say the voice and data recorders already provide enough information to determine the cause of a crash and that the cameras would be an invasion of privacy and could be misused. Calls for cockpit cameras are an understandable reaction to "the stress of not knowing what happened immediately after an accident," said APA spokesperson Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines pilot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I can understand the initial reaction of the more information, the better," but investigators already have enough data to adequately determine an accident's cause, leaving no need for cameras, he said. To make flying safer, current safety systems should be enhanced to record higher-quality data, rather than adding video cameras, an ALPA spokeperson said. There are also concerns the footage could be used by airlines for disciplinary actions or that video could be leaked to the public after a crash, said John Cox, an aviation safety expert, retired airline pilot and former ALPA executive air safety chairman. A pilot's death being broadcast on "the 6 o'clock news is not something that the pilot's family should ever have to go through," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If confidentiality can be assured around the world, "I can see an argument" for installing cameras, Cox said. Cockpit voice recordings are typically kept confidential by investigators in favor of partial or full transcripts being released in final reports. Despite that, International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations said it was skeptical that confidentiality could ever be assured for cockpit videos. "Given the high demand for sensational pictures, IFALPA has absolutely no doubt that the protection of (airborne image recorder) data, which can include identifiable images of flight crewmembers, would not be ensured either," the organization said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boeing declined to disclose whether customers are able to order cockpit video recorders, while Airbus did not reply to request for comment. (Reporting by Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Additional reporting by Jun Yuan Yong in Singapore; Editing by Jamie Freed) An airline has said it is looking at "options for additional flights" after fog continued to cause delays and cancellations to flights for Guernsey and Alderney. A spokesperson for Aurigny said the company had "taken the difficult decision" to cancel at least 15 services on Wednesday due to "aircraft being unable to land in Guernsey and Alderney". The disruption comes days before the start of the summer holidays, with a further 12 flights significantly delayed according to the airline's website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aurigny said services would run "where safe conditions allow", while staff were "working hard" to keep customers informed. Some passengers to and from Alderney had been put on boats instead, the airline said. Guernsey Ports, which operates both Guernsey and Alderney Airports, said it "deeply regret[ed] the inconvenience caused". Guernsey Airport director Richard Thomasson said: "We know how important travel plans are at this time of year." Mr Thomasson said Ports was working with Aurigny to support stranded passengers, including those needing hotel accommodation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aurigny said affected customers would receive emails from the airline or could check its website. Follow BBC Guernsey on X and Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk. More on this story Related internet links TOKYO, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks edged down Wednesday as many investors refrained from trading actively ahead of the House of Councillors election on the weekend. Japan's benchmark Nikkei stock index, the 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average, ended down 14.62 points, or 0.04 percent, from Tuesday at 39,663.40. The broader Topix index, meanwhile, finished 5.91 points, or 0.21 percent, lower at 2,819.40. On the stock market, trading was mostly directionless as recent media polls have shown that the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito could lose its majority in the upcoming upper house election, analysts said. COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) Emergency preparedness is front and center in Columbus this week. Emergency management directors and those they work with across governmental lines are holding a two-day conference at the Columbus Georgia Convention & Trade Center. The event has a long name Disaster Resilience Across the Chattahoochee Valley Conference. But it has a very real purpose. Getting ready for the next natural disaster or human-made crisis. Alabama EMA Director Jeff Smitherman knows thats critical. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Look no further than recent events in Texas to understand the value of having pre-arranged mutual aid agreements, Smitherman said. So, the more that people can meet pre-incident and work out those relationships and the support, theyre going to provide each other locally. Its the community next door thats going to be the first ones to come in and assist you, even if that next door is across the river or across the state lines. Greg Koller, the deputy director for Support Services for the Georgia EMA, says these relationships are crossing state lines. Youre building partnerships, he said. Youre being introduced maybe for the first time to someone that has capability that you may not have, that you may need and youre getting that business card so that you can reach out to them in times of need. Columbus EMA and Homeland Security Director Chance Corbett has worked on both sides of the river in his more than three decades in the business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This conference comes as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is under threat of cuts and reduced response to disasters. It is something we are concerned about, Corbett said. Were watching it closely. Our Georgia Emergency Management and our Alabama Emergency Management are watching it closely as well, because they have to decide, you know, how theyre going to respond if something happens with FEMA. Koller agrees. We havent really received any inkling on what direction the federal governments going to go, Koller said. So its very difficult right at this particular point in time to say what we would need to do as a state to potentially fill a gap, because we dont know theres going to be a gap. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The conference has drawn more than 250 participants in person and even more virtually. It concludes Wednesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. HOMEWOOD, Ala. (WIAT) Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has weighed in on the case surrounding an 18-year-old man who was killed during an interaction with a police officer in Homewood, as well as the communitys growing demand for the officers body camera footage of the shooting to be released. Peoples died June 22 at UAB Hospital, less than an hour after being shot in the back by an officer with the Homewood Police Department during an interaction the department described as an altercation. The department has maintained that Peoples was shot after he reportedly reached for a gun during the encounter, despite no evidence of a gun being given. Peoples family and their attorneys Ben Crump and Leroy Maxwell, the attorneys representing Peoples family, have urged Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to release the body camera footage. They have since filed a petition to sue the city of Homewood and the officer involved in the shooting. Homewood Mayor Alex Wyatt has urged ALEA to release the footage, citing that they are the legal custodian of all evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 2023 state law that governs release of police recordings says an agency may choose to not disclose the recording if it would impact an active law enforcement investigation. ALEA reviewed the request and determined disclosure of the requested recording would affect the ongoing investigation, the state agency said in the email. On Wednesday, Gov. Ivey released the following statement: The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency has made this case a top priority, and I am confident they are working to efficiently get this done. As soon as their investigation is complete, the body camera footage will be turned over to the local district attorney who will be able to show it to the family and whoever else he deems appropriate. It is important ALEA carefully and thoughtfully work this case, and I am confident the facts will prevail here. The case remains under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. Montgomery, Ala. An Alabama legislator wants to expand the states death penalty law to cover more circumstances, including cases where a murder creates a significant risk of death to multiple people. Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, has prefiled House Bill 20 for the 2026 legislative session. The bill would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty if a person murders while knowingly creating a great risk of death to multiple persons, an enhancement that could apply to shootings or attacks in public places. There are some instances that I feel we should be able to go after the maximum punishment, Simpson said in an interview Monday. We have seen an increase in public shootings, a significant increase in this in public areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Alabama law, there are currently 21 circumstances that can elevate a murder charge to a capital offense, including killing a child under 14, murdering someone during a robbery or kidnapping, or killing a law enforcement officer. Simpsons proposal would add causing danger to multiple people as an additional qualifying factor for capital murder. Simpson said he believes expanding the death penalty in these cases would send a clear message. I think that capital murder will send a message to the community that we are no longer taking this, he said. However, some criminal justice reform advocates say that expanding the death penalty does not deter crime. Carla Crowder, executive director of Alabama Appleseed, said research has shown that certainty of arrest and conviction is the greatest deterrent to crime, not length of sentence or level of punishment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Common sense tells us that someone whos enraged enough to shoot into a crowd of people is probably not going to check the Code of Alabama to determine whether theyd be subject to death or just life in prison before pulling the trigger, Crowder said in a statement. This is not the first time Simpson has sought to expand the states death penalty law. During the 2025 session, he introduced a bill to allow capital punishment for those convicted of sexually assaulting minors, a measure that did not pass but would have aligned Alabama with Florida and Tennessee in pursuing similar laws. I am optimistic, Simpson said. I am going to file that bill again and hopefully get it a little further. The 2026 legislative session begins in January. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. Darryl Littleton, Gabrelle Simmons and Hal Nash of the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles listen to peoples testimony during a hearing on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. The newest member, Nash, recused himself from deciding cases until he became familiar with the cases. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector) Even though the Alabama Board of Pardons is fully staffed with three members, it will continue to operate as if it is without one member as the new chair gets up to speed. Gov. Kay Ivey appointed Hal Nash about one week ago, and he said during a hearing on Tuesday he is recusing himself from voting on both parole and pardon applications during a hearing for now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have not had an opportunity to review any of these cases, and therefore, I will not be voting on any of these cases, Nash said before the board announced its decisions on a set of cases. It would be extremely unfair to not be prepared in making any decision. Because of that, I will not be voting. I will be observing and getting my feet on the ground so that when I do vote, I will be confident because I have had the opportunity to review all the files. Nash added in a conversation after the meeting that he will continue to recuse himself for at least the next few days but has not established a timetable for when he will start to make decisions about pardons and paroles. The parole board strives to be fair, he said. His delay is consequential for parole applicants, because the verdicts are left to two associate members of the parole board, Darryl Littleton and Gabrelle Simmons. If they disagree on a particular case, the applicants will be denied. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nash began his tenure as chair on Monday after he was sworn into office. As a law enforcement officer for more than three decades, I understand the importance of our role to serve and protect the people of Alabama, Nash said in a news release. We will be detailed, diligent and strive to ensure a stronger, safer state through my work with fellow board members and our partnership with the Bureau and its officers in the field. Ivey announced that she appointed Nash to replace the former parole board chair Leigh Gwathney roughly one week ago, though Gwathney had the support of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall. In a letter made available to the public, Marshall said that Gwathney had the backing of 76 law enforcement leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But she was also criticized by criminal justice reform organizations as the parole rates dropped dramatically during her time as chair, falling from more than 50% in 2017 to about 8% in 2023. It increased to 26% in the first half of 2025. Lawmakers raised concerns during an October meeting of the Joint Prison Oversight Committee when she provided long-winded answers to their pointed questions. The parole board had not responded to written questions from legislators about parole guidelines and decisions. At the time, the parole board was three years delayed in updating the guidelines, required by a law that legislators passed in 2018 to reform the system after Jimmy ONeal Spencer was mistakenly granted parole and went on to kill three people. He was subsequently charged with capital murder and sentenced to death by a jury. The parole board published updated guidelines several weeks ago after the Legislature passed a General Fund budget in the spring that made funding the parole board contingent upon the members updating the guidelines. MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said hes drafting a bill that would keep SNAP recipients from buying candy. He said its about the health of our state, but others largely disagree. And most SNAP recipients are on Medicaid, said Sen. Orr. Now, the taxpayers are paying for your healthcare, relating to what youre eating. And, the taxpayers are paying for the candy that youre putting in your mouth Sen. Orr said that candy is fueling health problems for some Alabamians. He said thats why the state should remove candy and soda from the list of items that can be bought using SNAP benefits. His bill would require the Department of Human Resources to sign a waiver with the federal government, making the ban official. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To help them with their needed necessities, and foods not a problem, said Sen. Orr. But, when you start saying, you know, I want a bunch of soft drinks, and I want a bunch of candy and I want someone else to pay for it, thats ridiculous. Governor Kay Ivey visits STEM camp in Cullman for National Summer Learning Week But, Alabama Arise said SNAP recipients already have stigmas around their own food insecurity. LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate, said some 750,000 Alabamians are in the program. Children and parents know a lot of the time and recognize, okay, mommy has to pull out that blue card at the cash register the concern here, is that were over-policing people because of their income, said Wood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wood explained the very lack of food access can cause the same health problems. If we have concerns about the sugar content in our food, those concerns should be for everyone. And, they should not be based on somebodys income level because they are not the only ones that get diabetes, that are obese, she said. The bill has not been filed yet for the 2026 legislative session. But, Sen. Orr said some of his colleagues have reached out in support of the effort. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. DECATUR, Ala. (WHNT) The Alabama Wine Festival is headed to Noccalula Falls Park this September. On Saturday, September 20, raise a glass to toast to Alabamas rich winemaking heritage! The annual celebration invites wine lovers from near and far to experience the best in local wine, live music and Southern hospitality. The festival was previously held at Wills Creek Winery in Atalla. But for 2025, the Greater Gadsden Area Tourism and Noccalula Falls Park worked together to bring the fifth annual festival to the park. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Alabama Wine Festival is said to feature more than 10 award-winning wineries from across the state, each offering samples and bottles of their finest vintages. The Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association also said guests can enjoy tastings of everything from sweet muscadines and crisp whites to bold redsall proudly made in Alabama. This festival is held in conjunction with the annual Art on the Rocks event. General admission tickets for the Alabama Wine Festival are $25 per person and VIP tickets are $50 per person. Tickets can be purchased here until September 19. General admission tickets will also be available for purchase at the gate on the day of the event. Attendees must be 21 or older to participate in wine tastings. A valid ID is also required at the gate. You can find out more information about the festival on the Greater Gadsden Area Tourism website here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com. DEMPOLIS, Ala. (WIAT) A Demopolis woman was arrested after allegedly stabbing a man with a butcher knife and chasing a person with a crowbar at Walmart Tuesday. Demopolis police officers arrived to Walmart on reports of a possible active shooter situation. As Marengo County dispatchers were arriving, they were made aware that it wasnt an active shooter, but that someone has been stabbed inside. Police report that Kierra Carter, 32, allegedly came into the store, picked up a crowbar and butcher knife and began assaulting a 29-year-old woman with the crowbar. Birmingham attempted murder suspect arrested in Texas Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Carter then reportedly began chasing the female in the store with the crowbar. A man then attempted to take the crowbar away from Carter and was cut in the process. Both victims were transported to Whitfield Regional Hospital. The woman was treated and released, and the man was flown by helicopter to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. Carter is charged with first-degree assault and second-degree assault. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. Brown bears cavort in the water in Katmai National Park on June 30, 2009. The Alaska Board of Game, in a special meeting, authorized resumption of a bear-culling program with the aim of helping the stuggling Mulchatna caribou herd. But debate continues about the program's scientific validity. (Photo provided by National Park Service) Alaska officials on Tuesday resurrected a controversial bear-killing program aimed at boosting caribou numbers. The Alaska Board of Game, convening in a special meeting in Anchorage on the subject, authorized the state Department of Fish and Game to restart the program that has already killed 186 brown bears, five black bears and 20 wolves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Board members and department officials said they had fixed legal flaws that prompted two state judges earlier this year to overturn the program and cut short the bear culls that state officials argue are needed to help the ailing Mulchatna caribou herd in Western Alaska. State officials say the program is needed to help the faltering herd recover to levels that would allow hunting to resume.. Critics, including environmentalists and wildlife biologists outside of the Department of Fish and Game, say the program is scientifically unsound and that factors other than bears are behind the herds decline. Board members said department officials, in presentations during the two-day meeting, had provided compelling evidence that predation by bears is the main reason for the herds problems. And the board has an obligation to do whatever it can to allow residents of the region to resume their hunts of caribou, said one member, Vice Chair Stosh Hoffman of Bethel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The department is giving us a lot of good science and, it all made sense to me, Hoffman said on Tuesday just prior to the approval vote. I listened to the public and weighed everything, but the most important part of this is this herd has been identified for high use of harvest for Alaskans to eat and put away. And its been closed now for several years, since 2021. The Mulchatna herd peaked in the late 1990s at about 200,000 animals. It is down to a little under 15,000 animals now, according to the Department of Fish and Game. But that is an improvement from the lowest point, when the herd dipped below 13,000, department officials said, and they attributed the change to the past few years of predator control. Jake Fletcher, chair of the Alaska Board and Game, speaks Tuesday at a special meeting held in Anchorage on predator control in the Mulchatna caribou herd range. . Stosh Hoffman, the boards vice chair, is next to Fletcher. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) The departments goal is to have the herd grow to between 30,000 and 80,000 animals, enough to allow hunting to resume. Department officials and board members also said the program will be safe for the overall bear population targeted for relatively small areas that are used by the caribou herd for calving and limited to the spring season when calves are born. That is to limit the number of calves that are killed and eaten by bears, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doug Vincent-Lang, the departments commissioner, promised that if any information emerges that the bear populations sustainability is at risk, officials will adjust to protect the bears. We were trying to rebuild the caribou herd, but were not going to jeopardize long-term sustainability of bears in so doing, he told the board on Tuesday, prior to the approval vote. The bear-killing program has been mired in controversy since it began. It was originally authorized by the Board of Game in early 2022, but critics said that board members circumvented normal public processes when they granted that approval. The first bear kills were carried out in 2023. That year and the following year, 175 brown bears were killed through aerial shooting, along with five black bears and 19 wolves, according to the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, Alaska Superior Court Judge Andrew Guidi ruled that the program violated provisions of the state constitution on multiple grounds. He found that state officials failed to provide meaningful public notice or opportunities for public comment and participation in the decision process and that the state had failed to analyze the programs impacts to bear populations, thus violating the constitutions requirement for sustainable management of natural resources. Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin followed up in May with a ruling that pronounced the bear-killing program to be still void for this year, despite emergency action reauthorizing it, because the department and board had failed to fix the problems that Guidi identified in his earlier ruling. Nonetheless, the Department of Fish and Game launched its bear-culling program days later, on May 10. Eleven brown bears were killed that weekend by state actions that Rankin concluded had violated court rulings. The activities stopped after she issued a restraining order. Ryan Scott, director of the Alaska Department of Fish and Games Division of Wildlife Conservation, speaks on Tuesday at a special Board of Game meeting about predator control in the Mulchatna caribou herd range. Scott and other department representatives said removing bears from the area has already helped the herd. Next to Scott is Doug Vincent-Lang, the departments commissioner. (Photo by Yereth Rosen/Alaska Beacon) Critics of the program disagree that bears are to blame for the Mulchatna herds decline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Environmentalists and other critics of the program have pointed to habitat changes in the region that have made it less suitable for lichen-eating caribou, though more suitable for browsers of woody plants like moose. They have also pointed to disease and past overhunting as possible contributors. The critics also say the department has failed to show that the bear-killing program will not harm the regions bear population. Among the opponents is the Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which filed the lawsuit that resulted in the rulings against the program. The alliance mobilized a petition drive that it said drew 65,000 signatures opposing the action that the board ultimately took Tuesday. Additionally, there were 1,500 written comments submitted in opposition to the program, the alliance said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nicole Schmitt, the organizations executive director, told board members that she had no illusions about her abilities to convince them to change their minds about this predator control program. I think the decision around this proposal has largely been made, and we acknowledge that, she said in testimony at the board meeting on Monday. Nonetheless, she told board members, the alliance has submitted proposed amendments to clarify the objectives, establish specific measures of success and ensure that the program is limited in geographic scope and season. As written, the program would allow the department to kill bears by aerial gunning in a 40,000 square mile area, with nothing limiting activities to the calving grounds or calving season, she told the board. The area borders Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, she said. And the area is only 30 miles from Katmai National Park and Preserve and less than 50 miles from the state-managed McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, both of which are world-class bear-viewing destinations that support state tourism, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think the dismissal from the state of that bear-viewing argument is a misleading reflection of what this program, what this proposal is actually asking for, she said. The board rejected the alliances suggested amendments. The legal fight over bear culls in the Mulchatna caribou range is not over. A hearing is scheduled in state Superior Court on July 25 on a petition to find the Department of Fish and Game in contempt of court for proceeding with bear kills in May, contrary to orders by both Guidi and Rankin. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Alaska Republican U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are considering a bill that would rescind funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. (Alaska Beacon file photos) A group of 23 Alaska state legislators sent a letter to U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, on Tuesday urging them to oppose cuts to public broadcasting in a rescission package before the U.S. Senate this week. The legislators sent the letter hours before the Senate voted to advance the package forward, with Murkowski voting against it and Sullivan voting for it. Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to bring the bill forward. A final vote is expected by Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Republican-led U.S. House voted in June to claw back $9.4 billion in federal funding, with U.S. Rep Nick Begich, R-Alaska, voting for the proposal. The cuts include $1.1 billion for public broadcasting, with more than $20 million in funding for Alaska public radio and television stations. The Senate has until Friday to vote on whether to approve or reject the funding reduction, in the rescission package, H.R. 4 the Rescission Act of 2025. It also includes billions in funding for foreign aid. Congress previously had approved the funding, which covers public broadcasting from October 2025 through September 2027. The group of state senators and representatives who wrote the letter included 17 Democrats, four independents and two Republicans from across the state. Given that Alaska is a vast and rural state, public broadcasting is integral for the health, safety, and well-being of Alaskans, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In rural areas with limited to no internet access, public broadcasting provides important information during emergencies and natural disasters to help keep Alaskans safe, as well as providing important community information and connection across our state. Public broadcasting also keeps Alaskans connected to their Legislature through programing on Gavel Alaska. The letter highlighted the ongoing political debate between Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and the state Legislature, with Dunleavy vetoing state funding for public broadcasting out of the state budget since 2019. That political reality, combined with our current financial shortfalls, mean that the State of Alaska will be unable to backfill the money from federal public broadcasting cuts, they said. While the House proposed $1.2 million for public broadcasting this year, the Senate removed the money. That meant that the Legislature did not include money for public broadcasting in the budget for the first time since Dunleavy became governor, after he vetoed the funding in the previous five budgets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Legislators said withholding the funding will have minimal effect on the federal deficit, pointing out the bill with most of the changes to foreign aid represents 0.13% of the nearly $7 trillion federal operating budget. While we understand the importance of fiscal responsibility and addressing the federal deficit, these cuts will do more harm than good for public safety and well-being in Alaska. Murkowski has been a vocal supporter of public broadcasting, and has promised to do everything she can do to protect the funding. The senator declined to comment or respond to the legislators letter through a spokesperson on Tuesday. Murkowski spoke on the Senate floor against the bill on Tuesday. If you dont like whats going on within NPR, you think that theres too much bias there, we can address that, she said. But you dont need to gut the entire Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the entity the program that provides for so much support, particularly for those in rural places. Sullivan has also supported public broadcasting funding, but has also joined congressional Republicans in criticizing National Public Radio as being left-leaning and ideologically biased. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sullivan spokesperson Amanda Coyne said by email Tuesday evening that the senator had warned public media, including NPR, that their biased programming and reporting, funded in part by the American taxpayer, would eventually jeopardize federal support for both national and local radio stations, she said. For years Senator Sullivan has been an advocate for funding for our rural stations, and has been working for the last number of weeks with his Senate colleagues and senior White House officials on alternative sources of funding to help keep rural radio stations on the air. President Donald Trump has threatened to withhold his support or endorsement for any Republican that does not support the rescission package. The Senate voted to begin considering the rescission package on Tuesday. It is set to debate and vote on amendments on Wednesday. A final vote could be as soon as Wednesday. Alaska public media stations have been sounding the alarm on the proposed cuts, especially in rural Alaska, as some stations receive up to 70% of their funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the federal funding agency targeted by the rescission vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Station managers from Kotzebue to Dutch Harbor to Juneau have said that cuts would be devastating, and result in immediate cuts to programs, services and staff layoffs. Kristin Hall, interim general manager of Bethel-based KYUK, was among them. If Congress decides to defund public media or if these actions dismantle the public media system, KYUK could be forced off-air entirely, Hall said in a statement. Leaving our communities without access to free, independent, and reliable information and critical weather, river, and emergency updates. For our station, and for the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, this is not just a line item in a budget. Its our livelihood. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'American Idol' Producer and Her Husband Shot Dead in Brutal Double Homicide in Encino originally appeared on L.A. Mag. LAPD found the bodies of an American Idol producer and her husband dead in a tony Encino neighborhood in an apparent deadly home invasionCourtesy Rokas via Adobe Stock A bloody double homicide in a $4.5 million Enicino house took the lives of a supervisor for American Idol and her husband, Thomas Deluca, in what looks like a home invasion, LAPD officials confirm. Robin Kaye, an award-winning music supervisor for the hit competition show, was found slaughtered along with her husband after an apparent break-in at their house in the upscale Encino neighborhood, officials say. Officers were called to the home on White Oak Place at about 2:30 PM Monday on a welfare check after the couple had not been seen for several days. Officers found both with fatal gunshot wounds to the head, and they were pronounced dead at the scene. Detectives from the LAPDs Valley Bureau Homicide Division are investigating the deaths. Kaye worked as the music supervisor for the singing competition American Idol for the last 15 seasons, or nearly 300 episodes, per her IMDB page. Kaye has racked up accolades and has been awarded several Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for her work on the show. She also worked for other well-known shows, including "Lip Sync Battle', 'Hollywood Game Night,' and 'Worn Stories.' We are devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing, an "American Idols" spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. SOFIA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian officials signed a memorandum on Wednesday to boost collaboration between the government and the country's defense industry. The agreement aims to improve coordination between state institutions, science, and defense businesses. Key goals include easing regulations, enhancing production and export capabilities, and increasing Bulgaria's involvement in international defense projects. The country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Innovation and Growth Tomislav Donchev said Bulgaria will invest billions in military modernization over the next decade and emphasized the need to harness domestic industrial potential rather than rely solely on foreign suppliers. An award-winning American Idol staffer feared for her safety and attempted to hire private security before she and her husband were found murdered in their Los Angeles home. According to a shocking new report, music executive Robin Kaye had an eerie feeling and made efforts to protect herself and husband Thomas Deluca before they were gunned down. Kaye and Deluca, both 70, were discovered in their house on Monday, July 14, after officers responded to a call for a welfare check and discovered blood at the front door, the Los Angeles Police Department told NBC Los Angeles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She felt threatened by somebody because of somebody around their home or around their neighborhood who felt suspicious, Kris Herzog, owner of the Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills, said, per the New York Post. It was revealed the couple never hired the security company. Photos of the property published by the outlet reveal its high walls and security cameras. Officers who arrived at the scene were initially unable to go into the home located in an affluent area because it is highly fortified with 8-foot walls with spikes, police sources previously said. The vehicle gate was closed, also spiked. They had no means of entering via gate code like they did on the date of the welfare check, Lt. Guy Golan shared with Fox News Digital. Suspect Raymond Boodarian, 22, is now in police custody after his arrest on Tuesday, July 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is speculated that Kaye and Deluca were killed on July 10, when the LAPD received two calls about a possible burglary after a person was seen jumping the fence. Officers reportedly saw no sign of any burglary at the time. Investigators believe the burglar entered the property on that date through an unlocked door and the couple arrived during the home invasion, leading to a confrontation and the suspect allegedly shooting both victims multiple times before fleeing on foot. According to TMZ, the suspect left forensic evidence behind that directly led to his arrest in the form of fingerprints at the crime scene. Surveillance footage was also uncovered. Online records viewed by the Globe reveal Boodarian faces felony charges and that he is not eligible for release on bail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Records showed that Boodarian had been arrested on three separate criminal battery cases in 2024, all for which he was required to be fingerprinted. We are devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing, a spokesperson for American Idol shared in a statement following the tragic news of their deaths. Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time. Daniel Richard Martindale, an American who secretly provided intelligence to the Russian military from inside Ukraine, was granted Russian citizenship during a televised ceremony in Moscow on July 15. Russian state television aired footage of the event, showing Martindale bearded and dressed in a suit and tie smiling as he received his new documents, according to a report by Reuters. "I, Daniel Richard Martindale, voluntarily and consciously accepting the citizenship of the Russian Federation, swear to observe the Constitution," he said in Russian. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Holding up his new passport, he added: "The belief that Russia is not just my home, but also my family I am extremely glad that this is not only in my heart, but also by law." State media reported that Martindale had been granted citizenship by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. A self-described Christian missionary, Martindale first moved to Russia in 2018, studying the language and teaching English in the Far East city of Vladivostok. He later relocated to Poland and crossed into Ukraine by bicycle in February 2022 in anticipation of Russia's full-scale invasion. He eventually travelled east to Donetsk Oblast, where he settled in a Ukrainian village. Over the next two years, he covertly shared intelligence including information on Ukrainian troop positions with the Russian military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Denis Pushilin, leader of the Kremlin-backed proxies in the occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast, Martindale's intel helped Russian forces plan an offensive to seize Kurakhove, a town near the strategic logistics hub of Pokrovsk. As Russian troops advanced and captured the village where he had been living, Martindale was extracted by Russian special forces and taken out of Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly recruited foreign nationals to support its invasion of Ukraine, including as intelligence assets, saboteurs, and combatants. Read also: Trumps big Russia announcement fails to lift spirits in a fatigued Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Many missteps by the BidenHarris administration and Democrats eased the path to victory for Donald Trump and the GOP, but Trump may be best known for embracing immigration and border control as his signature issues. His administration acted quickly to round up undocumented migrants and to publicize its activities, so you'd expect voters to be delighted. But surveys find declining concern about the border, lower support for deportations, and growing favorability for increased immigration. What gives? If you look at the data, it's clear that most Americans like immigration and favor order at the bordernot cruel overreaction. Last year, it was obvious that immigration worries boosted Trump's candidacy. In October, a majority of respondents told YouGov pollsters that they trusted the GOP candidate to do a better job on immigration than then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate. The most important immigration concern for respondentsat 51 percentwas "border enforcement." In office, the Trump administration stepped up border controls. It militarized sections of the border, toughened screening of would-be migrants, increased deportations, and staged high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids to arrest undocumented immigrants. Unauthorized border crossings are now down "to a level not seen in at least 25 years" according to CBS News. Declining Support for the Administration's Immigration Crackdown That's pretty much what Trump said he'd do, so you'd expect the plurality that put him in office to be happy. Instead, though, Gallup finds support "lower today for deporting all undocumented immigrants, with 38% now favoring this as the administration is attempting it, down from 47% last year when it was a Trump campaign promise." At the same time, "support for allowing undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens has risen to 78%, up from 70% last year." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reducing immigration overall has dropped from a goal favored last year by a majority to a position favored by just 30 percent of respondents. A full 79 percent say that immigration is a good thing. This is quite a turnabout. The public appears to be amazingly fickle. Or maybe Trump is delivering something different than people expected. Last year, much of the discussion of undocumented migrants revolved around crimesoften horrendouscommitted by gang members, many from Venezuela. The much-publicized alleged takeover of Aurora, Colorado, apartment complexes by gangsters played a big role, as did the murder of Laken Riley, and several vicious rapes. And there lies the key to understanding the public mood. In the YouGov poll, tied for second place as immigration concerns after "border control" were "pathways to citizenship" and "drug smuggling." That suggests respondents worried about crime, not migrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just after Gallup, Harvard CAPS/Harris released a poll this week that also asked about immigration. Consistent with Gallup, the Harvard CAPS/Harris pollsters found 59 percent support for "more due process and guaranteed hearings to prevent unfair deportations." Fifty-five percent support allowing "the children of those who are here illegally in the United States automatically becoming U.S. citizens." Americans Are Worried About Criminals, Not Immigrants in General But a full 79 percent are in favor of "deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have committed crimes" and 70 percent support "closing the border with added security and policies that discourage illegal crossings." Seventy-nine percent believe "convicted criminals who are here illegally should be deported after their sentence is over." As in the Gallup poll, there's support for creating pathways to citizenship for migrants in generaleven those who crossed the border illegally. But respondents don't want other countries' criminals here, want enforcement efforts at the border that could keep criminals out, and favor tough efforts to remove those who have been convicted of crimes. Importantly for the outcome of last year's elections, 67 percent of respondents to the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll believed there was an "open border" under the Biden administration and 69 percent say that was "deliberate policy." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, Americans' attitudes aren't fickle, they're nuanced. When asked, people are rather enthusiastic about immigration and immigrants. But they want order at the border, not chaos. They support screening would-be migrants for criminal backgrounds, to exclude those who have preyed on people in the past and are likely to do the same in the future. And they want immigrants who have committed serious crimes in the U.S. to be sent back to their home countries. Trump Went Too Far Beyond His Border Policy Assurances That's not what the Trump administration has delivered. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller famously tore into ICE officials in May for not arresting enough migrants. He urged them to look for undocumented migrants to round up at Home Depot and 7-Elevenplaces you're more likely to find hopeful laborers than gang-bangerswith a goal of scooping up 3,000 people per day. The result has been much-publicized raids of meatpacking plants and farms. Among those caught in the dragnet have been U.S. citizens. People working difficult jobs in fields and factories are unlikely to be trigger-pullers for international criminal syndicates. Unsurprisingly, when it crunched the numbers on the arrests, the Associated Press found "the majority of people currently detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few have been convicted of high-level crimes." According to the data, that's not what Americans voted for when they turfed-out Biden, Harris, and their cronies in favor of Trump and his crew. On the immigration issue, voters wanted to get rid of an administration that people believed was deliberately refusing to enforce border controls. Trump won on a promise to impose order and target dangerous criminals who'd been allowed into the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration actually did that, and if it had stuck with that policy, the public would likely be happier. But then it started scooping up anybody who crossed the border without authorization (and some who were authorized) and lost support. No matter what Miller and company's sentiments are, Americans like immigration and favor admitting more peaceful and productive migrants. Ultimately, Americans want order, not cruelty, at the border, and that's how they voted. The Trump administration sheds support when it abandons one extreme on immigration for another. The post Americans Want Order, not Cruelty, at the Border appeared first on Reason.com. A majority of Americans oppose President Donald Trumps signature tax and spending legislation that he signed into law on July 4, according to a new CNN poll. The survey found that 61 percent of American adults either somewhat or strongly oppose the package, which was dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The balance 39 percent said they backed it. Trump and GOP leaders in Congress pushed heavily to pass the bill which consisted of extensions of tax cuts from Trumps first term, cuts to Medicaid and increased funding for a number of GOP-backed initiatives, like immigration enforcement and ultimately achieved one of the presidents top legislative goals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The high initial disapproval of the law could be a warning sign for Republicans in the midterms, as the GOP faces a fierce fight to maintain their narrow majorities in Congress. The bill passed after months of back and forth amongst GOP legislators concerned about whether to split up the domestic policy agenda or pass it in one piece. Despite ultimately passing almost entirely on party lines, Republican holdouts in both legislative chambers led to uncertainty that the bill could move forward. Americans said they were tuned in to that battle. Seventy-two percent of those surveyed said they followed news about the bill either very or somewhat closely. Thats up significantly from an October 2021 poll from CNN on then-President Joe Bidens infrastructure package, where just 58 percent said they were either very or somewhat closely following the news about the legislation. And though Americans have not yet seen the effects of the bill, 29 percent said they believe it will help the economy, compared to 51 percent who believed the legislation would hurt it and 20 percent who thought it wouldnt make much of a difference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation is set to take a starring role in the 2026 midterm elections, with both parties eager to message on the landmark legislation. Democrats have honed in out cuts to Medicaid, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates will eliminate health insurance from millions of people, even as some Democratic strategists argue that it wont be a silver bullet next November. Republicans, meanwhile, have focused on immigration provisions and argued the package will lower costs. Vice President JD Vance, who broke the tie on the bill in the Senate, is set to promote the law in Pennsylvania on Wednesday in a working-class area expected to see a close congressional race in 2026. The CNN poll surveyed 1,057 adults from July 10-13 via web and telephone. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. As she faces a federal criminal complaint, former state Rep. Carolina Amesty is seeking to clear from court records any mention of separate charges filed last year alleging she fraudulently notarized an employment document. Amesty, 30, is asking an Orange County circuit court judge to expunge records from the forgery case, which would result in the removal of the case from the Clerk of Courts website and prevent members of the public from obtaining the records by request. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which investigated the allegations lodged against the Republican ex-lawmaker from Windermere, has already sealed records from its probe, according to a court filing earlier this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The request to expunge the related court records, filed by high-powered Winter Park attorney Michael Sasso and his associate XiXi Li, notes Amesty was not judged guilty on the charges stemming from the indictment or any previous offense. Instead, the charges were dismissed by outgoing Orange-Osceola state attorney Andrew Bain, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a negotiated settlement. Sasso also is an ally of DeSantis. Sasso and Li did not immediately respond to emailed questions from the Orlando Sentinel. The expungement request, which is likely to be granted, would allow Amesty to say under oath she has not been charged with a criminal offense, said Michael Barfield, public access director for the Florida Center for Government Accountability. Such requests are routinely granted by judges if the defendants meet the requirements, as Amesty appears to do, he said. Allowing first-time defendants to seal their records is the legal equivalent of a mulligan, Barfield said, noting that repeat offenders do not have the opportunity to hide their indiscretions a second time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not atypical that the wealthy and the politically connected take advantage of that law, Barfield said. But in Amestys case, her arrest was extensively covered by local media outlets, so its less clear how expunging the official record could benefit her. The 2024 forgery charges were prompted by an Orlando Sentinel investigation published earlier in the year. Their dismissal, coming upon Amestys completion of community service and a financial crimes course, was viewed as lenient by some local defense attorneys. Elected to the House in 2022, Amesty narrowly lost her reelection bid in November to Democrat Leonard Spencer, a former Disney executive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to last years charges, Amesty is the subject of a separate ongoing federal criminal complaint claiming she fraudulently obtained $122,000 in COVID-19 relief funds through an eponymous foundation and a car dealership that investigators dont think was ever licensed to operate. She faces two counts of theft of government property, punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison, but is fighting those charges with the help of attorney Brad Bondi, brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. If the FDLE probe or records from the state charges become relevant to the federal case, which seems unlikely, investigators could obtain them via subpoena, Barfield said. Federal judges can also consider a defendants previous conduct when sentencing them for federal offenses, but allegations that result in a conviction are more likely to result in a stiffer sentence, he said. Barfield said he thinks its reasonable to allow defendants to clear their name if they were arrested only once, particularly if the alleged offense happened when they were young. On the other hand, I dont think its appropriate when its a public official, Barfield said. Although there is no exception for public officials, in my view, public officials should not take advantage of this statute. anmartin@orlandosentinel.com AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) An Amherst Regional Middle School guidance counselor who was fired for allegedly misgendering students has been reinstated after winning her termination through arbitration. The counselor, Delinda Dykes was fired following a 2023 Title IX investigation into how staff handled reported LGBTQ+ bullying. According to the superintendent of Amherst Public Schools, Dykes appealed her termination through arbitration. The arbitrator ruled in favor of Dykes and ordered that the district immediately reinstate her to her position. Title IX report reveals mishandling of LGBTQ+ bullying at Amherst-Pelham Schools Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The school district plans to use this moment to improve how they lead, document, and ensure accountability and to create clearer pathways forward. The school superintendent stated that the students deserve a school system that protects and celebrates their identities, grounded in clarity, equity, and care. Amherst Regional Middle School appoints new principal We cannot change the past, but we can and must learn from it. We will use this moment to build stronger systems, reset expectations, tighten guardrails, and create clearer pathways forward. This is an opportunity to improve how we lead, how we document, and how we ensure accountability. Our students deserve a school system that not only protects but celebrates their identities, and is grounded in clarity, equity, and care, Superintendent Dr. Herman said. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. Amtrak's Borealis line has reached another ridership milestone. Less than two months after reaching more than 200,000 riders, the line surpassed more than 250,000 passengers over the Fourth of July weekend, the rail service reported July 15. "The Borealis continues to be a success story in Wisconsin and our partner states, said Wisconsin Transportation Secretary Kristina Boardman in a July 15 statement. "This 250,000-rider milestone clearly demonstrates the need for safe, reliable and efficient passenger rail travel options." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The daily route, which offers service from Milwaukee to Chicago and the Twin Cities , began in May 2024 reaching more than 18,500 passengers in its first month of service. Within its first year, it reached more than 200,000 passengers. What is the Amtrak Borealis route? The Borealis line has 13 stops, making Empire Builder stops between St. Paul and Milwaukee and Hiawatha stops between Milwaukee and Chicago. For more information, you can visit https://www.amtrak.com/borealis-train. Plans are in the works for Amtrak to add a second daily line from Chicago to the Twin Cities, via Milwaukee, by the end of 2023. Alex Groth contributed to this report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Amtrak's Borealis train, from Milwaukee to the Twin Cities, had more than 200,000 riders in its first year This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Over 250,000 riders have used Amtrak's Borealis line, agency says Most of us dont want politics from the pulpit. So why, citing religious freedom concerns, did the IRS advance an interpretation of the law that allows churches to do just that? For years, it was understood that the Johnson Amendment a law that ties the tax-exempt status of certain non-profits to certain restrictions on their political involvement prohibited politics from the pulpit. To keep tax-exempt status, churches must not participate in, or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office. But in a break from the past, the IRS has stated in a recent court filing that when a house of worship in good faith speaks to its congregation concerning electoral politics, it does not run afoul of the Johnson Amendment any more than does a family discussion concerning candidates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the IRS filing which indicated its current position, commentators from all corners have cried out, arguing the IRS take on the law poses risks to separation of church and state, while threatening further political polarization, and enabling dark money campaign contributions. Although the IRS has not issued any formal regulation regarding its position, and no court has held its interpretation of the law to be correct, some commentators have gone as far as to state that the IRS has reversed decades of legal precedent by merely filing a document in a federal trial court. Yet in all this commentary regarding the potential impacts of the IRS position, little has been said about the religious freedom arguments made in the case against the IRS. The IRS was not always friendly to softening the Johnson Amendment, even in the case against it brought by National Religious Broadcasters and others that claimed the amendment burdens religious freedom. In late December 2024, during the tail end of the Biden administration, the IRS filed a motion to dismiss the entire case, arguing, in part, that neither the First Amendment nor the Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibited the government from conditioning a churchs tax-exempt status on its political activities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But during the new Trump administration, the IRS changed course. Instead of arguing for dismissal of the case, the IRS proposed a consent judgment a method of voluntarily ending the case on agreed-upon terms the court enters. In this case, those terms included an interpretation of the Johnson Amendment that permits churches to endorse candidates. The IRS shift in case strategy came with a shift in its arguments regarding religious freedom. Earlier, the IRS argued that churches religious free exercise rights were not burdened by the Johnson Amendment, so there was no need to review the First Amendment or the Religious Freedom Restoration Acts strict frameworks for religious freedom violations. As the argument went, the Johnson Amendment does not require churches to engage in an act against their faith nor does it prohibit them from acting according to their faith, as they are free to endorse candidates if they want. Doing so just comes with taxes. However, the IRS joint statements with the plaintiffs in their later proposed consent judgment more closely align with the religious freedom claims made by the plaintiffs from the start. The consent judgment, citing a newly issued U.S. Supreme Court decision, states that disadvantaging churches whose doctrines compel them to preach about politics and favoring churches whose doctrines permit them to remain neutral in political matters, would create serious tension with the First Amendments Establishment Clause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their legal complaint, the plaintiffs had argued the Johnson Amendment was motivated by and enforced through religious hostility, that the law does not impose the same tax-exempt limitations in other situations, and that the Johnson Amendment substantially burdens churches religious liberties by subjecting them to drastic financial consequences. Because of the parties agreed-upon consent judgment, which is limited only to the parties in the case, it is unlikely that the judge in the present lawsuit will decide which of the parties religious freedom arguments prevails. However, if critics predictions are correct, and politics become deeply entwined with preaching because of the IRS Johnson Amendment interpretation, the current lawsuit is likely not the end of legal battles over churches and tax-exempt status. Several organizations dedicated to policing the separation of church and state vow to oppose the IRS position. And even for more conservative religious freedom advocates, there is a fear that backlash to the IRS position could reinforce a negative public view of religious freedom: namely, that religious freedom is not a tool to protect fundamental rights or to help religiously diverse Americans to participate on equal footing in our society, but an unfair exception to rules that everyone else has to obey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If that negative view prevails in a future presidential administration, it is not difficult to imagine the IRS wielding the Johnson Amendment with more force, targeting the tax-exempt status of disfavored groups, much like the Trump administration has shown can be done in higher education. Whatever occurs, the fact that the Johnson Amendment and its religious liberty implications swing on the pendulum between republican and democratic administrations is a sign of more culture war fights to come. Tanner Bean is a partner at the Salt Lake City law firm of Fabian VanCott. His practice focuses on religious liberty, employment law, and appeals. The views expressed are his own. By Lisa Barrington and Joanna Plucinska DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Poor infrastructure, regional conflict and sporadic Israeli airstrikes are holding back more airlines from returning to Syria, industry officials told Reuters, hampering efforts to rebuild a shattered economy after 14 years of civil war. This month, at least 11 foreign airlines are scheduled to fly into Syria, up from just three a year ago, as sanctions are scaled back following the overthrow of long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These include the world's largest international carrier, Dubai's Emirates, and the first two European Union-based airlines to fly into Syria since 2011: Romania's Dan Air and Greece's Air Mediterranean. But airlines such as Royal Jordanian, FlyDubai, Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways last month were forced to cancel many of their recently launched flights as airspace across the Middle East closed to civil air traffic due to air and missile attacks involving Israel, the U.S. and Iran. There are dangers closer to home too. Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority there. At the same time, airlines are worried about the state of Syria's aviation infrastructure and management of the industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Progress is needed in regulatory oversight, infrastructure investment, and compliance with international safety and operational standards," industry body the International Air Transport Association said. Major carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France KLM, which used to fly to Syria pre-war, have visited Damascus airport to assess the infrastructure and former offices, officials at Damascus airport and Syria's aviation regulator told Reuters. However, both airlines told Reuters they had no current interest in resuming flights. Small Romanian airline Dan Air launched its Bucharest to Damascus route last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What held back operators until now were the logistical and regulatory complexities," Dan Air CEO Matt Ian David told Reuters, adding that eased sanctions would now make Syria more accessible. Emirates at the end of May resumed flying over Syria for the first time since the civil war, shaving up to an hour off a Dubai to Beirut flight. However, several countries, including Britain and the United States, still advise their airlines to avoid flying over Syria. Europe's aviation regulator EASA says "there is a risk of both intentional targeting and misidentification of civil aircraft". Syria completely reopened its airspace on June 24, its civil air authority said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damascus Airport's two runways were bombed during the civil war, but have been repaired. The airport was also looted during the chaos of Assad's fall. Alaa Sallal, director of public relations at Syria's Civil Aviation Authority, told Reuters a number of airlines had been to inspect security and infrastructure at the airport. "The airport's construction was dilapidated, the equipment was worn out and some missing," Sallal said. Radar equipment was lacking, leaving the country reliant on Lebanese or Turkish radar to monitor air traffic, he said. The head of Syria's General Authority for Civil Aviation earlier this month said it wanted to build new airports in Damascus, Aleppo and in the country's central region. But that will take time and money that the war-ravaged country may struggle to find on its own. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NEW AIRLINES The mostly Iranian and Iraqi carriers that served Syria through its long conflict have largely stopped flying there, reflecting a new political landscape after Iran- and Russia-backed Assad's overthrow. The flag carriers of Qatar and Turkey, countries that backed Syria's rebels through the war, were the first big airlines to resume flights in January under President Ahmed al-Sharaa's new leadership. Turkey, a close ally of the new government, has been helping improve Syria's airports, its transport ministry has said. Emirates, which resumes its Dubai-Damascus route from Wednesday for the first time since 2012, said flights would support ties with the United Arab Emirates and help Syria attract investment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Saudi budget carrier flyadeal has said it also wants to start flying to Syria soon, joining fellow Saudi low-cost airline flynas. For others, though, there may be less incentive to return as even pre-war Syria was not a major market for non-Middle Eastern carriers. Those that did fly there - Russia's Aeroflot, Air France, Lufthansa's Austrian Airways, LOT Polish, IAG's Iberia, Italy's ITA, Czech Airlines, and China Southern - have not yet returned. Despite the recent ramp-up, the number of international flights serving Syria remains well below pre-war levels. Scheduled flights in July were 58% of what they were in July 2010, Cirium data shows. IATA said the easing of sanctions had opened pathways to improved access to aircraft parts, maintenance services and some commercial transactions. However, visa restrictions on Syrian nationals limited passenger mobility and market growth. (Reporting by Mohamed Firas Al Daalati in Damascus, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Jordan, Lisa Barrington in Seoul, Joanna Plucinska in London. Editing by Mark Potter) By Dan Peleschuk KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine will get its first new prime minister of the war on Thursday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tries to wrestle wartime defence spending into shape and win over both Donald Trump and a war-weary public with fresh-faced leadership. Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, the only candidate for the post, is expected to take over a reshuffled cabinet, tasked with scaling up a fledgling arms industry and breathing life into an economy kept afloat by Western lenders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelenskiy's choice of a young economist well known in Washington reflects the importance of repairing relations with the Trump administration after Zelenskiy's disastrous White House visit in February. Svyrydenko's outgoing predecessor, Denys Shmyhal, is meanwhile likely to shift to the job of defence minister, a sign of the importance Kyiv now places in building up the capacity of its defence industry as the best chance of fending off Russia. But with Zelenskiy still relying on a small handful of close allies to make his biggest reshuffle of the war, the moves could disappoint Ukrainians who want to see a wider talent pool at the top. Svyrydenko, with a more prominent public profile than Shmyhal, has already played a role in shoring up ties with the United States and was one of Kyiv's main negotiators in reaching a deal that gives Washington preferential access to swathes of Ukraine's mineral wealth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her nomination sends a signal to Washington that Kyiv is prioritising the relationship, said political analyst Mykola Davydiuk. "For us, it's a partnership that's not just about money but about values, about joint projects and generally about our common movement forward together," he said, summing up how he saw Zelenskiy's thinking. IMPORTANCE OF DEFENCE Shmyhal, 49, was Ukraine's longest-serving prime minister. Moving him to the defence ministry, a demotion on paper, gives Zelenskiy an experienced technocratic economist in a job that oversees the bulk of Ukraine's state cash flow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 budget allocates 2.23 trillion hryvnias $53.2 billion - about 26% of Ukraine's gross domestic product - for defence spending. The ministry has faced public criticism over poor organisation and procurement problems as Ukraine struggles to fend off a bigger and better-armed Russian military. "This is a ministry that practically since the beginning of the war has suffered from a lack of systemic management," said Hlib Vyshlinsky, head of the Centre for Economic Strategy in Kyiv. He described Shmyhal's appointment as "an extremely good step". Economically, Kyiv faces the tough challenge of finding money to finance its ballooning budget deficit as foreign aid is set to diminish but defence spending continues to grow. Officials have said Ukraine would need about $40 billion in international financing in 2026 and could face a shortfall of about $19 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maintaining stability will only become more difficult as the war drags on, complicated by a lack of effective policymakers, said opposition lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk. "Unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult for Zelenskiy and his coalition to add new, bright people to ministerial positions," said Osadchuk, of the Holos party, adding it could lead to "stagnation" in the executive branch. POLITICAL CHALLENGES Earlier this month, Shmyhal's cabinet came under fire from businesses and civil society for rejecting the candidacy of an economic security chief who had been unanimously backed by an internationally supervised committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other opposition lawmakers have criticised what they describe as Zelenskiy's reliance on an ever-smaller band of close loyalists. "Zelenskiy's short bench of personnel has long since turned into a stool on which maybe five or six managers fit," wrote lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko, a member of Zelenskiy rival Petro Poroshenko's party, on Wednesday. "The only innovation (in Svyrydenko's appointment) is that a female manager has been added." Elections are prohibited while the country is under martial law, a principle widely accepted within Ukraine given the difficulty of staging a vote while millions of people are displaced and cities are under bombardment and occupation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But this also means it is difficult for a new crop of leaders to emerge. While Zelenskiy himself remains broadly popular, the cabinet and other current or former senior officials have been ensnared in allegations of corruption and incompetence. Last month, authorities charged a deputy prime minister with taking a $345,000 kickback. Ukraine's government and parliament suffer from low levels of public trust, said Anton Grushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. However, he added that most Ukrainians, while wanting a widespread political renewal, are against wartime elections and accept that fending off Russia is the greater priority. (Reporting by Dan PeleschukAdditional reporting by Olena HarmashEditing by Mike Collett-White and Peter Graff) HELSINKI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A prolonged labor dispute significantly impacted the operating result of Finnish national carrier Finnair in the first half of 2025, according to the company's half-year financial report released on Wednesday. Finnair reported a comparable operating loss of 52.3 million euros (60.55 million U.S. dollars) for the January-June period, marking a sharp reversal from the 32 million euros operating profit recorded during the same period last year. "Industrial action had a direct negative impact of around 51 million euros on the comparable operating result," the airline stated in the report. The dispute between the Finnish Aviation Union (IAU) and Palta, the Finnish Service Sector Employers' Association, began in January 2025. Over six months of stalled negotiations, Finnair was forced to cancel more than 1,300 flights due to strike actions. The cancellations affected approximately 100,000 passengers. On July 13, the National Conciliator's Office of Finland announced that the dispute had ended after IAU and Palta reached a settlement. As a result, all planned future strikes were also cancelled. Finnish media described the conflict as one of the longest industrial disputes in the country's aviation sector in recent years. The impact was especially pronounced in the second quarter of 2025, when Finnair's comparable operating result fell to 10.3 million euros, down from 43.6 million euros in the same quarter of 2024. The airline said the industrial action caused a direct loss of about 29 million euros between April and June alone. Following the financial report, Finnair's share price dropped nearly 9 percent when trading opened on the Helsinki Stock Exchange on Wednesday. "Despite the disruptions caused by industrial action, our operational quality remained high, and we were able to operate 94 percent of our flights as planned," said Finnair CEO Turkka Kuusisto in the report. Looking ahead, Finnair expects its full-year comparable operating result to be at the lower end of its forecast range, citing weaker-than-expected demand on North Atlantic routes, falling ticket prices, and the broader indirect impact of the labor unrest. (1 euro = 1.16 U.S. dollar) Jul. 16The Anchorage School District has begun laying off employees after the Trump administration froze $14 million in education funding meant for the district, according to a letter sent by Superintendent Jharrett Bryantt. The district cut 34.5 positions, "and the number will increase as we continue to exhaust our federal reserves," said district spokesperson Corey Allen Young. But only five people were laid off so far, according to Young, because most of those whose jobs were cut would take other vacant positions within the district. Among the eliminated positions are 15 teacher experts that supported professional learning and teaching. The people who filled those positions would be reassigned to open classroom positions, Young said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bryantt declined an interview request Wednesday, the day after sending a letter to Anchorage families calling on them to oppose steps taken by the administrations of President Donald Trump and Gov. Mike Dunleavy that are set to reduce funding for the district. The Trump administration earlier this month froze billions of dollars in education funding, including $46 million intended for Alaska schools and funding meant for adult literacy and education programs. The frozen federal funding was intended for after-school programs, special education, English learner services and Alaska Native student services. The Trump administration said that the funding was under review. The federal funding freeze comes after Dunleavy vetoed roughly $50 million in education funding from the state budget. Meanwhile, Alaska Education Commissioner Deena Bishop is seeking new rules that could limit how much the Municipality of Anchorage and other local jurisdictions can contribute toward education expenses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are not just managing a crisis. We are resisting the slow dismantling of public education in Alaska," Bryantt wrote in a letter sent to the families of Anchorage students Tuesday. "Now, with the school year weeks away, we are scrambling to preserve critical supports while losing staff and resources," Bryantt wrote. District spokespeople said Bryantt was not available for an interview Wednesday or Thursday because he was attending "funding crisis meetings." Bishop, who leads Alaska's education department, "remains confident that the funds appropriated by Congress for Federal Fiscal Year 2025 will be distributed as intended, unless Congress takes action to rescind them," spokesperson Bryan Zadalis said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Responding to the funding freeze, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was one of 10 Republican U.S. senators who sent a letter Wednesday to a Trump administration official asking him to unfreeze the education grants. "Withholding these funds will harm students, families and local economies," the senators wrote in the letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. "We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs. However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds," the senators wrote. Murkowski began her political career as a member of the parent-teacher association for Government Hill Elementary School, an Anchorage public school attended by her sons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alaska U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan did not sign the letter. His office "is working with the Department of Education to get more information about the administration's plan for these grants," spokesperson Amanda Coyne said by email. Alaska U.S. Rep. Nick Begich's office "is in discussions with local school districts as we examine the impacts from and rationale for paused federal funding," spokesperson Silver Prout said. Bryantt in his letter asked for Anchorage residents to resist the funding impacts by reaching out to state legislators, members of the Alaska congressional delegation and members of the state board of education, who are appointed by Dunleavy. Asked about Bryantt's letter, Dunleavy spokesperson Jeff Turner pointed to an opinion piece Dunleavy and Bishop wrote last week in which they accused school boards and administrations of being "focused on keeping every school building open, every job intact, and every overhead cost unchanged instead of improving student outcomes." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dunleavy and Bishop said school board members treated closing schools as "political heresy." They made no mention of the fact that the state's larger school districts including Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, Juneau, Fairbanks North Star Borough and Kodiak have all closed schools in recent years amid declining enrollment. Dunleavy and Bishop also accused Bryantt and other education leaders of having "hysterical reactions" to reductions in state education funding. The piece made no mention of the impacts of the federal funding freeze. Anchorage School Board member Andy Holleman said Tuesday that Dunleavy and Bishop are "extremely disconnected" from the classroom experience of students in Alaska. "I do think that the governor wants, ultimately, for-profit private schools in the state, and he's trying to move things in that direction," said Holleman. "If that's his motivation, it's working out pretty well for him. He's making public schools not a great place to be." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an emailed statement, Dunleavy said Holleman had made "a groundless accusation." Dunleavy said "the real problem" was Alaska students' poor rankings in educational outcomes. "Mr. Holleman also has the luxury of not having to worry about where the money is going to come from to pay for all the state's obligations," Dunleavy said. Over the course of Dunleavy's more than six years in office, education funding has stagnated as funding for other departments has kept up with inflation or surpassed it. Dunleavy has doubled down on his claims that Alaska's education outcomes can be improved through expanding access to homeschooling and charter schools which are increasingly popular in urban parts of the state. The governor has called the Legislature into a special session next month, in which he is expected to propose education policy reforms. The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. When the poet Andrea Gibson learned two years ago that their ovarian cancer was incurable, the news marked a turning point; Gibson would often say it led to some of the most joyous moments of their life. Before the terminal prognosis, they were always afraid. They had severe anxiety and chronic panic attacks; they were petrified of the ocean; they couldnt bring themselves to eat nuts on a plane, in case they turned out to have developed a new allergy and might suffocate in flight. For years, theyd lived in constant fear that everything would come crashing down. Then, of course, it did. And just at the moment when patients are frequently pushed to start battling cancer, Gibson finally learned to stop fighting. In an interview last year with the website Freethink, they remembered telling themself: I will allow this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When Gibson died on Monday, at age 49, those closest to the poet consoled mourning fans by sharing some of Gibsons last words: I fucking loved my life. Accepting their illness and their mortality had transformed Gibson. You tap into the brevity of something, theyd told Freethink, and all of a sudden everything becomes more special. The idea that facing death can shake you into living life was not, Gibson understood, a new one. But it is particularly fitting for a poet. In verse, brevity is paramount. Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful, the writer Rita Dove once argued. A handful of short lines can capture near-universal emotions and grand existential truths not in spite of their spareness but because of it. Even before their diagnosis, Gibson, the poet laureate of Colorado and the author of seven books, knew this. In Come See Me in the Good Light, a documentary following them and their partner, Megan Falley, that will stream on Apple TV+ this fall, Gibson jokes that their publisher accused them of rearranging the same words over and over in their poems. And certain termsmoon, snow, shotgun, laces, kitedo show up frequently, shuffled around in new variations. (One poem is called The Moon Is a Kite.) But the imagery conveys what it needs to, and sometimes it gives you goosebumps (another favorite word). Gibson didnt need much to paint a worldjust a small number of apt metaphors, cast in plain but tender language. [Read: The best American poetry of the 21st century (so far)] Potential weaknesses, in Gibsons poetry, had a way of becoming strengths. The simplicity of their writing made it easy to connect with. Metaphors repeated from one poem to the next placed their work in a shared universe, one in which all the specific fragments of pain or beauty experienced over years felt intrinsically linked. Their verse sometimes risked seeming cloying or sentimental because of how unselfconsciously it concerned love: feeling it, cultivating it, spreading it, protecting it. Much of the time, though, that earnestness felt honest and well earned. When they wrote about burning with righteous indignation on behalf of suicidal queer kids or finding a sense of home in their partner, a reader could sense the intensity of their feeling and the depth of their affection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And in writing about love again and again, Gibson ended up adopting a rarer theme in poetry: kindness. Two of their other much-used words are soft and gentlestates toward which they seemed to aspire. Nearly every poem is an exercise in empathy, summoning generosity even in response to cruelty. In one poem, Gibson imagines what they would say now to the man who assaulted them when they were 13. They picture how guilt might poison the life hes built for himself; how he might wonder who he could be if he hadnt made that awful decision so many years ago. Everyone can / see who they were supposed to be, they wrote. Its the readiest grief in the world. To write about kindness in the 21st century is, perhaps, to risk sounding naive or mealymore concerned with peace than with justice, more set on everyone getting along than on recognizing brutality and inequality. But Gibson wasnt afraid to do the latter either. They wrote with fury about climate change, political failures, religious bigotry, anti-trans violence. They also sought a more universal kind of love; they wondered what pain their ideological opponents had experienced; they wrestled with how to do all this without betraying their political convictions. In MAGA Hat in the Chemo Room, which they performed for NPR, Gibson described their reaction to a fellow patient who kept his Trump hat on during chemotherapy. At first, they were outraged. His apparel felt like an intrusion: Gibson wanted to feel that everyone is rooting for me to survive, and they suspected that a MAGA supporter might not root for the nonbinary poet beside him. But anger gives way to a sense of recognitionthey had both felt angst long before the chemo started, and they certainly have it now; Gibson doesnt want to arrive one day to find the MAGA guys chair empty. This kind of mutual support should feel more attainable in less dire situations, Gibson said, but outside the room, everyone thinks they have so much time to kill. Facing down death injected Gibsons love poems with urgency; it gave their sense of whimsy and wonder the highest possible stakes. I know that they felt it made them more openhearted, more attuned to lifes peculiar beauties. But I keep thinking about one poem, Tincture, which at first I assumed theyd written post-diagnosisuntil I realized it was published in 2018. Imagine, when a human dies, / the soul misses the body, they wrote, going on to list the oddities and pains and pleasures of living in a corporeal form. The soul misses every single day / the body was sick, the now it forced, the here / it built from the fever. Fever is how the body prays, / how it burns and begs for another average day. Article originally published at The Atlantic Two out of the nine Jewish organizations listed as supporting Andrew Cuomo have stated that their endorsements applied only to the primary election and have not yet decided who to support in November. For anyone looking to decide which mayoral candidate to support in New York Citys upcoming election, the endorsements page on former Gov. Andrew Cuomos campaign website could suggest ample Jewish support. But at least two of the nine Jewish groups and leaders listed on the campaign website say their endorsements applied only to the primary election and that they have not yet decided whom to support in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cuomo lost to the Democratic candidate, Zohran Mamdani, in the primary last month and announced on Monday that he had decided to run as an independent in the general election, solidifying the slate of major candidates in Novembers race. In addition to Mamdani and Cuomo, incumbent Eric Adams is also running as an independent; voters will also be able to choose from Republican Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden. Many analysts believe and current polling shows that if both Cuomo and Adams run, they will split moderate votes and Mamdani, a progressive and critic of Israel, will win. Both Adams and Cuomo have sought to curry the citys Orthodox Jewish voters, who tend to vote in blocs. The Crown Heights PAC, which Cuomo lists as one of the largest Orthodox communities in Brooklyn in the endorsement on his website, along with Crown Jewish United, said it had not determined whether it would support Cuomos candidacy. A woman displays flyers of Mayor candidate Andrew Cuomo near a voting center during the early voting in the New York primary election at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, U.S., June 21, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/EDUARDO MUNOZ) We have not yet decided on who to endorse in the general election, Shmuel Rosenstein, a representative from the Crown Heights PAC, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He said he did not speak for Crown Jewish United, which did not return a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But he also said his group would not be asking Cuomo to remove its primary endorsement from his website. There is no need to request that, Rosenstein said, adding, In the next few weeks, we will sit down and discuss who we are backing in the general election. Confirming endorsements JTA reached out to all of the Jewish groups listed on Cuomos website to ask whether their endorsement still applies. In addition to the Crown Heights groups, Cuomo also lists endorsements from two Satmar Hasidic sects in Brooklyn, the leaders of the Bobov Hasidic sect, the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, the Flatbush Jewish Community Coalition, and the Sephardic Community Federation. None of the other groups responded to multiple inquiries before and after Cuomos decision to stay in the race. The Cuomo campaign did not immediately respond to an inquiry Tuesday about whether it will be removing from its website primary endorsements from groups that have not yet endorsed Cuomo in the general election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another endorser listed on the site, the former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman, said he had not yet decided whom to endorse in the general election. He said he was trying to work out which candidate would be best poised to defeat Mamdani. Most caring Jews in NYC are focused on who would be the best candidate to defeat ZM, Foxman wrote in a text message to JTA. They are willing to overlook faults, foibles, and weaknesses if they are convinced he can win. For many Jewish groups, Mamdanis record of support for the boycott Israel movement and refusal to condemn the popular pro-Palestinian slogan globalize the intifada have knocked him out of the running for any potential endorsements. There are signs that a third primary endorser of Cuomo, Brooklyns Satmar Hasidic community, may not be backing him in the general election. Prior to the primary, Rabbi Moishe Indig, a top leader in the community, said during an event on combating antisemitism alongside Adams that the community would support him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In November, youll see the same thing with Gods help, Indig said at the time. We will come out to show our great support for our great mayor and brother, Eric Adams. Foxman signaled that he was concerned that if both candidates run in the general election, as they say they are doing, Mamdani will win. There is no question that if Cuomo and Adams run, ZM will win. So at the moment the Jewish community faces a dilemma trying to determine which of the two is the stronger without alienating the other, Foxman wrote. Both Cuomo and Adams are not making it easy. For the candidates, its power and ego; for the Jewish community, it is of critical consequence. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) Ohios new megaproject got quite a boost from President Donald Trumps Big Beautiful Bill. As Anduril Industries ambitiously hopes to open its central Ohio-based drone and vehicular weapons manufacturing plant by July 2026, the defense systems manufacturer is already securing business. Trumps new government spending bill allocates several billion dollars to border security and includes favorable policies for Anduril. Although Andurils Ohio plant, Arsenal 1, is not expected to make the technology favored in the bill, the new regulations will likely indirectly help Anduril build drones in Ohio. The national budget bill allocates $6.1 billion to border security screening, including new technological investments along the border. The bill also includes a restriction on which technologies can be purchased. It says the funds can only be used for surveillance towers that have been tested and accepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deliver autonomous capabilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why Ohios state tree may not be the buckeye The bill goes on to define autonomous as a system designed to apply AI, machine learning or other algorithms to detect, identify, classify and track items of interest in real time without needing active human participation. These stipulations heavily favor Anduril, which had 300 autonomous surveillance towers along U.S. borders as of September 2024. Anduril appears to be the only defense company that is tested and accepted by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Andurils Sentry Towers are also specifically equipped to meet those demands by using AI and a birds eye view to track movement on the ground, including people crossing the border. The Intercept, the left-leaning journalism nonprofit that broke the story, reportedly got confirmation from CBP that Anduril was the only company approved to provide towers under the Big Beautiful Bill. NBC4 reached out to CBP and Anduril for comment and confirmation, but neither replied. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ohios Anduril plant will build drones and autonomous airborne vehicles, not surveillance towers. According to Anduril founder Palmer Luckey, weapons and defense systems built at Arsenal 1 are more likely to be sent to allies in Ukraine or used for military defense rather than border patrol. See previous coverage of Ohios Arsenal 1 in the video player above. Ohio law to require age verification for adult websites However, the bills rules will likely bring more capital to Anduril, helping it fund operations in Ohio. Unlike Intel, the company behind another central Ohio megaproject, Anduril is in very good financial standing, which will help it avoid delays like the ones Ohioans have seen with Intel. The U.S. has used Remote Video Surveillance Systems along its borders since 2011, according to NBC News. As surveillance shifts to favor artificial intelligence, Anduril leads the pack. Both CBP and Congress have said over the past few years that they want more autonomous towers along the border. Anduril founders created the company to seek government contracts, so its understandable that they would cater their technology to what the government is seeking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. also uses Virginia-based General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) and Israeli company Elbit Systems for border patrol towers. In January 2024, GDIT was investing in autonomous tower technology with the governments backing, but is not confirmed to have formally developed a tower that fits the bills new requirements. Elbit Systems American branch said it offers autonomous tower surveillance options, and it has limited artificial intelligence capabilities that track and alert border patrol agents. However, Elbit Systems does not currently appear to be certified by CBP. The bill does not limit new companies from developing compliant technology, so Andurils advantage could be temporary. How no tax on tips could help, hurt Ohio workers The bills preference toward Anduril is not going unnoticed, especially because the company is well-connected to the current presidential administration. Luckey is a long-standing Trump supporter, as is Anduril financer Peter Thiel. Thiel claims he was fired from Facebook for a donation to a pro-Trump organization, making him a political outlier in Silicon Valley in 2016. Around the same time, Thiel began mentoring Vice President J.D. Vance. Thiel is often at least partially credited with Trumps selection of Vance for vice president, and Vance is largely considered Thiels protege. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump also nominated Senior Director of Anduril Industries Michael Obadal for Army undersecretary. The undersecretary oversees management and oversight within the army, including input on how it spends its budget. His nomination was accompanied by concerns over his continued ties to Anduril. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA) Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear visited the Upstate Wednesday morning. The governor spoke to attendees at the 67th American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations Convention at the AC Hotel. After speaking at the convention, officials said Beshear will travel to the Lowcountry to speak at a dinner with the Georgetown County Democratic Party. Beshears appearance comes after California Governor Gavin Newsom recently visited the Upstate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. Ann Philbin was named the 2025 recipient for the covetted Getty Prize on Wednesday and shared that her $500,000 grant will be allocated to NPR and LA-based news organizations KCRW and LAist. The former director of the Hammer Museum at UCLA told the Los Angeles Times that her decision to direct her grant money to NPR was directly linked to the Trump administrations looming decision to remove federal funding for public broadcasting. She explained that half the grant money, which is traditionally allocated to a nonprofit of the Getty Prize winners choosing, would go to NPR and the other half would be split between KCRW and LAist. More from TheWrap Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wanted to shine a light on one of the most pressing issues of our day, Philbin said. And thats freedom of speech and freedom of the press. She added about KCRW and LAist: Those two radio stations for me and I think for so many Angelenos who spend so much time in their cars are constant companions. We listen to them all the time, and theyre precious to us. To even think about the fact that they might not exist is unbearable. Philbins choice for her grant money allocation comes just before Congress is expected to cast final votes on a $9 billion rescissions package that would rollback funding for public broadcasters NPR and PBS. The Senate voted Tuesday to advance the bill and its $1.1 billion funding rollback that had already been locked for the next two years. In the lead-up to the vote, Trump posted on social media that any Republican who did not support his rescissions bill would lose his support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together, the president wrote. He continued: Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter! The House of Representatives voted to cut $1.1 billion in funding that had been allocated for public broadcasters like NPR and PBS. Both nonprofits sued the Trump Administration in an attempt to thwart its plan to defund public broadcasters. While its a long way from the money that was cut in Trumps defunding effort, NPR Chief Executive Katherine Maher told the L.A. Times Philbins decision was an extraordinary gift at an extraordinary time with real, material impact for the stations. The post Ann Philbin Wins Getty Prize, Allocates $500K to News Orgs NPR, KCRW, LAist appeared first on TheWrap. The paranormal community is in shock after the sudden death of Dan Rivera, a respected investigator, during a tour featuring the infamous Annabelle doll. The 54-year-old had been leading a threeday event in Gettysburg, sharing stories and research about the haunted artifact, when he was found unresponsive in his hotel room. His unexpected passing has fueled eerie speculation, with some wondering if the dolls dark legend played a role in his demise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, authorities continue to investigate as upcoming tour dates are placed on hold. Paranormal Investigator Dies Mysteriously While On Anabelle Tour Dan Rivera, lead investigator for the Connecticut-based New England Society for Psychic Research, collapsed and died in his hotel in Gettysburg on July 13 after conducting a threeday event with the original Annabelle doll. According to reports, emergency crews arrived at the hotel following a call and administered CPR, but the researcher was eventually pronounced dead. Rivera was a U.S. Army veteran and a renowned expert in Santeria rites and rituals, with over a decade of experience investigating unexplained phenomena. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He had gone viral for his TikTok videos where he documented creepy tour moments and served as a consulting producer on Netflixs "28 Days Haunted." His role during the Gettysburg stop, at the historic Soldiers' National Orphanage, was to educate attendees using his calm, factual presentation amid the scary stories and dark history associated with the doll. Riveras Society Pays Tribute To Him Following Riveras death, the New England Society for Psychic Research took to Facebook to mourn the loss of the investigator. Its with deep sadness that Tony, Wade, and I share the sudden passing of our close friend and partner, Dan Rivera. We are heartbroken and still processing this loss, the society wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to them, Rivera was always dedicated to his work, never hesitating to share his knowledge and guide others into understanding the unknown. His kindness and passion touched everyone that knew him. Thank you for your support and kind thoughts during this difficult time, they finished. More Organizations Pay Tribute To Rivera Ghostly Images of Gettysburg, the host of famed Devils on the Run tour, featuring Anabelle, also paid tribute to Rivera. In a statement to PEOPLE Magazine, they described Riveras demise as a profound loss, noting that his legacy will continue to inspire future generations. The organization further stated, Dan was a distinguished figure in the paranormal research community and will be remembered for his kindness and leadership. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Dans family, friends, and colleagues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization also expressed that while they were mourning the loss of a dear friend, they remained committed to preserving Gettysburgs rich history and the paranormal encounters that made Gettysburg extraordinary. The History Of The Famed Anabelle Doll The Annabelle dolls ominous reputation dates back to 1968 in Connecticut, when a student nurse was gifted the doll and took it home, where she lived with her roommate. According to Riveras society, the ladies soon began experiencing strange occurrences with the doll. After a medium claimed the doll was possessed by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle Higgins, famed demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren intervened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They took the doll from the home and kept it in a glass box to contain the evil spirited entity. Since then, the doll has inspired the The Conjuring films and toured exhibits under strict protocols, which reportedly include crosses and holy water. Rivera himself once explained during a lecture that the display was sealed with divine protections to keep visitors safe. Anabelle Doll Reportedly Goes Missing In May 2025, rumors circulated on social media claiming the Annabelle doll had gone missing during its Devils on the Run tour. Videos and TikToks sparked panic online, with users speculating she had vanished en route to Chicago or linked the disappearance to a fire and jailbreak in New Orleans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) put the record straight. At the time, Rivera addressed the issue on TikTok, walking viewers through the museum to prove the doll was securely sealed in her wooden case and never left Connecticut. Also, the Warren Museum clarified in a statement that the doll was not missing and was in Connecticut. The doll was taken on a brief tour to several locations to show the doll to enthusiasts of the paranormal. The doll was never out of our control. We take extreme precautions when handling or transporting the doll, Warren Occult Museum owner Tony Spera told The New York Post. A look at the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Memorial in downtown Annapolis on July 7. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) The name of Rep. John Lewis can still draw a crowd or more than 1,600 crowds, as will apparently be the case Thursday. Thats when as many as 150,000 people are signed up to attend Good Trouble Lives On rallies in cities across the country, including Annapolis, which has been designated one of just four anchor cities nationally for larger commemorations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The events are being held as part of the fifth annual John Lewis National Day of Action, to mark the anniversary of Lewis death in 2020, at age 80. More than 40 events of varying sizes are planned in Maryland alone. John Lewis is somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect for, said Carl Snowden, convener of the Council of African American Leaders and a scheduled speaker at the Annapolis event. I think John Lewis would be the first to tell people, If you want this democracy to work, you must be engaged in that democracy. Lewis, a civil rights icon, served 34 years in the U.S. House where the Georgia Democrat came to be known as the conscience of the Congress. He was among the speakers at the 1963 March on Washington, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech. In March 1965, Lewis was severely beaten in March 1963 on Bloody Sunday, when a peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, was set upon by Alabama state troopers as they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. Five months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. The day of action has been held annually since his death, but this years is by far the largest, driven in party by reaction to the administration of President Donald Trump (R). Event organizers said that, as of Tuesday evening, more than 150,000 people had RSVPd to more than 1,600 rallies in all 50 states, and a handful of international cities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before this year, said Daryl Jones, co-leader and board chair of the Transformative Justice Coalition, one of the organizations leading the rally efforts, the most rallies in a year had been 120. Jones, a former Anne Arundel County councilmember, said one main reason for the high expected turnout is Trump, particularly after congressional passage this month of the so-called big, beautiful bill People are offended by it and people want to respond, but they need an avenue to respond. This provides them with that avenue, he said. For the first time this year, event organizers set up a few anchor cities where people can congregate in a larger setting: Lewis home city of Atlanta; St. Louis; Oakland, California; and Annapolis. Jones said Annapolis was chosen for a couple of reasons, such as its history as a port city during slavery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Number two, Maryland has a Black governor and the nations only African American governor, he said. It is a symbol of overcoming the odds. Thats where we are right now as a democracy is that we need to overcome the odds. Organizers invited Gov. Wes Moore (D), but a spokesperson said Monday it was unclear if the governor would be able to attend. One elected official who plans to attend is Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-3rd), her office confirmed Thursday. She is expected to have a speaking role, along with Evelyn DeJesus, executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, which filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education to block its plan to withhold federal funds from schools that refuse to end their diversity, equity and inclusion practices. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Snowden said Lewis good trouble presence can still be seen in Annapolis, citing the congressmans personal endorsement of the Civil Rights Foot Soldiers Memorial, which remembers those from the area who were among the 250,000 in attendance at the March on Washington. That memorial was dedicated Aug. 28, 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the march. The Annapolis event will start with marches from different points in town, to evoke memories of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, before ending up on Lawyers Mall by the State House at 6 p.m. for a rally. Dozens of smaller events and activities are scheduled across the state, including 13 in Montgomery County alone. Elly Shaw-Belblidia will join people holding signs and waving at motorists while standing near the Rockville Metro station. The focus, she said, will be to follow Lewis mantra of nonviolence and getting in good trouble, and to express displeasure with the Trump administration and the horrible experience of watching the Republicans cave in on that [spending bill] legislation last week. Holding signs and waving at people driving by is way to express yourselves, she said. Peaceful. Joyful. Trying to keep peoples faith up. UPDATE: Due to anticipated poor weather conditions later today, the Chalk Walk has been postponed until Wednesday, July 23. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) The fifth annual East Lansing Chalk Walk event happens today from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Event officials say people are invited to Ann Street Plaza, located at the intersection of M.A.C. and Albert Avenues near Albert EL Fresco. The Chalk Walk creates a unique space for residents to come together to help make a mosaic art piece. The city will provide the chalk, and officials say the event is free. Along with the chalk art, there will be a petting zoo, candy, and a special collaboration with Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Pop. They will be handing out coupons for a free soda. The Chalk Walk is a fun opportunity for community members to come together to create inspiring art and fill our streets with color, said East Lansing Arts Programming and Creative Placemaking Specialist Wendy Sylvester-Rowan in a news release sent to 6 News. We hope everyone can come out and find something to enjoy! East Lansing annual Chalk Walk./ WLNS Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. The big story: Chalk up another victory for Florida teacher unions. A day after the Broward Teachers Union claimed victory in its recertification election, the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association did the same. PCTA president Lee Bryant said the vote, counted Tuesday in Tallahassee, came up with 2,089 ballots in favor of retaining the organization as teachers collective bargaining agent, and 41 votes against. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That result gives the union another year in place to negotiate and enforce contracts, while it strives to secure paid membership of at least 60% of all eligible employees. Lawmakers imposed the tougher certification requirements in 2023, saying they wanted proof that public-sector unions represent a true majority. Because so many filed for special elections, some votes got pushed out more than a year. Bryant had fretted about the Pinellas balloting because it took place when teachers are not working. The response rate wasnt huge, but all the union needed was a majority of those voting. For a mail-in vote held entirely in the summer where people had to go buy a stamp ... I think one-third turnout is actually pretty good, Bryant said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In June, the Florida Education Association marked 100 consecutive wins for local union recertifications, with an average of 94% of ballots in support. Pinellas continued the streak. Hot topics Academic freedom: University of South Florida supporters told trustees the schools next president must back academic freedom in the face of the nations current political climate. Budget cuts: The Pinellas County school district is preparing for deeper cuts than initially expected as state and federal revenue projections shrink. The Miami-Dade County school district ended its citizenship courses offered to immigrants through the districts adult education program, the Miami Herald reports. The federal government cut funding to such programs this month. Brevard County school district officials are assessing the potential effects of a loss in federal funding as they develop their budget, Florida Today reports. Cellphones: School leaders in Volusia and Flagler counties are working on how to enforce Floridas latest restrictions on student cellphone use in elementary and middle schools, the Palm Coast Observer reports. The Holmes County school district is installing cellphone lockers in its middle-high school, WMBB reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charter schools: A group of charter schools in Miami has proposed a $50 million plan to renovate an historic theater and transform it into an education hub, WFOR reports. College overhaul: Two more high level administrators quit their posts at Pasco Hernando State College. Food service: The Jefferson County school district will take control of cafeteria operations after hiring an outside firm for the past year, ECB Publishing reports. Immigration enforcement: The University of North Florida reached an agreement to assist federal agents enforcing immigration laws on campus, Jacksonville Today reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the radio: The Miami-Dade County school district is trying to stop the management of WLRN, which is licensed by the district, from acquiring a commercial radio station in West Palm Beach, Current reports. Student discipline: The Highlands County school board revoked its corporal punishment policy, three years after removing the punishment from its student code of conduct, Highlands News-Sun reports. State lawmakers this year required parental permission for schools to paddle students. Teacher shortage: The Bay County school district has filled 110 of 156 teacher vacancies over the past month, WJHG reports. Volunteers: The Duval County school district is increasing its background checks for volunteers who might be left unsupervised with children, WJAX reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the police blotter ... A former Duval County music teacher was arrested on accusations of sex crimes against students, WJXT reports. From the court docket ... A federal appeals court rejected the Escambia County school boards effort to shield its members from testifying in a case regarding access to library books, News Service of Florida reports. A family that donated money to start a scholarship at New College is suing the school, contending the money is not being used as intended, WUSF reports. Dont miss a story. Heres a link to yesterdays roundup. Before you go ... Turn it up to Level 11. Are you ready for the return? VLADIVOSTOK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- All five people on board a Mi-8 helicopter that went missing in Russia's Khabarovsk Territory have been confirmed dead, emergency authorities said Wednesday. "Rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations, together with investigators, will examine the crash site, the helicopter wreckage, and search for the flight recorders to determine the cause of the accident," said the ministry. The five victims included three crew members and two technical specialists. The wreckage was discovered on a forested, rocky mountainside near Cape Gadikan, approximately 130 km from the settlement of Okhotsk, making access difficult, TASS news agency reported. The Mi-8 helicopter, operated by the private aviation company APK Vzlet LLC, was flying from Okhotsk to Magadan on Monday. The crew failed to make contact at the scheduled time, and the emergency locator beacon did not activate, said the report. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost another coalition partner amid an ongoing row over mandatory military service for ultraorthodox men, with the Shas party reportedly quitting the government on Wednesday. The ultraorthodox party said it was giving up all its posts in government, Israeli media reported. However, Shas is not joining the opposition, the party stressed. It was initially unclear what this meant for Netanyahu's majority in parliament, after another ultraorthodox party, United Torah Judaism, exited the government a day earlier over the same issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The party's lawmakers - including the deputy transport minister and the minister for Jerusalem affairs - were set to resign from government, although the Times of Israel newspaper reported that the resignations could require up to 48 hours to take effect, giving Netanyahu time to reconsider his proposals. United Torah Judaism has seven seats in the Knesset, the 120-seat Israeli parliament, while Shas holds 11. The issue of conscripting highly religious Israeli men into the military has been a long-standing point of tension for Netanyahu's right-wing religious coalition. It has returned to the agenda due to the war in Gaza, with commanders warning of an urgent shortage of combat-ready soldiers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While members of ultraorthodox communities have been exempt from compulsory military service for decades, the exemption expired last year, and the government did not pass a new law to cement the special status. The Supreme Court issued a judgement last year that ultraorthodox Jewish men must be conscripted into military service. Many ultraorthodox Jews see military service as a threat to their pious lifestyle, partly because women and men serve together. A Question 1 campaign sign in Portland. (Photo by Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star) A federal court ruled on Tuesday that the law Maine voters passed in 2024 to set limits on so-called super PACs is unconstitutional the second time within a few days that challenges to Maines voter-backed campaign finance restrictions have prevailed. However, in this case, the ruling plays into the ultimate goal of those behind the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roughly 75%, or 600,000, Maine voters approved this law, which set a $5,000 limit on donations to political action committees that independently spend money to try to support or defeat candidates, commonly referred to as super PACs. It also requires the disclosure of all donors who contribute toward independent expenditures, regardless of amount. The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine by U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Frink Wolf concluded both constitute violations of the First Amendment. The lawsuit, which was filed by two PACs (Dinner Table Action, founded by state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) and activist Alex Titcomb, and For Our Future, run by Titcomb) was an expected and welcomed part of the plan of those who introduced the referendum. Their hope is to eventually bring the question of the legality of such limits to the U.S. Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the plaintiffs view Tuesdays ruling as an outcome in their favor, those behind the referendum, notably legal scholar Lawrence Lessig who spearheaded it, still have an eye on that path. The state is now expected to appeal, and the ballot question committee also has the option to do so since the court granted them standing as interveners. Charles Miller of the Institute for Free Speech, one of the plaintiffs two attorneys, told Maine Morning Star he believes this decision and another federal court decision on Friday that a law passed by Maine voters in 2023 prohibiting foreign government spending in elections is likely unconstitutional demonstrate that an appeal doesnt make sense. This, combined with the decision from the First Circuit last week, was very clear that the courts across the country recognize the importance of people being able to engage in election-related speech, Miller said. While the two recent court decisions are topically related, Lessig, a professor at Harvard Law School, told Maine Morning Star they are distinct in key ways. And that no one should be surprised that the district court followed the decisions of all other courts so far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district courts interpretation of the controversial, landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on corporate contributions is wrong, Lessig argues. That constitutes the core question he and other supporters hope will now be addressed in the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which hasnt yet ruled on whether Super PACs are constitutionally required meaning there is no precedent. The bigger picture The ban on foreign spending in elections deals with limiting the ability of certain entities to spend money in Maine elections. However, Tuesdays ruling doesnt involve limits on expenditures, only limits to the contributions to committees that make the expenditures. While this may seem like splitting hairs, it is the very distinction in the Supreme Courts philosophy that Lessig and others behind the Super PAC referendum say makes interpretations of Citizens United v. Federal Election Campaign Act to date flawed. Citizens United forecloses limits on contributions to independent expenditure groups, Frink Wolf wrote in Tuesdays decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since Buckley v. Valeo in 1976, the Supreme Court has allowed contributions to be regulated when there is a risk of quid pro quo corruption, essentially a favor for a favor. In the case of elections, if there is a risk someone could be making a donation to a candidate in exchange for a favor, then Congress can regulate that contribution. In 2010, the Supreme Court extended this reasoning to corporations and unions in Citizens United. Three months later, in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that contributions to PACs cannot be regulated either, as long as the PAC is independent. Other lower federal and state courts followed suit but the ruling was never reviewed by the Supreme Court. Lessig doesnt think the Supreme Court will change Citizens United, but he believes the question the Maine referendum raises whether contributions to a committee that makes independent expenditures can be limited is not answered in Citizens United. Under the logic of Citizens United, independent expenditures are uncoordinated and create no risk of quid pro quo corruption, but donations to a committee that makes independent expenditures may or may not be coordinated. Therefore, Lessig said, they create the risk of quid pro quo corruption and can be regulated by Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lessig hopes the appeal will be swift so the First Circuit will have an opportunity to take up the question by the fall and issue a decision sometime in the spring. If the court decides in favor of the law, the issue could be in the Supreme Court by the fall of 2026. If the First Circuit rules otherwise, the path to the high court is less direct but still possible, Lessig said. The key thing is just stay tuned, he said. I think 600,000 Mainers were correct. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE MU Health's University Hospital in Columbia (photo by University of Missouri Health Care). A little more than two weeks after telling a state Senate committee they have never been close to an agreement, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and University of Missouri Health Care have restored a network arrangement suspended since April 1. The failure to reach an agreement before the previous contract expired left about 90,000 people in central Missouri unable to obtain services except at the higher out-of-network cost. In a statement issued late Tuesday, Dr. Stevan Whitt, chief medical officer at MU Heath, said the agreement applies retroactively to April 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The renewed partnership ensures continued access to quality, local care while protecting affordability for the people and communities both organizations serve, Whitt said. The Missouri Consolidated Health Care Plan, which covers state workers and some local government employees, said the agreement reopens health care options to its covered population. We recognize the impact this may have had on you and your family, and MCHCP worked diligently to encourage an agreement between MU Health Care and Anthem, the statement read. Our leadership team met with both Anthem and MU Health Care to express the urgency of completing an agreement and remained in regular contact with them to emphasize how much their dispute affected our members. State Senate President Cindy OLaughlin became upset with the impasse and asked for the hearing, which took place June 30. After the hearing, she posted on social media that both sides met privately later and progress was possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suffice it to say people are paying more through their deductibles and co-pays and for those who are challenged with severe health issues the situation we addressed today has made everything worse, she wrote. In a joint news release, MU Health and Anthem said the new agreement covers all providers and facilities and is in-network for Anthems commercial health plan members and those who have individual marketplace plans. The new agreement will not include Anthems Medicare Advantage HMO and PPO plans, the release said. Anthem remains committed to protecting access to care while ensuring affordability for our members, Stephanie Vojicic, president of Anthem, said in the release. Were pleased that both parties have come together with a shared commitment to our communities and a renewed focus on doing whats right for the people we serve. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The US Senate has yet to confirm the antisemitism envoy, as the Trump administration warns of a global rise in Jew-hatred. Nearly six months into Donald Trumps term as president, the United States remains without a special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, an ambassador-level role at the State Department known colloquially as the antisemitism czar. Trump announced his pick for the role, a Hasidic fixer named Yehuda Kaploun, in April and formally nominated him in May. But the Senate, which is controlled by Trumps party, has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for the nominee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The role, which is focused on foreign policy, remains vacant even as the Trump administration warns that antisemitism is a growing and urgent global threat and as key senators in charge of the confirmation process argue that antisemitism is corrupting international institutions. For example, following the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC in May, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, emphasized that such incidents are not confined to one place or country. It is just a horrific tragedy, an act of terror, and another way in which we have to recognize Jewish people all over the world are being singled out for these kinds of horrible attacks, Huckabee said. Deborah E. Lipstadt, nominated to be Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, appears during her Senate Foreign Relations nomination hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 08, 2022 (credit: JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES) Government action crucial in fight against antisemitism Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has introduced two bills in recent months that would strip US funding from international bodies over what he calls blatant antisemitism at the United Nations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked about the timeline for confirmation, a White House spokesperson said to ask the Senate. The Foreign Relations Committee did not respond to a request for comment. Kaploun, who is not doing interviews until after his expected confirmation hearing, has said that government action is crucial in the fight against antisemitism. He expressed his views in a recent essay published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in which he wrote about the creation last year of the Global Guidelines to Counter Antisemitism. We call attention to the first of the guidelines: Government leaders must speak out expeditiously and unequivocally, he wrote in the essay, which he co-authored with the two most recent antisemitism czars. While awaiting word from the Senate about a hearing, Kaploun has held at least several high-profile but informal meetings, including with Leo Terrell, the civil rights lawyer tapped by Trump to lead a new multi-agency task force on antisemitism, and with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his recent visit to Washington, DC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kaploun has not publicly outlined how he views the role or what his priorities would be, but the challenges confronting Jews around the world are extensive. Poland, for example, recently elected a president with a record of Holocaust revisionism. In Australia, attacks on synagogues and other antisemitic incidents many linked to pro-Palestinian activism have become routine. Turkish politicians are embracing antisemitic rhetoric to an alarming extent. And in Germany, authorities recently uncovered an alleged Iranian plot to attack Berlins Jewish community. A recent Anti-Defamation League survey found that nearly half of adults around the world have what researchers defined as elevated levels of antisemitic attitudes, double the rate from a decade ago. All of this is unfolding amid sweeping layoffs of about 1,300 employees and a restructuring at the State Department, part of the Trump administrations broader push to streamline foreign policy operations. While the administration has said the fight against antisemitism remains a priority, the downsizing has raised concerns that cuts could hinder US capacity around the world. The Office of the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism remains fully operational, working closely with the entire department in fighting antisemitism throughout the world, the State Department said in a statement, without responding to specific questions from JTA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not the first time theres been a vacancy in the position at the start of a new administration. President Joe Biden nominated Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt for the role about six months into his term, in July 2021, but her candidacy stalled in the Senate for another eight months. Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee delayed scheduling a hearing, citing concerns over past tweets in which Lipstadt criticized a GOP lawmaker. She was ultimately confirmed in March 2022, after a lengthy and contentious confirmation process. During his first term, Trump didnt nominate anyone for the special envoy role for two years, despite pressure from the outset by Jewish groups and a bipartisan slate of lawmakers to do so. Critics argued that the absence of a dedicated envoy signaled a lack of urgency in addressing rising antisemitism abroad. The position remained vacant until February 2019, when Trump tapped Elan Carr, a former prosecutor and US Army veteran, to fill the post. That role had not yet been elevated to ambassador rank, so it did not require Senate confirmation. He served through the end of Trumps first term. This time, Jewish groups and lawmakers have shown little proactive advocacy around the vacancy. The World Jewish Congress, the ADL, and the American Jewish Committee, all of which were vocal during past vacancies, told JTA that it remains urgent to fill the role, but none have mounted a public campaign. In a statement, AJC CEO Ted Deutch said, Given the current environment of antisemitism here in the US and around the globe, AJC urges the Senate to move forward with the confirmation hearing of President Trumps nominee for this post and to fully fund and allocate all necessary resources to the office so that its integral work can continue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said, With antisemitism on the rise from Latin America and Europe to the Middle East and Asia, we urgently need a confirmed US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. While we appreciate that a nominee has been named, the continued delay in confirmation undermines the United States ability to lead in the global fight against antisemitism. This role is not a formality; it is an essential role in the US government to address hatred and violence toward Jews across the globe. A statement from the WJC also called on the government to add permanent staffing and structure that are common for State Department offices, but have been lacking at the office of the antisemitism envoy. Its capacity fluctuates depending on political priorities and short-term resources, leaving fewer dedicated experts focused on antisemitism and its regional manifestations, the state reads. We urge both the Administration and Congress to ensure the office is always equipped to meet the growing global threat. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., pulled back the curtain on New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's "productive" meeting with Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. When asked by Fox News' Chad Pergram how Mamdani's message resonated with Democrats during a "Communication and Organizing Skillshare Breakfast," Ocasio-Cortez said the Democratic nominee shared critical insights about how to "level up all of our games in terms of technique." The progressive superstar urged the outstanding Mamdani skeptics to "get to know him" before "making assessments from what you may see on television." She applauded her caucus for "showing up in good faith" to give him a fair chance and demonstrating a "willingness to listen and make assessments for themselves." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But when a reporter asked if House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would formally endorse Mamdani, Ocasio-Cortez said she wouldn't speak to any individual's endorsement, or lack thereof. Aoc Welcomes Socialist Mamdani To Nation's Capital As Dem Leaders Withhold Endorsements Zohran Mamdani, left, joined Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a breakfast event in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning. Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have confirmed plans to meet with Mamdani in New York City later this week, but both top Democratic leaders from New York have yet to endorse the self-described Democratic socialist candidate. Read On The Fox News App Mamdani's Primary Win Exposes Democrat Divide As Top Leaders Withhold Endorsements Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We want Democrats to be successful," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. "We want Democrats to win. As the Democratic nominee for New York City, Zohran Mamdani is overwhelmingly favored to win the general election. And in doing so, we want the next mayor of New York City, a Democrat, to be as successful as possible." "Squad" member Ocasio-Cortez has dominated headlines since she arrived on the political scene in 2018, unseating a longtime Democratic incumbent. The New Yorker said she shared with Mamdani that "the way sometimes people are painted in the media doesn't always align with who we really are as individuals." "I think that when people get to know him as a person, when people get to know us as real people, what they find kind of surprises them," Ocasio-Cortez explained. And across Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the longtime progressive champion, posed for friendly photos with Mamdani outside an office building on the Hill. Like Ocasio-Cortez, Sanders endorsed Mamdani ahead of his Democratic primary win last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Had a great meeting with @ZohranKMamdan and am deeply impressed by the grassroots campaign he is running," Sanders said on X. "The Oligarchs are prepared to undermine democracy & spend tens of millions to buy the election for his opponents. We will not allow that to happen. Stand with Zohran." Mamdani, in turn, said it was an "absolute honor to meet with one of my heroes and the champion for working people across our country." He called Sanders "Brooklyn through and through," noting that the Vermont senator was born and raised there. Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said he would not attend Ocasio-Cortez's breakfast on Wednesday. Suozzi, a moderate, has emerged as a vocal opponent of Mamdani's campaign among New York Democrats. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., endorsed Mamdani last week after backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Cuomo announced on Monday his decision to stay in the mayoral race as an independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several Democratic leaders were spotted leaving breakfast on Wednesday morning, which took place in Washington's Navy Yard neighborhood after a last-minute location change. While leaving the breakfast, longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, who has endorsed Mamdani, was asked by Fox News if Schumer and Jeffries would eventually endorse the mayoral nominee. He replied that he "would assume so in time." But Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., attended the breakfast meeting and told reporters as she departed that Mamdani had successfully utilized social media on the campaign trail. Dingell also blamed the media for what she said was rhetoric that Democrats are moving towards socialism. A top progressive House member, Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, told reporters as she left the meeting that Mamdani was "inspiring." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive lawmaker who is also considered a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, told reporters on his way out that Mamdani was "very impressive." Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York who has endorsed Mamdani, told reporters as she left the meeting that "it is just beautiful to have someone who is so authentic, you know, money cannot buy that. And, we had a great conversation." It appeared Mamdani didn't delve into specifics regarding the far-left agenda he's hoping to enact if he's elected New York City mayor, and instead spotlighted his effective campaign trail messaging, which focused on the crucial issue of affordability. Democratic Rep. Luz Rivas of California told reporters upon leaving the meeting that "it was just more how he was getting that message out," when asked what Mamdani discussed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fox News' Kelly Phares, Tyler Olson, Oliva Patel, Dan Scully, Aishah Hasnie and Chad Pergram contributed to this report. Original article source: AOC, Sanders welcome Mamdani to DC for his Capitol Hill debut, urging reluctant Dems to 'get to know him' The political earthquake that shook the Democratic Party when Zohran Mamdani won New York City's primary last month has rattled its way down to Washington, D.C., as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., teamed up with Mamdani at a "Communication and Organizing Skillshare Breakfast" on Wednesday morning. Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive champion and youngest woman elected to Congress, was an early endorser of Mamdani, the 33-year-old so-called democratic socialist who has yet to land key endorsements from New York Democratic leaders. The Bronx and Queens representative campaigned with Mamdani in New York City ahead of his primary win last month, and on Wednesday, the "Squad" member is welcoming Mamdani to the nation's capital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani were scheduled to host the 8 a.m. breakfast at the National Democratic Club. While the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is located right next door to where Wednesday's breakfast is being held, the DNC said it was not involved with the event. Minutes before the breakfast was scheduled to start, the location was moved to a restaurant a few blocks away. Republicans Relentlessly Use Mamdani As Socialist Cudgel To Bash Vulnerable Democrats Read On The Fox News App Zohran Mamdani, left, is joining Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a breakfast event in Washington on Wednesday morning. Ocasio-Cortez confirmed the breakfast meeting on Tuesday, telling reporters she is eager for people to meet him "face to face" and "hear what he has to say about making New York affordable for working people," while championing issues like rent freezes, affordable childcare and grocery prices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani's Primary Win Exposes Democrat Divide As Top Leaders Withhold Endorsements "I think a lot of people just need to get to know folks before they issue an endorsement. I hope that this conversation can be constructive to bring the party together and rally behind our nominee," Ocasio-Cortez said. Mamdani has yet to secure endorsements from two top New York Democrats - House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer. "I'm excited to go to Washington, D.C., to speak with Congressman Jeffries, to speak with Senator Schumer, to speak with leaders of our party across the country," Mamdani said Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But while Mamdani is eager to meet with Jeffries and Schumer in Washington, no such meeting has been reported. When Fox News asked Schumer if he was meeting with Mamdani in Washington on Wednesday, he said, "I spoke with him last night and will be meeting in New York City." And on Monday, Jeffries told reporters, "I'm scheduled to meet with the Democratic nominee at the end of the week back home in Brooklyn." House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, is joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for a press conference in Statuary Hall at the Capitol on Feb. 12, 2025. Longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, who has endorsed Mamdani, asked by Fox News if Schumer and Jeffries would eventually endorse the mayoral nominee, said he "would assume so in time." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nadler spoke with Fox News after attending the breakfast meeting. Last month, New York Democrats congratulated Mamdani on securing the Democratic nomination and confirmed they were having discussions with the young socialist, who would be New York City's first Muslim mayor if elected this November. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., endorsed Mamdani last week after backing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary. Cuomo announced on Monday his decision to stay in the mayoral race as an independent. "We're past the primary, and the people of New York City have spoken," Epsaillat said Thursday. "If there is a common denominator in every decision that I've made since I began to represent this district, in terms of supporting someone, its called the Democratic Party." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ocasio-Cortez agreed Democrats are "stronger when we are united" when speaking with reporters Tuesday. "Zohran Mamdani is the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City, and as a Democrat, I am rallying behind our nominee," Ocasio-Cortez said. Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., said he would not attend Ocasio-Cortez's breakfast on Wednesday. Suozzi, a moderate, has emerged as a vocal opponent to Mamdani's campaign among New York Democrats. But Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan, attended the breakfast meeting and told reporters as she departed that Mamdani had successfully utilized social media on the campaign trail. Dingell also blamed the media for what she said was rhetoric that Democrats are moving towards socialism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, a top progressive House member, told reporters as she left the meeting that Mamdani was "inspiring." Rep. Ro Khanna of California, another leading progressive lawmaker who is also considered a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender, told reporters as he left the meeting that Mamdani was "very impressive." Rep. Nydia Velazquez, a Democrat from New York who has endorsed Mamdani, told reporters as she left the meeting that "it it just its just beautiful to have someone who is so authentic, you know, that money cannot buy that. And, we had a great conversation." It appears Mamdani didn't delve into specifics regarding the far-left agenda he's hoping to enact if he's elected New York City mayor, and instead spotlighted his effective campaign trail messaging which focused on the crucial issue of affordability. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic Rep. Luz Rivas of California told reporters upon leaving the meeting that "it was just more how he was getting that message out," when asked what Mamdani discussed. New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani campaigns in New York City on April 16, 2025. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., confirmed he was planning to attend Wednesday's breakfast. While Moskowitz admitted he has "vast disagreements" with Mamdani on policy, he said he wants to learn about running a successful digital campaign. Meanwhile, back at the White House, Fox News' Peter Doocy asked President Donald Trump if he was invited to the breakfast. "I'd love to be," Trump said. "I'd really love to go. I mean, I look forward to meeting them both." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Trump reiterated his claim that Mamdani is "a Communist. I don't think our country is ready for a Communist, but we're going to see. And I don't think that race is over yet either." Trump added that he thinks Cuomo should stay in the race because "he has a shot." President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House from Camp David on June 9, 2025. "He's running against a Communist. I would think that he would have a good shot of winning," Trump explained. The Mamdani campaign was quick to seize on Trump's comments Tuesday. "We would like to congratulate Andrew Cuomo on earning Donald Trumps endorsement. Obviously, this triumph speaks for itself. The question now is whether Cuomo will embrace Trumps support publicly or continue to just accept it in private," Jeffrey Lerner, a Mamdani campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year's midterms. Asked earlier this week if Mamdani is giving the GOP extra ammunition in their messaging battle, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley said, "Absolutely." "I mean, this is the face of the new Democratic Party," Whatley charged in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital. "Everybody who wants to lead that party wants to lead it to the left. They're moving away from the American public right now at a pretty rapid clip." The National Republican Congressional Committee, which aims to protect the GOPs razor-thin majority in the House in next years midterms, has repeatedly tied Democrats to Mamdani. "Radical socialist Zohran Mamdani isnt just the future of the Democrat Party, he is the Democrat Party. On the campaign trail, well make sure every voter knows House Democrats share his far-left agenda. They may try to run from it, but theyve already bent the knee." Fox News' Kelly Phares, Tyler Olson, Dan Scully, Ryan Schmelz, Sandy Ibrahim and Peter Doocy contributed to this report. Original article source: AOC welcomes socialist Mamdani to nation's capital as Dem leaders withhold endorsements AUSTIN (KXAN) The Austin Police Department is searching for three men who police believe were involved in a stabbing in downtown Austin, near Sixth Street, in June. On Sunday, June 29, police responded to reports of an Aggravated Assault, at 2:21 a.m., in the 500 block of Trinity Street. According to the department, a group of three men were attacked by another group of three men. The fight ended with two men stabbed, Austin Police said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One man was stabbed in the back, and another was stabbed in the stomach, APD said. Police are looking for the three suspects who were involved in the incident. Images from APD are below. The Austin Police Department is searching for three men who police believe were involved in a stabbing in downtown Austin, near Sixth Street, in June. (Courtesy: The Austin Police Department) A reward up to $1,000 may be available for any information that leads to an arrest. Anyone with any information can contact APDs Aggravated Assault Unit at 512-974-5245. To submit your tip anonymously through the Capital Area Crime Stoppers Program, visit austincrimestoppers.org or call 512-472-8477. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. The Brief The Laser Vision app helps people report street violations directly to the Philadelphia Parking Authority. Developed by the volunteer group Philly Bike Action, the app allows users to quickly report issues like bike lane violations and sidewalk parking. All you have to do is take a picture of a violation and the app sends information to the PPA in just 30 seconds. PHILADELPHIA - Are you fed up with drivers in Philadelphia who park over the line in the crosswalk? Well, you're in luck because a new app allows you to report those frustrating instances. What we know The Laser Vision app, launched by Philly Bike Action, is designed to streamline the process of reporting street violations to the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Users simply snap a picture of the violation, and the app gathers the necessary information to send a report to the PPA in just 30 seconds. "There's a bike lane violation, sidewalk parking, crosswalk parking, corner clearance where people park too near an intersection and can't see around a car, and ADA ramp," explained Jacob Russell from Philly Bike Action. Since its launch three weeks ago, the app has reported about 1,900 violations. What they're saying Jacob Mello, a resident of East Passyunk, expressed hope that the app will discourage people from using bike lanes as loading zones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Hopefully it dissuades people from using the bike lanes as loading zones," he said. Russell added, "Our hope is to improve safety, to reduce situations that are causing pedestrians, people with strollers, to go into streets around a car blocking a sidewalk or crosswalk." The other side Not everyone is enthusiastic about the app. Some residents feel that using Laser Vision is akin to "snitching." "My gosh, it's like tattle tailing thing going on?" Jacky Didaniels from East Passyunk commented. "Would you do it?" asked Timeney. "You know what maybe if you were in the middle of a handicapped situation probably or right in crosswalk," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked if he would use the app, Jake DiCello shared mixed feelings. "I would think about it. I would think about it. I still need to weigh the pros and cons, I guess." Why you should care The app is seen as a tool for improving public safety and accessibility. Max Kelly, another East Passyunk resident, supports the app's use. "I would absolutely use the app especially when you are impeding on other people's accessibility and making life harder for other people, and if this is a means to do it, I'm all for it," he said. What's next A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Parking Authority praised the app as a tremendous help, noting that by simplifying the reporting process, the PPA can better target and crack down on areas that are chronically problematic, ultimately making them safer. A state appeals court judge on Wednesday ordered Uvalde County and its school district to release records and documents related to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting, affirming a previous trial court order. A coalition of 18 news organizations, including The Texas Tribune, sued the City of Uvalde, Uvalde County and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District in 2022 for access to body camera footage, 911 call records and communications made during the school shooting. Law enforcements response to Texas deadliest school shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, has been scrutinized extensively for failures in communication that delayed response time while the shooter was still in two classrooms with children. Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell had opposed providing the records, pointing to criminal proceedings against former Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo that she said could be hampered by the documents release. But Judge Velia Meza with Texas Fourth Court of Appeals wrote in the opinion for the case that the criminal proceedings and a separate lawsuit were not enough reasons to withhold the records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, these entities offered only minimal justification citing a grand jury investigation and a civil lawsuit without providing legal or evidentiary support for withholding the information, Meza wrote. Arredondo is facing several felony charges of child endangerment, with a trial date set for October. In a statement, Laura Prather, a media law attorney with Haynes Boone representing the news organizations, said the ruling sends a clear message to government officials that vague legal claims cannot be used to withhold records. The public has waited more than three years for answers about what went wrong that day, Prather said. This decision brings us one step closer to those answers and preventing future tragedies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In August 2024, the City of Uvalde released its records related to the shootingas part of a settlement in a similar suit. A spokesperson for the Uvalde school district said its school board and superintendent have scheduled a discussion about the requested records during their public meeting on July 21. The Uvalde County Sheriffs Office did not respond to a request for comment. The order from Meza did not specify when the records would need to be released. The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 1315. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase. SAINT PAUL, Minn. (KNWA/KFTA) A federal appeals court has lifted an injunction imposed by a lower court previously stopping the state from enforcing a ban on the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Arkansas. In May 2024, U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky ruled that Little Rock Central High School teachers involved in a lawsuit against the state cannot be disciplined or prevented from teaching topics regarding Critical Race Theory. The lawsuit claimed that section 16 of the LEARNS Act is unconstitutionally vague and violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, Judge L. Steven Grasz of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 14-page filing that students wanting to be taught Critical Race Theory cannot pressure public school districts to teach it because government entities cannot be forced to provide classroom materials or instruction it does not want to provide. Judges James B. Loken and Raymond Gruender joined Grasz in saying that the two teachers and students who filed the lawsuit against the state were not likely to succeed based on their free speech claim, and the injunction was not appropriate. Docs identify Arkansas DOC employees fired after Grant Hardins escape Since the Free Speech Clause does not give the students the right to compel the government to say something it does not wish to, they cannot show a likelihood of success, Grasz wrote in his ruling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders applauded the ruling in a post on X on Wednesday. Huge news out of the 8th Circuit! Arkansas is now CLEARED to enforce its ban on Critical Race Theory and keep woke indoctrination out of schools, Sanders said in the post. Big win for common sense, education freedom and parents who just want our schools to teach kids how to think, not what to think. Sen. Tom Cotton said in a post on X that the ruling was a big victory for Arkansas students and their parents. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. VLADIVOSTOK, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The wreckage of a Mi-8 helicopter that went missing in Russia's Far East has been discovered near Cape Gadikan in Khabarovsk Territory, emergency authorities announced on Wednesday. "Wreckage was found near Cape Gadikan ... rescuers are heading to the site to survey the area," according to the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. There were five people on board the helicopter, including three crew members and two technical specialists. Their condition remains unknown at the time of reporting. "Today, search and rescue services discovered a completely destroyed aircraft with traces of fire on a mountain slope 130 km northeast of the village of Okhotsk in Khabarovsk Territory by a search helicopter," the Eastern Interregional Investigative Department for Transport of the Russian Investigative Committee reported. The Mi-8 helicopter, operated by the private aviation company APK Vzlet, departed from Okhotsk on Monday, bound for its home base in Magadan. However, the crew failed to make contact at the scheduled time, and the onboard emergency locator beacon did not activate. JACKSON A New Albany man will have to face the charge of attempted first-degree murder after a razor-thin appellate court ruling reversed his 2023 acquittal. The Mississippi Court of Appeals ruled 5-4 Tuesday to reverse and remand the case of Lane Mitchell back to circuit court for a new trial. Former First District Attorney John Weddle, now an appellate judge, did not take part in the decision. It is unknown if Mitchell plans to appeal the decision to the Mississippi Supreme Court. His attorney was in another court Wednesday and did not respond to calls for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lane Mitchell was indicted for attempted first-degree murder for stabbing Russell Rogers in the neck at the Tallahatchie Gourmet restaurant in downtown New Albany. Rogers and his father, who also serves as his conservator, refused to talk to New Albany police investigators after the February 2019 incident. Rogers refused to show up during the four-day trial in May 2023, despite being subpoenaed by both the state and the defense to appear as a witness. With Mitchell unable to confront his accuser, Circuit Judge Kent Smith dismissed the charge and acquitted Mitchell, citing violations of three Constitutional amendments. The Fifth and 14th amendments deal with due process, the right of the defendant to call whomever they want to testify. The 6th amendment says the defendant can compel witnesses to show up and testify. The Mississippi Attorney Generals Office appealed the ruling months later, and it was placed on the state Court of Appeals docket. In the 25-page ruling, the Court of Appeals looked at two issues whether the state had the right to appeal and whether Judge Smith was right in dismissing the charge and granting the acquittal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state can only appeal under certain circumstances. While admitting this set of circumstances is not spelled out in the state statute, the justices said they had jurisdiction to hear the appeal. While the victim refused to participate with the investigation and trial, the slim majority of justices said the defense should have requested a continuance of the trial when it became apparent that Rogers would not be available as a witness. Rogers had been ruled unfit to testify by a Tennessee court and placed under a conservatorship. The justices ruled that Rogers and his conservator were acting in his best interest to fight attempts to force him to testify. Four justices disagreed with the majority ruling, arguing that the state did not have the authority to appeal the trial courts decision. The six-page dissension, penned by Chief Judge Donna Barnes, said the lower courts order was based on neither the indictment nor the evidence presented at trial. While the case involves unique facts and procedural issues, the majority disregard Mitchells constitutional rights in claiming jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Two of the dissenting judges offered a further three-page opinion to support the sound constitutional and procedural rationales behind the lower court ruling, asserting that the trial courts entry of acquittal is not reversible. The majoritys refusal to properly recognize the limits of our jurisdiction over acquittal turns decades of constitutional law and criminal procedure on its head, wrote Judge Latrice Westbrooks. A divided federal appeals court panel on Tuesday upheld West Virginias ban on medication abortion, ruling that the law does not conflict with the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) ability to regulate the drug. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit dismissed mifepristone manufacturer GenBioPros effort to strike down West Virginias near-total abortion ban in a 2-1 decision. The court ruled FDAs approval of mifepristone did not preempt West Virginias law. GenBioPro produces a majority of the mifepristone sold in the United States and has held FDA approval for generic mifepristone since 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GenBioPro argued that FDAs authority to impose regulations on the prescription and distribution of mifepristone superseded state efforts to restrict access to medications. A lower court ruled against the company, which then appealed the decision. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson wrote that a 2007 federal law leaves the states free to adopt or diverge from West Virginias path and it falls well short of expressing a clear intention to displace the states historic and sovereign right to protect the health and safety of their citizens. The ruling marks the first time a federal appeals court has said states can restrict the use of mifepristone. Twenty-eight states restrict access to medication abortions, according to the reproductive health nonprofit Guttmacher Institute. The Supreme Court upheld access to mifepristone last year, when it unanimously dismissed a lawsuit seeking to roll back changes FDA made in 2016 and 2021 to expand access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We respect the fact that appellant and some amici have argued that access to mifepristone is important to the health of women in the course of their reproductive choices, Wilkinson wrote. Our objection is not to the substance of this point, but to the venue in which it is advanced. Wilkinson was appointed by former President Reagan. He was joined by U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston, an appointee of President Trump. The court is allowing the state to continue putting those seeking medication abortion care in harms way, GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill said in a statement. The panels ruling allows states to restrict access to medications that FDA has deemed safe and effective, threatening a dangerous ripple effect on the availability of essential medications in this country. As we have always made clear, GenBioPro will not stop fighting to ensure all people can access safe, evidence-based healthcare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey (R) said in a statement he was proud to see a victory in this case. West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life. We will always be a pro-life state! he said. In a dissent, Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin said the states law erects barriers to life-saving healthcare for countless West Virginians in ways not envisioned by Congress. Benjamin, who was appointed by former President Biden, added that the twin sensitivities of abortion access and states rights cannot influence our willingness to recognize the Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) clear authority in this area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By criminalizing medical providers and prohibiting medication abortions, then, West Virginia has exceeded the ability to regulate abortion as established in Dobbs and has trespassed on the FDAs authority to regulate the safe use of and unburdened access to mifepristone, Benjamin wrote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Jul. 15A Wilkes-Barre man who called his lengthy prison sentence "a joke" for trafficking fentanyl and selling a fentanyl pill that resulted in the drug overdose death of an Edwardsville woman had his appeal rejected by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Nazareth Shoffner, 36, formerly of Holland Street, challenged the sentence imposed by Luzerne County Judge Michael T. Vough on charges of drug delivery resulting in death and a separate charge of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance. Vough sentenced Shoffner to seven-to-14 years in state prison on the separate criminal cases to run consecutively, meaning the total sentence for Shoffner is 14-28 years in prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Shoffner left the courthouse when he learned his punishment, he called the sentence "a joke." Shoffner was charged following an investigation by detectives with the district attorney's office of the overdose death of Haylee Oeller, 21, of Atlantic Avenue, Edwardsville, who died in Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on Feb. 9, 2023. Detectives learned during the investigation Shoffner delivered what Oeller and a friend believed to be a Percocet pill on Feb. 8, 2023, according to court records. Oeller and her friend cut the pill in half they took while drinking wine. The friend became ill and vomited multiple times after taking the half pill as Oeller became unresponsive and was transported to the hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court records list Oeller's death as fentanyl toxicity. After Oeller's death, detectives along with the Pennsylvania State Police at Wilkes-Barre served a search warrant at Shoffner's residence seizing in excess of 1,000 fentanyl tablets, a digital scale, packaging materials, five cellular phones and more than $6,300, court records say. Vough imposed Shoffner's sentence in the aggregate range, meaning a higher sentence under sentencing guidelines. Shoffner challenged the lengthy sentence claiming his remorse was ignored and the sentence on the two separate cases should had been served together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A three-member panel of the Superior Court Judges Mary Jane Bowers, Victor P. Stabile and President Judge Emeritus Correale F. Stevens rejected Shoffner's appeal in a nine-page ruling issued Tuesday. "(Vough) did not abuse his discretion in fashioning a sentence scheme based on consecutive standard-range sentences for separate drug offenses committed three weeks apart where (Shoffner's) actions caused the death of a young woman," the appellate court judges ruled, adding, "We discern no abuse of (Vough) discretion in sentencing (Shoffner) to 14 to 28 years of imprisonment." Deputy District Attorney Daniel E. Zola prosecuted Shoffner. Reach Ed Lewis at 570-991-6116 or on Twitter @TLEdLewis. Jul. 15Once again in 2025, young people will be able to hunt deer with an adult in a number of state parks during several application-only special youth deer hunts. These hunts offer more individualized experiences in unique places, and often on different dates than the statewide youth deer season. "The special youth deer hunts create positive experiences and also help state parks manage their deer populations," said Paul Burr, acting big game program coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. "Youth who apply can explore new places to hunt in state parks with great opportunities to see and harvest deer and make great hunting memories." These firearms hunts are for youth who are ages 12-15 at the time of the hunt and are accompanied by an adult. Hunters can apply for a limited number of permits through Friday, Aug. 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Young hunters can also participate in special youth archery opportunities. Sand Prairie Wildlife Management Area in Sherburne County is open only to youth archery hunters ages 10-17 during the regular archery season. Camp Ripley in Morrison County offers a special youth archery hunt for ages 12-17. Special youth deer hunts are different from the statewide youth deer season, which takes place Oct. 16-19 and does not require an application. More information on special hunts is available on the DNR website (mndnr.gov/specialdeerhunts). For more information on the Camp Ripley youth archery hunt, contact Jan Ekert, Minnesota State Archery Association, at jancrs1@gmail.com or 320-339-9927. In most instances, hunters may only possess and use nontoxic ammunition when participating in a special firearms hunt in a Minnesota state park. However, nontoxic ammunition requirements do not apply to special youth hunts in the shotgun-use area if hunters remove all parts of harvested deer from the field, including the entrails. Where nontoxic ammunition is required, bullets, slugs, muzzleloader ammunition and other single projectiles must be made entirely of nontoxic material approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For deer hunting, this typically means copper ammunition. More details about nontoxic ammunition can be found on the DNR website (mndnr.gov/specialdeerhunts). As the Trump administration continues its crackdown on illegal immigration, some migrants are turning to apps that tell them the location of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to avoid arrest. Oscar, who came to the U.S. from Venezuela two years ago, drives horses across the country for work. Oscar, who asked CBS News to change his name to protect his identity, works legally in the country under temporary protected status. But, he says that offers little protection from the threat of an ICE arrest and indefinite detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I am traumatized right now," Oscar said. "I feel like somebody is behind me, even if I don't do anything wrong." To do his job, Oscar relies on the app Coqui, which shows him if ICE agents are nearby. On a recent trip hauling horses from New York to South Carolina, he spotted ICE activity, forcing him to take an alternate route. Coqui is one of several apps that have been developed recently to let people know when ICE agents are nearby. ICE Deputy Director Madison Sheahan told CBS News she thinks such apps are dangerous and could be used to spot and ambush ICE agents. "There's always a form of free speech and a lot of things in technology, and we understand that and respect that, but where it crosses a line is when it becomes dangerous, not only to the ICE officers ...," Sheahan said, adding, "If it's impeding in law enforcement effort, that's where that line comes in as well." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Coqui was developed by a somewhat unlikely founder: Peter, who asked CBS News not to use his last name to protect his identity. He runs an animal rescue. Asked what motivated him to create the app, Peter told CBS News, "There certainly is the desire to protect the people that you love, but there's also a very practical reason. We need help here, and we need workers to get to work." Peter said some of his employees weren't just not showing up for work, "People were scared to leave their homes." Even though he's here legally, Oscar says the app lets him do his job with a little less fear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'm afraid because these people don't ask you before getting detained," he said. "I saw people I know getting detained and being deported." Being deported, Oscar says, would mean "the end of my American dream." Trump pushes senators to make $9.4 trillion in spending cuts L.A. Mayor Karen Bass says National Guard deployment in city was "a misuse" of soldiers Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Most people associate George Washington with cherry trees. Supposedly, a young George Washington confessed to his dad that he had damaged a cherry tree with a hatchet. The story is used to stress the importance of honesty. The legend, though, is a myth, invented by a Washington biographer, according to a history of the fable on the Mount Vernon website. But archaeologists made a treasured finding underneath that very house's floor, and it relates to cherries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mount Vernon was the home of America's first president, and its website says it's one of the most-visited historic sites in the U.S. A July 5 report by Popular Mechanics revisited how archaeologists found "once-forgotten" bottles under a brick floor at Mount Vernon. The pre-Revolutionary War artifacts were "likely filled with cherries" in the mid-1770s and still bore the "scent of cherry blossoms," the magazine noted. The discovery was made in 2024. A news release from Mount Vernon at the time explained that, as "part of the landmark privately funded $40 million Mansion Revitalization Project at George Washingtons Mount Vernon, archaeologists have made a significant discovery of two intact European-manufactured bottles in the Mansion cellar." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dark green glass bottles "were found upright and sealed, each containing liquid. The bottle shapes are characteristic of styles from the 1740s - 1750s and were recovered from a pit where they may have been forgotten and eventually buried beneath a brick floor laid in the 1770s," the release says. "Cherries, including stems and pits, were preserved within the liquid contents, which still bore the characteristic scent of cherry blossoms familiar to residents of the region during the spring season," the release notes. As we conduct a historic preservation effort at the iconic home of Americas first President and revolutionary hero, we have been deliberate and intentional about carefully excavating areas of potential disruption, said Mount Vernon President & CEO Doug Bradburn. Consequently, we have made a number of useful discoveries including this blockbuster find of two fully intact glass bottles containing liquid that have not been seen since before the war for American independence. That's not all. The revitalization project unearthed other treasures in the house. Teams "working in the cellar of the Mansion have unearthed an astounding 35 glass bottles from the 18th century in five storage pits. Of the 35 bottles, 29 are intact and contain perfectly preserved cherries and berries, likely gooseberries or currants. The contents of each bottle have been carefully extracted, are under refrigeration at Mount Vernon, and will undergo scientific analysis," according to Mount Vernon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The bottle shapes are characteristic of styles from the 1740s 1750s and were recovered from five pits where they may have been forgotten." Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon's principal archaeologist, told NBC 16, Finding what is essentially fresh fruit, 250 years later, is pretty spectacular. All the stars sort of have to align in the right manner for that to happen. "Whole pieces of fruit, recognizable as cherries, were found in some of the bottles," the station reported. Related: Archaeologists Make New Trojan War Discovery That May Rewrite History Archaeologists Made 'Blockbuster Find' Under George Washington's Mount Vernon Floor first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 Alexander the Great is one of the best-known figures in world history. He only lived until age 32, dying in Babylon. But first, he built a massive empire that stretched from "the Balkans to India." What's lesser known is the fact that Alexander the Great's father was also a king. Philip II was the King of Macedonia. He also died tragically; he was assassinated by a bodyguard who ran forward in a theater (shades of Abraham Lincoln but with a dagger). Although the traditional story holds that the Macedonian king's death was caught up in a tangled personal conflict, History.com reports that some believe Alexander might have had a hand in it, although this was never proven. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For years, it wasn't completely clear where Philip II was buried, along with other Alexander the Great family members. Archaeologists have finally solved that mystery; they made a major finding relating to Philip II and Alexander the Great. They confirmed the burial site of Alexander's father and other members of his family. According to a July 6 article revisiting the find by Popular Mechanics, historians have long known that Philip II lay "in a tomb located at Aigai (now Vergina, Greece)," but, until now, they did not know which tomb he was in. However, a 2023 "study from an international team of archaeologists confirms the location of Philips final resting place using both scientific data and anthropological sources," the site reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. What did it find? The skeletons of Alexander's father and his son, among others. Vintage illustration of Alexander the Great; chromolithograph, 1923. GraphicaArtis/Getty Images "This review contributes to the long-running debate over the identities of the occupants of the unspoiled 4th-century BCE Royal Tombs at Vergina, in northern Greece. The human skeletal remains from Royal Tombs I, II and III are related to the King and Pharaoh Alexander the Great," the researchers wrote. "A knee fusion was found in the male skeleton of Tomb I consistent with the historic evidence of the lameness of King Philip II. No evidence of trauma was found in the male skeleton of Tomb II and evidence of cremation in the male and female skeletons is consistent with the historic evidence for King Arrhidaeus," they found. "The evidence presented supports the conclusion that Tomb I belongs to King Philip II, his wife Cleopatra and their newborn child. Tomb II belongs to King Arrhidaeus and his wife Adea Eurydice. Tomb III to Alexander IV." Philip II of Macedon, 212 AD. Medallion portrait of Philip (382 BC-336 BC), father of Alexander the Great who succeeded him as Alexander III of Macedon. Print Collector/Getty Images Furthermore, the study noted, "Some of the artifacts in Tomb II belonged to Alexander the Great." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The findings had historical importance. "The identities of the occupants would have an enormous impact on the interpretation of their contents. For example, due to ancient depictions and descriptions, some scholars...have suggested that some of the objects in Tomb II, such as the armor, belonged to Alexander the Great, which is possible only if this is the Tomb of Arrhidaeus, not Philip II," the researchers wrote. Related: Archaeologists Say They've Found a Legendary Pirate Ship, Rewriting History Archaeologists Unraveled a Major Alexander the Great Mystery first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 An 83-year-old architecture scholar has become one of the oldest people to graduate from the University of Liverpool. John Harrison has achieved a PhD in the subject, 65 years on from when he first attended the university as an undergraduate. After finishing his studies in 1963 he worked first as a city conservation officer before leaving to document the architecture of the Himalayas. Mr Harrison, originally of Preston, Lancashire, said while studying had been "a bit more work than I had expected" it had been "fun" to continue his passion for the subject. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he had worked on historic building conservation in the early part of his career but, at the age of 44, decided he wanted to do something else. "I needed a change so I bailed out and went travelling, and I fell in love with the Himalayas," he said. Mr Harrison first graduated from the same university in 1965 [John Harrison] In 1985 he began to study the architecture of the area and went on to publish several books including his research on Tibetan architecture. And, after some 40 years of further studies, he said he wanted to formalise his research. "I saw you could get a PhD by prior publication so I thought I'd just bang all these books in and that'll give me a certificate," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But it turned out there's a lot more to it. "I've enjoyed it and it's been good reviewing all the work that I've done." 'I'll keep going' He said despite being older than all of the university's the staff "nobody seemed to have been too shocked" to see him on campus. "It's what you feel like inside," he said. "We can go to the gym, go swimming or walking to keep the body going - but you need something to keep the brain going as well." He said while it was a "relief" to have finally gained his doctorate it "was good to have done it". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'll keep going for as long as I can because it's what I really enjoy doing," he added. Mr Harrison is set to return to the Himalayas this weekend to work with a group of young Tibetan architects documenting monasteries in the Ladakh region. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230. Related internet links Arizonans know the Grand Canyon State is a great place to live. New national lists from reputable groups like U.S. News and World Report and WalletHub tend to agree, too. Nearly two dozen Arizona cities and towns were honored as top places to live so far in 2025. Arizona has seen significant growth in recent years, with many new residents looking for a great place to settle down. Census data showed that Phoenix grew the most out of all cities in Arizona in 2024, followed by Queen Creek, Goodyear, Maricopa and Buckeye. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From metro Phoenix to Greenlee County, here's what to know about all the cities and towns ranked as great places to live in or retire to in 2025. 5 Arizona cities among most enviable places to live The New Jersey Real Estate Network surveyed more than 3,000 people to locate the 170 most envied places to live in the U.S. Cities, suburbs, and neighborhoods from all 50 states made the list. Five Arizona places, including some of the richest cities in the state, made the list: Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Cave Creek, Oro Valley and Ahwatukee Foothills. 3 Arizona cities ranked among best places to live Several Arizona cities cracked the top 100 in a national ranking of the best places to live, mostly standing out for their strong job markets and safety ratings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. News and World Report's annual list of the best places to live in the U.S. for 2025-2026 evaluated 250 cities across the country. Only three Arizona areas made it to the top half of the ranking of more than 250 places: Queen Creek at No. 93, Gilbert at No. 94 and Marana at No. 115. 3 Arizona cities named among most up-and-coming places HGTV put out a list of fast-growing small cities in America, perfect for those yearning for a change of pace. The network used data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Milken Institute, a "nonpartisan think tank," to establish its rankings. Three suburban cities outside of Phoenix were considered up-and-coming by HGTV: Queen Creek, Buckeye and Goodyear. This county was named the best to live in Arizona Greenlee County once again claimed the top spot on Niche's list of the 2025 best Arizona counties to live in ranking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The list evaluated Arizonas 15 counties based on nearly a dozen factors, including public school ratings, cost of living, job opportunities and access to amenities. Greenlee County not only took the No. 1 spot overall, but it also ranked as the best county for families and the best county to buy a home in Arizona. Tempe is a top US city to move to in 2025 Tempe was named the most popular metro Phoenix suburb to move to in 2025, according to a new study. According to study analysts, Tempe's strong job market, vibrant lifestyle and safety also make it an attractive suburb for movers. The city's tech, education and health care industries contribute to its strong economic growth, while its urban-style amenities, safe streets and strong biking culture give Tempe a city feel within a suburban setting, analysts said. 2 Arizona cities named among top 100 cities to live in Two Arizona cities were named among the top 100 places to live in the United States, according to a newly released study. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each year, Livability.com publishes its list of top 100 U.S. cities. The study focuses on small- to medium-sized cities as it's a "sweet spot in size for getting plugged in, finding your people and feeling at home fast." Livability also pays extra attention to affordability, only scoring cities with a median home value of $500,000 or less. Gilbert was the highest-ranked Arizona city. Though the list isn't ranked, it had the 11th highest score overall and the fourth highest in the Southwest. Livability touted the "booming economy, fabulous health care facilities" and cost of living as top reasons to live in Gilbert. Tempe was the only other Arizona city on Livability's list, though it did have a lower score and landed further down on the list. Livability touted the large number and high quality of amenities in Tempe, in addition to its economy and health status. 9 small towns were named the best places to live in Arizona World Atlas, a geography website, has named the nine best places to live in Arizona outside of metro Phoenix, highlighting some under-the-radar small towns where nature is just a few steps away and the cost of living is lower. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The towns on the list included: Florence Green Valley Sahuarita San Luis Sierra Vista Snowflake Somerton Thatcher Vail Scottsdale named best city to raise a family Scottsdale was named the best city in the nation to raise a family in a new study by home improvement brand and television show "This Old House." Scottsdale took the top spot for families in the study, primarily because of its education options and community environment. Three more Arizona cities Gilbert, Chandler and Tempe also fell into the top 15 cities on the list. Arizona ranked 30th best state to live in Arizona may not be the best state to live in, but it's still not the worst, according to the newest best states ranking from U.S. News and World Report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arizona came in near the middle of the pack at No. 30, which is up two spots from last year. Though Arizona received higher rankings in the economy, health care and infrastructure categories, it wasn't enough to outweigh lower rankings on crime, environment, education and more. Arizona cities named best for retirees Arizona isn't just a top place to raise a family; it's also been named among the best places for retirees. Tucson ranked among cheapest U.S. cities for retirement : GOBankingRates ranked Tucson as the 16th most affordable place to retire in the United States. 2 Arizona cities were named top spots to retire in the West : Parker and Lake Havasu City made Travel + Leisure magazine's 2025 list of best cities to retire in. 2 Arizona cities named among best places to retire: U.S. News & World Report has published its annual ranking of the 150 best places to retire in the United States at the end of 2024. Only two Arizona cities were large enough to make the list Phoenix and Tucson. Other notable Arizona rankings from 2025 Arizona cities also received kudos for other things that definitely add to their appeal for residents: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scottsdale named happiest Arizona city : Scottsdale ranked No. 8 overall in the WalletHub ranking. Gilbert and Chandler also made it to the top 50, and another six Arizona cities were scattered across the rest of the list. Arizona cities named among most boring in U.S.: A study conducted by financial publication FinanceBuzz ranked Phoenix among the top 10 most boring cities in the country. Tucson came in at No. 17. Sedona takes title of quirkiest place in Arizona : World Atlas named historic mining community Bisbee the quirkiest town in Arizona, taking the title largely for its history, retro vibe and unusual events. Flagstaff is among the most underrated travel spots: Flagstaff was named among the most underrated vacation destinations in the country, according to a ranking by U.S. News & World Report. It was highlighted for its natural attractions, culture and scenery. Metro Phoenix cities among the best run: Mesa was named the 11th best-run cities in the nation, by a WalletHub study. Phoenix came in at No. 39 and Tucson at No. 57. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: These Arizona cities were named a top place to live in 2025 The Brief An Arizona man has managed to track down a meteorite, after a video that showed it crashing into a portion of Georgia. In all, Robert Ward found 10 meteorites, and the largest one came in at 73.2 grams, or about 2.58 ounces. PHOENIX - Pieces of a meteorite that exploded over Georgia in June have now found a new home in Arizona, and as it turns out, it was a meteor hunter from the Grand Canyon State who found the crash site, and collected some out-of-this-world rocks. The backstory The fireball was caught perfectly on dashcam, and NASA officials confirmed a meteor crashed into earth in the Georgia area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As it entered the atmosphere on June 26, NASA officials said the meteor was going roughly 30,000 miles per hour, and unleashed the equivalent of 20 tons of TNT. One resident even reported a chunk of meteorite falling through their roof. Dig deeper When people see video of a meteorite falling, they normally say "wow" or "cool," and then carry on. For Robert Ward, however, it's go-time when that happens, and he starts packing his bags immediately. Ward has turned his home in Prescott into one of the world's largest meteorite museums, and one can call him a meteorite hunter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Like others, Ward saw video of the Georgia meteorite, and for him, it was the start of a chase. "It came in at a fairly high angle, and looking at the radar data, we can tell everything in a fairly small area, so youre gonna have a high concentration of stones in a short ground track," said Ward. Ward used technology to track down a probable landing site, and it wasn't long before he spotted the unique rocks on the Georgia soil. In all, he found 10 meteorites, and the largest one came in at 73.2 grams, or about 2.58 ounces. Now, it's on display in his museum. What's next Ward is searching for a witnessed meteorite fall in Arizona. Meteor vs. meteorite: Which one's which? Big picture view According to NASA's website, there's a difference between meteors and meteorites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meteors, per the website, refer to the fireballs or "shooting stars" that are created when meteoroids, or rocks that are still in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids, enter Earth's atmosphere (or the atmosphere of another planet) at a high speed, and burn up. Meanwhile, NASA officials say meteorites are rocks that survive a trip through a planet's atmosphere, and hit the ground. SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY JWR UPDATE. IT'S FREE. Just click here. SACRAMENTO, Calif. If you, like me, in recent days have wistfully considered a utopian fantasy where an economically powerful country of California breaks away from the chaos of a second Donald Trump presidency, then I have both good news and bad news for you: The good news is that the fantasy seems to be rapidly gaining support. A new YouGov poll of 500 California adults, commissioned by the Independent California Institute last month, reports a record high 44% who say they would vote for the state to secede from America and become a fully independent nation. The bad news? There's no such thing as a Californian utopia in fantasy or reality (and certainly not one where the likes of Gov. Gavin Newsom is in charge). California's secession from the union would be so impossible as to be nearly "apocalyptic," according to one of the nation's top constitutional scholars. "It is not surprising that talk of secession in California has increased in recent weeks," wrote the dean of UC Berkeley's School of Law, Erwin Chemerinsky. "Ultimately, though, the question is whether the federal government would allow California to secede." "At this point, it is inconceivable that the federal government would permit this and allow the United States government to come apart," Chemerinsky said in an email. "President Trump already has shown a willingness to use the United States military within the state. I imagine there would be a military takeover of California in some way, as occurred in the South in the Civil War. The path without consent of the federal government is apocalyptic." The country of California? This certainly isn't the first time Californians have considered breaking away. Notably, the partition of Southern California from the northern part of the state has been a topic of debate since even before California was admitted as a state in 1850. From the Pico Act of 1859, that sought to split the busy north state apart from the then-lightly populated counties of southern California; to the indomitable efforts of northern State of Jefferson supporters; to the New California movement that seeks to razor off Sacramento and the west coast, and the burgeoning CalExit secession movement California has always wrestled with its size and identity in the larger picture of America. But there's something in the air these days that makes the idea feel decreasingly bonkers. Perhaps that's because "President Trump is literally fighting a war against California," Chemerinsky said. "(Trump) has said that he wants to use the military to liberate' Los Angeles. He has deployed troops against the desires of the state and city. He has threatened to cut off all funds to California, even though the state pays more in taxes than it receives in federal money. Not surprisingly, then, many are saying they don't want to be ruled by him," the nation's leading constitutional scholar asserted. In that same spirit, a group advocating for the state's secession is now attempting to gather enough signatures to place the question on voters' ballots next year: "Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?" The CalExit group needs 500,000 signatures before July 22 to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, but has currently garnered less than half of the required amount. Yet, the man behind the effort remains hopeful. "We are further along in the last month and a half than I have been in 10-plus years," said Marco Ruiz Evans, a Fresno native and California secession advocate who co-founded the CalExit movement. Evans said the idea of California secession saw a large boost in interest after the Palisades Fire in January: "People (were) in a chaotic, horrible situation and Donald Trump basically said, I'm not sure I want to send disaster assistance because I'm not sure I like you guys,'" Evans said. "People were shocked that politics would come into play for disaster assistance." The Independent California Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Oakland, reported in early July that 50% of 500 adult Californians say they trust Sacramento's government more than Washington D.C.'s, while only 23% say the reverse. According to the poll, another 71% say California would be better off with special autonomous status within the U.S.; 44% of Californians would vote for a ballot measure for peaceful, legal secession but 54% would vote against; 72% of Californians want California police to arrest federal immigration officers that exceed their authority or act maliciously; and 80% of Californians want to control borders with other states "like a country." Chemerinsky referenced a different poll administered in 2021 by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, which found that 41% of Biden voters and more than half (52%) of Trump voters said they "somewhat agree" it would be best to split the country by red and blue states. "I think at this moment, that has changed and secession talk will increase in blue states," Chemerinsky said. "Given how far right Trump is governing, the question has to be whether what unites us as a country is greater than what divides us?" But is a peaceful secession even possible? Ehhhh, probably not. And whatever movement emerges is unlikely to stay peaceful for long: A poll by the Los Angeles Times in 2024 found that 48% of Republicans consider California "not really American." One nation, indivisible California certainly wouldn't be the first state to try to secede. And even if we totally ignore the whole, y'know, American Civil War secession crisis, it really hasn't gone well for anyone who's tried. In the early 2000s, the nationalist Alaskan Independence Party got an initiative on the ballot there, proposing secession. But they only needed 100 signatures, not more than 500,000, and ultimately, the initiative was rejected by the state's elections authority as seeking an unconstitutional action. When it finally got in front of the Alaska Supreme Court, the justices agreed and concluded that "secession from the Union is clearly unconstitutional." But secessionists often like to invoke the 1869 Supreme Court decision in Texas v. White, a fight over bond sales by Confederate Texas, which ultimately led to a determination that states do not have the constitutional power to unilaterally secede. (And therefore, any bond sales by Confederate Texas were invalid and now legally owned by the post-war state.) The Constitution simply has no mechanism for legal secession, Chemerinsky said. "The Constitution says absolutely nothing about how states can choose to opt out of the United States," he said. "In Texas v. White, the Court said secession was not possible based on general language in the Preamble to the Constitution," he added, calling it "a very tenuous argument." More importantly, Chemerinsky pointed out, the 1869 Court declared that: "The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States." "So the very decision that is said to make secession impermissible explicitly says that it is allowed with consent of the states,'" Chemerinsky said, "In other words, a voluntary dissolution, in some form, would be allowed under the Supreme Court's only precedent considering the constitutionality of secession." It's that unclear decision that secessionists like to hang their hat on. Yet, Californian secession remains a pipe dream for much more practical reasons: President Trump and the federal government would never consent to California's departure. And how would the state deal with the federal land and resources within the state? How would we defend ourselves? Would other states secede along with us? And so, secession remains a utopian fantasy for liberals, fueled by the increasingly large gap in political values between California and President Trump, and perhaps also by the literal, geographic gap between the nation's west coast and east coast. But it's sure nice to dream, isn't it? (COMMENT, BELOW) Robin Epley is an opinion writer for The Sacramento Bee. MOSCOW/KIEV, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Russia on Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's 50-day ultimatum to agree to an Ukraine ceasefire, dismissing the threat of "severe tariffs" as unacceptable. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov emphasized that Moscow favors a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict and is ready to negotiate. "However, if this is not met with a proper response, if we cannot reach our set goals through diplomacy, then the special military operation will go on," he continued. He said Moscow's position is unshakable. "We expect Washington and NATO to take this seriously." Trump on Tuesday denied earlier allegations that he encouraged Kiev to strike deep into Russian territory, saying that he isn't taking sides in the conflict and advised Ukraine "shouldn't target Moscow" with long-range weapons. Just one day before the clarification, Trump said at the Oval Office that the United States will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, and threatened "severe tariffs" targeting Russia if a ceasefire deal is not reached in 50 days. He said some of the first Patriot missile systems could arrive in Ukraine "within days." The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the weapon deliveries as evidence that NATO countries are not interested in peace. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Trump's reference to 100 percent secondary tariffs meant "economic sanctions." Meanwhile, Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday voted to extend the country's wartime status and military mobilization for another 90 days, through Nov. 5. Lawmakers also approved a temporary withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention, an international treaty that prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines. Arizona leaders say masked ICE agents and arrests at courthouses endanger the public by eroding trust in law enforcement. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Arizonas elected leaders are calling for an end to ICE agents using masks and arresting people at their court hearings, saying the practices jeopardize public trust in law enforcement and flout the U.S. Constitution. The criticism comes as immigration enforcement actions have ramped up across the country in a bid to deliver on President Donald Trumps campaign promise to oversee the largest mass deportation effort in history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tasked with a 3,000 daily arrest quota, federal immigration officials have resorted to focusing on easy targets, carrying out workplace raids, stopping people at gas stations and hardware store parking lots and detaining people who show up to mandatory immigration court hearings. Masked officers in plainclothes have become a common theme, sparking angry protests as public disapproval of the Trump administrations aggressive approach climbs. In Phoenix, more than a dozen immigrants attending mandatory hearings were arrested minutes after their cases were dismissed by federal prosecutors. After advocates mounted a defensive campaign to help escort people to their hearings, ICE agents pivoted to identifying the cars of migrants and pulling them over streets away. Its unclear how many people were arrested as a result. Similar to raids in other states, immigration officials carrying out enforcement actions in Arizona have made efforts to avoid being identified, often covering their faces and travelling in unmarked vehicles. In Tucson, ICE agents posed as utility workers to convince a woman to share information about her neighbors whereabouts. Dem AGs criticize ICE agents for secret police tactics Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joined 20 other Democratic attorneys general in lambasting the controversial masking practice in a letter to Congress. In a written statement accompanying the letter, Mayes warned that allowing ICE agents to hide their identities would be detrimental for the relationship between Arizonans and local law enforcement and opens the door to criminal activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers across Arizona do their jobs safely in uniform, without masks daily. ICE agents should too, Mayes said. Secret police tactics like this erode trust in law enforcement and allows criminals to dangerously impersonate officers which is already happening. Just last month, a Philadelphia man claimed he was an ICE agent, threatened to take undocumented employees into custody at an automobile shop and zip-tied a woman before fleeing with $1,000. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In their letter, the attorneys general urged Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit federal agents from wearing masks and require them to show ID and agency-identifying insignia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todd Lyons, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has defended the tactic as necessary to keep agents safe from harassment. That argument was dismissed by the letters authors, who wrote that the risks to public safety and civil liberties outweigh that concern. And, they added, the federal governments enthusiastic advocacy of its ICE operations directly contradicts that purported fear. As a general rule, if the federal authorities are confident that their practices are lawful and just, they should not fear identifying themselves, reads the letter. The Administration is willing to tout its arrests and tactics in press releases, social media posts, and speeches, but refuses to take ownership or accountability for their policies on the ground in our communities. Last month, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives proposed the No Masks for ICE Act, which would require ICE agents to wear clearly visible identification and ban the use of face coverings, except in limited circumstances. But the measure is unlikely to move forward in the Republican-majority House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has previously backed the right of ICE agents to conceal their faces. Courthouse arrests spark questions At the same time, a coalition of 24 Democratic U.S. Senators, including Arizonas Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, are demanding answers from federal officials about ICEs recent targeting of immigration courthouses. In a July 11 letter, the group criticized the effort as a departure from the Trump administrations touted goal of arresting the worst of the worst. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These actions prevent noncitizens from having their fair day in court and raise serious legal and due process concerns, the senators wrote. They also make clear that this Administration is not targeting the worst criminals and threats to public safety, instead redirecting staff and resources away from drug trafficking and human trafficking and towards these operations targeting noncriminal immigrants who are following the law and showing up for their day in court. While Trump and federal immigration officials have repeatedly claimed their deportation campaign is focused on expelling criminals from the country, data surrounding arrests clearly shows the opposite is occurring. As of June 29 of this year, according to the most recent ICE statistics, 71.7% of the more than 57,000 people detained had no criminal conviction at all. And while the agency assigns detainees a threat level assessment on a scale of 1 to 3, 84% of detainees at the agencys 201 facilities nationwide didnt fall anywhere on that scale. In their letter, the Democrats wrote that staking out immigration courtrooms and arresting people attending hearings doesnt ensure public safety, and in fact works against that goal, by encouraging migrants to miss their mandatory appointments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This manipulation of existing laws to enact this Administrations mass deportation agenda is creating chaos in our immigration system while doing nothing to make our communities safer, reads the letter. The group of two dozen senators requested more information from Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Lyons about each of their agencies guidance on the courthouse arrests and the number of migrants who were arrested and deported as a result, by July 25. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Michelle Wolchok, president of the League of Women Voters of Washington County, collects a signature for a ballot measure sponsored by the group on July 2, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) The League of Women Voters of Arkansas on Tuesday asked a judge to temporarily block enforcement of several new state laws regulating direct democracy that it argued are unconstitutional. The nonpartisan group has proposed for the 2026 ballot a constitutional amendment aimed at preserving the states direct democracy process. The League officially began gathering petitions in mid-June, and argued in Tuesdays court documents that the new laws hinder canvassing efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Direct democracy allows Arkansans to propose new state laws or constitutional amendments and put them to a statewide vote. Arkansas is one of 24 states that permits this process, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The League filed its original lawsuit challenging the laws against Arkansas secretary of state in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in April. Little Rock attorney David Couch filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction in the case Tuesday evening. According to a brief in support of the motion, the deadline for the League to gather the requisite number of signatures is July 6, 2026, but the Unconstitutional Acts, individually and collectively, so significantly impair Plaintiffs ability to gather signatures that the July 6 deadline will likely be impossible to meet. Proponents of the new state laws have said they help protect the integrity of the process. The plaintiffs argued Tuesday that several of the laws challenged in the lawsuit violate the First Amendment, including three new ones that require canvassers to request a photo ID of potential signers, notify them petition fraud is a criminal offense and have them read the ballot title or have it read to them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These three new laws, individually and collectively, significantly restrict the canvassing process in Arkansas, the brief states. They were designed and enacted to interfere with Arkansas citizens right to petition by making the process of petitioning significantly more difficult if not outright impossible. They also violate the right to free speech, burdening an open discussion of political issues. Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm without an injunction, according to court documents. Their injuries cannot be compensated by damages a lost vote is a lost vote and disqualified signature means that citizens of Arkansas have lost the opportunity to present political issues to the electorate and there is no other way to restore this Constitutional right other than by enjoining the Unconstitutional Acts, the brief states. Protect AR Rights is another coalition pursuing its own direct democracy-related ballot measure. The groups proposal has not yet been certified by Attorney General Tim Griffin, but the coalition has filed a motion to intervene in the Leagues lawsuit challenging the new state laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Protect AR Rights is seeking to challenge additional laws not listed in the Leagues lawsuit, including one that prohibits ballot titles from being written above an eighth-grade reading level. Griffin has cited this law twice in his rejection of the groups proposal. Spokesperson Bill Kopsky has previously told the Advocate that if the judge rejects the motion to intervene, the coalition would file its own lawsuit. Members of both groups acknowledged earlier this month that their greatest chance of achieving their shared goal is by working together and said they plan to meet to discuss what that might look like. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the part of Arkansas' LEARNS Act that bans "indoctrination" in public school classrooms. This photo shows Little Rock Central High students protesting the education overhaul law in 2023. (Photo by Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate) This story was updated on July 17, 2025, to include the plaintiffs reaction to the 8th Circuit decision. Arkansas ban on indoctrination in public schools doesnt violate students free speech protections because the government has a right to dictate what is taught, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three-judge panel from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out a lower courts ruling that blocked enforcement of part of Arkansas 2023 education overhaul law. The panel sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings. U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky in May 2024 granted a preliminary injunction against the section of the LEARNS Act that prohibits indoctrination in public schools. Section 16 of the law specifically bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory. Rudofskys ruling applied only to the students who had sued, not the Little Rock High School teacher who was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. The suit argued that the indoctrination section of the law violated the U.S. Constitutions First and Fourteenth Amendments, which guarantee the rights of free speech and due process, respectively. Arkansas officials appealed the preliminary injunction, arguing free speech protections dont mean students can demand that public schools teach certain topics. The appellate panel agreed in its 18-page ruling, written by U.S. Circuit Judge L. Steven Grasz. Circuit Judges James B. Loken and Raymond W. Gruender were the other members of the panel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The students concede the classroom materials and instruction they seek to receive constitute government speech. This is fatal to their likelihood of success because the governments own speech is not restricted by the Free Speech Clause, so it is free to choose what to say and what not to say, the panel said, quoting from a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Shurtleff v. City of Boston. Since the Free Speech Clause does not give the students the right to compel the government to say something it does not wish to, they cannot show a likelihood of success, the appeals court ruling said. Attorney General Tim Griffin in a statement called the appeals court ruling an important win for the LEARNS Act and for the rule of law. With its ruling today, the Eighth Circuit continues to ensure that the responsibility of setting curriculum is in the hands of democratically elected officials who, by nature, are responsive to voters. A lawyer for the plaintiffs in the case said that while they are disappointed in the 8th Circuits decision to overturn the preliminary injunction, its impact will be minimal because the State has committed to a narrow interpretation of the law throughout the litigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teachers can still teach, and students can still learn about the history of systemic racism in our country and how to critically analyze current events in light of that history, said Maya Brodziak, senior counsel for the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Mistaken decision The panel also ruled the district court erred in granting the preliminary injunction based on the likelihood the students might succeed on their argument that the First Amendment protects a persons right to receive information. While students have a free-speech right to receive information, they cant dictate what schools include in their curriculum, the panel said. Though a listeners right to receive information means the government cannot stop a willing private speaker from disseminating his message, that right cannot be used to require the government to provide a message it no longer is willing to say, according to the appeals panel. We do not minimize the students concern about a government that decides to exercise its discretion over the public school curriculum by prioritizing ideological interests over educational ones, the panel wrote. But the Constitution does not give courts the power to block government action based on mere policy disagreements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The First Amendment right to receive information doesnt authorize a court to require the state to retain curriculum materials or instruction, even if such information was removed for political reasons, the ruling said. Since the speech belongs to the government, it gets to control what it says. In spite of its ruling in favor of the states position, the panel noted: Government speech is not immune from all constitutional challenges, and our holding does not suggest otherwise. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The due process argument The district courts preliminary injunction excluded the teachers who sued because, Rudofsky wrote, they did not show irreparable harm arising from Section 16 of the LEARNS Act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The teachers had argued the law forced them to self-censor in their classroom instruction, but Rudofsky ruled that the speech they were allegedly censoring was the states, not theirs. The teachers also argued that the laws indoctrination section was so vague that it violated the Fourteenth Amendments due process clause. The teachers filed motions in the appeal making similar arguments, but the appellate panel declined to consider the vagueness claim because the teachers didnt file a separate appeal. Arkansas Advocate Editor Sonny Albarado can be reached at salbarado@arkansasadvocate.com SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Army reportedly is investigating an apparent incident of politically driven hazing within its ranks, a troubling development that comes as Donald Trump and his followers have sought to portray the armed forces as a tool for the presidents personal political agenda. The incident revolves around Staff Sgt. Thomas Mitchell, a Georgia-based drill sergeant who posted a video of Army trainees performing exercises underneath a This Is Ultra MAGA Country flag, according to Military.com. Per the outlet: The Army has launched an investigation after a drill sergeant posted a video showing soldiers being hazed beneath a MAGA flag, which runs afoul of multiple military regulations prohibiting partisan political activity in uniform and on federal property. Staff Sgt. Thomas Mitchell on Friday uploaded the video to TikTok, showing a group of trainees performing push-ups and burpees in full body armor under a banner that read, This Is Ultra MAGA Country. The video was later deleted. But shortly after, Mitchell posted a second video showing the same exercising in the same location, this time with the flag removed. The caption: Cry about it. The outlet reported that an Army spokesperson said an investigation is underway: The U.S. Army is an apolitical organization, Jennifer Gunn, a service spokesperson, said in a statement. Displaying partisan political materials in government facilities, including training areas, is prohibited under Army regulation. We will investigate this matter and address it in accordance with established policies to ensure compliance with standards of conduct and to maintain an environment free from political influence. This news follows various attempts by Trumps authoritarian-style efforts to deploy the military as his own personal force to mete out political conflicts. He has sent the military to crack down on protests in California, and his administration has said it was meant to liberate Los Angeles from Democratic leadership. Trump also recently used the military to stage an anti-immigrant publicity stunt in an L.A. park, and he gave a nakedly political speech to troops at North Carolinas Fort Bragg last month that, as political scientist Stephen Saideman wrote for MSNBC, helped pull the military into the partisan fray and constituted a serious step toward ending American democracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For democracy to survive, Americans need to have confidence that their military exists to serve their interests not the political interests of the wannabe king currently occupying the presidency. Hazing incidents like this apparent one in Georgia obviously raise serious doubts. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com Jul. 16POTSDAM The U.S. Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) will sever its ties with Clarkson University by the summer of 2026, ending nearly 90 years of involvement in the program. This decision comes in response to the elimination of 168 civilian jobs at the Department of Defense, as part of the broader "Army Transformation Initiative," as outlined in a June 27 article published by the Army. As a result, 10 universities will close their Army ROTC units, while 46 other institutions will scale back on-campus resources and staff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The changes, which will not take effect until summer 2026, will allow current senior-year cadets to complete their programs before the reductions are implemented. Nationwide, the Army is restructuring or discontinuing officer training at 84 college campuses. Clarkson University's affiliation with ROTC began in 1936, and it is the only ROTC program in New York state to be impacted by these cutbacks. Jake Newman, Clarkson's director of media relations, said he had no information on the closure. "We have received communication that the Army intends to close the Army ROTC program at Clarkson. We are still seeking some further clarification," he wrote in an email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ten host campuses and nine extension programs nationwide are losing their Army ROTC programs, Inside Higher Ed wrote in a July 9 article. "While most will graduate in the next two years, 13 incoming first-year students and rising juniors will be given other options to continue their ROTC training," according to the article, which can be read at wdt.me/xmFmFY. "The realignment was prompted by personnel changes under the Trump administration's deferred resignation program, which shrank the Army's civilian workforce by 12 percent, or about 168 positions." "Throughout this process, Cadet Command has conducted a thorough assessment of each program's previous production, their proximity to other programs, and higher education enrollment trends to provide an informed recommendation to Army Senior Leaders," the article goes on to say, citing a statement from the Army. "Cadet Command is working closely with affected cadets and employees to provide support and ensure all impacted individuals have viable options moving forward." Public relations officials from the Army did not immediately respond to an email seeking details on the specific reasons for Clarkson's ROTC closure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 15, U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., released a letter addressed to Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, stating that the decision to deactivate the ROTC unit at Clarkson University is a "misstep" and "counterproductive," urging that it be "immediately reversed." He also noted the program's close connection to the nearby 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. Schumer praised the Golden Knights Battalion for its "tremendous track record" in producing officers from the north country and called on Army leadership to avoid forcing students to choose between remaining at Clarkson or transferring to an ROTC program elsewhere. The senator also highlighted that Clarkson's ROTC program produces more STEM field cadets than many other units, "with more than double the national Army average for cadets who enter STEM fields." Schumer's letter further questioned the criteria used to determine which ROTC units would be deactivated and asked whether alternatives, such as reclassifying the Golden Knights Battalion, had been considered. BOULDER, Colo. (KDVR) The case against the suspect accused of firebombing the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder will move ahead with a Sept. 9 court date set for arraignment. Mohamed Soliman appeared in a Boulder courtroom on Tuesday and waived his right to a preliminary hearing for the state charges. Opening statements in James Craig trial, dentist accused of poisoning wife Hes facing dozens of charges, including murder and attempted murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Soliman is accused of killing Karen Diamond and injuring a dozen others in a June 1 firebomb attack on the Pearl Street Mall, where a group was showing support for Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Soliman is accused of throwing Molotov cocktails and yelling things like, Free Palestine! District Attorney Michael Dougherty said multiple victims from the group came to the hearing on Tuesday. This was an incredibly tragic and traumatic incident for all the people who were present. Obviously, Karen Diamond was killed that day. She was with this group and many of the other victims who were there. So this is a hard and serious case for them, and we are going to make sure we do everything we can to fight for justice and to get the right outcome in this case, Dougherty said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal authorities say Soliman, an Egyptian national, overstayed his visa in the US. As the state case plays out, a federal prosecution is also underway with dozens of charges, including hate crime charges. They are on parallel tracks, and we remain in good communication with our partners at the U.S. Attorneys Office. The scheduling of the two cases, however, will not impact one another. So it remains to be seen when the court dates will be scheduled for the federal case and how quickly trials happen, if any, at the state level and or the federal level, Dougherty said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. NEED TO KNOW Los Angeles police confirmed that American Idol supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband, Thomas Deluca, were found dead with gunshots wounds inside their Encino home The LAPD confirmed to PEOPLE that 22-year-old Raymond Boodarian has been arrested in connection with the killings On July 10, police responded to a possible burglary at the same address around 4:00 p.m., though no visible signs of forced entry were found at the time. Robin will remain in our hearts forever, says American Idol in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a shocking tragedy that has shaken the music and television communities, American Idols longtime music supervisor Robin Kaye and her husband, musician Thomas Deluca, were found fatally shot in their $4.5 million Encino home on Monday, July 14. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE that Raymond Boodarian, 22, a resident of Encino, has been arrested in connection with the killings. According to authorities, the couple is believed to have walked in on the suspect inside their home, where a confrontation turned deadly. Both Kaye and Deluca, both 70, were found in separate rooms of the home with gunshot wounds to the head. According to police sources, officers arriving at the scene discovered a trail of blood leading to the front of the property and made entry through a shattered glass sliding door at the back of the house. Deluca was found in the bathroom, while Kaye was located in the pantry. First responders from the Los Angeles Fire Department pronounced the couple dead at the scene. Police say the killings appear to be random, and there is currently no known connection between the victims and the suspect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The LAPD told PEOPLE that a welfare check was conducted on July 14 at approximately 2:30 p.m. at the couples home on the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue in Encino, after a concerned individual reported they hadnt heard from the pair. Thats when authorities made the grim discovery. Just four days prior, on July 10, police responded to a possible burglary at the same address around 4:00 p.m. While there were no visible signs of forced entry at the time, investigators now believe the suspect entered through an unlocked door. "The victims returned home while the suspect had gained entry into the residence, and a confrontation ensued, which resulted in the suspect taking their lives, authorities said. The victims succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds, and the suspect fled from the residence on foot. The arrest of Boodarian was carried out without incident by a multi-agency task force, including Operations-Valley Bureau Homicide, the LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division, the FBI Fugitive Task Force and West Valley Division officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators tell PEOPLE they are still working to determine whether the suspect had any prior connection to the couple or if he had been involved in previous calls for service at the residence. The case remains an active investigation. Rachel Murray/Getty for Guild of Music Supervisors Robin Kaye attends The 7th Annual Guild Of Music Supervisors Awards at The Theater at Ace Hotel on February 16, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Robin Kaye attends The 7th Annual Guild Of Music Supervisors Awards at The Theater at Ace Hotel on February 16, 2017 in Hollywood, California. Kayes impressive career spanned decades in both the music and television industries. Best known for her work on American Idol from 2002 to 2023, she also served as music supervisor on Lip Sync Battle, After the Sunset, The Singing Bee and QViva!: The Chosen, in addition to multiple Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants. She began her career in Nashville working for Waylon Jennings before transitioning into artist development at MTM Records. She went on to hold roles in licensing at MCA-Universal Records and PolyGram Records, eventually founding her own company, SyncroniCity, in 2000. Through it, she represented artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Kenny Loggins and Donny Osmond. That work eventually led her into music supervision, where she built a respected career across television and film. Deluca, a respected songwriter and musician, most recently released an album titled Street Rock in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a heartfelt statement, American Idol paid tribute to their longtime colleague: "Were devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing," the statement continued. "Robin has been a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time. Read the original article on People NEED TO KNOW David Fuller was arrested in December 2020 for sexually abusing more than 100 dead women and children, as well as the 1987 murders of two women Fuller's crimes launched a nationwide inquiry into security systems at hospitals across Britain The inquiry released its findings Tuesday, announcing that it is "entirely possible" Fuller's crimes could be repeated given a range of security flaws David Fullers necrophiliac crimes shocked Britain when he was arrested half a decade ago, but a new inquiry spawned by his case says it could all happen again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fuller, 70, was convicted of sexually abusing more than 100 bodies of women and young girls through the access he had to a morgue via his job as a hospital electrician. He was also convicted of killing two women Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987. With the convicted murderer and necrophiliac four years into a life sentence for his crimes, British officials launched an inquiry into the countrys hospital systems in late 2023 to ensure that such crimes could never happen again. This week, however, the years-long inquiry announced its findings, saying it is "entirely possible for Fullers crimes to be repeated given a range of security flaws at hospitals across the country. The Telegraph reported that Sir Jonathan Michael, the chairman of the inquiry, announced the inquirys findings this week, making the statement that abuses like Fullers could very well be repeated given the amount of unsupervised staff members throughout the hospital system, a lack of security cameras in British hospitals, as well as a lack of staff precautions. In one case, according to Michael, a door to a mortuary had even been left open, allowing easy access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The security and dignity of people after death do not feature in the governance arrangements of many organisations which are caring for the deceased, the inquiry chairman said, according to The Telegraph. I have therefore come to the conclusion that the current arrangements for the regulation and oversight of the care of people after death are partial, ineffective and, in significant areas, completely absent. Michael concluded: I have asked myself whether there could be a recurrence of the appalling crimes committed by David Fuller. I have concluded that yes, it is entirely possible that such offences could be repeated, particularly in those sectors that lack any form of statutory regulation. Overall, the report, which was reviewed by PEOPLE, made 75 total recommendations for ways to prevent crimes like Fullers from happening again. Its overarching recommendation is that there should be statutory regulation in place to protect the security and dignity of people after death, whichever setting or institution they are in, the report says. Press Association via AP David Fuller courtroom sketch David Fuller courtroom sketch While working at the Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Pembury, roughly 40 miles southeast of London, Fuller used his hospital key card to gain access to the morgue, where he sexually abused the bodies of more than 100 women and children between 2005 and 2020. After he was arrested in 2020, investigators uncovered millions of photos and videos Fuller made of himself sexually abusing the corpses of more than 100 victims inside the computers and hard drives in his home office, according to BBC. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The mother of one 9-year-old victim testified at his 2021 sentencing that the crime Fuller committed against her daughter will haunt me forever and the rest of my life, according to GBN News. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org. Read the original article on People BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano) has announced her bid for Californias 22nd Congressional District Wednesday morning. Bains will be looking to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao of Hanford in the 2026 election. Trump tells Texas Republicans to redraw the state congressional map to help keep House majority In a post on X, Bains emphasizes her career as a family doctor, directly calling out Valadao for voting yes on the Big, Beautiful Bill and for the largest cut to health care in history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bains joins fellow Democrat Randy Villegas in opposing Valadao. 17 News will have a candidate profile with Bains. Check back for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is blaming Democrat politicians and the mainstream media for an 830% increase in assaults on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, saying their "lies and fake stories" continue to stir hate and violence. DHS announced Tuesday that its ICE officials have faced an 830% increase in assaults between Jan. 21, 2025 and July 14, 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. The timeframe recorded begins on the day after President Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. "Just in: our brave @ICEGov law enforcement are now facing a 830% INCREASE in assault against them," DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday in a post on X. "This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DHS accused political figures and the mainstream media of escalating anti-ICE rhetoric, particularly pointing to Congressional Democrats who the department said were caught "doxing and even physically assaulting" officials working for ICE. Noem Warns Of Unprecedented Threat Level For Ice Agents, Blames 'Lies' From Democrats Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., DHS said, shared an ICE employees business card with a violent group of people this week, placing a target on the employees back and prompting the mob to attack him. Read On The Fox News App As a result, the official was hit by a rock and taken to a hospital where he received stitches. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another Democratic lawmaker, Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., is accused of storming the Delaney Hall detention facility in May, where she allegedly assaulted an ICE officer. She was indicted on federal assault charges. Dhs: Assaults On Ice Now Up Nearly 700% Over Same Time Last Year "Brave ICE law enforcement are risking their lives every day to keep our communities safe from the worst of the worst criminals," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. "ICE law enforcement are succeeding to remove terrorists, murderers, pedophiles and the most depraved among us from Americas communities, even as crazed rhetoric from gutter politicians are inspiring a massive increase in assaults against them. It is reprehensible that our officers are facing this threat while simply doing their jobs and enforcing the law." DHS also pointed to instances in Portland, Oregon, where ICE officers were doxed and threatened by antifa-affiliated groups. The agency said the groups posted pictures and personal addresses of the ICE officers and threatened them and their families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One officer, DHS noted, had someone show up at their house and dump trash on their lawn, which included signs that read "f--k you" along with the officers name. Dhs Reveals Shocking 500% Increase In Assaults Against Ice Officers During Operations Hundreds of protesters, demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids at workplaces stop immediately, clash with police as the Trump administration continues its immigration raids in Los Angeles on June 8, 2025. While groups call out ICE agents by name, DHS also accused the mainstream media of publishing false stories about federal immigration enforcement efforts. "During an enforcement operation where ICE and federal law enforcement rescued 14 children from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking, the media falsely reported that a man died in law enforcement custody," DHS said. "This was an outright lie. The man was not being pursued by law enforcement but still chose to climb up to the roof of a green house, where he fell 30 feet." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS said some media organizations are also accusing ICE of "targeting" children. "Rather than separate families, ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone else safe [who] the parent designates," DHS said to clear up the reports. Original article source: Assaults on ICE officers surge 830% as Democrats caught 'doxing and physically assaulting' agents: DHS BUDAPEST, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Hungary has formally proposed that the European Union (EU) place three senior Ukrainian military officials on its sanctions list in response to alleged abuses linked to violent conscription practices in Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Wednesday. According to Szijjarto, the officials in question are responsible for overseeing conscription operations within Ukraine's Ministry of Defense and armed forces. The Hungarian government's move follows the reported death of an ethnic Hungarian man, identified as Jozsef S., during a conscription incident in Ukraine's Transcarpathia region in early July. Szijjarto cited a recent Council of Europe human rights report as confirmation of what he described as "a manhunt taking place on the streets of Ukraine," claiming that individuals refusing to enlist have been beaten or tortured. "The way Ukrainian forced conscription units treat people is shocking, and equally shocking is how European political leaders look the other way in the face of this unacceptable situation," he said. The Hungarian government summoned Ukraine's ambassador in Budapest last week following the reported death of the ethnic Hungarian man. According to a separate statement by Levente Magyar, parliamentary state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the man was allegedly captured during a forced conscription operation, beaten with a metal rod, and later died from his injuries. Szijjarto said that numerous videos documenting such incidents have surfaced in recent months. Hungarian officials, including Prime Minister Viktor Orban, have expressed condolences to the victim's family. Hungary has consistently opposed the launch of EU accession talks with Ukraine, citing concerns over minority rights and the treatment of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia. Earlier this month, astronomers were thrilled to spot an interstellar object only the third of its kind ever observed hurtling toward the center of the solar system on an extremely unusual trajectory and at a breakneck velocity. While we're only beginning to understand the unusual object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the discovery led to widespread speculation, with some scientists suggesting that it may be almost as old as the Milky Way galaxy itself, and billions of years older than our own Sun. Unsurprisingly, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb who has extensively written about 'Oumuamua, the second interstellar object ever discovered, notably hypothesizing that it might have been a relic from an extraterrestrial civilization has now waded into the discussion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a blog post on Medium, he argued that it will take more observations to conclude the nature of 3I/ATLAS, which is likely either a comet or asteroid. However, Loeb didn't rule out the "tantalizing possibility" that it was "sent towards the inner solar system by design" a conclusion that's already proved controversial. Loeb chided the editors of Wikipedia and the scientific journal RNAAS for striking the hypothesis from his contributions, showing once again that his theories about extraterrestrial probes visiting our solar system remain as contentious as ever. The astronomer has remained steadfast in his belief that 'Oumuamua, an interstellar object first observed in 2017, may have been sent to us by an alien civilization, garnering him enormous attention in the media. He has even gone on to hunt for pieces of what he claims may be an alien spacecraft, based on detections of a three-foot, interstellar meteor crash-landing near Papua New Guinea in early 2014, by combing the ocean floor with a modified ship. In other words, his latest comments about 3I/ATLAS are very much in line with what we'd expect from him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his blog post, Loeb announced that he had authored a new paper about 3I/ATLAS' unusual size. Based on its "anomalously bright" nature, the astronomer concluded that the object was roughly 12.4 miles in diameter. That would make it considerably larger than 'Oumuamua, which only measured anywhere from 330 to 1,300 feet long. However, those calculations raise more questions than answers. The interstellar object's ' "size estimate makes little sense for an interstellar asteroid because the interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua was 200 times smaller, and based on the statistics of asteroids in the Solar system, we should have discovered a million objects of the scale of 1I/'Oumuamua before spotting one interstellar object that is [roughly 12.4 miles] in diameter," Loeb wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We know that [12.4-mile] asteroids are rare, because non-avian dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid half that size 66 million ago, whereas meter-scale asteroids impact the Earth every year," he added. However, subsequent observations forced Loeb back to the drawing board. Given the lack of "spectral fingerprints of atomic or molecular gas," 3I/ATLAS likely isn't a comet, as Loeb had initially suggested. "If 3I/ATLAS is not an asteroid based on the interstellar reservoir argument in my paper, nor a comet based on the lack of the spectral fingerprints of carbon-based molecules around it, then what is it?" Loeb asked rhetorically, highlighting his "by design" theory. Fortunately, there's still time for the scientific community to get a closer look. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The size anomaly of 3I/ATLAS will be easily clarified by upcoming data," Loeb wrote. As it "gets closer to the Sun, it will get brighter. If it is a solid object without a cometary plume of gas or dust around it, then its brightness will increase inversely with the square of the decreasing distance from the Sun times the square of the distance from Earth." "The simplest hypothesis is that 3I/ATLAS is a comet and we are missing the spectral features of its gaseous coma because of its large distance from Earth," he added. But without any observed cometary tail, Loeb suggests there's a chance we could be looking at evidence of an extraterrestrial visitor. "Let us instead maintain our childhood curiosity and seek evidence rather than pretend to be the adults in the room that know the answers in advance," he concluded."Science does not need to feel like a lecture in a classroom, summarizing past knowledge. It could be far more exciting if the teachers would be willing to learn something new!" More on 3I/ATLAS: The Interstellar Visitor Hurtling Toward the Center of Our Star System Is Unimaginably Ancient, Scientists Say CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. Its an unprecedented snapshot of time zero, scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel. Weve captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars," said Leiden Observatorys Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicagos Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature. This is one of the things weve been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time," Ciesla said. There's a rich opportunity here. NASAs Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. Its a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles. In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for whats believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar systems planets. The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, so we didnt know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system, McClure said in an email. Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation. While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, theres been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said. In a stunning picture taken by the ESO's Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the suns might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure. Purdue Universitys Merel van t Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds. Are there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?" ___ AP video journalist Javier Arciga contributed to this report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Astronomers have, for the first time, discovered the moment when planets started to form around a sun-like baby star, scientists reported Wednesday. The specks of planet-forming material are emerging around HOPS-315, a protostar or baby star located 1,300 light-years away from us. One light year is approximately 5.88 trillion miles. While astronomers have seen discs of gas and dust around protostars before, they've never before identified a new planetary system at such an early stage. Minerals in the system around HOPS-315 are just starting to form. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We're seeing a system that looks like what our Solar System looked like when it was just beginning to form," study co-author Merel van 't Hoff, a professor at Purdue University, said in a news release from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The observatory paired up with NASA's Webb Space Telescope to identify the minerals forming the new solar system. Researchers turned to data from our own solar system to determine that these minerals show the start of a new system. In Earth's solar system, the first solid materials to form can now be found inside ancient meteorites. Those ancient meteorites contain a mineral called silicon monoxide, which only forms at extremely high temperatures, like those near a young star. Scientists were able to identify the formation of silicon monoxide around HOPS-315, which they said tells them they've caught the development of a solar system at an early stage. "This is the first time this early stage of planet-building has ever been observed outside our own Solar System," the Planetary Society wrote in a social media post about the discovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The discovery marks "the birth of the seeds of the planets," study co-author Edwin Bergin, a professor at the University of Michigan, told CBS News. The silicate-mineral rich material around HOPS-315 will make planets after another million years or so. "So we are watching the beginnings of the construction of planets," Bergin said. With the discovery, Bergin said researchers now know what to look for to find other budding systems. This is HOPS-315, a proto star where astronomers have, for the first time, captured evidence for the earliest stages of planet formation / Credit: ALMA(ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/M. McClure et al. ESO's Alma telescope network in Chile captured an image of the still-forming planetary system around HOPS-315. In orange, the image shows the distribution of carbon monoxide blowing away from HOPS-315. Blue shows a narrow jet of silicon monoxide, which is also beaming away from the baby star. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Astronomers hope it can help them learn more about the dawn of our solar system. "This system is one of the best that we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our Solar System," van 't Hoff said in a news release. HOPS-315 is much younger than the Sun; it's about 100,000 years old, Bergin said. "So we get a glimpse of the system in its infancy," Bergin said in an email. "Given that the Sun is 4.6 Billion years old this is a baby star that is still gaining mass and getting bigger." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Fighting elderly loneliness Probable cause was found in Laurel District Court Tuesday in the case of a local man accused of attempted murder. Zachary Setser, 18, of East Bernstadt, attended court for his preliminary hearing after being arrested at approximately 9:24 p.m. Thursday night. The decision to send Setsers case to a grand jury was made by District Judge John Paul Chappell. Setsers arrest was in connection to a June 26 shooting. Following his arrest, Laurel County Sheriff John Root reported that Deputy Noah Ritchie served Setser with the arrest warrant off American Greeting Card Road some nine miles south of London following an investigation by Detective Sergeant Taylor McDaniel into the shooting which occurred at apartments off American Greeting Card Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When deputies arrived at that scene on Robert E. Cox Road, they found a man who had been shot multiple times and was in critical condition. The victim, whom the LCSO has not identified, was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to the University of Kentucky Medical Center. According to the LCSO, subsequent investigation indicated the shooting had occurred over a disagreement between the two men. Deputies assisting with the arrest included Dep. Zach Allen, interdiction unit Justin Taylor and Dep. Adam Napier. Setser remained lodged in the Laurel County Correctional Center in lieu of a $100,000 bond at press time. His next court date is set for Friday, August 15 at 9 a.m. Last week, we told you that the U.S. attorneys office in Pittsburgh was seeking to have a felony environmental charge against a former Erie Coke employee dismissed. A district judge asked for their justification, and now, the attorneys shared a brief with their reasons. The government said charges against David Stablein should be dismissed on the grounds that Erie Cokes guilty plea, and their agreement to pay $700,000 in fines, is the most theyll get from the out-of-business company, and that prosecuting Stablein would cost more than its worth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, fading memories of witnesses, Stableins lack of criminal history and his taking responsibility for his actions were also factors. U.S. attorneys also wrote that a key government database was accidentally deleted due to the age of the case, and that paper documents would be much more difficult and time-consuming to look through. Stablein pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act in 2023, but his sentencing has been postponed until the court can review the request. Related Stories: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. Jul. 15Austin Utilities has hired Joshua Hall as its new engineering supervisor. Hall holds two associate degrees, one in Fire Science and the other in Engineering. He is currently pursuing his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama. "Powered by unwavering dedication and integrity, I commit to delivering service that not only meets expectations but leaves a lasting impression of trust and excellence," Hall said through a press release Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hall began his career in the utility industry in 2012, gaining lots of experience in both electric and gas systems. His most recent experience was as a Distribution Engineer with Georgia Power, where he was responsible for managing large-scale projects across the Atlanta metropolitan area. Prior to that, he worked with Xcel Energy as an Electric and Gas Designer, contributing to a wide range of utility design projects. "We welcome Josh to the AU team, and we look forward to his contributions to our company and community," said Mark Nibaur, General Manager. July 16 (UPI) -- Bradley Murdoch, the Australian mechanic serving a life sentence for killing a British backpacker in 2001, has died in prison at the age of 67 without ever revealing the location of his victim's body. Murdoch, who had been diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019, died Tuesday night in the palliative care unit at Alice Springs Hospital in Australia's Northern Territory, a correctional department spokesperson confirmed to Australia's Nine News national service. His family confirmed his passing in a statement Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "To many, Bradley Murdoch is known only for the events that led to his conviction in 2005 for the murder of British backpacker Peter Falconio, a crime for which he has always denied responsibility from his arrest until his death. But to those who truly knew him, he was much more than the headlines," they said. "When given the opportunity, Bradley was a devoted father, father-in-law and proud Poppy who never missed a chance to brag about his grandchildren." Murdoch was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in December 2005 for killing Falconio and assaulting Falconio's girlfriend, Joanne Lees. The couple were in Australia on an extended trip in 2001 when Falconio was killed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lees testified they were driving on a Northern Territory highway when Murdoch flagged them to pull over. She said she heard gunshots and was then tied up and held hostage, until she was able to escape. DNA evidence found in Falconio's van and on Lees' T-shirt connected Murdoch to the crime. However, Falconio's body has never been found. Following his conviction, Lees pleaded for him to reveal where her boyfriend's body was. "It's deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconio's remains," a Wednesday statement from the Northern Territory Police Force read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved." A reward of up to $336,000 has been offered for information that leads to the discovery of Falconio's remains. Hunting leopards is illegal, but that didn't stop the poachers who were caught in India with two leopard skins. What's happening? Leopard print is a trendy staple in lots of wardrobes, but most people wouldn't dream of wearing real leopard skin. Leopards are a vulnerable species, with a declining population. However, data from the Environmental Investigation Agency suggests that "leopards are the most poached and illegally traded of the big cat species," with almost 2,000 poached leopards seized between 2014 and 2023. According to Hub News, on the outskirts of the Nagaon district in Assam, India, two suspects were apprehended by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on the highway. They were found to be smuggling two leopard skins and 20 leopard bones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the culprits managed to escape, but the other was arrested and handed over to the Kathiatoli Forest Range authorities along with the seized items. Why is poaching such an important issue? The most obvious reason that poaching is so devastating is that it's an inhumane way to treat animals that puts profit above the lives of some of the planet's most magnificent and endangered creatures. Leopards are among the top predators on Earth, which means a declining population due to poaching could have a devastating impact on the ecosystem's biodiversity. According to a study by the University of California, the loss of apex predators like leopards can influence "changes in vegetation, wildfire frequency, infectious diseases, invasive species, water quality, and nutrient cycles." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The loss of these animals through poaching could have wide-reaching effects, which overall delay progress toward a cleaner, safer future for all. What's being done about poaching? The discovery of the smuggling attempt in Nagaon is part of what Hub News described as a "sustained crackdown by DRI and Customs officials in the North Eastern Region on the illegal wildlife trade." Charities like the World Wildlife Fund are working to prevent the illegal wildlife trade by supporting rangers, exposing poaching hotspots, and pressuring governments to enforce regulations. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) An Evansville man is facing multiple charges after authorities say he threatened two juveniles with a handgun after the juveniles reportedly fired at his vehicle with Orbeez guns. According to an affidavit, a man called 911 just after 7:45 p.m. on May 27 to report that a man in a red SUV was chasing two juveniles and driving recklessly in the area of Main Street and Louisiana Street. The caller said the two juveniles fired an Orbeez gun at the vehicle as it was driving by, and the driver abruptly stopped and did a U-turn in the middle of the road, nearly hitting two vehicles. Witnesses at the scene told authorities the driver chased after the two juveniles into a nearby gas station. The juveniles said the man brandished a gun in a threatening manner and demanded them to step outside. The two juveniles said the man held the gun at his side and demanded that they apologize to him and a young child that was inside of the vehicle. They also say the man demanded that they hand over the Orbeez gun, but they refused, and then the man left the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through security footage, authorities were able to identify the man as Wyatt Dunn, 20, of Evansville. During an interview with Dunn, authorities say he admitted to yelling at the two juveniles inside the gas station, but denied that he chased them, saying that he would have driven through yards if he had been. Dunn also denied using his firearm to threaten the juveniles, but did say that he took it out and handed it to a woman in the passenger seat of the vehicle while speaking with the juveniles. Dunn also told authorities he did ask for the juveniles to hand over the Orbeez gun, but denied that he would have taken it away. According to the affidavit when authorities told Dunn that he was shown holding the gun at his side while yelling at the juveniles in security footage, Dunn using the gun to threaten them, and said If I pulled it at them, I would have pointed it at them. When authorities told Dunn he may face charges for the incident, Dunn reportedly said Over something as petty as this? He also asked if he could press charges against the juveniles for firing at his vehicle first. Dunn was arrested and charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of intimidation with a deadly weapon and one count of reckless driving. He is being held on a $10,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) Authorities are asking for the public to help in identifying two individuals regarding a credit card investigation. Police want to identify two individuals in a credit card investigation, Image OKCPD X platform According to police, the pair (shown above) went into the Lowes near Memorial/Penn and used a stolen credit card to make a purchase. OBN seizes 25 lbs. of fentanyl during drug trafficking investigation If you recognize these individuals or have any information, contact Crime Stoppers at 405.235.7300. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Artificial intelligence and machine learning concept - by amgun via iStock Artificial intelligence has been a buzzword for years, with the technology mostly focused on generating text. In recent months, generative AI has given way to agentic AI, in which models are learning to use tools that go far beyond text-based data. These agents can now edit and generate images and videos, browse websites, and write and deploy snippets of code. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is planning to launch an AI browser that will transform how we search the web. More News from Barchart This is a level of automation that was unthinkable even two years ago, and it could disrupt the software industry significantly if AI companies keep making breakthroughs. Pure-play AI companies will be the biggest beneficiaries if agentic AI becomes more advanced. If you believe thats inevitable, its a good idea to look into agentic AI stocks. Here are three leading the charge: Agentic AI Stock #1: SoundHound AI (SOUN) www.barchart.com SoundHound AI (SOUN) specializes in generative audio. AI has been successful in generating text, images, and audio that is almost indistinguishable from human-made content. However, one place where the tech is still behind is perfecting voices, which still sound artificial and arent always very accurate. SoundHound AI is trying to fix this by making AI-based voice interactions smoother and more accurate. This will allow for more reliable hand-free smart assistants in EVs, restaurants, and home devices. Price action has largely been bullish due to the company advancing its agentic AI capabilities. Revenue grew 151.2% to $29 million in Q1 2025. True long-term profitability is far-fetched at the moment, but SoundHound AI has managed to make use of the higher stock price by offering shares and building up a cash reserve, and paying off debt. It had $246 million in cash in Q1 2025 and just $5 million in debt. This should be a multi-year cash runway. In the meantime, SOUN stock could soar more if the broader AI rally continues. Agentic AI Stock #2: BigBear.ai (BBAI) www.barchart.com BigBear.ai (BBAI) has soared over 72% in just the past month due to a flurry of positive catalysts lining up. Military spending is expected to increase sharply, especially in areas where partnerships with AI software companies are needed. Palantir (PLTR) has seen tremendous success due to this, and BBAI stock could be next. NEED TO KNOW Dan Rivera, a paranormal investigator, died on July 13 during a tour in Pennsylvania, showcasing the "demonically possessed" Annabelle doll The Pennsylvania State Police said in a report released on July 16 that nothing unusual or suspicious was observed at the scene" concerning Rivera's death "Dan was not only a vital part of our team for over a decade, but also a deeply compassionate, loyal, and dedicated friend," the New England Society for Psychic Research said in a statement shared with PEOPLE Authorities in Pennsylvania are offering new details about the paranormal investigator who died suddenly while on tour displaying a supposedly haunted Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dan Rivera, 54, a senior lead investigator for the Connecticut-based New England Society for Psychic Research, died on Sunday, July 13, during his visit to Gettysburg as part of the Devils on the Run tour, the Evening Sun earlier reported. On Wednesday, July 16, the Pennsylvania State Police shared a report detailing what happened to Rivera on Sunday. Members from PSP Gettysburg responded to a hotel in Straban Township, Adams County for a report of a deceased [man]," officials said. "The decedent was discovered in his hotel room by workers. Nothing unusual or suspicious was observed at the scene, the agency added. His cause of death is pending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rivera had been with colleagues on Sunday morning but said he feeling sick and was going back to his room, Abrams County Coroner Francis Dutrow confirms to PEOPLE. It's unclear what Rivera may have been ill with; further information is pending his autopsy results. According to Adams County dispatch records, emergency crews responded to a Gettysburg hotel where CPR was administered on a male of Riveras age, the Evening Sun reported. At the time, Rivera was on tour in Gettysburg to show Annabelle, which the New England Society for Psychic Research described as demonically possessed. According to the society, the dolls origin goes back to 1968, when a student nurse was gifted the doll and brought it to the home where she lived with her roommate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Almost immediately, the roommates noticed strange occurrences with the doll and they were introduced to a medium who told them the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a young girl named Annabelle, the organization wrote. The two roommates tried to accept the dolls spirit and please it only to have it reciprocate maliciousness and violent intent. The society added that its founders, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in and determined that Annabelle was possessed. They took the doll from the home and stored it in a glass box to contain the evil spirited entity. The story of Annabelle and the Warrens led to the development of the horror film franchise The Conjuring, the Evening Sun reported. The newspaper also noted that Rivera helped generate interest for the tour thanks to viral TikToks he co-produced that garnered millions of views. Rivera also served as consulting producer on the Netflix show 28 Days Haunted, according to IMDb. Dan Rivera/Instagram Dan Rivera. Dan Rivera. Riveras death was previously confirmed by the New England Society for Psychic Research in a social media post. According to the society's website, Rivera worked on paranormal research and investigations for over 10 years. He was born and raised in Bridgeport, Conn., and later served in the U.S. Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At an early age he was introduced to haunting phenomena, having witnessed paranormal events occurring in his home, his bio read, which also stated that he was an "expert in the rites and rituals of Santeria." The organization later shared a press release with PEOPLE on Tuesday, July 15, paying tribute to their late friend and colleague. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) is devastated by his passing and is still coming to terms with this profound loss. Dan was not only a vital part of our team for over a decade, but also a deeply compassionate, loyal, and dedicated friend, the statement read in part. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His integrity, creativity, and generosity defined him. Dans passion for the paranormal was rooted in a genuine desire to educate, help, and connect with others whether through social media, conventions, or investigations with local families seeking understanding and peace, the society further added. We understand that Dans work inspired fascination and curiosity for many, but above all, he was a father, devoted husband, and loyal friend, someone who meant the world to those closest to him. Out of respect for his family, we kindly ask for privacy as they mourn this tremendous loss, they continued. The New England Society for Psychic Research added that it will continue its previously planned events for the remainder of this year, saying: We believe with all our hearts that Dan would have wanted the work to continue bringing people together, sharing knowledge, and honoring the memory of Ed & Lorraine Warren. We will carry his spirit with us in everything we do. The Gettysburg stop of the Devils on the Run tour was hosted by the tour group Ghostly Images of Gettysburg at the Soldiers National Orphanage, this past weekend, the Evening Sun reported, with final tour stops in September. (Tickets remain on sale.) Read the original article on People Bob Olding, president of Damilic Corp., a manufacture of automatic signing machines for replicating authentic signatures, demonstrates the features of the older model Autopen Model 80 in Rockville, Md., on June 13, 2011. Credit - Manuel Balce CenetaAP For President Donald Trump, the biggest political scandal in American history isnt Watergate. Neither is it the Teapot Dome scandal of the early 1920s or the Reagan Administrations Iran-Contra Affair. To him, short of the 2020 election he claims was stolen from him, the most scandalous thing to ever happen in U.S. politics is a machine that copies signatures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An autopen is at the heart of a political witch hunt that Trump launched against his predecessor, Joe Biden. In June, Trump ordered an investigation into Biden and his aidesthe latter of whom he claims abused the former Presidents signature and used it across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts. Among the signed decisions Trump cast doubt on was Bidens high-profile pardons and commutations, as well as presidential appointments. Trump also claimed the machines extensive use concealed Bidens serious cognitive decline. Biden has strongly denied the allegations, calling Trump and his team liars. Speaking to the New York Times on July 10, Biden asserted that he made every decision on clemency matters and authorized his staff to use his presidential autopen because there were a lot of people. The autopen is, you know, is legal, he told the Times. As you know, other Presidents used it, including Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More: Trump Orders Investigation Into Biden and His Aides. Heres What to Know But Trump has not let go of the autopen controversy. Speaking at the White House on Monday, he once again said it is maybe one of the biggest scandals that weve had in 50-100 years I guarantee you: he [Biden] knew nothing about what he was signing. Trump also said Biden misused the automaton, arguing it should be reserved for niceties instead of important documents. Thats what the autopens supposed to beto write to a young 7-year-old boy, he said. Its not supposed to be for signing major legislation and all of the things. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The autopen is the latest item of fascination for Republicans questioning Bidens cognitive status, particularly during the last few months of his termin an apparent goal to invalidate some of the former Presidents signed decisions. Rep. James Comer (R, Ky.), chair of the House Oversight Committee, has led a probe into Bidens supposed mental decline and use of autopen, and has subpoenaed those in Bidens orbit. (NBC News reported that Comers digital signature was used in letters and subpoenas in connection to the probe.) Read More: Bidens Former Physician Asks to Postpone Testimony to House Panel Over Concerns for Doctor-Patient Confidentiality A history of replicated signatures The story of autopens and signature reproduction dates back to 1803, when John Isaac Hawkins received a patent for his invention which he called the polygraph, a machine that duplicates handwriting. Thomas Jefferson is said to be the first President to use an early version of a machine that would copy what he wrote in real-time. He had raving reviews of it, writing in one letter: The use of the polygraph has spoiled me for the old copying press, the copies of which are hardly ever legible I could not, now therefore, live without the Polygraph. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Using an autopen used to be a discretionary affair, though it is often referred to as one of Washingtons worst-kept secrets. Harry Truman is believed to be the first U.S. President to use what we now know as an autopen. Gerald Ford acknowledged its function, with White House staff using the machines to reproduce signatures on photographs and letters. Over time, the signing machine became more visible to the public eye: Lyndon B. Johnson was the first President to be photographed using the autopen. Those photos appeared in 1968 in the National Enquirer with the headline The Robot that Sits in for the President. In a 1989 Los Angeles Times article, presidential autograph collector Paul K. Carr of Rockville, Md., reported on how various Presidents used autopens. Carr ranked Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan as among those Commanders-in-Chief who have issued the most different autopenned signatures. But it was in 2005 under George W. Bush that legal analysis for the Presidents use of the autopen emerged. At Bushs request, the Justice Department issued a memorandum opinion, and said the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Rather, the President may sign a bill within the meaning of Article I, Section 7 by directing a subordinate to affix the Presidents signature to such a bill, for example by autopen. Bush eventually did not use proxies for signing bills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Six years later, Barack Obama made history as the first President to sign legislation into law using the autopen: affixing his signature through the White House Staff Secretary to a last-minute extension of the Patriot Act while he was in France for the G8 Summit. Several House Republicans penned a letter asking Obama to refrain from the practice, saying that none of his predecessors used an autopen to sign bills into law. Later that year, Obama continued using the autopen, this time in Bali, Indonesia, for an appropriations bill. In 2013, Obama used the autopen again to sign the fiscal cliff bill while he was in Hawaii for vacation. Read More: Why Trump Cant Void Bidens Pardons Because of Autopen What we know about Bidens and Trumps autopen use According to emails obtained by the New York Times, Biden made four sets of clemency actions recorded with an autopenone set which included preemptive pardons for his family. The autopen was used in all, on 25 pardon and commutation warrants from last December to January. TIME has not reviewed these emails. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The emails reportedly confirmed that it was former White House Staff Secretary Stefanie Feldman who managed Bidens autopen, and needed written accounts of Bidens oral instructions in meetings before its use. Before turning over the presidency to Trump, Biden met with his senior aides. After the meeting, per the Times, then-White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients on Jan. 19 wrote an email to the meeting participants that read: I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons. Trump and his team have been pressed about what evidence they have about Biden not signing off on the clemency actions. Harrison Fields, the principal deputy press secretary of the White House, told The National News Desk that the truth will come out about who was, in fact, running the country, sooner or later. Trump himself, however, has downplayed his own use of the autopen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked in March about whether he used it, he said: Yes, only for very unimportant papers I'll sign them whenever I can, but when I can't, I, you know, would use an autopen. But to use them for what they've used it for is terrible. Contact us at letters@time.com. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Avelo Airlines will end service in Oregons capital after residents called for city officials to terminate their contract with the company. In a statement to KOIN 6, Avelo revealed it is exiting the Salem market completely. Its final flight arriving at or departing from the Salem Municipal Airport is slated for Sunday, Aug. 10. The company was the first commercial airline to serve the small airport when it began service in October 2023. Eastern Oregons old-growth trees are dying at alarming rates, UO finds Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Avelo said customers have already been informed about changes to their bookings and potential refund options. While the company has remained tight-lipped about the reasoning behind its decision to stop service, the statement comes less than a month after locals pushed city leaders to end their agreement with the airline. In April, Avelo announced it had finalized an agreement to charter the Department of Homeland Securitys deportation flights from Arizonas Mesa Gateway Airport. During a public hearing at Salem City Council in late June, several residents argued the citys contract with the airline showed inaction toward President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown that has impacted community members. Others including Fly Salem leadership expressed support for the contract, arguing that federal policies shouldnt affect local agreements. Councilors added that terminating the contract could leave the city out of the $850,000 grant it received from the Federal Aviation Administration, and the $350,000 that residents and businesses allocated toward another guarantee with the airline. KOIN 6 has reached out to the City of Salem for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Avelo isnt solely walking back its Salem agreement. The company has also announced it will reduce its service at the Hollywood Burbank Airport to just one aircraft on Aug. 12, before closing the base entirely on Dec. 2. Serving crazy fun street eats from an old ambulance, an Oregon food truck hits the road on Food Network The end in service was not an easy decision, according to the airline. Our companys deepest operational roots are in BUR, having launched our first flight there over four years ago during the COVID pandemic, Avelo said in a statement. There is rarely one singular reason why decisions like this are made, and this one is no different. We believe the continuation service from BUR in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop. The aircraft in BUR are expected to support growth in our East Coast bases, where we have significantly more opportunity to continue our path to sustainable cash flow generation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. [Attached video: How to make your own pumpkin-flavored coffee creamer] AVON LAKE, Ohio (WJW) With the snip of a ribbon, Avon Lakes newest cafe opened its doors Tuesday, offering customers a spot to grab coffee, pastries and sandwiches. Free produce giveaway returns in Cleveland Owners Ilir and Irena Lamaj said Elysium Cafe will offer its customers relaxing, feel-good vibes. In Greek mythology, Elysium refers to a place of perfect happiness and peace, according to a news release from the city, and thats the kind of environment the Lamajs are hoping to create. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We chose the name Elysium because we were inspired by the idea of a welcoming place where people could pause, connect, and enjoy a little piece of everyday bliss, said Irena Lamaj. We want Elysium Cafe to be a place where guests come to start their mornings or recharge during the day in a cozy, uplifting setting. Sheetz to offer free hot dogs for National Hot Dog Day The menu includes coffee, smoothies, sandwiches, crepes and croissants. Elysium Cafe is located at 32457 Lake Road. Hours Monday through Friday are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekend hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. While a nation-state prioritizes the well-being of its citizens, an imperial state is always seeking to expand. From the days of the Tsars through the Soviet era and even after its collapse, Russia's neighbors have understood that any country bordering Russia could be its next target. And it's the peoples already under its control who end up carrying out this expansion. Ukraine has long been a victim of such ambitions from states with different names but the same capital Moscow. And whenever Moscow managed to subjugate Ukraine or parts of it, it quickly began using people from those occupied regions to fuel further aggression. In the 1920s, after breaking the Ukrainian population through famine and crushing repeated uprisings, the Soviet regime sent the poorly equipped 44th Kyiv Rifle Division to fight in Finland in 1940. This division was decimated, with around 9,000 soldiers killed. In total, roughly 40,000 Ukrainians died in that war, and over 1,300 were captured forced to fight for the very aggressor that had oppressed them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is what Russia offers the peoples it colonizes to die pushing the Iron Curtain a few more inches west. In 2022, the Russian command sent thousands of poorly equipped Ukrainians from the occupied territories to fight against their own people. Thousands died in and around the city of Mariupol, and the brutal tactics of that time gave the world a chilling new term: "meat grinder assaults." This is what Russia offers the peoples it colonizes to die pushing the Iron Curtain a few more inches west. That's why Ukrainian volunteers have so often joined, either on their own or in entire units, the forces standing up to Russian expansion. They knew that if Russia conquered another country, its people would one day be used in a new campaign against Kyiv. During the Soviet-Finnish war, Ukrainian nationalists supported Suomi a unit led by Yurii Horodianyn-Lisovskyi, a well-known veteran of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic joining the fight against Soviet invaders. Finland also had the support of volunteers from the United States, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and other nations. Later, volunteers of Ukrainian descent fought against the USSR and the communist regimes it propped up. Ukrainian-American officer Samuel Jaskilka led the first wave of the landing on Red Beach at Incheon on Sept. 15, 1950 a bold move that helped turn the tide of the Korean War, where the USSR was backing communist North Korea. Hundreds of Ukrainians fought the communists in Vietnam as part of American forces, including Major Myron Diduryk, who earned the nickname "Mad Cossack" from his fellow soldiers for his fearlessness. Many of these men were immigrants or the children of immigrants, forced to leave their homeland by the USSR government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even in the years of independent Ukraine, Ukrainian volunteers repeatedly joined the fight against Moscow's colonial aggression. For example, approximately 300 Ukrainian volunteers fought on the side of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria during the First Russo-Chechen War. Two of them UNA-UNSO members Oleg Chelnov and Oleksandr Muzychko were awarded Ichkeria's highest honor, the "Hero of the Nation." Many other Ukrainians received additional state awards from Ichkeria. Russian soldiers move across Igoeti, Georgia, on Aug. 22, 2008, following the launch of a war against the country. (Uriel Sinai / Getty Images) Georgian troops fire rockets near Tskhinvali, Georgia, on Aug. 8, 2008. (Vano Shlamov / AFP via Getty Images) During the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, Ukraine's support for Georgia went beyond volunteer involvement. Ukraine also provided Georgia with air defense systems that helped shoot down 12 Russian bombers. On Aug. 12, 2008, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, alongside other European leaders, arrived in Tbilisi and took part in a rally in the city's central square to show political support for Georgia and prevent the victim from being left isolated in the face of aggression. Since 2014, and especially since 2022, Ukraine has become a place where true opposition figures from the nations subjugated by Russia could come together. Chechens, Russians, and Belarusians formed their own national units or joined other volunteer formations. By 2023, Russian citizens volunteers serving in the defense forces of Ukraine had crossed into Russian territory to launch a new phase of armed resistance against the Kremlin's regime. Today, foreigners can officially join Ukraine's defense forces to help liberate their own lands from Russian occupation, or to stop Russia from attacking their countries when it decides to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That day will certainly come. The proof lies not only in the aggressive, colonial rhetoric of Russian officials. It's also in the recent violation of Estonian airspace by a Russian Su-35 fighter jet. It's in the repeated breaches of Polish, Romanian, and other countries' airspace by Russian strike drones and cruise missiles. It's in the growing concentration of Russian troops and military equipment along the border with Finland. Fighters of Azov Brigades International Battalion undergo training in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, in a photo published on April 10, 2025. (Azov.org.ua) Russia is already preparing to strike at several countries, but holds back only because it cannot yet fight on multiple fronts at once. If Russia were to defeat and occupy Ukraine, it would soon turn its sights on Europe, forcibly mobilizing Ukrainians just as it did during the Soviet-Finnish war. And if that happens, it will be those who fought in international units alongside Ukraine and gained experience against the Russian military who will be ready to lead the defense on their own borders. Today, the International Battalion of the Azov Brigade is the best place for foreign citizens to gain firsthand experience and learn the rules of modern warfare. Its seasoned commanders have been fighting Russia for more than a decade. Its instructors bring expertise from battles across diverse types of terrain. Its ranks include reliable fighters from many countries, all sharing their knowledge and gaining new skills together. We constantly learn from each other, exchange best practices, and become more effective and prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. Submit an Opinion Read also: Why Azov Brigade created an International Battalion Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. BINGHAMTON (WIVT/WBGH) A protest in the name of ICE detainees. A Broome County Legislator has resigned from the Sheriffs Reentry Reform Advisory Group in protest of ICE detainees being held at the jail. ICE Protests have been happening all around the country as of lately, and a local legislator took matters into her own hands to protest right here in Broome County. Mary Kaminsky resigned from the Sheriffs Reentry Reform Advisory Group, which is made up of local professionals, advocates and previous inmates to make a safer, healthier environment for everyone in the Broome County Jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kaminsky says her resignation is to stand for what she believes in, and in part due to what she calls a lack of transparency from Sheriff Akshar. Broome County Legislator Mary Kaminsky says, This was not brought to the County Executive, to the legislative body, or to the community. This is something the Sheriff did on his own. It was not brought to us that he was going to be housing ICE detainees or that he was signing the 287-G. Normally things like that first come to us to go through purchasing and law to assess the risks to the county, and that didnt happen in this instance. Kaminsky says she is opposed to the jail housing ICE detainees and believes it could be grounds for getting sued. Broome County Legislator Mary Kaminsky says, I think its putting Broome County at a great risk because the federal government cannot be sued, but Broome County can be sued. And I know for a fact that there are literally people visiting these detainees because they would love nothing more than to bring a lawsuit on their behalf. So its very concerning that the federal government will not be charged with anything and our taxpayers could be left holding the bag and it could be very expensive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another concern that Kaminsky voiced is that they cannot verify that there has been any due process or fair treatment through the normal judicial system such as providing a lawyer for the detainees. She questioned Sheriff Akshar about this and he told her that none of them are violent offenders. Kaminsky says it was important to her that citizens know her stance on the matter. Broome County Legislator Mary Kaminsky says, I think your constituents have a right to know where you stand. Especially on these kind of more major issues that are affecting the county. And I want to be clear that I think this is the wrong move were making, and I can think of no other way to do that than but publicly to resign from this task force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to Kaminskys resignation, the Sheriff released a statement saying they appreciate her contributions as a member of the Reentry Reform Advisory Group, are proud of what they accomplished to bring positive changes to the jail over the past two and a half years and wish her all the best. Sheriff Akshar highlighted many of the Reentry Reform Advisory Groups accomplishments in his statement, noting that they have added over 30 hours of weekly educational and rehabilitative programming, addressing the staffing crisis, introducing free access to online educational and vocational courses and books along with rebuilding the discharge planning and reentry program to prepare inmates for success when they return to the community. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WIVT - News 34. SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) A San Jose mother whose baby was killed by a fentanyl overdose will face murder charges after a judge found the mother competent to stand trial. Baby Winter was just 19 months old when she died from a fentanyl poisoning at home on August 12, 2023. Several hours passed before the babys mother, Kelly Richardson, and father, Derek Rayo, called 911, prosecutors said. Rayo alleged told the dispatcher, We dont know what happened to our daughter, court records states. The Santa Clara County District Attorneys Office filed murder charges against the mother, father, and the parents alleged drug dealer, Phillip Ortega, who lived in their home at 1550 Huddersfield Court. Derek Rayo and Kelly Richardson are seen in mugshots provided by the San Jose Police Department. Last year, criminal proceedings against Richardson were suspended after her defense attorney declared a doubt to her competency, a judge ordered the mother to undergo a psychological evaluation, and she was released from jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In recent months, the 30-year-old mother was found mentally fit to stand trial. She was remanded back for criminal proceedings and re-booked into jail without bail. Richardson is currently in custody, inmate records show. Kelly Richardson listens in court on Nov. 27, 2023. (KRON4 image) Richardsons next court appearance is scheduled for July 28. Ortega called a baby killer One of the most shocking discoveries that homicide investigators made centered on Ortega. According to prosecutors, Ortega furnished fentanyl that killed both Baby Winter and a second baby, 3-month-old Phoenix Castro within months of each other. Baby Winter was born on Christmas Eve 2021. Ortega lived with Winter and her parents for five months leading up to the babys sudden death. During that time, Ortega regularly furnished the parents with fentanyl and the trio used drugs together inside the house with Winter nearby, according to prosecutors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents state, The parents regularly smoked fentanyl and other narcotics while holding Winter. This was all despite the parents knowledge of the extreme dangerousness of these drugs, confirmed in their police interviews and on the data from their (cellphones). Rayos father worked as a drug and alcohol counselor, and Rayo had numerous friends die of fentanyl overdoses, prosecutors wrote. Ortega is described in court documents as a known narcotics dealer in Santa Clara County. Prior to living with Mr. Rayo and Ms. Richardson, Mr. Ortega lived with and dealt fentanyl to a Mr. David Castro. Phoenix Doe died of fentanyl toxicity in May 2023, court documents state. Baby Phoenix died at home the day before Mothers Day with fentanyl powder splotched on her pink onesie. Castros attorneys are currently fighting for his case to be diverted out of criminal court and into mental health court. If the judge sides with the defense, Castro would be sent to a mental health treatment center instead of prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators found messages sent to Ortega through his social media accounts and phone. In one of the messages, a woman who regularly bought fentanyl from Ortega called him a baby killer, according to court documents. The woman later told investigators that she had warned Ortega to not use drugs around Baby Winter while she was at the babys house. Mr. Ortega was blowing smoke all around the baby. (The woman) got mad and told Mr. Ortega that she didnt do that around kids. Mr. Ortega told her it was not a big deal, stating, I always do this. Its fine, nothings going to happen to her,' court documents show. Baby Winter died within the next 48 hours, prosecutors wrote. When police officers and paramedics arrived at the home, Winters parents allegedly admitted that they realized the baby was dead for hours before they called 911 on August 12, 2023. They both tested positive for fentanyl and methamphetamine on August 13, 2023. Santa Rosa grandmother and mother arrested after baby poisoned Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Winters parents initially claimed that they did not know what happened to their baby. Later, they said Rayo had accidentally fallen asleep on top of Winter. A Santa Clara County coroner who conducted an autopsy concluded that Winter had lethal blood concentrations of fentanyl and meth. Just 3 ng/ml can be fatal in adults. Winters blood had 74 ng/Ml, the autopsy found. No evidence of asphyxia was observed, court documents state. Prosecutors said investigators found an endless string of text messages, social media messages, photographs, and videos showing Rayo and Richardson using drugs around their baby. Rayo, Richardson, and Ortega are scheduled to appear in court later this month to set a date for their jury trial. The trio has pleaded not guilty to murder, child endangerment, and drug charges. Fathers attorneys want murder charge dropped Rayos defense attorneys filed a new motion asking a judge to dismiss the murder charge before his trial begins. The attorneys argue that evidence presented so far by prosecutors is insufficient. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Derek Rayo may not have been a perfect father, but he did not murder his beautiful daughter. The prosecution utterly failed to present evidence that Mr. Rayo acted with a malignant heart that would give rise to liability for implied malice, the defense team wrote. A hearing will be held in August for Rayos defense attorneys to make its argument in court. Defense attorneys claim that the parents did not immediately call 911 because they felt there was nothing they could do for Winter as she had already passed. Rayo and Richardson knew that co-sleeping with a young child could be dangerous, and they believed that was what caused Winters death, according to the defense. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS) Summer is in full swing, but community leaders have already started thinking about the back-to-school season. Power begins to be restored after disruption affects WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital The First Presbyterian Church of Bluefield announced a collaboration with the Bluefield Police Department for a summer lunchbox drive to address the needs of local students. Reverend Victoria Krebs told 59News it is a need that not everyone thinks about, but is highly important, nonetheless. Because everybody gets free lunches, people dont think about them needing lunchboxes, said Reverend Krebs. But theyll watch the kids come in to school and theyll have a brown, paper bag and everything doesnt stay in it, and it breaks out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Donated boxes will go to students of Mercer County Schools. Anyone hoping to help combat this local need can drop lunchboxes off at the Bluefield Police Department and at First Presbyterian Church in Bluefield. Donations will be collected until the start of the Mercer County School year on Thursday, August 21. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. Jul. 16The back-to-school tax-free weekend will take place Friday through Sunday and feature a waiver of sales taxes on items like clothing, computers and books. "I think it's a great opportunity for parents to save some money on school supplies that students will need going back to school," said Decatur City Schools Deputy Superintendent of Instruction and Personnel Yvette Evans. "It is especially helpful for parents who have multiple students that will be starting back to school. It gives them a little bit of a break in terms of payments of certain items like school supplies and books and clothing; things that they will need to start the school year strong." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This year will be the 20th annual back-to-school sales tax holiday from the Alabama Department of Revenue. It begins July 18 at 12:01 a.m. and ends July 20 at midnight. Local sales taxes may still apply in some areas, but most local municipalities including Decatur, Athens, Moulton, Madison and Huntsville also waive local sales taxes. "It's always great to be able to help parents afford many of the items that the students will need to go back to school," Evans said. Evans said Decatur City Schools puts together school supply lists that can be found on its website, dcs.edu. "We try to make sure that we keep that list at a certain amount, so we're not burdening families," she said. "We try to be mindful of the kinds of things we put on the list, and those are things students really need when they go back to school." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among items covered that Electronic Express in Decatur carries are computers, including laptops and desktops, and printers. Printer accessories, such as paper and ink, are eligible, however Electronic Express does not carry them. "This year is $750 and below, as far as price range goes. So, any laptop below $750 will be eligible," said Electronic Express Sales Manager Briseyda Lopez. "We usually sell a lot of laptops that weekend and we always sell a lot of printers as well." Lopez said they will have sales on laptops and printers that will start before the tax holiday weekend. "So, they would qualify for the sale plus the tax-free," she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The store always stocks up on merchandise for the weekend, Lopez said. "As soon as it starts, you want to come shopping because of the stock," she said. "We try to keep more stock during that weekend, but we do get pretty busy." Lopez said the store has financing available. "If you're getting ready to go to college, it's a good time to come," she said. "You save a good bit of money, and plus you get to take advantage of those sales we've got going on the computers and the printers." Martin's Family Clothing Store Manager Charles Christopher said almost everything in his store will be eligible during the tax-free weekend. He said they end up selling more of junior's clothing and shoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I don't think it's necessarily people looking for back-to-school stuff. It's all kinds of customers that get the discount," Christopher said. "It's a pretty big weekend for us. It'll be big like an Easter weekend or something like that for us." Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Crystal Brown said the tax-free weekend will help the local economy. "Not only does it help families save on essential items, it certainly drives increased foot traffic for small businesses, retailers," she said. "Every dollar that is spent here locally strengthens our community and the jobs that we have right here at home." Brown said there is a cost savings to the community that weekend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But also, a really nice boost for our local small businesses and larger big box retailers as well. We need them as well," she said. "It all works together to make a strong, healthy, local economy." erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460. CLEVELAND (WJW) Friends and family released balloons to remember Sharmaine Forpahl on Tuesday night after she was tragically killed earlier this month. The 32-year-old was killed during a domestic violence incident in Cleveland on the night of July 10. Officers were called to the 4200 block of West 57th Street just after 10 p.m. Beloved local baseball coach dies while out of town for tournament Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said she was stabbed several times. A suspect, later identified as 47-year-old Charles Barkley, was arrested on July 11, according to police. A family friend said Sharmaine leaves behind five children. Money is being raised to help pay for her funeral expenses. Click here to contribute. I-Team: Browns offer to city before moving to dome According to Cleveland police, Barkley is currently being held on a $1 million bond in Cleveland Municipal Court. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. All in, Enbridge is trying to make sure that it can pay you a fat dividend right now and well into the future. Put it all together, and this 6% yielding midstream giant could be the dream stock you've been looking to add to your dividend portfolio. One of Enbridge's key goals is to provide the world with the energy it needs. Which is why the company has been shifting away from oil and toward cleaner fuels like natural gas and renewable power. So, atop the pipeline foundation, it has also built a regulated natural gas utility business and a solar and wind power operation. All while maintaining an investment-grade-rated balance sheet and keeping its distribution well within its target range of 60% to 70% of distributable cash flows. Enbridge just so happens to be one of the most reliable midstream stocks you can buy, though even that doesn't complete the tale. The core of Enbridge's business is its oil and natural gas pipeline network. It charges customers fees for the use of its assets, which generates consistent cash flows regardless of the price of the commodities flowing through the company's system. So, it is actually a reliable energy stock, yet so much more than that, too. Reuben Gregg Brewer (Enbridge): Three decades' worth of dividend increases back Enbridge's lofty 6% dividend yield. That's a pretty enticing story right there, given the paltry 1.2% yield on offer from the S&P 500, but it isn't the whole story. However, there are some compelling income opportunities available. Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), Plains All American Pipeline (NASDAQ: PAA), and Brookfield Renewable (NYSE: BEPC)(NYSE: BEP) currently stand out to a few Fool.com contributing analysts for their payouts, which are several times higher than the broader market index. Here's why income-focused investors should consider these higher-yielding dividend stocks . The dividend yield on the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) is approaching a record low. It's currently around 1.2%, near its low point hit in 2000. Because of that, most stocks don't offer appealing income streams these days. Enbridge's yield is 4.5 times larger than the S&P 500's yield, and it has increased its dividend for three decades. Story Continues A prodigious (and growing) passive income stream Matt DiLallo (Plains All American Pipeline): Plains All American Pipeline currently has a dividend yield of more than 8%. That's nearly 7 times higher than the S&P 500's yield. While a high dividend yield can be a warning sign that the company has a high risk profile, that's not the case with Plains All American Pipeline. The master limited partnership (MLP) generates very stable cash flow. Currently, 80% of its income comes from predictable fee-for-service agreements. That will improve to 85% once the company closes the sale of its Canadian natural gas liquids (NGL) assets. That transaction will not only improve the durability of its cash flows but also enhance its financial flexibility. Plains All American Pipeline expects to generate about $3 billion in proceeds following the sale. It plans to use that money to maintain its strong balance sheet, make disciplined bolt-on acquisitions, and complete opportunistic repurchases. Putting that capital to work will help grow the company's cash flow per unit, enhancing its ability to distribute cash to investors. Plains All American plans to grow its dividend by approximately 10% annually until it reaches its targeted dividend payout ratio of 160% (it expects this ratio to be around 175% this year). It can increase its distribution alongside its growing cash flow once it reaches its targeted payout percentage. The company's high-yielding and sustainable payout makes it an excellent option for investors seeking an above-average passive income stream. While Plains All American is an MLP that sends its investors a Schedule K-1 Federal Tax Form each year, investors can also invest in its general partner (Plains GP Holdings), which pays a similarly high dividend rate without the potential tax complications (it sends a 1099-DIV). A powerful payout Neha Chamaria (Brookfield Renewable): Plenty of dividend stocks offer at least triple the S&P 500 index yield. But the most rewarding dividend stocks are also often the ones that back their yields with robust cash flows and grow their dividend payouts consistently over time. Brookfield Renewable is one such compelling dividend stock for income investors. Shares of Brookfield Renewable yield 4.6%, and the stock has increased its dividend every year since its formation in 2011, with its funds from operations (FFO) comfortably covering its dividend payout throughout that time. Over time, Brookfield Renewable's assets have grown by leaps and bounds -- the company is one of the largest publicly traded renewable energy players in the world today, with over 35 gigawatts of operational capacity and an even bigger pipeline spanning hydropower, solar energy, wind energy, and distributed energy and storage. With more economies switching from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy and global megatrends like digitalization and data centers driving demand for power, Brookfield Renewable has massive growth catalysts ahead. The renewable energy giant plans to invest $8 billion to $9 billion over the next five years and is confident of generating total annual returns of 12% to 15% for its shareholders. That includes a targeted 5% to 9% annual increase in dividends. Combining that dividend growth with the 4.5%-plus yield makes Brookfield Renewable one of the top high-yield dividend stocks to buy and hold. Should you invest $1,000 in Brookfield Renewable right now? Before you buy stock in Brookfield Renewable, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Brookfield Renewable wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $671,477!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $1,010,880!* Now, its worth noting Stock Advisors total average return is 1,047% a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Dont miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of July 14, 2025 Matt DiLallo has positions in Brookfield Renewable, Brookfield Renewable Partners, and Enbridge. Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Reuben Gregg Brewer has positions in Brookfield Renewable Partners and Enbridge. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool recommends Brookfield Renewable and Brookfield Renewable Partners. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 3 High-Yield Stocks With Triple (or More!) the Yield of the S&P 500 Index was originally published by The Motley Fool Contract security officers who patrol Baltimore City facilities have authorized a strike, if necessary, against their employer, Abacus Corporation, protesting their health insurance plans and unsafe working conditions. Security officer Laura Dixon, 59, has patrolled the Ashburton Water Filtration Plant for 25 years, but she noticed a change when Abacus took over the city security contracting about a decade ago. Dixon walks with a cane because of a knee problem. She hasnt been able to get treatment for a few years because she cant afford her companys health insurance, and isnt covered by any plan. Aside from paying out of pocket for cleaning supplies, which her employer didnt provide, Dixon has also been held at gunpoint while manning her security post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They dont care about us, Dixon said. The company has received more than $45 million from the city since 2017 and employs about 150 security officers, according to a release from SEIU 32BJ, a local union for service workers working with the non-union officers. If Abacus does not agree to meet with employees to negotiate or give them some other sign that progress is being made within the next week, SEIU 32BJ executive vice president Jaime Contreras said a strike would be imminent. A majority of the security officers voted to strike if necessary at meetings on July 5 and 12, according to a union spokesperson. Employees are calling on the city to find a new contractor or for Abacus to fix long-standing issues. Some employees are also looking to unionize under SEIU 32BJ to secure these benefits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One major complaint is that the company-offered health insurance is too expensive for the average employee. The union said it has not found one officer who can afford the plan. Many officers are on Medicaid, but with federal cuts to the program, Contreras is concerned about them losing their insurance. Abacus said in a statement that the company offers affordable health insurance, as defined by the ACA, Dental, Vision, and Short-Term Disability insurance. An analysis of the health insurance program by SEIU 32BJ found that workers would pay twice as much to visit a hospital and 20% more for preventative care than they would under a union plan. The policy, which the union called junk insurance, would require a $150 co-pay for a maximum of one urgent care visit. Its not health insurance, thats trash, Contreras said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Laverna Stackhouse, 58, has patrolled a city building on Holliday Street for about seven years. She went to the hospital in May for high blood pressure, and shes still paying off $2,000 in medical bills because she cant afford health insurance. She has started taking her pills every other day, instead of every day as directed because Stackhouse doesnt know when shell be able to see a doctor to get a refill or how she will afford a visit. The strike authorization, Stackhouse said, will hopefully show the company that theyre serious about needing better health insurance. Other employees the union reached out to havent been able to take medicine to treat diabetes and other conditions. Workers got a raise in July from just over $15 an hour to $18.50, Contreras and officers said, but added that it was long overdue and was only done as a result of workers speaking out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Employees and union officials have reached out to Abacus to attempt to negotiate a new contract, but havent heard back. This company is just not a responsible contractor and they dont want to deal with the union, Contreras said. Abacus pushed back in the statement: We have always advocated for and highly prioritized employee welfare and have done so in a direct relationship with our employees and intend to continue to do so. Have a news tip? Contact Katharine Wilson at kwilson@baltsun.com. KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) Bob Rowe has a passion for music and he has made it his mission to perform for people who dont often have access to the arts. For more than 30 years, he and his band have played music at nursing homes and hospitals around West Michigan. During a recent visit to Upjohn Nursing Home in Kalamazoo, he started the groups set with You Are My Sunshine. He played guitar and sang in the cafeteria as about 20 residents watched. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When were on this earth, we are put here to share what we can while we can with who we can, Rowe said. Rowe began making these visits in the late 1980s when he founded Renaissance Enterprises. Its a nonprofit with a goal to help improve the quality of life for elderly people in long-term care facilities and senior centers by providing musical performances. Rowe started his career playing in front of small audiences in clubs, coffee houses and concert halls in West Michigan and the Chicago area. He went on to open for major artists like country music legend Ernest Tubb and has recorded over 20 albums and published songs. After his performance at Upjohn, he greeted several residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just love all them playing the music and everyone getting involved in it and everything, said Jane Hartman, who lives at Upjohn. It makes us so happy. We wish they would come more than once a month. I want you to sing some more, Judith Anne Hawes, another resident, said as she spoke with Rowe. It makes me feel like I want to jump up and dance. Luke Lenhart is one of the musicians who plays with Rowe. He said he noticed a difference in some of the residents after they start playing. You can definitely see their faces light up, Lenhart said. Rowe said he notices little things when he performs in these venues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Little eye movements. Little changes in expression. More activity in the individual, he said. He said he thinks it helps improve the quality of life for the residents. You see people that are wheeled into the program kind of slumped down in their wheelchair and despondent and withdrawn, and you start to do the first song and they kind of sit up straight and you see a smile start to come on their face, Rowe said. They start interacting with other people that they live with here and the staff. You can just see the transformation. Now 70 years old, Rowe said he plans to keep on playing as long as God lets him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. Imagine a Washington in which President Trump was held to account. A Washington in which Congress doesn't roll over like a dog begging for a treat. A Washington that functions the way it's supposed to, with that whole checks-and-balances thing working. Enticing, no? Democrats need to win just three seats in 2026 to seize control of the House and impose some measure of accountability on our rogue-elephant president. That's something Trump is keenly aware of, which is why he's pushing Texas to take the extraordinary step of redrawing its congressional boundaries ahead of the midterm election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republicans, who've exercised iron-clad control over Texas for decades, hold 25 of Texas' 38 congressional seats. A special session scheduled next week in Austin is aimed at boosting that number by as many as five seats, increasing the GOP's odds of hanging onto the House. Enter, stage left, California's White House-lusting governor. As part of a recent Southern campaign swing, Gavin Newsom sat down with a progressive Tennessee podcaster to discuss the Republican power grab. (The picnic bench, rolled up shirt sleeves, beer and f-bomb showed the governor was being authentic, in case there was any doubt.) Read more: Barabak: For California, a summer of discontent Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They're not f around now. They're playing by a totally different set of rules," Newsom said of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his fellow Republicans. Years ago, he noted, California created an independent commission to draw its political lines, which states normally do once a decade after new census figures come out. But with a super-majority in Sacramento, Newsom said, Democrats could "gerrymander like no other state." "We've been playing fair," he continued, but Abbott's actions "made me question that entire program." Later, elaborating on social media, the governor accused Republicans of cheating their way to extra House seats and warned, "CA is watching and you can bet we wont stand idly by. There's a Texas expression for that: All hat and no cattle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact is, voters took the power of political line-drawing away from the governor and his fellow lawmakers, for good reason, and it's not like Newsom can unilaterally take that power back no matter how well his chesty swagger might play with Trump-loathing Democrats. "We have a commission," said Justin Levitt, an expert on redistricting law at Loyola Law School. "Not only that, a Constitution and the commission's in the Constitution. And not only that, we have a Constitution that says you only get to redistrict once every 10 years, unless there's a legal problem with the existing maps." In other words, it's not up to Newsom to huff and puff and blow existing House districts down. Gov. Gavin Newsom gives remarks to a crowd at St. Paul First Baptist Church in Laurens, S.C., on July 9. (Meg Kinnard / Associated Press) California voters approved Proposition 20, which turned congressional line-drawing over to a nonpartisan, 14-member commission, in November 2010. The point was to introduce competition by taking redistricting away from self-dealing lawmakers. It passed by an overwhelming margin, 61% to 39%, and has worked just as intended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After decades of prebaked congressional contests, when the success of one party or the other was virtually guaranteed, California has become a hotbed of competition; in recent years, the state an afterthought in November balloting for president has been key to control of the House. In 2026, as many as a dozen seats, out of 52, could be at least somewhat competitive. "I think it's worked out great," said Sara Sadhwani, an assistant politics professor at Pomona College and a member of the redistricting commission. (Others doing the map-making included a seminary professor, a structural engineer and an investigator for the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department.) There are two ways, Levitt said, that Newsom and fellow Democrats could undo the commission's handiwork. They could break the law and pass legislation drawing new lines, face an inevitable lawsuit and prevail with a sympathetic ruling from the California Supreme Court. Or they could ask voters to approve different lines through a new constitutional amendment, in a hurried-up special election ahead of the 2026 midterms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both scenarios seem as plausible as Newsom delivering universal healthcare and fulfilling his pledge to build 3.5 million new homes a year, to name two other extravagant promises. To be clear, none of the above condones the plot that Trump and Abbott are attempting to hatch. Their actions are politically ruthless and more than a little cynical. (A letter from Trump's hand-in-glove Justice Department has provided a legal fig leaf for the special session. Texas was recently expediently notified that four of its majority-minority congressional districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered along racial lines, thus justifying the drawing of a new map.) That's no excuse, however, for Newsom to end-run California voters, or call a special election that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars at a time the state is gushing red ink. Read more: Barabak: If Gavin Newsom wants to be president, he's got work to do starting at home Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Politics rooted in vengeance is both dangerous and wrong, whether it's Trump or Newsom looking to settle scores. There's also the matter of delivering vacant threats. Some Democrats may thrill each time Newsom delivers one of his pugnacious pronouncements. That seems to be a big part of his presidential campaign strategy. But those same voters may tire of the lack of follow through, as Californians have. Newsom has a well-deserved reputation for over-promising and under-delivering. That's not likely to serve him well on the national stage. Get the latest from Mark Z. Barabak Focusing on politics out West, from the Golden Gate to the U.S. Capitol. Sign me up. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Former President Barack Obama called out progressives on Wednesday for their "mistake" of constantly talking about what boys are doing wrong, rather than talking about what they are doing right. Appearing as a guest on the "IMO" podcast, which is co-hosted by his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, and her brother Craig Robinson, the former president argued that the "mistake" occurred because progressives were hyper-focused on ensuring there is a "level playing field" for girls, which has led to boys' flaws being put under a microscope. "I will say, as quote-unquote progressives, Democrats, progressive parents, enlightened ones, we've made that mistake sometimes in terms of our rhetoric, where it's like we're constantly talking about it, you know, what's going on with the boys instead of what's right with them," he stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michelle Obama Says She's 'So Glad' She Never Had A Son, Says He 'Would Have Been A Barack Obama' Obama continued, explaining his reasoning for why many progressives have overlooked what boys have been doing right, and instead have focused on what they've been doing wrong. "We rightly have tried to invest in girls to make sure that there's a level playing field, and they're not barred from opportunities. But we haven't been as willing, I think, to be intentional about investing in the boys. And that's been a mistake. And I think people are starting to recognize that," he asserted. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier in the podcast, the former president noted that he finds it "promising" that young men are beginning to realize that there are many different ways of being a "good, strong, successful, happy man." However, he expressed criticism of the younger generation for leaving behind some of the good aspects of what the "old models" of manhood contained. Michelle Obama Praises Barack Obama's Parenting Despite The 'Grandeur' Of His Job Speaking directly to his brother-in-law, the former president told Robinson, "I think that what we need to do in order to take advantage of that is to, as a society, as communities, recognize this kind of transition from the old models that you and I, Craig, grew up on. Just like you said, you took a lot of good stuff from your dad, but then there were some modifications that just had to be made, either because of blind spots, limits, lack of resources, what have you." Continuing his point, Obama used an anecdote from what he'd witnessed with some of his daughters' male friends to explain how some of the old-fashioned qualities of being a man, such as chivalry, have been lost on the younger generation of men. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Talking to Malia and Sasha, sometimes they go out with their friends and, you know, they're in a group and the guy's got crocodile arms, you know? It's like not picking up the check. And it's like, okay, you don't have to pick it up all the time, but if you're never picking it up, that's a problem," he explained. "That says something about you, if you're not opening a door or pulling out a chair, because that's just common courtesy. That's just being kind, right?" Click Here For The Latest Media And Culture News Barack Obama used an anecdote from his experiences with his daughters' male friends to support his argument that some of the positive qualities of old-fashioned manhood, like chivalry, have been lost on the younger generation of men. Obama added that hes "rooting" for the parents of boys, noting that as a father of daughters, he and his wife are counting on them to raise "good guys" not just in terms of marriage, but in all aspects of life. "What we're learning, I think, is that when we don't think about boys and just assume they're going to be okay because they've been running the world and, you know, they've got all the advantages relative to girls and all of which has historically been true in all kinds of ways. But precisely because of that, if you're not thinking about what's happening to boys and how are they being raised, then that can actually hurt women," he argued. Original article source: Barack Obama calls out progressives' 'mistake' of constantly talking about what's wrong with boys BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) The East Baton Rouge Sheriffs Office has arrested a man accused of stealing from an infirmed woman. Roy Jackson, 39, was arrested on several charges, including theft, forgery, and exploiting the infirm. Deputies received an alert about someone forging the signatures of a woman with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and other health issues. In July 2021, the complainant received power of attorney for their mother. This allowed them to manage bank accounts and sign documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The complainant stated that before their father passed away, he set up a retirement policy with Corebridge Financial. This policy provided $250,000 to support his wife if he were to die. The complainant discovered that the funds from that account had been withdrawn. The victim was asked about the withdrawal but denied having any knowledge of it. Records show that the victim submitted a complete withdrawal form to Corebridge Financial. It was reportedly signed by them. Investigators learned that the withdrawal form came via fax from an Office Depot in Metairie. The mobile number used on the form is associated with Roy Jackson. The affidavit shows that Jackson submitted a full withdrawal, which would end the annuity agreement. Detectives found that the funds went into a joint account shared by Jackson and the victim. Investigators also learned that the signatures did not match. The request was just over $170,000. This amount went into the bank account that Jackson and the victim shared. The affidavit said that the complainant no longer gets bank statements for the account they share with their mother. She reached out to a representative. They told her that her brother, Roy Jackson, brought their mother to the bank. He removed her from the account in October 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Records show that Jackson started a new joint account with the victim as the primary user and himself as the secondary user. The victims social security checks were transferred from the original account to the new account. The funds started depleting as Jackson used the account to order food and shop online. In July 2024, $144,636 was credited to the joint account. This amount is thought to be the Annuity Withdrawal requested by Jackson. More purchases, including a 2016 Cadillac Escalade, were noted in the affidavit. The victim reportedly sustained an $80,000 loss due to Jacksons conduct. He was arrested and taken to the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Jail records show that he has a $12,000 bond. Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) A Baton Rouge man who was previously convicted pleaded guilty to possession of child porn after a jury trial started. Thomas Mills V, 58, was arrested in October 2018 after Zachary police officers were called to investigate a suspicious car on Highway 19. According to the Department of Justice, Mills told officers he was parked behind buildings to use the internet to send emails. Officers learned he was a registered sex offender after he showed his drivers license, leading them to believe he could be violating the law due to Mills saying he lived in Zachary while he registered as a sex offender in Baton Rouge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A criminal background check showed Mills was previously convicted of possession of child pornography in 2012, leading officers to ask if he was on probation at the time. Officials said his probation officer was contacted and found Mills had violated his supervised release conditions because a computer and a USB were located in his car. Nineteen electronic devices were seized from the car. The DOJ said a forensic analysis led to the discovery of 1,325 photos and six videos of child exploitation. Baton Rouge man arrested, accused of stealing $170K from infirmed mother Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) The Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating a deadly shooting on Highland Road that happened Tuesday evening. According to the police, gunfire erupted near the A.M. Food Mart at the intersection of Highland Road and E. Buchanan Street after 7 p.m. BRPD said Michael Anderson, 67, was shot while on the porch of a house and sent to the hospital. He later died due to his injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police believe the shooting was a targeted attack. No further details were immediately available. This is an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information about this shooting is urged to contact the Baton Rouge Police Department at 225-389-2000 or Crime Stoppers at 225-344-7867. Latest News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (WOOD) The city of Battle Creek has reversed course and will keep a fire station near the Post Addition Neighborhood. When the city unveiled its plan for new and renovated fire stations last year, there was no plan to replace the 123-year-old station across the street from the Post factory. The original plan was to combine Station 1 and Station 3s service areas with firefighters operating out of a renovated Station 1. After more community discussion, a new plan was brought forward Tuesday night to build a new Station 3 on the edge of the Post Addition. Battle Creek city leaders propose modernizing fire stations Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In order to facilitate a new fire station, changes had to be made for renovations slated at other facilities. Technical Services Battalion Chief Cody Titus said this plan will ultimately be better for the future of the Battle Creek Fire Department. It actually turned out to be of better interest to us to move forward with a new build at Station No. 3 with a reduced build at Station No. 2. So splitting that staffing and that manpower over the future to kind of corner this major part of the city and then utilize Station No. 1 as storage. We dont have a good avenue for storage right now. So we can use Station No. 1 for storage, still as admin with a very minor tweak to it then allocate that fundage to Station 3, said Cody Titus, technical services battalion chief with the Battle Creek Fire Department. Chief: Firefighter health a priority in BC station upgrade proposal The project as presented Tuesday night is still $8 million over the budgeted $25 million. Commissioners will have to decide at the Aug. 5 meeting whether they want to bond the higher amount or go with what planners are calling the value plan, where even more cuts are made to the renovations of the existing facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. An internal BBC report found Monday that a documentary on Gaza it aired in February violated the broadcasters editorial standards for accuracy. The documentary "Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone," featured narration from a boy, 13, named Abdullah, but the film failed to disclose that Abdullah was the son of senior Hamas official Ayman Alyazouri. The BBC pulled the documentary from its online streaming platform in February, just five days after it was aired, and issued an apology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Since the transmission of our documentary on Gaza, the BBC has become aware of the family connections of the films narrator, a child called Abdullah. Weve promised our audiences the highest standards of transparency, so it is only right that as a result of this new information, we add some more detail to the film before its retransmission. We apologise for the omission of that detail from the original film," the BBC said in a statement at the time. The Bbc Breached Editorial Guidelines Over 1,500 Times In Israel-hamas Conflict, Report Claims The documentary was widely condemned when it aired. Journalist David Collier, who broke the story of the narrators connection to the terrorist group, called the BBC "a propaganda tool of Hamas." A group of 45 Jewish television professionals wrote a letter to the BBC urging them to pull the broadcast and called for an independent investigation. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new investigation found that the BBC was unaware of Abdullahs lineage prior to the documentarys broadcast, but three members of the production company Hoyo Films did know that the boys father was a Hamas official. The probe, however, criticized the broadcaster for not being "sufficiently proactive" with its due diligence ahead of broadcast, and admonished it for a "lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions" regarding the documentary ahead of broadcast. The review claimed that the use of the Hamas-linked narrator did not influence the content of the film, but said the inclusion of the boy was "not appropriate." "We are owning where we have made mistakes, finding out what went wrong, acting on the findings, and we've said we're sorry," BBC News CEO Deborah Turness told the BBC's Radio 4. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC has vowed to take steps to address the failure, including issuing new guidance on the use of narrators in documentaries centering on controversial topics, the creation of a new leadership role focusing on documentaries and a new review process that ensures that "no high-risk long form programs can be formally commissioned until all potential compliance considerations are considered and listed." 'Corrosively Woke' Bbc Continues To Be Plagued With Retractions, Apologies Related To Israel-hamas War The BBC has had to issue numerous apologies for inaccurate coverage of Israel since Hamas launched their barbaric Oct. 7 attacks. "The BBC has a duty to uphold fairness, accuracy, and truth its one of the worlds largest media organizations yet it is failing. Its repeated claims that it takes antisemitism seriously have become meaningless. Enough words. What is needed now is decisive, meaningful action," Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sharren Haskel posted on X. This is not the first time that the BBC has had to issue an apology regarding its coverage of Israel in the context of its current war with Hamas after the October 7 attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC was one of several news organizations that rushed to report false claims made by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry that Israel had bombed the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, resulting in 500 civilian casualties, shortly after the terrorist attack. In November 2023, the BBC apologized after misquoting a Reuters report and distorting a quote by an IDF spokesman claiming the IDF was "targeting people including medical teams as well as Arab speakers" in Gazas Al Shifa hospital. The IDF spokesman had actually said that Arab-speaking soldiers were on the ground to ensure aid made its way to the hospital. The BBC apologized for reporting unproven claims about Israel carrying out "summary executions" of Gaza civilians in January 2024. In February 2025, the BBC apologized after its anchor Nicky Schiller referred to Israeli hostages as "prisoners" on air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture The BBC apologized after airing the punk rock band Bob Vylan chanting "death to the IDF." The BBC once again issued an apology in March 2025 after contacting the Israeli embassy and requesting a guest who would be "critical of Netanyahu," calling the incident a "serious mistake." Most recently, the BBC apologized after airing Bob Vylan's performance at Glastonbury, in which the punk rocker called for "death to the IDF." "We deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to apologise to our viewers and listeners and in particular the Jewish community. We are also unequivocal that there can be no place for antisemitism at, or on, the BBC," the BBC said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Click To Get The Fox News App The BBC did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Original article source: BBC report finds Gaza documentary narrated by Hamas terrorist's son breached editorial standards A 32-year-old man who was fleeing after firing shots at St. Paul police on Friday tried to get into a nearby restaurant, but people had heard gunshots and were attempting to close the doors, according to new information released Wednesday. Still, Tevin Marcel Bellaphant, of St. Paul, got his arm and gun inside the doors of Destiny Cafe 2 and fired his handgun. Those shots injured two bystanders. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, which St. Paul police asked to investigate because officers fired their guns, provided the following information on Wednesday: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement St. Paul officers were called just after 11:30 a.m. Friday to a report that a man assaulted a relative and fired a gun in the home before taking a 4-year-old child without permission and leaving the residence in the 1500 block of Jessamine Lane. The relative was a sister of Bellaphants and the child a cousin, according to another relative. Police received information that the man, later identified as Bellaphant, was possibly seen nearby at the Aldi grocery store on Clarence Street near Maryland Avenue. Sgt. Megan Kosloske and Officer Melissa Leistikow were checking the store when they saw Bellaphant walking in an aisle with the child. They approached and started speaking with him when he shoved Leistikow and ran past her toward the front of the store. He left the child, who was physically unharmed. The sergeant and officer were chasing Bellaphant when he suddenly fell to the ground near the register area of the store, said the BCA statement. While getting back to his feet, he pulled out a handgun and fired toward the officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leistikow and Kosloske fired at Bellaphant and, during the exchange of gunfire, Bellaphant fled from the store. Encountered another officer Officer Christopher Leon was outside the store in his squad when Bellaphant exited. Bellaphant fired at the officer, who fired back. Bellaphant continued running across Clarence Street and he then tried to get in the nearby restaurant. The two people at the restaurant who were shot were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. St. Paul police initially said they were both women; the BCA corrected that one is a man and one a woman. Bellaphant ran from the cafe toward the nearby Cub Foods as Leon emerged from around the building. Leon fired additional shots at him as he pursued the man toward Cub. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bellpahant went into Cub and officers found him near the front of the store. Police evacuated people from the store and began negotiating with Bellaphant, who was expressing thoughts of suicide, the BCA statement said. Bellaphant shot himself while officers were speaking with him. Officers gave medical aid to Bellaphant, who paramedics pronounced dead. BCA crime scene personnel recovered a handgun and spent cartridge casings. The officers were wearing body cameras, which were activated, and the BCA said they will review them as part of their investigation. The officers are on administrative leave, which is standard after such an incident. Leon, who is a patrol officer, has five years of law enforcement experience. Leistikow, a K-9 officer, and Kosloske, a sergeant in the family violence unit, each have 10 years of experience. Prohibited from having a gun Bellaphants family, in a Tuesday statement to the Pioneer Press, said they want people to know that Fridays events did not define the type of person he was. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He lost his mother, uncle and grandmother and never learned how to cope with the losses, the statement continued. He struggled with mental health issues and it led to a drug addiction. Bellaphants family apologized to the innocent victims that were shot, and to the people out in the community affected by this tragic event. Related Articles Bellaphant was prohibited from possessing firearms due to a 2015 sentence for aiding and abetting first-degree burglary, according to a past criminal complaint. He was charged with attempted murder in 2016 and was convicted of assault in that case. For help The St. Paul & Ramsey County Domestic Abuse Intervention Project can be reached 24 hours a day at 651-645-2824. Help for domestic violence in Minnesota is also available 24/7 through the Day One crisis hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline can be reached by dialing 988 and the Crisis Text Line can be contacted by texting Home to 741741. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has long been among the most bullish Tesla watchers on Wall Street. Ives maintains a Buy rating on TSLA stock with a $500 price target the highest forecast among all analysts. However, last Tuesday, the analyst took to X to voice criticism of CEO Elon Musks political activity, after the worlds richest person announced the formation of the new political party to oppose Trumps Big Beautiful Bill. Shares of the EV maker have dropped 22% on a year-to-date basis. The stock recently came under renewed selling pressure after CEO Elon Musk announced the formation of a new political party called the America Party, prompting backlash from President Donald Trump and fueling worries about potential consequences for Musks businesses. Tesla (TSLA) is a prominent innovator dedicated to accelerating the global transition to sustainable energy. The Elon Musk-led powerhouse designs, develops, manufactures, leases, and sells high-performance fully electric vehicles, solar energy generation systems, and energy storage products. It also offers maintenance, installation, operation, charging, insurance, financial, and various other services related to its products. In addition, the company is increasingly focusing on products and services centered around AI, robotics, and automation. It currently has a market cap of $1.01 trillion. In this article, well break down the details of Ives recommendations and explore why he believes these specific initiatives are essential. With that, lets dive in. Tesla (TSLA) investors have had a turbulent year so far, and CEO Elon Musks political involvement hasnt made things any smoother. After Musks recent decision to launch his own political party the America Party Tesla shares have once again come under pressure. Musks ongoing feud with Trump, combined with concerns about the CEOs divided attention, has investors worried about the EV giants long-term prospects. In response to these mounting concerns, Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities, one of Wall Streets most closely followed Tesla analysts, has laid out a detailed three-step plan to help stabilize Tesla and regain investor confidence. Story Continues Ives stated that Teslas story has hit a tipping point. Tesla is heading into one of the most important stages of its growth cycle with the autonomous and robotics future now on the doorstep, and cannot have Musk spending more and more time creating a political party, which will require countless time, energy, and political capital, he wrote in a note. The analyst urged the board to take the following three steps to steer the company back on track: Step 1: New pay package getting Musk to 25% voting control. Clears a path for xAI merger. Dan Ives proposed creating a new performance-based pay package that would grant the CEO a larger ownership stake in the company and up to 25% of the voting power. This would also create a framework that potentially Musk could drive Tesla to merge with xAI, Ives wrote, referring to Musks startup that now owns the X social media platform, and create one of the most powerful AI companies in the world under one roof over the next 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, xAI rolled out an updated version of its flagship AI model, Grok 4, last week. Musk and the xAI team emphasized Grok 4s multimodal capabilities, quicker reasoning, upgraded interface, and enhanced voice interaction. On Saturday, Tesla launched a new software update for its vehicles, featuring the highly anticipated integration of Grok. However, the company noted that in its current version, Grok does not issue commands to the car it functions much like having Grok on your phone, except its integrated into the vehicles onboard computer. Musks pay package has long been a key point of attention. His historic 2018 CEO compensation package, initially valued at roughly $56 billion and now worth even more, was struck down last year by the Delaware Court of Chancery. Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled that Teslas board members were not sufficiently independent from Musk and failed to engage in proper negotiations with the CEO. Tesla has appealed the case to the Delaware Supreme Court and is currently working to determine the structure of Musks next pay package. The EV giant recently said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it will hold its annual shareholder meeting on Nov. 6. In response to the news, Ives stated that Musks new pay package will be the main focus. Step 2: Guardrails established for amount of time Musk spends at Tesla as part of pay package Ives suggestions did not include restricting Musk from engaging in political activities. Instead, he proposed setting guardrails around the amount of time Musk must dedicate to Tesla and tying compensation to those commitments. More precisely, Ives proposed new pay package would include a requirement outlining how much time Musk must spend on Teslas operations to receive the compensation. Some general guardrails on this front would help everyone involved, including institutional investors, retail investors, Musk himself, the Board, and Tesla employees around the world, Ives wrote. Teslas brand value has been on the decline since 2024, partly due to Musks controversial political activities, with many analysts warning that the brand faces a long path to recovery or that there may be permanent damage to TSLA. Meanwhile, weve already seen what investors really want from Musk Tesla stock rallied after he announced during the Q1 earnings call that he would significantly scale back his involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overshadowing disappointing headline figures. Musk eventually left the Trump administration and DOGE in late May. In early July, Tesla reported around 384,000 vehicle deliveries in the second quarter, a 14% year-over-year decline and the second consecutive quarterly drop, though the figures were better than some analysts had feared. Investors are now awaiting the companys Q2 results, set to be released after the market close on July 23, for fresh insights into the brands health. The company will also provide an updated 2025 outlook, after pulling its guidance in Q1 due to economic uncertainty and its impact on the business. Step 3: Oversight on political endeavors Ives believes Tesla should create a special board oversight committee solely focused on Musk and his political activities. Notably, public company boards often form special committees to address specific, complex, or sensitive issues that demand focused attention and, in some cases, independent oversight. These committees are typically tasked with handling matters such as mergers and acquisitions, conflicts of interest, internal investigations, and litigation. In Teslas case, Ives recommended forming a special board oversight committee to establish clear guidelines on which political activities would breach the terms of the pay package. The Board cannot control Musks donations but they can have oversight if his political ambitions/endeavors interfere with his role as CEO of Tesla, he wrote. With that, the special committee would be responsible for overseeing the pay package and determining whether Musk has violated its boundaries. We urge the Board to act now and move the Tesla story forward with Musk as CEO, Ives wrote. At the same time, Musk quickly responded, telling the analyst to Shut up. What Do Analysts Expect for TSLA Stock? Wall Street analysts maintain a cautious stance on TSLA stock, with ratings differing significantly among those who cover the company. While 12 analysts rate the stock as a Strong Buy and two as a Moderate Buy, 16 recommend holding, and 10 have issued a Strong Sell rating. Overall, TSLA stock has a consensus rating of Hold. Notably, the stock currently trades above its average price target of $297.69. www.barchart.com On the date of publication, Oleksandr Pylypenko did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com Leaving his violently beaten and traumatized girlfriend in bed, a wealthy Parkland financial adviser stood up, put on a dress shirt and joined a Zoom hearing in his divorce case. Scott Matalon listened calmly as a Broward judge told him and his ex-wife that they were a good-looking couple and that he couldnt be the strict parent right now. Im not going to be, Judge, Matalon said in the Zoom hearing. In the next room, his new girlfriend was plotting her escape while nursing numerous injuries, her vision still blurry from the alcohol Matalon had poured in her eyes. Judge, Im going to be easy peasy and pleasurable and make sure that our son is well-adjusted, well-adapted, and use and employ the techniques that anger management has instructed me to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four years after that June day, Matalon, now 44, is in prison, expected to be released in a year. He is accused of attacking at least four women, three in a matter of months, taking advantage of a Florida court system that was ill-equipped to stop him. Several domestic violence cases have made headlines in South Florida in the last year, most only after they ended in murder. In many of these cases, the perpetrators had known histories of violence, but were still able to access the victims. In May of last year, a man stabbed his 2-year-old daughter to death during an unsupervised visit in Pembroke Pines, according to police. The mother of the child had fought for supervised visits, citing the fathers unstable mental health and violent outbursts. In November of last year, a man stabbed his pregnant girlfriend to death in Hallandale Beach, according to police. He had two prior domestic violence charges, but prosecutors dropped them both times after the victim did not cooperate. In February, a man hunted his former wife through a Tamarac neighborhood, shooting and killing her, her father and a neighbor into whose home she ran seeking help, according to deputies. Her repeated warnings to law enforcement went unheeded. In March, a man killed his girlfriend and her three children in a murder-suicide in Pembroke Park, days before she planned to leave him, her family said. In June, a Michelin-star chef whose career bounced back after a prior domestic violence conviction, left a West Palm Beach woman hospitalized with bleeding in her brain, according to police. He has pleaded not guilty. And then theres Scott Matalon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A bald man of 6-foot-1 and about 300 pounds, he presented himself as affluent and chivalrous, buying women seafood towers on dates, taking them on drives in his Mercedes convertible, and caring for them when they were sick. In private, he could be emotional. Sometimes he cried in the arms of the women he dated. Other times he would rage, beating and strangling women, chasing them and carrying them back if they tried to escape, threatening to kill them or their loved ones if they left him or told the police. Then he would demand forgiveness from them, often in the form of sex, and they would give in, even if they didnt want to. Matalon didnt kill any of the women he attacked. But his case serves as a particularly stark illustration of what victims endure, both at the hands of their abuser and in the court system. Despite multiple witnesses, severe and visible injuries, an immediate police response, footage and photographs, and their own persistence, the women who escaped Matalon still confronted the many challenges inherent to Floridas handling of domestic violence cases. Victims are questioned and belittled in court while perpetrators charm attorneys and judges. Perpetrators are repeatedly released under the states bond system. Prosecutors drop or down-charge the crimes. And those with children face custody battles that drain them of their money and force them to continue having a relationship with their abuser. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To report this article, the Sun Sentinel reviewed divorce records, police reports, court transcripts, body-camera footage, emails and text messages, and spoke with victims, their friends, relatives and neighbors, domestic violence experts and attorneys. The reporting reveals the simultaneous ease with which Matalon avoided consequences and the lengths his victims had to go in order to get justice. Michele Matalon, his ex-wife, says the family court system let her down during divorce proceedings. The judge gave Scott Matalon equal timesharing of their kids, while child protection investigators determined twice that he was not a danger to them despite allegations of abuse and threats to Micheles life. He is now filing numerous motions for timesharing from prison, forcing his ex-wife to spend thousands on attorney fees. At the same time as the divorce case unfolded in family court, in criminal court, his cases began to pile up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first was Christina La Ferrera, now 40, the girlfriend Matalon had attacked just before his divorce hearing. The brutal assault had unfolded over the course of a weekend, beginning in a Miami hotel room and ending at La Ferreras home in Boca Raton. Even though she reported the attack to police the same day, it took months for Miami prosecutors to charge Matalon. Two weeks after La Ferreras attack, Matalon attacked another girlfriend at his home in Parkland. The woman did not respond to multiple requests for an interview, so the South Florida Sun Sentinel is not naming her. Matalon was charged with kidnapping, but he was released into a co-ed rehab program. There, he began a relationship with Brittany Emslie, now 30, the last victim, a recovering addict working as a behavioral tech. After she was violently attacked, Matalon and his attorneys convinced her not to press charges and to send prosecutors an affidavit stating she was not afraid of him. When, four months later, she asked prosecutors to reopen the case, they refused, misstating important details. Neither Emslie nor La Ferrera knew that statements they made to police about having rough sex with Matalon would be used repeatedly to discredit them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I feel like justice was definitely not served for me, Emslie told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Matalons defense attorneys, Jeremy Kroll and Dave Raben, declined to comment in response to a series of questions. Im nervous theyre going to fail me again Eventually, the system caught up with Matalon. Two years after the divorce hearing, he agreed to plead guilty in La Ferreras case and no contest in the Parkland womans case in exchange for 5 years in prison. The fact that Matalon received a criminal conviction at all is unusual. Many victims never report their abuser. And when they do, the criminal justice system often fails to follow through, experts say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If they are arrested, rarely does it move forward to an actual domestic violence charge or conviction, said Dr. Bethany Backes, an associate professor who leads the Violence Against Women program at the University of Central Florida. Its usually diverted somehow or its down-charged. Very serious crimes are being downgraded to misdemeanors. While the three women were relieved to see some form of justice, they are also terrified of Matalons impending release. He is expected to get out in September 2026 on good behavior, according to Michele Matalon. In a coffee shop in West Delray in late March, the three women reunited, the abuse years behind them and Matalon still in prison. Michele Matalon and Christina La Ferrera had become best friends over the years. They had never met Brittany Emslie in person before, but had frequently texted and spoken with her over the phone. I feel like I know you, Emslie told Matalon, standing in line for coffee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All three of the women have been left shaken by the abuse and the years of trauma they endured the threats, the lawyers, private investigators and even an alleged hitman, according to statements in court, emails to prosecutors and police reports. As the women try to move on with their lives, they worry about the future. Michele Matalon, now 43, is anxious about the outcome of her pending custody case and Scotts request for timesharing of their two children from prison. Im nervous about the system, Michele Matalon said. And Im nervous that theyre going to fail me again. I tried to leave a million times Michele (then Zuckerman) was living in Long Island when she met Scott Matalon on a Jewish dating app in 2007. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were in their 20s at the time, and had a lot in common: He had grown up in the town next to hers; they went to the same summer camp; both their parents were in the jewelry business. And Micheles parents had always told her to date a nice Jewish boy, she said. They began living in a bedroom in Matalons parents house. Michele saw signs of his abusive nature early on, she recalled in a deposition for the divorce case. If she made him angry by going out with friends, or saying something he didnt like he would grab her by the neck and barricade her in the bedroom by standing in the door, throwing her on the bed if she tried to leave and telling her she wasnt allowed. After every hourslong fight, Scott would demand forgiveness and makeup sex, Michele said in her deposition. She would oblige so that she could sleep. The abuse continued during their engagement, she said in her deposition, culminating in the night that was never supposed to be spoken about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the night of their bachelor and bachelorette parties. An intoxicated Scott had called Michele in a panic because he did some inappropriate behavior at his bachelor party and he wanted to confess to me what he had done, she recalled in her deposition. She left her own bachelorette party early and met him at his parents house. When he confessed to her, she told him she was hurt, which made him angry. When she tried to leave the room, he grabbed her and punched her in the face, she said. The attack ended when he stumbled and fell down a flight of stairs. After that night, Scott promised to do better, acknowledging his anger and control issues, Michele said in her deposition. She wanted to believe him. The wedding went forward. I tried to leave a million times, Michele told the Sun Sentinel. And then once I was married, I just tried to survive. Abusive relationships and the patterns of terrorism that unfold within them are like hostage situations, said Backes, the UCF professor, often taking away victims sense of self-efficacy and independence, making it more difficult for them to leave. What we forget, is these are relationships that often have been in place, there has been love in this relationship, or what someone envisioned as love, she said. The person has been held and treated in such a way that is reframing their personality, making them feel helpless. Sometimes its easier to cope in the relationship than out of it. Scott and Michele married in 2010. He became a prominent investment adviser while she stopped working entirely, growing financially dependent on him. The abuse continued throughout their marriage and the births of their son and daughter, Michele said in her deposition. She contemplated leaving, but remained for the sake of the children. The family moved to Parkland in 2019. Michele didnt know anyone in South Florida besides her parents. It wasnt until their 8-year-old son began confiding in Michele Matalons parents about the abuse that she made efforts to leave, according to her deposition. The family came up with an exit plan, purchasing Mace and burner phones to reach police if they were in danger. Meanwhile, a child protective investigator opened a case on Scott Matalon. A pediatrician had reported child abuse to the Department of Children and Families in February 2021 after Michele brought in their son over a painful noogie his father had given him out of anger, according to her deposition and a medical report. Later that month, the Matalons went to Disney World for their daughters sixth birthday, where a violent, hourslong episode took place in which Scott pushed their son to the ground and cursed out their daughter before turning on Michele, according to her deposition. When they got back, she informed Scott in a text that she intended to leave with the children for her parents house. Scott texted her dozens of times, begging for her to stay. He sent pictures of himself smiling with their daughter and promised to quit drinking and get emergency help from doctors for his mental health. We can talk today and remember I am different today, he wrote, according to copies of the texts filed in court. Promise me only one thing you will listen and I wont scream if I yell you leave but I promise you today is different and I know why! I cannot wait to explain because this has shown me something I did not know about myself. Three days later, on Feb. 16, 2021, Michele Matalon filed for divorce. Scott immediately filed an emergency motion for 50-50 custody. In court, before Judge Dale Cohen, Michele began detailing the abuse, hoping that he would see the need for supervised visits, not equal custody. This has been an abusive relationship for 12 years with the wife as well as with the children, Micheles attorney told the judge at a March 2021 hearing over whether to grant Scotts request. Scott Matalon and his attorney denied Micheles allegations of abuse, saying he hadnt seen his children in a month. The judge denied the emergency custody motion, awaiting the results of the child protective services investigation. I have a lot of concerns about this case, he said. I do think the father has an anger problem. Michele and her children began telling the CPS investigator about the years of Scotts verbal and physical abuse. Micheles parents described Scott as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The report documented how Scott bit her lip so hard that it bled in front of their kids. The children both described fearing their father and witnessing physical and verbal fights. In one incident on a cruise, Scott broke their sons Nintendo in half and threw it into the ocean. Another time, after Michele defended their son during an argument, he dragged her into the bedroom. Their son stood outside the door yelling, Dont hurt Mommy, dont hurt Mommy. Scott Matalon denied the allegations, telling the investigator that Michele was manipulating the children and that he was simply a strict parent, not an abusive one. He said his son had been confused when he banged on the door and that he and Michele had been practicing martial arts, not actually fighting. His voice is sterner with the way he speaks and the mother never sees anything wrong and never tries to discipline them, the investigator wrote in her report, summarizing Scotts statements. He has never laid a finger on his wife or children. He just misses his children and wish [sic] this was all a dream. The investigator spoke to Scotts sister and two family friends, who all expressed shock over the case and denied any abuse toward Michele or the children. In depositions and hearings, Matalon said that they were a physical family who liked to grapple and play. The two had a great marriage but began arguing due to different parenting styles and stress because of the pandemic, he and his attorney said. Scott described himself as an involved father who played dolls with his daughter and video games with his son, providing pictures of the family together on vacations and birthday letters Michele and the children had written to him. When (my daughters) not here I wake up all alone, Scott said in March. The first couple days I slept in her bed. I miss them. I miss him, I miss (my son). A great deal was riding on what CPS concluded. But most of Micheles and the childrens meetings with the investigator consisted of minutes-long conversations in a parking lot, she recalled. Growing anxious about the case and the investigators ability to devote time to it, she sent the investigator an email in early May. I was concerned before because you had expressed to me that you have a large amount of cases and a lack of time to review them all, Matalon wrote, referring to a conversation theyd had earlier. The investigator did not respond. Weeks later, CPS closed its investigation. The investigator wrote in her report that the father threatens and degrades the mother. Sometimes the father is physically abusive and that their son witnessed a lot of it. But she also wrote that the children had no visible bruises and that Michele had never called the police. The case is being closed as no indicators for physical injury and not substantiated for household violence threatens child, the report concluded. Floridas child protective investigators often lack the time and resources necessary to delve into complicated abuse cases, according to officials in the legal system. Theyre so overworked, said Rhoda Sokoloff, a family attorney based in Fort Lauderdale who does pro bono work on domestic violence. Many investigators are also cynical about allegations of abuse after handling cases where parents lie in order to use it as a tactic. When this happens in the context of a marital breakdown, CPS might be like, yeah, were gonna take that with maybe a little grain of salt, said Laura Arcaro, a divorce and child custody attorney based in Fort Lauderdale. Because is it just to gain an advantage in litigation or is this woman truly a victim of abuse? The hearing for temporary custody of the Matalon children was set for June 2021. I thought you were Michele Just a month after Michele Matalon fled the home, Scott Matalon moved on to another woman. Christina La Ferrera had been on the brink of deleting her profile on the dating app Hinge in March 2021 when she received a match notification that sparked her interest. His photos and bio depicted him as a family man and a professional, wearing a white dress shirt, posing next to a golden retriever. Matalon was direct about his interest something La Ferrera found refreshing compared to the ghosting and hook-up culture so prevalent on the app and asked her out to dinner that night. Their relationship progressed quickly. He wanted to be together all of the time, so she started working at her tech job from the Parkland house he once shared with his family. La Ferrera didnt know anything about Matalons divorce. When she asked him about his kids, she said, he made it sound like he still saw them regularly. Occasionally, he would make comments that La Ferrera found alarming, but she chalked them up to the words of a man emotionally devastated by his divorce, she said in a statement filed by Michele Matalons attorney in the divorce case. He had talked about wanting to kill his ex-wife, La Ferrera said in the statement, and told her that his driver / friend Ozzy from NYC was going to kidnap her and inject some substance between her toes so that there would be no marks or evidence when her body was found. In May 2021, La Ferrera briefly broke up with Matalon after receiving mysterious texts from a woman who is not among the four victims mentioned in this article showing pictures of bruises, telling her that he did not have custody of his kids, unlike what he had told La Ferrera. But Matalon begged to get back together, texting her lengthy notes and sending her flowers, telling her the woman was lying because she was jealous. The man La Ferrera thought she knew was not the man the mystery woman was describing. He was insistent on getting back together, she told the Sun Sentinel. So I gave him another chance. By June, they had reconciled. Then, on June 12, two days before the custody hearing, La Ferrera discovered the dark side of Scott Matalon. He and La Ferrera had made plans for a staycation at a hotel in Miami, beginning with a fancy dinner followed by a night out at a lounge Saturday with her friends. Matalon had paid about $1,000 for a table, but her friends didnt show. He became upset, she told the Sun Sentinel, and decided to hire an escort. While the two were in the hotel room, La Ferrera retreated to the balcony. When, eventually, La Ferrera told Matalon the escort needed to leave, she said, he became enraged. The next thing La Ferrera remembered, she was opening her eyes in the hotel bed. She thought shed just had a bad dream. Then she realized Matalons hands were around her neck, according to a Miami Police report. He was crying and hovering over her face. Babe, I am so sorry! I thought you were Michelle! [sic] La Ferrera recalled him saying, according to court documents and a sworn statement given to police. I wasnt trying to kill you, I was trying to kill her. You know I would never hurt you babe. La Ferrera began to scream. Matalon told her to be quiet; someone would hear. When she didnt stop, he grabbed her by the throat and threw her into the wall, then threw her phone at the wall so she couldnt call for help, according to her statement in the divorce case. When she tried to leave the room for help, he pinned her to the bed, poured alcohol from the minibar into her eyes, then demanded she have sex with him in order to make things right, according to the police report. The next morning, on June 13, Matalon made La Ferrera cover her bruises before they drove back to her home in Boca Raton. He threatened to kill her children and her family if she disrupted his custody hearing, she wrote. La Ferrera complied with all of his demands. Scott stayed at her house that night, and the same cycle of violence, threats and sex continued into the next day. Then, at 3:20 p.m., he calmly got dressed, sat at her dining room table and logged into the custody hearing. The humble, charming side of Scott Matalon returned as he testified before the judge. Michele watched from her new apartment in Parkland, putting a post-it over his face so she wouldnt have to look at him. He told the judge he had volunteered to take anger management classes and started seeing a therapist about his parenting. He denied any abuse. I want to be proactive, he said. I want to hold (my daughter and son). And so I did anything I could to just show best efforts because I really think our children need both a father and a mother. When it was Michele Matalons turn, she told a different story. I was fearful to leave from the beginning, she said. He told me that he would hurt my father, hurt my family. And then when we did get married and I would stick up for myself or in an argument, he would tell me that he would take the children from me. Matalon had only 10 minutes for her testimony and had to rush through the various incidents of abuse. I have so much more to tell you, her attorney told Judge Cohen when she ran out of time. Ive heard enough, Cohen replied. I get the gist unfortunately I guess, Michele, you know, youve been in fear even before you got married which probably should have signaled you not to get married. He then issued a ruling that would leave Michele Matalon reeling. It came amid a shift in Floridas family courts toward presuming 50-50 custody is best for the children. Cohen began by lecturing Scott and Michele about family values and the importance of working things out. He praised Scott for taking anger management classes to correct his issue. If I was a therapist, I would tell everybody, every day when you see your wife, you think of the first day and thats how you treat your wife, Cohen said. He described the pictures he had seen of the family, shared by Matalons attorney, by the pool, a 40th birthday post saying youre the greatest. If they wanted, the judge said, they could fix it and have a happy family. Cohen praised the child protective investigator, saying that she found no evidence of abuse. And he criticized both Scott and Michele Matalon for fighting in front of the kids. Regardless of what path you all decide to go down in the future, theres so much room for improvement between the two of you, he told them. But youre both smart, you both care about your children, and you both did like each other at some point in your life. So theres no reason that you cant just get along. He granted Scott Matalons request for 50-50 timesharing, pending a final hearing. Michele Matalon felt blamed for her own abuse. Clearly I need therapy, she told the Sun Sentinel. But yeah, yeah I did (marry him). Why are you victim blaming? Cohen has since retired as a judge, and now works as a family mediator. He declined to comment when reached by a Sun Sentinel reporter by phone and text for this article. Floridas shift toward 50-50 custody In 2023, a new Florida law made 50-50 custody a mandatory presumption, requiring attorneys to convince judges why an alternative would be preferable. The law has led to drawn-out custody battles and agreements that often force victims to continue relationships with their abusers. The new law was preceded by a trend toward 50-50 custody in Floridas family courts, where the Matalon case was heard. The pendulum swung from the 80s, when I first started, said Susan Brown, a family attorney based in Plantation. Mom got custody, Dad got every weekend unless Mom was really bad, and then Dad would get custody. The custody case forced Michele Matalon to keep interacting with the man she had fled. Now that Im safe and Im divorced, I dont have to go back, she told the Sun Sentinel. But now you want me to send my children back to him? Im not OK with that. I hear his name or see his face and it brings me into anxiety, and into panic, about whats going to happen. Even if Matalon wanted to leave Florida with her children, the law forbids parents with custody arrangements from leaving the state unless they get the approval of their former partner. Constraints like that often lead victims to stay in abusive relationships because the alternative seems even worse. Their mindset is, I cant leave, but I cant stay, what do I do? said Arcaro, the Fort Lauderdale family attorney. Im just going to try to smooth things over. As the Matalons timesharing hearing wrapped up, Scott had one more request for the judge: permission to have dinner with his children that night. Judge Cohen granted the request. La Ferrera escapes After closing Zoom, Scott Matalon yelled I won! and gave La Ferrera a hug. On his way out the door, he told her to be ready for his return at 8:30 p.m. She had three hours. Afraid for her life, La Ferrera picked up her children from summer camp and took them to her fathers home for their safety, then drove to the Boca Raton Police station. The doors were locked, so she used the call box to signal an emergency. When officers arrived, she started telling them everything that had happened to her over the last 24 hours. And she asked them to do a wellness check on Michele Matalon and her children. Meanwhile, Scott Matalon had been calling and texting La Ferrera repeatedly, asking her if everything was okay and sending pictures of himself smiling with his kids in the pool. Sorry I love you and was wrong and am all good own [sic], he wrote. Diff man with kids. La Ferrera told police officers that Scott Matalon drove a white Mercedes convertible, and they waited for him to return to her home that night. About 8:30, a car matching the description drove toward the house, then did a U-turn and left, according to a probable cause affidavit. Police tried to call Matalon multiple times, but he didnt pick up. The next night, he calmly turned himself in at the police station. He had brought another girlfriend with him, body camera footage showed. Thanks for coming in, one of the officers told Matalon as they put him in handcuffs. Of course, man, Matalon said. He asked the woman to scratch his chin for him since he was in handcuffs, and the two of them laughed. The officers told him he would be in jail only for a short time. I love you, Matalon told the woman as they kissed goodbye. Ill see you for dinner. You got this, kid, the woman replied. The police officers walked him to the squad car, where he tried to joke with them. You spoke to my attorney already? Matalon asked one of the officers. Yes sir, the officer said. Youre all good, man. Well just get through this Because the weekend-long attack had taken place in two jurisdictions, Boca Raton Police told La Ferrera she would have to file a separate police report in Miami for what had occurred there. But Miami Police would not take a report over the phone, telling her she had to come to the station. La Ferrera, who had suffered blunt force injuries to her head and whose vision was still impaired from the alcohol in her eyes, did not feel comfortable driving to Miami in the rain that night. I thought I had a skull fracture, La Ferrera told the Sun Sentinel. Later, an eye exam revealed that she had clinical signs of an eye socket fracture. With no other option, she ended up driving back to Miami on June 17, four days after the attack, and made a delayed report. The victim was not able to report the incident that happened at the hotel prior to todays date due to personal issues, the Miami incident report states. Palm Beach County prosecutors charged Matalon with two counts of simple battery, a misdemeanor, based on the events that had taken place after he and La Ferrera returned to Boca Raton from Miami. The morning after Matalons arrest, La Ferrera attended his first appearance hearing in court, where, she said, she asked the judge to deny him bond. She told the court she feared for her own safety, the safety of her children, Michele Matalons children and the public. Matalon was released the same day. Just two weeks later, he was back in handcuffs, charged with kidnapping and strangling the girlfriend he had brought with him to the Boca Raton police station. A profile of a serial batterer When Dr. Donald Dutton set out to research domestic batterers in the early 1990s, the prevailing focus in the psychology community was on the victims, not the perpetrators. Renowned psychologist Dr. Lenore Walker had coined the term battered woman syndrome after studying victims in abusive relationships. But the psychology of the men who committed the acts was far less studied. Dutton, a psychologist who worked with dozens of batterers in intervention programs, was curious about their motivations. Ive always been fascinated by questions I thought were unanswerable, said Dutton, who reviewed the Matalon case for the Sun Sentinel. How can you love someone and beat them up? That just makes no sense at all. He began to develop a profile of a certain subset of abusers known as cyclical batterers those who abuse their intimate partners in a repeated cycle of violence and contrition. Cyclical batterers tend to include serial batterers, Dutton said, because they are repeat offenders, though cyclical batterers may stay in one relationship while serial batterers commit violence in multiple relationships. Cyclical batterers are also the most difficult to treat, and poorly understood by the criminal justice system, Dutton said. The criminal justice system says, well, well put them in treatment, he said. They think its going to make the problem go away. It doesnt make the problem go away. The description of Matalon given by the victims as charming at first glance but a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a hallmark trait of cyclical batterers. In Duttons experience, they appeared to have two personalities, one at home with their partners and another in public, and even in private they seemed to undergo changes, alternately acting abusive and contrite, he wrote in his book The Batterer: A Psychological Profile. Dutton is now one of the leading experts on batterer psychology. Many cyclical batterers have personality disorders that are very difficult to treat, such as borderline personality disorder, which often manifests as an unstable sense of self, a sort of terror of being abandoned by their partner and really extreme emotional reactions to a sense of abandonment, qualities that make them more dangerous, Dutton told the Sun Sentinel. These are the people who are overrepresented among spousal homicide perpetrators. She cant leave me, Ill kill her before she leaves me. Also overrepresented among spousal homicide perpetrators are those who strangle. A person who has been strangled by their partner is 750% more likely to be killed by them, studies show. Scott Matalon would ultimately be charged with strangling two women and convicted on one of the charges. Judges in domestic violence cases can require anger management classes and batterer intervention programs, but unless the abuser has a desire to change and the programs specifically address personality disorders, rehabilitation is unlikely. [The abuser] has to agree that theres parts of him that need to change, Dutton said. But if you cant get to that conclusion then everything else is a waste of time. Rehabilitation is also less likely in cases where there are numerous victims, said Backes, the UCF professor. Its a learned behavior, she said. When you learn youre able to get away with it and youre able to do that or you saw your dad do that, it becomes very normalized and you dont think its wrong. Duttons research has made him more supportive of longer-term incarceration when it comes to domestic violence. He was concerned when he learned that Matalon will be released in a year. I come down as a real law-and-order guy in certain cases, Dutton said. With people who are persistently violent, research shows you need to protect the public. That needs to be your No. 1 priority. In this case, protecting women that this guy gets in relationships with. Compared to someone who abuses one person repeatedly over the course of a relationship, a serial batterer must repeatedly find new people to date. They often look for vulnerabilities, Backes said. Someone whos a serial batterer has a better understanding of the type of people to select, she said. They will identify certain things in a person that makes them a more suitable target for them to engage in a relationship. That includes people who are more isolated or were victims of abuse themselves. Domestic Violence resources A private investigator and rough sex Though La Ferrera had escaped Scott Matalon, she still wasnt completely free of him. Days after Matalons arrest, a private investigator contacted La Ferreras ex-boyfriend, requesting to meet with him. The ex-boyfriend, who asked not to be named, was angry with La Ferrera at the time for filing a petition for a restraining order against him while she was dating Matalon. He was also curious about what the PI had to say. They agreed to meet at a Starbucks. The PI was a former corrections officer who worked for Matalons attorney, according to Florida law enforcement records. She showed up at the Starbucks in Gucci and high heels and began questioning the man about his sex life with La Ferrera. She wanted to know if they had rough sex, if she liked him slapping her around, tying her up, restraining her or choking her. The interaction made the ex-boyfriend uncomfortable. He told the Sun Sentinel he felt the PI was trying to coerce him into admitting something that hadnt happened. Later, the PI emailed him with an affidavit to sign on behalf of one of Matalons attorneys. It was a list of 17 statements. One read, Christina was into everything when it came to sex. Her sexual proclivities included, BDSM (bondage, dominance, sadomasochism) swinger parties and unprotected sex with strangers. Another stated, During our relationship our intimacy included, spanking, flogging, choking, biting, slapping, hair pulling, spitting, and name calling. Christina always wanted it harder. She loved rough sex. (video evidence 07/2020). When he did not respond to the email, the PI texted him several times. Morning. Hope all is well, one text read. We are working with the Miami Detective trying to make this go away. Do you have any video or photos of you and Christina have [sic] rough sex and or with toys. Please. And sorry to bother. The PI told him he could edit the affidavit as he saw fit. I was like, if I edit it Im gonna take out everything, the ex-boyfriend told the Sun Sentinel. He didnt sign, and texted La Ferrera about the conversation. For La Ferrera, the revelation particularly the private investigators statement that she was working with Miami Police only added to her concerns about her case. She had received little information from the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office, which had not yet filed charges against Matalon for the incident in the hotel room. The allegations in Miami had the potential for more serious charges than the misdemeanor battery charges brought against Matalon in Boca Raton. It wouldnt be until Oct. 27, 2021, four months after the attack, that Miami-Dade prosecutors filed criminal charges against Matalon: domestic battery with strangulation and false imprisonment, both felonies, as well as simple domestic battery and criminal mischief. The private investigator declined to comment when reached by the Sun Sentinel. The Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office did not provide details on the delay, saying that the prosecutors assigned to the case at the time had left the office. Christinas going to absolutely kill me Eventually, La Ferrera and Michele Matalon found each other. The night of the June custody hearing, Broward Sheriffs deputies arrived at Michele Matalons new apartment for the wellness check La Ferrera had requested. The next day, Micheles father got a text from an unknown number with a picture of Scotts mugshot. Together, they called the number several times. Finally, a woman picked up. Christinas going to absolutely kill me, she told Michele Matalon, according to a recording of the call. She identified herself as a close friend of La Ferrera. She had been looking for Micheles number online but found her fathers instead. She had to sit and watch through your entire court mediation while he got his kids back as hes beating her ass, the friend added. Soon after that, La Ferrera and Michele Matalon spoke on the phone. And kind of ever since then, weve been there for each other, Matalon told the Sun Sentinel. The investigation of La Ferreras allegations against Matalon prompted child protective investigators to open a new probe into Michele Matalons case. The day after Matalons arrest, Micheles attorney filed an emergency motion challenging timesharing in their divorce case, attaching a statement from La Ferrera and a police report describing the weekend-long attack and Scott Matalons threats to Michele Matalons life. Judge Cohen denied Micheles request. A month later, the CPS investigator again determined that the children were not in danger. CPS investigators tend to view events through the lens of what happens directly in front of the kids, experts say. But allegations of violence in another case, like those made by La Ferrera, could be indicative of potential danger to the children. What happens if the kid gets a little bit older, and the kid pisses off the father? said Sokoloff, the family attorney. Whos to say the fathers not gonna go off? He may not be able to control himself. The child protective investigator declined to comment when reached by the Sun Sentinel. But even as the CPS investigation was ongoing, so was Scott Matalons violent behavior. On July 5, 2021, he attacked the woman who had supported him during his Boca Raton arrest. The Parkland attack The attack took place the night of July 5, at Matalons Parkland home. He had thrown the woman down in the shallow area of the pool, then beat her inside the home while stopping her from escaping, according to a probable cause affidavit. She finally managed to flee across the street to a neighbors house. There, she rang the doorbell, barefoot and breathing heavily, according to Ring doorbell camera footage. Before anyone could answer, Matalon caught up to her, wearing nothing but swim trunks. Im done, he said, panting, according to the footage. Its over. Stay away from me, the woman demanded as he approached. Stay away from me! The video shows Matalon picking her up, throwing her over his shoulder, and carrying her back to his home. He called her a whore and stuffed $100 bills in her mouth to silence her, the woman later wrote in a petition for a restraining order. When they got back inside the home, he threatened to kill her dog and cornered her in a closet. He told her police would never come, but they did. The neighbors had watched the confrontation through their Ring camera and called 911. He came in like a caveman and grabbed her, a woman told the dispatcher. Deputies arrested Matalon the same day as the attack. Prosecutors with the Broward State Attorneys Office charged him with kidnapping, false imprisonment, domestic battery by strangulation and simple domestic battery, all violations of his bond in Palm Beach County. But Matalons attorneys convinced a judge to release him again, this time into a co-ed substance abuse program. There, he would have direct contact with vulnerable women. One of them was Brittany Emslie, a recovering addict who worked at the program. In six months, Emslie and Matalon were married. A month later, police were called to their new home. I cant imagine why a judge would let you out The decision to release Matalon perplexed some experts who reviewed the case for the Sun Sentinel. In Broward, he had been released on house arrest with an ankle monitor and a requirement that approval was needed for any appointments. He was then jailed again in Palm Beach County because the violent attack and kidnapping were a direct violation of his bond there. But his attorneys argued for his release, saying he would go directly to rehab to work on his substance abuse issues. At first, Judge Melanie Surber denied their request, but asked for more information. Two weeks later, they presented her with a letter from a program he had attended called Recovery Unplugged, which said Matalon had demonstrated successful progress, even though records show he was there for less than a week. Clients are supervised by staff 24/7. We can accommodate a GPS monitor and we have worked with probation and the courts in the tri-county area for many years, the programs admissions manager wrote in the letter. Any major rule violation will be reported to the court. Surber released him. Frankly, if youre on pretrial release for a domestic violence case and you go on to break it, not by getting a DUI or something not related to that, but if youre on pretrial release and youre out committing other domestic violence acts, I cant imagine why a judge would let you out, said Adriana Alcalde, a former Broward prosecutor who now represents victims of sexual violence. Judges may see domestic violence as private in nature, affecting only a victim or a family, according to Backes, the UCF professor. Meanwhile, Floridas cash bond system allows abusers with money to avoid jail time. Some of our risk assessments that we do when someone is detained or at first appearance, when youre thinking about pre-trial conditions like an ankle monitor or something like that, dont really consider the dynamics of domestic violence, Backes said. Since COVID, Backes has noticed a national trend toward fewer domestic violence arrests and more down-charging, possibly as part of a push not to overincarcerate folks. Things that should be felonies are just being charged as misdemeanors, she said. Surber did not respond to requests for comment. Support our journalism You can support journalism like this by contributing to the Community News Fund, a partnership between the Florida Press foundation and the Sun Sentinel. Contributions are tax-deductible and directly support investigative reporting and other vital local journalism. You can donate online at SunSentinel.com/donate. Its only a matter of time In the treatment program, Matalon and Emslie grew close. In the court system, La Ferreras warnings about Matalons violence went unheeded. Matalon was one of the clients assigned to Emslie in the inpatient program. She was in a vulnerable place at the time, she told the Sun Sentinel. Her sons father had died of an overdose less than a year prior, and she was working to overcome her own addiction issues. In September 2022, Matalon transitioned from inpatient into a halfway house another step approved by the Palm Beach County judge. Soon, Emslie said she was practically living in Matalons room at the house despite her position as an employee, a violation of the programs rules. Matalon had also been posting TikTok videos with other women from rehab. He joked about what his alibi would be if he committed a crime and about having sex with another woman in the program. He showed himself driving with multiple women in a convertible as one of them stood in the moving car, the song Young, Wild & Free playing in the background, despite the fact that he was on house arrest with an ankle monitor. When La Ferrera saw the videos, she contacted the Palm Beach County prosecutors assigned to Matalons case, worried for the safety of the women and concerned he was violating his bond. Prosecutors referred her to the police, who referred her to Matalons probation officer. La Ferrera emailed the probation officer, saying Matalon had access to vulnerable women who are likely seeking treatment and very likely to be or already are being abused. I find it very hard to imagine making TikToks about committing crimes and planning alibis is compliant let alone joy rides with vulnerable woman [sic], she wrote. It is only a matter of time that someone else will be a victim just like the woman that was attacked only three weeks after he attacked me while he was out on pre-trial release for my case. I would hate to see someone else get hurt let alone killed when all of this could have been handled differently. But Matalon remained in the program. Soon after her email to the probation officer, La Ferrera tried again to sound alarms over Matalon. Miami prosecutors had finally charged him with battery, battery with strangulation, false imprisonment and criminal mischief in her hotel room attack. At a bond hearing for the case, she pleaded with the judge not to release him. I beg you to please keep our community safe from this monster of a man, La Ferrera told the judge at the hearing. After she spoke, Matalons attorney, Dave Raben, read from the arrest affidavit about La Ferreras attack in Boca Raton, where police wrote that she told them Matalon liked rough sex and that at one point she slapped him because she knows thats what he likes. Matalon was released on house arrest. He now wore two ankle monitors. You did save my life With his three criminal cases underway and still under house arrest, Scott Matalon was in the process of getting married. In November 2021, he moved out of rehab and into a new home in Sunrise with Emslie. In December, the two wed. Within weeks, he attacked his new bride. He had been drinking the night of Jan. 13, Emslie recalled, and became angry. She went on a drive, hoping he would cool off. She returned to find him sitting outside, crying. When he saw her, he charged toward her car and dragged her out, she told police. The next thing she could remember, she was in the backyard of their house, partially deaf, her vision blurry and her mouth full of blood. A neighbor Emslie had never met, Melissa Adamson, was watching TV when she heard screams. She thought someone had been attacked by a dog and followed the sound to the couples backyard. There, she witnessed the attack and said she would call the police, according to body camera footage. Emslie followed Adamson, begging her not to call the police. But another neighbor did. Sunrise Police officers arrived and found Emslie curled up on Adamsons couch. She had a broken tooth, her forehead swelling into a large knot. Her entire body was bruised. He has a history of this, Adamson told the officers. And youre telling me you dont want to press charges. Do you mind telling me why? I mean if somebody beat my ass, Id certainly want to press charges, the reporting officer said. Im just scared, sir, Emslie replied, sobbing. She had nowhere to go, no family nearby and no money, having quit her rehab job for Matalon. She signed a paper declining to press charges. Honey, dont go back to him, Adamson told her, pulling her into a hug. Just dont go back to him. No matter what he says. Emslie handed her a piece of paper. Can you please put your number on here? she asked. Because I dont know where my phone is at this time. I really want to keep you as a friend because I want to let you know that you did save my life. I need to be with her, protect her Two doors down, police officers handcuffed Matalon on the ground and put him in the back of a patrol car. The officers said they smelled alcohol on him, according to the footage. He has two ankle monitors on, one of the officers later told a sergeant. Two? the sergeant asked in disbelief. At first, Matalon was calm. He asked the officers to contact his mother and his attorney, which they did, and to readjust his handcuffs to make them more comfortable. He asked if they could bring him a seltzer, which they said they could not. As he waited in the car, however, he became desperate, speaking about how another arrest would violate his bond in his three other open cases. He asked several times if Emslie was pressing charges, and, if not, why he had to be arrested. He begged, over and over, to speak to Emslie. Is there any chance that Brittany says, you know, its OK Theres no chance, an officer interrupted. It doesnt matter what Brittany says. Brittanys input in this is if you arrest me, it breaks my bond, Matalon said. Please, officer. Officer, Im begging you. Im begging you to speak to my wife Ill never do anything, sergeant, please. Im in love with her. And I need to be with her, protect her. Sergeant, please. If I cant, Im never gonna see her for another decade. No, an officer said. Later, on his way to jail, Matalon asked, If she doesnt testify against me, the state is going to drop the charges, correct? That I couldnt tell you, the officer said. Thats going to be up to the state attorney. Prosecutors drop case The Broward State Attorneys Office did decline to file charges as Matalon had predicted, citing Emslies lack of cooperation, despite witnesses, footage and photographs of her bruises. Repeatedly, prosecutors wrote that she never gave police a sworn statement, even though she had. Emslie refused to provide a sworn statement and stated that she did not want to prosecute. As the [Body Worn Camera] footage progressed, the victim stated that she could not recall what happened and that she thought she blacked out, prosecutors wrote. Emslie told police she had felt discombobulated after the attack. But body camera footage shows that she did give a sworn statement with the details she remembered, such as trying to lock her doors as Matalon dragged her from the car, then ending up at the back of the house. She affirmed that Matalon hit her and that her injuries were from that night. Asked about the sworn statement, Paula McMahon, a spokesperson for the State Attorneys Office, told the Sun Sentinel that the decline memo should have stated that the victim/survivor did not provide a sworn statement that would assist prosecutors in proving a case the sworn statement provided on body worn camera was that she did not know what happened and would not press charges. Prosecutors also wrote in the memo that Emslie indicated that her injuries were caused from rough sex. Body camera footage shows that Emslie had made a comment to police while they documented her injuries indicating that the bruises on her arms were from rough sex. She did not say any of her other injuries were from rough sex. In the weeks after the attack, Emslie, who was scared that Matalon would get out again, continued to speak to him on the phone while he was in jail. He and his defense attorneys convinced her to send prosecutors an affidavit stating her tooth was not permanently broken and she was not afraid of him, even though she was. I wanted everybody to think everything was all good until I found a safe place to go, Emslie told the Sun Sentinel. Prosecutors cited the affidavit as well as a lack of sworn statements from witnesses in their decision not to file charges. It is unclear why police did not swear in Adamson, but she did speak to the reporting officer at length that night about witnessing the attack. At one point, he described her as a phenomenal witness. Adamson told the Sun Sentinel that neither police nor prosecutors followed up with her after the night of the attack. A little over a week after prosecutors declined to file charges, Adamson emailed the State Attorneys Office to express her disappointment. She did not receive a response. Meanwhile, La Ferrera and Michele Matalon had begun following Emslies case. The night of the attack, police officers, alerted by Scotts ankle monitor, had also arrived at La Ferreras door looking for him. The first thing she said when she answered the door, she recalled, was, What did Scott do? When La Ferrera found out prosecutors wouldnt file the charges, she wanted Emslies case reopened. After a few months, she spoke to Emslie, who had found a new place to stay and no longer feared Matalon. He had remained in jail since his arrest and would not be released again. His bond had been revoked in his Parkland case and his Boca Raton case, where Judge Surber granted a motion from prosecutors. La Ferrera encouraged Emslie to contact the Broward State Attorneys Office. But prosecutors refused to reopen the case. It is impossible at this point to reconcile the statements that you initially made on the night of the incident (that you must have had rough sex, and that you must have blacked out), as well as your refusal to provide a sworn statement to police, with your ability to now recall every detail six months later, the prosecutor, who is now the head of the domestic violence unit, told Emslie in an email. Domestic violence cases often dropped Prosecutors frequently drop domestic violence cases in Florida, citing a lack of cooperation from the victim. But cooperation is difficult when people are afraid for their lives, experts say. Often, defendants get released on bond too quickly for victims to decide whether to pursue charges. Defendants may have personal attorneys while their victims have no representation or understanding of the legal system. Theyre just out there trying to figure it out on their own, said Dr. Donna King, a Tampa-based lawyer and sociologist who serves as president of the Victims Safe Harbor Foundation. And theyre approached by defense counsel, and they dont necessarily know what to do. The way prosecutors handled Emslies case made her cynical about the justice system. When you try to reopen a case they pretty much tell you to f off, she said. They said I signed that paper. I signed that paper because I was scared How is there not enough evidence when the police report clearly states I had a missing tooth and my head is bleeding and I was bruised from head to toe? Now, Emslie said, my fear is this guys gonna get out. All three women believe that, had Emslies case been prosecuted, Matalon would face a much longer sentence. In October 2023, he pleaded no contest in the Parkland case, where he was sentenced to 5 years. Later that month, he pleaded guilty in the Miami case, where prosecutors wrote that his five-year sentence would be served at the same time as the Broward one. In 2024, he pleaded guilty in the Palm Beach County case in exchange for a jail sentence of 30 days. Our decision to extend the plea offer in the case followed a careful review of the evidence and consideration of the likelihood of success in taking the case to trial, Marc Freeman, the spokesperson for the Palm Beach County State Attorney, said in an email. The plea offer was made in consultation with the victim, who indicated her agreement to the terms in a conversation with our prosecutor in December 2023. McMahon, the spokesperson for the Broward State Attorney, said that Matalon was sentenced to the same prison term he would have faced if a jury had found him guilty after a jury trial. Even though prosecutors did not have sufficient, independent evidence to go forward with the case involving this victim/survivor [BM], it is very important that Scott Matalon has been locked up ever since his arrest on that allegation that night, January 14, 2022, the statement said, referring to the Broward victims by initials. He went to jail that night and has not had one day of freedom since then he pleaded no contest to the originally filed Broward charges of kidnapping and battery in the July 5, 2021, case [JL] and was adjudicated guilty and sentenced to 5.5 years in state prison, which he is still serving There is no plea agreement document in the 2021 Broward case Matalon pleaded no contest to the originally filed charges and was sentenced to the punishment recommended by state sentencing guidelines. In response to questions about how the Miami plea agreement was reached, the Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office again said that the prosecutor assigned to the case had left and they could not provide definitive information. Further attempts to reach the prosecutor were unsuccessful. A serial batterer, a strangler, and a kidnapper For a year, Michele Matalon did not hear from Scott Matalon. Then, in September 2024, he filed a motion seeking visits with his children this time in prison. The Former Husband has been a model inmate and has never received a single disciplinary review, citation or even a warning during his rehabilitation, his attorney wrote, adding that he has taken several classes for his self-betterment including Parenting from the Inside, Communication & Anger, and Inside/Outside Dad. The motion goes on to accuse Michele Matalon of failing to communicate with her ex-husband about the children, such as by not telling him where she lives. He requested video and in-person prison visits, saying his ex-wife should have to drive them to prison if his family cant. Michele Matalons attorney responded with a request for full custody. He is a serial batterer, a strangler, and a kidnapper who preys on female victims causing irreparable trauma, the motion said. Unable to control or physically intimidate the Former Wife from prison, the Former Husband has resorted to filing meritless motions from jail. The ongoing battle over the children, now ages 10 and 13, has drained Michele Matalon emotionally and financially. She has spent thousands on attorneys fees. A trial is set for September. Hes bleeding me dry, Matalon told the Sun Sentinel at the coffee shop in March. He is draining her financially, abusing her while shes just trying to protect her kids, La Ferrera, who was sitting next to her, chimed in. And the laws in the state enable abusers to continue to abuse their partners post-separation. Some domestic violence perpetrators fight for custody because they genuinely desire a relationship with their children. But many also use the legal system to access their victims, said King, the Tampa attorney, who herself was a victim of legal abuse. What I see when I look over this docket are a whole bunch of red flags related to power and control, King said. Not once has Scott Matalon taken responsibility for the abuse, Michele Matalon told the Sun Sentinel. Instead, her validation has come in the form of the other women he inadvertently brought into her life. I feel bad for the women, she said. But your true colors, man. It validates my story. Four years have passed since that June 2021 hearing. Even with Matalons 2026 release hanging over them, the women have moved on as best they could. Emslie is in recovery and has three children. Michele Matalon and La Ferrera have become close friends. In the last few weeks, Matalon has begun to feel cautiously optimistic about her custody case, thanks in part to the evidence from the three other womens cases. During one recent deposition, which Scott Matalon attended, his lawyer asked about her relationship with La Ferrera. Michele Matalon felt proud. Im thinking to myself, thats right, she said. You see me on social media living my life, and yeah, shes now my best friend. And I said, Not only is she my best friend, shes my angel. South Florida Sun Sentinel crime reporter Shira Moolten can be reached at smoolten@sunsentinel.com or 754-971-0636. Follow her on X and Instagram as @shiramoolten. The Trinity test (Public domain photo via Los Alamos National Laboratory) The July 16, 2025 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test arrives in New Mexico at a poignant moment, and serves as just one example of the states nuclear legacy. Generations of survivors of the federal governments nuclear testing program and the states uranium mining industry have waited for years for recognition from the United States as they watched their friends and families die from cancers. The 1990 federal Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act created to provide restitution to people sickened by exposure to radiation and uranium excluded New Mexicos downwinders and post-1971 uranium miners, and expired last year after years of lobbying for expansion by victims and New Mexicos elected leaders. New Mexico Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, for instance, began introducing RECA legislation when he was first elected to the U.S. House in 2008, and did so so every year since. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just last month, Lujan, other members of the states congressional delegation and long-time advocates held a news conference to call for RECAs renewal once again. Over the years, the coalition calling for RECAs expansion and extension has grown across states and become a bipartisan effort. In the end, Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri got it over the finish line as a provision in President Donald Trumps massive tax and spending bill. Advocates and New Mexico officials say while RECAs passage is worthy of celebration, more remains to be done. It was quite a relief, because weve waited so long, said Tina Cordova, founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, during a news conference last week. The documentary film First We Bombed New Mexico highlights Cordovas 20-year fight for justice for New Mexicos downwinders. Honestly, the acknowledgement is long past due, she said. But I also want to recognizethat were not there yet. We still have a lot of work to do. RECAs two-year expansion will not be long enough for us to get everybody enrolled that should be enrolled, Cordova said. The bill also provides $100,000 lump sum payouts but no longer includes health care coverage. We will take the win, and we will continue our fight, Cordova said. And we will also never forget that there are some very important people that have been left out: the people of Guam, the people of Colorado, the people of Montana, the remainder of Arizona and Nevada. While grateful New Mexico was included, she said, we will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our sisters and brothers from those places who weve come to love. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lujan and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) last week also sent letters to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer urging both to issue guidance quickly for RECA given the short timeline for compensation. Later on Wednesday, a sign dedication will take place at the entrance to the Trinity site, placing a marker there acknowledging the sacrifice and suffering of the people of New Mexico as a result of the Trinity bomb, Cordova said. A mass in the evening in Tularosa will include the annual candlelight vigil and reading of the names of the people who are no longer here. Source will have coverage from both events. In advance of the 80th anniversary, Lujan issued a statement about the anniversary, characterizing it as eight decades of pain, loss, and injustice for the victims still living with the fallout of nuclear testing and uranium miningAs we reflect on the lasting harm caused by these tests and the governments negligence, we must renew our commitment to the people still suffering today. That means doing everything we can to help them access the compensation they deserve. Together, we will keep fighting to make sure no one is left behind. Below, Sources Danielle Prokop offers portraits of some of those survivors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Julia Goldberg Lit luminarias at a vigil for people who have died from cancer in the Tularosa Basin. The vigil was marked the 78th anniversary of the Trinity Test, which subjected New Mexicans to the first atomic exposing and radioactive fallout. (Photo courtesy of Tina Cordova) Tina Cordova Tina Cordova has relived the death of her father, Anastacio, many times over. In speeches before a handful of people, in phone conversations with reporters and when Lujan commemorated her father on the Senate floor of Congress on March 7, 2024. Tina Cordova protests during a visit from U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) in August 2024. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) Anastacios story starts in Tularosa in 1945. He was just 4-years-old when the federal government detonated the first atomic bomb in the Jornada Del Muerto desert 45 miles away. Like many people living there, he drank water from open cisterns, ate local crops and hunted wildlife for food all likely contaminated with ash from radioactive fallout. Cordovas voice only shakes a little as she recounts his death from 12 years ago: He whittled away to 125 pounds, the pain he was in, the months on a feeding tube. He was diagnosed with two rare oral cancers and prostate cancer all compensable under RECA, except the program excluded the New Mexicans living downwind from the first-ever bomb. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cordova, 64, said her dads death also gave her clarity. Shes a cancer survivor herself and founded the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium in 2005 to advocate for southern New Mexicans impacted for generations by the legacy of Trinity. I chose to do this work. I know its my lifes work. I know Im suited to do this work, and Im grateful that Ive had this opportunity, she told Source NM. Tina Cordova attends an interfaith service remembering the Trinity Test on Sunday, July 13, 2025. The government never warned us afterwards, never said we should be concerned, she told attendees. But today, we have acknowledgement, and we have the beginnings of going back to the government for more, and we will do that. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM) With the recent extension of RECA, her father will finally be recognized as a downwinder and her mother may finally receive compensation on his behalf. My dad should still be here;$100,000 pales in comparison to who he was, and who he used to be to us, she said. I dont want to sound ungrateful, I dont want to minimize what it means, but thats not justice. Thats the beginning of justice its a step forward in the right direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cordova said shell take the fight back to Congress to expand benefits to states and territories that were left out and require the government to pay to cover health care costs for people exposed. She said that in the last year, her niece was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and her youngest brother with kidney cancer. This just doesnt end for us, Cordova said. These are the people that we can never stop fighting for. These are the people that we can never allow to be forgotten, to just basically be treated as the human collateral damage. Larry and Arlene Juanico Just under the mesa, past the horno outside of Arlene Juanicos childhood home, lie the remains of the Jackpile uranium mine, once the largest in the world. Nearly 60 miles outside of Albuquerque, the holes appear on Laguna Pueblo lands between the red and white striated mesas, nearly abutting the little village of Paguate. Arlene Juanico (right) points out landmarks along the Jackpile mine outside of Paguate to Elva Marquez, whose husband and father were uranium miners from Laguna Pueblo. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) With the rush for nuclear arms during the Cold War and the domestic expansion of nuclear power, the federal government was seeking to purchase uranium. A thick belt of ore snaked from Navajo Nation lands through Grants and into Laguna Pueblo. The mine operated from 1951 to 1984, marring the landscape. Tracks from the trucks wind through the valley. Entire mesas now have a terraced effect from the strip-mining. After the rain, there comes the smell: a sharp, metallic smell of uranium. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Life in the village before the closure was punctuated by blasts from the mine site, scattering light yellow dust across the landscape. When they blasted, everything shook, our homes rattled, she said. Often the ladies would run out to get the laundry, get whatever meat or fruit would be drying in the yards. Like her father and brother who later died from cancers Arlene Juanico worked at the mine. She drove the water truck on the narrow roads, making good money at what she thought was a good job for a single mother. Her husband Larry Juanico also worked at the mine, then transferred to the Bluewater Mill, where the ore was processed into yellowcake uranium, with minimal safety precautions. People packed uranium into 55-gallon drums with their bare hands. Hed have to clean bins by climbing into them and scrubbing them with a brush, no masks, no suits. Since they worked after 1972, the Juanicos and other uranium miners and millers did not qualify for RECA, even as many died or were sickened by exposure from radiation. But even now, the recognition or compensation from RECA is paltry to the devastation left by the mine, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our people, our animals, our culture, our way of life are all affected by whats happened here. The money part of it is good, but itll only last for a certain amount of time, Larry Juanico said. After all thats gone well still be dealing with this. After the mines closure, the waste it left behind leaked uranium and other metals into the surface water and released radon, a cancer-causing gas, into the air and peoples homes. Clean up by the federal government remains unfinished. Arlene and Larry Juanico have advocated for years to expand RECA to include uranium workers on Laguna Pueblo. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) The Juanicos said federal efforts to restart uranium mining in the area are insulting to the people sickened by exposure. They havent been taking care of us, but they want to start new mines, Arlene Juanico said. That will force the next generation to still fight for what the federal government still hasnt lived up to. Paul Pino Paul Pino, a retired schoolteacher, was in a daze for several days after Congress passed RECA on July 3, saying the July 4th weekend passed in a haze. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im feeling two very different things, he said. On one hand, totally ecstatic, like over the moon, the best feeling of victory and happiness Ive ever had in my life. On the other, I feel terrible for the people whove been left out from the bill; they needed the compensation also. Marissa Lillis, 10, joins her great-uncle Paul Pino, and other downwinders at the Stallion Gate outside of the Trinity Site on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. (Danielle Prokop / Source NM) An undated photo of Paul Pino (right) and older brother George, who later died from stomach cancer. (Courtesy of Paul Pino) Pino was born nine years after Trinity, but his mother, big brother and two older sisters were living on his familys Carrizozo ranch, only 54 miles from the test site. His mother survived bouts of skin cancer, but died from bone cancer selling her pickup to pay for her funeral costs just before her death. His older brother Greg died from stomach cancer, while one sister had breast cancer and the other suffered from several brain tumors. It was 100% devastation to my family, he said. Pino joined the steering committee at the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium to fight for compensation for New Mexicans impacted by Trinity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All my life, plus more, people in New Mexico still have been waiting for some peace, he said. They got it on the 80th anniversary. Its better late than never, you know? Pino performs a song titled It Aint Over til We Win, about the downwinders struggle. He recently changed the lyrics of the last line: Yeah we won, and its still not over. But thats all right, he said. You know itll be a good fight. Phil Harrison Uranium mining was supposed to be a good job, not a death sentence. But for hundreds of people on the Navajo Nation, it was just that, said former uranium miner Phil Harrison. There was no warning of the dangers, Harrison told Source NM. They took advantage of us. Phil Harrison, a former uranium miner on the Navajo Nation, has dedicated his life to expanding compensation for people injured or killed from radiation exposure. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM) Harrison, 74, is an advocate with the Uranium Radiation Victims Committee, a grassroots group formed in the 1970s as rising deaths and injuries rose among Navajo Nation uranium workers. He grew up in Cove, Arizona where 32 Ker-McGee Corporation mines operated from the 1940s to the 1980s. He was an underground uranium worker and remediated sites near Tuba City. He lost his father at age 44 to lung cancer, after 20 years working in the mines. His father was part of a spate of men on the Navajo Nation dying from lung diseases and various cancers, 400 former uranium workers died in Cove and Red Valley alone. It wasnt just the miners. Spouses and children who were also getting contaminated and exposed to radiation, he said. The grassroots group was one of the first to file lawsuits seeking compensation from the federal government, which led to Congress establishing RECA in 1990 and expanding the program in the 2000s. The two-year window for the RECA expansion offers little time to collect the necessary documentation and visit doctors, sometimes out of state. For former uranium workers who are now eligible, that could mean difficulties since many rely on oxygen, are hospitalized or rely on assisted living and family caretakers. We have to get started right away, he said. Time is of the essence. Bernice Gutierrez Bernice Gutierrez, 80, nearly shares a birthday with the Trinity Anniversary, born in Carrizozo only eight days before the blast. Her family moved to Albuquerque just a few years after the test, but health concerns followed. Gutierrez documented 41 members of her family experiencing some form of sickness, including 23 members with cancers. Seven have died as a result, including her son from pre-leukemia in 2020. Bernice Gutierrezs mom, Eugenia, and dad, Bonifacio Zamora, pictured with Bernice in Carrizozo (Photo courtesy of Bernice Gutierrez) Shes documented health issues among downwinders and their descendants post-Trinity test for more than a decade, volunteering with the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Gutierrez called the passage bittersweet, as the short extension of RECA came inside a bill that cuts food assistance and medical care programs for low-income residents, which New Mexico relies heavily on. If the Medicaid cuts come to pass, its going to put people here in a world of hurt, she said. Bernice Gutierrez, 80, was born eight days before the Trinity Test. (Danielle Prokop/Source NM) Gutierrez said theres only two short years to extend the program, while trying to enroll folks who never qualified before, meaning a lot of work for the volunteers ahead. It was not the victory that we had hoped for, but one that were happy to get. Its a starting point for us, but a point that we will continue working on to change, Gutierrez said. RECA Reading Find a selection of Source NMs RECA reporting from the last few years. Read the full archive here. 2025 New Mexico delegation, radiation victims renew call for compensation NM House Memorial asks for RECA revival All of New Mexicos downwinders could be compensated under Senates big, beautiful bill Lujan, Hawley reintroduce RECA bill for downwinders 2024 Time runs out for RECA RECA expansion passes U.S. Senate RECA faces sunset June 10 while its future remains in limbo Downwinders pressure Speaker Mike Johnson on RECA during NM visit Defense package heads to Senate sans RECA Families are suffering Indigenous people impacted by radiation head to Capitol Hill Time is running out: Navajo Nation urges Congress to act on RECA expansion bill Lujan Grisham and other Western governors call on Congress to expand compensation for downwinders The clock is ticking on RECA; downwinders call on public to pressure House speaker Biden backs RECA legislation ahead of vote today Radius: The legacy of Americas nuclear weapons testing program from States Newsroom and MuckRock 2023 Downwinders turn out for annual protest of Trinity Site Weve never been this close before, Downwinders cheer RECA amendment in defense bill People have been dying ever since: Anger mixes with hope for NM Downwinders 2022 US executive branch acknowledges NM Downwinders for the first time Biden extends radiation compensation fund, but NM Downwinders still seek help Lack of movement on extension of radiation compensation fund worries NM Downwinders New Mexico Downwinders demand recognition, justice SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX It seems that every time a new scandal erupts, the deep fracture within the haredi community is exposed once again. Approximately one in five men and boys in Israel experiences sexual abuse in childhood, with some 63% of children treated belonging to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, according to a study by the Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah movement using data from the Welfare Ministry. Paradoxically, in a society that seems to protect its own, the danger happens behind closed doors, in yeshivot, mikvehs, synagogues, and other exclusively male spaces where men ostensibly have nothing to fear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While daughters in the community are heavily guarded, the boys are left less protected, with the abuse they endure buried in silence, and the victims become invisible. Most do not find the courage to speak until an average of 20 years has passed. Only then are they able to overcome the fear of lashon hara (gossip), of becoming the subject of rumors, or of destroying the reputation of the abuser, who is often a figure of authority like a rabbi, educator, or community policeman like Chaim Rotter from the Shomrim organization, who was supposed to protect but instead became the perpetrator. It seems that every time a new scandal erupts, from the cases of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, Chaim Walder, Yaakov Stern, and now Rotter, the deep fracture within the haredi community is once again exposed. A community in which widespread sexual abuse has taken place for years under a veil of secrecy, while at the same time, strong communal mechanisms suppress and sweep things under the rug, all in the name of honoring the Torah and keeping dirty laundry inside the home. Haredi children return to school amid the coronavirus crisis (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM) Sexual abuse of religious men is not just a physical violation; it is a spiritual one that tears apart the victim's inner world. Unlike in the general public, victims in the Haredi community feel a triple betrayal: spiritual or communal leaders are the ones who betray and harm them. The father did not see or protect. God did not guard me. And the abuser, often a father figure or authority in the victims life, exploited and shed their blood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The shame and guilt wrap the physical trauma in deep spiritual pain, sometimes leading to abandonment of religious identity or severing ties with the community. Many speak of despair, suicidal thoughts, and above all, a sense that there is no place and no one to talk to. The national helpline for haredi men The national helpline for boys and men from the haredi sector who have been sexually abused was founded for this exact reason: to offer a safe and discreet place for victims to be heard. The line is staffed by volunteers who share the values, cultural language, and faith of the callers. They undergo thorough training that enables them to conduct complex conversations and provide services from the support center, including assistance sessions, accompaniment through criminal and legal proceedings, referrals to individual or group therapy, and assistance in exercising their rights. Often, the challenge is not just to listen, but to hold the pain without being overwhelmed by it. Each story reveals a reality in which an entire world is quietly crying out for help, against a community that sometimes doesnt want to hear, and a broader society that doesnt always understand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As long as those in power are sometimes also the perpetrators, our responsibility is to be their voice, to remind everyone that they deserve validation, protection, and healing. This silence has already claimed too many victims. Now is the moment to choose not to remain silent, but to stand with them, to see them, and to begin to repair. For confidential assistance 02-5328000 | SundayThursday, 8 p.m.11 p.m. 1203 | The national helpline for men who have experienced sexual assault (available 24/7) The author is the Coordinator of the Hotline for Men from the Religious-Haredi Sector Affected by Sexual Abuse, part of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel. [Source] Chinas government is gaining more control over the international media landscape as the U.S.-funded Voice of America (VOA) and other American government broadcasters reduce their presence worldwide. The shift accelerated after the Trump administration ordered deep funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, Radio Free Asia and related services. By mid-March 2025, over 1,300 VOA staff members were suspended or laid off and the network largely ceased broadcasting in many regions. Filling the void With VOAs retreat, Chinese state broadcasters such as China Global Television Network (CGTN) and China Radio International (CRI) have expanded operations in Asia and Africa. These organizations air news and feature content in languages including Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Indonesian, Thai, Tibetan and Uyghur. In Nigeria, Information Minister Mohammed Idris noted VOAs absence left a perceptible void especially in terms of trusted, independent international news content. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In China, state-owned media outlets have publicized VOAs decline, with editorials describing VOA as a carefully crafted propaganda machine designed to advance Washingtons ideological interests. Meanwhile, Chinese broadcasters have added at least 80 new shortwave channels and have begun jamming some of the frequencies formerly used by the U.S.-backed services. Trending on NextShark: RFK Jr. urges Americans to 'stop trusting experts' as he touts AI at HHS VOAs global legacy Since its founding in 1942, VOA has broadcast in almost 50 languages and reached audiences in more than 100 countries. Its role was especially significant in areas with tight state media controls, including China, North Korea and Iran, where VOA and its sister agencies transmitted news via shortwave radio and satellite channels. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports indicate that before the cutbacks, VOA and Radio Free Asia together reached as many as 92.5 million weekly listeners in East and Southeast Asia. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, 98% of surveyed Radio Free Asia listeners considered its content trustworthy. Trending on NextShark: Beijing expands reach as Voice of America exits global airwaves Whats next While a federal judge in the U.S. has restored some VOA services, including Persian-language broadcasts, the network continues to operate at minimal capacity. The White Houses proposed 2026 budget calls for the permanent defunding of the agency. Congressional leaders remain divided on whether to eliminate or restructure U.S. international broadcasting, which some consider a critical tool for U.S. foreign policy. The outcome will determine whether the current gap in global media influence remains or shifts further toward state-backed outlets from China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trending on NextShark: Khmer Rouge sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what were building, consider becoming a paid member your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Trending on NextShark: Philippines VP Sara Duterte used snack-brand names to get millions in government funds Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today! NEED TO KNOW Sweating excessively may trigger a pat-down at airport security, a TSA spokesperson tells CNN Perspiration in one's private areas may alter the density of one's clothing, setting off alarms However, TSA ending it's 'shoes-off' policy in some airports may still speed things up Sweat, it makes a rough travel day even worse. But it may also lead to delays at the airport. According to the TSA, excessive perspiration, particularly in ones private areas, may set off their security screening technology, requiring an additional pat-down by agents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Added moisture from a persons body can alter the density of clothing, a spokesperson for the agency told CNN. So it is possible perspiration may cause our to alarm. Craftvision/E+/Getty Images They added: If this occurs, the passenger may need to undergo additional screening, such as a pat-down in the area of the body where the AIT alarmed, to ensure there is no threat. Although sweat may slow down travelers, there is one thing no longer causing as many delays. On Tuesday, July 8, Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem announced plans to end TSAs Shoes-Off policy. The change allows travelers in domestic airports to keep their shows on while passing through security checkpoints. Ending the Shoes-Off policy is the latest effort DHS is implementing to modernize and enhance traveler experience across our nations airports, Noem said in a press release. We expect this change will drastically decrease passenger wait times at our TSA checkpoints, leading to a more pleasant and efficient passenger experience. Spencer Platt/Getty She added: Thanks to our cutting-edge technological advancements and multi-layered security approach, we are confident we can implement this change while maintaining the highest security standards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While all passengers passing through TSA checkpoints can keep their shoes on, if they trigger the scanner, passengers will be required to take them off. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Previously, only those with TSA Pre-Check were allowed to keep their shoes on along with their belts and jackets. The program, which costs about $80 to enroll, requires passengers to go through a clearance process with the agency. The shoes-off policy began after a man named Richard Reid implanted explosives in his shoes before boarding an American Airlines flight in 2001. During the flight, Reid struggled to light the fuse before crews and passengers noticed and restrained him. Reid pleaded guilty to eight terrorism-related charges in October 2002. Read the original article on People BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (WBOY) Roundabout Records in Bridgeport is picking up the needle as it moves to a new location, and its celebrating the change with a special deal. After Market on Main closed its doors at 103 W Main Street back in February, the Bridgeport Conference and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Connect-Bridgeport became the primary tenants of the building and wished to also occupy the current space that Roundabout Records sits. However, after speaking with city officials, Bridgeport CVB and Connect-Bridgeport, the group came to the resolution to move Roundabout right next door. (WBOY image) This Saturday, Roundabout Records will officially move to its new location at 103 East Main Street in Bridgeport on the third floor of the Harrison County WIC office building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new location comes with perks like being ADA accessible and gives more opportunities for visibility from the public. The store even plans to include copies of newer artists as well. (WBOY image) Bridgeport City Council moves to be more transparent amid ethics complaint Despite the quick move, Roundabouts owner, Christopher Lacaria, said that the store will still be open all week. Concerning the speed of which this is happening, as a business owner, you have to be aware that changes can occur rather quickly, and to be patient, dont panic and have yourself set up to do well. And the city of Bridgeport, Connect-Bridgeport, and the CVB, theyre all going to make sure that Im fine, Lacaria said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lacaria also said that he plans for the store to reopen on Sunday, the day after the big move. In celebration of the change, Roundabout Records is holding a 50% off sale on records in three of its four rooms, which features nearly 15,000 records from big-name artists like Queen, Boston, Yes and The Who. As far as staple artifacts found within Roundabout, like the community-contributed artwork found on the flooring and walls, or the newly installed stage, Lacaria said that the city will preserve the art and special qualities that make the store what it is. Roundabout Records stage. (WBOY image) Roundabout Records store hours in its new location will remain open Monday through Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. NEED TO KNOW Harris Levinson was the victim of a "fatal fall" into the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, California, during a long-planned hiking trip Friend Carrie McCarthy wrote in a statement on the online platform Caring Bridge, We are grateful to know he didnt suffer. Levinson was 61 and a much-loved teacher with a lengthy career in Washington A beloved Washington teacher fell 100 feet to his death during a solo backpack trek along the John Muir hiking trail in California last month, according to reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Levinson, 61, taught American studies and theater at Vashon High School, Seattle, set out from Whitney Portal in California on June 23 on his way to Yosemite National Park, per the San Francisco Chronicle. On July 9, the Inyo County Sheriffs Office was contacted by Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park concerning a missing hiker, according to a statement from Inyo County Search and Rescue and the Inyo County Sheriff's Office on Facebook. The Sherrif's Office notes that "Mr. Levinson planned to begin his hike on June 23 after putting in a food resupply cache at Onion Valley that he planned to pick up on June 29." When that suppoly of food was not collected, a friend alerted authorities who located the teacher's car. This "initiated a search using helicopters from the California Highway Patrol Office of Air Operations and Inyo National Forest, and ground searchers from Inyo County Search and Rescue," the Sherrif's Office report adds. "Aided by data from Mr. Levinsons satellite messaging device, ground searchers located the body of Mr. Levinson in the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, apparently the victim of a fatal fall," the statement continues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The experienced hiker had fallen nearly 100 feet into a gully just two miles into the nearly 140-mile trek. His body was recovered on July 12, according to SFGate. Bill Jarcho, a friend, confirmed his death to the local news outlet Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber. Getty John Muir Trail, Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of California, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks John Muir Trail, Sierra Nevada Mountain Range of California, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Jarcho recounted to the outlet that he saw Levinson the night before he left town. When we said goodbye, Harris said, in both a joking and not-joking way, If I dont come back, you know that Ive had a fantastic life and I have no regrets.' " Friend Carrie McCarthy wrote in a statement on the online platform Caring Bridge, It is clear that he died upon impact. We are grateful to know he didnt suffer. McCarthy said Levinson, who was an experienced hiker, was aware of the danger involved in the treacherous trail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harris had been planning this trip for months and was thrilled and excited to begin, she wrote on the platform. Folks who connected with him in his final days report that he was joyful, eager, friendly and full of appreciation for his life and the opportunity to go on this adventure. In other words, he was Harris. Inyo County Sheriff's Office police car Inyo County Sheriff's Office police car Inyo County Sheriff's Office police car The Inyo County Sheriffs Office and Inyo County Search and Rescue also extended their "sincere condolences to Mr. Levinsons family and friends" in their statement. They also thanked Sequoia-Kings National Park, Inyo National Forest, and the California Highway Patrol Office of Air Operations for their cooperation and assistance. The Beachcomber reports that Levinson relocated from Seattle to Vashon Island, Wash. in the 1990s. A Vashon High School teacher from 1997-2017, he taught American studies, Spanish, and theater and served as an advisor to the schools Amnesty International club. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He saw each class as a family one coherent unit that was fueled by friendship and trust, wrote former student Alden Hinden-Stevenson, in a tribute published in Vashon High Schools newspaper, the Riptide when Levinson left, per the Beachcomber. Even people who werent the closest of friends could have a unique, shared experience in his class. In other words, it was the interactions that counted the most. Read the original article on People Beloved Richfield burrito hub coming to Uptown originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Uptown is getting an infusion of burritos. Chef Miguel Hernandez has announced that his Chicano burrito shop, Lito's Burritos, will take up residence in the former Lake Street home of Union Hmong Kitchen. Since 2023, Lito's has been operating inside El Tejaban Mexican Grill in Richfield, a space owned by Hernandez's family, per Mpls St. Paul Magazine. In short order, it became a not-so-secret hub for great burritos in the Twin Cities. Lito's BurritosLito's Burritos/Facebook Lito's will continue serving up its hulking burritos as well as breakfast burritos, tacos, tortas, horchatas, and more in the Richfield space on Nicollet Avenue, in addition to the forthcoming storefront at 901 W. Lake St. Advertisement Advertisement So, Richfield locals don't need to be concerned that they're losing a new local favorite. Lito's doesn't yet have an opening date. However, Hernandez is hosting a fundraiser on Aug. 6 to help raise the money to get the project over the finish line. The fundraiser will be hosted at El Tejeban, and diners will "be the first to see what we have planned for our new location," according to the restaurant's Instagram page. The storefront at the corner of Lake and Bryant has been vacant since late last year, when Union Hmong Kitchen announced that it would close that location to put the company's focus elsewhere. The space has been home to many other restaurants over the years, including Italian restaurant Trattoria Mucci. Advertisement Advertisement Union Hmong Kitchen, led by chef Yia Vang, also closed its counter at Graze food hall in the North Loop, but it has continued to offer catering and will return to the Minnesota State Fair later this summer. Related: The 10 new Minnesota State Fair foods we can't wait to try in 2025 This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Police and officials from Germany's public prosecutor's office have searched five apartments in Berlin two months after a police officer was attacked at a pro-Palestinian rally in the city. The raids were directed against two suspects aged 28 and 29 and three witnesses, the authorities announced on Wednesday. No arrests were made, but the approximately 60 officers seized several communication devices and other evidence that is said to prove that both suspects were at the scene at the time of the offence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The authorities say one of the two, a 28-year-old man, is suspected of a serious breach of the peace. He is also accused of resisting law enforcement officers and attempting to release arrested prisoners. A 29-year-old woman is suspected of resisting law enforcement officers in conjunction with attempting to free prisoners. However, neither of them are suspected of directly attacking police officers, according to reports. The 36-year-old police officer was seriously injured on May 15 during a rally marking Nakba Day and had to be taken to hospital. The police said at the time that the officer was dragged into the crowd and "trampled." He suffered a broken arm and injuries to his upper body. Police say at least 11 officers and an unknown number of protestors were injured. According to police, around 1,100 people took part in the demonstration at its peak. Some of them protested aggressively against Israel and the war in Gaza and there violent clashes between demonstrators and the police. NEW BERN, N.C. (WNCT) Jeffrey T. Odham, the current Mayor of New Bern, has filed for reelection for a second term. According to a press release, Since originally elected as an alderman in 2013, Mayor Odham has always been an advocate of fiscal responsibility as well as smart growth. This proven combination has afforded New Bern residents the opportunity to enjoy a high quality of life with one of the lowest tax rates in the region. Jeffrey Odham has always put the best interest of New Bern at the forefront of decision-making. In a second term, Mayor Odham plans to help build on the tremendous progress seen over the last decade. From record crowds at Footloose on the Neuse concerts to job creation through economic development, improving the quality of life for New Bern residents is the top priority. His goals are to ensure the redevelopment of Trent Court and the Greater Five Points area occurs, implementing the projects identified under the general obligation bonds, should they successfully pass the ballot referendum, and reducing gang-related violent crime through partnerships and programming. Press release Early voting begins on September 18th and the last day to register to vote is September 12th at 5pm. Election day is Tuesday, October 7th. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. By Hyunjoo Jin, Maki Shiraki and Heekyong Yang SEOUL/TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota and Hyundai Motor may have a beef with U.S. protectionism, but they have one thing in common with President Donald Trump: when it comes to global car markets, it's America first for Asia's legacy automakers. Trump's tariffs on imported automobiles have upended the outlook for the global industry, yet the U.S. remains by far the most important market for Japan's Toyota, South Korea's Hyundai and Asian rivals including Honda and Nissan. North America accounts for at least 40% of the revenue at both Toyota and Hyundai, filings show. The market's importance is unlikely to change any time soon, industry insiders and analysts said, especially with China, now the world's biggest auto market, dominated by homegrown electric vehicle makers such as BYD. Those Asian legacy carmakers with more robust margins and a strong hybrid lineup - such as Toyota, Hyundai, Kia Corp and to a lesser extent Honda - are more likely able to weather the U.S. tariffs storm, and potentially take market share from weaker players like Nissan, analysts said. "The environment that we're in now is becoming increasingly harsh and uncertain, starting with U.S. tariffs," Mazda executive officer Noriyuki Takimura told reporters at an event in Tokyo last week. Mazda aims to strike a balance between "defensive" measures like cost-cuts and "offensive" ones like strengthening its product lineup, he said. Two Hyundai insiders and two Japanese auto executives separately told Reuters they had no intention of downsizing their U.S. businesses in response to tariffs, even as they acknowledged the difficulties ahead. All four spoke on condition of anonymity. The U.S. is Toyota's biggest market in terms of vehicles. It sold 2.3 million vehicles there in 2024, including its Lexus brand, accounting for more than a fifth of its global total. As a source of revenue, North America was second only to Japan in the last financial year. Hyundai's North American revenue was the highest in almost a decade last year. Kim Chang-ho, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities, estimated it generates around 60% of its profits from the U.S., thanks to higher vehicle prices. Mocked in the U.S. in the 1980s for its perceived shoddy quality, Hyundai doubled down there around a decade ago, especially after tensions between Beijing and Seoul and the rise of domestic EV makers saw it start to lose ground in China. "After years of putting in effort, our brand is finally gaining recognition in the United States," one of the Hyundai insiders said. "So we will not take our hands off the U.S." BEAVER, WV (WVNS) Flash floods can happen quickly with little to no warning. So, what are the best ways for you to keep yourself and your family safe? West Virginia Democrats demand action on June flooding disaster declaration One of the best and most well-known flood safety tips is turn around, dont drown when you encounter floodwaters. An adage that holds true in almost every situation. Will Davis, Public Information Officer for the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department, stands by this tip in his capacity as a Swiftwater Rescue Diver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Davis also said one of the best safety tips is one that does not even require a lot of effort. Well, the best thing you can do is stay informed. Keep your TV on, your radio on, keep your cell phone with you, listen for those flash flood warnings and watches. Thatll help to let you know when and where to be and what to look out for, said Davis. Davis said it is critical to have an evacuation plan in the case of flooding. He said you need to know how to get to high ground, and how to prepare go-bags in the case of evacuation. What if you are out on a river? Haynes Mansfield, Director of Sales and Marketing for ACE Adventure Resort, said you need to know what signs to look for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Make sure you have a plan should you find yourself in a situation where theres a large downpour, or maybe it happened downstream, and what you see is a very rapid rising of the river. A change from clear water to murky, and you would probably start to see large items, branches, sometimes even trees, who knows what, floating down that usually you would not see in the water, said Mansfield. How keeping storm inlets clear can help with flood prevention Mansfield said if you are not on a guided raft trip, you need to keep an eye on your weather apps and move quick if you are notified of a flash flood in the area. He said all of the raft guides at ACE are Swiftwater rescue trained and will prepare accordingly for any changes in the river. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. Think you can spot Pluto? On July 25, the famously elusive dwarf planet reaches oppositionits best and brightest moment of the year. That makes now the ideal time to try to catch a glimpse of it from your own backyard. But be warned: Even at its brightest, Pluto is still a barely-there speck, even through a telescope. But for those willing to search, its a cosmic scavenger huntand a rare chance to see a world nearly four billion miles away. What is oppositionand why is it the best time to see Pluto? In astronomy, opposition is when a celestial body lies directly opposite the sun from Earths point of view, placing our planet squarely in the middle. That alignment means the object rises as the sun sets and stays visible all night, making it the best time to observe it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement (See National Geographics first map of Pluto.) What makes opposition so useful for stargazing is a phenomenon known as the opposition effect. Things tend to get brighter when theyre lit at a smaller phase angle, which is the angle between the suns rays and the target and the observer. That shrinks to close to zero at opposition, says Will Grundy, a planetary scientist at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Pluto was discovered. You can see this principle in action on Earth. When the sun is low in the sky, objects create long shadows. But when the sun is directly overhead, those shadows get much smaller, and sometimes they even disappear entirely. At opposition, Plutos terrain has the fewest shadows, making the dwarf planet appear brighter to us. Pluto and its moon Charon perform a cosmic dance in this 2015 color movie from NASAs New Horizons mission. Animation by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute Pluto nearly fills the frame in this image from NASAs New Horizons spacecraft, taken just before its closest approach in 2015. Photograph by NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute How to spot Pluto during opposition Because Pluto is so dim, you need a telescope to see it. A backyard telescope could do it under the right conditions, says Grundy. Or you could visit a local observatory and use one of their publicly accessible telescopes. Lowell Observatory, for instance, has a suite of instruments on-site that the public can use six nights per week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But even with a telescope, the sky must be extremely dark to see Pluto. Light pollution, whether from artificial lights or the moon, will easily wash out the dwarf planet. (Did Pluto ever actually stop being a planet? Experts debate.) To find Pluto in dark enough skies, consult a star chart to determine its approximate location. Itll just look like one of many faint stars, says Grundy. But Pluto moves slowly. It moves at about three arcseconds per hour, so you wont see it move unless youre willing to wait multiple hours, says Grundy. You dont have to catch Pluto on July 25 exactly. Because its so distantabout 3.7 billion miles from the sunit remains near peak brightness for several days before and after opposition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a challenge, so its kind of cool to be able to see Pluto, says Grundy. These photographic plates helped astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discover Pluto in 1930. By comparing nearly identical images of the night sky with a device called a blink comparator, he found a tiny object (marked by arrows) outside the orbit of Neptune, which was named Pluto. Photograph by Detlev Van Ravenswaay, Science Photo Library A brief history of Plutoand why it still matters Plutos origin story begins with two other planets. After Uranus was discovered in 1781, astronomers realized that an undiscovered planet might be perturbing Uranus orbit. Sure enough, Neptune was discovered basically bang-on where astronomers predicted it should be, says Grady. But Percival Lowell, the founder of Lowell Observatory, believed there to be another planet affecting Uranus orbit: a mysterious Planet X. After a decade of searching, Lowell died in 1916 without finding it. (Discover seven other night sky events to see in July.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eventually, the search resumed at Lowell Observatory, culminating in Clyde Tombaughs discovery of Pluto in 1930. As it turns out, Pluto wasnt the gravitational culprit Lowell had imagined. It was far too small to tug on Uranuss orbit in any meaningful way. But it was still a monumental discovery: the solar systems ninth planetat least until its reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006. To find Pluto, Tombaugh diligently photographed the night sky, then used a machine to compare two photographic plates, looking for any tiny pinpricks that moved. Thats essentially the same method Grundy suggests stargazers use in July to ensure theyre looking at Pluto. Following its discovery, Pluto remained just a faint dot until the 1990s, when the Hubble Space Telescope provided some grainy images showing light and dark spots. But it wasnt until 2015 that we got a close-up look at Pluto, thanks to a flyby by NASAs New Horizons spacecraft. The images showed a dynamic, geologically active planet with icy mountains, nitrogen glaciers, and even hints of a subsurface ocean. It could be inhabitable if theres liquid water and lots of organic materials and rocks for minerals, says Grundy, who serves as a co-investigator on the New Horizons mission. That revelation has major implications for astrobiology. Pluto moved the goalpost of where inhabitable planetary settings aremuch, much farther away from the sun than we ever thought possible, says Grundy. And the same thing will be true around other stars, too. Basically, the inhabitable zone just expanded hugely. LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) While she worked at the Lakeview Post of the Michigan State Police, Trooper Megan Moryc said she was subjected to specific actions of gender-based discrimination. In a 6-page complaint filed July 15, 2023, with Inspector Lisa Gee-Cram of the MSP Human Resources Division, Moryc, 40, laid out multiple instances of actions taken by multiple troopers and sergeants she described as gender discrimination. Letter-to-Insp.-Lisa-Gee-Cram-HR-Discrimination-1Download Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And the supervisor, often in the middle of those issues, was Sgt. Robert Metivier. Official portrait of Michigan State Police Sgt. Robert Metivier. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained through FOIA. WLNS) In her complaint, Moryc referred to the MSP Lakeview Post as a misogynist good ole boys club where female troopers received disparate treatment, MSP Professional Standards Section Investigators Special Lt. Nicole Boch and Special Lt. Donald Pisha wrote in a report. A heavily redacted report from those investigators, who work in the section of the agency most people refer to as internal affairs, concluded that none of the witnesses were able to directly substantiate the allegations. The internal investigation was closed, and members who had been accused of violating departmental policies were notified that the complaint had been deemed unfounded. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wendy Murphy, a professor at New England Law in Boston and leader of the Women and Childrens Advocacy Project at the school, said women entering law enforcement invariably face discrimination and harassment. There are some spaces in society that are just intensely hyper-masculine and therefore more difficult places for women to acclimate, to feel welcome, Murphy said. Its almost insurmountable in some ways. Wendy Murphy, a professor at New England Law in Boston and leader of the Women and Childrens Advocacy Project at the school. (Courtesy Photo. WLNS) Murphy made these general observations based on decades of litigation related to gender discrimination and teaching about this form of discrimination. She was unable to review the voluminous documentation about the MSP that the 6 News Investigates Team has obtained throughout this investigation. These are considered hypermasculine environments because they have historically been places where primarily men are welcome. Women have had minor roles over the years but not welcomed as equals, Murphy said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That hypermasculine environment that has been at the heart of a nearly 5-year dispute between Moryc and the MSP, which has fired her twice the first in 2021 after a criminal complaint followed horseplay with other officers at a union outing, the second time in February for alleged perjury in a divorce hearing after the courts ordered her to be reinstated. Her appeal of the second firing earlier this year is ongoing. Moryc District Court Register of ActionsDownload The MSP said her career ended because she broke the law and violated policy. She says her job was taken from her because of sex discrimination and harassment. The 6 News Investigates Team, since August, has been investigating this dispute, reviewing hundreds of pages of internal investigations, court filings, court opinions, emails and prosecutorial communications. They are quoted as presented, with typos and grammatical lapses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moryc has sat for hours of on-camera interviews, but officials for the state of Michigan have declined to respond to specific questions from the 6 News Investigates Team. This dispute, which at one point reached the Michigan Supreme Court, is chronicled in this ongoing report by 6 News Investigates about a sexualized big boys club at the Lakeview Post of the Michigan State Police. Morycc Court of Appeals DecisionDownload Denied special training On three instances, Moryc reported in the memo to Gee-Cram, she said she applied for but was denied the opportunity to receive training as an evidence technician. Thats when Metiviers name first emerges as a factor in Morycs claims. Michigan State Police Sgt. Aaron McCormick. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained through FOIA. WLNS) In 2017, the training was awarded by Metivier to then-Trooper Aaron McCormick, who in 2016 had served as Morycs first field training officer. Moryc says she was informed by command that McCormick was awarded the training opportunity due to his seniority at the Lakeview Post. Michigan State Police Trooper Jacob Lewis. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained through FOIA. WLNS) She again sought the training in 2018. This time, Trooper Jacob Lewis was awarded the training. She writes in her complaint to Gee-Cram that she was informed that, although Lewis has less seniority than Moryc, Metivier influenced the decision made by Lt. Christian Clute. Michigan State Police Lt. Christian Clute. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained through FOIA. WLNS) Clute, Moryc wrote, decided for part based on post need, and management reserved the right to change their standards for the selection process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once again in 2019, Moryc sought an appointment for evidence technician training. This time, Metivier awarded the position to Trooper Jennifer Alway, a less senior officer at the Post. Metivier, in a recorded interview with Professional Standards Services, MSPs internal affairs division, said he awarded the position to Alway because shes meticulous and reports are fantastic. Dont have to tell her to do things twice. Her follow-up is done in a timely manner. Pushed to explain why he selected Alway, who had less time on the job than Moryc, Metivier told the investigator, Because Jennifer was a better candidate. Nothing against Megan. She was just a better candidate. The investigator did not push Metivier in the interview to explain how Moryc failed to meet the criteria he outlined as the basis for his selections. The investigator also did not ask Metivier why Moryc had been skipped over in opportunities awarded to male troopers. Reached by text message, Metivier referred the 6 News Investigates Team to MSP legal to answer any questions. Im the sergeant; youre not But the constant in these scenarios was Metivier, who, Moryc said, was sexist. And not just because he had rejected her requests for training. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She recounted a situation in which troopers were answering the call in a domestic violence incident. She responded to the call, along with Metivier and her boyfriend at the time, former Trooper Trevin Antcliff. Michigan State Police Trooper Trevin S. Antcliff. (Photo courtesy MSP. WLNS) Metivier directed the two troopers to await the arrival of another trooper. When challenged by Moryc about that choice, she said he responded, Well, it would be a lot more intimidating with three big guys. But Metivier offered a slightly different version in his interview with PSS. He said he was not expecting Moryc to arrive on the scene and directed her to provide outside security. She, he alleged, said she wanted to go in. I didnt ask you to be here, he told the investigator about Moryc. Youre not going in. I said theres nothing more intimidating than three very large individuals coming at you. OK, Im the smallest one of the three between me, Trevin and Jim Yates. And she looks at me, and she goes, Well thats pretty [expletive] sexist. I looked at her and said I didnt ask your opinion. Im the sergeant; youre not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said the exchange was no big deal, but then noted he called his supervisor, Lt. Christian Clute, to report the incident to him just in case she called him. The PSS report in which Morycs allegations against Metivier regarding the domestic violence incident noted Moryc arrived on the scene third, and troopers waited three minutes for Trooper Yates to arrive. The investigation report did not include a reference to Metiviers admission he had made the statement about being more intimidating with three big guys. PSS-321-21-RedactedDownload All-boy decisions Morycs 6-page complaint included other instances, alleging that Metivier referred to Alway, the female trooper selected in 2019 to attend the evidence technician training instead of Moryc, as all boy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In December 2017, Moryc was assigned to investigate a suspicious fire outside the city of Greenville. She alleged Metivier, who was also a fire investigator, brought in a second trooper, Paul Fry, to assist on the investigation. Soon thereafter, she alleged in the complaint, I became completely shut out of my investigation. When Metivier and others were scheduled to review the case with a multijurisdictional task force, including federal agencies, Moryc said she was excluded from the meeting. She raised the concern with her acting sergeant at the time, Scott Ziesman, who had assigned her to the case. His response was to reassign the case to another investigator, she said. Michigan State Police Sgt. Scott Ziesman. (Courtesy MSP. Obtained via FOIA. WLNS) An internal investigation revealed the case was assigned to federal law enforcement and an MSP detective. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moryc alleged Ziesman also chose to make Trooper Jacob Lewis a field training officer. FTO positions receive a 5% increase in pay during training shifts. She alleged Lewis and Metivier had a friendship outside of work, an allegation Metivier denied to a point during a PSS investigation. But he did note he knew Lewis father, who was a county sheriff, and that they had spent time together in social settings. Kent County Sheriffs Office Deputy Tim Lewis (right) with his son, Michigan State Police Trooper Jacob Lewis (left). (Photo: Kent County Sheriffs Office) In another incident, Nov. 27, 2018, Moryc used a computer station generally used by a Post administrative assistant to review dashcam footage of an arrest she had made. While she was working on the review and report, Trooper Casey Omiljan questioned why she was using that station. Omiljan was dating the administrative assistant. Moryc said she left her backpack in the office when she departed that day. She said she couldnt find it where she thought she had left it. When she finally found the backpack, there were condoms inside. The administrative assistant admitted to having placed the condoms in her backpack and moving it. Moryc said she reported the situation to Ziesman, noting she did not find it funny. Ziesman told her, she alleges, that if she wished to pursue a complaint, it could be escalated up the chain, but command would be mad at both Moryc and the administrative assistant. A PSS investigation was conducted into the allegations of discrimination, but officers determined them to be unfounded, a letter from command to Moryc read. Easy to excuse Michigan State Police Communications Director Shanon Banner. (Courtesy Photo, MSP. WLNS) MSP spokesperson Shanon Banner did not respond to a request for an interview on questions related to racial discrimination cases and sexual harassment cases. 6 News has been investigating the case and has reviewed hundreds of pages of internal MSP investigations, court filings, court opinions, emails and prosecutorial communications. Dozens of emails and phone calls to troopers and command staff identified in the reports have gone unreturned. Banner has issued only blanket statements: The Michigan State Police has a long-standing tradition of demanding the highest possible standards of professional conduct from its enlisted and civilian members. All allegations of misconduct are aggressively investigated. Oversight of the investigation process is the responsibility of the Professional Standards Section. Said the law professor Murphy: Whats unfortunate about the law, especially when it comes to holding employers accountable for being discriminatory against women, is that its very easy to provide an excuse for why you treated a woman differently and worse. It is, in a sense, presumptively illegal to treat a woman differently and worse. But if the employer comes up with a seemingly legitimate explanation, the law is very tolerant of those excuses. Much more tolerant that it used to be and certainly much more tolerant than it ought to be. She said that legal tolerance is something that should be changed. Theres too much room in the law for law enforcement to discriminate against women and to cover it up. We dont take pretext arguments very seriously when theres race discrimination. Its a lot harder to get away with race discrimination. But if you do the same thing to a woman and you offer up a pretext excuse for why didnt get a promotion you can get away with it. Youre less likely to get away with it if you did the same thing to a Black man. 6 News Digital Content Manager Duncan Phenix contributed to this report. HELP IS AVAILABLE If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or sexual violence, there is help. If you are in immediate danger, call 911 or your local law enforcement agency. For support related to domestic violence, call: 1-800-799-7233 For support related to sexual assault, call: 800-656-HOPE (4673) Read this series in order: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) 67.8% of the elderly fail to have their daily basic needs met. KTAB recently learned of this statistic, which spurred us into action to create a way to give back to the elderly generation within the Big Country. With your help, we hope to collect basic items and donate them to those in need. Senior Citizen Drive The Senior Citizen Drive will run through July 18, collecting items such as: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hygiene Products Light Sweats Lotions Shorts Socks (non-slip, grip) Underwear Shirts Abilene nursing homes benefit from senior donation drive Drop-Off Locations: KTAB Office 4510 South 14th Street, Abilene, TX Alpha Omega Hospice 4640 South Treadaway Boulevard, Abilene, TX 120 South Park Drive, Brownwood, TX Junk Warehouse Boutique 3520 North 6th Street, Abilene, TX Cilantros Mexican Food 3509 North 1st Street, Abilene, TX Visiting Angels 4090 South Danville Drive, Abilene, TX Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. Texas first open GOP primaries for attorney general and comptroller in a decade are on the horizon, and both races are shaping up to be big money battles. In the race for attorney general, former Department of Justice lawyer Aaron Reitz raised $2.1 million in the first three weeks of his campaign, outpacing the combined haul of his two GOP primary rivals, state Sens. Joan Huffman and Mayes Middleton. But Middleton, an oil and gas businessman, kicked in $10 million of his own money, giving him a massive financial edge to start the race. Huffman raised nearly $764,000, mostly from her establishment Republican base in Houston, leaving her with $3 million in her campaign account. For comptroller, Republican Texas Railroad Commission Chair Christi Craddick outraised Kelly Hancock, the interim comptroller, by almost $1.5 million though Hancock reported having more cash on hand. A third contender, former state senator Don Huffines, previously announced an eye-popping $15 million haul for the fundraising period, though his filing with the state ethics commission showed $10 million of that came from a personal loan. He otherwise reported raising $4.7 million, a total that included a $3 million contribution from his brother. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reports provide the first glimpse of the financial and political fault lines that will shape these hotly contested races. The filings outline each candidates fundraising and spending activity over the first six months of the year, though current elected officials were under a fundraising moratorium during the legislative session that lifted June 23, giving them just eight days to raise money before the end of the reporting period. The attorney general and comptroller seats have been held by incumbents for a decade. Three-term Attorney General Ken Paxton is leaving the office to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in the Republican primary, leaving a critically important vacancy for the conservative legal movement, which has relied on Paxtons agency as its battering ram to advance right-wing causes through the courts nationally. Former comptroller Glenn Hegar, meanwhile, was named chancellor of the Texas A&M University System in March and left his longtime elected post on July 1. The comptrollers office, a sprawling agency that handles the states finances, has become even more politically important after lawmakers gave it authority to administer a new $1 billion school voucher program. Paxton and Hegar each took office in 2015 alongside Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, both of whom have announced plans to run for reelection in 2026. Neither is expected to face a competitive primary, but that didnt stop Abbott from flexing his prodigious fundraising skills. He raised more than $20 million in just over a week, leaving him with a formidable $86 million cash on hand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patrick raised $5 million over the same period and has about $37 million in his campaign account. Attorney general When Middleton announced his candidacy for attorney general, he vowed to spend $10 million of his own money on his campaign kickoff, indicating he might kick in more over the course of the campaign. This first campaign finance report shows the oil and gas executive and longtime GOP donor has made good on that promise. Its not the first time Middleton has self-funded a campaign: He spent $2 million of his own money to unseat an incumbent House member in 2018. He was elected to the state Senate in 2022, where hes earned a reputation as one of the bodys most conservative members. Despite being the first serious candidate to declare, Middleton raised the least money after the moratorium lifted, bringing in just over $165,000. But he has the most money on hand, thanks to his $10 million loan, and a slew of endorsements from other members of the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reitz, meanwhile, came out strong with a fundraising haul of more than $2 million, fueled by several high-dollar donations from major GOP donors. He entered the race with deep connections among conservative legal circles in Texas and Washington, having previously served as Paxtons deputy attorney general for legal strategy and GOP Sen. Ted Cruzs chief of staff. Most recently, he led the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice as an appointee of President Donald Trump. His biggest donations included $250,000 from Pennsylvania billionaire and GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, who previously kicked in $12 million to help bankroll Abbotts efforts to unseat Texas House Republicans who opposed private school vouchers. Also among Reitzs top donors were Gary Heavin, founder of the Curves chain of fitness centers, and Jonathan Knutz, the CEO of a medical device company. While Reitz has less name recognition in Texas than his opponents, hes generated vocal support from his former colleagues in the Trump administration. Close to 15% of his donors are from Washington or its suburbs, including a $75,000 donation from Keller Postman, a law firm Paxton has tapped to handle two major Texas lawsuits against tech companies. As the only candidate not currently in office, Reitz had a two-week fundraising advantage over his opponents, helping him significantly outraise both Middleton and Huffman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huffman, a 17-year senator and chair of the powerful Senate finance committee, raised about $764,000 in the week after the moratorium. A former Harris County prosecutor and judge, Huffman is running on a law and order platform focusing on her work stiffening Texas bail, immigration and election laws as well as her experience overseeing the state budget and redistricting in the Texas Senate. Her recent fundraising came from just 29 donors, primarily from Houston and its suburbs. Her largest backers were Alan Hassenflu, a commercial real estate developer who previously served on the board of the tort reform group Texans for Lawsuit Reform; beer distributor John Nau; Houston philanthropist Jan Duncan; and horseracing magnate Herbert Graham. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, who became the first major Democrat to declare for the race on Tuesday, reported about $58,000 raised and $435,000 on hand. Comptroller In the comptrollers race, Craddick in the middle of a six-year term as railroad commissioner raised $2.9 million, with big donations from Brint Ryan, a Republican megadonor, and Texas oil mogul Javaid Anwar. She reported having $3.2 million cash on hand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hancock, who until last month served in the Texas Senate before stepping down to become acting comptroller, raised $1.5 million and had $6 million in the bank. His contributions came from a variety of Abbott allies and establishment-aligned Republican donors, including a quarter-million-dollar contribution from Nau, $50,000 from Dallas pipeline billionaire Kelcy Warren and another from Texas billionaire Harlan Crow. Huffines reported having roughly $14.4 million cash on hand. Four hundred and forty of the 552 total contributions he reported were for amounts less than $1,000. In 2022, Huffines a businessman and GOP donor unsuccessfully challenged Abbott for governor, during which he also self-financed part of his campaign. The comptroller of state accounts serves as the states chief executive officer, treasurer and revenue estimator and will be tasked with rolling out the states new private school voucher program, which was Abbotts top priority during this years legislative session. Democratic Rep. Gina Hinojosa of Austin, who has said shes considering a run for the seat, reported raising $4,400 and about $24,000 cash on hand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Disclosure: Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 1315. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase. Say what you will about Bill OReilly, but his brand of conservative populism provided the foundation upon which Fox News was built, and in many ways anticipated and helped shape the views and resentments that lifted Donald Trump into the White House. Given that, OReilly might be one of the best weathervanes to understand which way the winds are blowing in the MAGA movement, amid feuds among media figures many of whom directly or near-directly inherited OReillys mantle split on issues like Iran, Ukraine, immigration policy, and most recently, those Jeffrey Epstein files, or lack thereof. More from TheWrap Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its just anarchy across the board, OReilly told TheWrap in an exclusive interview Tuesday, speaking of the right-wing coalition. You have varying degrees of conservative people. You have the crazy, conservative nuts, racist loons, nationalists. Then you have the fiscal responsibility people. Its all over the place. And that frustrates Trump. As to why Trump has chosen to downplay the inquiry regarding Epstein, a one-time friend, financier and child sex offender who died by suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, OReilly deflected, calling it a mystery. The people that I talk to dont really know why hes so defensive about this, he told TheWrap. OReilly characteristically reserved his harshest critiques for the mainstream press in our wide-ranging conversation, which was completed over the course of two interviews. He claimed, for instance, that liberal media has destroyed itself by throwing away any pretense of objectivity due to its Trump hatred and he foresees a major reckoning for all media once Trump is out of the picture, arguing that focusing on rifts among conservative voices overlooks how those personalities market themselves. Trump is a unique phenomenon. Without him, everything changes again. Trump has long argued that he represents a ratings gift to the mainstream media, and OReilly concurred. Yet he expanded that critique to entities on the right, like Fox News, predicting a revolution when Trump exits the spotlight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Donald Trump disappeared tomorrow, some alien got him and took him away, how do you think Fox is going to do? The networks built around him, OReilly said. In three-and-a-half years, there will be a total realignment of television news. Once hes off the stage, the networks and cable will all have to recalibrate how they market themselves. Trump is a unique phenomenon. Without him, everything changes again. On the Epstein files OReilly asserted his support for Trumps stance not to release the Epstein list for which right-wing figures are clamoring, saying its unfair to attach names without compelling, chargeable evidence. As it happened, OReilly was initially interviewed for this column right before the frenzy unleashed when the Justice Department announced it wouldnt release additional files related to Epstein. That move spectacularly backfired, causing fury within the MAGA movement while prompting media figures who normally toe the Trump line to blast the administration, if less so the president directly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During a testy July 14 exchange with NewsNations Leland Vittert, OReilly dismissed the Epstein story as a curiosity, arguing that the media would run wild with any names released and potentially destroy anyone who might have crossed Epsteins path. That said, he conceded Trump is hurting himself with his resistance to providing more details and the tabloid wave stemming from it, and I just wonder if theres anybody in the administration that is telling him that. Trumps detractors have plenty of theories, including his well-documented relationship with Epstein, though OReilly rejected the notion that anything harmful to Republicans might be in the governments possession, given the long time the Epstein material spent within the custody of Democrats. In comments that would surely provoke snickers from liberals accustomed to Democrats in disarray headlines, OReilly also insisted the political right is less cohesive than the left in seeking to explain the eruption among Trump loyalists on this issue. Based on his conversations with Trump, OReilly concluded, Hes very interested in his legacy, but I dont believe that he feels this rises to that level. OReillys reach Once cables ratings kingpin, OReilly still makes his voice amply heard via radio and his No Spin News. He boasts access to Trump and generally shares his views, which includes accepting the presidents rationale for not releasing the Epstein files strictly to silence the criticism. OReilly says Trump told him why Epstein files shouldnt be released: Theres a lot of names assoc w/Epstein that had nothing to do w/his conduct-maybe had lunch w/him or correspondence. If that name gets out those people are destroyed bc there's not going to be any context." pic.twitter.com/lHxMHTrwkx Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 10, 2025 Without providing hard figures, OReilly notes that his current operation which charges $6.95 a month for premium members employs 60 people as a sign of its prosperity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement OReilly held forth on a variety of topics, among them a relationship with Trump that goes back 35 years, and the observation that the president appears to have honed his migration into politics by internalizing lessons gleaned from watching OReillys show and blunt, tough-talking style, which appealed to many of the same people who became Trumps loyal base. Whatever Trump learned from OReilly, the host sees the president as a uniquely charismatic and media savvy figure in the political world, someone who knows how to deliver a message, and understands that you have to keep it interesting at all times. In the spirit of keeping things interesting, OReilly offered thoughts on several recent media issues. The MAGA media meltdown Even before the Epstein fallout, many of Trumps high-profile supporters recently found themselves at odds from Tucker Carlson feuding with Fox News Mark Levin and podcaster Ben Shapiro over whether the U.S. should join Israel in attacking Iran to Rupert Murdochs Wall Street Journal editorial page and New York Post contradicting Murdochs Fox network. Nothing has highlighted those divisions more than the recent Epstein debate, yielding rare blowback toward the administration that Trump has struggled to quell. On Tuesday, Fox News host Laura Ingraham blamed the tumult on conservative influencers eating their own. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fissures within MAGA world are becoming clear, MSNBCs Alicia Menendez recently observed. They do seem more willing to articulate where the points of differential are. Jesse Watters started as a producer on The OReilly Factor and now occupies the networks primetime slot. (Fox News) To OReilly, though, conflict sells. As a consequence, he saw little downside in pundit-on-pundit disputes, saying of skirmishes like the Carlson-Levin divide over attacking Iran, Levins not putting his finger up to the air. If it clashes with Carlson, as he has recently, they both win. Theres no loser in that for those guys. Perhaps not, but the notion exists that many conservative influencers and intellectuals are essentially piggybacking on Trumps cult of personality for fun and profit. As The Atlantics Yair Rosenberg put it, The thought leaders of the Trump movement are merely political entrepreneurs trying to appropriate the president for their own purposes. If there are disagreements, he noted, its because Trumpism ultimately boils down to whatever Trump says it is. Foxs strength, and failings Although OReilly spends most of his time deriding the traditional press, hes not above taking conservative outlets to task. Let go by Fox in 2017, his imprint on the network can still be seen, having nurtured such talent as Jesse Watters, who started as a comic-relief ambush producer on The OReilly Factor and now occupies his former boss old time slot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While lauding the superiority of Foxs talent relative to its cable-news channels, OReilly said the network erred with coverage of the 2020 election that led to its $787.5 million settlement with Dominion voting systems, maintaining he would have been able to curb those excesses had he still been around. That would have never happened if I was there, he said. Theres no proof of fraud in that election. And we lost a lot of premium members when I said that. Paramounts 60 Minutes settlement Addressing another politically fraught media litigation, OReilly also made recent headlines by agreeing that Paramount Global settled with Trump over his 60 Minutes lawsuit to grease the wheels for its merger with Skydance Media. Granted, OReilly contends60 Minutes was clearly pulling for Kamala Harris and that correspondent Scott Pelley (who didnt conduct the Harris interview) hates Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also balked at characterizing Trumps demands as a a shakedown, as former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft recently described it on The Daily Show. But he added, What I do know is this: CBS probably would have won the case had it come to a jury trial, describing Paramounts reasoning regarding the merger as follows: If we settle, he wont hold it up. So well settle, right? Thats what it is. The Mamdani factor Given the time he spends bashing liberals, perhaps the biggest surprise was hearing OReilly dismiss New York Democratic mayoral primary winner Zohran Mamdanis candidacy as much ado about nothing. Foxs reams of coverage sounding alarms about the prospect of a Democratic Socialist leading the U.S. largest city would certainly suggest otherwise. While Mamdani has seemingly become a poster child for the conservative stereotype of big blue cities drawing fire from Trump and his media acolytes OReillys response amounted to a bemused shrug. Nobody outside of New York cares about New York City, he contended. OReilly doesnt think New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani represents a rising scourge of socialism. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images) One suspects millions of Americans and more than a few producers and executives at his former network disagree, but OReilly has a history of making such pronouncements, and its gotten him this far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After decades under the security of a corporate umbrella, OReilly has joined the ocean of voices (including several Fox alumni) seeking attention on the outside. To hear him tell it, he finds the water just fine, expressing respect for the mavericks who go out and forge their own way in the wild west of the internet, as long as theyre not dishonest. So I dont agree with a lot of these guys, but thats fine, OReilly said. They got their point of view, and I have mine, and thats that. The post Bill OReilly Says Trumps Response to Epstein Drama Is a Mystery: Dont Know Why Hes So Defensive About This | Exclusive appeared first on TheWrap. Two Republican senators and a broad bipartisan coalition of funders and nonprofits prevented a 600% increase in taxes levied on the endowments of the largest private foundations as part of President Donald Trumps the tax and spending legislation. Thanks to their support, when Trump signed the bill into law on July 4, taxes went up on the endowments of the largest universities, but not on the endowments of philanthropic foundations. I do have to say that this took some persuasion, said Sen. Todd Young of Indiana in an interview with The Associated Press. The other champion was Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who did not respond to an interview request. Together, they advocated to remove the provision which, at the high end, would levy a tax of 10% on the investment earnings of foundations with more than $5 billion in assets, up from the current rate of 1.39%. The move reveals both the power of philanthropic groups, especially conservative ones, to sway legislators and a split in the administration's coalition between those who want to protect the independence of private philanthropy and those who think the sector supports resistance to the president's agenda. Backing of Republican senators and conservative groups was key Young said he spoke with leaders or representatives of a dozen foundations in his state to understand what it would mean to increase these taxes on foundation endowments. Though Young didn't name any specific leaders, Indiana is home to numerous major foundations including one of America's largest foundations, the Lilly Endowment, which holds shares in the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and reported assets of almost $80 billion at the end of last year. The Associated Press receives funding from the Lilly Endowment for its coverage of philanthropy and religion. Young said many in the Republican caucus appreciate the value of the investments private foundations make in their communities. Lets be honest here. The target of this excise tax increase was not the vast majority of private foundations. It was a handful of large foundations that are nationally known that have been accused of embracing and perpetuating certain woke policies and agendas, Young said. While he didn't specify the specific foundations, Young was tapping into a critique of large progressive foundations brought by politicians like Vice President JD Vance. In a 2021 speech at the conservative think tank The Claremont Institute, Vance attacked foundations who fund movements for social justice and characterized their support for Black Lives Matter groups as investing in racial division. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) The U.S. Department of Agriculture is considering vaccination plans to protect poultry and cattle, including dairy cows, from bird flu. Thats according to South Dakotas state veterinarian, Beth Thompson. Arrest made after baby left in car for over 30 minutes She briefed members of the South Dakota Animal Industry Board on Tuesday about national efforts to combat Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, or HPAI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thompson said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has a draft HPAI vaccination protocol on her desk. Im assuming we might be looking at vaccination by next spring, Thompson said. According to a USDA website, South Dakota has seen confirmed cases of HPAI in 117 affected commercial flocks of poultry and 26 affected backyard flocks, with a total of 6,799,890 birds affected so far since the outbreak began in 2022. A second USDA website that tracks HPAI cases in cattle shows seven dairy herds in South Dakota have been affected. Another USDA website that tracks detections of HPAI in wild birds shows a Canada goose with HPAI was reported in Stanley County on July 3, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HPAI detections seem to rise during migrations of wild birds, according to Thompson. While HPAI was first detected in poultry flocks, she said there also is evidence that dairy cows infect poultry, too. There have been 70 confirmed cases of HPAI in humans, including one death. No human cases have been reported in South Dakota. It remains a priority for USDA. It remains a foreign animal disease, Thompson said. South Dakota is among the 45 states participating in USDAs national milk testing strategy that has been started because of bird flu in dairy herds, and is among the 21 states that have been provisionally unaffected. Another 20 have been unaffected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any non-negative results from milk testing would be reported back to her office, Thompson said. Thompson also spoke to the board about recent USDA actions regarding the New World Screwworm, a fly that lays eggs on living animals which in turn become prey for the larvae after they hatch. New World Screwworm had been confined in recent decades to Central America but recently was detected in southern Mexico. USDA responded by closing ports along the U.S. southern border where cattle from Mexico have been entering into the United States. Its not just cattle. Its across all species, Thompson said. She referred to a photo she had seen showing a man whose eyeball had been eaten away by NWS larvae. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thompson said she and her staff would work with those from other states on a plan. Mendel Miller, the South Dakota assistant state veterinarian, recently toured one of the ports at Nogales, Arizona. He said Panama had been controlling the spread of New World Screwworm by using radiation to sexually sterilize male flies and releasing them to breed with female flies, but the population has grown too large. They dont have enough sterile flies to get in front of it, Miller said. Mexico is now building a sterilization plant, and a facility is planned for construction in Texas. The USDA said that the sterilization strategy eradicated screwworms in the U.S. during the 1960s and eliminated an outbreak in Florida in 2017. The biggest mortality on the cattle side is newborns, Miller said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Said Thompson, We learned there are a lot of Texas animals that move up to South Dakota. Screwworms dont overwinter, so any presence in South Dakota might be seasonal at most. I still think its important we protect our herds, board member Steve Rommereim of Alcester said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) A man charged with attempted murder in connection with a Birmingham night club shooting was arrested in Texas. Alabama state leaders seek to remove candy, soda from eligible SNAP foods On June 22, two men suffered serious injuries when they were shot at El Centenario Night Club around 4:30 a.m. Birmingham police identified two potential suspects connected to the shooting at the time, and ultimately obtained an attempted murder warrant against Casimiro Hernandez in the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hernandez was arrested during a traffic stop on June 23 while in Texas. He is currently in the custody of the San Patricio Sheriffs Office and awaiting extradition back to Birmingham. It is unknown if police are still attempting to identify the second potential suspect in the shooting. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) Families and individuals from the Birmingham community gathered at Mountain Top Church Tuesday to help Rise against Hunger package 20,000 meals in two hours for children impacted by food insecurity worldwide. More than 200 volunteers gathered in the lobby of the church putting together more than 3,000 meal bags in two hours. The meal bags, which contains rice and soy, a vegetable blend with spices, and a vitamin packet can feed six people. Partnership manager Rachele Matijasich says Rise against Hunger, a nonprofit is in about 78 different countries right now including Kenya, India and Haiti. They work with nonprofits in those countries to identify communities experiencing food insecurity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Governor Kay Ivey visits STEM camp in Cullman for National Summer Learning Week We take whats being packaged today, Matijasich explained, and its going to go to a community, and into a school where the children are not even sure theyre going to get a meal that day. The bags are weighed, sealed, and packed into cardboard boxes to be shipped to Atlanta before being shipped or flown overseas. The volunteers reached their goal of packaging 20,000 meals in just under two hours. Audrey Moore with Lift up the Vulnerable is one of their global partners. She says in South Sudan, Rise against Hunger has helped them to learn how to grow their own crops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve grown to over 180 acres, she noted. they provide technical training for our local leaders on the ground. Moore said at one of their centers, theyll be 100% food independent which is the ultimate goal. For more information on how you can help, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. We came across a bullish thesis on Arch Capital Group on WorldlyInvest's Substack. As of 2 July, Arch Capital Group's share was trading at $88.38. ACGL's trailing and forward P/E were 9.06 and 9.78 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. 10 Best Property & Casualty Insurance Stocks to Buy An insurance agent at their desk consulting a customer about property & casualty insurance. The thesis on Arch Capital Group (ACGL) is built around the company's strong positioning in a persistently hard P&C insurance market. The current hard cycle, driven by elevated catastrophe losses, is expected to continue, benefiting ACGL from continued rate increases and premium growth. The company's underwriting discipline has improved, and investment income is expected to drive significant EPS growth. The analyst expects ACGL to outperform due to strong industry tailwinds, operational excellence, and undervaluation relative to peers. The base case projects a 13% growth rate in insurance Gross Written Premiums (GWP) and 20% in reinsurance, with a target price implying 39% upside. Risks include a potential softening of insurance/reinsurance markets or mismanagement under the new CEO. The thesis highlights ACGL's strong positioning, improved underwriting discipline, and growth potential, making it an attractive investment opportunity. The company's management is viewed positively, and the new CEO has deep experience at ACGL. With a conservative base case, the stock offers 39% upside to the target price. While this is our first coverage on Arch Capital Group, weve recently examined another bullish thesis on a stock in the same Insurance - Diversified that sheds light on similar long-term dynamics. A comparison of Arch Capital Group (ACGL) and Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited (FIHL) reveals shared industry trends, but distinct strategic approaches. Both companies operate in a hard P&C insurance market, with FIHL's reinsurance and specialty lines businesses growing rapidly, and ACGL poised to benefit from continued rate increases and premium growth. However, FIHL's growth may be more vulnerable to shifting market conditions, whereas ACGL's improved underwriting discipline and diversified portfolio provide a more stable foundation. Additionally, while FIHL's management has successfully grown its book value per share, ACGL's management is viewed positively, with a new CEO having deep experience at the company. Overall, both companies offer attractive investment opportunities, but with differing risk profiles and growth strategies. UPDATE: Marcus Raynard Lyde was found safe, according to the Birmingham Police Department on Wednesday. ORIGINAL: Birmingham police searching for missing man reportedly last seen in May 2025 BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) Birmingham police are searching for a missing man who was reportedly last seen in May. According to the Birmingham Police Department, 35-year-old Marcus Raynard Lyde was last known to be in the 800 block of Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard North, which is by the Birmingham Museum of Art. Marcus Raynard Lyde (Photo courtesy of the Birmingham Police Department) Lyde was diagnosed with a medical condition that could affect his judgment. He stands at 6-foot and weighs around 195 pounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Birmingham attempted murder suspect arrested in Texas Those with information on Lydes whereabouts are asked to call the BPD at 205-328-9311. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. The Brief Individuals born at Jefferson Davis Hospital are struggling to amend erroneous birth certificates, facing denials without clear explanations from the state. Sandra Wardlow, Jessica Richards, and Nancy Marie, are among those affected, with issues ranging from incorrect names to misgendering, and are finding the process costly and frustrating. Efforts are being made to seek assistance from Texas Senator Carol Alvarado to address these persistent birth certificate issues. HOUSTON - Individuals born at Jefferson Davis Hospital continue to face challenges in amending erroneous birth certificates, despite efforts to correct them with the state. Jefferson Davis Hospital struggles: Individuals born at hospital continue to face challenges What they're saying Many people are feeling frustrated and discouraged after submitting documentation to amend their birth certificates, only to have their applications denied without explanation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sandra Wardlow, whose birth certificate lists her first name as "Girl," is among those affected. After the initial report aired, dozens of people with similar issues reached out, all born at Jefferson Davis Hospital. Wardlow visited the city's Office of Vital Statistics with hopes of amending her birth certificate but left feeling disheartened. Wardlow explained, "The state said I needed my school records, specifically elementary records. But when I went to HISD, they told me the state doesn't allow them to keep elementary school records." Unable to obtain elementary school records, Wardlow provided middle school records, which were still insufficient. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Jefferson Davis is actually closed, so we had to go to LBJ because that's where the files went. They only keep them for 20 years, and finding my file is like finding a needle in a haystack because I'm almost 40," she added. Another option is going to the courts, but Wardlow noted, "It's pretty pricey for all of us who haven't gotten our names fixed or have missing information on our birth certificates. It's unfair because we were kids at the time, and the hospital messed up. Why are we paying the price?" Jessica Richards also sought to amend her birth certificate, which correctly lists her name, but incorrectly identifies her as male. "I took my documents, including a discharge summary from when I gave birth, but they said that wouldn't work. I had to go the legal route," Richards said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She emphasized the need for correction, stating, "These documents need to be corrected. It's not something I did or my parents did; it's the hospital's mistake. But there's no hospital now, so who will make the correction? It's simpletake the 'M' off and put an 'F'." For Rosa Montelongo she gave birth to her daughter almost 40 years ago at Jefferson Davis and her daughter's birth certificate does not have a first or middle name. "When you get a denial letter back saying this isn't good enough it's stressful, you get depressed, I just go into this mood where I think I dont think she's ever is going to get this done'," Montelongo said. Montelongo has been trying to amend her daughter's birth certificate for the past 20 years and each time she has been denied by the state and now her daughter is having trouble renewing her Texas driver's license and obtaining a passport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We were surprised. I thought we were the only ones going through this. I can't believe this," Montelongo said. "It's gotta be fixed. Something needs to be done. This is crazy. I had no idea other people were going through what we were. It's stressful, you get upset every time you get this back [denied application]. I'm mad," Montelongo continued. The other side The Texas Department of State Health Services sent the following message to FOX 26: "The best thing for people to do is call our offices main number 512-776-7646. Someone will answer, and they can discuss birth record issues with the callers. They are familiar with the issues individuals have had with their birth records from that particular hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are legal documents, and strict rules govern their amendment. It may take some time for us to work with people and find documents that can support an amendment, but we will continue to work with the individuals to help them complete an acceptable application." What's next FOX 26 reached out to Senator Carol Alvarado to explore potential assistance for those born at Jefferson Davis Hospital with incorrect birth certificates. How to change your name in Texas, Harris County What you can do For those whose records are affected, Salgado advised contacting the call center at 832-393-4220. "We can guide them and make an appointment to review documents before sending them to the state office," he said. "We understand it can be frustrating, but were here to assist." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Houston Health Department is committed to helping individuals navigate the amendment process, ensuring their records are accurate and up-to-date. If you need to change your name legally, then these are the requirements. If you need to correct a birth certificate, here is the application. Another option is going to Harris County Court and getting a court order to officially change your name. The Source FOX 26's Jonathan Mejia spoke with Sandra Wardlow, Jessica Richards, Rosa Montelongo, and reached out to Texas Senator Carol Alvarado and the Department of State Health Services. Welcome to 5 Things PM! After getting battered by years of high health care costs, some employers plan to shift more of the burden to workers in 2026, a new survey found. Employees might see higher deductibles or annual out-of-pocket maximums. Heres what else you might have missed during your busy day. 5 things Sakkmesterke/Science Photo Library RF/Getty Images 1 Cosmic collision Using ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein, researchers detected a cosmic merger of unprecedented proportions. A collision between two black holes each more massive than 100 suns is the largest of its kind ever recorded, astronomers said. 2 It could have been me When Annette McKays first grandson was born, she thought her mother would be over the moon. She had become a great-grandmother. Instead, it led her to reveal a secret. An excavation in Ireland is shedding light on stories that have been buried for decades. 3 Lifestyle changes Taking care of your heart has an influence on the health of your whole body, according to a new study. It found that better health can be broken down into several factors known as Lifes Simple 7. 4 Hijacking history On this day in 1948, a seaplane crashed during a short flight to Hong Kong. There was only one survivor a Chinese rice farmer but his story didnt add up. That routine 20-minute jaunt became the worlds first airplane hijacking. 5 Grape expectations You dont need to get worked up about wine, but theres no denying that a perfect pairing can accentuate the taste and tone of your soiree. Heres how to find the best notes. Watch this Oh jeez! A paraglider struck power lines and crashed into the Red River in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Firefighters rushed to the scene to rescue the man, who was not injured. Top headlines Trump says its highly unlikely hell fire Powell after suggesting otherwise in meeting with lawmakers Trump lashes out at weaklings who believe Epstein bullsh*t amid building GOP pressure to release documents Louisiana police chiefs among those arrested and accused in a bribery scheme to help foreign nationals get visas $5.3 million Thats how much the worlds biggest Mars rock a meteorite weighing 54 pounds just sold for at a Sothebys New York auction. Check this out Regula Tschumi Buried in style: The typical somber procession of mourning takes a celebratory turn among the Ga people in southeast Ghana, where coffins are intricately designed by families of the deceased. A photographer documented the secretive tradition. Quotable Just kidding: The former president joked about divorce rumors circulating about him and his wife Michelle. Speculation picked up steam after several public appearances where she didnt join her husband, including President Donald Trumps inauguration. Quiz time John Paul Filo/CBS/Getty Images Which actor, pictured here, just apologized for his disastrous 2009 interview with David Letterman? A. Ethan Hawke B. Joaquin Phoenix C. Mark Ruffalo D. Paul Rudd Scroll down for the answer. Good vibes Healthier babies: The first malaria drug for newborns and young infants is expected to be approved in Africa within weeks. Ghana has agreed to use it, and eight more African countries could follow suit within 90 days. Malaria is a potentially deadly disease spread by mosquitoes. Thanks for reading Well see you tomorrow. Quiz answer: B. Joaquin Phoenixs appearance went so badly that some wondered if he was having a breakdown. The actor called it one of the worst nights of my life. Check out all of CNNs newsletters. Todays edition of 5 Things PM was edited and produced by CNNs Kimberly Richardson and Chris Good. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com WASHINGTON (DC News Now) Black Restaurant Weeks is back for its sixth year in the D.C. area, shining a spotlight on Black-owned restaurants, food trucks and more across D.C., Maryland and Virginia. From July 13 through July 27, dozens of eateries from Baltimore to Fairfax are inviting patrons to stop by for a bite. Some cant-miss spots include Elmina in D.C., a contemporary Ghanaian restaurant by celebrated chef and restaurateur Eric Adjepong, offering a bold dining experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TRY ALSO: Black-owned brunch spots to try in DC If youre looking for something a little more low-key, stop by one of Wiseguy Pizzas several locations around Northern Virginia and D.C. In the mood for brunch? Milk & Honey Cafe is a New Orleans-themed spot, featuring classics like shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles and French toast. Tell your friends, make a reservation, and head to one of DCs world-class restaurants for great food, better company, and a celebration of our local entrepreneurs, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a social media post. For a full list of participating restaurants, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Public Service Commission District 3 candidate Peter Hubbard cruised to victory Tuesday night over fellow Democratic primary contender Keisha Sean Waites. In a runoff race marked by low voter turnout, the outcome could impact how much many Georgians pay for electricity in the future. Hubbard unofficially received a whopping 58.18% of votes cast in the race to Waites 41.82% despite trailing her by a wide margin of more than 16,000 votes on primary election day in June. Waites failed last month to secure the legally required 50% plus one majority to avoid a runoff race, which allowed Hubbard time to secure his come-from-behind win. Black Georgians, who made up the majority (57,606) of voters who cast ballots in the race, according to data from the secretary of states office, likely played a decisive role in the victory for Hubbard, who is white, over Waites, who is Black. White voters submitted 40,432 ballots in the contest, an SOS spokesperson confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The candidates stances on blocking rate hikes for Georgia Power may have played a role in the races outcome. During the spring, Hubbard was one of the candidates who told Capital B Atlanta that he was against raising Georgia Power electricity rates on residential customers moving forward. Yes, I would support blocking Georgia Power rate increases, he said. [Residential customers] have already borne the brunt of these rate hikes. As one commissioner, Ill keep it locked in place and encourage my colleagues to do the same. Read More: Low Turnout for High Stakes PSC Election Results in Key Runoff Hubbard, 45, is the founder of the Georgia Center for Energy Solutions who has spent the past six years pushing for lower costs and cleaner energy during PSC meetings at the groups offices in Atlanta. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He watched the returns come in from his home in Edgewood on Tuesday night, and thanked primary voters for choosing him to take on incumbent Fitz Johnson in their November general election matchup. I am grateful to be nominated the Democratic PSC candidate for District 3, Hubbard told Capital B Atlanta via text message Tuesday night. The PSC general election this Nov. 4 matters to all Georgians because power bills are skyrocketing, no one is holding the current Republican PSC accountable, and voters have the power to change that. The five-member PSC is the regulatory body that sets rate prices for utility companies, including Georgia Power, the states largest electricity provider. Only 114,400 of Georgias estimated 7.4 million active voters participated in the Democratic primary runoff race between Waites and Hubbard, according to unofficial state election data. Thats less than 2% of eligible voters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advocates argue Black voters, whose energy bills tend to be higher than most due to many having less energy efficient homes, may have more to lose in this election in a state with some of the highest utility bills in the nation. PSC commissioners have taken heat for approving six Georgia Power rate hikes over the past two years, resulting in the average Georgia Power residential customer paying $516 more per year for electricity. Read More: How This Statewide Election Impacts Your Power Bills In May, Georgia Power agreed not to raise its residential electricity rates for the next three years. PSC Commissioners unanimously approved that proposal on July 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson and PSC District 2 incumbent Tim Echols, both Republicans, are up for reelection this fall. Democrat Alicia Johnson will face off against Echols. Correction: An earlier version of this story included incomplete vote totals for the PSC District 3 Democratic primary runoff. The post Black Voters Deliver PSC Win to Hubbard, Who Promises Not to Raise Power Bills appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta. After months without anyone in the position, Gov. Ron DeSantis has finally named his new Chief Financial Officer: close ally, businessman and professional poker player Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill. "Yes, he's got a great financial record, which is important," DeSantis said at a press conference announcing the appointment. "But I looked even broader than that because I wanted to say who's running toward these fights and who's running and hiding. And on every single time we've had a flash point in Florida, Blaise is running into battle to stand up for people like you." Ingoglia, 54, owns homebuilding company Hartland Homes and listed his net worth at $28.3 million on his most recent financial disclosure. He served as chair of the Republican Party of Florida in 201519 and later helped run a DeSantis political committee when the governor ran for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. DeSantis also mentioned Ingoglia's GovernmentGoneWild social media, in which he attacked governmental waste. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the choice wasn't unexpected, it may reignite the fading feud between DeSantis and President Donald Trump. Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, last year announced his intent to run for the open seat in 2026 and Trump has already enthusiastically endorsed him. The post has been vacant since April 1 when former CFO Jimmy Patronis left to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz as Northwest Florida's member of Congress. Susan Miller, who was chief of staff under Patronis, has been in charge of the Department of Financial Services since then but was never named CFO, even on an interim basis. The last press release from the department was in May, according to its website. Such a lengthy vacancy in a cabinet spot is unusual the CFO is third in the line of succession for governor, after the lieutenant governor and attorney general but DeSantis said he would fill the spot after the 2025 Florida Legislative Session was over and then it went into overtime due to state budget squabbles. DeSantis has yet to replace former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, who left the role in February to become president of Florida International University, one of several DeSantis allies in leadership positions in Florida's higher education. Who is Sen. Blaise Ingoglia? Sen. Blaise Ingoglia speaks to the media after the Senate adjourned its floor session Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, is a Queens, New York, native who moved to Florida in 1996 to start a mortgage company and homebuilding company. He became politically active, his bio says, when property taxes skyrocketed, founding "Government Gone Wild" and producing seminars and videos over governmental wastefulness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 54-year-old was elected chair of the Hernando County Republican Executive Committee in 2009, and then was elected vice-chair of the Republican Party of Florida in 2011. In 2014, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and was later chosen chair of the Republican Party of Florida. He was reelected as state chair in 2017. Ingoglia ran for the Florida Senate in 2022 with DeSantis' endorsement and won. As a close ally of DeSantis, described as the governor's "conservative pitbull in the Florida Senate, Ingoglia has criticized legislative leaders during a rift with the governor over immigration laws. He's sponsored bills in line with DeSantis agenda, including lowering property taxes and imposing term limits on local officials. Ingoglia headed Friends of Ron DeSantis, a state-level political committee that was criticized for transferring more than $80 million in funds raised to support DeSantis's previous two gubernatorial election campaigns to Never Back Down Inc., a political action committee that supported his unsuccessful presidential campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The senator was named the PAC's chief on May 8, 2023, three days after DeSantis took steps to distance himself from it. On May 24, DeSantis announced his presidential bid. On May 30, Ingoglia shut the PAC down completely, and the next day the Empower Parents PAC transferred $82.5 million the Never Back Down, Inc. PAC. Ingoglia has been a campaign spokesperson for both Trump and DeSantis. He's also been a minor YouTube celebrity with his Government Gone Wild wealth seminar videos, where until 2019 he posted videos such as "The Illegal Immigration Video Democrats DON'T Want You to See" and "Welcome to the United 'Waste' of America." Blaise Ingoglia is an internationally ranked poker player Since starting to play poker professionally, Ingoglia has posted earnings of $469,668, according to cardplayer.com. That includes winnings of $261,901 at an event in Atlantic City in 2006. His last game on record was more than a year ago, but Ingoglia has played off and on since February 2005. That's when he won more than $8,000 in the 2005 Borgata Poker Open. How do you pronounce Blaise Ingoglia? "Blaze In-GO-lee-ah." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ingoglia is an Italian surname that means "in the family of Goglia." In Italian names, "gl" is pronounced something like the sound in the middle of "million." What does Florida's Chief Financial Officer do? The Department of Financial Services is a powerful one, in charge of paying state vendors and overseeing insurance, financial regulators and fire investigations. It was created in 2002 after the Florida Cabinet was overhauled in 1998 by combining the former offices of comptroller, treasurer, insurance commissioner, and fire marshal. "My department serves consumers and taxpayers through its work in 13 different divisions and additional initiatives I set forth," Patronis once wrote for the DFS website. "A world of information and assistance is provided by the department on issues ranging from insurance education and assistance, fire prevention and safety, and even unclaimed cash and property."I have also established additional priorities to assist Floridians including fighting fraud, consumer protection and fiscal transparency." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DFS is made of the following divisions, each one with a direct impact on Floridians: Previously published material was used in this report. (This story was updated to add new information.) This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Blaise Ingoglia tapped to be new Florida CFO after months of vacancy Blame game intensifies with Mass. trash collector strike now in its 3rd week Union sanitation workers have been accused of stealing a garbage truck, destroying property, and hurling threats as the trash collection strike impacting several Massachusetts towns drags on. Wednesday marks Day 16 of the strike after Teamsters Local 25 and Republic Services walked away from the bargaining table on Tuesday, having made little progress on a deal to end the work stoppage. Enough is enough. The community is ready for our employees to get back to work and resume normal operations, a Republic Services spokesperson said in a statement. The Teamsters are dragging this out for their benefit and continuing their criminal behavior, putting our employees and the community at risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teamsters have been demanding better wages and benefits. They say Tuesdays discussuions lasted 12 hours, with Republic refusing to negotiate health insurance. Republic Services claimed its wage offer is higher than local competitors, while also alleging unlawful and dangerous conduct by Teamsters. Due to the Teamsters unlawful and dangerous conduct, Republic Services filed a legal action in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts against Teamsters Local 25, its President Tom Mari, and several union officials seeking immediate injunctive relief, the spokesperson added. This action follows numerous incidents of harassment, threats, physical intimidation, vandalism, and blockades of Republics trucks and employees. The trash collection company alleged picketers have stolen a garbage truck, slashed tires, sprayed chemicals in the eyes of a Republic Services driver, blocked trucks at facilities and customer sites, and threatened violence and hate speech at employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mari has alleged that the trash company has continued to show its lack of credibility and good faith bargaining. We offered a plan to the company that would delay the start of the union insurance, saving the company a substantial amount of money, Mari stated. We also offered a plan that would result in certain employees, the company claimed, it was concerned about, to make certain they would continue to get the benefits of the prevailing wage law. Instead, the company rejected every proposal. The strike by more than 400 Republic employees represented by Local 25 is now in its third week. While Republic Services says Teamsters refused to resume negotiations on Friday, Mari said the union is willing to meet every day for as long as it takes to get our members what they deserve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its amazing, Mari explained, that the company continues to show its lack of credibility and good faith bargaining. Republics disdain for its employees and the thousands of citizens of the cities and towns it services by refusing to bargain in good faith is obvious but not surprising. We havent been given a legitimate offer that recognizes our needs in two weeks. Republic refused to present any proposal either verbally or in writing. The Massachusetts towns affected by the strike are: Peabody Manchester-by-the-Sea Gloucester Wakefield Marblehead Malden Beverly Danvers North Reading Lynnfield Swampscott Arlington Watertown Canton Its not clear when contract negotiations will resume. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW NEED TO KNOW The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has identified at least nine children, all between the ages of one and two, who were allegedly victimized while at Bright Horizons Evelyn Vargas, Shakia Henley and Latia Townes are all facing charges of child endangerment Vargas is also facing additional counts of assault Three individuals have been charged in connection with alleged endangerment of children at a prestigious New York daycare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Evelyn Vargas, 47, Shakia Henley, 36, and Latia Townes, 23, have been arrested in connection with alleged abuse that took place at a Manhattan branch of Bright Horizons, the Manhattan District Attorneys Office confirms to PEOPLE. Up to nine children all of whom were between the ages of one and two years old at the time of the incidents were allegedly victimized by the three, per the DAs office. Vargas, who is facing several charges of assault in addition to the child welfare endangerment offense, is accused of placing packing tape across the face of one toddler ear to ear, covering the childs mouth in an incident sometime in January. In doing so, the complaint alleges, Vargas covered the childs mouth and part of her nose, at which point the child turned red and began to cry, according to a complaint compiled by the DA's office and reviewed by PEOPLE. Vargas is also accused of dragging a toddler by her hair for a few feet in January, causing the child "to be in pain", and of dragging at least three toddlers by their arms between September 2023 and February of this year, per the DA's office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She also allegedly force-fed two children ginger shots, stuffed their mouths with tissue and restrained them to chairs on several occasions. Townes is accused of hitting three toddlers in the head with a metal bottle on several occasions between October 2024 and January 2025 at the facility, the DA's office alleged, while Henley is accused in the complaint of spraying a toddler in the face from a bottle that contains soap mixed with bleach in an incident between January and February of this year. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Vargas has been charged with nine counts of endangering the welfare of a child, four counts of attempted assault, one count of strangulation and one count of assault, according to the DA's office. Her lawyer declined to comment on the charges when contacted by PEOPLE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henley, who has been charged with one count of child endangerment, will be pleading not guilty, her lawyer tells PEOPLE. Townes' attorney was not immediately available for comments. Bright Horizons at Columbus Circle did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comments. If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People MONTOUR FALLS, N.Y. (WETM) The Schuyler County Public Health Department is partnering with the American Red Cross to host a community blood drive on Tuesday. The blood drive is set to take place on Tuesday, July 22, from 9:30 a.m. through 2:30 p.m. at the Schuyler County Human Services Complex conference room 120, located at 323 Owego Street, in Montour Falls, the Schuyler County Public Health Department explained in a post. Become an opioid responder with free Narcan training in Wayland Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All eligible donors are encouraged to participate. If you would like to donate blood, people are asked to schedule an appointment by calling the Red Cross at 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), visiting their website, or downloading the Blood Donor app. If people decide to give blood anytime between Tuesday, July 15, through Thursday, July 31, the American Red Cross will provide a Fandango Movie Reward via email, which includes a free movie ticket. This vital effort aims to boost the regions blood supply and help save lives. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. This story was originally published on CFO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Archer Aviation CFO Mark Mesler officially resigned from his role effective July 7, after a period of medical leave beginning September 2024, the company said in a recent securities filing. The Santa Clara, California-based company develops electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (eVTOL) aircraft also known as air taxis and software, according to its website. Priya Gupta, who has served as the electric air taxi firms acting CFO and acting principal financial officer since his leave, will continue to serve in her same capacity, according to the filing. After careful consideration and reflection on whats next for him personally and professionally, Mark has decided to step down from his position, the company said in a statement emailed to CFO Dive. Harsh Rungta will continue to serve as Archers chief accounting officer, alongside Gupta in her continued role as interim CFO, the eVTOL creator said. The entire team at Archer thanks Mark for his contributions and wishes him the best. Dive Insight: The electric air taxi company entered into a transition agreement with Mesler in association with his retirement, where Mesler is set to receive a one-time cash payment equal to nine months of his base salary, plus three months of his target annual bonus, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He will also receive accelerated vesting for certain outstanding restricted stock units, according to the agreement. For full-year 2024, Mesler received an annual base salary of $500,000, and received a bonus of $146,311, according to Archers latest proxy statement filed in April. His compensation also included approximately $1.1 million in stock awards. Gupta, as acting CFO, received total compensation of $676,970, including a base salary of $338,000 and an annual non-equity incentive bonus of $158,548, according to the proxy. The CFOs resignation comes as attention on the air taxi market has increased over the past few years: though air taxis are still butting up against safety and regulatory concerns, regulators have also taken steps to codify operations for such vehicles, creating new opportunities. Last October, the Federal Aviation Administration issued its final rule on powered lift crafts a category that includes air taxis in a move which aimed to place the U.S. in a key leadership position in the burgeoning industry. A new study committee, tagged as a blue ribbon panel, aims to evaluate Georgias current election policies and provide recommendations for new laws ahead of Georgias 2026 legislative session. Joe Raedle/Getty Images A special House committee focused on elections kicked off its first meeting at the state Capitol Tuesday, as state lawmakers gathered to solicit testimony from elections officials and activists on how to improve Georgia elections. The committee, tagged as a blue ribbon panel, aims to evaluate Georgias current election policies and provide recommendations for new election laws ahead of Georgias 2026 legislative session. It is chaired by state Rep. Tim Fleming, a Covington Republican, who recently became the first candidate to launch a bid for secretary of state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Georgias election system has been under immense scrutiny since the 2020 election, when President Donald Trump falsely stated that the election was stolen from him in Georgia and several other swing states. The current secretary of state, Republican Brad Raffensperger, resisted pressure from Trump to overturn Georgias election results in his favor. In the years since, the Republican-controlled state Legislature and State Election Board have sought to strip power from the office, removing Raffensperger from his former position as chair of the State Election Board before ousting him from the board altogether. The Trump-aligned State Election Board has also been deluged by activists urging them to implement sweeping changes they say will boost confidence in the outcome of the elections, including mandatory ballot hand-counts and the elimination of voting machines. Republican Rep. Tim Fleming of Covington recently became the first candidate to launch a bid for secretary of state. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder In his opening remarks, Fleming also emphasized the need to restore public confidence in Georgias elections. The legitimacy of our government local, state and federal rests squarely on the publics trust in the electoral process, he said. That trust must be earned and maintained through transparency, consistency and integrity at every level, from the precincts in our neighborhoods to the local election superintendents offices and counties, to the Secretary of States office here in Atlanta. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Raffensperger, who was first elected as the states top election official in 2018, has not said what his plans are for next year. During its six scheduled meetings, the committee plans to evaluate the role that the secretary of states office and the State Election Board play in overseeing elections across the state, Fleming added. Though the committee has not yet indicated which changes they would like to see enacted, legislation introduced during the 2025 legislative session may offer some clues. Earlier this year, Fleming authored a controversial election bill that would prohibit Georgia from sharing voter information with third-party groups like the Electronic Registration Information Center, limit voters ability to drop off absentee ballots on the final weekend before Election Day and expand poll-watching areas, among other provisions. The bill, HB 397, successfully passed through both chambers, but failed to gain final passage before the Legislature adjourned. Those provisions may be among those considered by the committee as they compile their official recommendations for the 2026 session. Other study committees scheduled to meet this summer will examine artificial intelligence, insurance rate hikes and medical marijuana policies. The next meeting of the elections committee is slated for Aug. 8 in Rockmart, Georgia. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The California Board of Parole Hearings has denied release of a Kern County sex offender convicted most recently of felony evading a peace officer and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. The Kern County District Attorneys Office reported Tuesday that the parole board determined 62-year-old Ronald Ricks posed an unreasonable risk of danger to society. After serving a 19-year prison sentenced for forcible rape and forcible oral copulation at knife point, the DAs Office said, Ricks led law enforcement on a high-speed chase in 1999. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after a judge found Ricks had three prior convictions that qualified under Californias three-strikes law. Ricks next parole hearing could come up again in as soon as 18 months, the DAs Office noted. BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) The Kohan Group has tried paying its property tax owed on the Southern Park Mall, and three times the payment has failed to go through. On Friday, Kohan tried paying with an electronic transfer only to be told it would have to be by certified check. Nothing has happened since. First News is taking a look at how the Kohan Groups failure to pay could affect Boardman Local Schools, as 60% of all property taxes in Boardman go to the schools. Of the $500,000 expected from the Kohan Group for the mall, around $300,000 would go to the schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Superintendent Chris Neifer, its not a significant amount. Weve got a $75 million budget here. So, their $500,000, and then our percentage of that, is not significant enough that it would cause a sudden impact. Certainly, over time, itll play a role. Any money that we lose certainly has a role, but its not going to force any immediate cuts or anything like that, Neifer said. Neifer says hes more concerned about the money the schools will be losing from the state $2.4 million over two years as well as the money the federal government is threatening to take. On June 30, we received a letter from he federal government that said, Hey, these give federal accounts were still reviewing and well let you know what were doing, and those accounts for us were over $1 million, and thats just for this upcoming school year, and those are things we already budgeted for, Neifer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Southern Park Mall is an important part of Boardman. While Neifer is not overly concerned about the Kohan Group paying its taxes, he is concerned about the credibility of the company and the effects on the township. It certainly does concern me from an economic standpoint from the community. The more thriving our community is, the bigger impact it has on our schools. So, we certainly want to see that. We care about the transience of people in and out. The more economically stable we are here, the more people stay here, our enrollment stays up, and that impacts our finances as well, Neifer said. Neifer says about 75% of the Boardman School Systems budget comes from property taxes, but he added that as property taxes go up, Boardman schools dont get additional money. Theyre locked in to the amount of the levies passed by voters. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Garland police are asking for help from the public to identify a man whose body was found in a creek on Sunday night, following heavy rains that hit North Texas over the weekend. Emergency crews responded to calls around 9:45 p.m. on July 13 to the 2600 block of Anita Drive, where they found human remains beneath a bridge. Investigators believe the mans body was swept downstream by fast-moving floodwaters that have recently hit the area. In an updated Facebook post, Garland PD wrote, Emergency personnel located partial human remains, believed to be those of an adult, entangled in debris within the water. Due to the condition of the remains and recent heavy rainfall, investigators believe the remains may have been carried downstream from a location north of the scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The police department currently believes the victim is an adult male, but his identity and the explanation behind his death remain unknown. A distinctive tattoo on the mans upper left thigh, described as depicting claws and possibly a wing, is one of the few clues detectives have given to the public. However, the tattoo is allegedly difficult to distinguish fully. The recent storms have brought some intense rains to Garland and other parts of North Texas, leading to dangerous flooding in low-lying areas. Now, officials suspect that flooding may have played a role in the mans death, but the exact cause is still under investigation. As of press time, the Dallas County Medical Examiners Office is working with Garland detectives to try to find further details on the case. The Garland Police Department is now asking anyone with information about the man or who may recognize the tattoo to come forward. Anyone with potential information on the man can contact the Garland Police Department at 972-485-4840 or directly contact Detective Lingenfelter at 972-205-4021. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), a close ally of President Trump, on Tuesday joined calls for a special counsel to investigate the handling of files in the case involving former financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. We deserve the truth about the Epstein Files. Im ready for a Special Counsel to handle this, Boebert wrote in a post on the social platform X on Tuesday. She suggested the investigation be led by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who withdrew from consideration as Trumps nominee for attorney general in November amid controversy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement @MattGaetz, how about it? Boebert added. Her statement follows an interview she did with conservative influencer and commentator Benny Johnson earlier Tuesday, when she expanded on her call for a special counsel. Of course we want answers, Boebert said in the interview. No one is satisfied with what has been received, or lack thereof. No one is satisfied with the rollout of this. I think moving forward, we need a special counsel, she added. That has got to happen. There has to be a special investigation into this if we arent going to be provided information. The Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo last week that said Epstein did not have a client list and confirmed he died by suicide not due to foul play as many suspected in his New York City jail cell in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The findings incensed members of the MAGA movement, who have for years pushed conspiracy theories about Epsteins death and claims that prominent Democrats would be named on a client list. Even staunch Trump supporters, like far-right activist Laura Loomer, have been critical of the handling of the files and called for a special counsel to investigate. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in particular, has faced significant backlash, given her comments earlier this year in which she pledged transparency regarding the Epstein files. The attorney general last week defended the Justice Departments handling of the evidence, and Trump has fiercely defended Bondi against criticism. Boebert praised the Trump administration for many of its initiatives and said its important the Epstein files dont completely distract from those victories. Still, she said its essential that there be a resolution to the issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, theres a lot of things that Attorney General Pam Bondi is doing well. Of course, President Trump is doing many things well. The FBI is doing a great job. Our Department of Homeland Security, is, you know, this mass deportation machine on steroids, and now they have the funding to go after it even more, Boebert said. But this is something I hope it doesnt become a false idol to Republicans, where we just lose sight of everything else, she continued. But that doesnt mean we dont want answers. This is certainly important, and I want answers, and maybe that takes that special counsel to do so. Maybe Matt Gaetz can lead the special counsel, she added in the interview. I fully support AG Bondi, Gaetz, who took his name out of the running to be attorney general in the Trump administration late last year, told NewsNations Diana Falzone when contacted for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Updated on July 16 at 9:58 a.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. UPDATE: At around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, the City of Gladewater said the boil water notice had been lifted. All water quality tests have come back clear, and it is now safe to use tap water for drinking, cooking, and all other household needs, the city said. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. GLADEWATER, Texas (KETK) Following a positive coliform test, the City of Gladewater has issued a boil water notice on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BLOG: Execution date set for Robert Roberson shaken baby case Residents are asked to boil their water prior to consumption, including washing hands or face, brushing teeth and drinking. Children, seniors and those with weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable to harmful bacteria and are asked to follow these directions. When it is no longer necessary to boil the water, the public water system officials will notify customers that the water is safe for drinking water or human consumption purposes, City of Gladewater said. Once the boil water notice is no longer in effect, the public water system will issue a notice to customers that rescinds the boil water notice in the same manner as this notice. Anyone with questions or concerns can contact the City of Gladewater at 903-844-6331. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. Jul. 15A magistrate set bond at $2 million for a man who reportedly left the body of a 7-year-old boy in grass field in Dayton before collecting his bones. Michael Kendrick is facing three counts of tampering with evidence and one count of gross abuse of a corpse in Dayton Municipal Court. He made his first court appearance electronically on Tuesday before Magistrate Brandon McClain. "Based upon on the severity of the charges and the information contained within the report, which is severe and significant, I do find that a monetary bond is more than appropriate in this matter," McClain said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He set Kendrick's bond at $2 million. If Kendrick makes bond he will be on the electronic home detention program. McClain assigned a public defender to represent Kendrick and scheduled his next hearing for July 22. The charges stem from a missing person investigation Saturday that ended with Dayton police finding the remains of a juvenile on McClure Street near U.S. 35. The Montgomery County Coroner's Office is working to confirm the identity, but police believe the boy to be Hershall Creachbaum, Kendrick's girlfriend's son. Creachbaum was a non-verbal boy with autism who used a wheelchair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kendrick initially reported someone kidnapped Creachbaum around 3:45 a.m. Saturday on Xenia Avenue. During the investigation police determined the boy hadn't been seen in weeks and was likely dead. Detectives interviewed Kendrick and the boy's mother Saturday at the Public Safety Building. Creachbaum's mother said the boy died in late May while she was in the hospital having surgery, according to court records. She reportedly never saw her son after she came home, and Kendrick told her he died of natural causes. Kendrick told detectives he was arguing on the phone while drinking and punched the boy in the head twice, according to court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He then pushed him down, causing him to bounce off the floor and striking other parts of his body," an affidavit read. "He stated (the boy) died the next day in the shower." Kendrick reportedly kept the body in the house until it began to smell and then moved it to a deep freezer. He used a suitcase to carry the boy to a grassy field. He told police he returned after a few weeks and put the bones in a bag and left them on McClure Street, according to court records. Creachbaum's mother was arrested on Monday for preliminary failure to report a death and obstructing justice charges. Formal charges have not been filed as of Tuesday afternoon. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr speaks to media after announcing his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Richmond, April 22, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Kevin Nance) FRANKFORT Maximizing the advantages of an influential congressional incumbent in the majority party, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr boosted his already sizable fundraising lead against former Attorney General Daniel Cameron over the last three months in Kentuckys race for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2026. Then-gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron speaks during the Fancy Farm Picnic, Aug. 5, 2023. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony) Andy Barr for Senate reported more than $1.4 million in total receipts during the quarter to the Federal Election Commission this week, with a balance on hand of $6.1 million as of June 30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cameron reported only $385,600 in receipts for the quarter and $532,00 on hand. A third major candidate, Nate Morris, a wealthy businessman who has never held public office and is already running television ads statewide, did not have to file a campaign finance report for the quarter because he did not register his campaign with the election commission until July 1. Other candidates could join the race to win the May 2026 primary election to succeed U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former Senate Republican leader who is serving his seventh term and announced early this year he would not seek reelection. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Nate Morris speaks to media at a campaign event in Shepherdsville in June. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley) Banking, financial services PACS pony up for Barr Barrs campaign bragged of his massive fundraising lead in a press release late Tuesday that said in part, This fundraising surge, powered by grassroots conservatives across Kentucky, proves we are the campaign best positioned with the momentum to win and deliver for Kentuckians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Barrs reports indicate his fundraising is mostly powered by his experience raising campaign cash during seven terms in Washington representing Kentuckys 6th Congressional District and by his committee assignments. Barr is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and chair of its Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee. Political action committees representing banks and other financial services corporations and associations put up much of the $1,093,500 from traditional PACs that Barrs campaign raised in the first six months of 2025. During the same six months, Cameron reported raising just $1,000 from PACs. Stephen Voss, an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, said earlier this year that most experienced members of Congress, regardless of political affiliation, can expect a steady flow of donations from traditional PACs. Andy Barr has been influential in the banking and finance sector for years now, and PACs tend to reward longterm relationships, Voss said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Traditional PACs organizations representing corporations, associations, labor unions, political organizations and other groups are limited by law to giving no more than $5,000 per election. The limit is effectively $10,000 because a PAC can give $5,000 designated to a candidates primary election and $5,000 designated to the general election. Barrs campaign committee also got a headstart over Cameron because he was able to roll over nearly $3.7 million from the committee that raised money for his U.S. House elections to his Senate campaign. And about 40% of that money was originally contributed to Barr by PACs. Moreover, his campaign fund has received more than $815,000 in transfers from a different Barr political committee called Friends of Andy Barr, which is a so-called joint fundraising committee that raises money for Barr-related political committees and part of that money comes from PACs Too early to write off Cameron; Barrs fundraising just astonishingly high The Kentucky Lantern asked Barrs campaign via email whether PAC contributions are the major reason for Barrs fundraising momentum. The campaign responded with a statement saying in part, Our momentum is fueled by dozens of major endorsements from federal, state, local, and grassroots leaders. We have $6.1 million on hand, while one opponent has $532K Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Camerons campaign did not immediately reply to an email from the Lantern. Voss, the political scientist, said Wednesday its too early to write Cameron off based on a single quarters fundraising. It is false to suggest that these numbers indicate Cameron is in trouble or that he lacks the resources to mount a serious campaign for United States Senate. The campaign is still in its early phase and that the amount raised to date by Cameron is not unusually low, Voss said. Its not that Camerons fundraising has been weak. It hasnt. Its that Barrs has been astonishingly high, Voss said. State Rep. Pamela Stevenson is the only Democrat in the U.S. Senate race. (LRC Public Information) Cameron holds high name recognition across Kentucky because of his successful 2019 campaign for Kentucky attorney general, his four years serving in that job, and his competitive race against Democrat Andy Beshear for governor in 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this year his campaign released a poll showing him with a lead in the race for the GOP Senate nomination. The candidate who wins Republican President Donald Trumps endorsement if he makes one in this race is expected to have a huge advantage. Each of the three candidates is claiming to be Trumps strongest supporter and the most capable of helping implement Trumps agenda. Kentucky House Democratic Floor Leader Pamela Stevenson, the only Kentucky Democrat who has announced for U.S. Senate, reported raising $150,000 during the quarter and had almost $49,000 on hand as of June 30. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported the lowest number of border crossings in recorded history in June. Nationwide, there were 25,228 CBP encounters, the lowest monthly number the agency has recorded, including a "historical low" of 8,024 apprehensions. Encounters include legal ports of entry, whereas apprehensions are arrests of those coming into the United States illegally. At the southern border alone, there were only 6,072 apprehensions in June, which is "15% lower than the previous March record." June also brought along the lowest number of apprehensions in a day on June 28 with just 136. 'Trump Effect' Touted As Southern Border Numbers Stay Low, Including New Record U.S. soldiers are taking measures at the Mexican border after the Department of Defense signed a new order declaring 110,000 acres of land on the Mexican border as a National Defense Area at the request of President Donald Trump in New Mexico May 8, 2025. "From shutting down illegal crossings to seizing fentanyl and enforcing billions in tariffs, CBP is delivering results on every front. Under this administration, we are protecting this country with relentless focus, and the numbers prove it." CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a press release Wednesday. Like May, there were no parole releases, compared with 27,766 in 2024.. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Click Here For More Immigration Coverage On drug seizures, the department said there was a 3% uptick from last month in fentanyl seizures, with 742 pounds confiscated. Notably, there was a 102% increase in meth seizures from May, a 19% increase in heroin seizures and a 9% increase in cocaine seizures. According to the press release, CBP has also collected $108.9 billion in "all tariffs, taxes and fees," specifically noting the tariffs imposed by the president. New Data Reveals Border Crossings Reach Record Lows Amid Trump Admin's Crackdown Read On The Fox News App Migrants cross into Lukeville, Ariz., Dec. 21, 2023. Texas Border Sheriff Says Illegal Crossings Have Seen Dramatic Decline As Ca Migrant Center Shuts Down Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls told Fox News Digital the change has been "peaceful" after a major strain on local resources, like the regional hospital, while crossings were soaring. Earlier Wednesday, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced there was an 830% increase in assaults on ICE agents from last year. This comes as both border and immigration policies have seen major shifts in recent months since the border crisis under the Biden administration. "This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this," Noem posted to X. Border Czar Tom Homan Reveals Unprecedented Success In Trump's Border Strategy As for Border Patrol, a gunman was killed and a local police officer was injured in a shooting in McAllen, Texas. ICE also recently faced a riot at the Prarieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where 12 individuals are facing charges, including some for attempted murder of federal officers. Original article source: Border crossings plummet to historic lows; Trump's enforcement policies yield big results NEED TO KNOW Daniel Twigg, 3, died in a dog attack at his family's home in Greater Manchester in 2022 Daniel's parents are on trial for gross negligence manslaughter Jessica Bedford and Mark Twigg deny the charges The mother of a 3-year-old boy who was killed by a dog in 2022 described seeing the petrifying death of her son while testifying in court. Joanne Bedford and Mark Twigg are on trial for charges of gross negligence manslaughter in connection with the death of their son, Daniel, according to Greater Manchester Police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Daniel died in May 2022 following an attack from what police described as a dangerous dog in the English town of Rochdale. The Manchester Evening News reported that during her trial, Bedford, who, along with her husband, denies the charges, took the stand in her trial, which is ongoing. Bedford reportedly testified that the incident occurred in the morning and that she had left Daniel in the kitchen with his older sister while getting shorts for her son upstairs, first stopping in the bathroom. I don't know how long I was in there, Bedford testified, according to the Evening News. Then I was going to go into Daniel's bedroom to retrieve his shorts but I didn't get there before I heard his sister screaming: Mum, mum, Daniel's in the [dog] pen. He is face down and hes got blood everywhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The paper reported that Bedford then burst into tears. She then reportedly testified she went to the dog pen and got the dogs out of the way. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. I sat down on the floor with Daniel and asked his sister to get my phone so I could call for an ambulance, she testified. Daniel was face down on the floor, he had gotten puncture marks all over his neck and he was bleeding. I was petrified and scared for my little boy. The BBC previously reported that police needed riot shields to protect paramedics that tried to rescue the boy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the BBC, it was revealed in court that the family had moved into the home on a farm in March 2022 to look after the property and dogs of the farms owner. Read the original article on People The company's CEO, Adam Goldstein, joined Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy at the Paris Air Show to announce a five-country alliance including the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand that will streamline global certification. Once Archer obtains FAA-type certification -- targeted for late 2025 -- this alliance creates a smooth pathway to deploy its Midnight aircraft internationally. The catalyst? A White House executive order establishing an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) Integration Pilot Program designed to accelerate deployment of electric air taxis in the U.S. This wasn't random government largesse -- it followed years of patient coalition-building by Archer and its peers. Here's why Archer's "Field of Dreams" business model -- if you build it, they will come -- is not only succeeding, but creating value ahead of schedule. Here's what the skeptics are missing: Archer's stock trades around $11.40 per share, as of this writing (July 15), supporting a $6.3 billion market cap for a pre-revenue company. That's not irrational exuberance -- it's the market pricing in the systematic de-risking of what was once considered science fiction. Nearly four years after going public, the company has assembled one of the strongest balance sheets in the advanced air mobility industry, with over $1.4 billion in cash and committed capital following its recent $850 million strategic funding round. Critics of Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR) seem to have missed this fundamental truth about how transformative technologies reach the market. The short thesis fixates on whether the company can meet its stated production and certification targets, as if timeline adjustments in a complex regulatory environment somehow invalidate the entire enterprise. If you build it, they will come -- but in aerospace, you need more than vision. You need capital, regulatory traction, and global partnerships just to reach the runway. While critics focus on production timelines, the company's transformation from concept to global test case demonstrates why building strategic partnerships and investor confidence creates the foundation for revolutionary technology. With an exceptional balance sheet, test flights underway in Abu Dhabi, and regulatory momentum from a five-country certification alliance, Archer is executing its methodical path to commercialization. The disconnect between short-seller criticism and Archer's strengthening financial position reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of how aerospace innovation works. Story Continues Critics highlight delays in piloted flight testing. But in July 2025, test flights officially began in Abu Dhabi, validating the Midnight aircraft in real-world conditions. Production scaling targets of just two aircraft per month by year-end underscore the methodical approach Archer is taking. While some view these as execution risks, patient investors recognize that rushing aviation certification would be far riskier. Archer has already secured Part 135 operating authority and Part 145 maintenance certification, with flight simulation (Part 142) pending. That's tangible regulatory progress that positions the company for success, whenever the final approval arrives. Building the future, one partnership at a time Abu Dhabi isn't a marketing stunt. It's a crucible. The region's extreme conditions of heat, humidity, and dust will stress-test Midnight's systems far beyond what it might encounter in Los Angeles or New York. Abu Dhabi Aviation, the Middle East's largest commercial helicopter operator, has signed on as Archer's first Launch Edition customer, with Ethiopian Airlines also joining the program. This partnership brings operational expertise that will accelerate the learning curve across multiple continents. While critics point to quarterly losses as evidence of unsustainability, Archer's Q1 2025 results beat analyst expectations on the bottom line, demonstrating disciplined financial management. They're measuring tomorrow's transportation revolution by yesterday's financial metrics. That burn rate funds partnerships with Palantir Technologies for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven aviation software, collaborations with Anduril for defense applications, and manufacturing facilities in both Silicon Valley and Georgia. Archer's order book has swelled to nearly $6 billion, including agreements with United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, as well as its designation as the official air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The scaling challenge is real but addressable Scaling production from prototype to commercial volume presents significant hurdles -- establishing robust supply chains, optimizing manufacturing processes, and ensuring consistent quality for an entirely new category of aircraft. This isn't SaaS. It's aircraft. Archer's collaboration with Stellantis provides valuable automotive manufacturing expertise, with an additional $400 million contract manufacturing agreement to help scale manufacturing. This is precisely why the company's methodical approach matters: build awareness, strengthen the balance sheet, develop the technology, establish regulatory frameworks, then scale. The competitive landscape is fierce. Joby Aviation, backed by Toyota with $500 million in funding, is pursuing a similar certification timeline. Beta Technologies focuses on cargo applications. Each competitor has unique strengths, but Archer differentiates itself through its targeted Launch Edition program for early international deployment, its unique 12-tilt-6 aircraft configuration, and its diversified partnership network spanning commercial aviation, defense, and global infrastructure providers like Jetex. Market acceptance remains the ultimate test While technological and regulatory pathways are clearing, widespread public acceptance isn't guaranteed. Initial concerns about noise, safety perception, and affordability could impact adoption rates. Archer's strategy of focusing first on premium routes between airports and city centers, leveraging partnerships with established airlines, aims to build confidence before broader market penetration. The company must deliver a compelling value proposition at scale -- not just a novelty for the wealthy. This is the real test of the company's business model and unique transportation platform, not if Archer can meet completely arbitrary internal production targets during its initial ramp. Why critics are wrong about Archer's progress Consider that just one year ago, most investors couldn't define "eVTOL" without an internet search. Today, the term shows up in White House executive orders and international regulatory frameworks. That's not hype. That's infrastructure being built. Critics who fixate on production delays are missing the broader shift. Aerospace doesn't move on quarterly timelines. What's unfolding isn't a missed deadline. It's the emergence of a new category of transportation. The market isn't betting on Archer to beat near-term earnings. It's betting on the convergence of technology, policy, and environmental necessity to drive adoption. That future is coming. Even if it takes a few extra quarters, it still changes everything. Should you invest $1,000 in Archer Aviation right now? Before you buy stock in Archer Aviation, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now and Archer Aviation wasnt one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $680,559!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, youd have $1,005,670!* Now, its worth noting Stock Advisors total average return is 1,053% a market-crushing outperformance compared to 180% for the S&P 500. Dont miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025 George Budwell has positions in Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, Palantir Technologies, and Toyota Motor. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool recommends Southwest Airlines and Stellantis. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Archer Aviation and the Field of Dreams Business Model was originally published by The Motley Fool Police have referred a felony child abuse charge against Brady Kiser, the husband of TikTok influencer Emilie Kiser, relating to their son Trigg's drowning death in a swimming pool. "We have completed our investigation into the tragic drowning of three-year-old Trigg Kiser. After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions," police in Chandler, AZ, wrote on X on July 15. Although prosecutors will make the final decision on any charges, police are referring a felony count to them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trigg, 3, drowned in May in the family's swimming pool, the statement from police read. "Investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser," the police statement said. We have completed our investigation into the tragic drowning of three-year-old Trigg Kiser. After a thorough review of the evidence, we have submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for further review and any potential prosecutorial decisions. pic.twitter.com/QiitB9t5pX Chandler Police (@ChandlerPolice) July 15, 2025 Emilie Kiser has 3.4 million followers on TikTok. Her page is heavily focused on her family and two children with her husband Brady. She posted videos showing Trigg and Brady. "The Chandler Police Department regrets to report that the child who had been hospitalized since the drowning call on Ashley Drive on May 12 passed away earlier this afternoon. The child has been identified as 3-year-old Trigg Kiser," Sonu Wasu, spokesperson for Chandler police, previously told Men's Journal in an email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement USA Today reported that police "responded to a drowning call at a home on Ashley Drive in Chandler, Arizona, around 7 p.m. local time for a child who had been pulled unconscious out of a backyard pool." According to AZ Central, Brady Kiser told police he "was at home with the couple's two boys on May 12 while his wife was out with friends." Brady Kiser "told police he saw Trigg playing near the pool," describing this as not uncommon and indicating the pool was generally covered with a "protective cover," AZ Central reported. Brady Kiser told police he "lost sights of Trigg for three to five minutes" while caring for the couple's newborn before he discovered Trigg floating in the pool, AZ Central reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emilie Kiser filed a lawsuit seeking to block the release of documents relating to the case. Related: Songwriter Shot in 'Gruesome' Double Murder Had Kid Rock, Other Prominent Ties Brady Kiser: Arizona Police Refer Felony Against Influencer's Husband in Pool Death first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 By Manuela Andreoni SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil assured worried governments on Wednesday it has organized enough rooms to accommodate the tens of thousands of people crowding into the rainforest city of Belem for the United Nations climate summit in November, even as its listings still fell short of the country's own projections for attendance. Valter Correia, Brazil's special secretary for the summit, known as COP30, laid out a plan to prioritize the needs of developing countries and island nations whose representatives expressed outrage during a conference in Bonn, Germany, that Belem's sky-high accommodation prices might exclude them from COP30. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What we are guaranteeing is that everyone can come at accessible prices," he said. "We can't leave small countries, countries that most suffer with issues related to climate change, out of this thing, it would be absolutely unthinkable." Environmental activists from around the globe had eagerly awaited Brazil's turn to host the climate summit after three years in which the conference was held in countries without full freedom for public demonstrations. Brazil chose Belem for the climate talks to focus attention on the world's disappearing rainforests, but civil society groups have been warning for months that a lack of accommodations in the Amazonian city would create barriers for many. Authorities have already identified more than 30,000 rooms available in the city, Correia said, compared to an estimate of 20,000 that United Nations officials told their Brazilian counterparts were required to accommodate delegations, journalists and observers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the figure falls short of the demand from the 45,000 attendees at COP30 that Correia had projected earlier this year. He said on Wednesday that he expects Belem to meet additional demand as more private homes, hotel rooms, and alternative options, such as repurposed schools, become available. The United Nations climate change office, UNFCCC, declined a request to confirm the number. This week, Brazil also launched a booking website with 1,500 rooms for a group of 98 developing countries and island nations, priced between $100 and $220 a night, Correia said. Another 1,000 rooms will be added to the platform soon, open to all delegations, he added, with prices of up to $600 a night. The platform will later be open to everyone else. Brazil also said it has signed a contract for 3,900 cabins in two cruise ships that will park at the port city for the COP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Correia said he also expects civil society groups to find adequate accommodations. While his office is fighting price gouging, he added, it won't be able to offer everyone rooms at lower prices. (Reporting by Manuela Andreoni, additional reporting from Kate Abnett in BrusselsEditing by Brad Haynes and Aurora Ellis) BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil on Wednesday urged the U.S. to respond to a trade proposal submitted in May, reaffirming its openness to a "mutually acceptable" deal after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting in August. In a joint statement, Brazil's Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Development said the government had sent a letter on Tuesday, reinforcing its May 16 negotiating proposal. Vice President Geraldo Alckmin noted on Monday that the May offer had gone unanswered. "In light of the urgency of the matter, the Brazilian government reiterates its interest in receiving comments from the U.S. government on the proposal," the statement said, suggesting there were "areas of negotiation where we could further explore mutually agreed solutions." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brazil also expressed "indignation" at the planned increase in tariffs from 10% to 50% on its exports to the United States, warning of a "very negative" impact on both economies. The letter from Brasilia also noted that Latin America's largest economy has run persistent trade deficits with the United States in both goods and services, totaling nearly $410 billion over the past 15 years. The statement came a day after U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced an investigation into what he described as Brazil's "unfair" trade practices. Brazil's Solicitor General Jorge Messias said on Wednesday that the U.S. had apparently launched that probe because of the weakness of the initial U.S. case for imposing the 50% tariffs. (Reporting by Marcela Ayres, Bernardo Caram and Eduardo SimoesEditing by Brad Haynes and Aurora Ellis) In early and mid-July 2025, a rumor circulated on social media that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum sent rescue teams to Texas following the deadly floods that hit the state during the Fourth of July weekend. The rumor gained significant traction after actor Viola Davis posted (archived) a photograph of Sheinbaum on Instagram alongside text praising her alleged decision to help the Texas search-and-rescue efforts. "Much respect Madam President," Davis wrote. (Instagram user @violadavis) The graphic, which had more than 428,000 likes as of this writing, included the lines (emphasis ours): Mexico's president just sent rescue teams to Texas. After all the hate. After all the anti-immigrant policies. After all the racism toward brown people. She still helped. She still showed up. She still did the right thing. To a red state that wouldn't do the same for her. That's leadership. That's power. That's a woman. The image originated from a Threads post (archived) by the user @swagrman, whose username appeared on the graphic Davis shared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The claim spread across platforms including Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook, Threads, X and TikTok, as well as in Spanish-language posts. In short, while Mexico did assist in the flood response in Texas in early July 2025, there was no evidence Sheinbaum ordered or coordinated the deployment of rescue teams. The personnel who assisted in search and rescue efforts in Kerr County were volunteers from the Civil Protection and Fire Department of Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, and the nonprofit organization Fundacion 911. Their deployment was made independently, in response to a request from the U.S.-based organization Texas EquuSearch, and was not coordinated by the Mexican federal government. While Sheinbaum acknowledged and praised their efforts during a July 7 news conference, she didn't claim to have organized or authorized their deployment. The Mexican government's assistance focused on consular support for the roughly 30 Mexican nationals affected by the flooding. Who the rescuers were and who sent them Despite claims crediting Sheinbaum with sending rescue teams to Texas, the aid that arrived from Mexico came from a local emergency unit in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, a Mexican city across the border from Del Rio, Texas. (Google Maps) On July 6, 2025, the Acuna's Civil Protection and Fire Department announced on Facebook that its water rescue team, along with firefighters and members of Fundacion 911, departed to assist with flood search efforts in Kerrville, Texas. According to the post, the team responded to a request from Texas EquuSearch, a U.S.-based volunteer search-and-rescue organization. The volunteers worked in coordination with local U.S. authorities to help locate missing people along the flooded Guadalupe River. Fundacion 911 also shared several updates about its involvement in the Texas flood response on its official Facebook page. What President Sheinbaum actually said Sheinbaum did not take credit for sending rescue teams to Texas. When asked about the viral Davis post during her July 7 news conference (about 1:11:23 in the official livestream), she clarified that the aid came from volunteer firefighters in Ciudad Acuna, who traveled to Texas independently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Honor to whom honor is due," Sheinbaum said, naming several firefighters and acknowledging Acuna's mayor, Emilio de Hoyos, along with members of Fundacion 911. "They truly deserve our recognition," she added. Sheinbaum also explained that Mexico's Foreign Affairs Ministry was in contact with the Texas state government and the U.S. Department of State to offer further assistance. When the reporter read Davis' Instagram post aloud, Sheinbaum responded, "That is the people of Mexico. That is our culture," adding that "Mexicans are supportive and fraternal, always. And what's reflected in firefighters going and risking their lives, as they also did in California to save others, is the essence of the Mexican people. It's humanism." Therefore, at no point did Sheinbaum claim to have ordered or facilitated the deployment of the rescue team. Her comments made it clear that the response came from a local initiative. Additionally, a search of Sheinbaum's official social media profiles, including X, showed no statements suggesting she directed or announced the rescue effort. Reactions from Mexican and US authorities The official response from the Mexican government focused on consular support for its citizens affected by the disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 5, the Foreign Affairs Ministry expressed condolences and announced that the consulate general in San Antonio was monitoring the situation and visiting shelters to assist Mexican nationals, reiterating it on July 7. During her July 7 news conference, Sheinbaum said the Foreign Affairs Ministry was assisting at least 30 Mexican nationals impacted by the flooding in Kerr County. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson wrote on X that "Mexican K9 teams, trained with U.S. support for law enforcement missions, are now in Texas helping families find missing loved ones. We remain committed to working side by side with Mexico in moments like this." He also thanked the Government of Mexico "for their solidarity and support following the floods in Texas." Similarly, Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, thanked Mexico for "lending a hand with recovery after the devastating Texas flood." In today's After the Brief: @SecRubio joins an exciting Administration cabinet meeting at the @WhiteHouse, Mexico lends a hand with recovery after the devastating Texas floods, and the Secretary heads to Kuala Lumpur to engage Indo-Pacific partners at the ASEAN Summit. pic.twitter.com/waEyhOGoI6 Tammy Bruce (@statedeptspox) July 9, 2025 However, these statements referred to diplomatic efforts and local volunteer assistance, with no mention of rescue teams sent by Sheinbaum. We've investigated multiple rumors related to the July 2025 floods in Texas, including a claim that a Houston pediatric practice fired Dr. Christina Propst after she posted online that Texas flood victims in July 2025 were supporters of President Donald Trump who got "what they voted for." We also debunked the claim that Rainmaker Technology Corporation's cloud seeding mission caused deadly flooding in parts of Texas over Fourth of July weekend. Sources: - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu-eVnDcPRQ. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ---. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0szhoAXdFOI. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025. Loe, Megan. "Unraveling Claims Cloud Seeding Caused Deadly Texas Floods in 2025." Snopes, 8 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/rainmaker-cloud-seeding-texas-floods/. Texas EquuSearch Search And Recovery Non-Profit. 26 May 2017, https://texasequusearch.org/. Texas Floods Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/tag/2025_texas_floods/. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025. Heartache is widespread in the aftermath of violent flash flooding throughout the Texas hill country over the July 4 weekend. It reaches Tennessee, where the loved ones of Claire "Reese" Manchaca mourn her death. Cirby Snodgrass of Brentwood, Tennessee, is Manchaca's cousin. In an Instagram post from days after the flood, she wrote about the beauty of the Guadalupe River and memories she made there. But the memories carry a painful truth of loss and grief. "I've spent many years of my life in that river," Snodgrass wrote in the post. "A river so special that, as a mother, I couldn't wait to get my children in it. Dipping into the crisp, cold water in the heat of a Texas summer, skipping rocks, fishing, rope swinging... y'all, it can't be beat. Memories we now reflect on, realizing it could have been us countless times." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Snodgrass, a Nashville-based wardrobe stylist, is raising money for her family and other families of flood victims in Texas. She hosted a market stand out of her Meadowlake home on July 10 to raise funds. I woke up this morning feeling an overwhelming sense of gratitude, she said in an Instagram story after the market. Through your contributions weve raised about $16,000 for flood victims' families and a friend from our hometown in Texas is going to match with an additional $10,000. Venmo to donate to the family of Claire Reese Manchaca, a Texas student who died in the recent July 4 floods. According to a July 8 Facebook post by Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough, Manchaca was with three friends at a cabin near Hunt, Texas for the holiday weekend. Manchaca and one other member in her group have been found dead, while the two others remain unaccounted for. "Montgomery County is working directly with Reeses family to ensure they are cared for and supported in every way we possibly can during this time of grief," Keough wrote in the post. "We ask everyone to continue lifting up not only this family, but the many others across the region affected by this flood. May comfort, strength, and peace surround them all." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a news release by the University of Texas at San Antonio, Manchaca was a rising senior studying architecture at the school's Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design. "It is an incredibly difficult time, and this news is heartbreaking," the news release said. "We cannot imagine the devastation that her family, friends, and community are experiencing. Reese was a vibrant part of our architecture community and left an indelible mark on her peers and our college through her creativity, kindness, and energy." Snodgrass is continuing to raise money for flood victims, and donations can be sent to her Venmo at @cirbysnodgrass. "My heart is home in Texas right now," Snodgrass wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Where my hand usually flows in writing, I have had no words, no movement. I'm stunned in stillness. Helpless. There's so many angles of heartache that have come from this violent river. I'm sinking into the grief as if I could take some of the pain from others hurting more, witnessing more, surviving more, losing more." This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Brentwood woman raises money for cousin, other Texas flood victims Emergency departments in Brevard County are experiencing significant increases in patient volumes following the closure of Rockledge Hospital in April. Local hospitals, including Cape Canaveral and Vieira, have reported a 20% to 25% increase in emergency department visits since the closure. Parrish Medical Center in Titusville has also seen an 8% rise in emergency room visits. Health First has accelerated plans for new freestanding emergency rooms in response to the increased demand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The closure of Rockledge Hospital has led to a surge in patients needing hospital beds, prompting local emergency departments to add staff and beds to accommodate the influx. Orlando Health plans to invest over $750 million in new facilities, including a new hospital and freestanding emergency departments, to better serve the community. Parrish Medical Center is working to expedite the treatment of less acute patients to free up beds for life-threatening emergencies. With plans for new emergency facilities underway, Brevard County aims to improve healthcare access and manage the increased patient volumes effectively. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. A pedestrian bridge has collapsed onto a truck in the Austrian city of Linz. The police said two people had to be freed from the wreckage of the vehicle following the accident on Wednesday. The rescue operation took several hours, and both occupants of the truck suffered serious injuries, a police spokesman told the Austrian news agency APA. The local authorities say the truck with a crane trailer crashed into the bridge, which then collapsed directly above the cab of the vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fire brigade responded with a large contingent of technical equipment including cranes. The Oberosterreichische Nachrichten regional newspaper reported that, fortunately, no one was on the bridge at the time of the collision. The truck driver had apparently tried to drive into an underground car park. The fire brigade estimate the collapsed section of the bridge weighed between 30 and 40 metric tons, the newspaper reported. An Easyjet airplane is towed at Linate Airport In Milan, Italy, May 2, 2024. (photo credit: Claudia Greco/Reuters) This new extension by easyJet is the longest period of suspension by any foreign airline since the start of the war with Iran, but goes in line with the airlines conduct. British low-cost airline easyJet announced today that it would extend the suspension of its Israel flights to the end of the winter season, and would renew them only towards the summer of 2026. This is the longest period of suspension by a foreign airline since the start of the war with Iran. According to the announcement, the decision was made with the aim of proving certainty to customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The move is dramatic, but unsurprising, given the airlines conduct since the start of the fighting in the region. easyJet cancelled its flights to Israel in 2023, and since then has repeatedly extended the period of cancellation, without any interval of renewed activity. The companys extension of the cancellation of its flights comes after several foreign airlines have brought forward the resumption of their Israel operations, among them United Airlines, Wizz Air, and the Lufthansa Group. This week, Aegean and Air Europa also returned to flying to Israel. Vote of no confidence in Israel EasyJet had planned to return to Israel in early June, but following the hit by a Houthi missile on Ben Gurion Airport, its return was postponed to the end of July. Then came Operation Rising Lion, the 12-day war with Iran, and the airline postponed its return until the end of October. EasyJet airplane (credit: REUTERS) Now the airline has announced a further postponement until the end of the winter, signaling that it does not intend to resume its Israel operations before the Spring of 2026, at the earliest, thus expressing a lack of confidence in the ability to plan activity in Israel in advance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The destinations to which easyJet originally planned to operate include London (Luton Airport), Amsterdam, Berlin, Basel, Geneva, and Milan. Its cancellation leaves the Israeli airlines as exclusive operators on high-demand routes. At present, it is possible to fly from Israel to Amsterdam only with El Al and Arkia; to Berlin with El Al and Israir; to London, following the cancellation of flights by British Airways until the end of October, with El Al and Arkia only, although Wizz Air is due to join them at the end of this month. Milan will be reachable with all three main Israeli airlines, thanks to Israirs addition of the route for August. The routes to Basel and Geneva also remain the exclusive province of the Israeli airlines. The airlines say that demand is sky-high. There are almost no tourist class seats left on El Al flights to these destinations in August. There are scandals, there are conspiracies, and then there is the great Afghan cover-up. It is the ultimate in betrayals, a heinous abuse of power by a self-righteous caste blinded by its own stupidity, an explosive concoction of every pathology, every lie, every error, every cross-party ideological perversion that has brought down our great nation. The country I thought I knew, characterised by a love of fair play, free expression and accountability, is no more. Labour and Tories alike, with a small number of exceptions, believe that they have the right, the duty even, to wield the abominations that are super-injunctions to control information and conceal their blunders. Like Platonic philosopher-kings, they are convinced they know better what is good for us, that their untruths are somehow noble. Rishi Sunaks government, and then Sir Keir Starmers, didnt want voters to find out about the leak of a spreadsheet listing applicants to a resettlement scheme for Afghans who had helped Britain, putting many at risk of Taliban reprisals. The data breach led the Government to launch a covert relocation scheme, potentially costing billions, secretly airlifting to Britain thousands of Afghans, some of whom are heroes who deserve to be here but others who I suspect are not and do not. Labour claims all have been vetted; I hope the Government knows what it is doing, but fear the worst. All the arrivals will be entitled to family reunification, will be housed at taxpayer expense and will be able to sue for tens of thousands of pounds of compensation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This incendiary saga weaves together every debacle, every infamy of the past 20 years our failed adventurism in Iraq and Afghanistan, the massive increase in immigration and often insufficient integration, the grooming gang monstrosity, the rise of technocratic, anti-democratic governance dressed up as human rights, the war against free speech, the lockdown power grab, the welfare dependency culture, the ruinous economic and financial mismanagement into one meta-indictment of our ghastly ruling class, of the useless Tory-Labour uniparty, of our failed state. Watergate was nothing in comparison, a small, parochial contretemps. The Afghan data breach is the scandal to end all scandals, the encapsulation of all that is wrong about Britain, the logical end-point of the implosion of our democracy. By ticking every box, it could have been designed to drive Middle England crazy. It will extinguish what is left of trust between ruler and ruled. It will discredit official pronouncements and statistics, especially on immigration. It will turbocharge Reform, and accelerate the demise of the old parties. It will radicalise the centre-Right against the ECHR. It will make it even harder for Rachel Reeves to fleece taxpayers again at the Budget. Even the hapless BBC played its role to perfection, downgrading such a massive story on its website and the News at Ten. Super-injunctions must be abolished. They dont happen in America, and they shouldnt exist here. Free speech is essential: there can be no taxation without representation, and we cannot have billions spent on refugee programmes or anything else without debate or scrutiny. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The public sector must no longer be protected from its clownish incompetence; this is a form of two-tier justice, of indefensible double-standards. Private sector workers are rightly dismissed every day for minor infractions, such as turning up late too often. Why have no officials been sacked or prosecuted for this egregious failure yet? Vital data shouldnt be kept in shareable spreadsheets, but in secure databases. This is a managerial and systems disaster. There ought to be high-level dismissals in Whitehall, and the relevant operations placed into special measures and run by outsiders parachuted in from business. Afghans who risked their lives to help Britain should be allowed to move to the UK. This must include members of the Afghan special forces, bodyguards, translators and various others. The question is: how many people fit into these narrowly but fairly defined categories? Arrival numbers to date seem high. Have we already and are about to again let thousands in who shouldnt be eligible, while still freezing out some who ought to be? Have all family members been vetted, even though they have a right to come here too? We need an urgent, independent investigation; sunlight and transparency are necessary for public confidence to be restored. The danger otherwise is that the covert resettlement scheme will fuel a perception that the British state is keen to cite a duty of care, informed by human rights laws, when dealing with foreign citizens such as Afghans at risk from the Taliban, or young men crossing the channel from France but is apparently less interested in doing so when it comes to British citizens, such as girls raped by gangs. Labour already stands accused of being deeply suspicious of veterans who served in Northern Ireland, while simultaneously being quick to give the benefit of the doubt to foreigners who, in some cases, have at best a tenuous connection to the British Armed Forces. Allister digital questions call to action Many in the main political parties and civil service are social democratic universalists who believe that the British state should care as much, or more, about the human rights of the whole world than about the interests of British citizens. Putting Britain and Brits first is a form of racism or xenophobia, they profess. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This belief system, which sounds kind, liberal and generous, guarantees dystopia. It implies a welfare state of first resort for anybody who can get here. It is destroying our polity, fracturing our society and bankrupting our economy. The Brexit referendum was won partly because of the rise of such an ideology, and because of the associated financial cost, including vast gross and net cash transfers to Brussels. The billions secretly earmarked for the resettlement scheme, coming as they do at a time of austerity and tax increases, will prove politically just as catastrophic for our ruling class. This was the week that the old order died in disgrace, after one provocation too many. The next general election cannot come too soon. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. A budget airline that contracted with ICE to launch deportation flights has shut down its West Coast operations, citing financial difficulties. Avelo Airlines, which sparked controversy and boycotts of its service earlier this year over the agreement, will end flights in California, Oregon, Washington and Montana, with some services stopping as soon as August. Avelo Airlines will be ending service from several West Coast airports next month and later this year, CEO Andrew Levy said in a statement, shared with various outlets. This includes our original base at Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some flights will end starting from August 10, with others, including those to Eugene, Oregon, and Burbank, California, ending at the beginning of December. (Getty Images for Avelo Air) (Getty Images for Avelo Air) Levy added that the company plans to focus on its East Coast operations. There is rarely one singular reason why decisions like this are made, and this one is no different, he said. We believe the continuation of service from [Burbank] in the current operating environment will not deliver adequate financial returns in a highly competitive backdrop. The Independent has reached out to the airline for more information about the affected routes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Avelo received backlash in May after it launched federal deportation flights from Arizona, with three Boeing 737-800s being chartered for deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport near Phoenix. Avelo received backlash in May after it launched federal deportation flights from Arizona, with three Boeing 737-800s being chartered for deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport near Phoenix (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) Avelo received backlash in May after it launched federal deportation flights from Arizona, with three Boeing 737-800s being chartered for deportation flights from Mesa Gateway Airport near Phoenix (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) At the time, the move drew sharp criticism, including from the union representing its flight attendants, and sparked an online petition calling for a boycott of the airline. We realize this is a sensitive and complicated topic," Levy said in a statement at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Avelo was launched in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, following a rebrand having previously operated as Casino Express Airlines. The airline generally operates older, more affordable Boeing 737 jets and utilizes less congested, cost-effective secondary airports. The airline focuses on routes overlooked by larger carriers and reported its first profitable quarter in late 2023. (Bloomberg) -- ASML Holding NV Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet walked back his forecast that sales will grow next year, blaming trade disputes and global tensions. Most Read from Bloomberg Fouquet, who in October told investors he expected 2026 to be a growth year for the semiconductor industry and ASML, took a more cautious stance on Wednesday when the company reported its second-quarter results. We continue to see increasing uncertainty driven by macro-economic and geopolitical developments, Fouquet said in a statement. Therefore, while we still prepare for growth in 2026, we cannot confirm it at this stage. The Dutch firms shares fell as much as 11% to 630.70 in Amsterdam on Wednesday, the biggest intraday decline since Jan. 27. It has shed about 140 billion ($155 billion) in value over the last year. ASML is the only company that makes the type of cutting-edge lithography machines needed to manufacture chips used in everything from Apple Inc.s smartphones to Nvidia Corp.s artificial intelligence accelerators. The firm has been caught in between the US and China its biggest market last year as their relationship deteriorates. While tensions between the two nations have eased in recent days, Fouquets comments reflect how mixed messages from Washington on trade and foreign relations are weighing on the semiconductor industry. ASML forecast third-quarter net sales between 7.4 billion and 7.9 billion. Thats below the 8.2 billion average analyst estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It expects 15% revenue growth for the year. Chief Financial Officer Roger Dassen said ASMLs clients are more worried about the global trade war now than they were in April. Our customers are more concerned about the tariffs discussion today than they were three months ago, Dassen said on a call with analysts Wednesday. Countries are in full battle mode again when it comes to tariffs. Washingtons chaotic trade policy rollout has roiled markets and made planning major spending difficult. While chips are currently exempt from the US reciprocal tariffs set to take effect on Aug. 1, President Donald Trump has said sector-specific levies on semiconductors could also be in the cards. Despite ASMLs downgraded outlook for next year, Fouquet said the companys AI customers fundamentals remain strong. A herd of more than 120 bulls has been set loose in a city as part of a free art trail. The sculptured creations, inspired by the Bullring bull, have been decorated by local artists and placed in locations across Birmingham. Organised by Birmingham Hospice in partnership with Wild in Art, the Bulls in the City trail includes 40 large fibreglass statues sponsored by businesses. Wild at Art has previously installed bear and snow dog statues across Birmingham. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The majority of larger bulls will be found in the city centre, with four on Harborne High Street and three on Boldmere High Street. Each features a unique design, such as murals celebrating local history, while others have been transformed to look like dragons or tigers. There is also a version of Ozzy, the giant mechanical bull featured in the city's opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games. Eighty-eight mini bulls, created by schools and groups as part of a community programme, can be found in Birmingham Hospice shops and other city-centre venues. Kieron Reilly, pictured with wife Lynsey, said they had "just got nothing but amazing words to say about this hospice" [BBC] One bull from married couple Lynsey and Kieron Reilly, Heart of Gold, is a tribute to Mr Reilly's grandfather, Brian, who the hospice cared for in 2022, and the medical staff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kieron Reilly said: "[My grandfather] was just offered such amazing care. They gave him such dignity and kindness as well and like the family just have nothing but amazing words to say about the care." Hannah Gabriel's bull is called Disco [BBC] Another artist, Hannah Gabriel, who had never done a Wild in Art sculpture before, told BBC Radio WM: "To work on something 3D and to see it come to life, I worry... [thinking] 'oh well, this isn't perfect'. "The public will not see those things, but it's a perfectionist mind of being an artist I think." Of her pink creation Disco, she said she "got inspired a little bit by a 70s vibe" and it had a quote saying "'take more chances and dance more dances". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I think it's just fun to be happy, dancy and colourful." Ms Gabriel had not done a Wild in Art sculpture before [BBC] Hospice chief executive Paul Bytheway, who asked trail visitors to consider donating, said a positive impact of the project had been to educate the community about the charity's work, which he estimated would cost 19m this year. "We are not fully funded by the NHS, and we heavily rely on voluntary income," he said. The bronze statue of a bull outside Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre inspired the art trail [Getty Images] The trail runs for eight weeks until 14 September, after which the sculptures will be auctioned to raise money for Birmingham Hospice. Maps are available digitally on a Bulls in the City app or can be collected from locations across the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. More on this story Related internet links The Brief FOX 10 has learned White Mountain Apache Tribe Chairman Kasey Velasquez is under investigation. The investigation stems from an alleged incident in June that reportedly involved an employee of the tribe. A special meeting was originally scheduled to be held regarding the matter, but sources say that meeting has since been canceled. NAVAJO COUNTY, Ariz. - FOX10 Investigates has confirmed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs that officials are investigating Kasey Velasquez, the chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, over serious allegations. So far, details of the actual incident are unknown. What they're saying Multiple sources tell FOX10 that an employee of the tribe is the alleged victim and that the incident happened back in June during work hours. BIA could not elaborate but released a statement on July 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As a matter of policy, we do not comment on ongoing investigations. However, we can confirm that we are actively investigating the matter," said Victoria Humphreys, a spokesperson for the Office of Public Affairs. FOX10 has reached out to Velasquez and his office. His legal counsel responded with this statement. "At this time out of respect for the investigation to which the Chairman is cooperating fully, he will not be making any statement to the media. We look forward to a rapid conclusion to the investigation so that the Chairman can continue to address important Tribal matters along with his fellow council members," said Kurt Altman with Altman Law & Policy. The Arizona Indian Gaming Association sent me this statement regarding Kasey Velasquez, White Mountain Apache Chairman who was elected as AIGAs Chairman this year. Officials are aware of BIA probe. REPORT: https://t.co/Doz7tQpkPHhttps://t.co/7No42o9Uofpic.twitter.com/xQslJX2g67 Justin Lum | (@jlumfox10) July 17, 2025 Dig deeper Duties for a tribal chairperson as the elected leader of the tribes government include overseeing the administration and day-to-day operations of the tribe. Policy decisions, resources and relations with federal and state governments fall under the chairs responsibilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Velasquez was elected as chairman in 2022 and served as the vice chairman for four years after being elected in 2014. Kasey Velasquez, the chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. What's next A special meeting was scheduled to be held by the tribal council to address what will be done next. However, sources say the meeting has since been canceled. BURLINGAME, Calif. (KRON) Business owners in Burlingame are facing eviction as they have been given until August 31 to vacate their premises on Broadway. The eviction notice caught the owners of Que SeRaw SeRaw and Cafe Capuchino by surprise, leaving them uncertain about their future. Theres no plan, theres no building plan, theres no verbalization of whats going on why weve been asked to leave, said Eric Liittschwager, owner of Que SeRaw SeRaw. Aster Legesse, owner of Cafe Capuchino, expressed her concerns, saying, This is the only income we have for our apartment and our coffee shop to pay. Now we are empty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Ro Khanna doubles down on effort to force release of Epstein files Que SeRaw SeRaw has been a staple on Broadway for about 20 years, offering vegan options like their bajah burger and burritos. Cafe Capuchino, owned by Aster Legesse and her husband, has been serving the community for over 30 years since they immigrated from Ethiopia. Customers like Paul Bartke have expressed their disappointment, noting the unique atmosphere and friendly service at Cafe Capuchino. A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to support Cafe Capuchino, raising over $7,400 to help with relocation costs. Despite the uncertainty, both business owners hope to find new locations. KRON4 reached out to the owners of the building for comment. We have not yet heard back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KRON4. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KRON4 staff before being published. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A Biden-era rule that would have wiped medical debt from millions of Americans credit reportsand boosted scores nationwidehas been struck down. A federal judge sided with a lawsuit from a major credit union challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus authority to implement the change. Chief Business Correspondent Taylor Young explains what the decision means for consumers still burdened by medical bills. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. BRANSON, Mo. Shannon Huen moved to the Branson area from Oklahoma a few years ago, a place she felt called to. God brought me and my family here to make a difference in Branson, Huen said. Huen has been hopeful to make an impact and she says she found success early on with a food truck, and used that success to set up a storefront to better serve customers and be a part of something bigger. However, what she didnt see coming was the impact from a several-month-long construction project just feet from her door. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huen says the construction work has brought stress and anxiety to her door. My customers mean everything to me, but I have to make decisions that Im forced into making, because at five and a half hours into my day, Ive made $48. I dont care what business you are, nobody can survive on that, Huen said. OzarksFirst spoke to other businesses around the construction zone, where one employee says her hours have been slashed due to the lack of customers. Another business owner says off-camera, theyre losing about 25% of their revenue each week as construction goes on. Up Main Street, Samantha Krikorian, who works at Kilroys, has already been through a phase of construction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She says there were some financial setbacks, but says the project was worth the wait. Just keep hanging in there because its going to get better. And I promise whats to come when it opens back up, its going to be definitely worth it. Across the street from Kilroys is Stacy Brennans As Seen on TV store, where Brennan says she had a much different experience during the construction. I was doing $30 to $50 a day in sales and I was not able to come up with my rent, I warehouse, rent my electricity and my income because this is my only income, Brennan said. Brennan says the work was needed, but the planning could have been better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not completely finished. They havent done the lights or anything yet, but it does. Its a big improvement, especially the roads and the sidewalks were kind of getting tattered, so we did need it done, Brennan said. But, they picked a bad time to do it. OzarksFirst reached out to City of Branson leaders for a response to the concerns of local business owners. The statement response from city officials says, The Downtown Streetscape Project is an important infrastructure investment that reflects our commitment to strengthening the foundation of Bransons historic downtown. While we recognize that construction presents short-term challenges, especially for our valued downtown businesses, the improvements underway are laying the foundation for long-term success, safety, and vitality in our historic district. This project is about more than aesthetics. We are replacing decades-old underground utilities, upgrading sidewalks for greater accessibility, improving lighting, and enhancing the overall experience for residents, visitors, and business owners alike. These updates are critical to ensuring that downtown Branson remains a vibrant, thriving destination well into the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout both planning and construction, the City has remained committed to minimizing disruption and supporting our downtown businesses every step of the way. From offering $120,000 in incentives for early completion and authorizing 24-hour work schedules for the contractors, to coordinating free parking and adjusting timelines to support local sales seasons. We are working hand-in-hand with the community to keep downtown accessible and active. Were grateful for the patience and partnership of our downtown business owners and remain focused on delivering a stronger and safer downtown. One that honors its historic charm while meeting the needs of the future. The project is expected to be completed no later than October 15. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com. CA Senate Passes Bill that Will Allow LA to Buy Fire Ravaged Lots to Build Low Income Housing originally appeared on L.A. Mag. LA will be allowed to use property taxes to buy fire ravaged lots as a way to build multi-unit, low income housing Courtesy of Eli Young California lawmakers are set to meet on Wednesday at the State House to discuss a new law moving through the legislature that will allow Los Angeles to buy lots leveled by deadly and devastating wildfires to build low-income housing. Senate Bill 549 would allow property taxes to fund what lawmakers are calling Resilient Rebuilding Authorities" that could buy ruined land and obtain loans to rebuild. Under existing law, according to the legislation, "the Second Neighborhood Infill Finance and Transit Improvements Act, or NIFTI-2, authorizes a city, county, or city and county to adopt a resolution, at any time before or after the adoption of the infrastructure financing plan for an enhanced infrastructure financing district, to allocate tax revenues of that entity to the district, including revenues derived from local sales and use taxes," Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Per the legislation, "the infrastructure financing plan requires that at least 40 percent of the total funds received by the district pursuant to this section be used for the acquisition, construction, or rehabilitation of housing, including the costs of predevelopment and land acquisition, for households with incomes below 60 percent of area median income for rent or purchase." The infrastructure financing plan passed by the Senate also "requires that 50 percent of the housing funds are used to develop housing affordable to and occupied by households with incomes below 60 percent and greater than 30 percent of area median income, and 50 percent of the housing funds are used for either housing affordable to and occupied by households with incomes below 30 percent of area median income or permanent supportive housing to help homeless persons get off the street." The two separate ideas open the door for the development of multi-unit low-income housing on lots where single family homes once stood in Altadena, Pacific Palisades, and other devastated areas. Separately, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he has allocated $101 million in taxpayer funds to jumpstart the building of more low-income housing, as homeowners who lost everything have been slow to rebuild. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Los Angeles has taken significant steps to rebuild after Januarys fires, but the devastation is significant and there remains a long road ahead. Thousands of families from Pacific Palisades to Altadena to Malibu are still displaced and we owe it to them to help," Newsom said adding that by funding the bill, the state can "accelerate the development of affordable multifamily rental housing so that those rebuilding their lives after this tragedy have access to a safe, affordable place to come home to." Tomiquia Moss, Secretary of the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, said those monies will "accelerate household stability, climate, and health outcomes," in the once vibrant neighborhoods where fire ripped through more than 5,000 homes in the Palisades, roughly 340 along the Pacific Ocean in Malibu, and more than 6,000 homes in Altadena. The state, Moss said, will continue to "galvanize the collective public-private response to the wildfires in Los Angeles County," by "expediting and expanding opportunities to build affordable housing for low-income residents." This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. HARRISON County, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) The Greater Caddo Lake Association of Texas is hosting a cleanup event on Caddo Lake. Caddo Lake, named for the Caddo Indian tribe, is the only natural lake in Texas and home to the largest Cypress forest in the world. Caddo is over 26,000 acres, harbors over 70 species of fish, and is home to more than 200 species of birds. Birds of prey get a second chance at life in the wild along Caddo Lake Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Caddo is not just important for its ecology. Due to its location on the Texas-Louisiana border, Caddo is a popular destination for recreation in both states, attracting a large number of tourists to hike, kayak, and fish each year. Texas and Louisiana cooperate to make the lake as accessible as possible. While a fishing license from the state you are in is required to fish from the shore, a license from either state grants access to the entire lake. Texas also lets everyone fish without a license at all state park,s thanks to a program by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. More about our environment This event includes giveaways, a live band, and Yalls Place food truck. Participants will help remove trash from the lake. Public waterways belong to everyone. This is an opportunity to contribute to the upkeep of a public resource. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The event will take place on Saturday, July 19. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. and the event starts at 10:00 a.m. Bring your boat to Johnsons Ranch Marina and help keep the lake clean for everyone to enjoy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Looking to add a furry friend to your family? The Caddo Parish Animal Shelter is partnering with Hollywood Feed for a special pet adoption event this weekend. The event will take place at Hollywood Feed located at 1384 E. 70th Street, Suite 100 in Shreveport from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The event gives potential pet parents a chance to meet dogs and cats in need of loving homes. Shelter representatives will be on-site to help with the adoption process, answer questions and share details about the pet youre interested in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whether youre ready to adopt or just thinking about it, you are invited to stop by and meet some adorable adoptable animals. For more information, contact Caddo Parish Animal Services at (318) 226-6624. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. Police used social media graphics in multiple languages to educate about sexual consent ahead of the popular Calgary Stampede festival in Alberta province. Online claims that the messages about assault were targeted specifically to Arabic and Hindi speakers are misleading; the campaign was not published in Hindi, and the Arabic advisory joined similar messages published in Canadas official languages of English and French, among others. "The old Canada is gone. Police now has to ask foreigners in other languages not to r@pe people," says a July 13, 2025 post on X. The post includes a screenshot of an article with the headline: "Police warned Stampede-goers of sexual assault in Arabic, Hindi." The screenshotted text says the Calgary Police Service (CPS) issued written warnings in the two languages as part of a public safety campaign before the Calgary Stampede, an annual rodeo exhibition and festival in Alberta's largest city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similar claims appeared on X and Facebook, with some posts implying that the advisories were not presented in English or French. Screenshot of an X post taken July 14, 2025 Screenshot of a Facebook post taken July 14, 2025 The posts spread after a series of stabbings disrupted the event July 8, according to a press release and local media reports (archived here). Previously, a 2023 class-action lawsuit alleging that Calgary Stampede allowed a performance school staffer to sexually abuse students prompted lawmakers to call for more accountability from all levels of government. As Canada's years-long immigration consensus has broken down, AFP has repeatedly debunked misinformation accusing newcomers of committing crimes or unfairly exploiting social benefits. The latest posts claiming that police specifically urged Arabic and Hindi speakers to avoid committing sexual assault are similarly misleading. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The headline in the posts comes from an article from Juno News, a current-events blog founded by leaders from the conservative alternative media outlets True North and The Counter Signal -- the latter of which has previously propagated misleading claims (archived here). In the article, the word "Arabic" links to a series of messages CPS shared on X covering event safety and predatory behavior. The first post in the thread is written in English, however (archived here). The connected posts repeat the same information in 11 other languages, including Arabic, French, Spanish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Screenshot of an X thread taken July 15, 2025 Despite the claims online, a message in Hindi does not appear in the thread. Punjabi -- which uses similar characters and is also widely spoken in India -- is featured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mention of "Hindi" in the article links to a personal X account that reshared a separate CPS information campaign, which was also broadcast in English, Punjabi and Arabic (archived here). The Juno News article is behind a paywall, so AFP was not able to review whether the text goes on to explain that the campaign was also shared in Canada's official languages. But the social media posts sharing the headline did not include this context. CPS told AFP it often translates social media posts to reach as many residents as possible with its messaging. "We typically translate communications in English and 12 additional languages, which are chosen based on the literacy rates of Calgarians," the service said in a July 14 email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AFP found other CPS information campaigns covering sexual assault, a police impersonation scam and elder abuse, all shared in several languages including English and French (archived here, here and here). CPS also told AFP it shared the messaging about sexual consent in an effort to raise awareness during large events, which can create higher risk for assault. Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here. NEED TO KNOW 21 children some of whom were birthed by surrogate mothers were placed in protective custody amid an investigation involving allegations of child abuse and child neglect The case came to light on May 7 when officers with the Arcadia Police Department learned that a two-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital with a traumatic head injury and intracranial bleeding Arrest warrants were issued for Silvia Zhang, Guojun Xuan and Chunmei Li 21 children some of whom were birthed by surrogate mothers were placed in protective custody amid an investigation involving allegations of child abuse and child neglect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case came to light on May 7 when officers with the Arcadia Police Department learned that a two-month-old boy was admitted to the hospital with a traumatic head injury and intracranial bleeding. Police traced the infant to a multi-million-dollar home in the 600 block of West Camino Real Avenue in Arcadia. Inside the home, police allegedly found 15 children between the ages of two months and 13-years-old. There were at least six nannies taking care of the children at the residence when officers arrived. The home was set up to basically homeschool the younger children," Arcadia Police Lt. Kollin Cieadlo tells PEOPLE. "There were classroom settings and there were areas for the children to play and eat and things like that. It was very much focused on education. It appeared that a lot of time was spent as a group with all the children and the nannies going through education type materials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers found an additional six children they say are related to the investigation at other residences within Los Angeles County. The majority of the kids were probably within the one- to three-year age range, Cieadlo says. Police obtained surveillance footage which allegedly showed one of the nannies employed by the childs parents Silvia Zhang, 38, and 65-year-old Guojun Xuan violently shaking and striking the two-month-old boy on May 5, per an Arcadia Police Department press release. Police said the infant wasnt transported to the hospital for another two days. Arcadia Police Department Chunmei Li Chunmei Li The couple was arrested on charges of felony child endangerment/neglect and booked at the Arcadia Police Department Jail. They've since been released on bail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An arrest warrant has also been issued for the 56-year-old nanny Chunmei Li though her whereabouts remain unknown, per the press release. Investigators believe that some of the children were born through surrogacy. Silvia was able to produce birth certificates showing her as the mother for the children," says Cieadlo. "We don't believe that she birthed all these children, the age range would make it impossible. There's just too many and too close in age for her to have done that. We do know that at least a few of the children were born through surrogacy. Cieadlo says the couple ran a surrogacy business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were aware that they were running a surrogacy business, but we don't know the extent of that, he alleges, adding that the priority and focus right now is related to the child abuse side of things. It's almost like a two-phase investigation," he says. "The first phase is securing charges. And then the second phase is going to be looking at kind of where the surrogacy business takes us. We're going to be working with the feds on that side of it. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Kallie Fell, executive director for the Center for Bioethics & Culture, tells PEOPLE she has been working with a Texas woman named Kayla, who was allegedly hired by the couple as a surrogate. Fell claims that Kayla was not the only surrogate hired for the intended parents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Halfway through her pregnancy, other women reached out... and they started talking, and they found out that there were many different women who were pregnant at the same time as Kayla with a baby for the same intended parents... and then not only that, but one of the babies had been harmed by a nanny and Child Protective Services was involved. Fell says Kayla is currently seeking to get custody of the baby she gave birth to on March 13. It was something I never would have expected to happensomething almost unbelievable unless youre living it, Kayla told KTLA5. It's a very unique case that myself and our agency has not dealt with in the past, says Cieadlo. We handle child abuse cases regularly but this, with the sheer volume and the number of children present, it is definitely a unique situation that is an in depth and involved case that's going to take some time to get to the bottom of. Read the original article on People When a pair of 18k gold diamond earrings from jeweler Cartier popped up on the Instagram feed of Rogelio Villarreal, 27, of Tamaulipas, Mexico, he couldn't resist: They were priced at just $13. "I swear I broke out in a cold sweat," Villarreal said, according to The New York Times. He ordered two pairs, but within a week, Cartier started trying to cancel the order. A Cartier representative called him and said the earrings "were not at the correct price ($13,000) ... and that because of the inconvenience, they would give me a gift," he said -- a bottle of champagne and a leather Cartier item. Instead, Villarreal complained to Mexico's Office of the Federal Prosecutor for the Consumer. Ahead of a scheduled hearing in early May, Cartier contacted Villarreal and said the earrings would be delivered. [NY Times, 4/28/2024] SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's central bank on Tuesday proposed to scrap surcharges on most debit and credit card payments for consumers while lowering interchange fees paid by businesses, steps it estimated would save the two groups around A$2.4 billion ($1.57 billion) a year. In a consultation paper on the proposals, the Reserve Bank of Australia said surcharges and fees were no longer in the public interest and invited feedback from interested parties by August 26. The RBA judged that surcharges on debit and credit cards, including Mastercard and Visa, no longer achieved the intended purpose of steering consumers to make more efficient payment choices. The RBA said avoiding surcharges had become harder as cash usage declined and there were challenges with enforcing the current rules. The central bank's most recent triennial consumer payments survey found that the share of consumer payments made in cash had fallen from around 70% by number in 2007 to 13% in 2022. "Removing surcharging would make card payments simpler, more transparent and help to increase competition in the card payments system," the RBA said. Capping and lowering interchange fees, which merchants' banks pay to cardholders' banks, would benefit around 90% of Australian businesses, the RBA said. Cutting interchange caps would benefit small businesses the most, while putting caps on foreign interchange fees would help to lower fees for all businesses accepting international cards. Alan Machet, group country manager for Visa Oceania, welcomed action on consumer surcharges but argued interchange fees were needed to fund investment in innovation and fraud protection. A Mastercard spokesperson welcomed the RBA's proposal to ban surcharges on domestic card transactions, adding the company would take time to carefully consider all of the recommendations. The RBA also proposed to require card networks to publish the interchange fees they charge, making it easier for businesses to shop around for a better deal. The central bank said it intends to publish its conclusions and an implementation timeline for any regulatory steps by the end of the year. American Express has a separate agreement with the RBA and is not subject to interchange rules. ($1.5288 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Jamie Freed) The Merced (California) County Department of Environmental Health inspected 10 businesses during July, and it didn't turn out well for a few of them. Of the 10, three businesses failed the inspections, with two stores being a 7-Eleven in Merced and Villa's Taqueria in Los Banos. But a Five Below store located in Los Banos was hit hard after the inspection. According to Nicholas Corral of The Merced Sun-Star, the store received 21 inspection points to receive an unsatisfactory rating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To make things worse, 14 of those points were due to "rodents contaminating products." "The store received 14 points for rodents contaminating products, including leaving debris in the front of the store as well as leaving excrement and chewing through boxes in the back. This score was enough for Five Below to receive an unsatisfactory rating on its own," Corral wrote. That's not a good look for the store. To go further, Five Below didn't have the 2025 health permit or its recent health inspection. There was also prepackaged food being stored in the restroom. The 7-Eleven in Merced on R Street also received 21 points from the inspection, although it didn't have rodents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the 7-Eleven did have some repeat violations, such as not being able to confirm if the store had a food safety manager class certificate and soda syrup being accumulated on the floor. Related: KFC Responds to Latest Rankings With Big Promotion California Bargain Store Busted for Rodent Contamination first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 Surrogate moms from Texas to Florida thought they were carrying a baby for a Southern California couple struggling to have a second child due to infertility. Then, the women discovered they were all surrogates for the same couple, some at the same time, with the babies now in foster care. Twenty-one children have been taken into protective custody in total. Kayla, a 27-year-old from Texas, was among the women who decided to become surrogates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I love being pregnant but was done growing my own family, so I thought what better way to experience pregnancy at the same time as grow their family, Kayla told KTLA 5 News. Through an agency called Mark Surrogacy, Kayla was matched with a couple in Arcadia, California. After a successful embryo transfer via IVF, she gave birth to their baby on March 13. Two months later, Kayla was shocked to learn the baby she carried was no longer with the intended parents. The child had been placed in foster care. It was something I never would have expected to happensomething almost unbelievable unless youre living it, she said. Booking photos of Guojun Xuan, Silvia Zhang Kayla later found out that the baby she carried wasnt the only one removed from the home. Multiple children had been taken into protective custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KTLA spoke with three other women who say they were also surrogates for the same Arcadia couple one who delivered in Florida in June tragically that baby was stillborn. Two Los Angeles County surrogates say they also carried for this couple, one who gave birth in March, another who had two babies: one in 2022, another in 2024. The women say they all worked with Mark Surrogacy. Public records list an Arcadia home as the address for Mark Surrogacy and also as the residence of Silvia Zhang, the woman the surrogates say they carried for. In early May, Arcadia police launched a child abuse investigation, responding to that same home after a two-month-old baby was hospitalized with head trauma. Arcadia police say the babys legal parents, Silvia Zhang, 38, and Guojun Xuan, 65, were arrested on suspicion of felony child endangerment/neglect with warrants served on May 9. They were later released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police allege a nanny abused the baby, and the parents delayed seeking medical care for two days. The Department of Children and Family Services also investigated and removed all children from the couples custody, 21 children in total. Police say the children range in age from two months to 13 years old, most being babies and toddlers. The Arcadia, California home belonging to Guojun Xuan and Silvia Zhang is shown in July 2025. (KTLA) They also told KTLA that Silvia Zhang was able to show that she is the legal mom on all of their birth certificates. In recent months, Mark Surrogacy has filed paperwork to terminate the company, according to public records. But a surrogate in Pennsylvania, who asked to remain anonymous due to contractual restrictions, says she is currently pregnant with a child for Mark Surrogacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are carrying for Mark Surrogacy, and we are 26 weeks, she told KTLA. It really hit hard when all of this came through. Via a text message from a phone associated with Zhang, KTLA was told, Any accusations of wrongdoing are misguided and wrong. We look forward to vindicating any such claims at the appropriate time when and if any actions are brought. The baby who was allegedly abused in early May remains hospitalized. While the parents have been arrested, police say they have not been able to locate the nanny accused of injuring the child. Arcadia Police allege that 56-year-old Chunmei Li was captured on home security video violently shaking the baby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the 21 children removed, 15 were from the Arcadia home and six from another location where they were receiving childcare at the time. Police also say they have evidence of additional abuse involving other nannies, and plan to present their findings to the District Attorney soon. Kayla has started a GoFundMe campaign for legal fees so she can try to get custody of the child she delivered, and says she has been interviewed by the FBI. KTLA reached out to the FBI, but they said they could neither confirm nor deny an investigation. DCFS also declined to release any specifics or comment on the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. (FOX40.COM) As part of the ongoing investigation into the cause of the Esparto Pyrotechnics facility explosion that left seven people dead, the California state marshal announced a suspension of licenses for two people connected to the business. While our arson and bomb investigators have completed their evidence collection from the explosion site, the investigation remains very active, said California State Fire Marshal Chief Daniel Berlant. We continue to remain laser-focused on this investigation as the family and the community deserve answers. The effort to find the cause can take time, and it is our responsibility to ensure we provide a thorough and accurate investigation. Law enforcement raid several locations amid Yolo County fireworks facility explosion Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement comes two weeks after the explosion. On July 1, the Yolo County facility was illegally storing fireworks when, for unknown reasons, it exploded and killed seven people. Cal Fire determined Kenneth Chee of Devastating Pyrotechnics Inc. and Craig Cutright of Blackstar Fireworks are connected to the facility and both of their licenses were suspended. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) Two California Republican state lawmakers launched a campaign Wednesday to place a measure on the 2026 ballot that would require voter identification and proof of citizenship at the polls. The proposal would require the state to verify proof of citizenship when a person registers to vote, and voters would have to provide identifications at the polls. Those who vote through mail-in ballots would have to give the last four digits of a government-issued ID such as a Social Security number. We do not want to make it harder to vote. In fact, our initiative makes it easier to vote because it streamlines the process to verify someones identity, Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, who's leading the effort, said at a Wednesday news conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Republican lawmakers said the measure would help restore trust in elections where they said people have complained about outdated voter rolls and an inadequate signature review process, with some also casting doubt on election results. The effort was not new. DeMaio unsuccessfully attempted to place a similar measure requiring voter identification on the ballot the last election. While voting by noncitizens has occurred, research and reviews of state cases have shown it to be rare and typically a mistake rather than an intentional effort to sway an election. Voter fraud is also rare. California is among 14 states and the District of Columbia that do not require voters to show some form of identification at the polls or to register to vote. The California campaign came as congressional Republicans were working to advance their own legislation to overhaul the nation's voting procedures at the urging of President Donald Trump. Across the country, lawmakers in 17 states have introduced legislation this year to require proof of citizenship for voters, according to National Conference of State legislatures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Opponents argued that such requirements make it more difficult for people to vote, especially the elderly, those with disabilities and those without drivers licenses. Democrats in the California Legislature, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, in April rejected a bill by DeMaio aiming to enact similar voting rule changes. The statewide proposal also came as the state continued to challenge a local measure passed by voters in the city of Huntington Beach to require voter identification at the polls. The state last year sued the city over the new rule, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law to prohibit local governments in California from establishing and enforcing laws that require residents provide identification to vote in elections. Sen. Tony Strickland, who helped pass the Huntington Beach measure as a city councilmember last year, said he expects a similar fight from state Democrats over the issue. The courts would be on our side because we carefully drafted this initiative. It's constitutional, he said. U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on July 15 welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump's latest plan to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine, endorsing the president's 50-day ultimatum to end the conflict or face sweeping new sanctions. In a post on X, the South Carolina Republican praised Trump's announcement that NATO allies would finance U.S.-made weapons for Ukraine, calling it "welcome news," as well as the U.S. president's pledge to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries continuing to purchase cheap Russian oil. Trump warned on July 14 that the United States will impose "severe" tariffs on Russia if it does not agree to a deal to end the war in Ukraine within 50 days, calling them "secondary tariffs" during a joint press conference at the White House with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and others are wondering what happens on day 51, I would suggest they call the Ayatollah," Graham wrote, seemingly alluding to recent U.S. air strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. The U.S. conducted air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan on June 21, an attack Trump later hailed as a "spectacular success." .@POTUS' announcement yesterday about sending American-made weapons - paid for by Europeans - to Ukraine through NATO was welcome news. Equally important was his statement that if the fighting had not ended in 50 days, he would impose up to 100% tariffs on countries buying Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) July 15, 2025 Iran has been Russia's key ally in its war against Ukraine, providing drones and missiles. Tehran has helped Moscow develop weapons of its own, with Russia's Geran drone being modelled after the Iranian Shahed drone. "If I were a country buying cheap Russian oil, propping up Putin's war machine, I would take President Trump at his word," Graham said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oil remains one of Russia's key resources for funding its large-scale war against Ukraine. According to the Kyiv School of Economics, Russia may earn up to $163 billion in 2025 and $159 billion in 2026 unless additional measures are introduced. Trump's 50-day deadline is aimed at forcing Moscow to negotiate an end to its invasion of Ukraine. While Trump's proposed 100% tariffs fall short of a bipartisan Senate proposal advocating for 500% duties, the announcement marked a significant shift from his previous reluctance to confront Russia directly. "Im disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago," Trump said on July 14. "But it doesn't seem to get there." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In recent weeks, Russia has ramped up its aerial attacks across Ukrainian cities, defying Western calls for a ceasefire. Graham, one of Trump's closest Republican allies in the Senate, has long supported a tougher stance on Russia and Iran. Read also: Trumps big Russia announcement fails to lift spirits in a fatigued Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. President Donald Trump released a blistering statement on the continuing Jeffrey Epstein saga, blaming Democrats, referring to the scandal as bulls**t, and calling those who care about the investigation, including his supporters, weaklings. The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again, the post began. It went on to compare the scandal with the Steele Dossier and included digs at Hillary Clinton, Hunter Biden, and the Democrats policies. Trump called the scandal a SCAM by the Democrats, referring to it as the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My PAST supporters have bought into this bulls**t, Trump wrote. Hook, line, and sinker. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, he continued. I dont want their support anymore! Trumps statement, posted to Truth Social, is the latest in the presidents continued efforts to mitigate the extreme political fallout from his administrations findings on the Epstein case. At a press conference in the Oval Office later on Wednesday, Trump doubled down on his statement. It was a hoax, he told reporters. Its all been a hoax perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net I call it the Epstein hoax. Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course. MAGA world has been thrown into chaos since Attorney General Pam Bondis memo denying the existence of Epsteins client list. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with the incredulity from his base, calling concerned supporters selfish. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Are you still talking about Epstein? Trump asked reporters in a cabinet meeting on July 8. This guy has been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this creep? I cant believe youre asking a question about Epstein. The post I call it the Epstein hoax: Trump attacks MAGA weaklings appeared first on Salon.com. PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) Cambodia on Wednesday said that an order by Prime Minister Hun Manet for government bodies to crackdown on criminal cybercrime operations being run in the country had resulted in the arrest of more than 1,000 suspects so far this week. Hun Manet issued the order authorising state action for maintaining and protecting security, public order, and social safety. The government has observed that online scams are currently causing threats and insecurity in the world and the region. In Cambodia, foreign criminal groups have also infiltrated to engage in online scams, Hun Manets statement, dated Tuesday, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United Nations and other agencies estimate that cyberscams, most of them originating from Southeast Asia, earn international criminal gangs billions of dollars annually. More than 1,000 suspects were arrested in raids in at least five provinces between Monday and Wednesday, according to statements from Information Minister Neth Pheaktra and police. Those detained included more than 200 Vietnamese, 27 Chinese, and 75 suspects from Taiwan and 85 Cambodians in the capital Phnom Penh and the southern city of Sihanoukville. Police also seized equipment, including computers and hundreds of mobile phones. At least 270 Indonesians, including 45 women, were arrested Wednesday in Poipet, a town on the border with Thailand notorious for cyberscam and gambling operations, the minister said. Elsewhere, police in the northeastern province of Kratie arrested 312 people, including nationals of Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam, while 27 people from Vietnam, China and Myanmar were arrested in the western province of Pursat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amnesty International last month published the findings of an 18-month investigation into cybercrime in Cambodia, which the human rights group said point towards state complicity in abuses carried out by Chinese criminal gangs. The Cambodian government is deliberately ignoring a litany of human rights abuses including slavery, human trafficking, child labor and torture being carried out by criminal gangs on a vast scale in more than 50 scamming compounds located across the country, it said. Human trafficking is closely associated with cyberscam operations, as workers are often recruited under false pretences and then held captive. Deceived, trafficked and enslaved, the survivors of these scamming compounds describe being trapped in a living nightmare enlisted in criminal enterprises that are operating with the apparent consent of the Cambodian government, Amnesty Internationals Secretary General Agnes Callamard said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cambodia's latest crackdown comes in the midst of a bitter feud with neighboring Thailand, which began with a brief armed skirmish in late May over border territory claimed by both nations and has now led to border closures and nearly daily exchanges of nationalistic insults. Friendly former leaders of both countries have become estranged and there have been hot debates over which nations cultural heritage has influenced the other. Measures initiated by the Thai side, including cutting off cross-border electricity supplies and closing crossing points, have particularly heightened tensions, with Cambodia claiming they were churlish actions of spite to retaliate for its intention to pursue its territorial claims. Thailand said its original intention was to combat long-existing cyberscam operations in Poipet. Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report. DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) A Georgia man faces attempted homicide and other charges from a weekend stabbing in Dauphin County, court documents show. The charges filed by Susquehanna Township Police show, Anthony Alvarado, 29, is accused of stabbing his former roommate at a residence on Lucknow Road in Susquehanna Township just after 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Police said in a criminal complaint that Alvarado and the victim had past issues prior to the stabbing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Livestream Alerts The complaint shows, officers responded to the scene and found Alvarado after they got a report that he allegedly stabbed another man and was trying to leave. Alvarado tried running away, but police were able to tase him and place him into custody, police said. When asked to identify himself, police said Alvarado kept saying he didnt know his name, but officers were able to find his drivers license. It was noted in the complaint that he had latex gloves on at the time of his arrest. The victim was bleeding from his abdomen, but was able to talk with police at the scene. He told officers that Alvarado allegedly stabbed him with a black collapsible pocket knife, which police said was found on Alvarado. There was no blood on the knife, but there was some on Alvarados jeans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cumberland County man accused of raping woman while out on bail The complaint shows that, after the victim was taken to the hospital, he was able to tell police further details of the assault, and also about the issues between them. When Alvarado arrived at the home, he said multiple threatening statements like I came here for blood, and its a shame there will be two more bodies, after he found out other people were home, the victim told police. The victim also told officers that he woke up to Alvarado holding duct tape and a hammer. The duct tape was found in Alvarados backpack. Other than attempted homicide, Alvarado also faces felony charges of aggravated assault and evading arrest or detention on foot. He also faces misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, possession of a weapon, obstructing administration of law enforcement, and tampering with evidence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alvarado is in Dauphin County Prison with his bail denied by Magisterial District Judge Marian Urrutia. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 24. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. By Amindeh Blaise Atabong YAOUNDE (Reuters) -Cameroon's 92-year-old President Paul Biya, the world's oldest head of state, has overhauled the military's top ranks in what analysts say is an effort to ensure the armed forces back his bid for an eighth term after a public outcry. The personnel moves, announced late on Tuesday in a series of presidential decrees, affect nearly all branches of the armed forces. They include the appointment of new chiefs of staff for the infantry, air force and navy as well as the promotion of eight brigadier generals to the rank of major general. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the promoted generals is the coordinator of the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), a special forces unit often deployed in counter-terrorism operations and seen as central to Biya's security apparatus. The decrees also named a new special presidential military adviser. The decrees were published two days after Biya, in power since 1982, announced he would run for his eighth term in office in Cameroon's presidential election scheduled for October 12. The seven-year term could keep him in office until he is nearly 100. The announcement prompted an unprecedented public outcry in the press and on social media in Cameroon, where Biya's age and long absences have raised questions about his fitness to rule. The government has said Biya is in good health and dismissed any suggestions otherwise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decrees concerning the armed forces reflect "a strategy by President Biya and his collaborators to consolidate power by building a fortress of loyal army generals around him" that can suppress any protest to his continued rule, said Anthony Antem, peace and security analyst at the Nkafu Policy Institute in Yaounde. Celestin Delanga, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said the decrees "come in a unique political and security context." Biya wants to ensure stability during and after the election and "additional trusted personnel are needed" for that, he said. The cocoa- and oil-producing Central African nation also faces a host of serious security challenges, notably a conflict with Anglophone separatists and threats from Nigeria-based Islamist fighters in the north. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The government gave no explanation for the overhaul. The last significant military shake-up in Cameroon came just last year, shortly after Biya returned in October from his latest extended stay abroad which revived speculation about his health. (Reporting and writing by Amindeh Blaise Atabong; Editing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Aidan Lewis) Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE:LAC) is one of the best green energy penny stocks to buy right now. On June 20, BMO Capital reiterated a Market Perform rating on the stock and a $3.50 price target. The research firm remains optimistic about the companys long-term prospects, as the Thacker Pass Project remains on track. BMO Capital Affirms Market Perform on Lithium Americas (LAC) amid Thacker Pass Project Progress A close up image of a technician changing a battery cell in a lithium-based battery. The large lithium mining and processing operation in Nevada is in the early stages of development. Labor requirements are the key risk factor as Lithium Americas must increase staffing to accelerate the Thacker Pass Project development. Lithium Americas remains optimistic about securing its first Department of Energy load drawdown in the third quarter as part of its partnership with General Motors (NYSE:GM). The drawdown should strengthen the companys financial position and provide access to much-needed capital to accelerate the development of the Thacker Pass Project. Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE:LAC) is focused on the development of the Thacker Pass project in Nevada. The project aims to produce battery-grade lithium carbonate, to contribute to a domestic lithium supply chain. While we acknowledge the potential of LAC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Most Popular AI Penny Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires and 10 Best Defensive Stocks to Buy in a Volatile Market. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Travel at one of Canada's busiest airports was briefly halted Tuesday after federal police received a report that a small plane had been "hijacked," officials said. Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the western Canadian province of British Columbia said that at 1:10 pm (2010 GMT) they received a report that a Cessna 172 "had been hijacked from the Vancouver Island area and was entering into airspace near Vancouver International Airport." "The suspect was the sole occupant of the aircraft," the statement added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plane landed in Vancouver at 1:45 pm (2045 GMT) and the "suspect was arrested without incident," the RCMP said, declining to provide further details. Images published by public broadcaster CBC show the small white Cessna surrounded by security vehicles on a runway after landing in Vancouver. The CBC reported the Cessna was operated by a flying club in Victoria, the provincial capital located on Vancouver Island. Vancouver International Airport said nine inbound flights were diverted during the incident with a temporary halt to operations ordered across the airport in the West Coast city. bs/jgc Jeronimo Kataquapit, a member of Ontario's Attawapiskat First Nation, is camped outside The Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich region located in remote northern Ontario. With just a canoe and a tent, the 20-year-old and his family have travelled more than 400 kilometres to protest a provincial law that designated the area a "special economic zone" for mining. Now, Prime Minister Mark Carney's "nation-building" law - his first major piece of legislation - is poised to put even more of a spotlight on the region. Dubbed the One Canadian Economy Act, the law was passed at a time when the country is involved in a costly trade war with the United States. And while it could bring billions of investment into places like the Ring of Fire, it could also undermine indigenous nations' rights to their own land, community members fear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Ever since these laws were passed it's no longer about indigenous consultation, it's about consent," says Kataquapit. "Consent on whether you are allowed to come into our home territories, our livelihoods and build whatever you want. The time for dialogue is over, and now it's time for action." Ontario's Ring of Fire could be worth C$90bn in mineral deposits, according to media reports [Getty Images] No projects have been selected yet, but the government has hinted at a few items on its wish-list, including a pipeline along the British Columbia coast and a carbon-capture project in Alberta's oil sands. The Ring of Fire, a 5,000 square-kilometre area home to significant deposits of chromite, nickel, copper, gold, zinc, and other minerals, has also been flagged as an area ripe for development in partnership with the federal government But while Carney's legislation was considered by many to be an early victory for the new prime minister, environmental groups have raised concerns that the law, and others like it, provide shortcuts to get through existing environmental processes. Meanwhile, indigenous leaders like Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict have argued the law undermines their territorial rights. "We have environmental assessments based on indigenous teachings," says Benedict. "We consider everything: air, land, water, medicines and animals. Time and time again we see project development that has not taken indigenous knowledge into consideration, and the project has essentially failed." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consultation with indigenous communities in Canada is not a courtesy, but law. The country's constitution affirms indigenous rights, and other law requires prior and informed consent on actions that affect their land and resources. But what these consolations must entail has often been a fraught debate. Sean Fraser, Canada's justice minister, has said First Nations' consultation "stops short of a complete veto" on projects. Meanwhile, critics such as indigenous governance expert Pamela Palmater argue the Supreme Court has made it clear that merely hearing out indigenous communities is not enough. "The law is a duty to consult, accommodate concerns, and in many cases get consent," she said last month on the political podcast The Breach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When talks between the government and indigenous communities break down, it can be costly. Court documents show that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spent almost C$50m ($36m, 27m) policing resistance against pipeline projects in British Columbia. While in 2020, a Wet'suwet'en First Nation-led blockade against national railways a protest against a British Columbia pipeline project - is estimated to have cost hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars a day. Pressure is now building on the prime minister to bring indigenous groups to the table. Carney has said indigenous leadership is central to building a stronger economy, including through the One Canadian Economy Act and initiatives like the Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program. On Thursday, Carney he will sit down with First Nations leaders and later this month with Inuit and Metis groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chief of Assembly First Nations Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak told the BBC that she had requested the upcoming consultations herself. The Assembly of First Nations held a virtual forum with chiefs across Canada last week with Woodhouse Nepinak saying they are "united," and have proposed amendments to the law which they plan to bring up on Thursday. But that might be too late, for some. Chief of Nishnawbe Aski First Nation, Alvin Fiddler, has warned that Carney's law "will not apply in [their] territories". Fiddler has also called for the resignation of Greg Rickford, Ontario's Minister of Indigenous Affairs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, nine First Nations from Ontario launched a constitutional challenge arguing both Ontario's legislation, and Carney's federal law, present a "clear and present danger" to their way of life and rights to self-determination. Kate Kempton, senior legal counsel for the group, criticised the laws for giving the government "unfettered, unrestricted authority to wave a magic wand" and make development projects go forward, despite objections from indigenous communities. Meanwhile, even indigenous leaders who are typically pro-development have expressed concern. Alberta Treaty Six Nations Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais, who is part of the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group, said he is disappointed in how Ottawa has handled the "nation building" law so far. "It is 2025, First Nations need to be included in consultation, ownership and revenue sharing," he told the BBC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, some remain hopeful they can work with the government. John Desjarlais (no relation), executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network, who is Metis from Saskatchewan, said that he is optimistic. "We want economic development opportunities," said Desjarlais. "We can develop in line with our indigenous community interests, addressing our issues, advancing opportunities, and still very much being stewards of the land." GRANBY, Mass. (WWLP) A moment of silence was held on Capitol Hill Tuesday in honor of a student from Granby who was shot and killed during a DC internship earlier this month. $40,000 reward offered for information on UMass students D.C. murder Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was interning for Kansas Congressman Ron Estes on Capitol Hill at the time of his death. D.C. police say he was not the intended target of the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tuesday, on the House floor, Congressman Estes and Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal honored Eric for his commitment to a life of service. Eric Jachym was a dedicated and thoughtful and kind person who loved our country, and he gave his life in the service to others, stated Congressman Estes. Congressman Neal added, He came to the Capitol eager to learn, contribute and serve the people and this great Institution, only motivated by idealism and a commitment to public service. Calling hours will be held on Wednesday, July 16, from 4 to 8 p.m. in East Longmeadow. A funeral mass will be held Thursday at 11 a.m. at St. Cecilia Church on Main Street in Wilbraham. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. NEED TO KNOW A criminal trial against a longtime New York City carriage driver began Tuesday The carriage driver has been charged with one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty The charge is in relation to allegedly pushing his horse too far on an 84-degree day in August 2022, leading to its collapse The criminal trial against a longtime New York City carriage driver began Tuesday to determine whether he committed animal cruelty in pushing an elderly horse too far on a hot summer day in August 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ian McKeever appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday for the start of his trial, pleading not guilty to a charge for overdriving, torturing and injuring an animal, according to the Associated Press, W42ST.com and The New York Post. The outlets reported that McKeever, who has driven horses in Manhattan for more than 30 years, is set to testify later in the trial. On Tuesday, a responding New York City police sergeant and a witness who took photographs out of concern for the horses safety that day both took the stand. The horse, Ryder, died months after the Aug. 22 incident when he collapsed on a busy Manhattan street after allegedly lugging a carriage and its riders around the city for more than seven hours, according to prosecutors. It was 84 degrees the day the horse collapsed, according to the AP. Defense attorneys for McKeever, 56, argued that the horse wasnt pushed past its limits, did not show signs of exhaustion or being in distress, and simply tripped and fell. Sipa via AP Animal rights activists rally outside Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2022 Animal rights activists rally outside Manhattan District Attorney's Office in 2022 Officers and a group of citizens who stopped to help all spent an hour attempting to cool off the horse with ice and water gathered from nearby restaurants, prosecutors alleged, according to the AP. Meanwhile, the horse laid on the pavement and failed multiple times to stand back up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After an hour, Ryder eventually was able to get back up and was guided into a police trailer before being taken back to a local stable. Later, he was taken upstate, where a veterinarian determined Ryder was an elderly 26, twice the age McKeever allegedly told police, the DA's office said in 2023, and was suffering a range of ailments including heart disease and a thickened large intestine. Citing the vet, the DA's office said in 2023 that Ryder "should not have been working." He was euthanized at an upstate farm that October. Caroline Londahl-Smidt, the concerned onlooker who testified, told the six-person jury that the horse appeared to be in major distress and was struggling to carry the carriage up a hill as she witnessed McKeever allegedly grow angry with the animal, pulling and shaking its reins to get the animal to go further before collapsing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The defendant chose to press on, business as usual, and overwork Ryder," prosecutor Taylor Maurer told the jury, according to the AP. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Meanwhile, McKeevers defense attorney Raymond Loving denied that characterization. "Ryder's fall is heartbreaking, but the evidence in this case is not going to show that Ryder fell because Ian overdrove him," the defense attorney claimed. McKeever could face up to one year in prison if hes convicted of the misdemeanor animal cruelty charge, according to the outlets. He could alternatively face fines or community service, as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Animal rights activists have cited Ryder's case to rally support for banning horse carriages in New York City, renaming a bill in the City Council to phase out carriages "Ryder's Law." The move is steadfastly opposed by the union representing carriage drivers. Read the original article on People A bitter public dispute between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and the New York lawyer representing a son of drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman has raised speculation here that the deal-seeking scion of the onetime Sinaloa cartel leader may expose corrupt Mexican officials. On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said she had filed a defamation complaint in Mexico against Jeffrey Lichtman, the high-profile attorney representing Ovidio Guzman Lopez, who last week pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago to fentanyl trafficking and other crimes. He has agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors in a bid to reduce a potential life sentence. In comments after the court hearing, Lichtman labeled as absurd Sheinbaums repeated contentions that Washington should coordinate with Mexico on the case especially if, as is widely expected, Guzman Lopez spills the beans on alleged ties between Mexican officials and cartels. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an incendiary post on X, Litchman assailed the Mexican leaders corrupt office and government and charged that Sheinbaum acts more as the public relations arm of a drug trafficking organization than as the honest leader that the Mexican people deserve. Read more: How 'El Diablo,' a corrupt Mexican lawman, helped create a narco-state That sparked a flurry of denunciations from allies in Sheinbaums ruling Morena bloc, which dominates Mexican politics. Ernestina Godoy Ramos, Sheinbaums official counsel, labeled Lichtmans comments grotesque and unforgivable, breaking the ethical and legal limits of the profession. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Declared Sheinbaum: Im not going to establish a dialogue with a lawyer for [a] narco-trafficker. Lichtman also represented El Chapo now serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison in Colorado and is the attorney for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, another son of the drug lord. Like his brother, he is in U.S. custody and faces drug smuggling and other charges. Read more: What's it like to defend a Mexican cartel boss? Reputed drug lords seek lawyers in U.S. El Chapos sons, known as Los Chapitos, or the "Little Chapos," assumed responsibility for cartel dealings after their fathers arrest in 2016, prosecutors say. Guzman Lopez was extradited to the United States in 2023 after being nabbed following a shootout outside Culiacan, the Sinaloa state capital, that left almost two dozen people dead, including 10 Mexican soldiers. Two other sons of El Chapo remain in Mexico directing cartel operations, according to U.S. officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Behind the nasty contretemps between the New York barrister and la presidenta is a widespread sense here that Guzman Lopez is poised to dish a mound of dirt about Mexican politicians on the payroll of the Sinaloa cartel. He may have already done so. What else, political observers ask, could explain the special treatment that members of El Chapo's family received in the spring? In May, U.S. authorities escorted 17 members of El Chapo's extended family including his ex-wife, the mother of Ovidio and Joaquin into San Diego from Tijuana. Although the U.S. Justice Department declined to comment, Mexico's top law enforcement official said the move was probably part of a cooperation deal between Guzman Lopez and Washington. He [Ovidio] must be singing, said Guillermo Valdes Castellanos, a former intelligence chief in the administration of former President Felipe Calderon, a political adversary of Sheinbaum. I think its part of a very clear strategy by the government of Donald Trump to pressure Mexico to take action against the profound links between organized crime and and Mexican politics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While frequently praising Sheinbaum, Trump has denounced the intolerable alliance between Mexicos government and organized crime. Trump has imposed punishing tariffs on Mexico in what he calls an effort to shut down fentanyl trafficking. Though critics have called Trump's characterizations overblown, the narco-government collaboration in Mexico goes back decades. Calderon's top security official, Genaro Garcia Luna, was convicted of taking millions of dollars in bribes from Sinaloa cartel traffickers and is serving a 38-year U.S. prison sentence. Sheinbaum and her political mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, hailed the U.S. prosecution of Garcia Luna a case that exposed deep corruption among their political rivals. But the tables may now be turning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There have been no public disclosures about what Guzman Lopez may be secretly revealing to U.S. prosecutors. But speculation in Mexico has focused on the suspected crookedness of so-called narco-governors serving under the banner of Sheinbaum's dominant Morena political bloc. None have been charged. Read more: 17 members of a cartel kingpin's family were escorted into California from Mexico. Why? But even more explosive, experts say, would be any fresh allegations against Lopez Obrador, Sheinbaum's predecessor and the founder of Morena. During his six-year term, Lopez Obrador repeatedly denied unconfirmed reports of having received political donations from people tied to organized crime. By all accounts, any public airing of new accusations against Lopez Obrador from U.S. authorities could trigger a political earthquake in Mexico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "There is total uncertainty and fear in the presidency," said Jose Luis Montenegro, a Mexican journalist who wrote a book on Los Chapitos. "The politicians of Morena must be trembling." Sheinbaum has won widespread acclaim for her coolheaded approach to Trump provocations on issues such as tariffs, immigration and drug smuggling. But the Mexican president has sharply rebuked U.S. prosecutors apparent deal-making intentions with El Chapos son. She has accused U.S. authorities of hypocrisy seeking cooperation from Guzman Lopez at a time when the Trump administration has designated the Sinaloa cartel and other Mexican crime groups as terrorist organizations. "So where is their position of 'not to negotiate with terrorist groups'?" Sheinbaum asked this month. Mexican leaders are still outraged about what they call the U.S.-orchestrated kidnapping almost a year ago of Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada co-founder of El Chapo's Sinaloa cartel who is now also in custody in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mexican officials suspect that U.S. authorities recruited Joaquin Guzman Lopez to abduct El Mayo, bundle him into a private plane and fly him to an airfield outside El Paso, where U.S. agents arrested both El Mayo and Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Washington has never clarified its role in the sensational case. The apparent betrayal of El Mayo set off a civil war in the cartel pitting El Mayo loyalists against Los Chapitos that has cost hundreds of lives in Sinaloa state. Now, three top accused Sinaloa cartel capos sit in U.S. custody, and at least one, Guzman Lopez, appears keen to make a deal that could expose a web of official corruption, roiling Mexican politics. Special correspodent Cecilia Sanchez Vidal contributed to this report. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. MIDVALE, Utah (ABC4) Two residents of Remington Apartments in Midvale are mourning the loss of their two cats who were shot and killed Wednesday morning. Just before 5 a.m., police received reports of two men in a vehicle shoot a cat on the sidewalk outside an apartment complex near 7400 South and State Street. According to Sgt. Aymee Race with the Unified Police Department, officers found a cat with a fatal gunshot wound when they arrived on scene. Race says it remains unclear what the motive for the shooting could be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reportedly, two men driving a white truck opened fire and killed the cats. A witness told officials and ABC4 that a passenger reached out with a gun and shot the cat. One cat, Tiger, was adopted eight years ago. The other, named OG, was a community cat that residents say they loved. Nancy Oxsen, one of Tigers owners, was in tears upon hearing the news that her cat was killed in a drive-by shooting. She says, Its hard to fathom why somebody would want to do something like that to an innocent animal, to shoot him and kill him in cold blood and just walk away. OG was a community cat that was taken care of by multiple community members, including Ben Sponaugle. Sponaugle recalled the love the community had for OG, telling ABC4 that we got his bad teeth removed, so it wasnt a casual endeavor Tiger was tragically shot and killed Wednesday morning. (Courtesy//Kathy Thompson) OG was shot and killed Wednesday morning in Midvale. (Courtesy//Tina Walters) Currently, the two men are still on the loose. Animal control is now in charge of the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for Tigers family and the community that took care of OG, they are mourning the loss of their cats, Kathy Thompson, Tigers other owner, says, You know, I have to wonder, is he going to try and kill our other cats? Is he stalking our home? He better not be. No other animals have been harmed in the area, officials confirm. Bayan Wang contributed to this reporting. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. KANSAS CITY, Mo. After a one-day trial, a Leavenworth man has been found guilty of arson after attempting to set a house on fire back in 2024. Mark Rhode, 63, has been convicted of both arson and criminal damage to a property after attempting to set the home on fire with a can of hair spray and other flammable materials, according to police. Kansas City police investigating second deadly shooting in south Kansas City Tuesday Mugshot of Mark Rhode, courtesy of Leavenworth County Sheriffs Office At the time of the incident, neighbors called police when they noticed Rhodes at the property around 9 a.m. on March 28, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon arriving to the scene, officers found Rhodes standing near a broken window of the home. When asked if he broke the glass Rhodes told police, I certainly did. When asked why Rhodes was attempting to set the house on fire, he told police, Cause Im gonna burn it down. Lawmakers introduce Graham Hoffman Act for crimes against first responders A later investigation conducted by firefighters, revealed a burnt piece of tissue inside the house just below the broken window. At the scene, police found a bottle of hairspray and other flammable materials. Setting fire to someones home is reckless. Were grateful for the quick response from law enforcement and firefighters following a call to police, said Leavenworth County Attorney Todd Thompson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rhode is scheduled to be sentenced on August 22 at 11 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. President Trump's future presidential library has a growing list of corporate sponsors, and Democratic lawmakers are sounding alarms. To settle Trump's lawsuit over edits to a CBS "60 Minutes" broadcast, Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to help finance the future library and cover the president's legal fees. Walt Disney Co. earlier pledged $15 million to Trump's library to resolve a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate statements about Trump by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. And this spring, the nation of Qatar donated a $400-million Boeing 747-8 luxury jetliner for Trump's use a gift that ultimately will be registered to his library, whatever form it takes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, a group of progressive lawmakers, led by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), introduced the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act, a proposed measure that would require transparency and impose restrictions on donations to presidential libraries. "This new bill will close the loopholes that allow presidential libraries to be used as a tool for corruption and bribery," Warren told reporters on a Zoom call. "Slamming the door shut on apparent corruption at the highest levels of government is an important step forward and something everyone should get behind." Read more: Paramount agrees to pay $16 million to settle Trump's CBS 60 Minutes' lawsuit For now, the lawmakers including Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) lack support from Republicans in Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the measure is needed, the lawmakers said, because there are no rules that specifically target solicitation of gifts or payments by individuals and companies to try to curry favor with the president. The bill would create a cap on contributions, prohibit donations from lobbyists and foreign governments and delay fundraising until a president leaves office, with a carve-out for nonprofits. Read more: Trump accepting luxury jetliner from Qatar raises alarm on both sides of political aisle Violators would risk criminal or civil penalties, which could equal as much as the value of the gift. The measure also would prohibit the conversion of a donation to personal use, as some have feared will happen with the acceptance of the Qatar plane. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What is Qatar getting in exchange? ... Nobody knows," Warren said. "All of this shady stuff is happening because there are essentially no rules for presidential library donations." Under the legislation, quarterly disclosures would be required. "People have a right to know who is, in effect, gaining favor with a president in office through donations to a library," Blumenthal said. "These kinds of requirements ought to apply to both Republican[s] and Democrat[s], because the donation can be problematic no matter which party the president may belong to." Critics blasted former President Clinton for pardoning late fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich after his wife donated $450,000 to Clinton's library. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: How Paramount's $16-million Trump settlement came together and could've fallen apart In addition to the CBS "60 Minutes" and ABC settlements, Facebook parent company Meta donated $22 million to Trump's library. The payment was part of Meta's $25-million settlement to a lawsuit brought after Facebook banned Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, donated $10 million. Contributions to Trump's inaugural celebrations this year that went beyond money spent are expected to be steered to the library, as well as money raised from people who want to dine with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Warren's office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Warren and others previously raised the notion that Paramount's settlement with Trump, in particular, could constitute a bribe. It has been widely believed that resolving the legal dispute with Trump was a prerequisite for getting the company's pending $8-billion merger with David Ellison's Skydance Media cleared by the Federal Communications Commission. Sign up for our Wide Shot newsletter to get the latest entertainment business news, analysis and insights. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. PROSPECT, Conn. (WTNH) For the second year in a row, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities held its Women in Government Summit to help women advance their careers. Hundreds of women who work in government gathered at Aria in Prospect on Wednesday morning. It gives us the opportunity to collaborate, to engage in great conversations, and also learning experiences, said Annatouchur Kingland, who works for the town of Bloomfield. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its about doing the right thing: Connecticut women continue to fight for equal pay They also talked about and shared the challenges many women face. Whether it is caring for their children, it could be caring for their aging parents, explained Thea Montanez, a senior advisor to Gov. Ned Lamont. So, its really challenging to figure out how to have a work-life balance. How do you care for care for your family as well as your community? Another aspect of the summit is getting to meet potential role models. Seeing, in person, women who have already succeeded in their government careers. I think its wonderful when you get together and you can see someone else doing it. If you have an interest, at least you have a source, a resource to go to talk to them about it, said Mayor Laura Hoydick (R-Stratford), who is that role model in her town. Im very fortunate in Stratford to have a lot of women leaders, directors. My public works director is a woman, health director, economic development director, finance director. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those posts, as well as public safety positions, are typically filled by men, as are most top executive jobs in government. I think it would be great to see even more women striving for leadership positions at department head levels and town manager roles as well, said Manchester Deputy Town Manager Kasia Purciello. Meeting women already in those roles is one way to help. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. LONDON (Reuters) -Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey stressed the importance of international cooperation to achieve finance stability, saying in a letter to G20 policymakers on Monday that uncertainty continued to weigh on global growth expectations. Bailey, who chairs the financial stability watchdog of the Group of Twenty (G20) major economies, said global cooperation and engagement were required for financial stability, and urged vigilance against the risk of disruptive market moves. Earlier in the day, the FSB delivered a new plan to tackle climate risks, but paused further policy work amid a retreat by the United States that has tested efforts to advance a unified approach. "Jurisdictions cannot achieve financial stability alone," Bailey said in the letter, addressed to G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. READY TO ACT The G20, whose members represent around 85% of global GDP and two-thirds of the world's population, established the Financial Stability Board in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis to held safeguard the financial system. "The FSB's broad and varied membership makes it uniquely placed to deliver on its mandate. This is important in both good times and bad," he said. "It is vital that policy makers can act collectively in response to a global shock. We should not take this capability for granted, particularly against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and rising fragmentation risk," he added. Since April, when U.S. President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs roiled financial markets, conditions have improved and asset prices have recovered, despite heightened uncertainty, he said. "We need to remain vigilant, however, to the risk of disruptive market moves and we will look at the lessons to be learnt from the market events in April," Bailey said He said the FSB was closely monitoring market developments and "stands ready to act, as necessary." (Reporting by Muvija M; Editing by Leslie Adler and Deepa Babington) Israel has struck the headquarters of the Syrian Ministry of Defence and close to the presidential palace in the capital Damascus, dramatically escalating on another military front in the region, and following through on its threats to intervene over clashes between government troops and Druze fighters in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda. Syrias Interior Ministry announced a ceasefire agreement for Suwayda later on Wednesday. Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou confirmed a truce would take effect immediately. Jarbou said the agreement was to completely halt all military operations in Suwayda by all parties and to fully integrate Suwayda into the Syrian state. Footage showed four explosions from Israeli strikes battering the sides of the Syrian military headquarters in Damascus earlier on Wednesday, leading to large plumes of smoke rising in the sky, before another air strike hit close to the presidential palace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel claims it has been carrying out the strikes in Syria to protect Syrias Druze minority, which Israel views as a potential ally and which has been involved in clashes with Syrian government troops in Suwayda, a Druze stronghold. The community there has not welcomed Israeli intervention in the past. Syrian state news agency SANA reported that at least three people were killed, and 34 others were wounded in the strikes, citing the Ministry of Health. Reporting from Damascus, Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr witnessed the attack on the headquarters of the Syrian military, which followed Israeli drone strikes on the complex hours earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We watched those strikes come in, one after another, in the heart of the Syrian capital, she said, adding that the sight of Israeli war planes overhead caused panic. This is a significant escalation, she said. This is the Israeli leadership giving a very, very direct message to Syrias new authorities that they will intensify such strikes if the government does not withdraw its troops from southern Syria. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement posted on X that the warnings in Damascus have ended now painful blows will come. As Israels military announced it was beefing up its forces along the Syrian border, and had carried out strikes on Syrian military convoys moving south, he added that Israels military would continue to operate forcefully in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal. Initial ceasefire collapsed quickly The strikes followed the resumption of fierce fighting in Suwayda, a major centre for the Druze community, after a ceasefire announced by the Syrian government on Tuesday swiftly collapsed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrias Defence Ministry officials blamed groups outside the law for breaking the ceasefire and attacking government troops, who they said were responding to fire while taking measures to protect civilians. The ministry told Al Jazeera it had opened safe corridors in the city for civilians to flee. Speaking from Damascus, Al Jazeeras Bin Javaid said at least 70 people were believed to have been killed in the fighting so far. Medical sources in the city say more than 200 people have been injured in the violence. Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor based in the United Kingdom, says more than 250 people had been killed as of Wednesday morning, including four children, five women and 138 soldiers and security forces. The observatory added that at least 21 people were killed in field executions. One woman, 20-year-old Evelyn Azzam, told the Associated Press news agency from her home in Jaramana, near Damascus, that she feared her husband had been killed by security forces in Suwayda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She had been speaking to her husband, Robert Kiwan, on the phone when he was questioned by security forces about whether he was affiliated with Druze militias, when her husband was shot in the hip, she said. She had had no update on his condition since he was taken to hospital. Chaos at the border The bloodshed has led to chaotic scenes along the border separating the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from Syria. Large numbers of Israeli Druze gathered there, with some crossing into Syria to support Druze groups there, while hundreds gathered on the other side of the fence, calling on Israel and the international community to intervene and stop the violence. The Israeli military said it had identified dozens of individuals trying to cross from Syria, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed directly to Israels Druze community not to cross the border. You can be kidnapped, and you hurt the [Israeli armys] efforts, said Netanyahu. So I ask you go back to your homes, let the [army] act. Israeli air attacks continue On top of the clashes on the ground, Israel has pounded targets in Syria. Israeli warplanes have struck nearly 160 targets in Syria since Tuesday night, most of them in Suwayda, the Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Al Jazeeras Khodr said Israels demands for Syrian troops to withdraw and create a demilitarised area in the south presented Syrias leadership with a dilemma. If it continues its advance in Suwayda and maintains a presence in the province, then it will trigger more strikes like this and endanger its hold on power, she said. But if it decides to withdraw from Suwayda and give in to Israels demands, then the government has failed in its efforts to extend its authority across the country. Syria has condemned Israels intervention as a violation of international law, as have several Arab nations. Israel has also been attacking other areas of Syria regularly since longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was deposed in December, claiming it is targeting weapons sites. The Israeli government has dismissed the fledgling Syrian government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa as extremists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United States has revoked its designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) the group that formed the new government as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) as Washington softens its approach to post-war Syria. The decision earlier this month is part of US President Donald Trumps broader strategy to re-engage with Syria and support its reconstruction after more than a decade of conflict. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says his country is very concerned about the Israeli attacks on Damascus, and Were going to be working on that issue as we speak. Al Jazeeras Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, says his comments suggest the US was caught off guard by the Israeli bombardment, especially given the moves the administration has made to bring Syria back into the international fold. Footage of abuses prompting violence The outbreak of violence in the southern city on Sunday was triggered by a wave of recent kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed groups, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday, witnesses told the Reuters news agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrias Druze population numbers about 700,000, with Suwayda home to the sects largest community. Bedouin and Druze factions have a longstanding feud in Suwayda, with violence occasionally erupting. Al Jazeeras Bin Javaid said tensions in the latest outbreak of violence had been inflamed by material about killings and abuses being posted on social media. That created a flurry of reaction from both sides, he said. Since the overthrow of al-Assad, concerns have been raised over the rights and safety of minorities under the new authorities, who have also struggled to re-establish security more broadly. Samy Akil, a political analyst and academic specialising in Syrian affairs, told Al Jazeera that the Syrian governments failure to deliver on an inclusive political model played a large role in the unrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It has not been able to back the talk basically with tangible evidence on the ground, particularly when it comes to an inclusive governing system that incorporates a clear power-sharing structure where all segments of Syrian society are represented, Akil said. Clashes between government troops and Druze fighters in April and May killed dozens, with local leaders and religious figures signing agreements to contain the escalation and better integrate Druze fighters into the new government. The Druze developed their own militias during the nearly 14-year ruinous civil war. Since al-Assads fall, Druze factions have been at odds over whether to integrate with the new government and armed forces. Red Crescent volunteers carry a government soldier injured in Suwayda, Syria, during clashes between government forces and Druze groups on Tuesday [Omar Albam/AP] Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rob Geist Pinfold, lecturer in international security at Kings College London, told Al Jazeera that Israel had been working closely with an influential Druze sheikh, Hikmat al-Hijri, who has been a key player in the escalation of the situation in Suwayda following the initial abduction on Friday. It was his forces that took government buildings within Suwayda and it was then that Israel chose to act to defend him from Syrian security services, said Pinfold. Israels response to the situation showed it had not taken the opportunity for a reset with Syrias new government and to work towards a stabilisation of relations, he added. Instead, by launching attacks, Pinfold said, Israel had opted to continue with the status quo: Its pursuit of military hegemony and extended occupation of Syrian territory. BELL COUNTY, Texas (FOX 44) The Cen-Tex Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center (ARC) has been awarded $330,000 to assist in addressing mental health and homelessness. Cen-Tex ARC says it has been dedicated to improving the lives of more than 35,000 adults in Central Texas affected by addiction for over 49 years. They expanded their mission in 2023 to include support for homeless individuals and veterans through a range of impactful programs. Cen-Tex ARC says it has transformed the local support landscape by integrating addiction recovery with transitional housing services. Their modern campus in Temple now provides life-changing resources to adults and small families working toward sobriety, stability, and self-sufficiency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cen-Tex ARC was awarded $330,000 by the Texas Veterans Commission Fund for Veteran Assistance on July 1 to address Substance Use Disorders (SUD) for homeless and low-income veterans, their immediate family members, and widows of deceased veterans. The program provides treatment and support in a transitional housing setting for up to four months or through outpatient services, depending on individual needs. It is specifically designed to close critical gaps in care for veteran families who lack the financial resources to access treatment. By addressing the root causes of addiction and housing instability, the program works to eliminate life-threatening barriers and reduce the risk of suicide and premature death. In addition, participants receive up to six months of case management to address other key factors that impact recovery, housing stability, and long-term independence. Cen-Tex ARC says the program is open to residents of Bell, Coryell, Hamilton, Lampasas, McClennan, Milam, Mills, and San Saba counties. Individuals and community providers are encouraged to contact Cen-Tex ARC to obtain additional information, to refer individuals for services, or visit the campus located at 2410 E Adams Avenue in Temple. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KWKT - FOX 44. CENTERVILLE, Ohio (WDTN) A local park just got more accessible with two new bridge installations. The Centerville-Washington Park District held a dedication ceremony for two new bridges at Grant Park on Wednesday. These bridges are vehicle-rated and ADA-accessible. Centerville HS adding new entrance to school lot The first bridge is near Grant Parks Normandy Entrance, located off of Normandy Ridge Road by the elementary school. This bridge connects visitors with the parks main trail system, offering a safe and welcome entrance to the park. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have better maintenance access, better first responder access and just accessibility in general for our park visitors, said Kristen Marks, CWPD executive director. It changes that arrival experience. So you do feel like youre entering a safe trail and a nice experience as you hit the whole system of trails. The second bridge spans Holes Creek upstream to provide a safer experience on the trails. Funding for these bridges was generated through a private donation and a $250,000 grant from the state of Ohio. Grant Park has several entrances, including off of Normandy Ridge Road, McEwen Road and Grants Trail. To learn more about the park, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) A Columbus non-profit that helps people by providing them with bicycles is hoping to keep the program going, despite recent bumps in the road related to program funding. Jerry Holiday got a bike from the program about four months ago. I didnt know what to think of it and I just, it got me to work and back and now I like riding it, he said. How no tax on tips could help, hurt Ohio workers Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He hadnt ridden a bike since he was a child, but now he cannot imagine life without it. Id be a mess right now without it, I wouldnt have nowhere to live, Id probably still be in the rehab center trying to find a decent job that I can live on, he said. The bikes actually saved me, really, I cant even begin to explain. The bike came from Bikes For Independence, a program run by the non-profit, Franklinton Cycle Works (FCW). The program helps people facing financial hardships and trying to get back on their feet. Clients are referred from social services. Bikes For Independence has helped about 200 people in total 118 last year, but just 16 this year, according to Beth Spears, secretary for FCWs Board of Directors. She said the program is in a tough spot and cant take on new clients. We did apply for a number of grants, we did not receive all the grants we hoped to have gotten, so there is a deficit there were trying to make up and get that, Spears said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A social media post from the non-profit said, Grant funding has been scarce. Spears said unexpected challenges with the shops building also contributed to being in this position, since such a focus was put on the building. Now FCW is looking for new partners, hoping to get more people on bikes to help them with everyday life. Previous safety violations found at Columbus chemical plant where leak caused shelter-in-place It would be great because that was the main purpose for the whole shop starting was to help the community have means to transportation, dependable transportation, Spears said. Ben Sears, a former FCW board member, shared those hopes. Hes also the executive director of the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless and has referred clients to Bikes for Independence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For somebody transitioning either out of homeless or into new employment, theres all these little things that need to happen and little additional supports that need to happen to make that major change stick, one of those things is transportation, he said. Those who wish to learn more about FCW or help out can do so here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Things have gotten real for Cesar Pina, DJ Envys former friend and business partner. After being indicted for his alleged Ponzi scheme, the controversial real estate investor has pleaded not guilty to all charges. AllHipHop reported that federal prosecutors laid out all of his charges this Tuesday (July 15). He has been accused of wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, and bribery, all tied to federally funded programs. The U.S. Attorneys Office stated that he allegedly promised high returns to federal investors and used their money to pay off earlier investors and pocketed the rest. Cesar Pina is alleged to have misappropriated millions of dollars of peoples hard-earned money, laundered money for narcotics traffickers, and bribed a politician in furtherance of real estate projects, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said. This multi-year torrent of criminal activity hurt investors around the United States, facilitated the scourge of narcotics trafficking, and undermined confidence in our public officials. The aforementioned politician resided in his home state, New Jersey. Pina allegedly began this underhanded operation in 2017, procuring money by presenting himself as a real estate flipper for residential properties in NJ and elsewhere. He went on to start a company called Flipping NJ, and even convinced a Paterson, NJ, city official to greenlight Old School 5, a real estate project that broadened his alleged illegal ventures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rather than utilize his social media presence for the betterment of society, Mr. Humberto Pina chose to use it to expand his criminal activities, DEA New Jersey Special Agent in Charge Cheryl Ortiz stated. His actions, along with his willingness to launder money from drugs proceeds, is no different than those individuals flooding our streets with illicit and diverted narcotics. This indictment sets Pina on the path to potential jail time and having to fork over cash. Each wire fraud count could land him up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The money laundering charges have the same potential prison time, but the fines are steeper at $500,000. The bribery charges are a bit lighter, at 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. More from VIBE.com Sign up for Vibe's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) A teenager was shot in Champaign on Tuesday just ahead of a city council meeting focusing on reducing shootings within the community. Tuesdays shooting happened near North Third Street and Beardsley Avenue just after 5 p.m. When officers got there, officers found the 14-year-old male victim with potentially life-threatening gunshot wounds. They gave emergency aid until he was stable enough to be taken to a hospital. Two teenagers were later arrested for the roles they allegedly played in the shooting. READ MORE: Two Champaign teens arrested, accused of shooting 14-year-old Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At Tuesday nights city council meeting, the council unanimously passed a contract aimed toward stopping the trend of gun violence. The $450,000 agreement will hire Chicago-based company Acclivus to run a year-long street outreach violence prevention program, which marks the latest step in Champaigns Community Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint. The ability to be out in the streets and disrupt and be aware, create relationships again, hopefully to disrupt some of the behavior, said Tracy Parsons. This has been a missing component that weve not been able to build as part of our blueprint. Parsons is the Community Relations Manager with Equity and Engagement. SEE ALSO: City of Champaign to vote on new initiative in Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You know, those folks that have relationships in the neighborhoods with the groups, with our young folks, with our people that are involved in street life, Parsons said. The program will identify and train violence prevention staff, then spread into the community. Creating the framework for that work so that its consistent and sustainable long term, said Jorge Elvir. Elvir also works with engagement for the city. This is individuals coming into the communities, building relationships, trying to assess what some of the needs are, build with the community, Elvir said. And the organization is going to hire people from the community, right? That have that established trust and that lived experience within the community so that we can build those relationships and get ahead of things, try to, you know, mediate some problems before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parsons says the contract officially starts tomorrow. It will wrap up July of next year. How do we make sure were in the spaces where the conflict may be happening, right? So that we can build capacity to interrupt, do intervention, prevention work, Parsons said. Were really excited about this opportunity. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. Donald Trump has fulfilled the promise made during his election campaign to put a stop to the massive illegal immigration that was permitted and tacitly encouraged during the four disastrous years of the Biden administration. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, in June the number of nationwide encounters with illegal immigrants by federal authorities was 89 per cent lower than it had been on average during the four years of Joe Bidens presidency, while so-called gotaways who escape from federal agents have declined by 90 per cent compared to the previous year. Like the proverbial dog that caught the car, however, the Trump administration is a victim of its own success when it comes to public opinion. In July 2024, a majority of Americans told the Gallup polling agency that they wanted to reduce immigration levels. In the presidential election in the autumn of 2024, immigration was the second most important issue to voters, after the economy. But by July 2025, the number of Americans who favoured reducing immigration fell from 55 to 30 per cent, according to Gallup. To be sure, poll results vary depending on how questions are asked. A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll published on Monday, July 14, found majority support for Trumps efforts to control the border (60 per cent). And even 59 per cent of Democrats approved of deporting criminal illegal aliens, along with 70 per cent of independents and 93 per cent of Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But on issues other than controlling the border and expelling criminal unauthorised immigrants, there is no consensus and there has not been for decades. In particular, there is no common ground about what to do with the millions of non-criminal illegal immigrant residents and workers in the US. The divisions are not merely Left-Right but also within the parties, with the Republican party deeply divided between its business backers and its populist voters. At one extreme are radicals on the Left and libertarians on the Right who favour an open borders policy. The Left-wing radicals believe that the border line is the new colour line and identify all immigration restrictions with racism and nativism. For their part, crackpot libertarians fantasise about the withering away of the nation-state in a global free market and therefore oppose restrictions on the free flow of labour, just as they oppose restrictions on the free flow of goods. At the other extreme, the most radical immigration restrictionists on the Right in the US oppose amnesties of any kind and want all illegal immigrants to be deported, whether they have committed crimes other than illegal immigration or not. Opinion is sharply divided by partisanship, with 61 per cent of Republicans saying they favour deporting all illegal immigrants, compared to only 8 per cent of Democrats, and with 89 per cent of Democrats favouring legalisation of most illegal immigrants, a policy also favoured by 71 per cent of independents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But only 31 per cent of those asked in a recent Quinnipiac University poll said they favour deporting most or all illegal immigrants who are already in the US. Meanwhile, 64 per cent who favour giving most illegal immigrants in the US some kind of legal status, allowing them to continue to live and work in the country. In addition to its unpopularity among Americans as a whole, the idea of deporting most or all illegal immigrants is impractical. Although the big, beautiful bill, recently passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by the president, will dramatically increase federal spending on border enforcement and deportations, arresting and deporting perhaps more than 14 million people, and paying or encouraging some of them to self-deport, would require many years at present deportation rates, along with massive labour force disruption and immense costs. Deportation of most illegal immigrants, then, isnt going to happen. Most will be allowed to stay. The only serious question is on what terms. Trump and his subordinates are trying to walk a tightrope, acknowledging that there will be an amnesty without alienating the majority of Republicans who oppose one. Trump recently said, Theres no amnesty. What were doing is were getting rid of criminals, but we are doing a work programme. We got to give the farmers the people they need, but were not talking amnesty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But of course a programme to legalise the status of illegal immigrant farm workers and others and to give them work and residency permits is indeed an amnesty, whether it is called by that or a different name. Trumps Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, is at the centre of the intra-Republican struggle. Some on the populist Right view her suspiciously as an amnesty-pushing pawn of agribusiness, while the Left has mocked her suggestion that illegal immigrants over time can be replaced in agriculture by automation and American workers, including former low-income Medicaid recipients. While it seems doubtful that Medicaid recipients forced to work by new work requirements will swell the agricultural workforce, a 2022 study found that labour shortages in the meat-packing industry caused by the Covid pandemic could have been addressed simply by raising wages to the right level, a finding that surely applies to other labour markets with fewer legal and illegal immigrants. As for automation, agricultural crops like wheat, cotton, and maize (American corn) were mechanised and turned into high-tech, capital-intensive industries long ago. University researchers and startup firms are racing to figure out how to use robots in the labour-intensive crops like fruits and berries in which illegal foreign workers are exploited by agribusiness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The claim that the US economy depends on illegal immigrants, made by cheap-labour business lobbyists, libertarians and the open-borders Left, is not supported by the facts. In the two areas with the highest concentrations of unauthorised labour, construction and agriculture, only 13.7 per cent of construction workers are illegal immigrants, and only 12.7 per cent of workers in agriculture. The illegal immigrant share of the workforce is even lower in hospitality (7.1 per cent), transportation and warehousing (5.5 per cent), and manufacturing (5.4 per cent). The claim that Americans wont take jobs in these sectors is obviously false because most of the workers are American citizens or legal immigrants. Although the illegal immigrant share of the workforce is limited, the availability of a pool of low-wage, easily-intimidated foreign workers without rights allows employers to offer jobs with lower wages, no benefits, and horrible working conditions. In other words, many of the jobs in which illegal immigrants are found are bad jobs only because illegal immigrants are available to fill them. Cut off the supply, and employers would be forced to raise wages to attract citizen-workers and legal immigrants or invest in labour-saving technology or both. But many cheap-labour employers and their lobbyists in Washington prefer a never-ending stream of low-wage foreign helots, whether illegal immigrants or indentured servants (guest workers), to either raising wages or investing in automation. Thanks to relentless lobbying by agribusiness firms, the number of H-2A agricultural guest worker visas more than tripled from 79,000 in 2010 to 258,000 in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Preventing employer lobbies from increasing the supply of unfree foreign labour not only in agriculture but also in many other industries including construction, hospitality, and domestic service while incentivising automation-driven productivity growth, should be an agenda that rational, pro-labour progressives and pro-worker populist conservatives can agree on. But that would require both sides to repudiate the extremes the open borders Left and the no-amnesty Right. Michael Lind is a fellow at New America and the author of Hell to Pay: How the Suppression of Wages Is Destroying America Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. PHOENIX - Tribal leader in Arizona under investigation; charge recommended in Chandler drowning; and more - here's a look at some of your top stories on FOX10Phoenix.com for Tuesday, July 15, 2025. 1. Felony charge recommended in Chandler drowning What we know Police in Chandler say they are recommending charges in the drowning death of Trigg Kiser, whose mother is a well-known social media star. Dig deeper The water incident that ultimately led to Trigg's death happened on May 12. Trigg died six days after he was pulled from the pool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More 2. BIA launches probe into AZ tribal chairman Kasey Velasquez, the chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. What we know FOX10 Investigates has confirmed with the Bureau of Indian Affairs that officials are investigating Kasey Velasquez, the chairman of the White Mountain Apache Tribe. Why you should care While details on the incident are unknown, we have learned that the investigation is over serious allegations. In addition, multiple sources say an employee of the tribe is the alleged victim. Read More 3. Leopard Dog finds furever home What we know A dog that was found in sever heat distress with nine puppies now has a forever home. Dig deeper Humane Society officials say seven of Rainbow Brite's puppies were also adopted. Read More 4. Animals living in deplorable conditions removed from West Valley home What we know Multiple animals were removed from a home in Litchfield Park, in what deputies are calling deplorable conditions. What they're saying "Were seeing an increase in cases across the Valley," said Dr. Steven Hansen, President and CEO of the Arizona Humane Society. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More 5. California father dead after stabbing son to death What we know A father fatally stabbed his 9-year-old son at a San Jose park Sunday afternoon before being shot and killed by officers who responded to what turned out to be a misleading 911 call, police in California said. Why you should care San Jose Police Chief Paul Joseph, during a news conference on Monday, described the incident as one of the most disturbing homicide cases hes experienced in his 33-year career. Read More A look at your weather for tomorrow What's next Scattered showers will moving into the Valley by early Wednesday morning, bringing the chance for rain during the morning commute. Get the Full Forecast CHARITON, Iowa A small business in Charitons town square started out as a side hustle. The woman behind Jills Homestead is making sure people are properly accessorized with luxury leather. Ive always been a fan of leather, just being a horse girl and working with saddles and bridles and things like that, Jill Dobson, owner of Jills Homestead, said. So, Ive always liked leather. I always like wearing chaps and things like that with the horses. Ive always been interested in it, but Id never actually worked with it directly. So it was just kind of something that I wanted to try for fun that just kind of took off. More: Live on Location in Chariton Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It took off when Dobson started making earrings in 2018. And folks kept wanting to buy them from me, asking me where they could get them, Dobson reflected. And so finally one day I just posted some on social media and sold out immediately and started making leather earrings on the side. Two years later, it turned into making totes. Fringe, no fringe, cow hide, all smooth leather, Dobson said while holding up one of her products, lots of options with all of our bags. While the storefront and workshop are based in Chariton, Dobson says her business has seen the most growth through its online presence and social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The majority of our customers are more of the western aficionados wearing cowboy boots and all of those types of things, Dobson said. So mostly a lot of rural people that really appreciate those finer things as well, but maybe dont want to purchase thousands of dollars in one bag. She credits the craftsmanship of her handmade products for helping spread the word. Since 2020, Jills Homestead has made more than 20,000 bags for people across the country. We have people that come from all over the Midwest, Dobson said. Weve had people come as far as south Texas, Kentucky, all over the place, 8-10 hour drive to come see us here. Century old hotel thriving in Chariton Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jill says she couldnt do it without her three full-time employees. Theyve been with me since the basement days we call it, when we worked out of my house and we were still working in the basement, Dobson said. Which, believe it or not, we were doing more production then than we do now. Producing high-quality purses means sourcing high-quality materials. Most of our hides come through U.S. suppliers, but theyre from Colombia and Brazil, Dobson explained. Dobson also travels to tanneries in Tuscany, Italy, for leather. Its heartier, its different, has a different texture, has a different smell sometimes, Dobsons said, but its a much nicer leather than a lot of other brands use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Luxury leather goods made in small-town Iowa. An unexpected small business that has led to unexpected opportunities for its owner. I never would have expected that I would be at D.C., at the Capitol, discussing small business, Dobson said. I never expected to have a shop here and have a storefront, employees. I really never thought those were things that were in the cards. They just kind of happened over time. And it made sense, so I just kept saying yes to things that made sense and here we are. You can check out Jills Homestead products on the website or Facebook page. Iowa news Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. Being part of the British royal family comes with the type of scrutiny that, of course, requires a high level of security. Even as people are often more worried about King Charles illness, or the latest news in the feud between the King and his youngest son Harry, or how Prince William is feeling about a possible reconciliation with his brother, the truth is that the royals are important public figures, and their security reflects that. Proof of that came as King Charles and Queen Camilla were reportedly quickly ushered into a hotel amid fears of a sniper threat during a trip to Jersey. The two were chatting with locals in St Helier when police reacted trying to protect them. However, Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hafey from the States of Jersey Police confirmed there was no actual threat. More from StyleCaster Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related: Heres what each royal inherited from Queen Elizabeth It was a false alarm, my understanding is someone was on a roof trying to scare some birds, he told ITV News, adding that, I dont think you can overreact in those situations because the safety of the King and Queen is paramount, all the officers involved just followed their training. This comes after reports that King Charles succession planning was already underway. The people Ive spoken to have said that the succession planning, as they call it, began even before Charles diagnosis, royal author Tom Quinn told Harpers Bazaar. I mean, hes the oldest Prince of Wales to become king in history, so succession planning had begun before Charles came to the throne simply because of the age issue. And though this means Prince William is, in some ways, being prepared for the role of King, theres only so much preparing that can be done. Its always a role where you learn by example, Robert Hardman, author of the 2024 biography Charles III: New King. New Court. The Inside Story, told the outlet. So theyre preparing William by giving him more of the sort of work that Charles would do, according to Quinn. This has obviously been accelerated due to King Charles cancer diagnosis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christopher Andersen, another royal biographer, said: The palace is putting on a good front, but the situation, in reality, is still very fluid. And when it comes to King Charles, Its still touch-and-go. That means that, as the British royal family looks to the future, Officials and aidespeople who work very closely with William and Kate and Charlestheyre all conscious that William might have to become king earlier than expected, Quinn added. Partly the cancer, partly simply [because Charles is] 76. He could go on another 10 years, he could go on for 20 years. But with the cancer diagnosis, its a wake-up call. Perhaps this explains why there has now been a first step towards reconciliation between King Charles and Prince Harry, with their aides meeting in London last week. Theres a long road ahead, but a channel of communication is now open for the first time in years, The Mail on Sunday reported. There was no formal agenda, just casual drinks. There were things both sides wanted to talk about. Just a few months ago, Prince Harry expressed in an interview that he wanted reconciliation. Theres no point in continuing to fight anymore, he said. Life is precious. Forgiveness is 100 percent a possibility because I would like to get my father and brother back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It looks like that might come true when it comes to King Charles. As for Prince William, reconciliation remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Prince Harry makes a fair point. Life is indeed precious. Best of StyleCaster Sign up for Stylecaster's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (Corrects headline to add dropped word 'steel') By Divya Rajagopal TORONTO (Reuters) -Prime Minister Mark Carney on Wednesday said Canada will introduce a tariff rate quota for countries with which it has free trade agreements, excluding the United States, to protect the domestic steel industry. A 50% tariff will apply to imports from these countries that surpass the 2024 volumes, though Canada will honor existing arrangements with its United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade partners, Carney said. Canada will implement additional tariffs of 25% on steel imports from all countries containing steel melted and poured in China before the end of July. Carney is responding to complaints from the domestic industry, which had said that other countries are diverting steel to Canada and making the domestic industry uncompetitive due to U.S. tariffs. The Canadian steel industry had asked the government to introduce tougher anti-dumping measures to protect the domestic industry. U.S. President Donald Trump increased import duties on steel and aluminum to 50% from 25% earlier this month. Canada is the top seller of steel to the United States. Carney also said domestic steel companies would be prioritized in government procurement, and he introduced a C$1 billion fund to help steel companies advance projects in industries such as defense. "These measures will ensure Canadian steel producers are more competitive by protecting them against trade diversion resulting from a fast-changing global environment for steel," Carney said on Wednesday. For countries without free trade agreements with Canada, the government lowered the tariff-free quota to 50% of 2024 volumes from 100% previously. Above the quota, imports will also face a 50% tariff. Catherine Cobden, president and CEO of the Canadian Steel Producers Association, in an interview with the CBC, said the timing wasn't sufficient for domestic steelmakers confronting a crisis. "This is something we should have been doing all along, but it's fantastic to see that we are making progress," Cobden told the CBC. In a separate statement, Canadian steel maker Evraz said it has filed a complaint against steel imports from Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Turkey and the United States, against unfairly priced imports of Oil Country Tubular Goods. (Divya Rajagopal and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Leslie Adler) JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCBD) Charleston City leaders discussed Tuesday options to make the Maybank Highway and Riverland Drive intersection safer. The main roadway has been an issue for nearly 15 years, with its dangers increasing every year. According to Councilmember Jim McBride, who represents District 3, there have been 19 collisions in 2025 and its on track to break the highest rate already. It gets a little bit worse every year. It kind of goes up and down the statistics with the population steadily increasing about 600 people on average every year on Johns Island, which contributes to that intersection on James Island. Its increasing to be more and more of a dangerous intersection, McBride said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials, in the traffic and transportation meeting, said there was at traffic study done in 2017 which counted 27,000 cars traveling through that intersection. As of 2024, each day 37,000 vehicles cross it. Its always been a very difficult intersection. I try to avoid as much as possible. I go out of my way to take a turn elsewhere because Ive had some close calls myself and I know other neighbors and friends that unfortunately havent been that lucky, Taylor Ashworth, a long-time James Island resident, said. Residents told News 2 the westbound left turn onto Riverland Drive often causes backups, and overall cripples the corridor during a crash. Other problems include drivers running red lights and going at high speeds. That intersection is deadly. People run the red light with regularity. I think there should be a permanent police presence, either a car or a camera, Marilyn Barnett, a James Island resident, said. There should be hefty fines and possibly revoked licenses because people could get killed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The council member said he has worked with residents to come up with solutions to present to Charleston County and then the South Carolina Department of Transportation, as they all hope to work together on this project. Previous ideas included taking away a lane, designating turn lanes, creating a jug handle through the neighborhood, and restricting a left turn lane. However, McBride is looking to bring relief to residents and drivers sooner than later. Some potential low-cost shorter-term solutions such as speed warning signs, maybe some rumble strips. Theres a much more comprehensive plan that the countys been working on for while and theyve shared it with the city as far as redoing that intersection. Theres no funding for it right now, and a revamp for that could come with a 2026 transportation sales tax for example, said McBride. However, no matter what solution the city and other agencies choose, the Riverland Terrance Neighborhood Association (RTNA) hopes the plan keeps their community in mind. Another unique take is that where there is an accident at the intersection, people often cut through our neighborhood that is 100 years old this year, Neil Sneath, president of RTNA, said. We dont have sidewalks, vision is obstructed with our grand trees, but our kids ride bikes and play in the street and it becomes incredibly unsafe where there is an accident in the intersection with all that cut through traffic when people try to weave around. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several council members are expected to meet with Charleston County on July 16. Mayor William Cogswell suggested a pilot program for the idea of no left turns. However, no action was taken. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk points to Vice President JD Vance as the conservative candidate to beat among young voters in the 2028 presidential election, should he run. During an interview at last weekend's Turning Point Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, Kirk said he believes Vance will be the candidate that young Americans look up to as the future leader of the conservative movement once President Donald Trump leaves office. "I think JD Vance fits that mold really well," the political activist said when asked by Fox News Digital who the guiding light for young conservative voters in 2028 will be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I'm A Young Democrat And I've Got To Admit My Party Is Losing 2025 While Looking At 2028 TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk pointed to Vice President JD Vance as the top contender to carry the conservative youth vote in 2028. Kirk, whose mission with Tpusa is to educate and engage young voters and students on conservative principles, named several qualities which allow the vice president to connect with younger people. "He can operate seamlessly in a podcast environment," he said, remarking that Vance has a "wonderful family." Read On The Fox News App Kirk also mentioned the 40-year-old Vance, the third-youngest VP in the nation's history, relates to younger Americans because of his age, while acknowledging Vance hasn't committed to a presidential bid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He's the youngest vice president in quite some time, one of the youngest in American history," he said. Charlie Kirk Warns Mamdani Effect Metastasizing In The Democratic Party With Grievance-based Politics Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk speaks during a campaign rally, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. Beyond Vance, Kirk stressed that any future leader of the conservative movement needs to address the top concerns of young people in America today, namely the high cost of living. "But outside of the candidate, we need to actually be able to deliver and go to the American people and go to the younger voters and say, Here's how your life was, and now it's easier for you to own a home. You don't have to rent for the rest of your life. It's easier to get married, easier to have children." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elsewhere in the interview, Kirk warned Republicans that the GOP may lose the young voters that helped Trump win the White House in 2024 if they dont deliver on cost-of-living issues. "The biggest threat to the Republican Party in 2028 is if we do not deliver on our promises of [home]ownership for the next generation," Kirk told Fox News Digital. "The youth vote didn't just vote for Donald Trump. Young voters put Donald Trump in the White House." Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture The TPUSA founder also stressed that the future conservative leader would have to deliver on the major issues conservatives of all ages are focused on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have to deliver on immigration, on the deportations. We have to deliver, I think, on managing the size and scope of the federal government from cost savings and from cutting spending," he said. Kirk mentioned that he "would love" for Vance to be the man that takes up the conservative mantle, referring to himself as a "big JD guy." However, he noted that its more important that, whoever the candidate is, they are solid on core conservative issues. "I say, Guys, if we don't deliver, it doesn't matter who you run, because then we're going to have big problems,'" he said. Original article source: Charlie Kirk names JD Vance as guiding light for young conservatives, but says GOP must deliver on promises CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) C. Melissa Missy Owen was sworn in as President-Elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at the Associations annual meeting on July 12. C. Melissa Owen is a founding partner of Tin Fulton Walker & Owen in Charlotte. Owens practice areas include state and federal criminal defense, with a focus on white collar matters, financial crime, sex offense prosecutions, and Title IX representation. Owen has served NACDL in numerous capacities, currently as Co-Chair of the Women in Criminal Defense Committee and the Taskforce on the Policing and Overcriminalization of Pregnancy; and as a member of the Audit, Budget, Governance, Membership, Title IX, Strategic Litigation Capacity Building, and Decarceration Committees. She co-authored NACDLs 2021 report, Abortion in America: How Legislative Overreach Is Turning Reproductive Rights Into Criminal Wrongs. She is a recipient of NACDLs Champion of Justice Award. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Owen has also been active in numerous bar associations and community groups, including having served as a member of the Board of Governors of North Carolina Advocates for Justice, as a member of the Board of Directors for Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina, and as a member of the Ethics Committee at the North Carolina State Bar, which publishes Advisory Ethics Opinions for North Carolina attorneys. She is currently a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers and Litigation Counsel of America. She has been named Super Lawyer: Criminal Defense White Collar since 2013, Business North Carolinas Legal Elite: Criminal Defense White Collar (2014), the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and received the Candace Reidbord Erhenworth Award from Duquesne University School of Law. She received her undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. The Brief A 29-year-old man was charged after allegedly robbing someone at gunpoint Sunday in Chicagos Hegewisch neighborhood. Tyrone Anderson was arrested later that night in West Pullman and has a detention hearing set for Wednesday. CHICAGO - A man has been charged in connection with an armed robbery Sunday in Chicago's Hegewisch neighborhood. What we know Tyrone Anderson, 29, allegedly robbed a man at gunpoint in the 13200 block of South Baltimore Avenue, according to police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was arrested just before 11 p.m. in the West Pullman neighborhood and was charged with one count of armed robbery with a firearm. What's next Anderson has a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday. No further information was provided. The Source The information in this report came from the Chicago Police Department. CHICAGO (WGN) After a Douglass Park shooting involving a lifeguard left one teen dead and another injured, the Chicago Park District released the results of an internal review that aimed to look for holes in departmental procedures involving employees. According to the Chicago Park District, the internal review spanned two weeks and involved looking through emails, text messages, personal records and employee interviews before they released the report on Tuesday. They found the person at the center of their internal review, 55-year-old Charles Leto, had no formal complaints filed against him, but employees and patrons had complained about his aggressive behavior on five separate occasions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report showed that since Leto was hired in 2023, he got into an altercation with a patron over an open pool door, screamed at a parent for using a cell phone on the pool deck, and engaged in a tense exchange of words with a head lifeguard over a towel that had been moved at Gill Park. In another instance, he complained about unequal treatment due to him being a military veteran. The fifth incident happened at the end of May at Austin Town Hall, when Leto banged on a locked bathroom door, with the aggressive behavior making a patron feel unsafe. He was then transferred to Sheridan Park and later moved to Douglass Park at the start of this summer season. The report showed Leto did not face any disciplinary action for any of those workplace altercations, but was spoken to by a manager about his behavior. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WGN-TV also previously reported Leto shot two dogs and killed one in Lakeview in 2023 because he said he felt threatened by the animals. That didnt show up on a background check because he wasnt criminally charged. Leto was charged with the murder of 15-year-old Marjay Dotson, and the attempted murder of 14-year-old Jeremy Reed after a June 26 shooting caught on camera at Douglass Park where he said he was acting in self-defense. More info: Surveillance video shows Douglass Park shooting, lifeguard charged with murder Leto is set to return to court Wednesday morning for a status update. The hearing, which will get underway around 11:30 a.m., is not expected to last long. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. CHICAGO (WGN) Dozens of people gathered in Chicagos Austin neighborhood Tuesday night to remember hundreds of people who died during the July 1995 heat wave. At the Columbus Park Refectory, Mayor Brandon Johnson and many other groups gathered for a screening of an award-winning documentary, followed by a panel discussion all centered around the tragedy that unfolded across the Midwest 30 years ago this week. Thirty years ago, Chicago experienced one of the most devastating climate-related tragedies in our nations history, Johnson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heat wave of 1995: A lesson in disaster preparedness for Chicago Five days in July of 1995 cost more than 700 Chicagoans their lives. Temperatures spiked on July 13, 1995, reaching 106 degrees. The humidity made it feel almost 20 degrees hotter. Many of those lives that were lost were Black, elderly, low income residents living in communities that have been ignored and under-resourced, Johnson said. By Day 3 of the heat wave, the morgues 220-bed capacity was exceeded by the hundreds. Refrigerated trucks had to be brought in to store bodies. The tragedy exposed a range of vulnerabilities, including inadequate warnings and responses in a city where social status and zip codes impacted how communities fared in the disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cooling tips: Beat the heat without breaking the bank An excerpt from the documentary shown Tuesday night detailed what went wrong. Panelists and researchers whove developed new data-driven tools, such as the Heat Vulnerability Index, also spoke, aiming to help guide equitable city planning going forward and save lives in future extreme weather conditions. Every single community is at risk. We are all vulnerable in each community and collectively as a city, Northwestern University Professor Dr. Jennifer Chan said. The Diffusing Disasters Working Group at Northwestern University also aims to mitigate the adverse effects of extreme weather events in Chicago. More information on them and their research can be found here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. The new chief executive of the festival at Scotland's national book town says she has ambitious plans to tap into its "huge potential". Isla Rosser-Owen will take up her post in Wigtown in August. The Dumfries and Galloway town won a competition to become the country's book town in 1997 and held its first festival a year later. Ms Rosser Owen - who previously worked as its cultural producer - said she was looking forward to "stepping back into a creative adventure". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wigtown Book Festival was started in a bid to help revive the fortunes of the town. It celebrated its 25th anniversary a couple of years ago but has recently gone through a period of change. It was confirmed a long-standing sponsorship deal with Baillie Gifford was coming to an end last year following pressure from climate change protesters. Earlier this year, its director Adrian Turpin announced that he would be stepping down after the 2025 festival. The company has also moved to new offices in the town. Ms Rosser-Owen - who began her career as an editor in the publishing industry specialising in Middle East studies - said she was relishing the challenge of taking the festival forward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It has an offbeat brilliance and charm that audiences can lose themselves in," she said. "For me, returning to Wigtown feels like stepping back into a creative adventure and I'm absolutely thrilled to be back in this wonderfully unique place tucked away in south-west Scotland. "I'm so looking forward to the organisation embracing its huge potential over the next few years. "We have some ambitious plans ahead and I can't wait to get stuck in and help shape what comes next." The full festival programme for this year will be unveiled next month after she takes over from interim chief executive Andrew McConnell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time Anne Barclay, the current operations director, will take on new role aiming to maximise support for the people and economy in and around Wigtown. Emilie Kiser in Montauk, New York, on July 28, 2023. - Credit: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images/Poppi Arizona police have recommended a felony criminal charge in connection with the drowning death of popular momfluencer Emilie Kisers three-year-old son. On May 18, Trigg Kiser, son of the social media star, died at an Arizona hospital following a drowning incident that occurred six days earlier. The drowning, which happened on May 12, took place at the Kiser family home in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. Trigg Kiser was often featured in Emilies videos on TikTok, where she had 4 million followers at the time of Triggs death. More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following Triggs death, Emilie filed a lawsuit to keep the details of the drowning incident private. However, on Tuesday, the Chandler Police Department in Arizona filed a recommendation of a felony child abuse charge against Brady Kiser, Emilies husband and Triggs father. Details of the alleged child abuse have not been publicly revealed due to the ongoing lawsuit. A rep for the Kiser family did not immediately respond to Rolling Stones request for comment. The case was submitted to the Maricopa County Attorneys Office for review, the Arizona Republic reports, after which prosecutors will decide whether to formally charge Brady Kiser, send the case back to police for further investigation, or drop the case entirely; the Arizona Republic notes that police were considering child abuse charges against Brady for an incident that occurred before Triggs death, based on search warrant applications from May. Brady Kiser was home watching both Trigg and the Kisers newborn son, Theodore, when the drowning incident occurred. Brady told investigators that he was with the newborn when he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes, at which point he said he found Trigg floating in the familys backyard pool. Paramedics arrived on the scene and transported Trigg to an area hospital, where he died on May 18. Emilie Kiser has not spoken publicly since the drowning incident on her popular social media channel, with her lone statements arriving via her counsel in their lawsuit to block details related to Triggs death from being released to the public, which in part was granted by an Arizona judge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emilie is going through a parents worst nightmare right now, read the lawsuit. Emilie and her family desperately want to grieve in private but sadly, the public will not let them. Triggs death has become a media frenzy. Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving two-month-old son, Theodore, the lawsuit says, but every day is a battle. The records include 911 calls, the autopsy report, photos of the scene, the police report, graphic security camera footage of the accidental drowning, autopsy photos, and a death certificate, according to the lawsuit. The records have not been made available to Emilie or her counsel, the lawsuit says. Nor does Emilie wish to ever view them. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. (Texas Scorecard) After a failed attempt by some lawmakers to delay his execution last year, a new date has been set for convicted child murderer Robert Roberson. A state district judge on Wednesday scheduled Robersons execution for October 16, following a request by the Texas attorney generals office. Roberson was convicted in 2003 for the brutal killing of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in Palestine, Texas. He had been set to be executed last year. However, just moments before the sentence was to be carried out, the Texas Supreme Court issued a temporary stay after the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committeethen led by Democrat State Rep. Joe Moodysubpoenaed Roberson to testify before the committee after his scheduled execution. That maneuver, criticized by manyincluding Gov. Greg Abbottas a violation of the separation of powers, was ultimately struck down by the Texas Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this caseactions by a single committee of a single chamber of the Legislature have had the effect, both legally and factually, of granting (at least) a 90-day reprieve, Abbotts brief to the court noted. Unless the Court rejects that tactic, it can be repeated in every capital case, effectively rewriting the Constitution to reassign a power given only to the Governor. The Court agreed, ruling that while legislative committees may issue subpoenas, they cannot use that power to override a scheduled execution. We conclude that under these circumstances the committees authority to compel testimony does not include the power to override the scheduled legal process leading to an execution, wrote Justice Evan Young. Attorney General Ken Paxton says the move was an inappropriate attempt to interfere with justice on behalf of a convicted child killer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a report released by his office, Paxton laid out graphic details from the original case, citing trial evidence and testimony that Roberson repeatedly abused Nikkistriking her with his hands, a board, or a paddleand ultimately killed her by inflicting massive blunt force trauma to her head. A nurse who examined Nikki at the hospital described a handprint on her face and the back of her head as mushy from the blows. Paxton emphasized that, contrary to the claims of anti-death penalty activists and liberal media personalities who have rallied behind Roberson, the jury did not convict him based on shaken baby syndrome, but rather on clear evidence of blunt force injuries. He also highlighted a disturbing confession Roberson allegedly made to a fellow inmate, describing sexual abuse of his daughter and admitting to beating her out of anger. Robersons own shifting accounts of what happenedincluding various claims that Nikki simply fell off the bed or hit a tablewere also cited by prosecutors as evidence of his guilt. While anti-death penalty activists have continued to claim Roberson is innocent, Paxtons office has warned that allowing political interference at the final stage of a capital case sets a dangerous precedent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A handful of legislators have grossly interfered with the justice system by disregarding the separation of powers outlined in the State Constitution, Paxtons report states. They have created a Constitutional crisis on behalf of a man who beat his two-year-old daughter to death. Unless further legal action is taken, Roberson is now scheduled to be executed on October 16. JOPLIN, Mo. Theyve been partners for nearly four decades, but for the first time, the leader of Childrens Miracle Network is visiting Freeman Health System. CMN President and CEO Dr. Aimee Daily spent her day touring Joplins CMN hospital and even met 2025 Champion Siblings Susk and Sutter Wurdeman. CMN and Freeman have partnered together since 1987, providing things like life-saving treatments and financial assistance for families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The visit was prompted by a challenge last year for member hospitals to record their visits and interactions with national CMN partners. Freeman won the small market award, and a chance to host Dr. Daily. Im actually the mother of two CMN children. My kids are 27 and 29 now, but they were both born prematurely, so just like the nic-u that I was in over at Freeman Health System, my kids spent seven months in a neonatal intensive care unit , and Im quite confident that if it werent for the care that they received at that hospital, that they wouldnt be here today. We serve 12 million patients a year through our member hospitals. My family is one of those families, said Dr. Aimee Daily, CMN President/CEO. CMN partners with 170 hospitals across the U.S. and Canada. Over the decades, its provided $9 billion for vital pediatric care. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com. Large cornfield with rows of crop by vicvaz via iStock Corn futures posted gains of 4 to 6 cents across most contract son Monday following the overnight gap lower. July futures expired today. The front month CmdtyView national average Cash Corn price was up 4 1/4 cents at $3.86 1/2. Crop Progress data showed the US corn crop at 34% silking (1% above average), with 7% of the crop in the dough stage. Conditions were steady at 74% gd/ex and 385 on the Brugler500 index. More News from Barchart Export Inspections data showed 1.287 MMT (1.287 bbu) of corn shipped in the week that ended on July 10, which was down 17.7% from the week prior, but still up 17.06% from the same week last year. Mexico was the top destination of 332,337 MT, with 293,450 MT headed to Japan and 271,008 MT to South Korea (correction). Marketing year shipments have totaled 57.806 MMT (2.276 bbu) since September 1, 29.54% larger yr/yr. Rains are expected to be rather widespread this next week, with much of the Corn Belt seeing at least an inch, with the Central Corn Belt upwards of 2-3 inches. Over the weekend President Trump announced a 30% tariff on the EU and Mexico starting on August 1. AgRural estimates the Brazilian second corn crop at 40% harvested, which is well below the 74% from last year. Jul 25 Corn closed at $4.12 3/4, up 9 3/4 cents, Nearby Cash was $3.86 1/2, up 4 1/4 cents, Sep 25 Corn closed at $4.00, up 4 cents, Dec 25 Corn closed at $4.18, up 5 3/4 cents, New Crop Cash was $3.76 5/8, up 4 1/2 cents, On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com Walking into the Joplin Sams Club on Tuesday, Aimee Daily said she couldnt stop looking at the banners of CMN children. A wall of yellow Childrens Miracle Network banners is at the front of the store. Dozens of smiling faces look down at customers, representing the many years the store has spent supporting local children through CMN. When I walked in and looked up, it just was a moment, said Daily, president and CEO of Childrens Miracle Network Hospitals. It kind of takes your breath away. The work that we do, it can be heartbreaking at times. But its also very heartwarming, and walking in here was one of those moments for me. What an incredible testament to this community, to how they feel about taking care of one another. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, 170 hospitals are in the network. Their partnership with Freeman Health System dates to 1987, when Freeman became a CMN member hospital. Brandy Miller-Turner, Freeman Development and Childrens Miracle Network director, said the main thing CMN does at Freeman is provide family assistance. It helps with things such as providing travel assistance, medication, prescriptions and equipment such as wheelchairs or walkers. Miller-Turner explained what brought Daily to Freeman Health System and Joplin. Every fall, Freeman CMN has an opportunity to thank corporate sponsors for their support. During this period, Laura Gullett, Freeman CMN program coordinator, made 70 visits to 67 national sponsors. These visits won Freeman the small-market category award and the opportunity to host Dailys visit. Daily was also in Joplin to celebrate the Joplin Sams Club as the No. 1 fundraising store in the nation for CMN. She noted all money donated locally goes back to Freeman Health System to help local families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our mission is to raise money by bringing people together, Daily said. We do that for local childrens health care communities. Childrens health care is very expensive and not funded in the ways that we would hope it would be. We bridge the gaps. Last year we raised $464 million for our childrens hospitals across the country. CMN serves 12 million patients per year through its partner hospitals, Daily said. Daily herself is the mother of two CMN children, now grown. They were both born prematurely, spending seven months in the neonatal intensive care unit. She believes that if it wasnt for the care they received at the hospital, they wouldnt be here today. For Daily, this tour through Arkansas and Missouri is an opportunity to see both sides of CMN at work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This trip is a combination of both things, where I get to walk from seeing the care in action to seeing the money raised, Daily said. I get to see the front-line employees who are out there doing it, whether thats providing the care or providing the encouragement to raise money. It makes me really proud. Daily started the day meeting with Freeman President and CEO Matt Fry, who she used to work with in Springfield, Illinois. She then toured the Freeman NICU, getting to meet some of the babies and parents there. She saw the NICU Angel Eye system provided by CMN dollars. It allows parents to remotely look into the babies isolette at the NICU, and up to 30 family members can be on the broadcast at any time. Daily also met several local CMN children, including 2025 Freeman CMN Champion siblings Rusk and Sutter, sons of Amanda and Brice Wurdeman, of Carl Junction. She said the 5-year-old brothers born with Down syndrome were energetic and loved to give high-fives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finally, Daily visited the Joplin Sams Club and met team members who are successfully raising money for CMN. This year, the store raised $64,249, and it has raised $520,000 over the past 10 years, through things like banner sponsorships and customer donations. Every employee Daily met told her the amount of money theyve raised, down to the penny. Beyond the encouraging hugs and smiles greeting the CMN CEO, Miller-Turner said she hopes Dailys visit helps people hear about CMNs mission in the area. Were hoping this visit raises awareness, Miller-Turner said. We want everyone in the Four-State Area we serve 14 counties between Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma to know CMN is need-based, its not income-based. If you have a need, we want to help you. This is what were called to do. People with a verifiable need and a child up to age 21 in these counties can reach out through Freemans website at https://www.freemanhealth.com/childrens-miracle-network-hospitals-at-freeman-health-system or its Facebook page, Miller-Turner said. Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Wednesday warned against protectionist trade policies and the politicization of global supply chains, in an indirect swipe at the United States following recent tariff threats from Washington. Speaking at the opening of the International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, He said some countries were interfering in markets under the pretext of reducing risk, using tools such as tariffs and restrictive measures to promote the so-called return of manufacturing. He added that China opposed the artificial exploitation of trade issues for political and ideological purposes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He did not name any country directly but stressed that there were no winners in a tariff war. Global supply chains came under renewed pressure in April after China imposed curbs on rare earth exports and the US announced new tariffs on imports from multiple countries. German firms have also expressed concern over potential shortages of critical materials from China. Tensions had recently eased, with both countries agreeing to lift some trade restrictions. US chipmaker Nvidia said on Monday it expects to receive US approval to resume sales of China-specific chips, following tighter export restrictions introduced in April. TOKYO (Reuters) -A Beijing court on Wednesday sentenced a Japanese employee of Astellas Pharma to 3-1/2 years in prison, the Nikkei newspaper reported, citing the Japanese ambassador to China. The man had been detained since March 2023 on suspicion of spying and had been indicted about a year ago. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on Wednesday that the country's judicial authorities handle cases in accordance with the law, when asked a question about a Beijing court sentencing an employee of a Japanese pharmaceutical company to prison for espionage. The question did not name the company. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China has always supported China-Japan economic and trade cooperation, and provides a good environment for the lawful operations of Japanese enterprises and personnel in China, Lin told a regular press briefing. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Additional reporting by Joe Cash in Beijing; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Christian Schmollinger) Japan is facing its most severe security environment since World War II as three potential adversaries in East Asia China, Russia and North Korea ramp up military activities in the region, the countrys defense minister said Tuesday. The existing order of world peace is being seriously challenged, and Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the post-war era, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in an introduction to the ministrys annual defense white paper. Chinas military activities present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge to Japan, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Beijing is rapidly enhancing its military capability in a qualitative and quantitative manner while intensifying activities around the region, Nakatani said, specifically mentioning the Senkaku Islands, a chain in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls but which is also claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyus. An aerial photo shows Chinese marine surveillance ship Haijian No. 66 (top) trying to approach a Japanese fishing boat (bottom) as Japan Coast Guard vessel Ishigaki cruises next to the Chinese ship, in the East China Sea, near what are known as the Senkaku isles in Japan and the Diaoyu islands in China, in this photo taken on April 23, 2013. - Kyodo/Reuters The 34-page document gives a dire outlook on the future of the region, especially on the rivalry between China and the United States, Tokyos most important ally. The global balance of power is shifting dramatically and competition among states continues. In particular, the inter-state competition between the United States and China is likely to intensify even further in future, the white paper says. The paper says escalating Chinese military activity around the democratically controlled island of Taiwan poses a threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China seeks to create a fait accompli where the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) is operating, and improve its actual combat capabilities, it says. It cites a similar situation in the South China Sea and says PLA actions there are a legitimate Japanese concern because Tokyo has major sea lanes running through the waterway. Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for Chinas Defense Ministry, said Wednesday that Japan was hyping up the China threat, and grossly interfering in Chinas internal affairs. The Japanese side is fabricating false narratives to find excuses for loosening its military constraints, Jiang said, referring to Japans strict post-war constitution, which limits its military forces to self-defense only. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And Japans invocation of World War II is controversial in a region where fissures over Tokyos devastating militarism during the period sour relations with many of its neighbors to this day. We urge the Japanese side to deeply learn from history, cease slandering and accusing China, Jiang said. But the Japanese paper didnt only focus on Beijings unilateral actions. A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken on September 2012. - Kyodo/Reuters Russia and North Korea As part of its expanded activities, the PLA is increasing cooperation with Russian armed forces, including joint bomber flights and naval patrols near Japan, the paper says. These repeated joint activities are clearly intended for demonstration of force against Japan, it says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report says that in the past fiscal year Japanese fighter jets scrambled 704 times, including 464 times in response to approaching Chinese aircraft and 237 times for Russian aircraft, a rate of almost two scrambles a day. Russias three-and-a-half-year-old invasion of Ukraine, along with the buildup in the Russian military that has come with it, is a worry for Japan, especially because of its status as a key US ally, the report says. The security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific is inseparable, it says, and warns that a Ukraine-like war is possible in the region without specifically mentioning where that might occur. The report says some of Russias newest military hardware has been deployed to the Pacific. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moscow has added troops, missiles and warplanes to islands north of Japan, which the Soviet Union took toward the end of World War II, but which Japan says are sovereign Japanese territory illegally occupied now by Russia. North Korea, meanwhile, is further developing nuclear weapons and the ballistic missiles to deliver them, the report says. Pyongyangs ballistic missiles, believed to be capable of carrying nuclear warheads, can cover the entirety of the Japanese archipelago, it says. North Koreas military activities are posing an even more grave and imminent threat to Japans security than ever before, the paper says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Japanese paper echoed many of the concerns the head of the US militarys Indo-Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Paparo, voiced in a posture paper in April. China continues to pursue unprecedented military modernization and increasingly aggressive behavior that threatens the U.S. homeland, our allies, and our partners, Paparo said. The US commander also said the deepening cooperation between China and Russia as well as North Korea presents an increasing threat in the Pacific. Together, these countries growing ties create a complex, interconnected challenge to U.S. national security and regional stability, Paparo said. CNNs Joyce Jiang contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com MANILA, Philippines Japans defense ministry released its latest defense white paper, reiterating increased threats from deepening ties between China and Russia, and major advancements in North Koreas nuclear missile tests. Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani said in a July 15 press conference that Japan faces the most severe and complex security environment and the government is working to achieve a radical strengthening of defense capabilities. The annual defense white paper summarizes the countrys security environment and the governments actions in the past fiscal year as it implements goals defined in the three key strategy documents that are expected to be realized in 2027. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The larger security strategy includes heavy investments in standoff missile capabilities and the deployment of troops, platforms, and assets across strategic bases, particularly in the Nansei or southwest region, which receives the bulk of buildup targets. The activities of Chinese surface fleets in waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands and Beijings threats to reclaim Taiwan by force have compelled Japan to ramp up island defense capabilities there. The defense document reported cases of incursions, including an incident in May, when four Chinese Coast Guard ships entered the waters surrounding the Senkakus and a Z-9 anti-submarine helicopter entered Japans airspace after taking off from one of the vessels. The incident was reported as a first, but the white paper noted an incident in 2024, when a Chinese military aircraft breached Japans airspace in August. A Chinese Navy aircraft carrier also loitered close to Japans territorial waters in September of the same year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China has been relentlessly continuing its unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force around the Senkaku Islands, leading to a matter of grave concern, the document reads. Nakatani refused to comment on the scope and scale of Japans role in a hypothetical conflict between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, but said the ministry will continue to work with Washington to strengthen deterrence. Japan has steadily improved its southwestern frontlines. It has installed monitoring, patrol, and surveillance systems and deployed anti-ship guided missile units in the southwest. Electronic warfare and air defense units have also been set up while troops conduct exercises there. Last week, the Ground Self-Defense Forces began the transfer of V-22 Ospreys temporarily based in Chiba, some 30 miles from Tokyo, to the newly opened Saga garrison in Kyushu Island. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ospreys will play a key role in the regions defense, Nakatani said last week, adding the aircraft will support the amphibious task force unit responsible for recapturing and securing Japanese islands occupied in the event of an invasion. The Self-Defense Forces will also begin training to launch the aircraft from Izumo-class destroyers that have been converted to accommodate F-35B fighter jets. Japan had initially planned the F-35Bs to support amphibious operations, but the initial six jets missed the target March delivery period, pushing back training with the Maritime Self-Defense Forces. The Ground Self-Defense Forces will also begin fielding Type 12 anti-ship missiles this year in choke points to bolster coastal defense. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The white paper also raised concerns over Russia and Chinas relationship which saw the countries conducting joint bomber flights and naval navigations in areas close to Japan, the document said. In April, the ministry released a separate report on the deployment of Russian submarines in the Far East. This includes a fifth Borey-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, a second Yasen-class M nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine, and an improved Kilo-class diesel-electric submarine, the fourth deployed with the Russian Pacific Fleet. In recent years, North Koreas nuclear missile tests and its attempts at launching reconnaissance satellites have been alarming experts in Tokyo, who fears Pyongyang might come closer to launching nuclear warheads that could strike Japan. The white paper mirrors this concern as evidenced in the Norths continuous pursuits in missile development at an extremely rapid pace, launching ballistic missiles that fly with irregular trajectories, the white paper indicated, adding that this tests include so-called hypersonic missiles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement North Korea is focusing on qualitatively improving its nuclear and missile capabilities, such as diversifying its equipment systems and acquiring intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) means that complement its nuclear and missile operational capabilities, the document indicated. The document was released days ahead of the Upper House elections on July 20. Local experts say the elections could either retain the ruling Liberal Democratic Partys majority control in the chamber or, in worst-case scenarios, lead to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishibas resignation and a period of political unrest. BEIJING (AP) A Japanese man was sentenced Wednesday to three and a half years in prison in China on espionage charges, according to the Japanese embassy in Beijing. The embassy did not identify the man, who has been detained since March 2023. Japan's Kyodo News Agency described him as a man in his 60s and an employee of Astellas Pharma Inc., a major Japanese pharmaceutical company. The man was charged with espionage in August and his first hearing was held in November but no details were released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Peoples Court did not immediately make an announcement after handing down the sentence. Kenji Kanasugi, the Japanese ambassador to China, called the sentencing extremely regrettable." The Japanese government has protested a series of detentions of its citizens in China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that judicial authorities had handled the case in strict accordance with the law and that China provides a sound environment for Japanese companies and workers. "As long as foreign nationals in China abide by the law and engage in lawful employment, there is nothing to worry about, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A total of 17 Japanese citizens with business or other connections to China have been detained since 2014, when China enacted the anti-spying law. Five remain in China, Kyodo reported. A Japanese diplomat was detained for questioning in 2022 and released hours later, prompting strong protests from Japan. Kanasugi was present at Wednesday's ruling, but Japanese reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom. He told reporters that Japan has demanded and will continue to demand the early release of detained Japanese nationals, adding that such detentions are one of the biggest obstacles to improving people-to-people exchanges and public sentiment between Japan and China. A statement released by the Japanese embassy in Beijing urged the Chinese government to ensure the humane treatment of detainees and to improve the transparency of the judicial process. Japan considers China's growing influence in the region as a threat to its national security and economy, and the risks of getting caught in China on espionage allegations are a growing concern in Japan, including its business community. A safety handbook for visitors to China, published by the Japanese embassy in Beijing, urges visitors to use extra caution. ___ Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo. [Source] Xinyu, a Chinese vocalist of the 24-member K-pop girl group tripleS, is facing backlash after echoing her support for Beijings One China policy. The controversy erupted on fan platform Fromm, where the Beijing-born performer reportedly wrote, Macau is Chinese from the beginning. Hong Kong and Taiwan also. Fans urged caution but the idol responded defiantly, saying, People who dont agree with me shouldnt [follow] me on Fromm. Why should I be scared of being told off? Did I say something wrong? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Xinyus statements support Beijings official position that mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau constitute one country under its rule. In response, Korean netizens clapped back with harsh criticism, with one demanding, Wow if youre gonna spew that kind of nonsense, go back to your country and do it to those ignorant people there. Others wrote Hope youve booked your flight back to China girl and This is why we dont stan Chinese idols. The backlash reflects historical tensions as similar controversies erupted in 2015 when Twices Tzuyu apologized for waving Taiwans flag and in 2019 when Chinese idols posted Chinese flags during Hong Kongs pro-democracy protests. It also occurs amid heightened geopolitical tensions, with a recently leaked audio suggesting that President Donald Trump threatened to bomb the shit out of Beijing if China invaded Taiwan. In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping reportedly asked former President Joe Biden to change Washingtons language from does not support to we oppose Taiwan independence. Trending on NextShark: Philippines VP Sara Duterte used snack-brand names to get millions in government funds This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what were building, consider becoming a paid member your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Trending on NextShark: Americans views on immigration have dramatically shifted, poll shows Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today! Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announces Utah officials had blocked an attempted land purchase by a Chinese-owned company of land near the Provo Airport during a news conference at a family-owned farm in Palmyra on July 15, 2025. (Courtesy of the Utah Governor's Office) Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and several lawmakers gathered in a sweltering field next to an old barn in the tiny farm community of Palmyra on Tuesday to announce state officials had recently blocked a Chinese state-owned company from buying land near the Provo Airport. Cox said he wanted to make clear that Utah is reaffirming a strong message that its been sending for years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will not allow adversarial foreign entities to buy up strategic land in our state, Cox said. He announced that a Chinese state-owned company, tied to the Peoples Liberation Army, which is the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party tried to purchase land near the Provo Airport very recently. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Cox described the company, Cirrus Aircraft, as majority-owned by the Avian Industry Corporation of China, also known as AVIC. A restricted foreign entity under Utah law with deep military ties to the Chinese government, AVIC makes fighter jets, helicopters and drones for the Chinese military, he said. They appear on multiple U.S. federal watch lists and are banned from federal contracts, assistance and benefits due to serious national security concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cirrus Aircraft, which sells private planes, began as a U.S. company based in Wisconsin, according to its website. In 2011, when many U.S. companies were struggling in the wake of the Great Recession, AVICs subsidiary China Aviation Industry General Aircraft bought Cirrus for about $210 million, Bloomberg reported in 2023. Cirrus isnt a military manufacturer its main products are single-engine planes used by private citizens and charter services but some of its technology and manufacturing expertise could be valuable to the (Peoples Liberation Army), Bloomberg reported in that 2023 article, attributing several aviation and Chinese military experts interviewed by Bloomberg. That story also noted Cirrus hasnt been accused of any wrongdoing but its parent company is under a great deal of scrutiny, noting that in 2020 the U.S. began flagging AVIC as a potential national security threat, imposing sanctions designed to hinder the growth of companies directly connected to Chinas military. Coxs office did not offer many details about what Cirrus had planned to do with the land near the Provo Airport, but the governor said their proposed investment in Utah was millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And I dont care, Cox said. We are not for sale. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announces Utah officials had blocked an attempted land purchase by a Chinese-owned company of land near the Provo Airport during a news conference at a family-owned farm in Palmyra on July 15, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch) The governor applauded the Utah Legislature for passing several laws meant to clamp down on foreign threats in the state, including HB516, a bill sponsored by Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, passed in 2024 that restricts companies controlled by countries including China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from buying land in Utah. It also requires land already owned by those countries to be divested. In 2022, Utah universities also began shutting down Confucius institutes after Utah lawmakers raised national security concerns. Pierucci said they were identified by the State Department and FBI as Chinese propaganda outlets. The blocked land purchase near Provo Airport The governors office referred questions about the blocked land sale to the Department of Public Safety, which lawmakers tasked with maintaining a list of restricted foreign entities, creating a process for flagging land purchases by restricted countries, investigating purchases, and training local officials like county recorders to report land conveyances they suspect are prohibited. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Capt. Tanner Jensen, director of Utah Department of Public Safetys statewide information and analysis center, told Utah News Dispatch on Tuesday evening that public safety officials were notified of the attempted purchase earlier this year, in February and March, and efforts were immediately stopped. Jensen said under state law, county recorders are required to notify the Department of Public Safety of any suspicious activity surrounding foreign land purchase conducted by restricted entities. In the case of the attempted Cirrus purchase, the county recorders and the Governors Office of Economic Opportunity notified DPS, he said. This isnt just about one deal. Its about protecting strategic land and ensuring foreign adversaries cannot gain a foothold in our state. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox Jensen said he was not immediately able to provide more information, including how many acres were set to be sold, where specifically the land was located in relation to the Provo Airport, and who was selling the land. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But he said the potential purchase in proximity of the Provo Airport was concerning because it could have been strategic, economically for the Chinese government, and also strategic in the fact that aviation is a critical infrastructure. Our federal, state, local law enforcement and homeland security efforts are focused on this type of activity, especially from China and some other nation state actors that are looking to compromise our freedoms and our security here, Jensen said. Land purchase is just one of many tactics that were concerned about. He added that public safety officials are also concerned about surveillance, security compromises, intellectual property theft, (and) attacks on our democratic process by misinformation. So this foreign land purchase is just one aspect of it, he said. But we do know that its a tactic that they use to gain control of our economy, to have influence over how our economy functions, and also gives foreign adversaries the ability to collect additional information on our security efforts here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To Pierucci, the blocked sale showed Utah laws are working. What was exciting about this stop of the transaction next to the Provo Airport was it was a county recorder who caught it, and it was because of the training, a direct result of the legislation that was passed and signed by Gov. Cox, Pierucci said. Susan Sorensen, owner of the fifth-generation family farm in Palmyra, said she offered to host Tuesdays press conference when she learned the governors office was looking for a location. She told Utah News Dispatch shes never experienced a foreign entity attempting to purchase her land, but she knows first-hand how difficult it can be for small Utah farm owners to keep their land in their family. Its extremely important that we protect our farmland, she said. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (right) shakes hands with farm owner Susan Sorensen ahead of a news conference in Palmyra on July 15, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch) How much land in Utah is owned by China? Currently, Cox said its very, very little. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said he wanted to set the record straight, noting that there have been some really dumb maps that keep floating around the internet that incorrectly showed millions of acres of Utah are owned by the Chinese government. According to data recently released by the U.S. The Department of Agriculture, as of Dec. 31, 2023, about 33,000 acres in Utah had been owned by Chinese companies and investors, The Center Square reported. Cox said there are lots of different efforts, including here in Utah, to categorize land owners and ensure we dont have those adversarial entities. By most estimates, he said around 35,000 to 37,000 acres of land in Utah were owned by the Chinese government. He emphasized the words were owned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the past few months, 35,000 acres of that has been divested and is no longer owned by the Chinese government, he said. So now were talking about a very, very, very small percentage. We will continue to investigate and we will continue to make sure that we are enforcing the law. Cox said Tuesdays press conference isnt just about one deal. Its about protecting strategic land and ensuring foreign adversaries cannot gain a foothold in our state, he said. Other states might have let this slip through the cracks. Utah didnt, and wont. As of the end of 2023, U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed about 45.8 million acres in the U.S. a swath of land that, taken all together, would be larger than Washington state belonged to foreign entities, The Center Square reported. Its unclear where that figure stands today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the governors office, other states are interested in Utahs policies, which have also been recognized as a national best practice by senior U.S. Department of Defense officials. It also noted the Association of Defense Communities invited Utah to present at its national installations conference. Pierucci said her slate of bills that have taken aim against the Chinese Communist Partys influence are far more than policy. Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, speaks during a news conference in Palmyra on July 15, 2025. (Katie McKellar/Utah News Dispatch) They are a declaration that Utah will not be intimidated or infiltrated by authoritarian regimes, and they affirm that we value freedom, transparency and security over short-term economic convenience, she said. Pierucci added that Utahs efforts have set an example nationally for how states can stand up to the Chinese Communist Partys malign interests and safeguard our national security. National security is no longer the exclusive domain of Washington. It begins here at home, on our farms, in our schools and universities, with county recorders, industry partners and policymakers, she said. So let us be clear-eyed and confident. We will not be intimidated by authoritarianism masquerading as progress. She also said theres more to come from the Utah Legislature, including legislation to address Utahs water vulnerabilities and put a stop to the CCPs forced disclosures of our critical minerals in order for our Utah ranchers to sell their products to them. She said lawmakers will also look to enhance the Department of Public Safetys tools and resources to enforce all of these measures. Its not just about land, Cox said, but also religious freedom Near the end of Tuesdays press conference, Cox ended his remarks by also pointing to recent actions by the Chinese government to restrict religious worship, including the closure of multiple congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Beijing. These werent radical or political gatherings, he said. They were peaceful, quiet places of worship, attended by Utahns, American diplomats, and local Chinese believers who followed the law and stayed out of the spotlight. The governor said its clear what China is attempting to do here. Theyre using the right to worship as leverage. This is personal for us, he continued, adding that Utahs own story is rooted in the right to worship. Religious liberty is not a bargaining chip. Not for land deals. Not for trade. And not for diplomacy. Utah, he said, will always stand for the right to worship freely, and we reject any attempt foreign or domestic to silence that right through coercion or pressure. Cox said the shutdowns reflect a growing pattern, not just against Latter-day Saints, but against many faiths and nonprofits with any ties to the West. This is what authoritarianism looks like: pressure abroad, coercion at home, and total disregard for faith and belief, Cox said. And its why Utahns must remain vigilant. Whether its farmland near an airport or quiet congregations abroad, we will continue to stand for liberty, for property rights, for religious freedom, and for the values that make this state and this country great. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE (FOX40.COM) Fast food chain company Chipotle Mexican Grill announced that a new location will be opening up in Sacramento on Friday. Video Above: 25th annual peach festival returns to Marysville The new location, on 2795 Fulton Avenue, will have a Chipotlane, which is a drive-thru pick-up lane where customers can pick up digital orders without exiting their vehicles. The company is recommending customers try the newest dip Adobo Ranch, for a limited time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chipotle Rewards Members are also eligible to win $1 million of free Chipotle during the companys Summer of Extras Program. National Hot Dog Day deals in Sacramento To become a Chipotle Rewards Member, click here. The company said they are hiring at this location and other locations throughout the county. For more details, visit chipotle.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. Diageo has announced CEO Debra Crew has stepped down by mutual agreement. In a stock-exchange filing this afternoon UK time, the Johnnie Walker owner said CFO Nik Jhangiani would step in on an interim basis while it sought a new chief executive. Earlier today (16 July), The Financial Times reported today (16 July) the spirits giants board was planning to replace Crew who became CEO in June 2023. Citing an unnamed source, the FT said a possible candidate was the recently installed Jhangiani. In the filing, Diageo chair John Manzoni said: On behalf of Diageo and the board, I would like to thank Debra for her contributions to Diageo, including steering the company through the challenging aftermath of the global pandemic and the ensuing geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility. On behalf of all Diageo colleagues, I wish her every success in the future. The boards focus is on securing the best candidate to lead Diageo and take the company forward. We strongly believe Diageo is well placed to deliver long-term, sustainable value creation. Crew took the helm at the UK-listed group in June 2023, moving up from the position of COO. In November that year, Diageo issued a profit warning amid pressure on its business in Latin America. In the 12 months to the end of June, the Guinness owner saw its net sales fall 1.4% and dip 0.6% organically. Reported operating profit grew 8.2%, although the problems in Latin America meant organic operating profit declined. In February, Diageo, in a move similar to other major distillers, pulled its medium-term guidance, citing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. The change came alongside a set of half-year numbers that included a 0.6% decrease in net sales, although they inched up 1% organically. Operating profit declined, however. May saw the Johnnie Walker maker announce it was looking to save around $500m in costs over the next three years as part of efforts to become more agile and resilient. Diageo said the move would help the company invest in future growth and improve its operating leverage. Jhangiani, who joined the company from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in September, said at the time the group could make substantial changes to its product portfolio in the form of asset disposals. During Crews tenure, Diageo has offloaded assets including rum brands Cacique and Pampero and Safari liqueur. The group has also sold assets in Africa, although last October it reportedly called off the sale of its Pimms gin-based liqueur after failing to secure an agreement with potential buyers. (FOX 5/KUSI) Joe Castillo woke up to several trash cans filled to the brim this morning in his Chula Vista neighborhood as Republic Services, the City of Chula Vistas contracted waste collection provider, is dealing with employees leaving work in support of a strike on the East Coast. We didnt have any more room or space, so what I ended up doing is just loading up my trash can in the back of my pickup truck, as well as (my) neighbors. I took two other cansthats just being a good neighbor, Castillo said. Neighbors across the city are taking matters into their own hands as the strike drags on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James Gifford says his neighbor just had knee surgery and is having trouble getting around as the trash pile grows. His trash cans were filled, stuffed and then he has a bag of trash on top, and there was a crow eating it.. I got the crow away, I picked up the trash and I had a little bit more room in my can, so I just threw it in there, said Gifford. Concerns about public health are increasing with each passing day the trash sits on the curb in the summer heat. Im hoping that the mayor will step in and have something done, said Castillo. Mayor John McCann said that at the emergency council meeting on Monday regarding the trash situation, a deadline was set. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That this Thursday, things needed to be improved substantially or we were going to call for a state of emergency, said McCann. Though sanitation workers in Chula Vista are striking in solidarity, the conflict started far from home. This is about the strike in Boston. It has nothing to do with our contract in the City of Chula Vista and its unfortunate, said McCann. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is leading a labor strike against Republic Services in Boston. So why is Chula Vista being targeted by the Teamsters? I dont know, but I know the Republic Services contract is going to be coming up soon, and that may be one of the reasons why theyre targeting our city, said McCann. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Teamsters announced Tuesday the expansion of their national strike against Republic Services to Los Angeles and a major landfill in Ohio, while local residents are left to dispose of trash themselves. A statement from Republic Services says their Otay and Sycamore landfills are available for residents to drop off their trash. But Im not about to put a bunch of stinky compost containers in my car and drive to the dump there and unload all that stuff, said Gifford. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) Over five years ago, the John C. Calhoun statue that stood over Charlestons Marion Square was removed. On Tuesday, the City of Charleston announced that the statue must be removed from city limits by its new owners. The statue of the former vice president and statesman, who was an avid defender of slavery, was removed in June 2020 after city council unanimously voted to remove it. First erected on June 27, 1896, it had stood for nearly 125 years. At Tuesday nights Charleston City Council meeting, leaders entered an executive session, where they named the Calhoun Monument Preservation Society as its new owner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Calhoun monument will once again be in the hands of those who respect South Carolinas historical inheritance, said President of the American Heritage Association Cal Stephens. The Society will now begin developing a plan to re-erect the Calhoun monument locally for public viewing. The American Heritage Association, established by the group that owns Marion Square and the descendants of Calhoun, developed the Calhoun Monument Preservation Society. The statue currently sits in one of the citys storage facilities at an undisclosed location. City leaders stated that the trust has until September to remove it from city limits, or they will be required to pay the city rent. In 2022, the American Heritage Association (AHA) asked the court to issue a declaration that the citys removal of the monument without specific authorization from South Carolina lawmakers violated the Heritage Act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case was on appeal after District Judge Jennifer McCoy ruled that only Attorney General Alan Wilson could enforce the Heritage Act and the Charitable Trust agreement, the AHA explained. Wilson took no action in regard to enforcing the charitable trust and had previously determined that the Heritage Act did not apply to the Calhoun monument. The decision made at Tuesday nights city council meeting is a part of a settlement between the city and AHA, according to the association. City Councilman Ross Appel said he is grateful the litigation over the statue is resolvedclosing a complex chapter in our citys history. Appel added, [He] hopes this resolution helps us move forward together as a community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the statue first came down, then-Mayor John Tecklenburg said that while the city acknowledged Calhouns efforts as a statesman, it couldnt ignore his positions on slavery and discrimination. Efforts to have the statue removed began after the death of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests over racial injustice. Many people, including local and state leaders, called the statue a symbol of hate and racism, while others said leaders shouldnt attempt to erase history with its removal. After initial removal, the plan was to rehome it in a museum or educational institute. That fell through when the Charleston Museum decided not to accept it, and a plan for it to be displayed in a California museum never happened. A plan to house it in the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia also died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Numerous lawsuits have been filed against the city of Charleston over the decision. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCBD News 2. The violent apprehension Friday of a city man wanted on drug charges, an encounter captured in a video that quickly went viral, provided the focus for about half of a 50-minute Meadville City Council meeting on Tuesday. Internal and external reviews of the incident likely will be completed over the next two weeks, according to City Manager Maryann Menanno. The meeting included four members of the public who addressed council with concerns about the incident and an audience of about 35 people, including seven off-duty Meadville Police Department officers standing along one wall with Chief Michael Stefanucci. None of the officers addressed council during the meeting. None of the three officers seen subduing Nathan Trevor Koman in the video were present for the meeting, according to Stefanucci. But their continued presence patrolling the citys streets was on the mind of several people in the audience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im wondering why are they still on duty, Vernon Township resident Revol Brasier told council, before turning to previous statements from city officials. Never once in any of the comments that Im reading are they indicating it could be anything other than them doing their job, and what I saw was a mans head bouncing off the pavement. By the time the meeting started, the video of the arrest had been viewed nearly 200,000 times on Facebook. The incident was set to receive even more attention: six hours before the meeting, a story about it that included the video was posted to TMZ, the Los Angeles-based website known nationally for its coverage of celebrity gossip and scandals. Menanno referenced the outlet when she was asked after the meeting about the fact that no officers had been put on leave or suspended in the wake of the Friday arrest. The video of the struggle shows an officer arriving and rushing to assist another officer who is struggling with Koman. The second officer delivers a rapid burst of about seven punches to the suspect, followed shortly by a more deliberate series of four blows to the side of the mans head, at least one of which appears to cause his head to ricochet off the asphalt. Ill tell you what I told TMZ today, Menanno said. Its not departmental policy to suspend officers in these types of instances where theres accusations of excessive use of force. Suspension or administrative leave occurs when theres an officer-involved shooting or severe bodily injury to the subject. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Menanno reiterated a point made by Stefanucci in a Saturday interview with The Meadville Tribune, saying that Koman was taken to Meadville Medical Center immediately after being arrested and was released from the hospital without being treated for any significant injuries. In his remarks at the conclusion of the meeting, Councilman Jim Roha responded to the calls for suspension raised during the public comment portion of the meeting. We do not have the power to suspend employees, he said, referring specifically to City Council. That is an administrative function under the (council and) city manager form of government, which is a great form and should not be tampered with. Deputy Mayor Larry McKnight said he was flabbergasted by what he saw in the video, but described the question of whether officers should be suspended in light of the video as a complicated one that warranted patience as a comprehensive investigation plays out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im going to wait, McKnight said. If theres information that comes back that makes me feel that something should be done that he was in the wrong I will support more being done. I will ask what else can be done because no one deserves to go through that. The affidavit filed following the arrest by the first officer seen in the video offers a police perspective on what Koman went through. In it, the officer describes stopping Koman, who was riding a bicycle and pulling a small trailer, and attempting to inform Koman that he was being arrested for eight charges, including one felony count of possession with intent to deliver. The arresting officer then recounts how the encounter escalated as the 33-year-old Koman, who was significantly larger than the officer, ignored his commands and seemed unaffected by pain compliance on his left wrist. Koman also seemed largely unaffected by multiple shocks from a Taser, according to the officers account. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Koman was advised 10 times to get off his bike before being removed, was told 4 times to turn around without compliance, was told that he would be tased 4 times during the incident, was advised 6 times that he had a warrant for his arrest, was told to put his hands behind his back a total of 7 times and was advised to get on the ground a total of five times during the altercation, the affidavit stated. The first officer reported shocking Koman twice with his Taser, but noted that the second firing did not have full contact and was ineffective. As the struggle continued, the officer drive stunned Koman with the Taser, applying the device directly to his left shoulder to deliver a localized shock rather than firing the devices darts for full-body incapacitation. The second officer to arrive also fired his Taser at Komans stomach before he began striking him. The first officer was then able to roll Koman onto his stomach. When the second officer punched Koman four times in the head, as can be seen in the video, the first was able to get Komans arms behind his back, according to the affidavit, and Koman was handcuffed as a third officer arrived and lent additional help. Koman remains in Crawford County jail, Saegertown, on $250,000 bail. He is awaiting preliminary hearings in three cases: four misdemeanor counts and one summary charge resulting from the arrest Friday; one felony and seven misdemeanor drug charge as well as a summary traffic charge resulting from a May 13 incident in the city; and four drug-related misdemeanors and two summary traffic charges from a March 29 incident in the city. Koman is also awaiting trial in two cases in Crawford County Court of Common Pleas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Noting after the meeting that police have no control over bail amounts, Stefanucci expressed support for high bail generally and said that a variety of factors are considered, including a defendants ties to the community, substance abuse, employment status and total number of pending charges. As the council members continued their concluding remarks at the end of the meeting, Councilwoman Autumn Vogel called the arrest and its aftermath a really tough moment for our community. My heart feels very heavy right now and part of that weight comes from knowing that this could really divide us if we let it, she said. We need to be open to hearing view points that arent necessarily our own and that can be a tough thing to do, but through that a lot can happen. Mayor Jaime Kinder emphasized her availability to those with concerns about the incident and called for patience as Stefanuccis internal review and an external review by PMG Investigations of Edinboro proceed. The biggest thing is this we all live in this community together, Kinder said just before adjourning the meeting. Were here to fight for each other and that is our superpower doing this thing together, working it through together, and making sure that Meadville can stand on its own. Jul. 15MORGANTOWN It takes a couple minutes to walk from Morgantown City Hall to the Monongalia County Courthouse, but there have been times when leadership within the two buildings seemed a world apart. Issues like the creation of the city's Falling Run TIF district, county support for city parks, a sprawling city annexation plan and the county's hands-off attitude in terms of regulating development have been among the points of contention over the past decade or so. During a recent work session, the commission sat with new City Manager Jamie Miller, Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli, Mayor Danielle Trumble and Councilor Jenny Selin to discuss, among other things, the current status of the city /county relationship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'm all for communication, and I think communication has been great since I've been on [the commission ]. There is a myth that we're always fighting, but I think communication has been great, " Commissioner Sean Sikora said. "We serve on a lot of different entities together, and we always strive to work for our overall citizens because no matter where you're from in this county, people are going to refer to you as being from Morgantown." Commission President Jeff Arnett concurred. "When I ran for office, I always heard, 'Oh, what are you going to do to improve relations between the city and county, ' but I personally have found, if anything, that it's been great so far, " Arnett said. "I don't know that I've seen a great deal of conflict since I've been on. Maybe I don't pay attention as much, but I'd just like to continue that going forward, honestly." Miller, who started her tenure with the city in late June, said forming a strong working bond with the county is among her top priorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I just wanted to make sure you all know that I value establishing this relationship as we move forward because I do feel that we are stronger together, " Miller said. It was noted during the meeting that the city and county are working hand-in-hand on a number of projects and issues, including the East End Village development, the Upper Popenoe Run stream restoration and sewer line replacement project and ongoing efforts to assist community members struggling with addiction, mental health issues and lack of housing. Muzzarelli said the city is supportive of transportation projects like the Exit 155 redesign and ongoing Holland Avenue improvements as enhancements to corridors into the greater Morgantown area. She requested the commission's help in staying on top of happenings within the West Virginia Division of Highways. "Transportation is something that impacts all of us. Probably because of how the rest of the state is set up, generally, whenever the DOH sends out invitations to talk about roads, they send it to the county. Those don't get trickled down to the city, where we are the ones who are primarily dealing with all of the other roadways, " she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumble pointed out that with federal funding cuts becoming increasingly common, the city and county need to be sure they're maximizing taxpayer dollars. "There are cuts everywhere. Everyone is struggling. The more ways we can find to pool our resources and work together, the better, " Trumble said, using a recent cleanup and painting project under the South High Street Bridge as an example. "That is DOH property. We got some trash bags from them. We got some paint from the city. We leveraged a couple buckets of paint into multiple days of volunteer work for people who care about this community and want to make it better. We need to keep that momentum going and really make people proud and want to live here and visit here and spend more time here." GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) Low-income homeowners in Greensboro may receive financial assistance through a new city program. The program aims to help homeowners whose property taxes in 2024 were higher than in 2021. Eligible applicants must live within the city limits and have a household income of $54,800 or less. Assistance is available on a first-come, first-served basis until funds are exhausted. Those who have received assistance from the City of Greensboro in the past must submit a new application. Applicants who have received assistance through Guilford County tax assistance programs are not eligible for the City of Greensboro program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Applications are available on the Greensboro city website, and the deadline to apply is Oct. 31. When filling out an online application, applicants should select the option for Low-Income Homeowner Assistance Program. A link to the application, as well as information on which documents are needed and how to submit a hard copy application, are available on the City of Greensboro website. This initiative provides an opportunity for eligible homeowners to alleviate some of the financial burdens caused by increased property taxes. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WGHP. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WGHP staff before being published. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP. HINTON, WV (WVNS) The City of Hinton is now a certified Build WV District. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey made this designation on June 25, 2025, according to a press release. Monroe County gets new emergency medical assistance program City of Hinton Mayor Jack Scott said he was thrilled about this news, as it will provide incentives like sales tax exemption, property value adjustment credit, and potential business and operating tax exemption for approved projects. He added that it could potentially bring in housing development for their community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The good news for us is we also have a historic district with historic tax credits that could be added to the 6%, and it could be quite a savings on investment here. So, we want to get the word out about that and hope that people will come, said Mayor Scott. Mayor Scott added that if developers want to invest in Hinton, they can save anywhere from 6% all the way up to 40% on taxes tax because of this certification. The Build WV Act was passed in the 2022 Legislative Session. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. AUSTIN (KXAN) City of Kyle Mayor Travis Mitchell made an announcement Tuesday and said he will step down from his role as mayor in November one year before the end of his final term. Mitchell said on social media he wanted to share the announcement Tuesday, so the city council could have the necessary time to call a special election. Mitchell said his intention was to announce he was stepping down from the role during the Kyle City Council meeting, which was scheduled Tuesday. However, a credible bomb threat led to a recess of the meeting, Mitchell said. In the same message, he decided to share the news of his stepping down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This decision comes after deep reflection, he said. Mitchell shared his reasons behind his stepping down, which included saying he felt the city was in a strong position. Our council and staff have worked collaboratively for most of my tenure, and we have much to show for it. Im proud of what weve accomplished and excited to watch as our new major investments begin to materialize in the years ahead. That was my goal to help Kyle reach this point and I step down with confidence in our long-term position in the region, he said. Additionally, Mitchell said he was ready to return to work in the private sector, saying serving as the mayor put other parts of his life on hold. Last, he said, part of leadership is knowing when to step aside. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kyle is full of smart, capable, and committed people. Ive seen firsthand how much talent and care exists in this community. I believe strongly that now is the time to create space for the next generation of leadership to rise and help write the citys next chapter, Mitchell said. Mitchell said he will remain in office until November, and that a special election is set to be held then at the same time as council races for District 1 and District 3. Im proud of the town weve built together. Im proud of how far weve come. And Ill be proud to leave this office believing without hesitation that Kyles best days are still ahead, Mitchell said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department will take teens found in violation of the city's youth curfew to a central location where they can access "supportive services" and reunite with guardians, the city announced on July 16. "The approach is restorative, not disciplinary," IMPD Assistant Chief Michael Wolley said. This weekend marks the launch of the new initiative in collaboration with the Office of Public Health and Safety. Once the teens have arrived at the site, which is in an undisclosed location, they'll be able to connect with mentorship services from youth organizations New BOY, Let Them Talk and Voices Indianapolis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The WNBA All-Star Weekend is expected to draw crowds downtown this weekend, and Wolley said the pop-up center will likely be set up during other large events. More: Indy superintendents back youth curfew as IMPD preps for weekend before WNBA All-Star game Earlier this month, the city announced plans to enforce a youth curfew prohibiting teens aged 15 to 17 from being unaccompanied in public between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weeknights. Those hours also apply for teens under 15 on weekends, but teens between 15 and 17 can stay out until 1 a.m. The curfew itself isn't new. In the past, it has not been consistently enforced due at least in part to logistical challenges, including staffing constraints and the lack of a central location to take the children who are picked up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But in the hours following the annual Fourth of July fireworks show, hundreds of unsupervised teens lingered downtown, culminating in a mass shooting that killed Xavion Jackson, 16, and Azareaon S. Cole, 15. Two other teens and three adults were also injured. IMPD Chief Chris Bailey said police had already confiscated firearms from multiple teens before the shooting. In 2024, the most common charge filed in Marion County's juvenile court was dangerous possession of a firearm, according to the prosecutor's office. "I don't know how many times I have to say it. We are not your children's keepers. You are," Bailey said to media gathered around him during a late-night press conference. "And parents and guardians have got to step up." Kids as young as 13 and 14 were charged with gun possession over the Fourth of July weekend, according to the Marion County Prosecutor's Office. A total of eight teens and three adults face charges in connection with the downtown mayhem, but no one has been arrested for the mass shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The curfew is a key part of the city's strategy to reduce gun violence among youth. The Office of Public Health and Safety is also funding programs designed to reduce violence among high-risk young people. New BOY, Let Them Talk and Voices will speak with teens brought to the center about their lives and decision-making. Leaders from those organizations said they hope to build long-term positive relationships with the teens who are brought in for curfew violations this weekend. "I believe there's no correction without connection," New BOY founder Kareem Hines said. "...This is about the safety of our young people, the safety of our city, but this is also about changing the trajectory of their lives." Dr. Heather Savage with Let Them Talk, a youth organization for the Black community, encouraged people who are concerned about violence to mentor kids or volunteer rather than pass judgment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our youths read those comments. Their parents see what we're saying about them online, under news articles," Savage said. "We want them to be better people, but as adults, we can be better people." The curfew ordinance doesn't create a criminal offense for the city's children and teens, but it does grant police the authority to detain them. They will be searched and handcuffed during transport, per protocol, but won't be restrained while at the center unless presenting a safety risk. Wolley emphasized that curfew violations are a "status offense," meaning that they don't show up on a permanent record and don't come with fines. Guardians will be contacted to come pick them up. If multiple attempts at contacting parents fail, there's a possibility the teens will be taken to the Youth Services Center, which serves as the city's juvenile detention center. The weekend safety center also doesn't preclude arrests for teens engaged in criminal activity, the police chief said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A similar curfew enforcement plan had been announced more than a year earlier after a different downtown Indianapolis mass shooting wounded seven teens. In April 2024, a feud between teens escalated into a gunfight, shining a national spotlight on the city's struggle to curb youth violence. IndyStar has submitted a public records request asking for the number of teens cited under the curfew statute over the last two years. That request remains pending. No teens were cited for curfew ordinance alone last weekend, Bailey said on July 16. Though the City-County Council is considering an ordinance that would create an earlier curfew of 9 p.m., the head of Indianapolis' police union issued a statement calling that expansion a "shallow and shortsighted approach." In the same statement, Indianapolis' Fraternal Order of Police president Rick Snyder asked state lawmakers to intervene in the city's gun violence. On July 15, Gov. Braun indicated that he was open to that possibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bailey said he wouldn't turn down extra law enforcement presence. There have been nearly a dozen shooting deaths over the first two weekends of July. Bailey emphasized that the criminal legal system is only one part of solving the complicated problem of youth violence. "This is an uncomfortable situation. You should be uncomfortable," Hines, the New BOY director, said of the center's creation. But he sees it as an enormous opportunity, too. "With our community partners, we will now be able to offer resources to those young people that might not have had it before," Hines said. "And it is our intent for our passion and our genuineness to become contagious." Anybody interested in helping out with this weekend's efforts can contact IMPD.PublicAffairs@indy.gov. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: City announces resource, reunification site for teens out past curfew Worcester wont be running a city-owned grocery store anytime soon. District 1 Councilor Jenny Pacillo initially brought forward a request to look into the possibility of Worcester running its own grocery store, but it was met with some resistance from councilors who raised concerns about the original wording on the agenda who said a municipally owned grocery store could hurt the private sector. Pacillo amended the wording of the order to Request the city manager work with community partners, state and federal delegations to explore feasibility of creative grocery store solutions to expand access to affordable groceries in the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The idea of city-owned grocery stores has also been proposed in New York City. Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor, recently put forth the idea of creating a network of city-owned grocery stores. These grocery stores would be focused on keeping prices low by not paying rent or property taxes, according to Mamdanis campaign website. City Manager Eric Batista clarified that the model he discussed with Pacillo for Worcester would have the city act as a landlord to the grocery store, and that city employees would not actually work at the location. The order was adopted after an 8-2 vote, with only Councilors-at-Large Morris Bergman and Donna Colorio opposing it. In any government-run grocery store, youve got less choices, not more; less availability, not more, and higher prices, Colorio said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wed be getting into the business of owning property that has liability potential, Bergman said. Slip and fall accidents happen all the time in grocery stores. The order comes after the recent closing of two of the citys grocery stores, namely the Price Chopper on 50 Cambridge St. in January and the Stop & Shop 545 Lincoln St. in November. When there is a clear market gap, like the absence of a grocery store, the city has a role to play in supporting community-led efforts and encouraging investment that strengthens our local economy and improves the quality of life, Pacillo said. Pacillos order received support from the rest of the councilors once the amendment was made, including District 3 Councilor George Russell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im happy that Councilor Pacillo amended her item to take out the part about having the city of Worcester actually own or run a market, he said. I think the city manager has enough on his plate now, and we dont need to get him a butchers apron and put him to work running a supermarket. More News Read the original article on MassLive. A call to help save a historic church from property developers has been answered by American descendants of a family with centuries-old links to the Borders. Ruberslaw Parish Church at Bedrule - between Hawick and Jedburgh - is one of dozens of churches being closed and sold off across the region due to low congregations. The community launched a fundraiser at the start of the year to meet the 35,000 asking price - and about half the money has come from the US-based Clan Turnbull. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many of the clan's ancestors were buried at the churchyard. Charlotte Maberly is among the local people heading up fundraising efforts at Bedrule Church Future (BCF). She said: "Americans are much more familiar with fundraising than us Brits are. "For them, their sense of heritage is much stronger than people who are here." The current Bedrule church dates back to 1804, but many of the gravestones in the surrounding graveyard are from several centuries earlier. And many of the headstones are memorials to members of the Turnbull family who originated in the area. Throughout the 15th and 16th Centuries, the Border Reiver families controlled lands on either side of what had become a lawless Anglo-Scottish border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across the middle march, which now takes up most of the central and eastern Scottish Borders, the Turnbulls emerged as one of the most renowned and feared clans. With reducing congregations across the country, the Church of Scotland has been scaling back its places of worship over the past decade or so. Ruberslaw Parish Kirk and neighbouring churches in Minto and Southdean are all being "disposed of" this year. Churchgoers and the wider community at Bedrule were informed in November of the decision, leading to the formation of a fundraising group. Charlotte added: "Pubs have been closing, other communal spaces have been closing, and with all these different churches closing, we need to rethink how we create community cohesion rurally." Charlotte Maberly is excited for the future of the Bedrule building [BBC] Many former churches have already been turned into private dwellings - and there were fears that, if the asking price could not be raised, a property developer would snap up the listed building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, with just days to go before the closing date, BCF, which has preferred bidder status, reached its target - with a big debt to the US-based organisation. The clan describes the church as a "historic Turnbull landmark with a breath-taking view across the Rulewater Valley to Ruberslaw mountain". "The kirkyard, which holds the Turnbull cairn, is the final resting place of many of our ancestors," it added. "The sanctuary of the church is a holy place where the power of the faith of our fathers is tangible." Alan Bailey was among the fundraisers trying to preserve the church [BBC] With the funding in place, meetings will now take place in the coming weeks and months to forge a plan for the building's future in a tiny village with just a couple of hundreds residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alan Bailey, who is also a trustee of BCF, said they would have to come up with an innovative use for the building. "We don't have footfall around here," he said. "If you are a church in a town, you can become a cafe, a gym, a kids club. "So we are going to have to be imaginative." Diageo has refused to be drawn on a report the companys board is lining up a new chief executive. The Financial Times reported today (16 July) the spirits giants board is planning to replace Debra Crew. Citing unnamed sources, the FT said Diageos directors are looking for a new CEO, with one source telling the publication a possible candidate is recently installed CFO Nik Jhangiani. Approached by Just Drinks, a Diageo spokesperson declined to comment. Crew took the helm at the UK-listed group in June 2023, moving up from the position of COO. In November that year, Diageo issued a profit warning amid pressure on its business in Latin America. In the 12 months to the end of June, the Guinness owner saw its net sales fall 1.4% and dip 0.6% organically. Reported operating profit grew 8.2%, although the problems in Latin America meant organic operating profit declined. In February, Diageo, in a move similar to other major distillers, pulled its medium-term guidance, citing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty. The change came alongside a set of half-year numbers that included a 0.6% decrease in net sales, although they inched up 1% organically. Operating profit declined, however. May saw the Johnnie Walker maker announce it was looking to save around $500m in costs over the next three years as part of efforts to become more agile and resilient. Diageo said the move would help the company invest in future growth and improve its operating leverage. Jhangiani, who joined the company from Coca-Cola Europacific Partners in September, said at the time the group could make substantial changes to its product portfolio in the form of asset disposals. During Crews tenure, Diageo has offloaded assets including rum brands Cacique and Pampero and Safari liqueur. The group has also sold assets in Africa, although last October it reportedly called off the sale of its Pimms gin-based liqueur after failing to secure an agreement with potential buyers. The business said the cuts were part of a broader initiative dubbed Accelerate that will see a shift in how we do business, including developing a more agile global operating model. Diageos share price, which has fallen by more than 40% since Crew became CEO, was up 2.4% on the day at 1,933.32p at 12:20 BST. "Diageo silent amid CEO exit talk" was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. DAMASCUS/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel launched powerful airstrikes in Damascus on Wednesday, blowing up part of the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace as it vowed to destroy government forces attacking Druze in southern Syria and demanded they withdraw. The attacks marked a significant Israeli escalation against the Islamist-led administration of interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa. They came despite his warming ties with the U.S. and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel. Describing Syria's new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, Israel has said it will not let them move forces into southern Syria and vowed to shield the area's Druze community from attack, encouraged by calls from Israel's own Druze minority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. said the fighting would stop soon. "We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media. The United Nations Security Council will meet on Thursday to address the conflict, diplomats said. "The council must condemn the barbaric crimes committed against innocent civilians on Syrian soil," said Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon. "Israel will continue to act resolutely against any terrorist threat on its borders, anywhere and at any time." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WARPLANES OVER DAMASCUS Scores of people have been killed this week in violence in and around the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, pitting fighters from the Druze minority against government security forces and members of Bedouin tribes. Reuters reporters heard warplanes swoop low over the capital and unleash a series of massive strikes mid-afternoon. Columns of smoke rose from the area near the defence ministry. A section of the building was destroyed, the ground strewn with rubble. A Syrian medical source said the strikes on the ministry killed five members of the security forces. An Israeli military official said the entrance to the military headquarters in Damascus was struck, along with a military target near the presidential palace. The official said Syrian forces were not acting to prevent attacks on Druze and were part of the problem. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We will not allow southern Syria to become a terror stronghold," said Eyal Zamir, Israel's military chief of staff. Sharaa faces challenges to stitch Syria back together in the face of deep misgivings from groups that fear Islamist rule. In March, mass killings of members of the Alawite minority exacerbated the mistrust. On Monday, Syrian government troops were dispatched to the Sweida region to quell fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men. The troops ended up clashing with the Druze militias. New clashes broke out in the city, according to a Reuters witness, after the Syrian interior ministry and a Druze leader, Sheikh Yousef Jarbou, said a ceasefire had been reached. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sweida residents said they were holed up indoors. "We are surrounded and we hear the fighters screaming ... we're so scared," a resident of Sweida said by phone. Cracks of gunfire interspersed by booms could be heard in the background. "We're trying to keep the children quiet so that no one can hear us," the man added, asking not to be identified for fear of reprisals. Syria's health ministry said dozens of bodies, including fighters and civilians, had been found in a hospital in the city. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said 169 people had been killed in this week's violence. Security sources put the toll at 300. Reuters could not independently verify the tolls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AN OFFSHOOT OF ISLAM Druze, followers of a religion that is an offshoot of Islam, are spread between Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Following calls in Israel to help Druze in Syria, scores of Israeli Druze broke through the border fence on Wednesday, linking up with Druze on the Syrian side, a Reuters witness said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military was working to save the Druze and urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border. The Israeli military said it was working to safely return civilians who had crossed. Israeli Druze man Faez Shkeir said he felt helpless watching the violence in Syria. "My family is in Syria - my wife is in Syria, my uncles are from Syria, and my family is in Syria, in Sweida, I don't like to see them being killed. They kicked them out of their homes, they robbed and burned their houses, but I can't do anything," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, a Reuters reporter said they had seen government forces looting and burning homes and stealing cars and furniture in Sweida. One man showed the reporter the body of his brother who had been shot in the head inside their home. A Syrian government statement on Wednesday said those responsible for lawlessness in Sweida would be held accountable. It said the government was committed to protecting the rights of the people in Sweida. Sharaa has repeatedly promised to protect minorities. (Reporting by Khalil Ashawi in Damascus, Maya Gebeily, Yamam al-Shaar and Laila Bassam in Beirut, Steven Scheer and Crispian Balmer, Charlotte Greenfield, Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Tala Ramadan, Ahmed Elimam, Elwely Elwelly in Dubai, Nayera Abdallah, Siyabonga Sishi in Majdal Shams, Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul, Daphne Psaledakis, Trevor Hunnicutt, Katharine Jackson in Washington, and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Maya Gebeily, Tom Perry, Andy Sullivan and James Oliphant; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Ros Russell, David Gregorio, Daniel Wallis and Diane Craft) Guest speaker/course instructor Drew Ramey talks with the inaugural class of dental students at the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine on July 9, 2025. The new institution is the state's first dental school. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) After years of preparation, the states first dental school welcomed its inaugural group of students to its Little Rock campus this month. Classes started at the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine last week, and officials are already gearing up to interview candidates for the second cohort in August. Founding Dean Dr. Burke Soffe said hes shed several tears over this exciting moment and hes extremely proud of the 80 students whove just started their three-year journey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were really intentional in the admissions process to screen for leaders and to screen for those that are committed to dentistry, committed to rural areas, committed to serving and just high-character individuals, Soffe said. Weve got really special students who are ready to make an impact. Providing dental education in Arkansas could help address the states need for more providers. Arkansas had the lowest dentist-to-patient ratio in 2023 with about 41 dentists per 100,000 people, according to the American Dental Association. Previously, Arkansas was one of 14 states without a dental school, which contributed to a lower ratio because students would study in other states and remain there after graduation. Lyons class of 2028 hails from 17 states, with 43% from Arkansas and 33% from border states. Alex Crawley, a member of the private schools inaugural class, described herself as a huge homebody and said Lyon was appealing because its close to Jonesboro where she grew up. Knowing that I want to stay around family forever, Im thinking Im going to stay in Arkansas, and so might as well go to school in Arkansas, build connections, she said. Lyon College is operating its new dental school out of building in Little Rocks Riverdale neighborhood. Classes for the inaugural cohort of dental students started on July 7, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Crawley and her classmates are temporarily attending lectures in the top floor of a building that previously housed Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Little Rocks Riverdale neighborhood. Lyon is leasing the first through sixth floors, which are still being renovated, and the 12th floor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The construction company is moving as quickly as possible considering all of the volatility with tariffs and supplies, Soffe said. Once the project is complete, the campus will include a student center, classrooms, simulation clinic and patient care clinics, where Soffe said they can provide general and pediatric dentistry, and care for patients with special needs. When other floors open, the 12th floor will become an event space for continuing education events, Soffe said. Because there is limited time for networking, Soffe said Lyon wants to bring the dental community to students, in part through a mentorship program called the Scots DEN (Dentistry Engagement Network). Mentorship helped Cade Judd find his calling in dentistry. Growing up, dentist visits were enjoyable to the Longview, Texas, student because his provider was a family friend. Shadowing her solidified my passion for dentistry, Judd said, particularly after seeing one patient cry tears of joy after a progressive procedure improved her smile. I pulled my dentist aside after that case was over with, and I told her, I said, Thats it, that is why I want to be a dentist right there. So from that day on, thats been my goal, and I havent really looked back since, he said. Mentorship helps plant a seed so students could potentially see themselves living in a rural community and making a difference, while at the same time making a good living and paying back loans, which all of those are important, Soffe said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many Lyon students took out loans to pay for the annual $102,000 tuition, but a new law could make accessing those loans more difficult. A massive budget bill signed into law this month includes a provision to eliminate Grad PLUS loans, which help finance higher education degrees. Without them, students will have to take out unsubsidized federal loans, which will be restricted to $50,000 per year and have a $200,000 lifetime cap for professional degrees like law or medicine, CBS News reports. Lyon is working to create institutional scholarships, but its challenging because donors want to see the program up and running first, Soffe said. Dental school is expensive, and we want to be a possibility for those [students], whether it be in rural Arkansas or elsewhere, to be able to pursue their education here in the state, he said. Crawley has loans and admits dental school is expensive, but said its a big investment for your future, and Lyon has provided them with information about how to make smart financial decisions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lyon has also emphasized that this inaugural class is a family and that its okay to ask for help and rely on your classmates because you cant do it alone, Crawley said. Students can expect to be in class from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a lunch break at noon, she said. Crawley anticipates studying for a few more hours outside of class, but said she wants to prioritize making time to exercise to maintain balance. Its definitely a lot, its hard. Its going to be a transition, but practice makes better, she said. Its a little overwhelming, but well get the hang of it and we have each other. The Lyon College School of Dental Medicine will host Give Kids a Smile Day from 9 a.m. to noon Friday. The event includes free oral health screenings and education for children and adults. More information is available here. Advocate Deputy Editor Antoinette Grajeda can be reached at agrajeda@arkansasadvocate.com SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) Mesa County has opened an evacuation site at the Clifton Community Center for those impacted by the Turner Gulch and Wright Draw fires. Christie Caster, executive director of the Red Cross of Western Colorado, says the center is assisting with resource navigation. That very well could be food resources, shelter resources, resources for pets, or you know, livestock or large animals as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If youre in need of a place to stay overnight or have livestock or other animals that need shelter, Caster says the evacuation center is the best place for you to go. They dont offer overnight shelter, but theyll help direct you to someplace that does. We will assess that need and work with them on what the best option is for them and in the moment for the community. The center is currently in operation from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and will be open as long as theres a need. The Red Cross would like to remind residents to make sure theyre signed up for emergency alerts, either through the Mesa County Sheriffs Office, or by downloading the Red Crosss emergency app. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. Gov. Dan McKee, left, looks on as a new Direct Current Fast Charger for electric vehicles is used at the Route 117 Park & Ride in Warwick along Interstate 95 during a July 17, 2024, ceremony marking the completion of the first phase of the alternative fuel corridor under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program. (Photo via Office of the Governor) School is out on Smith Hill, but the work is just beginning for state lawmakers who will spend their legislative break considering Pawtuxet River flooding, climate change mandates, and whether Central Falls public schools should return to local control. Work begins at 3:30 p.m. Thursday when the first of five new study commissions created during the 2025 session kicks off with an inaugural organizational meeting. The Senates Special Legislative Commission to Study and Provide Recommendations for Potential Changes in Legislation/Oversight of the Act on Climate will review the 2021 decarbonization law, which set deadlines for incremental emissions reductions, eventually reaching net-zero by 2050.. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Sam Zurier, a Providence Democrat sponsored the resolution to create the five-member study panel. In a prior interview, he said the legislative review intends to complement, not usurp, power from a separate consortium of state agencies charged with laying the framework for implementing the 2021 Act on Climate Law. The panel, which can have no more than four senators from the same political party, is required to issue a report outlining its review and recommendations no later than May 1, 2026. The first meetings agenda calls for electing a chair person and a presentation from Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Director Terry Gray. In addition to Zurier, other senators serving on the study commission are Democratic Sens. V. Susan Sosnowski, Mark McKenney, and Lammis Vargis, and Republican Gordon Rogers. Initial meetings have yet to be scheduled for the four other study commissions set to begin in the coming months. They are: A seven-member joint legislative study commission to consider the timeline and funding sources needed to return Central Falls Public Schools to city control. The school district has been under state control since 1991 amid severe financial strains, though the city has taken steps toward independence, including through a July 8 charter amendment setting up a nine-member, hybrid city school board. The study commission includes members from both chambers and outside education representatives. It must begin meeting by Aug. 31, and issue its recommendations to the Rhode Island General Assembly no later than March 3, 2026. Resolutions creating the panel were sponsored by Rep. Joshua Giraldo and Sen. Jonathon Acosta, both Central Falls Democrats. An 11-member House study commission to study and recommend solutions to flooding of the Pawtucket River. Overflow from the river and watershed spanning 17 miles of the western side of the state caused severe flooding and damage in Warwick on at least two recent incidents of heavy rainfall, in December 2023 and January 2024. The study commission, which includes representation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency is scheduled to report its findings no later than March 2, 2026 under the resolution sponsored by Rep. Earl Read III, a Warwick Democrat. A 17-member House study commission to consider ways to improve educational outcomes for children in state care. The commission, created from a resolution sponsored by Rep. Julie Casimiro, a North Kingstown Democrat, comes amid a series of reports from the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families, documenting low graduation rates among children in foster care and the warehousing of children with serious psychiatric needs at Bradley Hospital due to a lack of community care placements. The commission, which includes representation from state and local public schools, including a special education teacher and another teacher certified in trauma-informed care, must issue reported recommendations no later than July 1, 2026. A 10-member House study commission to explore setting up a state-run program providing funding for low-income homeowners to make safety and energy efficiency repairs to their properties. The resolution from Rep. Arthur Handy, a Cranston Democrat, highlights the states aging housing stock the third-oldest in the country according to a 2023 Rhode Island Foundation report alongside the financial strain on homeowners to maintain and upgrade their properties. The panel, which includes representation from various state agencies and outside groups in building, housing and social services areas, must issue a report to the General Assembly no later than Jan. 5, 2026. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The country has been rocked by severe flooding in recent weeks and climate change is making it even more dangerous, according to a report. This week, torrential rain slammed New York and New Jersey, leaving two dead. Last week, heavy rain from Tropical Storm Chantal ravaged North Carolina, displacing 60 and killing at least six. The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a once-in-century flood struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latter two events are considered 1,000-year floods, meaning theres a 0.1 percent likelihood they will occur in any given year, according to AccuWeather. Climate change is likely the reason that such intense floods are occurring at an exponential rate, NPR first reported. Two women were killed this week after floods slammed New Jersey (AP) Two women were killed this week after floods slammed New Jersey (AP) For one, climate change is intensifying rainfall. The heaviest rainstorms in Texas now dump about 20 percent more water than in the 1950s, according to the National Climate Assessment. Similarly, as videos captured New York Citys subway gushing with water, Rohit Aggarwala, the citys climate chief, told the New York Times. It is now the case that five of the most intense rainstorms in New York Citys history have taken place in the last four years, Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats largely because warmer atmospheres allow for more water vapor, leading to an uptick in precipitation extremes, the assessment found. As the atmosphere continues to warm, extreme weather events become even more likely. Warmer atmospheric temperatures could also drive an increase in short-duration extreme rainfall, according to the assessment. A sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas after floods ravaged the area (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) A sheriff's deputy pauses while combing through debris on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas after floods ravaged the area (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) In Texas, the Guadalupe River surged from 8 feet to 29 feet in a matter of hours due to the amount of rainfall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although its too soon to tell how much of a role climate change played in this months deadly floods, an initial analysis by ClimaMeter scientists revealed that natural variability could not have alone been responsible for the magnitude of the heavy rainfall that led to the Texas floods. Some states rely on rainfall reports that are 50 years old, NPR reported in 2022. Given the warming atmosphere, those numbers are often quite outdated, affecting cities abilities to prepare for disasters. The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a once-in-century flood struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives (AFP via Getty Images) The search in Texas for more than 100 missing continues after what officials called a once-in-century flood struck the state, claiming at least 134 lives (AFP via Getty Images) Before the 1960s in Harris County, Texas, about 13 inches of rain dropped during extreme storms; that number was at 18 inches in 2018, NPR reported. The difference means one-third of the major roads and highways in Harris County are now vulnerable to flooding, according to the outlet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked at a press conference about the delayed alerts in Texas just before floods struck, after it was too late to evacuate for many, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed ancient technology. When President Trump took office he said he wanted to fix [that], and is currently upgrading the technology, Noem said. And the National Weather Service has indicated that with that and NOAA, that we needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years, and that is the reforms that are ongoing. NOAA has said it is updating its systems to account for climate change. Water gushed in a flooded subway station in New York City after rainfall inundated parts of New York and New Jersey (via REUTERS) Water gushed in a flooded subway station in New York City after rainfall inundated parts of New York and New Jersey (via REUTERS) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Physical systems are also not prepared for these extreme weather disasters. For example, New York Citys sewer system, which is over 100 years old and also handles storm water runoff, can handle about 1.75 inches of rain per hour. The pipes were designed for a certain amount of water. A lot more water fell from the sky, Aggarwala told the Times of the flooding this week. Floods are not only extremely dangerous but theyre also costly. Flooding from 1988 through 2021 caused $230 billion in damages 37 percent of which was attributable to climate change, according to a 2024 National Centers for Environmental Information report. CLYDE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) Clyde mother, Kadynce Knowles, and her 9-month-old daughter, Rose, are recovering at home this week after a Fourth of July fireworks accident landed them in a Lubbock burn unit. Mother and daughter suffered severe burns and injury when a stray firework tipped over, shot 20-30 feet towards them, and exploded in Knowles lap. While they have been released from the hospital, the road to physical and mental recovery is a long one, and she says theyll need all the help they can get. Ive learned that you have to push yourself even when it hurts, especially for my daughter. Just appreciate what you have when you have it because this is rough, said Knowles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abilene community helps flood victims in sweet ways The holiday gathering was taking place with a private group within city limits, so Knowles said no large fireworks were being set off. It was a smaller artillery shell-type firework that tipped over and struck Knowles in the chest while she was holding Rose in her hands. The explosion set both of them ablaze. When I realized she was on fire, I didnt feel anything. I didnt realize I was also on fire. I have burns all over my hands because I was grabbing her pajamas. Her pajamas are polyester, and the fire was just running, just burning them They had to put my baby out in the pool. They had to dip her in the pool to put her out, Knowles recalled. Once Roses safety was secured for the moment, Knowles and her family finally began to notice her own injuries, too. She was curled up into a ball on the ground and began screaming from her burns. Both of them were transported to Hendrick Medical Center and thereafter transferred to the University Medical Center Burn Unit in Lubbock due to the severity of their injuries. Knowles sustained first to third-degree burns along her hands, arms, and torso, and she had to retrain her legs to walking strength. Rose suffered burns to her torso and limbs as well as a deep gash on her leg from the explosion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What to know about Fourth of July holiday origins and traditions Knowles shared she doesnt remember much of the night after the incident, but once she awoke in the Lubbock Burn Unit, she quickly noticed that she and Rose were not in the same room. All I did was ask about her hows my baby, wheres my baby? said Knowles. Being unable to walk of her own accord at that time, Knowles said that the separation from her baby was the most unbearable aspect. She said she had many nightmares during this time. However, her will to go and see Rose is what motivated her to recover so quickly. I was going down there in a wheelchair before I could fully walk, and shes laughing and smiling, she stands up. She pulls up on her crib, and that was a lot of motivation. If she could do it, I could do it, Knowles said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Taylor County officials emphasize firework safety amid burn ban They were discharged from the hospital on Friday, July 11. Knowles husband is helping take care of them during recovery. However, he is also the sole breadwinner and will have to go to bring in money to fund their recovery. If you would like to contribute to their journey, you can send a financial donation to their GoFundMe page. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com. The chief executive of Co-op has confirmed that all 6.5 million of its members had their data stolen in a cyber-attack on the retailer in April. "I'm devastated that information was taken. I'm also devastated by the impact that it took on our colleagues as well as they tried to contain all of this," Shirine Khoury-Haq told BBC Breakfast in her first public interview since the hack. "There was no financial data, no transaction data but it was names and addresses and contact information that was lost," she added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, four people who were arrested a week ago by police investigating the cyber-attacks that caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op have all been bailed. Ms Khoury-Haq said that she was "incredibly sorry" for the attack and that it was "personal" to her because of the impact that it had on her colleagues. "Early on I met with our IT staff and they were in the midst of it. I will never forget the looks on their faces, trying to fight off these criminals," she said. The hackers were removed from the systems but "could not erase what they did so we could monitor every mouse click," and Co-op was able to send that information to authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But she added: "We know a lot of that information is out there anyway, but people will be worried and all members should be concerned." Co-op runs on a membership scheme, where members are paid a share of the profits of the co-operative. "It hurt my members, they took their data and it hurt our customers and that I do take personally," Ms Khoury-Haq said. Following the cyber attacks on the Co-op and M&S, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday that a 17-year-old British man from the West Midlands, a 19-year-old Latvian man from the West Midlands, a 19-year-old British man from London, and a 20-year-old British woman from Staffordshire were all bailed pending further inquiries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were all arrested from their home addresses on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, offences linked to the Computer Misuse Act, and participating in the activities of an organised crime group, according to the NCA. The police also seized electronic devices from the properties. Co-op has not put a figure on how much the hack will cost them, but it says it is still working to restore back-end systems. One of its responses to the hack is to partner with a cyber-security recruitment company. The Hacking Games identifies young talent to channel their skills into legal careers. "The research shows that if you offer these kids talent development opportunities and career opportunities, the vast majority of them will take the legitimate pathway," said its chief executive Fergus Hay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is planning a pilot programme with Co-op Academies Trust, which runs 38 schools in England. What happened in the cyber-attacks? Co-op was one of three retailers, alongside Marks and Spencer (M&S) and Harrods who were victims of cyber-attacks in spring this year. Co-op announced on 30 April that it had been hacked, initially saying it would only have a "small impact" on its call centre and back office. But days later, after being contacted by the alleged hackers, BBC News revealed that customer and employee data had been accessed. Co-op then admitted the criminals had "accessed data relating to a significant number of our current and past members". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BBC News later discovered from the alleged attackers that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption. M&S also had customer data stolen, and is still getting its systems back to normal after huge disruption which has cost it millions of pounds. Additional reporting by Charlotte Edwards. [BBC] Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here. CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) A Coastal Carolina University professor has self-published a book to help make the complexities of the Israel-Hamas War more comprehensible. Mark Chandler, a professor in the Department of Intelligence and Security Studies, said he decided to write his book, The Israel-Hamas War: Making the Complex Comprehensible, after he was told by several people how well he explained the war. Chandler said he put a notes section in each chapter to give readers clarity on the wars most unfamiliar and difficult topics. He said he wants people to understand that the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians go back much farther than Israels independence in 1948. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to understand the cultures, the religion, the societies, and the tribal relationships, Chandler said. Its all interrelated, and the Middle East takes all of that and combines it all. There are historical things dating back thousands of years that are going to create animosity for thousands to come. Chandler said it is important for Americans to understand the Israel-Hamas War because it is not as far away as it seems. The United States is such a global, integrated country that what does happen over there does affect us over here, he said. Chandler served more than 20 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as an intelligence officer and was a senior executive in the Department of Defense. He said his background gives him more knowledge of the war than most people at home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont make myself right because three chapters later, I will tell you, Hey. I was wrong then, and heres why,' Chandler said. I give you an explanation of how the intelligence professional goes through the process. Thats the added value in the book. Chandler said he hopes his students read the book and apply what they learn in the classroom and beyond. The book was compiled from what we call an intelligence journal, Chandler said. So, I had 500 pages of notes that turned into this book. When we look at that, I want the students to see the work that goes into it and the thought process that you have to go through to be a good analyst. * * * Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Skylar Musick is a multimedia journalist at News13. Skylar is originally from Long Island, New York. She joined the News13 team in June 2024 after graduating from Villanova University in May 2024. Follow Skylar on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. NEWARK, N.J. (PIX11) Temperatures in the 90s and heat indexes as high as 102 degrees are expected to settle over Newark this week. In anticipation of the extreme heat, officials in Newark have issued a Code Red starting from 10 a.m. Wednesday and lasting until 8 a.m. Friday. More Local News Experts at the Newark Health Department warn residents to take precautions against heat-related illness. To stay safe in the extreme weather, residents are advised to use air conditioning to stay cool, stay hydrated by drinking water, and to limit strenuous activity outdoors, especially during the hottest parts of the day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Sensitive groups, including people with asthma, heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teenagers, should limit their time outdoors. Additionally, the Department of Healths Office of Homeless Services will open shelters during non-traditional hours and expand their bed capacity. Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. JEFFERSONVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) After recently investigating a homicide in Marysville, a true crime podcaster from Florida has returned to central Ohio to dig into the 2006 killing of an 8-year-old girl. Melissa Sandberg did not expect to come back to Ohio for the second season of her podcast Dog with a Bone, but when she received a tip about the homicide of Mackenzie Branham and read up on the case, she felt compelled to investigate. Driver who stopped on I-71 before exit charged in three-car wreck (Photo courtesy/Ohio Attorney Generals Office) It just really pulled out my heartstrings of this 8-year-old girl still seeking justice, Sandberg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April 2006, Branham died in a fire at her mothers residence in Jeffersonville, which the mother shared with her live-in boyfriend. The blaze was determined to be arson. Both Branhams mother and the boyfriend escaped unharmed. Over the 19 years the case has remained unsolved, Branhams father and community members have raised concerns about the integrity of law enforcements investigation. A now-deceased sergeant who responded to the fire was the brother-in-law of Branhams mothers boyfriend, and Branhams father has questioned how officers handled pieces of evidence. A 2018 petition even called for the removal of the Fayette County sheriff over the case. There were mistakes that happened in Mackenzies case, Sandberg said. Everyone in the community is aware, the investigating office is aware of mistakes that were made, but I do know that mistakes can be rectified. Westervilles Antonios Pizzeria to close after irreconcilable differences with landlord Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sandberg has flown to Ohio twice so far to conduct her own investigation. She said she visited the crime scene, along with interviewing the sheriff, a firefighter who responded to the scene, Branhams relatives and community members. She will detail her findings in the second season of Dog with a Bone and plans to publish the first episode in early September. From there, an episode will be released once a week. Before looking into Branhams case, Sandberg investigated another case out of central Ohio. She dug into the homicide of John Burnside, 32, who was found dead in his Marysville home with a plastic bag placed taped around his head in December 1993. This marked the first season of her podcast, which she says has racked up 56,000 listens since its release last September. Burnsides sister Paula Troyer (left) and Sandberg (right) looking through information compiled by Burnsides late father. Sandberg (second from the left) with members of Burnsides family, including Troyer (left). Ive always wanted to be a cold case investigator, homicide investigator, and so this is really me able to live out my dream, but more importantly, its able to give victims a voice, Sandberg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Sandberg began to look into the case and reach out to different law enforcement agencies, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation decided to review Burnsides case. Sandberg provided the information she found to the BCIs Cold Case Unit. The agency told NBC4 it is still reviewing the case. How no tax on tips could help, hurt Ohio workers Prior to starting her podcast, Sandberg examined cold cases for more than three years. More recently, in 2022 and 2023, Sandberg was part of an independent group of investigators who brought new leads to law enforcement in the suspicious death of a West Virginia woman named Judith Petty. While Sandberg spends a lot of her time investigating cold cases, she also has a full-time job in the healthcare industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I work 40 hours a week and then I come home and I investigate, so after long days of work and two kids, I come home and Im making calls, Sandberg said. Im interviewing people, Im writing, Im recording. It is another full-time job, basically, that you dont get paid for. Its really because you have a drive. The episodes on Branhams homicide will be released on platforms that stream podcasts, such as Apple and Spotify. Updates on the new season can be found on the podcasts Facebook page. Anyone who has information on Branhams homicide may message Sandberg through the podcasts Facebook, and/or contact the Fayette County Sheriffs Office at 740-335-6170. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Eshbal Functional Food has signed a letter of intent to buy a majority stake in US low-carb and gluten-free business Dare to Be Different Foods (D2BD). According to Canada-listed Eshbal, the acquisition is subject to the parties entering into a definitive agreement, including approval by the TSX Venture Exchange. Based in New York, D2BD was founded in 2012 and manufactures low-carb and gluten-free frozen products, including crusts, crisps and gnocchi that are formulated with broccoli and cauliflower. Eshbal plans to pay a mix of cash and shares for its planned 55% stake in D2BD. The company said it may put up more shares in itself if D2BD meets certain revenue thresholds. The amount of cash payments and number of Eshbal shares it issues will be determined after due diligence is completed. The news comes as Eshbal, which is primarily based in Israel but has a North American office in Vancouver, has named Avi Markus as its new chief commercial officer of North America. In the new role, Markus will oversee commercial operations that include sales, distribution, partnerships and business development. His most recent role was at Canada-based infant-formula business Else Nutrition. Earlier this month, Eshbal signed a letter of intent to acquire Gluten Free Nation, a Texas-based commercial baker of gluten-free bread and baked goods. Eshbal said at the time that they are excited about the potential to integrate Gluten Free Nations product line and leverage its customer relationships to further expand Eshbals North American presence. While the company supplies foodservice and retail in Israel, it recently expanded into North America following its reverse takeover with Canada-based Hakken Capital Corp. where it also gained a listing on the TSX Venture Exchange. According to Eshbal's most recent financial report, the firm generated an annual revenue of approximately $11.4m by the end of 2024. "Eshbal Functional Food eyes another acquisition in North America" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) The San Angelo City Council on July 15 unanimously moved to adopt an ordinance authorizing the issuance and sale of the $41.6 million coliseum renovation bond. But with flood recovery efforts underway across San Angelo, could the money be used to help impacted citizens? San Angelo voters cast their ballots on the coliseum bond during the May 3 election, coming away with 5,435 votes in favor and 4,813 votes against. These results were canvassed by the City Council on May 14 during a special meeting, solidifying the elections outcome. According to the description of the agenda item provided in the July 15 meetings agenda, the bond funds will be used for a number of renovations at the CRC Roofers Coliseum. These renovations include an increase of the venues seating capacity from 5,000 to 10,150 seats, the addition of 204 toilets and life safety improvements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement RELATED: City Council authorizes issuance, sale of $41.6M coliseum renovation bond The agenda stated that the bond will have an estimated tax rate impact of a 4.7-cent increase, and the anticipated tax impact on a residence homestead is projected to be $37.60 per year for each $100,000 taxable appraised value. News of the ordinances adoption soon reached San Angelo residents, garnering a mix of reactions on social media. Some citizens raised concerns about what the money afforded by the bond will be used for in light of the historic July 4 floods. The floods caused catastrophic damage to several parts of San Angelo, with an estimated thousands of structures being damaged by the floodwaters. So, with many residents still working to recover from the floods, could the money be reallocated? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The answer, it seems, is no. City Finance Director Tina Dierschke explained that the funds, being tied to a voter-approved bond, legally must be used for the purposes defined by the bond proposition. City appoints new City attorney after months-long wait Under Texas law, funds from voter-approved bonds must be used solely for the purposes that were clearly stated in the bond proposition, Dierschke said. Once approved, bond funds cannot legally be redirected to other projects, even if surplus funds remain. As such, the millions of dollars afforded through the bond must be used for renovating CRC Roofers Coliseum, with any remaining funds being put toward other facilities on the fairgrounds and economic development efforts pertaining to the coliseum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the San Angelo Coliseum bond passed on May 3, 2025, and authorized by City Council on July 15, 2025, funds will be used to design, construct, renovate and equip the coliseum at the San Angelo Fairgrounds, Dierschke said. Surplus funds may improve other fairground facilities and economic development efforts related to the coliseum. Residents affected by the July 4 floods may qualify for federal aid, though. To apply for disaster assistance, visit fema.gov/assistance/individual or call 800-621-3362. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. DENVER (KDVR) Four fires burning more than 20,000 acres on Colorados Western Slope are still mostly uncontained, and a 14,000-acre fire that started in Utah is now firmly in Colorado, officials reported Wednesday morning. The largest fire entirely in the state, the Turner Gulch Fire in Mesa County, has grown significantly to 13,984 acres; the Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire has burned 4,179 acres. Both fires are 0% contained as of Wednesday morning. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jump to: Archived live blog with updates below. Meanwhile, the Deer Creek Fire that started in Utah has now crossed further into Colorado due to strong winds in the area Tuesday evening. The Deer Creek Fire is 14,760 acres and 7% contained. The Sowbelly Fire burning in Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area has seen smaller increases and is at 2,274 acres burned. Crews have the best handle on this fire as it is 13% contained. Back in Mesa County, the Wright Draw Fire is the smallest of the major fires and is at 448 acres with 0% containment. The South Rim, Turner Gulch, Sowbelly and Wright Draw fires all began nearly a week ago during the same weather event, according to Gov. Jared Polis as he made a disaster declaration for the wildfires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heavy smoke across the state is also causing air quality alerts. Archived Live Updates Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. NEW YORK Months into its fight to restore federal funding revoked by the Trump administration over antisemitism claims, Columbia University has adopted a new set of policies that include refusing to meet with a coalition of student protesters who pitched tents in support of Gaza. The embattled school also agreed to adopt a definition of antisemitism that recognizes some criticism of Israel as discriminatory toward Jewish students. The late Tuesday announcement comes days after Columbia was reportedly nearing an agreement with the federal government though acting President Claire Shipman suggested any deal they may reach is only a starting point for change, rather than bending to external demands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact that weve faced pressure from the government does not make the problems on our campuses any less real, Shipman wrote to students and faculty. Under the newly outlined plans, the university leader said Columbia has not recognized and will not negotiate with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD, its representatives or allied student groups. It follows similar action taken by Barnard College, its sister school, in recent weeks. In spring 2024, CUAD took credit for the encampment that commandeered the main campus lawns, as its representatives met with university administrators over their demands to take down the tents. When talks failed, the college administration called the NYPD to clear the demonstration twice. Organizations that promote violence or encourage disruptions of our academic mission are not welcome on our campuses and the University will not engage with them, Shipman wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement also said that Columbias revised understanding of antisemitism will be based on whats known as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, Definition of Antisemitism. Colleges have increasingly used the framework to respond to campus protests a development welcomed by many supporters of Israel but criticized by protesters who say it infringes on free speech. The definition states that some critiques of Israel as a Jewish state may cross a line into antisemitism, such as denying the Jewish peoples right to self-determination or claiming that the existence of Israel is a racist endeavor. Comparing contemporary Israeli policy and that of Nazis would also be considered antisemitic under its terms. Adopting the IHRA antisemitism definition had been one of the Trump administrations prerequisites for resuming negotiations over the flow of federal funding. But Columbia had previously stopped short of fully embracing the approach in its disciplinary cases. The formal incorporation of this definition will strengthen our response to and our communitys understanding of modern antisemitism, Shipman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CUAD acknowledged Shipmans email and her disavowal of the group on X, but reserved its most searing criticism for the new antisemitism definition. Columbia and Harvard adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism is a bold step toward protecting students from having to hear critiques of genocide, apparently, the group said. Soon, the IHRA definition of antisemitism will be standard across higher ed. Not to fight hate, but to criminalize dissent. In addition, Shipman announced the creation of two new positions, Title VI and Title VII coordinators, to review and respond to reports of discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Those individuals will contribute to an annual report to the president and Board of Trustees and reviewable by the public. Columbia will also launch training by the Anti-Defamation League and several other national Jewish organizations and build out programs focused on constructive dialogue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brian Cohen, executive director of the campus Hillel, welcomed the steps as recognizing a campus antisemitism problem and its impact on Jewish students sense of safety and belonging. I hope this announcement marks the beginning of meaningful and sustained change, Cohen said. _____ COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) The Columbus Police Department is seeking the publics help in searching for a man last seen on Veterans Parkway. According to the police department, officers are searching for 58-year-old Charles Edward Eiland, who was last seen in the 400 block of Veterans Parkway on July 1. The hours he was last seen is currently unknown. Eiland is described as a Black male standing 5 foot 11, weighs 185 pounds and was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, and blue jeans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with additional information on Eilands whereabouts is encouraged to dial 911, the CPD Special Victims Unit at 706-225-3449, or the lead investigator, Cpl. Eric Schwind 706-225-4339. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. You may have noticed that the 100th anniversary of the so-called monkey trial in Dayton, Tennessee, has rolled around this month, with various offerings, notably my colleague Ron Grossmans excellent recent story, which informed me, among many things, that the towns main street took on a carnival atmosphere. Rival trainers brought chimpanzees to town including a celebrated simian named Joe Mendi, who wore a plaid suit and a fedora hat. Vendors hawked toy monkeys and Bibles. Shop windows had monkey-theme displays. Read that story and perhaps you too will be compelled to dive deeper into the past. The simplest way is to watch the 128-minute 1960 movie based on the events that took place, mostly in a sweltering courtroom, from July 10-21 in 1925. I did that, and Inherit the Wind is a great movie. Adapted from a successful play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and based on real events, it is dominated by those towering actors Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. They portray, respectively, opposing attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, though theyre given the names Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement See what I mean by based on. Still, Amazon touts the movie as the thrilling recreation of the most titanic courtroom battles of the century, hyperbolically ignoring a trial the year before, when Darrow took on the defense of killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in Chicago. (Theres a pretty good movie of that too, 1959s Compulsion). The trial, more formally called the Scopes trial, or the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, involved a high school teacher, John Scopes, who was accused of violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee state law banning the teaching of human evolution in public schools. After watching Inherit, I did some further digging and feel fortunate to have learned some encouraging things about Scopes. For instance, He did not capitalize at all on his celebrity, said John Mark Hansen. He had offers of tens of thousands of dollars to go on vaudeville stages and talk about the trial. Instead, he came to the University of Chicago to further his education, never seeking attention. Hansen is a longtime University of Chicago political science professor and Hyde Park resident. He is also a talented writer, and his Evolution on Trial story in the universitys magazine makes for enlightening and lively reading. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the other things I learned: Darrow, the principal defense attorney, knew many University of Chicago scientists and professors, because for years, living in an apartment on 60th Street near Stony Island Avenue, he hosted an informal biology club directing discussions on biology, religion and evolution, Hansen writes. He recruited some of these folks to testify at the trial, and they stayed in a big Victorian house on the edge of Dayton, which is described as ancient and empty now crudely furnished with iron cots, spittoons, playing cards and the other camp equipment of scientists, Hansen writes. It was called the Mansion, Defense Mansion, and, inevitably, the Monkey House. Scopes decided to study geology at the University of Chicago. His tuition toward earning a doctorate was paid for by a grant and other donations. But when he applied for a third year to finish his studies, the president of another school that administered the fellowships refused to consider his application, saying, As far as I am concerned, you can take your atheistic marbles and play elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And so he did, fading away into life as a working geologist, Hansen tells me, living in Texas and Louisiana. He did return to the University of Chicago campus for a conference in 1960. When asked about the 1925 trial, Hansen writes, Scopes had little to add. I hope that I dont ever have to go through something like that again. Some of the issues of the trial still echo, says Hansen. Ever debated is the role of religion in public school classrooms, as is the question Who controls what gets taught in school?' Bryan died only days after the Scopes trial and Darrow lived until 1938, the most famous lawyer in the world then, and arguably still. Reading Hansens fine story and watching Inherit the Wind put Darrow solidly in my mind and compelled me to go to see a small and pretty bridge in Jackson Park. It sits behind the Museum of Science and Industry, named in Darrows honor and dedicated in 1957 by relatively new mayor Richard J. Daley. Closed to pedestrians since 2013, its sadly in bad shape, recently having been listed as one of Preservation Chicagos 7 Most Endangered Buildings for 2025, noting, As necessary maintenance continues to be deferred, the bridge is increasingly vulnerable to further disrepair. If conditions worsen, demolition and removal are possible outcomes. I also found the time to read Darrows 20,000 some-word closing argument in the Leopold and Loeb sentencing, the words that saved those two men from execution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are some of them: You may hang these boys; you may hang them, by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man. rkogan@chicagotribune.com Jul. 15ARTESIAN, S.D. Richard Poppen has been pastor at Endeavor Presbyterian Church in Fedora for 52 years. During his time of service to the church, he has met countless families and overseen many memorable events at both the church and in the community. But even more than a half-century on, he still specifically remembers, just a year or so after he assumed his role at the church, meeting David and Paula Larson after they moved to a house a few miles northeast of Fedora. "I think it was 1973. I had been there just about a whole year by that time, and folks said you know, there's an interesting couple out northeast of town, you might want to stop and see them," Poppen told the Mitchell Republic. "That initial visit started just a great friendship. They were just really nice people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Poppen and the Artesian and Fedora communities are mourning the loss of the Larsons, who died in a house fire early Wednesday morning, July 9 at their home in Artesian. The loss is a heavy blow to the communities, where small populations make everyone in town and the surrounding area feel like family. It was no different with the Larsons, who were both active members of the Endeavor Presbyterian Church and well-known and beloved members of the rural community. Poppen recalled David, 81, as an invaluable member of the congregation. "He did about everything. We needed someone to oversee the building and get it ready for Sunday morning, so he did that. He kept the furnaces going and all that kind of thing. He had a great educational background and when we needed someone to record the records for the church our church is kind of fussy about that he did a great job of keeping records," Poppen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were few roles David did not hold, Poppen said. He also lent his time to serving as a building caretaker, church elder, treasurer and clerk, Poppen said. He also served with the Fedora Fire Department for years, according to his obituary. Paula was also no stranger to giving her time to fellow members of the church, which has about 100 members on the rolls, though Poppen said Sunday services usually see an attendance of around 30. Paula, 79, was usually one of those 30, along with her husband. "Paula, too, was really active in Christian education and teaching. She played the piano and organ for the church, alternately with a lady from Fedora," Poppen said. "It was a big loss." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Larsons died as the result of a house fire in Artesian, where the couple made their home, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 9. Several area fire departments responded to the call, which came in about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday night, July 8, including the Artesian Volunteer Fire Department, the Letcher Volunteer Fire Department and the Woonsocket Volunteer Fire Department. Also responding were several medical and law enforcement agencies. Patrick Bender, chief of the Artesian Volunteer Fire Department, said crews encountered heavy smoke upon arrival on the scene. "There was heavy, heavy smoke," Bender said. "But we got the fire knocked down pretty quickly." Fire crews battled the fire and got it under control, with the Artesian crew remaining on scene until about 3 a.m. Bender said the cause of the fire was thought to be electrical, and he urged residents to make sure their home smoke detectors were in good working order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were no injuries reported among the responders, but the loss of the Larsons in the fire weighed heavily on Bender and his crew. Bender has served with his department since 2010, and fatal fires are usually the exception, not the rule. Like most folks in Artesian, which has a population of about 135, Bender knew the couple personally. "I went to church with them. They were extremely nice people," Bender said. "(David) was one of those guys that when nobody knew what to do, he'd be the guy that they would call." Even those who didn't know the Larsons personally may have encountered them at Larson Feed and Grocery, a small outpost the pair operated in Fedora that served as a grocery and feed store, contract post office and even lunch spot and makeshift museum of sorts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The store was described in David's obituary as "Dave's life work and community outreach. In the back of the store he chatted, fed farmers with pizzas and microwave sandwiches, and accumulated a mini museum of Fedora High School photos and his collection of soda pop bottles." Tom Fridley has served as Sanborn County sheriff since 1991 and has a law enforcement career that goes back as far as 1975. He had known the Larsons for years and stopped into the store from time to time. He described them and their extended family as solid, small-town residents who had a welcoming attitude at their store. (I knew them) my whole life. They were always just around. They were always there. I farmed some with my son and we farmed the Fedora area, so we stopped there a lot. Stopped in for stuff you needed," Fridley said. "Dave was always cordial, Paula was cordial, the whole family was." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Poppen agreed that even without their service to the church, the Larsons would have been a cornerstone of the community just because of the store, which served a purpose beyond simply offering shelves of groceries. When the local post office closed, the Larsons secured a contract to keep mail service going in Fedora, which boasts a population of about 21. That kind of effort and work was typical of the Larsons, Poppen said. "They ran it consistently for 52 years. The neat thing about it was that as things got a little tougher, he would do things a little differently. He would sell feed in and out of there. Then when the post office closed, there was almost a local rebellion," Poppen said. "The postal service came in and met with the community and (community members) said they didn't want to lose the post office. They compromised and offered a contract post office, and Dave took that." Poppen said what could have been a loss of a vital service to the community turned out to be a blessing. Under the Larsons' watch, residents actually enjoyed expanded hours compared to what the previous post office had offered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our statement was always that Fedora had the best post office in South Dakota. It was always open from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. It was hard to beat," Poppen said. "(The store) was tremendous. He had a table in the back, and all they'd have to do is call in and he'd have it ready when they got to town. We'd go in there and just sit there and have lunch." The store is now closed, its future fate not entirely clear, and a hole has opened up in the hearts of local residents. It hasn't been easy. Bender said that his crew had taken part in meetings along with other emergency management staff since the fire to talk about the loss, and he is grateful for the support. He said his department doesn't deal with fatal fires often, but when they do occur, it can hit hard. Poppen noted that just last year community members took an informal census of Fedora and the four townships to the north and south of the community. All totaled, there were less than 100 residents in those four townships and Fedora itself. It's a small group, but a closely-knit one, he said. He said those 100 and even more beyond the boundaries of the community will not soon forget the Larsons, their friendly nature and their many contributions that helped improve the lives of their friends and neighbors. "The loss goes deeper and deeper the better you know them. That is something that folks will remember for some time," Poppen said. Services for David and Paula Larson are pending. EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Rhode Island Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz hasnt ruled out running for higher office. The Republican joined 12 News at 4 to talk about her future, plus give her reactions to a recent ICE arrest in Providence, President Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, and the recently passed state budget. Watch the full interview with de la Cruz in the video above. NEXT: McKee wont sign $14.3B RI budget bill, but will allow it to become law Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app. Follow us on social media: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. CHEYENNE At 65 years old, the former Cheyenne Regional Airport terminal holds a lot of history for community members. In an effort to preserve that history, local airport officials presented a business plan regarding the restoration and redevelopment of the old terminal at the airport board meeting Thursday. The old terminal, which was built in 1960, closed to the public in 2018. The Wyoming Aviation Heritage League along with many other Cheyenne organizations is starting to prepare plans for the currently empty facility's next life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the WAHL website, the plan is to revive the restaurant with a possible retro aviation theme, create an aviation history museum corridor, add an arts center and creative spaces, and add a venue space for events and small boutique shops. Tim Bradshaw, Cheyenne Regional Airport director of aviation, said he thinks the old terminal has a very strong emotional tie to the community, as well as a long, noteworthy history. A group of us got together and embarked on this together, Bradshaw said. Its actually grown in size. We have the arts community, historical community, the city of Cheyenne, Visit Cheyenne and the aviation historical group. Domenic Bravo, president and CEO of Visit Cheyenne, said hes excited to partner with the airport on the transformation of the old terminal because the idea aligns perfectly with Visit Cheyennes mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When you think about it, Cheyenne aviation and transportation history is very deep, Bravo said, so preserving that and being able to highlight that is something that's great. It will enrich the visitor experience, support cultural development and generate sustainable economic benefits through tourism. The total estimated cost for the project is approximately $10 million, with indoor and outdoor repairs representing about $2-3 million of that total. The group started the plan by getting a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to use for the building evaluation. Theyve received a $50,000 grant from the Wyoming Culture Trust Fund and a $75,000 grant from the Joint Powers Board to use toward the roof of the building. The project could also be put on the 2026 sixth-penny sales tax ballot, Bradshaw said, but that has not been decided yet. City and Laramie County officials set the ballot initiatives before voters head to the polls to decide which specific projects to support. Bradshaw said the group has also applied for a Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality grant to help assess the environmental concerns to the building, such as the asbestos popcorn ceiling, and small amounts of lead paint and mold. Other than grants, Bradshaw said theyre focusing on finding a private investor to make this happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our efforts lately have been really trying to focus on getting the core and shell of the building together, and weve got a long way to go, Bradshaw said. Weve got some electrical and plumbing issues to address, as well. Bradshaw said he also has a full retail liquor license that goes with the facility, but in order for that license to remain valid, the terminal would have to act in an airport capacity. To do this, Bradshaw said the terminal will have a fixed-base operator for large charter flights. Some community benefits addressed in the proposal include employment opportunities in various sectors, enhanced historical awareness in aviation and arts, aviation-themed community events, educational programs in aviation and gathering spaces. Right now, the current airport terminal supports 2,296 jobs, contributing $80.5 million in annual payroll. Restoring and reopening the old terminal would create 20 to 40 new jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The total projected annual revenue from the new terminal ranges from $81,600 on the low side and $173,700 on the high side. I like to think of it like the train depot, Bradshaw said. It really takes a community of people to put this project together. Community raises money to support Waseca woman allegedly stabbed by husband originally appeared on Bring Me The News. The road to recovery, both physically and emotionally, will be a long one for Sarah Mullen. The mother and hair stylist from Waseca is recovering after being stabbed in the back by her husband in the middle of the night last month. Now, community members in southern Minnesota are rallying around Mullen and her children, raising thousands of dollars to support her recovery and relocation following the attack. Almost $25,000 had been raised by late Wednesday morning. Sarah Mullen (center) with her kids in the hospital.GoFundMe Franklin Richard Mullen has been charged with five felonies in connection with the June 24 attack. His bail was set at $500,000 with conditions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to a criminal complaint, Sarah Mullen was sleeping when Franklin Mullen came into the room and stabbed her in the back with a knife. He then allegedly got on top of her and pointed a gun at her. The couple's children witnessed the attack, and their daughter called 911 to alert authorities. Franklin Mullen surrendered to law enforcement, reportedly telling officers, Go save my wife, shes dying. Franklin MullenWaseca County Jail Sarah Mullen miraculously survived the stabbing, after the knife pierced her spinal column and came within one centimeter of her aorta. The slightest change in direction of the knife and this would be a very different outcome, a GoFundMe page reads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The online fundraiser will help support Sarah Mullen and her family as they heal. Sarah Mullen is undergoing physical therapy to regain the full use of her left leg and is preparing for three months off of work because she is a hair stylist and needs to stand on her feet to do her job. She is also planning on relocating to a new home. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. The company behind the Clinton County wind project has threatened litigation against the county for not updating wind farm ordinances. Next-Era Energy accuses Clinton County supervisors of delaying the project. Next-Era sent an email to supervisors suggesting changes to start the wind farm project. The company recommends decreasing the setback requirements from the Mississippi and Wapsipinicon rivers, and following the U. S. Fish and Wildlife guidelines for setbacks from Bald Eagle nests. County supervisors reviewed the email Tuesday and say meeting the needs of the community, Next-Era and federal guidelines isnt easy. Supervisors say conversations about changing the ordinance will continue after they meet with their attorney. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. By AJ Vicens (Reuters) -Chinese-linked hackers are targeting the Taiwanese semiconductor industry and investment analysts as part of a string of cyber espionage campaigns, researchers said on Wednesday. While hacking to steal data and information about the industry is not new, there is an increase in sustained hacking campaigns from several China-aligned hacking groups, researchers with cybersecurity firm Proofpoint said in a new analysis. Weve seen entities that we hadnt ever seen being targeted in the past being targeted, said Mark Kelly, a threat researcher focused on Chinese-related threats at Proofpoint. The previously unreported hacking campaigns were carried out by at least three distinct Chinese-linked groups primarily between March and June of this year, with some activity likely ongoing, Proofpoint said. They come amid rising restrictions by Washington on exports to China of U.S.-designed chips that are often manufactured in Taiwan. China's chip industry has been working to replace its dwindling supply of sophisticated U.S. chips, especially those used in artificial intelligence. The researchers declined to identify the hacking targets, but told Reuters that approximately 15 to 20 organizations ranging from small businesses, analysts employed by at least one U.S.-headquartered international bank, and large global enterprises faced attacks. Major Taiwanese semiconductor firms include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, MediaTek, United Microelectronics Corp, Nanya Technology and RealTek Semiconductor. TSMC declined to comment. MediaTek, UMC, Nanya and RealTek did not respond to requests for comment. Reuters was unable to identify the specific hacking targets or determine whether any of the efforts were successful. A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington told Reuters in an email that cyber attacks are a common threat faced by all countries, China included, and that the Asian country firmly opposes and combats all forms of cyber attacks and cyber crime a position that is consistent and clear. The activity ranged from one or two emails sent as part of the more targeted campaign focused on specific people, to as many as 80 emails when trying to gain information from the company at large, Kelly said. One group targeted semiconductor design, manufacturing and supply-chain organizations using compromised Taiwanese university email accounts to pose as job seekers and send malware via PDFs with URLs leading to malicious files, or a password-protected archive. Another targeted financial analysts at major unnamed investment firms focused on the Taiwanese semiconductor industry by posing as a fictitious investment firm and seeking collaboration. Two of the entities are based in Asia, while the third is based in the U.S. The FBI declined to comment. A director at a high-security data centre has defended the company's plans for expansion after residents described them as "very disturbing". Rob Silvester, chief revenue officer at Ark Data Centres, spoke about the company's plans to build a data centre on land next to the former MOD Corsham. Last year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that residents opposed plans, saying it would disrupt their sleep and cause them mental strain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Nobody likes change, but we are at the forefront of a new age where change is necessary," said Mr Silvester. "What we've tried to do is be as sensitive as we possibly can given that it's an industrial development." The company where every employee has government security clearance provides data services to telecoms firms, banks, and video streaming services. A group of residents from the nearby Wadswick Green retirement village have described the plans as "very disturbing" and causing "quite a lot of distress". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Silvester said exponential public demand for cloud services and AI had led to the growth of the data centre industry. One concern by local residents was the lights coming from the site, with some claiming it is like "looking on an airport terminal". James Smith, who also works at Ark, said: "We mended our lighting strategy at the beginning of this year, so all lights at night time are switched off unless they're needed for emergency or maintenance purposes. There is no light on the site at night." The firm added that advances in cooling fan technology meant there had been no increase in background noise from the site since 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The company said it hopes Wiltshire Council will start to deliberate the planning application in August. Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. More on this story Related Internet Links Vance Boelter, the man accused of assassinating a Minnesota Democratic state lawmaker and attempting to murder another, claimed in a handwritten confession letter that Democrat Gov. Tim Walz ordered him to carry out political killings allegedly saying, Tim wanted me to kill. BREAKING: The full confession letter of the Minnesota political assassin Vance Boelter has been released. Tim [Walz] wanted me to k*ll Amy Klobuchar If you think Im making this up, just get on the phone and tell Tim you have a few questions for him- Then ask Tim Walz if he pic.twitter.com/nGEQfY2ZXp Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 15, 2025 The explosive allegation, disclosed Tuesday by federal prosecutors, came in a letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel and found in Boelters vehicle near his home. In the note, Boelter, 57, also admitted to the killings of State Rep. Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband and the attempted murders of State Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his family. I am the shooter at large in Minnesota involved in the two shootings, Boelter allegedly wrote, further claiming he had been trained by the U.S. military and participated in covert missions in the best interest of the United States. He alleged that Gov. Walz approached him directly and ordered the assassinations of Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith because, he claimed, Tim wants to be senator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A spokesperson for Gov. Walz dismissed the accusation, calling the tragedy deeply disturbing for all Minnesotans. The letter adds to a growing list of politically charged violence and threats involving individuals allegedly targeting or connected to Democratic officials. A Delusion Or a Strategy? Federal prosecutors say there is no evidence corroborating Boelters claims about Democrat Gov. Walz and suggested the confession letter may be delusional or deliberately deceptive. Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes, said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson. Still, Thompson released the letter publicly, citing the legitimate public interest surrounding the case. The attack has rocked Minnesotas political establishment and stirred nationwide speculation about Boelters motives and mental state. His public defender has not confirmed whether a mental health evaluation will be requested. Federal Death Penalty Possible A federal grand jury formally indicted Boelter on Tuesday on enhanced murder and attempted murder charges. Prosecutors also filed a special findings notice indicating Boelter could qualify for the federal death penalty, though that decision would ultimately fall to Attorney General Pam Bondi, according to officials. The long-awaited nomination for William Billy Kirkland is scheduled for Thursday afternoon before the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Kirkland, a tribal citizen of the Navajo Nation, was nominated for U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs by President Donald Trump on February 3, 2025. The position that was occupied by Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community) during the Biden administration has been vacant since Newland left on January 20, 2025. Never miss Indian Countrys biggest stories and breaking news. Click here to sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kirkland was a part of the White House staff during Trumps first term, serving as special assistant to the president and deputy director for Intergovernmental Affairs, acting as a key liaison between the White House and Tribal governments. After his nomination, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) praised his nomination, noting his commitment to strengthening government-to-government relationships and tribal sovereignty. "NCAI looks forward to engaging with Kirkland upon his confirmation to protect and further strengthen the government-to-government relationship and advance policy priorities that support Tribal Nations," NCAI President Mark Macarro said. "We remain committed to working in partnership with the Department of the Interior to uphold tribal sovereignty." Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren also praised Kirklands nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am pleased that the Trump administration has selected someone of his high caliber, Nygren said to Native News Online. Mr. Kirkland is well-positioned to accomplish significant work for both the administration and Indian Country. Following the committee vote, the nomination will proceed to a full Senate confirmation vote. Secretary for Indian Affairs within the Department of the Interior. The hearing is open to the public, with seating available on a first-come, first-served basis. Event Details: WHAT: Murkowski and Schatz to lead Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Nomination Hearing WHEN: Thursday, July 17, 2025 at 2:45 p.m. ET WHERE: Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room: 628 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Live video of the event will be available here. About the Author: "Levi \"Calm Before the Storm\" Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print\/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net." Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net WINTERSET, Iowa A paperwork error could force Madison Countys newly appointed auditor to take the oath of office for a second time. The newly-appointed Madison County Auditor, Matthew Schwartz is sworn in. Matthew Schwartz, who was sworn in last Monday to replace the countys former auditor, may have to repeat the process due to an issue with how the public was notified of his appointment. According to Iowa law Chapter 69.14A, citizens must be informed of their right to petition for a special election language that was apparently missing from the official public notice. Section a(1) reads: The appointment shall be for the period until the next pending election as defined in section 69.12, and shall be made within forty days after the vacancy occurs. If the committee of county officers designated to fill the vacancy chooses to proceed under this paragraph, the committee shall publish notice in the manner prescribed by section 331.305 stating that the committee intends to fill the vacancy by appointment but that the electors of the district or county, as the case may be, have the right to file a petition requiring that the vacancy be filled byspecialelection. The committee may publish notice in advance if an elected official submits a resignation to take effect at a future date. The committee may make an appointment to fill the vacancy after the notice is published or after the vacancy occurs, whichever is later. A person appointed to an office under this subsection shall have actually resided in the county which the appointee represents sixty days prior to appointment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the apparent error and a need to be re-sworn, Schwartzs staff confirmed to WHO 13s Katie Kaplan that he was in the auditors office on Tuesday and planned to continue to carry out his Auditor duties. The initial notice intended to inform the public about the issue, lacked essential details and caused confusion. This Notice of Intent to Appoint to Fill included only the following text: Public Notice of Intent to Appoint to Fill Vacancy of Office of Madison County Auditor Pursuant to Iowa Code Chapters 69.14A and 331.305 The Madison County Board of Supervisors intend to fill the vacancy of Office of County Auditor by appointment. The person appointed will conduct the duties of that position until the seat appears on the General Election ballon in November 2026. Qualified applicants must be a resident of Madison County. Duties of the Count Auditor are listed in 331.501- 331.513. Fiscal year 2025/2026 salary for County Auditor is $80,424, with benefits of health insurance and IPERS. The appointment process will begin at 9:30 a.m., on July 22, 2025, in the basement of the Madison County Annex, 201 W. Court, Winterset, Iowa. Notice is further given that the electors of Madison County have the right to file a petition in accordance with Code of Iowa 69.14A requesting a Special Election. Said petition shall be filed with the County Auditor within 14 days after the vacancy is filled by appointment. The petition shall meet the requirements of Code of Iowa 331.306. In addition, the notice was posted only on the countys homepage and the Auditors page. It was not placed on the Board of Supervisors page, where most public meeting information is traditionally posted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When WHO 13 reached out to staff within the Madison County Auditors Office for clarification Tuesday afternoon, we were told that a news release intended to be posted alongside the notice had not been. The hiccup was blamed on the countys new IT Firm, Solutions, which recently replaced the in-house IT employee. The news release was then provided via email to WHO 13 by staff within the Auditors office. It stated, in part: This error does not affect the current appointments prior actions while in office and ability to continue to perform their duties. But correction to this process is needed. The correction to be taken is re-publishing public notice with the correct language. The Board of Supervisors will need to meet and vote on the appointment of the auditors position. Then the appointed auditor needs to be sworn in with a new appointment date. The news release issued by Madison County Auditor Matthew Schwartz.Download Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Madison County website has since been updated with the release. However, it was unclear why Schwartz would be making the public notification about his own position, instead of the Madison County Board of Supervisors, which has facilitated the issue since former Auditor Teri Kaczinski announced her resignation in early May. A list of questions sent Tuesday afternoon to the Madison County Board of Supervisors, who appointed Schwartz in a 2-1 vote two weeks ago, had not been responded to by any of the three supervisors late Tuesday night. A list of questions has also been sent by email directly to Schwartz, who stated in his public interview for the Auditor position that he preferred controlled communication over media interviews. He took two days to respond to our last inquiry with a written statement. When WHO 13 contacted Madison County Attorney Stephen Swanson,it was the first he had heard of the public notice, and he said he could not provide more information. The timing raises new questions about a growing movement among residents seeking to hold a special election for the auditors seat. The Madison County Civic Alliance (MCCA), a coalition of bipartisan residents, has already begun collecting signatures, but it remains unclear how this misstep may affect the legal timeline for submitting their petition. According to Iowa Code, residents have 14 days from he appointment to collect signatures and file the petition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, MCCA said: Madison County residents are answering the call for a special election. While we are still collecting petitions, we are confident voices will be heard. Signatures continue to be gathered. It has been an overwhelming ground swell of support in just eight days. Cannot thank the community enough for their commitment to Madison County. Because the signatures were collected in good faith, Swanson said he would recommend allowing an additional grace period to ensure they remain valid, if the Auditors appointment date has to be reset. Meanwhile, the county continues to face turmoil in other offices. Also on Tuesday, Madison County Treasurer Amanda DeVos officially resigned nearly seven months after being charged with misconduct in office, record tampering, and theft. DeVos was reportedly asked to step down as early as April but only resigned this week, citing advice from her attorney. In her resignation letter, she denies any wrongdoing. Her trial is set for September in Boone County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adding to the tension, just a day earlier, the Madison County Sheriff confirmed he is investigating the Supervisor Chairwoman for alleged election misconduct. Iowa news Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. Will this be the year when we end the twice-annual changing of our clocks? Bills were filed in January in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House to make daylight saving time permanent. Since then, though, no action has been taken, although co-sponsors have been trickling in. Here's the latest on when the next time change will occur and what's happening in Congress with the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025. When is daylight saving time? Daylight saving time in most but not all of the United States starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2025, daylight saving time started March 9, when we moved clocks forward one hour. It will end Nov. 2, 2025. Daylight saving time became a national standard in 1966 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act, which was established as a way to continue to conserve energy. When does daylight saving time 2025 end and standard time start? Daylight saving time will end at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 2. At that time, clocks will move back one hour and standard time will begin. Spring forward, fall back: Here's when you lose or gain an extra hour of sleep When we move our clocks forward one hour in the spring for the arrival of daylight saving time, we lose an hour of sleep. That means less light in the morning and more light in the evening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When we move our clocks back one hour in the fall for the return of standard time, we gain an hour of sleep. It also means more light in the morning and less light in the evening. Countdown to end of daylight saving time 2025 Will daylight saving time be permanent? Congress has been asked repeatedly since 2018 to stop the twice-annual practice of changing between daylight saving and standard time. Florida has repeatedly filed legislation, including January of this year, to stay on daylight saving time all year. In 2022, the U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent. The U.S. House of Representatives did not pass it and then-President Joe Biden did not sign it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In December, then-President-elect Donald Trump said he aims to put an end to daylight saving time and make it standard time year-round. 'Sunshine Protection Act of 2025': Will daylight saving time become permanent? U.S. Sen. Rick Scott introduced legislation S. 29, known as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 in January 2025 to officially lock the clock and end the twice-yearly time change and make daylight saving time the national year-round standard across the U.S. "I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year its an unnecessary, decades-old practice thats more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them. "Im excited to have President Trump back in the White House and fully on board to LOCK THE CLOCK so we can get this good bill passed and make this common-sense change that will simplify and benefit the lives of American families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the U.S. House, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan filed H.R. 139, also in January 2025, which also sought to make daylight saving time permanent across the U.S. Read the bills in their entirety: S. 29 and H.R. 139 Has the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 been approved by Congress? It has not. H.R. 139 was introduced in the House on Jan. 3, 2025, by Buchanan. It was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce the same day. No other action has been taken. S. 29 was introduced in the Senate on Jan. 7, 2025, by Scott. It was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. No other action has been taken. Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 gathering sponsors in Congress While no further action has been taken on the bills since they were introduced in January, new sponsors continue to trickle in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement S. 29 has 18 sponsors, and H.R. 139 has 25 co-sponsors, as of July 16. Florida sponsors include: H.R. 139: See all House sponsors S. 29: Sen. Rick Scott introduced the bill Sen. Moody, Ashley [R-FL] See all Senate sponsors What is the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025? The Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 would make daylight saving time permanent. Can Florida or any state stay on standard time all year? Some states would rather stay on standard time all year instead of staying on daylight saving time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While a state needs congressional approval to stay on daylight saving time all year, staying on standard time all year only requires a state law. The state also would need to notify the U.S. Department of Transportation it will not be observing daylight saving time, the DOT said in an email. "The state would just need to let DOT and the rest of the world know that they no longer observe DST, if that is the decision," the DOT said. Some states want to stay on standard time all year Some states would rather stay on standard time all year instead of staying on daylight saving time. That would not require congressional approval and can be done by state law, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation."The state would just need to let DOT and the rest of the world know that they no longer observe DST, if that is the decision," the DOT said in an email. What's the difference between staying on standard time or daylight saving time all year? Daylight saving time would mean later sunrises and sunsets, which means more time for outdoor activities after work or in the evenings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Standard time would mean earlier sunrises and sunsets, which some argue increase safety in the mornings for school children and is more in line with our biological circadian rhythms, according to savestandardtime. "The medical and scientific communities are unified ... that permanent standard time is better for human health," said Erik Herzog, a professor of biology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and the former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. Some states don't observe daylight saving time Hawaii and most of Arizona except the Navajo Reservation do not recognize daylight saving time. They remain on standard time all year. Do all Americans observe daylight saving time? Why some states and territories don't Is it daylight saving time or Daylight Savings Time? It's daylight saving time, no s and no capital letters. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Will daylight saving time be permanent? Sunshine Protection Act status WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Congress is continuing to move forward with billions of dollars in DOGE cuts. Lawmakers have until Friday to claw back spending requested by the White House. The bill cuts about $9 billion from foreign aid and public media. It passed the House last month and now awaits a final vote in the Senate. Republicans say this package of cuts will help get government spending under control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reigning in waste fraud and abuse in the federal government is a priority shared by President Trump and by Senate Republicans, said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). The cuts requested by the president target foreign aid and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which includes PBS and NPR, and local tv and radio stations. Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt says its a good step toward saving taxpayer dollars. Their government has been writing checks to left wing propaganda outlets and spending billions overseas on countries that hate us, said Schmitt. Some Republicans, like North Carolinas Senator Thom Tillis, are skeptical of the package saying they dont know whats in it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have no earthly idea what specific cuts will occur, but Im willing to give OMB and the president that theyre going to be responsible cuts, said Tillis. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the proposed cuts to public media. He says it provides a critical source of information, especially during severe weather. These cuts to local stations couldnt happen at a worse time with floods and natural disasters front of mind, said Schumer. The legislation narrowly advanced in the Senate Tuesday with Vice President JD Vance casting a tiebreaking vote. If the bill passes in the Senate, it then heads to the House before going to the presidents desk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. In a 211210 vote, House Republicans have blocked a Democrat-introduced amendment aimed at forcing the Justice Department to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on federal charges for sex trafficking. While awaiting trial, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell his death ruled by suicide. Conspiracy theories quickly spread, saying that he was murdered to protect the names of other powerful people who may have partaken in the crimes. Despite Attorney General Pam Bondi claiming that additional information about Epstein including the 'client list' was "sitting on [her] desk right now to review," the Justice Department released a memo backtracking on Bondi's claim. The memo stated that there was no evidence of an "incriminating 'client list'" and concluded that Epstein did, in fact, die by suicide. Kypros / Getty Images Unsurprisingly, the switch-up has caused confusion among many, and President Donald Trump, who was infamously acquainted with Epstein, has attempted to dismiss the situation altogether. In a recent Truth Social post, Trump wrote a long rant defending Bondi, ending the post with: "Lets keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." Trump: Are you still talking about Epstein?!? This guy has been talked about for years. Are people still talking about this creep? I cant believe youre asking a question about Epstein pic.twitter.com/cYRuR1XHwr Acyn (@Acyn) July 8, 2025 X: @Acyn / Via Twitter: @Acyn Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most notably, Elon Musk claimed in a now-deleted post on X that Trump's name is on the Epstein client list. In the post, he wrote, "Time to drop a really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" Related: Hillary Clinton Just Hit On One Of Donald Trump's Biggest Insecurities With Three Words Now that the House GOP has blocked the release of the files, here's how conservatives and Republicans are reacting: 1."I've always been a more 'policy over party' person, finding myself more on the conservative side. I'm disgusted. I already wouldn't vote for Trump after the results of his first term because I think he's a traitor. Now, I don't want to support the Republican Party at all." Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images SolemnPossum Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2."Anyone who objects to releasing the information is either on the list or financially benefitting from someone on said list." MidtownRhino 3."Someone told me that they couldn't release the list because there are so many important people on it that governments would collapse and society would cease to function. Not that I believe that, but even if that's the case, fine. So be it. Any society or government that relies on protecting sex predators don't deserve to exist. Let it burn." Peaurxnanski 4."Whether you agree with their vote or not, it should be painfully obvious that this is going to be brought back up in the midterms." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NotRadTrad05 Related: Donald Trump's Day Probably Got A Whole Lot Worse After These MAGA Voters Started Turning On Him Over The Epstein Files 5."There are two choices. The first is that Pam Bondi lied about there being more files and is trying to throw everyone under the bus because there actually aren't. The second is that Bondi lied that there isn't more stuff, and that everything was already released, and this is all a huge coverup. And everyone involved in said coverup deserves full punishment. Either way, Bondi lied and needs to either get gone or come clean. And the government should be more transparent." Joe Raedle / Getty Images litvisherebbetzin Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 6."Conservative here. I think it's slimy as hell, and I can't believe it." Blackhawk23 7."I'm a conservative-liberal/liberal-conservative, and I'm down here in lower Alabama laughing as all the MAGAs I work with self-destruct because their 'messiah' is actually a piece of crap and they don't know how to justify it." co_snarf 8."I'll bite, but I guess my thoughts are still the same no matter what. The Epstein list is getting covered up by the current administration, but it also was getting covered up by the previous administration. I think there are people involved who are at a very high level of government, and as long as they're there, it doesn't really matter who the president is. No matter what, the list won't see the light of day. I just honestly wish it would be released so that everyone on it could be brought to justice. In my opinion, it's a lazy political crutch to just be like, 'Oh, my opponent is on the list!' Once it's out there, people just think it's true. And once the accusation is there, it's like being guilty until proven innocent in the public eye. So, I'd rather it just be dealt with in the most transparent way possible, regardless of who the president is." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement tacobellbandit Related: "Evidence Of Trumps Stupidity": Trump Was Ruthlessly Mocked After Suffering A Brain Fart While Trying To Insult Biden 9."Traitors. I'm voting blue next election." Slap_yo_mama00 10."I suspect there are a tremendous number of Republicans in the client list. Oh, sure, there might be Democrats there as well. Why do you think the Democrats didn't release it when they were in power? They should release the list, and every single person who committed a crime should be prosecuted and punished. I don't care what their politics are; I don't care what their nationality is. If they committed sex acts on underage girls, put them in prison. I don't care if it's Bill Clinton or Donald Trump or God himself." Patrick McMullan / Patrick McMullan via Getty Images florida_man_1970 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 11."Justice must be served. If something is broken by the truth being revealed, it deserves to be broken." kriskringlej 12."Here's my take: With them going in so hard with the 'There is no list and there never was a list' take, I cannot understand why every one of them wouldn't vote yes and say, 'OK, have fun releasing nothing.' This proves that there IS a list, and they are all being told to stop it from coming out." Putrid-VII 13."It's shitty. They should release it and have EVERYONE in Congress come over with the cops and list off all the names. And every single person in Congress on that list should get arrested live on TV." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TheBlackTemplar125 14."As someone who's been voting for the Republican ticket since I was a fetus, let me just say...they blocked the Epstein files?! Color me shocked! This is obviously about protecting the guest list, and I guarantee you, half of it's red ties, the other half is blue suits, and the rest are wearing robes you only get when you hit Level 33 in the 'shadow government.' The only thing they're securing is the right to keep flying private and never answer questions asked by us plebs." NurPhoto / NurPhoto via Getty Images "Meanwhile, if I forget to file a 1099, the IRS shows up as if I robbed Fort Knox. I'm not saying everyone in Congress flew to Epstein's island. All I'm saying is that there's a reason the plane had a priority clearance. You know what this is? American feudalism with better branding. You aren't a citizen anymore; you're an audience member at a coverup with sponsors." ScotchandRants Related: "Trends That Can Lead To The Alt-Right Pipeline": This Woman Is Calling Out Ways The Far Right Targets Women And Girls 15."My two cents: There is no client list. There may have been at some point, but would've been destroyed immediately to avoid leaking. If it wasn't destroyed, someone would've used it in the election. Now, to the matter of the redaction from the Maxwell trial: Those folks were probably involved with immunity deals in exchange for testimony." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement mezolithico 16."Honestly, though, I never expected anything different. However, what I will say is this episode is highlighting who I can trust in the media. People like Charlie Kirk, who I used to trust, are clearly just repeating whatever the administration is telling them rather than holding people's feet to the fire." -Istvan-5- 17."I'm a Trump voter. Release the files, dammit. I don't care who's on it let them face the music. I'm of the belief that there's definitely some big names on it, whether they're Republicans, Democrats, or even prominent business and corporation figures. They're so afraid to lose the hold they have on power." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KevM689 18."This is the type of legislation decision-making that will make me turn my back on Trump." Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images IndigoSoullllll 19.Lastly: "Covering this up, hiding information, then attacking anyone who complains is swamp behavior, and our party, including our president, is doing it. I'll only give the Dems partial credit here. I don't think they'd push for it to be released at all if Trump and his allies weren't fighting against it. Otherwise, they would've done it under Biden. So, what they're doing right now is just for show." cathbadh If you're a Republican, what do you think about the House GOP blocking the release of the Epstein files? Share your thoughts in the comments, or you can anonymously do so using the form below. Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity. Also in In the News: "He Torched His Entire Reputation For Nothing": 27 Of The Best Political Tweets From This Messy, Messy Week Also in In the News: These Tweets Prove MAGA Is Seeing Some Serious Backlash Amid The Texas Floods Also in In the News: Donald Trump Just Hung A Painting Of Himself Where Hillary Clinton's Portrait Used To Be And It's Exactly What You'd Expect Read it on BuzzFeed.com One of the most high profile manhunts in recent years started with the burnt-out shell of a car abandoned on a motorway. Reports of the Peugeot 206, which had broken down on the M61 near Bolton, first reached firefighters in Greater Manchester on the evening of 5 January 2023. Two years later, following a seven week manhunt and two trials at the Old Bailey, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been convicted of the gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn daughter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sprawling investigation that led to those verdicts started when the fire service got in touch with Det Insp Dave Sinclair at Greater Manchester Police (GMP). Det Insp Sinclair, who has since retired, got the call about 18:00 GMT. Speaking after the verdicts were announced on Monday, he said not only was the vehicle abandoned which itself raised questions, but there appeared to be "human remains" on the backseat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It turned out to be a placenta after the birth of a baby girl - who became known as Victoria. The senior detective said: "Clearly there was an immediate concern for the welfare of who might have been in the vehicle and where they'd gone." Det Insp Sinclair discovered the driver and passenger had been seen by witnesses after pulling up to the hard shoulder - and they were carrying a newborn baby. The most obvious enquiries drew a blank - the car had been registered in a false name, paid for in cash and was uninsured. In a stroke of luck, crime scene investigators were able to salvage documents dropped by Marten and Gordon as they fled, despite the fact they had been soaked in water by firefighters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The documents contained their details, and after background checks on Marten and Gordon, Det Insp Sinclair said he grew increasingly worried. Marten had grown up in privilege on a country estate, as part of a wealthy family with links to the Royals. Gordon, the son of a nurse, had been convicted of the rape of his neighbour in Florida - a crime he committed aged just 14. The burned out Peugeot 206 had a placenta on the back seat which somehow survived the flames [Met Police] Marten had already fallen out with her family when she met Gordon, and the pair embarked on a chaotic lifestyle. Most concerningly, they were forced to give up their other four children before Victoria was born amid allegations of violence from Gordon to Marten. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Det Insp Sinclair said: "We already had existing serious concerns because we had a newborn baby, people on foot in the vicinity of the motorway network, a vehicle having set on fire and left with no one inside it and an awful night in terms of weather. "Their actions were not those of responsible parents. "And added to that, from initial enquiries, we then became aware of information from about this couple that served only to escalate the concerns around why they hadn't waited for the emergency services and had actively avoided the police." Bolton CID were able to build an initial picture of the couple's movements after they hitched a lift into the town centre and got a taxi to Liverpool at 20:15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CCTV footage and other evidence has since proved baby Victoria was alive at that stage. Det Insp David Sinclair said he believed baby Victoria's death was "completely avoidable" [GMP] The case was later handed over to the Metropolitan Police who arrested the pair on 27 February 2023. There was no sign of Victoria, however, until 1 March when her remains were found in a Lidl shopping bag filled with rubbish in a shed on an allotment in Brighton. At the Old Bailey, a jury heard how the pair had tried to keep a low profile and had hidden Victoria under Marten's clothing and possibly in shopping bags. Prosecutors said that while it was not possible to determine a cause of death due to her body's decomposed state, it was likely the infant died after being exposed to the elements as the couple slept in a flimsy tent. The shed in Brighton where the body of baby Victoria was found inside a shopping bag [Met Police] Gordon, the son of a nurse, had been convicted of the rape of his neighbour in Florida - a crime he committed aged just 14. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marten had already fallen out with her family when the pair met, and they were forced to give up their other four children before Victoria was born. For Det Insp Sinclair, the death of Victoria had been "completely avoidable" if the couple had sought help. He described their actions as "clearly selfish". "I just feel really sad," he said. "This is such a tragic waste of life. It's quite upsetting that we've got a young baby girl who has never really had any choice or opportunity in life and my view would be that this is solely down to the actions of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marten, now 38, and Gordon, now 51, had already been convicted of child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice by not reporting the death of their baby at a trial last year. The jury in that case had failed to reach a verdict on the manslaughter counts, leading to the Crown Prosecution Service seeking a second trial. The pair were found guilty on Monday 14 July, and will be sentenced on 15 September. Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230. More on this story In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court gave the Trump Administration a green light to do what it has long promised: gut the Department of Education from the inside out. The ruling upheld the administrations authority to fire department staff en masse, paving the way for a de facto dismantling of an agency responsible for enforcing civil rights law, allocating billions in federal education funding, and ensuring that when states fail poor children, someone still shows up. This isnt a bureaucratic reshuffling. Its a deliberate unraveling of the federal governments role in public educationan already weakened, often reluctant, commitment to the idea that education is a national responsibility, not just a local budget line. If we are to protect this idea, we urgently need a constitutional amendment which enshrines the right to education for all Americans. It wont be easy. But it is required if we are going to recover from these legal, economic, and political assaults coming from the Trump Administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This became clear in the weeks leading up to the Supreme Courts decision when the Trump Administration made its intentions clear. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon threatened to withhold Title I fundingdesigned for schools serving the highest concentrations of povertyfrom districts that refused to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Then came the quiet refusal to release $7 billion in education funding already approved by Congress. None of this is happening in a vacuum. These moves are part of broader efforts which have been building for years: a project not to fix public education, but to abandon it. To convert justified public frustration into a license for withdrawal. And yes, that frustration is real. According to Pew, over half of Americans believe public K12 education is on the wrong track. Classrooms are overcrowded, teachers underpaid, schools under-resourced. A resounding 82% of teachers say things have gotten worse over the past five years. College doesnt fare much better. Gallup reports that trust in higher education has crateredparticularly among working-class families and communities of color burdened by debt and priced out of opportunity. But these are not critiques of the public good itselfthey are evidence of abandonment. And the response from lawmakers, Democratic and Republican alike, hasnt been to repair the system. It has been to shrink it, politicize it, starve it, and now, through the Court, dismantle the very infrastructure needed to enforce our nations own laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This moment is not just about saving a department. Its about reclaiming the idea that democracy requires a literate, critical, cared-for citizenryand that the right to education is not something the states can choose to ignore. The long history of efforts to end the Department of Education The Department of Education, created as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979, was never perfect. But it existed for a reason: to intervene when states, left to their own devices, would not or could not educate all children fairly. It enforced desegregation orders. It monitored civil rights compliance under Title IX and IDEA. It held districts accountable when racial discrimination was systemic and unapologetic. This isnt the first time weve been here. In 1867, the federal government created the first Department of Educationnot to regulate curriculum, but to gather data on how best to educate the newly freed Black population and poor whites in the postCivil War South. It was a fragile, symbolic effort to build a national vision for learning and citizenship in a country struggling to imagine either across racial lines. Arguing that the federal government had no role to play in education, states organized and protested the new agency, and shut it down in less than a year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A century later, when Brown v. Board made segregation illegal, many states closed schools rather than integrate them. Others used zoning, funding, and private academies to maintain racial separation under different names. It took federal enforcement to protect U.S. citizens from the unequal citizenship their states desired for them. Now, were watching that enforcement dissolve and once again, the reasoning is wrapped in the language of local control. But lets be clear: local control has always been a polite term for resisting federal authority to protect its most vulnerable citizens. It means those with the most power get to shape curriculum, hoard resources, and decide who belongsand who doesn't. The legacy of Bob Moses In this moment, we would benefit to remember the legacy of civil rights organizer and founder of the Algebra Project, Bob Moses. Moses understood better than most that education is not just about access to classrooms. It is about access to power. He believed that algebra was a gatekeeper to full citizenship. Without itand without the trained teachers, safe schools, and rigorous curriculum needed to teach itstudents living in poverty were being systematically locked out of economic and civic life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Moses, the fight for educational justice required more than reform. It required a new constitutional right. He spent the final decades of his life calling for an amendment that would guarantee every child in the United Statesnot just access to school buildings, but access to quality public education as a civil right. He knew what we are now learning the hard way: that unless quality is guaranteed by law, inequality will be guaranteed by design. We have been running an education system that is driving a caste system. We agree to have failing schools with the caveat that we also have a plethora of programs to rescue different categories of students from them, Moses argued in 2012. Almost every program you can think ofcharter schools, vouchers, affirmative actionall rescue different categories of students. We cant announce that as an education policy, but thats what we do. Notably, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in 2023 and Congress passed a national school voucher program earlier this month. Indeed, rather than fix our educational system for all, as Moses had supported, the conservative movement has cherry-picked which students get to be rescued. And in this momentwhen the federal government is retreating, when civil rights enforcement is in free fall, when schools are being turned into ideological piggybanksMosess call for a constitutional amendment is no longer aspirational. It is necessary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This would not be easy. It would take litigation, legislation, and mass mobilization. But so did desegregation. So did voting rights. So did anything this country has ever done that was worth doing. What this Court has made official, many states were already doing in practice: walking away from the idea that education is a public good. But the people havent walked away. In poll after poll, Americans continue to believe in public education. A 2024 Pew study found that 77% think the federal government should play a role in ensuring educational equity. Public school remains one of the last remaining entitlements that enjoys broad support across race, class, and even party lines. The question is no longer whether the people believe. Its whether the government is willing to act. Bob Moses saw this moment coming. And he left us a blueprint. If we dont follow that blueprint, we stand to witness not just the dismantling of the Department of Education, but the dismantling of public education itself. Contact us at letters@time.com. Milwaukee Public Museum leaders and government officials celebrated a construction milestone at the new museum's site on July 15. The final part of the vertical structure for the museum's new downtown home set to be renamed the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin was set into place with a topping-off ceremony. The new building is at N. 6th Street and W. McKinley Ave. just north of Fiserv Forum. The event did not go off without a hitch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attendees watched as a tower crane lifted the final steel beam for the vertical structure of the new museum. Just as it hovered over the top of the building, the beam slipped out of the crane's harness. Video of the incident from WISN 12 News shows a construction worker standing near the beam as it fell. Onlookers gasped and seemed confused about what had happened. A spokesperson for the museum said that everyone is okay and the beam was successfully installed. The Mortenson construction company has been working on the building since groundbreaking last year. Ellen Censky, MPM's president and CEO, said she is "really excited" at this point in the construction process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attendees, including Mayor Cavalier Johnson, signed the final steel beam before it was lifted. One message said, "We did it!!!" "Keep on inspiring," read another. "This will also have a huge impact not only on our economy, but our tourism industry and our culture itself," said County Executive David Crowley before toasting the topping-off. He also said more than 5 million visitors are predicted within the first decade of the new museum opening, many of which being are likely to be schoolchildren. With the beam in place, the building reached its maximum height of 100 feet, according to a MPM press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Construction began in mid-2024. The building is on track to open in early 2027. It will replace the current museum, 800 W. Wells St., which is outdated and in disrepair. The new museum's design and logo are meant to resemble rock columns that can be found at Mill Bluff State Park. The next construction step is to install 670 precast exterior panels meant to mimic those rock formations, the press release said. That should be done by the end of 2025. Last March, the museum reached 80%, or $191 million, of its $240 million fundraising goal. Censky said additional money has been raised, but declined to give an exact amount. The museum is still seeking $5 million in federal grants for the project, she said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New home of Milwaukee Public Museum sees construction milestone WASHINGTON (Reuters) -American companies rolled out a series of big-ticket AI and energy investment pledges on Tuesday, part of a push by President Donald Trump to maintain the country's edge in the booming technology sector. Here are some of the biggest announcements timed around the Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University, which is expected to include $90 billion in investments in and around Pennsylvania. Alphabet-owned Google has struck a $3 billion deal with Brookfield Asset Management for electricity generated from two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania. Google will also invest $25 billion in data centers across Pennsylvania and neighboring states over the next two years, Semafor reported on Tuesday. Asset management firm Blackstone plans a $25 billion investment in data centers and energy infrastructure in Pennsylvania, its president and chief operating officer, Jon Gray, told a panel at the summit. Blackstone is also announcing a new joint venture with PPL Corp for power generation. First Energy will invest $15 billion to expand power distribution, strengthen grid infrastructure, and operate the enhanced grid in 56 Pennsylvania counties, the office of Senator Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania said. On Monday Meta Platforms Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said his company would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to build several massive AI data centers, including a multi-gigawatt data center dubbed Prometheus, which is planned for Ohio. Cloud infrastructure technology company CoreWeave plans to spend up to $6 billion on building a new artificial intelligence data center in Pennsylvania, the company said on Tuesday. Constellation Energy will invest $2.4 billion to upgrade the Limerick nuclear power plant, Senator McCormick's office said. Energy Capital Partners announced a $5 billion plan to develop a data center at the York II Energy Center. The pledges come amid a surge in investments for AI startups, a sign that the field continues to thrive even as venture capital firms are struggling to raise money, a report from PitchBook on Tuesday showed. (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler) Nearly a dozen Senate Republicans are pressing the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in federal education funding from a spending review they say runs counter to President Donald Trump's promise to empower states to make decisions about their schools. The unusual challenge to the president from lawmakers within his party offers the clearest sign of dissent to-date from within conservative ranks after the Education Department halted the distribution of roughly $7 billion in grants for after-school programs, teacher training initiatives, migrant student education and other initiatives on July 1. "Withholding these funds will harm students, families, and local economies," 10 Senate lawmakers wrote on Wednesday to Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought. "The decision to withhold this funding is contrary to President Trumps goal of returning K-12 education to the states." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wednesday's letter, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), was also signed by Republican Sens. John Boozman (Arkansas), Katie Britt (Alabama), Susan Collins (Maine), Deb Fischer (Nebraska), John Hoeven (North Dakota), Jim Justice (West Virginia), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Mike Rounds (South Dakota). Lawmakers also pushed back on the administration's claims that at least some of the money has been used to subsidize what OMB officials have described as "a radical leftwing agenda." OMB has confirmed the education funds are under review as part of Trumps broader agenda of scrutinizing programs related to immigration and LGBTQ+ issues. Public schools in New York used money for students who are immigrants or speak limited English to promote illegal immigrant advocacy organizations, the administration has said, without providing specifics. The budget office also asserted Washington state used funds to direct illegal immigrants towards scholarships intended for American students. Elsewhere, school improvement funds were used to conduct a seminar on queer resistance in the arts, the administration added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement OMB did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. "We share your concern about taxpayer money going to fund radical left-wing programs. However, we do not believe that is happening with these funds," the senators wrote. "These funds go to support programs that enjoy longstanding, bipartisan support like after-school and summer programs that provide learning and enrichment opportunities for school aged children which also enables their parents to work and contribute to local economies." The Trump administration told lawmakers and state officials last month that it was reviewing the congressionally appropriated education grant funding that Trump signed into law earlier this year and will not send the money to states until that review is complete. Vought has suggested to Senate appropriators that the funding could be the target of a future rescissions package a legislative mechanism for clawing back funds already approved by Congress. Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have also proposed cutting some of the affected programs in their budget pitch for the coming year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the current delay is sowing a sense of anxiety and confusion across school systems that rely on federal money to keep programs running and staffed. School districts represented by Republicans in Congress stand to lose more per-pupil dollars from the funding freeze, according to recent estimates published by New America, a progressive-leaning think tank. Across four federal programs for K-12 students, New America estimated the average school district represented by a Republican stands to lose 1.6 times as much funding per pupil as the average school district represented by a Democrat. Billy McFarland, the scam artist and convicted fellon who gained notoriety for the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, has officially sold the rights to the events brand on eBay for $245,300 (approx. 211,135). The auction, which reportedly drew a 175 bids, included intellectual property, trademarks, and social media accounts tied to the Fyre name. The identity of the buyer remains unknown. Fyre Festival sold on eBay - eBay - screenshot In a livestream during the eBay auction, McFarland appeared disappointed with the result, commenting: Damn. This sucks, its so low. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Rolling Stone, the sale will barely make a dent in his outstanding $26 million (approx. 22.3m) restitution order tied to his criminal conviction. Nonetheless, the disgraced founder took to social media after the sale, saying: Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and Im excited to move onto my next one. He continued: The auction became the most-watched non-charity listing on eBay during its run, proving once again that attention is currency, and views are the root of attention. That belief is at the core of what Im building next. McFarland then shared that hes working on a tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cue: death by a thousand eyerolls. McFarland was given a six-year prison sentence in 2018 for wire fraud related to the original Fyre Festival. He was released early in 2022 and attempted to relaunch the event multiple times - without success. What happened at Fyre Festival? Ja Rule and Billy McFarland in 'FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened' - Netflix McFarland founded Fyre Festival with rapper Ja Rule. As part of their advertising scheme for the supposed luxury music festival, they employed influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski to post on Instagram about the festival. The influencers didnt clearly disclose that it was a paid advert. McFarland also falsely claimed that the festivals location was on Pablo Escobars private island. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In reality, it was located on a beach in the Bahamas, and when the glamorous (and wannabe glamorous) flocked to McFarlands promised luxury event in 2017, all was not as it seemed. When the punters arrived, they were confronted with unfinished stages, tents instead of fancy accommodation, and a notoriously rubbish welcome meal of some pre-sliced cheese and a depressing-looking salad on dry bread. As for the star-studded line-up of acts including Pusha T, Tyger, Blink-182, Disclosure, Migos, and Skepta... They all pulled out. To make matters worse, the 500+ guests were stranded on the island, as flights were cancelled by the Bahamian government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ordeal was captured in the Netflix documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, as well as the Hulu doc Fyre Fraud. Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland - AP Photo McFarland and Ja Rule were hit with multiple lawsuits for fraud and other charges seeking damages. McFarland was investigated by the FBI for mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud. After pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, he was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to hand over $26 million. Since his release from prison, McFarland reportedly arranged meetings with rappers for Donald Trumps most recent election campaign in a bid to reach and appeal to more Black voters. And because once a scammer, always a hardened scammer, McFarland has tried to revive the festival adventurously named Fyre Fest II. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was announced that the second edition of the festival would be taking place on a tropical island off Cancun, Mexico. However, it was soon revealed that the permit McFarland had obtained only allowed for a 12-hour listening party that only could have fewer than 300 people. McFarland set the tickets for between $1,400 (1,200) and $25,000 (21,500) with premium packages priced as high as $1.1 million (947,000). As you can guess, the Fyre Fest II never took place. Now that the rights to the Fyre brand have been sold, anyone else fearing the outcome of McFarlands new tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online? CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) One person is in custody and no injuries were reported after Conway police responded for a report of shots fired Wednesday morning, the department said on Facebook. Officers responded to the area of Tin Top Alley and Durant Street, police said. The scene was secure as of about 11 a.m., but officers will remain in the area to investigate. News13 photo: Gabby Jonas News13 photo: Gabby Jonas No additional information was immediately available. Count on News13 for updates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * * * Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. Cops have arrested a 62-year-old man they said gunned down his wife during a brazen, broad-daylight shooting in Queens last month. Members of the NYPD Fugitive Task Force along with U.S. marshals found Audwin Caines on W. 142nd St. in Harlem on Tuesday and cuffed him for the June 23 murder of Chaneil Ramsay. Cops had been looking for Caines since the killing, when he was spotted opening fire on Ramsay, 45, as he chased after her down 127th Ave. near 176th St. in South Jamaica. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He chased her shooting, a witness to the 2:30 p.m. attack told the Daily News at the time. There were like eight or nine shots. He hit her in the head. Ramsay was shot in the head, arm and stomach, cops said. Her wig was found on the ground near her body, horrified witnesses said. EMS rushed her to Jamaica Hospital, where she died a short time later. Caines narrowly missed also shooting a 21-year-old woman as he opened fire on his wife, cops said. Moments before the gunfire, he bashed the window to her Jeep Grand Cherokee with a rock, a police source with knowledge of the case said. Ramsay lived in South Jamaica, less than five blocks from where she was fatally shot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was a nurse who lived with her mother and young son, one neighbor said of Ramsay. She was a nice lady I cant believe it. Cops had repeatedly responded to Ramsays home in the past to stop fights between Caines and Ramsay. When questioned, Ramsays daughter identified Caines as her mothers killer, a police source with knowledge of the case said. Caines had been on the run since the killing. When he was taken into custody, he was listed as homeless. Detectives charged him with murder, weapons possession and reckless endangerment. His arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was pending Wednesday. BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) With all of the rain and high temperatures predicted, high humidity could follow. Free high tunnel management classes still ongoing from West Virginia State University Extension Some areas of southern West Virginia may have higher humidity than others and theres an odd cause for it. Corn sweat. Corn sweat, or crop sweat, is a phenomenon where the air around a field of crops is more humid and hotter than in other areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keith Richmond, County Executive Director for the Ralegh County Farm Service Agency, explained this odd occurrence. Youre gonna see it around any type of crop field. You see it around corn real often cause its a bigger plant. You get evaporation from the soil, your get transpiration from the plant, and they call that evapotranspiration, is what its called. Its just where its putting off the humidity during these hot days, said Richmond. Richmond said West Virginia is not really known for large corn fields, but that smaller fields and other kinds of crops can cause the same effect. He said if you are working in those fields, you need to take further precautions against heatstroke and dehydration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Richmond said to drink plenty of water and take frequent breaks to avoid overheating in the higher humidity. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) The Baton Rouge Police Department is investigating after an early morning shooting left a man dead. The East Baton Rouge Parish Coroners Office and BRPD responded to the 5300 block of Bank Street around 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16. While investigating, police learned that someone fired multiple shots into a home. Eddie Johnson, 41, was shot and died from his injuries, authorities confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baton Rouge Police Department units and officers were present, with police tape marking off the area. A possible suspect or motive is unknown. The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the shooting incident is asked to contact the Violent Crimes Unit at (225) 389-4869 or Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-7867. Baton Rouge woman charged after 3-year-old found with cocaine in their system Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. GARFIELD COUNTY, Colo. (KREX) The Garfield County Coroners Office confirmed Tuesday that the deaths that occurred Saturday in the Grass Mesa area of Rifle were a murder-suicide. The coroners office stated Ryan Rose, 46, shot and killed his wife, Melinda Rose, 53, at their home before he took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Garfield County Sheriffs Office (GCSO) initially responded to a domestic violence report involving the couple earlier the same day. Ryan reportedly fled before law enforcement arrived. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is overseeing the case. GCSO requested CBI to take the lead for the death investigations, as this was done, so there wasnt a conflict of interest in the previous domestic violence case. The Garfield County Coroners Office extends its condolences to the family and friends of both Mr. and Mrs. Rose, Coroner Robert Glassmire said in a news release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. Costco has been making some changes lately, and another one is opening soon in Florida. The popular warehouse chain famous for wholesale prices and bulk packages is opening seven new locations in North America in August, including one in The Villages, according to the company's "coming soon" page. Costco announced plans in March to open 25-30 new locations every year, typically with half of them in the U.S. and the other half in international markets. The August openings include new stores in Texas, Nevada, Washington, Quebec, Ontario, and Mexico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's what to know. Where is Costco opening new locations in Florida? Costco is opening at least nine new stores across the country in 2025. One of them opened in Stuart in April to about 1,000 people waiting outside. The next new Florida location will be in The Villages in August, opening Aug. 6 at the Buffalo Ridge Shopping Plaza on County Road 466. The doors will open at 8 a.m. to welcome shoppers, a Costco spokesperson told The Daily Commercial. The Villages Costco will launch with membership incentives for new members signing up for the first time or for lapsed members with expired memberships of at least 18 months. The offer will be on the website before opening, although a time frame has not been announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Elsewhere around the state, another new Costco is reportedly coming to Sanford, and talks are in the works for more potential spots, including Port St. Lucie, Pensacola and Miami. Recalls: Florida Costco shoppers urged to stop using these recalled items immediately Costco opens earlier for Executive members Costco shoppers with executive memberships got more time to shop. Starting June 30, doors open at 9 a.m. exclusively for its upper-tier members. The company also said its warehouses will remain open an extra hour on Saturdays for all members, closing at 7 p.m. Costco also recently expanded its gas station hours for all members to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays. The move led to record fuel sales, Fox Business reported. Where can I find a Costco near me in Florida? As of July 8, there are 35 Costco locations in Florida. You can see the list here. This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Costco to open 7 new locations in August, including one in Florida Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has put the cat among the pigeons in promising to cut two of France's national holidays in order to rescue the country's finances. Predictably enough, his proposal on Tuesday to axe the Easter Monday and 8 May holidays triggered howls of protest from the left and the populist right with his own centrists and the conservative right expressing at best guarded support. In a country with such a strong tradition of worker protest, the sudden removal of two statutory days off was never going to be an easy sell. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Essentially, men and women would be made to work two extra days a year for no increase in salary. The gain in productivity would help pull the country put of its ever-deepening hole of debt. The French are indeed very attached to their jours feries. The month of May is awaited with glee every year, not just because it heralds spring but also because of the succession of long weekends that regularly occur. If 1 May (Workers' Day) and 8 May, marking the end of World War Two, fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, then the weekends become four-day treats because the Monday and the Friday will automatically be taken as holiday too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On top of that there is Ascension (always a Thursday) plus Easter Monday and Whit Monday (or Pentecost). If the Church calendar obliges, an early Easter can combine with 1 or 8 May to provide not just a pont or bridge - meaning a four-day weekend spanning a Monday or Friday, but a veritable five or six-day viaduc (viaduct). November is another feast of feasts, with All Saints' on the first of the month and Armistice on the 11th offering relief from autumn blues. And on top of that, there are the famous "RTT" days, which many get in return for working more than the legal 35 hours a week. But before we lapse into humorous self-satisfaction about "those incredibly lazy French and their God-given right to endless downtime", we need to bear in mind a couple of other considerations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, far from the popular image, the French actually have fewer national holidays than the European average. France has 11, like Germany, the Netherlands and US. Slovakia has the most, with 15, and England, Wales, and the Netherlands have the fewest, with 8. Ireland and Denmark have 10. Second, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics, French productivity (output per worker) is 18% higher than the UK's, So any gloating about holidays from across the Channel is misplaced. Third, this is not the first time in recent years that France has proposed to axe national holidays. It has happened before and worked (kind of). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2003, the conservative government under President Jacques Chirac wanted to do something radical after the deadly heatwave of that summer which killed 15,000 people. So Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin decided to turn Whit Monday into a Day of Solidarity. People would work instead of taking the day off, and the money gained by employers would be paid to the government for a fund to help the elderly and disabled. There was an outcry, and a few years later the change was watered down so that now the Day of Solidarity is voluntary. It is all highly confusing, and no-one really understands how it functions, but non-Whit Monday still generates 3bn (2.6bn; $3.5bn) every year in receipts. Another precedent goes back to the 1950s and Charles de Gaulle. Charles de Gaulle took office as president in 1959 and then axed a public holiday [Getty Images] Newly appointed as president, in 1959 he axed the 8 May Victory in Europe holiday, saying the country could not afford it. It was reinstated in 1981 by the Socialist Francois Mitterrand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bayrou looks to scrap two holidays in bold bid to cut debt So when on Tuesday the Greens accused Bayrou of trying to "wipe from the collective memory the eradication of Nazism", it was quite easy for minister Benjamin Haddad to retort: "Actually, it was De Gaulle who first did this, and I seem to recall he played a certain role in eradicating Nazism." None of this means that Bayrou is any the more likely to see his proposals become real. The truth is that the prime minister is in a position of almost total impotence running a government with no majority in parliament, which could fall at any minute if the opposition groups so decide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But, in an odd way, this very powerlessness has given Bayrou the freedom to say what he thinks. If there is little likelihood of his budget proposals getting voted through the Assembly - and the chances are virtually zero - then he might as well give the French the unsugared truth. The economic situation is dire, he said. Every second that passes, France has 5,000 more debt. Today it stands at 3.3tn. In these circumstances, Bayrou believes maybe we need to re-think the way we live. And work. SOUTH CAROLINA (WSPA) Governor Henry McMaster and Lt. Governor Pamela Evette have recently appeared open to creating a facility similar to Alligator Alcatraz in South Carolina. The migrant detention center, which is funded by federal dollars, opened in July in Floridas Everglades. President Donald Trump has already toured the facility with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. She said on Saturday that she has spoken with other governors to create similar facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I will tell you, they are all Republicans, so I would challenge some Democrats to start taking care of your states and partner with us in a way to make your community safer, said Noem. Secretary Noem wouldnt share which states shes talking to, but she says new facilities would be very helpful as the Trump administration tries to ramp up deportation efforts. Florida Governor Ron Desantis said, You have a lot of people that will deport on their own because they dont want to end up in an Alligator Alcatraz or some of those other places, so I think this is a model, but we need other states to step up. Lt. Gov. Evette recently shared a comment on X, hinting at South Carolinas potential to open a detention center for illegal immigrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Palmetto Pen sounds like a good place to start. , Evette wrote. The comment was made just two days before Evette officially announced her campaign for governor. During her campaign event, Evette emphasized her solidarity with the Trump administrations immigration policies. I will assure cooperation with President Trumps immigration enforcement and make sure not one square inch of South Carolina becomes a sanctuary for illegals, she said. 7NEWS reached out to Gov. McMaster regarding his thoughts on South Carolinas potential to open a detention center for migrants. Governor McMaster has directed state officials to continue exploring how the Palmetto States unique assets and resources can be utilized to provide additional and enhanced support in the weeks and months to come, a spokesperson for McMaster said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMaster also serves as the chairman of Trumps Homeland Security Advisory Council. But not everyone is behind this idea. Paul Bowers from American Civil Liberties Union said, Florida has built a camp in a swamp to torture people and to hide them from due process. Any politician seeking a copy of that in South Carolina is an enemy of freedom and a participant in one of the most obvious human rights abuses of our time. He added, The people toying with this idea are, toying with fundamental violations of human rights in the Constitution. People talking about this for clout, should feel shame for what theyre doing. Bowers said since this is a hypothetical idea, as of now, people in South Carolina must act now to stop this from becoming a reality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. World Youth Development Forum kicks off in east China Xinhua) 08:21, July 16, 2025 Youth representatives pose for a group photo before the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Youth Development Forum in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Han Xiaoyu) NANJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The 2025 World Youth Development Forum commenced on Tuesday in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, drawing about 500 participants from over 100 countries and regions as well as 17 international organizations. Themed "Unleash Youth Potential for Global Development," the event welcomed youth affairs ministers, leaders of youth organizations and youth representatives from around the world to share insights in areas such as technological innovation, green development and cultural exchanges. At the opening ceremony, the 100 Excellence Actions of the Action Plan for Global Youth Development 2025 was unveiled and the Acceleration Week for Global Youth Development was officially launched. During the forum, delegates will engage in thematic sessions focused on green consumption and sustainable development, artificial intelligence and technological innovation, and the protection and preservation of cultural heritage. A series of workshops, training camps and field visits will also be held. The event serves as an important occasion to pool youth strength for implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative. The forum is co-hosted by the All-China Youth Federation, United Nations in China and the organizing committee of the forum. The first edition of the forum was held in 2022. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) It is no secret that students in most schools today are expected to learn less, read less, and write less than was expected of students in earlier generations. With a dwindling number of exceptions, they are also no longer expected to pass high-level tests in order to prove that they mastered the material they were supposed to learn. When Massachusetts voters last fall approved a ballot measure abolishing the longstanding requirement that students had to pass a standardized 10th-grade test in math, science, and English as a condition of getting a high school diploma, they joined what has become a nationwide stampede toward ever-lower standards. As recently as 2012, high school seniors in at least 25 states were still required to pass a test demonstrating proficiency in reading, writing, and math in order to graduate. Now only six states Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia still hold kids to that standard. (New York will end its Regents exam graduation requirement in 2027.) The Massachusetts test, known as MCAS, wasn't a cakewalk; it called for a fair amount of time, study, and classroom preparation. But 96 percent of students passed the tests, nearly all on their first try. The impact of the MCAS requirement on education in Bay State schools spoke for itself. In the 1980s, the quality of public schools in Massachusetts was no better than mediocre. But with the passage in 1993 of an education reform law a key component of which was standardized testing the state's education system improved dramatically; before long, Massachusetts had the highest-performing public education system in the nation. Yet despite those standout results, Bay State voters couldn't resist joining the flight from high standards. The Massachusetts Teachers Union which prioritizes the interests of teachers over the interests of students spent more than $16 million on a successful campaign to scrap one of the great public policy successes in Massachusetts history. It isn't only graduation tests that have been diluted or abolished. Across the country activists argue that standardized tests like the SAT are too stressful, too discriminatory, or simply irrelevant and should therefore be made easier or dumped altogether. Yet when one looks at what students a century ago were expected to master in order to graduate from high school or in some cases to get into high school today's complaints about standardized tests seem almost comical by comparison. The historical record makes one thing clear: Today's test-takers don't know how easy they have it. Consider some questions from the final exam administered to 8th-grade students in Salina, Kansas, in 1895. The five-hour test which covered grammar, arithmetic, American history, orthography, and geography would defeat the vast majority of today's high school seniors, let alone students who hadn't yet entered 9th grade. Here are a dozen of the questions those Kansas teens were expected to answer: What are the following? Give examples: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals. Use the following in sentences: cite, site, sight; fane, fain, feign; vane, vain, vein; raze, raise, rays. A wagon box is 2 feet deep, 10 feet long, and 3 feet wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold? Find the interest on $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent. What is the cost of 40 boards, 12 inches wide and 16 feet long, at $.20 per inch? What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of do, lie, lay, and run. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe? Name the events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1776, 1789, and 1865. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude? Name all the republics of Europe and give capital of each. Too tough? Tell that to the New Jersey kids who sat down to be tested a decade earlier. In 1885, the Jersey City High School exam covered algebra, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and US history. Here are five questions from the geography section: What is the axis of the earth and what is the equator? What is the distance from the equator to either pole in degrees and in miles? Name four principal mountain ranges in Asia, three in Europe, and three in Africa. Name the states on the west bank of the Mississippi and the capital of each. Name the capitals of the following countries: Portugal, Greece, Egypt, Persia, Japan, China, Canada, Cuba. And here are five from the history portion: Name the thirteen colonies that declared their independence in 1776. Name three events of 1777. Which was the most important and why? What caused the War of 1812? Who was president during that war? Name four Spanish explorers and state what induced them to come to America. These weren't impossible questions. They weren't pitched to the smartest kids in the class. On the contrary they covered information that most students of normal ability could reasonably be expected to master. And they reflected an expectation that students leaving school would be literate, numerate, and have a working knowledge of their nation's history and the principal features of the globe. There is no such expectation today. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress commonly referred to as "the nation's report card" the reading and comprehension skills of American kids are worse than they have ever been. "The percentage of eighth graders who have 'below basic' reading skills according to NAEP is the largest it has been in the exam's three-decade history 33 percent," The New York Times reported in January. "The percentage of fourth graders at 'below basic' was the largest in 20 years, at 40 percent. [S]tudents who score below basic cannot determine the main idea of a text or identify differing sides of an argument." Given such terrible results, you might imagine that policymakers and parents would be pressing urgently to raise academic standards and insisting that teachers and school administrators meet them. But nearly all the movement is in the other direction. Especially disturbing is the way the SAT for decades a consistent barometer of academic readiness and the single most reliable predictor of how a student will perform in college has been watered down by the College Board. To begin with, the test is now administered in a digital format that calibrates the difficulty level of the questions to the performance of the test-taker. "If a student struggles in the first section, the test adjusts to become easier; if they excel, it becomes harder," the Manhattan Institute's Vilda Westh Blanc and Tim Rosenberger recently wrote in National Review. In other words, the SAT now actively "penalizes preparedness and effort, effectively punishing those who rise to the challenge while coddling those less prepared." The College Board defends the new format by noting that 80 percent of students feel less stressed while taking the new digital test. But who ever thought sitting for the SAT was intended to be a stress-free experience? Turning it into one strips away the ability to determine something important about potential college students namely, how they perform under pressure. There are other changes. The SAT now lasts two hours instead of three. Students are allowed to use calculators for all math questions. Passages in the reading section are limited to no more than 150 words far shorter than the 750-word excerpts that were typical until now. And linked to each reading is only one question, not several. The upshot is that students are no longer required to parse complex or historically significant texts. Instead, the reading assignments are being made almost childishly easy. "Instead of engaging with the great works of literature and foundational documents that have shaped Western civilization, students are asked to interpret snippets akin to tweets or memes," Blanc and Rosenberger observe. If students are never required to read anything more challenging than short texts, how will they ever learn to wrestle with ambiguity, to shape thoughtful arguments, or to make sense of complex sentences and difficult syntax? Amid the current vogue for weakening tests and lowering expectations, it is worth asking: Why did educators a century (or more) ago set such high standards? Perhaps it was because they saw education not just as a means to get a job, but as a moral and civic duty a way to form responsible citizens who understood their history, could articulate their thoughts, and would therefore be better able to contribute to society. Testing was viewed as a tool of accountability not as the enemy of learning, but as its natural culmination. It sent the message that knowledge mattered and that everyone, regardless of background, could rise to the occasion. The cultural context then was very different. Students understood that passing the eighth-grade exam might be their only chance to prove themselves before entering the workforce. Education was precious; exams were taken seriously; kids were not infantilized. Lowering standards may feel like a kindness in the short term, but it comes at a steep cost: a diminished sense of what students are capable of achieving and a weaker intellectual foundation for society. The young Americans of 1895, often sitting in one-room schoolhouses, did not have smartphones, calculators, Google, or AI but they rose to demanding expectations and built a thriving nation. Today's students, with far more resources at their disposal, should not be sold short. The school-leaving tests of the past were rigorous not out of cruelty, but out of respect. Good educators, then as now, knew that if you hold students to high standards of learning, the odds rise that they will meet them. If you worry more about their self-esteem or stress or "diversity," they're apt to learn less. Are you astonished that teenagers a century ago could handle questions like the ones above? Don't be. The real shocker isn't that high school students then could meet such a challenge. It's that students today are no longer expected to. Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe, from which this is reprinted with permission. (COMMENT, BELOW) This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. First Northwest Bancorp and First Fed Bank CEO Matthew Deines has resigned from his posts, including as a member of the boards, effective Saturday. Geraldine Bullard, the chief operating officer of the company, has been appointed as interim CEO of the Port Angeles, Washington-based entities, effective Sunday, but she will continue in her role as COO, the company said Wednesday. The boards and Deines have mutually agreed on the resignation and that his departure is not a result of any disagreement with the Company or the Boards, the company said in a filing Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The boards have appointed an executive search firm to help find the best suitable candidate to take over the helm of the company. As we begin the executive search for Matts replacement, we have full confidence in Geri to lead the organization during this transition, Cindy Finnie, chair of the boards of First Northwest and First Fed, said in a prepared statement while praising Deines for his service and commitment to the company. With deep experience and a strong understanding of First Feds mission, Geri is well-positioned to provide stable, effective leadership as we conduct a thoughtful and thorough search for a replacement CEO. Deines exit comes close on the heels of a lawsuit filed last month by 352 Capital Group LLC, a hedge fund operated by Jefferies Financial Group, against First Fed Bank to recover roughly $107 million along with interest, punitive damages and legal fees. The lawsuit centers on an alleged fraudulent scheme involving Water Station Management, which is in involuntary bankruptcy proceedings in the Eastern District of Washington, the lender said in an SEC filing in June. The complaint alleged that Water Station Management and affiliated entities misappropriated over $100 million from bond investors. The bond proceeds were allegedly used to repay earlier investors and creditors, including First Fed Bank, rather than for the disclosed purpose of expanding Water Station Management's business. First Fed Bank allegedly aided and abetted this fraud, participated in a conspiracy to commit fraud, and was unjustly enriched. The Company and the Bank strongly dispute the allegations contained in the Complaint, and intend to vigorously defend against the claims, First Fed said in the June SEC filing signed by Deines. ROME, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) It was not an ordinary day of business at Rome City Court, as one of the defendants on the calendar was the citys mayor, Jeff Lanigan. Lanigan was charged with one count of harassment in the second degree, a violation, after an altercation with the former mayor of Rome, Jim Brown. The incident between the current and former mayor of Rome happened at the Teugega Country Club on June 3. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former mayor Jim Brown said Lanigan pushed him from behind into a car, causing his arm to bleed, according to court documents. A different court document detailed what a witness of the altercation saw. This person said that when Lanigan put a hand on Browns shoulder, it did not look aggressive. This document went on to say that Brown flailed his arms into the air. I could tell it was not a friendly conversation and they were having an argument, the witness said in court paperwork. The case was turned over to the Herkimer County District Attorney, Jeffrey Carpenter, to avoid any conflict of interest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lanigan was charged with one count of harassment. In court on July 16, Lanigan pled not guilty. Judge Timothy Kirwan from the City of Oswego was also brought in to avoid a conflict of interest, and granted a refrain from order of protection. This order of protection prohibits Lanigan from harassing, intimidating, threatening and otherwise interfering with Brown. Lanigan and Brown are former friends. Court documents obtained by NewsChannel 9 revealed that Jim Brown had previously made statements against Mayor Lanigans politics on the local radio station show, Talk of the Town 107. In a segment that aired on June 2, the day before the incident at the country club, Jim Brown said the following, You know what the word is around the City of Rome? Whos running the city? Its not Jeff Lanigan, its Kim Rogers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kim Rogers is the current Chief of Staff of the mayors office. Rogers also worked for Brown when he was in office. Lanigan left the courthouse without speaking to NewsChannel 9. We have reached out to the mayors office for comment. Lanigan is due back in court on September 12. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR. CHEYENNE Members of the Cheyenne City Council resolved two longstanding disagreements at their meeting Monday night. After much deliberation and comments from the public, the council voted to allow six more months to find a buyer for the Historic Pumphouse before moving forward with demolition, and separately approved nearly $1 million to restore and relocate three railcars to 15th Street. The Historic Pumphouse Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Until Mondays meeting, options for the pumphouse on Ames Avenue included rehabilitation, mothball or surplus. Councilman Tom Segrave introduced a substitute amendment at the meeting, stating that if the pumphouse were not sold by Jan. 14, 2026, it will be demolished. Segrave said he wants to consider demolition because conversation regarding the pumphouse has occurred for decades, and its becoming a nuisance. All I'm saying is, I hope it sells, Segrave said. I hope that in the next six months that the property sells. But if it doesn't, it's time for this governing body to take ownership. Over the past few months, many people including council members, community members and historic preservation officials have voiced their support for selling the property to someone who is willing to preserve its history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Councilwoman Michelle Aldrich has been in support of selling the pumphouse to either a private entity or through a public-private partnership. I think in order for us to do our due diligence, we need to know what all of the options are, Aldrich said. I don't think that letting it continue to sit and deteriorate is one of those options. So, I think we need to figure out what our options are, and to do our due diligence in finding that out and seeing if there's anyone in our community, or who's looking at coming to our community, that would be interested in restoring this building. Milward Simpson, chairman of the Cheyenne Historic Preservation Board, said demolishing the building would be a tragedy and an enormous loss for the community. He told the council that he believes they have not explored all the options, such as putting the pumphouse on the 2026 sixth-penny sales tax ballot. I think there are many, many possibilities that perhaps haven't been explored yet that would be preferable to losing a really, really important and unique part of our history, Simpson said. I think the tragedy and loss to the city and its citizens would be really, really incalculable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stephanie Lowe, president of Historic Cheyenne Inc., said if demolition is a possibility, the city should consider salvaging some items from the building and install a historic interpretation at the site. Maren Kallas, vice president of HCI, told the Tribune Eagle through email that the City Council signed a resolution with HCI in 2021 stating their intent to protect the building from demolition. Then, in 2024, one of the councils goals was to prioritize preventing further deterioration of the pumphouse by exploring restoration options, finding a tenant and identifying funding sources. The substitution by Councilman Segrave at the 11th hour that was approved by majority vote is not only in contradiction with the surplus resolution itself, but it also nullifies the resolution to protect the pumphouse made in 2021 with HCI, and also the 2024 goal of exploring funding options, Kallas wrote. The pumphouse has sixth-penny sales tax ballot potential, and it also may be eligible for historic designation tax breaks neither of which can be explored if a demolition takes place in six months or less. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Questions involving the donation of the pumphouse to one of the local historic preservation organizations came up, but City Attorney John Brodie said thats not necessarily a possibility because the building is controlled by Wyoming Statute 15.1.112, which requires the building be sold to the highest qualified bidder. The motion to add demolition passed with no votes from Councilmen Ken Esquibel and Scott Roybal. 15th Street Railcar Experience and Gunslingers The citys 15th Street Revitalization Plan includes the railcar experience, which entails bringing three railcars to 15th Street to be a static display. While the project was created to bring more foot traffic to the west side of the downtown area, the Cheyenne Gunslingers say it would disrupt their current location, layout, buildings and landscaping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governing body discussed a resolution at Monday nights meeting aimed to preserve the Gunslingers property at 15th Street and Pioneer Avenue. Segrave told Roger Barnes, chief marshal of the Gunslingers, that the groups biggest supporter is the city of Cheyenne, and that the city has the right to decide what they do with that property. Barnes said if the railcars are put on the property, they would have to rejustify their existence, because the group was created to keep people downtown during Cheyenne Frontier Days. They have been moved once before, and Barnes said it affected the amount of people they had watching their show for a few weeks because they no longer had people wandering by. The farther west we go, of course, the farther out of town we get, Barnes said. People gravitate toward the downtown area, at least on the west side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moving the railcars onto the Gunslingers performance space would require the two end buildings to be moved perpendicular to one another. While this would give the Gunslingers more room for performing, Barnes said thats not actually a positive thing. I have laid awake at night trying to figure out how in the world we can make that work, Barnes said. I cannot figure it out. I do not know how to make that work. I mean, we got guys who won't fall down, but I'm not going to get them to run 120 feet across this yard, either. If you haven't been to the Gunslingers (show), you notice that most of them have gray hair like me, and falling down is the easy part, but getting back up is tough. A resolution to protect the Gunslingers site failed with Councilmen Jeff White, Esquibel, Mark Rinne, Roybal and Segrave voting no. As for the railcars themselves, some 15th Street business owners came forward at the meeting to say that while they support 15th Street revitalization, they would rather see the money for the railcars go toward more street lighting and fixing the sidewalks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tyler Garrett, whose company owns the Rex and Becker buildings, said the council is about health, safety and welfare, and the railcars do not contribute to those objectives. What does (contribute to health, safety and welfare) is low-hanging fruit like lighting, Garrett said. I can tell you that it's like Alexis Drake, when their employees go home, and they're mostly female, they walk in groups to their cars. That, to me, is a real important issue that cannot be overlooked and cannot be ignored through this agreement with respect to rail cars. Aldrich asked Garrett if he would support the 15th Street Revitalization Plan if they removed the railcar aspect completely, and Garrett said he would. However, Brian Bau, who owns The Albany restaurant near 15th Street, said he thinks the railcars are a key part of the plan because they are the reason all other improvements were approved in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What I hear from the (Depot) Museum is they would love to have the railcars there, Bau said. ... That could (make the) Cheyenne Gunslingers an added attraction, where it gets feet farther into downtown on the West Edge. The total bid amount for the railcar project is $987,050. Of that total, $599,850 will come from the Economic Development Administration, Special Purpose Option Tax/grants match and the city's general fund reserves. The council also voted to amend the resolution to provide funding for the alternate option in an amount of $387,200. The main portion of the alternate is for the renovation and transportation of just the SP7078 train car. This covers the exterior painting, welding and some window replacements. The bid to restore the railcars and move them to 15th Street passed, with Councilman Pete Laybourn, Aldrich and Councilman Mark Moody voting no. A county council has revoked its net zero pledge, despite opposition from cross-party councillors and campaigners. Reform UK councillors in County Durham moved to scrap the 2019 declaration, with an alternative social care pledge voted through. Deputy council leader Darren Grimes, who brought the motion to revoke the climate vow, said: "We are done with expensive virtue-signalling tripe, and care about our residents." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Liberal Democrat Mark Wilkes said the council had saved 13m in the past year through climate-saving efficiencies and labelled the Reform motion "cynical and insulting". The previous council environment pledge aimed to achieve net zero emissions by 2045. Net zero means no longer adding to the total amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Reform said the alternative "care emergency" declaration would help recognise the "critical and escalating crisis" in children's social care, including Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision. Grimes added: "We seek to declare a real care emergency that's devouring our kids and coffers in tandem." The motion, brought by Reform's Darren Grimes, was voted in at the council meeting on Wednesday [LDRS] Campaigners gathered outside Durham County Hall before the vote to oppose the proposal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several banners and placards warned of the ongoing climate emergency, telling council leaders to "get your heads out of the sand". Another message, held by one young boy, read: "If you careallow me to have a future." Durham County Council received a national award last year for its carbon reduction and was praised for its use of green technologies, including wind turbines, solar panels, and battery storage. Wilkes said social care issues had "nothing whatsoever to do with climate change". "It is our young people who are going to be most impacted by climate change, and indeed, the savings we have been making off the back of our action on the climate, including energy efficiency measures, is actually helping us to protect frontline social care services," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jonathan Elmer, Green Party councillor for Brandon, opposed the Reform plea and said: " If councillor Grimes really cared about SEND provision, he'd have brought this motion without reference to climate change. "He'd have worked for cross-party consensus on it, he'd have looked to get ideas and input on how to improve the lives of SEND kids in County Durham from across this chamber. "But instead, he's stoked controversy and division. Undoubtedly, many people will conclude it's the controversy that he really cares about." Sixty-two Reform councillors voted to approve the motion, while seven from other parties voted against. There were 17 abstentions and 12 councillors were not present at the meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reform renamed several key council departments in May, including removing references to climate change in one key cabinet portfolio. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. More on this story Related internet links KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Country Club Plaza is joining a growing list of commercial property owners appealing Jackson Countys property valuations, according to a report Tuesday from the Kansas City Business Journal. Monday was the deadline to appeal the 2025 Jackson County property tax assessments. Jackson County, Kansas City election boards sue Frank White over legality of special recall election On that list is The Village Collection, the Plazas ownership group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jackson County has valued the Plaza property at $202 million. That is $27 million more than the current Plaza ownership group, The Village Collection, paid to acquire the property. According to a Kansas City Business Journal report, the Plaza is seeking a valuation 45% lower at $111.5 million. The Plaza has worked through valuation differences before. This past October, the Missouri State Tax Commission lowered the 2021 valuation by $113 million. View the latest headlines from Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas at fox4kc.com Just a couple of months before that, the Jackson County Board of Equalization approved a reduction of the 2023 valuation by a little more than $200 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Historic West Bottoms Association issued a statement Tuesday saying that it is also seeking a review and change to its commercial property tax assessments. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. A former fighter pilot from County Armagh is to become the next professional head of the Royal Air Force (RAF). Air Marshal Harv Smyth, who was born and educated in Lurgan, is to to take up the role of chief of the air staff in August. Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed on Wednesday that the King had approved the appointment. AM Smyth will succeed Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton following his promotion to chief of the defence staff.. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AM Smyth joined the RAF in 1991 as a direct entrant after leaving school. He spent 15 years as a frontline Harrier pilot and weapons instructor and flew hundreds of operational missions over Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq and Afghanistan. The chief of the air staff is responsible for the strategic planning and delivery of all RAF operations, people and capability. The position is accountable to the defence secretary for the fighting effectiveness, efficiency and morale as well as the development and sustainment of the RAF. AM Smyth said he was "deeply honoured to have been selected". The appointment comes at a transformative time for the RAF as it moves to warfighting readiness following the publication of the Strategic Defence Review. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Strategic Defence Review makes clear the need for us to rapidly evolve and modernise to meet current and future threats and I am enormously proud to lead the Service at such a crucial point in our history", he added. 'Flying the flag' Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart welcomed AM Smyth's appointment. "This is an incredible achievement and a truly proud moment for his family," the Democratic Unionist Party politician said. She said his journey from Lurgan to the top of the RAF was a "powerful reminder of what can be achieved with determination and integrity". "He is flying the flag high for Lurgan, for Upper Bann and for Northern Ireland", she said. Advertisement Advertisement Infections of COVID-19 are growing or likely growing in half of the U.S. as of early July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. Modeling from the agency shows the West Coast, Southeast and South are the primary region for increased cases, though it maintains that activity overall remains low nationwide. The probability that the epidemic is growing is highest in California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky and Ohio, among others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agencys wastewater monitoring dashboard tells a similar story, with Florida and Alabama leading the country in viral activity levels. Its most recent data comes from the week leading up to July 5. COVID-19 infections part of summer spike The uptick is part of a predicted summer spike, which lasts from July to September as part of a twice-a-year pattern recently identified by the CDC. The second spike comes in winter, typically from December to February. Our analysis revealed biannual COVID-19 peaks in late summer and winter, a pattern that is expected to persist as long as the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and cyclical S1 diversity continues, agency scientists wrote. A vast majority of the country has seen a minimal percentage of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 at emergency department visits in the past week, CDC data shows. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some states did report a substantial percentage change, including New Mexico, Georgia, Kentucky and Virginia. Razor blade throat COVID variant: What to know The data comes amid reports of a new COVID-19 variant internationally. NB.1.8.1., or Nimbus, has been afflicting patients with razor blade throat. The symptom has been identified by doctors in the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere, according to media outlets in those countries. Airport screening in the U.S. detected the new variant in travelers arriving from those regions to destinations in California, Washington state, Virginia and New York. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) The Cram Fire burning in northern Oregon has exploded in size overnight, impacting roughly 64,000 acres as of Wednesday morning. The Jefferson County Sheriff told KOIN 6 News that the fire was started by a transformer in the area, and is currently roughly 1.5 miles away from Deer Ridge Correctional Facility. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KOIN Breaking News Alerts Officials have issued Level 3 Go Now, Level 2 Be Set, and Level 1 Be Ready evacuations for both counties. Updated maps for Jefferson County and Wasco County are available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gusty winds on Tuesday pushed the fire southeast toward Ashwood and jumped Trout Creek, running up Ranger Butte, according to fire officials. Firefighters say the wildfire is now moving to the southeast. The Cram Fire remained active throughout the night, pushed by low humidity and strong northeast winds up to 16 mph, officials said. The fire continues to challenge containment efforts, and it is approximately 64,295 acres after the infrared flight last night. READ MORE: Gov. Kotek declares state of emergency for Oregon wildfire season Fire crews say they expect the direction of winds to shift by early Wednesday afternoon, potentially testing containment lines. The most recent mapping shows 0% containment for the fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, officials say smoke from the Cram Fire is impacting air quality. Stay with KOIN 6 News as we continue our wildfire coverage. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. Gavin Newsom suddenly cant stop talking about Texas gerrymandering and a provocative idea to counter it in California. On podcasts and social media, the California governor has threatened that if Texas follows President Donald Trumps advice and redraws its congressional districts to shore up the GOPs slender House majority, California should throw out its own maps to boost Democrats, circumventing or overhauling the states voter-approved redistricting commission. Its a proposal capturing the imagination of a Democratic Party spoiling for another fight with Republicans and desperate to regain a foothold in Washington. This week, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries privately huddled with members of the California delegation to discuss redistricting at the blocs weekly lunch. And in California, text threads are ablaze with discussions of what a redraw would look like, who would benefit, and how it would affect active efforts to recruit candidates and raise money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But its also a longshot. And to many Democrats in Newsoms home state, its a new obsession bordering on bizarre or even anti-democratic. Trying to save democracy by destroying democracy is dangerous and foolish, said Assemblymember Alex Lee, the head of the state Legislatures Progressive Caucus. By legitimizing the race to the bottom of gerrymandering, Democrats will ultimately lose. Or as one Democratic political consultant granted anonymity to speak freely put it, The idea of taking away the power from the citizens and giving it back to the politicians the optics of that is horrendous and indefensible. The consultant said, Thats insane. Thats a crazy hill to die on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newsom has defended the proposal as a break-the-emergency-glass maneuver to preserve what he has cast as Americas besieged democracy, arguing Democrats have to become more aggressive and creative to have a shot at blocking Trumps agenda. I'm not going to be the guy who said I could-shoulda-woulda. Im not going to be passive in this moment, Newsom told reporters on Wednesday, saying he felt compelled to act because of the existential threat of what Donald Trump and some of these Republican states are trying to do. And Newsom is not without support in the party after Democrats throttling in November. A lot of people are looking for a fight from the Democratic Party, and Governor Newsoms response to Texas is the kind of thing I think they are looking for, said Neera Tanden, a former Biden administration official and president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, the influential Democratic think tank. People who argue we shouldnt look at measures like this I think fundamentally theyre responsible for Democrats backsliding because what we see time and time again is the Republican Party is ruthless to achieve their goals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newsom has laid out two options for a retaliatory redistricting, both of which present legal and political challenges. He could test a novel legal theory by asking the Legislature to create new maps now, rather than wait for decennial redistricting. Or he could ask voters, who in 2010 resoundingly approved the creation of a non-partisan process, to support a Democratic gerrymander in a state where Republicans hold just nine of 52 seats despite comprising a quarter of the electorate. The idea startled Sacramento, where lawmakers and staffers were scrambling to decipher Newsoms intentions. And its generated intense skepticism among good government advocates who see it as Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, simply posturing. Pretty much everything the governor says lately we have to look through the lens of his eventual run for president, said Mindy Romero, founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California. It just looks like blustering. It just looks like an attempt to get attention and headlines and show himself sparring directly with the president or with Republican leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newsom is not alone in his frustration with Texas. Democrats around the country are decrying Texas move to redraw its seats particularly as Trump has floated having four additional red states manipulate maps to boost the GOP. The effort has some national Democrats feeling heartburn for the power that some blue states handed independent redistricting commissions to draw district lines while red states like Texas weaponized theirs. Following his meeting with members of the California delegation on Wednesday, Jeffries said in a brief interview, It was a thoughtful and robust discussion. An important one, given what's happening in Texas, but beyond that, I'll defer to Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar. He said, The governor and the California delegation are going to play an important role in whatever happens moving forward, but I'm thankful that the conversation is taking place, and it's a very active one. Lofgren, the dean of the delegation, played roles in California Democrats previous redistricting pushes, too, and was the former chair of the congressional committee overseeing federal elections. California Democrats were largely tight-lipped about their meeting Wednesday afternoon with Jeffries, but attendees told POLITICO the delegation was largely supportive of Newsoms threats to push for new maps if Texas went ahead with its mid-cycle redistricting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Texas moves forward with an egregious mid-decade redistricting, this cannot go unanswered, Lofgren and Aguilar, the Democratic Caucus chair, said in a statement. If their record of throwing 17 million people off their health insurance to hand out billionaire tax breaks was popular, they wouldnt have to redraw their maps to try to hold on to power." Other members of the California delegation, even those from purple districts, signaled they could support such a push. Democrats need to stop bringing a butter knife to a gun fight, said Rep. Dave Min, who last cycle defended a battleground Orange County seat. I think all of us want to see a fair process, but if Republicans are going to try to cheat and redistrict, I think Democratic states are going to consider all options. Rep. Derek Tran said, I'm looking at it and keeping an open mind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Political consultants in California certainly are. Every Democratic strategist involved in competitive races in California is not only talking about this but has clear vision on what theyd like to see, said one Democratic strategist who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations. That could complicate life for vulnerable incumbents. Redistricting is a zero-sum game: Moving Democratic voters into one district necessarily means excising them from another a perilous proposition in an area, like purple Orange County, where multiple competitive districts abut one another. It may never get there. For now, Democrats are trying to differentiate plans from posturing as Newsom escalates another tit-for-tat political standoff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its like a game, said Democratic political consultant Andrew Acosta, to see who can out-politicize each other. Newsom, said Paul Mitchell, an expert on California redistricting, may simply be making a bluff intended to deter Texas playing poker with a state that thinks it invented poker. Melanie Mason contributed to this report. Crews began demolishing Puyallup High Schools Library Science Building on July 14, Puyallup School District spokesperson Sarah Gillispie told The News Tribune in an email that day. The $300,000 demolition process began in May with the removal of hazardous material in the building, Brady Martin, the districts executive director of construction planning, told The News Tribune in an interview on July 15. These early efforts ensure the safety of workers, protect the surrounding campus environment, and pave the way for a clean, efficient demolition process, according to a post on the Puyallup School Districts website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now crews are in the breakdown phase of the project. This process will take a few weeks and will conclude in August, before the 2025-26 school year begins, Martin said. The building was built in 1962 and underwent multiple renovations until the late 1980s, the districts website says. It had classrooms for science and art classes and housed the schools library. Its doors closed in September 2023 due to mechanical and safety issues, Martin said. Crews demolish Puyallup Highs Library, Science & Art Building on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Puyallup, Wash. It would cost $4.5 million just to make the building safe, Martin said. The district attempted twice this year to pass an $800 million bond to fund capital projects across the district, including replacing the Library-Science Building. Both times the measure failed to get the votes it needed to pass., The News Tribune reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district decided to demolish the building as they prepare long-term solutions, he said. Portable classrooms have been used since Jan. 6, 2025, as a short-term solution to the schools overcrowding and lack of space, he said. The district turned a classroom into a lab and uses the staff lounge for art classes to fill the void. In lieu of a library, the school is using a 500-square-foot space to store borrowed books from other schools in the district, The News Tribune reported on Jan. 31. The Library-Science Buildings removal is a significant first step toward alleviating overcrowding and preparing for future facility upgrades when bond funding is available, the districts website says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the building is torn down, the site will be rehabilitated into a grassy area until further plans for the site are approved, Martin said. Asked whats next for the site and capital project funding, he said the district is in the bond-planning process. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) A West Nashville business now has a presence on the East side of town. Crieve Hall Bagel Co., which offers coffee drinks and fresh, homemade, sourdough bagels, has officially opened a second brick-and-mortar location in Inglewood. Owner Ben Cornfield first got his start in the sourdough bagel business during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, he and his wife, Lizzy, sold their bagels out of the home, then grew the business into a walk-up window, followed by a full brick-and-mortar cafe in the pocket neighborhood of Crieve Hall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cornfield told News 2 he wasnt specifically looking to expand his business, which has operated in Crieve Hall since 2021, but he was approached with an offer he couldnt refuse. Smyrna Police respond to barricaded suspect near Lee Victory Parkway I really had no major intention of expanding, Cornfield said. The guy who owns M.L.Rose, Austin, came into the shop and said, Were opening a new one in Inglewood. Wed love a coffee shop wed love for it to be you.' At the same time the offer came in, Cornfield had just taken over an adjacent space in the shopping center that houses his original location, allowing him to procure some larger equipment that would help scale up production. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It just was this perfect thing Ive got the extra space, the extra equipment, and Ive got this guy who I really respect, this other restauranteur, coming to me and telling me theres an opportunity to expand into the only other neighborhood Ive lived in, really. Now, Ive got both, and its been kind of like a weird dream come true, Cornfield said. Its very much a full circle moment. (WKRN Photo) (WKRN Photo) (WKRN Photo) (WKRN Photo) (WKRN Photo) The Inglewood shop officially opened its doors June 30, and Cornfield said business has been consistent and good. We didnt really have a major grand opening the first week or two. We didnt even put an open sign out. We just posted on Instagram, Hey, were open! Find us if you want to find us, and it worked, Cornfield told News 2. We had a really steady flow. We were able to get some of our staffing figured out and get the logistics figured out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those logistics include making sure the Eastside shop has all the fresh food it needs from the Westside. All the bagels are still baked in-house in Crieve Hall, and a small delivery van transports the food needed in Inglewood to the shop. So far, its been very tiring, but also perfect, Cornfield said. Im having a great time. Neighborhood News: Stories impacting your community | Read More Now that the second shop is open, Cornfield said hes looking forward to enmeshing the business in the community the same way the original shop location has. Im looking forward to building the same level of positivity that weve built in Crieve Hall here, Cornfield said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The business donates monthly to the two local elementary schools near the Crieve Hall shop, and Cornfield said hell be doing something similar in Inglewood through Dan Mills Elementary School. The expansion into East Nashville is also full circle for Cornfield, as well: His family moved to Inglewood when they first came to Nashville a decade ago, making the new shop a sort of homecoming. I still have a lot of friends around here, and theyve all been able to come, he said. Hes looking forward to collaborating with other East Nashville businesses for pop-up events throughout the year, he told News 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nashville mayors food desert program could greatly benefit Southeast Nashvillians Just celebrating everything that East Nashville has to offer and being able to funnel money back and funnel our time back is something that, for me, has been the most rewarding part of doing it in Crieve Hall and what Im most looking forward to here, Cornfield said. Having the new location be in his first neighborhood in Nashville is also exciting to Cornfield because hes able to see just how much the neighborhood has grown since he last lived in the area. I want to be a part of that Inglewood Renaissance the same as I feel like I was helping to be part of that Crieve Hall Renaissance, he told News 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily at 3701 Gallatin Pike, right next to the new Inglewood M.L.Rose. Do you have news happening in your neighborhood? Let us know by sending an email to neighborhoodnews@wkrn.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Logistics real estate investment trust Prologis beat analysts expectations for the second quarter and modestly raised its full-year 2025 outlook on Wednesday. Average occupancy stabilized in the quarter and the company said customers are now ready to sign new leases. Our leasing pipeline has reached historically high levels, and what were hearing from customers, especially the larger ones, is clear: theyre planning, engaging and increasingly ready to act, said Prologis President Dan Letter in a news release. These trends are evident in both our leasing and build-to-suit activityand were in a strong position to meet that demand. Prologis (NYSE: PLD) reported second-quarter core funds from operations (FFO) of $1.46 per share before the market opened, which was 4 cents above consensus and 12 cents higher year over year. Total revenue was up 9% y/y to $2.18 billion as new leases commenced increased 10% to 51.2 million square feet. Average occupancy slid 120 basis points y/y to 94.9%, but was flat with the first quarter. (Occupancy was 95.1% to close the second quarter.) Table: Prologis key performance indicators The company raised the low end of its full-year FFO guidance by 10 cents but trimmed a penny off the high end. The new range is $5.80 to $5.85 per share. The outlook assumes average occupancy in a range of 94.75% to 95.25% and development starts between $2.25 billion and $2.75 billion (a 43% increase from the first quarter at the midpoint of the range). The new outlook for development starts is back in line with the companys initial guidance for the year, which was issued in January. The increase in our guidance reflects our confidence in the strength and resilience of our business, said CFO Tim Arndt. Our teams are executing at a high level, and were well-positioned for the remainder of the year. Prologis will host a call at noon EDT on Wednesday to discuss second-quarter results. More FreightWaves articles by Todd Maiden: The post First look: Prologis Q2 earnings appeared first on FreightWaves. (WHTM) Elderly Pennsylvania homeowners fell victim to criminals who posed as utility workers, while other people ransacked their houses, stealing jewelry, cash, and other valuables. Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that the driving force behind the burglary team, Steve Nichols, 57, was recently sentenced after he pleaded guilty to seven burglaries in five counties. Sunday said Nichols targeted elders because he thought they could easily be fooled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now abc27 Evening Newsletter The defendant was the engineer of this criminal conduct, intentionally targeting older Pennsylvanians because he felt they were more vulnerable to be duped, Attorney General Sunday said. My office is committed to holding fully accountable those who threaten the sanctity of our homes. This case should serve as a reminder for residents to remain vigilant when contacted by people they do not know. Many of the victims were in their 80s and were home alone when the burglaries happened. The Attorney Generals investigation involved examining bank, rental car, cellphone records, and doorbell camera videos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nichols son, Archie Marino, is also charged in the scheme, Sunday said. Senior Deputy Attorney General Summer Carroll prosecuted the case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. President Trump's efforts to direct millions of dollars to his future presidential library has drawn fresh attention to a lack of visibility into the identities or potential interests of the donors who are funding it, a longstanding Washington concern facing past presidents from both parties. Two prominent Senate Democrats say they are preparing to introduce a bill Wednesday that would regulate fundraising for presidential libraries, according to documents shared with CBS News. "Donald Trump is using his presidential library as a tool for bribery while he is still in office," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, who is introducing the legislation with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Many of the donations to Trump's future library are coming straight from companies and special interests that need a favor from Trump," Warren said. "Right now there are no rules." The effort was spurred by a series of announcements about gifts to the Trump library, including an opulently appointed Boeing 747 given to the U.S. Air Force by the Qatari royal family for the president's use, after which it would be donated to the library for Mr. Trump's post-presidency. The proceeds of four large legal settlements with the president are also reportedly bound for his library fund. The multimillion-dollar settlements stem from Mr. Trump's lawsuits against Meta, ABC News, X (formerly Twitter) and Paramount. Paramount is the parent company of CBS News. The funds from the four settlements alone could total up to $63 million, according to a CBS News review of news reports and court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sens. Warren and Blumenthal, along with three House members, Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), are proposing several measures to restrict fundraising for presidential libraries. Among them is a contribution cap of $10,000 per person while the president is still serving in office. The legislation also proposes quarterly disclosures for all donations of $200 or more, and imposes a two-year "cooling off" period after the end of their term during which a president cannot accept donations from foreign nationals, federal government contractors or individuals seeking presidential pardons. Finally, the bill also explicitly bars the use of library donations for personal expenses. "Right now, there are basically no rules," said Warren. "The settlements show everyone who has business pending in front of the federal government, that if they've got enough money and can funnel it to Donald Trump through his future presidential library, they might receive better treatment from the US government." The White House did not respond to CBS News' request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Funding is largely opaque and unregulated The total amount raised for the Trump library to date is likely far greater than the amounts visible through the president's publicly announced legal settlements. For instance, funds leftover from the $239 million raised by the Trump-Vance inaugural committee including millions from tech companies and CEOs such as Amazon, OpenAI, Apple and Uber were expected to be redirected to the library, according to multiple news reports. It's unclear how much of those funds have already been transferred. Donations to inaugural funds are required to be reported publicly, whereas presidential libraries are under no such obligation. The $400 million jet the Trump administration accepted from Qatar in May is also slated to be transferred to the Trump library shortly before he leaves office. File photo: President Trump in the library at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. / Credit: Alon Skuy / Getty Images Other than those instances, the funding for the private foundations that support presidential libraries is largely opaque and unregulated, experts said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "No one outside the organization knows who contributes to presidential library funds," said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance lawyer who advises tax exempt organizations. "That information is provided to the IRS, but is not made public." While campaign funds have historically been tightly regulated under a series of laws passed after the Watergate scandal, there are no restrictions on donations to presidential libraries, Kappel said. While in office, presidents can solicit unlimited library donations from anyone including foreign nationals, individuals seeking presidential pardons and corporations with federal contracts. "The lack of transparency could raise the appearance of impropriety," said Kappel. "No one will know who is making donations to the presidential library while the president is still in office and making government policy." Trustees of the two Trump library organizations and the Trump Organization did not respond to CBS News' request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Obama Presidential Foundation, which oversees the development of former President Barack Obama's library in Chicago, was founded in January 2014, a year after Obama's second term began. The foundation said it would disclose all donors and donations over $200 on a quarterly basis on their website in an effort to increase transparency. It was estimated in June 2021 that the center will cost roughly $700 million to construct. President George W. Bush's library foundation began fundraising efforts in the spring of 2009, after he left office. The foundation did not publicly disclose its donors. The cost of that effort clocked in at $250 million. The George W. Bush Presidential Center, on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, opened in 2013. The first presidential library was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1938. Since then, presidential libraries are built and maintained with a mix of private and federal funds. Typically the library itself is constructed with private donations, and occasionally with support from local government or university partners. The library is then transferred to the federal government and maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, which oversees the preservation of presidential documents and has a congressionally appropriated budget for maintaining the library structures. Two nonprofits behind the Trump library Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the last year, the Trump family and associates have established two funds for presidential library donations, according to incorporation records reviewed by CBS News. Both are incorporated as nonprofits in Florida. The first, the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Fund Inc., was created in December 2024, before President Trump was sworn in, and shortly after ABC announced it would donate $15 million to the future Trump library to settle a defamation claim the president brought against the network. According to incorporation documents, the fund was established by Jacob Roth, a Florida-based attorney who also filed the paperwork for both the Trump Vance Inauguration Committee Inc. and the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee Inc. in November. According to incorporation documents for the organization, the purpose of the fund is to "to preserve and steward the legacy of President Donald J. Trump and his presidency." A few months later, in May, a second nonprofit was incorporated under the name Donald J. Trump Presidential Library Foundation. There are three listed trustees: Eric Trump; Tiffany Trump's husband, Michael Boulos; and James Kiley, a New York attorney who represented Mr. Trump between 2020 and 2022 during one of his legal battles against his niece, Mary Trump. This foundation was created to "steward, preserve, and celebrate the legacy and historical record of President Donald J. Trump and his presidency," according to filings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There may not be rules for what money can go into a presidential library fund, but there are strict rules for how nonprofit funds can be spent. As nonprofit 501(c)(3)s, tax laws prohibit the use of funds from a presidential library for personal benefit. The IRS is in charge of enforcing all conflict-of-interest laws for nonprofits, although experts are skeptical about the agency's political will to enforce those provisions. "501(c)(3)s are supposed to be used for charitable purposes. To the extent funds are being used beyond that, and outside the scope of a presidential library, that's something the IRS would have to look into," said Viriginia Canter, who served as senior ethics counsel for the Treasury Department under both Republican and Democratic administrations. There is no indication that Mr. Trump or his family are using funds for the libraries for personal expenses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Past library controversies The Trump family is not the first to face criticism over donations to a library fund while in office. President Bill Clinton faced significant pushback after he pardoned billionaire businessman Marc Rich, who'd fled to Switzerland after he was indicted in 1983 on more than 50 counts of wire fraud, racketeering, trading with Iran during an embargo and evading more than $48 million in U.S. income taxes. Clinton's pardon which was issued just hours before he left office in January 2001 faced scrutiny even from some of his closest allies, who said Rich's pardon appeared to have been bought. They pointed to the $450,000 donation Rich's ex-wife, Denise Rich, bestowed to the Clinton library foundation and the additional $100,000 she donated to Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign. And in 2008, a GOP lobbyist with ties to the Bush administration was caught on video allegedly soliciting a donation for his presidential library in exchange for setting up a meeting with top White House officials. (It was a sting operation set up by a newspaper; no money changed hands.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congress has tried, and largely failed for almost two decades, to pass legislation that would require organizations raising funds for presidential libraries to disclose donations. Since 2007, the House has passed five bills regarding presidential library funding transparency the most recent being in 2019 but they have all been stalled in the Senate. Would you go on a retirement cruise? Wall Street Journal reports Trump sent "bawdy" birthday letter to Epstein, Trump threatens to sue Artist creates massive designs, visible only until the tide rolls in Authorities in the U.S. have asked the government of Mexico to investigate whether Tijuana-based Liber Gennesys Group has denied the right of truck drivers to organize for bargaining purposes. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said Tuesday an interagency committee received a complaint on June 12 from the Supply Chain Transporters Union (SITRABICS) in Mexico, and Rethink Trade at the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit advocacy group. The petition alleges that Liber Gennesys and its affiliated and/or successor companies have violated workers rights by using intimidation and harassment to discourage workers from supporting the SITRABICS union and have dismissed workers due to union activity, the USTR said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Liber Gennesys and its affiliates, including San Diego-based Transportista Kamu, provide transportation services for Hyundai Motor Co. in Mexico and the U.S., according to the USTR. The complaint against Liber Gennesys Group falls under the labor provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreements rapid response mechanism. Mexico has 10 days to decide whether to conduct a review and 45 days to investigate the claims and present its findings. The post Cross-border trucking company accused of labor violations appeared first on FreightWaves. Miami Marine scientists in Miami are hoping to restore Florida's coral reef by taking coral from Honduras and crossbreeding it. Warming ocean waters have had a devastating impact on the coral reefs of the Sunshine State. Efforts are underway to save the third-largest barrier reef system in the world, including the use of lab-grown corals and the removal of healthy corals, but scientists are now trying a method that they say has never been done before. "It's the first time ever in the world that an international cross of corals from different countries have been permitted for outplanting on wild reefs," Dr. Andrew Baker, a marine biologist at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine Science, told CBS News on a boat ride near Miami. The Elkhorn coral. / Credit: CBS News There are dozens of stony coral species along Florida's 350 miles of reefs, from the Florida Keys up to the St. Lucie Inlet. Two of them are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, one of which is the Elkhorn coral. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Elkhorn species helps form the skeleton of a healthy reef, but according to Baker, more than 95% of the Elkhorn coral off Florida has been wiped out by a combination of factors, including rising temperatures fueled by climate change, increased coastal development and disease outbreaks "Over the last 50 years or so, we've lost more of these Elkhorn corals, culminating in 2023 when we had this really warm summer," Baker said. "And in order for that population to recover, it was determined that we need more diversity from outside the Florida population." So, scientists and conservationists started looking off the Caribbean coast in Honduras, specifically Tela Bay, where Elkhorn coral live in "the kind of conditions where corals have to be really tough to survive," Baker said. Scientist collects a Honduran elkhorn fragment in Tela Bay. / Credit: CBS News To crossbreed the Elkhorns, scientists with Tela Marine, a Honduras-based aquarium and marine research center, carefully plucked coral from the reef in Honduras. Permits were then needed to transport the coral fragments into the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once they arrived in Florida, scientists with the University of Miami and the Florida Aquarium in Tampa worked to create the "Flonduran" Elkhorn, as it was nicknamed by Baker. Earlier this month, the crossbred species were planted for the first time in Florida, underneath protective umbrellas to deter predators. "And if these corals can live through the next marine heat wave, then that is critical for our coastal protection on the coast of Florida," said Keri O'Neil, the director of coral conservation at the Florida Aquarium. The planting of a baby Flonduran Elkhorn off the coast of Miami. / Credit: CBS News With robust and healthy corals, South Florida's coastal communities are better protected from flooding because the reefs help break up hurricane-fueled waves. The planting of the first Flondurans is just the start of what's needed to rebuild. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We need to now scale this up and be out planting hundreds of thousands of baby corals all throughout the reef," Baker said. "And there are ways to do that, but we've got to gear up and get going." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A new crosswalk is coming to Spring Mountain Road east of Arville Street. While it is sure to bring construction-related slowdowns, business owners said its needed. Peter Chen, owner of 888 Collectibles, said jaywalking is a constant sight. Im here literally almost every day, Chen said. I see people crossing the streets unsafely. Chens business is located in Shanghai Plaza, a constantly busy shopping center in the neighborhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a lot of good businesses here, Chen said. Theres a lot of good food, shopping here. With the steady stream of shoppers and diners, Shanghai Plazas parking lot frequently fills up. In February, Clark County started taking input from businesses about what they wanted done. Chen said it seems like the county is listening, allowing people to park behind Shanghai Plaza, and the creation of the crosswalk. The county is currently taking bids to see who will build it. Chen said while the crosswalk may seem like a small step, it is one that takes the neighborhood toward the walkability seen by other Chinatowns across the nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think were starting to see a little effort on connecting all the centers around us to where it can be like you can walk to all the other centers, Chen said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. NEED TO KNOW A cruise ship passenger's recovery has been described as an "absolute miracle" by his wife after he suffered a "terrifying medical emergency at sea" last month, per a news release shared by Australia's Mackay Hospital and Health Service Joshua Gul, 55, had been on board the Carnival cruise ship Encounter with 15 family members when he woke one morning "with radiating pain in his left hand and arm," the post stated He went into cardiac arrest before being taken to hospital, and miraculously woke up five days later without any cognitive impairment An Australian cruise ship passenger is lucky to be alive after surviving a "terrifying medical emergency at sea," medics have said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joshua Gul, 55, from the town of Buderim in Queensland, was on board the Carnival cruise ship Encounter with 15 family members last month when his health took a turn for the worse, per a Wednesday, July 16 news release shared by the Mackay Hospital and Health Service. Gul had been "excited for a four-night adventure to the magical Whitsundays to celebrate his fathers 80th birthday," the post stated, adding that the family had boarded the cruise ship in Brisbane on June 24. The hospital service said that on day two, the vacation at sea "took a very unexpected and serious turn," with Gul waking at 6 a.m. local time "with radiating pain in his left hand and arm, which grew quickly in intensity" while the ship was anchored offshore at Airlie Beach. Gul's wife of 24 years, Nancy, quickly alerted family members in the cabin next door, per the release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thankfully, they quickly rang the onboard medical team who arrived at our cabin within five minutes, she said, adding, When the doctor and nurses arrived, he was already unconscious and had gone into cardiac arrest - they had to start resuscitation immediately; it all happened so fast. Medics performed CPR on Gul for 30 minutes while his wife, who described the incident as a "terrifying ordeal," and 16-year-old daughter stood by, per the post. OZSHOTZ/Alamy Stock Photo A photo of the Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia A photo of the Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland, Australia Gul was taken to Proserpine Hospital in Proserpine in Queensland's Whitsunday Region by shuttle boat and then by ambulance, before he was "medically evacuated by rescue helicopter from Proserpine Hospital to Mackay Base Hospital, arriving by 1 p.m. and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)," the release stated. The "gravely ill" cruise ship passenger was then placed in an induced coma and spent the next five days being ventilated, the hospital service explained, adding that his family decided to leave the cruise and headed to his bedside. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gul woke up on his fifth day in the hospital, before undergoing an angiogram at the hospital's Cardiac Catheter Lab (CCL) two days later. The angiogram "identified the potential blockage and narrowing of blood vessels in his heart as the cause of his cardiac episode," the release noted. Weve been extremely impressed by the level of care hes had here in Mackay its exceeded our expectations, Nancy said, per the post. Nancy said that her husband had been "in very, very good hands," adding, That gave me some positivity in what was a very dark time for us. Nancy said it's an absolute miracle that her husband had woken up in the hospital without any cognitive impairment, crediting "the initial rapid response by the cruise ship medical team, an efficient and fast retrieval process, combined with his excellent treatment in Mackay and Proserpine Hospitals, for his survival," the release stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joshua was very lucky in what was an incredibly unlucky situation for us, she shared. Mitch Diamond/Getty Stock photo of passengers boarding a cruise ship Stock photo of passengers boarding a cruise ship If this cardiac episode had happened at home and not on the cruise ship in the Whitsundays, Joshua wouldnt have had such rapid access to care like he did, and he probably wouldnt have made it," Nancy continued. Mackay Base Hospital ICU director Stephen Luke insisted, CPR and defibrillation on the cruise ship truly saved his life." Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Despite his ordeal, Gul said he hasn't ruled out another cruise ship vacation in the future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ill be back though; I was having a great time on the ship but I was on a shuttle boat, had my first ride in a helicopter as well as an ambulance trip and I missed all of it as I was unconscious, he said, per the post. Carnival Cruise Line and the Mackay Hospital and Health Service didn't immediately respond after being contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE has also reached out to Gul for an update on his recovery. Read the original article on People HAVANA (Reuters) -The Cuban government fired its labor minister after she was publicly rebuked by the president for saying the country's beggars were all phonies in disguise. A brief announcement Tuesday evening said Labor and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito had demonstrated a lack of "objectivity and sensitivity on topics that are currently central to political and governmental policy". The minister's remarks on live television on Monday were widely circulated on social media and became a lightning rod for popular frustration with years of economic crisis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have seen people who appear to be beggars, but when you look at their hands, when you look at the clothes those people wear, they are disguised as beggars ... In Cuba, there are no beggars," Feito said. "They have found an easy way of life, to make money and not to work as is appropriate." President Miguel Diaz-Canel addressed the comments in his own appearance before the committee the next day, saying they showed a lack of empathy and understanding of the roots of poverty. "These people, who we sometimes describe as homeless or linked to begging, are actually concrete expressions of the social inequalities and the accumulated problems we face," the president said. "The vulnerable are not our enemies." (Reporting by Marc FrankEditing by Peter Graff) Cuban Labour and Social Security Minister Marta Elena Feito Cabrera has resigned after saying there are no beggars in Cuba, only people pretending to be. Cubas presidency said in a post on social media on Wednesday that Feito had acknowledged her errors and submitted her resignation over her lack of objectivity and sensitivity in addressing issues that are at the centre of political and governmental management. The news came a day after Feito made the comments about poverty in the island nation to deputies in a National Assembly committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have seen people, apparently beggars, [but] when you look at their hands, look at the clothes these people are wearing, they are disguised as beggars. They are not beggars, Feito said. In Cuba, there are no beggars, she said. The minister added that people cleaning car windscreens live easy lives and they use the money they make to drink alcohol. A woman sells goods on a pavement in Havana, Cuba, on July 15, 2025 [Norlys Perez/Reuters] Feito also lashed out against those who search through rubbish dumps, saying they are recovering materials to resell and not pay tax. The remarks quickly went viral, prompting calls for Feitos impeachment and a wave of criticism in a country experiencing a tough economic situation in recent years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was critical. Without mentioning her by name but referring to the meeting at the National Assembly committee in which Feito participated, Diaz-Canel said on his X account: The lack of sensitivity in addressing vulnerability is highly questionable. The revolution cannot leave anyone behind; that is our motto, our militant responsibility. Cuba blames its economic woes on a Cold War-era United States trade embargo, which complicates financial transactions and the acquisition of essentials, such as fuel and spare parts. The US imposed the embargo in 1960 after the Cuban Revolution, led by Fidel Castro. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The embargo is widely criticised with 185 of 193 countries at the United Nations voting to condemn it. US President Donald Trump recently tightened sanctions on the islands Communist Party-run government, pledging to restore a tough policy towards the Caribbean country. Former US President Barack Obama took considerable steps to ease tensions with Cuba during his time in office, including restoring US-Cuba relations and making the first visit by a US president to the country in 90 years. Cuba has also faced an energy crisis and blackouts in recent months as supplies of subsidised Venezuelan oil have become increasingly precarious as Venezuela grapples with its own economic woes. Last week, the US Department of State imposed sanctions against Diaz-Canel as well as the luxury high-rise Hotel Torre K in central Havana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Travel and tourism are important to Cubas struggling economy with millions of tourists visiting the island nation each year. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Cuba had a gross domestic product of $9,296 per person in 2019, making it an upper middle income country. Cudahy Vice Mayor Apologizes for Viral Video Calling Out L.A. Gangs During ICE Raids originally appeared on L.A. Mag. At a city council meeting on July 15 Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez addressed the controversy surrounding her viral video referencing L.A. gangs and federal immigration raids.Courtesy City of Cudahy After drawing national scrutiny from a social media video in which she questioned the silence of L.A. gangs during federal immigration raids, Cudahy Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez finally addressed the controversy head-on. At a city council meeting on Tuesday night, Gonzalez issued a cautious apology, calling the now-deleted TikTok "a short satirical video" created on her personal time. Not a call for violence, she says, but a plea for community defense. "The message was not about violence; It was about regular people...claiming ownership of our streets in a time of great distress and asking others...in organizing and protesting against the harm and violence being inflicted on our community," Gonzalez said. She also apologized for the "unnecessary attention" the video brought to Cudahy, a small city in southeast Los Angeles County, where fears of deportation are prevalent. The apology comes nearly a month after Gonzalez posted the video in response to the wave of federal raids in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. In the clip, she asks: "Where are all the cholos at in Los Angeles?" "You guys are always tagging everything up, claiming hood, and now that your hoods being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there aint a peep out of you, Gonzalez said in the video. EXCLUSIVE: Per federal sources, the vice mayor of Cudahy, a city in southeast LA County, is under FBI investigation after she allegedly posted a video to social media in which she appears to call for 18th Street & Florencia 13 gang members in LA to defend their territory from pic.twitter.com/afJfxeSCBb Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 24, 2025 The backlash was swift. The Department of Homeland Security called her comments "despicable." The Los Angeles Police Protective League and Los Angeles Police Department union demanded her resignation. Meanwhile, a wave of conservative media seized on the video as evidence of lawlessness and gang collusion in Southern California politics. In a written statement, Gonzalez's attorney said the vice mayor "issued a challenge to the Latino community: join the thousands of Angelenos already peacefully organizing in response to ongoing enforcement actions," and emphasized that she "in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence." Still, the incident has revived historical tensions around political leadership in SELA. The region's small, majority-Latino cities have long struggled to overcome reputations of corruption and dysfunction legacies that a younger generation of elected officials, including Gonzalez, had vowed to leave behind. A longtime educator and Los Angeles Unified School District administrator, Gonzales has been a vocal presence in recent immigration rights efforts. Just a few weeks ago, she joined Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to denounce federal raids. Despite the backlash, Gonzalez remains in office. But in a city where immigration enforcement looms and political missteps are rarely forgotten, the long-term impact of her words remains to be seen. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Hundreds of people gathered at Washington Square Park in New Orleans on March 31, 2023, for a march to mark Transgender Day of Visibility. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator) Donald Trump closed out his 2024 presidential campaign with a searing condemnation of trans rights: Kamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for you. Nearly six months into his second term, North Carolina Republicans have heeded his call, delivering blistering speeches on the floor of the General Assembly in support of rigid definitions of biological sex and passing a slew of measures aimed at curtailing trans rights, hoping to capitalize on what they believe is a winning issue among North Carolinians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a far cry from 2016, when months into Trumps first successful campaign for the office, the state legislatures passage of House Bill 2, the Bathroom Bill, sent billions of dollars fleeing from the state. As culture wars escalate across the U.S., laws clamping down on trans rights have entered the mainstream, with some Democrats acceding to or even supporting anti-trans bills from the other side of the aisle. Heres how North Carolina politicians have handled anti-trans legislation in 2025 from Republican leadership seeing an opportunity to win on the issue to Democrats, including Governor Josh Stein, relenting in response to at least some of those efforts. Stein splits the difference on anti-trans bills In contrast to former Governor Roy Cooper, who emphasized public stands in defense of trans rights after winning office in the wake of the backlash to HB 2, Stein has had little to say on trans issues in seven months in office. He has also signaled some willingness to allow conservative bills on trans issues to proceed. On July 3, he signed Senate Bill 442, enacting a piece of legislation that bars abuse or neglect findings on the basis of a parent or caregiver who raises a juvenile consistent with the juveniles biological sex. North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signs a bill into law at the governors mansion on June 13, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) That signing garnered rare praise for Stein from the NC Values Coalition, a religious right advocacy group. The groups executive director, Tami Fitzgerald, lauded the governor for helping parents protect their children from harmful gender transition interventions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are thankful that today Governor Stein signed SB 442 into law, ensuring that our state upholds the fundamental truth that children belong to their parents, not the government, said Fitzgerald. Now that Governor Stein signed SB 442 into law, North Carolina parents can rest easy knowing that they can exercise their parental rights without fear of the government taking their child away. The signing puts Stein out of step with most of his party in its final vote in each chamber, no Democrats in the Senate backed the bill, and just nine supported it in the House. Unlike some other bills he took action on, Stein did not provide a written explanation for his decision, but a spokesperson wrote in a statement that the bill will not change how North Carolina punishes cases of abuse. Parents have the right to raise their kids how they think is best for them, but, of course, child abuse will never be tolerated, the spokesperson wrote Tuesday. The Governor remains confident that DHHS and county DSS offices will continue to find the best placements for children. North Carolina ACLU policy counsel Reighlah Collins said she was disappointed but not necessarily surprised that Stein signed the bill, calling it bad messaging but whose impact will be hopefully, pretty small. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The parents in North Carolina are not being criminally charged or losing custody of their children because they refuse to support their childs gender identity. Like, its just not something thats happening in North Carolina, Collins said. Its all part of this broader strategy to push trans people out of public and civil life by just singling them out in all of these respects. Also on July 3, Stein vetoed House Bill 805 a separate bill that was amended at a late stage to include measures exclusively recognizing male and female sexes under state law, blocking state funds for gender-affirming care, and restricting changes of sex designation on birth certificates explaining in a statement that Republicans are stoking culture wars that further divide us. As Governor, Roy Cooper emphasized public stands on trans rights, beginning with his ascension to the office in the wake of backlash to the Bathroom Bill. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) These mean-spirited bills would marginalize vulnerable people and also undermine the quality of public services and public education. Therefore, I am vetoing them, Stein said. I stand ready to work with the legislature when it gets serious about protecting people and addressing North Carolinians pressing concerns. Beyond alluding to culture wars, the veto statement did not explicitly reference trans North Carolinians or gender-affirming care, a break from Coopers approach to these issues. In a 2023 veto on another bill seeking to block access to medical transitions, Cooper said a doctors office is no place for politicians, and North Carolina should continue to let parents and medical professionals make decisions about the best way to offer gender care, for their children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A more subdued approach has not spared Stein from condemnation from the right. House Speaker Destin Hall posted on X that Stein sided with radical activists over the overwhelming majority of North Carolinians in the wake of his veto. Fitzgerald, the NC Values Coalition executive director, blasted Stein for appeasing the radical block of his party that wants to force its sexual agenda on all of us and called him out of step with the values of the majority of North Carolinians. Top Republican lawmakers see opportunity to go on the offensive If the Governor has spoken little on trans issues, Republicans in the General Assembly have seized every opportunity to drive a wedge in his coalition on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, explicitly following Trumps lead in doing so. North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall (R-Caldwell) presides over session on June 25, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) Trumps Big Beautiful Bill CRUSHES woke insanity, Hall wrote in a July 14 post on X. HB 805 does the same by affirming biological truth. Stein vetoed, but the NC House will DELIVER. North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, Halls counterpart, authored a similar post on July 2, alleging that Democrats like Stein are actively working against women by refusing to simply acknowledge there are two sexes male and female. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even amid growing discontent with the Trump administration over economic and immigration issues, the Republican emphasis on anti-trans legislation suggests they still view the issue as a political winner. Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said Republicans see the potential for political benefit in passing such bills. I think there is a sense from the Republican Party that they are closer to the average North Carolinian on these issues than the Democrats are, Cooper said. I think they believe that politically, the bathroom-related legislation is a political loser, and that in general, things related to children and minors are political winners. Growing anti-trans sentiment can be found in recent polling. An April survey of registered North Carolina voters by Meredith College shows that even on the issue of restricting bathroom use, considered beyond the pale a decade ago, a majority support proposals that roll back trans rights. Asked about restricting trans North Carolinians to only using public bathrooms corresponding to their assigned sex at birth, 57% of surveyed voters voiced support. And 56% said they would support making it impossible for sex markers to be changed on an individuals birth certificate, a more restrictive proposal than the one Stein vetoed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement David McLennan, the director of the Meredith Poll, attributed this shift to Trumps rhetoric. In less than a decade, the issue of restricting transgender rights has become popular among North Carolinians, he said in a statement. This clearly reflects the concerted efforts of national Republicans, including President Trump, to demonize this group. Among the most restrictive measures proposed on trans issues this session was Senate Bill 516, in effect a resurrection and expansion of HB 2. The proposal would have barred trans people from single-sex bathrooms, changing facilities, and sleeping quarters at state-funded facilities that correspond to their gender identity. North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham), pictured at Steins State of the State address, said he did not see a runway exists for the bathrooms and public facilities bill this term. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) After its first reading in the Senate, however, that bill died in the chambers powerful Rules Committee, never receiving a hearing before the legislatures crossover deadline. In a May statement to the Raleigh News & Observer, Berger said while he views HB 2 as an inapt comparison for the new proposal, he did not see at this point the runway exists for that bill to be passed by the Senate ahead of the crossover deadline. That bill also contained the other measure polled by Meredith, a bar on any modifications to sex designation on birth certificates. While the bill did not progress in time for its passage this legislative session, elements of it made into HB 805, the legislation vetoed by Stein. A set of definitions of biological sex and related terms added shortly before the bills passage closely mirror those found in the Senate proposal, and a requirement that the original birth certificate must be attached to a modified version evinces a similar aim to the ban on sex marker changes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also contained a proposal centered on expanding potential liability for providers of gender affirming care extending the statute of limitations for malpractice lawsuits involving gender transitions to 10 years and removing a ceiling on damages for such claims. That language was borrowed from House Bill 606, which has yet to see a vote in the Senate. Veto fight looms as some Democrats defect Whether Republicans most substantive piece of anti-trans legislation becomes law depends on whether any Democrats are willing to help HB 805 overcome Steins veto. So far, the General Assemblys Republican majority have yet to overturn any of Steins vetoes, despite the governor issuing 14 so far this year. Because they are one vote shy of a supermajority in the House, Republicans need to peel off at least one Democrat for a veto override, assuming full attendance. Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson) was the lone Democrat to support HB 805 in the House. (Photo courtesy of NCGA) That would theoretically be attainable for HB 805, but by the slimmest margin. Only a single Democrat in the House opted to support the bill, Rep. Dante Pittman (D-Wilson). According to Chris Cooper, the WCU political scientist, that does not necessarily mean he would back an override effort. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a pretty significant signal anytime youre going to go against the Governor whos a member of your own party, Cooper said. I dont think any legislator enters into that lightly because it could mean that their legislation is less likely to get through later. He cautioned that theres no guarantee that everyone holds their previous vote, meaning it is possible that another Democrat delivers the vote needed to overcome the override. In the House vote on the Parents Protection Act, which Stein declined to veto, eight other Democrats joined Pittman in voting to pass the bill, suggesting a larger contingent of members of the party with some level of willingness to side with Republicans on LGBTQ+ issues. The state party itself has rebuked anti-trans legislation introduced this term. In a Facebook post in March, the official North Carolina Democratic Party page decried any effort to revive HB2 or similar legislation. Women do not need Republicans to attack the basic human rights of our transgender community, the post reads. North Carolina Sen. Sydney Batch (D-Wake), the Democratic caucus leader, speaks during a press conference at Moore Square Magnet Middle School in Raleigh on April 7, 2025. (Photo: Galen Bacharier/NC Newsline) Similarly, in a recent interview with NC Newsline for the radio show/podcast News & Views, Senate Democratic leader Sydney Batch was scathing in her assessment of anti-trans legislation. You know, I dont understand why Republicans are so obsessed with genitalia. she said. Literally, when Im talking to my constituents, you know, it doesnt come up. What doesnt come up is, you know, gender affirming care. What comes up is, Hey, you know what, Ive had a permanent sub in my childs classroom for the last year, who doesnt actually know how to teach math. Regardless of the veto fights outcome, more legislation restricting trans rights will likely follow so long as public opinion remains on the side of Republicans on the issue. Its the culture war issue thats going to define this term of the General Assembly, Cooper said. We came across a bullish thesis on FirstService Corporation on WorldlyInvest's Substack. As of 2 July, FirstService Corporation's share was trading at $176.15. FSV's trailing and forward P/E were 60.95 and 31.29, respectively according to Yahoo Finance. Why Beacon Roofing Supply Inc (BECN) Is Up the Most So Far in 2025 A construction site with workers wearing hard hats and safety vests, installing roofing materials. The thesis on FSV presents it as a long-term compounder benefiting from both organic and inorganic growth opportunities. The company operates in two segments: FirstService Residential and FirstService Brands, with a strong M&A flywheel and disciplined leadership. The analyst expects FSV to sustainably grow by expanding its captive ecosystem. The FSV's growth drivers are large residential property managers in the U.S, organic growth through structural trends, and inorganic gains through share acquisitions. The company, through acquisitions at ~6.7x EBITDA on average, often with structures that incentivize sellers to stay and grow the businesses. The thesis projects that FSV can continue compounding at an attractive rate, with an estimated ~15% IRR over a long-term horizon. Risks include potential acquisition missteps, slowing organic growth, or stretching beyond its core verticals. However, with strong industry tailwinds, disciplined leadership, and a unique cross-sell model, the thesis presents a compelling investment case. While this is our first coverage on FirstService Corporation, weve recently examined another bullish thesis on a stock in the same Real Estate Services tsector hat sheds light on similar long-term dynamics. In comparing FirstService Corporation (FSV) to CoStar Group (CSGP), it's clear that both companies operate within the broader Real Estate Services industry, but their strategies and growth drivers differ. CSGP is positioned as a play on artificial intelligence (AI) and energy infrastructure, capitalizing on the increasing demand for electricity driven by AI data centers and the growing need for critical infrastructure assets. In contrast, FSV is presented as a long-term compounder focused on organic and inorganic growth through its residential property management and brand services segments, leveraging a strong M&A strategy. While CSGP's thesis centers on the AI and energy nexus, FSV's growth is driven by structural trends in residential property management and strategic acquisitions. Despite these differences, both companies are poised to benefit from favorable industry trends, with CSGP riding the tailwinds of AI and energy infrastructure and FSV expanding its captive ecosystem through disciplined leadership and a robust M&A flywheel. The investor themes also overlap, as both stocks appeal to investors seeking long-term growth and exposure to transformative trends in their respective sectors. A double shooting in a Massachusetts city last week is now being investigated as a homicide after one of the victims died in the hospital, authorities announced Wednesday. Officers responding to a report of a gunshot victim at an apartment on Orange Street in Springfield around 10:30 p.m. Friday found two men suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, according to the Hampden District Attorneys Office. One victim was rushed to Baystate Medical Center with serious injuries, where he died on Sunday. The DAs office identified him as Eric Wilson, 54, of Springfield. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The second victim, whose name hasnt been released, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. There have been no arrests made in connection with the shooting. The Springfield Police Homicide Unit, under the direction of Captain Trent Duda, is investigating with the Hampden District Attorneys Murder Unit. Anyone with information on the incident is urged to call Springfield detectives at 413-787-6355. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW A federal immigration officer was allegedly hospitalized on July 15 after a violent encounter in Oklahoma City the latest in a string of reported attacks against ICE agents that officials say are rapidly escalating. The officer was reportedly injured while attempting to arrest Jose Melgar-Rivas, a 34-year-old Honduran national described by ICE as an illegal alien, according to a post on the agencys Facebook page. Melgar-Rivas allegedly fled the scene on foot, prompting a manhunt in northwest Oklahoma City. By late afternoon, ICE confirmed he had been captured in a joint operation involving the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations in Dallas. @ERODallas Update. Jose Melgar-Rivas has been arrested. Joint effort from federal partners at @FBIOklahomaCity and @HSI_Dallas. We will not tolerate the assault of our federal law enforcement officers. https://t.co/PpS3ocSP1q pic.twitter.com/dRGV7tkctg ERO Dallas (@ERODallas) July 15, 2025 THE BREAKDOWN: ICE says an agent was seriously injured on July 15 during an attempted arrest in Oklahoma City Suspect Jose Melgar-Rivas, a 34-year-old Honduran national, was captured later that day DHS claims assaults on ICE officers have jumped 830% since Trump returned to office Officials blame the spike on rhetoric from political figures and media outlets, including some Democratic lawmakers Violent groups are reportedly using doxing tactics to target ICE agents and their families Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Oklahoma City assault follows what top brass at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) describe as a shocking spike in violence against federal immigration officers. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said ICE has seen an 830% increase in assaults since Jan. 21, 2025 the day after President Donald Trump returned to office. She placed the blame on hostile political rhetoric. Just in: our brave @ICEGov law enforcement are now facing a 830% INCREASE in assault against them. This new data reflects the violence against our law enforcement in cities across the country in the last few weeks. Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) July 15, 2025 Politicians across the country, regardless of political stripe, must condemn this, Noem wrote on social media. The Oklahoma incident occurred just hours before the FBI captured Benjamin Song, a far-left Antifa member and the final suspect wanted in connection with the July 4 ambush on an ICE detention center near Fort Worth. As The Dallas Express previously reported, Song allegedly purchased weapons used in the attack, which left an Alvarado police officer critically wounded. Fourteen individuals now face federal charges tied to that shooting. DOJ officials said the suspects coordinated the ambush using encrypted messaging apps and were found with anarchist and socialist propaganda. According to Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson, Song was arrested without incident at his girlfriends Dallas apartment following a tip. She said the attack had been planned, with ICE agents targeted as they responded to staged vandalism outside the detention center. TUPELO The third time might be the charm for Dr. Gabe Rulewicz at Saturday's Dance Like the Stars, the annual fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Mississippi. He only needs to raise the most money to be named the events Grand Champion. He like his fellow competitors is going to try his best. "He is the GOAT," said Evie Storey, BGCNMS director of special events. "He's raised more than $100,000 through his two previous times plus what he's done so far." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's not just me; it's amazing the community is willing to step up and give. I'm just the facilitator of this," Rulewicz said on Tuesday afternoon. Rulewicz said its faith that inspires him to take part in Dance Like the Stars again and again. "In the Bible, the Lord says two great commandments: One is to love God, another is to love our neighbor, which means we need to love people," he said. "And this is a way to love people." The Boys & Girls Clubs of North Mississippis mission is to inspire and enable all young people to realize their potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens. Since 1996, the organization has reached more than 1,700 youth annually through clubhouse locations in Tupelo, Oxford, Ripley and New Albany. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 20th annual event is the organizations largest fundraiser. Its raised more than $3 million since 2006, with more than 200 community volunteers from Lee, Lafayette, Tippah, Chickasaw and Union counties who have participated. "We can give back, and we can take care of kids and be a part of the community," Rulewicz said. "I grew up here and was kind of one of those kids. I had many people who took care of me when I was coming up and did things for me. It's an opportunity for me to give back." And while this is his third time to dance for the fundraiser, it's the first time hell do so before a large group of people. He also danced during the COVID pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. Those years, the events were virtually. "Well, I tell people that we had a million viewers the first time because it was COVID and they didn't have anything else better to watch," he said with a laugh. "But this will be the first time with all the tables and stuff around, so that will be cool." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Rulewicz isn't intimidated by all the eyes that will be on him at Saturday's event, even though hell kick things off with his routine, "The Greatest Showman." "That's actually better than me because I'm a ham. I'm not the quality dancer; I'm more the comedian," he said. The dance has even more special meaning for Rulewicz like his previous performances, he'll be dancing with one of his daughters. This time, its with his youngest, Emme. "It's the first year for her, but my other daughter, Lily, I danced the other two years," he said. "The first year she danced, but the second year she got COVID the week before and we had to sub her out, and she wasn't happy with that." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Saturday's event begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Cadence Bank Arena. Dinner tickets are $50 and general admission tickets are $20. As a 20th anniversary special, Storey offered this deal: "Anybody that wants to watch the show can come at 7:30 p.m. and watch and donate whatever they want to give." Along with Rulewicz, this year's dancers include Shaletha Knox of New Albany; Shad Spight of Ripley; Gary Hancock, Anthony Knight and Windy Scruggs of Tupelo. In addition, more than 30 former dancers will take part in either a group performance or share stories about their experience and passion for the Boys & Girls Clubs mission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Storey said fundraising is going well so far with about $150,000 raised. "It will continue through the end of Saturday's event, so people still have time to give," she said. There is no specific monetary goal for the event, she said. Rather, it's an overall celebration of its 20th anniversary. "Our goal was to gain as much community support as we could, rallying around these 200 folks who have done this before, and gathering and celebrating them," she said. "We want to celebrate community and bring everybody together; it's not just a number or dollar figure." Along with the seven dancers this year, there will be a reunion performance from previous dancers. Additionally, some of the kids who danced through the years also are going to have a reunion dance. The heat and humidity that have enveloped Massachusetts this week will peak on Wednesday, with temperatures expected to soar past 90 and a Heat Advisory warning of heat indices even warmer than that. National Weather Service forecasters expect the heat indices, or feels like temperature, to climb to around 100 on Wednesday across almost the entire state. The advisory is in place until 7 p.m. Thursday, and warns of potential heat-related illnesses. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors," forecasters wrote. That said, communities along the immediate coast in Eastern Massachusetts could feel some reprieve from the heat in the form of onshore winds. Even that relief is expected to be short-lived, with winds shifting south and causing temperatures to rise. There is a chance for showers or a thunderstorm on Wednesday around sunset, but "it will be difficult to see anything organized or potentially severe," forecasters said. However, forecasters do expect storms to form overnight into Thursday morning as the elongated area of high pressure that has pumped the heat and humidity into the state moves offshore. Showers and storms are expected to particularly hit Western and Central Massachusetts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of the convective parameters are favorable for severe weather, but certainly the anomalous moisture could bring brief downpours, forecasters wrote. Heat and humidity remain on Thursday, with cloud cover expected to limit the afternoon heating. Heat indices are forecasted to climb into the 90s again on Thursday, but likely wont be as high as Wednesday. Friday will remain hot, with lower humidity, while real relief arrives this weekend, with temperatures more typical of mid-July. More weather Read the original article on MassLive. New Jersey remains under a state of emergency after heavy rains brought flash flooding to a number of towns including Plainfield where two people were killed in the flooding. Police in Plainfield confirmed two people were killed when a vehicle was swept into Cedar Brook during the storm. Two women in their 60s, later identified as Lubia Estevez and Forest Whitlock, were traveling along Stelle Avenue when they made a turn, ended up in a ditch and were ultimately pulled into the fast-moving waters under the bridge. "They were in a submerged automobile, and their remains were extracted at some point overnight or first thing this morning," Governor Phil Murphy said. A view of flooded streets as Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency for New Jersey as considerable rain fell the evening of July 14 with more expected as the night progresses in Plainfield in New Jersey, United States on July 15, 2025. Anadolu/Getty Images Murphy, who toured some of the damage this week, said, "Last night, we got crushed. We're seeing more of this, more frequent and more intensity. Six inches of rain in under two and a half hours, in two waves -- one wave, knocked a lot of these communities a little bit off kilter; the second one just came in for the kill. So we're assessing around all these communities and counties." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Jersey and the tri-state area isn't done with the inclement weather, though, as rising temperatures and humidity threaten to produce more dangerous conditions for residents. "We're in one of these patterns right now, hot and humid, late afternoon-early evening thunderstorms," Murphy said. "It doesn't feel, as I stand here now, as though tonight, tomorrow, Thursday will be at the same level of intensity that we saw last night, but you never say never." The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for much of the New York City metropolitan area and a flood watch has been issued for northwestern parts of New Jersey. "Heads up, New Yorkers," New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a social media post Tuesday. "We could see another heat wave starting tomorrow, meaning multiple days of dangerous heat." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Temperatures throughout the New York Metropolitan area are expected to hit the mid-90s with a "feels like" temperature reaching 105. Related: Southwest Airlines Considering Another Controversial Change After Ending Free Bags 'Dangerous' Weather Warning Issued After Deadly Flooding first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) A 46-year-old man from Brookings is behind bars after police say he left an 8-month-old baby in a hot car for over 30 minutes outside a Sioux Falls store. Justin Okolo is facing one count of abuse or cruelty to a minor under the age of seven. Officers who were on scene say that, at the time of the incident, it was around 90 degrees outside. SD school officials say promised school money held up in D.C. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On a hot summer day, it doesnt take long for the inside of a car to heat up. Especially in an open parking lot. Its important to keep in mind that when a vehicle is outside in the summer, the vehicle itself creates a greenhouse effect where the internal temperature of the car or vehicle will actually be much warmer than the ambient temperature outside as much as 50 degrees higher, Dr. Ryan Sivertson, an Emergency Physician at Sanford Health, said. And the impact that heat can have on a childs body also comes quickly. Children cannot regulate their temperature as well as adults can, Sivertson said. So, if an adult can handle a few minutes, a child cant even handle that long in a hot vehicle by themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fortunately, the baby that police say Justin Okolo left in a car Monday afternoon turned out to be okay and part of that could be because of some witnesses who not only called police, but also sprang into action. One of the witnesses was able to get a manager at that business and notify them of what was going on, Aaron Benson with the Sioux Falls Police Department said. The manager came outside, was able to reach his arm inside the car and unlock the door. The witness who initially had called went in and grabbed the baby out of the car seat and noted that it was quite sweaty. Dr. Ryan Sivertson with Sanford Health says its important to never leave your child in the car by itself, even for a few minutes. Be very cognizant of your children in the car with you. Its a good idea to place something in the backseat that you would need to bring with you wherever youre going, for instance, your purse or your cell phone, Sivertson said. Something that you wont forget. Were all human and all it takes is one momentary lapse and it can turn into a real tragic issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this case, police say the cars window was slightly lowered; however, Dr. Sivertson says studies have shown that cracking a window does nothing to actually cool a car down. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. Category 5 hurricanes aren't as rare as they sound, but two decades ago, one unusually early in the Atlantic hurricane season shocked even the most seasoned meteorologists. On July 16, 2005, 20 years ago this evening, Hurricane Emily strengthened to Cat 5 intensity with peak winds of 160 mph as it was southwest of Jamaica in the western Caribbean Sea. While its top-end status only lasted about six hours, Emily became the earliest known Cat 5 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Basin and the first to do so in July. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emily went on to strike Cozumel and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula at Cat 4 intensity two days later. Though up to knee-deep water was seen in some areas, damage there was much less than expected. Emily's final landfall in northern Mexico destroyed up to 90% of homes in the village of Laguna Madre. Despite all that, no deaths were reported in Mexico, partially due to massive evacuations that occurred before Emily's arrival. Emily was only the first of a record four Cat 5 hurricanes in the historic 2005 season, followed by Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Emily's earliest Cat 5 record lasted only 19 years. In 2024, Beryl became a Cat 5 hurricane on July 1, a whopping 15 days earlier than Emily did in 2005. Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook. FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) Crystal Macura rushed to Rhode Island Hospital Monday after learning her mother had been critically injured in a fire that tore through the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility in Fall River. Macura said she was shocked to see her mother, 66-year-old Brenda Cropper, had been burned from head to toe. She was unrecognizable, Macura said. It was something out of a horror movie. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the worst thing Ive ever seen in my life, she continued, adding that her moms doctors claimed she was the worst burn victim theyve ever treated. RELATED: Fall River left reeling after deadly fire at assisted living facility Macura said her mother was sleeping and had her hearing aids turned off when the fire alarms sounded. By the time [the firefighters] kicked her door in, she was pretty much burned, she explained. Macura hopes her mom was unconscious at the time and didnt feel anything. She said Cropper has a 10% survival rate and is on life support. Brenda Cropper (Courtesy: Crystal Macura) She is not coherent, she said. We can talk to her, but she cannot hear us Its hard to say goodbye, but at the same time, do we want to keep putting her through this? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Men rescue 2 from fire at Fall River assisted living facility Macura said her mom, who lived on the first floor, suffered from multiple sclerosis, but was otherwise mobile. She wonders whether her mother had kept her hearing aids on if she wouldve been able to get out in time. Its really tough, Macura said. My mom was a very happy person. She made friends everywhere she went. If you told her, Im hungry, she would give you everything she had, she continued, noting that her grandchildren loved visiting her for this reason. No was not in her vocabulary. Macura told 12 News Wednesday that her mom is now on hospice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than half of the facilitys 70 residents couldnt escape the burning building on their own and needed assistance getting out. Nine residents died and roughly 30 were brought to nearby hospitals with various injuries. This was the deadliest fire in the state since 1984, when 15 residents were killed in a rooming house fire in Beverly, according to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services. TARGET 12: Gabriel House owner tied to legal disputes, harassment claims How you can help The Firefighters Wives Association has set up a GoFundMe page for those affected by the fire. Catholic Charities is also collecting donations for impacted residents, including clothing, bedding, toiletries and other essentials. Donations can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city has compiled a list of residents specific clothing and mobility needs for those who want to donate but are unsure what to bring. Lauren Brill contributed to this report. NEXT: Survivors recount escaping deadly Fall River fire Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) Police said a grand jury indicted a father for the murder of his son, following the 5-year-old boys death in October 2024. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) said the indictment against Deandre Pettus, 33, of Northwest came down on July 11. Police arrested Pettus in 2024 after his son, who shares the same first name as Pettus, died at their home at Connecticut House Apartments, located in the 4500 block of Connecticut Ave. NW. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AG: Pharmaceutical company accused of defrauding DCs Medicaid program ordered to pay over $300K Police initially went to the home that day after they received a report that the boy was unconscious. United States Secret Service officers were the first to get there. They started CPR until members of DC Fire and EMS arrived and took over the CPR. They were not able to save the 5-year-old. Detectives found that Pettus lived there with his son and two daughters. Court documents said someone who lived near the Pettuses and who had a protective order against Pettus saw hime earlier in the day. The person told police Pettus was upset and said he needed a car battery, adding that he was going to catch a bus to go get one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The person said Pettus returned and stated, I f up, [my son] is not breathing I was going to his body and he was trying to run and hit the wall. I f up he is unconscious. The court documents said the person demonstrated to police to explain that going to the body meant Pettus was punching his son with full force. She said she had seen him punch the 5-year-old in the past with force that was not appropriate for a 5-year-old to be punched. DC police arrest 2 women accused of robbing person waiting for ride-hailing service in Southeast One of Pettus daughters told officers their brother slipped and fell and hit his face and shoulder on the wall the morning that he died. She said he was crying and that Pettus tried to wake him up and did CPR before putting the boy in the shower. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The daughter said Pettus was nice because he got them candy but that he could be a little mean. The medical examiners office said the boys cause of death was undetermined on October 7, 2024. Prior to the grand jurys indictment, the charge Pettus faced was first degree cruelty to children. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) is continuing to investigate an apparent murder-suicide that left two people dead in Southeast D.C. over the weekend. Shortly before 8:30 p.m., MPD was called to a home in the 4600 block of G Street SE after receiving reports of a shooting. Inside the foyer area, they found a man and a woman unconscious and not breathing. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Man, woman found fatally shot in Southeast DC home Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite lifesaving efforts, they both succumbed to their gunshot injuries. MPD noted that they believe 43-year-old Patrick Cockrell Jr. shot 38-year-old Tiffany Montgomery during a domestic dispute. Cockrells injuries seem to be self-inflicted. The case is being investigated by homicide detectives. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Germany is reportedly seeking to intensify its focus on AI, aiming to bolster its economy and enhance its competitiveness in global technological arenas. According to a Reuters report, a draft strategy from the German research ministry has outlined a vision to generate 10% of the nation's economic output from AI by 2030. The draft also proposed making AI as a pivotal tool in key research sectors. The strategy does not specify the existing contribution of AI to Germany's economy. The German cabinet is anticipated to approve this strategy by the month's end. The document outlined plans to seek bids for building high-capacity processing centres in the EU, aiming for them to be operational by 2027. The German government intends to coordinate these efforts with industry, experts, and federal states by the end of the year. Notably, the European Commission has earmarked 20bn ($23.24bn) in funding to construct AI 'gigafactories' across the EU. Under a recent coalition agreement, Germany aims to house at least one such centre, with companies such as Deutsche Telekom showing interest. Additionally, the strategy includes objectives to advance quantum computing technology, targeting the creation of two error-corrected quantum computers by 2030. This initiative also involves launching Germany's first research satellite for quantum communication within the year. Although Germany has achieved early innovation successes, the strategy acknowledges a lag in AI commercialisation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report from 2024 indicated that AI could address several critical challenges for Germany, such as the green transition and improvements in administrative, industrial, and healthcare efficiency. Recently, Oracle announced a $2bn investment over the next five years to expand its AI and cloud infrastructure in Germany. The investment will help in boosting AI infrastructure capacity in the Oracle Cloud Frankfurt Region. "Germany eyes 10% economic output from AI by 2030" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. (KRON) A person was killed after a head-on crash Tuesday evening on Highway 84 near Livermore, according to the California Highway Patrol (CHP). The crash happened around 6:19 p.m. Highway 84 in both directions at I-680 and I-580 is currently closed, Caltrans posted on X at 7:40 p.m.. CHP estimates that the road will be closed until at least 9:30 p.m. According to CHPs incident log, a gray Lexus and a blue Honda were involved in the crash. The driver of the Honda died, and the driver of the Lexus is in critical condition. One lane in each direction was blocked as CHP investigates the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A preliminary investigation reveals that the Lexus driver was going westbound on Highway 84 and lost control, CHP said. The Lexus went the wrong way into the eastbound lanes and crashed into the Honda head-on. Republic Services strike update: Bay Area residents frustrated as strike continues Photos: Struck cormorant bird rescued on San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge A helicopter was called to assist in taking the injured driver to the hospital. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. Native Vote. On Tuesday, gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) held a press conference outside a hospital in Espanola to highlight the serious threat posed by President Trump and congressional Republicans' so-called "Big Billionaire Bill" to rural healthcare in New Mexico. Haaland laid out her plan to defend rural hospitals and health centers from devastating funding cuts and to protect healthcare access for more than 88,000 New Mexicans. "There's a crisis on the horizon many rural hospitals across the state are at risk of closing," Haaland said. "I grew up in a rural community. I know how devastating this bill will be for the thousands of New Mexicans who will lose their healthcare, and spoiler alert: its not just about health care. Its about the economy at large. As Governor I will do everything in my power to stop it. WATCH > Deb Haaland Press Conference Defending Rural Healthcare Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The proposed legislation would strip Medicaid coverage from over 88,000 New Mexicans and dramatically increase premiums for others. With nearly 40% of the states population relying on Medicaidthe highest rate in the nationthe cuts would cripple hospital budgets, reduce services, and extend wait times across the state. Never miss Indian Countrys biggest stories and breaking news. Click here to sign up to get our reporting sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning. In addition to gutting Medicaid, the bill would increase healthcare costs for seniors on Medicare and for working families with private insurance. The resulting budget shortfalls would force the state to divert critical funding from job creation, education, and other essential services, placing even more strain on New Mexicos rural communities. "Lets be clear: this bill isnt just bad for New Mexicans on the margins, it will mean all of us have to pay more for our healthcareall so out-of-state billionaires could get an even bigger tax cut, Haaland continued. As Governor, I will fight every day to lower costs for New Mexicans and use our states resources to make their lives better, not harder." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haaland announced a roadmap to weather what she called "the devastating storm that Trump and his wealthy friends are brewing." Her plan includes using New Mexicos budget surplus to prioritize ensuring that people avoid losing health care coverage, with significant new appropriations to New Mexico's Health Care Affordability Fund. She also proposed hiring more guides to help people navigate insurance enrollment through BeWell NM, plus added services to help New Mexicans facing additional, intentional bureaucratic burdens imposed by Trumps new law. "If DC politicians wont invest in New Mexicans, I will," Haaland emphasized. "I wont sit by as New Mexicans get sicker and pay more for their healthcare. As Governor, I will act to protect New Mexicans and help us weather this storm." Haaland's campaign continues to build momentum statewide, with endorsements from healthcare professionals, rural community leaders, and working families across all 33 counties of New Mexico. About the Author: "Native News Online is one of the most-read publications covering Indian Country and the news that matters to American Indians, Alaska Natives and other Indigenous people. Reach out to us at editor@nativenewsonline.net. " Contact: news@nativenewsonline.net Kiss the ring; bend the knee. Whatever metaphor you choose, President Trump has cowed the owners of two major media outlets into paying him millions of dollars. The settlements over Trumps lawsuits reached between his lawyers and Paramount Global and Disney both for $16 million, with the bulk of those funds earmarked as contributions to Trumps presidential library are the highest-profile examples of the U.S. president exerting pressure on the news media to submit to his will. And they show Trump has found tactical ways to prevail in his nonstop battle to discredit outlets that report critically on him and his activities. More from Variety Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has long derided what he dubs the fake news, and he has famously called the press the enemy of the people. In the 10 years since he announced his first run for president on June 16, 2015, Trump has written nearly 3,500 social media posts that attack the press, according to an analysis by the not-for-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation. Over the course of a decade, thats roughly one per day. But defenders of free speech have raised alarms about Trumps recent lawsuits against media companies which legal analysts have called baseless and his willingness to use the power of the federal government to punish perceived adversaries. They see the unwillingness of Paramount and Disney to defend their First Amendment rights as a dangerous precedent that will only embolden Trump and his allies to push even harder against a free press. Attacking the press is too weak a phrase, says Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. According to Jaffer, the goal of Trumps anti-media efforts appears to be to make the government the only source of information and authority in our society. It sounds crazy to say it because we have never seen this in American history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Late on July 1, Paramount Global announced the settlement with Trump. He had sued CBS five days before the 2024 presidential election over the allegedly deceptive editing of a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris seeking an absurdly astronomical $20 billion in damages. Trump cited a Texas consumer-protection law as the basis for his complaint. CBS and Paramount called the suit meritless and sought to have it tossed. Legal experts said the company was fully protected by the First Amendment. CBS News released transcripts of the interview, showing that it used different parts of Harris answer to a single question about the Biden administrations relationship with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which is standard industry practice. But Paramount settled anyway, by all appearances to try to clear the way for the Trump administrations approval of its Skydance Media merger deal. Its a sad day for journalism, Dan Rather, the legendary 24-year anchor of CBS Evening News, tells Variety. Its a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News. I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and a kneeling down and saying, Yes, sir, by billionaire corporate owners. Jon Stewart blasted his corporate bosses on the July 7 episode of Comedy Centrals The Daily Show, calling the settlement shameful and likening it to a mob shakedown. Former 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, who was Stewarts guest that evening, agreed and said it was devastating to morale at the newsmagazine: I think there is a lot of fear over there. Fear of losing their jobs. Fear of losing their country. Fear of losing the First Amendment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why didnt Paramount fight, considering the repercussions of such a settlement for journalism and free speech in general? Companies often settle litigation to avoid the high and somewhat unpredictable cost of legal defense, CBS chief George Cheeks, who is a co-CEO of Paramount Global, said at the companys annual shareholder meeting on July 2. Pursuing litigation also runs the risk of an adverse judgment that could produce significant financial as well as reputational damage, Cheeks added. In other words, Paramounts Trump settlement was the cost of doing business. The FCC has immense discretion over license renewals and transfers, and Paramount needs its blessing to complete the sale of its local stations to Skydance ownership. The pending Skydance deal created leverage for Trumps legal team, says Mark Fowler, who was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan. Without the FCCs timing and coordination, they could not have done this. Id say its pretty shameful. (The FCC did not respond to a request for comment.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As to reputational damage, however, CBS News own employees say the Trump payout will only tarnish the 60 Minutes brand. Months of news reports about Paramounts negotiations with Trumps lawyers about a settlement (or lack of one) allowed the newsmagazine to be seen as the opposition, says a network insider. Its so damaging. One silver lining: Paramount and CBS are not issuing any kind of apology under the settlement. Thank goodness theres no apology, says one CBS News correspondent. Theres nothing to apologize for. But the backlash against what was seen as Paramounts capitulation to Trump was broad and severe. This Paramount settlement is the nadir for the network, Armen Keteyian, an Emmy-winning journalist who was an investigative correspondent for CBS News and 60 Minutes for 12 years, wrote in a post on X. He called it a breach of the public trust that CBS broadcasting legends Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt and thousands of us worked decades to build. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was among those slamming the settlement. The Trump administrations level of sheer corruption is appalling, and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism, she said. Warren called for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken. Of course, such a federal charge would not likely to be brought by the Trump administrations Justice Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In May, Warren, along with Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden, warned Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone that a settlement with Trump could run afoul of a federal anti-bribery law in other words, that Paramount could be seen as illegally paying Trump in return for his giving the go-ahead for the companys Skydance deal. (Commenting on the senators warning to Redstone, a White House spokesman said, in part, Anyone who seriously believes the president could be bribed by anyone, especially a liberal and notoriously unreliable institution like Paramount, lacks the intelligence to hold public office.) In claiming the Paramount settlement was a bribe, Warren and others have called out what they see as a quid pro quo: The FCC has yet to approve the Paramount-Skydance deal, which was clinched in July 2024, and the assertion is that Trump wouldnt let it go through while his 60 Minutes suit was still in play. Brendan Carr, the FCCs Trump-appointed chairman, claims Trumps lawsuit is separate from the agencys approval process (and Paramount has claimed the same thing). However, Carr revived an agency probe into a news distortion complaint against CBS over the 60 Minutes Harris segment, which several former FCC commissioners said was a highly unusual step. (The initial investigation was shut down by former FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, appointed by Biden.) Trump, asked on the White House lawn on June 18 by a reporter why the Paramount-Skydance merger hadnt closed yet, immediately launched into a discussion of his 60 Minutes lawsuit CBS was very embarrassed about the whole thing, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $16 million figure for the Paramount settlement is the same amount Disney agreed to pay Trump last December. That was to settle his defamation suit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos, who had incorrectly said Trump was found liable for rape in the E. Jean Carroll case. (Trump was found liable for sexual abuse.) As in the Paramount situation, legal observers said ABC News would have likely prevailed. In both cases, Trump seems to have found an Achilles heel for some media conglomerates: that protecting First Amendment freedoms is of secondary importance to their business imperatives. The decisions by Paramount and Disney to wave the white flag in the face of Trumps legal assault, though, have puzzled some First Amendment attorneys. To be blunt, Im surprised to see settlements, says Rob Rickner, a New York attorney who has represented clients in free-speech cases. He speculates that Disney and Paramount settled with Trump to avoid potentially embarrassing revelations in the discovery process or to eliminate the risk of an unfavorable decision. The problem with the settlements, according to Rickner, is that they establish an expectation that these are cases where its reasonable to pay some sum to settle. And that will only encourage Trump to continue pursuing such legal action. Trumps a bully, Rickner says. The only meaningful way to stop whats going on is for the media companies to fight it out and when they win, tell the world they won. Trumps antagonism toward the media has shot across multiple vectors. To cite a few examples: The White House has banned The Associated Press from Oval Office events and Air Force One because the AP continues to refer to the Gulf of Mexico (not the Gulf of America, as Trump decreed it should be so called). Trump is seeking to eliminate federal funding for PBS and NPR, while the White House has effectively dismantled the Voice of America. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 26, a Trump lawyer threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN over their reports about the Pentagons early assessment that the U.S. bombings of Iranian nuclear sites set back the countrys nuclear weapons program by a few months, whereas Trump has claimed Irans facilities were totally obliterated. No apology will be forthcoming, a New York Times Co. lawyer wrote in response. That came as part of an above-average week for Trumps social media attacks on news organizations and journalists. He said reporters who wrote stories challenging his Iran narrative were BAD AND SICK PEOPLE and sleazebags, and demanded The New York Times and CNN fire those responsible for the coverage. At the FCC, Carr has launched investigations into the diversity, equity and inclusion practices of Disney and Comcast-NBCUniversal for potential invidious forms of discrimination. Carr who once proudly posted a photo of himself wearing a golden lapel pin of Trumps head also claimed he would block M&A deals for media companies that promote DEI. All of this raises an uncomfortable question: Are news organizations being intimidated into pulling their punches? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anna Gomez, the FCCs sole Democratic commissioner, says multiple broadcast executives have told her that, given the threats by Trump and the White House, they have instructed reporters to be careful about what theyre reporting. That doesnt mean they have held off on airing controversial stories. But Gomez, who was appointed by President Biden, says the FCC is being weaponized to retaliate against news outlets for editorial decisions. She has embarked on a First Amendment tour, hosting panel discussions across the U.S. with policy experts to call attention to and fight against what she calls this administrations campaign of censorship and control. Gomez adds that shes surprised Trump hasnt tried to fire her from the FCC. As long as I have this job, she says, I will continue to fight for our freedoms. Variety reached out to major news organizations including ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time and The Wall Street Journal for comment on Trumps anti-press rhetoric. Each of them declined to make executives available for interviews. Privately, news execs insist their coverage of Trump and his administration has remained fair but aggressive. The PR strategy generally seems to be to let the work speak for itself and not respond to Trumps attacks. One of the only media executives to agree to speak on the record is Paula Kerger, CEO of PBS. The Trump administrations pressure to defund public media, she says, clearly is an attempt to try to impact and control the kind of programming we do. It pulls on a thread that could unravel our entire system. At the same time, Kerger claims that, at PBS at least, there has not been a chilling effect from Trumps attempts to cut funding. I look around at my colleagues who are feeling more focused than ever in making sure we do the kind of work were doing, she says. News represents 10% of PBS programming lineup. Some people, she says, referring to political conservatives, would just as soon we didnt do news at all. Kerger adds, But unflinching news coverage is part of the mission. Once you start to make concessions, youre on a slippery slope. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PBS and its member stations receive about 15% of their operating budgets from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in aggregate. But for some smaller stations, federal funding is upwards of 30% or 40% of their revenue. Congress is considering Trumps measure to claw back $1.1 billion in CPB funding for the next two years. People say, Oh, everybody [in public media] will be fine, says Kerger. They wont be. Its massively disruptive and potentially existential. Some of the sharpest criticism of Trump has come from late-night hosts, who unlike traditional journalists have free rein to mock people in power. Trump has responded with insults. Last year, Trump lashed out at Jimmy Kimmel as he was hosting the 2024 Oscars (Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel, he said in a Truth Social post), to which Kimmel responded live on air: Im surprised youre still [up] isnt it past your jail time? Is Kimmel worried about the Trump administration going after him and his competitors with lawsuits or some other action? Well, youd have to be naive not to worry a little bit. But that cant change what youre doing, Kimmel tells Variety. And maybe it is naive, but I have the hope that if and when the day comes that he does start coming after comedians, that even my colleagues on the right will support my right to say what I like. Now, I could be kidding myself, and hopefully well never find out. But if we do, I would hope that the outrage is significant. Critics say Trumps media bashing and litigation have already disordered the news business. They point to the resignation of longtime 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens, who wrote in a farewell note to staffers in April that it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it or to make independent decisions based on what was right for 60 Minutes, right for the audience. That came after Redstone instructed CBS execs to implement more oversight of the news division, including 60 Minutes. (Paramount and CBS declined to comment on the matter.) The worst aspect of all of this is, we dont know the extent to which the media is being intimidated, says Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and former Clinton administration official. Some journalists may be bailing out of corporate media so they can share uncensored opinions about Trump. Last month, ABC News fired correspondent Terry Moran for a since-deleted post on X labeling Trump a world-class hater (and saying the same of top White House adviser Stephen Miller). I used very strong language deliberately, Moran said in a June 16 livestreamed interview with The Bulwarks Tim Miller. Now, he said, he can speak [his] mind. About ABCs decision to let him go, the 28-year veteran of the network said on the livestream, From my perspective, it looked like a business decision. I became bad business, it feels like. (Asked about Morans firing, ABC News referred to its June 10 statement: We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post which was a clear violation of ABC News policies we have made the decision to not renew.) Joy-Ann Reid, for her part, says she doesnt know why MSNBC canceled her primetime show, The ReidOut, in February, one month after Trump retook office. It was very surprising, says Reid, a vocal Trump critic. It was very much out of the blue. She met the morning of Feb. 21 with newly appointed MSNBC president Rebecca Kutler, who, according to Reid, told her were making some changes, and your show will not be continuing. Reid acknowledges that ratings for The ReidOut were down, but we were told we were down less than others. After leaving MSNBC, Reid launched a podcast through her company Image Lab Media Group, The Joy Reid Show, which jumped to 1 million streams within a week of its June 9 premiere. In the absence of an official explanation from MSNBC for her shows cancellation, Reid says, I can just tell you the things that I know that created discomfort at work. She says that included any sort of name-calling of Trump and too much vigorous opposition to him in a certain style. After Reids show was axed, Trump used Truth Social to call her a mentally obnoxious racist. About Trumps insult, Reid says with a smile, It made me feel seen. Im proud to be his opponent, she says. If a fascist is displeased with me, then I think Im doing the right thing. Former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann (who himself was fired by the network in 2011) believes that a chief reason Comcast is spinning off NBCUniversals cable networks (into a new company called Versant) is that it wants to get rid of MSNBC and its big controversial news operations. MSNBC declined to comment on Reid and Olbermanns remarks. To be sure, some media organizations are fighting back. In another case of Trump targeting a news outlet, the president has sued The Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer in Iowa state court. Trump alleges that the newspapers poll showing him trailing Harris by three points in Iowa, a state he won by 13 points in the 2024 election, represents consumer fraud. A rep for The Des Moines Register says the paper will continue to resist President Trumps litigation gamesmanship and believes that regardless of the forum it will be successful in defending its rights under the First Amendment. In addition to news media and journalists, Trump has attacked numerous Hollywood celebrities, including Rosie ODonnell (whose U.S. citizenship Trump threatened to revoke, even though he has no authority to do so), Taylor Swift (after she endorsed Harris), Bruce Springsteen (who has called the Trump administration corrupt, incompetent and treasonous) and George Clooney, who was a major fundraiser for Biden and Harris. Clooney recently starred in a hit Broadway adaptation of his film Good Night, and Good Luck, about Murrows leadership at CBS to challenge Sen. Joseph McCarthys campaign in the 1950s to root out communists in the U.S. government. Governments dont like the freedom of the press. They never have, Clooney said in a 60 Minutes interview in March. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side youre on. They dont like the press. In response, Trump posted on Truth Social, Why would the now highly discredited 60 Minutes be doing a total puff piece on George Clooney, a second rate movie star and failed political pundit? (A rep for Clooney said he was unavailable for an interview.) For many celebrities who spoke out against Trump, there was a sense of fatigue and defeat when he won a second term, says Jessica Weitz, the ACLUs national director of artist engagement. After Trumps election in 2024, I felt this real depression, this feeling of I used my voice, I spoke out, and now here we are, says Weitz, who works with music artists, actors and influencers to advocate for civil liberties issues. Recently, though, shes seeing more celebrities come to the table for the first time. One example: Diego Luna, the Mexican star of Disney+s Andor, who guest-hosted Jimmy Kimmel Live! last month and spoke out against the Trump administrations efforts to round up and deport undocumented immigrants. I have never been able to fully understand how it is that someone like Donald Trump is able to acquire this level of power, Luna said on the shows June 23 telecast. I always struggle to understand how his hate speech can take root in a country whose nature has always been a welcoming one. Luna could have said anything, Weitz says. But to use that experience and speak out can be scary, but my hope and real belief is he will see the real benefits of doing so. Nominally, Trump is a supporter of the First Amendment. On Jan. 20, the first day of Trumps second White House term, he signed a record 26 executive orders. One of those was the directive Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship, which begins like this: The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an amendment essential to the success of our Republic, enshrines the right of the American people to speak freely in the public square without Government interference. What did Trump mean by restoring free speech? The order alleged the Biden administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties. But in a June 2024 ruling, the Supreme Court rejected a Republican-led case claiming the Biden White House illegally coerced social platforms into removing posts about COVID and the 2020 presidential election that were deemed misinformation. In fact, the actions of Trump and his administration have routinely run counter to constitutional ideals, says Nico Perrino, executive VP of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free-speech advocacy organization. The Trump White House seeks to censor information that it simply rebrands as news distortion, fake news, consumer fraud or deceptive trade practices, he says. And the administration regularly jawbones private institutions while hanging the threat of regulatory action over their heads if they dont comply. And Trumps attempts to curtail free speech are not just limited to the press, says Brian Hauss, senior staff attorney with the ACLUs Speech, Privacy & Technology Project. He notes the administration has tried to punish law firms that have represented groups opposing Trump, has used immigration laws to deport people who have expressed pro-Palestinian views and has threatened to slash grants to universities including Harvard over their alleged shortfalls in battling antisemitism and a lack of viewpoint diversity. The Trump administration has engaged in the most flagrant campaign against free expression that Ive seen in my lifetime, says Hauss. This is a revanchist administration that has gone after its critics. The White House, asked for comment about how Trumps stated support for the First Amendment squares with evidence that he is undermining free speech, sent the following statement from spokeswoman Anna Kelly: There is no greater defender of freedom than President Trump, who signed an Executive Order to protect free speech on his first day back in office, ended the weaponization of justice, restored over 400 press passes to the White House complex, and takes media questions daily. In a statement about the Paramount settlement, a spokesman for Trumps legal team boasted of scoring a victory over the fake news. The president, the rep said in part, deliver[ed] another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit. Gene Maddaus, Michael Schneider and Brian Steinberg contributed to this story. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Not only Defence Minister Rustem Umierov but also Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna is being considered for the post of Ukraines ambassador to the US. Source: Ukrainska Pravda sources in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's team Details: "It looks like Umierovs candidacy has not been firmly decided on yet. Stefanishyna may become ambassador to the US," said one of the high-ranking sources. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Ukrainska Pravda sources added that they do not understand what position Defence Minister Umierov will get if Stefanishyna goes on a diplomatic mission to the US. Background: On 16 July, the Ukrainian parliament will dismiss Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and, along with him, the entire government. The next day, MPs plan to appoint Yuliia Svyrydenko as the new head of the Ukrainian government and to appoint a number of ministers. On 10 July, during a press conference in Rome, Zelenskyy announced that he was considering current Defence Minister Rustem Umierov for the position of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! After going to great lengths to identify the remains of an Army private who died more than 80 years ago as a World War II prisoner of war in the Philippines, Defense Department officials have acknowledged there was a mix-up and they released erroneous information to the news media. Kenneth Kramer, just 20 years old, appears to have no connection to Michigan, though officials reported Tuesday, July 15, that he was a Detroit native. The man was actually from Washington state. Officials added there now are no plans to bury his remains in Holly, which the government had indicated was expected to occur in October. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Edward Kramer who was 23, killed during combat in World War II, and was from Detroit will be. His remains were identified in April. His family has been briefed. "I want to sincerely apologize for the inaccurate info that was previously sent out," Sgt. Ashleigh Maxwell at the Pentagon wrote the Detroit Free Press in a July 16 email. "I appreciate your patience and understanding while we work to correct the mistake." The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, a government organization that oversees recovery and identification of unaccounted personnel, released the erroneous information. Local media outlets, including the Detroit Free Press on freep.com, reported the incorrect information regarding Kenneth Kramer. The errors were uncovered later that day after the Free Press, which spotted inconsistencies in Defense Department information, asked for clarification. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To correct the record, Maxwell has since sent the Free Press information about Edward Kramer, who was assigned to Company H, 2nd Battalion, 126the infantry Regiment, 32nd Infantry division and deployed to Paupa New Guinea. Edward Kramer reportedly was killed in action on Dec. 27, 1942, near Buna Village, while fighting the Japanese. In 1949, his remains were declared unrecoverable. But in 2017, remains were found and later identified. According to a news clipping Maxwell sent, Edward Kramer attended Foch Intermediate School, which was in the East Village neighborhood in Detroit and closed in 2004. He had been in the Army for two years before he was killed. The Defense Department spends years and millions of dollars searching for and analyzing the remains of Americans, and no matter how much time has passed, the nation aims to identify and return remains of its fallen service members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the United States, the "no one left behind" principle is deeply rooted in military ethos, and is encapsulated in the Soldier's Creed, which states, among other things, that a soldier is "a warrior and a member of a team" and "will never leave a fallen comrade." In December, for instance, a sailor, John Auld who lived in Detroit, joined the Navy and died when Japanese warplanes sank the battleship he was aboard in 1941 was buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after the government identified his remains. More: Decades after his death at Pearl Harbor, a Detroit sailor gets a final resting place Edward Kramer's body, the defense accounting agency said, was not initially recovered after the war, but the military "conducted extensive searches of dense jungle and swamps in Papua New Guinea" for it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2017, unidentified remains were exhumed from a Buna Village Cemetery, and sent to a lab for review and analysis. The government said it used a variety of methods to determine they belonged to Kramer. The Defense Department estimates more than 81,000 Americans are still missing or unidentified, the majority of which are from World War II. Of the total number of missing service members, 75% were lost in the Indo-Pacific, and more than 41,000 at sea. The Defense Department said it uses dental, anthropological and isotope analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence to identify bodies. Scientists also now rely on methods that decades ago had not been developed, including DNA analysis and genome sequencing. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com. This story has been updated with new information. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Defense Department made mistake in World War II soldier identification WORTHINGTON The lifespan of a pot continues long after a craftsperson molds and glazes it. That pot could then be acquired by somebody, and it could be used over a lifetime, and even passed down over generations, said Mark Shapiro, one of the potters involved in this months Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. When someone acquires a pot and brings it into their home, how they use that pot, how they display that pot and how they handle the pot, theyre equally contributing to the life of the pot. Shapiro, who works out of a studio in Worthington, has seen a resurging interest in the art of clay and handmade objects, which he said has contributed to the longevity of the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It has totally exploded, with multiple community studios, new community studios being established, workshops having wait lists, and so on, Shapiro said. Its definitely a clay moment right now. The Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour, returning for its 19th run on July 26 and 27, is a self-guided tour that invites people to visit a variety of studios across the Pioneer Valleys Hilltowns. The tour began with six potters, and the group has expanded to include eight. You have to meet people where they are, and so I guess were asking people to meet us where we are, Shapiro said. They might not have much knowledge of this whole world thats like breathing the air for us. For a lot of people, theyve never seen a pot being thrown or the way someone might decorate something. The potters on tour this year include Shapiro, out of his Worthington studio at 42 Conwell Road; Robbie Heidinger, 1 Stage Road in Westhampton; Christy Knox, 108 Mount Road in Cummington; Maya Machin, 193 Hill Road in Ashfield; Michael McCarthy, 70 Bissell Road in Williamsburg; Hiroshi Nakayama, 193 Fisk Road in Worthington; Constance Talbot, 34 Shaw Road in Windsor; and Sam Taylor, 35 Perry Hill Road Ext. in Westhampton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Between their eight studios, the potters will also welcome 18 guests from around the country, including Normandy Alden, Hayne Bayless, Celia Feldberg, Dan Finnegan, Stuart Gair, Yeonsoo Kim, Billie Li, Jeffrey Lipton, Mathew Meunier, Mary Risley, Tandem Ceramics, Justine and Grant Figura, Sumiyo Toribe, Waterwheel Clay: Ben Bonsall and Garrett Sanders, Tom White and Sophie Yoon. Clay can be made to look like almost anything, and why a person chooses to work in a particular way with this material is quite personal and quite individual, Shapiro said. (This tour) is a chance to see that. I think its exciting for people to say, Look, you can touch the clay, it takes any shape, look at all these different ways it can be manipulated and fired, and treated and used. Keeping an old tradition alive Shapiro has been making pots for almost 40 years and has exhibited his work across the globe, in places like Texas, New York, London and Korea. He is also a founding member of the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour and has been involved with the annual event since its inception. Sometimes people ask me, for example, Whats your favorite pot to make? Shapiro said. And that is the pot Im making right now, because no ones telling me what to make. Im choosing what to make. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In his Stonepool Pottery studio in the hills of Western Massachusetts, Shapiro makes salt-glazed wood-fired pots. His work takes a variety of colors, from a striking golden-brown to a crystallized blue. He said thats thanks, in part, to the salt glaze process, a traditional European method of finishing pots. Its a glaze thats formed when sodium is introduced in the kiln at temperature, and it combines with the available silicate in the clay, so it actually kind of grows the glaze from the inside out as opposed to putting the glaze on top of it, Shapiro explained. The doors to his studio will be open for the entirety of the weekend, where people can visit and browse his works, purchase pottery, and see live demonstrations of pots being fired and crafted. Its so wonderful to be able to take something thats almost a formless matter, like mud, and turn it into something that may be useful and beautiful, Shapiro said. Its an incredible privilege to be able to be in that position at this moment, when were so attuned to a digital way of creating expression. Its something that people did for hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands of years of human evolution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to Shapiro, visitors will be able to view works by his two guests, Dan Finnegan, a potter from Virginia who trained professionally in England; and Normandy Alden, who works by day as a farmer in Cooperstown, New York, and creates whimsical sculptural work inspired by her farm life. Demonstrations at Shapiros studio will be held at 11 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, Shapiro will show guests how to make a teapot from start to finish; and on Sunday, Finnegan will host a demonstration on his English influences. I would say to anybody whos thinking about trying to do pottery, you will get more from doing pottery than you expect, Shapiro said. Because clay is such a generative material, and its so pleasant to work with. There are frustrations at the beginning, learning the technical limitations in the material and how to work with it, but even within that, Ive never seen anybody dip into clay and not have a really meaningful and transformative experience. A weekend of demonstrations In addition to Shapiro, all studios on tour will offer a variety of demonstrations and workshops over the two-day event. Demonstrations are on a drop-in basis, and there is no cost to attend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The demonstrations planned for this weekend include: 10 a.m., both days, at Maya Machins studio: Lid Lunacy: Perfecting Lidded Forms; 10 a.m., both days, at Hiroshi Nakayamas studio: Spinning Bottles by Ben Bonsall; 3 p.m., both days, at Michael McCarthys studio: July 26, throwing pots on the treadle wheel with Jeffrey Lipton; July 27, throwing pots on the treadle wheel with McCarthy; 2 p.m., July 27 only, at Sam Taylors studio: Stretching slabs and decorating with colored slips with Hayne Bayless; Noon both days at Christy Knoxs studio: July 26, The Perfect Vase and July 27, Picture a Pitcher, both with Knox; Noon, both days, at Robbie Heidingers studio: Self-portrait sculpture with Yeonsook Kim; Both days at Constance Talbots studio: July 26, all day, Cooking with Clay Pots with Talbot; July 27, 1 p.m., Terra Sigillata with Mathew Meunier. A portion of proceeds from the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour, which are made through donations and through purchases at the studios, will benefit the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. We are trying to do an event that goes beyond just promoting what we do ourselves, but it also creates a community, because thats really what excites us, Shapiro said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A map of the studios on tour can be found on the Hilltown 6 Pottery Tour website, where it can be printed. Cellphone reception in the Hilltowns is spotty, so its suggested that you print out a copy of the map ahead of time. Maps also can be found in-person at each studio on the tour. Read the original article on MassLive. Jul. 15SANTA FE Two weeks after having her office defunded under a new budget bill, McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin tried unsuccessfully to get a state board to provide a financial lifeline. The embattled district attorney said Tuesday her office currently has no gas cards, no internet and is unable to pay contract attorneys, while adding employees are worried about whether they'll receive their next paychecks. "We are people, we're not politics," Martin said during a meeting of the state Board of Finance at the Capitol, while pointing out her Gallup-based district is primarily Native American and among the poorest in New Mexico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While expressing concern about the situation, several Board of Finance members said granting the requested $3.8 million or even a smaller amount of money could set a dangerous precedent in disputes involving elected officials and the Legislature. "It's not our issue to deal with, I feel strongly about that," said former state senator Michael Sanchez, the appointed secretary of the seven-member board. After several hours of discussion, the board voted 3-1 not to provide an emergency bailout, instead directing Martin to meet with San Juan County District Attorney Jack Fortner in the coming days, preferably under the guidance of a professional mediator. Three board members were not present for the vote, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Lt. Gov. Howie Morales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $10.8 billion budget bill passed by state lawmakers that took effect July 1 effectively defunded Martin's office due to concern over low prosecution rates and high caseloads. In its final version, the budget earmarked $1.9 million for Fortner, the district attorney in neighboring San Juan County, to prosecute cases in McKinley County, while also providing a similar amount of money for contract attorneys to be hired in the district. But the rare step of stripping state funds for an elected official has led to legal uncertainty and high-stakes turf battles, if not outright chaos. In an attempt to halt the defunding, Martin filed an unsuccessful Supreme Court petition and a separate lawsuit in Santa Fe-based district court that is still pending. At the same time, state Attorney General Raul Torrez's office has launched an investigation into whether the district attorney can be removed from office for mismanagement. State Treasurer Laura Montoya, a Board of Finance member by virtue of her elected office, expressed concern about the possibility of employees in the McKinley County District Attorney's office losing their jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I've never seen anything like this," Montoya said at one point during Tuesday's meeting. She proposed authorizing a smaller amount of funding either $250,000 or $500,000 to keep Martin's office afloat until the dispute can be resolved, but that proposal failed due to a lack of support by other board members. The Board of Finance typically authorizes state bond sales, university construction projects and public property transfers, but the board also has the authority to provide emergency funding to governmental entities. Fortner, who attended Tuesday's meeting virtually, said his attempts to informally resolve the standoff with Martin have not been successful so far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I've repeatedly asked for her to cooperate so we can make this work," Fortner told the Journal. He said Martin has essentially asked him to give her the funding his office received to prosecute cases in McKinley County, which Fortner said goes against legislative intent. But he said he was open to the idea of mediation to resolve the standoff, adding he had directed his staff on Tuesday to file a motion to compel such a discussion. For her part, Martin did not respond to requests for comment following Tuesday's hearing, but said during the meeting she has no plans to relinquish her legal authority. "The idea that San Juan County can come in and take over cases (in McKinley County) is ludicrous," she said. "I won't allow it to happen." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Martin, who is the state's first female Navajo district attorney, was reelected last year as the top prosecutor for the second division of the 11th Judicial District. She acknowledged during the Tuesday meeting her largely rural District Attorney's Office has struggled to attract applicants for attorney positions, but said McKinley County also has a shortage of doctors and public defenders. "Gallup just has an issue with professionals," said Martin, who also cited high rates of fentanyl use in the western New Mexico city. John Nacion/Getty Images This story first appeared in The 19th. Adelita Grijalva is projected to win the Democratic primary to fill the congressional seat from Arizona left open by the March death of her father, Raul Grijalva, according to Decision Desk HQ. Grijalvas main opponent was 25-year-old reproductive rights activist Deja Foxx. Both Grijalva and Foxx are progressives who campaigned on similar platforms to fight for welfare programs, to protect immigrants and act on climate change. Daniel Hernandez, a state lawmaker who was credited with helping to save former Rep Gabby Giffords life in a 2011 shooting, was also a contender who ran as a moderate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grijalva has served for over two decades in elected office in Tucson, both on the citys school board and more recently on the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She campaigned on the promise that she would carry the same progressive values her father was known for during his 22 years in the congressional seat, including his long-standing commitment to fight for environmental justice. Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take Her platform also included defending programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and advocating for housing affordability. Grijalva was favored to win the race due to her decades of experience in local politics and because of her fathers legacy. Raul Grijalva was viewed as a progressive champion in this part of the state during his 22-year tenure. Adelita Grijalva had secured major endorsements from progressive heavyweights including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders and benefitted from deep donor pockets. Deja Foxx Is Running for Congress in Arizona to Fight for Young People and Reshape the Democratic Party Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 25-year-old tells *Teen Vogue* she was choosing between crashout and Congress, and she chose Congress. The race made national headlines in its final weeks after Deja Foxx, widely seen as the underdog, was able to capture the attention of young progressives across the country through her social media platforms. On TikTok and Instagram, she has hundreds of thousands of followers and was able to raise nearly a million dollars through small donors. Foxx argued that the seat should be led by a new generation and garnered the support of David Hogg, an activist who became famous for his work following the Parkland mass shooting. He now runs a political organization called Leaders We Deserve, aimed at building generational change for Democrats. Foxx campaigned on her life experience growing up working class on Medicaid and SNAP and has committed to fight for the policies that she says helped her out of poverty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to running for office, Foxx worked as an activist with Planned Parenthood, and later as an influencer and digital strategist with the Kamala Harris presidential campaign in 2019. More recently she worked on the campaign to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution in 2024. Grijalva is all but guaranteed to win the special election in September to represent the solidly Democratic 7th Congressional District. Because it is a special election she will have to defend the seat in the 2026 midterms. According to the Center for American Women in Politics, the election will result in 126 women serving in the House out of 435 seats. Republicans control the U.S. House by a slim, eight-seat margin. Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue More great activism coverage from Teen Vogue: Up came Delray Beachs concerns about Floridas heavy handed approach to create more affordable housing. City commissioners say they dislike how Floridas Live Local Act preempts their local control, similar to many other cities complaints. And some commissioners say the state laws requirements for residents household incomes arent low enough to benefit those who are lower-income. These remarks come as Delray Beach processes its first proposed residential project under Live Local. The project, Alton Delray at 2101 S. Congress Ave., calls for 386 residences, 40% of which will be considered workforce housing. At a recent meeting, city staff gave commissioners an update about the Live Local Act, giving city leaders a chance to weigh in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have a high number of low-paying jobs here, and this will bring new people in, and it will push the people that are here out, City Commissioner Juli Casale said during the meeting. We should embrace this, and we should want this, but we dont because its not serving us. Casale added, What we need here is something way less to accommodate the individuals in our city that are really in need of housing. City Commissioner Tom Markert said, This doesnt really suit us. I mean, Im glad were making some headway on Live Local. Its definitely an issue, but the parameters that surround this and the loss of tax revenue makes this not all that great for our city. Alton Delray is proposed by the real estate company Kolter Group, which the South Florida Sun Sentinel couldnt reach for comment despite attempts by phone and email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Along with the 386 units, Kolter also is proposing 1,784 square feet of industrial space. According to the project narrative, the applicant is proposing to utilize the recently passed Live Local Act to develop a mixed-use project consisting of residential and industrial components in an effort to preserve the citys current industrial uses. The site is right next to Parks at Delray, a 747-unit residential project at the corner of Congress Avenue and Old Germantown Road. The Live Local Act, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2023, directs funding toward the construction of affordable and workforce housing projects by offering tax breaks, and it give developers more latitude in the process since the state law bypasses certain local land use and zoning regulations. Proponents of the Live Local Act say its expedited the process to build housing thats needed in Florida. In the meantime, officials in various Florida communities have said certain projects are clashing with their goals for a better future. Delray Beach Vice Mayor Rob Long said at the meeting that he doesnt necessarily have an issue with Alton Delray, but he is not a fan of the Live Local Act. I dont think really many municipalities are, frankly, but it is what it is, he said. Does (Alton Delray) address our real affordable housing issues? Not really, but it does address folks that are in that middle-income area, Long said. Its more like workforce housing, is what this really is for this project, which is a big need in our city, it really is. Theres nowhere for our service industry workers or our staff that works here, or our first responders or our teachers to live, so this does help with that. ATLANTA (WKBN) Delta Airlines has settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice over pandemic relief funds provided to the airline through the Payroll Support Program (PSP). To receive PSP money during the pandemic, companies had to impose caps on high-paid executives those earning more than $425,000 in 2019. The United States alleges that Delta violated these caps and then falsely certified that it had abided by them. Delta received approximately $11.9 billion in PSP funds, including at least $8.2 billion in the form of grants that did not have to be repaid. The company agreed to compensation caps until April 2023, according to prosecutors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The allegations that Delta violated the compensation caps were brought by a third-party financial researcher whistleblower who alleges that between March 2020 and April 2023, Delta paid some corporate officers amounts that exceeded the caps and then allegedly falsely certified its compliance with the caps, according to prosecutors. In these types of cases, the whistleblower who uncovers fraud gets money, too. That person will receive $825,000 from the settlement, plus attorneys fees. The Justice Department noted that the claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Geronimo Power, formerly National Grid Renewables, has commenced construction on its 250MW Portage Solar project in Portage County in the US state of Wisconsin. The project, part of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) market, follows the earlier start of construction on the Apple River solar project in Polk County, Wisconsin. Portage Solar is expected to generate more than $73m in direct economic benefits during its first two decades, encompassing new tax revenue, job creation, increased local spending and charitable donations. It will provide $24m in tax revenue to the local county and townships. Combined with Apple River, the projects will bring more than $100m in direct economic impact to Wisconsin. In October 2024, Geronimo Power signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft for Portage Solar. Geronimo Power construction vice-president Joe Ibrahim stated: The true value of renewable energy isnt in the power it provides to the local grid. Its about the immensely positive impact on local economies in the form of new revenue streams and job creation. We anticipate the addition of Portage Solar to our Wisconsin portfolio will contribute more than $100m statewide thats a huge milestone for us and a big win for our project communities. Geronimo Power has collaborated with engineering, procurement and construction firm Burns & McDonnell on the project. Burns & McDonnell chair and CEO Leslie M Duke stated: As demand for data centres continues to grow, so does the need for reliable, renewable energy. We are proud to support Geronimo Power in the build-out of the Portage site. Together with local union halls and contractors, we are supporting the workforce and strengthening the community as we build. The solar project is anticipated to create 300 construction jobs, with a focus on employing local Wisconsin craft labour. Geronimo Power has also committed $1.25m to local charities and organisations over the project's first 20 years through a dedicated charitable fund. "Geronimo Power begins construction on 250MW Portage solar project in US" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani's stunning Democratic Party primary victory in the nation's most populous city appears to be the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans aiming to paint Democrats as extreme radicals. Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley told Fox News Digital this week that Mamdani "is the face of the new Democratic Party" and argued that "everybody who wants to lead that party wants to lead it to the left." But for Democrats, the capturing of the party's nomination by the 33-year-old Ugandan-born state assemblyman from Queens is more complicated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victory by Mamdani, who convincingly topped former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates last month to take a big step toward becoming the city's first Muslim and first millennial mayor, has put long-standing divisions within the Democratic Party back in the national spotlight. Top Republican Claims Mamdani Face Of The New Democratic Party Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, speaks at a campaign event in New York, on July 2, 2025. It has reignited ongoing debates within the party between its more moderate and progressive wings, and between outsiders and the establishment, and highlighted the Democrats' generational divide. Read On The Fox News App And it's inflamed the debate over whether the party's policy or messaging was to blame for last November's election setbacks, when Democrats lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to win back the House majority, and whether the party needs to veer to the left or the center to escape the political wilderness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Potus Punditry: Trump Weighs In On Mamdani-cuomo Nyc Mayoral Faceoff Many of those fault lines were rocked earlier this year, as then-Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice chair David Hogg sparked a firestorm within over his efforts to back primary challenges against what he called "asleep at the wheel" older, longtime incumbents in safe, blue House districts. The 25-year-old Hogg, the gun-control crusader who, as a teenager, survived a horrific school shooting in Florida, later stepped down from his vice chair position and left the DNC due to the controversy. David Hogg at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. "Democrats continue to have a fissure in their own party, which has been made worse by Mamdani's candidacy," Wayne Lesperance, a veteran political scientist and the president of New England College, told Fox News Digital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic strategist Lauren Hitt, who worked for Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, served on the Biden-Harris 2024 presidential campaign, and this year helped a super PAC boost Mamdani, told Fox News that his primary victory was a "clear rejection of the old guard." It's a similar take from Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "Zohran Mamdani's likely victory shows that a new direction for the Democratic Party is possible a future of dynamic candidates who appeal to young voters and working-class voters with a platform that fights for people, not corporations," Taylor highlighted. Republicans Relentlessly Use Mamdani As Socialist Cudgel To Bash Vulnerable Democrats Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even Matt Bennett, executive vice president for the moderate Democratic-aligned group the Third Way, acknowledged that Mamdani "focused on affordability," which he said is "great." Bennett added that Mamdani is "young, charismatic, a great communicator. All that is great. We want to see that." But Bennett told Fox News "the problem is he has the wrong prescription." Mamdani's victory over the 67-year-old Cuomo was also a victory for millennial Democrats against the old guard. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo acknowledges that rival Zohran Mamdani "won" the New York City Democratic Party mayoral primary on June 24, 2025. "I think there is a definite transition happening in the Democratic Party, perhaps not as quickly as folks would like to see, between the next generation of leaders stepping up," Democratic strategist Lucas Meyer told Fox News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meyer, the former longtime president of the New Hampshire Young Democrats, and founder of the advocacy group 603 Forward, spotlighted that "people are looking for that next generation and I think thats where the energy resides in the party." And pointing to the next White House race, where the very early moves are underway, he added: "I hope this definitely motivates younger candidates to start looking at the presidential race." But Mamdani's victory was not repeated in Tuesday's Democratic primary in a special congressional election in Arizona, where the 54-year-old daughter of late Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva took a big step toward succeeding her father in Congress. Former Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva convincingly topped four other candidates in the heavily blue district. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old social media influencer and progressive activist who was hoping to follow in Mamdani's footsteps by pulling off a stunning, come-from-behind victory, surged in the final weeks of the campaign but came up short. She finished second, ahead of a well-known local lawmaker and two other candidates. Foxx, who grabbed national attention in part for her social media posts, was backed by Hogg, who campaigned with the candidate this past weekend in southern Arizona. Former DNC vice chair David Hogg campaigns with Democratic congressional candidate Deja Foxx in Arizona, on July 12, 2025. Michael Ceraso, a longtime Democratic strategist and veteran of statewide and presidential campaigns, said Mamdani and Foxx are "two very clear examples of the party moving in a direction that the establishment may feel uncomfortable with because they dont necessarily know how to navigate that." And he argued that "the electorate is moving in a very particular direction." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani, meanwhile, is giving Republicans plenty of fodder. He's proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City' s vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) "tuition-free," freezing rents on municipal housing, offering "free childcare" for children up to age 5 and setting up government-run grocery stores. Also fueling the Republican attacks are recent news items that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his recent comments in a cable news interview that "I have many critiques of capitalism." Republicans have been relentless in trying to anchor Mamdani to Democrats across the country who are running in competitive races in elections this year and in next year's midterms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He certainly is going to fit right into that upper echelon of Democrats who are vying for a lead in that party," Whatley said of Mamdani. He claimed that "theyre just unabashedly in that radical woke part of the party." Pointing to last year's elections, when the Republicans won back the White House and Senate and held onto their razor-thin House majority, Whatley argued that "every single candidate right now on the Democratic side of the aisle is buying into the same failed agenda that they lost with in 2024." Democrats question the effectiveness of the GOP push. They argue that there's a world of difference between heavily blue New York City , where Democrats outnumber Republicans by a roughly six-to-one margin, and some key battleground states and swing districts across the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, a Democrat, told reporters the day after Mamdani's victory, "I love New York, but it's a very liberal place, and I don't know that you can necessarily apply that to the rest of the country." In the high-profile 2026 race to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Republican candidate and former Sen. Scott Brown went up last week with a digital ad that edits a picture of Rep. Chris Pappas, the Democratic candidate in the race, alongside photos of Mamdani and Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive rock star who backed Mamdani. Pappas, speaking with Fox News Digital last week, said, "Republicans have spent tens of millions of dollars running attack ads against me through the years, trying to paint me as someone that Im not." "People know me. They know the work that Ive been doing. They know that Im one of the most bipartisan members of the House of Representatives because I believe in solving problems and getting things done," Pappas said. "Im a New Hampshire Democrat. Im proud of my track record in Congress." Pappas was joined on the campaign trail by longtime Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who spent plenty of time in New Hampshire ahead of her third-place finish in the state's 2020 Democratic presidential primary. "Its about New Hampshire. Theyre going to do this in all these races across the country. They try to attach people. People have never even met some of these people. And they keep doing it," Klobuchar told Fox News when asked about the Republican ad anchoring Mamdani to Pappas. "To me this is about whats going on for the people of this state." Original article source: Dem Disorder: DNC squabbles play out in NYC mayoral race for all to see Editors Note: Jill Dougherty is a former CNN Moscow bureau chief, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a CNN contributor on Russia. A decade ago, Georgia was the poster child of post-Soviet countries on their way to democracy and freedom. The government was taking steps to fight corruption. Civil society was blossoming. The economy was growing. American businesses were investing. In 2004, even though it was not a member of NATO, Georgia sent its soldiers to Afghanistan to join the United States and other members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), becoming the largest non-NATO contributor to the operation. In 2005, US President George W. Bush visited the capital, Tbilisi, and the highway leading to the airport was renamed George W. Bush Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That street sign is still there, but today, democracy in Georgia, a small but strategically located nation of 3.7 million people, is collapsing. On Capitol Hill, in a bipartisan effort, Republicans and Democrats are pushing for passage of the Megobari Act. In the Georgian language, megobari means friend, and its sponsors say it aims to bolster democratic practices, human rights, and the rule of law in Georgia. It would impose US sanctions, visa bans and asset freezes on officials judged to be responsible for election fraud, corruption and political repression. But, the American lawmakers warn, Georgia is quickly slipping under the influence of Russia, China and Iran. Last December, the US imposed sanctions on Georgias shadow ruler, Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire who made his fortune in Russia in the 1990s. The party he founded, named Georgian Dream, controls all branches of government. Almost all political opposition leaders are in jail; according to human rights groups, about 60 political prisoners languish in prison. For more than 200 days, protesters have filled Tbilisis main street, carrying Georgian, American and European Union flags. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many now wear masks, trying to avoid being identified by what anti-corruption groups say are increasing numbers of Chinese-made facial recognition cameras installed by the government. Violators of what rights group Amnesty International says is repressive new legislation to crack down on dissent can be fined up to the equivalent of $2,000. A spokesperson for Georgian Dream had no comment for CNN on the issue of Chinese-made cameras being used for surveillance. Protesters have been violently arrested and tortured, according to Transparency International, one of the anti-corruption groups. The US last year imposed sanctions on Georgias then-Minister of Internal Affairs, Vakhtang Gomelauri, for brutal and violent crackdowns on members of the media, opposition, and protesters. The protests were mainly peaceful, Levan Makhashvili, a member of the Georgian Dream party and the chairman of the Georgian Parliaments European Integration Committee, told CNN on Tuesday. He claimed, however, that there were some violent protesters and said they should be prosecuted. There is a law: if you challenge state institutions, if you challenge the country, well, then you have to be ready for the liability, he said. If you storm the US Capitol you get liability, if you storm any parliament in the European Union you get liability. Its normal. Clear turning point Georgia held parliamentary elections last October which international election observers declared neither free nor fair. The opposition decided to boycott the new parliament and, with no one to stop the Georgian Dream legislators, they railroaded through what observers say are a series of draconian, Russian-style laws that have deeply polarized Georgian society and strained ties with key Western allies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The European Parliament last week adopted a report that said the rigged elections had marked a clear turning point towards an authoritarian government in the EU candidate country, a news release said, and called for new elections and a return to the path of democratic reform. Founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party Bidzina Ivanishvili gives a speech at party headquarters after exit polls were announced during parliamentary elections in Tbilisi, Georgia, on October 26, 2024. - Giorgi Arjevanidze/AFP/Getty Images Chinas influence in Georgia is growing as well. Last year, the government cancelled a contract with a Georgian, US and European consortium to construct the Anaklia deep-sea port on the Black Sea. Instead, it gave the contract to Chinese state-affiliated companies, some of which are under US sanctions. The Georgian Dream also is finding friends in Iran. In May last year, Georgias then newly appointed Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze flew to Tehran to attend the funeral of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, joining the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah for the funeral procession. In July, he returned for the inauguration of Irans new president. Trade between Iran and Georgia is burgeoning, primarily due to the latter countrys imports of Iranian oil and petroleum products. An investigation by a Georgia-based NGO, Civic IDEA, reports that, as diplomatic ties between the Georgian Dream government and Iran have grown closer, several Georgian-registered companies have emerged with direct links to Irans Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces Logistics Agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation concludes that Iranian businessmen are using Georgia as a strategic transit point to evade international sanctions and channel funds back to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Protesters march on March 22, 2025, in Tbilisi in support of the Megobari Act, which has passed in the US House of Representatives and been introduced in the US Senate. - Sebastien Canaud/NurPhoto/Shutterstock More vulnerable to the Kremlin Georgias once-strong relationship with the United States is disintegrating. The outgoing US Ambassador to Tbilisi, Robin Dunnigan, decries what she describes as the governments anti-American rhetoric. In an interview with RFE/RL she said Georgian Dream leaders had sent a private letter to the Trump administration that was threatening, insulting, unserious, and was received extremely poorly in Washington. Makhashvili, of the Georgian Dream, blames the deterioration on the Biden administration. We were very surprised by the former ambassadors statement, he told CNN. We had a feeling that many people simply dont want these ties to be reinvigorated, and they are trying to install as many blockades or hindering factors as possible. Georgia is more than ready to cooperate with the Trump administration, he insists, and has made it explicitly clear that it wants to reinvigorate these ties with the United States new administration be it trade, economy, transportation, logistics, all sorts of areas where the United States is interested, especially in this part of the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In spite of their governments increasing alignment with Russia, the Georgian people overwhelmingly support integration with the West. The Georgian Constitution includes a mandate to pursue full integration with the European Union and NATO. In November 2024, however, the Georgian Dream-controlled government, while insisting it still intends to move forward on EU accession, suspended its efforts, a decision that the US State Department warned would make Georgia more vulnerable to the Kremlin. Russias full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 provided the Georgian Dream with a powerful but paranoid message: that the West is trying to drag Georgia into the war. The anti-war message has resonance with many Georgians: Georgia itself was invaded by Russia in 2008 and Russia still occupies two regions comprising about 20% of the countrys internationally recognized territory. Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream party have sharpened that allegation, claiming, without evidence, that what they call the global war party or deep state is trying to incite revolution in Georgia. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pictured in April, is a co-sponsor of the Megobari Act. - Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg/Getty Images The Megobari Act, with the stated aim of countering the influence of China, Iran and Russia in Georgia, is sponsored in the US House of Representatives by Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, and in the Senate by Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat. The bill has passed in the House and has been introduced in the Senate. If it passes in the Senate, it goes back to the House if amendments have been made, then to President Donald Trump for his signature. Its supporters are urging quick passage. The Georgian people have made clear their Euro-Atlantic aspirations, and the U.S. must continue to support them against Georgian Dream efforts to erode their democratic institutions, said Shaheen, in an interview with CNN. At a time when Russia seeks to undermine democracies across the region, we cannot turn our backs on a key partner striving for a free and democratic future. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Georgians themselves say the bill could be a powerful weapon to pull Georgia back from the brink. When sanctions dont just signal but sting oligarchs notice, said Zviad Adzinbaia, doctoral fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and in this case, theyre sweating. Makhashvili brushed off any possible threat from the Megobari Act, but acknowledged concern that of course this act is a kind of symbol that we have several voices in the United States Congress who, for whatever reason, are not interested in normal ties with Georgia. Other Georgians warn that members of the opposition, under severe threat from the government, are still divided by disparate views of how to fight back. The current debate centers on whether opposition parties should participate in nationwide municipal elections due to be held in October. Ia Meurmishvili, editor-in-chief of the international journalism initiative, Independence Avenue Media, told CNN: Elections are the foundation of all democracies and the only legitimate way to change governments. If Georgias opposition chooses to boycott the vote, it risks sending a confusing signal to international democratic supporters who may struggle to understand why a key democratic mechanism is being abandoned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Giorgi Gakharia, a former prime minister of Georgia and a leader of the opposition party For Georgia, is in the crosshairs of the Georgian Dream party. Authorities have charged him with treason, which most Western observers describe as a politically motivated offensive. He is facing up to 15 to 20 years in prison and is currently located outside of Georgia. His party says upcoming municipal elections in October may well be the last democratic battleground to halt Georgias slide into authoritarianism. He told CNN: While the Megobari Act offers hope for strengthened Western engagement, international pressure alone cannot reverse Georgias current trajectory. The regime is aggressively working to eliminate all credible alternatives, but I am convinced that Georgian society has the determination and courage to resist, and to reclaim our rightful place in Europe, so long as the world remains engaged and vigilant. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com State Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, left, is considering a run for Iowa's 2nd Congressional District and Kathy Dolter has launched a campaign in the district. (Photos courtesy of the Iowa Legislature, Kathy Dolter) Democratic hopefuls are launching or moving toward bids to compete for the partys nomination in Iowas 2nd Congressional District for the 2026 election. State Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, said Tuesday she is considering a run for the 2nd District. The 44-year-old Presbyterian pastor, currently serving her 4th term in the Iowa House, said she is discussing with her family whether to run and speaking with people in the northeast Iowa district. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX As James considers a bid for the seat, another Democrat, Kathy Dolter, has entered the race. Dolter, former dean of nursing at Kirkwood Community College and a retired Army nurse, said in an interview Tuesday that she was motivated to run because of the cuts to public health made through the federal budget reconciliation bill and by the Trump administration. Having worked in education and the health care profession, Dolter said she wants to bring her experience as a health care professional and educator to Congress and be a part of the Democratic effort to flip Congress and stop or reverse these changes. She said she believes she would be the best choice for Iowans as someone who has significant accomplishments outside of politics like founding the nursing program at the University of Dubuque and graduate nursing program at Mount Mercy University, as well as working with the Army Surgeon General and Department of Defense to implement a new health program and guidelines for people serving in the military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I bring a lot of experience and a lot of can-do, and a lot of actual accomplishments, Dolter said. Im not a politician, but I would work hard. Im a hard worker, and would want to get things done to to help Iowans. Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann called Dolter a radical far-left political activist with Soros-ties in a Tuesday statement, saying she was no match for Republican incumbent Rep. Ashley Hinson in the 2026 election. We are confident that once Iowans get to know her, they will reject her just like Kevin Techau that is if she doesnt drop out first, Kaufmann said. Welcome to the big leagues, Kathy! Kevin Techau, former Iowa commissioner of public safety, had also launched a run to become the Democratic nominee for the congressional seat in April, but suspended his campaign in June because of funding shortfalls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dolter said in response to Kaufmanns statement she does not believe name-calling is appropriate. I am an American who served her country in many ways and has taken care of patients and taken care of students and taken care of Iowans, Dolter said. So, no. Ill put my record up against his any day. Hinson had been widely expected to run for reelection, but her name has recently been mentioned in Iowa and nationally as a potential candidate for U.S. Senate. Incumbent Republican Joni Ernst has not formally announced a reelection campaign, leading to speculation that she might not seek a third term. While the 2nd District is considered by political forecasters as less competitive than Iowas 1st and 3rd Districts, the area was recently represented by former U.S. Rep. Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat who won in 2018 and lost to Hinson in the 2020 election. Hinson won reelection in the 2022 and 2024 against Democratic challengers. James argues Iowans are exhausted by GOP agenda James argued the district will be competitive in the upcoming 2026 election, saying people in the district are exhausted by the choices made by leaders in Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have been traveling across the district hearing from folks across the district, and the system is not working for the majority of Iowans, James said. We need a change of leadership. I would argue that this district is highly competitive, because (voters) want people who will go fight for them, who will make sure that they can afford a house and, send their young children to child care, make sure that they have food on the table and a safe working place theres so many important issues. For the majority of Iowans, those needs are not being met. If she pursues a run for Congress, James said, she would focus on a platform that tackles the economic realities Iowans are currently facing, like low wages, high costs of housing and child care, and decreased funding for public education. James said Hinson is not talking about these issues in Congress, and that measures supported by the Iowa Republican like the big beautiful bill that included cuts to Medicaid and other public assistance programs will hurt Iowans, especially in rural areas. People are very clear that Hinson has stopped listening to Iowans, James said. They have felt left behind when it comes to the policies that shes passing. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE State House Representative and Minority Leader Cherlynn Stevenson leaves the stage after speaking on Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, during the Mike Miller Memorial Marshall County Bean Dinner. (Austin Anthony for the Kentucky Lantern) In the race for money in Kentuckys 6th Congressional District, former Kentucky House Democratic caucus chair Cherlynn Stevenson has gained the lead. Stevenson surpasses the candidates who have announced so far in cash, with a campaign total of more than $210,000 in two months. Thats all from contributions. Stevenson has not loaned her campaign any money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congressional candidates were required to submit finance reports for activities for April through June with the Federal Election Commission by Tuesday. The primary election for the seat is in May. The incumbent, U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, is running for U.S. Senate in 2026. Stevensons donors include several elected Kentucky Democrats, including state lawmakers Sen. Reggie Thomas, Rep. Erika Hancock and Rep. Adrielle Camuel. Former state lawmakers Rep. Angie Hatton and Rep. Rachel Roberts also contributed to Stevensons campaign. Stevenson received a donation from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC this quarter of $5,000. As this first round of fundraising reports shows, Cherlynn has real momentum right off the bat and is in a strong position headed into this next quarter, Jason Perkey, Stevensons campaign manager, said in a statement. Were not taking anything for granted we have our foot on the gas, and were not letting up. David Kloiber (David Kloiber campaign) Stevensons campaign said 77% of the donations were $25 or less, and most of its donations were from Kentuckians. Donations came from more than half of Kentuckys 120 counties, including all the counties in the 6th Congressional District, the campaign said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stevenson is off to a better fundraising start than any 6th District Democratic hopeful of the last decade, her campaign said. Her first-quarter haul exceeded that of Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath in 2018 and Josh Hicks, a Marine veteran and local attorney, in 2020. The campaign of David Kloiber, another Democrat vying for the seat, reported to the FEC that he has a total of $138,795 for the quarter. That includes $97,000 in self-loans from the candidate and about $42,000 in contributions. Kloiber is a former Lexington council member and announced his campaign in June. On the GOP side, Winchester state Rep. Ryan Dotson has garnered about $96,000 since getting into the race. According to Dotsons filing with the FEC, he received some support from two political action committees $2,000 from the Louisville Apartment Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Association PAC and $5,000 from the National Apartment Association PAC. He raised more than $35,000 in contributions. Dotson loaned his campaign $60,000. In a phone interview with the Kentucky Lantern, Dotson called from Washington, D.C, Wednesday afternoon, where he has met with advisers to President Donald Trump, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnsons political team, U.S. House GOP Whip Tom Emmers team and more Republican politicos. Dotsons campaign formally kicked off in June, which is when he began fundraising, he said. Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester. (LRC Public Information) Were on track to do really, really well, but we started off fundraising right at the end of the quarter. So, we have several fundraisers scheduled, Dotson said. We have several donors, different groups of donors, that will be giving pockets of money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for his meetings in the Capital, Dotson said hes established some great relationships and get more insight on his campaign. Im very engaged when it comes to my stance on conservative issues, Dotson said. So, I will be up here pushing back against the woke agenda. Ill be up here pushing back on things that I feel are detrimental to our nation and our families. A lot of that stuff does stir me up, and Ive done it on the House floor in Frankfort, but I want to be able to come and do it here in Washington, D.C., as well. Richmond Republican state Rep. Deanna Gordon announced her campaign after the reporting quarter ended, so her campaign did not have to file financial reports this time. Dr. Ralph Alvarado, the 2019 running mate of former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, said in a social media post last week that he is considering a run for the seat. Alvarado had been serving as the commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health but recently stepped down from the position. He is also a former Kentucky state senator. This story was updated with additional comments Wednesday afternoon. Jacksonville City Councilman Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) was removed from his only committee assignment on Tuesday after boycotting its first meeting. Peluso was on the Transportation, Energy & Utilities Committee prior to the decision made by City Council President Kevin Carrico (R- District 4). Peluso had sent a memorandum regarding the boycott to other council members prior to the meeting, encouraging other Democratic colleagues to join him in protesting inappropriate actions and poor council leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a time when we should be banding together, our new leadership is finding ways to drive us apart and performativity break from the traditions of prior City Councils by removing Council Members from Committees, said Peluso. There is no leadership for women, and a super minority of democrats on key committees, for multiple years now. Its time we banded together and stood up against leadership that continually looks to sideline important voices in the room. View current committee assignments here. President Carrico promptly removed Peluso from his only committee assignment, calling it a privilege granted at the discretion of City Council President. The decision to boycott the TEU Committee meeting signals an unwillingness to show up and do the work on behalf of your constituents, said Carrico. Its hard to argue for more responsibility by refusing to fulfill the responsibilities already entrusted in you. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] The Duval County Democratic Party responded, condemning the move by President Carrico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His decision to stack key committees with Republican allies - some with triple committee assignments - while limiting others to just one is not only unprecedented, it is undemocratic. The Republican Party of Duval County shared the following statement on social media on Wednesday morning: Action News Jax sat down with Kevin Carrico at the end of June to speak about his plans as the new council president. His term will last for the next year. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Democratic lawmakers concerned about Jacksonville-based companys involvement in Alligator Alcatraz A Jacksonville contractor hired to staff Alligator Alcatraz is coming under scrutiny from state lawmakers. Action News Jax first told you Tuesday Jacksonville-based Critical Response Strategies (CRS) is being paid $78.5 million dollars for its work at the immigration detention center in the Everglades. According to state records, the CRS LLC was created in 2021, and the following year it secured its first contract with the State of Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, CRS has secured 45 state contracts according to records from the Florida Department of Financial Services. Those contracts almost universally deal with disaster relief work, and in some cases, providing medical staff. Its raising even more alarm bells, said State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando). RELATED: Democrats and Republican lawmakers leave Alligator Alcatraz with vastly different impressions [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] Speaking to Action News Jax Wednesday, Eskamani questioned how any of CRS prior work translates to operating an immigrant detention center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are folks that they are being held in cages, they are being treated as if they are prisoners, yet the reality is that hundreds who are being detained have no criminal background, said Eskamani. She also questioned the qualifications of those staffing the facility. She noted Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie waived several rules, including the requirement for employees to undergo background checks, in the days leading up to Alligator Alcatrazs construction. And so it creates an environment where you have folks who are being paid excessive salaries, who are not experts in any of these fields, and are managing human bodies, said Eskamani. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When combined, CRS state contracts total more than $148 million over a three-year span. That means the companys latest $78.5 million contract related to Alligator Alcatraz exceeded the total value of the companys 44 prior state contracts. And that high price tag is also a point of concern for Eskamani. The hourly rates are astronomical. I mean, the lowest is $38 an hour, and they go up to hundreds of dollars per hour, and its unclear if those who are even hired to fulfill these roles are trained, said Eskamani. Action News Jax has been trying to get answers about CRS work at Alligator Alcatraz from both CRS and the Florida Division of Emergency Management for more than two weeks now. So far, weve gotten no response from either. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, traveled to the nations capital this week, meeting with congressional Democrats as his campaign gains national attention and criticism. Following his victory in the citys Democratic primary, Mamdani met privately with lawmakers during a closed-door breakfast hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). I think that we are continuing to grow our coalition, Mamdani said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several Democrats praised Mamdani for his authenticity and strategy, including Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.). Its just beautiful to have someone who is so authentic, Velazquez said. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) added, I think hes a very personable, smart young man. Rep. Luz Rivas (D-Calif.) said Mamdani offered insight into his campaigns communication strategy. We were just learning skills from him. Communication skills, Rivas said. Despite the praise, Mamdani has faced criticism from Republicans, including President Donald Trump, who took aim at his democratic socialist identity. In New York, we have a communist running. He may get elected too, actually, but hes going to kill, destroy the city, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Mamdani is receiving backing from prominent progressives, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Hes going to be a great mayor of New York City, Sanders said. I think the issues that hes campaigning on, and the need to create a city that is affordable for working-class people, is exactly what has to happen in New York. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. A special election for a vacant congressional seat in southern Arizona has become a tussle about the need for change in the Democratic party. After Rep. Raul Grijalva died in March, Deja Foxx, 25, is gaining ground in the special Democratic primary in Arizonas 7th District, running on a message of generational change against Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva, the late congressmans daughter. MSNBC Senior White House Correspondent Vaughn Hillyard spoke with both candidates in Arizon The Democratic Womens Caucus is demanding an investigation into the treatment of women in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, accusing the Trump administration of medical neglect in cases that include the loss of one womans unborn child. The Trump administration recently rescinded Biden-era guidance on treatment of migrants in detention, including those detailing guidelines for pregnant women. We are deeply concerned about womens access to health care, especially maternal health care, in ICE detention, the caucus wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Joseph Cuffari, inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reported assaults, medical neglect, and overall mistreatment of women by ICE agents and contractors demands immediate and thorough oversight and accountability, and this abuse must stop immediately, the caucus continued. We request an immediate and in-depth investigation into the violations against women while in ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. The DHS and Cuffaris office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The letter cites the case of Iris Dayana Monterroso-Lemus, who delivered a stillborn baby after being detained in immigration custody in Tennessee. According to an account she gave to the Nashville Banner, she pleaded for medical care for three days after feeling pain and no fetal movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After multiple transfers and too many pleas, she was finally admitted to a hospital on April 29th, where she delivered a stillborn baby. The doctors noted that her loss was a result of not receiving prenatal care the care she asked for repeatedly, the caucus wrote. We demand a full, transparent investigation into the pregnancy loss of Iris Dayana Monterroso Lemuss and the broader mistreatment of pregnant and postpartum women in ICE and CBP custody, the lawmakers continued. We request a report that outlines the incident, accountability, and corrective actions. The letter also asks what steps the administration has taken to protect women in custody. Under the Biden administration, immigration enforcement officers were encouraged not to put pregnant or nursing women in custody absent extraordinary circumstances. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also required that pregnant women be held in facilities suitable for their medical and mental health needs. Similar guidelines were also put into place by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In May, the Trump administration rescinded the CBP guidance, ending requirements for lactation accommodations and supplies like diapers and baby formula. Your disregard for womens health and safety is not just a one time instance, the abuse and neglect are part of a larger, systemic failure to treat women with dignity, compassion, and basic medical care, the lawmakers wrote. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The most vulnerable House Republicans on the ballot next year are building significant stores of cash as they prepare to defend the GOPs slender majority in Congress. And years before the first presidential primary votes are cast, some potential White House contenders are showing early fundraising strength. Here are several key takeaways from campaign finance reports filed at Tuesdays quarterly deadline with the Federal Election Commission. 2028ers are storing money now New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is up for reelection next year in a safely blue state. But he still raised nearly $10 million through his campaign and an affiliated committee between April 1 and the end of June, a period that began with his record-breaking Senate floor speech. He entered July with a massive $19.6 million in his Senate campaign account. That money could be transferred to a future White House campaign committee. WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 29: U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) speaks to reporters alongside U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) (L) and U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) (C) following the weekly Senate Democrat policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on April 29, 2025 in Washington, DC. During the news conference Senate Democrats spoke of U.S. President Donald Trump's first 100 days back in office. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images) - Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Another potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, California Rep. Ro Khanna, raised nearly $2.5 million in the three-month period and had $14.2 million in his House campaign account. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez followed up a record-breaking first quarter in which she hauled in $9.6 million with another strong fundraising period, bringing in $5.8 million in the second quarter. More than 70% of the money she raised in the April-to-June period came in amounts of $200 or smaller. The four-term congresswoman reported nearly $10 million in available cash. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy raised $2.3 million between April and June despite not facing reelection to the Senate until 2030. And Murphys quarterly report showed he had more than $10 million at the end of the period. And Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat first elected to the Senate last year and already making visits to early primary states and battlegrounds, raised about $780,000 in the second quarter and had about $885,000 remaining in his campaign account. Vulnerable House Republicans are banking large amounts Four out of the seven Republicans now seeking reelection in districts rated as tossups by Inside Elections with Nathan Gonzales each raised $1 million during the second quarter. And all seven had stockpiled at least $1 million in their campaign accounts at the end of June, led by New York Rep. Mike Lawler with $2.2 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawler, whose Hudson Valley district is among the most competitive in the country, will need the funds if he decides to keep pursuing reelection. Hes also weighing a challenge to New Yorks Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, although President Donald Trump has made clear he would prefer the two-term congressman remain in the narrowly divided House rather than risk losing a GOP seat. GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, reelected in her Iowa swing district by fewer than 800 votes last year, had nearly $2.1 million remaining in her election account. Ossoff is on a blistering pace Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, one of the Senates most prolific fundraisers and the only Democratic incumbent in the chamber seeking reelection next year in a state Trump carried, raised $10 million in the quarter. He had more than $15 million remaining in his campaign coffers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The race for the Republican nomination is still taking shape. US Rep. Buddy Carter, who entered the race in May, reported total receipts of $3 million. But that included a personal loan of $2 million Carter gave himself at the end of June. In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins, the lone Republican incumbent seeking reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris won last year, brought in more than $2.4 million, exceeding the roughly $842,000 she collected in the first three months of the year. Collins started July with more than $5.2 million stockpiled for her reelection battle. Jordan Wood, a former congressional aide who is seeking the Democratic nomination in Maine, reported $1.6 million in second-quarter receipts, including a $250,000 loan to his campaign. But many in the party are awaiting word from Maines term-limited Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on whether she will seek to take on Collins. Democratic primaries for open Senate seats heat up The Democrats already uphill battle to flip the Senate from Republican control next year is made harder as they defend several open seats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the crowded primary contest to succeed retiring Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow had the strongest second-quarter fundraising, bringing in $2.1 million. Another Democrat, Rep. Haley Stevens, reported higher total receipts $2.8 million but that included $1.5 million from her House campaign account in the form of transferred funds and in-kind contributions. Former Wayne County health official Abdul El-Sayed, meanwhile, raised $1.8 million. Former state House Speaker Joe Tate lagged behind at about $193,000. In Minnesota, Rep. Angie Craig, who represents a battleground House district, outraised Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, boosted in part by funds from her House campaign account. Craig and Flanagan are competing in the Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Tina Smith. And in New Hampshire, where Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is retiring, Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas raised $1.8 million and had about $2 million in available funds. Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, a top Republican recruit, entered the race at the end of June, just days before the end of the second-quarter fundraising period. Ernst fundraising slows Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst brought in about $723,000 in the second quarter. Thats a dip from the $1 million she collected in the first three months of the year and is likely to fuel further speculation that the two-term senator could opt to retire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ernst entered July with roughly $3.4 million in her campaign coffers. Ernst faced sharp criticism from the presidents allies over her initial concerns about his pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. She also created a viral moment for Democrats in Iowa and nationally at a town hall where someone pressing her about GOP-enacted Medicaid cuts said people would die as a result. Well, we all are going to die, Ernst replied. WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 28: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks to press after meeting with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) nominee Terry Cole outside of his office at the Hart Senate Office Building on April 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Cole is currently Virginias Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and has worked at the DEA for the past 22 years. (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images) - Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images In Texas, Cornyn outraises Paxton One of the most hotly contested GOP primary battles of the midterms is unfolding in deep-red Texas. Four-term Sen. John Cornyn started the month with an early financial advantage over his primary challenger, Attorney General Ken Paxton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cornyn had amassed nearly $6 million in cash reserves in his main Senate campaign account, surpassing the $2.5 million that Paxton had remaining in his. Rep. Wesley Hunt, a Trump ally who has signaled he might join the contest, raised nearly half a million dollars during the second quarter and started July with $3 million in available cash. Spanberger swamps Earle-Sears in Virginia gubernatorial race Democrats looking to this falls off-year elections see promising signs in Virginia, where Democrat Abigail Spanberger is dominating her GOP rival, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, in fundraising as they battle to become the states next governor. Spanberger raised $10.7 million during the second quarter, swamping the $5.9 million reported by Earle-Sears. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With the help of outside groups, Democrats are outspending Republicans on advertising in Virginia by about $13 million to $3 million, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact. Massie gets an influx after facing Trump threats One test of Trumps influence will play out in Kentucky. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has faced Trumps ire over his refusal to back the presidents landmark policy law. Massie, who already is the target of a million-dollar ad campaign by a Trump-linked outside group, raised $586,000 between the beginning of April and the end of June. That was more than his haul of $445,000 in the first quarter of the year, and up significantly from the $55,000 that Massie raised in the second quarter of 2023, the same period in the last election cycle. His campaign touted an influx of new donors, saying 68% of the contributors during the three-month period were first-time givers. Among the notable Massie donors were Rory Gates, the son of billionaire philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, who gave a maximum donation of $7,000, and former GOP congressman Justin Amash, who contributed $3,500. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Entering July, Massie had amassed more than $1.7 million. A Democrat arrested at an ICE protest sees a surge Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, drew national attention when she was arrested during a confrontation with immigration officers at a detention center in May. She brought in more than $750,000 between April 1 and the end of June, the new filings show. McIver, first elected in a special election last September, had raised only $65,000 in the first three months of the year. The campaigns of the top Democrat in the House, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were among McIvers second-quarter contributors, records show. McIver has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that allege she assaulted and interfered with federal immigration officers. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Goldman Sachs just hired Devin, an AI-powered software engineer thats capable of coding just as well as humansminus six-figure salaries. The company also has plans to potentially unleash it by the thousands and expand workers productivity with AI tools by over four times. While the firms tech leader sees a future thats a hybrid workforce between humans and AI, leaders like Ford CEO Jim Farley warn of a decrease in white-collar work. The newest hire at Goldman Sachs wont be able to have a coffee chat with coworker Rishi Sunak, or attend the firms after-work happy hour. Rather, it will be working all day on its coding assignments. The Wall Street investment bank recently unveiled it had hired Devin: a new AI-powered autonomous software engineer, created by AI startup Cognition. With the tool being capable of conducting end-to-end coding tasks, Goldman hopes it will improve worker productivity by up to three or four times the rate of previous AI tools, according to Goldmans chief information officer Marco Argenti. Were going to start augmenting our workforce with Devin, which is going to be like our new employee whos going to start doing stuff on the behalf of our developers, Argenti recently told CNBC. Goldman Sachs plans to launch Devin by the hundredsmaybe eventually even by the thousands, Argenti addedjoining the nearly 12,000 existing software engineers at the company. He said he hopes this move will help usher in a hybrid workforce era in which humans and AI coexist. Its really about people and AIs working side by side, Argenti said. Engineers are going to be expected to have the ability to really describe problems in a coherent way and turn it into promptsand then be able to supervise the work of those agents. Fortune reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment. Growing concerns over AI killing white-collar roles and entry-level gigs Despite the push to launch Devin, Goldman is continuing to hire software engineers, with dozens of open roles around the world. The salary of some New Yorkbased associate roles start out at around $115,000 annuallyand can even extend to $180,000. But business leaders have warned that these early career roles are the ones that AI might make obsolete the soonest. For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei predicted that AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within five years. Ford CEO Jim Farley went even further, and warned that all white-collar work could disappear in the U.S.beyond those early in their careers. Theres more than one way to the American Dream, but our whole education system is focused on four-year [college] education, Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival last month. Hiring an entry worker at a tech company has fallen 50% since 2019. Is that really where we want all of our kids to go? Artificial intelligence is gonna replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S. The News COLUMBIA, S.C. The search for a liberal Joe Rogan has led Democrats to an unlikely candidate: Jaime Harrison, their former party chair. Harrison will launch on Thursday. Its an interview show hes been recording from his home in South Carolina and from the road, where he frequently spends time with the partys once and future stars. Civic education in America is at an all-time low, Harrison told Semafor this week, shortly before meeting up with Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, the latest ambitious Democrat to visit Harrisons home state ahead of its 2028 presidential primary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its really important to start educating people about these processes that are so important in terms of determining who our leaders will be, he added. The first episodes of put Harrison next to 2024 vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, South Carolina kingmaker (and Harrison mentor) Rep. James Clyburn and Hunter Biden, the prodigal former First Son who has not spoken out since his father ended his last presidential bid. The View From Jaime Harrison David Weigel: How did this podcast come together? What was the germ of the idea? Jaime Harrison: Listen, Ive been thinking about doing this for a while. When I was DNC chair, I had this whole idea about a channel on YouTube called DTV. I would anchor a podcast, and then we would have a number of other shows with Democratic elected officials and activists. The only thing we ended up doing was Welcome to the Party, my DNC podcast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Very quickly, our folks said we dont have the bandwidth to do that, so we abandoned that effort. But as we saw from the 2024 elections, more and more people are getting their news from social media channels. This was something I knew that we needed, but we werent able to do. Now, I dont have anybody that I have to send anything to for approval. I can do whatever the hell I want to do! Youre bringing Hunter Biden on as one of your first guests. What was the thinking there? Well, I got a chance to get to know Hunter a lot over the last four years. I dont know if you remember, but back in the day, when I was the South Carolina Democratic Party chair, I had this little series called chair chats. In chair chats, we talked about moving past caricatures. And in many ways, I think Hunter Biden has become a caricature in politics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of people dont know how smart he is, dont know his background, dont know the stuff that hes worked on. They only know what either his allies or his enemies have put out there, and hes been defined by that. I thought it would be really interesting to pull back the curtain so that people got a chance to understand who he is, and for him to get an opportunity to talk about some of the things that maybe hes only been able to talk to his family members about. Its a really, really interesting conversation. We had everything from laughter and joy to tears to anger to frustration. Thats what a good family conversation is all about, right? Its about having that range of emotions and being able to be vulnerable and to really share what youre thinking and how youre feeling about some of the most important things going on in your life. One thing Hunter Biden says in the interview is that Democrats lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. Thats my position. Is that your position? Youll hear some of my feedback on that, but I would say this now: Things may have been somewhat different, had the loyalty that we saw Republicans have for Donald Trump, when Trump got convicted 34 times, and you didnt hear a peep from the Republican Party I would love to see a little more of that from Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrats are very quick, man, to take our knives out and go after our folks at the first sign of any problem. And I dont think thats always in the best interest of the party. I heard this a lot on the campaign trail. That lack of loyalty, I think, is part of the reason why you see some wavering within the base of our party, because they dont feel as though that the party will stand up for them. Democrats now seem to agree that they were too reluctant to go on podcasts that might last for hours, and that Trump was smart to do it. Maybe he has more ability to do that than some other candidates. But from your perspective, running the DNC during that campaign, what was their reluctance? I agree with Tim Walz. Theres this hypersensitivity not to mess up in the Democratic Party. I saw this at the DNC sometimes. I had the pushback even sometimes with my own comms people, sometimes even with the comms folks over at the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You saw this with President Biden. Sometimes, the president is allowed to be who he is, and he lets loose, and there might be a gaffe once or twice. Hell, Donald Trump gaffes every time he opens his mouth, but he keeps going. It shows that hes real. The part that many of us loved about Joe Biden is that real. He might mess up or say something that might not be the most PC here or there, but it just showed the humanity of the man. That was part of the charm of Joe Biden and why people loved him. But we Democrats put ourselves in straitjackets, and we sanitize every damn thing that comes out of our mouths. So what does come out comes out without any soul. Republicans understand the power of emotion. It could be fear or it could be joy, but its emotion, and they use it. Is there anyone you blame in the Harris campaign for her not doing more of these podcasts? To be quite honest, I dont know whose ultimate decision it was. I dont know if it was Jen [OMalley Dillon] or anybody else. But we had two weeks of I mean, this just unnerved me in some ways two weeks of, why isnt Kamala doing interviews? Prior to that, she was knocking interviews out of the box. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So I never understood: Why wouldnt you let her just go and do the interview? Once she did one, the commentary was about why she took so long. It was not something that I would have done. I also felt that, in the end, they put a muzzle on both her and on Tim Walz. And I asked Gov. Walz about that. He was so loose during the whole veepstakes. He was great on TV. And I just dont know what happened afterwards. That was my biggest frustration. But you know, hell, they put restrictor plates on me, too. What questions are you asking these Democrats that nobody else has been asking? At the end of every episode, I ask them who theyd give a special award to, and we call it the Sit Your Ass Down Award. Who in politics would you like to give the Sit Your Ass Down Award? And it really is enlightening to hear. Jim Clyburn was very diplomatic, and he told me: Jaime, Im not going to answer that. Tim Walz was very game. Notable A group of Democrats in Congress is introducing legislation to close loopholes that allow for unchecked donations to presidential libraries. The new bill comes after Paramount Global and Disney each agreed to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump with most of the money earmarked for Trumps future presidential library to settle lawsuits he had filed against the media companies. The bill, the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act of 2025, is spearheaded by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has called Paramounts settlement with Trump tantamount to bribery, alleging the payment represents a quid-pro-quo to secure the administrations approval for the Skydance Media deal. (Paramount, Trump and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr have said the FCCs review of the Skydance transaction is unrelated to Trumps suit against Paramount and CBS.) More from Variety Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to the Paramount and Disney payments toward Trumps presidential library, the Democrats cited Metas $25 million deal with Trump to settle his lawsuit over the Facebook and Instagram ban on his account after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill and a similar $10 million settlement with Elon Musks X. Most of those funds are also targeted for Trumps presidential library. In addition, Warren called out President Trumps accepting a free Boeing luxury jet valued at $400 million from the government of Qatar, a gift that would subsequently be donated to his presidential library after he leaves office. Trump also reportedly plans to funnel leftover inaugural committee donations from corporations to his presidential library. The Democrats noted that other presidents, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, have also faced scrutiny over questionable donations to their libraries while in office. Presidential libraries should be monuments to history, not backdoor vehicles for influence, the Democrats said in a brief outlining the legislation. The Warren-led bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Reps. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not clear the bill has a chance of getting through the Republican-controlled Congress, as GOP members have shown fealty to President Trump. Warren on Tuesday released an analysis finding that companies seeking favorable outcomes from the Trump administration have pledged to funnel at least $63 million into Trumps future presidential library. Including the $400 million jet from Qatar, the total value of gifts flowing into Trumps library is at least half a billion dollars, Warren claimed. According to the Democrats, unlike donations to presidential campaigns or inaugural committees, there are virtually no restrictions on donations to presidential libraries in U.S. law. Even while still in office, presidents can solicit unlimited, undisclosed donations from anyone, including foreign nationals, lobbyists, federal contractors and corporations with business before federal agencies, for their libraries. The Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act would specifically: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delay fundraising to start after the president leaves office, with a carveout for nonprofits: This would require that presidential libraries wait until a U.S. president leaves office before fundraising or accepting donations, except from 501(c)(3) organizations (mirroring the standard adopted by the Obama Foundation). Establish a contribution cap of $10,000 total for 501(c)(3) organizations that can donate while a president is still in office. Impose a cooling-off period for donations from foreign nationals, lobbyists, contractors, and individuals seeking pardons: For an additional two years after the president leaves office, the legislation would prohibit donations from foreign nationals or foreign governments, registered lobbyists, federal contractors, and individuals seeking presidential pardons. Ban the use of presidential library donations for personal expenses or unrelated financial obligations. Mandate quarterly disclosures: During the presidents time in office and for five years after, require all donations of $200 or more to be disclosed to the National Archives each calendar quarter. Publish donor information (including name, employer, and date and amount of the donation) online in a searchable, downloadable format. Prohibit straw donations: Make it illegal to donate in someone elses name or to knowingly allow your name to be used for a straw donation. According to the congressional Democrats, the bill is endorsed by: the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Democracy Defenders Action (DDA), Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Freedom of the Press Foundation, Public Citizen, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Demand Progress and the American Governance Institute. Best of Variety Sign up for Variety's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. After previously warning she would introduce legislation to rein in corruption through presidential library donations, Sen. Elizabeth Warren is leading the charge with a group of Democrat lawmakers on the Presidential Library Anti-Corruption Act of 2025. The bill, which is aimed at closing loopholes allowing for unchecked donations to presidential libraries, is co-sponsored by Senators Angela Alsobrooks, Richard Blumenthal, Dick Durbin, Crhis Van Hollen, Andy Kim, Ed Markey, Jeff Merkley, Alex Padilla, Gary Peters, Jack Reed, Bernie Sanders, Sheldon Whitehouse, Adam Schiff and Ron Wyden. Reps. Jared Moskowitz, Melanie Stansbury, Jamie Raskin, Andre Carson, Emmanuel Cleaver, Bonnie Watson Coleman, Dwight Evans, Hank Johnson, Dave Min, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Frank Pallone and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.) are also co-sponsors. More from TheWrap Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation would require presidents to wait until after leaving office before fundraising or accepting donations, except for 501(c)(3) organizations who would be limited to a contribution cap of $10,000 total. It would also prohibit donations from foreign nationals or foreign governments, registered lobbyists, federal contractors, and individuals seeking presidential pardons for two years after a president leaves office. Additionally, it would prohibit straw donations, in which someone makes a donation under someone elses name, ban the use of presidential library donations for personal expenses or unrelated financial obligations, and require all donations of $200 or more to be disclosed to the National Archives each calendar quarter during the presidents time in office and five years after. Donor information, including name, employer, and date and amount of the donation, would be published online in a searchable, downloadable format. This boils down to a simple question: Who does the government work for? Warren said during a call with reporters on Wednesday. We believe it works for the American people. A White House spokesperson did not immediately return TheWraps request for comment on the proposed legislation. A new analysis released by Warren found that companies have pledged to funnel at least $63 million into Trumps future presidential library. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among them are Paramount, which agreed to settle a lawsuit over its Oct. 7 60 Minutes interview with former vice president Kamala Harris for $16 million, and Disney, which paid $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit Trump brought against ABC News and star anchor George Stephanopoulos. Warrens report also cites Meta, which paid $25 million including a $22 million library donation per the Wall Street Journal to settle Trumps lawsuit about being kicked off Facebook and Instagram after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and X, which paid $10 million to settle a similar suit. Additionally she called out other gifts and in-kind donations, including a $400 million luxury jet from Qatar, expensive candlelight dinners at Mar-a-Lago, leftover inauguration donations, and more. Together, she says the gifts for Trumps library are worth at least half a billion dollars. Though she acknowledged that past presidents, including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, have also accepted suspicion donations while in office, Warren argued Trump is doing so at a magnitude that makes glaringly clear the need for common-sense guardrails. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the press call, Stansbury said Trumps acceptance of the Qatari plane mirrored one of the key plot devices in House of Cards, adding that it does lead one to wonder if Mr. Donald Trump is getting his idea for corruption from TV shows. Passage of the bill will likely be an uphill battle, as Moskowitz said there are no Republicans I am aware of in the House who want to sign on as sponsors. Blumenthal similarly said there were not yet GOP backers in the Senate, adding that Republicans have demonstrated absolutely no backbone at all, or in any way sponsoring legislation that could be interpreted, in the most expansive way, as implying the slightest degree of criticism of Donald Trump. The plans to formally introduce legislation comes after Warren slammed Paramounts settlement with Trump, warning it could be bribery in plain sight to secure regulatory approval of its pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The deal is under review with the Federal Communications Commission due to a required transfer of broadcast licenses. Paramount and the FCC have previously argued that the settlement is unrelated to the Skydance merger. At the time, she said that the media giant had refused to provide answers to a congressional inquiry and that she was calling for a full investigation into whether or not any anti-bribery laws were broken. She added that the Trump administrations level of sheer corruption is appalling and Paramount should be ashamed of putting its profits over independent journalism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other lawmakers who called out the Paramount settlement were Wyden, who said hed be first in line calling for federal charges when Democrats retake power and encouraged state prosecutors to make corporate execs who sold out our democracy answer in court, and Sanders, who said the Paramount settlement sets an extremely dangerous precedent in terms of both the First Amendment and government extortion and will only embolden Trump to continue attacking. Markey and Senator Ben Ray Lujan have also said the settlement has cast a shadow over the Skydance deal and that it raises serious questions about Paramounts rationale and its implications for media independence. They have called on the FCC to hold a full committee vote on the Skydance merger and said the agency owes the public a transparent, deliberative process on such a high-profile and controversial issue. The post Democrats to Introduce Anti-Corruption Legislation for Presidential Library Donations in Wake of Paramount Settlement appeared first on TheWrap. Republicans in the House of Representatives blocked an attempt by Democrats to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein Tuesday afternoon in a chaotic vote. On Tuesday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tried to get a vote on the House floor for his legislation that would have released files about the late disgraced financier who died by suicide in prison after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking underage girls. That came after Khannas amendment failed in the House Rules Committee on Monday. Through some House rules maneuvers, Khanna was able to get a vote on including his proposal as an amendment to other non-related bills. The House floor soon ground to a halt. The vote remained open for more than half an hour, a handful of Republicans abstaining. In the end, he lost the chance to add his proposal as an amendment by a single vote, 211-210. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will keep fighting to get this thing released, Khanna told The Independent. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tried to force a vote on his amendment to disclose files about Jeffrey Epstein, but it failed. (Getty Images for Court Accountab) Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tried to force a vote on his amendment to disclose files about Jeffrey Epstein, but it failed. (Getty Images for Court Accountab) Nine Republicans abstained from voting while two Democrats did not vote on the legislation. The chaos and confusion on the floor reflected the larger conundrum Republicans face on Epstein. For the past few years, Republicans in Congress have frequently called for the release of the files related to his charges and his trafficking of young women. That fell apart last week when the Department of Justice and the FBI determined that no proof existed that Epstein engaged in a vast blackmail conspiracy, and no "client list" existed and that Epstein likely killed himself when he was in prison. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That caused many in the larger MAGA-sphere to accuse Attorney General Pam Bondi of engaging in a cover-up. But Trump defended Bondi on Truth Social, saying to "LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB SHE'S GREAT." Trump and Epstein also enjoyed a friendship for many years, though no evidence has come to light that Trump engaged in sexual misconduct with the young women and girls that Epstein trafficked. "It's noteworthy that everybody, including the president on the Republican side, was so determined and adamant about releasing the Epstein files, and then somehow, all of a sudden, they decide that they don't want transparency," Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told The Independent. "And with all of the various connections between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, and the fact that Pam Bondi has demonstrated herself to be essentially an arm of Donald Trump's personal interests, it is quite clear that Donald Trump intervened to conceal and hide the Epstein files." Democrats for their part seemed to take pleasure in the chaos. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who recently became the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said that Republicans were being hypocrites. For the past few years, Republicans in Congress have frequently called for the release of the files related to his charges and his trafficking of young women (Getty) For the past few years, Republicans in Congress have frequently called for the release of the files related to his charges and his trafficking of young women (Getty) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clearly, theyre hiding something, clearly Donald Trump is hiding something, he told The Independent. This was never our issue. Weve been focused on other things, but they've been obsessed about it and now that they're clearly hiding something, I think its in the public interest we should release them. Garcia took over the Oversight Committee last month after the death of Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). He recently defeated Jasmine Crockett of Texas for the spot. Both Crockett and Garcia are more combative than their older Democratic predecessors and see it as their job to take the fight to Republicans after Trumps victory. Garcia said that if Democrats retake the majority, they would ask the right questions and issue subpoenas to properly declassify information from the Epstein case. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) put it bluntly: Theyre complicit. Senate Judiciary Democrats are scrambling to make their case as the panel weighs the controversial judicial nomination of a Trump official accused of proposing the Justice Department (DOJ) defy court orders. Emil Bove, the principal deputy attorney general, has been nominated for a lifetime appointment to a bench of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Democrats made a last-ditch effort Tuesday to call a hearing with the whistleblower who said he heard Bove suggest the Trump administration should consider ignoring potential court rulings on their plans to send migrants to foreign prisons, with Bove saying they may tell the courts, F you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Bove looks poised to proceed, as the one Senate Judiciary Republican who has opposed the nominee, Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) has signaled he would back his confirmation, which would bring a vote before the full Senate. Bove is expected to have the votes to win confirmation on the Senate floor, where Republicans have a 53-47 seat majority. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said the committee must hear from the whistleblower behind the accusations: Erez Reuveni, who was fired after a disclosure he made in a related case, telling a judge that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported in error. I dont think we should move forward with this vote until weve given the whistleblower an opportunity under oath before the committee to tell us what happened, what we have here. Mr. Bove was in a position where he was encouraging members of the Department of Justice to mislead the judge on the case. That is just unacceptable, unprofessional conduct, Durbin said Tuesday on CNN referencing the planned Thursday vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This gentleman is prepared to go under oath and to speak to the committee about what he saw and what Mr. Bove did. We should get that done before theres any vote in the committee on his nomination. Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), however, says the vote will go forward as planned. Bove, previously a member of Trumps personal criminal defense team, currently serves in the No. 3 spot in the DOJ. Should his nomination advance Thursday, he would be launched to a sphere of the judiciary from which Supreme Court justices are often chosen. Numerous groups have also objected to Boves nomination. Seventy-five formal federal judges signed on to a letter opposing his nomination, calling his dismissal of prosecutors, involvement in killing the bribery prosecution of New York Mayor Eric Adams (D), and nods to defying court orders disqualifying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last week, the committee released substantial documentation from Reuveni showing other DOJ employees present for a March 14 meeting referencing the expletive, as well as floating the directive to defy the courts as President Trump pushed ahead with plans to ignite the Alien Enemies Act and fly some 200 Venezuelan men to a Salvadoran prison. According to a complaint on file with the inspector general, Bove made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated. Bove stated thatthe DOJ would need to consider telling the courts f you and ignore any such court order. Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Mr. Reuveni was in disbelief, because, on the contrary, the Department of Justice consistently advises its clients of their obligation to follow court orders, not to ignore them. Mr. Reuveni knew that it was absurd and unlawful to do otherwise, the whistleblower relayed in his disclosure. The documents released by Durbin provide greater details about an episode that prompted the judge overseeing a challenge to the flights to conclude there was probable cause for criminal contempt, finding Trump administration willfully defied his order to halt or turn around the planes of migrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an exchange with colleagues, Reuveni can be seen discussing Boves remarks with coworkers, saying they were reaching a decision point on f you. Bove said he couldnt recall whether he used the expletive but sidestepped questions about whether he ordered defiance of the courts. Ive certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take, Bove said at his confirmation hearing. I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation, he added about the Alien Enemies Act flights. Democrats have grilled Bove about his stance on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, as the DOJ official was involved with dismissing prosecutors who worked on the cases of rioters and also demanded a list of FBI personnel who helped investigate the cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They had hoped Tillis might side with them, given his statement in a recent CNN interview after announcing his retirement that those who excused Jan. 6 would not get his backing. Bove, in written questions for the record, said he could not recall where he was as rioters stormed the Capitol but otherwise said he does not see his skepticism of Jan. 6 prosecutions as being at odds with his stance of opposing violence against law enforcement. As a former prosecutor with almost a decade of experience enforcing criminal laws, I condemn all forms of illegal activity. That is especially true with respect to acts of violence against law enforcement, Bove wrote in documents obtained by The Hill. At the same time, based on a variety of professional experiences, I find overreach and heavy-handed tactics by prosecutors and law enforcement to be equally unacceptable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tillis previously opposed the nomination of another Justice Department nominee, Ed Martin, who had said Jan. 6 rioters were unfairly prosecuted. It was just disqualifying. I mean he literally was excusing some of the behavior of people who entered the building, Tillis said of Martin. The president should know, if there is anyone coming up for a nomination through any committee of my jurisdiction that excused January the 6th, that theyre not going to get confirmed in my remaining tenure in the U.S. Senate. But speaking with The Hill on Tuesday, Tillis reiterated his plans to follow the staff recommendation on the Bove nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, the staff has a yes recommendation. I dont see any reason to oppose them, he said. Anybody who excuses that behavior has a problem with me, Tillis said about Jan. 6, but said he hadnt seen that from Bove. But I havent seen that yet, and Dick Durbin didnt add any to the conversation last week, Tillis added. For his part, Grassley also pushed back on Reuvenis allegations, saying the documents released by Durbin didnt directly show wrongdoing by Bove. I do not believe that they substantiate any misconduct by Mr. Bove, Grassley wrote in a Tuesday letter to Durbin. Almost none of the additional documents you published include, reference, or even cite Mr. Bove. Most of the communications merely reflect Administration attorneys internally debating or discussing litigation strategy and the scope of court orders. Debate about the scope of court orders is fundamentally inconsistent with an intention to ignore them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A group of 20 Democratic attorneys general filed a new lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday morning, aiming to restore a canceled grant program that helped states protect against potential disaster damage. The lawsuit says the administration in April illegally ended a multibillion-dollar Federal Emergency Management Agency program that was established under a 2018 law signed by President Donald Trump. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, also asks the court to declare that FEMAs current leader is acting as FEMA administrator unlawfully. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement David Richardson has been acting administrator since Trump appointed him in May, a position that avoids Senate confirmation and a statutory requirement that a FEMA administrator have experience in emergency management. Richardson is a former Marine officer and expert in weapons of mass destruction who has not worked in emergency management. After the administration canceled FEMAs Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, it reclaimed $4.5 billion in grants that had been approved for states but not spent. Without the BRIC money, states and communities have halted or scaled back dozens of projects aimed at protecting against flood damage, wildfires and other weather-related events. The impact of the shutdown has been devastating, the lawsuit says. The complaint says the administration lacks the authority to end the BRIC program and seeks a preliminary ruling that would restore the canceled funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump and his lackeys have once again jeopardized public safety with their indiscriminate slashing of pre-disaster mitigation funding, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said in a statement. Were taking them to court not because we want to, but because we have to. The Democratic attorneys general have filed other lawsuits challenging Trumps actions to cut off other FEMA funding and to require states to help with immigration enforcement in order to get FEMA funds. In addition to Bonta, the plaintiffs are the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseths role in a Signal group chat during a confirmation hearing for former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz to serve as ambassador to the U.N. Waltz came under scrutiny after his team set up a Signal group chat to discuss strikes against the Houthis. A journalist from the Atlantic was accidentally included along with other top administration officials, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said it was an "amateurish move" for Waltzs office to include the journalist, Kaine said that nothing indicated Waltz shared classified information in the chat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Kaine said there are at least two Pentagon investigations underway, one with the Pentagon inspector general and another with the Air Force, to determine whether Hegseth did disclose classified information in the chats when he discussed specific aircraft and times of the strikes. Profound Cowardice: Booker Slams Waltz For Failure Of Leadership,' Signalgate Accountability Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in the Dirksen Senate Office Building July 15, 2025, in Washington. "They haven't yet reached a conclusion, but they certainly haven't reached a conclusion that no classified information is shared. Am I wrong about that?" Kaine said of the investigations. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I shouldn't and can't comment on ongoing investigations," Waltz said. "What I can do is echo Secretary Hegseths testimony that no names, targets, locations, units, route, sources, methods, no classified information." "I got it. I'm sure Secretary Hegseth says he didn't share any classified information," Kaine said. "But the fact of the matter is there are two investigations going on at the Pentagon precisely to determine, in an objective and independent way, whether classified information was shared and, a minimum, sharing attack plans with sensitive military information that shouldn't have been shared." Senate Democrats Predicting Brutal Un Ambassador Confirmation Hearing For Mike Waltz Democratic lawmakers zeroed in on the role of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, right, in a Signal group chat during a confirmation hearing for former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, left, to serve as ambassador to the U.N. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Conn., also voiced concerns about the use of the Signal group chat after Waltz doubled down on the Trump administrations claims that no classified information was communicated over the chat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You were sharing details about an upcoming airstrike and the time of launch and the potential targets," Coons said. "I mean, this was demonstrably sensitive information." Coons asked Waltz if the former national security advisor had spoken to Hegseth about his decision to share detailed information pertaining to the strike. Next Us National Security Advisor? Here's Whom Trump Might Pick To Replace Waltz "What we spoke about, Senator, was a highly successful mission that did something that the Biden administration did not do, (which) was actually target the Houthi leadership," Waltz said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmakers, including Coons, voiced that theyd hoped Waltz would take ownership of what was discussed in the chat, while Waltz maintained no classified information was shared. "I was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app," Coons said. "That's not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information." Former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz previously served as a congressman from Florida and is a retired Army National Guard colonel and former Green Beret. "Again, Senator, I think we have a fundamental disagreement, as there was no classified information on that chat," Waltz said. The Pentagon declined to provide comment to Fox News Digital. Waltz could not be reached for comment by Fox News Digital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waltz previously served as a U.S. congressman from Florida and is a retired Army National Guard colonel and former Green Beret. President Donald Trump announced Waltz would leave his role at the White House leading the National Security Council May 1, only to reveal hours later the former Florida congressmans nomination to represent the U.S. at the U.N. Original article source: Dems press Waltz on Hegseth sharing 'demonstrably sensitive information' in Signal chat DENVER (KDVR) The city and county of Denver are suing the Trump administration following threats to withhold federal funding from sanctuary jurisdictions, which are allegedly defying federal immigration laws. The lawsuit was filed on July 8 in Federal District Court in the Northern District of California, which includes dozens of cities and counties across the country: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland. Denver sues Trump administration over potential loss of transportation funding Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even as President Trump continues to willfully ignore the rule of law by bullying cities into doing his dirty work, Denver will always stay true to our values, said Mayor Mike Johnston in a press release on Tuesday. Time and time again, Denver has showed that we enforce the law without fear or favor and work with federal authorities to bring criminals to justice. We will continue to stand up for what Denverites believe in and fight for the federal funding that our residents deserve. In May, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a list of sanctuary jurisdictions throughout the country, which were said to be obstructing federal immigration laws. This came after Trumps signing of an executive order, cracking down on immigration laws. Colorado has a number of cities and counties on the list of sanctuary jurisdictions.. In the lawsuit, the city and county of Denver mention that it has already passed city policies in 2017 regarding immigration, Standing with Immigrants and Refugees: A Safe and Welcoming City for All of Denvers People, an executive order, and Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act. Stating that the city has some coordination with federal law enforcement officers, however, the passed policies allow for city employees to allocate their time and efforts to provide city services to all residents of Denver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Denver sues after Trump administration freezes large-scale security threat funds The lawsuit also states that the U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has pursued litigation against Denver, along with cities of Rochester and Los Angeles, for limiting cooperation with federal immigration officials. Without the federal funding, the lawsuit stated that it would cause cutbacks on essential services, ending grant-funded projects and job cuts for Denver city employees, which would impact public health and safety, and cause additional economic instability in Denver and the greater metropolitan area. This is the city and county of Denvers 4th lawsuit against the Trump Administration. Last month, the city joined a number of other jurisdictions across the country after funding for a counterterrorism program had been frozen. Following the filing of the lawsuit, the Trump Administration had reinstated funding and reimbursed Denver, said Johnston in the press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. DENVER (KDVR) Denver police responded to three injury shootings and a deadly stabbing over Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. Police reported the first shooting just after 6 p.m., where one person was injured in the 2300 block of South Sherman Street. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox At midnight, police reported the second shooting in the 4600 block of West 46th Avenue. One person was also injured in this shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At 2:35 a.m., police reported one person was shot in the 5900 block of North Dunkirk Street. Police also around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday reported they are investigating a homicide in the 8400 block of East Hampden Avenue. A man was taken to a hospital where he died, and police told FOX31s Kasia Kerridge the man was stabbed. In all three shootings, police said the extent of injuries is unknown, and no suspect information has been released on any of the shootings or the stabbing. Police have not said that any of the shootings or the stabbing are connected. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. A Turkish court has sentenced Istanbul's deposed mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, to one year and eight months in prison for insulting and threatening a public official. According to reports by the DHA news agency and state broadcaster TRT, the court acquitted him of a separate charge of targeting a prosecutor. Prison terms of this length typically do not result in incarceration under Turkish law. Imamoglu, a prominent opposition figure, had faced more than seven years in prison and a potential ban from holding political office. The verdict is not yet final. He remains in pre-trial detention on other charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case stems from remarks Imamoglu made after the home of a youth wing leader from his Republican People's Party (CHP) was raided. In his comments, he referred to Istanbuls chief prosecutor, Akn Gurlek, as having a "rotten" mind. Since Imamoglus arrest on March 19, opposition figures have come under increasing pressure, with dozens of CHP mayors dismissed or detained. Critics view the crackdown as an effort by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government to reclaim ground lost in the 2024 local elections, where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) suffered a historic defeat, placing second nationwide behind the CHP. The government denies exerting influence over the judiciary. Imamoglu, widely regarded as the main challenger to Erdogan in the 2028 presidential race, has already been nominated as a candidate by his party. In December 2022, Imamoglu was sentenced to two years and seven months in prison and banned from politics, though that verdict is still under appeal. Several other legal proceedings remain ongoing. Hensol Castle Distillery is looking for Molson Coors Beverage Company to boost the Welsh distillers presence in the UK on-trade. In a statement, Hensol Castle Distillery said the nationwide deal is a significant step in its growth beyond its south Wales and will make its spirits accessible to a broader on-trade audience. Initially, the tie-up will focus on gin and rum sold under the Hensol Castle brand and vodka and gin marketed under the Benjamin Hall brand. Chris Leeke, managing director and co-founder of Hensol Castle Distillery, said the deal is a game-changer for us. He added: "Working with Molson Coors allows our spirits to reach new audiences and brings our castle-crafted quality to bars and restaurants right across the UK." Molson Coors, the owner of brands including Carling and Staropramen, is one of the largest brewers operating in the country. The UK is Hensol Castle Distillerys main market but it has distribution in Canada, Belgium and through travel retail. In the UK, the distiller also supplies supermarket chains Tesco, Asda and Morrisons. The company also offers a white-label service supplying retail and hospitality customers Martin Anderson, a regional sales controller at Molson Coors, said: "We are excited to add Hensol Castle to our extensive on-trade distribution portfolio, bringing the unique offering of their portfolio to customers near and far." "Hensol Castle secures UK on-trade distribution deal with Molson Coors " was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that the Trump administration can continue its process of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by laying off more than 1,000 workers. Some may now be wondering how these cuts could impact central Ohio, with both sides of the debate having different answers. Westervilles Antonios Pizzeria to close after irreconcilable differences with landlord Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republican strategist Bob Clegg has been following the presidents decisions on the federal education department. He said getting rid of the department would give local school districts more power over their curriculum and funding. We have so much bureaucracy that nothing gets done because you have to jump through so many hoops, Clegg said. Taking the federal government out of our education system just means we have less hoops to have to jump through. Ohio Education Association (OEA) Vice President Jeff Wensing said the education department administers federal grant programs that provide funding for career tech programs, after-school care, and help students with disabilities or from low-income families. Wensing said these cuts also come at a time when Ohios budget is allocating a decades-low percentage to public education funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How a typo could mean Ohios state tree isnt the buckeye From our point of view, we are underfunded by the state. This potentially will cut our federal funding as well, Wensing said. Cutting back educational opportunities and resources for our students, thats just not a good thing. Clegg said getting rid of the Department of Education (DOE) would not abolish federal funding; instead, the money would go to the states or to another government agency. In the 50 years since the department was established, Clegg said the impact on local school districts has been minimal. He said schools should not be afraid of the dismantling of the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you do away with something thats not been all that effective, its not going to really impact you in a negative way, Clegg said. The local impact here in Ohio and locally will be that well have just less government regulation, less government rules that have to be implemented, which costs money. Wensing and the OEA said there is not much trust between public educators and the state of Ohio, so potentially putting these federal dollars at risk is scary. Man arrested in weekend death of woman in northwest Columbus I think that a lot of things are up in the air, but what I do know with less money from the state, less money from the federal government, it is not good for the students of Ohio, Wensing said. Its not good for the communities of Ohio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, both Clegg and Wensing said there is still a lot of uncertainty as to what the immediate impacts will be in Ohio and across the country. Approximately 10% of public school funding comes from the DOE. The department has not been abolished at this point and this case is still working its way through the federal court system. With the Supreme Courts decision, nearly 1,400 employees who had already been on paid leave for months will now be fully laid off. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Deputies shoot, kill man during 'chaotic and very dangerous' incident in St. Louis County originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Deputies fatally shot an allegedly armed man near Duluth on Tuesday while responding to reports of arson and gunfire, according to authorities. "This was a chaotic and very dangerous situation," St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay said in a live briefing on Facebook. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension has taken over the investigation and the five deputies involved in the incident have been placed on standard administrative leave. According to Ramsay, the incident in Normanna Township began to unfold around 9:20 a.m. when a 911 caller reported a structure fire. The caller said their neighbor had sprayed a family member with gasoline and set their home on fire, Ramsay said. Soon after, authorities learned the suspect was allegedly armed with a rifle and that the suspect's own home was fully engulfed in flames. According to Ramsay, a 911 caller also reported the suspect had attempted to set fire to another nearby home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A volunteer firefighter at the scene and a neighbor reported hearing shots fired just before 9:20 a.m. "The firefighter thought he'd been shot at, at that time, and immediately sheltered in place for safety," Ramsay said. At 9:36 a.m., a Duluth Township Police Officer arrived on scene and was "fired upon by the suspect," Ramsay claims. The officer was not hit and did not return fire. At 9:52 a.m., five St. Louis counties deputies approached the area where the fires were burning and encountered the suspect. "The suspect engaged them, which led to a use-of-force incident in the encounter, causing all five deputies to discharge their weapons, striking the suspect," Ramsay said. He did not say what prompted the deputies to open fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies attempted life-saving measures, but the suspect died at the scene. "No deputies, neighbors or first responders were physically injured during this incident," Ramsay said. Near the scene, authorities allegedly recovered homemade devices that appear to be designed to fire projectiles. The five deputies involved in the shooting were wearing body-worn cameras and have been placed on standard administrative leave. "I am grateful that no innocent neighbors, firefighters or deputies or law enforcement were hurt or killed today," Ramsay said, commending the deputies for their actions to protect the community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcements latest version of events, and may be subject to change. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. A Georgia sheriffs deputy has been fired after a beloved police dog died in a hot patrol car. It was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Trenton when a member of the Dade County Sheriffs Offices K-9 team died inside the patrol car on Sunday, police said in a press release. The dog, whose name was Georgia, was left unattended in her handlers patrol car for an unacceptable amount of time, the sheriffs office said. The deputy was inside the sheriffs office when Georgia was dying in the car. Police did not specify for how long the K-9 was left inside the patrol car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But other factors led to Georgias death, such as the air conditioner compressor in the car malfunctioning. There was a heat alarm in the car, but police said it also was not functioning. A Georgia sheriffs deputy has been fired after a beloved police dog died in a hot patrol car (Dade County Sheriff's Office) A Georgia sheriffs deputy has been fired after a beloved police dog died in a hot patrol car (Dade County Sheriff's Office) There have been 55 reports of dogs and other companion animals dying from heat-related causes this year, according to PETA. The animal rights groups numbers appear not to have included Georgias death. Georgias handler was fired, and police said they will notify the Dade County District Attorneys Office to determine if prosecution is warranted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sheriffs office promised 100% transparency about Georgias death and listed changes they will be implementing to make sure no other dog is lost on their watch. Going forward, any K-9 vehicle we have will be taken out of service if ANY of the essential K-9 equipment isnt in 100% working order, the sheriffs office said. We are also going to overhaul our K-9 handler policy, and K-9s WILL NOT be left in vehicles for extended periods of time during summer. Georgia was donated to police by a local family, and the sheriffs office said, Our hearts are aching at the loss. She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the best of the best, the sheriffs office said. She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office, and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Georgia resident Kaylee Shields called for #justiceforgeorgia in a Facebook post Tuesday. If a citizen left their dog in a vehicle and it malfunctioned, resulting in death of the dog, the owner would be prosecuted. I hope this officer is held accountable for this, Shields wrote. Children are also at risk of dying in cars during the summer heat. The National Safety Council said there have been 15 reported heatstroke deaths of children in cars this year. There were 39 deaths in 2024. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed his ally Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as the states chief financial officer on Wednesday, setting up a clash with a President Donald Trump-backed legislator who also wants the job. Ingoglia, 54, will fill the remainder of former CFO Jimmy Patronis term. Patronis left the job in March after winning a seat in the U.S. Congress. Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican and businessman, is expected to face a primary challenge next year from state Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, who Trump endorsed for the job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to supervising the states finances, the CFO oversees the insurance industry and serves as the states fire marshal. At a news conference in Tampa, Ingoglia vowed to defend Floridians from unscrupulous insurers, serve as a conservative pit bull tackling wasteful government spending and support DeSantis push to eliminate property taxes. Ingoglia said he thinks Floridas property insurance reforms have been effective in reducing waste and fraud but also promised to defend consumers. I want the insurance companies to listen if an insurance company does not do what they say theyre going to do and are contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ingoglia attributed rising property insurance premiums to higher replacement costs of homes and fraudulent claims. Home insurance costs in Florida spiked in third quarter. Are more increases on the way? A native of Queens, New York, Ingoglia owns the homebuilding company Hartland Homes and has a net worth of $28 million, according to his latest disclosure statement. He served as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida from 2015 to 2019. His resume also includes a stint in the Florida House Aside from his business and political career, hes an internationally ranked poker player, posting earnings of $468,282. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis touted Ingoglia as a conservative warrior who has supported his agenda on immigration, property taxes and other key issues. Every single time weve had a flashpoint in Florida, Blaise is running into battle to stand up for people, he said. Gruters, an accountant and former Florida GOP party chair, announced Wednesday he has enlisted two of Trumps top political advisers strategist Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio to help his statewide campaign for CFO. The two sides started trading blows Wednesday. LaCivita and Fabrizio branded Ingoglia a Never Trumper, while DeSantis blasted Gruters as not reflecting core conservative principles. He mentioned Gruters support of last years ballot initiative seeking to legalize recreational marijuana as an example. If George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO? my response would be, No,' DeSantis said. I cant do that without betraying the voters that elected me. TALLAHASSEE Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday elevated longtime ally Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to be the states chief financial officer, choosing him over a candidate backed by President Donald Trump. Floridas CFO position has been vacant for more than half a year after Jimmy Patronis left the seat to run for Congress. Ingoglia, whom DeSantis called the most conservative senator in the state of Florida, will serve as CFO through 2026, when the seat is up for election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am going to be the conservative pitbull when it comes to spending as your next CFO, the Spring Hill Republican said Wednesday during a news conference in Tampa with the governor. Floridas chief financial officer makes about $140,000 a year, serves on the state Cabinet and leads the state Department of Financial Services, which oversees financial regulators and investigates insurance fraud. The CFO signs the states checks and has the power to audit how people are using state dollars. Both DeSantis and Ingoglia homed in on that power, with Ingoglia saying he intends to scrutinize local government budgets and start calling out some of this wasteful spending. Ingoglia also said his priorities were working to eliminate property taxes on homesteaded locations, which DeSantis has pushed for. When Ingoglia ran for office in 2013, he had unpaid property taxes of more than $10,000, which he paid off after the Times asked him about the debt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also said Wednesday he would focus on housing affordability and insurance. If an insurance company does not do what they say theyre going to do, and contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out, Ingoglia said. Ingoglia has been in the Legislature since 2014, when he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 to represent part of Pasco and all of Hernando County after DeSantis endorsed him, effectively shutting down what could have been a competitive Republican primary. In the Senate and on social media, Ingoglia has been an outspoken DeSantis supporter. He sponsored the DeSantis-proposed immigration bills early this year that legislative leaders bucked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As DeSantis rattled off Ingoglias legislative accomplishments, the governor compared him favorably to Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota. Last year, Trump endorsed Gruters for CFO in 2026, saying that Gruters was on the Trump Train before it even left the station. On Wednesday, Gruters announced that Trump advisers Chris LaCivita and Tony Fabrizio are working on his 2026 CFO bid. When asked why he would support Ingoglia over the Trump-endorsed Gruters, DeSantis said that Gruters record is contrary to what weve told the voters we would do. DeSantis said he had never spoken about the CFO job with Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis called out Gruters for sponsoring an immigration bill this year that the governor vetoed. He also sponsored the compromise immigration package DeSantis signed into law shortly after. DeSantis also said Ingoglia was better on Second Amendment issues. Ingoglia didnt vote for the 2018 post-Parkland bill that instated red flag laws and raised the gun buying age to 21 in Florida, while Gruters did. (Gruters and Ingoglia this past session were both co-sponsors on legislation to reverse the gun buying age provision, which failed to get a hearing.) Gruters also found himself on the other side of DeSantis this last election, when he supported Amendment 3, a proposal to allow recreational marijuana use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump supported that amendment, but DeSantis leaned on the power of state government to fight against it. The amendment ultimately failed. Gruters is one of three candidates who have filed to run for chief financial officer in 2026. The other candidates are Republican Frank William Collige, a public adjuster, and Republican Benjamin Horbowy, who ran unsuccessfully for Florida Senate in 2020. Ingoglia has not yet filed to run for CFO in 2026. Former House Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, quickly announced his plan to run for Ingoglias vacated Senate seat. DeSantis on Wednesday announced his endorsement of Massullo in a post on social media. Blaise Ingoglia and Gov. Ron DeSantis in Tampa on July 16, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix) The state of Florida has a new chief financial officer, and the Republican Party of Florida has a new schism in its ranks leading to next years primary election for that seat. Thats apparent now that, as anticipated, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday appointed Hernando Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia to serve as Floridas next chief financial officer. The position had been vacant for the past three-and-a-half months after former CFO Jimmy Patronis stepped down upon his election to Congress in Floridas First Congressional District on April 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An extremely close ally of the governor, Ingoglia was always the inside pick for the governor to fill the position. In choosing him, DeSantis bypassed Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters, who has previously declared his candidacy for the seat, which is up for election in 2026. Gruters already has the backing of Donald Trump, making him the early front runner for the nomination. DeSantis said he wanted someone in the job who holds conservative principles and is dedicated to the mission. He extolled Ingoglias conservative record on issues like illegal immigration, voting integrity, and cracking down on human trafficking. Who is Blaise Ingoglia? Ingoglia is a native New Yorker and homebuilder who moved to Spring Hill (about 50 miles north of Tampa) in the mid-1990s. He was elected to the Florida House in 2014 and simultaneously served as Republican Party of Florida chairman from 2015 to 2019. He has been in the Senate since 2022. He began his remarks by saying that he had told DeSantis some time ago that he had been considering a run for higher office and that the governor had predicted it would be the CFO spot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor knows how much I care about spending, he said. He knows how much I care about spending less and having better outcomes, and sometimes that is the opposite of what government does. But thats never stopped me. I have a history of calling out wasteful spending, whether it was Democrats or Republicans. Because I truly believe that government is accountable to the people and our job is that we deliver that promise. Ingoglia has already appeared with DeSantis on several occasions this year in roundtable discussions pushing for property tax reform, and said that will continue over the next year. Im going to work hand and glove, side by side with this governor to make sure that we get rid of property taxes on homestead exemption and offer real property tax relief to the people of the state of Florida, he said. Sounding already like a candidate making his case before the voters, Ingoglia said that he would continue to work on the property insurance issues that are a big part of his job description, as well as housing affordability. If an insurance company does not do what they say they are going to do and contractually obligated to do, I am going to call you out, he threatened. I am going to make sure that people know that the CFO will stand with people against unscrupulous insurance companies who are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. What the CFO does The chief financial officer of Florida is one of three Cabinet-level positions in state government, along with the attorney general and agriculture commissioner, and goes up for election every four years. Together, they help the governor administer a number of state agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CFO is the statutory head of the Department of Financial Services, which oversees more than a dozen state agencies, including the State Fire Marshal, Consumer Services, and Inspector General. The position pays $140,000 a year. Patronis had served as Floridas CFO from the time he was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2017 until March 31, 2025, when he resigned a day ahead of his successful election to Congress. Since then, the seat has stood empty. That void bothered Patronis, who told Matt Gaetz talk-show last month that he was concerned. I watched every single dollar, I could audit every single transaction, I could question any finances anywhere in the state if its taxpayer related, Patronis said. Without a CFO in place, who in the hell is doing the business of the people? Taking questions from reporters after the announcement, DeSantis pounced when asked why he didnt pick the already Trump-endorsed Gruters for the position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blaise has done what the voters whove elected us expect, the governor said. Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do. So when it comes to making an appointment, I have to go on the record. I can tell you that if Blaise supported the [House Speaker Daniel] Perez/Gruters [immigration] amnesty bill? He would not be standing on this stage today. Thats just the truth. And I like him personally, but it doesnt matter its all about the record. To make his point, DeSantis avowed that even if George Washington rose from the dead and patted him on the shoulder and said he should appoint Gruters to the CFO spot, he wouldnt be able to do it. My response would be, No, I cant do that without betraying the voters that elected me to lead the state in a conservative direction,' he said. Among the votes and issues that DeSantis recounted were Gruters vote for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in 2018, which Ingoglia opposed and that included provisions such as raising the age to purchase a long gun from 18 to 21; adding a three-day wait period between the purchase and delivery of a firearm (or until the background check is completed); and a red-flag law preventing persons at a high risk from harming themselves or others from possessing firearms. (Second Amendment advocates have maintained that provision is unconstitutional). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis also noted Gruters opposition to a 2023 bill that eviscerated many of Floridas public sector unions, and his support for the 2024 proposed state constitutional amendment that would have legalized recreational cannabis. Gruters sided with the mega-weed company Trulieve and was joining with liberal Democrats to try to do it, so his record is contrary to what weve told the voters what we would do. Gruters vs. Ingoglia The Gruters campaign declined an opportunity to respond to DeSantis remarks, but made their biggest statement the day before the press conference, issuing a press release reporting that they were hiring two of Trumps top political advisers 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita and pollster Tony Fabrizio. The choice between a MAGA-first patriot and a Never-Trumper is never really a choice, said LaCivita, noting that Ingoglia did not endorse Trump in 2016 or 2024, when he was strongly backing DeSantis for the Republican nomination for president. Ive worked with Joe Gruters for years and can say that few have done more in Florida to advance the America First agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gruters is a Sarasota CPA who also served as the Republican Party of Florida chair, succeeding Ingoglia in leading the state party from 2019 until 2023. He was initially elected to the Florida House in 2016 and to the state Senate in 2018. A public opinion survey conducted earlier this week of 763 Republican voters by St. Pete Polls showed Gruters crushing Ingoglia in a head-to-head matchup by nearly 50 percentage points, 60%-10%, with 30% undecided. Frank William Collige and Benjamin Horbowy have also filed to enter the Republican CFO primary, according to the Division of Elections. No Democrat has entered the race yet. Fentrice Driskell, the Florida House Democratic Leader, issued a statement following DeSantis appointment of Ingoglia. Floridians deserve a CFO who will stand up to the insurance companies and help make property insurance more affordable, she said. Instead, Ron DeSantis is appointing a Tallahassee politician more loyal to him than to the people. I believe Blaise Ingoglia will talk tough but continue the tradition of giving the insurance companies everything they ask for while Floridas working families and seniors pay the price. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She went on to note that while Ingoglia says he wants to fight wasteful spending, he was gleefully cheerleading the $450 million Everglades detention camp last weekend. He also has a long history in the legislature of working to make it harder to vote and promoting partisan stunts like trying to outlaw the Democratic Party, she added. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis met on Tuesday, July 1, at the state's new deportation facility in the middle of the Everglades. (Via governor's X feed) Gov. Ron DeSantis appears to be cooling off, for now at least, on a plan to build a second state-run immigrant detention center at the Florida National Guard training site in Clay County. The governor wont consider building another temporary detention facility at the Camp Blanding Joint Training Center until the one in the Everglades reaches capacity, saying during a Wednesday press conference in Tampa that the existing site could easily fit 3,000 to 4,000 people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But what I dont want to do is set up Blanding if, you know, one is 60% full and then the other is 40%, DeSantis said during the press conference. Id rather just channel everyone to [Alligator Alcatraz] since its easier. The governor visited Tampa to appoint Spring Hill Republican state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia as the states chief financial officer. He replaces Jimmy Patronis, who now serves in the U.S. House. Last week, the governor said construction of an immigrant detention center in Camp Blanding would depend on demand from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. But DeSantis recent comments marked a shift from the hype with which state officials spoke about it before detainees started arriving at the site at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. The Florida Division of Emergency Management is the state agency in charge of the potential construction in Camp Blanding, which its top official teased during President Donald Trumps visit to the Everglades detention center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I would say right after our wonderful Independence Day, we will be starting construction there in that facility, DEM director Kevin Guthrie said during a roundtable with Trump on July 1. Still, DeSantis said the immigrant detention center in the Everglades might reach capacity within the next two weeks. So far, the state has lacked transparency about the number of people at the detention center, with Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announcing that hundreds would start arriving on July 2. The most detailed information about the detainees has come from the Miami Herald, which published a list on Sunday of the 750 detainees housed there, including more than 250 people without criminal convictions or pending charges in the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Answering questions about the timeline for opening a detention center at Camp Blanding, the governor has emphasized the bidding process for companies. Construction at the airstrip in the Big Cypress National Preserve took eight days and started days after Uthmeier publicly rolled out the plan. I dont want to be creating some structure that can hold 2,000 illegal aliens, and then we end up having, like, 150 there after a week, DeSantis said Wednesday. The Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance has organized rallies against the plan for Camp Blanding, and it is planning another one on Saturday. Were tired of political points and political careers being made off of the backs of hard-working Floridians, whether that be our immigrant brothers and sisters that are being persecuted and rounded up, or just the Floridian taxpayers, who are also underwater with bills, said Maria Garcia-Rodriguez, a lead organizer for the alliance, in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Despite threats, Orange County to keep rural boundary Orange County leaders mocked state lawmakers Tuesday as they voted to keep pressing ahead with their plan to enact a rural boundary and other development-related measures that have been threatened by a lawsut. Earlier this month, an attorney sent a letter to the county saying the provisions violated SB 180, which appeared to give the state control over many development-related initiatives in counties hit by Hurricane Milton until 2027. Lobbyists noted the specific lines were inserted into the bill hours before it passed and many lawmakers were unaware of the new language or outright didnt understand it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They said it originated from developers in south west Florida and wasnt meant to target Orange County. Commissioners said it was an overreach and potentially violated the state constitution, which gives control of development to local governments. This is when we stand up and we fight and we challenge the state, Commissioner Kelly Semrad said. The commissioners unanimously voted to take no action and continue with their original timeline. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. By David Shepardson and Dan Catchpole WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) -A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month supports the view that the captain cut the flow of fuel to the plane's engines, said a source briefed on U.S. officials' early assessment of evidence. The first officer was at the controls of the Boeing 787 and asked the captain why he moved the fuel switches into a position that starved the engines of fuel and requested that he restore the fuel flow, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. assessment is not contained in a formal document, said the source, who emphasized the cause of the June 12 crash in Ahmedabad, India, that killed 260 people remains under investigation. There was no cockpit video recording definitively showing which pilot flipped the switches, but the weight of evidence from the conversation points to the captain, according to the early assessment. The Wall Street Journal first reported similar information on Wednesday about the world's deadliest aviation accident in a decade. India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which is leading the investigation into the crash, said in a statement on Thursday that "certain sections of the international media are repeatedly attempting to draw conclusions through selective and unverified reporting." It added the investigation was ongoing and it remained too early to draw definitive conclusions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most air crashes are caused by multiple factors, and under international rules, a final report is expected within a year of an accident. A preliminary report released by the AAIB on Saturday said one pilot was heard on the cockpit voice recorder asking the other why he cut off the fuel and "the other pilot responded that he did not do so." Investigators did not identify which remarks were made by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and which by First Officer Clive Kunder, who had total flying experience of 15,638 hours and 3,403 hours, respectively. The AAIB's preliminary report said the fuel switches had switched from "run" to "cutoff" a second apart just after takeoff, but it did not say how they were moved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Almost immediately after the plane lifted off the ground, closed-circuit TV footage showed a backup energy source called a ram air turbine had deployed, indicating a loss of power from the engines. The London-bound plane began to lose thrust, and after reaching a height of 650 feet, the jet started to sink. The fuel switches for both engines were turned back to "run", and the airplane automatically tried restarting the engines, the report said. But the plane was too low and too slow to be able to recover, aviation safety expert John Nance told Reuters. The plane clipped some trees and a chimney before crashing in a fireball into a building on a nearby medical college campus, the report said, killing 19 people on the ground and 241 of the 242 on board the 787. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NO SAFETY RECOMMENDATIONS In an internal memo on Monday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the preliminary report found no mechanical or maintenance faults and that all required maintenance had been carried out. The AAIB's preliminary report had no safety recommendations for Boeing or engine manufacturer GE. After the report was released, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing privately issued notifications that the fuel switch locks on Boeing planes are safe, a document seen by Reuters showed and four sources with knowledge of the matter said. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has been assisting with the Air India investigation and its Chair Jennifer Homendy has been fully briefed on all aspects, a board spokesperson said. That includes the cockpit voice recording and details from the flight data recorder that the NTSB team assisted the AAIB in reading out, the spokesperson added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The safety of international air travel depends on learning as much as we can from these rare events so that industry and regulators can improve aviation safety," Homendy said in a statement. "And if there are no immediate safety issues discovered, we need to know that as well." The circumstantial evidence increasingly indicates that a crew member flipped the engine fuel switches, Nance said, given there was "no other rational explanation" that was consistent with the information released to date. Nonetheless, investigators "still have to dig into all the factors" and rule out other possible contributing factors which would take time, he said. The Air India crash has rekindled debate over adding flight deck cameras, known as cockpit image recorders, on airliners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nance said investigators likely would have benefited greatly from having video footage of the cockpit during the Air India flight. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Additional reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed and Raju Gopalakrishnan) Getty Images Attorneys committed to ensuring low-income Americans receive legal assistance gathered in Detroit to underscore the importance of providing counsel to those who need it and examine how programs like eviction diversion can help communities both inside and outside the courtroom. The Legal Services Corporation focused its Tuesday forum on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan, with a particular emphasis on local housing initiatives including eviction diversion efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Legal Services Board Chair John G. Levi opened the forum by emphasizing the critical role civil legal aid plays in housing matters, noting that a good lawyer can mean the difference between eviction or somebody keeping their home. Since the corporation was founded by Congress in 1974, it has helped provide legal services to nearly 75 million low income Americans, Levi said, continuing to offer services to 5 million individuals yearly including more than a million children, more than 200,000 survivors of domestic violence and nearly 45,000 veterans. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX When it comes to matters of housing, Levi noted that individuals with an attorney had a 90% chance of receiving a favorable outcome, while those without had a 90% chance of being evicted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The continuous underfunding of the corporation has only fueled the lack of access to counsel, Levi noted, while pointing to a recent study theyd released showing that civil legal aid yields an average positive return of $7 for every $1 invested. Thats because civil legal aid prevents and solves legal problems before they lead to even more costly public expenditures on things like emergency medical care, law enforcement and shelters, Levi said. In one of the opening speeches to the forum, former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, who now serves as the president and CEO of the National Center for State Courts, emphasized that access to justice is a mandate of democracy. Everyone, regardless of income, background or circumstance, must be able to come to court and be heard. Yet we know that for too many that remains out of reach and that must change, Clement said. These efforts will not only take policy change, but cultural change, Clement said, later sharing her vision of transforming the court experience for individuals facing poverty and other societal barriers. We need to support civil diversion programs and partnership with legal service providers giving people time, resources and space to resolve disputes thoughtfully, Clement said. We need to maintain remote and hybrid options to remove transportation barriers and enable full participation in our justice system. We need to see continuous community feedback to improve services and ensure accountability. Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, who now serves as the president and CEO of the National Center for State Courts, addressing the Legal Services Corporation forum in Detroit on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan. July 15, 2025 | Screenshot She pointed to National Center for State Courts eviction diversion initiatives in Grand Rapids and Lansing as examples of how courts are reimagining ways to resolve housing disputes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Grand Rapids, the eviction diversion team has organized job fairs, expedited rental assistance and offered housing navigation services. In Lansing, the diversion facilitator has built a growing network of partners that provide tenants with financial counseling, job training and even free computers and school supplies, Clement said. Following Clements remarks the corporation hosted a panel examining eviction diversion efforts in Michigan, featuring Pamela Hoekwater, the executive director of Legal Aid of Western Michigan; Jessica Maas, managing attorney of Michigan Advocacy Programs Lansing office; Ulices Rosa, the eviction diversion facilitator at Michigans 54-A District Court; and Ryan VanderMeer, a co-founder of Urban Pharm property management firm. In her 18 years of practice before becoming executive director, Hoekwater explained that eviction hearings were often cattle calls, with individuals given 60 seconds to come up with a defense that would earn them a trial, or if unsuccessful, they would be given a judgment with 10 days to get out if they could not pay their judgment. Generally speaking, eviction cases in Michigan move very quickly, Maas said, with the first court date scheduled within 10 days of a case being filed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As a result, tenants often show up without a lawyer having only recently discovered they have a court date that week, Maas said. Theyre often, I think, focused more on the logistics of that, like do I need to miss work? Do I need to get daycare? That sort of thing, Maas said. Additionally, tenants are also often uninformed and misinformed about the rights and obligations of both tenants and landlords, Maas said. For example, people ask us, am I being evicted today? Do I have to get out today? Conversely, they may think that they have months to get out. Another example is that they may think that if their landlord needs to make repairs to their place, that they dont have to pay anything at all. The other side of that is that there are many tenants who believe that their landlord doesnt have to make repairs if they havent paid in full, Maas said. From left to right: Pamela Hoekwater, Ryan VanderMeer, Jessica Maas, Ulices Rosa, addressing the Legal Services Corporation forum in Detroit on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan. July 15, 2025 | Screenshot As a result one of the benefits of their eviction diversion program is the ability to give those individuals the correct information about their case and offer them the best solution or a series of solutions to choose with an informed perspective, Maas said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While he cant speak for all landlords, VanderMeer said landlords often do not want an eviction either, noting that the true cost includes four to six months of lost rent alongside the cost of repairs and legal fees. Though there are evictions that happen due to other reasons, most of the time evictions are about money, VanderMeer said. If we can agree that its about money, we can collaborate and then figure out what to do from there, he said. In Lansing, one of the first lessons Rosa said he learned in eviction diversion, was the need to meet every family no matter where they were in the process, whether they were coming from homelessness or about to be homeless. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I learned also that very first day that the program would only work if the foundation was relationships: the relationships to the families, the relationships to the landlords, the relationships to all the stakeholders, to [the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services] to everyone involved, legal services, anyone and everyone involved in helping people, Rosa said. Alongside working in eviction diversion, Rosa said hes transformed into a community liaison, helping to bridge services so people facing eviction can address areas within their lives so they do not find themselves in that situation again. Theres a lot that can be done prior to the crisis. And so what Ive done with our program is and encouraged all the other courts to do so as well is to proactively get resources out to the community, Rosa said. Im one person, so I have to do it by email, which has now grown to a little over 1400 households that receive food, jobs, apartments, free training, financial training, childrens resources, senior resources, veterans resources and its proactively being sent to them. As far as best practices for landlords, VanderMeer said they should have a policy that is clear and consistent, and is communicated to tenants so they are not caught off guard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our process, this is best practice for us, is we wait 30 days after sending a notice to file, and we send, I dont know, 50 eviction notices a month, and we probably file two eviction cases a month or something. And not that two is a great number, but 48 you know, whats that? 96% resolved, VanderMeer said. Additionally, Urban Pharm opts to have its hearings virtually, so that folks do not have to arrange for childcare or risk a default judgement due to a missed hearing. When moving through the hearing process, the biggest factor is keeping a judgment off someones record so they dont have a problem finding housing elsewhere later down the road, VanderMeer said. Conditional dismissals are also a tool folks in legal aid can use, VanderMeer said, allowing landlords and tenants to go into a breakout room and negotiate terms that work for everybody. Maybe its, I just need more time. I need the tax return to come in, or whatever it may be, and we can work that out. We can actually put it on the record in front of the judge. so from a landlord, its a secure arrangement. From a tenants perspective, theres no judgment against them, VanderMeer said. We came across a bearish thesis on Hims & Hers on FJ Research's Substack. As of 3 July, Hims & Hers's share was trading at $47.98. HIMS's trailing and forward P/E were 70.56 and 104.30 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. Hims & Hers (HIMS) Jumps 6.76% Anew as Investors Cheer Weight Loss Drug Fight A nurse in a telehealth platform talking with a patient on video call for consultation. The author of the article has decided to sell their entire position in Hims & Hers, a company they had previously been bullish on. This decision was not made due to market timing or volatility, but rather due to a reevaluation of the company's business model and growth potential. The author had initially invested in Hims & Hers due to its simple consumer interface, direct-to-consumer distribution in healthcare, and potential for growth with GLP-1s and personalized care. The author's reevaluation of Hims & Hers was triggered by several concerns, including the company's lack of defensible infrastructure, thin margins, and questionable economics. The company's business model was found to be heavily reliant on marketing, with no proprietary diagnostics, IP, or systems. Additionally, the company's response to a recent controversy surrounding its sourcing of GLP-1 compounds raised concerns about its behavior and priorities. The author also notes that the hype cycle around GLP-1s may be cooling, which could impact Hims & Hers' growth potential. The author has decided to rotate their capital into a new investment that meets their criteria of being essential, durable, scalable, and deeply misunderstood. While the article does not specify the new investment, it suggests that the author has a high level of conviction in their decision to sell Hims & Hers. The author notes that selling Hims & Hers was a difficult decision, but ultimately necessary to ensure rational capital allocation and long-term wealth creation. The company's high short interest and structural issues contributed to the author's decision to sell. Previously, we covered a bullish thesis on Hims & Hers by M.V. Cunha on Substack, highlighting its breakout growth, strong FCF, and accelerating subscriber monetization. The company's stock price has depreciated by 10% since our coverage. This is because the previous thesis - emphasizing HIMS's long-term evolution into a vertically integrated, precision-based care platform with strong growth prospects - has partially played out, but new concerns have emerged discussed in the new coverage. FJ Research's article shares a contrarian view, citing concerns over HIMS's business model, lack of defensible infrastructure, and thin margins, leading the author to sell their entire position. TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas When Harry Sherwood evacuated his home along Big Sandy Creek around 2 a.m. on July 5, floodwater was already waist-deep. If I waited another hour, I would be dead, he said. Sherwood has lived in that home since 2003. He and his roommate made it out safely, but his house and nearly everything inside were destroyed. Its devastation. Everything in there is gone: couch, stereos, TVs, kitchen appliances. Just everything, Sherwood said. I had a nice home. I dont anymore. I have to start from scratch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sherwood, who has flood insurance, launched a GoFundMe to help him rebuild. County launches flood victim fund On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court approved a formal agreement with the Central Texas Community Foundation to manage the Travis County Cares Fund, which will assist residents like Sherwood with recovery. Another one has already been established for flood victims in Williamson County. Travis County CARES will help affected community members and families get back on their feet and allow them to focus their efforts on personal healing, Travis County Judge Andy Brown said in a press release. The road to full recovery will be long, but with partners like the Central Texas Community Foundation, we can make this road a little easier for those who need the help. I thank everyone at Central Texas Community Foundation for their partnership and the people who are generously donating to this worthy cause, he continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CTXCF said it is already accepting applications from flood victims both those with and without insurance through its website, where community members can also donate. All funds will go directly to affected residents. There are so many needs right now, and there are a number of organizations that are stepping in and doing incredible work to meet those immediate needs right now, said Julie Johnson, the associate director at CTXCF. When individuals get a few weeks down the road, what theyre going to need the most, honestly, is cash, Johnson continued. We want to be able to just step into that gap and help those neighbors in need. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. A deportation flight carrying immigrants from various countries that declined to take back their citizens has landed in the Southern African country of Eswatini, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday. "A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back," DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X. "These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities," she continued, adding that they are now "off of American soil." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court last month gave the green light for the Trump administration to resume its deportations of migrants to countries other than their own without offering them the opportunity to show the harms they could face in their home countries, allowing the federal government to further carry out the president's mass deportation agenda. Bipartisan Bill Would Grant Legal Status To Certain Illegal Immigrant Workers McLaughlin listed five deportees from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen who she said were convicted of egregious crimes, including child rape and murder. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Vietnamese national was convicted of child rape, a Jamaican citizen was convicted of murder, robbery and weapons possession and a Laos citizen was convicted of murder, murder and burglary as well as aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, possession of methamphetamine and operating a motor vehicle under the influence of a controlled substance, according to McLaughlin. She said a Cuban citizen was convicted of murder and aggravated battery including on a police officer as well as Grand Theft Auto, eluding law enforcement and reckless driving, while a Yemeni citizen was convicted of homicide, assault and battery as well as resisting and obstructing an officer, cruelty to a dependent adult and assault with the intent to do great bodily harm. Earlier this month, an administration official said in a memo that migrants may be deported to countries other than their own with as little as six hours notice. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will generally wait at least 24 hours to deport a migrant after informing them of their removal to a "third country," according to a July 9 memo from the agency's acting director, Todd Lyons, adding that the agency could still remove them to these countries with as little as six hours notice "in exigent circumstances" as long as the individual was provided the chance to speak with an attorney. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mlbpa Chief Says Foreign Players Told To Carry Documentation To 'Keep Their Job' The memo said migrants could be sent to countries that have vowed not to persecute or torture them "without the need for further procedures." The new ICE policy suggests the administration may move quickly to send migrants to countries around the world. Human rights advocates have raised concerns over due process and other issues surrounding the president's immigration policies. Reuters contributed to this report. Original article source: DHS announces 'third country deportation flight' landed in Southern Africa's Eswatini 200 American Jewish girls volunteered to restore the Rishon Lezion neighborhood hit by an Iranian missile. Two hundred Jewish girls from the United States took part in a large volunteer project to rebuild a Rishon Lezion neighborhood damaged by an Iranian missile during Operation Rising Lion, in a joint effort by the Rishon Lezion Municipality and the Jewish Agency. The volunteers were joined by Jewish organizations NCSY and OU, as well as employees from the Rishon Lezion Municipality. Local social activist Roi Cohen, along with volunteers from Yad Israel, also participated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of the operation, volunteers helped clean up debris, planted and cultivated the area, sealed off damaged homes, cleared broken glass, and packed items for families temporarily relocated to alternative housing. Additionally, the Jewish Agency volunteers went door to door in the affected neighborhood, handing out kits to residents and listening to their stories and struggles in the weeks after the missile strike. Jewish volunteers help rebuild Rishon Lezion neighborhood after missile strike. (credit: JEWISH AGENCY) Impact of missile strike On the morning of June 14, 2025, Rishon Lezion was struck by an Iranian missile. The missile hit a residential neighborhood in the western part of the city, killing two residentsIsrael Aloni and Yevgenia Blinderand causing significant damage to nearby homes. Municipal teams quickly responded to help about 300 residents evacuated to hotels after their homes were damaged, along with approximately 1,000 others from the neighborhood and nearby areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, the municipality has provided extensive support, including help with property tax issues, filing National Insurance claims, offering financial grants, organizing repairs to telecommunication lines, and providing emotional and psychological support. Since October 7, the Jewish Agency has mobilized thousands of volunteers from around the world to assist with the reconstruction efforts, particularly in areas near Israels borders. Recently, Diaspora volunteers have been assisting in the rebuilding process across the country, including in Rishon Lezion. Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich recognized the significance of the volunteer effort, stating, "Todays volunteer operation is a moving reminder of the spirit of volunteerism and social resilience that defines our people. I am proud of our municipal employees and the hundreds of volunteers who dedicated their time to support residents in need. We will continue to assist the affected families every step of the way until they can return to their homes." Dalia Kushnir, Director of Experiences in the Jewish Agency's Connectivity Unit, said that the girls who participated "embody the deep connection between Diaspora Jewry and the people of Israel. They brought not only energy and commitment but also a desire to be part of the rebuilding efforts." She added, "This initiative is part of a broader effort to connect young people from the Diaspora with life in Israel, giving them a sense of belonging. Their actions also provide comfort to local residents, letting them know they are seen and that the Jewish community cares." At an energy and innovation summit in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, President Donald Trump insisted that his uncle, Dr. John Trump, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had once taught a seriously good student named Theodore Ted Kaczynski. Hed go around correcting everybody, Trump boasted. It didn't work out too well for him... but its interesting in life. During his winding 30-minute speech at the inaugural Energy and Innovation summit at Carnegie Mellon University, Trump elaborated on the story, suggesting that the student was the domestic terrorist and mathematician known as the Unabomber. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After invoking his late paternal uncle, whom he falsely described as MITs longest-serving professor, Trump continued his implausible anecdote. Kaczynski was one of his students, he continued. Do you know who Kaczynski was? Theres very little difference between a madman and a genius. Trump his MIT professor uncle taught the Unabomber - but records say otherwise (Reuters) Trump his MIT professor uncle taught the Unabomber - but records say otherwise (Reuters) The crowd showed little reaction to the story, and it was unclear if the president was confusing Kaczynski, who died by suicide in a federal prison in 2023, with someone else. The bizarre claim is not only highly unlikely, it is practically impossible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kaczynski attacked academics, businessmen, and random civilians with homemade bombs between 1978 and 1995, as part of a campaign aimed at collapsing modern society. He killed three people and injured 23. Before being recognized as the Unabomber, Kaczynski earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1962, having entered at the age of 16, and Master's and Doctoral degrees in mathematics from the University of Michigan by 1967. Before becoming the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski never attended MIT (AP) Before becoming the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski never attended MIT (AP) Kaczynski taught as an assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley, until 1969, before making a deliberate shift away from academic life and mainstream society, living in a remote cabin near Lincoln, Montana. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite Trumps statements, Kaczynski never attended MIT. There is no record of him ever visiting or lecturing at the university either. Meanwhile, Prof. Trump, a cancer research pioneer who received the National Medal of Science, taught at MIT for approximately four decades before his death in 1985 at the age of 78. He focused on high-voltage phenomena, electron acceleration, and the interaction of radiation with both living and non-living matter, including the design of X-ray generators for cancer therapy. His expertise has been repeatedly vaunted by his nephew, who on Tuesday described him as a smart man. The president has repeatedly hailed uncle John Trumps intellect. describing hims as a smart man (MIT Museum) The president has repeatedly hailed uncle John Trumps intellect. describing hims as a smart man (MIT Museum) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike Kaczynski, John Trump was not a mathematician; he was a professor of electrical engineering and physics. Even if the renowned physicist did cross paths with the infamous serial killer, he could not have known that Kaczynski was linked to the Unabomber attacks. The alleged conversation would have taken place more than a decade before the FBI identified Kaczynski as the Unabomber in April 1996 after his brother, David Kaczynski, turned him in after reading his manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future. The manifesto makes no mention of Prof. Trump, MIT, or any figures associated with that institution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His autobiography and prison interviews also contain detailed recollections of his education and professors, with no mention of Trumps uncle or his time at MIT. While MIT geneticist Phillip Sharp received a threatening letter from Kaczynski before his arrest, no one from or affiliated with the technical college was physically attacked or injured. The Independent has contacted the White House for more information. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The South Dakota Department of Corrections is notifying law enforcement and the public about the pending release of Glenn Waege, state prison offender. SF Council approves $113k to raze former DSS building Waege will be released on Friday, according to a press release. The 30-year-old served the entirety of his sentence for solicitation of a minor from Clark County and Failure to Register as a Sex Offender from Codington County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waege will not be on parole supervision, and will be releasing to Montana. Hes described as white, 6-feet-3-inches tall, and weighs approximately 170 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes. Based on his criminal history involving sex offenses and institutional assessments that indicate a high risk to reoffend, I am alerting law enforcement and the public of this offenders release from prison, said Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko in a news release. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. Related Video: Recapping Arkansas legislative committee hearing addressing Grant Hardin escape CALICO ROCK, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) New details reveal more information about the former staff members officials say are responsible for Grant Hardins escape from a prison in northern Arkansas. Hardin, a convicted murderer and rapist and former police chief, escaped from the North Central Unit on May 25 and was captured on June 6 around a mile and a half away from the prison after multiple agencies, including the U.S. Border Patrol, joined the search. Court documents said he was let out by a guard and was wearing an ADC-type prison uniform. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Arkansas Department of Corrections previously confirmed that two staff members at the North Central Unit were fired after Hardins escape. However, their names were not included. Termination documents obtained by KNWA/FOX24 through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request include the names of those fired and the policies they violated. Documents identified the two D.O.C. workers as Corporal William Walker and Justin Delvalle, a food preparation supervisor. Walker had been with the North Central Unit since May 2021, and Delvalle started working there in August 2023. The two were fired on June 11 and following the departments internal investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both were terminated for violation of written policy, according to the documents. Recapping Arkansas legislative committee hearing addressing Grant Hardin escape Walkers termination notice said the following: On May 25, 2025, you observed an inmate unsupervised on the back dock and failed to alert your supervisor or maintain visual contact. You also admitted that later that same day, you observed an individual in what you believed to be a uniform black in color, unlike the standard issue DOC blue uniform pushing a silver cart. You opened both Sallyport gates, allowing the individual to exit without proper identification or authorization, and again failed to maintain visual surveillance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delvalles termination notice said: An internal investigation revealed that on May 25, 2025, you failed to perform your assigned duties, resulting in serious security breaches that contributed to the escape of an inmate. During the investigation, you admitted to allowing the inmate to clean the chemical cage on the back dock of the kitchen unsupervised during your shift. Additionally, you admitted that it had been a common practice of yours to allow the inmate to access the back dock unsupervised on Sundays during your shifts. This was even after the Food Preparation Manager held a staff meeting explicitly prohibiting inmates from being on the back dock without supervision. Both documents say that the DOC maintains a zero-tolerance policy for actions that compromise safety and security. During a legislative hearing in Little Rock on July 10, corrections officials said that Hardin was allowed onto the prison kitchens back dock at 1:58 p.m. on the day of the escape. He fled nearly an hour later, at 2:53 p.m. His absence wasnt noticed until 3:08 p.m., and the prison did not go on lockdown until 3:40 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WATCH: Video released of Arkansas escaped inmate Grant Hardin arriving at Varner SuperMax Unit Hardin had worked in the kitchen for several years before his escape. Officials said Hardin crafted a fake badge out of a metal soup can lid, darkened his clothes with a marker, and used a kitchen apron to resemble a vest. He also built a makeshift ladder using wooden pallets from the back dock. Benny Magness, chairman of the Arkansas Board of Corrections, previously said the situation was a case of human error and complacency. If either one of those [staff members] wouldve done their job you cant convince me its systematic from the rest of the staff, Magness said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials said in the legislative hearing that a critical incident review was taking place to determine further steps. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. JOHNSTOWN, Pa. Dr. Halbert Fillinger was already "the godfather" in forensic pathology by the time former Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha met him in 2001, Bacha said. Bacha was an incoming coroner seeking his state certification. Fillinger who autopsied the Williamson babies in 1980 and helped solve decades of difficult Philadelphia murders was a teacher who needed no introduction. "When the state decided full-time coroners needed to be certified, the coroners' education board picked him to run the school," Bacha said. "Everybody already knew Hal." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees also long admired his onetime teacher, who died in 2006. But now, Lees said, he's questioning how well he knew the man many called "Doc." Decades ago, Fillinger and the era's top forensic anthropologist, Milton Krogman, were praised for helping Cambria County determine that three of five babies, whose remains were found in 1980 in Stella Williamson's Gallitzin attic after her death, were murdered. The fragile remains were mostly mummified after being kept in a steamer trunk for nearly 50 years. Lees said he's irate that two of the infants' skulls were being stored until recently at a Philadelphia museum through a donation by Fillinger, documents obtained by The Tribune-Democrat confirmed. It appears Fillinger kept those skulls with his personal collection for more than 18 years, he said. Based on Lees' research into the case and conversations with former Cambria County Coroner John Barron, who left office in the 1990s, custody of those children remained with Cambria County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If something like this happened today," Lees said, "I'd be asking the district attorney to prosecute charges." The display of human remains in a classroom, a coroner's office or a museum might seem bizarre today. But it was common practice for generations, and it still makes the Mutter Museum, located in Philadelphia, a popular destination for fans of forensic science. The Mutter Museum's collections include sections of the brains of famous physicist Albert Einstein and the man who assassinated President James Garfield, as well as the skeleton of a three-foot by six-inch person with dwarfism. The museum has come under controversy in recent years for its vast, self-described "disturbingly informative" displays of human remains. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some museum around the world have pulled collections from their halls and replaced them with computerized or 3-D creations. Even the Smithsonian issued an apology for a controversial brain display. Separately, a review by its Human Remains Task Force led to a recommendation that any unauthorized remains be returned to living descendants. Recent audits of the Mutter Museum's generations-old collections have shown that most of its specimens were donated by physicians and medical institutions without the official consent required in modern times. I had the expectation that we would find that maybe 2% or 3% of the collection had been given to us with consent, the Mutter Museum's then-Director Kate Quinn told The New Yorker in a June article. But were finding its much, much less than that. Records: Fillinger was regular donor Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fillinger autopsied the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, of Pennsylvania, and was part of a 30-year investigation that eventually saw Marie Noe go from a martyred mother of 10 dead children to a confessed murderer in 1998. As Fillinger's career was winding down, he left pieces of his legacy with the Mutter Museum, according to documents acquired by The Tribune-Democrat through a Right-to-Know request filed with the county coroner's office. He donated an X-ray tube in 1998. In April 1999, he turned over a unique bladder stone from an 80-year-old man and five fetal skulls, documents show. For the Williamson case, he included a handwritten note under the subject "babies heads." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Kept 1, (aged) 3 mos, 1 aged 9 mos," he wrote, after describing the 1980 examination. Documents sent to the coroner's office indicate that the Mutter Museum staff found both skulls Nov. 15 in archival boxes that were tagged with Fillinger as their donor. Mutter officials told The Tribune-Democrat in a statement earlier this month that the mummified remains were not on display. Documents acquired through the Right-to-Know request expand on that. They were found next to a shrunken head and loosely covered in clear plastic, records stated. Ex-coroner says he declined request According to written notes by then-Mutter Museum Director Gretchen Worden in the 1990s, Fillinger told her he obtained the skulls from the Pennsylvania state police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But articles from the era indicate the remains were returned to Cambria County and Barron after being examined by Fillinger and Krogman in Lancaster. In a brief interview this week, Barron told The Tribune-Democrat he was approached by Fillinger during the infants' initial examination in 1980 and asked if he could keep one of the remains when the Williamson case was closed. Barron said he responded with a direct "no" in refusal. He said he didn't think much about that conversation afterward, until he was contacted by current staff from the Cambria County Coroner's Office and asked about the museum's discovery. A former Cambria County maintenance worker recalled an Oct. 29, 1980, burial of the remains in a small wooden box at Cambria County's "paupers' cemetery," which is now Laurel United Cemetery in Cambria Township. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The box was nailed shut when it arrived and was lowered into the ground in a private ceremony that included a chaplain from the county home. It was not clear if representatives from the coroner's office placed the remains in the box or checked it prior to burial. 'He had no right' Lees joined the Cambria County Coroner's Office in the early 2000s. He said he was among Fillinger's final class of students when he sought his coroner's certification. Much like Bacha, Lees recalled how the longtime pathologist commanded the room with his lessons. Bacha said Fillinger often displayed black-and-white crime scene photographs and stories about noteworthy cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bacha said he never got the chance to work alongside Fillinger on a homicide case and he was not familiar with the facts and circumstances surrounding the Williamson case. He said he only has the memories of a humble veteran forensic examiner who seemed eager in those days to share what he had learned with young death investigators. For Lees, it's the questions he cannot ask now that he's reflecting on most. "I looked up to that man," he said of Fillinger. "But those remains," he said of the Williamson infants, "were the property of the county where they were found, which was Cambria County. And he had no right to donate them." JOHNSTOWN, Pa. Dr. Halbert Fillinger was already the godfather in forensic pathology by the time former Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha met him in 2001, Bacha said. Bacha was an incoming coroner seeking his state certification. Fillinger who autopsied the Williamson babies in 1980 and helped solve decades of difficult Philadelphia murders was a teacher who needed no introduction. When the state decided full-time coroners needed to be certified, the coroners education board picked him to run the school, Bacha said. Everybody already knew Hal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Press conference planned on Williamson burial site effort A press conference is being planned for Wednesday to provide an update on an investigation into the burial site of some of the "Williamson babies" remains, Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees said. Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees also long admired his onetime teacher, who died in 2006. But now, Lees said, hes questioning how well he knew the man many called Doc. Decades ago, Fillinger and the eras top forensic anthropologist, Wilton Krogman, were praised for helping Cambria County determine that three of five babies, whose remains were found in 1980 in Stella Williamsons Gallitzin attic after her death, were murdered. The fragile remains were mostly mummified after being kept in a steamer trunk for nearly 50 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lees said hes irate that two of the infants skulls were being stored until recently at a Philadelphia museum through a donation by Fillinger, documents obtained by The Tribune-Democrat confirmed. It appears Fillinger kept those skulls with his personal collection for more than 18 years, he said. Based on Lees research into the case and conversations with former Cambria County Coroner John Barron, who left office in the 1990s, custody of those children remained with Cambria County. The short, tragic lives of Stella Williamson's babies The Williamson babies were found in a steamer trunk in a Gallitzin attic in 1980. A summary of the data gathered from the death investigation and autopsy findings sheds light on their lives and deaths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If something like this happened today, Lees said, Id be asking the district attorney to prosecute charges. Mutter Museum The display of human remains in a classroom, a coroners office or a museum might seem bizarre today. But it was common practice for generations, and it still makes the Mutter Museum, located in Philadelphia, a popular destination for fans of forensic science. The Mutter Museums collections include sections of the brains of famous physicist Albert Einstein and the man who assassinated President James Garfield, as well as the skeleton of a three-foot, six-inch person with dwarfism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The museum has come under controversy in recent years for its vast, self-described disturbingly informative displays of human remains. Some museum around the world have pulled collections from their halls and replaced them with computerized or 3-D creations. Even the Smithsonian issued an apology for a controversial brain display. Separately, a review by its Human Remains Task Force led to a recommendation that any unauthorized remains be returned to living descendants. Recent audits of the Mutter Museums generations-old collections have shown that most of its specimens were donated by physicians and medical institutions without the official consent required in modern times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had the expectation that we would find that maybe 2% or 3% of the collection had been given to us with consent, the Mutter Museums then-Director Kate Quinn told The New Yorker in a June article. But were finding its much, much less than that. Records: Fillinger was regular donor Fillinger autopsied the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, of Pennsylvania, and was part of a 30-year investigation that eventually saw Marie Noe go from a martyred mother of 10 dead children to a confessed murderer in 1998. WATCH VIDEO | 'Looking in the right place': Former Cambria worker visits cemetery, recalls solemn 1980 burial of Williamson babies Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For John Pupo, theres no question whether a cemetery burial was held for the Williamson babies in 1980. The Cresson man said he helped dig the grave. As Fillingers career was winding down, he left pieces of his legacy with the Mutter Museum, according to documents acquired by The Tribune-Democrat through a Right-to-Know request filed with the county coroners office. He donated an X-ray tube in 1998. In April 1999, he turned over a unique bladder stone from an 80-year-old man and five fetal skulls, documents show. For the Williamson case, he included a handwritten note under the subject babies heads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kept 1, (aged) 3 mos, 1 aged 9 mos, he wrote, after describing the 1980 examination. Documents sent to the coroners office indicate that the Mutter Museum staff found both skulls Nov. 15 in archival boxes that were tagged with Fillinger as their donor. Mutter officials told The Tribune-Democrat in a statement earlier this month that the mummified remains were not on display. Documents acquired through the Right-to-Know request expand on that. They were found next to a shrunken head and loosely covered in clear plastic, records stated. Ex-coroner says he declined request According to written notes by then-Mutter Museum Director Gretchen Worden in the 1990s, Fillinger told her he obtained the skulls from the Pennsylvania State Police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But articles from the era indicate the remains were returned to Cambria County and Barron after being examined by Fillinger and Krogman in Lancaster. In a brief interview this week, Barron told The Tribune- Democrat he was approached by Fillinger during the infants initial examination in 1980 and asked if he could keep one of the remains when the Williamson case was closed. WATCH VIDEOS | New discovery, mystery in 1980 Gallitzin murder case A discovery inside Stella Williamson's attic unearthed a gruesome Gallitzin murder mystery that captivated the nation in the summer of 1980. The dead woman left a letter and a dark secret the remains of five infants born during the Great Depression were inside her steamer trunk, fueling a wave of wonder at how Williamson kept her dead children hidden nearly 50 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barron said he responded with a direct no in refusal. He said he didnt think much about that conversation afterward, until he was contacted by current staff from the Cambria County Coroners Office and asked about the museums discovery. A former Cambria County maintenance worker recalled an Oct. 29, 1980, burial of the remains in a small wooden box at Cambria Countys paupers cemetery, which is now Laurel United Cemetery in Cambria Township. The box was nailed shut when it arrived and was lowered into the ground in a private ceremony that included a chaplain from the county home. It was not clear if representatives from the coroners office placed the remains in the box or checked it prior to burial. He had no right Lees joined the Cambria County Coroners Office in the early 2000s. He said he was among Fillingers final class of students when he sought his coroners certification. Much like Bacha, Lees recalled how the longtime pathologist commanded the room with his lessons. Bacha said Fillinger often displayed black-and-white crime scene photographs and stories about noteworthy cases. Bacha said he never got the chance to work alongside Fillinger on a homicide case and he was not familiar with the facts and circumstances surrounding the Williamson case. He said he only has the memories of a humble veteran forensic examiner who seemed eager in those days to share what he had learned with young death investigators. For Lees, its the questions he cannot ask now that hes reflecting on most. I looked up to that man, he said of Fillinger. But those remains, he said of the Williamson infants, were the property of the county where they were found, which was Cambria County. And he had no right to donate them. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine testifies before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner. OMAHA The Omaha areas top prosecutor wants another go. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleines campaign announced his bid for a sixth term Wednesday. Kleine, a former Democrat who switched to the GOP in 2020, had told local legal and political audiences in recent months of his intention to run again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My mission has never changed do what is right, Kleine said in a statement from his campaign. And make Douglas County a better and safer place. Kleine is a former top prosecutor with the Nebraska Attorney Generals Office and the Douglas County Attorneys Office and a private attorney. Kleines critics have questioned his willingness to defend some law enforcement actions and his decisions not to prosecute some officers and people. He has enjoyed the support of local and statewide law enforcement unions. Officers have argued he helps them get dangerous people off the streets. No Democrats have yet announced bids in the partisan county race. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX In every natural disaster, the difference in death tolls is based largely on the amount of advance warning given. Think tsunamis, volcanoes, Hurricane Katrina. Heres a story from 90 years ago that proves the point of why we need the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service now. Most of us have heard of the notorious Florida hurricanes from 1926 and 1928, when thousands were killed. The hurricane of 1935 also made history, for different reasons. First, it was the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in Florida. Second, it gave rise to an unexpected forecasting device we still value today. In the summer of 1935, an Atlantic hurricane was reported to be forming, but there was little certainty about where it was headed. Local officials were forecasting a landfall in Cuba, so Floridians were pretty relaxed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meteorological tools were crude, and forecasts were mainly derived from observations from ships at sea. A young American aviator named Leonard Povey, an expatriate living in Cuba, set out in his biplane to locate the hurricane. Povey was a self-taught stunt pilot and flight trainer, a daredevil whose lifelong credo was reportedly, The Lord hates a coward. He flew into the Florida Straits and right around the storm. He returned to Cuba with the news he had located an inverted funnel cloud farther north than expected. Cuban officials alerted their colleagues in Florida that the monster storm was seen turning north and heading right for them. Photo taken on a hurricane hunter flight in the NOAA WP-3D Orion "Miss Piggy" inside the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Beryl in July 2024. Thankfully, the Overseas Highway was already under construction, so people in the northern Keys were able to drive to safety. Right behind them, winds of up to 200 mph and a 20-foot storm surge destroyed the Overseas Railroad and flattened Islamorada. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The death toll was over 400, and the damage was in the millions of dollars. But without the advance warning from that brave pilot, it could have been much worse. NOAA cuts dwindle hurricane forecast accuracy This matters today, because this spring, we got word that the Hurricane Hunter program was facing budget cuts. The National Weather Service lost nearly 600 jobs to DOGE cuts, and several Hurricane Hunter flight engineers jobs were on the line. One was fired he was probationary but once they realized his work was critical to public safety, he was rehired. But no one there is really safe. FEMA Poll: Trump wants to abolish FEMA. Is that good for Florida? Take our poll. NOAAs Aircraft Operations Center is based in Lakeland, where the Hurricane Hunters keep their specialized aircraft until they get the signal. They fly long missions in and out of hurricanes to gather crucial weather data temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, wind direction that is used to improve hurricane forecasts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those multi-colored spaghetti models that make a mess all over your TV screen start to tighten up and form a line, thanks to that data. Then they can show us where the storm will make landfall. If youre in the evacuation zone, you know its time to go. A hurricane is basically an organized group of storm clouds, said meteorologist Kathryn Sellwood at the University of Miami. And a lot of satellites arent good at seeing through clouds. Some may see only through the top layers, the thin cirrus clouds. Others may not be able to see through ice. So, you cant really see the entire 3D structure of a hurricane just by looking down on it from a satellite. Satellite imaging is like taking an X-ray of a (storm) system from afar, added Daniel Brown, hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane hunters are measuring the inside of a storm, doing the all-important biopsy. Opinion: It's hurricane season. Florida's property insurance isn't ready. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miami meteorologist John Morales expressed concern that NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft may be hampered by the budget cuts and not able to fly as much this year. With fewer reconnaissance missions, he said, forecasters like him may be flying blind. A piece of legislation now being considered in Congress could help restore some lost NOAA jobs. The Weather Workforce Improvement Act was just introduced to help fully staff National Weather Service offices across the country. With bipartisan support, the bill seeks to protect them in the future too, by reclassifying meteorologists as critical to public safety, similar to air traffic controllers or FBI agents. Here in Florida, where more than 40% of U.S. hurricanes hit, that makes a lot of sense. In honor of the 90th anniversary of the first Hurricane Hunter flight, let your reps know you care. Katie Carpenter Katie Carpenter is a West Palm Beach-based filmmaker with Everwild Media (www.everwildmedia.com), producing documentaries about conservation, climate change and solutions. This opinion piece was distributed by The Invading Sea website (www.theinvadingsea.com). Join the Conversation: The Palm Beach Post is committed to publishing a diversity of opinions. Email us at letters@pbpost.com. Letters are subject to editing, must not exceed 200 words and must include your name, address and a daytime phone number to confirm the letter is for publication. We only publish names and cities with the letters. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida needs NOAA for hurricane forecasts. Keep it funded | Opinion Ian Maule / Bloomberg via Getty Images HPE has worked out an agreement with activist investor Elliott. Server maker Hewlett Packard Enterprise has created a committee aimed at identifying "opportunities for additional value creation," the server maker said Wednesday. The company, also known as HPE (HPE), in a morning press release said the committee, which will be led by a new board memberKLA Corp. (KLAC) Chair Bob Calderoniwill "assess the strategies of HPEs businesses," a process driven in part by activist investor Elliott Management, which has a large stake in the company. HPE's pact with Elliott includes "an information-sharing agreement that will allow for an ongoing dialogue between Elliott and HPE," the company said, and includes a provision that would allow Elliott to appoint a member to HPE's board. Elliott said it was "pleased" with HPE's latest moves. Shares of HPE, which are in the red both this year and over the past 12 months, were recently up less than 1% to around $20.50. Wall Street generally expects some appreciation for the stock, with the mean price target of analysts polled by Visible Alpha currently above $22. HPE in early June reported quarterly results that came in stronger than expected and narrowed its full-year outlook. It closed on the acquisition of Juniper Networks earlier this month. Read the original article on Investopedia President Donald Trump dodged more questions on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein while speaking to reporters Tuesday, claiming that parts of the investigative files had been made up by his political opponents as questions swirl over his own past relationship with the late sex offender. Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images Related: "Evidence Of Trumps Stupidity": Trump Was Ruthlessly Mocked After Suffering A Brain Fart While Trying To Insult Biden He suggested that more information could be released but only if it is deemed credible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps supporters have been demanding to see more of the files after the Justice Department issued a memo stating there was no evidence that Epstein blackmailed anyone or kept a client list. Officials in the Trump administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, repeatedly pledged full transparency on the Epstein case, but the memo raised more questions than it answered. Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images Trump once again defended Bondi on Tuesday, saying shes really done a very good job. Asked whether Bondi had told Trump that his name appeared in the files, Trump replied, No, no. Related: Hillary Clinton Just Hit On One Of Donald Trump's Biggest Insecurities With Three Words Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images Shes given us just a very quick briefing and in terms of the credibility of the different things that theyve seen, he said. Related: Donald Trump's Day Probably Got A Whole Lot Worse After These MAGA Voters Started Turning On Him Over The Epstein Files And I would say that, you know, these files were made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden, you know. And we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, with all the different things that we had to go through, weve gone through years of it. But shes handled it very well, and its gonna be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release. Alex Wong / Getty Images Just minutes later, during a Justice Department press conference on fentanyl deaths, a reporter asked Bondi about Trumps response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I appreciate the question, but this is about fentanyl overdoses throughout our country, she said. Im not going to talk about Epstein. Epstein first ran into legal trouble two decades ago, when he was accused of sexually abusing a minor girl. He eventually reached a surprisingly lenient plea deal with Florida state prosecutors, and flew largely under the radar until 2018, when the Miami Herald resurfaced allegations of his repeated sexual abuse. Kypros Related: "He Torched His Entire Reputation For Nothing": 27 Of The Best Political Tweets From This Messy, Messy Week The multimillionaire was found to have used his wealth and connections to procure a near-endless stream of young female massage therapists whom he then allegedly abused at his various private properties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Epstein died in federal prison one month after being arrested on charges of sex trafficking minors in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Trump and Epstein had a well-documented friendship for years. They appeared at some of the same high-profile parties along with British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of sex trafficking in 2021 and is currently serving a prison sentence. Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images As part of a 2002 profile of Epstein, Trump called him a terrific guy. But when he was asked about his old friend following his 2019 arrest, Trump said they had not spoken in years. He was a fixture in Palm Beach, Trump said of Epstein. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I dont think Ive spoken to him for 15 years. I wasnt a fan.This article originally appeared on HuffPost. Also in In the News: These Tweets Prove MAGA Is Seeing Some Serious Backlash Amid The Texas Floods Also in In the News: Donald Trump Just Hung A Painting Of Himself Where Hillary Clinton's Portrait Used To Be And It's Exactly What You'd Expect Also in In the News: "Trends That Can Lead To The Alt-Right Pipeline": This Woman Is Calling Out Ways The Far Right Targets Women And Girls Read it on BuzzFeed.com UPDATED with additional Trump comments: Donald Trump again expressed his irritation over a split in his MAGA base over his administrations contention that theres no there there when it comes to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump wrote that the Epstein story has been orchestrated by Democrats. But figures in his administration, like FBI director Kash Patel, Vice President JD Vance and Deputy FBI director Dan Bongino, had pushed conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein before taking their administration posts. More from Deadline Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump wrote on Truth Social, The Radical Left Democrats have hit pay dirt, again! Just like with the FAKE and fully discredited Steele Dossier, the lying 51 Intelligence Agents, the Laptop from Hell, which the Dems swore had come from Russia (No, it came from Hunter Bidens bathroom!), and even the Russia, Russia, Russia Scam itself, a totally fake and made up story used in order to hide Crooked Hillary Clintons big loss in the 2016 Presidential Election, these Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at Its all they have They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates. Also, unlike Republicans, they stick together like glue. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Countrys history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Later, Trump told reporters, Ive lost a lot of faith in certain people, because they got duped by the Democrats. He said that some stupid Republicans or foolish Republicans fall into the net. Trump has been trying to tamp down the Epstein talk since there has been a backlash among some of his most prominent allies over how the administration has handled the investigation. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi was asked on Fox News about a supposed Epstein client list. Its sitting on my desk right now to review, Bondi said then. Last week, Bondi said that she meant that she had the Esptein file to review, while the Justice Department has said that there was no evidence that there was a client list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patel wrote on X on Saturday, The conspiracy theories just arent true, never have been. Its an honor to serve the President of the United States @realDonaldTrump and Ill continue to do so for as long as he calls on me. On podcaster Benny Johnsons show in 2023, Patel suggested that the FBI was withholding the client list because it contained the names of prominent figures. Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the pedophiles are, Patel shouted at congressional Republicans. Figures like Megyn Kelly, who backed Trump last year, have continued to call on greater transparency from the administration. Joe Rogan, who also supported Trump, has mocked the administrations response. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Self-described very stable genius Donald Trump on Tuesday took aim at two of his most prominent critics in Congress Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) with a demand that they take IQ tests. AOC, look, I think shes very nice. But shes very low-IQ, and we really dont need low-IQ, the president told reporters. Between her and Crockett, were going to give them both an IQ test to see who comes out best. He continued: Now, I took my test. I took a real test at Walter Reed Medical Center and I aced it. I got every one of all those questions right. Now its time for them to take a test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But critics pointed out that Trump was appearing to reference not an IQ test but the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The screening tool is used to detect early signs of cognitive decline, not intelligence. Trump: "AOC -- look. I think she's very nice. But she's very low IQ, and we really don't need low IQ. Between her and Crockett, we're gonna give 'em both an IQ test to see who comes out best. I took a real test at Walter Reed medical center and I aced it. Now it's time for them pic.twitter.com/IlEUZd8Zlb Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2025 The test asks participants to remember a list of words, identify images and more. Trump last took the MoCA during a medical exam in April at Walter Reed. He infamously turned his 2018 taking of the assessment into a viral moment after claiming that doctors were amazed by how he remembered the words person, woman, man, camera, TV. Trump has long claimed a high IQ but has never released actual IQ test results. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Online, some mockingly floated the idea of all three Trump, Ocasio-Cortez and Crockett taking the same IQ test side-by-side on live television. Others suggested why hed lobbed the IQ dig at those two lawmakers in particular: Aced it. When I got to the picture of the giraffe, I thought it might be a giant dog because you know I hate dogs, not as much as Kristi Noem, but more than sharks, so I did guess on that one and wrote dog and Ronny Johnson changed it for me. Real stand up guy! Bill Johnson (@Bill43111) July 15, 2025 Trump conflating a competency test with an IQ test. Also, worth pointing out that Trump is always most obsessed with IQ when he's talking about women of colorhttps://t.co/GSGaoQcXqM Nick Field (@nick_field90) July 15, 2025 AOC graduated cum laude with duel-degrees in economics and international relations. Crockett has a law degree and passed the bar. calling them low IQ is laughable. f.RT (@cNFTfART) July 15, 2025 Here was the test: - circle - triangle - squirrel - giraffe - signal - Epstein https://t.co/nZbSfPNVu2 Jared Moskowitz (@JaredEMoskowitz) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He aced that test like he wins those tournaments at his personal golf courses. Farrah Oxford (@OxfordFarr66929) July 15, 2025 I know this isn't the point, but if AOC and Trump both took the same IQ test, it would be the most humiliating day of Trump's entire life. https://t.co/B29qSN2MC8 Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 15, 2025 Theres more intelligence in one strand of @AOC and @JasmineForUSs hair than in Trumps actual brain https://t.co/uGpuuCsBJX Andy Ostroy (@AndyOstroy) July 16, 2025 Trump never took an IQ test. He took a dementia screening test. I would really love to see him take a real IQ test though, one that we all could see, not just his retelling of how he "aced it" Trond Zaphirax (@norsehotties) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Calling AOC low IQ is rich coming from the dumbest president all-time. Mason (@masonisonx) July 15, 2025 Was that the person, woman, man, camera, TV test? https://t.co/GujJMR4m3j SnarkyOldBastard (@KaMitch72) July 16, 2025 Waitis he still talking about the cognitive test for signs of dementia?? Does he actually think it was an IQ test? https://t.co/NrZrAPM4KY Lisa Kadlec (@lisakadlec) July 16, 2025 Just the most powerful man in the world demonstrating he doesnt know the difference between a cognitive decline assessment and an IQ test. https://t.co/I8PlRRv6F0 Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What do those two have in common, I wonder... can't white put my finger on it Tony Parisi (@auradeluxe) July 15, 2025 Dear Lord, the moron doesn't even know the difference between a cognitive ability test and an IQ test! We are so screwed. Lynnez Rib Gone Rogue (@Lynnenallo) July 15, 2025 So he can recognise an elephant. Gerry McBride (@mcbit500) July 16, 2025 lets set it up so that AOC, Crockett, and tRump all take the same basic citizenship civics test that all immigrants who wants to become citizens need to take and lets see who aces it. i have a good feeling which one of the three would do poorly and then claimed it was rigged. Mr. Hair (@DonaldsHair2012) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The test that asks you to identify is this a zebra or an elephant? That's the one your dear leader 'aced' MAGA? Lib Dunk (@libdunkmedia) July 15, 2025 => Hey Donny: You can't ace or fail an IQ test. You can either take it or not. If you take it, you'll learn the number indicating where your IQ is on the IQ scale. If you dont take it, you won't learn this. Jeff Fleischmann (@Philosocrat) July 15, 2025 Let's be clear: AOC and Jasmine Crockett can run warp-speed intellectual rings around this idiot. Dj Omega Mvp (@DjOmegaMVP) July 15, 2025 Id bet my entire savings that both of those women score higher than him on an IQ test any day of the week Sheshootshescores (@sheshootscores) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please please please have both AOC and Donald Trump take the same IQ test, and please please please release the results. I will make a bet with anyone that AOC scores higher. Chris (@ChrisKFilms) July 15, 2025 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez graduated from Boston Universitywith a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Economics. She graduated cum laude in 2011. Jasmine Crockett has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Rhodes College and a Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the Lowell (@macstheknife) July 16, 2025 Related... DENVER (KDVR) Rocky Mountain Childrens Health Foundation is in the middle of a month-long toy drive in July and invites community members to join in supporting pediatric patients and their families across Colorado. Theyre collecting new toys and essentials for babies, children, and teens receiving care or services through the foundations programs. 2 Durango cyclists competing in Tour de France Spending a birthday or holiday in the hospital is incredibly difficultespecially for a child, said Cathy Sandoval, Executive Director of Rocky Mountain Childrens Health Foundation. A simple toy can bring a moment of joy, comfort, and normalcy. It reminds kids that theyre still allowed to just be kids, even in the midst of medical challenges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All items must be new and in original packaging. Donations can be dropped off at Rocky Mountain Childrens Health Foundation at 5394 Marshall Street, Suite 400 in Arvada between 7 a.m. 5 p.m. throughout the month of July. Most Needed Items Include: For Babies and Toddlers : Developmental baby toys Infant clothing (newborn to 12 months) Diapers, wipes, and other baby essentials For Teens : STEM kits and science activity sets Board games and card games Art supplies and craft kits Earbuds or portable electronics accessories Items can also be purchased from RMCHFs Amazon Wishlist and shipped directly. Monetary donations are also welcome and will go directly toward supporting pediatric patients and their families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While toy drives typically align with the holiday season, RMCHFs need for these items continues all year long. The foundation distributed 2,782 toys last year for a value of $44,871, and they said the demand is higher this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. SPRING VALLEY - The first Rockland Immigrant Heritage Day, set for Saturday, July 19, comes as scores of cultural events are canceled nationwide amid fears of immigration enforcement actions. The Rockland event, which focuses on "Celebrating Our Diversity," wasn't launched because of these retreats, co-organizer Renold Julien said, but despite them. "I don't believe in hiding," said Julien, executive director of Konbit Neg Lakay, a community center in Spring Valley that's been helping immigrants since 1996. "No one was born to be in hiding." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The event will take place in front of Konbit. Participants include: Konbit Neg Lakay; Proyecto Faro; Rockland Immigration Coalition; Rockland County Haiti Relief; and Center for Safety and Change, a victim-centered nonprofit. Others who want to join can contact Konbit Neg Lakay, Julien said. Fear of ICE impacting other cultural events While Rockland groups are launching this new celebration, other locations had reconsidered cultural celebrations this spring and summer as Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions stepped up visibility. How it happened: ICE releases Spring Valley HS student from Haiti It's happened in the Hudson Valley too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In New Rochelle, the annual Taste of Union event was canceled in June. The festival that celebrates the Hispanic culture of the city's Union Avenue area area was nixed, organizers said, amid fears of ICE raids in the region. Julien said many immigrants are scared. "It is my responsibility to give hope to the immigrant population," said Julien, who immigrated from Haiti decades ago and is a U.S. citizen. "To tell them we will be O.K." He said he hoped elected officials turned out too, adding it was an opportunity for them to show support. The new immigrant of today will become the U.S. citizen of the future, Julien said. "The only language politicians understand is 'vote.'" Renold Julien, CEO of Konbit Neg Lakay in Spring Valley, photographed on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. 'I was born a free man' Immigrants should be able to access information from agencies that support them at the event, Julien said. Everyone can have the chance to enjoy the variety of cultures that make up Rockland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Enjoy our food, beautiful music from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala," Julien said. Julien said he hopes everyone in Rockland turns out. Most American families were immigrants at some point, he said. As for concerns that ICE could come to this diverse Ramapo village, or to this event, Julien said, "If they show up, they show up." People will not live in fear, he said. "I was born a free man." If you go to Rockland's Immigrant Heritage Day July 19 Immigrant Heritage Day celebrates and showcases Rockland's diversity, and provides access to resources of the immigrant community. When: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, July 19. Where: In front of Konbit Neg Lakay, 16 E. Church St., Spring Valley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What to expect: Cultural demonstrations, food, music and dancing. Information: To find out more or participate, contact Konbit Neg Lakay at 845-425-4623. Know the latest angle on Rockland The Rockland Angle, lohuds free weekly newsletter, gives you the scoop on whats new and trending in the county, its five towns and myriad villages and hamlets. Get The Angle delivered to your inbox every Monday evening; sign up at https://profile.lohud.com/newsletters/rockland-angle/ This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: As ICE fears cancel events, Rockland groups launch Immigrant Day The Ohio Fire Marshals Office has issued a warning following an increase in fireworks-related incidents over the Fourth of July holiday. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] During the holiday period, the Divisions Fire and Explosion Investigations Bureau (FEIB) had 15 fireworks-related incidents resulting in 31 injuries. The Fire Marshals Office said the FEIB was also made aware of several other incidents that were handled at the local level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An additional 24 people were injured in fireworks-related incidents during the holiday, according to burn injury reports obtained by the office. TRENDING STORIES: Although fireworks are an exciting part of 4th of July celebrations, they can be extremely dangerous, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said. In 2024, the FEIB investigated 14 fireworks-related incidents resulting in 28 injuries. Consumer-grade fireworks are legal in Ohio, but they must be handled with extreme caution and used in full compliance with the law, State Fire Marshal Kevin Reardon said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Ohio state law, residents are allowed to discharge 1.4G consumer fireworks on July 3-5 and the weekends immediately before and after, unless restricted by local ordinances. As previously reported by News Center 7, two men were critically injured while for a fireworks show at the Darke County Fairgrounds on July 6. The Divisions Code Enforcement Bureau seized a large quantity of illegal fireworks in Pickaway County, including a 16-inch shell, which is the largest ever seized by the division. This bureau is also working with the FEIB on incidents in Franklin, Lorain, and Morrow counties, according to the office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fireworks are not toys, Reardon said. The injuries and damage we have seen this year are a sobering reminder of the stark dangers involved. We encourage everyone to leave fireworks to the professionals and celebrate safely. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) Police in Prince William County said more than a dozen search warrants were executed in connection with an ongoing multi-state investigation into an incident at the Babylon Cafe earlier this year. Detectives determined a shooting that broke out in the cafes parking lot in the early morning hours of April 13 was affiliated with the Wheels of Soul motorcycle gang. Prince William County Police Department (PWCPD) investigators said the victim a 42-year-old man had been forcibly removed from the cafe to the parking lot by members of the gang, where he was assaulted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He suffered serious injuries. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Two hurt in fight, shooting in Woodbridge cafes parking lot After the assault, members of the gang stayed in the lot, where one of the mans acquaintances confronted the group. As a result, more than 80 shots rang out. The 41-year-old acquaintance was taken to a hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to his arm. More than three months after the altercation, on July 16, the PWCPD said a coordinated joint operation resulted in multiple search warrants being executed throughout Virginia and Pennsylvania. During those searches, 19 people were either taken into custody or are actively being sought on outstanding charges related to the investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. JUNCTION CITY (KSNT) State troopers busted a driver traveling at 100 mph through a highway work zone near Junction City Wednesday morning. The Kansas Highway Patrol Troop C reported on social media that around 7:30 a.m. on July 16 a state trooper monitoring traffic on I-70 near Junction City spotted a driver in a KIA moving at 100 mph in a 60 mph zone. The speeding violation also occurred in an ongoing road construction zone. Law enforcement issued a ticket to the driver for exceeding the maximum speed limits and driving on the left while in a no-passing zone. The drivers ticket ended up at $948 for the traffic violations and docket fee. (Photo Courtesy/Kansas Highway Patrol) Driver clocked at 107 mph on the Kansas Turnpike, gets big ticket Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The KHP said the driver ignored signs warning of traffic narrowing down to one lane due to the work zone. State troopers said this could have caused a crash or harm to workers in the area. But sometimes drivers ignore the signs. They wait until the last minute and try to speed around several cars on the left, right before the lane narrows. Thats not just dangerous. Its exactly what those warning signs are trying to prevent. This morning, thats what happened. A driver flew through the area at 100 miles per hour in a 60 zone. They were also passing cars on the left in a no-passing area, just before everything funneled into one lane. KHP social media statement excerpt Do you still have to slow down for work zones on the weekend in Kansas? For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. BAGHDAD (AP) Drones targeted oil fields in Iraqs semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region Wednesday, the latest in a series of attacks in recent days that have put several oil facilities out of commission. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have exacerbated tensions between the central government in Baghdad and Kurdish authorities. The Kurdish regions anti-terrorism department said two drones attacked an oil field in the district of Zakho, causing damage but no injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DNO ASA, the Norwegian oil and gas company operating the field, said its operations were temporarily suspended following three explosions involving a small storage tank at Tawke and surface processing equipment at Peshkabir. It said there were no injuries, and a damage assessment was underway. Hours later, the anti-terrorism department said the Baadre oil field, located in the Sheikhan district of Dohuk province, was targeted by a drone strike. There were no injuries. Videos showed a plume of smoke rising over barren hills. The attacks came a day after another oil field in Dohuk province operated by a U.S. company was set ablaze, also after being struck by a drone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kurdish regions Ministry of Natural Resources said the attacks were meant "to disrupt the economy of the Kurdistan region and threaten the safety of civilian employees of the energy sector, and called for federal authorities to intervene to stop them. Iraqi oil industry expert Hamza al-Jawahiri said the targeting of oil fields in the Kurdish region would not affect global oil prices and that oil production in southern Iraq is sufficient to compensate for any resulting shortage. The fields in northern Iraq produce around 500,000 barrels per day. Al-Jawahiri said the primary losers would be the companies operating the fields, which are working under partnership contracts. Earlier this month, the Kurdish regional government accused the Popular Mobilization Forces a coalition of Iran-allied militias that are officially under the control of the Iraqi military of carrying out drone attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Iraqi army said the accusation was issued in the absence of evidence and said it could provide hostile parties with justifications to undermine Iraqs stability. Iran-backed armed groups have periodically attacked U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria. During last months Israel-Iran war, some of them threatened to target U.S. interests and bases in the region if Washington got involved. Israel has vowed to support the Druze; however, this is easier said than done. Four days of clashes in the Druze city of Sweida have now reached a possible turning point. There were attempts to reach a ceasefire in Suwayda on Tuesday. However, the continued clashes and videos of Druze being abused and killed in fighting are leading to a possible spillover. This is because Israel has chosen to also intervene and try to deter the attacks on the Druze. This is leading to condemnation of Israel from regional countries and concerns that go far beyond Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Sweida clashes were predictable. They are at least the third clashes of their kind since the fall of the Assad regime. The reasons for the clashes are complex. They usually begin due to local reasons, with armed Druze men clashing with other armed groups, such as Bedouin tribes. This leads to government intervention. The Syrian government doesnt want an autonomous Druze region with armed militias in southern Syria. The Druze interpret this as suppression of their community. Many Sunni Arabs in Syria who back the government see the Druze as a possible threat to stability in southern Syria. Religious extremists also exploit this. Israel has vowed to support the Druze. However, this is easier said than done. Druze in Israel have been protesting, and some have sought to enter Syria. Scenes overnight and on Wednesday showed some Druze men entering and leaving Syria. Members of Syrian security forces sit together at a back of a truck after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) Currently, this is leading to a crisis and escalation on the border, where Israel has had to reinforce the IDF units. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the fall of Assad, Israeli forces have operated inside Syria, particularly on Mount Hermon and also along the buffer zone. This has put Israel in direct contact with Syrian villagers. In addition, the IDF has carried out at least two raids against Iranian-backed cells operating close to the border. All of that points to the possibility of a spillover. Israel has managed the Syrian conflict for the past decade and a half since it began in 2011. Sometimes, there have been clashes along the border. For instance, Druze men lynched two Syrians who were being brought to hospital in 2015. The Druze believed the Syrians were members of extremist groups in Syria. At the time, Israel was providing medical aid to Syrians on the border. The Druze in the Golan, who are Israeli citizens for the most part, but also Syrian citizens, support their comrades on the other side of the border. For instance, in Majdal Shams people can see the Druze village of Khader in Syria. When Khader was threatened by Syrian rebels in 2014-2015, it caused concern in the Golan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Druze in Syria generally sided with the Assad regime during the war. After the fall of the regime, they have sought more autonomy. Israel has supported this. Israeli threats to target Ahmed al-Sharaa The other aspect of spillover is connected to the Israeli threats to target Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Syrian president. The US would like to prevent this, and United States Special Envoy Tom Barrack has put out a statement and message. However, it will take more than messages to calm the situation. In addition, the images of Druze seeking to enter Syria from Israel could lead to clashes. The IDF said on Wednesday that a short while ago, IDF troops identified dozens of suspects attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory from the area of Hader, Quneitra Governorate, in Syria. IDF and Israeli Border Police forces are operating to prevent the infiltration and disperse the gathering. The report also said, simultaneously, several Israeli civilians crossed the border fence into Syrian territory in the area of Majdal Shams. IDF troops are currently operating to safely return the civilians who crossed the border. The IDF emphasizes that this is a serious incident constituting a criminal offense and endangers the public and IDF troops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israels challenge is to decide whether it prefers more escalation in Syria or wants to find a way to climb down from the incidents. The Jewish states leadership has appeared to prefer more escalation. The question is whether air strikes can actually solve issues in Sweida. Having Druze men crossing the border into Syria is not a solution for what is happening there. While it is understandable that Druze in Israel care about their comrades, having the border area become a complete chaos is in no ones interest. Israel has said that it wants southern Syria demilitarized. This has resulted in a power vacuum in southern Syria. This means that armed groups, such as the Druze militias in Sweida, have a lot of sway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Syrian government then relies on its own forces to fight the Druze, but its forces are themselves barely more than armed militias because the Syrian government has not trained enough troops since coming to power. Assads army was an empty shell, and there are simply not enough formal military and security units. As such, the Syrian government also appears to rely on the mobilization of armed men, similar to a levee where men are randomly called to the flag to fight. However, relying on a rabble of armed men, who may or may not be trained to a standard or may be affiliated with extremist groups, has the effect of creating a cycle of violence. The Druze fear attacks by extremists. In turn, they ambush the government forces who enter Suwayda. Israel then carries out airstrikes, and the cycle repeats itself. Now that more than three days of clashes have taken place, it may be more difficult to put the genie back into the bottle. Syria faces a crossroads in Sweida. It must contain the violence and find a way forward, or the crisis will grow. FMC Corporation (NYSE:FMC) is one of the stocks on Jim Cramers radar. A caller inquired if the company is the one to go for or if there is a better option in the sector. Heres what Mad Moneys host had to say in response: Okay, FMC is a really interesting story because tonight, the president put a 50% tariff on Brazil. Brazil is an agricultural competitor to us. FMC is an agricultural, fungicide. They do a lot of different stuff to be able to make it so the harvest comes out. And Id like to know before I opine on it, what that 50% tariff will mean for their business. So this is a work in progress. I wish I knew, but I dont want to cuff it after what happened tonight, which was very dramatic. Jim Cramer Says "FMC is a Really Interesting Story" A laboratory technician carefully mixing chemicals in a laboratory. FMC (NYSE:FMC) develops and sells crop protection products such as insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and biologicals that are aimed at improving agricultural yield and quality. In February, Cramer discussed the stock, as he said: Theres a company called FMC. And thats an agricultural company. Its an old food machinery company, its based in Philadelphia. And the stock is down 35% today because they have inventory problems. Too much of the crop chemicals used for . . . corn, potatoes, and sorghum. I just remind that there certain industries that are in this economy that are seemed to just, I dont know we have to stay close to ag. Thats a very very bad number. And Im kind of shocked because its a pretty reliable company. But the ag business maybe not as great as we think judging from the fact that they have a lot of insecticides, herbicides. So, stay close to ag. While we acknowledge the potential of FMC as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 30 Stocks That Should Double in 3 Years and 11 Hidden AI Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Israel ramped up airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday following reports that members of the Druze religious minority were being massacred by militant Islamists, shining a spotlight on a unique community that has lived in the region for more than a thousand years and remains tightly connected despite being scattered across international borders. Around 150,000 Druze live in Israels north and on the Golan Heights, but there are also large communities in Syria and Lebanon neighboring countries that have technically been at war with Israel for decades and a smaller group in Jordan. An esoteric, monotheistic religion that incorporates elements of other Abrahamic religions, as well as several other philosophies, the Druze, an Arabic-speaking population, view themselves as one people despite the hostile borders that divide them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel Strikes Syrias Military Headqaurters As The Regime Clashes With Druze Civilians As their religion dictates loyalty to the country in which they live, most of those that live in Israel are proud citizens, with an overwhelming 83% of the men enlisting in the Israeli army. Roughly 5% of all Israel Defense Forces soldiers are Druze, and they are some of the countrys fiercest warriors. Additionally, the Druze account for around 20% of Israels prison guards and about 6.5% of the countrys police officers. Read On The Fox News App This dedication has earned them a special place in Israeli society, pushing Israeli political and military leaders to promise action if the Druze community in Syria is threatened in any way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As reports surfaced that Islamists, and regime-backed loyalists, had clashed with Druze militia in southern Syria on Tuesday, more than a thousand young Israeli Druze citizens rushed across the border in a bid to rescue their brethren, Israeli media reported. Reports showed hundreds of people, including some who were armed, breaking down the border fence and rushing into nearby Druze villages in Syria. In a briefing on Wednesday, an Israeli military official explained that many members of Israels Druze community have close relatives living in Syria and that is why they went to help. The official said Israel was now working to bring them home. "The IDF is committed to the deep alliance with the Druze community," IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir emphasized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Professor Eyal Zisser, a leading Israeli academic expert on Syria and the Druze community, told Fox News Digital that it was a "unique" situation. Why Syria Plays A Key Role In Trumps Plans For Middle East Peace "Israels Druze community is putting pressure on the government, so for domestic reasons Israel has to deal with this," he said, adding that the current Israeli government "believes in using force to appease its base and show that it is strong and using power, or whatever is needed." This is not the first time, Israels Druze have rushed to protect their community in Syria. In 2015, when Druze there came under threat from ISIS and from the local al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra, Druze in Israel worked to raise funds and arms for their brethren across the border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April, months after the fall of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, hundreds of Syrian Druze clerics crossed the border taking a rare trip to Israel to celebrate the communitys holiday of Ziyara at the Nabi Shuaib holy site, just west of the Sea of Galilee. Original article source: Who are the Druze? Religious group aids Syrian members under Islamist attack, Israeli members offer support DUNKIRK, N.Y. (WIVB) Dozens of local residents showed up to Tuesdays common council meeting in Dunkirk to learn more about new nuclear technology and its potential to repurpose the shuttered NRG energy site. The room was split, with some residents who are concerned about health risks and others who are calling the possibility of a nuclear power plant a needed economic boom for a dying city. We will not move forward with any proposals unless it is shaped by and supported by this community, Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In June, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that New York would build the countrys first advanced nuclear power plant in more than a decade. While no site has been named, State Senator George Borrello has called to put the site in Dunkirk on the former NRG power plant, which has been closed for almost a decade. [It was] a turning point for our community, Wdowiasz said. One that resulted in the loss of good paying jobs, significant tax revenue and a proud role in empowering this region. Wdowiasz said the potential site would transform the local economy. She invited Dr. Andrew Whittaker, a professor of civil, structural and environmental engineering at the University at Buffalo, to the meeting to discuss how nuclear energy works. If youre going to spend $13 billion on a plant here in Dunkirk, and you make that decision, youre going to spend $7.5 billion of that here, Whittaker said. That is a shot in the arm for any community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some residents cited high costs and potential safety risks as reasoning for not wanting it in their backyards. One resident voiced concerns of low-level radiation and mentioned the number of homes that are within a mile of the power plant. You get a much greater dose just getting on a plane and traveling from Buffalo to New York City, Whittaker said. If theres any earthquake or something like that, Im worried about the nuclear waste possibly getting into our ground water, another resident said. If theres an earthquake shaking that is sufficient to damage one of those fuel carts, Dunkirk will no longer exist and it will be wiped off from the face of the Earth, Whittaker said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whittaker estimated if shovels broke ground on Tuesday, it would take six years to complete the facility in Dunkirk. We finally have a chance of something huge here folks and from a younger generation, many of us wanna see this happen, one resident said. There will be more meetings scheduled in the coming weeks. Latest Local News Dillon Morello is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has been part of the News 4 team since September of 2023. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. A delivery worker on an electric bicycle slashed an onduty city Department of Transportation employee Wednesday morning after the cyclist nearly collided with the workers truck in lower Manhattan, officials and witnesses said. At the time of the attack, the truck may have been taking up a small portion of a bike lane that runs down Broadway near Cedar St., a police source with knowledge of the incident said. Witnesses, however, said the truck was parked at the corner, not in the bicycle lane. They werent even in the bike lane, they were parked on the corner, fixing the light or the sign or something, one witness who works nearby, who wanted to be identified only as Chris, told the Daily News. It was two DOT guys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 28-year-old worker was fixing a street sign at the corner when the bicyclist nearly collided with his truck around 6:50 a.m., cops said. As the two men argued about the near collision, the bicyclist whipped out a box cutter and slashed the worker in the arm. One of the girls came in and said, Theyre fighting on the corner with knives! Chris, 35, recalled. We were, like, What? So we came outside and then we saw it was pretty much [over]. It looked like the guy on the bicycle tried to apologize, because he went up to him [and tried to shake his hand], Chris said. And the guy was, like, Get the fk away from me! You just sliced me! He probably knew he was going to get in trouble and was trying to cover himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A moment later, the slasher took off on his electric bicycle down Liberty St., witnesses said. The DOT workers partner wrapped a towel on the victims arm to stop the bleeding, Chris said. EMS rushed the city employee to Bellevue Hospital, where he was treated and released. Cops were looking for the cyclist Wednesday. No arrest has been made. Its always something in this city, Chris said, smiling. Bright and early, like 6-something in the morning. Its crazy. A DOT spokesman condemned the slashing as an abhorrent assault of an NYC DOT employee who performs critical work to keep our city moving. Our thoughts are with our employee and their loved ones, and we hope they make a quick recovery, the spokesman said. We will be coordinating with NYPD to bring the perpetrator to justice. EARLE, Ark. Earle, Arkansas, Mayor Jaylen Smith pledged to put teeth into ordinances that have been on the books for years. We have to enforce ordinances because we need people to help us help them, said Mayor Smith. After a special meeting with the Earle City Council, it was decided that starting July 21, fines would be imposed for not disposing of trash properly and not bringing trash carts off the roadway within three days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Smith says litter is a major problem in Earle. Earle, Arkansas Photo by WREG Earle, Arkansas Photo by WREG Earle, Arkansas Photo by WREG Earle, Arkansas Photo by WREG Earle, Arkansas Photo by WREG As far as when people throw trash out on the streets, or trash is just everywhere. Were trying to get the city into compliance with order and organization, said Mayor Smith. There are more ordinances taking effect. Mayor Smith is looking to rid Earle of abandoned houses and whats called nuisance property, giving owners 30 days notice to take action or face fines. Notices have already gone out about inoperable vehicles. Owners have 60 days to bring those vehicles into compliance or be fined from $25 to $100. One resident says its about time and that its great. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mowing, weed eating, moving brick and block, stuff like that, old rotten wood, tearing down old trailers, said Tony Mills, Earle resident. If we can get the people to work with our councilmen and the Mayor and come together as a whole, this could be a great city again, said Carl Dunn, Earle resident. Ordinances involving inoperable vehicles and nuisance property will go into effect on August 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. ECTOR COUNTY, Texas (KMID/KPEJ)- Ector County ISD Chief of Police Jeff Daniels gave an update to the community on ECISDs operations in Kerrville after massive flooding swept hundreds of people away over the Fourth of July Weekend. The last week has been difficult for our community, and our local law enforcement agencies felt it especially, Daniels said in a letter to staff. Last Wednesday, Odessa Police Department officer Bailey Martin, a victim of the massive flooding in Kerr County, was escorted home from Travis County to Odessathen on Friday, Ector County Juvenile Probation officer Jayda Floyd was found and identified, another victim of the floodingAs the Districts Chief of Police, I would like to take a moment to address the events that have unfolded since July 4 and recognize the incredible response and dedication of those involved, including members of our own ECISD team. Courtesy: ECISD Daniels said when the Fire Chief in Ingram made a request for additional first responders to assist with victim rescue and recovery operations, several members of ECISDs police force jumped into action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sergeant Viviana Mccrury, Corporal Matt Mccrury, Officer Damon McGilvray, Officer Paul De Leon, and Officer Georgia Reyes volunteered without hesitation. This team quickly gathered the necessary supplies and equipment and traveled to the City of Ingram, Daniels said. Upon arrival, they were met by an exhausted and overwhelmed group of first responders and volunteers. Our officers were immediately deployed to the river near the HRT TX Hill County Campground- an area severely affected by the flood. The destruction was immense. Despite the harsh conditions and extreme weather, our team pressed forward tirelessly. They assisted in the recovery of numerous victims and searched difficult, remote areas inaccessible by normal transportation. According to Daniels, the team from ECISD also aided in the recovery of Officer Martins personal vehicle and retrieved his and Floyds personal belongings. The response from fellow officers on the scene was humbling, as they dedicated all available resources to locating anything that could provide information to their families, he said. ECSIDs Mounted Patrol Division also remained on site for six days and led groups through areas that had not been searched and helped recover additional victims. Photos Courtesy of ECISD Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am very proud of this dedicated group. I am amazed at their personal sacrifice to be part of this mission. It shows our District is far more than an educational institution- we want to be a vital part of this community and our state. We stand ready to serve when others need us most, Daniels said. We will continue to monitor recovery efforts and remain ready to assist whenever called upon. Our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters at the Odessa Police Department, the Ector County Juvenile Probation Department, and with the families of all those affected, Daniels said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Yourbasin. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Renowned actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr. stopped by Springfield for a special book signing of his new memoir. Capitol Hill honors Granby student with moment of silence and vigil Fans gathered at the Wellington Sonida Senior Living in Springfield to meet Begley and get a signed copy of his book called To the Temple of TranquilityAnd Step On It! In the memoir, Begley shares his origins of becoming an actor and environmental activist, reflects on his life as the son of legendary actor Ed Begley Sr., and tells of his adventures with Hollywood icons and lifelong search for wisdom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It opened a door to a business that was good to me, he says. Im now 75 years of agealmost 76 and Im still working, so anybody who has been in business for 58 years and still enjoys itI think you are quite fortunateand I feel like Im extremely fortunate. Begley`s sister, Allene Curto, is a former, long-time Springfield school committee member and activist for Massachusetts students. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. The White House is in full-blown turmoil as some of President Trumps favorite people have the pitchforks out for his attorney general, Pam Bondi. The Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories that helped him ooze his way back to the White House are back like vultures. That is well-earned karma for Bondi. She promised Conspiracy World to serve up raw meat the client list! Names! and failed spectacularly to deliver. But that misadventure is not the major reason why a responsible Congress would already have impeached her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bondi is on course to be the nations worst modern attorney general since John Mitchell, of Watergate infamy. Among other things, she has given Trump her official blessing to flout any law, such as the TikTok ban, on the pretense that it conflicts with his constitutional duties (the Constitution makes no such exception). That was tantamount to declaring him a dictator, as if he needed any encouragement. No bar is too low There seems to be no low too low for Bondi. But at least shes consistent. She recently fired three career prosecutors who were instrumental in convicting Trumps Jan. 6 rioters, whom he has pardoned for their attempt to overthrow the government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the three: Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon, in Floridas Middle District, four days after he had indicted a St. Petersburg businessman, Leo Govani, in the embezzlement of more than $100 million from medical trust funds for needy victims of accidents and major illness. Firing the lead prosecutor in such a case implies indulgence not only to white collar crime another familiar object of Trump pardons but also to a major Republican political donor as Govani is. It feeds Trumps pathological thirst for revenge. But that grave misconduct is not why Laura Loomer, Steve Bannon, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and other MAGA stars are after Bondi. Their beef is how Bondi, in a Fox News interview, appeared to concede that the Department of Justice had a client list among its still-undisclosed trove of information on the sex trafficking case of Epstein, and that she would release it. Sitting on my desk Its sitting on my desk right now to review, Bondi told Fox. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A persistent far right fantasy is that former President Bill Clinton would be on such a list. Some on the left imagine the same of Trump, who partied with Epstein for decades and was president when the notorious sexual predator died in a New York jail six years ago. But the DOJ said last week it will release no more Epstein documents and that no such list exists. Most remaining material is essentially child pornography and there is no evidence of blackmail or unindicted suspects, the DOJs memo said. The White House and DOJ failed to placate Loomer and Co. by saying Bondi had referred only to the Epstein files in general, not to any list implicating others. Bondi lied, said an X post by Loomer, who is very influential with Trump. She was always lying. FBI is entangled, too The turmoil also involves the FBI, which Bondi oversees. Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino came to Trumps attention by circulating Epstein conspiracy theories accusing the FBI of a coverup. Now, theyre reportedly trying to undermine Bondi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adding to Bondis troubles with Conspiracy World is a two-minute gap in the 11-hour surveillance video of Epsteins cell the night he died. Bondis explanation that it was a routine reset by the Bureau of Prisons may be true, but truth has become irrelevant in contemporary Washington. Bondi has committed the cardinal sin of embarrassing Trump. Shes done worse. After having been a $115,000-a-month lobbyist for the emirate of Qatar, she signed off on the Middle East monarchys odious gift of a $400 million jet to Trump, which supposedly isnt a payoff to him but to his future presidential library. It is blatantly unconstitutional for a U.S. president to accept any gift from a foreign ruler without the consent of Congress. A harbinger in Florida The firing of career prosecutors calls to mind how Bondi, as Florida attorney general, forced out two assistants who offended a Jacksonville company linked to mortgage fraud investigations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her Florida tenure foreshadowed how she has behaved as Trumps consigliere. She refused to act on complaints against his fraudulent Trump University and then took an illegal $25,000 campaign contribution from his charitable foundation. The Tik Tok matter is historically grave. Bondi could have exercised prosecutorial discretion in carrying out the ban that Congress voted and the Supreme Court approved. Instead, she effectively declared the law null and void by authorizing tech companies to ignore it. The proper course for a president who disagrees with a law is to ask Congress to suspend or repeal it. Given Trumps immense influence with this Congress, it probably would have agreed. But what the president wanted, and what Bondi has given him, is a blank check to simply ignore any law he doesnt like under cover of some fatuous reference to his constitutional responsibilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of those is to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a single federal judge could not issue a nationwide injunction on a case related to the constitutional right of birthright citizenship that the Trump administration is trying to end, the justices made an exception for class action cases. OK, so now a New Hampshire federal judge has certified a nationwide class action on the same matter. We hope this blocks President Donald Trumps attempt to terminate the long-standing right to birthright citizenship. The administration had tried to argue that the plaintiffs had no standing given that the children were not born yet a ridiculous claim given that the effects would apply immediately at the moment of their birth. At no point throughout this entire fiasco has the government ever tried to substantiate how it would suffer any irreparable harm from maintaining the status quo that has been in place for well more than a century. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its argument boils down to the idea that the executive should be able to override not only Congress but the Supreme Court and the Constitution itself, whose 14th Amendment is quite unambiguous in a way that has not only been ruled on already by the high court, but understood by the entirety of legal academia in the interim. Meanwhile, it is extraordinarily clear that there would be catastrophic and cascading harms resulting from the policy going to effect. Every individual born to undocumented or temporary resident parents under this regime could be effectively stateless in their own country of birth, causing them extraordinary difficulty from birth and significantly impacting the states and localities where they live. This is an argument that the MAGA wing seems to understand otherwise, as hyper-conservative states like Texas continuously sued the Biden administration over the many supposed ills caused by undocumented immigrants in their jurisdictions. Yet, Trump is now insisting that he has the right to violate the Constitution in a way that will produce many more legally undocumented immigrants in every state in the nation. Not to mention that it would be an entirely unworkable paradigm to have certain states covered by a judicial injunction, while others see the policy go into effect, meaning certain people could be considered native-born U.S. citizens in one state and not another. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Could someone with a U.S. birth certificate and passport be detained by immigration agents if they were to cross a state line, because they would then be considered stateless and subject to deportation? That is the type of question that we should not endeavor to hash out. The president has frequently couched this effort in the language of carrying out a popular mandate and the will of the public, yet the public is not on board; recent polls show that support for immigration and the contributions it brings to the nation are only growing, while views on Trump and Stephen Millers xenophobic nationalist crackdown or souring. A federal judge last week also blocked the administrations roving patrols of immigration agents, finding what we all can clearly see: these are rife with racial profiling and due process violations. Thats not what America is supposed to be about. We hope that this back-and-forth ends soon with the most definitive statement the courts could make: attempts to end birthright citizenship are unconstitutional on the merits, full stop. _____ Editors note: This editorial originally ran in fellow CNHI paper The (Sunbury) Daily Item. Individuals have long valued privacy for themselves and their families, while often knowingly or unknowingly giving it away. It is nice to see someone fighting to keep some very personal information out of the hands of people or companies who may play loosely with everything from personal health information to name and contact information. In todays world, increasingly driven by algorithms powered by data extracted from various points along the digital highway, many people have no idea what data they have willingly given up by clicking OK. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The issue came to the forefront when it was learned that the bankrupt 23andMe DNA-testing company planned to sell the data it collected from its customers without their knowledge or approval. The popular at-home genetic test kits allow customers to determine ancestry, lineal descent and potential risk of certain diseases. According to industry experts, data gathered includes name, birthdate and gender, along with contact information, even health information and medical records and raw genetic code linked to user profiles. Any of those bits of information would be important for data collectors. As a whole, its a goldmine. Pennsylvania State Attorney General Dave Sunday, earlier this year, joined 28 counterparts nationwide who pushed back. The attorneys general challenged the sale of the highly personal data to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, arguing in a court filing that it was done without the knowledge or consent of 23andMes 15 million customers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Late last month, Sunday and the other AGs scored a win for their constituents when they approved the sale to a company that pledged protections on the personal data many gave away. Still, Sunday said, customers should consider manually deleting their genetic and personal information from the website. I am relieved and encouraged that this potential sale will safeguard very personal data that Pennsylvanians and consumers nationwide wish to keep private, Sunday said. That said, any consumer with a 23andMe profile should research and make their own decision as to whether they want to delete that profile. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sunday outlined key conditions of the sale, including that customers have control over their data and financial relief for any cybersecurity breach victims. In this particular instance, those who willingly handed off personal information found protection. The case should also serve as a reminder to all of us to read the fine print and understand what we are handing over to entities who often flip that information over to the highest bidder. The News in Brief Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Latvia has imposed entry bans on 55 additional Georgian citizens, Foreign Minister Baiba Braze announced on Sunday."I have included 55 Georgian citizens on Latvia's persona non grata list, imposing a ban on their entry into Latvia. This decision was made in accordance with Section 61(2) of the Immigration Law," Braze said in a statement posted on social media. The identities of those affected have not been made public.Latvia's move follows similar actions taken by neighboring Baltic states. Lithuania and Estonia have already imposed sanctions targeting a broad group of Georgian individuals. These measures come as the European Union continues to face internal disagreement over a collective response, with any EU-wide sanctions requiring unanimous approval from all member states.On April 15, Lithuania released a list of 102 sanctioned individuals. The list included senior members of the ruling Georgian Dream party, members of parliament, officials from the Interior Ministry, and judges.Latvia has not specified whether its list overlaps with Lithuania's or includes new names.The Public Defender of Georgia has issued a statement in response to the building collapse on Tevdore Mgvdeli Street in Tbilisi, offering condolences to the victims and expressing sympathy to the families and relatives of those who died.In the statement, the Public Defender's office noted that residents of hazardous buildings have repeatedly contacted the institution over the years, raising concerns about their right to live in a safe environment."Despite the existence of regulations for the replacement of hazardous multi-apartment residential buildings within the territory of Tbilisi Municipality, many families have been forced to live in dangerous conditions for years," the office said. "It should be emphasized that such hazardous buildings pose risks not only to residents but also to citizens who may move or work nearby."The statement added that the systemic nature of the issue requires timely and effective action that existing legislation and municipal programs have so far failed to deliver."Cases studied over the years clearly show that addressing this systemic problem requires timely and effective measures, which current legislative guarantees and programmatic capacities fail to ensure," it said.The Public Defender's office announced it has opened an inquiry into the Tevdore Mgvdeli Street incident. The investigation will examine whether the state and municipal authorities have fulfilled their obligations to ensure safe living conditions for residents of hazardous buildings and others who may be affected."The Public Defender's office has initiated an inquiry into the incident on Tevdore Mgvdeli Street and will examine issues concerning the right of residents of hazardous buildings and other citizens to live in a safe environment, as well as the measures taken or to be taken by responsible authorities," the statement reads. Joby Aviation (NYSE:JOBY), a pioneer in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has seen its stock price surge, reflecting growing investor confidence in its commercialization prospects. The stock has climbed 92% year-to-date and a remarkable 169% in the last three months, significantly outperforming the NYSE Composite Index, which gained 7% and 11% respectively over the same periods. Joby initially entered the public market in 2021 through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) merger. The company currently generates most of its revenue from flight services under U.S. government contracts and early commercial operations, particularly with the Air Force. Also Read: Boeing, Joby Aviation, Oracle And A Health Care Stock: CNBCs Final Trades However, Jobys long-term strategy centers on a significant revenue expansion through the launch of commercial air taxi services using its eVTOL aircraft. This ambitious plan is now being underpinned by substantial progress in manufacturing and a supportive regulatory environment. The stocks recent ascent of over 61% in the past 30 days highlights the positive market reaction to these developments. Bolstering Production Capacity Jobys stock received a notable boost on Tuesday following the announcement of expanded manufacturing operations at its facilities in California and Ohio, alongside the addition of new aircraft to its fleet. The company has effectively doubled its production capacity at the Marina, California site, which now spans 435,500 square feet. Concurrently, operations have been ramped up at its Dayton, Ohio facility, focusing on the production and testing of aircraft components. This expansion is crucial for Jobys push towards scaling commercial operations. The Marina site is projected to produce up to 24 aircraft per year, a significant step towards mass production. Furthermore, this facility will serve as a hub for flight testing, pilot training, and critical Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification processes. Eric Allison, Jobys Chief Product Officer, emphasized the companys readiness for rapid scaling, noting the swift airworthiness certification of their sixth aircraft just one week after its completion. Joby also plans to leverage the renowned manufacturing expertise of Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM), a key investor, to eventually build up to 500 aircraft annually at the Dayton facility. Regulatory Tailwinds Propel Growth The positive momentum in Jobys stock has been further amplified by a favorable shift in the regulatory landscape. On June 11, President Donald Trumps new executive orders, aimed at reasserting Americas aviation leadership, provided a significant boost. Walking in stocking feet across a grimy airport as you make your way through security was the reality for many travelers for years. And if you happened to show up to security in sandals well, we shudder to think. But last week, the Transportation Security Administration ditched its shoes off rule. Good riddance. An irritant of modern life has been lifted. That doesnt happen very often. Reducing security wait times and, frankly, improving hygiene is a good thing, and were pleased to hear it. Nobody will miss the sights and smells that accompanied this security protocol. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of course, we understand that post-9/11, everything changed when it came to keeping travelers safe. It was implemented after the attempted 2001 shoe bombing, in which Richard Reid, a British citizen and self-proclaimed follower of al-Qaida, attempted to detonate explosives midflight from Paris to Miami. Some countries introduced similar checks, though few maintained them as long as the U.S. Still, the shoes off policy is a legacy of early 2000s security thinking. The threat of a shoe bomb, while real in the early 2000s, is so low risk as to be negligible. Security agencies have adjusted priorities toward other, more sophisticated threats. Plus, programs like TSA PreCheck already allow vetted travelers to keep shoes on and theyve demonstrated that its possible to maintain strong security standards without this requirement. We hope that an end to stuffing our footwear into bins for the X-ray machine signals more progress to come in bringing the U.S. closer to how other airports around the globe operate. Modern airport scanners (like advanced CT scanners and millimeter wave scanners) can now detect threats without requiring passengers to remove shoes. These machines provide detailed 3D images and can spot anomalies inside shoes, laptops and even liquids. For the TSA, there are many examples of how to improve processes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Netherlands uses CT scanners for screenings, allowing passengers to leave laptops and liquids in their bags. They also leverage centralized security checkpoints instead of TSA-style gate-by-gate screening, reducing redundancy and congestion. In the U.K., airports like Heathrow and Manchester are deploying 3D imaging CT scanners, too, eliminating the 100-milliliter liquid limit and need for laptop removal. And in Sweden, airports are adopting biometric gates and remote baggage screening. The TSA is starting to adopt many of these more modern approaches. In 2023, the agency announced it was investing $1.3 billion to roll out more CT scanners at airports, adding that this new technology could reduce wait times by as much as 50%, while also improving threat detection. OHare is among the larger airports in the U.S. that have been using advanced CT scanners since at least April 2023, according to Conde Nast Traveler. Increasing adoption of this scanning technology more widely is a good next step for U.S. travel security. We share the TSAs goal of safe travel, and understand that the threat from those who would seek to do harm remains high. Lets keep seeking ways to make the flying experience less miserable while preserving and enhancing security. Its doable. Shoes on, dignity intact, we can now step toward a future of air travel with fewer hassles preferably through a CT scanner. _____ The Trump administration is now one step closer to dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] This week, the Supreme Court essentially cleared the way for the Trump administration to drastically reduce the size of the departments workforce by 1,400 employees. We are very concerned, Lisa Morgan, the president of the Georgia Association of Educators, told Channel 2s Audrey Washington. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump signed an executive order to shut down the DOE earlier this year. Limited number of people working at the department is going to further hinder the funding and the resources, Morgan said. Were also concerned about the lack of oversight for the Office of Civil Rights, she added. The Department of Education oversees funding for school lunch programs and for students with disabilities. Those students dont have the specialist for occupational therapy, physical therapy, or speech and language therapy, Morgan explained. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] He would be lost because it gives them a sense of being, Deana Bohannon told Washington about her special needs child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These programs are very essential to our kids, Bohannon explained. However, Georgia Young Republicans Chairman Jacquelyn Harn said education should be in the hands of the states. You can get better care if the state has more decision rights, said Harn. PIEDMONT, Calif. (KRON) Minutes before a Tesla Cybertruck filled with college students crashed and burst into flames in Piedmont, one of the high-tech vehicles 360-degree cameras recorded an eerie image. The image shows one of the four victims holding a half-gallon bottle containing a clear liquid, a California Highway Patrol investigation report states. The CHP released its full investigation report Wednesday in response to KRON4s public records request. The CHP marked this image showing one of the Cybertruck passengers holding a bottle on Nov. 27, 2024. (Image via CHP) A combination of alcohol intoxication, drug impairment, and unsafe speeds caused the driver, 19-year-old Soren Dixon, to crash on Nov. 27, 2024, according to CHP investigators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dixon, Jack Nelson, 20, and Krysta Tsukahara, 19, were trapped inside the mangled, burning 2024 Cybertruck on Hampton Road before they died from asphyxia due to smoke inhalation and severe burns, according to an autopsy report by the Alameda County Coroners Bureau. Tsukahara, Nelson, and Dixon were all recent graduates of Piedmont High School who had returned home to Piedmont for the Thanksgiving holiday. Only one passenger, 20-year-old Jordan Miller, survived because a witness used a tree branch to break a window and pull him out, investigators said. Soren Dixon, left, Krysta Tsukahara, center, and Jack Nelson. (Images provided by the City of Piedmont) Dixon had alcohol and cocaine in his system, and his Blood Alcohol Concentration was 0.195, according to a coroners report. The image of the half gallon bottle was recorded by the Cybertrucks camera at 3:04 a.m., just three minutes before the triple fatal crash. The bottle was carried by a young man wearing a white shirt who entered the right rear passenger seat. He was followed in by Tsukahara, who also sat in the backseat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report does not state whether the young man was Nelson or Miller, who were the two male passengers. The CHP covered faces in the image with black boxes. The right rear passengers door of the Tesla Cybertruck shut and moments later the Tesla Cybertruck drove west on Somerset Road, the report states. The video ended as the Tesla Cybertruck approached Hampton Road at approximately 3:06:02 hours. The vehicle slammed into a tree at 3:07 a.m. (KRON4 Photo) Data gathered from Tesla showed the truck rapidly accelerated on residential streets to speeds between 77-84 miles per hour, the report states. Five seconds before the collision, the driver was pressing on the accelerator pedal, investigators said. The Cybertrucks automatic breaking system activated a half-second before impact. The full investigation report was conducted by the CHPs Golden Gate Division Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team. (KRON4 Photo) A witness told CHP investigators that the college students attended a small party together at a friends house. After the party, Dixon was attempting to drive his friends from a house on Estates Drive to Millers house, the CHP report states. A second vehicle loaded with friends followed behind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Witness of triple fatal Piedmont Cybertruck crash describes what happened The witness was in the second vehicle. After he pulled Miller out of the burning Cybertruck, the witness heard Tsukahara screaming. I went back to the broken window and yelled for them to try and get out. Krysta tried to come up, sticking her head from the back. I grabbed her arm to try and pull her towards me but she retreated because of the fire. Tsukahara, a sophomore at Savannah College of Art and Design, had only trace amounts of alcohol in her system when the crash occurred, attorneys said. Krysta Tsukahara (Photos courtesy Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood Campora, LLP) This young woman suffered the most horrifying death one could imagine. Her death was caused by her inability to get out of the car and being consumed in the fire that engulfed the vehicle, said attorney Roger Dreyer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April, Tsukaharas parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Alameda County court seeking more answers about what happened. Dixons estate is named as a defendant in the new lawsuit. Charles Patterson, who reportedly owned the Cybertruck, is also named as a defendant. Krysta was a beautiful, bright young woman with her whole life ahead of her, her father, Carl Tsukahara, wrote. Weve had to endure not only the loss of our daughter, and our son the loss of his sister, but we have had to suffer through the silence of those who were with her that night. Our family is seeking additional information regarding all aspects of this tragedy. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) El Paso Independent School District has updated its student dress code for the upcoming 2025-26 school year, the district announced on Tuesday night, July 15. The new updated code reflects the districts commitment to creating inclusive student-centered campuses that honor the diversity of every learner and support families with clear, practical guidance, the district said. This includes the introduction of universal uniform colors like white, gray and navy to make uniform shopping easier, the district said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The revised guidelines apply to elementary, middle, and high-school students. Among the requirements for high-school students include: appropriate shoes being worn at all times; tops must cover the entire chest, back and stomach area and must fully cover a students undergarments; bottoms must be worn at or above the waist; and a student ID must be worn at all times. According to the district, key elements include: Simplified, practical expectations that support families in preparing students for school The introduction of universal uniform colors (white, gray, navy) to streamline uniform shopping and make transitions easier for students who may transfer within the district Flexibility that honors student expression within a positive, supportive school culture Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dress code exceptions exist for the Young Womens STEAM Academy, Center for Career and Technology Education and Silva Magnet High School, the district said. The updated dress code was developed with input from campus leaders, educators, and families across the district, the district said. This updated dress code represents a forward-thinking approach that helps build school communities that promote a sense of belonging and policies that are clear and supportive of learning, El Paso ISD Board of Trustees President Leah Hanany said. We want to make daily life easier for families and teachers and keep the focus on nurturing student growth. Acting Superintendent Martha Aguirre said: El Paso ISD is working hard to provide clarity and consistency for families while making sure our campuses are places where every student can succeed. This dress code helps us set a standard that values inclusion, safety, and learning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The full dress code guidelines for each grade level are now available on the district website. You can find that by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson claims billionaire and CEO Elon Musk changed his phone number after his public falling-out with President Donald Trump. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, told The New York Post he discovered the change while trying to text Musk amid the Big, Beautiful Bill drama. Johnson previously said Musk ghosted him after the billionaire blew up at Trump over the sweeping spending and tax bill, which cuts taxes for wealthy Americans while curbing access to healthcare and food access programs for millions. I sent him a long text message, and then his phone number changed, because after the blow-up, something happened with his, Johnson told The New York Post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Later I] realized I was sending it out into the ether somewhere and he never read it, so I look forward to meeting with him in person, he added. We got to make that right. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Elon Musk changed his phone number after his feud with President Donald Trump (Getty) Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Elon Musk changed his phone number after his feud with President Donald Trump (Getty) Trump signed the bill on July 4. But leading up to its passage, Musk, once the presidents first buddy, railed against it, arguing it would increase the budget deficit by $2.5 trillion. Im sorry, but I just cant stand it anymore, Musk wrote of Trumps bill on June 3. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk spent several months this year leading the Department of Government Efficiencys efforts to slash government spending. Under his leadership, DOGE laid off hundreds of thousands of federal employees, hollowed out several agencies and terminated thousands of government contracts and grants. Musk and Trump continued to spar until June 5, when the former DOGE leader claimed the president appeared in the Epstein files. Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files, Musk wrote. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT! Elon Musk played a key role in President Donald Trumps administration before the two feuded over the Big, Beautiful Bill (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) Elon Musk played a key role in President Donald Trumps administration before the two feuded over the Big, Beautiful Bill (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tensions appeared to ease soon afterward. Musk expressed regret on June 11 for the posts he made about the president, while Trump revealed he had no hard feelings toward Musk. Soon after the bill was signed, the tech mogul announced that he would be forming the new America Party. When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy, he wrote on X. Trump called the idea ridiculous. The president also threatened to take a look at deporting Elon Musk to South Africa, where he was born and raised for several years. Musk took a jab at Trump again last week when he weighed in to criticize the administrations handling of the Epstein investigation. Musk responded to an X user who screenshotted a lengthy Truth Social post from Trump, urging his followers to drop the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is in the running for worst post ever made, wrote the X user. Seriously, Musk responded. He said Epstein half a dozen times while telling everyone to stop talking about Epstein. Just release the files as promised, he added. Elon Musk listens as reporters ask President Donald Trump and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa questions in the Oval Office at the White House in May. If Musk is to go through with his plan to develop his new America Party, hell have to navigate a patchwork of state-level ballot rules. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Elon Musks announcement that he plans to form a new political party came easily, with the billionaire simply posting his intentions on his social media platform, X. Now comes the hard part. If the worlds richest man seriously pursues his goal of standing up what he calls the America Party, Musk will have to navigate a patchwork of state-level requirements to get his party and its candidates on general election ballots across the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two-party system has largely retained its grip on American politics for more than a century. The Tesla CEO has plenty of money, but loosening that grip would test the America Partys organization and popular support. Musk enjoyed extraordinary entree into the White House this winter as he led the Department of Government Efficiency task force. But he broke with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trumps signature domestic policy package containing massive tax cuts and deep reductions to social services funding. The law, which Trump signed July 4, is expected to add more than $4 trillion to the national debt. Ballot access in ND To gain ballot access in North Dakota, organizers of a political party need to provide a petition that includes at least 7,000 signatures from qualified electors for approval by the secretary of state. When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy, Musk wrote on X on July 5. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk appeared to signal his party would for now focus on a small number of competitive congressional races, rather than attempting to put forward a nationwide slate of candidates. He posted that one way to execute on creating the party would be to laser-focus on two or three U.S. Senate seats and eight to 10 House seats. Musk made no mention of running candidates for state legislatures or other state-level offices. Given the thin margins separating Republican and Democratic control of Congress, electing a few of his third-party candidates would allow members of Congress from the America Party to serve as the deciding vote on contentious measures, Musk wrote. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which ranks U.S. House and Senate races by competitiveness, lists three toss-up Senate seats and 18 toss-up House districts in 2026. All told, competing in those races would require getting on the ballot in 15 states. A small sample of what Musk would face: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Michigan, Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters isnt running for reelection, creating an open race. Candidates of new political parties must gather signatures of registered voters equal to 1% of the total number of votes in the last election for governor, in this case about 44,620. At least 100 voters in each of half of the states congressional districts must sign the petitions. In Georgia, where Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is running for reelection, an America Party candidate would need to collect signatures equivalent to 1% of the number of registered voters eligible to vote in the previous election. In North Carolina, Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis announced he wouldnt seek reelection after Trump threatened to find a primary opponent because of Tillis opposition to the tax and spending bill. If Musk wants to form a political party in the state, hell need to gather the signatures of at least 13,979 registered and qualified voters statewide, including at least 200 registered voters from three different congressional districts. In Ohio, two U.S. House races appear on Cooks toss-up list: the 9th District, held by Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and the 13th District, held by Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes. To register as a minor political party, the America Party would need signatures of voters equal to 1% of the total vote for governor or for president at the most recent election for those offices. The petition would also have to be signed by at least 500 voters within each of at least half the states congressional districts. Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, an organization that seeks to improve political representation by advocating open primaries in which all candidates regardless of party compete against each other for the support of voters, said the America Party could shake up politics. But, he added, history demonstrates that without structural change, Musks effort is unlikely to truly disrupt the two-party system. Troiano didnt take a position on whether Musk should form a new party, but said that if the mogul goes ahead with the idea, the new party should embrace open primaries. If Elon wants to help fix our democracy, his new party should build on his support for opening primaries and make nonpartisan election reform the foundation of its efforts, Troiano said in a statement to Stateline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of course, Musks America Party would be far from the first third-party effort. The Green Party, the Libertarian Party and other minor parties all put forward candidates in elections across the country at all levels of the ballot from contests for governor up to president. Musks gambit could potentially work, said Bob Beatty, a political science professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Independent and third-party campaigns can be successful with the right candidate and enough money, he said, pointing to Jesse Venturas election as Minnesota governor in the 1990s as a Reform Party candidate and Joseph Liebermans reelection to the U.S. Senate as a third-party candidate in 2006 after he lost the Connecticut Democratic primary. And Musk, with effectively unlimited resources, could likely gather the signatures necessary to get candidates on the ballot in at least a subset of states, Beatty said. Thats because he could pay for an army of workers to gather signatures in the states where he wants to run candidates. At first blush, youre like, Third party, Trump or someone could say thats crazy, its not going to work. A lot of people would say that, Beatty said. But when you look at his tactical approach, its something to take seriously. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org. Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. LONDON (AP) British governments past and present face allegations of avoiding scrutiny and undermining democracy after the revelation that thousands of Afghans have been resettled in the U.K under a program that was hidden from the media, the public and lawmakers in Parliament. Key information was also kept from the Afghans themselves, who had assisted U.K. forces and whose personal details had been disclosed in a huge data leak. Many plan to sue the British government for putting them in danger from the Taliban. Some are left in Afghanistan as the current British government says the resettlement program will end. Heres what happened in an extraordinary chain of events. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An email error with huge consequences The saga was triggered by the chaotic Western exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 as the Taliban, ousted from power 20 years earlier, swept across the country, seized Kabul and reimposed their strict version of Islamic law. Afghans who had worked with Western forces as fixers, translators and in other roles or who had served in the internationally backed Afghan army were at risk of retribution. Britain set up a program, known as the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, or ARAP, to bring some to the U.K. In February 2022, a defense official emailed a spreadsheet containing the personal information of nearly 19,000 ARAP applicants to someone outside the Ministry of Defense. The government says the individual thought they were sending a list of about 150 names, not the whole set. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The British government only became aware of the leak when a portion of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list. The government sought secrecy The leak sparked alarm among British officials who feared as many as 100,000 people were in danger when family numbers of the named individuals were added. The then-Conservative government sought a court order barring publication of the list. A judge granted a sweeping order known as a super injunction, which barred anyone from revealing not only information about the leak but the existence of the injunction itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Super injunctions are relatively rare and their use is controversial. Most of the handful of cases in which they have come to light involved celebrities trying to prevent disclosures about their private lives. This is the first known case of a super injunction being granted to the government. Former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday that he sought the legal order to gain time and space to deal with this leak, find out whether the Taliban had it and protect those at risk. Wallace said he asked for an ordinary injunction not a super injunction for a period of four months. The gag order remained in place for almost two years. A secret program sparked a legal battle Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The government began bringing to Britain the Afghans on the leaked list who were judged to be most at risk. To date, some 4,500 people 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members have been brought to Britain under the program. About 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a cost of 850 million pounds ($1.1 billion). In all, about 36,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.K. since 2021. Meanwhile, several news organizations had learned of the leaked list but were barred from publishing stories about it. They challenged the super injunction in court, and a judge ordered it lifted in May 2024 but it remained in place after the government appealed. The government finally came clean Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Britain held an election in July 2024 that brought the center-left Labour Party to power. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Cabinet learned of the injunction soon after taking office and grappled with how to proceed. In January, the government ordered a review by a former senior civil servant. They found little evidence that the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban. The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces and is more concerned with current threats to its authority. Given those findings, the government dropped its support for the super injunction. The injunction was lifted in court Tuesday, and minutes later Defense Secretary John Healey stood in the House of Commons to make the saga public for the first time. Many questions remain unanswered Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Healey said the secret settlement route was being closed, but acknowledged Wednesday that the story is just beginning, and many questions remain unanswered. Immigration critics including Reform UK leader Nigel Farage are demanding to know what screening was done on the people who came under the secret program. Lawyers for Afghans on the leaked list want to know why the information was kept from them. Adnan Malik, head of data privacy at U.K. legal firm Barings Law, said he was assembling a class-action lawsuit by hundreds of former translators, soldiers and others. Lawmakers and free speech advocates say the use of a super injunction is deeply worrying. They ask how Parliament and the media can hold the government to account if there is such stringent secrecy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Martin Chamberlain, who ruled that the injunction should be lifted, said Tuesday at the High Court that the super injunction had the effect of completely shutting down the ordinary mechanisms of accountability. Healey acknowledged that you cannot have democracy with super injunctions in place, and said the government had acted as quickly and safely as it could. Accountability starts now, he told the BBC. MCKINLEY COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) Shes out of money and out of time, so McKinley County District Attorney Bernadine Martin made a last-ditch push to get emergency funding for her office. In front of the New Mexico Board of Finance, Martin requested $3.8 million, which is the offices entire budget for this fiscal year. We have no gas cards. We have no POS for postage. We have no POS for internetWed probably see dismissals, said Martin. Previous Coverage: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said that for the last two weeks, shes kept her office operating with her own salary because, as of July 1, her funding has been in the hands of the neighboring district attorney in San Juan County. Its a decision from lawmakers signed into law by the governor earlier this year. Excuse me. The glare doesnt help my eyes, but Im getting emotional.Our office needs to continue working. Were the poorest county in the state. The highest Native American population in this state, said Martin. But as previously shared in a KRQE Investigation, lawmakers claim the decision to defund Martins office comes after years of public safety concerns from the community and police because Martin has zero assistant prosecutors to keep cases moving through the courts. Gallup just has an issue with professionals; were short on doctors and nurses, Martin told the board members. I think the issue is just not my office. Its generally professionals. Multiple reports claim that shes created a hostile work environment, too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of her staff, Martin said, We work for the public, I tell them that often. This isnt me. Its us. And working for the folks out in the county. But as Martin continues to fight, court dockets show criminal cases are continued or dismissed. This request to the board comes after the New Mexico Supreme Court refused to hear her petition to block the legislatures decision. Shes now filed a lawsuit. The board questioned Martin for more than an hour but came to the conclusion that if they granted her request, it would open the door for any elected official to call on them over a disagreement with lawmakers. It just seems to me we as a board should not be involved in this type of issue, said Michael Sanchez, New Mexico Board of Finance. They told Martin she has 15 days to meet with San Juan County DA Jack Fortner on her own or with a mediator to figure out how to move forward. The precedent is the issue here, but Madame district attorney, were behind you. If we need to convene special session if that mediation doesnt work, come back, and I for one will show up whenever we need to do that. All of us will do that, said Paul Cassidy, New Mexico Board of Finance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Martin could be removed by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez before the funding situation is settled. At the governors request, his office opened an investigation last month into whether Martins conduct amounts to gross incompetence. Im being investigated based on hearsay, innuendo, and false statements, and now I welcome it. Bring it on. Look at our numbers. Look at the work weve done, said Martin. KRQE Investigates has previously reported that DA Fortner started trying to meet with Martin when lawmakers made the funding move in March. Fortner said she spent months declining his offer, and then twice she suggested he sign an agreement giving her the money back. Fortner has said he has to follow the budget lawmakers passed, which leaves him in control of the money. KRQE News 13 tried to once again to ask Martin our own questions, but she declined and requested security. The New Mexico Law Office of the Public Defender sent this statement: The level of dysfunction in this DAs Office has made it significantly harder for us to do our jobs and stay fully staffed. When a DAs Office is chaotic and unnecessarily combative, like it is here, it hurts not just attorneys but also our clients, alleged victims and others waiting for some resolution. Its not like this in other parts of the state and it doesnt have to be like this here. That environment has been a major factor in the loss of several staff attorneys and private contractors. Its also important to remember that prosecuting people isnt the end-all for public safety. There are other ways we can structure how a community addresses crime and public safety, including diversion programs and treatment. Ben Baur, Chief Public Defender, New Mexico Law Office of the Public Defender Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) Pushing two buttons at the same time on an iPhone can alert emergency crews in seconds, potentially saving your life. It worked for one woman in Bluffton, and officials said its just one of many ways women can defend themselves in a scary situation. No matter where you are or what youre doing, we try to tell people anything can be used as a weapon, said Beaufort County Sheriffs Office Master Sergeant, Danny Allen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this case, it was an emergency iOS feature on a womans iPhone which notified authorities and scared off the perp mid attack. The attack was random according to the victim, a Hilton Head woman, who told police an aggressive driver tailgated her all the way into the Walmart parking lot in Bluffton. Jasper County inmate indicted in death of cellmate After she pulled onto a side street to try and lose the other vehicle, the perp allegedly reappeared at her car door, opening it and attempting to pull her out of the vehicle, punching her face in the process. Someone could be having some type of break or some kind of stressful thing going on with them, and it could just be one thing that you didnt even realize you did that sets them off, said Allen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said the emergency S.O.S feature on the womans iPhone alerted authorities and scared off the perp, but they said this situation and many others could have ended differently. Thats why they said they believe the importance of self-defense is stronger than ever, and women especially should be aware and ready to protect themselves, even if its with an unusual weapon. Allen said, Ask yourself, what do I have on me that I could use as a weapon? What do I have in my vehicle I can use as a weapon? What do I have in this restaurant or in my office or whatever else that could be used as a defensive weapon if I needed to? According to officials, a water bottle, jewelry, a phone, your purse, or even the contents inside, like body or hand sprays, keys and other heavy or sharp tools can make for quick protection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It may just be the things that are around you. If you have a drink in your hand thats hot or cold, could that be used as a distraction area or defensive tool? said Allen. A lot of times, theres a lot of items in someones bag or even in their car. You might have a lot of things that could be used as a weapon, from your purse to either pieces of clothing or if you have nothing else, you yourself are a weapon. US Department of Agriculture issues official warning to Alpha Genesis facility Authorities also believe that any and everyone should always be aware of whats going on around them. Always know where you are and look around, like if youre going inside of a building, have you paid attention to where exits or other things if youre even in your park? Is there another way for me to get out of here? said Allen. Pay attention to whats going on around you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials emphasized that cameras nearby are always a good sign, and women should try to park near them. Criminals are less likely to do something when theyre in sight, but they can also be used to help assist in an investigation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. NEED TO KNOW Emilie Kiser and Brady Kiser's eldest son, Trigg, died after an accidental drowning on Monday, May 12, in Chandler, Ariz. The Chandler Police Department have since investigated into Trigg's death On Tuesday, July 15, the Chandler Police Department recommended that Brady be tried for a felony into Trigg's tragic death Emilie Kisers husband, Brady Kiser, could face a child abuse charge in the tragic drowning death of their 3-year-old son, Trigg. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, July 15, the Chandler Police Department (CPD) shared an update to X, announcing that the investigation into Triggs death on Sunday, May 18, was completed. The announcement also shared that the department's investigators recommended that Brady be tried for a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse. The CPD submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review. After the prosecution reviews the police file, Brady could face the charges mentioned above, and the case will return to the CPD for further investigation. However, the case could also be dropped if the prosecution decides Brady will not face charges. Emilie Kiser/Instagram Brady Kiser and son Trigg Brady Kiser and son Trigg The CPDs referral comes nearly two months after Trigg drowned in the familys backyard pool in Chandler, Ariz., on Monday, May 12. At the time of the drowning, Brady was at home with Trigg and their newborn son, Theodore, while Emilie was out with friends, Brady told Chandler police, per AZ Central. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to CPD search warrant applications, Brady told police he saw the toddler playing near the pool, noting that it was "not uncommon for Trigg to do so. He also said that the pool usually had a protective cover on it. But as Brady was caring for Theodore, he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes. Upon returning to the backyard, thats when he discovered Trigg floating in their backyard pool. Police responded to the scene and performed CPR until firefighters arrived and then assumed control of his medical care. Trigg was taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center and then to Phoenix Children's Hospital in critical condition. The next day, the search warrant applications were created to obtain surveillance footage of the backyard cameras to corroborate Bradys statements to investigators. That same day, Brady was accused by CPD investigators of committing child abuse on the day of Trigg's drowning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Days after Triggs death, his mother, TikTok influencer Emilie, announced the tragic news to her 4 million followers. Due to Emilies media persona, she filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, May 27, in Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County to keep records about Trigg's death out of public view, according to court documents. In the filing, Kiser's lawyer said that she and her family "desperately want to grieve in private, but sadly, the public will not let them," adding that Trigg's death "has become a media frenzy." emiliekiser/Instagram Emilie Kiser and son Trigg Emilie Kiser and son Trigg On June 3, the Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County ruled in the influencer's favor on a separate motion she filed to keep her personal declaration private. The court order will grant Kiser temporary confidentiality on both her declaration and her larger request for privacy while the court reviews evidence to make a final ruling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the time, a source told PEOPLE exclusively that Kiser's personal declaration "reflects an intensely personal account of her grief and trauma, submitted to help the court understand her perspective not for public consumption." "The core legal issues remain fully transparent through public filings by counsel and the court. Emilies sealed declaration does not hinder the publics understanding of the case or its legal significance," the source says. "Preserving a small measure of privacy in the midst of public scrutiny is a reasonable and compassionate choice given the circumstances." Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Emilie Kiser/Instagram Emilie Kiser, husband Brady Kiser, and their son Trigg Emilie Kiser, husband Brady Kiser, and their son Trigg Two days later, an insider told PEOPLE that Emilie is urging the court to keep private the footage and records related to her young sons death - a deeply personal, and reasonable, plea to prevent the public release of the most traumatic moment of her life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The source noted that while the influencer's "public profile does not negate her right to privacy," it also doesn't "make her sons death a matter for public consumption." Adding, "Public agencies have received over 100+ public records requests for the footage of a toddlers death, which only serves to satisfy morbid curiosity more than any type of justice. On Wednesday, July 9, the CPD and Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner requested an exception to the ruling in order to exchange records and documents with each other, as a result of attempting to conclude their investigations. No ruling has been made public regarding the latest motion, per AZ Central. Read the original article on People (Corrects pargraph 4 to read "favorable foreign exchange" rather than "stronger dollar") By Michael Erman (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson reported second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast by around $2 billion on Wednesday as strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business helped it beat Wall Street expectations. On an adjusted basis, the drug and medical device maker earned $2.77 per share for the quarter, above analysts' expectation of $2.68 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Sales in the quarter were $23.74 billion, above analysts' expectation of $22.84 billion. The company said it now expects full-year sales in the range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its April forecast of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $91.5 billion for the year. It cited strong operational performance in the quarter as well as favorable foreign exchange for the increase. J&J said in April that it was expecting $400 million in costs related to tariffs, mostly in the company's medical device business, starting from the second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that the company had now reduced that estimate to $200 million due to the pause on U.S. tariffs on China and other retaliatory tariffs. "We were able to absorb that and still raise our EPS guidance by 25 cents on the year," Wolk said. He said the company was not ready to forecast the impact of tariffs on 2026. "It's such a fluid environment that we'll just have to wait and see," he said. On an adjusted basis, J&J expects to earn $10.80 to $10.90 per share in 2025, compared with its previous forecast of $10.50 to $10.70 per share. Quarterly sales for the medtech unit rose 6.1% to $8.5 billion. Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in second-quarter sales of $3.54 billion, compared with analysts' expectation of $3.38 billion. (Reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) Originally appeared on E! Online Brady Kiser is potentially facing legal trouble in relation to son Trigg Kiser 's death. Two months after the 3-year-old son of Brady and influencer Emilie Kiser died after an accidental drowning in a pool at the family's home outside of Phoenix, the Chandler Police Department announced that its investigation into Trigg's has been completed. "Following a thorough review of the evidence, investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser," the statement posted to X July 15 read. "The case has now been submitted to the Maricopa Country Attorney's Office for review." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Upon review of the case file, prosecution could decide to pursue charges against Brady or to drop them entirely, People reported. A Class 4 felony is an act committed with criminal negligence and could result in a sentence of up to three years in prison, per Arizona law. The update comes one month after police search warrants obtained by USA Today affiliate The Arizona Republic shed some light on the events that authorities say led to Trigg's tragic death. According to the applications, Brady told police he was home with his and Emilie's sons Trigg and 2-month-old son Theodore while she was out with friends May 12. While their oldest son was out playing by the pool, which was "not uncommon" for him to do, Brady reportedly told police that there was normally a protective cover over the pool. More from E! Online Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the applications, Brady told police he was home with his and Emilie's sons Trigg and 2-month-old son Theodore while she was out with friends May 12. While their oldest son was out playing by the pool, which was "not uncommon" for him to do, Brady reportedly told police that there was normally a protective cover over the pool. Instagram/Emilie Kiser However, Brady was "soon distracted" by Theodore and lost track of Trigg for three to five minutes, per the search warrant applications obtained by the outlet. After finding him floating in their pool, Brady told police that he jumped into the pool, pulled Trigg out and then called 911. Police said that officers performed CPR on Trigg until firefighters arrived and took over medical care on the scene, USA Today reported, citing the applications. The 3-year-old died in the hospital May 18, six days after the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to USA Today, the search warrant applicationswhich were filed on May 13sought to acquire the footage from two outdoor cameras police saw in the backyard that may have captured what happened. Instagram/Emilie Kiser In the weeks following her sons death, Emilie has filed a lawsuitobtained by E! Newsagainst multiple Maricopa County public offices seeking to keep records about Triggs passing private. While neither Emilie nor Brady has personally spoken out or posted to social media since their son's death, the influencer's lawyer shed light on how she's been dealing with the tragedy. "Emilie is going through a parents worst nightmare right now," her May lawsuit stated. "She lost her young son." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The attorney also noted that "Emilie is trying her best to be there for her surviving son, 2-month-old Theodore. But every day is a battle." Keep reading for more on Emilie and her family. Husband and Wife Emilie Kiser and Brady Kiser tied the knot in 2019. A Family of Three... The couple welcomed their first son, Trigg, in July 2021. ... and Then Four They became parents again in March 2025 with the arrival of their second son Theodore. The Sweet Life Emilie often documented life at home with her two boys on social media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enjoying Every Moment The family celebrated a happy Easter holiday together. Better Together Emilie shared this sweet photo shortly after Theodore's birth. Bath Time After welcoming Theodore, Emilie wrote on social media, "The love I have for my boys is infinite." JOPLIN, Mo. Emergency crews responded to an incident in east Joplin on Tuesday. Around 6:30 p.m., emergency crews were dispatched to the Smurfit Westrock facilities on the corner of 32nd and Duquesne. Deputy Fire Chief Andy Nimmo tells us that the response was due to a machine fire in the facility. Employees were evacuated from the building while crews put out the fire. Deputy Chief Nimmo says firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the flames shortly after arriving. Employees were allowed back inside around 7:00 p.m. when it was deemed safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No injuries have been reported, and there is no significant damage to the facility. According to the companys website, Smurfit Westrock is a manufacturer of sustainable paper and packaging. In Joplin, Smurfit Westrock primarily manufactures corrugated cardboard and paper-based packaging solutions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNF/KODE | FourStatesHomepage.com. July 16 (UPI) -- A Connecticut-based shipping company pleaded guilty to pollution charges after crew members on one of its ships deliberately dumped more than 10,000 gallons of oil waste into the Gulf of Mexico. On Tuesday, company officials of Eagle Ship Management LLC pleaded guilty to violations of the 1980 Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and was given a fine of more than $1.7 million. "Today's announcement sends a clear message intended to deter deliberate pollution," stated Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson for Louisiana's Eastern District. "This office will continue to work with our agency partners to enforce the laws that were designed to protect U.S. ports and waters." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the Stamford-based ESM would be ordered to serve a four-year probation term to include an external company audit by an independent source if court-approved. The U.S. Coast Guard initiated its investigation after a crew member on the foreign-flagged bulk vessel "Gannet Bulker" sent it a tip on social media in March 2021 soon after the purported incident near the Mississippi River's mouth, according to court documents. ESM admitted in its guilty plea that Gannet ship officers "engaged in a variety of obstructive acts to conceal the internal flooding that was caused by a botched repair." Records show the unidentified crewman said the Gannet's engine room flooded and that the ship's oil-contaminated bilge pumper offloaded the toxic waste overnight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flooded bilges can pose a number of dangers to a ship and its crew. Federal officials noted that the incident took place without required safety equipment or proper bookkeeping. "The criminal conduct involved here was serious, including intentional pollution and a deliberate coverup," said Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Adam Gustafson of DOJ's environment and natural resources division. Meanwhile, the ship's unidentified captain was prosecuted and later sentence to a year and a day behind bars for his role in the incident. Officials stated that among the obstructive acts was retaliation against a whistleblower with a known identity to the company. They added that Gannet's senior officer and other crew members lied to Coast Guard officials, destroyed control room information as evidence and "created false and backdated personnel evaluations intended to discredit the whistleblower." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's the second known similar instance in recent years of a ship offloading oil into the waters off the coast of New Orleans. In September, the captain of a Turkish ship was given eight months in prison and his company fined $2 million after crew, likewise, rid their carrier of oil waste into open water. Sentencing for Connecticut's Eagle Ship Management is scheduled for October 16. English ivy can weaken and in some cases kill trees. (Photo courtesy of the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board) It will soon be illegal in Washington to buy or sell English ivy, the fast-growing, climbing vine that can weaken and kill trees and overtake native plants. The Washington State Department of Agriculture, earlier this month, added 19 species, including English ivy and Atlantic or Boston ivy, to its noxious weed, seed, and plant quarantine list. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under state law, all species on the list cannot be transported, bought, sold or distributed in Washington. Anyone who does have a plant on the list is required to destroy or dispose of it in a way that prevents its spread. Problem plants A list of the 19 species added to the noxious seed and plant quarantine list is available through the Washington State Department of Agricultures website. The full quarantine list and tools for identifying and disposing of prohibited plants can be accessed through the Washington Noxious Weed Control Board. The Department of Agriculture began the process of adding plants to the list in May after receiving multiple petitions from members of the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Initiating quarantines for these plants, forbidding entry or distribution of them gives a critical tool to control and prevent infestation, the Department of Agriculture wrote in an explanatory statement that accompanied the update of the list. Public comment ran from May 7 to June 24. The proposal was finalized on July 9 and it takes effect Aug. 9. Feedback from the public and local stakeholders, including weed boards and other state-level organizations, overwhelmingly supported adding the 19 species to the quarantine list, according to the Department of Agriculture. Support for the inclusion of English ivy was especially strong, the agency said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to shading out tree foliage, ivy can add weight to trees, increasing the risk of wind damage. It can also result in bark damage, making trees more susceptible to insects and disease. When the vine spreads on the ground, it can crowd out native plants. English ivy has been classified as a Class C noxious weed in Washington since 2002, but that classification only allows individual counties to enforce control of the plant if they choose to, and doesnt place any statewide limits on its distribution. People really got involved and really communicated how much they value the trees and how destructive this particular plant was to those trees, said Susan Hutton, executive director of the Whatcom Million Trees Project, a nonprofit that works to protect and plant trees in Whatcom County. Huttons predecessor at Whatcom Million Trees Project was among the petitioners who started asking the Department of Agriculture to add English ivy to the quarantine list a couple of years ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other groups that supported adding English ivy to the quarantine list were the Bainbridge Island Land Trust, Edmonds Stewards, the King County Noxious Weed Control Program, Birds Connect Seattle and the 10,000 Years Institute. Its a long legislative process to get on that list, Hutton said. Its a huge win for us, and were thrilled. Whatcom Million Trees Project hosts English ivy removal work parties and provides free resources on its website for people looking to remove the invasive plant on their own. Public commenters voiced support for adding other plants to the quarantine list, including English holly, English laurel, and Himalayan blackberry. Those plants were not included in the update. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Agriculture said that while these suggestions were considered, some species could not be added due to regulatory, scientific, or procedural limitations, or simply because they are not currently available for sale in Washington state. Correction: This story was updated to reflect that the ban on English ivy sales does not take effect until Aug. 9, 2025. Enterprise, Ala. The Enterprise Police Department arrested a local man Wednesday on multiple drug and firearm charges following the execution of a search warrant. On July 16, 2025, at 8:30 a.m., the departments Criminal Investigation Division, Narcotics Unit, and Special Response Team executed a search warrant at a residence on Grimes Street in Enterprise. During the operation, the Special Response Team apprehended Trey Vischon Satchell, 34, who was wanted on an outstanding first-degree robbery warrant out of Enterprise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives recovered a stolen firearm, packaged marijuana, cocaine, money, and other evidence inside the residence, according to a release from the department. Satchell was charged with possession of stolen property second degree, possession of marijuana first degree, possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, possession of drug paraphernalia, and certain persons forbidden to possess firearms. Following his arrest, Satchell was transported to the Coffee County Jail. The Enterprise Police Department expressed appreciation to the Coffee County District Attorneys Office and the Daleville Police Department for their assistance with the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDHN - wdhn.com. A perceived lack of transparency over the US investigations into notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has carved a rare chasm between President Donald Trump and his typically loyal Republican base. As Trump struggles to quell his supporters' obsessions with the case -- one long surrounded by conspiracy theories -- AFP outlines its history and why it has caused so much outrage. - Origins of the Epstein case - Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy American financier, was first charged with sex offenses in 2006 after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police that he had molested their daughter at his Florida home. He avoided federal charges -- which could have seen him face life in prison -- due to a controversial plea deal with prosecutors that saw him jailed for just under 13 months. In July 2019, he was arrested again in New York and charged with trafficking dozens of teenage girls and engaging in sex acts with them in exchange for money. Prosecutors said he worked with employees and associates to ensure a "steady supply of minor victims to abuse." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Epstein pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. On August 10, 2019, while in custody awaiting trial, authorities said he was found dead in his prison cell after hanging himself. A separate case against Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for helping him abuse girls, detailed Epstein's connections with high-profile figures like Britain's Prince Andrew and former US president Bill Clinton. Both have denied any wrongdoing. - Why are there conspiracy theories? - Some people believe that authorities are concealing details about the Epstein case to protect rich and powerful elites who associated with him, including Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those ideas have gripped Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement -- but demands for more transparency have crossed the political aisle. One key theory centers on a rumored client list of individuals who committed sex offenses alongside Epstein. The Trump administration has insisted that no such list exists. Skeptics also allege suspicious circumstances in Epstein's death such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, alongside other irregularities. - Trump and the Epstein case - Trump, who as a New York property magnate rubbed shoulders with Epstein, said when re-running for president that he would "probably" release files related to the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But since taking office, many of Trump's supporters have been disappointed by what they see as a failure to deliver. The 79-year-old himself was dragged into the conspiracy theories after his former advisor Elon Musk claimed in June -- in a now-deleted X post -- that Trump was "in the Epstein files." The Trump administration's efforts to appease demands for a full disclosure of the so-called Epstein files have largely fallen short. A bundle released in February that promised to shed light on the Epstein case contained little new information. Meanwhile, an almost 11-hour video published this month to dispel theories Epstein was murdered fell flat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The camera angle showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died, but appeared to be missing a minute of footage, fueling more speculation online. And a memo from the Justice Department and FBI last week saying the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation was met by calls for the heads of each agency to resign. - What comes next? - Trump has been towing a delicate line -- saying he supports the release of any "credible" files related to Epstein while dismissing the case as "pretty boring stuff." But even the normally authoritative president seems unable to arrest the disruption, as critics and even key allies call for more transparency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, has not followed Trump's line on the issue and has instead urged the Justice Department to make public any documents linked to Epstein. Meanwhile, Democrats have seized on the rift between Trump and his party by demanding his administration publish the full evidence held by prosecutors in their case against Epstein. bur-bjt/sla David Schoen, a former attorney for Jeffrey Epstein, said Tuesday that President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi were not withholding a client list of the disgraced financier. Schoen, who helped secure Epsteins 2008 plea deal on state prostitution charges, argued that the publics push for the release of names is based on fallacies. I dont believe for a second theres a client list out there. That wasnt Jeffrey Epstein, he said during an appearance on NewsNations Cuomo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawyer also signaled that his former client had no plan to blackmail the people in his inner circle a conspiracy theory that gained prominence after Epsteins death in 2019. Investigators did recover 300 gigabytes of data held by the deceased financier that included graphic images of minors, lists of victim names and likenesses, physical descriptions, places of birth, associates and their employment history, according to a memo released by the Justice Department and FBI earlier this month. That memo, which has sparked backlash, also concluded Epstein did not keep a list and that his death in his New York City jail cell was a suicide. I know that people want to see it as a certain period of interest in all of these things, Schoen told host Chris Cuomo when asked about whether officials in the Trump administration were withholding names. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its tantalizing, but I dont think that information is out there, he added. He suggested Epsteins connection to celebrities and political officials created a window for speculation. You put the names out there, the fact that he knew Bill Richardson, [Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, etc., doesnt mean that they did nefarious, illegal conduct with him, Schoen said. But people start drawing rumors and making claims. Also, the accusers demanded a certain level of privacy, so the judge balanced that when the parties came before him, and thats why he kept some of those files private, he added. Alan Dershowitz, another of Epsteins former litigators, has also said there was never a client list but he noted accusers have named wealthy men in their affidavits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are several of them from accusers that accuse Jeffrey that accuse various people of having improper sex, and that has been redacted, the names of the people accused have been blacked out. Now, of course, because I was lawyer and I did all the investigations, I know who all these people are, Dershowitz said Monday on Cuomo. Some of them were previously in office. Some of them are dead. But there is no client list, he added. And the redactions could be undone if you go to court. Chaos around the files has roiled the GOP in recent days. Trump and Bondi, however, have doubled down on the memos findings, with the president pushing those in his base to move on from the topic. I dont understand it, why they would be so interested. Hes been dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life, he told reporters Tuesday. I dont understand what the interest and what the fascination is. I really dont. And the credible information has been given, Trump told reporters as he departed an event in Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. (NewsNation) While the Jeffrey Epstein saga continues to be a thorn in the side of President Trump and his MAGA base, Epsteins former attorney says he doesnt believe there is a client list. That wasnt Jeffrey Epstein, David Schoen told CUOMO in an appearance Tuesday. Despite all of these rumors and stories and so on, he had no plan for blackmail. Schoen met with Epstein nine days before his trial and Epstein asked him to take over the defense for his case. Schoen said at that point, Epstein had every incentive to come forward with the names of rich and famous who were involved in this case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrats are trolling Trump and the GOP over the Jeffrey Epstein case Schoen echoed another former Epstein lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, who told CUOMO on Monday that judges are withholding any names in the case, not the Trump administration. Dershowitz, who helped secure a plea deal for Epstein in 2008, said there is no client list and never has been a client list and that there is a redacted FBI affidavit from accusers. Schoen expanded on why the affidavit has remained redacted, saying You put the names out there, the fact that he knew Bill Richardson, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, etc., doesnt mean that they did nefarious, illegal conduct with him. But people start drawing rumors and making claims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also, the accusers demanded a certain level of privacy, so the judge balanced that when the parties came before him, and thats why he kept some of those files private. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who has dodged questions about Epstein, suggested in February that an Epstein client list was on her desk. She later said she was referring to the overall case file. Trump has supported Bondi in her handling of the situation, saying, She has done a really good job, and that credibility is very important. Schoen believes nobody in the Trump administration is withholding anything. I know that people want to see it as a certain period of interest in all of these things, he said. Its tantalizing, but I dont think that information is out there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Massie moves to force vote on releasing Epstein files MAGA has splintered with the whole Epstein saga and it all comes back to following what Trump has been pushing for years, according to conservative journalist Scottie Nell Hughes. This could have been completely avoidable from a Trump perspective, and the PR crisis that is happening, Hughes noted. Theyre not going to let it go, because they were told not to let it go. Everybody that is sitting here asking for transparency and agreeing with those on the Left and the Right, are usually the ones who have been following President Trump since 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House representatives on Tuesday introduced a bipartisan bill that would require the release of all files related to Epstein. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. Equity across topics ranging from housing to safety to access to healthy food was at the center of discussion for Wichita City Council candidates Tuesday night. More than 200 attended a forum for District 1 candidates hosted by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative at Wichita States Universitys Marcus Welcome Center. Attendees were able to submit questions for the candidates. The five candidates vying to replace council member Brandon Johnson are Aujanae Bennett, Darryl Carrington, LaWanda DeShazer, Chris Pumpelly and Joseph Shepard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 1 is the only district that will have a primary on Aug. 5. The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the general election on Nov. 4. District 1 generally stretches from Kellogg north to 37th Street between Hydraulic and Woodlawn. Equity and inclusion All five candidates said they oppose the City Councils decision on Tuesday morning to suspend its Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights Advisory Board. The council said the decision was necessary to meet federal guidelines and keep the citys federal funding. What came down from Washington was a it wasnt a new law. It was our president sitting at his desk. That is not a law. So we didnt have to take a stance today, DeShazer said. We could have stood up and said, No, not yet, and work internally to make sure things are better. So when Im in that seat, with your help, Im going to make sure we do the right thing anyway. Wichita City Council candidate LaWanda DeShazer answers a question during a District 1 candidate forum July 15 at Wichita State University. The forum was sponsored by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. Shepard said that if elected, he would support the creation of a new board to replace the suspended one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ill make sure that we are working with our legal team to abide with federal guidelines and regulations and create a new task force where we rename it to the community access and engagement (board), he said. Wichita City Council candidate Joseph Shepard answers a question during a District 1 candidate forum July 15 at Wichita State University. The forum was sponsored by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. Affordable housing Candidates answered several questions about how they would increase access to affordable housing for their constituents. Pumpelly said he wants Wichita to create a variety of affordable housing. He wants agreements with developers to be transparent. Weve got to work with our developers, with our Realtors, with the investors, to say Our intention is to build the best kind of real estate that we can that serves our people, and that means the lowest cost possible, he said. Wichita City Council candidate Chris Pumpelly answers a question during a District 1 candidate forum July 15 at Wichita State University. The forum was sponsored by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. Bennett said the city needs to take a closer look at deals with developers as well as do more to protect renters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We need to look at what we are really doing when we give these incentives to these investors, Bennett said. We need to work with local contractors, developers and Realtors to build these properties. They have more invested, they live here. And we need to create city ordinances that protect our tenants. Food access Two of the candidates were asked how they would work to improve access to fresh food for people in District 1, an area with few grocery stores. Carrington said grocery stores are important not only for access to food, but as community spaces. We do more than shop in grocery stores, Carrington said. Thats when we commune, thats when we come together. Wichita City Council candidate Darryl Carrington answers a question during a District 1 candidate forum at Wichita State University. The forum was sponsored by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. Bennett said if elected to the City Council, she would work to bring grocery stores to District 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 1 is the only place I know that you have to drive two miles to get a fresh tomato, Bennett said. Now, I can get a weapon, but I cant get a fresh tomato. Somethings wrong with that. Wichita City Council candidate Aujanae Bennett answers a question during a District 1 candidate forum sponsored by the Wichita Journalism Collaborative and held at Wichita State University on July 15. Public safety The candidates were asked several questions about safety in the community, including emergency response times, policing and the 29th and Grove contamination site. DeShazer, who previously worked for the Sedgwick County Fire District, said the county and city need to prioritize following recommendations made after an apartment fire killed a Wichita woman in 2023. Things have not changed and so (when) it comes to leadership, if the people sitting in the seat arent getting the job done, its time to get some new blood in the seat, DeShazer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shepard said the city needs to prioritize interventions to prevent violence and avoid overpolicing. The needs of our generation today are different and so we have to send people into communities to get proximate who have been where they have been, who have seen what they have seen, to talk to them and embrace them and show them a different path, he said. Transportation Several candidates said Wichita transit can make improvements to better support the community, like having routes in the evening. The gap is the evening or nighttime schedules, Carrington said. If I work a second shift in this city, theres no way I could get to work if I needed a bus. So that is crucial for a lot of people who work different shifts or maybe have more than one job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive got people in my immediate family multiple people in my immediate family who, not by choice, cannot drive. And if they cant get somewhere, theyre out of luck, Pumpelly said. We have an implicit car ownership tax we choose as a city not to invest in public transit as the economic driver that it is. Primary election coming up Kitra Mwania, a therapist and District 1 resident who attended the forum, said she arrived not sure who she would vote for, and left still undecided. I just wanted to get a feel for the candidates, because I didnt know much about them and to just really feel out their I guess, sense of advocacy because thats really all you can do as a city council member. Mwania said. I plan on watching everybody a little bit more closely, especially on socials and through the news, to kind of see if I can make a decision before the fifth because its gonna be here before we know it. You can register to vote, check if youre registered and find your polling place or request a mail-in ballot at sedgwickcounty.org/elections. NEW YORK New York City Mayor Eric Adams has raised $1.5 million for his reelection campaign since June 10, a massive haul that solidifies him as the candidate of choice for many in the citys business class who fear a City Hall led by democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. The mayor spent $263,000 over the same time period, putting his cash on hand at just under $3 million. That puts him in a better cash position than Mamdani and former governor Andrew Cuomo, who announced Tuesday he would also run in the general election despite the drubbing he took in the June 24 Democratic primary, which Mamdani won by nearly 13 points. Nearly all of Adams cash rolled in after the primary, which the incumbent opted to sit out on account of a criminal bribery case that was dismissed at the behest of President Donald Trumps Department of Justice in early April. He is now running in the general election on an independent ballot line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data published Wednesday by the citys Campaign Finance Board show a whos who of the citys monied class bankrolling his longshot campaign. The mayor, who reportedly raised $1 million in one night during a fundraiser hosted by SL Greens Marc Holliday, received cash contributions from a hodgepodge of donors connected to law firms like Fried Frank, commercial brokerages including Cushman & Wakefield and real estate developers like Silverstein Properties. Adams biggest expenditure during the disclosure period was around $38,000 spent on a fundraiser. He also reported dropping cash on printing services and several consultants including Brianna Suggs whose home was searched by the FBI in 2023 and Conrad Tillard, a reverend with a history of controversial comments whom Adams backed for a state Senate run in 2022. Adams recorded several expenditures for fundraisers including $3,246 spent at his longtime haunt Osteria La Baia in Midtown as he rakes in cash from New Yorkers looking to prevent Mamdani from winning the general election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The mayor is also battling with the CFB over millions of dollars in matching funds he has been denied. Adams recently sued the board over the money. And despite losing the case, his legal team is confident they will now be able to attain the essential cash infusion based on the judges decision. The board said in a statement Tuesday their investigation in the mayors campaign finance practices is ongoing. While the mayors fiscal situation is improving, his polling among New Yorkers remains bleak. A recent survey from Data for Progress found Adams would come in third behind Mamdani and Cuomo in a general election matchup with just 15 percent of the vote. The poll further found the mayor had a favorability rating leagues underwater at 29-70. A handful of recent lawsuits from former police executives including one filed Wednesday by the former interim commissioner are also reminding voters of just how chaotic the NYPD had been under Adams before he appointed the current commissioner, Jessica Tisch. JPMorgan Chase has announced plans to implement fees for access to customer bank account data, potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, reported Bloomberg. This decision could significantly disrupt existing business models within the financial technology sector. The largest bank in the US has shared pricing documents with data aggregators, which connect banks and fintech companies, outlining the new charges. Fees will vary based on data usage, with higher costs for payment-centric firms. A JPMorgan spokesperson emphasised the bank's commitment to developing a secure system for consumer data protection, stating, Weve had productive conversations and are working with the entire ecosystem to ensure were all making the necessary investments in the infrastructure that keeps our customers safe. These fees are expected to be implemented later this year, contingent on the outcome of a regulation established during the Biden administration, though they remain negotiable. The introduction of these charges could drastically impact fintech companies that rely on access to customer bank accounts for operations, according to the news agency. Platforms such as PayPal's Venmo, cryptocurrency wallets such as Coinbase, and retail trading brokerages such as Robinhood depend on this data for transactions. Historically, these firms accessed this information at no cost through aggregators such as Plaid and MX, which serve as intermediaries. The decision coincides with the uncertain future of a contentious data-sharing regulation finalised by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which allows consumers to request and transfer their data while mandating banks to share this information at no cost. JPMorgan's CEO, Jamie Dimon, has stated that third parties should compensate banks for access to their systems, asserting, Third parties want full access to banks customer data so they can exploit it for their own purposes and profits. In February this year, JPMorgan Chase reportedly refused to share detailed private credit lending data with regulators, complicating oversight for agencies such as the FDIC. "JPMorgan to charge fintechs for customer data access" was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand. Wednesday, July 16, marks exactly two weeks since Erie resident Marchello Woodard was shot and killed by a state parole agent. JET 24s Jade Leah Burns has been following this investigation and was at City Hall, where the community is calling on council for transparency. The community is now saying we refuse to be silenced, and on Wednesday night, they were doing so by standing in front of the Erie City Council at their meeting taking place that night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several posts have been floating around social media, urging everyone in the community to fill every seat in City Hall. People are demanding answers for what happened the night of July 2, when 43-year-old Marchello Woodard was fatally shot by a state parole agent. Since that day, peaceful protests have taken place across the city, with some even making free shirts saying Justice for Chello to anyone who shows up. This week, a petition currently with over 1,800 signatures has now developed on change.org. It calls for the termination of untrained probation and parole staff in Erie who do not meet the standard set by the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Erie County District Attorney has confirmed that the investigation is actively progressing, but at this time, they are not able to share specific details, as doing so can compromise the integrity of the investigation. Their full statement reads: I can confirm that the investigation is actively progressing; however, at this time we arent able to share specific details as doing so could compromise the integrity of the investigation. We appreciate everyones patience, as I initially stated, this investigation will take time. Also, as set forth in my statement, we will announce our decision once the investigation is complete. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pennsylvania State Police are also investigating this incident and have not yet returned Burns call as of Wednesday. Wednesday nights meeting begins at 6:30, and well be here to give you what the community has to say, and what council has to respond. Related Stories: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. EU ambassadors once again failed to approve the 18th sanctions package against Russia during the meeting of the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) in Brussels on 16 July. Source: European Pravda, citing several diplomats familiar with the course of discussions Details: The 18th EU sanctions package against Russia was not adopted at the Coreper meeting on 16 July. The diplomats said that Slovakia and Malta still continue blocking the proposed package of sanctions against Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another diplomat told European Pravda that the issue of sanctions against Russia and the 18th package will be included on the agenda of the General Affairs Council meeting on 18 July. Background: The 18th sanctions package against Russia was one of the main topics at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 15 July. The EUs chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said the countries were very close to agreement and expressed hope that the decision would be adopted on that day. Slovakia is blocking the sanctions in order to obtain guarantees from the European Commission regarding the consequences of completely abandoning Russian gas from 2028. Malta reportedly has its own concerns regarding the proposed lowering of the price cap on Russian oil. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! July 16 (UPI) -- The General Court of the European Union ruled Wednesday that Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughters remain on the hook for more than $348,000 of his misused expenses. The Court's judgement stated that an appeal by former European Parliament member Jean-Marie Le Pen's daughters was denied because "no evidence of use of the appropriations in accordance with the applicable regulations has been provided." The "appropriations" refers to money allegedly used illegally by Jean-Marie Le Pen during the 2009-2014 European parliamentary term. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Le Pen had used the funds under the Parliament's budget line 400, which covers "the administrative and operational expenditure" of parliamentary expenses. However, Le Pen instead purportedly put the funding toward personal expenses and was fined around $371,000 by the European Parliament in 2016, who then started in May of that year to withhold over $8000 monthly from him. Le Pen died in January, and his daughters sought to annul the EU's decision to recover their father's expenses from them, and instead have their debt canceled and paid for by the Parliament. Nonetheless, the court decided that since Le Pen never "demonstrated that the costs for which he had requested to be covered from the appropriations allocated under Parliament's budget line 400 were in accordance with the regulations relating to this budget line," that the money must be recovered. In a press release, the Court said Wednesday that it "holds that the procedure which led the Parliament to adopt the recovery decision and to issue the debit note is not contrary to the principles of legal certainty and the protection of legitimate expectations." The European Union on July 15 imposed sanctions on nine individuals and six entities linked to Russia for their involvement in hybrid threats and disinformation campaigns aimed at destabilizing the EU and Ukraine, the Council of the EU announced. The new sanctions come amid intensified Russian hybrid attacks across the European Union. The new restrictive measures target actors involved in what the EU described as "Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference" (FIMI), a term encompassing activities such as cyberattacks, disinformation, and manipulation of infrastructure and public opinion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among the sanctioned entities is the state-owned Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS), which the EU says plays a key role in replacing Ukrainian broadcasting systems in Russian-occupied territories with state-approved content aimed at suppressing dissent and undermining Ukraine's governance. Two high-ranking members of the 841st Separate Electronic Warfare Center in Kaliningrad were also sanctioned for their role in GPS signal interference across several European countries, particularly affecting the Baltic states and civil aviation. The EU also listed three organizations it described as disinformation platforms: the BRICS Journalists Association (BJA), the Foundation to Battle Injustice (R-FBI), both established by deceased Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE), founded by nationalist ideologue Alexander Dugin. These entities are accused of spreading false narratives in Europe, including a fabricated campaign accusing French soldiers of kidnapping children in Niger after the 2023 coup. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EU further sanctioned Russian website developer Yevgeny Shevchenko and his company, Tigerweb, for spreading pro-Russian propaganda in Western countries, including France, and a GRU officer and various Kremlin-linked propagandists. In a related decision, the Council of the EU recently sanctioned Nathalie Yamb, a social media personality with close ties to pro-Russian networks in Africa, for her support of Russian disinformation targeting Western influence on the continent. These latest measures bring the total number of individuals and entities sanctioned under the EU's Russia hybrid threats framework to 47 and 15, respectively. The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans. EU citizens and companies are also prohibited from making funds or economic resources available to those listed. The Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD warned earlier this year that Russia is stepping up its hybrid operations against the Netherlands and European allies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Azov is where you can learn to defend your homeland from Russia Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. European Council President Antonio Costa has expressed concern over the situation in Damascus following Israeli strikes on the Syrian capital. "Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity need to be respected," Costa wrote in a post on X. "I call on all parties to refrain from violence and to de-escalate." It comes after the Israeli military bombed targets in Damascus, including the military headquarters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eyewitnesses also reported explosions at a site that includes the Defence Ministry. A military representative said a "military site" near the presidential palace was also struck. The Israeli attacks came response to the unrest in southern Syria, where government forces have been accused of violent repression against the Druze minority. Clashes between Sunni Bedouins and Druze civilians in southern Syria have escalated sharply in recent days, centred on the Druze-majority city of Sweida. The Houthis recently resumed their Red Sea attacks, sinking two ships in back-to-back assaults. The commander of Europe's defensive counter-Houthi mission said neither ship asked for an escort. He told BI that Europe doesn't have the warships it needs to fully protect Red Sea shipping lanes. Europe's counter-Houthi mission doesn't have the warships it needs to fully protect Red Sea shipping lanes, the commander overseeing the operation told Business Insider. He said the two vessels that were recently attacked didn't ask for an escort. Rear Adm. Vasileios Gryparis, the commander of Operation Aspides, the European Union's response to the Iran-backed Houthi attacks, said this week that the mission maintains a defensive posture in the region with assets available to support commercial shipping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, he said that the mission "operates within the limits of the naval resources made available" by the contributing European states on a voluntary basis, and Aspides doesn't have the authority to request more ships. Gryparis said that on average, Aspides has fewer than one warship in the broader Red Sea area per day. An official with the mission declined to say what warships are deployed, but in recent weeks, the operation has spotlighted missions by an Italian destroyer and a Greek frigate. "From the beginning," he said, "We made it clear that the number of assets should correspond to the vast area of operation, which doesn't include only the Red Sea. I'm supposed to operate in the whole northwest Indian Ocean, but also in the Gulf. This means that I have limited protection capacity." Earlier this month, the Houthis carried out back-to-back attacks on two separate commercial vessels in the Red Sea, marking their first assaults on shipping in months. Operation Aspides is a European defensive mission providing protection for merchant vessels. Operation Aspides The dual attacks on the Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned cargo vessels Magic Seas and Eternity C killed several crew members. The Houthis sank both ships and are believed to have kidnapped some of the survivors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aspides has provided protection for hundreds of commercial vessels since the military operation began in early 2024, and European warships involved in the protection mission have shot down over 20 Houthi missiles and drones and destroyed at least two uncrewed surface vessels. Gryparis said that neither the Magic Seas nor the Eternity C requested an escort or protection from Aspides ahead of their ill-fated transit through the Red Sea. "I cannot force them to do that," he said, adding that Aspides shares threat assessments, advice, and support through an online platform where mariners can request help to deal with piracy incidents or the Houthis. Each request for support that a commercial vessel submits to Aspides is evaluated, and so far, the operation has never said no, Gryparis said. He added that, based on operational conditions and the availability of warships, vessels are either given close protection or they can wait for the next available close protection window. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gryparis said the latter "is always the most strongly recommended option." If the shipping companies or the vessels don't want to wait, they sail into the high-risk area on their own. The Houthis sank two commercial vessels this month. HOUTHI MEDIA CENTER/via REUTERS He said "these courses of action are coordinated directly with the shipping companies, which are fully briefed on the available options available and the associated risk levels." Allseas Marine and Cosmoship, the companies that own the Magic Seas and Eternity C, respectively, did not immediately respond to BI's requests for comment on why the vessels didn't request Aspides protection. Aspides had long operated alongside the US Navy, which dispatched aircraft carriers and warships to the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to help defend the shipping lanes from Houthi missile and drone attacks that began in the fall of 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike the European forces under Aspides, in addition to the air defense operations, the US military has also launched airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen. However, the Trump administration reached a ceasefire with the rebels in May and has not been involved in operations since then. The ceasefire only prevented Houthi attacks on American ships, though; the rebels have continued to fire at Israel and, once again, at commercial vessels. Gryparis said the most recent assaults "represent a troubling development that can destabilize the freedom of navigation through the Red Sea." "We continue to monitor carefully the developments in the broader area in order to adapt our mission, which remains strictly defensive and de-escalatory in nature," Gryparis said. He added that Operation Aspides "remains fully committed to contribute to the Freedom of Navigation for the commercial shipping within its area of operations, depending on the assets and capabilities provided by EU member states." Read the original article on Business Insider Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence and Space, has called on Lithuania and neighbouring Baltic countries to create a joint defence system based on unmanned technologies. Source: Kubilius in a comment to the Lithuanian broadcaster LRT, as reported by Kryla, a Ukrainian aviation news outlet Details: This call came after a drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Belarus. Kubilius noted that the incident demonstrated the reality of threats from Russia and Belarus and raised the issue of Lithuania's readiness to counter unmanned means of invasion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kubilius said that it remained an open question whether Lithuania was ready to defend itself against such drones and whether it had the necessary capabilities to do so. Kubilius called on countries in the region to review their strategy for protecting the European Union's eastern border. He stressed the need to integrate innovative technologies, in particular unmanned systems, in addition to existing physical barriers. He emphasised that he continued to urge Lithuania and the countries in the region working on the Eastern Border Security Plan to move beyond physical barriers, adding that the creation of a wall of drones should be part of that plan. The European Commissioner also emphasised the need to create a system for the rapid production of drones, which would allow the Baltic countries to quickly manufacture the necessary number of devices adapted for border protection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: The incident occurred on 10 July 2025. At that time, a homemade aircraft flew from Belarus to Lithuania. At first, it was identified as a Shahed drone, but later Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene clarified that it was a Gerbera drone. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared on Wednesday that her proposed new 2 trillion euro budget for the European Union from 2028-2034 had been designed for a new era". She added that the plan proposes a shift in how the EU organises key funds, while linking funding closely to the rule of law and keeping member state contributions steady. The proposal aims to triple the budget for migration and border management and to double the Horizon research fund, while 35% of the budget would be spent on climate and biodiversity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An agreement on the new EU budget requires backing from all 27 member countries and sign-off from the European Parliament. ($1 = 0.8645 euros) (Reporting by Lili Bayer, Geert De Clercq; Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Andrew Gray) At an Evanston event Sunday, a teacher shared his experience of getting sanctioned by Evanston Township High School for displaying a poster that urges Jews to dissent when they feel it is morally necessary, and other speakers said they feel Evanston schools have censored their right to speak when they tried to advocate for human rights for Palestinians. Speakers with affiliations to Northwestern University and Evanston Township High School, community members and parents gathered at Lake Street Church to discuss several instances where they felt their voices had been suppressed when they spoke out advocating for Palestinian human rights. One of the speakers, Evanston Township High School history teacher Andrew Ginsburg, spoke about how ETHS has sanctioned him twice: once for displaying an image calling for Jewish people to dissent when necessary, and once again for displaying a letter explaining that the first image was removed at the behest of the school district. The letter called the removal of the poster an act of censorship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to the sanctions he has received, he said he plans to submit a federal civil rights complaint against the school. Ginsberg, who is Jewish and advocates for Palestinians human rights, told Pioneer Press that he has done no wrong, despite his job at the high school hanging in the balance after receiving the two warnings. [The district] has taught us to be relevant to the kids. Theyve taught us that you cant get the kids to share stuff about their lives if you dont share stuff about your life. I think Ive been consistent with that, and Im being punished for it, Ginsberg said. The original poster Ginsburg displayed was a drawing of a shiviti amulet that Jewish artist Liora Ostroff created for the magazine Jewish Currents. The drawing was influenced by an essay titled Dissent by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who wrote, according to several sources, Dissent is indigenous to Judaism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ginsberg and his attorney, Rima Kapitan, plan to file a complaint to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that the school discriminated against him based on his religious identity. We feel that the school is violating his First Amendment right and also Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Kapitan said. Though his situation has received some attention from Evanstonians, Ginsburg said it is not unique, and that other people in Evanston, including Jews, have also felt backlash and repercussions for advocating for Palestinian human rights. This has happened to other teachers. This is happening at Northwestern [and] all over the place. This is happening in the city, Ginsberg said. We like to talk about how progressive we are up here, but when it comes to Palestine all the institutions in the city have gone out of their way to silence everybody (who) wants to talk about Palestine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speakers at the panel represented several Evanston institutions, including the Evanston Public Library, Northwestern University and Skokie/Evanston School District 65. You cant talk about Palestine in elementary school, you cant talk about Palestine in high school, and you cant talk about Palestine at college, said co-host of the panel and former Evanston Librarian Lesley Williams. Last October a student group at Northwestern University, Jewish Voice for Peace Northwestern, celebrated the Jewish holiday of Sukkot at Deering Meadow. The group set up a structure with banners that read, Gaza Solidarity Sukkah and Stop Arming Israel. The group intended to celebrate the holiday for the entire week, but was ordered to leave after a few hours. Northwestern Universitys Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications Jon Yates told Pioneer Press then that Jewish Voice for Peace did not get its event application approved, and that the groups temporary structure did not follow the universitys display policy. But the universitys efforts to enforce its own code of conduct and display policy went further than that night, according to Isabelle Butera, a member of the Northwestern chapter of the Jewish Voice for Peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We tried again to do this in compliance with these new restrictions, and we were told again that this was in violation, that we could all be facing expulsion, and that it was very clearly implied to us that the reason we were in violation is because our sukkah had a banner on it that said, Stop arming Israel and Gaza Solidarity Sukkah,' she said. Since then, a number of us have been placed on disciplinary probation. I graduated in June, and my probation is not up until September Our club was put on probation, Butera said. Shirin Vossoughi, a professor at the university, said Northwestern has a history of creating a repressive environment when it comes to discussing Palestine, and it existed before Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack against Israel. The universitys practice of doing so was exacerbated after the university updated its code of conduct, she said. I think the fundamental question for me as an educator is, What does it mean for our educational institutions to contradict the mission of the university to such a degree?' she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want our students to interpret evidence. We want our students to stand up against moral injustices Theyre [the students] punished, and I feel like what weve done essentially is sacrifice some of our education principles and mission in order to protect a state that is enacting genocide, Vossoughi said. Northwestern University President Michael Schill is slated to appear for a second time before a congressional committee over alleged antisemitism on campus, according to a June 30 Chicago Tribune article. The committee chair, U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican, accused Northwestern of failing to fulfill its commitment to protect Jewish students. Reine Hanna, Evanston Township High School District 202s director of communications, told Pioneer Press the district does not comment on matters related to personnel. Yates, of Northwestern, did not respond to a request for comment after Sundays event. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of last month, upwards of 55,000 Palestinians had been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, according to Chicago Tribune sources. The war began when Hamas-led fighters killed around 1,200 people, mostly Jewish civilians, in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack and abducted 251 hostages, according to sources. Israel says 58 hostages remain in captivity, with about 23 of them said to be alive, according to previously published reporting. The U.N. human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within a month in Gaza while trying to obtain food, according to Tribune sources. Previously, international humanitarian nonprofits oversaw food distribution, but the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has taken over. A domestic abuse suspect who died in a house fire was not arrested because police believed there was no risk of serious physical harm, an inquest has heard. Malcolm Baker, a retired Met Police detective, locked himself in his bedroom after police arrived at his Somerset home following a call from his wife Francesca Onody on 14 September 2022, a jury at Somerset Coroner's Court was told. A fire then engulfed the thatched cottage in Brompton Regis, near Dulverton. Mr Baker, 60, was not seen alive again. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police had been to the house several times that summer due to domestic abuse and financial fraud allegations, but the inquest heard they were seeking more evidence before interviewing Mr Baker. The couple - who had been married for 20 years, had two children and ran a security consultancy firm together - were in the process of divorcing when Mr Baker died. The inquest heard he had stockpiled 125 litres of petrol in the thatched cottage and had cancelled a home insurance policy on the property two days before the fire. Avon and Somerset Police was called at 17:00 BST that evening and officers who went inside to speak to Mr Baker reported a smell of petrol and noticed liquid pouring through the ceiling into the lounge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The property was evacuated but Mr Baker died in the subsequent fire, which destroyed the cottage. The plot of land where the cottage once stood [Google] Temporary Det Insp George Pettingell, from Avon and Somerset Police, was a sergeant at the time and supervised the officer who led the investigation. He told the inquest police believed Ms Onody was "comfortable" dealing with the situation, and added: "The risk posed by him was minimal in terms of what physical risk he posed, which would have been our main concern. "Was there a risk of serious physical harm? At that time, we didn't believe that to be the case." He added that decisions were made based on the need to gather evidence, which included mobile phone records and financial information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked whether police had considered arresting Mr Baker and releasing him on bail with conditions to stay away from the family home, he replied: "It was but, looking at our decision-making process at the time, we felt this was an investigation that would benefit from us having more information. "Mr Baker might have been able to respond to most of the accusations and therefore we wanted something further to put to him, which would have given us a good chance of prosecution." The inquest previously heard evidence from Ms Onody, who said Mr Baker's behaviour became "quite strange and more threatening", but he did not seek medical help because he did not want anything to compromise his security vetting. The couple's adult daughter Gabriella Onody also spoke about Mr Baker's heavy drinking and declining mental health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The inquest continues. Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. More on this story Related Internet links (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. created a unit in its commercial and investment bank focused on bespoke financing structures across public and private markets. Most Read from Bloomberg The business, dubbed strategic financing solutions, will be a collaboration between banking, markets and sales, according to an internal memo Monday. It will initially focus on structured private solutions, infrastructure finance, strategic asset-backed securities finance, merchant banking and direct lending. Financing needs are becoming increasingly complex while investors are seeking exposure to new markets, Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, co-heads of the commercial and investment bank, wrote in the memo, which was seen by Bloomberg News. The team will focus on delivering alternative solutions to our corporate and sponsor clients. Warfield Price, head of general industries leveraged finance, and Masi Yamada, global head of corporate structuring, will co-lead the group in addition to their current roles. Theyll report to Kevin Foley, global head of capital markets, and Brad Tully, global head of private side sales and corporate derivatives, according to the memo. The move is aimed at capturing both the convergence of public and private markets, with more US companies choosing to stay private for longer, and increasingly complex client needs. One example is 3G Capitals planned acquisition of Skechers USA Inc. JPMorgan advised 3G in its $9.4 billion take-private deal for the footwear maker, which was announced earlier this year. The transaction was a mix of cash and debt, and JPMorgan arranged two term loans, two notes and a revolving credit facility. The new business will house JPMorgans direct-lending effort, for which it set aside an additional $50 billion earlier this year after deploying more than $10 billion across 100 deals since 2021. Foley said in an interview in February that JPMorgan aims to be product-agnostic in its offerings to clients. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. made a similar move earlier this year, when it formed a capital solutions group to recognize the growing importance of private markets. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. A former Detroit police officer who faced up to five years in prison for lying to FBI agents during an investigation has been sentenced to the one day in jail he's already served for the crime. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith on Tuesday sentenced Dametri Wade, 26, to time served after his October guilty plea to a federal charge of making a false statement. Wade served one day in jail before his sentencing, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The former officer was additionally sentenced to two years of supervised release, with the first approximately seven months to be served in a residential re-entry facility, also known as a halfway house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, Wade played a role in an August 2022 larceny in which $200 cash and $4,000 worth of cologne were taken from a Detroit man living on the east side. The perpetrators of the larceny used false court documents in an attempt to convince the man he was being evicted from his home on St. Marion Street, Wade's plea agreement says. The then-officer's role was to show up in his scout car to legitimize the eviction ruse, authorities said. Wade lied about his involvement to FBI agents in December 2022, telling them he was at the location because "he was just driving around the city and stopped around St. Marion Street because he saw a dog," then "got out of his scout car and made contact with the animal because he likes dogs," according to the government's pre-sentencing memo. More: Man charged after trying to throw Molotov cocktail at Upper Peninsula GOP HQ, police say Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wade went on to tell agents he believed there was going to be an eviction when he knew there was not, but instead a larceny to steal personal property, as per the plea agreement. Camera footage from the area proved that Wade's statement to the FBI was false, a pre-sentencing memo filed by his attorney said. U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Gina Balaya declined to comment on the sentencing decision Wednesday. More: Wayne County judge outraged by Detroit police shooting at illegal drag race Prosecutors had requested Goldsmith sentence Wade to up to six months in prison, calling his crime "serious" as "a police officer who took an oath to serve and to protect the citizens of Detroit," adding that "instead of providing information that could have been helpful to the FBI, he chose to lie." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wade resigned from the Detroit Police Department in January 2024, the memo by his attorney said, adding that he "regrets and is ashamed of his conduct," "understands punishment is deserved," and "views this Courts sentence as an opportunity for redemption and a return to society with a more upstanding ledger." Of Goldsmith's decision not to give Wade jailtime, the former officer's attorney said anytime your client doesnt go to (federal) prison its good for the client so he can stay (in state) with his family. "Mr. Wade would like to put this behind him and move on with a productive life that doesnt have any issues hopefully," said the attorney, Abed Hammoud. In November, less than a month after pleading guilty, Wade was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and misdemeanor malicious destruction of property, for allegedly driving his truck onto the lawn of his childrens mothers home, damaging the lawn, honking repeatedly and playing loud music, according to the government's pre-sentencing memo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He pleaded guilty to both charges in state court and was sentenced to two months probation. Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact her at vikonomova@freepress.com. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ex-Detroit cop convicted of lying to feds gets 1 day in jail Honolulu police Chief Arthur Joe Logan alleges he was forced to retire and is demanding the city pay him for the two years remaining on his contract. Logan retained Honolulu attorney Joseph T. Rosenbaum and sent a demand letter to the city outlining his claim that he is owed two years of salary, about $460, 000. Logan is paid about $230, 000 a year and was serving a five-year term. Rosenbaum declined comment. Rosenbaums practice specialties include employment law, civil rights and discrimination cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Logan retired after Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi made it clear he wanted new police leadership. For months Blangiardi mused to members of the Honolulu Police Commission that he wanted to move on from Logan. Blangiardi declined comment Tuesday. City officials would not release Logans demand letter, citing Hawaii Rules of Civil Procedure No. 408 that says the letter is protected from public disclosure. The demand letter and potential for a lawsuit are the most recent fallout from Blangiardis attempt to replace Logan with Hawaii Police Department Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz. Blangiardi announced Logans departure June 2 and recommended Moszkowicz to serve as interim chief starting today. Logans last day in the office was June 30. He officially retires from city service Aug. 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Moszkowicz, a former major with HPD, was one of four finalists for chief when Logan, 66, was selected May 23, 2022. Moszkowicz served 22 years with HPD before becoming chief on Hawaii island. After considerable discussionits been ongoing for some time nowJoe has decided to retire, and so I have accepted his letter of resignation effective June 30th, Blangiardi said during a June 2 news conference at Honolulu Hale. My strong recommendation is that Ben Moszkowicz take over the role of interim chief while we go about the task of looking for a chief, the mayor said during the news conference, noting that commissioners were aware of his plans for some time. Blangiardi said he spoke with Moszkowicz and Hawaii Mayor Kimo Alameda about the possible police leadership transition. On June 4, Moszkowicz sent an email announcing his resignation to Hawaii police officers and county officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That same day he tried to withdrawal his resignation. On Thursday, the to let Moszkowicz pull his retirement letter and will look for a new leader after Moszkowicz retires Aug. 31. At a special meeting in Hilo, commissioners split their vote, 4-4 on a motion to accept Moszkowiczs June 4 emailed withdrawal of his resignation. Moszkowicz needed five yes votes keep his job. On June 18, the Hono -lulu Police Commission selected Rade K. Vanic to serve as interim Honolulu police chief as of today, ignoring Blan gi ardis recommendation. Vanic, the deputy chief in charge of the departments administrative operations, was unanimously selected by the seven-member commission to fill in for Logan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vanic also served as interim chief for nearly a year when in June 2021. Vanic said he will apply for the permanent job. Vanic took himself out of the running to replace Ballard when he served as interim chief following her retirement. Blangiardis administration plans to introduce a charter amendment giving the office of the mayor the power to hire and fire the police and fire chiefs. Currently, only the police and fire commissions may hire or fire their chiefs. Commissioners are appointed by the mayor. A former Massachusetts State Police trooper pleaded guilty Wednesday to motor vehicle homicide in connection with a 2021 fatal crash in Boston that took the life of a Winthrop man, the Suffolk County District Attorneys Office. Monson resident Kristopher Carr, 29, was off-duty and alleged to have had numerous alcoholic drinks when his SUV crashed on I-93 south and caused 51-year-old Christopher Zike to fatally crash his motorcycle, the district attorneys office said. The former state trooper was originally charged with motor vehicle homicide by operating under the influence of alcohol and negligent operation following the crash. A Suffolk County Superior Court judge sentenced Carr to two and a half years in prison with 18 months to serve suspended for three years and ordered that he submit to a substance abuse evaluation and undergo any recommended follow-up treatment, the district attorneys office said. Per state law, his license will remain suspended for 15 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Police responded to the fatal crash on Oct. 29, 2021, around 1:25 a.m. and found Carr attempting to medically aid Zike, the district attorneys office said. Zike was ultimately declared dead at Boston Medical Center, and Carr and his girlfriend who was in the front passenger seat of his SUV at the time of the crash were treated for minor injuries at Massachusetts General Hospital. Witness statements and video footage from several businesses confirmed that Carr drank numerous alcoholic drinks the night of the crash, the district attorneys office said. Investigators also discovered that he was leaning over to kiss his girlfriend when his SUV swerved to the left and struck the center median, blocking the two leftmost lanes of I-93 south. Zike was driving to a 2 a.m. shift at the Ikea in Stoughton when he crashed into Carrs crashed SUV, the district attorneys office said. Zike was thrown from his motorcycle and fatally injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were reminded in a most tragic way today how a few extremely bad decisions ended one life and impacted so many others, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a Wednesday press release. Christopher Zikes life will be remembered and mourned by his family and friends, while Kristopher Carrs life will take a vastly different path than he likely intended. More local crime stories Read the original article on MassLive. Gurbir Grewal, who as New Jersey attorney general unveiled the Immigrant Trust Directive, will represent Newark and Hoboken against a Trump administration lawsuit targeting their sanctuary policies for immigrants. (Edwin J. Torres/Governors Office) The former state attorney general, who was the architect of a state order that bars local law enforcement from aiding with civil immigration enforcement, is now among the attorneys defending two New Jersey cities sanctuary policies in federal court. Gurbir Grewal, who was attorney general under Gov. Phil Murphy for nearly four years, is representing Newark and Hoboken against the Trump administration, which claims the local sanctuary policies interfere with federal deportation goals. Two other cities, Newark and Jersey City, are named in the suit, filed in May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murphy, speaking to reporters after an event in Newark on Tuesday, noted that the state order, called the Immigrant Trust Directive, has withstood judicial challenges. That has stood up and done well by New Jersey over the past, now seven-plus years, Murphy said. Its one of the reasons were the safest states in America. The four cities named in the Trump administrations complaint were due on Monday to formally respond to the lawsuit. They each asked for more time. Grewal did not respond to a request for comment. He issued the statewide directive in November 2018, and it was revised in 2019. It bars New Jersey police officers from asking someone about their immigration status if its irrelevant to the polices investigation, questioning or detaining someone based solely on actual or suspected immigration status, and providing federal immigration authorities with access to state or local resources, including equipment and databases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Back then, Grewal said the rules aim to draw a clear distinction between local police and immigration authorities, allowing victims and witnesses of crimes to feel safe reporting to state law enforcement. No law-abiding resident of this great state should live in fear that a routine traffic stop by local police will result in his or her deportation from this country, Grewal said then. Grewal stepped down as attorney general in 2021 to join the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and left that job late last year. Hes now a partner at Milbank in New York. Hoboken spokeswoman Marilyn Baer said the city continues to stand up for immigrant communities and noted that the 2018 mayoral order declaring Hoboken a fair and welcoming city to immigrants was based in part on the same principles outlined in the Immigrant Trust Directive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baer, like Murphy, noted that Grewal successfully defended the directive from challenges when he was attorney general. Former U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, also a partner at Milbank, will join Grewal in defending Newark and Hoboken from the Trump administrations lawsuit. The City and Mayor Bhalla have full confidence in the experience and unmatched qualifications of Milbank LLP, Grewal, and Katyal to represent Hobokens interests in this case and to uphold the Citys longstanding commitment to protecting the rights of all residents, including immigrant communities, Baer said. The Trump administrations push to detain and deport millions of immigrants has ensnared some local officials. Rep. LaMonica McIver is facing assault charges, with federal prosecutors accusing her of shoving an immigration officer outside a detention center in Newark as Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trespassing on the property. Barakas case was dismissed days later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And last week, the New York Times reported Murphy was subpoenaed by acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba over comments he made in February suggesting he would hide a migrant seeking full legal status at his home and daring immigration officials to detain her. Murphy declined to comment on the report Tuesday. Habba has previously said she is investigating Murphy and Attorney General Matt Platkin over the Immigrant Trust Directive. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ex-Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin is jumping back into the political ring to take on Sleepy Drew Rep. Andrew Garbarino, who famously dozed through a vote on President Trumps Big Beautiful Bill. Halpin, a Democrat, launched his 2026 campaign Monday in Babylon, blasting the Republican incumbent for falling asleep on Long Island families after sleeping through and missing the first House vote tied to the key sweeping White House legislation. Our Congressman, Andrew Garbarino, is asleep at the wheel literally, Halpin said. Ex-Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin is making a political comeback to take on Rep. Andrew Garbarino. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Hes been caught snoozing while voting to gut hospitals, slash food assistance and hand billionaires more tax breaks all while Long Island families cant keep up with rent, childcare or medical bills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Halpin, who once led Suffolk as the countys youngest ever top elected official, cast himself as a workhorse ready to get things done while citing his extensive political resume. Halpin served as county exec from from 1988 to 1991, during which time he launched the Long Island Housing Partnership, expanded community policing and domestic-violence programs, introduced drug prevention in schools and led one of the nations top land preservation efforts, his campaign said. I know every corner of this district full of good, hard-working folks, Halpin said. Ill be your go-to congressman no matter if youre a Democrat, Republican, independent, short, tall, young or old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You got a problem; Ill work to find a solution. Whether thats fixing a pothole or protecting Medicaid, I will find a way to help. The Long Island Democrat officially launched his campaign Monday, calling out Garbarino for falling asleep on Long Island families. Suffolk County Water Authority Garbarino has meanwhile carved out a reputation as a moderate in his party, breaking ranks to support the congressional January 6 commission, codify same-sex marriage and help pass former President Joe Bidens bipartisan infrastructure and cybersecurity bills. He slept through the first House vote on his partys linchpin One Big Beautiful Bill delivering a major nail-biter at the time for Republicans, who ended up passing the legislation by just one vote without him. The Senate then revised the House bill and sent it back to the lower chamber for another vote and Garbarino managed to stay awake to help pass that one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He currently chairs the House subcommittee on cybersecurity, has introduced legislation to combat wildlife trafficking and pushed for workforce training programs and affordable housing aid across Long Island. Garbarino was caught on video snoozing during the vote on President Trumps Big Beautiful Bill, as his opponent Halpin said, Our Congressman, Andrew Garbarino, is asleep at the wheel literally. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images He recently touted that he and other Republicans helped quadruple the SALT deduction cap to $40,000. But Halpin says Garbarinos record mostly falls flat at home, accusing the congressman of going Washington and failing to deliver while accusing Garbarino of putting billionaires over Suffolk Countys working families. Some constituents of Garbarino seem unhappy with their congressman, even within party lines, as hardcore Republicans liken him to a RINO, or Republican in name only, while moderates criticize his high-profile snoozefest during the key bill vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Republicans] called Biden Sleepy Joe for four years, and then [Garbarino] actually slept through the vote. [Halpin] should call him Sleepy Drew hes got my vote, Patchogue resident Jennifer Armungo told The Post. Halpin closed out his announcement by saying voters are tired of the dysfunction and argued that Long Island deserves better than what its getting in Washington. Garbarinos team fired back at the former county executive, who they called High Tax Halpin. First [Halpin] voted for progressive policies in Albany, then he tried to ruin Suffolk County before he was thrown out of office after one term, and now he wants to ruin the country by voting for progressive policies in Washington, D.C. how many government pensions does this guy want, said Anthony Pileggi, Senior Campaign Aide for Garbarino. -Additional reporting by Steven Nelson LONDON (Reuters) -An officer with Britain's National Crime Agency who stole cryptocurrency from the operator of an illegal dark web marketplace was jailed on Wednesday for 5-1/2 years. The NCA was investigating the Silk Road 2.0 site which allowed users to buy drugs and other illicit goods after the original Silk Road was shut down by the FBI in 2013 and arrested Liverpool-based Thomas White in 2014. Intelligence officer Paul Chowles took the details of White's "retirement wallet" and stole 50 bitcoin before sending it to a cryptocurrency "mixing" service called Bitcoin Fog to obscure the source, prosecutors said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chowles, 42, appeared in Liverpool Crown Court having pleaded guilty to one count of theft, one count of transferring criminal property, and one count of concealing criminal property. Prosecutor Craig Hassall said the bitcoin Chowles stole was worth just under 60,000 pounds (around $80,000) at the time of the theft in May 2017 and is now worth over 4 million pounds, though Chowles had realised nearly 145,000 pounds. Chowles was dismissed by the NCA this month for gross misconduct after his guilty pleas, having been arrested in 2022. The NCA initially thought White, who was jailed in 2019 for over five years, had managed to access his bitcoin wallet and remove the 50 missing bitcoin, Hassall said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The remaining 47 bitcoin in White's wallet were sold by the NCA for roughly 500,000 pounds, and the funds paid towards a 1.5 million-pound confiscation order made against White. But police and the NCA began to investigate after White said he was not responsible for moving the 50 bitcoin, and usernames and passwords linked to White's cryptocurrency accounts were found in Chowles' notebooks when he was arrested. Judge David Aubrey said bitcoin worth nearly 470,000 pounds was seized from Chowles, telling him: "Had you not been arrested, you would have continued to reap the rewards of your wrongdoing." (Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Rod Nickel) (KRON) The ex-wife of a UC Berkeley professor who was gunned down by a masked assailant in a suburb of Athens Greece earlier this month has been arrested for arranging his killing, according to a Greek media report. Przemyslaw Jeziorski, a 43-year-old professor of marketing at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business was visiting his children in the Athens suburb of Agia Paraskevi when he was shot and killed in broad daylight on July 4. The masked shooter reportedly shot Jeziorski five times. According to Greek newsletter Tovima, the native of Poland was walking to his ex-wifes home to see the couples two children, who are twins. Quiet vacationing, the latest workplace trend could be gaining steam this summer Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Tovima, Jeziorskis ex-wife has been arrested and charged with convincing her current partner to kill Jeziorski in a gangland-style shooting. Three other men, two Albanian nationals and a Bulgarian man, have also reportedly been arrested in connection to the case. Greek police, according to Tovima, say the three foreign nationals transported the alleged shooter to the scene and provided him with a Tokarev model automatic handgun the alleged murder weapon. Jeziorski, who had been a faculty member of the Haas School of Business since 2012, was reportedly declared dead at the scene. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Universal Music Group unit Virgin Music Group's $775 million acquisition of Downtown Music faces a full-scale EU antitrust investigation on concerns about its impact on competition, three people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Virgin Music announced the deal last December, triggering criticism from a wide swathe of European independent labels. Virgin had until Tuesday to offer remedies to address regulatory worries during the deal's review but did not provide them, according to an update on the European Commission website. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Commission, which acts as the EU competition enforcer, declined to comment. Its preliminary review of the deal ends on July 22. It will kick off its full-scale, four-month investigation following that, the people, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter, said. A Virgin Music spokesperson declined to comment on the potential antitrust investigation, saying that the Commission has not announced a decision. The company will continue to work constructively with the Commission and "address the wilful misrepresentation of market data by self-interested parties who represent a tiny fraction of the thousands of independent labels that make up the broader independent community globally", the spokesperson said. He said the initial projected timeframe of the second half of 2025 to close the deal remains unchanged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Universal is the world's biggest music company, while Downtown owns a major music publisher and a number of other businesses that help musicians collect royalties. European independent music label group Impala, the European Composer and Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) and the Worldwide Independent Network have urged the EU antitrust watchdog to examine the deal and to even block it if necessary. They said the acquisition would further entrench Universal's position across European music markets and strengthen its control over market access for independent labels. (Reporting by Foo Yun CheeEditing by Tomasz Janowski and Sharon Singleton) By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department explored bringing criminal charges against Minnesota judges and defense lawyers who discussed requesting virtual court hearings to protect defendants from being arrested by federal immigration officers, according to five people familiar with the matter. In February, FBI agents in Minneapolis opened a preliminary inquiry into whether local judges and defense attorneys obstructed immigration enforcement by requesting virtual hearings, and the concept was also pitched to law enforcement officials in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal Justice Department deliberations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reuters could not determine whether the probe is ongoing. To date, no judge or lawyer in Minnesota has been charged over the episode. Two of the people familiar with the discussions said FBI and Justice Department leadership in Washington supported the probe. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment. The probe was launched shortly after Emil Bove, the former Acting Deputy Attorney General who has since been nominated by President Donald Trump to serve as an appellate judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, ordered prosecutors in a January 21 memo to pursue potential criminal cases against "state and local actors" for impeding immigration enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to vote on Bove's nomination on Thursday, with Democrats expected to oppose it. The Trump administration has taken aggressive steps against the legal system when its policies have been blocked, lashing out at judges over rulings it disagrees with and seeking to punish law firms and legal organizations that have challenged its policies. "They've been intimidating law firms and lawyers from the beginning," said Bennett Gershman, a former state prosecutor who teaches law at Pace University. "This is just ... part of the campaign to terrorize, intimidate, frighten people from speaking out." EMAIL TRAIL Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Minneapolis probe followed comments made in an email chat maintained by Minnesota defense lawyers on February 6 discussing requesting virtual court hearings for defendants who were living in the U.S. illegally to reduce the risk that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would apprehend them at court, the five people told Reuters. Fox News reported about the existence of the email chat in March, about a month after the Justice Department started its inquiry. The DOJ probe that the chat helped spark has not been previously reported. In the email chain, one defense attorney said judges in the Third Judicial District in Minnesota "proactively" reached out to public defenders and prosecutors to encourage them to request Zoom court hearings on any cases with immigration issues, and that such requests would be granted "liberally," according to an excerpt of the chat verified to Reuters by an attorney who saw the email messages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In late April, the Justice Department charged Hannah Dugan, a local elected judge in Milwaukee, for trying to help a migrant evade immigration authorities when he appeared in her courtroom for a hearing. The indictment also alleges she told the defendant's attorney he could "appear by Zoom" for his future court appearances. Dugan has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The Justice Department previously tried to charge a local Massachusetts judge in Trump's first term for helping a state court defendant evade arrest by ICE by allowing him to leave through a rear door. The case was later dropped during the Biden administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Virtual hearings became commonplace in courtrooms across America during the COVID pandemic, and still remain a popular option in some states - including Minnesota. Chris Wellborn, a recent former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said that scheduling virtual appearances for clients is a "routine and established procedure" that can help defendants who are balancing multiple jobs or facing child care duties. "This situation underscores a recurring challenge: the misinterpretation of the vital role a criminal defense attorney plays in upholding constitutional obligations," he said. "It is a fundamental duty of all defense lawyers to provide comprehensive advice to their clients regarding all available legal options and pathways." (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; additional reporting by Ned Parker in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Shri Navaratnam) HOUSTON (AP) A judge on Wednesday set a new execution date for Robert Roberson, a Texas man who won a last-minute reprieve last year and could become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a murder conviction tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome. State district Judge Austin Reeve Jackson set an Oct. 16 execution date for Roberson, who was brought in from death row to attend the hearing in Palestine, Texas. Shackled and wearing a black and white striped prison uniform, Roberson did not speak during the hearing. As he was led away at the end, someone in the courtroom yelled, We love you Robert. Roberson replied, I love you." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office had requested that the execution date be scheduled. Robersons lawyers objected, arguing Roberson still has an appeal pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that his legal team says contains powerful new evidence of his innocence. The latest appeal was filed five months ago. Roberson, 58, was convicted of the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. Prosecutors argued he violently shook his daughter back and forth, causing severe head trauma in whats called shaken baby syndrome. His lawyers and some medical experts say his daughter died not from abuse but from complications related to pneumonia. Jackson said the lack of a ruling by the appeals court was a sign it needed more time to review the case. But he also said that he had to strike a balance between the efforts by Roberson's legal team and a justice system that doesn't move, never reaches finality. At some point we have to say the date needs to be set, Jackson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's attorneys, argued there was no legal reason to set the execution date but that perhaps there is a political reason. Right now it makes no practical sense and it makes no moral sense, Sween said. A lawyer with the Texas Attorney General's Office, which took over the case from the Anderson County District Attorneys Office, told the judge that with the execution still 90 days away, the appeals court has time to issue its decision. After the hearing, Sween told reporters she planned to seek a stay and would ask that the execution date be withdrawn. Were not going to stop fighting for Robert. He cannot give up hope, Sween said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In its latest appeal filed in February, Robersons legal team said that based on new evidence no rational juror would find Roberson guilty of capital murder; and unreliable and outdated scientific and medical evidence was material to his conviction. The new evidence includes statements from pathologists that state the girls death was not a homicide and who question the reliability of conclusions by the medical examiner on the cause of death. Roberson received a last-minute stay last year after a flurry of legal challenges that were prompted by an unprecedented maneuver from a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who say he is innocent and was sent to death row based on flawed science. Roberson was in a holding cell on Oct. 17, 2024, a few feet away from Americas busiest death chamber in Huntsville, waiting to receive a lethal injection when he was granted the stay after a group of Texas lawmakers issued a subpoena for him to testify before a House committee several days after he was scheduled to die. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in November that although the subpoena was valid, it could not be used to circumvent a scheduled execution. Roberson never testified before the House committee as Paxtons office blocked efforts to have him speak to lawmakers. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 Kazakhstan's oil production in the first half of 2025 witnessed a significant surge of approximately 11.6%, reaching 49.9 million tonnes (mt), compared to the same period in 2024, according to a Reuters report, citing senior officials. The nation's persistent overproduction has been a point of contention within OPEC+, which includes the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia. Industry sources note that Kazakhstan's output has consistently surpassed the group's quotas, causing friction among some members. On 15 July, Kazakhstan's Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov said that the country exported 39.6mt of oil, equivalent to 1.64 million barrels per day (mbpd), and anticipates exports to reach 70.5mt for the year. Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov further stated that despite the challenges in adhering to OPEC+ production quotas, largely due to the expansion of the Chevron-led Tengiz oilfield, there are no plans to withdraw from the pact. Chevron has been increasing its output at Tengiz, the biggest oil field in Kazakhstan, playing a significant role in the nation's boost in production. The country's OPEC+ production quota is expected to increase to 1.532mbpd in August, up from 1.514mbpd in July, excluding the output of gas condensate. According to OPEC's monthly report, Kazakhstan led a substantial production increase among OPEC+ members in February, with the collective output of the alliance rising by 363,000bpd to 41.01mbpd. Kazakhstan's oil production levels have reached new highs, with February's output soaring by 198,000bpd to 1.77mbpd, which is at least 300,000bpd above its designated OPEC+ ceiling. "Kazakhstan reports 11.6% increase in H1 2025 oil production" was originally created and published by Offshore Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. AUSTIN (KXAN) As outdoor activities increase during the summer months, dermatologists warn people of the consequences of excess sun exposure. Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, according to a study from the American Academy of Dermatology Association. With July being Ultraviolet (UV) Awareness Month, experts said it is important to educate people on the dangers of excessive sun exposure and the importance of protective measures. KXANs Avery Travis and Will DuPree spoke with Doctor Eric Bernstein, a dermatologist and laser surgeon, to talk about the risks of excessive sun exposure and protective measures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The full transcript below has been edited for clarity. Will DuPree: Skin cancer has become the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer here in the US, according to the American Cancer Society. And experts want everyone to know, roughly 90% of skin cancers are caused by excess sun exposure. Avery Travis: As we head into the thick of summer and spend more time outside, experts are also warning that the increasing intensity of ultraviolent radiation poses a lot of other health risks, such as premature aging, damage to the immune system, and even some impacts and risks for our eyes. So we want to bring in an expert, Dr. Eric Bernstein, dermatologist and laser surgeon to explore more of this. Thank you so much for joining us today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eric Bernstein: I appreciate you having me. Its my favorite topic. Travis: So first back up and explain for us what UV radiation really is. People may see it on labels, hear about it, but how does it work? And how does it interact with our bodies? Bernstein: So the sun puts out all kinds of rays, right? Its like a continuum, and the short wavelength rays are the most energetic and most dangerous. And the reason theyre called ultraviolet is because we cant see them. So theyre below purple in terms of the wavelength. Theyre shorter wavelength than purple, very high energy, and it damages our DNA, and so we have to protect ourselves from that. The part people dont get is you cant see it and you cant feel it, so its invisible. Really what you feel the heat of the sun is the infrared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A couple things I tell all my patients, number one, obviously SPF 30 sunscreen reapply in the sun. The best sunscreen is the one you use, so find one that you like. But people only count the sun when theyre at the beach, and youre getting some when youre walking around, going to the mailbox. Even when youre driving in your car you need clear UV blocking window film on the side windows in your car windshields have plastic to prevent shattering that blocks UVA, but typical windows without tint thats been applied dont have that. And you can get clear film because you want to be able to see at night, and blocking that UV means you can still see because its invisible. You can block all of it and not affect your ability to see. DuPree: Well, we just want to point out as well that July is UV Awareness Month, and Dr. Bernstein, what are some things that you think people do not know or maybe understand about protecting their skin from damage? Bernstein: Well, one of the big things is two organs that see the sun right, our skin and our eyes. So for our eyes, I wear, I hope you dont mind if I mention brands. Im not affiliated with any brands. But I wear sunglasses, these Vuarnets, that have side shields to prevent the light from coming in the sides when the suns behind me. I wear brown sunglass lenses to block the blue wavelengths of light. I have a filter in my eyeglasses called Crizal that blocks blue light, so thats protecting your eyes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What most people dont realize is the sun is the sun. Doesnt matter if youre at the beach. Doesnt matter if youre trying. Youre getting UV exposure. Where we study this is the American Society of Photobiology, or the ASP. They do all the science to research how much sun protection you get from a hat, from the car, whatever you know, how much UV you get in the car. And then we translate that into plain English. So youll get a lot of sun wearing a hat. It helps, but you get a lot of reflection from the ground and from, for example, the beach, from sand. When youre under an umbrella, youre cool, right? And its dark, but that UV is almost the same as what youre getting, not under the umbrella. I mean, it gives you an SPF depending on the umbrella, maybe two. So just remember that when you dont think youre getting sun, youre getting sun. I wear sun protective clothing. In fact, Im at the beach now. Im literally at the beach now, and Im wearing a shirt like one of those rash guards, and then I got these real thin pants on. It kind of look a little ridiculous, you know, Im covered up, but Im cool and Im protected, and SPF 30 is enough, but you got to reapply in the sun. Thats really what you need to know. Travis: Okay, the last thing. We just have a few moments with you, but we know your work also focuses on photo aging. People may know the risks of skin cancer and some of those skin diseases, but talk about, you know, even just some of the aging of their skin that the sun can cause, and maybe some ways to treat that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bernstein: Well, first of all, its all from the sun; the aging, right? Theres five key signs of skin aging, fine lines and wrinkles and large pores, sagging skin, brown spots and redness. These are 100% from the sun. If you dont believe me, look at the skin on your bottom, and then look at the skin on your face, in the back of your neck, and theres a massive difference, and its only from the sun. Drivers are more aged on the drivers side, passenger on the passengers. And what can you do to repair the skin? Well, obviously, you start with the sunscreen, then in the evening, Alpha hydroxy acids, or the AHAs, glycolic acid being the most common, retinoids like tretinoin or Retin A, and also lasers. We use lasers to rejuvenate the skin, and we use different lasers depending on what the main aspects of aging are, whether its redness, whether its wrinkles and fine lines. And you know, obviously Im a dermatologist, and Im biased, but I think starting with your dermatologist is really where to get the questions answered. Travis: Dr. Bernstein, thank you so much for these amazing reminders as folks maybe head on trips or even just like you said, walking out their front door today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bernstein: I appreciate that, and you can go to the ASP website for American Society for Photobiology and get a lot of good information as well. I really appreciate you having me on, this is super important. DuPree: We hope that you enjoy your time there at the beach and stay safe too. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska is the largest expanse of public land in the U.S., encompassing nearly 23 million acres an area equivalent to the size of Maine. The reserve hosts an abundance of wildlife, but an effort to open 82% of it to oil and gas development could have irreversible consequences, an ecologist warned. What's happening? The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was designated as an emergency oil supply for the U.S. Navy in 1923 before the U.S. Department of the Interior took over its management in the 1970s, according to Michigan State University professor and The Wilderness Society director of research Mariah Meek. While the Department of the Interior manages the reserve for energy development, it must also protect "any significant subsistence, recreational, fish and wildlife, or historical or scenic value," Meek explained. 11.7 million acres currently exist for oil and gas drilling, but the Trump Administration plans to open more than 18.5 million acres to the practice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plan, according to the Department of the Interior, is part of the administration's goal to "strengthen America's energy and economic security" similar to measures in the recently passed budget bill that boost dirty energy and limit clean energy. Why is oil and gas drilling in Alaska important? If successful, the expansion will harm numerous wildlife species that depend on the reserve, Meek said. The reserve hosts tens of thousands of caribou, which use it for feeding and breeding. Migratory birds and fish also utilize the area's waters. Three of four caribou herds on Alaska's North Slope rely on the National Petroleum Reserve for critical habitat. Caribou populations have declined by 65% over the past few decades, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and infrastructure for oil and gas drilling could further disrupt their habitat. This infrastructure could also have consequences for the 72% of Arctic Coastal Plain shorebirds that nest in the reserve, Meek explained. The area has some of the highest densities of breeding shorebirds in the world due to its location at the northern end of five flyways. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other species, such as polar bears, wolverines, moose, and birds of prey, could experience impacts, as well as Indigenous communities that live in the area. Expanding oil and gas drilling would produce pollution and habitat loss, and these consequences wouldn't be confined to Alaska. The National Petroleum Reserve and the Arctic ecosystem influence the climate around the world, Meek warned. The Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and this warming is leading to rising sea levels, more extreme weather events, and other consequences. What's being done about oil and gas drilling? While the Bureau of Land Management closed the project to public comments on July 1, you can still contact your representatives and tell them to oppose the expansion of oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. You can also explore critical climate issues to educate yourself about them. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Early summer has already brought two heat waves to England, and officials sounded the alarm last week to keep people safe. What's happening? Temperatures were expected to climb from around 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) to 28, 30, and 32 (82, 86, and 90) heading into this past weekend, The Mirror reported. In June, a heat dome pushed the mercury to 35 C (95 F). The southeastern and eastern regions of the country were at risk, and the newspaper compared the weather to that in Barbados, where it was 28-29 C (82-84 F). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "High pressure from the Atlantic will gradually exert its influence over the UK this week," Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Holley said. "We'll see temperatures build day on day, with the potential for hot conditions to become quite widespread by the end of the week and into the weekend." Why is this important? "This heat wave is likely to last longer than previous ones so far this summer, and affect a wider area, with the focus for some of the highest temperatures displaced across more central and western areas at times," Holley added. "In addition, pollen and UV levels will also be very high in some areas." High temperatures can be deadly, and research shows the changing climate is exacerbating these events. About 2,300 people died in London and other major European cities from severe heat from June 23 to July 2, CNN reported. That was 1,500 more than would've died without rising global temperatures caused by the burning of dirty energy sources. Temperatures during that heat wave were 1-4 C (2-7 F) higher than they would have been because the planet is 1.3 C (2.3 F) hotter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People with health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, and respiratory illnesses are particularly vulnerable, though everyone is at risk, and the consequences include mental health issues. "Heat waves don't leave a trail of destruction like wildfires or storms," Ben Clarke of Imperial College London told CNN. "Their impacts are mostly invisible but quietly devastating a change of just 2 or 3 degrees Celsius can mean the difference between life and death for thousands of people." What's being done about heat waves? Rising temperatures and increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events such as heat waves can be slowed by eliminating the heat-trapping pollution at the root of such problems. That means switching to clean energy sources, though cities must also be designed to withstand the challenges of a changing climate, Imperial College London's Friederike Otto told CNN. You can help by taking cleaner modes of transportation, investing in clean-energy home improvements, and even using less plastic. As a bonus, these actions will also save you money. How concerned are you about your energy bills increasing this summer? Very Somewhat Not much Not at all Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. One of the biggest consequences of rising global temperatures is the impact they have on food security. Across the globe, rising temperatures are threatening agricultural production, causing experts to sound the alarm, as was the case at a recent gathering held in Kathmandu, Nepal. What's happening? Key stakeholders at the Sagarmatha Sambaad forum in May discussed the challenges of Earth's overheating, underscoring the reality of food and water insecurity. According to reporting by Republica, one of the topics discussed was the current water crisis, which Dr. Mark Smith, executive director of the International Water Management Institute, said poses a "serious threat to the long-term sustainability for future generations but also to equality." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Scientists have considered this a threat to humanity," Smith added. With extreme weather such as intense droughts and increasingly powerful storms destroying crops and driving food prices up, vulnerable areas are grappling with climate-driven poverty and starvation. Leaders from around the world emphasized the need to take action and develop solutions to address all aspects of the current crisis. Why is global food insecurity important? Rising global temperatures are taking a serious toll on farmers trying to make a living and yield successful harvests. With intense droughts and more powerful storms ruining crops, farmers have increased their prices, which in turn makes everyday necessities less affordable and accessible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Global food insecurity not only threatens public health but also human rights. As vulnerable communities suffer from the consequences of extreme weather, they lose access to safe and nutritious food and water supplies. What's being done about climate-driven food insecurity? World leaders and organizations are advocating for climate-driven solutions to combat food insecurity and water shortages. However, these conversations are just the beginning. Experts have indicated that more steps need to be taken to practically tackle these global challenges on a larger scale. As Republica reported, Dr. Usha Jha, a former member of Nepal's National Planning Commission, warned at the forum that hunger and poverty could rise if precautions aren't taken. Do you worry about how much food you throw away? Definitely Sometimes Not really Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Ken Shimizu, the Food and Agriculture Organization Country Representative for Nepal and Bhutan, raised another important point of discussion, noting how the climate crisis has brought on numerous socioeconomic challenges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It is a further challenge to ease access to necessary financing, technology, and support," Shimizu said, per Republica. Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Experts suggest avoiding left-hand turns while driving. Heres why As more Americans plan summer road trips this year, civil engineering experts suggest avoiding left turns in cities to enhance safety and efficiency. Recent data from Deloitte indicates an increase in summer travel, with more people opting for road trips. This surge in travel correlates with a rise in vehicle miles traveled during the summer months, which can lead to more crashes and fatalities. If you look at sort of the traffic patterns throughout the year, uh, the summer months, we have the most vehicle miles traveled. And with that additional vehicle miles traveled, there come more crashes, more fatalities, more serious injuries, said Vikash Gayah, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Penn State. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gayah explains that about 61 percent of crashes at intersections involve a left turn, making them particularly hazardous. The danger arises because drivers must judge gaps in oncoming traffic, and misjudgments can lead to collisions. The reason that the left turns are so dangerous is that you have a vehicle thats turning in front of the path of oncoming traffic, where the driver of the left-turning vehicle has to judge when theres a sizable gap in order to make that left turn, Gayah said. If they misjudge that, they get hit by that oncoming traffic or hit the oncoming traffic. In urban areas, avoiding left turns might mean traveling an extra block, but this doesnt necessarily add time to the trip. Simplifying signal timing can reduce the time spent stopped at intersections, potentially allowing drivers to reach their destinations faster. Cities like San Francisco and Salt Lake City are already taking steps to ban left turns during busy times of the day. This approach not only aims to improve safety but also could enhance fuel economy by reducing idling time in traffic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By simplifying the signal timing at the intersection youre going to, youre going to travel through more intersections, one more intersection on average, but youre going to spend less time stopped at each intersection, Gayah said. And that has huge advantages, because it means that youll actually get to where you want to go faster. By rethinking traffic patterns and reducing left turns, cities can potentially decrease intersection accidents and improve travel efficiency. As more Americans hit the road this summer, these strategies could make a significant impact on road safety. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW An extremist who promoted "violent jihad" by sharing content and magazines has been jailed. Mohammed Mahfuz Ahmed, from Cleethorpes, was convicted of publishing material encouraging terrorism and four counts of distributing terrorist publications in February following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court. The 26-year-old was earlier sentenced to 10 years in prison at the same court, with a further five years extended on licence and handed a five-year serious crime prevention order, which will come into force upon his release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ahmed was also made the subject of terrorism notification requirements for 30 years, meaning he will have to keep the authorities informed of his whereabouts and activities. Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE) said Ahmed, of Crowhill Avenue, openly encouraged murder and acts of violence via the material he shared and he was "committed to reaching as many people as he could". He also added his own commentary to a post identifying new and "easy targets", demanding his followers to "Answer the Call", officers said. "A significant portion of this content promoted violent jihad and included official Daesh magazines and propaganda," CTPNE said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Det Ch Supt James Dunkerley described Ahmed as having a "deep-seated extremist mindset" who posted content which often included graphic content and glorified acts of terrorism. "Ahmed was persistent and determined in his efforts to reach as many people as possible with his posts." He said the extremist used five different accounts over a five-month period before his arrest in April 2024. He gathered more than 1,300 followers and received in excess of 14,000 likes in response to his content, the detective said. "By sharing Daesh propaganda, he has promoted their cause and intentionally extended the reach and influence of their ideology," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices More on this story Related internet links Claim: In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump sent 2,700 troops from the U.S. Marine Corps to Los Angeles to quell protests over immigration raids but sent zero Marine Corps personnel to Texas to help find missing people after destructive flash floods swept through the state. Rating: Rating: Mixture What's True: Trump did send troops from the U.S. Marine Corps to Los Angeles amid the 2025 immigration raid protests. He also did not deploy any Marines to Texas during the flash floods that happened about a month later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What's False: However, Trump deployed 700, not 2,700, Marine Corps personnel to Los Angeles for the official purpose of protecting federal property alongside 4,000 California Army National Guard soldiers. In the summer of 2025, a rumor spread online that U.S. President Donald Trump deployed 2,700 U.S. Marine Corps troops to "stop" the Los Angeles immigration raid protests in June but sent zero Marines to Texas after deadly flash floods devastated the state in July. Examples of the claim appeared on X, Threads, Facebook and Instagram, where each post contained variations of the following wording: "Never forget that Donald Trump sent 2,700 Marines to stop protesters in Los Angeles. But sent ZERO to Texas to help find 180+ missing people or recover the bodies of more than 100 dead. That's Donald Trump." Never forget that Donald Trump sent 2,700 Marines to stop protesters in Los Angeles But sent ZERO to Texas to help find 180+ missing people or recover the bodies of more than 100 dead. That's Donald Trump. Don Winslow (@donwinslow) July 12, 2025 Trump did, in fact, send Marines to L.A. during the June immigration raid protests, but the claim circulating online was missing some additional context and it stated the wrong number of Marines. However, it was correct to say that he did not deploy any for the federal response to the central Texas flash floods that killed at least 131 people and left at least 101 people missing as of this writing, according to Texas officials (see 26:57). Therefore, we have rated this claim a mixture of true and false information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 10, the White House said in an emailed statement that Trump sent the troops to L.A. to "protect American citizens and restore law and order." In another emailed statement on July 14, an unidentified White House official said Trump "approved a Major Disaster Declaration just hours after [Texas] Governor Greg Abbott's request, ensuring our brave first responders immediately had the resources they need." (A Major Disaster Declaration triggers federal funding and assistance for a natural disaster.) "The Trump Administration is leading a historic, first-of-its-kind approach to disaster funding: putting states first by providing upfront recovery support," the White House said about its response to the Texas floods. LA Marine Corps deployment Trump sent about 700 Marine Corps troops, not 2,700, to L.A., alongside an additional 4,000 California Army National Guard personnel, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The president sent them under the official purpose of "protecting federal property and personnel" and, later, law enforcement. On June 13, the Defense Department said the following about Marine deployment in a news release (emphasis and detail in parentheses ours): Roughly 200 Marines will begin protecting federal property and personnel in Los Angeles today after relieving the California National Guard, which was mobilized amidst a breakout of civil unrest in the city, June 7, 2025, a senior military official said today. Once the soldiers of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are relieved from protecting the Wilshire Federal Building in L.A.'s Westwood neighborhood by personnel from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, they will transition to protecting federal law enforcement officers in the area, said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, commander of Task Force 51. Task Force 51 is the Army's command and control organization for the Title 10 forces supporting federal law enforcement in the greater Los Angeles area. Sherman emphasized that the soldiers are not participating in law enforcement activities. Instead, they'll be focused on protecting federal law enforcement personnel. "Right now, as of today, we have had no soldier or Marine detain anyone," Sherman said, adding that in the course of their protection duties the service members have only been observing federal law enforcement make arrests of agitators. A total of 700 Marines have now joined approximately 2,000 Guard members and an additional 2,000 personnel assigned to the 49th Military Police Brigade (a California Army National Guard unit) in the city, bringing the total number of military service members providing support to approximately 4,700. Whether Trump sent the Marines for defensive purposes or to break up the protests has been disputed. California Democratic officials also widely condemned the Trump administration's deployment of military force as an escalation they said inflamed tensions and sowed fear for political gain. Federal response to Texas floods Trump did not deploy any Marines to Texas after devastating flash floods swept through communities along the Guadalupe River in the area known as Hill Country. His administration did, however, send Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) workers alongside U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) units, according to emails from both the White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "By Tuesday, FEMA had deployed 311 staffers, providing support and shelter for hundreds of people. The robust, coordinated federal response has saved over 900+ lives," an unidentified White House official said in an emailed statement. "The U.S. Coast Guard alone rescued over 230 Americans." The White House directed inquiries about the exact number of people deployed from the Coast Guard and CBP to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which did not immediately return a request for that information. However, the National Guard Association of the United States, a nonprofit advocacy organization for the Guard, said on July 8 that there were "about 230 Guard troops deployed to affected areas" in Texas and the Guard had rescued at least 525 victims from the floodwaters. It is worth noting that Abbott, the Texas governor, deployed the Guard, not Trump. Typically, the governor of a state deploys its own National Guard, usually in the case of a natural disaster. Abbott said in a July 14 news conference (see the 7:29 time-stamp) that 25 other states sent teams to help with the response, with some states sending National Guard units. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, in California, Trump used a federal law allowing him to deploy the Guard if "there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States." A court allowed Trump to retain control of the Guard after California filed a legal challenge over the lawfulness of the president's deployment. In sum, Trump deployed 700 U.S. Marine Corps personnel to Los Angeles during immigration raid protests in June and none to Texas after destructive flash floods in July. He also sent 4,000 California National Guard troops to L.A., but under U.S. law, Abbott, not Trump, has the authority to deploy Texas National Guard troops during a natural disaster. Instead, Trump's administration deployed Coast Guard and CBP units, although it is unclear how many were deployed. Sources: "10 U.S. Code 12406 - National Guard in Federal Service: Call." LII / Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/12406. 40/29 News. "Arkansas National Guard Deployed to Texas to Assist in Flooding Response." YouTube, 8 July 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX7plKxpuSw. Accessed 14 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Armstrong Authorizes ND National Guard to Provide Aerial Support in Search for Texas Flood Victims." North Dakota Office of the Governor, 10 July 2025, www.governor.nd.gov/news/armstrong-authorizes-nd-national-guard-provide-aerial-support-search-texas-flood-victims. Accessed 14 July 2025. "CBP Deploys Emergency Teams to Texas Flooding." U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 7 July 2025, www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-deploys-emergency-teams-texas-flooding. Accessed 14 July 2025. CBS News. "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Officials Give Update on Flood Recovery Efforts | Full Video." Www.youtube.com, 14 July 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1Mck3aZZg. Accessed 14 July 2025. "Coast Guard Responds with Unified Command to Flooding near Kerrville, Texas." United States Coast Guard News, 5 July 2025, www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/4235507/coast-guard-responds-with-unified-command-to-flooding-near-kerrville-texas/. Accessed 14 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deng, Rae. "Unpacking Reports Noem's Cost Controls Delayed FEMA's Texas Flood Response." Snopes, Snopes Media Group, 10 July 2025, www.snopes.com/news/2025/07/10/fema-texas-floods-kristi-noem/. Accessed 14 July 2025. Duara, Nigel, and Jeanne Kuang. "With Troops and Protests, Trump's Feud with California Moves to the Streets of LA." CalMatters, 9 June 2025, calmatters.org/politics/2025/06/los-angeles-national-guard-trump/. Accessed 14 July 2025. Fadel, Leila. "Trump Using National Guard in LA Is an 'Abuse of Power,' Says National Security Expert." NPR, 9 June 2025, www.npr.org/2025/06/09/nx-s1-5427168/los-angeles-national-guard-trump-legal-question. Accessed 14 July 2025. Ibrahim, Nur. "What We Know about Trump Deploying National Guard for LA Protests." Snopes, Snopes Media Group, 10 June 2025, www.snopes.com/news/2025/06/10/trump-national-guard-los-angeles-protests/. Accessed 14 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Live Updates: Death Toll from Texas Floods Hits 131. Here's More on How to Help and the Latest Flood Risk." TPR, 14 July 2025, www.tpr.org/live-updates/kerrville-flooding-texas-hill-country. Accessed 14 July 2025. Martinez, A., and Jan Johnson. "Sending Troops to LA an 'Unnecessary Escalation,' Says California Attorney General." NPR, 10 June 2025, www.npr.org/2025/06/10/nx-s1-5428234/marines-national-guard-los-angeles-trump-lawsuit. Accessed 14 July 2025. "Mayor Bass Issues Statement Following Trump Administration's 'Chaotic Escalation.'" Lacity.gov, 8 June 2025, mayor.lacity.gov/news/mayor-bass-issues-statement-following-trump-administrations-chaotic-escalation. Accessed 14 July 2025. Nunn, Joseph. "The President's Power to Call out the National Guard Is Not a Blank Check." Brennan Center for Justice, 18 Nov. 2024, www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/presidents-power-call-out-national-guard-not-blank-check. Accessed 15 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Olay, Matthew. "Marines to Guard Federal Property, Personnel in L.A. As Guard Troops Transition to Protect." U.S. Department of Defense, 13 June 2025, www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4216935/marines-to-guard-federal-property-personnel-in-la-as-guard-troops-transition-to/. Accessed 14 July 2025. "President Donald J. Trump Approves Major Disaster Declaration for Texas." Fema.gov, 6 July 2025, www.fema.gov/press-release/20250706/president-donald-j-trump-approves-major-disaster-declaration-texas. Accessed 14 July 2025. Romero, Dennis. "Appeals Court Says Trump Can Keep Control of California National Guard Troops." NBC News, 20 June 2025, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-california-national-guard-rcna214031. Accessed 14 July 2025. Staff Sgt. Edward Siguenza. Cal Guard's 49th Military Police Brigade brings 1,900-plus into California inferno. National Guard, 30 October 2017. Available at: https://www.nationalguard.mil/News/State-Partnership-Program/Article/1357064/cal-guards-49th-military-police-brigade-brings-1900-plus-into-california-inferno/. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Svirnovskiy, Gregory. "After Trump Sends in National Guard, Dems Object and Republicans Blame Gavin Newsom." POLITICO, Politico, 8 June 2025, www.politico.com/news/2025/06/08/reaction-trump-federalize-national-guard-california-00393711. Accessed 14 July 2025. "Texas Guardsmen Rescue over 520 Flood Victims." National Guard Association of the United States, 8 July 2025, www.ngaus.org/newsroom/texas-guardsmen-rescue-over-520-flood-victims. Accessed 14 July 2025. Updates: July 16, 2025: This story was updated to use accurate terminology for the U.S. Marine Corps. Claim: Donald Trump Jr. authentically tweeted in July 2023, "Show us all the Epstein client list now!!! Why would anyone protect those scum bags? Ask yourselves this question daily and the answer becomes very apparent!!" Rating: Rating: Correct Attribution A rumor that circulated online in July 2025 claimed Donald Trump Jr., the U.S. president's eldest son, once tweeted a message supporting the release of a "client list" associated with the illicit activities of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tweet, dated in an alleged image screenshot as July 8, 2023, read, "Show us all the Epstein client list now!!! Why would anyone protect those scum bags? Ask yourselves this question daily and the answer becomes very apparent!!" (At the time, U.S. President Joe Biden was in the White House.) On social media, a Reddit user sharing (archived) the purportedly genuine screenshot on r/agedlikemilk a subreddit for content that aged poorly captioned the tweet as, "Don Jr. with one for the history books from July '23." Users also shared the alleged tweet image on 9GAG (archived), Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived), X (archived) and YouTube (archived). Snopes received searches and reader email asking about this matter, as well. (u/rustymk2 via Reddit) Trump truly did post this tweet on Twitter, shortly before the platform's name changed to X, in July 2023, including demanding the U.S. government reveal an undisclosed "Epstein client list," and requesting users ask daily why someone would protect those associated with Epstein's alleged crimes. The post (archived), remarking about a video mentioning the sentencing of Epstein associate and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, still appeared on his X account in July 2025. Show us all the Epstein client list now!!! Why would anyone protect those scum bags? Ask yourselves this question daily and the answer becomes very apparent!! https://t.co/FU8KC2Lg44 Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 8, 2023 Snopes contacted Trump by email via the Trump Organization to ask if he wished to comment about the resurfacing of his post, and whether he still shares the same views now that he held in 2023 about demanding the release of undisclosed Epstein-related files. We will update this story if we receive more information. Past remarks about Epstein from Trump Trump previously posted numerous times about Epstein on his X account. For example, on June 15, 2024, he shared (archived), "You know who's not on the Epstein list? My father because if he was, it would have leaked in about half a second!!!! That's a fact!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also in 2024, during a speaking engagement for the conservative Turning Point Action organization, Trump claimed (archived) to the gathered crowd of the federal government not releasing the "Epstein list" that, "It's almost like they're trying to protect those ped*ph*les for some reason. I can't imagine why." You know whos not on the Epstein list? My father because if he was, it would have leaked in about half a second!!!! Thats a fact! https://t.co/PEb15Dn33U Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 15, 2024 Epstein in the news The July 2023 post from Trump demanding the release of the "Epstein client list" circulated at a time of high tensions in summer 2025 involving Epstein's past, in the weeks after tech billionaire Elon Musk, former adviser to President Donald Trump, alleged, without providing evidence, that the president appears in damning, undisclosed files associated with Epstein's acts. "That is the real reason why they have not been made public," he added, before deleting the post. Then, in early July 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI announced in a memorandum that no Epstein "client list" existed, despite Attorney General Pam Bondi answering a question about the supposed list on Fox News in February 2025, saying it was on her desk for review. After the memo's release, Bondi sought to clarify her remarks from months earlier, claiming her "on my desk" comment simply referenced a general file related to Epstein, and not a "client list." For further reading, a previous fact check examined whether a video showed Donald Trump Jr. using cocaine at his father's second inauguration. Sources: Anderson, Curt. "Prosecutors Want to Meet Victims of Sex Offender Epstein." The Associated Press, 11 May 2019, https://apnews.com/general-news-5dd7ef9c0ddb4b35ab0e5b1cdef9d4a3. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement @charliekirk11. "Donald Trump Jr: 'If You're in This Room Right Now...'" X, 15 Jul. 2024, https://x.com/charliekirk11/status/1802102777922871628. Ivanova, Irina. "Twitter Is Now X. Here's What That Means." CBS News, 31 Jul. 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/twitter-rebrand-x-name-change-elon-musk-what-it-means/. Liles, Jordan. "Yes, Musk Alleged Trump Appears in the Epstein Files." Snopes, 5 Jun. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/elon-musk-epstein-trump/. Lucas, Ryan. "DOJ Says No Evidence Jeffrey Epstein Had a 'client List' or Blackmailed Associates." NPR, 7 Jul. 2025, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/07/g-s1-76367/doj-jeffrey-epstein-memo. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Memorandum." U.S. Department of Justice, Jul. 2025, https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline. "Pam Bondi Clarifies Epstein 'Client List' Comment after DOJ Memo." YouTube, Scripps News, 8 Jul. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkg4Oka3PWE. Claim: Cannibalism is legal in all U.S. states except Idaho. Rating: Rating: Mixture What's True: Only Idaho has a law that explicitly criminalizes cannibalism, while the other 49 states have no direct anti-cannibalism statutes. What's False: Practically speaking, cannibalism is not legal in those 49 states because related laws against murder, corpse desecration and abuse of human remains make it effectively impossible to legally obtain and consume human flesh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Social media posts have long claimed that cannibalism is legal in 49 U.S. states, often citing the absence of anti-cannibalism laws in every state except Idaho. (BGatesIsaPsycho/X) For example, on Feb. 8, 2025, an X account posted (archived) a video with the caption: "Hopefully we don't have to add bones to this. The number of States that legally permit cannibalism in America is insane." The video showed a map with the 49 U.S. states that allegedly allowed cannibalism colored in green and included a clip (archived) of Idaho state Rep. Heather Scott discussing a bill that would expand Idaho's ban on cannibalism to include limits on providing human flesh or blood to others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This post had more than 103,000 views as of this writing. Similar claims appeared elsewhere on TikTok (archived) and Facebook (archived). While the claims included some accurate details, they oversimplified the issue and lacked necessary context. As a result, we've rated the claim that cannibalism is legal in 49 states a mixture of true and false information. At the time of this writing, there was no federal law (archived) explicitly prohibiting cannibalism per se in the United States, and only one state, Idaho, specifically outlawed cannibalism. However, most (if not all) states have laws that make it effectively impossible to legally obtain and consume human body matter. Cannibalism laws in Idaho Idaho is the only U.S. state with a specific anti-cannibalism statute. Idaho Code Section 18-5003, which the legislature passed in 1990, was included in House Bill 817, a broader criminal law reform created in response to the November 1989 discovery in Minidoka County of "Baby X," a case allegedly connected to the ritualistic abuse of a child. The statute stated: (1) Any person who wilfully ingests the flesh or blood of a human being is guilty of cannibalism.(2) It shall be an affirmative defense to a violation of the provisions of this section that the action was taken under extreme life-threatening conditions as the only apparent means of survival.(3) Cannibalism is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding fourteen (14) years. In 2024, Idaho lawmaker Rep. Heather Scott tried to expand the state's anti-cannibalism law to include prohibitions on giving someone human flesh without their knowledge or consent. During a Feb. 8, 2024, hearing at the House State Affairs Committee, she offered two reasons for the bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement First, Scott cited concerns about human composting practices in neighboring states: So a few years ago, back in 2019, I heard that Washington state was starting to do human composting and that disturbed me. So I wanted to address this because what I didn't want to see is bags of compost with human bone fragments. While Washington state did become the first in the U.S. to legalize human composting in 2019, the process also known as natural organic reduction does not involve distributing human remains in a casual or unsafe manner. According to an article (archived) from Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington, human composting is a regulated method of turning human bodies into soil using controlled microbial activity. The process, overseen by licensed facilities, is intended as an environmentally friendly alternative to burial or cremation. Scott also referenced a television program in which contestants were told they may have consumed human flesh, which she described as troubling: I was on a plane this summer and I watched a video of some food show and the three contestants tasted the food and they had to guess what was in it. It was some kind of a sausage. And one of the options they told these people that was in the food was human flesh. And I thought this is going to be normalized at some point the way our society's going and the direction we're going, this is going to be normalized. The television program Scott referred to was an episode of "Fameless," a prank show created by comedian David Spade that aired on TruTV. In the episode, participants were misled into thinking they had unknowingly eaten human flesh as part of a cooking competition. The scenario was fictional and staged for comedic effect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill passed the Idaho House but failed to progress in the Senate during the 2024 legislative session, effectively killing it. Why cannibalism is effectively illegal elsewhere Even without explicit anti-cannibalism laws, legal experts said the practice remains effectively impossible to engage in legally across all U.S. states due to overlapping criminal statutes. "As a practical matter, there is no way for a cannibal to begin or finish his or her act without violating numerous laws, even though only Idaho has a law that explicitly outlaws cannibalism," said Robert M. Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University who authored a comprehensive study of Idaho's anti-cannibalism statute. Deborah W. Denno, a criminal law professor at Fordham Law School, explained that cannibalism cases are typically prosecuted under existing statutes. "In the vast majority of cannibalism cases, the person engaging in the cannibalism has been the one who's killed the victim, and so that's going to be covered under homicide," she said. "Desecration of a corpse, that's broadly defined, would include something like cannibalism." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legal barriers fall into several categories: Assault and homicide laws cover cases where victims are harmed or killed. If the victim is alive, laws prohibiting bodily harm immediately present problems for perpetrators. Examples include Texas Penal Code Title 5, Chapter 22, Section 2, which criminalizes aggravated assault involving serious bodily injury, and homicide statutes that apply when cannibalistic acts result in death, like Texas Penal Code Title 5, Chapter 19, Section 2. Corpse desecration statutes address the handling of human remains. Most states have laws prohibiting the abuse, mutilation or improper handling of dead bodies. For example, Oklahoma's Title 21, Section 1161.1 makes it a felony to desecrate a corpse, while New Jersey's Title 2C, Section 221 classifies unlawfully disturbing human remains as a second-degree crime. Grave-robbing laws criminalize the unauthorized removal of bodies from burial sites, as seen in Louisiana Revised Statute 8, Section 653, punishing removal of bodies from cemeteries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organ donation laws also prohibit legal cannibalistic consumption. Under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which all states have adopted in some form, organ donations are restricted to specific purposes such as transplantation, research or education. When asked whether someone could donate an organ specifically for another person to consume, Jarvis said such a donation would be illegal because it has "not been authorized by the government. The UAGA is very specific as to who, and for what reason, a person can gift their remains." Consent provides no legal protection. Jarvis explained that the law operates under "the irrefutable assumption that no sane person would agree to be eaten," making any claimed consent legally invalid in court. Religious exemptions do not apply to cannibalistic practices. When asked about potential spiritual justifications, Jarvis noted that while the First Amendment protects religious beliefs, "it does not protect religious acts that are illegal." He added that "no recognized religion currently includes a practice of eating the dead," making religious defenses unlikely to succeed in court. The legal framework has been tested in a small number of high-profile cases. For example, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who confessed to murdering (archived) 17 people between 1978 and 1991, engaged in cannibalistic acts but prosecutors charged him with homicide and corpse abuse rather than cannibalism specifically. While his cannibalism was part of the factual record, it was not a distinct criminal charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More recently, actor Armie Hammer faced public scrutiny (archived) over allegations involving cannibalistic fantasies, though no criminal charges were filed. The case demonstrated how cannibalism remains a significant cultural taboo regardless of legal technicalities. In sum While the technical claim that 49 states lack explicit cannibalism laws was accurate, the broader implication that cannibalism is "legal" in those states was false and misleading. The absence of specific anti-cannibalism statutes does not mean the practice is legal, as other laws make it effectively impossible to legally engage in cannibalism anywhere in the United States. Snopes has previously investigated other claims related to cannibalism, including rumors that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said a cannibal tried to eat himself on a deportation flight, that former President Joe Biden said his uncle was eaten by cannibals and that Tokyo opened the first human meat restaurant. Sources: "Section 18-5003 Idaho State Legislature." Idaho State Legislature, https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title18/t18ch50/sect18-5003/. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jarvis, Robert M. "Idaho's Anti-Cannibalism Statute." University of Idaho Law Review, Volume 60, Issue 1, https://www.uidaho.edu/-/media/uidaho-responsive/files/law/law-review/articles/volume-60/vol%2C-d-%2C-60-issue-1-jarvis-final.pdf?la=en&rev=90fb4ee6f8214038ba22d5f6881dc7d9. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "House State Affairs Committee Meeting Minutes." Idaho Legislature, 8 Feb. 2024, https://lso.legislature.idaho.gov/MediaPub/2024/AgendaMinutes/240208_hsta_0900AM-Minutes.pdf. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Senate Bill Report SB 5001." Washington State Legislature, https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2019-20/Pdf/Bill%20Reports/Senate/5001%20SBA%20LBRC%2019.pdf. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. Gallagher, Linda. "Bill Allows Natural Composting of Human Remains." Municipal Research and Services Center, 23 May 2019, https://mrsc.org/stay-informed/mrsc-insight/may-2019/bill-allows-natural-composting-of-human-remains. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Idaho House Bill 522." LegiscanID, 2024, https://legiscan.com/ID/bill/H0522/2024. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Cannibalism." Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/cannibalism. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Oklahoma Senate Bill 21." Oklahoma State Senate, https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/os21.pdf. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "DISTURBING/DESECRATING HUMAN REMAINS." New Jersey Courts, https://www.njcourts.gov/sites/default/files/charges/dbdshr1.pdf. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Utah Code Section 76-9-704." Utah State Legislature, https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter9/C76-9-S704_1800010118000101.pdf. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "D.C. Code Section 22-3303." Council of the District of Columbia, https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/22-3303. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Louisiana Revised Statutes 8:653." Louisiana State Legislature, https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=106434. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025. "Texas Penal Code Chapter 22 - Assaultive Offenses." Texas Legislature, https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.22.htm. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025. "Texas Penal Code Chapter 19 - Criminal Homicide." Texas Legislature, https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/docs/pe/htm/pe.19.htm. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025. "Anatomical Gift Act." Uniform Law Commission, https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home?CommunityKey=015e18ad-4806-4dff-b011-8e1ebc0d1d0f. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025. Waxman, Olivia. "How Police Caught Jeffrey Dahmer." Time, 22 Jul. 2016, https://time.com/4412621/jeffrey-dahmer-cannibal-murderer-25th-anniversary-arrest/. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025. Pulver, Andrew. "Armie Hammer denies cannibalism claims in Louis Theroux interview." The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/feb/11/armie-hammer-denies-cannibalism-claims-in-louis-theroux-interview. Accessed 15 Jul. 2025. Claim: In mid-July 2025, actor Kevin Spacey made a post on X reading: "Release the Epstein files. All of them. For those of us with nothing to fear, the truth can't come soon enough." Rating: Rating: True In mid-July 2025, social media users shared a screenshot that appeared to show actor Kevin Spacey publicly demanding the release of all files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019. Spacey has faced sexual misconduct allegations of his own for years, contributing to speculation about ties between the actor and Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The image spread roughly a week after the U.S. Department of Justice shared a memo on July 7, 2025, stating that the department's review found no incriminating "client list" and no credible evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent people. The DOJ also concluded that "no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted" in its investigation of Epstein. As The Associated Press reported, this memo contradicted theories about the alleged list that U.S. President Donald Trump's own administration had once helped advance. One Reddit post (archived) shared a blurry screenshot of the alleged Spacey post, captioned, "I swear it's real." The alleged post in the screenshot read: Release the Epstein files. All of them. For those of us with nothing to fear, the truth can't come soon enough. I hate to make this about me but the media already has. (Reddit u/Amazing-Buy-1181) The screenshot spread across social media platforms including Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several online news outlets, such as TMZ and The Hill, also picked up the story. TMZ wrote on Facebook, "Kevin Spacey is DEMANDING the release of the Epstein files." The post (archived) was authentic and originated from Spacey's verified X account on July 15, 2025. We have therefore rated the claim true. (X user @KevinSpacey) In the post, Spacey referred to the long-standing public scrutiny linking him to Epstein, which we'll discuss in further detail below. His use of the phrase "for those of us with nothing to fear" suggested that such a disclosure would help clear his name. A search of Spacey's X profile showed that this was his only public post referencing Epstein: (X search) Spacey's past links to Epstein Spacey's demand to "release the Epstein files" gained particular attention because of his previous associations with Epstein, which have drawn public interest for years. For instance, Spacey's name appeared in the January 2024 release of unsealed court records from Epstein-related legal proceedings documents that also mentioned other prominent figures such as former President Bill Clinton and the U.K.'s Prince Andrew. However, the available records did not contain any evidence that Spacey engaged in illegal activity in connection with Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a June 2024 interview on "Piers Morgan Uncensored," Spacey acknowledged that he had flown on one of Epstein's planes alongside Clinton Foundation members and that "young girls" were present. During the interview, Spacey said the trip in question was a humanitarian mission to South Africa. He claimed that at the time he did not know the plane belonged to Epstein and that he only learned of Epstein's ownership years later, when his name became publicly linked to Epstein. Spacey insisted that he had no personal relationship with Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, and denied visiting Epstein's private island. Legal cases against Spacey Spacey's public image has been shaped by a series of sexual misconduct allegations that began in October 2017, when actor Anthony Rapp accused him of making a sexual advance in 1986, when Rapp was 14. Spacey said he did not recall the encounter but apologized if it occurred. More than 30 people later came forward with similar allegations. In the U.K., Spacey was charged in 2022 with multiple counts of sexual assault involving four men, linked to his time as artistic director of London's Old Vic Theatre. He was found not guilty on all charges in July 2023. At least two ongoing civil cases regarding sexual assault allegations against Spacey in the U.K. were still active as of July 2025. In the U.S., Spacey faced a lawsuit from Rapp, but a New York jury ruled in Spacey's favor in October 2022. A separate 2018 criminal case in Massachusetts, alleging Spacey groped an 18-year-old, was dropped in 2019 after the accuser withdrew his lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The multiple allegations led to Spacey's removal from the Netflix series "House of Cards" and his replacement in Ridley Scott's film "All the Money in the World." Other Epstein rumors In July 2025 we investigated multiple rumors on the topic of the alleged "Epstein list," including a claim that in July 2023 Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, "Show us all the Epstein client list now!!! Why would anyone protect those scum bags? Ask yourselves this question daily and the answer becomes very apparent!!" We also looked at claims that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked a legislative amendment that called for the DOJ to release files pertaining to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and broke down claims that Maxwell offered to testify about Epstein's client list. Sources: - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tM4m-rWLHY. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ---. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktc4-9mXXc&t=4298s. Accessed 16 Jul. 2025. Al-Kassab, Fatima. "Actor Kevin Spacey Is Acquitted in the U.K. on Sexual Assault Charges." NPR, 26 Jul. 2023. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2023/07/26/1190185518/kevin-spacey-sexual-assault-trial-verdict-london. "Epstein 'client List' Doesn't Exist, Justice Department Says, Walking Back Theory Bondi Had Promoted." AP News, 7 Jul. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/jeffrey-epstein-justice-department-pam-bondi-03fbcd024f631440f7ed62b3c6927db3. Esposito, Joey. "House Republicans Blocked Legislative Amendment Demanding Release of Epstein Files?" Snopes, 15 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/republicans-jeffrey-epstein-block/. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced to 20 Years for Helping Epstein." AP News, 29 Jun. 2022, https://apnews.com/article/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-sentencing-aeac127f9cc3811d975ce8e10d171260. Hardinges, Nick. "Kevin Spacey Said 'Young Girls' Were on Epstein Plane He Flew on with Clinton Foundation Members?" Snopes, 12 Jun. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/kevin-spacey-epstein-clinton-foundation/. Kevin Spacey Apologises over Anthony Rapp "sexual Advance" Claim. 30 Oct. 2017. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41799026. "Kevin Spacey Faces Another Civil Sexual Assault Lawsuit in UK." Reuters, 12 Feb. 2025. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/kevin-spacey-faces-another-civil-sexual-assault-lawsuit-uk-2025-02-12/. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kevin Spacey: LA Prosecutors Consider Sexual Assault Charge. 12 Apr. 2018. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43736452. Kevin Spacey: Massachusetts Prosecutors Drop Sex Assault Case. 17 Jul. 2019. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49025487. Liles, Jordan. "Did Donald Trump Jr. Once Post, 'Show Us All the Epstein Client List' and Ask Why Those on It Would Be Protected?" Snopes, 15 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-jr-epstein-client-list-post/. Loe, Megan. "Breaking down Claim Ghislaine Maxwell Offered to Testify about Epstein Client List." Snopes, 15 Jul. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//news/2025/07/15/ghislaine-maxwell-testify-congress/. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mann, Brian. "Court Documents Reveal Names of Powerful Men Allegedly Linked to Jeffrey Epstein." NPR, 4 Jan. 2024. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2024/01/03/1222130537/jeffrey-epstein-court-records-reveal-men-clinton-prince-andrew. Press, The Associated. "A Jury Finds That Kevin Spacey Didn't Molest Actor Anthony Rapp in 1986." NPR, 20 Oct. 2022. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2022/10/20/1130332451/kevin-spacey-anthony-rapp-verdict. Rose, Steve. "Removing Kevin Spacey from Movie Was a 'Business Decision', Says Ridley Scott." The Guardian, 5 Jan. 2018. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jan/05/removing-kevin-spacey-from-movie-was-a-business-decision-says-ridley-scott-all-the-money-in-the-world. Tobin, Sam. "Kevin Spacey Overturns UK Ruling in Sex Assault Case over Lawyers' Mistake." Reuters, 7 May 2024. www.reuters.com, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/kevin-spacey-overturns-uk-ruling-sex-assault-case-over-lawyers-mistake-2024-05-07/. Vargas, Ramon Antonio. "Kevin Spacey Says He Put Netflix 'on the Map' and Attacks Platform for Firing Him." The Guardian, 26 Dec. 2023. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/dec/26/kevin-spacey-netflix-firing-house-of-cards. This story was originally published on Manufacturing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Manufacturing Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Farm equipment makers Agco Corp. and India-based Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd. have settled their simmering legal and commercial disputes related to the usage rights of global brand Massey Ferguson over the past nine months. For more than 60 years, TAFE has been a licensee of Massey Ferguson and sells the branded equipment across three South Asia countries. Moving forward, the company will now take ownership of the tractor brand exclusively for business in India, Nepal and Bhutan, according to a news release. As part of the resolution, Agco and TAFE said they will terminate all commercial agreements and withdraw all ongoing legal proceedings between them. They have also agreed for TAFE to buy back Agcos remaining equity in TAFE valued at $260 million prior to Nov. 28. Dive Insight: Established in 1960, TAFE is one of the largest tractor manufacturers in the world, selling over 180,000 units per year with a global reach that spans more than 80 countries, according to its news release. It is also Agcos largest shareholder, holding a 16.3% stake in the Duluth, Georgia-based company, which has sparked friction when disagreements arise. In April 2024, Agco terminated some commercial agreements with TAFE, citing poor operational performance as a supplier, brand licensee and distributor. In response, TAFE sued Agco and pushed for board changes, expressing concerns with the companys decision-making and direction as tractor makers navigated a down market. The back-and-forth eventually led to Agco terminating its license and distributor agreements with TAFE for the Massey Ferguson brand in key South Asia markets, sparking more legal issues and friction between the companies. They have since come to a resolution that allows TAFE to have ownership of Massey Ferguson across the three countries, rather than regularly renewing licensing contracts, while retaining its majority stake in Agco. Agco acquired Massey Ferguson in 1994 and maintains global ownership of the brand in all other countries. The companies have also agreed to mutual non-disparagement and for TAFE to refrain from engaging in public activism moving forward. Additionally, TAFE can no longer nominate a representative to serve on Agcos board of directors, and Agcos director on TAFEs board will step down. We are pleased to have reached an amicable resolution with TAFE on all outstanding commercial, governance and shareholding matters, Eric Hansotia, Agcos chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement July 1. President Donald Trump likes to boast about the brilliance of his late uncle John Trump, who spent decades as a professor of electrical engineering at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). And when speaking about all manner of subjects, the president likes to make up stories filled with dramatic but fictional details. On Tuesday, Trump conjured an especially odd imaginary tale that linked his uncle with the late terrorist Theodore Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber. Trump was speaking at a Pennsylvania event about energy and innovation when he said he had to brag just for a second about his uncles intelligence. After wrongly saying his uncle was the longest-serving professor in the history of MIT (he was one of the longest-serving but not the very longest) and wrongly saying his uncles three university degrees were in nuclear, chemical, and math (two were in electrical engineering and one was in physics), the president claimed, Kaczynski was one of his students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He went on to tell a story about having asked his uncle about what Kaczynski was like. I said, What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr. John Trump. I said, What kind of a student? And then he said, Seriously, good. He said, Hed correct hed go around correcting everybody. But it didnt work out too well for him. For two big reasons, this story could not possibly be accurate. Convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is escorted by US Marshals outside the Sacramento County Federal Court, Sacramento, California, May 4, 1998. - Rich Pedroncelli/Pool/AFP/Getty Images First, the presidents uncle died in 1985. Kaczynski was publicly revealed as the Unabomber more than a decade later, in 1996, when he was captured; before that, he had lived as a recluse in the Montana wilderness. There is no apparent reason that Donald Trump would have been asking anyone about Kaczynski in 1985 or earlier. Second, Kaczynski attended Harvard University and the University of Michigan, not MIT. An MIT spokesperson said in a Wednesday email: We have no enrollment record or information that Ted Kaczynski ever attended MIT. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harvard has long allowed some students to register for classes at nearby MIT, but media outlets and MIT itself have found no sign that Kaczynski ever did that during his time at Harvard in the late 1950s and early 1960s much less that Kaczynski, a Harvard mathematics major, studied under Trump, the MIT professor of electrical engineering. MIT reported on its website in 1996 that Kaczynskis high school guidance counselor said Kaczynski had been offered admission to MIT in the 1950s but had chosen Harvard instead. The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the presidents tale. What the president could have accurately said is that his uncle was an esteemed MIT professor. The MIT spokesperson said Wednesday that John Trump remains among the longest-serving professors in our history and was a highly valued member of the MIT community throughout his tenure as a researcher, innovator, entrepreneur, teacher, and colleague. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com JAKARTA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald announced a trade agreement with Indonesia that would see Washington lower its tariff rates to 19% from a threatened 32%. The deal includes increased Indonesian purchases of U.S. airplane, energy and farm products to help offset the nearly $18 billion trade balance in favour of Jakarta. Here is what we know about the deal so far: ENERGY Trump said that the deal includes Indonesia purchasing $15 billion worth of U.S. energy products, without giving specific details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indonesian state energy company Pertamina said on Wednesday it had signed memorandums of understanding with several U.S. companies to optimise feedstock and crude oil purchases. The agreements also included exploring collaborations in the refinery sector. Last week, Reuters reported that the deal would include purchases from U.S. companies Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron. AGRICULTURE Trump also said the deal included $4.5 billion in Indonesian purchases of American agricultural products. Last week, Indonesia's wheat flour mills association signed an agreement worth around $1.25 billion with U.S. counterparts to buy at least 1 million metric tons of U.S. wheat per year from 2026 until 2030. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reuters reported exclusively that the deal would include purchases by instant-noodle giant Indofood while U.S. counterparts include Cargill, Bunge Global SA, Pacificor, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Columbia Grain International, and United Grain Corporation. The U.S. exported nearly 700,000 tons of wheat to Indonesia in 2024, making it the third-biggest export destination after Australia and Canada, data from a local association showed. The deal on agriculture purchases also includes soybeans, corn, and cotton, but details on quantities is not yet known. AVIATION Indonesia has committed to purchasing 50 Boeing jets, Trump said. He did not provide details of the timeline of the purchases. It was reported earlier that agreements on the purchase of aircraft would involve state carrier Garuda Indonesia. Garuda's CEO said last week the firm was in talks with U.S. Boeing to buy up to 75 planes, including 737 MAX 8 and 787 jets. (Corrects July 16 factbox to show last communique was October 2024 not July 2024, in final paragraph) By Kopano Gumbi and Colleen Goko JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -Group of 20 finance officials meet in South Africa from Thursday amid trade tensions, a global economic slowdown and Washington's threat to withdraw from multilateral organisations. President Cyril Ramaphosa has sought to leverage Africa's first G20 presidency to promote an African agenda, with topics including the high cost of capital and climate change. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are the key issues to be discussed: DEBT STRESS Nearly two dozen countries in Africa are already in or at high risk of debt distress, the International Monetary Fund said. Debt-servicing costs crowd out spending on services like infrastructure development, health and education. Launched in late 2020, the G20 Common Framework is a platform aimed at speeding up and simplifying the process of getting overstretched countries back on their feet. But progress has been slow. Making the platform more efficient is one target for South Africa. Ramaphosa launched an Africa Expert Panel in March whose role is to galvanise efforts, chief among them debt relief. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Panel chair Trevor Manuel told Reuters it had already begun to make detailed recommendations on improving the framework. "One of the reforms is that the opportunities in the Common Framework should be available to all middle-income countries as well," said Manuel. FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT With aid and development-finance cuts and a pivot by wealthy countries to defence spending, traditional funding sources for developing nations have become scarcer. South Africa is looking to shore up favourable finance for poorer nations. It wants to strengthen and improve the role of multilateral development banks in financing for development. Washington, meanwhile, could potentially withdraw from more global institutions - including these banks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some analysts believe Washington's withdrawal from multilateralism could leave a space for China to occupy, but it is unclear if Beijing aims to do that. Lending to Africa from China has slowed to a trickle leaving an $80 billion financing gap. Meanwhile, U.S. and European grants - accounting for 25% of the region's external financing - face cuts as Washington suspends foreign aid and European capitals redirect funds toward defence. JUST ENERGY TRANSITION President Donald Trump's administration has withdrawn from the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) - a key focus for South Africa that is designed to help developing countries transition away from coal to cleaner energy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Launched in 2021, JETPs aim to funnel money from governments, multilateral lenders and the private sector to renewable energy projects in a way that benefits local communities. On Monday, the G20's financial stability watchdog said it had developed a new plan to tackle climate risks but it had paused further policy work in light of the U.S. retreat from climate action. Mobilising funding for climate disasters affecting the Global South was a key agenda item for South Africa's presidency. TRADE Trump's tariff threats have disrupted the global economy and the response will dominate the agenda even as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent skips the gathering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. plans for tariffs on Canada, Europe and Mexico as well as threats to impose further levies on BRICS member countries including China, India, Russia, Brazil and G20 host South Africa, further heighten tensions between the world's largest economy and other G20 nations. COMMUNIQUE Director General of Treasury Duncan Pieterse said in a statement on Monday that he hoped to issue the first Communique under the South African G20 presidency at the end of the meetings. The G20 was last able to take a mutually agreed stance to issue a Communique in October 2024. (Reporting by Kopano Gumbi and Colleen Goko, editing by Karin Strohecker and Hugh Lawson) A Nigerian man convicted in a federal romance scam case has been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICEs Dallas Enforcement and Removal Operations unit stated in a post on X that Abdul Waris Akinsanya, a 28-year-old Nigerian citizen, had been arrested. The post said he has convictions for forgery with conspiracy to defraud the United States and fleeing via vehicle in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ICE @ERoDallas arrested Abdul Waris Akinsanya, a 28-year-old citizen of Nigeria. He has convictions for forgery with conspiracy to defraud the United States and fleeing via vehicle in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. pic.twitter.com/LFG8VU4OCQ ERO Dallas (@ERODallas) July 14, 2025 The U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys official shared the announcement the same day, attributing the arrest to the President and his cabinet: Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and @Sec_Noem, ICE is removing the WORST OF THE WORST from American communities. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and @Sec_Noem, ICE is removing the WORST OF THE WORST from American communities. Meet Abdul Waris Akinsanya, a 28-year-old citizen of Nigeria. Akinsanyas criminal history includes convictions for forgery with conspiracy to defraud pic.twitter.com/RvqYClS8bT Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 14, 2025 According to a March 6, 2024, press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, Akinsanya was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a romance scam scheme. He pleaded guilty on October 12, 2023, to conspiracy to defraud after prosecutors alleged he set up fraudulent bank accounts used to deposit funds from victims of the scam. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Justice stated Akinsanya opened one such account in May 2020 using a forged passport and a false identity at City National Bank. Co-conspirators allegedly used a fake persona to lure a victim in Alabama into sending $2,650 via money order. Prosecutors stated that Akinsanya deposited the orders into the fake account and retained a portion of the money. At sentencing, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton apparently highlighted the sophisticated nature of the scheme and the seriousness of the offense, ordering Akinsanya to serve 18 months in prison, pay restitution of $2,650, and remain under supervision for three years after his release. The DOJ presser said that the case originated from an investigation by the FBIs Oklahoma City Field Office. It was not immediately clear where or when ICE arrested Akinsanya. A request for further details from ICE was not immediately returned. Public records indicate that Akinsanyas federal sentence was scheduled to conclude earlier this year. It is not immediately clear if he was merely transferred to ICE custody after completing his prison term or if he was released and immediately committed another arrestable offense. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) As K-12 students in Mississippi begin school over the next few weeks, undergrads will return to campus for the fall soon after they do. Below are important dates for college students attending school this fall at the states institutions. First day/last day of classes: August 18/ December 5 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 22 Breaks: September 1, November 27-28 Exams: December 8-12 Graduation: December 11 First day/last day of classes: August 18/November 21 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 20 Breaks: September 1, October 13-14, November 24-30 Exams: December 1-5 Graduation: December 13 First day/last day of classes: August 20/Not listed on the academic calendar Last day to drop full-term classes: October 24 Breaks: September 1, October 6-7, November 24-28 Exams: December 8-11 Graduation: December 12 First/ last day of class: August 11/November 21 Last day to drop full-term classes: November 7 Breaks: September 1, October 9-10, November 24-28 Exams: December 1-4 Graduation: December 10-11 First day/last day of class: August 18/Not listed on the academic calendar Last day to drop full-term classes: November 7 Breaks: September 1, October 10 and 13, November 24-28 Exams: December 9-11 Graduation: Not listed on the academic calendar First day/last day of classes: August 18/Not listed on the academic calendar Last day to drop full-term classes: October 24 Breaks: September 1, November 22-30 Final Exams: December 1-5 Graduation: December 5 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alcorn, Belhaven named Moneys Best Colleges 2025 First day/last day of classes: August 18/December 3 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 24 Breaks: September 1, October 10, November 21 (starting at 5:00 p.m.) through November 30 Exams: December 2-10 Graduation: December 12 First day/last day of classes: August 20/December 2 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 13 Breaks: September 1, October 9-10, November 26-28 Exams: December 5, 8-11 Graduation: December 12 First day/last day of classes: August 20/December 2 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 31 Breaks: September 1, October 9-10 , November 24-28 Exams: December 4-5, 8-10 Graduation: December 12 First day/last day of classes: August 18/Not listed on the academic calendar Last day to drop full-term classes: October 31 Breaks: September 1, November 24-28 Exams: December 1-3, 8-12 Graduation: December 13 First day/last day of classes: August 11/November 19 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 17 Break: September 1 Exams: November 21-22, 24-25 Graduation: No fall graduation First day/last day of classes: August 25/December 5 Last day to drop full-term classes: October 13 Breaks: September 1, November 22-30 Exams: December 8-12 Graduation: Not listed on the academic calendar Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Madison County Schools to prohibit headphone use during school hours First day/last day of classes: August 18/Not listed on the academic calendar Last day to drop full-term classes: November 28 Breaks: August 30 through September 1, October 16-19 (excluding Saturday courses), November 26-30 Exams: December 8-11 Graduation: December 12 First day/last day of classes: August 18/December 5 Last day to drop full-term classes: Not listed on the academic calendar Breaks: September 1 (night classes still meet), October 9-10, November 24-28 Exams: December 8-10 Graduation: December 12 Information concerning graduation, breaks, classes and examinations is subject to change at the institutions discretion at any time. The dates listed center around full-time, in-person courses for undergraduate students at the institutions main campus. The exam times listed do not include midterms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Breaks that encompass the end of the fall 2024 semester do not account for intercession courses occurring at institutions or for winter break. Go to your schools website for specifics about graduation times, application deadlines, academic registration, withdrawal deadlines and other information. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. Family members are desperate for answers after a Southern California grandfather disappeared and his bank accounts were emptied. Naiping Hou, 74, of Rancho Cucamonga, was reported missing on May 4, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department. His son, Wen Hou, said the last time he saw his father was during a fishing trip they took in San Pedro in March. He was in a very good mood, Wen told KTLAs Sandra Mitchell. He caught a lot of fish. His friends were there, too. He was very happy. Naiping Hou, 74, second from left, is seen with his family including his wife, son and infant grandchild. (Hou Family) Naiping Hou, 74, of Rancho Cucamonga, was reported missing by family on May 4, 2025. (Hou Family) Naiping Hou, 74, of Rancho Cucamonga, was reported missing by family on May 4, 2025. (San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department) Naiping Hou, 74, of Rancho Cucamonga, was reported missing by family on May 4, 2025. (Hou Family) Naiping Hou has a distinct birthmark on his upper chest, near his left shoulder area. (Hou Family) Naiping Hous Rancho Cucamonga home was emptied and renovated. His family said the suspects may have tried to rent out the home. (KTLA) Deputies are seeking information about a silver Toyota Yaris (similar to the one pictured) in connection with the mans disappearance. (San Bernardino County Sheriffs Department) A few weeks later, Wen became concerned when his fathers text messages seemed out of character. He now believes someone else was using his cellphone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [Always saying] hes tired or hell call me later just reasons that were strange, Wen said. He has very short responses and he doesnt share photos anymore over the course of those couple of weeks. When friends visited Naipings Rancho Cucamonga home in May, they found the residence had been emptied. The interior was renovated and repainted and there was no sign of the 74-year-old. His cars were also missing from the garage. Authorities decided to check Naipings bank accounts and on July 9, they confirmed that extensive fraudulent transactions were conducted around the time of his disappearance. His money was also gone, Wen said. We were able to track the financial transactions. More than $1 million [was withdrawn from] his account to purchase physical gold online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family members believe Naiping was kidnapped. The suspect or suspects involved had also reportedly tried to sell his vehicles and rent out his home. His wife was out of the country, visiting family in China, when Hou went missing, loved ones said. As they desperately search for leads on the case, theyre offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to Naipings whereabouts or the identification of those involved in his disappearance. Wen described his father as a loving husband and grandfather who enjoyed spending time with family and staying active in his local community. My dad is like the guide to my life, Wen said. I really miss him. I hope we can find him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Naiping is described as an Asian man who stands 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs about 170 pounds. He has dark hair and dark eyes, and has a birthmark on his upper left chest. Investigators confirmed they are following several leads as the search continues. His family created a website where more information can be found. Deputies are also seeking information about a silver Toyota Yaris in connection with the mans disappearance. Anyone who may know Naipings whereabouts or has information is asked to call Detective Vanayes Quezada at 909-890-4848. The public can also leave anonymous tips by calling or contacting the family through text message, WhatsApp, or Signal at 213-564-9366. Tips can be submitted through Telegram at https://t.me/NaiPingHouTipsBot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anonymous tips can also be provided to We-Tip at 1-800-782-7463 or online at wetip.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Physical therapist Walter Foxcroft III, 43, died in a flash fire inside a hyperbaric chamber at his workplace in Lake Havasu City. The family of a Haverhill man who died during an encounter with officers outside a seafood restaurant last Friday has hired a prominent Boston attorney. The The Law Office of Timothy J. Bradl, P.C. confirms the family of Francis Giliotti has retained them following the tragic events of July 11. Bradls office says theyve been in contact with Essex County District Attorney Paul Tuckers Office, and will also be pursuing a private autopsy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There will be full accountability regarding the circumstances, cause, and manner of Franciss death, the law office wrote in a press release."The family is seeking full transparency as we work to confront the hard truths about police use of deadly force, the inadequacy of training for interactions with emotionally distressed persons, and the repeated instances of officer created jeopardy resulting in tragedy." 7 Haverhill officers on leave amid investigation into deadly encounter outside restaurant In an incident captured on cell phone video last Friday, Haverhill officers could be seen surrounding Francis Gigliotti after receiving a call for a man behaving erratically on White Street. Gigliotti was transported to the hospital following the struggle, where he later died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement released through Bradls office, Gigliottis family remembers him as a hardworking, devoted man who consistently put his family first. "Francis had a warmth that was impossible to ignore," they said. His smile and laugh could light up any room, bringing joy to everyone around him. He was cherished not just by his family, but by his entire community. The family says Francis did not deserve to perishespecially not in the manner he did," and are seeking answers. Gigliottis fiancee, Michele Rooney, also released a statement through Bradls office, saying in part: This is a shock to us all. None of us ever expected this to happen, especially to someone that we all love so much. Its heart-wrenching to watch the news, read the papers and to hear all the negative comments. One thing Francis always hated 3 was when people were judgmental before they had all of the information. Francis never judged anyone and had nothing but love for all. This should be a time that we all join forces and fight this battle together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No legal action has been taken by the family as of this writing. Bradls office also represents blogger Aiden Kearney, also known as Turtleboy, for charges stemming from his coverage of the Karen Read trial. The DAs office asks anyone with any pictures or videos of the deadly incident to upload them using this link. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Channel 11 met Cindy and Dave Meckle as they were packing up their Glassport home to move out. They say the pollution from U.S. Steel, including benzene, is in their home and yard and its affecting their health. Coke Works is exactly a mile as the crow flies, Cindy Meckle said. Right over our house, right down the river. And that air comes right up the river. Dave Meckle showed us the white rag that turned black after wiping down the walls in their home and their outdoor windows and table. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is particulate matter, Dave Meckle said. This is benzene, this is hydrogen sulfide, this is arsenic, this is lead. The Meckles say they became concerned when several of their family dogs - different breeds - died at young ages, all from the same type of cancer. In 2024, the Meckles hired Penn State to do a study of their soil to see if it showed anything connected to their dogs cancer and their health problems, including asthma and anemia. The technician at Penn State said, do you have grandkids? Dave Meckle recalled. He said, dont let them play in the yard unless you put six inches of mulch on the grass to keep them safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This report from the lab shows the Meckles soil has over 400 times the level of zinc and 50 times the level of lead thats considered normal and thats likely not all. My yard is a cesspool of poison, Meckle added. Lisa Graves-Marcucci is the executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project. We have a benzene problem, Graves-Marcucci said. Over 18 months, the EIP put EPA quality air monitors up at locations around the Mon Valley, including at the Meckles home. The EPAs action level for benzene is 3 micrograms/cubic meter. The Meckles say they had a reading of 16.7 micrograms/cubic meter at their home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We found out we have the highest levels of benzene in Allegheny County, Meckle said. 11 Investigates accessed federal records and found the steelmaker has a history of not complying with the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Since 2014, the Allegheny County Health Department says it has assessed more than $21 million in fines against U.S. Steel. Multiple cases are pending litigation. Just last year, the county health department was one of the parties that settled a lawsuit against U.S. Steel for the 2018 Christmas Eve fire at Clairton Coke Works. That fire resulted in thousands of air pollution violations after the pollution control equipment burned out. Court records say, despite that, U.S. Steel kept operating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That facility, which is the largest in North America, operated for 100 days plus without pollution controls, Grave-Marcucci said. What were the workers breathing? What were the neighbors breathing? After that lawsuit was filed, U.S. Steel spent $17.5 million on equipment upgrades and agreed to pay millions more, including capital and environmental projects. This week, fence line monitoring of benzene around facilities like U.S. Steel was set to begin, but the EPA proposed delaying this regulation until July of 2027. In the meantime, the Meckles say theyre not sticking around. What you cant see is whats killing us, Cindy Meckle added. We cant continue to do this anymore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We reached out to U.S. Steel for comment on our story. In response to the benzene study done by the Environmental Integrity Project, a spokesperson said: U. S. Steel has never been fined for exceeding benzene emissions standards in place under federal, state or county laws and regulations under which it operates. The Mon Valley Works compliance rate with the federal benzene regulations has been and is 100%. It is false to allege otherwise, as certain parties are attempting to do. In response to the fines levied against U.S. Steel, a spokesperson said: U. S. Steels Mon Valley operations have a compliance rate exceeding 99% for the tens of millions of regulated activities that happen every year. This is a testament to the hard work of the more than 3,000 employees who make safety and environmental excellence their top priority every day. U. S. Steels Mon Valley employees live and raise families in the area where they work in a critical national industry, and the care they take to protect our shared environment shows in U. S. Steels compliance rate and the improving air quality in the Mon Valley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to Penn States soil study at the Meckles, a U.S. Steel spokesperson said: Any assertion that U. S. Steel is the source of all heavy metals found in soil in the Mon Valley area is unfounded and ignores the fact that some are naturally occurring and the area has hosted industry and many companies for over a century. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has closed in on the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, according to a new YouGov opinion poll published on Wednesday. The AfD has gained two percentage points since last month, rising to 25% support, while the Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), slipped by one point to 27%. If a general election were held this Sunday, the survey showed the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) receiving 14% of the vote, unchanged from June. The Greens fell one percentage point to 11%, while the Left Party gained two points to reach 10%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Support for the upstart populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) held steady at 5%, as did the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) at 3%. The data were collected between July 11 and 14, just after a planned vote in the Bundestag to appoint three constitutional court judges collapsed amid a major rift in the governing coalition between the CDU/CSU and SPD. YouGov said it was unclear whether the timing of the poll influenced the results, noting that political events often take time to register in voter sentiment. The survey included responses from 1,820 eligible voters out of a total sample of 2,192 participants. Widespread dissatisfaction with coalition Roughly 10 weeks after the coalition took office, 65% of respondents said they were very or rather dissatisfied with its performance, up 10 points from June. Only 29% expressed satisfaction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to YouGov, public approval of the conservative-led coalition is now lower than that of the previous centre-left government under Olaf Scholz at the same stage of its term. The performance of Chancellor Friedrich Merz received a mixed verdict: 32% rated his leadership as good, 59% as poor, and 10% said they were unsure. Tesla Inc logo by- baileystock via iStock Morgan Stanleys Adam Jonas, a prominent Tesla (TSLA) bull, issued a stark warning to shareholders following CEO Elon Musks announcement that he was launching the America Party, a new political venture targeting strategic congressional seats. Jonas cautioned investors to brace for continued political distractions, writing that they should be prepared for further devotion of resources (financial, time/attention) in the direction of Mr. Musk's political priorities which may add further near-term pressure to TSLA shares. More News from Barchart www.barchart.com The warning comes as Tesla stock plummeted nearly 7% on Monday, July 7, erasing over $68 billion in market capitalization. Jonas believes Musks political activism represents part of a planned strategy to achieve a specific goal rather than random involvement, suggesting these distractions arent temporary. Teslas fundamentals remain challenged, with Q2 deliveries declining 14% year-over-year to 384,000 vehicles. Morgan Stanley projects another 13% volume decline in the second half of 2025. However, Jonas maintains optimism around Teslas pivot to robotics and AI. He calculates that replacing just 10% of Teslas 125,665 employees with humanoid robots could generate $2.5 billion in value, at an approximate net present value of $200,000 per unit. With earnings approaching on July 23, Jonas expects Tesla to emphasize its robotaxi roadmap and potentially announce an AI Day to recruit talent, positioning Teslas future beyond traditional automotive manufacturing. What to Expect from Tesla in Q2 2025? Analysts tracking Tesla stock expect Q2 revenue to fall by 11% year over year to $22.4 billion while adjusted earnings are forecast to narrow by 20% to $0.41 per share. Tesla has failed to beat revenue and earnings estimates in four of the last five quarters. The EV maker missed revenue estimates by 9.3% and earnings estimates by 37% in Q1, but TSLA stock still gained 5.4% following the release of its results. Teslas earnings underperformance is forecast to continue for the rest of 2025. According to consensus estimates, Tesla is expected to report an earnings decline of 25% compared to the 7.4% earnings growth for the S&P 500 index this year. Is TSLA Stock a Good Buy Right Now? Tesla shares have declined 22% year-to-date as the company faces weakening EV demand, political uncertainty, and CEO Elon Musks controversial leadership style. Despite trading at a premium adjusted forward earnings ratio of 170x, Teslas fundamentals are deteriorating. Farmworkers Call for Worker-Led Strikes and Boycotts Amid Recent Raids Targeting Farms at a Press Conference on Monday originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Flor Martinez Zaragoza points at the calloused and injured hands of the farmworkers, making a point that the work they do is not easyCourtesy of Eli Young Following recent raids targeting farms and agricultural communities, activist Flor Martinez Zaragoza called for a press conference with farmworkers on Monday to announce details of a strike and boycott called Huelga Para La Dignidad, or Strike for Dignity. Dozens of people gathered at La Placita Olivera to hear the workers stories and their demands. The press conference organized by Zaragoza called for extreme action: farmworkers to strike on July 16, 17 and 18, and for supporters to boycott grocery stores for the duration. Who fed you today? Who fed your children? Will you stand with the people behind your food? Zaragoza said at the press conference. We need everybody, we need all of you. One farmworker, Xotchil Nunez, came up to the podium with a brace around her arm. We suffered accidents, dangerous accidents that left us mutilated, scarred, and marked. Its not just my hand, she said. A decade ago, Nunez suffered an accident to her leg, which she showed to the crowd, that still leaves her with pain and embarrassment to wear clothing that would show her scars. Its not just our spirits that hurt, but our bodies also. Xotchitl Nunez shows a scar across her ankle from an injury she sustained 10 years ago, putting an emphasis on how dangerous her work is in the fields.Courtesy of Eli Young Another farmworker, Gabriel, who came out to speak, brought a backpack full of yellow envelopes containing all his tax documents over the decades. These are my taxes. I have been paying my taxes for 19 years, without rights, he said, as he pulled out each envelope and threw them on the ground in front of the podium. Ive been doing this year, after year, after year. For a promise that I would get my citizenship, this is my testimony that I am not a criminal. We are not criminals. Gabriel, a farmworker from San Joaquin, throws packets of his tax documents to show he's a tax-paying, undocumented immigrant, to prove a point that he contributes to America, and he is not a criminal.Courtesy of Eli Young A pile of Gabriel's tax documents dating back over a decade sits on the ground in front of the podium and custom-made metal tombstones representing farmworkers who have died recently.Courtesy of Eli Young Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organizers and farmworkers are asking for immediate citizenship for farmworkers, an end to the ICE raids and permanent protections with a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented people living in the U.S. The United Farm Workers is not involved in the strike or boycott and states that they were unaware of plans for a strike until posts appeared on social media. Effective strikes demand enormous long-term planning, organization, strategy, and worker-led energy, said the spokesman for United Farm Workers, Antonio De Loera-Brust, in a statement to LA T.A.C.O. We will always support workers who take action and make sacrifices to improve their lives as they see fit. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. One person died in a crash Tuesday afternoon on South U.S. 41 near Allendale Lane, said Steve Meng, chief deputy with the Vigo County Sheriffs Office. Northbound U.S. 41 was closed at Carlisle Road for an extended period. Motorists were asked to avoid the area and find alternate routes. Traffic was diverted at Indiana 641. Meng said an accident reconstruction team is investigating and further information will be released when available. NEED TO KNOW A father and his two daughters, aged 10 and 7, are missing and feared drowned after swimming in the Ocmulgee River at Amerson River Park in Macon, Georgia Police were alerted at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, to reports of a 28-year-old man, a 10-year-old girl, and a 7-year-old girl being involved in a possible drowning incident The search is expected to continue on the morning of Wednesday, July 16, after it was paused on Tuesday night due to the darkness A father and his two daughters are missing, feared drowned, after swimming in the Ocmulgee River at Amerson River Park in Macon, Georgia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to 13WMAZ, police were alerted at around 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, to reports of a 28-year-old man, a 10-year-old girl, and a 7-year-old girl in a possible drowning incident. "The Bibb County Sheriffs Office, Macon Bibb County Fire Department, and members of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, responded to investigate a possible drowning incident at the Amerson River Park on July 15, 2025, at 7:29 p.m., Tuesday," the Bibb County Sheriff's Office said in a statement alongside a video of the scene. Google Maps Amerson River Park Amerson River Park "It was reported to deputies that a seven-year-old female, a ten-year-old female, and a twenty-eight-year-old male were in the water when they suddenly went under," they continued. Per 13WMAZ and 41NBC, the father went into the river after his daughters had drifted into deep waters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PEOPLE has contacted Bibb County Sheriff's Office and Amerson River Park for further comment, but did not immediately hear back. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. A crew from the Riverside station was immediately dispatched," a statement by Macon-Bibb County to WGXA News confirmed. "At 7:43 pm, the dive team was dispatched, and rescue divers were on scene by 7:50 pm." Per WGXA News, a boat searched the Ocmulgee river for the father and his daughters, while divers were also dispatched to the location. Ed Williams/Getty A stretch of the Ocmulgee River A stretch of the Ocmulgee River Due to darkness, the search had to be paused on Tuesday night, according to 13WMAZ and 41NBC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The search will resume at 8:00 am with our rescue divers, a boat from the Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia State Patrol helicopter," the statement continued. In another Facebook post, Macon+Bibb County confirmed that Amerson River Park would remain closed on Wednesday to allow rescue crews from the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department, Department of Natural Resources, and Georgia State Patrol continue looking for three people who may have drowned while swimming in the Ocmulgee River Tuesday evening. Amerson River Park also reposted the update on their page. Read the original article on People NEED TO KNOW Narciso Barranco was detained by border patrol agents while doing landscaping work outside an IHOP in Santa Ana, Calif., on June 21 He was released on Tuesday, July 15, from California's Adelanto Detention Center on a $3,000 bond Video footage obtained by CBS News captured the emotional moment he was reunited with one of his sons Nearly a month after being detained by ICE, Narciso Barranco, a father of three U.S. Marines, has been released from an immigration detention center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to NBC Los Angeles, Barranco, 48, was released on Tuesday, July 15, from California's Adelanto Detention Center on a $3,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court again in August. Orange City councilmember Arianna Barrios said on Facebook that the hearing is to "adjust his status to parole in place based on the fact that his wife is a US citizen and his three American-born sons are active duty US military." Video footage of the moment he was released from federal custody was obtained by CBS News, showing Barranco accompanied by a female guard as he walked out of the center wearing a brown jacket and a brown hat, while carrying a plastic bag. Moments after, he hugs one of his three sons and another man who is with them, according to the video's caption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The father of three U.S. service members is now seeking privacy and medical care as his legal case continues with a hearing set for August," the caption reads. Barranco's 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran son, Alejandro, told NBC Los Angeles that when his father stepped out of the detention center, "he was wearing the same clothes, and he was crying." GoFundMe Narciso Barranco and son Narciso Barranco and son Lisa Ramirez, Barranco's immigration attorney, told The Orange County Register that after he was released to his family around 2 p.m., he was taken to the hospital for a physical check-up. She said that while "Narciso is very happy to be reunited with his family," he "clearly will need time to decompress and get reacclimated." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He is, with good reason, traumatized by this whole experience and will need time to heal both physically and emotionally," Ramirez said. Barranco's release comes after he was approached on Saturday, June 21, by masked men who were wearing vests that read US Border Patrol Police while doing landscaping work outside an IHOP in Santa Ana, Calif. Video footage obtained by CNN and ABC affiliate KABC shows the masked men pinning Barranco down on the street and punching him before taking him into custody. GoFundMe Narciso Barranco and family Narciso Barranco and family When previously reached out for comment by PEOPLE, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that an illegal alien was arrested by Border Patrol agents after trying to evade law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McLaughlin claimed Barranco "turned and swung a weed whacker directly at an agents face" and "then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent." Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In a video released by the department on X, Barranco is seen holding the equipment, but, as noted by CNN and the Associated Press, it does not appear to have touched any of the border patrol officers. Read the original article on People CLEVELAND COUNTY, Okla. (KFOR) There are new details on an Oklahoma man arrested in St. Louis on over a dozen counts of animal cruelty charges. News 4 first reported about the ongoing investigation Monday. St. Louis prosecutors charged 38-year-old Robert Peters with 16 counts of animal abuse, nine of them being felonies. Peters showed up at a St. Louis crematorium, asking to cremate four dogs. While its not uncommon to request a pet to be cremated, staff said it was unusual to show up with that many at the same time; they became suspicious and called the police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers found dog crates stacked on top of each other; many of the dogs were covered in their own feces and urine and a sawdust-like powder. They said the animals looked lethargic due to the high temperatures in the back of the truck. KFOR has learned the suspect has ties to a deadly mauling of his child in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, just a couple of months ago. The news about 38-year-old Robert Peters arrest in St. Louis caught the attention of the Cleveland County Sheriffs Office because they recognized his name. Deputies have confirmed Peters is the father of a six-year-old boy who was viciously attacked and killed by family dogs last May. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, Ive been doing this almost 30 years, and this is probably the worst thing Ive ever seen, said John Szymanski, chief deputy operations, Cleveland County Sheriffs Office. The little boy was outside getting a charger from a vehicle parked in the driveway when he was suddenly attacked. Peters walked out and found his son unresponsive in the yard. When charges were not brought upon the family, we all kind of agreed it was a horrible accident. You know, we agree with that decision, said Szymanski. Deputies say the dogs looked to be well taken care of. They werent emaciated, they werent hungry, didnt appear. There was food and water outside for them, so we didnt see anything like this coming, said Szymanski. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the arrest in St. Louis, police asked Peters why he had so many dogs. He told them that he and his wife ran a transport business out of Oklahoma, taking rescue dogs to other places to be adopted. The Cleveland County Sheriffs Office was aware of their business during the May incident. The dad at the time when this happened in May, the mother was out of town with the transport business, she wasnt home, and after the child had gotten killed by the pack of dogs, the mom decided that she didnt want to travel anymore, said Szymanski. Thats when deputies say Peters took over the business. I think when the mom was making the transportation, she was driving a van, not a box truck. so I think just this time they had way too many animals to be transported this time of year in this type of heat, said Szymanski. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peters appeared in court Tuesday afternoon. He pled not guilty and will be held without bond. Hes scheduled back in court next Tuesday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. After a week-long manhunt, the FBI has captured Antifa militant Benjamin Song, the 14th suspect allegedly involved in the July 4 ambush on an ICE detention facility near Fort Worth. Song, 32, of Dallas, was apprehended by an FBI tactical team around 6 p.m. on July 15 at an apartment near 5200 Meadowcreek Drive, the Department of Justice announced. His arrest is the result of our determination to protect not only the community, but also our law enforcement partners that were the targets of a coordinated attack, said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock. The FBI has worked tirelessly to arrest everyone associated with the shooting at the Prairieland Detention Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson County District Attorney Tim Good told The Dallas Express that Song was found with a woman and multiple weapons but did not resist arrest. I dont think he was expecting them, but if youve ever seen them make a tactical entry, theres no way to counter how strongly they come on, Good said. Officials had received a tip that Song was at the apartment complex. The FBI their tactical team came in, hit the location, and thats exactly where he was, Good added. Good said Song is being held in the Johnson County Jail with the other suspects. None have posted bond. He declined to comment on whether political materials were recovered during the arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A joint task force including Johnson County sheriffs deputies, Texas Rangers, federal agents, and DA investigators developed leads and executed warrants throughout the week. Song allegedly purchased four firearms used by militants in the ambush, which left an Alvarado police officer shot in the neck. The attackers, dressed in black body armor, reportedly used vandalism to lure ICE officers outside the Prairieland Detention Center before opening fire, as The Dallas Express previously reported. Authorities offered a $35,000 reward for information leading to his arrest $25,000 from the FBI and $10,000 from Gov. Greg Abbott, as The Dallas Express reported. Though Song escaped by hiding overnight after the attack, we were confident he would not remain hidden for long, said Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspects found with anarchist and socialist propaganda communicated via Signal to plan the attack and share reconnaissance, according to the DOJ. Officials shared a map the suspects allegedly made, which circled the ICE facility and marked six nearby police stations. After the immediate apprehension of Songs coconspirators at the scene, the FBI and our federal prosecutors together with our other law enforcement partners worked tirelessly around the clock pursuing Song, Larson said. Their tremendous efforts culminated in the arrest of this alleged violent criminal today. Ten suspects were charged on July 7. Two others were charged July 14 for allegedly helping Song evade arrest. One more was charged with evidence tampering. Officials say at least two of the suspects identify as transgender. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fourteen individuals who planned and participated in these heinous acts will be prosecuted, and we expect justice will be swift, Larson said. Song was identified as a member of the Elm Fork chapter of the John Brown Gun Club, a self-described Antifa militant group. As The Dallas Express previously reported, Song was featured in combat training videos and had been under surveillance prior to the attack. Earlier this month, law enforcement busted a Dallas residence in search of Song, as The Dallas Express also reported at the time. Instead, they found more than 40 firearms, socialist propaganda, and fellow Antifa members in the John Brown Gun Club including a suspect with a violent past who reportedly now identifies as transgender, like two suspects in the ambush. We have said it before: The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence toward law enforcement and will thoroughly investigate anyone that commits these types of offenses, Rothrock said. Federal authorities arrested a military veteran on Tuesday afternoon, who was wanted in connection with an attack on an ICE detention facility in Texas and remained on the run for nearly 11 days after the attack. The FBI Dallas Field Office said it apprehended 32-year-old Benjamin Song on Tuesday afternoon in Dallas. Song allegedly joined a group of 10 to 12 others in an organized attack on officers at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4. Ten assailants were apprehended at the time, though Song managed to evade capture, according to authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The FBI has worked tirelessly to arrest everyone associated with the shooting at the Prairieland Detention Center," FBI Dallas Field Office Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock said. "We would like to thank all the entities that publicized this case and assisted in our efforts to successfully locate Benjamin Song. Federal Authorities Charge Pair Who Allegedly Helped Ice Facility Attacker Escape After Shooting "His arrest is the result of our determination to protect not only the community, but also our law enforcement partners that were the targets of a coordinated attack," Rothrock continued. "We have said it before, the FBI will not tolerate acts of violence toward law enforcement and will thoroughly investigate anyone that commits these types of offenses." Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI previously said it was offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Songs arrest and conviction. Suspect Wanted In Anti-ice Texas Ambush Previously Sued In Past Protest Incident Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, is accused of firing two AR-15-style rifles at two correctional officers and one Alvarado police officer, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Fox News Digital last week. The Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck by a suspect in the woods, according to the complaint. Another assailant fired dozens of rounds at unarmed correctional officers who had stepped outside the facility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Song faces three counts of attempted murder of a federal officer and three counts of discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Fox News Digitals Stephen Sorace contributed to this report. Original article source: FBI captures former Marine Corps reservist accused of shooting at ICE officers at Texas detention center SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) Federal agents from the DEA Border Patrol and ICE detained several people at Mission Bay. According to witnesses who filmed the apparent raid, people were taken from their campers who were previously ticketed a few hours prior. They took a husband and left behind the wife and two kids. The wife was emotional, and the kids looked traumatized, said Arturo Gonzales an immigration activist. Oceanside rally calls for a stop to ICE deportations Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arturo Gonzales, a self-proclaimed immigration activist, filmed the operation trying to get information from federal agents and questioned San Diego Police officers on the scene. We are not sure if you guys are tipping off ICE, asked Gonzales. No, that sounds more like our parking enforcement crew that comes out at night, answered an SDPD Officer. Mayor Todd Gloria says San Diego Police officers are not working directly with ICE in immigration raids but sometimes do end up in the mix. Newsom, federal officials clash after immigration raids at cannabis farms in Southern California In the instances when you may see a San Diego police officer on the scene, it is generally called cover now. In a situation when a law enforcement officer, federal, state or local gets in a situation where they feel unsafe, they will do a radio call called cover now. Units all over the city, doesnt matter what jurisdiction, will come to protect them, said Mayor Gloria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Gloria says the aggressive federal action is not welcome in San Diego. Pentagon ends deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles I have made very clear that I believe these ICE raids are making our city less safe. The very fact that ICE has to call for police backup when they are performing these actions proves my point. It is reducing safety in our community, not just for community members, citizens, and immigrants, but for also the federal officers that are carrying out these missions, said Mayor Gloria. Gloria says his San Diego officers will continue to follow state laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State of California by law will not allow us to perform any immigration enforcement and Im fine with that, said Gloria. ICE released the following statement: On July 15, officers with Enforcement and Removal Operations San Diego, in coordination with Homeland Security Investigations, conducted immigration-related arrests in the Mission Bay area. During the course of one of the arrests, an individual confirmed to be a member of the violent transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua violently resisted apprehension. The individual kicked an HSI special agent in the chest and bit an ERO officer in the forearm. Despite the assault, officers placed the individual in custody, along with four other illegal aliens. Let it be clear: physical assaults on federal officers will not be tolerated under any circumstances. These acts not only endanger the lives of law enforcement personnel, but they also undermine public safety and the rule of law. ICE remains steadfast in its mission to enforce federal immigration law with professionalism, accountability, and respect for the communities we serve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ICE San Diego has presented charges for assault on a Federal Law Enforcement Officer to the U.S. Attorneys Office, and we will pursue all available legal avenues to ensure justice is served. ICE is committed to maintaining the safety and security of our nation, and we will continue to carry out our duties with the utmost dedication and integrity. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. STUTTGART, Ark. After years of uncertainty and delays on Capitol Hill, Arkansas farmers are finally seeing some of the relief theyve long called for not through a new Farm Bill, but from provisions tucked inside a sweeping federal budget package known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. The bill, signed into law earlier this summer, includes key updates to federal agriculture policy including increases to reference prices, expanded crop insurance support, and new disaster relief funding provisions farmers say couldnt come soon enough. Jay Coker, a rice grower in Stuttgart, says the changes address years of financial pressure that have made it harder to plant, harvest, and survive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Farmers face planting delays as April rains drench Arkansas fields Our costs have skyrocketed during the last 10 to 15 years, Coker said. So that will help bring our reference prices up to a level that is more reflective of what were seeing right now. Reference prices set federal rates that trigger support payments when market prices drop are one of the most relied-on tools in the farm safety net. For Arkansas rice producers, who say theyve been using outdated prices from 2012, the new adjustment is expected to make a meaningful difference in margins. We hope that this gives us some stability and some consistency where we can make better decisions, Coker said. That affects everything labor, equipment, fertilizer it all depends on what we can afford. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation also includes new funding for disaster assistance a particularly welcome change for Arkansas growers hit by major weather events over the last year, including hailstorms and extreme rains that wiped out entire fields. Hurricane Helene bringing even more wind, rain to already recovering Stuttgart They will help fit some of the occurrences that have happened in Arkansas over the past year, Coker said. Were thankful theres some type of program that can help those producers recoup those losses. While the relief has been applauded in many farming circles, some critics say the bill favors larger agribusiness operations and doesnt go far enough to protect small or independent farms. Others point out that while the provisions help in the short term, theyre no substitute for a full, standalone Farm Bill, which remains stalled in Congress after the previous one, passed in 2018, expired in 2023, and was given an extension for 2024 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For now, Arkansas producers say theyre relieved to get something, even if it isnt everything. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. Federal charges were filed Tuesday against the man who has admitted to the deadly attack on Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in an act of political violence that stunned the nation. Vance Boelter faces charges that include murder and stalking for the attack that he outlined in a confession letter released as the charges were announced. Boelter, 57, is charged with killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core, Thompson said. He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota. Authorities have not said whether they will seek the death penalty in the case. Prosecutors at a news conference disclosed the alleged confession letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel in which Boelter said he carried out the attacks as part of a convoluted plot to punish Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Boelter was arrested by authorities in Green Isle, Minnesota, after a two-day manhunt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The shootings sent Minnesota lawmakers reeling, and triggered an outcry of public mourning. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, whod dined with Melissa Hortman just hours before the killing, said the violence should be a wake-up call to address violent political rhetoric. Found inside Boelter's car were notebooks with the names of nearly four dozen elected officials, including Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Michigan Reps. Haley Stevens and Debbie Dingell. Former President Joe Biden was among those who paid respects as the Hortmans lay in state inside the Minnesota Capitol Rotunda. We grieve with the Hortman family and continue to pray for the recovery of the Hoffmans, Thompson said. Today, a grand jury indicted Boelter with the most serious of federal charges for these heinous political assassinations. Let me be clear: Boelter will see justice. Spanish fashion retailer Mango has appointed former H&M Group CEO Helena Helmersson as an independent member of its board of directors to strengthen the company's corporate governance in line with international best practices. The addition of Helmersson is part of Mango's ongoing efforts to professionalise its management model. Helmersson brings more than two decades of experience in the fashion industry to Mango's highest decision-making authority. At H&M Group, she oversaw sustainability, production and global operations. Helmersson stated: Mango is pursuing a very ambitious plan, developing the brand and assortment, and bringing it to more customers around the world. At the same time, they are part of leading the sustainability practices in the industry. Im impressed by what they have accomplished and feel very inspired to contribute to the future success. The board of directors at Mango will now consist of Toni Ruiz as chairman and CEO, Jonathan Andic as vice-chairman, and Daniel Lopez and Margarita Salvans as executive directors. Ruiz stated: We are welcoming an exceptional professional whose vast international perspective and extensive experience in the fashion industry will undoubtedly propel us to new heights. Her expertise and visionary approach are invaluable assets that will enrich our leadership team and drive our global ambitions forward." The other independent directors include Jordi Canals, Jorge Lucaya, Jordi Constans, Marc Puig and Manel Adell. Eugenia Jover holds the position of non-director secretary of the board. The move is aligned with Mango's 20242026 4E Strategic Plan, which aims to reinforce the brand's unique value proposition, enhance its commitment to innovation and sustainability, and drive sales through expansion. In early July 2025, Mango introduced a generative AI-powered virtual fashion assistant, Mango Stylist, to enhance its personalised shopping experience. "Mango appoints former H&M CEO Helmersson as board member" was originally created and published by Retail Insight Network, a GlobalData owned brand. Floodwaters left debris, including vehicles and equipment, scattered in Louise Hays Park on July 5 in Kerrville, Texas. Emergency managers say Trumps cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service could prove devastating during future disasters. (Photo by Eric Vryn/Getty Images) With hurricane and wildfire season well underway across much of the country, state and local emergency managers say they have little idea how much support the federal government will provide if disaster strikes. And the recent deadly floods in Texas have shown just how dire the need can be. President Donald Trump has imposed severe cuts on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and denied some states requests for disaster recovery funds. FEMA also has failed to issue grants that many emergency managers rely on to fund their agencies or to communicate its plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wyomings Office of Homeland Security, which responds to disasters, relies on the feds for 92% of its money, said Director Lynn Budd. With that federal support in question, the state could face a precarious situation when the current grants expire at the end of September. If we dont get this funding, what are we going to do? Budd said. Youre taking our capability away. Budd serves as president of the National Emergency Management Association, a nonprofit focused on public safety. She said state officials have been told by Trump that theyve become too dependent on federal support. Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly talked of scaling back FEMA and pushing states to take the lead in disaster response. But in the wake of this months devastating flooding in Texas, administration officials have backed off Trumps claims that he would eliminate the agency altogether. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not grant an interview request, but issued a statement calling on states to play a larger role in disaster response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State and local officials say Trump has provided no clarity about which disasters will qualify for federal recovery funds. He has denied support for disasters that met the existing criteria. At the same time, FEMA has yet to issue federal grants that provide much of the funding for local emergency management agencies. As local leaders in rural Saluda County, South Carolina, work to rebuild from last years Hurricane Helene, they say the recovery process has been slowed by Trump administration policies making it more difficult to access disaster aid. Worse, the countys Emergency Management Division has no idea whether the feds will release the grant funding that makes up most of its budget. Are we going to see the help we need arriving? said Josh Morton, director of Saluda Countys Emergency Management Division. I dont know. When we pick up the phone, is there gonna be anybody there to answer? Aside from the cuts to state funding, FEMA under Trumps administration has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, according to The New York Times. The agency also cut hundreds of contractors at call centers, The Times reported, resulting in thousands of missed calls in the days following the Texas flood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, emergency managers say that Trumps cuts to the National Weather Service could further impair their ability to respond to fast-moving disasters. The feds pull back Trump and his administration have frequently said states should take on more responsibility for responding to disasters. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an April statement to Stateline that the federal government would provide support only for truly catastrophic disasters, adding that states should have an appetite to own the problem. Emergency management experts say it would be inefficient for all 50 states to stockpile the resources, staff and recovery funding to handle disasters on their own. Having a national agency that can deploy where its needed is far less wasteful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has, said Michael Coen, who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations. He noted that FEMA also plays a key coordinating role with other federal agencies during disasters. Theres no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has. Michael Coen, chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations Morton, the Saluda County official, echoed that concern. He also serves as first vice president with the International Association of Emergency Managers, a nonprofit representing professionals in the field. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It would be impossible for every county in the U.S. to maintain an adequate disaster recovery fund on their own, he said. Right now, we have a disaster fund at the federal level, and that money is able to be moved around to where its needed in the moment. That really is the best bang for the buck for the American people. But that federal support is no longer a sure thing. Morton said recovery funds for Hurricane Helene which walloped states from Florida to North Carolina have been slower to materialize than for previous disasters. FEMA officials have required more paperwork, he said, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems insistence that she personally approve any expenditure over $100,000 has also slowed the process. Disaster declarations In other parts of the country, state officials have petitioned Trump for disaster declarations, only to be rejected altogether. Washington states request for disaster aid following storms last November that caused at least $34 million in damages met all the very clear criteria to qualify, said Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, but was denied by FEMA. While Trump administration officials have proposed limiting the events that qualify for federal relief, they have yet to issue new criteria. State leaders say they have gotten no clarity from the feds about whether they can count on support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We really need some communication on what to expect, said Budd, the Wyoming official. If we know theres no federal funding coming, that would be an awful situation, but at least we can plan for that. Some experts say states should prepare for disaster relief to be approved along partisan lines. We just have to be honest that this White House is going to spend more resources, time and effort on people who live in red states than in blue states, said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government and a former Obama administration official. Its a hard thing for me to admit, and I dont know how to solve it, but if you look at his reaction to [the Los Angeles wildfires in] California as compared to Texas, its very clear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since February, Trump has denied six of the 10 major-disaster requests he has received from Democratic governors, according to an analysis from Seattle National Public Radio affiliate KUOW. He has approved 14 of 15 requests he has received from Republican governors during that same period. Meanwhile, FEMA has yet to release the preparedness grants that many state and local governments depend on to fund their emergency management agencies and conduct projects to prepare for disasters. Those grants were set to be issued in May under a spending bill passed by Congress. Coen, the former FEMA official, noted that the Texas Division of Emergency Management received nearly $20 million in federal funding last year to support day-to-day operations. Texas hasnt been able to apply for that grant this year, he said. If they never get that grant, are they going to have to lay off staff or cancel contracts? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FEMA has also revoked another set of grants, totaling $3.6 billion, that was intended to help communities prepare their infrastructure to withstand disasters. Weather agency cuts Amid the uncertainty at FEMA, emergency managers are also alarmed by Trumps cuts to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA has lost nearly 2,000 employees, The New York Times reported, 600 of whom worked for the weather service. The cuts have left many forecasting offices understaffed, with some no longer able to operate overnight. The National Weather Service plays as big of a role in protecting lives as anyone else in government, said Morton, the Saluda County official. It would be very hard for emergency managers to do our jobs effectively without the National Weather Service. But if these cuts keep coming, youre going to start to see deficiencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Budd, the Wyoming official, said the weather agency is crucial during wildfires. Thats how we know when its time to alert our communities or evacuate an area, she said. You can put firefighters lives on the line very quickly if they dont have notification that those winds are changing. She added that Trumps cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies have added another layer of concern as wildfires begin cropping up throughout the West. With the loss of federal support, Budd said officials are likely to become increasingly reliant on state-to-state resource-sharing compacts that allow them to call on one another during emergency situations. Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Floodwaters left debris, including vehicles and equipment, scattered in Louise Hays Park on July 5 in Kerrville, Texas. Emergency managers say Trumps cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Weather Service could prove devastating during future disasters. (Photo by Eric Vryn/Getty Images) With hurricane and wildfire season well underway across much of the country, state and local emergency managers say they have little idea how much support the federal government will provide if disaster strikes. And the recent deadly floods in Texas have shown just how dire the need can be. President Donald Trump has imposed severe cuts on the Federal Emergency Management Agency and denied some states requests for disaster recovery funds. FEMA also has failed to issue grants that many emergency managers rely on to fund their agencies or to communicate its plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wyomings Office of Homeland Security, which responds to disasters, relies on the feds for 92% of its money, said Director Lynn Budd. With that federal support in question, the state could face a precarious situation when the current grants expire at the end of September. If we dont get this funding, what are we going to do? Budd said. Youre taking our capability away. Budd serves as president of the National Emergency Management Association, a nonprofit focused on public safety. She said state officials have been told by Trump that theyve become too dependent on federal support. Trump and officials in his administration have repeatedly talked of scaling back FEMA and pushing states to take the lead in disaster response. But in the wake of this months devastating flooding in Texas, administration officials have backed off Trumps claims that he would eliminate the agency altogether. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson did not grant an interview request, but issued a statement calling on states to play a larger role in disaster response. State and local officials say Trump has provided no clarity about which disasters will qualify for federal recovery funds. He has denied support for disasters that met the existing criteria. At the same time, FEMA has yet to issue federal grants that provide much of the funding for local emergency management agencies. As local leaders in rural Saluda County, South Carolina, work to rebuild from last years Hurricane Helene, they say the recovery process has been slowed by Trump administration policies making it more difficult to access disaster aid. Worse, the countys Emergency Management Division has no idea whether the feds will release the grant funding that makes up most of its budget. Are we going to see the help we need arriving? said Josh Morton, director of Saluda Countys Emergency Management Division. I dont know. When we pick up the phone, is there gonna be anybody there to answer? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aside from the cuts to state funding, FEMA under Trumps administration has lost about a quarter of its full-time staff, according to The New York Times. The agency also cut hundreds of contractors at call centers, The Times reported, resulting in thousands of missed calls in the days following the Texas flood. Meanwhile, emergency managers say that Trumps cuts to the National Weather Service could further impair their ability to respond to fast-moving disasters. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Trump administration says states should fund response to disasters Trump and his administration have frequently said states should take on more responsibility for responding to disasters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said in an April statement to Stateline that the federal government would provide support only for truly catastrophic disasters, adding that states should have an appetite to own the problem. Emergency management experts say it would be inefficient for all 50 states to stockpile the resources, staff and recovery funding to handle disasters on their own. Having a national agency that can deploy where its needed is far less wasteful. Theres no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has, said Michael Coen, who served as chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations. He noted that FEMA also plays a key coordinating role with other federal agencies during disasters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres no reason for every state to have all the resources that FEMA has. Michael Coen, chief of staff at FEMA during the Obama and Biden administrations Morton, the Saluda County official, echoed that concern. He also serves as first vice president with the International Association of Emergency Managers, a nonprofit representing professionals in the field. It would be impossible for every county in the U.S. to maintain an adequate disaster recovery fund on their own, he said. Right now, we have a disaster fund at the federal level, and that money is able to be moved around to where its needed in the moment. That really is the best bang for the buck for the American people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that federal support is no longer a sure thing. Morton said recovery funds for Hurricane Helene which walloped states from Florida to North Carolina have been slower to materialize than for previous disasters. FEMA officials have required more paperwork, he said, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noems insistence that she personally approve any expenditure over $100,000 has also slowed the process. Disaster declarations In other parts of the country, state officials have petitioned Trump for disaster declarations, only to be rejected altogether. Washington states request for disaster aid following storms last November that caused at least $34 million in damages met all the very clear criteria to qualify, said Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson, but was denied by FEMA. While Trump administration officials have proposed limiting the events that qualify for federal relief, they have yet to issue new criteria. State leaders say they have gotten no clarity from the feds about whether they can count on support. We really need some communication on what to expect, said Budd, the Wyoming official. If we know theres no federal funding coming, that would be an awful situation, but at least we can plan for that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some experts say states should prepare for disaster relief to be approved along partisan lines. We just have to be honest that this White House is going to spend more resources, time and effort on people who live in red states than in blue states, said Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government and a former Obama administration official. Its a hard thing for me to admit, and I dont know how to solve it, but if you look at his reaction to [the Los Angeles wildfires in] California as compared to Texas, its very clear. Since February, Trump has denied six of the 10 major-disaster requests he has received from Democratic governors, according to an analysis from Seattle National Public Radio affiliate KUOW. He has approved 14 of 15 requests he has received from Republican governors during that same period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, FEMA has yet to release the preparedness grants that many state and local governments depend on to fund their emergency management agencies and conduct projects to prepare for disasters. Those grants were set to be issued in May under a spending bill passed by Congress. Coen, the former FEMA official, noted that the Texas Division of Emergency Management received nearly $20 million in federal funding last year to support day-to-day operations. Texas hasnt been able to apply for that grant this year, he said. If they never get that grant, are they going to have to lay off staff or cancel contracts? FEMA has also revoked another set of grants, totaling $3.6 billion, that was intended to help communities prepare their infrastructure to withstand disasters. National Weather Service, NOAA employees cuts Amid the uncertainty at FEMA, emergency managers are also alarmed by Trumps cuts to the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA has lost nearly 2,000 employees, The New York Times reported, 600 of whom worked for the weather service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cuts have left many forecasting offices understaffed, with some no longer able to operate overnight. The National Weather Service plays as big of a role in protecting lives as anyone else in government, said Morton, the Saluda County official. It would be very hard for emergency managers to do our jobs effectively without the National Weather Service. But if these cuts keep coming, youre going to start to see deficiencies. Budd, the Wyoming official, said the weather agency is crucial during wildfires. Thats how we know when its time to alert our communities or evacuate an area, she said. You can put firefighters lives on the line very quickly if they dont have notification that those winds are changing. She added that Trumps cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and other land management agencies have added another layer of concern as wildfires begin cropping up throughout the West. With the loss of federal support, Budd said officials are likely to become increasingly reliant on state-to-state resource-sharing compacts that allow them to call on one another during emergency situations. Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org. Stateline, like the Idaho Capital Sun, is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) One of the biggest food banks in Middle Tennessee is in desperate need of funds after federal cuts to its annual budget. The cuts could also have a direct impact on multiple Middle Tennessee neighborhoods. Nourish Food Bank said it spends a little more than $40,000 a month to keep their three buildings running along with all of their food programs. Neighborhood News: Stories impacting your community | Read More Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Executive Director Norman Hanks told News 2 they have about $40,000 left in their bank account. The three locations serve Smyrna and Murfreesboro in Rutherford County and the Glencliff area of Nashville. Nourish feeds over 2 million people a year, or 3,500 people a month, which is 73,000 meals a month. However, Hanks said their resources have been cut by about 15%. Antioch residents oppose potential industrial zoning To make up for the loss, Nourish recently launched a social media campaign, asking 1,000 people to donate $100 dollars to help build up their bank. According to Hanks, it isnt a permanent solution, but it would help them survive for now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have about a month left that we can afford to keep feeding folks and keeping our neighbors fed before we have to start looking at other options, Hanks said. If you want to help the food bank, click here. Do you have news happening in your neighborhood? Let us know by sending an email to neighborhoodnews@wkrn.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. A federal grand jury has formally indicted Vance Boelter on six federal charges for the shootings that left one Minnesota lawmaker and her husband dead and a second lawmaker and his wife injured. "Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core," acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in a statement. "He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota." Accused Killer Of Minnesota Lawmakers Teases 'Important Details' In Letter During Jailhouse Interview Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boelter, 57, has been charged with stalking and murdering former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in Minneapolis last month. He also is charged with stalking and shooting state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and for attempting to shoot their daughter, Hope, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota. A mugshot of Minnesota lawmaker shooting suspect Vance Boelter in custody at Hennepin County Jail. Boelter, who allegedly conducted extensive research prior to the attacks, could potentially face life in prison or the death penalty. Authorities allege Boelter impersonated a member of law enforcement on June 14 and then went to the homes of the Democratic elected officials with the intention of murdering them. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Minnesota Shooting Timeline: Suspect Vance Boelter's Last Words To Family Before Capture Boelter first went to the home of the Hoffmans in Champlin, Minnesota, where he allegedly shot Senator Hoffman and his wife repeatedly. Prosecutors say he also attempted to shoot their daughter, Hope, according to the news release. Minnesota state senators Melissa Hortman and Senator John Hoffman were targeted in a shooting that left the former dead and the latter seriously injured. After that, he allegedly drove to the homes of two other elected officials but discovered no one was home. Boelter then allegedly went to the home of Melissa Hortman and her husband, where he is accused of repeatedly shooting and killing them. The shootings sparked a two-day manhunt, ending with Boelters capture in nearby Sibley County. Minnesota Shooting Suspect Vance Boelter To Face Federal Charges In Lawmaker Attacks Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I feel relief today in knowing that the perpetrator of these heinous acts will be charged to the fullest extent of the law," Hope Hoffman said in a statement. "Though I was not shot physically, I will now forever coexist with the PTSD of watching my parents be nearly shot dead in front of me and seeing my life flash before my eyes with a gun in my face." Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a press conference held at the Minnesota Emergency Management Center following the arrest of Vance Boelter, the suspect in the assassination of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband and the attempted assassination of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in Minnesota, United States on May 15, 2025. The indictment comes shortly after Boelter spoke out about the alleged killings in a jailhouse interview, looking to eliminate certain theories surrounding the motivations behind the attacks. "You are fishing and I cant talk about my case," Vance Boelter wrote to the New York Post from the Sherburne County Jail last week. "Ill say it didnt involve either the Trump stuff or pro-life." "I am pro-life personaly [sic] but it wasnt those," he reportedly said in a message sent from the jails internal messaging system. "I will just say there is a lot of information that will come out in future that people will look at and judge for themselves that goes back 24 months before the 14th. If the gov ever lets [sic] it get out." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Original article source: Federal grand jury indicts suspect accused of targeting Minnesota lawmakers in deadly shooting spree Law enforcement stage in a neighborhood on June 15, 2025 in Green Isle, Minnesota. Law enforcement agencies are searching for a suspect in the killing of DFL State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, who were shot at their home yesterday. DFL State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot and hospitalized in a separate incident. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said during a press conference that the shooting "appears to be a politically motivated assassination." (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) A federal grand jury indicted Vance Boelter on six felony charges related to the killings of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman, in the early morning hours of June 14. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the initial charges on June 15, the day Boelter was arrested outside of Green Isle after a two-day manhunt. After charging someone with a felony through a complaint signed by a judge, the DOJ must present evidence to a grand jury in order to formalize the charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The charges in the indictment were revised to include an allegation that Boelter shot at Hope Hoffman, the daughter of John and Yvette Hoffman. The bullets narrowly missed Hope, and she immediately called 911 to report the shooting, according to an unsealed application for a search warrant. The indictment includes two counts of stalking Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman; two counts of murder in the killings of Melissa and Mark Hortman; and two firearms offenses in the shootings of the Hortmans and John and Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman. The indictment also contains a notice of special findings, the first step in seeking the death penalty, said acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson in a press conference Tuesday. Prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to seek the death penalty, and that decision will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, DOJ officials and the victims, Thompson said. The search warrant application provides some details of the crime that were not included in the original charging documents, including the full text of a letter found in Boelters car that contains fantastical ravings about his motives that are replete with disinformation. The letter contradicts other writings found in his cars and home, which indicated he sought out politicians, abortion rights advocates and abortion providers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? Thompson said of the letter. Thats a good question. It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes. The documents also clarify the sequence of events at the Hortmans home that night. According to the search warrant: Mark Hortman answered the door when Vance Boelter knocked, announcing himself as a police officer. Boelter and Mark Hortman spoke for a few moments, then Brooklyn Park police pulled up to the house to perform a welfare check. Immediately after, Boelter shot Mark Hortman several times, then entered the house and shot Melissa Hortman and their dog, Gilbert. A camera located near Boelters temporary residence in north Minneapolis showed Boelter wearing a rain coat with the hood up at around 7 p.m. on June 13, the night before the killings, apparently placing a duffel bag and body armor in his SUV. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later that evening hours before the shootings cameras at the Hortman home captured a man in a rain coat with the hood up walking around the side and back of the yard. This story was originally produced by the Minnesota Reformer which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Law enforcement stage in a neighborhood on June 15, 2025 in Green Isle, Minnesota, as they search for Vance Boelter. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images) A federal grand jury indicted Vance Boelter on six felony charges related to the killings of Minnesota Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette Hoffman, in the early morning hours of June 14. The U.S. Department of Justice filed the initial charges on June 15, the day Boelter was arrested outside of Green Isle after a two-day manhunt. After charging someone with a felony through a complaint signed by a judge, the DOJ must present evidence to a grand jury in order to formalize the charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The charges in the indictment were revised to include an allegation that Boelter shot at Hope Hoffman, the daughter of John and Yvette Hoffman. The bullets narrowly missed Hope, and she immediately called 911 to report the shooting, according to an unsealed application for a search warrant. The indictment includes two counts of stalking Melissa Hortman and John Hoffman; two counts of murder in the killings of Melissa and Mark Hortman; and two firearms offenses in the shootings of the Hortmans and John and Yvette Hoffman, and the attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman. The indictment also contains a notice of special findings, the first step in seeking the death penalty, said acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson in a press conference Tuesday. Prosecutors have not yet made a decision on whether to seek the death penalty, and that decision will be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, DOJ officials and the victims, Thompson said. The search warrant application provides some details of the crime that were not included in the original charging documents, including the full text of a letter found in Boelters car that contains fantastical ravings about his motives that are replete with disinformation. The letter contradicts other writings found in his cars and home, which indicated he sought out politicians, abortion rights advocates and abortion providers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? Thompson said of the letter. Thats a good question. It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes. The documents also clarify the sequence of events at the Hortmans home that night. According to the search warrant: Mark Hortman answered the door when Vance Boelter knocked, announcing himself as a police officer. Boelter and Mark Hortman spoke for a few moments, then Brooklyn Park police pulled up to the house to perform a welfare check. Immediately after, Boelter shot Mark Hortman several times, then entered the house and shot Melissa Hortman and their dog, Gilbert. A camera located near Boelters temporary residence in north Minneapolis showed Boelter wearing a rain coat with the hood up at around 7 p.m. on June 13, the night before the killings, apparently placing a duffel bag and body armor in his SUV. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later that evening hours before the shootings cameras at the Hortman home captured a man in a rain coat with the hood up walking around the side and back of the yard. Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor J. Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. A federal judge in Tennessee said he anticipates making a decision next Monday regarding pre-trial detention for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, after a hearing Wednesday in which government attorneys argued that the accused MS-13 gang member poses a public danger and flight risk too great for any possible bail conditions imaginable. Abrego Garcia's lawyer countered that the government's probe into allegations of human smuggling against his client was far from thorough and is riddled with credibility issues. Furthermore, "what happens to Mr. Garcia" if he's released into ICE custody is totally murky, defense attorney Sean Hecker said -- particularly since he was previously "sent to a torture facility" in El Salvador. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Abrego Garcia's attorneys ask judge to require 72 hours' notice before he's deported The government has said that Abrego Garcia will likely be detained by ICE and deported to a third country if released from criminal custody. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw set a trial date of Jan. 27, 2026. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution -- after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was brought back to the U.S. last month to face charges in Tennessee of allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the U.S. while he was living in Maryland. He has pleaded not guilty. Alex Wong/Getty Images - PHOTO: Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg speaks outside the U.S. District Court for Maryland after a hearing on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case on July 10, 2025 in Greenbelt, Maryland. After U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes ordered last month that Abrego Garcia not be detained by the government pending trial and set conditions for his release, the government sought to reverse that decision at Wednesday's hearing. Abrego Garcia participated in a "yearslong human smuggling operation," based on accounts from multiple cooperating witnesses, Prosecutor Robert McGuire alleged in court, relying on testimony from Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Peter Joseph. Joseph testified that one cooperating witness said Abrego Garcia would travel with his own family and children, whom he "forced to ride on the floorboard" of the transport vehicle "to make room for clients." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another witness allegedly told investigators that he had gotten a complaint from the "source of the supply" -- the supply being humans to be transported -- that Abrego Garcia had acted "inappropriately" to some of the girls, Joseph said. "It affected their business, so they were not pleased with it," Joseph testified. One cooperating witness, who is an American citizen with no criminal record, separately allegedly told investigators that Garcia had solicited nude pictures of her over Snapchat when she was 15 years old, and also asked if she had an OnlyFans account, Joseph testified. Hecker pushed back on what he called prosecutors' "remarkably thin" evidence of smuggling minors, arguing that the credibility of the unnamed cooperators was highly in doubt since there was little if any evidence they had direct knowledge of Garcia's role in the alleged scheme. MORE: Abrego Garcia was subjected to 'severe mistreatment' at CECOT, his lawyers say Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Well, all of this is circumstantial," Judge Crenshaw said as Abrego Garcia looked on, appearing to listen intently. Hecker also questioned how much research Joseph had done. Under questioning, Joseph said he had not reviewed the witness' prior interviews before he spoke with them. "I wanted to go into the interview fresh," Joseph said. "Wouldn't it be a concern if those statements were inconsistent?" Hecker said, and wasn't part of his job to "assess their credibility?" Hecker also probed how prosecutors approached those cooperating witnesses who are currently incarcerated -- and whether there were any promises of sweetheart deals, like the promise of a halfway house instead of prison. Prosecutors said that one cooperating witness had been outed by a national media outlet and needed to be protected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Timeline: Wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador Prosecutors, meanwhile, reviewed the November 2022 traffic stop in which Tennessee state troopers pulled over Abrego Garcia, who had several others in the vehicle. Troopers saw no luggage in the nine-passenger suburban, and they noticed an "added fourth row," Joseph testified. When asked where they had driven from, Garcia was untruthful about his path of travel, prosecutors alleged. Though he said they had come from St. Louis, the cell tower pings from his phone showed that was "just not true," McGuire said. Garcia "knew" that if he told police he was coming from Houston, "it would look like what it was," McGuire said. "He lied to the trooper" to "try and conceal his criminal activity," said McGuire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No arrests or charges resulted from the traffic stop. An attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in May that he saw no evidence of a crime. An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifying in Abrego Garcia's wrongful deportation case in Maryland, said during a hearing last week that Mexico and South Sudan were among a handful of countries where the U.S. has deported noncitizens who have asked not to be returned to their countries of origin out of fear of torture or persecution. Abrego Garcia's legal team in the Maryland case requested that the judge issue a court order that he not be removed from the U.S. without at least 72 hours notice should he be released on bond from detention in Tennessee. New construction at the Dade-Collier Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, where the new state immigrant detention center is located, on July 5, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Friends of the Everglades/Ralph Awrood) The U.S. trial judge assigned to the lawsuit to halt the state-run immigrant detention center in the Everglades recused himself on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after environmental groups asked the court to intervene. Jose Martinez of the Southern District of Florida was supposed to preside over the litigation from environmental groups alleging that construction of the detention center violates a federal law requiring analysis of potential harms and that the state and federal governments proceeded without public input. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The George W. Bush-appointed judge filed an order Wednesday, citing the federal statute outlining the circumstances under which federal judges must disqualify themselves from a case. He hadnt taken action despite the Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversitys request on June 27 that he issue a temporary restraining order to stop the detention center located at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport. Elise Bennett, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Florida Phoenix that the suit had been reassigned to U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams. This appalling situation needs immediate attention, and were hopeful Judge Williams will move quickly to review the case and rule on our motion to enjoin construction and operations at this cruel detention center, Bennett wrote to the Phoenix. The groups had asked Martinez to take action by Friday after submitting multiple declarations and photographs about the new pavement in the environmentally fragile site. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier via Department of Legal Affairs Most recently, Williams, an Obama appointee, found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt of court over another immigration-related suit, in which she barred the enforcement of the states illegal entry and re-entry laws. Williams repeatedly expressed frustration with Uthmeiers disobedience of her order to bar arrests under the state law that led to the arrest of a U.S. citizen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Uthmeier have labeled Williams an activist judge. The governor appointed Uthmeier, his former chief of staff, to serve as the states top legal officer in February, after Ashley Moodys ascension to the U.S. Senate. The change in judges means that Williams could order a stop to the operation of the detention center that Uthmeier publicly announced and has used to boost his profile. The attorney general takes credit for naming of the detention center Alligator Alcatraz, which earned him praise from President Donald Trump. Hes even a good-looking guy, Trump said of Uthmeier during a roundtable at the detention center on July 1. That guys got a future. Two days ago, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida asked to join the lawsuit as a plaintiff. All of the tribes active ceremonial sites and 15 villages are located within the Big Cypress National Preserve, where the detention center is. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, the federal government is skirting responsibility for the detention center in its attempt to ward off the lawsuit, stating in court filings that the site is state-run and the federal government didnt authorize it. Another lawsuit surrounding the detention center is also delayed. The Florida Supreme Court transferred on Monday to the state trial court in Tallahassee Democratic lawmakers complaint seeking access to conduct oversight visits. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE A federal judge in Texas has struck down a Biden administration rule that aimed to erase $49 billion in medical debt from credit reports a move that would have affected some 15 million Americans. U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, a Trump appointee, ruled Friday that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) exceeded its authority under the Fair Credit Reporting Act siding with industry groups and Republican officials who challenged the rule. Finalized in January, the CFPB rule would have removed medical debt from credit reports and barred lenders from factoring it into loan decisions, including banning the use of medical devices like wheelchairs as collateral. It also would have boosted credit scores by an average of 20 points and enabled about 22,000 additional mortgage approvals annually, according to the CFPB. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The policy was set to take effect at the end of July but faced opposition after GOP-led states joined credit reporting agencies in challenging it. Jordans decision highlighted that state laws prohibiting coded medical information on credit reports are preempted by the federal act. Every major substantive provision of the Medical Debt Rule exceeded the CFPBs authority, Jordan wrote, according to CNN. The ruling came after lawsuits from the Consumer Data Industry Association and ACA International, which argued the rule would distort lenders assessments. Information about unpaid medical debts is an important element in assessing a consumers ability to pay. This is the right outcome for protecting the integrity of the system, said Dan Smith, president and CEO of the Consumer Data Industry Association, Axios reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision reflects Republican lawmakers earlier concerns, voiced in a letter to then-CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, that the rule would undermine credit accuracy and increase financial risks, particularly for lower-income Americans. Industry efforts since 2022 have already reduced the impact, with Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion removing nearly 70% of medical debt, including paid-off bills and those under $500, while extending the grace period for unpaid debts to one year. Consumer groups and the American Medical Association contend that medical debt is a poor predictor of loan repayment ability, often stemming from one-time hospital stays or billing errors. The Biden rule was paired with a North Carolina plan offering extra Medicaid funds to hospitals forgiving debt for about 2 million state residents. With the current administration not defending the policy, an appeal seems unlikely, leaving medical debt tied to broader economic concerns, as about 1 in 12 U.S. adults carries unpaid bills of at least $250, per the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF. The ruling could have long-term implications for federal regulatory power and the future of medical debt reform, as an estimated 23 million Americans currently hold medical debt, according to KFF. Federal murder indictment claims Vance Boelter 'spent months' investigating targets originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Vance Boelter has been formally indicted on six federal crimes, including murder and stalking, in the killing of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shooting of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson shared an update on the investigation after a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment against Boelter on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, is now accused of also attempting to kill the Hoffmans' daughter, Hope, in the early hours of June 14. "Both John and Yvette acted with incredible bravery to put themselves between Boelter's bullets and their daughter," Thompson said during a Tuesday press conference. "Miraculously, Hope Hoffman was not shot, but she was the fifth intended victim of Vance Boelter that night." These are the counts against Boelter: Stalking of Melissa Hortman with the intent to kill or injure Stalking of John Hoffman with the intent to kill or injure Murder of Melissa Hortman Murder of Mark Hortman Shooting of Melissa and Mark Hortman (firearms offense) Shooting of John and Yvette Hoffman and attempted shooting of Hope Hoffman (firearms offense) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each count carries a sentence of up to life in prison. Two of them are capital offenses that could mean the death penalty. Vance Boelter is taken into custody in Sibley County on June 15.Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher | Facebook Thompson says he's confident that Boelter acted alone in "an act of political extremism" against Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, but his motivations are still unclear. He says Boelter "spent months investigating his targets" and "appears to have conducted surveillance at at least some of the houses." "Vance Boelter committed a terrible act of political violence and extremism, a targeted political assassination that was unprecedented in the state of Minnesota," he said during Tuesday's press conference. According to Thompson, security footage shows Boelter driving "an SUV disguised to look like a police vehicle" and wearing a "hyper-realistic silicone mask and a dark brown wig" approach the Hortman home shortly before 3:30 a.m. on June 14. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boelter rang the door bell and shouted "police, welfare check," then shined a flashlight into Mark Hortman's eyes when he answered the door. The two had a brief conversation about six feet apart at the front door as Brooklyn Park police officers arrived to the scene to conduct a welfare check on the Hortmans after hearing about the shooting at the Hoffmans' home in Champlin at around 2 a.m. Thompson says Boelter fired a "volley of gunshots into the Hortman home," prompting officers to fire at him, then Boelter "charged" inside and fatally shot Mark and Melissa Hortman before fleeing out the back door. Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson shares an update on the Boelter investigation during a Tuesday press conference.YouTube Authorities recovered two guns used in the shootings. Thompson says one gun used to shoot the Hoffmans was found outside the Hortman home, while another gun owned by Boelter was used to kill the Hortmans and was discovered in a pond near their home. Thompson says Boelter didn't leave behind a manifesto explaining his political ideologies or philosophies, so there's "little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism." But a handwritten letter addressed to FBI Director Kash Patel was left in a car allegedly abandoned by Boelter near his farmhouse in Green Isle, Minn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boelter allegedly confessed to shooting the Hoffmans and Hortmans in the letter and claimed he was "trained with the U.S. military off the books" and approached by Gov. Tim Walz about killing U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, according to Thompson. Testimonials from those who knew Boelter in the wake of the shooting noted that he was explicitly anti-abortion, but he claimed in an interview with the New York Post last week that this wasn't his motivation in the shooting. Prosecutors in Hennepin County says they have "seen no evidence that the allegations regarding Governor Walz are based in fact." The letter was expected to be made public Tuesday as a search warrant was unsealed. Related: Accused assassin Vance Boelter reportedly denies Trump, pro-life motivations This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. The Middle East is on track to surpass Asia to become the worlds second-largest gas producer in 2025, ranking only behind North America, according to Rystad Energy research and analysis. Gas production in the Middle East has grown by about 15% since 2020, and the future growth underscores the determination of regional producers to monetize gas reserves and develop export potential to meet global demand. The region currently produces about 70 billion cubic feet per day (Bcfd) of gas, a figure that is forecast to increase by 30% by 2030 and 34% by 2035 thanks to significant developments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Qatar, Oman, and the UAE. By 2030, the region will add another 20 Bcfd, equivalent to half of Europes entire gas demand as of today. This outlook hinges on Brent prices holding at $70 per barrel and oil-indexed gas prices hovering at the range of $7-9 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). If prices fall below $6 per MMBtu, new projects could be delayed, and expected volume growth by 2030 could decrease from 30% to 20% or less, depending on the severity and duration of the price decline. To fully capitalize on this growth, the region is preparing for a significant increase in gas exports. By 2030, it will have an additional 10 Bcfd of gas available for export, positioning itself as a major supplier to both Europe which is working to reduce its reliance on Russian energy and fast-growing markets in Asia. This expansion is supported by a steady annual production increase of around 6%, with total output projected to reach 90 Bcfd by the end of the decade. About half of the 20 Bcfd new supply will meet rising domestic demand, particularly from industrial users, while the rest will be available for export. As more long-term gas contracts are signed and export volumes rise, the Middle East is on track to become a key energy hub for countries seeking stable and dependable sources of natural gas, Mrinal Bhardwaj, Senior Analyst, Upstream Research, Rystad Energy Learn more with Rystad Energys Upstream Solution A significant portion of this expansion will come from new projects that can produce gas at a cost-effective level of less than $5 per thousand cubic feet. The Gulf trio of Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are leading this gas-driven growth, with Qatars ambitious North Field expansion set to elevate its liquefied natural gas (LNG) capacity by 80%, from 77 to 142 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by the decades end, all while maintaining a competitive breakeven price of under $6 per MMBtu. A drop below $6 per MMBtu is not ideal for investments, but Middle Eastern projects remain highly resilient due to their low breakeven costs, typically below $5 per thousand cubic feet. Even in a prolonged low-price environment, we expect strong production growth from the region. While some final investment decisions could be delayed in such a scenario, the overall impact on output should be limited, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The nation's largest public utility says it is looking at other sites for a new natural gas power plant after its preferred location in Tennessee drew heavy public scrutiny, including from country musician John Rich. The Tennessee Valley Authority announced Tuesday that the Cheatham County site is no longer its preferred one. Rich, a conservative supporter of President Donald Trump who has Cheatham County roots, has been a key opponent of TVA's 900-megawatt plant in the county. He said he enlisted Donald Trump to team up on the issue. A TVA spokesperson declined to comment about Richs comments, including whether Trump was involved. A White House spokesperson also declined to comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The community has raised concerns about the potential impact on water quality, air quality, noise pollution, safety, property rights and more, in a rural area that also has homes and schools nearby. Clean energy and environmental groups have also led resistance to the proposal. Rich said Trump and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins joined forces with me and all the residents of Cheatham County. They pulled out under threat, Rich said about TVA in a social media post Tuesday. "They pulled out because theyre afraid President Trump is going to fire every member on that board. Based on feedback, the federal utility says it is considering a site at a nearby industrial park and other Middle Tennessee locations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, it floated options such as working with the Trump administration to extend the use of some fossil fuel plants. The utility has been planning to retire the last of its coal-fired plants by 2035. But Trump has signed executive orders aimed at boosting the coal industry. Power from the proposed Cheatham plant was intended to replace some of the electricity from the second unit of the coal-fired Cumberland Fossil Plant, which had been planned for retirement in 2028 but is now among the coal units being evaluated for potentially longer life. The site that sparked opposition includes the power plant and a battery storage system on 286 acres in Cheatham County, in addition to a 12-mile natural gas pipeline and up to 45 miles of transmission lines to the project. Rich last week posted a map showing many areas of farmland around the preferred area, saying it CANNOT happen. Rollins, the agriculture secretary, replied, ON IT and Standby. Rich additionally has called for a complete revamping of TVA, saying, Cheatham County ain't the only place they're doing this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any final decision on the plant would need to await the installation of more TVA board members. Trump recently announced four nominees for the board, which for months has not had enough members to take many actions because Trump fired some of former President Joe Bidens picks. TVA provides power to more than 10 million people across seven southern states. The board normally has nine members and requires five to make a quorum. It currently has three. Trumps picks would not be seated until the U.S. Senate confirms them. Clean energy advocates applauded TVAs decision to back off the Cheatham County location, but said it should instead invest more in clean energy options and heed the concern of communities where similar gas plants are proposed in Cumberland City, Kingston and Memphis. Instead of simply shifting those harmful impacts to another area, TVA should scrap its plans for a new gas plant altogether and invest in clean and cost-effective power options, like solar power and battery storage, said Trey Bussey, a staff attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) Federales Fest is back for its third year, bringing a full day of music, food and fun to Baton Rouge from noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4 at Live Oak at Cedar Lodge. Known as the music fest your mama warned you about, Federales Fest blends country, rock-n-roll, funk, and Americana with a little south-of-the-border flair. This years lineup features Paul Cauthen, George Porter Jr. & Runnin Pardners, Sam Morrow, Zach Edwards & The Medicine, Dominick Michael, The Captain Legendary Band, Scenic Highway, and more. Local food vendors will be on site, serving dishes with a Southern twist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The festival is presented by Williamson Eye Center and Lamar Advertising. Proceeds will go to Be Positive, a local nonprofit that helps young Louisiana artists, chefs, and musicians. Be Positive is also sponsoring the opening act, Scenic Highway, a kids band from Baton Rouge Music Studios. General admission is $75, and VIP tickets are $250, which include free food and drinks all day. Click here to get tickets. Changes made to admission costs for Baton Rouges Liberty Lagoon Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Federal authorities have charged three small-town Louisiana police chiefs with taking hundreds of $5,000 bribes over nearly a decade in exchange for filing false police reports that would allow noncitizens to apply for visas that let certain crime victims stay in the U.S. The false police reports would indicate that the immigrant was a victim of a crime that would qualify them to apply for a so-called U visa, U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said Wednesday at a news conference in Lafayette. He said the police officials were paid $5,000 for each name they provided falsified reports for, and that there were hundreds of names over the years. There had been an unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana," Van Hook said, noting that two other people were also charged in the alleged scheme. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, the armed robberies never took place, he said. Fraud, bribery and conspiracy charges Earlier this month, a federal grand jury in Shreveport returned a 62 count indictment charging the five defendants with crimes including conspiracy to commit visa fraud, visa fraud, bribery, mail fraud and money laundering, Van Hook said. Those charged are Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon, former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea, Michael Freck Slaney, a marshal in Oakdale, and Chandrakant Lala Patel, an Oakdale businessman. If convicted, the defendants could face years or even decades of jail time. Court and jail records don't list attorneys for any of them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to investigators, people seeking special visas would reach out to Patel, who would contact the lawmen and offer them a payment in exchange for falsified police reports that identified the migrants as victims of armed robberies that never occurred. The scheme went on for nearly a decade, Van Hook said. When pressed about the extent of the fraud, Van Hook said there hundreds of names - specifically for visas that were approved. Asked what might happen to the people who allegedly paid bribes, including whether they might be charged or their immigration status might be changed, Van Hook said he couldn't say yet but that the investigation is ongoing. U visas offer a rare pathway to citizenship Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Getting a U visa can give some crime victims and their families a pathway to U.S. citizenship. About 10,000 people got them in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2022, which was the most recent period for which the Homeland Security Department has published data. These special visas, which were created by Congress in 2000, are specifically for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity, based on a description of the program published by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. These visas are designed to help law enforcement and prosecutors prosecute crimes where you need the victim or the witness there, Van Hook said. U visas serve a valuable purpose, and this is a case where they were abused. In 2021, USCIS warned that the U visa program was susceptible to fraud after an audit from the Office of Inspector General found that administrators hadnt addressed deficiencies in their process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The audit found that USCIS approved a handful of suspicious law enforcement signatures that were not cross-referenced with a database of authorized signatures, according to the OIG report. They were also not closely tracking fraud case outcomes, the total number of U visas granted per year, and were not effectively managing the backlog, which led to crime victims waiting for nearly 10 years before receiving a U visa. Current and forme r police chiefs are arrested The current or former police chiefs are from small central Louisiana municipalities that are near each other. They're in a part of the state that is home to multiple immigration detention facilities. Although Louisiana doesn't share a border with a foreign country, there are nine ICE detention facilities in the state holding nearly 7,000 people. Local news outlets reported seeing ICE and FBI agents entering the homes of two of the chiefs. Van Hook said authorities searched multiple police departments and a Subway sandwich shop that Patel operated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two of the police chiefs were arrested Tuesday at a hotel in Baton Rouge, where the annual Louisiana Association of Chiefs of Police conference was being held. Details surrounding the other arrests were not immediately available. Van Hook and others said at Wednesday's news conference that the arrests don't mean the indicted chiefs' departments are corrupt. It saddens me to have any fellow law enforcement officers caught up in crimes, said Rapides Parish Sheriff Mark Wood, whose office assisted in the investigation. It puts a bad light on the good cops that do their job right and hold the line as they should. ___ Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story was updated to correct that the news conference took place in Lafayette, not Baton Rouge. ___ Mustian reported from New York. Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed. July 16 (UPI) -- New details about the motive of the fatal shooting of two Minnesota lawmakers were revealed when federal prosecutors released a letter allegedly written by accused shooter Vance Boelter. The announcement Tuesday accompanied a statement that Boelter, 57, was indicted by a grand jury on enhanced murder charges tied to the killing of state Rep. Melissa Hortman, a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farm-Labor party, her husband, Mark, and their dog, Gilbert. The announcement came from Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson. Boelter, who is from Green Isle, Minn., is also accused of shooting state Sen. John Hoffman, DFL member, and his wife, Yvette. Both were seriously wounded. The letter said that Boelter had also planned to kill the Hoffmans' daughter, Hope, but she was not injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators found the letter addressed to FBI director Kash Patel in a car found near Boelter's home on June 15. "I am the shooter at large in Minnesota involved in the two shootings," Boelter allegedly wrote in the letter. The letter detailed his plan to kill the two state lawmakers, and said that he was ordered to do so by Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat. He said he had been trained by the U.S. military and had taken part in secret missions "all in the line of what I thought was doing right and was in the best interest of the United States." He claimed in the letter that Walz also ordered him to kill Minnesota's two U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, because "Tim wants to be a senator." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The tragedy continues to be deeply disturbing for all Minnesotans," Walz said in response to the revelation. The letter claimed that Boelter didn't want to shoot them, but he did so after someone threatened his family. Thompson described it as fantasy. "Was it a delusion that he believes, or was it a delusion that is designed as an effort to misdirect our investigation or to, frankly, excuse his crimes? Well, that's a good question," Thompson said at a news conference. "It certainly seems designed to excuse his crimes." A grand jury indicted Boelter on six counts, Thompson said, including two murder counts, stalking with the intent to murder and firearm charges. Each count carries a penalty of up to life in prison. The two capital murder charges mean he faces the death penalty. Minnesota abolished the death penalty in 1911, but the federal government has had capital punnishment since 1988. As part of a federal investigation into a massive scheme to defraud Minnesotas Housing Stabilization Services program, law enforcement carried out search warrants in the Twin Cities on Wednesday. Eight locations were listed in the search warrant affidavit, including in St. Paul, Roseville and Little Canada. No one was under arrest as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for Minnesota. Minnesota has a fraud problem and not a small one, Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson said in a Wednesday statement. For too long, organized fraud schemes like this have flourished in plain sight, draining public resources dry. Todays warrants are another step in a much bigger reckoning. This state needs to confront the scale of its fraud problem because ignoring it is no longer an option. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Housing Stabilization program is a new Minnesota Medical Assistance benefit intended to help seniors and people with disabilities including mental illness and substance use disorders find and maintain housing, said the affidavit by a special agent in the FBIs Minneapolis office. The program has proved to be extremely vulnerable to fraud, the agent wrote. Since Minnesota became the first state to offer Medicaid coverage for Housing Stabilization Services, dozens of new companies have been created and enrolled in the program. These companies, and the individuals who run them, have taken advantage of the housing crisis and the drug addiction crisis in Minnesota to prey on individuals who need help getting back on their feet as they recover from drug addiction. The agent said the companies do this by contacting people in halfway houses and residential drug treatment facilities who are eligible for Medicaid and offering to help them find housing. After registering them to receive housing stabilization services, the companies fraudulently claim to provide dozens of program service hours to their new clients,' the affidavit continued. In reality, client after client has reported that they received little or no actual services or assistance from these companies. But the companies engaged in this scheme have received millions of dollars in Medicaid funds for housing stabilization services they did not actually provide, the affidavit continues. DHS responds The search warrants are the result of the critical partnerships between the Minnesota Department of Human Services, which oversees the states Housing Stabilization Services program, and other agencies and are an important example of our shared commitment to work together to ensure Medicaid program integrity, said Shireen Gandhi, DHS temporary commissioner, in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DHS Office of Inspector General regularly provides investigative data and information about Medicaid provider targets to our law enforcement partners so they can build actionable cases to hold bad actors accountable, Gandhi said. When credible signs of fraud were seen with these providers the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) immediately briefed law enforcement officials on the situation, the statement said. DHS has open investigations into all of the five providers targeted today by our law enforcement partners, and DHS previously stopped payments to three of the providers. Fraud in public programs hurts the people we are working to help, Gandhi continued. By coordinating the administrative oversight of DHS with the legal enforcement activity of our law enforcement partners, Minnesota is able to bring those committing Medicaid fraud to justice and, often, able to facilitate monetary recovery. She said DHS will continue to work with law enforcement and thanks to legislative action this past session, DHS has additional tools, including the discretion to disclose when a stop payment is issued, effective July 1, 2025. These enhancements will help prevent fraud from happening on the front end as well as enable DHS to take swift public action when credible evidence of fraud is found on the back end. Facilities searched The locations that were listed in the search warrant affidavit to be searched were: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brilliant Minds Services in an office building on University Avenue near Fairview Avenue in St. Paul. Pristine Health LLC on Grand Avenue near Oxford Street in St. Paul. Liberty Plus LLC on Minnesota 36 in Roseville. Faladcare Inc. offices on Middle Street in Little Canada and Hudson Road in Woodbury. Leo Human Services in a building on Northland Circle in Brooklyn Park. Two houses, one on Stewart Avenue between West Seventh Street and Shepard Road in St. Paul, and the other on 127th Avenue Northeast in Blaine. No one answered the phones at the businesses. The number for Brilliant Minds Services was disconnected when the Pioneer Press tried calling Wednesday. 22 providers purporting to operate from St. Paul office building The state initially estimated the housing stabilization program would cost about $2.6 million a year, according to the special agents affidavit. But from January 2024 to April 2025, at least 14 different providers have received more than $1.2 million through the program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total during that 16-month period, the 14 providers received more than $22 million in taxpayer money for housing stabilization services they purportedly provided, the agent wrote. During the same period, seven program providers received more than $30,000 for providing housing stabilization services to a single recipient that is, they claimed to be providing almost $2,000 a month in housing stabilization services to a single Medicaid recipient, the affidavit continued. One provider claimed and was paid more than $40,000 for a single services recipient and also claimed $52,000 for services provided to another single recipient. Related Articles Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement KARE 11 aired a story in May and interviewed a woman to whom a provider purportedly provided about 40 hours of services and for which they billed and were paid over $2,000, but the woman said she hadnt received any substantive services, the affidavit said. There are several program providers under investigation, the agent wrote. There are records that suggest that bills submitted by such providers for reimbursement are inflated, inaccurate, and/or fraudulent. The investigation has also revealed an association among many of the programs top billers. There are about 22 providers purporting to operate out of the Griggs-Midway Building in St. Paul, where Brilliant Minds Services LLC is located on University Avenue, the affidavit said. From January 2024 to May 2025, the 22 providers received more than $8 million in Medicaid payments for housing stabilization services purportedly provided. MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) Spotty showers are widespread across the area this afternoon. A few thunderstorms, but most just have pockets of heavy rain. Temperatures will be near normal, in the upper 80s at the coast and low and mid-90s inland. Dew points remain high and uncomfortable, surging the heat index over 100 degrees, but there are no heat alerts for today. Rain chances will be lower Thursday through the weekend as high pressure over the western Atlantic stays in control in the Carolinas. Yes, this keeps rain mostly away for the weekend, but it is going to surge temperatures. Heat alerts are likely to be issued for Saturday and Sunday as temperatures will be in the upper 90s inland and low 90s at the beach. This high pressure is also likely to keep away what is brewing in the Gulf. TROPICAL UPDATE An area of low pressure off Floridas northeast coast is likely to become at least a tropical depression now that it is in the Gulf. Yesterday, it crossed Florida and is very near the coast of the Florida Panhandle and is traveling west. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This proximity to the coast will likely prevent organization, but the threat of a tropical depression is unchanged at 40%. A gradual turn of the northeast is likely, but the models below are having a difficult time answering the when. The European model follows a westward track with the center moving into southeast Louisiana and then turning to the northeast during the day on Friday. The high pressure that is building across the Carolinas will keep this away from our area. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. LGBTQ+ Pride flag | Susan J. Demas This story was originally reported by Orion Rummler of The 19th. Meet Orion and read more of his reporting on gender, politics and policy. Millions of Americans are expected to lose health care coverage through President Donald Trumps one big, beautiful tax and spending law and LGBTQ+ Americans, who rely heavily on social services due to high rates of poverty and disability, are among those who will be most impacted. Experts say that widespread loss of health care, coupled with rising discrimination and fewer workplace protections, will create a worst-case scenario for LGBTQ+ rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These support programs are being cut amid an increased environment of hostility towards LGBTQ+ people, said Brad Sears, distinguished scholar of law and policy at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. Were really seeing this coming together of different pressures that are going to lead to poverty and unemployment among LGBTQ+ people. The law issues extensive cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) two programs designed for low-income and disabled Americans that many LGBTQ+ people need to survive. LGBTQ+ adults are twice as likely as non-LGBTQ+ adults to use Medicaid as their main insurance, according to the Williams Institute, and are more likely to experience food insecurity and rely on SNAP benefits. Medicaid is also the primary insurance for Americans living with HIV. Medicaid cuts will profoundly impact disabled LGBTQ+ adults and those with low incomes, according to a recent Williams Institute report, as well as those raising children. People of color, transgender adults, and cisgender lesbian and bisexual women will be especially impacted. Its a sort of death by a thousand cuts, said Katie Keith, director of the center for health policy and the law at the ONeill Institute at Georgetown Law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The law attaches more documentation and a work requirement to Medicaid, while putting more costs on hospitals when patients dont have insurance and cant pay. People will lose coverage altogether or have less comprehensive coverage, Keith said. The law, which goes into effect next December, cuts federal spending on Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that 11.8 million Americans will lose health care coverage over the next decade due to the laws Medicaid cuts. Roughly 1.8 million LGBTQ+ adults use Medicaid as their primary health insurance, including more than 1.2 million lesbian and bisexual women, per the Williams Institute. The law creates an 80-hours-a-month work requirement in order to access Medicaid although recipients can volunteer for 80 hours a month instead or enroll in at least a part-time education program. These requirements go into effect in early 2027. Exceptions are granted to disabled adults, pregnant women the law only refers to women, leaving out pregnant trans men or nonbinary people and parents of young children, but experts say its unclear how meaningful these exceptions will be and whether patients are aware of them. The Congressional Budget Office has really pinpointed work requirements as whats going to lead to disenrollment, Sears said. The red tape, the bureaucracy, disenrolls people who would otherwise be eligible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Medicaid recipients will now have to file paperwork every six months to prove that they are working or volunteering for 80 hours a month, or to request an exemption, said Lindsey Dawson, director of LGBTQ health policy at KFF. These requirements, which have never been issued on a national level before, are expected to dramatically reduce Medicaid enrollment, she said. If someone is already navigating difficult circumstances, like an unstable living situation or surviving on minimal income, they probably wont be able to keep up with additional paperwork. The 19th spoke with several LGBTQ+ people on Medicaid who doubt that work requirement exceptions for disabled people and parents will help them keep their coverage, even though they qualify for now. They still expect to lose their health care due to the burdens of this new paperwork, or because of how much money hospitals are expected to lose under this new law. Why does it have to be like this? It really feels overwhelming, because it doesnt seem like it should be this hard to make sure that people can go to the doctor, said Frankie Brletich, a 30-year-old nonbinary person living in Philadelphia. They know how hard it can be to navigate the red tape of health insurance, prescriptions and doctors visits as a disabled person. They expect these new Medicaid work requirements to make it worse, and to ultimately discourage disabled people from seeking out coverage altogether. Under Trumps new tax law, Brletich has been worried about losing the Medicaid coverage that took them so long to get. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They have been unable to work for over a year, as they experience chronic fatigue, chronic pain and have a history of mental illness. They applied for Medicaid in December when they left their job and didnt get approved until March this year. In the meantime, they were uninsured. They ran out of psychiatric medications as well as their testosterone prescription, leaving them in a depressive state as their mental health declined. As they left their employer-sponsored private insurance and switched to Medicaid, they had to deal with pharmacy mishaps, change medical providers and get a new therapist. Soon, they will face even more red tape to access the Medicaid coverage that they sorely need. Meanwhile, they are working with a lawyer to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance, which sends monthly payments to people with a disability that hinders their ability to work. The first time they applied for SSDI, they were denied. Theyre appealing that decision. Although Trumps new tax and spending law includes exceptions for disabled Americans in its work or volunteer requirements, the law puts the burden of accessing those exceptions onto disabled people like Brletich. Theres still the administrative burden of paperwork that is then put on to me to re-up every time and to constantly prove that I am still disabled, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, estimates that between three to five million LGBTQ+ people in the United States have disabilities, including 2 in 5 transgender adults. This group faces steep barriers to health care access, due to medical discrimination and lower rates of health insurance. LGBTQ+ people are also more likely to experience mental health conditions that impact daily life, compared to the general population. Although these Medicaid cuts will harm many Americans, Keith is especially concerned about how it will impact transgender people, since health care access for this group is being threatened on multiple fronts. Starting in 2026, insurance sold on the individual and small-group marketplace will no longer cover gender-affirming care, which is expected to raise costs overall. In Congress, Republican lawmakers had planned to prohibit Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care for transgender adults and minors altogether, but that provision was dropped in the final version of the spending bill. Any time you are fraying the social safety net, as they are doing here, you are inevitably going to hard vulnerable populations, including transgender communities, Keith said. Another Medicaid recipient in Washington state told The 19th that she believes carve-outs for work exceptions will still be a significant barrier for disabled Americans. She asked to remain anonymous due to prior experiences receiving death threats for her advocacy as a trans woman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have a significant disability or multiple disabilities, if somebody cuts you off of your health care and then sends you a letter saying, By the way, theres this administrative process by which you can get back on it is the people with disabilities that are going to be least able to navigate that system, including me, she said. As a disabled woman in her mid-50s with an annual income of about $8,000, she would not be able to see a doctor without Medicaid. She enrolled in Apple Health, the expanded Medicaid program in Washington, in January. Until that point, it had been almost five years since she had had health insurance or seen a doctor. Due to a combination of factors depression, severe social anxiety, and chronic pain applying was too difficult. And she couldnt see a doctor without insurance, because paying out of pocket was just not possible. So she avoided medical care, and also largely avoided leaving the house. If she loses coverage again, it may take her another four years to re-enroll, she said; thats how long it took her to navigate the process the first time. Costs for states to run their Medicaid programs are also expected to rise, Dawson said, as the new law effectively decreases the revenue that states can generate from their programs. Some states may have to shrink their Medicaid programs if they cant afford to run it under the new law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have not historically seen changes to our health care system that would result in coverage losses like this before, she said. Its really a significant rollback in federal support for health coverage, and I think states will be faced with tough choices. Considering the scope of these cuts, Cassidy Vare, a Philadelphia resident who relies on Medicaid coverage for her and her two children, is not feeling confident about the future of health care in Pennsylvania. Since her children are 13 and 5 years old, and shes currently attending school, she should be exempt from the laws strict work requirements. Regardless, she is terrified of losing care. Hospitals in the state are expected to lose about $4.5 billion per year over the next decade because of Medicaid cuts, per a local news outlet. We have some time to figure out what were going to do next, but a year from now looks kind of scary, she said. Without Medicaid, Vare would need to drop out of her masters program to get a job with health insurance which would disrupt her plan to secure a more stable and high-paying career for her family. Vare, as well as other Medicaid recipients that The 19th spoke with, had no knowledge of any exemptions for parents in her situation written into the new law until The 19th informed her about it. From her perspective, health care is being taken away, and her familys future is at stake. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It looks like Medicaid is going away, even if theyre pretending that its still going to exist, she said. I dont know whether my state will be able to cover my insurance or not. These fears are not unfounded, Dawson from KFF said. State Medicaid programs may change, and people are expected to lose coverage on a large scale. That said, anyone eligible for Medicaid coverage under the new law should pursue that access however they can, she said. When you hear that the federal government itself expects 12 million people to lose insurance coverage, its hard not to imagine what will happen if youre one of those individuals, she said. School-age children in Australia are vaping less, research suggests, a year after a government ban on disposable vapes came into effect. Vaping rates among 14 to 17 year olds fell from 17.5% at the start of 2023 to 14.6% in April this year, according to the latest update from Cancer Council Australia's nationwide study Generation Vape. The survey also found rates for people aged over 15 reduced by more than a third. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Australian Health Minister Mark Butler said vaping rates for young Australians "have now turned the corner", adding that officials have seized more than 10 million illegal vapes in the past year. "Our education and prevention campaigns as well as support to deter people from taking up vaping and smoking or to quit are making a difference," he said in a statement. New laws to stop single-use vapes from being made, imported, advertised and supplied in Australia were introduced in July 2024. Nicotine vapes can now only be legally purchased with a prescription at pharmacies. However, a black market for nicotine vapes has been thriving in the country for years. The UK similarly banned the sale of disposable vapes from June this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vapes are considered safer than normal cigarettes because they do not contain harmful tobacco - but health experts advise that they are not risk-free and the long-term implications of using them are not yet clear. Australian authorities - like those in the UK - were particularly concerned about the uptake of vapes by youth, with Mr Butler arguing the products were creating a new generation of nicotine addicts. The latest Generation Vape survey found that 85.4% of young people - from a pool of about 3,000 children aged between 14 to 17 - had never vaped. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Less than a third of those teenagers expressed an interest in vaping, which the Cancer Council says represents a drop in curiosity about the products. Attitudes towards vaping among school-age children are changing too, the researchers said, pointing to interviews conducted in the study where many current or former vapers said they felt a sense of shame or embarrassment about their vape use. Though fewer teenagers are reporting that they're able to buy their vapes themselves, however, tobacconists and vape shops remain a key source of vape sales, despite the new laws. Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Wednesday, Mr Butler said he is confident the "peak of vaping" is behind Australia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I know this is a really, really tough fight and we've got a lot more to do, not just in the area of vaping, but illicit tobacco as well," he said. Tobacco use remains Australia's leading cause of preventable death - despite some of the strongest anti-smoking laws in the world - and kills more than 24,000 people each year. HONOLULU (KHON2) The final defendant in the Miske Enterprise was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy, robbery and drug trafficking. Lance L. Bermudez, 34, was sentenced in federal court on Monday, July 15, after admitting that he, co-defendant Michael Miske and other members of the Miske Enterprise participated in a murder-for-hire conspiracy. Miske daughter-in-law to serve 7 years in prison Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents said Miske paid Bermudez $60,000 to murder an individual he believed was cooperating with law enforcement. Bermudez waited outside the victims home on multiple occasions, but ultimately did not commit the crime due to Miske rescinding the contract. In his 2022 plea agreement, Bermudez also admitted he took part in multiple attempted murders and burned the van that was used to abduct and murder 21-year-old Johnathan Fraser. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You Officials said Bermudez also committed several armed robberies against Honolulu drug dealers and sold the stolen drugs to the community. Our decade-long effort with our outstanding law enforcement partners has now resulted in the federal convictions of 20 Miske confederates who now can no longer victimize Hawaiis citizens and communities. While the work against the Miske Enterprise is done, the people of Hawaii can rest assured that the United States Attorneys Office for the District of Hawaii and our dedicated and resolute law enforcement partners at the Honolulu Division of the FBI, IRS and Homeland Security Investigations, among others, will continue to tirelessly hunt down and prosecute those who operate violent criminal enterprises in our state and endanger our citizens. Acting U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson Check out more news from around Hawaii Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his sentencing, U.S. District Chief Judge Derrick K. Watson said Bermudez has terrorized the city and county to a greater extent than anyone [he] can remember. Judge Watson also noted the brazenness and unprecedented nature of Bermudez, especially amongst other co-conspirators. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. A new Finnish law banning Russian and Belarusian citizens from purchasing real estate took effect July 15, part of a broader effort to bolster Finland's national security amid Russia's increasingly aggressive posture in the region. The measure was announced on X by Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen. Originally passed by Finland's parliament in April, the law allows the Ministry of Defense to block property transactions involving nationals from countries considered a potential security threat. "I am extremely pleased that this law has finally been enacted and comes into effect today. It is about strengthening Finland's security and preparing for all means of influence," Hakkanen wrote on X. He added that the "important reform" should have been introduced earlier, even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the law, the Finnish government has identified Russia and Belarus as the countries to which the new regulation applies. The designation was made through a government resolution following the law's passage. Previously, Finnish authorities could only block property purchases by Russian citizens on a case-by-case basis, if the Ministry of Defense determined the transaction posed a threat to national security. The new law simplifies and strengthens that process by introducing a blanket prohibition. This latest development adds to a series of national security measures Finland has adopted since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Last year, Finland closed its border with Russia, accusing Moscow of conducting a "hybrid operation" by pushing asylum seekers toward Finnish territory. More recently, the country withdrew from an international anti-landmine treaty, again citing the Russian threat. Read also: Ukraine passes bill to withdraw from anti-personnel mine ban treaty Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Prologis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) is one of Goldman Sachs top REIT stock picks. On July 7, Mizuho lifted its price target on Prologis from $105 to $109, while maintaining the rating at Neutral. Mizuho cited Prologiss expected stable occupancy as a key factor supporting the price target increase, with the company indicating a better-than-expected occupancy trajectory for the first half of 2025. Mizuho Lifts Prologis (PLD) Price Target to $109, Maintains Neutral Copyright: kzenon / 123RF Stock Photo Mizuho cited likely positive commentary on Prologiss ancillary business segments as justification for this premium valuation. The investment firm expects a better-than-expected occupancy trajectory in the first half of 2025. Mizuho highlighted Prologiss development starts and margins as important metrics. It noted that the companys focus on high-quality industrial properties supports stable cash flows. The firm further stated that Prologiss consensus view expects the companys current FFO guidance to remain intact. Prologis, Inc. (NYSE:PLD) is the worlds largest industrial REIT, managing a portfolio of over 1.3 billion square feet across 5,900 logistics facilities in 20 countries. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company serves more than 6,500 customers, including Amazon, FedEx, and Home Depot, through strategically located warehouses that support e-commerce, retail, and supply chain operations. While we acknowledge the potential of PLD as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: Goldman Sachs Healthcare Stocks: Top 10 Stock Picks and 11 Best Green Energy Penny Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. A 10th victim has died as a result of injuries sustained in a devastating fire at an assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts, according to the district attorney's office. Brenda Cropper, 66, was hospitalized in critical condition following Sunday night's five-alarm blaze at the Gabriel House, and succumbed to her injuries on Wednesday, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced on Thursday. The other residents killed have been identified as: 64-year-old Rui Albernaz, 61-year-old Ronald Codega, 69-year-old Margaret Duddy, 78-year-old Robert King, 71-year-old Kim Mackin, 78-year-old Richard Rochon, 86-year-old Eleanor Willett and 77-year-old Joseph Wilansky. The name of one victim, a 70-year-old woman, has not been released. Steven Senne/AP - PHOTO: An investigator takes measurements Monday, July 14, 2025, near an entrance to the Gabriel House assisted living facility following a fire that started late Sunday, in Fall River, Mass. MORE: Family of woman who survived assisted-living facility fire: 'I'm sure she felt so helpless' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens were hurt at the Gabriel House, which was home to about 70 people. The fire "was destined to kill 50-plus people," Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said at a news conference on Wednesday, praised the "heroic" first responders who he said saved dozens of lives. Firefighters who rushed to the scene have described seeing faces in windows and "having to decide who they needed to rescue," Bacon said, overcome with emotion. Kimberlee Kruesi/AP - PHOTO: Boards cover the windows of the Gabriel House assisted living facility, where a fire on Sunday killed several people, July 15, 2025 in Fall River, Mass. MORE: 9 dead, dozens hurt in fire at assisted-living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts: Officials One responder pushed through the heavy, black smoke inside the building to break into rooms and pull out nonambulatory residents, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A captain at the scene found it "eerily quiet" when he responded to the front door, where flames were blowing out, the chief said. "He knocked down the fire very quickly, to the point that countless lives were saved," Bacon said. Kimberlee Kruesi/AP - PHOTO: Flowers sit in front of the Gabriel House assisted living facility where a fire on Sunday killed several people, July 15, 2025, in Fall River, Mass. MORE: Assisted-living facility where 9 died in fire was up for recertification this year: Officials The cause of the fire is under investigation. The district attorney's office said it "does not appear to be suspicious." Bacon noted the fire started in a room on the second floor. The main stage of the Tomorrowland music festival near Antwerp was totally destroyed by fire Wednesday, a day before thousands of electronic dance music lovers were due to descend on the Belgian event. There were no injuries, organisers said, insisting that they would still go ahead with the festival over the next two weekends. Some 100,000 participants are expected in the town of Boom, some 16 kilometres (10 miles) south of the port city, with many planning to camp on site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The festival's "DreamVille" campsite will open as planned on Thursday, organisers said. Several dozen DJs and electronic music stars, such as David Guetta, Lost Frequencies, Armin Van Buuren, and Charlotte de Witte, are to perform from Friday for the first weekend, with two-thirds of the events split between the now destroyed "Main Stage" and the "Freedom Stage." Several hundred firemen had toiled to save the stage. Antwerp prosecutors have opened an investigation, though they said the fire appeared accidental. Founded 20 years ago by two Belgian brothers, Tomorrowland has become an internationally renowned brand. A winter festival is now held in the French ski resort of Alpe d'Huez and another in Brazil. mad/adc/blb/gv A fire has destroyed the main stage at Tomorrowland festival in Belgium, just two days before the event was set to open. "Our beloved main stage has been severely damaged," festival organisers said on Wednesday evening. The statement said nobody was injured during the blaze, the cause of which remains unclear. The electronic dance music festival is due to start on Friday in the town of Boom, south of Antwerp, with 400,000 people expected to attend over two weekends. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hundreds of artists are due to perform, including David Guetta, Lost Frequencies, Swedish House Mafia and Charlotte De Witte. The fire started around 18:00 local time (16:00) on Wednesday. Videos posted to social media showed thick grey smoke engulfing the stage. One employee who had been working on the site described "an apocalyptic scene" as the fire broke out. "We suddenly heard bangs and saw fire near the stage, a huge amount of fire," the unnamed individual told Het Nieuwsblad newspaper. "We were just putting the finishing touches on it. One more day and it would be finished. Four weeks of work... gone in half an hour." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Firefighters are working to stop the flames reaching neighbouring homes and woods. Some residents have been evacuated. In an update posted on the festival's website, organisers said the campsite would still open on Thursday as planned, and that the focus was "on finding solutions for the festival weekend". The event will go ahead without the main stage, they added. You can also get in touch by following this link Jul. 15The 7,000-acre Hope Fire has reached one week since initial detection, with flames still active. According to a Northwest Incident Management Team news release Tuesday, the fire has reached 15% containment. Wind spread flames on Monday, pushing the forward northward near Cougar Mountain. Across the affected region, all levels of evacuations are in place. That means some residents should be prepared to leave immediately. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Initially, 75 structures were threatened, said Jodie Schiffman, public information officer for the Hope Fire. Two have been lost. The Hope Fire began July 8. Since then, high heat and heavy winds worked against containment efforts to bring widen the flames. Northwest Incident Management Team 8 is hosting a meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Northport. The fire's cause remains under investigation. Caroline Saint James' 's reporting was funded by Comma's First Amendment Club. CROWN POINT Three vacant seasonal camps were destroyed by a fast-moving fire around noon Tuesday. A propane storage tank at one of the camps exploded and started a blaze that spread to all three places, fire officials said. The camps are located off Lake Road on Lake Champlain in the town of Crown Point and fire officials were trying to determine ownership Wednesday since all three were unoccupied. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Essex County Emergency Services Director Matthew Watts said there were no injuries fighting the fires, and mutual aid to Crown Point A.E. Phelps Fire Department was called in from Ticonderoga, Moriah, Mineville-Witherbee, Port Henry, Westport-Wadhams, Chilson and Putnam, as well as Addison and Bridport, Vermont. Ticonderoga and LaMoille EMS had ambulances on standby there and Ticonderoga Fire Auxiliary provided firefighters with food and beverages. National Grid was called to cut power to the camps. Watts said Essex County fire investigators and fire coordinators were on scene and the cause is being probed. Canadian-Pacific Railway had to suspend trains that run through the area because fire tankers were running back and forth to provide water. The last fire unit cleared at 7:45 p.m., Watts said. PINE VALLEY, Utah (ABC4) A firefighter was injured while battling the lightning-caused Forsyth Fire that continues to burn near Pine Valley in Washington County. The Dammeron Valley Fire and Rescue said its team assisted in the rescue and transport of the injured firefighter, who reportedly experienced a fall. The firefighter was taken off the mountain to a landing zone where he was treated in the back of the ambulance until being flown to the St. George Regional Hospital. The injured firefighter has not been publicly identified but is expected to make a full recovery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Forsyth Fire has been burning since June 19. After initial rapid growth, fire officials reported the fire was now 81% contained and grew only five acres overnight to a total of 15,682 acres burned. The increase in containment came near Whipple Valley and on the southeast side near the 2020 Spirit Creek Fire. Crews are making progress on the handline being constructed to increase containment along the south side of the fire in the Deer Flat area. The progress is slow due to difficult terrain and fuels, officials said in a media release. Crews will continue to work with Dixie Power while they restore electricity to summer residences in the Pine Valley Recreation Area. Water main break in Holladay causes rockslide, prompts evacuations Despite weather conditions and a Red Flag Warning for the area, the fire has seen minimal growth in the last 24 hours. Contingency groups will remain in place, though, to protect the Oak Grove campground and New Harmony, in case fire activity does increase. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are currently 509 fire personnel continuing to battle the Forsyth Fire flames. A Stage 1 fire restriction remains in place for Washington, Iron, and the surrounding counties. The Pine Valley, Grass Valley, and Grays Ranch communities are still under a Ready evacuation status, meaning residents should start preparations for an evacuation in case fire activity does increase. Latest headlines: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. (Diana Ramirez / De Los; Photos courtesy of Ismael Adaba and Jorge Fuentes.) A group of volunteer firefighters from Mexico were among the people helping with the search-and-rescue mission in the aftermath of the floods that submerged Kerr County in central Texas over the Fourth of July weekend. Fundacion 911, a nonprofit that provides equipment and training to fire departments across Mexico, sent a crew of 40 members to support local first responders. The group, based out of the border city of Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, was established in 2023. In the morning of July 4, heavy rain caused the waters of the Guadalupe River to rapidly rise, leading to deadly flash floods that have killed at least 132 people, with an additional 160 people still missing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ismael Aldaba, president and founder of Fundacion 911, told The Times that his organization immediately mobilized volunteers from the Mexican states of Coahuila and Nuevo Leon upon learning of the devastation. Within 12 hours, a group of 13 firefighters arrived in central Texas, with others joining them throughout their time in the state. Once we learned [Kerr County was] affected, we knew we had to come down here. We knew this was a mission to come and help our brothers, Aldaba said. The volunteers dispatched by Fundacion 911 specialize in rescuing people from fast-moving water and are among the few fire crews in Mexico with international certification in swift water rescue. The group also brought cadaver-detecting K9s to help with the field search. "We just [wanted] to make sure that we can work as fast as we can and try to make some headway with all the things we [had] to do," Aldaba added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fundacion 911 worked alongside 400 first responders and volunteers from various agencies and organizations. When you are doing search and rescue, the more people you have on the ground, the better, Brien Alexander, chief of the Mountain Home Fire Department told The Times. Aldaba said that his group felt the appreciation from Texas Hill Country residents during their weeklong stay in Kerr County, adding that the Mountain Home Fire Department opened its doors to their fire house and let them stay with them. Anywhere they went, from stores to restaurants, community members would not let the volunteers from Mexico pay for anything. There was an outpour of kindness from this area, Aldaba said. Its something we are not used to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During her daily news conference on July 8, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum recognized Fundacion 911's work by thanking each member of the team by name. "That is our culture. We Mexicans are always supportive and brotherly. What is reflected in firefighters who go and risk their lives is the essence of the Mexican people. It is humanism," she said in Spanish. Get our Latinx Files newsletter for stories that capture the complexity of our communities. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The European Commission is attempting to introduce its first bloc-wide taxes on tobacco, e-cigarettes and large companies to repay a mountain of coronavirus debt. Electronic waste and carbon emissions could also be targeted in the drive to raise much-needed cash and pay off a 650 billion (560 billion) pandemic loan. The European Unions executive arm will present the proposal to member states on Wednesday as part of the unveiling of plans for the blocs next budget between 2028 and 2034. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brussels raised 650 billion in joint debt to provide much-needed economic boosts to its pandemic-stricken economy. But when the deal was signed off by member states in 2021, there was no agreement over how the money should be repaid The EU is currently looking to set aside between 25 billion and 30 billion annually equivalent to a fifth of its budget to pay off the loan. Using Brussels-mandated taxes, known as own resources, would be the first time the Commission has supplemented its budget with levies it controls. Eurocrats argue that the radical shift is needed to pay back the existing debt, but also to raise further cash to fund a continent-wide rearmament. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The taxation on tobacco products could raise 15 billion annually for the Commission, De Telegraaf, the Dutch newspaper, has reported. Member states will be charged based on the number of smokers in their country, meaning the likes of Greece, Germany and Bulgaria could be among the hardest hit by the levy. It would in effect enforce an increase on the minimum excise rates on cigarettes and cigars, hitting those capitals that enforce lower rates, like Luxembourg. Member states will be taxed based on the number of smokers in their country - Fred Dufor/AFP via Getty Images Dozens of member states have been lobbying the Commission to include vapes, nicotine patches and heated tobacco in the scheme because of health concerns and cash already lost to illicit trade, estimated to be about 10 billion a year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A separate tax could be introduced on companies with a net turnover of 50 million a year that have a permanent base in the EU. Other revenue streams looking to be opened up include targeting a charge for non-recycled electronic waste and a handling fee for long-distance e-commerce packages. The EUs last seven-year budget was about 1 trillion, roughly 1 per cent of the blocs gross national income over the period. The Commission is expected to unveil a proposal to increase that to 1.78 trillion, or 1.26 per cent of gross national income. The tax rises will likely be resisted by countries that pay the most towards the budget, including France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the plan is presented to member states on Wednesday, it will fire the starting pistol on a two-year scrap between national capitals and EU institutions in Brussels over the blocs future finances. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. AUSTIN (KXAN) Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, filed the first flood related legislation Wednesday ahead of next weeks special session, proposing changes to emergency warning systems operated by municipalities and counties. Senate Bill 25 would allow municipalities to collect residents contact information to enroll them in emergency alerts, sent via text message, with their consent and the ability to opt-out at any time. Texans would also be able to choose to enroll in emergency alerts when they apply for or renew their driver license. The bill represents the first of expected flood-related measures as lawmakers prepare to address the July 4 Central Texas disaster that exposed gaps in warning systems across the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after SB 25 was filed, Sen. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, filed SB 26, a flood relief program that provides loans to small businesses. SB 26 would provide interest-free loans to small and micro-businesses to be used for any expenses, so long as they are Texas-based, impacted by the Central Texas floods and be in good standing with the state. Gov. Greg Abbott placed flood warning systems at the top of his 18-item special session agenda following the July 4 floods that killed dozens of people across Central Texas. Kerr County, which suffered the heaviest losses, lacked a flood warning system despite being located in an area known as flash flood alley. Read More: Redistricting, flood warning systems on Texas special session agenda Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The disaster raised questions about whether residents received adequate warnings before the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes, devastating communities along its banks. Legislative leaders announced last Thursday they will create joint House and Senate committees to examine disaster preparedness and flooding issues. The committees will hold their first hearing July 23 at the Capitol, followed by a second hearing in Kerrville to gather resident input. The committees will examine four areas outlined in Abbotts agenda: flood warning systems, flood emergency communications, relief funding for Hill Country floods, and natural disaster preparation and recovery. The special session begins Monday at noon and is limited to 30 days. Only bills that relate to topics on Abbotts agenda are permitted to be filed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eckhardts bill adds to growing legislative momentum to address flood preparedness issues that became apparent during the Central Texas disaster, which marked one of the deadliest flood events in state history. Visit the Texas Legislature Online for an updated list of bills filed ahead of the 89th Legislatures special session Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. A wine shop, specialty grocer and boutique wine bar will open inside St. Petersburgs 400 Central building early next year. Volta Wine + Market will open on the bottom floor of the Residences at 400 Central, the 46-story luxury condominium building currently under construction in downtown St. Petersburg. Partners Zach Pace and Rachelle Tomushev are behind the new project, which when open will feature an elevated wine shop with hundreds of wines, sakes and beer from around the world, along with a gourmet grocery focusing on small-batch producers and imported pantry staples sourced from Florida and across the Southeast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There also will be a 10- to 12-seat bar as well as a vinyl listening lounge featuring rare and classic vinyl and the occasional guest DJ. Volta marks the first commercial tenant announced for the development. Last month, Dynasty Financial Partners, a financial services firm, announced it will move its headquarters to 400 Central and will be the sole office tenant in the building. We are excited to welcome Volta, an independent business founded by local residents, as our first announced commercial tenant, John Catsimatidis, founder of the buildings developer Red Apple Group, said in a statement. Their elevated wine and market offerings will be a staple of the building and a convenience for the residents of 400 Central and all of St. Petersburg. Pace and Tomushev first spoke with the Tampa Bay Times about their plans for Volta in July 2024 and have been searching for the perfect downtown St. Pete space ever since. They toured the building at 400 Central Ave. in January, eventually locking in on a 2,000-square-foot space Pace described as being mid-block on the bottom floor, facing Central Avenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pace, who was the chief operating officer at the since-shuttered Ybor City restaurant Ten Rooms, has an extensive background in wine. He has worked as a wine importer and sommelier and also was the beverage director at two-Michelin-star restaurant Lazy Bear and the director of operations at Aphotic, another Michelin-starred restaurant, both in San Francisco. When Pace and Tomushev relocated to the Tampa Bay area (the couple live in St. Petersburg), they said they noticed a space in the downtown St. Pete market for wine retail and specialty foods. The goal is to serve the needs of (the) downtown corridor but also the whole community, Pace said. Were really meant to be everyday goods and approachable options. Along with the extensive wine selection, patrons will be able to find things like baking supplies, Italian olive oils, tinned fish from Spain and Portugal, milled-to-order flour from the Carolinas, and local honey and cultured butter from Florida, among other amenities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an emailed statement, Pace added: Everything from the wine and grocery selection to the space were building is meant to feel welcoming, personal and human. We have politely turned down out-of-town investors, in lieu of inviting a small group of values-aligned locals to be a part of Volta. Its about shared ownership of something independent and indelible for our thriving city. We want it to feel like the opposite of a chain a place where people know your name, your taste in wine and maybe even your dogs name. Pace said he expects construction to wrap on the building in late 2025, after which his team will get to work on the interior buildout and design. He hopes to open Volta in spring 2026. At the invitation of Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia Gordan Grlic Radman will visit China from July 20 to 22. Xinhua News Agency: To follow up on Croatias Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Gordan Grlic Radmans visit to China, how does China view its current relations with Croatia and what does China expect to achieve through this visit? Lin Jian: China welcomes Gordan Grlic Radman, Croatias Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, to visit China. The two countries have enjoyed traditional friendship. The China-Croatia comprehensive cooperative partnership has maintained steady growth, and Belt and Road cooperation and cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries have borne positive results. China attaches great importance to its relations with Croatia. Through this visit, we stand ready to work with Croatia to further align our development strategies, unlock potential for practical cooperation, have closer people-to-people and cultural exchange and dialogue, and open up a new chapter for our comprehensive cooperative partnership. NHK: This morning, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Peoples Court sentenced a male employee of a Japanese pharmaceutical company to three years and six months in prison for espionage. The Japanese government called the sentencing regrettable and called for the release of the man at the earliest. Japan also said the lack of transparency in judicial procedures impacts the improvement and steady development of bilateral ties and is an obstacle to improving people-to-people exchanges and public sentiment between Japan and China. Whats your comment? Lin Jian: China upholds the rule of law. Our judicial authorities handle the case in strict accordance with the law, protect the lawful rights of the person concerned, and provide facilitation for the Japanese side to perform consular duties in accordance with relevant international conventions and the Agreement on Consular Relations between China and Japan. Let me also point out that China supports trade and economic cooperation between China and Japan and provides a favorable environment for the lawful operation of Japanese companies and individuals in China. We welcome foreign companies to carry out economic and trade cooperation in China. Foreign individuals in China who abide by laws and conduct lawful operation have nothing to worry or be concerned about. RIA Novosti: Nominee for the role of United States envoy to the United Nations Mike Waltz said on Tuesday that Chinas malicious behavior and growing influence in the organization will be top of mind for him if he is confirmed for the position. Whats your comment on this? Lin Jian: These remarks reflect the typical ideological bias and Cold-War and zero-sum mentality of some U.S. politicians. China firmly rejects this. We urge the U.S. to view China and this bilateral relationship objectively and rationally, and make concrete effort to promote the steady, sound and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations, instead of doing the opposite. Reuters: Premier Li Qiang raised concerns with Australias foreign investment screening rules during a meeting attended by his counterpart Anthony Albanese and business leaders from both countries yesterday. What specific industries is China most concerned about? Lin Jian: Regarding the event with the business community during Prime Minister Albaneses visit here, the Chinese side has released a readout. We always believe that economic and trade cooperation serves as the ballast for the relations between China and Australia. China stands ready to work with Australia to provide a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment for companies investing and operating in each others countries and continue to grow our economic and trade ties. China News Service: The Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was held in Tianjin yesterday. Could you share more information on that? Lin Jian: On July 15, the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Member States was successfully held in Tianjin. Before the meeting, President Xi Jinping had a group meeting with foreign ministers and heads of permanent bodies of the SCO in Beijing. He stressed that in the face of a turbulent and changing international landscape, the SCO must stay focused, remain confident, act efficiently and play a more proactive role. It needs to remain true to its founding mission, respond to the peoples expectations and shoulder its mission of the times. It should also serve as the torchbearer of the Shanghai Spirit, be a doer in deepening cooperation and a steadfast contributor to building a community with a shared future for mankind, and inject greater stability and positive energy into the world. Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the meeting and made a five-point proposal for the future development of the SCO: first, staying true to SCOs founding mission and carrying forward the Shanghai Spirit; second, sharing responsibility and laying a solid foundation for security; third, seeking mutual benefit and win-win results and creating engines for development; fourth, upholding amity and good neighborliness and building a beautiful homeland; fifth, staying the course and defending fairness and justice. When jointly meeting the press with SCO Secretary-General Nurlan Yermekbayev after the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang announced that the SCO summit will be held in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1. Participants spoke highly of Chinas work as the rotating chair of the SCO, commended the important role of the SCO and expressed their readiness to cooperate and coordinate with China to make the SCO Tianjin summit a full success. In-depth discussions at this meeting made full political preparations for the upcoming Tianjin summit. We believe that with the concerted effort of all parties, the Tianjin summit will be a gathering of solidarity, friendship and fruitful results, and the SCO will enter a new stage of high-quality development featuring greater solidarity, coordination, dynamism and productiveness. Reuters: The South China Morning Post reports that China has removed restrictions on Reinhard Buetikofer, the former EU lawmaker it sanctioned in 2021. Is the Foreign Ministry able to confirm it? Lin Jian: For publicly known reasons, the exchanges between Chinese and EU legislatures have encountered some setbacks over the past few years. Under the current circumstances, both sides recognize the importance of enhancing dialogue and cooperation. As agreed by the two sides, the Chinese side and the European Parliament decided to lift restrictions on two-way exchanges. We believe and hope that as China and the EU fully resume exchanges between the legislatures, there will be deeper exchanges and understanding, and this will provide new driving forces for the sustained, sound and steady growth of China-EU relations. Antara: Indonesia and the United States have reached a trade agreement under which a 19 percent tariff will be imposed on Indonesian exports to the U.S., while U.S. exports to Indonesia will face no tariff barriers. This is the second such deal between the U.S. and an ASEAN country, following the agreement with Viet Nam. Would the Ministry like to comment on this? Lin Jian: Our stance has always been that parties need to settle economic and trade disputes through equal-footed dialogue and consultation, and jointly foster a sound environment for international economic and trade cooperation. RIA Novosti: Yesterday NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expressed a hope that China, India and Brazil will exert pressure on Russia over possible secondary tariffs that may be imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump over their trade with Moscow. Whats Chinas comment on his remarks? Lin Jian: Ive made clear Chinas position on the relevant issue yesterday. Let me reiterate that China always believes that dialogue and negotiation is the only viable way out of the crisis. China firmly opposes any illicit unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. Tariff wars have no winners. Coercion and pressuring will lead nowhere. We hope parties will help create the atmosphere and conditions for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and act in ways conducive to promoting talks for peace. China Daily: The third China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) kicked off today, which is the first time for the expo to be held in summer. Besides, China also hosted the Western China International Fair, the China-South Asia Expo and other events this summer, showcasing Chinas active effort of pursuing high-standard opening up. Can you give us more details and your comment? Lin Jian: This summer witnessed Chinas booming effort of striving for high-standard opening up. As you said, the third China International Supply Chain Expo kicked off in Beijing today, featuring multiple highlights, more innovation and greener practices. A total of 651 domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions will participate in the expo, with foreign exhibitors making up 35 percent of the total, half of whom are from Europe and the United States. The expo will showcase the latest innovations and more than 100 items are expected to make their debut at the expo, up by 10 percent compared with the previous CISCE. The expo also set up an innovation chain exhibition area for the first time, enabling laboratories to turn their golden ideas into golden keys that can drive industrial advancement. The venue of this years CISCE will be completely powered by green electricity for the first time and expected to cut CO2 emissions by over 1,100 tonnes. The CISCE is a major platform for companies from all countries to enhance resource sharing and technology interconnection, and also a new signature event of Chinas high-standard opening up. Latest data show that Chinas total import and export of goods for the first half of 2025 exceeded 21 trillion yuan, setting a record high for the same period in history. With unilateralism and protectionism on the rise, Chinas booming trade has effectively offset the impact of global industrial and supply chains being disrupted and economies decoupling from each other. Looking forward, the trend of deeply integrated global industrial and supply chains and interdependence between companies around the world is unstoppable. China stands ready to continue working with all sides to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and unimpeded and build an open world economy. Asharq News: The Middle East is facing uncertainty regarding the ceasefire between Iran and Israel. Is China considering playing any role to deescalate tensions or prevent the return to war, especially given that negotiations are yet to be resumed? Lin Jian: You mentioned the situation in the Middle East. This was discussed at the Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SCO Member States. The situation in the Middle East is still complex and sensitive. China stands ready to work with the rest of the international community to advocate peace, advance a political settlement, and restore peace and stability in the Middle East as soon as possible. This is in the common interest of countries in the region and the international community. By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) -Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo will pay a total of $120 million to settle a lawsuit claiming they hid conflicts of interest while sales of ViacomCBS shares helped fuel the collapse of Bill Hwang's Archegos Capital Management. A proposed final settlement with former shareholders of ViacomCBS, now known as Paramount Global, was filed this month in New York state court in Manhattan; it requires a judge's approval. Archegos, a family office that once managed $36 billion, imploded in March 2021 when Hwang could not meet margin calls on bank loans he obtained to make large bets in ViacomCBS and other media and technology stocks. Investors led by the Camelot Event Driven Fund and the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, accused banks of hiding their roles as Archegos counterparties and dumping their shares to avoid losses. The defendants served as prime brokers for Archegos, which had about $20 billion of ViacomCBS exposure and had helped underwrite ViacomCBS common and preferred stock offerings in March 2021. Morgan Stanley, Goldman and Wells Fargo denied wrongdoing in agreeing to settle, according to a court filing dated July 1. It was unclear how much each would pay, but Morgan Stanley handled about 45% of the offerings and the other banks handled much less. All declined to comment on Monday. Many other defendants were previously dismissed. Some court papers had been kept under seal. Bloomberg News reported the settlement earlier on Monday. ViacomCBS common stock and preferred stock investors would receive $75 million and $45 million, respectively, minus legal fees and expenses, court papers show. Their lawyers plan to seek 29% of the settlement fund, or about $35 million, for fees, the papers show. Hwang and former Archegos chief financial officer Patrick Halligan were convicted of fraud in July last year over the firm's collapse and sentenced to 18 years and eight years in prison, respectively. Both are appealing and free on bail. The case is Camelot Event Driven Fund et al v Morgan Stanley & Co et al, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 654959/2021. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler) Laurel County will soon foot the $2.3 million purchase of a new location for the Laurel County Sheriffs Office. During the regular Laurel County Fiscal Court meeting Monday morning, magistrates authorized Judge-Executive David Westerfield to execute all necessary documents for the building purchase. Westerfield shared the total cost of the building is set at $2,306,096.30. Magistrates confirmed the department will leave its current location at 203 South Broad Street in downtown London and move to a building on the 192 Bypass located across from the Laurel County Public Library. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also regarding major changes in the county, Westerfield and magistrates discussed a transfer from the City/County Industrial Development Authority to Somerset Community College. The transfer will support the colleges new construction of a technical building on Laurel Campus. Dr. Carey Castle, SCC President, recently announced the project during a London City Council meeting, saying its currently in the architectural review phase. The building will be constructed on a parcel of land adjacent to the Laurel County Public Library. Westerfield said that the city owns half of the property, while the county owns the other half, so the county agreed to donate its portion of the property. Its going to be here before we know it, Westerfield commented on the building, which is expected to bring further training opportunities to London. Additionally, Shawn Couch was hired to the Road Department. Couchs starting pay will be $16 an hour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Approved without discussion was the first reading of Ordinance #625.0, regarding street legal special purpose vehicles, as well as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) Resolution. A financial discussion including the monthly report, accounts payables, and cash transfers, brought Mondays meeting to a close. County Treasurer Karen Montgomery shared the sole cash transfer, which was $1.2 million from the occupational tax fund to the general fund. The Laurel County Fiscal Court regularly meets at 8:45 a.m. on the second Monday and 9:30 a.m. on the final Thursday of each month. The next meeting will take place Thursday, July 31. July 16 (UPI) -- Federal attorneys and departments today announced the indictment of five people in Louisiana, including four in law enforcement, on charges of conspiracy and fraud for filing false police reports to help people get U visas. Non-citizens can apply for U visas if they are victims of certain crimes. Congress passed the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act in 2000 to protect victims of mental or physical abuse. It can also be used for victims of other serious crimes. U visas last for up to four years, and their holders can also petition other family members to come to the United States and apply for permanent resident status (green card). The five indicted in the scheme were: Chandrakant Patel, aka "Lala," of Oakdale, La.; Chad Doyle, chief of police for Oakdale, La.; Michael Slaney aka "Freck," Marshal of the Ward 5 Marshal's Office in Oakdale, La.; Glynn Dixon, chief of police for Forest Hill, La.; and Tebo Onishea, former chief of police for Glenmora, La. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The indictment alleges that from Dec. 16, 2015, to July 15, 2025, non-residents seeking U visas would contact Patel to get named as victims of armed robbery in police reports, so they could submit applications for U visas. The indictment also alleges that these people paid Patel, 39, thousands of dollars to participate. Patel, the owner of a Subway, would ask Doyle, Slaney, Dixon and Onishea, to write false police reports naming the non-residents as victims of armed robberies and certify U visa I-918B supporting documents as representatives of their agencies. The indictment also alleges that Patel gave an agent of the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office $5,000 on Feb. 18 to influence and reward the agent for a fraudulent police report. The 62-count indictment was announced by Acting United States Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eric Delaune, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Tapp and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman. The defendants each face a sentence of up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge; up to 10 years on the visa fraud charges; and up to 20 years on the mail fraud charge. Patel faces up to 10 years on the bribery charge. They could face fines of up to $250,000 on each count. Five teenage boys arrested following the deaths of an elderly couple in a house fire have been released on bail. Stan Rickman, 91, and his wife Roma, 88, were found dead at their home in Heron Close, Alton, Hampshire, in the early hours of 14 April. Hampshire police said on Tuesday that four 15-year-old boys from Alton were arrested on suspicion of murder. A fifth boy, who is also 15 and had previously been arrested and bailed, was re-arrested on the same charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All five have been conditionally bailed until 15 October while investigations continue. A 32-year-old man from Aldershot and a 16-year-old boy from Alton previously arrested on suspicion of murder remain on bail. A 15-year-old boy from Bordon previously arrested on suspicion of murder was released without further action. Police renewed an appeal for information from anyone who may have seen suspicious behaviour, or has CCTV, doorbell or dashcam footage, in the area of Heron Close between 00:00 and 05:00 BST on 14 April. Police and firefighters were sent to Heron Close, Alton, at about 04:00 BST on 14 April [BBC] You can follow BBC Hampshire & Isle of Wight on Facebook, X, or Instagram. More on this story Related internet links Jul. 15MITCHELL When an American flag has served its purpose, it can lead a second life. Much like a relay race, the Nation of Patriots veteran fundraising organization takes one flag that has flown in active duty, over the white house or a government building on an annual motorcycle parade of the United States to raise funds for disabled American veterans. The flag started the morning Tuesday in Sioux Falls, and arrived in Mitchell for the noon ceremonial hand off. This is the first year Mitchell is a stop in the Nation of Patriots flag relay race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The flag makes its way over roughly 115 days to all 50 states. The flag is taken by motorcycle to the 48 contiguous states and is then flown to Alaska and Hawaii to raise awareness and funds. The South Dakota flag fundraising efforts were led by leather vest-wearing volunteers from the Vietnam Vet Legacy Vet Motorcycle Club, whose members served in the military. Club member and Nation of Patriots regional commander Kevin Stoterau told the Mitchell Republic that the 501(c)3 non-profit organization puts an emphasis on paying veterans' mortgage, utility and grocery bills. Very little actual cash is put in the hands of veterans, according to Stoterau, who started as a flag bearer with Nation of Patriots in 2013. "We do everything we can to help them," Stoterau said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flag bearers receive no reimbursement for fuel, hotels or labor, according to Stoterau. "It's all volunteer. It's all out of our pocket," Stoterau said. "100% of all donations goes to help a disabled veteran in financial crisis." Stoterau, who spent 38 years in the military, was joined for a ceremonial transfer of an American flag between flag bearers at the Corn Palace Plaza, near the corn mural of the Statue of Liberty. Club member Ron Obe presented the flag to club member Ron Anderson. Dawn Stoterau read aloud a commission statement for flag bearers. "Your acceptance of this flag becomes your pledge that you will carry and care for these colors with relentless respect on behalf of your fellow Americans," she read aloud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Flags are in one location for about a day. Flags toured in bigger cities raise more funds, according to Kevin Stoterau, who believes if the flag had more time in the Dakotas then he'd have more time to raise money for veterans. Dawn Stoterau would like to expand the fundraising efforts into the Black Hills and include the whole state. The next stop for the American flag is a stop in Watertown, on Wednesday, July 16 and then on to Fargo, N.D. on Thursday, July 17, followed by a stop in Minnesota. "Ride for honor, for country and for those who protect it all. Godspeed, flag bearer," Dawn Stoterau said. A flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service in Duluth at 11:10 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15 for Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas counties. The NWS warns: "Turn around, don't drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be aware of your surroundings and do not drive on flooded roads. Report observed flooding to local emergency services or law enforcement and to the National Weather Service in Duluth when you can do so safely. Flooding can be reported to the National Weather Service at 1-800-685-8612." See weather radar for Wisconsin What are NWS meteorologists saying? At 11:10 p.m., the NWS issued a statement including the following information: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement WHAT: Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is expected. WHERE: In Wisconsin, Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas counties. WHEN: Until 10:30 a.m. CDT Wednesday. IMPACTS: Flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations is imminent or occurring. Streams continue to rise due to excess runoff from earlier rainfall. Low-water crossings are inundated with water and may not be passable. ADDITIONAL DETAILS: At 11:10 p.m. CDT Tuesday, Doppler radar indicated heavy rain due to thunderstorms. Flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly in the warned area. Radar estimates and spotter reports indicate between 2 and 8 inches of rain have fallen. Some locations that will experience flooding include: Ashland, Washburn, Sanborn, Iron River, Lake Nebagamon, Barnes, Barksdale, Brule, Solon Springs, Drummond, Gordon, Town of Delta, Ino, Benoit, Odanah, Bennett, Mason, Lake Owen, Upper Eau Claire Lake and Grand View. What is a flash flood? A flash flood is a flood caused by heavy or excessive rainfall in a short period of time, generally less than six hours, according to the NWS. Flash floods are usually characterized by raging torrents after heavy rains. A flash flood can be sudden and violent and take just minutes to develop. It is possible to experience a flash flood in areas not immediately receiving rain. What's the difference between a flash flood watch and a flash flood warning? A flash flood warning is issued when a flood is imminent or occurring, the NWS says. If you are in a flood prone area, you should move immediately to high ground. The NWS issues a flash flood watch when flash flooding is possible. What to do during a flood warning If advised to evacuate, do so immediately. Use a battery-operated radio or television to get the latest emergency information. Do not walk through floodwater. Just six inches of floodwater can sweep you off your feet if it is moving swiftly. Turn around, don't drown; do not drive into a flooded street. Cars can be swept away by two feet of moving water or there may be unseen damage to the road. If you come to a flooded area turn around and go another way. Most flood-related deaths are caused by people driving through water. Watch out for fire hazards. Move to higher ground. Stay alert, turn weather notifications on. Do not allow children to play in flowing water. Waters can hide rocks, trees and debris. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This weather report was generated automatically using information from the National Weather Service and a story written and reviewed by an editor. See the latest weather alerts and forecasts here This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Flood warning issued for Ashland, Bayfield and Douglas counties A flash flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service in Flagstaff at 1:38 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16. This warning applies to Coconino County and runs through 5 p.m. The weather service is warning of severe flash flooding in and around the Antelope Creek basin. Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain over the Antelope Creek basin. Between 0.25 and 1 inch of rain has fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Life-threatening flash flooding was ongoing or expected to begin shortly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some locations that would experience flash flooding included Page, Canyon X, Cardiac Canyon, Wind Pebble Canyon, Porcupine Canyon, Ramshead Canyon, Upper Antelope Canyon, Mountain Sheep Canyon, Rattlesnake Canyon, Owl Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, Trapeze Cove. This included the following creeks, washes and rivers: Kaibito Creek, Sand Wash, Antelope Creek, Honey Draw and Peach Wash. The National Weather Service warned: "Flooding of washes and creeks will occur, some dirt roads will become muddy and impassable. Paved roads and underpasses could become flooded as well." See weather radar for northern Arizona What are weather service meteorologists saying? At 1:38 p.m., the National Weather Service also issued this statement: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The National Weather Service in Flagstaff has issued a Flash Flood Warning for: Coconino County in north central Arizona, This includes the Colorado River between mile markers 20 and 51. Until 4:30 p.m. MST /5:30 p.m. MDT/. At 1:38 p.m. MST /2:38 p.m. MDT/, Doppler radar indicated thunderstorms producing heavy rain across the portions of the Grand Canyon northeast of the North Rim. Between 1 and 1.75 inches of rain have fallen. Additional rainfall amounts of 0.5 to 1 inch are possible in the warned area. Flash flooding is ongoing or expected to begin shortly. HAZARD: Life threatening flash flooding. Thunderstorms producing flash flooding. SOURCE: Radar indicated. IMPACT: Life threatening flash flooding of creeks and streams, normally dry washes, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses. Some locations that will experience flash flooding include: Horseshoe Reservoir, Saddle Mountain Overlook, Point Imperial Picnic Area, Grand Canyon National Park, Bert Loper's Boat, Royal Arches, Anasazi Foot Bridge, Point Hansbrough, Triple Alcoves and Saddle Mountain Wilderness. This includes the Colorado River between mile markers 20 and 51. This includes the following creeks, washes and rivers, South Canyon, Nautiloid Canyon, North Canyon Wash, Saddle Canyon, Sheep Spring Wash, To Hajisho, Colorado River, "Redbud Alcove", Bright Angel Creek, Tatahoysa Wash, House Rock Wash, Tatahatso Wash, Tiger Wash, Shinumo Wash, Buck Farm Canyon, Nankoweap Canyon, "22- Mile Wash", "Bert's Canyon", North Canyon and Little Nankoweap Creek." What is a flash flood? A flash flood is a flood caused by heavy or excessive rainfall in a short period of time, generally less than six hours, according to the weather service. Flash floods are usually characterized by raging torrents after heavy rains. A flash flood can be sudden and violent and take just minutes to develop. It is possible to experience a flash flood in areas not immediately receiving rain. What's the difference between a flash flood watch and a flash flood warning? A flash flood warning is issued when a flood is imminent or occurring, the weather service says. If you are in a flood-prone area, you should move immediately to high ground. The weather service issues a flash flood watch when flash flooding is possible. What to do during a flood warning If advised to evacuate, do so immediately. Use a battery-operated radio or television to get the latest emergency information. Do not walk through floodwater. Just 6 inches of floodwater can sweep you off your feet if it is moving swiftly. Turn around, don't drown: Do not drive into a flooded street. Cars can be swept away by 2 feet of moving water, or there may be unseen damage to the road. If you come to a flooded area, turn around and go another way. Most flood-related deaths are caused by people driving through water. Watch out for fire hazards. Move to higher ground. Stay alert and turn weather notifications on. Do not allow children to play in flowing water. Waters can hide rocks, trees and debris. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reporters Jana Hayes and Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez contributed to this article. This weather report was generated automatically using information from the National Weather Service and a story written and reviewed by an editor. See the latest weather alerts and forecasts here (This story was updated to add new information, a video playlist and a new gallery.) This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Flash flood warning issued for northern Arizona The Brief Heavy rains flooded streets and homes in Edgewater and Mims on Monday. Edgewater deployed new vacuum trucks; Mims residents scrambled to evacuate. Officials warn more rain could worsen already saturated conditions. EDGEWATER, Fla. - Residents across parts of Central Florida spent Monday recovering from widespread flooding after heavy rainfall overwhelmed neighborhoods, submerged streets, and forced families to scramble for safety and salvage their belongings. Tried my hardest to keep the water out What we know Heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding across parts of Central Florida on Monday, submerging roads and homes in Edgewater and Mims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Edgewater city crews deployed pumps and newly acquired vacuum trucks to clear water from neighborhoods like Florida Shores. In Mims, in Brevard County, floodwaters rose rapidly, inundating homes and forcing some residents to evacuate. The Patio Apartments located at U.S. 1 and Irwin Avenue went underwater in about 45 minutes, according to residents. People saved what they could, but many lost all their belongings in the storm. No one was injured, but 911 came out to move one man in a wheelchair. Residents say this isnt the first flood in the area, but new construction nearby made the issue worse. It sends water into their property since its the lowest elevated. About 20 apartments were completely flooded with families displaced. What we don't know Its unclear how long it will take for the floodwaters to recede. Multiple homeowners said it takes about a week for water to go down in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also remains unclear how many homes were damaged in total. The backstory Both communities have experienced flooding before, but this round of storms proved especially disruptive. In Edgewater, the city had recently added vacuum trucks to its response team in anticipation of the rainy season. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP In Mims, the flooding appeared more sudden and unexpected, impacting areas that dont usually flood signaling possible changes in stormwater behavior or capacity. Big picture view These flooding events underscore ongoing vulnerabilities in Central Floridas aging stormwater infrastructure as climate patterns bring more frequent and intense rainfall. The response in Edgewater represents a growing local push for sustainable, long-term flood mitigation planning. In contrast, the experience in Mims illustrates how quickly residents can be caught off-guard when stormwater systems are overwhelmed. What they're saying Vacuum trucks were deployed in Edgewater to remove standing water a resource newly added to the citys flood response team. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We're going through a budget hearing right now," explained Edgewater Mayor Diezel Depew. "We're going to have a full-time vac truck with two workers on crew always here ready on standby." Mayor Depew said a floodgate is also under consideration. Meanwhile, in Mims, at the Patio Apartments, floodwaters rose several feet in under an hour, forcing some people to evacuate and others to attempt to hold back the water with mops and buckets. "I tried my hardest to keep the water out, but at that point only a mop and bucket can do so much," resident Katie Smith said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Resident Audrey Schmidt said she essentially lost her home. "The refrigerator is gone. The fireplace is gone. My bed is gone, all my furniture is gone." SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS Across town, floodwaters filled front yards and approached homes near State Road 46. One homeowner said water reached the edge of his garage something he had never seen before. "Just hoping if hurricane season comes around, this stuff has had a chance to run off, because if it doesnt, itll be a real big mess," said homeowner Bernie Weaver. David Crispin, another Mims resident, spent the day pumping water from his yard and said it could take a week to fully drain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This morning it was only about up to here," he gestured. "Then, the rain progressed. A couple, two to three hours, I watched it grow and grow and grow, and I said let me go out and get the pump." What's next The American Red Cross has deployed teams to Mims to assist displaced families and provide emergency supplies and housing resources. Officials in both counties are urging residents to stay alert, as additional rainfall could worsen conditions in already saturated areas. The Source This story was written based on information shared by the City of Edgewater and Edgewater Mayor Diezel Depew, the City of Mims, Mims residents, and the American Red Cross. A major project aimed at protecting a large part of the shoreline near Swansea has officially opened. The 26m project, which took two years to complete, covers 1.2km (0.75 miles) in Mumbles, aiming to protect homes and businesses from coastal flooding, while also resulting in a wider, more attractive promenade. Business owners had previously said the work had led to fewer people visiting, but now hope it will boost visitor numbers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Swansea council leader Rob Stewart said the new-look promenade "can rival anything in the Mediterranean". Deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies, who grew up in nearby Gowerton, unveiled a plaque on the promenade, describing it as "magnificent". A recent Met Office report revealed that the UK sea level is rising faster than the global average, with the risk of flooding expected to increase. Irranca-Davies, who is responsible for climate change and rural affairs, said there was a set of criteria for prioritising coastal defence schemes based on social and economic factors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We cannot defend every inch of seafront and coastline," he said. Marcelle Bollom, who lives nearby, said some neighbours living on the ground floor had lost some views of the bay, but understood the work needed to be done. "It looks amazing," she said of the seawall and promenade. "And I would rather not get flooded. The old seawall was eroding and it looked scruffy," she said, adding there were new seats and bins. Local resident Marcelle Bollom, with her dog Captain, says the project looks "amazing" [LDRS] Lily Ella Westacott, manager of local lifestyle shop Hiatus, was also pleased with the project. "It's a big improvement to the local environment and we're confident it'll bring more people to enjoy Mumbles." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Stewart, from Swansea council, said the project would defend residents and businesses in the area "for the next 100 years". "It also gives them a fantastic new seafront that can rival anything in the Mediterranean," he said. Floridas Attorney General is challenging the Masters Swimming organizations policy allowing athletes to compete based on their gender identity. The policy, recently adopted by U.S. Masters Swimming, permits individuals to swim in categories that align with their gender identity or expression. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has expressed strong opposition to this policy, stating that it is wrong and discriminatory. It still seems insane to me that were having this conversation in this country, but we will always fight for whats right in Florida, Uthmeier said. Were the state where, you know, woke goes to die, thats going to continue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< Uthmeier has announced plans to sue U.S. Masters Swimming and any other organization that allows transgender athletes to compete. He argues that allowing athletes assigned male at birth to compete against women is discriminatory. The controversy follows the victory of a transgender athlete at the NCAA Division One title in 2022 at a meet in Florida. After her win, Gov. Ron DeSantis declared the second-place swimmer the real champion in the eyes of Florida. Earlier this month, the University of Pennsylvania, the institution where the trans athlete competed, vacated all of her records and victories after reaching an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education. Today, we put U.S. Masters Swimming on notice: Allowing men in women's swimming competitions is unlawful in Florida. Fix the policy, or there will be consequences. pic.twitter.com/Os32iVNE77 Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) July 15, 2025 [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. Orders from the administrations of President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis have achieved what vandals have tried and failed: The elimination of a street intersection on Boynton Beach painted with the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ+ progress pride flag. The rainbow colors were removed Wednesday morning. The intersection, at East Ocean Boulevard and Southeast First Street, close to City Hall, was painted black. Other cities in South Florida Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach and across the nation face the same mandate, but it was not immediately clear whether or how they would comply. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The instructions came via a July 1 social media post, press release and Dear Governor letter from Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and a July 2 social media post from Florida Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue, who attached a detailed memorandum from one of his assistant secretaries. Duffy was direct about his intentions. Taxpayers expect their dollars to fund safe streets, not rainbow crosswalks. Political banners have no place on public roads. Im reminding recipients of @USDOT roadway funding that its limited to features advancing safety, and nothing else. Its that simple. Perdue wasnt pride-flag specific, but his message was clear. Writing on social media a day after Duffy, he said that Floridas proactive efforts to ensure we keep our transportation facilities free & clear of political ideologies were cemented into law by @GovRonDeSantis & reemphasized in FDOTs attached memo. Great to now have our federal partners also aligned behind this same common-sense policy. The bottom line: Non-approved markings are out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A statement from the city of Boynton Beach said it had removed the inclusionary-painted intersection on the 100 block of East Ocean Avenue to ensure full compliance with state and federal transportation mandates and address safety concerns. The decision follows recent guidance from the U.S. Transportation Secretary and the Florida Department of Transportation. The city cited the memorandum from Perdues agency that establishes specific requirements for roadway markings and materials. City Manager Daniel Dugger amplified the reasoning in the statement. While we recognize the symbolic importance of this intersection to our community, we must prioritize public safety and regulatory compliance, Dugger said. The city remains committed to finding appropriate ways to honor and celebrate our diverse community and will consider alternative memorial options at a future date. Rand Hoch, president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, was present when the Boynton Beach intersection was unveiled during LGBTQ+ Pride Month in June 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoch, who suggested West Palm Beachs pride intersection years ago, has been monitoring the edicts earlier this month from the state and federal governments. He said he was taken aback that Boynton Beach had already acted. The intentions of other South Florida cities Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach with crosswalks or intersections or sections of roads painted to represent the rainbow Progress flag werent immediately known. Related Articles Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said his citys installation is on a side street not used by cars and not at an intersection so he hopes it can survive. Fort Lauderdales progress pride flag on Sebastian Street, between State Road A1A and Seabreeze Boulevard is next to the staging area for a construction site and has greatly decayed. Barriers nearby make it unlikely that many pedestrians would see the flag painted on the street and covered with tracks and spots of black residue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delray Beach Commissioner Rob Long said Wednesday the matter hasnt yet been considered. A city of West Palm Beach spokesperson didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Perdues memorandum didnt make the change optional. The penalty for violating the orders: withholding state money from the cities, effectively giving the communities no choice but to comply. This is just another example of the president and the governor blackmailing local governments by telling them theyre going to withhold funding so they can try to publicly erase the LGBTQ+ community, Hoch said. This seems to be a priority of these administrations. And for the life of me I cannot understand why. More people nowadays are identifying as LGBTQ+ than ever before. And we are not going to disappear. Its personal for Hoch, a retired judge who has been advocating for LGBTQ+ rights for some 40 years. When the West Palm Beach Art In Public Places Committee, where he was serving as a member, was told in 2018 there were plans to refurbish and paint dozens of city crosswalks, Hoch suggested a rainbow crosswalk in Northwood Village, a part of West Palm Beach that the LGBTQ+ community helped revitalize. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Dean Trantalis of Fort Lauderdale, his citys first openly LGBTQ+ mayor, also said moves from the transportation agencies are ideological. Regardless of black letter law, I believe this is nothing more than a very petty attempt to try to undermine freedom of expression and to try to circuitously justify some kind of attempt to deny peoples First Amendment rights of expression, Trantalis said. If the stripes on sidewalks were red, white and blue I dont think they would be coming down on anybody even though that in and of itself is a political expression. We have better things to do in this world. We have wars to settle. We have insurance costs to reduce. We have housing crises. We have homelessness. America doesnt care about the color of its crosswalks, Trantalis said. I think its time to move past this kind of pettiness. The progress pride flag, which is used in Fort Lauderdale and was used in Boynton Beach, is the current symbol for the LGBTQ+ community. Most of it consists of the six rainbow stripes that are a familiar symbol LGBTQ pride. It also includes triangular black and brown stripes to represent people of color and baby blue, pink and white stripes to include colors of a transgender flag. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duffy is a former member of Congress from Wisconsin who later served as a Fox News contributor and host on the Fox Business Channel. Hes competed and appeared on TV reality shows The Real World: Boston, Road Rules: All Stars and as a lumberjack on ESPNs Great Outdoor Games. Roads are for safety, not political messages or artwork. Today I am calling on governors in every state to ensure that roadways, intersections, and crosswalks are kept free of distractions, Duffy said. Far too many Americans die each year to traffic fatalities to take our eye off the ball. USDOT stands ready to help communities across the country make their roads safer and easier to navigate. The memorandum Perdue attached to his social media post stated that Non-standard surface markings, signage, and signals that do not directly contribute to traffic safety or control can lead to distractions or misunderstandings, jeopardizing both driver and pedestrian safety. Non-compliant markings, the memo said, include pavement surface art that is associated with social, political or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also said consistent application of pavement surface markings is critical for the overall effectiveness of automated vehicle operation. Trantalis rejected the assertion that rainbows on streets are a safety issue. It does not distract drivers. It does not distract bicyclists. It does not distract pedestrians. All it seems to do is distract politicians who are trying to inculcate society with their narrow points of view. The transportation policies come at a time of a rapidly shifting political environment surrounding the LGBTQ+ community and related issues. During Trumps first presidential campaign, he courted LGBTQ+ voters. And in his second presidency, his treasury secretary is the highest-ranking openly LGBTQ+ cabinet member to serve in any presidents administration. But his second administration also has been marked by hostility toward anything touching on diversity, equity and inclusion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis, as he prepared for his ultimately unsuccessful candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, turned further to the right and embraced a host of culturally conservative issues, often involving the LGBTQ community. Under DeSantis, the state enacted the Parental Rights in Education Law, called the Dont Say Gay law by critics, which restricts instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in schools. It has imposed age restrictions on audiences for drag shows. After years of acknowledging the targets of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre the LGBTQ and Hispanic communities DeSantis omitted them last month from his official 2025 state description of Pulse Remembrance Day, which marked the ninth anniversary of the massacre that took place on Latin Night at the LGBTQ club in Orlando. The gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53. And in the transportation arena, the DeSantis administration previously banned light displays on state-managed bridges, except on official government holidays using red, white and blue a move that effectively blocks rainbow-colored lights during Pride month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Long, the Delray Beach commissioner, objected to what he said are constant moves by the state to override decisions made by local elected officials. He said the Delray Beach pride intersection is on a city-owned street. If we went out to (Interstate) 95 and painted a pride emblem on it theyd have a point. But thats our jurisdiction. I see that as a home-rule issue. If theyre going to come into our city and tell us what to do with the streets, thats a problem. The rainbow street markings in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale have been damaged by vandals over the years. The Delray Beach intersection was damaged last month by a pickup truck driver burning tire marks into the paint, the third time its been vandalized since it was unveiled in 2021. Hoch said vandalism doesnt mean we should stop doing this. He said that its costly when people who damage the installations are caught. He said one of the previous Delray Beach vandals had to pay $6,000 to repair the damage. Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon. Oslo, Norway-headquartered Navamedic has completed its previously announced acquisition of dne pharma's business for Nkr225m ($22m). This acquisition comprises dne pharma's entire business: its product portfolio, key personnel, all vital contracts, intellectual property, distribution agreements and licenses. They will be integrated into the existing commercial platform of Navamedic, aiming to facilitate rapid market access and expansion within Nordic and selected markets in Europe. The acquired products from dne pharma include Ventizolve (intranasal naloxone spray), Levopidon (levomethadone) and Metadon Dne (methadone), which is used for opioid substitution therapy. The initial transaction announced in June 2025 stated a payment of Nkr185m at closing and an additional Nkr40m dependent on future sales volumes. Navamedic CEO Kathrine Gamborg Andreassen stated: "This acquisition represents a significant step in our strategic expansion into the rapidly growing field of addiction treatment and is well aligned with our long-term growth ambitions. Thanks to the strong collaboration among all parties involved, the transaction was completed smoothly and efficiently. We are pleased that the General Meeting unanimously approved the rights issue yesterday, and we are sincerely grateful for the continued support of Kistefos and the other underwriters. To finance the acquisition, Navamedic secured new debt facilities amounting to Nkr110m from Nordea Bank Abp, filial i Norge (Nordea), supplemented by equity raised through a rights issue. A bridge loan provided by Nordea facilitated the prompt completion of the deal ahead of finalising the rights issue proceeds. In arranging this transaction, Navamedic was assisted by DNB Carnegie, part of DNB Bank, and Thommessen for advisory services. Both DNB Carnegie and Nordea Corporate Finance continued as managers for the rights issue, with Thommessen continuing its role as legal advisors. dne pharma CEO Geir Ove Engeset stated: We are very pleased to close this transaction with Navamedic, and we are confident that the Navamedic team will continue to grow the opioid substitution business developed by dne pharma, in particular the Ventizolve products. "Navamedic completes dne pharma acquisition" was originally created and published by Pharmaceutical Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The Brief A daycare worker in Ocala is accused of abusing six infants, ages 4 to 9 months. Police say supervisors failed to act on prior complaints; video evidence prompted the arrest. DCF is mandating staff retraining as the investigation into management continues. ORLANDO, Fla. - A Central Florida daycare worker is accused of abusing six infants, ages 4 to 9 months, which has prompted staff retraining as ordered by the state. What we know Ocala Police (OPD) arrested Karla L. Penalverty-Gonzalez, 33, in connection with multiple allegations of child abuse at All Star Learning Academy on West Silver Springs Boulevard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the OPD, an investigation revealed incidents between March and July 2025 involving six infants, aged 4 to 9 months, who were allegedly subjected to physical harm, including violent shaking, rough handling, and near-suffocation. At least one of the incidents was captured on video by another employee. What we don't know It is still unclear how many total incidents may have occurred or how long the abuse went on before action was taken. Authorities said they are still investigating whether daycare management deliberately ignored or mishandled reports made by staff. Its also unknown whether additional children may have been affected. Ocala Police (OPD) arrested Karla L. Penalverty-Gonzalez, 33, in connection with multiple allegations of child abuse at All Star Learning Academy on West Silver Springs Boulevard. The backstory Penalverty-Gonzalez began working at the daycare in July 2024. According to police, concerns about her treatment of infants were raised internally before, but supervisors failed to act in a timely or appropriate manner. Ocala Police (OPD) arrested Karla L. Penalverty-Gonzalez, 33, in connection with multiple allegations of child abuse at All Star Learning Academy on West Silver Springs Boulevard. This allowed alleged mistreatment to continue for several months. Only after a video was shared with authorities did the investigation gain traction. What they're saying This investigation is ongoing as detectives are reviewing how the management responded to complaints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "These babies are too young to speak for themselves, and your voice is essential in protecting them," Ocala Police said in a news release. "Our hearts go out to these little babies and their families as we continue investigating to ensure justice and accountability." What's next The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been informed and will require remedial training for the daycare's staff, according to the OPD. What you can do Anyone with information is urged to contact Detective Pfeifer at 352-369-7000. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS The Source This story was written based on information shared by the Ocala Police Department. The Brief Volusia County man accused of waving gun during road rage incident. Victim safely directs suspect to New Smyrna Beach Police Department. Deputies arrested the driver for aggravated assault and DUI. NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. - A Volusia County man was arrested after allegedly waving a gun at another driver in a road rage incident that ended just steps from law enforcement. What we know A Volusia County man, identified as 44-year-old Shawn Eissler, was arrested in New Smyrna Beach after allegedly brandishing a handgun during a road rage incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim reported being followed, threatened, and nearly running off the road before deciding to lead the suspect directly to the police station while remaining on the phone with 911. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP As the victim pulled into the New Smyrna Beach Police Department, deputies were waiting. Eissler initially kept driving but eventually stopped nearby refusing to comply with commands and repeatedly reaching inside his vehicle. A pistol was later recovered from the front seat of Eisslers car, deputies said. Shawn Eissler What we don't know It remains unclear whether Eissler had a valid permit for the weapon or if he will face additional charges beyond aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and DUI. Authorities have not released Eisslers blood alcohol content or whether the pistol was loaded. What they're saying The confrontation escalated after Eissler allegedly became enraged when the victim passed him. The victim described increasingly aggressive behavior, including Eissler slamming on his brakes and trying to force a stop. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'm actually driving and I have a driver threatening, trying to run me off the road," a caller told a 911 dispatcher. "It honestly looked like he was holding a gun." The man continued, "He was going 20 miles an hour, so when I went to go past him, he swerved at me and tried to run off the road, and he's been doing it ever since. I got past him. He came up flying past me about 120 miles an hour, got in front of me, slammed on his brakes, and brakes sent me, and he has been trying to get me to pull over ever since." While on the phone, the dispatcher led the driver right to police officers. "Is there any way that you can pull into the police department? Because I have a bunch of officers there," the dispatcher said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS "Uh, sure, I'll, I will head there," the victim said. When the victim pulled up, deputies were ready. "Put your hands out the window! Stop the car! Stop! Put the car in park," a deputy shouted to Eissler. Although Eissler denied pointing a weapon at anyone or engaging in a confrontation, he admitted being upset after another driver allegedly cut him off. "They cut me off and then like passed me in a 45, and I was like, what the f*** is going on?" he told deputies. "Yeah, yeah, you got problems. Pretty stupid, right? Have you ever accidentally cut somebody off in traffic?" a deputy responded. What's next Deputies arrested Eissler for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and driving under the influence. The Source This story was written based on information shared by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) Darren Hayes is embarking on a 5,500-mile voyage on a pontoon boat to make a difference for Ronald McDonald House Charities, an organization that is close to his heart. Hayes, of Florida, is making the journey to raise money and awareness for the organization, which helped his friends family when their late daughter underwent treatment for brain cancer. Weve seen the impact that the Ronald McDonald House has on families, to know the good work that they do, and for me, its a no-brainer to want to support them continuously, Hayes said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After years of planning and preparing, Hayes trip, called Makin Wake, started on June 9 in the Tampa Bay Florida area. Im getting to do something now that connects to and with a charity thats near and dear to my heart, but I still get to live out a life long dream, a bucket list dream, Hayes said. On Tuesday, Hayes traveled through the Erie Canal, which he said is his favorite part of the trip so far. Ive been able to take in some of the beauty that New York State has to offer, he said. Hayes also spoke on the people hes met so far along the way. Ive had a real good experience with meeting with good people that give you good advice about where to eat, where to go, what to see, he said. Theres a lot of good people in this region and Im very appreciative of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is raising money for his local chapter, but I love that its bringing awareness to our local chapter and our needs here, said Lisa Booz, the executive director of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of WNY. Booz said there 400 Ronald McDonald House Charities around the world, and here in Western New York, they helped more than 30,000 people last year. At our house, were making sure that your meals are taken care of, your transportation to and from the hospital you dont even have to pay for parking, Booz said. You have a safe place to stay every night. Were taking care of the food, were taking care of the transportation. You can just focus on being with your child. Booz said they can fit 40 people at the house at once. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have never had an empty house since we opened in December of 1983, so that just gives you a perspective of how invaluable it is, she said. Hayes said everything donated with go directly towards helping the Ronald McDonald House Charities. In order to give families a place to stay and food to eat, no matter the amount of a donation or what location, to us, it doesnt matter, Hayes said. Were appreciative of all of it. For more information about Makin Wake and Hayes journey, visit the website here. To donate to the Ronald McDonald House of Charity of Tampa Bay, click here. To learn about Western New Yorks local Ronald McDonald House of Charity, visit its website here. Latest Local News Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. NAGS HEAD, N.C. (WNCT) The N.C. Aquarium Jennettes Pier reminds people living in the Outer Banks that Florida manatees will be visiting this summer. Marina Doshkov, Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator for Jennettes Pier, said that there are many ways to keep these manatees safe while they visit. First off, practice passive observation, Doshkov said. Observe from a distance and from above the water avoid touching, feeding, or giving water to manatees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is also advised to wear polarized sunglasses to spot manatees, and look out for footprints on the surface of the water made by their tails or nostrils as they surface. Boaters need to slow down, especially in marinas, Doshkov said. Reducing speed gives you a greater chance to avoid manatees and for them to avoid your vessel. Manatees are protected by the Marine Mammal Act of 1973 and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. It is illegal to feed, harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, annoy, or molest manatees. To help track manatee visits, please report any sightings to the Outer Banks Marine Mammal Network at 252-455-9654. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were just trying to get a record of where people are seeing manatees, Doshkov said. And that helps us identify spots where theyre hanging out. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. Days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tennessee could ban gender-affirming health care for minors, Florida officials argued the decision allows them to deny coverage to adults. In August, a federal judge ruled Florida cannot legally deny health care coverage for gender-affirming care to state employees. The state appealed that decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. After the June Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, which upheld a Tennessee law banning hormone therapy and puberty blockers only for transgender minors, appellate judges asked both sides in the Florida case if the verdict impacted arguments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorneys representing the state of Florida said the Skrmetti ruling opened the door to government dictating health care decisions, according to CBS news. There were good reasons for the State law in Skrmetti," wrote Florida attorney Mohammad Jazil in a court brief. Jazil went on to quote from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' 6-3 majority ruling in Skrmetti, adding: "The State legislature concluded that there is an ongoing debate among medical experts regarding the risks and benefits associated with administering puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, and gender incongruence. ... 'The laws ban on such procedures responds directly to that uncertainty.' But attorneys for Kori Dekker and other plaintiffs challenging Floridas denial of coverage say Skrmetti should have no bearing on their lawsuit centered around insurance coverage, noting that Skrmetti was fairly limited in its scope and breadth. The ruling also importantly did not reverse prior Supreme Court decisions affirming transgender rights, most notably the 2020 ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which affirmed that employers cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Skrmetti did not reject Plaintiffs arguments that classifications based on transgender status are subject to heightened scrutiny, as Plaintiffs have argued here, reads a brief filed by attorney Omar Gonzalez-Pagan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Court also recently ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot challenge South Carolinas termination of the organizations Medicaid funding because it provides abortions. Appellate judges also asked how the Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic ruling impacted Floridas ability to dictate coverage. Jazil argued that it affirms Floridas ability to regulate Medicaid spending on transgender health care. Anything short of some clear and unambiguous rights-creating language prevents a private enforcement suit, he wrote. But Gonzalez-Pagan said the state hasnt made such an argument before. Moreover, plaintiffs' attorneys say none of the recent high court decisions mean Florida has can now intentionally discriminate against transgender people by denying health care coverage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is notand cannot bethe law that transgender people are strangers to our Constitutions protections against invidious governmental discrimination, Gonzalez-Pagans brief reads. Skrmetti does not bless nor give license to such discrimination. This article originally appeared on Advocate: Florida officials claim SCOTUS ruling allows them to deny trans adults health care While some may look at skateboarding and see a culture of delinquent youth breaking the law, Zach Moldof has dedicated his life and work to changing the narrative and stigma around the sport. The efforts of Moldof, a skateboarding advocate who founded the nonprofit Skate Bud, have culminated in a three-day event that seeks to bring skating enthusiasts, community stakeholders and government officials together. The Florida Skate Heritage Fair, which is produced in partnership with the Florida Division of Arts and Culture, lands at the Central Florida Fairgrounds July 18-20. Its been difficult for skateboarding to thrive here and take root. At the government and institutional level, there has either been outright opposition or a lack of support, Moldof said. To be able to pull off something like this in Orlando says a lot in and of itself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Panel discussions on Friday bring state and local officials together with skateboarders for a discussion of the benefits of supported and community-sanctioned skating. I want to demonstrate to government whats possible when you plan to benefit from skateboarding rather than prohibit it, Moldof said. Each day of the family-friendly fair features vendors and artists, including miniature fingerboards and vintage gear. Visitors can find giveaways, activities and refreshments indoors with 20,000 square feet of air-conditioned space. But the main focal point is skateboarding, with a total of $5,000 up for grabs throughout the weekend during cash-for-tricks contests. The goal is to get people out and skating while welcoming people from the broader community to see the positive impacts of the sport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive had this agenda here in the county and at the state level to remove the prohibitions against skateboarding. I want to get skateboarding back outside of everybodys door, Moldof said. How do we put skateboarding in neighborhoods? How do we use these spaces to create programming and lead people toward healthier lives? We should be celebrated at the city level in our home communities. A yearlong study of skateboarding culture, Beyond the Board, highlights the ways that skating helps youth have fun, relieve stress, stick with challenges, build relationships and find creative expression. Those are some of the same goals and values Moldof hopes to instill through his work and this event. We need to work with government to ensure that the standards by which they institutionalize it are accurate to our culture, he said. If you must get arrested in order to experience authentic skateboarding, then were not doing our duty to the next generation. Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters. If you go The Florida Skate Heritage Fair is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. July 18-20 at 4603 W. Colonial Drive in Orlando. The event is free to attend and open to all ages. Pre-registration is not required but suggested. More information: katebud.com/fshf TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) The trial for the Florida State University student accused of killing two people and wounding six others in a mass shooting on campus in April is set to go to trial this November. At a case management conference in a Tallahassee courthouse on Wednesday, Second Judicial Circuit Judge Lance Neff set jury selection in the case of 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner to begin the week of Nov. 3. Ikner's attorney, public defender Peter Mills, said he needs more time to delve into the case, which involves extensive video surveillance footage and witness testimony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I object to that, judge, Mills said of the trial schedule. I am still investigating the case. My client's entitled to effective assistance of counsel. Neff indicated he's open to hearing out Mills' concerns, saying, we can talk about what, what you need in order to investigate the case. As far as the prosecution, Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jack Campbell said, we'll be ready. So far, the defense has not participated in discovery, the process of exchanging information between the parties about evidence and witnesses. But that is expected to change, Ikner's attorney said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ikner faces two counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted first-degree murder. He is the stepson of a local sheriffs deputy, and investigators say he used his stepmothers former service weapon to carry out the shooting. Prosecutors in the case intend to seek the death penalty. ___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. What started as a dispute over lawn care ended with Irena Green spending a week behind bars. Green, who lives in the Creek View subdivision of Tampas Hillsborough County, says it all began with a homeowners association (HOA) violation over the condition of her grass. Don't miss Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said she blames last years mandatory watering restrictions for the dry patches in her yard and insists hers was far from the worst on the block. Yet, shes the only homeowner in the neighborhood whos ever landed in jail over it. I think they have way too much power. I've never heard of anything like this in my life, Green told ABC I-Team Investigations. In 2024, Florida led the country for HOA living, with 3.9 million of its 8.9 million homes falling under homeowners association rules nearly 45% of all residences. But does an unkempt lawn justify jail time, or are some HOAs overstepping in the name of curb appeal? A legal warning It started with a few violation notices from The Trowbridge Company Inc., the firm managing her community. First, it was dry grass. Then a minor dent in her garage door barely visible from the street. After that, it was mildew on her mailbox, which she said was caused by moisture from a nearby tree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The final straw was a cargo van parked in her driveway, not unlike several others seen in the neighborhood. If you drive around my neighborhood, youll see theres plenty of yards not up to par, Green said. The HOA took Green to court in Hillsborough County. Green represented herself and provided photos and explanations for each violation. Still, the judge wasnt convinced. At a hearing last summer, she was given an ultimatum: fix the issues within 30 days or face jail time. Green said she got to work immediately, but she missed her next court date, claiming she never received the official notice and even contacted the courthouse multiple times to track it down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The judge didnt buy it. Green was held in contempt of court, and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Read more: Americans are revenge saving to survive but millions only get a measly 1% on their savings. Heres how to quickly earn 280% more on your cash How far is too far? I think its pretty rare in a civil case for someone to have a contempt order, said Paul Boudreaux, a professor at Stetson Law School. Buying into an HOA community means agreeing to a set of rules ones that can dictate everything from where you park to how tall your grass can grow. But for Green, things escalated. After picking up her daughter from cheerleading practice, Green was pulled over, handcuffed and booked into Orient Road Jail. She said she was the only person in civil court wearing a jail uniform. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Six days later, her sister-in-law a paralegal filed an emergency petition to challenge the arrest. Photos of Greens yard and other evidence were submitted to a different judge than the one who had signed the original warrant. Still, Green said the HOAs attorney argued against her release. The risk of HOA power plays HOAs offer structure and consistency that appeals to many buyers, from well-kept lawns to access to shared amenities. But with those perks come strict rules, and sometimes, serious consequences. Green was eventually released, but her case highlights how quickly HOA conflicts can intensify. Sometimes they act in a petty manner, but if they decide that you need to do something, you need to follow the rules. And when a judge tells you to do something, you have to do it, Boudreaux said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Green later admitted she should have hired a lawyer earlier to better understand her rights. The HOA board has since brought in a new management firm to to oversee enforcement. For homeowners, its important to read the HOA bylaws carefully, look into the boards track record and get legal advice if a conflict arises. A little due diligence can help you steer clear of costly and avoidable trouble. What to read next Money doesnt have to be complicated sign up for the free Moneywise newsletter for actionable finance tips and news you can use. Join now. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. WASHINGTON FMCSA nominee Derek Barrs told lawmakers that his law enforcement experience will inform his leadership at the agency on a range of issues, including the Trump administrations recent crackdown on truck drivers who lack skills in speaking and reading English. I have been a roadside inspector and have inspected commercial motor vehicles, and understand the difficulty it places on me as the inspector having to communicate with someone who cannot communicate with you, Barrs testified at his nomination before the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday. If I want to do a full inspection of that vehicle and have to get under and check brakes, I need to be able to communicate with that driver not only for the sake of roadway safety but for me as the inspector. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So its extremely important for that driver to be able to at least have a conversation, understand the commands, and understand our road signs for safety. Thats where I believe my experience comes into this, understanding the effects on roadside inspection. A Florida native, Barrs, who was nominated to be FMCSA administrator in March, served as the FMCSA lead for the agencys Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program during his time with the Florida Highway Patrol. He is also a member of the American Trucking Associations Law Enforcement Advisory Board and the Florida Trucking Association. Freight fraud and DOT retaliation Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Barrs that his state is dealing with Mexican truck drivers being issued fraudulent CDLs, coming into the U.S. and potentially operating illegally. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ensuring drivers are qualified and safe has got to be the utmost importance of what were doing with commercial vehicle safety, Barrs responded. If confirmed Im committed to addressing this particular issue, Ive worked closely with the Texas Department of Public Safety throughout my career and understand this is concerning, and will work closely with you to make sure all drivers in our country are safe. Barrs also assured Cruz that he would also tackle freight and CDL fraud by continuing work to update FMCSAs motor carrier registration system, including by requiring more thorough identity verification for driver applicants and cracking down on violators. This is a nationwide problem that is causing major issues within the trucking industry and the economy, Barrs said. I look forward to working with you on this and working with our partners to ensure bad actors are penalized or they go to jail. We can work with different agencies to make sure that can happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told Barrs shes concerned about the potential chilling effect that a new policy being proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation could have that would allow modal agencies to discipline their own inspectors for ruling against motor carriers in enforcement cases. She asked Barr to commit to making sure theres no political interference with regard to such enforcement policies. Inspectors and officers working within FMCSA have a diligent job to do in making sure they can carry out the missions and place these bad actors out [of service], Barrs said. Its extremely important to me that we make sure we do that. Autonomous vehicles and underride protection Barrs and Jonathan Morrison, who was also questioned at the hearing on his pending nomination to be administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, were asked about how they would oversee the rollout of autonomous vehicle technology. Morrison testifying on Wednesday. Credit: U.S. Senate Barrs pledged to look into allowing warning triangles and other roadside safety devices required to be deployed manually be replaced with electronic beacons that can be deployed remotely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The technology is considered a necessity in paving the way for autonomous trucks, but FMCSA has so far denied requests to allow such technology to be exempted from current regulations. Morrison, who told the committee he planned to increase his agencys engagement with industry to develop regulations on autonomous deployment, was also asked about NHTSAs previous analysis on truck side underride guards, and the agencys determination that the cost to install them exceeded the benefits. Unfortunately to reach this estimate, NHTSA makes assumptions in their analysis that excludes whole categories of preventable deaths of vulnerable road users such as bicyclists, pedestrians and motor cyclists, said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. Lujan asked if Morrison would commit to including such road users in cost benefit analyses and any future rulemakings on side underride guards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I will work with the economists at NHTSA and make sure everything appropriate is being considered, Morrison responded. Related articles: Click for more FreightWaves articles by John Gallagher. The post FMCSA nominee details safety, enforcement plans appeared first on FreightWaves. WASATCH COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) The woman who got stuck under a bridge on the Provo River while paddleboarding and the rangers who rescued her are talking about the experience, sharing gratitude and a call to stay safe while recreating this summer. Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) released the bodycam footage of the rescue last week. Tiffinie Wolf, 45, became trapped under Trestle Bridge while paddleboarding, and bystanders alerted a nearby ranger to the situation and jumped into the water alongside the ranger to rescue her. Those bystanders held her head above the water while the ranger used a knife to cut her free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ABC4.com spoke to Wolf and two officers with DNR who rescued her. Wyatt Manis, who is a Ranger with DNR Division of Law Enforcement, was the ranger who jumped in the river to help her that day. We get put in a lot of different situations because of the locations in which we work, and so we try to be prepared and help out as much as we can, he told ABC4.com. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: DNR ranger enters Provo River to help paddleboarder trapped under bridge Trapped under Trestle Bridge Wolf was paddleboarding on the river with her daughter when she got stuck. Me and my daughter were coming around this corner, Wolf said, gesturing to a bend in the river, and her paddleboard flipped, so I tried to get to her, but the current took me to the other side, and then my paddleboard flipped, and I thought my tether that was around my leg got caught, but it was actually my sandal that got caught on something under the water. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wolf added that she couldnt reach it or undo the sandal, and she didnt know what to do. She said her daughter started yelling for help, and thats when Manis came to help. Before Wolf got stuck, Manis said that he was doing his normal patrol, checking to make sure people had life jackets, when a citizen came and told him that something was happening. I was just fortunate to be close in that moment and able to help out a lot quicker than we usually are, Manis said. Manis said that he knew time was of the essence, and so he took off his vest and got in the water. First, he tried cutting the tether to her paddleboard, but he quickly realized that it was something else that was caught. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wolf explained what was going through her mind when she was stuck. You dont really know what youre gonna do in that type of situation when you cant get out of it yourself, and so when Wyatt got in and was holding me up above water, it was kind of nerve wracking a little bit to really realize that this is gonna take some time to get out. From that point, I just figured I need to help buy her as much time as possible, and I got a lot of help in doing that from other people as well, Manis said. Evacuations ordered near Monroe Fire burning in Sevier County, officials looking for suspect behind cause Wolf said she was lucky to have a life jacket on because it kept her up above the water so that she wasnt drowning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Manis was keeping her upright, he said that he was able to instruct one of the people who was helping on how to use his radio to call dispatch and get extra help. He added that the river was moving fast, and the water was cold. I remember in my head thinking, I dont have time to feel cold right now.' More help arrives Another officer who was in the area heard Manis call that he was going into the water, and she immediately went to help. When I arrived, there was a big crowd of people kind of waving me over, so I went straight to the bridge, and I could see Wyatt in the water holding onto the bridge and holding this womans head up, Aidan Hueton, who is a Conservation Officer with DNR Division of Law Enforcement, told ABC4.com. It was pretty incredible to see. Her immediate concern, she said, was Wolf and Manis, who were both in the water. The water can be very dangerous and unforgiving, and so my first priority was to get here as quickly as possible to try to help get them both out of the water quickly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hueton said she stayed on the radio, letting dispatch know what was happening and communicating with search and rescue. Construction on new Panguitch Dam set, one year after failure concerns from cracking Manis said that it was a relief when search and rescue showed up. Whether it be members of the public, other rangers, search and rescue, any help is good help. As rangers and conservation officers, a lot of the time were out here working by ourselves, and backup is far away, so to be able to have all that help that day was really, really amazing. Wolf said that with the help of search and rescue, they were able to loosen the sandal, and she was finally released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I wasnt able to really walk by myself out of the river cause I was so cold, so they helped me out, and so that was a very big relief once I got onto the shore and onto the dry land, she explained. Wolf added that throughout it all, the rangers and the bystanders were talking to her to help keep her calm and make sure she knew that she wasnt alone. She said that she is especially grateful to the bystanders who tried to help because it was something they did not have to do. It was really a nice feeling to know that there are these selfless people out there that will help, and they didnt have to, she said. Hueton said that Wasatch County Search and Rescue told her after the fact that they had actually just practiced techniques for this Trestle Bridge specifically. So it was cool to watch them put all those techniques together. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am grateful that we had a successful outcome that day. There have been too many times in my career where it hasnt been successful, and were dealing with the opposite of this, or a tragedy, and so to have something like this not only helps the public feel good, but it helps us as officers feel good as well, Manis stated. Wolf extended her gratitude to the DNR Law Enforcement Division, Wasatch County Search and Rescue, and all of the bystanders that helped. Im just super grateful for the good people out there, she said. Staying safe on the river Wolf also had a message to share about river safety. I would always wear a life jacket, always, always, Wolf said. Even though, you know, this river is for the most part pretty shallow, its cold, theres rocks that you could hit your head on or get stuck on or trapped on, and if you dont have a life jacket, you dont really have much of a chance if something happens, to get out of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added that the life jacket was a large part of what saved her. This particular spot can be dangerous, and so Manis and [other ranger] both recommended that everyone get out at the pull-out area ahead of Trestle Bridge and go around. Manis also advised paddleboarders not to wear their tethers on a river, and everyone to wear tight clothes and tighten all straps. No one should be tying paddleboards or tubes together because they will get caught. The DNR Division of Law Enforcement previously shared the following tips for summer river safety. Always wear an appropriate life jacket for river use. Research the river system to understand how to navigate it safely. If unsure of your abilities, consider going with a guide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We love to see people out here and we love to see people recreating, but we want everyone to be safe, and thats the most important message that I can share, Manis concluded. Latest headlines: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Neuberger Berman has concluded its latest private equity co-investment fund, which raised $2.8bn, much exceeding its initial $2.25bn target. The fund, NB Strategic Co-Investment Partners V (Fund V), likewise outperformed its predecessor, indicating that there is still a high demand for co-investment strategies that allow direct access to private equity opportunities. Furthermore, the completion takes Neuberger's total client money raised for co-investment vehicles and custom accounts in the last 18 months to nearly $6bn. The employee-owned, international investment manager with headquarters in New York currently oversees over $40bn in committed co-investment funds throughout its platform. By collaborating with leading private equity firms from a variety of industries, business sizes, and investment phases, Fund V seeks to create a diverse global portfolio of direct equity co-investments. Fund V's investment base is varied, including public and private pension funds, insurance companies, foundations, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals from around the world. The breadth of this support underscores the popularity of co-investment methods, which provide investors with the possibility for high returns and greater control over capital deployment. Joana Rocha Scaff, Neubergers Head of Europe Private Equity stated: We are grateful to our investors for supporting us in this successful fundraise and continue to be excited by the market opportunity in co-investments. This Fund enables our clients to participate in distinct investment opportunities we originate by being a flexible and value-added capital solutions provider to our GP partners, especially by acting as co-underwriters of new transactions and investing mid-life in existing sponsor-owned portfolio companies, typically providing capital for growth and partial realisations. David Morse, Global Co-head of Co-Investments added: Fund V stands to benefit from our leading private markets platform, with over $140bn of assets under management, built over 35 years. With a large, global and experienced team of 195+ private markets investment professionals and active investment relationships with over 380 lead sponsors, we believe we are in a strong position to continue to generate compelling investment opportunities. Co-investment techniques, which enable limited partners to make direct investments in projects alongside private equity sponsors, have become more and more common in recent years. In contrast to conventional fund structures, these solutions may provide more selective exposure and reduced expenses. The New York City area was hit with torrential rains Monday causing flash floods that left two dead, but the storm has moved south and as the Big Apple dries out, it has been hit with a heat warning. As the storm moved south, a flood watch was issued in the Washington, D.C., area, per The Washington Post. There is also potential for floods in the Midwest as much of the U.S. deals with extreme weather conditions. Following the Northeast floods, a state of emergency was issued in New Jersey. In the suburb of Plainfield, a car was swept away by the water killing the two people inside, per The New York Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rains also caused multiple subways stations in New York City to flood while some sewer drains overflowed. How much rain fell in the New York City area? On Monday, a slow-moving storm system combined with high amounts of moisture in the air triggered intense rainfall and flash flooding in the New York City area. In the span of a single hour late Monday, more than two inches of rain fell on Central Park, marking the second-wettest hour ever recorded in the city, per The New York Times. The storms and flash floods on Monday stretched from central Virginia to New York City. The Times reported that some areas recorded up to seven inches of rain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mondays storm shattered the previous record for July 14 rainfall in New York City of 1.47 inches by recording 2.64 inches of rainfall. Newarks airport received 2.13 inches and LaGuardia Airport had 1.66 inches, both new records for July 14 rainfall. Water has killed more people in my time as governor than any other sort of weather event, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said at a news conference, per The New York Times. Following torrential rains, New York City is hit with a heat advisory On Wednesday, the National Weather Service issued a heat advisory in New York City that lasts until 10 p.m, per USA Today. Heads up, New Yorkers, Mayor Eric Adams wrote in a post on X Tuesday. We could see another heat wave starting tomorrow, meaning multiple days of dangerous heat. Heads up, New Yorkers. We could see another heat wave starting tomorrow, meaning multiple days of dangerous heat. While the forecast could change, it's always a good idea to prepare. Find the best tips to "Beat the Heat" here: https://t.co/B0DWoVpTzh pic.twitter.com/zP7dSIm2Wz Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) July 15, 2025 According to USA Today, city temperatures in the mid 80s to low 90s were forecast. Because of high humidity, the heat indices could exceed triple digits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement High temperatures are also expected on Thursday, per ABC News. City health officials have advised residents to stay hydrated, bump up your beverage intake plain water is best and try to keep ahead of getting too thirsty," per USA Today. The heat advisory also includes parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Connecticut and New Jersey. Flood watches remain in effect in New Jersey as thunderstorms are expected to hit parts of the state late Wednesday. Murphy posted a warning to his states residents on X Wednesday, This summers turbulent weather pattern continues today. We are again experiencing extreme heat with a chance of thunderstorms and flash flooding this evening. This summers turbulent weather pattern continues today. We are again experiencing extreme heat with a chance of thunderstorms and flash flooding this evening. Please check in on your friends and neighbors and limit outdoor activities if possible. For cooling center info: Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) July 16, 2025 Flood watch issued in the Washington D.C. area According to The Washington Post, a flood watch was issued for most of the D.C. region from 5 p.m. to midnight on Wednesday. The far southern counties of Charles, Calvert, St. Marys and Stafford are not covered by the watch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As thunderstorms are expected to develop with near-record levels of moisture in the atmosphere, the National Weather Service said the D.C. area is at a Level 2 out of 4 risk for flooding. Storms will be capable of producing very heavy rainfall, with 1 to 3 inches possible in an hour where stationary cells or multiple rounds occur, the Weather Service said, per The Washington Post. Widespread rainfall totals near an inch are expected, with localized maxes of 2-4 inches. The D.C. area has had a record-breaking 15 flood watches issued since May. So far this month there have been six flood watches, the second most of any month since 2007. The most was in June when there were seven flood watches, per The Washington Post. Storms forecast in Midwest could potentially cause floods A strong storm system has been forecast to travel across the Midwest Wednesday and Thursday, per the National Weather Service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Widespread thunderstorms and heavy rains could potentially cause flash flooding from the Upper Midwest through the Missouri Valley and into the Central Plains. The area that will most likely be hit by this storm stretches from Nebraska to Michigan, including the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Milwaukee and Davenport, Iowa. Damaging winds and large hail could also be seen in the central High Plains of Colorado, per USA Today. The foreign ministers of the Lublin Triangle countries met in Lublin on Wednesday 16 July and expressed their readiness to support the organisation of the next meeting of the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland in Kyiv. Source: a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, as reported by European Pravda Details: On 16 July, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland Andrii Sybiha, Kestutis Budrys and Radosaw Sikorski met in Lublin to mark the fifth anniversary of the Lublin Triangle format and to discuss further cooperation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the meeting, the parties expressed their willingness to facilitate the next meeting of the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland in Kyiv. They also agreed to hold the next ministerial meeting by the end of 2025 in Lithuania. It is worth noting that if the meeting of the three presidents takes place in Kyiv, it will likely be attended by Polands newly elected president Karol Nawrocki, who will assume office in early August. The ministers emphasised the importance of strengthening cultural and humanitarian cooperation in areas of shared historical heritage and memory. They also supported the need for further efforts to counter hybrid threats, particularly in the areas of cyber and energy security, and to resist Russias use of energy as a tool of geopolitical pressure and blackmail, as well as to address the issue of Russias shadow fleet. The diplomats reaffirmed their unwavering support for Ukraines path to European Union membership, recognised the reforms carried out by Ukraine and stated that they consider EU enlargement based on merit as a geostrategic investment in Europes peace, security, stability and prosperity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They also reaffirmed continued support for Ukraines path to NATO membership as an integral part of the continents security architecture. The ministers separately stressed the importance of maintaining political, military, financial and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and confirmed their readiness to participate in Ukraines recovery and reconstruction process. Additionally, the parties welcomed the establishment of the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine. Background: The Lublin Triangle was established as a format for trilateral cooperation between Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine aimed at deepening regional cooperation in the areas of security, economy and social-humanitarian issues. The second summit of the format took place in Lviv in 2023 at the highest level, where the three presidents signed a joint declaration that included references to Ukraines future in the EU and NATO. After the summit, passersby in Lviv gave Polish President Andrzej Duda a standing ovation. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! ALBANY New York State Department of Environmental Conservation forest rangers respond to search and rescue incidents statewide. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, forest rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people from across New York State. In 2024, DEC forest rangers conducted 362 search and rescue missions, extinguished 122 wildfires covering nearly 6,500 acres, participated in 60 prescribed fires that served to rejuvenate more than 1,155 acres of land, and worked on cases that resulted in more than 1,200 tickets and arrests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DECs forest rangers bravely protect State-owned and managed lands, as well as the people who use them. Whether conducting a search and rescue call or responding to a wildfire burning out of control, rangers are always ready when emergencies strike, DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton said. Town of Elizabethtown, Essex County Wildland fire: At 2:50 p.m. July 8, while on patrol of Split Rock Falls in Hammond Pond Wild Forest, forest ranger Black discovered an unattended campfire that escaped a rock ring and was burning the pine duff. Three rangers quickly put out the fire. DEC reminds those camping this summer of these fire safety tips: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Never leave a campfire unattended. Always keep water and hand tools nearby to control the fire, if necessary. Even a small breeze could cause the fire to spread quickly. Drown the fire with water. Make sure all embers, coals, and sticks are wet. Move rocks as there may be burning embers underneath. Stir the remains, add more water, and stir again. If you do not have water, use dirt. Do not bury your coals as they can smolder and break out. Town of North Elba, Essex County Wilderness Rescue: At 6:40 p.m. July 8, Ray Brook dispatch received a call from Garmin about an SOS from a 13-year-old hiking with a camp group who suffered an upper leg injury on Indian Pass near Wallface Mountain. At 8:15 p.m., a New York State Police helicopter inserted forest rangers Curcio and Quinn to the location. Rangers splinted the hikers injured leg and harnessed the teenager from Virginia for a successful hoist. At 8:35 p.m., the NYSP helicopter flew the patient to the hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Town of Chesterfield, Essex County Wildland Fire: On July 12, Ray Brook dispatch received a request from local fire departments for forest ranger assistance with a wildland fire believed to be caused by lightning. Ranger Black shared a unified command with the Keeseville Fire Department. They assigned crews from six fire departments, Keeseville EMS and seven rangers to control the fire. Crews worked overnight and into the next day, containing the two-acre fire by the evening of July 13. TEXAS (WHNT) A former U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood entered a guilty plea in federal court Tuesday. According to federal documents and the U.S. Department of Justice, 21-year-old Cameron John Wagenius used online accounts associated with the nickname kiberphant0m to conspire with 3 other people to defraud at least 10 victim organizations. The DOJ said Wagenius did so by obtaining login credentials for the organizations protected computer networks between April 2023 and December 18, 2024. Huntsville International Airport sets monthly passenger traffic record for June Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DOJ said the conspirators obtained the credentials using a hacking tool called SSH Brute, among other names. The DOJ said they used Telegram group chats to transfer the stolen credentials and talk about gaining access to victim companies networks. The release says all of this happened while Wagenius was on active duty with the U.S. Army. After data was stolen, the conspirators extorted the victim organizations both privately and in public forums. The extortion attempts included threats to post the stolen data on cybercrime forums such as BreachForums and XSS.is. The conspirators offered to sell stolen data for thousands of dollars via posts on these forums. They successfully sold at least some of this stolen data and also used stolen data to perpetuate other frauds, including SIM-swapping. In total, Wagenius and his co-conspirators attempted to extort at least $1 million from victim data owners. U.S. Department of Justice The plea agreement says Wagenius and the co-conspirators, after gaining access to the victims accounts, threatened to leak the stolen data unless a ransom was paid. From there, the federal document says the conspirators worked to gain access to hundreds of thousands of sensitive business and customer records. This information included non-content call and text history records, telecommunication identifying information and other personally identifiable information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some examples of the messages sent to the victims are listed below, per federal documents. At least on or about April 23, 2023, until at least June 16, 2023, Defendant, Co-Conspirator-1 and others participated in a Telegram group chat. The chat members repeatedly discussed stealing computer credentials, including through brute force attacks used to guess username and password combinations, and transferred stolen credentials among themselves. DOJ Plea Agreement Document [I]n or about May 2024, Defendant and Co-Conspirator-1 accessed the computer systems of Victim-1, a telecommunications company located overseas, and stole information pertaining to hundreds of thousands of Victim-1s customers. This stolen information included International Mobile Subscriber Identity, SIM card numbers, maskerkey, and other information needed to successfully clone SIM cards. DOJ Plea Agreement Document [I[n or about August and September 2024, Defendant, Co-Conspirator-1, Co-Conspirator-2, and Co-Conspirator-3 accessed the protected computer systems of Victim-3, a tecnology company located in the United States and stole information pertaining to thousands of Victim-2s customers, including telephone numbers belonging to real people who were Victim-2s customers. Victim-2 was a telecommunications company located in the United States, and some of Vicitm-2s stolen data was hosted on Victim-3s computer systems located in Texas and North Carolina. DOJ Plea Agreement Document Defendant and others publicly and privately extorted victims by threatening to sell or otherwise distribute their stolen data unless the victims paid ransoms. They did so through online posts on online cybercrim forums catering to criminals, such as BreachForums and XXS.is; Telegram channels dedicated to online frauds and other cybercrimes; direct messages on Telegram; and other online platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter). Some of these posts and messages offered to sell the data in exchange for fiat currency and cryptocurrency, while others attempted to extort the victim companies, requesting payment in order to avoid publication of the stolen data. Some posts also published sample data stolen from the victims. The platforms on which these posts were made could be accessed from computers located anywhere in the world, including the Western District of Washington. DOJ Plea Agreement Document Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [O]n or about October 22, 2024, Defendant contacted Victim-2 and wrote, If Im not contacted all 358+ [gigabytes] of data on the [Victim-2] network will be released. Defendant sent this message, which was transmitted in interstate and foreign commerce, as part of Defendants efforts to extort a ransom payment from Victim-2. DOJ Plea Agreement Document [O]n or about November 6, 2024, Defendant sent multiple emails to Victim-4, a telecommunications company located in the United States, sharing sample stolen data and threatening to leak more online unless he was paid 500k USD in the form of cryptocurrency. Defendant stated, [i]n the event of [Co-Conspirator-2s] arrest I was to takeover negotiations. DOJ Plea Agreement Document The department said on Tuesday, Wagenius pleaded guilty to the following charges: Conspiracy to commit wire fraud Extortion in relation to computer fraud Aggravated identity theft. Tri-agency traffic enforcement targets excessive speeding on I-565 He is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 6 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a maximum penalty of five years in prison for extortion in relation to computer fraud, and a mandatory two-year sentence consecutive to any other prison time for aggravated identity theft. Wagenius was first indicted on December 18, 2024, in Seattle, Washington, federal court documents say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plea agreement, obtained by News 19, says Wagenius waived his right to be charged by indictment as well as waived his right to have the incident tried before a jury. As a result of these waivers, he agreed to enter a guilty plea. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com. Attorney General Gentner Drummond speaks about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to vacate Richard Glossip's sentence during a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Janelle Stecklein/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY A man who faced execution nine times and had his conviction vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court is asking a judge to enforce what he says is an agreement between him and the states attorney general that could set him free immediately. But while Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummonds office acknowledges that there were discussions about a plea deal with Richard Glossip, they said no formalized agreement was reached. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glossips attorneys though said Drummond in 2023 agreed to let the then-death row inmate plead guilty to accessory after the fact and receive a 45-year sentence in connection with the 1997 killing of Oklahoma City motel owner Barry Van Treese, according to court documents filed Wednesday. With good time credits, Glossip would be eligible for immediate release, his legal team said. In return, Glossip, who was twice convicted and sentenced to death for paying another man to kill his boss, would not seek damages from the state, the filing said. The agreement is an enforceable lawful contract, the filing argues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Glossips attorneys said the plea agreement was agreed upon before the U.S. Supreme Court decided to consider the case. In February, the nations highest court determined Glossips constitutional rights were violated because prosecutors withheld evidence that would have aided his defense. The nations high court vacated the conviction, a move Drummond supported. Last month, Drummond said Glossip would not face the death penalty, but would be re-prosecuted with non-capital murder charges. He was seeking a life sentence, Drummond said then. Drummonds office said in court filings Wednesday that it wasnt until June 28, four months after the nations high court ruled, that Glossips lead attorney suggested there was a binding agreement. They said it was never executed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A plea bargain is not binding on either party unless and until the court accepts it, the state argued. Contrary to defense counsels abrupt, new theory, the parties have never reached a plea agreement in this matter, the states filing said. Defense counsel premises the existence of a supposedly binding agreement on an email exchange between himself and Attorney General Drummond on April 1, 2023. In addition, Drummond could not have lawfully approved a plea agreement without consulting the victims family, the states filing said. The victims family has criticized Drummond for advocating for clemency and his handling of the case. Drummond said although he didnt think Glossip was innocent, he didnt get a fair trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board in 2023 declined to recommend clemency. Glossip is being held in the Oklahoma County jail after being transported from Oklahoma State Penitentiary, while awaiting a new trial. The man who confessed to beating Van Treese to death, Justin Sneed, is serving life without the possibility of parole. Sneed has said Glossip paid him to kill Van Treese. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE RALEIGH, N.C. (WGHP) Dentons former fire chief was arrested on Friday and accused of fraud, according to North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey. Brandon Allen Dorsett, 37, of Denton, was charged with misusing government computers and two counts of fraud. The charges are all felonies. Davidson County deputies arrested Dorsett. He was released on $10,000 unsecured bond. Special agents with the Department of Insurances Criminal Investigations Division accuse Dorsett of using the towns computers to falsely report the Denton Fire Departments training records and certified rosters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two fraud charges relate to falsifying the rosters and training records. The offenses reportedly happened between March 1, 2021, and July 10, 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX8 WGHP. A former Derry man was sentenced to a minimum of 30 months in state prison after pleading guilty to stealing $60,563 from a victim in Manchester who contracted him to rebuild a house that had burned down, officials said. Former Derry contractor sentenced for stealing more than $60K Jason Tessier Jason Tessier, 49, was convicted of theft by unauthorized taking and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in violation of the New Hampshire Consumer Protection Act, the state Attorney Generals Office said. He pleaded guilty to the charges stemming from his criminal misconduct as a home improvement contractor on Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court North in Manchester, they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tessier stole $60,563 from the victim who paid Tessier $108,000 as a prepayment for rebuilding the victims house that had burnt down, according to a news release from Attorney General John Formella. The theft happened between April 2 and Dec. 31, 2020, officials said. The court sentenced Tessier to 2 to 7 years for the theft by unauthorized taking charge. He also received a suspended sentence of one year for the deceptive practices charge. The suspended sentence ends three years after his release. If you or someone you know has been the victim of home contractor fraud or theft, contact your local police department and file a consumer complaint with the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau at doj.nh.gov/consumer/complaints/index.htm. The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission oversees the state's liquor stores. (Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission/Flickr) A former high-ranking official in the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission used his status and inside knowledge to improperly acquire bottles of highly sought-after liquor, Oregons ethics watchdogs concluded. In recent weeks, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission has been finalizing investigations into six former top officials implicated in 2023 for using their positions to obtain rare, expensive bottles of liquor that normal Oregonians can usually only access through a lottery. The latest case involves Boba Subasic, the commissions former chief information officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Commissioners voted 6-0 Friday to make a preliminary finding of ethics violations against Subasic, giving Subasic 21 days to contest those findings or settle with the commission, likely paying a fine. Three officials have already accepted fines between $500 and $1,500. The commissions findings include that Subasic used his position and his access to confidential OLCC information to obtain several bottles of Pappy Van Winkle and Elmer T. Lee bourbon from the OLCC reserve stock. Subasics attorneys argued that his activities were outside the commissions jurisdictional time scope and the practices he engaged in were longstanding and not unique to him. They two attorneys scored a win in getting commissioners to drop a charge that he had used his position for financial gain in light of the fact that he paid for the bottles himself. There was nothing in this case where he was offered a financial gain, attorney Janet Hoffman told commissioners on Friday. He was offered at fair market value to purchase a bottle of hard to get bourbon, and he purchased it just like any other person. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The controversy around alcohol hoarding first came to the attention of state watchdogs after The Oregonian reported on the diversion of rare liquors by the commissions executive director and high-level employees including Subasic on Feb. 8, 2023 Following that story, an investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice came up with little evidence to support criminal charges in light of the complexity and lack of standardized methods within the agency for tracking inventory and sales to stores across the state. Now that the commission has made its preliminary findings, Subasic and his attorneys will have 21 days to decide on whether to request a contested case hearing in front of an administrative law judge who would produce a recommendation for the commission to consider. Hoffman did not respond to an email seeking comment on further steps. But If Subasic does not request such a hearing, the commission will enter into a final order with him for a penalty that has yet to be decided, wrote Susan Myers, the commissions executive director, in an email. Two other former employees, business manager Bill Schuette and director of information services Kai Nakashima, settled with the commission for $500 penalties. The agencys former executive director, Steve Marks, paid $1,500 after commissioners rejected a proposed $500 fine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two other cases, against former deputy director Will Higlin and former distilled spirits operator Chris Mayton, are ongoing. The maximum statutory penalty is $5,000 per violation, Myers said. What the final penalty will be, whether in a final order after contested case hearing or in a stipulated final order, is yet to be determined. Commissioner Alicia McAuley, the chief operations officer of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, said she was leaning toward advancing the case in light of the lack of information the public would have had about the disputed bottles. Im really having a hard time with getting over or getting past that the public had an opportunity to know these things were available, knowing that these bottles were kept in a protect from sale status, she told her colleagues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ethics commission reviewed the DOJs investigation and cross-checked its interviews, emails and documentation to search for Subasics involvement in the scandal, which involved hundreds of dollars worth of bottles such as Pappy Van Winkle and Elmer T. Lee bourbon sourced from a Kentucky-based distillery. The commission based its findings on emails among employees and two interviews, in one of which Subasic told Oregon State Police that he received a total of four or five bottles spread over maybe every other year or something like that, since starting in May 2018. Myers said the implication from Subasics comments is that he had at least more than once obtained the disputed bottles within the agencys jurisdiction, which would be four years before 2023, when its original investigation began. She said there was repeated reference to Subasic participating in the practice throughout the investigations files, drawing a distinction between his activity and members of the public who may inquire with the OLCC about obtaining rare bottles under lottery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Mr. Subasic and other OLCC employees were gaining access to those before they were released, before they were added to the system as bottles available to be shipped somewhere, that would be the use of confidential information for personal gain, she said. Subasic lawyers had pushed back on the grounds that much of the evidence was inconclusive, including emails from employees discussing ordering practices they argued were vague and in line with the scope of his work, not the bourbon scandal. At the meeting, Subasic remained quiet and declined to speak when asked for comment by commissioners, but he did defend himself at the end of the hearing. He said its not uncommon for stores to make requests for specialized, rare liquor bottles in advance with the commission, even if theyre under a lottery system. The premise that this only happens if youre a state employee or employee is simply not correct, he said. Its false. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Gerard Oxford says he regrets using the word 'Auschwitz" instead of 'detention camp' [Colchester Council] A former mayor of Colchester has admitted posting on social media that "we need to create an Auschwitz camp minus the ovens to house illegals". Gerard Oxford, who said he deleted the post about 20 minutes later and insisted he is not antisemitic, told the BBC: "I am sorry that I made the post now. "I regret using the word 'Auschwitz'. I should have just said 'detention camp'." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former MP for Colchester Sir Bob Russell said: "I'm flabbergasted. I know Gerard well. This is completely out of character. That is not the comment of the Gerard Oxford I know." Sir Bob, a Liberal Democrat who has known Oxford for years, added: "That's not the language we should expect in a democratic society under any circumstances. We all know what Auschwitz was, and to use that word is just not acceptable." Oxford said: "I've been suggesting for some time we should create detention camps in this country." He was mayor of Colchester in 2017. Originally a Lib Dem, he left the party two decades ago and was an independent councillor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oxford quit Colchester City Council in 2022 after a dispute over disability access at the town hall. His social media post attracted criticism, with a joint statement from party leaders branding his language "dehumanising". They said referencing the Holocaust was "deeply wrong and distressing". "Seeking asylum is a legal right, and Colchester rejects language that spreads hate or fear," the councillors added. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. More stories LEAVITTSBURG, Ohio (WJW) A former Trumbull Correctional Institution worker pleaded guilty on Tuesday after investigators said he took a bribe and tried to smuggle drugs into the prison. James Jackson, a 39-year-old Niles man, worked for TCI in Leavittsburg from 2022 to 2024, court records state. He first served as a corrections officer and later became a general maintenance worker, where he regularly came into contact with inmates, the Department of Justice said in a media release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said Jackson was in contact with an inmates wife, according to court documents, and they agreed to meet up after exchanging text messages for some time. Port Clinton woman sentenced for Cleveland street takeovers The pair met on Feb. 1, 2024. During the meeting, investigators said Jackson agreed to take two large, wrapped packages and deliver them to her husband in prison. In return, Jackson accepted an initial bribe of $1,000 from her and was promised an additional $1,000 after the contraband was successfully delivered to the intended recipient, the Department of Justice said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jackson tried to take the packages into TCI the next day, but they were intercepted by law enforcement, investigators said. I-Team: Investigation into an alleged Cleveland City Hall ghost employee Those packages contained the following, according to court records: 97.67 grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine; 207.63 grams of synthetic cannabinoid; 32.85 grams of phencyclidine (aka PCP or angel dust); several other drugs; a cellphone; and SIM cards. Jackson pleaded guilty to a Hobbs Act extortion charge on Tuesday. He faces up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines, court officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He will be sentenced at a later date. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. Sewum is the largest of the five deposits which comprise the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi, remaining open along strike and to depth with the average vertical depth of all holes drilled to date at Sewum only down to 75 metres. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Newcore Gold Ltd. ("Newcore" or the "Company") (TSX-V: NCAU, OTCQX: NCAUF) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the 35,000-metre drill program underway at the Companys 100% owned Enchi Gold Project ("Enchi" or the "Project") in Ghana. Shallow Reverse Circulation ("RC") drilling at the Sewum Gold Deposit ("Sewum") intersected multiple zones of near-surface gold mineralization, including hole SWRC258 which intersected 0.89 grams per tonne gold ("g/t Au") over 33.0 metres ("m") from 1 m and hole SWRC269 which intersected 3.98 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m, including a higher-grade interval of 22.62 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 7 m. Drilling continues to prove out the continuity of gold mineralization and potential for resource growth at Enchi. Story Continues The 35,000-metre drill program underway at Enchi is focused on resource growth and infill drilling designed to convert Inferred Resources to Indicated. The goal of the first phase of drilling is completion of drilling required for resource conversion in advance of commissioning a Pre-Feasibility Study later this year. The second phase of the drill program will focus on discovery and resource growth, including drilling targeting earlier-stage exploration targets along with drilling focused on defining the resource growth potential at depth and along strike. Luke Alexander, President and CEO of Newcore stated, "These results from drilling at Sewum continue to confirm the continuity of gold mineralization at the largest deposit on the Enchi Gold Project. The drilling completed at Sewum targeted shallow mineralization in the oxide and transition horizon, within a maximum vertical depth of 120 metres, which is amenable to open pit mining and heap leach processing. As we continue to drill at Enchi, with a 35,000-metre drill program underway, we also continue to complete development work required to advance the Project to a Pre-Feasibility Study in 2026 including diamond drilling to support further metallurgical, geotechnical and hydrogeological testwork. Newcore has a busy year ahead as we continue to advance the development of Enchi while in tandem defining the longer-term potential of our district scale Enchi Gold Project through the drill bit." This release reports results for 47 RC holes totalling 4,493 m (SWRC225 to SWRC271) targeting the Sewum Gold Deposit, with 46 holes intersecting gold mineralization. A total of 24,127 m in 200 holes have been reported as part of the ongoing 2024 - 2025 drill program at Enchi, with 98% of holes intersecting gold mineralization. Select assay results from the 47 holes of the drill program reported in this release are below: Table 1 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Highlights Hole ID Zone/Deposit From (m) To (m) Length (m) Au (g/t) SWRC258 Sewum 1.0 34.0 33.0 0.89 SWRC269 Sewum 2.0 8.0 6.0 3.98 including 7.0 8.0 1.0 22.62 SWRC248 Sewum 4.0 45.0 41.0 0.56 including 9.0 16.0 7.0 1.67 SWRC260 Sewum 27.0 68.0 41.0 0.51 including 55.0 61.0 6.0 1.66 SWRC251 Sewum 59.0 100.0 41.0 0.51 SWRC259 Sewum 2.0 42.0 40.0 0.51 SWRC236 Sewum 40.0 69.0 29.0 0.67 SWRC249 Sewum 15.0 39.0 24.0 0.80 Notes: 1. See detailed table for complete results; 2. Intervals reported are hole lengths with true width estimated to be 75 - 85%; and 3. Length-weighted averages from uncut assays. A plan map showing the drill hole locations can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-nr-enchi-plan-map-sewum.pdf Cross sections showing drill results and highlights for holes SWRC236 to SWRC241, SWRC247 to SWRC251, SWRC258 to SWRC264, and SWRC265 to SWRC271 can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-crosssections-sewum.pdf A complete list of the drill results in this release, including hole details, can be viewed at: https://newcoregold.com/site/assets/files/5920/2025_07_16-ncau-enchi-2024-2025-drill-results.pdf Drilling at the Sewum Gold Deposit SWRC225 to SWRC271 (47 RC holes totalling 4,493 m) were completed at Sewum, targeting three areas of the deposit: the Ridge Zone, the northern portion of Checkerboard Hill, and the Sewum Extension Parallel Structure. Drilling targeted near-surface oxidized and shallow transition mineralization with a goal of infill drilling for resource conversion to improve the confidence level as well as grow the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. RC drilling at Sewum consisted of 50-metre spaced sections with drill holes spaced every 25 metres along the sections. Drilling targeted shallow mineralization, with drill holes reaching a maximum vertical depth of 120 metres. The majority of the holes reported in this news release are distributed across 6 separate sections that are spread along a 700-metre strike length at the Ridge Zone area of Sewum. 36 RC holes totalling 3,157 m (SWRC236 to SWRC271) were drilled at the Ridge Zone at Sewum. The Ridge Zone is the largest and northernmost mineralized area currently defined at Sewum, consisting of a series of stacked sub-parallel gold mineralized structures which occur across an average width of 250 metres. Drilling intersected a series of stacked, shallow-dipping, sub-parallel structures hosted within the diorite intrusive which underlies the prominent ridge hosting the gold mineralization in this area. A series of holes drilling along the same section (SWRC258 to SWRC264) intersected multiple shallow mineralized structures; SWRC258 intersected 0.89 g/t Au over 33.0 m from 1 m, SWRC259 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 40.0 m from 2 m, and SWRC260 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 27 m including a higher-grade interval of 1.66 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 55 m. A second section of drill holes (SWRC247 to SWRC251) also intersected multiple mineralized structures near surface; SWRC247 intersected 0.61 g/t Au over 30.0 m from 2 m, SWRC248 intersected 0.56 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 4 m including a higher-grade interval of 1.67 g/t Au over 7.0 m from 9 m, SWRC249 intersected 0.80 g/t Au over 24.0 m from 15 m, SWRC250 intersected 0.38 g/t Au over 51.0 m from 40 m, and SWRC251 intersected 0.51 g/t Au over 41.0 m from 59 m. A section of drill holes (SWRC265 to SWRC271) completed in the northernmost area of the Ridge Zone intersected multiple mineralized structures with higher-grade gold intervals; SWRC269 intersected 3.98 g/t Au over 6.0 m from 2 m with a higher-grade interval of 22.62 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 7 m and a second interval of 5.50 g/t Au over 2.0 m from 39 m including a higher-grade interval of 10.53 g/t Au over 1.0 m from 39 m, SWRC265 intersected 0.64 g/t Au over 21.0 m from 18 m, and SWRC271 intersected 1.10 g/t Au over 11.0 m from 19 m. 5 RC holes totaling 528 m (SWRC228 to SWRC232) were drilled on the north-eastern area of the Checkerboard Hill portion of the structure at Sewum, approximately 0.5 kilometres to the south of the Ridge Zone. Drilling in this area consisted of first pass step-out drilling targeting extensions of the mineralization to the northeast. SWRC229 intersected 0.65 g/t Au over 10.0 m from 83 m in the upper sulphide mineralization. 6 RC holes totalling 447 m (SWRC225 to SWRC227, SWRC233 to SWRC235) tested the Sewum Extension Parallel Structure, with drilling focused on both infill for resource conversion and step-out drilling for resource growth. The Sewum Extension Parallel Structure is an area near the southern portion of the structure identified at Sewum, approximately 2 kilometres to the south of the Checkerboard Hill area. SWRC234, the southernmost hole drilled on this structure and a 100-metre step out from prior drilling, intersected 0.63 g/t Au over 11.0 m from 64 m. Hole SWRC227, drilled 350 metres to the north of SWRC234 and targeting resource conversion, intersected 1.59 g/t Au over 4.0 m from 31 m. The results from drilling within this area of Sewum continue to highlight the potential for future resource growth across the property. The recently completed drilling at Sewum continues to confirm continuity along strike and down dip for the principal structures which comprise the Sewum Gold Deposit. The width and gold grades within these drill results are consistent with prior wider-spaced drilling completed at Sewum. The drill results released to date from the 2024 - 2025 drill program are largely from the Boin and Sewum deposits where drilling was designed to improve the confidence level of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. This recent drilling was completed in areas where the previous pit constrained Mineral Resource Estimate was classified as Inferred. The Company anticipates that the results of this recent drilling should allow for the conversion of a substantial portion of mineralization within these areas to the Indicated category. 2024 - 2025 Enchi Work Program A 35,000-metre drill program is underway at Enchi, targeting near-surface oxide and shallow sulphide mineralization with a primary goal of infill drilling for resource conversion to improve the confidence level of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate. Most of the infill drilling is allocated to the two largest deposits at Enchi, Boin and Sewum. Improving the confidence level of the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi is a key component of the development work required to be completed in advance of commissioning a Pre-Feasibility Study for the Project. A subset of the drill program will also focus on outlining resource growth, with all deposit areas and pre-resource targets at Enchi remaining open along strike and at depth, providing for future resource growth across the district-scale property. Additional exploration and development work is on-going at Enchi, including metallurgical testwork, trenching, hydrogeological testing, geotechnical work, and environmental work. Drone topographic surveys have been completed, expanding on previously completed work, at the Kwakyekrom and Tokosea deposit areas to provide detailed topographic information required to improve the confidence level of each deposits Mineral Resource Estimate. Additionally, the drone survey was completed across the proposed heap leach facility area to contribute additional data for future detailed engineering studies. An airborne magnetic survey tested grass roots targets related to a series of gold-in-soil anomalies and gold mineralization identified in trenching. Soil sampling was also completed on the Omanpe and Abotia licenses with a goal of further defining early-stage targets across Enchi for future trenching and drilling. Sewum Gold Zone Sewum is one of the five deposits which comprise the Mineral Resource Estimate at Enchi (Sewum has an Indicated Mineral Resource of 20.9 million tonnes grading 0.48 g/t Au containing 323,300 ounces and Inferred Mineral Resource of 21.8 million tonnes grading 0.53 g/t Au containing 373,100 ounces). Sewum is located 15 kilometres south of the town of Enchi, with nearby roads and power and further access provided by a series of drill roads. Sewum is outlined on surface by a greater than six-kilometre-long and one to two-kilometre-wide gold in soil anomaly. An airborne geophysical anomaly coincident with the Sewum Gold Deposit defines a series of sub parallel and intersecting structures. To date, approximately 45% of the gold-in-soil anomaly at Sewum is untested by drilling, with the average vertical depth of all holes drilled to date at Sewum only down to 75 metres. Drill Hole Locations Table 2 - Enchi Gold Project Drill Hole Location Details Hole ID UTM East UTM North Elevation Azimuth Dip Length (m) SWRC225 520646 626141 115 120 -55 198 SWRC226 520707 626184 123 120 -55 168 SWRC227 520846 626317 139 120 -55 120 SWRC228 521672 627929 167 120 -55 66 SWRC229 521689 627951 167 120 -55 114 SWRC230 521650 627968 169 120 -55 144 SWRC231 521710 627996 144 120 -55 78 SWRC232 521680 628019 144 120 -55 126 SWRC233 520518 625923 107 120 -55 120 SWRC234 520541 625900 125 120 -55 90 SWRC235 520553 625967 97 120 -55 112 SWRC236 521409 628682 194 120 -60 72 SWRC237 521390 628697 194 120 -60 90 SWRC238 521371 628711 194 120 -60 84 SWRC239 521348 628726 194 120 -60 96 SWRC240 521328 628740 195 120 -60 66 SWRC241 521311 628745 195 120 -60 60 SWRC242 521422 628771 193 120 -60 84 SWRC243 521402 628786 194 120 -60 84 SWRC244 521385 628797 196 120 -60 87 SWRC245 521367 628805 196 120 -60 108 SWRC246 521338 628822 196 120 -60 108 SWRC247 521449 628892 194 120 -60 78 SWRC248 521431 628900 194 120 -60 84 SWRC249 521406 628914 194 120 -60 102 SWRC250 521384 628932 194 120 -60 102 SWRC251 521361 628944 194 120 -60 108 SWRC252 521477 629081 195 120 -60 60 SWRC253 521456 629095 195 120 -60 80 SWRC254 521434 629114 196 120 -60 98 SWRC255 521411 629121 195 120 -60 120 SWRC256 521385 629136 194 120 -60 138 SWRC257 521362 629147 194 120 -60 64 SWRC258 521549 629252 197 120 -60 66 SWRC259 521529 629263 202 120 -60 74 SWRC260 521504 629277 195 120 -60 80 SWRC261 521480 629288 195 120 -60 108 SWRC262 521454 629299 194 120 -60 120 SWRC263 521435 629313 194 120 -60 136 SWRC264 521405 629332 193 120 -60 60 SWRC265 521580 629359 198 120 -60 60 SWRC266 521555 629368 198 120 -60 80 SWRC267 521534 629380 200 120 -60 100 SWRC268 521509 629393 195 120 -60 120 SWRC269 521492 629402 194 120 -60 60 SWRC270 521469 629414 194 120 -60 60 SWRC271 521601 629348 192 120 -60 60 Enchi Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate The Enchi Gold Project hosts an Indicated Mineral Resource of 41.7 million tonnes grading 0.55 g/t Au containing 743,500 ounces gold and an Inferred Mineral Resource of 46.6 million tonnes grading 0.65 g/t Au containing 972,000 ounces. Mineral resource estimation practices are in accordance with CIM Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practice Guidelines (November 29, 2019) and follow CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (May 10, 2014), that are incorporated by reference into National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). The Mineral Resource Estimate is from the technical report titled "NI 43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment on the Enchi Gold Project" dated June 7, 2024, with an effective date of April 24, 2024, prepared for Newcore by Preetham Nayak, P.Eng., Ryda Peung, P.Eng., and Zunedbhai Shaikh, P.Eng., of Lycopodium Minerals Canada Ltd.; Kerrine Azougarh, P.Eng., of Micon International Limited; and Simon Meadows Smith, P.Eng. / P.Geo., of SEMS Exploration in accordance with NI 43-101, and is available under the Companys profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Simon Meadows Smith is an independent qualified person ("QP") as defined by NI 43-101. Newcore Gold Best Practice Newcore is committed to best practice standards for all exploration, sampling and drilling activities. Drilling was completed by an independent drilling firm using industry standard RC and Diamond Drill equipment. Analytical quality assurance and quality control procedures include the systematic insertion of blanks, standards and duplicates into the sample strings. Samples are placed in sealed bags and shipped directly to Intertek Labs located in Tarkwa, Ghana for 50 gram gold fire assay. Qualified Person Mr. Gregory Smith, P. Geo, Vice President of Exploration at Newcore, is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, and has reviewed and approved the technical data and information contained in this news release. Mr. Smith has verified the technical and scientific data disclosed herein and has conducted appropriate verification on the underlying data including confirmation of the drillhole data files against the original drillhole logs and assay certificates. About Newcore Gold Ltd. Newcore Gold is advancing its Enchi Gold Project located in Ghana, Africas largest gold producer (1). Newcore Gold offers investors a unique combination of top-tier leadership, who are aligned with shareholders through their 15% equity ownership, and prime district scale exploration opportunities. Enchis 248 km2 land package covers 40 kilometres of Ghanas prolific Bibiani Shear Zone, a gold belt which hosts several multi-million-ounce gold deposits, including the Chirano mine 50 kilometres to the north. Newcores vision is to build a responsive, creative and powerful gold enterprise that maximizes returns for shareholders. (1) Source: Production volumes for 2023 as sourced from the World Gold Council. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of Newcore Gold Ltd. Luke Alexander President, CEO & Director For further information, please contact: Mal Karwowska | Vice President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations +1 604 484 4399 info@newcoregold.com www.newcoregold.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes statements that contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation ("forward-looking statements"). All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. Any statement that involves discussion with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions, future events or performance (often, but not always using phrases such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. In this news release, forward-looking statements relate, among other things, to: statements about the estimation of mineral resources; results of preliminary economic assessments; completion of a pre-feasibility study; results of metallurgical testwork; results of our ongoing drill campaign; results of drilling, magnitude or quality of mineral deposits; anticipated advancement of mineral properties or programs; and future exploration prospects. These forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business. The assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to Newcore. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of Newcore believes, or believed at the time, to be reasonable assumptions, Newcore cannot assure its shareholders that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements, as there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Forward-looking information also involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others: risks related to the speculative nature of Newcores business; Newcores formative stage of development; Newcores financial position; possible variations in mineralization, grade or recovery rates; actual results of current exploration activities; fluctuations in general macroeconomic conditions; fluctuations in securities markets; fluctuations in spot and forward prices of gold and other commodities; fluctuations in currency markets (such as the Canadian dollar to United States dollar exchange rate); change in national and local government, legislation, taxation, controls, regulations and political or economic developments; risks and hazards associated with the business of mineral exploration, development and mining (including environmental hazards, unusual or unexpected geological formations); the presence of laws and regulations that may impose restrictions on mining; employee relations; relationships with and claims by local communities; the speculative nature of mineral exploration and development (including the risks of obtaining necessary licenses, permits and approvals from government authorities); and title to properties. Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this news release and Newcore disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results, except as may be required by applicable securities laws. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A former Nye County Sheriffs Office captain, who pleaded guilty to the wrongful arrest of a power company CEO, avoided prison time at a sentencing in federal court Tuesday, the 8 News Now Investigators have learned. Chief Judge Andrew P. Gordon sentenced David Boruchowitz, who once acted as the sheriff departments public information officer, to a three-year probation term and 180 days of curfew, according to a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Justice. Boruchowitzs attorney confirmed that Gordon also imposed a $35,000 fine and an additional $125 penalty. In March, Boruchowitz pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully depriving the CEOs rights and one count of wire fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to court documents, beginning in February 2019, Boruchowitz and others made numerous misrepresentations and omissions of material fact as part of a scheme to defraud and fraudulently deprive former Valley Electric Association CEO Angela Evans of her job and a spot on the companys board of directors. It was alleged that Boruchowitz wanted that board position. Federal prosecutors said he had no right to arrest Evans. Police-worn body camera video posted on the Nye County Sheriffs Facebook page appears to show police handing Evans a warrant before eventually arresting her. As the offices public information officer, Boruchowitz posted press releases on Facebook about the Evans arrest on embezzlement charges. Local authorities decided not to press charges against Evans. A federal indictment from August 2023 said Boruchowitz and others made numerous misrepresentations and omissions of material fact as part of a scheme to defraud and fraudulently deprive Evans of her job and board membership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By pleading guilty, Boruchowitz avoided a perjury charge and two additional charges related to wire fraud. The courtroom at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas was packed full of people who witnessed the daylong sentencing. Gordon, the chief judge in Nevada, gave Boruchowitz some credit for accepting responsibility, which the prosecutor said in filings, Boruchowitz did not immediately do. Baruchowitzs attorney, Crane Pomerantz from the Las Vegas office of the firm Clark Hill, told the 8 News Now Investigators the following in a statement, which read in its entirety: Judge Gordon made some very poignant statements during sentencing today that Mr. Boruchowitz takes to heart. He appreciates the opportunity he has been given and looks forward to continuing the good work he does for the Pahrump community, especially its disabled citizens. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. LEAVITTSBURG, Ohio (WKBN) A former Trumbull Correctional Institution employee has pleaded guilty to using his position to smuggle illicit substances and other prohibited items to an inmate. Read next: Nationwide strike affecting local landfills James P. Jackson, age 39, of Niles, pleaded guilty Monday after being charged with accepting money to smuggle two packages into TCI using his capacity as an employee of the facility. He faces a maximum of up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was employed by the Trumbull Correctional Institution (TCI) in Leavittsburg from 2022 through 2024. He served as a corrections officer and later as a general maintenance worker, where he regularly came into contact with inmates, according to a release from the Department of Justice. His work duties and responsibilities allowed him full access to non-public areas, including prison cells. Allegations in court documents show that Jackson was in communication with the wife of a TCI inmate. After some time spent exchanging text messages and keeping in touch by phone, the two agreed to meet. On Feb. 1, 2024, they met and she handed him two large, wrapped packages for him to deliver to her husband, who was serving a sentence inside the facility. In return, Jackson accepted an initial bribe of $1,000 from her and was promised an additional $1,000 after the contraband was successfully delivered to the intended recipient, according to the DOJ. The next day, Jackson attempted to take the packages into TCI but was intercepted by law enforcement before entering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation revealed that the packages Jackson received and attempted to smuggle into the prison contained 97.67 grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine, 207.63 grams of synthetic cannabinoid, 32.85 grams of phencyclidine (aka PCP or angel dust), various other drugs, a cellphone and SIM cards, the DOJ release states. This investigation was conducted by the FBI Cleveland Division, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Trumbull Correctional Institutions-Office of Investigations, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol-Office of Criminal Investigations Prison Drug Unit and Investigative Services for the Warren District. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing is yet to be scheduled. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Josh Kim and Sam Hong had successful careers in tech but in 2022, they decided to start making burgers, bought a few portable griddles and did their first pop-up at Thank You Coffee in Chinatown. About a year and a half later, the pair earned a vendor spot at Smorgasburg, where they served 450 burgers on their first day of service inspired by their Korean American childhoods think pork belly sandwiches with sesame mayo and kimchi jam, and a smashburger patty topped with a tempura-fried enoki mushroom, yuzu mayonnaise and pickled red onions. Kim and Hong soft opened their bricks-and-mortar location of Softies Burger in the USC Village on July 6, where they formerly worked at Cafe Dulce. Owner James Choi put in a good word for them to the landlord who, after going to Smorgasburg to try their food, offered them a spot at the campus-adjacent shopping center. I say its like exploring cultural confusion, Kim said of Softies menu. Sam and I are both Korean American, so we grew up at home eating Korean dishes. But whenever were out, we wanted to eat burgers and pizza and whatnot. So its kind of trying to figure out what that looks like. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The newly-opened burger joint has a few new items on the menu, including a classic New York-style chopped cheese sandwich, a chicken Caesar salad with spicy panko breadcrumbs and shrimp paste and a selection of sodas, along with drip coffee and cold brew. Desserts pull from childhood nostalgia, including a diner-inspired lime pie with yuzu and a miso-caramel banoffee pie. Leading up to the opening, Kim and Hong started a GoFundMe that raised over $18,000 for restaurant equipment, furniture and other inventory. Neither of the pair are chefs, though Kim sees his time working in tech for OpenTable and DoorDash as "data gathering" for what he didn't realize at the time would become his own restaurant. The three burgers on the menu hail from Kim and Hong's Smorgasburg days: the Cali, their take on a classic In-N-Out burger, doctored up with roasted garlic and caramelized onions (a nod to Korean barbecue toppings); the Japanese Peruvian-inspired Aji burger, a smashburger patty topped with pickled jalapenos and a cilantro, garlic and lime mayonnaise; and a rotating third option, which is currently the Crispy Shroom burger. We are very specific about the fact that were not chefs, Kim said. The kind of restaurant we want to build, its not too stuffy We just want this space, especially for the USC students, to feel like their restaurant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kim and Hong designed the 2,600-square-foot space to look like an old-school diner with modern Korean and Japanese influences, pairing retro barstools with spherical chandeliers, sleek white tables and wooden booths and chairs. Softies Burger is currently open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. 835 W. Jefferson Blvd. Unit 1710, Los Angeles, https://softiesburger.square.site "The Bear" deli from Chicago at Uncle Paulie's Deli The hit FX series "The Bear" has given the iconic Chicago beef sandwich renewed time under the national spotlight. On the heels of the show's fourth season, the dish, which features tender slices of roast beef dripping with au jus on a crusty roll, is back at the forefront of diners' minds and Angelenos are about to get a taste. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Beverly Grove location of Uncle Paulies Deli will host Mr. Beef the Chicago deli that inspired the Berzatto familys restaurant on the award-winning drama-comedy for a pop-up on July 19 and 20. Last year was such a success we had to run it back, Uncle Paulies wrote in an Instagram post of its former collaboration with Mr. Beef. Mr. Beefs signature Italian beef sandwich, topped with giardiniera and dipped in au jus, will be offered at Uncle Paulies on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chicken tenders with salad in anchovy vinaigrette at Joshua Skenes' Happies Hand Made. (Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times) Happies Hand Made A new destination for fried chicken tenders has arrived in the Arts District. Joshua Skenes former chef of San Francisco's Saison, which earned three Michelin stars under his leadership, and now-closed, one Michelin-starred Angler in the Beverly Center opened Happies Hand Made on June 6. Skenes throws his fried chicken on the grill before serving it a la carte, in sandwiches or on top of a crispy waffle alongside tallow fries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The concept is centered around high-quality comfort food, with limited drops and an evolving menu. Happies Hand Made also offers soft serve, with flavors such as wild strawberry, passion fruit and butterscotch, alongside cold brew, tea drinks and house-made sodas, including the Yuzu-Up and Kumquat Cream Top. Happies Hand Made is open on Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m. 427 S. Hewitt St., Los Angeles, happieshandmade.com Smokey Chance BBQ and Jikoni at Citizen Public Market After wowing customers with its 14-hour-smoked brisket at Culver City's Citizen Public Market for the last nine months, Smokey Chance BBQ will begin a permanent residence at the food hall beginning July 17. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Before, we literally took over a corner, which was a seating area at the market," said chef Derrell Smith. "Now we'll have the opportunity to actually have a full, built-out kitchen [where] we can expand our menu and be able to experiment how we wanted to before." Smith, pitmaster Jeff Chen and Darren Wong, who Smith described as the "brain" of Smokey Chance, will serve sliders and other new dishes next week, alongside mainstays that include a brisket Cuban sandwich, brisket cheesesteak, and cornbread made with beef tallow and topped with Calabrian chile honey butter. "Our barbecue sauce is made with gochujang and jerk Jeff and Darren are both Taiwanese and Chinese, and my grandma taught me to cook, and she was from North Carolina," Smith said. "[We're] taking all of these regional ingredients and turning them into something that's just fun and whimsical." Jikoni, a summer pop-up from "AfriCali" cookbook author Kiano Moju, has been extended at Citizen Public Market for the rest of the summer. Moju puts a California twist on the Kenyan and Nigerian food she grew up eating in Oakland, offering a rotating menu with dishes like Swahili biriyani and saucy coconut butter beans with chapati, along with mishkaki, skewers popular in Tanzania and Kenya. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When I was on the book tour, people kept asking, 'Where can I try food like this?' ... I thought it could be fun to do a pop-up where we bring the book to life with some of the recipes," Moju said. After a successful pop-up at Melody wine bar this spring, Moju said that Smith told her about a temporary spot opening up at Citizen Public. Her initial two-week residency was extended to a month and just last week, the food hall announced that the Jikoni pop-up would remain through August. "It's really fun, but it's also still incredibly crazy because I thought I'd just be writing recipes and telling people how to cook, and here I am running a restaurant," Moju said. Smokey Chance BBQ is open Friday and Saturday from 12 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 7 p.m, and will begin Thursday service on July 17. Jikoni is open on Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m. Sign up for our Tasting Notes newsletter for restaurant reviews, Los Angeles food-related news and more. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A former AT&T employee is facing charges for allegedly manipulating the accounts of half a dozen customers to boost her income. Katie Barnaby, 35, of Stafford was arrested last Thursday at Rockville Superior Court and charged in connection with six warrants out for her arrest, according to Connecticut State Police. She faces six counts of third-degree computer crimes. According to the arrest warrant affidavits, detectives with the Eastern District Major Crime Squad began investigating Barnaby after a previous incident led to her arrest. While working at an AT&T store in Stafford, investigators alleged that, in December 2021, she misled a customer by secretly adding unauthorized phone and tablet lines to their account for commission she would receive, which led to about $2,000 in unauthorized charges over the course of 26 months, the warrant affidavit said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barnaby was arrested in January on one count of third-degree computer crimes. News of that arrest led to six more victims coming forward and lodging complaints against Barnaby, state police wrote in the warrant affidavits. In March, investigators obtained search and seizure warrants for the records tied to the accounts belonging to the victims. The records were turned over the next month. According to the warrant affidavits, the records allegedly showed that Barnaby added lines to one customers account after bypassing security protocols, which led to somewhere between $4,680 and $6,120 in fraudulent charges. Through unauthorized modifications, another customers monthly bill was jacked up from somewhere between $374-379 to about $468, the warrant affidavits said. Another customer wished to add a Samsung device to their account and found that an Apple watch had been added instead, which the victim said led to more than $3,000 in charges, according to the warrant affidavits. The customers account was marked delinquent on 10 separate occasions between 2022 and 2024 before the alleged victim said they were forced to end their AT&T service early last year, state police wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A different victim reportedly was enrolled in a business unlimited performance that entailed 12 unauthorized lines beyond the five the customer was seeking, the warrant affidavits said. Each line also had a $35 insurance charge tied to it that was not authorized, state police wrote. The modifications led to bills totaling $1,539 which investigators said was six times the quoted rate and account suspensions which were preceded by cancellation, the warrant affidavits said. Barnaby is free on a $60,000 bond and is scheduled to appear before a judge on July 22. A high school teacher has died after falling 100 feet during a long-planned hiking excursion, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Harris Levinson, 61, was a teacher at Seattles Vashon High School. On June 23, he set out on a solo hiking expedition to Yosemite National Park from Whitney Portal in California. On July 9, California authorities were summoned to the John Muir Trail with reports of a missing hiker. "Mr. Levinson planned to begin his hike on June 23 after putting in a food resupply cache at Onion Valley that he planned to pick up on June 29," explained a statement from the Inyo County Sheriff's Office. However, when Levinson failed to collect this food supply, a friend contacted authorities who "initiated a search using helicopters from the California Highway Patrol Office of Air Operations and Inyo National Forest, and ground searchers from Inyo County Search and Rescue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Aided by data from Mr. Levinsons satellite messaging device, ground searchers located the body of Mr. Levinson in the North Fork of Lone Pine Creek, apparently the victim of a fatal fall," the statement continued. Levinson had fallen just two miles into the 140-mile trek, tumbling 100 feet into a gully from which his body was recovered on July 12. Related: Teenager Dies in Horrific Freak Accident at Food Processing Plant Harris had been planning this trip for months and was thrilled and excited to begin, Levinsons friend, Carrie McCarthy, wrote on Caring Bridge. Folks who connected with him in his final days report that he was joyful, eager, friendly, and full of appreciation for his life and the opportunity to go on this adventure. In other words, he was Harris. Levinson taught American studies, Spanish, and theater at Vashon High from 1997 until 2017. The schools newspaper, the Beachcomber, published a heartfelt tribute to the late teacher. He saw each class as a familyone coherent unit that was fueled by friendship and trust, wrote former student Alden Hinden-Stevenson. Even people who werent the closest of friends could have a unique, shared experience in his class. In other words, it was the interactions that counted the most. Related: John Goodman Displays Stunning Weight Loss at 'Smurfs' Premiere Former Teacher Dies During Long-Awaited Hiking Trip first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 FORT HOOD, Texas (FOX 44) A former Army soldier most recently stationed in Texas pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to hack into telecommunications companies databases, access sensitive records, and extort the telecommunications companies by threatening to release the stolen data unless ransoms were paid. The Department of Justice (DoJ) says that according to court documents, 21-year-old Cameron John Wagenius used online accounts associated with the nickname kiberphant0m between April 2023 and December 18, 2024. He conspired with others to defraud at least ten victim organizations by obtaining login credentials for the organizations protected computer networks. The DoJ says the conspirators obtained these credentials using a hacking tool that they called SSH Brute, among other means. They used Telegram group chats to transfer stolen credentials and discuss gaining unauthorized access to victim companies networks. This activity happened while Wagenius was on active duty with the U.S. Army. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After data was stolen, the conspirators extorted the victim organizations both privately and in public forums. The extortion attempts included threats to post the stolen data on cybercrime forums such as BreachForums and XSS.is. The conspirators offered to sell stolen data for thousands of dollars via posts on these forums. The DoJ says they successfully sold at least some of this stolen data and also used stolen data to perpetuate other frauds, including SIM-swapping. In total, Wagenius and his co-conspirators attempted to extort at least $1 million from victim data owners. Wagenius pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, extortion in relation to computer fraud, and aggravated identity theft. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 6 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, a maximum penalty of five years in prison for extortion in relation to computer fraud, and a mandatory two-year sentence consecutive to any other prison time for aggravated identity theft. The DoJ says Wagenius previously pleaded guilty in a separate case to two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information in connection with this conspiracy. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KWKT - FOX 44. A former U.S. Marine Corps reservist has been arrested and charged with attempted murder in connection with an attack at a Texas immigration detention center in which a police officer was shot in the neck, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Benjamin Hanil Song, 32, is the latest person charged in the Fourth of July assault in which attackers dressed in black military-style clothing opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, southwest of Dallas, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Texas. Song, from Dallas, was arrested after a weeklong search and has been charged with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, the office said in a statement. He is accused of purchasing four of the guns linked to the attack, it said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Court records do not list names of attorneys representing Song or scheduled court appearances. U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Texas did not immediately respond to an email asking whether Song has an attorney. The officer wounded in the attack has since been released from the hospital. Ten people, most of them from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, have previously been charged with attempted murder of a federal officer and discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Another person has been charged with obstruction of justice for concealing evidence, while two others were charged with accessory after the fact for allegedly helping Song get away. If convicted, most of the defendants could face up to life imprisonment, while those charged with obstruction of justice and accessory after the fact would face lesser penalties if convicted, according to federal prosecutors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The shooting took place as President Donald Trump s administration ramps up deportations. The attackers initially set off fireworks and spray-painted vehicles and a guard structure, including the words Ice Pig, according to a criminal complaint. This was designed to lure correctional officers outside the facility, according to U.S. Attorneys Office. Correctional officers called 911 and an Alvarado police officer responded and someone in the woods opened fire. Another person across the street fired 20 to 30 rounds at correctional officers who were unarmed after they walked out of the facility, according to the offices statement. After the group fled, sheriffs deputies stopped seven people about 300 yards (275 meters) from where the officer was shot, according to a criminal complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were dressed in black, military-style clothing, some had on body armor, some were covered in mud, some were armed, and some had radios, the complaint said. A sheriffs office detective also stopped a van leaving the area and found two AR-style rifles and a pistol, along with ballistic-style vests and a helmet, the complaint said. The driver, the only person in the van, said he had been at the detention center. He said he had met some people online and drove some of them to the detention center from Dallas to make some noise, according to the complaint. Songs cellphones location data shows it was near the detention center from about 11:30 p.m. on July 4 and throughout the day on July 5, according to a criminal complaint. Though Song escaped by hiding overnight after the attack, we were confident he would not remain hidden for long, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Nancy E. Larson said in a statement. The fourteen individuals who planned and participated in these heinous acts will be prosecuted, and we expect justice will be swift. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) A Fort Bliss soldier recently traveled to her hometown in Kerrville, Texas, to help with flood search and rescue efforts and was able to provide closure to five families, according to a press release from Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss says 1st. Lt. Emily Ake, public affairs officer for the 5th Armored Brigade at Fort Bliss, traveled to Kerrville last week to help with the flood disaster. Kerrville shaped who I am, Ake said. There was never a question about going back to helpthese are my people, and Ill do whatever it takes to support them. The devastating floods brought unimaginable challenges, but they also revealed the incredible strength and resilience of the Kerrville community. Emily Ake Ake also serves as a police officer with the Kerrville Police Department when not mobilized and is a U.S. Army Reservist currently mobilized as an observer and controller/trainer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ake partnered with volunteers and residents in Kerrville, who were able to provide closure to five families and assisted in searching for those buried under debris, according to Fort Bliss. Fort Bliss says Akes local church, Harvest Christian Center of El Paso, also donated to recovery efforts in regards to the deadly flood. 1st Lt. Akes selfless return to her hometown in its hour of need is a powerful reminder of the strength and resilience that define both her character and the community she serves. In uniform and out, she embodies the Army Values and leads with compassion, courage, and commitment. We are proud to serve alongside her. Col. Douglas F. Serie, 5 AR BDE commander. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) The Foundation for TJO Animals has been awarded a $185,000 grant from the John T. and Jane A. Wiederhold Foundation. Diocese of Springfield names new Assistant Director of Development The grant funding will enable the Thomas J. OConnor Animal Control & Adoption Center (TJO) to offer on-site spay/neuter surgeries for shelter animals, as well as for cats and dogs belonging to low-income owners in Springfield and surrounding communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The funds will be used to purchase medical equipment to expand the existing surgical suite and to subsidize the cost of these surgeries. The program aims to spay/neuter 1,000 cats and dogs within its first year and provide medical care for animals at the TJO Adoption Center. The Foundation for TJO Animals highlighted that financial barriers to veterinary care can lead to preventable illnesses, animal surrenders, and euthanasia. By establishing a veterinary suite that provides accessible care, the initiative seeks to improve pet health and well-being, reduce disease outbreaks, and decrease surrenders to local animal shelters. For the past year, TJO has faced challenges in recruiting veterinary staff and has operated without an on-site veterinarian. Consequently, all medical care, including spay/neuter surgeries, has been conducted at off-site veterinary clinics. This process has led to significant staff time coordinating animal transportation, increased lengths of stay for animals at the shelter, and higher costs. Expected outcomes of the program include a decrease in the length of stay for animals as they can be spayed/neutered more quickly and made available for adoption, as well as a reduction in animal intake due to increased access to spay/neuter services in the community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are so fortunate that the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation awarded the Foundation for TJO Animals the Wiederhold grant for this spay and neuter program. The MSPCA and its community outreach program are doing great things in Springfield to aid TJO and other local shelters and rescues, said Janna Brown, executive director for the Foundation for TJO Animals. We face a significant struggle in Western Massachusetts with so many animals in need of basic veterinary care and families struggling with the rising costs of, really, everything. We are hoping to keep this program going for the foreseeable future and continue to fund more initiatives that can bring aid to the community in need. Mike Keiley, vice president of the MSPCA-Angells Animal Protection Division, added, As we developed the MASS coalition, we recognized that there were challenges we were all facinglike the dog capacity issueand other problems that were specific to certain areas of the state. In Springfield, Dakin [Humane Society] and TJO were reporting spikes in both dog and cat overpopulation that we were not seeing on the eastern side of the state, as well as frequent parvovirus and panleukopenia disease outbreaks in the community. We recognized that Dakin and TJO had their hands full already with these issues impacting animal capacity and threatening the health of those animals already in their care, so we knew we needed to join this fight and help address these community issues head-on. For more information, you can visit their website. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) The founder of Shakespeare in Delaware Park, Saul Elkin, died earlier this week, his family said. Elkin was a staple in the Buffalo theater community for decades. He acted and directed in over 250 productions in Buffalo and New York City after beginning his career as a child actor. In a statement, Executive Director of Shakespeare in Delaware Park Lisa Ludwig said Elkin was more than a visionary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Saul was more than the visionary of SDP he was our heartbeat, said Ludwig. For 50 seasons, he helped bring the works of William Shakespeare to life on the hill, creating unforgettable memories for countless artists and audience members in Buffalo and beyond. Elkin was a longtime theater professor at University at Buffalo and served two stints as department chair. In 1995, he was inducted into the Western New York Theater Hall of Fame. This year marks the 50th anniversary season of Shakespeare in Delaware Park, which is one of the longest-running free outdoor Shakespeare festivals in the country. Elkin had suffered a stroke last November. Latest Local News Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. Property and casualty broker NFP, a unit of Aon, has acquired Levine Group, a wealth and retirement services company based in Tennessee, US. The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Levine Group, established in 1963, provides a range of financial services to individuals, families, and businesses in the Nashville area. Its offerings include insurance, employee benefits, retirement plan consulting, and investment management. Following the acquisition, Michael Levine, who leads Levine Group, will join NFP. His role will involve collaboration with NFP Central and West region president Mike Schneider. Trevor Coe and Zach Levine are also set to join NFP, where they will continue their involvement in client service and contribute to business growth. Mike Levine said: Our clients have trusted us to guide them through lifes most important financial decisions, and that trust means everything. Being part of NFP lets us continue doing what we love, while giving us more tools and support to help even more people. NFP operates with a workforce of approximately 8,000 employees across the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, and the Republic of Ireland. The company provides services such as wealth management and retirement plan advisory, among others. Schneider stated: Im thrilled Mike, Trevor, Zach and the entire Levine Group team are joining NFP. Theyve built a strong reputation for helping people and businesses make smart financial decisions, and were excited to combine forces. Their experience and relationships in the Nashville and surrounding market will help us better serve clients and grow our wealth and retirement business in the region. In December last year, NFP acquired Salus Group, a US-based company that specialises in providing employee benefits consultancy to credit unions. "NFP acquires Tennessee-based Levine Group " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. Fox News resident comedian Greg Gutfeld declared Tuesday that conservatives need to learn from the Blacks and remove the power from the n-word by referring to themselves as Nazis, prompting critics to call the host beneath contempt for his normalization of Nazism. During a segment on Fox News top-rated panel show The Five, Gutfeld and his fellow co-hosts discussed the recent immigration raid at a California cannabis farm that featured protesters confronting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, griping about Democrats violent anti-ICE rhetoric, which has become a significant talking point on the right-wing network. The frenzied raid, which saw authorities nab roughly 300 farm workers, resulted in the death of 57-year-old Jaime Alanis, described as a hard-working, innocent farmer and the sole provider for his family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mocking a California professor who was arrested for allegedly throwing a tear gas canister back at ICE agents during the protest, co-host Lisa Montgomery better known as Kennedy called for demonstrators to be sent to Alligator Alcatraz, the migrant detention camp located in the Florida swamps. Gutfeld, meanwhile, insisted the professors actions the educator claims he was moving the canister out from under a wheelchair when he was tackled by ICE agents are why progressives criticism of Republicans and the Trump administrations mass deportation efforts dont hold any water. Fox News host Greg Gutfeld told viewers that we need to learn from the Blacks and remove the power from the n-word, claiming that conservatives should now refer to themselves as Nazis. (Fox News) Fox News host Greg Gutfeld told viewers that we need to learn from the Blacks and remove the power from the n-word, claiming that conservatives should now refer to themselves as Nazis. (Fox News) To make his point, he said that right-wingers should deflect the accusations that theyre veering towards fascism by reclaiming the word Nazi for themselves. Some progressives have referred to ICE agents, or Trumps agenda, as echoing the Nazi party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is why the criticism doesnt matter to us when you call us Nazis. Nazi this and Nazi that. You know, Im beginning to think they dont like us, he sneered. You know what? Ive said this before. We need to learn from the Blacks. Gutfeld continued: The way they were able to remove the power from the n-word by using it. So, from now on, its, What up, my Nazi? Hey, what up, my Nazi? Hey, whats hanging, my Nazi?' Nazi, please, a gleeful Kennedy interjected while co-host Jesse Watters giggled in the background. Thank God you did a hard i there, Gutfeld quipped. It didnt take long for the Fox News segment to make waves and draw an intense amount of backlash and outrage over Gutfelds pained analogy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These quotes, even if said in jest, would destroy the careers of any other journalist on any other mainstream national media platform, Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan noted. But Fox doesn't employ journalists and doesn't have any journalistic (or decency) standards. Leftist streamer Hasan Piker bluntly observed that we've officially gotten to the point where fox news commentators are comfortable calling themselves Nazis, while conservative writer Cathy Young said these people are really beneath contempt. With others pointing out that the segment represented the normalization of Nazism in real-time, several commentators and journalists noted the parallels between Gutfelds call for conservatives to ironically embrace their own n-word and cartoonist Matt Bors famous 2018 strip about right-wingers blaming progressives for becoming Nazis. Oscar-winning filmmaker Travon Free recalled his time as a writer on The Daily Show, saying it was crazy that it was just a decade ago when Fox News hosts used to actually TRY to pretend not to be racist. Fox News host Kennedy jokingly replied, Nazi, please, when Gutfeld said right-wingers need to reclaim their own n-word. (Fox News) Fox News host Kennedy jokingly replied, Nazi, please, when Gutfeld said right-wingers need to reclaim their own n-word. (Fox News) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If its possible for a Nazi to jump the shark- this Nazi has jumped the shark, actor John Cusack chimed in. Never forget or forgive Rupert Murdoch for turning conservative corporate news into a raw sewage Nazi circle jerk. Jonah Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of conservative outlet The Dispatch and a one-time Fox News colleague of Gutfelds, pointed out that while he understood the Fox host was joking, he doesnt think hes thought this through. And thats the best defense I can offer, Goldberg added. In recent years, and especially as the former Trump critic has grown increasingly sycophantic towards the president, Gutfelds rhetoric has become increasingly extreme and unhinged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two years ago, for instance, the acerbic comic took on a fully fascist position when he floated the idea of an American civil war because, in his view, elections dont work and the nation is in peril and chaos. At the same time, it is at least a tad ironic that Gutfeld wants his fellow conservatives to probably reclaim Nazi as their own personal n-word, considering how hes used the moniker to pillory those hes deemed evil. For example, he claimed last year that transgender health care providers will be seen as no different than the Nazi doctors who experimented on Jews in the Holocaust, and he cannot wait for that reckoning. Fox News Greg Gutfeld sparked outrage Tuesday with an on-air comment about Nazis and the Blacks. During a segment on The Five, co-host Gutfeld pushed back at current right-wing figures who are being compared to Nazis with an offensive comparison. He said: This is why the criticism doesnt matter to us when you call us Nazis. Nazi this and Nazi that. You know, Im beginning to think they dont like us. You know what? Ive said this before. We need to learn from the Blacks, the way they were able to remove the power from the n-word by using it. So, from now on, its, What up, my Nazi? Hey, what up, my Nazi? Hey, whats hanging, my Nazi? Nazi, please! replied fellow panelist Lisa Kennedy Montgomery, the former MTV VJ who now goes by Kennedy. Gutfeld cracked up at the comment, then responded: Thank God you did a hard i there. Watch here: The moment was condemned online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Online streamer and political commentator Hasan Piker wrote on X, formerly Twitter: Weve officially gotten to the point where Fox News commentators are comfortable calling themselves Nazis. Journalist Mehdi Hasan, formerly of MSNBC, added: These quotes even if said in jest would destroy the careers of any other journalist on any other mainstream national media platform. But Fox doesnt employ journalists and doesnt have any journalistic (or decency) standards. Others called it deeply disrespectful to both Holocaust victims and the Black community. we've officially gotten to the point where fox news commentators are comfortable calling themselves nazis https://t.co/WBcI5NhorW hasanabi (@hasanthehun) July 15, 2025 I'd call this shameful, but what's the point? They have no shame. https://t.co/aMDYQeE6Om James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) July 15, 2025 I get that @greggutfeld is joking. But I really don't think he's thought this through. And that's the best defense I can offer. https://t.co/Juf2s1RP2X Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) July 16, 2025 If its possible for a Nazi to jump the shark- this Nazi has jumped the shark. Never forget or forgive Rupert Murdoch for turning conservative corporate news into a raw sewage Nazi circle jerk . https://t.co/pcH4AsUd7e John Cusack (@johncusack) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These quotes, even if said in jest, would destroy the careers of any other journalist on any other mainstream national media platform. But Fox doesn't employ journalists and doesn't have any journalistic (or decency) standards. https://t.co/VNd7QOv0K3 Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 16, 2025 a lot to unpack here https://t.co/qTbBDaNj8V Tim Miller (@Timodc) July 15, 2025 So you're taking BACK the word Nazi... Cause it's, you know... YOURS. I see, Greg. https://t.co/EBdXc7IFWx Lon Harris (@Lons) July 15, 2025 The normalization of Nazism. Happening in realtime. https://t.co/Nke59yQTrp Dr. Emile P. Torres (@xriskology) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's crazy, I remember a decade ago, writing Fox News segments on The Daily Show, when they used to actually TRY to pretend not to be racist. https://t.co/Nrp1XHmpvb Travon Free (@Travon) July 16, 2025 Just saying this is super racist doesnt quite do it. https://t.co/VTOvhijP34 Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) July 16, 2025 Related... KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Love Fund is hosting a school supply telethon Wednesday with the Kansas City Public School District (KCPS). Since 2020, the Love Fund has provided 28,000 school supply kits. Download WDAF+ for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV The Love Fund will be on FOX4 with our partners and friends from KCPS to share the impact of donating to support local students. You can join others in helping students start the school year off right by making a gift of any size. All donations will help the Love Fund purchase specially created school supply kits that include everything a student needs to succeed for the school year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here is how your donation will help students: $25 Sponsors one student $50 Sponsors two students $100 Sponsors four students $250 Sponsors 10 students See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri Other ways to help: From now to Aug. 31, grab back-to-school-themed donuts from Donutology to help students start their year off right. Its National Ice Cream Day on July 20, and Betty Raes Ice Cream locations will be donating 10% of sales all day. The Love Fund for Children is a 501(c)3 charity on a mission to bridge the gap for youth by partnering with advocates to fulfill the unique or unmet needs of children across Kansas City. It was originally founded in 1981 by a group of FOX4 employees. From that small group, it has grown and helped served over 220,000 kids in our community, fulfilling needs that might otherwise fall through the gaps of other charities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. France and Italy have refused to participate in Donald Trumps plan to send US-made weapons to Ukraine. Governments across Europe are pondering whether to take part in the $10bn initiative. It will involve Ukraines allies on the continent, along with Canada, buying top of the range weapons including Patriot air defence systems from Washington before giving them to Kyiv. But without the release of key details, some countries have yet to make a decision on whether to join the scheme, which was presented by Mr Trump and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, in the Oval Office on Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement France has told allies it will not join the initiative, according to officials briefed on the discussions. Patriot air defence systems are a key part of the proposals unveiled by Donald Trump and Mark Rutte this week - Axel Heimken/dpa via AP Paris is currently wrangling over its domestic budget and demands to boost its defence spending while navigating concerns over the countrys growing debt pile. Emmanuel Macron has always favoured arming Ukraine with locally produced weapons to boost the EUs own industrial base and make the bloc less reliant on Washington for its defence. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, pictured with Gen Thierry Burkhard, the countrys chief of defence staff, has long favoured supplying Ukraine with EU-produced equipment - Abdul Saboor/AFP via Getty Images The Italian government has said it will not purchase weapons but could help with the logistics of transporting them to Ukraine, Italian media reported. Here there has never been talk of buying American weapons, the source quoted by the La Stampa newspaper said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the Czech Republic has not officially ruled itself out of the US initiative, its foreign minister told The Telegraph that no decisions had been taken on whether to join. Jan Lipavsky said: We are already participating in so many mechanisms that there is currently no discussion of new resources. But I cannot say it wont change because its really too soon. Prague already manages a coalition of 12 countries that contribute money to a pot to buy artillery shells for Ukraine. Last year, it donated around 1.5 million rounds to Kyivs troops and it is planned to deliver more in 2025. There are dozens of similar programmes delivering everything from drones to fighter jets, which could make participation in a new scheme difficult for some countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Nato officials say at least eight countries have shown interest in joining the Trump-led pipeline. They will either contribute cash or donate their existing US-made equipment to Ukraine before being fast-tracked replacements by Washington. Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, who has been a driving force for the plans to arm Ukraine, welcomed Volodymyr Zelensky, the countrys president, with full military honours in Berlin in May - Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Germany is believed to be the nation most invested in the scheme. Friedrich Merz, its chancellor, proposed buying Patriot air defence batteries for Ukraine in a deal with the US president. Mr Rutte said the scheme would also involve missiles and other forms of ammunition being purchased from the Americans. British sources have told The Telegraph that they support the programme, but have not taken a decision on how to contribute with details yet to be shared with allies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Canada, and the Netherlands were also named as possible participants. Each of the countries armed forces already operate US-manufactured equipment, from Patriots to fighter jets. It is understood that any money poured into the scheme will count towards Nato allies new defence spending goal of 3.5 per cent, making it an attractive proposition for governments struggling to find money to reach the target. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. France and Italy will not take part in a new NATO-led initiative to finance the delivery of U.S. weapons to Ukraine, Politico and La Stampa reported on July 16, citing undisclosed government officials in both countries. Despite being a long-standing supporter of Ukraine, France has opted out of the plan, which was unveiled during U.S. President Donald Trump's meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington on July 14. Under this scheme, NATO will purchase advanced arms from the U.S., including air defense systems, and deliver some of them to Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to two French officials, France declined to join the plan because of President Emmanuel Macron's push for European nations to strengthen their own defense industries by purchasing domestically produced arms. France is also contending with budget constraints and rising defense spending targets amid broader economic pressures, Politico wrote. Italy, meanwhile, has taken a similar position. According to La Stampa, Italian officials ruled out direct purchases of U.S. weapons, citing fiscal limitations and the country's focus on different technological systems, such as the Italian-French-made SAMP/T air defense system already supplied to Ukraine. Italian Defense Ministry sources stressed that the decision should not be seen as a lack of support for Ukraine, but rather as a call to explore alternative ways to contribute to the broader effort. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to La Stampa, Italy is currently assessing a NATO request to support the logistical transport of U.S.-supplied weapons to Ukraine whether by air, rail, or sea and has signaled it will not "shy away" from contributing. The specific nature and scale of Italys commitment have yet to be determined. Commenting on the NATO-U.S. weapons funding plan, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski argued that the cost of arming Ukraine should not fall on European taxpayers but be covered by Russia's frozen assets instead. "I asked my fellow foreign ministers: Who should pay for American equipment? Should it be European taxpayers, or, in my opinion, should the aggressor pay for it using its frozen funds?" Sikorski said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to the Polish Press Agency. The new arms plan for Ukraine will include new air defenses for Ukraine, which Kyiv has been asking for weeks, as Russia intensified its attacks against Ukrainian cities. The initiative was pitched by Germany and Rutte, and is seen as a workaround to Trump's hesitance to send direct U.S. aid, according to Politico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Germany is "massively" invested in the plan, said Rutte, adding that Trump's support came after extensive coordination with Berlin. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has emphasized that the initiative serves Europe's own interests and increases pressure on Russia to negotiate peace. Other European countries including the U.K., the Netherlands, and several Nordic nations have backed the arrangement. Trump said on July 15 that additional deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles and other weapons are already underway. Read also: Ukraine eyes building its own private military companies their role, legal framework remain unclear Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. France will not participate in a project announced by US President Donald Trump under which the supply of US weapons to Ukraine will be financed by European allies. Source: European Pravda, citing Politico, a Brussels-based politics and policy news organisation Details: Two French officials familiar with the matter said that Paris would not join the initiative to purchase American weapons because French President Emmanuel Macron has long insisted that Europeans build their own defence industrial base through local procurement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the French government is trying to increase its own defence spending while cutting other budget expenditures and curbing the countrys staggering budget deficit. Meanwhile, given the limited European production capacity, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government believes that purchasing American weapons is one of the only ways to quickly provide Ukraine with the necessary armaments. Background: On Monday 14 July, Trump announced an agreement between the United States and NATO under which the supply of US weapons to Ukraine will be financed by European allies. On Tuesday 15 July, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Czechia would not participate in the US project to purchase American weapons for Ukraine through NATO. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United Kingdom, France and Germany have agreed to restore tough U.N. sanctions on Iran by the end of August if there has been no concrete progress on a nuclear deal, two European diplomats said Tuesday. The three countries' ambassadors to the United Nations met Tuesday at Germanys U.N. Mission to discuss a possible Iranian deal and reimposing the sanctions. The matter also came up in a phone call Monday between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of the three countries, according to two U.S. officials. The State Department said after the call that the four had spoken about ensuring Iran does not develop or obtain a nuclear weapon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The U.K., France and Germany are part of an agreement reached with Iran in 2015 to rein in its nuclear program, from which President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. during his first term, insisting it wasnt tough enough. Under the accord that lifted economic penalties on Iran in exchange for restrictions and monitoring of its nuclear program, a so-called snapback provision allows one of the Western parties to reimpose U.N. sanctions if Tehran does not comply with its requirements. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Tuesday that the three European countries would be justified in reapplying sanctions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "With regard to Iran, the minister reiterated the priority of resuming negotiations to establish a long-term framework for Irans nuclear program,'' the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. Without a verifiable commitment from Iran by the end of August at the latest, France, Germany and the U.K. will be justified in reapplying the UN sanctions (snapbacks) that were lifted 10 years ago.'' The diplomats did not provide details of the deal being sought. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in recent days that Tehran would accept a resumption of nuclear talks with the U.S. if there were assurances of no more attacks, following Israeli and U.S. strikes on its nuclear facilities. He said there should be a firm guarantee that such actions will not be repeated, stressing that the attack on Irans nuclear facilities has made it more difficult and complicated to achieve a solution." The United States and Iran held several rounds of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program before the Israeli strikes began in June. Trump and his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said last week that talks would happen soon, but nothing has yet been scheduled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Araghchi, whose country insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, said in a July 2 CBS interview that the doors of diplomacy will never slam shut. Iran's U.N. Mission had no comment Tuesday on the threat of renewed sanctions if there is no deal. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said last week that the U.S. airstrikes so badly damaged his countrys nuclear facilities that Iranian authorities still have not been able to access them to survey the destruction. Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA. ___ AP writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Whisperz Speakeasy is hosting four free concerts this week, featuring jazz, blues and swing music. A 1920s themed lounge to open in Valentines Day in West Carrollton Whisperz Speakeasy is open to people 25 years old and above. There is no cover charge, but a secret password is needed to enter. (It can be found here.) Guests are asked to dress in finer clothes if possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Speakeasy is located at 926 Watertower Lane, West Carrollton. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. FREEPORT, Ill. (WTVO) Freeport School District 145 board members approved curriculum funding for new materials in the World Language Department on Tuesday. Dr. Rocio del Castillo is the Assistant Superintendent of Language and Culture for the district. She said that over the years, the department has grown immensely. Two years ago, we were around 120 students, she explained. This year, were going to start with more like 500 students that are in the bilingual program, plus 300 students that are in the world language [program]. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of the growth, del Castillo said she wanted to make sure the students have access to quality education. She said her team approached board members with a request of $110,766.89 to be used for textbooks and other materials for German and Spanish classes. Most of our students are coming from Central America now, del Castillo explained. The way that our school community has received, welcomed, embraced and celebrated those students has been beyond our imagination. Antonio Ramirez is the Community Education and Outreach Coordinator for Alignment Rockford. He said learning a second language is beneficial to students for their future professional opportunities and overall development. I think school districts are smart in being able to invest in whatever type of curriculum to help because these are young people that are going to be the future of their community, Ramirez said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Del Castillo said 12 sections of languages will be offered for the 2025-2026 school year. She said she is excited for whats to come for the students and the district. It is great, she said. I think its preparing our kids better and its serving all our students, and thats the heart of the mission of our district. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. Key Points Nvidia has been an artificial intelligence leader and major winner over the past few years. On July 16, CEO Jensen Huang may address one of the company's biggest challenges. 10 stocks we like better than Nvidia Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has made headlines over the past few years as it's reinforced its position as an artificial intelligence (AI) chip leader. The company has spoken of "insane" demand for its latest architecture and chip, has delivered record levels of revenue and high profitability, and has shown that it can be part of every stage of AI growth. All of this has helped the shares to skyrocket, advancing more than 980% over the past three years. But Nvidia has encountered one major hurdle along this path, and that's operating in the Chinese market. A few years ago, the U.S. launched export controls, preventing Nvidia and others from shipping their top-performing chips to that country. Nvidia responded by designing a chip that met U.S. guidelines, but this spring the U.S. informed the company that it could no longer export that chip without a license -- the U.S. hasn't yet granted such a license to chip companies. That move officially closed the door to the Chinese market, prompting Nvidia to say it no longer would include China in its earnings guidance. Since, CEO Jensen Huang has spoken openly about how export controls will be negative for U.S. chip designers as well as the AI industry in the U.S. Now, Huang has something planned for July 16 that Nvidia investors should watch. Image source: Getty Images. Nvidia's AI dominance First, though, a quick summary of Nvidia's path so far and its position in China. As mentioned, Nvidia is the world's AI chip leader, selling its graphics processing units (GPUs) to everyone from start-ups to tech giants. The company also offers a wide range of AI products and services, and this whole package has helped generate double- and triple-digit revenue growth -- Nvidia reported a staggering level of revenue in the latest full year at $130 billion. Nvidia generates most of its revenue in the U.S., but China also is an important market. In the recent fiscal year, that country represented 13% of the company's total sales. This is as Nvidia sold its H20 chip, specifically designed to meet U.S. export guidelines for the Chinese market. But, as mentioned, Nvidia received a letter from the government this spring saying it could no longer continue shipping H20s as usual. This resulted in Nvidia taking a $4.5 billion charge in the quarter for H20s that it could no longer sell, and even worse, it locked this chip giant out of the China market. DURAND For Rosanne Reckin, digitizing a local paper is one way of preserving history and giving the community access to those memories. When you look at the resources that are held at libraries, especially nowadays when they even have the library of things and videos and books and magazines and so many different resources for people, its absolutely astounding, she said. This is where records are kept, and we need to maintain those. We cant let them disappear, so it is a pet project of mine. As the president of the Friends of the Durand Community Library, Reckin leads a project trying to digitally preserve historical paper copies and microfilm of Durands local paper. Over many years and many name-changes, this collection of documents date as far back as 1865. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They have been on microfilm and we have the bound paper copies, which obviously are getting pretty fragile due to their age, Reckin said. Unfortunately the microfilm reader that we used to have at the library broke a couple years ago, so theres really no access to the microfilm copies, and we dont want a lot of people paging through those old fragile papers either, so we really do need to get it digitized and especially in a searchable format. Thats the project that were raising money for at this point. As part of a fundraising effort, the Friends of the Durand Community Library are accepting donations towards their project. Reckin said part of their hope is to have it digitized professionally by another company. With the Friends of the Durand Community Library having incorporated last year, Reckin also said this was their first major fundraising effort for the library. On top of general donations, they are also doing a ticket fundraiser where supporters can pay for tickets and vote on prizes. The top three vote-getters for both adults and younger will be awarded prizes, with the proceeds from the event going towards their digitization project. There also is an ongoing silent auction, as current fundraising efforts are expected to go until 6 p.m. on July 31. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through her own experience, Reckin said the record of historical documents became relevant when looking up the history of families and community members that lived in Durand. That really interests me because Ive spent a lot of time doing an index of the Holy Rosary Cemetery at Lima, she said, and because so many of the people buried there share the same name, I looked up obituaries for everyone that I could find. Out of the 1,298 people who are buried there through the end of 2023, I was actually able to collect nearly a thousand obituaries for those people. Thats one of the reasons Im really interested in getting these things digitized, but secondly, just for the community to have this resource available and having it digitized and searchable that they can access it on any medium. They can get it at home on their computer or they can pull it up on their phone. Friends of a hiker from Hull missing in northern Italy have started to retrace his steps in an effort to find him. Matthew Hall, who was staying at the B&B Ploncher hotel in Chiavenna, Lombardy, has been missing since 9 July. Seven of his friends, including some who have known him since school and colleagues from East Yorkshire broadband firm Quickline, have flown out to join the search. They said three helicopters, multiple mountain rescue teams, police and a specialist drone have been working around the clock to try and find Mr Hall, 33, who is described as a "very competent" walker. Matthew Hall sent a selfie at about 14:30 local time (13:30 BST) to his friends on 9 July before he went missing, his mother said [Submitted] On Wednesday morning, Mr Hall's friend, Benjamin Lee, said the group was planning a trek "to get some visibility of the terrain". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Lee said Italian officials had informed them that, in addition to police and their resources, rescue teams totalling about 30 people were out looking for their friend. "It's 24 hours, we're getting updates in the middle of the night from the teams," said Mr Lee. Nick Blowman, another friend, described Mr Hall as a "very competent" solo hiker, who "knows what he's doing". He added: "We've been having daily briefs with the search and rescue guys and they've been showing us where they've been. "They're covering every square metre." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men said the local community have been "unbelievable". Matthew Hall sent a photograph of the cross at Alpe Daloo, near San Giacomo Filippo, to friends on the day he went missing, his mother said [Submitted] On Monday, Mr Hall's mother, Sara Foster, said: "I'm very wobbly at the moment, obviously, but I'm really trying to stay positive." In a last text sent to friend Jacob White at 13:37 BST on the day he went missing, Mr Hall had told him he thought he had taken "a wrong turn" on a trail and was "having a rest". Mr White said Mr Hall "sounded relaxed" in the text, with the latter asking him about his own holiday in Cornwall. He added that his friend "sounded as if any danger he might have seen was over". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, Quickline described Mr Hall, who has worked as an engineer for the company since January 2023, as a "well-liked colleague". It added that it hoping for "a safe and positive outcome". A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are supporting the family of a British man missing in Italy and are in contact with the local authorities." Rugged landscape Analysis by Phillip Norton It is easy to see why Matthew Hall has travelled to the mountains around Chiavenna - two hours' drive north of Milan. It's a stunning part of the Italian Alps, which bowls you over with its valley views, towering peaks and turquoise blue glacial meltwater babbling through towns and villages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the scenery also poses dangers. I joined Mr Hall's group of friends, here helping to look for him, for a couple of hours as they retraced what they believe to be his steps up a trail he was thought to have hiked. The first thing you notice is just how steep the side of the mountain is. The trail cuts up through houses and gardens; a mixture of broken steps and grass-covered rocks. The ground is uneven, rugged, and even in what would probably be described as a tamer part of the trail, there are some daunting drops off the side. Yet Mr Hall is an accomplished hiker, often enjoying walks with friends in the Lake District back home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is a keen snowboarder too, so well-versed and practiced in the rules and dangers of the mountains. Search teams are continuing to scour the mountainous area he was last seen. Helicopters have become a familiar sight in the sky here for the past few days. And while that search continues, Mr Hall's friends hold on to hope that he can be found safe, and return home with them. Matthew Hall's friends followed one of the local trails where they believed he had hiked on the day he went missing [Phillip Norton/BBC] Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here. Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices More on this story Related internet links MEMPHIS, Tenn. A man accused of shooting at Memphis Police officers downtown on the 4th of July was arrested on Tuesday in Frayser. Police say Victor Peeler, 22, was taken into custody by the MPD Fugitive Unit, MGU, and the U.S. Marshals Two Rivers Violent Fugitive Task Force in the 800 block of Dawn Cove. Victor Peeler_ Courtesy of MPD Peeler was charged with 12 counts of Criminal Attempt First Degree Murder and Reckless Endangerment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to MPD, they used the Downtown Command Center surveillance cameras to identify Peeler as the shooter. Shots fired at Memphis Police officers downtown: MPD This individual showed a complete disregard for human life and the safety of our officers and community, said MPD Chief CJ Davis. Thanks to our partnership with the U.S. Marshals, a violent fugitive is now in custody. These collaborations are essential in building a Stronger, Safer Memphis. On July 4, officers on foot responded to an armed party call with an extended magazine near Rufus Thomas Boulevard and Peabody Place after learning about several individuals involved in an argument around 1:50 a.m. (Photos by: WREGs Jerrita Patterson) (Photos by: WREGs Jerrita Patterson) The officers reportedly became caught up in the chaos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When officers arrived at the scene, they say they began to hear shots and saw a man get into a dark-colored Nissan with a woman driver. When the man got into the getaway car, police say they saw a muzzle flash followed by shots being fired from that vehicle as it drove away. Warrant issued for suspect after shots fired at MPD officers There were numerous shots that were fired with numerous shell casings that were found, said Samuel Hines, Memphis Police Deputy Chief. Those shots appeared to be directed at the officers. Were looking obviously for those individuals, said Deputy Chief Samuel Hines. We have good video. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Memphis Police say the vehicle used in the incident, a black Nissan Juke, was last seen heading east on Peabody Place. Downtown command center leads to more arrests Police allege that the passenger in the vehicle fired several shots at the officers. No officers were reported injured. That passenger was later identified as Victor Peeler. An arrest warrant was issued for Peeler on July 5. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. A week-long manhunt for a suspect accused of participating in an ambush on an immigration detention center on July 4 has ended, North Texas federal prosecutors said. Benjamin Hanil Song was arrested by FBI agents on Tuesday in Dallas, 11 days after he and 10 other suspects allegedly staged the attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado on the night of Independence Day, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Texas. An Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck during the ambush, authorities said. The officer was treated and released from a Fort Worth hospital. Investigators said one of the assailants also fired 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers who had stepped outside the building. Benjamin Hanil Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, was arrested in connection to the ambush on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Song, a former Marine Corps reservist, has been charged by federal complaint with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence. Song is accused of buying four of the guns used in the crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Song is being held at the Johnson County Jail on a $15 million bond, according to the Johnson County Sheriffs Office. He also faces state charges of aiding in the commission of terrorism, aggravated assault on a public servant and engaging in organized criminal activity, jail records state. Two additional suspects, identified as John Philip Thomas and Lynette Read Sharp, were charged July 14 with accessory after the fact when agents determined they helped Song escape from the area of the detention center and evade arrest, federal officials said in a news release Tuesday. More top stories from our newsroom: Fugitive wanted in ICE detention center shooting arrested after manhunt Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No charges against owner of dogs who killed 82-year-old man Fort Worth names 4 police chief finalists [Get our breaking news alerts.] Johnson County Jail records show that Sharp also faces a state charge of hindering prosecution of terrorism and is being held on $2.5 million bond. Thomas faces a state charge of smuggling of persons, and his bond has been set at $5 million. Eleven suspects were previously arrested, including 10 who face attempted murder charges and one accused of tampering with evidence. With Song, Thomas and Sharp in custody, a total of 14 arrests have been made in the case. The Texas Department of Public Safety issued a statewide Blue Alert for Song on July 9, the Star-Telegram previously reported. At the time, the DPS and the FBI were offering rewards of $10,000 and $25,000 respectively for information that led to Songs arrest. After the immediate apprehension of Songs coconspirators at the scene, the FBI and our federal prosecutors together with our other law enforcement partners worked tirelessly around the clock pursuing Song,, Acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson of the Texas Northern District said in a statement Tuesday. Their tremendous efforts culminated in the arrest of this alleged violent criminal today. For the third time in a little more than a month, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was in a Nashville courthouse July 16, for a hearing meant to determine whether he remains in federal custody. Judge Waverly Crenshaw said at the conclusion of the two-hour hearing that he will likely rule next week. A federal judge in Maryland may also issue a ruling soon concerning what immigration authorities do with Abrego Garcia if he is released from jail and taken into their custody. Abrego Garcias attorneys in Maryland have asked Judge Paula Xinis to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement to give at least 72 hours notice before they try to deport him, CBS News reported. Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, leaves the Fred D. Thompson U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building surrounded by supporters after a hearing to discuss if her husband is eligible for release in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday, July 16, 2025. For Abrego Garcia, whose name is synonymous with the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, being released from jail could mean being deported again possibly to a country other than his home country El Salvador. A sudden pause in proceedings U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire brought Special Agent Peter Joseph to the witness stand as things got underway on July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prior to his questions, McGuire stated he would be aiming to present Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who took over the case from Judge Barbara Holmes, information that had not been previously disclosed. Questions asked by McGuire to this point were similar to those asked in Abrego Garcias first hearing in June. Those included questions about bodycam footage of the 2022 traffic stop in Cookeville, to questions about interviews reviewed by Joseph with Cooperator 1 and NV. The defense was about to bring up something the governments key witness spontaneously uttered during an interrogation when the courtroom video feed paused on July 16. McGuire objected to attorney Sean Heckers question referencing the utterance before he could finish it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hecker, Abrego Garcias attorney, had been spending the last 20 minutes questioning Joseph. Joseph is the lead agent in the case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the only person called to testify July 16. The governments evidence against Abrego Garcia depends heavily on the testimony of people who have something to gain from testifying against Abrego Garcia. Chief among them is Jose Hernandez Reyes, whom prosecutors allege was the boss of the immigrant smuggling operation it accuses Abrego Garcia of participating in. Hecker on July 16 noted that Reyes received special treatment for his testimony. Reyes was in a detention facility for an illegal reentry conviction at the time of his interviews with the authorities, but he has since been moved to a halfway house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hecker pointed out that Joseph has never reviewed transcripts from three interviews Reyes did with other Homeland Security agents weeks before he interviewed Reyes. Joseph previously testified that Reyes although attorneys have referred to him solely as cooperating witness 1 told him it would be a very dangerous thing to ask if Abrego Garcia was in a gang. However, transcripts of their interviews do not show that Reyes ever said that, Hecker said. Reyes did tell Joseph he did not think Abrego Garcia was in MS-13, Joseph testified. Heckers questions probed the extent of Josephs diligence when conducting interviews of the coconspirators. Among them, Hecker asked about Snapchat records presented by prosecutors to an account they allege is connected to Abrego Garcia. Hecker noted that the birthday listed on the account is in November, while Abrego Garcias birthday is in July. Protesters: 'We are going to continue to fight' Faith leaders and immigrant rights advocates joined Kilmar Abrego Garcias wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, at a news conference before the hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are going to continue to fight, for Kilmar and for all of the Kilmars out there, CASA Chief of Organizing and Leadership Lydia Walther-Rodriguez said in both English and Spanish. Leading a prayer as the sun beat down, Walther-Rodriguez asked God to "speak to the hearts of decision makers." What happens next? If Crenshaw rules the same way Holmes did, Abrego Garcia would transfer from jail to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Gabriel "Jack" Chin, an immigration scholar and professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said the government "has a lot of cards" in this case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They could deport him ... subject to the normal deportation process," Chin said. But ICE does not have to deport someone "just because they are deportable," Chin said. Chin said ICE could keep Abrego Garcia in the country until he goes to trial. Abrego Garcia's attorneys have noted that the government has contradicted itself about its intentions. It has at times said it would try to deport Abrego Garcia once he is in ICE custody, and at other times it has said it would make him face the criminal charges in Tennessee. Chin thinks the latter is more likely. "The fact that they brought this criminal case makes me speculate that they're going to pursue it," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia's attorneys in Maryland are hoping to persuade a judge in that state to bring him there. There, Abrego Garcia, who has only lived in Maryland since he entered the U.S. in 2011, would be closer to family while in ICE custody. What are the charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia? Abrego Garcia is charged with conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. The charges center around a 2022 traffic stop in Cookeville. State troopers pulled Abrego Garcia over, suspected he was transporting undocumented immigrants, but let him go without charging him. The government alleges that Abrego Garcia worked with others in and outside the country to transport people from Central and South America into the U.S. for cash. According to prosecutors, he would pick up immigrants in Texas and transport them throughout the country, most often driving them to Maryland. Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kilmar Abrego Garcia: Deportation, jail decided next week Nineteen-year-old Addi Osburn has family members who are nurses, and now, she wants to follow in their footsteps. They have really inspired me. I just want to make an impact on other peoples lives, she said. Osburn, who is from Putnam County, was among more than 100 incoming nursing students who attended an orientation program at the Ivy Tech Terre Haute campus Tuesday. Several local healthcare partners attended the day-long event and provided insight into career opportunities within their organizations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Osburn has completed prerequisites at Ivy Techs Greencastle campus and will begin the nursing program in Terre Haute fall semester. She currently works at Hendricks Regional Health as a unit clinical assistant in the infusion center. Shes eager to complete her degree and start her nursing career, which offers good pay and many career options. There are so many opportunities in nursing, Osburn said. If you get burned out in one area, you can always move to a different area. Kim Cooper, dean of Ivy Techs School of Nursing, greeted the students who will pursue programs to become registered nurses and licensed practical nurses at Terre Haute and Greencastle campuses Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is a big day, she told them. The group of students included those who recently completed high school as well as others who have had to put off career pursuits for personal, family or financial reasons. The nursing program at Ivy Tech has a selective admissions process, which means not all students who apply to the program will be accepted.We have more interested parties than we have seats available, Cooper said in an interview. We are working with students who are going to be part of health care in the Wabash Valley, she said. Our goal is to provide citizens in Indiana with the safest, best health care we can. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And, she believes Ivy Tech is successful in that mission. Demand for nurses is strong, Cooper said. All of my nursing students in the last class had positions offered by the time they graduated. Nursing has an amazing starting wage, which on the lower end depending on where they work might start at $30 per hour, with added differentials for night and weekend work. Representatives from several health care organizations provided presentations throughout the day. Those included Horizon Health, Union Health, Putnam County Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, Sullivan County Community Hospital and Terre Haute Regional Hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Among them was Amy Allen, director of clinical education and the magnet program for Union Health. Union Health and Ivy Tech have partnered to develop students programs that include a nurse apprenticeship program, in which Union hires students as employees and provides them with experiences that support what they are learning in classes. Through the apprenticeship program, students really get a second opportunity outside of the classroom learning for on-the-job training that prepares them to be a registered nurse in our organization when they graduate, Allen said. There is a great need for registered nurses, not just at Union Health but across the state and nation, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nursing provides a good income, job stability and opportunities for advancement, she said. There are a million different ways to be a registered nurse these days, both in and outside of a hospital setting, she said. Options outlined by Cooper included medical/surgical, emergency room, obstetrics, flight nurse, forensic nursing, public health and travel nurses, to name a few. (WHTM) Solar panel funding for schools could be shut down by the state and federal governments. Several schools in the Midstate have seen success with their solar panel projects, including the Carlisle Area School District. The district received grant funding through the Solar for Schools program in Pennsylvania. The funds, which help schools purchase and install solar panel equipment, have been successful in offsetting expenses at schools in the midstate, according to the Carlisle Area and Steelton-Highspire School Districts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Superintendent Dr. Colleen Friend says Carlisle Area School District received a Solar for Schools grant of $252,000 to put a solar array at Crestview Elementary School Were going to have another elementary school completely powered by solar and its really valuable not only for the taxpayer dollars that were saving, that were not paying for utilities, but were teaching our kids about renewable, sustainable energy, Friend says. Steelton Highspire Superintendent Dr. Mick Iskric says their 1.7 megawatt solar field uses energy from the sun to power almost 100% of the district. Looking at our current solar project, were able to offset the cost of of an employee, whether it be a paraprofessional or a teacher currently and were looking to upgrade our project currently and expand it to eventually offset additional staffing. Iskric says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now WHTM Daily Digest The school district recently received a $446,000 grant to build an additional array for its elementary school. However, if the district doesnt start the project before July 2026 or complete it in 2027, it may not receive a tax credit from the federal government to offset the project costs. President Trumps tax and spending bill is expected to end federal support for solar programs in schools. Additionally, state funding is also at risk, as lawmakers continue to debate the budget. Republican House Minority Leader Jesse Topper says money could be better spent on other forms of energy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think our portfolio is an all-of-the-above approach. Solar has a place in it. But when it comes to investing tax dollars, we need to make sure that the energy sources are sustainable and going to meet the needs of all our constituents, Topper said. Looking at our current solar project, were able to offset the cost of an employee, whether it be a paraprofessional or a teacher, currently. And were looking to upgrade our project currently and expand it to eventually offset additional staffing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. UTICA, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) The second of eight suppression hearings in the Robert Brooks murder trial was brought before Judge Robert Bauer on Wednesday. On Wednesday, July 16, Matthew Galliher was brought before Judge Bauer to determine the admissibility of statements he made to police. Only one witness was brought before the court today: Adam Maggs, a senior investigator with the New York State Polices Special Investigations Unit. Maggs said he has served for 20 years with the New York State Police and testified that he had conducted hundreds of Miranda warnings. On December 13, Maggs testified that he was assigned to execute a search warrant on Gallihers residence in connection with the investigation into Brooks death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maggs testified that while at the residence, no questions were asked about Brooks, and Galliher was cooperative and not handcuffed. When asked, Galliher agreed to drive himself to the State Police barracks in Marcy. During the interview, Maggs said that the interview was both audio and video recorded, and Galliher was in the room for less than 20 minutes. Galliher was not restrained, and during the interview, was offered coffee. The first ten minutes of the interview were a casual conversation that was unrelated to the case. During the interview, Maggs said that two members of the New York State Attorney Generals office entered the room, at which point Galliher was read his Miranda rights, verbatim from a card. After he was read his Miranda rights, Galliher agreed to continue speaking. During the interview, Galliher acknowledged assisting with shackling Brooks feet and placing a hand on the gurney. After that, Maggs said Galliher refused to answer any more questions and left on his own. Maggs said that Galliher was not arrested on that day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two thumb drives containing the interview were then submitted into evidence. In their position, the defense questioned the identity and purpose of the Attorney Generals representatives until the topic of the Brooks case was introduced. Maggs noted that although he didnt know who the two members of the Attorney Generals office were or that they usually represent officers, he surmised that their involvement is likely in cases The defense is expected to submit a brief regarding their questions by Wednesday, July 23. In the end, Judge Bauer reserved his judgment on the admissibility of the interviews. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Monday, September 22 to address final motions or procedural issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bauer also noted that the jury trial will begin with jury selection on Monday, October 6. The issue of severing defendants was mentioned, however, Gallihers attorney has not requested it. When the question of preparation in the case of severance was raised, Judge Bauer said that the court will inform them personally if severance is granted, and that attorneys should be prepared for the possibility. Nicholas Kieffer was scheduled to be in court for suppression hearings on Friday, July 18; however, his case has been adjourned to Thursday, August 28. The next defendant in the Brooks trial to appear is expected to be Christopher Walrath, who pled guilty in his case and is expected to be in court on Monday, August 4 for sentencing. The next suppression hearing will be Anthony Farina on August 11. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WUTR/WFXV - CNYhomepage.com. Gazas children and elderly are bearing the brunt of the devastation inflicted by Israels war on the enclave, as the United Nations warns of a sharp rise in amputations, long-term disabilities and severe hunger. More than 40,000 children have been injured since the conflict began, and nearly 90 percent of Gazas population has been displaced, often multiple times. Amid worsening conditions, aid workers are also reporting a sharp rise in malnutrition among children, and growing hardship for elderly people, who are even less able to access food, care and essential medical support than the general population. One in 10 Gaza children tested in UNRWA clinics malnourished On Tuesday, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said: One in 10 children screened in UNRWA medical facilities is malnourished. He warned that child malnutrition is rising rapidly in Gaza amid severe shortages of food and medical supplies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Salam, a seven-month-old baby, died of malnutrition last week, he added, addressing the growing urgency of the crisis. He added that more than 870 Palestinians have been killed while trying to access food from aid distribution points set up by the highly criticised GHF, a private contractor backed by Israel and the United States. (Al Jazeera) Before the war began on October 7, 2023, about 500 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza every single day. That number collapsed following Israels assault on the besieged enclave, dropping to fewer than 80 trucks per day. In March, Israel imposed a nearly three-month blockade, halting aid deliveries altogether. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 27, the GHF assumed control of aid operations, replacing 400 local distribution points with just four mega-sites. These locations have become scenes of deadly violence, as Israeli forces have reportedly opened fire on Palestinians gathering for food, many of whom must walk several kilometres to reach the sites. The more than 870 people who have been killed trying to collect aid from GHF points include at least 94 children and 11 elderly people. Despite mounting criticism, GHF remains the sole provider of food in the Gaza Strip. Since January 2024, UNRWA has screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rare in Gaza. Zainab Abu Haleeb, a five-month-old Palestinian girl diagnosed with malnutrition, according to medics, lies on a bed as she receives treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 15, 2025 [Hussam Al-Masri/Reuters] As malnutrition among children spreads across the war-torn enclave, UNRWA has over 6,000 trucks of food, hygiene supplies, medicine, medical supplies outside of Gaza. They are all waiting to go in, UNRWAs communications director, Juliette Touma, said in a press statement on Monday. More than 139,000 people injured, including at least 40,500 children As of July 1, 2025, more than 139,000 Palestinians have been injured in Gaza since the war began, and more than 40,500 of them are children, according to the Global Protection Clusters July report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least 58,479 people have been confirmed killed since the start of the war in October 2023, with an estimated 11,000 more buried under rubble, their bodies unrecovered due to restrictions on rescue teams or because it is simply impossible to reach them. Roughly one in four of the injured are expected to require long-term rehabilitation care. Children are especially vulnerable: 10 children lose one or both limbs each day, and 15 children per day are left with potentially life-altering disabilities. (Al Jazeera) By the end of 2024, more than 5,200 children were known to require significant rehabilitation, and at least 7,000 were living with permanent disabilities. The true number is believed to be far higher due to the collapse of Gazas health system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Children with disabilities are among those most at risk in Gazas child protection caseload. Of the 5,160 cases registered, 849 (16.5 percent) involve children with physical, sensory, intellectual or psychosocial disabilities. Nearly half of these cases (49 percent) are children aged seven to 12, with a slight majority being boys (53 percent). These children face increased risks of violence, neglect, exclusion from essential services and deep social isolation in the current crisis. Conditions like loss of hearing and vision are also on the rise. Based on screenings conducted between 2023 and this year by the Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, UNRWA said about 35,000 people are at risk of temporary or permanent hearing loss due to constant bombardment and explosions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The war has also severely affected older adults in Gaza. Of 111,500 people aged 60 and above, 97 percent report health problems, 96 percent have chronic illnesses and 86 percent live with disabilities conditions made worse by medicine shortages, deteriorating hygiene and the destruction of health facilities. At least 3,839 older people have been killed since the war began. 90 percent of the population of Gaza displaced Across Gaza, 90 percent of the total population has been forcibly displaced many of them multiple times; some 10 times or more. Since mid-March 2025, more than 665,000 people have been uprooted, often finding themselves with little or no access to food, water, shelter, healthcare or any basic life necessities. (Al Jazeera) According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 86 percent of Gazas territory is either within an Israeli-imposed no-go zone or under active forced evacuation orders. (Al Jazeera) Older people and those with disabilities face extreme hardship as a result of displacement. Many cannot flee at all due to mobility challenges, illness or the loss of assistive devices with more than 83 percent reporting that their wheelchairs, walkers, hearing aids or prosthetics have been lost or destroyed. (Al Jazeera) The terrain has become highly dangerous and inaccessible: Israeli forces have built sand mounds at checkpoints, making movement nearly impossible for families with someone who has a mobility impairment. At the same time, high levels of unexploded ordnance contaminate many of Gazas roads and disproportionately endanger those with physical, sensory or cognitive disabilities. These conditions increase the risk of separation from caregivers, especially for children with disabilities and the elderly, who may struggle to communicate, understand evacuation orders or move independently. Once separated from family or other caregivers, these people face a significantly higher risk of injury, death, abuse and exclusion from vital services, compounding the dangers of war with profound long-term harm. Nvidia CEO hits Warren Buffett milestone originally appeared on TheStreet. For decades, Warren Buffett has been a beacon for disciplined wealth-building. These days, though, a different kind of empire is flipping the script, and one thats built not on insurance or burgers, but silicon chips and code. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Nvidias (NVDA) AI-powered ascent has pushed the business into record territory, positioning it as the worlds most valuable tech giant. Its chips power everything from ChatGPT to robotaxis. However, beyond Nvidia stocks staggering ascent, another quiet story is unfolding one that involves a black leather jacket, a data center, and a fortune thats suddenly worth watching. As Nvidia reshapes tech, its CEO is closing the gap on one of investings biggest icons Warren Buffett.Image source: Chesnot/Getty Images Nvidias $4 trillion milestone puts it ahead in Big Techs AI race It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Nvidias value has jumped since the AI boom kicked into high gear. Just a couple of years ago, Nvidia skyrocketed past the $1 trillion mark, and by mid-2024, it had already crossed $3 trillion. Then, on July 9, 2025, it briefly became the first company to touch the $4 trillion market cap, underscoring its mission-critical role in powering the AI boom. Related: Veteran analyst drops new clue on Nvidias next big move That meteoric rise has everything to do with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huangs dynamic leadership. He spotted early on that its powerful GPUs, thought of mostly as gaming hardware, would be ideal for training and running AI models. In no time, Nvidia pivoted to becoming the go-to supplier for data centers, powering everything from generative AI to autonomous vehicles. The tech behemoth built its empire with CUDA brains, blazing H100 and H200 chips, and a cloud crew featuring Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Its GPUs are the brains behind today's AI boom, running in massive data centers owned by the biggest tech heavyweights. More Tech Stock News: Naturally, Nvidias AI-fueled rocket ride has led to a windfall in sales. Analysts now expect full-year earnings to top $100 billion this year, a far cry from just $4.37 billion in 2023. So hitting $4 trillion isnt just a vanity milestone. Its a statement on how Nvidias chips have become the key engine thats powering the AI era, and how a bet on the future of computing could redefine its long-term growth runway. Related: Jensen Huangs 2025 net worth as Nvidia market cap tops $4 trillion Nvidia CEOs net worth reaches Warren Buffett territory Jensen Huang isnt just writing new chapters in Nvidias AI growth story; hes crafting a personal one, too. At least 20 people have died during a stampede at an aid distribution site in Gaza. The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) says 19 people were trampled and one person was stabbed during what it described as a chaotic and dangerous surge, driven by agitators in the crowd. An official from Gazas Hamas-backed health ministry told Reuters that at least 20 people had died of suffocation at the site in Khan Younis. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The controversial GHF, whose aid distribution points have witnessed hundreds of deaths, said it had reason to believe that unrest was deliberately fomented from within the crowd by Hamas militants, but did not provide evidence to support its claim. For the first time since operations began, GHF personnel identified multiple firearms in the crowd, it claimed. Mourners react after at least 20 Gazans were killed in an incident at an aid distribution site - REUTERS The GHF has come under heavy criticism after the United Nations said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the foundation. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys, the UN rights office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The foundation took control of most of the aid distribution in late May after Israel lifted its 11-week blockade, which left Gazas two-million-strong population on the edge of famine. The UN and other air groups have boycotted the GHF. A medical source at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis gave a lower toll, telling AFP it had received nine bodies, including several children after Israeli forces opened fire. Gazans are corralled into cages at a food distribution centre in the south of the Strip, in an image taken in May 2025 Unconfirmed Palestinian media reports also alleged that private contractors used pepper spray on the trapped crowd, sparking further chaos. We mourn the lives lost today, and we remain committed to providing humanitarian aid as safely and responsibly as possible, a GHF spokesman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strongly rejected the report, calling the allegations malicious falsehoods. The GHF uses private American security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, bypassing a UN-led system that Israel claims has let Hamas loot aid shipments meant for civilians. But leaked footage has suggested that armed US contractors at one of Gazas aid distribution hubs appeared to fire at crowds, before celebrating. "Hell yeah, boy!" US contractors in Gaza cheer after deliberately opening fire on aid-seeking Palestinians. Source: AP pic.twitter.com/7mG0Wxxoky The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 3, 2025 The GHF said the accusations were categorically false, adding that no civilians had ever come under fire at its distribution sites. The Israeli military has acknowledged that Gazan civilians have been harmed near aid distribution centres, saying its forces had been issued new instructions following what it called lessons learned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rather than delivering aid into population centres, the GHF model requires people to walk long distances across Israeli military zones towards specially created hubs. Footage in recent weeks has shown huge crowds of people being forced into narrow corridors between large mounds of earth as armed contractors and IDF soldiers patrol from above. Critics of the new model also say there are far too few distribution sites and they draw too many Gazans to them at once, frequently leading to crushes and violence. The GHF and the IDF have been reached for comment. Injured Gazans are brought to Nasser Hospital after Israeli airstrike hit US aid supply distribution point in Gaza Strip on July 16 - Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu It comes as Israeli strikes killed 22 people in northern Gaza, including 11 children, and 19 people in the city of Khan Younis over the past day, according to local officials. The IDF said it had struck more than 120 targets, including Hamas tunnels, infrastructure and weapons storage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also on Wednesday, the Israeli military announced the opening of a fourth corridor, bisecting the southern city of Khan Younis, where Israeli troops have seized land in what they said is a pressure tactic against Hamas. As ceasefire talks with Hamas continue to stall, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, is attending court over long-running corruption charges. In an unusual move, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, will attend the trial in support of the embattled Mr Netanyahu. Asked to defend his decision, he said: I would say its extraordinary that the Prime Minister is on trial during wartime and during negotiations over hostages. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. SOMERSET, Ky. (FOX 56) Thousands of people crowded downtown Somerset last month as a stunt driver took a car airborne over the citys downtown fountain for its Somernites Cruise 25th anniversary. The iconic car was recently sold in a silent auction, helping raise money for a good cause. Read more of the latest Kentucky news The team at Northeast Ohio Dukes, which was the group that staged the live stunt, does shows all over the country, including Canada. After every jump it does, the car is always sold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Founder and lead stuntman for Northeast Ohio Dukes, Raymond Kohn, said this was the largest amount theyve received for a jump car. He said his team wanted to do something nice for the victims of Mays tornado, and thats where a portion of the money will go. It sold for more than $18,000. This is our way of giving back to the community, said Kohn. Its up to us, you know, to lend a helping hand. If we can help out in any way, shape, or form, were going to do so. I feel really good about being able to help out with the tornado relief fund. Im glad to be a part of it, honored to be a part of it. Kohn said his team is donating $4,000 of the proceeds to the tornado relief fund. Wildcat Auto Sales, which made the winning bid, is matching that amount, so its a combination of $8,000 going back to the community. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People wanted the car before we even jumped it. I want to buy it; I dont care what kind of shape it is; I want the car. Im like, we didnt even jump it yet. It doesnt matter; I want the car, said Kohn. So, we had a swarm of people wanting the car before it even jumped, and then we had probably about 150 people total that were fighting over it, and thats why it climbed up to $18,500. So, its a pretty good feeling. Like I said, its a piece of history. The car is going back to Somerset, where its going to be on display at the new owners business. Kohn also adds that he has a feeling hell be back in Somerset jumping again. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. A professor at Georgetown University has been removed as chair of his department and is on leave after he publicly hoped Iran would launch a "symbolic strike" on a U.S. military base, the universitys president said. "Im not an expert, but I assume Iran could still get a bomb easily. I hope Iran does some symbolic strike on a base, then everyone stops. Im surprised this is what these FDD/Hasbara people have been auto-erotically asphyxiating themselves for all these years," Dr. Jonathan Brown, the Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, posted on X in June after the U.S. struck Iran's nuclear enrichment sites. He added, "Ironically, the main takeaways (in my non-expert opinion, and Im happy to be corrected) from all this have nothing to do with a US attack: 1) Iran can take a licking; 2) if Israel attacks Iranian cities, it gets f---ed up pretty bad. I mean Ive been shocked at the damage Iranian missiles caused; 3) despite his best efforts, Reza Pahlavi HVAC repair services still only third best in Nova." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli Columbia Professor Leaves School Over Failure To Address Anti-israel Protests A Georgetown professor has been put on leave after calling for Iran to launch a symbolic strike against the U.S. Georgetown University Interim President Robert M. Groves testified to the House Education and Workforce Committee that Brown had been removed as chair of the department and placed on leave following the tweet. He said the university was currently reviewing Brown's case. "Within minutes of our learning of that tweet, the Dean contacted Professor Brown, we issued a statement condemning the tweet. Professor Brown is no longer chair of his department, hes on leave, and were beginning the process of reviewing the case," Groves testified. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The hearing, titled "Antisemitism in Higher Education: Examining the Role of Faculty, Funding, and Ideology," saw testimony from Georgetown President Groves, CUNY Chancellor Dr. Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, Berkeley Chancellor Dr. Rich Lyons and others. The hearing comes as colleges across the country have been plagued with antisemitism in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks. Elite University Professor Sparks Social Media Backlash After Revealing What Iran Should Do Next: 'This Demon' The professor claimed he was calling for de-escalation. Browns comments elicited fierce pushback online, with many outraged over his perceived call for violence against U.S. forces. "I went to graduate school with Jonathan Brown," Jewish People Policy Institute fellow Dr. Sara Yael Hirschhorn posted on X. "I'm appalled to see him calling for Iran to attack U.S. troops and his awe at attacks on Israeli civilians. @Georgetown- enough!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brown previously told Fox News Digital that he had been calling for "de-escalation" with Iran, and that his post had been misinterpreted. He said he was hoping for an Iranian response akin to their attack after the U.S. took out Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, in which the Islamic Republic launched ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Iraq but caused no casualties. "I was calling for de-escalation as I am very opposed to American involvement in foreign wars," he said. When asked for comment, Georgetown University referred Fox News Digital to President Grove's testimony. Original article source: Georgetown professor removed as department chair after publicly hoping for symbolic Iranian strike on US The Brief DeKalb County Board of Health is extending clinic hours at four centers for immunizations and screenings, with services available until 7:30 p.m. on select Tuesdays. Georgia Department of Public Health mandates immunization requirements for students entering pre-K through 12th grade, including specific vaccines for 7th and 11th graders. Health departments across Georgia, including Fulton, Cobb & Douglas, and District 2, are preparing for the back-to-school rush with extended hours and appointment options for school-entry immunizations. DECATUR, Ga. - With the first day of school approaching for districts across Georgia, local health departments are expanding clinic hours to help families catch up on required immunizations and screenings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SEE ALSO: Back-to-School Drives & Giveaways in metro Atlanta | 2025-2026 What we know In DeKalb County, the Board of Health will rotate extended hours across four of its public health centers, offering services until 7:30 p.m. on select Tuesdays. Walk-in services include immunizations, vision, hearing, dental and nutrition screenings, as well as the issuance of birth certificates through the countys Vital Records office. The extended hours schedule is as follows: Tuesday, July 15 North DeKalb Health Center, 3807 Clairmont Rd. NE, Chamblee Tuesday, July 22 Clifton Springs Health Center, 3110 Clifton Springs Rd., Decatur Tuesday, July 29 T.O. Vinson Health Center, 440 Winn Way, Decatur Tuesday, August 5 East DeKalb Health Center, 2277 S. Stone MountainLithonia Rd., Lithonia What you can do Parents are encouraged to arrive early and be prepared for longer wait times. They should bring each child, their immunization record, and an insurance card. Accepted insurance includes Medicaid, PeachCare for Kids, and the State Health Benefit Plan (Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare). Cash, credit or debit cards, or checks from Georgia banks are accepted for payment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more information, visit dekalbpublichealth.com or call 404-294-3700. Big picture view Other health departments across Georgia are also preparing for the back-to-school rush: Fulton County Board of Health is offering immunizations during regular hours, Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Appointments are encouraged, but walk-ins are accepted as staff availability allows. More information is available at fultoncountyboh.com. Cobb & Douglas Public Health is accepting appointments for school-entry immunizations at its clinics in Marietta and Douglasville. Standard hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with some extended availability by request. Visit cobbanddouglaspublichealth.com for details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement District 2 Public Health, which includes counties such as Hall, Lumpkin, and Stephens, is hosting extended-hours vaccine events throughout July and August. Families should check their local county health department websites for location-specific schedules. Visit phdistrict2.org for updates. The Georgia Department of Public Health reminds parents that children entering school must meet state immunization requirements. These include Form 3231 for general entry and additional Tdap and meningococcal vaccines for seventh-graders and new high school students. Eleventh-graders must also receive a meningococcal booster. Complete guidelines are posted at dph.georgia.gov/schoolvaccines. For many clinics, appointments are recommended. Parents should confirm availability and requirements ahead of time by calling their local health department or visiting their websites. Georgia health officials outline required immunizations The backstory As students prepare to return to classrooms across Georgia, public health officials are reminding parents of the immunization requirements all children must meet to attend school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Georgia Department of Public Health mandates that students entering pre-K through 12th grade have a completed Georgia Certificate of Immunization, Form 3231, on file. The form must be filled out by a licensed medical provider and submitted to the childs school prior to the start of the academic year. "All students entering school for the first time, transferring from out of state, or moving into the next required vaccine grade level must have up-to-date immunizations," the department said in a statement. General Requirements Students in kindergarten through 12th grade must be vaccinated against: Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis (DTaP or Tdap) Hepatitis A and Hepatitis B Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) Varicella (chickenpox) Polio Children in childcare or pre-K programs are also required to have Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and pneumococcal vaccines, though these are not required after age 5. Grade-Specific Boosters 7th Grade : All students entering seventh grade must have received one dose of Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) and one dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MenACWY). 11th Grade: Students must receive a booster dose of MenACWY if their first dose was administered before their 16th birthday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These requirements also apply to new students in grades 8 through 12 who are enrolling in a Georgia school for the first time. Exemptions and Additional Vaccines Medical exemptions must be documented on Form 3231 and updated annually. Parents seeking a religious exemption must file Form 2208 with their childs school. While not required, the Georgia Department of Public Health strongly recommends that students receive the HPV vaccine beginning at age 11 or 12, as well as an annual influenza shot to protect against seasonal flu outbreaks. Documentation and Deadlines Immunization certificates remain valid until the next required dose is due. Families are encouraged to schedule appointments early, as clinics typically experience long wait times leading up to the first day of school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More information about vaccine schedules and requirements can be found at the state health departments website: dph.georgia.gov/schoolvaccines. The Source Multiple regional health departments, including DeKalb County, Fulton County Board of Health, Cobb & Douglas Public Health, and District 2 Public Health, provided details for this article. Additional details were sourced from the Georgia Department of Public Health and the Department of Health and Human Services. A newly-deputized police dog died Sunday in Georgia, after her handler left her alone in a hot car for "an unacceptable amount of time," said the sheriff's office where the K-9 provided her services. Named K-9 Georgia, the dog died in the kennel inside of her handler's patrol vehicle as the heat index rose to about 100 or 102 degrees in Trenton, a city in the northwestern corner of Georgia, according to the Dade County Sheriff's Office. The handler had gone into the office building when Georgia was left unattended in the patrol car. The sheriff's office said it fired the dog's handler, who was not identified, and the incident would be turned over to the Dade County District Attorney's Office to determine if charges would be filed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "On July 13th, we tragically lost our newest member of our K-9 team; K-9 Georgia," the office wrote Tuesday in a news release, adding that "a combination" of factors caused the dog's death. The sheriff's office investigated the incident and determined the air conditioning system in the handler's patrol car malfunctioned while Georgia was inside, to the extent that fixing it required "total replacement of the compressor." A compressor is the core piece of an air conditioning unit that allows it to emit cool air. A heat alarm inside the patrol car also malfunctioned, the office said. The alarm is a safety mechanism designed to monitor the temperature in the car and, when it gets too hot, activate its sirens or send notifications to the cell phone of a K-9 dog's handler, according to the National Police Dog Foundation, which notes on its website that "heat exhaustion is a major cause of death for active K-9s." In June 2023, another police dog in Cobb County, Georgia, near Atlanta, died after being left inside its handler's hot car without a functioning air conditioning system. The sheriff's office said the broken temperature systems, "coupled with K-9 Georgia being left unattended for what we considered to be an unacceptable amount of time" inside her handler's car, contributed to the dog's death. It plans to implement new policies for handlers, which will include prohibiting them from leaving dogs in their cars unsupervised "for extended periods of time" during the summer. The Dade County District Attorney's Office is determining whether to prosecute the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our hearts are aching at the loss of K-9 Georgia," the sheriff's office said. "Many of you know that she was donated to us by a local family, at no cost to the sheriff's office. She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the 'best of the best'. She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office, and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her." Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Trump says Powell is "terrible" for not lowering interest rates, denies plans to fire him Apps help undocumented people avoid immigration agents and ICE raids The Georgia Public Service Commission signed off on Georgia Power's long-term energy plans Tuesday. John McCosh/Georgia Recorder (file) This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WABE and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization. Georgia Power will expand its renewable energy generation and keep some of its coal plants open longer than previously planned under a compromise deal approved by state regulators Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved the deal that maps out Georgia Powers energy plans for the coming years, despite objections from consumer advocates who claimed the agreement violates a previous commission order. Although several interest groups requested changes, the commissioners did not propose any amendments before voting. As our state continues to grow and thrive, the approval of this comprehensive plan helps to ensure we have the resources and programs we need to reliably and economically meet the future energy needs of our customers, said Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene in a statement. The plan predicts skyrocketing growth in energy demand, mostly due to data centers, and lays out how the utility will meet it, through a mix of building new power plants and upgrading old ones. The plan extends two coal plants beyond their previously proposed closure dates, a controversial move because of coals intensive greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. It also approves updates to existing nuclear reactors, hydroelectric plants and transmission lines. Before seeking bids for new resources a process due to start in October Georgia Power will need to refine its forecast and provide regular updates on growing demand. The companys projections on demand were a major point of contention throughout the proceedings, with critics arguing it overestimates how much energy new customers like data centers will actually need and how quickly that demand will come. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With unprecedented grid growth ahead for Georgia, this Integrated Resource Plan puts us on the right path to meet everyones needs, said commissioner Tim Echols in a statement. I wish it had more solar, more storage, more energy efficiency but it strikes a good compromise in the spirit of collaboration. The most strident objections to the agreement came from consumer advocates who felt that the energy efficiency provisions violated a previous commission order. In 2023, those advocates signed on to a settlement agreement that raised power rates to pay for construction costs at Plant Vogtle, in exchange for an expansion of a senior discount program and an increase in energy efficiency savings. While the utility initially proposed an energy efficiency target that matched the Vogtle deal, the agreement approved Tuesday falls short of that amount. This is an incredible blow to Georgia Powers credibility and the credibility of the IRP process, said Codi Norred, executive director of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, one of the advocacy groups that signed the Vogtle agreement, in a statement. I cant see how anyone would come to the negotiation table with Georgia Power in good faith again after witnessing the bait and switch the company just pulled off with the commissions blessing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Echols expressed the same concern in a hearing last week, but ultimately voted for the agreement without proposing any changes. Georgia Power and the commissions staff maintain they did not violate the Vogtle agreement, which said only that the utility would propose and support the higher efficiency goal, known as a DSM savings target, and allowed that commission staff could advocate for a different figure. In a filing last week, the utility argued the new deal still results in one of the highest DSM savings targets to be approved in recent history, and certainly better than what may have occurred if the Vogtle Prudence Stipulation had not been approved by this Commission. Georgia Power fulfilled its obligations under the Vogtle Prudence Stipulation and no reasonable interpretation of that document could determine otherwise, that filing read. A Georgia sheriffs deputy was fired this week after a police dog was left in a hot car for too long and died. The Dade County Sheriffs Office said Tuesday that a K-9 officer, a bloodhound named Georgia, was allegedly left in a closed patrol car with a malfunctioning air conditioner on Sunday while the heat index was over 100 degrees. Meanwhile, her handler was inside the sheriffs office in Trenton for an undisclosed amount of time and the vehicles heat alarm didnt go off. Those two factors, coupled with K-9 Georgia being left unattended for what we considered to be an unacceptable amount of time, contributed to her passing, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the sheriffs office, the deputy in question has been fired, though they didnt release their name. The office said it has changed its policies so that, going forward, any K-9 vehicle that isnt in working order will be taken out of service. Their K-9 handler policies will also be overhauled so police dogs will not be left in vehicles for extended periods of time during the summer. The Dade County District Attorneys Office will now determine whether the former deputy will face charges. The dog had been donated by a local family, according to the sheriffs office. She was an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy and had all the potential to be the best of the best,' the sheriffs office said. She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office, and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her. Carolina Wilga, the German backpacker rescued from the Australian wilderness, has been discharged from hospital in Perth after five days, local media reported on Wednesday. It was initially unclear whether she would remain in Australia or leave the country. The newspaper The West Australian reported that the 26-year-old might fly to Germany to see her family. Wilga, who had been missing for 12 days, was discovered by chance on Friday by a passer-by in the Western Australian outback and rescued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When she was found, the woman was dehydrated, exhausted and hungry, according to police. She was immediately flown to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth. Authorities said that despite her days-long ordeal, she only suffered injuries such as sunburn, numerous insect bites, cuts, weight loss and a foot injury. "When you need to gain 12 kilograms back," she wrote on social media alongside a picture of herself looking cheerful in her hospital bed with flowers and lots of biscuits and cakes. She especially thanked the German consulate for providing her with treats during her stay in hospital. Wilga had been travelling through the country for two years, financing the trip by working along the way, including in mines. She disappeared without a trace in remote Western Australia, along with her black and silver van. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her phone was turned off, which increased concern because she had previously been in regular contact with her family back in Germany. Wilga's disappearance triggered a huge search operation. Her car was discovered last Thursday in the dense bushland of the vast Karroun Hill Nature Reserve but there was no sign of the backpacker. Carolina Wilga, the German backpacker rescued from the Australian wilderness, has been discharged from hospital in Perth after five days, local media reported on Wednesday. It was initially unclear whether she would remain in Australia or leave the country. The newspaper The West Australian reported that the 26-year-old might fly to Germany to see her family. Wilga, who had been missing for 12 days, was discovered by chance on Friday by a passer-by in the Western Australian outback and rescued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When she was found, the woman was dehydrated, exhausted and hungry, according to police. She was immediately flown to Fiona Stanley Hospital in Perth. Authorities said that despite her days-long ordeal, she only suffered injuries such as sunburn, numerous insect bites, cuts, weight loss and a foot injury. "When you need to gain 12 kilograms back," she wrote on social media alongside a picture of herself looking cheerful in her hospital bed with flowers and lots of biscuits and cakes. She especially thanked the German consulate for providing her with treats during her stay in hospital. Wilga had been travelling through the country for two years, financing the trip by working along the way, including in mines. She disappeared without a trace in remote Western Australia, along with her black and silver van. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her phone was turned off, which increased concern because she had previously been in regular contact with her family back in Germany. Wilga's disappearance triggered a huge search operation. Her car was discovered last Thursday in the dense bushland of the vast Karroun Hill Nature Reserve but there was no sign of the backpacker. She was finally rescued by an Australian woman who happened to be passing by and to whom she had waved for help from an outback trail. In an emotional message this week, Wilga thanked all the volunteers who never gave up hope. "I am certain that I survived only thanks to this incredible outpouring of support. The thought of all the people who believed in me, searched for me, and kept hoping for me gave me the strength to carry on during my darkest moments. For this, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Some people might wonder why I even left my car, even though I had water, food, and clothing there. The answer is: I lost control of the car and rolled down a slope. In the crash, I hit my head significantly. As a result of the accident, I left my car in a state of confusion and got lost. I am simply beyond grateful to have survived. Thank you Australia you are amazing." Some experts found it hard to believe that she had survived for so long in such harsh conditions, with freezing temperatures at night and scorching sun during the day. According to her own account, she drank rainwater and water from puddles and spent some nights in caves. "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." UNESCO added 26 new locations to its World Heritage list this week, including four majestic castles in the Bavarian Alps that evoke fairytale charm. Constructed by King Ludwig II of Bavaria between 1864 and 1886, the grand residences of Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, Schachen, and Herrenchiemsee are all built into the natural landscape, either rising above the mountains or blending into them. All four of them have been preserved as museums and have been open to the public since Ludwigs death in 1886. bluejayphoto - Getty Images Neuschwanstein stands out for its location as much as for its remarkable history, having served first as a royal estate and later as a hiding place for priceless artworks looted by the Nazis . Per Discovery , Ludwig built the castle perched peculiarly on a mountaintop for his own amusement. The castles name literally translates to "New Swan Castle," in honor of one of German composer Richard Wagner's characters, the Swan Knight. As noted on the castles official website , Ludwig came to see himself in typically romantic fashion as both a real knight of Schwangau and the fictitious swan knight Lohengrin, while always remaining fully conscious of himself as the ruling king of Bavaria. He was eventually known as Mad King Ludwig before his death. Philipp Guelland - Getty Images no_limit_pictures - Getty Images If Neuschwanstein looks familiar, that is most likely because it served as the inspiration for Sleeping Beautys castle at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Cinderellas castle at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Its also the inspiration for the castle in the Disney company logo. Before opening Disneyland in 1955, Walt Disney and his wife, Lillian, took a tour of West Germany , and stopped at Neuschwanstein. Disney was reportedly so moved by the visuals of the crenellated towers and Alpine landscapes that the castle took on a new life half a world away. picture alliance - Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neuschwanstein Castle is also the largest tourist destination in Bavaria. Markus Soder, the governor of the Bavaria region, wrote on X that it was a fairytale comes true for our fairytale castles. The fairytale castle combines great art and culture with a bit of kitsch and cliche, Soder wrote (in German, translated into English). When people around the world see the castle, they might think of Disney. But no: Neuschwanstein is and will remain the original from Bavaria. You Might Also Like By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices dropped by less than 1% on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump's 50-day deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine and avoid sanctions eased concerns about any immediate supply disruption. Brent crude futures settled down 50 cents, or 0.7%, at $68.71 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were down 46 cents, or 0.7%, at $66.52. "The focus has been on Donald Trump. There was some fear he might target Russia with sanctions immediately and now he has given another 50 days," said UBS commodities analyst Giovanni Staunovo. "Those fears about an imminent additional tightness in the market have dissipated. That's the main story." Oil prices had climbed on the potential sanctions but later gave up gains as the 50-day deadline raised hopes that sanctions could be avoided. In the event the proposed sanctions are implemented, "it would drastically change the outlook for the oil market," analysts at ING said in a note. "China, India and Turkey are the largest buyers of Russian crude oil. They would need to weigh the benefits of buying discounted Russian crude oil against the cost of their exports to the U.S.," ING said. Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine on Monday and had said on Saturday that he would impose a 30% tariff on most imports from the European Union and Mexico from August 1, adding to similar warnings for other countries. Tariffs raise the risk of slower economic growth, which could reduce global fuel demand and drag oil prices lower. Also on the tariff front, Brazil will work to get the U.S. to reverse "as quickly as possible" the 50% tariff it announced on all goods from that country, but does not rule out asking for more time to negotiate, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said. China's economy slowed in the second quarter, data showed on Tuesday, with markets bracing for a weaker second half as exports lose momentum, prices continue to fall and consumer confidence remains low. Tony Sycamore, an analyst at IG, said economic growth in China came in above consensus, largely because of strong fiscal support and the frontloading of production and exports to beat U.S. tariffs. "The Chinese economic data was supportive overnight," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst with Price Futures Group. Elsewhere, oil demand is set to remain "very strong" through the third quarter, keeping the market balanced in the near term, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' secretary general said, according to a Russian media report. A German defence technology company will soon begin producing drones in the UK, it has been announced. Stark, which makes the unmanned weapon systems for Nato, is set to open a new 3,700 sq m (40,000 sq ft) factory in Swindon in Wiltshire. The expansion is expected to create more than 100 skilled jobs and will be the company's first site outside Germany. Local MP Will Stone said he was proud that Stark would "bring back defence manufacturing" to Swindon, which has a "proud military legacy". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mike Armstrong, managing director of Stark UK, said both the UK and Germany were "world-leaders in new technology" and the expansion will help "define the battlefields of the future". "We need rapid and scalable production to protect our people, defend our sovereignty and deter aggression. That means resilient supply chains which stretch across Europe," said Mr Armstrong. Mr Armstrong said Stark, which was founded in 2024, wanted to take advantage of technological and defence expertise in the UK. Swindon, which helped produce the Supermarine Spitfire in the Second War, will once again be part of defending Europe, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The company said its flagship loitering munition system 'Virtus', which has vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capabilities, has a strike radius of up to 100km (62 miles) and a 5kg weapons payload. The Virtus drone is capable of taking off from a vertical position, said Stark [Stark] "This is the direction of travel: creating high-skilled, well-paid jobs and putting Swindon back at the heart of Britain's industrial future," said Mr Stone, the MP for Swindon North. "This is just the start," he added. Swindon Borough Council leader Jim Robbins said the news was a "strong endorsement of our town's growing reputation in advanced manufacturing and innovation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said the investment was a "major step forward" in the ambition to position the town "as a national leader in defence advanced manufacturing". "I'm excited to see this cutting-edge UAV technology take shape right here in Swindon," he added. The announcement comes as the UK and Germany expand their defence and security relationship, building on the Trinity House Agreement set in 2024. Follow BBC Wiltshire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. More on this story Related Internet Links A German Islamist TikTok star known as "Abdelhamid" has been sentenced to three years in prison for commercial donation fraud. The Dusseldorf Regional Court also handed down a suspended sentence of 21 months to his partner. The 34-year-old had raised almost 500,000 in 37 fundraising appeals and, according to his confession, only passed on a very small portion of the money. It was mainly used to finance an extravagant lifestyle. The proceeds of 496,000 (about $580,000) are to be confiscated from the 34-year-old and his co-defendant partner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The defendant has been in prison since October 2024 and has several previous convictions for fraud. In the verdicts the presiding judge acknowledged "that both confessed comprehensively at a very early stage, i.e. at the very beginning of the trial, and showed remorse." His partner, who had opened accounts for donations, "knew about the donation fraud and benefited from it," the presiding judge explained in his reasoning for the verdict. The extremist preacher from the ultra-conservative Salafist branch of Islam had called on Muslims to donate to humanitarian aid projects on his social media channels. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The money went into accounts belonging to him, his partner, his sister, and a friend. During a search, 20,000 in cash, luxury watches, luxury handbags and cars were seized from the welfare recipient. The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of three years and nine months for the defendant because of the "particular reprehensibility of the acts." The public prosecutor had requested a two-year suspended sentence for the 33-year-old accomplice. The German Federal Prosecutor's Office has charged four alleged members of Syrian militias and one suspected officer of the Syrian intelligence services with crimes against humanity and war crimes, including the killing and torture of civilians. The Higher Regional Court in Koblenz must now decide whether to accept the indictment and schedule a trial of the five stateless Palestinian men from Syria. All five suspects were arrested on July 3 last year and remain in pre-trial detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Four of the accused are believed to have joined armed militias by early 2012, operating in the Yarmouk district of Damascus, home to a large Palestinian refugee camp. The militias worked under orders from the Syrian regime to maintain control of the district, prosecutors said. According to the indictment, the Syrian government used the militias in various capacities, including to impose a complete blockade on Yarmouk starting in July 2013 to crush anti-government protests. The siege created severe shortages of food, water and medical supplies. The fifth suspect is said to have worked from early 2011 in the Syrian military intelligence service's Palestine Division, allegedly participating in the violent repression of civilians. Shootings and torture alleged On July 13, 2012, all five men allegedly opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in Yarmouk, killing at least six people. Prosecutors also accuse them of repeatedly assaulting civilians at checkpoints - beating them with rifle butts and inflicting other forms of physical abuse. Some of the accused are also alleged to have detained civilians and handed them over to Syrian intelligence, where many later died from torture or the appalling conditions in detention, the prosecutors office said. COLOGNE, Germany The German government this week notified Pentagon leaders of an interest to buy the U.S. Armys Typhon missile launcher system, which can fire missiles with a range of 2,000 kilometers, while a European initiative to make such weapons continues to ripen. Interest in the Lockheed Martin-made launcher comes as defense officials in Berlin await a final call by the Trump administration to honor a Biden-era agreement under which American missiles are to bolster Germanys deterrence posture starting in 2026. Those long-range fires capabilities, launched via Typhon, are to include SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles, plus developmental hypersonic weapons, said a July 2024 German-U.S. statement, released on the sidelines of NATOs 75-year anniversary summit in Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boris Pistorius, speaking to reporters in Washington on July 14, said missile-stationing plans fate was still iffy, as U.S. defense leaders re-assess the American military footprint in Europe. Im very confident that the announcement will remain in place, he said following a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. But a final decision is still outstanding. In that context, Berlins interest in Typhon could be seen as a gesture to keep the long-range strike plan, devised as a conventional counterstrike option in the event of a Russian attack, on track in the first place. Either way, European nations currently lack the weapons range that Typhon would bring to the continent, according to Pistorius. Countries have banded together to develop such weapons under the European Long-range Strike Approach, or ELSA, but those capabilities will take seven to 10 years to field, he said. The girlfriend of murdered social justice advocate Ryan Carson is calling on GOP Council member Vickie Paladino to publicly apologize for tweeting demonstrably false statements that she tried to hinder the killers prosecution because of her politics. Claudia Morales is also asking City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams to take disciplinary action against Paladino for her misuse of elected office to defame a private citizen for political gain. Carson, 32, and Morales were sitting on a bench near Malcolm X Blvd. near Lafayette Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Oct. 2, 2023, when Brian Dowling, then 18, stabbed Carson to death in an unprovoked, caught-on-video attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the first time that Council member Paladino and I have interacted, Morales, 30, told the Daily News Wednesday. So when I saw her tweet come in when I was going through my phone that morning, I was very rattled, upset. I felt very violated. And my first thought was to respond and correct her lies about me. Paladino took to X, formerly Twitter, after Morales posted photos of herself Saturday with Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani and wrote, a girl and her mayor. So were clear, this woman is a DSA [Democratic Socialists of America] activist who watched her fellow activist boyfriend get brutally stabbed to death on a Brooklyn sidewalk and didnt immediately call the police because the murderer was nonwhite and her politics are the real evil, Paladino wrote in a now-deleted post on X. She also failed to pick out the murderer in a police lineup, likely on purpose to hinder the prosecution and ensure the murderer walked free. The murderer did not, in fact, walk free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dowling was sentenced to 20 years to life in February, at a proceeding where Morales gave a victim impact statement. When Morales pointed out that she called 911 immediately, cooperated with the case every step of the way, and testified before the grand jury, Paladino replied, But to be clear, youre a police and prison abolitionist, and ideally according to your ideology youd want the murderer to not have been arrested or imprisoned. Paladino responded to criticism from other X users with another post: She made herself a public figure and uses the event as a springboard for her politics. Shes a DSA celebrity specifically because of this. If shes going to politicize the murder of her boyfriend, then the street goes both ways. On Wednesday, Morales sent a cease-and-desist letter to Paladino demanding an apology. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your misuse of elected office to defame a private citizen for political gain has forced Ms. Morales to seek legal representation, and we are formally demanding that you cease and desist all such communications concerning our client and issue a public apology for your defamatory statements, attorney Maryanne K. Kaishian wrote. Your conduct has caused Ms. Morales to suffer significant harm and has further ignited a wave of vile online harassment and threats that put Ms. Morales and her loved ones safety at risk. You were well-aware of these readily foreseeable outcomes and the clear falsity of your claims when you made them. Rendy Desamours, a spokesperson for the the Council speaker, said Adams doesnt alone have the authority to discipline members, but that she has referred the matter to the Councils Committee on Standard and Ethics, which does have jurisdiction. Speaker Adams finds Council member Paladinos recent comments on social media, as well as others over the past years, to be disgusting and offensive, Desamours said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paladino could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Morales said shes gotten abuse and harassment online after the murder, particularly after media accounts mischaracterized how she was unable to initially pick Dowlings face out of a photo array in the early hours of the investigation. But Paladinos tweets marked the first time an elected official came after her, she said, adding that the Council members position lends legitimacy to and amplifies the misinformation spread about her. It also adds to a climate where harassing defaming and smearing a victim of violent crime, or any other private citizen, just because they happen to disagree with you politically is not just permissible, but righteous, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This was very re-traumatizing, what she did to me, what she posted, Morales said. Its newly unsettling and scary because it came from an elected official, and its because its so local. Carson was a rising star at the New York Public Interest Research Group, where he worked as a public policy campaign manager. Morales said she plans to stay on X, formerly known as Twitter, in part because shes used it since she was a teenager, and in part because she met Carson on the social media platform. I just refuse to be run off of a platform that has given me so much, she said, because other people have decided that they want to erase me from it. Las Vegas(KLAS)-Glittering Lights is celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year, and they are making it s a big celebration as they search for 25 Hometown Heroes. Selected honorees will receive VIP admission for themselves and their family to the exclusive kick-off party, be featured in The Wrapping Paper (Glittering Lights commemorative magazine), and receive a $250 donation made in their name to the nonprofit organization of their choice. This could be a teacher, healthcare/frontline worker, volunteer, or even a neighbor or friend who really helped you out this year. Share their story with the Glittering Lights team and they will select 25 people from all the submissions to be honored this year. Nominations close on September 27. You can nominate at GlitteringLights.Vegas Glittering Lights is seeking to spread a little Christmas in July cheer to all who truly love the holiday with a special discount on all ticket types for the 2025 season through July 31. Tickets are available now at glitteringlights.vegas/tickets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Must use code JOLLYJULY to receive a discount. These early bird prices melt away after July 31. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. MILAN GM Defense has partnered with British company NP Aerospace to offer American platforms in a bid for the United Kingdoms Light Mobility Vehicle (LMV) tender. The program requirements are part of the UKs wider Land Mobility Program that intends to replace three different types of aging vehicles and consolidate the British Armys fleet. The two companies have teamed up to offer GMs flagship Infantry Squad Vehicle and its utility variant for the LMV segment, both based on the rugged Chevrolet Colorado ZR2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with Defense News, Bradley Watters, vice-president of international government solutions and strategy at GM Defense, said the company views the competition as a strategic race. GM Defense eyes $1 billion European market for tactical vehicles Its all about getting that first win, with a major military force, and having these vehicles back in Europe GM is getting back into Europe, if you have not heard of it, in multiple areas including sales, maintenance, distribution centers and more, he said. The Request for Information published by the UK Ministry of Defense in January highlighted that an important aspect that would be considered in the selection process would be the potential for off-the-shelf solutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the manufacturer, its ISV uses approximately 90% commercial-off-the-shelf parts, which could play in its favor. For example, the vehicle features dynamic suspension spool valve dampers sourced from Multimatic, a Canadian company. When asked whether the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on a variety of goods have affected the procurement of components, Watters said that no negative impact has been felt. The bottom line is that the environment is changing all the time, everyday weve worked with different administrations and changes for more than 100 years and were doing the same now, a GM Defense spokeswoman said. The company is also currently exploring the potential that second-source suppliers based in Europe could offer in certain areas to meet the localization requirements that many countries are now after. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GM Defense plans to incorporate in its bid the facilities NP Aerospace already has in Coventry, U.K., and London, Ontario, to gain access to localized and tailored design and contents. The two firms also announced that they would be going after the Canadian Armed Forces Light Utility Vehicle and Light Forces Enhancement programs. British authorities have not confirmed whether they are considering integrating a remote weapon station on the vehicle to be chosen as part of the LMV tender. Nearly 50 cities in Florida will host events protesting the Trump administration under the name Good Trouble Lives On." The nation's fourth wide-scale protest of the year was announced by a coalition of the organizations behind the No Kings protests in June, according to USA TODAY. "The civil rights leaders of the past have shown us the power of collective action. Thats why on July 17, five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all," the website states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since President Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025, there have been monthly nationwide protests since April. The Good Trouble Lives On protests are planned for Thursday, July 17 roughly six weeks into Atlantic hurricane season for Florida and amid some rainy weather for the Sunshine State. Though there is no active tropical storm, an area of disturbance has brought showers across parts of Florida since July 13. Below is information about the "Good Trouble" protest locations in Florida along with a live weather radar and tropical storm activity embed from the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. What are the 'Good Trouble' protests? When are the protests in Florida in July 2025? Good Trouble Lives On is a national day of action in response to what organizers say are attacks on civil and human rights by the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations, a graphic on the Good Trouble Lives On website says. Whether youre outraged by attacks on voting rights, the gutting of essential services, disappearances of our neighbors, or the assault on free speech and our right to protest this movement is for you. The "Good Trouble" protests will take place on Thursday, July 17, 2025. This is the same day that Rep. John Lewis died five years ago in 2020. He was a major leader in the 1960s civil rights movement he was an original Freedom Rider and an organizer of the March on Washington in 1963. "Coined by civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis, 'Good Trouble' is the action of coming together to take peaceful, non-violent action to challenge injustice and create meaningful change," the website states. The website notes that it expects all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with its values and to act lawfully at these events. They advise that weapons should not be brought to the protest. Anti-Trump protests near me; see FL 'Good Trouble' protests by city list According to the Good Trouble website, 49 protests (including multiple in the same city) are planned across Florida as of Tuesday, July 15: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, forecast on tropical activity: Is there a tropical storm or hurricane now? The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season runs Sunday, June 1, to Sunday, Nov. 30, with the most active months between August and October. This embed shows what Floridas National Hurricane Center is tracking in real-time. Though there is no active named storm, the hurricane center is monitoring a large area of tropical disturbance that spans Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and bringing rain to the Gulf Coast. Weather alerts via text: Sign up to get updates about current storms and weather events by location Is it raining in Florida today? Live weather radar Weather watches and warnings issued in Florida Contributing: Cheryl McCloud, USA TODAY Network-Florida This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Good Trouble Lives On protests against Trump in Florida: Rain, radar Tens of thousands of protestors across the country are once again expected to take to the streets July 17 to protest President Donald Trump's administration. The "Good Trouble Lives on" protest is the largest nationwide action since June's "No Kings" protests, which saw Wisconsinites in more than 50 towns and cities rallying against the president's second-term agenda. Though it's unclear whether the Thursday actions will match the June crowds, protests are already planned in dozens of towns and cities across Wisconsin, including several in the greater Milwaukee area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's what to know about the "Good Trouble Lives On" protests. Why are protests called 'Good Trouble Lives On'? The name "Good Trouble Lives On" comes from a phrase coined by the late Rep. John Lewis, a pioneering civil rights advocate who also served as a Georgia congressional representative for several decades. "Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime," Lewis once wrote. "Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble." Lewis was also a leading critic of the Trump administration during its first term. The July 17 protests will also mark the fifth anniversary of his death. Who is organizing the July 17 protests? More than 100 progressive groups, advocacy organizations and unions are teaming up to host the "Good Trouble Lives On" protests, according to its website. The partnering organizations include the 50501 group, short for "50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement," which was behind the "No Kings" protests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition and Wisconsin Conservation Voters are also listed among the partners. "Good Trouble Lives On is a national day of action to respond to the attacks on our civil and human rights by the Trump administration," organizers wrote on the website. "Together, well remind them that in America, the power lies with the people." Protesters hold signs at the No Kings protest in Cathedral Square Park in Milwaukee, June 14, 2025. More than 1,500 protests were scheduled nationwide. Where are the 'Good Trouble' protests in the Milwaukee area? Protests are scheduled in at least 40 Wisconsin towns and cities for July 17, according to the 'Good Trouble Lives On' website. Find all the locations on the map linked on the organization's website. In the Milwaukee area, protests are happening in the following locations: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Milwaukee (east side): Protestors will rally across the street from Colectivo, 1701 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive, from 5 to 7 p.m. Milwaukee (Lincoln Village) : Protests will rally and hold up signs on the West Lincoln Avenue bridge, near 2333 S. 6th St., from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Glendale: Protestors will hold up signs on the Interstate 43 bridge overpass between West Green Tree Road and North Port Washington Road from 4 to 6 p.m. Brookfield: Protestors will gather at North Main Street and West Bluemound Road from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Waukesha: Protestors will gather on the sidewalk in front of Cutler Park, 321 Wisconsin Ave., from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Muskego: Protestors will hold up signs at Moorland Road and Janesville Road from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Menomonee Falls: Protestors will gather at Centennial Plaza, N88W16688 Main St., from 5:30 to 7 p.m. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Good Trouble Lives On' protests planned in Wisconsin for July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Oil fell as US President Donald Trump reignited his global trade war, while his latest plan to pressure Russia into a ceasefire with Ukraine didnt include new measures aimed directly at hindering Moscows energy exports. Most Read from Bloomberg West Texas Intermediate fell 2.1% to settle below $67 a barrel after Trump threatened 100% secondary tariffs on countries that do business with Russia if theres no ceasefire in 50 days. But he didnt announce direct sanctions on the nations oil shipments, which traders had speculated might be coming when Trump promised a major statement on Russia last week. Secondary tariffs are difficult to enforce, and investors have limited conviction that theyll stick, said Joe DeLaura, global energy strategist at Rabobank. Before Trump released his new Russia plan, oil had gained as much as 1.8%. The only thing that would have supported this rally would have been some sort of direct US escalation against the Russian oil or gas industry, he added. In another headwind, Trump threatened 30% tariffs on goods from the European Union and Mexico over the weekend, damping the outlook for energy demand. The presidents barrage of tariff demand letters last week contained some of the highest tax rates yet on major US trading partners. The attacks revived concerns that energy demand would deteriorate and added to widespread expectations of a glut later this year, leading hedge funds to turn bearish on oil at the fastest pace since February last week. In the near-term, though, demand appears to be holding. China ended the first half of the year with a record trade surplus, with factories riding out the tariff roller-coaster. The trade data also showed that crude imports have risen so far this year. The countrys purchases of Iranian barrels jumped in June, according to data from Vortexa. Oil is still more than 6% lower this year as traders and investors balance geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, which stoked concern over supplies, with the US-led trade war. OPEC+ is relaxing supply curbs, which could lead to an oversupply in the second half of the year. Traders are now looking ahead to Tuesdays US consumer price index data for clues on the path forward for monetary tightening. Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek 2025 Bloomberg L.P. Last month, anti-Trump No Kings protests were scheduled across the U.S. on Flag Day. Now, a similar national day of action is being planned for tomorrow, July 17, with hundreds of events scheduled nationwide for the fifth anniversary of Congressman John Lewis death. Named for a famous quote from Lewis, the Good Trouble Lives On protests are a response to what the organizers say are attacks on civil and human rights by the Trump administration. We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations, a graphic on the Good Trouble Lives On website says. Whether youre outraged by attacks on voting rights, the gutting of essential services, disappearances of our neighbors, or the assault on free speech and our right to protest this movement is for you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres what to know about the Good Trouble protests this week, whos organizing them and where the Florida protests will be. Anti-Trump protests in Jacksonville: 'Good Trouble Lives On'. Where are they? What is the 'Good Trouble' protest on July 17? When are the protests? The Good Trouble protests will be the fourth nationwide anti-Trump protest of 2025. The organizers are a part of the same coalition of organizations that were behind the No Kings protests in June. The Good Trouble Lives On title comes from a famous John Lewis quote that he tweeted in 2018: Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The civil rights leaders of the past have shown us the power of collective action. Thats why on July 17, five years since the passing of Congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all," the website says. The "Good Trouble" protests are scheduled to take place this week, on July 17, 2025. This is the same day that Rep. John Lewis died five years ago in 2020. He was a major leader in the 1960s civil rights movement, an original Freedom Rider and an organizer of the March on Washington in 1963. The website says that it expects all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with its values and to act lawfully at these events. They advise that weapons should not be brought to any of the Good Trouble protests. Anti-Trump protests in Florida: Here's a 'Good Trouble' event map 'Good Trouble' protests in Florida: City-by-city list According to the website, at least 49 protests (including multiple in four cities) are planned across Florida. Here's a city-by-city list of the "Good Trouble" events scheduled in Florida for July 17: What is considered an illegal protest? The right to protest peacefully and publicly protest is protected throughout the U.S. by the First Amendment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Protesting becomes illegal when protestors block car or pedestrian traffic, or access to government buildings. Its also important to remember Gov. DeSantiss 2021 riot law, which blurs the lines of what is and isnt illegal when protesting in Florida. During the 2021 Legislative Session, the Florida Legislature passed and Governor DeSantis signed HB 1, an anti-protest law that enhances criminal penalties during certain gatherings and creates new criminal penalties for mob intimidation and damaging or pulling down historic objects, such as monuments, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida says. You still have a constitutionally protected right to protest, peacefully assemble, and petition the government with your grievances. Safety tips for 'Good Trouble' protestors Human Rights Campaign has tips for those participating in a peaceful protest to help ensure their safety and well-being: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Properly prepare: Dress for the weather, pack the necessary supplies (cash, water, extra battery, etc), have at least one emergency contact, and plan to share your status throughout the protest. Know the environment: Research the location beforehand and have an offline-accessible map to reference if the service is spotty. Have multiple routes into and out of the protest area. Stay Aware: Maintain 360 situational awareness always know what is happening around you. If you see something, say something. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act : The OODA Loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) is a helpful framework to stay calm and make decisions during high-stress situations: Observe: Identify the source of danger and your surroundings Orient: Determine where you are and where you need to go Decide: Choose a course of action that minimizes risk Act: Implement your decision and stay aware of changes in the environment This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 'Good Trouble' anti-Trump protests tomorrow: Here's where in Florida PEORIA, Ill (WMBD) Budgeting, paychecks, groceries, bills, etc. We all deal with these things, and today, kids got a glimpse of the grown-up world. On Tuesday morning, Goodwill Commons of Central Illinois in Peoria hosted its annual youth event called Reality Check. This program is meant to be a fun way to teach kids from ages 11-18 what a day in the life of an adult is really like. Goodwill Youth Program Coordinator, Juliet Santos, explained the reason why this program has been running for nearly 10 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its very important for these kids to get this experience because they might not get the chance to do this otherwise, Santos said. You know, Im not sure what theyre learning about managing money, you know, for their parents or in the schools necessarily. But we know for sure, at least once a year, theyll get the chance to learn here with us of how to manage a budget and see how their paycheck can go. Around 50 volunteers from Goodwill, CEFCU, the regional office of education and Bradley University all pitched in to help teach kids valuable life lessons. One of the lessons that Santos hopes the kids walk away with is living within their means. I hope that they have some takeaways from today, she said. You know, whether it be little things, oh, maybe I should pick the lower budget groceries instead of the really high expensive groceries. You know, those wants versus needs is what I really hope that they take away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to this annual youth event, Goodwill Commons offers other programs for youth involvement and development. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com. EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) The Goose Fire continues to be at 800 acres with 0 percent containment, with the cause ruled as lightning/natural, the Albuquerque Zone Incident Management Team said in an update on Wednesday, July 16. The Incident Management Team said crews will return to the southeast corner of the fire to continue assessing and preparing control lines. Over 100 personnel are currently fighting the fire. Thunderstorms and lightning are forecasted over the fire, which could impact operations. Additional engines are staged and ready to respond to any new starts resulting from increased lightning activity, the Incident Management Team said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thunderstorms and lightning continue to present operational challenges across the fire area. Crews are working diligently to engage the fire directly where conditions allow, with public and firefighter safety remaining our top priority, Incident Commander Lino Baca said. The fire is burning 18 miles northwest of Silver City, New Mexico, in the Gila National Forest. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. CHIPPEWA FALLS Bill Berrien believes his background in manufacturing and in the military have prepared him to become the next governor of Wisconsin. A big part of leadership is vision, and seeing a better future, and being able to articulate and craft a plan to get there, Berrien told the Leader-Telegram on Tuesday. Ive always been a team guy, in Seal Team Six. Its the mindset of building a team, aligning the team, and leading the team. Berrien, 56, a suburban Milwaukee businessman and former Navy SEAL, announced last week his candidacy for governor. He is the second Republican to announce a run. Washington County executive Josh Schoemann, 43, announced his candidacy in May, and he stopped at the Northern Wisconsin State Fair last week. A Republican primary will be held Aug. 11, 2026, ahead of the November 2026 election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, 73, has indicated he will announce in coming weeks if he will seek a third term. Berrien served nine years as a Navy SEAL and has been owner and CEO of Pindel Global Precision and Liberty Precision, manufacturers of precision-machined components in New Berlin, a Milwaukee suburb, for the past 13 years. Bringing back jobs to Wisconsin was one of the topics he stressed during the 30-minute interview. We want to help them create more value and capture more value, he said. My vision for Wisconsin is prosperity for everyone, through work. Wisconsin needs to be open for business again. We need to help the businesses that are already here, and attract new businesses. Berrien said both the military and being a businessman has shaped his character. Berrien served in the military from 1991 to 1999 and he served alongside U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Prairie du Chien.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its about building America and hiring American, and taking the fight to China, Berrien said during a Zoom call. He said President Donald Trump is having success with the economy. Hes trying to take back Washington, and Im trying to take back Madison. We should be the manufacturing powerhouse again. Berrien was critical of the new 2025-27 biennial budget, and he contends the state has taken a step backwards in education under Gov. Evers. It does feel like the gears are in reverse under the governors leadership with K-12 standards and the performance of students, he said. Our schools need to be excellent, full stop. That needs to be the reputation. He was supposed to be the education governor, and education is going in reverse. Berrien added that the state needs to set the pace on AI and make sure Wisconsinites benefit from those new technologies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added: I think about the recent budget, and I think it shows why we need a Republican governor. There wouldnt have been a need for so many compromises. Berrien said he started contemplating the run at the end of last year. So, he has started hitting the road to meet Wisconsin residents. Im looking forward to all the conversations with meetings and chats all across Wisconsin. I like people and I like connecting with people, he said. Berrien issued a press release Tuesday, announcing he has purchased about $400,000 in cable TV, radio and online ads. I think its important to help define myself for listeners and viewers, he said. I come from manufacturing, I dont come from the world of politics. My name is not front and center for most folks. Those ads can be little touchpoints. We can talk about Harleys, or shooting, or manufacturing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Berrien is positioning himself as a staunch backer of President Donald Trump in his first ads of the race. They are airing statewide, but with an emphasis on Milwaukee and Green Bay, his campaign said. The largest number of Republican voters in the state are in the Milwaukee media market, and Green Bay is a critical GOP area, especially in primaries. In the ads, Berrien calls himself an outsider and a businessman just like President Trump. Berrien says hes running for governor to advance the Trump agenda, shake up Madison and put Wisconsin citizens first. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin issued a press release Tuesday, criticizing Berrien for expressing support for Trumps tariffs. Bill Berrien is so desperate to win Trumps affections that he wants to double down on the presidents failed tariff war by slapping taxes on goods from other states like Iowa this is a uniquely stupid idea that will further raise prices for Wisconsins farmers and families, said Philip Shulman, Democratic Party of Wisconsin communications director. While Bill Berrien may have the money to spend nearly half a million dollars on ads showing his allegiance to Trump, working families are trying to figure out how to balance their checkbooks as a result of Trumps tariffs, which will only get worse if Berrien is elected and gets his way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Berrien has shown support for Trump, some conservative talk radio hosts have questioned some of Berriens older comments. Berrien criticized Trumps handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and said during an August 2020 interview with Fox Business that he hadnt decided whether to support Trump for president that year. In 2024, Berrien supported former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haleys run for president in the GOP primary and donated more than $30,000 to her campaign. Berrien was also a member of the bipartisan group Democracy Found, which advocates for using ranked-choice voting and making primaries nonpartisan, but Berrien told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week that he no longer supports those ideas. The chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County said he believes GOP voters will outnumber Democratic ones in next year's midterm election as control of Capitol Hill will hang in the balance. "I'm looking for November 2026. That's going to be the key date," said Carl Cascio, who took over leadership of the county party in early 2025. According to the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website, Democrats as of July 10 listed 329,122 voters to the Republicans' 297,787, a difference of just 31,335. In October 2022, weeks ahead of the last midterm vote in Florida, Democrats outnumbered Republicans by 108,295, according to the Florida Division of Elections count at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The gap in President Donald Trump's adopted home county has narrowed for a variety of reasons, from purging inactive voters from the rolls to the migration of far more conservative voters to the county since the end of the COVID pandemic. Those extra voters could be crucial not just to the county GOP but the national Republican Party as well. The GOP holds a slim majority in the U.S. House, and Republicans are eyeing two seats in Palm Beach County as potential changeovers next year. In addition, the midterm ballot will include a special U.S. Senate election in Florida to fill the remaining two years in the seat Marco Rubio vacated when he became secretary of state. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Ashley Moody, the former state attorney general, to the position this year. NPAs key to GOP strategy to overtake Democrats in Palm Beach County Going forward, Cascio said the party will target flipping to the GOP those voters not signed up with a party, the no-political-affiliation electorate. The county supervisor's website lists 284,656 NPAs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "My biggest target is going to be NPAs," Cascio said. The chairman said he is confident the GOP's pitch being pro-small business and favorable to blue-collar voters and the "average family struggling to get by" will be successful in stressing less government regulation and lower taxes. Plus, there will be a specific, tailored message to the NPA voting bloc highlighting more choices among candidates. Winning over NPAs is key to making sure Republicans win major races in President Trump's adopted home county, local GOP chair said. "If they're only left to the general election, then somebody has already made the choice for them on who they can choose to vote for," said Cascio. "By going from NPA to Republican, you will have a bigger choice of candidates to draw from (during a primary) in order to get the person you want in office." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cascio believes, and voting results over the past decade suggest, that NPA voters have indeed favored Republican candidates. To win them over, Cascio said an overhaul of the county's Republican committee structure will include a robust voter-registration group. The party will start attending events, from gun to boat shows, seeking to register voters, and especially those who are currently independents. "Now, it's going to be literally boots on the ground," he said. "We have to go to events where we think we have the best chance of attracting the most people to switch parties, or that maybe aren't registered." Palm Beach County Republicans would love to flip this congressional seat Cascio said the GOP would love to flip the Congressional District 23, a seat now held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, or District 22, currently represented by Democratic U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The widely watched Cook Political Report does list District 23 among 69 "competitive races" ahead of the 2026 election. It characterizes the seat as "lean Democratic." Frankel's District 22 seat is not on the list. Cascio said the Moskowitz seat is "going to be a top target" for the Republican National Committee. The district overlaps into Broward, a blue county where in 2024 Moskowitz generated enough votes to overcome a deficit in the Palm Beach County portion. The goal next year is to invert the 2024 result by helping the Republican candidate "overcome the deficit in Broward with enough of a buffer in Palm Beach County." Depending on how much success Democrats have in flipping red seats, especially in California, picking up another seat in Florida could be the key to the GOP keeping its House majority, Cascio said. He acknowledged Frankel would be a "tough out," but insisted voter registration trends are making District 22 more competitive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Again, NPA voters will be crucial, Cascio said, noting that is how the GOP in Miami-Dade County flipped seats to red in the past decade. Regardless of voter registration totals, get-out-the-vote efforts will decisive. "This is no secret. I am sure the Democrats are going to try to do it," Cascio said. "But we feel we have a message that more closely aligns with NPAs than the Democratic Party." He added: "We've got to carry the torch now. Turnout is going to be massively important for the Republicans in Palm Beach County to be able to win." Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: GOP chair in Trump county eyes red majority, flip of Congress seat Del. Charles Sheedy Sr., R-Marshall, shown on the West Virginia House Floor on Feb. 26, 2025, said he was hacked and that he didnt write a letter to West Virginias congressional delegation about the need for federal flood aid for the northern part of the state. (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography) A West Virginia Republican lawmaker is denying that he authored a letter to the states congressional delegation about the need for federal flood aid for the northern part of the state. Del. Charles Sheedy Sr., R-Marshall, is the second West Virginia Republican lawmaker this summer to say his social media account had been compromised, resulting in a statement he didnt make. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The letter allegedly from Sheedy was reported by the TV news station WTRF Tuesday and was posted Monday by Charles Sheedys personal Facebook account to the Facebook group Marshall County WV Republican Club. It questioned why Ohio and Marion counties have not yet received a disaster declaration from the federal government a month after flooding swept through the area, killing nine people. Constituents in District 7 are asking why President Trump has not issued a FEMA Disaster Declaration for Ohio and Marion Counties? the letter says. It contained multiple typos. My constituents are also yours and they deserve an answer since approximately 78% of all West Virginians that voted did so for President Trump. It is very apparent that the President does not need West Virginia now that he is in office for one term. Then, it raised concerns that the lack of declaration could lead to Republicans losing seats. Our very elections in 2026 and beyond depend on the timely issuance of this deceleration and Republican seats could be lost, the letter said. This will cost our Delegate districts, Senate Districts, your Federal Districts needed representation to accomplish our work to secure the region, state, and nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reached via email Tuesday, Sheedy responded that he did not write the letter. A Facebook account with the name Delegate Sheedy posted, Apparently my page has been hacked. I have changed my password and am assured it will not happen again by FB. This is my letterhead. The other I was shown is old and no longer in use. The account has now been deleted. Sheedy told West Virginia Watch that he did not write the letter and has deleted his delegate account, referring to his professional Facebook account. There were two versions of the letter with slight formatting differences and different lists of committees that Sheedy serves on in the House of Delegates. However, a spokesperson for Gov. Patrick Morrisey one of the recipients of the letter confirmed they received a version of the letter from Sheedys official legislative email account. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an email Wednesday, Ann Ali, deputy chief of staff and communications director for the state House of Delegates, said that House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, and House leadership were not aware of any hacking or impersonation situation Sheedy may have experienced. She said the Houses Legislative Automated Systems Division similar to an information technology department said Sheedy had not reached out for assistance. The department did a safety check for Sheedys accounts for suspicious activity and did not find anything problematic, she said. Sheedys denial came after Democrats in the Legislature criticized the letter for its focus on politics and the election while Wheeling-area residents are still mucking out homes and trying to salvage belongings as they await federal aid. Del. Shawn Fluharty, a Democratic lawmaker who represents Ohio County, expressed doubt that Sheedys account was hacked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If he got hacked, then Im an astronaut, Fluharty said. I think what happened was he intended to say something positive, and he actually said the quiet part out loud. He and many others are more concerned with maintaining their power and Republican seats in the Legislature. Another House Republican claimed someone else behind controversial comments Sheedy, who was elected to the House in 2022, is the second state lawmaker recently to say that someone else made a comment on his social media account. Its against the law to impersonate a law enforcement official or public official. Del. Ian T. Masters, R-Berkeley, told the Eastern Panhandles WRNR radio station earlier this month his Instagram account was used by someone else to write an antisemitic comment. Masters said he gave his phone to someone he had known for a long while and cared about and was trying to help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The comment was first reported on by West Virginia Watch. As of Wednesday afternoon, the letter remained posted on a Facebook account in a group called Marshall County WV Republican Club. A story containing the letter also remained on WTRFs website, despite Sheedy saying he didnt write it. When West Virginia Watch asked Sheedy if he had reached out to the station, he said no and that he does not know where they got the story from. He also told West Virginia Watch, From now on people will have to see me as usual when I attend; city council, county commission, senior citizen, VFD, and various other meetings which I engage in weekly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheedy did not respond to an email with further questions about his being hacked. Fluharty criticized Sheedy and other Republicans for voting down a Democrat budget amendment that would have provided $50 million to the states flood resiliency fund. Now its coming back to bite them all in the ass, he said. And you know, not just limited to him, but our state failed to properly fund that previously. [Former Gov.] Jim Justice said we should put $100 million into it, and then Democrats attempted this past session to put $50 million dollars into it. It was shot down largely along party lines. Morrisey formally requested a federal disaster declaration for Marion and Ohio counties June 20, but the Trump administration has yet to grant the declaration. Disaster declarations allow affected areas assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, depending on the circumstances. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor told reporters last week that he would continue to push federal officials for a declaration. Amelia Ferrell Knisely contributed to this report. This story has been corrected to clarify that Del. Ian Masters did not say his Instagram account was hacked; he said he gave his phone to someone else and that person made a controversial comment. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) on Tuesday defended the findings in the Trump administrations probe of files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, which concluded that he did not keep a client list. He also praised Attorney General Pam Bondi for her handling of the case. I think Pam Bondi has done a great, great job, Zinke said during an appearance on NewsNations The Hill, adding that everyones trying to find a nugget that doesnt exist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So, I think shes done a great job, he added, while acknowledging that the administration could provide more details on the investigation. I support the president on this, he told host Blake Burman. Itd be helpful too if they sat down and explained it, maybe with cameras. A wide array of narratives has cropped up since February, when Bondi said during an interview that she had a list of client names sitting on her desk awaiting review. The White House later sought to clarify the comment, alleging the attorney general was referring to the complete file of documents related to Epsteins case. Theyve already said theres no secret list in there, the Montana Republican continued Tuesday. Theres not a huge issue there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But you know, again, theres a lot of people that believe that somehow, theres all this information thats going to lead to somewhere, I dont think it exists, he added. President Trump has aired frustration in recent days with revolving questions over the controversy and pegged Epstein as the guy who never dies in a post on his Truth Social platform over the weekend. On Tuesday, as uproar over the files has stoked discontent among members of his base, Trump pressed his supporters to drop the issue. I dont understand it, why they would be so interested. Hes been dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life, he told reporters. I dont understand what the interest and what the fascination is. I really dont. And the credible information has been given. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added, I dont understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. Its pretty boring stuff. Its sordid, but its boring. While the president rebuked criticism, former White House aide Steve Bannon warned that the publics dismay could jeopardize the GOP majority in the House. Youre going to lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement. If we lose 10 percent of the MAGA movement right now, we aint gonna were going to lose 40 seats in 26, he told a live audience in a recent episode of his War Room podcast. Were going to lose the president. House Republicans on Tuesday also blocked an attempt to force a vote that would require the Justice Department to release all of the files related to Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Luca de Meo wont arrive as Kerings new chief executive officer until mid-September, but luxury analysts are already drafting a to-do list for him. In a research note Wednesday, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said the Renault executive must curb Kerings elevated debt levels, and perhaps negotiate a larger equity for Valentino deal with Mayhoola. More from WWD Two years ago, Kering bought a 30 percent stake in Valentino for 1.7 billion euros in cash as part of a broader strategic partnership with the Qatari investment fund. The French group, parent of Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and other luxury brands, has an option to buy 100 percent of Valentinos capital by 2028, while Mayhoola could become a shareholder in Kering. According to Bernsteins tallies, Kering will need up to 3.4 billion euros in cash to pay for the remaining 70 percent. Solca also suggested de Meo should fix the management operation, and foresees less of a need for deputy CEOs Francesca Bellettini, in charge of brand development, and Jean-Marc Duplaix, in charge of operations and finance. Francois-Henri Pinault, who has held the CEO title since 2005 and navigated the family-controlled conglomerate through multiple transformations, put that management structure in place as he quietly prepared for his succession. He is retaining the chairmans role and indicated he will be fully involved in the strategic orientation of the group. There would seem to be lots of cooks in the kitchen if a hands-on chairman, a CEO and two co-CEOs were to coexist, not to mention brand CEOs, Solca wrote in the report. Who will call the shots on Gucci and the other brands? The role of brand coordinator creates a moral hazard at the brand level, driving a disconnect between the person whos calling the shots we think Bellettini and the person whos on the hook Stefano Cantino, as the CEO of Gucci. Solca cautioned that miracle expectations on designers in this case Demna, brought over from Balenciaga to rev up Gucci should be put into perspective as designers operate in the context of a vision from the brand leader, and in coordination with all other company functions. According to Bernstein, Kerings net debt rose from 200 million euros in 2021 to about 10.5 billion euros at the end of 2024 as the French group embarked on a major M&A and capex spree just at the time when business performance was sinking. California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to an online insult about Democrat-led states by posting scenic images of California, including one of a beach that is actually located in Nevada. On July 15, Newsoms press office replied to a tweet from the X account @OneBadDude_, which stated, FACT: Democrat run states are shtholes, by simply responding, shithole and attaching four photos of picturesque locations. The photos appeared to depict clean, vibrant areas presumably meant to represent Californias cities, infrastructure, and natural beauty. But one of the photos Newsom included in his retort is not from California. A reverse image search conducted by The Dallas Express revealed that the beachfront image is of Sand Harbor Beach, which is located on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The website RVShare, among others, lists Sand Harbor Beach as one of the top-rated beaches in Nevada. While Lake Tahoe spans both California and Nevada, this particular spot lies firmly within Nevadas borders. The inclusion of the Nevada image drew immediate attention on social media. Brick Suit was one of the first users to call out the governor. Hey Newsom, see this photo? Thats Sand Harbor state park in NEVADA. Youre tarded, the user wrote. Quickly, other X users piled on their two cents. Look @grok its the cherry picking fallacy vs the sweeping generalization fallacy. You dont see that one every day, user Phaethon wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The conservative account Libs of TikTok also weighed in, apparently referencing another one of Newsoms images. In response to the governors use of San Francisco as an example of Californias appeal, the account shared the citys well-known poop map and wrote, Your state has a poop map. Your state has a poop map pic.twitter.com/0Zbn5IGfUF Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 16, 2025 Newsoms post follows a pattern of prominent Democrats facing backlash for images intended to convey a polished image of their leadership. Case in point, The Dallas Express reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted an Instagram photo that appeared to have been digitally altered. Observers noted warping in the background consistent with common photo-editing errors used to slim a persons body. Jeffries did not comment on the photograph. The use of inauthentic or misleading visuals whether intentional or not can quickly backfire in a digital environment primed to scrutinize every pixel. While Newsoms intent may have been to highlight Californias strengths, the misstep in featuring a Nevada beach may have opened the door for critics to renew familiar attacks on the states governance and social issues. Newsoms office has not publicly commented further on the photos origin. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's goal to land a semiconductor plant in Michigan before she leaves office will have to wait after a company that had its eye on a site near Flint changed course, according to the governor. Whitmer blamed the setback on national economic conditions in a July 16 statement. "Because of massive economic uncertainty at the national level, an advanced manufacturing company we were working with to bring a huge project to Michigan has decided not to move forward with plans to construct a semiconductor plant anywhere in the United States," Whitmer said. "Their board came to this decision amid national economic turmoil, which is at risk of worsening amid threats of even higher tariffs." The company was looking at Genesee County's Mundy Township for the project, according to Whitmer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The location near Flint is the state's last large available site of more than 1,000 acres and one of the last so-called megasites in the United States, according to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Sandisk had its eye on the site and agreed not to pursue other locations while working with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to come to Michigan, according to documents related to the project provided by MEDC. The company declined to comment. The MEDC has referred to effort to lure Sandisk to Mundy Township as "Project Grit" and proposed a massive subsidy package for the company that included over $1.1 billion from Michigan's Critical Industry Program, which provides state funds to select companies that create jobs in the state, according to a letter of intent between the agency and the company. The agency also proposed state and local tax abatements and additional state funding for workforce development and site readiness, among other state support. In 2024, Michigan economic development officials approved a $250 million grant to prepare the site for an advanced manufacturing project. That came on top of $9.2 million in previously approved site readiness funding for the area. The governor vowed to press forward. "We will continue to compete with other states and countries to bring cutting-edge factories home to Michigan so we can create economic prosperity for workers and communities and lead the next century of advanced manufacturing," she said. But Whitmer added that economic headwinds nationally will make that task more difficult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, pushed back hard on Whitmer's claim that national economic conditions are to blame, describing the latest news in the quest to land a factory at Mundy Township a "failure." "President Trump's bold leadership is making it easier and more attractive than ever to create jobs in America. We simply need state leaders who are focused on making sure Michigan is the best possible place to build and grow," Hall said in a July 16 statement. Michigan Politics: Campaign crypto? U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar's investment pays off big-time ... so far State Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, called Sandisk's decision "deeply disappointing" in a statement. "This project represented a generational opportunity to restore Genesee Countys legacy as a manufacturing powerhouse and to position Mid-Michigan at the forefront of the global semiconductor industry," he said. Cherry said the company pointed to an uncertain economic climate "driven in large part by the Trump administration's chaotic tariff policies" in making its decision not to pursue a semiconductor factory. U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, D-Bay City, similarly blasted Trump's economic policies for the outcome. "This is a gut punch to working families across our region. Trump's abandonment of long-term investments and chaotic tariff policies are not only raising costs, they just killed 10,000 good-paying jobs," she said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitmer explained why landing a semiconductor plant is a top priority for her during a May 30 keynote address at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference. "Being able to make chips top to bottom in America will allow us to stay on the cutting edge of AI. Whoever dominates this technology from design to production will dominate the 21st century," she said. She set a timeline for securing a semiconductor plant by the end of 2026. Whitmer cannot run again due to term limits, and her successor will take office Jan. 1, 2027. Whitmer said in a Feb. 23 interview that economic development plans in Mundy Township were among the items on her federal agenda as she advocates for Michigan priorities in Washington, D.C., though she wouldn't say at the time whether the project would depend on landing federal funding. Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer: Goal for Michigan semiconductor plant faces setback From left to right: State Budget Administrator Neil Sullivan, DHHS CEO Steve Corsi, Speaker of the Legislature John Arch, State Sen. Bob Andersen and State Sen. Tanya Storer stand beside Gov. Jim Pillen as he signs four bills on improving government efficiencies. (Erin Bamer/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN Gov. Jim Pillen ceremonially signed four bills Wednesday that he said would increase government efficiencies, previewing his intent to tighten Nebraskas belt even further. The bills Pillen highlighted help clean out the closets, as he put it, by either eliminating outdated mandates or increasing accountability measures. All are in the process of being implemented after Pillen signed them into law earlier this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governor, who has announced a run for reelection in 2026, said government efficiency has been a top priority for him, and he repeated his pledge Wednesday to run government like a business. Pillen has asked state agencies to submit recommendations of how they would reduce general fund spending by 10% next year, as first reported by the Lincoln Journal Star. That equates to at least a $500 million cut across state government. The news comes after continued concerns about Nebraskas economic stability, due partly to recent changes in federal spending. Passage of the federal budget reconciliation package has prompted worries about the possibility of future budget cuts in Nebraska due to the legislations adjustments to Medicaid. Tuesday, the Nebraska Department of Revenue also released the states general fund receipts for June, revealing that tax revenues fell $86 million short of predictions for the overall fiscal year. The revisions leave another projected deficit in the states current biennial budget, according to Legislative Fiscal Analyst Keisha Patent, after lawmakers spent last session filling a separate budget hole. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pillen denied seeing any economic signals that led to him seeking the cuts. He said his cabinet members stand by his vision for shrinking government and noted that spending cuts have been a longtime goal for him. For all of us in business, its a walk in the park, Pillen said of cutting budgets. We do it all the time. We do it every day. Its a little bit revolutionary for government. Former Gov. Dave Heineman, in an interview with the Nebraska Examiner on Wednesday, said he could think of no reason for seeking such a steep cut without an economic downturn on the horizon. He said hes seen some signs of a slowdown in Nebraskas agricultural economy. Its either that, or a response to the coming federal budget cuts, Heineman said. Former Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (Courtesy of the Governors Office) A 10% budget cut is unprecedented, especially without any economic contributors, Heineman said. When he was governor during the Great Recession, he said he signed off on a budget that cut general fund spending roughly 4.8%. It held funding flat for K-12 and higher education. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pillen indicated that he hoped to use the cuts to correct mistakes made by past administrations. For example, he listed an initiative that sought to reduce the number of full-time employees working for Nebraska, which led agencies to seek out more expensive contracted services instead. If you ask for the wrong measurement, you go down the wrong path, Pillen said. This isnt the first time Pillen has asked state agencies to look for areas to cut. Heineman said he may be running out of room to cut without reducing services. He predicted that staffing cuts may be Pillens biggest opportunity to lower state spending. Personnel is the key issue that drives most budgets, Heineman said. Passed efficiency bills On Wednesday, Pillen ceremoniously signed Legislative Bill 346, which was introduced by Speaker of the Legislature John Arch of La Vista at Pillens request. The law eliminates no less than 20 boards, commissions and other government groups and reassigns the duties of at least 16 more to other existing groups. Dr. Steve Corsi. (Courtesy of the Central Wyoming Counseling Center) Arch said he enthusiastically agreed to introduce the bill for Pillen, arguing that the state should consistently review such groups to ensure theyre still needed. He said maintaining them without a proven value is a waste of taxpayer money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So much in government is easy to start, much harder to stop, Arch said. Another law Pillen touted was LB 376 from the Health and Human Services Committee. It will eliminate 28 required reports by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, add sunset dates to two more and modernize another six, according to DHHS CEO Steve Corsi. Corsi said the 28 eliminated reports are outdated, and essentially waste staff time. Before the bill, Corsi claimed the department would send an average of one report to the Nebraska Legislature every other day, totaling over 1,800 pages per year. I doubt that those reports were often getting read, or used, Corsi said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, Corsi said the law removes a mandate that all Nebraska counties provide the department with office space. Pillen also signed LB 660, introduced by State Sen. Bob Andersen of Omaha, which the senator said will improve tracking of federal funding flowing into the state, and protect Nebraskas infrastructure from foreign surveillance. The bill includes a provision first proposed by Sen. Tanya Storer of Whitman meant to improve the method for submitting a public comment or legal complaint on a proposed government rule or regulation. Editors note: This story has been revised to clarify what Pillen meant by mistakes he said he hopes to correct using budget cuts. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek declared a State of Emergency on Wednesday as the states fire season began to ramp up. The emergency declaration is expected to be in place through the rest of the year, as Gov. Kotek determined that Oregon will be in a critical fire danger. As of Wednesday morning, the Cram Fire burning north of Madras has more than doubled in size to roughly 64,000 acres. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now KOIN Breaking News Alerts Oregon is already experiencing a devastating wildfire season that will have lasting consequences. The summer is only getting hotter, drier, and more dangerous we have to be prepared for worsening conditions, Kotek said. By announcing a state of emergency, Kotek has freed up state resources for communities across the state to respond to ongoing and future wildfires. All Oregonians should follow local instructions and evacuation levels issued by emergency officials, subscribe to emergency alerts on ORAlert.gov, have an evacuation plan, prepare a go-kit, and stay aware of changing conditions, Kotek said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. California Gov. Gavin Newsom toured Los Angeles neighborhoods targeted by recent immigration enforcement raids Wednesday, speaking with community members affected and highlighting the devastating economic and social impacts of the operations. During a press conference outside a church in Downey, Newsom recounted conversations with small business owners, workers and families who say their livelihoods and sense of safety have been upended since the raids began. I just had an opportunity to visit with business leaders, small business generational businesses in Bell, Newsom said to assembled media. They have lost 80% of their business, and they said theyve lost something more precious They said theyve lost a sense of community. They said they missed their customers, not the business. They missed the tables being filled. Thats what a family business is all about. California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference in Downey, Calif., Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Newsom warned that the fear now gripping these neighborhoods is affecting even legal residents and documented workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They have a 15-year employee. He wont even show up to work. Hes here with documentation, Newsom added. He wont even show up because hes scared to death of being pulled over for simple reason because the way he looks, because hes being racially profiled. The governor recounted meeting a woman and her daughter outside an ice cream shop who is in the country legally but has resorted to carrying their passports at all times. Those fears, Newsom said, were something hes never had to worry about himself, but is something thats become commonplace in Trumps America. I got it easy. [Im a] white guy, all the privileges. But talking to members of the community, they feel like democracy is already gone they feel like authoritarianism has already come to their community, Newsom said. Federal agents stage at MacArthur Park Monday, July 7, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) In addition to the societal impacts felt across the Southland, Newsom repeatedly criticized President Trumps decision to send thousands of National Guard and military personnel to Los Angeles as part of the immigration crackdown, calling it a waste of taxpayer money and implying it was performative, political theater. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The President of the United States decided to advance his cruelty by utilizing the brave men and women of the National Guard as pawns in an effort to theatrically show his strength, Newsom said in some of his most pointed comments toward the president yet. Theres no fiscal conservatives left Hundreds of millions of dollars hes burned, just to try to sear in your mind that hes some tough guy because he didnt get enough hugs from his parents growing up. After it was announced that roughly half of the 4,000 National Guard troops mobilized to L.A. were being sent home, Newsom said he plans to redirect them to more pressing missions. I want to get them back under my control so we can get them back doing the kind of work to control wildfires, to keep our communities safe, to address the issue of counter-narcotics, to address the issue of fentanyl, he said. I also want them back teaching our kids. I want them back walking the beat with their masks off, building trust, sense of community. Dozens of heavily armed, masked ICE agents seen raiding a Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet on June 14, 2025. (KTLA) At one point, Newsom said the military presence has become so normalized that even he was mistaken for an ICE agent while shopping at a local farmers market. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We drove up in a white and black car and you started to feel, as Im walking around, no one said a word, Newsom recalled. And all of a sudden, the manager of the farmers market came up asking our folks who they were, because they heard that ICE was there Thats how bad its become. Newsom also accused Trump and top adviser Stephen Miller, whom the governor has challenged repeatedly on social media, of exploiting immigrant communities for political gain. This is about families. Its about community. Its about the sense of place. Its about our economy, and its about time Donald Trump grow up. Its about time Donald Trump understand what the hell he is doing. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to reporters outside the White House, Friday, May 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) He also warned the operations seen in California may soon spread nationwide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you think this is about California, you are fooling yourself. These are operations youre going to see all across the United States of America. Theyve tested the boundaries of the law. Theyve tested boundaries of public perception and what the public will accept. The governor concluded by reaffirming his administrations commitment to supporting immigrant communities and said if the White House is truly interested in going after violent criminals, they have a partner in California. You want to coordinate with violent criminals? Im happy to partner with you. Ive got the receipts, Newsom said, but added that he believes Trumps plan is meant to indiscriminately terrorize immigrant communities. This is not about violent criminals; quite the contrary. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. It's been 194 days since Jan. 3, the day Kristen McDonald Rivet was sworn in as the representative of Michigan's 8th District in the U.S. Congress District, a seat she'd won in the 2024 election leaving a vacancy in the 35th District state Senate seat she'd held for the previous two years. In the normal course of events, McDonald Rivet would have been replaced by a new state senator, chosen by residents of the 35th district in a special election. Or, at least, an election would have been scheduled, promising a representative by a date not too far in the future. But after 194 days, the seat is still vacant, and 270,000 residents of the 35th District comprising parts of Bay, Midland and Saginaw counties still lack representation in the Michigan Senate, with no end in sight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Why? Ask Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. It's the Michigan governor's responsibility The state Constitution gives Michigan's governor responsibility for setting such elections. And while it's not unheard of for governors to exercise what we'll call "discretionary timing," more often than not, this process runs like a top. An analysis by the Lansing news service MIRS found that since the adoption of the Michigan Constitution in 1963, our state's last seven governors Democrats and Republicans, from Whitmer to Romney took, on average, 14 days to call special elections to fill 113 legislative and congressional vacancies. (MIRS excluded a 1992 outlier, when Gov. John Engler took around 90 days to call a special state House election, because contemporary reports don't specify the exact number of days before the special election was called. The seat was also the subject of an ongoing redistricting lawsuit.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for the last seven months, Whitmer has offered only vague assurances that she definitely plans to call a special election. Eventually. Someday. 'At some point' there will be a special election At some point there will be one," Whitmer told radio station WCMU in April. "But I dont have an announcement to make yet. (By the Free Press' Tuesday deadline, Whitmer's office had not responded to an email requesting comment. After publication, spokesperson Stacey LaRouche emailed, "We will keep you posted on when we have news to share.") Republicans have been grousing about the vacancy since Jan. 4. And while Democrats are doing the same, if mostly behind closed doors, two of Michigan's most prominent Dems have spoken publicly: Whitmer's lieutenant governor, Garlin Gilchrist II, a candidate to succeed his boss in next year's gubernatorial election, has said both he and 35th District residents are "ready," and Attorney General Dana Nessel has said Whitmer should call the special election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the absence of some clearly articulated, fundamentally sound explanation from Whitmer, there's really just one conclusion: Democrats, having lost the state House of Representatives in 2024, hold a one-seat majority in the state Senate. Dodging a special election in the 35th District maintains the last shreds of Democratic power in Lansing at the expense of both the residents of the 35th District and the democratic norms Whitmer's party claims to uphold. The 35th District has long been a Democratic stronghold, but demographics and redistricting are changing that. Polls suggest that Dems have a roughly 50-50 shot at keeping the seat. To pass legislation requires a majority of sitting senators. With 37 of 38 seats occupied 19 Democrats and 18 Republicans that's 19 votes. A 35th District Republican would create a 19-19 split, giving Gilchrist, in his role as president pro tem of the state Senate, the tie-breaking vote. But political insiders expect a different scenario: Senate Republicans could routinely instruct a GOP senator to abstain from voting, resulting in an 19-18 split leaving Democrats one vote shy of a 20-vote majority, but without creating a tie Gilchrist could break and effectively blocking anything the Democrats muster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On a visceral level, we get it. Whitmer is a talented executive, focused on finding common ground and delivering pragmatic policy solutions to a state that badly needs them who spent her first term in office with a GOP-led Legislature more interested in cutting her off at the knees than meeting her halfway. And she served in the state Legislature during the years when partisan gridlock became de rigeur. To contemplate going back is migraine-inducing. And we understand the irony of urging Whitmer to practice good governance so her political opponents can indulge in gamesmanship at the expense of their own constituents. But that's the thing about democracy. It's important, even when it's inconvenient. Gov. Whitmer, it's time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Call the election. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives her State of the State Address at the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. More from Freep Opinion: Why I would choose Nixon over Trump any day (and I couldn't stand Nixon) Without a voice or an advocate It's an argument that shouldn't need making: Michiganders are entitled to full representation in every aspect of government, from the governor's office to the local drain commissioner. While the seat is vacant, 270,000 Michiganders lack a voice in the state Senate to represent their concerns in policy decisions. And as a practical matter, they're denied an advocate who can intervene when government services aren't working as they ought, ensuring access to health care or unemployment benefits or any number of life-saving programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Representative government exists for a reason, and Michiganders in the 35th deserve to have it. More from Freep Opinion: America's free market needs immigrants It's just politics Besides, partisan gridlock is already here. Democrats won unilateral control of state government in the 2022 election, re-electing Whitmer, Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and winning slim majorities in the state House and Senate. And by "slim," we mean "really slim" 56-54 in the House, and 20-18 in the Senate. Republicans regained control of the state House in 2024, winning a less-slim 58-52 majority and ending the Democratic trifecta. Democrats' attempts to pass any sort of agenda came skidding to a halt. If Republican state Speaker Matt Hall won't go for it, it's not going to happen. And on most of the issues important to Dems, it's a foregone conclusion that he's not going to go for it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hall has been willing to cooperate with Whitmer on a narrow set of issues that fit his party's agenda Asian carp in the Great Lakes, a new fighter mission at Selfridge Air Force Base, disaster relief Up North but the relationship between the two has frayed in recent months, particularly over the state budget; the divided Legislature has already blown past a July 1 deadline to finalize a budget for Michigan's K-12 schools. Hall plays hardball, and he and Whitmer are simply fundamentally opposed on most issues. An analysis by Bridge Michigan found that in the first six months of the year, this Legislature sent just six bills to Whitmer; the next-lowest number of bills was in 2007, another era of partisan logjam, when 31 bills landed on Gov. Jennifer Granholm's desk. None of that will change if 35th District voters send a Republican to the state Senate. Whitmer has positioned herself as a commonsense Democrat, someone who puts ego aside and works hard for Michigan. Democrats have positioned themselves as the party of democracy, upholding the rule of law in an era of shifting scales. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michiganders should be able to take for granted that our elected officials will cooperate to fix our roads, fund our schools and ensure that our needs are met. We can't, and that's a failure of our politics. But Republican intransigence isn't a good reason to leave the 35th adrift, or indulge in the sort of slippery politics that allows the other side to go just a little bit further, next time, in eroding the rule of law. We've no appetite for mindless partisanship or institutionalized bickering. And it's frustrating to have to do the right thing, when others won't. But the alternative is chaos, and we've even less appetite for that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This column was updated after publication to include a response from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's office. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it online and in print. If you have a differing view from a letter writer, please feel free to submit a letter of your own in response. Like what you're reading? Please consider supporting local journalism and getting unlimited digital access with a Detroit Free Press subscription. We depend on readers like you. This story was updated to add a gallery. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Whitmer, call special election in Michigan's 35th District | Editorial CONCORD, N.H. (AP) A judge should not delay the decision on whether to seek the death penalty against a woman charged in the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Vermont, federal prosecutors said this week. Teresa Youngblut, of Washington state, is part of a cultlike group known as Zizians that has been connected to six killings in three states. Shes accused of firing at agent David Maland during a traffic stop on Jan. 20, the day President Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order lifting the moratorium on federal executions. Attorney General Pam Bondi later cited Malands death in directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in murder cases involving law enforcement officers unless they find significant mitigating circumstances. But in a motion filed earlier this month, Youngblut's lawyers argued the government has imposed a radically inadequate and extraordinarily rushed timeline for that determination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors have set a July 28 deadline for Youngblut to explain why the death penalty should not be sought. Even though she has yet to be charged with a crime eligible for such punishment, prosecutors said the investigation is ongoing and charges may be added or changed. Youngblut's attorneys want to extend that deadline by at least six months, but in an objection filed Monday, prosecutors argued the judge has no authority to do so. To grant the defendant the relief requested in the motion would constitute an inunction prohibiting the United States from moving forward with an internal decision-making process of the Executive Branch and would intrude upon its independent prosecutorial discretion, Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Dresser wrote. Younglbut is charged with using a deadly weapon against law enforcement and discharging a firearm during an assault with a deadly weapon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Youngbluts attorneys have asked the court to give her until at least Jan. 30, 2026, to submit her mitigating evidence to a committee of lawyers that advises the government on capital cases and to prohibit prosecutors from making a decision about the death penalty until after the material has been reviewed. The defense argues the schedule promises to turn Ms. Youngblut's submission into a near-pointless formality. Prosecutors countered that Youngblut has no right "beyond the Executive Branchs invitation" to participate in the government's internal capital review. At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. Shes accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut. The pair were among the followers of Jack LaSota, a transgender woman also known as Ziz whose online writing about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence attracted young, highly intelligent computer scientists who shared anarchist beliefs. Members of the group have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord in 2022, the landlords subsequent killing earlier this year, and the deaths of a Pennsylvania couple in between. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LaSota and two others face weapons and drug charges in Maryland, where they were arrested in February, while LaSota faces additional federal charges of being an armed fugitive. Maximilian Snyder, who is charged with killing the landlord in California, had applied for a marriage license with Youngblut. His attorney has declined to comment. Michelle Zajko, whose parents were killed in Pennsylvania, was arrested with LaSota in Maryland, and has been charged with providing weapons to Youngblut in Vermont. CULLMAN, Ala. (WIAT) Governor Kay Ivey visited a STEM summer camp at East Elementary School Tuesday as part of National Summer Learning Week. The camp has 143 students ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade, offering hands-on learning in robotics, rollercoaster design, rocket launching and more. This program is one of many STEM camps across Alabama funded through state support approved by Governor Ivey. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Learning doesnt stop in the summer, learning keeps going, Ivey said. We want our students to stay abreast of everything and have experiences during the summer that they dont get during the regular school year. 2nd annual John Lewis Day of Action to be held July 17 in Birmingham Cullman City Schools Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff said the goal is to make STEM fun and engaging early on, so students are more likely to pursue it long term. We want them to have fun in STEM education at this grade level, Kallhoff said. So when they get to middle and high school, they dont look at it as just another elective or another math class but something they can fall in love with and contribute to society through. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kallhoff added that having the governor visit is a memory students will always remember. To see these young folks being introduced to STEM education and help build the true leaders of the future, its important that we all participate in supporting this program, Ivey said. The STEM summer camp will run through next week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. New Film 'Pardon Me: The Bevelyn B. Williams Story' Spotlights the High Cost of Conviction in a Politically Divided America NEWS PROVIDED BY Owlam Studios and Hardrich Inc. July15, 2025 MEDIA ADVISORY, July15, 2025 /Standard Newswire/ -- Pardon Me: The Bevelyn B. Williams Story is a bold and gripping new biographical drama that brings to light the harrowing true story of a fearless pro-life activist who paid the ultimate price for standing on her convictions. Based on real events, the film traces the rise of Bevelyn B. Williamsa passionate Christian woman whose peaceful protests and unapologetic stance for the unborn brought national attention and federal charges. Through powerful storytelling and raw emotion, Pardon Me chronicles Bevelyns courageous journey from outspoken activist to political target. Her unwavering commitment to faith and truth soon places her in the crosshairs of the Biden Administrations Department of Justice, which prosecutes her under the controversial FACE Act. What begins as a movement of peaceful resistance spirals into a high-stakes legal battleone that tests the limits of religious freedom, government authority, and the soul of a nation. Bevelyns arrest and conviction revealed how far political power can go to suppress peaceful dissent. Her story illustrates the high price of courage in a culture that punishes conviction. But the narrative didnt end there. With his return to office, President Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists, including Bevelyn, acknowledging the injustice they endured. Pardon Me is a tribute to those who stand firm when the world demands silence. With dynamic stirring performances by Angela White ("Blac Chyna"), Josie Davis, Jeremy Sumpter, Columbus Short, MMA legend Rampage Jackson, Erica Hubbard, Ricco Simonini, Farah White and Jason Mitchell the film provides emotional depth and an unvarnished portrayal of modern-day activism. Produced with urgency and conviction, the film serves as a wake-up call to those concerned with free speech, faith-based values, and the rising cost of dissent in a polarized culture. Pardon Me: The Bevelyn B. Williams Story In theaters nationwide August 15th, 2025 OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER Follow the movement. Share the message. And witness the true story the mainstream media wont tell. Follow us on social media for behind-the-scenes content, official release updates, and ways to support the film. YouTube | Facebook | Instagram : @pardonmethemovie X (Twitter): @pardonmemovie25 SOURCE Owlam Studios and Hardrich Inc. CONTACT: Tony D. White, Pardonmethemovie@gmail.com A Palantir office building in Tokyo_ Image by Hiroshi-Mori-Stock via Shutterstock_ Defense stocks often fly under the radar, but when innovation and military demand collide, the potential upside can be massive. From shipbuilders to software providers, companies serving the U.S. Department of Defense are increasingly tapping into AI-driven tools to accelerate performance and gain long-term contracts. One such company is Palantir Technologies (PLTR), which has gained significant traction in a short time thanks to its deepening ties with the U.S. military. More News from Barchart The company just took a major leap forward with the launch of Warp Speed for Warships, a new initiative in collaboration with the U.S. Navy and the BlueForge Alliance. Designed to digitally transform Americas maritime supply chain and shipbuilding ecosystem, the program aims to accelerate warship production and bolster national defense readiness using Palantirs AIpowered platforms. With PLTR stock already sitting near all-time highs and institutional buying surging, the launch of Warp Speed could mark a pivotal moment. Heres what investors need to know about Palantirs bold defense push. About PLTR Stock Founded in 2003, Palantir Technologies is a tech company that develops software platforms for the intelligence community and commercial enterprises globally. The company offers several key products, including Palantir Gotham, Foundry, Apollo, and the Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP). The company has a market cap of around $335 billion for now. After delivering a strong performance in the previous year, Palantirs shares have continued their upward trajectory in 2025. Despite a broader market selloff, the stock has managed to climb more than 94% year to date, making it the top-performing S&P 500 Index ($SPX) stock this year. At the same time, Palantirs stock currently trades at lofty multiples. PLTRs forward price-earnings ratio stands at around 389 times earnings, reflecting very high growth expectations. www.barchart.com Defense Partnerships and Warp Speed for Warships Palantir Technologies is expanding its defense business through a major new initiative called Warp Speed for Warships, launched in partnership with the U.S. Navy and BlueForge Alliance. The program aims to connect shipbuilders, suppliers, and defense partners via a real-time digital network to improve delivery speed, coordination, and supply chain efficiency. Funded by the Navys Maritime Industrial Base office, the initiative extends Palantirs focus beyond submarines to include surface warships. BlueForges co-CEO said the effort provides U.S. industry with the digital tools needed to meet rising defense demands. CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) Massachusetts is expanding support for thousands of English learners wanting to join the growing workforce. Federal agencies to end multilingual services, enforce English-only policy This comes as the Trump administration withholds adult education grants from the state, which is about $13 million, despite the administrations executive order to make English the national language. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thousands of Massachusetts residents wanting to learn English and career skills will soon get the opportunity, after the state announced a $10 million investment to expand workforce training and English for speakers of other languages or ESOL programming. Its part of the fair share supplemental budget and would help up to 5,000 residents over the next two years. In a statement, Governor Maura Healey said, connecting workers with training programs and English classes will make sure they have the skills that employers are looking for in todays economy. But this investment comes as the Trump administration withholds nearly $13 million of federal funding to Massachusetts in adult education. Even as President Trump pushes to make English the official language of the U.S. after he signed an executive order Monday. It doesnt make sense to me, states Senator Jacob Oliveria (Ludlow). You hear different languages as part of our culture, and that is what makes America great. We dont want to take that down. But we do want to give people the ability to learn a second languagethe English language, and that is what these programs (ESOL programs) like this do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Holyoke Community College provides ESOL classes here in western Massachusetts. Jeffrey Hayden, Vice President of HCCs Business and Workforce Development, says its a vital resource in the area. We see the important need to help our neighbor, says Hayden. We will continue to try to do that. The only way for people to advance and to move forward is to get that type of training so that they can get a jobthey can get a better jobor they can do their job better. For now, the Healey administration hopes this investment can close the work gaps in sectors like health care, hospitality, and manufacturing and ensure that no one is left behind. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Hundreds of motorcyclists took to the streets of Kansas City on Saturday, and the event raised a whopping $65,000 for the Graham Hoffman Memorial Scholarship. On July 12, Outlaw Harley Davidson and Worth Harley Davidson hosted the inaugural Hoffman Memorial Ridehonoring the life, legacy and sacrifice of KCFD firefighter/paramedic Graham Hoffman who lost his life in the line-of-duty on April 27. Hundreds of bikers ride in memory of Graham Hoffman Saturday Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dylan Worth and Carson Orlando of the dealerships, with the assistance of the staff and volunteers of HeroFundUSA, coordinated the event with 400 motorcycles and 550 riders participating in the charity ride. Officers from several metro police departments escorted the ride from Outlaw Harley Davidson in Blue Springs past Hoffmans home station KCFD Station 42 all the way to Worth Harley Davidson in the Northland. HeroFundUSA said the event raised $65,000 that will go toward its Graham Hoffman Memorial Scholarship Fund. According to HeroFundUSA, plans are already underway for the second annual Hoffman Memorial Ride in 2026. Previous coverage Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) U.S. land managers are racing the clock as hotter, drier weather raises the risk of wildfires in the nations overgrown forests with each passing year. One tool is to use the flames from lightning-sparked wildfires when conditions allow or to plan prescribed fires for other times of the year to clear out dense vegetation as a way to limit future risks. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona for decades has been a leader at using fire to make the ecosystem more resilient. A lightning-sparked fire along the North Rim that started July 4 presented an opportunity for fire to play its natural role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After a week conditions quickly deteriorated. Wind-whipped flames rushed toward the iconic Grand Canyon Lodge and the surrounding historic cabins. Many were reduced to rubble and ash. Its not the first time firefighters have been on the losing end of trying to wrangle the forces of nature. Still, experts say fire is a critical land management tool, pointing to countless examples where the work has paid off. We focus so much on the fires that go bad and almost nothing on the 99% plus that do great work, said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science and forest policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Unless we get the forests in a more resilient condition with low fire hazards, we will be chasing our tails forever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Searching for new tools On the North Rim, managers working the Dragon Bravo Fire say crews had constructed containment lines and were prepared for more defensive maneuvers before conditions rapidly changed. Uncharacteristically strong winds pushed the flames past multiple containment lines, prompting mandatory evacuations for remaining North Rim residents. Crews in New Mexico also were forced to change their strategy in battling a blaze burning in the Santa Fe National Forest after a spot fire was discovered beyond containment lines. Ranchers there shared pictures of dead cattle on charred grazing allotments, criticizing officials for not putting out the flames sooner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Experts agree theres always room for improvement when it comes to managing wildfires and planning for prescribed fires, especially as technology improves to help fire managers predict what the flames might do. University of Utah atmospheric scientist Derek Mallia is among those working on new forecasting tools. Hes tracking fires in Utah and Arizona in preparation for a project next year that will focus on pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or those towering thunderstorms that sometimes form above wildfires. Mallia said fire forecasting hasnt advanced as quickly as tools for other severe events like tornados and hurricanes. Thats partly because fires happen on a finer scale, making the work more difficult. Managers also have to account for the legacy of built-up fuels in the forests and the compounding factor of climate change, he said. For example, he said fires are burning hotter at night than they used to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That used to be a time of the day where there was a good opportunity to kind of jump on a fire, get it contained and make a lot of meaningful progress, he said. Thats a lot more difficult now. Researchers also are trying to better understand how fires affect weather patterns. Mallia explained that fires are part of a more complex feedback loop that makes forecasting even more challenging. Still, the biggest issue is the condition of the forests and their susceptibility to high severity wildfire, said Stephens, the California professor. Andi Thode, a professor of fire ecology and management at Northern Arizona University and the lead at the Southwest Fire Science Consortium, agreed. She said using a lightning-sparked fire or taking years to plan a prescribe burn is a matter of deferred risk for fire managers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Do you want to take your risk now with a lightning ignition that seems to be functioning in the way that you want it to with weather predictions that are not too bad? Or do you want to push that risk back to later in the worst time of the year? she said. Fire managers are always juggling this now. Lessons already learned For Native Americans, fire has long been a part of life and crucial for forest health. Westward settlement all but eradicated those attitudes until ecologists ignited a shift in the way policymakers thought about fire. The first wilderness fire management program was established in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks more than a half-century ago, as policies shifted from suppression to management. Other parks followed, with thousands of lightning-sparked fires being allowed to burn under carefully monitored conditions in dozens of parks across the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But there have been costly lessons, including at Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico, where a prescribed fire was set in the spring of 2000 to treat 2 square miles (5.18 square kilometers) of dense forest. Strong winds, dry conditions and insufficient resources contributed to the destruction of homes as the fire ballooned to nearly 75 square miles (194.25 square kilometers). Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of the nations' premier nuclear weapons labs and the birthplace of the atomic bomb, also closed. The Cerro Grande Fire forever changed the landscape around Los Alamos, prompted congressional inquiries, led to a host of recommendations from nonpartisan government watchdogs and formed the basis of new training programs. Changing conditions Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's not that the lessons faded from memory, but the circumstances are more dire with a drier landscape across much of the U.S. West. That was the case in 2022, when the U.S. Forest Service forged ahead with a pair of prescribed burning operations in New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo Mountains as pressure mounted to address the wildfire threat. Outdated models and miscalculations by managers resulted in what was the largest blaze in New Mexicos recorded history. Rural communities were uprooted and the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire wasnt contained for four months. During the conflagration, the Forest Service put on hold its prescribed fire program and conducted a lengthy review that resulted in numerous reforms. Congress approved billions in recovery dollars, with FEMA paying out about $2.6 billion so far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted 43 prescribed fire projects between 2012 and 2021 out of 50,000 prescribed fire projects. That included blazes in national forests in more than a dozen states from the California-Nevada border to Utah, New Mexico, Idaho, North Carolina and Arkansas. The Forest Service alone ignites about 4,500 prescribed fires each year, with the agency saying most are successful. But support wavers each time a fire escapes, like in New Mexico and now with the lightning-sparked fire at the Grand Canyon. Thode said fire managers weigh many variables when making decisions from wind speed and topography to the dryness of the fuels and moisture deficits within the atmosphere. Theres a lot of science that goes behind what the folks are doing on the ground to manage these ecosystems, she said. A Dracut woman who federal prosecutors say has agreed to plead guilty to leaking information from a grand jury investigation was a grand juror in the Karen Read case, according to WCVB and The Boston Globe. Jessica Leslie, 34, was charged with one count of criminal contempt on Friday, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorneys Office said Tuesday. She has agreed to plead guilty to the charge in federal court in Boston, but a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled. Read faced charges including second-degree murder in connection with hitting her boyfriend Boston Police Officer John OKeefe with her SUV outside a Canton home in January 2022. Her first trial in June 2024 ended in a mistrial, but the jury in her second trial found her not guilty of all charges except driving under the influence of liquor in June 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The press release from the U.S. Attorneys office did not specify what grand jury investigation Leslie was charged in connection with, but said that she disclosed sealed information to unauthorized individuals, including the names of witnesses and their grand jury testimony, on various dates between Aug. 11, 2022, and March 4, 2024. Read more: Dracut woman to plead guilty to leaking grand jury information It is unclear how federal prosecutors discovered that Leslie had shared the sealed information, but WCVB reported that anonymous sources said authorities had been monitoring social media and other forms of communication related to the high-profile case. A plea agreement signed by Leslie on Tuesday recommends that she be sentenced to one day, deemed served, The Boston Globe reported. This means she will not serve time in prison if a judge accepts the agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A federal criminal contempt charge carries a sentence of any length of time in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. Neither the FBIs Boston office nor Leslies lawyer, Keith Halpern, responded to a request for comment from MassLive Tuesday evening. Halpern declined to comment on the case to the Globe, the newspaper reported. Karen Read murder case Read the original article on MassLive. Grand juror to plead guilty to leaking information in federal probe of Karen Read case, reports say A Dracut woman is charged with allegedly leaking information about the federal investigation into the Karen Read case. Jessica M. Leslie, 34, was charged on July 11 with one count of criminal contempt. She has agreed to plead guilty to the charge, and will serve one day in prison, undergo two years of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $100. According to the Boston Globe, Leslie was sitting on the grand jury hearing evidence about the state prosecution of Karen Read, who was acquitted of killing her Boston Police officer boyfriend, John OKeefe, during a snowstorm in 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal probe focused on widely publicized allegations that Read was framed for OKeefes death by law enforcement and those she and OKeefe had been drinking with in the hours before OKeefe was found unresponsive outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton on the morning of January 29, 2022. No charges were filed at the conclusion of the federal investigation. Charging documents say that between August 11, 2022, and March 4, 2024, Leslie disclosed sealed information to unauthorized individuals. The information included names of various witnesses appearing before a federal grand jury, the substance of witness testimony, and other evidence, according to officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The names of the people Leslie was leaking information to were not immediately available. Boston 25 News has reached out to Leslies lawyer, Keith Halpern, about the case. A change-of-plea hearing has yet to be scheduled. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) Grand Rapids chief financial officer says the idea to downsize the comptrollers office began early in the summer of 2024, prompted at least in part by allegations of mismanagement within the office. That would have been before two police investigations were set in motion by Comptroller Max Frantz. In a Target 8 investigation, Frantz suggested city leaders gutted his office as a retaliatory measure because of the probes. City Manager Mark Washington on Tuesday flatly denied that. Any implication that my actions were in some way retaliatory are simply false, Washington wrote in a statement sent to News 8 Tuesday night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Washington said the city reorganizes fairly often, as is its management prerogative. He said the goal of the changes to the comptrollers office was efficiency, saying the suggestion came from a recommendation by the CFO. At a city commission meeting Tuesday, City Attorney Anita Hitchcock said she was slightly irritated by the Target 8 investigation, which aired Monday. I dont want people to have misinformation, she said. From this point forward, its my hope that people can put aside their personal feelings and their vindictiveness and start to have all of the departments working together so that we can do our best work for this organization, for our employees and for the community. City leaders were investigated before they gutted comptrollers office Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In December, the Grand Rapids City Commission took away most of Frantzs staff, shrinking his department from 16 people to three and moving the people who pay the bills and account for the taxpayers money into a different department. Grand Rapids City Comptroller Max Frantz speaks with Target 8. A few months earlier, in August, Frantz tapped Michigan State Police to look into Washington spending $500 in city cash on two VIP tickets to a downtown fashion show. The executive office argued the tickets were a legitimate sponsorship expense. And in November, a union official complained to Frantz about a discussion between a city official and members of the Civil Service Board as a possible Open Meetings Act violation. He said he sent that complaint to MSP, too. In both cases, police investigated and the Kent County prosecutor ultimately decided no crime had been committed. Also last year, the comptroller raised questions about monthly personal car allowances provided to people in the executive office and suggested to the City Commission that it change the policy. Frantz suggested to Target 8 investigators that city officials may have been annoyed that he was acting as a financial watchdog part of the elected comptrollers duties as listed in the city charter and reacted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think some of this happened because, frankly, I think for the most part the comptroller department has done a good job over the years doing very in-depth analysis of a few topics and raising some concerns, he said. That can be irritating to people in power when they feel that there is another department over here thats weighing in on how theyre doing things. And I absolutely empathize with that, but I feel that checks and balances is necessary in government. Pointing out that the city sponsors events all the time, Washington said the $500 for the fashion show was in 2021 as the state was trying to recover from pandemic-era shutdowns. He called the accusation of wrongdoing almost slanderous. It was a sponsorship of an event during the pandemic in 2021, at a time when event organizers and businesses were in serious distress. Every year, the City sponsors many events all over our community ranging from $1000 to $10,000. We were, and continue to be, fully committed to that as a strategy in addition many other economic development tools to support local businesses, Washington explained. In his statement, he emphasized that the investigation into the spending ultimately resulted in no findings of any wrongdoing or charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier Tuesday, Washington said he was unaware the comptroller had flagged MSP before the Target 8 investigation. He also said the idea for the reorganization came up before any investigations, a point echoed by the citys chief financial officer, Molly Clarin, in a letter to commissioners Tuesday. On top of my operational concerns, going back to at least 2021, myself and the Human Resources Department had been receiving complaints from staff ranging from poor management to an outright hostile environment in the Comptrollers Department over time. There was a clear pattern. As a senior executive and leader in this organization, I simply couldnt ignore the situation any longer, and last summer our Human Resources Director and myself approached the City Manager to consider a reorganization that would both offer long term fiscal sustainability and better serve our employees, Clarin wrote. While the CFO and HR Director recommended a prompt reorganization last summer, I chose to take a deliberate approach, including full discussion of the issues and options, and extensive legal analysis by the City Attorneys Office to ensure compliance with the Charter. Only after I was satisfied that the reorganization would be in the best interest of the organization and our employees did I decide to proceed with it, Washington wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Grand Rapids comptroller upset over firing of employee On Tuesday, Hitchcock said she had no interest on going tit-for-tat on every point in the Target 8 report, but did address two things specifically. First, she said the citys process of issuing and signing checks is the same now as it has been for decades. The second one that I think is important to know is that the staff that was transferred, theyre still doing the same body of work. That work has not changed. And the comptrollers department still has access to records and staff to be able to do the work that theyve been mandated to do by charter, Hitchcock said. The Target 8 investigation did provide those viewpoints as offered up by a city spokesperson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement City leaders rejected any notion that they wanted to circumvent the city charter. Make no mistake, I welcome and appreciate the role of an independent Comptroller. There is value in reviewing the Citys finances to ensure good fiscal stewardship. I see value in understanding and identifying operational efficiency and that the money the public has entrusted us to spend accomplishes what we intend. I want to know that when we spend money to solve issues like homelessness or invest in infrastructure that those funds are being put to good use and achieving results. Recent actions by our City Comptroller, however, have made that more difficult, Washington wrote. He has instead focused his attention on investigations and allegations all of which have were determined to be unfounded. Washington said he respected the office of the comptroller as laid out in the city charter and had been nothing but professional and respectful about the changes to the comptrollers office. (I) would ask that those who are asserting such misconduct would reevaluate those comments, Washington said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Target 8 had reached out to the city manager and city attorney before the investigation aired, but both declined an interview. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) A Grand Rapids street will not be named in honor of a gun violence victim after a weekslong process by his dad to do so. On Tuesday, Grand Rapids city commissioners decided Tuesday not to rename Umatilla Street after Amillier Penn, known to loved ones as Milli, who was shot in killed in June of last year. Penns dad, Corey Penn, originally proposed naming the Street Amillier Penn Way, as a commemorative street designation below the current street name. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Witnesses: Teen said he caught his first body after shooting Commissioners did not motion to move the topic forward for a vote. I just kept trying to figure out different type of ways to honor Milli and get his story spread about, Penn said. While this is not the outcome Penn had hoped for, commissioners and Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand emphasized that it opened up a bigger conversation around gun violence in the city and how they can best honor those who lose their lives to the trigger. I think this moment is really a catalyst in pushing us to have a larger conversation of how we might as a city really partner with families to support that, Third Ward Commissioner Kelsey Perdue told News 8. What I see in these families is they are just doing everything they can to keep the memory of their loved ones alive and I think we have a way to honor that in a bigger and more sustainable way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State task force releases gun violence recommendations Perdue and other commissioners proposing preliminary ideas like having a city proclamation declaring June as gun violence awareness month. LaGrand even mentioning the idea of a city memorial for gun violence victims. Raising consciousness of the cost of living in a community that is embedded with guns is really important, LaGrand said during the meeting. We have memorial plaques all over the country for people who die in wars. I would welcome a conversation about a public memorial like that for people who die of gun violence because if we do not look the issue in the face and we are not honest about it, I dont think we can hope to improve. Surveillance, rap videos helped ID shooting suspect, detective says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even though the street designation is off the table, Corey Penn said that the fight is not over for continuing to remember his son in any way he can. Ill do anything in the world for my kids, he said. I plan to appeal it and make more noise about my sons name. Yes all children losing their lives to gun violence is important and need to be honored, I think that families who go the extra mile to support their family and other families should be honored too. The case against Cartiyae Pascal, who faces open murder and felony weapons charges in connection to Amillier Penns death, is off to trial. That date has not been set. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) With the deadly aftermath of Texas flooding on many Americans minds, few alive today remember the unprecedented flooding that spanned across Mississippi and six other states. The flash flooding that recently occurred along the Guadalupe River in Central Texas occurred quickly. Flooding related to the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 began in the summer of 1926. It became dramatically worse after levees north of Greenville broke the following Spring. Flooding during the period ended up costing more than 1,000 people their lives. Floods along the Mississippi River were common; the scope of this flood was unparalleled. It is still thought of as the worst flooding event in American History. Floods directly impacted seven states as far north as Illinois; Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana were negatively impacted the most. Around 600,000 people displaced from their homes were from the three aforementioned states. Floods decimated 16 million acres of land; In Vicksburg, the Mississippi River swelled up to 80 miles wide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Great Mississippi River Flood disproportionately impacted African Americans. More than 500,000 of those who lost their homes were Black. Even more were displaced from their jobs and communities by the floods. In the Delta lowlands, African American families made up 75% of the population and supplied 95% of the agricultural labor force. Fearing the loss of their workers, these entities partnered with the American Red Cross and even the Federal Government to make sure their Black workforce did not leave. The Red Cross put more than 200,000 Black people into its refugee camps. The camps varied in size and living conditions, ranging from tolerable to terrible for refugees. At the Greenville refugee camp, National Guard troops prevented Black refugees from leaving and outsiders from visiting. By contrast, white refugees were able to arrive and leave at their discretion within the camp. The Illinois Central Railroad suffered millions of dollars in damage, as its route largely ran along the path of the Mississippi River. It took photos along the route to document property damage. The Smithsonian and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History later used the companys photos to show later generations what happened almost 100 years ago. When the floodwaters receded, the foundations of the Deltas economy eroded further. The Great Migration, which saw Black Americans leave the South for more economic opportunities and less discrimination, continued. The Illinois Central Railroad then played a different role in shaping the Delta; it helped Mississippians leave the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The country has not experienced such widespread monumental flooding before or since. Nearly 100 years later, the Mississippi Delta is still one of the most impoverished regions of the country. The area is predisposed to natural weather disasters, as evidenced by an EF-4 tornado within the area back in 2023. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Severe Weather Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) The city of Green Bay is considering a ban on conversion therapy after the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a ruling last week related to the practice. A non-binding resolution to prohibit conversion therapy passed the Green Bay City Council by a 9-1 vote, signaling strong support but no immediate legal effect. Northeast Wisconsin officials train for community relief efforts, as rescue efforts continue in Texas Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supporters of the ban say conversion therapy has been widely discredited and argue that the practice is discriminatory and harmful. Free tick kits amid rising tick-borne illnesses in Northeast Wisconsin Opponents counter that banning conversion therapy infringes on religious freedoms and believe the practice is protected by their religious beliefs. The city council is expected to continue discussions on the issue in the coming weeks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. ALDERSON, WV (WVNS) Pizza and fun are two things that go hand in hand. One local group in Greenbrier County is hosting an event later this week that will encompass both. The Greenbrier County Family Support Center will be hosting Did Someone Say Cheese. The event is funded by the West Virginia Department of Human Services as well as the Bureau for Family Assistance. The goal for the event is simple give kids across West Virginia the chance to come out and enjoy the summer atmosphere. You also make a few friends along the way while enjoying some free pizza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former pastor indicted for allegedly sexually abusing 8 child victims in West Virginia Kyla Baker is the Director for the Greenbrier County Family Support Center. She said this isnt just an opportunity for kids, but for parents as well fostering an environment that everyone can chat in a judge-free zone. Environment and community is everything. You have to have a community and you have to have that support. When you have that support, you can do anyting. Kyla Baker, Director of the Greenbrier County Family Support Center The event takes place on July 17th from 5:30 to 7 p.m. It will take place at the Support Center playground but will be moved indoors in case it rains. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. Patriot Growth Insurance Services has joined forces with Florida-based Legacy Insurance Solutions, making it as a partner agency. Set up in 2011 by Brandt Shapiro and Wade Shapiro, Legacy specialises in offering property and casualty insurance, as well as employee benefits. Brandt Shapiro said: "Patriot offers the extensive resources and national reach we were looking for without compromising the local relationships and personalised service that define our agency. This partnership allows us to continue operating with the independence our clients expect while gaining access to tools, expertise, and support that will enhance what we can deliver." Patriot, which was founded in 2019, has been partnering with various employee benefits and property and casualty agencies across the US. The company employs more than 2,100 individuals and operates in over 100 locations across 28 US states. It is backed by investments from GI Partners and Summit Partners. Patriot chief acquisition officer Steve Carroll stated: "Legacy exemplifies what we value in a partner - above-market organic growth, deep local relationships, and a true client-first mindset. Brandt and his team have built something special, and we're thrilled to have them join Patriot." Last month, Patriot collaborated with Brennan & Company, a specialised insurance provider for the commercial marine sector, and E.T. Clauss & Co., a personal insurance agency. E.T. Clauss & Co. will work closely with Promark Partners, another Patriot partner agency in Buffalo, New York, US. This collaboration is intended to merge Clauss & Co.'s expertise in legal professional liability with Promark's focus on Architects & Engineers insurance. "Patriot Growth Insurance partners with Legacy Insurance Solutions " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. The Brief Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene emphasized the need for a bipartisan stance against politically motivated violence, highlighting the deadly consequences of hate speech and the strain on Capitol Police due to threats against lawmakers. Greene credited divine intervention for saving former President Trump's life during the Butler rally shooting, urging the press to engage with Capitol Police about the ongoing threats faced by members of Congress. Rep. Mike Collins criticized the Obama and Biden administrations for fostering a culture of lawlessness and violence, attributing the Butler shooting to broader cultural and political trends and advocating for a return to spiritual guidance. WASHINGTON - Marking one year since a deadly shooting at former President Donald Trumps rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Republican lawmakers gathered on Monday to denounce political violence and what they called a growing climate of hate-fueled threats in American politics. Marjorie Taylor Green on rally shooting What they're saying Standing alongside her Republican colleagues, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called for a bipartisan stand against politically motivated violence, pointing to the 2024 rally shooting that left one man dead and several injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We've all joined together to denounce hate speech, political hate speech that has deadly consequences," Greene said. "A year ago, the world was outraged after they saw President Trump shot at the rally in Butler, PA, and we still mourn the life of Corey Comparator and pray for his family." Greene, who has been the subject of multiple threats and security incidents, including one in which a syringe was left in her mailbox, said the issue is not partisan. "This goes across the aisle both ways, and Im really grateful to be standing here with my colleagues that are saying enough of this," she said. "There is no place for political violence It happens in headlines, social media posts, campaign literature, and rhetoric going across the aisle." She also called attention to the strain placed on Capitol Police, who she said are overwhelmed with threats against lawmakers and are operating with limited resources. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I encourage you, press, to talk to them," Greene said. "They are constantly having to investigate death threats that come for me and other members of Congress." Greene concluded her remarks by crediting divine intervention with saving Trumps life. "God saved President Trump's life in Butler, PA," she said. "He knows it, and he says it frequently." Rep. Mike Collins criticizes Obama administration Dig deeper Rep. Mike Collins, also of Georgia, echoed Greenes call for reflection, framing the shooting as the result of long-standing cultural and political trends. "It has been one year since they tried to kill our president," Collins said. "The culture of lawlessness and violence started under the Obama administration when they decided to illegally investigate conservative groups." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also criticized the Biden administration for what he described as enabling public unrest. "Example: summer of love, where rioters were out there burning police stations, assaulting officers, taking over our cities," Collins said. "They even paid for their bail." Citing a "morality problem," Collins argued the country has lost its sense of the sanctity of life and spiritual direction. "We don't look to the government. We're supposed to look towards God for our answers," he said. "What happened in Butler is an example of the consequences of this Democrat rhetoric. I thank the good Lord for protecting President Trump." Trump's attempted assassination The backstory One year after the assassination attempt at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, investigations, reforms and lingering questions continue as the events impact reverberates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The July 13, 2024, attack left 20-year-old gunman Michael Thomas Crooks dead, shot by a Secret Service counter-sniper, after he launched eight rounds from a rooftop, grazing Trump in the ear and killing attendee Corey Comperatore. Two others were wounded. A Senate and Government Accountability Office review uncovered significant lapses in security planning. Investigators found unguarded sightlines and patchy interagency communication, including failure to secure a rooftop positioned 157 yards from the stage. Only six temporary suspensions followed the findings. Former director Kim Cheatle resigned; Sean Curran has stepped in, and the agency has formed an Aviation Division and upgraded equipment. Despite reforms, "many questions persist," including Crookss motives and why clear security risks were overlooked. Victims David Dutch and James Copenhaver have criticized the agencys "inadequate security measures" and are considering legal action. The Source This article is based on a press conference on Monday by members of Congress. Additional details come from previous reporting by FOX 5 Atlanta. WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WNCT) Law enforcement officers arrested a Greenville man at the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, Va. Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Travis Andrew Bright, 46, was charged with felony abduction and misdemeanor assault and battery involving a 7-year-old child. Deputies determined the man attempted to lure the child from the area of the pool and then prevented the child from leaving. They said the suspect left the area after the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement viewed security footage and identified the suspect as Bright. Bright was jailed in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. NEED TO KNOW A grieving grandmother in Pennsylvania is speaking out about naming her granddaughter "Miracle" after her daughter was murdered at age 19 when she was eight months pregnant Police alleged that Tanyiah Bell was shot dead by her boyfriend, Kaiheem Jerelle Williams, 19, at their home on Nov. 14, 2024, according to 6abc Action News. Police confirmed the suspect has been charged with first-degree murder Miracle weighed just 4 lbs when she was born. Her grandmother and Tanyiah's mother, Tylicia Bell, called the baby girl "a true fighter," per the outlet A grandmother is speaking out as she continues to raise her "miracle" granddaughter, whose mother was reportedly shot dead by her boyfriend when she was eight months pregnant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Nov. 15, 2024, Kaiheem Jerelle Williams, 19, was charged with first-degree murder following the death of his girlfriend the day prior, Pennsylvania's Lansdowne Police Chief Ken Rutherford previously stated in a Facebook post. The victim was identified as Tanyiah Bell, 19, who was fatally shot in the couple's apartment, per WPVI's 6abc Action News. Tanyiah's mother, Tylicia Bell, has been grieving the tragic loss of her daughter, while still trying to be strong for her granddaughter, who was born on Nov. 14 the day her mom was killed weighing just 4 lbs. The baby girl, named Tanyiah Miracle Bell, now weighs 19 lbs. eight months later, but has multiple health issues after suffering a severe brain injury due to low oxygen at birth, 6abc Action News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Baby Miracle has cerebral palsy and a tracheostomy tube for breathing, among other health issues, and continues to receive treatment at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. However, Tylicia insisted "she's a true fighter," per the outlet. Alamy A photo of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia A photo of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia "When I first set eyes on her in the NICU, I just knew that she's her miracle," Tylicia told the station, adding, "I knew that God left me something because I lost my only child." "When Tanyiah got to the hospital, they got Miracle out within 5 minutes. When they pulled her out, she was gray," Tylicia recalled to 6abc Action News. "They did CPR on her for 25 minutes, and they were able to get a heartbeat." "Everything she's been through, we've gotten through. She's been fighting through it, and we've been right by her side every step of her way," she added, per the station. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tylicia shared, "She may never be able to walk. She can't blink. She can't smile. She can't react to us, but the doctors did say she has perfect eyes and perfect ears, so I know she sees the love, hears the love," adding that baby Miracle "looks just like" her daughter. "I feel like I'm raising my daughter all over again," she told the outlet. "I wish my daughter was here to see this, but I know she's watching over us and is like, 'Mom, you got this.' " A GoFundMe has been set up by Tylicia to raise money for things like a larger vehicle to safely transport Miracle and her medical equipment, specialized medical items not covered by insurance, home modifications and daily essentials and therapy. "Despite everything, Miracle continues to show a strength that brings us to tears. She is the reason I believe in the power of faith, and thats why I gave her the name 'Miracle.' She is truly a blessing, a fighter, and a living testimony," Tylicia wrote on the page. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "As her grandmother and now full-time caregiver, Ive had to step into a role I never imaginedbecoming her nurse, advocate and voice. I havent been able to return to work since the tragedy, and I am doing everything I can as the only surviving grandparent. But I cannot do this alone," she continued. Lansdowne Police Department Facebook A photo of a Lansdowne Police car A photo of a Lansdowne Police car Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The GoFundMe page had raised just over $3,000 as of Wednesday, July 16. Lansdowne Police Chief Ken Rutherford didn't immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE has also reached out to Tylicia Bell. Read the original article on People Elon Musks artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok has been plagued by controversy recently over its responses to users, raising questions about how tech companies seek to moderate content from AI and whether Washington should play a role in setting guidelines. Grok faced sharp scrutiny last week, after an update prompted the AI chatbot to produce antisemitic responses and praise Adolf Hitler. Musks AI company, xAI, quickly deleted numerous incendiary posts and said it added guardrails to ban hate speech from the chatbot. Just days later, xAI unveiled its newest version of Grok, which Musk claimed was the smartest AI model in the world. However, users soon discovered that the chatbot appeared to be relying on its owners views to respond to controversial queries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We should be extremely concerned that the best performing AI model on the market is Hitler-aligned. That should set off some alarm bells for folks, Chris MacKenzie, vice president of communications at Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), an advocacy group focused on AI policy. I think that were at a period right now, where AI models still arent incredibly sophisticated, he continued. They might have access to a lot of information, right. But in terms of their capacity for malicious acts, its all very overt and not incredibly sophisticated. There is a lot of room for us to address this misaligned behavior before it becomes much more difficult and much more harder to detect, he added. Lucas Hansen, co-founder of the nonprofit CivAI, which aims to provide information about AIs capabilities and risks, said it was not at all surprising that it was possible to get Grok to behave the way it did. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For any language model, you can get it to behave in any way that you want, regardless of the guardrails that are currently in place, he told The Hill. Musk announced last week that xAI had updated Grok, after he previously voiced frustrations with some of the chatbots responses. In mid-June, the tech mogul took issue with a response from Grok suggesting that right-wing violence had become more frequent and deadly since 2016. Musk claimed the chatbot was parroting legacy media and said he was working on it. He later indicated he was retraining the model and called on users to help provide divisive facts, which he defined as things that are politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The update caused a firestorm for xAI, as Grok began making broad generalizations about people with Jewish last names and perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes about Hollywood. The chatbot falsely suggested that people with Ashkenazi surnames were pushing anti-white hate and that Hollywood was advancing anti-white stereotypes, which it later implied was the result of Jewish people being overrepresented in the industry. It also reportedly produced posts praising Hitler and referred to itself as MechaHitler. xAI ultimately deleted the posts and said it was banning hate speech from Grok. It later offered an apology for the chatbots horrific behavior, blaming the issue on update to a code path upstream of Grok. The update was active for 16 [hours], in which deprecated code made @grok susceptible to existing X user posts; including when such posts contained extremist views, xAI wrote in a post Saturday. We have removed that deprecated code and refactored the entire system to prevent further abuse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It identified several key prompts that caused Groks responses, including one informing the chatbot it is not afraid to offend people who are politically correct and another directing it to reflect the tone, context and language of the post in its response. xAIs prompts for Grok have been publicly available since May, when the chatbot began responding to unrelated queries with allegations of white genocide in South Africa. The company later said the posts were the result of an unauthorized modification and vowed to make its prompts public in an effort to boost transparency. Just days after the latest incident, xAI unveiled the newest version of its AI model, called Grok 4. Users quickly spotted new problems, in which the chatbot suggested its surname was Hitler and referenced Musks views when responding to controversial queries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement xAI explained Tuesday that Groks searches had picked up on the MechaHitler references, resulting in the chatbots Hitler surname response, while suggesting it had turned to Musks views to align itself with the company. The company said it has since tweaked the prompts and shared the details on GitHub. The kind of shocking thing is how that was closer to the default behavior, and it seemed that Grok needed very, very little encouragement or user prompting to start behaving in the way that it did, Hansen said. The latest incident has echoes of problems that plagued Microsofts Tay chatbot in 2016, which began producing racist and offensive posts before it was disabled, noted Julia Stoyanovich, a computer science professor at New York University and director of the Center for Responsible AI. This was almost 10 years ago, and the technology behind Grok is different from the technology behind Tay, but the problem is similar: hate speech moderation is a difficult problem that is bound to occur if its not deliberately safeguarded against, Stoyanovich said in a statement to The Hill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She suggested xAI had failed to take the necessary steps to prevent hate speech. Importantly, the kinds of safeguards one needs are not purely technical, we cannot solve hate speech, Stoyanovich added. This needs to be done through a combination of technical solutions, policies, and substantial human intervention and oversight. Implementing safeguards takes planning and it takes substantial resources. MacKenzie underscored that speech outputs are incredibly hard to regulate and instead pointed to a national framework for testing and transparency as a potential solution. At the end of the day, what were concerned about is a model that shares the goals of Hitler, not just shares hate speech online, but is designed and weighted to support racist outcomes, MacKenzie said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a January report evaluating various frontier AI models on transparency, ARI ranked Grok the lowest, with a score of 19.4 out of 100. While xAI now releases its system prompts, the company notably does not produce system cards for its models. System cards, which are offered by most major AI developers, provide information about how an AI model was developed and tested. AI startup Anthropic proposed its own transparency framework for frontier AI models last week, suggesting the largest developers should be required to publish system cards, in addition to secure development frameworks detailing how they assess and mitigate major risks. Groks recent hate-filled tirade is just one more example of how AI systems can quickly become misaligned with human values and interests, said Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit that aims to mitigate the risks from AI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These kinds of incidents will only happen more frequently as AI becomes more advanced, he continued in a statement. Thats why all companies developing advanced AI should implement transparent safety standards and release their system cards. A collaborative and open effort to prevent misalignment is critical to ensuring that advanced AI systems are infused with human values. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) Gov. Kathy Hochul joined city officials and community leaders for the groundbreaking ceremony for the Innovative Urban Village, a massive development that will provide 2,000 affordable housing units in East New York. The development will transform the Christian Cultural Centers ten-and-a-half-acre campus into rent-stabilizing housing units that are 100 percent affordable, including 200 residences for seniors and 94 units for previously homeless individuals. More Local News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The development will include retail space, including a fresh food grocery, green space, and a 24/7 child care center. The project is a partnership between the state, city, and private sector. Albany alone contributes 270 million dollars. Were making dreams happen because were investing billions of dollars in projects like these that give me such a sense of pride, said Gov. Hochul. Hochul has championed tens of thousands of affordable housing units throughout the state, and the city is partnering in the Innovative Urban Village project, contributing $50 million to its development. Itll mark a milestone in the citys push for more low-income housing. The buildings are already going up, and when phase one is completed next year, 800 affordable units will be ready for folks to move in. A year later, when the project is totally completed, a total of 2,000 units will be available for low-income families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. Just over a week after being suspended by her fellow council members, a defiant Groveland Councilwoman Judith Fike has been reinstated to her position representing District 4. Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini, representing Fike in a lawsuit against the council, said she was restored to her position following a preliminary hearing Wednesday morning. We won, so shes back on the council, he said. But were going to move forward with the public open meetings violation because they removed her from there and that was illegal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fike was suspended last week for past racist and anti-gay social media posts that recently resurfaced in a report from the Clermont Sun. According to their reporting, Fike tweeted images depicting President Barack Obama as a monkey. In a psst from June 2022, Fike shared a meme reading, Whats the magic word to get what you want? Racist! on Facebook. The issue carries particular resonance in Groveland, a Lake County city with a fraught history of race-based tensions. Most prominently, false allegations of rape against The Groveland Four, four black teenagers, in 1949 led to the killing of two of them, the wrongful imprisonment of two others and a decades-long fight for justice until their posthumous pardoning in 2019. Additional reporting from the Sun indicated Fike posted on Facebook just hours after the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016: Duh.why would the shooter target a gay club? My answerEasier than marching them up steps to push off the roof..some sarcasm, some truth... Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fike said during last weeks council meeting that the post was about a presidential candidate in 2016 aligning with a community in the Middle East who were pushing gay individuals off of buildings. It was meant as a support of the community, not against the community, she said. It might have been written in poor taste, but I want to clarify that for you because that was going on at the time. Fike also denied allegations of racism or hateful comments towards the LGBTQ community, saying some of the posts were doctored or edited with words added. Groveland city council members ultimately voted to suspend Fike, schedule a special meeting to discuss her social media posts and hire a private investigator to look into them further. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sabatini argued council members should not have legally been allowed to suspend or remove Fike, who was appointed to her position in October 2024 and is running for election to the seat. Following Wednesdays preliminary hearing, Sabatini said the lawsuit will continue with a move to get the votes taken without Fike removed because they were done illegally. We need to undo those eight ordinances that they suspended her before they voted on, he said. Well undo those, move for the public records violation and then move for the attorneys fees too since its a violation of that and a declaratory judgement that they dont have this ultimate authority. Sabatini said the lawsuit will take probably a few months with the case having very little evidence to work through. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fike faces two challengers for her District 4 seat: Jim ONeil and Michael Jaycox. Neither responded to inquiries from the Sentinel. The primary election is August 19. Contact me at jwilkins@orlandosentinel.com or 407-754-4980. AUSTIN (KXAN) The Austin Police Department said it made multiple arrests Monday during a shoplifting blitz operation. According to APD, the operations were in the Mueller area amid growing concerns from the businesses regarding retail crime. APD said officers made arrests of repeat shoplifting offenders at three locations. At H-E-B/Twin Liquors Mueller, located at 1801 East 51st St., APD said four people were arrested. Those arrested face charges ranging from Theft by Shoplifting, a Class C misdemeanor, to Theft by Shoplifting with two prior convictions, a State Jail felony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two people were arrested at Marshalls and Old Navy, located at 1201 Barbara Jordan Blvd., and faced charges ranging from Request to Apprehend Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle and Theft by Shoplifting with two prior convictionsboth State Jail felonies. APD said it made an additional arrest at a Home Depot located at 1200 Barbara Jordan Blvd. That suspect faces a charge of Theft by Shoplifting with two prior convictions. This operation was designed as an ongoing effort to assist local retailers with shoplifters by conducting swift apprehensions and taking appropriate enforcement action, APD said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Its been more than a week since floodwaters swallowed parts of Central Texas, killing more than 130 people and leaving 160 still missing. Fueled by moisture from two lingering tropical systems, heavy rainfall triggered widespread flash flooding, causing the Guadalupe River to surge more than 30 feet in just a few hours. Among the hardest-hit areas were a camping and RV site and Camp Mystic an all-girls summer camp where dozens of young campers and one counselor lost their lives. Recovery and cleanup efforts have been underway ever since, pausing only once in the past 11 days when another round of heavy rain swept through the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for those who remain near the riverbanks, the sense of danger lingers not in the roar of rushing water, but in the quiet threats that follow. Medical officer warns of post-flood risks in the Guadalupe As cleanup continues along the Guadalupe River, local health officials are urging caution for volunteers and first responders working in and around the flood zone. During a livestreamed roundtable with the Kerr County Lead, Dr. Chris Glanton Chief Medical Officer at Peterson Health in Kerrville said the hospital initially saw a wave of trauma-related injuries in the days following the flood. Many patients came in with abrasions, open wounds and other injuries caused by sharp or unstable debris. But now, he said, the focus is shifting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Between four days and four weeks after a major flood, skin infections become more common and often more serious. With bacteria lingering in the water and debris still scattered across the landscape, even a small scratch can turn dangerous, he said. Floodwaters may also carry a mix of organic material, including sewage and natural waste, which can fuel bacterial growth in cuts and open wounds. Glanton noted that some wounds have been so contaminated they must be thoroughly cleaned and left open to heal properly. In addition to wound-related infections, the hospital has treated people pulled from the river who later developed respiratory complications such as aspiration or pneumonia. "There could be multi-drug-resistant bacteria because of the camp-contaminated nature of the water that's coming downstream with disruptions to the sewer system," he told the Kerr County Lead on Monday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The medical officer said he is also wary of anaerobic infections, though most illnesses are caused by familiar culprits like staph and strep. As the rivers flow begins to slow in some areas, bacteria can settle and thrive in stagnant or slow-moving water, particularly near dams or other structures where the current remains steady. Glanton's message to those helping in the region: take precautions. That includes knowing your tetanus status and getting a booster shot if youre not sure. Has the Guadalupe River reopened? Recreational access to the Guadalupe River and its tributary, the Comal River has resumed in areas like New Braunfels and Canyon Lake. City officials report that day-use zones are open, boat ramps have reopened, and crews have cleared much of the visible debris. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, despite parts of the river officially reopening, experts strongly caution against swimming or tubing for now. The water still presents several risks, including submerged and unstable debris, bacterial contamination and fluctuating flow conditions. Recovery efforts are ongoing, with first responders continuing the search for dozens of missing people. We understand the river is a major reason folks come to visit but for now, were still not encouraging recreation in the river or along its banks, the Guadalupe River State Park posted on Facebook. Recent flooding has reshaped the landscape, and hidden dangers like unstable banks and submerged debris remain a real risk. Please avoid areas marked as off-limits. Keeping you safe is our number one priority. Most debris can typically be cleared within six weeks of flooding, but Kerr County officials reported "millions of cubic yards" of debris after the Fourth of July catastrophe, according to MySA.com. Continued rainfall over several days may further delay cleanup efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bacterial levels may take several months to subside, depending on river flow and temperatures, according to the National Park Service. Meanwhile, full ecosystem recovery from a flood of this scale can take years. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Has the Guadalupe River reopened? Watch for these post-flood risks Omars view The war between Israel and Iran demonstrated the strategic value of advanced technologies and holds lessons for the Gulf, specifically on who foots the bill for innovation. States in the region have traditionally relied on the government and universities to fund research and development (R&D), with philanthropists making an anemic contribution. This model must change if these countries are to keep up with the innovations shaping a rapidly mutating military environment. Today, most of the Gulfs technological development is done by large state-owned corporations such as Aramco and Masdar, or government-funded institutions such as the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and Sultan Qaboos University. Strategically important technologies, such as solar-powered desalination, are being developed by the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, another government institution. Universities have long offered a partial workaround to public dependency: tuition revenues can support labs and research careers, with scholars relying on teaching other students to support their scientific inquiry. But the rise of AI-powered personalized education is threatening this practice. Virtual tutors already outperform human professors in both efficiency and customization. It is not hard to imagine a near future where this private funding dries up, and Gulf scientists will have to lean even more heavily on the state when looking for resources to fund their research. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Private companies could plug the gap, but this doesnt apply in the region. The reliance on hydrocarbon income created a unique commercial environment where the private sector has a limited incentive to allocate resources to R&D. This may change over time, but it is likely to be a very gradual evolution that will not occur fast enough to compensate for the AI-induced disruption to university funding. That leaves philanthropy: the most compelling alternative is for Gulf philanthropists to begin directing a larger proportion of their expenditure to blue-sky research that can have strategic value. Notably, the problem is not convincing them to spend more on charitable activity, but rather that the culture of philanthropy needs to change, as it has typically emphasized poverty alleviation, humanitarian relief, and basic education over supporting scientific inquiry. Theres a precedent in Arab and Muslim history. During the Golden Age of Islam (7501258), following in the path of Caliphs such as Harun Al-Rashid, private patronage of scholarship was in vogue, with many of the inventions and intellectual discoveries made by Muslim polymaths owing their funding to private philanthropists. One of the most celebrated examples is Fatima al-Fihri, a wealthy merchants daughter who founded the University of al-Qarawiyyin in 859, an institution that functioned as an intellectual hub spanning many disciplines. People today would be forgiven for imagining that strategic scientific discoveries are funded either by the state or large corporations, with philanthropic support being limited to academic pursuits that do not have a tangible impact on daily life. However, such a view would be inaccurate, as many philanthropists have funded research that has gone on to demonstrate strategic value even if that might not have been obvious at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For example, American financier Alfred Loomis brought together top physicists in his philanthropic labs, spawning the discovery of radar, which went on to contribute to the Allied victory in World War II. More recently, the late hedge fund billionaire Jim Simons poured some of his wealth into mathematics and computational science, seeding advances in cryptography and cybersecurity. Wealthy individuals in the Gulf have been raised in a culture where strategic affairs are considered the exclusive domain of the state and where they could not possibly imagine funding a discovery that goes on to improve their countrys military or provides their nation with a competitive edge in some critical economic sector. This thinking must be replaced by a more empowered attitude aligned with the Gulfs economic visions. While theres no question that alleviating poverty is a meritorious pursuit, so too is funding the discovery of a technology that allows millions to live more comfortably 20 years from now. Philanthropy in the Gulf must evolve to reflect the new strategic realities, where scientific breakthroughs can determine a nations fate just as much as diplomacy or firepower. A visionary Gulf philanthropist should no longer ask funding science is their responsibility but rather for discoveries they want to be remembered. Notable A tropical rainstorm has run out of time to strengthen into a depression, but downpours from the slow-moving storm will unleash torrential downpours that can lead to dangerous and disruptive flooding, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. The focus of the storm's heaviest rainfall will extend across a large part of Louisiana, including some major cities along Interstate 10 from Lafayette to Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and New Orleans. AccuWeather.com Early Thursday morning, the poorly defined center was just east of New Orleans, with most of the thunderstorms over the Gulf or right along the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, an eruption of drenching thunderstorms is foreseen over the South Central states from Louisiana to portions of Mississippi and far northeast Texas as the storm moves inland and moisture is flung onshore from the Gulf. Because of this, Gulfport, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, may experience episodes of flooding downpours. This image was captured on Thursday, July 17, 2025, and shows the northern Gulf with a disorganized mass of showers and thunderstorms along the shores of Louisiana (center). (AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue Satellite) Even a poorly organized tropical rainstorm can still produce localized torrential downpours that can lead to incidents of dangerous flash flooding. GET THE FREE ACCUWEATHER APP Have the app? Unlock AccuWeather Alerts with Premium+ Weighing the "what ifs" and what is most likely, the AccuWeather RealImpact Scale for Hurricanes is a one, due to the potential for travel disruptions, loss of revenue and the risks to lives and property in the United States associated with heavy rainfall and flooding. AccuWeather.com Weak steering breezes will guide the rainstorm westward over southern Louisiana on Thursday. At that point, steering breezes may drop off, which could allow the rainstorm to stall and continue downpours over the same area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The downpours will expand to near the Texas border and northward to the Arkansas border into the end of the week. AccuWeather.com A sizable zone where 4-8 inches of rain is forecast to fall extends across much of the southern half of Louisiana and part of southern Mississippi. Within this zone, pockets where 8-12 inches of rain can fall are anticipated with an AccuWeather Local StormMax rainfall of 16 inches. Rainfall rates of 1-3 inches per hour can occur during the storm, which is enough to challenge the storm drainage capabilities in some of the metro areas in southern Louisiana, including New Orleans. New Orleans sits below sea level and relies on powerful pumps to keep streets and neighborhoods free of standing water. AccuWeather.com Some flooding in low-lying areas is anticipated along with flash flooding in urban locations over portions of Louisiana, southwestern Mississippi and areas in Texas near the Louisiana border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From Friday to the weekend, drenching downpours are likely to expand over the lower and middle portions of the Mississippi Valley with pockets of flash flooding. AccuWeather.com Because of the minimal gain in strength anticipated by the tropical rainstorm, strong wind gusts will generally be limited to thunderstorm activity near the Interstate 10 corridor. "It is possible that a couple of tornadoes and waterspouts develop near the central Gulf coast as the storm moves inland on Thursday," DaSilva said. AccuWeather meteorologists are watching the nearby waters of the United States for tropical development later this month. AccuWeather.com Want next-level safety, ad-free? Unlock advanced, hyperlocal severe weather alerts when you subscribe to Premium+ on the AccuWeather app. AccuWeather Alerts are prompted by our expert meteorologists who monitor and analyze dangerous weather risks 24/7 to keep you and your family safer. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Boards (PCAOB) chair Erica Williams has decided to step down from her position. Williams was sworn in as chair in January 2022 and reappointed in October 2024. Williams said: With high economic uncertainty increasing the risk of fraud, the PCAOBs mission is as important as ever. Its critical that the expert PCAOB staff continue to be empowered to carry out their work of ensuring American investors are protected. During her tenure, Williams executed a strategic plan focused on the modernisation of auditing standards, the enhancement of inspection processes, enforcement mechanisms, and the board's operational effectiveness, the PCAOB said in its press statement. Under her leadership, the PCAOB has completed access for the first time to inspect and investigate China-headquartered businesses, resulting in enforcement actions against these entities. Williams' term has been marked by various formal actions, with seven projects covering 24 rules and standards finalised during her tenure. The authority delivered sanctions, with the message that violations that put investors at risk will be met with serious consequences. Williams also oversaw the reconstitution of the Investor Advisory Group and the Standards and Emerging Issues Advisory Group. She also established the PCAOB's first-ever Office of the Investor Advocate. However, Williams' resignation comes amidst media reports suggesting that her departure was requested by Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Paul Atkins. An email sent by Williams to PCAOB staff indicated that she had been asked to resign with Atkins accepting her resignation. The email stated: Today, I accepted Erica Williams offer to resign as chair and a board member of the PCAOB and thanked her for her service. I am grateful she has agreed to stay on until July 22. Last month, the PCAOB imposed fines totalling $8.5m on the Netherlands member businesses of Deloitte, PwC, and EY for cheating in internal exams. "PCAOB chair Erica Williams to step down " was originally created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand. QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) Gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus in southwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding seven others, police and government officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the Kalat district of Balochistan province, where a number of separatist militant groups are seeking independence from Pakistan's government. The bus was traveling from the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta to the southern port city of Karachi when gunmen opened fire in Kalat and then fled the scene, local police chief Habib Nichari said. Ambulances were transporting the dead and wounded to a nearby hospital, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latest attack came days after gunmen abducted and killed nine people when they stopped two passenger buses on a highway in the Zhob and Loralai districts of Balochistan. Those buses were traveling from Quetta to the eastern Punjab province. Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said security forces responded to the latest attack immediately, and an operation was underway to track down the culprits. Pakistan's Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and alleged that Indian-backed separatists were responsible. However, he offered no evidence to back up the claim. Pakistan routinely accuses the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army group of carrying out such attacks. Baluchistan has been the scene of a long-running insurgency in southwestern Pakistan with an array of separatist groups, including the BLA, demanding independence from Pakistans central government in Islamabad. Although Pakistan says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted. ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) At least 20 people have been killed in a gun attack on a village in central Nigeria, local authorities said Wednesday. The attack took place in the early hours of Tuesday in Tahoss, in the Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State, state assembly member Dewan Gabriel said in a statement. Graphic videos and photographs on social media platforms showed what appeared to be corpses and burnt down houses in the aftermath of the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sati Shuwa, a local elected official in charge of the area, said the assailants, armed with guns and machetes, were undeterred by the presence of security personnel as they burned down houses during the raid. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killings, but such attacks are common in Nigerias northern region where local herders and farmers often clash over limited access to land and water. The prolonged conflict has become deadlier in recent years, with authorities and analysts warning that more herdsmen are taking up arms. Last month, gunmen killed at least 150 people in the neighboring Benue state. The rising attacks in Riyom Local Government Area have become alarming, creating a state of fear and insecurity that must be addressed urgently, Gabriel said. He acknowledged the efforts of the government and security agencies, but called for a change in tactics to tackle the situation effectively. A coalition of countries has announced at a meeting in the Colombian capital of Bogota that they will pursue accountability for Israeli abuses in Gaza, including by preventing the transfer of weapons to Israel. The two-day meeting concluded on Wednesday with two dozen countries agreeing to six measures to restrain Israels assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. They include Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Namibia, Nicaragua, Oman, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and South Africa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We believe in protagonism, not supplication, said Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, the executive secretary of The Hague Group, which organised the summit. Today marks an end to the era of the impunity and the beginning of collective state action by governments of conscience. Founded in January, the Hague Group seeks to bring together countries from the Global South a loosely defined region of developing economies to pressure Israel to end its war on Gaza and the occupation of the Palestinian territories. Among the steps announced by the group are the denial of arms to Israel, a ban on ships transporting such arms and a review of public contracts for possible links to companies that benefit from the Israeli occupation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The six measures also included support for universal jurisdiction mandates, which would allow states or international bodies to prosecute serious international crimes, regardless of where they took place. The delegates here that have been discussing these measures for two days are calling it the most ambitious, multilateral plan since the beginning of Israels war in Gaza 21 months ago, Al Jazeera correspondent Alessandro Rampietti reported from Bogota. The 12 countries that agreed to the measures, however, represent fewer than half of the 30 countries in attendance at the Bogota summit. And critics question how effective smaller economies can be in dissuading Israel from its military campaign, especially given the multibillion-dollar support it receives from the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has given little indication that international outrage has slowed down its attacks on Gaza, even after experts at the United Nations (UN) and major humanitarian organisations compared its tactics to genocide. Israeli forces continue to displace Palestinians and restrict their access to food, fuel and water. At least 58,573 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023. While the majority of the countries at this weeks Bogota conference did not immediately sign on to Wednesdays measures, the Hague Group expressed optimism that more could join in. In a statement, the group set a deadline of September 20 for others to participate a date chosen to coincide with the start of the UN General Assembly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Consultations with capitals across the world are now ongoing, the statement said. Officials attending the summit also hailed the six measures as part of a larger effort to chip away at Israeli impunity. Ministers, the truth is that Palestine has already triggered a revolution, and you are part of it, said Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Palestine has changed global consciousness, drawing a clear line between those who oppose genocide and those who accept it or are part of it. Albanese was recently sanctioned by the US for her outspoken criticism of Israels actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The summit has become a symbol of the growing calls from non-Western nations for world leaders to enforce international law in Gaza, where critics say Israel has consistently flouted human rights law. Developing nations such as South Africa and Colombia, which cohosted the conference, have been at the forefront of such accountability efforts. South Africa, for instance, filed a case in December 2023 at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) alleging that Israel perpetrated genocide in Gaza. And Colombia announced it would cut ties with Israel in May 2024 over its military campaign. We came to Bogota to make history, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said in a statement. And we did. Federal officials at the Pentagon confirmed that half of the 4,000 federalized members of the California National Guard deployed in Los Angeles are being released, though 2,000 guardsmen, along with 700 active-duty Marines remain in the city. The controversial decision to federalize the troops came after demonstrations erupted downtown in early June to protest the federal immigration crackdown in L.A. County. Once they arrived, the troops were tasked with guarding federal buildings and protecting federal immigration agents during enforcement operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state took the Trump administration to court where a federal judge ruled that the president acted illegally when he federalized the National Guard without a request from Governor Gavin Newsom. That decision, however, was later overturned by an appeals court, which returned control of the troops back to Trump while the case remains ongoing. Newsom has continued to criticize both the courts decision and President Trump himself, pointing out that the guardsmen have been pulled away from their families and other essential duties to serve as pawns for the President in Los Angeles. Protesters confront California National Guard soldiers and police outside of a federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles following three days of clashes with police after a series of immigration raids on June 09, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (David McNew/Getty Images) A protester waves a National Flag of El Salvador in front of a line of California National Guard in front of Federal Building on Monday, June 9, 2025, in downtown Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) National Guard members guard streets in Santa Ana following protests there this week (KTLA) Members of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines, guard the entrance outside the Wilshire Federal Building, ahead of Saturdays nationwide No Kings Day protest, in Los Angeles, Calif., Friday, June 13, 2025. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP) Military vehicles arrive in Camarillo at the site of an immigration enforcement operation at an agricultural farm on July 10, 2025. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities, the governors office wrote in a post to X. We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Historic downtown Los Angeles nightclub, music venue closing this fall Its not entirely clear why federal officials abruptly ended the 60-day deployment of 2,000 guardsmen, though Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said: Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass released a statement praising Angelenos for the demobilization of the troops. This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong, Bass said. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court all of this led to todays retreat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, no information has been provided about how long the remaining guardsmen and Marines will remain in the region. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. NEED TO KNOW Influencer Emilie Kiser's 3-year-old son Trigg tragically died on May 18, a few days after being found unresponsive in a pool in their Arizona home Emilie, who welcomed sons Trigg and Theodore with her husband Brady, was not home at the time of the accidental drowning On July 15, the Chandler Police Department announced that Brady could face a child abuse charge in relation to Trigg's death Emilie Kiser's life was changed forever following her son Trigg's death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 12, 2025, the influencer's 3-year-old son was found unconscious in a backyard pool in Arizona. A few days later, the Chandler Police Department confirmed to PEOPLE that Trigg had tragically died in the hospital. "Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the child's family and loved ones during this unimaginable time," the local police shared in a statement, adding that they had launched an investigation into the incident. Now, her husband Brady who was home alone with Trigg and their infant son Theodore at the time of the accidental drowning could face a child abuse charge in relation to the incident. Here's everything to know about what happened to Emilie Kiser's son, Trigg. Who is Emilie Kiser? Emilie Kiser/Instagram Emilie Kiser. Emilie Kiser. Emilie Kiser is an influencer who was born and raised in Arizona before moving to Utah when she was 18 years old. She met her husband Brady while at Utah Valley University, as she shared in a July 2022 TikTok video, but eventually relocated back to Arizona. Together, they welcomed two kids: Trigg, born in July 2021, followed by Theodore in March 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She is known as a creator and influencer who shares content to over 5 million followers across Instagram and TikTok. Prior to her older son's death, she often shared glimpses into her life as a mom on the social media platforms including her son's first day of preschool to chats about the postpartum period but has taken a break from posting in the wake of the tragedy. What happened to Emilie Kisers son, Trigg? Emilie Kiser/Instagram Emilie Kiser, husband Brady Kiser, and their son Trigg. Emilie Kiser, husband Brady Kiser, and their son Trigg. On May 12, 2025, Trigg was hospitalized after authorities responded to a drowning call, as Chandler Police department spokesperson Sonu Wasu told PEOPLE. Per AZ Central, Trigg was taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center and then to Phoenix Children's Hospital in critical condition. In documents seen by PEOPLE, police and the Maricopa County Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed that Trigg had died on May 18, 2025. Following the tragedy, a source told PEOPLE that Emilie was not home at the time of the drowning. According to search warrant applications obtained by USA Today, Brady had been watching Theodore when Trigg fell into the pool and drowned at their Arizona home. Per the outlet, Brady told local authorities that he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes, then discovered his toddler floating in the backyard pool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the aftermath, the Chandler Police Department released a statement in which they shared their "thoughts and deepest condolences" and announced an official investigation. "The investigation into the circumstances surrounding this incident remain ongoing. This is still an open investigation," the statement read. "Out of respect for the familys privacy, we will not be releasing additional details until the investigation is closed." Why did Emilie Kiser file a lawsuit in relation to her sons death? Emilie Kiser/Instagram Emilie Kiser and son Trigg. Emilie Kiser and son Trigg. On May 27, Emilie filed a lawsuit in Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County in an effort to keep records of her toddler's death withheld from the public including footage of the incident. A source then told PEOPLE that Emilie's "declaration" was filed in order to avoid having to "relive the aftermath" of the tragic event while grieving her son. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The core legal issues remain fully transparent through public filings by counsel and the court. Emilies sealed declaration does not hinder the publics understanding of the case or its legal significance," the source said. "Preserving a small measure of privacy in the midst of public scrutiny is a reasonable and compassionate choice given the circumstances." The source continued, "Emilie has fully cooperated with investigators. The focus here is not on withholding information, but on safeguarding the dignity of a child and allowing a grieving family the space and privacy to heal." The insider also noted that Emilie's "public profile does not negate her right to privacy," stating that her online persona also doesn't make Trigg's death "a matter for public consumption." Why is Brady Kiser potentially facing charges related to his son's death? Emilie Kiser/Instagram Brady Kiser smiles with his son Trigg in February 2025. Brady Kiser smiles with his son Trigg in February 2025. On July 15 nearly two months after the drowning incident the Chandler Police Department announced on X that the investigation into Trigg's death was completed. In the announcement, it was revealed that Brady could potentially face child abuse charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Following a thorough review of the evidence, investigators have recommended a Class 4 felony charge of child abuse against Brady Kiser," the statement read, adding that the case had been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for review. Once the prosecution reviews the police file, Brady could face the charges mentioned, or they can decide to drop the case. Read the original article on People What happened to my son? Mother seeks answers in loved ones death behind bars One week after he son died at the Athens-Clarke County Jail, Natasha Dunn still doesnt know the cause or what led up to his death. Since April, jail officials say four inmates have died, possibly one more the result of fentanyl overdoses. The Clarke County Sheriffs Department came, and they told me my son was deceased. He passed away basically, said Natasha Dunn. Dunn told Channel 2s Tom Regan her 31-year-old son Boycie Howard had been in the jail since last April. She says he had been pulled over from driving on a suspended license and assaulted a law officer. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] He was trying to take the weapon from the the police officer, Dunn said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dunn says her son suffered from mental illness, including bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He was place in high max confinement, in which he was only allowed out of his cell for an hour a day. Boycie Howard, 31, had been in the jail since last April. He died on Tuesday. Jail officials say the reason the inmate was kept in that elevated confinement was because he represented a danger to himself or other inmates. Staff discovered Howard unresponsive in his cell on July 8. Immediate life-saving measures were initiated by jail personnel and medical staff were notified. He was later pronounced deceased. Athens-Clarke County neglected my son, Dunn said. Jails officials say they did not neglect Howard. They say he was constantly monitored and was in the process of being relocated to a state mental health treatment facility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His mother says while her son used marijuana, he did not use hard drugs like fentanyl. It was a medical emergency of some kind, Dunn said. On Monday, Clarke County Sheriff John Q. Williams say they were taking steps to crack down on drugs smuggled into the jail usually by people who are being booked, and improve addiction treatment for inmates, who often are addicted to hard drugs and suffer withdrawal symptoms in jail. He also expressed his condolence to the families of the four deceased inmates. These are unimaginable tragedies and my heart breaks for each and everyone of you who have any connections to these individuals, Williams said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The inmate death in April has been confirmed an overdose from a mixture of fentanyl and methamphetamine. The exact cause of the other more recent deaths, including Howard, have not been determined because toxicology tests can take weeks to complete. Anthony Howard, the father of Boycie Howard, says he cannot believe his son is gone. Im devastated. Im concerned, he said. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) The inmate roster webpage used by the Tom Green County Sheriffs Office has been down for approximately two weeks, leaving county residents unable to use the tool to see which individuals are in the Tom Green County Detention Center. But what happened to the roster that caused this, and what is being done to remedy the issue? As previously reported on July 2, the TGSO inmate roster webpage has been down. When accessed, the webpage states that the roster is offline for maintenance. TGSO Administrative Lt. Christina Lopez told Concho Valley Homepage that the maintenance is being conducted to fix issues in the code that comprises the program used to manage the inmate roster. These problems were brought on by a software update. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement City appoints new City attorney after months-long wait Its still technical issues and having to do with getting the coding correct, Lopez said. Lopez shared that the same update caused the errors that resulted in the inmate roster being taken down on May 30 problems that persisted until the roster returned on June 13, 14 days later. It is not known at this time when the inmate roster will be brought back, according to Lopez. However, she assured that the jail logs wont be gone forever, as the TGSO websites developer is working diligently to restore the webpage. Its not something thats going to go away, Lopez said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lopez thanked the public for its patience as the inmater roster undergoes maintenance. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. Harris Teeter employee accused of stealing over $11,000 from store Police in Charlotte say an employee at Harris Teeter is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from a local store. According to an arrest report obtained by Channel 9, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested Brittany Allison Gardner on Monday for a felony charge of larceny by an employee. Gardner is accused of taking $11,170 after it had been delivered to the store, according to a CMPD report. Gardner was arrested on Monday. An affidavit obtained by Channel 9 says officers were called to the Harris Teeter location on Davis Lake Parkway after an asset protection manager reported the thefts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The stores AP manager said that Gardner took money on ten separate occasions between Feb. 9 and June 5 of this year. The manager said Gardner would count the money and place it into the safe, but then she would take some money and put it in her pocket. According to the affidavit, Gardner admitted to taking the money. Gardner was released from custody on a $35,000 bond, according to jail records. Weve reached out to Harris Teeter for a comment. Check back for updates. (VIDEO: Arson under investigation at north Charlotte Harris Teeter) CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) More information was released on Wednesday in connection with a Harris Teeter manager accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the store. Brittany Allison Gardner, 35, was arrested after an investigation revealed she allegedly took more than $11,000 from the Harris Teeter location on Davis Lake Parkway in Charlotte. She had been employed with the company since 2009 and was working as a customer service manager, a position that gave her access to store funds and safes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man busted for theft at Charlotte Walmart accused of biting cop, trying to grab gun during arrest: Docs According to newly released court documents, Gardner is believed to have taken the money over several months, from February 9, 2024, through June 5, 2025. The stores regional asset protection manager reported the theft to police, stating that Gardner manipulated store cash procedures at least ten times. In each instance, Gardner would reportedly count the days money and place it into the safe, but then quietly remove some of the cash and pocket it without authorization. Man accused of speeding with 17 lbs. of marijuana and child in truck: Lancaster Co. Sheriff Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Records state the most recent incident, on June 5, involved a cash deposit of $15,000 that was prepped for pickup by Garda, the armored truck service. When the money was deposited into the bank, only $13,000 made it into the account $2,000 short. Surveillance footage reportedly captured Gardner taking the missing cash. She later admitted to taking that $2,000, as well as between $10,000 to $11,000 in total, though she told investigators she couldnt remember the exact dates or amounts from previous incidents. Gardner has since been charged with larceny by an employee, a felony under North Carolina law. She appeared in court on July 15. The case is scheduled to return to court in August. MORE FROM QCNEWS.COM Crime & Public Safety Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. HONOLULU (KHON2) School officials across the state want to reassure parents and families that they are doing all they can to make sure the upcoming school year runs as smoothly as possible, despite possibly losing millions of dollars in federal funds. After-school squeeze: Families search for backup as A+ fills up Were just weeks from the start of the 2025-26 school year, and officials are scrambling to make contingency plans after the US Department of Education recently announced its freezing $6.8 billion in funding for states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All states were caught off guard by this announcement that the funds that were already appropriated were not coming as planned, said Tammi Oyadomari-Chun, Hawaii Department of Education Deputy Superintendent of Strategy and Administration. So we are actively in the process of assessing all the plans that are in place and the funds that are available. Hawaii is losing out on an estimated $33 million. That money would fund six key programs, including recruitment and training of teachers, academic enrichment and English proficiency. We are in the process of working with our program managers to ensure that schools can start the school year with the programs and staffing that they already have in place, that they had planned for, so that we can make sure to provide the best services for students, said Oyadomari-Chun. Check out more news from around Hawaii Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials at Chaminade University say graduate students wont be able to get federally backed loans. That will impact us greatly, said Lynn Babington, PhD, Chaminade University President. We have five doctoral programs and a whole lot of masters programs. The school says it has reached out to all affected students and is shifting some of its scholarship money to help with any shortfall. We want our families to know that they need not worry, said Babington. The financial aid we promised will be there immediately for the students as they enter as freshmen, and those continuing students as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawaii is one of 24 states that have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education, stating that freezing the money violates federal statutes. If needed, Hawaii DOE officials say they could come here to the state legislature and ask lawmakers for more funding. They are hoping that it wont be necessary. We are hopeful that the federal government will release the funds shortly and that this is just the delay in receiving the funds, said Oyadomari-Chun. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The first day of public school in Hawaii is August 4. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. Piper Sandler keeps an Overweight rating on Nvidia (NVDA) after the company said it expects to be granted licenses to resume H20 chip sales to China. During the April quarter, the company posted $4.6B in sales for H20 and left an additional $2.5B on the table due to the ban, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Piper says the estimated impact from the ban in the July quarter was around $8B in sales. It suspects strong demand for these chips would have continued should the ban not been in place. The merchant artificial intelligence companies alongside Nvidia, namely Micron (MU) and AMD (AMD), would benefit from the lifting of this ban, contends Piper. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. Published first on TheFly the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See todays best-performing stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on NVDA: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue County officials are putting off a decision about which voting machines are used in the future until the new registrar of voters position is filled. In January, the Board of Supervisors voted to create a new registrar of voters position separate from the auditor-controller-clerk to manage county elections. Legislation allowing that change is currently pending in Sacramento, said Amy Espinoza, the current auditor-controller-clerk, but since the county is looking to create an entirely new elections department, the decision about whether to keep or find a new vendor for the countys voting system should be made with the new department head. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am pleased to bring before your full board this morning what I considered to be a joint recommendation of myself, Supervisor (Leticia) Perez; Supervisor (David) Couch and our concerned citizens, which is to extend our current contracts so that the newly anticipated registrar of voters can play an active role in selecting Kern Countys voting system, Espinoza said. For months, several members of a group of concerned citizens have spoken at every supervisors meeting to voice their concerns over state and county elections. Last August, an ad-hoc committee chaired by Perez and Couch was formed to discuss the groups concerns. The committees findings were presented to the full board in January. Among the recommendations was the creation of a position dedicated entirely to managing the countys elections. During public comments, members of the committee and the board thanked each other for working together to resolve contentious issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When we first started, as you remember, it was not all lovey-dovey like it is today, not even close, if you recall. And for very good reason, there was a lot of fear, there was fear for me, Perez, the lone Democrat on the board, said from the dais. There will always be issues, and there will always be tensions, but we have demonstrated here today how to do it right and how to make sure that the public feels listened to and a part of the process. The citizens who during earlier public comment reiterated their statements about county voter rolls said their concerns were not meant as personal attacks against the county or the board. Thank you, (Espinoza), for working with our committee, and we appreciate everything that youve been doing, said Charles Shinn, one of the committee members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This process has never been a personal thing. Its been a difference of our perspective and maybe the perspective that has, in our perspective, thats come down from the Secretary of State, Shinn said. Espinoza said a position solely dedicated to elections would benefit the county. Kern County has grown, our registered voters have grown, the complexity of what the state is requiring us to do in elections is massive. Every year theres new changes to law, and it is a lot to cover multiple areas, Espinoza said. Luckily, I have staff who assist and keep me abreast of things, but I do believe that Kern County will be best served with someone who can completely focus on elections. Supervisors voted unanimously to extend the countys contract with Dominion Voting Systems to Dec. 31, 2027 at a cost of $583,812. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because the auditor-controller-clerk is an elected position, a new registrar cant take over election duties until the end of the Espinozas current term in 2028. Under the countys proposal, the auditor-controller-clerk would continue to be an elected position while the registrar of voters would be appointed by the board. Once the new registrar is selected, then the county can decide what to do about the voting machines contract: continue with Dominion or search for an alternate vendor. Catalytic converters Supervisors Tuesday approved an ordinance that would make possession of a catalytic converter that is, one thats not attached to a vehicle unlawful without proper documentation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Catalytic converters contain valuable metals and are often stolen to be sold for $800 to $1,200, according to David Stephens, chief deputy of the Investigations Bureau at the Kern County Sheriffs Office. Under current state law, Stephens said, law enforcement cant take action unless someone has at least nine catalytic converters in their possession. If an officer makes contact with an individual possessing eight or less catalytic converters but cannot identify a specific victim, who then must be able to positively identify the catalytic converter as theirs, then the officer may have to release the individual along with the catalytic converters, Stephens told the board. According to the ordinance, valid documentation includes, but is not limited to: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A signed bill of sale from the original owner authorizing removal of the catalytic converter, including the vehicle owners name, address and telephone number. Verifiable documentation from an auto-body shop proving the owner relinquished the catalytic converter to the auto-body shop or similar business. Verifiable electronic communication from the previous owner to the possessor relinquishing ownership of the catalytic converter. Vehicle registration associated with the catalytic converter together with photographs showing an etched associated license plate number or vehicle identification number or drivers license number of registered vehicle owner claimed to have conveyed the catalytic converter to the person now in possession. Violations will be charged as a misdemeanor with a $1,000 fine and up to a year in county jail. Fines increase with subsequent violations. No-one was hurt in the fire which broke out early on Tuesday [DWFRS] A village community centre has been wrecked by fire just months after it was refurbished and redecorated. Crews were called to the Hub in Winterborne Kingston, Dorset, shortly after 05:30 BST on Tuesday. Lower Winterborne Parish Council, which owns the building, said no-one was hurt and the cause was found to be accidental. Council chairman Ross Jessopp said, although the fire had been "fairly small", the building had suffered extensive smoke and water damage. The parish council said much of the damage was caused by water and smoke [Winterborne Kingston Hub] Mr Jessopp said: "It is heartbreaking as the Hub has been very well looked after by a team of volunteers and the parish has invested heavily in it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The entire building had just been redecorated, including a beautiful mural of scenes from the village painted by local children - and some adults - that was completed earlier this year. "New carpets had been fitted recently, as well as new windows." Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service said three crews using breathing apparatus and an off-road vehicle had put out the fire by 07:30. The Hub - which has three rooms and a kitchen - hosts bingo, coffee mornings and pool tournaments, as well offering private hire. Mr Jessopp said: "It is certainly the intention to repair and rebuild the building and get it open again as soon as possible, but clearly we will have to wait to see the full extent of the damage and wait to hear from the insurers before we can put a timescale on that." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People using the recreation ground have been warned not to enter the building due to the "structural damage, toxic smoke and soot". You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram. More from the BBC in Dorset Related Links SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR) During Central New Yorks hot, summer months, animal care specialists recommend that pet owners make sure they are taking the right precautions, especially during heat advisories. Nardia Bell, owner of a five-year-old Schnauzer called Migo, walked around Onondaga Lake Park with a filled water bottle attached to her dogs leash on Tuesday afternoon. Its really important for him, just because hes been cooped up for most of the winter, so its good for him to exercise, stretch his legs, get some breeze, Bell said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, it is also important to watch out for the warning signs of heat exhaustion in four-legged friends. Some signs include excess amounts of drool, dry or pale gums, a dark tongue, vomiting, diarrhea, and lack of coordination. If they cant get comfortable once youve brought them inside and youre trying to cool them down and they are just panting and going crazy for long periods of time, thats when they need to be seen, Shannon Whelpton, a Client Care Specialist Manager for Total Veterinary Care, said. Dog lover, Samantha Palladino, was also walking a rambunctious labradoodle called Tucker at the lake. Palladino said she is taking every preventative measure she can to avoid a trip to the vet this summer. Knowing that, obviously, the car has retained heat as wellits important to cool the car downyou know, if youre uncomfortable, your dog is uncomfortable, too, Palladino said. Its good to make sure that you have a nice, cool environment for them especially if theyre coming off of a hot day like this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syracuse Police say if someone is keeping their furry companion in an extremely hot or cold car, without proper ventilation, they will be subjected to a hefty fine. If the pet dies or suffers a serious injury, the owner could be charged with a misdemeanor, as well. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR. CHICAGO (WGN) This week marks the 30th anniversary of the devastating Chicago Heat Wave of 1995. Over 700 people died in the oppressive heat that year. WGN-TVs Mike Lowe spoke with former WGN-TV Meteorologist Tom Skilling on Tuesday. Skilling, who saw all of the tornadoes, floods and blizzards in the last 45 years, called the 1995 heat wave a weather event hell never forget. The heat wave revealed a city vulnerable to heat and the event forever changed the way we deal with extreme weather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the morning sun arrived on Thursday, July 13, 1995, it marked the dawning of one of the worst natural and social disasters in modern U.S. history. WGN Weekly Climate Report | 13 July 2025 The heat wave of 1995 lasted five torturous days. The catastrophe claimed 739 lives, more than twice as many as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. That disaster in 1995 is the citys most deadly natural disaster, Skilling recalled. Skilling was among the nations foremost weather experts. He had predicted heat, but did not foresee the horror. We saw heat coming. It was so extreme that it even exceeded what our computer models were forecasting, but we corrected for the heat and accurately predicted the high, which was 105 degrees at Midway Airport, with a low 80-degree dew point. Thats an incredible amount of moisture in the air, Skilling said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the first day of the heat wave, the temperature soared to 106 degrees, but the humidity made it feel like 124 degrees. We had no understanding in that era, the point at which people started succumbing to this heat. When people started complaining about the heat, the standard response was, Hey, its summer. It gets hot around here. Deal with it,' Skilling said. For five torturous days, the oppressive heat cloaked Chicago in high-90 and low-100-degree temperatures. When you have humidity with heat, it shuts down the human bodys ability to cool itself through the evaporation of perspiration on us, Skilling explained. Climate and Environment news: WGN Weather Center blog The emergency exposed a city of haves and have nots. Those with air conditioning were largely fine. Those who only had open windows and box fans were simply blowing the hot air at themselves with more force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You know, the construction of our buildings in Chicago makes them almost like ovens, Skilling said. So many people died and they were unidentified. They were there by themselves and there was no one to identify them, so there were mass graves that were dug. The demand for electricity stressed the grid; 49,000 homes lost power. Some also lost water pressure when fire hydrants were opened. Paramedics were also overwhelmed, having to attend to hundreds and hundreds of emergency calls. Nearly two dozen hospitals treated so many patients that they closed their emergency rooms, forcing ambulances to bypass them. They call me at home and said, Have you heard whats going on here? I said no and they said, Oh my word. The bodies at the coroners office are piling up to the extent theyve had to call in refrigerator trucks to handle all of them. That was the first inkling of what was developing and that was catastrophic loss of life resulting from the heat, Skilling said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The most gruesome location was the Cook County Medical Examiners Office. By the third day of the heat wave, the morgues 220-bed capacity was exceeded by hundreds of bodies and authorities brought a fleet of refrigerated trucks to store the dead. Cooling tips: Beat the heat without breaking the bank Chicago learned hard lessons about natures deadliest weather event. We learned a great deal through that tragedy and today the city of Chicago is very proactive when heat is coming in. Theyre alerted by the Weather Service when its coming. The city opens cooling centers and will transport the elderly and vulnerable members of our population to these cooling centers, and we in the media are encouraged to remind folks to look in on the elderly, Skilling said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson attended an event to remember the 30th anniversary of the heat wave and how it shaped disaster preparedness. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. CHICAGO Just weeks after a deadly mass shooting left four dead and 14 others injured outside of a business in River North, the owners have announced they are closing the doors for good. In a social media post shared late Tuesday night, Artis Restaurant and Lounge announced that it would be shutting down permanently. Its with a heavy heart, but clear mind that we announce the closing of Artis Restaurant & Lounge, the image shared by the restaurant read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Absolute chaos: 4 killed, 14 hurt in River North mass drive-by shooting While the business did not say what exactly led to the closure, in the caption of the post, the owners elaborated on the decision. Two weeks ago, our lives were forever changed. During the mass shooting that took place outside our restaurant, wealong with members of our team and familywere inside. What was supposed to be a night of artistry, laughter, and connection turned into a moment of unimaginable fear and heartbreak, the post read. We are still processing, still grieving, and still holding one another close. Thank you to everyone who reached out with love and support. Please continue to hold space for our staff, our families, the victims, and this entire community. We will not be defined by this violence, but we will never forget. Father of rapper who hosted album release party ahead of River North mass shooting indicted on federal gun charges Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The closures come just two weeks after a mass shooting unfolded outside of the business, located near the 300 block of West Chicago Avenue. (Photo: WGN) (Photo: WGN) (Photo: WGN) Police said the shooting occurred around 11 p.m. on Wednesday, July 2, as a crowd exited the business. The crowd had gathered for an album release party for HollyHOOD The Mixtape, the latest release by Chicago rapper Mello Buckzz. River North mass shooting: What we know about the victims Officers said as the crowd exited the event space, gunfire erupted from a dark-colored vehicle, leaving 18 wounded, four fatally. The victims ranged in age from 21 to 32, five of them men and 13 of them women. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cellphone video obtained by WGN News captured the chaotic scene moments after the mass shooting. The deadly shooting prompted the city to temporarily shut down a business, marking the second time a business at the address has been closed following violence. Video shows chaotic scene after River North mass shooting The business that occupied the space before, Hush nightclub, closed after one person was killed and three others were wounded in a 2022 shooting outside the club. Artis Restaurant and Lounge, owned by Chef Brandi Artis, who once competed on a Food Network show, then opened in the space in April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement River North shooting raises concerns over neighborhoods crime trends Following the shooting, the Artis team released a statement, saying: Artis was created as a safe space. A space where Black, Brown, Queer, and allied communities could gather, be celebrated, and feel at home in River North. Weve always led with that mission. And what happened last night disrupted it in the most painful way. After the shooting and temporary closure, Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd Ward), who represents the ward where the incident unfolded, said he was working to make the closure permanent. In a social media post shared late Monday night, Buckzz addressed the shooting, calling it senseless. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement River North mass shooting: City closes property with history of violence As the search continues, authorities have announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the individual or individuals responsible for the deadly shooting. To claim the reward, those with information are asked to contact the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-535-STOP (7867). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lashed out at a senior Department of Government Efficiency official who allegedly called the Pentagon police on a subordinate after a confrontation, according to a new report. The reprimand allegedly took place after a tense one-on-one meeting on April 4 between Yinon Weiss, Elon Musks pick to lead DOGE at the Defense Department, and Justin Fulcher, another official at the advisory body, three sources told the Washington Post. It came at a tumultuous time for the defense secretary, who was dealing with the fallout from Signalgate, where top officials gave The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg a front row seat as they discussed impending strikes on Houthi terrorists in Yemen in March. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After storming out of the meeting, Fulcher allegedly went to Hegseths office and complained that he believed Weiss had reported him to the Pentagon Force Protection Agency. Weisss alleged actions angered the defense secretary, the sources said. Its not clear what caused the argument between Weiss and Fulcher. Hegseth became irate after a spat between DOGE staffers allegedly ended in the Pentagon police being called (AP) Hegseth became irate after a spat between DOGE staffers allegedly ended in the Pentagon police being called (AP) At times raising his voice, the sources added that an irate Hegseth demanded that Weiss, who departed DOGE last week, explain why he believed he possessed the authority to evict someone from government property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weiss attempted to explain to Hegseth that he had not contacted the Pentagon police but another government official, two people familiar with their argument said. One source claimed that Weiss contacted the Pentagon transition office that assists newly arriving political appointees. In a text message to The Post, Fulcher said that he believed no police were called, nor did he see any law enforcement officers. There was one person who was making claims that he was going to call PFPA (Pentagon Force Protection Agency) that was clear, he said. Despite Fulchers admission, Hegseth did not appear to blame the DOGE employee. After his spat with Weiss, he was provided with a Pentagon office space. After his DOGE departure last week, Yinon Weiss (pictured) thanked Hegseth for the unprecedented opportunity he gave DOGE (Fox News) After his DOGE departure last week, Yinon Weiss (pictured) thanked Hegseth for the unprecedented opportunity he gave DOGE (Fox News) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After firing several senior Pentagon officials in mid-April, Hegseth named Fulcher a senior adviser. While Fulcher remains in his position, sources said he has been relocated from outside Hegseths main office to a desk down the hall. Fulcher told The Post that the move was temporary, due to maintenance work being conducted. Justin Fulcher is a senior advisor to Secretary Hegseth, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Independent. Our senior advisors at the Department of Defense are unified and working together to carry out President Trump and Secretary Hegseths agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reflecting on his departure from DOGE on Tuesday, Weiss thanked Hegseth for the unprecedented opportunity he gave the group. @SecDef carefully and fairly weighed in on every recommendation that was presented to him, and he fully embodied the values he promotes for the Department; reviving the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military, and reasserting deterrence, he tweeted. The altercation highlights tension between senior Pentagon officials and those assigned to DOGE, whose mission to dismantle federal departments has reportedly clashed with national security priorities. Despite publicly praising DOGEs work, behind the scenes, Hegseth expressed frustration about its activity and unreliable communication, especially earlier in the year, according to sources. Vice President JD Vance is currently visiting Disneyland with his family which has resulted in heightened security at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disneyland. Keep reading for full details on how to prepare for any potential disruptions to your Disneyland trip with information on the security measures in place at nearby hotels and the protests that have taken place nearby. READ MORE Most Disneyland Guests Don't Know About This Super Secret Dining Room Open to All Vice President JD Vance Spotted at Disneyland A friend of Mickey Visit spotted Vice President JD Vance getting off of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland today with an estimated 50 security and Disneyland personnel, you can see the footage below: It was already confirmed to news outlets like the OC Register that Vice President JD Vance was planning some family time in Orange County this weekend along with a potential Disneyland visit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Disneyland officials had confirmed to OC Register ahead of his visit that security personnel were working with Disneyland Resort Security in preparation for an upcoming guest visit but declined to confirm any individual plans out of respect of privacy for all guests. Heightened Security at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa May Cause Delays Disney's Grand Californian Hotel entrance A friend of Mickey Visit currently staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa described to us the security measures in place at the hotel. When they arrived at the Grand Californian, they discovered that the front entrance was restricted to just one lane and then their Uber was directed to a tent to be sniffed by security dogs before proceeding. The entrance to the main lobby is closed off and they were then sent around the side to go through a security process similar to the kind before entering the theme parks. Security is putting all bags through scanners, if the luggage is too big for the scanner it will then be hand searched before you can enter which was the case for our friend. While it hasn't been confirmed where Vice President JD Vance is staying, it's likely it could be at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa due to these large security measures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Intense security measures like these are not uncommon for high profile political figures. There is also currently a temporary flight restriction that has been filed over Anaheim due to his visit. If you are staying at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa this weekend, it's likely you will have a similar experience when you arrive. Allow for more time if you have dinner reservation plans and be prepared for an extensive search when you arrive which may include a hand search of your luggage. Protests Near Disneyland as a Result of Vice President Visit Dozens of protestors were seen at Disneyland Drive and Katella corner last night in response to the visit from Vice President JD Vance. The Disneyland Drive street is now reportedly closed. According to local news reports, protestors were speaking out against the current administration's immigration policy which has had a large impact on the Southern California region. For guests entering Disneyland, this shouldn't have a large impact on your access to the resort as these protests and their impact were largely confined to the area near the entrance of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. READ MORE Why Disney Housekeeping Will Enter Your Room Daily Even If You Have the Do Not Disturb Sign On Don't Miss the Latest Disney News Don't miss the latest Disneyland and Disney World news from Mickey Visit. Join the FREE Mickey Visit newsletter that over 100k readers receive every single week. Mickey Visit is here to help you save money and experience more during your Disney and Universal vacation. See the Mickey Visit guide to Disneyland and the Mickey Visit guide to Disney World for tips. The post Heightened Security and Protests Nearby Disneyland This Weekend Due to JD Vance Visit appeared first on Mickey Visit - Disney News & Planning Tips. NEED TO KNOW A British couple were convicted of manslaughter in the death of their infant daughter Constance Marten, the child's mother, is the daughter of a former page of Queen Elizabeth II Marten and her partner, Mark Gordon, were on the run from authorities for seven weeks A British woman born into nobility and her partner were convicted of manslaughter in the death of their infant daughter. Constance Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were living in a tent in freezing conditions along with their newborn, Victoria, while on the run from authorities, according to Metropolitan Police. The couple were arrested following a seven-week manhunt in 2023, sparked by the discovery of a placenta in their burning car Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marten is the daughter of Napier Marten, once a page for Queen Elizabeth II, and the granddaughter of Mary Anna Marten, who was the goddaughter of the Queen Mother, according to the BBC. The BBC reported Marten told friends that when she was a child, she would play with Prince William and Prince Harry. Marten reportedly cut ties with her family in 2016, according to CBS. Metropolitan Police/AFP via Getty Mark Gordon Mark Gordon Prior to his relationship with Marten, Gordon had spent 20 years in a U.S. prison after being convicted of raping a woman at knifepoint in Florida when he was 14, according to the BBC. Following his release from prison, Gordon was deported to the U.K. in 2010. The BBC reported that Marten and Gordon met a few years later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Together, the couple had four other children in addition to Victoria. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. Met Police said Marten and Gordon were arrested in Brighton, in southern England, in February 2023. On March 1, Victorias body was found inside a bag near where they had been staying. Victorias cause of death remains undetermined, police said, though they claimed Marten told officers that the baby had died in her sleep and didnt elaborate further. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Victoria's death was completely avoidable, Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said in a statement. The couple had plenty of opportunities to do the right thing and come forward to ask for help. They knew that officers were looking for them." Read the original article on People HENDERSON, Ky (WEHT) A Henderson group is making another trip to help victims of Hurricane Helene in North Carolina. 4Good Community is loading up a box truck and heading back to Ashville on Friday to deliver furniture. This is the second trip for the nonprofit. A group went in October about a month after remnants of Hurricane Helene dropped torrential rainfall leading to catastrophic flooding and damage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization says recovery is a prolonged process and help does not stop when water recedes. The nonprofit says it plans to do the same thing for flooding victims in Henderson County when the time comes. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). (Bloomberg) For years, investors have found themselves at the whim of President Donald Trumps social-media posts. Now, traders are being forced to pay attention to an unlikely official: Federal Housing Finance Agency head Bill Pulte. Most Read from Bloomberg Stocks have swung wildly on Pultes comments as he opines on everything from credit score pricing, to cryptocurrencies as mortgage assets, and even the job security of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Sometimes preceded by cryptic teasers, his online comments have fueled the worst one-day drop in half a decade for credit-score provider Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), multiple slumps in credit bureau stocks and even a brief drip in the entire S&P 500 Index on Friday. His market moving ability has thrust a normally obscure government official into the forefront of business news, said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. Fridays market pullback, while brief, saw the S&P 500 quickly drop about 0.2% in a matter of minutes after Pulte posted on X that he was encouraged by reports that Powell is considering resigning, without referencing any specific report. No such verified reports have emerged. Pulte is no stranger to courting online controversy: Before joining the FHFA, the investor and self-proclaimed online philanthropist had partaken in multiple feuds on social media site X. He was also known for using his account to give cash to followers. Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned Pultes presence on X as the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs considered the nomination to his current job. Warren in a letter wrote that Pulte appeared to have deleted more than 25,000 posts from his account days after the 2024 presidential election, leaving up fewer than 250. Pultes position in government has given his words new weight. Fair Isaac slid 16% on May 21 after Pulte questioned credit score pricing in a series of posts on X, the biggest decline in the stock since March 2020. The selloff, which followed comments from Pulte on credit scores at a conference, wiped nearly $7.8 billion off the market value of the FICO score provider. Shares of credit bureaus TransUnion (TRU) and Equifax Inc. (EFX) also fell after those comments. The stocks were again rattled last month when Pulte said on X that he was doing a full scale review of credit bureaus, and Fair Isaac slid again after he said last week that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow lenders to use a different credit score to increase competition in the ecosystem. MAILI, Oahu (KHON2) The Honolulu Fire Department has determined the cause of the brush fire in Maili on July 6. Friends remember elderly victim of Maili fire, want to help send her home to Philippines In an update provided by HFD on July 15, they classified the cause of the fire as undetermined HFDs investigation consisted of examining the area, collecting and analyzing evidence, interviewing residents and reviewing weather conditions and environmental factors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement HFD said that the fire started near Paakea Road in the vicinity of Lualualei Very Low Frequency Transmitter. The case remains open, with a damage assessment still in progress. This comes after the fire initially broke out on July 6. HFD said there were up to 31 units responding, including two helicopters and federal firefighters. An evacuation order was issued for residents mauka of Kulaaupuni Road, with officials officially confirming the fire was fully contained on July 7. The fire claimed the life of 94-year-old Maria Pascual, who died from smoke inhalation. Check out more news from around Hawaii Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A GoFundMe is available to help send Pascual back to the Philippines to be laid to rest. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) Florida State University received a $330,000 grant to place high-frequency radars along the Gulf Coast. Dr. Catherine Hancock, a Florida State University faculty researcher, uses high-frequency radar equipment to analyze the radio signals that reflect off the waves. She received a grant from NOAA for units in Orange Beach, Alabama, Destin, Florida and a location in the Bay County area. These radars help gather information about the waters that benefit the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fact that you have surface currents allows you to use it in a whole slew of different research and actually community-related things, such as the U.S. Coast Guard. They use it for their search and rescue. It greatly reduces their search area, which then translates into lives saved or property damage reduced, Dr. Hancock said. The radar helps detect contaminants, oil from the 2010 Deep Horizon spill, sewage contamination, red tide and ecological disasters. It can also be used recreationally for analyzing surf and wave conditions and finding safer routes for boaters. However, to do all of that, Dr. Hancock needs a place to install another radar in or around the Bay County area. Ive tried Mexico Beach. Tried Tyndall, its a hundred-year flood zone. So, they required a lot of extra work, which would require time and money that we dont have. And then Ive also tried Saint Joe Company, which is a real estate company, that is located on the west side of well, they have undeveloped property on the west side of Mexico Beach, Dr. Hancock continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr. Hancock first attempted to pitch the radar at Saint Andrews State Park, Saint Joseph Peninsula State Park and to the Saint Joe Company, all of which rejected the idea for a variety of reasons. Mexico Beach City officials declined the request for aesthetic purposes. I dont see our public or our visitors supporting a view like that, said Mexico Beach Council Member Erik Fosshage. I wish I could say that they would, but I dont think you would. And you know, Ive just been racking my brain like you do. You know, where else could it go? And I remember and I recognize that you came to us third, were not your first and second choice. Dr. Hancock acknowledges the push-back, but says the data is important. They want their community to come there and look at it and say, oh, its so pretty and nice, which I totally understand, said Dr. Hancock. However, it always ends up being the thing. Oh, we all want the data, but nobody wants it in their backyard. At the end of the day, somebody has to put it in their backyard, or there is no data. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The high-frequency radar in Destin has been in place since 2008. Without another radar in Bay County, theres a gap in the data. Because of the grant, the cost of placement and use of the radar is fully funded by Dr. Hancocks department. It now depends on who is willing to say yes. Upon approval, the radar data will be available to the public. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Over the years, the city of Sioux Falls has invested a lot of money into safer playgrounds. But even with top-of-the-line equipment, on days like to Tuesday, swings and slides can be hot to the touch. Its the warmest time of the year, how hot is it? When the sun is out and the temperature rises, playgrounds can really heat up. This afternoon, as the air temperature neared 90 degrees, we headed to two Sioux Falls parks with a thermometer to find out just how hot the equipment can get. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This dark green swing at Jacobson Plaza reached 116 degrees. A slide at McKennan Park reached 161 degrees. The highest temperature we found was the ground at McKennan Park. It was 168 degrees. With temperatures like those, its important to consider shade when taking your child to a playground. Connor Chiu says in his experience, the slides can be the most painful on a hot day. Sometimes it gives me burns on the legs, said Chiu. Another option could be going to a waterpark or splashpad for the day to cool down and ensure safe and burn-free play. Parents we talked with at Jacobson Plaza said even though the equipment is hot, their kids are able to handle the heat thanks to water activities at the downtown park. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were outside a lot. We go to playgrounds a lot and if its too hot they can just go and do something else. For me I think there is a lot of water here and if they are hot they can just go in the in the water and play and cool down, said Betsy Larson When it comes time to pick out a playground for the day, it is best to check the temperature outside, keep hydration in mind, and opt for a playground that has light color plastic or a shaded area. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) An Evansville liquor store facing opposition went before the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission in Indianapolis over its liquor license. From community members to state representative Alex Burton, the store has seen a wave of criticisms with its operations. This is no different than what is happening in the county as it relates to solar farms, Burton says. So much of our opposition and concern about those, just like those communities are concerned about solar farms, my community is concerned about another liquor store coming in the zip code of 47713. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Angie Bullock and Shona Jarboe live in the community who say they were caught off guard by the stores opening and have been following the development in the past week and attended the Indiana ATC meeting in Indianapolis. We have to be actively engaged. Otherwise, we dont get to have much voice, Jarboe said. We support those efforts for drug and alcohol and recovery and everything, but its not a good mix when you have this high saturation of these types of facilities in the neighborhood, Bullock says. The last thing you want to bring to the neighborhood is a liquor store. For store owner Pawan Sooch, he says him and his business partners have cooperated with local officials on the opening of the shop. Despite having obtained the license a year ago, he says they presented to the Vanderburgh County Alcoholic Beverage Board to get the license renewed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He says the board recommended denying the renewal in a two to one vote, which led to the ATC meeting where he says commissioners will have the final decision. At Tuesdays morning meeting, commissioners decided to table the discussion for another hearing on August 5. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). Bath and Cambridge are urging the government to allow them to introduce tourist taxes, becoming the latest in a string of English destinations seeking similar levies. While Scotland and Wales have granted their councils the ability to tax tourists, at present the UK government has no law giving English local authorities the power to impose visitor levies. In recent months, an increasing number of cities and popular destinations around England have been voicing their eagerness to introduce similar tourist taxes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bath and Cambridge are among the latest, having joined forces in urging Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to consider passing a visitor levy law in England. The two cities attract hordes of tourists every year, with visitors drawn to Baths Roman-built baths and Georgian architecture, while Cambridge appeals to visitors with its world-renowned university and pretty city centre. In a letter sent to Ms Rayner, the leaders of Bath & North East Somerset Council and Cambridge City Council state that their destination cities are under growing amounts of pressure when it comes to tourism. They note that the number of visitors is putting local infrastructure under strain and increasing demands on services like waste management. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The councils are seeking a roundtable with the government to explore ways that they can support sustainable tourism in their cities, including the introduction of a modest visitor levy with revenue that will benefit both residents and visitors. The cities are keen for a similar structure to that which has been applied in Wales and Scotland, whereby levies would be applied across all types of accommodation, including short-term lets like Airbnb. Councillor Kevin Guy, leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council, has called for a fairer system that recognises the costs of playing a role in the national visitor economy. He said that the council should be given the tools to manage tourism in a way that reflects local needs and priorities, as well as sustain the quality of the city for visitors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cameron Holloway, leader of Cambridge City Council, said that while it is proud to welcome so many visitors a year, the high numbers of tourists ebbing and flowing through our relatively small medieval city centre can have a serious impact on local people, and can detract from the visitor experience. If tourism in historic cities like ours is to remain sustainable and internationally competitive, we need to be given the means to manage the flow of visitors and to address some of the negative impacts of tourism on local residents, public realm, and infrastructure, he added. The councils also want to explore other ways that sustainable tourism can be upheld in their heritage destinations, while still being able to enjoy the benefits from the visitor economy. Cambridge and Bath have both followed other destinations seeking the powers to impose a tourist tax. This includes Brent, home of Wembley Stadium, which attracts huge crowds and is keen to reinvest the funds from levies in local infrastructure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oxford has also floated the idea of introducing a tourist tax through a legal workaround, which would involve setting up an Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID) that would allow hotels to charge an extra fee to be reinvested in projects in the area. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calders podcast BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) An organ built in New York and delivered to Youngstown in 1925 is still pumping out world-class music. Its a classical instrument with a century of history. The sound of a Wurlitzer Pipe Organ is made up of 888 pipes, some over 15 feet long, others as small as a pen. The shapes and sizes determine the different sounds. Its totally encompassing and different than what you would hear in a church from a church organ, different Stambaugh Auditorium, which is a classical concert instrument. This organ was designed to entertain, said Vic Marsilio, of Victor Organ Company LLC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its similar to when it was built in 1925 and installed at Youngstowns Palace Theatre. The sounds accompanied silent movies. The organ now makes its glorious sounds in Boardman, part of C&C Ribbon and Floral Shop along South Avenue in Boardman. Marsilio spent 10 years restoring the organ. Now it plays about eight hours a day when the shop is open and people enjoy what they hear. They tend to lean more toward Christmas, the Christmas music. The instrument lends itself well to novelty music, popular music, very entertaining, Marsilio said. The organ also makes the sound of an eleven-member orchestra, drums, trumpet and more. Its powered by a five horsepower windblower. The pipes always play at the same volume, and shades open to let more sound out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lost art. Theres no instruments left in Youngstown. People go here, other than Stambaugh Auditorium, all the theater organs that work in Youngstown are gone. This is the only one thats left, Marsilio said. The organ plays now more than it did in the theater. Some have still never heard of it. Marsilio suggests stopping by and hearing it for yourself. Anybody and everybody that wants to hear it, enjoy it and sit back and take a time travel back in history, Marsilio said. There will be a special performance to celebrate the organs 100th birthday at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 27 at C&C Ribbon and Floral. Organist Ian Fraser will give a special performance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not know how many billionaires pay tax in the UK, a report by MPs has found. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which scrutinises government spending, said an unknown but likely sizeable amount of wealth was being hidden from the tax office through legal loopholes and offshore bank accounts despite a recent crackdown by officials. When asked by MPs, HMRC was unable to provide a figure for how much revenue it collects from British billionaires, or how many billionaires paid tax in the UK. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reports findings suggest it could be difficult for Labour to impose wealth taxes on the very richest in society. Lloyd Hatton, a Labour MP and member of the PAC, told The Telegraph that closing the so-called tax gap the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid and the amount actually paid would offer an alternative to introducing new wealth taxes. Mr Hatton said: Rather than the Treasury trying to drum up new taxes, if we just got this right and closed the tax gaps there would be more money to spend on public services. The report said HMRCs estimate that it failed to collect 300m last year from offshore accounts was too low, given UK residents held 849bn in tax havens in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Hatton described the estimate as completely inconclusive and in no way reflective of what the offshore tax gap is. He believes the true figure is far higher. He said: HMRC is unable to tell us how much tax the very wealthiest in the country billionaires are paying the UK. I find it really troubling that HMRC does not conduct that analysis. If we dont have that information its really hard to close the wealthy tax gap and make sure we are collecting the right amount of tax and those with the broadest shoulders are paying their fare share. Effectively taxing the rich could raise billions of pounds of tax, Mr Hatton said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that the PAC report did not look at the merits of any individual wealth tax policy or indeed how HMRC would implement a wealth tax. What were looking at is how we collect the right amount of tax from wealthy individuals living in the UK, he said. The population of wealthy taxpayers who have at least 2m in assets or an income of 200,000 a year has risen from 700,000 between 2019 and 2020 to 850,000 last year. HMRC told the PAC it did not hold more detailed figures that would reveal the number of people in this category with the largest incomes and assets, including billionaires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report comes after Labour refused to rule out wealth taxes to fund a series of about-turns on planned cuts to public spending that could result in higher taxes in the Budget later this year. The latest decision to reverse reductions in benefits payments will cost 3bn, according to a forecast by the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank. Allowing pensioners with an annual income of less than 35,000 to keep the winter fuel payment is predicted to come with a price tag of more than 1bn. One suggestion by Lord Kinnock, the former Labour leader, is a 2pc tax on assets worth more than 10m that could help raise about 10bn a year for the Treasury. He said the party was willing to explore the measure. But HMRC is already struggling to collect enough taxes from those who would fall into this category, according to the PAC report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It said the tax office found it particularly difficult to measure the unpaid taxes of the wealthiest and those with money hidden in offshore accounts. The UK is also poised to lose more millionaires than any other country this year amid high taxes, making the pool of potential wealthy taxpayers smaller. Figures from advisory firm Henley & Partners predicted last month that a net 16,500 millionaires would quit Britain in 2025, up from 10,800 last year. It would be the largest wealth exodus of its kind in any country for a decade. MPs praised a recent crackdown on uncollected taxes that saw the tax office net 5.2bn from wealthy individuals last year, up from 2.2bn between 2019 and 2020, but said it suggested tax avoidance was growing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The PAC report said: The scale of this success suggests either non-compliance amongst the wealthy has got worse, or that previous estimates of the extent to which they were avoiding tax were too low. HMRC aims to increase revenues from offshore taxes by at least 500m by the end of the decade and plans to hire 400 additional staff specifically to target the increasing number of wealthy taxpayers. The PAC asked HMRC to provide a plan for how it intends to better its understanding of the wealth held by billionaires in the UK. It suggested officials target those named on the Sunday Times Rich List, a yearly publication of the wealthiest people in the country. The committee recommended HMRC do this by following the example of the Inland Revenue Service, its American equivalent, by linking tax data to the Forbes 400, which lists the richest people in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An HMRC spokesman said: The Government is determined to make sure everyone pays the tax they owe. Extra resources were announced in the recent spending review which allows us to significantly step up our work on closing the tax gap amongst the wealthiest. This includes recruiting an extra 400 officials specialising in the wealthy and offshore tax gap, and increasing prosecutions of those who evade tax. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. By Dominique Patton PARIS (Reuters) -Renault named finance chief Duncan Minto as interim CEO on Tuesday, and said it will step up cost cutting measures after lowering its forecast for full year operating margins. The French carmaker said its first half free cash flow would amount to just 47 million euros ($54.49 million), hit by a negative working capital requirement of around 900 million euros, due to delayed billings and a decline in both the passenger car and van market in Europe. It said it now aims to achieve a full year operating margin of 6.5% compared with at least 7% previously announced. And it aims for free cash-flow of 1-1.5 billion euros, versus over 2 billion euros previously. Renault, whose popular models include the low-cost Dacia Sandero as well as the electric Renault 5, has fared better than many of its bigger peers like Stellantis and Volkswagen over the last year, with new launches boosting sales and profits, and a focus on Europe insulating it from trade turmoil caused by U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs. However, it remains under pressure, with weak demand in its key European markets and growing competition from China, especially in electric and hybrid vehicles. "Obviously, the retail market's been slow across Europe, and we haven't seen any positive dynamic at all in, you know, competitive positioning and pricing. We've seen actually things get softer slightly," Minto told an analysts' call. The company said June volumes were slightly lower than expected, while it was also impacted by billing timing that affected its receivables. Minto, who has been at the Renault group since 1997, has taken over running the company as of Tuesday as it searches for a permanent replacement for Luca de Meo who resigned suddenly last month to join luxury group Kering. Minto, 50, was appointed CFO in March. He will ensure the day-to-day management of the company alongside chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, Renault said in a statement. Renault, which reports first half results on July 31, said on Tuesday that the selection process for the new CEO was "well underway." Cost-cutting actions and plans to ensure the group's cost competitiveness, as well as the working capital reversal, will be in focus during the July 31 earnings call, said analysts at JPMorgan. "Additionally, in our view, it is crucial for Renault to provide more details on the CEO succession, with an announcement expected by year-end," they added. Denis Le Vot, currently head of Renault's Dacia brand, is seen by analysts as a frontrunner to take over as CEO, as is Maxime Picat, who was chief global purchasing and supply chain officer at Stellantis until his departure this month, weeks after the company overlooked him for the top job and picked Antonio Filosa as CEO. HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) The city of Holyoke is receiving opioid settlement funds from the state. West Springfield opens 10 micro-businesses on Park Avenue The city of Holyoke received $1 million from the state as part of the opioid settlement funds, and now they are in the process of planning who will receive it. Providers and community members in Holyoke gathered to learn and discuss how the city is going to begin its opioid fund settlement process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Todays meeting, which was very productive, was to determine what a calendar would look like for distribution of those funds in the community, says Alicia Zoeller, Administrator for the Office of Community Development. What the community needs is how the community needs assessment is going to move forward, and how folks in the community can be involved in this process. The funding dates back to 2021 when then Attorney General Maura Healey announced settlement agreements with several opioid manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies regarding their role in enabling the overdose epidemic. Many people with lived experiences sharing their stories, highlighting organizations around Holyoke that are helping to make a difference, Zoeller adds. The meeting will give the city feedback moving forward. Zoeller goes on to say, How can we better ensure that folks with lived experience, those with personal firsthand opioid experience, can have a seat at the table? We may need to kick up our game a little bit in making sure that we have enough seats at the table for everyone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city had equalized the playing field when it comes to who can receive the funds. We want to make sure that anybody who has a great idea for a service that needs to be provided in the community can apply for those funds, stated Zoeller. Whether a citys board of health, the fire department, or an independent organization, they will all have to apply for funding. As of right now, the funds will be distributed in early March of next year. The mayor makes the final decisions after a period open for public comments and committee recommendations. But they also said the dates could change with the feedback they received today. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) The mounting questions for the Henderson Police Department appeared distant as a packed city hall applauded the new police chief, branded the Hometown Son. During a Tuesday swearing-in ceremony, Reggie Rader took the oath of office with his wife and two children by his side, his parents sitting nearby. The Henderson City Hall ceremony was praised by those in attendance which included LVMPD Undersheriff Andrew Walsh and Sherriff Kevin McMahill. I got to tell all my Metro people, I think the blue looks really good, Rader said pointing to the Henderson uniform. And I do want to thank the sheriff as he is wearing all blue too in a sign of solidarity. Thank you for that. Reggie Rader is sworn in as Hendersons new police chief before the Henderson City Council on July 15, 2025. (KLAS) Rader acknowledged Henderson City Council for the support he received during the first phase of the position and expressed gratitude in giving the Green Valley High School graduate a chance at the top cop job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As you know I do have deep roots, he said. This is more of a homecoming for me. The ceremony shifted to comments from each of the city council members and Henderson Mayor Michelle Romero who recognized Raders background. We are excited to have one of our hometown sons be at the helm of our police department, Romero said. Henderson Councilman Jim Seebock, who previously worked with Rader while at LVMPD, gave the new chief an apparent playful ribbing as he reminded the audience about their Henderson high school rivalry. With the exception to going to Green Valley High School instead of Basic (High School)we will deal with that laterI am really thrilled, Seebock said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The task to bind together a police department, which has sometimes appeared fraught with concerns, was noted by Rader, who explained hed already begun reshaping the office. I do want you to know every single decision I make, including picking my command team moving forward, is going to be with the input and thought I have from you guys, he said. A seat at the table The ceremony marked the fourth name in three months for the head of the Henderson Police Department: Hollie Chadwick, Itzhak Henn, Anthony Branchini, and now Reggie Rader. During the past month, Rader has already been able to tour the police departments area commands and walk through the detention center, logging comments from staff along the way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There were some resounding themes that were coming out there, he said. Thats not lost on me, and I want you to know I started to take those things to heart. Overtime use, staffing shortages, and an upcoming shift change bidding process were among the items Rader indicated an interest in tackling. I am already trying to beef up the patrol for this next shift bid because every area command I go to, there are folks on overtime, he said. Its great that you guys are willing to protect the community and come work on overtime, but I know that has its toll on you as well. Rader concluded his statements with comments directed at his neighbors throughout Henderson, some of whom have asked for more clarity from within the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I do not look at transparency or collaboration as a bad thing, he said. In fact, I see it as a necessity moving forward. Rader expressed a need for support and input from the community, which has become the second-largest city in Nevada. I can only do that if you have a seat at the table, he said. This is your police department as well. Last week, 8 News Now asked for an opportunity to ask Rader questions regarding his role and recent department changes ahead of the ceremony. Questions from the media were denied by staff during the ceremony at Henderson City Hall. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) One day after multiple family members were handed prison sentences for their role in the violent, deadly beating of a North Carolina man in 2023, Horry Countys top prosecutor weighed in on the case. On Monday, 42-year-old Samantha Watts of Green Sea was sent to prison for 45 years after she admitted to helping murder Corey Adam Soles of Chadbourn, N.C. Attorneys in court went even further, saying she was the matriarch of a family-run drug business. Watts 18-year-old son Payton got a 35-year prison sentence and two of her other children got lesser penalties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said Soles gang attack was reminiscent of 1960s-era mobsters. News13 on Tuesday also obtained video from Richardsons office showing members of Watts family kicking and beating Soles as he was on the ground. Soles was reported missing by friends on Jan. 10, 2023 and his body was recovered six days later from a body of water on Primrose Drive in Galivants Ferry. There were two beatings. The first put him in a chair a wheelchair and that was a pretty bad one. And then theyll take the wheelchair into a shed, and you cant see that beating but you people coming in and going out with a pipe, Richardson said. Almost like a movie. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors didnt make clear why Soles was visiting Watts home in early January 2023, but the husband and father of three was beaten over the course of 11 hours sustaining a broken leg and broken nose before he was bludgeoned to death, acts all caught on video surveillance from a system he installed. In effect, he solved his own murder, assistant solicitor Brandon Lanier said. Richardson, whos been in office since 1998 representing Georgetown and Horry counties, said Watts crime syndicate stands out. First of all, its a family affair. But it really, its as though a family decided that they were going to be a mob and sort of cornered the market on drug sales for that community, he said. And then exact revenge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Primrose Drive residents who declined to go on camera told News13 they were riding four-wheelers near the area where Soles was found. Richardson said Watts run a drug operation from her home and used her position as a mother to enlist her children in the scheme. Any parent is going to have some sway over their children. Most of the time, parents choose that to better their children. Thats at least what we would hope, he said. She used her kids Peyton especially to be the muscle. Paytons lawyer Jarrett Bouchette made similar claims during his Monday sentencing. Payton was 16 in 2023, and his life was one of forced brutality and blind devotion to a woman who cared nothing about his development, his lawyer said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She groomed and fostered in him a requirement that he be her enforcer. She intended to establish that he was the muscle. Thats what she had control of to make her life easy, Bouchette said. Theres no scenario where Payton Watts is sitting here accused of being involved in murder were it not for the activity that was put forth by him by his mother. Richardson said Watts viewed Payton and her other children as street enforcers. The kids were used to sort of collect the debt or put that out there, that you want to pay for your drugs and not get really behind, he said. Watts daughter got five years probation after pleading guilty to an accessory charge and her son Jonathan was credit for 908 days of time served on a first-degree assault conviction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * * * Adam Benson joined the News13 digital team in January 2024. He is a veteran South Carolina reporter with previous stops at the Greenwood Index-Journal, Post & Courier and The Sun News in Myrtle Beach. Adam is a Boston native and University of Utah graduate. Follow Adam on X, formerly Twitter, at @AdamNewshound12. See more of his work here. * * * Gabby Jonas joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in April 2024. She is from Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Kent State University in May 2023. Follow Gabby on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, and read more of her work here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. After the driest spring in more than a century, followed by the UKs hottest June on record, the first hosepipe bans of 2025 have been announced. In a report earlier this year, the Environment Agency warned that England faced major public water shortages unless urgent action was taken. In an effort to reduce the risk of shortages, the restrictions will ban the use of hosepipes for watering plants, washing windows, patios and cars, or filling paddling and swimming pools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But is your area affected? On Friday 11 July, Yorkshire Water brought in the first hosepipe ban of the year. Hours later, South East Water announced that its own ban would be imposed from July 18. The temporary restrictions for customers in Kent and Sussex will impact more than a million households. The following week Thames Water announced a hosepipe ban for households in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, most of Wiltshire and some parts of Berkshire. The ban will be imposed on July 22 for millions of customers in all OX postcodes, all GL postcodes and all SN postcodes, as well as those in RG4, RG8 and RG9 postcodes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ban was then extended to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, as Southern Water announced restrictions to come into place from 9am on Monday 21 July. As the UK recovers from its third heatwave in four weeks, more restrictions are likely be introduced in the coming weeks. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. A Lake Elsinore man employed as a nurse at multiple hospitals in Riverside County was arrested Tuesday in connection with the alleged sexual assault of an unconscious patient, according to authorities. The Riverside County Sheriffs Department stated in a news release that its Special Victims Unit began investigating the case in June 2025 after receiving information about inappropriate contact between a hospital employee and an unconscious patient. The suspect was identified as 40-year-old Lauro Gonzales Jr. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 15, investigators conducted a vehicle stop near Interstate 15 and Temescal Canyon Road, where Gonzales was taken into custody without incident. A search warrant was executed at his residence, where authorities say they found additional evidence connected to the case. Disabled veteran detained during immigration raid speaks out, alleges civil rights violations Gonzales was booked into the Cois Byrd Detention Center and faces a charge of sexual penetration of an unconscious person. Investigators believe there may be additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact Investigator J. Lee at (951) 955-1718 or the Sheriffs Dispatch at (951) 776-1099. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Riverside County Sheriffs Department emphasized that the investigation remains ongoing. No further details have been released at this time. For media inquiries, officials recommend contacting the departments Media Information Bureau at mib@riversidesheriff.org. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. MANHATTAN (KSNT) There is a big groundbreaking taking place this week in the Little Apple. On July 16, developers started construction on a new 105-room Hampton Inn at 12th and Laramie streets in Manhattan. This project has been a part of Aggievilles vision since 2019. Back in January, Manhattans city commission approved $20 million in Industrial Revenue Bonds to help fund the project. City leaders say the investment will pay for itself over time, in the boost it brings to the economy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hotel Topeka may have a potential buyer Itll contribute towards transient gas tax in our community, Jason Hilger, Manhattan Deputy City Manager, said. The district isnt effect until 2038, so the quicker we can get this built, constructed, well start capturing that roughly half million to $750,000 in revenue through 2038, to help us pay for public infrastructure. The Hampton Inn, along with a 100-stall parking garage, is expected to open late next year. For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. TOPEKA (KSNT) The City of Topeka reports a local city-owned hotel may have a new owner soon. The City of Topeka announced in a press release on July 15 the Hotel Topeka may have a potential buyer secured for the building. The Wichita-based group Endeavor Hotel Group has sent a Letter of Intent for the purchase of the hotel. Our team is excited to add the Hotel Topeka to our portfolio, said President and CEO of Endeavor Roy Arnold. We have a clear vision intended to create value for the community and to make Topeka a preferred destination for regional conferences and events. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Endeavor Hotel Group reportedly has plans to invest $6 million for the rehab of the hotel and envisions spending $2 million to supplement operations until the property is stabilized. The city has spent $12.2 million on the hotel since purchasing it in 2023. The City of Topeka said Endeavor Hotel Group plans to purchase the hotel for $1 million with the rest of the citys investment into the building being payed off through taxes raised by a community improvement district (CID) and transient guest tax (TGT) over the next 20 years, according to the citys press release. Man sentenced for raping, killing Topeka five-year-old girl in 2023 Even though we are not recouping all of our investment up front, we recognize the risk that comes with the large investment that the Endeavor Group is making and want to make sure they are successful, said Topeka Mayor Michael Padilla. Ultimately, the more successful they are, the faster the City will be able to recoup the investment we made in Hotel Topeka. CID and TGT are taxes only collected from individuals that are staying/spending money at the hotel property. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Letter of Intent is contingent upon Shawnee County agreeing to provide Endeavor with a long-term management agreement for the nearby Maner Conference Center along with the county investing around $6 million in the rehabilitation of the center. Im excited about the vision Endeavor brings to Hotel Topeka and the potential it holds for our community, said City Manager Robert Perez. Selling the hotel was one of my top priorities this year, and it was important to the City Council and me that we find a buyer with the experience and resources to truly transform the property. Endeavors track record and strategic approach give us great confidence that this hotel will become a vibrant asset for Topeka once again. Endeavor Hotel Group previously submitted a bid, alongside other companies, for the hotel back in 2024. The groups 2024 proposal included a full renovation of the hotel at a cost of $7.25 million. City leaders in the Topeka Development Corporation (TDC) cast eight votes in favor of allowing the city manager to sign the letter of intent on July 15. One member of the TDC abstained from the vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve taken a lot of flak for it, we felt like it was the right thing to do to hold that complex together at the time that various moving parts collided or aligned, said Topeka City Councilwoman Karen Hiller during the Topeka Development Corporation meeting on July 15. We wanted to keep it open so that what was already committed could continue and, for the most part, that did happen and it was handled pretty well. They are jumping for their lives: Kansas pigs leap to freedom, find new homes For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. Wild horses in the Northern Nevada Virginia Range. (Photo courtesy of the American Wild Horse Campaign) President Donald Trumps effort to eliminate longstanding protections preventing the slaughter of Americas wild horses hit a snag this week when the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations included language in an Interior Dept. funding bill that reaffirmed the protections. Trumps budget proposal to slash funding for the Bureau of Land Managements Wild Horse and Burro program by 25% would have allowed the slaughter of some 64,000 federal protected wild horses in government holding facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The action by the House Appropriations Committee, in response to our June 11, 2025, letter, to again prohibit the slaughter of wild horses corrects an omission in the Presidents Budget Request, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said in a statement to the Current. Trumps proposal would have also allowed for the large-scale transfer of wild horses and burros to foreign countries such as Canada and Mexico, where horse slaughter facilities continue to operate, the American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) said in a news release. The effort mirrored Trumps 2017 budget, which initially called for a 30% cut to the programs funding and the elimination of protections against slaughter. Congress restored the protections against killing the animals and augmented funding. The House bill appropriates $144 million to the BLMs Wild Horse and Burro Program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The measure reaffirms Congressional intent to prohibit slaughter and reflects the values of the American people, Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC, said in a news release. Legislation introduced by Titus last week calls for the BLM to employ humane roundup techniques. Wild horses need to be protected from slaughter but also from helicopter roundups that can injure and kill them, Titus said. What is needed now is action by Congress on my legislation to eliminate the use of helicopters in BLM wild horse roundups and require a report to explore the benefits of alternative methods for humanely gathering horses, such as employing traditional cowboys. In the last five years, the government has spent at least $36.7 million on roundups, according to Titus, including more than $6 million paid in one year to helicopter roundup contractors. Scientific research has shown that more humane and cost-effective alternatives, like fertility control, are equally effective in controlling equine populations, Titus said in a news release. The BLMs Wild Horse and Burro Program, however, currently spends less than four percent of its budget on these methods. Wild horses in the Northern Nevada Virginia Range. (Photo courtesy of the American Wild Horse Campaign) President Donald Trumps effort to eliminate longstanding protections preventing the slaughter of Americas wild horses hit a snag this week when the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations included language in a Department of The Interior funding bill that reaffirmed the protections. Trumps budget proposal to slash funding for the Bureau of Land Managements Wild Horse and Burro program by 25% would have allowed the slaughter of some 64,000 federal protected wild horses in government holding facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The action by the House Appropriations Committee, in response to our June 11, 2025, letter, to again prohibit the slaughter of wild horses corrects an omission in the Presidents Budget Request, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada, said in a statement to the Current. Trumps proposal would have also allowed for the large-scale transfer of wild horses and burros to foreign countries such as Canada and Mexico, where horse slaughter facilities continue to operate, the American Wild Horse Campaign said in a news release. The effort mirrored Trumps 2017 budget, which initially called for a 30% cut to the programs funding and the elimination of protections against slaughter. Congress restored the protections against killing the animals and augmented funding. The House bill appropriates $144 million to the BLMs Wild Horse and Burro Program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The measure reaffirms Congressional intent to prohibit slaughter and reflects the values of the American people, Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC, said in a news release. Legislation introduced by Titus last week calls for the BLM to employ humane roundup techniques. Wild horses need to be protected from slaughter but also from helicopter roundups that can injure and kill them, Titus said. What is needed now is action by Congress on my legislation to eliminate the use of helicopters in BLM wild horse roundups and require a report to explore the benefits of alternative methods for humanely gathering horses, such as employing traditional cowboys. In the last five years, the government has spent at least $36.7 million on roundups, according to Titus, including more than $6 million paid in one year to helicopter roundup contractors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scientific research has shown that more humane and cost-effective alternatives, like fertility control, are equally effective in controlling equine populations, Titus said in a news release. The BLMs Wild Horse and Burro Program, however, currently spends less than four percent of its budget on these methods. This story was originally produced by the Nevada Current which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Democratic members of the House praised New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani following a closed-door breakfast he held in Washington along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday. The meeting took place as Mamdani, coming off of his upset victory in Junes Democratic primary, seeks to consolidate support as the partys nominee. He is also set to hold meetings with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Mamdani has faced scrutiny since his win over his status as a democratic socialist and his avoidance of condemning the phrase globalize the intifada, which some pro-Palestinian activists have used amid the war between Israel and Hamas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the early reception from lawmakers in attendance at the breakfast has appeared to be positive. NewsNation reported some comments from House members on the way out included that the meeting went well and that Mamdani is inspiring. They reportedly said the globalize the intifada phrase wasnt discussed. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a post on the social platform X that Mamdani received an energetic and welcoming reception at the breakfast and thanked Ocasio-Cortez for organizing the event. Proud of our Democratic nominee for NYC Mayor. Lets win! Garcia said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani reposted Garcias post. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called the meeting fantastic, telling reporters on the way out that Mamdani is talented, smart and authentic. She said the 33-year-old is bringing together anybody who can see the reality of the success of his candidacy and his campaign. She added that anyone who is choosing not to endorse Mamdani is missing an opportunity. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) told NewsNation that one possible vulnerability for Mamdani is that people above 40 years old may have a different association with the word socialism, as some think of former communist leaders such as Joseph Stalin and Fidel Castro. But, he said, Ocasio-Cortez said young people view it as meaning battling corruption and fighting for workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He told reporters he was eager to meet Mamdani. Some members, however, were more hesitant to share their thoughts on Mamdanis candidacy and whether they support him. Rep. Luz Rivas (D-Calif.) said Mamdani shared tips and tricks of how to use social media to share your message. During the primary campaign, Mamdani gained widespread attention for his social media videos that often received a large number of views online, boosting his campaign. Rivas said she appreciated learning the skills as a first-term member of Congress, but the meeting wasnt about whether the members were supporting him and only about gaining communication skills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A few other Democrats in attendance left the meeting without speaking to press, including Reps. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) and Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), NewsNation reported. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.), who was also in attendance, expressed concern about Mamdani and his proposals in a statement but said hes always interested in learning how to better communicate and share his own message. I dont think higher taxes, anti-job creating socialism, and an acceptance of antisemitic rhetoric is the right direction for America, he said. That said, I am always open to learning how I can reach more people with my commonsense, problem-solving approach. The meeting came after another Mamdani reportedly participated in Tuesday with business executives, at which he said he wouldnt use the term globalize the intifada and would discourage others from using it as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Updated at 11:43 a.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Renault shares plunged after the automaker cut guidance. John Keeble/Getty Images Renault shares plummeted 17% after cutting its annual guidance. The morning slump was the steepest one-day drop since the start of the pandemic. The company appointed Duncan Minto as interim CEO after Luca de Meo's departure. Renault shares crashed as much as 17% after the French automaker cut its guidance for the year. Late Tuesday, the company lowered its operating margin guidance for 2025 from at least 7% to 6.5%. On Wednesday, Renault's stock on the Euronext Paris exchange was down 16.3% at 34.79 euros at 10:00 a.m. local time, marking its steepest one-day drop since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Renault attributed the revised forecast to "the deterioration of the automotive market trends with an increasing commercial pressure" from competitors and a slowdown in the retail segment. The company is also aiming for a free cash flow between 1 billion to 1.5 billion euros, down from at least 2 billion euros previously. Analysts at Jefferies wrote in a Tuesday note that Renault's revised guidance may imply "greater underlying deterioration," since the automaker's previous targets had already accounted for stricter emissions compliance costs. However, the European Union is easing compliance rules for carbon dioxide emissions. Renault is heavily reliant on Europe, and the company's comments "tie in with signs of weakening European demand," wrote the analysts. Renault could continue to face market pressure beyond June, wrote Rella Suskin, an analyst at Morningstar, on Wednesday. "Most of the European carmakers have released a new lineup of affordable electric vehicles, increasing competition," Suskin wrote. Although the historic French carmaker's reliance on Europe means it is largely insulated from the US tariffs on imported vehicles that have shaken many of its rivals, Renault faces growing competition in Europe from a wave of Chinese automakers. Tesla rivals BYD, Xpeng, and Chery are all expanding rapidly in Europe. Last month, BYD began selling the Dolphin Surf, the European version of its ultra-cheap Seagull electric city car, which competes with the Renault 5 and sells for 23,000 euros ($26,000) in Europe. Separately, Renault announced the appointment of Duncan Minto as interim CEO, following the resignation of Luca de Meo last month. De Meo joined luxury group Kering. Renault is expected to report half-year earnings on July 31. The company's shares are down more than 25% this year. Read the original article on Business Insider House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued a subpoena to have former President Joe Bidens deputy chief of staff appear before the committee on Friday to provide testimony regarding her former bosss mental state while serving in the Oval Office. Comer, who leads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent interview requests to four key Biden White House aides, including former assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini. The former assistants voluntary appearance was requested on May 22, 2025, and it was scheduled for her to appear before the committee on July 18, or this Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For unknown reasons, though, Tomasinis counsel requested Comer issue a subpoena to compel her to appear. Probe Into Biden's Alleged Mental Decline Cover-up Deepens With More Former White House Officials To Testify Then-President Joe Biden with Annie Tomasini during the White House Congressional Picnic on July 12, 2022, in Washington, DC. Comer broke down the events leading up to the subpoena in his letter to Tomasini, before directing her to the bottom of the letter for the legal request. Read On The Fox News App "The Committee seeks information about your assessment of and relationship with former President Biden to explore whether the time has come for Congress to revisit potential legislation to address the oversight of presidents fitness to serve pursuant to its authority under Section 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, or to propose changes to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment itself," Comer wrote in the subpoena. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is the principal oversight committee of the U.S. House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate any matter at any time under House Rule X," he continued. "Further, House Rule XI clause 2(m)(1)(B) grants Committees of the House of Representatives the authority to require, by subpoena or otherwise, the attendance and testimony of such witnesses and the production of such books, records, correspondence, memoranda, papers, and documents as it considers necessary." Former Biden Aide Anthony Bernal Subpoenaed By House Committee After Refusing To Appear For Deposition House Oversight and Accountability committee Chairman James Comer issued a subpoena to former Biden aide Annie Tomasini. Comer added that should Tomasini have any questions, she should call the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Majority staff. The chair previously told Fox News that these "unelected bureaucrats" had an overwhelming influence over Biden and were possibly serving as "de facto" presidents in his stead." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Along with Tomasini, the committee sent interview requests to former director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, former senior adviser to the first lady Anthony Bernal and former deputy director of Oval Office operations Ashley Williams. Comer Widens Biden 'Cover-up' Probe, Seeks Interviews With Anita Dunn And Ron Klain Former First Lady Jill Biden's aide Anthony Bernal was subpoenaed to appear before House Oversight Committee investigators. Bernal was also subpoenaed after refusing to voluntarily appear before the committee. Williams and Tanden have already been interviewed by committee members. The GOP effort to uncover the truth of what went on behind closed doors during the Biden administration comes shortly after the release of "Original Sin" by CNN host Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson, which claims that the Biden White House was going all out trying to control the perception of the aging presidents failing health. The book exposes the cover-up of Biden's decline and his decision to run for re-election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Biden White House Aides Face Oversight Deadline Amid Threat Of Subpoenas Annie Tomasini, director of Oval Office operations, left, follows behind President Joe Biden, not pictured, on the South Lawn of the White House before boarding Marine One in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. Tapper said during an interview with Piers Morgan last month that what Biden's aides did to hide his condition from the public could be "even worse" than the Watergate scandal during Richard Nixon's presidency. "It is a scandal. It is without question, and maybe even worse than Watergate in some ways," Tapper said. "The only reason we invoke Watergate is just to make clear like, it's not Watergate this is an entirely separate scandal, maybe even worse." In his letters, Comer said that while the committee has been investigating the cover-up for nearly a year, "newfound details regarding President Bidens obvious decline demand renewed scrutiny of White House personnel actions and knowledge of relevant information over the course of the prior administration." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Comer said the committee is seeking "to understand who made key decisions and exercised the powers of the executive branch during the Biden Administration." Fox News Digitals Peter Pinedo contributed to this report. Original article source: House GOP subpoenas Biden aide to testify about former president's concerning mental fitness House Judiciary Democrats are calling for a public hearing on the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying top officials in both the Justice Department and the FBI should account for their handling of information surrounding the deceased financier. The Justice Department last week released a new memo concluding that Epstein did not commit suicide and said the high-powered figure did not keep a list of clients for others involved in his sex trafficking scheme. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the administrations top brass Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche, as well as FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino should all testify on the matter, adding the panel should also subpoena them if necessary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump and his top appointees at the DOJ and FBI have spent years advancing theories that the Deep State has been suppressing the true magnitude of the child sex trafficking and abuse ring created by Jeffrey Epstein and his associates, Raskin wrote in a letter to Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), saying conspiracy theories about the matter were used to energize President Trumps supporters. The Trump DOJ and FBIs handling of the Jeffrey Epstein matter, and President Trumps suddenly shifting positions, have not restored anyones trust in the government but have rather raised profound new questions about their own conduct while increasing public paranoia related to the investigation. Only a bipartisan public hearing at which administration officials answer direct questions from elected representatives before the eyes of the American people can restore public trust on the matter, Raskin wrote in a letter joined by other Democratic members of the committee. Jordans office did not respond to request for comment, but the lawmaker told The Hill Tuesday that he had confidence in the four leaders. DOJ and the FBI did not immediately respond to request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The matter has caused internal division within the Trump administration, with Bongino, who previously told his followers to stay focused on Epstein, believing the FBI and Justice Department fumbled its response. Trump, however, has defended Bondis supervision of the matter saying she has handled it very well. Democrats have been increasingly making calls for more information about the episode, saying the Justice Department could be shielding information that could be damaging to Trump. Raskin wrote the fallout from the memo raises new questions as to whether President Trump himself has something to hide, whether he is keeping damaging information secret to protect other individuals or to maintain future blackmail leverage over public and private actors or, perhaps the simplest explanation, whether President Trump and his Administration magnified and disseminated groundless Epstein conspiracy theories for purposes of political gain which they are now desperately trying to disavow and dispel. Democratic intrigue in the Epstein files has only grown since Elon Musk, during a fallout with Trump, said the president was among those included in Epsteins files. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president has denied ever being close with Epstein and has expressed exasperation at public fixation about the case. The two were captured in numerous photos together over the years, as Epstein ran in high-powered circles with figures that included Trump, former President Clinton, Britains Prince Andrew and a number of other celebrities and ultra-wealthy individuals. His associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been convicted of sex trafficking. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. After hours of debate that culminated in a rebuke of the Trump administration's efforts to restore Confederate names to military bases, the House Armed Services Committee voted late Tuesday to advance the annual must-pass defense policy bill that endorses a pay bump for service members. This year's National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which supports a 3.8% pay raise for troops starting in January, was approved by the committee in a bipartisan 55-2 vote, sending it to the full House for a vote in the coming weeks. Just Democratic Reps. Ro Khanna and Sara Jacobs, both of California, opposed the bill. The bipartisan outcome belies nearly 14 hours of partisan debate on amendments that Democrats sought to use as referendums on the Trump administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read Next: Air Force Bomb Techs Will Take Gender-Neutral Fitness Tests Beginning Next Month Democrats offered amendments on a range of issues that have simmered since the beginning of the year, including President Donald Trump's threats to invade Canada, Greenland and Panama; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the Signal app to discuss military strikes; and Trump's plan to convert a Qatari luxury jet into Air Force One. Most of the Democratic amendments, including on those three issues, were voted down along party lines, but the committee debate offered a chance to pin down Republicans on the issues. And in one major instance, Democrats were successful: Two Republicans, Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Derek Schmidt of Kansas, crossed party lines to approve an amendment that would prohibit reversing the work of the commission that renamed Army bases and other Defense Department property that had been named for Confederate military officers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bases were renamed after Congress created the naming commission in a previous NDAA and mandated its recommendations be implemented. But Trump, in his first term, opposed the renaming effort and, upon his return to office this year, restored the old base names, though technically with different namesakes who have the same surnames as the Confederate officers. "This has been hashed out," said Bacon, who co-sponsored the 2020 amendment to remove the Confederate names. "And what this administration is doing, particularly this secretary of defense, is sticking his finger in the eye of Congress by going back and changing the names to the old names." Bacon also sided with Democrats on an amendment to require written justification be sent to Congress if a three- or four-star officer is fired and another stating that it is inappropriate to send operational details on unsecured messaging platforms -- a reference to Hegseth's use of Signal. But that was not enough for the amendments to pass. Meanwhile, Republicans took some steps to try to codify the Trump administration's anti-diversity efforts with a handful of amendments that were approved largely along party lines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three amendments, all offered by GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, would prohibit any consideration of race or ethnicity in personnel actions; ban affirmative action at service academies by making admissions mostly dependent on a numerical score based largely on standardized test scores; and prohibit any Pentagon offices of diversity, equity, inclusion or accessibility. The committee also debated at length several amendments on the use of military funding for operations on the U.S.-Mexico border. "You all just increased DHS's [the Department of Homeland Security] budget to more than the entire Marine Corps," said Jacobs, referring to the $165 billion for DHS included in the GOP agenda bill approved earlier this month. "There's no invasion, there's no need to send our troops to the border, and there's certainly no need to take funds away from maintaining military quality-of-life infrastructure to do this." A pair of amendments from Jacobs that would have restricted the ability to use barracks and day care maintenance funding for border operations and immigration enforcement were rejected along party lines. She offered her amendments after the Army shifted $1 billion from barracks maintenance funding to cover costs associated with deployments to the border. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., criticized the amendments as "nothing more than a false effort to raise doubt about the tremendous progress the Trump administration has made to secure our border." A separate amendment from Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D-N.M., to prohibit the use of any Defense Department funding for a border wall was voted down with Democratic Reps. Jared Golden of Maine and Don Davis of North Carolina opposing it with Republicans. Another major theme Democrats hammered was politicization of the military, including an amendment from Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., that would have codified Defense Department policy prohibiting troops from politicking in uniform. The amendment, which failed along party lines, was sparked by a recent Trump speech at Fort Bragg at which troops cheered his attacks on his political opponents and were screened for their political leanings ahead of the event. One area that found bipartisan agreement was Ukraine. A wide majority of members from both parties supported an amendment from committee ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., to add $100 million to the bill's existing $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and opposed an amendment from Mace to remove all the Ukraine funding from the bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, a pair of amendments from Smith to make it harder for Trump to pause aid to Ukraine was rejected along party lines. The bill now heads to the full House for approval, after which it will need to be reconciled with the Senate's version of the NDAA before heading to Trump's desk for his signature. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version last week, setting up major differences with the House version that will have to be resolved during negotiations. Related: 3.8% Raise for Service Members Endorsed by House and Senate Defense Bills Graphic courtesy of Grist This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grists weekly newsletter here. As the number and ferocity of hurricanes, fires, and other disasters increases, so too does the number of people forced from their homes. Some 3.2 million people were displaced by disasters in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and one-third of them could not return home for more than a month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Losing your home and everything in it, then having to invest time and money to repair and replace everything, is extremely difficult; navigating insurance companies, government agencies, and legal issues is exhausting and nerve-racking. To help you through it, Grist put together a guide to the process for renters and homeowners. Jump to: Protecting your belongings and documents Are you a renter? Know your rights How to navigate government aid, donations, and insurance How to avoid fraud and scams Building a new home or repairing your home Protecting your belongings and documents If you live in a region thats particularly prone to disasters hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, for example, or fires in the West you should prepare well in advance. One of the most important things to do is create digital copies of essential documents, and keep physical copies in a weatherproof bag or container. For homeowners, that means your homeowners insurance policy, the deed to your house, and loan paperwork. Renters, keep copies of your lease agreement and renters insurance policy if you have one. These documents will help establish your ownership or residency at the time of a disaster. (If you dont have a written lease, a verbal contract may hold up, but try to find documentation supporting the agreement a text, email, etc.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keeping copies of other helpful files, such as a recent tax return and bank statements, as well as government-issued IDs, Social Security cards, immigration records, and anything else that provides your address is a good idea. Pay stubs can help prove your income if you apply for FEMA aid. Read more: How to pack an emergency kit and plan your evacuation route Lastly, consider keeping photos of your home and big ticket items, such as appliances, TVs, stereos, or laptops and write down serial numbers so that you can prove what they looked like before the disaster. Government agencies or insurance companies will likely ask for proof that specific damage, like a collapsed roof, isnt the result of deferred maintenance or a previous disaster. All of this administrative setup can save a lot of hassle in a crisis. When Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion in damages in Southeast Texas in 2017, more than a quarter of all FEMA applicants were denied aid; common reasons included that people couldnt prove homeownership or failed to provide valid identification. In 2020, survivors of the Almeda wildfires in Oregon faced similar hurdles: FEMA denied 57 percent of all applications. Mobile or manufactured homeowners in particular had a hard time proving ownership and residency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you live in a mobile or manufactured home, be sure that you have a safe place to go in case of severe weather especially tornadoes. Here are some helpful tips from the National Weather Service to stay safe. To prepare for hurricanes or other high-wind storms, consider reinforcing your roof, anchoring your foundation, and reinforcing doors. Are you a renter? Know your rights Nearly 35 percent of households in the U.S. rent their home, and they are especially vulnerable to the impacts of disasters. They have more limited access to recovery funding from federal aid or insurance, and almost no control over the process of rebuilding their damaged home, since they dont own the property. Renters insurance primarily covers the cost of personal belongings that are damaged during a disaster; some policies may include reimbursements for hotels or temporary living situations. Finding new housing after a disaster can be difficult because rents often skyrocket after a disaster, and there are fewer undamaged properties available on the market. While homeowners can request a mortgage payment deferral, landlords often wont make the same concession. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that rents typically rise between 4 to 6 percent annually for about three years after a major disaster. In Los Angeles, some units that escaped the Palisades Fire were relisted for three times as much despite a California law capping such increases to 10 percent after a disaster declaration. The organization also found that renters were more likely to be displaced than homeowners, and for longer stretches of time. Evictions also rise in the two years following a disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Renters rights and protections vary by state. Some allow tenants to withhold payment until repairs are made; others say nonpayment for that reason could be grounds for eviction. Either way, you may be entitled to certain protections, such as reimbursement for simple repairs you make yourself, through your lease. A list of Michigan-specific legal resources can be found here. Here are some tips: Get it all down in writing. The Legal Aid Disaster Resource Center recommends documenting any conversations you have with your landlord about damages and repairs. This will provide proof of any agreements regarding specific damages, costs, and other details. This can help if you must go to court to break a lease due to unsafe conditions. Understand the legal process. Your landlord cannot evict you without filing a legal complaint, and in some states they must provide written warning before taking that step. If you have not terminated or violated your lease, your landlord cannot legally change the locks, shut off the utilities, or remove your property without going through the legal process of eviction even if you were evacuated or forced from your home. This is important to know because landlords sometimes evict tenants after a disaster to renovate buildings and increase rents. If your landlord attempts to wrongfully evict you, consult a lawyer or a pro bono legal aid organization. Disaster Legal Services , funded by FEMA, works with state bar associations and pro bono lawyers to set up hotlines for legal services following a federally declared disaster. (Call 1-800-621-3362.) However, as of March 2025, parts of that program are suspended after the Trump administration froze some FEMA funding. You can also find free or affordable legal services through other avenues, like typing legal aid society and your location into a search engine, or checking with trusted people and organizations in your community. Know how federal aid works. Tenants who are displaced or evicted after a disaster are eligible for help from FEMA. You might receive direct assistance to pay rent, or reimbursement for staying at a hotel. The agency may also provide temporary housing until your home is habitable again. After a series of disasters hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, between 2020 and 2021, some residents lived in FEMA trailers for over a year as they searched for an affordable place to live. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: How FEMA aid works Some other resources for renters rights: The National Low Income Housing Coalition has a host of resources, including how disasters impact federally assisted housing, specific housing needs by state, and a guide on eviction processes. Your local health department, city or county government, or legal aid organization will likely have a webpage dedicated to renters rights. Michigans Office of Attorney General maintain a webpage of resources here. The Stanford Legal Design Lab and Charitable Trusts has a database where you can find local legal rules about housing, eviction, rent, and landlord-tenant issues, and groups and guides that can help you with housing assistance. Read more: This long-term recovery guide outlines resources you can use in the weeks and months after a disaster How to navigate government aid, donations, and insurance Homeowners facing costly repairs after a natural disaster have options for aid. Insurance policies may cover some or all of the damages. Federal agencies like HUD, FEMA, and the Small Business Administration will provide funding as well. Some people turn to their own savings, mutual aid groups that raise money and distribute it directly, or crowdfunding platforms to help cover costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Insurance: Homeowners should first file a claim with their insurance company. Based on what your policy covers and your insurer pays, you can then apply for other types of federal aid. Its important to keep good records and itemize your costs and reimbursements. You can receive payouts from a combination of private and public aid, but be careful of double-dipping: If you will receive funds from one source for specific damage, government aid cant be used to cover the same costs. The legal term for this is duplication of benefits. Lets say your insurance paid to replace your roof, but not the cost of removing mold in your walls. You cannot legally receive additional money for the damage to your roof, but you can apply for help covering the cost of mold removal or other damage not covered by your insurance policy. Federal/state aid: To receive assistance from federal or state agencies, you must submit an application to the agency. This can usually be done online, and you may be able to apply in person or over the phone. There is a specific process cities, states, and tribal governments must navigate in order for residents to receive FEMA aid. If you are a U.S. citizen, or meet certain qualifications as a non-citizen, and live in a disaster declaration area that was approved by FEMA and the president, you are eligible to apply for aid immediately after they announce it. You can apply on disasterassistance.gov, through the FEMA app, or at a FEMA recovery center. FEMA offers survivors eligible for individual assistance: A one-time grant of $750 for emergency needs and essential items like food, baby items, and medication Temporary housing assistance equivalent to 14 nights in a hotel in your area Up to 18 months of rental assistance Payments for lost property that isnt covered by your homeowners or renters insurance Other forms of assistance, depending on your needs and losses Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can track the status of your aid application via the app or disasterassistance.gov and receive notifications if FEMA needs more information from you. You will need to provide proof of your identity and residency and document the damages that your home sustained. A FEMA inspector will meet you at your home to determine the damages. If your application is approved, you will receive funds or a loan approval with details on which repairs are covered. You may also qualify for rental assistance from FEMA. You must apply for individual disaster assistance to be considered for rental assistance. These funds can be used for rent, including a security deposit, and utilities such as electricity and water, at a house, apartment, hotel, or recreational vehicle that is not your damaged home. Residents in counties with a federal disaster declaration are eligible to apply under FEMAs Individuals and Households Program. The rate is set by an areas Fair Market Rent; find yours here. Read more: Everything you need to know when applying for individual and rental assistance from FEMA Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If your application is denied, you have the right to appeal the decision within 60 days. You should include any information that was missing from your initial application, as well as supporting documents showing costs, damages, and proof of residence and ownership of your home. Lawyers and community advocates can help you write the appeal. You will need to sign the letter, along with a statement verifying that you authorized someone else to write the appeal. FEMA has 90 days to review your appeal, but delays are possible given the volume of paperwork the agency may be reviewing. Some homeowners may also apply for help through the Small Business Administrations program, which provides low-interest loans for repairs. You dont have to own a business to apply, and FEMA may refer you to SBAs application to check if you qualify for additional aid for funds to make your home more resilient to future disasters. Mortgage, rent, and utility relief: Homeowners may qualify for mortgage relief. Providers arent legally required to offer assistance, but they can waive late fees, delay foreclosures, and provide forbearance. It is usually up to the homeowner to initiate a conversation about these options. If you have a loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration, you have more legal protections. If youre unable to make payments, your mortgage servicer cannot initiate a foreclosure for 90 days after a presidentially declared disaster in your area, and you can negotiate a repayment plan or modify some terms of your loan. You may also be able to meet with HUD-approved counselors trained in foreclosure prevention, who can help you evaluate your options and finances. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both renters and homeowners may qualify for rental and utility assistance from government agencies and nonprofit organizations. If your home or rental unit is uninhabitable or you cannot stay there for another reason, there are likely organizations providing assistance with finding a place to live. Be on the lookout for applications for these in the days and weeks after a disaster. (If youre not sure where to start looking, here are some examples of types of organizations that provided these services after Helene in 2024; they included local nonprofits, churches, housing organizations, county governments, and more.) Crowdfunding/GoFundMe: Some disaster survivors turn to crowdfunding platforms to cover costs for evacuations, funerals, or repairs. According to data from GoFundMe, one of the largest platforms, disaster recovery campaigns in the U.S. raised over $100 million in 2023. This avenue is often faster than waiting on insurance claims and FEMA applications. Donations you receive are considered gifts, and you will not be required to pay taxes on them, as long as you dont promise donors goods or services in exchange. However, you cant apply for other sources of aid to cover the same expenses you list in the campaign you create. Read more: The agencies, organizations, and officials that respond to disasters How to avoid fraud and scams Theres always the risk of fraud as con artists posting as government officials or unscrupulous contractors try to bilk people out of their money or rip them off with shoddy work. A few tips can minimize the risk. Verify the identity of anyone who approaches you unsolicited with offers of help. Ask for identification. FEMA employees, housing inspectors, and other government officials carry official IDs. A government uniform is not proof of identification. Government officials will not ask you for money or for financial information. Do not trust anyone who seeks payment up front or promises a loan or grant. Work with reputable contractors and check their credentials and licenses before hiring them (more on this below). Here are some tips from the National Insurance Crime Bureau to avoid getting taken. Ask for written quotes and contracts throughout the process. If you have knowledge of fraud, waste, or abuse, you can report it to the FEMA Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or email StopFEMAFraud@fema.dhs.gov. You also can contact the National Center for Disaster Fraud. Before calling, gather as many details as possible, including how and where it occurred. You can also report it to your states attorney general or local law enforcement. Be wary of disaster investors: You may receive calls, texts, or other communications pressuring you to sell your home as-is, for cash. These disaster investors take advantage of the stress and uncertainty that people feel as they return to damaged homes. Their offers often target individuals who will have a difficult path to recovery, including low-income homeowners and the elderly. Investors trying to scoop up properties to flip after a disaster will often make offers that are lower than market value, even with the damage your home might have sustained. If you are interested in selling, work with a trusted real estate agent of your choosing, and check what comparable homes should sell for in your area. Never sign any agreements or contracts about a potential sale without carefully reviewing them no matter how much youre pressured to sign on the spot. Choose a contractor carefully: Youll likely need to hire a contractor to do major repairs, and its important to vet any offers to fix up your home. Here are some tips for avoiding scams from the Michigan Office of Attorney Generals Consumer Protection Division: To avoid falling victim to con artists who travel to disaster sites in order to take advantage of homeowners desperate to return to normal, make sure you take the following steps: Breathe! Take some time to absorb what has happened, and dont make any rash decisions before doing your homework. This is especially true if you are approached by anyone telling you they can fix your home right away but only if you accept their help right now. Legitimate home repair contractors understand that you need time to do your homework and check them out before you pay them anything or sign any contracts. Talk to your homeowners insurance agent or company. Carefully review your homeowners insurance policy to determine what damage may be covered and the amount of your deductible. Then be sure to contact your homeowners insurance agent or company, writing down questions you have and the answers that you are provided, along with a list of whom you talked to and when. Knowing what your insurance will cover will help you to determine how much you are able to spend on repairs, and prioritize repairs based on safety and need. Do your homework. Do your homework before hiring a home repair contractor by following the tips found in the remainder of this Consumer Alert. Some of our tips include ensuring that the home repair contractor that youve decided to hire is licensed, insured, well-regarded by your friends and neighbors, and you are comfortable with their complaint history (if one exists). Get everything in writing, never pay in cash, and never pay in full up front. Ensure that all promises, quotes, and expectations are put in writing in a contract that you will carefully review before signing! After youve carefully reviewed and signed a home repair contract, never pay for home repairs in cash! Paying for a home repair using a credit card is recommended, because using credit cards provides you with added protection to dispute a charge if the repair is not completed. Finally, you should never pay for an entire home repair up front! To ensure that all work is completed in accordance with the contract terms and your expectations, arrange to pay for only part of the work (generally one-third of the total contract price should suffice) up front and pay for the rest of the work once it is complete to your satisfaction.You can also check with the Better Business Bureau for any history of complaints: 1-800-544-7693 or online as well as look at reviews on sites such as Yelp, Google, or Angies List. Building a new home or repairing your home As you make repairs or reconstruct your home, you may be able to use insurance payouts and other assistance to make the place more resilient. (If youre interested in learning more about rebuilding after disasters, read this report from Ohio River Valley Institute about housing damage from the 2022 Kentucky floods.) Consider installing more energy-efficient features, including new insulation, double-paned windows, and hurricane shutters. If youre in a flood zone, you may want to elevate outdoor components of your HVAC system so that they dont flood in the future. If you live in a tornado-prone area, you could add or retrofit a room to serve as a storm shelter. Materials like stucco can help fire-proof your home more than wood or vinyl siding. Some communities can qualify for the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, a federally funded program managed by local government agencies, that aims to help homeowners with structural elevation, reinforcing buildings to withstand natural disasters, and buyouts by FEMA. The land is deeded to the local county for parks, greenways, and other municipal projects. In some flood cases, you may be required to elevate your home to avoid future damages. This is typically the case if you participate in the National Flood Insurance Program or if your community has or adopts stricter floodplain management. After receiving FEMA aid, you could be required to purchase a flood insurance policy. After clearing out debris, consider planting native grasses, shrubs, and trees that suit your local ecology. This can help prevent soil erosion and improve drainage, which might help reduce water in your home during major rainstorms, particularly in basements. Some native species may be drought-tolerant and somewhat fire-resistant, as well. Opting for pea gravel or stones to fill out your landscaping instead of Bermuda grass can help reduce the risks of fire spreading over your lawn. Make sure that you create a buffer zone between your house and landscaping; additionally, pruning and clearing fallen branches and leaves can help reduce future risks. Read more: How to make sure your home is better protected from disasters Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101 This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/extreme-weather/how-to-find-housing-and-rebuild-your-home-after-a-disaster/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org A 78-year-old Houston woman spent her final days overwhelmed with fear and stress, believing she might lose her home over a solar panel contract she said she didnt understand. Delores Wigal, a mother, grandmother and retired school bus driver for children with special needs, had just been placed on hospice after a short battle with cancer. Instead of focusing on her final moments with her, her family was scrambling to cancel a solar panel financing contract that would have cost her more than $138,000 over 25 years, or shed risk losing her home. Ive got nothing but this house, Wigal told ABC13 weeks before she died. Its just not fair that I worked all my life. They want to take it away from me. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She died just hours before 13 Investigates aired her story. Two days later, her family got the call: the contract had thankfully been canceled. Don't miss How the homeowner end up with this solar panel contract? Last October, Wigal signed paperwork presented to her by a salesman from Solar Pros. She was told the solar panels were free as part of a government program and that they would reduce her utility bills. But the contract, financed through the solar panel lender EnFin, obligated her to pay $138,000 over 25 years (thats just over $5,500 per year) far more than she could afford on her fixed income. In March, a lien was placed on her home when the solar system was activated. Wigals daughter, Deanna Corbett, told ABC13 that her mother was terrified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She died with this burden, she said. She kept saying, Shes going to fight for us, after speaking with the news team. After being contacted by 13 Investigates and learning that Wigal was terminally ill, EnFin canceled the contract and promised to remove the lien. The company also said it is investigating the conduct of the sales and installation partners involved in the deal. Freedom Forever, the company that installed the solar panels, told ABC13 it is working with EnFin on next steps. The company emphasized that it relies on independent dealers, including Solar Pros and said it expects them to meet high ethical and compliance standards. Solar Pros confirmed that the sales rep involved is no longer with the company and reiterated its commitment to honest guidance and transparency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "While we do not discuss individual employment matters out of respect for privacy, we reaffirm our commitment to holding all team members to the highest ethical standards, said a rep from Solar Pros. New law aims to protect Texas consumers from misleading solar panel sales practices Wigal didnt live to see it, but Texas lawmakers recently passed a bill to limit deceptive solar sales practices. Starting September 1, solar companies and salespeople in Texas will be barred from using misleading, unfair, or deceptive sales tactics. That includes falsely claiming panels are free or misrepresenting government incentives. The law also aims to do the following: Prohibit door-to-door solicitation at homes with No Soliciting signs Require registration of solar panel salespeople and retailers with the state Allow consumers to cancel contracts within five business days with no penalty Enable the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) to void contracts and order refunds if violations are found Impose higher fines when violations involve Texans over 65 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wigal's family believes she would have supported the new bill. "I think her heart would have swelled knowing that this law has been passed, that getting this out in the open, making people realize that this is going on," Corbett said. Read more: Americans are revenge saving to survive but millions only get a measly 1% on their savings. Heres how to quickly earn 280% more on your cash How to shop for solar panels the right way Texas isnt the only state to take action. States like California, New York and Illinois already have consumer protection rules in place for solar panel sales, including cooling-off periods, disclosure requirements and licensing for sales representatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the burden often falls on the homeowner to do their due diligence and review any contracts carefully, despite what the verbal agreement may be. Common signs of solar panel scams include: claiming the panels are free or 'government-funded' pressure tactics to sign a contract quickly (and without adequate time to review terms carefully) failing to explain how financing will work or the total cost over time. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends several steps to protect yourself when shopping for solar panels: Get multiple quotes and compare offers from multiple companies Use only certified installers Check licenses and contractor credentials with your state or local consumer protection office Take the time to read cost breakdowns and financing terms thoroughly before signing Ask for references or reviews from friends and community members Avoid signing contracts under any pressure Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Delores Wigals story is a difficult reminder of how complicated and confusing the solar panel buying process can be, especially for vulnerable individuals. If you're considering solar panels for your home, take your time, ask questions and make sure the company you're dealing with has a reputation you can verify. What to read next Money doesnt have to be complicated sign up for the free Moneywise newsletter for actionable finance tips and news you can use. Join now. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) Several members of the South Dakota Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee want the Governors Office of Economic Development to change a rule so that data centers would no longer be eligible for state sales-tax rebates. Republican Sen. Taffy Howard chairs the panel. She spoke strongly against allowing data centers to receive rebates during a GOED presentation on business incentive programs to the committees members on Wednesday. DOC warns public of release of sex offender Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Howard asked GOED deputy commissioner Joe Fiala whether the public is being asked or just the local chambers of commerce about having data centers qualify for the rebates. Because theres a difference of opinion many, many times, Howard said. Fiala said GOED staff use a variety of ways to get a feel for local opinion. I would encourage you to try to figure out a way to get to the people more directly, Howard told Fiala. Howard noted that she had voted against legislation during the 2025 session that specifically called for data centers to be eligible for what are known as reinvestment payments. The legislation failed 17-18 in the Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Fiala said data centers already are eligible under the state administrative rules for reinvestment payments. That led Howard to ask why the data-center rebate bill was brought, if GOED already had the authority to offer rebates to data centers. Thats a great question. I would refer you to the folks who brought the bill, Fiala said. Republican Sen. David Wheeler was the legislations prime sponsor in the Senate. He has since resigned from the Legislature and accepted an appointment from Gov. Larry Rhoden to serve as a circuit judge. GOED finance director Jack Valentine told Howard that the reinvestment payments are allowed by state law as part of the chapter on economic development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Howard asked how GOED could be directed to change the rule. Valentine said GOED didnt receive any feedback suggesting that the reinvestment payment rules be changed. Consider this feedback, Howard said. She added, This is really one program I have a problem with. I consider this corporate welfare. Howard noted that citizens who are struggling to stay in their homes dont get their sales taxes refunded. Republican Rep. Julie Auch said the majority of the seven businesses on the most-recent tax-rebates list dont need the extra boost. The state Board of Economic Development approved $34,313,95 in rebates for them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Auch claimed that, in many instances, those businesses were also receiving federal tax incentives, which taxpayers provide, as well as state tax rebates. So theyre double-dipping, Auch said. She added, I do encourage you to reexamine how you are looking at this in the rules and consider the South Dakota taxpayer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. When Jaime Coffin arrived at Phantom Ranch, she expected it to be for the most part like her other trips to the Grand Canyon. Coffin, who lives near Prescott, has been visiting the South Rim of the Grand Canyon since 2005. The hike down to Phantom Ranch on July 12 would be one of her longest so far, with a hike of about 7.5 miles on the South Kaibab Trail to get to the bottom, where the Phantom Ranch lodge is located. People often make reservations at the lodge months in advance, but Coffin and her friends got lucky, as someone had canceled their reservation about two months prior, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Coffin and her friends started the 7.5-mile hike at about 4:30 a.m. At one point during the hike, Coffin said she saw what looked like a thick fog settling towards the bottom of the canyon. They arrived about 5 and 1/2 hours later to settle into their cabin and prepare for the steak dinner at the Phantom Ranch Canteen. At about 3:30 p.m. that day, firefighters fighting the Dragon Bravo Fire reported that a water treatment facility in the North Rim had caught fire. Later, it was confirmed that chlorine gas had also been leaking, according to the National Park Service. Tired from the hike in the 120-degree weather, they were in the cabin getting ready for dinner when the air conditioning went out, Coffin said. Coffin was about to shower to cool down when her friend informed her that they were being told to pack their things and prepare to evacuate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Initially, Coffin figured the immediate threat was the fire until she and the rest of the Phantom Ranch lodgers were informed about the toxic gas. Helicopters evacuate visitors from Phantom Ranch Lodge at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon due to a chlorine gas leak from a water facility, caused by the Dragon Bravo Fire, on June 12, 2025. A water treatment facility at the North Rim had been compromised by the fire, causing the chlorine gas, which is heavier than air, to fall toward the bottom of the canyon. From there, everything happened quite fast, Coffin said. Everyone was incredibly coordinated and organized in the evacuation, including the hotel staff, bus drivers, park rangers and wildland firefighters, she said. Everyone was safely evacuated from the area via helicopter within the next hour-to-hour-and-a-half, Coffin said. Two helicopters carried four people out at a time, each making about four trips, according to Coffin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Coffin fears flying and had only flown twice before being flown out of the Grand Canyon, but the fear of the chlorine gas overtook the fear of flying, she said. I was on the helicopter, and it was actually a huge relief to leave there. And it was beautiful, Coffin said. Everyone on the helicopter felt calm and was relieved to be getting out of the situation, Coffin said. While she didnt experience the more severe effects of chlorine poisoning, like vision loss or lung damage, she did experience some of the milder symptoms, such as burning eyes and a burning throat. She initially attributed that to the smoke from the fire, Coffin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The inner canyon and trails leading there, including the North Kaibab Trail and the South Kaibab Trail, as well as the Phantom Ranch settlement on the Colorado River closed as a result of the gas leak, the park service said. On the afternoon of July 15, Stefan La-Sky, public information officer for Southwest Area Complex Incident Management Team, which is managing the fire, told The Arizona Republic in a phone call that the atmosphere was tested and deemed safe, with the gas having dissipated. However, the evacuation orders were still in place, La-Sky said. More: Is Grand Canyon open for visitors? Here's where you can and can't go This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Hiker evacuated from Grand Canyon lodge during Dragon Bravo Fire NEED TO KNOW Oklahoma authorities say remains found in February belong to a man who disappeared four years ago Dakota Covington was reported missing from the Mead area of Bryan County in April 2021, according to the local sheriff's office "I want to see him one more time and I want to say goodbye," Felicity Covington, Dakota's sister, recently told a local news outlet The remains of an Oklahoma man who disappeared four years ago have been found. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dakota Covington was reported missing from the Mead area of Oklahoma on April 29, 2021, according to a news release shared on Facebook by the Bryan County Sheriff's Office (BCSO). Covington, who was 27 years old at the time of his disappearance, was described by family as a homebody who kept to himself, according to ABC affiliate KTEN. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, black pants, and black shoes. Dakotas father Scott previously said he saw his son just before leaving for work, but that Covington was gone by the time he returned later that day. In February, the BCSO received information regarding the possible discovery of human remains in the southwestern portion of Bryan County, where Mead is located, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputies responded to the location, and found clothing items consistent with what a missing person from Bryan County had been reported to be wearing." The area was immediately secured, and on Feb. 22, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) forensic team announced they had located human remains at the scene. The remains were then sent to the OSBI lab for identification. Nearly five months later, on July 10, OSBI confirmed the remains were positively identified as belonging to Dakota. Dakotas cause of death is under investigation, according to authorities, who are continuing to follow up on leads and gather information related to the case. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In April, Felicity Covington, Dakotas sister, said being contacted by police after the remains were found had opened up "old wounds" and "took away the hope." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you dont have a body, you can still hold onto the hope that theres not going to be one, she told NBC affiliate KJRH. After his remains were identified, he was remembered by his family as an "amazing son, grandson, brother, uncle, and friend." "He was all of our best friend and rock. His siblings miss him terribly," mom Tara Meyers told KXII. "We all miss him terribly and still need answers to what happened to my baby. They may have found his remains but we still dont know what happened to him." A GoFundMe has been created to help cover funeral expenses. Anyone with information regarding Dakotas disappearance or death are asked to contact the BCSO at 580-924-3000. Read the original article on People As news hit the airwaves that Israel was conducting airstrikes on military and nuclear sites in Iran, Israel commandos were on the ground inside the Islamic Republic, communicating with the Israeli Air Force and Mossad, Israels intelligence agency. The announcement came as the war began, but what Mossad and the commandos were able to do inside unfriendly territory before the shooting ever started is the bigger surprise. The Israel-Iran War, also known as the 12-Day War in some circles, began on June 13, 2025, as Israeli fighters began surprise attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities. Their targets werent limited to bases and enrichment centers. The IAF struck Irans air defenses, key military and civilian leaders, and nuclear scientists. In the first day alone, some 200 fighters hit 100 targets across the country. We achieved full control of the Iranian skies and every location we chose to operate in. This was made possible in part thanks to the joint efforts and subterfuge of our air forces and commandos on the ground, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a June 2025 press conference. These forces operated covertly in the heart of enemy territory, securing operational freedom of action. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zamir was the first Israeli official to publicly admit that Israel had troops deployed inside Iranian territory. Along with Mossad, the commandos sabotaged Iranian air defense systems and missile launchers. Other operatives were able to set up a covert drone base located just outside of Tehran, an installation that allowed the Israelis to smuggle precision weapons and commandos inside the country. These drones targeted surface-to-surface missiles that Iran would have fired back toward Israel. Eight Israeli Air Force F-15I Raam strike fighters from 69 Squadron at Hatzerim Airbase on their way to attack Iran in June 2025. (Israel Defense Forces) The precision weapons and commandos smuggled into the Islamic Republic are what allowed Israel to operate so freely in Iranian airspace during those 12 days in June. Air Superiority was established almost immediately. Some 30 Iranian generals and nine nuclear scientists were killed in the first minutes of the air assault. It was groundbreaking thinking, bold planning and surgical operation of advanced technologies, special forces and agents operating in the heart of Iran while totally evading the eyes of local intelligence, an unnamed Israeli official told the Times of Israel after the 12-Day War. Israel also struck nuclear sites across Iran, including a centrifuge workshop in Isfahan, the nuclear facility at Natanz, and the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant. The United States also struck the Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear sites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Iran and its allies and proxies were still able to fire hundreds of ballistic missiles and more than a thousand explosive drones toward Israel in retaliation for the strikes. Iran also claims to have captured dozens of drones and hundreds of Mossad operatives in the days since the June 24, 2025 ceasefire was announced. Despite the overwhelming effort, air superiority, and combined firepower of the United States and Israel, Irans ability to enrich uranium, along with its nuclear stockpile, is far from destroyed. The Pentagon said the 12-Day War instead set Irans nuclear program back by two years. The Iranian nuclear project suffered a hard, broad and deep blow and sets it back by years, Zamir added to his televised statement. The campaign is not yet finished. We must remain on guard many challenges await. Dont Miss the Best of Mighty News We Are The Mighty is a celebration of military service, with a mission to entertain, inform, and inspire those who serve and those who support them. We are made by and for current service members, veterans, spouses, family members, and civilians who want to be part of this community. Keep up with the best in military culture and entertainment: subscribe to the We Are The Mighty newsletter. By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -More than 900 former U.S. Department of Justice employees on Wednesday warned the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee against confirming President Donald Trump's nominee Emil Bove to serve as an appellate court judge, according to a letter seen by Reuters. The letter comes one day before the panel will vote on whether to advance Bove's nomination to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to the full Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are all alarmed by DOJ leadership's recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails," the former department employees wrote, adding that he had "disgraced" the department. "Emil Bove has been a leader in this assault." The letter was signed by officials who served from as far back as the Kennedy administration through the current Trump administration, and it was organized by Justice Connection, a new group launched to advocate on behalf of Justice Department workers. Gates McGavick, a DOJ spokesperson, defended Bove in a statement on Wednesday, saying he is "a highly qualified judicial nominee who has done incredible work at the Department of Justice to help protect civil rights, dismantle Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Make America Safe Again." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bove, a senior DOJ official, has come under fire for using aggressive tactics. He was involved in decisions to fire probationary prosecutors who handled cases against people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Bove also pressured prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington, D.C. to drop the criminal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, prompting 11 lawyers to resign in protest. Most recently, a former Justice Department attorney who was fired after admitting that the government erred by deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador filed a whistleblower complaint alleging Bove, using profane language, told DOJ attorneys they could consider defying court orders on a case involving the deportation of Venezuelan migrants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bove has denied suggesting that department attorneys could consider defying the courts. Earlier this week, 76 former federal and state judges also sent a letter to the committee in opposition to Bove's nomination. (Reporting by Sarah N. LynchEditing by Marguerita Choy) (Bloomberg) -- Rio Tinto Group named iron ore boss Simon Trott as its new chief executive officer at a time when the mining industry faces challenges from global trade upheaval and a resurgence in mega deals. Most Read from Bloomberg Trott, 50, who currently runs the companys biggest and most profitable mines, takes on the role after Rio sought a new leader with more operational experience. Rio is in broadly good shape it has a slew of major projects coming online, a strong balance sheet and a much improved culture but the new CEO faces some big decisions and challenges. The mining industry is struggling for relevance with investors, with valuations stagnant and companies searching for a new narrative after Chinas commodity supercycle came to an end. US President Donald Trumps policies are also roiling global trade, while the company faces questions over its deal strategy after talks last year to buy Glencore Plc went nowhere. While Rio considered external alternatives to replace Jakob Stausholm, the top candidates were widely considered to be internal including Jerome Pecresse, CEO of the aluminum unit, and Chief Commercial Officer Bold Baatar. Rio rose 0.1% in London trading, broadly in line with its peers. Trott was seen as a good fit for the role as head of Rios biggest and most profitable division even if he only assumed leadership of iron ore four years ago. Prior to that, he was chief commercial officer and had spent nearly two decades in a range of operational and business development roles at the company. Simon came into our iron ore business at a time of significant challenges and has been instrumental in rebuilding culture, strengthening external relationships and setting us on a pathway for growth, Rio Chair Dominic Barton said in a statement. Trott will start as CEO on Aug. 25. Stausholm joined Rio in 2018 before being propelled to CEO after Rio blew up a 46,000-year-old sacred site in Western Australia. Despite early criticism, he successfully rebuilt the companys tattered reputation and reset relationships with traditional owners, while also unlocking new areas of growth. Rios board believes Stausholm laid a solid foundation, turning around many parts of a company that was in crisis when he arrived, but that fresh ideas are now needed. Trott is expected to simplify a business that has become overly complex, remove unnecessary costs and continue to improve the operational performance at mines that span Australia, Mongolia and the US. Hungary has proposed that the European Union impose sanctions on three Ukrainian officials in connection with the alleged violent death of a Hungarian citizen due to the actions of the military enlistment office staff in Zakarpattia Oblast. Source: Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto as quoted by Telex, European Pravda reports Details: Szijjarto once again criticized the mobilisation in Ukraine, saying that "a real hunt for people is taking place on the Ukrainian streets". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Szijjarto: "It is shocking how Ukrainian military enlistment offices treat people, and it is equally shocking how European political leaders turn a blind eye to this unacceptable situation." Details: The official said that Budapest proposes that the EU impose sanctions on three people who hold positions in the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces and who, according to the Hungarian leadership, are responsible for mobilisation in Ukraine. Szijjarto did not specify the names of these people. The day before, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called for sanctions against Ukraine to be imposed by the European Union. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: Last week, Hungary summoned Ukraines ambassador to protest the alleged violent death of a Hungarian citizen in Zakarpattia Oblast at the hands of military enlistment office staff. Ukraine clarified that the deceased was a Ukrainian citizen. A forensic medical examination concluded that the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism. Ukraines Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Hungarys attempts to exploit individual mobilisation cases for political purposes are harming Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Former President Joe Bidens son, Hunter Biden, claims Democrats lost the 2024 election because they werent loyal to his father. We are going to fight amongst ourselves for the next three years until theres a nominee. And then with the nominee, we better as hell get behind that nominee, Hunter said in a soon-to-be-released podcast interview with Jaime Harrison, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And I will tell you why we lost the last election. We lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. Thats my position, he added, according to The Hill. We had the advantage of incumbency. We had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down. Hunter Biden was pardoned by his father in one of the former presidents last acts in office. / Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Hunters remarks were part of a wider interview with Harrison for his new podcast, At Our Table, marking Hunters first interview since the Democrats crushing election drubbing last November. The show debuts Thursday with an interview with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the former running mate of eventual 2024 Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joe Biden ended his reelection bid in the wake of his disastrous presidential debate performance against Donald Trump, following weeks of pressure from Democratic lawmakers. Even before that, the then-81-year-old incumbent faced dismal enthusiasm for a second term, along with polls suggesting hed lose all key swing states to Trump. After the crushing 2024 electionin which Harris still lost all seven key battleground states to Trumpprominent Democratic figures pointed fingers at Bidens decision to run again, then giving his vice president just three months to mount her own campaign. Joe Biden's dismal June 2024 presidential debate performance essentially killed his re-election hopes. / Andrew Cabello-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images The debate over whether Biden was mentally and physically fit for another four years in the White House reignited with bombshell claims in Original Sin, a book by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axios Alex Thompson. The book includes allegations that aides even discussed putting Biden in a wheelchair for a second term because of his declining health. The former president has pushed back on GOP claims that he was not in control of clemency decisions at the end of his time in office, with Trump and others alleging that Bidens staff used an autopen to mimic his signature to sweeping pardons without his authorization. One pardon was for Hunter Biden after he was found guilty of gun charges in Delaware and admitted tax evasion in California. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking to Harrison, Hunter denied there was any cover-up about his fathers declining mental or physical health, arguing it would have been impossible because the former president lived in a fish bowl. What sells is the idea of a conspiracy, Hunter told Harrison, according to The Washington Post. Every single day, hundreds of people [are around], and you cant get one of them to go on the record and say, I saw the president do X? Hunter Biden hit back at Jake Tapper in a new interview, after the CNN anchor suggested earlier this year that former President Bidens second son was almost like a chief of staff. You think Jake Tappers telling the truth when he says that I was the acting chief of staff of the presidents? I was in that White House 12 days over the course of the last two years of the administration. Clearly, because I had other things going on, OK? Hunter Biden said in an excerpt from an upcoming interview on former DNC Chair Jaime Harrisons new podcast, At Our Table. You ask one person to go on the record that would ever tell you that I was in any way making a single decision about anything, anything in that White House, he continued. I stayed as far away as I possibly could. Which, by the way, broke my heart. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The remarks are a part of a broader interview Harrison did with the former presidents son for a new podcast launching Thursday. His debut episode includes Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D). Biden will be featured in a forthcoming episode. Hunter Biden was responding to an interview that Tapper and Axios national political correspondent Alex Thompson did with Katie Couric in May while they were promoting their new book Original Sin, which explores Joe Bidens initial pursuit of a second White House term and the alleged cover-up of his decline. Former President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race against President Trump following a disastrous debate, later throwing his support behind former Vice President Harris, who lost to Trump in November. I think Hunter was driving the decision-making for the family in a way that people he was almost like a chief of staff, Tapper told Couric. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tapper criticized the former presidents son after Couric asked if Hunter Bidens involvement was bizarre. Its bizarre because I think he is provably, demonstrably unethical, sleazy and prone to horrible decisions, the CNN anchor said, noting that Hunter Biden had a relationship with the late Beau Bidens widow, Hallie. He also alluded to Hunter Bidens introduction of crack cocaine to her. Beau was great, upstanding guy, Tapper said, adding later a real loss for the country, too, not just for his family, for the country, but Hunters not that. Hunter Bidens interview is particularly notable given hes largely remained out of the public eye since the November election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democrats have struggled to reset since the election and are facing a reckoning over how to move forward; in the aftermath of the election, some members of the party have pointed the finger at Joe Biden as the reason why the party struggled in November. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, attributed the Democrats 2024 election loss to the fact that they abandoned his father as the party's leader. Speaking for the first time since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Hunter Biden offered his perspective on the election during a new podcast, At Our Table, hosted by former Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison. We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party, Hunter Biden said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down. After Joe Bidens disappointing and concerning debate performance against Trump last June, Democrats scrambled to create a Plan B placing former vice president Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, and drafting in Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as their VP pick. Hunter Biden attributed Democrats 2024 election loss to the party abandoning his father as its leader (Getty Images) Hunter Biden attributed Democrats 2024 election loss to the party abandoning his father as its leader (Getty Images) But it took weeks for Joe Biden, then the oldest person to serve as president, to agree to drop out of the race after a pressure campaign by some in the Democratic party and donors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In that time, Trump continued to aggressively campaign, picking up undecided voters amid a Democratic party in turmoil. And while Harris revitalized support among young people, it wasnt enough to defeat the Republican nominee. Hunter Bidens take on his fathers political demise stands in contrast to reports that have emerged in books addressing the tumultuous 2024 election. According to 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, Joe Biden was mentally preoccupied with his sons federal gun trial, and the possibility of Hunter going to prison, at the height of election campaigning last summer. Hunter was convicted on three federal gun charges for unlawfully purchasing and possessing a firearm in 2018 while battling substance use disorder. Despite claiming he would not pardon Hunter if found guilty, Joe Biden granted his son a full pardon shortly before leaving office. Former first lady Jill Biden (left) and Hunter Bidens wife, Melissa Cohen Biden (right), attended nearly every day of his federal gun trial (Getty Images) Former first lady Jill Biden (left) and Hunter Bidens wife, Melissa Cohen Biden (right), attended nearly every day of his federal gun trial (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another book, Original Sin, written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios political correspondent, Alex Thompson, alleges that the White House and Biden family tried to conceal the presidents declining mental and physical health toward the end of his term. But in excerpts from this weeks podcast, Hunter Biden told Harrison that the reports about his fathers health were incorrect and the books were sold on the idea of a conspiracy. He claimed that if his father had been suffering from a serious ailment, it would have been known in Washington D.C. because secrets do not stay secrets. Since leaving the White House, Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hunter Biden also denied allegations that he played a role in helping his father politically, saying that he stayed as far away from his father as possible during his campaign. Joe Biden rushed to support his son after he was found guilty on three federal gun charges last summer the trial, according to reports, preoccupied the former presidents mind (AFP via Getty Images) Joe Biden rushed to support his son after he was found guilty on three federal gun charges last summer the trial, according to reports, preoccupied the former presidents mind (AFP via Getty Images) You think Jake Tappers telling the truth when he says that I was the acting chief of staff of the presidents? I was in that White House 12 days over the course of the last two years of the administration. Clearly, because I had other things going on, OK? Hunter said, according to The Hill. Which, by the way, broke my heart, Hunter Biden added. The first episode of Harrisons podcast will air Thursday, and also features Tim Walz. Hunter Biden has offered his assessment on why President Donald Trump won the 2024 election, claiming that Democrats literally melted down by giving up on his father. In an interview with Jaime Harrison as part of the former Democratic National Committee chairs new podcast At Our Table, set to debut on Thursday, Biden suggested Democrats were wrong to pressure Joe Biden to exit the 2024 presidential race. We lost the last election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party, Biden said, according to experts obtained by HuffPost in advance of the shows release. Thats my position. We had the advantage of incumbency. We had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration, and the Democratic Party literally melted down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harrison appears to share Hunter Bidens view, telling Semafor the outcome of the election would have been different if Democrats had the loyalty Republicans have for Donald Trump. Joe Biden announced he would withdraw his candidacy in July 2024 after his poor performance in a CNN debate against Trump the month prior raised serious concerns about his health and mental acuity in the final months of the race. Polls also showed Biden would have faced an uphill battle against Trump. His vice president, Kamala Harris, replaced him as the partys nominee. While her candidacy appeared to improve the Democrats odds in the race, she ultimately lost to Trump. Republicans also retained control of the House and regained control of the Senate. Hunter Biden, who was found guilty of illegally owning a gun and pleaded guilty to tax charges, received a full and unconditional pardon from his father, who claimed his son was selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the months since leaving the White House, Joe Biden has faced scrutiny over his decision to seek reelection in the first place. Original Sin: President Bidens Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, a book co-authored by CNNs Jake Tapper and Axios Alex Thompson, claimed that some of those closest to the former president worked to conceal his diminished state. Hunter Biden, who is speaking out for the first time since the 2024 race, contested the allegation of a cover-up. What sells, Jaime? What sells is the idea of a conspiracy, he said. Besides Hunter Biden, Jaime is also expected to release interviews with Democratic Govs. Tim Walz (Minn.) and Wes Moore (Md.), among others. Related... NEED TO KNOW A hunter in Hokkaido, Japan, was declared missing after going out on a hunting trip on Mt. Esan His disappearance comes shortly after a brown bear was spotted in the area, and a gun believed to be his was found near bloodstains There has been a rising number of bear attacks in the area in recent years Concerns are rising about the welfare of a hunter who went missing in Hokkaido, Japan, only days after a brown bear was spotted in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A friend informed authorities that the hunter in his 50s never returned from his outing on Mt. Esan on Tuesday, July 15, according to reports from The Guardian, Kyodo News, and The Japan News. Per reports, a gun believed to be the man's was found near bloodstains. His disappearance comes after a large brown bear was reported in the area on Saturday, July 12. The Japan News noted that police are searching for the hunter via helicopter. Masaaki Tanaka/Aflo/Getty Hokkaido, Japan Hokkaido, Japan In recent years, there has been an increased number of bear attacks in Japan, with a record-breaking 212 reported between April and November 2023, per The Guardian. The previous record was 158 attacks, which were recorded over the length of a full calendar year. Six of those attacks in 2023 were deadly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latest apparent attack comes shortly after the town of Fukushima, roughly 74 miles away from where the hunter went missing, issued the region's first bear warning following a deadly attack, according to Kyodo News. Implemented in May 2022, the warning system encourages people to be extra vigilant and "not to leave food waste outside homes." The Guardian noted that there will also be round-the-clock patrols to help prevent additional attacks while the warning is in place. It will remain in effect for a month and comes after a newspaper deliveryman was killed in an apparent bear attack on July 12. A hunt is out for the bear believed to be responsible for the attack, and it will be killed if found. The man was identified as Kenju Sato, 52, per The Guardian. In April, Japan's government passed a new law that would allow "emergency shootings" of dangerous animals, such as bears, if they are coming too close to cities, according to reporting by Japan Wire. Thomas Faull/Getty Stock image of a brown bear Stock image of a brown bear Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Current laws only allow hunters to take lethal action if there is an imminent threat to humans. However, the updated provision allows for the use of guns "when it is feared [a bear] will enter a residential area or it is deemed an urgent response is necessary to prevent a human being harmed." The law, which will take effect from September, empowers local government to "restrict traffic and issue evacuation orders," per the outlet. Read the original article on People The Pentagons proposed 2026 fiscal year budget comes in at more than one trillion dollars, and $179 billion of that is just for research, development, testing, and evaluation. That money doesnt go toward buying new jets, tanks, warships, or missiles. It funds the programs and technologies that could determine who wins or loses the next fight. At nearly 20% of the overall defense budget, this is the largest R&D request in Pentagon history and gives us an interesting look at where U.S. military planners think the future of warfare is headed. At a high level, this research budget is focused on survivability, speed, and autonomy. This includes: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The B-21 Raider stealth bomber, under the Long Range Strike Bomber program; Loyal wingman drones under the Air Forces Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program; Hypersonic missile development across all branches; Artificial intelligence and autonomy; And $40 billion marked for classified projects. A major theme in this years request is autonomous aviation. The Air Forces loyal wingman program, centered around aircraft like the MQ-28 Ghost Bat and XQ-58 Valkyrie, is designed to field uncrewed aircraft that can fly alongside F-22s, F-35s, and even tankers and cargo aircraft to carry and deploy weapons, jam enemy electronics and sensors, and extend the reach of our own. Other branches are pushing ahead on drone swarms under the Replicator initiative. This program, thrust ahead as a priority by the Pentagons recent announcement, is intended to produce thousands of cheap, easily-replaced drones to overwhelm enemy defenses, serve as scouts, and generally extend the reach of U.S. forces based on observations from Ukraine. Developed through a proof-of-concept with the 101st Airborne, this UAS highlights the potential of 3D printing to quickly create customized tactical equipment. Army photo by Kendall Swank. On the other end of the aviation spectrum is the Long Range Strike Bomber program and the B-21 Raider. Unlike the small drones, the Raider is designed to penetrate deep into contested airspace with both conventional and nuclear weapons. Like the B-2 and B-1 it is meant to replace, the B-21 will be a major piece of the United States nuclear triad, and several are already flying and undergoing testing, but the Defense Department wants to push $4.7 billion into the program just for R&D, so there is obviously more work to be done. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the B-21 cant make it to a target, the Pentagon is hoping that hypersonic weapons can, and theyve committed about $4.1 billion to research and development. These missiles travel at least Mach 5 and maneuver in flight, making them extremely difficult to intercept. Countries like Russia and China boast several hypersonic weapons, and Russia reportedly first used one operationally in 2024. Programs like the Navys Conventional Prompt Strike and the Armys Dark Eagle are aimed at fielding reliable, precision hypersonic strike options to help close the gap. Nearly $450 million is being funnelled toward defending against hypersonics more than double what was allocated last year. Systems like the Patriot and THAAD are incredibly capable, but their effectiveness against maneuverable missiles traveling at Mach 5 is unknown. They werent designed to defeat this threat, and so new interceptors and tracking satellites are needed. The largest portion of this R&D budget, about $40 billion, is marked for classified projects. We obviously dont know what specific projects are being funded through this, but theres a good chance they include advanced drones, electronic warfare and signals intelligence systems, next-generation stealth platforms, and cyber capabilities. Previous graduates from the black budget include the F-117 Nighthawk, the RQ-170 Sentinel, and even the Sea Shadow experimental stealth ship. We broke down these key programs and priorities and what they mean for the Pentagons plans for the future in our latest YouTube video. The latest on Task & Purpose THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of the Gaza war. In a decision published on the ICC website, judges also rejected an Israeli request to suspend the wider ICC investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian Territories. The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief, Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court said in February that judges had withdrawn the arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif, following credible reports of his death. Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military campaign it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas since the deadly attack on Israel by the militant Palestinian group on October 7, 2023. It is contesting the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. Israel has argued that an appeals chamber decision in April ordering the pre-trial chamber to review Israel's objections to the court's jurisdiction means there is no valid jurisdictional basis for the warrants. The judges rejected that reasoning as incorrect, saying on Wednesday that Israel's jurisdictional challenge to the arrest warrants was still pending and the warrants would remain in place until the court ruled on that issue specifically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no timeline for a ruling on jurisdiction in this case. In June the United States imposed sanctions on four judges at the ICC, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal's issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Two of the sanctioned judges are on the panel that ruled to reject Israel's request to withdraw the warrants. (Reporting by Stephanie van den BergEditing by Frances Kerry) ENFIELD, Conn. A teen driver who lost control of his car and struck two state troopers on Interstate 91 in Enfield last week is an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Joel Alexander Caica Nishve, 18, hydroplaned across three lanes of northbound traffic on Thursday and spun into two Connecticut state troopers who had pulled over to assist in a multi-vehicle crash. Connecticut State Police released dash-cam footage showing Caica-Nishves sedan skidding wildly after hitting standing water in the left lane. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Homeland Security released a statement on Caica-Nishves immigration status on Wednesday. Caica-Nishve has been charged with traveling too fast for conditions, reckless driving, failure to drive in the proper lane and operating a motor vehicle without a license. His bond was set at $100,000, but was lowered to $500, according to News8 of New Haven. Joel Alexander Caica-Nishve is an illegal alien from Ecuador who was released into the U.S. under the Biden administration in 2023. On July 10, 2025, he was charged with reckless driving after he was involved in a car accident that seriously injured two Connecticut State Troopers. ICE has lodged a detainer for his arrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the troopers were responding to collisions by Exit 47W and 48 around 7 a.m. They said one trooper was inside his cruiser, and another was standing near that vehicle when they were struck. The trooper inside the cruiser suffered moderate injuries, police said. The trooper who was struck while standing outside was seriously injured, and they were all transported to nearby hospitals, police said. Occupants of the vehicle that struck the troopers all suffered minor to moderate injuries, police said. Read the original article on MassLive. A volcano erupted on Wednesday in Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula in the southwest, weather authorities said, the ninth eruption to hit the region since the end of 2023. Live video feeds showed lava spewing out of a fissure in the ground, with the Icelandic Met Office saying that it began just before 4:00 am (0400 GMT). The weather agency later in the day reported that the main fissure was estimated to be 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles) long, and that a second smaller fissure, about 500 metres long, had opened up nearby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Due to high levels of gas pollution in the air, residents were advised to stay indoors. Broadcaster RUV reported that the nearby fishing village Grindavik had been evacuated, as had the Blue Lagoon, Iceland's famed tourist spot. Police Commissioner Margret Kristin Palsdottir, told the broadcaster that the evacuation of the some 100 people staying in the village had gone smoothly. Palsdottir also said they had prevented some tourists from entering the area. "Of course, we understand that this is a fascinating event, especially for tourists who are not as accustomed to it as we are," Palsdottir said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Geophysicist Benedikt Ofeigsson told RUV that the eruption didn't seem as big as earlier ones and was in a good location as it wasn't near any infrastructure. The previous eruption to hit the area was in April, and a risk assessment published on Tuesday didn't expect another eruption until this autumn. When the first volcanic eruption first hit the area in late 2023, most of Grindavik's 4,000 residents were evacuated. Since then, almost all of the houses have been sold to the state, and most of the residents have left. Volcanoes on the Reykjanes peninsula had not erupted for eight centuries when in March 2021 a period of heightened seismic activity began. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Volcanologists have warned in recent years that volcanic activity in the region had entered a new era. RUV said the latest eruption was not expected to impact international flights. A volcanic eruption in another part of Iceland in 2010 caused worldwide travel chaos as the ash spewed into the atmosphere sparked airspace closures in Europe. Iceland is home to 33 active volcanic systems, more than any other European country. It is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a fault in the ocean floor that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and causes earthquakes and eruptions. jll/giv A concept image of a self-driving car image by Gorodenkoff via Shutterstock When most investors hear the word robotaxi, one company typically comes to mind first: Tesla (TSLA). That makes sense, considering Tesla has long chased autonomous vehicles as a key part of its growth strategy. But thus far, the robotaxi rollout at Tesla has left some investors wanting. While the Austin, Texas launch happened without too much drama, some on Wall Street are looking for Tesla to already have a larger footprint and robotaxis that operate with fewer guardrails. More News from Barchart The thing is, the autonomous driving or robotaxi space is now a global one, and there are a number of emerging players in this market that are worth watching. One such company that recently caught my eye is Chinese robotaxi company WeRide (WRD). Let's dive into the recent news around this name, and the stocks rather bumpy ride of late. Why All the Volatility? WeRide was publicly listed late last year. And since then, the companys stock price has done what many early stage companies in high-growth industries do move in wild fashion. www.barchart.com Shares of WRD stock surged following its offering to a high of more than $40 per share in March before falling back below the $10 level. At the time of writing, this is a stock hovering around the $8 mark, making it intriguing for investors who may have been waiting for a better entry point into WeRide. WRD has been moving higher over the past month after announcing that it has become the first company to obtain an autonomous logistics vehicles license in Guangzhou, China. The company had already received an initial permit for its Robovan W5 model, but this active road testing permit does appear to put the company on a meaningful pathway to commercialization. And whats probably getting lost in the mix, at least for some investors, is whos behind this project. Among the key funders is AI giant Nvidia (NVDA), which stands to benefit not only from selling the hardware and software behind the scenes, but on the ultimate commercialization of this technology. Talk about double-ending your potential winnings. Of course, WRD stock still has quite a ways to go to provide Nvidia right for making an investment. But investors have good reason to believe that the Jensen Huang-led company made a strategic and smart bet on WeRide. With this in mind, I think investors should monitor shares here to see if WRD is nearing a bottom. A volcanic eruption in southwest Iceland has prompted evacuations, including at nearby tourist sites like the Blue Lagoon. The Sundhnukur volcano, located on the Reykjanes Peninsula, began erupting early Wednesday morning, according to officials. After two hours of seismic activity, the volcano began erupting at the Sundhnukur crater range -- about 30 miles southwest of Reykjavik -- just before 4 a.m. local time, the Icelandic Meteorological Office announced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Eruption at Hawaii's Kilauea volcano sends lava shooting 1,000 feet in air A fissure about 1.5 miles long opened up at the Sundhnukur crater row as a result of the eruption, aerial surveys by the Icelandic Coast Guard showed. A second, smaller fissure measuring about .3 miles was created west of Fagradalsfjall, according to the Met Office. "Witch's hair" -- strands of volcanic glass often produced by lava fountaining activity, also referred to as "Pele's hair" -- was seen drifting in the wind, the Met Office said. Contact with the material can cause skin and eye irritation. Public Defense Department of the State Police/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Handout picture released on July 16, 2025 by the Public Defense Department of the State Police Commissioner in Iceland shows lava and smoke erupting from a volcano near Grindavik on the Icelandic peninsula of Reykjanes. In addition, high levels of gas pollution were measured nearby in Reykjanesbr, but levels were decreasing in the hours after the eruption began, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Places like Grindavik, a nearby fishing town, and the Blue Lagoon, the geothermal spa that is one of the country's most iconic tourist sites, were among the locations instructed by officials to evacuate, public broadcaster RUV reported. The town of Grindavik has experienced repeated threats in recent years after the once-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes peninsula began erupting again after 800 years of no activity. MORE: Iliamna volcano in Alaska rumbling despite being dormant for over 100 years, scientists say Iceland is known as a hot spot for volcanic activity. There are 32 active volcano systems in the region spread across three rift zones, all part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a mountain range that mostly runs down the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, there is an "excessively high production of magma" in the region, Thomas Algeo, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Cincinnati, told ABC News in November after the eruption triggered evacuations at Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon. West Iceland's volcano is a rift activity volcano, which involves the earth being pulled apart in two different directions through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, rather than a cone erupting magma through a central pipe, Algeo said. Public Defense Department of the State Police/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: Handout picture released on July 16, 2025 by the Public Defense Department of the State Police Commissioner in Iceland shows lava and smoke erupting from a volcano near Grindavik on the Icelandic peninsula of Reykjanes. Once the lava erupts, the pressure is relieved and magma starts to fill into the shallow storage zone below -- repressurizing the system and setting the stage for the next eruption. The style of eruption is "much less dangerous, because most of the activity involves slow-moving basaltic lava flows," Algeo said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These types of eruptions offer "spectacular" views because large supplies of magma ooze out of the fissures once they open up, Tobias Fischer, director of the Volatiles Laboratory at the University of New Mexico, told ABC News in November. MORE: Mile-deep underwater volcano could erupt off West Coast this year, scientists say There have been 11 eruptions at the volcano in southwestern Iceland since it became active again in 2021, according to the Met Office. Iceland's western rift zone, also known as the Reykjanes-Langjokull rift zone, was active prior to the 13th century. Fischer said. These types of eruptions tend to occur every 1,000 years or so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Icelandic volcano previously dormant for 800 years erupting again During the last 800 years, the majority of volcanic activity has been in the north and east volcanic zones -- both lightly populated regions. However, western Iceland, which includes he capital of Reykjavik, is highly populated. The location of the latest eruption is favorable because lava flows will likely not threaten any infrastructure, Minney Sigurardottir, a natural hazard specialist at Met Office, told RUV. The IDF emphasized that Israel citizens crossing into Syria is a criminal offense that endangers both the public and the IDF. The IDF identified dozens of suspects attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory from Syria, the military stated Wednesday. The military and Border Police are currently working to disperse the gatherings and prevent further infiltrations Additionally, several Israeli citizens have crossed into Syrian territory from the Majdal Shams area. The military is currently working on ensuring their safe return. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The IDF emphasized that this is a criminal offense that endangers both the public and the IDF. Israels Druze announced it would cross the Syrian border Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts by all means necessary, calling for a general strike and national days of rage and mourning across Israel, in a statement published earlier on Wednesday. Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to the violence, July 16 2025 (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) The statement, signed by Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, came after the recent escalation of attacks on Syrian Druze communities. Regrettably, despite explicit commitments, the IDF and theIsraeli government have taken no meaningful action to stop the killing, the statement read. The leadership is calling on all members of the community to prepare by all necessary means to cross the border in order to assist their slaughtered brethren in Syria. The announcement of the corridor came as Israel and Hamas continue to dispute the issue of military withdrawal during a ceasefire. The IDF on Wednesday announced that it had completed the new Magen Oz Corridor, splitting the critical Hamas middle-southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. Stretching 15 kilometers north from the Morag Corridor, which currently splits off Rafah from Khan Yunis, the new corridor announcement comes as Hamas and Israel say they have solved 90% of their disputes regarding a new ceasefire, other than the extent of the withdrawal of IDF forces during and after the deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hamas has demanded that the IDF withdraw to the lines it held in early March, when the last ceasefire was still in place, leaving the IDF only a 700-1,100 meter security perimeter around Gaza, as well as the Philadelphi Corridor bordering with Egypt. IDF General Staff and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir have been willing to accept these terms for over a week. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected these terms, insisting on keeping some aspect of the IDF presence at the Morag Corridor. IDF soldiers operate in Gaza, July 16 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESMANS UNIT) The timing of the announcement seemed certain to put further pressure on Hamas about additional facts on the ground, which Israel might be able to inject into the situation if a deal is not cut soon. The corridor was established by 36th Division and the Golani Brigade The 36th Division and the Golani Brigade carried out most of the work to establish the corridor, including destroying extensive Hamas positions and terror tunnels in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, the IDF said it had killed dozens of Hamas terrorists in the process of clearing the area. Prior to the war, Khan Yunis was Hamass second most crucial city, after Gaza City in northern Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamass Health Ministry said on Wednesday that IDF attacks killed 93 Palestinians and wounded 278 on Tuesday. Hamas does not distinguish between civilians and its own fighters. Likewise, the IDF has only been reporting vague numbers for how many Hamas terrorists it kills on a given day or week, without detailing the number of civilians killed. Earlier in the war, some IDF estimates suggested that 40% of those killed were Hamas terrorists, and 60% of those killed were civilians, a percentage which is better than some other urban warfare conflicts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But even IDF sources have acknowledged that in recent months, the percentage may be worse, with some accusing IDF Southern Command chief Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, who took charge in March, of running a looser operation in that regard and taking probing mistaken killing of civilians less seriously. Asor rejected those allegations but has also offered few details to contradict critics to date. After a number of strategic aerial attacks on Syrian soil, Israel won't send ground forces to protect Syrian-Druze. As of Wednesday afternoon, the IDF had undertaken 160 aerial attacks on Syrian regime forces in and around the vicinity of Sweida in southern Syria, where Israel says the regimes forces are slaughtering Syrian Druze. In addition, the IDF has attacked, and possibly destroyed, Syrias Defense Ministry, and also attacked part of the Presidential Palace in Damascus. Dozens or more Syrian regime forces are said to have been killed in IDF attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement IDF sources said that the military is ready for a multi-day campaign to convince Syrian regime forces to withdraw from Sweida and leave the Syrian Druze their autonomy. However, the IDF said that the situation for the Syrian Druze is desperate and that despite aerial attacks, if on Tuesday, the Druze controlled around 70% of Sweida, by Wednesday, regime forces controlled around 70% of the city. In addition, the IDF said that the regime has around 200 militia men committing atrocities against the Druze in Sweida, while another 1,000 more official Syrian regime army forces have the city surrounded and cut off. Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) The IDF implied that the Syrian regime may use this model to try to have plausible deniability that it was not directly involved in atrocities, but the military said that intelligence suggests that the mixing of using militias to do the regimes dirty work appears to have been planned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the same time, the IDF did not accuse the Syrian regime of provoking the current crisis. IDF implies that the Syrian regime may be involved indirectly in the conflict Rather, it implied that the current crisis had developed organically between Syrian Druze and Syrian Bedouins and that the regime had seized the opportunity of the crisis to try to assert its power and control in this mostly Druze part of southern Syria once and for all. While the IDF said it will continue to bomb Syrian regime forces to show them the cost of their military actions in Sweida, the military made it clear that it is not sending IDF troops into Sweida to assist. This could mean that the IDF takes a price from the regime for its current acts in Sweida but fails to prevent it from killing any Druze that it views as a threat, even if it might eventually withdraw its forces once that mission is complete. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To deal with the ongoing crisis, including border issues, the IDF is transferring parts of the 35th Brigade from Gaza to the North and may also transfer the 98th Division northward if necessary. Other reservists could also be called to the North, and there are multiple closed military zones on the Israeli-Syrian border. Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would escalate its level of attacks on Syrian regime forces if they do not soon withdraw from Sweida. Israel had attacked regime forces both on Sunday and on Monday to try to convince them to leave the area, but the regime forces remained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The picture of exactly what is going on in Sweida is shrouded in a fog of accusations and counter-accusations between clashing Syrian groups. Israel is saying that it is intervening to protect the Druze, due to decades of supportive relations between Israelis and Druze, including many Druze Israelis serving in the IDF, as well as to keep Syrian regime forces out of a buffer zone which Israel declared in southern Syria in December 2024 after the fall of the Assad regime. Earlier, Reuters reported that Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaas government will soon withdraw its forces from areas with Druze populations, an Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday night. Earlier, Reuters reported that Syrias Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Suwayda that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A ceasefire announced on Tuesday night collapsed after only a few hours. There was still fire from government forces in the predominantly Druze city of Suwayda after the announcement was made, according to a Reuters witness. Syrias state news agency, SANA, corroborated the reports of a ceasefire agreement, adding that security checkpoints were deployed across Suwayda. Israel struck the entrance to the Syrian regimes military headquarters complex in Damascus, the IDF confirmed earlier on Wednesday. IDF footage showing airstrikes on Damascus, July 16, 2025. (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) Israel struck the complex a second time later on Wednesday afternoon, also striking the area around Damascus's Presidential Palace, local media reported. Jerusalem struck the complex a second time later on Wednesday afternoon, also striking the area around Damascuss Presidential Palace, local media reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several officers were wounded and killed in the strikes on the military headquarters, according to local reports, including a sector commander, other officers responsible for part of the Syria-Jordan border region, and an officer in Syrias artillery force. The strikes on Damascus killed one and wounded 18, according to a report by Syrias state news agency, SANA. Israel also conducted strikes on Daraa, according to SANA. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus hearing on Wednesday was cut short due to the IDFs strike on Syrian regime targets. Israeli drones reportedly targeted Syrias city of Suwayda earlier, where clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters have resumed, SANA reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Much of Suwayda is under the control of Druze forces, and the city also hosts a smaller population of Christian and Muslim minorities. The IDF said it would reinforce its troops along the Syrian border as it continued to monitor the regimes actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria following a situational assessment. Clashes broke out on Sunday between Druze forces and localBedouin tribes, who are Sunni. Syrian government forces were deployed to the area and clashed with the local armed groups. On Monday, the IDF struck several Syrian regime tanks that were advancing towards Suwayda, as the government forces gained control of at least one Druze village in the area. Katz stated Israel would defend the Druze community Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that Israel would escalate its level of attacks on the Syrian regime if they do not soon withdraw from Suwayda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Katz and Netanyahu previously instructed the IDF to prepare to defend the Druze in Syria, as recently as March, after clashes broke out in Jaramana, a city on the outskirts of Damascus, between local Druze forces and the Syrian regime. We will not allow the terrorist regime of radical Islam in Syria to harm the Druze, Netanyahu and Katz said in a statement. If the regime harms the Druze, it will be harmed by us. We are committed to our Druze brothers in Israel to do everything to prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria, and we will take all necessary steps to maintain their security. Maariv contributed to this report. A woman who was in the U.S. illegally admitted to causing a head-on, wrong-way, crash that claimed the life of a young Missouri boy. The fatal crash happened on Dec. 20, 2023, when 33-year-old Endrina Bracho barreled down the highway the wrong way, going 75 miles per hour at the time of the crash, 35 miles above the posted speed limit, according to the Hazelwood Police Department. "1,700 feet is quite a big distance to travel at over 70 miles an hour on a 40-mile posted road. Thats a long way to travel in the wrong direction and not realize it," Sgt. Scott Schnurbusch from the Hazelwood Police Department previously told FOX 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities confirmed that Bracho was a Venezuelan migrant without a driver's license, when she slammed into the family's car head-on. Former Cop Mom Slams Policies That Let Illegal Alien Allegedly Strike Son In Hit-and-run: A Lot Of Problems Travis Wolfe, the victim in the crash, was just one day away from celebrating his 12th birthday in December. He died at the hospital on March 6 after being taken off life support. Read On The Fox News App On Monday, Bracho entered a blind plea, admitting guilt to one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree assault, according to court records. A blind plea means the defendant pleads guilty without any prior agreement on sentencing with prosecutors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped two charges of first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and two misdemeanor traffic offenses. Teen Illegal Immigrant Who Killed Woman In Colorado Crash Gets Probation, Then Is Arrested By Ice With Family Illegal Venezuelan migrant allegedly kills young Missouri boy in wrong way collision. Bracho is set to be sentenced on Sept. 12. Prosecutors have suggested a 10-year sentence for the manslaughter charge and seven years for each of the assault charges, with all sentences to run concurrently. Wolfe's sister, Taylor Wolfe, expressed outrage following the arrest, telling "Fox & Friends" that Bracho should not have even been in the U.S. in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It makes me really angry," Taylor Wolfe said in the 2024 interview. "Everybody here has to get a driver's license, and we all have to learn how to drive, and we have to take a test to get our license. And she didn't do that, first of all. Second of all, she wasn't supposed to be here. And if she would have just came here legally , they would have had the documents on her to be able to get insurance." "Now my family is stuck with the loss of a child because she didn't know how to drive," she added. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, reacted to the plea deal and called it "justice" for the Wolfe family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Progressive Prosecutor Lets Illegal Immigrant Teen Off Easy After Crash That Killed 24 Year-old Woman "JUSTICE - the illegal who killed Travis Wolfe in Missouri has pled guilty. She should never have been in Missouri in the first place, and never would have been, had Joe Biden not opened our borders," Hawley wrote in a statement on X. In January, Hawley introduced "Traviss Law" to honor Travis Wolfe's legacy and prevent other criminal illegal aliens from roaming free. "Under President Bidens open border, Missouris 12-year-old Travis Wolfe was killed by an illegal alien, who was then released from jail. Theres no legislation less controversial than protecting American citizens from dangerous illegal aliensand preventing another death like Traviss," Hawley wrote. "My amendment, Traviss Law, would guarantee the detention of criminal illegals who commit a motor vehicle crime or victimize a minor." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Click To Get The Fox News App "Travis's Law" is an amendment to the Laken Riley Act, legislation which would ensure that ICE detains illegal aliens who commit burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. Fox News' Elizabeth Heckman contributed to this report. Original article source: Illegal migrant enters plea in crash that killed boy one day before his 12th birthday ILLINOIS (WCIA) Attorney General Kwame Raoul joined a coalition of 25 states and attorneys general to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the freezing of $6.8 billion in education grants. In the lawsuit, Raoul and the coalition argue that the Trump administrations actions violate federal funding statutes. These include the Anti-deficiency Act, the Appropriations Act, the Administrative Procedure Act and the Impoundment Control Act, as well as multiple provisions of the U.S. Constitution. U of I getting $3M from state for tech incubator project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This coalition is calling the Trump administrations decision to freeze billions of dollars in funding for six longstanding education grants, unconstitutional, unlawful and arbitrary. The administrations decision comes just weeks before the start of the new school year. With the start of the school year only a month away for many Illinois students, the Trump administrations illegal funding freeze is wreaking havoc on school budgets, suspending programs and causing stress and anxiety for families who depend on them, Raoul said. I will continue to stand with other attorneys general against the presidents unlawful and arbitrary actions that threaten the separation of powers as well as the rule of law. Additionally, this coalition has asked the court to declare the funding freeze as unlawful as courts have repeatedly done in other multistate cases and block any attempts to delay or withhold the funding. Illinois and its coalition partners alternatively asked the court to order the defendants to comply with their statutory and constitutional duties and immediately release the withheld funds to the states. Illinois and other states have used funding provided through these grants to carry out a broad range of programs and services for decades, including: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Educational programs for migrant children and English learners Programs that promote effective classroom instruction, improve school conditions and enhance the use of technology in the classroom Community learning centers that offer students a broad range of opportunities for academic and extracurricular enrichment Adult education and workforce development efforts Illinois is anticipated to receive an estimated $219 million in federal education funding that is now frozen, based on funding granted for the 2024-25 school year. Raoul said this would leave a large hole in the states education budget. Every year, the U.S. Department of Education makes roughly 25% of the funds for these programs available to states around July 1. This helps state and local education agencies plan their budgets for the upcoming academic year. Senate advances funding bill with Central Illinois projects Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Raoul added that the state of Illinois and the other plaintiff states have complied with the funding conditions set forth under the law and have individual state plans that the Department of Education has already approved. These states have, without incident, received these funds for decades, including as recently as 2024. However, on June 30, 2025, Illinois and state agencies across the country got a notification announcing that the Department of Education would not be obligating funds for six formula funding programs on July 1. This funding freeze has immediately thrown into chaos plans for the upcoming academic year, part of Raouls news release reads. Local education agencies have approved budgets, developed staffing plans and signed contracts to provide vital educational services under these grants. Now, as a result of the Trump administrations actions, states including Illinois find themselves facing the possibility of funding insufficient to maintain many of these commitments just weeks before the start of the 2025-2026 school year. Raoul also points out that essential summer school and afterschool programs, which provide childcare to working parents of school age children, are already feeling the impacts. This freeze is detrimental to key teacher training programs, and programs that make school more accessible to children with special learning needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The coalition said that it is Congress, not the executive branch, that possesses the power of the purse. Specifically, they said the Constitution does not afford the executive brand power to refuse to spend appropriations that were passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law. Attorneys general of the following states and federal territories joined Raoul in filing this lawsuit: Arizona California Colorado Connecticut Delaware The District of Columbia Hawaii Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Nevada New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Washington Wisconsin Raoul was also joined by the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania in the filing of this lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. CHICAGO Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza has announced she will not be running for reelection in 2026. Mendoza has been the states comptroller since 2016, overseeing the states finances while also holding various other positions, including city clerk. She has spent 24 years in public service. The announcement, held at Los Comales in Little Village, comes ahead of the Cook County Democratic Party slating meeting later this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its where I got my political start, in this exact spot that I first announced my campaign for state representative 26 years ago, Mendoza said, becoming visibly emotional. Mendoza discussed some of her accomplishments in the position of comptroller on Wednesday, which she says include retiring a multi-billion-dollar bill backlog, paying off federal loans ahead of schedule, and rebuilding the states rainy day fund. But she says she is not done when it comes to public service, refusing to rule out a second mayoral bid in Chicago. Im leaving the door open, she said. Im definitely going to take some time to figure out what that next big, huge challenge is for me. Mendoza could skip all-important Cook County meeting amid rumors of mayoral bid Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But, she also spoke on a loss in 2019 when she first ran for mayor. Mendoza finished fifth in the then-crowded contest, with 9 percent of the vote. You learn more in this line of work when you fail than when you win every time, Mendoza said. It was humbling. It was wising, but it made me stronger and Im actually very appreciative to have had that opportunity. Mendoza has been a fierce critic of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the previous administration under former city Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Weve had two very unsuccessful mayors in a row, Mendoza said. Chicagoans deserve better. No word on when Mendoza might declare whats next, but the comptrollers announcement comes ahead of a Cook County Democrats gathering later in the week to slate candidates for the 2026 primaries. If and when she does make her decision about whats next, Mendoza said, shell be in it to win it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Regarding a potential mayoral run in 2027, Mendoza could face several other high-profile candidates, including Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Alderman Bill Conway, and City Clerk Anna Valencia. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) The Illinois Treasurers Office is celebrating a record-breaking year in its efforts to return money to its rightful owners across the state. In a news release, Treasurer Michael Frerichs said his office returned almost $309 million to 312,000 residents, businesses and organizations through the I-CASH program. The money came from overlooked safe deposit boxes, unpaid life insurance benefits, forgotten bank accounts and unused rebate cards. U of I getting $3M from state for tech incubator project Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $309 million retuned during Fiscal Year 2025 beat out the previous record of $301 million that was set the previous fiscal year. We made common-sense changes to I-CASH to return more money to more folks, and we are proud to set records, Frerichs said. But were even more proud of helping people. One of my biggest fights was to take on insurance companies to make sure life insurance benefits rightfully end up with the people and organizations they were left to. Part of the record-breaking total came from the life insurance policy of a late woman from Lake County, who named Orphans of the Storm Animal Shelter in Riverwoods as the beneficiary of her policy. Frerichs recently presented the shelter with a check of more than $200,000. We are deeply grateful for this generous gift and for Treasurer Frerichs leadership in making sure it reached us, said Michelle Shields, Volunteer President of the Board of Directors at Orphans of the Storm. For nearly a century, our shelter has been part of the fabric of this community. We have connected people and animals through love, care, and second chances. This support honors that legacy and helps us build toward a future where every animal has a safe place to land and a family to call their own. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate advances funding bill with Central Illinois projects The Illinois Treasurers Office is legally required to return unclaimed property to its owners or their heirs, no matter how long it takes. Frerichs recommended that people check the I-CASH website at least twice a year to see if they have money waiting for them. Since taking office, Frerichs has returned more than $2.3 billion in missing money, and the number of claims per year has risen from 60,000 to 300,000. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) The Pritzker administration has unveiled a new tool to help children facing trauma and other difficulties in their lives. U of I getting $3M from state for tech incubator project Illinois Childhood Adversity Index compares different risk factors a student could face. The Illinois State Board of Education explained that the index is broken down into three areas: Community risk trajectories Understanding risk factors that set communities on adverse paths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Death Rate among people under 20 years old Juvenile delinquency rate Rate of overdose deaths Rate of child abuse and neglect investigations Rate of uninsured people under 19 years old Community unmet needs Identifying where services and resources are most needed. Rate of food insecurity Rate of frequent mental distress among adults Rate of vacant housing Imprisonment rate Barriers to economic progress Highlighting economic challenges that hinder community well-being. Housing burden (percentage of households with housing costs at least 30% of income) Percentage with less than high school education (people age 25 or older) Percentage of total population without health insurance Median household income Unemployment rate (people between 20 and 64) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement City of Champaign to vote on new initiative in Gun Violence Reduction Blueprint Knowing what specifically the children of a community need can let leaders prepare them for a better future. School districts across the state are impacted by the trauma that students face in home or in their communities on a daily basis, said Tony Sanders, ISBE State Superintendent. And this is just one more tool to help not just school districts, but also policymakers make decisions that are in the best interest of those children. The data will be used by more state agencies than ISBE. The Childrens Adversity Index represents exactly the kind of comprehensive, data-driven approach we need to tackle the complex challenges facing Illinois families, said State Senator Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood). By mapping adversity across our communities and identifying where resources are most needed, were moving beyond treating symptoms to addressing root causes. This tool will be invaluable as we work to ensure every child in Illinois has the support they need to thrive, regardless of their ZIP code. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The link to the full Index can be found on ISBEs website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. Scoop: Singapore High Court clears path for WazirX revote, platform could resume operations within weeks originally appeared on TheStreet. The Singapore High Court has overturned its June 4 order rejecting WazirXs restructuring plan, granting permission for a fast-tracked revote that could allow the Indian crypto exchange to reopen and begin reimbursing users within a month. In the latest hearing on July 16, the court accepted new arguments from Zettai the parent firm of WazirX after a revised proposal addressed prior regulatory concerns. The restructuring scheme initially faced objections due to the involvement of Panama-based Zensui and concerns over potential violations of Singapores Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA). Join the discussion with Scott Melker on Roundtable here. However, under the revised plan, the Singapore High Court has granted Zettai an expedited timeline to conduct a revote on the updated proposal. The presiding judge confirmed that all necessary amendments have been made to the scheme in line with the courts earlier observations. If a majority of creditors vote in favor, WazirX will resume operations immediately, and the distribution of user assets will begin without delay. As part of the restructured plan, all core operationsranging from trading and withdrawals to user-facing techwill now be handled by Zanmai Labs, an Indian-incorporated entity, rather than Zensui. This shift toward local control was central to satisfying the courts compliance concerns. The crypto-crypto operations will be transferred to Zanmai India... to facilitate the full resumption of operations of the Platform, Zettais co-founder Nischal Shetty stated in an affidavit dated July 4 and reviewed by TheStreet. The plan had previously secured overwhelming creditor approvalover 93% by headcount and 94.6% by valuebut was struck down due to FSMA concerns. The turning point came when Singapores Monetary Authority (MAS) clarified that Zettai would not be in breach of digital token service rules as long as distributions occur outside the country. Join the discussion with WendyO on Roundtable here. With this regulatory green light, the High Court has now instructed Zettai to organize a revote on an expedited timeline. If approved, the platform will reopen immediately and initiate its long-awaited distribution processhandled by Zanmaiaimed at repaying users affected by the $234 million hack in July 2024. Zettai had always contemplated the possibility of the Platform resuming full operations... the Scheme had provided for a sharing of any Platform Profits with Scheme Creditors, Shetty wrote. Kenyas pro-democracy anniversary protests on July 7, 2025, were marked by violence, looting and vandalism. Following these events, posts shared on social media purported to show a road vandalised by youth during these recent demonstrations. But the claim is false; the image was taken in South Africas KwaZulu-Natal province in 2020. This is what the Gen Zs from KIKUYU community Did to the Roads in Mt.Kenya during the SABA SABA PROTESTS. Kamau, Maina, Mwangi Why are you Destroying property, Infrastructure serving your PEOPLE? (sic), reads an X post published on July 10, 2025. Rigathi Gachagua is Leading KIKUYUS TO POLITICAL HELL. ANYWAY, President William Ruto MUST Rule kenya till 2032, whether you like it or NOT (sic), the post adds. Screenshot of the false post, taken July 11, 2025 Kamau, Maina and Mwangi are common names from Kenyas largest tribe, the Agikuyu/Kikuyu, while Gachagua, who hails from the community, is Kenyas ex-deputy president who was impeached last year after falling out with President William Ruto. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The image shows several people, one with a pickaxe raised, gathered on a section of a damaged road. Similar claims were published elsewhere on X here and here. Saba Saba aftermath July 7, 2025, marked 35 years since Kenya's historic Saba Saba (Swahili for Seven Seven) protests for multi-party democracy, which subsequently led to the 1991 repeal of Section 2A of the Kenyan Constitution which had enshrined Kenya as a one-party state (archived here). At the time, the protests descended into violence, resulting in multiple injuries, deaths and over 1,000 arrests. This years Saba Saba anniversary commemoration saw nationwide protests, marked by a violent police response, looting and destruction (archived here and here). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response to the protests, Ruto claimed that the opposition was attempting to overthrow his government through unconstitutional means and vowed firm action against the alleged coup plotters (archived here). Gachagua, now Rutos rival, in turn accused the government of orchestrating violence and economic sabotage during the protests, claiming goons were sponsored by the state to cause chaos and then blame it on the Kikuyu community (archived here). However, social media posts with an image purportedly showing a road vandalised by youth during the recent protests are false. South African road AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found that the image was taken in South Africa on September 22, 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South African media reports featuring the image identified the damaged road as a section of KwaZulu-Natal's R33, located between the towns of Pomeroy and Dundee (archived here, here and here). According to the reports, residents of Msinga local municipality destroyed the road during service delivery protests. In a Facebook post dated September 23, 2020, the provincial transport department also published the image and condemned the vandalism (archived here). MEC Ntuli condemned the destruction of infrastructure and malicious damage to property after members of the community blocked the R33 and dug up the road in protest yesterday, reads the post. Government representatives subsequently visited the site in Pomeroy two days later (archived here). AFP Fact Check has previously debunked claims linking the same image to supporters of a Kenyan member of parliament. On this occasion, the KwaZulu-Natal transport department confirmed that it indeed showed the R33 at Pomeroy. July 18, 2025 Corrects June to July in the first and seventh paragraphs A group of immigrants arrested inside courthouses are suing President Donald Trumps administration and the Department of Justice over sweeping enforcement actions taking place inside immigration courts across the country. The 12 plaintiffs most of whom are LGBT+ or victims of female genital mutilation who fear persecution and violence in their home countries sought protection in the United States only to have their cases abruptly dismissed, with masked federal officers waiting to arrest them on the other side of the courtroom doors. All the plaintiffs appeared at their immigration court hearings intending to seek asylum or other relief to remain legally in the United States, but government attorneys requested the cases be dismissed, making them vulnerable to immediate arrest, detention and swift removal from the country by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit filed by a group of immigrant advocacy and legal groups in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday accuses the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice of unleashing a new campaign of courthouse arrests through coordinated policies designed to strip noncitizens of their rights and due process, exposing them to immediate arrest and expedited removal. Many of the plaintiffs had lived in the United States without issue for years before their arrest before they were abruptly separated from their families, including U.S. citizens, without notice, according to the lawsuit. A group of immigrants arrested inside immigration courts across the country has sued the Trump administration for the unlawful practice of judges dropping their cases with agents waiting outside the court doors to arrest them (AFP via Getty Images) A group of immigrants arrested inside immigration courts across the country has sued the Trump administration for the unlawful practice of judges dropping their cases with agents waiting outside the court doors to arrest them (AFP via Getty Images) One plaintiff, a gay man from Ecuador, was deported to his home country within weeks after his arrest, moments after a hearing where he intended to file an asylum claim describing the persecution he faced for his advocacy for LGBT+ rights. He is living in hiding, according to the complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All but two other plaintiffs are detained and anticipate their removal to Cuba, Venezuela, the Republic of Guinea, and the Chechen Republic, where they fear persecution for their political activism and LGBT+ identities. Two plaintiffs fleeing the Republic of Guinea and Liberia are survivors of female genital mutilation and forced or abusive marriages. When immigrants have appeared for their hearings, Homeland Security attorneys have moved for the cases to be dismissed, while the Justice Departments Executive Office for Immigration Review has issued guidance to judges to grant those motions on the spot, depriving noncitizens of their rights, according to the lawsuit. Targeted immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years have been placed in expedited removal proceedings, which allows the government to deport an immigrant without a hearing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike federal district courts, immigration court judges operate under the direction of the attorney generals office. We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration, said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at the National Immigrant Justice Center, among the groups representing plaintiffs. People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes and livelihoods, Zwick said. Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights. We must continue fighting to overcome the administrations escalating attacks on the U.S. Constitution and rule of law. Immigration court judges have been instructed to grant government motions to dismiss immigrants cases seeking asylum and other relief, making them vulnerable to their immediate arrest and detention (Getty Images) Immigration court judges have been instructed to grant government motions to dismiss immigrants cases seeking asylum and other relief, making them vulnerable to their immediate arrest and detention (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thousands of people who are following immigration law including showing up for court-ordered ICE check-ins, immigration court hearings and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services appointments have become easy targets for arrests under the Trump administrations mass deportation agenda. The administration has effectively de-legalized tens of thousands of immigrants who were granted humanitarian protections to live and work in the country, as well as thousands of people who show up to immigration courts each week only to have their cases dismissed, with federal agents waiting to arrest them on the other side of the courtroom doors. Those actions have radically expanded a pool of undocumented people to add to the presidents demands for mass deportations. Policy that has since been abandoned by the Trump administration sought to prevent courthouse arrests from creating a palpable fear that disincentivizes people from appearing for their hearings, according to the lawsuit. But in the first few days of the Trump administration, defendants repealed those policies, exposing individuals who properly appear for their hearings, including to seek asylum and other relief, to the imminent threat of arrest and indefinite detention, the lawsuit states. People take part in the No Kings protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch) In the 19 years my uncle has worked in the healthcare industry, hes only missed one day the day his mother, my grandmother, passed away. He would then help plan a funeral he couldnt attend. If you live in his small town in Utah, you know my uncle. Hes the big man you see on a bike riding all over town. Hes part of the kitchen staff at a care facility and a friend to the other workers and patients. Hes the man who has the bus schedule memorized and can get you anywhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes also the man who was forced to miss his mothers funeral in his home country. His immigration status requires him to apply for travel authorization, which can take months and puts him at risk of being denied reentry. Unfortunately, it just wasnt possible for him to make it. Stories like these are all too common. And they could soon get worse. My uncle has whats called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to provide work authorization and protection from deportation to individuals from designated countries enduring armed conflict or environmental disasters. Over a million people rely on the program. While its characterized as temporary, over 200,000 TPS holders have lived here for more than two decades. Theyve established lives here, yet live with the fear that it could be taken away at any moment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately, that moment has arrived. President Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem have made it clear that theyre coming for TPS. The administration has carelessly terminated or rescinded the legal status of hundreds of thousands of TPS holders, needlessly uprooting their lives. These deported TPS holders are now expected to navigate poverty, instability, violence, and other unsafe conditions in countries many havent lived in for decades. Many struggle to reintegrate after their return, and are often targeted by local criminal groups. While the administration slanders TPS holders as criminals, an overwhelming amount of research shows that immigrants actually make our communities safer. They have a nearly 95 percent employment rate and generate over $1.3 billion in federal taxes, contributing to programs like Social Security and Medicare. With a high rate of entrepreneurship, they generate a spending power of more than $8 billion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their positive impact is undeniable. Yet instead of providing a pathway to citizenship, the Trump administration is systematically phasing out TPS and imposing significant financial hardship on TPS holders and their communities. In addition to deeply slashing programs like SNAP to fund tax benefits for the wealthy, Trump and the GOPs Big Beautiful Bill also adds exorbitant new fees for immigrants with TPS, asylum seekers, and migrants on humanitarian parole. The new law increases initial application fees for TPS holders from $50 to $500 and adds a non-waivable $550 fee for work authorization for first-time applicants along with a new annual renewal fee of at least $275. My uncle has already paid thousands of dollars in renewal fees during his 20 years as a TPS recipient, saving the money needed from his $16 an hour job to continue to work and provide for his family. Because my uncle loves this country, hell pay these predatory fees. But he shouldnt have to and neither should anyone else on TPS. Our communities are better because TPS holders are here. Their livelihoods are in jeopardy unless Congress provides them a pathway to citizenship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The American Dream and Promise Act would provide TPS holders along with DACA recipients and other undocumented youth a pathway to citizenship, along with the permanent relief and stability they and their families deserve. As the niece of one of the one million-plus TPS holders, I urge you to defend the rights of your neighbors. Now is the time to protect what makes our communities so great. Federal agents continued to arrest mostly immigrants with no criminal convictions in sweeps that roiled Southern California over the last month, according to new data released Tuesday. From June 1 to June 26, Immigration and Customs Enforcement data show 2,031 were arrested in a seven-county area. About 68% of those had no criminal convictions and 57% had never been charged with a crime. Nearly half of those arrested in June were Mexican nationals. Most were men, with a median age of 39. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Separately, a survey of 330 Mexicans in local detention centers, conducted by the Mexican Consulate between June 6 and July 6, found that half had lived in the U.S. for at least a decade, more than a third for more than 20 years, and nearly a third had American-born children. The new information sheds light on the people caught up in the government's crackdown. The arrest data come from the Deportation Data Project, consisting of a group of lawyers and academics who received the information as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. It shows a continuing trend highlighted in earlier figures analyzed by The Times: Aggressive enforcement operations in Los Angeles have largely pulled in immigrants without a criminal record. [President] Trump and Stephen Miller dont care about removing the worst first they only care about arresting whoever they can to complete their massive arrest quotas," said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom. "All they care about is mass chaos and mass detentions, instilling fear statewide, detaining and deporting children and families, terrifying people into submission and giving up their rights, all while threatening the very fabric of our society." California has been battling the Trump administration as it has zeroed in on Los Angeles, a Democratic bastion, as ground zero for its mass deportation campaign. Federal agents launched the sweeps June 6, drawing protesters and angry crowds, prompting Trump to call in the National Guard and the Marines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Many Mexican immigrants swept up in L.A. raids are deeply rooted in U.S. Legal challenges have hampered the efforts. On Friday, in a lawsuit brought by civil rights groups against the Trump administration, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of President Biden, temporarily blocked federal agents in much of Southern California from using racial profiling to carry out immigration arrests. Since she issued her ruling, the indiscriminate raids at Home Depots and car washes have stopped. The order is being challenged by U.S. Justice Department attorneys who are appealing the lawsuit and asking for an immediate pause of the order. And Department of Homeland Security officials have said they will not back down. "Still hard at work catching criminal illegal aliens in #LosAngeles. We're not leaving until our mission is accomplished," U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino wrote Tuesday on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bovino, based near the U.S.-Mexican border in Imperial County, has played a prominent role in the raids across Southern California. He and others in the administration have pushed back on the idea that agents are going after noncriminals. "You think only noncriminal illegal aliens are hanging out at day laborer spots? Absolutely not true," he posted on July 8, highlighting a Guatemalan man he said was picked up with an outstanding warrant in his home country for sexual aggression. As the raids and demonstrations have died down, Trump on Tuesday released about half of the National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles. Nationwide, the average daily arrest rate in the U.S. was 1,139 for June 1-10, decreasing to 990 for June 11-27. In all, 27,500 people were arrested during those four weeks, and it is unclear from the data how many have been deported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the immigrants picked up off the streets in Southern California were even less likely to be criminals than those turned over to ICE by state or local authorities. Of those arrested on the street, about 75% had no criminal convictions and 62% had no convictions or pending charges. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. INDEPENDENCE, Mo. An Independence, Missouri family says their 8-month-old is fighting for her life and needs a new liver. Theyre waiting for insurance approval for a life-saving liver transplant. Pizza Ranch, off 40 Highway in Independence, Missouri, is holding a fundraiser of Olivia Dildine next week. Pay issues continue for some metro IHOP employees, checks bouncing Olivia was diagnosed with a rare liver disease shortly after she was born. Now, the 8-month-old needs a liver transplant, and this Independence community is coming together to support the family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ciera Chronister said her daughter loves her three sisters. She said Dildine is also social, resilient and loves attention. Are you going to talk, you want to tell them, Chronister said. But behind that strength, Chronister said her 8-month-old is fighting for her life. At just three weeks old, Dildine was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a rare and life-threatening liver disease that affects the bile ducts. It was devastating, it was heartbreaking, Chronister said. I just feel all of the emotions, sadness, anger, asking why, but she has been so resilient. So, just no matter what, everything shes been through, she just smiles and giggles and is happy anyway, and shes what keeps me going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the day Dildine turned one month old, she underwent an eight hour surgery, called the Kasai procedure, to delay the need for a liver transplant. It was super scary to have your 4-week-old baby in an 8-hour procedure, but it went well, Chronister said. We had hopes for it to last longer than it did, but unfortunately its not going that well. Chronister said since then, its been a nonstop battle, in and out of the hospital. For a period of time, she said they were there every 2-3 weeks as Dildine continued to face fevers and infections. She said with each infection, Dildines symptoms worsen, along with her liver function. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Dildine needs a liver transplant. Chronister said theyre waiting on insurance approval. If approved, she hopes her daughter will be on the transplant list in about two weeks. I hope that will mean a better future for Olivia, Chronister said. Right now, shes just gone through so much. So many hospital stays and tests and she hasnt really gotten to be a baby, and Im hoping that after this, this will give her that. Chronisters friend started a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for expenses, as Chronister said shes Preparing to take a leave of absence from work to care for Olivia full-time, as they approach a transplant and more intense medical needs. Pizza Ranch was delighted to be able to help Dildine and her family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its one of those things, when I took that phone call, you just kind of felt it in your gut and soul and everything and said this is a priority, Pizza Ranch Assistant General Manager Chaylie McCloud said. I looked at my general manager and said, We have to do this, we absolutely have to do this. Carrollton police issue advisory for missing children, two adults McCloud said a portion of the sales that day will be donated to Dildines family. Plus, Dildines family and friends are bussing the tables. So, that means tip donations, too. That means everything to us, Chronister said. Going through a medical situation with your child can be isolating. Its really reassuring to know that we have so many people supporting and helping us, even strangers have reached out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fundraiser at the Pizza Ranch is Tuesday, July 22. If you attend, be sure tell them youre here for Olivia when you walk through the door. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. About 31.2% of Hoosier students in grades 3-8 passed both the math and English sections of ILEARN in 2025, marking a slight improvement from the year before, according to new data. (Getty Images) Indiana students continued to make gains in math this spring, but statewide reading scores remained largely unchanged, according to new ILEARN assessment data released Wednesday. The results, presented at the State Board of Educations monthly meeting in Indianapolis, show that 42.1% of students in grades three through eight scored at or above proficiency in math on the 2025 ILEARN exam, up more than five percentage points since 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Proficiency in English/language arts, or ELA, however, held steady at 40.6% up just 0.1 points from last year and essentially flat over the past four years. Data released by IDOE reported 31.2% of Hoosier students passed both the math and ELA sections of ILEARN. Thats also slightly up from last years spring test results, which showed that 30.8% earned dual passing scores. While we are positively moving and improving in math, there is an urgent need to support middle school students in English/language arts, said Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner. It is essential that our schools and parents/families continue to work together and stay laser-focused on increasing student learning and success. The annual ILEARN assessment is administered digitally by Hoosier schools each spring and serves as Indianas primary K-8 standardized test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While we are positively moving and improving in math, there is an urgent need to support middle school students in English/language arts. Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner Board members expressed greatest concern with reading declines among middle schoolers, which officials said is closely tied to the lingering effects of pandemic-era disruptions. Math scores are moving, Jenner said at Wednesdays board meeting. But that adolescent, middle school, ELA period still struggling. Seventh-grade ELA scores dropped 3.9% from last year the sharpest decline of any grade level while eighth-grade scores fell 1.2%. By contrast, third-grade students, who were in early elementary school during the pandemic and have since received additional literacy support, posted the strongest gains, with a 1.7-% increase since last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Board member Pat Mapes said hes confident educators are helping middle schoolers make progress, but he emphasized that gaps remain for those students. Theyre going to constantly be catching up, he said. These are our students who intermittently came to school during the pandemic, and weve still not caught up. The skills that they lost during that time this is kind of just what were going to see for a while until we can get their skills developed. Some scores up others down Compared to 2024, all grades except third showed math improvement. Eighth-grade students posted the largest year-over-year gain of 3.1%, according to IDOE data. Third grade proficiency dropped nearly a percentage point, however. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 results revealed passing math scores for 51.5% of third graders; 49.2% of fourth graders; 41.5% of fifth graders; 39.7% of sixth graders; 35.9% of seventh graders; and 34.5% of eighth graders. Math proficiency rates have increased in every grade since 2021. Sixth and eighth grades saw the largest jumps each up 6.7% followed by seventh grade, up 5.4%, and fourth grade, up 5.5%. Fifth and third graders saw smaller increases of 2.9% and 2.8%, respectively. But ELA performance has been mixed. While third through sixth graders improved slightly compared to 2021, seventh- and eighth-grade students scored lower than they did four years ago. The most notable drop was among seventh graders, whose ELA proficiency fell 3.2% since 2021 and nearly 4 points from last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2025 data showed only 37.8% of seventh graders passed the ELA exam, the lowest passage rate of any grade level. Overall, ELA scores in most grades shifted within just a one-point range compared to 2024. Black students posted the largest year-over-year ELA gains, up 0.9%. Black and Hispanic students additionally had the highest growth in math, with both demographic groups increasing scores by 2%. Students in special education programs also outpaced their general education peers in ELA growth state data showed a 1.3% boost in performance. Students receiving free or reduced-price meals saw stronger math gains of 1.4%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement English learners improved in math but saw a 1.1% decline in ELA after making progress the year prior. A shift in testing strategy The latest ILEARN scores come as the state prepares to roll out a redesigned test format. Beginning in the upcoming 202526 school year, all Indiana schools will transition to a through-year assessment model featuring three checkpoint tests and a shortened summative assessment at the school years end. State leaders said the goal is to provide real-time data and allow earlier intervention for struggling students. The new system was already piloted in more than 1,350 schools, which administered more than 720,000 checkpoint assessments during the 202425 academic year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new ILEARN Checkpoints, launching statewide in the upcoming school year, will provide a beginning, middle and end-of-year look at student performance, Jenner said. This will be key to knowing early and often if a student has mastered certain knowledge or skills, or if they may still be struggling, ensuring the student has increased, personalized support. IDOE officials said theyre additionally working to expand both literacy and math interventions statewide. Initiatives include literacy-focused teacher training, targeted reading and math tutoring grants for families, and new screeners to identify struggling students in early grades. New legislation enacted this year House Enrolled Act 1634 mandates math screeners for grades K-2 and directs schools to provide targeted support for students not meeting grade-level expectations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The literacy and numeracy skills developed in early grades are essential as students begin to explore career options, engage in hands-on learning, and ultimately, make decisions about their next steps after graduation, Gov. Mike Braun said in a statement. While we continue to see students growing in math proficiency, this years results remind us all of the need to continue our focus in both early and adolescent literacy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX By Daina Beth Solomon SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Two Indigenous groups in northern Chile have asked a local court to suspend a state-led community review process that is required for a lithium partnership between copper giant Codelco and lithium miner SQM, according to legal documents reviewed by Reuters. The Indigenous community of Coyo and the Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers of San Pedro de Atacama each independently filed legal challenges last week with a Chilean appeals court in the Antofagasta region, accusing Chilean economic development agency Corfo of not properly carrying out a consultation process to seek their input on the partnership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The process is one of the final conditions for a deal to go into effect in which state-run Codelco will take a majority stake in SQM's lithium mining operations in the Atacama salt flat. The Coyo community and the Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers, which has Indigenous members, said they needed more information and time to be able to provide informed consent on the plan. The Antofagasta court on Friday accepted their challenges, according to a court document. It ordered Corfo to respond to the allegations within 15 days, and asked Codelco and SQM to provide comments. Corfo told Reuters that the consultation process was still in progress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Indigenous consultation process with the Atacama Indigenous organizations is moving forward and has been carried out in accordance with the regulations," the agency said in a statement. Codelco declined to comment, while SQM did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The Indigenous consultation, which was led by Corfo and included a few dozen community groups located around the Atacama salt flat, was due to conclude around late July. SQM and Codelco are separately holding talks with communities near the salt flat to discuss a model for Indigenous oversight over lithium extraction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Coyo community and Atacameno Association of Irrigators and Farmers both asked the court to suspend the process until a new methodology for the community review could be implemented, and more information provided. Both groups said Corfo had not provided enough detail about the proposed contract between Codelco and SQM and argued that the consultation's timeline between November 2024 and July 2025 was too fast to allow for detailed analysis. They also said Corfo at several points did not act in good faith, and did not meet the standards set out by the International Labour Organization, a U.N. agency. "This situation directly affects the fundamental rights of the Community by limiting its influence over decisions that impact its territory, environmental surroundings, and collective rights, thereby violating constitutional guarantees," the Coyo community said in its court filing. (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Jamie Freed) BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) An attack by armed assailants on a patrol of a mission by the Indigenous Wampis guards last week in the Peruvian Amazon has again brought into focus the issue of illegal gold mining in the ancestral territory. The 60-member mission was ambushed and shot at as they were patrolling near the Wampis community of Fortaleza on Saturday, just days after the Peruvian governments sudden withdrawal from a planned joint enforcement operation to confront the illegal mining. No one was hurt in the attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For two years, the Wampis Nation has pressed state agencies and the public prosecutor's office in Peru to work together to monitor for and remove illegal mining operations from the Santiago River basin. Days before a scheduled joint operation, government agencies pulled out without explanation, according to Amazon Watch, a U.S.-based environmental and Indigenous rights nonprofit. In response, the Wampis launched their own mission and its first patrol was attacked on Saturday. Indigenous leaders say the incident highlights the growing risks faced by land defenders and the governments failure to uphold its promises. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Wampis official described the attack to The Associated Press. The around 60 Indigenous leaders, community guards and technicians were tasked with monitoring the environmental impacts of illegal gold mining in the Bajo Rio Santiago region. People started throwing explosives I dont even know what kind they were and then came the gunfire, said Evaristo Pujupat Shirap, 45, communications officer for the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampis Nation. Bullets hit the vehicle and even pierced a teachers jacket at chest level, Shirap added. The Peruvian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Members on the Wampis mission were armed with hunting rifles, but according to Shirap, leaders had instructed the group not to fire under any circumstances. While they did fire a few warning shots into the air, no direct confrontation took place, Shirap added. We will not stand by while our rivers are poisoned and our forests destroyed, said Galois Yampis, vice president of the Wampis government. Peru's "government failed to honor its commitments, so we are acting to defend our territory and the future of our people, he added. The Indigenous Wampis territorial guards are community-led environmental defenders trained and organized by the autonomous territorial government of the Wampis Nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their aim is to protect Wampis ancestral lands from illegal activities such as mining, logging, and drug trafficking, while upholding their cultural values and vision of Tarimat Pujut a life in harmony with nature. Raphael Hoetmer, Amazon program director at Amazon Watch, a longtime ally of the Wampis, said they only confront violent criminals "yet are left to face danger without state protection. The Wampis Nation has long been urging Peru and gold-importing nations to strengthen enforcement against illegal gold trade and invest in Indigenous-led territorial monitoring and sustainable development. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. By Nazrin Abdul SOCAR-KBR LLC, a joint venture between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and U.S.-based international engineering and technology firm KBR, has signed two significant contracts with bp for major energy projects in Azerbaijan. The contracts pertain to the Sangachal Terminal Electrification (STEL) projectcentered on Azerbaijans largest oil and gas terminaland the Shah Deniz Compressor (SDC) gas field project. Under the terms of the agreements, SOCAR-KBR will provide detailed engineering design and procurement services for both projects. The company had previously completed the front-end engineering design (FEED) for the STEL project and both the pre-FEED and FEED phases for the SDC project. These new assignments reflect bps continued confidence in SOCAR-KBRs capabilities. Over 95% of SOCAR-KBRs team based in Baku consists of Azerbaijani engineers, designers, and other specialists. The projects will be implemented by the Baku office, leveraging local expertise while being supported by KBRs global resources. Soybean pods on plant by Mailson Pignata via iStock Soybeans slipped lower on the Monday session, with contracts fractionally to 4 cents in the red. The cmdtyView national average Cash Bean price was down 3 cents at $9.61 1/2. Soymeal futures were down $1.50 to $2.60/ton, as Soy Oil was 25 to 42 points higher. Monday afternoons Crop Progress data indicated 47% of US soybean crop was blooming by Sunday even with the 5-year average, with% setting pods. Ratings were up 4% to 70%, with the Brugler500 index taking all 5 ratings into account up 7 points to 376. More News from Barchart Over the weekend President Trump announced a 30% tariff on the EU and Mexico starting on August 1. On Monday morning, Trump threatened Russian with secondary tariffs (on Russian trade partners) if there is no deal to end the Russian/Ukraine war in 50 days. USDA tallied soybean export shipments at 147,045 MMT (5.4 mbu) during the week ending on July 10. That was down 63.2% from last week and 16.1% below the same week last year. Mexico was the largest buyer of 32,507 MT in that week. Marketing year exports have totaled 46.411 MMT (1.705 bbu), which is 10.4% above the same period last year. Rains are expected to be rather widespread this next week, with much of the Corn Belt seeing at least an inch, with the Central Corn Belt upwards of 2-3 inches. NOPA data will be updated on Tuesday, with traders looking for an average of 185.19 mbu of soybeans crushed during June, which would be up nearly 10 mbu from last year. Soybean oil stocks are seen at an average of 1.374 billion lbs. Chinese soybean imports were tallied at a June record 12.26 MMT, which was still shy of the 13.92 MMT in May. Jul 25 Soybeans closed at $9.97, down 7 cents, Nearby Cash was $9.61 1/2, down 3 1/4 cents, Aug 25 Soybeans closed at $10.01, down 3 1/4 cents, Nov 25 Soybeans closed at $10.07, down 1/4 cent, New Crop Cash was $9.57 1/4, down 1/2 cent, On the date of publication, Austin Schroeder did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com It was a week from hell that nearly broke Donald Trumps administration. By the time it was over, the president had sustained more blowback and political damage for his administrations handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files than he did for bombing Iran last month. The week was a big kick in the balls, a senior administration official bluntly notes. It was a lot to deal with, and there were many emotions. The end is nowhere in sight, as the presidents supporters from MAGA influencers and Republican politicians continue to raise hell over the Justice Departments memo announcing the administrations belief that Epstein killed himself in prison, and that it was effectively closing its case on the convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker. The melodrama has clearly eaten away at the notoriously mercurial presidents patience. They wont shut the fuck up about it, Trump privately vented referring to conservative influencers and media types lashing out over the Epstein memo according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone who knew anything about Trumps base could have predicted the still-ongoing tumult. Nevertheless, Trump has managed to power-walk himself backward into a worst-of-both-worlds scenario in which his seemingly ad hoc crisis management has only made things worse despite his administrations best efforts to put out the fire. Trump has now repeatedly tried to dismiss the Epstein files as boring, claiming they were made up by Democrats. He even attacked his own supporters for caring about them, in a wild rant posted today to Truth Social. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, the president wrote as part of a lengthy rant on Truth Social. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. He continued to slam the stupid and foolish Republicans who have fallen for the Epstein hoax while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office later this morning, as he and other administration officials were meeting with the leader of Bahrain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The highest levels of the Trump administration have shoveled a significant amount of time and resources into trying to contain the damage from the release of the Justice Department and FBIs Epstein memo, the contents of which spat in the face of popular right-wing conspiracy theorists who have long claimed that Trumps former friend Epstein was murdered to cover up the sex crimes of the Democratic Party and liberal elite. (Epstein was found dead in prison in 2019, during Trumps first administration.) Trump and his key appointees refusal to further indulge the conspiracy theories about Epstein came after the president himself did so numerous times, and after he personally promised to release Epsteins client list. Earlier this year, the administration invited MAGA influencers to the White House to collect an Epstein Files Phase One report, a stunt that backfired when it contained no new information. The administrations striking change in posture regarding Epstein has not only upset his base, it has wrought havoc throughout the Trump administration itself, reigniting and exacerbating tensions and petty feuds between the most senior members of federal law enforcement. Dan Bongino, the FBI deputy director and former Epstein obsessive, nearly quit his post over the memo, and skipped work Friday in protest. Senior Trump administration officials sprang into action to smooth over relations between Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the FBIs two top officials, Kash Patel and his deputy Bongino, both of whom were furious at Bondi over her handling of the Epstein investigation. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance got personally involved with the efforts at establishing a detente, but Bongino continued dangling the prospect of his resignation. As of today, hes still officially on the job, though numerous sources in and close to the White House say hes torched much of his standing in the administration with his, as one person close to Trump ungenerously calls, childs temper tantrum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, after news broke about Bongino showing up to work this week, another senior Trump administration official messaged Rolling Stone a YouTube link to a scene from the Seinfeld episode in which George Costanza angrily quits his job, realizes he has few prospects, then returns to his office as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Trump and his lieutenants worked to, as a White House official describes it, put down this MAGA rebellion that was exploding throughout the broader conservative universe. Administration officials closely monitored the overwhelmingly negative reactions to the memo by right-wing allies and influencers, drawing up divide-and-conquer style lists laying out which Trump official should reach out to which Epstein conspiracist, in hopes of persuading them to ease up on Team Trump. The damage-control operation stretched on for long enough that Trump himself jumped in, working the phones to try to sway some of his most devoted followers to leave the Epstein issue alone. The senior-level outreach campaign verged on the kind of sensitive operation typically reserved for things like passing a major piece of legislation. By the start of this week, Trumps preferred cable-news outlet, Fox News, appeared to have gotten the memo (no pun intended). People here understand that there are other topics to cover, one network insider says. There is the implicit threat that if you go at the Epstein issue too aggressively, you could lose access or not have your calls returned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump administration officials are still struggling to figure out how they can better mitigate the broader fallout. According to administration sources familiar with the discussions, there is internal debate about the best way forward, including whether the Justice Department should submit to calls, such as from far-right Trump ally Laura Loomer, to appoint a special counsel on the Epstein kerfuffle, whether the government should un-redact certain portions of already public documents, or whether the administration should do something else entirely. Its a mess, and nobody seems to know if the next attempt to make things better with the base will just make things worse, one Republican operative briefed on the situation says. But one thing many Trump advisers can agree on is that the president isnt doing himself any favors with his personal communications blitz to put the Epstein business to rest. Over the weekend, after the president introduced his since-repeated claim that the Epstein files were authored by Obama, Crooked Hillary, and other Trump enemies, and therefore it should not be a matter of concern to his base, one Trump administration official conceded: He is making it very hard for some of his biggest supporters to not think that maybe he really is in the Epstein files. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The far-right glitterati were not impressed with Trumps Epstein jiu-jitsu. Barack Obama wrote the Epstein files? LOL. This is outright embarrassing, Candace Owens wrote on X. The former Daily Wire correspondent also sounded off on her podcast. The Epstein scandal is definitely terminal cancer for the MAGA movement, she said, adding that theres just no making anybody forget about the Epstein scandal. The Trump administration is certainly trying. The president over the weekend reportedly called some of the MAGA influencers who had been criticizing Bondis handling of the case, including Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. Kirk appeared to fall in line on Monday. Honestly, Im done talking about Epstein for the time being, he said on his podcast. Im gonna trust my friends in the administration, Im gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, balls in their hands. So did Benny Johnson, who, like Owens, was incredulous over Trump suddenly claiming that Obama is responsible for the Epstein files. Johnson wrote on Monday that he just got off the phone with a top federal law enforcement contact, and could report that the administration had heard the voice of the people and to expect more disclosures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dinseh DSouza the right-wing filmmaker and Trump ally behind 2000 Mules, a documentary about the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged argued on his podcast this week that even though there are unanswered questions about Epstein, it is in fact time to move on. Owens may be right about the scandals staying power, though. There are scores of MAGA influencers from Loomer, to Megyn Kelly, to Dilbert creator Scott Adams, and beyond who are still incensed over the memo. Gen. Michael Flynn, a leader in the MAGA conspiracy theory community who briefly served as Trumps national security adviser during his first term, today published a lengthy plea for Trump to take the issue seriously. Even Kirk demanded more from the administration on Tuesday, a day after he said he was done talking about Epstein. Were not moving on, he said. Republicans in Congress arent moving on, either. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Benny Johnson on Tuesday that hes for transparency, that he supports the idea of currently incarcerated Epstein partner Ghislane Maxwell testifying before Congress, and that Pam Bondi needs to come forward and explain it to the American people. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, told reporters he doesnt trust what the Justice Department is saying about Epstein. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of the most notorious conspiracy theorists and MAGA diehards in Congress, told The New York Times that the DOJs memo is a full reversal on what was all said beforehand, and people are just not willing to accept it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, are doing everything they can to make hay out of the Epstein chaos. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) earlier this week introduced an amendment to the GENIUS Act, a crypto bill, compelling the release of the Epstein files. Republicans voted it down. This did little to suppress the surge of hard-right suspicions that the GOP and the presidents federal appointees have something to hide, and are out to protect their boss. We are always looking for openings, and right now, Trump is doing this to himself, says Pat Dennis, president of the Democratic research group American Bridge 21st Century. Something that we are seeing now as part of the strategy is making sure people know: If Donald Trump doesnt have your back on this which has been such a big part of Republican Party and MAGA lore for years what else does he not have your back on? Does he not have your back on Medicaid? On Social Security? On the economy? On public safety issues? Its a powerful opening that, again, he created himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Indeed, over at American Bridge, they have long had a file on the File. Dennis adds that during the 2016 presidential race, including when the Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio camps were collecting and distributing their Trump-related opposition research, we started noticing the weird Trump-Epstein connections. He adds: This is something thats been of interest for years, and we have some research at American Bridge we are happy to share to help remind people and keep them informed. The American Bridge president says that over the past week, weve been sharing this kind of messaging with a number of our allies, including influencers with large followings, both in the progressive space and elsewhere. Its unclear how Trump and his administration will proceed given that, as of now, the scandal doesnt seem to be abating anytime soon. The president seemed to pass the buck to Bondi while speaking with reporters on Tuesday. She has handled it very well, and its going to be up to her, he said of his attorney generals handling of the case. Its going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release. Bondi was asked later on Tuesday about Trump saying she should release what is credible. Our memo speaks for itself, she said. I havent seen all of his statements today. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Russia has been packing thermobaric warheads in its Iranian-designed Shahed drones and homemade variants. Ukrainians on the front lines of efforts to protect civilians told BI the threat is getting worse. One soldier said the warheads are getting bigger, while a first responder said they're being used more frequently. Russia is packing its one-way attack drones with thermobaric warheads, and Ukrainians dealing with this deadly challenge say the threat is getting worse. An air defender says the warheads are getting bigger, while a first responder said they're showing up more frequently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Oleksiy, the deputy commander of a Territorial Defense Forces mobile air defense unit operating near Kyiv, told Business Insider that Russia has been equipping its Shahed-style drones with thermobaric warheads for quite some time now. What's changing, though, is the size of the warhead, among other things. He said that the explosive payload has grown from 40 kilograms (90 pounds) to 90 kilograms (nearly 200 pounds). "Accordingly, the destructive force is much greater," he said. Oleksiy shared that his unit, which operates truck-mounted machine guns, has not yet shot down the larger thermobaric drones, but he said they started to appear in Ukrainian military reports at the end of last year. A thermobaric munition, also known as a vacuum bomb, disperses an aerosol cloud of explosive material and then ignites it, causing a large fireball and a devastating blast wave while sucking out the surrounding oxygen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These destructive and controversial weapons cause high-temperature blasts that can run hotter than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit and last longer than typical explosions. The intense pressure and heat can destroy fortified buildings and cause severe injuries and death, especially in enclosed spaces. A first responder in Ukraine's State Emergency Services, who asked not to be identified for security reasons, explained to BI that the "thermobaric warheads are much more deadly and destructive" than standard explosives. Oleksiy, a Ukrainian air defender, said Russia has increased the size of the thermobaric warheads. AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky The first responder said they were not aware of larger warheads, but they shared that Russia has been using the drones with thermobaric payloads more frequently than before. They said these weapons can burn "everything" around them. Oleksiy said the thermobaric munitions can destroy everything from small homes to multi-story buildings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BI could not independently verify all of the details of the two Ukrainian accounts. Russia's defense ministry and its embassy in the US did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations. Russia's military has been accused of deploying thermobaric weapons since the early days of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kyiv and the UK have specifically called out the use of the TOS-1A, an armored multiple rocket launcher that can fire munitions with thermobaric warheads. Britain's defense ministry previously said that the Russian military used this weapon in its wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Kateryna Stepanenko, the Russia deputy team lead at the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said that Moscow began to integrate thermobaric warheads into Shahed drones at scale last summer and fall, enabling these weapons to "inflict more damage on buildings." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stepanenko told BI that Russia used Shaheds with thermobaric warheads in an attack on civilian infrastructure in Kharkiv last week and that Russian sourcing suggests Moscow is also using these bombs against Ukrainian military targets along the front lines. Russia has been accused of using thermobaric weapons, like the TOS-1 rocket system, throughout the Ukraine war. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP While the use of thermobaric warheads is not new, Russia continues to adapt the ways it delivers these strikes, she said. "The integration of thermobaric warheads onto cheaply made drones may allow Russia to increase the number of strikes that previously would've required a larger and more detectable system, such as TOS-1," Stepanenko said, adding that "the Russians are also trying to make these strikes more precise." Earlier this month, the Ukrainian military said that it carried out a long-range attack on a Russian factory making thermobaric warheads for Shahed drones, possibly reflecting Kyiv's efforts to curb this threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The assessment comes as Russia has stepped up its attacks with the notorious Shahed-136, an Iranian-designed drone that Moscow now mass-produces in its own factories. Shaheds, also known as loitering munitions because they can linger above a target before attacking it, travel at slower speeds than cruise or ballistic missiles. The drones, however, are much cheaper, allowing Russia to use them for large-scale bombardments. In recent weeks, Russia has staged massive attacks against Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones, including Shaheds and decoy systems intended to exhaust Kyiv's limited air defense stockpiles. Just on Tuesday, for instance, Ukraine's air force said Russia attacked with nearly 270 Shahed and decoy drones, adding that two-thirds of the munitions were shot down. Read the original article on Business Insider During the second quarter of this year, the frequency of incidents involving thieves acting upon inside information has been rising, according to Tony Pelli, global director of supply chain resilience at BSI Consulting. The companys second-quarter global cargo theft report for the period between April 1 to June 25 shows Miami and Los Angeles were the top two hot spots for insider participation cargo thefts in the U.S. The biggest thing that stood out was the increase in insider participation in thefts in the United States, Pelli told FreightWaves in an interview. Theres people giving details of information or details of shipments as they are coming out of warehouses or other locations, and people sort of tailing that and stealing it, or using it to facilitate theft in other ways. That was a bit of a surprise to us and something that we dont see that frequently in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Herndon, Virginia-based BSI Consulting offers solutions for companies operating in sectors such as environmental-health-safety, supply chain security, sustainability and digital trust. Criminals are using phishing emails and other cybersecurity vulnerabilities to conduct strategic theft incidents, the BSI Consulting report said. Other common trends for insider participation includes: Bribing employees for information Colluding with corrupt employees at shipping and logistics companies Involvement of corrupt truck drivers Targeting facilities near major logistics hubs Stealing small amounts of goods over time (the ant method) Working in an organized group Engaging in sophisticated fraudulent schemes Damaging company property to conceal thefts I think just given how fragmented the trucking and logistics market is in the United States, its just tough for smaller companies especially to keep up with that sort of thing, Pelli said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Insider threats could be rising because criminals are reaching out to employees who may or may not realize they are being targeted, Pelli said. These thefts are becoming more sophisticated and they are soliciting people inside organizations to help with those types of thefts, Pelli said. Especially given the locations in California, which is sort of the epicenter of this fraud type of theft, is that its sort of a spillover from fraud, where people are realizing now that they can sort of get on the inside of organizations or solicit from the inside of these organizations in order to carry out thefts. Pelli said cyber training all employees at a company could be crucial in stopping insider threats. Cybersecurity training, knowing to recognize lines of phishing is important what does a suspicious email look like, what does it look like if youre being solicited for information even, not trying to get you to click on a link, just asking you about key details that you shouldnt be divulging to anybody outside the organization, Pelli said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In North America, Mexico had the most overall cargo theft incidents at 63% during the quarter, the U.S. accounted for 32% and Canada had 3%, according to BSIs second-quarter report. Crimes involving tractor-trailers accounted for 85% of cargo theft cases in the U.S. during the second-quarter, followed by theft from facilities (9%) and rail (5%). Truck hijackings was the lead theft type at 25%, followed by theft from vehicles (19%), theft from facilities (18%), and theft from container/trailer (6%). Most thefts, including all modalities, occurred in-transit (39%), from warehouses (22%), from unsecured roadside parking (8%), production facilities (7%) and parking lots (5%). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Food and beverage products were the most stolen commodities by cargo thieves during the quarter, representing 23% of incidents, followed by agricultural products (15%), automotive goods (9%), electronics (9%), manufacturing materials (5%) and construction materials (5%). During the quarter, BSI said they continued to track a higher number of incidents of thefts via rail. I think its just because rail theft is sort of an easy target, Pelli said. Its become a bit more sophisticated where its happening sort of further from the railhead, so more inland in California, or even as far as sort of Arizona, or other neighboring states. Criminals will sometimes cut rail lines on longer trains and pilfer it when it stops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyll cut the brake lines on longer, larger trains, and then theyll go shopping, basically go looking at individual containers, and especially targeting things like footwear and electronics, Pelli said. To protect themselves against theft and fraud, Pelli recommended companies and logistics professionals do their due diligence on carriers. Check out their Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration information. Theres also other third-party services now that can help with the verification of carriers, Pelli said. I know speed is always of the essence when youre looking to move freight, but even just slowing down a little bit, checking out some of the information, trying to actually call the carrier can help. The post Insider threat cargo theft cases rose in Q2, expert says appeared first on FreightWaves. HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WHLT) Integer Technologies and the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) announced the Office of Naval Research awarded their team a $25 million ceiling contract, with a fully funded initial base period of $4.3 million. According to officials, the applied research contract supports the development of novel software to help the U.S. Navy maintain maritime dominance and increase its seabed warfare capabilities. Mississippi State unveils new ice cream flavors for 2026 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Intelligent Autonomous Systems for Seabed Warfare program will enhance underwater missions and data collection for unmanned vessels by improving their decision-making capabilities at the edge. Officials said this will allow unmanned vessels to adapt more effectively to changing environmental conditions and improve their ability to identify objects on the seafloor. This program will develop innovative technology for unmanned underwater systems that can autonomously make sense of large, high-dimensional data sets in real-time. As part of this program, Integer has established an office at USMs Roger F. Wicker Center for Ocean Enterprise Facility (Wicker Center) in Gulfport. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. In mid-July 2025, social media users circulated a rumor that Kerr County, an area hit hard by central Texas' devastating flash floods, rejected $10 million offered by former U.S. President Joe Biden to update its flood warning system. Biden's administration did offer Kerr County about $10 million in pandemic relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021. However, while local governments could use those funds for flood infrastructure, the federal government did not specifically earmark the money for that purpose. It could be used for various purposes, such as pandemic-related government services and pay for essential workers. Kerr County residents had mixed reactions to the offered funds. While the county's commissioners faced pressure to reject the federal money, they eventually accepted it and used most of it to build a new first responder emergency radio system for the sheriff's department. Although reputable reports indicate county officials, for years, discussed and attempted to upgrade their flood warning system, it remained unclear, as of this writing, why Kerr County did not use any of the federal funds to improve flood infrastructure. Harley Belew, a commissioner at the time, said via email that the radio system the county bought with ARPA funds was used "to full effect" during the flooding. As rescuers searched for missing people after flash floods surged through central Texas in July 2025, killing at least 131 people, social media users searched for someone to blame for the destruction. One rumor pointed fingers at officials from the conservative Kerr County, one of the hardest-hit areas along the Guadalupe River, for allegedly rejecting or diverting money sent by former U.S. President Joe Biden meant to update the county's flood warning systems. The allegation spread on Instagram, Facebook, X, Threads and Bluesky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Kerr County was literally given $10 million by the Biden administration to help upgrade their flood warning system, and they said no," an Instagram user claimed in one popular video. "Instead, you know what Kerr County did? They called it a 'communist agenda' and rerouted the money to the sheriff's department." https://www.instagram.com/reel/DL--LE8yxej/?igsh=MWV1ZjBoYmt3OTRscQ%3D%3D But this claim needs context. While the Biden administration did grant Kerr County $10.2 million in 2021, the federal government outlined various purposes for the money, such as pay for essential workers and assistance for businesses affected by the pandemic. The money could be used for natural disaster-related infrastructure, such as updates to flood warning systems, but it did not have to be spent that way. The funds originated from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, which Congress passed to support local governments impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. "I've been getting death threats, can you imagine? And cursing us for decisions we didn't get a chance to make," one Kerr County commissioner, Rich Paces, said at a July 14, 2025, meeting (see 24:03). "Joe Biden didn't give us $10 million for a flood warning system. Now, that's just false information. We did get 10 million in ARPA funds, OK, and we used it for a radio system to help with emergency response." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Kerr County residents were split on whether to accept the ARPA money, the county did eventually accept the funds and spent most of it on building a new emergency response radio system for the sheriff's department. In other words, officials did not spend ARPA dollars on upgrading the county's outdated flood warning system. While current Kerr County commissioners did not immediately respond to an inquiry asking about this, a commissioner from 2021, Harley Belew, said replacing the "antiquated" system "provided better coverage between Kerr County officers and dispatch." "The new system also enabled Kerr County Deputies to communicate with other state and local law enforcement agencies during emergencies," Belew wrote in an email. "Those radios have been used to full effect during this disaster." How Kerr County could have spent ARPA funds The ARPA gave local governments loose guidelines for what to use the funds on. Those guidelines, taken directly from the legislation, can be seen below (emphasis ours): (Sec. 9901) This section provides funding to states, territories, and tribal governments to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the COVID-19 public health emergency. A state, territory, or tribal government shall use the funds to cover costs incurred by December 31, 2024, to respond to the COVID-19 emergency or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel, and hospitality; provide premium pay to essential workers or provide grants to employers of essential workers during the COVID-19 emergency; provide government services to the extent of the reduction in revenue of such state, territory, or tribal government due to the COVID-19 emergency; or make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure. The section prohibits (1) the use of funds to reduce or delay the imposition of a tax or tax increase, or (2) deposit of the funds into a pension fund. Page 59 of this Treasury Department document showed the federal government did, in fact, offer Kerr County $10.2 million in ARPA funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other local governments used ARPA funds for storm-related infrastructure. Corpus Christi, Texas, for example, used $15 million in ARPA money to "rehabilitate and/or replace aging storm water infrastructure" (Page 8). But Kerr County did not spend any of its ARPA dollars on storm or water-related infrastructure, except for about $116,000 used for an "ice storm closure," according to a Kerr County budget workshop in July 2024. It's unclear how, exactly, those funds were used (see 2:28:34). Local residents had mixed reaction to ARPA offer When the Biden administration offered the ARPA money to the county, some people urged officials to reject it entirely. In a survey of 181 residents, about 41% of respondents said they wanted to "send the money back." In a Nov. 22, 2021, meeting, residents cited fears of federal overreach and possible "strings attached" such as potential vaccine mandates as reasons to reject the $10.2 million. At least one resident referred to "these people" presumably the Biden administration as "communist," as referenced in the above-mentioned Instagram post. (For the record, nothing in ARPA mandates COVID-19 vaccines.) The county's commissioners eventually voted to accept the funds, despite "heavy pressure, sometimes bordering threatening behavior, from ultra-conservative activists," according to a local newspaper, Kerr County Lead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of the $10.2 million, Kerr County spent $7 million on a new first responder emergency radio for the sheriff's department and another $1.1 million on hiring emergency responders. The county also spent funds on a new walkway, other hires and administrative needs like updated software (see a detailed breakdown at 2:27:34). Why didn't Kerr County use ARPA dollars to upgrade flood alert system? Multiple reputable news outlets, including NBC News, reported that before 2021, Kerr County officials repeatedly discussed upgrading its flood warning systems and sought funding from the state, only to be rebuffed. One rejected proposal reportedly asked Texas for just under $1 million to update the flood warning system. According to Kerr County's adopted 2024-25 budget, officials spent $9,500 on its flood warning system from budget year 2020 to 2024 (Page 98). However, as of this writing, Kerr County has not provided an explanation as to why it did not use ARPA money to fund its much-needed alert system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Texas Tribune reported on July 10 that "it's not clear if residents or the commissioners understood at the time they could have applied the [ARPA] funds to a warning system," given that the Kerr County commissioners in charge at the time did not respond to the paper's requests for interviews. The commissioners, except for Belew, also did not immediately respond to Snopes. Belew's aforementioned response did not directly address whether commissioners knew they could use the funds for a warning system, despite being asked. A Nov. 4, 2021, workshop presentation on ARPA funds by Kerr County's grant administrator at the time, Rosa Lavender, noted the money could be used on "necessary investments to improve access to clean drinking water, stormwater infrastructure, and to expand access to broadband internet" (Slide 9). At least a dozen residents attended the workshop, based on minutes from a commissioner meeting on Nov. 22, 2021. Therefore, at least some residents and officials knew the money could be used on stormwater infrastructure. To summarize: Kerr County did not reject $10 million from the Biden administration to update its flood warning system, specifically. Rather, the former presidential administration issued the money, pandemic relief funding, to use on various things, including, but not limited to, stormwater infrastructure. So, while the county could have used the federal dollars to upgrade the flood warning system, it spent most of it on an emergency responder radio system for the sheriff's department. It remained unclear as of this writing why Kerr County did not use the funds specifically for its flood warning system. Sources: "Allocations and Payments." U.S. Department of the Treasury, 11 June 2024, home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/coronavirus/assistance-for-state-local-and-tribal-governments/state-and-local-fiscal-recovery-funds/allocations-and-payments. Accessed 15 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amestoy, Louis. "BREAKING: Kerr County Commissioners Hold Fast on Federal COVID-19 Funds." The Kerr County Lead, 24 Jan. 2022, kerrcountylead.com/breaking-kerr-county-commissioners-hold-fast-on-federal-covid-19-funds/. Accessed 15 July 2025. City of Corpus Christi -Recovery Plan. https://home.treasury.gov, 31 Aug. 2021, home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Corpus-Christi_2021-Recovery-Plan_SLT-0655.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2025. Flavelle, Christopher, et al. "Kerr County Repeatedly Sought Help with Flood Risk. Texas Said No." Archive.ph, The New York Times, 10 July 2025, archive.ph/wWEER. Accessed 15 July 2025. Gorman, Steve. "Texas Flood Death Toll Rises to 131 as New Storms Loom." Reuters, 15 July 2025, www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/texas-flood-death-toll-rises-131-new-storms-loom-2025-07-14/. Accessed 15 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "H.R.1319 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): American Rescue Plan Act of 2021." Www.congress.gov, 2 Mar. 2021, www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319. Accessed 15 July 2025. Jacoby, Kenny. "Texas County Where Campers Died Was Denied Money to Boost Warning Systems." USA TODAY, 7 July 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/07/07/texas-flooding-kerr-county-flood-warning-money-denial/84499153007/. Accessed 15 July 2025. KERR COUNTY AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT (ARPA) PROJECT WORKSHOP. 4 Nov. 2021, www.co.kerr.tx.us/arpa/Kerr_Workshop_Presentation.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2025. "Kerr County Commissioners' Court Budget Workshop, July 1, 2024." Www.youtube.com, 1 July 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMk8bBSYbY. Accessed 15 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT Regular Session Monday, November 22, 2021." Kerr.tx.us, 22 Nov. 2021, legacy.co.kerr.tx.us/commcrt/minutes/2021/112221(CC).txt. Accessed 15 July 2025. "Kerr County Commissioners Court Session, July 14, 2025." Www.youtube.com, 14 July 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7vJO9Xs3h8. Accessed 15 July 2025. KERR COUNTY, TEXAS 2024-2025 ADOPTED BUDGET . Sept. 24AD, legacy.co.kerr.tx.us/notices/docs/2024-08-30--KerrCounty-FY2024-25AdoptedBudget.pdf. Accessed 15 July 2025. Langford, Terri, and Dan Keemahill. "Why Kerr County Balked on a New Flood Warning System." The Texas Tribune, 10 July 2025, www.texastribune.org/2025/07/10/texas-kerr-county-commissioners-flooding-warning/. Accessed 15 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lavender, Rosa. "County Provides ARPA Fund Update." Hccommunityjournal.com, 14 July 2024, www.hccommunityjournal.com/article_fd3f3e9c-3eb8-11ef-9bb2-b32dd8fc6b3d.html. Accessed 15 July 2025. Sommer, Lauren. "Kerr County Struggled to Fund Flood Warnings. Under Trump, It's Getting Even Harder." NPR, 10 July 2025, www.npr.org/2025/07/10/nx-s1-5461091/texas-flooding-warning-system-fema. Accessed 15 July 2025. "Survey Results." Https://Www.co.kerr.tx.us, www.co.kerr.tx.us/arpa/Community_Survey_Results.pdf. "Veterans' Pathway Open to Pedestrians Following Friday Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony." Welcome to Kerr County | Kerrville, TX, kerrcountytx.gov/blog/veterans-pathway-open-to-pedestrians-following-friday-ribbon-cutting-ceremony#gsc.tab=0. Accessed 15 July 2025. Willard, Keenan. "Donations Pour into Kerr County as Officials Say State Will Improve Flood Safety." NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth, 9 July 2025, www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/donations-pour-into-kerr-county-as-officials-say-state-will-improve-flood-safety/3881865/. Accessed 15 July 2025. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) The Youngstown Area Jewish Federation announced Wednesday that a suspect has been identified in an antisemitic vandalism case in Columbiana County, and the investigation continues into another incident in Youngstown. Antisemitic imagery was spray-painted on a sign in Columbiana and in a parking deck in Youngstown. A representative from the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation said that their security team has been working with local police to share information and investigate the cases. One person believed to be connected to the Columbiana incident is in custody on an unrelated charge, and surveillance video of the Youngstown incident is being reviewed to identify a suspect or suspects, the spokesperson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Federation thanked the owner of the parking garage and the sign for working with police in the investigation. While the uptick in antisemitic incidents is on the rise, the Youngstown Area Jewish Federation said there is no evidence of any credible local threat at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. U.S. Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, incumbent Republicans, raised more than their Democratic challengers in the most recent FEC reporting period. (Photos by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch; photo illustration via Canva) Several of Iowas congressional races are expected to be competitive in 2026 but incumbent Republicans kept their fundraising leads in most races, according to the latest Federal Election Commission reports. U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn, Republicans representing Iowas 1st and 3rd districts respectively, are top targets for Democrats aiming to flip the U.S. House in the upcoming election. But FEC filings covering the money spent and raised by candidates from April 1 through June 30 found Miller-Meeks pulled ahead of her potential Democratic challengers and ahead of fellow Iowa Republicans in fundraising for the second quarter, raising $1.3 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miller-Meeks ended the period with more than $2.05 million cash on hand. In a statement on the fundraising totals, the GOP representative said she was proud that so many Iowans are stepping up to support our America First fight by supporting her reelection campaign while Democrats have highlighted her seat as a potential swing district in 2026. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Iowa Republican won reelection in 2024 by less than 800 votes in her race against Democrat Christina Bohannan, who is running again in 2026. In 2024, Democrats outspent me by millions and still lost, Miller-Meeks said. Thats because Iowans know Im fighting for them, not for D.C. elites. Were building the strongest campaign this district has ever seen, and with over $2 million in the bank, well have the resources to fight back, tell the truth, and keep Iowa red. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bohannan raised roughly $812,000 in the same period, having raised nearly $927,000 total this election cycle. She thanked her supporters in a news release for supporting her grassroots campaign against Miller-Meeks. Mariannette Miller-Meeks is beholden to Washington special interests: big drug companies, big oil companies, and big insurance companies, Bohannan said. She takes their moneyover $4 million from the special interestsand votes their way. Our support comes from hardworking Iowans because they know Ill fight for them and always put Iowa first. There are three Democrats competing to become the 1st District Democratic nominee Travis Terrell, a University of Iowa Health Care employee, and Bob Krause, a former state lawmaker, did not file FEC reports as of Wednesday, and Taylor Wettach, a former attorney, entered the race after the second quarter reporting period. David Pautsch, a Republican running in the primary against Miller-Meeks, raised $9,250 in the reporting period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Iowas 3rd Congressional District, Nunn raised more than $803,352 through his campaign committee. Nunn is ending the quarter with nearly $1.3 million in cash reserves. The incumbent 3rd District representative also reported raising an additional $320,000 through his campaign joint fundraising committee and $15,000 through his leadership Political Action Committee, ending the second quarter with more than $1.1 million total raised. Im deeply grateful to everyone who rallied behind our campaign and chipped in their hard-earned dollars to build upon our mission to keep Iowas voice strong in Washington and deliver real results, Nunn said in a statement. Together, were standing up for lower taxes, safer communities, and a more prosperous future for every Iowa family. Im ready to keep fighting for commonsense, bipartisan solutions and deliver for Iowa. Nunn has pulled ahead of fundraising compared to his Democratic challengers, with state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, reporting raising $520,800 and Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst at $251,045 in the same period. Trone Garriott had celebrated her fundraising haul in a message earlier in July, saying in a news release that the more than $520,000 raised since her campaign launch in May is the most money raised by a Democratic challenger in the 3rd District during their first quarter in the race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im deeply grateful for the support pouring in from across IA-03, Trone Garriott said in a statement. Ive spent my career bringing people together across faiths, across parties, and across communities to deliver real results for Iowa families. As a mom, a minister, and a state senator, I know how to listen and how to lead. Iowans are ready for leaders who care more about solving problems than scoring points, and thats exactly what this campaign is all about. While no Democrats had yet entered the race against U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson before the reporting period ended, the 2nd District Republican raised $853,757 in the most recent FEC reporting period, and ended the period with more than $2.8 million cash on hand. Democrat Kevin Techau, former Iowa commissioner of public safety, was running for the seat but suspended his campaign in June because of a lack of funding. He raised $142,340 in the second quarter, according to FEC reports. On Tuesday, Democrat Kathy Dolter, former dean of nursing at Kirkwood Community College, entered the race to take on Hinson. Iowa Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, also said she is considering running for the seat. U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, in Iowas 4th Congressional District, a longtime conservative stronghold, raised less money than the other GOP incumbents in Iowa at just less than $290,000. However, Feenstra may not be running a reelection campaign for the U.S. House he has an exploratory committee launched for Iowa governor, announced after Gov. Kim Reynolds said she will not seek reelection in 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other Republicans have entered the race to fill Feenstras position, including Iowa House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl and farmer Kyle Larsen, who entered the race after the FEC reporting period and Siouxland Chamber of Commerce President Chris McGowan, who had not submitted an FEC report as of Wednesday. Democrats Ashley WolfTornabane and Stephanie Steiner also announced their campaign after the second quarter reporting period ended. Democrat Ryan Melton, who ran unsuccessfully against Feenstra in 2022 and 2024, had announced a campaign for the 4th District earlier in the year but suspended his campaign in June. He had raised $13,525 in the second quarter period, according to FEC reports. Ernst pulls ahead of competitors in fundraising U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowas incumbent Republican junior senator, also outraised both her Republican and Democratic competitors in the second quarter despite questions remaining about whether she will run for another term. Ernst has not formally announced a run for reelection. She has hired a campaign manager and announced she will hold her annual Roast and Ride fundraiser in October, but has faced significant criticism in recent months over her statement, well, we all are going to die, when responding at a town hall to a person criticizing Medicaid cuts. Some Republicans have also criticized Ernst for her pushback on Trump nominee Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, though she ultimately voted to confirm him to the position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Though Ernst has not officially stated whether she plans to run for reelection in 2026, Politico reported that some in Washington, D.C. are concerned that she will retire after her current term. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporter that he is doing everything I can to encourage her to run for reelection. In the most recent FEC reports, Ernst raised nearly $723,000 in the second quarter. This was behind the $1.1 million she raised during the first reporting period of 2025, from Jan. 1 and March 31, and less than she raised during the second quarter during her 2020 reelection campaign of $1.1 million. Some of the Democrats aiming to challenge Ernst raised nearly as much as her during the most recent reporting period. Leading the pack is Democrat Nathan Sage, the executive director of Knoxville Chamber of Commerce who announced his campaign in April. He raised roughly $709,000 from April 1 through June 30. He thanked supporters in a social media post for the support. That number is mind-boggling, Sage wrote. But it proves that this is a people-powered movement, and were just getting started. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Sen. Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, reported raising more than $656,000 since he announced his campaign in June. Andy Suchorski, an advisor for Wahls campaign, highlighted in a memo to supporters that Wahls fundraising outpaces every single one of his opponents, highlighting that he raised $400,000 in the first 24 hours after launching his campaign. State Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, has raised over $175,000 in the reporting period. Scholten, who also launched his campaign in June, thanked supporters in a statement and pledged to be the candidate that leaves no town or community behind as we fix our broken GoFundMe health care system, broken JBS food system, and Dollar General economy that is leaving working class Iowans behind. Im confident we will have the resources, and I know we have the hustle and Iowa work ethic to win this primary and beat Joni Ernst, Scholten said. We believe this election will come down to picking a candidate who can lead the party in all regions of the state and credibly mount the most formidable challenge to Sen. Ernst who has abandoned working class Americans. We believe substance, authenticity, and hard work will be the currency that matters most to Iowans. Jim Carlin, a Republican challenging Ernst from the right, reported raising nearly $86,000. Libertarian Thomas Laehn raised $2,684 in the same period. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE For over three decades, Iran has carefully cultivated the image of a fierce regional power with unstoppable momentum, but during the 12-Day War, its image took a major blow. Theres a term for countries whose roar is far more fearsome than their bite: paper tiger. This refers to a nation that appears menacing from a distance but crumbles under pressure once tested. Ironically, Chairman Mao coined the phrase in the 1950s to describe the United States. A more fitting application, though, might be Iran. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For over three decades, the Islamic Republic has carefully cultivated the image of a fierce regional power with unstoppable momentum its nuclear facilities buried deep beneath mountains, its missiles paraded through Tehran to project menace, and its rhetoric thick with revolutionary fire and inevitability. But during the 12-day war in June, that carefully constructed image took a major hit. Most debate since has focused on a technical question: How far was Irans nuclear program set back: six months, two years, or more? Yet that misses a more fundamental point. The strikes exposed an illusion. Iran was revealed not as a juggernaut, not as an unstoppable force, but as a well-marketed paper tiger. Fire of Israeli attack on Shahran Oil depot is seen following the Israeli strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 15, 2025. (credit: MAJID ASGARIPOUR/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY) VIA REUTERS) And that unmasking could carry far-reaching consequences, both regionally and, perhaps even more significantly, within Iran itself. The shift on nuclear talks is a great sign of Iranian weakness One immediate ramification, for example, is US President Donald Trump saying he is in no great rush to resume nuclear talks, a clear indication he believes Tehran has been thoroughly defanged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said: They [the Iranians] would like to talk... I am in no rush because we obliterated their site. They would have to start all over. In fact, its obliterated to the point where it is not usable anymore. They would have to pick a different mountain. Trump didnt name the mountain, but everyone knows he meant Fordow, the uranium enrichment facility long believed invulnerable, buried deep enough to render airstrike attempts futile. But Fordow turned out to be vulnerable, very much so. The US presidents statement is telling not just for what it says about Irans capabilities, but for what it reveals about leverage. In his worldview, you rush into negotiations if the other side poses a credible threat. However, Tehrans threats have now been exposed as hollow, and as a result, its negotiating position has been weakened. You move quickly when you think the other side is strong. You can take your time when you know they cant really hurt you, when it is clear they need the negotiations more than you do. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last months US and Israeli strikes didnt just kill nuclear scientists or damage facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan; they dismantled the edifice of mystique Iran had carefully cultivated. Fordow was not just a physical asset; it was a strategic symbol. For years, when Western diplomats sat with Iranian negotiators in Vienna, Doha, or Geneva, the image of Fordow as an impregnable citadel of uranium enrichment hung over the talks, allowing Tehran to bluff, pressure, and stall. Now, that psychological advantage is gone. In its place sits a far more sobering reality for the regime: exposure. During those 12 days in June, Irans illusion of invincibility crumbled. Not only was its nuclear infrastructure devastated, but so too was its conventional deterrence. Its ballistic missile stockpiles and launchpads were hit, causing damage that will take time to rebuild, assuming that the US and Israel will just sit back and allow it to do so. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suddenly, the Islamic Republic is damaged not just militarily but also exposed as far less capable than it wanted the world to believe. A satellite image shows new airstrike craters on the perimeter of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Facility, near Qom, Iran, June 24, 2025 (credit: MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS) That shift is already reshaping diplomacy. On Wednesday, the UK, France, and Germany agreed on an end-of-August deadline to conclude a new nuclear deal. Should Tehran miss the window, it faces a wave of crippling sanctions the so-called snapback sanctions" with even less leverage to resist. Irans threats to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty if sanctions are reimposed carry little clout after the recent military setbacks. In the past, this dynamic would have put Gulf capitals on edge, led to a spike in oil prices, and put US bases in Iraq on high alert for rocket attacks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today? Markets are calm. The US is unfazed. And Israel is taking everything in stride. This is not complacency. Its confidence that comes when a long-feared adversary is revealed to be more bluster than bite. For years, critics warned that strikes on Irans nuclear sites might ignite a regional war or merely delay Irans inevitable march to a nuclear weapon. But Junes strikes didnt start a war. They didnt unleash the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in unexpected ways. They simply worked and exposed Iran as a fragile power that has squandered its resources on a proxy strategy and nuclear program that have gone up in smoke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Israel, the attacks and their aftermath represent a strategic success, even if in the weeks since they have been overshadowed by the ongoing hostage crisis. If 2023 will be remembered for October 7, and 2024 for the decimation of Hezbollah, 2025 will likely go down as the year in which the Iranian elephant was deflated. With Syria now coming back into focus because of the attacks on the Druze there, at least Iran, once the ultimate nightmare scenario, now looks less ominous. The illusion of Iranian invincibility, its projected image of regional untouchability, has been shattered. So, too, has its ability to project strength internally. The regime is rattled. Its economy is in freefall. And this military embarrassment may widen the existing cracks between the ruling clerics and the population. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regime change remains distant, but moments like these matter. In tightly controlled autocracies, perception is power, and Irans perception of strength has taken a serious hit. The domestic impact of this will likely ripple through in the coming months. That said, there is a cautionary lesson here for Jerusalem. Irans exposure is a strategic success, but it is still no reason for hubris or euphoria. A wounded regime is often a more dangerous one. Iran may still lash out through proxies or sleeper terror cells abroad, seeking to reassert deterrence by sowing chaos. But even here, the cost-benefit equation has changed for Iran, and even these moves now carry heightened risks of retaliation. If in the past Israel was reluctant even afraid to hit the head of the octopus, opting instead only to fight its tentacles, it is reluctant no more. The head of the octopus has been exposed, and it is far less formidable than previously feared. That doesnt mean Iran is harmless. Even a paper tiger, when cornered, can lash out in unpredictable ways. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the illusion has been pierced. And once a meticulously cultivated image unravels, it is hard to stitch it back together. The debate over how much of Irans nuclear program was destroyed will continue. But what is undeniable is that the perception in the region and within Iran itself of the Islamic Republics power has shifted dramatically. And in this part of the world, perception matters a lot. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has discussed the recent war with Israel and broader bilateral ties during talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi. According to a statement from Iran's Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, Araghchi briefed Wang on the latest developments following the ceasefire, and the two diplomats explored "opportunities and potential for developing relations" on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing would support Iran in defending its sovereignty and resisting "power politics and bullying." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June, Tehran is seeking to deepen military cooperation with China, according to a recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank. Reports suggest Iran is considering purchasing Chinese fighter jets to modernize its ageing air force. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has denied reports that Iran is acquiring Chinese air-defence systems. Under pressure from long-standing international sanctions, Iran has focused in recent years on expanding its domestic arms industry and enhancing military ties with Russia. Tehran has been attempting to procure Russian Su-35 fighter jets, but without success so far. Despite Iran's overtures, analysts view the prospect of a comprehensive military partnership between Tehran and Beijing as unlikely. Starbucks is adjusting its back to office mandate. Starbucks You can find original article here Nrn. Subscribe to our free daily Nrn newsletter. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol announced that the companys back-to-office mandate will increase from three days a week to four days a week for corporate workers as part of his Back to Starbucks transformation plan. The shift which will require most corporate employees to work in the office Monday through Thursday starting in October follows in the footsteps of other major American companies like Disney, Ford, and Intel that have implemented similar mandates in the past couple of years. We are reestablishing our in-office culture. because we do our best work when were together, Niccol said in a press announcement. We share ideas more effectively, creatively solve hard problems, and move much faster. Being in person also helps us build and strengthen our culture. As we work to turn the business around, all these things matter more than ever. The shift will begin at the beginning of Starbucks fiscal year in October, and applies to the Seattle and Toronto Support Centers as well as North America regional offices. Additionally, remote workers at the vice president level and up and support center leaders will need to make plans to move to the Seattle or Toronto area. Also, future hires and lateral moves within the organization will need to be Seattle or Toronto-based. For employees who wish to opt out of this new mandate, the company is offering a one-time voluntary exit program with a cash payment option. We understand not everyone will agree with this approach, Niccol said. Weve listened and thought carefully. But as a company built on human connection, and given the scale of the turnaround ahead, we believe this is the right path for Starbucks. Contact Joanna at joanna.fantozzi@informa.com DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's parliament said the country should not resume nuclear negotiations with the United States until preconditions are met, in a statement reported on Wednesday by Iranian state media. "When the U.S. use negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met," the statement said. The statement did not define the preconditions, but Irans Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said there should be guarantees there will be no further attacks against Tehran. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month, saying that they were part of a programme geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes. Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of indirect negotiations mediated by Oman prior to the 12-day air war, with U.S. demands that Tehran drop its domestic uranium enrichment programme reaching a dead end. Last week, Araqchi reiterated Tehran's position that it would not agree to a nuclear deal that prevents it from enriching uranium and would refuse to discuss extra-nuclear topics such as its ballistic missile programme. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was in no rush to negotiate with Iran as its nuclear sites were now "obliterated", but the U.S., in coordination with three European countries, has agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for a deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that Paris, London and Berlin would trigger the United Nations sanctions snapback mechanism, which would reimpose international sanctions on Iran, by the end of August if there is no concrete progress regarding an agreement. (Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Sharon Singleton) DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran is ready to respond to any renewed military attack, the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in comments carried by state TV on Wednesday, adding Tehran was capable of giving a bigger blow to adversaries than the one delivered during the 12-day Iran-Israel war last month. (Reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Dubai newsroom; Editing by Alex Richardson) The news that an Iranian website has crowdfunded a 40 million dollar bounty to be paid to any assassin who manages to kill Donald Trump will not daunt a president who has already survived two assassination attempts. But the threat should be taken very seriously: the Islamic Republic has a long track record for taking vicious vengeance on those it deems to have harmed it. In 1988, the American warship USS Vincennes accidentally shot down an Iranian airbus, killing all 290 people on board. A few months later, in December 1988, a Pan Am flight en route from London to New York was brought down by a bomb over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 270 people on board from 21 different nationalities died. Although a Libyan official working for the now fallen Gaddafi regime was convicted and jailed for that crime, many people, including bereaved relatives of the Lockerbie victims, believe that the real culprits behind the bombing were the Iranians, taking a savage revenge for the Vincennes tragedy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The concept of vengeance plays a large role in cultures across the whole Middle East. For example, in April 1993, President George Bush senior was visiting Kuwait on the first anniversary of the liberation of that Emirate from Iraqi occupation in the first Gulf War. An American-led coalition had repelled an invasion of Kuwait by Iraqs dictator Saddam Hussein but left his regime in place. On the eve of Bushs arrival, Kuwaiti security police arrested 14 men and accused them of being Iraqi agents plotting to blow up the president with a bomb planted in a Toyota Land cruiser. Anger about that plot against his father is thought to have been a major motive prompting President George W. Bushs disastrous decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam ten years later in 1993, ostensibly as punishment for 9/11, an atrocity for which Iraq bore no responsibility. Iranian agents have been accused of plotting to kill John Bolton, who briefly served as Trumps national security advisor during his first term in the White House, and is a foreign policy hawk who has called for the downfall of the Ayatollahs regime. Tehran has a well documented record for fomenting terror against the West over many years; there is no reason why they should stop now. Indeed, by carrying out US bunker busting strikes against two of Irans buried nuclear facilities, Trump has handed the Mullahs an added grievance to avenge. The president may yet come to regret imposing a premature ceasefire to stop last months 12 day war before Israel had finished the job of destroying Tehrans terrorist regime.The beast has been wounded but not killed, and in that injured and resentful state is more dangerous to the world than ever. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. MOOERS FORKS Seven individuals were apprehended by border patrol agents in Mooers Forks recently. The U.S. Border Patrol Swanton Sector shared Tuesday on Facebook that Border Patrol Agents from the Champlain, New York, Station responded to suspicious activity near Mooers Forks on July 1. Agents located a minivan occupied by five citizens of Iran and two citizens of Uzbekistan, the post stated. It was determined that all seven adult male subjects had previously illegally entered the United States at various locations along both the U.S./Mexico border and the U.S./Canada border. They are currently detained and pending removal proceedings, the post continued. Border security is national security and directly correlates to public safety, Swanton Sector Agents remain vigilant and committed to protecting our borders and enforcing immigration laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suspicious activity in the Swanton Sector can be reported at 1-800-689-3362. NY-21 Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, whose district includes Mooers Forks, said in a statement about the apprehensions that she has been sounding the alarm on the northern border national security crisis due to Joe Biden and Kathy Hochuls open border policies for years. Thankfully, for the past six months, I have worked with President Trump to successfully secure the border. We are especially grateful for the hardworking border and law enforcement officials from Champlain, NY who protected our national security with the arrest of five Iranians and two Uzbeks in Mooers Forks, NY21, Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) wrote. This is yet another reason why the increased number of border officials we delivered in the One Big Beautiful Bill is more important than ever. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not ruled out diplomacy against the backdrop of military tensions and the nuclear dispute. "We have all the necessary means, such as logic and military strength," the 86-year-old said in a speech released by his office on Wednesday. Iran will therefore act with self-confidence and strength, "whether in the field of diplomacy or the military," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the second time since the war that Khamenei appeared before government officials at his power centre in Tehran. According to a report by the US news site Axios, the US, Germany, France and the UK have given the Iranian leadership until the end of August to reach a new nuclear agreement. After that, tough UN sanctions will be reimposed. The Iranian government recently signalled its willingness to talk, provided certain preconditions are met including a guarantee that it will not be attacked during the negotiations and recognition of its civilian nuclear programme. Before the 12-day war with Israel in June, Washington and Tehran had been negotiating for around two months over Iran's controversial nuclear programme. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The talks stalled, and the US demanded an end to Iranian uranium enrichment a red line for Tehran. The West accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, which the Iranian government denies. Tehran hopes that the negotiations will lead, among other things, to the lifting of strict economic sanctions. Observers also see the possibility that war between Israel and Iran could break out again. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday issued his latest threat against the U.S. and "its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime [Israel]" as nations urge nuclear negotiations but eye sanctions options. "The fact that our nation is ready to face the power of the United States and its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime, is very praiseworthy," Khamenei said in comments translated by Reuters to state TV. Khamenei went on to claim that last months attack on the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was just the beginning of what Tehran could throw at Washington and warned that "an even bigger blow could be inflicted on the U.S. and others." Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addresses the media during the voting for the Parliament Elections in Tehran, Iran, on May 10, 2024. Iran Vows Retaliation If Un Security Council Issues Snapback Sanctions On Anniversary Of Nuclear Deal Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the U.S. has assessed that Irans nuclear program has been set back by up to two years following its strikes on the Fordow atomic site in June which followed a series of strikes issued by Israel on Tehrans nuclear and military sectors much of Irans missile capabilities remain intact. It is unclear the exact extent that Irans missile and drone program was degraded after the Israeli strikes targeted its stockpiles and launching capabilities, but security experts have warned Tehrans missile and drone programs remain a "significant" threat. Read On The Fox News App Israel has estimated that even after its strikes, Iran likely still possesses some 1,500 medium-range ballistic missiles and 50% of its launching capabilities, reported Bill Roggio, senior fellow and editor of Foundation for Defense of Democracies' (FDD) "Long War Journal." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Similarly, Iranian expert Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital that "Post strikes, the program still exists and, despite being handicapped, poses a significant regional threat." A big banner depicting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 26, 2024 on the sideline of an exhibition which marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. Iran Claims Its President Was Injured In Israeli Airstrike Last Month "This is especially true at shorter distances since Irans single-stage solid fuel short-range ballistic are much more precise," Ben Taleblu, senior director of the FDD's Iran program, said. "This means that in another iteration of an Israel-Iran-America conflict, the chances of retaliatory strike on U.S. regional bases remains high." Khameneis threats followed similar warnings by other top Iranian officials as western nations mull reinforcing snapback sanctions if Washington is unable to make headway on nuclear negotiations "by the end of the summer." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Donald Trump has said he is committed to continuing talks with Iran to avoid further military action, but on Tuesday evening, he told reporters hes "in no rush to talk" despite the ever-looming deadline for when a deal needs to be reached. Security experts have told Fox News Digital that snapback sanctions pose their own risk as the measure could prompt Iran to withdraw from the worlds largest nuclear agreement the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which some 190 nations have signed on to. A model of a missile is carried by Iranian demonstrators as minarets and the dome of a mosque is seen in the background during an anti-Israeli gathering at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, April 15, 2024. "A sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution that addresses the security interests of the international community is essential," the German Foreign Ministry confirmed for Fox News Digital this week. "If such a solution is not achieved by the end of the summer, the snapback mechanism will remain an option for the E3. "We continue to coordinate closely with our E3 partners on this issue," the ministry added in reference to the European nations that signed the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which are France, Germany and the U.K. Original article source: Iran's leader threatens 'even bigger blow' against US, Trump says he's in no rush to talk Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has inaugurated the northern city of Mosuls newly restored airport, more than a decade after it was destroyed in a series of battles to dislodge the now vanquished ISIL (ISIS) group. The airport will serve as an additional link between Mosul and other Iraqi cities and regional destinations, the prime ministers media office said in a statement on Wednesday. Al-Sudanis flight landed at the airport, which is expected to become fully operational for domestic and international flights in two months. Wednesdays ceremony was held nearly three years after then-Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi laid the foundation stone for the airports reconstruction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Airport director Amar al-Bayati told the AFP news agency that the airport is now ready for domestic and international flights. He added that the airport previously offered international flights, mostly to Turkiye and Jordan. In June 2014, ISIL seized Mosul, declaring its caliphate from Iraqs second biggest city after capturing large swaths of Iraq and neighbouring Syria, imposing hardline rule over millions of people, displacing hundreds of thousands and slaughtering thousands more. Nouri al-Maliki, who was the Iraqi prime minister at the time, declared a state of emergency and said the government would arm civilians who volunteered to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism. At its peak, the group ruled over an area half the size of the United Kingdom and was notorious for its brutality. It beheaded civilians, massacred 1,700 captured Iraqi soldiers in a short period, and enslaved and raped thousands of women from the Yazidi community, one of Iraqs oldest religious minorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A coalition of more than 80 countries led by the United States was formed to fight the group in September 2014. The alliance continues to carry out raids against the groups hideouts in Syria and Iraq. The war against the group officially ended in March 2019 when US-backed, Kurdish-led fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) captured the eastern Syrian town of Baghouz, which was the last sliver of land ISIL controlled. The group was also defeated in Iraq in July 2017 when Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul. ISIL then declared its defeat across the country at the end of that year. Three months later, the group suffered a major blow when the SDF took back the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its de facto capital. The airport, which was heavily damaged in the battle, has not been operational since the initial fall of Mosul. It now includes a main terminal, a VIP lounge and an advanced radar surveillance system, al-Sudanis office said, adding that it is expected to handle 630,000 passengers annually. Israel has carried out powerful air strikes near Syrias presidential palace and on the military headquarters in the heart of Damascus, a major escalation in its bombardment of the neighbouring country. At least three people were killed and 34 others were wounded in the attacks on Damascus on Wednesday, Syrian state media reported, citing the Ministry of Health. While targeting Damascus, the Israeli military continued to pound areas in southern Syria, including Suwayda, where a new ceasefire deal has been struck after four days of clashes between Druze armed groups, Bedouin tribes and government forces, which left hundreds dead. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrias Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Israeli attacks on Damascus and Suwayda were part of a systematic Israeli policy to ignite tension and chaos and undermine security in Syria, calling on the international community to take urgent action against Israeli aggression. Israel said its bombing campaign is aimed at protecting the Druze minority, and it has called on the Syrian government to withdraw its troops from the city of Suwayda, where much of the violence has taken place. Defence Minister Israel Katz said on X that the Israeli military would continue to operate vigorously in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until they withdraw completely. Later on Wednesday, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the parties to the fighting in southern Syria had agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do, Rubio said on X of the ceasefire deal, reached one day after an earlier iteration had collapsed. More than 300 people had been killed in fighting as of Wednesday morning, including four children, eight women and 165 soldiers and security forces, according to the UK-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Army withdrawal from Suwayda The Syrian Ministry of Interior and Druze leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou confirmed on Wednesday that they had reached a ceasefire. But the new deal was rejected by Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, another Druze leader, who promised to continue fighting until Suwayda was entirely liberated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the ministry, the deal declares a total and immediate halt to all military operations, as well as the formation of a committee comprising government officials and Druze spiritual leaders to supervise its implementation. That evening, the Syrian Ministry of Defence said it had begun withdrawing the army from Suwayda in implementation of the terms of the adopted agreement after the end of the sweep of the city for outlaw groups. Speaking shortly before Rubios announcement of a deal, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce had said that the US wanted Syrian government forces to withdraw their military in order to enable all sides to de-escalate and find a path forward. But while Syrian troops are withdrawing, the government will be maintaining a presence in the city, Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reporting from Syrias capital Damascus, Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr said the deal included the deployment of government forces. They will set up checkpoints, and this area will be fully integrated into the Syrian state, she said. A complete withdrawal by the government would, she said, mean a failure in efforts by the new authorities to unite a fractured nation and extend its authority across Syria. But staying could open a much bigger conflict with Israel that has promised more strikes if, in the words of Katz, the message wasnt received. Pretext to bomb The escalation in Syria began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between Druze armed factions and local Sunni Bedouin tribes in the southern province of Suwayda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze, with reports of the former carrying out human rights abuses, according to local monitors and analysts. The actions committed by members of the security forces acknowledged as unlawful criminal acts by the Syrian presidency have given Israel a pretext to bombard Syria as it builds military bases in the demilitarised buffer zone with Syria seized by its forces. Haid Haid, consulting fellow at London-based think tank Chatham House, told Al Jazeera that Israel had been clear since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad last year that they did not want Syrian forces to be deployed to the deconfliction line in southern Syria. One way Israel is trying to advance that plan is to present itself as the protectors of the Druze community, Haid said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ammar Kahf, the Damascus-based executive director of the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, said: Its a clear message to the Syrian government that the Israelis are not going to be silent. The Israelis are not going to allow the Syrian government to spread its authority all over the territory. Israeli warplanes pounded the Syrian capital of Damascus on Wednesday, escalating a months-long campaign against that government whose forces are engaged in heavy clashes with the countrys Druze minority. The roar of jet engines reverberated around Damascus downtown districts as Israeli drones and warplanes peppered the Syrian militarys General Staff headquarters with missiles, engulfing sections of the compound in fireballs. Bombs also were dropped near the presidential palace. The bombing of Damascus comes as Israel continues to wage a multi-front war against most of its neighbors, just weeks after it launched a campaign against Iran in hopes of destroying its nuclear capabilities. On Wednesday, even as it continued fighting in Syria, it launched attacks in Lebanon on what it said were assets for the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, even while pressing its campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has hewed to a zero-threat-tolerance policy with the government of Syrias interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, a former Al Qaeda-affiliated rebel leader he split from the group years ago who was designated a terrorist by the U.S. until this year. Israeli forces gather at the border dividing the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and Syria, while members of Syria's Druze community gather on the other side. The Israeli troops sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing the border with Syria. (Jalaa Marey / AFP) In the hours after the government of Bashar Assad fell last year, Israeli troops occupied a swath of territory along the border with Syria stretching toward neighboring Dara province, adding to land Israel already annexed in the Golan Heights in 1981. (The occupation is considered illegal under international law.) At the same time, the Israeli military launched an all-out air campaign to destroy Assad-era materiel it feared could be used against it in a future conflict. Since then, Israel has barreled its way into Syrias complicated sectarian dynamics, vowing to defend the countrys Druze minority from the Islamist-dominated government: Over the last few months, it repeatedly hit Syrian security forces moving to subdue Druze-dominated areas, and critics say it has used the sectarian unrest as justification to destabilize a once-troublesome neighbor. The Druze, members of a religious sect that is an offshoot of Ismailism, number around 1 million people world wide, half of them in Syria. Most of the others are spread between Lebanon and Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During Syrias 14-year civil war, the Druze, wary of jihadi groups dominating the anti-Assad opposition, formed militias that fought the rebels but maintained a wary distance from Assads government as well. Though many Druze were pleased to see Assad toppled, they like other minorities in the country remain fearful of the current governments jihadi origins. Recent sectarian unrest such as in March, when government-linked factions massacred some 1,500 people, mostly from the Alawite sect have only increased their suspicion. Then in May, other clashes in Druze-majority areas near Damascus left 39 people dead. Druze community leaders have resisted calls to have their militias stand down, insisting they will not surrender arms until government-affiliated factions disband. Members of the Druze community demonstrate Wednesday before Israeli forces by the barbed-wire fence separating the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights and Syria. Israeli troops sought to control crowds and prevent Druze from crossing the border with Syria. (Jalaa Marey / AFP) Fighting began on Sunday, when an intensifying wave of tit-for-tat kidnappings and robberies between Bedouin tribes and Druze militias near Sweida devolved into open conflict. As casualties mounted, the government announced a ceasefire agreement brokered with Sweidas Druze leaders and dispatched its forces to secure the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But fighting soon restarted, with a Druze leader accusing security forces of indiscriminate shelling, while the government on Wednesday said that outlaw groups fired on Druze personnel and that the militia reserved its right to respond. Later on Wednesday, a Druze religious leader, Sheikh Yusef Al-Jarboo, announced another ceasefire agreement with the government that would end all fighting in Sweida. But it was rejected by another elder, who urged his fellow Druze to continue fighting. "There is no agreement, negotiation or mandate with the armed gangs that falsely call themselves the government," said Sheikh Hikmat Hajari, a figure long opposed to the new authorities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group with a network of activists in Syria, said the violence since Sunday has left 248 people dead, including 21 people three of them women killed in field executions by government forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Activists spoke of additional infractions, publishing videos depicting government-affiliated gunmen forcibly shaving the mustaches of captured Druze fighters and harassing Druze civilians. Another clip depicts sword-toting government fighters entering Sweida and vowing to slaughter Druze. Videos uploaded to social media by Druze fighters showed government forces beating up Druze security personnel or posing with their corpses. Members of Syria's Druze community walk through tear gas fumes released by Israeli forces on Wednesday to disperse them at the barbed-wire fence dividing Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The Druze had gathered in hopes of crossing the barrier to escape violence in Syria. (Jalaa Marey / AFP) Al-Sharaa, whose government has yet to release a report investigating responsibility for the Alawite massacres in March, issued a statement Wednesday vowing that government forces will be held accountable legally. We will never allow this to happen without punishment, he said. In a statement posted to X, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military will continue to operate forcefully in Sweida against Syrian government forces until their complete withdrawal, and vowed a series of painful blows would follow a threat soon made good when live broadcasts showed plumes of smoke billowing out of the military headquarters compound in Damascus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, Israels military brought additional units to the border with Syria and inside the Israeli-occupied Syrian buffer zone. In a statement, it said it has struck more than 160 targets in Syria, mostly in the Sweida area, since Monday. As strikes began in Damascus and areas of southern Syria, more than 1,000 Israeli Druze assembled near the Israeli-Syrian border to protest the violence; they broke through the barrier and entered Syria, according to the Israeli military, which was returning them to Israeli territory. The military said it also had prevented Syrians from entering Israel. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington is very concerned about the sectarian fighting in Syria. We want the fighting to stop, Rubio said. He added that the United States was coordinating with relevant parties to end the conflict. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Tapestry's new equity stake in Gen Phoenix marks a significant increase from its initial investment in 2023. In April 2023, Gen Phoenix secured $18m in funding led by venture capital firm Material Impact, with participation from industry names like Dr Martens, Tapestry and Kate Spade. Both companies have expanded their partnership through a three-year supply contract and an additional investment from Tapestry, contributing to Gen Phoenix's $15m Series funding round spearheaded by Material Impact. The investment will strengthen Gen Phoenix's position as a material innovation partner for Tapestry's brands, granting them access to advanced materials at scale. It will also propel both entities towards their sustainability objectives and business ambitions. For Tapestry, it ensures supply chain robustness and aligns with the values of modern consumers. Tapestry CFO and COO Scott Roe said: "This investment reflects our belief in the power of innovation to drive both purpose and profit. Gen Phoenix's platform enables circularity at scaledelivering high-quality materials that meet the style, performance, and impact expectations of today's consumer. "As global leader in quality leather goods, we see significant opportunity to be a catalyst of next-generation materials that are consistent with our heritage of craftsmanship. This partnership reinforces our commitment to leading the fashion industry in sustainable innovation and ensuring a resilient, future-ready supply chain." Gen Phoenix will use proceeds from the funding to broaden its market reach, expand production capabilities at its UK facility, which can produce over 60 million ft2 annually. The company will also expedite the research and commercialisation of its full-circle leather product that incorporates post-consumer waste. Gen Phoenix CEO John Kennedy said: "This expanded partnership marks a major milestonenot just for Gen Phoenix, but for the future of sustainable materials. Together with Tapestry, we're proving that circular innovation can meet the demands of global brands without compromise." The two parties established partnership in 2022 and have shared resources in research and development, production facilities, and design expertise to craft a material that respects the traditional leather heritage while promoting circularity. "Tapestry ups Gen Phoenix stake to boost sustainable leather supply" was originally created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand. Israel launched a series of airstrikes on central Damascus early Wednesday, targeting what it called key Syrian military infrastructure, including the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters and a facility near the presidential palace. The attack marked one of the most direct Israeli strikes on the heart of the Syrian capital in recent years. Three people have been killed and another 34 injured in the strikes, according to the Syrian Health Ministry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Video footage released by both Israeli forces and Syrian media show the moment the airstrikes hit the building in central Damascus, sending pieces of debris high into the air alongside large plumes of smoke. The warnings in Damascus have ended - now painful blows will come, Israels Defense Minister Israel Katz warned before the strikes. The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Suwayda to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their complete withdrawal. Moments later, he shared a video of the strike live on Syrian TV, with the caption: The painful blows have begun. pic.twitter.com/1kJFFXoiua Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) July 16, 2025 The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the Damascus headquarters served as a command center for deploying regime forces to Suwayda, a southern Syrian region gripped by days of deadly clashes between government troops, Druze militias, and Bedouin groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strikes followed escalating violence in Suwayda, a region in the south of Syria predominantly home to the countrys Druze minority. Fighting in Suwayda sparks regional alarm Clashes erupted over the weekend between Druze militias and local Bedouin forces, forcing the Syrian government to deploy security forces in an attempt to quell the fighting. Since then, pro-government forces have joined, causing further concern for the Druze community which lives mostly in Suwayda. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group (SOHR) has reported that almost 250 people have been killed in the violence since Sunday. It also reported that the Suwayda national hospital had come under attack from tanks on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has long positioned itself as a self-declared protector of Druze communities, a politically sensitive stance, given the large Druze population within Israel and the occupied Golan Heights. Our Druze brothers in Israel, you can rely on the Israel Defense Forces to protect your brothers in Syria, Katz said on Wednesday. Damage to the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in Damascus after an Israeli airstrike on July 16. Louai Beshara-AFP via Getty Images In May, Israel launched another attack on Damascus in response to violence in Suwayda. Strikes targeted the area surrounding the Syrian presidential palace, with SOHR calling the attack a blatant violation of Syrias soveignty. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the strikes sent a clear message to Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel is committed to protecting the Druze in Syria. We will not allow harm to come to them, and we will continue to act resolutely against any such attempt, he said on social media. The Druze are an Arab minority group who practice an offshoot denomination of Islam. Most Druze live in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. There are an estimated 700,000 Druze living in Syria, with a further 300,000 in Lebanon and 140,000 in Israel. Read more: A New Middle East Is Unfolding Before Our Eyes Syria's new government struggles to contain sectarian violence The violence unfolds against the backdrop of Syrias political instability following the December collapse of the Assad regime. The new government, led by Ahmed Al-Sharaa and dominated by factions from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, recently delisted as a terrorist group by the U.S., has struggled to stabilize the fractured state and protect vulnerable minorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite Al-Sharaas pledges to safeguard communities like the Druze and Alawites, recent attacks on Alawite towns in northwestern Syria have renewed fears that the countrys sectarian fissures remain dangerously exposed. Israels strikes in Damascus, particularly those aimed so close to Syrias presidential seat of power, may mark a turning point in how Jerusalem is willing to project power across the border and risk drawing Israel deeper into Syrias post-Assad unrest. Read more: Netanyahu at the Crossroads U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire in Suwayda and urged all parties to de-escalate. We unequivocally condemn violence against civilians in Suwayda, he posted on his official X account. Contact us at letters@time.com. Israeli forces have launched air strikes on Suwayda in southern Syria, as fighting returned to the predominantly Druze city hours after the Syrian government declared a ceasefire. The Syrian Ministry of Interior said in a statement on Tuesday that armed groups had resumed attacks on Syrian government forces with support from the Israeli Air Force. Syria condemned Israels intervention as a violation of international law, while influential Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri said in a statement that it was Syrian government troops who breached a truce announced earlier in the day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli air attacks came after Hikmat al-Hajri urged local fighters to confront what he described as a barbaric attack from government forces. Israel has claimed its attacks on the southern Syrian region bordering Israel are meant to protect the Druze minority, which it sees as potential allies. In a statement shared on social media, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said that Israel could not stand idly by as the Druze engaged in fighting. We see massacres and insults against the Druze, and we must fight against the terrorism regime in Syria, Chikli said, claiming it was a grave mistake to acknowledge Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa as the legitimate leader of the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fighting between Bedouin tribes and local Druze fighters has reportedly killed more than 30 people and injured more than 100 since Sunday in Suwayda. Bedouin and Druze armed factions have a longstanding feud in Suwayda, with violence occasionally erupting. United States envoy to Syria Tom Barrack said Washington was in contact with all sides to navigate towards calm and integration. Al Jazeeras Osama Bin Javaid reporting from Damascus said that the situation in Suwayda has further escalated, with multiple Israeli drone and air strikes they claim are in support of Druze fighters. Syrian government declared complete ceasefire The latest developments come hours after Syrian Minister of Defence Murhaf Abu Qasra declared a truce in a post on social media, saying: To all units operating within the city of Suwayda, we declare a complete ceasefire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abu Qasras announcement came shortly after the ministry deployed government forces to halt the fighting between Bedouin tribes and local fighters. The recent fighting was the first outbreak of deadly violence in the area since fighting between members of the Druze community and security forces killed dozens of people in April and May. Syrias Druze population numbers about 700,000, with Suwayda being home to the sects largest community. The Druze religious sect is a minority group that originated as a 10th-century offshoot of a branch of Shia Islam. In Syria, the Druze primarily reside in the southern Suwayda province and some suburbs of Damascus, mainly in Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya to the south. Since the overthrow of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, concerns have been raised over the rights and safety of minorities under the new authorities, who have also struggled to re-establish security more broadly. In April, hundreds of Alawite civilians were killed in apparent retribution after fighting broke out between government forces and armed groups loyal to al-Assad, who belongs to the Alawite religious sect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes on neighbouring Syria since December 2024, averaging one every three to four days. The latest attacks come as the Netanyahu government continues to wage war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 58,479 people since October 2023. As well as Gaza and Syria, Israel has also launched attacks on the occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen in recent months. Credit: Al Jazeera/Social media Israel launched air strikes on the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, bombing the Syrian defence ministry in a warning to the new government over military action near its borders. The Israeli military also carried out strikes in southern Syria, where sectarian violence has raged in recent days involving the Druz minority, whom Israel has vowed to protect. The attacks on the Syrian capital marked the most extensive Israeli escalation against the Syrian government since Bashar al-Assad was ousted and replaced by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former Islamist terrorist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The moment the Syrian military headquarters was hit was captured live on news broadcasts, following an earlier drone strike on the building. Warplanes then dropped bombs on a target near the presidential palace. Footage showed part of the defence ministry in ruins as smoke billowed over the area. Five security personnel were killed in the attack and a dozen more people injured, Syrian reports suggest. Credit: X Soon after the strikes, Syrian officials declared a new ceasefire was reached in Sweida, a city in the south that has witnessed days of violence between Druze militias and neighbouring Bedouin tribes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel Katz, Israels defence minister, warned the Syrian government earlier on Wednesday to leave Druze in Sweida alone, later threatening to unleash painful blows to eliminate the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal from Syrias south. The US has urged all sides to step back and work towards a ceasefire. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said that he was very concernedand is talking to both sides to get the fighting to stop. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight, he wrote on X on Wednesday evening. 1707 Syria Israel Syrian government forces began being deployed towards Sweida on Monday with the stated aim of quelling violence between the minority groups, which broke out on Sunday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel began striking Syrian tanks in what it called a clear warning not to hurt the Druze. After the regime entered the city on Tuesday, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, ordered the powerful airstrikes to begin. Al-Sharaa on Thursday hailed US, Arab and Turkish mediation for saving the region from an unknown fate, while criticising Israel for targeting civilians. The Israeli entity resorted to a wide-scale targeting of civilian and government facilities, he said in a televised address. This led to a significant complication of the situation and pushed matters to a large-scale escalation, except for the effective intervention of American, Arab, and Turkish mediation, which saved the region from an unknown fate, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that those responsible for violence against Druze people would be held accountable. Israel, home to tens of thousands of Druze, has cast itself as the defender of the religious minority and taken territory inside the country to create a buffer zone, in a move it insists is to protect them. However, some analysts say it is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian forces as far from the border as possible. Inside the Druze-majority city of Sweida, witnesses reported that government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians, carrying out a bloody rampage through the city and seizing key sites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Footage shows men in military fatigues cutting off Druze mens beards and moustaches, which hold religious significance, and attacking civilians. It was not clear who had carried out the public humiliations. Credit: @SachaRoytman / X The UK-based war monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 21 Druze civilians have been killed in field executions. The Axios news website, citing a senior US official, said American intelligence does not appear to show any Syrian government involvement in the atrocities. Earlier on Wednesday, Israel said it was sending more troops to the armistice line between the occupied Golan Heights and Syrian-controlled territory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet hundreds of Druze residents of Israel have burst through the border in order to link up with Druze militias fighting in Syria. Mr Netanyahu urged Druze not to cross, warning of a very serious situation in Sweida. Credit: X Israel later confirmed it was planning to redeploy some troops from Gaza to the Syrian border. The fighting marks the most serious outbreak of violence in Syria since government forces battled Druze fighters in Sweida province and near Damascus in April and May, leaving more than 100 people dead. The head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, called the current situation an existential battle for the Druze community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrias leadership has vowed to punish those who committed heinous acts violations against Druze civilians, but its control over its own disparate forces, appears shaky. Israels bombing campaign poses a significant challenge to Al-Sharaa, a rebel fighter turned statesman, who has struggled to assert control and unite Syrias patchwork of religious and ethnic factions since taking over in December. Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border - Leo Correa/AP The fact that armed groups aligned with regime forces are attacking Druze without accountability has exposed the fragility of Al-Sharaas hold on power, said Professor Lina Khatib, a Middle East analyst at Chatham House. A key issue, she told The Telegraph, is that thousands of fighters that are not trained to be part of a state apparatus, and that came from jihadist ranks, now find themselves blended into Syrian armed forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It will be very difficult for the Syrian government to quickly overturn the situation in Sweida, Prof Khatib added. The outlook in the near-future looks very worrying. Armed Druze groups, who are highly distrusting of their new rulers, have refused to be incorporated under one centralised army and have largely retained control over the Sweida region, their heartland. Despite outwardly promising tolerance and acceptance, Syrias authorities have been accused repeatedly of trampling over the rights of the countrys diverse minorities. Mr Netanyahu said in February that southern Syria must be completely demilitarised, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of forces of the Islamist-led government near territory it controls. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Credit: @AJEnglish/X Israel bombed the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus as part of a wave of airstrikes aimed at forcing the military to withdraw from the south. One missile strike on the military headquarters in the capital was captured live on news broadcasts, as warplanes also dropped bombs near the presidential palace. Israel has described Syrias new rulers as barely disguised jihadists, and has said it wont let them move forces into southern Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrian government forces entered the city of Sweida on Monday to quell violence between minority groups, including the Druze people who have traditionally been allied with Israel. Israel Katz, the countrys defence minister, warned the Syrian government earlier on Wednesday to leave Druze alone. On Wednesday, scores of Israeli Druze broke through the border fence, linking up with Druze on the Syrian side. 07:28 PM BST Todays live blog has ended. Todays live blog on the hostilities between Israel and Syria has ended. Thank you for reading along. 07:22 PM BST US hopes to see hostilities die down in next few hours The US said it hopes to see hostilities between Israel and Syria die down in the next few hours. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tammy Bruce, the state department press secretary, said it has been engaged with both sides all morning long and all night long and that were on our way towards a real de-escalation. She said: Obviously, these are historic, long term rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria, Bedouins, the Druze community, and have led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side. So weve been engaged with them all morning long and all night long, and with both sides. And we think were on our way towards a real de-escalation, and then hopefully get back on track in helping Syria build a country and having a situation there in the Middle East that is far more stable. So in the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what youve been seeing over the last few hours. 07:13 PM BST US calls on Syria to withdraw its troops The US is calling on Syria to withdraw its troops from Sweida to allow for de-escalation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tammy Bruce, the state department spokesman, spoke to Fox News after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the city hours after a ceasefire agreement was reportedly reached. We are calling on the Syrian government to withdraw their military in order to allow all sides to be able to de-escalate, she said. 05:55 PM BST Watch: Israeli air strikes on Syrian forces The IDF has released footage of what it said were air strikes on Syrian troops in the Sweida area. Israels military said it had hit armoured vehicles and trucks mounted with machine guns that were heading towards the majority-Druze city. Strikes also hit Syrian army positions, weapon depots and other military targets, the IDF added. Israeli airstrikes on Syrian government forces continue in the Sweida area, the IDF says, releasing footage. The IDF says strikes in the past few hours hit armored vehicles and pickup trucks with mounted machine guns, that were heading to the Druze majority city of Sweida where pic.twitter.com/uNZgcvjadQ Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 16, 2025 05:51 PM BST Israel will not stand idly by, says Israeli president Israel will not stand idly by while there is a terrorist threat on its borders and the Druze people in Syria are under attack, Israels president said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel does not stand idly by when there is even the potential for a jihadist threat over the border, Isaac Herzog said. He continued: Second, Israel does not stand idly by when our allies and family members of Israelis the sons and daughters of the Druze community, an integral part of us are under attack and in danger of a horrific massacre. 05:27 PM BST Situation looks like a misunderstanding, Rubio says The situation between Israel and Syria is complicated and looks like a misunderstanding, Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said. It came as a US official told Axios that the Trump administration was close to an agreement to de-escalate the stand-off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A senior US official was earlier reported to have said that US intelligence showed the Syrian military has not been involved in any atrocities in Sweida, a predominantly Druze city that has been engulfed in sectarian violence since Sunday. Accusations that Syrian troops had executed Druze civilians after deploying to the city on Monday prompted Israel to intervene with a wave of airstrikes, hitting government forces and the defence ministry in Damascus. 05:12 PM BST More than 300 killed in Sweida More than 300 people have been killed since violence broke out in Syrias Sweida on Sunday, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that since clashes erupted, 69 Druze fighters were killed as well as 40 civilians. Some 27 civilians were murdered in summary executions... by members of the defence and interior ministries, the group said. The Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said 175 government soldiers and 18 Bedouin fighters also died in the clashes. Israel has repeatedly said it will defend the Druze of Syria from sectarian violence since Islamists ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad in December. 05:08 PM BST Netanyahu loses parliamentary majority Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has lost his ruling majority after a key coalition partner left the government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ultra-Orthodox Shas party said on Wednesday its members will resign from government, leaving Mr Netanyahu wielding 50 seats in parliament short of a minimum 61-seat majority. Shas quit the coalition due to a dispute over a bill watering down a long-running religious exemption from military service, Israeli media reported. 04:59 PM BST No atrocities committed by Syrian government, US says US intelligence does not show any Syrian government involvement in atrocities in Sweida, a senior US official told Axios. The Syrian military entered the city on Monday to quell violence between minority groups, including the Druze people who have traditionally been allied with Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damascus troops have been accused of executing Druze civilians, which prompted Israel to intervene. 04:38 PM BST Syrian Druze leader rejects ceasefire deal The spiritual leader of the Druze community in Syria has reportedly rejected a ceasefire deal with the government. Hikmat Al-Hijari said that fighting should continue until Sweida is entirely liberated and that there is no agreement with the armed gangs that falsely call themselves the government. We warn any individual or entity that deviates from the unified stance, as they will be subject to legal and social accountability without exception or leniency, Al-Hijari added, according to Syrian media. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Syrian government spokesman earlier said a ceasefire deal had been reached. 04:01 PM BST Watch: Aftermath of Israeli strike on Damascus Credit: Social media 03:47 PM BST Syria says new ceasefire agreed in Druze-majority Sweida Syria said a new ceasefire has been reached in Sweida, a day after an earlier truce collapsed amid days of violence that have killed more than 300. An agreement was reached for a ceasefire in Sweida and the deployment of security checkpoints in the city, an unidentified interior ministry source told state news. 03:35 PM BST Israel to redeploy troops from Gaza to Syrian border The Israeli military has said it plans to redeploy some troops from Gaza to the Syrian border. The military official told reporters during a briefing that some soldiers were preparing to be deployed on our northern border with Syria from Gaza. Druze from Syria and Israel protest on the Israeli-Syrian border - AP 03:23 PM BST US very concerned about Israeli strikes The US is very concerned about Israeli airstrikes against Syria, Marco Rubio has said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were going to be working on that issue as we speak. I just got off the phone with the relevant parties, the secretary of state said. Were very concerned about it, and hopefully well have some updates later today. But were very concerned about it. The Trump administration has asked Israel to halt strikes against Syria, a senior White House official told Axios. 03:19 PM BST Deadly clashes highlights challenges facing Syrias new leader The deadly sectarian clashes in Syrias south, which has drawn Israel into the violence, has highlighted the challenges facing the countrys new leadership. The interim government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has former jihadist roots, has faced a fraught path attempting to unite Syrias diverse religious and ethnic factions and assert control since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad in December. Druze militias, who are highly distrusting of their new rulers, have refused to be incorporated under one centralised army and have largely retained control over the Sweida region, their heartland. In April, more than 100 people were killed in sectarian violence between Druze militias and pro-government forces near Damascus. The new Syrian regime has denied previous attacks on the Druze community. On Monday, it said it sent had sent forces to try to calm the violence in Sweida. But those forces became involved in clashes with local Druse fighters, with multiple reports of killings of civilians, leading Israel to respond with two straight days of airstrikes. The Syrian presidency has vowed to punish those who committed violations against Druze civilians, but its control over its own disparate forces appears shaky. Israel, which is home to a significant Druze community that also serves in its military, has cast itself as the protector of Syrian Druze and taken territory inside the country to create a buffer zone in a move it insists is to protect the religious minority. 03:14 PM BST IDF confirms strike on military target near presidential palace Israels army said it has just struck a military target in the area of Syrias presidential palace in Damascus, after earlier announcing it had hit the military headquarters in the capital. The Israeli military continues to strike military targets belonging to the Syrian regime in Damascus, an army statement said. A military target in the area of the Syrian regimes presidential palace in Damascus was struck, it added. 03:00 PM BST One killed and 18 injured in Israeli strikes One person has been killed and 18 injured in Israeli strikes on Damascus, according to Syrias health ministry. An injured man is seen as clashes continue for the fourth day between Syrian security forces and armed local groups as the government seeks to gain control over Suwayda - Anadolu 02:50 PM BST Turkey condemns Israeli strikes Turkey has condemned Israels strikes on Syrian army headquarters in Damascus, saying they sought to undermine stability in the country. Israels attacks on Damascus, following its military interventions in the south of Syria, constitute an act of sabotage against Syrias efforts to secure peace, stability, and security, the foreign ministry said in a statement. 02:47 PM BST Watch: Moment Syrian army HQ hit by Israeli strike Credit: Anadolu Agency via Reuters 02:38 PM BST Why has conflict broken out? The conflict erupted after clashes between Druze militias and Sunni Bedouin tribes in Suwayda, triggered by the kidnapping of a Druze merchant, leading to over 200 deaths, including civilians and security forces. Syrian government troops, deployed to restore order, have been accused of executing Druze civilians, prompting Israel to intervene. Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed his commitment to the Druze community, which has a significant presence in both Syria and Israel. Syrian government troops were dispatched to the Sweida region on Monday to quell fighting between Druze fighters and Bedouin armed men, but ended up clashing with the Druze militias themselves. A ceasefire announced on Tuesday then swiftly collapsed. A Syrian government troop fires a shoulder-launched weapon in Sweida, where the military was deployed to de-escalate the fighting - AFP 02:33 PM BST Druze residents cross into Syria to join fighting, says Israel Several hundred Druze residents of Israel crossed into Syria today in order to join the fighting across the border, according to Israels military. Videos showed dozens of men breaching the border fence in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in an apparent effort to join Druze militias in defending the city of Sweida from Syrian government forces and Bedouin tribes. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, released a video message imploring members of the Druze community not to cross into Syria. My fellow Druze citizens of Israel, the situation in Sweida, the situation in southwestern Syria, is very serious, he said. I have one request from you: You are citizens of Israel. Do not cross the border. The Israel Defence Forces said troops are working to return them to Israel and acknowledged the military was unprepared to handle the chaos. Syrian regime forces are now believed to be in control of 70 per cent of more of Sweida, with an estimated 200 forces in the city and 1,000 in the outskirts. Credit: X 02:25 PM BST US envoy for Syria calls on all parties to step back The United States special envoy for Syria has called on all parties to step back following clashes with Druze factions in the south and Israeli strikes in Damascus. We unequivocally condemn violence against civilians in Sweida... All parties must step back and engage in meaningful dialogue that leads to a lasting ceasefire, Tom Barrack said, adding that perpetrators need to be held accountable. His statement comes as Israel warned Syrias new authorities against targeting the Druze and launched air strikes near the Syrian armys headquarters. 02:20 PM BST Israel warns Syria of painful blows to come Israels defence minister has warned the Syrian government of further painful blows following a strike on the regimes defence headquarters. The signaling in Damascus is over, now come the painful blows, Israel Katz said in a statement, adding that the army will continue to operate forcefully in Sweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal. Israel has been attacking Syrian forces for three days, with dozens of troops killed in the strikes, after they entered Sweida, a Druze-majority city close to Israels border on Sunday where sectarian violence is raging. He added: Our Druze brothers in Israel: You can count on the Israel Defense Forces to protect your brothers in Syria. Prime Minister Netanyahu and I, as defense minister, have made a commitment, and we will uphold it, Mr Katz adds. Credit: Al Jazeera Mubasher 02:16 PM BST In pictures: Syrian army and defence HQ bombed by Israel The Israeli military has launched a wave of strikes against the headquarters of the Syrian army and defence headquarters in Damascus. Following the strikes, the cityscape was blanketed in smoke with a thick plume rising from the defence ministry. Smoke rises after strikes on Syrias defense ministry in Damascus - REUTERS The Syrian army and defence headquarters was struck by Israel this afternoon - AFP 02:14 PM BST Welcome to our live coverage Welcome to our live coverage as Israel steps up its bombing campaign against Syrian government forces attacking Druze communities in the south of the country. Well bring you the latest updates and analysis as it comes in. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. BEERSHEBA, Israel (AP) When the sirens wail in the southern Israeli desert to herald an incoming missile, Ahmad Abu Ganimas family scrambles outside. Down some dirt-hewn steps, one by one, they squeeze through the window of a minibus buried under 10 feet (three meters) of dirt. Abu Ganima, a mechanic, got the cast-off bus from his employer after it was stripped for parts. He buried it in his yard to create an ad-hoc bomb shelter for his family. Abu Ganima is part of Israels 300,000-strong Bedouin community, a previously nomadic tribe that lives scattered across the arid Negev Desert. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than two thirds of the Bedouin have no access to shelters, says Huda Abu Obaid, executive director of Negev Coexistence Forum, which lobbies for Bedouin issues in southern Israel. As the threat of missiles became more dire during the 12-day war with Iran last month, many Bedouin families resorted to building DIY shelters out of available material: buried steel containers, buried trucks, repurposed construction debris. When theres a missile, you can see it coming from Gaza, Iran or Yemen, says Amira Abu Queider, 55, a lawyer for the Sharia, or Islamic court system, pointing to the wide-open sky over Al-Zarnug, a village of squat, haphazardly built cement structures. Were not guilty, but were the ones getting hurt. Communities lack public services Al-Zarnug is not recognized by the Israeli government and does not receive services such as trash collection, electricity or water. Nearly all power comes from solar panels on rooftops, and the community cannot receive construction permits. Residents receive frequent demolition orders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around 90,000 Bedouins live in 35 unrecognized villages in southern Israel. Even those Bedouin who live in areas "recognized by Israel have scant access to shelter. Rahat, the largest Bedouin city in southern Israel, has eight public shelters for 79,000 residents, while nearby Ofakim, a Jewish town, has 150 public shelters for 41,000 residents, Abu Obaid says. Sometimes, more than 50 people try to squeeze into the three square meters of a mobile bomb shelter or buried truck. Others crowded into cement culverts beneath train tracks, meant to channel storm runoff, hanging sheets to try to provide privacy. Shelters are so far away that sometimes families were forced to leave behind the elderly and people with mobility issues, residents say. On Oct. 7, 2023, 21 Bedouins were killed and six were taken hostage, according to local leaders. Seven Bedouin, including children, were killed by missiles during the Hamas barrage on the first day of the attack, Abu Obaid says. While no Bedouins were killed or injured during the 12-day war with Iran, during Irans April 2024 attack on Israel, a Bedouin girl suffered a severe head injury from missile shrapnel, one of the only civilian injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 251 taken hostage during the attack. In Israels ensuing war in Gaza, more than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and militants. People want an escape plan Engineering standards for bomb shelters and protected rooms are exhaustive and specific, laying out thickness of walls and types of shockwave-proof windows that must be used. The Bedouins making their own shelters know that they dont offer much or any protection from a direct hit, but many people say it makes them feel good to go somewhere. Inside the minibus, Abu Ganeima says, the sound of the sirens are deadened, which is comforting to his children. Our bomb shelters are not safe, says Najah Abo Smhan, a medical translator and single mother from Al-Zarnug. Her 9-year-old daughter, terrified, insisted they run to a neighbors, where they had repurposed a massive, cast-off truck scale as the roof of a dug-out underground shelter, even though they knew it wouldnt be enough to protect them from a direct hit. Were just doing a lot of praying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When sirens blared to warn of incoming missiles, scene filled with fear and panic unfolded, says Miada Abukweder, 36, a leader from the village of Al-Zarnug, which is not recognized by Israel. Children screamed, and mothers feared more for their children than for themselves. They were thinking about their children while they were screaming, feeling stomach pain, scared, and crying out, We are going to die, where will we go? says Abukweder, part of a large clan of families in the area. The feeling of not having anywhere to go or hide, many say, is almost as terrifying as the missiles themselves. Some shelters were donated but aren't enough Immediately after the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli security services placed around 300 mobile bomb shelters in Bedouin areas, Abu Obaid says. Civil service organizations also donated a handful of mobile shelters. But these mobile bomb shelters are not built to withstand Irans ballistic missiles, and are grossly inadequate to meet widespread need. Abu Obaid estimates thousands of mobile shelters are needed across the far-flung Bedouin communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Home Front Command, the Israeli military body responsible for civilian issues, says bomb shelters are the responsibility of local authorities and property owners. There are no local authorities responsible for unrecognized Bedouin villages. The Home Front Command says that due to the ongoing wars, it is assisting local communities, including the Bedouin, with dozens of temporary bomb shelters in coming months, though communities have received demolition orders, rather than shelters, in the past weeks. Israels Arabs roughly 20% of the countrys 10 million people are citizens with the right to vote but often suffer discrimination. Bedouins are Israeli citizens and some serve in the army, but they are the poorest members of the countrys Arab minority. More than 70% live below the poverty line, Abu Obaid says. Abu Obaid says Bedouin residents arent asking Israel to finance their bomb shelters; they are simply asking the state to give them construction permits so they can build homes with adequate shelters. Because of the lack of permits, many people are forced to risk of building illegally. But few are willing to build reinforced rooms or shelters because of the high cost of construction. People dont even want to try it," Abu Obaid says. Its very expensive, and then two weeks later the state comes and says you have to destroy it. The Israeli military announced on Wednesday the creation of a 15-kilometre-long security corridor in the southern Gaza Strip that effectively splits the city of Khan Younis into two. Drone footage released by the military shows the so-called Magen Oz Corridor bisecting the area into eastern and western halves. Khan Younis, the second-largest city in Gaza, has been a central battleground in recent months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) described the new corridor as a "key component in applying pressure on Hamas," with the stated goal of achieving the "decisive defeat" of the Islamist militants entrenched in the area. The Magen Oz Corridor connects in the south to the existing Morag Corridor, which separates Khan Younis from Rafah, a city near the Egyptian border. Together, the corridors form a strategic network of Israeli control lines through the Palestinian territory. Leverage in talks? The Israeli news site Ynet speculated that the new corridor could serve as a bargaining chip in ongoing negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously said that physically dividing the Gaza Strip enhances leverage over Hamas and that such tactics will continue until all hostages are released. Israel is said to be insisting that its military forces remain in the south of Gaza even in the event of a ceasefire, and retain control over a broad zone. Hamas, by contrast, is demanding that Israeli troops withdraw to more distant positions held before the collapse of the previous truce in March. In central Gaza, Israeli forces continue to control the Netzarim Corridor, which effectively divides the territory into northern and southern sections. Israel is ploughing ahead with a plan to build what critics have described as a concentration camp for Palestinians on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza, in the face of a growing backlash at home and abroad. The suggestion, first mooted by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier this month, anticipates an area that could accommodate an initial group of some 600,000 already displaced Palestinians in Gaza, which would then be expanded to accommodate all of the enclaves pre-war population of some 2.2 million people. It would be run by international forces and have no Hamas presence. Once inside Katzs self-styled humanitarian city, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave to other areas in Gaza, but would instead be encouraged to voluntarily emigrate to other unspecified countries, the minister said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Katzs plan has already received significant criticism. Labelled a concentration camp by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and illegal by Israeli lawyers, it has even been criticised by the military that will be responsible for implementing it, with the militarys chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, reportedly calling it unworkable with more holes in it than cheese. Internationally, a British minister said he was appalled by the plan, while Austria and Germanys foreign ministers expressed their concern. The United Nations said it was firmly against the idea. But members of the Israeli government have defended the idea, and leaks continue to emerge in the Israeli media over the debate surrounding it within the government with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly asking only for a plan that was speedier and less costly than a plan presented by the Israeli army. An Al Jazeera investigation has found that Israel has recently increased the number of demolitions it is conducting in Rafah, possibly paving the way for the humanitarian city. Long planned Depopulating Gaza has long been an ambition of some of Israels more hardline settler groups, who believe themselves to have a divine mandate to occupy the Palestinian territory. The Israeli far-right was encouraged to press ahead with the idea when United States President Donald Trump suggested in February that Palestinians in Gaza could be displaced and moved elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, both Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have backed calls for displacement. When Netanyahu announced in May the creation of the controversial US-backed GHF, a body intended to deliver limited aid into the enclave his forces had been besieging since early March, Netanyahu referred to a future sterile zone that Gazas population would be moved into, where they would be allowed aid and food. Later the same month, Smotrich, who has criticised the current plan as too costly but is not opposed to the idea in principle, also suggested that plans were under way to push Gazas population into a camp. Addressing a settlement conference in the occupied West Bank, Smotrich told his audience that what remained of Gaza would be totally destroyed and its population pressed into a humanitarian zone close to the Egyptian border, foreshadowing the language used by Katz. Part of the Israeli plan Israeli political analyst Nimrod Flashenberg told Al Jazeera that for the Israeli government there was merit to the plan, both from a security perspective, and from the perspective of ethnically cleansing Gaza, and providing an end goal that Israels leaders could define as a success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As I understand it, parts of the military regard removing civilians from the [non-Israeli controlled parts] of Gaza and concentrating them in a single space as an ideal first step in locating and eliminating Hamas, Flashenberg said of the Palestinian group that Israel has failed to eliminate in 21 months of conflict, despite the killing of more than 58,000 people. Flashenberg added that the plan would effectively create an ethnic cleansing terminal, from which, once people were separated from their original homes, it makes it easier to move them elsewhere. Of course it complicates ceasefire negotiations, but so what? Flashenberg said, referring to the ongoing talks aimed at bringing about an initial 60-day ceasefire. Nothing has really changed. Its possible, of course, that with work on the concentration camp under way, Hamas might still accept the ceasefire and hope that things might change. Its part of their entire mentality, Aida Touma-Suleiman, a member of the Israeli parliament representing the Hadash-Taal party, said. They really do believe that they can do anything: that they can move all of these people around as if theyre not even humans. Even if imprisoning just the first 600,000 people suggested by Katz is inconceivable. How can you do that without it leading to some kind of massacre? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That theyre even talking about criminal acts without every state in the world condemning them is dangerous, she added. But lawyers in Israel have questioned the legality of the move. Military lawyers are reported to have raised concerns that Israel might face accusations of forced displacement, and an open letter from a number of Israeli legal scholars is more explicit, slamming the proposal as manifestly illegal. Nothing humanitarian According to the United Nations, at least 1.9 million people, about 90 percent of Gazas pre-war population, have been displaced as a result of Israeli attacks. Many have been displaced multiple times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, Amnesty concluded that, despite the militarised delivery of limited aid into the strip, Israel is continuing to use starvation as a weapon of war. According to the rights agency, the malnutrition and starvation of children and families across Gaza remain widespread, with the healthcare system that might typically care for them pushed to breaking point by Israel. Humanitarian city? I despise all these euphemisms. Theres nothing humanitarian about this. Its utterly inhumane, Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said. There would be nothing humanitarian about the conditions that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be pushed into or about the idea you can only leave by going to another country. This has to be condemned and there has to be consequences, he continued. Its not true when people say theres no international community any more. If you trade with Israel, cooperate militarily or diplomatically with it, you have leverage. The US has leverage, the EU [European Union] has leverage. All these actors do. By shrugging your shoulders and saying its just anarchy, he concluded, youre handing the keys to Smotrich, Katz and Netanyahu and saying theres nothing you can do. (Reuters) -The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel that triggered sirens across several areas in the country. (Reporting by Hatem Maher, Editing by William Maclean) The Syrian government and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that drew in Israel. The announcement came shortly after Israel launched air attacks on the Syrian Defense Ministry and areas near the presidential palace, while continuing strikes on Syrian forces in the southern city of Suwayda. More than 250 people died this week after clashes broke out on Sunday between Bedouin tribespeople and Druze militias. The violence has drawn in both the security forces of the new Syrian government and Israel, which warned Damascus that it would not tolerate harm to the Druze many of whom live in Israel. Syrias new leaders have attempted to assert control over the country following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December, but deep sectarian divisions remain. Israel's military struck the Syrian defence ministry in Damascus and government forces in southern Syria for a third day on Wednesday, as deadly sectarian fighting in the mostly Druze province of Suweida continued. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was "working to save our Druze brothers". Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of causing a "large-scale escalation". More than 350 people are reported to have been killed since Sunday, when clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes erupted in Suweida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Syrian military reportedly began to withdraw its forces from Suweida late on Wednesday, as the US said it had agreed "steps" to end the violence. "We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight," US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X. Syria's state news agency, Sana, reported that troops were leaving Suweida as part of an agreement between the government and the Suweida's religious leaders, following the "completion of the army's pursuit of outlaw groups". The Syrian foreign ministry said the country "welcomes the efforts made by the US and Arabian sides" to "resolve the current crisis" peacefully. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israel has not yet commented on the ceasefire efforts. The Israeli military began striking Syrian security forces and their weapons on Monday, after they were deployed to the city of Suweida for the first time since Sunni Islamist-led rebels overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December. [BBC] Minority groups including the Druze - whose religion is an offshoot of Shia Islam with its own unique identity and beliefs - are suspicious of Sharaa and his government, despite his pledges to protect them. Their fears have been heightened by several outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past eight months, including one in May in which dozens of people were reportedly killed in clashes between Druze, security forces, and allied Islamist fighters in Damascus and Suweida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the wake of that fighting, the government reached an agreement with Druze militias to hire local security forces in Suweida province from their ranks. The continued control of Suweida by the militias sparked tensions with Bedouin tribes backed by the government. Netanyahu has said he is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Hundreds of Druze crossed the heavily fortified frontier with Syria on Wednesday, prompting Israeli troops to fire tear-gas in an attempt to stop them. Netanyahu urged those with Israeli citizenship to "return to your homes and let the [Israeli military] take action". Israel said the significant escalation of its bombing campaign was aimed at making the Syrian government immediately withdraw its forces from Suweida province. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday afternoon that "the warnings in Damascus" had ended and that the Israeli military would "continue to operate vigorously in Suweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until they withdraw completely". He later posted that "the painful blows have begun", above a video clip showing a TV presenter diving under a desk live on camera as an Israeli air strike hit the nearby entrance to the Syrian defence ministry in Umayyad Square, in central Damascus where huge crowds celebrated Assad's downfall last year. A separate strike on what the Israeli military called a "military target in the area" of the presidential palace underscored the severity of Israel's warning to Sharaa. Fadi Al Halabi, a London-based Syrian filmmaker who is visiting Damascus, said he was nearby when he heard the Israeli fighter jets approach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "People's faces were so afraid. Everyone started running [in] the street. No-one knew where to go. Suddenly the air strike[s] began, targeting some of the most crowded areas, including the ministry of defence," he told the BBC. The Israeli military said it also struck armoured vehicles loaded with heavy machine guns and weapons on their way to Suweida, and firing posts and weapons storage facilities in southern Syria. Syria's foreign ministry said the strikes targeted government institutions and civilian facilities in Damascus and Suweida and killed "several innocent civilians". "This flagrant assault, which forms part of a deliberate policy pursued by the Israeli entity to inflame tensions, spread chaos, and undermine security and stability in Syria, constitutes a blatant violation of the United Nations Charter and international humanitarian law," it added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, meanwhile reported that the humanitarian situation in Suweida city had rapidly deteriorated. It cited sources as saying there were clashes in several area of the city and that tanks had attacked the national hospital, causing panic among the scores of casualties from the fighting being treated there. They also said there were acute shortages of water and medical supplies. Later, the Syrian health ministry said government forces had entered the hospital and found "dozens of bodies" after "outlaw groups withdrew", according to the official Sana news agency. A man named Hosam told the BBC he was in the centre of Suweida city and had witnessed civilians coming under fire from artillery and snipers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I lost my neighbour today on the street. One of the snipers shot him. We tried to [get an] ambulance [to take] him to hospital, but we couldn't," he said. Other witnesses and local activists have described scenes of looting and extrajudicial killings. The SOHR says more than 350 people have been killed since Sunday in Suweida province. They include 79 Druze fighters and 55 civilians, 27 of whom were summarily killed by interior ministry and defence ministry forces, according to the group. At least 189 members of the government forces and 18 Bedouin tribal fighters have also been killed in the clashes, it says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was not immediately possible to verify the SOHR's casualty figures, but Syrian security sources also told the BBC on Wednesday that the death toll was close to 300. The Syrian interior ministry said a ceasefire had been agreed on Wednesday night to end the fighting in Suweida city [Reuters] The fighting between Bedouin tribes and Druze militias in Suweida is said to have been sparked by the abduction of a Druze merchant on the highway to Damascus last Friday. On Sunday, armed Druze fighters reportedly encircled and later seized a neighbourhood of Suweida city that is inhabited by Bedouin. The clashes soon spread into other parts of Suweida province, with tribesmen reportedly launching attacks on nearby Druze towns and villages. Syria's interior ministry later announced that its forces and those of the defence ministry would intervene and impose order, saying the "dangerous escalation comes in light of the absence of relevant official institutions". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, they were soon accused by Druze residents of looting, setting homes on fire, and humiliating community leaders. Earlier this year, Israel's prime minister demanded the complete demilitarisation of Suweida and two other southern provinces. He said Israel saw President Sharaa's Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as a threat. HTS is a former al-Qaeda affiliate that is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN and UK, but no longer by the US. The Israeli military has already carried out hundreds of strikes across Syria to destroy the country's military assets since the fall of the Assad regime. And it has sent troops into the UN-monitored demilitarised buffer zone between the occupied Golan Heights and Syria, as well as several adjoining areas and the summit of Mount Hermon. (Reuters) -Thermo Fisher said on Wednesday it will buy Sanofi's manufacturing site in Ridgefield, New Jersey, to produce critical medicines for the French drugmaker. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Sanofi has been expanding its manufacturing presence in the U.S. market, following efforts from peers such as Roche and Novartis, in a response to President Donald Trump's repeated tariff threats on medicines. The drugmaker plans to invest at least $20 billion in the United States through 2030 to boost manufacturing and research. Thermo also plans to increase its U.S. manufacturing investments in the range of about $2 billion to mitigate any tariff hit, the company said in April. CONTEXT Under the deal, Thermo will continue manufacturing a portfolio of therapies for Sanofi after the acquisition. The Ridgefield site operates as a sterile fill-finish and packaging facility with more than 200 employees who will join Thermo Fisher. BY THE NUMBERS The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025. MARKET REACTION Shares of Paris-based Sanofi were up 1%, while Thermo Fisher's shares climbed marginally in early trade. KEY QUOTE(S) "Sanofi's Ridgefield site will strengthen our U.S. manufacturing capabilities, enabling us to better support our pharmaceutical and biotech customers with the critical production capacity needed for essential medicines," said Marc Casper, CEO of Thermo Fisher. WHATS NEXT Thermo Fisher said it will strengthen its partnership with Sanofi while investing to expand the Ridgefield site with additional manufacturing capacity. (Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid) BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 16 (UPI) -- Israel carried out heavy airstrikes in the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, hitting the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters and an area surrounding the presidential palace. The attack killed three people and wounded 34 others, according to media reports and the Syrian Health Ministry. Israel said the strikes were meant to protect the Druze, a Syrian Arab minority, and to force President Ahmad Sharaa to withdraw his forces from the southern city of Sweida, where clashes involving Druze armed groups, Bedouin gunmen and government forces have been raging for days. Israeli Air Force jets, which first fired four warning missiles, bombed the headquarters of the Syrian Defense Ministry and General Staff in the Umayyad Square in Damascus, scoring direct hits and sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The targeted building was badly damaged, while police forces blocked the roads leading to the square. The Syrian Health Ministry confirmed the death and injuries. Another Israeli strike targeted the surroundings of the Presidential People's Palace, Sharaa's official residence in Damascus. The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said 248 people were killed since Sunday when the clashes broke out in Sweida. The U.K.-based organization said "massacres and executions" committed by the regime's security forces were documented. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Wednesday that his country would escalate its level of attacks on the Syrian regime if they do not soon withdraw from the Druze-dominant region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The painful blows have begun," Katz said in a post on X after the strike on the General Staff building in Damascus. Israeli media also quoted him as saying that Israel will not abandon the Druze and will not allow the Syrian regime to " harm and massacre them." The Sweida clashes, which started between the Druze and Bedouin Sunni tribes, prompted the regime to send forces to restore order and impose its control on the region. The Jerusalem Post website quoted Israeli Army sources as saying that "the military was ready for a multi-day campaign to convince" the Syrian regime to pull out its forces from the area and "leave the Syrian-Druze their autonomy." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It said that while the army will continue to bomb Syrian regime forces "to show them the cost of their military actions," it made it clear that it will not send troops there. The army also deployed additional forces along the Syrian border and used tear gas and fired into the air to prevent Israeli Druze protesters from crossing the border. Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the spiritual leader of Israel's Druze community, denounced the "brutal massacre" of innocent civilians by Sharaa's forces, criticized Israel's response as "insufficient despite promises of protection" and called for immediate and decisive military action. "This is not a clash between Druze and Bedouins, it's between the Druze and ISIS," he said in an interview. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was "very concerned" about Wednesday's Israeli strikes in Syria and was in contact with all relevant parties to end the conflict. "We want the fighting to stop because we had a cease-fire overnight. It broke down again," Rubio said after a meeting with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani in Washington. "So we're talking to both sides, all the relevant sides, on this, and hopefully can bring it to a conclusion." Shortly after the Israeli strikes, the Syrian Interior Ministry announced that a cease-fire agreement has been reached, including "the deployment of security checkpoints inside Sweida and the full reintegration of the province into the Syrian state." The official Syrian news agency, SANA, said the accord included an immediate cessation of all military operations, the formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire and the deployment of internal security and police checkpoints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also called for the immediate release of detainees, an agreement on a mechanism to regulate heavy weapons, the full reintegration of Sweida into the Syrian state and the formation of a joint fact-finding committee to investigate crimes, violations and abuses that occurred during the clashes. According to the accord, those who will manage security control in the area will be the Druze residents of the province. The Interior Ministry said the agreement was an important step toward rebuilding trust between the people of Sweida and the Syrian state. "Our goal is for Syria to remain united, strong and safe for all its citizens, including our people in Sweida, who will always remain an essential part of this beloved homeland," the ministry said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cease-fire agreement, which was also announced by a Druze religious leader in a video message, was the second in two days. The first truce accord was rejected by Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajiri, another Druze religious leader, who called for continuing fighting the government forces. Israeli Air Force jets bombed the Syrian defense ministry and presidential palace in Damascus on Wednesday. The airstrikes on two key government buildings in the capital mark a massive escalation in the growing dispute between Israel and Syria over the status of the Druze community in the southern part of the country. Over the past two days, Israel has been attacking forces in that region aligned with the Syrian government in an attempt to protect the Druze. They are an Arab sect of about one million people living in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, where they make up a small but influential minority. Israel sees them as a potential ally as it works to create a buffer zone in that part of Syria. The Druze say Syrian forces have been attacking civilians in their community in the south of that country. All this comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has been seeking to foster better relations between Israel and the new government of Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) struck the entrance of the Syrian regimes military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria, the IDF stated on Telegram. The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regimes actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios. The military headquarters in Damascus is the location from which Syrian regime commanders direct combat operations and deploy regime forces to the As-Suwayda area, the IDF explained. Additionally, a military target in the area of the Syrian regimes presidential palace in Damascus was struck. The IDF struck the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters in the area of Damascus in Syria. The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, pic.twitter.com/WSyBFrCiog Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) July 16, 2025 The Israeli strikes on Damascus were captured on video and still images, showing the attacks and their aftermath. Israel is now bombing the middle of Damascus, Syria. pic.twitter.com/ek2f6kfZHJ Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) July 16, 2025 Higher resolution video of the Israeli air strikes on the Syrian Defense Ministry headquarters in Damascus. pic.twitter.com/ge8yepRGyu FUNKER530 (@FunkerActual) July 16, 2025 The Druze of Suweida must be protected. Israel just bombed the military headquarters in Damascus, which was used to send forces to commit extrajudicial executions in Suweida. It's a warning to Jolani: hands off the Druze! pic.twitter.com/2nhR4YI14R Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huge explosions were seen in Damascus as Israel bombed Syrias defence ministry during a live Al Jazeera broadcast nearby. pic.twitter.com/Fe7N6xH02I Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 16, 2025 Breaking: Israel destroys the Chief of Staff headquarters of Syrian military in Damascus Israel is intervening to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria, which nobody else cares about. pic.twitter.com/l3yVAa9QKY Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) July 16, 2025 Israel strikes Syrian military buildings in Damascus, after regime forces carried out horrific massacres against the Druze community in Southern Syria. The countries regime failed to comply with multiple warnings from the Israeli military. pic.twitter.com/T3mKOl4497 Oli London (@OliLondonTV) July 16, 2025 Syria: Israeli bombs hitting right next to the presidential palace in Damascus. 14 years of mass murder by the Assad regime and not a single act like this. pic.twitter.com/uC04Cz9NJP Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, at least three people have been killed and more than 30 wounded in the airstrikes on Damascus, according to Syrias Health Ministry. Significant structural damage was inflicted on the compound, Syrias Defense Ministry stated. The Syrian government condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Damascus as a blatant violation of national sovereignty and international law. The airstrikes were a warning and a message to the new regime and its army, a senior IDF official told The War Zone. Stop immediately the attacks on our Druze brothers, or else Israel will escalate to more intense strikes against the new regime and its forces. Following yesterdays strikes on Syrian regime forces, Defense Minister Israel Katz warned al-Shara this morning, in no uncertain terms, that the Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces, according to Amit Segal, chief political analyst for Israels N12News. Some background on why Israel is bombing Syria, where the Druze fit into the story, and what it means for Israel-Syria normalisation. The likelihood of Israel normalizing relations with Syria has taken a hit following the murder of Syrian Druze by Ahmed al-Sharas pic.twitter.com/2ESkLDrvci Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) July 16, 2025 Forces under the Syrian Defense and Interior Ministries are continuing to enter the Druze-majority city of Suwayda in Southwestern Syria, as clashes take place with militias under the Suwayda Military Council (SMC), many of which were former fighters in Assads Syrian Arab Army pic.twitter.com/1bM63nYEdO OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) July 15, 2025 The Israeli airstrikes also spurred protests by the Druze population in Damascus demanding an end to government attacks in the south. The disaster is turning into a crisis for the Syrian Government under Jolani Druze in the Druze inhabited neighbourhoods of Damascus have started large protests demanding an end to the Syrian Government attack on Suweida and the downfall of the regime Syrian Government https://t.co/E2MtxVnXCr pic.twitter.com/AHcNvoNj0F ScharoMaroof (@ScharoMaroof) July 16, 2025 Syria: Druze elders restore the Syrian flag in the Jaramana neighborhood of Damascus after a group of protesters had taken it down earlier in the day. pic.twitter.com/51LTfg8B7c Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration is very concerned by the fighting in Syria between various ethnic groups that has also led to Israeli strikes against Syrian government forces, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Washington Wednesday morning. We want the fighting to stop, Rubio said, adding that the U.S. is in touch with all relevant parties in order to bring the conflict to an end. Hopefully, well have some updates later today. Yesterday, the Trump administration asked Israel to stop attacking Syrian forces, according to a post on X by Axios reporter Barak Ravid. A U.S. official also said that Syria claimed it told Israel in advance about the movement of tanks to southern Syria as part of an effort to quell the internal clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes. That fighting eventually drew in both Israeli and Syrian forces. However, there are claims that Israel is using this conflict as a pretext to expand its presence in Syria. The U.S. official claimed the Syrian government had informed Israel in advance that it was sending tanks to the Sweida area in southern Syria and stressed this was not an action directed at Israel but an attempt to restore order in internal clashes between Druze militias and a https://t.co/a7SzPzx9AV Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) July 15, 2025 The Israeli support for the Druze ramped up amid reports of killings, torture and rapes by forces affiliated with the Syrian government. President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Wednesday condemned those actions. NEW #Syrias Presidency acknowledges unfortunate violations in #Suwayda which it describes as criminal and illegal. It strongly condemns these shameful acts & promises an investigation and to hold accountable all of those proven to be involved. pic.twitter.com/m9Wyq1taqh Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) July 16, 2025 Meanwhile, ground battles are still raging in the southern Syrian region of As Suwayda. The IDF is carrying out attacks against Syrian government forces in support of the Druze, who make up a majority in this region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the past day, the IDF has struck and continues to strike tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pickup trucks loaded with heavy machine guns on their way to the As Suwayda area in southern Syria, the IDF stated. A day earlier, the Israeli Air Force struck Syrian government tanks and armor attempting to enter As Suwayda. - , , , - . pic.twitter.com/tRHNTZW4BO Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) July 16, 2025 ", . , , pic.twitter.com/44GDzm7xsn (@idfonline) July 16, 2025 Israeli warplanes carry out new strikes on the DamascusSweida highway. Follow: https://t.co/7Dg3b41PJ5 pic.twitter.com/17bp9bKJnt PressTV Extra (@PresstvExtra) July 16, 2025 Israel is also reinforcing its border with Syria. Ongoing situational assessments are being conducted to determine the necessary force deployments required to complete operational missions in various arenas, the IDF stated on Telegram. The IDF will continue to operate, both in defense and offense, to ensure the security of Israeli civilians. The senior IDF official provided The War Zone with some context about Israeli support for the Druze. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My personal opinion is if Israel abandons the Druze in Syria, it will create a rift that cannot be healed between our Druze brothers in Israel and the Israeli people and government, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the current operations. This time they will not remain silent. It could escalate into riots and possibly even civil war within our own borders. Its that serious. Druze, he added, serve in the IDF, including in the most senior officer positions. The official noted that already, thousands of Druze are gathering at the border fences, trying to cross into Syria to help their slaughtered brethren in Sweida because they can no longer wait for the Israeli government to act. For them, this is their October 7th moment in Syria. The official was referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the latest round of regional warfare. Israeli Druze protest near Shefa-Amr calls on Israel to take stronger action against Syrian forces entering Suwayda. pic.twitter.com/FkTqhg1t5Z Clash Report (@clashreport) July 15, 2025 The presence of so many Druze pushing into southern Syria is creating turmoil in northern Israel, the IDF stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A short while ago, IDF troops identified dozens of suspects attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory from the area of Hader in Syria, the IDF claimed on Telegram. IDF and Israeli Border Police forces are operating to prevent the infiltration and disperse the gathering. Simultaneously, several Israeli civilians crossed the border fence into Syrian territory in the area of Majdal Shams, the IDF continued. IDF troops are currently operating to safely return the civilians who crossed the border. The IDF emphasizes that this is a serious incident constituting a criminal offense and endangers the public and IDF troops. Civilians from the Israeli side of the border broke through the barrier and entered Syria near the Druze city of Majdal Shams, according to the IDF. The military is actively working to bring the civilians, who are Druze residents of Israel, back to the country. pic.twitter.com/7mIdK8s0M3 Open Source Intel (@Osint613) July 16, 2025 The fighting between Israel and Syria comes just days after a rare appearance in the Israeli parliament by Syrian political activist Shadi Martini, who shared a message of peace he said came directly from al-Sharaa. We have an opportunity like this only once in a hundred years, Martini quoted al-Sharaa as saying in a recent meeting held in the presidential palace. The window will not remain open forever. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with Fox News Digital, Martini, the CEO of Multifaith Alliance and longtime advocate for humanitarian cooperation between Syrians and Israelis, said the conversation with al-Sharaa focused on potential normalization and regional security but also revealed points of friction. He also confirmed that al-Sharaa knew his message might be conveyed in Israel. It wasnt off the record. It was honest and accurate and the message was, Act now. We talked a lot about Israel, Martini said of the Damascus meeting, which occurred just after Eid al-Adha in June and days before renewed Israeli airstrikes inside Syria. There was a lot of concern about Israeli incursions in Syrian territory. And the president made clear how can we talk about a peace deal while that continues? Trumps push for Israel-Syria peace gets major backing as activist brings message to Jerusalem: FIRST ON FOX In a rare appearance at Israels parliament this week, Syrian political activist Shadi Martini shared a message from Damascus one he says ca https://t.co/RKzwKIvts9 Elwin Sidney (@ElwinSidney) July 10, 2025 The increasing fighting between Israel and Syria is a blow to Trumps efforts to foster peace between the two nations and reduce regional tensions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of that effort, Trump last month lifted sanctions imposed on Syria in response to the Assad regimes brutal actions against the Syrian people and their direct support for terrorism in the region. The Assad regime was overthrown in December during a rapid and surprise coup by the former al-Qaeda rebel group known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). That campaign was led by al-Sharaa. In May, Trump said he asked al-Sharaa to fully normalize relations with Israel in exchange for sanctions relief. In a readout of the pivotalmeeting for Syria, Trump encouraged al-Sharaa to sign onto the Abraham Accords with Israel, tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help the U.S. prevent the resurgence of ISIS and assume charge of ISIS detention centers in northeast Syria, Fox News reported at the time. The Abraham Accords are a series of diplomatic agreements between Israel and some Arab nations that Trump began during his first term. Though there are intense negotiations underway to stop the fighting between Israel and Syria as well as between Syrian forces and the Druze, the senior IDF official we spoke with said he is concerned this conflict could spiral. From what I understand, there are now intensive talks with al-Sharaa himself to immediately stop this massacre, the senior IDF official explained. But in the Arab world there is a concept of blood revenge, so even if it stops, the Druze will not simply move on from this horrific massacre and the humiliation theyve suffered. It could spark a massive escalation. Authors note: This story was updated with additional information from Israel about why it struck targets in Damascus. Update 6:46 PM Eastern U.S. intelligence does not show any involvement of the Syrian government in atrocities in Suwayda, Axios reported, citing a U.S. official. The U.S. official added that Israels actions are influenced by domestic political pressure from the Druze community in Israel which comprises around 2% of the population on the Netanyahu government, Axios added. That assessment confirms what a senior IDF official told The War Zone earlier on Wednesday about the influence of the Druze on Israeli decisions. Israel bombs Syrian capital despite U.S. pressure to "stand down" https://t.co/YRqwOpHIuP Axios (@axios) July 16, 2025 Syrian government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the countrys postwar political transition and drawn military intervention by powerful neighbor Israel, The Associated Press reported. Convoys of government forces began withdrawing from the city of Sweida, but it was not immediately clear if the agreement, announced by Syrias Interior Ministry and in a video message by a Druze religious leader, would hold, the wire service added. A previous ceasefire announced Tuesday quickly fell apart, and a prominent Druze leader, Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, disavowed the new agreement. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes continued after the ceasefire announcement, AP stated. Though Israel claimed it was acting on behalf of the Druze, another one of the communitys prominent leaders disavowed that contention. These calls for intervention are political maneuvers exploiting the south Syria issue, Laith al-Balous told Al Jazeera. He added that the Druze dont need Israeli protection and reaffirmed his support for the Syrian government. Druze leader Laith al-Balous clarifies to Aljazera tv channle the current events and the Druze community's stance toward the Syrian government. He emphasizes that certain individuals are playing a political game in the name of the entire sect, inciting division and calls for pic.twitter.com/mUVOtpCOtc Abd alhade alani (@abdalhadealani) July 16, 2025 Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com Israel announced on Wednesday that its forces struck near the entrance of the Syrian Defense Ministrys headquarters in Damascus. "The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios," the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) wrote on X. An Israeli military official said on Wednesday that while the Syrian regime has claimed it is acting to restore order, what is happening on the ground tells a "very different story." The official added that the more the regime intervenes "the worse it gets." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also put out a statement saying that his country's forces were "acting to save our Druze brothers and eliminate the regime's gangs" and warning Druze in Israel not to go into Syria. "I have one request of you: You are citizens of Israel. Do not cross the border," Netanyahu said on Wednesday. "You are endangering your lives; you could be killed, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the IDFs efforts. Therefore, I ask you, return to your homes, let the IDF do its work." Why Syria Plays A Key Role In Trumps Plans For Middle East Peace Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The southern Syrian city of Sweida has become a flashpoint in recent days as the countrys leaders clash with armed Druze groups. Syrias Defense Ministry claimed its forces acted after militias in Sweida violated a ceasefire agreement reached on Tuesday. Syrias Defense Ministry reportedly said in a statement that its forces were continuing to fire in Sweida "while adhering to rules of engagement," including preventing harm, according to the Associated Press. Israel has threatened to increase its involvement in Syria and vowed to protect the Druze religious minority, which began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam, the Associated Press reported. Most of the worlds Druze population lives in Syria, with the rest predominantly in Israel and Lebanon. "And I raise the question: What else needs to happen for the international community to make its voice heard? What else needs to happen? What are we still waiting for?," Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar said on Wednesday. "Our interests in Syria are known, limited and clear. First of all, to maintain the status quo in the southern Syrian region, which is also close to our border. And to prevent the development of threats against Israel in this area. The second thing - to prevent harm to the Druze community, with which we have a bold and strong relationship - with the Druze citizens here in Israel." Syrian security forces walk together along a street, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida early on Wednesday, collapsing a ceasefire announced just hours earlier that aimed to put an end to days of deadly sectarian bloodshed, in Sweida, Syria July 16, 2025. Trumps Push For Israel-syria Peace Gets Major Backing As Activist Brings Message To Jerusalem Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Druze are a prominent minority in Israel, where members of the community hold key military positions. In 2015, Col. Ghassan Alian, who is Druze, became the first non-Jewish commander of the Golani Brigade. Additionally, unlike other minorities in Israel, Druze males are not exempt from conscripted military service. "Israel is committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria due to the deep brotherhood alliance with our Druze citizens in Israel, and their familial and historical connection to the Druze in Syria and we are acting to prevent the Syrian regime from harming them, and to ensure the demilitarization of the area adjacent to our border with Syria," a joint statement by Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz read. Security forces loyal to the interim Syrian government ride in the back of a vehicle moving along a road in Syria's western city of Latakia on March 9, 2025. The latest unrest in Syria began with kidnappings and attacks between the Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern part of the country, according to the Associated Press. Syrian regime forces operating to restore order have also clashed with the Druze and have reportedly been carrying out extrajudicial killings and looting and burning civilian homes. In March, Syrias al Qaeda-linked regime killed members of the Alawite and Christian communities. Former Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose regime was toppled in December by Ahmed al-Sharaa and his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham a U.S.-designated terror organization, is a member of the Alawite community. Original article source: Israel strikes Syria's military headquarters as the regime clashes with Druze civilians The Al-Jaleel Society for Care and Community-based Rehabilitation has provided essential services to disabled Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp for decades. But now, after repeated Israeli attacks, the centre has been destroyed, and its staff have discovered that it sits in an Israeli-designated demolition zone. Al-Jaleels staff have received no official notice, but in early June, the Israeli army published an aerial map showing several buildings in the area that were set to be destroyed, including the rehabilitation centre. Zaid Am-Ali, senior advocacy officer for Palestine operations at Humanity and Inclusion, Al-Jaleels partner organisation, told Al Jazeera the reason the organisations were given was that the area was being secured for military and security purposes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is not the first time the centre has been targeted, the Israeli military has destroyed parts of it during previous acts of demolition in the refugee camp and has breached and ransacked the centre and tampered with assistive devices meant for persons with disabilities, Am-Ali said. Al Jazeera has reached out to the Israeli military but has not received a response at the time of publication. Supporting thousands of Palestinians Al-Jaleel is a critical lifeline, Am-Ali said, describing how the demolition of the centre would deprive vulnerable communities in Jenin and the wider northern West Bank of its essential services. It was established in 1991 as the Local Rehabilitation Committee, which became an independent NGO in 2010 under the name Al-Jaleel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since it first opened its doors, Al-Jaleel has provided thousands of Palestinians with a wide range of support and services, especially to those with mobility impairments resulting from injury, illness, or conflict-related trauma. As well as prosthetics, orthotics and physical and occupational therapies, Al-Jaleel also offers psychological support for those affected by disability and continuing violent assaults perpetrated by the Israeli military, which has been attacking Jenin on a regular basis for years, but has intensified operations since the start of 2025. This is the same area that has been subject to an ongoing Israeli military operation for years now, causing a lot of casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, Am-Ali said. Al-Jaleels ability to function and provide care was severely compromised in April when an Israeli attack damaged the building. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although staff have since relocated and started operating from another location due to their displacement from the camp, they have not yet been permitted to re-enter the organisations original building to retrieve any equipment that was spared during the April attack. Staff were told they would be allowed to evacuate their equipment on July 12, but were then not allowed to do so by the Israeli military. It is unclear when or if staff will be able to collect Al-Jaleels belongings before the demolition takes place. With the area now declared a closed military zone, Al-Jaleels staff are being denied information about the buildings status. At the time of writing, the centre has not been demolished, but other buildings in its vicinity have been torn down. Violence in Jenin Violence in Jenin has escalated significantly since January 21, when the Israeli military launched Operation Iron Wall in the city and the nearby refugee camp. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Israeli forces, the operation is an antiterrorism offensive, attempting to crush Palestinian resistance efforts in the area. The Israeli military has for years attempted to root out any form of armed resistance in the occupied West Bank, conducting raids that have escalated in severity since the beginning of Israels war on Gaza in October 2023. At least 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in that period. Operation Iron Wall targeting Palestinian fighters in the northern West Bank started in Jenin, but has since spread to Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and al-Fara refugee camps. On March 22, just 60 days after the beginning of the offensive, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported that 40,000 Palestinian refugees had been displaced from refugee camps in the northern West Bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, earlier this year, Israeli authorities announced that they planned to wipe out the Jenin refugee camp completely. Since then, Israeli bulldozers have been tearing down commercial buildings and homes at an alarming rate. Wafa, the Palestinian news agency, reported on June 30 that more than 600 homes and 15 roads in Jenin camp had been demolished. On June 17, the Israeli Supreme Court rejected a petition filed by Adalah, a legal centre for Palestinian minority rights in Israel, on June 12 to halt the demolition of Jenin refugee camp. The Supreme Court authorised the Israeli military to proceed with the destruction of nearly 90 civilian buildings that housed hundreds of Palestinian families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli Supreme Courts decision to uphold these operations, including its 7 May 2025 rejection of Adalahs petition against the mass demolitions in Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, provides a false legal cover for policies of forced displacement and entrenched impunity, said Adalah. Bigger picture The potential demolition of Al-Jaleel fits into a wider pattern of Israeli attacks on Palestinian healthcare institutions. The targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients has been widespread during Israels war on Gaza. These actions are considered war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Convention. Israel has justified the attacks as being part of its fight against Hamas and other armed groups, accusing them, without any overwhelming evidence, of using health facilities as cover for their bases and operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 94 percent of all hospitals in Gaza are damaged or destroyed. Between October 7, 2023, and July 2, 2025, WHO recorded 863 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank. These attacks affected 203 institutions and 589 health transports In a statement to Al Jazeera, WHO reported that, of the 476 government health service delivery units assessed by WHO and partners in the West Bank in June 2025, only 345 are fully functional, 112 are partially functional, nine are non-functional, and 1 has been destroyed. That, Am-Ali believes, is being overlooked amid the understandable focus on Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians. And it is allowing Israel to get away with its devastation of Palestinian life in the West Bank, and its destruction of vital centres like Al-Jaleel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These developments are not isolated incidents and are in clear violation of international law, including the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force under the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention, he said. The Israeli military launched an attack near the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus on Wednesday, as Israel vows to protect Druze civilians amid brutal sectarian violence in Syria's south. An Israeli military representative said there was a "military target" in the vicinity of the palace, which is the official seat of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, but did not provide any details. Israeli jets delivered three precise airstrikes on the Syrian capital, according to a dpa reporter at the scene and a monitoring group, with other targets including the entrances to Syria's Ministry of Defence and the General Staff headquarters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thick black smoke billowed over the area as ambulances rushed to the site. Residents nearby told dpa that the blasts shook their homes and shattered windows. The debris included chunks of concrete and metal from the General Staff building, striking vehicles in Umayyad Square. Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "It seems they were targeting the Syrian defence minister or sending him a direct message, as he was leading operations in Sweida," in southern Syria. Syria's SANA news agency quoted the Ministry of Health as saying at least 18 people were injured in the Israeli strikes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli military said earlier on Wednesday its fighter jets had carried out attacks on the "regime's military headquarters." The Israeli military said the operation was a response to the unrest in southern Syria, where government forces have been accused of violent repression against the Druze minority. Israel struck other parts of Syria this week. Israel said it was monitoring the Syrian government's actions and aimed to support the Druze community, describing them as allies. Many Druze serve voluntarily in the Israeli army. Clashes between Sunni Bedouins and Druze civilians in southern Syria have escalated sharply in recent days, centred on the Druze-majority city of Sweida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Syrian government troops were deployed to the area. The troops, along with allied groups, have been accused of attacks on civilians, including executions. According to the UK-based observatory, forces have executed Druze civilians during the crackdown. The monitor estimates that around 300 people have been killed in the violence since Sunday. Since the beginning of the year, the observatory has documented 70 Israeli attacks on Syrian territory - 60 by air and 10 by land - targeting or damaging some 102 sites, including weapons depots, military positions and vehicles. Destroyed cars are seen in the vicinity of the Syrian General Staff Headquarters, after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes on Damascus. Moawia Atrash/dpa A key partner in Benjamin Netanyahus government says it is quitting, dealing a major blow to the Israeli prime minister that could leave him heading a minority coalition in parliament. The ultra-Orthodox Shas party said on Wednesday that it was leaving the cabinet in protest against lawmakers failure to guarantee future exemption from military conscription for religious students. Shas representatives find with a heavy heart that they cannot stay in the government and be a part of it, said the group in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was not immediately clear whether the decision would leave Netanyahu with a minority in parliament. Without Shas, Netanyahus coalition would have 50 seats in the 120-seat Knesset. Shas, which has long served as a kingmaker in Israeli politics, said it would not work to undermine the government once outside it and could vote with it on some laws. It also said it would not support its collapse. The departure of Shas from the government comes one day after another ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism (UTJ), resigned from the government over the same issue, which has prompted an explosive debate in the country after more than 21 months of war with Hamas in Gaza. While ultra-Orthodox seminary students have long been exempt from mandatory military service, many Israelis are angered by what they see as an unfair burden carried by other groups who serve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The moves by Shas and UTJ come just before the Israeli parliament starts a three-month recess on July 27, giving the prime minister several months of little to no legislative activity to bring the parties back into the fold. Cruel and criminal persecution Ultra-Orthodox Jewish leaders say full-time devotion to holy scriptures study is sacrosanct and fear their young men will turn away from religious life if they are drafted into the military. Last year, the Supreme Court ordered an end to the exemption. The parliament has been trying to work out a new conscription bill, which has so far failed to meet the demands of both Shas and UTJ. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli, a member of Shas, said on Wednesday that rabbis were angered after Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein reneged on promises regarding the bill, according to a report in the Times of Israel. Malkieli, reading from a statement by the Council of Torah Sages, also hit out at actions taken by the Israeli military and attorney general to pursue draft dodgers, describing the move as nothing less than cruel and criminal persecution against yeshiva students. Israeli Druze demonstrating against Islamist violence in Syria, April 30, 2025. (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE) "Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option, Druze leader Sheikh Mowafak Tarif wrote. Israel's Druze spiritual leadership called on its community to prepare to assist their Syrian counterparts by all means necessary, calling for a general strike and national days of rage and mourning across Israel, in a statement published Wednesday. The statement, signed by Sheikh Mowafak Tarif, came after the recent escalation of attacks on Syrian Druze communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regrettably, despite explicit commitments, the IDF and the Israeli government have taken no meaningful action to stop the killing, the statement read. The leadership is calling on all members of the community to prepare by all necessary means to cross the border in order to assist their slaughtered brethren in Syria. If Israel does not act, the Druze will take charge of the situation Tarif wrote that the community had appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with the heads of the security establishment, to conduct aerial strikes against Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's regime. Buses carrying senior figures from the Syrian Druze community welcomed by members of the Druze community in Israel, March 14, 2025 (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90) If decisive action is not taken, the crisis between us and the State of Israel will dangerously and unprecedentedly deepen, the statement read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Silence and standing idly by are no longer an option. Clashes between and Syrian forces and Druze continue As of Wednesday morning, clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed just hours after aceasefire was announced. Local news outlet Sweida24 said the city and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire early on Wednesday, while Syria's defence ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA, blamed outlaw groups in Sweida for breaching the truce. The fighting started based on a small-scale dispute between Druze-Syrian and Bedouin-Syrian tribes, but eventually erupted into much larger clashes between those tribes, leading to approximately 30 and 100 deaths. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens of Druze-Israeli civilians managed to infiltrate Syrian territory from the area of the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the North, the IDF confirmed on Tuesday. The Druze-Israelis have said they infiltrated the area to help their Druze-Syrian relatives and friends who, in recent days, have been engaged in gunfights with Syrian-Bedouins and some forces of the new Syrian government. Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report. ISTANBUL (Reuters) -An Istanbul court on Wednesday sentenced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, the main rival of Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, to a fresh prison term, state broadcaster TRT reported, extending a crackdown on the opposition. Imamoglu, who has been in jail pending trial since March over separate corruption charges, was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for insulting and threatening the chief Istanbul prosecutor. The prison sentence must be confirmed by two appeals courts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's the second time Imamoglu has been convicted of insulting public officials. In 2022, Imamoglu was sentenced to two years and six months in jail for criticising election board officials over a decision to cancel 2019 Istanbul elections, in which he defeated the ruling AK Party candidate. He has appealed that sentence but it has not yet been reviewed. Imamoglu denies the charges. "I've been fighting against the abuse of the judiciary and against its use as a political tool. This is indeed an insult against our nation," Imamoglu was quoted as saying by broadcaster Halk TV and other Turkish media. The 2022 conviction, if upheld, could prevent Imamoglu from participating in future elections. Istanbul University in March annulled Imamoglu's university diploma, without which he cannot stand as a candidate for president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since October last year, police have detained more than 500 people, over 200 of whom were then jailed pending trial, under investigations into municipalities run by the main opposition CHP, Imamoglu's party. The CHP denies corruption allegations and calls them a politicised attempt by the government to remove electoral threats against Erdogan, a charge the government rejects. Wednesday's hearing was held inside a courthouse-prison complex in Istanbul's Silivri district, a site often used for high-profile and politically sensitive trials and where Imamoglu is currently being held. (Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Ece Toksabay, Daren Butler and Sharon Singleton) ROME (Reuters) -Italy may release up to around 10,000 people from prison, or about 15% of the total population of inmates, to ease overcrowding, the Justice Ministry has announced. Some 10,105 prisoners are "potentially eligible" for alternative measures to prison, such as house arrest or probation, the ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday. The option would apply to people whose convictions are final and no longer subject to appeal, less than 2 years of sentences left to serve, and no serious disciplinary offences in the past 12 months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People serving time for serious crimes such as terrorism, organized crime, rape, migrant trafficking and kidnapping would be excluded, the ministry added. According to the World Prison Brief database, Italy has one of Europe's worst prison overcrowding records, with an occupancy level of around 122%. Any level above 100% indicates that prisons are occupied above their maximum capacity. Only Cyprus, France and Turkey have higher scores in Europe, according to the database. The plight of prisoners has attracted attention in Italy following a rise in suicides and complaints about soaring summer temperatures in detention facilities that are not air- conditioned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the early release of prisoners is a politically sensitive move, and the Justice Ministry indicated that it would not happen overnight. It said it had set up a taskforce to liaise with prisons and parole judges to facilitate decisions on individual cases, which will meet weekly and report on its work by September. (Reporting by Alvise ArmelliniEditing by Frances Kerry) Cheng Xin / Contributor / Getty Images Fortinet shares gained as Barclays raised its price target for the stock on optimism about the cybersecurity companys deals and a system upgrade. Key Takeaways Major U.S. equities indexes were little changed at midday Monday, as investors weighed the potential impact of more U.S. tariffs. Fortinet shares gained as Barclays raised its price target for the stock on optimism about the cybersecurity companys deals and a system upgrade. Waters shares sank after the company announced a deal to buy the Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions division of Becton Dickinson. Major U.S. equities indexes were little changed at midday Monday, as investors weighed the possible impact of the latest tariff announcements from President Trump. Ansys (ANSS) shares rose after Chinese regulators approved Synopsys $35 billion purchase of the chip-design software firm. Synopsys shares climbed earlier in the session, before turning lower. Shares of Fortinet (FTNT) also gained as Barclays raised its price target for the stock on optimism about the cybersecurity companys deals and a system upgrade. Autodesk (ADSK) shares advanced following a report the design software firm is no longer looking at a possible purchase of rival PTC (PTC). PTC shares dropped. Waters (WAT) was the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 after the analytics instruments maker said it was buying Becton Dickinsons (BDX) Biosciences & Diagnostic Solutions business in a Reverse Morris Trust transaction valued at $17.5 billion. Shares of Becton Dickinson also slid. Henry Schein (HSIC) shares tumbled in the wake of a downgrade from Baird, which warned the medical products maker could lose its biggest customer. Oil and gold futures fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was slightly higher. The U.S. dollar advanced on the pound and yen, but lost ground to the euro. The price of Bitcoin hit another record high, rising above $123,000 before retreating. Prices of other major cryptocurrencies were also higher. TradingView Read the original article on Investopedia The Italian government has no plans to join a US-NATO initiative to purchase American weapons for Ukraine with EU funds, citing a lack of available resources. Source: Italian newspaper La Stampa, as reported by European Pravda Details: La Stampa reported that Italys budget constraints prevent it from participating in the initiative to fund American weapons for Ukraine with European money. Sources in the Italian Ministry of Defence told La Stampa there has been "no talk" of purchasing American weapons for this purpose. They stressed, however, that this decision should not be seen as a withdrawal from supporting Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sources noted that Italys only planned defence purchases from the US are F-35 fighter jets. They also indicated that Italy has received only one official NATO proposal regarding American weapons for Ukraine, related to logistics. Background: On 14 July, Trump announced an agreement between the United States and NATO under which the supply of US weapons to Ukraine will be financed by European allies. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that same day that Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada all want to be part of the initiative. Media reports indicate France will not join, with sources in Paris citing President Emmanuel Macrons push for Europe to develop its own defence industry and achieve greater self-sufficiency. Commenting on Trumps proposal, Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, urged the US to "share the burden" of military aid to Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Leo XIV has not long been pope, yet the American head of the Catholic Church already receives 100 kilogrammes of letters a day, faithfully sorted by the Italian post office. Missives from around the world, addressed to "His Holiness" in flowing cursive, in stark block capitals or in scrawls, are sorted into a series of yellow crates in a vast hangar near Rome's Fiumicino airport. Robert Francis Prevost was a relatively unknown churchman when he was elected pontiff on May 8, but vast numbers of the faithful are penning him letters of support and pleas for him to pray on their behalf. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We receive hundreds of letters a day addressed to the pope, with peaks of 100 kilos (220 pounds) per day, or an average of 500 to 550 kilos per week," Antonello Chidichimo, director of the sorting centre, told AFP. "There are many letters written by children, postcards, and it's wonderful to see that in the digital age, many people still use a pen to write to the pope," he noted. Bearing colourful stamps, the day's letters -- one of which is decorated with hand-drawn red hearts -- arrive from as far afield as Andorra, Brazil, Cameroon, Hong Kong or the US. After being sorted by machine -- or by hand if a hand-written address is indecipherable -- the mail is collected by a van that delivers it the same day to the Vatican, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement - Teddy bear - Pilgrims and tourists visiting the Vatican can also write to the pope and drop their letters directly -- no stamp needed -- at the Vatican Post Office, where it is collected four times a day. "Many of those who drop off these letters come from South America or Asia," Nicola Vaccaro, an employee at the central office in St Peter's Square, told AFP. "They mainly write to ask for intercession (prayers) for a sick person or a loved one," he said. Among the letters and packages, Vaccaro has even seen someone post the pope a teddy bear. Behind the walls of the world's smallest state, the mail is centralised and sorted by the Secretariat of State, which performs standard security checks before delivering it to the pope's inner circle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senders who provide their address can expect a response -- from the Vatican or on rare occasions the pontiff himself. Leo's predecessor Pope Francis, who received a bumper postbag as he battled ill health before his death earlier this year, had been known to answer some letters in person. His handwritten notes were scanned by his private secretary who then sent them -- by email. cmk/ide/dc ITHACA, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) If youre planning a trip to downtown Ithaca, police want you to know: the Commons is not a free-for-all. The Ithaca Police Department is ramping up enforcement of the rules on the Ithaca Commons, a pedestrian-only walking path in the heart of downtown. The police say this will help ensure the space is clean, safe, and enjoyable for everyone who uses it, for both locals and visitors. While officers say education is still the first step, repeated violations could now result in tickets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If we see someone smoking, they get a warning on where the smoking areas are, said Ithaca Police Deputy Chief Matt Cowen. If its a continued behavior, then youd be ticketed for that. According to the City of Ithaca, the following activities are not allowed on the Commons: Smoking or vaping of any kind Biking, skateboarding, or using scooters Using amplified music or sound without a permit Littering or leaving pet waste Only leashed dogs are allowed on the Ithaca Commons, with a limit of two per person. Leashes must be six feet or shorter (including locked retractables), tethering is not allowed, owners must clean up after their dogs, and dogs are never allowed in planters. Obstructing pedestrian traffic Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Setting up displays or selling items without a permit Open alcohol consumption Camping or overnight sleeping Aggressive panhandling or solicitation Damaging public property or landscaping Signs are posted throughout the commons to help visitors and residents understand that the area should be treated with respect. The city compares the Commons to a public park, meant to be walked, enjoyed, and welcoming to all. These are key pieces that really lead to not just safety, but overall environment and vibe, said the Downtown Ithaca Alliance CEO, Nan Roher. It takes all of us to protect this space that is so special to us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To read the complete ordinance or apply for performance and vendor permits, visit cityofithaca.org. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR. KANSAS CITY, Mo. The Jackson County Election Board (JCEB) and Kansas City Election Board (KCEB) are suing Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. and Mary Jo Spino, clerk of the Jackson County Legislature. The lawsuit accuses White and Spino of trying to hold a special election for the recall of White on a date that does not comply with state or federal election laws. Jackson County recall election of Frank White could be delayed Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sole purpose of this legal action is to ensure that any recall election complies with Missouri and federal election laws, which establish critical timelines and procedural requirements designed to protect voters rights, the lawsuit reads. The election boards say in the lawsuit that they are obligated to ensure that all elections under their supervision meet legal requirements, protect military voters rights, and provide proper notice to all eligible voters. On Tuesday, July 8, Jackson County Counselor Bryan Covinsky said White had the authority to veto the recall ordinance even though its about him. As of late Tuesday afternoon, White still hasnt signed or vetoed the recall election ordinance; therefore, Spino hasnt certified the election for the JCEB and the KCEB to continue their normal election procedures. The lawsuit was filed to stop White and Spino from holding a recall election on Aug. 26, 2025. Earlier this month, the Jackson County Legislature unanimously voted in favor of holding a special election for the recall of Whitefollowing the certification of more than 42,900 signatures seeking his recall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit claims that holding the election on Aug. 26 would be unlawful. If the election were to be held on that date, the lawsuit says White and Spino would be violating multiple state and federal election laws. Instead, the election boards are calling for the special recall election to be held on Nov. 4, 2025 which is the next available general election date in accordance with Missouri Revised Statutes, Chapter 115, according to the lawsuit. Republican Jackson County Election Board Director Tammy Brown says she believes the recall election of White should happen because the signature threshold has been met. They did their due diligence; we want to do ours, Brown said. We want to do it right. And to do it right, we need the 10 weeks notice, so we can follow all the rules and laws that follow each and every election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Further, the lawsuit says Missouri law requires all public elections, including special elections to be held on specific dates: the first Tuesday after the first Monday in February, April, August or November. Therefore, Aug. 26 is not an election date permitted by state law, according to the lawsuit. Even if the special election were to be held on Aug. 26, the lawsuit claims that the county would have been required by law to notify the election authority 10 weeks prior to the election (June 17). State law does, however, allow the election authority to accept a late notification if accompanied by a court orderbut only up to eight weeks prior to the election. That means the deadline for accepting late notification would have been July 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The statutory deadlines have already passed for both the timely and late notification dates, the lawsuit reads. Jackson County Ordinance 5993 attempts to bypass election requirements, lawsuit claims In an attempt to bypass these requirements, Jackson County Legislator DaRon McGee introduced Ordinance 5993, which was adopted by the Legislature on the same day that the recall election was unanimously approved by the Legislature. The ordinance dictates that the special election to be held on Aug. 26. However, the ordinance has not yet been signed by White, according to the lawsuitand the county charter dictates that White has 10 days to sign it, with action due by July 17. Until the ordinance is signed, it remains a resolution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The election boards are not aware of any time in the past when Jackson County certified that the election boards hold an election based merely on a resolution and not an ordinance, the lawsuit states. The election boards are not aware of any time in the past when Jackson County certified that the election boards hold election when an ordinance is not final. Even if its signed by White, the lawsuit claims that the resolution is legally insufficient to authorize an election under Missouri law. Since it conflicts with state law, according to the lawsuit, the ordinance would be considered void. Proposed recall election date violates laws regarding military, overseas & absentee voting, lawsuit claims Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, election authorities must make available absentee ballots to military and overseas voters at least 45 days before an election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the Missouri Secretary of State requires election authorities to have this process complete by the 46th day before an election. That means, for an election on Aug. 26, ballots would need to be available to UOCAVA voters by July 11. Even if the resolution had been immediately certified, White and Spino cannot comply with the UOCAVA mandate and therefore would violate Missouri and federal law, the lawsuit states. Missouri law also requires that absentee voting begin six weeks (42 days) before the election. For an Aug. 26 election, absentee voting would need to begin on Tuesday, July 15. To sum it up, the lawsuit argues that there is essentially no way for the special recall election to legally be held on Aug. 26. The election boards claim the next viable election date is Nov. 4. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The election boards are asking the judge to issue an injunction to prevent the recall election from being held on Aug. 26. A judge is set to review this case during a case management conference on Nov. 3. You can read the full lawsuit below. Jackson-County-Kansas-City-election-boards-sue-Frank-WhiteDownload This new lawsuit comes as Attorney Phil LeVota represents four Jackson County residents in a different lawsuit. This separate lawsuit argues that the recall election should not have to go through the ordinance process of the county government, which gives White the authority to veto it. LeVota is arguing that the election should be held within 60 days of June 27; the 60-day mark falls on Aug. 26. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A special election shall be held to consider recall of a county elected officer within sixty days after the petitions are filed, Article 14, Section 9 of the Jackson County Charter states. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Jackson Countys newly sworn-in prosecutor is making waves, not just in the courtroom, but on your social feed. In just six months on the job, Melesa Johnson has redefined what it means to be a public-facing prosecutor. And shes not waiting for a press conference or a headline to do it. Royals stadium standoff: Sources slam KC leaders over Lack of vision The vast majority of people get their news from social media, Johnson told FOX4. The way that your news station is leveraging social media, we wanted to replicate that and make sure were putting the work that were doing every single day right in the faces of the residents of Jackson County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gone are the days when the prosecutors office stayed silent between major cases. Johnsons team now posts dailyoften multiple timessharing everything from charging decisions and office data to short explainers on why certain high-profile cases play out the way they do. And shes got good reason. According to Johnson, the primary demographic driving crime in Jackson County falls between the ages of 16 and 35, a group not exactly glued to traditional media. Theyre not watching the nightly news, theyre not reading the Kansas City Star, but they are on their smartphones, she said. So if we want our work to send a deterring message to the community, we need to meet them where they are. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That strategy includes videos explaining why certain chargesor lack thereofare made. Like the viral case of an ATV driver who injured a police officer. A lot of people wanted to know why we didnt charge attempted murder, she said. And of the video helped explain that decision. Her goal? Transparency, and in communities that have historically distrusted the justice system, it matters. KCMO to decide on $1 million purchase of blighted shopping center You dont get to trust without transparency, and social media is one of the main tools we are using to be transparent, she said. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement People are seeing that our office is not playing around, so there is that level of theyre holding offenders accountable, said Jazzlyn Johnson, the offices director of communications. If you live in Jackson County or just want to see how one prosecutor is using social media to rewrite the rules, you can follow Melesa Johnsons office on Instagram, Facebook and X. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) The Jackson Police Department (JPD) is now a certified National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) law enforcement agency. This has been a five to six year journey. It has been a two year journey for me to get us certified, said Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade. Jackson police chief suggests ski mask ban to reduce crime According to the police chief, the designation allows the public to go to the Mississippi Department of Safetys website to get data, which allows for more transparency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had an opportunity to visit West Virginia and went to the FBI CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) location. They held a presentation for me and other local law enforcement officials and DPS about the importance of being NIBRS compliant. Being NIBRS compliant is connected to our federal funding. It is connected to how many FBI Agents, DEA Agents, ATF Agents and U.S. Marshals are assigned to Jackson. These resources are assigned based on the NIBRS numbers, Wade said. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. Mayor Donna Deegan and former Mayor John Peyton are teaming up to expand access to books for children in Jacksonville. The Gate Foundation and former Mayor Peyton announced a $1 million donation on Wednesday to fund the revival and expansion of his original book club, which began during his term Now reimagined as The Mayors Book Club, it will help provide one free book to every four-year-old in Jacksonville each month. Former Mayor John Peyton donates to revive free book distribution for children. Photo: Wes Lester/City of Jacksonville [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] When John launched his book club nearly two decades ago, he planted a powerful seed, said Mayor Deegan. Today, were helping that seed grow into something extraordinaryfueling imagination, curiosity, and literacy for thousands of children across Jacksonville. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The books will be mailed out countywide or distributed in childcare centers for the next four years under the administration of the Kids Hope Alliance. Details on how to register will be announced in the coming weeks. The announcement builds on the momentum of Mayor Deegans River City Readers initiative, aimed at increasing reading time and literacy in young children. The city said that recently, third-grade reading scores in Duval County rose above 50%. Photo: Wes Lester/City of Jacksonville Former Mayor Peyton said, Ive always believed in the power of books to change lives. By bringing this club back and expanding its reach, we are sending a powerful message: Every child in Jacksonville deserves the chance to discover the joy of reading. >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office is sharing the name of the man killed by police after they say he attacked officers inside a home on the northside. JSO says 26-year-old Amir Bradsher was found holding down a woman pregnant with his child by her hair, as she was holding another child in her arms. JSO Chief Alan Parker told Action News Jax officers found them after kicking down the locked door of the room they were inside of. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read: Police arrest suspects in Jacksonville Beach phone theft Theres loud, frantic screaming coming from the room. So they go back and they hear that its definitely multiple people screaming in there, Chief Parker said, [Bradsher] is holding her by the hair, just yelling and screaming and continuing to scream. Hes holding her by the hair and not letting her go. Officers were first called to the house on Brahma Bull Circle West, in the Sheffield Oaks neighborhood, at around 11:20 PM on Tuesday. Police say someone had reported a man inside the home having an episode, before police say Bradsher was found holding down the pregnant woman, who hasnt yet been identified. Throughout this whole thing, the guy was in and out of whatever he was saying. [The officers] couldnt really make sense of it. Hes continuing to eat this ladys hair that he had ripped out during the fight inside the room, Chief Parker said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement JSO says the officers had to tase Bradsher multiple times to get him separated from the woman she was holding, along with the child in her arms. Once she got out of the room, police say it took another 30-45 minutes of talking with Bradsher before he walked out the door. But police say he started attacking the officers when he left the room. A couple of them hit him at the same time with a taser. He then fights through all that and attacks them out into the room and takes the other officer all the way to the kitchen, Chief Parker said. JSO tells Action News Jax Officers Robinson and Richardson were involved in shooting Bradsher, along with Sergeant Taylor, Jr. Police say none of them were severely hurt, but Bradsher died in the hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<< Its unfortunate. You never want to end like that. But it did, Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said, in that situation, you want to try to end it as peacefully as possible. It was a lot, but it didnt work. Action News Jax records show this is the 11th officer-involved shooting in Duval County this year and the second in the last week. Were working to learn whether police have been called to the Brahma Bull Circle West home other times in the last year. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. (WJET/WFXP) A man was arrested in Jamestown for his alleged involvement in a homicide that occurred in Puerto Rico. On Wednesday, July 16, around 11:30 a.m., officers with the Jamestown Police Department received information that a man wanted out of Puerto Rico for homicide was at a residence on Jamestowns east side. Jamestown man allegedly stole millions from employer over decade-long period Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After arriving at the residence, officers claim that 26-year-old Bryan Rivera-Montanez answered the door and was subsequently taken into custody. Rivera-Montanez was transported to the Jamestown City Jail, where he was charged with being a fugitive from justice and is being held on a homicide warrant. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) Jane C. Martin, 76, passed away peacefully on Monday, July 7, 2025, at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Boardman after a brief illness. She was born January 23, 1949, in Youngstown, a daughter of the late Harry and Wilma (ONeill) Zimmerman. Find obituaries from your high school She graduated from Chaney High School and attended Youngstown State University. She worked for Erie Lackawanna Railroad in both Youngstown and Cleveland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the oldest sister in her family, she naturally took on a role of strength, guidance and care. She resided many years in Sanford, Florida, before returning to Youngstown. Later in life, she moved to Assumption Village Assisted Living and eventually to the nursing home, where she lived for 11 years. Even as her surroundings changed, her warm and welcoming spirit remained constant. Earlier in life, she loved boating adventures with her children and hosting lively pizza parties that became cherished traditions. Her faith was an important part of her life and while living in Florida, she was an active member of her church community. Through all stages of her life, she offered kindness, warmth and companionship, gifts that those around her will always treasure. She leaves behind to cherish her memory, her children, Mark (Lisa) Brocious of Dallas, Georgia and Audrey (Justin) Loadholtz of Orange Park, Florida; her grandchildren, Christopher and Lily Brocious and Hannah and Daniel Loadholtz; her sisters, Wilma (Rob) ODonnell of Newton Falls and Nancy (Ken) Croutch of Youngstown and her sister-in-law, Cathy Zimmerman of Boardman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her brother, Harry C. Zimmerman. A memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Monday, July 21, 2025, at St. Christine Church. Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Davidson-Becker Funeral Home in Struthers. Please visit www.beckerobits.com to send the family condolences and share your memories. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Jane, please visit our floral store. A television tribute will air Thursday, July 17 at the following approximate times: 6:47 a.m. on WYTV, 9:43 a.m. on WKBN, 10:58 a.m. on FOX and 8:12 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Profits at Goldman Sachs (GS) surged in the second quarter as the Wall Street giant benefited from a boost in trading and dealmaking, the latest example of how big banks were able to recover from the market chaos triggered by President Trump's tariffs. "The dealmaking environment has been remarkably resilient," Goldman CEO David Solomon told analysts, and "we are optimistic on the overall investment banking outlook." Earnings jumped 22% from the year ago quarter, to $3.7 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts. Investment banking fees jumped 26% due largely to advising companies on mergers. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon in 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid REUTERS / Reuters Trading revenue also surged as the volatility triggered by Trump's tariffs turned out to be a boost for Wall Street trading desks. Equities trading climbed 36%, marking the best stock-trading quarter in the company's history. Two Goldman rivals JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) also posted higher dealmaking and trading revenue on Tuesday. Higher trading provided additional boosts to Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America (BAC), which reported their earnings Wednesday, but investment banking revenue was down slightly for those banks from a year ago. Overall net profits for both banks were up. April was just really slow, Bank of America CFO Alastair Borthwick told reporters during a Wednesday morning call. "Our M&A business did fine in terms of the number of deals this quarter, but the deals that we closed were just smaller." Three months ago, a sense of gloom hovered over the first quarter earnings season as bankers grappled with a halt in dealmaking and the market chaos that followed Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcement, with some warning of "considerable turbulence" and a possible recession. That gloom has been replaced by measured optimism among most bankers. Some red-hot IPOs and sizable mergers have helped, as have several developments in Washington, D.C., while the Trump administration begins to loosen capital and supervisory rules for big banks. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on Tuesday said investment banking activity "started slow but gained momentum as market sentiment improved" and "the U.S. economy remained resilient in the quarter." I dont think any of us expected that wed end up where we are at the end of the second quarter," Citigroup CFO Mark Mason admitted the same day in a call with reporters. "The economy and markets are generally responding positively to the evolving policy environment," Goldman's Solomon added in a statement Wednesday. "But as developments rarely unfold in a straight line, we remain very focused on risk management." The joint operations between China and Russia combined with threats coming from North Korea pose the greatest threat to global order since World War II, Japans defense ministry said in a new document. "The existing order of world peace is being seriously challenged, and Japan finds itself in the most severe and complex security environment of the post-war era," Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said in the annual document. "The international society is in a new crisis era as it faces the biggest challenges since the end of World War II." The worlds greatest threats are centered in the Indo-Pacific, where Japan is located, and are expected to get worse in coming years, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And amid questions about what role Japan would play if war broke out between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, the minister called the U.S. a "key pillar of our national security policy and the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region." Pentagon Presses Japan, Australia On Role In Possible Taiwan Conflict Jiang Bin, a spokesperson for Chinas defense ministry, said Wednesday that Japan was "hyping up the China threat, and grossly interfering in Chinas internal affairs." Read On The Fox News App Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby lauded the report as an "important, clear-eyed strategic assessment." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report also comes days after Japan accused China of risking near-collisions by flying its fighter jets abnormally close to Tokyos intelligence-gathering aircraft. China accused Japan of flying near Chinese airspace to spy. The presence of Chinese warships off the coast of southwestern Japan has tripled in the last three years, including in waters between Taiwan and the neighboring Japanese island of Yonaguni, the paper said. Russia has engaged in joint activities with China involving aircraft and vessels. North Korea, meanwhile, poses "an increasingly serious and imminent threat" to Japans security, having developed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads into Japanese territory and intercontinental missiles that could reach the U.S. homeland. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China Accuses Hegseth Of Espousing 'Cold War Mentality' For Labeling Country As A Threat: 'Vilified' Japan, in return, continues to fortify its southwestern island chains with long-range cruise missiles, including U.S.-made Tomahawks. The overall military balance between China and Taiwan is "rapidly tilting in Chinas favor," according to the paper, and Taiwans defensive capabilities are increasingly outpaced, especially with Chinas development of anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems and amphibious capabilities. "There is growing concern over Chinas pursuit of unification through gray-zone military activities," the paper says, referring to incremental intrusion tactics without the launch of full-scale war. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Japan sees Taiwans security as directly tied to its own: Taiwan strait instability could disrupt vital sea lanes for Japan. Original article source: Japan calls axis of China, Russia, North Korea the 'gravest threat' to global order since WWII "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Japans former emperor Akihito was hospitalized to adjust his heart medication on Monday, the Imperial Household Agency announced. In May, Akihito was diagnosed with myocardial ischemia, which according to the Associated Press, is an asymptomatic heart condition of reduced blood flow from the coronary arteries to the heart muscle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The news outlet continued, He has since been on medication to improve blood flow to his heart while avoiding excessive exercise and reducing liquid intake. After two months on the medication, the Imperial Household Agency said doctors found little improvement in Akinitos condition and decided to give him an additional treatment to alleviate the burden on his heart. He was accompanied by Empress Emerita Michiko as he went to the University of Tokyo Hospital on Monday. Per the Japan Times, the Imperial Household did not say how long the emperor emeritus will remain hospitalized. In 2022, Akihito suffered heart failure, and a decade earlier, in 2012, he underwent a heart bypass operation. Akihito abdicated from the Japanese throne in April 2019becoming the first Japanese monarch to abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne in two centuries. His son, Emperor Naruhito, succeeded him. He abdicated as he felt unable to fulfill his role due to his age and declining health. As I am now more than 80 years old and there are times when I feel various constraints such as in my physical fitness, in the last few years I have started to reflect on my years as the Emperor, and contemplate on my role and my duties as the Emperor in the days to come, he said in a speech in 2016, three years before he abdicated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added, After my two surgeries that I began to feel a decline in my fitness level because of my advancing age, and I started to think about the pending future, how I should conduct myself should it become difficult for me to carry out my heavy duties in the way I have been doing, and what would be best for the country, for the people, and also for the Imperial Family members who will follow after me. You Might Also Like WEST PITTSTON, Pa. Vice President JD Vance gave an early glimpse Wednesday of the argument Republicans will make ahead of the 2026 midterm elections while touting the megabill the White House pushed through Congress. In a 20-minute speech in northeast Pennsylvania, Vance urged the audience to become fellow evangelists for what he called the "big, beautiful bill" in conversations with family and friends. Vance supplied the talking points he wants them to use, describing how workers at the machine shop that hosted his appearance will no longer pay taxes on overtime pay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vance was silent about less popular facets of what had been a nearly 900-page bill. He did not mention, for example, steep cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income people. A report published Wednesday in JAMA Health Forum found that the cuts could lead to 1,000 more deaths a year. And while Vance said President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are getting Washington spending under control, the nations debt will increase by $3.3 trillion over the next decade under the legislation, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Vance invited the audience to do its own research but asked it to take what I said and ... go talk to your neighbors, go and talk to your friends about what this bill does for American citizens. Without explicitly mentioning the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress, Vance said, We dont want to wake up in a year and a half and give the Democrats power back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both parties are in the opening phase of a battle to shape voter impressions of the new law ahead of the midterms. Trumps Cabinet members are expected to travel the country in the coming months to help sell the bill to voters. Introducing Vance was Kelly Loeffler, administrator of the Small Business Administration. She used her speech to promote the law, calling it rocket fuel for small business. Republicans face some headwinds in selling the legislation. A recent Economist/YouGov survey taken after Trump signed the bill on July 4 found that 35% of adults supported it, compared with 53% who were opposed. The White House needs GOP voters to be enthusiastic about the law and motivated to vote next year if the party hopes to hang on to its majorities in the House and the Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump voters are happy and complacent right now, said John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster. And we have to get them fired up for next year. We have a lot of work to do. If President Trump is not on the ballot, its harder to get them out. Vances appearance was also an investment of sorts in his own political future. Pennsylvania is a perennial battleground state. Trump lost it in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden but won it back last year when he was elected to a new term. Vance is a likely GOP candidate in the next presidential race a prospect that voters interviewed before his speech said they welcome. Dwayne McDavitt, 63, of the group Bikers for Trump, said: I love JD Vance. I hope he runs in 2028. Hes a very intelligent man. Vance said nothing about the ongoing furor that threatens to divide Trump voters: The Justice Department's finding that the Jeffrey Epstein files include no incriminating 'client list' or evidence that would implicate third parties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many hard-core Trump have balked at the claim, while Trump has called upon them to drop the subject and stop talking about Epstein. Before Vances appearance, supporters waiting in line offered mixed views of whether they believe the Trump administration is suppressing damning information involving Epstein. Steven Taylor, a truck driver living across the street from the machine shop, said he was angered when Trump said people should move on from the Epstein controversy. I think were being lied to, said Taylor, 52. And I dont appreciate it. This is supposed to be the era of transparency. We put our trust in him [Trump], he continued. Im still going to support him, but with a slanted eye. Were the ones who put him where he is. Its totally disrespectful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Richard Geiersbach, 66, a contractor wearing a MAGA hat, echoed a point that Trump has been making in recent days: Epstein isnt worth discussing anymore. Its a waste of time, a waste of money, he said. Let it go. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com Vice President JD Vance cast the two tie-breaking votes which will help the Trump administration forge ahead with its plan to slash over $9 billion from public broadcasters PBS and NPR and international aid agency USAID. On Tuesday, the Senate was deadlocked at 50-50 at the start of debate on two procedural hurdles, with Republicans Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins joining Democrats to oppose the fund-slashing bill. Vances two votes got the controversial bill over the line. The package, already approved by the House of Representatives, plans to cut $8.3 billion from USAID, and $1.1 billion which was allocated to NPR and PBS. U.S. Vice President JD Vance has saved the day for Trump's bill, which rescinds previously approved funding. / Joe Raedle / Getty Images The next hurdle for the bill will be further debate in the Senate, then the legislation would return to the House. Congress must approve the Trump-ordered budget cuts by Friday at midnight. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three rogue Republicans defied Donald Trumps demands, broadcast on Truth Social last week. He posted, It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together. Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter! Trump deliberately misspelled MSNBC to include the acronym for the Democratic National Committee. The post also misspelled rescissions. President Donald Trump is closer to getting his wish to defund public broadcasters. / MEHMET ESER / Mehmet Eser/Middle East Images/AFP Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt, who is the bills lead sponsor, said ahead of the vote, While the actual American people are working long hours to afford groceries and gas, their government has been writing checks to left-wing propaganda outlets and spending billions overseas on countries that hate us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NPR CEO Katherine Maher said the cuts would not only lead to job losses, but could impact public safety. In a statement, she said, Rescission would irreparably harm communities across America who count on public media for 24/7 news, music, cultural and educational programming, and emergency alerting services. She added, This rescission proposal is the most serious threat ever faced by public broadcasting... Nothing will take its place. We urge Congress to act in the interest of their constituents and save public broadcasting. Chantal's floodwaters left significant damage to Camp Easter Rd. and N.C. 2 in Southern Pines, NC on July 8, 2025. (Photo courtesy of NCDOT) North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a coalition of states in suing the Trump administration Wednesday for ending a Federal Emergency Management Agency program that was designed to help prepare for natural disasters. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called out the agency for ending an all-purpose pre-disaster mitigation program named Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FEMA has selected about 2,000 projects to receive roughly $4.5 billion in BRIC funding over the past four years, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs accused FEMA of acting unlawfully and violating core separation of powers principles by shutting down BRIC, going against Congress statutory direction that Defendants must prioritize mitigation and are specifically barred from substantially reducing FEMAs mitigation functions. Specifically, the states identify Cameron Hamilton as responsible for terminating BRIC in April after Trump appointed him as the acting director of FEMA. Neither Mr. Hamilton nor his successor, David Richardson, were lawfully appointed to run FEMA, and they therefore lack the authority to shut down the BRIC program, the complaint reads. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit follows flooding in North Carolina and neighboring states from Tropical Storm Chantal, as well as storms killing more than 130 people in Texas and unprecedented flooding across other areas of the country. A report originally published by Inside Climate News and republished Wednesday by NC Newsline revealed that Hillsborough, North Carolina a town that received serious flooding from Chantal was in line to receive millions of dollars in BRIC funding that would have helped it better withstand such a disaster before FEMA cancelled the project. All told, ICN reported that 40 North Carolina governments had been owed $121 million in BRIC funding before the cutoff. This was not FEMAs money to cancel, this was Congress money. Congress not only approved the money, but they specifically told FEMA this is how they wanted them to spend the money, Jackson told Spectrum News. It was not FEMAs authority to cancel these projects. Coastal communities have received the largest allocations of this funding over the past four years, according to the lawsuit. This includes states like California, Louisiana, Texas, New York, Florida, and North Carolina. Other states filing the lawsuit along with North Carolina are Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) The Jefferson County Coroners Office is seeking assistance from the public in locating the family of four people who recently died. James Newman (No photo available) James Newman, 60, of Birmingham, died of natural causes while an inpatient at BMC Princeton Hospital on April 12. No information has been found regarding any possible family. Newman possibly lived in Wisconsin early in life. Kenneth Ayler (No photo available) Kenneth Ayler, 66, of Birmingham, was a patient at the North Hill Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and was found unresponsive by staff. He died of natural causes on July 5 around 12:20 p.m. Ayler possibly lived in Tacoma, Washington at one time. He previously experienced homelessness and was known to frequent the UAB medical district area. John Spraggins John Spraggins, 64, of Birmingham, died of natural causes while an inpatient at UAB-St. Vincents East Hospital. He previously listed an address in Pell City and had been receiving assistance through the JBS Mental Health Authority. Doris Green Doris Green, 80, of Locust Fork, died of natural causes while an inpatient at UAB-St. Vincents East Hospital. She previously listed an address in the 600 block of Tabernacle Road. She previously listed a husband by the name of James Green with an address listed as State Highway 79 in Trafford, Alabama. All efforts to confirm the information or located him have failed Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. Jeffrey Epsteins former lawyer has weighed in on the heated controversy surrounding his client listand his ties to President Donald Trump. Alan Dershowitz, a high-profile defense attorney who joined Epsteins legal team in 2005 when he was under investigation for sexual relations with underage girls, revealed in a Tuesday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that Epstein never created a client list. There was, however, more to the story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FBI interviewed alleged victims who named several clients. These names have been redacted, he wrote. They should be disclosed but the courts have ordered them sealed. I know who they are. They dont include any current officeholders. We dont know whether the accusations are true. Dershowitz, who has represented big names like O.J. Simpson, Mike Tyson, and Trump himself during his first impeachment trial, sought to distance the president from the disgraced financier. Alan Dershowitz was part of President Donald Trump's legal team for his first impeachment trial in 2020. / Getty Images Open records show an acquaintance between Epstein and Mr. Trump many years ago, he said, adding that the relationship ended when Trump reportedly banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. I have seen nothing that would suggest anything improper or even questionable by Mr. Trump. But Trump and Epstein have described their relationship as more than just an acquaintance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In tapes exclusively obtained by the Daily Beast last year, Epstein said: I was Donalds closest friend for 10 years. In 2002, Trump similarly told New York Magazine: Ive known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. Hes a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. Dershowitz also argued that it was clear from the evidence that Epstein committed suicide. The convicted sex offender was found hanged in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City on Aug. 10, 2019. What isnt clear is whether he was assisted by jail personnel, Dershowitz said. That seems likely to me, based on the evidence of allegedly broken cameras, transfer of his cellmate and the absence of guards during relevant time periods. Last week, the Justice Department released nearly 11 hours of CCTV footage from the jail on the day of Epsteins death. An analysis by Wired citing video forensics experts, however, concluded that the footage was likely modified, further fueling conspiracy theories that he was murdered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dershowitz denied another theory floated by conservative host Tucker Carlson that Epstein had ties to the Israeli government. I have absolutely no doubt that Epstein never worked for any intelligence agency, he said, citing confirmation from his sources in Israel. If he had, he would surely have told me and his other lawyers, who would have used that information to get him a better deal. There is nothing more annoying to gossip mongers than when stubborn facts (or the absence of facts) get in the way of a juicy theory, Dershowitz concluded. Sorry to disappoint you, but there is really nothing much to see here, beyond what has already been disclosed. MAGAworld erupted in uproar after the Justice Department and the FBI announced in a bombshell memo earlier this month that there is no client list and Epstein indeed died by suicide, letting down the Trump faithful who hung on to Attorney General Pam Bondis comments in February that the Epstein files were sitting on her desk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said Bondi briefed him on the Epstein files but kept it vague when asked if he was named in them. No, no, shes given us just a very quick briefing and in terms of the credibility of the different things that theyve seen, he told reporters. But shes handling it very well and whatever she thinks is credible shes going to release it. In 2008, Dershowitz helped Epstein secure a sweetheart plea deal that allowed him to serve only 13 months in jail while working during the day. Though Dershowitz has repeatedly denied a close relationship with his notorious client, he has publicly spoken about once getting a massage from a middle-aged woman at Epsteins house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I kept my underwear on during the massage. I dont like massages, particularly, he said in a 2019 interview with Florida-based station WPLG. Were there young women in another part of the house giving massages when I wasnt around? I have no idea of that. EXCLUSIVE: "I've had very very few massages in my life, one at Jeffrey Epstein's house by a middle-aged woman," @ryangrim @emilyjashinsky @robbysoave question Alan Dershowitz about his connection to Epstein pic.twitter.com/z9yUrtzSSq Rising (@RisingTheHill) August 26, 2022 Dershowitz told Axios in 2018 that Epstein had called him several times about legal issues: But I havent had any social, or any other kind of contact... You never stop being a persons lawyer. In July 2019, the month of Epsteins arrest, the attorney told NPR that they no longer had any type of relationship. I havent seen him in years and I havent spoken to him in months, he said. Occasionally, his lawyershis current lawyerswill call to ask me questions about the plea deal. But I have no current legal relationship with him or personal relationship." A jellyfish that packs the bite of a lion is lurking in the water off a popular Massachusetts beach, officials warned the public. An advisory issued by the City of Gloucester and Gloucester Beaches announced the presence of Lions Mane jellyfish in the outer harbor at Niles Beach. These jellyfish can deliver painful stings, even after theyve washed ashore, the advisory stated. Please use caution and avoid any jellyfish you may see. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Gloucester officials coordinate with the NOAA for guidance, beachgoers will be kept out of the water where jellyfish are present. A marine hazard flag will also be posted if significant numbers are also spotted at Good Harbor Beach. Theres also a chance water access will be restricted or closed entirely, depending on jellyfish activity at Niles, Good Harbor, or even Half Moon Beach, officials noted. The long flowing tentacles that surround the bell have all the beauty and bite of a lion, The Wildlife Trusts website warns. Lions mane jellyfish give a very nasty sting, so consult a doctor if swelling or weals are severe. Anyone who is stung should immediately scrape the area with a clean stick or remove the tentacle with tweezers, then rinse with warm to hot water to reduce swelling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lions Mane jellyfish are translucent brown to reddish in color and have a thick mane of hundreds of long, hair-like tentacles that can be more than nine feet in length. The jellyfish sighting comes after multiple great white sharks were spotted off the coast of Gloucester. Earlier this summer, officials in Portland, Maine, warned of a five-foot-wide Lions Mane jellyfish that had washed up on Willard Beach. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW WASHINGTON (AP) A former senior aide to Jill Biden on Wednesday became the second person to invoke the Fifth Amendment and decline to answer questions from House Republicans who are investigating President Joe Biden's mental state and use of the autopen while in office. Anthony Bernal, who previously served as chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden, was subpoenaed for his testimony by the House Oversight Committee. He declined to answer questions, invoking the protections that prevent people from being forced to testify against themselves in government proceedings. Well, unfortunately, that was quick, said Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, after the deposition ended. "I believe the American people are concerned. Theyre concerned that there were people making decisions in the White House that were not only unelected but no one to this day knows who they were. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bernal ignored questions from reporters as he entered and exited the House Oversight Committee's hearing room on Capitol Hill. He was accompanied by his lawyer, Jonathan Su, who was a deputy White House counsel to the former president. Su in a statement provided to the committee noted that pleading the Fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing. The former president has dismissed the inquiries as legally spurious. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Biden said that he delegated responsibilities when necessary as president but was actively involved and knowledgeable of all of his administrations actions, including on granting clemency. I consciously made all those decisions, Biden said. Comer has has sought testimony from nearly a dozen former Biden aides as he conducts his investigation, including former White House chiefs of staff Ron Klain and Jeff Zients; former senior advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn; former deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, former deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini and a former assistant to the president, Ashley Williams. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, Comer also subpoenaed Annie Tomasini, a former White House deputy chief of staff, to appear before the committee on July 18. She is the third former official to be subpoenaed by the committee. Democrats have been dismissive of the Republican probe as mere political theater. They still look like losers, said Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who sat in on Bernals committee deposition. But many Republicans see the investigation as a top priority for their caucus and a politically salient issue for voters ahead of the midterm election. The Trump White House has launched its own probe into Biden's age while Senate Republicans have also held hearings on the topic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is corruption at the highest level, because if you cannot answer a simple question about Joe Biden's capabilities, then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration, said Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who sat in on Bernal's deposition. Donalds said every member of the Biden administration, at this point, needs to be subpoenaed, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Jill Biden. Comer did not rule out seeking testimony from Harris or members of Biden's family. Were going to bring in everyone. We're moving up the line," Comer said. "Weve started with the lower level staffers that we think were the ones that actually put the documents in the autopen and pressed power. Now were moving up to the people that we think told the staffers to use the autopen." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So well well see where that takes us, Comer said. "But I think the possibility is very good that well be asking members of the family to come in. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed reporting. A former senior aide of Jill Biden has declined to answer questions on her husbands mental state while he was in office. Anthony Bernal, who served as chief of staff to the former first lady, pleaded the fifth amendment when questioned by House Republicans on Wednesday. Mr Bernal was subpoenaed for his testimony by the House oversight committee as part of an investigation into Joe Bidens mental decline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, unfortunately, that was quick, said James Comer, chairman of the House oversight committee, when Mr Bernal invoked the amendment, which prevents people from being forced to testify against themselves. Mr Comer, a Kentucky representative, added: I believe the American people are concerned. Theyre concerned that there were people making decisions in the White House that were not only unelected but no one to this day knows who they were. Democrats have been widely criticised for not facing up to the former presidents deterioration. Anthony Bernal served as chief of staff to former first lady Jill Biden - J. Scott Applewhite/Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved The 82-year-old pulled out of the 2024 presidential race amid pressure from his party after a disastrous appearance in the first televised election debate against Donald Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A new book written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson alleges the administration covered up the extent of his decline. Despite clear signs, the former president, his family and senior White House officials pushed ahead with his re-election campaign, the book claims. The apparent cover-up allegedly allowed others in the administration including Jill Biden, the first lady to seize influence. Democrats have dismissed the Republican probe into Mr Bidens time in office as political theatre, with several Senators boycotting the proceedings altogether. On Wednesday, Mr Bernal ignored questions from reporters as he entered and exited the House oversight committees hearing room on Capitol Hill. Mr Bernal, left, on Marine One with Joe Biden in 2022 - Alex Brandon/Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved He was accompanied by his lawyer, Jonathan Su, who was a deputy White House counsel to the former president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is corruption at the highest level, because if you cannot answer a simple question about Joe Bidens capabilities, then that further demonstrates that he was not in charge of his administration, said Byron Donalds, a Florida representative, present at the deposition. A statement provided by Mr Su to the committee noted that pleading the Fifth is not evidence of wrongdoing. Mr Comer has not ruled out seeking testimony from Kamala Harris or members of Mr Bidens family. Were going to bring in everyone. Were moving up the line, Mr Comer said. So well see where that takes us. But I think the possibility is very good that well be asking members of the family to come in. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkey's Trendyol Group, Baykar CEO Haluk Bayraktar, Abu Dhabis sovereign fund ADQ and Ant International have agreed to explore a potential joint fintech venture offering digital financial services in Turkey, the companies said on Wednesday. The four parties signed a memorandum of understanding to form a platform that would provide services including digital payments, loans, deposits, investments and insurance. The launch would be subject to regulatory approvals. The companies said the platform would target individuals and small businesses, with a particular focus on Trendyol's network of sellers. "The project aims to combine Trendyol's e-commerce infrastructure, Baykar's AI and cybersecurity tools and Ant's experience in financial technology," a statement said. Bayraktar, best known for leading Turkey's top drone manufacturer, said the initiative would rely on domestic infrastructure and aim for high security standards. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans, representing Trendyol's main investor, said the partnership reflected interest in Turkey's digital economy while ADQ's deputy CEO, Mansour AlMulla, cited the country's growth potential in the sector. Ant International said Turkey's large and digitally active population made it a significant market. The companies did not disclose an expected investment size. (Reporting by Ebru Tuncay in Ankara, Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Matthew Lewis) Joe Rogan has condemned the Trump administration over its failure to release more files from its sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. The podcaster and comedian, who backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, was incredulous on Tuesdays episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast that the Justice Department and FBI reversed their position on the disgraced financier. Rogan joins a growing right-wing backlash after the departments announced they wouldnt be releasing any additional files about Epstein, concluding there was no evidence he kept a client list to blackmail influential figures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Rogan was anxious to call out how the Trump administration had previously insisted it was in possession of previously unseen compelling evidence. Theyve got videotape and all a sudden they dont, Rogan said on his Tuesday show with guest and fellow podcaster Danny Jones. You had the director of the FBI on this show saying, If there was [a videotape], nothing youre looking for is on those tapes, referring to FBI Director Kash Patels interview with Rogan in June. During his appearance, Patel made clear there was no video evidence of people committing crimes on Epsteins private island. Whyd they say there was thousands of hours of tapes of people doing horrible shit? Whyd they say that? Didnt [Attorney General] Pam Bondi say that? Rogan continued, referring to Bondi in May saying the FBI was reviewing tens of thousands of videos of the wealthy financier with children or child porn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bondi had already fanned the flames in a Fox News interview in February when she suggested she had an Epstein client list on her desk. The White House has lately insisted Bondi was merely referring to the overall Epstein case files. Even so, Bondi had for weeks suggested more material was going to be revealed after a phase 1 document dump failed to tamp down the Epstein controversy. Of Patels dismissal of the videotape on his show, Rogan reflected, Oh, OK. OK. I mean, what am I gonna do? Im gonna push back? The podcaster went on to suggest he isnt buying the administrations new position and even suggested that Junes airstrikes on Iran were designed as a distraction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just bomb Iran. Everybody forgets about it, Rogan said. Another Trump-supporting podcaster and comedian, Andrew Schulz, has also called out the administration for covering up a global pedophile blackmail ring. Both Rogan and Schulz influential podcast bros who are credited with helping sweep Trump back to power have hit out at the president recently. Rogan earlier this month blasted Trumps insane immigration crackdownamid a series of high-profile Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Meanwhile, Schulz last week said on his podcast, Flagrant, that Trump is doing the exact opposite of everything I voted for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, Trump urged his supporters to move on from the Epstein furor, accusing them of falling prey to a hoax and declaring that he doesnt want their support. Related... Joe Rogan said there were several reasons he invited President Trump on his popular podcast leading up to the 2024 election, including the anti-American lawsuits against him, the media taking what he said out of context, and the attempted assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania. Rogan, during an appearance on the Ultimate Human Podcast with Gary Brecka on Tuesday, said all of those factors led to him inviting Trump onto his show last October. More from TheWrap Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was just gross. It was just so anti-American, Rogan said. Like, if youre an American and you believe in our our justice system, and if you believe in our system of electing representatives, it should be the best people should have this opportunity to express what their plan is This is what I want to do this is where I stand on the issues. This is how I think I could pull it off. And then the American people are supposed to look at this person saying it and that person saying it and decide. Rogan continued: But thats not what we were getting. We were getting one side that was radically being supported by almost all of mainstream media except Fox News. NEW: Joe Rogan explains why he *FINALLY* interviewed Trump in 2024 after previously saying he didn't "want to help him" "First of all, there was the lawfare. There was these lawsuits that they were trying to pin on him. They were trying to convict him and turn him into a pic.twitter.com/LHYfXonT80 Jason Cohen (@JasonJournoDC) July 15, 2025 Trumps three-hour appearance on Rogans podcast last year touched on a myriad of topics, including the UFC, the media, the 2020 election, The View, tariffs, and Elon Musk. The president also blasted 60 Minutes for its recent Kamala Harris interview while on The Joe Rogan Experience, saying it was deceptively edited. That would, of course, turn into a bigger issue soon after, with the president suing Paramount, the parent company of CBS and 60 Minutes, over the Harris interview for $20 billion. The two sides settled the lawsuit for $16 million earlier this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rogan, during his interview on the Ultimate Human Podcast, said he was upset that Trump had been convicted of 34 felonies in New York City on what he said was nothing more than a bookkeeping error. They were trying to convict him and turn him into a felon, and they were doing it so blatantly and obviously, Rogan said. The popular podcaster and UFC commentator added that he believes there may have been a second shooter who tried to kill Trump last year in Butler. The whole things insane, because theyve managed to cover it up, Rogan said. I mean, it would have been Lee Harvey Oswald 2.0 if Trump had died that day. You can watch the full podcast which was recorded in April but released on Tuesday below: The post Joe Rogan Explains Why He Had President Trump on His Podcast | Video appeared first on TheWrap. JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) Johnson City leaders met Tuesday afternoon with citizens to discuss community events, safety statistics and a controversial proposed alcohol ordinance that would require businesses to give last call for alcoholic drinks at 1 a.m. Several attendees expressed worries about potential lost revenue to Johnson City Mayor John Hunter, City Manager Cathy Ball and Main Street Director Lindsey Jones over the proposed ordinance. We want to work with you, but not at the detriment of ourselves, one attendee said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mayor Hunter said that the city will work with businesses who are worried about potential lost revenue. I think the city is open to working with businesses to help look at ways in which they might be able to transition their business model to hopefully be even more successful than they are today, Hunter said. Leaders gave statistics on downtown safety. They presented a list of the top ten incident call locations from March to June of this year and in 2024. Out of the ten, only one location was linked to a downtown bar. I feel as though weve been made to feel like were purposefully sending people out, another attendee said. Like were purposefully overserving people, were purposefully sending violent criminals out because once theyre out our door, we dont care, which is not the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One attendee asked the meetings crowd to raise their hand if they believed that the last call ordinance would benefit both the community and downtown businesses and bars; only four people raised their hands, including Hunter and Ball. Attendees gave potential solutions to combat crime, other than closing bars earlier. One patron suggested more policing downtown, and another suggested trying the ordinance for a year to see how it affects the community. Mayor Hunter said the city is open to ideas from residents and businesses. Weve been listening to the input from not just the downtown bar owners, but citizens throughout the city, Hunter said. Those who are patrons downtown, those who want to be patrons of downtown, those who arent, to garner input as to what they feel would be effective and what it means to make Johnson City downtown vibrant and safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city is holding three public hearings to discuss the ordinance. The first reading and public meeting is July 17. The final two meetings are August 7 and August 21. The ordinance needs to pass all three meetings to be adopted. If the ordinance is adopted, it would go into effect on August 22. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Wednesday tried to poke holes in the human smuggling case the government is pursuing against him in Tennessee, while a federal judge said he wont rule this week on freeing Abrego Garcia from jail, a decision that could precipitate his deportation. Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint in the debate over President Donald Trumps immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That expulsion violated a U.S. immigration judges 2019 order that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there. Facing mounting pressure and a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Republican administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called preposterous. That case relies on the testimony of cooperating witnesses, several of whom have either requested or received help with immigration and criminal matters in return for their statements, according to earlier testimony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under questioning on Wednesday, Homeland Security special agent Peter Joseph said he was unaware that a lead witness against Abrego Garcia was calling other witnesses from jail. Asked whether there was reason to believe they might have coordinated their testimony, Joseph noted that three of the witnesses are related. Thats always a possibility, he said. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on. The Trump administration has claimed Abrego Garcia was in the MS-13 gang, but that is not part of the charges against him and he has repeatedly denied the allegation. Abrego Garcia has said in court documents that he was beaten and subjected to psychological torture in a notorious El Salvador prison, while El Salvador's president has denied those allegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville ruled last month that Abrego Garcia is eligible for release but has kept Abrego Garcia in jail at the request of his own lawyers after U.S. officials said he would be immediately detained and targeted for expulsion for the second time. At Wednesday's hearing, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to revoke Holmes' opinion and rule that Abrego Garcia cannot be released. Crenshaw said he would likely rule on the matter next week. Meanwhile, Abrego Garcias immigration attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland to order the government to send him to that state if hes released, a request that aims to prevent his expulsion before trial. Xinis is overseeing a lawsuit against the Trump administration that was filed by Abrego Garcia's American wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, over his wrongful deportation in March. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland, just outside of Washington, for more than a decade, working construction and raising a family. In court last Friday, Abrego Garcias attorneys also asked Xinis to prevent his immediate deportation if he were released from jail by ordering a hold of at least 72-hours. Xinis has not ruled on the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Abrego Garcia is released into ICE custody, his lawyers have vowed to fight expulsion efforts within the U.S. immigration court system, which is part of the Justice Department. ___ This story has been corrected to show the district judges surname is Crenshaw, not Waverly. Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. A St. Louis County Circuit Court judge has ordered the arrest and detention of a Missouri woman and her husband who are at the center of high-profile legal battles and controversies over exotic animal ownership, specifically chimpanzees. In 2024, a federal court ordered Tonia Haddix and Jerry Aswegan to pay more than $220,000 in attorneys fees and costs to PETA last year to end a lawsuit. Haddix and Aswegan gained national notoriety as the focus of the HBO docuseries Chimp Crazy, which explored Haddixs actions and broader issues related to the private ownership of exotic animals. The docuseries is based on original reporting from FOX Files investigator Chris Hayes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the years, Haddix cared for the seven chimpanzees and bred them as talent for films and photoshoots, among other activities. These chimpanzees previously inhabited the Missouri Primate Foundation, a now-defunct animal breeding facility near Festus. Haddixs attachment to one chimpanzee, Tonka, sparked national attention in 2021. Tonka is a former animal movie star, appearing in films like the 1997 comedy Buddy. At some point, Haddix claimed that Tonka had died when she instead had him locked in her basement. Animal advocacy groups like PETA have long contended that many chimpanzees once under her care were unsafe and neglected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Breaking News In 2020, Haddix and PETA came to terms as part of a consent decree, allowing Haddix to keep three of seven chimps in her care. Haddix later balked at the agreement, prompting a federal raid of her Festus animal facility in July 2021. Six chimpsnot including Tonkawere removed and transferred to a Florida animal sanctuary. At the time, Haddix claimed Tonka was dead. But nearly one whole year later, Tonka was found caged in Haddixs basement in her Lake of the Ozarks-area home. That discovery prompted a new lawsuit from PETA, which contended that Haddix and her husband concocted an elaborate hoax when claiming Tonka had died, lied under oath about text messages she sent about Tonka at a time she previously deemed the chimp dead and tried to bribe federal marshals ordered to prevent Haddix from euthanizing Tonka. That lawsuit was supposedly settled in 2024, with Haddix and Aswego agreeing to a six-figure payout. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, PETA alleges the pair have failed to make any payments as part of the settlement and have not shared financial records. The judges court order also says Haddix and Aswego have failed to appear at multiple scheduled court hearings. The St. Louis County judge ruled both Haddix and Aswego are in contempt of court for these failures and must pay $100 each day until said failures are addressed. The judge also approved an Order of Body Attachment, instructing law enforcement to detain the couple. The judge scheduled a show cause hearing for Aug. 5 to provide an update on the matter. Meanwhile, Tonka now resides at the Save The Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. A Mexican transgender migrant seeking asylum in the U.S. after allegedly being abducted and raped by cartel members has been ordered released from an all-male Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility by a federal judge on due process grounds. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio, a President Joe Biden appointee, ordered the migrant released from the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, ruling that the asylum seeker had been deprived of liberty without proper procedural safeguards. The migrant, a 24-year-old transgender woman identified as "O-J-M" in court documents, was arrested outside a Portland courtroom last month and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. Judge Amy Margaret Baggio speaks during her Senate judiciary nomination hearing. Baggio ordered ICE to release a transgender asylum seeker who was held for over 40 days in a men's facility after being arrested outside a Portland courtroom. Federal Judge Orders Mexican Migrant Seeking Asylum To Be Released By Ice Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, whose attorneys represent O-J-M, welcomed the move and decried the fact O-J-M was being held at a mans facility. "President Trumps anti-transgender executive order forced her into a mens facility, and into solitary confinement for her own safety, adding layers of cruelty to an already unconstitutional detention," a social media post by Innovation Law Lab reads. Read On The Fox News App "OJM was detained for over a month simply for legally seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is lawful, and a human right. This is a huge victory for our trans and immigrant communities in Oregon." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement O-J-Ms attorneys said O-J-M was abducted and raped in Mexico because of gender identity and sexual orientation and was seeking asylum on those grounds. O-J-M was arrested in Portlands immigration court in early June after a judge granted the governments request to dismiss the asylum case. O-J-M was then transferred to an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington and held there for over 40 days. But O-J-Ms attorneys filed a habeas petition, a legal motion asking the court to review whether the detention was lawful, saying they were not aware of their clients location after O-J-M was taken into custody. An aerial view of detainees exercising in an outdoor recreation area at the Northwest ICE Processing Center Trump 'Working On' Deportation Exemptions For Illegal Farm And Hospitality Workers Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under due process standards, especially in asylum cases, attorneys must be able to locate their client and ICE is required to notify or justify sudden detentions and transfers. In O-J-Ms case, the judge found that ICEs failure to provide timely, specific information about the migrants location and legal status violated fundamental procedural fairness. The judge had also demanded to know why it was deemed immediately necessary. One of the migrants attorneys, Stephen Manning, of Immigrant Law Group, previously told Opb that O-J-M was processed into the Tacoma detention center, but he had not been granted access to her since her transfer. O-J-M was arrested outside a Portland courtroom last month and transferred to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. "They threatened to kill her because O-J-M is a transgender woman," her habeas petition states, per OPB. "Fearing for her life, she fled and sought asylum in the United States in September 2023." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Manning told Willamette Weekly that his client had not committed a crime while in the U.S. O-J-M has regularly checked in at ICE offices as instructed. Oregon sanctuary laws prevent it from having long-term immigration detention facilities, and aside from temporary holding cells at the Portland ICE office the nearest immigration detention center is the Tacoma facility. Original article source: Judge orders release of migrant trans woman held in male section of ICE facility LAS VEGAS (KLAS) A judge rescheduled a jury trial for accused sexual predator Nathan Chasing Horse. The Dances with Wolves actor is charged in connection with alleged sexual abuse against three women, two of them when they were underage, in Nevada. Clark County District Court Judge Jessica Peterson rescheduled the jury trial from Aug. 4 to Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2026. Chasing Horse, 49, who remains in custody, appeared in the courtroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Criminal defense attorney Craig Mueller told Peterson there was a huge amount of evidence to go through, and he needed more time to prepare. He also referred to a settlement conference with prosecutors. Hopefully well make some progress, Mueller said. Las Vegas Metro police arrested Chasing Horse at his North Las Vegas home in January 2023. A Clark County grand jury indicted Chasing Horse in October for 21 felony charges including 10 counts of sexual assault with a minor under 16 years of age, six counts of sexual assault, two counts of possession of visual presentation depicting sexual conduct of a child, and one count each of use of a minor under the age of 14 in producing pornography, open or gross lewdness, and first-degree kidnapping of a minor. One charge dates back to 2010, according to court documents. Two women testified in front of the grand jury that Nathan Chasing Horse used his status as a Medicine Man in the Native American culture to victimize them. The 8 News Now Investigators obtained transcripts from grand jury proceedings, which also reveal challenges in communicating with a third alleged victim. Reporting Nathan Chasing Horse: Alleged victim recalls skepticism from police Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some evidence in the case is sealed. Prosecutors said they have obtained at least two videos of Chasing Horse sexually assaulting a child. Multiple girls and women previously reported that Chasing Horse sexually abused them for nearly two decades, but their reports did not immediately result in criminal charges. Chasing Horse was previously charged with 18 counts in Clark County District Court in connection with alleged sexual abuse against two of the three women in the current case. How the definition of grooming led to the dismissal of the Nathan Chasing Horse case The Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the previous indictment in a Sept. 26 order and said prosecutors should not have defined grooming to the grand jury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chasing Horse was previously represented by the Clark County Public Defenders office before hiring Mueller. The jury trial has been rescheduled multiple times. Chasing Horse remains in custody in a Las Vegas jail with a $500,000 bond, jail records show. In addition to the Las Vegas case, there are warrants for Chasing Horses arrest in Montana and Canada. 8 News Now Investigator Vanessa Murphy can be reached at vmurphy@8newsnow.com. To contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline, call 1-800-656-4673. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. PALESTINE Robert Roberson's execution date is set for Oct. 16, after a state judge on Wednesday sided with Attorney General Ken Paxton's request. Roberson, who was found guilty of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki in 2003, recently appealed the conviction after claiming innocence for 22 years. A bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers delayed the execution in October 2024. Paxton requested the court proceed with the execution on Oct. 16. Wednesdays decision by Smith County District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson in Anderson County, where Robersons case was first heard 20 years ago, sets a ticking timer on Robersons life as the death row inmate fights to prove his innocence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We're not asking for Robert to walk out into the sunset. We're asking for a new trial, said Gretchen Sween, Robersons attorney, in a press conference following Jacksons decision. Robersons brother, Thomas, attended the proceedings as a member of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, carrying a sign with his brothers image and the words NO MORE EXECUTIONS. Ever since the beginning, he claimed his innocence and he never gave up, Thomas said, adding that he believes his brothers life will be saved. With God, anything is possible. Roberson filed an appeal of the conviction with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in February after his attorneys said there is new scientific evidence suggesting the shaken baby theory was wrong. The court has not yet considered the appeal, although it has rejected Robersons previous appeals and upheld his death sentence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It appears at this point there is no legal basis for prohibiting setting an execution date, said Jackson. Jackson said he didnt know why the states highest criminal court had not yet taken up Robersons most recent appeal. Jackson expressed concern about abusing the system with the repeated appeals and said, Dont we have to, at some point, set a date? Robersons attorneys have sought relief six times, Sween said during the hearing, adding that there is nothing in state law requiring the state move forward with the execution date. But there is precedent for staying an execution until the appeals have been exhausted, she said. When asked how long an appeal is usually considered, Sween told reporters after the hearing that the appeals court should have breathing room to consider the case without external pressures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, the court has 91 days to consider taking up Robersons case, Sween said. What we have are these procedural bars to getting at the truth and reviewing the evidence, Sween said. Now, Roberson will be placed on a 24-hour death watch until his execution date. He will be prohibited from participating in programs in the prison that had helped him, Sween said. Robersons legal team say they can prove Nikkis death was natural and accidental a result of the medications prescribed to treat her illness in the days leading up to her death. In 2002, Nikki was sick with a high fever, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal defense organization which has taken up Robersons case alongside his legal team. Her parents took her to the doctor multiple times over the course of several days and she was prescribed medications that are now prohibited from use in children of her age, the Innocence Project states in a case write-up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roberson put Nikki to bed, and when he awoke in the morning he found her unconscious and her lips were blue, according to the Innocence Project. On Jan. 31, 2002, he took her to the emergency room, where she was intubated. They determined she had already experienced brain death. She died the next day. Prosecutors said in 2003 that Nikkis death was caused by shaken baby syndrome, which the Mayo Clinic defined as a serious brain injury that results from forcefully shaking an infant or a toddler. They arrested the man based on this shaken baby syndrome diagnosis that has been completely discredited even by those who still believe it's a thing, Sween said. The version used to convict him is no longer accepted by anyone. Robersons attorneys call the 2003 findings junk science, and cite the overturned conviction of Andrew Wayne Roark, who was also found guilty of violently shaking a young child in 2000. Roark was later exonerated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Paxton has railed against the possibility of Robersons exoneration. When lawmakers led by Reps. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, and Joe Moody, D-El Paso fought to have Roberson testify before a legislative committee last fall, Paxton called the move a scheme to undermine Texas justice system. Jeff Leach and his associates violated the separation of powers enshrined in the Texas Constitution: they conspired to block the lawful execution of a man convicted of murdering his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, Paxton said in a November 2024 press release. Ensuring justice for murder victims is one of my most sacred responsibilities as Attorney General, and we fought every step of the way for her. The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 1315. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today! TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase. SPRINGFIELD The magistrate judge hearing the case of a Guatemalan man charged with illegal reentry said he would likely be deported if she released him ahead of his trial. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Noe Yolindo Ambrocio-Perez in Springfield at the end of May, two weeks after an ICE agent called 911 to report he had witnessed Ambrocio-Perez crash his van into a concrete pole. Springfield police had responded to the collision, learned that Ambrocio-Perez was driving with an open container of beer, and arrested him before he was later released. Ambrocio-Perezs case is one of the thousands of illegal reentry cases that have been filed around the country over the last few months as part of the Trump administrations crackdown on immigration. Between Jan. 26 and July 9, federal prosecutors filed 103 illegal reentry cases in Massachusetts, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for Ambrocio-Perez, who arrived in the courtroom handcuffed, he listened through headphones to an interpreter who appeared by video, as a prosecutor and his court-appointed defense attorney argued over whether he should remain detained. This hearing, Ambrocio-Perezs initial appearance, was delayed a week after ICE agents were unable to produce him from where he was lodged at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Transportation is complicated, Magistrate Judge Katherine Robertson said Tuesday. Robertson said theres an immigration detainer or removal order that applies to Ambrocio-Perez. If she grants the governments motion to keep Ambrocio-Perez detained, he would remain in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until his trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If she releases him, Robertson said, he would be subject to the deportation order. There would be nothing to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing him from the United States, she said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Breslow, who filed a request to keep Ambrocio-Perez detained, told Robertson that the U.S. Attorneys Office would not be able to guarantee he would appear for his trial. Robertson added that this has been her experience in other similar cases. Ambrocio-Perez worked for a company renovating medical facilities and hospitals, earning $17 an hour before ICE detained him, a pretrial services officer told the court. He lived with his brother in a home that housed five families. When he was arrested, the house was vacated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Breslow, arguing that Ambrocio-Perez was a serious flight risk, said the Guatemalan man had used about six aliases over the years. Because Ambrocio-Perez was previously convicted for illegal reentry, Breslow said he faces a longer prison sentence. At one point, he failed to appear in a court case and was deported in absentia. Ambrocio-Perezs attorney, William ONeil, said while his client was deported several times, Hes come back and lived in Springfield in what appears to be three different times, he said. As for an outstanding warrant in Florida, ONeil said his client was deported before the case could play out. In the end, Robertson took the arguments under advisement, allowing time for ONeil and Breslow to file any briefs to supplement their arguments after they reviewed Ambrocio-Perezs file. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said his history of driving infractions is significant, Enough that it causes me to be concerned about the danger to the community. If she determines if theres a risk that he could flee, then Robertson said she had to determine if there are conditions she could put in place to ensure that he shows up to court. The latter step, she said, is somewhat of an empty exercise. more news from Western Massachusetts Read the original article on MassLive. WEST PALM BEACH Even in death, a Florida judge continues to shape the future of Tronneal Mangum, the youngest person in Palm Beach County sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Barry Cohen ordered Mangums release from prison in 2022, cutting short his sentence for a murder he committed at age 14. The late judges words resurfaced in court this week as Mangum, now 42, asked to end his five-year probation early, over the objections of prosecutors and the victims father. "I do have a note from (Cohen) that he left for me prior to his passing away," Circuit Judge Cymonie Rowe said during a July 15 hearing at the courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach. "If he were sitting in this chair, he would be granting it." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rowe stopped short of granting Mangums motion herself. Rather than end his probation outright, the judge converted it to administrative probation a less restrictive status that does not require regular check-ins with a probation officer. Ashraf Kamel watched the hearing over Zoom, unwilling to sit in the same room as the man who killed his 14-year-old son. "I'm not happy with it at all," he said afterward. Father opposed early end of probation: Justice should be firmer' Tronneal Mangum, convicted of murder at 15, appears in Palm Beach County Circuit Court on July 15, 2025. Mangum brought a handgun to Conniston Middle School in West Palm Beach in 1997 and fatally shot fellow seventh grader John Pierre Kamel during a dispute over Kamel's wristwatch. Tried as an adult, a jury convicted Mangum of first-degree murder with a firearm the following year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judge Roger Colton sentenced Mangum to life without the possibility of parole in 1998. When reached July 15, the since-retired judge called Mangum's case a "sad, sad, sad" one. "The only sentence I could have imposed at that time was either death or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole," Colton said. "I did not give him the death penalty." Mangum was resentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 after a series of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions and subsequent changes to Florida law. He petitioned the court for a judicial sentence review in 2022, setting the stage for the hearing before Judge Cohen. Colton was among those called to testify by then-Public Defender Carey Haughwout. The retired judge spoke of the letters he received from Mangum throughout his 25 years in prison, detailing his efforts to rehabilitate himself. Mangum had earned the trust of prison officials, served as a law clerk, became certified as a paralegal and spent more than a decade assisting other inmates with legal work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colton said he didn't believe Mangum posed the same threat he did as a teenager. Judge Barry Cohen, seen here in June 2016, ordered Tronneall Mangum's release from prison in 2022. Cohen rejected the state's request to have Mangum serve the remaining 15 years of his 40-year prison sentence. In addition to the note Cohen left before his death, Rowe received a transcript of the judges 2022 remarks submitted by Assistant Public Defender James Snowden as evidence of Mangums rehabilitation. Im not sure how the defendant was able to maintain such a good attitude through so many years of incarceration. Its hard for me to even contemplate some of this stuff, Cohen said. But this guy is not acting. This is who the defendant is. Go deeper: Barry Cohen, Palm Beach County judge, dies at 74; friends recall his mentorship, kindness State: Tronneal Mangum is flourishing because of supervised probation Snowden said Mangum has worked in construction since his release from prison, earning praise and a promotion from his employer. He also enrolled in a carpentry pre-apprenticeship program and, according to an email from his probation officer, has remained in full compliance with the terms of his probation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Assistant State Attorney Jo Wilensky suggested Mangum had done so well because he was on supervised probation. She opposed any change to its terms, reminding Rowe that Cohen had already granted Mangum the statutory minimum of five years probation. Ending it early would be counter to both legislative intent and the wishes of Kamel's family, Wilensky said. She called on Kamel's father, watching remotely, to convey those wishes to the judge himself, but he never heard her say his name. Im still in Zoom waiting for them, he said over the phone, hours later. Im chuckling here, you know, like I said, Im still waiting for the case to be called and see whats happening." His son, he said, was a smart and respectful boy. Born with one working leg, John swam competitively and refused to call himself disabled. After one win, he removed his prosthetic leg and played it like a guitar, making everyone in the room laugh and cry at the same time," Ashraf Kamel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I know hes in a better place, he added. But justice should be firmer than that. He should have stayed in jail. But it is what it is. Mangum did not return a request for comment. Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Late Florida judge Barry Cohen note keeps shaping school shooter case (Bloomberg) -- Financial markets greeted US President Donald Trumps tariff deal with Indonesia with little fanfare Wednesday, signaling the rate of around 20% that was once viewed as punitive is now seen as workable. Most Read from Bloomberg Stocks and other assets were mixed in Asia after Trump announced a 19% tariff for Indonesian goods. Shares in the Southeast Asian nation ticked higher on optimism the new levy was at least lower than the 32% originally threatened by the president. Vietnams shares have risen since Trump in early July said he reached a trade deal with the nation. The recent calm is a turnaround from earlier in the year. The market collapse, including havens such as Treasuries, was so severe in April after Trumps global Liberation Day tariffs that he paused them within days. Now, markets view them more as bargaining ploys used by the president to extract trade concessions. A number of measures of financial-market volatility, such as the ICE BofA MOVE Index of US Treasuries, have touched multi-year lows. While countries such as India and Vietnam have attempted to negotiate US tariffs of well below 20%, Trump has said hes eyeing blanket tariffs of 15% to 20% on most trading partners. This suggests the 20% level is no longer perceived as a penalty but rather as a standard in the negotiations. Indonesias apparent deal with Trump, alongside the UK-US deal and the Vietnam-US deal, point to the US tariffs staying in the 10%-to-20% range, said Homin Lee, a macro strategist at Lombard Odier in Singapore. Theres some relief in Asia, but investors are largely in a wait-and-see mode as tariffs for the European Union, Mexico and Canada, which together represent half of US imports, are still in the works, he said. The US-Indonesia agreement which hasnt yet been confirmed by Jakarta would be the first struck with a country targeted by Trumps tariff letters dispatched last week. The correspondence was seen as attempt to ratchet up pressure on negotiators before the Aug. 1 deadline for the higher duties to come into effect. So far, equity markets have reacted calmly as the reduction of uncertainty has been viewed positively, said Rajeev De Mello, a portfolio manager at Gama Asset Management SA. Still, 20% US tariff levels are a worrying evolution, which would lead to a higher effective US tariff than what was expected a few weeks ago, he said NEED TO KNOW Jessica M. Leslie, 34, will plead guilty to federal criminal contempt for leaking sealed grand jury information, including witness names and testimony, related to the Karen Read case Leslie's plea deal includes a one day prison sentence, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release The plea news comes shortly after Reads acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges in the death of her boyfriend and Boston police officer John O'Keefe A woman on the grand jury in the high-profile Karen Read case will plead guilty to a federal charge after prosecutors claim she leaked the names of witnesses to the public while that information was under seal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jessica M. Leslie, 34, was charged on Friday, July 11, with one count of criminal contempt and has agreed to plead guilty to the charge, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a press release. She will make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston at a later date and a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled. According to the charging document obtained by PEOPLE, Leslie allegedly disclosed information presented to the grand jury to unauthorized individuals between Aug. 11, 2022 and March 4, 2024. That information includes, the names of various witnesses appearing before the grand jury and the substance of their testimony and other evidence presented to the grand jury, all while said information was under seal and not subject to disclosure, the charging document states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the charging document does not mention Karen Read, sources confirmed to ABC News that the charge is related to that case. According to the plea agreement obtained by PEOPLE, Leslie agreed to a sentence of one day in prison, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release. The plea news comes nearly a month after Read, 45, was acquitted of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and other related offenses in connection with the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O'Keefe. She was, however, found guilty of operating under the influence. She was accused of killing her boyfriend of two years, who was a Boston police officer, by drunkenly running him over after a night out together in January 2022. After her arrest, Read pleaded not guilty to all charges and staunchly maintained her innocence, saying she was the target of a law enforcement cover-up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read was originally tried in 2024, but it ended in a mistrial in July of that year after the jury couldn't reach a verdict. She faced her second trial beginning in April 2025. Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty ; Boston Police Department Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the jury began deliberations on June 13, 2025 ; John O'Keefe. Karen Read leaves Norfolk Superior Court after the jury began deliberations on June 13, 2025 ; John O'Keefe. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. After she was acquitted of the most serious charges on June 18, Read addressed her supporters outside the courthouse in Dedham, Mass. I would not be standing here without these amazing supporters who have supported me and my team financially and more importantly, emotionally," Read said as the crowd erupted into more cheers and applause, PEOPLE previously reported. She added, "No one has fought harder for justice for John OKeefe than I have and my team." Read the original article on People The Cascade County Courthouse in Great Falls, Montana (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan). In 2022, a Cascade County jury awarded a young woman and her guardian more than $16 million against the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services for not properly investigating and halting abuse that will leave her dependent on constant care for the rest of her life. However, attorneys for the State of Montana appealed , arguing the trial court judge, Cascade County District Court Judge Elizabeth Best, should have let the jury make certain decisions during the case. The Montana Supreme Court ultimately agreed with state attorneys, vacated the jurys decision and sent it back to the court for decision-making by a new jury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday night, a Cascade County jury reconsidered the case in light of the Supreme Courts decision and found that the DPHHS was still responsible for Seraphina Wilsons injuries, which jurors said should have reasonably been predicted after reports and medical evidence of child abuse. It awarded her $11.2 million. The jurys verdict is an important measure of accountability for what happened to Sera, said Raph Graybill, one of Wilsons attorneys. The verdict also recognizes the importance of properly investigating child abuse and protecting children when abuse has occurred. Graybill told the Daily Montanan Wilsons condition requires around-the-clock care, and she was left blind with a severe traumatic brain injury because of the abuse. The jurys award will go to help cover those future costs. A spokeswoman for the DPHHS said it has no comment on the case when contacted Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Court documents detail the abuse of Wilson, at the hands of her fathers girlfriend, Alicia J. Hocter, who is serving a 30-year-sentence in the Montana Womens Prison for the injuries. Hocter picked up a 6-month old Wilson when she was crying, slammed her head against the side of the crib multiple times before throwing her back into a crib. However, the documents also show that DPHHS had received several reports prior to the incident, including a doctor who examined the infant in the emergency department of Benefis hospital in Great Falls. The physician, according to court records, found multiple bruises on her belly that Wilsons father could not explain. A caseworker with the DPHHS investigated the home where Hocter and he lived, noting that it just barely met minimal standards, and the case worker suggested they clean. Court records also show that at least twice more DPHHS received concerned phone calls about a child crying for long periods of time, the smell of marijuana coming from the apartment, and her father, who left Wilson alone, unattended in her car seat, while he went to visit Hocter while she was giving birth at a hospital. Attorneys for the State of Montana had argued that it could not have reasonably predicted the child abuse would happen, and therefore shouldnt be held liable. But on Tuesday, the second jury concluded that the state was negligent in failing to protect Wilson and that that negligence resulted in the cause of injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The jurys $11.2 million award is based on several different categories: $2.45 million for Wilsons impaired course of life $875,000 for pain and suffering. $6 million for future attendant care $650,000 for future medical costs $1.1 million for loss of future earning capacity $162,500 for past attendant care. The trial lasted for a week, and Wilson was also represented by Larry Anderson of the Anderson Law Firm. WILSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) Every school district in Tennessee will have some form of a cellphone ban once school starts in a few weeks due to a new state law. On Monday night, the Wilson County School Board debated how far the ban should go in their schools and what will be enforceable. The most devastating distraction that we have in our schools is that cellphone. Hands down, Donnie Self, Zone 5 School Board member, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MARCH 2025 | Classroom cellphone ban bill passes Senate It was an hour of heated debate between Wilson County school board members when it came to adjusting their cell phone policy to align with a new state law. Most of the feedback Im getting from parents and teachers is that they want a complete ban, stated Dr. Beth Meyers Monday night. Out of sight out of mind, thats what some school board members are pushing for, suggesting that students hand their phones to school staff for the entire day. We have an opportunity to focus on education, give the best product we can, get these kids refocused and get those test scores up, Greg Hohman, Zone 1 School Board member, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Back in May, Clarksville-Montgomery school board members voted to prohibit cellphones for the entire school day. RELATED: Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools pass cellphone ban policy We dont really care where they are, they just need to be turned off and put away, Chris Lanier, District 6 School Board Member, told News 2 in May. But would that same approach work in Wilson County? I will say that we will have during class changes a bathroom full of kids on their phones and the kids that need to use the bathroom wont be able to use the bathroom, Jamie Farough, Zone 7, said. The Wilson County School Board decided to ban cellphones and other devices during class time, but when it comes to students using between class and lunch, its up to individual school administrators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some school board members are also encouraging parents to get in on the conversation. Until the parents enforce this there will be phones in our schools, period, Farough added. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com For now, the school board is telling students to self-regulate or suggesting that they will take a second look at the policy. And if you dont, then this board is going to come back with something stricter, so you better self-regulate, Dr. Meyers said. We have a bunch of addicted kids that cant leave it alone and so its going to be very difficult ask asking them to regulate, Hohman added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state law allows devices for educational purposes, for the students health or in case of an emergency. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Kait Roberts, owner of Easy Entertaining, joined hosts Ashley Erling and Audrey McClelland as a guest on Spotlight New England. Roberts has a passion for helping others host and entertain, which is how her business began. She focuses on preserving local flavor when crafting catering menus in order to bring guests an authentic taste of New England. The Rhode Island native said her business hosts a wide range of events, from weddings to corporate retreats. The Johnson & Wales graduate also works to change the industry. She hopes to improve the work-life balance for hospitality workers and put more focus on sustainability practices to make catering more environmentally friendly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Easy Entertaining recently became the partner catering company for Linden Place in Bristol, R.I. Other partners include The Cafe and The Atrium, which are exclusive to the business, as well as The Providence Athenaeum. You can find Easy Entertaining on Instagram. Spotlight New England airs weekdays on the WPRI 12+ TV app and WPRI.com. Watch the full interview in the player above. Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app. Follow us on social media: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. Kansas City police are investigating the death of a man on Tuesday in Kansas Citys Hanover Place neighborhood, according to a press release from Kansas City Police Department Sgt. Phillip DiMartino. Officers responded to the area of West 38th Street and Baltimore Avenue just before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday on reports of a medical nature unknown call for service, DiMartino said. Callers reported a man rolling around on the ground, DiMartino said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When officers arrived at the scene, they located a man without any clothes on, DiMartino said. The man was detained, in handcuffs, for his safety and the safety of those around him. As officers waited for an ambulance to arrive, the man became unresponsive, DiMartino said. The man was transported to an area hospital in life-threatening condition. The man was declared dead at the hospital, DiMartino said. Detectives have opened a death investigation and are working with the medical examiner to determine the cause and manner of death. The name of the deceased man has not yet been released. (NewsNation) A member of the federal grand jury that indicted Karen Read has been charged with disclosing to unauthorized individuals information presented to jurors. Jessica M. Leslie, 34, was charged with criminal contempt and has agreed to plead guilty in an appearance to be held at a later date. Charging documents allege that Leslie told unauthorized individuals sealed information about a case, including the names of various witnesses, information about witness testimony and other evidence in violation of federal rules. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have your daughter: Mom warns of AI dangers after scam Read was acquitted last month in her second trial. She was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John OKeefe. Prosecutors claimed that Read ran over OKeefe after a night of heavy drinking and left him to die in a blizzard. Read maintained her innocence, and her defense presented a theory that OKeefes fellow police officers had covered up the real cause of his death. Reads first trial ended in a mistrial, and she was acquitted on charges of murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of the accident in a second trial. She was found guilty of driving under the influence and given one year of probation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was heavy media coverage in both trials, with Read frequently speaking to the press. Leslie could face prison time, up to five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Brief A 2-year-old was found dead at a retention pond near their home on Tuesday evening, authorities say. Law enforcement was initially called to report the child as missing. The investigation into the child's death is ongoing. HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - A 2-year-old's death is being investigated by the Harris County Sheriff's Office after the child was found near a retention pound. Toddler found dead behind home What we know Detective J. Arenivas reports Precinct 5 constable deputies were initially called to Balzano Court about a missing child around 10:05 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement agencies searched the area and found the toddler by a retention pond behind the home. Get news, weather and so much more on the new FOX LOCAL app The toddler was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead, Det. Arenivas says. What we don't know Officials have not said how long the child had been missing for. What's next Authorities are interviewing the parents and the death is still under investigation. The Source Harris County Sheriff's Office Homicide Division Detective Arenivas gave details at the scene. Katz is scheduled to meet with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to discuss Iran and various other weaponry and strategic security issues. Defense Minister Israel Katz was set to fly to Washington on Wednesday to meet with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other top US defense officials to discuss Iran and a variety of other weaponry and strategic security issues. Hegseth has been a key figure in the Trump administration on Iran and Yemens Houthis, whereas he has been discussed much less regarding Gaza ceasefire negotiations or post-war Gaza arrangements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Traditionally, Israeli defense ministers visit DC to meet with their American counterparts to ensure the ongoing quality of weapons superiority over Israeli adversaries. Israel is expecting additional squadrons of F-35 and F-15EX fighter jets, as well as KC-46 refueling aircraft and an ongoing resupply of ammunition and aerial bombs for fighting its various fronts. In addition, at various points during the war, the US has stationed naval vessels, Patriot batteries, and THAAD batteries in and around Israel to help with shooting down aerial threats from Jerusalems enemies. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz waits for his British and French counterparts for a meeting, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jerusalem August 16, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/FLORION GOGA) Katz is also expected to try to continue the Israeli push to get the Trump administration to take a hardline on Iran regarding any attempts it might make to rebuild its nuclear weapons program or its ballistic missile program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Joining Katz for the trip is Defense Ministry Director-General Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, outgoing IDF Operations Directorate chief Maj.-Gen. Oded Basiuk, outgoing IDF military attache to Washington Maj.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman, and Katzs military secretary, Brig.-Gen. Guy Marciano. A trip that had been planned for a long time The defense ministers visit takes place after multiple attempts by Katz to visit the US, and one planned visit by Hegseth to Israel. While no public narrative has explained the prior visit cancellations, there have been implications that at earlier points, Israel and the US saw less eye-to-eye on various Iran and Gaza issues. Also, Hegseth has been plagued by various local domestic American political scandals, which, at times, have raised questions about whether Trump would fire him. As of Wednesday morning, clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed just hours after a ceasefire was announced. Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday said that Israel would escalate its level of attacks on Syrian regime forces if they do not soon withdraw from the Druze city of Sweida in southern Syria. Israel has attacked regime forces both on Sunday and on Monday to try to convince them to leave the area, but so far, the regime forces have remained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The picture of exactly what is going on in Sweida is shrouded in a fog of accusations and counteraccusations between clashing Syrian groups. As of Wednesday morning, clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed just hours after a ceasefire was announced. Local news outlet Sweida24 said the city and nearby villages were coming under heavy artillery and mortar fire early on Wednesday, while Syria's defence ministry, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA, blamed outlaw groups in Sweida for breaching the truce. Members of Syrian security forces patrol after being deployed in the village of Al-Soura al-Kubra, following clashes between Sunni Islamist militants and Druze fighters, in Sweida province, Syria, May 2, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) The fighting started based on a small scale dispute between Druze-Syrian and Bedouin-Syrian tribes, but eventually erupted into much larger clashes between those tribes, leading to between 30-100 deaths. The regime has intervened, but is allegedly on the Bedouin side of the conflict This led Syrian regime forces to intervene, which they said was merely intended to restore order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, unconfirmed reports have alleged that the Syrian regime is firmly on the Bedouins' side and has committed atrocities against the Druze. Israel is saying that it is intervening to protect the Druze, due to decades of supportive relations between Israelis and Druze, including many Druze-Israelis serving in the IDF, as well as to keep Syrian regime forces out of a buffer zone which Israel declared in southern Syria in December 2024 after the fall of the Syrian Assad regime. Reuters contributed to this report. A man has died in Kansas City, Kansas, following a shooting in the citys Kensington neighborhood, according to a press release from Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department Cpt. O.B. Navarro. Officers were dispatched to the 1500 block of North 25th Street around 6 p.m. Tuesday, according to the press release. There, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound, according to the press release. The man was transported to an area hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The KCKPD Major Case Unit is investigating the case, according to the press release. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). All tips remain anonymous. Packaged bottles of Tylenol on a store shelf by Kenishirotie via Shutterstock Kenvue shares (KVUE) are in focus Monday after the consumer health firm ousted its CEO, Thibaut Mongon, and announced a strategic review aimed at optimizing the portfolio. Kirk Perry will be the interim chief executive as the company searches for a permanent replacement, it confirmed in a press release on July 14. More News from Barchart At the time of writing, Kenvue stock is down more than 13% versus its year-to-date high in May. www.barchart.com New CEO and Strategic Review a Positive for Kenvue Stock Kenvues leadership shake-up and strategic review could prove meaningfully positive for its stock price as they signal a proactive reset aimed at unlocking shareholder value. The company based out of Summit, New Jersey appointed Kirk Perry, a seasoned executive with deep experience in consumer goods and data-driven transformation, indicating utter commitment to operational discipline. Plus, the boards review could lead to brand divestitures, cost savings, and portfolio simplification, all of which may improve margins and focus over time. Simply put, the management change and strategic review announced today positions KVUE shares for stronger execution and long-term growth. Jefferies Sees Upside in KVUE Shares to $27 Kenvue shares are currently trading only slightly above the price at which they started this year, weakness that Jefferies analysts dubbed an opportunity to buy a quality name at a deep discount in their latest research note. In June, the investment firm called KVUE a self-help transformation story as it reiterated its Buy rating on the consumer health firm. According to Jefferies, improving retail trends and early recovery in key brands like Neutrogena and Zyrtec could see KVUE stock hitting $27 (up more than 27% from here) over the next 12 months. A rather lucrative 3.74% dividend yield makes up for another great reason to own Kenvue in the second half of 2025. How Wall Street Recommends Playing Kenvue While not as bullish as Jefferies, other Wall Street firms also recommend buying KVUE shares at current levels. According to Barchart, the consensus rating on Kenvue stock currently sits at Moderate Buy with the mean target of $24.50 indicating potential upside of more than 12% from here. www.barchart.com On the date of publication, Wajeeh Khan did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on Barchart.com KANSAS CITY, Mo. Kansas City police are investigating after one man was found dead near 38th & Baltimore on Tuesday morning. Officers responded to a call just before 11:30 a.m. near 38th and Baltimore. Callers reported a man rolling around on the ground and thought he may need medical help. Pay issues continue for some metro IHOP employees, checks bouncing When officers arrived, they found a man without any clothes on and ended up detaining him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, the man became unresponsive. Kansas City Fire Department medics began life-saving measures. The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where he was later pronounced dead. Download the FOX4 News app on iPhone and Android Police have declared this as a death investigation and are working with detectives and the medical examiner to determine the cause and manner of death. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will make the Democratic pilgrimage to South Carolina today, with stops scheduled across the first presidential primary state. One week after Gov. Gavin Newsom toured the state, and days before fellow Californian Rep. Ro Khanna heads to the lowcountry, Beshear will tell organizers how to win back areas that feel forgotten or dismissed by the Democratic Party. His speech to the state AFL-CIO this morning, previewed first to Semafor, will endorse efforts to unionize workers in right-to-work states like Kentucky and South Carolina. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We can treat health care for what it is a basic human right and not a privilege, hell say, in remarks previewed first with Semafor. We can bring down the cost of prescription drugs and we can pass paid sick and family leave. Beshear, whose national star soared after he won reelection in 2023, will hold three separate meet-and-greets. SIMPSON COUNTY, Ky. (FOX 56) Kentucky Fish and Wildlife made a unique rescue after learning of a fawn trapped in a sinkhole. According to a Tuesday, July 15, fish and wildlife Facebook post, a Simpson County farmer called for help after finding the sinkhole on their property. To their surprise, a baby deer was stuck at the bottom. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Fish and Wildlife rescue fawn from Simpson County sinkhole (Kentucky Fish and Wildlife) Fish and Wildlife rescue fawn from Simpson County sinkhole (Kentucky Fish and Wildlife) Fish and Wildlife rescue fawn from Simpson County sinkhole (Kentucky Fish and Wildlife) Wardens Trevor Lowe and Trenton Mofield responded and were able to retrieve the unharmed fawn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The baby was reportedly released in a nearby wooded area. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) Kentucky is joining 23 other states, plus Washington, DC, in a lawsuit challenging the holdup of millions in congressionally approved dollars. This is something that, it probably will go fairly quickly. I think that the courts will recognize that there is an urgent decision to be made, whether theyre going to approve these cuts or not approve these cuts, FOX 56 News political analyst Jonathan Miller said. Just weeks before the start of the school year, the Kentucky Department of Education is facing tough choices. $96 million from the US Department of Education was going to be released for Kentucky on July 1, specifically $87 million for KDE to distribute to schools and $9 million for the Education and Labor Cabinets adult literacy efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 30th, KDE was told that money is on hold and under review, despite it being approved by Congress in March of this year and signed by President Donald Trump. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: Theres an if there. If the USED eventually awards these funds, were giving you some options. But again, honestly, youre rolling the dice. This is a gamble, KDE Commissioner Dr. Robbie Fletcher told superintendents on a call on July 2. On Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear, in his offices capacity, joined several other states in a lawsuit arguing the freeze violates federal statutory and regulatory requirements. In a statement supporting the lawsuit, Fletcher said, Many of our schools are developing plans to reduce staff, cancel programs, and eliminate student supports if these federal funds are not immediately released to Kentucky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement My bet is that the administration retreats, because this is a meat and potatoes issue, a kitchen table issue that people across the country understand, particularly the timing of it, right before school is going to return in a few weeks, Miller said, suspecting backlash may push the administration to shift its policy before the courts act, similar to how the administration changed some tariff proposals earlier this year. LATEST KENTUCKY LISTS AND RANKINGS: I think many folks in Kentucky are hopeful that the same thing happens here, that when you see the real life ramifications of a cut that was done, you know, for some, vague ideological reason, then, you know, it is hopeful that they will listen to these governors and put the money back into the system, he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. OWENSBORO, Ky. (FOX 56) Im here to turn myself in for having sex with a minor, thats what George Baize allegedly told Daviess County Sheriffs Deputies on Tuesday afternoon. Baize was subsequently arrested and charged with third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual abuse, and first-degree unlawful transaction with a minor. Read more of the latest Kentucky news According to an arrest citation, a woman who was reportedly romantically involved with Baize went through her 15-year-old nieces journal. Written inside were detailed accounts of alleged sexual encounters with the 35-year-old man that began in October 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When she confronted Baize, court documents note he said in part, Im sick of the secret; it was a huge mistake. I am truly sorry; I messed up big time. The woman had called the sheriffs office before Baizes arrival on July 15, and the deputies were told he was on his way to turn himself in. LATEST KENTUCKY NEWS: He was lodged in the Daviess County Detention Center on a $250,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 56 News. A Kentucky restaurant is being sued by a woman who became sick with beaver fever after consuming their food in a mass infection that has left at least 23 people ill. The woman fell ill with diarrhea and abdominal pain, and was later diagnosed with Giardia, an intestinal illness commonly referred to as beaver fever. Soon after the woman became sick, health officials in Hopkins County announced there was a rise in Giardia cases, with 23 confirmed cases, WSMV reported. On July 11, the Hopkins County Department of Health confirmed that the restaurant where the woman became sick was the source of the outbreak. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The restaurant, El Tapatio Mexican Cantina in Madisonville, had not been keeping its food at a safe temperature, according to the lawsuit. A woman is suing a Kentucky restaurant after she was diagnosed with Giardia - known as beaver fever in a spate of illness that has impacted at least 23 people, health officials said. (Getty Images) A woman is suing a Kentucky restaurant after she was diagnosed with Giardia - known as beaver fever in a spate of illness that has impacted at least 23 people, health officials said. (Getty Images) During an inspection at El Tapatio, environmentalists noted that the walk-in refrigerator had temperatures outside of the recommended range. The food in this refrigerator will be disposed of and the restaurant will be closed for maintenance, county health officials said. The restaurant is cooperating with the health departments investigation, according to the statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Giardia is a tiny parasite that causes diarrhea and can spread easily from one person to another through food, water, surfaces or objects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms can include nausea, diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramping or stomach pain, severe gas, bloating and dehydration, the lawsuit claims. It is also known as beaver fever and was noted that beavers in water could carry the parasite that leads to Giardia. Symptoms typically begin one to two weeks after becoming infected, with Giardia lasting anywhere from two to six weeks, according to the CDC. The lawsuit also claims Giardia infections can be fatal, and those with compromised immune systems are more likely to suffer a severe reaction and more long-term complications. The woman filed the lawsuit for strict product liability, breach of warranty and negligence, according to the report. The Independent has reached out to El Tapatio Mexican Cantina for comment. Actor Kevin Spacey has called for the release of the so-called Epstein files, saying, the truth cant come soon enough. Its been nearly six years since disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial on federal charges related to the sexual abuse of dozens of minor girls, and Americans are still asking questions about the registered sex offender. The Trump administration had promised to release files from Epsteins federal investigation after conspiracies swirled over the financiers associates and how he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the Justice Department and FBI made waves among Trumps Make America Great Again base when they said earlier this month there was never any client list of high-profile names associated with Epstein and confirmed he died by suicide. Spacey, whos faced allegations of sexual offenses, wrote on X Tuesday morning, Release the Epstein files. All of them. For those of us with nothing to fear, the truth cant come soon enough. I hate to make this about me but the media already has. Actor Kevin Spacey has called for the release of the so-called Epstein files, saying, 'the truth cant come soon enough' (Monica Schipper/Getty Images for amfAR) Actor Kevin Spacey has called for the release of the so-called Epstein files, saying, 'the truth cant come soon enough' (Monica Schipper/Getty Images for amfAR) The House of Cards actor was acquitted by a jury in England in July 2023 of nine sexual offenses, including seven counts of sexual assault. The charges stemmed from allegations made by four men regarding incidents between 2001 and 2013. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During an interview with English journalist Piers Morgan in June 2024, Spacey recalled flying on Epsteins jet with the late financier, former President Bill Clinton and a group of young girls. Spacey said he had been invited by Clinton on a humanitarian trip to Africa in 2002, telling Morgan, It was primarily to raise awareness and prevention for AIDS, and particularly for mothers who had HIV to get the medication they needed to not pass it onto their children, so I said yes, absolutely. The Trump administration had promised to release files from Jeffrey Epsteins federal investigation after conspiracies swirled over the financiers associates and how he died (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP) The Trump administration had promised to release files from Jeffrey Epsteins federal investigation after conspiracies swirled over the financiers associates and how he died (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP) He claimed not to have known who Epstein was or that it was his plane at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The actor went on to say he felt uncomfortable about Epstein, despite claiming to initially not know who he was. I didnt want to be around this guy because I felt he put the president at risk on that trip to South Africa, because there were these young girls, Spacey said. We were like, Who is this guy? Spacey insisted he had no relationship with Epstein, adding, Hes not my friend. I am not a confidant. Ive never spent time with him. The feds made waves among Trumps base when they said earlier this month there was never any client list of high-profile names associated with Epstein and confirmed he died by suicide (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images) The feds made waves among Trumps base when they said earlier this month there was never any client list of high-profile names associated with Epstein and confirmed he died by suicide (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images) TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suffered a major political blow on Wednesday as a key governing partner announced it was quitting his coalition government, leaving him with a minority in parliament as the country faces a litany of challenges. Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that has long served as kingmaker in Israeli politics, announced that it would bolt the government over disagreements surrounding a proposed law that would enshrine broad military draft exemptions for its constituents the second ultra-Orthodox governing party to do so this week. In this current situation, its impossible to sit in the government and to be a partner in it, Shas Cabinet minister Michael Malkieli said in announcing the party's decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Shas said it would not undermine Netanyahu's coalition from the outside and could vote with it on some legislation, granting Netanyahu a lifeline in what would otherwise make governing almost impossible and put his lengthy rule at risk. Once their resignations come into effect, Netanyahu's coalition will have 50 seats in the 120-seat parliament. Netanyahu's government doesn't face immediate collapse Netanyahu's rule, for now, doesn't appear threatened. Once Shas' resignations are put forward, there's a 48-hour window before they become official, which gives him a chance to salvage his government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahus Likud party did not immediately comment on Shas departure. The party's announcement also comes just before lawmakers recess for the summer, granting Netanyahu several months of little to no legislative activity to bring the parties back into the fold with a possible compromise on the draft law. But if the coalition isn't shored up by the time the Knesset reconvenes in the fall, it could signal that Israel may be headed to early elections, which are currently scheduled for October 2026. The political instability comes at a pivotal time for Israel, which is negotiating with Hamas on the terms for a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. Shas' decision isn't expected to derail the talks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But with a fracturing coalition, Netanyahu will feel more pressure to appease his other governing allies, especially the influential far-right flank, which opposes ending the 21-month war in Gaza so long as Hamas remains intact. They have threatened to quit the government if it does end. Despite losing two important political partners, Netanyahu will still be able to move ahead on a ceasefire deal, once one is reached. The Trump administration has been pushing Israel to wrap up the war. The embattled Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption, and critics say he wants to hang on to power so that he can use his office as a bully pulpit to rally supporters and lash out against prosecutors and judges. That makes him all the more vulnerable to the whims of coalition allies. Exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox have long divided Israel Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday, the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party said it was quitting over Netanyahu's failure to pass a law on the military draft exemptions. Military service is compulsory for most Jewish Israelis, and the issue of exemptions has long divided the country. Those rifts have widened since the start of the war in Gaza as demand for military manpower has grown and hundreds of soldiers have been killed. A decades-old arrangement by Israels first prime minister granted hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men exemptions from compulsory Israeli service. Over the years, those exemptions ballooned into the thousands. The ultra-Orthodox say their men are serving the country by studying sacred Jewish texts and preserving centuries old tradition. They fear that mandatory enlistment will dilute adherents connection to the faith. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But most Jewish Israelis see the exemption as unfair, as well as the generous government stipends granted to many ultra-Orthodox men who study instead of work throughout adulthood. Netanyahus coalition has been trying to find a path forward on a new law. But his base is largely opposed to granting sweeping draft exemptions and a key lawmaker has stood in the way of giving the ultra-Orthodox a law they can get behind, prompting their exit. [Source] Three former torture and execution sites used by Cambodias Khmer Rouge regime have been inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, recognizing their transformation from centres of repression to places of peace and reflection. Historic milestone The sites were inscribed Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris, shortly after the 50th anniversary of the Khmer Rouges rise to power in April 1975. Cambodia held ceremonies across the country Sunday to celebrate the recognition, with Prime Minister Hun Manet directing people to simultaneously beat drums. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The inscription represents Cambodias fifth World Heritage listing and its first modern-era nomination among the earliest globally tied to recent conflict. Previously, UNESCO had recognized only seven sites of memory associated with recent conflicts under its criterion vi. The World Heritage Committee decided in 2023 to no longer preclude such sites for inscription, partly recognizing how these sites may serve the peace-building mission of UNESCO. Trending on NextShark: RFK Jr. urges Americans to 'stop trusting experts' as he touts AI at HHS About the sites The three sites document the systematic violence of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, when an estimated 1.7 million to 2.2 million people died from starvation, torture and execution. The Tuol Sleng prison, known as S-21, held approximately 15,000 prisoners in a former high school and now operates as a genocide museum. Meanwhile, the M-13 prison in rural Kampong Chhnang province was where the Khmer Rouge developed their security techniques before seizing full power. Choeung Ek, located about 15 kilometers south of Phnom Penh, functioned as an execution site and mass grave, immortalized in the 1984 Hollywood film The Killing Fields. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sites have been preserved and memorialized since the regimes fall, with the Tuol Sleng Museum maintaining extensive archives documented by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Trending on NextShark: Beijing expands reach as Voice of America exits global airwaves The darkest chapters This is a model for the world, showing the long struggle of Cambodia, reconciliation, the spirit of national unity, finding justice for the victims and building peace, interim Culture Minister Hab Touch said in Paris. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hun Manet emphasized in a video message, May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended. From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity. Trending on NextShark: Khmer Rouge sites added to UNESCO World Heritage List This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what were building, consider becoming a paid member your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Trending on NextShark: Philippines VP Sara Duterte used snack-brand names to get millions in government funds Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today! Two years ago, when Johnson & Johnson announced it was spinning off its consumer brands including Tylenol, Band-Aid, Motrin, Sudafed, and Neutrogena into a new company called Kenvue, investor anticipation was high. The thinking was simple: The company was packed with household names that had room to grow, untethered from all the problems of the J&J mothership. Kenvue shares rose 22% in their trading debut in May 2023. But the honeymoon was short-lived. Barely 15 months after the spinoff, activist investors tired of anemic growth, started to demand change. Since last autumn, Starboard, Third Point Capital and Toms Capital Investment Management have all pressured the company to find ways to accelerate growth and increase profit margins. All that culminated on Monday with the abrupt resignation of Kenvue CEO Thibaut Mongon, his replacement by board director Kirk Perry on an interim basis, and the confirmation that Kenvue is undertaking a strategic review in the hopes of optimizing a sprawling portfolio and boosting profitability. Kenvue has world-class brands in attractive categories and a strong global platform. The actions announced today are to ensure we have the right talent, brand portfolio and operational foundation to fully capitalize on those strengths, accelerate profitable growth and best position the Company for future success, said Larry Merlo, Kenvues chair and the former CEO of CVS Health. The leadership shakeup comes on the heels of a rough earnings call. Kenvue announced on Monday that in its most recent quarter, it expects net sales to fall 4%, continuing a downward trend. As a result of that weak performance, shares fell from their all time high of about $27 in 2023 to around $21.25 today. In contrast, the S&P 500 has risen more than 40% in the last two years. Kenvues challenges stem from the same factors that created so much optimism at its debut. J&J spun off its consumer business to focus on its highly profitable pharmaceutical businesses, much as Merck, Sanofi, Pfizer and GSK had in previous years. The goal was to streamline J&J, not make Kenvues portfolio composition ideal from the start. The practice is not unusual in corporate America; spinoffs are often repositories for brands the parent company did not want. But Kenvue struggled to balance and diversify its own brand portfolio, and figure out a formula that would work outside of the J&J umbrella. In retrospect, a boosterish comment from Mongon on the day of the spinoff, who had been leading J&Js consumer business since 2019, seems like a warning sign. We are the only company of our size covering all of consumer health, Mongon said in 2023. (NewsNation) A federal judge in Nashville announced on Wednesday that he wont rule on whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian national from Maryland who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, will be released from custody as he awaits charges on federal human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcia has remained in jail since he was returned to the United States from El Salvador to face charges that stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. During a hearing on Wednesday in Nashville, attorneys for the 30-year-old construction worker questioned Homeland Security agents about the possibility that government witnesses cooperated against Abrego Garcia, the Associated Press reported. Trump likely to fire Jerome Powell soon: WH official Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw is weighing whether to release Abrego Garcia as he awaits trial on the smuggling charges. But he said at the end of Wednesdays hearing that he wont reach a decision this week. Abrego Garcias attorneys have expressed fears that if Abrego Garcia is released from custody, he could be detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and could face deportation proceedings. During Wednesdays hearing, Abrego Garcias attorneys attempted to poke holes in the governments case and its star witness, DHS special agent Peter Joseph, the AP reported. The government has said that it considers Abrego Garcia a danger to the community and a flight risk should he be released from custody. Troopers who were part of the 2022 traffic stop that Abrego Garcia was in a car with other migrants, who troopers were told were being taken to Maryland for a construction job. Abrego Garcia was not charged in the traffic stop, but prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia would pick up migrants from South and Central America in Texas and drive them to other places for cash. Prosecutors allege that he drove them most frequently to Maryland, The Tennesseean reported. This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP) Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges but has requested to remain in custody after Department of Homeland Security officials pledged to detain begin immediate deportation hearings to move him to a country other than El Salvador as he awaits trial later this summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Abrego Garcias attorneys told U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in late June that they prefer that Abrego Garcia be held either in Tennessee or Maryland to allow them to properly represent him. They said that sending him anywhere else would be a violation of Abrego Garcias constitutional rights. Holmes has twice ruled that Abrego Garcia should be released from jail as he awaits trial. Federal prosecutors have asked a district court judge to overturn Holmes ruling and have asked for a U.S. District Court judge rather than a magistrate to rule on the case. Should Crenshaw agree with Holmes that Abrego Garcia should be released, it may lead to Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting quickly to detain him. Other than saying he wouldnt rule until next week, Crenshaw gave no specific timeline for a decision. Louisiana police chiefs, business owner indicted in visa fraud plot Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis was also expected to rule on Wednesday. Xinis was the judge who ordered that the government should attempt to return Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. Abrego Garcias attorneys have asked Xinis to order that the government transfer him into ICE custody in Maryland should he released, the Washington Post reported. Attorneys also asked Xinis to order that Abrego Garcia not be deported should he be released from custody in Tennessee. They have asked ICE to provide attorneys with a 72-hour window before they attempt to take him into custody. During last months hearing, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert McGuire said that, like the judge, he does not have the authority to determine what federal immigration agencies do with Abrego Garcia. However, he said he is willing to coordinate efforts between the Justice Department of the Department of Homeland Security. An email seeking comment from the Department of Homeland Security about its plans for Abrego Garcia was not immediately returned to NewsNation on Wednesday. However, a Department of Justice spokesperson told The Associated Press that the government will try Abrego Garcia on the human smuggling charges before moving for his removal from the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again, the spokesman, Chad Gilmartin, told the AP in June. The Department of Justice declined to comment on the matter when contacted by NewsNation on Wednesday. Ben Osorio, one of Abrego Garcias immigration attorneys, told NewsNation in June that they had been asked not to comment publicly on the case. Osorio did not immediately respond to an email on Wednesday seeking comment on the likelihood that Abrego Garcia would be released from custody on Wednesday. A U.S. Immigration official has said that Mexico and South Sudan would be willing to accept Abrego Garcia if he were ordered for deportation, NewsNation affiliate WKRN previously reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. KINSTON, N.C. (WNCT) The Kinston Police Department is seeking the publics assistance in identifying a woman suspected of stealing from a Food Lion on N. Herritage Street. The police have released photos of the suspect and are asking anyone with information to contact them. The police are also encouraging anyone who recognizes the woman or has any information to come forward. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. If youre out late in downtown Kissimmee, you might be sipping your last drink a little earlier. City leaders voted to move up last call to midnight, though businesses can still apply for a permit to stay open a little later. Commissioners unanimously adopted rules for the after-hours alcohol sales permit. The ordinance, which takes effect October 1st, requires businesses selling alcohol after midnight to pay $250 for a permit that needs to be approved by the police chief. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As long as you follow the rules youre fine and if you dont it gives us the ability to crack down, said Kissimmee City Manager Mike Steigerwald about the new ordinance. The commission said the measure aims to preserve public safety while still allowing alcohol sales between the hours of 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. According to commission documents, the commission has observed a link between increased noise violations, heightened demand to manage crowds, and crime in downtown Kissimmee between the hours of midnight and 3:00 a.m. Permits are effective for a 12-month term and can be suspended if the business illegally sells alcohol, if the permitted business is the site of crime, or if the permitted business violates city code. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bar and restaurant owner Ray Parsons said his business, the 1881, makes a third of its profits between 11 pm and 1:30 am on weekends. He worries overregulation could stifle growth in downtown. I think theyre moving a little too far too fast, said Parsons, Businesses are really suffering and I dont think theyre taking to account the impact theyre having on small businesses. Parsons said he planned on applying for the after-hours alcohol sales permit and told Channel 9 his bigger concern is ambiguity in a noise ordinance advanced Tuesday. Commissioners agreed to increase penalties for noisy downtown businesses, which would include $400 fine for a first violation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the commission delayed a decision on the hours of enforcement and what noise level would be acceptable. Kissimmee Mayor Jackie Espinosa said above all else, Kissimmee Police must be tougher on enforcement. It doesnt matter if we say 100 decibels, it doesnt matter if we say 40, if were not implementing it and KPD is not front in center, were back to being here in 6 months, said Espinosa. City council members will have a final vote on the noise ordinance in August. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that rural radio stations in her home state could go out of business due to a rescissions package moving through Congress seeking to cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). My hope is that we find some way to get through this, and so we dont see a bunch of rural stations going under, which is what will happen and it wont be the big city ones, it will be the rural ones, Klobuchar told The Hills Alex Bolton at the Hill Nation Summit. The bill, which the House passed in June, includes around $8 billion in cuts for the United States Agency for International Development and another $1 billion cut to CPB. Some GOP senators, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), have expressed concerns about the proposed cuts to public broadcasting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Klobuchar, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, discussed the roles radio and television stations play in Minnesotas rural communities. These rural stations are often the lifeblood of these communities when it comes to emergency alerts, Klobuchar said, pointing to the stations coverage of air quality and wildfires in neighboring Canada. These are things that, they sound small, but they are what bring communities together, she said. Klobuchar said on Wednesday that she has been contacted by former Republican state legislators in Minnesota who live in rural areas and sit on the boards of local TV stations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We know theres going to be some changes to the bill, so its going to go back to the House. So I was disappointed in the vote last night. I think we should be asserting our power, the Minnesota Democrat said. Senate Republicans argue that they have enough votes to pass the package, which would be another victory for President Trump, who signed his big, beautiful reconciliation package into law on July 4. Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, struck a side agreement with Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) to repurpose Interior Department money to aid around 28 radio stations in 14 states that broadcast on tribal lands. Minutes before Klobuchar spoke on Wednesday, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said that CPB, the nonprofit that helps to fund PBS and NPR, was an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont think thats the role of the federal government, said the Texas Republican. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A major data breach which led to thousands of Afghans being secretly relocated to the UK became public knowledge for the first time this week. On Tuesday, the High Court ruled it was time for the details to see the light of day - but the revelations have raised as many questions as they answered. What data was leaked and how was it discovered? A spreadsheet containing the personal details of almost 19,000 people who had asked to come to the UK in order to flee the Taliban was accidentally leaked by an official working at UK Special Forces headquarters in February 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That unnamed official emailed the document outside of the government team processing Afghan relocation applications and it made its way into the public domain. The police decided no investigation was needed. The BBC has confirmed he is no longer in the post he occupied at the time of the breach The leaked document contained the names, contact details and, in some cases, family information of a huge number of people who believed their association with British forces during the Afghanistan war could leave them at risk of harm. The leak only came to light in August 2023, when the names of nine people who had applied to move to the UK appeared on Facebook. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BBC News understands an Afghan national who had been turned down for relocation was responsible for sharing the information on Facebook, and was offered an expedited review of his application in return for taking it town. It is understood he is now in the UK and is not believed to be facing any criminal charges. Fearing the document could fall into the hands of the Taliban, the government sought to supress any knowledge of it by getting a court injunction. How many people were relocated after the breach? In September 2023, it was feared as many as 100,000 could be impacted by the leak, when taking into account family members. In April 2024, the government covertly set up the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) for people whose details were included to offer them a way out of Afghanistan - but they were not told about the leak. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This new, secret route was separate from the main Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme. By May 2024, the court had seen evidence that around 20,000 people could be eligible for relocation under the new scheme. Defence Secretary John Healey said on Tuesday that around 900 people are already in the UK or are on their way, along with 3,600 of their family members. A further 600 offers having been made, though he did not specify whether that included those people's families. We do not know how many people who were on the leaked list are still in Afghanistan, but a court document from May 2024 indicated around 80,000 people at increased risk would not be offered relocation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, around 36,000 Afghans have moved to the UK since the withdrawal of international troops. Both the ARR and Arap schemes are now closed. Did anyone die as a result of the leak? It is not possible to say definitively whether anyone came to harm as a direct result of the leak, and the MoD has refused to be drawn on this matter. However, a review carried out for the government in early 2025 by retired civil servant Paul Rimmer found the leaked document "may not have spread nearly as widely as initially feared", and cast doubt on previous assessments that the information would have been of great value to the Taliban. Mr Rimmer concluded that, given the Taliban already has access to masses of data about the population of Afghanistan, it was "unlikely" it would have been the sole reason for a reprisal attack. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said while killings and human rights abuses against former officials are carried out, concern about a widespread retribution campaign had "diminished". But those included in the leaked document consider it a catastrophic failure which has increased the risk to them and their families. What was the financial cost of the secret relocation plan? The government has spent 400m on the scheme so far and anticipates spending a further 450m. That is far below estimates heard in secret in the High Court in May 2024, which said it could cost "several billions". In total, the eventual cost of all efforts to relocate Afghans since 2021 will be around 5.5-6bn, the government has said. What is a super-injunction and why was one put in place? Then-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace made an application to the High Court on 1 September 2023, seeking an injunction which would criminalise making the leak public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Taliban could seek out the list and use it to target people, the government feared. Mr Justice Knowles said the request was "exceptional" and went "further" than the government had asked, upgrading it to a super-injunction. This made it illegal to both reveal details of the leak and refer to the existence of the court order. It was regularly reviewed by another judge, Mr Justice Chamberlain, who in November 2023 said it was the first injunction of its kind and raised freedom of speech concerns. He sought to lift the order the following May but the government appealed and it remained before being lifted on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another injunction was granted to prevent some of the most sensitive details in the leaked document being made public. Who knew what in government, and when? From August 2023, efforts were made to restrict the number of officials within the MoD who knew about the leak, and it is unclear when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other cabinet ministers were made aware. In December 2023, Healey - who was then shadow defence secretary - was briefed on the leak by then-Armed Forces Minister James Heapey. Healey said the shadow cabinet more widely was not told until after the general election. At no point were MPs made aware of the leak, which has led to questions about the ability of the Commons to scrutinise the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement BBC News understands that Labour ministers decided last Autumn that they needed to look at whether to lift the super-injunction. Hearings were held in November 2024 and a senior MoD source told BBC News the government's position at that time was that the super-injunction should be kept in place "pending further work". But the source said ministers had privately agreed that a review looking at the possibility of ending the super-injunction was needed. By the time the super-injunction was lifted, seven media organisations had become aware of the leak and had been blocked from publishing details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additional reporting by Jack Fenwick TOPEKA (KSNT) Ballots are in the mail for next months Primary Election. Voters will soon determine the next City of Topeka mayor and some city council seats this year. The primary will help narrow down races with several candidates. City council districts one, three, five, seven and nine are all included in this years elections in Topeka. The Primary Election is on Aug. 5. People who want to vote in person can start doing that on Monday, July 21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., said Andrew Howell, Shawnee County Election commissioner. So, there should be plenty of time even if youve got a work schedule. We really try to keep those extra hours during the week. New hotel breaking ground in Manhattans Aggieville neighborhood Voters in Junction City are also trimming their list of city commission candidates from 10 to six. The larger statewide General Election is on Nov. 4. You can check on your voter registration status and polling place by clicking here. Check the Kansas Secretary of States (SOS) website for more information on voting in Kansas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more local news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. The woman is holding contraceptive pills in one hand and instructions for use in the other hand Credit - Getty Images People who get migraines with auradots or zigzags in vision, or another sensory disturbance that typically occurs before the onset of a migrainehave long been told to avoid birth control that contains estrogen. The hormone has been linked to an increased risk of stroke in this population. How great is the risk, and what should you do if youre one of the 25% of women of reproductive age who get migraines? Heres what doctors say. The connection between migraines and stroke risk For years, doctors and medical associations have warned that people who get migraines with aura may have an increased risk of stroke if they take supplemental estrogen. Many forms of birth control contain estrogenincluding some types of birth control pills, the birth control patch, and the vaginal birth control ring. Theyre known as combined hormonal contraceptives because they contain two hormones: estrogen and progestin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Combined hormonal contraceptives are safe for most people, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. But they are associated with a small risk of stroke, and that risk is higher in people with certain risk factors, such as those who get migraines with aura. People who get migraines with aura already have a higher baseline risk of stroke because they may be more likely to form blood clots, according to the American Migraine Foundation, and estrogen supplements can increase the formation of small blood clots. Read More: Should You Shower in the Morning or at Night? Estrogen-containing birth control can increase your risk of having a stroke independently, and having migraines with aura also increases your risk of having a stroke independent of other risk factors, so combining those two risk factors together has just been deemed too risky for that increased risk of stroke, says Dr. Franziska Haydanek, an ob-gyn based in Rochester, New York. Determining your individual risk Some experts, though, say the risk for this population may not be as high as it used to be. Dr. Jelena Pavlovic, a neurologist and headache specialist based in the Bronx, says that the recommendation that people who experience migraines with aura avoid estrogen-containing contraceptives was established years ago, when the birth-control methods on the market contained higher doses of estrogen. The contraceptives available today contain much lower doses of estrogen, she says, and we do not have updated, large-scale data to evaluate the risk of these new formulations of contraceptives for people who have migraines with aura. Past research has indicated that, in general, people who have taken contraceptives with lower doses of estrogen have a decreased risk of stroke compared to those who use methods with more estrogen. Other medical experts have also shared similar thoughts on the current recommendations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that doesnt necessarily mean people who get migraines with aura should use estrogen-containing contraceptives. As [with] everything in medicine, the first rule is do no harm, Pavlovic says. So we tend to err on the side of caution. Read More: What Most People Overlook About Skin Cancer She says that the use of estrogen-containing contraceptives should be considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the consistency, severity, and type of migraine a person has. People should consult with both their gynecologist and neurologist to discuss birth-control options. If a persons migraines dont evolve and are relatively well-controlled, and if they dont have other risk factors, such as smoking, they and their doctors may consider introducing lower doses of an estrogen-containing contraceptive and monitoring how it goes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While high doses of estrogen can carry an increased risk of stroke, the hormone can, at lower doses, also be used to treat and stabilize migraines. If a woman with migraine with aura is denied access to combined hormonal contraceptives because of very stringent guidelines, not only is she losing a contraceptive option, shes also potentially losing a migraine treatment option, Pavlovic says. Other birth-control options If a patient consults with their doctors and they determine that their level of risk is too high to use an estrogen-containing contraceptive, there are many other birth-control methods that dont contain estrogen that they can turn to instead, including progestin-only birth control pills, the birth control injection, and IUDs, according to Haydanek. In recent years, ob-gyns have expressed concerns about a wave of people quitting birth control and instead relying on natural methods that are less effective. Misinformation about birth control regularly circulates on social-media platforms, like TikTok. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More: Hormonal Birth Control Doesnt Deserve Its Bad Reputation While social media can help share important health information, people shouldnt rely solely on it, Haydanek says. Instead, she recommends that they consult with their doctors if they have any questions or concerns. Overall, birth control is a very safe medication, but every persons own medical history obviously plays into that, Haydanek says. If [people] ever have concerns about how birth control is affecting them or their risk, they really should schedule a problem visit with their ob-gyn to really discuss those concerns. Contact us at letters@time.com. Brad Edwards knows that what you are about to read may be difficult for some to accept. A victims' rights lawyer from Florida, Edwards has been in pursuit of the truth about financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's life and crimes for nearly two decades. He would be the first to say that Epstein caused incalculable damage and trauma to hundreds of women and girls. MORE: Trump blasts 'stupid' and 'foolish' Republicans amid calls to reveal more Epstein files Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In fact, long before Epstein became known worldwide for his crimes, Edwards presciently told a federal judge, "Because of [Epstein's] deviant appetite for young girls, combined with his extraordinary wealth and power, he may just be the most dangerous sexual predator in U.S. history." That was 17 years ago. Back then, hardly anyone listened. In the years since, Edwards and his co-counsel -- on behalf of Epstein's victims -- have sued Epstein, his estate, the federal government and several financial institutions, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for more than 200 survivors of Epstein's sex abuse and trafficking. He knows the victims' stories as well as anyone and, in the course of all the litigation, he has reviewed an expansive amount of non-public documents and evidence related to the late Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, as the Trump administration finds itself in the midst of a firestorm over its decision not to release any additional investigative files on Epstein -- after promising to produce a so-called "client list" of people connected to Epstein who may have participated in illegal acts -- Edwards has decided it's important to share what he's learned about Epstein, much of which contradicts what many have come to believe about the case. Uma Sanghvi/The Palm Beach Post via AP - PHOTO: Jeffrey Epstein in court in West Palm Beach, Fla., July 30, 2008. "Jeffrey Epstein was the pimp and the john. He was his own No. 1 client," Edwards told ABC News. "Nearly all of the exploitation and abuse of all of the women was intended to benefit only Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein's sexual desires." Edwards describes the enigmatic Epstein as living, essentially, two separate lives: one in which he was sexually abusing women and girls "on a daily basis," and another in which he associated with politicians, royalty, and titans of business, academia, and science. "For the most part, those two worlds did not overlap. And where they overlapped, in the instances they overlapped, it seems to be a very small percentage," Edwards said. "There were occasions where a select few of these men engaged in sexual acts with a select few of the girls that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing -- primarily girls who were over the age of 18." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "That conduct was coercive, it was exploitative, and it was bad. But it's a small fraction of the men he was associated with," Edwards said. "And he was abusing hundreds of women, if not a thousand. And it's a very small fraction of those women that he was sending to men. That conduct was secondary to his abusive conduct. [Epstein] abused all of these women." Edwards said he is bound by attorney-client privilege and cannot ethically reveal the names of any of Epstein's alleged associates without permission from his clients. But he said he has seen no indication that Epstein kept a list of those men, or that he made it a practice to use those instances to blackmail or extort the men, even though those men may have been legitimately concerned that Epstein had compromising information that he could use against them. MORE: What Trump has said about Jeffrey Epstein over the years, including on 2024 campaign trail "It's difficult to even discern, when he would send a woman to one of his friends, whether that was even a motivation. What he was not is a person on the top of a sex trafficking operation that was sending women to powerful people around the world so that he could make money. It was not a business," Edwards said. "And I think the few examples that we have, the known examples, have led to this belief that he must have been doing that with all of the women that he was abusing. That must have just been his gig. But that wasn't what he was doing on a daily basis. He's a sexual abuser and predator himself." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Epstein kept a list of those men, Edwards said he's not seen it. "Did Jeffrey write the names of these people down? I've never seen that. I only know of certain of these individuals because of representing clients," Edwards said. "I've never seen a list of people that Jeffrey Epstein kept that would say, 'Here's a list of men that I've sent women to,' or a mix-and-match where it's like, 'I sent this woman to this man.'" "That's just not something that he was keeping," Edwards said. "And it would be highly, highly unlikely that Jeffrey Epstein would keep a list of the people that he sent these women to. I'd imagine he would just remember it. It isn't that many women, and it isn't that many men." Over the last few months, as the controversy surrounding the on-again, off-again plan to disclose Epstein-related documents has dominated the news cycle, Edwards said he has heard from dozens of survivors concerned about the circus-like atmosphere that is forcing them to relive traumatic experiences and threatens to expose their identities, even if inadvertently. Any public release of information, Edwards said, should redact identifying information about Epstein's victims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They would benefit from the story eventually dying off. But the story is not going to die off as long as there's this lack of transparency that is allowing for conspiracy theories to continue to fester and get out of hand," Edwards said. "So the best thing would be: Protect the victims' names, release everything else, so that the world can see what is real, versus what is total fiction, and then everybody can move on." New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP - PHOTO: This photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017. But the recent decision by the Trump administration to rule out further disclosures would seem to impact categories of material known to be in the possession of federal authorities, including Epstein's financial records, details of his international travel, logs of boat trips to his U.S. Virgin Islands estate, and inventories of what was found in searches of his mansions in New York and elsewhere. And it raises questions whether those records, if made public, could finally lead to a better understanding of how a college dropout from Coney Island managed to accumulate astounding wealth and proximity to power -- a transformation that has long defied ready explanation. "It's very strange to me that somebody who rarely leaves his house is somehow able to get meetings with people. And they will travel from literally all over the world to meet with him on his time, at his place, under his circumstances. Which only just leaves more questions than answers," Edwards said. "And the fact that they're not releasing anything is, I think, just kind of fanning the flames of the conspiracy theory that everybody that he was meeting with had something to do with illegal sex. And I know that's not true." "We are all for transparency," said Edwards. "I think the world needs to know who Epstein was, what he was doing, how he made his money, who he was meeting with, and how he might have operated in other areas of business and politics. And all of that could be done through the release of documents and knowledge that is currently within the Justice Department, with what they have. But now there's this about-face where they were going to release everything and now all of a sudden they're releasing nothing. I think there is a middle ground there that the public deserves." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Edwards notes that the government's files could also shed light on those who assisted or enabled Epstein to abuse so many women, and could finally answer speculation that Epstein was an intelligence asset of the U.S. or a foreign nation. "[The government] should know whether or not he was an intelligence asset, whether he's ever done work with the government, whether he's ever had a deal with the government before," Edwards said. "I would assume that that is also within the Epstein files. I don't know that information. I would like to know." MORE: Trump says Bondi should release 'whatever she thinks is credible' on Epstein But for Edwards, the primary concern should be for the survivors of Epstein's abuse -- and he worries that the victims are an afterthought in the ongoing Washington power struggle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I think some [victims] believe that the government protected him, and there's this outrage because they believe that [Epstein] was always more important than they were, and that's why this was allowed to go on for so long. So if there was evidence that his political or other connections assisted, I think that they would want to know it," Edwards said. "But more so, they just want this to die off. And they see it's not dying off because of the way that it's being handled right now. In fact, somehow there's more attention to it today than there was when he was abusing them." For the well-being of the survivors, Edwards is hopeful there will soon be a resolution that will allow the victims to move on. "I just wish everybody would step back and remember real people were hurt here, and let's try to do what's in their best interest, as opposed to politicizing this whole thing and making it the right versus the left," he said. "All of that is hurting the people who are already hurt." FALL RIVER, Mass. (WPRI) Family and friends are remembering the lives of the residents who died in a fire that tore through an assisted living facility in Fall River over the weekend. Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon told 12 News that 10 residents died in the fire at the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility Sunday night. Bacon said more than 30 other residents were brought to nearby hospitals with various injuries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Daughter of burn victim in Fall River fire: She was unrecognizable Theres now a growing memorial outside the facility to honor those who lost their lives. Heres what we know about the victims so far: Margaret Duddy Margaret Duddy The Dighton Police Officers Local 306 confirmed Tuesday that Margaret Duddy was the mother of retired patrolman James Duddy. In a social media post, the union said the 69-year-old was a cherished member of the Dighton community for many years before relocating to Fall River. Her loss is felt deeply by all who knew her, the post said. Richard Rochon Breonna Cestodio told 12 News that her uncle Richard Rochon was a Vietnam War veteran who moved into the Gabriel House about two years ago. Richard Rochon Cestodio described her uncle as a quiet guy who kept to himself, but loved being visited by his nieces and nephews. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 78-year-old lived in Swansea before moving into the Gabriel House, according to Cestodio. She said the building was always hot when she visited, and there never seemed to be any staff checking on the residents. Every time you visited him, he was sweating, Cestodio said. There was no air in the building. Cestodio also said her uncle had been hospitalized recently, but the facility never notified them. I think if someone serves for our country, they should be taken care of before anyone else, she added. SEE ALSO: Funeral home offers to cover cost of services for Fall River fire victims Eleanor Willett Eleanor Willett Holly Mallowes didnt like the assisted living facility where her 86-year-old grandmother lived. But Eleanor Willett stressed that she wanted to live somewhere affordable that left her with enough money to play the slots at the casino. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said, I dont need much, but a roof over my head and someplace to put my sewing machine,' Mallowes told The Associated Press. Mallowes said Willett worked for more than 20 years as a secretary and briefly as a cocktail waitress. Willetts home was a base for everyone in her family, according to Mallowes. My mom worked a lot and Grammys was always a place we called home, Mallowes explained. We lived with her often. She was very strong. She outlived two husbands and raised five children. She was absolutely a joy. Kim Mackin (Associated Press) Kim Mackin Kim Mackin was a violist who performed in Boston-area orchestras, according to her nephew, Austin Mackin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement to The Associated Press, the 71-year-olds family described her as being gifted beyond words. We will all miss Kimmy, the statement read. Beyond being exceptionally kind, few knew that she was a brilliant musician. Mackin received a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music and toured the world as first chair viola after graduating. Rui Albernaz Her nephew said she does not have any children and the family is still trying to process the loss. Rui Albernaz Rui Albernaz first moved into the Gabriel House three years ago. His brother, Robert Albernaz, told WCVB he decided to stop by the facility Tuesday after making funeral arrangements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes questioning why the 64-year-old was unable to escape, even though his room was right next to an exit. Its a lot to take in, he said. I just dont understand how. Robert Albernaz described his brother as a loving guy who had a good heart. Robert King Robert King Robert Kings sister and brother-in-law told WHDH they visited the 78-year-old very frequently and grew attached to all of the faces in the facility. They said King was a Vietnam veteran, and they are both in a state of heartbreak and shock. Brenda Cropper Brenda Croppers daughter, Crystal Macura, told 12 News earlier this week that the 66-year-old has been in the hospital since Sunday. She passed away from her injuries on Wednesday. Brenda Cropper (Courtesy: Crystal Macura) Macura said her mom, who lived on the first floor, suffered from multiple sclerosis but was otherwise mobile. She wonders whether her mother had kept her hearing aids on if she wouldve been able to get out in time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its really tough, Macura said. My mom was a very happy person. She made friends everywhere she went. Ronald Codega 12 News has reached out to the 61-year-olds family to learn more about him. Joseph Wilansky The Bristol County District Attorneys Office released the identity of the 77-year-old man on Wednesday. 12 News is working to speak with his family and learn more about him. A 70-year-old woman also died, but her name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. How you can help The Firefighters Wives Association has set up a GoFundMe page for those affected by the fire. Catholic Charities is also collecting donations for impacted residents, including clothing, bedding, toiletries and other essentials. Donations can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The city has compiled a list of residents specific clothing and mobility needs for those who want to donate but are unsure what to bring. Download the WPRI 12 and Pinpoint Weather 12 apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch 12 News Now on WPRI.com or with the new 12+ smart TV app. Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily Roundup Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WPRI.com. By Akbar Novruz Azerbaijan's Justice Minister Farid Ahmadov met with a delegation led by Munther Ibrahim Hussein, Chairman of the Federal Supreme Court of the Republic of Iraq, as part of the Iraqi delegation's official visit to Baku. The meeting underscored the longstanding solidarity between Azerbaijan and Iraq, particularly within various international institutions, with both sides affirming that mutual visits and dialogue continue to strengthen bilateral ties. Minister Ahmadov highlighted the deep-rooted connections between the two nations: Both peoples are connected by a shared history, common religion, and other spiritual threads. This visit will provide an additional impetus to the development of our interstate relations, especially in the field of legal cooperation, the Minister noted. He added that broad opportunities exist for deepening collaboration in the legal sphere, including the exchange of judicial experiences and reforms. In turn, Munther Ibrahim Hussein expressed appreciation for the hospitality extended to the Iraqi delegation and remarked on the value of high-level visits in enhancing judicial cooperation. These exchanges not only promote cooperation in the field of courts and justice but also allow us to benefit from each others experiences in the legal domain, he said. The sides also held discussions on other matters of mutual interest, emphasizing their commitment to continuing dialogue and strengthening legal frameworks between the two countries. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) is one of the 10 Best Small-Cap Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. On July 10, UBS reiterated its Buy rating for American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) with a price target of $19. The investment firm believes that the companys Aerie brand can be a key driver of future growth. UBS Stays Positive on American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), Keeps Buy Rating A close-up of a customer trying on a stylish Aerie item, smiling with satisfaction. UBS expects Aerie to drive surprising top-line growth for American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO). The firm projects the companys earnings per share to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10% over the next five years. The firm also noted that American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.s (NYSE:AEO) earnings growth could cause the stocks price-to-earnings ratio to return to its past five-year mean. Based on conversations with investors, UBS believes that the market is being overly negative about the stock. Additionally, UBS recently attended retail bus tour store visits with American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.s (NYSE:AEO) management in Chicago. These visits reinforced the firms positive stance on the company. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) is an American multinational specialty retailer offering clothing, accessories, and personal care products under its American Eagle and Aerie brands. While we acknowledge the potential of AEO as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If youre looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Best American Semiconductor Stocks to Buy Now and 11 Best Fintech Stocks to Buy Right Now. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. A fresh wave of political drama is erupting over the governments handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and this time, its coming from inside President Trumps own camp. What began as a promise to release more information has quickly spiraled into a full-blown firestorm, with MAGA loyalists turning on Attorney General Pam Bondi and rumors swirling about high-level resignations. At the center of it all: a two-page memo, a razor-thin House vote, and a base unwilling to be told to move on. On Wednesday, Trump lashed out at his MAGA critics demanding more transparency, calling them weaklings and disavowing their support. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres how it all started and where things stand now. What did Pam Bondi say about the Epstein files? Earlier this year, Bondi who was appointed by Trump suggested the administration might soon release a full account of the Epstein investigation, including a rumored client list. But her tone shifted last week. In a two-page memo, Bondi said the Justice Department had found no evidence that Epstein kept a list of individuals connected to his sex trafficking operation involving underage girls. She also reaffirmed that Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019, as determined by the New York City Medical Examiner. That reversal didnt go over well with some corners of Trumps base. Right-wing activist Laura Loomer called for Bondi to be fired, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused her of covering up crimes on his podcast. Far-right figure Nick Fuentes even urged supporters to burn their MAGA hats in protest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Behind the scenes, the backlash appears to have sparked tensions within the administration. According to CNN, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino who has publicly promoted conspiracy theories about Epstein has reportedly considered resigning amid internal clashes between the FBI and the Justice Department over how the memo was handled. The outrage taps into a deeper current of distrust. Epsteins death and how the government dealt with his case has fueled conspiracy theories for years, particularly among right-wing figures. Some believe his death is further evidence of a so-called deep state: shadowy forces within the government working to undermine Trump. To complicate matters, the president himself has leaned into those claims, casting himself as the only one who can root out the corrupt insiders working against him. Meanwhile, a CNN poll released Tuesday suggests that American citizens are still seeking answers. Roughly half of the respondents said theyre dissatisfied with the amount of information the government has shared about Epstein. That includes 56 percent of Democrats, 52 percent of independents, and 40 percent of Republicans. Just 3 percent said theyre satisfied with whats been released so far. Republicans block the latest push to release the Epstein files House Republicans on Tuesday shut down another Democratic attempt to force the release of documents tied to Epstein. The vote was razor-thin 211 to 210 and split strictly along party lines. California Rep. Ro Khannas proposal would have required Bondi to publish the files online within 30 days. Every Democrat present supported it, while Republicans voted against it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the fight isnt over. Khanna has vowed to bring the amendment back again and again and again. The latest push came just a day after the House Rules Committee which sets the terms for floor debate voted 6 to 5 against attaching Khannas amendment to a procedural measure tied to defense spending and a cryptocurrency bill known as the GENIUS Act. In a rare move, GOP Rep. Ralph Norman broke ranks and joined the panels four Democrats in supporting the amendment. The publics been asking for it. I think there are files. All of a sudden not to have files is a little strange, he told Axios. Now, House Judiciary Democrats, including Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, are calling for a public hearing. They want top officials at the DOJ and FBI to explain how the case has been handled and why so little information has been released. The pressure is also building on the right. Despite the GOPs unified stance against a vote on Khannas amendment, the party isnt fully aligned on the issue. On Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson became the highest-ranking Republican to say he, too, wants more details from the investigation. Im for transparency, Johnson said in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some hard-line conservatives including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana have also publicly called for the Epstein files to be released. Even Trumps former adviser Elon Musk joined the calls, urging him to release the files as promised a move that escalated their already very public feud. Others, however, are deferring to the administration. Its the presidents decision, said Texas Sen. John Cornyn. How has Trump responded? Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years before later distancing himself, has largely brushed off questions about the disgraced financier despite repeatedly promising during his campaign to declassify the Epstein files, including the alleged list, if elected. As part of the same lengthy Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump accused his own voters of falling for what he called a radical left hoax aimed at discrediting him. Just days earlier, he had defended Bondi on the platform, urging supporters not to waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein and suggesting without evidence that the so-called files were a political ploy by Democrats to target him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals?' Trump wrote. Theyre all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! Were on one Team, MAGA, and I dont like whats happening. Its worth noting that the federal investigation into Epstein including the charges that led to his 2019 arrest took place during Trumps first term. Epsteins death in federal custody also occurred under his administration. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr personally reviewed surveillance footage and said there was no evidence of foul play. The Justice Department concluded Epstein died by suicide. Whether more information ever comes out remains to be seen. But for many Americans, questions around Epsteins death and connections still linger. The post What We Know About the Fallout Over the Epstein Files appeared first on Katie Couric Media. Graphic courtesy of Grist This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grists weekly newsletter here. Lee esto en espanol. Disasters can feel overwhelming if youre an immigrant, whether its because of your citizenship status, language barriers, or confusion around your rights. Its important to remember that trusted community networks exist, along with other helpful resources. This guide offers up-to-date information on some of those resources, as well as examples of community organizing and policy work that have made it easier for immigrants to find help. It also includes best practices for navigating disaster relief and recovery at a time when there is a heightened risk of deportation for certain immigrants. This information is fact-checked and will be updated periodically as laws, practices, and resources change. Jump to: Finding reliable information Government services in your language How federal disaster aid works What to do if you encounter ICE Best practices for staying safe How to advocate for better resources Finding reliable information Vetted federal, state, and community resources can help you find accurate, trustworthy information in the event of a disaster. Dial 211 When you dial 211, you will be referred to the Federal Communications Commissions free community services directory. This can be a key step in accessing public services. It works similar to 911, where an operator will answer the call and assist you in finding what you need, including services for non-English speakers. Independent news outlets News publications that serve non-English speaking individuals often provide emergency resource guides that dont exist in traditional media. Look for an outlet published in your language in your area. Here are some examples: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement El Timpano in California offers an emergency resource guide in Spanish. To prepare for this years hurricane season, Enlace Latino NC published an article in Spanish on how to obtain free National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, radios through the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Radio is a primary means of communicating emergency alerts and weather information in the U.S. and can be especially useful during power outages. Grist published a guide in Spanish and Haitian Creole for Florida farmworkers during the 2024 hurricane season. Immigrant rights organizations Across the country, immigrant rights organizations offer an array of services and tips that can be helpful in disaster situations. These are trusted groups who offer support and advocate for change year-round, not just during disasters. Searching online for local organizations that focus specifically on immigrant and labor issues by typing in the name of your state and the phrases immigrant rights or worker rights is a great way to begin looking for support. The tools highlighted below can also inspire other search terms for your own state, like disaster preparedness toolkit in Spanish, for example. The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center has a detailed webpage with a variety of bilingual resources. The City of Detroit offers a FEMA emergency supply list in Spanish. In North Carolina, the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry released a video series in Spanish to help immigrant communities and their families prepare for disasters and recuperate in the aftermath. This video explaining how emergency alerts work is applicable to any U.S. state. In Oregon, the farmworker union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, or PCUN, made a disaster preparedness toolkit in Spanish available for free on Google Drive. You can get involved in spreading the word throughout your own community with the help of available, trusted resources. PCUN also offers free social media graphics about the dangers of heat stress and what to do to stay safe at home and on the job. Many of these organizations also offer legal refreshers for immigrants to understand their rights, which can be impacted by the presence of federal agents at disaster sites. You can read more about that below, under What to do if you encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE and Best practices for staying safe. Government services in your language Federal civil rights law requires any entity receiving federal funding including virtually all state and local agencies to provide language access to individuals with limited proficiency in English. And in recent years, an increasing number of local and state government agencies have amped up their language access policies as a result of organizing among community members and immigrant organizations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2023, wildfires spread through the town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, Hawaii. In the immediate aftermath, the 30 percent of Lahaina residents with limited proficiency in English had trouble accessing emergency information. Liza Ryan-Gill, the executive director of the Hawaii Coalition for Immigrant Rights, spent two days organizing calls with at least 80 community advocates to figure out how to get information to immigrant communities who needed it in languages they could understand. In 2024, after advocates organized for federal funds to be allocated to local emergency management for language access, Hawaii passed HB 2107 and hired a limited English proficiency access coordinator for the states emergency management department. Now all emergency resources in the state are translated into at least seven languages. Other states have taken similar steps: In Michigan, a 2023 law requires translation and interpretation services for languages spoken by individuals with limited English proficiency who comprise at least 3 percent of the population, or 500 individuals, in the region served by a given state agency. New York updated its language access policy in 2022 to cover the 12 most common non-English languages spoken by state residents with limited English proficiency. While most cities and states do not require agencies to proactively translate documents and resources into specific languages, it is worth checking with your local government and emergency management agencies. If they dont already provide information in the language you speak, you can request it. Emergency management agencies: Your city or county has an emergency management department, which is part of the local government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Michigan, its the Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division. Emergency managers are responsible for communicating with the public about disasters, managing rescue and response efforts, and coordinating with other agencies. They usually have an SMS-based emergency alert system, so sign up for those texts now. Some cities have multiple languages available, but most emergency alerts are only in English. Many emergency management agencies are active on Facebook, so check there for updates as well. If youre having trouble finding your local department, Grist suggests typing your city or county name followed by emergency management into Google. You can also search for your state or territorys emergency management department, which serves a similar function for a larger jurisdiction. Every website looks different, but many of them include translation options at the top or bottom of every page. You can also use Google Translate, or another browser-based automatic language detection program, to automatically translate any webpage. National Weather Service: This agency, often called NWS, offers information and updates on everything from wildfires to hurricanes to air quality. You can enter your zip code on weather.gov and customize your homepage to get the most updated weather information and receive alerts for a variety of weather conditions. The NWS also sends out localized emergency weather alerts to peoples cell phones via wireless networks, to television and radio stations, and to NOAA Weather Radio, which can receive NWS broadcasts. (Make sure youve opted into receiving emergency alerts in your phone settings.) Some local NWS offices automatically translate local alerts into multiple languages including Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Samoan, and Spanish in real time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: How to prepare for a disaster How federal disaster aid works The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is the federal governments main disaster response agency. It is housed under the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS. Often, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which is also under DHS, is enlisted to help after a disaster. In 2021, the Biden administration issued guidance designating places where disaster or emergency response and relief are provided as protected areas where immigration agents should not engage in enforcement actions. However, in January, the Trump administration rescinded that policy. Still, experts and immigrant advocates on a national level emphasize that FEMA offers non-financial aid to anyone regardless of immigration status. This includes shelter, emergency supplies, counseling, and other resources. In order to apply for financial aid, someone in your family must be a U.S. citizen; this could be a child. A household should only apply for financial aid once per disaster, according to FEMA guidance. If more than one family member submits an application, it will cause delays in the process. The reassurance right now is that nothing has changed in the field, said Ahmed Gaya, director of the Climate Justice Collaborative at the National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of 82 state and local immigrant and refugee organizations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that our communities trust in the federal government and trust in FEMA and DHS is at a historic low, but that the law has not changed and that undocumented folks are still eligible for immediate emergency relief. Theres a real, credible fear that there is a shift in leadership at DHS, in administration and in the rhetoric. But legal rights remain the same currently. As of June 2025, Gaya said, We have not had reports from the field of FEMAs practices and policies deviating dramatically from how they have typically gone in regards to dealing with mixed status and undocumented communities. Read more: How the agencies and officials involved in emergency response work What to do if you encounter Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE You probably wouldnt see ICE officers at disaster shelters requesting documents, but we cant predict how ICE will behave, says Rich Stolz, a colleague of Gaya who is also a Senior Fellow with Just Solutions, focusing on the intersection of climate justice and immigrant rights strategy and organizing. The challenge for advocates and emergency groups is making sure that people can make informed decisions. The concern is that people will be under even more stress in a disaster context, and they may forget their rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It can be helpful to have a red card, or tarjeta roja, with you to show to ICE agents in the event of questioning. These cards outline your rights like the right to remain silent and to talk to a lawyer and anyone can order them online. They are available through the National Immigration Law Center in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. There are several know your rights guides for immigrants that apply in all situations, not just disasters: The National Immigration Law Center provides a Know Your Rights guide recommended by legal experts. It is available in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. The National Immigrant Justice Center offers a guide available in Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, and English that includes laws to know, sample warrants, and helplines. The National Day Laborer Organizing Network and the National TPS Alliance (an organization for people with temporary protected status) put together an illustrated guide to your rights in English and Spanish. On page 2, you can find step-by-step instructions on what to do if ICE stops you on the street or in a public space. Best practices for staying safe Accessing emergency shelter and supplies You shouldnt need identification to receive emergency supplies or stay at most emergency shelters, but you may be asked to provide some. Identification may include a photo or non-photo ID; it does not necessarily mean you need to supply a drivers license, passport, or social security number. Some organizations offer community IDs for those who do not qualify for a state-issued ID. These may not be accepted depending on the county or location. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Red Cross, which operates shelters after major disasters, says it does not ask for any documentation of legal status when providing aid. Read more: How to access food before, during, and after a disaster Going to a shelter or government-run site can be intimidating. Here are some other tips gathered from immigrant rights organizations: Use the buddy system: There is safety in numbers. Go with multiple people to feel more confident in getting the help you need. Find an English speaker: Someone who speaks English may be able to help you get services if you are worried about language barriers. Request language interpretation: When talking to police, firefighters, or hospital workers, you have a legal right to an interpreter. Other agencies and institutions may have access to interpreters and translators as well. Contact an advocacy organization: Farmworker and immigrant advocacy organizations may be able to help you get the supplies and food you need at a safe space. Talk to your faith community: Speak with your local pastor, members of your place of worship, or someone else you trust about your options. Support for disaster workers If you are an immigrant disaster worker, day laborer, or second responder, you have rights and are legally protected by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA. Day labor worker centers and labor unions are excellent resources if you have any questions regarding safety on the job. The Resilience Force put together easy-to-read illustrated guides in Spanish and English for workers specifically working in disaster recovery. How to advocate for better resources Each disaster has ripple effects. Thats why organizations that were not built to deal with disaster relief or response are often taking on that responsibility. All of us need to figure that out, said Marisol Jimenez, founder of Tepeyac Consulting, a business based in Asheville, North Carolina, for community organizers around the country. Were not disaster organizations, but how do we integrate this into all of our work? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here are some of the resources being created to help communities organize for change: Stolz, Gaya, and their Just Solutions colleagues representing Organizing Resilience, National Partnership for New Americans, National Immigration Law Center, and other groups plan to release a resource guide on disaster response as it relates to the Trump administrations policies for ICE. A similar rapid response kit was published in 2022. Researcher Melissa Villarreal at the Natural Hazards Center in Colorado put together an annotated bibliography of academic articles, government reports, and news reports related to emergencies and language access. You can use these examples when advocating for policy change where you live. Disasters cause communities to spring into action out of necessity, which can result in positive pressure on local governments. The more you can stay connected to your community and trusted local organizations, the more you can create change and better policies that keep immigrants safe and supported. So much depends on grassroots organizations actually having a presence and a plan and a strategy, said Stolz. A communitys ability to survive and thrive and recover is largely dependent on the existing community cohesion and relationships that exist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101 This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/extreme-weather/know-your-rights-as-an-immigrant-before-during-and-after-disasters/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org In July 2025, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on a Wisconsin woman whose family feared her representative payee might have misused her funds. Representative payees are responsible for aiding people who are incapable of managing their Social Security or Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, payments. The funds are most commonly used to address housing bills, medical payments or other living expenses. According to the Social Security Administration, more than eight million people who receive the monthly payments require assistance managing their finances, necessitating the designation of representative payees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, in recent years, the program has faced scrutiny for slow response times to accusations of misuse of funds. A 2023 audit found the agency continued paying an estimated $186 million to payees who may not have been using the funds for beneficiaries needs. In addition, a sample of 50 cases found that the agency failed to recover nearly $120,000 in funds from 19 payees who were determined to have misused benefits. Here's what you need to know about representative payees and how to complain if you think funds are being misused. What is a representative payee and how are they selected? Representative payees are the designated recipient of a Social Security beneficiary's payments. They are also known as protective payees or substitute payees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In their role, these individuals are granted authority to use funds on the beneficiary's behalf with the expectation of working in their best interest. The Social Security Administration often seeks family members or friends to serve as payees. If a family member or friend is unable to serve in the role, the SSA seeks out people employed by "qualified organizations" such as social service agencies, institutions, and state or local government agencies. What are the expectations for representative payees? The Social Security Administration's representative payee guide details that payees are responsible for: Managing funds so beneficiaries have no unmet current needs Accounting for all funds received and spent Conserving any unspent funds in an appropriate manner Complying with representative payee accounting and reporting responsibilities Are representative payees paid for their work? Individual representative payees, such as family members and friends, are not allowed to receive payments or charge a fee for fulfilling payee services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organizational representative payees are allowed to collect a fee to serve their beneficiary if approved by the Social Security Administration. If approved, the cost of service is pulled from the beneficiary's monthly Social Security or Supplemental Security Income payment. Organizations must regularly provide representative payee services to at least five beneficiaries at a time and not be a creditor lending service with the expectation of repayment. How do representative payees track and report spending? Representative payees are responsible for maintaining records regarding their spending of Social Security benefits. However, they are not required to produce those records unless requested by the Social Security Administration, such as for an audit. Audits can be initiated at random or through a formal review. According to experts, they are rare. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You're holding them in anticipation of having to prove it, but you don't actually have to prove constantly what you spent the money on," said Nadya Rosen, interim director of legal and advocacy services at Disability Rights Wisconsin. What to do if you suspect a representative payee is misusing funds The Social Security Administration recommends having a conversation with your representative payee about how your money is being spent. In this conversation, a beneficiary, a family member or a trusted representative can request that the payee show how much money has been received from the Social Security Administration and provide receipts or evidence of those purchases. You should then inform your payee how the money could be allocated to better accommodate your needs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you suspect the payee is misusing your benefits, alert the Social Security Administration immediately. The agency is required to follow up with a letter detailing what they have found. If misuse is confirmed by the agency, they can assist you in finding a new representative payee or send you funds directly. If my money was misused, can I get it back? According to the Social Security Administration, after every misuse allegation, steps are taken to recover misused money. However, a 2023 audit that sampled 50 misuse investigations found the SSA did not properly and timely reissue $47,035 in misused benefits to 19 beneficiaries, as required. Where else can I file a complaint about a representative payee in Wisconsin? If you are concerned that a representative payee is misusing a beneficiary's funds, a number of Wisconsin agencies can investigate: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Disability Rights Wisconsin fields complaints about representative payee misuse and can be contacted at info@drwi.org or 800-928-8778. The state Department of Health Services, an oversight body for many organizational representative payee programs, recommends reporting concerns as soon as questions about improper spending arise. To report abuse of an individual over the age of 60, you can contact your local Elder Abuse helpline. To report abuse of an adult below 60, you can contact Adult Protective Services. People who have concerns about a payee responsible for an individual in a nursing home, residential care facility, behavioral health program, mental health treatment program, or substance use treatment program. Complaints can be filed with the Department of Quality Assurance. The Department of Health Services' Client Rights Office fields complaints for people receiving services for a developmental disability, mental health, or substance usein both inpatient and outpatient settings. People can file complaints about caregivers to the Office of Caregiver Quality. If the individual is in a Medicaid long term care program such as IRIS or Family Care, complaints can be filed with their IRIS consultant agency or family care managed care organization for additional assistance. If a person is being financially exploited, family members or friends can reach out to their local Adult Protective Services (APS) office. Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at tfowlkes@gannett.com. About Public Investigator Government corruption. Corporate wrongdoing. Consumer complaints. Medical scams. Public Investigator is an initiative of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its sister newsrooms across Wisconsin. Our team wants to hear your tips, chase the leads and uncover the truth. We'll investigate anywhere in Wisconsin. Send your tips to publicinvestigator@jrn.com or call 414-319-9061. You can also submit tips at jsonline.com/tips. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Social Security payees, filing complaints in Wisconsin Graphic courtesy of Grist This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grists weekly newsletter here. In the weeks leading up to the 2024 presidential election, Hurricane Helene made landfall, causing extensive damage and flooding from northwest Florida to inland areas of Tennessee and North Carolina. Then Hurricane Milton hit central Florida a couple of weeks later. Polling sites across the region had to be moved at the last minute, and misinformation around voting in the affected areas swelled online. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surviving a severe storm, wildfire, or other extreme weather event is an experience that many Americans have had, or will have in the future, as climate change increases the frequency and intensity of natural disasters. According to 2024 polling from the Pew Research Center, 7 in 10 Americans said their community experienced an extreme weather event in the past 12 months, including flooding, drought, extreme heat, rising sea levels, or major wildfires. The aftermath of a disaster can be terrifying and traumatic, and many survivors struggle to secure basic necessities such as food and shelter, or to fill out paperwork for disaster aid and insurance. Finding accurate information about where and how to vote is even harder so hard, in fact, that many people who have experienced disasters dont bother to vote at all. With experts forecasting active hurricane and wildfire seasons, its more important than ever to be prepared for disruptions to the voting process for any primaries and special elections, as well as Election Day in November. The guide below aims to help you navigate early and absentee voting, as well as what to expect on Election Day, should a disaster affect your area. (If youre not registered to vote, find your states voter registration rules below.) Jump to: Registration information In-person voting Early voting Absentee ballots Voter ID laws Know your rights Registration information Register to vote or find out if youre registered here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Michigan, you can register to vote or check your registration here. Since its hurricane season, weve included registration links and upcoming election information for coastal states below: Florida: Register to vote or check your registration here. Stay updated on Florida election dates here. Alabama: Register to vote here. Stay updated on Florida election dates here. Mississippi: Mississippi does not have online registration, so find out how to do so in person or online here. The deadline to register is 30 days before election day. Stay updated on Mississippi election dates here. North Carolina: The deadline for voter registration is 25 days before Election Day; register or check your status here. Stay updated on North Carolina election dates here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South Carolina: Learn how to register here. Stay updated on South Carolina election dates here. Louisiana: Online registration must be done 20 days before Election Day; mail must be postmarked 30 days prior. Stay updated on Louisiana election dates here. Georgia: Register online here. Stay updated on Georgia election dates here. Texas: You must register to vote 30 days before Election Day; find out your status or register here. Stay updated on Texas election dates here. Read more: How a disaster is officially declared In-person voting If a disaster strikes, the governor can extend voting deadlines, allow ballots to be forwarded to a new address, allow local officials to change or add new polling places, or postpone municipal elections. Those rules are different depending on the state, and information may be hard to find in the wake of a disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Vote Foundation has a tool to access your county election offices contact information, which typically includes county clerks, supervisors, auditors, boards of elections, or election commissions, depending on the state. You can try to contact these offices, but its not guaranteed theyll be able to answer your questions. You can also ask voting rights groups in your area and watch local news for any changes or updates. In the wake of a disaster, first confirm where you should be voting. Has your polling place been damaged or moved? If multiple locations are combined into one, or Election Day volunteers are scarce post-disaster, be prepared to stand in long lines to vote. If youre waiting in the heat, make sure to bring water and wear comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing. (Twenty-one states prohibit campaign apparel, so keep that in mind.) Here are some other resources on heat waves. Was your car damaged in a disaster? Need a ride to the polls? Some ride-share services and public transit systems offer free rides on Election Day. Heres more information. Read more: The officials and agencies in charge of disaster response Early voting Most states, including Michigan, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, offer some form of early voting, which is voting in person before the election anywhere from a few days to more than a month early, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, the hours, locations, and timing differ for each. Three states Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire do not allow early in-person voting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Early in-person voting is a useful option if youd like to avoid lines on Election Day or will be out of town. Its also an option for people who live in a region of the country prone to natural disasters or have been recently hit by one. In-person voting on Election Day, which comes at the tail end of danger season, may not either be a possibility or priority. Go here to see the specific rules around early voting in your state. Absentee ballots Absentee voting is often called mail-in voting or by-mail voting. Every state offers this, but some require you to meet certain conditions, like having a valid excuse for why you cant make it to the polls on Election Day. Absentee voting can be a particularly useful tool for people recently displaced by extreme weather, or are at risk of being displaced. It also safeguards voters who live in the hottest parts of the country, where heat can make waiting in long lines dangerous. The League of Women Voters explains absentee voting rules by state here. If you reside in a county that gets a federal disaster declaration after a disaster hits, there may be changes to these processes that can offer you more time and flexibility. Voter ID laws Each state has a different voter ID law: Some require photo identification, others require a document such as a utility bill, bank statement, or paycheck, while still others require a signature. The National Conference of State Legislatures has a breakdown of the rules here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If your ID gets destroyed in a flood, fire, or tornado, your state may be able to exempt you from showing an ID at the polls. For instance, after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Texas residents who lost their ID to floodwaters could vote without one once they filled out an affidavit stating that their identification was lost because of a natural disaster. Your state may also waive the fees associated with getting a new ID. The best way to find this information is to contact your county clerk or other election official, or contact a voting rights group in your area. Know your rights Just as there are strict rules in states around how people can cast ballots, there are also many others that dictate what happens outside of polling places. In most states, you can accept water and food from groups around polling places but there is misinformation around doing so. For example, after the 2020 presidential election, Georgia passed a law prohibiting this activity within a certain buffer zone, only for a judge to later strike down part of it. So while there is no longer a ban on handing things to voters within 25 feet of the line to vote, it is still illegal to do so within 150 feet of the building where ballots are being cast. Call or text 866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683) to report voter intimidation to the Election Protection Coalition. You can also find more information on voter rights from the ACLU. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Download a PDF of this article | Return to Disaster 101 This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/extreme-weather/know-your-voting-rights-before-during-and-after-a-disaster/. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org Question : The state Department of Health dashboard website that reported current COVID-19 case counts has not been updated for nearly a month. New numbers used to be reported each Wednesday. A friend of ours, who is very cautious about these kinds of concerns, recently tested positive and picked up chatter that cases are on the rise. As a vulnerable senior, I check the DOH site regularly. Is there another way to find out the current state of the virus ? Answer : Yes, although not with such specificity. The Hawaii Respiratory Disease Activity Summary, at, shows an uptick in COVID-19 cases statewide, with disease activity (percent positivity ) described as medium as of mid-July. COVID-19 was a factor in 2 % of all visits to hospital emergency departments on July 12, double the 1 % found on June 14, according to the summary, which we checked Tuesday. The COVID-19 dashboards you relied on, and which are no longer being updated, summarized the number of COVID-19 cases statewide and by county on a weekly basis, and also provided data about vaccination, hospitalization and mortality rates, including by age and ethnicity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state Department of Health is changing its COVID-19 dashboards as we transition to our new data visualization platform. Our previous dashboards will no longer be updated, but new dashboards will be added over the next few weeks, according to a message on the DOH website dated June 18. We asked a DOH spokesperson Tuesday when the new dashboards will be published, and what data categories they will include ; well publish the response when we receive it. Several readers have asked similar questions, seeking detailed information about the continuing effects of the virus. Q : Regarding the scuttling of the Falls of Clyde, what about stuff inside the ship ? Theres probably plenty that could be salvaged. A : Yes, the state Department of Transportation says it worked with a maritime archaeologist last year to catalog and remove historical items from the nearly 147-year-old vessel, which is due to be scuttled in late November at least 12 miles due south of Honolulu Harbor. The salvaged artifacts are stored in a secured facility, the DOT said in a news release Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Falls of Clyde was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989 as the worlds only surviving four-masted fully-rigged ship, but despite preservation efforts the vessel deteriorated so badly over the years that it lost that designation in 2024, when it was deemed a safety and environmental hazard at imminent risk of sinking, according to the National Park Service, . Docked at Honolulu Harbor since 2008 (now at Pier 7 ), the ship will undergo work for the next few months to make it tow-worthy and then be disposed of at sea, according to the news release, which said that Shipwright LLC, a Florida-based maritime technical consulting firm, has been hired to oversee the job. Q : With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill, is it too late to get the electric car rebate ? A : No, you would need to buy or lease an eligible electric vehicle by Sept. 30 to claim a federal tax credit of up to $7, 500 for a new vehicle or $4, 000 for a used one. Find details at fuel economy.gov /feg /taxcenter.shtml. Mahalo Much mahalo to Officer Vegas from the Pearl City Police Station, who was very helpful in assisting my recently widowed mother with her tire pressure situation this past Thursday near the Iwilei Costco Tire Center. Kudos for doing a simple act of kindness for a person of the community, exemplifying the Honolulu Police Department motto, serving and protecting with aloha.Many thanks, S.K.------------Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813 ; call 808-529-4773 ; or email.------------ Kremlin officials have rejected US President Donald Trump's demand to reach a peace deal on Ukraine within 50 days. Moscow has stressed that it will continue to "pursue its war aims" despite international pressure and economic sanctions. Source: Institute for the Study of War (ISW) Details: On 15 July, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told Russian state news agency TASS that Moscow considers any attempts to make demands of it, "especially ultimatums", to be "unacceptable". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov echoed Ryabkov's remarks, asserting that Russia is ready for a third round of Ukrainian-Russian bilateral talks, but blamed Kyiv for the lack of progress in moving the dialogue forward. In turn, Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Security Council Deputy Chair and former president of the Russian Federation, wrote on X (Twitter) that "Russia didn't care" about Trump's "ultimatum". Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Russia would be able to cope with US tariffs, as it is "coping" with previous sanctions. Sergei Mironov, a member of Russia's State Duma and the A Just Russia party leader, emphasised that potential increases in economic pressure would not affect the course or objectives of Russia's war in Ukraine. To quote the ISW's Key Takeaways on 15 July: Kremlin officials dismissed US President Donald Trump's demand that Russia agree to a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine within 50 days while promoting claims that Russia can withstand economic pressure and remains committed to achieving its war aims. Russian leader Vladimir Putin's theory of victory continues to drive his unwillingness to compromise on his pre-war demand for Ukraine's capitulation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new appointments within the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian forces recently advanced in northern Sumy Oblast. Russian forces recently advanced near Kupiansk, Borova, and Toretsk. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! The Kremlin would like the US to pressure Kyiv to hold a new round of negotiations with Moscow. Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agency Interfax, citing Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary Details: Peskov was asked whether it would be possible to agree with partners to put pressure on Kyiv so that "the Ukrainian side would return to the negotiating table". Quote: "We urge everyone to do this [put pressure on Ukraine ed.], in this case, the main mediating efforts are those of the United States President Trump and his team. Many statements have been made, many words of disappointment have been spoken, but we, of course, want to hope that pressure is also being exerted on the Ukrainian side." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: At the negotiations in Istanbul on 2 June, when the second round of meetings took place, Ukraine and Russia agreed on a 6,000-for-6,000 exchange of bodies of fallen soldiers. The Ukrainian and Russian delegations also agreed on an "all for all" exchange of seriously wounded service members and those aged 18-25. Throughout June, a series of exchanges took place, involving both POWs and the bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! After a Krugerville police officer was seriously injured in a crash this week, a fellow police officer is raising money for his recovery and his family. Krugerville Police Officer William Tinkle was driving home the morning of July 14 when a vehicle pulled out and crashed into him, as The Dallas Express previously reported. The suspect, 34-year-old Carlos Daniel Torres Elizondo, is charged with intoxication assault with vehicle causing serious bodily injury and is on hold for ICE. The collision gave Tinkle serious injuries, and he now faces a lengthy recovery process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Krugerville Police Officer Rachael Jonas launched a GoFundMe campaign, aiming to raise $12,000 for the injured officer and his family. Please consider donating to aid Officer Tinkle and his family during this difficult time, the fundraiser reads. Officer Tinkle is a valued member of the community and loved by many people. The GoFundMe had raised close to $3,700 at the time of publication. The Krugerville Police Department thanked community members for the support and shared the fundraiser on Facebook. Readers wishing to donate to Tinkles recovery can do so here. Jonas told The Dallas Express she has worked alongside Tinkle on patrol in Krugerville since 2022. He has been a member of the department since 2010, with a primary focus on traffic enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He is an extremely valued and cherished member of the Krugerville community and Denton County as a whole, Jonas told The Dallas Express. Tinkle has made a huge impact on our citizens, according to Jonas. She called the support overwhelming. I always knew our community has supported us wholeheartedly, but it takes an incident like this to really understand the gravity of the support, she said. The KVPD family is grateful for each and every donation, kind word, and act of support weve received. Tinkle has always been there for others in need without expecting anything in return, according to Jonas. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, she said. It is so amazing to see people come behind him and support him during this difficult time. He has a very lengthy road to recovery, and your support means the world to us. Unilever has sold its ice-cream business in Venezuela to Colombian automotive company Mack de Venezuela. The transaction, struck for an undisclosed sum, includes the Tio Rico brand and factory. In a statement, Unilever said Mack de Venezuela was chosen "after a careful process considering their capabilities, values, and vision for the future of the business". Mack de Venezuela, the Venezuelan subsidiary of Mack de Colombia, is a long-standing dealer for commercial vehicle brands such as Mack and Volvo. In a statement to Just Food, Unilever emphasised its portfolio of global and local brands will continue to serve Venezuelan consumers. The company said: In accordance with our focus on portfolio optimisation and value creation, the Unilever board determined this transaction delivers the best outcome for our shareholders as well as for the further development of the local business. Unilever added Mack de Venezuela brings deep knowledge of the local market and a commitment to continuity and long-term development". It said: Mack was selected after a careful process considering their capabilities, values, and vision for the future of the business. We are working closely with Mack to ensure a smooth transition and to safeguard business continuity for employees, customers, and partners." Unilever is planning to spin off its ice-cream business later this year with the new company to be listed in Amsterdam, London and New York. In 2024, the groups ice-cream business generated a turnover of 8.3bn ($9.7bn), up 4.5% on a year earlier. The demerged business will be called The Magnum Ice Cream Company and based in the Netherlands. "Unilever sells Venezuela ice-cream arm" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand. HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT)- A tragic ending, after many tri-staters received an IAN Alert on their phone Tuesday morning. The alert was sent out for a missing juvenile, who police believed to be in danger or in need of assistance. The missing child who prompted the alert, sent out to western Kentucky cell phone Tuesday morning has been found dead. Kentucky State Police say, 5-year-old Silas Chearer, was discovered about 35 minutes after the alert was issued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chearer was last seen walking near his home in the town of Cub Run around eight. Authorities say he had autism. KSP says no foul play was involved, and they are not releasing where he was found at the request of family. IAN Alerts are specific to Kentucky, while Amber Alerts are not. Trooper Cory King says, this particular alert is the first of his knowledge for this area of the commonwealth to receive. King says, Its fairly new, but the differences between. So, if you were awakened this morning to an Ian alert and questioning, wait a minute, what happened to the amber alert? Its still there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement King says IAN Alerts are specifically for children who have intellectual disabilities or some type of mental illness. King says, It is someone perhaps not abducted, but theyre in areas or theyre venturing out in places they shouldnt be. Maybe to a passerby, a motorist that sees someone like a minor out roaming the street at a weird time, or an area that typically dont see pedestrian traffic, that would notify them to please notify us because that person has is at a higher risk of injury or death due to their specific needs. KSP says closure on amber alerts are time sensitive and case by case specific. King says closure on this case specifically being publicized is due to how fast of a response there was in finding Chearer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement King says, I think a lot of people did like the idea that it did come to let them know, hey this child was found, so at this point, no alert. I think a lot of people appreciated that and thats always good to have at least to know that there was a closure to the case and that this child was sourced and located. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). Los Angeles County leaders are scrambling to restore a sweeping racial justice initiative that voters accidentally repealed, a mistake that could threaten hundreds of millions of dollars devoted to reducing the number of people in jail. County supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to ask their lawyers to find a way to bring back the ballot measure known as Measure J, which required the county to put a significant portion of its budget toward anti-incarceration services. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was absent from the vote. Voters learned last week that they had unwittingly repealed the landmark criminal justice reform, passed in 2020 in the heat of the Black Lives Matter movement, when they voted for a completely unrelated measure to overhaul the county government last November. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who spearheaded the county overhaul known as Measure G along with Supervisor Janice Hahn, called it a "colossal fiasco. This situation that has unfolded is enraging and unacceptable at every level. What has transpired is sloppy, Horvath said Tuesday. It's a bureaucratic disaster with real consequences. The county says it's looking at multiple options to try to get Measure J permanently back in the charter which dictates how the county is governed including a change in state law, a court judgment or a ballot measure for 2026. We cannot and we won't let this mistake invalidate the will of the voters, Hahn said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement County lawyers say the mistake stems from a recently discovered administrative error." Last November, voters approved Measure G, which expands the five-person Board of Supervisors to nine members and brings on an elected chief executive, among other overhauls. What no one seemed to realize including the county lawyers who write the ballot measures is that one measure would wipe out the other. Measure G rewrote a chunk of the charter with no mention of anti-incarceration funding, effectively wiping out the countys promise to put hundreds of millions toward services that keep people out of jail and support them when they leave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The repeal will take effect in 2028, giving the county three years to fix it. I do agree that there's all kinds of reasons to be outraged, but the sky is not falling. Even if you think the sky is falling, it won't fall until December 2028, said Rob Quan, who leads a transparency-focused good-government advocacy group. We've got multiple opportunities to fix this." The mistake was first spotted last month by former Duarte City Councilmember John Fasana, who sits on a task force in charge of implementing the county government overhaul. The county confirmed the mistake to The Times last week, a day after Fasana publicly raised the issue to his unsuspecting fellow task force members. The measures critics say the mistake adds credence to their arguments that the county overhaul was put together too hastily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It seems to be that if one has to go back on the ballot, it ought to be [Measure] G, said Fasana, noting it passed by a narrower margin. Otherwise, he says, the county has set an unnerving precedent. Its almost like setting a blueprint to steal an election, said Fasana, who opposed both the anti-incarceration funding and the government overhaul measures. Youve got this way to basically nullify something that was passed by voters. Some worry that putting either measure back on the ballot runs the risk of voters rejecting it this time around. Measure G faced significant opposition including from two sitting supervisors who argued an elected chief executive would be too powerful and the measure left too much of this new government ill-defined. It narrowly passed with just over 51% of the vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The anti-incarceration measure also faced heavy opposition in 2020, particularly from the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which spent more than $3.5 million on advertising on TV and social media. The measure passed with 57% of the vote. A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled it unconstitutional after a group of labor unions including the sheriff's deputies union argued it hampered politicians' ability to manage taxpayer money as they see fit. An appellate court later reversed the decision. Measure J requires that 10% of locally generated, unrestricted L.A. County money be spent on social services such as housing, mental health treatment and other jail diversion programs. Thats equivalent to roughly $288 million this fiscal year. The county is prohibited from spending the money on the carceral system prisons, jails or law enforcement agencies. Derek Hsieh, the head of the sheriff's deputies union and a member of the governance reform task force, said the union had consulted with lawyers and believed the county would be successful if it tried to resolve the issue through a court judgment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A change in state law or running another ballot measure it's kind of like swimming upstream, he said. "Those are the most expensive difficult things." Megan Castillo, a coordinator with the Reimagine LA coalition, which pushed for the anti-incarceration measure, said if the group has to go back to the ballot, it will try to slash the language that it feels gives the county too much wiggle room on how funding is allocated. The coalition has clashed repeatedly with county leadership over just how much money is actually meant to be set aside under Measure J. If we do have to go to the ballot box, were going to be asking for more, she said. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who helped get the anti-incarceration measure on the ballot, said she felt suspicious of the error by county lawyers, some of whom she believed were never fully on board with the measure in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just feel like theyre too good at their jobs for this error to occur, said Hernandez, who said the news landed like a slap in the face. County leaders have emphasized that the error was purely accidental and brushed aside concerns that the repeal would have any tangible difference on what gets funded. When Measure J was temporarily overturned by the court, the board promised to carry on with both the spirit and letter of the measure, reserving a chunk of the budget for services that keep people out of jail and support those returning. That will still apply, they say, even if Measure J is not reinstated. The motion passed Tuesday directs the county to work on an ordinance to ensure the continued implementation of measure J beyond 2028. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A cash fund for families financially reeling from ongoing federal immigration raids will be up and running within a month, according to Los Angeles County officials. The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 on Tuesday to create the fund, fueled by philanthropy and focused on workers and their families in small L.A. County cities and unincorporated areas. Details on the fund were sparse. It was unclear who will be eligible or how much a family could expect to collect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For almost two months, the Trump administrations sweeping raids have petrified residents across the region, with immigration agents snatching people from swap meets, car washes, Home Depot parking lots and street corners. Church pews, hospitals and whole neighborhoods have been emptier than usual . Many say theyre scared to go to work, as they weigh the necessity of collecting a paycheck against the risk that they might be arrested and deported. We are sending a clear message: Los Angeles County stands with our immigrant communities, and we will continue to fight to ensure that every resident, regardless of immigration status, has the dignity and support they need to survive and thrive, Supervisor Hilda Solis, who spearheaded the fund, said in a statement. She added that the county would protect the confidentiality of those who received money from the fund. "It is essential that those seeking relief feel safe throughout the process, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The county also wants to expand a fund for small businesses that are affected financially by the raids, according to the motion approved by the supervisors. Supervisor Kathryn Barger was absent from the vote, which comes on the heels of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass' announcement last week that the city will provide cash to people affected by the sweeping immigration raids. Bass said the aid, also funded by philanthropy, will be distributed using cash cards with a couple hundred dollars on them. Read more: L.A. will provide cash assistance to immigrants affected by raids The federal agents conducting the immigration raids are often in plainclothes, with their faces shielded by sunglasses and masks. Supervisor Janice Hahn said Tuesday that she plans to introduce an ordinance barring law enforcement from concealing their identities in unincorporated areas, where the county government is the local authority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Law enforcement officers should never wear personal disguises or conceal their identities while interacting with the public in the course of their duties, Hahn said. The county is also considering a program to safeguard belongings left behind in unincorporated areas by people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, as well as starting a hotline for deported workers to retrieve unpaid wages. Rampant immigration sweeps have left a trail of belongings cars, lawn mowers, ice cream carts across the region with no clear way to reunite the items with their owners. "Most people don't know how to get their last paycheck when they are deported, how to reconcile with their equipment or anything that relates to the life that they held here," Rosa Soto, head of the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center Foundation, said at the meeting. "It is imperative we have the support they need." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. L.A. Public Library Narrows Digital Divide for Watts originally appeared on L.A. Mag. Photo Courtesy of John Millsap At the Watts branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, patrons walk to the information desk for computer guest passes. Giovanni Padilla hands them out to anyone who asks. Padilla, 31, a librarian, has also worked at Monterey Park and East Los Angeles. He said that while other branches see crowds for book rentals and story time readings, patrons are drawn to the Watts branch for free internet, computer and printing access. People come here every single day to use the computer and to print out, primarily, Padilla said. The Watts library highlights a sensitive and often unseen issue in lower-income communities: access to the internet, and what that access can and does mean for jobs, homework and more. According to the University of Southern Californias Lusk Center for Real Estate, nearly 24% of households in Watts lack internet access. Compare: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 92% of households in Los Angeles County have a broadband internet subscription. In Beverly Hills, it's nearly 95%. The library fills that gap. It serves, in essence, as the neighborhoods internet cafe. Since 2017, the number of households in Watts without internet access has decreased by 18%, down from 42%. Still, it trails neighboring areas such as Lynwood, Green Meadows and South Gate. The Lusk Center also found that nearly 18% of Watts residents own smartphones but do not have a household computer or internet connection. Their data plans grant them access to Google, for instance, in their pocket but not, say, through a laptop on a desk at home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lamaj Smoov, 36, a musician from South Los Angeles, suggested exactly that: If theyre looking at [Time Warner] ... then maybe, yeah, Smoov said. We have phones, so not having access to the internet is a complete fallacy. Padilla said other libraries limit the number of computer passes guests can take. At the Watts branch, many patrons dont carry library cards because they lack identification. Here at Watts, because of the community, we kind of just hand them out like candy, Padilla said. We just give people access to computers and creating whenever they want. Photo Courtesy of John Millsap Alma Villarreal, 52, has internet access at home but visits the library multiple times a week to use the free computer and printing options. After she picks her daughter up from elementary school, she takes her to the librarys homework center. It really, really helps her a lot because of the printers that they offer, and the computer, the bigger screen and stuff, Villareal said. Recently, Villareal has been coming to the Watts branch to search for a job. It is a blessing because where I used to live at it probably would take me 40 minutes to get to a library, Villareal said. Everything that I need, I could just do it in less than an hour here. It is so useful. In 2013, a different set of SC researchers studied the effects of the Computers for Families program on Watts residents, in which low-income households were given free computer access. The study showed that providing technology could help significantly with job searches. However, the researchers noted that bridging the digital divide would require a thorough understanding of the socioeconomic issues, educational goals and cultural values of the disadvantaged population. Shavon Reliford, 24, of Watts, comes to the library to use search engines like Google and Firefox, email via Outlook, and to look up jobs using Indeed. I've been getting help with a lot of resources. It's a lot of things that I didn't know, that I find out now, coming to the library, Reliford said. They help you with different jobs. They're very cool people here. They're very helpful. If you need help, she said, they will help you. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. A new labor-backed coalition is pledging $50 million to help Democrats take back the House in next years midterm elections. Battleground Alliance PAC, which shared its plans first with POLITICO, said it is building a registration and turnout operation in 37 Republican-held districts across the country. Though Democrats only need to flip three seats in the House to win control of the chamber, provided they hold all their seats, the group said it is looking to expand the partys footprint and position Democrats to ride a potential wave election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Having the ability for us to run a powerful field campaign that can work the margins and help Democrats win a couple thousand extra votes in places is super important, said Andrew Grossman, senior adviser of Battleground Alliance PAC. The groups leaders said they are modeling their effort after Battleground New York, a similar framework focused on the Empire State, where some of them worked in the 2024 midterms. In one of the rare bright spots for Democrats last year, the party flipped a handful of House seats in New York after facing devastating losses during the previous cycle. The PAC officials plan to focus on turning out voters less likely to cast ballots, including young people and voters of color, through door-knocking and phone-banking next year. They are zeroing in on President Donald Trumps unpopular megabill that passed earlier this month as an organizing motivator. Working people are done watching politicians in Washington hand out favors to the wealthy while our communities struggle to afford care, housing and food, said SEIU president April Verrett in a statement. Through 2026 and beyond, we will continue to organize in places that theyve tried to ignore because thats where real change begins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The groups coalition is made up of more than 30 progressive and labor organizations, including the Service Employees International Union, Working Families Party, Planned Parenthood Votes, Indivisible and MoveOn. Stephanie Porta, a strategist who has worked with state-based liberal groups, will be the campaign manager. Along with 37 GOP-controlled seats, Battleground Alliance PAC is also working in the 2nd congressional district in Minnesota, where Rep. Angie Craig is not seeking reelection in order to run for the Senate. Northeastern State Universitys campus in Tahlequah is pictured. (Photo provided by Northeastern State University/via KOSU) A new effort to strengthen behavioral health services in rural Oklahoma is underway, thanks to a $2.3 million grant awarded to Northeastern State Universitys School of Social Work by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Over the course of four years, the grant will provide $25,000 living stipends for 60 Master of Social Work students during their final semester of school. Selected students will also gain access to evidence-based training and opportunities to attend professional conferences and workshops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want them to enter the workforce with strong clinical skills, a trauma-informed approach, and a deep understanding of the unique needs of the population they serve, said Eun-Jun Bang, NSUs social work department chair and MSW program director. Bang said he hopes the grant will encourage more Oklahoma students to pursue a social work education, ultimately strengthening the states number of behavioral health professionals, especially in rural and medically underserved areas. Currently, the federal government designates all 77 of Oklahomas counties as having mental health professional shortages. Oklahoma also has a higher suicide rate than most other states, and its increasing faster than the national average. A study by the nonpartisan policy group Healthy Minds found more than half of the Oklahomans who needed mental health treatment in 2022 didnt get it. Three years ago, Bang and a team of three NSU professors partnered with local nonprofits and health care organizations to determine how the shortage impacted northeastern Oklahoma. They found unresolved trauma and substance abuse disorders were among the most pressing mental health needs in their community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The outgrowth of that research was a two-year grant proposal process that included early mornings and meetings over the holidays. Despite their devotion to the cause, Professor Samuel Asante said he had all but lost hope theyd be picked, given the current uncertainty surrounding many federal grants and recent significant cuts in mental health funding across the country. He said he was surprised when Bang called him with news of the award, but is thrilled they are being given a chance to make a difference. Having the opportunity to train students so that they can go back and give back to the community to help their fellow citizens, to help, sometimes even family members who are dealing with the issues of trauma and substance use, Asante said. That, to me, is huge. To be eligible to receive a stipend and be part of NSUs newly funded program, social work students will have to maintain a certain GPA, go through a separate application process and express interest in working with rural and Indigenous populations, where provider shortages are the most severe. Bang said preference will be given to those who demonstrate financial need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Professor Allison Mason, who also helped apply for the grant, said the money students receive is designed intentionally to be a stipend, not a scholarship, so students can focus fully on professional development without the added stress of working multiple jobs or taking on debt. That allows them to have more freedom to and more support to go into these very rural communities where its been hard to place students, Mason said. Not because they dont want to, but because they fiscally cant afford to. Bang said NSU has received significant support from the local community, partnering with groups like Brockport Research Institute, Cherokee Nation Behavioral Health Services, Family and Childrens Services and Green Country Behavioral Health Services. Were not only getting help from our community agencies, we also [will] provide support for those agencies, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Partnering staff will be able to attend some training at no or reduced cost. And hopefully, credentialed students will become valued members of the same continuum of care after graduation. This has truly been a labor of love for the four of us over the past two years, Mason wrote in an email to the team. We worked through holidays and early mornings to bring the Rural Recovery and Resilience Social Work Program to life, and we are both deeply grateful and humbled to have received funding for this important initiative. This article was originally published by KOSU. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX LAKE COUNTY, Ill. Health officials in Lake County, Illinois, have confirmed the countys first human case of West Nile Virus (WNV) this year. Officials from the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center say they have identified this years first human case of neuroinvasive West Nile Virus in a Lake County resident who is in their 70s and became ill in early July. The new case in Lake County is the second case to be identified in Illinois this year. The first was identified in a patient in southern Illinois, who was hospitalized due to complications of the infection three weeks ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement EEE, West Nile, malaria: Know the difference between these mosquito-borne diseases Health officials in Lake County are now urging residents to take precautions to avoid WNV. Our time spent outdoors typically increases during the summer months, which also increases our exposure to mosquitoes, Chris Hoff, Executive Director of the Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center, said. Remember to take steps to protect yourself and your family from mosquitoes to reduce your risk of getting West Nile Virus. According to officials, so far this year, nine out of 214 batches of mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile Virus in Lake County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials say WNV usually peaks during the late summer, between July and September, when the mosquito population is at its peak and so far this year in Lake County, nine out of 214 batches of mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile Virus. Other benefits weight loss drugs may be able to offer and more The nine positive batches are among 281 identified around the state so far this year. West Nile Virus in Illinois As of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the West Nile Virus dashboard, maintained by the Illinois Department of Public Health, showed only one case, though health officials around the state have confirmed two cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, 29 counties around Illinois have seen at least one positive WNV case in a human, bird, mosquito or horse. In 2024, the state saw 69 human cases, which resulted in 13 deaths. Where have West Nile Virus-positive mosquitoes been found in the Chicagoland this season? While only two human cases have been reported so far this year, health officials from around the state have identified dozens of WNV-positive mosquito batches. Gut healths ties to mental health Back in Early June, health officials in McHenry County announced that they identified a batch that tested positive for West Nile Virus in Lake in the Hills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was the first WNV-positive mosquito batch located in the county so far this year. Just a week before, health officials said mosquitoes from a batch found in Glenview tested positive for the virus. Officials did not specify a specific area where the batch was pulled from. In mid-June, health officials in Cook County identified a WNV-positive mosquito batch in Chicago. How to avoid West Nile Virus According to health officials, while there is no vaccine currently available for WNV, there are steps people can take to reduce the likelihood of contracting WNV. While West Nile virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions and organ transplants, it is most commonly transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. The Illinois Department of Public Health advises residents to adhere to the following guidelines to minimize the risk of WNV exposure: Reduce Residents should work to ensure that doors and windows have tight-fitting screens and should repair or replace any that have tears or openings. Residents should also work to keep doors and windows shut. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement How weather changes cause migraines: The triggers and what you can do to ease the pain Repel Residents are advised to wear shoes, socks, long pants and a light-colored, long-sleeved shirt, as well as apply an EPA-registered insect repellent that contains DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or IR 3535 when outside. The CDC notes that parents should consult a physician before using repellents on children under three. Report Residents are advised to report locations where they see sitting stagnant for more than a week. If reported soon enough, the local health department or city government may be able to add larvicide to the water, to kill any mosquito larvae. West Nile Virus symptoms The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say about eight in 10 people infected with WNV do not develop symptoms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around one in five people who become infected develop a fever, headache, body aches, joint pains, vomiting, diarrhea or rash. Most who develop these symptoms are able to completely recover, but CDC officials say fatigue and weakness can last for weeks or months. According to the CDC, only about 1 in 150 people will develop a severe illness that impacts the central nervous system. Officials said symptoms of severe illness usually include high fever, headache, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness, vision loss, numbness and paralysis. Almost 1 in 3 adolescents have prediabetes: CDC Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While WNV can cause severe illness in people of any age, people over the age of 60 and those with certain medical conditions are also at greater risk. Those who suffer severe illness could take several weeks or months to recover and the CDC said some effects may be permanent. Sign up for our Medical Watch newsletter. This daily update includes important information from WGNs Dina Bair and the Med Watch team, including, the latest updates from health organizations, in-depth reporting on advancements in medical technology and treatments, as well as personal features related to people in the medical field. Sign up here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. You may have seen this: As an event begins, somebody takes the microphone and lists off the Native American tribes who once inhabited the place where the event is held. Such land acknowledgments have become common practice over the past decade, at city council meetings, university commencements, rock concerts, the Academy Awards and even the Democratic National Convention. The idea is that recognizing these former inhabitants by name reminds us that they were here, includes them in the conversation and helps to ameliorate historical injustice. But are they a useful practice for society? Or are they just an empty, self-aggrandizing ritual? ETHAN BAUER Overdue Recognition You cant right a wrong until you admit it. Behind each land acknowledgment is a recognition that cities and towns across the United States as in New Zealand, Argentina and other former colonies around the world occupy land that was once inhabited by other peoples. The troubled history of how this came to be so, and the often dire implications for those who were here before, is implicit. Land acknowledgments encourage us to look back with empathy and reflection, sharing a societal narrative that is encompassing, honest and bends toward justice. This simple practice, which costs nothing and requires no special training, can challenge us to think more critically and holistically about our own histories. This is not about changing facts or choosing sides but rather understanding that the stories handed down to most of us were told from the perspective of the victors in conflicts over these territories. Its only fair that we practice seeing those events through the perspectives of all participants and understanding their experiences as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If this conversation makes us uncomfortable, maybe it should. Displaced peoples have endured violence, confinement on reservations, forced assimilation, attacks on their languages and cultures, and ongoing discrimination. Naming them makes that history more visible. Land acknowledgments should not be feel-good maneuvers, write three anthropology professors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and San Diego State University including members of the Cherokee and Choctaw tribes in Anthropology News. If an acknowledgment is discomforting and triggers uncomfortable conversations, it is likely on the right track. Think of land acknowledgements as a helpful first step on the path to lasting reconciliation, and an invitation to engage with todays descendants of those first peoples, including Native Americans. History can feel abstract, but the painful experiences described here have shaped both those who lived them and their descendants. And if we want to connect across cultural divides, its essential to meet people where they are. According to the National Museum of the American Indian, Speaking and hearing words of recognition is an important step in creating collaborative, accountable, continuous, and respectful relationships with Indigenous nations and communities. Empty Signals Land acknowledgments are as vain as they often feel. The lives we live today are built on the results of decisions made, actions taken, successes achieved and losses suffered by those who came before us. Even for those who dont like the outcome, there is little we can do to change it. Watching people who still benefit from that history as they awkwardly name the peoples whose defeat made their lives possible looks more like self-indulgence than justice. Its what members of Gen Z might call cringe. The practice offers no solutions, and its adherents sacrifice nothing of value no giving away the family home, no moving back to the old country while clinging to a superficial view of tribal identity in which names are enough. A land acknowledgment is what you give when you have no intention of giving land, Graeme Wood writes in The Atlantic. It is like a receipt provided by a highway robber, noting all the jewels and gold coins he has stolen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From a broader view, its impossible to honor all the former stewards of any land. Most territory anywhere has changed hands throughout history often in a manner no less violent or painful than colonialism or westward expansion. For example, land acknowledgments in Chicago often cite the Potawatomi, because when white people arrived here, that is who they found, writes University of Chicago law professor M. Todd Henderson in Newsweek. But native tribes engaged in constant conquest and displacement as well. The Potawatomi are no more the original or true owners of Chicago than the European settlers that displaced them. In reality, land acknowledgements are a performative act more for the benefit of the speaker than for the peoples being spoken for. Consider the platform of last years Democratic National Convention, which name-drops 12 tribes in its first four paragraphs but offers no plan for restoring their ancestral lands because that is not the intention. Instead, the party pats itself on the back. But virtue signaling isnt just vapid it can get in the way of real progress. Specifically, land acknowledgments become an excuse for folks to feel good and move on with their lives, notes the Native Governance Center, without actually contributing anything to the community. This story appears in the July/August 2025 issue of DeseretMagazine. Learn more about how to subscribe. Central Florida U.S. Rep. Cory Mills could face eviction from a luxury Washington, D.C., penthouse after his landlord sued and accused him of failing to pay tens of thousands of dollars in rent. The Republican congressman owes about $85,000 in missed rental payments from March until this month, Bozzuto Management Co. alleged in a lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court. The posh penthouse just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol rents for $20,833 a month, according to court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Independent journalist Roger Sollenberger first reported on the suit, which was filed on July 9. Mills, who represents Seminole and parts of Volusia counties, did not respond to a request for comment from the Orlando Sentinel. In a post on X, he said he had difficulty with a faulty payment system, posting screenshots of emails from June and July asking for payment links. You can see Im repeatedly asking for payment links and again as I tried with management today, it failed to process, he wrote in the post Monday night. A lawyer representing the management company did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Mills post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A document attached to the suit shows that Mills applied for the apartment in June 2023 and was late on his rent more than a dozen times. An attached photo shows a notice of intent to file a lawsuit taped on the apartments door in late January. The buildings sky suites and penthouses are billed as offering captivating views of the city, along with private elevators for discrete comings and goings. Mills has an estimated net worth of about $24 million, according to the investment research platform Quiver Quantitative. First elected in 2022, Mills co-founded several defense contracting and security companies. He earns $174,000 a year as a member of Congress. In February, the Metropolitan Police Department opened a probe of Mills following a report of an alleged assault at the penthouse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mills, 45, vehemently denied any physical altercation occurred, and the 27-year-old woman listed as the victim by police denied an assault occurred in a statement to the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets. Police sent an arrest warrant to the U.S. Attorneys office for consideration, but that investigation was closed after it was returned unsigned, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. A spokesman for interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, declined to comment about the case, saying it was handled by her predecessor, Ed Martin. Martin, who referred to himself as President Donald Trumps lawyer, exited the post in May and was replaced by Pirro, a former Fox News host and New York prosecutor. The House Ethics Committee is scrutinizing Mills business dealings and financial disclosure statements, including whether Mills benefited from federal contracts while serving in Congress. Mills has denied wrongdoing. ________ Researchers have discovered evidence of one of the largest dinosaur mating "dance arenas" in present-day Colorado. Previous studies have identified a couple of "dinosaur lek" areas -- where male dinosaurs likely congregated to perform courtship displays for females, primarily for the purpose of finding a mate -- at Dinosaur Ridge, 20 miles west of Denver. However, using high-resolution drone photography and photogrammetry to make 3D models of the sandstone at Dinosaur Ridge, a team reexamined the area to see if there were more markings on the surface. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MORE: Jurassic Park-ing lot: Dino fossil turns Denver museum into dig site What they found were dozens of lek traces tightly clustered together, suggesting the area was once a site to perform mating rituals, similar to some modern-day birds. "So, these trace fossils, we interpret them to be evidence of dinosaur courtship activities, just from kind of process of elimination," Caldwell Buntin, co-author of the study and a lecturer at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, told ABC News. Courtesy of Caldwell Buntin - PHOTO: Researchers found evidence of a large dinosaur mating "dance" arena at Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado. Buntin said the team ruled out that these "scrapes" were caused by dinosaurs digging for food and water, from marking their territories or from colonial nesting, which is when animals build their nests close together in groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Basically, these were a lot of organisms that were coming together, performing some kind of activity that would include building some kind of nest to display to a female, and then maybe doing some kind of a dance or scraping activity, which generates a lot of the scrapes around the nest display structure," Buntin said. The scrapes belong to theropod dinosaurs, characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb, which were alive during the Cretaceous period, between 145 million and 66 million years ago. It's not clear which species made the scrapes, but they were likely three to four feet high at the hip and were between 2.5 and 5 meters (8 to 16 feet) long, from the size of an emu to the size of an ostrich, according to Buntin. MORE: New horned dinosaur species discovered 'largest and most ornate' of its kind ever found Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There's a "spectrum of different scrapes," according to Buntin. Some are simple, shallow toe claw marks, indicating one or two scrapes from the left and right legs. There are also longer scrapes overprinting one another, resembling a wagon rut. Additionally, there are semicircular bowl-shaped marks "associated with a step backward" with a second set of scrapes "indicating a counterclockwise or a clockwise turn." Lastly, there are deep bowl-shaped marks with some shallow toe claw marks, Buntin said. In terms of behavior, Buntin said these dinosaurs most resemble that of banded plovers, which are small shorebirds. Courtesy of Caldwell Buntin - PHOTO: Researchers found "bowl-shaped" marks indicating male dinosaurs performing a mating ritual to attract females. "Basically, they will dig out a nest display, basically a fake nest, to be able to show a female that, 'Hey, I'm a strong male. I can dig this. I can make a good, strong place for you to lay your eggs,'" Buntin said. "And then when a female comes to visit, they'll perform a dance which consists of kind of bowing, bobbing, raising their wings out, creating some scratches around the sides of that display nest." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The authors emphasized that the site is public, meaning anybody can visit and see the scrapes for themselves compared to other scrap sites, which are on federally protected land. "It does really make it a very, very unique site, because not only does it have this amazing like type behavior displayed, but it also is so accessible for lots of people to be able to see it and understand better about the behavior of these wonderful animals that we can see now," Neffra Matthews, study co-author and former employee of the Bureau of Land Management, told ABC News. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. factory production edged up in June as a decline in motor vehicle output was offset by gains elsewhere, though manufacturing remains constrained by tariffs on imports. Manufacturing output ticked up 0.1% last month after an upwardly revised 0.3% increase in May, the Federal Reserve said on Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast production unchanged after a previously reported 0.1% gain in May. Production at factories increased 0.8% on a year-over-year basis in June. It grew at a 2.1% annualized rate in the second quarter after expanding at a 3.7% pace in the January-March quarter. President Donald Trump's aggressive tariffs, including a 50% duty on steel and aluminum as well as a 25% tax on motor vehicles and parts, continued to overshadow manufacturing, which accounts for 10.2% of the U.S. economy. Trump last week announced that higher duties would come into effect on August 1 for imports from a range of countries, including Mexico, Japan, Canada and Brazil, as well as the European Union. Trump has defended the duties as necessary to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base, but economists say that cannot be accomplished in a short period of time, citing high production and labor costs as among the challenges. Motor vehicle and parts output dropped 2.6% last month after rebounding 4.6% in May. Production of aerospace and miscellaneous transportation equipment rose 1.6% while output of primary metals increased 3.1%. Durable goods manufacturing production was unchanged. Nondurable manufacturing output rose 0.3%, lifted by a 2.9% increase in the production of petroleum and coal products. Mining output fell 0.3% after climbing 0.1% in the prior month. Utilities production rebounded 2.8% as a heat wave across the country boosted demand for air conditioning. That followed a 2.5% drop in May. Overall industrial production increased 0.3% after being unchanged for two straight months. Industrial output advanced 0.7% on a year-over-year basis. It increased at a 1.1% rate in the second quarter, slowing from the 4.3% pace notched in the first quarter. Capacity utilization for the industrial sector, a measure of how fully firms are using their resources, increased to 77.6% from 77.5% in May. It is 2.0 percentage points below its 19722024 average. The operating rate for the manufacturing sector edged up to 76.9% from 76.8 in May. It is 1.3% percentage points below its long-run average. (Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Mark Porter) The Largest Piece of Mars on Earth just sold at auction for about $5.3 million $5,296,000, to be exact. Popular Science has reached out to Sothebys for confirmation of the sale price. The 54-pound rock measures roughly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches. It was part of a Sothebys natural history auction that also included a juvenile Ceratosaurus dinosaur skeleton and a lunar meteorite. The meteorite is believed to have been blown off the surface of Mars by an asteroid. The chunk of the Red Planet then travelled 140 million miles to Earth, crashing in the Sahara desert. It was discovered by a meteorite hunter in Niger in November 2023. However, it is not completely clear when the meteorite hit Earth. Testing shows that the strike probably happened in recent years, according to Sothebys. It previously was on exhibit at the Italian Space Agency in Rome. Sothebys did not disclose the space rocks previous owner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The red, brown and gray rock is roughly 70 percent larger than the next biggest piece of Mars ever found here on Earth. It also makes up nearly 7 percent of all the Martian material currently on our planet, according to Sothebys. Theres a big, orbital donut full of battered bits of Mars, launched by cratering events, and the Earth clearly intercepts that stream all the time, Ralph Harvey, a geochemist who studies plenary materials at Case Western University, tells Popular Science. Theres really no substitute for ground truth, and the Martian meteorites represent the only known samples from that planet. Cassandra Hatton, the vice chairman for science and natural history at Sothebys, told the Associated Press that this Martian meteorite was confirmed to be from the Red Planet in a specialized lab. The samples chemical make up was compared with Martian meteorites that were discovered in 1967, when the Viking space probe landed on Mars. The official examination found that the now sold rock is an olivine-microgabbroic shergottite. This type of Martian rock was formed by the slow cooling of magma on Mars. Sothebys says that it has a course-grained texture and the minerals pyroxene and olivine. The auction house estimates that there are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites that have been discovered on Earth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Harvey, recovering samples from any planetary body beyond Earth is challenging enough due to technology, science, and funding. It has only been done about a dozen times, making this material quite precious. Grabbing what we can when it falls is our best bet. There are a lot more rocks falling to Earth from space than most people realize; the total mass of meteoritic material is a few tens of thousands of tons per year, says Harvey. From that, maybe 10-20,000 bits will actually be rocks that hit the Earths surface. Its the equivalent of a softball-sized rock each million square kilometers, and distributed very randomly. LAS VEGAS (KLAS) As food insecurity continues to rise in Southern Nevadawith nearly one in six people and over one in five children struggling to access mealsone local partnership is making a measurable impact. The Food Rescue Alliance, a collaboration between The Just One Project and The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. What would normally end up as leftover food is now feeding families across the valley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What this partnership does is rescues food on a large scale, repackages it, and gets it into the hands and the partners who use that food to help sustain families here in Nevada, Mimi Diebold, Director of Special Projects for The Just One Project, said. On Tuesday morning alone, The Just One Project and volunteers picked up about 700 pounds of food from the Venetian Resort Las Vegas. The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) The Food Rescue Alliance is putting waste to work and turning surplus into support for hundreds of families every week. (KLAS) Any food that is in surplus after a convention or expo, we are able to repackage, get it out into the community the same day with the help of The Just One Project, Anna Schmid, Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for The Venetian, explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The items change dailyfrom hot breakfasts like eggs and bacon to fresh salads, gourmet pastries, and proteins like chicken and steak. But it all has to move fast. The only way were able to make sure this food stays 5-star quality is by doing this fast and getting it out fast, Food rescue manager Joshua Mike said. Our turnaround is within 2 hours from the time the event ends to the time its at our clients table. That way, we maintain that freshness and eliminate any type of food-borne illnesses. That speed and scale make a big difference. A good 500 families will be served very comfortably thats extra, thats seconds, said Mike. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Once packed, the meals are loaded into cars and delivered directly to families in need throughout the valley. Volunteers like Larraine Leisure help throughout the entire process, from repackaging to hand-delivering the food to community partners, including an adult daycare for nonverbal individuals. That is my number one blessing. I think that is so amazing because even though they cant communicate with me, I can tell by their smile that theyre thrilled to receive this food from JOP, Leisure said. She also prepares and delivers hot meals to her elderly and disabled neighbors. It lifts my spirits to be able to come here and help other people, Leisure added. Theres a need, theres a big need for people to receive food. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since the program began in 2023, the Food Rescue Alliance has delivered more than 400,000 meals. Its extremely vital. When we have one in six Nevadans going hungry or not knowing where their next meal is coming from, this program is so fantastic because instead of throwing that food away, its being repurposed; its being rescued and given to people who actually need it, Diebold said. In addition to the food rescue, The Just One Project has several other food programs to provide quality meals and groceries to families across the valley. For more information, visit More Than Just Groceries The Just One Project. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) July 15 marks nine years since the disappearance of Lashaya Stine. Police and her family told FOX31 they will not give up searching for her. Lashaya Stine was last seen on surveillance video walking near Peoria Street and Montview Boulevard at 2:15 a.m. on July 15, 2016. She was 16 years old at the time. Study ranks Colorado cities among best in US for new home buyers Stine was an honors student at George Washington High School. Her family said she was planning to go to college to study nursing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its unbelievable, Stines mother, Sabrina Jones, said. I have a stack this big of college applications that came in for her. I still have them. Stine would now be 25 years old. She is Joness only daughter. Even though everybodys gone on with their lives, they might have forgotten, we will never forget, Jones said. Just understand that were still looking for her. And I dream all the time about her and what she would look like, how she would talk, and I would give just about anything just to see her face. Were never going to give up on this case, Aurora Police Departments Agent Matthew Longshore said. Weve had investigators who have since promoted many ranks that arent giving up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aurora police and the FBI searched a vacant house in Aurora in 2020 in connection with Stines disappearance. The house was the familys of somebody that we believed was involved, Longshore said. They vacated and the owner of that house actually let us go into the basement. We dug up a good portion of the basement, hoping to find some sort of clues to help lead us to information on where she is, where she might be. Theyre never going to give up on this case. APD told FOX31 that detectives followed up on a tip in the last couple of months. They flew out of state, contacted this person who they thought might be involved, Longshore said. It didnt turn into anything substantial, but its small things like this that investigators are able to follow up on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information is asked to contact the Aurora Police Department or Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-7867. There is a reward, and you can remain anonymous. Black Canyon of the Gunnison South Rim Fire: Now less than two miles from high-level resources Maybe you were scared, maybe you were worried about what people would say, but Im not going to judge you, Jones said. Whatever information that you have that would lead me to find out whatever happened to my daughter, Ill accept it with open arms. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. Twenty Palestinians were killed at a food distribution center run by an Israeli-backed American organization in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, mostly from being trampled, the group said. They were the first deaths reported at one of the Gaza Humanitarian Fund sites, although hundreds have been killed by Israeli forces on the roads leading to them, according to witnesses and health officials. Israeli strikes across Gaza killed at least 54 others, including 14 children, according to hospital officials. Meanwhile in Syria, government officials and leaders in the Druze religious minority announced a renewed ceasefire late Wednesday after days of clashes that have threatened to unravel the countrys postwar political transition and drawn escalated military intervention from neighboring Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's the latest: Israel accuses the UN of ignoring Israeli suffering and refusing to condemn Hamas Reut Shapir Ben-Naftaly, the political coordinator at Israels U.N. Mission, told the U.N. Security Council that some of its members seem to forget Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that saw about 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage, triggering the ongoing war in Gaza. Instead, were presented with a narrative that forces Israel into a defendants chair, while Hamas, the very cause of this conflict and the very instigator of suffering of Israelis but also of Palestinians, goes unmentioned, unchallenged and immune to condemnation, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No U.N. resolution on Gaza, either by the Security Council or the General Assembly, has condemned the Hamas militant group. Palestinians accuse Israel of playing `Russian roulette with their lives The Palestinian deputy ambassador, Majed Bamya, told a U.N. Security Council meeting that death is now much more familiar than life to the 2 million people in Gaza, where no family has been untouched by the loss of loved ones. Every decision they are making while we speak is a life and death decision every single day, every single hour, every single minute, he said. But it is a Russian roulette with a bullet in almost every chamber. Whatever decision you make, most probably somebody is going to die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He held up photos of more than half a dozen children killed and severely injured in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Bamya said all paths in Gaza lead to death but the Palestinians have a responsibility and legal and moral duty to open a path to salvation. Israel wants that path to be leaving Gaza, he said. UNICEF says the world has failed Gazas children More than 17,000 kids have reportedly been killed and 33,000 wounded in the ongoing war in Gaza, UNICEFs executive director Catherine Russell told the U.N. Security Council. She said each of the territory's one million children have faced immense suffering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An average of 28 kids die daily in Gaza, a whole classroom of children killed every day for nearly two years, she said. Malnutrition has surged, with nearly 6,000 children acutely malnourished in June, a 180% increase since February, she said. UNICEF warns these children will face lifelong impacts. UN humanitarian chief says conditions in Gaza are beyond vocabulary Food supplies are running out and civilians are being shot while seeking something to eat, Undersecretary-General Tom Fletcher said Wednesday. "Civilians are exposed to death and injury, forcible displacement, stripped of dignity, Fletcher told the U.N. Security Council, emphasizing Israels obligation under the Geneva Conventions to provide food and medical aid as the occupying power in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also challenged the council to consider whether Israels rules of engagement incorporate all the precautions to avoid and minimize civilian casualties. Turkey says ceasefire in Syria possible within 3-4 hours Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking to Turkish journalists in New York, said his country was coordinating closely with neighboring nations and the U.S. special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, who is also the U.S. ambassador to Turkey. The Turkish minister also said that Turkey had directly communicated with Israel through its intelligence agency, sharing its concerns over the attacks and proposing solutions, which he did not elaborate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UN calls reports of dozens killed at Israeli-militarized food site in Gaza horrific Stephane Dujarric, the United Nations spokesman, also described people being severely injured at the U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Fund sites, such as the World Health Organization report on a 21-year-old man shot and paralyzed for life while trying to collect a bag of flour at one of the hubs. The spokesman told reporters Wednesday that the U.N. Population Fund, meanwhile, reports that domestic violence, sexual exploitation and abuse are on the rise and pregnant women are delivering their babies in the dark, with no electricity or no skilled care to address potential complications. Additionally, a survey by one of the U.N.s partners found that more than 80% of people with disabilities have lost wheelchairs, hearing aids, walkers and many other devices during the war in Gaza, Dujarric said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement UN chief condemns Israels stepped-up airstrikes in Syria and all violence against civilians Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterates his call for an immediate de-escalation of violence and urgent measures to restore calm and facilitate humanitarian access, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. The U.N. chief is alarmed at the escalating violence in Sweida, a Druze-majority area which has reportedly caused hundreds of deaths including civilians and injured and displaced many more, Dujarric said. Dujarric said in response to a question that videos showing government forces attacking civilians are shocking and highly, highly disturbing. He said thats why Guterres is eager to follow up with the government on its call for an investigation and its commitment to accountability for those responsible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The secretary-general also condemns Israels escalatory airstrikes on Sweida, Daraa and in the center of Damascus and reports that Israel is redeploying troops in the Golan, Dujarric said. Key governing partner of Netanyahu quits A key governing partner of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday it is quitting the government, leaving him with a minority in parliament. The Shas ultra-Orthodox party said it was leaving over disagreements surrounding a proposed law meant to grant wide military draft exemptions to its constituents. A second ultra-Orthodox party quit earlier this week over the same issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leading a minority government would make governing a challenge for Netanyahu. But Shas said it wouldnt work to undermine the coalition once outside it and could vote with it on some laws. It also wouldnt support its collapse. The political turmoil comes as Israel and Hamas are negotiating on a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. Fearing for their relatives, Druze in Israeli-controlled territory cross into Syria Members of the Druze minority in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights were seen crossing into Syria on Wednesday, fearing for their relatives fate as clashes raged between Syrian Druze and government forces. Waving the communitys multicolored flag, a procession of people from the minority marched into Syria. Israeli forces were seen nearby. Once in Syrian territory, Druze were seen reuniting with their loved ones. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, separating many Druze families from their relatives in Syria. Residents said they felt they had to do something in the face of harsh images emerging from the clashes. Its hard for us to stand here, not doing anything, said Majd Shaer, who said he has relatives in Syria. Syrian media reports a new ceasefire agreement has been reached A new ceasefire agreement has been reached to end days of fighting between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups in the southern city of Sweida, Syrian state-run news agency SANA reported Wednesday, citing an unidentified Interior Ministry official. The report said security checkpoints have been deployed in the city, and it has been fully integrated into the Syrian state. There was no immediate statement from Druze officials. A previous ceasefire agreement reached the day before quickly fell apart. The clashes in Sweida province initially broke out between members of local Bedouin tribes and Druze militias. Government security forces deployed to restore order, but also began clashing with the Druze factions, with allegations that government-affiliated forces had looted and burned civilian houses and carried out summary executions. U.S. very concerned by Israel-Syria violence The U.S. is very concerned about the latest surge in Israel-Syria violence and has been in touch with both sides in an effort to restore what had been a fragile ceasefire between the two countries, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. Were very concerned about it, we want it to stop, Rubio told reporters at the State Department after signing a civilian nuclear agreement with the foreign minister of Bahrain. Rubio said he had just been on the phone with relevant parties and that he hoped to have an update later. Turkey criticizes Israeli airstrikes on Damascus Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday's strikes on the Syrian capital were an a attempt to sabotage Syrias efforts to achieve peace, stability and security, and called for support for Syrias efforts to restore order across the country. The Syrian people have a historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world, the ministry said. All stakeholders who support this opportunity should contribute to the Syrian governments efforts to restore peace. Omer Celik, spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party, also affirmed Turkeys support to Syria. Israels attacks pose a security threat to the entire region and the world, Celik wrote on the social media platform X. Israeli jets strike Syrian defense ministry headquarters again Israeli jets struck the Syrian Defense Ministry's headquarters in central Damascus in the second such attack Wednesday. The strike, which came hours after a drone strike on the same site in the capital, caused significant damage. Israel has launched a series of strikes targeting Syrian government forces in the southern Sweida province. The Israeli government says its to support the Druze community. Syrian state media reported that there were a number of wounded people in the strike, without giving details. The building is located close to the busy Ummayad Square. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that they will escalate their attacks against the Syrian government with painful blows. Syrias Defense Ministry had earlier blamed militias in the Druze-majority area of Sweida for violating a ceasefire agreement that had been reached Tuesday, causing Syrian army soldiers to return fire. The Druze have accused government forces and allies of sectarian attacks, looting, and beatings during their ongoing military operation. Hundreds from Druze community gather along Syria-Israel border Hundreds of members of the Druze community from Majdal Shams and Druze villages in northern Israel have gathered along the border fence with Syria, trying to enter the country to support Druze armed groups as they continue to clash with Syria's government forces. Videos widely circulated on social media showed that many Druze were able to cross into Syria, where the majority of the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live. Meanwhile, hundreds of the Syrian Druze community gathered on the other side of the fence, though it was not immediately clear if they were demonstrating or trying to cross the border. The Israeli military said dozens have tried to cross into Israel. Tensions intensified when several Syrian Druze protesters stood atop a tractor waiving Druze flags and Israeli troops responded by lobbing tear gas, forcing them to shortly retreat. Dozens have been killed in the hostilities sparked by a series of tit-for-tat attacks and kidnappings. US ambassador pays surprise visit to Netanyahus trial The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, briefly attended the court proceedings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, saying he wanted to support the embattled Israeli leader in his ongoing corruption trial. Huckabees visit to the courthouse was a rare act of involvement in his host countrys internal affairs. It comes after President Donald Trump condemned the trial as a witch hunt. Speaking in Tel Aviv, Huckabee said the visit was a matter of representing what the president has said repeatedly. Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases. The president has made his position very clear, Huckabee said ahead of his visit to the courthouse. Its a personal thing for him. He considers the Prime Minister a friend. After the visit, Huckabee reposted Trumps call for the trial to be thrown out and added the comment: My conclusion? Trump is rightagain. Israel strikes near d efense ministry in Damascus The Israeli army said Wednesday that it struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defense in Damascus, as clashes continued in the southern Syrian city of Sweida after a ceasefire between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed. Israel has launched a series of airstrikes on convoys of government forces in southern Syria since the clashes erupted and has beefed up forces on the border. It has said it is acting to protect the Druze religious minority. The Druze religious sect began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Stun grenades and pepper spray caused chaos at food distribution site Gazas Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd outside one of its food distribution hubs, causing a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites. They used stun grenades and pepper spray against us. They had aid inside, but they intentionally did not distribute it to let people crowd outside, said Abdullah Aleyat, who was at the GHF site on Wednesday morning. Omar Al-Najjar, a resident of the nearby city of Rafah, said people were gasping for air, possibly from tear gas. The injuries were not from gunfire, but from people clustering and pushing against each other, Al-Najjar said as he carried an injured stranger to a hospital. The sites are inside Israeli military zones protected by private American contractors, and Israeli troops surround the sites. The United Nations human rights office and Gazas Health Ministry said Tuesday that 875 Palestinians in the enclave have been killed while seeking food since May, with 674 of those in the vicinity of aid distribution sites run by GHF. Egils Helmanis, Mayor of the Latvian city of Ogre, has been injured during his volunteer mission to Ukraine, likely near a frontline area, municipal representative Patriks Griva has said. Source: LSM, a Latvian public broadcaster, as reported by European Pravda Details: Griva stated that Helmanis brought a ship of volunteer aid to Ukraine, featuring vehicles and other equipment for its defenders. "Such trips have been a regular part of the mayors schedule since 2022, from the very start of the war. Every few months, they donate and deliver a significant number of vehicles this time, around 20," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No detailed information has been released about the circumstances or the nature of Helmaniss injuries, but he is reportedly in a stable condition. "From what we understand, there was a strike last night, and as a result, he was injured," the municipal representative explained. Griva said he did not yet know the exact location or further details, as the route for each trip is kept confidential. He added that "every such trip involves danger". Background: In August 2024, a British journalist from Reuters was killed in a Russian attack on Kramatorsk and Polish journalist Monika Andruszewska was injured. Two weeks ago, a Russian strike on Kyiv damaged the consular section of the Polish Embassy, and on the night of 15-16 July, Russian drones struck a facility belonging to a Polish company in Vinnytsia. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Far-right activist Laura Loomer has warned that Donald Trumps handling of the so-called Epstein files threatens to consume his presidency, in a stark departure from her usually unshakable support for the president. Obviously, this is not a complete hoax given the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in prison in Florida for her crimes and activities with Jeffrey Epstein, who we know is a convicted sexual predator, Loomer told POLITICO Wednesday. This is why I said, and Ill reiterate it again, the best thing that the president can do is appoint a special counsel to handle the Epstein files investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She later added in a post on X that a counsel was needed so we can all get back to focusing on his extraordinary wins and his incredible deals. No need for a distraction. Laura Loomer has warned that the ongoing obsession with the so-called Epstein files and the adminstrations handling of the situation threatens to consume Trumps second presidency. The remarks by the far-right activist, a well-known and zealous Trump acolyte, illustrate the growing rupture between the president and his stalwart MAGA base (Laura Loomer / X) Laura Loomer has warned that the ongoing obsession with the so-called Epstein files and the adminstrations handling of the situation threatens to consume Trumps second presidency. The remarks by the far-right activist, a well-known and zealous Trump acolyte, illustrate the growing rupture between the president and his stalwart MAGA base (Laura Loomer / X) She later reiterated her full support for Trump, but doubled down on her view that such information should be released. Id be annoyed too honestly if I were President Trump, winning for the American people everyday, and if people only wanted to focus on one issue instead of all of the issues. President Trump is doing a lot of great things and we dont need to throw the baby out with the bathwater, she wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But we cant just Truth Social the Epstein Files away. Two things can be true at the same time. I fully support President Trump. The remarks by Loomer, a zealous Trump acolyte, illustrate the growing rupture between Trump and his stalwart MAGA base, who continue to push for the release of further information surrounding the disgraced financiers death. During the interview, she likened the obsession and subsequent media interest to the controversy surrounding Trumps first White House campaign and its ties to Russia. I dont want it to consume his presidency, she said. It comes as the president has sought to move on from the backlash over the release of the Epstein files, for which U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has repeatedly come under fire. Trump previously defended U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from the outrage of his supporters and the continued calls for her resignation, praising her for doing a fantastic job (Getty Images) Trump previously defended U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi from the outrage of his supporters and the continued calls for her resignation, praising her for doing a fantastic job (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president himself likened the ongoing furore to the Russia controversy in a Truth Social tirade aimed at Democrats earlier on Wednesday, in which he claimed that such scams and hoaxes were all they have. In the post, he also took aim at the MAGA base, claiming his PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, and adding I dont want their support anymore! Trump previously defended Bondi from the outrage of his supporters and the continued calls for her resignation, praising her for doing a fantastic job. Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals? Trump wrote on July 12. Theyre all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! Were on one Team, MAGA, and I dont like whats happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein, Trump protested. Who better to re-investigate the Epstein case for the Trump administration than another alleged sex trafficker? Thats apparently Colorado Representative Lauren Boeberts line of thinking. Speaking with far-right commentator Benny Johnson on Tuesday, the QAnon-friendly Republican suggested that former Representative Matt Gaetz could serve as special counsel. I think moving forward, we need a special counsel, Boebert said, offering up Gaetzs name. There has to be a special investigation into this if we arent going to be provided information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gaetz was Trumps original pick for attorney general before his candidacy fell apart over a string of controversies, including allegations that the 43-year-old Florida politico had paid for sex with a minor. I hope it doesnt become a false idol to Republicans where we lose sight of everything else, but that doesnt mean we dont want answers, Boebert underscored. The lawmaker doubled down on the request after the interview, asking Gaetz directly on X if he would consider the post, despite hours earlier joining her party in blocking a Democrat-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales. Much to Trumps chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trumps popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epsteins so-called client list. The fallout has been so substantial that the president directed Fox News and some far-right influencers such as Charlie Kirk to stop discussing the topic altogether. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement QAnon believerswho turned out at the polls in November to re-elect Trumphave believed for years that the 79-year-old billionaire would rid the world of Satan-worshiping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media. But Trumps sudden refusal to offer up what he has promised his conspiratorial followers has cast his messiah-like status with the group into doubt. Trump has told his Epstein-focused supporters to move on, claiming that the unreleased files are a political concoction that nobody cares about. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that those still invested in uncovering the associates of the notorious child sex trafficker areaccording to himpretty bad people. A reminder that Trump was named and photographed as an associate of Epstein, who even described Trump as a best friend, and reportedly slept with his now-wife Melania for the first time aboard Epsteins plane, the Lolita Express. But Trump has a terrible track record with how he treats women outside of Epsteins world, as well: the current president was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carrol last year, was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and famously boasted on a hot mic before his ascent to Americas political vanguard that he grabs women by the pussy. There are a lot of Latin legal terms in the news lately. One that has always been considered essential is habeas corpus. The writ of habeas corpus is a very long-standing human right, recognized since 12th century England and a part of the U.S. Constitution since our founding. It is a means for a detained or arrested person to challenge the legality of that action. Presently, there are efforts to restrict this right. In our country, there are laws that people in government must follow. These include providing due process and other requirements before depriving a person of their freedom. At a minimum, there must be probable cause of illegal activity to justify an arrest. Even with an immigration deportation, there are legal standards and the right to challenge the governments action. Anyone who is held by law enforcement has the right of access to court to challenge the legal basis for their detention and the sufficiency of evidence. Filing a writ of habeas corpus starts the procedure by asking the jailor or other person responsible for detaining them to produce their body before a judge. The detainee asserts that they are being illegally held in custody and should be immediately released. The application for a writ requests the court to require the government to show evidence supporting their arrest or detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The right to this writ is declared in Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution, which emphatically states to Congress that The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. A writ of habeas corpus can be filed at the beginning of detention or any later time, even after conviction and sentencing. It is a bedrock part of the American legal system, an important check on governmental power. By building in the right to ask a court to review what law enforcement and prosecutors have done, our founders built in transparency and rejected secrecy. They also expressed that the rule of law is different from mere accusation, that allegations must be backed up with evidence of illegal behavior. and that the evidence must be publicly produced when challenged in court. Masked men grabbing people off the streets and disappearing them to unrevealed locations is what we thought happened only in other countries, never in America. The fact that it is happening here and now is unbelievable to many. The method for speedily challenging these actions is through a writ of habeas corpus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Recently, college students who advocated for Palestinians in Gaza and were taken into custody by ICE agents have been released through federal court habeas hearings while their immigration proceedings continued. They allege they are legally in the U.S. and that the efforts to deport them violate their First Amendment Free Speech and Fifth Amendment Due Process Constitutional protections. After Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War, the Supreme Court ruled only Congress had the power to do that, not the president. Americans of Japanese heritage were confined in internment camps for years during WWII without any opportunity to challenge. Finally, in 1988, Congress and President Reagan apologized and provided a token compensation fund. After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush ordered men labelled enemy combatants by the military to be detained at Guantanamo on Cuba, with no charges brought against them. Guantanamo was chosen because it was not on U.S. territory, and the Bush Administration believed they could completely deprive the inmates of all rights while they imprisoned them indefinitely, for however many years the war on terror would last. Four cases brought by Guantanamo inmates eventually made it to the Supreme Court over four years. The Court ruled against the government every time, concluding that even non-citizens held at Guantanamo have a constitutional right to use the writ of habeas corpus to contest their confinement. They said, Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law. The Framers decided that habeas corpus, a right of first importance, must be a part of that framework, a part of that law. Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) is a Must-Watch AI Stock on Wall Street. On July 11, UBS analyst Amit Mehrotra reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $135.00 price target. The firm noted that Vertiv shares dropped on Thursday after Amazon Web Services announced that they have launched a liquid cooling system for data centers. Even though liquid cooling systems are a small part of Vertiv, the analysts noted how they represent a disproportionate share of growth. This is why the stock underperformance is understandable. The firm, however, maintains that these fears are misguided. Vertiv $135 PT, Buy Rating UBS Says Fears Over AWS Are Misguided A data center filled with the latest servers and networking equipment representing the company's cutting edge security infrastructure. Firm checks reveal that Amazon does not seem to be competing with Vertivs liquid cooling offering. This is because such competition would require manufacturing several components like coolant distribution units, radiators, manifolds, pumps, and more. The stock reaction is a mere reflection of how sensitive investors are to competitive threats in the data center cooling space. Vertiv Holdings Co (NYSE:VRT) is a global provider of digital infrastructure technology and services for data centers, communication networks, and commercial and industrial facilities. While we acknowledge the potential of VRT as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT:10 Trending AI Stocks on News and Ratings and 10 Trending AI Stocks on Wall Street. Disclosure: None. The Trump administration detained former Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, center, for more than two months and is seeking to revoke his lawful permanent resident status. (Photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images) Editors note: Yes, the McCarran in the McCarran-Walter Act repeatedly referenced by the author in this column is Pat McCarran, who served as U.S Senator from Nevada from 1933 to 1954 and is generally considered the second-most powerful senator in the states history. Nativism, the idea that government must guard native-born Americans from various threats posed by immigrants, has a long history in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, the Trump administration is citing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, a restrictive measure written by nativist members of Congress decades ago when fears of communism were rampant, to sharply restrict the rights of noncitizens. Under this law, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, federal agencies have arrested and detained noncitizens associated with pro-Palestinian protests, reintroduced immigrant registration requirements, and imposed a new travel ban that affects 19 nations. Since the 1950s, Congress has removed some of this sprawling federal laws most discriminatory features, such as racist national origins quotas. But other key provisions remain on the books. Now they are the primary legal basis for some of President Donald Trumps most controversial immigration crackdowns. Foreign policy trumps free speech In March 2025, the White House invoked the McCarran-Walter Act to justify arresting and deporting Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident who had participated in pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. Officials pointed to Section 237(a)(4)(C) of the law, which states that any alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This has been tried only once before. In 1995, the Clinton administration unsuccessfully sought to use the provision to deport a former Mexican official, Mario Ruiz Massieu, to face charges in his homeland for extortion and obstructing a murder investigation. Ruiz Massieu was later indicted in the U.S. on money laundering charges and died by suicide shortly before his arraignment. The Trump administration cited the same provision to justify detaining Tufts University doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk in March. Ozturk came under government scrutiny because she co-authored an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the universitys position on the Israel-Gaza war. Surveillance footage of a terrified Ozturk being arrested by masked Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, drew criticism from government officials and civil liberties advocates. In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio alleged that Ozturk had harmed U.S. interests by supporting movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus. Khalil and Ozturk both were released after weeks in detention, pending final resolution of their cases. Their lawyers argue that their clients treatment violates free speech protections and that the defendants were punished for expressing their political beliefs. Monitoring noncitizens The McCarran-Walter Act also authorizes intrusive registration and tracking requirements for noncitizens who remain in the U.S. for 30 days or longer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to enforce an alien registration requirement. The agency issued a final rule in April requiring all noncitizens over the age of 14 to register and be fingerprinted. Parents or guardians must register noncitizen children under age 14. The rule also requires adult noncitizens to carry evidence of registration at all times. Such policies arent new. Noncitizen registration was codified in the Alien Registration Act of 1940, on the eve of U.S. entry into World War II. The law was designed to regulate the foreign-born population and encourage eligible noncitizens to join the U.S. armed forces. Its requirements were written into the McCarran-Walter Act. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Bush administration created the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which targeted noncitizen males age 16 or older from 25 Muslim-majority countries. It required registrants to submit biometric information, check in regularly with immigration authorities and use specific ports of entry for travel. The Obama administration suspended this system in 2011 and permanently dismantled it in 2016. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, Trump administration officials say they are simply enforcing long-standing legal authority. A federal judge agreed, ruling on April 10 that the Homeland Security Department could require noncitizens to register and carry documentation. Travel bans redux On June 2, Trump announced a new travel ban on foreign nationals from 12 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East. The ban draws its authority from the McCarran-Walter Act. Two days later, Trump claimed the same legal discretion to exclude Harvard Universitys international students from the U.S. During his first term, Trump invoked these sections of the law to justify a travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld this action in 2018 by a 5-4 vote in Trump v. Hawaii. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that the travel ban was well within broad powers over immigration granted to the president under the McCarran-Walter Act. He added that the court had no view on the soundness of the policy. Trumps new ban is more carefully crafted than earlier versions and more likely to withstand legal challenges. But his efforts to use the McCarren-Walter Act to ban international students from attending Harvard University face stiff legal headwinds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 22, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem notified Harvard officials that the agency was revoking the schools certification to participate in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, which grants visas to international students to come to the U.S. In a June 4 proclamation, the White House claimed that foreign students at Harvard had behaved in ways that threatened U.S. national security. A federal judge in Boston quickly blocked the revocation, holding that it violated core constitutional free speech rights. The governments misplaced efforts to control a reputable academic institution and squelch diverse viewpoints seemingly because they are, in some instances, opposed to this administrations own views, threaten these rights, wrote Judge Allison D. Burroughs. The latest step came on July 9, when the Trump administration subpoenaed Harvard for information on its foreign students, including their disciplinary records and involvement in campus protests. Broad power over noncitizens Ironically, congressional sponsors of the McCarran-Walter Act were at odds with the White House when the law was enacted in 1952. They overrode a veto by President Harry S. Truman, who thought the laws nativist ideas were unfitting for a nation of immigrants and global defender of democracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the expansive executive powers created by this law have endured largely unaltered over time, through waves of immigration reform. Now they are a boon to the Trump administrations ambitious immigration crackdown. Its a telling reminder that repressive old laws can come back to life even when they dont reflect the current views of many Americans. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Plastic-based wet wipes will finally be getting flushed out of Wales. The Free Press Series reported that the Welsh Senedd voted in June to ban the popular household product, with the hope that the move will help keep beaches and rivers from turning into clogged-up messes. This follows similar concerns raised elsewhere, like when experts sounded the alarm about pollution from wet wipes clogging the River Thames in England. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies didn't mince words. "There should be no place for wet wipes amongst the pebbles and the sand and the seaweed on our beautiful Welsh coastline," he told members. He said anyone walking along the coast can see the problem for themselves, adding, "This pollution, as we all know, is visible, its impact is tangible, and it's long-lasting." Starting December 18, 2026, shops won't be able to sell or give away plastic-based wet wipes. They'll join the lineup of single-use plastics banned under a 2023 law. Spain passed a similar ban targeting wet wipes after seeing how much they cost cities in sewer repairs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So what's the big deal? Picture flushing paper towels down your toilet every day. Wet wipes are like that, except they're made with hidden plastic fibers that never break down. This can lead to an increased risk of blocked sewage pipes. A government survey found that about 22% of people admit to flushing them. That sends wipes into sewers, rivers, and the sea, where they break apart into microplastics. Those tiny pieces can eventually end up in seafood. Even the British royal family has banned wet wipes from its properties to avoid long-term plumbing damage and environmental waste. Janet Finch-Saunders, an opposition member of the Senedd, backed the move. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It's not often that I say this, but thank you very, very muchfor bringing forward your statement today and indeed this ban," she told colleagues. Not every wipe will vanish from shelves, though. Medical-grade wipes and some industrial wipes still need plastic for hygiene or function. Irranca-Davies said industries using them will be pushed to find safer options in the near future. People can swap these products for reusable cloths or plastic-free wipes for daily cleaning. It's a simple switch that can make a big difference in reducing infrastructure damage, protecting marine life, and improving water quality. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Lawmakers in Wisconsin have taken a significant step toward powering a sustainable future, which could yield major benefits for both the planet and people. On July 2, Gov. Tony Evers signed two bipartisan bills into law aimed at transforming Wisconsin into the "Silicon Valley" of nuclear fusion, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. One bill mandates that the state host a nuclear summit in Madison, while the other commissions a study to determine the best site for a future fusion plant. These measures are designed to support the clean energy startups and university researchers already advancing fusion technology within the state. This initiative follows recent clean energy efforts in states such as Rhode Island, Virginia, and Delaware that have developed offshore wind farms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We can't afford to choose between mitigating environmental damage and creating good-paying jobs," Evers said in a statement, per the Journal Sentinel. "By working toward clean energy options Wisconsinites can depend on, we're doing both." Fusion energy, the same process that powers the sun, is still under development as a technology for generating grid-scale energy, but its potential is immense. Unlike traditional nuclear fission, fusion does not produce dangerous radioactive waste or depend on carbon-polluting fuels. Instead, it uses plasma, a superheated state of matter, to generate energy without harmful carbon pollution, making it one of the most promising clean energy sources currently being developed. Three of the 45 fusion startups in the U.S. are already operating in Wisconsin, including Realta Fusion, which helped lawmakers draft the bills. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are also actively working to scale up fusion technology to power everything from neighborhoods to new energy-hungry artificial intelligence data centers. With electricity demand from these centers projected to double or even triple by 2028, clean alternatives like fusion could help meet that demand without exacerbating pollution. This initiative could help Wisconsin get ahead of the curve, attracting new clean energy investments, companies, and jobs before other states join the race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The summit and siting study are still in the early planning stages, but this legislation provides Wisconsin a genuine opportunity to lead the next chapter in clean energy innovation. "I'm excited to sign these bipartisan bills today," Evers added, "to propel us into an innovative, clean energy future." Should the government be allowed to restrict how much water we use? Definitely Only during major droughts No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Foreign-made semiconductors are facing scrutiny and tariffs by the Trump administration, which would cause a ripple effect for manufacturing and price of most electronic goods, experts say. (Photo by Narumon Bowonkitwanchai/Getty Images) Updated at 2:18 p.m. A California-based company set to utilize a Genesee County megasite for a massive semiconductor project has reportedly dropped the effort citing massive uncertainty at the federal level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in a Wednesday statement said that a company whose preferred site was located in Mundy Township decided against building a semiconductor plant anywhere in the U.S. Their board came to this decision amid national economic turmoil, which is at risk of worsening amid threats of even higher tariffs, Whitmer said. State Sen. John Cherry (D-Flint), later identified the company in a statement as Sandisk Corporation. Cherry called the decision deeply disappointing, saying the project represented a generational opportunity to restore Genesee Countys as a manufacturing powerhouse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also slammed the Trump administrations tariff policies as the driver behind the decision, arguing the presidents levies policies have disrupted supply chains and created instability for investors, making it difficult for even the most promising projects to move forward. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX While this pause is a setback, it does not erase the progress weve made or the potential that still exists within the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County. We remain committed to attracting transformative investments, supporting skilled trades and technical careers, and ensuring that Genesee County remains a competitive and compelling destination for advanced manufacturing, Cherry said. However, Michigan Speaker of the House Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) argued the presidents tariffs arent to blame and are aimed at punishing companies for offshoring jobs while rewarding companies who build and invest in America. President Trumps bold leadership is making it easier and more attractive than ever to create jobs in America. We simply need state leaders who are focused on making sure Michigan is the best possible place to build and grow, Hall said. Thats why House Republicans will continue to fight at the Capitol to cut unnecessary red tape, reverse the 2023 Democrat tax hike on small business and improve state government services to help as many job creators as possible choose Michigan as a permanent home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In April, the University of Pennsylvanias Penn Wharton Budget Model predicted Trumps tariffs would reduce the nations gross domestic product by 6% in the long run with wages seeing a 5% reduction. According to the model, a middle-income household will see a $22K lifetime loss. When asked for comment, a Sandisk representative said the company is in a quiet period ahead of reporting their FY25 Q4 and year-end financial results. This quiet period prevents us from being able to respond, the representative said. U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Bay City) whose 8th Congressional District includes all of Saginaw and Bay counties, almost all of Genesee County and parts of Midland and Tuscola counties slammed the Trump administration, arguing the project would have brought thousands of jobs to the region. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a gut punch to working families across our region. Trumps abandonment of long-term investments and chaotic tariff practices are not only raising costs, they just killed 10,000 good-paying jobs, McDonald Rivet said in a statement. This could have been a game-changer for mid-Michigans economy. We need practical solutions, not chaos and dysfunction that cost us once-in-a-generation opportunities. Additionally, the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance said while they were disappointed by the announcement, they remained 100% committed to attracting an advanced manufacturer to Genesee County. The Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County is the best site in North America for an advanced manufacturer to locate, and we will continue our important work together to attract a job-creating project that will benefit our region and the entire state for generations to come. We remain convinced that attracting an advanced manufacturer will create thousands of jobs, help boost and launch small businesses, create opportunities for young people and help us enhance national security by bringing our supply chain and jobs back to the U.S., Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the agency, said During her keynote address at the 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference, Whitmer set her sights on securing a semiconductor plant and beginning construction by the end of 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will continue to compete with other states and countries to bring cutting-edge factories home to Michigan so we can create economic prosperity for workers and communities and lead the next century of advanced manufacturing, Whitmer said on Wednesday. While I will keep doing whatever is in my power to build on Michigans economic momentum, there is no doubt that national economic uncertainty will make this harder. We will keep bringing people together to get big things done. Quentin Messer, CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said the states team can, with confidence say it presented the most compelling site, the most competitive business case and the strongest community impact partnership in the U.S. While economic factors outside of the states control ultimately proved insurmountable to this greenfield project moving forward in the U.S., we are proud of the tremendous work that resulted in Genesee County being the preferred, and final U.S. location for what would have been a generational semiconductor fab investment, Messer said. The Economic Development Corporation remains on track in its site readiness efforts in Mundy Township, Messer said, with the Flint and Genesee Economic Alliance leading investment and work into making it a premier greenfield site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That momentum remains strong and will continue onward, putting Genesee County in a dynamic position to secure future advanced manufacturing investments that will bring good paying jobs and economic opportunity to our state, Messer said. This story was updated with comments from Gov. Whitmer, U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet and the MEDC. BOSTON (SHNS) The multifamily zoning requirements on communities near MBTA service are the highest profile state efforts to influence local zoning, but a committee heard another proposal Tuesday in the long-running quest to stir housing production: up the financial incentives for communities that zone to allow starter homes. Theres a big need for housing, as we all know. And when the millionaires supposed tax passed, they thought every millionaire would be running for the hills. Some did move to Florida because they planned on that anyway, but the biggest difficulty is, Im hearing, is from young families that cannot afford to find an apartment or afford to buy a house in the commonwealth, Sen. Michael Brady of Brockton said. Brady and the rest of the Joint Committee on Community Development and Small Business heard testimony Tuesday in support of legislation that aims at starter homes those that have at least three bedrooms and are no larger than 1,850 square feet of heated living area in a bid to make homeownership more accessible and affordable, particularly for first-time homebuyers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Benjamin Fierro, an attorney and lobbyist who represents the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Massachusetts, said the issue dates back to 2004 Romney era law (Chapter 40R, the so-called Smart Growth Zoning and Housing Production Act) under which the state provides financial incentives to cities and towns to create certain zoning districts, both up-front money and payments for each unit of housing for which a building permit was issued. The law was updated under the Baker administration to include starter homes, but Fierro said the problem with that law was that the single-family homes had to be built in so-called Smart Growth locations. Well, the reality is [that] land is too valuable to try to put single-family homes. Bills filed by Sen. Paul Feeney and Rep. David Vieira (S 176 / H 313) would double the financial incentives for cities and towns with a starter home zoning district, so that instead of getting $3,000 for every single unit of housing, they would get $6,000. The financial incentives would go from a minimum of $10,000 to $20,000 and so on, Fierro said. Neily Soto, a Methuen city councilor who is also executive director of the Massachusetts Housing Coalition, said her organization also supports the Feeney/Vieira legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps most importantly, these zoning payments and the per unit incentive do not go to developers. They are directly funding sources for our community. In my opinion, thats a win-win, she said. They address the costs that arise with a growing population, and enable municipalities to invest more in infrastructure, which has often been a point of contention with the new housing projects. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. CHEYENNE The Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees approved a $440,189,291 budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year at its meeting Monday night. This years budget was developed in the context of an evolving school finance environment in Wyoming, LCSD1 Superintendent Stephen Newton wrote in a letter to the board. Newton added that districts are preparing for potentially significant adjustments to the Legislatures school funding recalibration process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While no major changes have yet been implemented, the discussions surrounding the adequacy of funding for transportation, special education and facilities continue to be at the forefront of legislative priorities, Newton wrote. The uncertainty of the states long-term revenue picture, coupled with these ongoing recalibration efforts, underscores the need for prudent financial planning at the local level. While the board had previously adopted a budget on June 30, the new budget presented Monday night accounted for minor adjustments due to the finalized financials for the previous fiscal year, according to LCSD1 Finance Director Jed Cicarelli. New budget The financial framework of the district comprises six major funds, each containing detailed sub-funds, functions and major object levels, according to Cicarelli. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The budget increased by $46 million from the last fiscal year to a total $440.1 million for the upcoming year. Of the budget, 58% is allocated to the general fund. General funds are allocated to instruction, instructional support, general support, and other expenditures and transfers. The second-largest allocation in the budget is capital projects, which accounts for 26% of the budget, including capital construction and special building funds. LCSD1 is excited about the move forward on much-needed capital projects aimed at replacing aging facilities and improving learning spaces, Newton wrote to the board. We are leveraging available major maintenance funding for major renovations, and continue to be actively engaging in conversations about the adequacy of the states approach to school facility funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The upcoming years funding contemplates some of the design and construction costs for some of the elementary school renovations that LCSD1 is working on, according to Cicarelli. Major maintenance accounts for 7% of the budget, special revenue funds account for 6%, enterprise funds account for 2%, and less than 1% of the budget is allocated to trust and custodial funds. Enrollment Student enrollment is the single most influential factor in determining the districts general fund resources for the upcoming year, Cicarelli told the board. In the preliminary stages of budgeting, the district estimated an enrollment drop of 129 students, which represents roughly a $3.3 million decrease in funding for the district. Going forward, the district has been less optimistic in their estimates, projecting a decrease of potentially more than 300 students for the upcoming year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This would represent one of the largest single-year declines that weve experienced in recent years, Cicarelli said. And certainly we wont know more until we start the school year. But we know that we have that kind of financial cliff, if you will, looming. While the district has taken steps to manage staffing and operations in line with enrollment changes, Cicarelli said LCSD1 is approaching a point where continued declines will require some more structural changes. Increased costs The most significant increases in costs are from personnel. The district saw a $12.2 million increase in personnel costs due to staff negotiations. About 4.7 million of that is attributed to the employer share of rising health insurance premiums. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The district did, however, see $3.3 million in savings from staff reductions. We reduced about 30 positions across the entire district, both at the department and the school level, Cicarelli said. The district was also able to save $1.8 million by adjusting department budgets. Personnel costs and decreases in enrollment are not the only budgetary stress the district is looking at. Local and county property tax collections are expected to decrease, which impacts the districts revenue. In contrast, state entitlement payments are expected to increase by about $21.1 million. Even utility costs are expected to increase, in part due to the city of Cheyennes new stormwater runoff management fees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This budget reflects a careful balancing act of absorbing known cost increases, while responsibly reducing where possible to meet those revenue projections, Cicarelli said. The board unanimously voted to adopt the adjusted budget. The next LCSD1 board meeting will be held Aug. 4, at 6 p.m., following a work session that begins at 5 p.m. SALEM, Ohio (WKBN) Mental health and law enforcement professionals in Columbiana County joined forces Wednesday in Salem to highlight recovery resources available. Operation Bridge started three years ago in connection with the State of Ohio and the countys Mental Health and Recovery Services Board and drug task force. The goal was to show people how to get help with mental health issues and drug addictions. We go after drug dealers. We go after drug traffickers, but we cant arrest our way out of the problem, said Jesse Smith, director of the Columbiana County Drug Task Force. A big part of what we need to do is fix both the supply and the demand for drugs in the area. So, getting more people help and treatment and recovery and into sober living services helps us all the way around. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you couldnt make Wednesdays event, theres another one on Thursday. It will be held near the Way Station on the closed blocks of West Fifth Street in East Liverpool. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Marc Andreessen, founder of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, voiced his anger at some of Americas elite higher education institutions like Stanford University and MIT in private messages to top Trump administration officials over their alleged reverse discrimination. Now my people are furious and not going to take it anymore, he wrote in comments that have sparked heavy criticism. Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen hit out at elite U.S. universities for allegedly discriminating against children of conservative Trump voters. The leaked comments from a private WhatsApp group chat that included several Trump administration officials indicate a broader backlash among wealthy elites against many of the institutions where they got their degrees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ivy League graduate and fellow tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has been a frequent and vocal critic of higher education as a hotbed of leftist political ideology, while billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman repeatedly attacked his alma mater, Harvard University, over its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. The combination of DEI and immigration is politically lethal, Andreessen wrote in messages from May uncovered by the Washington Post. When these two forms of discrimination combine, as they have for the last 60 years and on hyperdrive for the last decade, they systematically cut most of the children of the Trump voter base out of any realistic prospect of access to higher education and corporate America. They declared war on 70% of the country and now theyre going to pay the price. What he specifically meant by this demographic majority is unclear. But from the context, his comments have been seen as a reference to white America. The latest U.S. Census Bureau figures for 2024 put the percentage of white Americans in the population at 75.3%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fortune reached out to Andreessen Horowitz for comment and clarification but did not receive a response at the time of publication. I was born in 1971 in Iowa and grew up in Wisconsin, Andreessen continued in his messages. My cohort of citizens was told that we just had to put up with this as a cost of prior American bigotry, even though the discrimination was now aimed at us. The insanity of the last 8 years and in particular the summer of 2020 totally shredded that complacency. And so now my people are furious and not going to take it anymore, Andreessen snapped in his group chat messages. The reference to 2020 is most likely meant to be the nationwide protests that erupted after the murder of black American George Floyd by a white police officer, which sparked a host of DEI initiatives across corporate Americamany of which are now being rolled back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Andreessens comments were privately made, shared among an elite circle of high-ranking administration officials in Trumps government. As a result they were very direct in nature, attacking universities like Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT], as well as the National Science Foundation [NSF]. I view Stanford and MIT as mainly political lobbying operations fighting American innovation at this point, he confided. Fortune has reached out to Stanford and MIT for comment. The messages have sparked heavy criticism, in part because the NSF helped fund his research on computers through a large grant in 1994 that led directly to Andreessens fortune as creator of web browser Netscape Navigator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Washington Post article itself was inundated with reader comments, nearly 5,000 in total, overwhelmingly negative, according to the paper. After long supporting the Clinton-era Democrats, Andreessen previously said he no longer saw his interests reflected by the partys leadership amid an embrace of DEI and identity-based policies. He then endorsed Trumps campaign last year, arguing the Biden administrations hostile approach to cryptowhere his VC firm is the industrys leading investorwould stifle Americas economic innovation. While the crypto economy is a key focus at Andreessen Horowitz, often shortened to a16z, the company is also heavily invested in AI and led the $2 billion funding round for Mira Muratis new artificial intelligence startup, Thinking Machines Lab. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com The Palestine Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting its monthly Chamber Connection with three stops Thursday, July 17. We want everyone to join us for a unique opportunity to connect and discover at our monthly networking event, designed for everyone in Palestine, said Chamber Member Services Coordinator Anja Cline. This event is not just about making connections, but also about gaining deeper insights into each business and the passionate individuals behind them. Held on the third Thursday of each month, the Chamber Connection showcases three area businesses or organizations, each hosting a reception at various times during the day. The monthly event provides a unique opportunity for area businesses and individuals to meet and network. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first stop for the July Chamber Connection will be from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Thursday at the Palestine Farmers Market, 813 W. Spring St. in Palestine. We plan to talk about the kinds of vendors we are looking for, how easy it is to join our community and some little known facts about our market, its history and a behind the scenes look at what it takes to organize a successful market day, said Market Manager April Shaner. We are excited to partner with the Chamber on this event to connect with community members who may not know what we are about yet. The Chambers second scheduled stop is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Curious Museum, 619 W. Oak Street. The final stop for the day will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Gold Eye Clinic, 501 E. Kolstad Street. At this stop, join the Chamber and Gold Eye Clinic in welcoming its newest eye doctor, Dr. Jacquelyn Rubalcava. Refreshments will be provided during this meet-and-greet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you cant attend this month, mark your calendars for next months Chamber Connection, set for Thursday, Aug. 21, For more information on the Chamber Connection call 903-729-6066 or visit www.palestinechamber.org. Palestinians mourn for their relatives those who lost their lives in Israeli airstrike towards US aid supply distribution point in Gaza Strip on July 16, 2025. Credit - Abed Rahim KhatibAnadolu via Getty Images At least 20 people were killed in a stampede at an aid distribution site in Gaza on Wednesday, according to Gaza health officials and the U.S.-backed aid group operating the site. The incident is the latest in a series of deadly events near aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a U.S.-based organization operating with Israeli support. GHF was designated lead distributor of aid in Gaza in late May amid international pressure over Israels months-long blockade, which had pushed the enclave to the edge of famine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The death toll of Palestinians killed near GHF aid hubs has now reached nearly 700, according to United Nations figures released on Tuesday. The GHF claimed the stampede, which took place on its distribution hub in Khan Younis, was intentionally caused by agitators in the crowd. The organization reported 19 people were trampled and one person was fatally stabbed during what it described as a chaotic and dangerous surge. We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd armed and affiliated with Hamas deliberately fomented the unrest, GHF said, adding that it recovered at least one firearm during the incident. Gazas Health Ministry disputed GHFs version of events of what prompted the stampede, calling the statement false and misleading. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This crime claimed the lives of 21 martyrs this morning, including 15 who died from suffocation and six who were shot with live ammunition, in addition to many others who were injured, the Health Ministry statement read. Read more: Why the U.K. and Allies Sanctioned Israeli Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrichand What Comes Next The ministry also accused GHF of operating outside humanitarian norms, saying it does not adhere to any professional or ethical standards of humanitarian work. The Health Ministry has alleged that GHF staff, which consists of armed private security personnel, and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have fired directly upon people collecting aid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TIME has reached out to the GHF and the IDF for comment. The Israeli military has declined to comment publicly on the incident, referring questions back to the foundation. Witnesses said guards at the site used pepper spray after locking the gates, trapping people between the gates and the perimeter fence. Other reports from the scene allege that access to the aid center was delayed or blocked, causing panic among those gathered. People kept gathering and pressuring each other; when people pushed each other...those who couldnt stand fell under the people and were crushed," Mahmoud Fojo told Reuters. "Some people started jumping over the netted fence and got wounded. We were injured, and God saved us. We were under the people and we said the Shahada (death prayers). We thought we were dying, finished," the eyewitness continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a response to the New York Times, the organization said it had used a limited amount of pepper spray, but only to safeguard additional loss of life. GHF and its distribution sites have come under heavy criticism since operations began in May. The day after aid hubs in Gaza opened, one Palestinian was killed and another 48 injured, which appeared to be as a result of Israeli gunfire according to the U.N. Read more: 27 Palestinians Killed After Israeli Soldiers Open Fire Near Aid Hub in Gaza Critics have also raised concerns that the placement of GHF aid centers, mostly in southern and central Gaza, may be contributing to the long-term displacement of civilians from the north, where Israeli military operations have continued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite the scale of distribution, the UN has warned that aid provided through GHF represents only a fraction of what is needed to stave off starvation for Gazas population of more than two million. Read more: Gaza Hospital Director Killed Alongside Family Members in Israeli Airstrike Contact us at letters@time.com. The latest round of quarterly earnings from the biggest banks on Wall Street cemented one clear signal about how corporate clients are now reacting to President Trump's tariff threats: They've moved on. Top bank executives repeatedly made it clear this week that their corporate clients are becoming used to the uncertainty surrounding trade and are moving ahead with plans to merge with other companies, raise debt, or go public anyway. "Boardrooms appear more accepting of ongoing uncertainty broadly," Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO Ted Pick said Wednesday. Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick in 2023. (Reuters/Jeenah Moon/File Photo) REUTERS / Reuters Volatility "is going to, I suspect, be a feature, not a bug of the new world order and we will benefit from that," Citigroup (C) CEO Jane Fraser said Tuesday. Some said that new negotiations and trade pacts with certain countries are also helping clients get more comfortable with the uncertainty. Read more: How to protect your money during turmoil, stock market volatility A narrower range of outcomes on global trade for clients "sealed their confidence and willingness to transact, Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO David Solomon said. Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan told analysts his clients "continue to see clarity with the changes in trade and tariffs," and "we can see them start to understand the future and expect them to behave accordingly." The results backed these statements up. Cumulative investment banking and trading results across Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) rose compared with the year-ago period. These five big Wall Street banks reported collective second quarter trading and investment banking revenues of $33.8 billion and $8.7 billion, up 17% and 7%, respectively, when compared to the second quarter of last year. Not that the market chaos triggered by Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariff announcement wasn't felt at all. "April was just really slow," Bank of America CFO Alastair Borthwick told reporters during a Wednesday morning call. "Our M&A business did fine in terms of the number of deals this quarter, but the deals that we closed were just smaller," he added. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley reported drops of 9% and 5%, respectively, across investment banking, with both banks seeing weaker fees from their bond underwriting and merger advisory businesses. Three of the big five lenders, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Citigroup, saw total investment banking revenue grow from the year-ago period. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on July 16. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) ASSOCIATED PRESS There was lots of talk from the big banks this week about how a push to deregulate the banks will be a positive for them going forward, with some speculating about a dramatic rollback of bank rules imposed since the 2008 financial crisis. DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) Bangladeshi security forces on Wednesday clashed with supporters of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leaving at least four people dead and scores injured, a hospital official and local media said. The violence erupted in the morning and spread as a new political party formed by students who led the uprising against Hasina in August last year announced a march toward southwestern Gopalganj district, Hasinas ancestral home, and her Awami League partys stronghold. Authorities later imposed an overnight curfew in the district. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since Hasina's ouster 11 months ago, Bangladesh has been marked by chaos and unchecked mob violence. Wednesday's attack underscores the deep divisions in the country as its interim government keeps failing to bring the deteriorating security situation under control. A chaotic situation TV footage showed pro-Hasina activists armed attacking police with sticks and setting vehicles on fire as a convoy of about 20 vehicles carrying the leaders of the students' National Citizen Party arrived as part of commemorations of the uprising. Party leaders took shelter in the office of the local police chief. Footage showed top leaders were being escorted by soldiers to an armored vehicle for safety. They later left for a neighboring district with security escorts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jibitesh Biswas, a senior official of a state-run hospital, told reporters that the bodies of at least three people had been brought in. The country's leading English-language Daily Star reported that four people died. The interim government said Wednesday the attackers on the students would not go unpunished" and in a statement issued on behalf of interim leader Muhammad Yunus, described the violence in Gopalganj as utterly indefensible." Hasina's Awami League party, which authorities banned in May, issued several statements on X condemning the violence and blaming the interim government for the deaths and injuries. We urge the world to take note of this blatant use of security apparatus, one Awami statement said, adding that it had used mob violence against dissenters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Student leader Nahid Islam gave the authorities a 24-hour ultimatum to arrest those responsible for the Gopalganj violence and floated the prospect of another march in the neighboring district of Faridpur on Thursday. The right wing Jamaat-e-Islami party condemned the attacks on the student-led party and announced a nationwide protest in all districts and main cities for Thursday. A nation in turmoil Critics of the interim government warn of a widening polarization that has reduced hopes for national reconciliation even as Yunus' administration pledges to bring order in the post-Hasina era. They say if the situation does not improve, a peaceful transition to democracy would be jeopardized. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yunus took over the country three days after Hasina was toppled and fled to India, pledging to restore order. He has promised a new election would be held in April next year. Hasina now faces charges of crimes against humanity while the government seeks her extradition from India, which has not responded to Bangladesh's request. Gopalganj is a politically sensitive district because Hasina fathers mausoleum is located there. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the countrys independence leader, was buried there after he was assassinated along with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. The National Citizen Party launched its July March to Rebuild the Nation at the start of the month, saying they would take place across all districts as part of its drive to position itself as a new force in Bangladeshi politics. Bangladesh's political past has been largely dominated by two dynastic parties Hasinas Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, headed by her rival and former prime minister Khaleda Zia. The BNP, which is hopeful of coming to power in the absence of Hasina's party, was mostly silent about Wednesday's violence. July 16 (UPI) -- At least 24 people were injured in Ukraine overnight as Russia maintained a weeks-long summer blitz, launching as many as 400 drones targeting regions in the east, center and southwest of the country. The airborne assault was aimed primarily at the provinces of Odessa, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia and Dnipropetrovsk, where 15 people were injured in one of the largest attacks of the war on Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's hometown. Calling it "the most massive attack... since the start of the war," Kryvyi Rih military administration head and former deputy prime minister Oleksandr Vilkul said the city had been attacked with 28 drones and a ballistic missile, setting parts of the city ablaze and causing power and water outages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Industrial infrastructure was hit in Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski saying several people had been injured, including two with severe burns, after a factory owned by Polish flooring manufacturer Barlinek Group was struck with a three-pronged attack. "[Russian President Vladimir] Putin's criminal war is moving closer to our borders," said Sikorski. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said the city, Ukraine's second-largest behind Kyiv, was hit 16 times in less than 15 minutes. Regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said a 54-year-old male resident of the city was injured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ukrainian air force said 85% of the drones were shot down by air defenses or went the wrong way. Zelensky said the rescue operation in the affected areas was still ongoing. "Russia is not changing its strategy -- and to counter this terror effectively, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination," Zelensky wrote on social media. The continuation of Russia's large-scale aerial offensive came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump set a 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to sign onto a deal to end the war or see secondary sanctions slapped on nations that opt to continue to purchase Russian oil and gas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The largest attack of the current wave and the largest since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, came on the night of July 8. Russian forces rained down more than 740 drones and missiles through the night on targets all across the country, including Kyiv and provinces in the far west, killing at least five people and injuring 39. Zelensky said Sunday that in the previous seven days alone, Ukraine had been attacked with over 1,800 drones, 1,200 glide-bombs and 83 ballistic, cruise and other types of missiles. The carnage prompted Trump to announce the very same day that the United States would supply Ukraine with more Patriot air defense systems, via NATO allies, to help protect its cities from Russian airborne attacks. Under the plan, NATO member states in Europe will send their Patriot launcher batteries to Ukraine and place commercial orders for replacements from the U.S. manufacturer, Raytheon, via the Defense Department. Hezbollah has been grappling with acute financial strains, US demands for its disarmament, and diminished political clout since a new cabinet took office in February with US support. Lebanons central bank, Banque du Liban, banned the countrys licensed financial institutions from any direct or indirect interactions with unlicensed entities and Hezbollahs Al-Qard Al-Hassan in a circular viewed by Reuters. US Ambassador Tom Barrack called the move a step in the right direction in a post on X/Twitter on Tuesday. A step in the right direction by the Lebanese government in harnessing the flow of Hezbollah militia finances that had been directed [through] Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Transparency and alignment of all financial intermediaries in Lebanon under the supervision of the central bank is a valued and necessary accomplishment, he added. Barrack had visited Beirut last week to discuss a proposed plan to disarm Hezbollah. Cars drive near a building damaged during previous hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, in the southern city of Tyre, Lebanon July 3, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Aziz Taher) Israel heavily struck Lebanon on Tuesday, saying it targeted Hezbollah training camps and weapons depots in the eastern part of the country. Al-Qard Al-Hassan The US Treasury imposed sanctions on Al-Qard Al-Hassan in 2007, arguing that Hezbollah used it as a cover to manage financial activities and gain access to the international financial system. Al-Qard Al-Hassan, founded in 1983, describes itself as a charitable organization that provides loans to people in accordance with Islamic principles that prohibit interest. Israel struck some of its branches during its war with Hezbollah last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The terror group has been grappling with acute financial strains, US demands for its disarmament, and diminished political clout since a new Lebanese cabinet took office in February with US support. The groups difficulties have been compounded by seismic shifts in the regional power balance since Israel decimated its command, killed thousands of its fighters, and destroyed much of its arsenal last year. Hezbollahs Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, was toppled in December, severing a key arms supply line from Iran. Tehran is now emerging from its own bruising war with Israel, raising doubts over how much aid it can offer, a regional security source and a senior Lebanese official told Reuters. Another senior official, who is familiar with Hezbollahs internal deliberations, said the group had been holding clandestine discussions on its next steps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Small committees have been meeting in person or remotely to discuss issues including the terror organizations leadership structure, political role, social and development work, and weapons, the official said on condition of anonymity. In December, Secretary-General Naim Qassem said Hezbollah had paid more than $50 million to affected families, with more than $25 million still to hand out. But there are signs that its funds are running short. One Beirut resident said he had paid for repairs to his apartment in the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs after it was damaged in the war, only to see the entire block destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in June. Everyone is scattered and homeless. No one has promised to pay for our shelter, said the man, who declined to be identified for fear his complaints might jeopardize his chances of receiving compensation. He said he had received checks from Hezbollah but was told by the groups financial institution, Al-Qard Al-Hassan, that it did not have funds available to cash them. Reuters could not immediately reach the institution for comment. LEBANON COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Officers from South Londonderry Township Police Department lined the streets Monday night to honor one of their own. K-9 Rex, the departments first K-9 officer, passed away after a short battle with an aggressive cancer, the department said. He was 11 years old. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now ICYMI: Top 5 Stories of the Week He was a fierce and loyal partner on duty, and a goofy, lovable (and still fierce) protector, the departments K-9 unit said in a post announcing his passing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The German shepherd arrived at the department from Slovakia in 2014 as a dual-purpose K-9, meaning he was certified as a narcotics detection and patrol dog. Rex performed his tasks well. He was responsible for the seizure of tens of thousands of dollars of narcotics, numerous successful tracks of both suspects and missing persons, as well as bringing a smile to everyones face that he met at public events, the department said. Rex retired three years ago, at which point a nonprofit called Paws of Honor provided him free veterinary care. He remained with his handler, whose arms he passed in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. Senator Robert LaFollette Sr in 1924. Credit - Bettmann ArchiveGetty Images President Donald Trump's return to the White House has left many progressive Americans feeling disillusioned, resigned, and apathetic. Warnings about the dangers of the former president fell flat with a little more than half the electorate last fall. And many Trump supporters remain fiercely loyaldespite his most egregious violations of democratic principles. Democrats have spent the last several months struggling to fight back against Trump's policieseven those that are massively unpopular. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The story of Senator and Governor Robert M. La Follette, a Republican from Wisconsin who is widely regarded as one of the greatest progressive politicians in American history, might offer some inspiration for progressives struggling today. His legacy suggests that securing political change requires persistent activism, tempered by patience. La Follettes history reminds activists that continuing to push steadily forward toward specific objectives offers them the best chance of eventually achieving their political goals. In 1873, just before becoming a student at the University of Wisconsin, La Follette heard Edward Ryan, soon to become the states Chief Justice, give a commencement speech. Ryan bluntly defined the central questions of the coming era: Which shall rulewealth or man; which shall leadmoney or intellect; who shall fill public stationseducated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital? This question would animate La Follettes career as he tried to live up to UW president John Bascoms insistence that students accept the obligations of citizenship and their duty to serve the state. La Follette came to share Bascoms passion for social and economic justice, including his support of labor associations and womens rights. In preparation for a career in public service, he honed his considerable oratory skills and ultimately earned a law degree in 1880. La Follette became a part of the burgeoning progressive movement, that rose in response to conditions of the long Gilded Age. By the late 19th century, the economy was unregulated, unstable at best, and frequently rocked by recessions and depressions. Immigrants poured into cities, providing much of the labor force of a newly industrialized America, which saw its economy become the largest in the worldthanks in large part to their low wages. Dreams of the U.S. as a land of glorious opportunity seemed available exclusively to the already wealthy. Most Americans worked menial, often dangerous, jobs that were so low paying that entire families had to work to survive. After long hours in dangerous conditions, workers returned to urban ghettos rife with poverty, crime, and disease. Precious, nonrenewable resources were decimated, with no thought to their conservation, let alone preservation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read More: As Schumers Stock Falls, Heres Whos Vying to Lead Democrats Against Trump Too often, government appeared, at best, helpless to curb the harmful excesses, and, at worst, a willing collaborator in the profitable carnage. Politicians like New Yorks Boss George Plunkett spoke openly and approvingly of honest graft. A seat in the Senate (often referred to as "the Millionaires Club") could be purchased merely to increase a wealthy mans status. State legislators frequently chose U.S. senators thanks to backroom bribes. Powerful trusts cornered markets and set prices, controlling such necessities as beef, steel, sugar, oil, and money. The attitudes of the wealthy businessmen who dominated the Gilded Age were summarized by George Frederick Baer, the spokesman for the coal mine owners during the anthracite strike of 1902: The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared fornot by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men of property to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given control of the property rights of the country. La Follette fiercely disagreed, and saw the ownership class as a hostile force that threatened to thwart the will of the people and menace the perpetuity of representative government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement La Follette and his fellow progressives dedicated themselves to fighting for a better future of the nation. He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1884 and served three terms. But his first two bids for Wisconsins governorship failed because opponents bribed delegates at the states Republican nominating convention. In 1900, he undertook a third bid, promising to eliminate the corruption of the increasingly powerful political bosses and machines by enacting the direct nomination of all political candidates. His determination to return power to the people galvanized voters and carried him to victory. Under La Follette's leadership, Wisconsin pioneered many initiatives to more equitably redistribute Americas wealth and power. Most importantly, he took on big interests, especially the railroads and other powerful utilities. At La Follettes behest, the state legislature enacted a thoroughgoing and efficient reform of these industries. The governor also pioneered civil service reform, insisting that government jobs be awarded on merit. Additionally, his administration regulated lobbyists, enacted stronger provisions against corrupt practices, implemented environmental measures, and reformed Wisconsin's tax system to be more equitable, nearly doubling the amount paid by railroads. He also changed how the state elected officials, fulfilling his pledge to enact primary elections for all elected offices so no one could purchase them in back room deals. By 1906, when La Follette moved to the U.S. Senate, progressive governors across the nation were eagerly trying to duplicate many of his initiatives. In the Senate, La Follette continued his push to regulate the railroads, including by beefing up the powers of Interstate Commerce Commission, and limiting the number of consecutive hours railroads could require employees to work. He contributed significantly to the passage of two constitutional amendments: The 16th, which allowed the federal government to levy a graduated income tax (which La Follette saw as a path toward more equitable income redistribution) and the 17th, which established the direct election of U.S. senators, so that voters couldnt be corrupted like state legislators had been. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 1915, La Follette pushed through the Seamans Act, which required ships to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew. He saw the recent Titanic disaster as proof that the lives of the poor were less valued, and argued that all lives were worthy of equal protection. Perhaps La Follettes most controversial act as a senator was his outspoken opposition to U.S. entry into World War I. President Woodrow Wilson presented the war as a culmination of progressive reform ideas, promising it would make the world safe for democracy. La Follette dismissed this assertion, warning that war was "a dreadful diversion for peoples demanding juster distribution of wealth. War is the money changer's opportunity, and the social reformer's doom. Read More: How Wisconsin Became the Ultimate Purple State This position fueled massive blowback. Despite this national vilification, however, Wisconsin voters reelected La Follette in 1922. In 1924only a year before he diedLa Follette ran for president as an independent and captured 17% of the vote. And after he died, his son was elected to the Senate for another 21 years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of La Follette's greatest gifts was the ability to recognize that achieving progressives goals was not a short term project. We are, he said, slow to realize that democracy is a life and involves continual struggle. He set out to inspire the like minded to take part in what he envisioned as a perpetual movement. La Follette counseled both immediate actionand patience: It will not be possible to restore industrial and commercial freedom at once. But it was important to begin the process. For as much as La Follette achieved, his prediction that the struggle would be long proved accurate. Much of the original progressive agenda, with its emphasis on federal regulation, stalled during the final years of La Follettes career. After World War I, the nation experienced a period of disillusionment and reform fatigue. The successes as well as the failures of the progressive movement contributed to its stagnation: with the worst excesses remedied, it was hard to create consensus on next steps. Progressives also encountered reversals as the wealthy fought to regain undue political influence. La Follette anticipated this regression too, noting that tyranny and oppression are just as possible under democratic forms [of government] as any other. Yet, he counseled hope rather than despair. Again, this proved prescient. Reformers kept fighting after La Follette died in 1925, and their perseverance paid off during the New Deal in the 1930s. Later, the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s reactivated other dormant progressive ideas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his presidential campaign, La Follette urged his fellow citizens to recognize that There is an unending struggle to make and keep government representativeMere passive citizenship is not enough. Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from those who are aggressive for what is wrong. That statementand La Follettes philosophy more broadly provides a blueprint for liberals navigating the Trump era. For disillusioned progressives feeling powerless to stop President Trumps initiatives, La Follettes career exemplifies the value of rejecting the siren song of frustration and complacency in favor of persistence in pursuing progressive ideals. Only continuous efforts and vigilance can safeguard American democracy and create a more equal and just society. Nancy C. Unger is professor of history at Santa Clara University, and the author of the prize-winning biography Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Made by History takes readers beyond the headlines with articles written and edited by professional historians. Learn more about Made by History at TIME here. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors. Write to Made by History at madebyhistory@time.com. This week, Andrew Cuomo decided to officially mount an independent bid for mayor of New York City. He made the announcement in a video on Monday that attempted to mimic the effortless charm and easygoing charisma of his opponent, the Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani. It didnt work. Mamdani immediately ratioed the video by simply replying with a link to donate to his campaign. And no wonder the gimmick failed: It was like an off-brand rip-off of a favorite cereal youd find at the grocery store. Cuomos announcement was the Great Value version of a Mamdani video. Instead of Cheerios, he was offering Cuom-Oats. Cuomos pivot to video was merely the latest in a series of failed attempts to discredit Mamdani as somehow inauthentic or insincere. Ever since he jolted the political establishment with his inspirational andonce the votes were countedoverwhelming victory in the citys mayoral primary last month, theres been a relentless and often bigoted attempt by Republicans and some Democrats to cast him as somehow abnormal. These efforts have spanned the spectrum of absurdity. The president called him a communist and threatened to deport him; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand falsely accused him of supporting global jihad (for which she later apologized); former Minnesota Congressman and alleged presidential candidate Dean Phillipswhose face you wouldnt remember if you were standing directly in front of himsaid there is no room in the Democratic Party for a socialist like Mamdani; Christopher Rufo, a leading online weirdo and the rights preeminent peddler of racist lies about immigrants eating household pets, accused Mamdani of strategically adopting the symbols of the exotic other. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdanis critics would have you believe that he is somehow unusual or out of step with the values and interests of ordinary people. But as someone who has spent more than ten years cataloguing the weird, unsettling, and sometimes inscrutable behaviors of politicians in my job as a late night comedy writer, I can say with near certainty that the opposite is true. The core of Mamdanis appeal is that he is aggressively, perhaps even radically, normal. For at least a decade now, Americans have been inundated with radioactive levels of weirdness by a political class with strange obsessions: Hannibal Lecter, the sexiness of cartoon M&Ms, testicle tanning, woke math. Lets consider, for a moment, the man who is, from a strictly statistical perspective, the most prolific practitioner of weirdness on the face of the planet: Donald Trump. The ways in which he is off-putting are simply too numerous to count. Our best scientists have tried and been driven mad by the task. Its like staring directly into the sun or crossing the event horizon of a black hole. His tendency to caress American flags on stage and in front of cameras is, on its own, the sort of thing you might do if you were accidentally exposed to an unusually high dose of nitrous oxide. To this day it remains a mystery what exactly he means when he says Finlanda forest nation, hes been toldrakes the floors of the forest. Or what sentiment he was hoping to convey when he described a hurricane as one of the wettest weve ever seen from the standpoint of water, a linguistic puzzle that remains unsolved to this day. Or why he thought it was important to let us know that Arnold Palmer has an unusually large penis. (Trump was only relaying this observation secondhand. Were still awaiting definitive proof.) And while its true that Republicans have outpaced their opponents in this department, Democrats have engaged in their share of weirdness too. During the 2024 Super Bowl, a raspy Joe Biden made a TikTok video where he professed his love for chocolate chip cookies in a way that can only be described as minimally alive. Sen. John Fetterman (who recently complained about having to show up to work) dresses like he was dropped naked into a Carhartt store and given five minutes to pick an outfit. House Democrats filmed a cursed Choose Your Fighter video where they gently bounced up and down like video game characters and made everyone sad (the video is now illegal in several states and if you watch it, you will have seven days before you die). Mainstream Democrats have resorted to gimmicks rather than authenticity to grab attention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then came Mamdani, with his relentlessly normal way of talking and his laser focus on normal things that matter to normal people. His campaign was a refreshing break from the exhausting strangeness of our current era, one that imagined that sane conversations about public policy were still possible. His seismic win has provided many lessons for Democrats hoping to replicate his success across the country. But one of those lessons should be this: Just be normal. Mamdani has his own standout qualities and electoral advantages, and it may not be possible for other Democrats to replicate them all. Hes a wildly talented politician and a gifted public speaker. Hes telegenic and charismatic. Hes one of the few politicians who, somehow, does not seem out of place in TikTok videos with comedians. He deftly managed a sprawling campaign apparatus that reached across a city of eight million people. His canvassing and phone banking operations were so impressive that he even outperformed expectations on Staten Island, of all places (a borough consisting entirely of uncles who work in sanitation, if my own family experience is any guide). But Mamdanis disarming normality is one trait that Democrats could cultivate. One of his first viral videos was about bringing down the price of Halal food trucks. He made a video about losing his race for student body vice president in high school. He told The Bulwark he met his wife on Hinge. Even his brief attempt at a career in musicas a rapper named Mr. Cardamomis charming and relatable. Millennials who came of age in the early YouTube era know what its like to have evidence of our failed creative pursuits online (Im sure theres a video somewhere of me doing improv comedy in the basement of a Gristedes circa 2013 that would sink me if I ran for public office). This aggressively charming normalcy is especially refreshing after four years of Eric Adams, a mayor who radiates nuclear levels of weirdness. No public figure outside of Trump has ever uttered so many inscrutable, madness-inducing phrases. Like his infamous table of success, or his obsession with swagger, or the time he said New York was a place where you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center through a person whos celebrating a new business thats open. If we gave him another four years, its entirely possible that he could scale new heights of linguistic weirdness and say something like, Success is my DJ when Im on the dance floor of wisdom, New York is the home of pizza and 9/11. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Andrew Cuomo suffered from similarly toxic levels of Politician Brain, which is why his campaign was so relentlessly abnormal. He barely appeared in public, described the city he wanted to govern as a crime-ridden hellhole out of a steampunk novel, drove to his polling place (which was only a few blocks away) and couldnt convince anyone that he actually lived here. His Super PACs spent ungodly sums on racist ads. He collected lukewarm endorsements from an impotent and lethargic Democratic establishment. He didnt have supporters so much as he had underwriters (at least one of whom told The New York Times he didnt even rank Cuomo first). This was all documented by an incredible moment on NY1, when anchor Errol Louis asked a reporter at Cuomos election night party if the people in attendance looked like they were out working today, and the reporter replied earnestly, No, these are the people whotheir work was through writing checks for the Cuomo campaign. And just as important as the way Mamdani talks is what he talks about: buses, childcare, rent. Normal stuff that normal people care about. His appealing brand of democratic socialismborrowing in part from Milwaukees so-called sewer socialismwas hyper-fixated on simple, straightforward, broadly popular ideas for making municipal government work better for regular people. He was singularly focused on the cost of living. When he talked about making the slowest buses in the country faster, he made a point of noting that long commutes were robbing New Yorkers not just of their time, but also their sanity. His campaign was focused relentlessly on making normal life for normal people more normal. This vision of politics recognizes that government can and should provide normalcy. You should be able to get to your job within a reasonable amount of time. You should have access to affordable groceries in your neighborhood. You should be able to afford an apartment and be able to send your kids to preschool. You should be able go about your day without secret police snatching you off the street or demanding to see your papers. You should not have to make tradeoffs between medicine and housing, childcare and foodespecially in the richest city, in the richest country, on Earth. This is a set of policies organized more than anything else around the principle that life should, simply put, be livable. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hysterical Republicans and their allies in capital now find themselves in the unenviable position of having to make these reasonable ideas sound scary. Its a tough sell. A CNBC host claimed Mamdani was taking Wall Streeters and making them walk out on the ice, like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. (If Bane had actually focused on hedge fund brokers and corporate CEOs, he might have had more support.) Fox and Friends tried to terrify its viewers with ominous warnings about Mamdanis plans for no-cost childcare and, most chilling of all, baby baskets for newborns, an idea that couldnt sound any more charming if it also included free sunglasses for dogs. They even gave him a cool nickname, Zohran The Destroyer, that made him sound like the lead guitarist from an 80s hair metal band. Adams called Mamdani a snake oil salesman, although given Adams penchant for weird metaphors its possible he meant this as a compliment (New York is a place where snakes can sell oil and rats can eat pizza, thats what swagger is all about). Democrats will no doubt be tempted to draw the conclusion from Mamdanis victory that all they have to do to replicate his success is go viral. Maybe Andrew Cuomo will eat spicy chicken wings or Chuck Schumer will make a Get Ready With Me video. But Mamdanis deft use of social media is only a small part of the story. The bigger lesson is his unrelenting focus on confronting powerful interests in pursuit of a New York that works for everyone. Social media gimmicks will continue to fail if they dont begin with a bold and authentic set of ideas. In Mamdanis case, a simple, straightforward policy program seeking to fix a broken system and make normal life more normaland more affordablefor ordinary people. The last ten years of American politics have been a ceaseless barrage of deprivations, vindictiveness, cruelty and exhaustion. Everyone is overwhelmed; American civic life is overwhelming. People need relief. Mamdani promises a new chapter of humane, joyful normalcy. In other words, hes sitting down at the table of successand inviting everyone to join him. The Brief State Attorney General Dana Nessel is joining other AGs in calling for more transparency for ICE agents. A letter from the coalition is calling for federal agents to properly identify themselves. They argue it would be safer for the feds as well as the public and want Congress to pass legislation. DETROIT (FOX 2) - As ICE agents step up arrests amid President Donald Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration, concerns are escalating about how these arrests are being made and whos making them. Big picture view Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is leading a coalition of AGs from across the country sending a letter to Congress about their concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Youre seeing ICE agents who are in plain clothes with oftentimes no identifying insignia on them at all, fully masked," Nessel said. "And theyre performing arrests, detentions, and theyre throwing people into unmarked vehicles." The letter by Nessel and other attorneys general is urging lawmakers to pass legislation that would require these federal agents to properly identify themselves. "It's creating this climate of fear and frankly its a dangerous situation not just for the public," she said. "But also for law enforcement." "For the police as well as the citizens," said Steve Dolunt. "Because I dont know who you are, so youre not taking me to jail you have no identification. 'Im so and so' prove it." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dolunt, Detroits retired assistant police chief, says some level of identification is important for everyones safety. "I like the idea of having ID," he said. "And this might be controversial, but have it in English and in Spanish because a lot of the people theyre going after are Hispanic tell them who you are identify yourself." Dolunt says he also understands why agents are concerned about showing their faces given facial recognition and doxxing and swatting. But Nessel says the masks are creating opportunities for people to impersonate ICE officers which could lead to potential abductions, home invasions or worse. She notes under Michigan law, local and state law enforcement investigate and arrest people everyday and do so by identifying themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Sometimes these are murderers, or rapists, or human traffickers," she said. "And yet somehow theyre still able to safely and effectively do their job without doing it looking like the secret police I see no reason whatsoever, that ICE cant do the same." Nessel says that another problem is that ICE agents often don't coordinate with state or local law enforcement - making it even more important for them to identify themselves as ICE agents. The Source Information for this report is from interviews with Michigan AG Dana Nessel and retired assistant Detroit police chief Steve Dolunt. SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) Shortly before Chuck Wright returned to work, he received a letter stating that he would no longer be paid during his leave of absence. A letter from May 15, 2025, was written to the former Spartanburg County sheriff, stating that elected officials or constitutional officers are not provided accrual leave, per South Carolina law. Wrights leave of absence began on April 1, according to the letter. In the letter, Wright was told he would no longer receive compensation 10 days after the letter date. Wright returned to work five days later, on May 20. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On May 23, 2025, Wright resigned from his position as sheriff. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. Donald Trump clearly is the anti-president. George Washington willingly surrendered the presidency. Trump encouraged his thugs to attack the Capitol in an illegal attempt to stay in office in 2021.James Madison wrote of freedoms of speech, assembly and press. Trump is trying to restrict all three. Abraham Lincoln poured his energy into saving the Union and encouraged our better angels. Trump is actively trying to divide us through our devils of greed, hate and fear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John F. Kennedy led with optimism for the future. Trump is taking us backward in science, medicine, education, health care and safety. Lyndon Johnson sent federal troops to protect civil rights protesters. Trump sends troops to stop those who peacefully protest the governments unlawful arrests. Joe Biden pushed for laws to encourage clean energy that provide good jobs and reduce climate destruction. Trump says we should cut down national forests, drill on federal land and burn more coal, our environment be damned. We need a real president who cares for all of us, but we have a con man who thinks only of his own power and wealth. God only knows how we will stop this destruction and then repair the devastating damage to America. Marcia Rowe Centre Township To the editor: I laughed out loud at this column from guest contributor John Lawrence ( Uncle Sam wants you ... to rat on national parks that reflect true history, July 15). Dont misunderstand: Lawrence is sounding the alarm on another serious way President Trumps MAGA mentality seeks to degrade our democracy. The laugh-out-loud part is the use of our tax dollars to mandate that national parks install QR-code-adorned signage soliciting visitors to snitch on any history-denigrating content seen, read or heard while enjoying a family outing. I cant wait for news coverage of the creative and subversive ways Americans will use those QR codes to push back on this stupid effort at undermining historians' contributions to progress in creating a more perfect union. Let the wit begin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Phyllis Owens, Chatsworth .. To the editor: Lawrence writes about Trump's executive order directing national parks to cleanse themselves of signage that "inappropriately disparages Americans past or living. This, while the president consistently disparages his predecessor in the Oval Office, alleging mental incompetence and actions that Trump says resulted in near ruin of the nation. According to the executive order, messages are to reflect only "American greatness." This, after Trump claimed that, under the previous administration, America was being turned into a third-world hellhole, run by censors, perverts, criminals and thugs. Who's censoring now? This is just another example of the double standard employed by this hypocritical president. Perry Valantine, Costa Mesa This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. We came across a bullish thesis on The Western Union Company (WU) on r/ValueInvesting Subreddit by GABAAPAM. In this article, we will summarize the bulls thesis on WU. The Western Union Company (WU)'s share was trading at $8.12 as of 15th July. WUs trailing and forward P/E were 3.02 and 4.56 respectively according to Yahoo Finance. MVB Financial Corp. (MVBF): Insider Were Buying In Q1 2025 A customer using a mobile banking app at home to securely transfer money. The Western Union Company (WU) is widely viewed as a legacy business in terminal decline, but a deeper look reveals a compelling contrarian opportunity. Trading at just $8.12 per share with a market cap of $2.7 billion, WU is priced like a company headed for bankruptcy. Revenue has declined from $5 billion in 2021 to $4.2 billion in 2024, reinforcing the melting ice cube narrative. Yet, WU's shareholder return profile tells a different story. With an 11.6% dividend yield and a forward payout ratio of just 52% based on midpoint 2025 EPS guidance of $1.80, the dividend appears sustainable. The company has also reduced its share count by nearly 20% since 2019 through consistent buybacks, supporting earnings per share despite revenue pressure. Altogether, shareholder yield stands comfortably in the mid-teens. Debt, while present at $2.9 billion, is offset by $1.5 billion in cash and $930 million in 2024 net income, making leverage a manageable 1.5x net income. At a forward P/E of 4.5x and stable 1921% operating margins, the valuation appears disconnected from fundamentals. Critics cite fintech disruption and the decline of its consumer-to-consumer (CMT) segment, but this ignores growing digital revenueup 27% YoY in Q1 2025and the durability of WU's vast physical network. For underserved, cash-based economies, this infrastructure remains vital. While not a growth story, WU is a cash-generating business with misunderstood resilience, a stable balance sheet, and a focus on returns, offering an attractive yield and significant upside if the market re-evaluates its assumptions. Previously we covered a bullish thesis on The Western Union Company (WU) by Bulls On Parade in February 2025, which highlighted the company's undervaluation, strong dividend yield, and digital growth strategy under the EVOLVE 2025 plan. The company's stock price has depreciated approximately by 23% since our coverage.. This is because fundamentals remain intact, with digital traction and shareholder returns still strong. GABAAPAM shares a similar thesis but emphasizes the disconnect between WUs valuation and its resilient cash flow profile. To the editor: President Trump has threatened tariffs against Russia if a Ukraine peace deal is not reached within 50 days ( Trump threatens Russia with tariffs and boosts U.S. weapons for Ukraine, July 14). That raises an immediate question for Trump: How many more people need to die? Can you imagine Trumps rhetoric if President Biden made the same decision under the same circumstances while in office? Russia could make the decision to cease military action immediately if that government were motivated to do so. Instead of 50 days, the mandate should have been five days. How does Trump rationalize the 50 days after his experience of being dragged along by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russias destruction of civilian buildings, hospitals, schools, maternity wards and homes? Is it weakness or fear? How can anyone who has the power to change the course of events live with complicity in allowing Russia to continue the obliteration of so many peoples lives? Congress, the MAGA base and the American people should demand more of Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sidney Pelston, Beverly Hills .. To the editor: This article ( Trump to meet NATO secretary general as plan takes shape for Ukraine weapons sales, July 13) and earlier ones show that European leaders are getting serious about Russia's assault on Ukraine and are cooperating with the U.S. on using the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to counter Putin's aggression. This could be more effective than Putin originally feared when he launched his first attack in 2014 an attack that only strengthened Ukraines desire to join NATO. Dale Pfremmer, Agoura Hills .. To the editor: It has become increasingly apparent that, for his own sake, Putin cannot afford to end his war in Ukraine. Putin probably y knows that if he does, he will almost certainly lose control of Russia, which could lead to dire consequences for himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But what if he had an alternative? Trump could offer Putin asylum here in the U.S. Who wouldnt choose to live out their retirement years in Florida next to Disney World? Trump just needs to make sure Immigration and Customs Enforcement leaves Putin alone. Dave Wilson, Murrieta, Calif. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The LGBTQ Pride mural at an intersection in downtown Delray Beach was vandalized again last month, making it the third time since 2021 that a pickup truck driver has burned tire marks into the paint causing thousands of dollars in damage. On June 17, the middle of Pride Month, a man driving a black pickup truck was recorded on surveillance cameras at the intersection of Northeast First Street and Northeast Second Avenue waiting for another driver to cross before pulling up onto the rainbow-colored paint, spinning his wheels and then taking off, video released by Delray Beach Police on Tuesday evening shows. The truck returned to the intersection at some point and appeared to wait for other cars and a couple crossing the street to pass before again burning the tires into the paint, then continuing to drive across the full length of the mural, the video showed. A silver minivan was waiting behind the black truck the second time, and one woman walked along the nearby sidewalk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Tuesday night, Delray Beach Police said they were still trying to identify the driver. The Palm Beach County Human Rights Council Charitable Foundation and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation paid $16,000 for the mural in 2021. After Alexander Jerich, of Lake Worth Beach, defaced it just one day after it was unveiled, the court ordered he pay about $7,000 to fix it. Dylan Brewer, of Clearwater, was ordered to pay after he defaced the mural in February 2024, Rand Hoch, a retired judge and founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. Jerich pleaded guilty to criminal mischief over $1,000 and reckless driving and was ordered to write a 25-page essay about the 49 victims in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, their families and hate against the LGBTQ community. He avoided a jail sentence and a felony conviction and instead received two years of probation, 100 hours of community service and a mandatory mental health screening. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brewer earlier this year pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of criminal mischief under $1,000 rather than a felony charge as part of a plea agreement. He performed three burnouts over the intersection with a President Trump flag flying from his truck. Last time, a lot of people took videos of it, Hoch said of Brewers truck. The guy who went through it went through it three times, a long enough period for people to take out phones. This time, the police department does not have a clear view of the trucks license plate number, he said. Delray Beach had just repainted the mural for the citys Pride Month festival a few days earlier. The latest incident happened two weeks before President Donald Trumps Department of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced a nationwide roadway safety initiative that includes keeping intersections and crosswalks free from distractions, according to a July 1 news release from the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This includes political messages of any nature, artwork, or anything else that detracts from the core mission of driver and pedestrian safety, the news release said. Trump administration takes aim at rainbow crosswalks like at Pulse nightclub site At least two other cities in South Florida have had pride murals vandalized in the same way. A man burned tire marks into the mural on Sebastian Street between State Road A1A and Seabreeze Boulevard near Fort Lauderdale beach as his passenger filmed it in 2023, less than three weeks after the mural was unveiled. The status of the case was not known Tuesday night. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Boynton Beach, a motorcyclist during Pride Month in 2023 documented himself burning tire marks into the $12,000 Pride Progress Flag mural at a busy intersection. Without having identified the person, a detective later that month said the case was inactive pending any further investigative leads. Information from the Sun Sentinel archives was used in this report. The Brief Local public libraries are waging a postcard campaign to save federal funding on the chopping block. The libraries are encouraging patrons to write to their U.S. Senators and Representatives to continue federal funding. The postcard campaign runs through Friday, July 25. MUKWONAGO, Wis. - Cuts to federal funds have local public libraries worried about the future. Librarians hope a postcard campaign can make a difference. Libraries impacted by federal cuts What we know Public libraries across Wisconsin are encouraging patrons to write their U.S. Senators and Representatives to continue federal funding. Mukwonago Library Director Abby Armour said libraries across the state rely on federal dollars from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The Trump administration wants to dissolve the group and its $300 million budget. Librarians concerned What they're saying "A lot of libraries strength is in how we work together. You pull one thread you might not notice it right away but after a while the whole blanket unravels," Armour said. Abby Armour Armour said that would make it financially impossible for individual libraries to fund programs that are currently shared like Badger Link or Inter-Library Loans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FREE DOWNLOAD: Get breaking news alerts in the FOX LOCAL Mobile app for iOS or Android "About $3.2 million is given to the state of Wisconsin from IMLS," said Nyama Reed, the Whitefish Bay Public Library Director. Nyama Reed Reed worries about the trickle-down effect the cuts could have. She read for FOX6 News some of the postcards her patrons have already filled out. "This one I love. They let me have lots of adventures. Mason,'" Reed said. Back in Mukwonago What they're saying "Do you think these [postcards] will work? Do you think theyll have an impact?" asked FOX6's Bret Lemoine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Hearing stories directly from people who are using these libraries I think is going to be very powerful," Armour said. What's next The postcard campaign runs through Friday, July 25. SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News FOX6 News reached out to Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin. Baldwin replied saying, "These resources are critical for communities across our state, and I'll keep fighting to fund them." The Source The information in this post was provided by librarians in southeast Wisconsin. BOSTON (SHNS) Summer reading programs, English language classes, online research databases used in public schools across the state, free newspaper archives, e-book access, and GRE and career prep resources are on the chopping block as a cut to federal funding is poised to hit Massachusetts libraries. Every library in every community will be impacted, said Maria McCauley, Cambridges director of libraries and American Library Association president-elect, told the House Committee on Federal Funding, Policy and Accountability during a hearing Tuesday. President Donald Trump is aiming to eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides grants to states, which then distribute the funds to local public and school libraries. He issued an executive order in March calling for the elimination of the agency to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and his fiscal year 2026 budget proposal has no funding for the IMLS, except $6 million to cover the agencys closure at the beginning of the fiscal year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The only fiscally responsible path for the [Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioner] is to plan for no federal funding, Maureen Amyot, the MBLC director, said. Local taxes typically cover the largest portion of local library funding. State direct appropriations and grants, and IMLS federal grants, support a smaller portion of various library programs and services. Still, officials said libraries here are already feeling the impacts of Trump administration cuts. The MBLC received $3.6 million from IMLS in fiscal year 2025, Amyot said. Of that, about $2.2 million went to funding databases for students and library patrons. These databases include Encyclopedia Britannica, The Boston Globe archives, online language learning platforms for residents to learn English, and early literacy programs. About 60% of database usage comes from schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starting July 1, Amyot said the state agency is only able to retain four of the 34 databases it had been providing. As one western Mass. teacher recently told me, our public schools could not teach the state and federally mandated curriculum to our students without the resources provided through the MBLC. The very resources weve been forced to cut, she said. Later in the hearing, Amyot told lawmakers she has been trying to get information out about the funding cuts and their impact on services, but its been difficult to get attention on the topic. I think the impact will be felt the most once the school year starts and our schools dont have access to those databases anymore, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The states fiscal year 2026 budget also made a cut to an MBLC line item. The state budget level-funded most of its programming, but cut funding for agency staff and operations. The agency has 23 employees, 13 of whom are paid fully or partially with federal funds, raising concerns about both state and federal cuts impacting the agencys ability to remain staffed at current levels. Amyot told lawmakers MBLC canceled 12 workshops for Perkins School for the Blind to help make library websites more accessible; and canceled grants to 18 municipalities for programs such as literacy for incarcerated individuals, English second language and citizenship classes, and increasing accessibility at libraries for physically disabled patrons. The federal funding cuts are part of the Trump administrations larger efforts to downsize the federal government, which he has said commits fraud and wastes taxpayer money. President Trump was given a clear mandate by the American people, and his Executive Order delivers on that by reducing federal bureaucracy, a Trump administration official told POLITICO about the IMLS cuts. This restructure is a necessary step to fulfill that order and ensure hard-earned tax dollars are not diverted to discriminatory DEI initiatives or divisive, anti-American programming in our cultural institutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Boston Public Library lost two major grants a $150,000 National Endowment for Humanities grant which supported digitization of local historical newspapers across the state was canceled in January; and more recently the library lost a $350,000 grant to digitalize historical maps and make them accessible to K-12 schools and for exhibitions related to the nations 250th anniversary and Bostons 400th commemorations. Im appalled, quite frankly, Im absolutely appalled, Rep. David Linsky of Natick said. What concerns me is that in towns that I represent, Natick and Wayland, are probably able to backfill, quite frankly, the funding. But were unusual in that. And Im very concerned for those communities that are not going to be able to do that. And thats unfair. McCauley warned libraries could lose access to internet hot spots, funded through the Digital Equity Act signed by President Joe Biden, if a resolution to repeal the Federal Communication Commissions E-rate program passes. It has cleared the U.S. Senate and awaits a vote in the House. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who introduced the Congressional Review Act resolution which seeks to repeal the FCC program, said its an example of federal overreach that opens up children to real risks of abuse due to insufficient broadband restrictions, according to Broadband and Breakfast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McCauley said the loaned-out hot spots are ways to connect students, job-seekers, and other library patrons with remote learning, telehealth or the ability to fill out online job applications if they cannot afford home internet. More than 800 library applications for around 200,000 hot spots across Massachusetts are frozen as the state waits to see what will happen on the federal level, she said. Digital equity work is far more than lending and distributing services, McCauley said. Its a bridge across the digital divide, a community tool and a lifeline. Without federal funding, patrons will lose life changing access to the resources and skills building necessary to live and work in todays digital age. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. A restaurant in northern China is under investigation after it was found to be offering an expensive afternoon tea service where customers could cuddle and play with lion cubs. On the menu at the Wanhui Tower restaurant in Shanxi province, customers could choose between an assortment of different teas and desserts, as well as a mascot interaction package for 124. The restaurant went viral in China recently as people began posting photos and videos of their interactions with the lions, most of which appear to be cubs. Some posts also said that patrons could play with other animals, including alpacas and deer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The photos and video prompted online criticism from many in China who began asking whether it was legal for the restaurant to breed lions and then allow for them to interact with people with few protections in place. A photo shared online of a restaurant customer interacting with a lion cub In response, the restaurant said: We operate like zoos why cant lions be used commercially? According to local media reports, Wanhui Tower had obtained a licence from the Shanxi Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau to purchase and breed protected wild animals, including two African lions, but the licence only allowed for the animals to be displayed. Authorities at the forestry bureau have launched a probe into the matter, noting that the close contact between people and animals was prohibited and that the matter was being dealt with urgently. This type of language often suggests the threat of prosecution or fines in China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While cat cafes have become increasingly popular all over the world, big cat cafes like the one in Shanxi are relatively rare and for good reason, given the safety and welfare concerns for both the people and the animals. Earlier this year, police in Thailand raided a lion cafe in the southern city of Phuket and arrested two Chinese nationals for working in the country illegally. At this cafe, patrons could pay between 500 baht (12) and 1,000 baht (23) to take photos with lion cubs. Last month, a hotel near the southern Chinese city of Chongqing was put under investigation after it was discovered to be offering guests a red panda wake-up call service, where the animals were brought into guests rooms and allowed to climb into their beds. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda has presented an award to personnel of Ukraines Special Operations Forces (SOF) who took part in the mission to recover the body of Lithuanian military volunteer Tomas Valentelis. Source: Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SOF) Command on Facebook, as reported by European Pravda Details: The SOF Command reported that President Nauseda presented Ukrainian Special Operations Forces personnel with the state honour of the Order For Merits to Lithuania in recognition of their courage and professionalism. Each participant in the operation will also receive an individual award for their personal contribution to the mission. "The operation, codenamed Messenger, involved the evacuation of the body of 20-year-old Lithuanian volunteer Tomas Valentelis, a member of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion. SOF operators had spent over a week preparing: conducting reconnaissance, training, planning the exfiltration route and organising diversionary actions," the Command said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The body of the fallen Lithuanian volunteer was recovered right under the Russians noses. SOF soldiers stealthily reached the place where Valentelis was killed, identified the body, prepared it for transport and, despite heavy Russian fire, evacuated it successfully without suffering any casualties. Background: Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene earlier announced that Tomas Valentelis would be posthumously awarded one of the countrys highest military decorations. Valentelis, 20, was killed in March 2025 while performing a combat mission in Ukraine. He had served in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine since August 2024. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! LITTLE ROCK, Ark. Its been two years since the states powerful tornado outbreak on March 31st, 2023. The storms ripped through homes and neighborhoods across the state and in the capital city. Since then, the road to recovery continues. The Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery is a federal initiative that provides grants to cities, counties and states to rebuild disaster-impacted areas. Wynne High School reflects on March 2023 tornado Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Little Rock Housing Director Kevin Howard says in January, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development notified the city it would be assigned $20 million to assist with disaster recovery from the March 2023 tornado. Howard said during the Little Rock Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday night, they will present an action plan to the board to approve the plan they created to assist with unmet needs. What we plan to spend as far as the eligible uses is housing, infrastructure improvements, economic development, mitigation, said Howard. Howard explains how this could help individuals impacted get back on their feet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those individuals who didnt receive enough insurance funding to complete their house and had to come out of pocket, they had to get a loan, and they could possibly get recovery funds, Howard said. He says this could help recover peoples livelihoods, not only when it comes to homes but also businesses. If you had a business, we provide assistance there that FEMA did not provide to residents, Howard said. Arkansas Storm Team expert panel reflects on March 31, 2023 tornadoes Howard says theyre aiming to support those who need it most. Our hope is to assist these residents in the impacted area to help them rebuild their lives, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Howard says once they get all the approval from the board, the next step would be to submit the plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. PALESTINE, Texas (KETK) A new execution date was set Wednesday morning in Palestine for death row inmate Robert Roberson, in his case involving the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. New execution date hearing set in Robert Roberson case The hearing led the Smith County District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson to order Robersons execution to be set for 6 p.m. on Oct. 16, 2025. LATEST UPDATES: 11:30 a.m. The court has ordered the execution date for Roberson to be set for Oct. 16, 2025, at 6 p.m. After his execution date was set, he was immediately transferred out of the Anderson County Courthouse. 11:10 a.m. Smith County District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson and Roberson have entered the courtroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Robersons defense attorney, Gretchen Sween, hurrying to select an execution date is impractical and would trigger very stressful deadlines. If an execution date were to be set, Roberson would be on death watch, meaning he would be taken out of the death row pilot program, where he was chosen to be able to be out of his cell daily and out of shackles due to his good behavior. Meanwhile, you have obligations on [Texas Department of Criminal Justice] that become much more stressful, and you have obligations for the court to enter an execution warrant, none of which has to happen right now, its the matter of law or its the matter of fundamental justice. Sween said. 11 a.m. Roberson has arrived at the Anderson County Courthouse for his execution date hearing. 10 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smith County District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson has arrived at the Anderson County Courthouse. The Roberson family and the Curtis family are entering the courtroom. While the two families were entering the courtroom, they began arguing back and forth at each other. Brother of Nikki Curtis describes 20-year quest for justice The family of Nikki Curtis What to know about the Robert Roberson case: On January 31, 2002, Roberson took his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, to Palestine Regional Medical Center with severe trauma to her head, and the following day, she died from her injuries. Mugshot of Robert Roberson, courtesy of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice In 2003, an East Texas jury decided, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Roberson caused the death of his daughter by violently shaking her. Medical staff and the lead detective on the case were suspicious of Robersons seemingly cold demeanor at the time of his daughters death, viewing it as an indication of guilt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Robersons legal team explained that he was a special education student who dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has been diagnosed with autism, which can impact a persons ability to communicate and show emotion. The defense said that Roberson was convicted under a now-debunked shaken baby syndrome theory for the death. The cartel is making me: Man wanted for robbing Zippy Js in Tyler arrested after social media tip The available medical and scientific evidence now overwhelmingly proves that Nikki died because of severe pneumonia and related medical conditions, exacerbated by improperly prescribed medications and a short fall from bed, the defense said. The evidence used to convict Roberson sparked controversy in the Texas Legislature in 2024, ahead of his scheduled execution. The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence subpoenaed Roberson to appear before their panel to delay his execution. The committee took up the issues around Robersons case in part because Texas has a junk science law that could have kept Roberson off of death row. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. A number of key Washington figures are making news at the first Hill Nation Summit. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said rural radio stations will go out of business as a result of cuts to public broadcasting included in a bill the Senate is now debating. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem teased Wednesday that changes could be coming to the size of liquid containers allowed for passengers boarding flights in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She also said the United Statess critical infrastructure is extremely vulnerable. And President Trump adviser Peter Navarro said Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is the worst to ever hold his position, as reports emerged that Trump has told GOP lawmakers he may fire the central bank chief. The summit started at 9 a.m. EDT. Watch it live here and follow along all day for updates from the summit. Trump on Wednesday is set to meet with the crown prince and prime minister of Bahrain at the White House. Hell have lunch with the pair, then have dinner with the prime minister of Qatar. More than a week after the Justice Department issued a report on Jeffrey Epstein, the fallout persists. On Tuesday, Johnson broke with Trump and said Attorney General Pam Bondi needs to explain her statements regarding Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Senate Republican leadership believes a vote is near on the White Houses rescissions package, though with an agreement to strip PEPFAR cuts, the package will need to return to the House for a vote by Friday, the deadline for passage. As a result of the last-minute dealmaking, the overall size of the rescissions package is expected to shrink slightly from $9.4 billion to $9 billion. Catch up here: Watch here for more on that news and beyond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Druze leader warns of massacres under Syrias new regime, urges Israel to take the threat seriously amid growing violence in Sweida . Members of the Druze community have faced humiliation and massacres at the hands of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's regime, Attorney Raad Shanan, Director-General of the Druze Community Council, said in an interview with 103FM on Wednesday. Our vision is for the Druze to be an integral part of the new Syrian state, where they will receive their rights as citizens in their own country, without fear of being harmed by the regime, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Druze in Syria live in several regions, but their main stronghold is in the south, a highly strategic area. The Druze there are Syrian citizens; they were among those who essentially established the state of Syria about a hundred years ago, and are an inseparable part of the Syrian people, he added. But they are loyal, patriotic Druze. Since the fall of the Assad regime, the Druze have sought to be part of the new order, to live as Druze according to their faith, to receive their rights as citizens, whether through representation in parliament or in government. Under Assads rule, they were part of the system. Syria is a diverse country, multi-ethnic, with many sects and religions. The new regime, which is Sunni, is currently working to impose order in Syria, or essentially, to conquer the country. Druze from villages in northern Israel seen in Majdal Shams, Golan Heights, near the border with Syria, April 17, 2023 (credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90) Think about it: a country seeking to conquer a region it is supposed to govern, to conquer and subjugate the Druze unconditionally. They dont want to grant them rights, they want them to hand over their weapons, while radical groups are still armed, Shanan explained. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The groups have openly stated their desire to subdue the Druze, meaning disarming them, controlling them, and managing their lives, a reality the Druze wont accept. Various terror organizations composed of former ISIS members have entered Druze villages under the regimes protection, just as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader al-Julani did to the Alawites on the Syrian coast a few months ago. The violence should be an early warning for Israel This, in my opinion, is a red warning light for Israel, Shanan claimed. According to reports, Israel and the United States issued Julani a warning as part of recent developments, even Arab states like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, within the framework of their security coordination with Israel, stressed the need to find a solution with the Druze. Julani told them yes, and then two days later acted differently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The day after Israel marked a line that served as a limit for Syrias heavy weaponry, Julani brought tanks into the area. If two days after promising, he already goes back on his word, how can we trust such a person to secure the Israeli border on the Golan side? Shanan argued. The Western-style appearance and suit he wore apparently dazzled some world leaders. But the scenes there are horrifying. They evoke dark periods in history. Regarding the Druze from Israel who crossed into Syria in protest, he maintained that it was unacceptable. People who want to protest and raise their voices, thats their right. But it must be within the bounds of the law, certainly not by breaching a border and trying to enter another country. They did this out of pain, from a sense of helplessness, and it came from the depths of their hearts. The leaders of the community explicitly called yesterday not to do such things. Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is one of the best green energy penny stocks to buy right now. On July 7, the company confirmed the appointment of Gregor van Issum as Chief Financial Officer, effective September 1, 2025. Wolfspeed (WOLF) Refreshing Management Team to Revitalize Growth A fleet of electric light vehicles recharging their batteries in a parking lot. The appointment comes at a time when the company is facing significant financial challenges. Nevertheless, Van Issum will join with over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry and is expected to play a role in revitalizing the companys fortunes. My priority will be providing Wolfspeeds investors with transparency and clarity, especially during this transformative period, van Issum said. The appointment coincides with the addition of Dr. David Emerson, who took over as Chief Operating Officer in May. Wolfspeed is increasingly refreshing and bolstering its management team as it looks to unlock new growth opportunities. Wolfspeed, Inc. (NYSE:WOLF) is a semiconductor company that specializes in silicon carbide technologies used in various applications, including power modules and discrete power devices. Its products are used in multiple applications, including electric vehicles and renewable energy. While we acknowledge the potential of WOLF as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: 10 Most Popular AI Penny Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires and 10 Best Defensive Stocks to Buy in a Volatile Market. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. A memorial in the parking lot of the Hardin County Justice Center, where Erica Riley and her mother Janet Rylee were killed on their way to a domestic violence hearing. Erica Riley was seeking protection from the man who shot them and later killed himself. The photo was taken Sept. 22, 2024 in Elizabethtown. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Austin Anthony) Whether theyve told you or not, someone you know or love has probably experienced or is experiencing domestic violence. They might be a coworker who is constantly bombarded with calls from their spouse, a sibling who suddenly can no longer make it to family gatherings, or your childs best friend who wants to spend every weekend at your house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Everyone knows someone affected by domestic violence. Kentuckys 15 state-designated domestic violence programs provided more than 15,500 Kentuckians with domestic violence services in fiscal year 2024 alone. Unfortunately, the services you or a survivor of domestic violence might turn to for help in the face of abuse are under threat of destabilization due to ongoing federal funding uncertainty. Federal grant cancellations, delays to the release of funding opportunities, firings at federal agencies that distribute funding for services, and the presidents proposed cuts to domestic violence and sexual assault programs in his fiscal year 2026 budget proposal have us worried about the future of domestic violence services across the country. ZeroV, Kentuckys domestic violence coalition, and our network of 15 member programs rely on nearly $20.2 million in federal funding to provide lifesaving services to survivors and their children across the state. Federal funding makes up more than 40% of our combined budgets, and it supports every service our network provides, including crisis lines, emergency shelter, safety planning, court advocacy, housing assistance, food assistance and more. Congress will soon start making budget appropriations for FY26, and it is imperative that members consider the lives they would risk by cutting funding for domestic violence services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As certainty about federal funding continues to diminish, questions about the future of domestic violence services continue to grow: What parts of the services infrastructure that generations of victim-survivor advocates have worked hard to build over the last 40 years might disappear? Which of our lifesaving services might be reduced or entirely lost? But most importantly, what would happen to our friends, family members, coworkers, and neighbors experiencing domestic violence if the services that could save their lives were no longer accessible or available? When lives are on the line, we cannot afford to be uncertain. Our commonwealth must be willing to take a stand for its most vulnerable Kentuckians, including those experiencing multiple layers of barriers and oppression that intersect with and add to the trauma of domestic violence. If we are to end domestic violence, we must address the racism, homophobia, poverty, homelessness, mental health issues and substance misuse issues that make survivors more vulnerable to abuse; we must hold accountable the people who abuse their partners; and we must find a way to increase protective factors such as accessible and affordable food, housing and health care. Cutting federal funding and infrastructure is not the answer. We must protect the lives and futures of survivors and our communities by protecting the domestic violence services our fellow Kentuckians depend on. ZeroV has launched a #GetLoudForSurvivors campaign to raise awareness about threats to victim-survivor services. Whether you realize it or not, someone you know depends on these services. One of Americas favorite snacks got a day in its honor Wednesday, and a local restaurant joined in on the celebration. July 16 was known across the country as National Hot Dog Day, and MP Coney Island on Sterrettania Road had the deals. EDP, Flagship City District announce downtown summer events The hot dog shop offered customers $2 hot dogs and $4 foot-long hot dogs. One assistant manager at the restaurant said they had a steady flow of customers coming in to celebrate National Hot Dog Day the right way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Erie Food Trucks available to all for Summer Snacks and Backs event James Richardson, assistant manager at MP Coney Island, said, I dont mind a hot dog at all. I love a hot dog. Like I said, its National Hot Dog Day today, our hot dog originated down in New Castle, PA, and our chili sauce is also from there. Its 101 years old, MP Coney Island. If you couldnt make it to Coney Island, Sheetz is also offering customers two free hot dogs if they purchase at least 10 gallons of gas. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. ABLIA, Iowa Just one day after the fire at the R.O. Cramer building made it a total loss, those who lived and worked there are picking up the pieces. The investigation into the cause of the fire is still underway, with no official cause stated yet, other than that the fire department believes the fire started on the second floor. Early Tuesday morning, the Monroe County Sheriffs Office confirmed that human remains were found in the building. And we started work again this morning and we did find human remains. We have no identification yet, so Im not going to speak to names until we get confirmation from the state medical examiners office, said Sheriff Joe Worth. He said another press release will be sent out when next of kin for the family is notified. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From a community response standpoint, Worth could not be more grateful for the help yesterday. Driver killed in alleged police chase in Clear Lake identified When I spoke to the landlord yesterday, he had already secured housing for everybody Its just amazing the way this community pulls together. And its something that brings you pride. Its, it makes you proud to be of a community like this, said Worth. Red Cross was helping with clothes, speaking to all eight of the displaced residents yesterday. Monroe County Public Health posted on Facebook all of the clothes donations that are needed for the families who lost everything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Big Blue Nutrition sits right around the corner from the R.O. Cramer building, and because of the owners relationships with the other small business owners they felt inclined to help. Theres a lot of families that are in need right now, clothing, gift cards, like theyre 100% having to rebuild everything as well as several small businesses that hit really close to home for us as were just a block over from them. So were doing as much as we possibly can to just help absolutely everybody who is in need, said Taylor Guffey, a club partner at Big Blue Nutrition. Big Blue is serving as a drop off point in conjunction with Monroe County Public Health, where people who want to donate clothes or food can stop there. The business is also collecting money, in person or over Venmo, with all of it going to the victims of the fire. The Venmo donations can be made to @malloriepaige, that is the owners, Mallorie Varese, account. Be wary of scammers, as multiple accounts have been made copying the same profile picture, but spelling the Venmo name just slightly different. You can scan this QR code in the photo below to know that you are sending money to the correct account. All tips given to Big Blue this week will also go towards the victim relief fund. Big Blue is posting Amazon wish lists for the victims on the business Facebook page here in the next day or so. The store was giving out free drinks to first responders and victims yesterday, along with covering drinks for the first responders who helped out for the rest of the week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Small business wise, we all correlate like we all support each other, whether they come in here and shop or were over there shopping. We are all pretty close, small business wise, said Guffey. Monroe County Public Healths Facebook page has a list of clothing sizes needed. The department is also posting what else can be donated, like food and gift cards. Iowa News: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) The Youngstown Lifeguard Academy was denied funding under the new state budget and will now have to find money elsewhere if it wants to continue operating. The academy was founded in 2019 to provide employment to local teens and make sure the Northside Pool had the staff to open every summer. But now, the Ohio General Assembly denied the academy of the $500,000 it needed to expand through a partnership with Youngstown City School District. The academy planned to recruit 60 new lifeguards for all of the Mahoning Valley, not just Youngstown. However, without those funds from the state, plans have changed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This fall, the academy has, is going to scale back. We will have to give up our training facility and administrative offices, and we will just focus on the ten current lifeguards that we have that need recertifications so that we can ensure that at least the Youngstown pool will remain open for the next season, said Kevin Tarpley, the founder of the Youngstown Lifeguard Academy. Tarpley says the academy has just enough money to fund its training over the next year. He says unless an angel comes to their rescue, the city will once again have to do its own lifeguard recruitment starting next year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. JOHNSON CITY, Tenn., (WJHL) Federal funding cuts for public broadcasting moved to the Senate for voting earlier today. The Rescissions Act would cut nearly $9.4 billion in funding for multiple agencies across the country, including $1.1 billion for networks such as NPR and PBS. WETS-FM, a public radio station operated by East Tennessee State University, would be directly impacted if the act were to pass. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Station manager Chad Barrett said the station would have to make changes to fit the lack of funding. Johnson City leaders, community discuss proposed last call ordinance Well just look into whatever adjustments we have to make, Barrett said. I mean, if we need to trim back some programming or repurpose some things, then we will. The $100,000 in yearly funding WETS receives is allocated to programming and paying for two part-time positions. If the Rescissions Act passes, the station would lose $215,000 in federal funding over the next two years. WETS also provides emergency alert services to seven counties in east Tennessee, southwest Virginia and western North Carolina. Barrett said that the lack of funding for NPR and the National Weather Service could put people in danger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They have to impact the ability to warn the public for natural disasters, Barrett said. I mean thats just the long and the short of it. Any cuts to the National Weather Service is a danger. Its a risk. You know, people not being warned in enough time to take the action they need to. Barrett added that hes most grateful for the stations donors and viewers. Its a rough patch, Barrett said. Its a storm, like any other well weather it. And we appreciate the support from our listeners. News Channel 11 reached out to PBS Appalachia, which declined to comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) In the wake of 7-year-old Hershall Creachbaums death, local organizations are sending a message to families who may also be struggling. 2 NEWS sat down with the president of the Dayton Autism Society, who says the most important message she can give to families who have kids with autism is that its never wrong to ask for help. His life mattered: Local organizations react to 7-year-olds death Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These are individuals that have no voice, we have to be the voice, said Dr. LaShell Dauterman, Dayton Autism Society president. Following the death of 7-year-old Hershall Creachbaum, the Dayton Autism Society is among several local groups reiterating the support services families caring for kids or adults with autism have in the area. One group, United Rehabilitation Services, released a statement saying in part, His death is heartbreaking and a painful reminder that children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable in our communities. Dauterman says resources are available to help not only those on the autism spectrum, but their support system too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What can families do when they are at that breaking point? Its really hard because everybodys needs are so different, said Dauterman. Father, community honor 7-year-old boy with bridge memorial The Dayton Autism Society focuses mainly on connecting families with resources across the area, often partnering with groups like the Montgomery County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Our DD services are probably the best place to start. Theyre the ones that are going to be the gatekeepers of the access to multiple levels of resources, said Dauterman. Those resources include anything from scholarships for schooling services, getting funds for additional help at home or helping a parent register their child with the local police department in case they leave home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dauterman says that oftentimes, parents in these situations need the help, but wont always ask. The idea of reaching out for help is a pride issue because they dont want to burden anybody with their problems, said Dauterman. Let them know there is no shame in what theyre experiencing. If you or someone you know is going through a time like this, reach out to the Dayton Autism Society or your local DD services to get connected to the resources you need. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. ST. LOUIS Texas Roadhouse locations across Missouri held an event called Tip-A-Cop, where local law enforcement acted as servers for customers dining in on Tuesday, July 15. According to Texas Roadhouse management, patrons were encouraged to tip officers. With that moneyalong with 10% of the profits earned by the restaurant for the eveningwould be donated to Special Olympics Missouri. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A local college has expanded its national security ties with U.S. Cyber Command. Cedarville University said the new three-year partnership with U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) will prepare students looking to become cybersecurity professionals. The agreement was finalized in March. This is the universitys third federal defense partnership it already is working with the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hacker group allegedly behind Kettering Health leak, data posted to deep web USCYBERCOM handles the Department of Defense Information Network, designs the cyber force structure and coordinates cyber operations. USCYBERCOM is our nations elite hacking force, said Dr. Seth Hamman, director of the Center for the Advancement of Cybersecurity at Cedarville. We have been working on this agreement for a long time, and its exciting to see it finalized. Cedarville is only one of 21 schools in America with a distinguished National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations designation from the NSA. It is the only private Christian university in the group. Other schools with the rare designation include Carnegie Mellon University, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miami Township sues fiscal officer over alleged misuse of funds The partnership provides Cedarville students with mentorships, internships and research opportunities. Students can use defense lab equipment, go to USCYBERCOM-hosted events and work in defense research projects for academic credit and real-world experience. This collaboration will help prepare our students for the employment market through hands-on projects and real-world insight, said Hamman. Cedarville University has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top three evangelical universities in America. To learn more about the school, click here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. Eurostar-style trains between Britain and Germany could start under plans being drawn up by Sir Keir Starmer and Friedrich Merz ahead of a summit in London. The two leaders will pledge to demolish barriers stopping direct rail travel from London to Frankfurt in the hope of extending a service to Berlin. The Prime Minister is expected to welcome the German Chancellor for his first official visit to the UK since his election victory in February. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the latest step in the Governments post-Brexit reset with Europe, the two leaders will sign a friendship treaty and agree an action plan to deepen relations. Among the initiatives is a commitment to set up a working group to facilitate direct rail links between St Pancras in London and German stations, multiple sources told the Telegraph. The first destinations are likely to be to financial hub Frankfurt and Cologne, which is famous for its carnival. There are also hopes for a direct train from London to Berlin in the same way there already is to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. The Government believes the plans have benefits beyond the symbolism of enduring ties after Brexit, including for the economy, tourism and providing a greener alternative to flights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eurostar, which is obtaining 50 new trains at a cost of 2 billion, and Deutsche Bahn are in negotiations over the new routes, which could open in 2030. Establishing new direct routes are fiendishly difficult and often require the support of governments to overcome the legal, practical and infrastructure barriers preventing them. The working group of British and German officials will discuss how to smooth over such challenges and facilitate the new routes. The first services to Frankfurt are expected to take five hours, which is seen as competitive with commercial flights, and are likely to run through Paris. This helps solve the issue of border and passport checks on entering the EUs Schengen Area, which are carried out at St Pancras. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There will still need to be negotiations with French authorities over the new routes. Trains to Cologne would probably go through Brussels, which would involve discussions with Belgium. Keir Starmer and Defence Secretary John Healey meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in June - No 10 Downing Street There are other barriers beyond immigration. There are different safety regulations in the Channel Tunnel and Germany, with different rules on train length and power requirements. Continental standards on trains and platforms vary from the UK. Germany and the UK use different voltages to electrify their rails. Interoperability on signalling is also limited. Very few train models are certified to operate in the UK, France, Germany and Belgium, and custom-built trains are expensive. London and Berlin are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise their cooperation to lay the groundwork for trade and tourism boosting commercial services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The two countries will also sign a defence cooperation treaty and announce a deal making school exchanges easier after an 80 per cent drop in German school trips to the UK since Brexit. Bringing Germany and UK closer Deutsche Bahn abandoned plans for a London-Frankfurt service in 2010 because of difficulties over cost, border controls and negotiations with tunnel operators. A Deutsche Bahn spokesman said: A direct connection from Germany to London is challenging from a technical, operational, and legal perspective. Several key requirements must be met for it to go into operation. He added, We are currently in talks with Eurostar about a direct connection from Germany to London. Together, we want to bring Germany and Great Britain even closer together by rail. We are convinced of the great potential of a direct connection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eurostar is exploring new routes as it braces for competition from other rail companies when its 30 year monopoly on the Channel Tunnel comes to an end. The UK rail regulator invited potential rivals to set out their plans last month. Eurostar, which extended its original service to the Netherlands, is also looking to set up direct routes to the Swiss city of Geneval. In May, the Government agreed a similar MoU with the Swiss government. Our new fleet will make new destinations for customers a reality notably direct trains between London and Germany, and between London and Switzerland for the first time. A new golden age of international sustainable travel is here, said Eurostar chief executive Gwendoline Cazenave last month after announcing the expansion of her fleet to 67 trains. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Xeinadin, a professional services group based in the UK and Ireland, has completed the acquisition of AGS Accountants & Business Advisors, an accountancy firm located in the West Midlands. Financial details of the deal have not been divulged by both the companies. Xeinadin chief executive Derry Crowley said: AGS is exactly the kind of firm we want in the group - trusted, practical and rooted in the local community. Their work with businesses across the Midlands and beyond is a good example of the kind of support that SMEs need right now, and we're looking forward to backing that with additional expertise and investment. Established in 1989, the Dudley-based AGS delivers a broad range of services, including accounting, auditing, payroll, tax guidance, and business strategy support, catering to small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals in England and Wales. The acquisition will allow AGS to broaden its service offerings, incorporating specialised advice such as research and development tax credits and succession planning. Additionally, the deal also supports Xeinadins goal of enhancing its transactional services and increasing its footprint in the healthcare sector. AGS director Kevin Corey said: At the heart of our success lies one simple principle, building trusted relationships by focusing on what truly matters to our clients and their businesses. From strategic year-end tax planning to compliance and advising on acquisitions or sales, were there at every step, guiding them with clarity and confidence. Now, as we join Xeinadin, we're excited to take that commitment even further, with enhanced tools, deeper technical expertise, and more time to dedicate to what our clients value most. Its business as usual, but with even greater strength behind everything we do. "Xeinadin expands with acquisition of AGS Accountants in UK" was originally created and published by International Accounting Bulletin, a GlobalData owned brand. LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) The head of the Fulton Fish Market Cooperative rallied alongside local fishermen and joined a decade-long fight to stop an offshore wind farm now under construction off Long Islands coast. Construction on the wind project began in April and was soon halted by a Trump Administration stop-work order. That order was lifted in May, and the project continues despite the ongoing lawsuit from the fishing industry. More Local News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Empire Wind farm is designed to provide enough power for half a million homes in New York, but local fishermen and businesses worry about the impact of wind farming on marine life. They also say having new stretches of ocean deemed off limits to fishing will end livelihoods. On its website, the CEO of the Empire Wind project says, This project delivers on the energy ambitions shared by the United States and New York by providing a vital new source of power to the region. The lawsuit the Fulton Fishmarket has now joined is a last-ditch effort to derail the Empire Wind farm before its completed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. NEED TO KNOW Multiple violations were previously found at an assisted living facility in Massachusetts where nine people were killed in a fire on Sunday, July 13 Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan reportedly said that the facility's owner Dennis Etzkorn is no longer cooperating with his office An employee claimed to a local news outlet that the facility was "very dirty" and infested with bugs and mice Violations were previously found at a Massachusetts assisted living facility where nine people died in a fire. Now, the mayor claims the owner of the facility is no longer cooperating with his office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Gabriel House in Fall River, Mass., had not been inspected by the state in nearly two years prior to the fatal blaze on Sunday, July 13, according to CBS affiliate WBZ-TV and WPRI-TV, citing records from the Executive Office of Aging and Independence. The assisted living facility was inspected by the city in October 2024 and received a one-year certification, a previous WBZ-TV report noted. Multiple violations were reportedly found during the states routine visit in October 2023, including those related to staffing and emergency preparedness. Among them were 26 instances where specific emergency situations were not reported to the state within 24 hours, as required by law, according to WPRI. Additionally, some medications were reportedly left loose in storage areas within the facility, while others were partially left open. Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe via Getty Flowers sit outside the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility, the scene of a fatal fire that killed nine, on July 14, 2025. Flowers sit outside the Gabriel House Assisted Living Facility, the scene of a fatal fire that killed nine, on July 14, 2025. Gabriel House previously submitted a plan of correction to the state, and later received a certificate to operate until December 2025, per the reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the fire on Sunday, at least one employee raised concerns about living conditions at the facility. Debbie Johnson, a certified nursing assistant for Gabriel House, told WBZ-TV that the facility was horrible. "They had mice. They had cockroaches, infested with cockroaches, bed bugs. It was dirty, very dirty, Johnson claimed. "The elevator has been broken for the last four years, off and on forever and there's people stuck in their rooms, have to have their food brought to them." Previously, Gabriel House owner Dennis Etzkorn pledged to fully cooperate with investigators, saying that he was devastated by the tragedy, according to CNN. But Mayor Paul Coogan said at a vigil on Tuesday, July 15, that Etzkorn is no longer cooperating with his office, according to WPRI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes just starting to get me a tad angry now because we needed his help on a few things and hes not answering his phone, Coogan said. The mayor later added, I want him to know that these are his residents, and he might as well push them on the sidewalk and say, have a nice day, if hes not going to follow up. PEOPLE has reached out to the mayor and owner for comments. AP Photo/Michael Casey Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon, right, speaks with another official after a fire the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River, Mass., Monday, July 14, 2025 Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon, right, speaks with another official after a fire the Gabriel House assisted living facility in Fall River, Mass., Monday, July 14, 2025 Nine people were killed on Sunday after the fire broke out shortly after 9:30 p.m. local time, according to a statement previously shared by the Fall River Police Department on Facebook. (The statement is no longer available on their page.) Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Several people were pronounced dead at the scene, the fire department previously said. More were injured, and another was left in critical condition. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While an investigation into the blaze is ongoing, the Bristol County district attorney has said the cause of the fatal blaze does not appear to be suspicious. This is an unfathomable tragedy for the families involved and the Fall River community, Fall River Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said in a news release. Read the original article on People ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM) A long-time family operated funeral home in Elmira was sold to another funeral company on Wednesday, according to the co-owner of that new company. McInerny Funeral Home, located at 502 W Water St, was sold to Milestone Funeral Partners on Wednesday, July 16, according to Michael Martel, Co-Owner of Milestone Funeral Partners. Former Ted Clarks Busy Market up for saleagain Martel explained that although the business itself was sold, Kevin McInerny, former owner of McInerny Funeral Home, will remain as the managing partner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Milestone Funeral Partners is a funeral, cemetery, and crematory organization that owns and operates locations throughout the northeast with more than 60 funeral homes, crematories, and cemeteries across the region. The company is based in Auburn, Maine, but is actively expanding through partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers, their website explained. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WETM - MyTwinTiers.com. AUSTIN (KXAN) A new law going into effect in September aims to bring more doctors to Texas. House Bill 2038, known as the Doctor Act, will allow experienced international medical graduates to skip residency programs required in the U.S. This comes as some projections show Texas is facing a shortage of more than 10,000 doctors by the year 2032, according to HB 2038. KXAN spoke with Dr. Ogan Gurel, physician and faculty expert in the University of Texas at Arlingtons College of Business Health Care Administration program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gurel said many states are experiencing a shortage, with Texas specifically feeling it in rural regions. Geographically, its a wider problem. He said. Also, time-wise, this doctor shortage has been anticipated since the 1990s as people obviously saw the demographic trends with aging of the baby boomers, increased healthcare utilization and aging of the doctors, obviously, and retiring. Gurel added the shortage was accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic when many healthcare professionals left clinical practice. Furthermore, he said the shortage is happening particularly in Texas with the growth in the population and a lot of incoming residents. So this has been a long-time problem and a widespread problem, but particularly acute in Texas, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement International medical graduates would have to meet certain criteria since the legislation allows for graduates to bypass U.S. residency. One of the particular challenges in Texas is, and I think Texas is the worst state in this regard, is the number of residency positions for U.S. medical graduates is actually less per medical student in Texas than it is in many other states, Gurel said. For every 10 medical school graduates in Texas, there are only nine residency positions, he said. So, the real challenge is the lack of residency positions. Rural areas in Texas also do not have enough primary care doctors, Gurel said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not so much the availability of the doctors, which there is a shortage, as we noted, but also the lack of infrastructure and the lack of sophisticated equipment to support practice. So it makes it very frustrating and unattractive to doctors foreign or otherwise, he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) Near signs that warn of radioactive risk at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a half-dozen workers from the nuclear power company X-energy are making what appear to be gray billiard balls. Inside, they're packed with thousands of tiny black spheres that each contain a speck of uranium enriched beyond what todays power plants use. The United States is chasing a new age of nuclear power that banks on domestic production of reactor fuel like X-energy is making, and though the work at Oak Ridge is unfolding across just 3,000 square feet, X-energy and others are already revving up for big production. President Donald Trump set a goal of quadrupling domestic production of nuclear power within the next 25 years, signing executive orders in May to speed up development. A new wave of advanced nuclear reactors could be operational around 2030. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But just like cars wont run without gas, those plants wont run without fuel. To expand nuclear energy long-term, the nation must maximize its nuclear fuel production, according to Trump. In Oak Ridge, X-energy has broken ground on a massive, nearly $2 billion campus for a new fuel fabrication facility, the first in the United States in over half a century. The nuclear fuel company Standard Nuclear, also in Oak Ridge, aims to produce metric tons of fuel for advanced reactors. A supplier named Orano is likewise looking to build a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility nearby. This is a unique time, said Tyler Gerczak, Oak Ridge National Laboratorys principal investigator for the cooperative with X-energys subsidiary TRISO-X. The momentum is incredible. Making the most robust nuclear fuel Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Associated Press toured the lab where X-energy is making small amounts of fuel for testing. Anyone beyond a magenta-and-yellow chain that warns of radioactivity must wear gowns, two layers of gloves and radiation monitors. When they leave, they're tested for radioactivity. X-energy, a Maryland-based company, uses uranium to make so-called TRISO fuel inside what's known as pebbles. Those are the billiard balls. The Energy Department says it's the most robust nuclear fuel on Earth because the particles cannot melt in a reactor. At the lab, the first step is making a uranium cocktail that resembles dark yellow lemonade. Uranium powder, in the form of triuranium octoxide, gets added to nitric acid, said Dan Brown, vice president of fuel development for TRISO-X. Then carbon and an organic solution are added. They have two glass containers set up one wears a heated jacket, looking almost like a little sweater, that helps the uranium dissolve into the acid solution. The second cools the acid solution while the carbon source is added, which turns the mix near-black, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At another station, in a long clear tube, the cocktail solidifies into small black spheres with a jellybean-like consistency. Those black balls, about the size of poppyseeds, then travel through machines under temperatures as high as 1,800 degrees Celsius to get protective carbon coatings like candy dipping that make them look like very tiny BBs. X-energy uses graphite and other cohesive materials to bind 18,000 kernels together into a larger sphere. That gets coated in a final layer of graphite to seal the final pebble. In the end, its strong enough to withstand the weight of an SUV. The pebbles will eventually give up their energy in the high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor X-energy is developing, with about 220,000 pebbles per reactor, like gumballs in a gumball machine. When they exit the bottom, if energy remains, the pebbles will return to the top for another pass. Each one could be used about six times. X-energy also plans to make fuel products for other advanced reactor designs. The national laboratory lends X-energy its expertise, research and high-tech equipment for analysis and will evaluate samples, as will some universities. Other samples are archived. Idaho National Laboratory received a batch for its advanced test reactor, Brown said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics of building more nuclear reactors say theyre too expensive and riskier than other low-carbon energy sources. Without a substantial decrease in construction costs, its not worth the avoided greenhouse gas emissions, said David Kemp, a Cato Institute policy analyst. Kemp said Trump's 25-year quadrupling goal is unrealistic because it would mean building nuclear reactors faster than ever. The United States lacks any next-generation reactors operating commercially and only two new large reactors have been built from scratch in nearly 50 years. Those two, at a Georgia nuclear plant, were completed years late and at least $17 billion over budget. Working to amp up domestic nuclear fuel production Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many next-generation reactors will use high-assay low-enriched uranium. It's fuel that's enriched to a higher level than traditional large nuclear reactors use, allowing the newer reactors to run longer and more efficiently, sit on smaller footprints and produce less waste, according to the Department of Energy. Theres little of it made in the United States right now. Only Russia and China currently have the infrastructure to make large amounts of high-assay low-enriched uranium. In the United States, Centrus Energy produced the nations first 20 kilograms of high-assay low-enriched uranium in more than 70 years in late 2023, to show it can produce limited quantities for commercial reactors. A big takeaway from Trump's executive orders is the need to amp up domestic production of nuclear fuel to reduce dependence on foreign sources and enable in the long term expansion of American nuclear energy, according to the Energy Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the Nuclear Energy Institute trade association, Benjamin Holtzman, director of new nuclear, said he thinks the fuel will be ready for a new generation of U.S. nuclear reactors needed to meet the growing demand for electricity if the right actions are taken now. X-energy CEO J. Clay Sell said he hopes to help solve the fuel problem so it doesnt hold back new reactor development. The Energy Department has awarded funding to X-energy. Amazon invested in X-energy too, and theyre collaborating to bring more than 5 gigawatts of new U.S. power projects online by 2039. X-energy is the only one with an application before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to license a new fabrication facility to transform enriched uranium into fuel products for nuclear reactors. Another applicant has asked to amend an existing license to make fuel for advanced reactors, according to the NRC. About five additional companies have told the NRC they are interested in making fuel for advanced reactors. X-energy's pilot lab at the National Laboratory started in 2016. The company now has 100 acres in Oak Ridge and growing for its nuclear fuel production complex. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first factory could be operational by late 2027 or early 2028, capable at full operation of assembling enough fuel orbs to power 11 of its new-age reactors; a second by late 2029, with a capacity four times greater, said TRISO-X President Joel Duling. I've been through two or three nuclear renaissances," Duling said. This isn't a renaissance. This is a game-changer. ___ McDermott reported from Providence, Rhode Island. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Volunteers and staff with A Betor Way prepare to distribute Narcan, hygiene kits, clothes, and hot meals for unhoused during an event last week. The Memphis nonprofits mission includes rapid testing for HIV and Hepatitis C. Like other community-based organizations here, A Betor Way must scramble to cover testing services after federal funding cuts caught it by surprise. (by Micaela Watts) This story was originally published by The Institute for Public Service Reporting Memphis. Healthcare providers across Tennessee are scrambling to find new funding for HIV prevention following the loss of a critical federal grant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tennessee lost the funding earlier this spring amid deep spending cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. United Way of Greater Nashville, the organization that directs federal HIV funding to nonprofits and healthcare agencies across the state, told the Institute for Public Service Reporting its CDC agreement expired on the last day of May. That funding, totaling $4 million, represents roughly half of all federal dollars spent in Tennessee for HIV prevention and treatment. The cuts are expected to hit especially hard in Memphis, where HIV infection rates are among the highest in the country. This moment calls for creativity in how we fund HIV prevention and care at the local level especially in states that do not have a political appetite for action, said Adrian Shanker, a senior official for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Biden administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Ryan White program, the federal program that covers HIV treatment and treatment-related needs for people who couldnt otherwise afford them, appears to be left intact. But the cuts are expected to decrease the accessibility of birth control supplies and trigger layoffs of social workers and employees who help people navigate access to PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, a key drug for at-risk individuals that greatly reduces the odds of contracting HIV. This is scary to me, you know? It just means that categories of people who were already underserved are going to be in a worse situation than they were before, Rob Bobal, A Betor Way The loss of the federal funding comes as Memphis health officials face rising rates of new infections of HIV and syphilis and an uncertain future of disease surveillance at the state and national level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data shows a steady climb since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when the Shelby County Health Department logged 238 new HIV infections. In 2023, the latest year data is available from both the county and state health departments, that number jumped to 353. This total does not include individuals who may have unknowingly contracted the virus. Rob Bobal, founder of the Memphis nonprofit A Betor Way, which faces a loss of $125,000 a year in funding, said the cuts in prevention funding have implications beyond the spread of HIV. Bobals nonprofit specializes in harm reduction, providing clean needles and rapid HIV testing for intravenous drug users who may otherwise reuse needles and spread infections. Add to that, Bobal said, the funding cuts often translate to a loss of jobs and an overall weakening of an already under-funded infrastructure of community-based organizations. This is scary to me, you know? It just means that categories of people who were already underserved are going to be in a worse situation than they were before, Bobal said. You take all the CBOs (community-based organizations) out of Memphis I dont know whats left. Great uncertainty Tennessee healthcare providers had an oral commitment from the CDC under the Biden administration to continue the HIV prevention funding for another year but discussions abruptly stopped after President Donald Trump took office in January, according to people familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive information. CDC later initiated procedures to close-out and discontinue the grant, these people said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As funding sources for sexual and reproductive health continue to dry up, upheaval at the federal level adds another layer of complication for HIV surveillance, prevention and treatment. Since President Trump took office in January, HHS has discontinued research into a promising vaccine for HIV, just months before trials were to start. The federal entity, which houses the CDC, also is hurriedly rehiring hundreds of workers fired earlier this spring under the direction of the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, which was overseen for a time by billionaire Elon Musk. The disruptions are not insignificant, Shanker said. There was a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak, he said. These are setbacks that that will require massive investments from non-governmental sources, just to stay close to being on track to where we were before. And thats really, really challenging. HIV rapid test supplies. (by Micaela Watts) The challenges will trickle down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Shelby County, when a person receives a positive result on an HIV test, regardless of where they are tested, they are told to contact anyone they have had intercourse with within the past year. Positive test results are also reported to the health department, where staff contact tracers work to contact any at-risk individuals associated with the positive test. The positive test result then goes on a journey. If a person is tested at a community organization or a healthcare office, results are reported to the county health department. From there, the numbers are sent to the state health department, where the data is compiled. Often preliminary data data that is still being analyzed and verified is the closest the public can get to the most recent information about how HIV is spreading. The latest data available from both the state and county stops in 2023. Information gathered locally about new HIV infections is collected by the CDCs National HIV Surveillance System. However, that system was disrupted this spring when numbers of employees were fired as part of a DOGE-driven restructuring. In all, some 10,000 HHS employees were laid off in March. A federal judge in Rhode Island ruled earlier this month that the layoffs were likely unlawful; Its unclear how that decision may affect the surveillance program. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court ruling aside, the federal government already is rehiring hundreds of previously fired workers, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on June 24. Even if every fired CDC employee that coordinated federal efforts to contain and eliminate HIV is hired back, the disruption, as Shanker said, is a significant setback. Setbacks hit hard in Memphis For cities like Memphis, a national leader in new infection rates, setbacks at the federal level hit especially hard. HIV infection rates prompted Shelby County Health Director Michelle Taylor to sound the alarm over the past year. In February, she met with local hospital leaders and urged the implementation of opt out testing for HIV for patients treated in emergency rooms, meaning patients would be universally screened for HIV unless they declined the test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regional One Health, a public hospital that treats historically vulnerable communities, has flagged HIV infections as a priority for years. All patients who are admitted to the hospital are screened for HIV, Angie Golding, the communications director, told The Institute. Meanwhile, other healthcare providers are bracing for the cuts. Jennifer Pepper, president and CEO of CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health (Courtesy: CHOICES) CHOICES-Memphis Center for Reproductive Health, an organization that once provided abortions and still provides midwifery services, has endured both Title X cuts and CDC cuts. CHOICES CEO Jennifer Pepper said her organizations ability to provide subsidized sexual and reproductive healthcare is in jeopardy. Clincs that provide similar services are also feeling the squeeze. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Pepper, the stripped funding is a familiar scenario. She observed multiple efforts, many successful, to cleave funding sources from organizations that provided abortions in the years before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. Now, shes watching colleagues that provide sexual and reproductive health services go through their first rounds of targeted defunding. I feel like those who have provided abortion care are, unfortunately, particularly prepared for this moment. But this is a new experience, in some ways, for HIV treatment providers and community-based healthcare providers, Pepper said. Unfortunately, other providers are now experiencing the same thing. The Institute for Public Service Reporting is a professionally staffed newsroom on the campus of the University of Memphis dedicated to civic-minded journalism. Federal authorities arrested three current and former police chiefs in Louisiana for allegedly selling fake police reports to immigrants seeking visas, officials announced Wednesday. The defendants allegedly charged $5,000 per person to create false armed robbery reports that immigrants could use to apply for special U.S. visas, according to acting U.S. attorney Alec Van Hook of Louisiana's Western District. Chandrakant "Lala" Patel of Oakdale faced the most charges, including conspiracy, bribery, 24 counts of mail fraud and eight counts of money laundering. Prosecutors identified him as the scheme's central figure. KATC - PHOTO: U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook announces charges against current and former police officers at a news conference in Lafayette, La., July 16, 2025. Current Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle and Ward 5 Marshal Michael "Freck" Slaney were each charged with conspiracy, six counts of visa fraud and six counts of mail fraud. Doyle faces one count of money laundering, while Slaney faces two. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon faces identical charges to Doyle, while former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea was charged with conspiracy, six counts of visa fraud, and six counts of mail fraud. Oakdale officials released a statement Tuesday after the officers were arrested, saying the city "is taking this matter very seriously." "We understand the seriousness of this situation and are committed to full cooperation with the appropriate authorities. The City is taking this matter very seriously and will act in accordance with the law and in the best interest of our community," Oakdale officials said. MORE: American Idol' music supervisor and husband found shot dead in Los Angeles home, suspect arrested Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scheme allegedly ran from 2015 until July 2025, prosecutors said. The group allegedly created fake reports showing immigrants as victims of armed robberies that never happened, allowing them to apply for U-visas -- special visas that let crime victims stay in the United States. "There was an unusual concentration of armed robberies -- a large number of people that were not from Louisiana in some of our smaller communities," Van Hook said at a press conference in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Wednesday, adding, "In fact, the armed robberies never took place." Authorities said Patel collected money from immigrants and paid the officers $5,000 for each person listed on a false police report. The U-visa program allows both crime victims and their family members to remain in the U.S., making each false report's impact far-reaching. All five were charged with conspiracy and mail fraud. Patel, who authorities identified as the scheme's central figure, was the only one charged with bribery. Four of the law enforcement officers also face visa fraud charges, and all except Onishea face additional counts of money laundering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If found guilty, each defendant could spend decades behind bars, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Louisiana. They could each face up to 5 years for conspiracy, 10 years for visa fraud and 20 years for mail fraud. Patel faces an additional 10 years for the bribery charge. Each count also carries a possible fine of up to $250,000. Van Hook emphasized these were allegations against individual officers, not entire departments. "We are not alleging that these are corrupt police departments," he said. The investigation involved multiple agencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Louisiana State Police and the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office. The case will move forward in federal court. Four law enforcement officials, including two current police chiefs, in Louisiana are accused of fabricating police reports in a scheme to illegally obtain U.S. visas for immigrants, federal prosecutors said Wednesday. A Louisiana businessman is also charged in the scheme. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Louisiana alleges that between Dec. 26, 2015, and at least July 15, 2025, businessman Chandrakant Patel, Oakdale Police Chief Chad Doyle, Forest Hill Police Chief Glynn Dixon, former Glenmora Police Chief Tebo Onishea and Michael Slaney, a marshal in the Ward 5 Marshal's Office, conspired to produce false reports that were used to apply for U visas, which victims of certain crimes are eligible for. Immigrants seeking U visas would contact Patel or another facilitator who would contact Patel, according to an indictment. Patel would then allegedly ask Doyle, Dixon, Onishea and Slaney to produce false police reports saying the immigrants had been the victims of armed robberies. The law enforcement officials would also provide certification and attestation of documents needed for the U visa, the indictment said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Attorney Alexander C. Van Hook said in a news conference that the police officials were paid $5,000 for each name they provided a falsified report for. There were hundreds of names listed on the reports, Van Hook said, creating the appearance of an "unusual concentration of armed robberies of people who were not from Louisiana." The seal of Department of Justice U.S. Attorney's Office is seen during a news conference in Washington, Thursday, May 22, 2025. / Credit: Jose Luis Magana / AP "In fact, the armed robberies never took place," Van Hook said. Patel also allegedly paid the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office $5,000 in February 2025, "intending to influence and reward" an agent who would write him a false police report from that office. Patel is charged with a count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, one count of bribery, 24 counts of mail fraud and eight counts of money laundering. Doyle and Dixon are each charged with a count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Slaney is charged with a count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, six counts of visa fraud, six counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering. Onishea is charged with a count of conspiracy to commit visa fraud, six counts of visa fraud and six counts of mail fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doyle, Dixon and Slaney have been arrested, CBS affiliate WBRZ reported. An "ongoing investigation" is taking place throughout Louisiana, officials said. Doyle and Dixon's homes have also been raided, WBRZ reported. The conspiracy charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. The visa fraud charges have a maximum sentence of 10 years per count. The mail fraud charges have a sentence of up to 20 years in prison per count. The defendants could also be ordered to pay a fine of up to $250,000 per count, and the money laundering charges call for the forfeiture of bank accounts, real estate and vehicles. Patel also faces up to 10 years on the bribery charge. U visas were introduced in October 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. The act was meant to strengthen law enforcement agencies' ability to investigate and prosecute crimes, while protecting victims who are willing to help investigate them. The Associated Press reported that about 10,000 people received U visas in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2022, which was the most recent period that the Department of Homeland Security shared data for. A Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report published in 2022 warned that the U visa program was not managed effectively and was susceptible to fraud. In 2024, six men were charged with staging armed robberies in multiple states to fraudulently obtain U visa forms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files Senate Democrats push to regulate fundraising for presidential libraries Loved ones are searching for a Southern California man who hasnt been seen in nearly two months. The last time anyone had physically seen Rwechungula Anyabwile, 63, was on May 22, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. On June 22, Anyabwile texted his family in a group chat, but that was the last time anyone heard from him. Anyabwile is described as a Black man who stands 6 feet 1 inch tall and weighs about 195 pounds. He has brown eyes and is bald. Rwechungula Anyabwile, 63, was last seen on May 22, 2025. The last time he texted someone was on June 22, 2025, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He car is a black Hyundai Sonata with California license plate number 8AFS079. He is known to frequent the area near the 5500 block of Lincoln Boulevard in Playa Vista. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His family said there is no known medical condition that would contribute to his disappearance and he has never gone missing before. They are very concerned for his well-being. Anyone who may know his whereabouts or has information on the case is asked to call LAPDs Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800. Anonymous tips can be provided to L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or online at lacrimestoppers.org. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. Elite airline status can come with various benefits, including free seat upgrades, priority boarding, fee waivers, and other valuable perks. But in most cases, you'll need to be a very frequent flier with a particular airline to earn elite status. With some airlines, however, you can earn credits toward elite status with your normal credit card spending. Here's a quick guide to earning elite airline status with credit cards and what to consider before choosing an airline credit card. Earning elite airline status with credit cards If you're looking to spend your way to elite airline status, your options depend on which airline you choose. While some airlines have co-branded credit cards that allow you to earn status with only credit card purchases, others may limit how far you can get with spending alone. Here are your options for each airline that offers some progress toward elite status. Read more: Best airline credit cards This embedded content is not available in your region. Alaska Airlines To earn elite status with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, you must earn elite-qualifying miles (EQMs). As of 2024, the airline offers the chance to earn its lowest elite status with just your credit card spending. More specifically, you'll earn 4,000 EQMs for every $10,000 you spend on the Alaska Airlines Visa Card, up to a maximum 20,000 EQMs. This is enough to grant you basic MVP status. If you're shooting for higher status tiers, however, you'll need to earn additional EQMs with flights. American Airlines American Airlines offers a straightforward way to earn elite status with just your credit card spending. For each dollar you spend on an American Airlines credit card, you'll earn one or more AAdvantage miles based on the card's rewards rates. For each AAdvantage mile you earn, you'll also get one loyalty point toward elite status, which starts at 15,000 loyalty points. Here are the different American Airlines credit cards you can use to earn elite status with the airline: Delta Air Lines Delta recently simplified its rewards program, letting fliers earn elite status with Medallion qualifying dollars (MQDs). Unfortunately, not all of the airline's co-branded credit cards earn MQDs. Here are the two consumer cards that do: Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express Card : Receive $2,500 MQDs each Medallion qualifying year, plus 1 MQD for every $20 you spend. Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express Card: Receive $2,500 MQDs each Medallion qualifying year, plus 1 MQD for every $10 you spend. Note that the lowest SkyMiles elite status tier requires $5,000 MQDs, so with either cards annual bonus alone, you're halfway there. The highest tier requires $28,000 MQDs. With the Platinum Card, you'd need to spend $50,000 in a year to earn elite status with just your spending. With the Reserve Card, you'd need to spend $25,000 to reach the lowest tier. Read more: Delta Platinum vs. Delta Reserve: Which is better for frequent Delta travelers? Frontier Airlines The budget airline makes it easy to earn elite status with just your credit card spending, giving you one elite status point for every dollar you spend on the Frontier Airlines World Mastercard. Depending on the cards current welcome bonus, you may even be able to earn elite status by meeting the minimum spend requirement in the first few months. Elite status eligibility starts at 10,000 elite status points and ranges up to 100,000 points for the highest tier. JetBlue Airways You'll need to earn Mosaic tiles to earn elite status with the JetBlue TrueBlue program. While the fastest way to earn tiles is to book JetBlue flights and vacation packages, you can earn one tile for every $1,000 you spend on a JetBlue credit card including the JetBlue Card and the JetBlue Plus Card. The lowest tier of Mosaic status requires 50 tiles, which translates to $50,000 in annual spending on either card. To earn the highest tier, you'd need to earn 250 tiles. Southwest Airlines One way to earn A-list status with the Rapid Rewards program is to earn 35,000 tier-qualifying points (TQPs), which you can generate when you book Southwest flights or use an eligible Southwest credit card. More specifically, you can earn 1,500 TQPs for every $5,000 spent on the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card or the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card. There's no limit to how many TQPs you can earn, but you'd need to spend roughly $116,667 a year to earn status with just your credit card. Spirit Airlines The budget airline offers two elite status tiers, which you can earn with status qualifying points (SQPs). Silver status requires 2,000 SQPs; you can earn Gold status with 5,000 SQPs. With the Free Spirit Travel More World Elite Mastercard, you'll earn 1 SQP for every $10 you spend. In other words, you can earn elite status with just $20,000 in annual spending on the card. United Airlines United Airlines offers a few paths toward elite status, including earning Premier qualifying points (PQPs) or a mix of PQPs and Premier qualifying flights. The good news is that three of the four United Airlines consumer cards allow you to earn PQPs with your spending. That said, the limit will vary depending on which card you have: The New United Explorer Card : Earn 1 PQP for every $20 you spend, up to 1,000 PQPs in a calendar year. The New United Quest Card : Earn 3,000 PQPs with the card's welcome bonus (earn 100,000 bonus miles and 3,000 Premier qualifying points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months) when you meet the spending requirement, plus 1 PQP for every $20 you spend (up to 18,000 PQPs in a calendar year). The New United Club Card: Earn 1 PQP for every $15 you spend, up to 28,000 PQPs in a calendar year. Note that elite status with the MileagePlus program starts at 5,000 PQPs, so you can earn status with credit card spending alone only with the United Quest and United Club cards. You'd need to spend an eye-watering $75,000 to $100,000 to get there, depending on which card you have. Read our full reviews of the United Explorer and United Club Infinite cards. Does earning elite airline status with credit cards make sense? Elite airline status can offer a lot of value, but pursuing it doesn't make sense for everyone. Here are some things to consider to determine whether it's worth it for you: Travel habits: If you're a frequent flier, getting elite benefits every time you fly can make your efforts worthwhile. If you only fly occasionally, you may be better off with a more general travel rewards credit card. Airline loyalty: If you tend to stick to one airline when you fly, earning elite status with its loyalty program means you'll get perks virtually every time you travel. However, if you'd rather book the cheapest flight regardless of the airline, you may not be able to use your status often enough to make it worth it. Spending habits: Some airlines require a lot of spending to earn even the most basic elite status tier, so it's essential to consider how much you typically spend on a credit card. If you're a smaller spender, you may never generate enough qualifying points to accomplish your goal. Welcome bonuses: Airlines may offer limited-time bonus offers for their branded credit cards a few times a year. Depending on the deal, those bonus points can get you much closer to elite status in just a few months. Capitalizing on one of these offers can put airline status in reach, but be sure to read the fine print to make sure youre eligible. You'll also want to consider whether your efforts are better spent with a different type of credit card. While airline cards can offer a lot of value, you'll have little flexibility when redeeming your points or miles. Moreover, airline card perks typically only apply when you fly with the co-branded airline, limiting their value. If you don't want to be restricted to a single airline or flight-related perks only, compare other travel credit cards to ensure you get the best fit for you. This article was edited by Alicia Hahn Editorial Disclosure: The information in this article has not been reviewed or approved by any advertiser. All opinions belong solely to Yahoo Finance and are not those of any other entity. The details on financial products, including card rates and fees, are accurate as of the publish date. All products or services are presented without warranty. Check the banks website for the most current information. This site doesn't include all currently available offers. Credit score alone does not guarantee or imply approval for any financial product. SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Approval for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government rose for the first time this year, a new poll showed on Wednesday, after his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil starting in August. The Quaest poll commissioned by brokerage Genial showed that 43% of those surveyed approve of Lula's administration, up from 40% in the previous poll in May. Meanwhile, the government's disapproval fell from 57% to 53% in the period. According to the poll, 66% of the respondents were aware of President Trump's letter announcing 50% tariffs on Brazil, while 33% were not. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the letter, Trump linked the tariffs to Brazil's treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial over charges of plotting a coup to stop Lula from taking office in 2023. The poll showed that 72% believe that Trump is wrong to impose tariffs on Brazil due to what he sees as persecution of Bolsonaro, while 19% think the measure is right. Despite being barred from holding public office until 2030, Bolsonaro insists he will run against Lula in a rematch in next year's election, arguing he is the only figure on the right who can defeat the incumbent. Lula, 79, has hinted that he could run for reelection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Genial/Quaest poll surveyed 2,004 eligible voters in person between July 10 and July 14. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. (Reporting by Andre Romani and Eduardo Simoes; Writing by Isabel Teles; Editing by Brendan O'Boyle) HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) The Grey Muzzle Organization announced over 100 organizations received grants towards senior dog programs. The Grey Muzzle Organization announced on Tuesday that 119 organizations across 33 states and three international organizations received grants. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we awarded a record-breaking $1.57 million in grants this yeara 43% increase from last year and $7.3 million since 2018! The Grey Muzzle Organization said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Luna Farms was one of four Alabama organizations that received a grant to ensure older dogs in North Alabamas rural communities receive the love, comfort, and medical care they deserve in their golden years. Luna Farms Rescue works closely with rural shelters throughout Alabama to rescue and rehabilitate senior dogs who are often overlooked due to age or medical needs. Through its Encore Pups Program, Luna Farms prepares these wise souls for adoption and matches them with families who appreciate the joy of a grey muzzle, Luna Farms said. This grant will provide much-needed veterinary and dental care for sweet seniors like Albert, a 10-year-old mix who doesnt let the miles hes traveled slow him down, Stephanie Jordan, Executive Director of Luna Farms Rescue, said. No one appreciates a cozy bed and a loving heart more than a senior dog. Were honored to give Albert and other senior dogs a fresh start and the comfort of a forever home. Luna Farms told News 19 that the program they have to support senior dogs is called Senior Encore Pups: Every Dog Deserves a Grand Finale. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Albert, according to the rescue, is one of many lovable senior dogs receiving a second chance thanks to support from The Grey Muzzle Organization. (Photo: Luna Farms Rescue) (Photo: Luna Farms Rescue) Other Senior Encore Pups that have gone through the program in the last month are: (Photo: Luna Farms Rescue) Tulip from Hardin County, Tennessee Topher from Huntsville Animal Services (Photo: Luna Farms Rescue) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wynter from Florence Lauderdale Animal Services The Grey Muzzle Organization said donations allowed the group to launch its first-ever $25,000 grant level, with 19 organizations that received this to implement or expand their senior dog programs. The rest of the groups selected for the grant year received amounts up to $25,000 based on the needs and goals of their proposed initiatives. The four Alabama organizations that received grants were: Full Circle Rescue and Sanctuary, Ala. River Region Animal Rescue, Ala. SOS Animal Adoption Center, Ala. Luna Farms Rescue, Ala. Luna Farms said it was one of 440 applicants for this grant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These dogs still have so much love to give, Dr. Gregg Able, Luna Farms lead veterinarian and a trusted expert in senior pet care with more than 30 years of experience serving Madison County, said. We provide thorough medical exams, dental care, pain management, and everything they need to thrive in their next chapter. The Grey Muzzle Foundations support will allow us to deliver that level of care to even more deserving senior pups. The Farm said it will expand outreach to shelters across the Southeast to identify senior dogs at risk and provide the necessary care for successful placement. The group said this program not only saves lives but also brings families their grey-muzzled companions. You can view the full list of recipients on The Grey Muzzle Organizations Facebook page here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHNT.com. Macon-Bibb County government officials will designate several representatives Tuesday to advocate for a future passenger rail stop in Macon. Mayor Lester Miller, Mayor Pro Tempore Seth Clark and District 3 Commissioner Stanley Stewart sponsored a resolution that supports the development of a passenger rail that will travel from Atlanta, stop in Macon and then head to Savannah, according to documents in the Macon-Bibb County agenda packet. The last time Macon had a passenger rail system was in 1970. The (resolutions) goal is to try and make sure you have all of the commissioners on board, Stewart told The Telegraph. And then it shows that, you know, Macon-Bibb is ... behind the idea. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It further aims to designate one or more employees of the county to serve as official representatives of the government for purposes of participating in ongoing route evaluation discussions and advocating for selection of the Atlanta-Macon-Savannah route proposal by GDOT, according to the resolution. Though the representatives werent identified, Stewart, C. Jack Ellis and Robert Reichert, the past two mayors of the city, have advocated for reestablishing the possibility of Macon having a passenger rail stop. Ellis bought the terminal station and Reichert under his administration, kind of kept the ball going a little bit, Stewart told The Telegraph. County officials must address hurdles first Work toward establishing a national passenger rail system began in November 2021 when the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was passed by Congress, which allocated $66 million over five years. Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff also successfully procured $8 million in federal funds in 2022 for high-speed rail between Atlanta and Savannah. Macon became part of the conversation for a passenger rail stop when the Southeast Corridor Commission a coalition that includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida studied the best routes to connect passenger rail in the Southeast. The commission determined that a route from Atlanta to Macon and Savannah would be the preferred way to connect to Jacksonville, FL, according to the resolution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AMTRAK, another railroad service, considered including Macon as a stop for a passenger rail system that would use existing railroad and new greenfield routes, according to the resolution. By having a passenger rail in Macon, it would help the environment by reducing traffic congestion on Interstate 75, according to the resolution. It would also facilitate tourism for those looking to visit the Ocmulgee Mounds Historical National Park, who would typically be traveling from the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and, finally, would be necessary and proper to promote to protect the safety, health, peace, security and general welfare of Macon-Bibb County and its inhabitants, according to the resolution. However, Stewart will need to face some hurdles first. He told The Telegraph that county leaders need to convince the federal government and local municipalities that the passenger rail stop in Macon would be a good idea. But Stewart expects them to be hesitant. A lot of the folks in Atlanta dont want people from Macon or Savannah coming up that way ... they thought (it would bring) more crime, Stewart said. You say that because the folks in Macon and Savannah are thinking that Atlanta is gonna bring more crime to them, right? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said misconceptions on crime need to be addressed, and there needs to be communication with officials from involved municipalities. The key is to make sure ... that we get an understanding from all the people (in) Atlanta, Macon and Savannah, that this is the best thing for all of our communities, Stewart said. Editors note: This story is no longer being updated. View the latest information about this story here. Three people went underwater at Amerson River Park Tuesday evening and have not been found, according to local officials. A 28-year-old man attempted to save two girls, ages 7 and 10 years old, but all three went under while in the water at the park, said Chris Floore, chief communications officer for Macon-Bibb County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rescuers responded to the scene to search for the three people about 15 minutes after the initial report of a possible drowning, Floore said. A person called 911 at 7:34 p.m. to report the incident. A dive crew from the Macon-Bibb County Fire Department on Riverside was dispatched at 7:43 p.m., and arrived at the scene by 7:50 p.m., according to Floore. However, the Bibb County Sheriffs Office said first responders were called to the scene just before 7:30 p.m., according to a news release. These agencies included the sheriffs office, fire department and Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The sheriffs office and fire department started searching for the victims and they were later helped by the GDNR, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Divers searched the area where the family was located while a boat traveled along the river to look, Floore said. It was not immediately clear if or how the three victims were related. At 9:04 p.m., the search was called off because it was too dark, Floore told The Telegraph. Rescue divers, a boat from the GDNR and a Georgia State Patrol helicopter will continue the search Wednesday at 8 a.m., according to Floore. Amerson River Park was set to be closed Wednesday morning while crews resumed the search. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available. Its difficult to pick the single most outrageous part of the Republican Partys domestic policy megabill the inaptly named One Big Beautiful Bill but the GOPs sweeping Medicaid cuts are certainly among the most controversial. In broad strokes, the party decided to try to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy by slashing a health care program that benefits low-income families and Americans with disabilities. As NBC News reported, one of the senators who helped pass the far-right package now wants to undo at least some of the Medicaid cuts before they take effect: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill to reverse some of the key Medicaid provisions in the partys megabill that he voted for and Trump signed into law earlier this month. Hawley wants to double the fund to rural hospitals, from $50 billion to $100 billion, and repeal the provider tax moratorium and the future reduction of provider tax authority in the reconciliation bill, according to the text of his proposed legislation. Now is the time to prevent any future cuts to Medicaid from going into effect, the senator added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Missouri Republican went on to tell NBC News that if his fellow Republicans dont oppose their own Medicaid cuts, theyll risk a voter backlash which is true, though difficult to wrap ones head around given that Hawley was referring to a policy he and his GOP brethren voted for just two weeks ago. Indeed, consider a brief timeline of recent events. June 28: Hawley criticizes his partys Medicaid cuts, declaring, I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, youve got to deliver for working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people. And unless this is changed going forward, that is what will happen in coming years. July 1: Hawley votes for the megabill that includes hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts, which he'd denounced three days earlier. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement July 9: Hawley publicly condemns the Medicaid cuts in the legislation he supported the previous week. July 15: Hawley introduces legislation to pare back some of the Medicaid cuts he helped pass two weeks earlier. There are plenty of examples of GOP lawmakers who expressed disapproval of the package before (and after) voting for it, but Missouris senior senator is blazing a different kind of trail: Hes not saying, I just voted for a bad bill; hes instead effectively declaring, We should fix the bad bill I just voted for. As recently as May, Hawley wrote an op-ed for The New York Times in which the senator wrote, among other things, We must ignore calls to cut Medicaid. The senator added that slashing health insurance for the working poor would be both morally wrong and politically suicidal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It seemed bold and declarative, right up until Hawley scurried in the opposite direction just like he did on Jan. 6, 2021. Last fall, the editorial board of The St. Louis Post-Dispatch told readers that the Missouri Republican has an unparalleled record of demagoguery on the Senate floor, where he endlessly spews faux-populist sound and fury signifying nothing. The editors concluded, [B]eyond any partisan considerations, Josh Hawley is quite possibly the worst sitting senator in America right now. The assessment lingers for a reason. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com As Senate confirmation fights go, the dispute over retired Gen. Anthony Tata didnt generate a lot of national headlines, but it was a fight Ive been watching because of what it tells us about contemporary Republican politics. The Military Times reported: The Senate on Tuesday confirmed retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata as the next Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, putting the controversial nominee in charge of a host of department programs supporting troops and their families. Tata was approved for the post by a partisan 52-46 vote, with all Republicans present in the chamber backing his nomination and all Democrats opposing it. In a handful of instances, Trump nominees who struggled during the presidents first term have made successful comebacks in his second. But by any fair measure, Tata represents a special case. Its been a while since we last talked about Tata, so lets revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February 2020, as part of a post-impeachment loyalty purge, Trump ousted John Rood as the undersecretary of defense for policy. The president soon after settled on Tata, whom hed seen on Fox News, as Roods successor. It wasnt long, however, before Tatas ugly record came into focus. Two years earlier, for example, the retired brigadier general condemned Barack Obama as a terrorist leader, with Islamic roots, who helped negotiate an internal nuclear agreement to help the greater Islamic state crush Israel. Around the same time, Tata described Islam as the most oppressive violent religion I know of. He also published a 2018 tweet pointing to clues that Obama supported Russian meddling in the 2016 race, adding that Islamic militants really did have Manchurian Candidate in White House. Tata also suggested that former CIA Director John Brennan sent a coded tweet ordering Trumps assassination. With this record in mind, a variety of former U.S. military leaders publicly opposed Tatas nomination in 2020. Though the retired brigadier general tried to retract his earlier rhetoric I did misspeak in 2018 on Twitter in hyperbolic conversations, he said in a letter to senators it quickly became clear that there was significant skepticism about his nomination, even in the Republican-led Senate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before his confirmation hearing could even begin, Tata quietly withdrew from consideration. It was, however, a temporary departure: In August 2020, Trump appointed Tata to a senior Pentagon position that did not require Senate approval. In November 2020, just a week after he lost his re-election bid, Trump, apparently indifferent to Tatas record, did it again, making him the acting undersecretary for policy. In early 2021, the Biden administration showed the retired brigadier general the door, but Trump nevertheless chose him for a Pentagon leadership role again. Five years ago, enough Senate Republicans were uncomfortable enough with Tata that his nomination couldnt move forward. In 2025, however, he faced literally zero GOP resistance. Even the ostensible moderates Maines Susan Collins and Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, Im looking in your direction ignored Democratic concerns and voted with their party, elevating a conspiracy theorist who called Obama a terrorist leader to a senior Defense Department post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres been a lot of commentary of late about Trump ebbing worse in his second term than his first, but as the Tata confirmation vote reminds us, hes not the only Republican whos worse. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com When then-Rep. Adam Schiff helped lead the first impeachment effort against Donald Trump, the president clearly saw the California Democrat as a threat and made every effort to smear and discredit him. When Schiff helped lead the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, Trumps condemnations of the lawmaker became even more hysterical. But in the presidents second term, the Republican apparently isnt content simply to whine about Schiffs neck. On the contrary, Trump apparently wants the Democratic senator to be prosecuted. On Tuesday morning, the president, himself a convicted felon, used his social media platform to accuse Schiff of mortgage fraud and being a Crook. Soon after, Trump declared on camera that he would love to see the Californian brought to justice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As The Washington Post reported, at least some officials in the administration appear to be taking this seriously. [A] senior administration official told The Washington Post that a criminal case had been referred to the Justice Department, in a sharp escalation of the White Houses attacks on vocal Trump critics. ... The senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said criminal prosecution is now up to the Justice Department. The official added that this is just the beginning, unfortunately, for Schiff. While these details havent been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the reporting and Trumps public rhetoric leave little doubt that the president is no longer content to pursue Schiff with juvenile name-calling. To the extent that the underlying substance matters, the allegations appear quite thin. From the Posts report: Designating a home as a primary residence, instead of a secondary home or investment property, can get borrowers lower rates because primary homes are seen as less risky to lenders. But a spokesperson for Schiffs office said the lenders for Schiffs homes in both California and Washington were well aware of his intended year-round use of both homes while in public office and that neither of the properties was a vacation home. This is just Donald Trumps latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies, Schiff wrote online. So it is not a surprise, only how weak this false allegation turns out to be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Time will tell what, if anything, comes of this, but the escalation is itself emblematic of Trumps authoritarian vision: The president hates Schiff, and so the presidents operation has referred Schiff to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. It comes on the heels of Trump threatening to prosecute a news organization for running reports he didnt like. Which came on the heels of Trump musing publicly about arresting a Democratic mayoral candidate he doesnt like. Which came on the heels of Trump endorsing the arrest of a Democratic governor who has opposed the White Houses agenda. Which came on the heels of Trump ordering a Justice Department investigation into his Democratic predecessor without cause. And thats just from the last month or so. For all of the seemingly sincere apoplexy in GOP circles about the weaponization of federal law enforcement, the current Republican administration is doing the one thing Republicans said they considered intolerable. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com After Donald Trump teased a major statement about U.S. policy toward Russia, many observers thought the president might actually do something meaningful. They were mistaken: The Republican announced this week that hed consider new sanctions on Vladimir Putins regime unless Russia agreed to a ceasefire with Ukraine within 50 days. It was the fifth time Trump had threatened such sanctions, and the first four times, he failed to follow through on his posturing. In Moscow, where there were at least some concerns that the White House might actually do something meaningful, there was widespread relief in response to the American presidents pitiful position. Indeed, after Trumps not-so-major announcement, the Russian stock market soared. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was against this backdrop that the Republican insisted that the former KGB agent never fooled him. HuffPost reported: President Donald Trump declared Monday that Vladimir Putin has never fooled him, just moments after detailing how the Russian dictator has repeatedly fooled him by having pleasant conversations with him just before launching new attacks against Ukraine to murder innocent civilians. The rhetorical disconnect was odd, even by his standards. At an Oval Office event, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump reflected on some of his recent conversations with Putin, explaining: I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done and I always hang up and say, Well, that was a nice phone call, and then missiles launched into Kyiv or some other city. Moments later, he added: I go home, I tell the first lady, You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, Oh, really? Another city was just hit. Indeed, hes told variations of this same rhetorical anecdote quite a bit in recent days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The point was clearly to express criticism: Trump, in his telling, would talk to the Russian leader, whod say all the right things, filling the American president with confidence. Trump would then deliver assurances to the public about the prospects for peace, only to have Putin turn around and escalate his military offensive in Ukraine. But as part of this weeks White House event with Rutte, the American president added, in reference to Putin: Hes fooled a lot of people. Trump then pointed to each of his modern predecessors. He fooled Bush. He fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didnt fool me, Trump boasted. Itd be great if this were true, but reality proves otherwise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps recent rhetorical record is unambiguous. I believe he wants peace, Trump said in mid-February, referring to his Russian counterpart. He added, I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think he wants peace. I think he would tell me if he didnt. ... I trust him on this subject. Two weeks later, Trump said Putin could be counted on to keep his word. Two weeks after that, touting Putins alleged interest in peace, Trump declared, I believe him. A month later, he told Time magazine he believed that Putin was committed to making peace. All of those assurances were absurd at the time and in hindsight and now, by Trumps own telling, hes astonished by the fact that Putin would tell him one thing during a phone meeting, only to do the opposite after hanging up. But were nevertheless all supposed to believe that Putin didnt fool Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stepping back, there are really only two possibilities here. The first is that Trump wasnt genuinely fooled, but rather, he was simply lying to the nation and the world about his genuine beliefs regarding Putin. In other words, when the Republican vouched for the Russian autocrat, and insisted he was sincere in his belief that Putin could be trusted to end the war he started, Trump didnt actually mean a word of it. The other possibility is that Trump was played for a sucker. Ill leave it to the White House to explain which of these possibilities is the accurate one, but there really isnt a third option. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com A week ago, at a White House Cabinet meeting, Donald Trump tried to take control over the public conversation surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. The president, speaking just one day after his Justice Department released a controversial memo dismissing the entire mess out of hand, deemed the scandal over and irrelevant. That didnt work. On the contrary, his effort to put the debacle behind him only seemed to make matters worse. In the days that followed, Trump tried a variety of familiar tactics, including concocting a new conspiracy theory about the conspiracy theory. This didnt work, either. And so, just over the last day or so, the president rolled out a new tactic: He has begun lashing out at his own supporters for caring about a story he ordered them not to care about. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In brief comments to reporters late on Tuesday afternoon, Trump said only bad people want to keep the controversy going an assessment that appeared to include many on the right who continue to focus attention on the matter. The next morning, as NBC News reported, the Republican president went considerably further. President Donald Trump on Wednesday disowned his supporters who have called for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, chiding them as weaklings who bought into this bulls---. The lengthy post on Truth Social represents the clearest split from the faction of his MAGA base that has questioned the Justice Departments handling of the case. As part of a 243-word online tirade, which included odd but obligatory references to Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton and Trumps Russia scandal, the president condemned the Epstein controversy as a SCAM and a Hoax created by his Democratic enemies, while admonishing his PAST supporters who take the story seriously. Trump proceeded to talk about how impressed he is with himself, before condemning those concerned with the Epstein matter as weaklings, concluding: I dont want their support anymore! A few hours later, at a White House event, he kept this going, chastising stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If recent history is any guide, these comments will not be well received by those asking questions about the Epstein controversy, especially in MAGA world, and the presidential meltdown will not have its intended effect. But as Trump tries to bully the political world into submission, there is a follow-up question Id love to hear the president answer: If the whole Epstein story is an elaborate scam and hoax cooked up by Democrats, why was it embraced by so many members of his own team including Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Don Bongino? Is it the presidents contention that theyre all stupid, too? For that matter, if Democrats somehow managed to fabricate the Epstein files an outlandish and ridiculous idea, to be sure wouldnt they have released the materials? And wouldnt they have included Trump in the files to make him look bad? Or would it make more sense to assume that the files do make the Republican president look bad? This article was originally published on MSNBC.com Todays installment of campaign-related news items from across the country. * In a closely watched congressional special election, Arizonas Adelita Grijalva, a former member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, won a Democratic primary with relative ease this week. The victory puts her on track to succeed her father, the late Rep. Raul Grijalva, who died earlier this year. * In New York City, Andrew Cuomo struggled badly in the citys recent Democratic mayoral primary contest, but the former governor announced that hes staying in the race anyway, and will run as an independent against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * With 16 weeks remaining before Election Day in Virginia, the Democratic National Committee announced a new $1.5 million investment this week. Voters in the commonwealth will vote in the fall for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. * Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact that hes determined to end Rep. Thomas Massies career, but The Associated Press reported that the Kentucky Republican has nevertheless enjoyed strong fundraising in recent months, despite the presidents offensive. * Speaking of the Bluegrass State, Trump said this week, in reference to Republican Sen. Rand Paul: I got him elected. Paul first ran in 2010, while Trump was still hosting a reality show, and the GOP candidate did not receive any meaningful backing from the future president at the time. * Speaking of fundraising, the National Republican Congressional Committee has been raising money by selling T-shirts that joke about immigrants being mauled by alligators at a detention facility known in some circles as Alligator Alcatraz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * In Iowa, Republican Rep. Zach Nunn was reportedly eyeing a 2026 gubernatorial campaign, but after a meeting with Trump this week, the GOP congressman announced hell run for re-election instead. * And in Florida, Robin Peguero, who worked as a lawyer for the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee, kicked off a Democratic congressional campaign this week. He hopes to take on Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar in a Miami-area district. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com Todays edition of quick hits. * Stay tuned: President Donald Trump said Wednesday it was highly unlikely he would fire Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve. His statements, made in the Oval Office, come less than 24 hours after telling a room full of Republican lawmakers that he was considering doing so. * As tragic as this is, its also very easy to believe: The Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trumps domestic policy bill could result in more than 1,000 additional deaths every year, according to a report published Wednesday in JAMA Health Forum. The cuts could also lead to nearly 100,000 more hospitalizations each year, the report found, and around 1.6 million people may delay seeking care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * The end of an unnecessary mobilization: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered the removal of 2,000 National Guard troops who were mobilized in response to protests in Los Angeles last month over immigration raids, a Pentagon official said Tuesday. * All is not well at the high court: In clearing the way for President Trumps efforts to transform American government, the Supreme Court has issued a series of orders that often lacked a fundamental characteristic of most judicial work: an explanation of the courts rationale. * Id be more inclined to believe announcements like these if the White House agreed to share any of the substantive details: President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he reached a preliminary trade deal with Indonesia that will set a 19% tariff on the Southeast Asian countrys U.S. exports. * If this report is accurate, its a doozy: A senior National Institutes of Health leader was fired Monday amid an investigation into a contract on autism and other topics that could have benefited his spouse, according to three officials familiar with the incident who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement * House Republicans sure do cave to Trump a lot: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a group of House Republicans who blocked several cryptocurrency regulation bills from moving forward earlier in the day had changed their minds following a White House meeting, and would now vote to advance the legislation. * My expectations for Fox News are not high, but this surprised me: Greg Gutfeld on Tuesday proposed a shocking way for conservatives like him to deflect from allegations of fascism: make Nazi their n-word. See you tomorrow. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) The founder and CEO of the Made in America store, Mark Andol, has died. The store announced the news on social media on Wednesday. The Made in America Store was founded in 2010 and features all products completely made in the U.S. Hundreds of tour bus groups from as far away as California and Ecuador have traveled to visit the store. In a statement, the store said they are deeply saddened by Andols death and that his legacy lives on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mark was a passionate advocate for American manufacturing, a dedicated community leader, and a tireless supporter of working families, the business said. His legacy lives on in the countless lives he touched, the jobs he helped create, and the spirit of pride and patriotism he inspired across the nation. Details regarding memorial services have yet to be shared. Latest Local News Kayleigh Hunter-Gasperini joined the News 4 team in 2024 as a Digital Video Producer. She is a graduate of Chatham University. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. MADISON COUNTY, Iowa Days before a scheduled hearing to potentially remove her from office, embattled Madison County Treasurer Amanda DeVos has officially resigned. DeVos, 38, is facing multiple charges connected to her time in office, including Felonious Misconduct in Office, Tampering with Records, Fraudulent Practice in the third degree, and third-degree Theft. Former Madison County Treasurer Amanda DeVos Madison County Attorney Stephen Swanson said he received DeVos resignation letter on Monday, July 14, roughly three months after he told WHO 13s Katie Kaplan that he had requested it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local businesses helping Albia fire victims, collecting money and clothes According to a release, it states: I, Amanda DeVos, on the advice of Counsel, and admitting no wrongdoing, do hereby resign my office of Madison County Treasure (sic), Effective July 14, 2025. According to a release, it states: I, Amanda DeVos, on the advice of Counsel, and admitting no wrongdoing, do hereby resign my office of Madison County Treasure (sic), Effective July 14, 2025. Madison County Attorney Stephen Swanson said he received DeVos resignation letter on Monday, July 14, roughly three months after he told WHO 13s Katie Kaplan that he had requested it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Previously Swanson had told WHO 13 that DeVos had refused to issue her resignation and had continued collecting her paycheck and benefits, which forced him to file a Ch. 66 petition in April to have her forcefully removed. In the same filing, he also petitioned for an injunction that would prohibit DeVos from being paid by the county. A judge granted that injunction. The resignation makes her upcoming hearing to remove her moot. The Madison County Board of Supervisors, which is involved in a separate investigation, is expected to formally accept her resignation during the regularly scheduled meeting on Tues., July 22. Her criminal trial is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 16 in Boone County after her attorney successfully requested a change of venue. According to online court records, the case appears to be in the discovery stages with DeVos attorney requesting copies of a wide array of materials from the prosecution, including DeVos interview with Madison County Sheriff Jason Barnes the day before her arrest, any 911 calls regarding the case, and other evidence intended to be used against her in court. Iowa News: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. Former DNC chair Jaime Harrison has a new podcast. His first guest? Hunter Biden, the man many blame for playing a major role in the downfall of the last Democratic president. If an excerpt from that chat is any indication, neither guest nor host took many lessons from 2024. Hunter Biden, whose shockingly bad behaviour (stemming from past trauma and drug addiction) evolved into a fanatical, loyalty-driven effort to insulate his father from criticism, now blames that same criticism for sinking his fathers career. So did Harrison, who graduated from losing a Senate race in South Carolina as a candidate to losing multiple Senate races, a presidential race and House races as DNC chair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The younger Biden reportedly spent much of 2024 managing Democratic allies access to his father and encouraging him to stay in the race when polling showed he was on track to deliver the party a historic defeat, much worse than the one endured by his vice president on election night. But in the interview with Harrison, he presented that tunnel vision as a virtue, not a vice, and suggested that his party emulate something it has openly condemned for five years: the refusal of Republicans to break from Donald Trump under any circumstances, including the impeachment trial in the wake of January 6. Democrats lost the election because we did not remain loyal to the leader of the party, Biden summed it up. (AFP via Getty Images) (AFP via Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former DNC chair couched his own feelings on the matter when asked by NBC News whether he agreed, but didnt reject Hunter Bidens analysis, either. "If the waters get a little choppy, some of the folks in our party are the fastest to abandon ship, get off in a hurry and then torch the damn ship when they get off," Harrison told NBC News. He cautioned: "Not to say that its always the right thing that Republicans have done, but sometimes Democrats need to sit back and pause and think about the long-term ramifications of that early abandonment. Because I can tell you, it did not sit well with the base of the party, particularly Black voters," Harrison continued. "I remember a rally in Georgia right after the debate and people were pissed off. These are middle-aged, older Black men and women who were so upset the party was almost shivving Joe Biden, stabbing him in the back." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic voters had a right to be angry in the summer of 2024. When Joe Biden revealed himself onstage as unable to follow his opponents remarks, whispery and visibly confused, the fear that rippled through both Biden loyalists and the broader Democratic Party base was palpable. Director Rob Reiner reportedly screamed at Doug Emhoff, husband to Harris, that Biden and his team were going to hand the election to Trump. The idea that internal party hand-wringing or the hurt feelings of party loyalists caused millions of voters to stay home is not supported by evidence. Those voters who were furious with their party for supposedly shivving Biden would have had the time, place and freedom from the urgency of the moment to make those arguments in favor of loyalty to the president if the Democratic Party if Jaime Harrison had put on a real primary. If Biden had been on the debate stage in January instead of June, the debate would have taken place over weeks, instead of a matter of hours or minutes in some households. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This, of course, did not happen. Biden hid from long-form sitdowns with tough interviewers and conducted heavily managed public appearances until it was too late. Then his teams demand for loyalty fell on the deaf ears of frontline representatives and senators who had their own futures and campaigns to think about. MAGA Republicans should be thrilled to hear this (though maybe they though calibrate their enthusiasm, given how unlikely anyone is to listen to this duo). The only thing more destructive for a political party than blind loyalty to a winner could be blind loyalty to a loser. Remember QAnon? The conspiracy theory, popular among President Donald Trump's supporters for years, held that a furtive network of satanic pedophiles had infiltrated political institutions, the press, and other echelons of power and influence. According to Q lore, Trump was working to expose and punish these cretinswho included Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratsand to end the child suffering, sex trafficking, and hormone harvesting that these horrible globalists were engaging in. QAnonitself preceded by the perhaps even more zany Pizzagate conspiracywas too out there for mainstream Republicans to explicitly endorse. But neither would they explicitly condemn the theory or its believers, and they often seemed happy to play along with the narrative, touting Trump's alleged crackdown on child sex trafficking. Republicans took a lot of flak for this, but of course, Democrats had been stoking sex trafficking panic for their own gain, too. QAnon didn't start in a vacuum; it followed two decades of mainstream media and politicians, both left and right, using the flimsiest evidence and most distorted data to falsely claim that America was in the midst of a sex trafficking epidemic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And then along came Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein Helped Bring the Promise of QAnon to Life The finance mogul's well-documented crimes involving teenage girls, and his roster of rich and powerful friends, could be read by motivated audiences as backing up QAnon claims. Sure, there were no satanists or adrenochrome harvestingor were there? Epstein's seemingly lenient treatment during a mid-aughts prosecution in Florida, and his subsequent suicide in a federal jail cell in 2019, led to a lot of speculation that the "deep state" was working to cover things up. Here was a sex-trafficking conspiracy theory that the mainstream right could embrace. After all, no one would dispute that Epstein had engaged in sleazy, abusive behavior with girls and young women, or that he had flown both his victims and some powerful people to his private island. It wasn't that much of a stretch to suggest that Epstein's "client list" was being covered up, nor too far-fetched to suggest that the reason for this cover-up had to do with protecting prominent Democrats and their supporters. (I'm not saying I believe either assertion, just that they aren't beyond belief in the way that Clinton torturing children in the basement of a D.C. pizza joint should be). Folks in Trump's orbit began to actively encourage the idea that Epstein's client list was being deliberately withheld by Democrats with something to hide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And, on the campaign trail, Trump suggested that he would declassify the Epstein files if elected president. Then, back in February, the Trump administration made a big show of giving influencers binders supposedly containing the so-called Epstein files. These binders turned out to be full of information already available. Nothing To See Here? But last week, the FBI released a memo saying there was nothing left in the Epstein files that was worth releasing. There was "no incriminating 'client list' and "no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed" anyone. "No further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted," it said. "Teams of agents, analysts, attorneys, and privacy and civil liberties experts combed through the digital and documentary evidence with the aim of providing as much information as possible to the public while simultaneously protecting victims," stated the memo. "Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing. Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third-parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing. Through this review, we found no basis to revisit the disclosure of those materials and will not permit the release of child pornography." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, Trump is telling people to forget about Jeffrey Epstein entirely. The Epstein files were created by the same Democrats who "created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me," Trump posted to Truth Social last Saturday. "Let'snot waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." "I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody," Trump told reporters yesterday. "It's pretty boring stuffit's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going. I think only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going." It is all a bit weirdeven to someone like me, who finds the idea that Epstein kept some sort of master "client list" to be silly. The Real Reason Republicans Have Changed Their Tune About Epstein I don't believe there is such a smoking-gun list in possession of federal agents, and I remain skeptical that there's anything left hidden in any Epstein files that would be a bombshell. But even I must admit, the whole "release the files" business seems slightly less preposterous now that Trump and his lackeys seem desperate to draw attention away from them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then again, if there was really something bad for Trump or his allies in the files, why wouldn't the Justice Department simply omit that part? Surely, the Trump administration could just redact or withhold whatever it didn't want out there (maybe with legal justification or maybe not; the lack of legal means hasn't seemed to bother this administration elsewhere) and release the rest. Besides, if there was something particularly damning about Trump in the files, it surely wouldn't have been kept secret for so long. After all, a lot of Epstein information found its way to the public before being officially released. Maybe the simplest answer really is the most likely one: There isn't anything left that's worth releasing. And Trump is trying to encourage his supporters to forget about all this because he's got to suppress expectations after years of building them up. The theoretical files were useful as a tool to raise suspicion about Trump's opponents. But the actual files are not useful to Republicansand, in fact, could be a liability or an embarrassmentin that they don't actually prove anything nefarious about any Democrats. Sex Trafficking Rhetoric (but Not Reality) Makes a Useful Political Tool Whatever is actually going on, the response within the MAGA world is entirely predictable. Of course, some especially sycophantic types are telling everyone to trust Trump and let it go. And, of course, some people who've been fed a lot of Epstein file fantasies for yearspromised, in essence, that this was what QAnon conspiracy theorists had been waiting forare at the very least miffed, if not downright suspicious, about the way this is playing out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As someone who can frequently be found trying to tamp down sex trafficking hysteria, I might also seem like someone who would be especially critical of QAnon believers and of their watered-down counterparts who are convinced that the Epstein files will offer some sort of astounding and damning new revelations. But I'm not. Because it's not really their fault. They have been fed by decades of conspiracy theoriesfrom the satanic panic of the 1980s to the sex trafficking rhetoric of the '00s through todayfrom the most establishment politicians (Democrat and Republican) and a lot of mainstream media. I can't say I hate watching Trump reap what he's been sowing here. But I also can't pretend that Trumpor Republicanshave been alone in sowing it. The specter of sex trafficking has been a useful tool for both Republicans and Democrats, giving them cover to do all sorts of things otherwise on their agenda: stigmatize and further crack down on prostitution, increase surveillance of immigrants, gain more control over online speech, and so on. "Chasing down the one last secret of the Epstein case" is likely "missing the forest for the trees," as my colleague Matthew Petti wrote in February. "The information that's already out there about the powerful figures and institutions who enabled Epstein is damning enough in itself." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The actual information out there doesn't make for a neatly partisan cudgel, however. As a political tool, the Epstein files are much more useful if they remain hidden. That's why we had Republicans clamoring for their release when Joe Biden was president but now voting against their release. And Democrats who didn't seem that keen on it are voting to release the files and calling for their exposure now that the Trump administration is saying to forget about them. Like with QAnon, and with the broader political rhetoric around sex trafficking, the Epstein files are likely only useful as political theater when the truth remains obscurednot because that truth is especially sinister and damning, but because it is not. There is plenty to vociferously condemn with Epstein, of course. But the idea that the Epstein files can bring down Democrats, or bring down Trump, seems like only partisan wish casting. More Sex & Tech News "Since January 2025, police raids on massage parlors have intensified, targeting immigrant women suspected of sex work," suggests Truthout. And "amid nationwide protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), these workersamong ICE's most systematically targetedare largely excluded from community defense." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The more you know: "Victorians considered the bicycle so inherently sexual that some erotic photographs consist of a fully clothed woman merely standing next to one and smiling," writes Cathy Reisenwitz at Sex and the State. "The private sector is showing the flimsiness of the Justice Department's argument that Google has a monopoly on the search engine market," writes Reason intern Tosin Akintola. The launch of Perplexity AI's Comet browser and OpenAI's upcoming AI-powered browser comes "as the Justice Department looks to punish Google for its alleged market monopoly." Explanations for fertility rate declines are steeped in motivated reasoning, and the Cartoons Hate Her newsletter isn't having it. Veo 3, Google's generative video tool, "allows users to generate sounds and dialogue for the first time, sparking a flurry of hyperrealistic eight-second clips stitched together into ads, ASMR videos, imagined film trailers, and humorous street interviews," notes MIT Technology Review. But it is "slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on videos." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adults with children need to think about "how we, as adults, model our relationship with technology," Alexandra Hudson writes in USA Today. Today's Image Washington, D.C. | 2018 (ENB/Reason) The post MAGA's Epstein Files Fight Shows the Long Tail of QAnon appeared first on Reason.com. A new study from Emory University suggests that psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, may extend your lifespan. Scientists at the universitys department of medicine in Atlanta discovered that psilocybin increased cellular longevity and enhanced survival rates in aged mice. The study, published last week in the journal Nature, defined Psilocybin as the "naturally occurring psychedelic compound produced by hallucinogenic mushrooms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Researchers noted growing interest in psilocybin for treating psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions, but this study offers the first experimental evidence that psilocin, its active form, boosts longevity in aged mice. The study suggests psilocybin may be a powerful anti-aging agent, with data showing it reduces oxidative stress, prevents DNA damage and helps preserve telomere length, which all help slow the aging process. A study is the first to experimentally show that its active form, psilocin, extends lifespan in aged mice. (Getty Images) A study is the first to experimentally show that its active form, psilocin, extends lifespan in aged mice. (Getty Images) The older white-haired mice even appeared younger after treatment, regrowing black hair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Psilocybin appears to slow the wear and tear that accompanies aging," co-author of the study, Louise Hecker of Emory University, told Fox News Digital. "Mice and cells are healthier and live significantly longer." While the study suggests this could also work for humans, much more testing is needed. Hecker told the outlet that researchers need to answer questions such as, "What are the optimal dosing protocols for humans? What is the optimal age for treatment initiation for optimal benefits?" "Is there an age, beyond which point, when treatment does not provide efficacy? she continued. Are there potential harms or adverse effects associated with long-term treatment? What are the mechanisms of its action? All these questions need to be rigorously tested." Gabe Charambides, founder of the U.S. first legal psilocybin retreat in Oregon, called the findings compelling but stressed that human use requires stricter screening, preparation and safety than in mice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that those who may benefit most from psilocybin therapy are people feeling stuck after major life events, such as childhood trauma, divorce, job loss or bereavement, or those seeking to improve their mental health. The study suggests psilocybin may be a powerful anti-aging agent and even saw some older mice regrow darker hair (AFP via Getty Images) The study suggests psilocybin may be a powerful anti-aging agent and even saw some older mice regrow darker hair (AFP via Getty Images) Charambides said his retreat guests have reported relief from physical issues such as chronic pain and migraines, though no biological testing is conducted. Ryan Moss of Filament Health, a Canadian clinical-stage natural psychedelic drug development company, previously stressed to Fox News Digital that the use of psychedelics should be administered in a safe, controlled setting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Psychedelic experiences can sometimes feature anxiety, hallucinations, and paranoia," Moss said. "Some patients using traditional psychedelics have reported experiencing adverse cardiovascular events during clinical trials." He recommends that clinical trial participants be well-prepared and closely monitored by trained professionals. California homeowners are suing the state's largest home insurer, claiming that the firm misled them and left them "grossly underinsured" as aggressive and unprecedented wildfires devastated much of Los Angeles, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. What's happening? On January 7, what would become a historical series of wildfires began burning in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. Within a day, the blaze had consumed several homes. It wasn't fully extinguished until January 31, leaving a trail of destruction and fatalities in its wake. On January 9, NPR questioned whether insurance companies had "enough money" to cover the slew of upcoming claims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State Farm is the largest insurer in California, and on January 10, Newsweek covered a statement issued by the insurer. Although the language has since changed, an archived copy matched what was quoted in the article. "We are here for our customers to help begin the process of recovery," it read in part. "We want our customers to know that, when it is safe to do so, they can and should file a claim." In June, several California policyholders jointly filed suit against State Farm, alleging that the firm intentionally and "grossly" left them underinsured. Plaintiffs further alleged the company engaged in a "multifaceted illegal scheme," designed to "reap enormous illicit profits by deceptively misleading over a million homeowners," per the complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through a series of pricing initiatives and other tactics, the complainants assert that State Farm created a "race to the bottom" for rates, aggressively seizing the largest share of California's market. "Lower coverage limits correspond to more attractive premium rates, but leave homeowners unwittingly exposed to serious underinsurance This has severely undermined plaintiffs' efforts to rebuild their lives in the aftermath," attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote. Why does the California homeowners' lawsuit matter so much? While they're not technically "weather," wildfires are considered a form of extreme weather, as the extent of the damage in Los Angeles demonstrates. The Los Angeles fires were largely caused by a dry winter, exacerbated by rising temperatures and anomalous weather patterns, according to Climate.gov. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As the planet heats and seas warm, all forms of extreme weather will intensify and occur more frequently. To add insult to injury, many California homeowners experienced delayed claim processing, if they were able to secure home insurance at all. On top of that, State Farm intends to raise rates in California by 30% to 40% across the board. What's being done about the home insurance crisis? In addition to the lawsuit filed in June, homeowners in Eaton sued insurers for similar reasons in April, seeking relief through the court system. Homeowners were caught off guard by the devastating wildfires, which is why it's important to remain aware of critical climate issues and stay prepared. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Those who havent seen the former site of the Columbian Home Products factory lately wouldnt recognize the place today. The mountains of rubble and debris have been removed, thanks to a partnership between the city of Terre Haute, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. MET 071525 COLUMBIAN EPA MONITOR An EPA air monitoring station at the former Columbian Home Products site can be here Tuesday on Terre Hautes north side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cleanup work began last September, including that of black roofing strewn about the factory grounds containing asbestos that had to be transported to biohazard remediation companies in Avon, Ohio. Nonhazardous materials were dispatched to a local landfill. On Tuesday, Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun, EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel and IDEM Commissioner Clint Woods gathered near the intersection of North 19th and Beech streets to tout the progress made at the site. This is particularly exciting for the EPA because weve got two of our programs [represented here], said EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel on Tuesday afternoon. Weve got the time-critical removal happening, which is something when the federal government and the EPA realizes theres something here that is a danger to the community in this case, there were a lot of contaminants, a lot of asbestos-containing materials left from the demolition that had been done here improperly, she added. That work is almost done, as you can see. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EPA also contributed a $500,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant to assist city officials in figuring out what to do next with the property. To clean up a site like this, you need to take it to a certain standard theres residential and commercial standards as it pertains to brownfields, Sakbun said. Thats why it was so important for us to receive that Brownfields Assessment Grant, to be able to do the testing which helps drive the planning process of what cleanup needs to happen after this phase to get the land to commercial and residential standards. While making public comments, Sakbun recalled campaigning for mayor in the neighborhood, when a local resident told him, I dont vote how can government help me with that site a block from his home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MET 071525 COLUMBIAN EPA WIDE The debris that once filled the former Columbian Home Products site has been cleared away. The site can be seen here off Beech Street on Tuesday. Sometimes neighborhoods get beat down a little bit, he said. This project defies all odds we can redevelop a neighborhood. Vogel added during her public comments, Its exciting to think about what this future site will look like. Columbian Home Products produced home goods and Graniteware enameled cookware before ceasing production in December 2019. It announced it would close in the spring of 2020. Demolition was begun in mid-December 2021 by owner Complete Industrial Holdings, which did not obtain proper permits and abandoned the job before completion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The EPA and IDEM paid for the cleanup, which has cost a little more than $5 million to date. Sakbun said the city is currently considering projects for the refurbished land. We are looking at a couple of different projects, ranging from multi-family to single family, integrating some green space in this portion of the city, he said. No option is off the table currently, but its definitely going to be shaped by that Brownfields Assessment Grant. Well start brainstorming with the private sector to see what could go here. Since the EPA and IDEM have made quick work of the cleanup, the question became why the sites issues werent addressed sooner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MET 101619 COLUMBIAN FILE Tribune-Star file/Joseph C. Garza Part of that was communicating to the right officials what needs to happen, Sakbun said. I think a lot of times in local government, well see different communities even I sometimes struggle with this, raising an issue into the void. You can have complaints and be frustrated, but you have to learn to work within the systems that we have at the state and federal level. Sakbun noted that the cleanup project was initiated during one federal administration and has continued into another. Why? Its gotta happen, its progress its true progress that needs to happen so communities like Terre Haute to grow. By Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysias government is facing mounting calls to reject a self-styled "alpha male" influencer picked by President Donald Trump to be U.S. ambassador, in what could risk damaging ties at a critical time of tariff talks between the two countries. The White House has proposed 40-year-old author and outspoken political commentator Nick Adams to the Senate as its nominee for ambassador to Malaysia, triggering concerns in the Muslim-majority nation over Adams' views on Islam and support for Israel's military campaign in Gaza, among other sensitive topics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No date is set for the Senate vote, but Adams is expected to be approved, with the Republican-held Senate green-lighting every Trump nominee since he became president in January. Adams, a naturalised U.S. citizen originally from Australia, has an outsized persona on social media and is known for his appeal among young males in the "manosphere", an online space for men's issues. He lists interests including a love for hot dogs, steak, muscle cars, and restaurant chain Hooters, where servers wear revealing uniforms. In posts on online platform X, Adams has railed against alleged efforts to "teach Islam in schools" and described those expressing solidarity with Palestinians as supporters of terrorism. The posts have sparked outrage in Malaysia, which has a majority of mostly Muslim ethnic Malays alongside significant ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian minorities of other faiths. Malaysia has also long supported the Palestinian cause, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim rejecting what he described as Western pressure to condemn Palestinian militant group Hamas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The youth wing of Anwar's People's Justice Party said this week it would submit a memorandum of protest to the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur against Adams' proposed appointment as envoy, adding any rejection "should not be misconstrued as hostility but rather seen as a necessary measure to safeguard the integrity of bilateral relations." Mohamed Sukri Omar, a member of Islamic opposition party PAS, said in a statement the appointment would be "an open insult towards the sensitivities of the Malaysian people," while a group representing 20 pro-Palestine organisations in Malaysia urged the government to reject Adams. Malaysian government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil said on Tuesday Adams' appointment had not yet been raised in cabinet, which has the authority to accept new diplomatic appointments. Shahriman Lockman of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies, said protests from Muslim groups and ruling bloc allies could be too politically costly for Anwar's government to ignore, although Adams may be a useful conduit during trade talks due to his perceived closeness to Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Refusing Adams could also provoke retaliation from Trump at a time when Malaysia faces pressure to make trade concessions in exchange for lowering a potentially hefty 25% U.S. tariff, he said. "Theres no elegant solution here. Its damned if you do, damned if you dont," Shahriman said. Adams' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In an X post on July 10, he thanked Trump for the nomination, describing it as "the honour of a lifetime". Trump described Adams on Truth Social as "an incredible Patriot and very successful entrepreneur, whose love of, and devotion to, our Great Country is an inspiration." When contacted for comment, the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur pointed to remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a visit to Malaysia last week. Rubio said he supported Adams' nomination and looked forward to his confirmation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 'TONE MATTERS' Former diplomats say Malaysia was unlikely to reject Adams' appointment outright, but could make its objections known through informal channels or by delaying its approval. "That would send a subtle but clear diplomatic signal: we value the bilateral relationship, but we also expect a standard of decorum, cultural sensitivity, and respect appropriate to such a posting," said Ilango Karuppannan, a retired former Malaysian ambassador who was once deputy chief of mission in Washington. While concerns over Adams' appointment were unlikely to have a direct impact on trade negotiations, "the broader tone of the bilateral relationship always matters," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "A smooth, professional handling of this nomination can help ensure those trade discussions stay on track, while an avoidable public clash might risk unnecessary complications," Karuppannan said. Former Malaysia Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, a member of the largely ethnic Malay opposition bloc Perikatan Nasional, said Malaysia should stand firm in upholding its values despite Adams' relationship with Trump. "Yes it would be good to have a U.S. ambassador who is very close to Trump... but you cannot compromise on certain principles," he said. Tricia Yeoh, an associate professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia, said Adams' success as envoy would be highly dependent on his ability to win the trust of Malaysia's political and policy leadership. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If the comments he has previously made on social media are accurate depictions of his position on sociopolitical matters, he might find it challenging to do so, especially if he intends to make these positions publicly and explicitly known," she said. (Reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Danial Azhar) By Qabil Ashirov The Verkh-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg has extended the pretrial detention of five Azerbaijani brothersknown as the Safarov siblingsand another Azerbaijani national, Ahliman Ganjiev, who stand accused of a murder committed in previous years, Azernews reports, citing the Russian media. The court reviewed the case materials and granted the investigators request to prolong the defendants detention period until October 19, 2025. The decision ensures that the accused will remain in custody while the investigation proceeds. Details about the case itself have not been publicly disclosed. This development highlights the ongoing judicial process in a high-profile murder case involving Azerbaijani nationals in Russia. Recall that in the early hours of June 27, the Russian Federal Security Service conducted raids on homes inhabited by Azerbaijanis in the city of Yekaterinburg. During the operation, two Azerbaijanis were killed, and several others were detained. The two killed Azerbaijanis were the brothers of the well-known journalist Seyfaddin Huseynli. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Across the state there are many resources to help those in need. One of those is the Maliheh Clinic in Salt Lake City. The Maliheh Clinic just celebrated their 20th Anniversary. 20 years helping give basic medical services to the people who need it most for free. Brenda Spearman has been the executive director for a few years now. Each day she sees the lives being impacted as they get the treatment they need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have done some calculations, and we have saved members of the community, low income, probably about $40 million in medical debt. Debt that would have incurred if they had to pay these things themselves, Spearman said. Not only do people get great basic medical care, but there are volunteers there helping the patients take the next steps in taking care of themselves. So, by providing an opportunity for people to have great health, to get the help they need, to feel better and to hopefully change their financial situation it is just amazing. Spearman explained. Over 500 volunteers last year helped to make everything happen in the clinic. Medical providers, medical assistants, nurses, interpreters and students spend hours at the clinic each week. The University of Utah, Utah Valley University and BYU help by sending their medical students. All donating their time and talents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When talking about the volunteers Spearman said, we have some really great partners that provide support for us. Another form of support comes from Intermountain Healthcare. They take the burden completely away. Intermountain healthcare [does] all of the diagnostic procedures for our patients. Any x-ray, CT scan, MRI including lab work is done free of charge. None of our patients ever receive a bill for any of those services, Spearman explained. All of this as the Semnani Foundation continues their part in keeping it all going. It is the foundation led by Cosgrove Semnani who opened the clinic 20 years ago. All of this named after his grandmother, Maliheh. Spearman says Maliheh taught her family and all of those around her that, One small act, one small opportunity for someone who doesnt feel like they have opportunities can change a life. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Together with community partners and volunteers Maliheh Free Clinic continues to do their work making a huge impact in the lives they help each day. If you want to help by donating time, money or medical supply you can learn more information HERE. Latest headlines: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. NEW YORK Zohran Mamdani plans to clarify his stance on the use of the phrase globalize the intifada as soon as this week as he consolidates support in his bid to be New York City mayor, four people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO. The Democratic nominee is expected to publicly refine his position after previously declining to condemn the slogan in multiple interviews and news conferences over the past month even as he has denounced antisemitism more broadly. His shift would come after meetings this week with Jewish elected officials and business community leaders. Mamdani is seeking to expand his support among the Democratic establishment and assuage fears running rampant in C-suites across the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdanis campaign did not comment Tuesday on any moves the candidate would make to clarify his position on the phrase. But some Democrats welcomed the step as a significant gesture. Many Jews believe it is the bare minimum for Zohran to go beyond distancing himself personally from language like globalize the intifada, said an aide to a Jewish elected official granted anonymity to speak freely about the sensitive matter. He must proactively be clear that language that incites violence against Jews simply isnt acceptable, from anyone, in the city he wants to lead. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have also referenced Mamdanis defense of globalize the intifada a rallying cry regarded as a call to violence against Jews for some and a call for Palestinian resistance to others as they weigh whether to back his campaign for mayor. Mamdani, a Queens state lawmaker who toppled former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in last months primary, was asked about the phrase last month in a podcast by The Bulwark. He said then that he hears it as a call for Palestinian human rights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats not language that I use, the candidate told NBC News after winning the primary. The language that I use and the language that I will continue to use to lead this city is that which speaks clearly to my intent, which is an intent grounded in a belief in universal human rights. Mamdani has also said that the words mean different things to different people. An aide to a New York Democrat said, Any walking back of the globalize the intifada nonsense is desperately needed if Mamdani wants to quell the deep and legitimate concern that many in the Jewish community have of him in this moment. Mamdanis reaction to the phrase has been a central part of many of his ongoing discussions with elected officials and community and business leaders, and several have said publicly and behind closed doors that they hoped he would walk back his statements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He met Monday with about 10 Jewish elected officials in New York, a gathering convened by Rep. Jerry Nadler, a founder of the Congressional Jewish Caucus and the dean of New Yorks House delegation. Nadler endorsed Mamdani immediately after primary night. Mamdani also has the endorsement of Brad Lander, the Jewish city comptroller. When asked about the phrase, Lander told the Pod Save America podcast, Maybe you dont mean to say its open season on Jews everywhere in the world, but thats what I hear. Mamdani met Tuesday with business leaders in the city, some of whom have been more concerned about his platform to raise taxes on the wealthy. Hes set to meet later this week with Jeffries, one of several Democratic leaders who have yet to endorse Mamdani. Mamdani also plans to meet with Schumer, the countrys highest-ranking Jewish elected official. What the globalized intifada means is really wrong and should be condemned, and I look forward to my discussions with Mr. Mamdani, Schumer told reporters earlier Tuesday in Washington. Cassandra Dumay contributed to this report. Zohran Mamdani drew rave reviews from fellow Democrats Wednesday after a meeting hosted by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in Washington, D.C., along with a separate sitdown with Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Democratic mayoral candidate met for nearly two hours with lawmakers at a breakfast gathering, but did not meet with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries or Sen. Chuck Schumer. I hope that this conversation can be constructive to bring the party together and rally behind our nominee, Ocasio-Cortez said ahead of the closed-doors meeting, which attracted several lawmakers from around the nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ocasio-Cortez, who gave Mamdani a key boost with her endorsement in the primary, left the building without addressing reporters, as did the mayoral candidate. The charismatic Democratic nominee got thumbs up from fellow lefties in Congress, who warned establishment Democrats to get in line behind the front-runner after he romped to victory over ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the primary last month. Anyone whos not endorsing this incredible, dynamic leader is missing an opportunity, said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former leader of the House progressive caucus. Its hard not to be won over, she said. Among the New York lawmakers at the sitdown was Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan), who backed Mamdani after he won the primary and has helped build bridges with fellow Jewish lawmakers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) praised Mamdani as the real deal after the meeting. Its just beautiful to have someone who is so authentic, you know, that money cannot buy that. Velazquez said it wasnt rocket science to expect most of the citys lawmakers to endorse Mamdani in the race against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa and Cuomo, whos running as an independent. We are Democrats, Velazquez added. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-Manhattan), a leading moderate lawmaker in the citys delegation, was conspicuous by his absence. Some Israel backers have opposed Mamdani over his harsh criticism of the Jewish state and refusal to abandon the slogan globalize the intifada, although he recently said he wouldnt use the phrase. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeffries and Schumer have both promised to meet Mamdani but say theyll do so back in New York City, with Jeffries saying he planned to meet in Brooklyn by the end of the week. Sanders (I-Vermont) gushed over Mamdanis political skills after a separate meeting on Capitol Hill. He warned that corporate interests are scrambling to block him from winning the battle for City Hall in November. The oligarchs are prepared to undermine democracy and spend tens of millions to buy the election for his opponents, Sanders said. We will not allow that to happen. Mamdani returned the favor by praising Sanders as one of his political heroes. Bernie may be the great Senator from Vermont but hes Brooklyn through and through, Mamdani posted on X. A 73-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a hit-and-run in West Hollywood that left a man riding a bicycle dead last week, authorities confirm. Douglas Morton Adams was arrested on Tuesday and charged with one felony count of hit-and-run causing death, the L.A. County Sheriffs Department said Wednesday. The collision occurred around 9:45 p.m. on July 10 as the bicyclist, later identified as Blake Ackerman, was traveling westbound on Fountain Avenue near Gardner Street. The preliminary investigation into the incident revealed that the car that struck him was a white older model BMW sedan driving at an undisclosed speed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 3 more people detained overnight in connection with dead child found in Panorama City parking lot That BMW fled the scene of the crash instead of stopping to render aid and identify themselves as required by law, authorities said. Ackerman, 26, was rushed to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. His employer, the law firm Morgan Lewis, said he was a litigation associate who graduated from USC in 2020 and got his law degree from Loyola Law School three years later. Blake was kind, vibrant, and full of limitless potential. He lived well and accomplished so much in his all-too-short years, the firm said in a statement. Blake Ackerman as seen in a photo included in a GoFundMe set up to help his family in the wake of his death. A GoFundMe set up to support Blakes family which raised over $163,000 as of Wednesday morning further described Blake as a bright light, full of energy, kindness and an unshakable love for those around him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whether he was bringing people together, planning the next snowboard trip, cheering on the Dodgers and the Kings, swimming in the oceans of Hawaii or playing water polo, Blake lived every day to its fullest, the GoFundMe states. He was the heart of his family, an adoring brother and uncle-in-waiting, a devoted son and grandson and an integral part of every community he joined. A memorial service was held for Blake on Tuesday in Simi Valley. Per the WeHo Times, a ghost bike memorial a bicycle painted white and placed at the site of a bicyclists death is set to be installed on Wednesday morning. According to inmate search records, Douglas Morton Adams was being held on $50,000 bail and bonded out on Tuesday night. No court date was listed for the 73-year-old suspect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. BETHPAGE, N.Y. (PIX11) A man is accused of killing a woman while driving drunk on Long Island Tuesday night, according to the Nassau County Police Department. Police said it happened on Seamans Neck Road in Bethpage near midnight. A 40-year-old woman was driving a Honda Accord when she was struck head-on by 54-year-old Joseph Curto in a Honda Pilot, according to authorities. More Local News Police said the woman died at the scene. Curto was taken to a local hospital in critical condition, according to authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police alleged that after an investigation, they determined Curto was drunk at the time of the crash. He was arrested and charged with DWI, according to authorities. Police said Curto will be arraigned when medically practical. Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. NEED TO KNOW Malik Brycson Gaddis, 20, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Wednesday, July 16, in connection with the death of a boy discovered near a dumpster in Panorama City, Calif. The boy is believed by police to be between the ages of 5 and 7 years old He was pronounced deceased at the scene An arrest has been made in the death of a boy whose body was discovered near a dumpster in Panorama City, Calif.. Malik Brycson Gaddis, 20, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Wednesday, July 16, in connection with the death, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman tells PEOPLE. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gaddis was also booked on a domestic violence warrant. He is being held on $2 million bail. This comes after five people were previously detained in connection with the case. A second suspect was arrested on unrelated charges. At a Tuesday police commission meeting, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the boy, who has yet to be identified, was between the ages of 5 and 7 years old and showed signs of trauma, per ABC7. "We are coordinating with regional partners and continuing efforts to identify the victim and determine the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident," McDonnell said. The boy was found near a dumpster in the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard, the Los Angeles Times reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This is horrific, and it impacts every single one of us that comes to these scenes, everyone at home who hears about these scenes," LAPD Det. Meghan Aguilar said at the time, per ABC7. "We've got mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, anyone you don't have to be one of those to know how horrific this is." Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. The LAPD said officers responded to a call about the child at 7 a.m. on Saturday, July 12. The boy was pronounced deceased at the scene. At a vigil on Tuesday, community members spoke out about the still unnamed boy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The community has come to pay respects to the little young man" Canoga Park resident Yvette Lagunas said, per Fox 11. "Its hard and I just feel like theres a lot of love here for him." "He needs to get justice, said resident Jose Gonzales, according to Fox11. Justice needs to be served for him. Of course, theyre never going to bring him back, but at least they can pay for what they did." If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People CHICAGO A Chicago man is facing a slew of felony charges in connection with several robberies and car thefts around the north side over the last two months. Chicago police say 19-year-old Michael Jenkins, a North Lawndale resident, is facing a slew of felony charges, including one count of attempted first-degree murder, three counts of armed robbery, two counts of possession of a stolen vehicle, aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon and identity theft. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers say the charges stem from Jenkins alleged role in a string of armed robberies and car thefts that unfolded in Lakeview between June 9 and July 13. Officers say the crime spree began on June 9 when Jenksin allegedly stole a car from the 3100 block of North Broadway. That same day, Jenkins allegedly robbed a 21-year-old woman at gunpoint in the 700 block of West Roscoe Street. Photo provided by Chicago police shows 19-year-old Michael Jenkins, who is accused in a string of robberies and car thefts in Lakeview. An initial report by police indicated that the robbery along Roscoe was conducted by two male offenders, though officers have not identified any other suspects in the case. A little over a month later, on July 12, Jenkins allegedly stole another vehicle near the scene of the first car theft. Officers said Jenkins returned to the neighborhood on Sunday night, where he allegedly robbed two 24-year-old women at gunpoint near the 400 block of West Wellington Avenue. During that robbery, officers said a struggle ensued with the victim and she was allegedly shot by Jenkins. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LATEST CASES: Missing people in Chicagoland An initial report by police indicated that the robbery along Wellington was conducted by three male offenders in a silver SUV, though officers have not identified any other suspects in the case. Authorities eventually caught up with Jenkins in Grand Crossing on Monday, where he was taken into custody. Jenkins appeared in court on Wednesday for a detention hearing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. Colorado has now spent more than $8 million over five years on the wolf restoration program, according to a presentation made at Thursday's Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in Grand Junction. WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WAVY) Travis Bright, the man arrested in connection with an attempted kidnapping at Great Wolf Lodge, was denied bond in court Thursday. According to authorities, deputies were dispatched Tuesday to the Great Wolf Lodge, located in the 500 block of Rochambeau Drive, for reports of an attempted kidnapping and assault of a 7-year-old boy that occurred earlier in the day. Travis Andrew Bright (Courtesy: York-Poquoson Sheriffs Office) Deputies arrived at the location and spoke with the family of the 7-year-old victim, who said a man attempted to lure the child away from the pool. When the child attempted to walk away, they said the suspect prevented the child from leaving the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shortly after this, the family told deputies that the suspect left the pool area. After viewing surveillance footage, deputies stated they were able to identify the suspect as Travis Andrew Bright, 46, who was listed as a guest at Great Wolf Lodge at the time. According to court documents, Bright allegedly placed his hand on the boys head and asked him to remove his towel and follow him to one of the slides at the park. When the boy attempted to leave multiple times, video footage showed Bright preventing him from leaving, even grabbing him by the shirt to do so. Bright was eventually located and charged with felony abduction, and misdemeanor assault and battery. He is currently being held in the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Aug. 28. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With the abduction charge, which is a class 2 felony punishable by up to 20 years, York-Poquoson Sheriff Ron Montgomery says its the detain section of the statutes definition that has led to the felony charge against Bright. Most people hear the word abduction, you think of the classic situation where someone is being physically picked up or moved and trying to be taken away, said Sheriff Montgomery. Thats not quite the case in this situation. While it does meet Virginia law, when the child tries to leave him, thats really when it reaches the specifics of the statute. As the young man tries to walk by him, the suspect physically grabbed him and held him then puts him back in the chair. The sheriff added that Bright was at the resort with his family and says the frightened boy was able to get away after a third attempt and was eventually found by a resort employee. A woman from outside opened the door, and he immediately goes outside. Great Wolf Lodge was outstanding with this, said Sheriff Montgomery. They took it seriously from the very beginning. By the time we got there, they basically had already looked at the video and had the video ready for us. That really helped the investigation move along. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Great Wolf Lodge released a statement regarding the incident, which can be read in full below: Providing a safe and secure environment for our guests is always our top priority. We immediately notified the York-Poquoson Sheriffs Office after identifying actions that raised concern and are actively assisting law enforcement as they investigate this matter further. Great Wolf Lodge Continue to check WAVY.com for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) A suburban Chicago man with active arrest warrants was taken into custody after Peoria Police officers spotted him with a handgun. Jonathan Q. Taylor, 18, was arrested for charges including aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a weapon by a felon, and possession of a handgun by a person under 21, said Peoria Police spokesperson Semone Roth. According to online jail records, Taylor had warrants for domestic battery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At about 10:39 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, Peoria police saw Taylor, who was known to have an active warrant, in the 3400 block of Fallen Oak Lane, Roth said, adding he was also seen to have a handgun. She said police saw Taylor enter a vehicle and drive away, she said. Roth said officers made contact with Taylor while he was inside the vehicle and took him into custody. A handgun was recovered during the arrest, she said. Taylor was taken to the Peoria County Jail, where he remains in custody as of Wednesday afternoon. He has not yet been formally charged in Peoria County Circuit Court on the new allegations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CIProud.com. LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) A man has been arrested after allegedly committing arson at an apartment complex in Longview, according to the Longview Fire Department. Mugshot of Dominique Terry, courtesy of Gregg County Jail After receiving reports of a structure fire inside a unit in the Lake Lamond Apartments on July 3, firefighters arrived on the scene and reported smoke coming from the apartment, identifying it as a working fire. Lufkin man arrested after preventing officers from attending to woman having seizure Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fire was quickly brought under control, and the damage was limited to one apartment unit. It was later determined that the fire had been intentionally set, and damage was assessed at $50,000. No injuries were reported at the time of the fire. Following an investigation, Dominique Terry was identified as a suspect. On Tuesday, Terry was arrested and transported to the Gregg County Jail, with his bond set at $ 100,000. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. A Redondo Beach man has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly firing over two-dozen shots at a womans car earlier this year before fleeing the country for the Philippines. John Paul Christman, 47, appeared in a Los Angeles County courtroom Monday to face charges for attempted murder and multiple firearms-related crimes, according to the District Attorneys Office. On May 9, Christman allegedly drove up behind a womans parked car in Rolling Hills Plaza shopping center in Torrance and began shooting indiscriminately, striking the womans vehicle 20 times and hitting an occupied dance studio at least six times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Miraculously, no one was injured in the shooting. The victim faced a barrage of bullets, and we are thankful no one was hurt in this senseless rapid-fire attack, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a news release. Days after fleeing the scene of the shooting, Christman fled the country for Philippines, where he remained until this past week. Local authorities partnered with the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service to locate Christman overseas and extradite him back to California. Hochman thanked the local and federal law enforcement partners who returned Christman to the U.S. to face these allegations in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christman made his initial court appearance on Monday. He remains in custody after having his bail set at $1.95 million. If convicted as charged, he faces a potential sentence of life in state prison. Christman is scheduled to appear in court again on Aug. 13. The investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information is urged to contact Torrance Police Department Detective Division at 310-618-5570. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. MEMPHIS, Tenn. A man accused of hitting a woman with his car and breaking one of her bones last month in Southeast Memphis is now in jail. Otis Clark, 50, is charged with attempted first-degree murder. On June 19, Memphis Police say they were called to a pedestrian struck near the intersection of East Holmes Road and Lamar Avenue around 7 a.m. A witness told police that a woman who was walking was hit by a white Ford Mustang. The witness says the woman got out of the Mustang near the intersection prior to the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That is when the Mustang turned around and hit the woman before continuing down Lamar Avenue without stopping to help her, according to the witness. The woman was then taken to Regional One Hospital in critical condition. Police say the woman suffered from a broken tibia. Man arrested after allegedly shooting at MPD on July 4th On June 22, the victim spoke to police and told them that it started when she got into an argument with the male suspect. She says before she got out of the Mustang, the man told her, B****, I will run you over with this car. When she got out, he drove off but came back and hit her with the vehicle, she says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Otis Clark was identified in a six-person photo spread as the suspect. He was arrested on Tuesday. Clark is currently held in jail on a $1,500 bond and is due in court on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. ENFIELD, Conn. (WTNH) The man charged with injuring two Connecticut State Police troopers responding to a crash on Interstate 91 last week is expected to appear in court Wednesday. Joel Caiza has been released from the hospital and is set to appear for arraignment with Hartford Superior Court virtually from Corrigan Correctional Institute, according to officials with the Connecticut Judicial Branch. Connecticut State Police release dashcam video of crash that injured 2 troopers on Interstate 91 in Enfield Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 18-year-old from Waterbury was charged with reckless driving, traveling too fast for conditions, operating a motor vehicle without a license, and failure to drive in the proper lane. It was July 11 when state police say Caiza was traveling in the left lane when he drove through standing water and lost control, spinning across three lanes before hitting the back of one of the police vehicles that was parked on the shoulder. In a probable cause affidavit obtained Wednesday, state police said Caiza denied speeding at the time of the crash. During the spin-out, the report says his 2010 silver-colored Acura TSX collided with Trooper Matthew Cerri, who was sitting in the drivers seat of his police cruiser. Joel Caiza. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Connecticut State Police release dashcam video of a crash that injured two troopers who were responding to a separate crash on Interstate 91 in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Connecticut State Police release dashcam video of a crash that injured two troopers who were responding to a separate crash on Interstate 91 in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Connecticut State Police release dashcam video of a crash that injured two troopers who were responding to a separate crash on Interstate 91 in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Connecticut State Police release dashcam video of a crash that injured two troopers who were responding to a separate crash on Interstate 91 in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. Two Connecticut State Police troopers injured while responding to crash on Interstate 91 North in Enfield on July 10, 2025. The cruiser was forced into Trooper Christopher Genoveses vehicle and Genovese- who was standing next to the cruiser at the time- was forcefully thrown about 50 feet into a grass gore area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State police said Genovese sustained serious injuries and was transported to Hartford Hospital for treatment. Sources told News 8 he broke his femur. Cerri was also transported to the hospital with moderate injuries, with state police confirming he suffered a concussion. He has since been released from the hospital. Caiza also sustained moderate injuries and was brought to the hospital, along with the two passengers in his Acura at the time. Both had minor or moderate injuries. One witness told state police they thought the Acura was probably going 85 mph and appeared to hydroplane on the water. Another witness recalled hearing a loud band, then a scream and looked to see a police cruiser facing the wrong way. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 2 Connecticut State Police troopers hit on Interstate 91 in Enfield lucky to be alive, sources say Video footage of the crash shows the Acura traveling faster than the flow of traffic before spinning out, according to the police report. During an interview with troopers afterward, Caiza said he was on his way to work, after leaving his home in Waterbury. He reported seeing police on the highway from a distance and was driving about 65 mph when he encountered the puddle of water, which caused him to lose control of the vehicle. Caiza recalled spinning toward the side right side of the road and colliding with a police cruiser on its rear drivers side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The troopers had been responding to a two-vehicle crash in the area of Exits 47 and 48 when they were struck in the right shoulder. Caiza was held on a $100,000 bond at the time of his arrest, but court records now show bond set at $500. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A Minnesota man plans to plead not guilty to charges he killed the top Democratic leader in the state House and her husband after wounding another lawmaker and his wife, his attorney said. Vance Boelter, 57, is due in federal court for his arraignment on Sept. 12 under an order issued late Tuesday, hours after a grand jury indicted him on six counts of murder, stalking and firearms violations. The murder charges could carry the federal death penalty. At a news conference Tuesday, prosecutors released a rambling handwritten letter they say Boelter wrote to FBI Director Kash Patel in which he confessed to the June 14 shootings of Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark. However, the letter doesn't make clear why he targeted the couples. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boelter's federal defender, Manny Atwal, said in an email that the weighty charges do not come as a surprise. The indictment starts the process of receiving discovery which will allow me to evaluate the case, Atwal said Tuesday. She did not immediately comment Wednesday on any possible defense strategies. At his last court appearance, Boelter said he was looking forward to the facts about the 14th coming out. While the scheduling order set a trial date of Nov. 3, Atwal said it was very unlikely to happen so soon. Investigators have already gathered a huge amount of evidence that both sides will need time to evaluate. The scheduling order acknowledges that both sides may find grounds for seeking extensions. And the potential for a death sentence adds yet another level of complexity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The acting U.S. attorney for Minnesota, Joe Thompson, reiterated Tuesday that they consider the former House speaker's death a political assassination and the wounding of Sen. John Hoffman an attempted assassination. But Thompson told reporters a decision on whether to seek the death penalty will not come for several months. He said it will ultimately be up to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, with input from the capital case unit at the Department of Justice, local prosecutors and the victims. Minnesota abolished its state death penalty in 1911, but the Trump administration says it intends to be aggressive in seeking capital punishment for eligible federal crimes. Boelter's motivations remain murky. Friends have described him as an evangelical Christian with politically conservative views who had been struggling to find work. Boelter allegedly made lists of politicians in Minnesota and other states all or mostly Democrats and attorneys at national law firms. In an interview published by the New York Post on Saturday, Boelter insisted the shootings had nothing to do with his opposition to abortion or his support for President Donald Trump, but he declined to elaborate on that point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is little evidence showing why he turned to political violence and extremism, Thompson said. Prosecutors say Boelter was disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car early June 14 when he went to the Hoffmans' home in the Minneapolis suburb of Champlin. He allegedly shot the senator nine times, and his wife, Yvette, eight times, but they survived. Boelter later allegedly went to the Hortmans home in nearby Brooklyn Park and killed both of them. Their dog was so gravely injured that he had to be euthanized. Investigators found Boelter's letter to the FBI director in the car he abandoned near his rural home in Green Isle, west of Minneapolis. He surrendered the night after the shootings following what authorities have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. Man charged with leaving infant, toddler inside hot car outside of Washington County Walmart A man is facing charges after police said he left two children inside a hot car in the parking lot of a Walmart in Washington County. On Sunday, officers were called to the Walmart in South Strabane Township around 2:15 p.m. after someone called 11 saying there were children locked inside a vehicle that wasnt running Police said two girls, 9 months old and 3 years old, had been in the car for about 45 minutes. The 3-year-old was unresponsive. Both girls were taken to a hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The girls mother told police that the children were left in the care of Fritzson Charles. Charles was arrested and taken to the Washington County Prison, where he was denied bail. Hes charged with endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW On or around April 17, six landowners in Sedgwick County will face a decision: whether to sell their land to the state of Nebraska for a canal that will be at least partially constructed in Colorado, or face what is likely to be an unprecedented land grab. A 19-year-old Iron Mountain man was arraigned July 14 on charges of attempted arson and possessing an incendiary device after trying to throw a Molotov cocktail through a window of a county GOP chapter in the Upper Peninsula, according to local police. The Iron Mountain Police Department said in a news release officers arrested the 19-year-old, later identified as Zayn Edward Arcand, after receiving a tip from a caller who said they witnessed an individual "attempting to light a rag sticking out of a glass bottle, then throwing the bottle at" a window at the Dickinson County Republican Committee building at 617 North Stevenson Avenue in Iron Mountain. The rag didn't light, and the bottle did not break the window, according to police. Officers later arrested Arcand at his home, where he admitted to making the attempted Molotov cocktail and said he was aiming "to send a message against corruption," according to the department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Local prosecutors charged Arcand with intent to commit arson, a felony charge punishable by up to 10 years in prison if convicted, and possessing a Molotov cocktail, a felony charge punishable by up to four years in prison, if convicted. More: Rochester Hills apartments sued over strict 'no felons' policy Arcand was arraigned July 14 and has a preliminary examination hearing scheduled for Aug. 1 in 95B District Court, court staff confirmed to the Free Press on July 16. Local TV station WLUC-6 reported Arcand only gave yes and no responses at his arraignment. A defense attorney for Arcand was not immediately identifiable and could not be reached for comment July 16. The Iron Mountain Daily News reported Arcand was being held at the Dickinson County Jail on a $15,000 bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michigan Republican Party Chair Jim Runestad condemned the incident, saying in a July 15 statement, "No American should feel threatened or intimidated for participating in our democratic process, regardless of party affiliation. We are grateful no one was injured, and we stand united with the Dickinson County GOP as law enforcement investigates this criminal act." More: Owner of extravagant Detroit home that went viral accused of setting it on fire The incident is one of several instances of political violence, either carried out or planned, in Michigan in recent years. Other incidents include the names of members of Michigan's congressional delegation being found in the notes of the alleged assassin of two Minnesota state lawmakers in June, the kidnapping plot against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the 2022 shooting of a Right to Life canvasser in Lake Odessa, and others. Dickinson County is located along Michigan's border with Wisconsin in the Upper Peninsula and has a population of almost 26,000 residents, according to census estimates. Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Party chair condemns attempted arson at UP Michigan GOP chapter The video above is from a January 2025 newscast. BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) A man involved in a high-profile murder case in Bridgeport in 1999 was released from a federal prison in West Virginia on Wednesday after being granted clemency for a drug conviction. Adrian Peeler, 49, was granted clemency in January by former President Joe Biden. Peeler was convicted of conspiring with his brother to kill Karen Clarke and her 8-year-old son, Leroy BJ Brown, in 1999. Prosecutors said the young boy witnessed Russell Peeler shoot Clarkes boyfriend. The boy and his mother were expected to testify in his trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man convicted in high-profile Bridgeport murder case gets clemency from Biden In January 2025, Oswald Clarke, Clarkes brother and Browns uncle, told News 8 that he was devastated and at a loss for words. He said their family is reliving this horrific time all over again. Peeler served 25 years for conspiracy to commit murder and was supposed to remain in prison until 2033 on federal drug charges. Joseph Corradino, Bridgeports state attorney, said Peeler received the maximum sentence in state court and completed it. News of his early release sparked outrage and confusion. We need a criminal justice system that is going to stand up for victims and protect us as a public here in Connecticut and across the United States. This grant of clemency is a horrible miscarriage of justice, said State Sen. Ryan Fazio, a Republican representing Greenwich, in January. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticuts attorney general in 1990, released a statement in January. It seems to me that someone dropped the ball here to let his person get released. This was a really vicious murder that changed our laws. It also highlights how we need to take a look at the pardon system to see how it can be improved. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, who was the citys mayor at the time, shared with News 8: This miscarriage of justice sends yet another shockwave through the entire Bridgeport community. The brutal murder of an 8-year-old child and his mother in 1999 devastated our community and led to the establishment of Connecticuts witness protection program. I agree with Senator Blumenthals statement that someone dropped the ball with President Biden pardoning this convicted murderer who ruthlessly took the lives of an innocent child and his mother, leaving our community to grapple again with this horrific crime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. DES MOINES, Iowa The Des Moines Police Department says a man is in custody after allegedly trying to run down pedestrians, ramming a police car, and crashing into an East Village hotel Wednesday morning. The incident began just after 6:30 a.m., when multiple 911 calls came in about a person in the 600 block of Robert D Ray Drive who was attempting to assault pedestrians, said Des Moines Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Paul Parizek. One of the first calls said the person was chasing the pedestrians on foot, and later calls said he was in a car, driving on the sidewalk, and trying to run pedestrians over. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle near E. Grand Avenue and Robert D Ray Drive, but Sgt. Parizek said it appears the driver intentionally rammed the police squad car, then sped away from officers. The suspect didnt yield to red lights and then crashed into a wall of the Embassy Suites building at 101 E. Locust, just to the right of the entrance. Our crew on the scene said the vehicle was a black Chevy Impala. Car crashed into the Embassy Suites building in Des Moines on July 16th, 2025. The suspect was taken into custody and transported by Des Moines Fire Department medics to a local hospital for treatment of a leg injury. Police have not released the name of the suspect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No other injuries were reported from the incident. Sgt. Parizek said more information will be provided as it becomes available Check back to www.who13.com for updates on this story. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to who13.com. NEED TO KNOW Ewan Methven killed his girlfriend 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn in November 2024 He did not report the murder until two days later During those two days, Methven pretended over text messages to Spencer-Horn's mother that she was alright A man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for decapitating his girlfriend in 2024, after which he spent two days scrolling through her phone for pornographic material, per authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ewan Methven, 27, pleaded guilty to killing 21-year-old Phoenix Spencer-Horn in their home in the Scottish town of East Kilbride on Nov. 16, Police Scotland said in a statement last month. On Nov. 18, police found Spencer-Horns body in the apartment and subsequently arrested Methven in connection with her killing. Investigators learned that on the day of the killing, he had texted Spencer-Horn that her work was making him lonely while she was on her shift, the BBC reported. He later returned home, ordered food and waited for her to come back, per the outlet. Spencer-Horns mother reportedly received a text message from her that evening, claiming the couple were having dinner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Late that evening, authorities say, he strangled and stabbed Spencer-Horn before decapitating her. For two days, he drove around in his deceased girlfriends car and scrolled through her phone looking up pornographic material 170 times and trying to buy cocaine, prosecutors said, according to the BBC. Police Scotland Ewan Methven Ewan Methven During these two days, Methven also pretended in text messages to the victims mother that she was "alive and well." On Nov. 18, he called police to report the killing, claiming that he was on cocaine and "blacked out" during the murder, the BBC reported. After investigators arrived and found Spencer-Horn 's body, Methven told them he had tried to dismember her because he could not stay here with her like that, the BBC reported. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. During the sentencing, the judge told Methven: "The way you treated this innocent young woman after her death meant that her family did not even have the comfort of saying goodbye to her." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People Jul. 16MILROY An male not yet named publicly was pronounced deceased Wednesday morning at the scene of an attempted rescue from a grain bin in Redwood County. According to a news release from the law enforcement was notified around 9:33 a.m. Wednesday that a man was trapped within a grain bin in the 13000 block of Minnesota Highway 19 in rural Milroy, east of Emergency services were dispatched to the scene and found the man, but he was pronounced dead around 11:19 a.m. The Redwood County Sheriff's Office said the identity of the male will be released at a later date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident remains under investigation. The Redwood County Sheriff's Office was assisted at the scene by Milroy Fire and First Responders; Wabasso Ambulance; CentraCare Ambulance; the Wabasso Fire Department; Redwood Falls Fire Department; Vesta Fire Department; Tracy Fire Department; Marshall Fire Department; the and Man dies after sidewalk fight ends with gunfire in Minneapolis originally appeared on Bring Me The News. A fight on a Minneapolis sidewalk escalated to gunfire on Tuesday evening, leaving a man in his 30s dead. Minneapolis Police Department says the shooting was reported around 6:25 p.m. on the 1500 block of 11th Avenue South, in the Elliot Park neighborhood, with officers arriving to find the victim on the porch of a home with "at least" one life-threatening gunshot wound. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lifesaving efforts were carried out by police and then firefighters and paramedics, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene. "Preliminary information indicates an altercation between a group of people on the sidewalk escalated into gunfire," MPD said. "A man reportedly produced a firearm and fired toward the residence. The gunman left the scene before officers arrived." As of Wednesday morning, no arrest has been made. Credit: Tony Webster, Flickr Speaking near the scene on Tuesday evening, MPD Chief Brian O'Hara said his investigators had raised concerns about potential retaliation following the shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our investigators will do everything they can to identify the shooter in this homicide, including gathering any available video from the area," he added. "We need anyone with information no matter how minor it may seem to share that information with us." Anyone with information can contact policetips@minneapolismn.gov or call 612-673-5845. Note: The details provided in this story are based on law enforcements latest version of events, and may be subject to change. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. The Brief Frank Young jumped into the Chattahoochee River to save a girl and her mother on July 2. Young managed to save the mother and child, but was dragged down into the river. Young's son said he doesn't doubt for a moment his father would do it all again. ROSWELL, Ga. - Loved ones of a man who died on the Chattahoochee River trying to help a mother and her young daughter who had fallen in say he died the way he lived: selflessly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frank Young, 59, died on July 2 after jumping into the Chattahoochee River to save a four-year-old and her mom. His son spoke with FOX 5's Rob DiRienzo. "My father went in there to try to save them, being the selfless man he was, he ended up losing his life. But saving both the mother and the child," Alexander Young-Ore, his son, said. What we know The Roswell Fire Department said the tragic incident happened at the river near Gerrard Landing Park around on the night of July 2. Young was there with some family friends, when he heard the woman and child's cries for help and jumped into the river without hesitation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Young managed to save the mother and child, but was dragged down into the river, his son said. "His loss is something that has left a hole in my heart," Young-Ore said. "I miss him every single day. I miss him dearly, so much." Timeline Young was on the Chattahoochee River with some family friends on the evening of July 2. "Originally, he was there to fish with them because they had little children with them, and he wanted to spend time with them," Alexander Young-Ore said. Thats when the four-year-old girl fell into the river near Garrard Landing on July 2. "Then the mother came in after her, and she couldn't swim. She was also drowning. And then my father went in to save both of them," Young-Ore said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roswell firefighters sent a rescue boat downstream as it got dark. About an hour later, they found Youngs body in seven feet of water. The medical examiner has ruled the cause of death was drowning. The backstory Young-Ore said he worked as a taxi driver in the Dunwoody area, but was originally from New York, his son said. He said he doesn't doubt for a moment his father would do it all again. "He would be proud and content with what happened. Though he lost his life, he saved the lives of two other people," he said. What you can do Youngs family has asked for the communitys help covering funeral expenses by donating to a GoFundMe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They hope to lay him to rest next Monday in Lawrenceville, according to his obituary. "He was a great man. A selfless man that loved people," his son said. The Source Information in this article came from FOX 5's Rob DiRienzo speaking with the family of Frank Young. CARTER COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) A man has been charged with second-degree murder after a fatal overdose in Carter County in July 2023. The Carter County Sheriffs Office reports Bobby Alex Carr, 41, of Bluff City, was indicted and charged with second-degree murder and the sale of Schedule II narcotics. THP: 2 dead, 3 injured in wrong-way crash on Bristol Highway in Bluff City According to a news release from the Carter County Sheriffs Office, an investigation began on July 1, 2023 after deputies were called to a Hampton home following a 911 call about a dead man. Investigators reportedly found evidence to suggest drugs had been used in the home, and an autopsy revealed the 53-year-olds cause of death to be a fentanyl overdose. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim reportedly bought the drugs that led to his death from Thomas Farmer, 52, of Johnson City. Farmer was indicted on the same charges as Carr in March 2024 and arrested. Farmer later posted a $50,000 bond and is set to appear in court on Aug. 4 for his charges. The sheriffs office learned Farmer bought the drugs from Carr before selling them to the victim, according to the release. Evidence against Carr was presented to the Carter County Grand Jury, leading to indictments against him on July 10. Carr was arrested on July 11. This has been a very extensive investigation as the officers worked to track the flow of the drugs that caused this mans death, Carter County Sheriff Mike Fraley said. I would like to commend my officers for their hard work and diligence in pursuing this investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our officers are working constantly to slow down the flow of drugs into our community and to identify and prosecute those who sell drugs. If you deal drugs, we will prosecute you. And if you sell drugs to someone who overdoses and dies, you will be held accountable for their death. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. NEED TO KNOW A man has been found guilty of the 2021 murder of his partner in New South Wales, Australia, according to local media reports Rohen James Hanson, 42, claimed he killed Dee Annear, 34, while acting in self-defense in the remote Bulga Forest cabin, which they reportedly named the "witch's hut" An autopsy found Annear died from blunt force trauma A man has been found guilty of the 2021 murder of his partner in a remote cabin in New South Wales, Australia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The Canberra Times and Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph, a jury unanimously found Rohen James Hanson, 42, guilty of murdering Dee Annear, 34, during his trial at the Supreme Court in Newcastle on Wednesday, July 16.. PEOPLE has contacted the New South Wales Police and the Supreme Court of New South Wales for comment. Annear's body was found outside a logger's cabin in Bulga Forest on Sept. 18, 2021, per ABC. The couple had been camping at the cabin, which they named the "witch's hut." An autopsy report found that Annear died from blunt force trauma at around 12:00 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2021, according to ABC and The Daily Telegraph. She had fractures to her skull, rib, nose and jaw, along with lung lacerations and a strangulation injury, per ABC. Dee Annear/Facebook Dee Annear Dee Annear Hanson had attempted to plead guilty to manslaughter but his plea was rejected by prosecutors, per ABC. Though he admitted to killing his partner, he claimed he was acting in self-defense, according to The Canberra Times. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PEOPLE previously reported that Hanson's lawyer told the jury that Hanson did not intend to kill Annear. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Hanson was accused of lying to police after he claimed he found Annear dead and then later claimed she died after being involved in a car crash. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. After taking back his claim that Annear died following a car crash, Hanson told authorities that he acted in self-defense after his partner initiated a fight and attacked him with a bottle after he crashed their car alone, according to ABC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hansom claimed he tackled his partner into a wall after she attacked him with the beer bottle. According to The Daily Telegraph, the Supreme Court heard that Annear faced physical abuse from Hanson throughout their relationship. Her mother Carolyn Butt told the jury that she once saw Hanson punching her daughters head while visiting their home in Wingham, while Butt also claimed she witnessed Hanson headbutt Annear during a previous camping trip, per the outlet. Alamy An Australian Police Force car An Australian Police Force car A neighbor also claimed the couple were once drunk at the house before they got into an argument, resulting in Hanson allegedly pushing his partner into a table and later stomping on her head and punching her face. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to multiple outlets, Hanson will be sentenced on Sept. 5. If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages. Read the original article on People The state Capitol is framed by buildings along Sherman Street last month in Denver. BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) A man who was accused of intentionally running over a motorcyclist was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in prison, according to court records. Daniel Lee Barton, 43, pleaded no contest in May to vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, hit-and-run causing death and driving someone elses vehicle without their consent. Other charges, including first-degree murder, were dismissed under the plea deal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On June 26, 2021, Barton was driving a stolen Chevy Avalanche north on Eye Street as a motorcycle was turning east onto 3rd Street, according to court filings. Barton made no attempt to stop and was observed on video surveillance intentionally running over the victim causing his death, investigators wrote in the filings. Investigators extracted data from the Chevy and determined it had been slowing gradually without braking until right before the crash when it went full throttle. After the collision, Barton ran toward a backyard while yelling, He stole my motorcycle, a witness told police. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) A man was hospitalized after being shot in Springfield late Monday night. According to the Clark County Sheriffs Office, officers were dispatched to the area of Sunset Avenue and East John Street at approximately 10 p.m. on reports of a shooting. A responding officer found a man with a gunshot wound to the lower right leg. 2 arrested after narcotics, guns allegedly found during Miami Twp. traffic stop Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After officers applied a tourniquet, the man told them he was shot in the parking lot of the Springfield-Clark Career Technical Center on Selma Road. He told officers he saw a truck, heard a loud bang and then his leg began to hurt. He couldnt provide details about the truck. Officers said they followed the trail of blood over to the CTC parking lot and investigated the area. The man was taken by medics to Springfield Regional. Officials said because of a lack of suspect information, no charges have been filed at this time. 2 NEWS will update this article when more information is available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. A Japanese man enraged by the noise of go-karting popular with foreign tourists was arrested Wednesday for trying to set fire to the motor vehicles, according to police and local media. Go-karting is a popular sight in Japan -- the birthplace of Super Mario -- with tourists, dressed up as the video game icon and other characters, allowed to manoeuvre their way through Tokyo streets. The 28-year-old Japanese man was arrested on charges of attempted arson, Tokyo police told AFP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police said the man was suspected of setting fire last month to waste on the premises of a Tokyo company that operates go-karting tours, with flames spreading to its parked go-karts. Nearby walls were also burned, but the fire was quickly extinguished, police said. Public broadcaster NHK quoted the suspect as telling investigators that he was "stressed out by the engine noise of the go-karts". His workplace was reportedly located adjacent to the scene of the fire. The go-karting operator received a letter in May threatening to "set karts aflame if engines are turned on after tomorrow", NHK reported, adding that police were probing a link to the arson attack. tmo/sco FALL RIVER, Mass. (WWLP) A man was shot and killed Tuesday morning after a standoff with police in Fall River. Healey visits site of horrifying assisted living fire The Fall River Police Department states that officers were sent to a report of an armed man in a mental health crisis at approximately 1:37 a.m. Callers reported that the man, identified by NBC Boston as 38-year-old Domonic Knight, was expressing suicidal ideations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When officers arrived, they secured the perimeter, and additional calls continued to come in from family members, reiterating Knights intent to harm himself. At approximately 2:25 a.m., a trained crisis negotiator arrived and initiated several attempts to communicate with Knight using phone calls, text messages, and a loudspeaker, however, communication was not successful. At 2:42 a.m., the departments Emergency Services Unit (ESU) arrived to help secure the residence and to support communication efforts. After almost an hour of unsuccessful attempts, the decision was made to break through the front entry and re-establish communications. VIDEO: Body-worn camera footage At 3:15 a.m., ESU broke the front door and noticed movement at the top of the staircase, directly in front of the entryway. While ESU officers stood in the doorway, Knight allegedly fired at them from the top of the stairs. Officers returned fire while they repositioned away from the entryway. A flashbang distraction was deployed, and ESU entered the home. At 3:18 a.m., Knight was found at the top of the stairs. He was found with a short-barreled rifle (SBR) equipped with a drum magazine beneath his body and a handgun near his hand. Knight appeared to have sustained a gunshot wound to the side of the head. Officers immediately requested medical assistance, and Knight was taken into custody at that time. Prosecutors said he died at the hospital. Still images of body-worn camera footage Fall River Police Department Fall River Police Department Fall River Police Department The Bristol County District Attorneys Office and the Massachusetts State Police are investigating. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) Sentencing will be Aug. 26 for a man who pleaded guilty Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to fleeing and weapons charges. Read next: Traffic backed up due to crash involving semi-truck on I-80 in Trumbull County George Short, 47, entered guilty pleas before Judge Anthony Donofrio to third-degree felony counts of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, a fourth-degree felony count of receiving stolen property and a fifth-degree felony count of possession of drugs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of four years in prison. Police arrested Short Nov. 11 when reports said an officer on patrol at about 2:35 p.m. received a notice from the citys new Flock Camera system of a stolen car, and the officer spotted the car traveling north on Steel Street. The car failed to stop when the officer tried to pull it over, although a passenger jumped out at Silliman and Steel streets, reports said. The car led police to Fifth Avenue on the North Side, then downtown, then up the Market Street bridge. The car made it as far as West Myrtle Avenue before one of the tires fell off, and the driver, later identified by police as Short, jumped out. He was caught after a short foot chase and taken into custody, reports said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports said Short was searched, and police found $79 cash, methadone, fentanyl, cocaine and pills. Inside the car, police found methamphetamine, reports said. As police were searching the car, they got a call that a gun had been found downtown on the route that Short was driving. An officer was sent to retrieve it, reports said. The gun, a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, was taken into evidence. Reports said Short told paramedics he threw a gun out of the car as he was being chased. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. The Chelan County Sheriffs Office (CCSO) says it rescued a man after he fell trying to climb the northern glacier of Sinister Peak. They located 31-year-old Ryan Polkinghorn, with head, neck, and shoulder injuries, after trying to walk across glacial and rocky terrain on Monday. Polkinghorn also showed signs of early-stage hypothermia when he was found after the fall. CCSO received a call from the Washington State Emergency Operations Center about an alert from Garmin inReach activation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were told that the activation happened after a climber fell. With the help of the helicopter crew from the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Polkinghorn was rescued. He was rushed to Harborview Medical Center for treatment for his injuries. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) One case against a man was dismissed, and another was resolved Wednesday, related to two incidents in Youngstown last month on the same day. Police arrested Darnel Sharper twice on June 1 first, following a fight in the parking lot of Downtown Hookah Bar on W. Federal Street at 12:55 a.m. Reports said officers had to use chemical spray to stop the fight and disperse the crowd in the parking lot. Reports said Sharper would not leave even when told several times and was walking backwards, whipping his shirt in front of him and shouting profanity, reports said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police took Sharper into custody and released him later from jail, but say they arrested him later that morning after they were called to an apartment on Kendis Circle for a dispute. Reports said a woman there told police Sharper had been nonstop harassing her ever since he was released from jail because he was irate that his girlfriend went out with someone else. At the apartment, he allegedly kept banging on the womans windows and broke one of her windows with a rock, reports said. Court records state that a criminal damage case was dismissed Wednesday with the agreement of the victim, who said the defendant was taking care of the damages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was convicted of disorderly conduct in the other case and was fined, court records state. Joe Gorman contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Man sentenced in 2023 fatal New Haven hit-and-run NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) A 21-year-old man was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday following a lengthy investigation for a fatal hit-and-run from 2023. BACKGROUND: Motorcyclist dies in New Haven hit-and-run crash Dajon Morris of New Haven was found guilty of evading responsibility after his car collided with a motorcycle on June 7, 2023, officials say. The man operating the motorcycle died from his injuries in the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Connecticut Division of Criminal Justice, Morris was operating the vehicle without a license, registration or insurance when he failed to obey a stop sign and collided with the motorcycle. Officials say that Morris did not stop the car when the motorcyclist was ejected into the drivers side of his vehicle. He allegedly did a three-point-turn, came into contact with the victim and sped off without calling for help. BACKGROUND: 20-year-old charged in fatal hit-and-run in New Haven last summer: PD Video evidence recorded Morris leaving the scene, disregarding other stop signs and a red light. He was captured on video clearing out his car and disposing of items that could identify him, including his license plate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Morris was arrested after New Haven police interviewed witnesses and combined video evidence during the investigation. The defendant admitted his involvement during a July 17, 2023, police interview, officials say. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) A plea deal has averted a trial for a man accused of attacking two people in Weathersfield. Read next: FDA issues warning about dietary additive Michael Houser, 31, of Masury, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two fourth-degree felony counts of aggravated assault in connection with the August 2024 assaults on the trails in Honda Hills behind McKinley Lanes, according to the Trumbull County Prosecutors Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the victims told police that he felt his neck being cut with a sharp object, and the other victim was struck with a metal pipe. Both were taken to the hospital. Houser was indicted on charges of attempted murder and felonious assault. His pleas averted a trial that was scheduled to begin Monday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) A Brooklyn man found guilty of fatally shooting a deli clerk in the head in December 2021 was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Tuesday. The sentencing comes after Ricardo Senatus, 32, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on June 24, 2025. More Local News Prosecutors say Senatus entered a deli at 803 Flatbush Avenue around 7:30 p.m. on December 14, wearing a mask and armed with a firearm. Senatus displayed the firearm to the store employee, Fadhl Moosa, 20, and demanded money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A struggle ensued, resulting in Moosa being shot in the head, prosecutors say. Senatus allegedly fled the store, but when he realized he forgot to take money, he returned, stepped over Moosa, and took money from the cash register. He was apprehended in Newark, New Jersey, on December 20, 2021. This was a cold-blooded and senseless execution of a young man who was simply doing his job. Fadhl Moosas life was cut short in an act of shocking violence that has devastated his family and shaken the community. Todays sentence ensures that the defendant will be held accountable for this horrific crime, and I hope it brings some measure of justice and closure to Fadhls loved ones, said District Attorney Gonzalez. Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ben Mitchell is a digital content producer from Vermont who has covered both local and international news since 2021. He joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. HARDEEVILLE, S.C. A Georgia man was sentenced to 12 years in prison last week after pleading guilty to a 2023 attack on a hospital employee at Coastal Carolina Hospital. Savannah native Marc Kaikala pleaded guilty to kidnapping and first-degree assault and battery. Glynn County police make arrest in rape While in the emergency room, Kaikala stole a pair of scissors and attacked the nurse treating him. He then held the nurse hostage as he held the scissors to her neck. Marc Kaikala, 40 Kaikala was given 12 years for the kidnapping and 10 for the assault and battery. The two charges will be served concurrently. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man indicted in fatal Fernwood Drive shooting Originally, Kaikala was scheduled to go to trial Aug. 18, but pleaded guilty last week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. WILMINGTON, Del. (WHTM) A Delaware man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in the kidnapping of a Pennsylvania man that involved a Pennsylvania State Police chase. According to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Delaware, Donnie Taylor conspired with a juvenile and Kyaire Finch to lure the victim to a New Castle parking lot on the promise of sex on October 17, 2022. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now WHTM Daily Digest According to the Grand Jury indictment, the victim was assaulted, restrained, and robbed before Taylor and his alleged accomplices kidnapped him and drove to the victims home in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Once arriving at the victims Clifton Heights home, the indictment says Taylor and the alleged juvenile co-conspirator assaulted a second person and stole $865 and various items. The victims bank account was also accessed, and $1,400 was stolen. The man who was kidnapped was eventually able to escape while Taylor and the juvenile were inside his home. Taylor then fled and led a miles-long pursuit with Pennsylvania State Police, whom he was able to evade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Attorneys Office says Taylor then assaulted a woman in Delaware and stole her car before fleeing with the juvenile to Georgia. Taylor also wrote a Fugitive to-do list on his phone, reminding himself to get a new phone. Burner phone. The U.S. Attorneys Office says on October 20, 2022, Taylor was involved in a high-speed chase with Georgia State Police before crashing due to a PIT maneuver. According to court records, Taylor agreed to a plea deal and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Taylor was ordered to pay more than $22,000 in restitution and, following his prison term, serve five years on supervised release. U.S. Attorney Julianne Murray stated, This was a disturbing case that began with deception and ended in brutality. Todays sentence reflects the seriousness of those actions and delivers a measure of justice for the victims. I want to commend the swift, coordinated efforts of the FBI, state, and local authorities, whose dedication ensured the defendant was apprehended and held accountable. Our communities are safer because of their dedication, and combined with my office, we remain committed to protecting the public from violent offenses wherever they may hide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Finchs case is ongoing, and the juvenile has not been identified. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. Tumbo Brooks scrubbed the sweat from his face with a gray washcloth Tuesday night as he hurried down East 71st Street to the police tape. Arne Duncan stood at the intersection, staring south down South Ridgeland Avenue at 30 shell casings. The men caught one another in a quick hug and turned back to the tape. The person shot had been working as a peacekeeper, they said, meant to use his own close street relationships around South Shore to prevent further violence. They did not yet know how badly he had been hurt. He was the fourth peacekeeper shot over the last few weeks, Brooks said. Police sources said the 33-year-old shooting victim had been headed inside an apartment building about 7:20 p.m. at the intersection when three people, in a gray car, drove past and started firing. The victim said the shooters may have had a Glock switch, which turns a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic weapon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The man was shot six times and taken in good condition to the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to police. Officers also found a second 36-year-old man with a cut on his leg, who was taken to South Shore Hospital. The man who was shot Tuesday was one of about 1,200 peacekeepers paid to de-escalate conflicts and prevent possible retaliation in a specific set of city blocks. Altogether, the program assigns people to about 200 locations around the city and a few suburbs. Chicago, Cook County and Illinois have gone for big investments in this kind of violence prevention effort, which research has shown is a promising way to chip away at Chicagos stubborn levels of gun violence. Earlier Tuesday, Duncan, managing director of anti-gun violence organization Chicago CRED, had spoken at a gathering that served partly as a celebration of the citys dipping crime rate and partly as an announcement of plans to expand intervention work. But most people working as peacekeepers are only a short distance removed from street life, making them targets for violence even as they are involved in efforts to stop it. Some of the people gathered for the celebration Tuesday had a co-worker killed days before: another peacekeeper, 43-year-old Prince Johnson, was fatally shot Friday night in the Riverdale neighborhood on the South Side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hours later, in South Shore, Brooks paced in circles, making phone calls. Besides Johnson and the man who had just been wounded, two other peacekeepers had also been shot in recent weeks, he said. Duncan watched an orange cat step between the shell casings as detectives and evidence technicians examined nearby cars and buildings. He wore khaki shorts, sneakers and a T-shirt that read #MakePeaceCool. People who are trying to help create peace are still victims of violence, he said. We got a long way to go as a city. Ald. Desmon Yancy, 5th, was disappointed to find himself at the scene of shooting, especially given how the year had been going. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That stretch of 71st Street had actually been much quieter than in previous summers, he said. So there was some comfort and some hope that that bad behavior was behind us. As of Tuesday night, police had no one in custody and detectives were still investigating the shooting. Georgia deputies are searching for a teenage suspect who they say committed a series of crimes before escaping them. Bibb County deputies say a 52-year-old woman was shot by 18-year-old Nicholas Ishmael Floyd before he set the house on fire. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] Investigators say thats when he took a 12-year-old boy to another house more than three miles away and barricaded himself inside. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eventually, SWAT teams and hostage negotiators were able to get inside the house and rescue the boy. He was not hurt. Floyd got away from the scene before authorities could take him into custody. TRENDING STORIES: Deputies say Floyd should be considered armed. The woman who was shot was taken to the hospital and is currently stable. Anyone who knows where he may be should call investigators at 478-751-7500. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] More than half of the Mexican citizens detained by U.S. immigration agents and recently interviewed by Mexican consular authorities in Los Angeles had been living in the United States for at least a decade and more than one-third had lived in the United States for more than 20 years. Almost one-third of those interviewed had U.S.-born children. Those are among the findings of a study released Tuesday by Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Most nabbed in L.A. raids were men with no criminal conviction, picked up off the street The findings, the consul said, expose as false the widespread notion that many of those detained during the Trump administration's worksite raids had only recently crossed the border. Horse riders make their way along Alondra Boulevard in Compton during the Human Rights Unity Ride as ongoing ICE raids take place across the Greater Los Angeles area on June 22, 2025. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times) Its clear that the majority of these people had made roots in this country and were integrated into United States society, the consul said. These types of operations create fear, create panic. Los Angeles County is home to the nations largest community of immigrants from Mexico. The survey results come from 330 detained Mexican citizens interviewed from June 6 when U.S. immigration officials launched an ongoing series of raids to July 7. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Trump officials to send home half of the 4,000 National Guard troops in L.A. The individuals 309 men and 21 women, all adults were interviewed at a federal building in downtown Los Angeles after being detained as a result of operations carried out by various federal agencies, the consulate said in a news release. Ana Banuelos, 43, waves a flag during protests against the immigration raids at the Glass House farm on July 10, 2025, in Camarillo. (Julie Leopo / For The Times) Not included in the findings were scores of Mexican citizens detained at other federal sites and during the recent raids at the Glass House cannabis facilities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Of those surveyed, the consulate said, 52% had resided for at least a decade in the United States, and 36% had resided in the country for more than 20 years. Almost 1 in 3 31% had children born in the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: 330 immigrants detained in Southern California since Friday, White House spokesperson says The detained Mexican citizens included in the survey worked in a wide variety of occupations, the consulate said, but the largest sectors represented were car washes (16.4%), construction (13.3%), factories (13%) and landscaping (11.5%). The vast majority are hardworking individuals who have contributed to the economy of Southern California for years, the consulate said. There was no word on how many of the 330 Mexican citizens had been deported to Mexico or how many decided to fight removal in court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: Can the courts stop Trump's mass immigration arrests around L.A.? Here is what we know Every deportation is devastating for those involved, the consul said. In every case there is a person or family that pays a high price and is emblematic of the high human cost that is implicit behind every deportation. Diplomats assigned to Mexicos broad web of consulates across the United States are tasked with speaking with detained Mexican citizens and trying to provide them with legal and other help. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has publicly decried the persecution of immigrants during the recent U.S. raids, has directed consular authorities to step up their assistance in light of the Trump administrations mass deportation program. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A St. Paul gang member has admitted in court for a second time that he fatally shot a 20-year-old man on Raspberry Island nearly two years ago after a dispute over a rap song. Romello Markell Ifonlaja-Randle, 25, of Maplewood, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court to intentional second-degree murder, not premeditated, and possession of a firearm with no serial number in the killing of 20-year-old Marcus Anthony Baker Jr., of St. Paul, at the Mississippi River park on Aug. 14, 2023. Ifonlaja-Randle pleaded guilty to the killing in October, however, a judge allowed him to withdraw the plea in February after a mistake over his criminal history score meant he faced more years in prison than what was outlined in his agreement with the prosecution. The case moved toward a trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After this weeks plea, Ifonlaja-Randles new sentencing was scheduled for Aug. 5. The state will continue to argue that Ifonlaja-Randle receive a prison term of just over 32 years, which would fall in the middle of state sentencing guidelines, said Ramsey County Attorneys Office spokesman Dennis Gerhardstein. Ifonlaja-Randles attorney will continue to seek the low end of the guidelines, which is just over 27 years, according to the latest plea document. Two punches, three shots Ifonlaja-Randle told the court that he was at Raspberry Island with friends and intended to set up equipment to shoot a music video. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Witnesses said four to five males approached Baker, who was in a Chevrolet Suburban SUV. One told Baker to shut off his music, which was by a local rap artist affiliated with East Side gangs, according to the criminal complaint. Baker asked Ifonlaja-Randle if he was from the West Side and he replied, the dub, the complaint states. After Baker didnt turn off the music, Ifonlaja-Randle hit Baker twice in the face and then shot him when he tried to get out of the vehicle. Ifonlaja-Randle ran across the bridge. Ifonlaja-Randle said in court in October that during a conversation with Baker, whom he didnt know, he pulled out a 9mm and shot him three times. And what did you think would happen when you shot him? Ifonlaja-Randles attorney asked him, according to the transcript. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nothing. I didnt I didnt think, he replied. But it was highly likely that with three bullets, he would die. Is that fair to say? his attorney asked. I suppose, yes, he replied. Officers sent to the scene about 9:10 p.m. found Baker in the back seat of the SUV, and he was pronounced dead at Regions Hospital. An autopsy showed Baker was shot in the right hip, right elbow and abdomen, which perforated his chest, diaphragm, kidney and back. DNA evidence Officers were sent back to Raspberry Island two days after the shooting to collect a handgun lying on rocks on the south side of the bridge that connects Raspberry Island to Harriet Island Boulevard. A test firing of the gun connected it to a casing found at the murder scene. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An analysis by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found IfonlajaRandles DNA on the guns laser/light attachment and Bakers DNA on the guns muzzle area, the complaint says. Investigators analyzed IfonlajaRandles phone records and found he was in the Raspberry Island area at the time Baker was killed. Related Articles Police said IfonlajaRandle meets criteria to be considered a member of the Shoota Boy gang, which is associated with St. Pauls West Side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bakers mother, Sade Whitmore, told the Pioneer Press her son was a graduate of Simley High School in Inver Grove Heights and that he was not a member of a gang. Six other charges prosecutors filed against IfonlajaRandle in the case will be dismissed at his sentencing as part of the plea agreement: two counts of crime committed for the benefit of a gang; second-degree unintentional murder while committing felony assault; second-degree assault; possession of a firearm by a person who was ineligible due to a conviction of a crime of violence; and second-degree attempted murder for firing into the SUV, which included others besides Baker. IfonlajaRandle has three prior felony convictions as an adult two first-degree aggravated robberies and fourth-degree assault and each make him ineligible to possess firearms. Six years after the murder of a local rapper, one of the suspects received the minimum sentence on conspiracy charges when an El Paso County jury acquitted him of pulling the trigger in April. Investigators arrested Aee Shawn Mathews, 27, last year and accused him of being the triggerman in the 2019 shooting death of William Underwood, a Colorado Springs-area rapper also known as FYL Jackk, at the orders of a rival area rapper named Derrick Bernard. Mathews was sentenced to eight years in state prison for the conspiracy-to-commit murder charge Wednesday in the 4th Judicial District. Judge Chris Larson heard arguments from the Deputy District Attorney Tony Gioia and defense attorney Josh Tolini before handing down the sentence. Gioia argued for a sentence of 24 years in prison due to the "gravity" of the offense and Mathews' "lack of remorse and accountability." The case started on Sept. 17, 2019, when Underwood was confronted outside his aunt's home during his birthday party. The assailant shot 18 times, including seven to the back of Underwood's head, according to previous Gazette reporting. During the trial, prosecutors argued Bernard wanted Underwood dead because of an ongoing feud and instructed Mathews in coded language to carry out the shooting. Despite a jury clearing Mathews of the first-degree murder charge, which would have carried a life sentence, Gioia argued his role in the plan led to Underwood's death. Tolini requested probation for his client, citing the jury's ruling and other factors, such as the length of time since the shooting, Bernard's involvement and Mathews' new role as a father. Tolini made special note of Bernard, mentioning his previous convictions and ability to "exert power" over others. Bernard was in state prison in 2019 at the time of Underwood's death on a weapons charge, according to court records. Bernard was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole after representing himself during his November trial. Featured Local Savings Most recently, Bernard was found guilty in federal court on all counts related to the hate-crime "hoax" that made headlines during the 2023 Colorado Springs mayoral runoff election. He vowed to appeal both convictions. The courtroom was packed with family and friends of Underwood on Wednesday, with a handful of supporters sitting behind Mathews. Mathews appeared out of custody, seeming calm while awaiting sentencing. Family members of Underwood submitted victim-impact statements to Judge Chris Larson ahead of sentencing, with only one friend of the victim, Autumn Kelly, taking the stand. Kelly called Underwood's death an act of "senseless violence," saying she still feels the "painful ripple effect of his absence" every day that passes without him. Tears welling up in her eyes, Kelly asked Larson to consider the impact Underwood's death left on the community. "This was not a crime of passion or mistake," Kelly said. "We will never be able to celebrate his birthday again without thinking of his death." Mathews gave a roughly 30-second statement before sentencing to express his condolences to Underwood's family. His words were met with scoffs from those in the gallery and whispering after his short speech. Larson called the conspiracy charge an "extremely significant offense." While Mathews was sentenced to eight years, it is unlikely he will spend all of that time behind bars, Larson said. His sentence will be followed by three years of parole. No restitution was requested. Upon hearing his sentence, Mathews took off his necklace and handed it to a family member alongside his phone and keys before five officers took him away in handcuffs. Mathews' time in the courtroom is not over quite yet. He awaits trial on accusations of attempted murder of two Colorado Springs police officers, stemming from an unrelated 2022 incident. Seems Marla Maples or Gran Mar Mar is enjoying life as a grandmother. Two months after Tiffany Trump, the only daughter of President Donald Trump and his second ex-wife Marla Maples, welcomed a baby boy with billionaire husband Michael Boulos, Maples posted photos of the first daughters new son. Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos welcomed Alexander Trump Boulos at 4:44 a.m. May 15, 2025. Maples was quick to embrace being a grandmother with her own nickname: "Gran Mar Mar." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "No greater joy in the world," Maples commented on Tiffany Trump's sons birth announcement. "Michael and Tiffany this Gran Mar Mar loves you all so much!! You rocked it, my girl!" Baby Boulos joins 10 older kid-relatives who have the president of the United States of America as a grandfather. Below is information about Alexander Trump Boulos, his mother Tiffany Trump, and her mother Marla Maples. Youngest to oldest Trump grandchild: Baby Boulos born days after Kai Trump's 18th birthday When did Tiffany Trump become a mom? On May 15, 2025, days after Mothers Day, Tiffany Trump gave birth to Alexander Trump Boulos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congratulatory messages came soon after. And so did photos eventually. Two months after he was born, Maples posted photos of her and Alexander when he was a few days old. I couldnt wait any longer to share photos with my precious grandson Alexander who is two months old today! Maples said on Instagram. Her July 15 post featured photos and video of Alexander Trump Boulos as a newborn. Everyone kept asking me, What will you have him call you? And I remembered how, before Tiffany was born, my mother stitched a precious blanket with the name she had chosen for herself, Granna Ann. But Tiffany had her own idea and Granna Ann soon became Mom Mom. Needless to say, the needlepoint got replaced. Maples explains further: So I whispered to Alexander, I dont care what you call me even if its Little Granny. In the post, Maples gives her followers a glimpse of her newborn grandson and compliments her daughters parenting. Tiffany, your dedication and your love as a mother bring tears to my eyes and fills my heart with joy. How many grandchildren does Donald Trump have? On May 15, 2025, Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos welcomed a baby boy, Alexander Trump Boulos. Their son is the 11th grandchild for President Donald Trump and the first for Tiffany Trump's mother Marla Maples. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's a list of Donald Trump's grandchildren and their parents: Kai Madison Trump, eldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife Vanessa Trump, and the eldest grandchild of Donald Trump Donald Trump III, eldest son of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump Spencer Trump, son of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump Tristan Trump, son of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump Chloe Trump, daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump Arabella Kushner, daughter of Ivanka Trump and husband, former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner Joseph Kushner, son of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Theodore "Theo" Kushner, son of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner Luke Trump, son of Eric Trump and "Fox News" host Lara Trump Carolina Trump, daughter of Eric Trump and Lara Trump Alexander Trump Boulos, son of Tiffany Trump and Michael Boulos Who is Tiffany Trump? Tiffany Trump is the only daughter of Donald Trump and Marla Maples, who were married from 1993 to 1999. Tiffany Trump, a 31-year-old former model, married the 27-year-old businessman Boulos in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's private club and home in Palm Beach, Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unlike her older siblings, Tiffany Trump has largely stayed out of the political arena during her father's nearly 10 years in the spotlight. Like her father, Tiffany Trump attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in sociology. After graduation, she continued her studies at Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C. The couple met in 2018, when he was studying project management at City University of London and Tiffany Trump was a law student at Georgetown. Both were vacationing in Santorini and met in Mykonos at Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club, according to People magazine. News reports show Tiffany Trump and Boulos have lived in Miami, Florida, since Tiffany graduated from Georgetown University in 2020. Marla Maples moved back to Palm Beach County in 2022. Tiffany Trump and Boulos live fairly close to the rest of the Trump family in South Florida. Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper. This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Marla Maples, mom of Tiffany Trump, posts Boulos baby Instagram photos WARREN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) Beloved sister, sister-in-law, Aunt, and Great Aunt, Mary Elaine Bournias entered eternal sleep on Monday, July 14, 2025. Mary Elaine was born on September 12, 1956, to Louis and Katie Bournias in Warren, Ohio. Growing up in a tight-knit Greek Orthodox Community, she developed a strong sense of family and cultural pride from an early age. Find obituaries from your high school Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She graduated from Warren G. Harding High School in 1974 and earned a dental degree from Youngstown State University in 1979. Professionally, Mary had a fulfilling career as a Dental Hygienist. She retired at 56 after working for her brothers Dental Office in Cochranton and ending at Bournias, Cervone, Derlink, Hutchinson Dental office and Associates in Meadville. She had a particular love for hot air balloons and served on the board of the Thurston Classic for over 25 years. Her knitting projects were a testament to her creativity and patience, crafting memories stitch by stitch. One of her cherished traditions was vacationing with her family at Hilton Head Island, a destination they had been visiting since 1982. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mary was preceded in death by her parents and her older brother Stelios in 2020. She leaves behind a brother Alex (Karen) and a sister-in-law Barbara as well as numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. The family would like to thank the staff of Juniper Village in Meadville and Davita Meadville Dialysis for the excellent care she received. Friends and relatives may pay their respects on Thursday, July 17, 2025, from 11:00 11:50 a.m. at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 429 High Street, Warren, where a funeral service will be held at 12:00 p.m. Burial will take place at Oakwood Cemetery in Warren. Donations can be made to Project Sweet Peas Greater Pittsburgh to assist families with premature babies or St. Demetrios Church. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arrangements are being handled by the Peter Rossi & Son Memorial Chapel. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mary Elaine Bournias, please visit our floral store. A television tribute will air Wednesday, July 16 at the following approximate times: 5:17 a.m. on WKBN, 8:39 a.m. on FOX, 5:19 p.m. on WYTV and 6:37 p.m. on MyYTV. Video will be posted here the day of airing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Maryland joined nearly two dozen states and the District of Columbia in suing the Trump administration for withholding $6.8 billion in previously authorized education grants intended for K-12 and adult education programs. According to the Maryland Attorney Generals Office, the federal Department of Education notified states on June 30 that it was rescinding the money for six formula programs. That, the attorneys general argue, violates various federal laws and regulations as well as the Constitutions separation of powers doctrine. Statewide, $110 million is on the line nearly $99 million anticipated by the Maryland State Department of Education and $11.49 million for adult education programs, according to state schools officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawsuit, filed in the federal District Court of Rhode Island, seeks a ruling that declares the funding freeze unlawful and makes the funds available to the states again. This reckless funding freeze is directly harming Marylands students by taking more than $110 million from Maryland K12 schools and adult education programs, which has jeopardized teacher training, thrown essential special needs services into chaos, and left families scrambling to find childcare before the start of a new school year, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement Monday. The federal Department of Education traditionally makes about a quarter of these funds available for states around July 1 each year, according to the attorney generals office. But this year broke the trend, as the education department says it is aligning spending with the executive branchs priorities. The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the Presidents priorities and the Departments statutory responsibilities, the Department of Educations June 30 notice to the Maryland State Department of Education said in part, according to court documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the attorneys general argue it wasnt up to the Trump administration, stating in court filings that Congress designated the funding streams as formula grants, which the government is obligated to disperse to the states. The frozen funding does not derive from discretionary or competitive grant programs. Formula funds are calculated automatically using specific formulas written into the law and administered by (the Department of Education), State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright wrote in a court document. The Maryland State Department of Education is still working to understand the full effects of the funding freeze, which might result in layoffs, she wrote. Maryland school districts have already created budgets for the upcoming school year that assumed they would receive the formula funding, according to Wright. And some Maryland school districts have active summer programming that is funded in whole or (in) part by the funding that is currently being withheld. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. Instead, the department released a statement: We are committed to supporting our school systems, students, and families as the uncertainty of the federal funding landscape for many programs continues. Our state is not deterred from our focus on maintaining high standards and accountability that drives student success. Baltimore City Public Schools is losing more than $11 million in funding that was meant to support 29 full-time positions, critical contractual support, instructional materials and other resources, Kimberly Hoffman, executive director of data monitoring and compliance for the district, wrote in a court filing. Hoffman listed programs such as professional development, teacher recruitment, English education for multilingual learners and AP classes as items the now-withheld federal money contributed to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When asked for comment, Baltimore City Public Schools referred The Baltimore Sun to a portion of Hoffmans court declaration. Because these federal funds have been withheld, City Schools will face challenges in ensuring that staffing, materials, and other resources will be fully in place for the start of the 2025-2026 school year, Hoffman wrote. As a result, (the Department of Educations) actions threaten to undermine the carefully planned and targeted interventions and supports that City Schools has invested to continue its recognized progress in student growth. Anne Arundel County will lose $4.2 million if the funding is not reinstated. More than 28,000 Maryland adult learners, including those learning English and those working toward their high school diplomas, are served by education department formula grants authorized under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Erin Roth, assistant secretary of the Maryland Department of Labors Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning, wrote in court filings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The AEFLA money supports nine full-time Adult Education and Literacy Services employees, 100 subgrantee employees, more than 1,000 part-time subgrantee instructors, instructional materials, educational software licenses and assessments for adult learners, Roth wrote. Cuts to adult learner programming concretely limit(s) their economic mobility, as those without a high school diploma in Maryland in 2023 earned about 20% less than those who have one, Roth said in the filing. The Department of Education said last week it was ending taxpayer subsidization of illegal aliens in career, technical, and adult education programs under AEFLA and other statutes. The state Department of Labor declined to comment due to the ongoing litigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Education is even making cuts to itself, as the president and Education Secretary Linda McMahon work toward their goal of dismantling it. The Supreme Court greenlit layoffs of nearly 1,400 of the departments employees on Monday. We will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability and to ensure resources are directed where they matter most to students, parents, and teachers, McMahon said in a statement Monday after the decision came down. As we return education to the states, this Administration will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy. The governments deadline to respond to the lawsuit is July 28. _____ Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated. Explosions rocked Ukrainian cities overnight on July 16 as Russia once again launched waves of drones and missiles across the country. The attack comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin has 50 days to strike a peace deal or face stiff tariffs from Washington. Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported hearing explosions and the sound of air defense units at work shortly before 1 a.m. local time on July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's Air Force issued multiple alerts that waves of Russian drones were targeting the capital and other regions, including western oblasts far from the front lines. The Air Force also warned of the threat of ballistic missile strikes. The northeastern city of Kharkiv came under intensive fire, with at least 17 explosions occurring in just 20 minutes, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported. The strikes were concentrated on a civilian enterprise in the city's Kyivskyi district, Syniehubov said. Shahed drones attacked the facility, igniting a fire. Syniehubov first reported at least three injuries in Kharkiv, but his later statement mentioned only one 54-year-old man injured in the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, the city of Kryvyi Rih was hit by waves of drones, resulting in large-scale power outages, reported Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the city's military administration. A 17-year-old boy was also reported injured. "In particular, energy infrastructure was targeted work is currently ongoing to restore everything in Kryvyi Rih as fully as possible, and power supply will be resumed during the day," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, adding that at least 15 people were injured in the overnight attacks. Eight people were wounded and hospitalized in Vinnytsia Oblast following a barrage of drone strikes, local authorities said. Two industrial facilities were hit, resulting in large-scale fires. Four residential buildings were damaged in the region, the State Emergency Service reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said one of the targets was the Barlinek Group factory, a Polish-owned facility in the region. "Russian drones have struck the Barlinek Group factory in Vinnytsia," Sikorski wrote in a post on X. "The head of the plant told me a while ago that it was intentional, from three directions. There are injuries, including two severely burned," he said, adding: "(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's criminal war is moving closer to our borders." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Explosions were also reported in Izmail, a city in Odesa Oblast in southern Ukraine. Russian forces launched 400 drones against Ukraine overnight, including up to 255 Shahed-type "kamikaze" drones, as well as one Iskander-M ballistic missile, the Air Force said. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 198 drones, while 145 decoy drones disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare. The Iskander missile and 57 drones struck 12 locations, according to the statement. Russia has dramatically escalated its campaign of aerial bombardments against Ukrainian cities throughout late spring and summer. On July 9, Russia launched its largest attack of the entire full-scale war, deploying 728 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys, as well as seven Kh-101 or Iskander-K cruise missiles, and six Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelensky said on July 13 that Russia had attacked Ukraine with over 1,800 long-range drones, over 1,200 glide bombs, and 83 missiles of various types in the past week alone. "Russia is not changing its strategy and to counter this terror effectively, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination so that Russia feels our response," Zelensky said following the July 16 strikes. The wave of deadly attacks prompted Trump to announce a "major statement" regarding Russia on July 14. But instead of slapping immediate sanctions on the Kremlin, Trump's ultimatum gave Moscow 50 more days to bomb cities and terrorize civilians. Speaking to reporters on July 15, Trump said he "didn't think 50 days is very long." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Trumps big Russia announcement fails to lift spirits in a fatigued Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. BERLIN, Vt. (ABC22/FOX44) A Massachusetts resident was charged after allegedly stealing a car, lighting fires and vandalizing several trucks in Berlin Monday. Officers initially received a report at about 10:54 p.m. regarding a stolen vehicle that had been tracked to the Berlin Applebees. Officers recovered the vehicle, but the suspect fled. Police say that two fires were set nearby shortly after the initial incident, and then three other fires were discovered. Fires were also set in the back of several vandalized UPS trucks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities eventually found the suspect, later identified as 43-year-old Thomas Trask, trying to start a bush fire. He was arrested, and taken to Berlin PD. There, Trask reportedly damaged the holding cell, tried to escape and attempted to hurt police with a makeshift weapon officers say. He was taken to Northeast Correctional Complex and held on bail prior to his July 15 court date. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. Three people have been arrested after deputies from the El Paso County Sheriff's Office allegedly found them driving around in a stolen vehicle in Security-Widefield, officials said. Deputies were alerted that the vehicle, which was reported stolen out of Pueblo in June, by the Flock Safety camera system, a license plate reader software. The Sheriff's Office said the car was driving southbound on Highway 85/87 near Main Street in unincorporated El Paso County around 11 p.m. Sunday. After receiving the alert, deputies collaborated with the Fountain Police Department. They tracked the vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Dakota with Nevada plates, to a Walmart along the highway before it stopped at an IHOP parking lot. Upon arrival, deputies blocked the vehicle's path and then conducted a felony stop to remove the occupants before detaining them without incident. Deputies found narcotics and drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. The driver, 44-year-old Coral Chmiel, was arrested on charges of motor vehicle theft and possession of a controlled substance. Passengers Darious Williams, 52, and Emonie Williams, 29, were wanted on active warrants. Owned by private, American manufacturer Flock Safety, the camera system is used by the Sheriff's Office to flag criminals' cars, said Cassandra Sebastian, a spokesperson for the office. "It's like a red light camera. It reads license plates specifically for criminals. We can use them to generate information on stolen vehicles or suspect's vehicles," she said. AUSTIN (KXAN) It might sound unbelievable, but viewers are sending in videos of fire ants floating on floodwaters, forming living rafts out of their own bodies. On Wednesday morning, a KXAN viewer who asked not to be credited shared video of one such raft drifting on Lake Travis (above). When their underground nests flood, fire ants link their legs and jaws together to create buoyant, self-assembled mounds. These floating colonies can contain thousands of ants and they can still bite or sting if disturbed. These fire ant colonies can contain thousands of worker ants, and can still bite or sting those who interfere with the floating colony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fire ants are widespread in Texas, and researchers at Texas A&M University are studying how they respond to flooding. The insects bite one another and interlock their limbs, forming tightly packed rafts that dont sink. Their waxy skin helps repel water and keep the group afloat, as seen in the video from KXAN Viewer David Todd below: Its called a self-organizing or self-assembling process. And its something only social insects do, LeBrun said. A research scientist at the University of Texas Brackenridge Field Lab in central Austin, LeBrun has researched ants for three decades. There are a lot of other structures that ants make in a similar way. For example, army ants will make bridges across rivers, LeBrun said, but still, this raft is rare. Fire ants he believes are the only ants that do this. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Jul. 16Key points: The Mattawa Public Library recently expanded its hours three days per week. The search is ongoing for a new librarian, with staff members offering as many programs and services as they can in the meantime. MATTAWA Hours of operation have been extended at the Mattawa Public Library. Amanda Brack, communications and engagement manager for NCW Libraries, said the change came at the request of library patrons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They recently expanded their hours after hearing from the community and city council that more evening hours would be helpful," Brack wrote in an email to the Columbia Basin Herald. Mattawa is part of the NCW Libraries system, which has branches throughout Grant, Okanogan, Douglas and Chelan counties. Operating hours were extended into the evenings, Tuesday through Thursday. The afternoon session is now from 2 to 6 p.m. on those days. The library is also open Friday and Saturday mornings. Morning sessions are 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every day but Wednesday, when it opens at 11 a.m. Some programs at the Mattawa library have been reduced due to the lack of a permanent branch librarian. Austin Foglesong, NCW Libraries supervising librarian, said the staff is working to bring some programs back, starting with Storytime for young children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Storytime is once per month, usually at 1 p.m. the second Friday. For August, it's been rescheduled to the second Saturday. It being summer, the library has a craft and game program for children, usually Friday and Saturday through Aug. 22. Children will be playing with Tetris blocks, making bookmarks and friendship bracelets, among other things. "Something fun," Foglesong said. There are games for adults as well, along with programs and book clubs that are open to patrons of all libraries. Valerie Ramirez-Garcia was hired in March as the customer service technician in Mattawa. Ramirez-Garcia told Mattawa City Council members in April that the library is working on expanding the Spanish-language collection of books and other materials, as well as the bilingual section. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are plans for expanding offerings once NCW Libraries hires a new branch librarian, Brack said. The previous librarian got a new job in 2024. "Recruitment for branch librarian positions can be challenging in our smaller communities as branch librarian positions require a master's in library science," Brack said. Library district officials are working to ensure there are as many activities as possible in Mattawa in the meantime, she said. "During this interim, we have wonderful staff who have been ensuring the Mattawa library is open for regular hours," Brack said. Fogelsong said the plan is to expand existing programs and add more if possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "That's always our goal," he said. Since Mattawa is part of the NCW Libraries system, Ramirez-Garcia said people have access to books, movies and other materials from other branches. There's also an extensive list of online offerings, from language courses to test preparation to streaming music services to audiobooks. Like other NCW Library branches, Mattawa has computers available for public access, although there are time limits, Ramirez-Garcia said. People who can't come to the library can check out books, eBooks and audiobooks through the library's website, she said. The library district also has a bookmobile that makes twice-monthly visits. The bookmobile stops in Desert Aire and Beverly on the first and third Mondays of each month. The bookmobile rolls into Desert Aire from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and Beverly from 3-4 p.m. MATTOON, Ill. (WCIA) The Mattoon Fire Department is investigating an overnight fire that happened in a house under renovation. The fire happened just before 4 a.m. at the corner of Pine and 28th Streets. Fire Chief Jeff Hilligoss said in a news release that a police officer on routine patrol smelled smoke in the area and located the source. Firefighters were dispatched at 3:55 a.m. Mattoon issues another do not drink order Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Arriving five minutes later, firefighters found a single-story home with moderate smoke conditions inside. Hilligoss said firefighters made an interior attack that contained the fire to the room of origin. The flames were out within five minutes of arrival. Special thanks to our police officers for locating this fire while out patrolling, Hilligoss added. This early notification kept this fire from becoming much worse. A search of the home determined it was under renovation and thus vacant at the time of the fire. No injuries were reported. All crews cleared the scene at 6 a.m. The cause of the fire is still under investigation at this time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WCIA.com. The Mayan Theater to Close in September originally appeared on L.A. Mag. The Mayan TheatreCourtesy Steve Cukrov via Adobe Stock On Monday, the Mayan Theater announced that it will close at the end of September, after operating for 35 years as a nightclub and music venue. The building, unmistakably decorated with brass-relief patterns and figures on its exterior, has been an integral fixture of Downtown Los Angeles for nearly 100 years. It is with heavy yet grateful hearts that we announce The Mayan will be closing its doors at the end of September, after 35 unforgettable years, the Mayan Theater wrote in a statement. To our loyal patrons, community and friends: thank you for your unwavering support, your trust and the countless memories weve created together. You made every night truly special. An embodiment of the Mayan Revivalism architectural movement, the building first opened in 1927 as a theater specializing in musical comedy. In the decades following, the Mayan Theater changed in both ownership and function numerous times: an actors workshop under the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, a hub of the Latino community showcasing Spanish performances in the 40s and even a house of disrepute screening pornographic films in the 70s. In 1989, the Mayan Theater was designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument by the City of Los Angeles. Falling into its current ownership a year later, the building became a landmark of nightlife, hosting artists Muse, Panic! At The Disco and Daft Punk among others. Over the next three decades, it came to represent all things risque and rebellious to the pleasure-seeking youth of Los Angeles, garnering a following for its themed burlesque nights and annual Bondage Ball. Beyond its after-hours offerings, the building served as the backdrop for various films, including "The Bodyguard", "A Night at the Roxbury" and "Rock n Roll High School", as well as for the music video for the Pointer Sisters Neutron Dance. The building has also continued to serve as a cultural touchstone. In a nod to its history, the Mayan Theater maintained its function as a gathering place for the citys Latino population, hosting lucha libre shows, reggaeton festivals and salsa competitions frequently. Responding to the buildings anticipated closure, many took to social media to express their anger and sadness. WTF is happening downtown? a Reddit user wrote. There are so many new apartments opening up, but all of the stores, restaurants and venues are closing or becoming cheap shadows of themselves. I cant imagine something as iconic as the Mayan gets torn down, another Reddit user wrote. I just hope the space isnt wasted as a retail store the way so many theaters downtown were in the 90s. The Mayan Theaters ownership has yet to disclose what they will do after the buildings closure. Until the end of the summer, they welcome patrons to the dance floor. Before we take our final curtain call, we invite you to join us on the dance floor every Saturday night through September 13th for one last celebration of everything The Mayan has meant to us all, the Mayan Theater wrote. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. Mayor Brandon Johnson appeared to know what was coming Wednesday morning, hours before backers of an ordinance giving Chicagos police superintendent power to declare a teen curfew anytime, anywhere failed to override his veto. Ahead of 28 aldermen voting for the curfew short of the 34 needed to outmuscle his veto pen over a dozen aldermen crowded around the mayor at a City Hall event to celebrate him striking the curfew down. It was a clear sign: Johnson may not have had a City Council majoritys support, but he had enough allies to win nonetheless. The easy thing to do would be to play into the political theater of safety. The easy thing to do would be to tell people that if we threaten young people and their families with severe repercussions, that that somehow will make us safer, Johnson said to the news cameras in front of him and the teen activists who joined the news conference and stood at his back. It doesnt make us safe and it doesnt make our city stronger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Wednesday vote put to rest a monthslong debate over the teen curfew push led by downtown Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd. Hopkins charged ahead with the measure in March after two large youth gatherings marred his ward with high-profile Streeterville shootings. Hopkins had remained hopeful early Wednesday that he would flip enough aldermen to beat the mayors veto, but said regardless he wanted the repeat discussion to be brief. Weve done that ad nauseam, he said. Lets just get the roll call and see where were at. His veto challenge failed with no debate in a 28-22 vote. Chicago already has a citywide 10 p.m. teen curfew that has been in place for decades. The Hopkins measure would have given police Superintendent Larry Snelling and future superintendents the power to declare curfews with as little as 30 minutes notice, though Snelling said he would have only used the power to declare curfews days in advance when a large teen gathering appeared imminent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the vote, Hopkins criticized the demise of what he believes is a commonsense tool for police. At least 45 such teen takeovers, large and often raucous youth meetups typically publicized on social media, have happened since 2012, he said. There will be more, and the police are now limited in what they can do to stop these events from happening, he said. The police superintendent will be denied a very valuable tool that could stop these events once they start. During his early-morning victory lap, Johnson touted his efforts to expand the citys summer jobs program for young people, a push he allocated millions more dollars to this year. The number of teens working city-funded summer jobs has increased 45% since the start of his administration, Johnson said, though former Mayor Rahm Emanuels pre-pandemic version of the program featured more total jobs. Today we are doing the right thing. We are deciding to focus on investing in people, Johnson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The City Council voted 27-22 last month to pass the ordinance after months of political wrangling. But Johnson quickly vetoed the measure he called counterproductive to addressing crime, becoming the first mayor to issue a veto since Richard M. Daley did so in 2006. In the lead-up to the June vote, Johnson had at times wavered as different versions of the ordinance came and went, though he consistently cast doubt on the need for such a curfew while citing a decline in violent crime and the Police Departments preexisting methods of preventing the gatherings. An earlier version of the ordinance that Johnson did not publicly reject would have given both the police superintendent and mayor-appointed deputy mayor for community safety final say to authorize a curfew. Hopkins altered the ordinance so that only the superintendent had that power, a move Johnson followed by taking a clear stance against the measure. If I was sent back in time and tested with this ordinance, I would do it all over again, Johnson said Wednesday. I would do anything and everything to protect our young people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Hopkins painted a different picture of the political process after the vote, arguing Johnson changed his tune in public after initially working with him toward a curfew. I crafted this ordinance in his office. I sat 5 feet away from him as we drafted this ordinance. Who is the one committing political theater? Hopkins said. It is not me. CHICAGO (WGN) On Wednesday, Chicago alders tried and failed to override Mayor Brandon Johnsons veto of a measure that would have given Chicago Police Department Supt. Larry Snelling power to declare a three-hour curfew anywhere in the city with 30 minutes notice. Earlier in the day, the mayor held a press conference Wednesday ahead of the city council meeting to explain why hes against the ordinance, standing firm on his decision to veto it. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Chicago Mayor Johnson vetoes snap curfew ordinance passed this week by City Council Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today we are doing the right thing. We are deciding to focus on investing in people. There is no study that we have seen, or frankly anyone in Chicago has seen, that says these types of measures and curfews will keep young people safe. And in fact, if we were to enact such a thing, we would leave ourselves vulnerable to potential and costly lawsuits that do nothing to make our city safer, Johnson said. Hours before the vote, the mayor slammed the measure as counterproductive. The easy thing to do would be to play into the political theater of safety. The easy thing to do would be to tell people if we threaten young people and families with severe reprocessing that that somehow would make us safer, but we know from years of doing the same old tired forms of policy that it doesnt get the results that people have longed for, Johnson said. Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) is the sponsor of the ordinance and was furious the motion to override the veto failed. He also said Snelling asked for the power to declare a three-hour curfew in order to fight teen takeovers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New bodycam footage shows chaotic teen takeover that shut down Glen Ellyn pool The next violent teen takeover that happens, when the blood sheds, its on them, Hopkins said. The mayor says, Well, well invest in them. What does that even mean? You have violent mobs of 300 people engaged in fighting and taking over the streets. How do you stop it by investing in them? Thats utter nonsense. Earlier this year, Hopkins spearheaded this ordinance as a response to so-called teen takeovers downtown. If a minor violates the ordinance, they would be taken into custody until a parent or legal guardian can pick them up. Hopkins also said some aldermen have changed their vote on both sides. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson argued the ordinance is counterproductive to the progress of reducing crime and violence in Chicago. He also mentioned that they are hiring 29,000 children for summer jobs, a 45% increase since Johnson took office. In a letter to City Council, Johnson wrote, in part: At a time when violent crime continues to trend down across the City of Chicago, it is critical that we continue our investments in community safety strategies that have a proven track record of success. In two short years, we have seen measurable, sustained decline in crime and violence in our city. Mayor Brandon Johnson Local activist groups rallied outside Wednesdays city council meeting, saying snap curfews arent the answer, adding that the city should use part of its police budget to invest in alternative public safety initiatives. Lets take the funding and the programming that we know works and double down to make our city a safer place, Ald. Jessie Fuentes (26th Ward) said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The activist groups are calling for officials to move $200 million toward mental health and anti-violence programs, saying the money could be used for new ambulances and keeping mental health centers open 24/7. We dont need more police. We dont need more control. What we need is to feel human again. What we need is to feel like our lives matter, Reynia Jackson of nonprofit GoodKidsMadCity Englewood added. The city council vote on Wednesday was 27-22. Thirty-four votes are needed to override a veto. Read more: Latest Chicago news and headlines Last month, the Chicago City Council passed the proposal 27-22, not enough to override a veto. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In other city council news, 61-year-old Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward) is set to resign his seat at the end of July. Burnett grew up in the Cabrini-Green housing projects and received a two-year pension sentence for bank robbery before turning his life around and becoming dean of Chicago City Council. Thank you for the honor of a young kid who made a mistake, grew up in the projects, made me who I am today, Burnett said. The respect Burnett learned was on full display from his fellow council members. Youre the one guy on this council that can get along with everybody, Ald. Nicholas Sposato (38th Ward) said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its your kindness, Walter. Its your forgiving spirit. Its your never giving up spirit. Its your working hard spirit that I admire most about you, Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward) said. Burnett said his most memorable work was creating affordable housing requirements. He wants Johnson to name him head of the Chicago Housing Authority and he wants his son, Walter Burnett III, appointed as his successor. Johnson is considering Burnett for the post, but a final decision has not been made. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. McKinney, Texas, has emerged as the top city for renters in 2025, according to an annual report by RentCafe.com, which analyzed 150 U.S. cities based on 20 key metrics. The study highlights affordability, job opportunities, and quality of life, with Southern cities, including several in Texas, dominating the rankings. McKinney leads the list, praised for its affordability (ranked 4th) and quality of life (9th). The city offers a lower-than-average cost of living, a robust supply of high-end apartments, and steady job growth, blending small-town charm with urban perks. Residents enjoy over 40 parks, scenic trails, and natural spots like Towne Lake, making it a standout for those seeking suburban comfort. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other Texas cities also shine. Austin ranks 4th, buoyed by a strong local economy (12th) and cost of living (13th), driven by major employers like Dell Technologies and Facebook, plus access to Lady Bird Lake and Barton Creek Greenbelt. Round Rock, at 5th for cost of living and housing and 14th for quality of life, adds to the states appeal with its educated population and growing job market. The South claimed all top 10 spots, with 41 of the 50 featured cities from the region. Atlanta placed 3rd, excelling in cost of living (9th) and local economy (5th), attracting young renters with its diverse apartment options and nickname Silicon Peach. The regions strength is evident in categories like housing and economy, where nearly all top cities rank in the top 30. Nationally, Sarasota, Florida, took 2nd, leading in cost of living (3rd) and supported by employers like PGT Innovations, while Huntsville, Alabama, rounded out the top five with top marks in cost of living (5th) and economy (9th), thanks to firms like NASA. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, led in cost of living and housing, Miami topped local economy, and Washington, D.C., retained its quality-of-life crown for the second year. The RentCafe.com analysis, using April 2025 data from Yardi Matrix, focused on cities with at least 10,000 apartment units, evaluating cost of living (50% weight), local economy (30%), and quality of life (20%). Metrics included apartment size, unemployment rates, school ratings, and air quality, sourced from the Bureau of Census, EPA, and others. Southern dominance reflects its affordability and community appeal, making Texas cities like McKinney, Austin, and Round Rock prime destinations for renters in 2025. Editors Note: This article contains graphic descriptions and imagery of dogs. Reader discretion is advised. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) The Menard County Sheriffs Office is investigating a possible animal abandonment crime after three dogs were found in grave condition on July 15. According to MCSO, three dogs were reported by a citizen around noon on FM 864, near Fort McKavett. Sheriffs office deputies responded and located the dogs, which were in bad shape. The dogs were transported to the Menard Animal Clinic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Menard Sheriff Burl Hagler described the dogs as having been in grave condition. Just extremely skinny, bones sticking out everywhere, with sores and other things with all of them, Hagler said. The sheriff stated that, after the dogs were evaluated by the clinic, veterinarians elected to humanely euthanize the animals in the best interest of the dogs. They were all in poor condition, Janice Cordes, a veterinarian working at the Menard Animal Clinic, said. Health-wise, skin-wise, underweight, malnourished. FEMA urges citizens to file for home inspection, insurance following floods Three dogs were found in grave condition in Menard County on July 15, 2025. Though they were euthanized shortly afterward, the local sheriffs office is pursuing justice for the animals. Three dogs were found in grave condition in Menard County on July 15, 2025. Though they were euthanized shortly afterward, the local sheriffs office is pursuing justice for the animals. Three dogs were found in grave condition in Menard County on July 15, 2025. Though they were euthanized shortly afterward, the local sheriffs office is pursuing justice for the animals. Three dogs were found in grave condition in Menard County on July 15, 2025. Though they were euthanized shortly afterward, the local sheriffs office is pursuing justice for the animals. Three dogs were found in grave condition in Menard County on July 15, 2025. Though they were euthanized shortly afterward, the local sheriffs office is pursuing justice for the animals. Hagler said the sheriffs office believes the dogs were abandoned and in their unhealthy state prior to being dumped. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If they were in good condition, theres no telling how long they would survive out there, Hagler said. They would eat roadkill, and theres water everywhere from the floods. They were dumped in that condition. MCSO is investigating the case with the intent to pursue criminal charges should it be discovered who, if anyone, was responsible for abandoning the animals. However, the sheriffs office needs leads. If we get any tips, we will investigate to the fullest we can to make a case on the person responsible for the condition of those dogs, Hagler said. Tips can be submitted by calling the sheriffs office at (325)-396-4705 or by calling Crime Stoppers at (325)-396-2337. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. Meadville officials are launching two investigations after a video of a man being arrested on Friday surfaced over social media this weekend. Nathan Koman, 33, was riding his bike when he was pulled over by a police officer near the intersection of Baldwin Street and Reynolds Avenue, and the situation ended with him going to a local hospital with what the police chief said were minor abrasions. Video shows Koman taken to the pavement by one Meadville police officer. Then another officer shows up and repeatedly punches Koman before he is finally taken into police custody. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The affidavit of probable cause reports that Koman had a warrant for his arrest, had methamphetamines on him during the arrest, and refused to comply with police orders. Meadville police charging seven people for massive fight But Komans girlfriend said even so, the use of force was excessive and unnecessary. In the video you can clearly hear him yelling that he was not resisting arrest, then why are they treating him the way that they are? That second officer definitely had no right to just jump out of his vehicle and immediately come running over and start punching his face into the hot cement, said Samantha Shiffer, Komans girlfriend. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shiffer said police could have conducted the situation differently, and the officers involved should be held accountable. Koman will face several charges at his upcoming preliminary hearing, including resisting arrest and possession of illegal drugs with intent to deliver. An inside look at Erie polices Crisis Intervention Unit Koman will have that preliminary hearing on July 24th, but until then, Meadville officials are launching two investigations to look into the officers use of force. We owe it to the community that we serve, so that they have faith and belief in our police department. We also owe it to the dedicated officers of the police department. Jumping to conclusions is never appropriate. Its not appropriate for a police officer to do, nor is it for city administration. Its most important to get the answers for the public while giving the officers their due process, said Michael Stefanucci, Chief of Police with the Meadville Police Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chief Stefanucci said his internal investigation will be looking into the actions taken during the incident and how they align with the law and police policies. Erie man named in September federal indictment arrested The city is also launching another investigation with the independent PMG Investigations, led by former FBI special agent George Gast. We understand that the video can be upsetting to folks and weve heard a lot from the community, and we want to make sure that public trust is not eroded during this whole process, so bringing in an independent third party to do the review was paramount in helping with transparency and hoping to keep some of that trust, said Maryann Menanno, Meadville City Manager. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Meadville police chief said the investigations should take around 2 weeks and the results will then go to the district attorneys office, where a conclusion will be made and results will be released to the public. He said the officers involved are still on duty. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET/WFXP/YourErie.com. Florida's State Board of Education voted to reduce competency requirements for educational media specialists, who manage library books in schools and who some say are defenders of students' First Amendment rights. In a meeting in Orlando July 16, board members approved a motion to adopt new requirements, which brought down the 25 listed competency requirements to eight. The old guidelines included knowledge of national and state standards and understanding of teaching and learning principles with the continually changing school curriculum; the newer guidelines focus more on adherence to state standards and to stay updated with current curriculums. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement University of Central Florida lecturer Jane Aman said that "well-trained medial specialists are a fundamental part of a healthy school ecosystem." Such specialists in Florida are tasked with controlling library materials and reviewing books when a complaint is submitted by a parent for any concerns about its content. Aman said the new rules reduce their certification requirements and "tear them down." "While the process takes time, it also protects our children's First Amendment rights (and) ensures one citizen ... cannot dictate the reading boundaries I get to set for my children," said Stephana Ferrell, who is with the Florida Freedom to Read Project, an organization advocating for book access. These rule changes come a month after board members criticized media specialists and the school superintendent in Hillsborough County for library books they called "pornographic." More than 600 books were removed from circulation in mid-May after officials, including Attorney General James Uthmeier and then-Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., pressured school districts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hillsborough County: Florida education officials grill Hillsborough superintendent over LGBTQ+ books in schools The new competency requirements were meant to have a greater focus on adherence to rules and regulations from the last several years by the Florida Legislature and by board members, said Juan Copa, the deputy education commissioner in the division of accountability, research and measurement. He said it also focuses on complementing and collaborating with school instructional staff. "In essence, this is about aligning competency skills for our teacher certification exams with all the K-12 changes content standards for our students," Copa said. Education Commissioner Anastasios "Stasi" Kamoutsas promptly defended the department's view of media specialists, highlighting that the 2024 Florida Teacher of the Year, Adrianna Swearingen, was a specialist. Kamoutsas replaced Diaz, who is now president of the University of West Florida. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "To suggest that the department or the commissioner, whether it was Manny Diaz or myself, don't value the work of media specialists is just a false narrative," Kamoutsas said in the meeting. Sara Pellier, a parent who spoke during public comment, accused the board of "unjust attacks on our media specialists." She said the jobs of these specialists is to match materials to unique school needs and protect First Amendment rights, which is why she criticized efforts to "lower the standards for becoming a media specialist." "That doesn't just diminish their role, it sends a message that experience, education and constitutional principles no longer matter in Florida schools," Pellier said. This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Stephany Matat is based in Tallahassee, Fla. She can be reached at SMatat@gannett.com. On X: @stephanymatat. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida education officials change requirements for media specialists As the city of Colorado Springs braces for a $11.5 million budget shortfall this year, it could use marijuana revenues to ease a small portion of the pain, but leaning too heavily on the money could create a perception problem. The city has not yet taken formal steps to cut spending, such as instituting a hiring freeze or halting projects, although departments are holding positions open to save money, the city said, in a written statement. Plans for more specific cuts are still in the works. Meanwhile, Mayor Yemi Mobolade promoted the idea in an opinion column published in The Gazette over the weekend of using recreational marijuana revenue to address the budget gap for the city police and fire departments. Even with the new tax revenues, those departments will still have to see spending reductions because of the budget shortfall, the city said. Mobolade said he envisioned the money funding 911 dispatchers, technology for public safety response and the Fire Department's community and public health programs. Allocating all the money to public safety would be allowable, even though voters approved a ballot measure in November setting aside the revenues for public safety, mental health care and post-traumatic stress disorder treatment for veterans, city spokesman Joe Hollman said in an email. Based on the ballot language, the city probably could spend all the money in one category, but it could create a perception problem, said Terrance Carroll, a former state House speaker who is now Denver-based lawyer. "I suspect the voters thought the City Council would put some money in every category," he said. If advocates want to ensure that vision is followed, it is important to get involved before public safety becomes dependent on the funds and it could be harder to change the flow of money, he said. Jason Warf, executive director of the Southern Colorado Cannabis Council, said putting all the money into one category would feel like a betrayal. Featured Local Savings "I think first and foremost with any ballot initiative we have to honor the will of the voters," Warf said. Based on the city's contentious relationship with the marijuana industry, there is already a sense of "hyper-alertness," he said. Ideally the city would convene community leaders from the police and fire departments, veterans and marijuana industry representatives to develop a plan to spread the money across all three categories, said Liz Zukowski, a spokeswoman for retailer Native Roots. "Allocating all the revenue only to public safety does a disservice to voters and community needs," she said. While the city wrangles with a budget shortfall, its approach differs from that of the past administration of Mayor John Suthers when faced with a potential budget shortfall during the pandemic. In 2020, the city preemptively cut $20 million from its budget in April by deferring construction projects and equipment upgrades, banning employee travel, and instituting a hiring freeze. The freeze dropped the number of city employees by 102, The Gazette reported at the time. This year, the city's general fund budget, which covers core services such as police and fire protection, was projected to reach $438 million, a 2.4% increase from 2024. A key 2% sales and use tax for the general fund so far has seen only 0.47% growth. But most of the critical summer tourism months are ahead, and the revenue for June has yet to be reported. Warf warns that while recreational or adult-use marijuana is a growth area for the city as a new market that began in April, it has been legal statewide since 2012 and sales across the state are on a downward trend as other states legalize. "I dont think we are quite to the bottom yet," he said. Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states and the District of Columbia, and 40 states allow medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) With President Trump signing the Big Beautiful Act this past July 4, some are concerned about how the new laws Medicaid cuts are going to impact hospitals in rural states like West Virginia. Officials with the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) have said that the Big Beautiful Act is estimated to cut $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years. These cuts are made by putting restrictions on methods that states use to pay for Medicaid, such as provider taxes and state-directed payments. Officials also said work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks stand to introduce red tape and drop people off the Medicaid rolls. The NRHA said rural providers are expected to lose as much as $155 billion in payments, which might mean hospitals will face difficult decisions in a couple of years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They may start to look at services like obstetrics or cancer chemotherapy services, dialysis, looking at services that theyre doing now that dont necessarily reward them in terms of profit, Brock Slabach, Chief Operations Officer of NRHA, said. So theyre going to have to look to reduce services in order to be able to maintain the overall access of care, to care for people in their community. The NRHA pointed out that rural hospitals already face challenges as it stands, as the populations they serve tend to be smaller and demographically older, and therefore more prone to sickness. Officials said since 2010, 154 hospitals closed or have ceased operation of inpatient facilities, and the changes to Medicaid run the risk of closing more. 12 News has previously reported data that shows Broaddus Hospital and Grafton City Hospital are at risk of reducing services or closing with the passage of the Big Beautiful Act. The NRHA noted that the effects of the Big Beautiful Act will not be immediate. The bill does something thats not uncommon in legislation. It front-loads the benefits and then back-loads the pain, Brock Slabach said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ACLU says 7 West Virginia hospitals would close if Big, Beautiful Bill passes The work requirements for Medicaid expansion are slated to take place by the end of 2026, and states will have a couple of years to adjust to other changes to Medicaid. The Big Beautiful Act does include $50 billion in the Rural Health Transformation Program for states to draw from over the next couple of years. While the National Rural Health Association said they were grateful for these funds, it noted that its just a third of the $155 billion rural providers are expected to lose. 12 News reached out to Broaddus Hospital and Grafton City Hospital on this issue. Vandalia Health, which Grafton City Hospital is an affiliate of, sent back the following statement: We are aware of the changes made to eligibility for Medicaid which will impact many in West Virginia. Until we know the full plan and the potential effects on health care delivery, it is premature to make any potential changes to our services. Our 13,000 employees and 2,000 providers remain committed to our mission of enhancing the health of our communities through clinical excellence, one person at a time. Stay tuned to 12 News for updates on this developing story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. More than 60 million Americans get their health care from rural hospitals, which in many states can be the lifeblood of a community. They are not only the primary source of emergency, preventive, and specialized care, but also jobs and much-needed tax revenue. Now, President Donald Trumps newly minted domestic policy bill could force closures and deep cuts in care at rural hospitals, which were already struggling to stay afloat amid razor-thin operating margins and other financial stress, according to lawmakers, hospital groups and health care experts. The legislation, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, extends Trumps 2017 tax cuts and implements his agenda to improve border security, cut taxes and slash government spending. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps bill cleared the House of Representatives and Senate and was signed into law by the Republican president at a glitzy White House ceremony that included a B-2 bomber flyover on Independence Day, July 4. With a price tag of nearly $4 trillion, the plan calls for deep cuts to clean energy programs, food assistance, and Medicare and Medicaid potentially removing millions of Americans from the federally backed health insurance programs. Cuts to Medicaid spending alone could add up to $1 trillion over the next decade. Many Americans may not immediately feel the pinch because GOP lawmakers opted to delay most of the health care cuts until after the November 2026 midterm elections. But health care industry officials say the federal governments cost-cutting will ultimately have a crippling impact on the nations rural hospitals, which were already in crisis mode over labor shortages, rising medical costs, declining reimbursements from private insurers and other financial pressures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite months of clearly demonstrating the implications that these Medicaid proposals will have on the patients and communities we serve, especially the most vulnerable populations, Congress has enacted cuts of nearly a trillion dollars to the Medicaid program, said Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association. The real-life consequences of these reductions will negatively impact access to care for all Americans. Cuts will slam rural hospitals Nearly half of all Americas rural hospitals are operating on negative margins, recent studies have shown. Hundreds are at risk of closure. Rural hospitals are heavily reliant on Medicaid, which is jointly funded by the federal government and states. States cover upfront costs of care and are reimbursed by the federal government for at least 50% of the costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Akeiisa Coleman, senior program officer for Medicaid at The Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based public interest group, said rural and safety-net hospitals in cities that serve disproportionate numbers of Medicaid patients generally operate on a string. That means they have less wiggle room when costs suddenly increase, she said, or if there is a dramatic change in the number of insured patients, as could happen with Trumps bill. Rural hospitals rely heavily on Medicaid funding because they typically serve a higher share of low-income patients. It puts additional financial pressures on facilities and it makes it harder for them to keep their doors open, Coleman said. Trumps bill includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, mostly through work requirements, as well as a change to how states are able to help fund their programs, known as the provider tax. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That could mean millions of people who are insured by the program could suddenly find themselves without healthcare coverage. and for rural hospitals already at risk of closure, that could be the tipping point, Coleman said. There are a significant number of people who will be losing marketplace coverage, and not all of them will be able to transition to other types of insurance coverage, she said. So theres a very real chance that rural hospitals, and even some safety-net hospitals in urban areas, could close. Trumps bill does include a $50 billion safety-net fund for rural hospitals. Those funds will be distributed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over five years. But experts say that wont go far enough to offset the impact of the cuts. On average, rural hospitals are slated to lose 21 cents out of every dollar they receive in Medicaid funding under the bill, according to a recent report by the Rural Health Association and Manatt Health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Total cuts in Medicaid reimbursement for rural hospitals including both federal and state funds over the 10-year period covered by the bill would reach almost $70 billion for hospitals in rural areas, the reports authors said. The proposed changes to Medicaid will result in significant coverage losses, reduce access to care for rural patients and threaten the viability of rural facilities, said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. Its very clear that Medicaid cuts will result in rural hospital closures, resulting in loss of access to care for those living in rural America. No state unscathed Nationwide, more than 330 at-risk hospitals in a small handful of states face closure under Trumps bill, according to a new report by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina, commissioned by a group of Democratic lawmakers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kentucky could lose up to $28 billion of federal funding for the program over the next 10 years, and there are 35 rural hospitals at risk of closing, the highest number in the nation, the reports authors said. Texas has 15 rural hospitals at risk of closing, while New York has 11, according to the report. Indiana has 12 rural hospitals on the list and Ohio has 11. In Oklahoma, where nearly one in every four residents relies on Medicaid, rural hospitals across the state are bracing for deep cuts and job reductions, and delaying new services and health care expansions on hold in anticipation that the Medicaid cuts could become law. The Sheps Center report shows that at least 21 rural hospitals in the state could be forced to close as a result of the Medicaid cuts being considered by Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You cant take $600 million out of our system and not have there be pain in all four corners of our state, said Rich Rasmussen, president and CEO of the Oklahoma Hospital Association. These cuts are going to have a devastating impact on our hospitals. The health policy research group KFF estimates that the legislation will lead to about 17 million people losing coverage due to the changes in Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. In some states, like New Hampshire, Indiana and North Carolina, the concern about the impact of federal Medicaid cuts is twofold. Those states have so-called trigger laws mandating that if federal funding for expanded Medicaid programs falls below 90%, the state will revoke its portion of the funding, which could leave millions more people without health insurance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Small rural hospitals are often responsible for delivering most of the health care services for people living in the communities they serve, including long-term care and primary care. In some cases, they can be the only source of emergency and specialized care, like obstetrics and mental health services. But rural hospitals also tend to be the largest employers in a community, providing good-paying jobs and supporting the local tax base. So if you lose the ability for that community to hold on to them, you lose their tax base, you lose their ability to pay for their homes, Rasmussen said. It has a ripple effect. Christian M. Wade covers Massachusetts politics and government for CNHIs North of Boston Media Group. He can be reached at cwade@cnhinews.com. Just The Facts The 11 New York hospital at risk of closing under Medicaid cuts include: Wyoming County community Hospital Warsaw Newark Wayne community Hospital Newark Geneva, General Hospital Geneva Bon Secours Community Hospital Port Jervis Westfield Memorial Hospital - Westfield Clarkston Hepburn Memorial Center Ogdensburg Massena Memorial Hospital Massena Garnett health Medical Center Catsk-Harris Clifton-Fine Memorial Star Lake Gouverneur Hospital Gouverneur Lewis County General Hospital Lowville MEMPHIS, Tenn. Every Tuesday, as part of our Greater Memphis on a Mission Series, we highlight organizations making Memphis better. This week, our Corie Ventura tells us about a group that believes in empowering, equipping, and changing lives. Theyre seeing the world from a different lens. This actually can become a skill. I actually can grow from this. I actually can make money from this. Not only change my life, but my familys lives. Carlton Moore is the Vice President of Membership for Breakthrough Leadership Foundation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A non-profit organization that helps individuals and organizations discover and fulfill their purpose. They wrapped up their digital boot camp, which served 14 to 26-year-olds. GREATER MEMPHIS ON A MISSION They offered a three-tier program. Their first tier was created for 9th and 10th graders. Their main concept was soft skills, leadership, communication, and time management. We also pivoted to product design and branding, said Moore. Tier two was heard towards 11th and 12th graders and digital content creation. Storyboarding, creating an ad campaign. Building together the script and being able to not only record but also edit, said Moore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tier three was slated for the adults. Irreverent Warriors unite veterans for mental health support They need skill sets that they can actually use now. Something to gear towards, to grow their income. Grow them in a way to where they can walk away better than when they came, said Moore. I run my own consulting agency. It derived from a mentor program that I started in 2018, said Jasmine Johnson. Ascent booty camp participant. I was hoping to learn really how to run a business properly, said Johnson. Johnson took the three-tier course. I thought that I had to move outside of Memphis, find this and find that but no. I learned that within the community, there are resources there to help, said Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kylan Matthews, 16, signed up for the tier two program. Apprenticeship program helps create employment opportunities He plans to go into real estate and major in psychology in college with a minor in marketing. I thought I was really good when it came to communication and talking to people. But this really gave me, it was an eye opener for me because I learned that theres so much more I can do with it. So much better I can be, said Mattews. For Jeremiah Gee, 16, he signed up for the tier one session in hopes of improving his social skills. I learned a lot about, like, how to speak up, how to present myself, how to stop being so shy. I also learned how to make things and how to be more creative with how Im making things, said Gee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That is why Brown Missionary Baptist Church and the Mid-South Genesis CDC donated $1,000 to Breakthrough Leadership Foundation because empowerment builds strong and creative communities. Click here to learn more about the foundation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. CHICAGO (WGN) In the 2026/2027 game of chess, another piece has moved. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is signaling she might be eyeing a different office. Mendoza, first elected in 2016, may skip the all-important Cook County Democratic Party slating meeting later this week. That, to me, is kind of like a trigger point. I know her folks are saying, Well, its kind of a pro forma thing and they could still slate her if she didnt show up, But I think not showing up is an indication of how, as her people have pledged, shes only going to run for one office, shes not going to run for two offices, said Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson. WGN INVESTIGATES: How Tiffany Henyards successor at Thornton Township maneuvered to keep earning six-figure salary A spokesman for Mendoza said in a statement that the comptroller is weighing her options. This is what (shes) been saying for weeks and it has not changed. She will make her decision on her own timetable. Mendoza, credited with retiring a multi-billion-dollar bill backlog for the state, has positioned herself as a fierce critic of progressive Mayor Brandon Johnson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mendoza recently penned a Tribune op-ed ripping Johnsons handling of Chicago Public School finances, fueling speculation that Mendoza could run for mayor in 2027. She questions his competence (and) his financial acumen, Pearson said. The comptroller position kind of gave her a platform, an elevated platform, as she puts the heat on him. MORE FROM WGNS TAHMAN BRADLEY: Illinois House Speaker endorses Lt. Gov. Stratton for Durbins Senate seat Mendoza ran before in 2019, when she placed fifth in the crowded contest with 9 percent of the vote. Much like the last two elections, the 2027 mayoral contest will likely be crowded with several high-profile names generating buzz, including Mendoza, Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, Congressman Mike Quigley, Alderman Bill Conway, City Clerk Anna Valencia, and former CPS CEO Janice Jackson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of what weve seen in polling about the mayor, people sense an opportunity here, Pearson said. We wont let it stand: Chicago Teachers Union calls for state aid amid budget deficit Mayor Brandson Johnson has not officially launched a re-election effort. Nobody is running yet. But speculation will only keep building over the next year and a half. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. If women make up half the global population, why have policies so rarely addressed their fundamental biological realities? In midlife, perimenopausethe transitional phase before menopauseand menopause itself are significant health milestones for women. Yet, until recently, they have received little attention from lawmakers. That is changing in 2025. Menopause is emerging as a long-overdue priority in the policy arena. More than a dozen U.S. states are now considering legislation to mandate insurance coverage for menopause-related treatment, improve clinician training, and introduce workplace protections for menopausal women. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This wave of legislation marks a long-overdue shift. Its what so many midlife moms have been asking for: to be taken seriously, to have their health needs recognized as real and important, and to stop being told to just deal with it when their bodies demand otherwise. According to CNN, at least 24 bills across 15 states were introduced this year alonetargeting insurance coverage, medical education, public awareness campaigns, and workplace protections for women in menopause. And while not all of them will pass this year, advocates say simply forcing these issues onto statehouse floors is a sign of how far the conversation has come. Related: What if we didnt have to dread menopause? California Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who sponsored one of the most ambitious bills (requiring insurance coverage for menopause evaluation and treatment), says her own experience of being dismissed by doctors was the last straw. In her words: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here I am, a woman in my mid-40s, telling my doctor that my brain isnt working properly, and once again, I was dismissed as fine. Sound familiar? Millions of women have shared similar stories online. Posts about being blown off by physicians when describing menopause symptoms routinely rack up thousands of likes and comments. Its no surprisewomen in midlife have historically been an afterthought in research and policy. Dr. Mary Claire Haver, author of The New Menopause, calls out the lack of standardized protocols and spotty insurance coverage, especially for evidence-backed treatments like hormone replacement therapy (HRT). And if youre wondering why so many doctors are undertrained on menopause, theres a specific historical reason. In 2002, the Womens Health Initiative study prematurely linked HRT to breast cancer, sparking fear that shut down research, training, and prescribing for years. Since then, follow-up studies have clarified that for many women under 60, HRT can offer significant benefits that far outweigh any increased cancer risk, when appropriately prescribed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Dr. Sharon Malone put it: We are still digging ourselves out of a hole of the past 23 years. That hole has left millions of women suffering without clear guidance, and doctors without the education to help them. This is what midlife moms have been asking for Legislators are beginning to recognize menopause as a major health milestone that affects half the population, deserving real attention and support. About 1.3 million U.S. women enter menopause each year, most with symptoms ranging from hot flashes and insomnia to mood changes, weight gain, and vaginal discomfort. The new bills are designed to address that with: Insurance mandates so that cost isnt the barrier to care. Education for clinicians so they dont dismiss symptoms as normal aging without offering real solutions. Public awareness campaigns to normalize talking about menopause. Workplace protections so symptoms dont become grounds for discrimination or forced unpaid leave. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Rhode Island, lawmakers recently passed the nations first menopause-in-the-workplace law. New York and New Jersey are weighing similar measures that would ensure menopausal women can request remote work or leave if their symptoms demand it. As Assembly member Bauer-Kahan says: This isnt a political issue; its about recognizing that half our population deserves proper healthcare. A generational shift Its a big shift, and it reflects how far weve come in talking openly about once-taboo health topics. Twenty years ago, talking openly about periods at work was rare; now, we have period leave policies, better menstrual products, and more honest education for girls. In the last decade, maternal health has become a policy priority, with new federal investments to address postpartum care and Black maternal mortality. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Menopause is the next frontier. And moms in midlife are leading the charge by sharing their stories, voting for legislators who take their health seriously, and demanding that our medical system and workplaces treat them with dignity. Hope, not fear If youre in perimenopause right nowup at 2 a.m. trying to Google why your heart is racing, or crying in frustration after yet another unhelpful doctors visitknow this: You are not imagining it. You deserve care. And youre not alone. After decades of silence, menopause is having its moment. Ill say it: Menopause is hot right now. And its time for real change for the millions of women who deserve more. Related: Theres now an at-home perimenopause test Sources: This article was originally published in The Texas Tribune. As Texas schools face at least $600 million in federal funding cuts, multiple mental health programs, particularly those implemented in response to the pandemic and mass shootings, are at risk of losing funding. School programs focused on chronic absenteeism, mental wellness and crisis services that were created in response to the Uvalde school shooting, as well as social workers and counselors, could all be on the chopping block. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas schools rely heavily on federal funding to support mental health programs. Data shows that two federal programs that are at risk of being cut or strictly regulated account for 86% of the school mental health funding for more than 2,500 campuses statewide, according to Mental Health America of Greater Houston. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Bracing also for the impending expiration of COVID-19 relief funding, school districts and advocacy groups this legislative session had pushed for more money through a dedicated funding source for school mental health, but lawmakers did not approve it. Currently, such funding is combined with school safety in the so-called school safety allotment in the state school funding formula, and school districts tend to prioritize the allotment on school security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont want to get into a situation where I am asking, do I hire a police officer or do I hire a counselor? I want them both, said Adrian Johnson, superintendent for the Hearne school district. The funding cuts and lack of progress on getting a statewide dedicated funding stream for mental health comes at a time when student mental health is worsening. The special legislative session starts July 21, but Gov. Greg Abbott has not assigned school mental health as a directive to lawmakers. The funding crisis Created in response to Uvalde, the federal Bipartisan Safer Communities Act helps fund two grant programs in Texas, the Texas Center for Student Supports and the Stronger Connections Grant Program. The former implements mental health training and support in 60 high-needs districts and the latter helps 98 public school districts with case management tools that identify struggling students, as well as mental health personnel. Almost three years later, the Safer Communities Act is losing over $1 billion spread across the country. Funds that were supposed to last until 2027 are expected to dry up by the end of this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This cut puts programs like Texas AWARE, which deploys evidence-based mental health resources in three Central Texas school districts, at risk. The state homed in on those school districts because of their higher rates of community impacts from the pandemic and high rates of population growth. The cut to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is just one in a series of proposed changes to federal funding for public education that will impact how mental health is addressed in schools. According to an analysis from the Learning Policy Institute, the freezing of five other federal programs that support public schools are expected to result in the withholding of approximately $600 million from Texas, more than 16.1% of the states federal K-12 funding. These funds have been used for a variety of services such as English language instruction and literacy, but also after school programs and summer programs focused on mental wellness. Medicaid and CHIP are also facing cuts in the federal spending bill passed earlier this month, and both provide millions of dollars each year to school districts and local mental health authorities, enabling them to hire and retain mental health providers, offer preventive mental health screenings, and support students with disabilities using specialized services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Separately, COVID-19 funds are set to expire this year or already ran out, forcing some smaller schools to lay off staff or find alternative ways to keep the social workers and counselors hired during the pandemic. The confluence of these cuts come as Texas lawmakers missed opportunities to properly fund school mental health this year. During the legislative session that ended in June, Texas lawmakers agreed on a robust school funding bill that adds $8.5 billion to the states public school system. However, most of it has been earmarked for teacher pay; with roughly $250 million being set aside for school support staff and mental health support staff are not necessarily included in the pay raise. Over 70% of the schools reported that sustainable funding for school-based mental health staff and professional school counselors was the main barrier to having adequate resources to address student mental health needs, according to a survey of 2,690 schools by the Mental Health America of Greater Houston. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are hopeful that this will translate to more dollars for mental health. But without any legislation currently earmarking those dollars, that is not a guarantee, Rebecca Fowler, the director of public policy and government affairs at Mental Health America of Greater Houston, said about the new school funding. In 2023, 36 Texas health and wellness organizations wrote to the Texas Legislature, urging the creation and funding of a separate student mental health allotment because programs were not reaching enough students. Only 13% of schools used the school safety allotment for mental health supports, according to the Mental Health America of Greater Houston report. House Bill 1257 by Rep. John Bryant, D-Dallas, attempted to secure dedicated mental health funds, but it did not pass this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Uncertainty around different funding streams makes it hard to navigate these conversations about the future of mental health and young people, said Kate Murphy, director of child protection policy for Texans Care for Children. Changing conversations After the devastating school shootings in Uvalde and Santa Fe compelled lawmakers to prioritize mental health, such support has waned in the last few years. Mental health advocates have pointed the blame at the culture war happening in the Capitol, namely that lawmakers have suggested mental health programs in schools are diagnosing children and reinforcing LGBTQ identities without parental consent. For example, Senate Bill 400 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, would have required parental consent for any psychological or psychiatric examination, testing, or treatment conducted on a student by a school employee. The bill had eight senators as sponsors, and although it died in the less conservative Texas House, it demonstrates the shift in the legislative conversation surrounding school mental health. I dont think there is a uniform understanding of the role of behavioral health in public schools. Who should be providing support? When should support happen? Seth Winick, director of the Texas Coalition for Healthy Minds, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson, the Hearne superintendent, said he understands parents concerns but says schools are the best place to address mental health issues for Texas families who might not have the income or time to schedule mental health services. Until a better solution is proposed, school mental health needs support, he said. We have students pre-K through 12 sitting in the school system for 180 plus days a year, and we should take advantage of that by not only giving them a strong educational foundation but a strong mental health foundation, he said. What does the future hold? Without federal funding support, school districts will have to get creative in addressing mental wellness within their walls. Johnson said his school district is focusing on partnerships not only with local mental health authorities and health agencies, but also with other school districts. He said his district shares staff and cut costs by joining in on a special education cooperative with four other districts and can be modeled in other parts of the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have 700 kids, a neighboring district might have 600 kids, and another district may have 150; we have to learn to work together to help lower some of the costs during these budget cuts. Collaboration is necessary, Johnson said, but even that is at risk under current funding restrictions. Some schools are unable to expand partnerships with programs like Communities In Schools, which directly works with students to provide mental health support and address chronic absenteeism. CIS is currently serving two campuses in our district, but we would definitely expand to have CIS serve all of our campuses if we had a state funded allotment that would help the district provide the matching funding that is needed to partner with CIS, Chris Smith, superintendent of the Brownfield school district, said. We just dont have the funding available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rural and smaller schools also face laying off social workers and psychologists hired during the pandemic and eliminating programs to ensure they can retain teachers through raises instead. We are adopting a budget this year thats probably going to have a $2 million deficit. We are dedicated to making sure mental health services are available and luckily have been able to sustain through partnerships, but it has been tough times with the economy, and schools are struggling to keep up with costs, Smith said. The endless loop of putting mental health on the back burner until tragedy hits is unsustainable, according to education advocates, who say its time for funding dedicated to school mental health. I would like to have funding similar to what they said with police officers. You have to have a police officer on every campus, but that costs money yearly, and they provide. We should be doing the same with social workers and psychologists, Johnson said. Disclosure: Texans Care for Children has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here. This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. A Merritt Island man who authorities say was recruited to captain a boat for trips to the Bahamas to bring Haitian, Honduran and Bahamian migrant workers to the United States, has been sentenced to two years in federal prison. U.S. District Judge John Antoon earlier this month also sentenced Michael Andrew Milano, 44, of Merritt Island, to three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison and ordered him to pay $5,100 in criminal assessments. It is very daunting for anyone going to court having the United States of America serve as the prosecution in a 25-count federal Indictment," Milano's Melbourne attorney, Kepler Funk, wrote in an email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "In this case, the government sought a very stiff sentence for Mr. Milano, requesting numerous years in prison," Funk said, adding that the defendant's attorneys feel "very fortunate that 24 counts were dismissed and that the Court listened to our presentation of mitigation evidence for Mr. Milano and that our legal and factual argument resonated with the Court. Indian River County Sheriffs Office, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Border Patrol, H.S.I., and the U.S. Coast Guard helped stop a smuggling attempt at the Sebastian Inlet. Rockledge roofing contractor sentenced In connection with the case, on May 1 a federal judge sentenced Raymond Smith, 45, a local roofing contractor from Rockledge, to 30 months in federal prison. U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell also ordered Smith to forfeit $284,000 in "proceeds from his participation in the conspiracy to smuggle aliens" into the country and to forfeit two boats that federal investigators say were used to smuggle more than 90 migrants into the U.S., according to court documents. The judge also was ordered Smith to pay $40,200 in criminal monetary penalties. Smith's April 2024 arrest stems in part from the February 2024 arrest of Milano, who was charged with human smuggling after Florida Fish and Wildlife officers found 25 migrants on the boat he was captaining. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reached days after his sentencing in May, Smith declined to comment, expressing that he didn't think it was news, that "nobody was hurt," and described the situation as "unfortunate." According to court documents: On the night of Feb. 29, 2024 Milano was caught by state wildlife officers near the Brevard-Indian River county line captaining Smiths 42-foot Yellowfin vessel, trying to smuggle 25 migrants (21 Haitians and four Bahamians) into Sebastian Inlet, according to court documents. Included in the group were two pregnant women and four children unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. Officers also found firearms and night vision gear, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Milano pleaded guilty to bringing aliens into the United States, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and $250,000 fine. His plea agreement includes forfeiting his seized guns and ammunition found on the boat. Smith pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle aliens and unlawfully transporting aliens. On April 19, 2024 surveillance was conducted at Smith's residence, showing people loading duffel bags on Smith's 42-foot Freeman vessel, docked at his Rockledge house. The boat entered the Atlantic Ocean via Sebastian Inlet. Customs and Border Protection agents stopped the boat offshore. There were six men on board: four Honduran nationals and two U.S. citizens. Smith told the agents they were headed to do work on his property in the Bahamas. Smith's plea agreement cites his involvement in six smuggling trips to the Bahamas between July 2023 and February of 2024. For the final three trips, he recruited Milano to captain his boat, smuggling at least 90 migrants on those trips. Smith "obtained $284,000 in proceeds from his participation in the conspiracy to smuggle aliens offense. Contact Waymer at (321) 261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Follow him on X at @JWayEnviro. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Second Brevard County man sentenced in connection to Haitian smuggling case By Sarah Marsh and Elizabeth Piper STEVENAGE, England (Reuters) -Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed a major treaty to deepen ties in areas ranging from defence to immigration on Thursday, the latest step in Britain's push to reset UK relations with the European Union. On his first trip to London as chancellor, Merz described the Kensington treaty as historic, the first major bilateral agreement between Britain and Germany to deepen defence cooperation and to try to boost economic growth in both nations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Merz's day trip follows a three-day state visit to Britain by French President Emmanuel Macron, signalling greater cooperation between Europe's top three powers at a time of threats to the continent and uncertainty about their U.S. ally. "We see the scale of the challenges our continent faces today, and we intend to meet them head on," Starmer told a press conference after the two leaders signed the treaty in the Victoria and Albert Museum, co-founded by Britain's Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert, of German origin. "The Kensington treaty ... is an expression of our shared aims and values. But more than that, it's a practical work plan setting out 17 major projects where we will come together to deliver real results which will improve people's lives." Standing next to Starmer at an Airbus plant, Merz again lamented Britain's departure from the EU, but said the agreement would cement ties between the two nations and complement an agreement London struck with France. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We are jointly determined to shape this new era with new leadership opportunities - the United Kingdom and Germany side by side," Merz said. Europe has been confronted with new U.S. tariffs since President Donald Trump returned to the White House as well as questions about the U.S. commitment to defend its European allies, including Ukraine against Russia's invasion. WEAPONS FOR UKRAINE The two leaders said they had discussed in detail plans to send more weaponry to Ukraine after Trump signalled he would sell weapons to NATO countries, including Patriot air defence missiles Kyiv has urgently sought. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Merz said the two had discussed Ukraine's need for long-range strike systems, which he called "long range fire". "And Ukraine will soon receive substantial additional support in this area," he told the press conference. The treaty includes a clause on mutual assistance which, "in light of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, is highly significant", a German official said this week. It builds on a defence deal agreed last year that included the joint development of long-range strike weapons, and comes after France and Britain agreed last week to reinforce cooperation over their respective nuclear arsenals. As part of Thursday's announcement, Britain and Germany also pledged to "pursue joint export campaigns" to drum up orders from other countries for equipment they make jointly, such as the Typhoon Eurofighter jet and the Boxer armoured vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That could help boost sales, and represents a significant reversal from the previous 10 years, when Germany blocked Saudi Arabia and Turkey from buying Typhoons. Beyond defence, the treaty also includes an agreement to develop a new direct rail link between the two countries, to allow frequent travellers access to e-gates at German airports and to support youth mobility between the two nations. In a win for Starmer, they also pledged to jointly combat irregular migration. Germany pledged to outlaw the facilitation of illegal migration to Britain, with a law change by the end of the year. That would give law enforcement the tools to investigate warehouses and storage facilities used by migrant smugglers to conceal dangerous small boats intended for illegal crossings to Britain. (Reporting by Sarah Marsh and Elizabeth Piper; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sarah Young; Editing by Ros Russell and Alison Williams) DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran's parliament said the country should not resume nuclear negotiations with the United States until preconditions are met, in a statement reported on Wednesday by Iranian state media. "When the U.S. use negotiations as a tool to deceive Iran and cover up a sudden military attack by the Zionist regime (Israel), talks cannot be conducted as before. Preconditions must be set and no new negotiations can take place until they are fully met," the statement said. The statement did not define the preconditions, but Irans Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has previously said there should be guarantees there will be no further attacks against Tehran. Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month, saying that they were part of a programme geared towards developing nuclear weapons. Tehran maintains that its nuclear programme is purely for civilian purposes. Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of indirect negotiations mediated by Oman prior to the 12-day air war, with U.S. demands that Tehran drop its domestic uranium enrichment programme reaching a dead end. Last week, Araqchi reiterated Tehran's position that it would not agree to a nuclear deal that prevents it from enriching uranium and would refuse to discuss extra-nuclear topics such as its ballistic missile programme. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was in no rush to negotiate with Iran as its nuclear sites were now "obliterated", but the U.S., in coordination with three European countries, has agreed to set the end of August as the deadline for a deal. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday that Paris, London and Berlin would trigger the United Nations sanctions snapback mechanism, which would reimpose international sanctions on Iran, by the end of August if there is no concrete progress regarding an agreement. (Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Sharon Singleton) MEMPHIS, Tenn. Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is reducing the size of its workforce in order to consolidate its Obstetric Labor and Delivery services, the hospital said in a statement. About 161 associates will be affected, about 1% of Methodists workforce. The hospital says those affected who arent able to find new roles within their system will be offered severance pay and transition support. Effective August 1, Methodist will consolidate Labor and Deliver services provided at Methodist South with those at Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown and Methodist Olive Branch Hospitals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 6-year-old speaks out after deadly triple shooting in MS They say they decided to discontinue declining services and reduce the size of their workforce, and that the changes align with their goal of maintaining long-term strength and high-quality services. Over the past five years, the hospital says there has been a 43% decline in deliveries. However, Methodist Souths emergency department will continue to provide necessary obstetrics-related emergency care. The hospital says this is a part of their Planning, Alignment, Transformational, and High Performance (PATH) Forward plan to meet the evolving healthcare needs of the population. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of our mission to serve the entire community, we regularly examine our service offerings and processes to ensure that they align with community needs and follow best clinical practices in a rapidly changing healthcare environment, said Dr. Michael Ugwueke, Methodist president and CEO. Our PATH Forward reaffirms our commitment to the Memphis area. Shakendra Davis, who lives in Whitehaven, feels for those losing their job. Everybody have stuff they have to do, they have other lives they have to take care of, they have responsibilities, said Davis. Woman charged in connection to murder of son of Memphis rapper Project Pat Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I had a couple of my kids here, said Davis. Davis says her children are now one year old, four years old, and 11 years old. But she thinks of other families in her Whitehaven community, who might have a tougher time. This is the closest hospital to go to if youre having a baby, said Davis. The CEO said in part, Our healthcare system has navigated complicated environments for more than 107 years through innovation, compassion and dedication to our workforce, our community, and the patients and families we serve. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez spoke with reporters on Wednesday about his and 22 states attorney generals' lawsuit against the Trump administration over education funding. Next to Torrez is Bill Rodriguez, who directs the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program at Santa Fe Public Schools. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez and attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia on Monday afternoon filed a lawsuit in federal court in Rhode Island asking a judge to order the Trump administration to lift a freeze on $7 billion meant for K-12 and adult education. The money comes to the states through seven different federal grant programs meant for student learning and achievement; after-school programs; teacher training; and adult education and literacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a news conference with public school officials in Santa Fe on Wednesday afternoon, Torrez said the funding freeze undermines not only education, but also public safety in the long run. What happens to the kids who no longer have high-quality educational support in the summer? Torrez asked. All of that impacts their ability to succeed in the education system and makes them far more likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Bill Rodriguez, who directs the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program at Santa Fe Public Schools, said approximately 60 after-school staff in the states capital serve 700 families and their students in 13 elementary and K-8 schools. Those workers are asking if they should start looking for new jobs, he said. Without the program, students academic growth could be impacted, and parents may be faced with making the difficult decision to leave their children at home alone, or being watched by older siblings after school, Rodriguez said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the lawsuit, the U.S. Education Department has approved New Mexicos grant funding plan since 2015, most recently on April 25, and state officials and school districts expected to receive more than $44 million on July 1. Schools werent notified of the freeze until the day before that deadline on June 30, giving them almost no time to mitigate its impacts on families, school employees and children, said Peter McWain, executive director of curriculum and instruction at Santa Fe Public Schools. Without 21st Century funding, districts like Santa Fe Public Schools cannot give reasonable assurance of 21st Century after-school programming for this coming school year, McWain said. 21st Century programming supports children who, without this funding, have nowhere else to go. Kristie Medina, superintendent for Raton Public Schools in rural northeastern New Mexico, said the freeze will have a direct and devastating impact on students in her district and across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In New Mexico, where many students live in rural, low-income, multi-lingual communities, these funds are not extra, theyre very essential to each and every community, Medina said. In New Mexico, where many students live in rural, low-income, multi-lingual communities, these funds are not extra, theyre very essential to each and every community, said Kristie Medina, superintendent for Raton Public Schools at a news conference hosted by the New Mexico Department of Justice on July 16, 2025 in Santa Fe. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM) Torrez said he finds it ironic that Trump issued an executive order seeking to make English the official language of the United States, and yet cut support for students who want to learn English. They want to more fully participate in the American Dream and in American society, and making these kinds of cuts will have a dramatic impact on their ability to do that, he said. The lawsuit notes that the New Mexico Constitution requires the state government to provide funding so that teachers can be trained to be proficient in both English and Spanish, and have the ability to teach English. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also points out that state law makes it a goal for New Mexicos public schools to make all students, including English language learners, bilingual and biliterate in English and a second language, either Spanish or a Native American language. All three of New Mexicos representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives last week asked the Trump administration to lift the freeze, including Rep. Gabe Vasquez, who himself was an English language learner. Ian Gates, with the New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network, urged the state Public Education Department to find funding to continue to support 21st Century Community Learning Centers. Gates said New Mexico allocated $15 million to after-school programs in its annual budget during the most recent legislative session, and we know that approximately $5 million has not been allocated to programs in the departments Community Schools Bureau. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These $5 million could be a lifeline for 21st Century Community Learning Centers that have been defunded, Gates said. We urge the Secretary of Education to identify the additional $5 million if this crisis continues to ensure that students and families have a safe and engaging place after 3 p.m. Source NM asked a spokesperson for the Public Education Department for comment and will update this story as needed. The other states suing the Trump administration over the education freeze include Rhode Island, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin; along with the District of Columbia. The lawsuit points to eight other times in the last half year that federal courts have blocked the Trump administration from unilaterally freezing or withholding other kinds of federal funds, and asks the court to do the same here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alongside the lawsuit, the states also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, which, if granted, would allow temporary relief while the lawsuit plays out. Torrez said a hearing on that motion has not yet been scheduled, and his office anticipates that will happen sometime in the next week. If the states prevail in that hearing, Torrez said, the court would order the administration not to cut the funding and the status quo would remain. Finding quality help to make sure and childcare and after school programs that weighs on every parents mind, he said. How are you going to go and find out where your child is going to be in a way thats safe, where theyre learning something? Im trying to bring at least some reassurance to those families and those educators within the next several weeks, but this is something that is going to impact everybody. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) Michigan State Police (MSP) from the Monroe Post Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED) confiscated more than $1.8 million worth of cocaine during a traffic stop Tuesday. Vacuum-sealed packages of cocaine (Michigan State Police) Vacuum-sealed packages of cocaine (Michigan State Police) Vacuum-sealed packages of cocaine (Michigan State Police) MSP reports in a X post that CVED officers were working at the northbound I-75 weigh station near Monroe when a 2018 Kenworth truck tractor with a flatbed drove past the scales and failed to stop at approximately 9:15 p.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers stopped the driver a short time later, a 26-year-old man from Ontario, Canada. The driver claimed that he was traveling from Ohio after picking up a load and was heading back to Canada. Officers were given consent to search the vehicle and found four U-Haul cardboard boxes with a total of 70 vacuum-sealed packages in the trailer storage compartment. Several of these packages tested positive for cocaine. MSP says that the driver denied any knowledge of the drugs. He was arrested and taken to the Monroe County Jail on a charge of possession with intent to deliver cocaine over 1000 grams. According to MSP, the cost for a kilogram of cocaine can vary between $13,000-$26,000, meaning this load would have a maximum value of approximately $1,820,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. By Courtney Rozen WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Federal employees can get permission to work from home or adjust their hours to accommodate religious fasts and prayers, the Trump administration said on Wednesday, after previously demanding that workers report to offices full time. President Donald Trump ordered all federal employees on Inauguration Day to report to their work sites five days per week. The Office of Personnel Management called on agencies to "adopt a generous approach" to allowing employees to work remotely before and during religious holidays, agency director Scott Kupor said. Employees who want to take breaks during the workday while they are fasting should also get permission to work from home, he said. Agencies that opt to deny an employee's request to work remotely for religious reasons must justify it with "evidence of significant operational impact," he said. It is the latest example of the Trump administration relaxing its policy that employees with desk jobs must report to the office full time. Trump railed against remote work arrangements for federal employees on the campaign trail, threatening after the election to "dismiss" staff that didn't report to the office. The Office of Personnel Management later exempted military spouses. Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who had led Trump's cost-cutting effort, predicted in November that revoking "the COVID-era privilege of staying home" would trigger "a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome." More than 1 million federal employeesalmost half of the federal civilian workforcewere eligible to work remotely at least part of the time as of May 2024, according to a Biden administration report. Around 10% of that workforce was entirely remote. (Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Editing by Leslie Adler) LANSING, (Mich.) WLNS Disasters can strike at any time, and on Tuesday, the Michigan State Police (MSP) held a tour of facilities they say are pivotal in disaster response. MSP says these facilities can help Michiganders reeling from natural disasters, like the ones impacting the northeast and Texas. They include the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center and a separate $17 million State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC). Michigan Intelligence Operations Center (WLNS) Michigan Intelligence Operations Center (WLNS) State Emergency Operations Center (WLNS) State Emergency Operations Center (WLNS) Today, MSP said the SEOC was used during last years elections to ensure the safety of elected officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The director of MSP, Col. James Grady, credits the SEOC with a safe election night. The facility was completed in 2016 and has seats for the governor, the prosecuting attorney, and other officials whom troopers may consult in case of an emergency. The centers were also used in Michigans response to the murders of lawmakers in Minnesota, and during this years ice storms in Northern Michigan. Col. Grady said their logistics team was able to route potentially life-saving oxygen tanks to impacted communities. In this more recent one, you would never think you would need oxygen tanks, but you might have an aging population in that part of the area, so they need those types of resources. Thats why we stand up the SEOC for those reasons. The locals may not have that readily available Grady said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Around 20 state departments have a seat in the room, allowing them to provide their area of expertise during emergencies, in addition to the Red Cross and the National Weather Service (NWS). In light of the deadly flooding in Texas, there have been concerns about a lack of resources or communication with the NWS. MSP leadership said as of now, there has been no change in their relationship with the NWS despite recent federal cuts. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WLNS 6 News. QUICK FORECAST: Today: Showers & storms, high 85 Tonight: T-storms taper, low 73 Thursday: Scattered rumbles, high 87 (73) Friday: Some sunshine, chance storms, high 82 (70) Saturday: Rain & rumbles, high 86 (68) Sunday: On & off storms, high 85 (72) FORECAST DISCUSSION: Good Wednesday morning! A few showers have already pushed into Central Ohio to start off the day. While some have been able to skip the rain, more widespread chances will fill in as the afternoon comes on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our latest system is still a few days away, but more moisture will be squeezed into the area. Higher chances for scattered showers and storms will push in shortly after noon. Those chances remain steady and solid into the evening. There is a 1/5 risk for severe weather for all of Central Ohio today. Storms that do develop a little more could bring in a low chance of strong to damaging wind gusts. Most of the area, including the metro, is under a 2/4 risk for localized flash flooding. The far western fringe is at a 1/4. Chances for rain taper off tonight, but fill back in as the system draws even closer on Thursday. Temperatures get a boost back to the upper 80s. As the system slides southward on Friday, itll take some of the moisture with it. Temperatures take another dip to the lower 80s. The weekend will see the return of some more seasonable weather. Rain and storm chances will ramp up once again for Saturday and Sunday to a more on and off chance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Looking ahead to next week, well see a spotty chance for rain with some sunshine. The heat and humidity will begin creeping up into the middle of next week as well. -Joe Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. While being intensely questioned by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Chris Coons (D-Del.), Waltz allegedly sought to downplay the scandal over leaked military information. Mike Waltz, former US national security adviser, testified before the Senate on Tuesday as lawmakers prepared to vote on his appointment as the next US ambassador to the United Nations, MSNBC reported. Waltz allegedly sought to downplay the scandal over leaked military information during his questioning by Senators Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) and Chris Coons (D-Delaware). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At one point, Waltz told Coons that using Signal complied with federal guidelines established under the Biden administration and emphasized that no classified material had been disclosed. He added that the White House had completed its inquiry, though he believed the Defense Departments investigation was still underway. "That engagement was driven by and recommended by the Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency, by the Biden administration," he told Coons, according to ABC News. "The use of Signal is not only as an encrypted app. It's not only authorized. It was recommended in Biden's, the Biden era, CISA guidance." "We followed the recommendation - almost the demand to use end-to-end encryption - but there was no classified information shared," he continued. US Rep. Michael Waltz (left) questions the panel while Rep. Mike Johnson holds a map of the Middle East during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, in Washington, US, September 29, 2021 (credit: ROD LAMKEY/POOL VIA REUTERS) Coons, Brooker question Waltz's use of Signal Coons told Waltz that he "was hoping to hear from you that you had some sense of regret over sharing what was very sensitive, timely information about a military strike on a commercially available app that's not, as we both know, the appropriate way to share such critical information." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Senator, I think where we have a fundamental disagreement is that there was no classified information on that, on that chat," Waltz said. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) noted that Pentagon investigations by both the Inspector General and the air force remain unresolved on whether classified material was improperly shared, though he did not accuse Waltz personally of disclosing sensitive information. In response, Waltz said, I cant and shouldnt comment on active investigations at the Pentagon. Kaine countered, stating that the reality is there are two ongoing Pentagon investigations precisely aimed at independently determining whether classified details - or at least sensitive military plans - were improperly disclosed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He is a seasoned policy mind, a skilled negotiator with a track record of diligently pursuing American interests unapologetically and with the appropriate amount of caution and attention to detail that those things deserve," Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said as he introduced Waltz before the Senate. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said that Waltz would "exceed expectations" as the ambassador. The Signal scandal In March, Waltz mistakenly added the editor-in-chief of theAtlantic to a private Signal chat, which contained detailed information on the US's plans to strike Yemen's Houthis. Waltz never offered to resign, despite discussions in the White House about whether or not he should. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waltz privately admitted, contrary to public statements made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, and CIA Director William Burns, that classified information was shared in the chat. Hegseth reportedly also shared the private plans in a group chat with his family, according to The New York Times. Twelve-year-old Marquell A. Newburn will never again get to hug his mother, Rishon Tharp. He didn't get to see his freshman year in high school or graduate. Deandre Davis' decision to play with a loaded handgun one fateful afternoon last year is the reason why. Davis, 16, wept in court on July 16 as he apologized for killing Marquell in front of two other friends, calling the deadly incident his biggest regret. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Davis pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide. He was 15 at the time of the Oct. 26, 2024 shooting, and maintained it was an accident. Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Wagner ordered Davis to spend the next seven years behind bars. He also will need to serve eight years of extended supervision once his prison time is over. More: In separate shootings, a Milwaukee child was shot and killed, two teens injured Marquell Newburn was 12 when he was fatally shot by a friend on Oct. 26, 2024 in Milwaukee. Deandre Davis, 17, claimed the shooting was accidental and pleaded guilty July 16, 2025 to second-degree reckless homicide. What does the law say about defendants who are so young? Wisconsin law allows for children as young as 10 to be charged as adults for certain serious crimes, at least to start the case. Those crimes include first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Davis initially was charged with first-degree reckless homicide, use of a dangerous weapon. At sentencing, Davis gave up the right to seek a reverse waiver, which would have offered him a chance to have his case moved to juvenile court, where more emphasis is placed on age-appropriate programming and punishments. Davis opted instead to plead guilty in adult court to a lesser charge. More: Milwaukee's 2025 homicide increases continue as overall crime drops Here's how prosecutors say the deadly incident unfolded that afternoon Davis told investigators he thought he had put the safety on before pointing the firearm at Marquell. When the gun went off, it struck Marquell in the face, according to the complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When police arrived to a home on the 2600 block of North 48th Street, they were directed to a minivan in the back yard. That's where they found Marquell inside the vehicle, unresponsive. According to a criminal complaint, Marquell told Davis not to point the firearm at him, but Davis, jokingly and sarcastically, wouldn't backdown. "He lost his life from me playing around," Davis said through tears. "I just wish he was still here." There were two other juveniles in the van when Marquell was shot. The gun belonged to one of them, Davis said in court. It was never recovered. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Data recorded during 20032021 by the CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System identified nearly 1,300 unintentional firearm injury deaths among children aged 017 years. Roughly two thirds of the shooters (67% of them) of shooters were playing with the firearm or showing it to others when it discharged. More: 'A bag of weed for a life': Milwaukee man sentenced in 2 teens' deaths, gunman remains on the loose Marquell Newburn's family still grieves The sentence didn't sit well with Marquell's family, which pushed for the maximum of 20 years. "(Marquell) was a good kid, he was very funny," Tharp said of her son, who would have celebrated his 13th birthday next month. "I just miss him so much. He should be here." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brandy Moore said she was too overcome to attend her nephew's funeral, and the family still wrestles with their loss. "He didn't deserve this, not at all," Moore said. Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan didn't dispute Davis' claims the shooting was accidental, but said he needed to be held responsible because he should never have been in possession of a firearm, given his age. "He (Davis) didn't understand the consequences of his actions," Vance-Curzan said. "And a 12-year-old child is dead because of it," This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee teen is sentenced in 12-year-old Marquell Newburn's death The health minister has called on the Western Health Trust to pause its consultation on the future of emergency general surgery at the South West Acute Hospital (Swah). Emergency general surgery was temporarily suspended at the Enniskillen hospital in December 2022, with some patients from counties Fermanagh and Tyrone having to travel to Londonderry for treatment at Altnagelvin Area Hospital, an hour and a half's drive away. On 3 July the Western Trust's board agreed to consult on the permanent removal of the service from Swah. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Health has confirmed Mike Nesbitt has written to the Western Trust asking it to pause the consultation, as first reported by the Impartial Reporter. A spokesperson for the department said the consultation was a matter for the trust, but any permanent change to emergency general surgery at Swah in the future would require approval from the health minister. "The minister has been very aware of the ongoing and repeated challenges with the delivery of the recent consultation exercise," the spokesperson said. "He engaged directly with the trust on the matter last week to discuss a number of concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Any change in service provision, and especially any proposed permanent changes, must always be guided by a clear desire to deliver and ensure better outcomes. "The minister has asked the trust to use this time to act quickly to restore confidence by producing a vision plan emphasising how the South West Acute Hospital will be supported to meet both the needs of its current and future population." Concerns about the consultation process had been raised by the Patient and Client Council (PCC), a body which represents the interests of the public in the health and social care system in Northern Ireland. In a letter sent to the campaign group Save Our Acute Services (SOAS) earlier in July, the PCC said it was "disappointed with how PCC's early conversation with the trust has been reflected in response to concerns about the consultation, including in the media". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It said it had met with trust representatives on a "single occasion" In May 2025 " to provide early advice on best practice approaches to public involvement and engagement, in line with our statutory remit". SOAS previously described the decision to consult on removing emergency general surgery as "absolutely disgusting". A consultation event which was due to be held on Tuesday in the Killyhevlin Hotel was postponed. The Western Trust said it took the decision due to the "anticipated numbers registering to attend and in the interests of public safety". Fermanagh and South Tyrone MP Pat Cullen said Nesbitt's intervention "comes as no real surprise ". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The public were left feeling that their concerns and experiences were not being listened to," the Sinn Fein politician said. "The onus is now on the Western Trust to rebuild public confidence and listen to them. "They also need to produce a plan for Swah which outlines how it will be supported to meet the needs of the community and the future population." Why was the consultation taking place? In June 2022 in a review of general surgery across Northern Ireland, the Health Department listed six key provisions that must be met to ensure that health trusts offered a safe service. These include providing a workforce, a process and protocols which deliver a safe service, as well as quality assurance to monitor and gauge the provision of services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without all six in place, a hospital could not be expected to deliver emergency general surgery. Emergency general surgery was then temporarily suspended at Swah in December of that year. At the time, the Western Trust said the suspension was necessary to protect the public's safety after it had problems recruiting surgical staff. At a trust board meeting at the start of July when the consultation was agreed to, the board was told it was"no longer possible to meet important safety standards at the Swah". Campaigners said the loss of services and the distance and travel time, as well as poor transport infrastructure, put lives at risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Neil Guckian, the chief executive of the Western Trust, told the board meeting it was "not a rushed decision" and he understood the "strength of feeling" that this issue generates. "We have over two and a half years of working under these pathways, working effectively with no concerns on patient safety," he added. Mr Guckian said evidence showed that patients who need to go to Altnagelvin Hospital "have better clinical outcomes" and "no patient has come to harm". Analysis: Public felt alienated from process By Marie-Louise Connolly, BBC News NI health correspondent From the very outset this plan to change how some services are delivered has been messy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Five years ago the local population said it felt the plan was being thrust on them with little dialogue or explanation. Those feelings haven't changed. In the meantime the situation has gone from bad to worse. A vacuum was created where rumour often trumped fact. In the meantime, staff left or weren't attracted to working in a hospital whose future was cloaked in doubt. Could that have been avoided? Those campaigning against change argue it could have. At this stage it's hard to see how this can be resolved. What management are describing as "transformation" is being viewed by the public as a "shambles". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bottom line is to provide safe emergency general surgery the system requires staff and at present those staff don't exist. What is emergency general surgery? Emergency general surgery relates to the treatment of patients with conditions such as acute abdominal pain, infections, bleeding and trauma. It includes operations such as removing a patient's gall bladder, appendix or part of the bowel. If left unattended these conditions can become life-threatening. Most emergency general surgery operations are scheduled. According to the Western Trust, SWAH dealt with about five such cases a day and that was not enough to sustain a dedicated emergency general surgical team. Work is underway looking at the devolution of probation and youth justice, the Welsh government's senior legal advisor has insisted after a UK minister played down the prospect. Prisons minister Lord Timpson said on Monday it was not "a priority" to devolve either probation or youth justice. Counsel General Julie James said a more senior minister has authorised officials to work on the "beginnings" of the devolution of youth justice - and she said devolution was not in Lord Timpson's remit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said Lord Timpson's comments amounted to "paternalism". The Welsh government has been calling for criminal justice to be devolved for some time. Wales is the only nation with its own parliament which shares a legal jurisdiction with England - with policing, the courts and prisons all the responsibility of Westminster and not Cardiff Bay. UK Labour has not agreed to full devolution of criminal justice but has said it would explore giving the Welsh government powers over youth justice and probation, promising that in its general election manifesto. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those who call for a transfer of powers argue it would mean that prisons and probation can be better integrated with devolved services, or could allow ministers to change policies to make improvements. The Welsh government has commissioned work from the Wales Centre on Public Policy on probation devolution, and from former north Wales chief constable Carl Foulkes. On Monday Prisons Minister Lord Timpson told a Senedd committee that handing control over of either was not a "priority" while the criminal justice system was in "crisis". One Labour backbench MS said Lord Timpson's comments had been "pretty appalling". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies described Lord Timpson on social media network X as an "unelected peer telling our parliament what powers we are allowed to hold". Devolution process 'not in remit' In the Senedd on Tuesday Adam Price asked Julie James if Wales was "being patronised by Westminster". "I don't agree with that characterisation at all," James replied. She said Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister, had "an extremely good meeting with the Lord Chancellor", Shabana Mahmood, "in which she authorised officials to work together on the beginnings of the steps for the the devolution of youth justice". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James said an official had been appointed as a "head of youth justice devolution", and meetings on probation were occurring. She said Lord Timpson had done "an enormous amount of work on the absolute shambles the Conservative government left the court and prison system". "To be fair to him, the devolution process is not within his remit," she said. "The manifesto of the UK government said that it would explore the devolution of youth justice and probation, and we are doing that. "I am confident that we will get the steps towards that that we expected in this first year and a bit of the UK Labour government, and I'm sure that that journey will continue." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Price said in a statement: "Every commission - Silk, Thomas - has reached the same conclusion. Justice powers must align with devolved services. Scotland governs its own justice system with distinction, Northern Ireland shapes its own path with pride, Wales alone is told to wait. "After one full year of supposed partnership, we have no draft legislation, no target date for the transfer of power, no outline budget with which to plan, and now we have Labour themselves saying no. This isn't partnership - it's paternalism." The first minister Eluned Morgan said things were "edging" forward on youth justice and probation. A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We have had productive discussions with the UK government on youth justice and probation and we are exploring options where responsibilities in the youth justice system could be realigned. "The deputy first minister will update the Senedd on developments in this area soon." Minneapolis politicians rally to defend Omar Fatah after Islamophobic attack by Charlie Kirk originally appeared on Bring Me The News. Politicians and local advocacy groups are coming to the defense of Minnesota State Senator and Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, who has been subjected to a series of Islamophobic and racist abuse on social media following comments from right-wing activists including Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. On Monday, Kirk shared a Twitter post about Fateh with the caption: "Muslims are commanded to take over the government in the land they live. The attempted Islamic takeover of America is made possible thanks to mass migration." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He later shared another video of Fateh, writing: "Mass migration from the third world must be stopped. We are committing suicide." Fateh, the first Somali American and Muslim to serve in the Minnesota Senate and who was born in Washington D.C. to Somali immigrant parents, responded to Kirks initial post, writing in part: "Minneapolis is a beautifully diverse city that stands firm in our progressive values. The hate Ive seen today and most days is not who we will ever be." A cascade of online attacks against Fateh has followed since Kirks initial post to his 5.1 million followers. Many compare Fateh to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is also Muslim and is campaigning on similar progressive ideals. Omar Fateh Fateh, a self-declared Democratic Socialist, is currently challenging incumbent Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. He is campaigning on issues like rent stabilization, increasing the minimum wage, legalizing fentanyl test strips, and protecting Minneapolis from the Trump administrations policies and initiatives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the abuse, calling them "factually inaccurate, dangerously inflammatory and reflective of a broader trend of Islamophobic fear-mongering nationwide. Fatehs opponent Frey came to his defense, writing: "Senator Omar Fateh is a proud American who is running because, like me, he loves Minneapolis. Im proud that Minneapolis is a place where he can run for mayor against me on his own merits and that this kind of bigotry is widely rejected across our great city." Candidate DeWayne Davis also spoke out against the attack, saying: "Sen. Fateh, Im so sorry you had to deal with this mans hate today. I know how much you love this city, and Im honored to be in the race with you. Minneapolis is made stronger and more vibrant because of our immigrant communities, and were lucky to have your leadership." The Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America meanwhile described Kirk's comments as "disgusting, bigoted fear-mongering." This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. A grand jury indicted the man accused of shooting two Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses on six federal charges Tuesday, moving the case forward as prosecutors signal the death penalty is on the table. Vance Boelter faces murder charges for allegedly assassinating former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in the early morning hours of June 14. The ultimate decision as to whether to seek the death penalty will not come for several months, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said at a Tuesday press conference, indicating it will be left up to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Federal prosecutors first unveiled charges against Boelter, 57, in a complaint last month, and the indictment enables the case to press ahead. Thompson said prosecutors were also unsealing a search warrant that provides additional details on the investigation. Beyond the murder charges, Boelters indictment includes two stalking counts over his alleged efforts to track down both the former state speaker and state Sen. John Hoffman (D), whom Boelter allegedly shot and injured the same morning. Prosecutors additionally indicted him on two firearms offenses, one for each shooting. Those charges all carry up to life in prison, and he separately faces state-level charges. The Hill has reached out to Boelters public defender for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hoffmans wife, Yvette, was injured alongside her husband. The indictment indicates Boelter also intended to shoot their daughter, Hope, but failed. Prosecutors previously accused Boelter of visiting two other officials homes and leaving behind a notebook filled with dozens of other names. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A Zippo lighter carried by missing Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Musashe during World War II has been returned to his family after 80 years. [DOWNLOAD: Free WHIO-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The lighter, inscribed with Musashes name and service number, was discovered through a Facebook post by a Swiss collectors club, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Musashe, a tail gunner on a B-17, went missing on April 29, 1944, during a bombing mission over Berlin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was purely by coincidence, Vince Musashe said, the sergeants nephew. It was my cousins cousin that actually came across the Facebook post a year or so ago. He felt strongly that the lighter belonged with our family and was happy to be part of bringing a part of my uncle home. TRENDING STORIES: On April 29, 1944, Michael was part of a mission involving 751 B-17 and B-24 aircraft sent to bomb Berlin. Serving as the tail gunner on the Spirit of Wanette, his aircraft was hit by German artillery, leading to a series of events that resulted in his disappearance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The War Department issued a finding of death for Michael on Nov. 7, 1945, after waiting for over a year for any sign of him. The lighter was eventually traced to Rolf Gerster, a Swiss armed forces officer, who facilitated its return to the Musashe family. Vince, a Navy veteran, believes their shared military background helped establish a bond that led to the lighters return. Vince flew to Arizona to present the lighter to his aunt, Virginia Zoller, who last saw her brother when she was in the 7th grade. She expressed profound joy at having a piece of her brother home after 81 years. While the Musashe family still hopes for the remains of Michael to be found, the return of the lighter has provided them with a sense of closure. [SIGN UP: WHIO-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] Eighty years after a U.S. military airman went missing in World War II, his family received a token to remember him by: a Zippo lighter, inscribed with "Musashe 1943" and parts of the service number once assigned to its owner, Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Musashe. The lighter came into the family's possession after one of the airman's relatives spotted it in a Facebook post about a year ago, the sergeant's nephew, Vince Musashe, told the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with finding and identifying service members who were either missing in action or prisoners of war during past conflicts. In the post, shared in 2019 by a Facebook group called the "Great Lakes Lighter Club," a Swiss man who collected lighters showed an installment in his collection. It was the Zippo lighter with Musashe's last name and 27 hash marks that military historians believe represented the airman's 27 missions during the war. They suggested the lighter may have been recovered from Musashe's remains or from the wreckage of his aircraft, which was attacked in 1944, according to DPAA. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musashe was last seen on April 19 of that year, when he was among a group of American airmen dispatched to bomb part of Berlin. German fire damaged his aircraft, which changed course and accidentally ended up passing over then-occupied Denmark, where the pilot ordered crew members including Musashe to bail out. Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Musashe. / Credit: DPAA Exactly how many of the 10 crew members actually exited the aircraft in parachutes has been debated. Officials say no remains or records related to the deaths of Musashe or one other crew member were ever found, and a finding of death was issued to Musashe's family on Nov. 7, 1945. DPAA historians helped the family locate the Zippo lighter's new owner after seeing that Facebook post. They contacted the man, Swiss army veteran Rolf Gerster, who eventually turned it over to them. "He felt strongly that the lighter belonged with our family and was happy to be part of bringing a part of my uncle home," said Vince Musashe, according to DPAA. "He was extremely helpful in arranging the transfer, telling me the best way to make sure it got to the United States safe and sound. He tracked the shipment and kept me informed at each stage." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The deceased airman's nephew told DPAA he brought the Zippo to his uncle's sister, 95-year-old Virginia Zoller, who last saw her brother when she was in 7th grade. 95-year-old Virginia Zoller holds a lighter that belonged to her brother Army Air Corps Staff Sgt. Michael Musashe. / Credit: Courtesy Photo/DPAA "She clutched the lighter as if she was hugging her brother," said Vince Musashe. "After 81 years, she did what she said she would do when he came home. She kissed the lighter. She was just so happy that she lived to see this." Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 21 children removed from California home in surrogacy case, couple charged with child endangerment By Alimat Aliyeva The Czech Republic has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom on nuclear energy cooperation. This agreement followed a meeting between the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic and Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, in London. "A memorandum has been signed to confirm both countries' intention to strengthen our partnership in the nuclear energy sector, where we see significant potential in the coming years," Fiala told reporters after his talks with Starmer. "Working with the UK will help us ensure energy security and provide affordable energy for future generations," he added. Both the British and Czech governments view nuclear energy as a crucial element in the transition to low-carbon energy and in securing energy independence. Besides building traditional nuclear power units, the UK government also supports the development of small modular reactors (SMRs). A key development in Czech-British cooperation was the recent entry of the Czech energy giant CEZ Group into Rolls-Royce SMR, a company specializing in the development of small modular reactors compact reactors that can be assembled from pre-built modules. In collaboration with Rolls-Royce SMR, CEZ plans to construct modular reactors with a total capacity of 3 gigawatts in the Czech Republic by 2050. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining traction worldwide as a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional nuclear plants. These reactors are designed to be factory-built and then transported to their final location, reducing construction time and costs. If successful, they could play a significant role in meeting global clean energy targets. Chip and Joanna Gaines, the stars behind HGTVs Fixer Upper and founders of the Magnolia Network, are facing a wave of backlash from faith-based fans after their new reality series, Back to the Frontier, featured a same-sex couple. The controversy intensified after Chip Gaines publicly criticized what he called the judgmental nature of "modern American Christian culture." The Back to the Frontier episode featuring gay couple Joe Riggs and Jason Hanna, who are parents and have spoken openly about the importance of representation, drew a flurry of reactions from social media users, many of whom expressed anger that the show was normalizing same-sex parenting. We are extremely honored to be one of the three modern-day families going #BacktotheFrontier because visibility matters and [is] so important, Jason Hanna wrote on Instagram. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Hanna and Riggs said they viewed their participation in the show as an opportunity to help normalize families like theirs: Representation matters deeply, especially for those who are still finding the courage to live their truth. In response to the growing criticism, Chip Gaines posted a strongly worded message on X: Talk, ask [questions], listen.. maybe even learn. Too much to ask of modern American Christian culture. Judge 1st, understand later/never. Its a sad Sunday when non believers have never been confronted with hate or vitriol until they are introduced to a modern American Christian. Youll see no hate from me. Im just sad. I cant let my kids watch your show now, since Im trying to protect their eyes and hearts from the lies of the worldlies youre now participating in. Also, filter out some of the online vitriol and consider taking to heart some of the Joel Berry (@JoelWBerry) The statement provoked further backlash from some Christian influencers and commentators. Joel Berry, managing editor at the satirical site Babylon Bee, wrote in reply: I cant let my kids watch your show now, since Im trying to protect their eyes and hearts from the lies of the worldlies youre now participating in. Gaines replied to Berry: Dont be sad Joel.. plenty of other stuff out there. Im sure everyone will be fine. BUT I sincerely appreciate the advice.. and I certainly will. Dont be sad Joel.. plenty of other stuff out there. Im sure everyone will be fine. BUT I sincerely appreciate the advice about taking some of the thoughtful, heartfelt, encouraging constructive criticism to heart.. and I certainly will Featured Local Savings Chip Gaines (@chipgaines) Other conservative Christian voices joined the criticism. Journalist Megan Basham said Gaines appeared to be giving aid to a terrible ideology, and Allie Beth Stuckey warned that encouraging others to normalize sin was spiritually dangerous. Reverend Franklin Graham also weighed in, calling the Gaineses' decision to include a same-sex couple very disappointing and a violation of biblical teaching. I hope this isnt true, but I read today that Chip and Joanna Gaines are featuring a gay couple in their new series. If It is true, it is very disappointing. While we are to love people, we should love them enough to tell them the truth of Gods Word. His Word is absolute truth. Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) Despite the backlash, Chip Gaines maintained his stance. His final post on the matter simply read, On our way to church Yall enjoy this beautiful Sunday, alongside a repost of a 2016 tweet saying, In times of trouble youll find the Gaines family at church. The Magnolia Network has remained silent on social media about the controversy, instead highlighting recent Daytime Emmy nominations for its programs. BILL MAHER CHALLENGES JOHN LEGUIZAMO'S CLAIM THAT AMERICA HAS 'PLENTY OF ROOM' FOR IMMIGRANTS Back to the Frontier premiered this summer on Magnolia Network. It follows three families, including Riggs and Hanna, as they attempt to live like pioneers. The Gaineses rose to fame in 2013 on Fixer Upper, quickly becoming household names among Christian and family audiences. Their Magnolia brand has since expanded to include a cable network, multiple businesses in Waco, Texas, and a large fan base that has followed their journey closely. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) The Mississippi Arts Council (MAC) will provide more than $1 million in grants to different organizations around the state. The MAC is investing more than $1.7 million in the arts through grants to organizations, schools, and individual artists across the state for Fiscal Year 2026. This year, the agency will award individual fellowships at the full $5,000 grant amount who they say is the creative engine of Mississippi The awards include: General Operating Support for 68 arts organizations. Project support for 79 arts and community-based organizations to foster the continuation of the states folk and traditional art forms, support performances and arts programming, and strengthen education in and through the arts Project support for 24 individual artists to support innovation, propel artists careers, and encourage collaboration between artists and communities. Artist Fellowship awards to 37 individual artists across artistic disciplines who demonstrate the ability to create exemplary work in their chosen field. Mini-Grants to 79 individual artists to support their professional development and seven arts and community-based organizations to support arts programming and institutional strategic development. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are deeply grateful to our state and national leaders who have made the arts a priority this year, said David Lewis, executive director for the MAC. With funding from the Mississippi Legislature and with the continued support of the National Endowment for the Arts, MAC is providing 349 grants to individuals and organizations throughout Mississippi. These grants will foster creativity and make a meaningful impact on local communities and economies. National Folk Festival lineup includes Bobby Rush, Sonic Boom The grant awards will go to programs such as Mississippi Whole Schools, which provides Pre-K-12 educators with intensive professional development for integrating the arts to promote high-quality instruction and learning for students in all disciplines. Mississippi Whole Schools just accepted five more schools into its program, bringing its total up to 25 schools supported. MAC also approved 17 artists and performing groups for inclusion in its Artist Roster and Teaching Artist Roster. These additions are added to their rosters based upon who the MAC believes creates and works at a professional level within their art disciplines and are available for hire. MAC then encourage organizations that receive mini grants from them to hire artists from this roster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks to the continued support of Governor Reeves and the State Legislature, the Mississippi Arts Commission is continuing to build on our States rich history in the arts, said Jordan Perry, chair of the MAC Board. By investing in artists, schools, and arts organizations, we are working to create jobs, economic impact, andultimatelystronger communities throughout our state. MAC also received funding for the Building Fund for the Arts grant. These funds are allocated separately, and the announcement will be made at a later date. Grants were awarded in 94 State House districts and 49 State Senate districts. To see the complete list of grantees, click here. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. Three children who went missing in Missouri this week have been found safe, the Carrollton Police Department said. The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued an endangered person advisory for three children missing from Carrollton on July 15. They have all been found safe after an investigation involving multiple law enforcement agencies. The children went missing after non-custodial parents failed to relinquish them to the Missouri Department of Social Services Childrens Division following a court order and left the county, according to the press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police were seeking the childrens non-custodial parents, Naomi and Justin McCaffery, in relation to the incident, according to a press release. The children have since been taken into protective custody, according to the Carrollton Police Department. KANSAS CITY, Mo. Starting next month, Missouri lawmakers are introducing new regulations on temporary tags, cracking down on vehicle registrations, and requiring drivers to pay their sales taxes before receiving them. Governor Mike Kehoe signed several bills last week, including Senate Bill 28, which changes the Missouri Department of Revenues vehicle purchasing and registration processes and addresses the issue of drivers using temporary tags beyond their expiration to avoid paying taxes. Country Club Plaza joins list of property owners appealing 2025 valuation Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the departments director of communications, Jodonn Chaney, the hope is that the new bill will eliminate unpaid temporary tags, generating more revenue for the states highways, roads and bridges, and streamlining vehicle registration processes. The bill removes the option for a 90-day tag and will only allow DMV offices to issue 30-day temporary plates for trade-in cars that are still under a loan. Drivers will also be required to pay their sales tax at the dealership prior to getting a temporary plate. This is a big change from the current policy, which allows 30 days from the purchase of the title to pay sales tax. See the latest headlines in Kansas City and across Kansas, Missouri Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Additionally, the bill says that administrative fees will increase from 1% to 3.5% for the maintenance of the departments electronic vehicle titling and registration system. These changes are set to take effect on Aug. 28. For more information about Senate Bill 28, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. BENTONVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) A Missouri man accused of raping and impregnating a 14-year-old pleads guilty to second-degree sexual assault July 14. Selvin Jeovany Coc-Choc, 20. (COURTESY: Benton County Sheriffs Office) Court records say Selvin Jeovany Coc-Choc, 21, was given 20 years in prison. He has already served 223 days. Coc-Choc is ordered to have no unsupervised contact with minors and to register as a sex offender. Case background A probable cause affidavit shows that on Sept. 17, the Rogers Police Department was notified that a 14-year-old, now residing in Missouri, had become pregnant by a 20-year-old man. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation revealed that the victim and Coc-Choc began dating in May 2024. According to a police interview with Coc-Choc, he and the child started communicating over WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in April 2024. Coc-Choc was originally accused of raping the victim twice and sexually assaulting them multiple times. The child told authorities she had been in a relationship with Coc-Choc since May 2024, and on one occasion, he took her to the Eighth Street Motel in Rogers, where he assaulted her. The child performed a recorded phone call to police, where Coc-Choc admitted to not using protection. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Coc-Choc told police that the child informed him that she was pregnant and that he was the father. According to court documents, Coc-Choc told police he had a three-month relationship with the child before she moved away from Rogers. He stated that he lived in Monett, Missouri, and visited the child in Rogers four or five times. During these visits, he admitted to raping the child five or six times. Coc-Choc admitted to taking the child to a Rogers hotel and raping her there, according to court documents. He also confirmed the childs account of a sexual encounter at a Missouri lake. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. The Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). A ruling earlier this month that allowed abortions to resume in Missouri should be set aside because the laws and rules it blocks are important safeguards for womens health, Attorney General Andrew Baileys office said in a filing last week to the Missouri Supreme Court. The document asks the high court to suspend Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhangs preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of almost all of the states laws regulating abortion services. If the court does not grant the stay immediately, the filing states, the high court should hold an expedited hearing on Aug. 11. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In response, attorneys for the ACLU of Missouri and Planned Parenthood asked for arguments the week of Aug. 18. The battle over abortion rights has been a state question since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision. The decision triggered a law that banned all abortions in the state except in cases of medical emergency that endangered a womans life. Abortion became legal again in Missouri under the provisions 52% of voters approved as state constitutional Amendment 3 in November. But because the amendment did not directly repeal state laws banning or regulating abortion, Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, based in Kansas City, and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, based in St. Louis, sued to block enforcement of those laws. The state does not dispute that women have a right to obtain an abortion prior to when a fetus is viable, according to the filing signed by state solicitor general Josh Devine and five other attorneys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the laws and regulations blocked by Zhang deal with licensing and regulation of procedures that were in place before the 2022 decision overturning Roe v Wade, the attorneys wrote, and should be allowed to remain in force. Planned Parenthood wrongly claimed that it could not provide abortion in Missouri unless all the states health-and-safety laws were enjoined, the attorneys wrote. But from the beginning of this litigation, the state has expressly agreed that Planned Parenthood can perform elective pre-viability abortions under Amendment 3. The states lone interest is ensuring that Missouri abortions are safe for the woman In a response, attorneys for the ACLU of Missouri, which is representing the states two Planned Parenthood affiliates, wrote that granting a stay of Zhangs ruling would deny Missourians the rights enshrined in the Constitution in November. The trial court made clear factual findings supporting its determinations and committed no error of law, the response signed by ACLU attorney Gillian Wilcox and 13 other lawyers. And (the state of Missouri) suffer no irreparable harm from being prevented from enforcing laws that are now presumptively unconstitutional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surgical abortions resumed from February to May following two earlier rulings by Zhang, but ended when the Missouri Supreme Court struck down her orders on technical legal grounds. Surgical abortions resumed at the Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City and St. Louis Zhang issued her July 3 decision and appointments are being scheduled for a resumption of abortion services in Columbia next week. In her July 3 order, Zhang found that the total ban on abortions that took effect in 2022 clearly conflicted with the rights secured by the abortion amendment, which received 52% of the vote in November. She also blocked enforcement of a law requiring two appointments, 72 hours apart, to obtain abortion services and that women be required to take state-produced material on fetal development. The order blocks enforcement of laws requiring special abortion facility licensing and that doctors performing abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zhangs order keeps in place rules that only doctors can provide abortion services and that the woman seeking an abortion have an in-person appointment. The appointment can, however, be by telemedicine, Zhang ruled as she blocked a separate rule. Medication abortions are not being offered because Zhang blocked enforcement of regulations describing what should be in a complication plan for medication abortion patients. The rules stated what the plans should include, such as instructions for women if bleeding occurs and designating a hospital ready to provide care in emergencies. Zhangs decision left the law requiring the complication plans in place, but without regulations defining the plans, they cannot be submitted or approved. The complication plans are an essential safeguard when problems occur, the team from the attorney generals office. While medication abortions are the most common way pregnancies are terminated, the safeguards of current law must be in place to allow them, the attorneys wrote. Amendment 3 establishes a generic right to abortion, not a right to a specific procedure, and there was no right to a specific procedure under Roe either, the attorneys wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the filing to the Supreme Court, the team from the attorney generals office challenged both the venue the location of the case of the Planned Parenthood affiliates as well as the legal basis for the challenge to state laws and regulations. The case should be in Cole County, not Jackson County, the attorneys argue. The lead defendant is the Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney, Melesa Johnson, but the state defendants are all headquartered in Jefferson City. The attorneys for the state also argue that some of the blocked laws and regulations also apply to non-abortion medical procedures. There is one law for example, requiring abortion providers to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. If the ruling stands, the attorneys wrote, the state could no longer require physicians providing orthopedic surgeries in ambulatory surgical centers to have clinical privileges in hospitalseven though that has nothing to do with abortion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The licensing regulations are general and Planned Parenthood should be governed by them, the attorneys wrote. In their response, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood attorneys argued that the state is trying to divert the court from the underlying issues. Respondents are subject to medical licensing requirements and professional ethical standards applicable to all health care, the attorneys wrote. They challenge only discriminatory abortion specific requirements that serve no legitimate medical purpose and make constitutional rights inaccessible. Respondents sue precisely to vindicate their patients rights to receive essential healthcare in Missouri. Issuing a stay of Zhangs order would deny Missourians their rights, the attorneys wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Patients have already scheduled abortions at Respondents health centers for the coming weeks, they wrote. A stay from this court would mean that these appointments would have to be canceled and these patients could not obtain an abortion in Missouri, despite their constitutional right to do so. While Planned Parenthood and the state battle in court over the regulatory framework for providing legal abortions, a separate court battle is also underway in Cole County over the language for a proposal placed on the ballot by state lawmakers to repeal the abortion rights amendment. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to set a trial date for the Cole County case. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) Missouri Western State University has adopted MoWest as the primary way the university will be identified. In a press release sent to New-Press NOW on Tuesday, the university announced its new name as part of a rebrand. For years, students, alumni and community members have affectionately referred to us as MoWest," said Dr. Elizabeth Kennedy, university president. "It's familiar, approachable and reflects an authentic, personal connection. MoWest is a name that feels modern, memorable and distinctly ours." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 'MoWest' is a nickname commonly used by students, faculty and alumni. The change is part of a broader effort to modernize the universitys image and strengthen its identity in a competitive higher education landscape. The MoWest name will now be the universitys primary public-facing brand and will appear across marketing materials, merchandise, social media and campus signage. The updated branding includes a refreshed version of the Griffon logo, maintaining the universitys traditional mascot, while giving it a sharper, more contemporary look. The transition will be gradual, with updated visuals and messaging rolling out over the coming academic year. While the new name will take center stage in the universitys branding, the university's official name remains Missouri Western State University, which is how it will appear on official documents. "We had so many people that refer to us as MoWest, on social media, in conversations, in writings it's how everybody thought about us and we just kind of stopped and went, 'if this is who we are, let's embrace it,'" Dr. Kennedy said. "Let's be the university of the community because that's our goal. We want to make this a university town and really become more and more embedded into the community, so it's really exciting for us. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rebrand follows a year of campus-wide surveys and community feedback, which revealed strong support for embracing the MoWest identity. The university is also launching a new campaign aimed at prospective students called 'More at MoWest.' The campaign highlights how MoWest empowers every student to achieve more and speaks to the breadth of academic programs, the energy of campus life and the hands-on, career-focused experiences aimed at helping students turn passion into practice. University leaders emphasize that while the branding is evolving, the mission remains the same no matter what the brand looks like, the primary focus continues to be the success of students. The modern extension to a historical building in a town has been put up for sale. The Guildhall in Northampton was previously the headquarters for West Northamptonshire Council, before the authority moved its staff to One Angel Square. Last year the council said the move would "maximise" the use of its buildings and protect the county's heritage, while also saving the authority 350,000 per year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mark Arnull, a Reform UK councillor and leader of the authority, said: "It is the 1992 extension which is proposed for a leasehold disposal. We are looking for proposals which make good use of the building, having regard to its location next to the historic one." The coroner's service, based in the building's modern extension, has moved to the old part of the Guildhall, which remains with the council. When the council was set up in 2021, it inherited a range of buildings including the Victorian gothic Guildhall of 1864 and the 21st Century Forum in Towcester. The gothic Guildhall building will remain in the council hands [Martin Giles/BBC] Arnull, said: "After a comprehensive review of the council's office space and property portfolio, there is an opportunity to better utilise these spaces while also reducing ongoing costs to the public purse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Guildhall holds significant importance in both the town's and county's history and its historic part, originally from 1864 with a seamless extension in 1892, forms an integral part of the council's collection of heritage assets." He added the price of the building was not being made public as it may "harm the ability of the council to secure the best deal". Follow Northamptonshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. More on this story Related internet links SPRINGFIELD, Mo. The Missouri Department of Transportation held a public meeting for drivers to learn about a multi-million dollar improvement project for Interstate 44 and provide their feedback. Kristi Bachman, the project director of I-44 for the southwest district of MoDOT, said this is the first step of the process with many more to come. We currently have construction happening on I-40 between Kansas Expressway and 65. This is kind of that next phase, said Bachman. We received additional funding. We plan to deliver a design-build project, awarding that in the spring/summer of 2026. Were really excited about it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $472 million project will include improvements that span the entire district, from Newton County, Jasper County, Lawrence County, Greene County, Webster County and into Laclede County. Bachman said the design-build team will be proposing a plan that aims to improve traffic flow on the interstate and reduce crashes, while taking semi-truck traffic into account. Fred Ackley is a part of the Doling neighborhood association. He said he came to the meeting to learn more about how potential plans for I-44 will impact his neighborhood and improve traffic. Its interesting to see all these boards and what their plans are. The three-lane interstate that theyll be running through Springfield is what I was hoping to learn more about tonight. And theyve got an underground walkway between Doling Park and Norton Road in the planning of all of it as well, said Ackley. I live right over here in the Doling Park area. So this all affects me, my family and the neighborhood that Im part of. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bauchman said the goal of the meeting was to receive feedback and take note of where the problem areas are along I-44. We want to show drivers the locations where we do have planned improvements, and get their feedback, said Bachman. If they are having issues in an area that we might not be aware of, they can share that. Ackley said hes noticed the biggest traffic issues where I-44 intersects with other highly traveled roads. Some of the heavy traffic that we get and figuring out how the interchanges work, because I work over here just north of Highway 13 and I-44, and its been pretty hairy at times with the amount of traffic that they get at the intersection. It can back up traffic, said Ackley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you were unable to attend the I-44 meeting, you can find information and leave your comments by visiting modot.org. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com. More than 100 live flies buzzing around, 60+ rodent droppings near a container of rice and a prep table, and no potable running water were among the issues that led to the temporary closure of five South Florida restaurants and one food truck last week. The Sun Sentinel typically highlights restaurant inspections conducted by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Broward and Palm Beach counties. We cull through inspections that happen weekly and spotlight places ordered shut for high-priority violations, such as improper food temperatures or dead cockroaches. Any restaurant that fails a state inspection must stay closed until it passes a follow-up. If you spot a possible violation and wish to file a complaint, contact Florida DBPR. (But please dont contact us: The Sun Sentinel doesnt inspect restaurants.) Related Articles PALM BEACH COUNTY Le Bon Gout Restaurant 1230 S. Dixie Highway, Lake Worth Beach Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ordered shut: July 8 Why: 15 violations (seven high-priority), including: Five roaches in kitchen crawling from refrigerator gaskets, on wall underneath hand sink and on wall near kitchen door. Four dead roaches in kitchen on top of fryer, on wall behind fryer and on door frame of reach-in cooler. Stop sale ordered for cooked rice and tomato sauce due to temperature abuse. Stop sale ordered for seven bottles of cremas that were not labeled. No hot running water at three-compartment sink. Raw pork thawing in standing water. Status: Closed on July 10 after a reinspection found six violations (two high-priority. Reopened July 11 after a third visit noted three intermediate and basic violations, with a follow-up inspection required. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Souvlaki Fast (inside Tanger Outlets) 1741 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., Suite F01, West Palm Beach Ordered shut: July 9 Why: 17 violations (four high-priority), including: About four live roaches in can opener in kitchen at cook line and by soda bottle storage in kitchen. One dead roach in can opener in kitchen at cook line. Observed raw lamb above cooked lasagna in walk-in refrigerator. Observed raw chicken above raw salmon and beef in walk-in refrigerator. Observed ice machine soiled with mold-like substance or slime. Status: Reopened July 10 after a second inspection found five intermediate and basic violations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tacos El Viejon (food truck) 1801 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach Ordered shut: July 8 Why: Six violations (one high-priority), including: No potable running water because of an electrical problem. Time/temperature issue involved salsa. Status: Reopened July 10 after a second inspection found one intermediate violation; a follow-up inspection was required. BROWARD COUNTY OlDays 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale Ordered shut: July 9 Why: 19 violations (eight high-priority), including: About 119 live flies on the wall and ceiling at the expo area at entrance to kitchen, at entrance to cook line on to-go bags and plates and a waffle iron, on clean wine glass and around glassware at front counter, and flying around kitchen and on clean dish plate in dish area. Five dead roaches in kitchen at cook-line left corner of [Alto-Shaam] oven. Raw beef and ready-to-eat chicken stored in same hotel pan. Stop sale ordered for cut tomatoes, quinoa, coco cream and cheese due to temperature abuse. Stop sale ordered for tuna salad that was date-marked 5/1 and 5/2 with mold growth on top of one of the items and for hummus date-marked 5/14. Floor under and around all cook line and cold holding equipment soiled/has accumulation of debris in and around equipment. At cook line, water accumulation in three-door cooler. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Status: Closed July 10 after a follow-up inspection found four violations (three high-priority), but reopened later that same day after no violations were found during a third visit. Mandevilles Country Style Restaurant 3056 S. State Road 7, Miramar Ordered shut: July 8 Why: Six violations (four high-priority), including: 12 live roaches in the kitchen in front of triple sink, under prep table, on shelf next to stove, on top of storage bin and in front of exit door. Two dead roaches under shelf next to triple sink in kitchen. Containers of raw shell eggs stored above container of lettuce in double-door, reach-in cooler. Stop sale ordered for cheese and cooked rice and fish due to temperature abuse. Ceiling/ceiling tiles/vents soiled with accumulated grease, dust or mold-like substance in kitchen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Status: Reopened July 9 after a second inspection found one basic violation. Cedenos Cuban Cafe (inside Broward Mall) 8000 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation Ordered shut: July 8 Why: Four violations (one high-priority), including: About 64 rodent droppings in dry storage area next to rice container and underneath food preparation table at cook line. Observed several unlabeled spray bottles with cleaning chemicals at dishwashing area. Observed an [uncovered] container with cut onions in walk-in cooler. Status: Reopened later that same day after a reinspection found no violations. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) filed a discharge petition to bypass their leadership and force a vote to push the Department of Justice to release the "complete" so-called Epstein files. The Republican Party has been riled by rare divisions under President Donald Trump after the president's DOJ published a memo concluding that sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein did kill himself in 2019, and a federal investigation didn't uncover a "client list." Massie, who recently earned the ire of Trump over his opposition to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and Khanna co-sponsored a Hail Mary effort to force the DOJ to release anything it has on the list. "We all deserve to know whats in the Epstein files, whos implicated, and how deep this corruption goes," Massie wrote in a post on X. "Americans were promised justice and transparency. Were introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the US House of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE files." Khanna said in his post that Massie "is working on the rule to ensure there is a vote. The public deserves to know where every member stands." The liberal Democrat has been spearheading the effort to use internal discord over Trump's handling of Epstein to drive a wedge between him and his base. A discharge petition requires 218 signatures to bypass leadership and prompt a floor vote. The measures rarely succeed, with the majority party members cautious about defying their leadership. Featured Local Savings Trump has struggled to get his base to move on from the controversy, voicing frustration that the affair was taking attention away from his other priorities. Lets not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about, the president wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. He then suggested that previous administrations made up the list. MAGA ANGER OVER EPSTEIN FILES GIVES TRUMP LIMITED OPTIONS TO QUELL DIVISIONS This was Trumps first ratioed post on the platform since it launched over three years ago, a rare sign of dissent from his base. The president expressed bafflement over why his base wasn't moving on from the case again on Tuesday, telling reporters that Epstein "was never a big factor in terms of life" and that the only people interested in the "boring" case were "bad people." WASHINGTON In a stunning rebuke of President Donald Trumps judicial nominee Emil Bove, more than 900 former Justice Department attorneys on Wednesday condemned Boves assault on DOJ employees and urged senators to rigorously examine his record before considering voting for him. We, the undersigned, proudly defended the rule of law as attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), reads a letter to Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chairman and ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, along with every other committee member. We are all alarmed by DOJ leaderships recent deviations from constitutional principles and institutional guardrails, they said. We also share a grave concern over the senseless attacks on the dedicated career employees who are the backbone of the Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emil Bove has been a leader in this assault, they charged. Emil Bove. via Associated Press The former DOJ attorneys say senators need to take seriously the allegations facing Bove: former senior DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni claimed in a whistleblower disclosure that Bove, who is currently associate deputy U.S. attorney general, earlier this year told DOJ attorneys to disobey court orders and say fuck you to judges who ruled against them. Reuveni also alleged that Bove led senior DOJ lawyers in deliberately lying to federal judges in a case involving the removal of hundreds of immigrants to a prison in El Salvador. Trump has nominated Bove, 44, to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. He was previously Trumps personal attorney. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land, as it should be intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice, reads the letter to senators. During his Senate hearing last month, Bove was asked about the allegations that he told DOJ attorneys to defy court orders. He said he had no recollection. Beyond the whistleblowers allegations, the former DOJ attorneys highlight in their letter that Bove directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to dismiss the case against Mayor Eric Adams allegedly for political reasons, oversaw the termination of more than a dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors and called for the firings of eight senior FBI officials who were involved in Jan. 6 probes. Heres a copy of their letter, signed with everyones full names and former titles at the department. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote Thursday to advance Boves nomination to the Senate floor. He appears to have the votes along party lines. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who seemed like a possible wild card after announcing last month he wont run again, told HuffPost on Wednesday that he plans to vote to move Boves nomination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment in response to the letter. Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection, which organized everyone signing onto the letter, said Bove has been an architect and enforcer of many attacks on th DOJ and its staff. Those of us who proudly defended the rule of law as attorneys at DOJ understand better than anyone the danger of an official who disgraced the Department being elevated to the federal bench, Young said in a statement. Those who were directly harmed by Boves actions are eager and willing to speak to the Senators about what they experienced at his hand, and we urge the committee to hear from them before taking this vote. HINTON, WV (WVNS) There are new developments in the civil action lawsuit that Wilderness Land Holdings LLC is taking the City of Hinton to court over. Civil action lawsuit filed against multiple members of Summers County council Folks with Wilderness Land Holdings are alleging the misuse of grant funds, denied permits, and potential mishandling of those funds on the citys end. Originally, Anna Ziegler served as the citys counsel, while also being one of the defendants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Tuesday, July 8, 2025, the circuit court was given notice that they were substituting counsel. Ziegler, Mayor Jack Scott, city council president Jim Leslie, former city manager Cris Meadows, code enforcement officer Chris Brust, and the City of Hinton will now be represented by Wendy Greve, Patrick Connolly, and the law firm of Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown, and Poe. Days later, on Friday, July 11, 2025, Elizabeth Stuckey, who is not licensed to practice law in West Virginia, but is representing Wilderness Land Holdings, filed a motion to remove Ziegler as the defendants counsel and request the recusal of Judge Amy Mann from the case. Their argument cites potential partiality on the judges part, as she is neighbors and friends with Attorney Ziegler. 59News reached out to Judge Mann about the inquiry. She said she has not yet recused herself from the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Monroe County gets new emergency medical assistance program The next hearing will be on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. (COLORADO SPRINGS) We first brought you the story of Kilroys Workshop last year, when the local metals manufacturer secured a contract to make the sabers for the U.S. Air Force Academy. However, you can also sign up for classes at Kilroys Workshop to make your own creations. Over 25,000 people have come through the workshop to learn jewelry making, welding, and even blacksmithing. We started 13 years ago with Kilroys Workshop, out of an airplane hangar and a porta potty, teaching kids how to do some woodworking and some blacksmithing and metalworking and things like that, said Owner and Founder Ron Hardman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its now grown to entail much more, including a lightsaber-making class, all inspired by Hardmans father. The workshop also offers free classes for home-schooled kids. First half of his career was as a special education teacher. Second half of his career was industrial Arts, and one of the reasons for the switch was he got a lot of kids who were ADHD, or they were autistic, were on the spectrum. They were being funneled into special education, when he said they would actually function better in a shop, said Hardman. This theory ended up helping many, including Hardman himself. He (Hardmans father) told me later he would have diagnosed me as ADHD. Instead, he diagnosed me as the shop class kid, said Hardman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He says being creative, working with your hands, and the friendships forged within the shop make it a home away from home for many. The thing that I enjoy most about this, from my perspective where I sit, is this, Hardman said as he referenced behind him. Its the people behind me, that community aspect of it. Where we get together, because its so needed right now, right? So we want to instill that into folks, that they need to get out of the home, get away from the device, get in a space with each other, and thats how we build things back. Hes not stopping here. Hardman has plans in motion for new locations, and trade schools, specifically targeting groups who often get left behind, like foster kids. You can go to 1848.net and see how thats actually launching out. Were taking the Kilroy model and were expanding that to other trades culinary institutes, cosmetology, you know, woodworking so many different things that can be done in the trades. But what we want to do, is be able to have a community place where people can come in and learn the craft, but then weve also got an outlet for selling the product thats made through that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their next goal is to make the medals for the 2028 Olympics hosted in Los Angeles. Hardman says its only fitting to bring the manufacturing to the U.S. while we host, and even more fitting for them to be made in the Olympic City. I want those here at Olympic City, USA. I already know how I want to do it. We just need to forge the partnerships, forging the partnerships, pun intended, but I want that medal to be made right here in Colorado Springs. Not some multinational, not some foreign entity, said Hardman. Hardman says many of the kids who take his classes eventually become employees at his manufacturing company, Excalibur Outdoors USA. Of course, you can always take classes at Kilroys Workshop just for fun. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) on Tuesday announced that Utah blocked a land sale to a company he said is linked to the Chinese military. The governor said the state blocked the sale near the Provo airport after it was discovered that the purchasing company, a defense manufacturing company, was linked to the Chinese government. The company, Cirrus Aircraft, is majority-owned by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. "Utah is reaffirming a strong message that its been sending for several years: We will not allow adversarial foreign entities to buy up strategic land in our state," Cox said Tuesday. "The proposed investment was millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs. I dont care. We are not for sale. Cox said AVIC manufactures fighter jets, helicopters, and drones for the Peoples Liberation Army, the Chinese military. A recently-passed Utah law prohibits countries on the restricted foreign entities list from purchasing land or property in the state. Republican state Rep. Candice Pierucci, who worked to get the law through the state legislature, hailed the governors announcement. "Its exciting to see we stopped the transaction from happening right by the Provo airport and thats a direct result of the law," she told FOX 13 News Salt Lake City. Featured Local Savings China owns a significant amount of farmland and most of it is concentrated in Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, Utah, and Florida, according to the Department of Agriculture. As of 2023, Chinese firms and investors owned 277,336 acres of agricultural land throughout the country and 33,035 acres in Utah. From a national security standpoint, this effort is crucial, Cox said. Some of the most important military missions and testing activities in the Department of Defense are conducted right here in Utah, and some of those missions can only happen here. Still, the USDA report shows Chinese ownership represents just a small fraction of all foreign-held farmland in the U.S. TRUMP REVERSES RESTRICTIONS ON NVIDIA SELLING CHIPS TO CHINA During the press conference, Cox criticized the Chinese government for restricting The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' operations in Beijing. Last month, the Chinese government banned Mormon church activities in the country. "Its clear what China is attempting to do here. Theyre using the right to worship as leverage. This is personal for us. Utahs own story is rooted in the right to worship. Religious liberty is not a bargaining chip, he said. Not for land deals, not for trade, not for diplomacy. German prosecutors said that additional parents have contacted authorities following the arrest of a 20-year-old man believed to be the ringleader of a group of paedophiles suspected of having sexually abused children online under the alias "White Tiger." Some of the parents expressed concern that their children may also have been targeted, Senior Public Prosecutor Mia Sperling-Karstens told dpa. Investigators are reviewing the information provided. The man, a German-Iranian national, was arrested in mid-June at his parents' home in Hamburg. He is accused of leading a group of cybercriminals who allegedly coerced at least eight minors aged 11 to 15 from Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States into acts of self-harm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to German prosecutors, the man targeted children who were struggling, including in suicide forums. He is said to have won their trust before making his victims emotionally dependent on him in order to make them harm themselves, to the point of suicide. One 13-year-old boy from the US is believed to have died by suicide, while a 14-year-old girl from Canada reportedly attempted to take her own life. The suspect, who denies the accusations, remains in custody and faces charges of murder, attempted murder, grievous bodily harm, sexual abuse of children and possession of child pornographic material. So far, there is no evidence the international group known as 764 has other members in Hamburg, prosecutors said. Students getting their lunch at a primary school in Atlanta, Georgia. (File photo by Amanda Mills/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) COLUMBIA Thousands more students in South Carolina can eat free breakfasts and lunches this school year due to increased participation in a federal program allowing universal cafeteria meals. Three additional K-12 school districts Berkeley County, Dorchester 2, and Spartanburg 5 are participating in whats called the Community Eligibility Provision program, according to the districts. That means they will no longer charge any child for a school meal, and no parent will need to fill out an eligibility form. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They join 59 school districts already enrolled in the 15-year-old program. Under federal rules amended in 2023 to make qualifying easier, if at least 25% of students in a district automatically qualify for no-cost meals because of their familys income, then all students can eat for free: Applications are no longer required. And in a state where more than 60% of K-12 students live in poverty, theres only one school district that doesnt qualify for the program: Fort Mill (York 4), just south of Charlotte, North Carolina. The added participation follows the Legislature passing a law in May meant to encourage all eligible school districts in South Carolina to sign up, said Sen. Tom Davis, chief sponsor of the bipartisan legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The law didnt come with any money to help cover costs or penalty for not participating. Instead, it requires school boards that choose not to participate to pass a resolution explaining to the public why theyre not. The objective is to have 100% participation so every student can eat, said Davis, R-Beaufort. The law mimics a clause thats been in the state budget since 2018. At the time, federal rules required at least 40% of students to automatically qualify for no-cost meals to waive application requirements for everyone. When the rules changed in 2023, 58 districts were participating. Davis hopes putting the annual budget directive into permanent state law continues to increase participation as more people find out about it and force school boards to put in writing why theyre opting out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Participation gets rid of the paperwork requirements that can result in very needy students going hungry or getting picked on. Thats because not all qualifying parents fill out the necessary forms for free- or reduced-price meals and, when they do, students can get singled out by their peers. If all students eat for free, no ones bullied or shamed, advocates say. However, the federal government doesnt cover the cost for all students. Eligible districts that didnt participate in 2024-2025 Anderson 1 Berkeley County* Charleston County Dorchester 2* Greenville County Lancaster County Lexington 1 Lexington-Richland 5 Richland 2 Spartanburg 2 Spartanburg 5* York 2 (Clover) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement *These districts have announced they will participate during the 2025-2026 school year. Source: SC Department of Education Previous legislation that would have required the state to cover the difference never got a vote. While the budget clause had no enforcement teeth, it did result in more individual schools offering universal meals, Davis said. Of South Carolinas 71 school districts eligible for the program, nine arent offering universal meals district-wide in 2025-26, according to state Department of Education data. However, eight of those offer no-cost meals to all students in at least some schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clover schools (York 2) is the one eligible district where no school offers universal free meals. Thats because its too expensive, spokeswoman Stephanie Knott told the SC Daily Gazette. She didnt say how much it would cost the district to participate but noted it barely qualifies, with 26.75% of students automatically eligible, so the federal government would kick in little help. Spartanburg 5, which has about 11,000 students, had been considering a district-wide expansion for years, said Penny Dininny, the districts chief financial officer. The district offered free meals to all elementary and intermediary school students beginning in 2023 before deciding to expand for the coming school year. The state law was part of the discussion, she said. Lancaster County School Board members decided the cost of expanding district-wide was too expensive. The cost estimate in 2023, the last time they voted on a resolution, was an additional $2 million. So, they opted to offer it at the individual schools that qualified, according to district documents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Richland 2 in suburban northeast Columbia offers free meals at 25 of its 33 schools, said spokeswoman Darci Rush. Expanding to the remaining schools is not financially feasible, with an estimated cost of just over $1.9 million, Rush said. Thats in comparison to the $287,000 the district spent on school lunches during the most recent year, she added. Lexington-Richland 5, the suburban district northwest of Columbia, provides free meals to all students in 13 schools. Expanding that to all 22 possible schools is not cost efficient because it would cost the district about $1.7 million each year, said spokeswoman Laura McElveen, noting that nonparticipating schools have lower percentages of poor students. Spokespeople for the other districts not participating either did not respond to requests for comment or answer questions about why the districts didnt participate. Like York 2, Lexington-Richland 5 only recently qualified for district-wide participation, as just under 40% of its total student population is automatically eligible for free meals. The others newly eligible due to the 2023 rule change are Aiken County and Lexington 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Encouraging districts to offer free meals to as many students as possible benefits everyone, said Sue Berkowitz, director of Appleseed Legal Justice Center. Hungry children are more likely to perform poorly in school and misbehave, she said. We want to make sure kids dont go hungry, and the easiest way to make sure kids dont go hungry is to make sure they have access to nutritious meals at school, Berkowitz said. Future eligibility changes? Rep. Jermaine Johnson, who has advocated for free lunch programs, praised the idea behind the law. Im a big supporter of things like this, said Johnson, a Columbia Democrat. But he questioned whether eligibility could drop due to the federal law signed by President Donald Trump on July Fourth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The big, beautiful bill as proposed by the House included a provision that would have raised the threshold for eligibility from 25% to 60% of students living in poverty making it more difficult than ever in the programs history to qualify for universal free meals. However, that proposal didnt make it into law. The 25% threshold did not change. But changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, could reduce the number of qualified schools nationwide, according to the federal think tank Food Research and Action Center. Thats because students automatically qualify for free meals if their families are enrolled in other benefit programs, including SNAP. And participation in the Community Eligibility Provision program depends on at least 25% of students automatically qualifying without needing a separate approval process. Under existing SNAP rules, people under 55 who can work what the government calls able-bodied adults are limited to three months of grocery benefits over a three-year period unless they can prove they work, volunteer or attend job training at least 80 hours each month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new federal law expands that requirement to adults under 65 and no longer exempts parents of children older than 13. Its also unclear whether the state will need to start contributing to SNAP benefits, which are now fully covered by the federal government. The law requires states to pay a portion if their error rate tops 6%. South Carolinas error rate for the last fiscal year was 9.25%, according to the latest data released June 30. Under the big, beautiful law, that would require South Carolina to pay 10% of the cost. How much South Carolina may need to contribute will depend on if and how well the state improves in doling out benefits, based on a federal review of sampled beneficiaries. (The 2023 error rate was a whopping 22.6%.) It would be up to the Legislature to decide whether to pay the full share, reduce eligibility for SNAP, or opt out. The potential cost-sharing wont be required until 2028, based on 2026 data. So how the school meal program might be impacted remains unclear, Davis said. Students could still automatically qualify for free meals through enrollment in other benefit programs, including Medicaid. And the federal laws deepest cost-cutting provisions for Medicaid dont apply to South Carolina. But more families may rely on their children getting a free meal at school if they lose their SNAP benefits, Berkowitz said. The state law is more important now than it ever was, she said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE What if my district isnt participating? School districts that arent offering free school meals to all students must be transparent about why, according to state law. The one exception for 2025-26 is Fort Mill (York 4), which isnt eligible for the program. School boards are required to vote on a resolution explaining the financial hardship. Heres what state law says: If a district is unable to participate in CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) because participation would cause a financial hardship, its board shall adopt a resolution stating that it is unable to participate in CEP and demonstrate the financial hardship. The resolution must be published on a public meeting agenda concurrently with the proposed district budget as an action item. A majority of the board members is required to approve any resolution under this subsection. The requirements of this subsection shall be suspended if CEP is suspended or discontinued by federal action. Editors note: This article was updated July 17 with a response from Lexington-Richland 5. Republicans moved one step closer to clawing back billions in foreign aid on Tuesday after Vice President JD Vance cast his latest tiebreaking vote to bring the package of DOGE-inspired cuts to the Senate floor. In a 51-50 vote, the Senate discharged the funding clawback, known as a rescissions request, out of the Appropriations Committee despite the reservations of centrists who fear the cuts will undermine American influence and global public health. Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky were the three Republican "no" votes, requiring Vance to revisit the chamber he once served in. In a statement after the vote, Collins said her opposition stemmed from a lack of clarity on all of the programs that would be included in the foreign aid cuts. She also did not want to strip local public TV and radio stations of funding. "The rescissions package has a big problem; nobody really knows what program reductions are in it," Collins said. "That isnt because we havent had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that [White House Office of Management and Budget] has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process." This was Vance's sixth tiebreaker in the Senate, following his deciding vote on July 1 to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Republicans are expected to open debate on the legislation, including $1.1 billion in public broadcasting cuts, in a second vote planned for Tuesday evening. A final vote is expected later this week, but hurdles remain. The White House has pressured the GOP-led Congress to pass the Department of Government Efficiency, with President Donald Trump threatening political consequences for any Republican who votes no. Congress has a tight timeline to send the cuts, totaling roughly $9 billion, back to the House, which narrowly approved the legislation in June. The bill targets funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which became slightly smaller after Republicans agreed to exempt $400 million for PEPFAR, a Bush-era AIDS prevention program, in a significant concession to centrists wavering on the White House request. If Congress does not approve the request by Friday, the clawback statute says the White House must spend the funds before the end of fiscal 2025, which ends on Sept. 30. Featured Local Savings Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said the rescission is in a quest to do something meaningful when it comes to reducing the size and scope of the federal government, particularly in areas of our government where we know there is waste, fraud, and abuse. There has been a renewed commitment to reducing spending, Thune added. Collins, who leads the Appropriations Committee, said earlier in the day she was grateful that PEPFAR would be removed but signaled she still has concerns with other problematic parts of the bill. Other Republicans, including McConnell, have expressed broader complaints that the rescission request could undermine Americas soft power on the world stage to deter adversaries. Democrats, none of whom voted to advance the rescission bill, condemned the proposed cuts as kneecapping life-saving foreign aid and vital funding for domestic news programs on NPR and PBS. To win over rural-state Republicans concerned about slashing broadcast funds for tribal communities, the administration promised to redirect a separate pool of money through the Interior Department to tribal broadcasting. DOGE comes along with its chainsaw approaches. They just cut, cut, cut, Senate Minority Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said. They have no idea what the consequences will be, and they dont give a hoot. SENATE REPUBLICANS TO SPARE GLOBAL AIDS PROGRAM FROM DOGE CUTS Schumer is trying to convince enough Republicans to buck final passage by threatening to retaliate with a de facto shutdown and withholding required Democratic votes later this year to fund the government. Republicans so far see it as a bluff to appease a frustrated base and are placing early bets that the latest shutdown rhetoric is a repeat of a claim made earlier this year that Schumer ultimately reversed. An Oxfordshire MP has presented a petition with more than 500 signatures, in parliament to get a local Post Office service back after it closed earlier this year. Lib Dem Henley and Thame MP Freddie van Mierlo, along with residents from Horspath village, just outside of Oxford has been campaigning to get it reopened. The branch closed in 2011 because of the Horizon scandal and the outreach service, operated by the Great Milton Post Office, opened at the Horspath Hub 3 years later. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Post Office says alternative services are within its criteria of being 3 miles or less away. Judy Kent ran the outpost service from Great Milton before it closed and said "getting the petition in front of politicians is a big step". Ms Kent explained that the post office was "very important" to the community in Horspath. She said: "Not a day went by when one or more people didn't say to me 'thank goodness you're here'". "There was a core of our customers who are very vulnerable, who haven't got much mobility and simply can't get to these other post offices." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She said the current proposal to expect customers to go from Horspath to Little Milton isn't "good enough". She said she hopes this gets turned around for the community but her optimism has been "up and down". "At the moment it's quite up and I have a lot more hope now," she added. A Post Office spokesperson said: "We apologise for any inconvenience that these two closures may cause. "The Post Office has undertaken a comprehensive review of the network to ensure that it continues to meet evolving customer needs in a very challenging economic climate." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "At this time we are not looking to replace Great Milton Post Office or Horspath Outreach Post Office where there have been declining customer sessions. "The alternative branch for Great Milton Post Office is Little Milton, which is 1.4 miles away. "There are three branches within three miles for Horspath with the closest being 2.14 miles away at Wheatley, with other options of Woodfarm and Risinghurst. "These meet our access criteria for Post Office provision of 99% of the UK population being within 3 miles, and 90% within 1 mile of a Post Office." You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. More on this story Related Links WASHINGTON (DC News Now) The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) issued a lookout for a truck after a man was shot in Northeast D.C. early Wednesday morning. Minutes before 3 a.m. on July 16, officers were called to the 1000 block of Eastern Ave. for a shooting. This is where the D.C. and Maryland state lines meet. Upon arrival, officers found a man with a gunshot wound, and medics took him to the hospital for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Woman found stabbed in Northwest; DC police seek group of juveniles As the investigation developed, MPD issued a lookout for a white work truck with Maryland tags, 35235CH. If you have information about what led up to the shooting or the truck, call 202-727-9099 or text MPD at 50411. Check DCNewsNow.com for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Jul. 15A United States Senate vote this week could have dire consequences for a number of public broadcasting stations in Minnesota and across the country. Already passed by the U.S. House, the Senate will vote this week, possibly as early as Wednesday regarding the potential cut of $1 billion in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the company that distributes funding to public broadcasters across the nation, including Minnesota Public Radio in Minnesota. The bill is part of the Rescissions Act of 2025 handed down to Congress by the White House. The Senate Appropriations Committee has held a hearing already and will bring it to the Senate floor for debate and a vote in the coming days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This has been sort of a process of education. Making sure our listeners and lawmakers understand the value of public media and what we do," said MPR Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations Anissa Rogness. "Public media is a public service provided to the public for free." With 1,300 stations across the nation, public broadcasting is seen by supporters as one of the best ways to get messaging out in a variety of areas, including weather-related announcements, especially in smaller-market areas including those in northern Minnesota. Should funding be cut then those smaller stations could see detrimental impacts within just a few months following the vote. According to Rogness, 18%-19% of stations across the nation received 30% revenue through CPB including some in the northern part of the state. Thirty four stations nationally receive 50% or more, meaning a cut in funding of this magnitude could result in closings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to MPR Communications Director Megan Ryan, Austin's KSMQ doesn't reach that 30% threshold having received a Television Community Service Grant of $870,180 in 2024 and system support of around $12,953. Should this package pass the Senate and is signed into law, then funding for fiscal year 2026 and 2027 would both be taken away, impacting funding to be delivered by the CPB to those stations across the nation and putting them in danger. "We're in a day and age where the numbers of journalists have been on the decline," Rogness said. "There are significant parts of the country we consider news deserts. How does that all fit together?" In particular, funding could strip away a valuable weather resource as National Public Radio gets information straight from FEMA and then passes that information down the line to local stations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If local stations close, large areas of populations may not get necessary weather-related announcements. Information provided by MPR, shows that the five stations in northern Minnesota impact an estimated 770,377 people alone. But it's not just weather, as other important programming run through public media could be impacted. "We have a vision here of being a public media system that can connect Americans through shared information, shared news, shared cultural programming ... This is a time where people need to be able to get that information and access that cultural programming at no cost to them," Rogness said. "If that goes away, that really damages the fabric of our American." As those in public media play a waiting game, there is some optimism that this is not strictly a partisan issue. Rogness said that Democrats largely support public media, but there are also indicators of support on the Republican side including South Dakota's Sen. Mike Rounds, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Main. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, Rogness said it doesn't take away from the anxiety surrounding this upcoming vote. "It is frustrating," she said. "We can plan as best as we can. Some of those things that have been changing have been coming pretty fast and furiously. Trying to figure out how to best prepare for that and best explain it and how to plan going forward is really frustrating." In the meantime, those in public media will be doing what they can to further strengthen the base of how important public broadcasting is. "The thing I would mention is if people value public media and the information, news programming that they receive from it, please reach out to your member of Congress and let them know," Rogness said. "It's a vital service and it's worth protecting." A Westminster committee has called for greater transparency over how the Scottish government is financed. The Scottish Affairs Committee made the recommendation in a report having examined the effectiveness of the Barnett formula - the measure used to work out how much money the UK government sends to devolved nations each year. The Scottish and UK governments have long-disputed whether the formula is fair since its introduction in 1978. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MPs agreed that although the mechanism was "fit for purpose" it was not perfect, and that UK ministers should be more transparent about their calculations. The committee also said consideration should be given to increasing Scottish ministers' ability to borrow cash for infrastructure projects. Scottish finance secretary Shona Robison reiterated support for full fiscal autonomy in written evidence to the committee [PA Media] The Scottish government said the committee's report confirmed its finances are largely dictated by Westminster. But the UK government said Scotland had received a record settlement in the recent spending review. Patricia Ferguson, chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, said the Barnett formula had been the subject of continued debate since its introduction almost 50 years ago. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She added: "Throughout our inquiry we've scrutinised it from every angle and ultimately found that the formula is fit for purpose and support its continued use to determine Scotland's funding levels. "The formula is in no way perfect, but the committee heard no convincing evidence that there is any need for the formula to be reformed significantly, or that there is a workable alternative." The Labour MP for Glasgow West said the report set out ways to improve the way it operates in practice by "improving transparency" and making changes to the Scotland's broader financial framework. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scotland's Finance Secretary Shona Robison welcomed the findings. She said: "This report rightly recognises that Scotland's finances remain largely dictated by the UK government's spending decisions, irrespective of the impact on Scottish public services. "That has meant Scotland has been left with a shortfall of 400m to pay for the chancellor's national insurance increase, and saw Scotland short-changed by more than a billion pounds over the next three years at the recent Spending Review." Robison said the decision to tax higher earners more in Scotland helped support public services and provide free tuition, prescriptions and the Scottish Child Payment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said the June spending review provided the Scottish government with an extra 9.1bn. He added that, thanks to the formula, spending per head in Scotland was around 20% higher than the rest of the UK. Murray said: "This report confirms that it appears to be the position of the Scottish government to scrap that formula that delivers higher funding. "They should explain why they want less money for public services in Scotland. "Their plans for full fiscal autonomy would mean a 12bn cut in public spending for Scotland." Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said spending per head in Scotland was around 20% higher than the rest of the UK [EPA] The committee supported the continued use of the "imperfect" formula and recommended a series of measures to the UK government to improve its operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a bid to improve transparency it called for greater clarity on how comparability percentages are calculated. This could be addressed by publishing details of its calculations in future funding policy statements. The committee also expressed concern about the impact of UK government spending decisions on the Scottish government's budget "often with little warning". It said ministers in Edinburgh should have more fiscal flexibility and greater capital borrowing powers. Currently, the Scottish government is limited to borrowing 600m for day-to-day spending and 450m for capital projects. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In written evidence to the committee, Robison reiterated support for full fiscal autonomy - an arrangement which would see powers over tax and spending devolved. But the report described this as an "unrealistic prospect" and added there was not a compelling case that it would automatically result in higher levels of funding for Scotland. Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene invoked the Bible on Wednesday to declare her opposition to a landmark cryptocurrency bill, equating the legislations potential impact to the Biblical end of times. Referring to a passage of the book of Revelation, Greene insinuated that if the bill, called the GENIUS Act, did not explicitly ban digital currency from being issued by a central bank, it could lead to the demise of the world. I will not vote for this, Greene wrote on X. The only way to guarantee a ban on a central bank digital currency is through law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Georgia lawmaker then went on to cite Revelation 13:16-17, which claims each person, regardless of wealth or status, must have the mark of the beast a metaphor for evil and often associated with 666 in order to participate in buying or selling. It is part of the Biblical story of Armageddon. The GENIUS bill, which stands for Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act, seeks to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins a form of cryptocurrency that is considered less volatile than typical cryptocurrency. If passed, it would be the first major piece of legislation to create regulations around stablecoin, which have become popular digital currencies. Stablecoins function like digital tokens and are pegged to more stable assets such as the U.S. dollar. Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted that a US bill seeking to regulate stablecoin could lead to the Biblical end of times (REUTERS) Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted that a US bill seeking to regulate stablecoin could lead to the Biblical end of times (REUTERS) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supporters of the bill, which includes President Donald Trump, believe it could expand the use of stablecoin by providing a framework to protect consumers. But opponents believe its not strict enough and leaves too much room for risk. But Greene believes the act should include a provision explicitly banning central bank digital currency. Some lawmakers and crypto advocates have raised concerns that if digital currencies were to become more integrated in the U.S. financial system that authorities, such as the Federal Reserve, could create a centralized bank to control or monitor cryptocurrency. One of the aspects of crypto that attracts people is its decentralized nature. The House is already voting on another piece of legislation, called the Anti-Central Bank Digital Currency Surveillance State Act, that addresses those concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greene often shares her perspective on the intersection between her religious beliefs and her political endeavors. On X, shortly before sharing her view on the GENIUS Act, Greene said her blind loyalty and faith was only in God and Jesus Christ. Its widely agreed upon that lawmakers are, above all, loyal to the Constitution, which is what they pledge when they take the oath of office. Students arrive to Creative Arts Secondary School by school bus on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Saint Paul, Minn. (Ellen Schmidt/Minnesota Reformer) Minnesota school districts are waiting on over $74 million in federal education funding after the U.S. Department of Education failed to provide states with information about their grant awards by July 1. On Monday, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joined a lawsuit with 22 other state attorneys general suing to unblock the funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The withheld funds are part of federal education grants known as title grants. Although Title I, the largest of the federal grants, is not affected, the feds move does impact parts of Titles II, III and IV. Minneapolis Public Schools, the states fourth largest school district, said in a statement that it is still assessing the potential impact. The statement says about $4.5 million is being withheld from the district, whose annual operating budget is roughly $725 million. St. Paul Public Schools has had $7.2 million in funding held back. The district, whose annual budget is about $750 million, has imposed a hiring freeze on any new positions while it sorts out the impact. Tom Sager, head of finance for St. Paul Public Schools, said in an interview that the district is not currently planning to make any changes to its programs or services for next school year. He said the district maintains reserve funds and will use these to pay for services typically covered by the withheld funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement School districts budgets are already stretched and every dollar does matter in terms of program delivery and opportunities for students, Sager said. Sager estimates that about 20,000 or more students in St. Paul Public Schools are entitled to the services the withheld funding pays for, because they qualify as low-income or English learners. The federal funds also allow the district to allocate its unrestricted state and local funds to things that affect all students, like lowering class sizes, he said. In St. Paul, Sager estimates the federal funds pay for up to 60 employees out of around 6,000 district employees. The Minnesota Department of Education has not provided school districts with guidance about how to handle the withheld funding, according to Sager. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Willie Jett, the state commissioner of the Department of Education, sent a letter to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon on June 26, asking for the funding to be released before the July 1 deadline. On July 3, a statement from the federal Office of Management and Budget said the funds were being withheld because districts were using the money in ways contrary to the administrations agenda. The amount of the grants is determined by formulas that were most recently approved by Congress and President Trump in March 2025 as part of a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. Under current law, the executive branch does not have legal authority to cancel appropriations made by Congress. (The Supreme Court ruled in a different Department of Education case this week that the Trump administration, for now, can proceed with mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the U.S. Department of Education ordered earlier this year, but the grant funding issue has not been adjudicated yet.) Districts receive funding based on a mixture of factors including enrollment, poverty level and number of students learning English. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement School districts can spend the funds in several ways. Some of the uses include teacher professional development; class size reductions; improving academic outcomes; after school programs; providing services for students learning English; as well as providing services for students whose parents work in seasonal jobs. The impact of the funding is not just on public school districts. A portion of the withheld funds, known as Title IV part B, is also used by non-public schools, faith-based organizations and community organizations to provide services for children outside of the school day. And some of the funding for adult basic education funds programs at community colleges. Minnesotas largest school districts are missing out on the most funding, according to data from New America, a think tank. About one quarter of the funding withheld from Minnesota school districts is owed to just three districts: Anoka-Hennepin Public Schools, St. Paul and Minneapolis, which are the largest, second and fourth largest districts in the state, respectively. Although the withheld funding makes up a small percentage of the overall budgets for the impacted districts, educators fear that this is just the start, while also noting the constitutional question at play. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres also a bigger picture here, Sager said. Congress controls these funds. And then theyre withheld (by Trump). Theres a concern about the process of that, too. Were focused on students and their families, but thats another element as a citizen. Small districts are at risk, too: Some that lose the most funding per pupil are rural districts with relatively few students. This is because some of the title grants provide a minimum amount per school district, not just per pupil amounts. Faribault Public Schools could lose as much as $300,000. In a statement, Jamie Bente, the superintendent, said the district would have to make cuts or shift money to backfill: Either of which would have an impact on our students, our staff, or both, Bente said. Federal money accounts for about 10% of funding for public education in Minnesota. With the state facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit in the next biennium, and schools already making significant cutbacks, districts will struggle to replace the lost federal money with state and local revenue. Minnesota school districts must have a board-approved balanced budget in place by July 1, the start of their fiscal year. Unless the funds are released soon, school districts face the prospect of re-working the budgets they just approved to account for the lost funding. Far-Left Antifa member Benjamin Song accused of helping ambush an ICE facility was arrested Tuesday evening. Now, officials have published his mugshot and charged him with three crimes. Federal agents busted Song, 32, around 6 p.m. on July 15 in north Dallas, as The Dallas Express previously reported. He was a fugitive allegedly involved in an ambush at an ICE detention facility in Alvarado near Fort Worth which wounded a police officer on July 4. Song currently sits in the Johnson County Jail, facing a total bond of $15 million. He is charged with three crimes: aiding in commission of terrorism, engaging in organized criminal activity, and aggravated assault on public servant. An FBI tactical team found Song after entering a unit in the Meadowcrest Apartments, at 5200 Meadowcreek Dr. in Far North Dallas, Johnson County District Attorney Tim Good previously told The Dallas Express. He said Song will face federal charges and state charges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Song was with a woman and had multiple firearms in the apartment, according to Good. The FBI their tactical team came in, hit the location, and thats exactly where he was, Good said at the time. The Dallas Express visited the apartment complex. Linda Saucedo, the apartments district manager, told The Dallas Express the capture of Song came as a surprise, but the apartments door [is] back on now. Song was staying with a female resident who was likely his girlfriend, according to Saucedo. Apartment staff perform record checks on residents, according to Saucedo, adding that Songs apparent girlfriend had a clean background, and Song was not a resident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Dallas Express asked to see the apartment where Song was staying, but Saucedo declined. Authorities offered a $35,000 reward for information leading to Songs arrest $25,000 from the FBI and $10,000 from Gov. Greg Abbott, as The Dallas Express previously reported. Song allegedly purchased four firearms used by far-lef militants in the ambush on the Prairieland ICE Detention Facility on July 4. The assailants reportedly dressed in black body armor and used vandalism to lure ICE officers outside the facility, before opening fire. They shot a responding Alvarado police officer in the neck. Song was reportedly a member of the Elm Fork chapter of the John Brown Gun Club, a self-described Antifa militant group. As The Dallas Express previously reported, Song was featured in Anarcho-Airsoftist combat training videos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, law enforcement busted a Dallas residence in search of Song, as The Dallas Express reported. Instead of locating Song, they found more than 40 firearms, socialist propaganda, and fellow members of the John Brown Gun Club including one with a violent past, who reportedly now identifies as transgender. Ten suspects in the ambush two of whom identify as transgender were charged on July 7. Two others were charged on July 14 for allegedly assisting Song in evading arrest. One more individual was charged with evidence tampering. The fourteen individuals who planned and participated in these heinous acts will be prosecuted, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Nancy Larson said in a statement at the time of the arrest. We expect justice will be swift. DOVER, Wis. (WFRV) A multi-vehicle crash in Wisconsin left an Illinois man dead and two others seriously injured on Sunday evening. According to the Kansasville Fire and Rescue Department, officials were dispatched to a reported motorcycle crash at South Beaumont Avenue near Cassandra Court in Dover, Wisconsin. Crews arrived to find two wrecked motorcycles and a GMC Terrain involved. Wisconsin woman severely injured from crashing into light post & building, caused by medical event Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One motorcycle had a driver and passenger, while the other was just occupied by the driver. The SUV had a driver and one passenger. All three motorcyclists suffered serious injuries, and Flight for Life helicopters were requested. One of the motorcyclists, a 72-year-old man from Illinois, died from his injuries, while the other two were taken to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa with serious injuries that are not believed to be life-threatening. 10-year-old Wisconsin boy taken into custody after fire at Walmart, estimated merchandise losses in the millions The GMC occupants were assessed for injuries but declined transport. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No additional details are available as the investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. Multiple Denver agencies welcome Idaho firefighter injured after deadly ambush DENVER (KDVR) Multiple agencies from the Denver Metro area showed their support for a firefighter and engineer who was injured in the deadly ambush in Idaho on June 29. The ambush was on Canfield Mountain in Coeur dAlene, Idaho, which left two firefighters dead and one injured. FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox The injured Coeur dAlene firefighter, Dave Tysdal, was shot in the back during the ambush. After being shot, Tysdal is said to have helped save the lives of other first responders by warning them to stay away from the area, stated the Coeur dAlene Fire Department in a post to Facebook. Coeur dAlene firefighter, Dave Tysdal, sent off from an Idaho hospital to Colorado (Courtesy: Coeur dAlene Fire Department) The fire department also said, Tysdals injuries include a collapsed lung, shattered ribs, and spinal swelling. He has not been able to move his legs since the shooting, but started voluntarily moving the toes on his left foot on Sunday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tysdal was sent off from a hospital in Coeur dAlene to be transferred to a rehab hospital in Colorado to continue his recovery. South Metro Fire Rescue posted a video of Tysdals arrival at the Centennial Airport, where the multiple agencies from Denver can be seen welcoming and clapping for Tysdal. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX31 Denver. EXCLUSIVE Virginia GOP candidate John Reid, who is running for lieutenant governor, released a new policy plan on Wednesday that will expand access to child care for parents while reducing government spending and bolstering resources for home-based and faith-based providers. National Republicans are riding the wave of victory from President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill," which includes increasing the child tax credit to $2,200 for each child, an increase from $2,000. Reid's proposal encourages parents to take advantage of the child tax credit and advocates a significant expansion of the state-level child tax credit to cover child care in Virginia. It also calls for reducing government spending in Virginia and looks instead to the private sector to create incentives for employer-sponsored child care through public-private partnerships through tax credits. These public-private partnerships would entail converting unused properties into additional child care facilities and expanding vocational and trade-based pathways for child care workers. The plan contrasts with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger, whose child care plan relies on government subsidizing programs, employer grants, and the creation of new child care facilities on vacant properties. "While Abigails plan is a starting point, it doesnt go nearly far enough to keep government out of the way and allow free-market opportunity and investment in childcare," Reid said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. "My approach is about trusting parents and that means putting money back in families pockets through tax relief, expanding vocational training through dual enrollment, and unleashing the private sector to help meet demand." We can address the childcare shortage without creating another government-run system," he continued. "By cutting red tape, incentivizing local solutions, and encouraging business investment, we can expand access in a way thats affordable, sustainable, and actually works for Virginia families. Both Reid, who is running against Democratic state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, and Spanberger have argued that affordable childcare is a necessity for struggling Virginia families and that the Commonwealth needs more qualified child care professionals. Featured Local Savings The two candidates have also supported dual enrollment programs with community colleges to help increase the pipeline of child care workers, although Reid has expressed support for local vocational schools to help increase the number of child care workers. Reid's proposal would help put millions of dollars back into the pockets of families to decide on the best child care program. Last week, Spanberger announced her affordable child care plan, including reducing the wait list for the child care subsidy program. In a statement to the Washington Examiner, her campaign pointed to the comments concerned parents have shared with Spanberger about the high costs of child care. As Governor, she has a plan to ensure more Virginians can afford childcare by making sure more families can participate in the childcare programs the Commonwealth offers, working with localities to find new sites for providers, and preparing more Virginians to take on new childcare roles," said TaNisha Cameron, a campaign spokeswoman. "As a parent of three kids in Virginia public schools, she understands the challenges facing families across Virginia and will be focused on lowering childcare costs and costs overall on day one. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER LEADS WINSOME EARLE-SEARS IN NEW VCU POLL Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R-VA), the GOP gubernatorial nominee, has advocated her Winsome CARES plan that would clear the state's child care waitlist, retain educators, and, similarly to Reid, expand public-private partnerships. The Virginia statewide races in November will be among the most closely watched elections this year, along with New Jersey, regarding how strong the Republican brand is under a second Trump presidency. Republicans currently control the governor's mansion as well as the lieutenant governor and attorney general positions. Earle-Sears is pushing to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) and help the GOP ticket maintain control of the three statewide seats. A staffer at a museum in Washington, D.C., was surprised to spot a duck on a fifth-story terrace. Yet the webbed-footed creature had good reason to be there: It was going to be a mom. What's happening? Earlier this spring, Planet Word events manager Nick Olsen stumbled across the duck on the terrace, where the immersive language museum often hosts events. "I was like, 'What's going on?'" Olsen told The Washington Post, which detailed the duck's journey. "... I thought, 'What are you doing five stories off the ground in downtown?'" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It turns out the duck decided to make use of one of the terrace's planters, laying eight eggs in total. City wildlife experts told The Post the eggs would hatch within 24 to 28 days. Why is this important? The discovery resulted in the launch of "Duck Watch," with Planet Word setting up a Duck Cam so the public could observe the terrace's newest residents. The cam provided onlookers with a heartwarming and respectful way to engage with nature, yet the duck's decision to nest on the terrace highlights a more worrying trend that habitat loss due to urban development is contributing to an uptick in unexpected wildlife encounters. Rising global temperatures, which have altered the makeup of habitats and supercharged extreme weather events, are also a factor, as a growing number of creatures are beginning to search for resources in human-inhabited areas due to biodiversity loss. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The ducks are taking advantage of habitat we've built," April Linton, president of rescue center City Wildlife and Duck Watch coordinator, told the Post. While some encounters merely cause a short-term inconvenience for humans in D.C., the museum temporarily halted terrace events to protect soon-to-be hatchlings others have found themselves in more dangerous situations with predators like bears and coyotes looking for food. What's being done about this? Wildlife rehabilitation centers like City Wildlife are among the organizations working to rescue animals threatened by urban development and promote harmonious coexistence. Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. As for the mother duck on the terrace, Linton told The Post that her nesting spot itself was "very safe," but City Wildlife would step in once the eggs hatched in late April to prevent the hatchlings from falling over the rooftop ledge, as they wouldn't be able to fly for at least 11 weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, several Duck Watch observers encouraged others to take action if they encountered a similar situation in their community. "FYI, if you spot a duck nest in your home or neighborhood, you can report it to City Wildlife! Their Duck Watch program monitors mallard nests and helps make sure the mama duck and ducklings safely make it to the nearest body of water," added one Reddit user in a thread dedicated to the museum's Duck Watch. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) Hundreds gathered in Jackson on Tuesday to celebrate the life of Gospel legend Mama Mosie Burks. The longtime soloist for the Mississippi Mass Choir passed away at the age of 92. Burks spent decades lifting hearts through song. Her unmistakable voice and joyful spirit helped define the sound of the Mississippi Mass Choir, earning her fans across the globe. Whenever she entered the room, its like automatically we know that we had entered into a place where God is. She just had a spirit like none other, said Cherrish Adam, a member of the choir. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Family, friends and fans filled Greater Fairview Baptist Church on Tuesday to honor her legacy. The musical celebration featured powerful tributes and soul stirring performances, as people shared their love for Burks. She joined the choir in the mid-1990s and become known for several hits, including Im Not Tired Yet, and When I Rose This Morning. Her final performance with the Mississippi Mass Choir happened during their 50th anniversary celebration in 2020. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. Musician, secretary, veteran Army sharpshooter among 9 killed in fire at Fall Rivers Gabriel House Eight of the nine people who perished in a fire that tore through an assisted-living facility in Fall River on Sunday night have now been identified by investigators. Memorial grows outside Gabriel House while affected residents moved to nearby assisted living homes In an update on Wednesday afternoon, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III identified the eighth victim as 77-year-old Joseph Wilansky. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The identity of the ninth victim, a 70-year-old woman, is not being publicly released as next of kin notification is still pending. One other resident, a 66-year-old woman, remains hospitalized in critical condition. On Monday, Quinn identified 7 of the 9 victims as 64-year-old Rui Albernaz, 61-year-old Ronald Codega, 69-year-old Margaret Duddy, 78-year-old Robert King, 71-year-old Kim Mackin, 78-year-old Richard Rochon, and 86-year-old Eleanor Willett. Gabriel House had seen better days before the deadly fire broke out. The 100-unit assisted-living facility that burned Sunday night, killing nine people so far, opened in 1999 in Fall River, Massachusetts. Some photos on its Facebook page show neat rooms but older-looking carpeting and furniture. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eleanor Willetts granddaughter didnt like the assisted-living center, but 86-year-old Willett wanted something that left her money to play the slots at a casino. She earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford a higher-priced assisted-living facility, Holly Mallowes told The Associated Press Tuesday. She said, I dont need much, but a roof over my head and someplace to put my sewing machine, Mallowes said. Willett was the oldest to die. Heres what is known so far about the victims. Eleanor Willett A Massachusetts native, Willett spent more than 20 years as a secretary and even worked briefly as a cocktail waitress, her granddaughter said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her home was always a base for everyone in her family, Mallowes said. My mom worked a lot and Grammys was always a place we called home, said Mallowes, 45. We lived with her often. She was very strong. She outlived two husbands and raised five children. She was absolutely a joy. This undated photo provided by Holly Mallowes shows Eleanor Willett, a victim of a fire at Gabriel House, the assisted-living facility where she lived in Fall River, Mass. (Holly Mallowes via AP) Mallowes, a paralegal who lives in Dartmouth, described her grandmother as very religious and a devout Catholic. She wanted to be somewhat independent, Mallowes said of Willetts decision to move to Gabriel House in Fall River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boston. To leave her home alone all day, I was too afraid something might happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As our grandparents and parents get older, we say Ill make it to go see them a different day and you always put it off, Mallowes said. See them while you can. Tomorrow is not promised. Kim Mackin Mackin, 71, was a violist who performed in Boston-area orchestras, according to her nephew, Austin Mackin. She was described in a statement from family members as gifted beyond words. This 1993 photo provided by Austin Mackin shows Kim Mackin in Provincetown, Mass. (Austin Mackin via AP) We will all miss Kimmy, the statement read. Beyond being exceptionally kind, few knew that she was a brilliant musician. Kim Mackin received a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music and,too after graduating, toured the world as first chair viola. Richard Rochon Breonna Cestodio described her 78-year-old uncle, Rochon, as a very quiet guy, yet a great guy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He kept to himself, she told reporters. He was a sharpshooter in the Army. He loved getting visits from all of his nieces and nephews. Rochon moved into Gabriel House about a year ago. Cestodio had little good to say about the facility, remarking that it always seemed hot inside the building. Every time you visited him, he was sweating, she said. No air in the building. I never saw any workers, except in one closed-off section. I never saw any workers. RELATED: Fall River assisted-living home cited for late reports of safety incidents years before deadly fire Impossible situation: Fall River chief reflects on response to deadly fire at assisted-living home Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fall River mayor responds to allegations of inadequate staffing during deadly fire response Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW Realtor Cindy Myrex (left) and Cullman City Councilman Clint Hollingsworth (right) will face each other in the Aug. 12 runoff for the Republican nomination for House District 12 in Cullman County. (Left: Courtesy Cindy Myrex; Right: Courtesy Clint Hollingsworth) A Republican House primary in Cullman County appeared headed to a runoff Tuesday evening, though unofficial returns showed one candidate was within a dozen votes of winning the GOP nomination outright. As of 9:43 p.m., Smith Lake realtor Cindy Myrex received 2,129 votes (49.8%) in the GOP primary for House District 12, according to unofficial results from the Alabama Secretary of States Office. Cullman City Councilman Clint Hollingsworth received 1,848 votes (43.2%). Heather Doyle, a realtor, and Dan McWhorter, a sales manager, received 3.5% and 3.4%, respectively. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Secretary of States office reported turnout at 12.4%, with 4,276 votes cast. Myrex would need just 10 more votes in the total ballots cast to get the nomination without a runoff. The campaigns did not have an immediate comment on the results Tuesday evening. Messages seeking comment were left with all four campaigns. Hollingsworth campaigned on conservative values, expanding broadband access in rural Alabama, small business and mental health. He has served on the Cullman City Council for 17 years. Myrex, a first-time candidate, planned to run for the seat in the 2026 midterm elections and campaigned on mental health care in public schools and economic growth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to campaign finance records, Hollingsworth raised $123,478.34 and spent $107,090.34. Most of his contributions came from individuals, but the SV&B political action committee (PAC) donated to the Hollingsworth campaign multiple times, according to the records. Myrex raised $124,166.29 and spent $97,484.20. Most of that came from individual donors, with the Alabama Veterans PAC and Farm PAC, the fundraising arm of the Alabama Farmers Federation, according to the records. Myrex and Hollingsworth will face each other in a runoff on Aug. 12. The winner of the special primary runoff will face Democratic nominee Matt Glover, a 40-year-old parts manager at a poultry plan and former Good Hope City Councilman. Glover said in an interview Tuesday night he is not surprised that Hollingsworth and Myrex are in a runoff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That was where all of the money was going, so seeing that it would be the eventual outcome than one of these two would run, he said. The seat opened up after Rep. Corey Harbison, R-Cullman, resigned in April. The district covers part of Cullman County and is solidly Republican. Harbison took over 85% of the vote in his re-election campaign in 2022. Researchers just got a step closer to understanding the origins of our solar system, with the discovery of an object orbiting the sundubbed "Ammonite." The findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Astronomy. Ammonite, or its scientific name 2023 KQ14, is known as a sednoid, which is a type of cosmic body circling the sun beyond Neptune with a highly eccentric orbit. It's only the fourth sednoid ever discovered. It comes as close as 66 astronomical units (AU) from the sun and as far away as 252 AU. One astronomical unit is equal to the average distance between Earth and the sun, or about 93 million miles. Ammonite was discovered by the survey project "FOSSIL" (Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy), which is led by researchers from Japan and Taiwan who explore the outer solar system to learn about its past. The research team used the powerful Subaru Telescope, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. The telescope has wide-field imaging capabilities that are uniquely suited for scanning large patches of the sky for faint, slow-moving objects like Ammonite. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Computer simulations show that Ammonite's orbit has remained stable for billions of years, unaffected by gravitational interactions with other solar system objects. This long-term stability makes Ammonite one of the best-preserved "fossils" of our solar systems distant past, suggesting that it originates from the solar system's early formation and retains a fossil record of the orbital configuration. Ying-Tung Chen, one of the authors of the study and a support scientist at the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (ASIAA), in Taiwan, said in a statement that while previously known sednoid objects all share roughly similar orbital orientations, Ammonites orbit is oriented in the opposite direction, suggesting that the outer solar system is more diverse and complex than previously thought. What caused this clustering of objects is still unclear, with scientists hypothesizing about the possibility of a passing star or an ejected planet. "The significance of discovering Ammonite goes far beyond adding one more distant object," Shiang-Yu Wang, one of the study's authors and a research fellow at ASIAA, said in a statement. "Ammonites orbit tells us that something sculpted the outer solar system very early on. Whether it was a passing star or a hidden planet, this discovery brings us closer to the truth." Read the original article on Martha Stewart The 116th NAACP National Convention is concluding, recognizing young leaders for their contributions to social justice and community engagement. As the convention wraps up, the NAACP has highlighted the efforts of youth leaders who are making significant impacts in their communities, focusing on areas such as education, racial justice, and environmental issues. ALSO READ: Blood drive, service event take center stage at NAACP National Convention in Uptown Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When we think about youth leaders and who they are, they are the moral compass of the world, but the question is, are we listening to them? said Derrick Lewis, interim director of the NAACPs Youth and College Division. Lewis emphasized the role of young people in pushing society towards equity and justice, noting that even the youngest members are making a difference. Lewis also talked about how important it is to recognize young leaders and create happy environments for them in the middle of their important work. Nine-year-old Caleena Moltrie was recognized for her efforts to increase voter engagement among her peers, highlighting the importance of voting for the future of education. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are a lot of things happening in our schools and stuff; we really want that to change, Moltrie said. Tyliek Chambers, who began his involvement with the NAACP at a young age, now works as a legislative organizer in Virginia and was awarded for his work in social justice advocacy. Chambers spoke about empowering his peers with resources and information to understand the impact of policies on their lives. The NAACP convention has underscored the vital role of youth in advocating for social change, with leaders like Caleen Moltrie and Tyliek Chambers exemplifying the impact of their efforts. VIDEO: Blood drive, service event take center stage at NAACP National Convention in Uptown (KRON) Murder charges were filed on Tuesday against Ramiro Ochoa Mendoza, 36, of Napa in connection with the discovery of a body under the Third Street Bridge, announced prosecutors. Baby Winters mom to stand trial for murder in San Jose The Napa County District Attorneys Office said Mendoza killed Noel Batres, 47, also of Napa, and left his body beneath the bridge. Authorities said they discovered Batres on the banks of the Napa River at Soscol Avenue, on the afternoon of July 3. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors said Mendoza faced several criminal charges in Napa County earlier this year. He was arrested on April 25 for violating a restraining order, violating his post-release community supervision and resisting arrest. The Napa County Superior Court had raised concerns about Mendozas mental health competency to stand trial and ordered doctors evaluations who concluded he was not competent, said the D.A.s office. The Napa Police Department has arrested 36-year-old Ramiro Ochoa Mendoza. Mendoza is suspected of killing 47-year-old Noel Batres, who was found dead under the Napa River Bridge on July 3. (Photos courtesy of Napa PD) Mendoza promptly failed to appear in court for his mental health diversion review and was found to be out of compliance with the diversion program. Because the law prohibits prosecution from continuing in cases where a defendant is deemed incompetent on only misdemeanor charges, the court had no choice but to dismiss both remaining cases and did so on July 8, 2025, said the D.A.s office. Three days after his court no-show and the dismissal of his two misdemeanor charges, on July 11, 2025, Mendoza was taken into custody by Napa Police officers and charged with the murder of Mr. Batres. A GoFundMe has been established to help send Batres remains to his home country of Guatemala. Batres had lived in Napa for 26 years. This case highlights the real-world impact of the recent legal reforms, where courts are required to prioritize mental health treatment over traditional prosecution, even when defendants exhibit an unwillingness or inability to comply with court-ordered programs, added Napa County Deputy District Attorney Katie Susemihl. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. NAPPANEE The Nappanee Conservation Club awarded its annual Dr. Walter Anglemeyer scholarships to two recently graduated NorthWood High School students. The $2,500 awards were given to Kathleen Cummings and Brianna Lechlitner during the clubs Walter C. Anglemeyer Shooting Classic, held Saturday, July 12. This scholarship was started in the name of Dr. Walter C. Anglemeyer to further the education of students pursuing studies in the field of conservation, said Wally Anglemeyer, Dr. Anglemeyers son. The goal is to award two $2,500 scholarships yearly to deserving local students. The elder Anglemeyer was born in 1927. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree from Ball State University in 1950, and graduated from medical school in 1958. He began family medical practice in Nappanee in 1959. Anglemeyer enjoyed his Nappanee practice and served the community for 50 years, delivering more than 3,000 babies. He retired from medicine in 2008. In his spare time, Anglemeyer enjoyed trap shooting and hunting. He died in October 2022. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Anglemeyer scholarship came up through the Anglemeyer family, said Dan Hummel, secretary of the Nappanee Conservation Club. While Walter was still alive he came out and shot with us the first two times. From that, the family decided they wanted to do a scholarship in his name. This is the fifth year for the shoot and the third year for the scholarships. The two $2,500 awards go to two NorthWood High School seniors who are planning to go on to a career in some type of conservation. Cummings is planning to attend Ball State University as part of the Honors College, where she plans to major in biology with a concentration in botany. I appreciate this scholarship that will help me achieve my academic goals in college, she said. I really hope to explore my options after college. Going in to conservation may be part of my plan, or maybe looking into research or studying abroad. I think its really awesome that the Nappanee community supports its students, added Theresa Cummings, Kathleens mother. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is incredible how our community believes in our students the way they do, said Kathleens father, David. Kathleen is just one example of the many students who have received support from a community that deeply believes in them. This is a special place. Were really grateful that this group has selected Kathleen and is willing to support her as she focuses on conservation. She has a love for the outdoors and are excited about the field she is stepping towards. Lechlitner is a member of the Indiana National Guard, which she joined last winter, and will be attending Purdue University in the fall. There she will be joining the ROTC program while majoring in psychology and minoring in law and society. After college, she would like to become a law enforcement officer. This scholarship means a lot because it is a really cool opportunity to meet a lot of new people and connect and see how the community helps our students grow, she said. Its pretty cool that they do this for them, said Briannas father, Aden Lechlitner. Its a great thing for the community. Being in the National Guard and going into law enforcement is scary, but pretty cool, too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The club has done amazing things for these kids, said Sara Lechlitner, Briannas mother. This scholarship will give her a great opportunity for her to get a lot of her goals accomplished. My father was a big believer in everything related with conservation, and thats why we decided to have this shoot and offer these scholarships, Wally Anglemeyer said. Weve got a lot of good sponsors and a lot of good people showing up. My dad would be proud. He was always a big believer in education and these gals are going forward in conservation and are going to do very well. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Longtime Democratic State Rep. Vincent Dixie has joined the race for the Democratic primary in a bid to succeed Congressman Mark Green, who is retiring from public office this year. Green announced his plans to retire from his Congressional seat in June, saying he received a job offer in the private sector that was too exciting to pass up. Dixie officially launched his campaign in the special election Tuesday, July 15, criticizing Green for leaving after stiffing thousands of Tennesseans with the passage of President Donald Trumps signature budget reconciliation legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read the latest from the TN State Capitol Newsroom Our Congressman just ran away after passing a so-called big, beautiful bill thats going to devastate our communities, Dixie said in his announcement. Im not running from the fightIm running to it. Because no one is looking out for the folks who cook our meals, teach our kids, and care for our loved ones. And that has to change. Dixie has served in the Tennessee General Assembly since 2018, when he was elected to represent the 54th District. During his tenure in Tennessees Capitol, the native Nashvillian made history as the first Black chairman of a legislative caucus in Tennessee. VIDEO | Timeline to fill Tennessee Congressional vacancy Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He launches his campaign with numerous endorsements from more than 40 current and former Nashville and state elected officials, academic, civic and community leaders, and faith leaders. Dixie joins fellow Nashville Democrat State Rep. Aftyn Behn in the Democratic primary for Greens seat. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter. RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a new statewide initiative to combat a concerning cryptocurrency scam centering around increasingly prevalent ATMs. The main issue here is that these kiosks are increasingly being incorporated into scams, Jackson said during his announcement in Wilmington Tuesday. The attorney general says scammers tell victims to visit crypto ATMs, having them deposit cash into a crypto account controlled by the scammer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At which point it is extremely difficult to trace and recover those funds, he said. The scams typically target senior citizens, with concerns stretching across the country. Data from the Federal Trade Commission shows people lost more than $110 million in these types of scams across the country in 2023. The average take from someone in one of these cryptocurrency scams is over $100,000. A ton of people are being completely cleaned out, Jackson said. PREVIOUSLY: Two charged in $30,000+ targeted PayPal scam in Person County, deputies say The statewide initiative centers around raising awareness about the scams. Businesses with these ATMs are encouraged to be vigilant about warning signs, including seeing older adults using the machines while on the phone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want to encourage these businesses to speak up when theyre seeing something suspicious, said North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. If youve fallen victim to one of these scams, you can call 211 or local law enforcement. You can also file a complaint with the Attorney Generals Office. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS17.com. A second series of national protests, titled "Good Trouble Lives On," will take place on July 17. The protests are expected to take place in dozens of cities and towns on July 17, marking exactly five years since the death of John Lewis. The 17-term congressman, who led some of the most seminal demonstrations during the Civil Rights movement, popularized the phrase "good trouble" when speaking of nonviolent protests and acts of civil disobedience as a way to challenge infringements on civil rights. There will be almost a dozen protests taking place in Tennessee under the "Good Trouble Lives On" name, which is half of the number of "No Kings" protests that occurred in June. It was estimated that more than 5 million people participated across approximately 2,100 communities in the U.S. during the June 14 protests, which coincided with President Donald Trump's birthday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's what to know about the protests in Tennessee. 'Good Trouble Lives On' protests The second series of protests will be very similar to the first set of protests that happened on June 14. Communities have organized individual demonstrations to take place on the same day, forming a wave of opposition. "We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations," the protest's website read. "Trump is trying to divide us, but we know the power of coming together." Organizers are calling the July 17 "Good Trouble" protests a response to "the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations" from the Trump administration. Using the term "good trouble lives on" from John Lewis promotes the idea of coming together to take peaceful, non-violent actions to create change and challenge injustice. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As of Tuesday afternoon, July 15, "Good Trouble" protest organizers reported that their RSVP count stands at 126,000 people, with more than 1,600 events planned. Where are the 'Good Trouble Lives On' protests happening in Tennessee? In Tennessee, ten protests are scheduled for Thursday, July 17. Nashville will also have a protest, but two days later on Saturday, July 19, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. Chattanooga: 5-7 p.m. ET Clarksville: 5-7 p.m. CT Fayetteville: 5:30-7 p.m. CT Hendersonville: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. CT Jackson: 5:30-7:30 p.m. CT Knoxville: 4-6 p.m. ET Madisonville: 3:30-4 p.m. ET Maryville: 11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET Memphis: 6-8 p.m. CT Tullahoma: 5-7 p.m. CT What was the 'No Kings' protest? The "No Kings National Day of Defiance" was held across the nation on June 14, which coincided with Flag Day, the Army's 250th anniversary celebration, and, most importantly, Trump's birthday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Organizers protested what they say are Trump's attempts at displaying authoritative dominance, particularly during his birthday celebration, which they described as a "spectacle meant to look like strength," according to a release from Indivisible, which has partnered with dozens of advocacy groups. The protests were separate, but not opposed to the Anti-ICE protests happening around the country. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: How many 'Good Trouble' protests are happening in Tennessee Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, at center, and Gov. Jim Pillen, at right, announce a lawsuit against Colorado before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to assert Nebraska's water rights to the South Platte River that crosses state lines. At left is Jesse Bradley, director of the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment. July 16, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN Nebraska state leaders filed a lawsuit against Colorado on Wednesday seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court assert the Cornhusker States century-old water rights to the South Platte River that crosses state lines. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, announcing the legal action at a news conference with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and other state and local officials, said, Every drop of water matters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pillen and Hilgers accused Colorado officials of siphoning off more and more water every day, even as Nebraska had been nice with Colorado, which has seen increases in housing, agricultural and business development along the waterway. Were here to put our gloves on, Pillen said, to defend what he called a multi-generation investment afforded under the South Platte River Compact that took effect in 1926. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, left, and Attorney General Mike Hilgers. July 16, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Were going to fight like heck. Were going to get every drop of water, Pillen continued Wednesday. Weve been losing to Colorado on this issue for too long. Its time we win. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called Wednesdays lawsuit unfortunate and said Pillen and Hilgers put politics above farming communities and the regional agricultural economy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The failure to look for reasonable solutions and to turn to litigation is both unfortunate and predictable given the misguided effort driving the proposed canal, Weiser said in a statement. They want everything Hilgers said his team had exercised all options in communications with Weisers office before filing the 55-page complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court. The complaint accuses Colorado of violating the interstate compact between Colorado and Nebraska, which was ratified in the states in 1923 and enacted federally in 1926. Under the agreement, Nebraska is entitled to at least 120 cubic feet of water per second each day of the summer, during irrigation season. State Sens. Kathleen Kauth, Carolyn Bosn, Jana Hughes, John Fredrickson and Dave Murman tour part of what could be part of the proposed Perkins County Canal in western Nebraska on Monday, May 1, 2023. (Photo courtesy of State Sen. Carolyn Bosn) Hilgers said its hard to say precisely how long more water than allowed has been taken and that its getting worse, an assertion Colorado officials denied in 2022. So far this summer, Hilgers said, Nebraska has gotten its mandated water flows about half the time, averaging 75 cubic feet per second of water daily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nebraskas Western Irrigation District was also recently forced to shut off the majority of its surface water irrigation due to a lack of water from the South Platte River, despite the compact, according to the lawsuit. Pillen said Colorado is storing more water for its upstream economy, which he said comes at the expense of Colorado and Nebraska farmers, with Nebraskas western neighbors having no interest in anything being fair and just. They want absolutely everything, theyre even stealing the water from their own farmers, for crying out loud, Pillen told reporters. All-front war The interstate compact also allows Nebraska to construct the Perkins County Canal, a major water project that seeks to capture the South Platte River flow from extreme northeast Colorado through Keith County and allow Nebraska to divert at least 500 cubic feet of water per second in the winter, during non-irrigation season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nebraska is also afforded eminent domain over some Colorado land to build the canal, meaning the state could seize private land if needed. Work on the Perkins County Canal near Ovid, Colorado, began in 1894, but the project halted after running out of money. (Courtesy of the Perkins County Historical Society) State lawmakers, to the tune of more than $600 million, have approved funding to build a canal up to 1,000 cubic feet of water per second to capture more water flow in above-average water years. Nebraska officials say newly captured water would flow statewide and is not just focused on western Nebraska. According to the court filing, Nebraska officials in January tried to purchase land from landowners in Sedgwick County, Colorado, at 115% of fair market value, deals that ultimately fell through. Nebraska pledged to take land only if the parties failed to reach amicable terms. Hilgers said the situation escalated to an all-front war in the past year, with Hilgers and Pillen accusing Colorado officials of stepping up opposition, including through local Colorado landowners. Nebraska-Colorado impasse reached Hilgers said he and his team have had many conversations with their Colorado counterparts but are at an impasse, largely over the projects scope, including canal size, location and Nebraskas eminent domain rights, a provision Weiser has said he is ready to challenge Nebraska on. Colorado lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis, seen here before his 2024 State of the State address. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post, pool) The eminent domain provisions are believed to be one of a kind among any interstate compacts in the nations history, according to Hilgers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no alternative forum capable of fully resolving the claims Nebraska asserts against Colorado, which are of such seriousness and dignity as to justify the exercise of the courts jurisdiction, the complaint to the Supreme Court states. Weiser said that if the Supreme Court does greenlight the wasteful project, it will force Colorado water users to build additional projects to lessen the impact of the canal. He encouraged collaboration and collaboration, rather than litigation, which could lead to a durable and thoughtful solution that increases regional resiliency and agricultural strength. In 2022, a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the project a canal to nowhere and a boondoggle. Polis on Wednesday called the lawsuit meritless and said the state had continued to meet with Nebraska in good faith despite its efforts to intimidate some Colorado landowners. He reasserted that his state has always complied with the South Platte River Compact. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This escalation by Nebraska is needless, and Colorado will take all steps necessary to aggressively defend Colorado water users, landowners, and our rural economy, Polis said in a statement. Pillen, asked whether he had talked to Polis about the canal or lawsuit, said plainly: No. The bottom line: He and I do not agree one iota. And theres no sense in further conversations, Pillen said. Im not playing goober politics on this. Were going to fight for Nebraska. Then-Gov. Pete Ricketts joined other state officials in an unannounced visit in September 2022 to the area of the proposed Perkins County Canal. (Courtesy of Nebraska Governors Office) Former Gov. Pete Ricketts, now a Republican U.S. senator for Nebraska, unearthed and reinvigorated the compact in 2022 with Hilgers, the then-speaker of the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hilgers said it was probably always inevitable that the U.S. Supreme Court would decide the issue. He acknowledged that while a minority of state senators have tried to claw back funding for the Perkins County Canal, he anticipated that future efforts to do so would continue to fail. The future of Nebraska Jesse Bradley, director of the newly merged Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment as of July 1, said his team would continue to move forward with the project, parallel to the litigation, estimating that permitting and design would finish by 2028 for construction to begin. The hope is that water will flow through the new canal no later than 2032. This is critical to the future of Nebraska, Bradley said. We will continue to push forward aggressively. Director Jesse Bradley of the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment. July 16, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) Also joining Wednesdays news conference were representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District, Central Platte Natural Resources District, Central Nebraska Power and Irrigation District, Twin Platte Natural Resources District, the Nebraska Western Irrigation District, the South Platte Natural Resources District and the states chief water officer, Matt Manning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hilgers estimated the state lawsuit could cost a couple of million dollars, including hiring outside experts or legal counsel, and take three to five years before the Supreme Court decides. Pillen said Nebraska would not save pennies on the project and would have the A Team 100% of the time to win, not a shadow of a doubt. Weiser estimated that when the dust finally settles, more than a billion dollars would be spent over a possible decade of litigation, and no one in Nebraska or Colorado will be better off. Hilgers said hes thankful the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the issue. We could maybe not get everything we want in front of the Supreme Court. But if we dont file, we will lose. Period, full stop, Hilgers said. And what we will lose will so far outstrip the cost of this particular project that will really be a shame on us moment if we dont actually follow through. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, at center, and Gov. Jim Pillen, at right, announce a lawsuit against Colorado before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to assert Nebraska's water rights to the South Platte River that crosses state lines. At left is Jesse Bradley, director of the Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment. July 16, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) This story was originally published by the Nebraska Examiner. LINCOLN, Nebraska Nebraska state leaders filed a lawsuit against Colorado on Wednesday seeking to have the U.S. Supreme Court assert the Cornhusker States century-old water rights to the South Platte River that crosses state lines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, announcing the legal action at a news conference with Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and other state and local officials, said, Every drop of water matters. Pillen and Hilgers accused Colorado officials of siphoning off more and more water every day, even as Nebraska had been nice with Colorado, which has seen increases in housing, agricultural and business development along the waterway. Were here to put our gloves on, Pillen said, to defend what he called a multi-generation investment afforded under the South Platte River Compact that took effect in 1926. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were going to fight like heck. Were going to get every drop of water, Pillen continued Wednesday. Weve been losing to Colorado on this issue for too long. Its time we win. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called Wednesdays lawsuit unfortunate and said Pillen and Hilgers put politics above farming communities and the regional agricultural economy. The failure to look for reasonable solutions and to turn to litigation is both unfortunate and predictable given the misguided effort driving the proposed canal, Weiser said in a statement. They want everything Hilgers said his team had exercised all options in communications with Weisers office before filing the 55-page complaint before the U.S. Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The complaint accuses Colorado of violating the interstate compact between Colorado and Nebraska, which was ratified in the states in 1923 and enacted federally in 1926. Under the agreement, Nebraska is entitled to at least 120 cubic feet of water per second each day of the summer, during irrigation season. State Sens. Kathleen Kauth, Carolyn Bosn, Jana Hughes, John Fredrickson and Dave Murman tour part of what could be part of the proposed Perkins County Canal in western Nebraska on Monday, May 1, 2023. (Courtesy of State Sen. Carolyn Bosn) Hilgers said its hard to say precisely how long more water than allowed has been taken and that its getting worse, an assertion Colorado officials denied in 2022. So far this summer, Hilgers said, Nebraska has gotten its mandated water flows about half the time, averaging 75 cubic feet per second of water daily. Nebraskas Western Irrigation District was also recently forced to shut off the majority of its surface water irrigation due to a lack of water from the South Platte River, despite the compact, according to the lawsuit. Pillen said Colorado is storing more water for its upstream economy, which he said comes at the expense of Colorado and Nebraska farmers, with Nebraskas western neighbors having no interest in anything being fair and just. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They want absolutely everything, theyre even stealing the water from their own farmers, for crying out loud, Pillen told reporters. All-front war The interstate compact also allows Nebraska to construct the Perkins County Canal, a major water project through Keith County and into Colorado that would allow Nebraska to divert at least 500 cubic feet of water per second in the winter, during non-irrigation season. Nebraska is also afforded eminent domain over some Colorado land to build the canal, meaning the state could seize private land if needed. Work on the Perkins County Canal near Ovid, Colorado, began in 1894, but the project halted after running out of money. (Courtesy of the Perkins County Historical Society) State lawmakers, to the tune of more than $600 million, have approved funding to build a canal up to 1,000 cubic feet of water per second to capture more water flow in above-average water years. Nebraska officials say newly captured water would flow statewide and is not just focused on western Nebraska. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the court filing, Nebraska officials in January tried to purchase land from landowners in Sedgwick County, Colorado, at 115% of fair market value, deals that ultimately fell through. Nebraska pledged to take land only if the parties failed to reach amicable terms. Hilgers said the situation escalated to an all-front war in the past year, with Hilgers and Pillen accusing Colorado officials of stepping up opposition, including through local Colorado landowners. Nebraska-Colorado impasse reached Hilgers said he and his team have had many conversations with their Colorado counterparts but are at an impasse, largely over the projects scope, including canal size, location and Nebraskas eminent domain rights, a provision Weiser has said he is ready to challenge Nebraska on. Lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis, seen here before his 2024 State of the State address, made Colorado first in the nation to pass a comprehensive AI regulation law. The other leading state, California, has taken an alternative, incremental approach. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post, pool) The eminent domain provisions are believed to be one of a kind among any interstate compacts in the nations history, according to Hilgers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no alternative forum capable of fully resolving the claims Nebraska asserts against Colorado, which are of such seriousness and dignity as to justify the exercise of the courts jurisdiction, the complaint to the Supreme Court states. Weiser said that if the Supreme Court does greenlight the wasteful project, it will force Colorado water users to build additional projects to lessen the impact of the canal. He encouraged collaboration and collaboration, rather than litigation, which could lead to a durable and thoughtful solution that increases regional resiliency and agricultural strength. In 2022, a spokesperson for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis called the project a canal to nowhere and a boondoggle. Polis on Wednesday called the lawsuit meritless and said the state had continued to meet with Nebraska in good faith despite its efforts to intimidate some Colorado landowners. He reasserted that his state has always complied with the South Platte River Compact. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This escalation by Nebraska is needless, and Colorado will take all steps necessary to aggressively defend Colorado water users, landowners, and our rural economy, Polis said in a statement. Pillen, asked whether he had talked to Polis about the canal or lawsuit, said plainly: No. The bottom line: He and I do not agree one iota. And theres no sense in further conversations, Pillen said. Im not playing goober politics on this. Were going to fight for Nebraska. Then-Gov. Pete Ricketts joined other state officials in an unannounced visit in September 2022 to the area of the proposed Perkins County Canal. (Courtesy of Nebraska Governors Office) Former Gov. Pete Ricketts, now a Republican U.S. senator for Nebraska, unearthed and reinvigorated the compact in 2022 with Hilgers, the then-speaker of the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hilgers said it was probably always inevitable that the U.S. Supreme Court would decide the issue. He acknowledged that while a minority of state senators have tried to claw back funding for the Perkins County Canal, he anticipated that future efforts to do so would continue to fail. The future of Nebraska Jesse Bradley, director of the newly merged Nebraska Department of Water, Energy and Environment as of July 1, said his team would continue to move forward with the project, parallel to the litigation, estimating that permitting and design would finish by 2028 for construction to begin. The hope is that water will flow through the new canal no later than 2032. This is critical to the future of Nebraska, Bradley said. We will continue to push forward aggressively. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also joining Wednesdays news conference were representatives of the Nebraska Public Power District, Central Platte Natural Resources District, Central Nebraska Power and Irrigation District, Twin Platte Natural Resources District, the Nebraska Western Irrigation District, the South Platte Natural Resources District and the states chief water officer, Matt Manning. Hilgers estimated the state lawsuit could cost a couple of million dollars, including hiring outside experts or legal counsel, and take three to five years before the Supreme Court decides. Pillen said Nebraska would not save pennies on the project and would have the A Team 100% of the time to win, not a shadow of a doubt. Weiser estimated that when the dust finally settles, more than a billion dollars would be spent over a possible decade of litigation, and no one in Nebraska or Colorado will be better off. Hilgers said hes thankful the U.S. Supreme Court will decide the issue. We could maybe not get everything we want in front of the Supreme Court. But if we dont file, we will lose. Period, full stop, Hilgers said. And what we will lose will so far outstrip the cost of this particular project that will really be a shame on us moment if we dont actually follow through. Nebraska Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nebraska Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Aaron Sanderford for questions: info@nebraskaexaminer.com. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE OMAHA, Neb. (AP) Nebraska is suing Colorado over the amount of water it draws from the South Platte River, the latest in a long history of water rights disputes between the states that have been left increasingly dry by climate change. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen and state Attorney General Mike Hilgers held a news conference Wednesday to announce the lawsuit, which was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Its crystal clear. Colorado has been holding water back from Nebraska for almost 100 years and getting more and more egregious every single day, Pillen said, pointing to Colorado's rapidly expanding population over the past decade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So today its really, really simple: Were here to put our gloves on," Pillen said. "Were going to fight like heck. Were going to get every drop of water. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser called the lawsuit unfortunate in a written statement and said Nebraska officials failed to look for reasonable solutions. The lawsuit accuses Colorado of depriving Nebraska of as much as 1.3 million acre-feet (about 160,350 hectare-meters) of water from the river over several years that Nebraska is entitled to under a 1923 compact between the states. The suit also accuses Colorado officials of blocking Nebraska's effort to construct a massive canal often called the Perkins County Canal and reservoir project that would see Nebraska seize land in Colorado to divert water into Nebraska, which is also allowed under the compact. Nebraska needs the water not only for agriculture production in its southwestern region which climate experts predict will grow hotter and drier in the coming decades but also to feed water supplies in the eastern part of the state, officials said. Nebraska's capital, Lincoln, is expected to get 12% of its water from the proposed canal, Pillen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The compact entitles Nebraska to 120 cubic feet (3.4 cubic meters) per second from the river during the irrigation season between April 1 and Oct. 15 each year, and 500 cubic feet (about 14 cubic meters) per second during the non-irrigation fall and winter months. Hilgers said Colorado has been shortchanging Nebraska during the irrigation season, allowing only about 75 cubic feet (about 2 cubic meters) per second of water daily into Nebraska this summer. I think this may be the most consequential lawsuit that this office will be a part of in my generation, Hilgers said. It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the South Platte River to the future of the state of Nebraska. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis issued a statement calling the lawsuit meritless and denied that Colorado had violated the compact. The South Platte, which flows through northeastern Colorado into southwestern Nebraska, has been at the center of a tempest brewing between the two states going back to 2022, when Nebraska announced it would build the canal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since then, officials from the two states have been haggling over how to carry out both the terms of the compact and land acquisition to build the canal. Hilgers said the two states are at an impasse. Weiser countered that Nebraska officials should have remained at the negotiating table. Nebraskas actions will force Colorado water users to build additional new projects to lessen the impact of the proposed Perkins County Canal, he said. When the dust finally settles, likely over a billion dollars will have been spent tens of millions of that on litigation alone and no one in Nebraska or Colorado will be better off. The lawsuit was filed directly with the Supreme Court because it handles disputes between states, Hilgers said. The process isn't fast, he warned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well probably have a special master appointed within the next 12 months, and under normal litigation timelines, thats maybe 3 to 5 years before we get a result, he said. That does not mean work on the canal will stop, he said, as he expects work on permitting and design of the canal to continue. Nebraska has been at the center of interstate water disputes for decades. In 2002, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas reached a settlement over Republican River water allocation after years of legal wrangling. But disputes continued, and new agreements were reached among the states again in 2014. Water disputes could become more common as climate change worsens shortages, said Dr. Carly Phillips, a research scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists a nonprofit that advocates for climate change solutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Warmer temperatures affect multiple parts of the hydrological cycle, Phillips said. It is decreasing the snowpack, which is the main way water is stored in the western U.S. Higher temperatures also mean the snow melts earlier each year, changing the availability of stream flow. And states like Nebraska might see increased irrigation demand when its hotter. These patterns are all in the same direction across the board, Phillips said. The trends are really consistent when it comes to snowpack, stream flow, evaporation and irrigation demand. ____ Associated Press reporter Sarah Raza contributed from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Georgia among top states for number of ICE detentions in 2025 Amanda Guzman knows something is missing in her home. For the past six years, shes been married to Eduardo Guzman, a man who fills up a households gaps. He is a business owner, hes a taxpayer, he is a father, he is an amazing partner, Amanda Guzman told Channel 2s Michael Doudna. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] However, Eduardo Guzman is also an immigrant in the country illegally. Its something the Guzmans tried to fix shortly after their wedding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think we went to an attorneys office two weeks after we got married to start filing paperwork, Amanda Guzman said. She says her husband came to the U.S. as a teenager more than 20 years ago. Since then, he built a business and a life in Georgia. However, on July 9, he was reportedly pulled over for a broken tail light and was arrested for driving without a license. He called me immediately as soon as the blue lights started flashing, Amanda Guzman said. When Eduardo Guzman was booked into the Henry County Jail, the sheriffs office notified ICE as required by state law. ICE then required the sheriffs office to put a 48-hour hold on him. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were hopeful that maybe they would just let him go, but five minutes before that 48-hour window closed, they came and picked him up, Amanda Guzman said. Eduardo Guzman is one of the more than 3,200 people ICE has arrested since Jan. 20, when the new administration took over. Amanda says Eduardo had no criminal record. ICE data collected by the Deportation Data Project found there were roughly 3,295 Georgia arrests between Jan. 20 and June 10, the fourth most of any state. Of those arrested, the data says 1,353 were convicted criminals, 1,263 had pending criminal charges and 679 had other immigration violations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The data also showed that the most common apprehension method was taking folks into custody who were already detained in Georgia jails. The legislature actually made it a crime to not follow the process, said Mike Mitchell with the Georgia Sheriffs Association. Georgia law requires sheriffs to notify ICE when someone booked in their jail is here illegally. Its a process thats mapped out in law, Mitchell said. However, the Guzmans are working to see if they can get him released from ICE custody and brought back home. We hope that he comes home. We want him to come home. He needs to come home, Amanda Guzman said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The family has a GoFundMe. If you would like to donate, you can do so here. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] HENDERSON, Ky. (WEHT) Negotiations are expected to resume between Duke Energy workers in Indiana and union officials. Earlier this month, workers threatened to strike after rejecting the companys latest contract offer by a margin of nearly two to one. Tensions rise over Evansville liquor license renewal About 200 workers in southern Indiana are prepared to walk off the job, along with 800 more state wide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Eyewitness News (WEHT/WTVW). UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (PIX11) The City Council is set to review an application on Wednesday for a multi-billion-dollar expansion of Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side. The proposal has faced years of backlash from concerned residents, with some planning to protest at City Hall. Northwell Health, the hospitals parent company, said it has heard public concerns and made changes to its plans even reducing the projects height. More Local News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Community Board 8 voted against Northwell Healths redesign that shortened the hospital tower capping it at up to 436 feet, down from more than 500 feet. Hospital officials said its new building will modernize operations and house nearly 500 private rooms. Neighbors argued that theyre worried about years of construction ahead and that a new, tall tower will be permanently disruptive. We have zoning for a reason to protect our neighborhood, so we dont have to deal with this kind of thing. If you get rid of zoning and allow this, it sets a horrible precedent for other buildings; this just doesnt belong in a residential neighborhood, said Stacy Krusch, of the Committee to Protect our Lenox Hill Neighborhood. More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine gave the expansion his support after striking a deal with Northwell Health. The agreement calls for Northwell Health to build an outpatient behavioral center on East 62nd Street that could support thousands of patients each year. If the City Council greenlights the project, Mayor Eric Adams then has five days to give sign-off approval. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. NEED TO KNOW Neighbors helped rescue four people from a small plane that crashed in a Florida neighborhood Good Samaritans could be heard breaking into the plane, which caught fire after the crash, as they desperately attempted to rescue the victims onboard, according to reports All four people aboard the plane were taken to the hospital with only minor injuries Neighbors leaped into action to help four people who were aboard a small plane that crashed in a Florida neighborhood. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said a pilot and three passengers were approaching North Perry Airport when the aircraft went down and hit a tree in the Pines Village neighborhood on Sunday, July 13, according to the Associated Press and South Florida Sun Sentinel. A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) tells PEOPLE the Cessna Skymaster crashed around 8:10 p.m. local time. The plane caught fire after the crash while the pilot, 58-year-old Carlos Balza Cardenas, of Weston, and passengers were trapped inside, according to the Sun-Sentinel, citing an incident report. Some neighbors reportedly used a sledgehammer to smash open the windows and a hose to spray water on the plane as other neighbors called for help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 911 calls released on Tuesday, July 15, good Samaritans could be heard banging on the planes windows while other witnesses were on the phone with dispatchers, according to the Sun Sentinel. Were trying to get em out the plane, one caller said as the sound of a hammer making contact with glass could be heard in the background. Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty The wreckage from a plane crash in Pembroke Pines on Sunday night, July 13, 2025 The wreckage from a plane crash in Pembroke Pines on Sunday night, July 13, 2025 The passenger sitting in the front seat, 54-year-old Fancly Maurette, had her legs pinned as a result of the crash, according to the incident report. Antoinette Proffitt, who lives near where the crash occurred, told the Sun Sentinel that she was the most difficult person to free from the wreckage. Two teens, 16-year-old Carol Balza and 13-year-old Nicole Balza, were reportedly sitting in the second row of the plane at the time of the crash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tekisha Jordan, a resident of the neighborhood, told the Sun Sentinel that she heard the teens screaming for help. I saw the flames. One of the neighbors had a fire extinguisher, she recalled. All of a sudden you hear screams or yells coming out of the plane. Eddy Crispin, another neighbor, told CBS affiliate WFOR-TV that good Samaritans took the father out first, and then saw the two daughters peeked their heads out of the seat. We had to break the bottom half of the cockpit because the mom was on the bottom, trapped in, he explained. The neighbor from across the street had a fire extinguisher trying to put the fire out. My neighbor where the plane actually crashed, he had a water hose and was hosing the plane down. Giovanna Hanley told ABC affiliate WPLG that her father-in-law, a first responder, quickly jumped in and started giving care to the individuals on the plane. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Balza Cardenas, the registered owner of the plane, told police that the plane was trying to land at North Perry Airport following a trip to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands when the crash occurred, according to the Sun Sentinel, citing the incident report. Balza Cardenas reportedly said he realized there was no thrust while attempting to land, causing the plane to lose altitude and crash. Video from a neighbors surveillance camera captured the moment when the plane slammed into the tree after barely clearing the home. The four people on the plane were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, according to the Sun Sentinel, citing the incident report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The four survivors sustained minor injuries in the crash, the Pembroke Pines Police Department said. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue told WFOR-TV that one patient was labeled as Trauma Level 1 and the other three were deemed Trauma Level 2. Mayor Angelo Castillo praised the efforts of those who stepped in to save the family, according to the AP. It was nothing short of heroic, he said. Pembroke Pines Fire Rescue and the mayors office did not immediately respond to PEOPLEs requests for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southwest 14th Street was temporarily closed between Southwest 72 Avenue and Southwest 66 Avenue following the crash, according to police. The planes wreckage has since been removed from the crash site, WFOR-TV and WPLG reported. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) tell PEOPLE they are investigating the crash. Read the original article on People Neil Steinberg was confirmed as chairman of the state's new confirmation to Life Sciences Hub Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, at the Rhode Island State House. (Photo by Michael Salerno/Rhode Island Current) Neil Steinberg is stepping down from his role as head of the quasi-public Rhode Island Life Science Hub after less than two years in the voluntary role. The former head of the Rhode Island Foundation, the states largest nonprofit, Steinberg will leave his role before the end of September, according to a resignation letter he sent to Gov. Dan McKee and other state leaders on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Given the SUBSTANTIAL time I have invested in the past few years, and the solid foundation now established, I am willing to make this resignation effective on a day of your choosing, but not later than September 30, 2025, Steinberg wrote in his letter. Steinberg cited furthering his work in other areas of public life that are aligned with [his] interests and experience, including public education, healthcare and housing. Two years into my retirement from the Rhode Island Foundation, I would like to spend more time with family and traveling, Steinberg wrote in the letter. The Rhode Island Life Science Hub was created in 2023 with $45 million in federal American Rescue Plan funds. Enabling legislation driven by House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi and supported by McKee outlined the state laws that guide the hubs operation. Per those state laws, McKee will need to appoint a new board chair, a pick which will be subject to Senate approval. Steinbergs replacement will serve out the remainder of his term, which was slated to end on Jan. 1, 2028. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Steinberg helped spearhead the legislation that led to the hubs creation. The hub is meant to nurture and support the biotech industry in Rhode Island. Steinberg was confirmed as the inaugural board chair in January 2024. Dr. Mark A. Turco, who was confirmed as the initial president and CEO of the Hub late last year, thanked Steinberg for his time with the hub in a LinkedIn post on the agencys profile Tuesday. Through Neils support the Hub organization was successful in hosting an Inaugural Summit, launching several grant programs, the establishment of Ocean State Labs, a 30,000 square foot life science incubator, and supporting the manufacturing expansion of Organogenesis into Rhode Island, Turco wrote. These accomplishments laid a strong foundation for positioning Rhode Islands growth and strategic role in advancing the life science sector locally and abroad. We are grateful for the insight, vision, and passion Neil brought to this role. Turco added that he was confident the existing board and staff would be able to continue the hubs mission to fortify the biotech sector in Rhode Island. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McKee also issued a statement Tuesday evening, thanking Steinberg for serving as the first chair of the hub. His dedication helped us establish a strong foundation for this growing industry, supporting efforts like our administrations work to bring Organogenesis a major, job-creating company to Rhode Island, McKee wrote. Were excited to build on that momentum with Hub President Dr. Mark Turco and the board as we continue expanding opportunities in life sciences and strengthening Rhode Islands economy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Earlier this week the town of Monument repealed and readopted much of its water code, which tells residents and businesses how to connect and pay for water services. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, with a map of the Middle East (Illustrative). (photo credit: Chip Somodevilla, Ali Haj Suleiman, KeithBinns/Getty Images) Israeli officials react to the ongoing violence in Syria's Sweida between regime forces and the local Druze community. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israeli Druze citizens not to cross the border amid ongoing clashes in Sweida in southern Syria on Wednesday afternoon. "You are endangering your lives; you could be killed, you could be kidnapped, and you are harming the IDF's efforts," Netanyahu said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The IDF, air force, and other forces are operating. We are taking action to save our Druze brothers and to eliminate the regimes militias. Therefore, I ask you return to your homes. Let the IDF do its job," he added. "To our Druze brothers in Israel: You can trust the IDF to protect your brothers in Syria. Netanyahu and I, as defense minister, have made a commitment, and we will uphold it," Defense Minister Israel Katz added. "The IDF will continue to operate forcefully in Sweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal," he continued. Members of Syrian security forces take position inside a house, after clashes between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern Druze city of Sweida, July 16, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar alleged that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa's regime has committed "persecution and pogroms" against minority groups in Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What is the international community waiting for? he asked. Our interests in Syria are well known and clear, including preventing harm to the Druze community, with whom we have strong ties. If the regime in Damascus doesnt come to its senses, it will ultimately distance itself from all the key goals it has set for itself, foremost among them governance and economic prosperity. It would be best for it to come to its senses and restore order." "The shocking images from Syria prove one thing, once a jihadist, always a jihadist," National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented. "Whoever kills, cuts off mustaches, humiliates, rapes, should not be engaged in negotiations, and the only thing that should be done with Sharaa is to eliminate him," he threatened. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I love the Druze citizens of the State of Israel, I send them a warm hug and say we need to eliminate the head of the snake," he concluded. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid spoke with Israeli-Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Muwafaq Tarif, affirming that he stands by the Druze community and its security, and will always stand by it. "The government has the backing to assist in protecting the Druze in Syria and the demilitarized zone," Blue and White Party leader, Benny Gantz, commented. "This is not only a moral duty but also an Israeli security interest," Gantz added. "We must continue to act actively to establish a reality where Israel's allies are safe, and its interests are preserved," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gantz is also notably the former defense minister and former IDF chief of staff. Senior IDF staff hold situational assessment near Syrian border IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Tamir Yadai, Northern Command chief, Maj.-Gen. Uri Gordin, and 210th Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Yair Palai, along with Israel Police's Northern District Commander Assistant-Chief Meir Eliyahu held a situational assessment in Majdal Shams earlier on Wednesday with the heads of local councils, the military confirmed. Syria's Presidency condemns recent violence Meanwhile, the office of the Syrian Presidency issued a statement condemning the recent violence between the regime's forces and the local Druze community. "The Syrian government strongly condemns these heinous actions and reaffirms our full commitment to investigating all related incidents and holding accountable anyone proven to be involved, whether individuals or foreign organizations operating outside the law. Legal consequences will be imposed, and impunity will not be tolerated," the statement said. Amichai Stein and Avraham Bloch contributed to this report. Netanyahu, Smotrich, and senior defense officials, met with soldiers and commanders at the training facility and received a briefing on the brigade's operations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the IDFs Hasmonean Brigade training base in the Jordan Valley on Tuesday, lauding the brigade as a model for integrating haredi (ultra-Orthodox) soldiers into military service while preserving their religious lifestyle. Netanyahu, accompanied by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and senior defense officials, met with soldiers and commanders at the training facility at Camp Tevetz and received a briefing on the brigades operations, including its combat deployment in Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are here at the Hasmonean Brigade in the Jordan Valley, the IDF's first haredi brigade. I have now met with both the commanders and the soldiers, and it is uplifting, Netanyahu said. You see young haredi men who come here, enlist, and become excellent fighters. They have already been to Gaza and fought with distinction. Sadly, some of their friends in the Netzah Yehuda battalion fell in battle last week. Netanyahu emphasized that service in the brigade enables ultra-Orthodox soldiers to maintain their religious identity. They come in as haredi and they come out as haredi, which is entirely possible, he said. They aren't coming under coercion, but willingly, and that willingness is widespread among the haredi public. We can lead a process, not one of confrontation and infighting, but rather a mobilization of all the forces in Jewish society in order to truly bring security to our state and defend our people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the IDFs Hasmonean Brigade training base in the Jordan Valley July 15, 2025 (credit: HAIM ZACH/GPO) The prime minister also addressed broader regional security concerns and the IDF's presence in Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will not allow a return to the situation where a second Lebanon is being established there, and we also have an obligation to safeguard the Druze locals, Netanyahu said. Smotrich praises Hasmonean Brigade Smotrich praised the Hasmonean Brigade as a success story, stating that it demonstrates how members of the Haredi community can be integrated into the IDF while preserving their religious values. We are determined to bring about, God willing, the enlistment of many thousands of haredi men, building trust through a determined and comprehensive process, Smotrich said. Netanyahu and Smotrich were joined by key officials, including Netanyahus chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman; Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs; Military Secretary Maj.-Gen. Roman Gofman, and others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lost another coalition partner amid an ongoing row over mandatory military service for ultraorthodox men, with the Shas party reportedly quitting the government on Wednesday. The ultraorthodox party said it was giving up all its posts in government, Israeli media reported. However, Shas is not joining the opposition, the party stressed. It was initially unclear what this meant for Netanyahu's majority in parliament. Opposition leader Yair Lapid claimed that Israel was being led by a minority government following Shas' withdrawal, while some outlets also reported that Netanyahu's government had lost its majority in parliament. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the ynet news website wrote that Shas would not completely break away from the government factions in parliament, meaning Netanyahu's govering alliance would be able to cling on to a razor-thin majority of 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament. Seven ministers and deputy ministers of the Shas party are reportedly set to resign, including Interior Minister Moshe Arbel and Health Minister Uriel Buso. It comes after another ultraorthodox party, United Torah Judaism, exited the government a day earlier over the same issue. The party's lawmakers - including the deputy transport minister and the minister for Jerusalem affairs - were set to resign from government, although the Times of Israel newspaper reported that the resignations could require up to 48 hours to take effect, giving Netanyahu time to reconsider his proposals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement United Torah Judaism has seven seats in the Knesset, while Shas holds 11. Long-standing bone of contention The issue of conscripting highly religious Israeli men into the military has been a long-standing point of tension for Netanyahu's right-wing religious coalition. It has returned to the agenda due to the war in Gaza, with commanders warning of an urgent shortage of combat-ready soldiers. While members of ultraorthodox communities have been exempt from compulsory military service for decades, the exemption expired last year, and the government did not pass a new law to cement the special status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Court issued a judgement last year that ultraorthodox Jewish men must be conscripted into military service. Many ultraorthodox Jews see military service as a threat to their pious lifestyle, partly because women and men serve together. What's next for Netanyahu? The Israeli premier is now likely to use the three-month parliamentary summer recess due to begin at the end of July to resolve the row with the ultraorthodox parties. If a compromise acceptable to them is reached on a draft law on compulsory military service, they are likely to rejoin the governing coalition. If no agreement can be found, the remaining coalition partners - Netanyahu's centre-right Likud party, the far-right, ultranationalist Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit as well as right-wing party New Hope and far-right Noam - could also try to remain in power as a minority government. According to Israeli media, the two ultraorthodox parties do not intend to topple the government. Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission's wastewater treatment plant in Newark (Photo by Tim Boyle/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) The City of Newark and a community group lodged lawsuits this week in a last-ditch bid to stop a backup generation plant meant to power the countrys fifth-largest sewage treatment plant. The lawsuits filed Monday and Tuesday allege the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously in awarding a $232.7 million contract for the construction of a backup generation plant, arguing it ignored health risks and alternatives to reach a predetermined outcome. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even though the Ironbound already has more gas plants than any other neighborhood in New Jersey, PVSC is insisting on adding yet another gas plant to our neighborhood, notwithstanding the several years of community opposition, Ironbound Community Corp. CEO Hazel Applewhite said in a declaration attached to its suit. For years, local officials, residents, and environmentalists have opposed the commissions effort to install a gas-powered backup generation plant in an industrial section of Newark near the Ironbound neighborhood, charging it would further overburden a community that, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, already hosts more than 100 brownfield sites. A spokesperson for the commission declined to comment. The suits question the projects specifications, which call for a facility that could generate 34 megawatts of electricity during an outage lasting up to two weeks, charging it is out of step with past disruptions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The commissions sewage treatment plant was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, causing a loss of power that stretched to roughly 50 hours and pushed about 840 million gallons of water containing untreated sewage into the Passaic River and Newark Bay. The plant has since seen resilience improvements. Under plans the commission approved last month, the site would host two 24-megawatt gas turbines, 5 megawatts of battery storage, and 5 megawatts of solar generation that would not function during a storm. The renewables capacity was added at the behest of the Department of Environmental Protection, which in a July 2024 decision found fully renewable alternatives to the gas plant were not feasible, and approved a modified permit for the facility in April. The Ironbound Community Corporation has appealed the approval of that permit. Clean energy should be the solution that theyre looking at battery storage, solar should be the solution they should be looking at, and not forcing more pollution into our community, Applewhite told the Monitor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The commission in 2022 solicited and considered renewable alternatives, but rejected wind, solar, and storage options because they could not provide enough capacity within the projects footprint and could not be relied on during severe weather. In earlier years, plant opponents cautioned that the backup plant would be used to regularly generate power for the grid instead of only being turned on for testing and during severe storms. The commission in June approved a resolution that said it would not seek to export power it generates to the grid, but that concern may be more pressing as electricity rates embark on a steep climb fueled by surging demand and largely stagnant supply. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX NEED TO KNOW A newly-deputized police dog died after being left in a hot patrol car The K-9 named Georgia died on July 13 in Trenton, Ga. after being left in a patrol car for "an acceptable amount of time" The heat index in the city was around 100 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit A newly-deputized police dog has died after being left in a hot patrol car. The K-9 named Georgia died on Sunday, July 13 in Trenton, Ga. after being left in a patrol car for "an acceptable amount of time" while her handler was inside the sheriff's office, according to a statement from the Dade County Sheriffs Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The canines handler, who has not been identified, has been fired, the department confirmed. "Our hearts are aching at the loss of K-9 Georgia," authorities said. "Many of you know that she was donated to us by a local family, at no cost to the sheriffs office." Georgia was remembered as "an amazing bloodhound who was sweet, goofy, and had all the potential to be the 'best of the best.' " The police added, She will be deeply missed by everyone at our office, and by anyone who had the pleasure to meet her. Dade County Sheriff's Office K-9 Georgia K-9 Georgia According to the sheriff's office, the heat index in the city was around 100 to 102 degrees Fahrenheit. An investigation also revealed that the air conditioner compression and the heat alarm in the patrol car were not working at the time of the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Going forward, any K-9 vehicle we have will be taken out of service if any of the essential K-9 equipment isnt in 100% working order. We are also going to overhaul our K-9 handler policy, and K-9s will not be left in vehicles for extended periods of time during summer," officials said. The Dade County District Attorneys Office will be taking over the incident "to determine if prosecution is warranted in this particular case," per the sheriffs office. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Heat alarms automatically take protective measures when the temperature gets too hot in a vehicle, per the National Police Dog Foundation. Measures can include activating the patrol cars sirens, rolling down the windows and notifying the handler. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The organization dedicated to the care of police dogs stated that "heat exhaustion is a major cause of death for active K-9s." The National Police Dog Foundation added that "dozens of law enforcement K9s die from heat exhaustion in patrol cars every year." Read the original article on People NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) A new Mexican restaurant has taken over a former New Albany Local Cantina that closed earlier this year. El Rey Brasas Mar Tekila has been open for business for about a week, according to its social media. The Mexican restaurant said its name reflects its values, translating to embers sea tequila in honor of the grills fire, fresh sea and their handcrafted cocktails. El Rey offers a wide variety of Mexican dishes priced between $10 and $20 per person, although steak and fish dishes may be priced higher. Its menu mirrors offerings at many Mexican restaurants that pull from Mexican regional cuisines, like burritos, enchiladas and aguachiles. The plating reflects El Reys stylish setting, with carefully ornate displays of each dish. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The restaurant also offers craft cocktails, such as a pink number served with a little pink cowboy hat and topped with cotton candy, and a peach colored cocktail with rainbow candy on top. According to a photo of the drink menu from an online review, El Rey offers many margaritas, priced between $10 and $15. There is not a drink menu available online, and El Rey has not yet responded to NBC4s request for comment. Differences with landlord closes Westerville pizzeria El Rey sets its stylish tone with vibrant decor, including bright pink flowers hanging from the ceilings and colorful murals along the walls. El Rey offers both indoor and outdoor seating, as well as seating at the bar. Avid El Rey fans can also join the VIP club and receive free queso or a free sopapilla dessert. VIP access appears free, and just requires an email sign up for future messaging and offers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The site at 5525 New Albany Road West was previously a Local Cantina, which closed on Jan. 31 so that the owners could dedicate time to the opening of Asian fusain restaurant Bendi Wok N Bar elsewhere in New Albany. El Rey is located in the same shopping strip as barre3, Roosters and Gyro City Grill. El Rey opens at 11 a.m. every day, closing at 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 9 p.m. on Sundays. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Latisha Michel, a certified doula, addresses the Newport City Council during a special meeting Tuesday, July 15, 2025. 'We must keep maternity care rooted in the community it serves,' she told the council. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) Twenty-one years ago, the prospect of closing the Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center at Newport Hospital would have been unthinkable. The hospital celebrated its Baby Friendly designation by the World Health Organization and UNICEF in 2004, the year it became only the 40th hospital in the country to earn that distinction, for its intensive work supporting and educating new breastfeeding mothers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the possibility that Aquidneck Islands community hospital could shut down its award-winning labor and delivery unit exists now. And it drew about 200 people to Newport City Hall Tuesday night, including moms with babies and toddlers in tow and people in hospital scrubs. They came to see the Newport City Council pass a resolution advocating for the continued operation of the birthing center where 489 babies were born last year and 318 were born in the first six months of 2025. Dr. Jennifer Enos holds her 1-year-old daughter Olivia Hoehn, who was born at Newport Hospital, during the special Newport City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. The council passed a resolution advocating for the continued operation of the hospitals Noreen Stonor Drexel Birthing Center. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) Get ready for a long fight, Councilor Xaykham Xay Khamsyvoravong told the crowd. We are at the tip of the spear of what is a very long fight to restore community health care and primary health care in the state. Khamsyvoravong sponsored the resolution urging the hospitals owner-operator Brown University Health to maintain the birthing center amid rising financial pressure. Hospital leaders across the country have warned that cuts to Medicaid in the new federal budget could make it harder to maintain childbirth services, which are generally more expensive than routine surgeries and other hospital care. Newport Hospital spokeswoman Nicole Searles said in a statement Tuesday that Brown University Health is considering difficult decisions across Brown University Health as part of its annual budget process with the goal of stabilizing its financial position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We take our responsibility to ensure that mothers and babies receive the highest level of care possible very seriously, Searles added. That commitment requires strong infrastructure and clinical expertise. At this point, no final decisions about the birthing center have been made, and there have been no immediate changes to our budget, operations, or staffing. We expect to make definitive decisions in the weeks ahead. Khamsyvoravong encouraged the crowd in the council chamber to share their stories and reach out to the governors office and other officials to make their voices heard. Write op-eds, send emails, make phone calls and continue to exert as much pressure as possible to ensure that we save this birthing center today and we work together in the future to fix primary care in this state, Khamsyvoravong said. Latisha Michel, a certified doula who addressed the council, warned that if the hospital closed the birthing center, patients without access to personal transportation could face hardships in having to get to hospitals 35 to 45 minutes away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Closing it would not only erase a critical piece of our communitys history, but also force birthing people to travel outside of their community at one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives, Michel said. If this center closes, people will be left with impossible choices, risk giving birth in transit, being separated from their support systems or face unfamiliar and overstretched hospitals elsewhere. The birthing center opened in 1995 and was named in honor of Newport philanthropist Noreen Stonor Drexel in 2003. Drexel, who passed away in 2012, made improving health care and education a primary focus of her work. Mrs. Drexel would be terribly betrayed if her dream of the new birthing center and a most generous gift were wasted, retired health care administrative director and pharmacist Bart Grimes told the council. Carol Bazarsky, chair of the Newport Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees, turned around at the podium to face the crowd and said she spoke with Brown University Health Chief Operating Officer Sarah Frost about the birthing center. Bazarsky said Frost had emphasized that no decision has been made yet and that the public would be given the opportunity to have their voices heard beforehand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is no question that the birthing center is a viable, beautiful part of our hospital and our community, Bazarsky said. Council member Lynn Ceglie was absent from Tuesdays meeting. Carol Bazarsky, chair of the Newport Hospital Foundation Board of Trustees, turned around to address the crowd at a special meeting of the Newport City Council on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Bazarsky said she had spoken to Brown University Health leadership who emphasized that no decision has been made regarding the possibility of closing the hospitals birthing center. (Photo by Janine L. Weisman/Rhode Island Current) SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX WOODBURY, Conn. (WTNH) Imagine wiring thousands of dollars after seeing a deal that was too good to pass up, only to learn it was all a scam. A Connecticut business has been hurt by this and the federal government is now looking into it. At Woodbury Tractor, the owner has done nothing wrong, and feels horrible about whats happened to people. Westbrook Volunteer Ambulance Company finances in critical condition Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bob Wolff has been in business for 25 years. He said hes worked hard to build a good name and a good business. Helping farmers and other folks who need tractors and other equipment. Were getting dragged through the mud a little I feel worse for the people said Wolff. All this since a Facebook scammer fraudulently copied his business name and location. Hes heard from dozens of people looking for a tractor they think theyve bought and paid for at a great price. The US Secret Service Cyber Fraud Task Force is now investigating these cases of tractor troubles. The phone basically is ringing non stopIts day and night, we answer it obviously so we can inform people of the scam. Wolff said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turns out this is a huge scam and some people have actually showed up here from other states, ready to take their new tractor home. Wolff has to be the one to break the bad news. News 8 spoke with 76-year old Jim Farnsworth who lives in Vermont. He told us hes a trusting soul and believed the ad on line and it looked legit he says. Im a Vermont farmer I never thought anyone would ever do something like that but everybody better watch out. said Farnsworth Farnsworth wired $17,000 from his bank, and then his calls were blocked by the seller whos really a scammer. He was hoping to use the tractor on his 10-acre farm. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Age and time means he cant do things with his bare hands anymore. News 8 Exclusive: Essex man says mothers death caused by medical negligence at Middlesex Health Hes speaking out to warn others. The Connecticut Better Business Bureau advises customers to try to go to a physical location of a business and that these types of scams really hurt the good businesses out there. It also impacts the real business and their reputation, they are businesspeople working hard, and then people are calling him thinking hes the scammer, when hes not, said Kristen Johnson with the Connecticut Better Business Bureau Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jims not sure what hell do now. Its all I had for a tractor I cant get one now because I dont have any money, said Farnsworth. Remember, If youre buying a big ticket item do not wire the money because experts say once you do its basically gone forever also try to buy local if you can, never just online. Watch the full story above. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) A Newton Falls man who previously admitted to having child sex abuse materials could spend up to a decade behind bars. Read next: Former prison employee pleads guilty to bribe, smuggling contraband David Lucero was given an indefinite prison sentence of seven to 10 and a half years in prison. Hell also have to register as a Tier 2 sex offender. Lucero initially faced a 30-count indictment, but pleaded guilty to an amended one charging him with eight counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor and two counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance. Prior to sentencing, Luceros attorney, Rhys Cartwright-Jones, asked for a lesser sentence. Cartwright-Jones told the court Lucero is now employed and has a stable home. He even noted prior to Luceros arrest, he recognized he had a problem with child sex abuse materials and enrolled himself in therapy. This entire thing has taken a toll on me, Lucero told the court. Judge Sean OBrien told Lucero he was appalled by the description of the materials Lucero had in his possession. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. (NewsNation) President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon scored a major victory Monday in their push to shift education funding and policy decisions to the states. After months of legal back-and-forth, sparked by Trumps March executive order to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, the Supreme Court on Monday reversed earlier lower court rulings that had temporarily blocked layoffs. While not a final ruling, the Supreme Court issued an order that allows the Trump administration to move forward with significantly reducing the number of Department of Education employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement House representatives introduce bipartisan bill to release Epstein files We want to bring education back to the states, take the federal government out of it, Trump said Tuesday morning. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of allowing the Trump administration to completely dismantle the department, there will be a major restructuring of how education is funded and who makes the decisions on education policy. Today marks a victory for education! Were one step closer to returning education to the states. McMahon posted on X. Reductions to the federal workforce to continue The move follows a Supreme Court ruling last week that allowed the Trump administration to proceed with plans to eliminate thousands of positions across several federal departments, including Housing and Urban Development, State and Treasury. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Education started the year with more than 4,000 employees and has already begun to see major cuts to its workforce. In March, the administration announced plans to lay off more than 1,300 employees. Publicity firm offered $20 million to recruit for anti-Trump protests The continued downsizing would reduce the number of employees to about half the size of when Trump took office, leaving the department with limited capacity to operate. However, only Congress has the ability to get rid of the department completely. Understanding the federal role in education The Department of Education has a variety of functions, most notably it oversees federal student aid, allocates funding to support K12 schools and enforces civil rights laws in education, including protections against discrimination. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., senior member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, said, education decisions are best made first by parents, then by local communities, then by local school boards. Stefanik has been a stark proponent of tackling antisemitism in schools and believes leaving education decisions to the states will improve this situation. Watch: Protester interrupts antisemitism hearing New York States Department of Education has perpetuated antisemitism, Stefanik said. Democrats respond Representative Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., expressed his dismay with the decision, echoing what many Democrats see as cost-cutting on the backs of children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They want to systematically dismantle the education systems in our communities and the funding we rely on for that, said Aguilar. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. Changes were afoot in Palmer Lake Monday night, where the town administrator resigned and the town's board of trustees took steps to set a recall election for two members and consider a petition-pushed ordinance on annexations. BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) A Niagara Falls man was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for a murder in 2023, the Niagara County District Attorneys Office said Wednesday. Juan Ubiles, 40, shot and killed 44-year-old Gregory Vincent of Niagara Falls on the 2000 block of 18th Street on June 19, 2023. Ubiles was on the run for months following the murder and was eventually captured in Philadelphia in September 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was found guilty in May of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Latest Local News Aidan Joly joined the News 4 staff in 2022. He is a graduate of Canisius College. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to News 4 Buffalo. Colorado Springs's utilities provider has advanced a plan to City Council that it say will make easier the management and development of a new reservoir in Boone, a town in Pueblo County. As weve discussed, the Trump administration has been flip-flopping for months on the matter of whether the Department of Homeland Security will target farm laborers, as well as workers in the hotel and restaurant industries, with ICE raids. Obviously, there are political reasons not to do it. Rural parts of America, where farms are, tend to skew Republican and President Trump has always counted farmers as among his top supporters. The same goes for the hotel and restaurant industries. As the Trump administration mulls whether to terrorize seasonal workers in those fields, he has seemed wary of the political consequences that might come with depriving those industries of a reliable source of labor. Many hotel and restaurant executives are Republican donors. But theres also the fact that none of this is about actually arresting and deporting alleged criminals. As the administration has demonstrated the last few months, Trumps mass deportation agenda is less about deportation and more about 1) making a big show of arresting and detaining a bunch of people, regardless of whether theyre undocumented or have legal status and 2) using immigration enforcement as a cudgel against blue cities and states. Those objectives, I imagine, make the raids on industries that rely on immigrant and migrant labor enticing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has said a few bizarre things on this front over the last several weeks, at one point suggesting that he is against too many agricultural raids and would let farmers sort of be in charge of vetting and hiring workers that they need to produce a harvest. The farmer knows hes not going to hire a murderer, he said back in June. But his Department of Homeland Security secretary didnt get that memo. In fact, DHSs directives to staff on farm raids have been at odds with Trumps public remarks for at least a month now. During a discussion with a reporter at The Hills Nation Summit this morning, Secretary Kristi Noem was asked whether it was the position of the Trump administration that every single one of the 320,000 undocumented immigrants working on farms should be deported? The president has been very clear from the beginning that we are going to uphold the law and follow the law, she said. There arent going to be any safe places where well tell criminals, you can go here and be completely safe. Were going to make sure were going after those who perpetuate violence, and trafficking and drug trafficking. And go get them and remove them from this country. That is, of course, exactly what Trump has not been very clear from the beginning about. Another Weird Noem Thing Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) sent letters to DOJ and DHS this week asking for more information on why the Trump administration is collecting DNA from immigrants, including children, Wired reports. To be clear, this is something that has been going on for years that the Trump administration has continued and expanded. DHS has reportedly collected DNA samples from 133,000 migrant kids and teens. An excerpt from Wired, which was first to report on the practice in May: Wyden confronted the agencies with demands this week to explain the scope, legality, and oversight of the governments DNA collection. In letters to DOJ and DHS, the Oregon Democrat also criticized what he described as a chilling expansion of a sprawling and opaque system, accusing Trump administration officials of withholding even basic facts about its operation. When Congress authorized the laws surrounding DNA collection by the federal government over two decades ago, lawmakers sought to address violent crime, Wyden says. It was not intended as a means for the federal government to collect and permanently retain the DNA of all noncitizens. Thune Suggests Conference Hold Nose and Swallow Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), who is pushing his conference to pass President Donald Trumps $9 billion rescissions request, said his colleagues who have been frustrated with the Office of Management and Budgets resistance to provide more clarity on the cuts in the package are making a fair point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont disagree. I think that more specificity would be a good thing, and certainly more detail in terms of what exactly it is that they intend to cut as a result of all this, Thune told reporters on Wednesday. But I think for the most part, most of our members believe there was enough detail here to make a good decision about whether or not we want to move forward on the package. Thunes statement comes as three of the GOP holdouts Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) refused to join their colleagues Tuesday night and opposed two procedural votes, citing concerns about the bill and a lack of clarity from the White House on where exactly the cuts will come from. The rescissions package has a big problem nobody really knows what program reductions are in it, Collins said in a Tuesday statement following her no vote on the first procedural vote. That isnt because we havent had time to review the bill. Instead, the problem is that OMB has never provided the details that would normally be part of this process. Despite the resistance, Senate Republican leadership managed to get through the procedural vote with the help of Vice President JD Vance last night and began the vote-a-rama on the rescissions package Wednesday afternoon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Emine Yucel In Case You Missed It WH Is Ignoring Senate GOPs Requests for Details on DOGE Cuts It Wants Congress to Swallow Contracts Show Millions of Dollars and Diverted Disaster Resources Were Used to Build DeSantis Alligator Alcatraz Fire, Brimstone, and Hegseth: Idaho Christian Nationalists Establish a DC Beachhead Trump Corruptly Targets Schiff With Criminal Investigation Yesterdays Most Read Story Corey Mills Harmonic Scandal Convergence? What We Are Reading Loomer delivers searing warning: Epstein could consume Trump presidency Trump told MAGA to be quiet about Jeffrey Epstein. Fox News obeyed. Trump, 79, Cant Remember Appointing His Own Fed Chair A North Andover police officer now facing criminal charges who was shot by a fellow officer late last month had her certification to work in law enforcement suspended by the POST commission. Kelsey Fitzsimmons, 28, had been a North Andover police officer for a year and a half before she was shot by a fellow officer who was serving her a restraining order during what officials have described as an armed confrontation on June 30. Officers went to Fitzsimmons home to serve her a restraining order taken out by her fiancee, who wrote in an probate affidavit he was afraid Fitzsimmons was going to hurt their child. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details have not been released about what happened when officers arrived at Fitzsimmons home, but she now faces criminal charges of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A defense attorney for Fitzsimmons, however, is strongly pushing back on the charges and claims by the fiancee. The probate court affidavit attached to the restraining order is full of hearsay and self-serving allegations, said Tim Bradl, an attorney hired to represent Fitzsimmons. Kelsey is a new mother who was manifesting symptoms of postpartum depression at the time of the incident. She needed help. She needed compassion, Bradl said in a statement. What she got instead was gunfire and now, an appalling campaign to criminalize her in order to deflect accountability from the agency responsible for this botched response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fitzsimmons had recently won her gun license back after it was taken away following the birth of her first child and ensuing mental health struggles. The officer who shot Fitzsimmons hit her once and was described as a veteran of the force with more than 20 years of experience. The officer has not been publicly identified. Following the shooting, Fitzsimmons received medical treatment and was ultimately flown to a Boston hospital, where she is in stable condition. She is still fighting for her life, Bradl said. Its not clear when Fitzsimmons will be arraigned on the charges. We intend to fight these charges with every legal resource available, Bradl said. This should never have happened and it must never happen again." More News Read the original article on MassLive. The William L. Guy Federal Building pictured on July 15, 2025, in Bismarck. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) North Dakota attorneys and judicial officials say a lack of funding for a key federal program could harm federal defendants ability to get quality representation. The U.S. Constitution protects criminal defendants right to an attorney. When federal defendants cant afford a lawyer, they are typically assigned a federal public defender. About 40% of the time, however, federal defenders must pass the case to a private lawyer due to a conflict of interest, according to the judicial branch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the federal judiciary says that as of July 3, it has no more money to pay outside attorneys for these services. The judicial branch has asked Congress for roughly $116 million to sustain the program until the fiscal year turns over on Oct. 1. The federal courts draw from panels of approved private defense attorneys when federal public defenders cannot take a case. North Dakotas pool of private attorneys usually averages around 100 people, said Jason Tupman, the federal public defender for North Dakota and South Dakota. However, membership with the panels is voluntary, and about 10 attorneys have resigned from North Dakotas since the judicial branch learned of the impending budget shortfall this spring, he said. The vast majority of our panel are either very small lawyers and oftentimes solo practitioners, Tupman said. Anytime youre saying, Hey, youre not going to get a paycheck for three months for money we owe you, thats going to have an impact on them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. District Court for North Dakota as of Tuesday had $110,000 in pending payments to panel lawyers, according to Clerk of Court Kari Knudson. The lack of federal funding also means that any expert witnesses or court reporters the attorneys hire also wont get paid, she said. Defense attorney Mark Friese arrives at the Quentin N. Burdick U.S. Courthouse in Fargo on Aug. 8, 2024. (Dan Koeck/For the North Dakota Monitor) Some of the defense attorneys who have withdrawn are among the most experienced in the state, said Mark Friese, who serves as the liaison between North Dakotas panel and the federal judiciary. Some of them that have elected not to renew are really, really good lawyers, he said. Tupman and Friese last week sent a letter to North Dakotas congressional delegation calling attention to the budget gap. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Without reliable funding, attorneys will continue to withdraw, decline appointments or delay critical work, they said in the letter. Trials will be postponed, and the effectiveness of our federal courts will be significantly compromised. Friese, who has served on North Dakotas panel for nearly 25 years, said hes seen payments to attorneys deferred in the past due to budget issues but never for several months. I havent seen one like this where we have to go out and tell our panel lawyers they cant be paid and they wont be until sometime after October, he said. Tupman said some attorneys who are still serving on the panel appear less willing than usual to accept new appointments. He said he suspects this could be due to the funding gap, though its hard to know for sure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said panel attorneys in South Dakota are tracked differently, so hes not aware of whether it is also seeing membership diminish. Some defense attorneys are continuing to accept appointments without pay. The lawyers that do this just do this out of a sense of commitment, Friese said. With criminal cases in North Dakota, the economic reality is these lawyers can make more money by doing things on their own or with their firm than by taking these cases. About 90% of federal criminal defendants cant afford to hire an attorney, according to the federal court system. Generally, the judicial branch pays all panel attorneys $175 per hour. This is lower than the market rate, said Friese. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Spokespeople for Rep. Julie Fedorchak and Sen. John Hoeven, both Republicans, told the North Dakota Monitor they are looking at the issue. North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong, a former defense attorney, said he plans to speak to members of Congress about the situation when hes in D.C. this week for a congressional hearing. Its a real problem, he said in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor. Since October of last year, the U.S. District Court for North Dakota has paid outside attorneys more than $2.7 million to represent defendants, Knudson said. Chief Judge Peter Welte said that the funding gap has yet to have a noticeable impact on his court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court is continuing to function well, and on a day-to-day operations standpoint, I dont feel like weve been suffering yet, he said. Still, Welte said the deficit worries him. He said he anticipates money will remain a problem for federal courts in the upcoming fiscal year. The federal budgeting process has been a constant issue since I took the bench, he said. The current funding gap comes as the district court is on track to outpace last years caseload in all categories, he added. North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Dan Traynor said he also isnt aware of any immediate impacts to his court, but was critical of the shortfall. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is no way to run a railroad much less the U.S. government, he said in a statement to the Monitor. Federal defenders offices nationwide have been under a hiring freeze for almost two years. As a result, the Federal Defenders Office for North Dakota and South Dakota is staffed at 80-90% capacity, Tupman said. His office has 51 employees. It makes for higher case loads and more stress, he said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Legislators attending a Redistricting Committee meeting Dec. 13, 2023, look at maps of different proposals. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor) Two North Dakota tribes and a group of tribal citizens have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep North Dakotas district map in place while it considers whether to review a voting discrimination lawsuit against the state. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Spirit Lake Nation and three tribal members filed suit against North Dakota over a 2021 redistricting map they say diluted the power of Indigenous voters in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Peter Welte in 2023 concluded the map is discriminatory and ordered the state to adopt different district lines, but the 8th Circuit reversed his decision in May. The appellate courts ruling found that private citizens have no means of filing lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices. The 8th Circuit indicated it would send the case back to Welte and direct him to dismiss the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are getting ready to ask the Supreme Court to review the lawsuit. On Tuesday, they requested that the court allow Weltes map to stay in place until a final decision in the case is reached. The plaintiffs said in court filings they could suffer lasting harm if the 2021 map is allowed to go back into effect. The May decision, in tandem with other recent rulings by the court, has made the 8th Circuit the only circuit in the country where private citizens and organizations cannot bring lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which outlaws voting practices that discriminate based on race. The 8th Circuit has determined that its the role of the U.S. attorney general to enforce Section 2. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plaintiffs dispute the 8th Circuits findings and say that Congress always intended for private citizens to be able to bring legal challenges under the provision. The appellate court has removed an important tool Native Americans use to protect their voting rights, the plaintiffs wrote in a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Supreme Court. North Dakota like many states has a long and sad history of official discrimination against Native Americans that persists to this day, the plaintiffs stated. Tribal Nations and individual Native American voters have successfully fought for decades to vindicate their voting rights under Section 2. Over the past several decades, most lawsuits filed under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act have been brought by private groups and not the U.S. Department of Justice, they noted. The results of the 2024 election also indicate that Weltes map made an important difference to Indigenous voters in District 9, they added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2024, after Weltes ruling, three Native American lawmakers were elected to the state Legislature from District 9, drawn to include two reservations: Sen. Richard Marcellais and Rep. Jayme Davis both citizens of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Rep. Collette Brown, a citizen of the Spirit Lake Nation and plaintiff in the lawsuit. All three are Democrats. The fair map we secured led to a historic first a Spirit Lake Nation member elected to the North Dakota legislature, Spirit Lake Nation Chairperson Lonna Jackson-Street previously said in a statement about the 8th Circuits ruling. Three North Dakota lawmakers would no longer live in the districts they represent if the 2021 map goes back into place, including Brown. Attorneys for the North Dakota Legislature have said its not clear whether those lawmakers would be able to serve out the remainder of their terms or if they would be subject to removal from office. That means Brown could lose her seat if the 8th Circuits judgment goes into effect, the plaintiffs wrote in their filing with the U.S. Supreme Court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The map imposed by Welte remains in effect for now, though the 8th Circuit is expected to issue its mandate lifting a hold on the 2021 map this week, notwithstanding any intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Mark Gaber, a Campaign Legal Center attorney representing the plaintiffs. The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the state to file its response to the plaintiffs motion by July 22. North Dakota has maintained that the 2021 map is not discriminatory and that it agrees with the 8th Circuits finding that the tribes lack standing to sue. Last week, the plaintiffs asked for a similar stay from the 8th Circuit, though the court declined. Its very rare for the U.S. Supreme Court to agree to take a case, though the plaintiffs are hopeful the justices will hear the lawsuit to resolve the split between the circuits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the countrys most important civil rights statute, so I think the odds are high that theyll take it, Gaber said Tuesday. The plaintiffs deadline to officially petition the high court to review the lawsuit is in October, he added. The 8th Circuit includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX By Akbar Novruz Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared that the Armenian Apostolic Church will be "liberated" in the same way that Armenia was freed from former President Serzh Sargsyans rule. Pashinyan made these remarks during a recent press conference, responding to growing criticism of his government's stance toward the church and its leadership. Rejecting claims that he is orchestrating a campaign against the Catholicos of All Armenians, the head of the Armenian Church, Pashinyan said: The Armenian Apostolic Church is sacred to me and my family. Therefore, we cannot fight it in any way. Whatever we do, we do for the church itself. If the church were not sacred to us, we would simply remain indifferent to the destructive process observed today. Moreover, the current activities of the church, unfortunately, harm it itself. Despite the Prime Ministers claims of respect for the church, his government has faced increasing backlash from religious leaders and conservative circles over its alleged interference in religious affairs and its broader reform agenda. Anne Corcoran remembers walking out of her first meeting with Watson Management Services and thinking, This is too good to be true. She now wishes she and her husband had listened to that inner voice. The Corvallis resident was looking for a new company to manage her 11-unit apartment house in Albany. After a less-than-ideal experience with her previous manager, who handled the finances only, the prospect that a company would oversee repairs as well as just about anything else she needed sounded dreamy. And for only a half-percent more. It was September 2022, and Corcoran received the promises that everything would be well tended with unquestioning trust. Now, shes just one of likely dozens of property owners throughout Linn, Benton and Marion counties who are owed months of back rent that collectively could add up to more than $1 million possibly much, much more. Because I've spoken to so many owners, we personally are not as devastated financially as some. We're able to eat. I have a home, Corcoran said. As far as that goes, it hasn't devastated us. Has it hurt us financially? Absolutely, she said. I would say roughly $70,000, if I had to guess what we're out. As tenants who have experienced everything from difficulty getting their deposits returned to having their utilities shut off compared notes with property owners, a picture started to emerge. Mid-Valley Media was able to speak to six property owners, representing a loss of $366,000 among them, and two tenants. They tell a story of requests for rent to be paid in cash, a lack of accounting for property owners and, ultimately, a closed office and unreturned calls and emails. Meanwhile, the Oregon Real Estate Agency suspended owner Angela Schilling Watsons real estate license just last week, a number of lawsuits have already been filed since June, and what started as an Albany Police Department investigation may have been handed over to the FBI, as sources for this story have been contacted by investigators. A spokesperson for the agency said they have no comment. As for Watson, in a brief email exchange, she said there has been "quite a bit of misinformation." Cash, please In May, Watson tenants received an email with the subject line online payments. The company was transitioning to a new payment portal. But in the interim, tenants were asked to send their rents one of several ways: Cash in person, delivered to their Albany office, cashiers check, money order, credit card (subject to a 4% surcharge). Or Zelle, the bank-to-bank electronic transfer system. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Once the new system is fully operational, we will notify you when online payments are available again, says the email, a copy of which was provided to Mid-Valley Media. Joy Hines and her husband rent a mid-century modern on a large property between Lyons and Stayton. Its been perfect; she adores her super retro home in the countryside. It has room for her husbands sewing business, something he can do from home as a disabled combat veteran. Hines works in Woodland, so driving to Albany wasnt something she wanted to do. Husband Scott Hines dutifully Zelled the rent. The property owner never got it. Or the next months either. Unlike some landlords, the Hines property owner is not a corporation or even a small investor. He inherited the home; it was his moms, she said. Now, besides the rent, hes also out the deposit. He told Joy Hines he tried to reach Watson 40 times to no avail. At first, the couple was stressed, worried they'd never see their deposit if they ever wanted to move, which they definitely do not. But the landlord said he has their backs, she said. The owners are handling the property management themselves now. Hopefully they can write it off, Hines said. I feel bad for them, because they're great, and I don't want them to be out. A nightmare For the property owners, its been a nightmare, a word several used repeatedly over the course of many interviews. Theyve been finding each other online, swapping war stories and information by email. One property owner who lives in Eugene, Mohit Singla, said he calculated the losses from his contacts alone at $250,000. Some were afraid to to be identified, as was a former employee. They feared repercussions, saying Watson was not an easy person to deal with and cited some off-putting online behavior since chatter picked up. They all had similar stories. Josiah Neuhaus now lives in Bend and had six doors, as they say in the business, at three Lebanon duplexes once managed by Watson. He alleges he is out $26,000. We started noticing things changing about seven months ago. Rent was later and later each month, he said by email. Per the contract, tenants had to pay by the 5th of the month, and property owners were to receive the funds by the 10th. About seven months ago, he wouldnt get his money until the 25th. Then three months ago, he wouldnt get a transfer of funds until the 12th of the following month it was due. She has been ignoring emails everyday for the past six months and phone calls. We switched last month to a new manager, and they have even gone to the office to collect with no results, he said. Thats because the office is closed. With three branded Watson Management Services vehicles in the parking lot, a sheet of paper taped to the office door at 626 SW Queen Ave. says, Our office is closed today through Friday, and no staff will be onsite during this time. Its been posted for weeks. Since the troubles began, two of Neuhaus tenants have moved out; Watson never forwarded the $4,400 in deposits the tenants are owed. Like some others, he said hes consulting an attorney. Unpaid utilities Corcorans rents stopped flowing too, she alleged. But the last straw was when her husband drove by the property and noticed the trash was overflowing. Our garbage was turned off because they didn't pay the bill for three months, April through June, Corcoran said. We paid the back three months and then moved the billing away from Watson to us, so that we know the bills are going to get paid. Problems, some that had been evident prior, came more sharply into focus, amplifying new revelations, Corcoran said. She knew the monthly accounting that came with the often-late rents was janky. It was just a ledger, showing a line item for deductions but never with receipts. And there were always deductions. She had no keys to her units and no copies of the leases. She really doesnt know what the tenants rents are, though she knows what she thinks they are. Some of Corcorans tenants are on public assistance. That also didnt flow to her in the final months before she finally cut ties. She followed a media interview with an email on Monday, July 14. Over the weekend, she had been contacted by a contractor who cleaned the carpets in one of her apartments who hadn't been paid for his services. He sent us email proof of the request from Watson and photos of the job completed. We sent him a check on Saturday, she wrote. Who knows how many other contractors are going to come out of the woodwork. One owner who requested anonymity said she had just closed escrow on a Lebanon duplex in April, hiring Watson to manage it. Rents were slow from the get-go, with the company explaining she would have to wait until the 25th of the month for the checks to clear. By late June, I get a phone call from our Realtor that sold us the property to let us know that the tenant on the other side got a hold of her, freaking out, because she couldnt get a hold of anyone and their water had been shut off. Watson was supposed to be paying that monthly. I called the city of Lebanon and had to pay $483 yesterday to get their water turned back on. At this point, it was clear that she had to quickly sever the relationship. Like the other property owners, she didnt have keys. She called local police, explaining the situation. She didnt want to get in trouble for rekeying her own property. Earlier signs Darleea Names is someone who listened to her inner voice. She and her husband, Brandon, own two rental properties in Albany, and she believes they were among Watsons first clients. In the beginning, everything was great, Names said. But over the years, not everything added up. She was told one set of tenants was continually slow to pay, so she would get the money late but never saw a late fee. And Watson wouldnt forward a dime until both rents were in. And we're like, OK, well, we're tired of that, because we need to pay our mortgage on that house, Names said. Like Corcoran, there was never any real accounting with the monthly rent, and there were always deductions. The couple would drive by one of their homes, and it was obvious to them that the tenants were destroying the property. She begged Watson to do an onsite inspection. Eventually, the company did send in someone twice even but the Nameses got charged for the second visit even though the contract said Watson would conduct two a year. From the inspection, she learned the stove and microwave didnt work anymore. Neither did the heat. Watson had provided the tenants with space heaters. For her 2,500-square-foot home. They canceled their contract about a year ago. I told (Watson), This is bullst. You know, this is your job. I'm like, 'Why are we paying you, your company?' Names said. Like Hines landlord, they've also assumed management of their rentals. "We do it now. We don't trust anybody anymore," Names said. Lawsuits Over the years, interspersed between tenant evictions brought by Watson Management Services, on the Linn County Circuit Court civil suits case dockets are lawsuits brought by both tenants and property owners. In the past, the plaintiffs typically would end up dismissing the case after getting the resolution they were seeking. For example, a tenant from Albany in January dismissed her complaint filed in 2024 about a rodent infestation and lack of heating for more than a year after Watson addressed the problems. But the owners lawsuits filed since June all sound a similar alarm: Watson has taken the money and run. Between May 28 and July 16, five lawsuits have been filed, some in Circuit Court, some in the Small Claims Department; some of the plaintiffs have attorneys, some are representing themselves. A small claims case filed last week summarizes their plight: I just want my money back. Please help me collect money from Watson Management services. Owner name is Angela Watson. Please investigate her and her business, writes Jun Wang of Happy Valley. Property records indicate Wang, whos out just under $5,000, owns a house in North Albany. In another case, the owner of six rental properties in Albany says Watson owes him $41,986; thats $13,989 in back rents and $27,997 in deposits. He canceled his contract with Watson on May 30. Another set of plaintiffs allege Watson owes them $24,435 in unpaid rent and $31,000 in unreturned tenant security deposits. They note that second figure is an estimate because Watson never provided leases on the nine rentals they own, which property records indicate are in Albany and Corvallis. The couple, Weidong Zhou and Hong Huang of Albany, allege that, starting in May, their tenants were directed to pay in cash, money order or cashiers check. Plaintiffs believe this change was implemented to conceal the collection and potential diversion of rent payments from tenants, further supporting claims of fraud and conversion, the lawsuit says. Excuses Between March 20 and May 31 this year, 13 clients of Watson Management Services LLC filed complaints with the Oregon Real Estate Agency, the department that issues real estate licenses. Last week, the agency suspended Angela Watsons license, issuing a 12-page document enumerating the complaints and attempts to get Watsons cooperation with the investigation. The material facts establish a violation of a ground for discipline, by preponderance of the evidence under state law, the final order says. That violation? Watson failed to provide property management records as requested by the Agency. As the final order says, any time agency officials believe there may have been fraud or mismanagement, they have the right to demand immediate access to requested documents. The order goes into some detail about the complaints, and while initially slow to respond, Watson did eventually give a variety of excuses for the accusations. But when the agency pushed for documentation, especially access to the clients trust account holding the owners' funds, Watson went quiet. It all began on Jan. 25, when the Real Estate Agency informed Angela Watson she had been selected for a "reconciliation review. She provided records as of November 2024, but the compliance specialist emailed in February and again in early March, asking for more, leaving a voicemail as well on March 7. Watson responded that day, saying the emails had been going to spam. She asked for a five-day extension. She later informed the state shell be sending the requested documentation by March 17. None was sent. By that time, the complaints started flowing in. The first, filed March 10, was from a property owner who didnt receive her rent. Watson responded that the late payment in March 2025 was due to a software issue out of their control, (one) that has since been resolved." Still, an investigator asked for specific paperwork, due on April 25. Watson neither replied nor forwarded the requested records. One owner-complainant alleged Watson failed to provide $24,600 in rent payments. At first, Watson said it was because repairs were needed at the properties and she was waiting for the owner to authorize the work. Then she said she did transfer the funds, but because they were not received, she needed to verify the address. The same investigator assigned the first complaint requested records tied to this client but never received them. The complaints followed the same pattern. Watson had an excuse, but the investigator needed to see more. Thats when communication would break down. Among the other excuses given the state: Her company was experiencing problems through ACH, the automated clearinghouse that facilitates transfer of funds between banks. With aggregate deposit or disbursements, the record needs to be broken down better; they have made that change for the future. The Real Estate Agency concluded Watsons noncompliance with its requests were grounds for discipline. This suspension is indefinite and will continue for a minimum of 30 days or until Watson fully complies with the Agencys records requests, the order says. Mid-Valley Media reached out to Watson on Monday, July 14, and received a short reply, saying she is willing to talk. "There is quite a bit of misinformation that I think can bring more clarification," she said. With no availability before deadline, she was sent specific questions by email. They have gone unanswered. Mid-Valley Media will continue to seek comment. Editor's note: This article has been updated to include the number of lawsuits filed in the past 1 months against Watson Management Services. COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio wants people to know that if they receive an official-looking postcard in the coming weeks, it is not a scam; instead, they have been randomly selected as potential jurors in federal court. According to court officials, postcard recipients are legally required to respond. The courts website provides more details on the federal jury selection process referred to in the mailing. Recipients must complete a questionnaire within ten days of receiving the card, either online via the courts eJuror website or by calling 833-396-3498 to request a paper form. Failing to respond could lead to contempt penalties, including a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to three days, community service, or a combination of consequences. Officials emphasize that the court will never request payment or personal banking information. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anduril, the company behind Ohios new megaproject, favored in Big Beautiful Bill For people who are unable to fill out the form within the time frame, another person can respond with an explanation in the remarks section. A verification will be received after the information is successfully submitted. POSTCARD-2025-SAMPLE-1Download Residents names are pulled from the Ohio Secretary of States voter rolls and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles records. Those who qualify will not automatically be summoned for jury duty, but may receive a formal Summons for Jury Service in the mail at any time within the next two years. The court does not provide advance notice of when or if a person will be called to serve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only three reasons exist to be automatically excused from service: those summoned must be over 70 years old, no longer live in the counties the Southern District of Ohio serves, or have a doctors note. If chosen, jurors could serve on both civil and criminal cases. The court notes on its website that typical criminal charges in a federal court involve narcotics laws, income tax, mail theft, counterfeiting and crimes committed on federal property. Cold case podcaster to return to Ohio to investigate homicide of 8-year-old girl Jurors are safeguarded from losing their jobs while serving. Federal law also protects jurors from employer retaliation, which allows for damages, reinstatement and civil penalties. However, employers are not required to pay employees while on jury duty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Qualified jurors receive $50 per day in attendance pay, with the rate increasing to $60 after ten days of petit service or 45 days of grand jury service. Petit jurors are summoned for one month, and grand jurors serve for approximately 12 to 18 months. Mileage reimbursement is also provided. Individuals traveling more than 75 miles may be eligible for lodging and per diem. Checks are mailed after service. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. A new nuclear facility is opening in a north Wales town, bringing more than 200 jobs to the area. The 10,000 sq m (108,000 sq ft) digital nuclear manufacturing site was officially opened in Deeside, Flintshire, on Wednesday morning. It is one of the UK's largest supply chain hubs for the nuclear industry, providing infrastructure components for UK nuclear power stations including Hinkley Point C in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boccard, the French company opening the new site, said it hoped to become "a driving force in the UK's nuclear renaissance". The facility will manufacture components including pipework, supports, tanks and modular systems. The development, unveiled by Stuart Crooks, chief executive of Hinkley Point C, and Rebecca Evans MS, Welsh government cabinet secretary for economy, energy and planning, follows the UK government's 17bn nuclear investment announced in its spending review. The manufacturing hub will produce resources to be used at UK nuclear plants including Hinkley Point C [Boccard] Boccard said the new hub would create more than 200 permanent jobs, develop local skills, and contribute to the UK's decarbonisation and net zero targets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bruno Boccard, the firm's chairman, said it was a "milestone in our century-long history and part of our broader European expansion". "The UK government's historic support marks a turning point for the nuclear sector, shifting focus to building a world-class supply chain and attracting top talent." Mr Crooks added the Deeside facility was "a prime example of the way nuclear is creating new industrial capacity in Britain", while Evans said it "clearly" signalled that "Wales is strategically placed to play a central role in the future nuclear supply chain". MADISON, Wis. (AP) The latest fundraising numbers and campaign spending in Wisconsin's closely watched race for governor shed some light on how the contest is shaping up more than a year before voters will start casting ballots. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers has yet to say whether he will seek a third term in 2026. Two Republicans have already launched campaigns and one of them started running ads this week. Many others are waiting in the wings. Heres a look at some of the numbers related to where the race stood as of Wednesday: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement $757,215 This is the amount Evers raised over the first six months of the year, based on a campaign finance report filed Tuesday. Four years ago, when he was midway through his first term, Evers had raised $5 million over the same period before launching his bid for reelection. The lower amount this year will fuel speculation that Evers might not run again. But Evers also had nearly three-times as many individual donors the past six months compared with the last six months of 2024. And if he decides to run, the Democratic Party could transfer him unlimited amounts of money. $2,072,517 This is how much cash on hand Evers had at the beginning of July. That compares with $7 million he had at this point in 2021, another sign of concern for those who want Evers to run again. But it's also more than any of the early announced Republican candidates. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three If Evers runs again, he would be looking to make history as the first Democrat elected to a third four-year term as Wisconsin governor. Republican Tommy Thompson, who was elected governor four times, is the only person to have won more than two four-year terms. The last one to seek a third term, Republican Scott Walker, lost in 2018 to Evers. Two This is how many Republican candidates have entered the race thus far. Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann was the first to get in, back in May. He's been busy traveling the state, meeting with Republicans and trying to get his name out. Milwaukee-area businessman Bill Berrien, who got in last week, is looking to make a bigger splash, running ads starting this week targeting conservative voters as he tries to pitch himself as the candidate most aligned with President Donald Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement $400,000 That's how much Berrien's campaign says he's spending on radio, cable TV and online advertising starting this week. No other candidate has started spending on ads this far ahead of the election. The primary is 13 months away in August 2026. $424,143 That's how much Schoemann reported raising in two months since he launched his campaign in May. He had about $338,000 cash on hand as of July 1. Berrien launched his campaign after the most recent fundraising period closed. But a super PAC he created before he launched his bid raised nearly $1.2 million. That money can be spent to help his campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly all of that, $1 million, came from a pair of $500,000 donations from Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The Winklevoss twice founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and are most famous to the general public for suing Mark Zuckerberg over the creation of Facebook. They generally back Republicans, and gave both to Trump's campaign and to Elon Musk's political group. Several That's how many Republicans and Democrats are considering running. Evers would almost certainly be uncontested should he seek a third term. Several influential Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and state party chair Devin Remiker, have said in recent days they hope he runs. Evers said he expects to announce his decision later this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Potential Republican candidates include Madison businessman and two-time losing U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany and state Senate President Mary Felzkowski. Democratic potentials include Attorney General Josh Kaul, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and state Sen. Kelda Roys, of Madison. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Authorities are seeking information after a number of road signs were reportedly stolen across Darke County. From July 12 to 16, numerous road signs, including stop signs, were taken from spots across the county, according to the Darke County Sheriffs Office. Many of the stolen signs include stop signs that were taken overnight putting the lives of the motoring public at risk and costing tax payers a financial loss, said the sheriffs office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Woman transfers $10K to scammer posing as country artist: police Theft of the signs is a felony and punishable with possible prison time and fines for each count, if convicted. Call Darke County Dispatch at 937-548-2020 if you notice any suspicious activity. To provide a tip regarding the sign thefts, call Darke County Crime Stoppers at 937-547-1661. You can remain anonymous. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. An NHS nurse who said she didnt feel safe when a trans doctor used a female changing room has been cleared of misconduct. Sandie Peggie was accused by NHS Fife after questioning the presence of Dr Beth Upton. Dr Upton is a biological man who identifies as a woman and used the female changing facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy. Ms Peggie, who has worked at the Victoria Hospital for 30 years, was suspended on Jan 3 last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The incident took place on Christmas Eve 2023. The following day, Dr Upton messaged Dr Kate Searle, a line manager, saying: I dont feel safe using the changing rooms when shes there. Dr Beth Upton (centre) was challenged over her use of the womens changing rooms at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy - Iain Masterton / Alamy Live News Dr Upton went on to contact the British Medical Association about the incident. It had been alleged that Ms Peggie refused to work alongside her colleague in the emergency department, prompting concerns over patient safety. Ms Peggie went on to lodge a harassment complaint under Section 26 of the Equality Act 2010 and while she has now been cleared, the employment tribunal related to the concerns she raised is still ongoing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her complaint regards three incidents of indirect harassment, victimisation and whistleblowing. The hearing resumes on Wednesday in Dundee and is expected to last for 11 days. It emerged last week that NHS Fife has now spent more than 220,000 defending itself in the tribunal, a sum which was uncovered after Scotlands information commissioner intervened. Ms Peggie was alleged to have refused to work alongside Dr Upton in the emergency department at Victoria Hospital - Ken Jack/Getty Images In February, the tribunal heard that NHS Fifes equality and diversity department advised that a transgender doctor had a right to use a female changing room. Dr Upton has previously said the tribunal led to feelings of upset and repeatedly rejected the idea of being male. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Appearing at the tribunal earlier this year, Dr Upton insisted Im biologically female, claiming that sex had no defined or agreed meaning in science. The case has resumed following a landmark Supreme Court judgment in April that the word sex in the Equality Act means biological sex and not self-identified gender. Margaret Gribbon, Ms Peggies solicitor, said in a statement: On Tuesday July 14, the evening before the resuming of her tribunal, Sandie Peggie received confirmation from Fife health board that following a disciplinary hearing, none of the gross misconduct allegations against her were upheld. This follows a disciplinary hearing on June 25, which considered four gross misconduct allegations: two relating to patient care failures, one of misgendering Dr Upton, and one relating to her encounter with Dr Upton in the workplace female-only changing room on Christmas Eve 2023. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sandie is relieved and delighted that this 18-month-long internal process has concluded and cleared her of all allegations. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. BEIJING (AP) The head of Nvidia downplayed his role in getting the U.S. government to lift a ban on selling an advanced computer chip in China and said it will take time to ramp up production once orders for the AI-processor come in. CEO Jensen Huang, speaking Wednesday in the Chinese capital Beijing, was upbeat about the prospects for the H20 chip, which was designed to meet U.S. restrictions on technology exports to China but nonetheless blocked in April. He met U.S. President Donald Trump before his trip and his company announced this week it had received assurances that sales to China would be approved. I dont think I changed his mind, Huang told a cluster of journalists, many of whom asked for his autograph or to take selfies with him. A carefully organized press conference at a luxury hotel descended into a crowd scene when Huang arrived in his trademark leather jacket and started taking questions randomly in his characteristic casual style. Export controls and tariffs were something companies must adapt to in a world he said was reconfiguring itself. He described his role as informing governments in the U.S. and elsewhere of the nature and unintended consequences of their policies. The decision to lift the ban on the H20 chip was entirely in the hands of the American and Chinese governments and whatever trade talks they had, he said. We can only influence them, inform them, do our best to provide them with facts, Huang said. And then beyond that is out of our control. Nvidia said in April that sales restrictions on its chip in China on national security grounds would cost the company $5.5 billion. The White House also blocked a chip from Advanced Micro Devices. Both companies say the Commerce Department is now moving forward with license applications to export them to China. Huang said his company would likely be able to recover some of its losses but it's unclear how much. That will depend on how many H20 orders are received and how quickly Nvidia can meet the demand. I think that H20 is going to be very successful here, he said, noting the chip's memory bandwidth makes it a good fit for the AI models being developed by Chinese companies such as DeepSeek and Alibaba. Huang also touted the release of a new RTX Pro graphics chip that he said would power the development of humanoid robots. He described robotic systems with teams of robots working alongside people as the next wave in AI. Because theres so much robotics innovation going on and so much smart factory work being done here and the supply chain is so vast, RTX Pro is perfect, he said. The handler of a frail carriage horse who collapsed on a busy Manhattan street ignored clear signs of the struggling colts distress, prosecutors charged Tuesday at the start of the alleged animal abusers trial. But driver Ian McKeevers lawyer shot back that the horse Ryder merely tripped and fell at the end of his shift on a sweltering summer day and that his death months later was tragic but not criminal. Make no mistake about it: Ryders fall is heartbreaking, but the evidence in this case is not going to show that Ryder fell because Ian overdrove him, defense attorney Raymond Loving argued. Ryder the carriage horse died months after his sudden collapse on a Hells Kitchen street in August 2022. Robert Miller A jury of six Manhattanites heard the dueling narratives during opening statements at a trial where McKeever, 56, is charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty stemming from Ryders August 10, 2022 collapse onto the hot pavement in the middle of West 45th Street and Ninth Avenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McKeever, an experienced horse driver, should have recognized that the malnourished Standardbred needed a break from lugging around his 100-pound carriage through Central Park, Assistant District Attorney Taylor Maurer contended. Horse carriage driver Ian McKeever is charged with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty in the episode. Steven Hirsch Ryder couldnt tell the defendant with words that he was unfit to pull the carriage, but there are several signs and symptoms a horse exhibits when he is underweight and overworked, the prosecutor said. His hip bones were protruding out. He was having difficulty scaling the mildest of hills in Central Park at a decent pace. Despite the defendants zealous insistence, he was panting rapidly with his tongue hanging out, Maurer added. But rather than recognize these signs of Ryders distresshe worked Ryder for nearly eight hours in the intense heat of the day. NYPD officers tried to revive the fallen colt after he crumbled to the ground on the steamy summer day. FNTV Ryders ordeal went viral after cellphone footage emerged of McKeever repeatedly trying to force the collapsed horse to stand back up by pulling on the reins. Ryder was sent in to retirement at an upstate farm following the episode, and was later euthanized after being diagnosed with serious medical ailments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McKeever was arrested more than a year after the incident, in what hes called a political response from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to pressure from animal rights activists. The veteran horse handler will take the stand in his own defense, his lawyer Loving told the jury. Ian McKeever has been driving horses in Central Park for almost 20 years, the attorney said. Hes never been accused of mistreating a horse. Jurors heard Tuesday afternoon from Caroline Schmidt, a bystander who was in Central Park that day and took pictures of the malnourished horse out of concern, and Vincent Fontana, a sergeant in the NYPDs horse-riding Mounted Unit, who tried to revive the ailing steed after responding to the scene. The trial will continue in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday morning. You appear to be asking that the citys pension funds treat Israel better than all other countries," Lander wrote. "That would also be politically motivated, and inconsistent with fiduciary duty." A fight over New York Citys pension investments has turned into a high-profile clash over Israel, with Mayor Eric Adams accusing Comptroller Brad Lander of quietly divesting from Israel bonds in a move he says echoes the goals of the BDS movement. In a letter sent by a deputy on Sunday, Adams alleged that Lander had effectively withdrawn city pension funds from Israeli bonds and questioned whether the decision was influenced by political considerations. He demanded that Lander turn over all documents and communications related to the matter within a week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lander, who is Jewish and identifies as a progressive Zionist, rejected the accusations in a response made public Monday in an article published by the Forward. He confirmed that under his watch, the city had allowed its Israel bond holdings to mature without reinvestment, but said the move was in line with financial management guidelines, rather than a political statement. The BDS Movement asks investors to treat Israel worse than other countries; I oppose this effort, Lander wrote. You appear to be asking that the citys pension funds treat Israel better than all other countries. That would also be politically motivated, and inconsistent with fiduciary duty. The spat highlights longstanding tensions between the two officials, who have frequently clashed over policy and budget issues. It also comes as Israel looms large in the citys upcoming mayoral election. Eric Adams slams Brad Landers for Israel bond divestment Lander supported Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and outspoken critic of Israel, in the citys ranked-choice Democratic primary. Mamdani, a longtime supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign targeting Israel, won the nomination last month. Adams, who is not Jewish but has made pro-Israel advocacy a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, is running as an independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The citys pension funds had held tens of millions of dollars in Israel bonds for decades, and when Lander took office in January 2022, the holdings were valued at about $39 million. Lander allowed the bonds to mature without renewing them, letting the total investment drop to zero. This policy appears to target only Israel bonds, reads the letter, sent on behalf of the Adams administration by Randy Mastro, the first deputy mayor. This divestment, occurring amid a global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, appears to be in furtherance of that BDS campaign. The Mastro letter characterized the bonds as a safe investment with strong returns, and said that withdrawing from them represents a lost opportunity for city pension funds. Lander denied that accusation and pointed out that the citys pension system still holds more than $315 million in Israeli assets, primarily in common stocks. He also noted that the original decision to purchase Israel bonds had been made without proper credit analysis or risk assessment, calling it a political decision, not a fiduciary one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The dropping of Israel bonds in New York City comes as some other local and state governments across the United States are making record investments in the Israeli foreign debt. The officials in charge of these moves are typically well known for their pro-Israel politics, but they say that the decision to invest in Israel bonds is justified entirely by the vehicles performance and risk level. The accusation that Lander was boycotting Israel through his Israel bonds decision surfaced in March in a New York Post article before the current political map became clear. The renewed dispute comes as candidates gear up for the mayoral election in November. Lander is an ally to Mamdani, who has stirred controversy with anti-Israel rhetoric, including a refusal to denounce the phrase globalize the intifada and a promise to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he visit New York. Adams has seized on those comments to frame Mamdani as extreme. I dont know his fixation with Israel, Adams said in a recent appearance on the Mo News podcast. He said, I dont dislike Jewish people, I just dislike Israel. Duh, Jewish people live in Israel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adams has made several recent moves that are being seen as an attempt to court the Jewish vote in the city, including creating a citywide task force on antisemitism and signing an executive order to adopt a definition of antisemitism favored by many Jewish groups. In addition to Mamdani and Adams, the field includes former Gov. Andrew Cuomo running as an independent, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and independent Jim Walden. With the moderate vote split, Mamdani enters the race as the presumptive favorite in the heavily Democratic city. Karla L. Penalverty-Gonzalez, 33, a daycare employee, has been arrested by Ocala Police over allegations of child abuse at All Star Learning Academy. The investigation, led by Detective Pfeifer, revealed multiple incidents of alleged mistreatment of infants between March and July 2025. The allegations involve six infants aged between 4 months to 9 months old, with claims of physical harm including rough handling, forced feeding, violent shaking, and near suffocation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A video recording provided by an employee corroborated the claims, showing one incident of mistreatment. These incidents were first reported to daycare supervisors, but no timely action was taken to address the allegations. Following the investigation, Gonzalez was taken into custody and actively resisted during her arrest. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has been notified and will mandate remedial training for the daycare staff. Gonzalez began her employment with the facility in July 2024. The investigation is ongoing as detectives review the managements response to these complaints. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with additional information or who may have witnessed related incidents is encouraged to contact Detective Pfeifer at 352-369-7000. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. A Texas judge on Wednesday set a new execution date for an autistic man convicted in a problematic "shaken baby" case. Judge Austin Reeve Jackson set October 16 as the date for Robert Roberson to be executed by lethal injection for the 2002 death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki. Roberson, 58, had been scheduled to die on October 17 of last year at the state penitentiary in Huntsville but his execution was put on hold after he was subpoenaed to testify before a Texas House of Representatives committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed his execution in response to the extraordinary subpoena from state lawmakers looking into Roberson's controversial conviction and the use of "junk science" in criminal prosecutions. A bipartisan group of 86 Texas lawmakers had urged clemency for Roberson, citing "voluminous new scientific evidence" that cast doubt on his guilt. Roberson would be the first person executed in the United States based on a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, according to his lawyers. His case has drawn the attention of not only Texas lawmakers but also best-selling American novelist John Grisham, medical experts and the Innocence Project, which works to reverse wrongful convictions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Also among his supporters is the man who put him behind bars -- Brian Wharton, the former chief detective in the town of Palestine -- who has said "knowing everything that I know now, I am firmly convinced that Robert is an innocent man." Gretchen Sween, one of Roberson's attorneys, criticized the decision to set an execution date while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is considering new evidence in the case. "Texans should be outraged that the court has scheduled an execution date for a demonstrably innocent man," Sween said in a statement. "Everyone who has taken the time to look at the evidence of Robert Roberson's innocence... has reached the same conclusion: Nikki's death was a terrible tragedy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Robert did not kill her. There was no crime." Roberson has always maintained his innocence and his lawyers said his chronically ill daughter died of natural and accidental causes, not abuse. The diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, made at the hospital where Roberson's daughter died, was erroneous, they said, and the cause of death was pneumonia, aggravated by doctors prescribing improper medication. Roberson's autism spectrum disorder, which was not diagnosed until 2018, also contributed to his arrest and conviction, according to his lawyers. There have been 26 executions in the United States this year, including four in Texas. cl/mlm A woman has complained to police after an officer she made sexual offence allegations against was "tipped off" before she had given a formal statement. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made allegations of rape, drink spiking, deliberately passing on a sexual infection, coercive and controlling behaviour and harassment in 2023. She told the BBC the officer she accused had been informed about her complaint within a few hours by another West Yorkshire Police officer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The force said it had received a complaint which was being investigated by the Professional Standards Directorate. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it had carefully reviewed all of the material passed on by police but concluded there was not enough evidence to charge the suspect with any offence. The woman said she felt the investigation was flawed, adding: "I was told that because he'd been tipped off, they'd made the decision not to arrest him on Monday or seize any of his electronics because there was no element of surprise. "It just didn't make any sense to me that they wouldn't take his electronics, but, ironically, throughout the process I was repeatedly asked to hand mine in or provide information off them." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an email seen by the BBC, West Yorkshire Police said the CPS needed to see accounts, notes or statements from the woman's support workers and counsellor. The correspondence also asks her to provide details of all previous sexual partners because "they will need to be spoken to" and asks her to consent to a full phone data download. 'A woman scorned' The woman has also criticised the language used during the investigation. "I have been asked if I am a woman scorned, I have been asked what I'm normally like in bed," she said. "I have pushed back about the appropriateness of how things have been dealt with and I've felt the whole way through like I've constantly had to defend myself." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement West Yorkshire Police said a file of available evidence had been submitted to the CPS, which reviewed it and advised no charges would be brought. In a statement, the CPS said: "We understand the importance of focusing investigations on the suspect, not the complainant, and not seeking material from complainants inappropriately." "Any material requested from the complainant was to help support her account of what had happened," a spokesperson added. Mags Godderidge, from the Survive charity, says investigations should not be focused on the complainant [BBC] The Victim Support charity has called for changes to the way allegations against officers are handled and said independence was "crucial" to investigations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Michaela-Clare Addison, its national sexual violence lead, said: "At the very least, a different police force should be investigating because it really makes that person feel they have been listened to and it's going to be investigated properly." The Survive charity, which supports victims of sexual violence, said officers must be mindful of the language used and investigations should not be focused on the complainant. "Very few survivors of sexual offences report to the police," said chief executive officer Mags Godderidge. "With those that do, it's not uncommon for them to say they found the experience retraumatising." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Related internet links The Niagara Irrigation Initiative, a new collaborative project dedicated to constructing irrigation infrastructure on behalf of the agricultural communities of Lincoln and West St. Catharines, Canada, recently secured $1.8 million in funding from the Canadian government and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture. According to PelhamToday, this initiative aspires to advance farming capabilities throughout the region, making it both an environmental and economic investment for the parties involved. More efficient and less wasteful irrigation systems can enhance the agricultural yield of the specialty crops such as grapes and tender fruits which the unique Niagara climate makes possible to cultivate. In particular, the next steps for the project include establishing a preliminary irrigation design that upgrades and merges the multiple irrigation systems in place in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Funding for the Niagara Irrigation Project comes through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, a multibillion-dollar five-year investment by Canadian governments of all sizes aimed at developing the resilience and innovative potential of the nation's agricultural underbelly ensuring "long-term stability for growers and local jobs, all of which contribute to Ontario's economy," as Canada Infrastructure Bank CEO Ehren Cory explained to PelhamToday. As a changing climate continues to threaten both the livelihood of farmers and the persistence of crops through tough seasons, taking measures to protect the agricultural sector has become increasingly essential. Thanks to the current rate of global carbon pollution, temperatures are rising worldwide, leading to increased volatility in both overall weather patterns and isolated weather phenomena. Floods, storms, wildfires, and other extreme weather events are supercharged by our warming planet, making them even more devastating for humans and crops alike. As a result, while projects like the Niagara Irrigation Initiative may not tackle the carbon problem head-on, they serve as a powerful protective measure against the onslaught of climate change. In fact, the implementation of better irrigation systems is likely synonymous with a wiser and more cautious use of water, delivering exactly what the root systems need with minimal waste. "I'm thrilled to see this vital investment in the Niagara Irrigation Project," reported farmer and project chair David Hipple. "New and improved irrigation systems aren't just about efficiency; it's about protecting livelihoods, supporting food security, and ensuring that future generations can continue to farm this land." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This partnership shows what we can achieve when all levels of government and community partners come together to support our agricultural sector," added Jim Bradley of the Ontario Regional Council. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. The Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation has adopted a low-tech yet innovative strategy to lower the risk of wildfires in the San Bernardino mountains: goatscaping. As KTLA 5 reported, "hundreds of goats were deployed" in the foothills to munch on invasive grasses and dry bush. Homeowners near the reservation have expressed their gratitude for the work, which is overseen by tribal officials. The scheme is part of a wider land stewardship strategy to take a sustainable and proactive approach to reducing the devastating destruction of seasonal wildfires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southern California is historically prone to wildfires. In 2024, the Line Fire ripped through 100,000 acres of land before it was contained. Because of persistent droughts and thick undergrowth, the risk of a fire spreading rapidly is considerable. Goats offer a chemical-free way to reduce that risk, and they're just doing what comes naturally. Goats are particularly adept at clearing thick undergrowth and chewing through noxious weeds. Their digestive system essentially sterilizes the seeds they ingest, so when they consume an invasive grass or plant, it won't return. As the University of Minnesota noted, goats easily deal with buckthorn, with a local business owner "blown away" by how happy his goats were to tuck into the invasive plant. They are also immune to poison ivy and smart enough to spit out any plastic they come across. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's little wonder that goatscaping is becoming increasingly popular nationwide. The busy little ruminants consume about 1-3% of their body weight in dry matter per day, so they can make a big impact in a relatively short period of time. This story highlights the importance of taking local action and incorporating traditional wisdom into conservation strategies. Goatscaping is just one of multiple natural remedies. You can help save the planet and some money by rewilding your yard with native plants or upgrading to a natural lawn. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. Hazard tape cautions about hazardous area. - Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto On May 18, Trigg Kiser, the three-year-old son of mega popular mom influencer Emilie Kiser died following a drowning incident at the familys Chandler, Arizona home. Nearly two months after the toddlers death, the Chandler Police are recommending a class 4 felony charge of child abuse against the boys father, Brady Kiser, though experts tell Rolling Stone that child abuse charges are rare in drowning cases. Emilie Kiser is a popular mom influencer with over 4 million followers on TikTok, and Trigg was often featured in her content. Following his death, some fans had an intense parasocial reaction, to the extent that some other mom influencers even reconsidered sharing their children online at all. At the time of the incident, according to reporting by People, Emilie was not home and Brady was taking care of both Trigg and the couples infant son, Theodore. According to search warrant applications obtained by The Arizona Republic, Brady told police he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes while distracted by his infant son. When Brady saw Trigg in the pool, he jumped in to get him and called 911, the father told police. Investigators obtained video surveillance from cameras in the backyard to confirm Bradys statement. Though the details of the investigation have not been made public, the Chandler Police Department has concluded its investigation following a thorough review of the evidence and recommended the felony child abuse charge. More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Arizona law, felony child abuse occurs when a person who has the care or custody of a child or vulnerable adult causes them to suffer a physical injury or permits them to be placed in a situation where they are endangered. A felony child abuse offense is considered a class 4 charge if done with criminal negligency. Frank Vandervort, a clinical professor of law who works with the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan, says its rare for parents to be charged with child abuse in connection with a drowning incident. Most child drownings result in child neglect or endangerment charges rather than abuse [charges], Vandervort says. This is unusual. Child abuse charges generally suggest an active involvement in the childs death, Vandervort says, rather than a failure to act. The Arizona Republic reports that police were considering child abuse charges against Brady for an incident that occurred before Triggs death. Representatives for Emilie Kiser did not immediately respond to Rolling Stones request for comment. The case has been submitted to the Maricopa County Attorneys Office for review; prosecutors will decide to either formally charge Brady Kiser, drop the case, or send it back to police for further investigation. Neither Emilie nor Brady Kiser has spoken publicly since the death of their son, though Emilie sued to keep the records of the drowning private, according to a filing in the Superior Court of Arizona. In June, a non-dissemination order was instituted in the case, temporarily halting the release of records, which includes 911 calls, the autopsy report, photos of the scene, the police report, and security camera footage. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, drowning deaths are on the rise in the United States and is the number one cause of death for children between one and four years old in the United States. Parents are not regularly charged when their children drown, says Richard Wexler, the executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. Wexler notes that charges are more likely to be brought when the child is poor and nonwhite. As with every other decision involving child protective services, the decision-making is arbitrary, capricious, and subject to the whims and prejudices of the decision makers, Wexler says. There can be good, sound reasons to bring charges but were going to need to know a lot more before we find out if this case is one of them. Vivek Sankaran, the director of the Child Advocacy Law Clinic at the University of Michigan, sees the recommendation of charges against Brady Kiser as part of a pattern. This is a sign of the world were in right now, where people are so quick to blame and to judge parents, he says. Any time a mistake happens, we want to blame as opposed to support and nurture in some way. Any of us who are parents can understand but for the grace of God, that could be any of us in that situation. It just doesnt seem like a proper use of the criminal justice system. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The Chandler Police Department recommended a Class 4 felony child abuse charge against the husband of social media influencer Emilie Kiser in the drowning death of their 3-year-old son, Trigg. Trigg Kiser died May 18, days after he was found in the backyard pool of the family's Chandler home. The Police Department announced the recommendation against Brady Kiser on July 15. Police had been considering the child abuse charge since before Trigg's death, court records show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office were reviewing the case against Brady Kiser and will decide whether to charge him, send the case back to police for further investigation, or drop the case. Police officials previously told The Arizona Republic that criminal charges against parents in child drowning cases were rare. Brady Kiser told police he became distracted by the couple's newborn and lost track of Trigg for a few minutes before finding him in the pool, according to court records. If convicted of the child abuse charge recommended by police, Brady Kiser could be sentenced to years in prison. Police official: Child drownings are usually tragic accidents, not criminal acts Its rare for police to recommend criminal charges after a child accidentally dies, according to Glendale police spokesperson Sgt. Bryan Hoskin. Glendale police are not involved in the investigation into Trigg's death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The vast majority of child drowning cases he has investigated involved distraught parents who struggled to grasp how their child could be gone simply because they were distracted for 30 seconds, Hoskin said. Nobodys coming out and being like, Oh yeah, I left the pool gate open on purpose I was sick of listening to my kid cry, Hoskin said. Police always investigate a drowning to rule out cases of abuse or extreme neglect, but an absent-minded parent accidentally forgetting to lock the pool gate or door to the backyard was unlikely to land them behind bars, Hoskin said. Someone could potentially face criminal charges if there was evidence a child drowned while the person was heavily intoxicated or passed out from drug use, but the decision whether to pursue a criminal case would ultimately fall to prosecutors, Hoskin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officer Aaron Bolin, a department spokesperson for the Scottsdale Police Department, said investigators review the physical evidence and the parent or caregiver's mental state and decision-making when investigating a child drowning. For example, if detectives found that a parent had recently Googled how long it takes for a child to drown, that could suggest a drowning was planned, Bolin said. Bolin said that no matter what investigators uncovered, the decision to file criminal charges rested with prosecutors and whether they believed a reasonable likelihood of conviction existed. What did Brady Kiser say to police about what happened to Trigg Kiser? Brady Kiser told Chandler police he was at home with the couple's two boys on May 12 while his wife was out with friends, according to search warrant applications submitted by police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators filed the search warrant applications on May 13 and accused Brady Kiser of committing child abuse on the day of Trigg's drowning. The applications stated that the warrants were intended to obtain surveillance footage from cameras in the backyard so that police could corroborate Brady Kiser's statements to investigators. Brady Kiser told police he saw Trigg playing near the pool, which he said was "not uncommon," according to the police records. Brady Kiser also told police the pool usually had a protective cover on it, the records said. Brady Kiser said he was caring for their newborn son, Theodore, when he lost sight of Trigg for three to five minutes. He then found Trigg floating in their backyard pool, according to the police records. Police responded to the drowning call near Chandler Heights and Cooper roads and performed CPR until firefighters arrived and took over medical care, police spokesperson Sonu Wasu said at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trigg was taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center and then to Phoenix Children's Hospital in critical condition, where he ultimately died on May 18, Wasu said. What is Class 4 felony child abuse under Arizona law? Arizona state law says a person commits child abuse if they cause physical injury to a child or a vulnerable adult. It's also considered child abuse if someone has the custody of a child or a vulnerable adult and allows abuse to take place or causes the person in their care to be in a situation where they are endangered. It is considered a Class 4 felony if the abuse was likely to result in death or serious physical injury and was done with criminal negligence, the law says. Criminal negligence means someone failed to identify a substantial risk that a reasonable person would have recognized and prevented. How long could a prison sentence be for a Class 4 felony? A person convicted of a Class 4 felony faces one to 3.75 years in prison if it is their first felony offense, according to state law. How common are child drownings in Arizona? Arizona saw 31 child drowning deaths in 2023, with 71% of those deaths involving children under 5, according to an annual report from the Arizona Child Fatality Review Team. The drownings represented 3% of all child deaths in the state that year, the report said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lack of supervision was a leading risk factor in 87% of drowning deaths in 2023, while an inability to swim and a lack of a pool barrier were factors in 68% and 58% of cases, respectively, the report said. Poverty and family having prior interactions with child protective services were each factors in 39% of cases. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Brady Kiser faces prosecution in his son's drowning. Is that common? Jul. 16An Oregon teenager was sentenced to 24 months of probation Monday, July 14, for threatening to "shoot up" Byron High School in November. Malakye Swanson, 18, pleaded guilty to the Class 4 felony offense of disorderly conduct (school threat) when he appeared in Ogle County Circuit Court with his attorney, Cassandra Hirth. Swanson was charged in January with knowingly transmitting a threat of destruction of a school by saying he was "going to shoot up" Byron High School on or about Nov. 15, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, Hirth told Judge Anthony Peska that Swanson would plead guilty to the offense in exchange for a sentence of probation, negotiated through a plea agreement with the Ogle County State's Attorney's Office. "We have reached a resolution," Hirth told Peska. In exchange for a guilty plea, Swanson received 24 months of probation with conditions that included finishing his high school education and participating with any counseling ordered by the probation department, Hirth said. Ogle County Assistant State's Attorney Allison Huntley agreed with the terms of the plea agreement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huntley told the court that Swanson drove by the high school in his pickup truck and through a microphone threatened to "shoot up" the school. "Is there anything you would like to say?," Peska asked Swanson. "Nope," replied Swanson. Peska agreed to the terms of the plea agreement, but told Swanson he would have levied a much harsher sentence. "I think when you threaten to 'shoot up' a school you should spend some time in jail," Peska told Swanson. "But, I am not going to stand in the way of this agreement." Under the agreement, Swanson was sentenced to 24 months of probation with conditions that he engage in a vocational training program, an educational program or employment and provide proof he graduated from high school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was also ordered to participate with any counseling and assessments recommended by the probation department and not break any laws. Swanson's sentencing order indicates he was sentenced under the First Offender Initiative Program that allows first-time felony offenders to avoid conviction if all the conditions are met during probation. Swanson was also ordered to pay fines and court costs of $1,224 payable at a rate of $200 per month. Peska told Swanson to continue with any vocational training and stay employed. "You have an overwhelming benefit here. Do not mess it up," Peska told Swanson. This article was originally published in Oklahoma Voice. OKLAHOMA CITY An Oklahoma County lawsuit challenging a Catholic charter school has been dropped following the schools failed appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Courts 4-4 stalemate upheld an Oklahoma Supreme Court decision against permitting the countrys first religious charter school to begin operating in the state with taxpayer funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Catholic leaders, a small state agency and Attorney General Gentner Drummond debated their case before the nations highest court, a separate lawsuit opposing the religious school was pending in Oklahoma County District Court. The coalition of local parents, faith leaders and public education advocates who filed the Oklahoma County case announced Monday they have voluntarily dismissed their lawsuit in light of the higher court decisions. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The plaintiffs and their legal counsel who include attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation declared victory while dropping their case. Were pleased that the courts stopped this direct assault on public education and religious freedom, said Daniel Mach, of the ACLU. Public schools must remain secular and welcome all students, regardless of faith. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition was the first plaintiff in the lawsuit. Chairperson Misty Bradley said the group is grateful for those who supported their case and for the attorney generals successful efforts to uphold Oklahomas constitution and protect its taxpayers and public schools. Misty Bradley, chairperson of the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Advocacy Coalition, speaks at a Public Schools Day rally on Feb. 25 in front of the state Capitol in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) Officials from the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa first applied to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School in 2023. Later that year, the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board, a small state agency that oversaw online charter schools, approved the application to open St. Isidore, permitting it to operate with taxpayer funds. St. Isidore would have offered an online education to students in all parts of the state. Although students of any religion or no faith could have attended the school, St. Isidore would have taught Catholic doctrine and functioned according to church beliefs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Oklahoma County lawsuit was the first to be filed against the school, followed by the attorney generals request that the state Supreme Court intervene. The state Supreme Court decided last year that a religious charter school would be unconstitutional. Both St. Isidore and the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case in May. The eight justices who heard the case deadlocked at 4-4, which allowed the state Supreme Courts decision to stand. Related In Case the Choice World Dreaded, Justices Appear Open to Religious Charters Catholic leaders, who did not immediately comment on the Oklahoma County case Monday, said they are exploring other options to provide an online Catholic education. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gov. Kevin Stitt, a supporter of St. Isidore, said the matter of publicly funded religious charter schools is far from a settled issue and suggested it would reach the U.S. Supreme Court again. Oklahoma Voice is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oklahoma Voice maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janelle Stecklein for questions: info@oklahomavoice.com. Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a forum with Jenks High School students at the Jenks Public Schools Math and Science Center on Nov. 13, 2024. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY The Oklahoma Supreme Court late Tuesday put on hold a law that would create the states first business court system. The action came after the full court earlier in the day heard a challenge to the constitutionality of Senate Bill 632. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During oral arguments, justices appeared skeptical about the legality of the measure, which was to become effective Sept. 1 and was strongly supported by Gov. Kevin Stitt. Senate Bill 632 creates business courts in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, but critics said it violates a constitutional provision allowing Oklahomans to vote on retaining judges and because the $1,500 filing fee bars access to the courts. Justice Noma Gurich questioned whether it would take a vote of the people to amend the Oklahoma Constitution to create business courts rather than legislative action. She also asked if portions of the bill could be removed to make it constitutional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Justice Douglas L. Combs asked if the measure was disenfranchising voters. Attorneys Joe E. White Jr. and Jason Waddell, who sued Stitt, asked the court to put the law on hold and to toss it out as an unconstitutional bill. The men had argued in their court filing that the emergency injunction was necessary because the House Speaker was expected to submit nominees for the first two judges and it would be unfair to ask anyone to give up their positions in the event the law is ultimately overturned. State leaders were also expected to begin leasing space and hiring staff for the courts. The Court assumes original jurisdiction for the purpose of issuing a temporary stay pending the litigation herein, the order said, adding that the measure cant be enforced until a future order. The vote was 6-3. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bob Burke, representing the two attorneys, said that because the measure lets the governor appoint the two judges, it violates a constitutional provision allowing voters to vote on district and associate judges. The measure says the business court judges shall serve an 8-year term and could be reappointed. My biggest gripe about this bill is that it deprives us of the ability to vote, Burke said. The business court judges would be subject to the whims of the governor and Legislature, Burke said. He said it is an impermissible special law because it treats certain people differently, and it would result in different treatment for two people in the same county depending on the amount of money in dispute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Business courts would handle matters that involve at least $500,000. The measure requires the House Speaker to submit three names to the governor for appointment. The Senate would vote to confirm the selection. Currently, the Judicial Nominating Commission submits names for judicial vacancies to the governor. Senate confirmation is not required. The judges run on a nonpartisan ballot. The jurisdiction of the business courts is so broad that it is unworkable, Waddell said during oral arguments. The bill creates unlimited power for the governor to appoint judges without a way for voters to remove them through an election, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What they want is a judge who is hand picked to rule the way they want, Waddell said. Supporters of the measure touted it as a way to lure business to the state. Audrey Weaver, Gov. Kevin Stitts deputy general counsel, told the court not to take the case, saying no one has sustained injury. White and Waddell were not the proper parties to file suit. Weaver said the Oklahoma Supreme Court does not issue advisory opinions or rule on speculation or hypotheticals. She said the court needed to exercise judicial restraint. Benjamin Lepak, Stitts general counsel, said the case was before the court because critics of the bill lost a policy battle at the Legislature. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lepak said the measure expands access to the courts. The $1,500 filing fee is reasonable and in line with that of other states, Lepak said. This lawsuit is a textbook example of attorneys trying to use the courts to block progress, Stitt said in a press release. They have no actual injury, no client affected by the law, and no standing to be here. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Oklahoma Supreme Court has stayed a new law that would establish business courts in the state. Justices issued the order soon after the court held a hearing in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn Senate Bill 632, the law creating the business court system. It had been scheduled to take effect Sept. 1. Senate Bill 632 shall not take effect nor be enforced until a future order or opinion of this Court so directs, read an order issued just after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The court said the injunction would remain in place as the lawsuit works its way through the state Supreme Court, which agreed to assume original jurisdiction of the case. The order was signed by Vice Chief Justice Dana Kuehn, with Justices James Winchester, James Edmondson, Douglas Combs, Noma Gurich and Richard Darby concurring. Chief Justice Dustin Rowe and Justices M. John Kane IV and Travis Jett dissented. The three dissenting justices, as well as Kuehn, were appointed to the state Supreme Court by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, who has championed a new state court system to handle complex business litigation. The argument over business courts established in Oklahoma Stitt believes the existence of such courts will help make Oklahoma appear more friendly to potential businesses looking for a place to locate. But critics have argued that provisions of the business court law are unconstitutional. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorneys Joe E. White Jr. and Jason Waddell are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit seeking to block the courts from being established. In addition to requesting the temporary injunction granted Tuesday, White and Waddell asked the Supreme Court to declare the law that created the courts as unconstitutional and for a permanent injunction after that. During the hearing in their Capitol courtroom on Tuesday less than three weeks after the lawsuit was filed justices grappled with multiple issues: If the court should accept the lawsuit before it is considered by a lower court, whether such a system is constitutional and the feasibility of having two judges in that system that would not be answer to voters, as other state judges do. More: Attorneys sue governor, legislative leaders over law that created Oklahoma business courts Both sides came away after the one-hour, 43-minute hearing convinced the justices eventually would rule their way. Ben Lepak, the general counsel for Stitt the lone remaining defendant in the case said he thought the argument went great, and we're pretty confident that the court will get to the right decision. Stitt was not present in the courtroom, but one of his advisers, Oklahoma Secretary of State Josh Cockroft, was. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bob Burke, a constitutional scholar and lawyer from Oklahoma City who represents the plaintiffs, was equally confident. We got to say what we wanted to and they really couldn't answer the question, Is this a business court or is it a division (of a district court)? And either one of them on unconstitutional, Burke said. So what I'm hoping the Supreme Court will do will is at least delay the effective date of the law. Senate Bill 632 was passed during the final week of the legislative session as part of the budget deal struck by legislative leaders with Stitt. House Speaker Kyle Hilbert and Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton originally were named as defendants in the lawsuit but were dropped in a flurry of court filings before the court hearing. The speed with which the court scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit was unusual and was noted by multiple justices. One of them, Kuehn, wondered why White and Waddell didnt proceed via the usual judicial route, through a district court. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lepaks co-counsel, Audrey Weaver, said the Supreme Court should make the case follow what she believes to be a more proper path, telling justices, This court does not issue advisory opinions. Winchester pushed back, though, asking, If we do not address this, what happens? Wouldnt it be more economical to decide this now? Soon after, Lepak, said, The petitioners have lost a policy battle, (so they decided) to ask the court to reverse the outcome. He said more time was needed to properly argue the case. Burke thought otherwise, telling the justices in closing there is an immediate need for the highest court in the state to decide the issue. Burke earlier had noted that, you ultimately will decide this issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least three justices, including Rowe, asked about the feasibility of severing the portion of the bill that does not provide a way for the public to vote on the judges, something Burke called my biggest gripe about the legislation. White and Waddell also noted in their lawsuit that the Legislature bypassed the Judicial Nominating Commission for the selection and appointment of the two judges for the business court, who would be chosen by Stitt from a list submitted by Hilbert. They also believe the Legislature has created an unconstitutional barrier to access to the courts with a $1,565 filing fee for a case to be heard by the courts. Stitt issued a statement about an hour after the hearing ended but before the court issued its order calling the lawsuit meritless. Business courts are a game-changer for Oklahoma, so of course the old guard is panicking, Stitt said. Our business court system will make it easier for businesses to grow, invest, and hire more Oklahomans because theyll finally have certainty in how disputes are handled. Were ready to move forward. This lawsuit is exactly what you'd expect from trial lawyers who treat the courtroom like a business model. Theyre worried about losing billable hours and thats why theyre scrambling to stop our progress before it starts were moving their cheese. This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Supreme Court halts state's new business courts law On July 3, Chinas foreign ministry signaled that Beijing would sign the protocol to the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, or Bangkok Treaty of 1995. Russia is also ready to ink the protocol according to sources. Some believe the U.S. is also considering doing so. Beijing and Moscow suddenly deciding to sign the protocol is not an indication that peace is breaking out in that volatile portion of the world. On the contrary, the willingness to join looks like a war signal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As [the Association of South East Asian Nations] comprehensive strategic partner and friendly neighbor, China firmly supports establishing the Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, said Mao Ning, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, at her regular press conference. We have said more than once that China is ready to take the lead in signing the protocol to the SEANWFZ Treaty. We will maintain communication with ASEAN countries on this matter. The Bangkok Treaty is a pact signed by all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The treaty, according to the association, is a commitment to preserve the Southeast Asian region as a region free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, through the treaty, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations reaffirms the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The treaty established the worlds third nuclear weapons-free zone. There are now five in total. The other zones cover Latin America and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Africa and Central Asia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It also includes a protocol designed to be signed by the five states permitted by the non-proliferation treaty to possess nuclear weapons. The protocol, among other things, prohibits the use or threats to use nuclear weapons in the zone. So far, none of the five nuclear weapons states has signed on. So whats the harm in a nuclear weapons state signing the protocol? China and Russia had previously proposed a nuclear weapon-free zone for the Middle East to pressure Israel to give up its nuclear forces and to prevent the U.S. from deploying such weapons in the area, Peter Huessy of the National Institute for Deterrence Studies told me this month. Now, Beijing and Moscow are playing the same game in Southeast Asia, which would make the area free for them to deploy surreptitiously their own nuclear forces. After Beijings July 3 announcement, Richard Fisher of the International Assessment and Strategy Center told me: The only reason for the Chinese Communist Party to sign the [protocol] is that it is getting closer to using or threatening to use nuclear weapons against Taiwan or the Philippines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The treaty provides no real protection from Chinese nuclear weapons, but it would forbid U.S.-ally Philippines from permitting America to base nuclear weapons on its territory for the purpose of deterring or defeating a Chinese nuclear attack or an actual Chinese invasion of the Philippine island of Palawan, a threat for which Manila and Washington have been preparing, said Fisher. As China gets closer to its war to destroy democracy in Taiwan, it wants to use the nuclear weapon-free zone to prevent the U.S. from deploying these weapons to defend that island republic too. Fisher pointed out that China, with its ballistic missile submarines alone, will have, according to his median estimate, somewhere between 216 to 720 nuclear warheads on Southeast Asias doorstep by 2035. Its not clear to me how a country undertaking the largest nuclear arms build-up has the gall to push a nuclear-free zone treaty when its busy deploying seaborne nuclear weapons all over the place, said Huessy, who is also president of GeoStrategic Analysis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As both Huessy and Fisher noted, China has long been planning to wage war in East Asia. For instance, Xi Jinping has been issuing bellicose rhetoric lately. His favorite phrase these days is dare to fight. He is doing more than just talking, however. Xi is engaged in the fastest military buildup since World War II. He has also been sanctions-proof his regime, stockpiling grain and other commodities, firing uniformed officers opposed to going to war and calling up reservists and mobilizing civilians for battle. Given significant war preparations, its unlikely Beijings willingness to sign the protocol to the Bangkok Treaty is the result of peaceful intentions. There is also a larger issue involving Chinas compliance with treaty obligations. Take Beijings core promise not to spread nuclear weapons technology. Beginning in the 1970s, China proliferated that technology to Pakistan. As Huessy pointed out, Pakistan, through the A.Q. Khan black-market ring, then merchandised the Chinese tech to North Korea, Iran, Iraq and Libya. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So why should the international community trust Beijing to honor the protocol when it violated its obligation to not proliferate nuclear weapons? In reality, treaties with China are one-way. Beijing expects others to honor their promises while it feels free to violate its obligations. So let Beijing and Moscow sign the protocol to the Bangkok Treaty, but the United States should not do so. Countries in the region rely on the American nuclear umbrella, Washingtons guarantee to use its most destructive weapons to protect them from attack. This is no time to call into question this critical commitment for U.S. friends and partners throughout East Asia. Gordon G. Chang is the author of Plan Red: Chinas Project to Destroy America and The Coming Collapse of China . Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. On June 10, Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed into law an expansion of New Hampshires Education Freedom Account program to include all students, regardless of income. This new law makes New Hampshire the latest state to adopt universal eligibility in education choice. Its a victory for Granite State families and a reminder that when policymakers listen to parents, students win. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The journey to universal eligibility has been years-long and, at times, winding. Now, New Hampshire joins a growing wave of states totaling more than a dozen that have made their scholarship account or voucher programs universally available. In doing so, every child in New Hampshire will now have access to a personalized learning path that works for them. It is an affirmation that educational opportunity shouldnt depend on where a family lives or how much money they make. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related With Income Cap Gone, New Hampshire Families Rush to Apply for School Vouchers Education Freedom Accounts empower parents to direct state education funds toward a variety of approved services, including private school tuition, tutoring, therapies, online learning and curriculum materials. This flexibility is especially critical for students who need something other than a one-size-fits-all school assignment, whether theyre struggling academically, seeking more rigorous coursework, dealing with bullying or pursuing specialized learning interests. Since launching the program in 2021, New Hampshire has witnessed the power of Education Freedom Accounts in action. But under previous eligibility limits, fewer than half of students could access the program. Many families who didnt qualify because of income thresholds were still unable to afford private school or enrichment services, leaving them without meaningful options. Now, that barrier is gone. Every New Hampshire parent can consider the full range of learning environments and services to meet their childs needs, not just the one assigned based on where they can afford to live. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related National Survey Shows 60% of Parents Considered Changing Schools Last Year That expansion reflects a larger national trend. Over the past few years, a sea change has taken place across the country as parents seek and gain more control over their childrens education. Since 2021, 17 states have enacted universal education choice. From Arkansas to Iowa to Texas, governors and legislators have responded to the call for change with sweeping reforms that prioritize students over systems. Why is this happening? Because parents know whats best for their children. They have seen the way their states education methods and priorities fall short of their expectations or leave their kids behind. Choice gives families agency. It gives them hope. And it often provides students with the very thing they need to succeed: the right environment at the right time with the right support. The data back this up. School choice programs enjoy high levels of support among parents and the public because it has changed lives. Research shows that choice can lead to stronger academic outcomes, higher graduation and college enrollment rates and even long-term benefits like reduced crime and improved civic engagement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite arguments to the contrary, universal choice doesnt mean a mass exodus from public schools. In fact, the majority of families still choose their neighborhood public school when given the option. But having the power to choose, even if they never use it, puts parents in the drivers seat. It ensures schools are responsive to families and that no student is trapped in a system that isnt working. Related Red States School Vouchers Mark Biggest Shift in U.S. Education in a Century At ExcelinEd in Action, we believe that strong policy changes lives. And New Hampshire just changed thousands of them for the better. This expansion is more than policy its possibility. New Hampshire policymakers have not only honored the promise of public education, theyve expanded it. Theyve sent a clear message that students come first, and that New Hampshire will continue to create innovative, student-centered education policy. I hope other states take notice. Because every child, no matter where they live, deserves the chance to succeed. Two recent revelations a memorandum from El Salvador to the United Nations about its detention of migrants from the U.S., and a fired Justice Department attorneys whistle-blower report cry out for the appointment of a special counsel to investigate and prosecute criminal contempt violations against the top three officials in the Department of Justice. There is sufficient evidence that these leaders Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove committed criminal contempt. They acted in an apparently concerted effort to stonewall the court in the civil case brought against the government by Venezuelan migrants who, as described by the Supreme Court, were sent to El Salvador in violation of their due process rights. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, the federal district court judge presiding over that case, has the power to initiate such an investigation and prosecution with the appointment of a private attorney to act as special counsel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Such a judicial appointment is not unprecedented. In 1987, the Supreme Court in a case called Young v. U.S. ex rel. Vuitton et Fils, now codified in Rule 42 of the federal criminal rules empowers federal district courts, based on probable cause, to appoint a private attorney as special counsel to investigate and prosecute criminal contempt. The newly revealed evidence overwhelmingly supports Judge Boasberg in appointing a special counsel. Indeed, at the time that Archibald Cox was appointed Watergate Special Prosecutor, there was far less evidence known about the criminal activity of President Richard Nixons two former attorneys general, John Mitchell and Richard Kleindienst. After a thorough investigation, both were later convicted of serious federal crimes. Bondi, Blanche and Bove appear to have directly supervised the Justice Departments defense of this case from the start. On Mar. 19, all three signed the governments motion to stay Boasbergs request to detail the movements of aircraft that transported Venezuelans to El Salvador after the judge had famously ordered planes to be turned around so they could be brought back to the U.S. Normally, documents filed with a court are only signed by the line attorneys and their direct supervisors. On Apr. 16, Bondi responded to the Justice Departments admission that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador as a result of an administrative error. She stated in an interview that the government would only fly him back if Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele wanted to return him. Bondi emphasized that President Bukele said he was not sending him back. Thats the end of the story. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bondis statement was consistent with those of others in the administration, including President Trump, who claimed that the government lacked the authority to return Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national. Justice Department line attorneys also argued Bondis position to Boasberg, that both detention and ultimate disposition of the Venezuelan migrants are matters within the legal authority of El Salvador. But Bondis statement is contradicted by a newly released document, dated March 26, provided by El Salvador to the U.N. in response to an inquiry into the deportations. El Salvador admitted that the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign [i.e., American] authorities, by virtue of their agreements with the Trump administration. The memorandum reflects that the U.S. government received a copy of this document. Bondis credibility is further undermined by the Justice Departments miraculous return of Abrego Garcia to the U.S. to stand trial on criminal charges based on what a Tennessee magistrate judge found was the unreliable testimony of two cooperating witnesses in his case. The truth of the Salvadoran document is additionally supported by the $6 million the U.S. reportedly paid to El Salvador for imprisoning the Venezuelans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This astonishing document is compounded by the recent whistle-blower revelations by a fired Justice Department attorney named Erez Reuveni, who recounted a meeting of Justice Department attorneys on March 14. Bove presided over the meeting and stressed to all in attendance that the plane [with Venezuelan migrants] needed to take off no matter what. Addressing a possibility that a court order would enjoin these removals, Bove stated that the Justice Department would need to consider telling the courts f you and ignore any such court order. Reuvenis statements are corroborated by his release of internal Justice Department communications among various lawyers who were at the March 14 meeting and other lawyers at the Department of Homeland Security. Blanche denied Reuvenis account, as reported by The New York Times, asserting he was at the same meeting and never heard Mr. Bove suggest the department disregard court orders. Reuveni countered that Blanche only briefly entered the conference room during the meeting to speak privately to Bove. Blanche did not participate in the meeting, he claimed, and it was immediately after Blanche left that Bove spoke to the other Justice lawyers about ignoring court orders. In contravention of Boasbergs order, on the next day, March 15, the planes did take off and did not return the Venezuelan migrants to the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Before these two startling revelations, Judge Boasberg found on June 4 that while it is a close question, the current record does not support Plaintiffs [the Venezuelans] assertion that they are in the constructive custody of the U.S., meaning that the government had the authority to order them returned to America. Boasberg held that the Venezuelans failed to overcome a sworn declaration from a knowledgeable government official attesting that the ongoing detention of the Venezuelans is a question of Salvadoran law. But El Salvadors document to the U.N. puts the lie to that officials claims. Based on the Salvadoran governments document and the whistle-blowers revelations, there is more than adequate probable cause for Judge Boasberg to appoint a special counsel to investigate the top leadership of Trumps Justice Department for criminal contempt. A grand jury investigation could clarify who knew what and when and identify those at the Justice Department who knowingly were part of an effort to obstruct the courts orders. Nick Akerman, a former assistant special Watergate prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, is an attorney in New York City. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. President Donald Trump is making a surprising pivot on the war in Ukraine, shifting positions on weapon sales and sanctions in a way that makes him look more like his predecessor Joe Biden and less like a lackey of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trumps patience with Putins resistance to a ceasefire proposal seems to be finally wearing thin, and he apparently wants to apply pressure to Putin to force him to the table and bring the war to an end. But Trumps approach still gives Putin significant wiggle room, and some experts are skeptical that itll induce Putin to agree to a ceasefire. Trumps campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine in a day continues to look absurd and much of his inability to get Putin to take peace negotiations seriously is his own fault. Trump announced an arms deal on Monday under which NATO allies will purchase billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the U.S., which will be quickly distributed to the battlefield in Ukraine. That U.S. allies will be footing the bill allows Trump to tout this transaction as a win for America First, but the most important consequence is the U.S. return to a Biden-esque position on arming Ukraine against Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While many of the details of that deal are not yet clear, the most striking feature of Trumps announcement which he made alongside NATOs Secretary General Mark Rutte was the sale of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems. The Patriot systems will certainly make a difference to the defense of Ukrainian cities, particularly Kyiv, Rajan Menon, a professor emeritus of political science at the City College of New York, told me in an interview. Patriot systems, which intercept incoming missiles, are considered among the most sophisticated in the world. Each Patriot battery costs over $1 billion. Ukraine already has some from the U.S., but more of them would help reduce Ukrainian civilian casualties, which have surged to record highs recently as Putin has expanded his air offensive and targeted cities relentlessly. The Patriot announcement came after Trump ended a brief pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine that had been approved the Biden administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump also said on Monday that he was very, very unhappy with Putin, and said Putin had 50 days to make a peace deal with Ukraine, after which he said the U.S. will impose a 100% tariff rate on Russian imports. He also threatened to impose what he called secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil. That would presumably mean slapping tariffs on goods from countries like China and India, which are major importers of Russian oil and seem unlikely to cut off ties with Russia on account of Trumps initiative. (Russia has called the 50-day ultimatum unacceptable.) Rhetorically, Trump has also shifted in significant ways. He has grown far more critical of Putin, and accused him of stringing him along. Last week he told reporters, We get a lot of bullsh--- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. Hes very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. Trump has also sounded overtly sympathetic to Ukrainian loss of life, saying Putin is not treating human beings right. Hes killing too many people. Experts say that Trump is showing signs of a more distrustful attitude toward Russia. Trump has clearly always felt that he had a very good relationship, a personal relationship, with Vladimir Putin. They get on, they talk for hours on the phone, Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, told me in an interview. I dont doubt that he feels slighted that Putin is not listening to him on Ukraine. At the start of his second term, Trump attempted to bring the war to a close by pressuring Ukraine rather than Russia. Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, calling him disrespectful and Vance calling him ungrateful for U.S. support. Trump has also on multiple occasions briefly paused Biden-approved weapons shipments and once cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine. Trumps strategy was successful in inducing Ukraine to give up its reluctance to approach ceasefire negotiations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By contrast, Trump apparently believed he could get Putin to agree to a deal without any serious pressure. Perhaps he naively believed that his warmth toward Putin would prevail over the Russian presidents well-established agenda to dominate Ukraine and annex as much of it as possible. Now Trump appears to be waking up from that dream. But can his pivot change the dynamic hes developed with Russia? There are reasons to be skeptical. Take the 50-day ultimatum to Putin. That is plenty of time for Russia to make some significant gains in its summer offensive, even with U.S. support to Ukraine. Moreover, the punishment that Trump has threatened is questionable. The U.S. imports very little from Russia, so the tariffs are not a big point of leverage. And the secondary tariffs targeting economic behemoths are unlikely to hurt Russia directly, but they would probably send the U.S. and China into yet another escalatory trade spiral that would hurt the U.S. economy a clear own goal. That is, of course, if Trump were to follow through on it, which Moscow would be right to question given Trumps constant extensions of tariff deadlines and walk-backs of threats. Notably, Trump is declining to threaten Moscow with more punishing sanctions targeting Russias economy, such as lowering the G7 oil price cap. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps attempt to ratchet up the pressure on Putin is significant, but its far from putting a gun to Putins head. And Trump may be underestimating Russias resolve to continue the war as a way to secure other geopolitical goals. The Russians believe that their battlefield advantage is its own leverage for the geopolitical deal that they want, said George Beebe, the director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute of Responsible Statecraft and a former director of Russia analysis at the CIA. That geopolitical deal isnt just about Ukrainian territory, but also about the nature of NATOs security guarantee to Ukraine and its deployment of military assets across Europe that Russia views as a threat. Beebe said that Trump needs to approach talks with Russia and Ukraine centering on those matters as well. Ukraine supporters worst fears of a Trump presidency have not come true so far. Despite the pauses in aid and the scolding in the Oval Office, Trump has allowed the U.S. to keep supporting Ukraine. Now, he is even growing more antagonistic to Russia. But that pressure is, in the scheme of things, still moderate and Russia undoubtedly is taking note of that, and will exploit it as long as it can. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com I dont expect my grandkids to attend Harvard University. After all, I didnt get in when I applied a half-century ago. Even though Im now president of an elite college myself, Ive enjoyed making fun of the fancy school in Cambridge whenever possible. They think theyre so great, is an attitude Ive shared with many Americans whether the they referred to graduates of our nations oldest university or some other privileged group to which we dont belong. But now, as Americas president targets Harvard with relentless vindictiveness, Im seeing the school in a different light. As the White House insists on loyalty and subservience from all sectors of civil society, I find myself rooting for Harvard and so should you, even if you share conservative priorities on other matters. When I was growing up, Follow the leader was just a childrens game in which players would mimic whoever was in charge no matter what silliness they indulged in. When I was a little older, I remember watching old newsreels of German and Italian adults in the 1930s and 40s marching in step, but my parents assured me that that would never happen here. As an American, they told me, I would never have to follow the leader. I could love my country without being subservient to those in power. And thats what I want for my grandchildren: to thrive in America without having to express loyalty to oligarchs and government officials. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The logic of the current administration is that since many schools receive federal funding, they too are now expected to march in step. But countless groups receive financial support from Washington from soybean farmers to computer chip manufacturers, from rural hospital workers to coal miners and that funding has not, until now, depended on conformity with the ideology of those in power. So why would the Trump administration now demand exactly that from universities like Harvard? The answer is that the federal governments current assault on higher education is meant to erode the independence of colleges and universities, even though the excellence of this sector depends on that very independence. Although the president claims he is attacking woke, liberal values, he and his administration are attacking core conservative values as well. The governments specific accusations are absurd on their face. Jim Ryan, the president of the University of Virginia, led a school where the fastest growing subjects were Computer Science and Data science, but he was targeted for leading an institution that was dominated, according to the government, by a bunch of leftist lunatics. Northwestern University and Cornell University have had grants suspended mostly from the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education and Health and Human Services totaling more than $1.5 billion because of suspected civil rights violations. At Harvard, where the university president and several leading deans identify as Jews, the school is accused by the White House of deliberate indifference to victims of antisemitism. The funding threats to scientific research, especially in medicine, are astronomical. As an American Jew, I know that antisemitism is real, of course, and it has gotten worse in this country. But the administrations anti-antisemitism is a sham. The president and his minions have a long history of tolerating the most vile Jew hatred, whether being mealy mouthed about the extremists marching in Charlottesville or Nick Fuentes dining with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Elon Musks Grok AI may have been praising Nazis last week, but this week the Department of Defense announced it was one of its bot-bros for government work. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The truth is that the Trump administrations anti-antisemitism is a flimsy cover for their insistence on ideological conformity, particularly from institutions whose legitimacy has never depended in the past on expressions of loyalty to the leader. Another pretense Trump administration officials have used is enforcing the Supreme Courts decision last year to end race-conscious admissions. The White House does indeed have the authority to move away from programs that resemble affirmative action. Rejecting reverse discrimination, the government can forbid attempts to deal with historical patterns of discrimination through preferences meant to counteract those patterns. Elections have consequences, and the new civil rights regime understands discrimination through a lens of individual fairness outside of a historical or social context. I dont agree with this approach, but I obey it as the current law of the land. The federal government also has the authority to insist that no one is discriminated against because of their political beliefs or protected speech. The political biases in some departments at some universities are real, and leaders of colleges and universities should be encouraged to do more to ensure that conservatives, for example, are not discriminated against in admissions or hiring decisions. But the recent moves against universities go far beyond reinterpretations of civil rights statutes. This White House wants to ensure that universities, like big law firms, media outlets and foundations, show their allegiance to those currently in charge. The mere independence of these organizations is seen as a threat to the concentration of power in the hands of the president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You dont have to be a progressive to worry about this assault on some of these key institutions of civil society. The presidents supporters themselves rail against entrenched elites and a deep state that lords it over ordinary citizens. Indeed, at the core of modern conservative thought is the notion that a country needs countervailing forces that push back against the centralization of state power. This was fundamental to Baron de Montesquieu writing about law in the first half of the 18th century, as it was for Edmund Burke writing about political culture in its second half. For the French philosopher, a healthy society depended on the freedoms that are preserved in local and regional traditions. Burke argued that we learned about freedom from what he called the little platoons in our communities those local associations that nurtured us without the intrusion of a central government. We learn about belonging as we develop allegiances to family, work associations, religious congregations. Schools are such associations, groups that come together for the purposes of learning and inquiry, communities that foster practices of freedom without being directed by a central power. Alexis de Tocqueville, another thinker beloved by many conservatives, underscored this dimension of American democracy when he wrote in the mid 1800s that without local institutions a nation may give itself a free government, but it has not got the spirit of liberty. The spirit of freedom is built on the associations that develop without dictates from central government, and it guides educational institutions. The art of associating together must ... be learned, Tocqueville wrote. In democratic countries the science of association is the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends upon the progress it has made. Colleges and universities in this country have long cultivated this subtle science of association, and thats why it is so vital for all Americans to resist the current administrations efforts to force public and private schools to conform to the presidents ideological preferences. Its not that the ecosystem of higher education is perfect I know that firsthand. But neither are other institutions core to our nations liberty, including churches and synagogues, scout troops and public libraries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whatever the flaws of universities and other institutions, massive pressure from the executive branch cannot improve this vital part of our economy and culture; it can only impose conformity, something conservatives have long opposed. Nothing good will come from forcing schools as different as Hillsdale and Harvard, the University of Texas and the University of Virginia to conform to the presidents image any presidents image of what higher education should be. Chances are that when my little grandkids are old enough to go to college, if they apply to Harvard, they wont get in. (Even though I can assure you they are absolutely perfect!) Thats okay, because if there are still great independent universities to apply to, that will mean that we were successful in fighting back against the tyrannical assault currently underway. It will mean that they can enjoy the freedoms that are my birthright and theirs. State Rep. Jami Cate plans to run for Senate. (Courtesy of Jami Cate) Republican state Rep. Jami Cate, a farmer from Linn County, announced Wednesday that she plans to run for the Oregon Senate. Cate, R-Lebanon, seeks to fill the 6th Senate District seat now held by Sen. Cedric Hayden, R-Fall Creek. Hayden is one of four Republican senators barred from running for reelection in 2026 because of their participation in the longest quorum-denying walkout in state history, a 2023 Republican protest over Democratic bills on abortion, transgender health care and guns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rural Oregon deserves a voice that fights for our farms, forests, and freedoms, Cate said in a statement. As your state representative, Ive stood firm against overregulation and Portland-driven agendas, advocating for wildfire recovery, agriculture and accountable governance. Cate, 38, is a lifelong Lebanon resident, Oregon State University graduate and fifth-generation seed farmer from rural Linn County, which touts itself as the grass seed capital of the world. Voters first elected her to the House in 2020. Linn County was one of the regions devastated by the 2020 wildfires, which burned more than 1 million acres and destroyed thousands of homes. Much of Cates focus over the past few years has been on wildfire recovery, including passing bills to exempt from income taxes legal damages for the 2020 Labor Day fires and reset property taxes for survivors who rebuilt their homes. Cate has early endorsements from former Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod, R-Stayton, and former House Republican Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, as well as several other rural lawmakers and local leaders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nonaffiliated voters are the largest group in the Senate district, as they are in Oregon, with more than 39,000 nonaffiliated voters. It also has nearly 38,000 registered Republicans and just more than 25,000 Democrats, and Hayden cruised to victory with 65% of the vote in the 2022 election. Candidates cant officially file to run for legislative races until September, but they can announce their campaigns and start raising money earlier. Cate now has a campaign balance of about $29,000. So far, eleven people have indicated through state campaign finance filings that theyll run for the Senate, which elects half of its 30 members to four-year terms every two years. That includes two of Cates Republican peers from the House state Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, plans to run for the 26th Senate District in the Columbia River Gorge now represented by Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, and Tracy Cramer, who narrowly lost reelection to a Woodburn-based House seat in 2024, updated paperwork last week to indicate a run for the 11th Senate District now represented by Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer. Bonham and Thatcher, like Hayden, cannot run for reelection because of their participation in the 2023 walkout. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX OREGON, Ill. (WTVO) The Oregon School District announced this week that it would be partnering with the company Yondr for lockable pouches for students to stow their cellphones during classes. Beginning August 13th, we will launch the Yondr Phone-Free Schools Program a proven, bell-to-bell approach that supports student focus, well-being, and connection by removing mobile phone distractions during the school day, Principal Jen Speakes said in a letter to parents. On Wednesday, the school district released updated disciplinary guidelines to accompany the ban of cellphones in the classroom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The school plans to issue personal Yondr pouches, in which students can deposit their phones at the beginning of a school day and unlock them at the end of the school day. According to the school district, a students first offense of unauthorized phone use will result in a 1-4 hour Saturday class time and a parent conference. If the Saturday class is not attended, an in-school suspension will be issued. A second offense will result in a 3-day out-of-school suspension. A third offense earns a 5-day out-of-school suspension. If a student forgets their pouch, their phone will be collected, the district said in a statement. After two such incidents, a 1-day in-school suspension or a 4-hour Saturday school session will follow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the event of an emergency, parents can contact the main office or email their student. A damaged pouch will result in a $30 fee, the school district said. Yondr, formed in 2014 by Graham Dugoni in San Francisco, pioneered a system that utilizes pouches secured by a magnetic lock that can be unlocked once a user moves out of a phone-free space. The technology has been used worldwide in schools, courthouses, and concert venues. Schools that have used the system have reported an increase in academic performance. The Illinois General Assembly passed a law in April that effectively bans the use of cellphones in a classroom setting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. Orlando is progressing with plans to transform Griffin Park, a historic location, into a complex featuring four buildings and one thousand units. The municipal planning board has approved the redevelopment project that features affordable housing, senior housing, and market-rate units. The site is situated at the southwest corner of the I-4 and State Road 408 interchange. Former resident Carmen Colon hoped that the new neighborhood would offer opportunities comparable to those she once had. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The redevelopment plans consist of 565 affordable housing units for families, 160 senior housing units, and 275 market-rate units. The project will also include a community center and pool, reflecting the aspirations expressed by Carmen Colon. Two buildings on the Griffin Park property will be preserved because of their historical importance, as the site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The remaining structures in the neighborhood were demolished in 2024 due to aging infrastructure and modifications to the interchange. The project now requires final approval from the city council, representing a key milestone in Griffin Parks transformation. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. For Tuesday, July 15, WGNs Dina Bair has the latest on new medical information, including: Other benefits of weight loss drugs GLP-1 agonists may boost brain power and precent deadly neurological conditions. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports using medications like semaglutide and tirzepatide, sold as Wegovy, Ozempic, Mounjaro and Zepbound, is associated with a lower risk for dementia, stroke and mortality in adults with type 2 diabetes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Researchers say findings indicate the drugs offer neuroprotective benefits beyond glucose control and weight loss. Experts say its a link that needs further study. Amniotic stem cells can be collected after childbirth Doctors have found a way to preserve critical cells after birth that could help save a babys life. Physicians at the University of Colorado collected amniotic stem cells in a new mothers vaginal fluid after delivery. In the past, important cells were extracted from fluid inside the placenta in a more invasive method that poses a risk to both the mother and baby. The process is often used to detect genetic abnormalities. But taken after birth, the stem cells can be preserved and coaxed into beating heart cells to treat congenital heart defects. Mismatched blood stem cell transplants Patients in need of a lifesaving transplant no longer need to wait for a match. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mismatched transplants are safe and effective for blood cancer patients, according to a new study at the University of Virginia Health System. Advances in blood stem cell science allow for more people to receive the treatment to potentially cure their disease. In the past, when the bodys immune system saw transplanted cells as foreign, it created a dangerous and often deadly reaction. By using an immunosuppressant medication, cyclo-phosphamide, doctors can prevent rejection and open the door for stem cell donors who are not a complete match for the patient. Sign up for our Medical Watch newsletter. This daily update includes important information from WGNs Dina Bair and the Med Watch team, including, the latest updates from health organizations, in-depth reporting on advancements in medical technology and treatments, as well as personal features related to people in the medical field. Sign up here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. Lora Cubbage, a former superior court judge who has served as a deputy city attorney since the spring, was named the new city attorney by the Greensboro City Council on July 8. Under the terms of her contract with the city, Cubbage will be subject to clearer limits on working for clients outside of the city than her predecessor was. Cubbages contract with the city stipulates that she shall not engage in additional employment, consulting, or self-employment, whether paid or unpaid, without the prior written approval of the city council. Additionally, the contract mandates that Cubbages work for the city shall be her primary employment and that she will devote her full professional energies, attention, and best efforts to the performance of her duties as city attorney. The contract acknowledges and permits Cubbages work as an adjunct professor at N.C. A&T State University. Cubbages starting salary is $290,000 with an annual $6,000 executive compensation supplement. Former city attorney Chuck Watts was making more than $315,000 at the time of his retirement, according to city salary records. The copy provided to the News & Record was marked as a draft but Mayor Nancy Vaughan confirmed Monday that the contract had been signed. The language in Cubbages contract covering outside employment is notably different than that included in the contract for the previous city attorney. Under the terms in Watts contract, which was agreed to in 2020, the attorney was to remain in the exclusive employment of (the city) and shall devote substantially all of his professional energy to performing the duties required under this agreement. That wording itself represented a revision from the initial contract Watts entered into with the city when he started serving as city attorney in 2019. Originally, Watts contract required that he dedicate all of his professional energy to his work for the city. Both versions of the contract included exclusive employment provisions. Watts own outside work has attracted scrutiny lately. On July 9, Greensboro Police Chief John Thompson announced that the State Bureau of Investigation was conducting a review into some of Watts business dealings. Though the exact reasons for the review was not disclosed, the announcement came as Watts was facing scrutiny over his work for the defense contractor Cyberlux. Critics of Watts had circulated documents starting in June related to Watts work for the company and questioned whether his involvement with the company was appropriate. Amid those questions, Watts retired from the city on July 2 without making any prior public announcement about plans to step away. The retirement also came a day after Greensboro police referred the questions over Watts business dealings to the SBI. Watts has maintained that he did not retire because of the revelations over his work for Cyberlux and that he left because he did not want to become a distraction during the citys election season. Watts has said he had the councils general permission to do an insubstantial amount of outside work, though the council only learned of his work for Cyberlux specifically in recent weeks. Last week, Mayor Vaughan said council members and Watts had discussed him doing outside work years ago but that the wording in his contract was sloppy and did not reflect that understanding. Vaughan said in a text Monday that the updated language in the new attorneys contract in order to avoid any future confusion on what our expectations are as well as to clarify the issue ahead of the new council term in which several new members will be joining the governing body. Letting the review take its course During his presentation, Thompson stressed that the current process involving the SBI is a preliminary process that could ultimately lead to a more involved investigation. Annette Ayres, the public information manager for the police department, said in an email that the SBI does not confirm the existence of cases until they receive a written request to open an investigation. In this situation, the SBI would consult with the Guilford County District Attorneys Office to determine whether to make that formal request, Ayres said. SBI Public Information Director Chad Flowers said in an email early Monday afternoon that the agency had not received any formal requests to investigate Watts as of Friday. The city of Greensboro is currently denying some records requests in connection with the SBI probe. The News & Record submitted a records request last week asking for emails sent by city officials and staff concerning Cyberlux over the last six years. On Monday, the city responded that it would not be releasing emails responsive to this request at this time at the direction of the SBI. The city also cited a state statute exempting materials related to criminal investigations from disclosure. Thompson also had made clear at his press conference last week that it was members of city leadership who had brought the matter to the departments attention, though he did not specify any city leaders in particular. On Monday, Vaughan declined to comment on the inquiry into Watts. We are going to let the review take its course, she said in a text. OLIVE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) Ottawa County is reopening its search for an administrator. In a Wednesday release, Ottawa County said it is seeking an Administrator who will help foster collaboration, stability, and accountability across departments, while continuing to build trust within the community. Anyone interested can apply online. The deadline to apply is Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. In June, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners announced it would extend the timeline of its search for an administrator because it wound up with only a single finalist. It interviewed U.S. Army Col. Michael Tremblay and said it was impressed with his credentials, but wanted to review additional candidates and wait until September to make a final decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its pretty clear he probably could do that job, Commission Chair John Teeples told News 8 in June. Think of a man like that applying for this job. Its incredible. But he is only one candidate and the public has a right to see more. Ottawa County sets new timeline to hire administrator Ottawa County has been without a permanent administrator since February 2024, when John Gibbs was fired after originally being hired by then-Board Chair Joe Moss and commissioners backed by his conservative political action committee Ottawa Impact in January 2023. Since Gibbs departure, the role has been filled by a few people on an interim basis currently former Ottawa County Sheriff Gary Rosema, who has been on the job since January and previously indicated he would remain in the position indefinitely until it was filled. Rosema has stated he is not interested in the permanent administrator role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tremblay was the only remaining finalist after four other candidates withdrew their names from consideration. The board said it was not prepared to vote on hiring Tremblay without any other candidates to consider. 1 candidate remains as Ottawa County seeks new administrator In June, Teeples indicated that discord among the board members may have been affecting the search. Almost all of the board members are Republicans, but theyre divided by two groups. One of them commissioners affiliated with Ottawa Impact. The other are Republicans who have no ties to the group. We lost four candidates and maybe one left because of how we acted in our board meeting last week, but the others did not. There were legitimate reasons why people withdrew. And so among the board commissioners and throughout the community, nobody should be pointing fingers at anybody about where we are, Teeples said in June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WOODTV.com. MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) Police fear Bradley John Murdoch, known as the Outback Killer, has taken to his grave the secret of how he disposed of the body of British backpacker Peter Falconio who was murdered in arid central Australia 24 years ago. Murdoch died Tuesday night, aged 67, in the palliative care unit of the Alice Springs Hospital, officials said Wednesday. He was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was recently transferred to the hospital from the Alice Springs prison. His death leaves the mystery of the whereabouts of Falconios body unsolved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Northern Territory Police Force said investigators remain "committed to resolving this final piece of the investigation. It is deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconios remains," a police statement said. His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved." The victim's 83-year-old father, Luciano Falconio, was visibly shocked and lost for words after learning of Murdoch's death a day after the anniversary of his son's disappearance, News Corp Australia reported. I tell you what I think, I wish he (Murdoch) left something for me to find him, the father told the news company from his home in the U.K. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 2005 conviction In 2005, Murdoch was convicted of the 2001 murder of 28-year-old Falconio, from Huddersfield in Englands Yorkshire region, and the attempted kidnapping of Falconios girlfriend Joanne Lees. The crime captured global attention and was one of the inspirations for the 2005 Australian horror movie Wolf Creek, about a serial killer who preyed on backpackers and left a single witness who became a suspect. Lees, who wrote about her ordeal in her 2006 memoir No Turning Back, complained that police treated her as a suspect in the years before Murdoch was charged. A court order prevented the movies release in the Northern Territory during Murdochs trial, fearing it could influence jurors. Murdoch was not accused of any other killings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maintaining his innocence Murdoch consistently maintained his innocence and did not help authorities search for Falconios remains. At the time of the killing, Murdoch was an interstate drug runner, using amphetamines to stay awake for dayslong drives and cannabis to sleep. On the night of July 14, 2001, he tricked Falconio and Lees into stopping their campervan on a dark and remote highway north of Alice Springs. Lees watched her boyfriend leave the van to inspect a supposedly sparking exhaust pipe. She testified that she heard a gunshot and never saw her boyfriend again. Murdoch, an imposing 193 centimeters (6 foot, 4 inches) in height, bound her wrists with cable ties before she managed to escape and hid in the desert scrub for hours. She testified she watched Murdoch searching for her with a flashlight and his dog. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lees later waved down a truck and raised the alarm. Police doubled the reward for information Last month, police doubled the reward for information leading to the location of Falconios remains to 500,000 Australian dollars ($330,000), following news that Murdoch was in palliative care. Police still hold out hope that someone may be able to provide some vital information to assist in this search, Police Commander Mark Grieve said. Colleen Gwynne, a former police officer who led the investigation at the time of Falconio's disappearance, said Murdoch might have panicked after Lees escaped and in his confusion forgot what he did with the body. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A sentence to life in prison Once that panic set in he may have disposed of a body somewhere hes not entirely certain where that is, Gwynne said earlier this month. Murdoch was sentenced to life in prison for Falconios murder and was ordered to serve at least 28 years before he could be considered for parole. He was also sentenced to six years for assaulting Lees. The earliest he could have applied for parole would have been 2032, but without providing information as to what he had done with Falconios body, Murdoch was not likely to have been released. The territory passed laws in 2016 preventing prisoners convicted of murder from qualifying for parole unless they provide police with the location of their victims bodies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murdoch was born in the west coast town of Geraldton, the third child of an automobile mechanic and his wife, a hairdresser. As a teen, he became involved in biker gang crime and was first sentenced to prison in 1995 for shooting at a group of Indigenous people at Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. He served 15 months of a 21-month sentence. In sentencing Murdoch for Falconios killing, Chief Justice Brian Martin said he doubted any words could express the trauma and terror Lees had suffered. It must have been close to the worst nightmare imaginable, the judge said. The parents of murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio have said they still "hold out hope" his remains will be found, after his killer died in prison. Mr Falconio was killed in the Australian Outback in July 2001 by Bradley Murdoch, who was convicted of the murder four years later. Murdoch, 67, died on Tuesday while serving a life sentence at a jail in Alice Springs, having never revealed what he did with the 28-year-old's body. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, Joan and Luciano Falconio said their first feeling upon hearing of Murdoch's death was "one of relief", adding that "it's like a weight has been lifted". Bradley Murdoch denied being Mr Falconio's killer and never revealed where the British holidaymaker's body was [Getty Images] Speaking from their home near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, the couple said: "We are only forced to think about him now that he's died. We don't want to let him to ruin our lives more than he already has. "The awful thing is our family's future with Peter was cruelly taken away. "Today we instead focus on the three children we have left and our grandchildren." The Falconios added: "We didn't have much faith, but we were hoping Bradley John Murdoch would reveal where Peter was before he died. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But even now we still hold out hope that his remains will be found. "Finally, we wish to express our profound thanks to the Northern Territory Police for the support and continuing efforts to investigate our son's murder." 'No body, no parole' Mr Falconio and Joanne Lees, who was also from Huddersfield, had been driving near the Northern Territory town of Barrow Creek, when Murdoch pulled over alongside their vehicle, claiming to have seen sparks. He shot Mr Falconio in the head as he inspected the vehicle, before taking 28-year-old Ms Lees, into his car and binding her wrists with cable ties. Murdoch was also convicted of the attempted kidnap and assault of Ms Lees, who managed to escape by hiding in bushland for several hours before she was able to signal for help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The ordeal partly inspired the 2005 horror film Wolf Creek. Murdoch was 43 when he committed the crimes. During the trial, prosecutors said that it was likely he had disposed of Mr Falconio's body somewhere in the vast expanse of wilderness between Alice Springs and Broome, a distance of nearly 1,600km (1,000 miles). In 2016, the Northern Territory introduced "no body, no parole" legislation, meaning Murdoch would not have been eligible for parole in 2032 if he did not reveal the location of Mr Falconio's body. Murdoch had always maintained his innocence, and unsuccessfully appealed to overturn his convictions twice. Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio had travelled through South East Asia before arriving in Australia [PA Media] Australian police said Murdoch had died of throat cancer in a palliative care unit, a day after the 24th anniversary of Mr Falconio's murder. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes a month after they offered a new reward of A$500,000 (240,000; $325,000) for information leading them to the victim's body. In a statement they said: "It is deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconio's remains." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Related internet links Ill. (WTVO) Illinois state treasurer has returned millions of dollars that had been missing for years to state residents. The states ICash program, led by Treasurer Michael Frerichs, has returned $303 million to Illinoisans. The program is also responsible for returning unclaimed property, for example, safe deposit boxes, unpaid life insurance benefits and forgotten bank accounts. Nearly 312,000 people, businesses and organizations have benefited. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is one of the best parts of my job: returning money. In government, so often people think the government exists to take money away from them, to regulate them. But, this is an opportunity we get to fight on behalf of individuals, businesses and nonprofits doing tremendous work, said Frerichs. The treasurer recommends checking the ICash website twice a year for possible reimbursements. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. NEW MEXICO (KRQE) Another round of monsoon weather is expected hit the state in the coming days, bringing with it the threat of flash flooding. It just takes one storm to produce good flash flooding, especially along burn scars, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Carter Gruelich. Latest Weather Forecast While its still a few days out, the Albuquerque NWS is monitoring a very wet rest of the week. That combination of the low to our west and the high pressure to our east basically works as a funnel pushing moisture through New Mexico up from the subtropics, said Gruelich. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gruelich said the worst of it is expected to start on Thursday. After historic flooding last week, Village of Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said they are getting ready for another round. Thats the world we live in today after the fires last year and these unbelievable burn scars, said Crawford. Crawford said theyve cleared out culverts and cleared away debris, and once the storms hit, they will have people pre-positioned at those areas to monitor flow. Especially as the areas at risk widen. Silt was left in the river, so the river bed is getting more shallow so that means that the river is getting wider whenever the floods come, so more homes are being impacted, said Crawford. Crawford and Gruelich touted the importance of education and awareness when it comes to severe weather. Keeping your eyes to the skies, and you know, we had so many people that last time who said you know we get these alerts and we just kind of ignored them, well we want you to not ignore them anymore, said Crawford. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While all eyes are on Ruidoso, Gruelich says people in Grants, Gallup, Santa Fe, and even in the metro need to be mindful. Specifically, maybe talking about the Albuquerque area, continue to stay out of the arroyos as much as possible, especially when there is a threat of rainfall, said Gruelich. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. Three passengers who sued Alaska Airlines and Boeing after a door plug fell out of their plane at 16,000 feet have settled out of court. These passengers were on board Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 from Portland to Ontario, California on January 5, 2024, when a door plug suddenly flew off the Boeing 737 Max jet mid-air. They sued Alaska Airlines and Boeing for $1 billion last year but settled out of court earlier this month, according to KPTV. The lawsuit was dismissed on July 7 with prejudice, KPTV reports, which means they cant refile the same lawsuit later. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed as part of the settlement agreement, their attorney said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last month, the National Transportation Safety Board ruled Boeing was at fault in the frightening incident. The agency said it found four bolts missing from the door plug, which caused it to slowly slide out of place for more than 100 flights until it finally fell off. In a statement, Boeing said the company regret[s] this accident and will continue to work on strengthening safety and quality across our operations. Alaksa Airlines and Boeing have settled a lawsuit from three passengers out of court. (NTSB) Alaksa Airlines and Boeing have settled a lawsuit from three passengers out of court. (NTSB) The agency says the 174 passengers on board were safe and accounted for thanks to the flight crew. Passengers said they were terrified for their lives, and reported the vacuum of air was so strong that personal belongings were sucked out. One person on board even said that his shirt was torn from his back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said its a miracle no one died. This accident never shouldve happened, Homendy said last month. Since this occurred theres been a lot of focus on human error on the actions of one or two Boeing employees." Let me be clear, an accident like this does not happen because of an individual or even a group of individuals aviation is much more resilient than that an accident like this only happens when there are multiple system failures," she added. The NTSB said Boeing was at fault for the January 2024 incident after investigators discovered the door plug was missing four bolts, which caused it to slide over time. (REUTERS) The NTSB said Boeing was at fault for the January 2024 incident after investigators discovered the door plug was missing four bolts, which caused it to slide over time. (REUTERS) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens of whistleblowers came forward last summer to describe their concerns about the companys safety protocols. Whistleblower Roy Irvin, who worked as a quality investigator for Boeing for six years, exclusively told The Independent that the door blowout really hit home for me because I predicted this. "Things dont get brought to anybodys attention unless theyre found, he added. Theres other things that probably havent been found yet. The Independent has contacted Alaska Airlines and Boeing for comment. Patriot air defense missiles bound for Ukraine are already en route, U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 16, days after unveiling a new NATO-coordinated arms scheme for Kyiv. "They're already being shipped," Trump told reporters at the Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, when asked about Patriot missiles and other weaponry. "They're coming in from Germany and then replaced by Germany. And in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The announcement comes as Ukraine has been asking its allies, particularly the United States, for additional air defenses as Russia intensified its attacks on Ukrainian cities. A German government spokesperson said on July 14 that the European allies are in talks about more than three Patriot systems for Ukraine. Trump said the shipments are part of a new arrangement where NATO and European Union member states will purchase U.S.-made weapons systems, deliver some to Ukraine, and replace them through agreements with Washington. "We're always getting our money back in full," Trump added. "In some cases, we're going to be paid back by countries of the European Union directly." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new weapons shipments come two days after Trump issued an ultimatum to Moscow, warning that the U.S. will impose "severe" tariffs unless Russia agrees to a peace deal within 50 days to end its war in Ukraine. The Kremlin earlier called the proposed tariffs "serious," saying Moscow needs time to analyze the message from Washington. The U.S. president noted that he has not spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the U.S. announced fresh sanctions on Russia on July 14. Trump's remarks reflect growing frustration with what he called Russia's unwillingness to advance peace talks. He has previously claimed he could end the war in 24 hours and continued to distance himself from the conflict, saying, "It wasn't my war. It was (former U.S. President Joe) Biden's war. I'm trying to get you out of it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I'm disappointed in President Putin," he added. "I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesnt seem to get there." Read also: How would that even work? experts pour scorn on Trumps severe Russian tariffs plan Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. LOS ANGELES The Pentagon said Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, accounting for nearly half of the soldiers sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administrations immigration crackdown. Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June. It wasnt immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region. In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to LA had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for 200 of them to be returned to wildfire fighting duty amid warnings from California Gov. Gavin Newsom that the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LA deployments to cost $134 million and last 60 days, Pentagon says The end of the deployment comes a week after federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived at MacArthur Park with guns and horses in an operation that ended abruptly. Although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wouldnt explain the purpose of the operation or whether anyone had been arrested, local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision. On June 8, thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trumps deployment of the Guard, blocking off a major freeway as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A day later, police officers used flash bangs and shot projectiles as they pushed protesters through Little Tokyo, where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way. Mayor Karen Bass set a curfew in place for about a week that she said had successfully protected businesses and helped restore order. Demonstrations in the city and the region in recent weeks have been largely small impromptu protests around arrests. Bass applauded the troops departure. This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court all of this led to todays retreat," she said in a statement, adding that We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings. Hundreds of the soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations. Trump ordered the deployment against the wishes of Newsom, who sued to stop it. The history of presidents activating US troops on American soil Newsom argued that Trump violated the law when he deployed the California National Guard troops despite his opposition. He also argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trumps authority. But an appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act. The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground, the Trump administrations lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case. Following the Pentagons decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guards deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President. He added that the remaining troops continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now, he said. Klepper reported from Washington and Watson from San Diego. Sophie Austin in Sacramento, Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report. The Pentagon said Tuesday it is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, accounting for nearly half of the soldiers sent to the city to deal with protests over the Trump administrations immigration crackdown. Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines have been in the city since early June. It wasnt immediately clear what prompted the 60-day deployment to end suddenly, nor was it immediately clear how long the rest of the troops would stay in the region. Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement in announcing the decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The troops were tasked with protecting federal buildings and guarding immigration agents as they carry out arrests. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued to stop it. A federal judge initially said Trump acted illegally when he deployed the Guard over Newsoms opposition. But an appeals court said the administration could keep control of the troops. The case is ongoing. Newsom said in a statement that the National Guards deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added that the remaining troops continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities. We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now, he said. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW After more than a month, 2,000 California National Guard troops are being released from federal duty. The Department of Defense announced Tuesday that the soldiers, roughly half of the entire National Guard presence called up to protect federal agents and property following protests, are having their deployment ended early. The soldiers being released from federal control are from the California National Guards 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Its not clear what specific benchmark was met to release the soldiers from the command. Roughly 2,000 California National Guard troops with the 49th Military Police Brigade remain under federal authority and deployed to the area. Its unclear how quickly soldiers with the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will demobilize and leave the Los Angeles area. Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said on Tuesday in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After protests against federal immigration raids broke out on June 6 and federal police fired less-than-lethal rounds at demonstrators. Soon after, President Donald Trump said he was placing California National Guard troops under federal control, citing Title 10 in the U.S. Code. The Pentagon formally ordered 2,000 soldiers from the 79th Infantry BCT to Los Angeles for a deployment with a 60-day cap they arrived June 9. The Pentagon also quickly ordered 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment to Los Angeles to bolster the National Guard presence there, although they would not arrive for several days, stopping to do training on non-lethal action. That same week 2,100 soldiers from the 49th Military Police Brigade were also ordered to join Task Force 51. The decision to deploy federal troops to Los Angeles was met with criticism from city and state officials and local police leadership, who called the move unnecessary in the face of protests. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is challenging the federalization of troops in court, called for the rest of the troops to be sent home. For more than a month, the National Guard has been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilize, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities, Newsom said in a statement. Although the Pentagon cited lawlessness in the area, most of the 4,100 National Guardsmen have spent the last five weeks stationed at various federal properties in the region, not directly engaging with any of the protests. Clashes, including the use of tear gas and rubber bullets during the No Kings protests last month at Los Angeles City Hall, involved local police departments, not federal troops. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A portion of the federalized National Guard troops have accompanied Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other DHS agents on immigration operations around Southern California. U.S. Northern Command has maintained that the soldiers are not participating in law enforcement activity themselves, but are providing protection for federal personnel doing such actions. National Guard soldiers have accompanied DHS personnel on immigration raids in Carpinteria where one person was injured and later died a large presence patrol in Los Angeles MacArthur Park, and on drug busts 136 miles from Downtown Los Angeles. Northern Command has said that the task force is not constrained by Southern Californias geography. At the start of the month, Northern Command released 150 National Guard troops, including a large number who are part of the California National Guards firefighting operations. The military also rotated out the 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, and replaced them with 400 Marines from 3rd Battalion 7th Marine Regiment. A trial for Californias legal challenge to the federalization of troops is set to start Aug. 11. The latest on Task & Purpose The Pentagon acknowledged Tuesday that two civilians were killed and two others injured during U.S. operations in the Middle East. The disclosure came in the Defense Departments annual civilian casualties report to Congress, fulfilling legal requirements for transparency about unintended harm. The report also revealed an upward revision to the Pentagons 2023 civilian casualty figures. In early February 2024, an adult male civilian was killed during an air strike in Iraq. Later that month, one child was killed and two others were injured at a military weapons range in Syria. A civilian harm assessment recommended installing a fence or barrier to prevent unauthorized entry onto the range. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Pentagon also updated its 2023 figures after reviewing additional reports, adding two adult male civilians killed and one injured during a December 2023 air strike in Iraq. Congress requires the annual accounting under the National Defense Authorization Act, which mandates disclosure of civilian casualty assessment procedures and mitigation efforts. The report also includes details about possible compensation payments to victims families and steps taken to prevent future incidents. The Defense Department released the report publicly alongside its congressional submission. Full details appear in the official document posted on the Pentagons policy website. The Pentagon is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops from their federal mission to Los Angeles. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding," chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday night. "As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission." The Trump administration had federalized roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles in early June to quell anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots and protests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass categorized the rescission of about half of the National Guard troops deployed to the city as a "retreat." 4 Arrested In Alleged Border Patrol Operation Sabotage Attempt Near La As Attacks On Immigration Agents Surge Demonstrators face a mix of U.S. Marines, National Guards and Department of Homeland Security police officers in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, California, following immigration operations on July 4, 2025. "This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court all of this led to todays retreat," the Democratic mayor claimed in a statement, adding, "We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country." Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bass said in a press conference that the National Guards primary mission has been to guard two buildings that "frankly didnt need to be guarded." "I am hoping that this experiment with the lives of people ends here," she said. California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration for deploying California National Guard troops despite his opposition. He argued that the National Guard troops were likely violating the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. Newsom won an early victory in the case after a federal judge ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and exceeded Trumps authority. An appeals court tossed that order, and control of the troops remained with the federal government. The federal court is set to hear arguments next month on whether the troops are violating the Posse Comitatus Act. US Marines and National Guards protecting the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center as demonstrators gather in front of it following federal immigration operations, in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2025. Newsom Escalates Trump Immigration Feud With Foul-mouthed Insult Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The deployment of National Guard troops was for 60 days, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the discretion to shorten or extend it "to flexibly respond to the evolving situation on the ground," the Trump administrations lawyers wrote in a June 23 filing in the legal case. Following the Pentagons decision Tuesday, Newsom said in a statement that the National Guards deployment to Los Angeles County has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work "to serve as political pawns for the President." He added that the remaining troops "continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities." "We call on Trump and the Department of Defense to end this theater and send everyone home now," he said. U.S. Marines and National Guards stand in line protecting the entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, California on July 4, 2025. In late June, the top military commander in charge of troops deployed to Los Angeles asked Hegseth for 200 Guardsmen to be returned to wildfire-fighting duty. Newsom had warned the Guard was understaffed as California entered peak wildfire season. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The end of the deployment comes a week after Bass was blasted on social media for interrupting federal authorities and National Guard troops during an operation at MacArthur Park, a known hotbed for homelessness and crime. The mayor claimed children were playing in the park when the "MILITARY comes through" and demanded to speak to ICE leadership at the scene. No arrests were reported, and online users lamented that Bass cared more for illegal aliens than Los Angeles fire victims. On Tuesday afternoon, there was no visible military presence outside the federal complex downtown that had been the center of early protests and where National Guard troops first stood guard before the Marines were assigned to protect federal buildings, according to the Associated Press. Hundreds of soldiers have been accompanying agents on immigration operations. Fox News' James Levinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report. Original article source: Pentagon scaling down National Guard deployment to LA The program known as PEPFAR is one of the most effective and popular U.S. foreign aid projects in history, and the government says it has saved the lives of over 25 million people around the world with HIV. But despite years of bipartisan support, PEPFAR has faced a severe threat as the Trump administration dismantles most U.S. foreign aid. PEPFAR on Tuesday appeared to be spared a $400 million cut as Republicans acted in rare defiance of a request by President Donald Trump. But governments, health experts and people with HIV around the world are alarmed by the effects of other U.S. aid cuts and chaos that are already disrupting the crucial supply of HIV drugs which are meant to be taken daily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Here's a look at PEPFAR and how it affects millions of people globally. Fears of an AIDS resurgence Today, many babies are born infection-free to mothers with HIV the U.S. State Department says PEPFAR has been responsible for 5.5 million such births and most people around the world no longer see an infection as a death sentence. Governments in Africa and elsewhere had even begun to worry about complacency as people, especially youths, took the widespread availability of HIV drugs for granted. In another significant step forward, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved for use the worlds only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the abrupt U.S. aid cuts have health officials in developing countries warning of a return to the early days of the AIDS pandemic, when drugs were nonexistent or severely limited and clinics were filled with the dying. PEPFAR was launched in 2004 in response to those grim scenes. Also known as the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the program has partnered with nonprofit groups to provide HIV medication including the preventative PrEP to millions around the world. It has strengthened national health care systems, cared for children orphaned by AIDS and provided job training for people at risk. It has played an important role in testing for and tracking HIV infections. HIV/AIDS has no cure, and it has killed over 40 million people globally over the years. Now the U.N. agency on AIDS is warning that analysis suggests 4 million additional AIDS-related deaths between now and 2029, including 300,000 additional childrens deaths, if programs permanently lose PEPFAR's support. From widespread support to baseless claims Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since PEPFAR's creation by Congress and Republican President George W. Bush, the program has largely enjoyed support across the political spectrum and gratitude from countries whose health systems have been poorly equipped to care for millions with HIV. But misinformation has crept in. The Heritage Foundation, an influential conservative Washington think tank, accused the Biden administration of using PEPFAR to promote its domestic radical social agenda overseas. Conservatives claimed there were efforts to integrate abortion with HIV/AIDS prevention, a claim the Biden administration denied. Similar claims linger under the Trump administration. Trump and his officials also claim widespread waste and fraud as they seek to dismantle U.S. foreign aid. But PEPFAR has been repeatedly scrutinized. Last year, the government said the State Department's Office of Inspector General had conducted 80 audits, inspections, and special reviews that included oversight of PEPFAR programs, including 21 thematic reviews and audits specifically focused on PEPFAR. Impossible to replace US funding Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The $400 million proposed cut to PEPFAR still could be restored, in part or in full, as the bill on spending cuts faces a final vote in the Senate, a vote in the House of Representatives and Trump's signature before a Friday deadline. We must stay vigilant, International AIDS Society President Beatriz Grinsztejn said in a statement Wednesday after PEPFAR appeared to be spared. No matter what, countries and health experts say it will be impossible to fill the funding gap left by the overall U.S. withdrawal of billions of dollars in aid for the global HIV response, including via PEPFAR. Last month, a UNAIDS report said the abrupt cuts have destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South Africa, where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world, has said 12 specialized HIV clinics that were funded by the U.S. have had to close down and over 8,000 health workers in its national HIV program are out of work. Now health workers there and elsewhere are trying to track down an unknown number of people who have lost access to HIV medication. The stakes are deadly. Stopping the drugs allows the virus to start multiplying again. HIV can rebound to detectable levels in peoples blood in just a few weeks, putting sexual partners at risk. The virus could even become drug-resistant. It has really been hectic for us, said Mbonisiwe Hlongwane, manager of the HIV program at the Bertha Gxowa public hospital in Germiston, east of Johannesburg. And the uncertainty only continues. ___ Associated Press writer Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed reporting. LITTLE ROCK, ARK. A Houston, Arkansas, man was convicted on Tuesday by a federal jury on 12 counts of production of child sexual abuse material. According to a release from the Eastern District of Arkansas attorney Jonathan Ross, a guilty verdict was announced and handed down to 75-year-old James Johnson. University of Arkansas professor arrested on CSAM possession charge After two days of testimony, the jury deliberated approximately 90 minutes before returning a guilty verdict on all 12 counts in Johnsons indictment, according to the release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The release stated that the evidence at trial revealed that special agents from the Arkansas State Police met with an employee of the Perryville Elementary School on Sept. 28, 2022, regarding a letter that a child victim wrote to her mother while she was at school, containing allegations about Johnson. The child was approximately 8-9 years old, officials said. The minor and her younger siblings lived next to Johnsons house and were in his care during the abuse, according to the release. The release said that the older child victim was interviewed and said that Johnson watched pornographic material with both children present, with Johnson said to have touched both children during the viewing. White County man given 203-year sentence for child sexual abuse material, rape Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A search warrant was issued to search Johnsons home, with digital items and a cell phone taken into evidence. Johnson is facing a possible 15-year minimum sentence in federal prison, with no more than 30 years for each count and no possible parole. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KARK. Three decades after an Iowa news anchor vanished without a trace while on her way to work, a documentary has suggested a new person of interest as authorities aim to solve a case that was previously thought to have gone cold. Brad Millerbernd, the ex-husband of Jodi Huisentruits childhood best friend Patty Niemeyer, was investigated by Iowa police after tips suggested he may have been involved in the 1995 abduction of Huisentruit, according to a newly released ABC News documentary titled "Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit." Niemeyer reportedly revealed her ex-husband matched unreleased police suspect sketches, with Millerbernd living approximately three hours from Huisentruits apartment at the time of her disappearance, according to the show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It was a very moving experience," Maria Awes, executive producer of the documentary, told Fox News Digital. "Here you have somebody who was extremely close to Jodi, who was in her very tight circle of friends, grew up with her all of those things. Now, she believes that her own ex-husband may have had something to do with Jodis disappearance. To come forward takes an extreme amount of bravery." Fathers Pursuit For Missing Daughter Heats Up With New Evidence In Case Thats No Longer Cold Millerbernd has maintained his innocence throughout the three-decade-long investigation, and has continued to cooperate with authorities, according to the documentary. Fox News Digital reached out to Millerbernd for comment, but did not receive a response. Police would not confirm or deny whether they have looked at him in connection with the investigation. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 20 Years After Natalee Holloway Vanished, Suspects Confession Still Leaves Questions: Pi Flyers publicizing Jodi Huisentruits disappearance are seen outside of her place of work, KIMT-TV, on July 3, 1995. "MCPD continues to investigate Jodi Huisentruits disappearance and hopes that the current information is able to produce useful leads that help bring some closure to the case for the family and our community," Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We have not discussed suspects or persons of interest with the media in the past and do not intend to start doing so now." Huisentruit vanished on the morning of June 27, 1995, as she was on her way to work as a morning show anchor at local news station KIMT-TV, according to Fox 9. She called a coworker to say she was on her way to the station, but never arrived. Following the discovery of her belongings and signs of a struggle outside of her Mason City apartment including a bent key and pair of high heels on the ground near her vehicle police quickly ruled that Huisentruit was abducted. Additionally, a witness reported seeing a white van in the area and hearing a scream. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Detectives True Crime Podcast Helps Dig Up Breakthrough In Case That Haunted Family: Drew Audible Gasp The apartment complex where Jodi Huisentruit resided and mysteriously disappeared from in Mason City, Iowa, on June 27, 1995. Despite an extensive search, authorities never located Huisentruit and no arrests have been made in her disappearance. She was declared legally dead in 2001. "We haven't put this down, we haven't stopped working, we have not stopped pursuing leads and information," Brinkley told Fox 9. Last year, officers searched a property in nearby Winsted, Minnesota, located about 170 miles from Mason City, but did not find anything pertaining to the Huisentruits disappearance. Authorities have not released what led police to the property. SIGN UP TO GET True Crime Newsletter A flyer publicizing Jodi Huisentruits disappearance posted in Mason City, Iowa, on July 3, 1995. A 2017 search warrant tied to the investigation and released earlier this year revealed authorities looked to obtain GPS data from two vehicles connected to a friend of Huisentruit, John Vansice, who has reportedly since passed away, according to Fox 9. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The warrant was for a 1999 Honda Civic and 2013 GMC registered to Vansice. He was one of the last people to see Huisentruit alive and previously stated he had cooperated with local, state and federal investigators, Fox 9 reported. Despite the countless dead ends, Huisentruits family remains hopeful that their daughter will be found 30 years after she vanished. "The pain and anguish felt by us and all who loved Jodi are immeasurable," Huisentruits family said in a statement on the Jodi Hopes Facebook page on the anniversary of her disappearance. "True peace will only be given to us when Jodi is found and justice is served for her. We know it is hard to have hope for resolution after so many years, but we still choose to hope that one day soon it will happen." Fox News Digital's Stephanie Nolasco contributed to this report. Original article source: New person of interest emerges in documentary on decades-old disappearance of Iowa news anchor Pete Hegseth has banned Pentagon officials from speaking at a security conference because it promotes evil globalism. Senior figures in the US defence department were set to speak at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado this week, following a tradition under both Democrat and Republican administrations. However, Mr Hegseth, the US defence secretary, has blocked his department from taking part in the four-day event, which is hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kingsley Wilson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told Just the News that Mr Hegseths office believes it promotes the evil of globalism, disdain for our great country, and hatred for the president of the United States. The department has no interest in legitimising an organisation that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home, she continued. They are antithetical to the America First values of this administration. Figures still scheduled to appear John Phelan, the Navy secretary, Emil Michael, the defence undersecretary for research and engineering, and Doug Beck, director of the departments defence innovation unit, were among several senior Pentagon officials due to speak this week, according to Politico. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ms Wilson did not clarify her comments and the Pentagon declined to provide further details. However, attendees tend to come from a more traditional foreign policy perspective than Mr Trumps America First wing of the Republican Party, which has a strong isolationist streak and is deeply critical of former administrations. Those expected to speak at the conference this week include Condoleezza Rice, George W Bushs secretary of state, David Petraeus, Barack Obamas former CIA director, and Mark Esper, defence secretary in Donald Trumps first administration. David Petraeus, Barack Obamas former CIA director, is expected to speak at the conference - Rex Features Diplomatic figures from the current administration are still scheduled to appear, including Tom Barrack, the US ambassador for Turkey, and Adam Boehler, the presidential envoy for hostages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sean Parnell, the Pentagons chief spokesman said: Senior department of defence officials will no longer be participating at the Aspen Security Forum because their values do not align with the values of the DOD [department of defence]. The department will remain strong in its focus to increase the lethality of our warfighters, revitalise the warrior ethos, and project peace through strength on the world stage. It is clear the ASF [Aspen Security Forum] is not in alignment with these goals. The conference hosts said in a statement that it had welcomed senior officials Republican and Democrat, civilian and military as well as senior foreign officials and experts, who bring experience and diverse perspectives on matters of national security for more than a decade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will miss the participation of the Pentagon, but our invitations remain open, they added. The Aspen Security Forum remains committed to providing a platform for informed, non-partisan debate about the most important security challenges facing the world. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Peter Hubbard claimed victory Tuesday over Keisha Waites in a runoff to settle the Democratic nominee for a post on the Georgia Public Service Commission. The runoff was necessary under Georgia law to choose a winner after neither won a majority in a June 17 primary. Waites finished first and Hubbard finished second in that earlier three-way race, but Hubbard built a strong lead in unofficial returns Tuesday, showing particular strength in the core metro Atlanta counties of Fulton and DeKalb according to numbers posted by Georgias secretary of state. The commission oversees utilities including Georgia Power Co, and Hubbard promised in a statement to fight for seniors, low-income households and all those who deserve a lower power bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Power bills are skyrocketing, no one is hold the current Republican PSC accountable and voters have the the power to change that, Hubbard said. The winner will face Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson in November in the District 3 race. Republicans in June chose incumbent Tim Echols, who has been on the Public Service Commission since 2011, to face Democrat Alicia Johnson of Augusta in the District 2 race. Voters statewide cast ballots for each of the five seats on the commission, but candidates must live in a particular district. RELATED STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Waites conceded in a message to supporters, saying she would support Hubbard in November in a shared vision for a Public Service Commission that truly serves the public. Turnout was exceedingly low in early voting for the runoff, but improved somewhat, topping 100,000, or a little more than 1% of Georgias more than 8 million registered voters. Debate centered on bills charged by Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co. Georgia Power customers have seen bills rise six times in recent years because of higher natural gas costs and construction projects including two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, and other factors. A typical Georgia Power residential customer now pays more than $175 a month, including taxes. The commission sets rates and oversees generation plans for Georgia Power, which serves 2.3 million customers statewide. Now, all five commission seats are held by Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A green energy advocate, Hubbard touted his experience testifying before the commission and developing alternative plans that emphasize a shift toward solar power stored in batteries, rather than building more natural gas plants. Waites is a former state House member and former Atlanta City Council member. She emphasized that she would give representation to Black people and Democrats on the commission. The commission also oversees some natural gas rates for Atlanta Gas Light and Liberty Gas. Georgia usually doesnt have statewide elections in odd-numbered years, but these were pushed back after elections were delayed by a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the statewide voting scheme as discriminatory to Black people. No Georgia Public Service Commission elections have been held since 2022 because of the lawsuit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fitz Johnson was appointed to the commission in 2021 by Gov. Brian Kemp and has never faced voters. He was supposed to run for the last two years of his predecessors term in 2022. Instead, the District 3 winner can run again next year for a six-year term, after lawmakers rewrote the terms. Echols was supposed to run for a six-year term in 2022. Instead, the District 2 winner will serve for five years, with the next election in 2030. A voter deposits a mail-in ballot at the drop box outside the Chester County Government Center on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Capital-Star/Peter Hall) With Independence Hall in Philadelphia serving as the backdrop, a group announced on Tuesday they have filed a petition asking the state Supreme Court to rule primary election laws in Pennsylvania are unconstitutional. Were speaking to the seven justices of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and we aim to convince them that excluding independent voters from primary elections is not just unfair in some vague, moral sense, but that it violates the Pennsylvania Constitution, said David Thornburgh, chairman of Ballot PA Action, a coalition aimed at overturning the states closed primary laws. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thornburgh, along with Michael Smerconish, a longtime political television and radio host, Jeffery Doty, an owner of a grocery store, and Rachel Shanok, a physical therapist, filed a Kings Bench Petition, which goes directly to the state highest court. Pennsylvania, home to approximately 1.4 million people registered as independent, unaffiliated, or members of a third party, is one of at least nine states that doesnt allow independent voters to participate in primary elections. That means to cast a ballot in a partys primary, a voter must be registered with that particular political party. If we are successful, then the current statute will be declared unconstitutional, and therefore it will be non-functional, and that will mean immediately that independents can vote in party primaries, said Shanin Specter, co-founding Partner, Kline & Specter PC, the legal firm representing the group. Republican, Democratic, Green, Constitution, Libertarian, whatever. The legislature would be free to fashion other potential schemes with respect to voting, but such a scheme would have to protect the right of Independents to vote in primary elections, andthats the core of what were seeking, Specter added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also noted that 15% of the states electorate are registered independents in Pennsylvania. In 1937, when this law was enacted, that number was just 3%. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Reinforcing the point, Smerconish, a Republican-turned-Independent, cited a Gallup poll that said 43% of Americans self-identify as Independent. When independents cant vote in primary elections, I think that we all suffer because our missing voice is often one of moderation, Smerconish said. We live in very polarizing times and I firmly believe that when independent voices are excluded from the nomination process, we foster a rise of extremes at both ends of the political spectrum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And better would be a system that forces candidates to have to appeal to a broader cross-section of primary voters, including those from whom compromise is not a dirty word, he added. Voter turnout in Pennsylvania appeared to be lower in 2025 than the previous two off-year municipal primary elections. Supporters of reforming the states primary laws believe opening up them to registered independents will increase voter turnout. Jeremy Gruber is the senior vice president of Open Primaries, a national election reform organization dedicated to opening primary elections around the country to independent voters. He said the voting population of 14 states is less than the total number of registered independent voters in Pennsylvania. He argued its a voting rights crisis that independents arent allowed to vote in primaries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Today, the largest and fastest group of voters are being discriminated against and excluded by these primaries, Gruber said. This case filed today follows a long history of litigation: From womens suffrage through the Civil Rights era, to the modern day, the history of voting rights in the United States is intertwined with litigation, which has served as a crucial catalyst in the evolution of legislation by highlighting discriminatory practices and spurring reform. Almost every voting rights reform ever passed in this country started with a case just like this one, he added. Why a Kings Bench Petition? By filing a Kings Bench petition, the group is able to bypass the normal course of litigation through the lower courts. Ultimately, it has to be the Pennsylvania Supreme Court who makes the decision to declare unconstitutional the current statute, and for that reason, theres no reason to wait, Specter said. Theres no reason to have a lower court decide the issue first, the case will be decided eventually in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and they should do so as quickly as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Specter acknowledged that the state Supreme Court could decline to accept the Kings Bench petition, which would then result in them filing the action in the Commonwealth Court. He said the losing side would doubtlessly appeal, and he believes that there is a very, very, very, high chance that the justices would accept that appeal. It is unclear how quickly a ruling could be made. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX A supporter of open primaries announces opposition to petition The Committee of Seventy, a government reform group, has been a leading voice in Pennsylvania advocating for the state to end its closed primary elections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, they find themselves opposed to the effort of making this change via a Kings Bench petition, arguing while it is well intended, it is the wrong approach to address this longstanding issue at this moment. All voters should have the opportunity to participate in all elections, but making that a reality is in the hands of the legislature, The Committee of Seventy released in a statement on Tuesday. We fully respect the rule of law and the separation of powers established by our constitutions. Thornburgh, who led the organization for several years but stepped aside as CEO in 2022, argued that theyve worked on the issue for six-and-a-half years and now is the right time to move forward. He also noted that they are asking the court to rule on its constitutionality, and it would ultimately go back to the legislature, if they agree. And the legislature could choose any number of ways to solve the problem, if you will, Thornburgh said. Open Primary Author calls lawsuit historic State Rep. Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) has authored legislation that would allow unaffiliated voters to participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary, but would not allow third-party voters. He released a statement in support of the lawsuit. As one of the last states in the country with closed primaries, opening up our primary election system is the voting rights issue of our time here in Pennsylvania, said Solomon. This historic lawsuit takes seriously this fundamental right to vote, and gives voice to the 1.4 million Pennsylvania voters whose tax dollars pay for elections they are shut out of. [Source] Sara Duterte, vice president of the Philippines, has for the first time addressed allegations that her office used names based on Filipino snack brands to withdraw millions in government funds, a controversy now at the center of her impeachment. Speaking to a reporter at an international conference in The Hague, Duterte claimed the aliases were part of intelligence protocol for security operations. Flavorful characters The issue began last year when Philippine audit officials and lawmakers found that receipts submitted by Dutertes office for nearly $10.5 million in confidential government funds listed unusual names such as Mary Grace Piattos, Fernando Tempura, Reymunda Jane Nova and Carlos Miguel Oishi. These names correspond to well-known Filipino snack brands including potato chips and crackers. Cover for intelligence? Trending on NextShark: Philippines VP Sara Duterte used snack-brand names to get millions in government funds Duterte had not responded publicly for months as the scandal fueled calls for transparency. There are rules in intelligence operations, and you already heard some people who work in intelligence say that aliases are often used in intelligence operations, she told reporters in The Hague. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Critics and lawmakers, however, point out that under Philippine auditing and legal standards, financial receipts and documents submitted for the liquidation of government funds must contain the verifiable, legal identities of recipients. While intelligence reports may redact real names for security reasons, receipts used for audit and accountability must be traceable and allow proper verification by the Commission on Audit and Congress. Trending on NextShark: Americans views on immigration have dramatically shifted, poll shows This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what were building, consider becoming a paid member your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Subscribe here now! Trending on NextShark: New York ends STEM race-based policy amid anti-Asian claims Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today! Photo via City of Phoenix On June 18, I was one of about 150 other members of the Phoenix community who gathered at Phoenix City Hall to watch as the city council made their decision on the Resolution for Thriving Communities, a community-led petition which aimed to reduce low-level stops by Phoenix Police Department and demanded transparency in their interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The aim of the resolution was to significantly reduce racial profiling by one of the most violent, racist police forces in the nation and to keep people out of the hands of ICE, who lie in wait at 4th Avenue Jail to abduct those Phoenix PD brings in. There was reason to hope that Mayor Kate Gallego and the city council would support the resolution. After all, Gallego had already promised, without equivocation, to prevent Phoenix PD aiding Trumps deportations, and one of the resolutions points had been recommended by her own Review and Implementation Committee in 2020. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But then the vote came, and the resolution was crushed in an 8-1 vote to deny it. Furthermore, members of the council continually asserted that there wasnt any collaboration at all, belittling the testifiers whose stories of kidnapped loved ones had just proved that such collaboration was rampant. With the denial of this petition, its become clear that Gallego and the majority of city council despite their many promises and various committees have absolutely no intention of holding Phoenix PD accountable for the terror theyve inflicted upon the people of Phoenix. In fact, they continue to reward them, recently voting to approve a ridiculous $1.2 billion budget to the department. In the wake of President Donald Trump dismissing the federal inquiry into Phoenix Police by the Department of Justice, Phoenix City Council claimed that they were confident they could reform Phoenix PD themselves . But they have said the same for the last 15 years and still the department gets more money every year, amid ever-decreasing accountability . The one vote in favor of the resolution came from newly-elected District 7 Councilmember Anna Hernandez, who was elected to the council in November after defeating her well-funded, mayor-backed opponent through a grassroots campaign. In addition to being a vocal supporter of the resolution, she was the only council member to vote against the increase in Phoenix PDs budget, advocating for that money to instead be put toward mental health services and other public needs. Here in Phoenix, thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest ICE and protect our communities from being torn apart. Across the country, protesters have numbered in the millions. Its clear that ordinary people are horrified by ICEs campaign of terror and eager for elected officials to do something about it. In fact, Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won a shocking victory in his long-shot campaign to be mayor of the countrys largest city in part because he made no secret of his willingness to stand up to ICE and the deportation machine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this political moment, our communities are looking for genuine leadership. If the people of Phoenix see Hernandez continue to stand toe-to-toe with Phoenix PD while the rest of the council avoids a real solution, then itll only be a matter of time before the people of Phoenix decide theyve had enough with them. So, while the Resolution for Thriving Communities may not have passed, it has succeeded in showing the people of Phoenix which members of the council are telling the truth when they say theyre committed to fighting against President Trumps immigration policies and Phoenix PDs grotesque history of human rights abuses. Phoenix is a city deeply scarred by police violence and state terror, but Councilwoman Hernandez is showing us that another world is possible. Building a healthy world where everyone can thrive regardless of their race, class, or gender starts with electing more leaders like her. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A large pickup truck crashed into a home in the Ashcreek neighborhood on Monday, according to Portland Fire and Rescue. Crews arrived at the scene around 5:45 p.m. to find a truck with an attached wood chipping implement had crashed through a wall on the first floor of the home above the basement. Portland is hot. Heres everything you need to know to stay cool this week The home received significant damage and will not be occupied until proper site train evaluation occurs and at a minimal, wall repair is completed, officials said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details of what caused the crash are unclear. An investigation is ongoing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. When a resident of Pierce County calls 911, their call is routed to the regional call center in Tacoma, which handles nearly 1 million calls each year and works as the communication bridge for the countys 39 local police and fire agencies. The centers operations rely on funds collected through a special excise tax charged monthly to all phone lines. Under state law, revenues from the tax are meant to support the overall operations and maintenance of the public safety answering point, aka the 911 center, which can include such things as improving the technology that identifies a callers precise location, and ensuring that the person answering the emergency call is properly paid and supported. The funds are not meant to support the second half of the 911 system, which relates to law enforcements response. The dedicated funding stream is critical, especially since 911 call centers across the country have long faced funding struggles, resulting in inadequate or outdated technology, high levels of staff turnover and burnout, and delays in emergency response, which can have deadly consequences. But in 2022, Pierce County officials used $4.5 million from the restricted tax revenue fund more than 75% of the taxes collected that year to install technology at a government building in Tacoma related to the local public safety radio system, a move that state auditors say violates state law and puts federal 911 funding at risk for the rest of the state. Public records obtained by InvestigateWest show county officials repeatedly ignored warnings that they were misusing funds, and that it wasnt the first time they had diverted 911 funds for unapproved purposes and stood by their decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We respectfully disagree with the audit finding, and we provided information about our position in that audit response, said Arel Solie, Pierce Countys director of the Department of Emergency Management. The noncompliance issues were presented to members of Pierce Countys executive office, County Council members and department leadership during a meeting with state auditors on May 28. A representative for the executive office or County Council was not made available for an interview. The accountability audit, published in June by the Office of the Washington State Auditor, centered on Pierce Countys installation of a distributed antenna system throughout a county building in 2022, which is home to a handful of government entities, most notably the Pierce County Sheriffs Office and the county jail. The county claims in a written response to auditors that it had met the obligations to invest locally in the enhanced 911 system. County officials said they used surplus funds designated for the repair, upgrade, and replacement of equipment related to the Countys emergency services communication system, which they believe includes the distributed antenna system installed at the jail. The antenna system amplifies the signal for hand-held radios used by law enforcement to enable better communication in and out of the government building. Katy Myers, the chair of the statewide 911 Advisory Committee within the Washington State Military Department, said in her 30 years working in the field, a distributed antenna system or police radios have never been an allowable expense using 911 excise tax funds. The funds are meant to improve the first point of contact of an emergency call, which is the public safety answering point. In Pierce County, thats the South Sound 911 center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 911 state office says thats a different kettle of fish altogether, said Myers, referring to the distributed antenna system. It has nothing to do with people calling 911 and getting access. Myers, who is the deputy director at NORCOM, a consolidated 911 center that serves northeast King County, said its important that the funds are allocated appropriately, especially given how underfunded 911 centers across the state are to begin with. There are counties in this state that you would be sad to see the building that your 911 center is in, Myers said. Its in a trailer, basically, with no ceilings and no good ventilation. Records show its not the first time that Pierce County has used 911 excise tax funds to pay for unapproved things. In 2017 and 2018, Pierce County also used those tax funds to pay for an emergency management phone alert system and an emergency radio system, which were cited in an earlier state audit. The Washington State Legislature was also found to have misused 911 excise tax funds in 2013 when lawmakers approved $2 million to be used to buy radio equipment for the Department of Corrections, according to a legislative report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pierce County officials wrote to state auditors explaining the issue wont happen again because theyve since transferred ownership of the countys 911 excise funds over to South Sound 911, but they still defended their previous use of the $4.5 million for the distributed antenna system, with no indication they plan on returning it. But auditors reiterated that the funds should be returned to South Sound 911. The less revenue collected through the 911 excise tax, the more partner agencies have to contribute to fund the 911 center, according to Julie Door, a Puyallup City Council member and the chair of the South Sound 911 Board of Directors. This money came out of the pockets of all of our partner agencies, Door said, referring to the 39 first responder agencies that have their calls routed through South Sound 911. Thats my concern with this. She added that the Federal Communications Commission is concerned about fee diversion and could pull funding. If we are not using it for its intended purpose, Door said, we risk federal dollars. The County-City building, on Monday, April 22, 2024, in Tacoma. Brian Hayes/bhayes@thenewstribune.com Longstanding disagreement Pierce Countys use of 911 excise tax funds has been debated for nearly a decade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2016, Pierce County entered into an engineering and design contract with Motorola Solutions to design the distributed antenna system that would address a public safety radio communication dead zone in and around the government building in Tacoma, including the county jail. In response, the cities of Tacoma, Lakewood, Fife and Puyallup, along with West Pierce Fire & Rescue, which all depend on the South Sound 911 call center as the entry point to their public safety communication systems, sent the county a letter criticizing the spending and requesting that those funds instead be turned over to the regional call center. The same entities reiterated their concerns in 2019. We believe that the intended purpose of the E911 excise tax is to directly support emergency communications, and that South Sound 911 is now the single unified local-government agency providing that service to the citizens of all of Pierce County, they wrote. This transfer would allow these revenues and this fund to meet its statutory basis and purpose. In Pierce Countys written response to state auditors, officials wrote they received guidance from the Washington State Military Department in 2018 stating that their proposed use of the funds was appropriate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But later emails from the Military Department dispute those claims. In August 2019, Adam Wasserman, the E911 coordinator with the state Military Departments Emergency Management Division, stressed in an email to state auditors that the funds are meant for 911 calls, not for dispatching or communicating with first responders, according to meeting notes obtained by InvestigateWest. If counties use their excise tax funds to pay for dispatch and other services or equipment, there will be an even greater need for money to provide 911 equipment and personnel, without the necessary funds to meet the need, Wasserman told state auditors. In 2020, Wasserman reiterated many of those same points in a letter to 911 county coordinators across the state, then again in April 2021 directly to the Pierce County 911 coordinator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am compelled to ensure that 911 fees are not being diverted or misused, he wrote. This diversion of 911 fees could result in Pierce County and possibly the state missing out on a significant federal grant opportunities if it is not rectified quickly. In response, Jody Ferguson, then-director of the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, who retired in October 2024, wrote that her department has consistently been a good steward of the E911 excise tax and has run an exemplary program. A few months later, the county issued the $4.5 million public works contract to Motorola Solutions to install the distributed antenna system throughout the city/county building. The company, which is largely known for its cellphones and police radios, has a growing presence in government surveillance and artificial intelligence and specializes in police body cameras, facial recognition technology and automated license plate readers. The distributed antenna system primarily helps first responders radio in and out of the government building, including the jail. The technology gained popularity following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when first responders had difficulty communicating with officers inside the World Trade Center. As the use of new energy-efficient materials has helped make buildings more environmentally friendly, those materials have also obstructed radio signals, Solie said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parts of the system are installed on the roof and throughout the Tacoma building, including within the county jail, where the control unit is located, according to Solie. Solie, who has worked in emergency management for 22 years and started with the Pierce County department in April 2025, said any law enforcement agency operating within the building can use the technology. Door, the Puyallup City Council member, doesnt dispute Pierce Countys claims that improving radio connection within the jail was a public safety issue. But we have to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars, Door added. Moe K. Clark is a collaborative investigative reporter at InvestigateWest, covering Washingtons criminal justice system and other topics. Her work is supported by the Murrow News Fellowship , a state-funded journalism initiative managed by Washington State University. Pilots should be filmed in the cockpit so their actions can be monitored, the former chief executive of British Airways has suggested, as questions mount over the Air India disaster that killed 260 people. Willie Walsh, who now heads the International Air Transport Association, said cockpit video could be a valuable tool for investigators trying to piece together the cause of the Boeing 787 crash in Ahmedabad. Based on what little we know now, its quite possible that a video recording, in addition to the voice recording, would significantly assist the investigators in conducting that investigation, Mr Walsh said. Iata boss Willie Walsh is the former chief executive of British Airways - Siggi Bucher Indias Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing whether one of the pilots cut fuel to both engines seconds after take-off, killing 241 people on board and 19 on the ground. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The crash has reignited debate over cockpit cameras, long resisted by pilot unions who argue they threaten privacy and could be misused. But advocates say that video recordings would complement voice and flight data recorders already used by accident investigators. Video footage has already helped solve crashes elsewhere. Investigators in Australia recently used footage from a fatal 2023 helicopter crash to determine the pilot was distracted by his phone and food before the aircraft broke up mid-air. The idea is not new, either. After the EgyptAir Flight 990 disaster in 1999, where the co-pilot deliberately crashed a Boeing 767 killing 217, Jim Hall, the then-chairman of the US national transportation safety board, urged mandatory cockpit cameras. John Nance, an air safety expert and former commercial pilot, said: In the balance between privacy and safety, the scale tips toward safety, unequivocally. Anthony Brickhouse, another expert, said footage from Air India flight 171 would have answered lots of questions, but acknowledged that commercial pilots have real concerns, particularly about privacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pilots unions, including the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa) and the Allied Pilots Association (Apa), have argued cameras would add little value and could be misused. Calls for cameras are an understandable reaction to the stress of not knowing what happened immediately after an accident, said Dennis Tajer, a Apa spokesman who is also an American airlines pilot. I can understand the initial reaction of the more information, the better, he said, adding that investigators already have enough data that comes from a black box. John Cox, a safety expert and former Alpa official, warned videos could be leaked or even misused by airlines. A pilots death being broadcast on the 6 oclock news is not something that the pilots family should ever have to go through, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes after a preliminary report into the deadly Air India crash found there were no mechanical or maintenance faults on board the plane. Campbell Wilson, the chief executive of Air India, said it was unwise to jump to any conclusions after the initial report found fuel to the engines of the plane appeared to have been cut off shortly after take-off. A firefighter stands next to the crashed Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft in Ahmedabad - Adnan Abidi/Reuters Investigators have been looking into the medical records of the pilot whose plane crashed in Ahmedabad amid claims that he suffered from depression and mental health problems. Cpt Sumeet Sabharwal, who was 56, was months from retirement but had been considering leaving the airline to look after his elderly father following the death of his mother in 2022, The Telegraph previously revealed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pilot, who had more than 15,000 flying hours, last undertook a Class I medical exam on Sept 5 last year. His records have been handed to investigators, whose initial report said their focus was on the actions of the pilots rather than a technical fault with the plane. The Airline Pilots Association of India said it rejected the tone and direction of the inquiry. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. NEED TO KNOW Dan Kelly received negative comments after he posted a video requesting a nut-free flight Some commenters bashed Kelly, who has a severe allergy, saying they'd ignore the request Kelly also recalled the "scariest" allergic reaction he had mid-air A traveler flying with one request for his fellow passengers has sparked a big debate online. On July 6, blogger and content creator Dan Kelly posted a TikTok of him boarding an easyJet flight. Once inside, he greeted the flight attendant and asked a simple favor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive got a severe nut allergy, he says. Are you okay to do an announcement? The flight attendant then asked where Kelly was sitting and where his EpiPens were located. Then he told Kelly hed make the announcement as soon as the doors close. Surely people can go without nuts for a few hours if it could save someones life, Kelly wrote in the caption. Honestly, I dont understand why some people still dont take food allergies seriously. He added: If it were you or your child living with a life-threatening allergy, youd hope others would show a bit more empathy and recognize just how serious it really is! Getty Images An unfolded tray table An unfolded tray table But not everyone supported Kelly in the comments. The video, which has amassed more than 7 million views on TikTok, sparked a debate. I would make all people with allergies sit in a toilet the whole flight, wrote one person. So annoying as I love peanuts with my gin and tonic. Another said: Id be the first to open up a packet of peanut m&ms. Just because I can. Since when has an entire group accommodating to a single individual become the norm? one questioned. Its crazy work. You are responsible for yourself the entire group is not responsible for you. However, there was plenty of support for Kelly as well. God forbid a man wants to stay alive and in good health, a comment with over 94,000 likes read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not just someone eating them near him. Its someone eating them and not wiping their hands and then touching a handle, or the toilet lid or the bathroom tap, one explained. Are people seriously saying they would willingly and happily KILL another human being for a snack? someone asked. Jesus Christ. Yes, its not your fault he has an allergy, but as a society we should do our best to literally not kill people. In a subsequent video, Kelly highlighted some of the negative comments. In the caption, he explained a flight from Croatia hell never forget. I had a nap with my arm resting on the tray table in front of me and woke up covered in hives, he wrote. I had no idea what was happening until I realised I hadnt wiped the table down before falling asleep. It was one of the scariest reactions I've had mid-flight. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Kellys blog, May Contain, he was diagnosed with a severe peanut and tree nut allergy at 5 years old. For years, Kelly believed traveling the world would be off-limit given his sensitivities. However, hes learned how to manage them and now share his tips with his followers. Honestly the positives just outweigh all the negative comments about the allergy announcement, he said in a July 9 video. Thanks again for all the support, it's been amazing. A lot of parents with kids with allergies and its been great, he says. May Contain, its all about empowering people [so] you can still travel and see the world with an allergy. Read the original article on People The recommendations sent by the European Unions Foreign Affairs Council to the Georgian authorities regarding improvements in the countrys democratic situation have not been unanimously welcomed by the government and the ruling party, Azernews reports. The leadership and deputies of the ruling Georgian Dream Democratic Georgia party have described the EUs letter as a form of blackmail. Irakli Kobakhidze, chairman of the ruling party and Prime Minister of Georgia, stated that discussions about a possible suspension of the visa-free regime with the EU amount to blackmail against the Georgian people. He added that such a step would be counterproductive. Levan Makhasvili, a deputy from the ruling party, said that European institutions continue to exert pressure on official Tbilisi through threats and blackmail. Despite concerns, the Georgian government remains ready to cooperate with both supportive partners and critical forces. Makhasvili emphasized, EU institutions will likely continue to use blackmail and threats in their dealings with Georgia to serve their interests. However, there are also EU member states that assess the situation soberly and believe that EU policy should be based on sound reasoning and shared geopolitical interests. He expressed confidence that opposition forces would also approach the issue rationally and return to the right path. Another ruling party deputy, Tengiz Sharmanashvili, noted that EU foreign ministers have not reached any decisions regarding Georgia, as leaders of individual member states have adopted a pragmatic stance. They understand that damaging relations with Georgia does not align with Europes own interests. Unfortunately, every step we take and every achievement we make is often used against us, Sharmanashvili said. Meanwhile, Pavel Gercinski, the EU Ambassador to Georgia, confirmed that most EU countries oppose suspending the visa-free regime with Georgia. A factory belonging to the Polish Barlinek Group has been damaged in a Russian attack on the city of Vinnytsia, resulting in injuries. Source: Polish Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski, as reported by European Pravda Details: Sikorski reported that a factory belonging to the Polish Barlinek Group had been damaged in the Russian UAV attack on Vinnytsia. Rosyjskie drony uderzyy w fabryke Grupy Barlinek w Winnicy. Szef zakadu powiedzia mi przed chwila, ze celowo, z trzech kierunkow. Sa ranni, w tym dwoje ciezko poparzonych. Dziaaja suzby ukrainskie, takze nasz konsulat. Zbrodnicza wojna Putina przybliza sie do naszych granic. Radosaw Sikorski (@sikorskiradek) July 16, 2025 "The plant manager has just informed me that this was a deliberate attack from three directions," said Sikorski. "People have been injured, including two with severe burns. Ukrainian services are working at the scene and representatives of our consulate are also present. Putin's criminal war is approaching our borders." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Barlinek Group manufactures wooden flooring. Background: Latest reports show that eight people have been injured in Vinnytsia. Russian drone strikes also caused destruction in the frontline cities of Kramatorsk, Kharkiv and Kryvyi Rih on the evening of 15 July and the night of 15-16 July. Residents of Romanian towns on the Danube witnessed another series of Russian strikes near the Ukrainian city of Izmail. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Washingtonians flock to the states beaches on sweltering summer days to cool down. But a new report suggests that residents might want to double-check pollution levels before diving in to swim. About 76% of tested Washington state beaches showed potentially unsafe fecal-contamination levels on at least one testing day last year, according to the findings by Environment America Research and Policy Center. In addition, 30% of the states 63 monitored beaches had possibly unsafe contamination on at least a quarter of all testing days in 2024, according to the July 7 report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reports writers underscore that such pollution can stem from sources such as sewage overflows, urban runoff and factory farms. Resulting pathogens can jeopardize swimmers health and prompt beaches to be closed to safeguard the public. About 61% of tested beaches nationwide experienced at least one day when signs of fecal contamination surpassed the Environmental Protection Agencys Beach Action Value. States can use BAVs as a conservative precautionary tool to make choices about beach notifications. The report notes that contamination could have also occurred on days when monitoring didnt happen. Certain other states fared worse than Washington in the report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Alabama, for instance, 96% of tested beaches counted potentially unsafe fecal contamination levels at least once last year. All eight of Pennsylvanias tested beaches indicated the same. Both California and Oregon also ranked higher than Washington in this regard at 79% each. The state Department of Healths website explains that illness can be caused by swimming in contaminated saltwater. Washington beaches are watched for fecal bacteria, and the public is alerted when test outcomes are high. Two beaches in Pierce County were flagged in Environment Americas report for having relatively high percentages of possibly unsafe test days last year: Titlow Park (65%) and Jack Hyde Park (47%). Five of 14 tested days in Thurston Countys Squaxin Park were deemed potentially unsafe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Whatcom County, the Wildcat Cove beach at Larrabee State Park counted 63% potentially unsafe test days. Little Squalicum Park in that county had six of 15 test days fall under that category. Washington beach monitoring Heather Gibbs, the Washington State Department of Ecologys BEACH Program coordinator, said she hasnt yet had the opportunity to review Environment Americas report. She did say, though, that between Memorial Day and Labor Day every year, the departments BEACH Program gauges water quality at 50 to 60 saltwater beaches each week around Puget Sound. High results lead to resampling in the same week to root out potential problems. Often, a single reading might be high because of fleeting issues related to the Sounds unique marine environment, she said, citing tides and significant current. Subsequent testing frequently indicates lower levels of contamination. If high levels do stick around, then it triggers further investigation, Gibbs explained in an email. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 8 in 10 department-tested Puget Sound beaches last year met swimming standards, the most recent BEACH Annual Report shows. A view of whales passing by the property at Titlow Beach. Washington beach water quality In addition to neighboring communities, there are scores of likely contamination sources along Puget Sounds shores, such as raccoons, dogs and geese, Gibbs said. In one case a few years back, raccoons were the culprit behind high levels of enterococcus bacteria at Larrabee State Park, she said. The department resolved the problem by placing chicken wire over the affected shallow pool of water, which raccoons had been using to wash the food they stole from a nearby campground before defecating. We are definitely monitoring as often as we can and following up if were seeing high results, Gibbs said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far in 2025, the water quality has been good in general, she added. This year, knock on wood, weve only had one advisory on our marine beaches, Gibbs said. Weve had a really positive summer so far. That advisory, in place since June 18, is at the Jack Hyde Park beach in Tacoma. Federal funding meant to help monitor beaches in states is at risk, Gibbs warned including in Washington. In recent years, Environmental Protection Agency funding for beach-monitoring programs has declined. In addition, the administrations proposed FY26 budget would eliminate funding for the program completely, she said in an email. Washingtons Ecology Department in this federal fiscal year receives about $270,000 in federal dollars to monitor beaches, Gibbs said. Without that money, some counties might not be able to continue their testing programs, and funding for the statewide coordinator position would be lost. Like his predecessor Pope Francis, Pope Leo XIV has a vocal, defining focus on environmental stewardship and he carried Francis' legacy forward on Wednesday with the Catholic Church's first-ever "green" Papal Mass. In 2015, Francis published a groundbreaking papal encyclical, Laudato Si', and his direct, unflinching approach to climate stewardship established a now-thriving movement within the Church. Papal encyclicals are not solely a formal letter from a pope they're influential directives intended to guide Bishops and the Catholic world at large on matters of morality and worship, and they "carry significant doctrinal weight." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Laudato Si' emerged to such fanfare it crashed the Vatican's website upon its release. Francis' 184-page manifesto officially declared the air pollution causing climate change a moral and spiritual crisis, calling upon Catholics to eschew overconsumption and to understand that "we are [all] part of nature." "Living our vocation to be protectors of God's handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary aspect of our Christian experience," he taught. Francis' lament led to sustained, direct action among Catholics, influencing the culture of the Church and his legacy. Last November, Leo then known as Cardinal Robert Prevost spoke about the climate crisis in urgent terms, as an inalienable moral and spiritual duty. After Francis' passing, Pope Leo XIV was elected as his successor on May 8. Leo "approved [a] new Mass formula" per the Associated Press, the first designated for "the care of creation." The "green Mass" format came at the request of Catholics motivated to act after Laudato Si'. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 10, Leo held Mass at a new Vatican ecological center on the grounds of Castel Gandolfo, the historical papal summer residence. "We must pray for the conversion of so many people, inside and out of the church, who still don't recognize the urgency of caring for our common home," Leo said, before discussing extreme weather. "We see so many natural disasters in the world, nearly every day and in so many countries, that are in part caused by the excesses of being human, with our lifestyle." The Pope also likened the location of the outdoor Mass to "a natural cathedral." Do you think America does a good job of protecting its natural beauty? Definitely Only in some areas No way I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. According to Euronews, Leo's years of ministry in Peru informed his commitment to climate justice for Indigenous peoples in particular, which he addressed in a message released ahead of Wednesday's Mass. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "On all sides, injustice, violations of international law and the rights of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation, pollution and the loss of biodiversity," he wrote. Pope Francis' commitment to climate stewardship manifested in changes to the Vatican, including a fleet of electric cars and ambitious plans to transition the city-state to 100% solar energy. Leo plans to move ahead with Francis' plans to erect a solar farm, which would grant Vatican City the honor of being "the world's first carbon-neutral state." During a June visit to the site, Pope Leo XIV recalled Francis' vision. The solar project "sets a very important example: we are all aware of the effects of climate change, and we really need to take care of the whole of creation, as Pope Francis has taught so clearly," he reflected. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. NEED TO KNOW Benadryl has been used since the 1940s to stop allergy attacks and relieve the symptoms of hay fever and other allergies A review of the medicine cabinet staple in the New York Times points out that since it works by crossing the blood-brain barrier, it may cause more harm than good A representative for Kenvue, which manufactures Benadryl, told PEOPLE, "Diphenhydramine is an ingredient which is generally recognized as safe and effective by health authorities in the US" Benadryl the medicine cabinet staple that helps stop an allergy attack and relieve the symptoms of seasonal allergies may cause long-lasting problems, experts say. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A brand name for diphenhydramine, Benadryl has been around since the 1940s, the New York Times reported in a review of its pros and cons. The biggest drawback, the outlet says, is that Benadryl crosses the blood-brain barrier blocking the signal in the brain that causes an immune reaction to allergens like pollen or nuts. And that impact on the brain may be detrimental. A representative for Kenvue, which manufactures Benadryl, told PEOPLE, "We are not aware of any studies that show a causal link between labeled use of diphenhydramine and an increased risk of developing dementia. Diphenhydramine is an ingredient which is generally recognized as safe and effective by health authorities in the US. Safety is always our top priority, and we recommend that consumers carefully read and follow the label when using any medication. Consumers who have medical concerns or questions about diphenhydramine should contact their health care professional." getty Stock image of someone allergic to flowers sneezing. Stock image of someone allergic to flowers sneezing. You have this lingering hangover effect, Dr. David Stukus, director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Childrens Hospital, told the NYT. The lingering drowsiness could contribute to trips and falls; the drug has been linked to a decreased ability to drive safely, according to a study where people took the drug and were asked to operate a driving simulator. The European Union mandates that people who take Benadryl do not drive. The drug has also been linked to poor school performance, the NYT says, and referred to a Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology study that linked diphenhydramine to significant performance deficits on tests of divided attention, working memory, vigilance, and speed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There may be a link between Benadryl and cognitive decline, the outlet reports, as it impacts the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. The NYT refers to a study from JAMA Internal Medicine, which found that people who took acetylcholine-blocking drugs had a 54% higher risk of developing dementia and 63% higher risk of developing Alzheimers disease. "Diphenhydramine has reached the end of its life cycle, and in its class of therapies it is a relatively greater public health hazard," an article in the World Allergy Organization Journal said in February. We recommend it should no longer be widely prescribed or continue to be readily available over the counter. Doctors told the outlet if youre having an allergy attack and Benadryl is your only option, then you should obviously take it. But otherwise, you may want to look at other options. Stock image of Benadryl pills. You can choose to drive a 1976 Impala, or you can choose to drive a more modern automobile, Dr. Stukus told the outlet. Just because youve always done something a certain way, it doesnt mean its the best option available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And if youre reaching for Benadryl or any antihistamine a few times a week, you need to speak to your doctor, Dr. Rita Kachru, chief of clinical allergy and immunology at UCLA Health, told the outlet, as there could be an underlying, undiagnosed condition, or a better treatment option. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Read the original article on People SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) Combining humorous commentary and fast-paced speaking style to food reviews and short videos, K Hood has made a name for herself gathering nearly 10 million followers across social platforms. Marshall Street Food Festival highlights the social media star known as @RollItUpK s appearance in the event hosted by Uptown Bar & Lounge and The Kourtyard. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for BET) The second annual fest will have vendors, food trucks and touts featuring top chefs in attendance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition to food, there will be a live performance and seven DJs, in what the organizers are calling the biggest summer block party in the 318. Kids accompanied by adults are welcome; however, the event has a strict gone by 10 p.m. policy for participants under 20 years of age. Saturday, July 19, 2025, you can catch the start of the festival at 7 p.m. Tickets are being sold online at www.uptown-kourtyard.com Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) When the U.S. Coast Guard announced Eastern Shipbuilding Group would build the first of the new Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC), it was Bay Countys biggest economic news in decades. Tuesday night, the bright promise of billions of dollars pouring into our community over the next 20 years dimmed. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has cancelled half of the deal. Eastern Shipbuilding gets $10.5 billion Coast Guard contract Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eastern Shipbuilding Group officials, Floridas Congressional delegation, and state leaders are now scrambling to save a deal that has a huge impact on this area of the Panhandle. Last Friday, United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the partial termination of what was called a wasteful shipbuilding contract to protect American taxpayer dollars. The statement goes on to say ESGs, delays in delivering the offshore patrol cutters is harming the U.S.s defense capabilities, wasting Americans hard-earned moneys, not an effective use of taxpayer money. The news release quoted an unnamed senior Homeland Security official as saying, We cannot allow critical shipbuilding projects to languish over budget and behind schedule. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To understand how we got to this point, you have to go back nearly a decade, to September 2016, when the U.S. Coast Guard awarded Eastern Shipbuilding Group a contract to build the first Offshore Patrol Cutter, with an option to buy 8 more. The first ship was supposed to be delivered in late 2022. Then came Hurricane Michael, which heavily damaged Eastern Shipbuilding Groups local shipyards. As a result, Homeland Security approved a limited extraordinary relief in October 2019, giving eastern more theme. But the Coast Guard exercised its option to rebid the contract for cutters #5 #15. In 2020, COVID-19 hit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then, ESG had to deal with skilled workers and supply chain shortages. The 2022 delivery date came and went. Offshore patrol cutter, Argus, was christened & launched In October 2023, ESG launched the hull of the first OPC, named Argus. The new delivery date was supposed to be by the end of 2024. But that didnt happen, ESGs management pointed to all of the setbacks previously mentioned. But what they havent attributed delays to are the difficulties of building the first of any new equipment for the military, whether its a plane, tank or ship. Mission specifications change, which leads to change orders and cost overruns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then theres dealing with different administrations. First Trump, then Biden, and now Trump again. In January, one of Trumps first acts was firing Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, giving her a 3-hour notice before evicting her from her home. Right now, ESG has done substantial work on OPCs #1 and #2, but halted work on #3 and #4. Even so, CEO Joey DIsernia points out, when it comes to costs, his company has performed as well or better than 8 out of 11 programs according to the GAO, and better or equal to 3 out of 8 programs in performance. Eastern Shipbuilding talks Coast Guard contract DIsernia released a statement today saying he believes ESG plays a vital role in Trumps maritime strategy and hopes the Coast Guards decision wont jeopardize that potential. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The statement goes on to say they hope to reach a funding agreement to move forward without delay. Congressman Neal Dunn also released a statement saying he is disappointed by the Coast Guards decision and is also hoping for a fair agreement. Several sources tell News 13, the entire Congressional delegation for Florida is drafting a letter to send to the Coast Guard and the Trump administration. The letter will ask for a resolution to the problem that will benefit all involved. The Coast Guard plans to order a total of 25 OPCs. The total cost was originally set at just over $10 billion. The loss of the contract will significantly impact the roughly 1500 ESG employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To see Noems full statement, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. In July 2025, a rumor stemming from a report in The Atlantic began to spread that the U.S. Department of State was set to destroy $800,000 in high-energy biscuits destined for children suffering from malnutrition at a cost of $130,000, for a total cost to U.S. taxpayers of $1 million. The State Department confirmed in an emailed statement that it had ordered the incineration of the food, stored in a Dubai warehouse. It added that this situation was "not unique," though the Atlantic report cited "several aid workers" (unnamed) who directly contradicted this assertion, saying they had "never before seen the U.S. government simply give up on food that could have been put to good use." Snopes reached out to the State Department for clarification on this point and will update this report should we receive a response. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was set to incinerate nearly 500 metric tons (550 imperial tons) of emergency food destined for starving children, according to a rumor that spread online in July 2025. For example, a post on X relayed the claim, adding that the story was "a tremendous metaphor" for the Trump administration because it was setting "a million dollars up in smoke" (archived): A tremendous metaphor for the Trump administration: @marcorubio's State Department blowing $130,000 to destroy $800,000 in food. Almost a million dollars up in smoke bc Trump wants to destroy American soft power.https://t.co/Wy9eTK52Ko pic.twitter.com/iEz9WcBQLb emptywheel (check) (@emptywheel) July 15, 2025 As of this writing, the post had garnered 32,400 views and 2,000 likes. The claim further spread on X, including one post by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (archived), a Democrat from the state of Washington. It also appeared on Reddit and Facebook, in a post by Robert Reich, an economist and former secretary of labor under former President Bill Clinton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In addition, several Snopes readers searched the site and emailed, seeking to confirm the veracity of the rumor. "Is [the] trump administration incinerating 500 tons of emergency food intended for children rather than distributing?" one wrote. Indeed, several prominent news outlets had relayed the rumor, including Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast and Gizmodo. The rumor stemmed from a report in The Atlantic that cited anonymous sources within the U.S. government. It didn't mention which part of the government employed these sources. We contacted the White House, which referred us to the State Department. The Department of State, under which USAID operated, confirmed that this food was indeed set to be incinerated. "Unfortunately, this risk is part of always being ready to respond to life-saving humanitarian needs with consumable commodities in remote locations around the world," a department spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "USAID has had to destroy commodities under previous administrations with similar circumstances this is not unique." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Citing these sources, the report said these high-energy biscuits were in storage at a warehouse in Dubai, a city and emirate of the United Arab Emirates. The administration of former President Joe Biden had acquired the nutrient-packed biscuits to distribute to children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to The Atlantic. The biscuits, which could have fed 1.5 million malnourished children for one week, had cost $800,000, the sources reportedly told The Atlantic, and their incineration would cost another $130,000, bringing the total bill to nearly $1 million. The food expired on July 16, 2025, the report said. It had been stored in Dubai for months as staffing and funding cuts prevented USAID, the agency that acquired it, from distributing it. However, contrary to the assertion by the Department of State that this situation was not unique, The Atlantic's report suggested it was unprecedented. "Several of the aid workers" the reporter "spoke with reiterated that they have never before seen the U.S. government simply give up on food that could have been put to good use." Snopes contacted the State Department asking them to respond to this point. While U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified in a congressional hearing on May 21, 2025, that the food would be distributed, The Atlantic reported its sources said the order to incinerate the food had already been given by that date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement High-energy biscuits are one type of food humanitarian and rescue efforts use as an immediate treatment for malnutrition during famines. They are highly caloric and pack essential nutrients, which makes them a stopgap solution to help stave off the dire consequences of hunger while crises persist. We will update this report if more details emerge. Sources: Deng, Grace. "What to Know about Trump, Musk and the Dismantling of USAID." Snopes, Snopes.com, 5 Feb. 2025, www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/05/trump-elon-musk-dismantling-usaid/. Accessed 16 July 2025. Kiros, Hana. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic, theatlantic, 15 July 2025, www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/07/usaid-emergency-food-incinerate-trump/683532/. Accessed 16 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Madarang, Charisma. "Trump Administration to Set Fire to 500 Tons of Food Aid." Rolling Stone, 15 July 2025, www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-administration-destroy-500-tons-emergency-food-1235386525/. Accessed 16 July 2025. Ropek, Lucas. "The White House Has a Plan for All That Foreign Food Aid That DOGE Cut: Burn It." Gizmodo, 15 July 2025, gizmodo.com/the-white-house-has-a-plan-for-all-that-foreign-food-aid-that-doge-cut-burn-it-2000629489. Accessed 16 July 2025. Sanders, Tom. "Trump Admin to Incinerate 550 Tons of Emergency Food Meant for Children." The Daily Beast, 15 July 2025, www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admin-to-incinerate-500-tons-of-emergency-food-for-children/. Accessed 16 July 2025. "What WFP Delivers: High-Energy Biscuits - World Food Program USA." World Food Program USA, 23 Sept. 2017, www.wfpusa.org/news/what-wfp-delivers-high-energy-biscuits/. Accessed 16 July 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Department of State. "Secretary Rubio Testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee - 10:00AM." YouTube, 21 May 2025, www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAGqh7jvyus. Accessed 16 July 2025. "Budget Hearing Department of State and Related Programs." House Committee on Appropriations - Republicans, 13 May 2025, appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hearings/budget-hearing-department-state-and-related-programs. Accessed 16 July 2025. Updates: July 16, 2025: This report was updated to include a response from the U.S. Department of State, which confirmed it had ordered the food to be incinerated. A broad area of low pressure continues to move westward across the Florida Panhandle and is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorm activity mainly south of its center, the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday morning. Hurricane center forecasters said the system, designated as Invest 93L, is forecast to continue moving westward and could emerge or redevelop over the far northeastern to north-central portion of the Gulf, reaching the coast of Louisiana by Thursday. "If this system moves far enough offshore, environmental conditions over the Gulf appear generally favorable for additional development, and a tropical depression could still form over the next couple of days before the system moves fully inland by the end of the week," the hurricane center said in an advisory early Wednesday. 'Impactful' rain from Texas to Florida Even if the system doesn't develop into a named storm, which would be named Dexter, forecasters warn it will still bring significant impacts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AccuWeather forecasters expect a potential tropical depression to make landfall in southeastern Louisiana on Thursday afternoon, bringing heavy rain, storm surge of 1 to 3 feet, and wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph. Coastal Mississippi could also be affected, especially if the system strengthens into a tropical storm before landfall. Meteorologist Nick Lilja said in a Facebook post that, regardless of whether the system develops or where it tracks, heavy rainfall is expected. "If you live anywhere between Galveston and Panama City and within 50 miles of the coast, I'd make certain your property is clear and clean and that water can easily exit your property and get to the drainage areas," he wrote in a post Sunday. In a separate post Tuesday, Lilja said forecast models are beginning to converge on southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi coast for the highest rainfall totals. Still, he warned that the entire stretch from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Panama City, Florida, is fair game for at least a 48-hour period of a washout between Wednesday and Sunday as this thing meanders west." Will a tropical system hit Texas? While Texas is not currently in the projected path, remnant moisture drifting west or southwest across the Gulf could trigger scattered storms especially in Southeast Texas along the coast. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The National Weather Service in Houston has issued a slight risk of excessive rainfall for areas east of I-45 on Friday. A surge of tropical moisture could bring showers and thunderstorms to Southeast Texas later this week, the agency wrote. This heavy rainfall threat will greatly depend on how a disturbance over Florida evolves over the next several days. The NOAA graphical forecast shows chances for precipitation on Friday, July 18, 2025. Atlantic storm tracker This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time. What is a 'homegrown' system? A "homegrown" or "homebrew" storm is one that forms close to the U.S. coast, often in the Gulf of Mexico, the western Caribbean, or the nearby Atlantic. These storms are more common during the early part of the hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, according to an online forecast discussion from AccuWeather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While Cape Verde hurricanes which form from tropical waves off the coast of Africa account for about 85% of major hurricanes and 60% of all tropical storms and hurricanes, most of these storms stay out to sea or weaken before reaching the mainland U.S. They can be extremely powerful when they do make landfall, but thats relatively rare. In fact, only eight out of 54 hurricanes that struck the U.S. between 1995 and 2023 originated as Cape Verde systems, according to storm track data. These so-called "homegrown" storms tend to form or intensify quickly in warm, shallow waters near the coast, leaving little time for preparation. Because of their proximity, theyre often considered the greater threat to the U.S., even if theyre shorter-lived or not as strong as Cape Verde storms. See spaghetti models for Invest 93L This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Potential Tropical Storm Dexter may bring rain to Texas: See path Syria says it is withdrawing troops from a flashpoint southern city after days of deadly clashes with an Arab minority group that triggered military action from Israel. Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said the country was not afraid of war but had chosen to put its people above chaos and destruction, after his government announced a new ceasefire with the Druze, an offshoot of Islam whose followers are spread across Syria, Israel and Lebanon. The truce followed intervention from the US as well as Israeli strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus, with Israel saying it was acting to protect the Druze. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, the ceasefire appears to be holding, but it is unclear whether it will last. A previous deal collapsed within hours, and a prominent Druze leader has rejected the new truce. In a televised address to the nation early Thursday, Sharaa said the Syria was faced with two options: either an open war with Israel at the cost of our Druze citizens, or allowing Druze clerics to return to reason and prioritize the national interest. He vowed to protect the rights of the Druze, many of whom are leery of Syrias new rulers, who toppled the previous administration in an Islamist-led insurgency. Syria said on Wednesday night local time its army started withdrawing from Suwayda, where clashes erupted over the weekend between Druze militia and Bedouin tribes, prompting government forces to intervene. Video on Syrian TV purportedly showed a convoy of military vehicles driving out of Suwayda city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Israels airstrikes on Damascus targeted several government buildings Wednesday, with authorities saying at least three people were killed. One video from a Syrian television channel showed the Ministry of Defense building being hit live on air, forcing the anchor to take cover. In his address, al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to divide the Syrian people. Members of Syrian security forces stand on the side of a road as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly druze city of Suwayda. - Karam al-Masri/Reuters The Israeli entity, known for its repeated attempts to destabilize us and sow division, once again seeks to turn our land into a battlefield of chaos and to dismantle the fabric of our people, he said. Israel has stepped up strikes against Syria despite pressure from the US, which has made moves to end the countrys international isolation following the rebel takeover. US steps in US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday said the Trump administration had engaged with all parties of the conflict to end the clashes in Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight. This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do, Rubio said on X. Rubio also described the latest tension between Israel and Syria as a misunderstanding. A statement published by the Syrian government said that, under the new ceasefire, there will be a complete halt to military operations, a monitoring committee will be formed with the Druze leaders and members of the community will be leading security in the province. A Druze spiritual leader representing one of the factions in Suwayda, Youssef Jarbou, confirmed an agreement was reached for a complete and immediate halt to all military operations and de-escalation from all sides, with the army returning to its barracks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Hikmat al-Hijri another leading Druze figure who had asked for international protection on Wednesday rejected the ceasefire, calling on his supporters to continue fighting, raising doubts over the truces longevity. The Druze, an Arab sect of roughly one million people, practice an offshoot of Islam which permits no converts either to or from the religion and no intermarriage. They are made up of a network of groups with multiple figureheads. In Syria, the Druze community is concentrated around three main provinces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in the south of the country, and form a majority in the Suwayda province. More than 20,000 Druze also live in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967, before formally annexing it in 1981. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hundreds of Druze crossed from Israel into Syria this week, apparently responding to pleas from Druze leaders to support their community in the ongoing clashes. While Israel says its efforts aim to protect Syrias Druze the country has also been alarmed by the Syrian government and has been trying to shore up its borders by expanding its military footprint in the country. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously referred to the new leaders of the country as an extremist Islamic regime and a threat to Israel. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed alarm over the continued escalation of violence in Suwayda, also condemning Israels escalatory airstrikes on Suwayda, Daraa and in the center of Damascus, and calling for an immediate cessation of all violations of Syrias sovereignty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least 169 people have been killed, and 200 others injured during several days of clashes in the south, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Wednesday. CNN cannot independently verify the toll. The violence poses a major challenge to Sharaa as he tries to impose order on a country wracked by years of civil war. This story has been updated with additional developments. CNNs Kylie Atwood and Hira Humayun contributed to this report. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) President Donald Trump and the crown prince of Bahrain met at the White House on Wednesday. The two countries have signed an agreement to enter into a civilian nuclear deal. The deal will open up negotiations on what is known as a 123 agreement. It will allow U.S. and American companies to invest in and construct nuclear energy projects in Bahrain, an island nation off the coast of Saudi Arabia with a population of around 1.5 million people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani signed the memorandum of understanding on Wednesday, after Rubio signed a similar agreement with Malaysia last week. The United States is prepared to be partner with any nation on Earth that wants to pursue a civil nuclear program that clearly is not geared towards weapons and or threatening the security of their neighbors, Rubio said. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa also announced a plan to invest $17 billion in the United States which builds upon a legacy that were very proud of. During a wide-ranging question and answer session the president defended Attorney General Pam Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and said that he thinks shes doing a great job. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement President Trump also said he has no plans to fire Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell although he criticized him in recent weeks since the Fed has not cut rates. Wednesday night the president will host the prime minister of Qatar for dinner. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Previously on the chopping block, Duluth's federal prison camp will remain open originally appeared on Bring Me The News. A minimum-security federal prison camp near Duluth will remain open and operational following the reversal of a decision to close the facility. The Duluth Federal Prison Camp was among seven across the country to be deactivated. But a site visit last week from the newly appointed director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons changed the facility's fate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About 90 employees work at the all-male prison camp, located on a former U.S. Air Force base in Hermantown, just outside of Duluth. Those employees were given the option of transferring to a federal prison in Sandstone, about an hour away, when the closure was announced in December, towards the end of the Biden administration. Since then, a handful of employees left and more than 450 prisoners were moved to other facilities, according to Tonya Gajeski, the president of a union representing the facility's employees. She expects prisoners, who have 10 or fewer years left on their sentences, to return to the 800-capacity complex, per the Minnesota Star Tribune. The BOP had previously said the Duluth prison had "aging and dilapidated infrastructure." Gajeski told MPR News that the state of the facility, built in the 1950s, isn't as bad as the federal agency made it sound. Duluth Federal Prison Camp in HermantownFederal Bureau of Prisons Democratic U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith and Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber advocated for keeping the facility open. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I spoke with the Director of the Bureau of Prisons ahead of his visit to Duluth last week and urged him to reconsider the decision to deactivate the facility," Klobuchar said in a statement. "I emphasized the harmful impact its closure would have on the employees who work there, as well as their families, and the regional economy." During his visit, director William Marshall, who was appointed to the role by President Donald Trump in April, "was able to see firsthand the prisons top-notch programming, dedicated employees, and the value it brings to our community," Stauber said in a statement. Klobuchar and Smith sent letters to the Bureau of Prisons after the decision was made in December to close the facility. "I pushed hard to reverse this decision, working closely with local leaders, labor partners, and the Bureau of Prisons to keep these jobs in Duluth," Smith said in a statement. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 16, 2025, where it first appeared. Prince Harry is visiting Angola with the Halo Trust, an organization that his mother, Princess Diana, supported during her lifetime. Its his second trip to the country; he first traveled to Angola in 2019 during his and Meghan Markles tour of southern Africa. Children should never have to live in fear of playing outside or walking to school. Here in Angola, over three decades later, the remnants of war still threaten lives every day. The Angolan governments continued commitment is a powerful testament to HALOs success in saving lives, Prince Harry said today. He visited Africas largest minefield with Halo Trust, located in Angola. HALO Trust HALO Trust HALO Trust The Halo Trust work in Angola meant a great deal to my mother, the Duke of Sussex said in September in New York City. Carrying on her legacy is a responsibility that I take incredibly seriously. Like his mother, he walked through a minefield in Angola today. However, it was not the same onethe field where Diana walked in 1997 is now a paved road, where people are able to walk safely. Tim Graham - Getty Images Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harry shared this past fall, Much has changed in my life and the world since 2019 when I first visited Huambo. In those five years, Ive become a father for the second time. And while you dont need children to have a stake in the future of our planet, I do know that my mother would have been horrified that anyones children or grandchildren would live in a world still infested with mines. Yesterday, the Duke met with Angolas President Joao Lourenco to discuss the Halo Trusts work. Courtesy the Duke of Sussex It was an honour to have an audience with His Excellency President Lourenco today alongside Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to discuss HALOs continued demining efforts in Angola, James Cowan, CEO of the Halo Trust said yesterday. We thanked him for his extraordinary dedication to and investment in the vision of a mine-free country, and he expressed his intention to continue to support our work with a further significant contract for the next three years. Our partnership is strengthened and renewed, and we are grateful to President Laurenco for his leadership on this critical issue. You Might Also Like Princess Polly has secured a B Corp Certification, welcoming the Australian online retailer to the global community of nearly 10,000 B Corps for meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. In an industry facing complex social and environmental challenges, Princess Pollys B Corp Certification signals a serious commitment to raising fashion industry standards and prioritizing outcomes for people and the planet, alongside profit, said Angie Farrugia, acting CEO for B Lab Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand (AANZ). After a two-year journey to this milestone, we commend Princess Pollys determination and willingness to be held accountable to high standards, now and into the future. More from Sourcing Journal Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fast fashion destination from Down Under was founded in 2010 by Wez and Eirin Bryett to target Gen Z women aged between 16 and 25. Princess Polly expanded to the U.S. after joining the A.k.a. Brands platform in 2018, aiming to inspire its shoppers via a constant stream of inspirational content on social media. In less than two years, Princess Polly became an American success; at one point, it ranked as the fifth most popular online shopping site, Piper Sandlers Taking Stock with Teens semi-annual survey found. This is an incredible accomplishment, and it marks a significant step in our ongoing journey to embed sustainability and purpose into every part of our business, Bryett, said in a statement. Were proud of the progress weve made and remain committed to continuously improving and holding ourselves to high standards in everything we do. Princess Pollys earned an overall B Impact score of 86.8almost seven points above the qualifying baseline (80) and nearly 36 points above ordinary business assessment scores. That score breaks down across B Labs five evaluated arenas. Governance equated 14.3 points, workers at 20.9, community at 19.2, environment at 28.4 and customers at 3.8. The Gold Coast-based retailers publicly available answers to B Labs Disclosure Questionnaireused to identify potentially sensitive issues related to the company wholly independent of its B Lab Assessment scorecovered the elephants in the room: Greenwashing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The greenwashing issue was summarized as some independent articles/blog posts challenging Princess Pollys claims of sustainable fashion and categorizing the company as a fast-fashion company, focused on unlimited growth and low-quality production. The impact on stakeholders was defined as misleading marketing claims affecting consumers choices with over-consumption and irresponsible apparel production posing a great risk of environmental degradation and human rights violations. Princess Pollys implemented management practices? Semantics. The term fast fashion is often associated with micro-trends, rapid production, low-quality materials, cheap pricing and unethical manufacturing, the questionnaire reads. Princess Polly, however, identifies as a demand fashion brand rather than a fast-fashion brand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the difference between demand fashion and fast fashion is vague, McKinseys January article on fast fashion described ultrafast fashion as retailers evolving the traditional business model with condensed solutions, like demand-driven trend modeling. By leveraging proprietary demand and trend forecasting tools, they can quickly bring trends to market without overproduction, the questionnaire read. Their just-in-time replenishment model ensures accessible pricing, as excess inventory costs are not factored into their pricing structure. While parent company A.k.a. Brands does utilize a data-driven test and repeat merchandising modelas to introduce new styles every weekthe details or functionalities of Princess Pollys proprietary demand and trend forecasting tools (and replenishment models) are not clear. Princess Polly has a comprehensive ethical sourcing program. All product factories undergo valid ethical manufacturing audits and are visited in person by the Princess Polly team at least every two years, the disclosure report continued. Their 5 As Ethical Sourcing Program won Best Ethical Sourcing Initiative at the 2023 National Online Retailers Association (NORA) Sustainability Awards, and, in 2024, the brand achieved the highest bracket in the Baptist World Aids Ethical Fashion Report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Social responsibility highlights, meanwhile, include 30 percent of all new arrivals are made from lower-impact materials. On average, Princess Polly releases up to 150 new items every single week, according to the Apple Store app description. As of July 15, Princess Pollys website defined 720 styles as new. Of those 720 styles, 42 were categorized as Lower Impact. Princess Polly launched its Lower Impact material guide in 2022, with most items in the range created with a material composition of 80 percent lower-impact materials. All items in the range comprise at least 50 percent lower-impact materials. Those materials include organic fibers (like cotton, linen, hemp) and reclaimed materials (like recycled cotton, recycled polyester, recycled PU) as well as forest-friendly materialslike Lenzings Tencel, viscose and modal offerings as well as Birla Celluloses Livaeco. Princess Pollys Lower Impact rangesLinen 365, Soft Fit Luxe and Dream Fleece, for examplewere introduced in 2023 and designed as capsule staples, the company said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the modern slavery front, Princess Polly addressed its cotton sourcing practices within the Disclosure Questionnaires category of industries at risk for human rights violations. With 21 percent of all the companys products made from cotton, Princess Polly said it outsources 100 percent of production and has not achieved full supply chain traceability, including material sourcing. For cotton-rich products manufactured in China, Princess Polly disclosed that the company has started a transition to use only GOTS and GRS-certified cotton. In 2023, 21.9 percent of Princess Pollys cotton was third-party certified. EAU CLAIRE A Minnesota man will spend three years in prison and another two years on extended supervision after he stole a truck, then sent multiple threatening letters to the courthouse in Eau Claire. Todd Rauschnot, 28, was the defendant in three separate cases. The first is a charge of operating a motor vehicle without the owners consent. It dates to February. The other two involve charges of making terrorist threats, filed in May, and a June charge for threatening a judge. The criminal complaint in the vehicle theft case said he had called a car dealer about taking a truck for a test drive. The dealer was preparing for the test drive, having placed the keys in the ignition, when Rauschnot got into the truck and sped off. He did not return. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A woman with whom Rauschnot had been staying told police he may have taken the truck to St. Paul, Minn., where he worked. Police indeed found the truck in St. Paul, though it had some front-end damage. Rauschnot, who is currently an inmate in the Minnesota prison system, then began sending handwritten letters to the Eau Claire courthouse. The first began as a request for documents before veering into threats. It included the statement that ill [sic] see yall in Hell and blow that punk ass building up #FreeAllInmates. Another portion threatened to come to your [expletive] house and Beat your [expletive] head in with a hammer. A subsequent letter included similar threats to the judge, sometimes using identical language. A drawing at the bottom depicted a head being shot. The head was labeled you, while the gun was labeled Me killin You, according to the criminal complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While all of the charges are felonies, they are not high up on Wisconsins scale. The charges for vehicle theft and threatening the judge are both Class H felonies. Terrorist threats are a Class I felony. Rauschnot entered guilty pleas on the charges Tuesday. During the plea hearing he asked the court to sentence him to more time in prison and less extended supervision. The recommendation was already the maximum initial sentence allowed by Wisconsin law, prosecutors said. In addition to the prison sentence, Rauschnot must also pay $14,245 in restitution for the stolen truck. Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen, center, and Switzerland's Mauro Schmid sprint as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen, center right, and Switzerland's Mauro Schmid sprint as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen sprints as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen sprints as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen, center, and Switzerland's Mauro Schmid sprint as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen, center right, and Switzerland's Mauro Schmid sprint as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Norway's Jonas Abrahamsen sprints as a protester tries to cross the finish line during the eleventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 156.8 kilometers (97.4 miles) with start and finish in Toulouse, France, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) TOULOUSE, France (AP) A man protesting the participation of an Israel-based team in the Tour de France ran onto the course as the leaders raced for the finish line on Wednesday. Norwegian rider Jonas Abrahamsen won the 11th stage in a photo finish just ahead of Swiss rider Mauro Schmid, but their final sprint was accompanied by a man running alongside who wore a T-shirt saying, Israel out of the Tour, and who waved a keffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered headscarf that has become a potent symbol of the Palestinian cause. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A security guard ran out to apprehend the man. The Israel-Premier Tech team is racing at this years Tour with eight team members from other countries. The team acquired the right to enter the Tour de France in 2020 when Israel Start-Up National took over Katushas WorldTour license and has since claimed three stage victories, though none yet in this years race. Team members previously faced protests because of the team's association with Israel, which has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians in 21 months of war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The war was sparked by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel and Hamas are considering a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that could pause the war. ___ AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports A professional courtesy: How an officer crossed the line ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) He admitted to breaking the law to help out a fellow officer and his girlfriend. But as KRQE Investigative Reporter Gabrielle Burkhart reports, the officer lectured his DWI suspect about making good decisions, before his own decision led to a federal crime. A cop turned criminal admitted to taking part in a corruption scheme. At least eight former officers so far have pleaded guilty in federal court. But what got them here in the first place? In at least one case, KRQE Investigates uncovered, one of those officers called his decision a professional courtesy. Hello, how you doing tonight? Lapel video from former Albuquerque Police Officer Louis Henckel III shows him approaching a driver in northeast Albuquerque in February of 2019. Hed just pulled over a 23-year-old woman. Henckel wrote that the woman was speeding 12 miles an hour over the speed limit around 1 a.m. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any alcohol tonight? Henckel asked the woman. Um, I had one drink, she replied. An open bottle of whiskey is under her seat. All right, Ill have you step out real quick, do some field sobriety tests, Officer Henckel told the woman. (Former APD officer Louis Henckel, who has since pleaded guilty to conspiracy in federal court.) Henckel joined APDs DWI unit in 2017, so he should be familiar with the dangers of drunk driving and what it takes to keep drunk drivers off the road. Put your feet together, hands down at your side, he instructed the woman. After a series of tests that are not visible from the officers lapel camera footage, the driver agrees to take a preliminary breath test. Henckel informs her she blew a 0.13 on the preliminary breath test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So Im gonna place you under arrest for driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or drug, Henckel said. And Im gonna take you down for a calibrated breath test. As the handcuffs go on, Henckel drops some words of wisdom for his arrestee. Life isnt always easy, but you know what? We make decisions in life good or bad, Henckel said. We make decisions, and then theres consequences. Decisions & consequences The woman later blew a 0.15 twice on the calibrated breathalyzer. Henckel told her, You made a bad decision tonight, and it is what it is. He also assured her, Ill promise you youll be okay. It turns out that a decision the officer later made in this case led him to break his oath to uphold the law. Today, Henckel is facing his own consequences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Audio records obtained by KRQE Investigates reveal the first time, prosecutors tried to pursue a conviction against the accused drunk driver Henckel arrested. Good morning, we are here today for bench trial. Is the state ready? A metro court judge addresses the courtroom in August 2019. Yes, your honor, the prosecutor states. Its six months after the young womans arrest. The defense would ask for a defense continuance, and we would be willing to waive the rule, A fill-in attorney explained to the judge that the main defense attorney is out sick, and asks for more time. Also missing is the main witness in her case, Officer Henckel. The judge agrees to postpone the case, and theyre back in court five months later. January 2020, the fix is in Good afternoon, Thomas J. Clear III, on behalf of the defendant, Clear announced his appearance in the case in January of 2020, now representing the accused drunk driver against her DWI charge in court. Behind the scenes, federal court documents now reveal Clear was asked to step in by an Albuquerque Police officer who was romantically involved with the young drunk driving suspect. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were here for trial setting, the prosecutor states. The states necessary witness, Officer Henckel, is not present. The officer check-in seems to indicate I think he had some kind of, I dont know if its an emergency, but he had another obligation, the prosecutor continues. I personally didnt receive notice of this in advance. I wouldve filed a motion to continue. It appears hes sick. Calling in sick Today, Henckels federal guilty plea reveals he lied about being sick. Henckel now tells the feds he agreed to call in sick that day as a professional courtesy to a fellow APD conspiring officer in the scheme; the one romantically involved with the woman he arrested. Henckel also admits to accepting a cash payment, up to $500, to not appear for her trial. In fact, Henckel admits in his guilty plea: I received the equivalent of my overtime I missed out on for not attending, {court} which would have been $90 per hearing at which I intentionally failed to appear, -Louis Henckel states in his federal guilty plea agreement Behind the scenes, Henckel said he knew his absence would allow Clear to dismiss the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henckel also stated he received the money directly from Ricardo Rick Mendez, Clears paralegal at the time. Mendez was the first to plead guilty to RICO conspiracy charges in the DWI scheme in January 2025. Were respectfully going to request that the court dismiss the case at this time, Clear asks the judge. But once again, a metro court judge agrees to postpone the trial for the woman. Ill grant the states motion just one more time, the judge states. Another delay Court records show that Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Bates filed a motion in March 2020, requesting a continuance in the case, citing that Officer Louis Henckel is on leave in March 2020. The motion states that Clear does not oppose the motion, and the request to delay is granted. Fast forward to June of 2020, five months since theyd last appeared in court for the case. In that time, prosecutors had offered a plea deal to the woman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is that plea offer rejected or accepted? Metro Court Judge Sandra Engel asks Clear. What are we doing on this one? Were going to trial in this case, Clear stated. Once again, the metro court judge sets another date for trial, warning prosecutors, Im really going to need you to reach out to your officers. Weve been sending messages telling them they need to call in, the judge said. You need to make sure that these officers know they have to appear in person for these definites, okay? The prosecutor replied, Okay. Judge Engel also gave instructions to arrive early for court for COVID-19 screening, since pandemic-related policies were in place at the courtroom during that time. Childcare issues One month later, July of 2020, theyre back in court for the womans DWI bench trial. All are present in court, except the states key witness, once again, Officer Henckel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Your Honor, State is not ready for trial today, a new prosecutor for the case states. I spoke with Officer Henckel. He has childcare issues now on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the prosecutor explained, asking for a new trial date in the case. Respectfully, Your Honor, we would oppose the states request to continue this matter, even for one more time, said Clear. The former defense attorney pointed out the number of delays and the officers no-shows. That just seems to be patently unfair, said Clear. And at this time, we would ask the court to dismiss the case, Clear said, once again asking for a case dismissal. The frustrated judge said she wont postpone this case again. Judge Engel acknowledged the new prosecutor in the case, adding she didnt wish to shoot the messenger, but reminded the court of her warning to ensure key officers were present. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This case is dismissed with prejudice, said the judge. Ill fill out an order right now, and were going to get you guys out of here, all right? Case dismissed Judge, its wonderful to be in your presence, Clear said once the dismissal was granted. Thank you, Mr. Clear, Judge Engel chuckled. Well see you later. Behind the scenes, Henckel now tells the feds he was conspiring with Clears office, accepting cash in exchange for a case dismissal for the woman. Its a scheme Clear admits hes been running since 1995. Another dismissal in court, another accused drunk driver with no consequences. Judge Engel retired in September 2022 after a 16-year career. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Henckel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in federal court last month. His plea agreement states he was offered cash, restaurant gift cards, and free legal advice for the scheme. To date, none of the eight officers whove taken plea agreements have been sentenced. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRQE NEWS 13 - Breaking News, Albuquerque News, New Mexico News, Weather, and Videos. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) The Legislatures task force studying property taxes in South Dakota has added a special meeting for tonight. The additional meeting on Wednesday, July 16, starts at 6:30 p.m. MT / 7:30 CT at the Rapid City Best Western Ramkota, 2111 N Lacrosse Street. The panel wants to hear from members of the public about the property tax situation. The task force had already scheduled a meeting on Thursday, July 17, in Rapid City. That meeting starts at 9 a.m. MT in Beck Ballroom on the South Dakota School of Mines campus at 611 Surbeck Lane. The public comment period on Thursday starts at 10:15 a.m. MT. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The panel previously met in Sioux Falls and Pierre. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. By Emilio Parodi MILAN (Reuters) -Prosecutors on Wednesday sought the arrest of Milan's councillor for urban planning, the head of real estate firm Coima and four others as part of investigations into planning permits that have led to a construction freeze in Italy's financial capital. The Milan property market began booming in 2015, when the Expo international exhibition helped to transform the city into a hot spot for developers from Italy and abroad. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But complaints from local residents objecting to a sharp increase in multi-storey buildings triggered investigations into alleged abuses in the fast-tracking of building permits, stalling construction activity. Manfredi Catella, founder of Coima, one of Italy's biggest developers, and Giancarlo Tancredi, a member of the Milan city council, are under investigation for bribery, according to the summons to a preliminary questioning reviewed by Reuters. The pair, along with the other four people, will have to appear on July 23 before a judge, who will decide whether to arrest them or not. In a statement, Catella said Coima promptly provided to the authorities what has been requested of so far and it carried out internal checks to confirm it had acted properly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We will be able to represent it with clarity in the courts," he said. Spokespeople for Tancredi and for the Milan municipality declined to comment. A statement from the Milan Prosecutor's Office on Wednesday said Guardia di Finanza police at the same time carried out "24 personal and home searches" on as many people suspected of "corruption and forgery". It did not give further detail. According to the latest prosecutor's documents, award-winning architect Stefano Boeri was also named among those under investigation. A lawyer representing Boeri did not reply to a request for comment emailed by Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the court documents, prosecutors said investigations related to the largest urban planning projects in Milan, "have brought to light a 'system'....whose purpose is to facilitate the issuance of illegal building permits and to carry out highly speculative real estate transactions". In February, Boeri, best known for his "Bosco Verticale" (Vertical Forest) apartment project in the city, was banned from working with the public administration by a judge in connection with another urban planning probe. (Reporting by Emilio Parodi and Claudia Cristoferi, additional reporting by Elvira Pollina; Editing by Keith Weir and Barbara Lewis) FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/FOX24) As Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley dive deeper into summer, the temperatures continue to rise, and the heat can pose a dangerous threat for anyone exposed if the necessary precautions are not taken. According to the Arkansas Department of Health, there were an estimated 2,000 hospital visits due to heat-related illnesses, ranging from heat exhaustion to the extremely dangerous heat stroke. Family Physician at Simplified Health, Blake Hansen, said when out in the heat, look out for warning signs of potential dangers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement University of Arkansas professor arrested on CSAM possession charge Painful muscle cramping, if youre getting anything like that, thats the first sign that its time to take a break out of the heat, Hansen said. Make sure you get hydrated. Obviously, progression of that is heat exhaustion, and we get concerned. Theres a lot of very heavy sweating, weakness, nausea, vomiting. Then, biggest concern is heatstroke. According to Hansen, hydration is key to preventing any of those symptoms. If unable to properly hydrate, activities like cooling rags or fans can be helpful to keep your core temperature down. Its going to be boring to hear it, but its the same thing you hear all the time. Hydration before, during, and after activities, mostly before, is going to be huge, Hansen said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone can be susceptible to heat-related illnesses. Regardless of age or physical condition, its important to listen to your body when exposed to high temperatures. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24. NEED TO KNOW Loro Piana will be monitored by a court for a year after the luxury brand was accused of violating employee workplace rights The company claimed it was unaware of the violations and "terminated all relations with the concerned supplier in less than 24 hours" Loro Piana became the fifth high-end brand in Italy to be investigated for concerns over labor law Loro Piana, a luxury brand known for its high-end cashmere pieces, is under fire after allegations of labor exploitation in the workplace caused local authorities to step in. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Italian luxury fashion brand, headquartered in Milan, was placed under judicial administration on Monday, July 14, after an investigation was launched in response to alleged employee abuse, Reuters reported. Founded in 1924, Loro Piana is part of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE, commonly known as LVMH, a French multinational holding company and conglomerate that specializes in luxury goods and has its headquarters in Paris. Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg via Getty label inside a 'Tailor' mink and vicuna coat on sale at a Loro Piana Spa store in Milan, Italy 2016 label inside a 'Tailor' mink and vicuna coat on sale at a Loro Piana Spa store in Milan, Italy 2016 Loro Piana Spa will undergo court monitoring for a year due to claims dating back to 2023, according to a 26-page ruling obtained by Reuters. In a statement to PEOPLE, a rep for the brand said, Loro Piana acknowledges the notification received from the Court of Milans Preventive Measure Section today regarding labor practices by undisclosed and unauthorized sub-contractors of one of its suppliers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In breach of its legal and contractual obligations, the supplier did not inform Loro Piana of the existence of these sub-contractors," the statement continued. "Loro Piana was made aware of this situation on May 20th, and, as a result, the Maison terminated all relations with the concerned supplier in less than 24 hours. Loro Piana said it firmly condemns any illegal practices. It also promised to ensure suppliers comply with its Code of Conduct, adding, In this perspective, Loro Piana has been constantly reviewing and will continue to strengthen its control and audit activities. The reported cost figures are not representative of the amounts paid by Loro Piana to its supplier, nor do they consider the full value of all the elements, including, among others, raw materials and fabrics," the statement concluded. "Loro Piana expresses its full willingness to cooperate with the relevant authorities on this matter and intends to provide the utmost support for any further investigations. Cristina Arias/Cover/Getty Loro Piana store in Madrid, October 2011 Loro Piana store in Madrid, October 2011 The company is accused of forcing undocumented Chinese employees to work up to 90 hours per week, for low wages to cut costs while violating labor laws, per Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Reuters, Loro Piana said in a statement that a supplier was to blame for sub-contracting work without informing them, breaching legal and contractual obligations, and said it had ended work with the supplier as soon as it found out in May. Loro Piana reportedly became the fifth high-end brand in Italy to be put under judicial administration tied to worker abuse allegations in supply chains. Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg via Getty Loro Piana Spa store in Milan, Italy, May 2016 Loro Piana Spa store in Milan, Italy, May 2016 Carabinieri police with Milans labor protection unit recently arrested a Chinese national for alleged labor exploitation and closed his workshop after police identified 10 Chinese laborers who were victims of exploitation, Reuters reported in May. Of the 10, six of them were reportedly working without proper registration and five were illegal immigrants. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Additionally, Carabinieri determined the staff were forced to work up to 90 hours a week, seven days a week, and were paid 4 ($4.50) an hour. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The workers slept in rooms illegally set up inside the factory, which appeared to be a sort of dormitory with terrible hygiene and sanitary conditions," read the statement. Read the original article on People BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. (WSAV) The South Carolina Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed that a raccoon has tested positive for rabies. The raccoon was found near West Cedar Road and Oakland Drive in St. Helena Island, S.C. While no people are known to have been exposed, one dog was exposed and will be quarantined as required in the South Carolina Rabies Control Act. DPHs laboratory tested the raccoon on July 10, 2025, and confirmed it to have rabies on July 11, 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rabies is usually transmitted through a bite or scratch that allows saliva from an infected animal to be introduced into the body of a person or another animal. However, infected saliva or neural tissue contact with open wounds or areas such as the eyes, nose, or mouth could also potentially transmit rabies, said Terri McCollister, Rabies Program director. To reduce the risk of getting rabies, always give wild and stray animals their space. If you see an animal in need, avoid touching it and contact someone trained in handling animals, such as your local animal control officer, wildlife control operator, or a wildlife rehabilitator. Please report all animal bites, scratches, and exposures to potentially rabid animals to DPH. It is important to keep pets up to date on their rabies vaccination, as this is one of the easiest and most effective ways to protect against the disease. This raccoon is the first animal in Beaufort County to test positive for rabies in 2025. If you believe either you, someone you know, or your pets have come in contact please call DPHs Beaufort office at (843) 525-7603. Contact information for local Public Health offices is available here. For more information on rabies, click here or here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) The Concho Valley hosted the Southern Drag Boat races at Lake Nasworthy. But it wasnt the biggest story of that weekend. Tyler and Joslynn Speer met over a decade ago in San Angelo at the boat races, and a decade later, they tied the knot on a beautiful story. Click the video above to hear their story. Here is my full interview with Tyler and Joslynn below: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. Raffensperger returns $8,400 after learning of First Liberty Ponzi scheme allegations Only Channel 2 Action News was there on Wednesday as Georgias Secretary of State returned more than $8,400 in campaign contributions from First Liberty Building and Loan. Federal investigators accuse First Liberty of being a $140 million Ponzi scheme. Secretary Brad Raffensperger told Channel 2s Richard Elliot that he got about $8,400 from them in 2018 but still wanted to return the money anyway. He wrote a check to the court receiver in charge of the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes encouraging other politicians to do the same. I think everyone needs to have a moral compass, and my moral compass said people are hurting and I need to give this money back, Raffensperger said. Elliot was there last week when First Libertys founder and owner Edwin Brant Frost IV surrendered his keys to the receiver and was also there when the receiver and his team removed boxes of hard drives and financial records from the First Liberty Offices in downtown Newnan. RELATED NEWS: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Frost promoted First Liberty on conservative media, including paid commercials on the Erick Erickson show on WSB Radio, among others. Investors say he went to church groups and encouraged them to invest. But feds say Frost kept millions for himself and his family, and used more than $500,000 to donate to candidates and political action committees. Many of them are, you know, solid, you know, Christians, like myself, and they leaned into that, because thats what First Liberty was selling, that they were Christians and they would look out for you, and at the end of the day, they were just looking out for themselves, Raffensperger said. The securities division of Raffenspergers office is also investigating First Liberty, and he introduced its director, Noula Zaharis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He said shes already talking with potential victims. Shes relentless, and shes going to make sure shes going to get as much money back for hard-working Georgia families, Raffensperger said. In a statement through his attorney on Friday, Frost took responsibility for First Liberty and said he wanted to apologize for misleading people. Currently, this is a civil investigation, but sources confirm the FBI is investigating this as well. Beckley A new ordinance placing restrictions on locations and signage of vape shops was passed by the Raleigh County Commission on Tuesday. The Raleigh County United for Prevention Policy Committee, in collaboration with the Raleigh County Commission and County Attorney Bill Roop, worked together to implement the ordinance. It prohibits vape shops from operating in residential districts and enforces conditional use permits for those located in business and industrial areas. Under the ordinance, any new vape or smoke shop must be at least one mile from another vape shop, public or private school or daycare, and must not display any images of psychedelics, marijuana, or paraphernalia. The ordinance also addresses signage for the shops, including restricting flashing or moving lights. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 10, the Planning and Zoning Committee held a public hearing and voted to recommend the ordinances passage to the County Commission. The ordinance was officially adopted during the Raleigh County Commission meeting Tuesday and became effective immediately. Raleigh County is the first county in West Virginia to include psychedelics like Kratom, Delta 8 and psychedelics in their ordinance. Executive Director of Raleigh County United for Prevention, Kellie Gunnoe, said this is a proactive measure to ensure that as vaping becomes less accessible, that it is not replaced with more harmful products. The marketing and signage of these smoke and vape shops are intentionally designed to attract our youth. With this effort between Raleigh County United for Prevention and Raleigh County Commission, we send a clear message that our community's health is our number one priority, Gunnoe said. Research shows that restricting access to these products from our youth through local level policy builds a healthier community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Raleigh County United for Prevention Policy Committee is also working with the city of Beckley to pass a similar ordinance for the city specifically. This ordinance would cover any unincorporated municipality in Raleigh County, and the organization hopes more municipalities in the county will follow suit. This ordinance is about more than just zoning or signage, its about protecting the future of our youth, said Rhonda Robinson, Raleigh County UP Policy Committee member. We hope other municipalities across the county will follow. BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) School is out, but the learning does not have stop. Staff with the Raleigh County Public Library have worked to bring students access to educational resources outside the classroom. The summer months have traditionally always offered a well-earned break from school-related stress. But well over half of elementary school students fall behind in reading comprehension during this time, according to Horizon Education Centers. Raleigh County Public Library staff said members said they hope to give local students an edge this summer in learning and comprehension. Proposed Ghent truck stop a no-go as courts back county commission decision Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They call it the summer slide. Where kids will if they dont have anything to keep them stimulated over the summer, their reading levels will actually start to go back, librarian Beth Mills told 59News. So, its really important to have these resources to help keep them on track and maybe even get a little ahead for next years reading. From puzzles and games to summer reading programs, the library can offer a range of resources without the hefty price tag. People of all ages have been encouraged to stop by in the coming weeks to check out the new Summerween spooky book display to keep their minds sharp this summer. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. RANKIN COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) Rankin County deputies announced they arrested a man and seized multiple drugs. On July 14, Rankin County deputies, Madison police and agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) seized more than 122 dosage units of fentanyl pills from William Daniel Rogers during a traffic stop. Where is John Gandy?: Mississippi mother continues to seek answers about sons disappearance Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said they obtained a search warrant for Rogers home on Willow Grande Circle in the Castlewood community. They seized the following items. 3.6 pounds of marijuana 47 pounds of psylocibin mushrooms 152 M30 fentanyl pills 50 oxycontin pills 20 Xanax bars 2 grams of cocaine 28 grams of heroin 2 grams of fentanyl powder 1 gram of methamphetamine 1 pound of THC honey oil 10 ounces of THC Wax 100,000 milligrams of THC vapes 1 pound of THC gummies 10 ounces of THC Jell-O shots 19 weapons 4 unregistered/homemade weapon suppressors William Daniel Rogers (Courtesy: Rankin Co. Sheriffs Office) (Courtesy: Rankin Co. Sheriffs Office) Rogers was transported to the Rankin County Jail and was booked on one charge of drug trafficking. His bond was set at $100,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Daily News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJTV. A judge has set a new execution date for Robert Roberson, a Texas man who could become the first person in the U.S. to be put to death for a case of "shaken baby syndrome." The result of Wednesday's hearing comes mere months after the Texas Supreme Court made a rare eleventh-hour decision to halt Roberson's execution, in one of the most controversial death penalty cases in years. Here's what to know about the case. Robert Roberson gets second execution date State District Judge Austin Reeve Jackson has ordered Robert Roberson to be put to death on Thursday, October 16 almost exactly one year after Roberson was spared on his first execution date of Oct. 17, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Roberson, now 58, was found guilty of the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in East Texas. The child had been chronically ill. Reports say Roberson heard a cry and found Nikki had fallen out of her bed. After soothing the child, both went back to sleep. When Roberson woke again, he found Nikki was not breathing and her lips had turned blue. Upon arrival at an emergency room, doctors noticed the child had symptoms of brain death. The next day, she was pronounced deceased. Nikki was found to have a head injury that had caused bleeding, brain swelling and retinal hemorrhaging. A Dallas doctor claimed the child's injuries were consistent with shaken baby syndrome, which occurs when a child develops head trauma from being violently shaken. Lead police Detective Brian Wharton concurred with the diagnosis and arrested Roberson before an autopsy could be completed, NBC News reports. Wharton testified against Roberson in the 2003 capital murder trial, in which prosecutors claimed Roberson had intentionally shaken Nikki in such a way that it caused bruising and blunt force trauma. Why was Robert Roberson granted a stay of execution? Roberson's case stands out among others for its ties to shaken baby syndrome, which has become a widely criticized diagnosis. In recent years, shaken baby syndrome diagnoses have been successfully challenged in criminal cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Oct. 7 of last year, Roberson's attorneys filed an emergency motion, in which they asked the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals to delay Roberson's execution and reconsider the conviction. His lawyers, along with some medical experts, claim his daughter died from complications related to pneumonia rather than from alleged abuse. In addition to filing a clemency petition ahead of his Oct. 17 execution, Roberson was also interviewed by NBC News anchor Lester Holt. Roberson told Holt he is urging Gov. Greg Abbott to pardon him and "let me go home." "Look at the support I've got, Mr. Governor, and I'm just hoping, praying that you do the right thing," Roberson said. The support Roberson refers to comes from medical experts and Texas legislators. The Innocence Project, advocating for Roberson's clemency, claims the "case is riddled with unscientific evidence, inaccurate and misleading medical testimony, and prejudicial treatment." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors in 2003 also noted Roberson lacked emotion when he brought his child to the hospital a claim that Roberson's supporters say is rooted in prejudice. Since the trial, Roberson has explained his "seemingly blank reaction" was due to his autism spectrum disorder, which he was diagnosed with in 2018. His defense lawyers were also prevented from calling in a medical expert to reinforce his claims of "mental lapses" caused by a brain injury. The Associated Press contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson gets new execution date CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) In Connecticut, state prosecutors have redrafted charges against Raul Valle. Suspect arrested after crashing into two homes on Eastern Avenue in Springfield This is according to paperwork sent to NBC Connecticut by the state judicial branch. Valle was acquitted of murder by a jury last week after being accused of killing one person and stabbing three others at a house party in Shelton in 2022. The new charges Valle is facing include: Manslaughter in the first degree, 2 Assaults in the first degree, and an assault in the second degree. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These were the charges that the jury was deadlocked on. There is no word on when or if a re-trial will happen. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. A week ago, we released a short documentary about something most Americans havent heard of, but millions of lives depend on: PEPFAR, the U.S. Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Launched by President Bush in 2003, PEPFAR has saved over 25 million lives from HIV/AIDS in more than 50 countries with quiet efficiency and rare bipartisan support. But this month, its future was in serious jeopardy. A $9.4 billion rescission package slated for a Senate vote on July 17 or 18 originally included deep cuts to PEPFAR. That has now changed. Thanks to pushback from both Republican and Democratic senators who recognize PEPFARs success, it will most likely be removed from the package this Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is a huge step forward but the fight isnt over. Many of the people and agencies that implement PEPFAR especially within USAID have already been cut. Programs are stalling. Lives are at risk. We saw it firsthand during two trips to Mathare, Kenya, where mothers and children living with HIV no longer know if their treatment will continue. We met with Sen. John Curtis office to share what we witnessed. His team said theyre watching closely and hopeful for PEPFARs continued success. Were grateful to Senator Curtis for taking time to listen and for recognizing the importance of this life-saving program. We made this film so Utahns and all Americans can see whats really happening and why this matters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Please watch and share our documentary. Your voice still matters. PEPFAR needs full funding and strong public support to continue its life-saving work until countries can manage HIV on their own. Watch here: tinyurl.com/PEPFAR2025 Maddie, Emilie and Alie Leeflang Sandy NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Tennessee lawmakers could consider passing protections against real estate fraud after a state study revealed the issue is prevalent and growing in the Volunteer State. Last year, legislators passed a bill requiring the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) to study real estate fraud in the state and make legislative suggestions to address the issue. According to TACIRs draft report, 185 dwellings in 50 Tennessee counties were stolen from 2019 to 2024, and reports of identity fraud for loans and leases increased from around 2,200 in 2022 to more than 2,800 last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Angie Lawless, owner and attorney at Wagon Wheel Title and Escrow, told News 2 her company deals with the issue every day. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts Every single time we look at a file, that is the number one thing we are most fearful of, and we are confronting suspicious incidents daily, Lawless said. It used to be that the single biggest thing we faced was just clearing title insurance, making sure we gave you a clear title to the property based off of valid things. Now, what were facing is, Are we giving you a title to a property that you own nothing in? From wire fraud to fake quitclaim deeds, the most common tactics used by criminals to commit real estate fraud are forgery and the use of fake IDs, according to the state. Lawless says the scams have become more convincing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of the internet, because of AI, its no longer some prince in a foreign country trying to steal your money with misspelled words, and the currency doesnt look correct. Its very, very good and very difficult to tell, Lawless said. Tennessee is one of 24 states that currently dont require in-person training or an exam to become an in-person notary. TACIR suggested to lawmakers that change. Researchers said legislators should require notaries to take a course on notary laws, ways to prevent and recognize real estate fraud, and other topics. In addition, TACIR said lawmakers could give registers of deeds the power to verify whether a notarys signature on a document is legitimate if something seems suspicious. If something looks fishy about a notarization of a stamp or whatever, there is at least an ability to potentially have that reviewed and find out if that notary actually did notarize that, Bob Moreo, TACIRs research manager, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Lawless believes that while the suggestions are a start, more needs to be done to address and prevent the problem. I think that we are going to have to be a lot more diligent at all steps in the process and there are going to have to be more proactive solutions, in my opinion, than just asking our register of deeds to possibly pick up a discrepancy because theyre far removed, Lawless said. You need to get the on-the-ground people identifying that. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Lawlesss title and escrow company takes multiple precautions, including using secure portals, verifying IDs, and checking tax records to prevent fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawless said property owners should find a trusted party, like an attorney and/or reputable title company, before making any real estate transactions. In addition, Davidson County property owners can sign up to receive alerts every time a document related to their property is filed, which can be done by clicking here. To view TACIRs full draft report, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. Drugmaker Pfizer is warning doctors that it expects to run low on supplies of Bicillin L-A, a long-acting injection of the antibiotic penicillin, the preferred option for treating syphilis during pregnancy. The news the latest twist in a drug shortage that began in 2023 follows a July 10 recall of certain lots of Bicillin L-A that were found to be contaminated with floating particles. Pfizer says it has not received any reports of adverse events related to the recalled shots. We have identified the root cause to be associated with stoppers supplied from an external vendor and are implementing the appropriate corrective and preventative actions, the company said in a statement, adding that it places the utmost emphasis on patient safety. We fully recognize the importance of this medicine for patients and are working as quickly as possible to resolve the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Benzathine penicillin G, sold as Bicillin, is used to treat a number of common bacterial infections, such as strep throat, in adults and children. Because one shot can last up to two weeks, its especially helpful for people who cant swallow pills or may not be able to remember to take them. In most cases, however, if the shots arent available, doctors can turn to alternatives like the antibiotic doxycycline. But benzathine penicillin G is the only product thats approved and recommended to treat the sexually transmitted infection syphilis during pregnancy. If the infection is caught early, a single injection can keep the infection from spreading to a newborn, a condition called congenital syphilis. Without treatment, syphilis during pregnancy can cause miscarriages and stillbirths. It can also be fatal for infants. Syphilis can also cause vision and hearing problems in babies as well as deformities of the bones and teeth. As rates of syphilis rose in adults, more babies became infected, too. Over the past decade, rates of congenital syphilis have increased tenfold in the United States, from 335 in 2012 to more than 3,800 in 2023, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were in the midst of a congenital syphilis crisis, and weve been calling for an emergency declaration for congenital syphilis for years, said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the University of Southern Californias Keck School of Medicine. This threatens to make that even worse. The shot has been a key part of the strategy that some states have been using to quell rising rates of congenital syphilis. Because too many pregnant patients infected with syphilis werent making it into basic primary care, theres been a push in states including New Mexico and Minnesota to test all pregnant women for syphilis at multiple stages of pregnancy and whenever they show up in emergency rooms or urgent care clinics. After an initial positive test, providers are encouraged to treat a pregnant patient with a shot of long-acting penicillin at the same visit, without waiting for the results of a second confirmatory test. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This push for one-stop testing and treatment has already had an effect. With the latest release of data, we saw a slowing of rates, which was really exciting, said a CDC official familiar with the data who asked not to be named because they werent authorized to speak to the media. That progress is the result of hard work bringing awareness to controlling syphilis and congenital syphilis, the official said. Bicillin L-A most recently went into shortage in 2023. During that time, the US Food and Drug Administration has allowed imports of two equivalent products, a French drug called Extencilline, and Lentocilin, which is imported from Portugal and sold by entrepreneur Mark Cubans Cost Plus Drugs. These imports continue to be authorized. Those forms of the medication are trickier to use, said Erin Fox, associate chief pharmacy officer at the University of Utah Health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a health system, its very hard to use imported products, she said. The bar coding on the drugs isnt recognized by most hospital systems, and there may be differences in how the products are mixed and diluted, which can be confusing. Her hospital has been handling the shortage by being judicious about who gets Bicillin shots. It hasnt had to use an imported products yet. Pfizer has also been working to boost its supply. The company stopped shipping pediatric doses in 2023 and instead focused on making adult doses to prioritize supply for pregnant patients. According to the FDAs drug shortage website, Pfizer expected to have a delivery of pediatric doses available in October. Now, the company has advised customers that it will give an update on the Bicillin supply no later than mid-August. Until stock has fully recovered, Pfizer said, it will ration available supplies of the shots. Providers will have to fill out medical request forms, and the company will send supplies on a per-patient basis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sterile injectable products like Bicillin are especially vulnerable to shortages because they have a more complex manufacturing process than pills and tend to be prone to quality control issues. In this case, Pfizer is the sole supplier of Bicillin for the US. The nonprofit National Coalition of STD Directors said its gathering information from members to understand how far-reaching the impact of the recall may be. One of its committees met Monday, and all of the participants were in the process of returning Bicillin doses to Pfizer. One state returned about 800 vials, so we expect to hear this is widespread, said Elizabeth Finley, senior director of communications and programs for the organization. We had a small reprieve for about, maybe a year, in terms of steady supply. And now this is just a complete kick in the teeth and really threatens our ability to prevent and control syphilis, Klausner said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CDC had previously posted recommendations for caring for syphilis patients during the shortage, but that information has since been taken down. Fox, who investigates drug shortages for the Association of Health Systems Pharmacists, said she has asked the agency to repost it but hasnt received a response. CDC staffers who work on syphilis control were hit hard by recent government layoffs, although about 200 were reinstated in June. Federal funding cuts have also hampered state and local efforts to control sexually transmitted infections. The FDA updated its drug shortage page with links to Pfizers recent guidance but has not posted Pfizers recall announcement. A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human services referred questions about the recall and potential supply problems to Pfizer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I am concerned though that now, with a cut in funds to national and local STD programs, that we will start to see a drop in testing for syphilis, the CDC official said. Cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, as well as other programs, will be devastating for syphilis control. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) Yellow Springs Police have made an arrest in connection to the string of break-ins reported at several spots in the business district. Yellow Springs PD investigating string of break-ins On Tuesday morning, the department said that an arrest has been made in connection to the incidents, which they called an important first step in bringing the case to a close. While this is an important first step, this is still an ongoing investigation and our work will continue. Thank you for your patience and support throughout this process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, the department issued a statement, aiming to reassure residents that the investigation was progressing despite limited updates. They also addressed the potential psychological impact of the break-ins. While it may feel discouraging that updates have been limited, please rest assured that our department is pursuing every available lead and dedicating significant resources toward identifying and apprehending those responsible. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WDTN.com. Idaho officials were proud to announce a new state-record lake trout Monday. The 42-inch lunker was caught by Aaron Goettsche, a fisherman and rod maker from Utah, and a lot of their excitement stems from the lake where the fish was caught. Officials are saying Goettsches fat, trophy-sized laker is a sign of a fishery reborn. Payette Lake is back and better than ever, Idaho Fish and Game officials said in a press release announcing the record. Goettsche, who lives in Stansbury Park, caught and released the new state length record lake trout on June 19. (Idaho is one of several states that recognizes length records, which are typically for released fish and separate from certified weight records.) Hed been spending the week on Payette Lake for a family reunion, and he says he hooked a few other tanks during that time that could have been record-book contenders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I hooked probably three other fish during that trip that felt bigger. I just couldnt get them in, Goettsche, who owns Mama Hog Fishing Rods, tells Outdoor Life. Read Next: 8 Sneaky Reasons You Keep Losing Big Fish He says he fished every day of the reunion trip, sometimes alone and other times with family members. They were primarily trolling plugs, using Mama Hog Big Boar medium-heavy rods and the same techniques hes honed on his home lake, Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The Gorge, as its known by locals, is widely considered the top trophy lake trout fishery in the West. Goettsche says hes spent a lot of his time paying dues up there, and learning valuable lessons that hes carried over to other lakes like Payette. It was just good, clean fun. And we caught a lot of big fish, Goettsche says of the trip. My Uncle Jim, he caught a fish that could have been even longer [than mine] It was so big that we looked up the state [length] record and we were like, Damn dude, we could have probably beat that. So we decided to pay attention to those bigger fish, and we just kept catching em. Goettsches Uncle Jim with another giant laker they caught trolling during the reunion trip. Photo courtesy Aaron Goettsche Goettsche says he was trolling in about 80 feet of water when the record-sized laker hit his plug. He played the fish carefully to keep it hooked. (He says that instead of relying on treble hooks, he uses less aggressive single hooks that make releasing fish easier.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After measuring the giant lake trout in his landing net and taking the necessary photos, Goettsche gave the fish some time to recover and then released it back into the depths. I release all my big fish. Always, he says. These trophy [lakers] are special, and catch and release works. It keeps the giants around And, you know, that fish that I caught, it could be even bigger when its caught again the next time. Keeping those trophy fish around and healthy is also a matter of sound fishery management, which requires a balance between the amount of forage in a given lake and its game fish populations. Lake trout eat more than other coldwater species, and when that predator-prey balance gets out of whack, lakers can suffer and even starve. Read Next: The Best Lake Trout Lures of 2025, Tested and Reviewed Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is precisely what happened on Payette Lake in the early 2000s, according to IDFG, when Payettes population of kokanee, a primary food source for lakers, started dropping. As a result, biologists noticed the lake trout getting thinner and thinner in the years that followed. It wasnt uncommon to catch a 30-inch fish that looked like a snake, IDFG regional fisheries manager Jordan Messner explained in the agencys announcement Monday. In 2018, IDFG started a restoration project on Payette that involved stocking more kokanee and taking smaller lake trout (under 27 inches) out of the population. IDFG says more than 3,000 of those smaller lakers have been removed since then, which has allowed the remaining fish to grow faster and fatter. Payettes biologists have noticed these changes, and the agency says that in 2023, they caught and released a massive lake trout that weighed 54 pounds. Goettsche with another huge laker from his trip to Payette in June. Photo courtesy Aaron Goettsche Goettsche is an angler and not a biologist. But he says hes noticed similar effects at the Gorge as the reservoirs kokanee-laker balance has shifted. Weve seen it on Flaming Gorge, where kokanee have been overfished. So keeping that balance, and fishing responsibly, those are very important, Goettsche says. And I have the pictures to prove it. In years past, Id catch a couple good ones [on Payette]. Id maybe get a couple bites every other day, but trophy fishing was slow And on this last trip, I caught 12 fish over 20 pounds. A federal judge paused enforcement of a harsh anti-immigration law in April, citing the likelihood that a pending legal challenge would succeed but Florida Highway Patrol officers continued to enforce the law and arrested at least 27 people in the weeks that followed, HuffPost has learned. Senate Bill 4-C, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law in February, made it a state crime for people to enter Florida without legal status. In response to a lawsuit challenging the legality of the law, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams granted a temporary restraining order on April 4, blocking law enforcement from making arrests pursuant to SB-4C. She later converted the temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, pausing enforcement while litigation is ongoing. Less than two weeks after the temporary restraining order went into effect, a state trooper arrested U.S.-born citizen Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez and charged him with illegally entering the state as an unauthorized alien. He was detained at the local jail even after his mother produced his birth certificate and Social Security card at a court hearing. Lopez-Gomez was released the following day, but his arrest drew attention to the states non-compliance with Williams order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Lopez-Gomezs arrest, HuffPost filed a public records request with the Florida Highway Patrol, asking how people had been arrested pursuant to SB-4C since the law was paused. The law enforcement agency provided report numbers for 27 arrests between April 4 and May 26. That number does not represent the total number of SB-4C arrests in the state during that time, as the Florida Highway Patrol is just one of hundreds of law enforcement agencies that were authorized to make arrests under the immigration law. At least nine of the people arrested landed in immigration detention, the Tampa Bay Times previously reported. Some of the arrests came to light through the lawsuit filed against Floridas attorney general and several state prosecutors, challenging the constitutionality of the law. The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two women who fear arrest under SB-4C are behind the lawsuit. During an April 18 hearing, lawyers representing the plaintiffs reported learning of more than a dozen arrests that had occurred since the temporary restraining order took effect. At the time, a lawyer representing the Florida attorney generals office argued that the temporary restraining order only applied to the parties listed in the suit, not to individual law enforcement agencies. I am astounded and dont understand this argument, Williams said. When I issued the temporary restraining order, it never occurred to me that police officers would not be bound by it, the judge continued. It never occurred to me that the state attorneys would not give direction to law enforcement so that we would not have these unfortunate arrests. Williams warned that arresting people under a blocked law could constitute false imprisonment. In a written order, the judge stated that her order applied to all law enforcement officers with the power to enforce SB-4C and directed the state to notify those tasked with enforcing the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Initially, Attorney General James Uthmeier complied, notifying law enforcement agencies that they should take no steps to enforce SB-4C. But in a follow-up letter days later, Uthmeier wrote that although Williams ordered him to notify law enforcement of her order, he cannot prevent you from enforcing the law. It is my view that no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Floridas new illegal entry and reentry laws, the attorney general wrote. Last month, Williams found Uthmeier was in civil contempt of her order to notify law enforcement not to enforce SB-4C. She cited the attorney generals follow-up letter, as well as several public statements he made during interviews, where he said he would not rubber stamp her order or tell them all to stand down. Uthmeiers office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports detailing any additional arrests made pursuant to SB-4C. The first report, filed July 1, detailed two arrests made by the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office on May 29. Court records show that at least one of the individuals arrested was taken into ICE custody. The other individual pleaded guilty to the charges against him. In both cases, the state dismissed or vacated the immigration charges after Williams contempt finding. But the initial arrests placed them on ICEs radar, and it is unclear whether they are currently free or even in the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Uthmeier appealed Williams decision to pause enforcement of SB-4C all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined last week to allow Florida to resume enforcement. Related... LA SAL, Utah (ABC4) The Red Cross of Utah has made an agreement with the La Sal Recreation Special Service District to use a community center for emergency sheltering. The agreement gives the Red Cross access to the La Sal Community Center on Highway 46 for emergency sheltering. In the face of the Deer Creek Fire forcing evacuations and destroying structures, the need for emergency shelters becomes even more apparent. Deer Creek fire now 7% contained, smoke visible from Dead Horse Point State Park Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under this agreement, the Community Center will provide critical shelter and support when its needed most, according to the Red Cross. Reportedly, this agreement is the first formal emergency shelter agreement in San Juan County. The La Sal Community Center is currently open as a cooling center to help evacuees due to the Deer Creek Fire. The La Sal Community Center has a history of supporting the community during emergencies, and according to the Red Cross, this agreement will improve its ability to be a resource for disaster preparedness and response. The Deer Creek Fire is a stark reminder of how quickly disasters can strike, and this agreement will help us provide a safe and reliable space for those in need, Chair of the La Sal Recreation Special Service District board Kristl Johnson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the Red Cross, pre-established agreements and facilities allow the Red Cross to open shelters more quickly in the case of disaster. Having access to the La Sal Community Center will allow us to respond more effectively to disasters like the Deer Creek Fire and provide comfort and care to those affected, Executive Director of the American Red Cross Central and Southern Utah Chapter Benjamin Donner said. The Deer Creek Fire has burned roughly 12,906 acres, and residents north of Highway 46 between the intersection of Upper 2 Mile Road and the Utah-Colorado state line remain under evacuation orders by San Juan County Sheriff. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Reform UK has told Britains biggest wind and solar developers it would scrap their green energy subsidies if it won power, in an attempt to sabotage Ed Milibands renewables expansion. Richard Tice, the partys energy spokesman, has written to the chief executives of SSE Renewables, Octopus Energy, Centrica, Equinor and others to give formal notice that a Reform government would tear up any deals struck with Mr Miliband. Mr Tice said the company should treat any deals struck with Labour as politically and commercially unsafe, wording seemingly intended to undermine Mr Milibands bid to woo wind companies to build in Britain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Labour said Reform was actively trying to discourage businesses from investing in clean energy in the UK and accused the party of disgracefully trying to undermine the UKs national interest. The move, backed by Nigel Farage, comes ahead of the crucial next round bids for subsidies to build new wind and solar farms in Britain known as Allocation Round 7 (AR7). Developers can apply for contracts for difference (CfDs) from the Government, which offer developers a guaranteed minimum price for their power for up to 20 years. The subsidies are significant, totalling 1.8bn last year. The cost is added to consumer and business energy bills, which are amongst the worlds highest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Such costs are set to rise sharply in the coming years, in line with the expansion of renewables and subsidy prices. Mr Miliband is racing to build wind farms as he seeks to decarbonise Britains power system by 2030. Soaring energy bills In his letter, Mr Tice said the plan was imposing intolerable costs on households and manufacturers. He added: Allocation Round 7 will add billions of pounds of subsidies and other costs to UK energy bills as well as threatening the stability of the grid. There is no public mandate for the real-world consequences of this agenda, soaring energy bills, industrial decline, the imposition of intrusive infrastructure and the erosion of national energy security. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reform UK is now leading in the national opinion polls and a future government led by Nigel Farage is now more likely than not. If elected, or if we hold the balance of power, we will immediately reassess all net zero commitments, prioritising low cost, reliability and security of supply over spurious decarbonisation targets As a first step, we will seek to strike down all contracts signed under AR7. You should treat any long-term revenue streams as politically and commercially unsafe. Energy analyst Kathryn Porter, of Watt-Logic, said: Reform is signalling that it will not honour these new contracts in the hope it will deter developers from entering the auctions and limit their legal recourse should Reform win the next general election and make good on its promise to cancel these new subsidies. Adam Bell, of Stonehaven, an energy consultancy, said: A commitment by Reform to tear up contracts signed by a previous government is a direct challenge to the rule of law and means that the cost to the government of any future contract will inflate hugely. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the Government cannot be trusted to uphold a contract, then we will all pay, through our bills or through our taxes. Chris Hewett, the chief executive of trade body Solar Energy UK, called the threat legally questionable and said: This letter will be ignored by any serious investor. Contracts for difference Under AR7, which is expected to launch in the next few weeks, Mr Miliband will offer developers guaranteed minimum prices to build 12 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind and 12-14GW of onshore wind, the latter mostly in England. This roughly translates into 1,500 offshore turbines and 2,000 onshore. Similar subsidy rounds are planned for 2026 and 2027. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Miliband also wants 30GW of new solar panels, an amount that would cover about 650 sq km if it were all ground-mounted. Again, most of this will be built in England. Renewable energy needs billions of pounds to build and connect to the grid and is generally not competitive without subsidies. That means investors will only commit to build wind, solar and other renewables if they have a guaranteed minimum price for the power generated effectively a subsidy. Mr Milibands Department for Energy Security and Net Zero was approached for comment as were the companies to which Reform sent its warning note. A Labour spokesman said: This Labour Government is cutting energy bills for millions of families, schools and hospitals, and creating good jobs in our industrial heartlands, to put more money in working peoples pockets. Reform are trying to put all of this at risk. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) The governor-appointed group that oversees South Dakotas public universities seems likely to make a major policy change on Thursday allowing faculty and students to carry concealed weapons such as pistols, stun guns, mace and pepper spray. State rail board says Dakota Southern defaulted on lease South Dakota lawmakers approved legislation earlier this year directing that the change occur, while giving the state Board of Regents flexibility to ban concealed weapons in certain places. The new law also applies at South Dakotas technical colleges. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The regents proposed new policy would repeal a current provision that states, Possession of firearms or other dangerous weapons on the physical premises of the Regental institutions is prohibited unless authorized by the institutional chief executive officer or designee. The proposed policy says the institution must post signs outside areas where concealed weapons arent allowed and provide an annual registry of those locations. It also would require that students and faculty secure their weapons in locked cases or safes when the weapons arent being carried or in the persons possession. The proposed policy further says it is the persons responsibility to provide that locked container, rather than the institutions responsibility, and that displaying a concealed weapon is prohibited other than when using it or transferring it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The regents business meeting on Thursday at South Dakota State University starts at 9 a.m. CT. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) School district leaders and families gathered in Longview today to honor some of the regions top educators at Region 7s annual Teachers of the Year awards ceremony. The Region 7 service center is based in Kilgore, serving around 95 school districts in 17 East Texas counties. During the ceremony, more than forty-five teachers were recognized in total. This years event began with a heartfelt moment of silence in honor of Bullard I.S.D. second-grade teacher Casey Acker. Lawmakers to hear debate over massive groundwater extraction in East Texas Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Acker was named as the districts elementary teacher of the year nominee. But unfortunately, she passed away earlier this summer. Today, her sister accepted the award on Ackers behalf, as the room gave her family a standing ovation. After all the district nominees were recognized, two teachers were then chosen as Region 7 Teachers of the Year. For the elementary category, Jackie Terry, from Gilmer I.S.D., was announced as the winner. After 15 years as a pre-school teacher, Terry says, shes grateful for the recognition. I do what I do because I love it. Its what I was born to do, and I dont expect a pat on the back, Terry said. But it felt good to get one today and be seen by others. Region 7s secondary teacher of the year is Shyrah Jones, who leads culinary classes at Troup High School. She was unable to attend todays ceremony, but Troup Superintendent told Shyrah the good news on FaceTime. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shes a second-year teacher, but shes passionate about what she does. She makes learning fun for all of our students. Superintendent Tammy Jones said. 9 arrested for suspected cockfighting in Athens Both winners were awarded a check by Orr Cadillac, and will advance to the Texas Teacher of the Year statewide competition in Austin, recognizing top-tier educators across the state. Todays master of ceremonies was KETKs Kaci Koviak, whos wrapping up her 7th year serving in this position. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. The Brief Maryland, Virginia and D.C. launched the region's first effort to track students' transitions from school to careers. The initiative creates "Student Pathway Reports" to create a clear picture of student outcomes for policymakers. The project adds to Mayor Muriel Bowsers commitment to expanding education-to-career pathways for D.C. Students WASHINGTON - D.C., Maryland and Virginia will launch the region's first collaborative effort to track how students transition from school to careers across state lines, according to the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education. What we know According to a press release, the Coleridge Initiatives Democratizing Our Data Challenge (DDC) will fund the effort. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The initiative will create a multi-state "Student Pathways Report" connecting K-12, post-secondary and workforce to create a clear picture of student outcomes for policymakers and address a crucial blind spot in public data systems. Dig deeper More than 20% of the region's 10.2 million residents cross state lines daily for work. The ambition looks to allow leaders to follow education and career trajectories across DC, Maryland and Virginia, informing programs that support students and workers where they live, learn and work. The project adds to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowsers commitment to expanding education-to-career pathways for D.C. students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Bowser Administration has invested $100 million in increasing access to real-world learning opportunities and specialized coursework. In 2024, Bowser established the Office of Education Through Employment Pathways, using data to strengthen programs that prepare young people for college and careers. There are two phases to the initiative. From 2025-26, the participating jurisdictions will finalize data sharing agreements, develop a record linkage strategy and prepare their findings for secure analysis within Coleridges Administrative Data Research Facility. In 2027, the project will produce a regional report on student pathways from high school to the workforce, separating by race, gender and socio-economic status. What they're saying "This is a major milestone for data-driven policymaking in the National Capital Region," said Monica Dodge, Executive Director of the Office of Education Through Employment Pathways for the District of Columbia. "By breaking down data silos, we can better understand whats working for our residents and where we need to improve." PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) Otter Tail Power has won approval for a special thermal technology rate on electricity that the company plans to sell to the ethanol plant at Big Stone City in northeastern South Dakota and to the new business partner that will produce steam for the plant. Bird flu remains a worry for South Dakota poultry, dairy The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday gave the green light to Otter Tails proposed agreements with Sioux Falls-based POET Biorefining and Antora, a California-based producer of thermal batteries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Antora plans to use electricity to heat blocks of carbon, which will be used to heat water and make steam that will be used to make ethanol. Commissioner Kristie Fiegen described the project as a game changer. This has been a very unique filing, Fiegen said. I am so grateful that new technology is coming to South Dakota. POET had planned to have the plants CO2 piped away and buried in North Dakota but that project failed to get the commissions approval earlier this year. Now POET is looking to improve its carbon-intensity score in another way. Commissioner Chris Nelson asked how much the CI score would change through the deal with Antora. Big Stone plant manager DJ Haggerty said 10 to 15 points. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Otter Tail is also seeking approval for the thermal technology rate from North Dakota and Minnesota regulators. Nelson said his concern was the risk that the project could go bust. He wanted to be sure that Otter Tails other ratepayers are protected. Ive been assured by our lawyers that is the case, Nelson said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. Russia is calling for the U.S. and other countries to pressure Ukraine into resuming direct negotiations after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would impose "severe" secondary tariffs on Russia unless Moscow agrees to end its war against Ukraine within 50 days. "Many statements have been made, many words of disappointment have been spoken, but we want to hope that pressure is being exerted on the Ukrainian side," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said at a press briefing on July 16. "It now appears that the Ukrainian side perceives all words of support not as a signal for peace, but a signal for the continuation of war," Peskov said. The remark ignores the fact that Russia launched the full-scale invasion and continues to push to occupy more Ukrainian territory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The last round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine took place on June 2 in Istanbul, after a previous meeting on May 16, following more than three years of no direct negotiations. Ukraine proposed a 30-day ceasefire, but Russia rejected the offer and instead pushed for a 23-day local truce to retrieve the bodies of fallen soldiers. No agreement was reached. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on June 26 that Ukraine seeks a direct meeting between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the next round of negotiations. Putin has so far declined to participate in person, delegating lower-level officials, despite Zelensky's expressed readiness for face-to-face talks and mounting pressure from the U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya earlier told the Kyiv Independent that the Istanbul meetings couldn't truly be called negotiations due to Russia's rigid, ultimatum-like approach. Citing three unnamed sources close to the Kremlin, Reuters reported on July 15 that Putin remains determined to pursue the war until the West agrees to a settlement on his terms. Read also: Call the Ayatollah Senator Graham warns Putin as he backs Trumps 50-day Russia ultimatum Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. BRISTOL, Tenn. (WJHL) Cars pulled back into the parking lot of a former school Tuesday, their drivers headed back to a job processing and packaging THC products in a state where much stricter limits on hemp products could put those jobs at risk. About 250 people now work at the building for Gold Spectrum, a company that operates numerous Tennessee retail stores in addition to processing and selling THC products to wholesalers in more than 40 states. The jobs range anywhere from entry level production associate whos coming in at $14.50 an hour all the way up to team captains, managers who are making north of $20 an hour, Gold Spectrum Public Relations officer Neal Osborne said. And then we have salary folks. We get health insurance, (paid time off). Its pretty good company for folks to work for. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gold Spectrum, which is looking for about 100 more employees to meet customer demand, will host a grand opening and ribbon-cutting at the 85-year-old building July 22. 300 jobs is a big deal and were happy that we can provide jobs that are good-paying jobs with good benefits in a location thats a nice place to work, Osborne said. Were providing a good environment with good pay for folks. Thats very exciting. Founder Zack Green bought the former Holston Valley Middle School in April. Just as Green was decrying the possible impact of the Tennessee law change, he invested $750,000 to get his workers out of a hot, cramped building in Gray and has since pumped more money into the building, Osborne said. He said Greens decision was rooted in a couple of beliefs. One is that the market for large wholesale amounts of products Gold Spectrum makes from hemp grown mostly on the West Coast and ships around the country or sells online should remain largely intact regardless of the Tennessee legislation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have a team of folks that were working with to determine what the impact would be as far as wholesale, but production will still carry on here, Osborne said. The second belief is that the entrepreneurs and advocates for an economic sector they say accounts for more than $500 million a year in revenue for the Volunteer State will be able to convince state legislators to keep regulation from killing the retail side. The law as passed and set to take effect Jan. 1, 2026 would strictly limit the potency levels of hemp-derived THC products. State laws vary, from allowing marijuana, which contains Delta-9 THC, to allowing Delta-8, a less potent but still naturally occurring cannabinoid, and THC-A, another chemical found in cannabis. Tennessees new law would limit concentrations to less than 0.3% of THC. Osborne said Gold Spectrum and other companies in the retail business believe the change would severely limit the range of products they can sell, and likely drive many of those retailers out of business. You lose any type of profitability because the the margin gets so low if youre making a very limited number of products, he said. It doesnt make a lot of sense to have stores to sell just those very limited products. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Osborne said the industry is making some headway with legislators, especially those who have visited the facility or stores and educated themselves about both the economic impact of operations like the processing plant and the retail side. Weve had discussions with several local legislators who have said, you know, this is nothing like I thought it was,' Osborne said. They were expecting Cheech and Chong sitting in a Volkswagen van and this is a production facility. This is people who are clocking into a time card every day and producing a product just like it would be any other type of facility. Its a product he said a wide variety of Tennesseans use, in a wide variety of forms from smokable plants to edibles and beyond, for a variety of reasons. Hemp-derived THC-A products and CBD products, a lot of our clientele, people who buy this are folks who may have some underlying health condition that they want to use the product for. A lot of older folks will buy this. Its something that people might use it for relaxation, but they also use it to treat underlying conditions they might have. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a big enough business that people like Green and his fellow entrepreneurs arent leaving things to chance, though. Were working with the Tennessee Healthy Alternative Association, which is a lobbying group, he said. Were confident that we can sway some minds in the legislature, but thats an ongoing process, and thats something that we will have to work on when the session comes back the first of the year. Osborne said those in the business would like to see regulation come back under the Department of Agriculture the law moves it to the states Alcohol and Beverage Commission and get the laws restrictions loosened enough to keep retail stores viable. The more sunshine, the better, he said of the decision to invite legislators and other community leaders to the facility. Its not a mysterious product. You can see what were doing here. Its always an education process to understand what this is. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the meantime, Gold Spectrums website includes a link to more than a dozen current job openings. Osborne said the company has added a net of more than 10 people since the move, despite the uncertainty in Tennessee. We have shipments going out, coming in basically every day. Were five days a week, sometimes six days a week. So it stays very busy up there. At 250 were short staffed. Its hard to keep up with the demand. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJHL | Tri-Cities News & Weather. (EDITOR'S NOTE 7/16/2025): This story contains inaccurate information from the Department of Defense. After Free Press inquiries about inconsistencies in a news release, the DOD acknowledged that Kenneth Kramer, who died as a World War II prisoner in the Phillippines, was not from Detroit, but Washington state. See new story here.) The remains of an Army private from Detroit who died as a World War II prisoner of war in the Philippines have been identified 83 years later almost to the day and are set to be reinterred in October in Holly. Kenneth Kramer was just 20 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, the government organization that oversees the recovery and identification of unaccounted Department of Defense personnel, released details on Tuesday, July 15, of his service and two photographs. In both, the uniformed young soldier is grinning, his head slightly tilted. Pvt. Kenneth Kramer, 20, of Detroit, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was recently identified. The definitive identification and return of his body represents how far medical and forensic science has progressed and also just how committed America is to fulfilling a simple but fundamental promise that no soldier, even in death, should be left behind. The agency, which spends years even decades searching for and identifying remains, first reported the news earlier this month and followed up Tuesday with more information, noting that it had briefed the family. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Free Press left messages with the accounting agency. John Auld, who also lived in Detroit, joined the Navy and died when Japanese warplanes sank the battleship he was aboard in 1941. In December, he was buried in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after his remains were also identified. More: Decades after his death at Pearl Harbor, a Detroit sailor gets a final resting place As for Kramer, the defense accounting agency said Kramer was a member of the 19th Air Base Squadron, 20th Air Base Group, when Japanese forces invaded the Philippine Islands in 1942 and got caught up in intense fighting until the surrender of the Bataan peninsula. Pvt. Kenneth Kramer, 20, of Detroit, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was recently identified. When American forces in Bataan surrendered, Kramer was captured. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He and thousands of American and Filipino servicemen were subjected to a 65-mile slog now known as the Bataan Death March and then held in the Cabanatuan POW camp, where, according to prison camp and other historical records, Kramer died on June 29, 1942. Scientists used dental, anthropological, and isotope analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence, to identify his remains. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System scientists, the agency said, also employed mitochondrial DNA analysis, mitochondrial genome sequencing, and nuclear single-nucleotide polymorphism testing. Initially, the agency said, Kramer was buried in Grave 407 in the Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the war, the American Graves Registration Service personnel recovered 25 sets of remains in the common gravesite and examined them. Of those, nine including Kramers were unidentifiable. They were reburied at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial as unknown soldiers. But 2019, with new forensic techniques, officials had more hope of success, and the remains were disinterred a second time and sent to a laboratory for additional analysis. Kramer's remains were positively identified earlier this year on June 30. Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 orfwitsil@freepress.com This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Remains of World War II soldier from Detroit identified, to be returned home WASHINGTON (NewsNation) U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, defended President Donald Trump on Wednesday over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the resulting inner-party feud that has ensued. I have confidence in the president and his team, Jordan told NewsNations Chris Stirewalt at The Hill Nation Summit. Theres an annual trek that the attorney general and the deputy FBI director make to Capitol Hill in front of the Judiciary Committee we think weve got dates already scheduled later this summer. Well, theyll be in front of the committee, and Ive told everyone, You can ask them. Republicans are going to have questions for them, Democrats are going to have questions for them on this issue and a host of other issues. And I think thats how it should proceed. Jordan said that could happen as early as when Congress gets back from the August break. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bankruptcy filings soar as farmers face inflation, ICE raids Trump on Wednesday lashed out at his own supporters, accusing them of being duped by Democrats, over criticism of his administrations handling of much-hyped records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, which Trump now calls a Hoax. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bull-, hook, line, and sinker, Trump wrote Wednesday on his Truth Social site, using an expletive in his post. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter, he went on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Louisiana police chiefs, business owner indicted in visa fraud plot The schism centers on his administrations handling of documents surrounding Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI acknowledged that Epstein did not maintain a client list to whom underage girls were trafficked, and they said no more files related to the investigation would be made public, despite past promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. Bondi had suggested in February that such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review. Last week, however, she said she had been referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list. Its a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public, she had said at one point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has since defended Bondi and chided a reporter for asking about the documents. I dont understand what the interest or what the fascination is, he said Tuesday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NewsNation. Rep. Lauren Boebert wants failed Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz to lead a special counsel investigation into the Epstein files. The Colorado Republican suggested the former congressman was an appropriate figure to deliver the truth surrounding Jeffrey Epsteins death, including his client list, which MAGA has been up and arms about after the Department of Justice and FBI said they found no credible evidence it exists. Epstein died by suicide in his prison cell on August 10, 2019, and has long been the subject of conspiracy theories that he kept a secret list of famous and powerful people to whom he trafficked underage girls for sex. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MAGA is deeply unhappy over the Trump administrations handling of the case. There has to be a special investigation into this if we arent going to be provided information, Boebert said Tuesday on The Benny Show. I want answers and maybe that takes that special counsel to do so. Maybe Matt Gaetz can lead the special counsel. Gaetz, 43, was President Donald Trumps first pick for attorney general but his nomination was derailed over allegations that he paid for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz, who denies any wrongdoing, withdrew from the nomination in mid-November after the uproar, but a bombshell House Ethics Committee report published in December detailed his alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use while he was in Congress. Lauren Boebert suggested that former congressman Matt Gaetz was an appropriate figure to deliver the truth surrounding Jeffrey Epsteins death. (Getty Images) Lauren Boebert suggested that former congressman Matt Gaetz was an appropriate figure to deliver the truth surrounding Jeffrey Epsteins death. (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The committee determined there was substantial evidence that Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress. After appearing on the podcast, Boebert asked Gaetz directly if he would consider her suggestion. We deserve the truth about the Epstein Files. I'm ready for a Special Counsel to handle this, Boebert wrote in a post on X. @MattGaetz, how about it? Gaetz, who often backs his replacement Attorney General Pam Bondi on his Newsmax show, didnt publicly respond to Boeberts post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Boebert also told MAGA host Benny Johnson that she is absolutely in favor of getting Epsteins madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, to testify. Of course we want answers. No one is satisfied with what has been received or lack thereof. No one is satisfied with the rollout of this, she said. Boebert asked Gaetz if he would consider her suggestion in a post on X. I'm ready for a Special Counsel to handle this, Boebert said. @MattGaetz, how about it? (Getty Images) Boebert asked Gaetz if he would consider her suggestion in a post on X. I'm ready for a Special Counsel to handle this, Boebert said. @MattGaetz, how about it? (Getty Images) MAGA outrage over the Epstein files has rumbled on for more than a week, despite the White Houses attempts to put a lid on it. Last week the Justice Department and FBI issued a memo that there was no client list and no additional files relating to the case would be made public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agencies had determined that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted, much was sealed by a court to protect Epsteins victims, and only a fraction of it would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial. Additionally, the memo said that no further charges were expected as investigators did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties. Trump, who pledged to release the Epstein files during his campaign, said the case was boring in remarks to reporters Tuesday. I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody, Trump said. It's pretty boring stuff. I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going. Democrats have also seized upon the upset and attempted to force a vote Tuesday in the House to release the files but it was blocked by Republicans. The Brief Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath took to the House floor Tuesday to call on President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Education to release $7 billion in withheld federal funding for schools. The department sent a notice to states on June 30 that the Department of Education was withholding the funds. The funds were set to be released on July 1. About $200 million of the withheld funds would go to Georgia schools. WASHINGTON D.C. - Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath took to the House floor Tuesday to call on President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Education to release $7 billion in withheld federal funding for schools. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement About $200 million of the withheld funds would go to Georgia schools. Federal education funds withheld The backstory The department sent a notice to states on June 30 that the Department of Education was withholding the funds. The funds were set to be released on July 1. "The Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the Presidents priorities and the Departments statutory responsibilities," Education Department officials wrote in the notice, which was obtained by The Associated Press. The Associated Press reported the funds are divided across several programs:$2 billion in grants for teachers' professional development and efforts to reduce class size$1.3 billion for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which fund after-school and summer learning programs$1 billion for academic enrichment grants$890 million for students who are learning English$376 million to educate the children of migrant workers$715 million to teach adults how to read McBath presses Trump Administration What they're saying McBath said the administration is holding tax dollars hostage. She said the legislature approved the funds, and the executive branch cannot hold the funds "hostage." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Secretary McMahon must follow the law," she said. "They chose to wait until the last second to notify states." "The Trump Administration's failure to release this funding on time is disrupting school and district planning," McBath said. "The failure to release this funding on time is disrupting school and district planning, jeopardizing the education of millions of students." "Families have been promised the right to send their schools to good public schools regardless of how much money the make, where they live or their child's disability. But, the careless actions of Secretary McMann and the Trump administration continue to threaten that promise," she said. Effects already felt? Dig deeper McBath said the withholding of funds is also causing layoffs in education districts. FOX 5 could not independently verify this and reached out to multiple metro Atlanta school districts to ask if that was true. The districts have not replied by the writing of this article. Georgians react to lack of education funds What they're saying On Monday, Georgia lawmakers, educators and youth advocates gathered at the State Capitol to call for the release of the funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group at the State Capitol said this move will hurt children. The other side Republican state School Superintendent Richard Woods, in a written statement last week, also called on the federal government to release the funds. Homer Republican Rep. Chris Erwin, who chairs the House Education Committee, said lawmakers are closely monitoring the situation here at home as they push for a swift resolution in Washington. "I think what we have to do is pay attention to the impact it is going to have and if school kicks off, and we need a special session, and that's when it would be time to call it, after we realize the impact it's having, and it's going to affect them," Erwin explained. The Source Information in this article came from the Associated Press, a release from Rep. McBath's office, and FOX 5 original reporting. Birth control pills. A nonprofit group's new scorecard assesses how state policies affect access and availability for contraception. (Getty Images) For Wisconsinites who care about access to birth control, a new scorecard published Wednesday offers a mix of good and bad news. On the plus side, Wisconsins Medicaid program covers the cost of contraception for people with incomes up to just over 300% of the federal poverty line, according to the Population Reference Bureau. State law also requires insurers to cover the cost of prescription contraceptives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the down side, Wisconsin law allows health insurance plans to require a patient co-payment, the Population Reference Bureau reports. And the state also hasnt enacted legislation that allows more health care professionals to issue birth control prescriptions. The Population Reference Bureau is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy and research organization that describes its mission as improving peoples health and well-being through policies and practices rooted in scientific evidence. Wednesday the bureau published its first-ever scorecard assessing contraceptive access for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Reviewing a collection of policies that address affordability, availability and the environment of health care, the scorecard rates each state as protective, restrictive or mixed on contraception access. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly 35% of Americans or 121 million people currently live in a state that actively restricts access to contraception through their policies, said Cathryn Streifel, senior program director for the organization, in a briefing for reporters Tuesday. This patchwork of policies creates a system where reproductive health care access depends on where you live. Broad access to contraception is essential to helping people live with more freedom, health and possibility, Streifel said allowing people to have reproductive autonomy, making it possible for them to complete education and join the workforce, and contributing to economic stability. Contraception also reduces the risks for maternal and infant mortality and helps reduce public health costs, she added. We are at a moment where understanding state policy landscapes matters more than ever, because state policies are really shaping the reality of contraceptive access on the ground especially because the federal protections are crumbling, Streifel said. Christine Power, a senior policy advisor with the organization, said the scorecard can help policymakers, advocates and the general public understand where each state stands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The goal is to ensure that this contraceptive policy is more transparent and actionable and to highlight both progress and gaps in access across the country, Power said. The scorecard rates 16 states and D.C. as protective for contraception access and 16 as restrictive. Wisconsin is one of 18 states with a mixed scorecard. Wisconsins protective policies include the Medicaid coverage for family planning services. In addition, the state requires that hospital emergency rooms provide access to emergency contraception. Wisconsins laws on sex education get a mixed rating. Positive points include requiring medically accurate curricula, not requiring parental consent and not limiting sex ed to abstinence only. On the negative side, school districts are not required to offer sex ed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scorecard rates the states failure to fully expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act as restrictive, along with the failure to expand contraceptive prescription authority to more health providers. A bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control pills has passed the Wisconsin Assembly and is awaiting a vote in the state Senate. On several other issues that the scorecard includes, Wisconsin has no policy. The state doesnt require insurers to cover an extended supply of contraceptives beyond three months, which increases a states score for being protective. Wisconsin also has no policies explicitly allowing minors to independently access contraceptive services or restricting them from doing so. Ten states restrict most minors from independently accessing contraceptive services, said Power. This policy creates additional hurdles for young people seeking to make informed decisions about their reproductive health, potentially leading to delayed care, unintended pregnancies, and negative long-term health outcomes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wisconsin law is silent on whether health care providers or facilities can refuse to provide contraceptive services on religious or moral grounds. In other states, laws permitting that refusal are rated as restrictive. The scorecard doesnt rank the 50 states, but it does single out those with the highest scores for protection as well as those with the most restrictive policy framework. Washington and California are the two states with the most protective contraception policies, Power said, while Kansas had the lowest score, with a mix of restrictive policies and the absence of any policy. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Police still havent identified two suspects who broke into a Lancaster County fire company in June, stealing thousands of dollars worth of life-saving equipment. After arriving at the Christiana Fire Company just before 4 a.m. on June 12, thieves broke in and took tools worth $50,000 before leaving in separate vehicles, the fire company said. The station was empty and reportedly secured at the time. Close Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Breaking News Alerts Christiana Borough Police launched an investigation, and now they want help from the public. Lancaster City/County Crime Stoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the people responsible for the theft. The suspects were last seen heading south on PA Route 41 at the intersection of PA Route 10 in Cochranville. Chief Brian Smyth with the department said they hope someone can identify the vehicles or has surveillance cameras somewhere along PA Route 41. Photos depict the two male suspects and their vehicles in a June 12 theft at Christiana Fire Company. | Christiana Fire Company Photos depict the two male suspects and their vehicles in a June 12 theft at Christiana Fire Company. | Christiana Fire Company Photos depict the two male suspects and their vehicles in a June 12 theft at Christiana Fire Company. | Christiana Fire Company Photos depict the two male suspects and their vehicles in a June 12 theft at Christiana Fire Company. | Christiana Fire Company Law enforcement told the fire company the theft is believed to be a part of an emerging criminal trend where tools are used to commit other crimes, like cutting into a stolen ATM. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bomb squad called to Lancaster County bank Anyone who has information is asked to contact the Christiana Borough Police at 610-593-5199. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. Twenty people were killed during a riot at an aid distribution point in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, according to the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). In a statement, the private foundation said 19 of the victims were trampled to death, while one person was fatally stabbed. "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd armed and affiliated with Hamas deliberately fomented the unrest," the GHF stated, saying the incident took place at a distribution centre in the southern city of Khan Younis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement GHF personnel claimed they observed firearms among those gathered, with a US staff member threatened at gunpoint by an individual in the crowd. The foundation's account has not been independently verified, and the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas has not issued a comment. The GHF, which began operating at the end of May with backing from Israel and the United States, is currently overseeing food distribution in the Gaza Strip following months of Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries. However, the foundation has come under sharp criticism from the UN and aid organizations, who argue it runs too few distribution points, creating chaotic conditions that expose civilians to serious danger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fatal incidents near aid distribution points have been repeatedly reported in recent weeks. While the Israeli military is often accused of opening fire in such cases, the latest incident has not been linked to military action. According to the UN, hundreds of people have died at or near GHF-run distribution centres since the foundation began operations. How will traffic be impacted as hundreds of thousands of people pour into the Delaware State Fair in Harrington, between July 17 and July 26? This year's state fair is interesting because its first weekend overlaps with Dover Motor Speedway's NASCAR triple-header, which is part of the new makeover of the Monster Miles into "Miles Beach" from July 17 to July 20. Subscribe to DO Delaware The Delaware Department of Transportation shared with Delaware Online/The News Journal insight into peak congestion and road closures across Harrington and beyond during the 10-day state fair and how beach traffic might be impacted. Where are the road closures for Delaware State Fair 2025? Fairgoers will return to the Delaware State Fair in Harrington from July 17-26. Eastbound Fairground Road between East Street and Route 13 will be closed starting on July 17 through July 27, according to Charles "C.R." McLeod, director of community relations for DelDOT. The eastbound lane will be used to increase the safety of pedestrians visiting the state fair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DelDOT spokesperson said there will be a detour as motorists traveling eastbound on the Fairground Road will turn left onto East Street, right onto state Route 14, and then right on to Route 13 southbound back to Fairground Road. Which days will traffic be the worst for Delaware State Fair 2025? McLeod expects there will be an increase in traffic volume on Route 13 during the state fair, an event that attracted over 300,000 people last year. He said traffic likely would be the worst during the evenings and later at night. "The heaviest volumes can be expected around the concert schedule, usually after [5 p.m.] when people are heading to the concert and then following the concert when people are leaving," the DelDOT spokesperson said. How will Delaware State Fair affect beach traffic? Regarding beach traffic during the fair, McLeod doesn't expect major delays. But he does suspect the volume will "certainly be higher," especially for folks south of Dover. He encourages anyone traveling through the area, especially July 18 through July 20, to allow extra travel time with NASCAR also taking place. What else should you know about Delaware State Fair traffic? Delaware State Police patrol the grounds at the 2024 Delaware State Fair in Harrington, Tuesday, July 23, 2024. The fair runs through July 27. DelDOT will use a portable temporary traffic signal at the intersection of Route 13 (South Dupont Highway) and Tower Hill Road in Harrington to support traffic management for the state fair, which runs July 17 to July 26. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The temporary signal will be used before the start of the state fair and remain in use throughout the event, McLeod said. He added, this traffic signal is intended to manage increased traffic volumes, enhance safety, and provide controlled access for vehicles traveling to and from the Fairgrounds via Tower Hill Road. How much is the Delaware State Fair 2025? The cost of gate admission is: $10 for adults (ages 13 or older) or $10.50 (online) $5 for youth (ages 6-12) or $5.50 (online) Free for kids (ages 5 or younger). Please be aware that purchasing a ticket to the headlining concert series does not cover gate admission into the state fair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 40 Delaware food trucks to battle: Readers will crown the champion NASCAR race weekend in Dover: What to know, where to go, what you can bring What else should you know about Delaware State Fair, NASCAR traffic? DelDOTs special event staff will be present at both NASCAR and the state fair to help keep traffic moving as best as possible, the DelDOT spokesperson said. We ask people for their patience and caution both in Dover and Harrington as these two large-scale events are happening. When is the Delaware State Fair 2025? The 106th Delaware State Fair (18500 S. Dupont Highway, Harrington) spans 10 summer days, starting July 17 through July 26. For more updates, visit delawarestatefair.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters. This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware State Fair: Traffic road closures for NASCAR weekend Jul. 15A Rock Falls man has pleaded not guilty to seven felony charges accusing him of being one of three men who showed up at a Rock Falls garage party unwelcome, masked and armed, beat two men, threatened others at gunpoint and then shot at the garage while running away. Baraka D. Boards, 22, entered a not guilty plea during a preliminary hearing Monday, July 14, in Whiteside County Circuit Court. He was formally charged July 3 with two counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm, two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated battery while wearing a mask to conceal identity, and one count of reckless discharge of a firearm for the June 29 early morning shooting in the 1300 block of Franklin Street. Boards, Emillio Castro, 18, and Ethon T. Hemminger, 18, are all charged with the same offenses in connection with the case. Castro and Hemminger's preliminary hearings are set for 1:30 p.m. on July 21. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The three, who appeared together July 3 for a detention hearing in Whiteside County Circuit Court, were taken into custody July 2 after party-goers told police the three showed up at the party about 2:30 a.m., uninvited, wearing masks, carrying guns and at one point threatening to "blow off" the head of one of the party-goers. Two men at the party suffered head wounds, according to court documents. Whiteside County Assistant State's Attorney Ryan Simon said that the party-goers had earlier been swimming in a pool on the property when one of the three men, who was communicating by phone with a female guest at the party, asked if the three could come over to the house and join in the party. The female said the men could not come over because one of them did not get along with one of the other men at the party. Simon said the party-goers were sitting in the garage a couple of hours later when three men showed up armed and told the guests to empty their pockets and lie down on the floor. The three men pointed guns at the seven people, with two of the men verbally threatening the guests and then those two using their guns to beat two of the men in the head and cause head wounds, Simon said. The three armed men then ran out of the garage and fired at it from the outside as they fled the property; a nearby house on Minkle Street was also struck by a bullet, Simon said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Simon said that while the assailants were masked, party-goers identified two of the men, Boards and Hemminger, based on their eyes, voice, and gait, Simon said during the July 3 detention hearing. The third man, Castro, was identified by his eyes, Simon said. Boards was arrested on July 2 at his residence. Hemminger and Castro turned themselves in that day at the Whiteside County Sheriff's Office. Hemminger and Boards have been denied pretrial release and remain in the Whiteside County Jail. Castro was granted pretrial release. The most serious charge, aggravated discharge of a firearm, is a Class 1 felony that carries a possible 4-15 year prison term upon conviction. Boards' next court appearance is a pre-trial conference set for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 27. His jury trial is tentatively scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Sept. 9. KEENE, N.Y. (ABC22/FOX44) Avalanche Pass is living up to its name, even in the middle of summer. This past Sunday was eventful for Northern New York weather-wise, with several torrential downpours triggering a Flash Flood Warning in Essex County. The intense rain set off rock and mud slides in Keene, causing the closure of the Avalanche Pass trail. Mudslide above Avalanche Lake. (NYDEC photo) Hikers have been advised to avoid the trail, which is between Mt. Colden and Mt. Algonquin, while New Yorks Department of Environmental Conservation (NYDEC) assesses the damage and condition of the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hiker interviewed about Adirondacks rescue in video Another slide on the opposite side of Mt. Colden blocked the Lake Arnold trail, and hikers will have to detour a short distance off-trail to follow it. NYDEC said that hikers are encouraged to take extreme caution. Other trails in the High Peaks may also have storm damage that has not yet been discovered. NYDEC directs hikers to its Adirondack Backcountry Information webpage for the most up-to-date information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Rockford Police arrested Derrick Jones, 35, for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman after drugging her. On May 27, 2023, officers went to Javon Bea Hospital on East Riverside for reports of a woman who was sexually assaulted. The victim told officers she suspected that someone had drugged her while she was drinking with a group of people at CJs Public House Lounge. The victim blacked out at one point and could not remember much of the night, according to court records. Another woman, who was drinking with the group, told officials she also felt like she was drugged. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jones was handing shots to multiple people, court documents show. Derrick Jones. Photo: Winnebago County Jail The victims toxicology report tested positive for THC and Gamma-Hydroxybutyric (GHB). GHBs possible effects on the body include unconsciousness, seizures, slowed heart rate, coma and death, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA also said one of the drugs common street names is Easy Lay. Jones was found by officers in the Winnebago County Courthouse while he appeared for a traffic court pretrial hearing. Authorities had a swab search warrant, which Jones participated in. The Illinois State Crime Labs analysis and testing very strongly supported that Jones and the victim had sexual relations, according to court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jones is charged with criminal sexual assault without consent. He was booked into the Winnebago County Jail on July 16. If you are a survivor of domestic or sexual violence, visit our Stateline Strong page for resources. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) Winnebago County Deputies arrested Christian Medrano, 29, on charges of failing to return from furlough. Medrano has multiple felony convictions and pending felony cases. In one case, Medrano is accused of robbing a store and attacking a clerk. On June 9, around 4 p.m., officers were made aware that Medrano, a felon in Winnebago County, had left Rosecrances Harrison Campus, breaking his furlough agreement. Christian Medrano. Photo: Winnebago County Jail The terms of the furlough stated he needed to turn himself in to deputies if he left before finishing treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He failed to turn himself in after leaving the treatment center on June 8, according to court records. Medrano was already being held on charges of criminal property damage, violating an order of protection, aggravated battery, robbery and domestic battery. He was booked into the Winnebago County Jail on July 14. He is now charged with failure to return from furlough by a felon. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyStateline | WTVO News, Weather and Sports. Republican Senate candidate and former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) and U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) (left) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) (right) at a rally in Grand Rapids on Oct. 16, 2024. | Kyle Davidson As U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers fights off accusations of misleading potential voters on his fundraising efforts over the last quarter, the numbers show potential cracks in his campaign and could open the door for another challenger on the Republican side to jump in. Rogers reported that he raised nearly $1.5 million, but those figures were brought in by two separate committees one for his campaign and another from a joint fundraising committee, the Detroit News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through his campaign over the past three month reporting period, Rogers raised nearly $745,000, while the joint fundraising committee, Team Rogers, raised approximately $780,000, Federal Election Commission filings show. That leaves him with about $1.1 million cash on hand at the close of the period. Although Michigan media has kept a hawks eye on fundraising, other outlets, like the conservative Washington Examiner, also noted the discrepancy. The outlet initially reported him as having raised $1.5 million but later updated its piece to reflect that the $745,000 his campaign raised lagged behind each of his Democratic opponents in the race. Still, Rogers campaign doubled down in a statement and said his actual fundraising total was the aforementioned $1.5 million. Chuck Schumer and his Democrat cronies are so scared of Mike Rogers that theyre to convince you that $745,170 and $778,615 dont equal $1.523 million, said campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet in a statement. The Left will do anything to district from the fact that Mike Rogers outraised their candidate, Haley Stevens. And reporters might be falling for their lies, but Michigan voters wont. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With Rogers as the Republicans semi-official anointed candidate with zero clear primary challengers, Joanna Rodriguez, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, also jumped in the fray on social media to defend Rogers fundraising claims. Because theyre right. Multiple campaign reporters clearly need a lesson in campaign finance & common sense. What A CANDIDATE raises into a joint fundraising committee that benefits THE CANDIDATE & a committee that endorsed THE CANDIDATE was in fact raised by THE CANDIDATE! https://t.co/SNq9l6TuMt Joanna Rodriguez (@joannamrod) July 16, 2025 Meanwhile, the Democrats in the race were sailing ahead of Rogers in that regard. State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) was the most successful of the lot over the past reporting period, raising $2.1 million, campaign finance filings show. She spent $1.3 million over the reporting period ending on June 30 and has $826,912 cash on hand. Thats good news for McMorrow, who is up against U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham), former Michigan House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) and Abdul El-Sayed, the former Wayne County health director and a 2018 primary gubernatorial primary candidate. McMorrow praised her campaigns efforts, and claimed she did it without a single dime of corporate PAC dollars. Holy crap. Its official. Of those who have posted, we outraised every other candidate in the Michigan Senate field, Dem AND Republican. WE did that. We did it together, and without a single DIME of corporate PAC dollars. Thank you thank you thank you. pic.twitter.com/OrpuEeDy9u Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) July 15, 2025 El-Sayed was a close second in the fundraising push, raising $1.8 million and having spent nearly $700,000 during the reporting period, leaving him with $1.1 million cash on hand. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stevens is viewed by some as a frontrunner in the race, and that apparently includes Rogers campaign as she was mentioned specifically in statements issued Wednesday related to his fundraising. Still, Stevens this period came in third behind McMorrow and El-Sayed. She reported raising $1.3 million, but Gongwer News Service, a Michigan-based political insider, reported that she also transferred $1.5 million from her U.S. House account, which is allowed under federal campaign finance rules. Stevens has $1.9 million cash on hand. Tate was running well behind the other Democrats on the U.S. Senate side, raising just $192,771 and leaving him with just $70,212 in the bank. Although McMorrow jumped for joy on social media, Chris Gustafson, communications director for the Republican Senate Leadership Fund, wrote on X that McMorrows cash on hand was less than Rogers and that her cash burn rate in the second quarter was 62%, spending more than $1.2 million largely on digital fundraising. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres of course a time and place for digital prospecting, but the middle of a brutal primary election is usually not it, Gustafson said. Someone is definitely generating revenue right now, but its not McMorrows campaign. Important context: Despite raising $2.1m, New Jersey native Mallory McMorrow only has $827k in the bank, $1m less than Rogers and Stevens, and $300k less than Abdul. Why? She had an astonishing 62% burn rate in Q2, spending over $1.2m, largely on digital fundraising. https://t.co/bIYbNYPtS4 Chris Gustafson (@chris_gustafson) July 16, 2025 Door now wider than ever for Huizenga to jump in As the Democrats in the race focus on each other and as Rogers focuses on them, the window of opportunity was never better for an undeclared potential candidate who has been mulling over a decision on whether to challenge Rogers: Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga of Holland Township. Huizenga has been rumored to have been staffing up and gearing for a Senate run but has yet to jump in. He did make a trip out to Mackinaw City as the keynote speaker at a Straits Area Lincoln Day event in June that revved up Michigans Republican faithful, but stopped short of announcing there. Although his latest fundraising efforts reported for the most recent period were directed at his U.S. House campaign, he raised slightly more than Rogers with nearly $746,700, campaign finance records show. Huizenga also reportedly has more cash on hand than Rogers with $1.4 million to the declared candidates $1.1 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That money could easily be transferred to a U.S. Senate committee if he decides to jump in. Huizengas campaign was noticeably silent as the attention was on Rogers lagging numbers. Those watching the race, however, noted that the numbers speak for themselves on whether a Huizenga versus Rogers matchup could be competitive, and whether Huizenga had momentum to give the Democratic opponents some resistance. Speaking to Michigan Advance on Wednesday, Republican political consultant Dennis Lennox said Rogers was clearly outraised when contextualizing a potential horse race between the two candidates, especially considering that it was apparent Rogers had fudged some of his numbers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not cheating, its fair, but its not totally accurate, Lennox said. Its pretty incredible that a congressman, who hasnt announced that hes running and has been pretty much the victim of political intimidation at the highest levels outside of the White House, outraised someone who all but has the endorsement of the Republican establishment. That said, Rogers was running a better campaign this cycle in its early throes than he had when he ran against current U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Holly), Lennox said. But, despite having basically all of the stars aligned in his favor, the only thing hes missing is a Trump endorsement. He cant raise the kind of money which means he cant generate the kind of actual enthusiasm that you need to win a race, Lennox said of Rogers. Republicans who are backing Mike Rogers, and Republicans who somehow think Mike Rogers can win, should be pretty scared by the fundraising numbers coming out of the Democratic candidates. ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A person is in critical condition after a shooting between family members, according to the Rowan County Sheriffs Office. Around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 15, deputies were called to the shooting on US Highway 601 near Sells Road, just outside the city limits of Salisbury. At first, they were told it was a road rage shooting; however, it later came out that both people involved were family members. Suspects charged in connection to Uptown mass shooting appear in court Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both people were found at the scene, one of whom was shot in the head, according to authorities. That person was taken to Baptist Hospital and remains in critical care. The other person involved was not injured and is cooperating with investigators. It appears that only one vehicle was damaged in the incident, and Highway 601 reopened around 3 a.m. on Wednesday, July 16. The shooting is still under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Rowan County Sheriffs Office at 704-216-8700. You can also anonymously contact Crime Stoppers at rowancrimestoppers.org or at 1-866-639-JAIL (5245) Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday said he believed Israels strike on the Syrian capital of Damascus was "likely a misunderstanding" amid concerns over unrest that erupted this week. "It's complicated," Rubio told reporters after President Donald Trump asked him to take a question by a reporter in the Oval Office amid a bilateral meeting with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. "These are historic longtime rivalries between different groups in the southwest of Syria," Rubio said, in reference to clashes between the Druze, a monotheistic religion rooted in Abrahamic beliefs, and the Bedouin, which is a Sunni-based tribal group. And it led to an unfortunate situation and a misunderstanding, it looks like, between the Israeli side and the Syrian side." US President Donald Trump listens to Secretary of State Marco Rubio speak during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 16, 2025. Israel Strikes Syria's Military Headquarters As The Regime Clashes With Druze Civilians Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rubio said he had been in communication with both sides since the fighting erupted, which comes as the U.S. is looking to see Syria emerge as a beacon of hope in the Middle East following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December. Reports on Wednesday said the Israeli strikes caused damage to the headquarters of the Syrian Defense Ministry and resulted in the death of three people and injured nearly three dozen others. Read On The Fox News App Israel took action to defend the Druze in southwest Syria in a region that sits on the border with the Golan Heights an area that the U.N. maintains is Syrian territory but which Israel annexed in the early 80s after the Syrian government was apparently seen as targeting the Druze minority group there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Concerns over minority rights have been increasing since the December takeover by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former terrorist organization, but whose designation was removed by the Trump administration earlier this month. Members of the media photograph the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Syria's defence ministry headquarters on July 16, 2025 in Damascus, Syria. Trumps Push For Israel-syria Peace Gets Major Backing As Activist Brings Message To Jerusalem The Druze community which is largely found in parts of Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Syria reportedly came under increased attacks this week by first Bedouin militias, and then Syrian government forces. Reporting by the Associated Press said the clashes in southern Syria first erupted after a Druze man was attacked and robbed while stopped at a Bedouin checkpoint in the Sweida province. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brutal tit-for-tat attacks then reportedly ensued, and the government sent in forces to get control of the situation, though reports suggest civilians continued to face brutal situations with death tolls ranging between 30 and 90 people killed this week. But footage and reports apparently surfaced to suggest the government forces had not only begun attacking Druze communities by burning and looting their houses, but also were targeting Druze men by publicly humiliating them and forcibly shaving their mustaches. Israeli Druze cross the border near Majdal Shams in a show of support for the Druze community in Hader on the Syrian side on July 16, 2025. "We think we're on our way towards, real de-escalation and then hopefully get back on track and helping Syria build a country," Rubio told reporters, which is part of the administrations overall goal to stabilize relations in the Middle East, particularly with Israel. "In the next few hours, we hope to see some real progress to end what you've been seeing over the last couple hours," the secretary added. Fox News' Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report. Original article source: Rubio says Israel strike on Syrian military headquarters likely a misunderstanding US Secretary of State Marco Rubio says progress has been made to resolve the fighting in southern Syria that broke out over the weekend and has reportedly left more than 300 dead. "We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria," he wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday. "We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight," he added, without giving further details. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do." Clashes between the Sunni Bedouin and Druze minorities in southern Syria have escalated sharply in recent days, centred on the Druze-majority city of Sweida, with Syrian government troops deployed to the area. The troops, along with allied groups, have been accused of attacks on civilians, including executions. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, government forces have executed Druze civilians during the crackdown. The war monitor estimates that around 300 people have been killed in the violence since Sunday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While calm temporarily returned after an initial ceasefire was declared on Tuesday, the truce was quickly violated, prompting renewed military operations as well as Israeli airstrikes on southern Syria and the capital Damascus. Earlier, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported - citing a high-ranking US official - that the US government had called on Israel to stop the attacks in Syria and to enter into a dialogue with the government in Damascus in order to reduce tensions. Rubio had said the United States was "very concerned" about the Israeli attacks on Damascus. "We want the fighting to stop," Rubio said in Washington. He added that the US was talking to all relevant parties and hoped that an agreement could be reached. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has expressed concern following the Israeli attacks on the Syrian capital Damascus. "We want the fighting to stop," Rubio said in Washington on Wednesday. He added that the US was talking to all relevant parties and hoped that agreement could be reached. "But we're very concerned," Rubio added. Following days of violence between Druze and Sunni Bedouin groups in southern Syria, Israel - a close ally of the United States - bombed several targets in Damascus, including the entrance of the Ministry of Defence. Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported, citing a high-ranking US official, that the US government had called on Israel to stop the attacks in Syria and to enter into a dialogue with the government in Damascus in order to reduce tensions. Rubio said that steps must be taken by "all parties to deliver on commitments they have made and this is what we fully expect them to do." US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced an agreement to end the fighting in Syria, after almost a whole day of hostilities between the Syrian government, Druze communities in the south of Syria, and the IDF. "We have engaged all the parties involved in the clashes in Syria. We have agreed on specific steps that will bring this troubling and horrifying situation to an end tonight," Rubio said on X/Twitter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This will require all parties to deliver on the commitments they have made, and this is what we fully expect them to do," he added. Rubios involvement in finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict came after declaring that the situation was complicated and that it looks like a misunderstanding. Earlier this Wednesday, the US called on Syria to withdraw its troops in order to allow for a de-escalation, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media during a refueling stop at Shannon Airport in Shannon, Ireland, March 12, 2025, as he travels from talks with Ukraine in Saudi Arabia to attending a G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Canada. (credit: SAUL LOEB/POOL VIA REUTERS) US calls for the Syrian government to withdraw its forces from Swayda "We are calling on the Syrian government to withdraw their military in order to allow all sides to be able to de-escalate," explained Bruce in an interview on Fox News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rubio, asked about Israeli strikes on Syria on Wednesday, said the US was concerned, adding that he had just spoken to the relevant parties over the phone. At the same time, Rubio warned that the current conflict is a direct threat to efforts to help build a peaceful and stable Syria. Canaries in coal mines are used to test the air. Because they are more sensitive to deadly gases than humans, if they die in the mine, they provide an early warning sign of danger. As is now widely recognized, modern 21st-century autocrats generally do not take over in sudden, brutal displays of force. Instead, they poke and prod, looking to exploit weaknesses or places of vulnerability in the fabric of constitutional democracy. Especially since he returned to the Oval Office, President Donald Trump has shown himself to be a master in the art of poking and prodding the American constitutional framework. In the weeks following his inauguration in January, he sent a raft of unqualified Cabinet nominees to the Senate; most of them were confirmed. The president has exercised authority that rightfully belongs to Congress, and he has gotten very little pushback. His administration has deployed various strategies to avoid complying with adverse court rulings, and the conservative majority on the Supreme Court has mostly not been troubled by such avoidance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In late May, Trump made another move familiar in the modern autocratic playbook when he nominated Emil Bove III to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit. Bove, who served as Trumps defense lawyer in two of his criminal trials, has shown himself to be an eager MAGA spear carrier. The president previously rewarded his loyalty by appointing him to serve in the Department of Justice. The day he announced Boves judicial nomination, Trump posted on Truth Social, Emil is SMART, TOUGH, and respected by everyone. He will end the Weaponization of Justice, restore the Rule of Law, and do anything else that is necessary to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Emil Bove will never let you down! That statement was as revealing as it was stunning. In the American legal tradition, judges are not supposed to make decisions in the service of political goals, no matter how noble. People of a certain age may remember the film Judgment at Nuremberg, which released in 1961 at the height of the Cold War. A fictionalized movie about the trial of 16 German jurists and lawyers who served the Nazis, it drove home the criticism of ends-oriented judging. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Or recall the testimony given by Chief Justice John Roberts when his nomination to the Supreme Court was being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee: Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires dont make the rules, they apply them They make sure everybody plays by the rules, but it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire. He went on to make clear that, in his view, Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes If I am confirmed, I will confront every case with an open mindI will decide every case based on the record, according to the rule of law, without fear or favor The president himself has frequently criticized judges on the grounds that they were pursuing a political agenda. In 2018, he accused Jon S. Tigar, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, of being an Obama judge after he ruled in favor of an immigrant in an asylum case. In April, Trump claimed that judges who issued unfavorable rulings against his administration were guilty of exhibiting political bias and judicial overreach. He told supporters, We cannot allow a handful of communist radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Apparently, ends-oriented judging is only good when the president approves of the ends a judge serves. And in Emil Bove, he has found a judicial nominee who will serve the presidents agenda. Bove has shown his fealty to Trumps policies in several ways. In one case, he was happy to use his position in the Justice Department to direct line prosecutors to drop bribery charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. He wanted the mayor to devote himself to pursuing the presidents anti-immigrant agenda. Bove held out the prospect that Adams prosecution could be restarted if he did not comply. Want more sharp takes on politics? Sign up for our free newsletter, Standing Room Only, written by Amanda Marcotte, now also a weekly show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. In very Trumpian terms, Bove explained, [T]he pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the Biden administration. Bove even made the surprising admission that the Justice Department reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In January, Bove fired prosecutors who had been hired for temporary assignments to support the Jan. 6 cases, but were moved into permanent roles after Trumps presidential win in November. Bove said he would not tolerate subversive personnel actions by the previous administration. Last week, in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he denied the firings were in any way political. Bove claimed the prosecutors were terminated for the heavy-handed tactics they used against the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Further evidence of Boves willingness to do what is necessary to advance the presidents MAGA agenda was provided by a whistleblower, former Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, who indicated that Bove told Justice Department lawyers that the department should tell courts f**k you and ignore their orders so that the administration could carry out the presidents aggressive deportations. Reuveni, who was fired after he told a federal judge an immigrant had been deported in error, supplied the committee with emails and texts to back up his claims. Asked about Reuvenis accusations, Bove said he never advised the DOJ to violate a court order. However, he did not directly deny making the f*** you comment, saying instead that he had no recollection of saying anything of that kind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was right to say about Reuvenis information: This is about more than a random f-bomb. This is a declaration of defiance of our courts at the highest level of our government by a man who now seeks a lifetime appointment to one of the highest courts in our land. Securing appointments of loyalists who will do whatever is needed for the MAGA cause is a key to the presidents desire for unchecked power. More chillingly, Trump may be willing to evade court orders or engage in what scholars call legalistic non-compliance to achieve that end. But because defiance is costly and runs the risk of precipitating congressional or public blowback, what the president wants is for courts to approve his plans and, in so doing, lend them legitimacy. The best way to achieve that goal is to appoint people like Bove to the bench. Autocrats love the law as long as it is on their side. Princeton Professor Kim Lane Scheppele described what she calls legalistic autocrats who deploy the law to achieve their aims and seek to use constitutionalism and democracy to destroy both. Schepple said, We can spot the legalistic autocrats while they are still consolidating power because they have ambitions to monopolize power and tend to use the same toolbox of tricks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Enter Emil Bove, the perfect Trumpian judge. Like a canary in the coalmine, if he survives Senate scrutiny, it will send a powerful signal to the president that it is safe to nominate others like him to the bench. That way, the president can turn the rule of law into the rule of loyalists. The post Rule of loyalists: Emil Bove would be the perfect Trumpian judge appeared first on Salon.com. A rural Seneca man has been sentenced to life in prison for the stabbing death of a Carl Junction man. Scott Burleson, 32, pleaded guilty Monday in Jasper County Circuit Court in Joplin to a charge of second-degree murder in a plea agreement. In Missouri, a life sentence for second-degree murder can range from 10 to 30 years before parole is granted, depending on factors that include the persons criminal record and behavior in prison. The charge was filed in connection with the March 2, 2024, stabbing of Seth Langford, 36, at a house on State Line Road in Jasper County. As a result of the stabbing, Langford died after surgery at a local hospital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Burleson also faced charges of first-degree robbery and two counts of armed criminal action in connection with events that day. Those counts were dismissed as the result of a plea agreement in the case accepted by Judge Dean Dankelson, who sentenced Burleson. A witness to the slaying, unnamed in court documents, told Jasper County deputies Burleson stabbed Langford multiple times and then pointed the knife at the witness, warning him not to call law enforcement and robbing him of an ounce of marijuana and $7. A man believed to have been in Burlesons company at the time, Paul D. Phillips Jr., 36, of Seneca, also was charged in events that day. He was bound over for trial in April 2024 on charges of first-degree robbery, armed criminal action, unlawful use of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and vehicle tampering. On July 7, Phillips was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended by Dankelson, and he placed Phillips on probation for five years. Langford was one of three others with another man, Ron Seward, who were at the house with Burleson and Phillips. There was testimony at a previous court hearing that Langford and Burleson got into a shoving match during which Burleson stabbed Langford. Seward told authorities that Burleson then turned the knife on him and demanded that Seward give him what drugs he had. Chinese premier calls on China, Australia to create stronger synergy for development Xinhua) 08:29, July 16, 2025 Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 8th China-Australia CEO Roundtable with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Xiang) BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday called on China and Australia to further strengthen cooperation, promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, and create a stronger synergy for development to effectively address uncertainties. Li made the remarks while attending the 8th China-Australia CEO Roundtable with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Beijing. Around 30 representatives of business councils and enterprises from the two countries attended the roundtable. Noting that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, Li said over the past decade, China-Australia economic and trade cooperation has demonstrated considerable resilience and vitality. The economic structures of the two countries are highly complementary, and the foundations for industrial and market integration are solid, making China and Australia natural partners, Li said. Li said China's vast market will continuously unleash immense consumption potential, creating more opportunities for enterprises from both countries. He called on the two sides to strengthen collaboration in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and life sciences to better empower the industries of both countries. By working together, enterprises from both countries can accelerate cooperation in clean energy, electric vehicles, and energy storage, ultimately building a world-class green industrial chain that is both resilient and competitive, he added. Li emphasized that both the government and enterprises should work together to better promote development. China will continue to advance high-level opening-up, treat domestic and foreign-funded enterprises equally, and legally protect the rights and interests of foreign companies and entrepreneurs in China, he said. It is hoped that Australia would treat Chinese enterprises fairly, addressing issues regarding market access and investment reviews, he added. Li urged Chinese and Australian companies to maintain openness, embrace cooperation, and deepen their efforts to promote market integration and industrial collaboration. When addressing the roundtable, Albanese said the current bilateral relations are steadily developing, with enthusiasm for cooperation soaring among the business communities of both countries. The Australian side is willing to enhance dialogue with the Chinese side, expand cooperation in various fields including trade, agriculture, industry, energy resources, and green development, address global challenges such as climate change and uphold international equity and free trade. Chinese Premier Li Qiang attends the 8th China-Australia CEO Roundtable with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, July 15, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Bin) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) BIRMINGHAM, Ala (WIAT) The city of Birminghams municipal election will take place on Aug. 26, and every seat from mayor to school board is up for grabs. On Tuesday, many residents made it known what it will take to earn their vote. Weve got to get out of the crawl space and onto the first floor of being pristine with our community and our law enforcement, Birmingham resident Marcia Forrest said. Forrest is one of many Birmingham voters who attended the 2025 Birmingham Municipal Election Forum hosted by Alabama New South Alliance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its our time to talk with each other, and gain information about whats going on politically, Forrest said. LIST: Qualifying candidates in Birminghams 2025 municipal elections Birmingham residents attended the event to learn what issues candidates are focused on. CBS 42 News attended the event to learn what issues voters care the most about, and there was a general consensus: Residents want safe streets to drive on and safe streets to live on. Birmingham Voters on Crime: I want us to get a handle on the violence, Jasmine McGaha said. We want to be able to walk the streets and enjoy a nice walk with our children without having to be concerned about gun violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Every three or four days someone is having a shoot-out, William Simmons said. The police is definitely trying to do all that they can, but it takes the community as well as the police officer. I pray they do just that to help because the crime rate has gotten ridiculous, Sandra Johnson said. Birmingham Voters on infrastructure: Please fix the pot holes, we dont want to tear our cars up on our way to our destination. When we arrive there, were frustrated, were aggravated, and our car is torn up, Jasmine McGaha said Our streets in the Airport Hills neighborhood is really messed up and we need help over there bad, William Simmons said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The streets, the streets with the holes in its almost as bad as the interstate, the streets are really bad, they need to do something about the street, Sandra Johnson said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to CBS 42. On Tuesday, Salisbury Police Department arrested a man for what is now being called a homicide. ALSO READ: Driver charged after pedestrian struck, killed leaving Gaston County library On June 28, Salisbury police responded to reports of shots fired in the 700 block of East Liberty Street. When officers arrived at the scene, they located an unresponsive man lying in the street, suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. The man was identified as Cleveland Sinclair Davis, 45, and was taken to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital for treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Davis succumbed to his injuries on June 29. With the assistance of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations, the Salisbury Police Department of Criminal Investigation Division was able to identify a suspect. On July 15, Jamel Lee Station was arrested for the homicide. He was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under no bond for the murder charge. VIDEO: 22-year-old walking home killed in Hickory drive-by This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available. SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) Salt Lake City Fire Department responded to a fire in a single-family dwelling and closed roads in the area. The fire occurred near 1300 S Roberta Street, and according to SLCFD, road closures are in place. Fire officials are requesting that the public avoid the area from 1300 S in between 200 E and 300 E until at least 8:25 p.m. on July 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fire occurred at a two-story single-family dwelling, and Salt Lake City Fire Department told ABC4.com that the fire began in the attic. No injuries have been reported. According to SLCFD, crews are going to remain on scene to mop up the fire until it is extinguished. Latest headlines: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Heres what youll learn when you read this story: The Denver Museum of Nature & Science discovered a dinosaur fossil buried in its own parking lot. The partial bone of a plant-eating dinosaur is the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil ever found in Denver. The museum is a well-known dinosaur buff destination, and has multiple full-size dinosaur skeletons on display. When a museum popular with dinosaur enthusiasts went digging in its own parking lot, the dinosaur fossil their team found didnt have far to travel to make it into an exhibit. The Denver Museum of Nature & Science located a roughly 67.5-million-year-old partial dinosaur bone 763 feet below its own parking lotthe oldest and deepest ever found in Denver. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This partial vertebra from a plant-eating dinosaur offers an extraordinary glimpse into prehistoric Denver and the animals that inhabited this area, the museum wrote in a statement. Museum staff werent looking for dinosaur bones to add to an exhibit when they started digging. Instead, crews were conducting geothermal test drilling to assess the viability of switching from natural gas to geothermal energy. While the equipment was out, they added some scientific coring to their process in the hopes of better understand[ing] the geology of the Denver Basin. That led to the unexpected fossil. The coring hole, just two inches wide, was only supposed to help experts study the soil. There was no expectation of locating something as wild as a dinosaur fossil. Finding a dinosaur bone in a core is like hitting a hole in one from the Moon, James Hagadorn, the museums curator of geology, told the Associated Press. Its like winning the Willy Wonka factory. Its incredible, its super rare. The museum said that only two other similar coring samples in the entire world have produced fossils. Neither of those, however, were at the site of a dinosaur museum. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The discovery has been dated to the late Cretaceous period, roughly 1.5 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs, and the bone was found alongside fossilized vegetation. This animal was living in what was probably a swampy environment that would have been heavily vegetated at the time, Patrick OConnor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the museum, told the AP. The dinosaur experts believeas Erin LaCount, director of education programs at the Dinosaur Ridge track site near Denver, told the APthat the fossil was from a small dinosaur, possibly a duck-billed dinosaur, a thescelosaurus, or another similar-sized dinosaur. Still, theres not enough evidence to distinguish with certainty what type of dinosaur was located. Not everyone was as excited about the find as the folks in Denver. When the AP contacted Thomas Williamson, curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science in Albuquerque, he agreed it was an unexpected discovery, but said it was one without much value because theres no real way to determine what species of dinosaur was found. Its a surprise, I guess, he said. Scientifically, its not that exciting. Folks in Denver, though, may oppose that view. With the fossil now on display in the museums Discovering Teen Rex exhibit, Hagadorn said hed love to excavate the entire parking lot to find the rest of the dinosaur. But I dont think thats going to fly, he said, because we really need parking. You Might Also Like Scottish MP Brian Leishman has said he cannot back policies that "make people poorer" after being suspended by Labour. The Alloa and Grangemouth representative has repeatedly criticised Sir Keir Starmer over the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery, welfare reforms and winter fuel payment cuts. He is one of four Labour MPs to have lost the party whip for breaching party discipline, meaning they will now sit as independents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leishman said he remained committed to the party and signalled that he would seek to re-join the parliamentary group. The party is yet to comment on specific rule breaches, but it comes after 47 Labour MPs rebelled against the UK government's proposed cuts to welfare and forced ministers to gut the reforms of key proposals. All three of the suspended MPs voted against the government's welfare reform bill earlier this month. Leishman told BBC Scotland News he was "devastated" to lose the whip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I am a proud Labour Party member," he said. "I don't want to lose the whip and, to be honest, I don't think what I have said and what I have done in my first 12 months as an MP (mean) I deserve to." The MP said he had "no forewarning" of the decision and added he had been elected to be a "voice for my constituents across Alloa and Grangemouth". In a earlier statement, Leishman said he wished to remain a Labour MP. He added: "I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The BBC understands MPs Neil Duncan-Jordan, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell have also had the Labour whip removed. Three other Labour MPs - Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin - have been stripped of their trade envoy roles. Brian Leishman has criticised the government over the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery in his constituency [PA Media] Following a landslide victory north and south of the border at last year's general election, Scottish Labour's new cohort of MPs has remained largely loyal to the government - with Leishman the consistent exception. He has hit out at the prime minister over the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery in his constituency, arguing more could be done to save more than 400 jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And Leishman criticised the government's decision to cut winter fuel payments to millions of pensioners. He was also among the most vocal of a group of Scottish Labour MPs who joined a backbench rebellion against welfare reforms. Although many of the rebels backed down once the government made major concessions, Leishman remained in steadfast opposition to the watered-down bill and voted against it. Sir Keir Starmer faced a backbench rebellion over his government's welfare reforms [PA Media] Just hours before he was suspended, Leishman asked Sir Keir about Fife bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis at Prime Minister's Questions. After the Labour leader said he was working with English mayors to put in orders for zero-emissions buses in a bid to save the firm, Leishman posted on X to confirm that he was working with the UK government "to help save Scottish bus manufacturing". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suspension of Leishman and others is the prime minister's latest attempt to tighten party discipline after his authority was undermined in the welfare vote. Last year, he suspended seven MPs who voted against the government on a proposal to scrap the two-child benefit cap. SNP deputy Westminster leader Pete Wishart said: "It says it all that the only Labour MP who has dared stand up for Scotland has been suspended by Keir Starmer - simply because he refused to betray his constituents like every other Scottish Labour MP has done repeatedly." The strongest hurricanes in Atlantic Basin history span the gamut from the Great Depression to present day. Improvements in technology, including satellites and Hurricane Hunter aircraft instruments, make it challenging to draw apples-to-apples comparisons of hurricanes in recent years with those in the 19th and early 20th century. Despite that, here is a list of the strongest hurricanes in the record books, including new member Hurricane Milton, which joined the exclusive club last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are two primary metrics to rank a hurricane's intensity: surface pressure and wind speed. Surface Pressure: One of these metrics is the lowest pressure measured at the surface. Generally, the lower the pressure the stronger the hurricane. Meteorologists talk about pressure in units called millibars rather than inches of mercury. An average pressure at sea level is about 1013 millibars. Below are the top three strongest storms, in terms of surface pressure. 1. Wilma (2005): 882 millibars 2. Gilbert (1988): 888 millibars 3. "Labor Day" Hurricane (1935): 892 millibars Wilma set the record in October 2005 while over the western Caribbean Sea. Wilma's extreme intensity also set a record for the smallest documented eye size, only 2.3 miles wide. According to NOAA's Hurricane Research Division, an average eye is 20 to 40 miles wide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The 1935 Labor Day hurricane was the only one of these storms to make landfall in the U.S. at peak intensity. It ransacked the Florida Keys with maximum sustained winds estimated at 185 mph and a storm surge reaching 20 feet. It remains America's strongest hurricane landfall on record. Its winds and surge caused 408 deaths, primarily among World War I veterans who were working on construction in the area. (MORE: Five Most Intense U.S. Hurricanes) The only other 3 hurricanes that have dropped below 900 millibars were Hurricane Rita in 2005 (895 mb), Hurricane Milton in 2024 (897 mb) and Hurricane Allen in 1980 (899 mb). It's an elite club. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strongest storms in terms of wind speed: Another metric used to rank hurricanes is their peak sustained winds. In most cases today, these winds are measured by reconnaissance aircraft missions, since these top-end hurricanes most often happen either in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf, or the southwest Atlantic Ocean within reach of these aircraft. 1. Allen (1980): 190 mph 2-5. "Labor Day" (1935), Gilbert (1988), Wilma (2005) and Dorian (2019): 185 mph 6-9. Mitch (1998), Rita (2005), Irma (2017) and Milton (2024): 180 mph (MORE: The History Of Category 5 Atlantic Hurricanes) Before Milton, the most recent of these was Hurricane Dorian, which reached its peak intensity as it slammed into Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas on Sept. 1, 2019. Dorian then slowed to an agonizing crawl, dealing a catastrophic blow to the northwest Bahamas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some honorable mentions for 175 mph peak winds include Katrina (2005), Andrew (1992) before it slammed into Eleuthera in the Bahamas, and Maria (2017) while it was south of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The world records: If we expand out from the Atlantic Basin, the global records for lowest pressure and winds are incredible. The lowest surface pressure measured in any tropical cyclone was 870 millibars in Super Typhoon Tip in 1979. That's 12 millibars lower (stronger) than 2005's Hurricane Wilma. Tip was also the largest tropical cyclone on record, and its size could blanket much of the western U.S. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The global sustained wind speed record happened more recently. Hurricane Patricia reached maximum sustained winds of 215 mph off the coast of southwest Mexico in October 2015. It was also just 2 millibars shy of tying Tip for the global low pressure record, bottoming out at 872 millibars. Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter from a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then completed his Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X/Twitter, Facebook and Threads. A scripted video depicting a man stealing the mobile phone of a passenger on a moving train has been misrepresented among Indian social media users as footage of a crime committed by a refugee from Bangladesh. Relations between the neighbouring nations have turned icy since a mass uprising toppled Dhaka's previous government. "These Bangladeshi/Rohingyas live in huts near the railway tracks and indulge in acts of snatching and robbery," reads the Hindi-language caption of a Facebook video posted on July 7, 2025. The video -- viewed more than 20,000 times -- shows a man using a stick to knock a mobile phone out of the hands of a person filming from a fast-moving train. The man then grabs the phone, which has fallen near the tracks, and celebrates. Screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on July 14, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The same video also surfaced in similar Facebook and X posts after India deported hundreds of people to Bangladesh without trial, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who called the expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling (archived link). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants. Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, a former friend of India. India has also been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation. The video circulating online, however, was scripted. A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a higher-quality Facebook reel posted on July 1 (archived link). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The false posts use a horizontally flipped version of the video. "Do not keep your mobile phone and hands outside while travelling," reads its Bengali-language caption, alongside hashtags for "funny reels" and "comedy". Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared video (left) and the original Facebook clip (right) The video was shared on the Facebook page of Md Rota Mia, a user based in Bangladesh who describes themselves as a comedian. The page also features similarly staged clips (archived link). AFP has previously debunked other posts misrepresenting scripted videos. The former site of Rock Ridge Residential & Assisted Living Care Center in Shellsburg, Iowa. (Photo via Google Earth) A lawsuit between two health care providers is shedding new light on the scuttled sale of an eastern Iowa assisted living facility to a troubled company that runs substance-abuse treatment centers. Shellsburg Associates, an Iowa company based in Benton County, is suing Landmark Recovery of Louisville, a company based in Kentucky, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shellsburg Associates was formed in the mid-1990s when it created Rock Ridge Residential & Assisted Living Care Center in the town of Shellsburg. State records indicate that at one time, Rock Ridge had 54 resident rooms, plus self-contained apartments, and offered on-site nursing care along with a doctors office and a helicopter pad that could be used to help transport residents to hospitals in Cedar Rapids, 19 miles to the east. According to the lawsuit, Rock Ridge suffered numerous financial setbacks tied to the construction of competing residential care facilities that offered a continuum of care from independent living to full skilled-nursing care. In addition, the lawsuit claims, the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected Rock Ridge and the industry, resulting in high fatality rates and a resulting decline in occupancy. Rock Ridge, the lawsuit claims, had difficulty in retaining and paying its nursing and certified nursing assistant staff, and the homes occupancy dropped to only 12 residents in the facility with zero residents in the apartments. Rock Ridge collected governmental financial assistance in the form of Paycheck Protection Program loans and other pandemic-related benefits, but the lawsuit claims the funds were insufficient to maintain operations. At one point, the lawsuit alleges, one of Shellsburg Associates shareholder owners was providing nursing services to residents without pay, while the corporations president was providing administrative, maintenance and janitorial services without pay. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shellsburg Associates then fell behind in payments to its primary lender, Bank of the West, and considered filing for bankruptcy but decided instead to pursue a sale of the facility while winding down the corporation, the lawsuit alleges. In October 2021, Shellsburg Associates allegedly entered into an agreement with Senior Care Realty to market Rock Ridge. In May 2022, Shellsburg Associates agreed to sell the property for $1.25 million to Landmark Recovery, which planned to establish a substance-abuse treatment program there. The closing on the real estate transaction was scheduled for Oct. 19, 2022, with Landmark Recovery allegedly assuring Shellsburg Associates the sale would be completed as planned and asserting there were no financing or other issues that would delay the sale. According to the lawsuit, the owners of Rock Ridge vacated the building, assisted the remaining residents in relocating to other facilities, and cleared the buildings of any remaining personal property equipment so that Landmark Recovery could immediately take possession of the property at the closing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the lawsuit claims, three hours before the scheduled closing, Landmark Recovery notified Shellsburg Associates by email that the sale would not be completed. That decision, the lawsuit alleges, resulted in Shellsburg Associates inability to satisfy its obligations to Bank of the West, which proceeded to foreclose on the property. The real estate and care facility wound up being sold through a sheriffs sale for an amount that the plaintiff says was significantly lower than what Landmark Recovery had agreed to pay. When Shellsburg Associates attempted to collect money from Landmark Recovery for the damages it had incurred, the latter allegedly asserted that any such claims would have to be submitted to an arbitrator. Shellsburg Associates claims it then initiated an arbitration proceeding but Landmark Recovery refused to respond to the arbitration notices or to participate in the arbitration proceedings. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified damages for fraudulent misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract. When asked about the lawsuit, representatives of Landmark Recovery directed the Iowa Capital Dispatch to the companys corporate office and provided a phone number to a line that was disconnected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Landmark Recovery has experienced a number of financial and regulatory problems in recent years. In 2023, Indianas Division of Mental Health and Addiction shuttered three of the companys Indiana facilities after three patients died in a single week at one of the companys treatment centers. Company officials told Behavioral Health Business the closures led to a cashflow issue that resulted in two other Landmark Recovery facilities one in Nevada, and one in Oklahoma losing their lease. In January 2025, former Landmark patients and staff told Indiana television station WTHR that severe understaffing and neglect had contributed to injuries and deaths at two of the companys Indiana rehab centers. In February 2025, police alleged a female patient at a Landmark treatment center in Louisville, Kentucky, was strangled by another patient who is now charged with murder. Searching for forgiveness: Woman reconciles after husbands sudden death Janice Harris, the woman whose husband was hit and killed as he crossed Garrison Boulevard in Gastonia, said she feels sorry for Robert Johnson, the man who allegedly killed her husband. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Neighbors heartbroken after local writer struck, killed by Jeep near library I dont know that Ive forgiven him yet, but Im going to try, said Janice Harris. She said she is working toward forgiveness because thats what God and her husband, Stephen Harris, 70, would want. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stephen Harris walked to the public library, picked up a book and was walking home when the incident occurred. According to a witness, he had the book in his hand a smile on his face. It was senseless and didnt need to happen, Janice Harris said. Janice Harris misses her husband of 32 years, but said she fears that if Johnson, who is now in jail without bond, wasnt arrested, a similar situation could have happened again. I hope they get him off the roads, that he wont hurt anybody else, Janice Harris said. If it took that to get it then Stephen did something right. Janice Harris said that even if her husbands death helps, Johnson still has to face punishment. She thinks he should receive a prison sentence. Prosecutors have already said the case against Johnson is headed to the grand jury as soon as next week. Meanwhile, Janice Harris is preparing for her husbands memorial service. She said she wishes more than anything to have him back. VIDEO: Store clerk dodges headshot, still shot in arm during close call with gunman The Seattle City Council on Tuesday approved new legislation that will allow civil fines of up to $1,500 per violation for graffiti vandalism on both public and private property, aiming to deter repeat taggers and reduce cleanup costs that have reached millions annually. Councilmembers passed the amended ordinance in a 7-1 vote. The bill was sponsored by Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, and co-sponsored by Council President Sara Nelson. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement City Attorney Ann Davison originally proposed the legislation. This isnt about art, its about tagging, Nelson said, emphasizing that the city frequently hears complaints from residents and small businesses frustrated by graffiti and its impact. She called the measure a much-needed tool to discourage vandalism and reduce the financial burden on the community. According to city data, Seattle recorded nearly 29,000 reports of graffiti in 2024, with the estimated cost of cleanup reaching $6 million. Under the ordinance, the City Attorneys Office (CAO) can bring civil actions against individuals suspected of graffiti vandalism, with potential fines of up to $1,500 per offense and possible reimbursement of cleanup costs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new measure adds to existing criminal penalties but focuses on improving enforcement through civil litigation particularly for repeat offenders. Combatting graffiti is just one piece of a strategic framework that guides this Council in its approach to keeping our community safe, said Councilmember Kettle. Mitigating graffiti is one of the pillars on which we can build a safer, stronger public safety foundation. City officials say the criminal justice system has had limited success in holding taggers accountable. Although felony charges for graffiti damage exceeding $750 have been filed in the past, they often result in plea deals that reduce charges to misdemeanors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CAO statistics show that only 11% of misdemeanor graffiti cases result in a conviction. By contrast, civil penalties are expected to provide more flexibility and efficiency. The ordinance allows retroactive civil enforcement for violations committed up to three years before the law goes into effect, following approval of an amendment that passed 6-2. City Attorney Davison called the vote a turning point in how Seattle handles illegal graffiti. Seattles tolerance for illegal graffiti has expired. Stop vandalizing our city or we will hold you accountable, she said. Since the fines are imposed for each violation, it should serve as a big wake-up call to those who deface Seattle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The legislation also reaffirms that graffiti done with the consent of a property owner is not subject to penalties. Mayor Bruce Harrell voiced his support for the ordinance, stating, This legislation is another tool available to us to help remove tags and beautify the city, ensure those that are causing damage are held accountable, and continue expanding opportunity for artists to leave their mark through art that reflects the people, culture and experiences of our communities. The bill now heads to the mayors desk for signature. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) The second of three defendants who admitted to breaking into a substation in Trumbull County has been sentenced. Clifford Squires was ordered to complete the program at NEOCAP. He was taken to the Trumbull County Jail until a bed becomes available. Squires previously pleaded guilty to an amended indictment charging him with aggravated trespass and theft. It stems from the February 15 break-in at the NRG substation on Belmont Avenue in Weathersfield. Investigators noted a large hole was cut in the fence around the substation, and several control cables appeared to be cut and removed. Squires, Shawn Squires, and Dylan Hilty were arrested following a short chase. Police body camera video showed a large pile of wires in the trunk of the vehicle the men were in. Shawn Squires and Dylan Hilty have pleaded guilty to similar charges in connection with the incident. Shawn Squires is currently serving a 24-month prison sentence, while Dylan Hilty is scheduled for sentencing Thursday morning. Im sorry I got roped into this, Squires told the court. Judge Sean OBrien told Squires hes lucky he didnt get hurt or killed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. A voter walks by a ballot box outside Portland City Hall on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024. (Photo by Lauren McCauley/ Maine Morning Star) After investigating the recent accusation of multiple Maine citizens voting twice in the same election, the Secretary of States office has said it found the claims to be false. In a letter to the chair of the Maine Republican Party, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the Elections Division in her office found no incidents of dual voting among the list of 51 names accused by the party of voting twice in the same election. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation from Bellows office comes after the Maine GOP released the results of an election integrity investigation it conducted this year that focused on voters who were registered to vote twice. The state party, along with the help of the RNC, found more than 600 voters who registered to vote twice and more than 50 who voted twice in the same election, using an official state voter file provided by the Secretary of State, according to details shared in a June 26 Facebook post. Of the 51 names in question, 11 were different people with the same name and another 19 were erroneously recorded by their local municipality as having voted twice but in fact had not, according to a news release from Bellows office Wednesday morning. The rest of the voters records needed minor corrections or other administrative action, but had no record of dual voting. For example, there was an individual accused who voted in the municipal and state elections in June 2024, which are technically separate elections even when held on the same day. Bellows said anyone with concerns or evidence of improper voting should bring those to the Department of Secretary of State to investigate in accordance with the Constitution. She went on to say that its not only unfair to the individuals wrongly accused but also an insult to the hardworking state and local election officials to make false accusations of criminal activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Maine GOP did not respond to a request for comment on Bellows letter as of mid-Wednesday. The June accusations came less than a year after accusations of non-citizen voting across the country from Republican lawmakers and candidates before the November 2024 election. State lawmakers in Maine joined the chorus after a conservative news outlet published an article alleging six noncitizens are registered to vote in Maine by comparing voter rolls against self-reported status on medical records, which the website refused to turn over to the states constitutional officers. Bellows said at the time that she was committed to investigating the potential violations, but worried that the largely unsubstantiated claims will be used to sow doubt in the upcoming election results. Election officials in Maine inspect voter rolls after every election to identify duplicates or any potential wrongdoings, the release said. After the 2020 election, two individuals were identified during that process as having voted twice and were prosecuted by the Maine Office of Attorney General. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Routine election work also includes the review of duplicate registrations, which are not uncommon, especially after someone moves to a new municipality. The Secretary of State provides an annual report to the Maine Legislature outlining the cancellation of duplicates and other voter list maintenance. The 2024 report was delivered to the Legislatures Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee in January. It indicated that nearly 1,200 duplicate records were removed from the statewide voter registration database. Duplicate records are resolved by Elections Division staff at the Secretary of States office rather than municipal clerks who can only access their towns records to ensure uniformity across the state, the release said. We are proud of Maines safe, free, and secure elections, and I applaud the detailed work that Maine election officials do to ensure the integrity of our voter rolls and protect Maine elections, Bellows said in the letter. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales announced Wednesday that all Hoosiers will now have access to free Experian AutoCheck vehicle history reports. The news release from the Secretarys office states that this act will help protect Indiana consumers and boost confidence in used vehicle sales throughout the state. This new plan was developed by Morales Auto Dealer Services Division in collaboration with Experian. The service gives Indiana residents access to up to five free comprehensive vehicle history reports per year. Secretary of State urges Hoosiers to lookout for scams targeting elderly Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is about protecting Indiana consumers and promoting confidence in used vehicle purchases, said Morales. Since taking office, one of my top priorities has been constituent services, and this new initiative will allow consumers to make more informed decisions. Were putting the power of data in the hands of the peoplefree of charge. Key features for the Experian AutoCheck vehicle history reports are: Vehicle History at a Glance: Provides a quick summary of the vehicles ownership timeline, accident reports, and service history. Accident and Damage Records : Highlights any reported collisions or damage events. Title Flags: Identifies issues such as salvage, flood, rebuilt, or lemon titles. Odometer Check: Detects any odometer rollbacks or discrepancies. Additional History: Includes lien and repossession records, as well as indicators like grey market status. The AutoCheck Score O : A reliability and longevity rating between 1 and 100, based on the vehicles complete history. Open Recall Check: Shows any outstanding manufacturer recalls that may affect safety or performance. Service and Repair Logs: Includes service visits and known repairs. To access the reports for yourself, you can click this link. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com. Despite the Trump administrations hardline immigration policy and mass deportation plans, one government agency is looking to recruit from overseas, and security experts are said to be losing their minds over the prospect. The Federal Aviation Administration is studying the possibility of recruiting air traffic controllers from foreign countries, according to a document seen by The Atlantic. The FAA is facing significant air traffic controller staffing shortages, and to address this issue, is exploring the idea of recruiting experienced international talent, states a three-page executive summary of the initiative. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, this approach must be carefully managed to ensure that the FAAs high standards for safety and procedures are upheld, it adds, acknowledging the need to balance the critical areas of safety, training, national security, and immigration law to create a sustainable and effective workforce strategy for the FAA. The Trump administration has vowed since President Donald Trumps inauguration to protect American workers over the foreign-born, and yet the median salary for an air traffic controller is approximately $145,000, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2024. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official told The Atlantic that the FAAs security experts are losing their minds over the idea of bringing foreign nationals in to work at such a sensitive part of the U.S. aerospace system. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks at an event unveiling a new U.S. air traffic control system at the Department of Transportation. Experts are warning about the FAAs plan to hire more air traffic controllers. (Getty Images) Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy speaks at an event unveiling a new U.S. air traffic control system at the Department of Transportation. Experts are warning about the FAAs plan to hire more air traffic controllers. (Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There is particular concern over access they could gain to radars and communications networks, as well as sensitive information about military flight paths, restricted airspace, and air-defense zones. Department of Transportation spokesperson Nathaniel Sizemore told the outlet that the FAA is exploring every available option to address a shortage in the air traffic controller workforce. No final decision has been made regarding the hiring of overseas candidates, Sizemore said. However, he also suggested that the initiative could be payback, because foreign countries routinely steal U.S. controllers, who are rightfully frustrated by outdated tools and crumbling infrastructure. Current staffing shortfalls result in ground delays at airports across the U.S., which diminishes flight capacity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 90 percent of the countrys 313 air-traffic-control centers are functioning below the FAAs recommended staffing levels, according to the union that represents controllers. These shortages have led to fatigue and burnout among controllers, who are required to work mandatory overtime to maintain air travel operations. A preliminary FAA report says that Januarys midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport occurred when staffing was not normal. The crash killed 67 people. A preliminary FAA report says that Januarys midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport occurred when staffing was not normal. The crash killed 67 people. (AFP via Getty Images) A preliminary FAA report says that Januarys midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport occurred when staffing was not normal. The crash killed 67 people. (AFP via Getty Images) In the aftermath of the tragedy, Secretary Sean Duffy released plans to increase salaries for new trainees by 30 percent and offer bonuses to existing employees who agreed to postpone their retirement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A major stumbling block to looking overseas for controllers is that most federal jobs are only available to U.S. citizens, and FAA rules stipulate that non-citizens are not eligible for the necessary security clearances. In an effort to get around the rule, The Atlantic reports that the memo envisions a need to create a structured pathway for these international recruits that leads to FAA employment and eventual U.S. citizenship. The FAA appears to be taking inspiration from institutions that admit international students, despite the Trump administrations moves to crack down on foreign nationals studying in the U.S. The memo suggests a four-and-a-half-year path for candidates that includes language training and courses about weather and basic phraseology. Any applicants will require rigorous vetting and background checks, it notes, and objections are expected from labor unions. COLOGNE, Germany Customs officials in Cologne, Germany, made a startling discovery this summer when they inspected odd-smelling packages of snack cakes from Vietnam. Upon opening the package allegedly filled with 15 pounds of snack cakes, they discovered colorful packages of Vietnamese brands of cookies and chocolate cakes that contained, instead of sweet treats, an estimated 1,500 young tarantulas. Cookie and snack cake boxes filled with tarantulas. "The noticeable smell upon opening the large package was inconsistent with the alleged contents of 7 kilograms of biscuits," Jens Ahland, press spokesperson for the Cologne Main Customs Office, said in a news release, translated into English. "My colleagues at the airport are regularly surprised by the contents of prohibited packages from all over the world, but the discovery of around 1,500 small plastic containers containing young tarantulas in this package left even the most experienced among them speechless." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The tarantulas were so young and small that they were each packaged in small plastic vials. New Monster Tarantulas Species Is Hairy Giant Among Dwarves Cologne customs officials said many of the tarantulas did not survive the flight to Cologne. If they were on a nonstop flight from Vietnam, the tarantulas would have been on the plane for about 12 hours. Containers of tarantulas. "An extraordinary seizure for German Customs, even though it saddens us to see what some people do to animals purely for profit," Ahland said. The tarantulas that did survive were placed in professional care. Containers of tarantulas. How To Watch Fox Weather Criminal proceedings are underway for the intended recipient of the tarantulas, officials said. They noted that the charges involve not declaring the animals to customs and for not paying duties on packages from a country that is not part of the European Union. Original article source: See it: 1,500 tarantulas hidden in snack cake boxes smuggled into Germany What to do if you see invasive spotted lanternflies: DEEP CONNECTICUT (WTNH) The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is warning Connecticut residents of an invasive species becoming more prominent in the state over the coming weeks. The spotted lanternfly typically reaches its adult flying stage in July, according to the department. Regional Water Authority weeds out invasive plants with steam in Connecticut Spotted lanternflies can cause damage to forest trees, fruit crops and are particularly threatening to grapes and vineyards. The spotted lanternfly is an invasive species in Connecticut. DEEP reports that approximately half of Connecticuts trees are threatened by spotted lanternfly invasion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adult spotted lanternflies are about one inch long and one half-inch wide. They have tan forewings that have black spots, while their signature colorful hindwings have lower red patches and upper black patches, separated with a white section in between, according to the departments website The public is warned to immediately report spotted lanternfly sightings to the department. Residents should not move any wood, vegetation or live lanternflies from the state. More information on spotted lanternflies can be found on the departments website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) A search is underway for two new judges in our area. The new state budget creates one new Bay County judge and one new 14th Judicial Circuit judge. Ive shepherded more candidates through this procedure probably than any other chairman in past history, Judicial Nominating Commission Chairman Waylon Graham said. Criminal Defense Attorney Waylon Graham has served as the judicial nominating commission chairman for over a decade. So when the Florida Supreme Court recommended two new judgeships, Graham knew exactly what the commission would be considering. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unincorporated Bay County residents could see millage rate increase for fire services I can sum it up very simply. Were looking for smart, experienced lawyers with exceptional work habits, Graham said. One of the positions is for a circuit judgeship, meaning they would preside over all six counties in the 14th Judicial Circuit. The other position is for a judge who works exclusively in Bay County. The deadline to apply for both positions is August 1st. On August 29, Graham and the eight other members of the nominating commission will spend the entire day interviewing candidates. From there, an extensive debate and deliberation process will take place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Graham says their selection process will take around 60 days. From there, theyll make their recommendations to the governor. That process could take an additional 60 days. While it may be four months before we get the names of those two new judges, Graham says, right now judges are feeling pressure from overwhelming caseloads. Theres a sense of urgency to get them some help. I was talking with one of the circuit judges on Monday in his chambers in court, and he was pointing out to me, they need help and they need it right away, that theyre just drowning in cases, which I already knew because Im tuned in to the system, Graham said. Graham says the candidates must be in it for the long haul. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bay County Commissioners select northernmost route for Philip Griffitts Sr. Parkway design As the appointed individuals will eventually have to stand on their own in the election process. I just wanted to let the public know that we take this very, very seriously. And I take it very, very seriously. And were going to do our best to give them the very, very, very best candidates we can for these positions, Graham emphasized. For more details on how to apply and the required qualifications, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. A disturbing attempted kidnapping caught on camera has sparked a renewed focus on personal safety and self-defense in Northeast Florida. The incident happened in broad daylight on State Road 206 East in St. Johns County. Surveillance footage shows a man ambushing a woman, locking her in a chokehold, and dragging her toward a nearby truck. The shocking video has many residents asking a critical question: how do you fight back? At Underground Fitness and Self-Defense, instructor Benjamin LeMasters used the video as a teaching moment, pausing the footage mid-attack to show exactly what happened and how to respond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement From the neck like this, and he is pulling her back, a student explained, demonstrating the technique used by the attacker. LeMasters praised the victims instinctive response. Number one, I saw her fighting back and yellingthat is the first thing we teach in self-defense. You have to do something. According to LeMasters, the womans reaction followed the fundamentals of survival in a real-world attack. The other thing I noticed is that it was an untrained attacker. Most attackers are not trained, so if you can demonstrate that you are a threat, that definitely puts you at an advantage. [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks] In his class, students learned how to break free from chokeholds, target vulnerable areas, and avoid being pulled into a vehicle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first thing you wanna do is try to hit them with something. If its not an elbow, stomp their foot, LeMasters advised during a demonstration. Jessica Jordan, a student at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, showed Action News Jax how she would respond in a similar situation. Self-defense lessons rise after attempted kidnapping outside St. Johns County Smoke Shop. Self-defense classes underway. Nicholas: How can a person get out of a chokehold? Jessica: We call it the rear pull-back defense. [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter] The move was then demonstrated in real time, offering a glimpse of how the technique can be applied under pressure. LeMasters also discussed self-defense tools and emphasized that even simple body movements can be powerful when executed correctly. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They can go in all different kinds of directions, and its very safe to youvery damaging to your attacker, he said while demonstrating the use of elbows in a close-combat scenario. LeMasters stressed that self-defense isnt about confrontationits about survival. Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live. MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) A vehicle fire broke out on Interstate 79 in Monongalia County Tuesday evening, causing significant delays just south of Morgantown. Screenshot from West Virginia 511 of a vehicle fire on Interstate 79 in Monongalia County Details are limited at this time, but according to West Virginia 511 data, a semi truck fire broke out on I-79 south near the split with I-68 at about 5:54 p.m. Traffic in the area does not appear to be moving as of 6 p.m. West Virginia 511 data shows that the vehicle was a tractor-trailer. The fire is producing a large amount of white smoke in the area, and fire crews have arrived to begin putting it out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials with the Monongalia County 911 Center told 12 News that nobody was transported from the scene. Crews with Triune-Halleck, Granville and Clinton District Volunteer Fire Departments responded to the scene. This is a developing story. Stick with 12 News for updates. Editors note: This story has been updated to include information from the Monongalia County 911 Center. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBOY.com. When a politician heads to the Iowa State Fair, it generally means one of two things: They either love corn dogs or they are testing the waters for a possible presidential run. While the rest of the U.S. Senate will go on its annual break in August, Arizona freshman Ruben Gallego is heading to Des Moines to meet with middle America to potentially gauge his chances in what is expected to be a crowded field of Democratic contenders. In May 2025, in another out-of-state appearance, Gallego held a town hall in suburban Philadelphia where he rolled out his stand-alone blueprint on border security and immigration for anyone who might be interested in what he thinks. Advertisement Advertisement But his scheduled trip to Americas heartland for the fair and a town hall stands as the latest and most significant sign yet that he is seriously considering a run for the White House. This week on The Gaggle, a politics podcast by The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com, hosts Ron Hansen and Mary Jo Pitzl are joined by Des Moines Register politics reporter Brianne Pfannensteil. She joins the podcast to talk through what this trip means, if stopping at the Iowa State Fair is still a strong indicator of who is interested in the White House spot and how voters outside of Arizona view the senator. Listen to the episode The best way to listen is to subscribe to The Gaggle on your favorite podcast app, but you can also stream the full episode below. Note: The Gaggle is intended to be heard. But we also offer an AI transcript of the episode script. There may be slight deviations from the podcast audio. Listen to The Gaggle : Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher Have a question or comment about Arizona politics? You can share your thoughts with us at 602-444-0804 or via email here. Advertisement Advertisement Reach the producer Amanda Luberto at aluberto@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @amandaluberto and on Bluesky @amandaluberto. Catch up on previous Gaggle episodes here: This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Is Sen. Gallego eyeing a run for president in 2028? Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said he no longer actively engages on social media, and called out Bluesky a microblogging platform that many left-wing X users migrated to after Donald Trump was reelected for condoning death threats against him. At Semafors Solving the Youth Wellbeing Challenge event in DC on Wednesday, Fetterman and his Republican colleague Sen. Katie Britt urged Congress to pass legislation barring children under the age of 13 from using social media. The two senators have already proposed a mental health warning label requirement for social media platforms. Im actually not on social media at all, Fetterman said, suggesting that while he was involved in creating his own content, his team posted it on his behalf. He added that he and his family had been personally affected by online platforms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Pennsylvania senator said that his social media team singled out Bluesky as a more verbally abusive environment for him: If youre wishing for someone dying ... remember, children are connected to that same matrix. Britt, of Alabama, said that tech companies should be prohibited from using algorithms to direct certain types of content to young people between the ages of 13 and 17, citing statistics showing the prevalence of suicidal ideation among teenagers and young women, in particular. The longer you stay on a post, the more money they make and the more depressing the content that is being viewed, Britt said. Britt, who has collaborated on successful legislation with Fetterman, with whom she has a real outside-of-work friendship, demurred when asked whether she had considered lobbying him to switch to the Republican Party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John is an independent thinker, Britt said. You have someone that is calling balls and strikes, and that should absolutely be celebrated. Im a Democrat, Fetterman responded. Ill agree on some things and Ill disagree on other things. Digital infrastructure and cable network system EXA Infrastructure has deployed a new 1200 km fibre route connecting London to Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Brussels. The new 1,200 km route includes 1,085 km of new low-loss G.652D terrestrial fibre for end-to-end connectivity and a 115 km subsea build from Margate, UK to Ostend, Belgium, utilising ultra-low-loss G.654C cable. Two new cable landing stations EXAs 21st and 22nd globally add to its network, which spans the US East Coast, Western Europe, and the Mediterranean. Steve Roberts, SVP Strategic Network Investments and Product Management at EXA Infrastructure, described the new fibre deployment as a real milestone for robust connectivity options in Europe. "It includes the first new subsea cable on this complex corridor the North Sea in 25 years," Roberts said. "This new route complements our investment in the Channel Tunnel, delivering scalable, modern and optimized fibre paths between key FLAP hubs. Ciaran Delaney, COO at EXA Infrastructure said the deployment had been a complex and challenging build. "The regulatory landscape in Europe, plus the North Seas challenging seabed conditions, demanded in-region expertise in the various jurisdictions, as well as sophisticated installation techniques particularly on the wet segments to install and protect the system from future interruption to service," Delaney said. "At EXA Infrastructure, we have the right expertise and experience to overcome the most complex and demanding situations to deliver next-generation connectivity across Europe. Senate GOP leaders are looking to avoid a repeat of the lengthy and sometimes bewildering floor process that led to the passage of the Trump tax bill by locking down key details with holdouts before the chamber moves to a vote-a-rama Wednesday on a bill to claw back funding. A number of rank-and-file members indicated in recent days that they hoped leadership would do everything possible to sidestep the tumult that engulfed the conference days before July 4 and limit the side deals that were being worked out at the last minute. All indications Tuesday were that leaders were attempting to do just that. They resolved two key issues protecting the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program and some rural broadcasters a day before a key vote-a-rama is set to happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congress has until Friday to send the bill, known as a rescissions package, to President Trumps desk. It contains a request to claw back $9 billion in already appropriated funds for foreign aid and public broadcasting. Thunes been really transparent on all of this, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said, pointing to the pre-vote-a-rama effort and push to limit potential side deals. The White House and Senate GOP members made massive strides Tuesday toward a potential final green light to pass the bill. Early in the day, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) announced he was on board with the package after striking a deal to ensure radio stations in tribal communities continue to receive funding. He had been concerned about the effect cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which helps fund NPR and PBS would have on Native American areas that rely on those stations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rounds told reporters that the administration is reallocating Biden-era Green New Deal money to fund those broadcasters, unlocking his vote in the process. I think it was caught in the crossfire, Rounds said about the provision. They understood my concern. They recognized this is not something people necessarily wanted to cut out. These were not part of the targeted groups that a lot of folks have problems with, and they provide a real service in rural areas. The bigger news came hours later, when negotiators announced that planned PEPFAR cuts were out of the bill entirely, potentially unlocking the support of multiple moderates who had fretted about their inclusion, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Neither moderate has said how they will vote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The move also strips $400 million from the bill, bringing the rescissions total down from $9.4 billion to $9 billion. White House is supportive. Everybodys on the same page, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), the lead sponsor of the bill, told reporters. The news emerged after Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought appeared at the weekly Senate GOP luncheon to discuss the package, which statutorily must be completed by Friday. Its substantially the same package, and the Senate has to work its will and weve appreciated the work along the way to get to a place where theyve got the votes, Vought said after lunch. There is a substitute amendment that does not include the PEPFAR rescission and were fine with that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murkowski and Collins were the foremost opponents of the cuts to PEPFAR, which was launched by former President George W. Bush more than two decades ago. Collins had already shown her potential independence by voting against the Trump tax bill last week, while Murkowski demanded a number of last-minute deals to secure her vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters after lunch that there was a lot of interest in making PEPFAR changes, labeling it a small modification. He also believes the change will not cause issues across the Capitol because the Senate is making changes to the bill, it must return to the House before heading to Trumps desk. I wouldnt say anythings prebaked, Thune said when asked if the topic was run by Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Obviously, its something weve been working closely with the administration on, and my assumption is that the level of coordination that weve had that they [the House] would take [it] up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rank-and-file Senate GOP members still hope leaders limit further changes by the time it hits the lower chamber. It would be nice if we didnt have to inflict so much pain on ourselves, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told The Hill. How bad can it be? Some people want to refine the rescissions a bit. They want more detail, he continued. Im with it as it is. Its just time to rein some of that back in. Nevertheless, some members are seeking further changes via the amendment process. Sure, in an ideal world. But this is legislating, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said about the prospect of cutting out side deals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hawley noted plans to file an amendment that would add $5 billion more in cuts to the package in a bid to slash a Green New Deal loan that would affect his state, though he said he wasnt even sure it complies with the rules of the pending vote-a-rama. Id like to make it bigger, he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. In the rush to embrace AI, enterprises have encountered a harsh reality: transformation takes more than technology. Two years ago, generative AI promised to revolutionise operations and decision-making. Yet today, many organisations find themselves with pilot projects that are failing to scale, and AI investments that are falling short of expectations. The fundamental issue? AI lacks the operational context to deliver on its potential. Even the most sophisticated models struggle when confronted with the messy, interconnected realities of enterprise processes. This is where Process Intelligence has emerged as a game-changer, turning AIs potential into strategic impact. Our own survey (the 2025 Celonis Process Optimisation Report) found that while most organisations are rapidly embracing AI, 90% of IT leaders remain concerned about its growing use within their companies. Top worries include increased security risks, pressure to prove return on investment, and a widening skills gap. From AI hype to meaningful progress The past two years have underscored the limitations of deploying AI without a foundational understanding of business operations. Enterprises of all sizes and industries have eagerly adopted LLMs and other AI technologies, driven by their impressive capabilities. But without an accurate picture of how their businesses actually function, these efforts often hit roadblocks. Consider invoice processing. Leaders might imagine a linear workflow - invoice arrives, approval follows, payment is issued. In reality, this process often involves dozens of steps, detours, and manual interventions. Applying AI to such a chaotic environment without clear visibility is like attempting to automate a moving target. Process Intelligence changes the equation. By mapping workflows in detail, it provides AI with the context needed to operate effectively. It doesnt just improve AIs ability to execute tasks, it ensures those tasks align with the broader goals of the business. The Digital Twin revolution Process Intelligence acts as the connective tissue of the modern enterprise. It creates a digital twin of an organisation, offering a real-time view of processes, their interdependencies, and inefficiencies. These models need to be system-agnostic to ensure they can integrate seamlessly with diverse enterprise ecosystems, providing a holistic view across all platforms and tools, including their intersections. This foundation enables AI to: Automate routine tasks: AI agents can take over repetitive decisions, such as flagging invoices for approval, with accuracy and speed. Enhance human decision-making: With a human-in-the-loop approach, AI provides data-driven recommendations, learning from user feedback to improve continuously. Drive proactive improvements: By analysing how processes flow, AI identifies opportunities for optimisation before problems arise. The changing relationship between AI and users As AI becomes more integrated into the workplace, its interface with users has transformed. Natural language interfaces now allow employees to interact with systems using plain language, democratising access to AI insights. However, without Process Intelligence, these interfaces risk delivering generic or irrelevant results. Process Intelligence grounds AI in the specific realities of a business. It ensures that LLMs and other AI tools are fed with accurate, context-rich data, enabling them to provide actionable insights that resonate across departments and roles. This alignment empowers AI to act not just as a tool but as a strategic advisor. Scaling efficiency and sustainability In a world of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, talent scarcity, and escalating demands for efficiency, the stakes for businesses have never been higher. Process Intelligence offers a path to navigate these challenges, delivering results that go beyond productivity. Some real-world examples include: Reducing case backlog by 25% in the Texas Juvenile Justice system, enabling faster resolutions and better outcomes for families. Saving the US State of Oklahoma $60 million in taxpayer funds through optimised procurement processes in public sector organisations. Improving Campari Groups order-to-cash efficiency by 20%, accelerating revenue realisation for global businesses. Streamlining Ingka Group cash flow processes across 30 countries, enhancing financial operations for Ingka Group. Achieving 50% faster order fulfillment for Cosentino through AI-powered business transformation, improving customer satisfaction and operational agility. Furthermore, by aligning people, processes, and technology, Process Intelligence not only drives efficiency but also advances sustainability goals. Reduced waste and emissions, coupled with smarter resource allocation, position organizations to thrive in a fast-changing world. Building a world where processes work The lessons of the past two years are clear: AI alone cannot solve the complexities of enterprise operations. To realise its promise, AI must be underpinned by a deep understanding of how businesses work. Process Intelligence provides that foundation, transforming AI from a hopeful experiment into a powerful engine for innovation. New series Unsolved Upstate sheds light on South Carolina mysteries (WSPA) A new series titled Unsolved Upstate is diving deep into some of South Carolinas unresolved cases. Led by 7NEWS Gordon Dill and Kelci ODonnell, the show focuses on the crimes and disappearances that have left families in the Upstate region without answers for years. These are real people with families, friends, and futures, said Gordon Dill. If this show can help generate even one useful lead, then its worth it. As the series continues, viewers can expect to see more in-depth looks at homicides, missing persons, and cold cases across the Upstate region, all with one goal: to bring justice and healing to communities still searching for answers. Episode One: A Party Turned Tragedy in Union County The debut episode focuses on a shooting that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 23, 2020, at a massive block party on Dover Road in Union County. Estimated to have drawn around 1,000 attendees, investigators said the gathering ended in chaos when gunfire erupted, leaving two young men dead and six others hurt. The Victims The two people killed were: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jabari Brandon, 17, of Union Curtis Lamont Bomar, 21, of Spartanburg Captain Scott Coffer with the Union County Sheriffs Office said both were believed to be innocent bystanders with no evidence linking them to the violence. They were just partygoers, said Coffer. They still had a lot of life to live. What Happened That Night The incident began when deputies responded to complaints about vehicles blocking Highway 9 and SC-114 due to the large party. As officers tried to clear the congestion, gunfire broke out near the center of the event. Initial reports indicated multiple shooters, according to the Union County Sheriffs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One key detail came from a witness who saw a silver vehicle arrive shortly before the shooting began. According to a statement made to investigators, a man leaned out the window and shouted: Leave now if you dont want to die. Authorities said gunfire followed, igniting panic as partygoers ran in all directions. Despite the chaos, deputies secured the scene and treated victims, but with such a large crowd and limited evidence, no arrests were made. The Investigation In the weeks following the incident, deputies said they collected extensive evidence, including body-worn camera footage, eyewitness statements, and DNA from an abandoned vehicle suspected to be involved. So far, no charges have been filed in connection with the killings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our hope is that whoever knows what happened will step up and do the right thing and help us solve it, Coffer said. The Union County Sheriffs Office urges anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to call (864) 429-1612 or submit a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers. The Disappearance of Jana Manasco in 2023 The second half of the episode shifts to a missing persons case: Jana Manasco was last seen in August 2023 in the Monarch area of Union County. She was 31 years old at the time of her disappearance. After weeks of silence, she was officially reported missing by a family member in September 2023. Jana Manasco (Courtesy: Union County Sheriffs Office) Investigators said Manasco was a once-standout athlete who was known for her kind heart. Before her disappearance, authorities said she was struggling with homelessness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was well-liked by everyone, said Investigator Roger Suber. She had friends, she had a son, she spoke to daily and that contact just stopped. Over the past two years, deputies said investigative efforts have included land and well searches, hours of work with cadaver dogs, and extensive cell phone and social media tracking. Ultimately, investigators said they have not been able to track a digital or physical trace of Manasco in the nearly two years since she has been missing. She is described as 54, 151 pounds, with brown hair and hazel eyes. Deputies said she has ties to Greensboro, North Carolina, but authorities have no confirmed sightings in that area. She may also be known by her last name, Stines, according to detectives. A Communitys Role With little forensic evidence, deputies said the investigation is now relying heavily on the public. Investigator Suber stressed that any information, even secondhand accounts, could be vital for the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even if you saw someone like her a year ago, tell us. Well follow up on every lead, said Suber. Manascos family and young son continue to wait, hopeful that someone will step forward to provide the missing piece of the puzzle. How to Help If you have any information related to either case: Union County Sheriffs Office : (864) 429-1612 Crime Stoppers (can report anonymous): (864) 427-0800 Or report directly via 911 New episodes of Unsolved Upstate are available on local broadcasting platforms and streaming on WSPA+. Download it now on Roku, Apple TV+, and FireTV. Watch a tutorial on how to download WSPA+ here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSPA 7NEWS. Former Conservative ministers have "serious questions to answer" over a data breach which revealed the details of thousands of Afghans who had supported British forces, Sir Keir Starmer has said. The prime minister said the failings inherited by his government included a super-injunction which blocked reporting of the breach, and a "secret route" for those affected to come to the UK "that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds". Details of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to move to the UK after the Taliban seized power were mistakenly leaked in February 2022 by a British official. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The previous government learned of this in August 2023 when details were posted on Facebook. Sir Ben Wallace, who was defence secretary at the time, said the Conservative government had applied for a four-month injunction after it became aware of the breach, which a judge converted to a super-injunction, meaning even the existence of the court order could not be reported. The super-injunction was lifted on Tuesday, following a review. Sir Ben, who left the role at the end of August 2023 and was replaced as defence secretary by Grant Shapps, said he makes "no apology" for applying for the initial injunction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He insisted this was "not a cover-up" but designed to protect Afghans who could be at risk. Speaking at the start of Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons, Sir Keir said: "There's always been support across this House for the United Kingdom fulfilling our obligations to Afghans who served alongside British forces. "We warned in opposition about Conservative management of this policy and yesterday, the defence secretary set out the full extent of the failings that we inherited: a major data breach, a superinjunction, a secret route that has already cost hundreds of millions of pounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Ministers who served under the party opposite have serious questions to answer about how this was ever allowed to happen." An emergency resettlement scheme for those affected by the breach, the Afghanistan Response Route, was set up in April 2024 and has seen 4,500 Afghans arrive in the UK so far. It has cost 400m, with a projected final cost of about 850m. A total of 6,900 people are expected to come to the UK under this scheme, which has now closed. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) believes 600 Afghan soldiers included in the leak, and 1,800 of their family members, are still in Afghanistan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The existence of the scheme was only made public after the super-injunction was lifted by the High Court. Explaining the decision, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the MoD's internal review found the Taliban "likely already possess the key information in the dataset" and confirmation of its existence was unlikely to "substantially" raise the risk faced by those impacted. Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told the House of Commons the super-injunction raised "significant constitutional issues". As MPs were unaware of the breach, it could not be raised in the Commons or examined by a parliamentary committee. Those affected by the breach had applied to come to the UK under a scheme for Afghans who worked with British forces [Getty Images] BBC News understands that ministers decided last autumn that they needed to look at whether to lift the super-injunction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The super-injunction had been lifted by a judge in May 2024, the day before Rishi Sunak called the general election, but the then-Conservative government successfully appealed that decision. Labour ministers are also facing questions over why the super-injunction was kept in place. Downing Street defended the government's decision to apply for the super-injunction to be extended, saying "there was significant work that needed to be done" to assess the situation. A review looking at the possibility of lifting the super-injunction formally began in January. The daughter of an Afghan translator whose details were leaked told the BBC's Newsnight programme her whole family "panicked" when they found out about the breach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "No one knows where the data has been sent to - it could be sent to the Taliban, they could have their hands on it," she said. Her grandmother, who is still in Afghanistan, is "completely vulnerable", she added. Asif Khan not his real name took part in joint operations with the British Army against the Taliban. He was brought to the UK six weeks ago from Islamabad, after being told to move from Afghanistan to Pakistan to be evacuated. Asif, who was emailed about the data breach on Tuesday, said he feared for the safety of his family, particularly his brothers. "I really wish nothing [happens] to them since they were not part of any military operation with me," he told the BBC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I have many colleagues [who] fought with us shoulder to shoulder but they [are] left in Afghanistan - I am particularity concerned about them now." In other developments: A senior MoD source told the BBC the government plans to challenge any compensation claims, as they believe anyone sufficiently at risk has already been relocated or is in the process of this The Liberal Democrats have called for a public inquiry to scrutinise the size of the breach and subsequent government efforts to block reporting of the details The Commons Defence Committee has said it will launch an inquiry into the breach "to ensure that lessons are learned". Downing Street has not said whether the official responsible for the leak has faced disciplinary action but they are no longer in the same role. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both Defence Secretary John Healey and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch have apologised on behalf of their parties for the breach. The leak, which came after the withdrawal of US and UK troops from Afghanistan in 2021, involved the names of people who had applied to come to the UK under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme. The scheme was open to Afghans who worked with the UK government, as well as their family members, and feared reprisals from the Taliban. If you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist in relation to this story, you can do so here. Shas's leaders directed MKs not to topple the government, though their decision shrinks Netanyahu's coalition to 29 MKs. Shass spiritual leadership on Wednesday instructed its party to resign from the government but not leave the coalition over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus failure to follow through on a promise to exempt yeshiva students from IDF service. Despite the decision to quit the government, the Sephardi-ultra-Orthodox partys spiritual leadership, known as the Council of Torah Sages, stressed it will not join with the opposition to bring down the government, since they too led incitement against Torah scholars. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rather, the council gave Netanyahu a new deadline the beginning of the Knesset winter session on October 19 to find a solution to the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) IDF draft issue. The decision came after the two Ashkenazi factions from United Torah Judaism quit the government on Monday and Tuesday at the directive of their spiritual leaderships. The political rupture came after negotiations between the haredi representatives and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman MK Yuli Edelstein over a bill to regulate haredi service in the IDF fell through on Monday night. Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein leads a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on May 8, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90) In its statement, Shass council laid the blame for the rupture squarely on Edelstein, who it said reneged on all of the agreements on the matter, and added draconian and unacceptable demands, whose entire purpose is to harm and disgrace Torah students. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The council also decried the cruel and criminal persecution of yeshiva students by law enforcement agencies led by the attorney-general, and encouraged yeshiva students to continue in their studies. The statement also included a prayer for the return of the hostages in Hamas captivity, and a directive to party chairman MK Arye Deri to back Netanyahus efforts to land a hostage-release agreement. Shass exit from the government will leave a series of ministerial and Knesset committee chairmanships empty. These include the Interior, Health, Welfare, and Religious Affairs ministries. Shas's decision leaves Netanyhu just 49 MKs in the coalition, far from the needed 61 Despite the rabbis statement that Shas was not leaving the coalition, its decision potentially leaves Netanyahu being able to count on a coalition of only 49 MKs, far below a majority of 61. This could effectively paralyze most parliamentary activity, but the damage is negated by the fact that the Knesset will recess on July 27 for three months, meaning that parliamentary activity will soon cease, regardless. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a video statement in response to Shass decision, opposition leader MK Yair Lapid said, A minority government cannot send soldiers into battle. A minority government cannot decide who lives and who dies. A minority government cannot determine the fate of Gaza, or finalize agreements with Syria and Saudi Arabia. It cannot continue transferring billions to the corrupt and draft dodgers at the expense of taxpayers. Certainly, a minority government cannot exempt ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service. It has no authority, no right. It is an illegitimate government. The State of Israel faces major challenges and must make significant decisions. Its time for elections. Now. In a series of statements and interviews on Tuesday and earlier on Wednesday, haredi members of Knesset and officials affiliated with the haredi parties accused Edelstein of deceiving them throughout the negotiation process, and for reneging on agreements reached on June 12, a day before Israels surprise attack against Iran. Edelstein responded on Tuesday that the June 12 agreements still left many issues open, and that it was the haredim, and not he, who reneged from the agreements, when they broke a promise not to act against the government during the Iran operation. In addition, Edelstein hinted that the June 12 agreements were non-binding; his agreement on June 12 was aimed chiefly at preventing the passage of a preliminary vote to disperse the Knesset, which he said could have endangered the operation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The June 12 agreements stipulated that an increasing quota of haredi draftees would enlist annually, with the ultimate goal of 50% of each graduating class within five years. The bill included a series of sanctions that would apply to draft dodgers gradually, with some relatively light sanctions applying immediately, and heavier sanctions added at six-month increments. Financial sanctions would also be applied to yeshivot that do not reach draft quotas. In the meantime, current sanctions against draft dodgers which include blocked funds to yeshivot and the cessation of state-subsidized daycare would be lifted. The text of the bill that Edelstein presented to haredi representatives on Monday evening included a number of additional provisions that irked them, a source confirmed. According to the source, these included a demand that all haredim go through initial IDF enlistment procedures before receiving exemptions, so that they could be drafted quickly if necessary; the use of fingerprint technology to oversee attendance of yeshiva students who receive exemptions; the initial annual quota beginning with 5,700 draftees, as opposed to the original number of 4,800; requirement of legal approval in the FADC prior to sending the bill to the plenum for final approval; and more. Jul. 16Listen to "Talk-Line: Matthew Lenox, Visit Northwest Illinois Executive Director" on Spreaker. The TALK-LINE interview for July 15 featured Visit Northwest Illinois Executive Director Matthew Lenox discussing the recent physical moves made by the organization, relocating from Polo to the River Works complex in Dixon. Also discussed: a preview of the upcoming annual dinner held in Rock Falls in September and a spotlight of area events in Rock Falls, Erie, and Dixon scheduled to take place between now and early August. Like what you hear? Be sure to visit WIXN, part of Shaw Local Radio. We're also available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Credit: Netflix When Iva and Ron Bradley boarded a weeklong cruise in Puerto Rico with their daughter Amy and son Brad in March 1998, they expected to spend a relaxing time on the water surrounded by good food, drinks, and opportunities to spend quality time together. But before the Royal Caribbean cruise ship Rhapsody of the Seas made it to its second port at the island of Curacao, Amy, 23, went missing in the early hours of March 24. She was never found. Netflixs new three-part docuseries, Amy Bradley Is Missing, premiering today, explores the cold case thats baffled the Bradley family and investigators for over 27 years. Amys disappearance prompted a boat-wide search. But after Curacao investigators announced they didnt believe she had gone overboard, suspicion swung to crew members. When no answers appeared, the search for Amy went off the boat and toward countless possibilities drugs, illicit romance, murder, even human trafficking all with the aim of answering her familys all-consuming questions. If Amy Bradley didnt die, then where did she go? Months later, the search was complicated further by sightings on Curacao and neighboring islands, with multiple bystanders claiming to authorities that they saw Amy. So if the yearslong rumors and sightings are true and Amy is currently living anonymously somewhere in the Caribbean, why did Amy leave in the first place? And why hasnt she called home? More from Rolling Stone Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are a few stories that you just have to tell, co-directors Ari Mark and Phil Lott told People in a statement. This was a must do for us. The more we got to know the Bradleys the more two things became abundantly clear first, that the familys belief that Amy is still alive was and continues to be unbreakable and second, that maybe theyre right. A Dream Vacation According to Amys parents, the family won the cruise as a prize from the Illinois Mutual Insurance Company, where both Iva and Ron worked. Amy and Brad came with but were required to share a room with their parents. The group was last together on the night of March 23, when they had a formal dinner. Afterward, the family attended a pool party. When Iva and Ron went to bed, Amy and Brad went to the ships disco, where they had several drinks before individually returning to the room. The siblings sat on the balcony in their room and talked while they finished their drinks. In addition to discussing their itinerary for the next day in Curacao, Brad says in the documentary series that Amy mentioned dancing with someone who later made a pass at her, but didnt seem to imply it was that important. When he was ready for bed, she said she wanted to try and sleep outside. She said, I dont feel too good. Im gonna sit right here with all the fresh air and the wind, Brad says in the series. I told her I loved her and Id see her tomorrow and shut the glass door behind me. And I went to bed. Around 5:30 a.m., Amys father Ron woke up and saw Amys legs and feet in a lounge chair on the balcony. He tells the docuseries he purposefully checked to make sure she was safe, and then went back to bed. But when he woke up again around 6 a.m., she wasnt there. After searching the ship in places they thought she could be, Ron, Iva, and Brad immediately asked the crew for help. A Missing Daughter Even though Amy was reported missing only a few hours after shed last been seen, much of the confusion around her disappearance came from the slow speed at which outside police were involved. This is a common problem with crimes on cruise ships, as a majority of the journey is spent in international water and it takes time for U.S. specific authorities to come, according to Jamie Barnett, a cruise safety advocate whos interviewed in the show. Barnetts daughter died on a cruise from Long Beach to Mexico and she says in the docuseries that the experience inspired her to work in cruise safety improvement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most people have no idea when they board a cruise ship the dangers that are inherent there. But the things that have happened to me, things that have happened to Amy Bradley and her family, can happen to anyone, she says in the docuseries. And they do happen all the time. Amys family noted her disappearance as the ship arrived at Curacao and asked to keep people on the cruise ship, but that request was denied. After the ships crew searched again, Curacao authorities conducted a search for her body in case she fell overboard, but found nothing. The FBI was contacted, but the Bradley familys room had already been cleaned removing any potential evidence. After Curacao authorities couldnt find any indication that Amy jumped or fell overboard, the investigation moved to the passengers and potential evidence that could be found from that night. The Initial Theories One of the initial suspects in the case was Alistir Douglas, a bass player who usually performed on the pool deck who often went by the nickname Yellow. Several people, including Brad, saw Amy dancing and talking with Douglas the night she disappeared. Lori Thompson, a passenger who was 18 at the time of the cruise, says in the docuseries that she and a friend saw Douglas and Amy together sometime between 5 and 6 a.m., before noticing Douglas walking by again minutes later, but without Amy. Douglas was interviewed by FBI agents, and took a polygraph test (which was inconclusive), but vehemently denied having anything to do with the disappearance, according to the docuseries. While investigators looked into men with whom Amy was seen, her close high school and college friends say in the documentary that she had only been in relationships with women, and had already come out to her parents as gay. Douglas daughter, Amica Douglas, appears in the documentary and says her mother divorced Douglas because of Amys case. Amica calls her father in the documentary while cameras are rolling, but he continues to deny any involvement. I dont want to go through this again, Douglas can be heard saying. I didnt do anything wrong. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Months after Amys disappearance, there were several people who reported seeing someone matching her description on or near Curacao many implying that Amy was under some kind of duress from a trafficking or drug-related situation. When Iva, Ron, and Brad returned for a press conference asking people for help finding Amy, a taxi driver approached them and said he had seen a woman who matched Amys description before. Separately, in August 1998, an eye witness named David Carmichael told the FBI that he saw a woman who looked like Amy walking on a beach in Curacao, but was stopped from speaking to her by a man who looked like Douglas. In January 1999, Bill Hefner, a Naval service member on the U.S.S. Chandler, said that he was approached by a woman in a brothel who said her name was Amy Bradley and she was being held against her will because she owed men money for drugs. Hefner said the person who approached him looked like the released photos of Amy but it took him at least two years to report the incident to the FBI because he was afraid of being demoted in the Navy, he says in the documentary. In 2005, a woman on vacation also reported seeing someone who looked like Amy in Bridgetown, Barbados, but FBI couldnt confirm her statement. Throughout the Bradleys search for Amy, there have also been several potential messages sent directly to the family via email. In one they considered promising, an anonymous source sent a photo from a website that appeared to be promoting prostitution and included a photo of one of the women on the site. After the FBI studied it, they believed it could possibly be Amy, but had no means of reliably tracking down where the photo was from or who took it. The Ongoing Search Amateur true-crime enthusiast and online investigator Anthony Willis first heard about Amys case in 2014, but quickly became interested in the prevalence of online theories about Amys disappearance. He started a website compiling all of the information about Amy, including updated photos from her family, to keep knowledge about the investigation easily accessible. He and Carmichael the eyewitness who thought he saw Amy on a Curacao beach mined the site visitor log and found that someone visited dozens of times during the holidays and family members birthdays. The IP address was located in Bridgetown, Barbados. Throughout the years, including amid the online theorizing, Amys family has maintained that they will not give up their search. Twenty six years of looking for Amy every day, Iva says in the series. Its a life goal. In my quiet times, I mean, its just like What did we miss? Because I know somebody knows something. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Amys father, Ron, says the biggest question the family gets is, If Amy is really alive and out there, why doesnt she call? His says there could be a lot of reasons for this. Maybe shes a victim of Stockholm syndrome, he says in the series. Maybe shes in a situation where shes had children. Maybe they threatened her. Maybe they threatened her children. We dont know any of these answers. It just gives me hope that shes still out there somewhere. Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT: Atturra Limited (ASX: ATA) (the Company or Atturra ), a leading advisory and technology services business in designing, implementing, and maintaining IT solutions, provides the following trading update for the financial year ending 30 June 2025. Key highlights: Atturras unaudited FY25 underlying EBITDA to exceed $31m, within Atturras guidance range of $31m to $34m Atturras unaudited FY25 revenue to exceed $300m, up more than 20% on FY24, the prior corresponding period (pcp), however marginally lower than the guidance range of $305m-320m Atturra will provide its full year results on Wednesday 27 August 2025. As forecast, Atturra has successfully sold Scholarion, our student information system for schools, to two schools. Our newly launched Integration SaaS platform, ACP, has continued to grow and now has 20 active clients. For FY26 overall revenue and EBITDA growth is forecast to exceed 20%, based on combination of organic growth and acquisitions already completed in FY25 with a return to historic organic growth rates of around 10%. In addition to the forecast 20% growth Atturra remains well positioned to undertake additional acquisitions, with over $89m in cash and $35m in undrawn debt facilities at the end of FY25. Underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (Underlying EBITDA) is a financial measure which is not prescribed by the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) and represents profit under AASB adjusted for specific items, being capital raising costs, share-based payments, one-off transactions, retention, and integration costs relating to mergers and acquisitions, restructuring costs, and any other extraordinary events. The Directors consider Underlying EBITDA to be one of the key financial measures of Atturra. Atturra has delivered FY25 results (unaudited). Underlying EBTIDA Underlying EBITDA is in excess of $31m, in line with previous guidance and revenue to exceed $300m, an increase of more than 20% on pcp.. This strong revenue growth reflects the successful integration of acquisitions, however, was impacted by lower-than-normal organic growth and a year-on-year reduction in revenue in the Federal Government and Defence related businesses of approximately $15m. The Company forecasts a return to 10% organic growth in FY26. Overall revenue and EBITDA growth is forecast to exceed 20%, based on combination of organic growth and acquisitions already completed in FY25 and without taking into account any further acquisitions. Atturra launched 2 flagship products in FY25, and both are progressing well: Scholarion, a proprietary market leading student information system for schools, has achieved its goal of signing up 2 major schools, and anticipates a third school to be contracted before the end of August. Atturra expects all modules to be completed in FY26, allowing for accelerated growth in FY27. Atturra is targeting 6 schools to be contracted in FY26 and more than 20 by the end of FY27. ACP, our end-to-end cloud hosted SaaS platform for running Boomi securely and reliably, with managed services, launched in August 2024 with two pilot clients, and has now grown to 20 active clients. FY25 Results Atturra will announce its FY25 results in a market briefing starting at 10.00am (AEST) on 27 August 2025. The following URL will provide access to the live event, and to an archived webcast following the event: https://s1.c-conf.com/diamondpass/10047605-782uid.html CEO of Atturra, Stephen Kowal, said: FY25 marks a significant milestone in Atturras journey, transitioning from a scale-up into a fully integrated advisory and IT solutions provider. As outlined in our February market update, we have now shifted focus from getting to scale quickly to EPS growth. Despite some ongoing headwinds in the Federal Government and Defence markets, our strong and diversified positioning across high growth key technology verticals has enabled us to deliver profitability in line with our targets, while continuing to grow at more than 20% per annum. Looking ahead, FY26 will be centred on enhanced organic growth, consolidating our recent acquisitions, and expanding our portfolio - particularly in managed services, ServiceNow, and high-value specialist domains. For FY26 we already have a clear line of sight to achieve 20% increase in revenue and underlying EBITDA as a result of both organic growth and acquisitions already completed in FY25. Katherine Wells still remembers finding out that measles had hit West Texas. It was late January, and Wells, the director of the Lubbock Health Department, was notified that a child from nearby Gaines County was being treated for the respiratory disease at one of the local hospitals in Lubbock County. At that point Lubbock County had not recorded a measles case in more than 20 years. Neither Wells nor her staff had seen measles in their careers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I started talking to people from Gaines County and realized that there were a lot of sick people on the ground, that measles was already spreading, she said. So it was that moment where we realized that this was much bigger than one measles case. Gaines County was the epicenter of an outbreak that is still spreading around the United States. As of July 15, there have been 1,309 confirmed measles cases around the country this year, the highest number of cases in more than 30 years. Most cases in 2025 are among unvaccinated children. The bulk of the measles cases this year have been in Texas, which to date includes more than 760 confirmed cases. More than half have been in Gaines County. While Lubbock County has reported just over 50 measles cases, its intertwined with Gaines County due to their close proximity. Gaines County has a small hospital, so children hospitalized for measles were typically transferred to Lubbock Countys free-standing childrens hospital or another hospital with a childrens unit, according to Wells. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wells has seen this outbreak up close, and her experiences trying to stop measles in her county which Texas removed recently from its list of active outbreaks, along with Gaines County hold lessons for other communities. She hopes some of her departments work in mitigating the spread can be a blueprint for public health officials elsewhere who are now recording their first cases. Still, Wells also worries about how expected federal funding cuts could impact her efforts to keep Lubbock County residents protected from future outbreaks. Its so important that we have local people on the ground that understand our communities, that can respond to these things and I do worry that the ability to continue to do that work is at risk with some of the federal cuts were seeing to money that flows down to local public health, she said. With six months left in the year, public health officials and experts say its hard to predict how this outbreak, which consists of cases in more than 35 states, will evolve. Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000, due in part to widespread vaccination. Researchers believe the United States, like some other countries with increasing cases, could soon lose its status. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the number of reported cases has slowed in recent months, upcoming back-to-school activities in the fall typically bring together large groups of children. Measles, which is not a seasonal disease, is highly contagious and spreads when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. The outbreak comes at a time of heightened distrust in government officials and a proliferation of disinformation and misinformation online about vaccines. And amid proposed federal budget reductions, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has mischaracterized the safety of the highly effective measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Those dynamics, along with declining vaccination rates, spell new challenges for public health officials. I think local public health department directors have an uphill battle responding to measles and trying to get people vaccinated with a vaccine that weve had for over 50 years. Youd hope people would trust and believe that thats what we need to do, Wells said. Its going to be a challenge for public health officials to get those messages out to the right individuals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the height of the measles outbreak in late winter and early spring, the days were long for Wells, who said she worked seven days a week. She coordinated lab testing to confirm cases. She organized contact tracing to help stop the spread. She spoke to the public through news releases and the press about the ebbs and flows of the disease. She watched as national attention heightened with the deaths of two children. With no new dollars, Wells said she offered comp time to eligible staff to address the extra hours they were working. I think measles felt worse than COVID, and suddenly it brought back some of the trauma that we went through with COVID, she said. Wells has some advice for other public health officials who are now just starting to see their first cases: Reach out to community stakeholders and make a plan. That means being in contact with school superintendents, camp directors and day care staff any place where children gather. A mother and daughter read a book about immunizations at a vaccine clinic put on by Lubbock Public Health Department on March 1, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas. (Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images) Make sure that you have those relationships in case measles enters one of those settings, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wells also recommended that public health officials look at geographical data to try to figure out where there are pockets of low vaccination rates to reach out to those potentially skeptical communities. Where you see low vaccination rates, engage with them and talk to them about measles and how weve hit this 30-year high, and is there anything that the public health department can do to support those groups getting vaccinated? she said. Chrissie Juliano is the executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC), an organization that represents the countrys largest metropolitan health departments, which cover about 61 million people. She said federal funding cuts those being challenged via litigation and proposed cuts in future budgets will make it more difficult for local public health departments to respond to measles and other infectious diseases. The federal government has been central to funding a lot of public health. More than 70 percent of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions domestic budget goes to state and local communities. Wells said she expects her departments budget to be impacted, as news reports indicate at least $100 million in federal dollars will not be available again for Texas public health departments to use on disease detection and prevention efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont know exactly what will be impacted, but Im planning for cuts to our department, she added. In Dallas County, Texas, just a few hundred miles from Gaines and Lubbock counties, officials said they cancelled vaccine clinics to administer MMR vaccines because federal dollars had been rescinded. This was a really specific impact of a local health department trying to be proactive, to use the data, make decisions, reach out to the community to fill a gap among people who needed vaccines and then could not because of resources taken away, Juliano said. The impact of federal funding cuts is popping up elsewhere. In Minneapolis, public health officials announced in March that they had halted their vaccination program, which included administering vaccines to young children. In Columbus, Ohio, public health officials laid off 11 employees in April, many of whom were infectious disease specialists. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy has defended proposed HHS budget cuts by claiming that critical staff have not been cut and other key programs will be consolidated. Adam Ratner is a pediatric infectious diseases physician who treated children with measles during the outbreak in New York. He used that experience to write: Booster Shots: The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Childrens Health. Ratner noted that it took almost 40 years after a measles vaccine was developed to reach the eradication status that the United States reached in 2000. During that time, public health officials and policy makers worked toward supporting school vaccine mandates and making vaccines more accessible, especially to families of low-income children. Ratner worries that Kennedys messaging on vaccines which has included spreading disinformation about one of the two children who died earlier this year from measles could preview more limited federal resources to combat the spread of disease. Kennedy sent some temporary personnel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to West Texas at the height of its outbreak. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were in a situation where the priorities from HHS and just generally in terms of federal funding for public health are to decrease funding, decrease emphasis on vaccination, and thats a very dangerous situation, he said. In Lubbock County, Wells said the federal government and state health department brought in some additional temporary staff at the height of the outbreak, noting the CDC personnel. But she added that these contractors typically had to work 40 hours a week. Without new dollars in her departments coffers, she was limited in her financial flexibility as a public health official to build the very trust experts say is needed right now. I would have preferred to bring in local nurses that would have been happy with very flexible hours to be administering the vaccine Im a retired school nurse, and Im giving you this vaccine is much better than having a nurse coming in from outside of our community, she said. I just think it brings that trust factor in. While the end of measles cases in Lubbock and Gaines counties were marked unceremoniously when the locations were removed from a state website with active areas, Wells just took her first real vacation of the year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I took a real week off, stepping away from work, she said. Im also requiring all of my managers that worked through all of this to take some time off. Wells said measles can easily reemerge in Lubbock. This time, she feels more equipped. She has her staff ready for surveillance. She now has a local public health laboratory for the region to test more quickly for measles. All the providers are well aware of measles protocols to help stop transmission. She is staying vigilant while also planning for potential federal funding cuts to her department. Were such a mobile society that it would just take one unvaccinated person to drive to another area of the state or the country that has a measles outbreak and bring it back into Lubbock, she said. The post She helped stop measles in her Texas county. She thinks there is an uphill battle in the fight against the disease appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter. The Democrats running for California governor have spent the spring and summer working to win over the powerful donors and interest groups who could help them squeak through a competitive primary election. But the candidates, and many deep-pocketed Democrats, are still waiting for the decision that will have the biggest impact on the race: whether former Vice President Kamala Harris is running. Since Harris lost to President Trump in November, the race to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom has been in suspended animation, with candidates trying to plan their campaigns without knowing who their biggest opponents will be. A few are making contingency plans to run for other offices. And some major donors are waiting to write big checks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "It creates a little bit of a limbo situation," said Tony Thurmond, the state superintendent of public instruction who launched his gubernatorial campaign in 2023. The Democrats in the race are talking to many of the same potential donors, Thurmond said, and most have the same question: "Is she going to run?" The only answer, Thurmond said, is an unsatisfying one: "We don't know." Read more: Who is running for California governor in 2026? Meet the candidates Since leaving Washington in January, Harris has mostly stayed out of the public eye, settling back into her Brentwood home with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and talking to close friends and confidantes about what she should do next. She is weighing whether to leave politics, run for governor or run for president for a third time. She is expected to make a decision about the gubernatorial race by the end of summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Democrats who are already running for governor lack Harris' star power, and her entry could upend the race. But the former vice president would also face questions about her 107-day sprint to the White House, what she knew about President Biden's decline and whether someone who has run unsuccessfully for president twice really wants to be California's governor. "She is looking closely where is the best place to put her energy and focus and her time," said Debbie Mesloh, a longtime Harris ally. The few public appearances Harris has made this year meeting with firefighters in Altadena, attending a high school graduation in Compton and headlining a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in the Bay Area have been fodder for those trying to read the tea leaves. What does it mean that Harris skipped the state Democratic Party convention? That Emhoff has taken a teaching job at USC? Harris had originally planned to take a two-week vacation at the end of this month but has canceled her trip, according to someone familiar with her plans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Harris has also been in New York, where she attended Broadway plays and the exclusive Met Gala; in San Francisco, where she dined with her niece Meena at the high-end Japanese restaurant Shoji; and in Los Angeles, where she has shopped for groceries at a 99 Ranch Market in Westwood and the Brentwood Farmers Market. As the months have worn on, some gubernatorial campaigns have started to think that Harris' victory feels like less of a foregone conclusion than if she'd announced in January after leaving office. Read more: Democrats running for California governor take digs at Kamala Harris' delayed decision on the race Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Biden Cabinet secretary Xavier Becerra and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine have said that they will stay in the race no matter what. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Veteran state Senate leader Toni Atkins of San Diego said she is also staying in if Harris runs, saying in a statement that "while the vice president has her own path, our campaign is moving full speed ahead." Former state Controller Betty Yee said in an interview this week that even if Harris runs, she is staying in, too. "No, no, no," Yee said, of the possibility of seeking another statewide office. Being governor, she said, "is what I feel like I've prepared to do. I will be staying in the race and really leaning into my fiscal and financial background." Yee said when she talks to donors, they want to know two things: how California can push back against the Trump administration, and what she will do if Harris enters the race. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dan Newman, a political strategist who's worked for Newsom, Harris and several of the gubernatorial candidates, said that the race is at an odd inflection point, with candidates who "don't know who their potential voters are, because they don't know who they're running against," and some donors who are waiting at least for now to write big checks. "They've got a good excuse to not give, because even if they are a big fan of a candidate who's in the race now, they don't know if the candidate will stay in the race," Newman said. "Then there are others who don't want to give to someone who might run against her." Eric Jaye, a political strategist who previously worked for Villaraigosa's 2018 gubernatorial campaign and advised Newsom when he was mayor of San Francisco, said he's hearing "frustration" from donors who are ready to see the race pick up speed. "Theyre not going to wait much longer," Jaye said. "There are going to be donors who say, 'We have to go. Were not going to wait for you.'" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But even if Harris entered, that wouldn't be a guarantee that donors would back her again, including those who are angry that she spent nearly $1.5 billion in campaign funds in her compressed campaign for the White House in 2024. "The money is very, very upset with her," said gubernatorial candidate Stephen Cloobeck, a businessman and Democratic donor who is running for California governor. "They're my friends. I'm part of that money. Everyone is thoroughly reeling." The amount of money that candidates raise is one way to gauge their support and prospects. That picture remains a little fuzzy, though, since gubernatorial candidates have until July 31 to report their fundraising hauls from the first half of the year. The only candidate to release numbers so far is Becerra, who said he raised $2.4 million since entering the race in early April, including a $1.1-million transfer from his congressional campaign account. Becerra's campaign has $2 million on hand, including the largest contributions allowed by law $39,200 from the politically connected Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and Pechanga Band of Indians. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Campaigns are required to report contributions of $5,000 or more shortly after they receive them. Those figures don't represent total fundraising, but can still show a campaign's trajectory. Three of the eight candidates have raised less than $100,000 this year in chunks of more than $5,000 at a time, state data show. Yee reported $71,900 and Thurmond, $32,500. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis reported raising $70,000, including $5,000 from Google. Her campaign said Kounalakis, who has been raising money since entering the race in April 2023, has $9 million on hand. "I want to be clear that I'm in this race to win," Kounalakis said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Villaraigosa, who entered the race last summer, has raised almost $1 million this year through large donations, data show. Atkins reported about $381,000 this year, and Cloobeck, about $132,000. Porter, who entered the race in March, reported almost $475,000 in larger contributions, according to state data. She also transferred $942,000 from her U.S. Senate account to her gubernatorial account, according to federal filings made public Tuesday. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. (CNN) Zohran Mamdani told a group of top business leaders in New York City on Tuesday that he would discourage the use of the phrase globalize the intifada, according to two people who were in the room during the meeting, marking a notable shift in rhetoric for the Democratic nominee for mayor as the campaign enters the general election. Gathered alongside approximately 150 prominent business leaders at the offices of Tishman Speyer on Tuesday, Dr. Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer who is the son of Holocaust survivors asked Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor to explain his previous defense of the phrase globalize the intifada. Mamdani, who has not used the phrase himself, has said he believes the phrase to be a rallying cry for Palestinian human rights, and refused to condemn its use when asked during his primary campaign. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But during Tuesdays meeting, Mamdani also told the packed room he understood why the phrase is also seen as a call to violence against Jews, why it is painful and triggering for them, and that he would discourage its use in the future, the two attendees told CNN. Bourla, who has publicly spoken about his mothers Holocaust survival story, read off a set of facts and historical data points describing what Jews suffered during the Holocaust and defended Israels military action in Gaza, the attendees added. The meeting was convened by Partnership for New York, a nonprofit organization that represents some of the citys largest corporations, law firms and banks. (Bourla) challenged him on characterizing Israel activities in Gaza as a genocide, Kathryn Wylde, CEO of Partnership for New York, told CNN in an interview. It was tense. I dont think everyone in the room was satisfied with his answer but he did show that he was empathetic to the concerns of Jewish people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement CNN has reached out to Bourla and Pfizer. The topic dominated headlines in the weeks leading up to the primary election last month. Now, as Mamdani campaigns toward the general election, where he will face both incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, his adjustment in tone reflects his campaigns effort to appeal to a broader swath of voters, including Jewish New Yorkers who might be hesitant to support Mamdani in part because of his criticism of Israel. Zohran appreciated the meeting yesterday, and felt it was a constructive, honest discussion, Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesperson for Mamdani, told CNN in a statement. We look forward to the opportunity to build on this conversation, even in navigating disagreement on fiscal policy. Zohran continues to believe that working in partnership is the best way to deliver an affordable city for all New Yorkers. The 90-minute meeting was cordial despite some pointed questions, the two people who were present said. In attendance were leaders from a range of different companies, including the Bank of New York, Macys, and Tapestry, a luxury brand company; leaders of private equity firms; and several leaders in real estate, including Rob Speyer of Tishman Speyer and Jeff Blau of Related Companies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani is expected to hold a second meeting with the Partnership for New York on Wednesday, this time in front of tech leaders. The conversation will be moderated by AlleyCorps founder and CEO Kevin Ryan. There are those who have an ideological or religious problem with his stance on capitalism and the larger Jewish question they walked away more afraid than ever because of how smart he is, Wylde said. But there were others that feel there is an air of inevitability, that he is a one-in-a-generation candidate and came across as someone who is open to listening and learning. Mamdanis meeting with business leaders is a standard move for a Democratic nominee. His proposal to raise taxes on the citys wealthiest inhabitants and freeze the rent for residents living in approximately 1 million rent-stabilized apartments is concerning to many business leaders who believe the citys tax base will be harmed. Wylde said its not just the threat of big corporations leaving the city, but rather the fear that if the citys services, quality of life and public safety begin to decline, combined with an increase in taxes, it will become much harder to attract and keep new talent in the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He underestimates the vulnerability of the city, Wylde said. For Mamdani, it was an opportunity to introduce himself to an audience unfamiliar with him and overly skeptical of many of his proposals. Wylde said that over all she thought Mamdani struck the right tone by listening and trying to assuage fears in the room. The way he responded is by saying that he is listening and will learn and that he is open. If that is true, that is very comforting, Wylde said. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com A meeting was held between the Israeli delegation and the Qatari and Egyptian delegations on Wednesday, in which Israel presented new maps that included additional Israeli concessions. Israel has effectively conceded control over the Morag Corridor, based on the maps it presented to hostage negotiation mediators, two sources familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said that negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza were going well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier, a meeting was held between the Israeli delegation and the Qatari and Egyptian delegations, during which Israel presented new maps reflecting additional flexibility on its part. A source involved in the negotiations told the Post: The focus now is no longer on the Morag Corridor; its on the Israeli presence in the Rafah area. Thats where the discussions are currently centered. According to the source, the mediators are optimistic (not for the first time) and believe the new maps significantly advance the chances of reaching a deal soon. A senior diplomatic official told reporters that a hostage deal which would involve the release of 10 hostages, the return of the bodies of 18 others, along with a 60-day truce is attainable. We, as a government, are interested in a framework for a hostage release, the official said. There are differing political opinions in Israel, but the government is committed to a hostage deal, and thats the line the prime minister is leading. I believe a deal is achievable. Its not simple. Negotiating with Hamas is neither easy nor quick, and I cant give a timeline, but it is within reach. Members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas and mourners attend the funeral of Al-Qassam fighters who were killed during the war between Israel and Hamas in the Al-Shati camp, in Gaza City, February 28, 2025. (credit: Khalil Kahlout/Flash90) According to the official, Hamass agreement to the Witkoff framework demonstrates a shift in its position. This is the result of intense military pressure, strong American involvement, and Washingtons desire to achieve a deal. Because of that interest and the US-Qatar relationship Qatar is now engaging at a different level. Internal disagreements within Israel's cabinets, possible concessions The official also revealed internal disagreements within the Israeli cabinet over the concessions involved in the deal: There were cabinet members who said, Dont give up any territory we took during Operation Gideons Chariots. I told them: Then just say you dont want a deal. The official stressed that there is no commitment to ending the war, and that the ceasefire would be temporary, lasting 60 days, during which negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would take place. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) Though summer is in full swing, the upcoming school year is quickly approaching, and Siouxland District Health wants parents to be proactive in protecting their kids and fellow classmates from illnesses. The department is once again offering back-to-school vaccine clinics, also known as the Vaccines-for-Children program. Story continues below Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Children who meet the criteria for the program include those with no health insurance, kids who are enrolled in Medicaid, or any child who is Native American or Alaska Native. For more information on how to schedule an appointment, as well as what vaccines are required and when, visit the Siouxland District Health website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. Taiwan's capital Taipei came to a standstill on Thursday as the island held one of its largest-ever civil defence exercises against possible Chinese invasion. Air raid sirens rang out across the metropolitan area and in some areas residents sought shelter indoors, while traffic ground to a halt. The city also held mass evacuation drills and mass casualty event rehearsals. The exercise was held in conjunction with Taiwan's largest ever war games - the annual Han Kuang exercises - as the island increasingly attempts to ramp up its defences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its part of its territory and has not ruled out the use of force to "reunify" with the island. Soldiers rehearsed an urban warfare scenario in Taichung city on Wednesday [Getty Images] Tensions have increased since last year when Taiwan elected its president William Lai, whom China reviles as a "separatist". Thursday's event was attended by Lai, government and city officials, and foreign officials including Raymond Greene, the head of the American Institute of Taiwan which serves as a de facto US embassy on the island. In a speech at the end of the exercise, Lai stressed the importance of unity and resilience of Taiwan's society to protect the island and its democratic values. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also stressed that the Han Kuang and Urban Resilience exercises were aimed at building up Taiwan's defences and that the island was not seeking war. "We hope by preparing for war, we can avoid war, to achieve the goal of peace," he said. "With preparation, we have strength." China has criticised the exercises as "a bluff and self-deceiving stance" by Lai and his ruling Democratic Progressive Party aimed at pushing a pro-independence agenda. While previous Han Kuang exercises also had civil defence components, this year authorities have combined them in a single Urban Resilience exercise across the island which began on Tuesday and ends on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Each day of the exercise sees air raid sirens ringing out for half an hour in several cities. Residents in designated areas in each city must shelter indoors or risk incurring a fine. All shops and restaurants must also pause operations. Road traffic must also come to a stop, with drivers required to pull over and head indoors immediately. In Taipei, hundreds of emergency workers and volunteers took part in air raid drills and evacuations at a busy temple square, schools, subway stations and highways. They also held a mock mass casualty event simulating missile or bomb strikes on buildings, where emergency personnel pulled out survivors and treated their injuries, and set up distribution points for emergency supplies. In Taipei, hundreds of emergency workers and volunteers took part in air raid drills and evacuations [BBC] This week's Urban Resilience exercise is the latest civil defence drill Taiwan has held this year as it tries to prepare its cities for possible attacks and raise its population's defence awareness. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While US officials have warned of an imminent threat from China and that President Xi Jinping wants his military to be capable of invading Taiwan by 2027, most Taiwanese remain sceptical that an actual invasion will take place. One poll done last October by a government-linked think tank, the Institute for National Defence and Security Research (INDSR), found that more than 60% of Taiwanese do not believe China will invade in the next five years. "The chances of China invading are low. If they really wanted to invade us, they would have done it long ago," said Ben, a 29-year-old finance professional interviewed by the BBC in Taipei on Wednesday. "But I do believe we need these drills, every country needs it and you need to practise your defence I believe there is still a threat from China." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Others were more sceptical. "There is just too big a difference in the strengths of China and Taiwan's militaries," said Mr Xue, a 48-year-old office worker. "There is no use defending ourselves against an attack." The IDSR poll had found that only half of Taiwan's population had confidence in their armed forces' capability to defend the island. It is a long-running sentiment that has spurred the Taiwanese government in recent years to beef up its military and expand Han Kuang. More than 22,000 soldiers - about 50% more than last year rehearsed defending the island from potential attacks from China in land, sea and air drills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Newly acquired military hardware such as the US-supplied Himars mobile missile system as well as Taiwan-made rockets were tested. This year's Han Kuang exercise also focused on combating greyzone warfare and misinformation from China, as well as rehearsing military defence in cities. In recent days soldiers took part in urban warfare exercises in an exhibition centre and on the subway in Taipei. On Thursday morning at a riverside park in a Taipei suburb, troops practised re-fueling and re-arming Black Hawk and Apache helicopters with Hellfire and Stinger missiles supplied by the US. The day before the military rehearsed pushing back enemy troops on the streets of Taichung city, and turned a high school in Taoyuan into a battle tank repair station. The IDF successfully intercepted the missile launched by the Iran-backed terror group, with no reports of casualties or damage. Sirens sounded on Wednesday evening for areas in southern Israel following a detected missile launch from Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. Sirens sounded in the Dead Sea and surrounding areas. The IDF confirmed that it had intercepted the missile shortly after the incident. There were no reports of damage or casualties from the incident. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last Thursday, in a similar incident, rocket sirens sounded across central Israel and Jerusalem after the IDF detected a missile launched from Yemen. The IDF also successfully intercepted this missile. Interception of a Houthi missile fired from Yemen towards Israel, June 10, 2025; illustrative. (credit: SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT) US-backed anti-Houthi Yemen military intercepts 750 tons of munitions Earlier on Wednesday, Yemeni National Resistance Forces (NRF), a coalition fighting against the Houthis, intercepted an Iranian arms shipment bound for the Houthis containing 750 tons of munitions and hardware, US Central Command (CENTCOM) stated on X/Twitter. The NRF intercepted and seized over 750 tons of munitions and hardware, including hundreds of advanced cruise, anti-ship, and anti-aircraft missiles, warheads and seekers, components as well as hundreds of drone engines, air defense equipment, radar systems, and communications equipment, they explained. The NRF, led by Gen. Tareq Saleh, is one of the armed forces that fight alongside the internationally recognized government of Yemen and against the Houthi terrorist group. This is a developing story. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has written an open letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in which he criticises an EU plan to phase out Russian gas by 1 January 2028 and calls for the vote on the EUs 18th sanctions package against Russia to be postponed. Source: Fico on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda Details: In the letter, Fico was highly critical of the European Commissions proposal to end Russian gas imports after 1 January 2028 as part of the REPowerEU strategy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Fico: "Slovak Republic will never support REPowerEU in gas supplies, as it will harm Slovak households and the economy and further reduce competitiveness of the entire European Union." Fico argued that by promoting REPowerEU, the European Commission is "grossly ignoring the political mandate approved by the European Council". He emphasised that his stance is "consistent and should come as no surprise to anyone", although Slovakia does not have a veto with regard to REPowerEU. Fico said Bratislava views the proposal as a "sanction" and links it to the EUs 18th sanctions package against Russia. He insisted that the vote on the sanctions package should be postponed until the substantial risks to Slovakias gas supply have been resolved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prime minister said there was not even "the slightest consensus" in Slovakia for the European Commissions position and that business representatives hold "extremely negative" views on the initiative. Fico urged von der Leyen to use the coming hours and days for continued dialogue with the Slovak government, particularly to clarify the European Commissions commitments. Until then, Slovakia will request a postponement of the vote on the 18th sanctions package. Background: The 18th sanctions package against Russia was one of the main topics at the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting on 15 July. The EUs chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said the countries were very close to agreement and expressed hope that the decision would be adopted on that day. Slovakia is still blocking the sanctions, demanding guarantees from the European Commission that it will not be harmed when the EU abandons Russian gas altogether from 2028. Malta reportedly has its own concerns regarding the proposed lowering of the price cap on Russian oil. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! For the first time, the U.S. Army has conducted a live-fire exercise with its Typhon ground-based missile system outside of the continental United States. The system, which can also fire Tomahawk cruise missiles, used an SM-6 multi-purpose missile to successfully sink a target at sea, during Exercise Talisman Sabre 25 in Australia. Using the Typhon against a maritime target demonstrates an important capability for the system, with this role especially critical in the Indo-Pacific context. The 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (3MDTF) conducts the first Typhon live-fire exercise outside of the continental United States during Exercise Talisman Sabre 25 on July 16, 2025. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Perla Alfaro SGT ALFARO The live-fire exercise involving the Typhon, alternatively known as the Mid-Range Capability (MRC), took place yesterday. At this stage, the target used for the sink exercise (SINKEX) is not known, but we have approached the Army for more details. Imagery released by the Army so far shows the SM-6 blasting out of its launcher somewhere in Australias Northern Territory. The current generation of Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles used in the Typhon system has land attack and anti-ship capabilities. The SM-6 is primarily an air defense weapon, but as integrated on Typhon, is intended to be employed mainly against targets ashore and at sea, essentially as a short-range ballistic missile. The Army also envisages Typhon as a strategic weapon system that can also be used against higher-value targets like air defense assets and command and control nodes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A complete Typhon battery consists of four launchers, a trailer-based mobile command post, and other ancillary vehicles and equipment, according to information the Army has previously released. A full battery set of four Typhon launchers, as well as the trailer-based command post. U.S. Army A U.S. Army briefing slide detailing elements of the complete Typhon system. U.S. Army It is also worth noting that Australia, too, uses both the Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles, which arm its Hobart class destroyers. For the Talisman Sabre 25 live-fire exercise, the Typhon was operated by the Armys 3rd Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF), which forward-deployed to Australia and then worked alongside the Australian Army, as part of a joint, multi-domain Land Effects Coordination Cell. This organization was responsible for command and control and targeting for the engagement. The deployment of the MRC and successful execution of an SM-6 live-fire against a maritime target is another significant step forward in our ability to deploy, integrate, and command and control advanced land-based maritime strike capabilities, said Col. Wade Germann, commander of the 3rd MDTF, in an Army press release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The latest edition of the Talisman Sabre exercise began on July 14. The maneuvers involve 19 nations and over 30,000 service members, according to the Australian Department of Defense. Most significantly, however, this is billed as the largest bilateral military training event between the United States and Australia to date. Lt. Gen. Joel Vowell, deputy commanding general for U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), addresses media at the opening ceremony for Exercise Talisman Sabre 25 onboard HMAS Adelaide in Sydney, New South Wales. ADF photographer LSIS Danyellah Hill Increasingly, Australia is seen as a key ally when it comes to the U.S. military challenging China in the Indo-Pacific. For its part, Australia has been working to modernize and otherwise bolster its armed forces to better meet this aim. The most prominent effort in this regard is the Royal Australian Navys planned acquisition of a nuclear-powered submarine force with the assistance of its American and British allies. This is part of the larger trilateral Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) defense cooperation agreement. In its own press release marking the official start of the drills, the Australian Department of Defense notes that Talisman Sabres strategic message is unmistakable, with the exercise representing a cornerstone of allied military cooperation between Australia and the United States. Talisman Sabre is taking place at the same time as Resolute Force Pacific (REFORPAC) 2025, which the U.S. Air Force describes as its biggest-ever contingency response exercise in the region, and which you can read more about here. REFORPAC is, in turn, part of a broader series of exercises organized by the U.S. Air Force at multiple locations across the United States and Indo-Pacific, with a focus on the latter theater. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While this is the first time that the Typhon system has been involved in a live-fire event outside of the continental United States, it has previously been deployed to the Indo-Pacific region, specifically to the Philippines, as we have discussed in the past. U.S. personnel unload a trailer-based launcher associated with the Typhon system from a C-17A transport aircraft in the Philippines on April 7, 2024. U.S. Army On that occasion, elements of the system were deployed by the 1st MDTF in April 2024 to participate in Exercise Salaknib 24, but there was no live-fire demonstration of the units capabilities. A Typhon launcher is loaded onto a C-17A at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for its trip to the Philippines in 2024. U.S. Army The live-fire exercise during Exercise Talisman Sabre provides a very clear signal to Beijing of the Armys plans to expand its Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) capabilities. Ultimately, this should include permanently basing Typhon systems in the Indo-Pacific region. With Tomahawk, Typhon offers the Army a way to hold targets on land and at sea at risk anywhere within a bubble stretching roughly 1,000 miles in any direction from where it is deployed, making it especially relevant across the huge expanses of the Pacific theater. As for the SM-6, this provides the Army with a notably flexible surface-to-surface weapon, with a ballistic-missile-like capability that makes it hard to intercept. A U.S. Army Typhon launcher fires an SM-6 missile during an earlier test. U.S. Army Ahead of any permanent basing of the systems in the region, successive deployments of Typhon to the Indo-Pacific region demonstrate the Armys ability to more rapidly deploy these systems to forward areas in response to a crisis or contingency. Since they can be accommodated in U.S. Air Force C-17s, which have significant short- and rough-field capabilities, Typhons can be delivered to more remote and austere locations, if required. A Typhon launcher in the Philippines. U.S. Army Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For China, the Typhon system presents a notable challenge to Chinese forces that might face it in combat. Its flexibility and responsiveness mean the system would be able to strike a range of targets throughout the region in the opening phases of a conflict. At the same time, the fact that its road-mobile makes it harder to target. It has long been clear that, in any future major conflict with China, much will rest upon the U.S. militarys overall capacity to launch anti-ship strikes across large swathes of the Indo-Pacific. The task is only becoming more critical as the Peoples Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) continues to add larger and otherwise more modern surface warships to its already substantial combat fleets. Sending elements of Typhon to the Indo-Pacific for exercises also has relevance to the Armys broader plans. This is a type of weapon system that the U.S. military was previously banned from fielding under the now-defunct Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, with Russia (and the Soviet Union before it). In the current security environment, Typhon is seen as a linchpin of future conventional long-strike capabilities. These will eventually include other systems, too, such as the Dark Eagle hypersonic missile. One of the first Dark Eagle launchers delivered to the U.S. Army, loaded with an inert missile canister. U.S. Army With Europes strategic significance also on the rise, in 2021, the Army reactivated the 56th Artillery Command in Germany, specifically to oversee forward-deployed units equipped with Typhon and other future conventional long-strike weapons. In the Cold War, this same unit was responsible for Pershing and Pershing II nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that were eventually outlawed by INF. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, U.S.-owned and operated Typhon systems in Europe could be joined by more examples fielded by Germany. Earlier this week, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius confirmed that a letter of request had been sent to the Pentagon with a view to buying an undisclosed number of Typhon systems via Foreign Military Sales (FMS) channels. Pistorius told reporters that Germany needs a conventional long-strike weapon to match capabilities already deployed by Russia. For Germany, Typhon is seen as an interim system that will fill the gap before the arrival of new weapons being developed under the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA). France, Germany, Italy, and Poland launched the ELSA project last summer and were later joined by Sweden and the United Kingdom. This effort calls for the development of a new capability for long-range strikes, although the type of weapon being pursued is not yet clear. In the meantime, in the Indo-Pacific context, the successful demonstration of the Typhon system against a maritime target sends a powerful signal to China, as well as a message of resolve to allies in the region. Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com SMITH COUNTY, Texas (KETK) A Lindale woman was arrested after her 4-year-old family member tested positive for meth in her system, according to a Smith County arrest affidavit. Investigation underway after teenager shot in Longview Mugshot of Brittany Hankins courtesy of Smith County Jail In May, the Smith County Sheriffs Office became aware that the 4-year-old, who was under the custody of Brittany Hankins, had tested positive for methamphetamine while in Hankins care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials obtained a lab report from a hair follicle test administered by The Alcohol & Drug Testing Service on May 28 that confirmed Hankins family member had meth in her system. Officials also received lab reports confirming that Hankins had tested positive for meth on May 2 and May 14, indicating that she was using drugs during the time that the child was exposed. Following the investigation, Hankins was arrested on Monday and charged with endangerment to a child and criminal negligence. She is currently being held in the Smith County Jail. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. The ACCC is urging consumers to be alert to a growing list of recalled wireless power banks, which have the potential to cause serious burns and property damage. Power banks, also known as portable battery packs, are portable battery chargers commonly powered by rechargeable lithium-ion or lithium-polymer batteries. They are designed to charge mobile phones and other portable electronic devices on the go. Since 2020, there have been 17 power bank recalls published on ACCC Product Safety website. Of these, 9 were recalled in the last 16 months. The ACCC is concerned about these recalls because together they include around 34,000 recalled power banks that are still with consumers. Some consumers have suffered serious burn injuries, and some have had their property damaged because of power banks overheating and catching fire, ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said. Most incidents have occurred when the power bank is charging a phone or other device, which makes it more likely that they will be close to the user when they fail, increasing the likelihood of injuries. The ACCC urges consumers who own a recalled power bank to stop using it immediately and follow the instructions on the recall notice to receive a remedy. You can check if your power bank is subject to a recall by visiting the ACCC Product Safety website. Consumers who own a recalled power bank shouldnt be concerned about being left out of pocket. Suppliers are offering a full refund or free replacement under these recalls, Ms Lowe said. The ACCC encourages anyone using any power bank that contains lithium-ion batteries to always follow the manufacturers instructions, and to store the devices in a cool, dry place. Lithium-ion batteries can be highly flammable. Incorrectly manufactured, handled, stored or disposed of products can catch fire, explode or vent toxic gas. Its important that people use the correct charger to charge their power bank and check that it is in good condition, Ms Lowe said. We urge consumers not to charge power banks on flammable materials such as beds, sofas or carpet, and to never use power banks that are damaged, overheating, swelling, leaking or venting gas. Setting timers as a reminder to unplug devices may help monitor device charging times, as its important to disconnect products from chargers when they are fully charged, Ms Lowe said. Check the ACCCs Product Safety lithium-ion batteries guide for more safety information. SMITH MOUNTAIN LAKE (WFXR)- The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation has named a new park manager for Smith Mountain Lake. James Wright replaced Chris Fritze, who was promoted to district manager for Virginia State Parks. Wright is a Maryland native with ten years of experience in park operations, natural resource management, and public service. According to DCR, he previously worked as a park ranger at Westmoreland, assistant park manager at Shenandoah River, and park manager at Staunton River. default (PHOTO CREDIT: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation) Smith Mountain Lake will hold an open house on Wednesday from 2 p.m.- 4 p.m. to give the community a chance to meet Wright. It will be held at the Smith Mountain Lake State Park Discovery Center. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFXRtv. On a chilly night in April 2023, Charlotte Walker got a text message. Her sister, 68-year-old Barbara Walker, was in jail and facing a felony. Barbara's crime: starting a fire to keep warm. Charlotte was infuriated. Her sister, who has schizophrenia, should not have been living on the street at all. Under an arrangement with the Social Security Administration known as the representative payee program, a staff member at the local nonprofit Outreach Community Health Centers was supposed to be assisting Barbara with housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That employee, Elizabeth Gabriel, was responsible for receiving Barbara's monthly disability benefit checks and using the money to help her secure food, medicine and housing. Since 2017, Gabriel had collected over $80,000 on Barbara's behalf, approximately $900 per month. But over the past three years, Barbaras siblings say their sister has consistently lived on and off the street while Gabriel has repeatedly failed to return phone calls, text messages and letters about their sister's care. They say neither she nor Outreach has provided insight into why Barbara was unhoused or how the funds were used. Three disability and elder care advocates who reviewed Barbara's case agreed that aspects of Gabriel's conduct were unusual and seemingly in violation of standard rules for payeeships. The program, which is overseen by the Social Security Administration, has notable problems. A 2023 audit found that the administration repeatedly failed to investigate accusations of misuse of funds in a timely manner. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Outreach declined to comment on the Walker family's complaints, citing federal privacy laws. Gabriel did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Charlotte is concerned her sister is not the only person with this experience. Where there is one person being impacted, its not just one, its multiple, she said. Lack of communication leaves family confused and worried Throughout 2020 and 2021, Charlotte believed that her sister was living comfortably in an all-women's group home off of East Garfield Avenue. But in 2022, members of their extended family said they started finding Barbara sleeping on the streets. They reported numerous failed attempts to reach Gabriel and share their concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charlotte, who lives in Texas, made a visit to Milwaukee that year. After several ignored calls to Gabriel, Charlotte said she resorted to driving around the streets for hours to locate her sister. Eventually, she found Barbara perched on the curb of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive with a blanket draped over her lap and a headwrap covering her ears. "(Barbara) told me 'My worker keeps placing me in group homes with men and women. I told her I didn't feel safe there, so I left in the middle of the night,'" Charlotte recalled. Family members of Barbara Walker are concerned that she does not have stable housing in Milwaukee despite having a representative payee who is supposed to help her use her disability benefits for housing. Barbara ventured back out onto the street in 2023, spending much of the year living in and out of shelters and at a CITGO gas station. The owners allowed her to sleep in a corner of the building because of the extreme cold weather, Charlotte said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Barbara began searching for alternative ways to stay warm. At one point, Charlotte said Barbara told her that Street Angels, a Milwaukee nonprofit serving homeless residents, gave her blankets and socks to wear. Then, Barbara lit the fire that landed her in jail. Charlotte said Gabriel made little effort to respond to the family's pleas to help their sister find stable housing. Public Investigator reviewed dozens of text messages Gabriel exchanged with Charlotte between May 2023 and August 2024. On several occasions, Gabriel told Charlotte that her sister did not want the family to purchase a phone for her or want to speak with family members at all. Gabriel said Barbara only felt comfortable texting from Gabriel's cell phone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In other updates, Gabriel told Charlotte she had given Barbara $10 to $20 per week to pay for her food and cigarettes, ignoring Charlotte's questions about how the remaining funds were used each month. In one instance, Charlotte told Gabriel she wanted to send money to help Barbara get food and a hotel. Gabriel replied that the only way the family could do so was through a money order in Gabriel's name. A text conversation between Charlotte Walker and Elizabeth Gabriel in spring 2024. Later, in May 2024, Gabriel texted that she wanted to send the family some of Barbara's Social Security money because she "had a lot." Charlotte denied the offer and asked Gabriel why the money was not put toward her sister's living expenses. Neither Charlotte or her relatives ever received the money or figured out how much Gabriel had accumulated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February 2025, Barbara was hospitalized with third-degree frostbite at Aurora Sinai Medical Center. Charlotte said doctors considered amputating several of her toes due to severe nerve damage. Over the past three years, Charlotte said she has received no response from Outreach Community Health Centers despite making dozens of attempts to contact president Julia Harris-Robinson. The longstanding nonprofit provides primary medical care, dental treatment and behavioral health care to uninsured, publicly insured or low-income individuals primarily on Milwaukee's northwest side, specializing in helping those who are homeless. Outreach refused requests from Public Investigator to answer general questions about its operations or its protective payee program, including its process for flagging and investigating complaints of abuse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has recorded one complaint made against Outreach Community Health Center since 2023. That complaint, according to spokesperson Jennifer Miller, was unsubstantiated. Experts note red flags, vulnerabilities in payee system Attorneys who work with people with disabilities told Public Investigator that many payees follow the rules, but a lack of accountability for tracking spending does allow for some cases of misuse to go unaddressed. Sonia Komisar, a victim service attorney for the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging & Health Groups, said Gabriel's accumulation of Social Security funds and acceptance of additional money from Walker's family were "red flags." Gabriel's offer to give Barbara's leftover funds to the family was also troubling, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The representative payees are supposed to be spending the money to prevent them from becoming homeless," she said. "Giving away her money while she's homeless is not in her best interest." Nadya Rosen, the director of legal and advocacy services for Disability Rights Wisconsin, said most representative payees' sole responsibility is to pay their clients bills. However, payees who are working for nonprofits and operating in a case manager capacity, as Gabriel likely was, also have an obligation to work in the best interest of their clients, including a responsibility to ensure they are housed, Rosen said. Rosen added that under no circumstance should payees or case managers block communication with family members, as Barbaras family suspects. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Isolating people who are already isolated a lot of ways, it just leads to more opportunity for abuse and abusive conduct," Rosen said. Outreach Community Health Centers at 220 West Capitol Dr. in Milwaukee. Charlotte raised her suspicions about the potential misuse of her sister's disability funds with the Social Security Administration in April. She did not receive a response from the agency until Public Investigator followed up on her behalf in May. Elida Elizondo, a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration, told Public Investigator that privacy laws prevent her from discussing Barbara's case. However, she said the agency thoroughly vets people who apply to be representative payees. According to Elizondo, the agency first searches for family members or friends to serve as payees. If they are unable to do so, the agency then searches for qualified organizations. Since Barbara's siblings live out of state, they said they believed the payee program would be the best way to take care of Barbara's basic needs. But the experience has brought nothing but frustration and distress, Charlotte said. In 2023, an audit of the Social Security Administration estimated that in 81% of cases, the agency did not take timely action in response to allegations of payees misusing benefits. As a result, the agency continued paying approximately $186 million to payees who may not have been using the funds for beneficiaries needs, the report found. Additionally, the audit found the agency failed to recover nearly $120,000 in funds from 19 payees out of a sample of 50 payees determined to have misused benefits. Rosen and Komisar said payees are required to keep records of how the funds are spent and provide documentation if requested for an audit, but that is rare. "You're holding them in anticipation of having to prove it, but you don't actually have to prove constantly what you spent the money on," Rosen said. Social Security Administration now investigating family's allegations Barbara is being held at the Mendota Mental Health Institute, a psychiatric hospital in Madison, while awaiting her September court hearing for the arson charges. There, Barbara has regular access to a phone and has already made several calls to her sister, Charlotte said. Barbara Walker Because Barbara is incarcerated, her Social Security disability benefits have been suspended. In June, after Public Investigator asked the Social Security Administration for an update, Elizondo contacted Charlotte the next day to say the agency was initiating a review of the family's allegations. Jill Lintonen, a spokesperson for Milwaukee County's Department of Behavioral Health Services, said the county conducts regular audits and background checks to ensure clients like Barbara are protected when served by representative payees. The county would cooperate with an investigation, Lintonen said, adding that Gabriel is not a Milwaukee County employee. We strongly believe that perpetrators of such crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and be banned from providing services to vulnerable people for life," Lintonen said in a statement. Though Charlotte is unsure if the Social Security Administration's investigation will make a difference in stopping her sister's current cycle of court cases and institutionalization, she said she is grateful for Public Investigator's help. "Barbara happens to have a sister that's retired and refused to let this happen to her," Charlotte said. "For all those people who have no voice, except the ones that are inside their head, who are being taken advantage of, I'm grateful that we can have someone like you reach out and get answers." The last time that Charlotte spoke to Gabriel, she said Gabriel accused her of "harassing her" about Barbara. Charlotte has not attempted to reach out since. When Public Investigator called Outreach on June 25 to confirm if Gabriel was still employed, a receptionist transferred the call to Gabriel's phone extension. The mailbox was full. Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at tfowlkes@gannett.com. About Public Investigator Government corruption. Corporate wrongdoing. Consumer complaints. Medical scams. Public Investigator is an initiative of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and its sister newsrooms across Wisconsin. Our team wants to hear your tips, chase the leads and uncover the truth. We'll investigate anywhere in Wisconsin. Send your tips to publicinvestigator@jrn.com or call 414-319-9061. You can also submit tips at jsonline.com/tips. (This story was updated to add new information.) This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Family fears Milwaukee woman's payee misused Social Security funds Corrections and Clarifications: A previous version of this story stated the incorrect number of criminal homicides so far this year. There have been 68. This story was updated to add new information. Gov. Mike Braun signaled Tuesday that he's open to some kind of state intervention in Indianapolis if the city itself doesn't "make a change" in response to a recent spate of gun violence, despite criminal homicides being down year-over-year since 2021. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That's what the president of the city's police union has publicly asked for, though specifics are lacking, following nearly a dozen shooting deaths in the first two weekends of July. Braun also declined to specify what kinds of interventions the state government may consider. "I think it would be a dereliction if you weren't at least talking about it, and then sooner or later seeing if they're going to take action that really shows results, or put your heads together in terms of what that next step might be," he told reporters at the governor's mansion Tuesday. "I'm not going to say what it's going to be. I'm saying it's at the point where something needs to change." Indiana Governor Mike Braun holds a press conference on the fiscal year close-out statement at the Indiana Governors Mansion on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, in Indianapolis. A mass shooting downtown in the early hours of July 5 claimed the lives of two teens, in addition to three others shot and killed across the city over the holiday weekend. This past weekend, at least six people were killed. In response, the city-county council is considering extending the curfew for youth and adding punitive fines for parents whose kids violate curfew. Rick Snyder, president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, yesterday indicated this response doesn't go far enough and called upon state elected leaders to "step in." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Already during the July 4 holiday weekend, at the request of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Braun sent some state troopers to Indianapolis to assist with patrols, weapons recovery and arrests. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett previously said that the youth curfew isn't the city's only violence prevention strategy. It also funds violence-reduction programs in which local community organizations work with high-risk youth. "We're going to do everything we can to keep the peace," he said Monday in response to Snyder's comments. "I would encourage everyone to come downtown if they want to come downtown. Just don't bring a gun with you. That's one way to be peaceful." Snyder hasn't responded to questions on what else specifically he'd like state leaders to do beyond this kind of operational assistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Braun expressed some reluctance to trump local control, saying Indianapolis is "its own political subdivision," but he also said he doesn't want to see things get worse and earn the state headlines that, in his words, resemble those from larger urban areas. In an interview with IndyStar Wednesday, Senate Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, expressed similar sentiments: vague about what could be done, hesitant to usurp local control, but warning that the state may be willing to take action. "I'm just open to any conversation about how we can be helpful there. I should tell you, though, if people come to us for help, not everybody probably likes the things we come up with," he said. "I'm not going to say right now exactly what we're going to do, because it's extremely complicated and I need to listen to law enforcement and Rick Snyder and the FOP and figure out what it is exactly they need, because we want to be helpful if and where we can be." Braun challenged residents of Indianapolis to "put different people in charge" and think about what things were like in the city nine years ago, referring to the Republican Greg Ballard's mayoral administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "When it comes to our state capital, measured to where it was nine years ago, something's got to give," he said. See the data: Indianapolis homicide tracker 2025 Looking at just one statistic, criminal homicides, there were fewer of them nine years ago than there are in a given year today in Indianapolis. It should be noted, too, that the numbers have steadily increased each year since 2012, and Both the Mayor Greg Ballard and Hogsett administrations, which span this time period, have shattered records. While in former Mayor Greg Ballard's first term in office, the criminal homicides typically numbered just below 100 per year, the city then broke a record during his second term: 144 criminal homicides in 2015, the most since 1998. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That number has continued to climb. In 2021, a pandemic year, the city saw a historic 249 criminal homicides. The annual numbers have receded since then. So far this year, Indianapolis police have reported 68 criminal homicides. This figure is 24% lower than this time last year, according to IMPD data shared with IndyStar. Crime writ large in the downtown neighborhood is down 6% year-to-date. Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Kayla Dwyer at kdwyer@indystar.com or follow her on Twitter @kayla_dwyer17. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Gov. Mike Braun signals openness to intervening in Indy gun violence UNION COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A 16-year-old boy who was wanted for attempted murder out of South Carolina crashed into multiple patrol cars during a chase in Stallings, according to the Union County Sheriffs Office. On Monday, July 14, deputies and officers with the Stallings Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that was reported as stolen out of Sumter, South Carolina. The driver, 16-year-old Jamari Wells, was wearing an ankle monitor and out on probation for three counts of attempted murder out of South Carolina, officials said. Waxhaw man accused of speeding with 17 lbs. of marijuana and child in truck: Lancaster Co. Sheriff Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the stop, Wells allegedly led deputies on a high-speed chase. While fleeing, Wells crashed into two UCSO patrols and assaulted the deputies who were trying to safely end the pursuit. The sheriffs office said no law enforcement personnel were injured during the pursuit. Wells eventually ran into a nearby apartment complex before being apprehended after a short chase. He is being charged as an adult for felony flee to elude and two counts of hit and run. He is being charged with juvenile petitions with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon on law enforcement and one count of resist, delay and obstruct. Wells is in custody at a local juvenile detention center while a secured custody order was issued by the Department of Juvenile Justice. Queen City News is tracking CRIME in your area >> Latest stories here Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. Rainfall totals on Monday matched forecasts of 1 to 3 inches across South Florida. And while the region avoided major flooding, the soggy conditions could still stir up some unexpected wildlife namely, alligators and snakes. CBS Miami reports these animals are often displaced by rising water and may be spotted in neighborhoods, parks, or even roadways, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Although the FWC has not issued a new advisory tied specifically to Mondays storms, the agency has previously warned: Alligators and snakes might be observed more frequently after a major storm event, especially in areas with flooding. Keep them at a distance and give them space. Wildlife may follow the water The FWC reminds residents not to feed or approach wild animals under any circumstances. Even animals that appear to be orphaned or abandoned may not be. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rarely are animals actually orphaned; a parent could be searching for food or observing its young from a distance, the agency said in the prior release. For injured wildlife, residents are encouraged to contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator. A list by county is available at MyFWC.com/Conservation under How You Can Conserve Living with Wildlife Injured and Orphaned Wildlife. Manatees and nuisance gators Manatees may also become stranded during rough weather. If you encounter a stranded, injured or dead manatee, do not attempt to handle it on your own, the FWC said.Instead, call the Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. If an alligator poses a threat to people, pets or property, call the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286). The FWC will dispatch a licensed trapper if needed. SEOUL, July 16 (UPI) -- South Korea summoned a Japanese attache to protest a territorial claim over disputed islands that Tokyo made in an annual white paper, Seoul's Defense Ministry announced Wednesday. The islets, which are called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, are located in the East Sea between the two countries. South Korea has controlled the islands since 1952 with a coast guard contingent, but they have been at the center of a diplomatic dispute that goes back hundreds of years. Tokyo's latest annual defense white paper asserts that Dokdo and the Russian-controlled Kuril Islands are "inherent territories of Japan" and calls issues around them "unresolved." It uses the Japanese names for both island groups, referring to the Kuril Islands as the Northern Territories and to Dokdo as Takeshima. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Defense Ministry director general for international policy Lee Gwang-seok summoned Japanese defense attache Inoue Hirofumi on Tuesday over the claims. In the meeting, Lee "reaffirmed that Dokdo is [South Korea's] inherent territory historically, geographically and under international law," according to a ministry statement sent to reporters. Lee added that South Korea would "respond resolutely to any attempt to infringe upon our sovereignty over Dokdo." South Korea's Foreign Ministry also responded to the white paper on Tuesday by calling in the Japanese Embassy's acting minister Yoshiyasu Iseki and urging Tokyo to withdraw its claims. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The [South Korean] government strongly protests the Japanese government's repeated unjust territorial claims to Dokdo, which is clearly our inherent territory in terms of history, geography and international law," the ministry said in a statement. "The government once again makes it clear that no claims by the Japanese government regarding Dokdo ... have any influence on our sovereignty, and declares that it will respond resolutely to any provocations by Japan regarding Dokdo," the statement said. The dispute comes as historically frosty relations between Seoul and Tokyo have thawed in recent years, with improved diplomatic ties and closer trilateral security cooperation with Washington. This year's defense white paper includes language, introduced in last year's edition, calling South Korea "an important neighboring country with which we should cooperate as a partner in responding to various challenges in the international community." DAKOTA COUNTY, Neb. (KCAU) A South Sioux City man has been found guilty in connection with the death of a woman in a Dakota County car accident. A judge found Bradley Gatzemeyer, 27, guilty of motor vehicle homicide and driving under the influence with a passenger under 16. Court documents show a DUI charge was dismissed. Gatzemeyer entered a plea deal, which resulted in changed his original not guilty plea to no contest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Story continues below Last May, there was a crash in the intersection of College Way and the Highway 77 bypass. Authorities said Gatzemeyers vehicle collided with the car of Debora James, 64, while she was turning onto the highway. She later died at a hospital. Officials said Gatzemeyers blood alcohol concentration was above the legal limit. He had his 4-year-old son in the car when the crash happened. His sentencing date is scheduled for October 7. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. Jul. 15AUSTIN, Minn. A new study out of the University of Minnesota's Hormel Institute looked at how dopamine can play a role in treating lung cancer. The study, published in the journal Cell Death & Disease, focused on small cell lung cancer. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, per the study, and SCLC sometimes becomes resistant to chemotherapy. Researchers in the lab of associate professor Luke Hoeppner studied cabergoline, a medication that activates the body's receptors for dopamine, a hormone associated with pleasure and reward. But, the researchers wrote, activating those dopamine pathways can make cancer treatment drugs more effective. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We were the first to report that activation of this particular molecular pathway, called dopamine signaling, inhibits other forms of lung cancer growth," Hoeppner said in a press release. "Several genes in the dopamine pathway have been shown to promote drug resistance in breast and gastric cancers, and we showed this was also true in lung cancer." By studying mice that had human SCLC cells injected into their bodies, the researchers found that the lung cancer cells grew more slowly in the mice that received the cabergoline because the tumor's ability to create new blood vessels was reduced. "Activation of dopamine signaling reduces the tumor's blood supply," Hoeppner said. "We speculate that decreasing the vascular network of vessels surrounding the tumor increases the accessibility of chemotherapy drugs to the primary tumor." Further experiments in the study looked at the drug's potential role in making the tumors more sensitive to chemotherapy treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Our work identifying new mechanisms of drug resistance and ways to combat chemotherapy-refractory SCLC progression may help develop new therapies to improve the clinical outcome of SCLC patients," Hoeppner said. The study, led by senior scientist Sk. Kayum Alam, was funded by the American Cancer Society. (SOUTHERN COLORADO) Another blow to rural hospitals in southern Colorado is lurking as the state may make some hospitals pay back millions of dollars because of a settlement. La Junta Mayor Joe Ayala tells FOX21 News it could not have come at a worse time for the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center. We lost our obstetrics unit earlier this year in April, Ayala said. We just did a 5% reduction in staff across the board. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, hospitals on the list owe $59.7 million back to the state, with the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center owing $2.6 million. Courtesy: Colorado Department of Health Care Policy & Financing Its because a court ruled earlier this year that two UCHealth hospitals were private and not public. Because of this misclassification, the state now needs to take funding from other hospitals to pay UCHealth back. State Senator Rod Pelton, who represents southeastern Colorado, says he has been in contact with hospitals in his area. Some of them, they have healthy enough reserves that they dont think its going to be much of an issue, Pelton said. Theres others that, I mean, most of these rural hospitals run in the red. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pelton is part of the states rural caucus, which warns if these hospitals paid back funds, it could force many to shut their doors. Their standard of living goes down, and it makes it tough, Pelton said. We just cant replace those jobs out here in rural Colorado. Ayala is asking for more answers from the state as to how this decision was reached, along with the figures that have been reported. Show us the math, show us how youre coming up with these figures, and then after that, find out ways we can work together, Ayala said. Were not enemies here; we want to work with you. One of the potential solutions would be an appeal, with the next being a request for help from state lawmakers, with a potential special session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I and the other rural legislators will get our heads together and see what we can do to help them, Pelton said. While the timeline for when these payments could begin is unclear, the clock is ticking to find a solution. Its not adding up right now, and its at a time when its scaring a lot of people, Ayala said. The State Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has said it will appeal the ruling. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX21 News Colorado. House Speaker Mike Johnson revealed that a lengthy text he sent Elon Musk amid his feud with President Donald Trump earlier in 2025 was delivered "into the ether" after the tech billionaire allegedly changed his cellphone number after spatting with the president. "I sent him a long text message, and then his phone number changed, because after the blow-up, something happened with his " Johnson, R-La., told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine on her podcast published Wednesday before trailing off that he realized the number was no longer a direct line to Musk. "I got the number later and realized I was sending it out into the ether somewhere and he never read it," he continued. "So I look forward to meeting with him in person. We got to make that right. I've got nothing against Elon, obviously. I've got great respect for what he's done." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement High-profile individuals such as celebrities and billionaires are known to frequently change their cell phone numbers out of privacy and security concerns. Johnson said that before the spat, he had met with and sent other "long text messages" to keep Musk in the loop on the big, beautiful bill. Mike Johnson Says He Hopes Trump, Musk 'Reconcile' Amid Ongoing Feud Read On The Fox News App Musk and Trump's previously tight relationship fell to tatters in May, as Trump promoted the passage of his One Big, Beautiful Bill Act. Musk served as the public leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, which works to strip the federal government of overspending, corruption and mismanagement, as a special government employee a job position that permits an individual to work for the federal government for "no more than 130 days in a 365-day period." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musk's tenure ran dry at the end of May, and was shortly followed by the tech billionaire behind massive companies such as SpaceX and Tesla launching a campaign on X in an attempt to rally Republican lawmakers to vote against the legislation, slamming it for increasing the U.S. debt ceiling by $5 trillion. Flashback: Musk Accused Trump, Gop Leaders Of Not Wanting To Cut Spending Here's Where They Said They Would Trump argued Musk publicly condemning the legislation was actually rooted in the president axing electric vehicle mandates and subsidies, which impacts Musk's Tesla company. On June 12, Trump signed a trio of congressional resolutions ending California's restrictive rules for diesel engines and mandates on electric vehicle sales, with Trump celebrating that his signature "will kill the California mandates forever." Elon Musk has since said he intends to launch a new political party to counter Republicans and Democrats. Musk has since said he intends to launch a new political party to counter Republicans and Democrats. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Johnson continued in his interview on Devine's podcast that he did get a response back from Musk through a third-party after realizing the tech billionaire had seemingly changed his phone number. Republican Lawmakers Stand Firm Against Musk's 'Kill The Bill' Assault On Trump's Agenda Johnson said "a multitude of factors" likely caused the rift, but that Musk was aware of the contents in the big, beautiful bill before its final stages this spring and summer after months of lawmakers ironing out provisions in the legislation. House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans celebrated passing Trump's "big, beautiful bill." Here's The Money People In Each State Could Pocket Under Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Savings Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But clearly, (Musk) got unhappy in a very short period of time," Johnson said. "I mean, he generally knew what we were doing, and we talked about it. I mean, he knew for months, many months we worked on this, and I was keeping him apprised of it." "But I'll let other people judge that," he added. "Ive got to keep my eyes on the prize and keep going forward, and Im trying to be a peacemaker in all of it." Trump signed the legislation into law on the Fourth of July, touting that its tax cuts will make the U.S. economy similar to a "rocket ship" as Americans begin feeling its effects. Fox News Digital attempted to reach Musk, as well as emailed Johnson's office, for additional comment on the matter, but did not immediately receive replies. Original article source: Speaker Johnson reveals Musk left MAGA ally's lengthy text hanging in 'the ether' after Trump blowup WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a rare break with the White House suggested Attorney General Pam Bondi should explain her statements about the Jeffrey Epstein case. President Donald Trump says she should release any credible information the Department of Justice has about the case weeks after the department said it would not release any more information. President Trump has described this as the story that wont die. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy, well-connected New York financier, was charged with sex trafficking and his 2019 suicide led to allegations of a coverup years after his death. I dont understand what the interest or what the fascination is. I really dont, said Trump. President Trump has battled back criticism about his administrations handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case since last week when the Department of Justice said it didnt find an Epstein client list or evidence that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals. The memo says, no further disclosure of information about the case would be appropriate or warranted but on Tuesday the president said, Whatever she thinks is credibleshe should release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a fentanyl press conference on Tuesday Attorney General Pam Bondi wouldnt answer questions about the case. Nothing about Epstein. Im not going to talk about Epstein, said Bondi. Shes faced criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, including Republican Congressman Tim Burchett. Id just like to see the files turned over, said Burchett. Speaker Mike Johnson told conservative commentator Benny Johnson Bondi needs to explain her statements about the Epstein case saying, We should put everything out there and let the people decide. Democrats weighed in on the controversy. We need transparency and accountability, and we need it now, said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) Four men were arrested in Springfield in connection with illegal drug activity around Federal and Worthington Streets. Victim identified in Orange Street shooting in Springfield The Springfield Police Department states that over the past few weeks, the departments Firearms Investigation Unit (FIU) detectives have been investigating illegal drug activity around Federal and Worthington Streets. This area has been disrupting local businesses, and several arrests and illicit narcotic seizures have already taken place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Tuesday at around 2:30 p.m., detectives saw suspected drug activity in a Summit Street parking lot. The suspect, 53-year-old David Lazu of Springfield, tossed his cross-body bag inside a dumpster when he saw police. Lazu was detained and placed under arrest after five bags of heroin were found inside his bag. Another suspect, 26-year-old Jorge Torres of Hartford, Connecticut, was arrested after detectives found 1,430 bags of heroin in his vehicle, which weighed a total of 28.6 grams. Approximately 61.9 grams of crack-cocaine in a bag and in capsules, as well as $930 in cash, were also found. Torres also had an outstanding arrest warrant. Detectives recovered approximately 78.2 grams of crack and powder cocaine from 30-year-old Carlos Suarez of Springfield and 28-year-old Rafael Montes of New Britain, Connecticut, along with $1,031 in cash from Montes, which led to their arrest. Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department Springfield Police Department 26-year-old Jorge Torres of Hartford, Connecticut, is charged with: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cocaine Trafficking 36-100 Grams Heroin Trafficking 18-36 Grams Conspiracy to Violate Drug Law Default Warrant Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle 30-year-old Carlos Suarez of Springfield is charged with: Trafficking Cocaine 36-100 Grams Distribution of a Class A Drug Conspiracy to Violate Drug Law 28-year-old Rafael Montes of New Britain, Connecticut, is charged with: Trafficking Cocaine 36-100 Grams Distribution of a Class A Drug Conspiracy to Violate Drug Law 53-year-old David Lazu of Springfield is charged with: Possession of a Class A Drug Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. NEW ELLENTON, S.C. (WJBF) SRP Federal Credit Union unveiled a new SRP Virtual Teller ATM in Aiken County this month. In a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Main Street in New Ellenton on July 11, executives celebrated the opening of the new walk-up ATM machine. According to SRP Federal Credit Union, visitors will be able to speak with an SRP Teller to conduct transactions from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SRP Federal Credit Union strives to be the primary financial institution for our members, and that begins with providing accessible services, said Liz Ponder, SRP Federal Credit Union CEO. We are thrilled to expand and offer a convenient Virtual Teller ATM for the New Ellenton community. This addition marks SRPs 55th ATM or Virtual Teller Machine in its 10-county service area across Georgia and South Carolina. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJBF. The Brief A 31-year-old man, Theodore Michael Tundidor, is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly robbing a St. Augustine business and attempting to kidnap a female employee in broad daylight. The victim fought back and drew attention, causing Tundidor to flee before being apprehended by Florida Fish and Wildlife officers. He is charged with kidnapping, robbery, grand theft auto, DUI, and fleeing law enforcement. ORLANDO, Fla. - A 31-year-old man is facing multiple felony charges after deputies say he tried to kidnap a woman outside a St. Augustine business in broad daylight last month, which was captured on surveillance video. What we know According to the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office, deputies were dispatched around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, to a local business after a 911 caller reported a man attempting to force a woman into a vehicle in the parking lot. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said the man, identified as Theodore Michael Tundidor, robbed the store before dragging a female employee outside and trying to shove her into his vehicle. CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX LOCAL APP The victim resisted, screamed, and attracted the attention of a nearby citizen who intervened and called authorities. Tundidor then fled the scene, abandoning the kidnapping attempt. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers later spotted Tundidor driving recklessly on A1A. He allegedly fled from officers but was ultimately apprehended. What's next Tundidor is charged with kidnapping, robbery, and grand theft auto by the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office. Theodore Michael Tundidor is charged with kidnapping, robbery, and grand theft auto by the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office. FWC also filed charges of fleeing and eluding and driving under the influence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SIGN-UP FOR FOX 35'S BREAKING NEWS, DAILY NEWS NEWSLETTERS Big picture view Authorities praised the victims response during the attack, emphasizing that her actions, fighting back and drawing attention, likely prevented a more serious outcome. The Source The information in this article comes from a report shared by the St. Johns County Sheriffs Office. BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) Life may throw many hurdles, but how you handle the fight determines how you win off the battlefield. One Southern University graduate is overcoming many obstacles in life. It was quite, quite the long road and I promise there were at least probably about a good ten times where I actually started doing one thing and had to start doing something else, said Jakeya Prince-Lumpkins, a Southern University graduate. Going back to the drawing board is something Jakeya Prince-Lumpkins became too familiar with over the years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Interdisciplinary studies actually ended up being my third major change, said Prince. After finding her support team, this mother, educator, and member of the Louisiana Army National Guard is one degree hotter. The army calls her Prince. She recently graduated from Southern University. I started doing pretty much everything myself with the help of those that would pitch in and help me out, said Prince. As this supermom climbs the ladder to success, shes inspiring those around her by crossing off goals on her bucket list one at a time. Im a first-generation graduate college student. So nobody in my immediate family has ever graduated college completely. Im also coming to terms with that I am probably going to be the first one to be commissioned as an officer in the military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prince said shes traveled a long road. A road that felt lonely at many times along the way, but its one she doesnt regret. It all was a learning process. I wouldnt really have learned as much if I didnt go through it the way that I did, said Prince. Prince was dealt a different deck of cards than other college students while balancing motherhood. She often struggled to find a babysitter and she said having professors who understood her circumstances made a world of difference. I kinda gained my imaginary toolbox the more that I started networking with people, said Prince. The soon-to-be commissioned military officer said life is about leveraging your opportunities. For Prince, shes using her education to advance her career in the U.S. military. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Right now, I would be jumping from enlisted to officer side, said Prince. Prince said now that shes secured the degree, its time to secure the bag. Not just for her, but for her son. Standout Student: Southern University track star heads to NCAA Outdoor Championship in Oregon Parenting, Im just trying to get my son through school and to where we could be comfortable, said Prince. Pushing the baton a little further, Prince hopes her journey brings relief to the next student trying to find their way. Letting them know theres comfort on the other side of having to pivot. I love to tell people, go out there and experience it for yourself because your experience is always going to be different from someone elses, said Prince. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wed love to share more of your stories. If you know a Standout Student, send us an email at ssimone@LouisianaFirstNews.com for a chance to be featured. Latest News Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. In the Spotlight is a Modesto Bee series that digs into the high-profile local issues that readers care most about. Story idea? Email tips@modbee.com. Families can thrive when they have economic stability and safe, affordable housing. Many residents of Stanislaus County struggle to pay for housing, though, and its one reason the county is less healthy than other communities, a new report says. The county Health Services Agency this week released the 2025 Community Health Assessment, providing a look at the conditions and social factors that shape the health of county residents. The assessment includes topics from housing affordability to chronic disease, mental health, health care access and life expectancy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the report, half of the renters in Stanislaus County spend more than 30% of income on housing, which makes it more difficult to pay for other basic essentials. Almost 30% of homeowners are barely keeping up with the cost of housing. Single adults and senior citizens especially have limited options for finding good housing, the report says. The National Low Income Housing Coalition says the income necessary for affording a two-bedroom apartment in the Modesto area is $29.38 per hour. The community health assessment used to be completed every five years to guide policymakers and county partners in their efforts to improve the communitys general health. But the collaborative effort including hospitals, Medi-Cal managed-care plans and other partners has shifted to a three-year cycle, said Heather Duvall, managing director of the county Health Services Agency. In a news release, health experts said the Community Health Assessment is more than just data. Its a road map for meaningful change, said Vernell Shaw, senior director and Medi-Cal regional lead for Health Net, which operates a managed-care plan for Medi-Cal recipients. It enables us to truly understand the unique challenges facing Stanislaus County residents and align our efforts to address them. The numbers arent good Duvall said the overall health of the county did not significantly improve in the 2025 assessment compared to the previous one. The county and Central Valley historically have higher rates of chronic disease and poorer health outcomes than healthier regions of California. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The countys average life expectancy 76 years is shorter than the 79.9 years statewide. The county still has high obesity rates among adults (33%). Nearly 50% of children in the county are overweight or obese, the health report says. Asthma is more common here than in the rest of California, affecting 17% of children and 11% of county residents overall. Black residents have the highest rate of hospital emergency department visits due to asthma-related problems. About 20% of adults in the county report their health is fair to poor, on par with the statewide percentage. The countys cancer mortality rate of 157 deaths per 100,000 population is higher than the 132.7 per 100,000 in California and the 146 per 100,000 in the nation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duvall said the coalition will narrow the health assessments areas of focus to three chronic disease prevention, health care access and behavioral health in order to develop a community health improvement plan. The coalition working on improving health outcomes includes Health Plan of San Joaquin, Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, Valley Childrens Healthcare, the county, Health Net and United Way. Other areas of focus in the community health assessment, including affordable and stable housing, economic stability and education, are part of ongoing efforts by Stanislaus 2030, the Cradle to Career Partnership and housing initiatives, Duvall said. Its well known that communities with higher education levels and incomes are usually the most healthy. Mental health provider shortage According to the 2025 report, Stanislaus County has one mental health professional for every 472 residents, and the provider shortage is especially difficult for young people and low-income residents who need help. California has one mental health provider per 300 residents. The countys suicide rate of 11.4 per 100,000 remains above the state rate of 10.5 per 100,000. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Apart from the stigma around mental health challenges, the assessment found that lack of follow-up care reduces the effectiveness of mental health treatment and that transportation is a barrier for poor families. The Trump administrations federal budget bill could increase the challenges of health care access, with Medicaid cuts affecting hospitals and enrollment in Medi-Cal. The report says that one in three county residents needed medical care in the past 12 months but didnt see a doctor, often because health providers were not available. About 20% didnt receive care because their insurance was not accepted. About 26% of Latino children in the county are uninsured. The county suffers from shortages of obstetricians, primary care doctors and pediatricians, the report says. The Festival of Hounds at Peterborough is the largest annual gathering of the hunting community drawn from all parts of the country, cutting across all social divisions, backgrounds and age groups. United by a passion for hounds, hunting and the countryside, the festival itself is a celebration of a British tradition. For reasons which may stem from the ever-increasing distance between rural and urban lives, however, this community has been at the centre of a political storm for decades. The last time Labour was in government, Tony Blair wasted 700 hours of parliamentary time and fought a bitter battle in the countryside for seven years before traditional hunting was eventually banned. In his memoirs he wrote that the ban was one of the domestic legislative measures I most regret, and Labour paid the price by being largely unelectable in rural constituencies for a political generation. Strangely the new Labour government seems determined to repeat the mistakes of the not-too-distant past. It was elected with a manifesto commitment to ban trail hunting the successor to traditional hunting which involves chasing the scent of a fox, rather than a fox itself. Class war has always been the underlying motivation You would have thought that this was a benign activity and, indeed, it is exactly what hunts were told to do when the original ban came in, but there are a section of Labour MPs, often being pressed by animal rights activists embedded in their local Labour parties, for whom hunting has always been a cipher for class ward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They think the hunting ban has failed because hunts still exist. The eradication of the hunting community has always been their primary, if unspoken, aim. They will never be satisfied until the last hunt has closed and will attempt to ensure that any new legislation achieves that goal. Meanwhile, ministers know perfectly well that this is an issue which is completely irrelevant to the vast majority of voters, as polling has consistently shown. It would be very difficult to square the Governments narrative about a relentless focus on tackling the fiscal challenge, driving growth and heading off international crises with a diversion into such petty and prejudiced legislation. How the Government extracts itself from this mess is a challenging question. We are barely a year into a five-year parliament but every week another urban Labour MP asks Ministers when they will bring forward legislation to ban trail hunting. Tony Blairs government was elected with a manifesto commitment to ban hunting and faced a similarly obsessive campaign from the backbenches. But it took five years and a second election victory before he was finally worn down and committed to legislation. Faced with backbenchers seething over the invasion of Iraq and a bitter parliamentary battle over the introduction of foundation hospitals the advice was to feed them the red meat of hunting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As an observer who has lived through one unpleasant bout of hunting legislation and seen the impact on Labours reputation in the countryside, I would counsel the current Prime Minister against any such thinking this time around. Hugely damaging issue for the Government The Countryside Alliance has been warning the Labour Party for years about the political danger of legislating on hunting, not just because of the issue of trail hunting itself, but because of the message it sends to rural voters that the Government is not interested in their priorities. More than that I do not believe that the country as a whole is impressed by partial, prejudice politics or believes that this issue should be a priority for a Government with so many other serious issues on its agenda. As Peter Mandelson memorably put it to a rural audience a couple of years ago: If it is wrongfor the Right-wing to stoke culture wars against minorities, it is just as wrong for the Left-wing in our country to stoke culture wars against rural minorities. Trail hunting may be a niche activity carried out by a rural minority, but it is also potentially a hugely damaging issue for the Government. No one has ever won a political battle over hunting, as Tony Blair himself has admitted, so manifesto commitment or not the sensible course is to stick to real priorities and leave well alone. Baroness Mallalieu KC is a Labour peer and President of the Countryside Alliance Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has suspended four MPs from Labour over repeated breaches of party discipline. Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell have had the party whip removed, meaning the MPs will sit as independents in the House of Commons. Three other Labour MPs - Rosena Allin Khan, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Mohammed Yasin - have been stripped of their trade envoy roles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It comes after all four of the suspended MPs and the former trade envoys voted against the government's welfare reform bill earlier this month. In all, 47 Labour MPs rebelled against the government's proposed cuts to welfare and forced ministers to water down their plans. The rebellion undermined Sir Keir's authority, which was weakened after a series of policy reversals, such as restoring the winter fuel allowance to millions of pensioners. The MP for York Central, Maskell was a key figure in organising the rebellion against the welfare bill, and said this was behind her suspension. In a debate in the Commons, Maskell called the bill an "omnishambles" and described the benefits changes as "Dickensian cuts belong to a different era and a different party". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maskell told the BBC she had been elected to Parliament to speak up for her constituents. "I don't see myself as a rebel," Maskell said. "But I'm not afraid to speak up about whatever is in my constituents' interests." In a message to the prime minister, she insisted she was loyal and suggested she was open to further negotiation, saying "I'm here to build a bridge with you," and adding: "I want to support a Labour government, and for it to be successful." Duncan-Jordan, Leishman and Hinchliff were all elected as Labour MPs for the first time last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Duncan-Jordan, the MP for Poole, organised a letter warning the government's welfare changes were "impossible to support" without a "change of direction". In a statement, Duncan-Jordan said: "Since being elected I have consistently spoken up for my constituents on a range of issues, including most recently on cuts to disability benefits. I understood this could come at a cost, but I couldn't support making disabled people poorer. "Although I've been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party today, I've been part of the Labour and trade union movement for 40 years and remain as committed as ever to its values. "To my constituents: it's business as usual. I remain your hardworking local MP, I will continue to take up your concerns and speak up for Poole." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leishman, the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, has also been an outspoken critic of the government's shake-up of the benefits system. He said: "I am a proud Labour member, and I remain committed to the party. I wish to remain a Labour MP and deliver the positive change many voters are craving. "I have voted against the government on issues because I want to effectively represent and be the voice for communities across Alloa and Grangemouth. I firmly believe that it is not my duty as an MP to make people poorer, especially those that have suffered because of austerity and its dire consequences. "It is the honour of my life to be the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, and my priority remains representing and fighting for constituents, whether they voted for me or not." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hinchliff said: "I remain proud to have been elected as a Labour MP and I hope in time to return to the Labour benches. "In the meantime I will continue to fight every day for the needs of my constituents and nothing will change in how I engage with and represent those I was elected to serve." The four suspended MPs had also rebelled against the government in votes on elements of different legislation, including the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the Public Authorities Bill. But the welfare reforms have been the biggest source of discontent among Labour backbenchers. Dozens of Labour MPs expressed concerns about the government's plans to cut disability and sickness-related benefits, in an effort to save 5bn a year by 2030. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 120 Labour MPs threatened to block the bill, putting the government at risk of defeat. Ministers offered significant concessions to placate rebel Labour MPs and the diluted bill was ultimately voted through the Commons. But dozens of Labour MPs still opposed the bill, marking a major revolt for a party that won a huge majority in last year's general election. Sir Keir did attempt to instil party discipline soon after the election by suspending seven Labour MPs who voted against the government on a proposal to scrap the two-child benefit cap. One of the rebel MPs was Zarah Sultana, who recently quit Labour and said she would found a new party with former Labour leader, now independent MP Jeremy Corbyn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a post on X, Sultana said Labour was "punishing MPs who opposed cuts that would push 800,000 disabled people into poverty". She added: "Insecure men. No vision. No compassion." John McDonnell, who also had the Labour whip removed after voting to lift the two-child benefit cap, said Duncan-Jordan had responded to his suspension in a dignified way. "Speaking up for his constituents and following his conscience are the crimes he committed," he posted. The suspensions of the four MPs come before Parliament breaks for its summer recess. Richard Holden, the shadow paymaster general for the Conservatives, said the suspensions were a "desperate attempt to distract from yet another surge in inflation today and the secret tax plan for this autumn which Starmer accidentally revealed in PMQs". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement [BBC] Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond. The New York State Department of Veterans Services will unveil its newest service kiosk on Grand Island today. It will be located in the lobby of the Western New York Welcome Center off of the I-190. The digital kiosk will provide 24/7 access to more than 60 state programs to veterans, service members and military families. They include resources related to housing, employment, education, mental health support, legal assistance peer support programs, and access to accredited veterans benefits advisors. The kiosks touchscreen interface allows for searching for services, accessing agency contact information or scheduling appointments with an advisor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Veterans and their families often dont know where to begin when seeking services or may feel overwhelmed by bureaucracy, said DVS media representative Josh Fitzpatrick. The DVS digital kiosks simply that process by acting as a centralized, one-stop entry point. The kiosks were first launched in November 2021 as a collaboration between the state DVS and several state agencies, getting further funding in the states 2023 budget. Since then, they have been installed in high-traffic and easily accessible locations across the state, like airports, museums, welcome centers, malls, train stations and other government facilities. There are now 15 locations statewide, including in Niagara Falls State Park and Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Other states like Florida, California, Missouri, Maine, and Nevada are also looking to emulate the idea. The Welcome Center on Grand Island was chosen because of its location between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, providing another site for the thousands of veterans and military families living in the region or for those driving by on the I-190. It is also part of Gov. Kathy Hochuls plan to install such kiosks in every Welcome Center in the state. KANSAS CITY, Mo. A new state mental health facility is coming to Missouri in the next few years. The facility will provide care for at least 200 Missourians with mental illness. Missouri making changes to temporary tag, vehicle registrations next month According to Mental Health America, nearly 60 million people in the U.S. live with mental health struggles, and that number is expected to keep going up. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A ceremonial signing took place Wednesday with leaders from Kansas City, the state of Missouri and University Health all partners on the new 300,000-square-foot facility. Renderings arent available just yet but the new facility will be located at Belvidere Park. For the Department of Mental Health, it also helps us when it comes to addressing the individuals that are in our county jails across the state. Over 460 Missourians are in county jail right now that need to come to a departmental facility for competence restoration, so this helps us provide that capacity, said Valerie Huhn, director of the states Department of Mental Health. The Missouri Department of Mental Health will go from 65 beds here in Kansas City to 215 beds. It will also add 50 more beds to University Healths capacity for short-term stays and a behavioral health emergency department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A lot of the times they end up in the wrong settings, they end up in jail and thats not the right setting. So, again, you cant arrest yourself out of this problem, said Charlie Shields, president and CEO of University Health. This is about getting the right level of care, to the right people at the right place at the right time. This allows us to do that, so itll have a lot of impact not just in mental health, but the justice system as well. Total capital investment for the new facility is $300 million. Leaders say its expected to create more than 600 jobs, provide a training space for behavioral health students and add $60 million a year to the Kansas City economy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaders say the facility will take three to four years to finish and are hoping to open in 2028. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports. PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) The South Dakota Railroad Board on Wednesday terminated its lease agreement with Dakota Southern Railroad Company. The lease had allowed Dakota Southern to operate on the Napa-Platte line that state government owns in southeastern South Dakota. In return, state government was supposed to receive an annual payment from Dakota Southern for storing rail cars on the line. But Dakota Southern had failed to make the $179,134 payment that was due on May 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Board members voted 5-0 on Wednesday to end the lease 17 months before its scheduled expiration. They also unanimously directed that Dakota Southern file the necessary papers with the federal Surface Transportation Board within 30 days. If Dakota Southern doesnt, the board directed the state Department of Transportation to do it. The board further directed DOT to spray weeds and perform other maintenance and repairs along the line and to pursue damages from Dakota Southern for the work, as well as to move forward with a lawsuit to collect the payment that Dakota Southern owes state government if the money isnt paid. With interest, that unpaid amount had climbed to $182,850.40 as of Wednesday, according to state Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The boards actions came after Jundt had sent a letter two months ago to Dakota Southern spelling out what needed to be done, including making the May 1 payment. As of today, I have not received any correspondence whatsoever, Jundt told the board. Mike Williams, who, along with his wife, owns Dakota Southern, and DSRC Vice President for Operations Heath Haden, participated by telephone on Wednesday. Haden said Williams was working on refinancing a property to raise money to make the payment. We have run very, very thin on revenue, Haden said. Board member Greg Carmon of Brandon questioned Haden on the weed spraying. Photos taken earlier this month showed the line had become overgrown with thistles in many places and discarded rail ties lay along the track in many spots. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haden said a crew had sprayed in mid-April. Whatever they used, responded Carmon, it wasnt very potent. Replied Haden, I havent been up there since they sprayed. Mike Williams then joined the discussion. Heath runs the operations and whatever, Williams said. Williams said that the spread of precision railroading in the past few years had changed the business model. The car storage business is not coming back, Williams said. He added, We cant look at that as a revenue stream anymore. Rail board member Scott Lockwood of Rapid City challenged Williams explanation. Im not buying this, Lockwood said. He asked Williams about the car-storage operations. Williams said his revenue had plummeted to $1.2 million a year from $6.8 million. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We got popped up with a couple of bad things happening but were not giving up on this, Williams said. Board chair Jeff Burket of Spearfish asked whether Williams had been paid for storing cars on the line. Yes, Williams answered, we were paid for that. Williams said hes been working on refinancing a couple of farms to make the lease payment. Board member Steve Scharnweber of Pierre asked Williams how many railroad companies he owns and how many of them receive revenue for car storage. Williams said he owns five, with two of them earning revenue from car storage and a third that functions as a storage-in-transit yard. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Williams asked to speak one more time before the board took its actions. Im a very honest guy. If I owe debt, Im going to take and pay that, he said. After the boards votes, Williams asked for a list of whats still needed to be done on the line. The state of South Dakota has been good. Weve done a lot up there, he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KELOLAND.com. State schools in Kent received almost 100 enquiries in the 48 hours after a private school closed citing the VAT raid. Taxpayers have been left to foot a 1.2m bill after the closure of Bishop Challoner School earlier this month, with around 50 pupils so far applying to join nearby state schools. The Catholic school, which this year celebrated its 75th birthday, was forced to shut after it lost more than a third of its pupils to Labours VAT raid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the space of six months, the schools pupil roll fell from 317 in July last year to 270 in January. A further 52 pupils had withdrawn for the next academic year when governors decided it was no longer economically viable. Minutes from a Bromley Council meeting revealed in the first 48 hours after the school informed parents of its closure on June 12, the authority received almost 100 queries from parents about moving their child to a state school. In the following three weeks, the council received 42 applications to transfer pupils to Bromley state schools the equivalent to 16pc of the schools roll. Bishop Challoner School passed on the full 20pc levy to parents in January increasing fees by 3,238 per year. The closure of the school means the Treasury will miss out on 850,000 a year in VAT revenue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It costs councils 8,210 a year on average to educate a pupil in the state sector, meaning the transfer of 42 pupils will cost 350,000 per year. Taken together, the costs to the state exceeds 1.2m, in a blow to Labours flagship education tax. Neil OBrien, shadow education minister, said the findings showed Labours costings, which claim the policy will raise up to 1.7bn, were a pack of lies. He said: This is yet more evidence that the number of children being forced to move schools and away from their friends is much larger than Labour predicted, wiping out the supposed tax revenues. The Chancellor said every penny would go on state schools. The Prime Minister said hed spent the money on housing instead. And given that the numbers of teachers in state schools is down under Labour, we can see it was all just a pack of lies all along. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There are further concerns parents may struggle to find state school places for their children in Bromley, a suburb popular with families thanks to its convenient location between Greater London and Kent. The authority has 19 secondary schools. Last summer, a Freedom of Information request revealed every school bar three academies not controlled by the council had a waiting list. In some schools, this exceeded 50 pupils who were hoping to gain a place in one year group. The Treasury has claimed the VAT levy will raise 1.5bn next year, rising to 1.7bn by 2029-30. However, this calculation assumes around 35,000 pupils equivalent to 6pc will leave private schools and move to state schools as a result of the tax. Last weekend, Oxford Sixth Form College became the latest school to announce its closure as a result of the VAT levy. The Telegraph is now aware of 45 independent schools which have closed in the past year citing the tax raid. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A government spokesman said: Ending tax breaks for private schools will raise 1.8bn a year by 2029/30 to help deliver 6,500 new teachers and raise school standards, supporting the 94pc of children in state schools to achieve and thrive. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. City leaders in Statesville want more people to join the downtown social district. According to the Statesville Record & Landmark, the citys current policies say a social distinct business has to make the majority of its sales from something other than alcohol. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Statesville debuts new social district in downtown area However, an amendment would loosen that requirement. Businesses will have to be approved for state liquor licenses and get the go-ahead to enter the social district. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So far, there is at least one social district in 60 North Carolina counties. Several other Charlotte neighborhoods are also working to get approved. VIDEO: Statesville debuts new social district in downtown area Millie, the comfort dog with the Sterling Police Department, made a special visit to Boston Leather this week after she started to chew through her old leash, a news release says. Mille and CSO Toth (Sterling Police Department) Millie now has a new leashcrafted from premium American leather and built to stand up to even the most enthusiastic Golden Retriever. Boston Leather, headquartered in Sterling, supports Millie and all first responders who rely on durable, high-quality gear. As a full-scale manufacturing plant, Boston Leather specializes in everything from rugged duty gear for law enforcement, firefighters, and EMS professionals to casual leather goods for everyday use. Quad-City dealers including MacQueen Emergency Group, DeWitt, and Uniform Den, Moline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For more information, visit here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com. Millions of people flock to the beach in the summertime for some fun in the sun, but there are always things to be careful of whenever you go in the water. Jellyfish are the bane of any beachgoers existence. Currently, Niles Beach and other surrounding beaches in Gloucester, Massachusetts are dealing with a jellyfish problem. On Saturday, the Gloucester Beaches Facebook account shared a warning to residents and visitors about the presence of Lion's Mane jellyfish in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The City is currently dealing with Lions Mane jellyfish in the outer harbor at Niles Beach, and were actively reaching out to NOAA for guidance," the post reads. "These jellyfish can deliver painful stingseven after theyve washed ashoreso please use caution and avoid any jellyfish you may see." The warning also contained safety tips, including staying out of the water when jellyfish are present, posting a marine hazard flag if significant numbers of the creature are spotted at Good Harbor Beach and restricting or banning water activity if necessary at Niles, Good Harbor, or Half Moon Beach. "City staff are monitoring the situation closely this morning and will update as needed," the post added. According to Oceana.org, Lion's Mane jellyfish are one of the largest jelly species in the world, growing up to lengths of 6.5 feet. They are typically found in cooler ocean areas and can be light to deep red/crimson or orange in color. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you're gonna have contact with them," said Bob Glenn, deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries. "They're not particularly dangerous, but they are very painful." Glenn did say that if you're unfortunate enough to come into contact with one of these jellyfish, hot water can alleviate the symptoms of a sting. The sting of a Lion's Mane jellyfish is not fatal, but can be quite painful or even cause allergic reactions in some people. Stinging Jellyfish Warning Issued at Popular U.S. Beach first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 15, 2025 SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) Tuesday afternoon was hot and humid with a few passing showers and storms. Most of the area missed out on significant rainfall. Though the rain was heavy where it did fall. Most of the showers were fast moving due to a strong onshore breeze due to the circulation of a system to our south that may become tropical. The system to our south will not bring any direct impacts to our area. However, that system will help to lower rain chances over the next few days. A LOOK AHEAD Wednesday through Saturday will be hot and humid with a few passing showers or storms. Rain chances each day are at 30%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any showers or storms that develop especially on Wednesday and Thursday will be fairly fast moving because of a strong breeze due to the area of low pressure that we have been tracking across northern Florida. Afternoon highs will gradually become hotter. The mid to upper 90s are expected on Friday and Saturday. Heat index values will be over 105F at times. As hot as our high temperatures will become, we will not be talking about record breaking highs in our local forecast. Records this week in July range from 101F to 105. The all-time record high of 105F for Savannah was set back in 1879 and in 1986. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A more unsettled pattern will set up again on Sunday and into early next week. Scattered showers and storms are expected each day. Temperatures will remain above average in the low to mid 90s. TRACKING THE TROPICS We continue to track a broad area of low pressure that is now located over northeast Florida for potential tropical development. It has been causing heavy rain and breezy conditions. Conditions have been breezy even in the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry because of this system. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The National Hurricane Center gives this system a medium (40%) chance of developing into a tropical depression or tropical storm over the next 5 days. Much of the model guidance keeps this low over land or very close to the northern Gulf coast. This would mean a fairly weak system that will move toward Louisiana. Heavy rain and breezy conditions are expected along the Gulf coast through the week. Some of the moisture may make its way back toward the southeast Atlantic coast over the weekend or early next week and enhance our rain chances. No direct tropical impacts are expected in Georgia or South Carolina at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. WASHINGTON, N.C. (WNCT) A stretch of U.S. 264 will close for several months beginning July 21, 2025. The road will be closed in both directions near Highland Drive as the City of Washington is upgrading drainage under the highway. The closure is anticipated to last three months, weather permitting. There are signs alerting drivers to a detour to 15th Street to access either side of the closure. Drivers are advised to use caution when approaching the detour and to plan ahead due to the longer than normal commute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. A woman delicately places a glittering tulle clip into the hair of a little girl in a pink princess dress covered in blood; a mortuary technician untangles the blood-clumped curls of another small child wearing a green shirt with a cartoon panda face on it, emblazoned with the word, Hello! These are just some of the scenes that NBC News crew on the ground in the Gaza Strip captured last week after an Israeli strike outside a health clinic killed at least 15 people, including young children, as they lined up to receive supplements and medical care. The Israel Defense Forces claimed it was targeting an as-yet-unnamed Hamas member who had crossed into Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks when it launched the strike July 10. The IDF said it regretted any harm to uninvolved individuals and was investigating the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, humanitarian and human rights experts say the deaths of children, women and civilians in that attack and others highlight long-standing concerns around Israels approach to both proportionality and transparency since it began its military assault on the Gaza Strip more than a year and a half ago. Project HOPE runs the health clinic where people were waiting for care when, according to UNICEF, at least nine children and several women were killed. Among them was a year-old boy who had just spoken his first words hours before, with his mother also injured in the blast, UNICEF said at the time. A grieving child mourns the loss of a loved one outside Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, following an airstrike Thursday. (NBC News) Under international humanitarian law, it is prohibited to launch an attack that could cause any loss of civilian life, injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects considered to be disproportional to the direct military advantage anticipated, according to the British Red Cross. There is evidence that the Israeli military has been tolerating up to 20 civilians dead to target a single ordinary Hamas fighter, said Kenneth Roth, a prominent human rights activist and former executive director of Human Rights Watch, referring to a New York Times report citing a 2023 Israeli military order that gave officers such authority when pursuing Hamas militants in Gaza. No reasonable observer would consider that a proportionate cost. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Even an attack on a military target can be a war crime if the anticipated civilian cost is disproportionate, Roth noted. When asked to comment, the IDF referred NBC News to its original response to the Times report, saying the Israeli military remained committed to the rule of law. Throughout the war, the Israeli military has often released only limited information on many of its strikes, including those that caused high civilian death tolls, making it difficult to ascertain where those attacks fall under rules of proportionality. In the case of its July 10 attack, the IDF has yet to conclude its probe and it also has yet to publicly identify the Hamas member its forces were allegedly targeting or provide any clear outline of steps it took to avoid impacting civilians before launching the strike. Asked Monday for an update on its probe and to respond to concerns around proportionality over the deadly toll of the strike, the IDF said it would get back on the matter but had yet to provide a response as of Wednesday morning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement International humanitarian law requires an attacker to use all feasible means to avoid civilian casualties, Roth said. That includes selecting the time of day when civilians are least likely to be harmed and weaponry that can achieve a military objective while minimizing civilian harm. Pointing to a recent attack in which dozens of people were killed and injured at a seaside cafe in Gaza City, he said it felt likely Israeli forces had violated the duty to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians from an attack. Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the London-based Royal United Services Institute think tank, said in an email that the controversy over IDF operations comes from a couple of key areas: how they choose targets and then extent to which they are prepared to accept civilian casualties. Some claims about their Rules of Engagement say that they have a very broad categorisation of what they are allowed to treat as a military target, he said. In other cases the Israelis have launched strikes, often air attacks, which seem to have killed a large number of civilians alongside their legitimate target. That doesnt mean those attacks breached" international humanitarian law, "but it does mean the IDF should justify the large number of casualties in terms of showing they were proportionate compared to the target being attacked. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement James Sweeney, a professor of international law at the U.K.-based Lancaster University, said in a phone interview that it was typically good practice to keep a detailed log of the decision-making process that goes into any particular attack. Referring to the strike outside the Project Hope clinic, he said, I would imagine that one exists. As to whether it will ever see the light of day, I wouldnt be so sure. A deadly campaign Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict. Since then, more than 57,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip, including thousands of children, while tens of thousands of others have been injured, according to Palestinian health authorities, and much of the enclave has been destroyed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Israeli military and government officials have repeatedly accused Hamas of exploiting civilian sites, including hospitals and schools, as a cover for its operations, an accusation that health officials and Hamas have denied. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at two Israeli think tanks, the Institute for National Security Studies and Misgav, has typically defended Israels campaign in Gaza. He said in a phone interview that it was evident the Israeli military did take some risks when it comes to collateral damage when the importance of a Hamas target is very high. In other cases, he said, there were unfortunately some mistakes. A Palestinian woman looks out from a shattered clinic in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike July 7. (Abdalhkem Abu Riash / Anadolu via Getty Images) On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had made a technical error in a strike it said was intended to target an Islamic Jihad member but instead killed at least seven children as they waited for water at a distribution point, according to UNICEF. The IDF said the error caused the munition to fall dozens of meters away from the target. It has not made any similar explanation in the strike that unfolded outside the health clinic or at the seaside cafe. Throughout its military campaign in Gaza, Israel has faced mounting accusations of war crimes and genocide, including in a case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice, the United Nations top court. The ICJ last year ordered Israel to do everything it can to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, issuing a symbolic blow condemning the Israeli militarys campaign in the enclave since the court has no power to enforce its rulings. Both Israel and the United States have rejected accusations of genocide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But condemnation has also grown from within, with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert telling the British newspaper The Guardian in a recent interview that by the spring, when the Israeli government abandoned negotiations for a permanent end to fighting, he had reached the conclusion that his country was committing war crimes. Meanwhile, he said, a widely condemned proposal from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to build a so-called humanitarian city over the ruins of hard-hit Rafah in southern Gaza and force Palestinians to live there would constitute ethnic cleansing. Olmert called the proposed site a concentration camp. Avi Melamed, a former Israeli military intelligence official, said that often in strikes, decisions of life and death are inevitably being made. If there is a person there that is, you know, responsible for terrible things I would say, of course, we have to take this person down. But then, of course, comes the question, OK, whats the cost? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Is he sitting surrounded by 20 kids in a classroom? Probably, I would say I would not, I would not attack, he said in a phone interview. If say, there is a probability that this person is finding shelter around among civilians, I would try to verify that to the best of my capacity and then to take the decisions. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com RICHMOND, Calif. (KRON) The Richmond Police Department is urging the community to be alert as it investigates a recent string of sexual battery assaults. Arson suspect nabbed as SJPD probes 14th homicide of year RPD said the attacks have targeted people who are on popular jogging or walking paths exercising by themselves during daylight and early evening hours. Richmond police said some incidents have occurred at the Point Richmond Tunnel and Keller Beach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said the suspect is described as a Black man who is between 5 feet 7 inches tall to 6 feet tall, and between the ages of 40 to 50 years old with an average build. Richmond police are asking residents to take the following precautions when exercising outside: Stay Alert: Avoid distractions such as loud music through headphones. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. Dont Go Alone: Jog or walk with a partner or in a group whenever possible. Choose Well-Lit Areas: Stick to populated, well-lit paths and avoid isolated or overgrown areas, especially during dusk or dawn. Vary Your Routine: Avoid following the same route or schedule each day. Carry a Whistle or Personal Alarm: These can draw attention quickly in an emergency. Trust Your Instincts: If something feels off, leave the area and report any suspicious activity immediately. The Richmond Police Department reminds the public to report suspicious activity in the Point Richmond area by calling 911 or the non-emergency line at 510-233-1214. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. The Brief A fire near Brinnon, Washington has been fully contained after initially prompting evacuations for residents. It began as a structure fire and later spread to trees and vegetation. Crews have established a containment line around the fire and are monitoring hot spots. BRINNON, Wash. - A fire in Washington's Jefferson County that led to evacuations near Brinnon has been fully contained. What we know Fire officials say a structure caught on fire Tuesday afternoon just northwest of Brinnon, and it later spread to nearby vegetation. It burned five acres of brush and heavy timber. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, the Brinnon Fire Department said a 100% containment line had been established around the fire, and crews are now monitoring for any potential hotspots. Brinnon Fire Evacuation Zone The fire mainly spread through airborne embers and in the crowns of trees. Two structures were lost in the fire, including an abandoned home and an unoccupied travel trailer. Level 3 Evacuations were originally issued for residents on Belgian Drive, Rock Brook Road, Arabian Drive, Shetland Lane and Morocco Place after the fire spread. Brinnon Fire, East Jefferson Fire and Rescue, Quilcene Fire, Mason County, and the Washington State Department of Natural Resources responded to the scene. The Source Information in this story came from Brinnon Fire, East Jerfferson Fire and Rescue and Mason County PUD. MORE NEWS FROM FOX 13 SEATTLE Pierce County Sheriff's Office major arrested after serious Graham crash Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh wins 2025 Home Run Derby Trash piles up in Renton amid nationwide Republic Services strike Neighbors pulled family from smashed SUV after crash involving Pierce County Major Travis Decker lookalike sparks manhunt confusion in Idaho To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news. George Mason University, home to one of the most diverse student bodies in the country, is at the center of a new federal civil rights investigation over its diversity and hiring practices. (Photo courtesy of Evan Cantwell/George Mason University) When student Hanaan Kazia first heard about the federal civil rights probe into George Mason University, she wasnt surprised. But the junior political science major and member of the schools Political Science Honor Society says the implications still scare her. I think it is kind of frightening, because I know that one of the reasons that I went to Mason and one of the reasons why other people have attended Mason is because it is one of the most diverse public universities in Virginia, Kazia told The Mercury in an interview Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And I think that the multitude of experiences that we have on campus that the universitys previous DEI practices have made part of the culture here is something thats really important to me and really important to a lot of other students. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Educations Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it had launched an investigation into GMU over allegations that the schools diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies violate Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in institutions receiving federal funds. According to the agency, the probe stems from a complaint filed by multiple professors who accuse GMU of giving unlawful preference in hiring and promotion to faculty from underrepresented groups in the name of anti-racism. OCR officials argue the universitys DEI practices, in place since 2020, constitute pernicious and widespread discrimination that runs afoul of federal law. Despite the leadership of George Mason University claiming that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, it appears that its hiring and promotion policies and practices from 2020 to the present not only allow but champion illegal racial preferencing in violation of Title VI, said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This kind of pernicious and widespread discrimination packaged as anti-racism was allowed to flourish under the Biden Administration, but it will not be tolerated by this one. OCR cited a number of practices in its opening letter, such as the presence of Equity Advisors in each department who take immutable characteristics into account in hiring; GMU President Gregory Washingtons stated commitment to tenure and promotion criteria that recognize the invisible and uncredited emotional labor of faculty of color; and diversity cluster hire initiatives meant to eliminate demographic gaps between students and faculty. In a university-wide email sent in March, Washington also announced the renaming of GMUs DEI office to the Office of Access, Compliance, and Community, stating that there was nothing for the university to change because it has always complied with existing civil rights laws. This is a more specific and intuitively accurate reflection of its charter. It is not an attempt to evade compliance through clever wordsmithing it simply affirms our actual compliance through more precise naming, he wrote in the email. A broader political context The new federal probe comes amid an aggressive rollback of DEI initiatives across higher education nationally under pressure from Republican lawmakers and advocacy groups, sanctioned by the administration of President Donald Trump. In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has made reducing DEI spending and restructuring public university governance central pillars of his education agenda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But for Kazia, the charges feel like another escalation in what she sees as a broader political attack on the universitys identity. Honestly, it feels kind of like an attack, especially on our student body, she said. And weve been under these attacks for a long time, at least a few years, especially because before the Trump administration, Governor Youngkin had an eye on us, and we have members of the Heritage Foundation on our board of visitors. So I think it just kind of feels like its hurting the university in the long run. In a statement Friday, GMU said it received the letter announcing the investigation simultaneously with news outlets. George Mason University again affirms its commitment to comply with all federal and state mandates. The university consistently reviews its policies and practices to ensure compliance with federal laws, updated executive orders, and on-going agency directives, the statement read. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And: George Mason does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, ethnic national origin (including shared ancestry and/or ethnic characteristics), sex, disability, military status (including veteran status), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, pregnancy status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. The latest investigation follows a separate Title VI probe launched earlier this year into GMUs response to antisemitism on campus. That case involves allegations from students and faculty that the administration failed to adequately respond to a hostile environment for Jewish individuals after the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. The school refuted those claims, with Washington stating antisemitism has no place at George Mason University, and never has. Some observers argue the Trump administration is using those allegations to build a broader political case against Washington. Diverging views on diversity and merit Recent reporting by ProPublica and NBC News has underscored how the Trump administrations OCR has increasingly focused on public universities in politically competitive states like Virginia, using Title VI as a mechanism to challenge campus diversity programs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Liam Keen, a 2024 graduate and former GMU student government leader, pushed back on that idea. Using Jewish identity as a cover for political attempts to restructure an institution is not true support, its instrumentalization, Keen said. And ultimately, it does more harm than good. Keen, who is white and has family ties to GMU, said diversity has always been a core institutional strength. Educational institutions are more than places to earn a degree. Theyre spaces where we develop a deeper understanding of the world, of each other, and of ourselves, he said. That mission can only be achieved when were exposed to a variety of perspectives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added, At GMU, diversity isnt a slogan, its a reflection of who we are, and its something students consistently say they want more of, not less. The student population at GMU is majority-minority, with more than 50% of students identifying as people of color, but its faculty remains more than 65% white, according to internal reports. Tim Gibson, a longtime GMU professor and president of the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, called the latest federal complaint baseless and politically motivated. What these policies and these programs do, is they say that were going to do it as an institution, where we value the diversity of experience and diversity of perspective because we think were stronger that way, he said in a phone interview. Its not about quotas, its not about hiring preferences. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gibson argued the Trump administration is mounting an effort to ideologically police public education. They are trying to exert more control over scientists and researchers, and in the classroom, to train the next generation of researchers and scientists, he said. Theyre trying to control the production of knowledge so that it only produces knowledge that agrees with their preexisting views. I think its as simple as that. Gibson emphasized that the anti-DEI movement disregards Virginias long history of legally enforced racial exclusion in public education a history DEI efforts are meant to address. I think the argument itself is deeply cynical and ahistoric, he said. Lets not forget that Virginia was a state that was segregated, within living memory, and that African Americans were excluded by law from attending many of our public universities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He continued, Whatever objections President Trump and others have had about universities, I believe are simply because the researchers and universities are publishing research knowledge that contradicts not for political reasons, but because its true all assumptions and myths about the world. And that is one of the functions of universities. Parallel to UVA controversy Longtime Virginia political analyst Bob Holsworth said the GMU case shares similarities with the recent controversy at the University of Virginia, where President Jim Ryan resigned under pressure following Title VI complaints and political scrutiny. In some ways, its similar to UVA, where you have a complaint coming from probably a minority in the university, Holsworth said. Now you have a Youngkin-appointed board of visitors that is silent and you have a federal Department of Education that is really aggressively pursuing the complaints. But Holsworth said GMU is an unusual target. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mason is certainly not a paragon of intellectual wokeness. It has the Mercatus Center; it has the Antonin Scalia Law School. It probably has more conservative-based intellectual elements than any university in Virginia, he said. So its kind of surprising, but this no longer seems to matter. He added that the political pressure may be tied to Virginias upcoming elections, with control of the states executive branch and attorney generals office on the line. If the attorney general was a Democrat right now, wed be in a very different situation with both UVA and George Mason, Holsworth said, referring to the offices responsibility to appoint counsel to all of the state universities. So not only is the governors election critically important, but this may be the most important attorney general election in a generation. Voices of support and resistance Former Gov. Doug Wilder, the nations first Black governor and a GMU supporter, framed the attack on GMUs president in historical terms. The elementary school I attended had no cafeteria, no auditorium, and had outdoor toilets. It was named for George Mason, Wilder recalled. I learned that George Mason was an early American patriot who believed that education and commitment could lead to the fullest participation in the American dream. I wonder how he would feel today about the university which bears his name and its treatment of its first president of color. Wilder also pointed to a pattern: (Washington) is not the only person of color heading our colleges and universities being subjected to specious and questionable charges, he said, referencing Cedric Wins at Virginia Military Institute, who in February was ousted in a move that sparked widespread pushback. Three Democratic GMU alumni now serving in Virginias state Senate also issued a joint statement of support of Washington and the university he leads. From 2020 to 2025, GMU jumped from 45 to 30 in Wall Street Journal Public University Rankings, and from 72 to 51 in US News Public Institution rankings, all while maintaining affordability near our nations capital, said Sens. Jeremy McPike, Stella Pekarsky, and Saddam Azlan Salim. Instead, following the successful attack on UVA President Jim Ryan, opportunists have set their sights on another of Virginias prized universities. To claim that anti-racism is racially discriminatory makes a mockery of the laws the Department claims to be enforcing, they added. We call on the U.S. Department of Education to end this sham investigation. For students like Kazia, the values at stake go far beyond policy documents or legal interpretations. These attacks arent necessarily new, but they are ramping up in a way that is frightening, especially for the culture and the environment of our university, she said. Its going to harm all of us in the long run. GMUs Gibson offered a final reflection on the broader context. That is the history that diversity, equity, and inclusion programs since the civil rights movement have been trying to redress, he said. And these programs are about opening that door and then basically sending invitations to groups that have been historically excluded. That is really the point. Its not about political favoritism, its about fulfilling a promise. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) Local high school students are getting the chance to improve on important professional skills. FSU Panama City has been hosting free leadership workshops throughout July. The focus of the camp is to help students with productivity and communication in a professional environment. These one-hour workshops teach them skills such as creative problem solving and conflict management. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ponce De Leon High School to install phone lockers for 6th-8th grade Director of Management Eren Ozgen designed the course to be interactive, allowing each student to participate and strengthen their skills. I see that all of them, each one of them, they engage. I see engaging eyes, and I see interaction. So when I found out that they love exercise, they really do exercise. So they learn by playing. They learn by playing. So its good. Very nice, with the high school students also, Ozgen said. Ozgen says she hopes students can apply the skills they learn to their everyday lives. This is the first year for the camp, but theyre planning to hold it every summer. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The students, many of whom are high school seniors, also got a tour of the FSU Panama City campus. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to mypanhandle.com. Every year CNBC releases its ranking of state business climates while revealing the top states for business. North Carolina sat atop the list this year ahead of Texas, Florida, Virginia and Ohio, which rounded out the top five. Within its ranking of the best states for business, CNBC considered quality of life among the categories contributing to the competitiveness of each state. "Under this years methodology, the category makes up 10.6% of a states overall score. We consider factors like crime, health care, air quality, and the price and availability of child care," CNBC said in a statement. "We also consider inclusiveness of state laws, such as legal protections against discrimination. And with data showing younger workers considering reproductive rights in their choice of where they are willing to live, we factor those state laws in our rankings as well." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While it sat at No. 2 in the "best states for business" ranking, Texas came in at No. 49 in quality of life - making it the second worst state. The honor for worst state in the U.S. for quality of life belongs to another southern state: Tennessee. CNBC applauded Governor Bill Lee's new budget that includes $175 million in grants to local communities to help them fight crime. According to FBI statistics, that money is badly need in the state that currently has America's third-highest violent crime rate, making it a particularly dangerous place to live. "Tennessee has also been at the forefront of legislation limiting the rights of its LGBTQ+ population, beginning as far back as 2015. The state was among the earliest to codify a persons gender based on their anatomy, passing its law in 2023," CNBC said. "State laws guarantee equal pay and bar sexual harassment. But beyond that, there are few protections for workers in Tennessee." The state received a quality of life score of 61 out of 265 points - 11 points behind the second-worst state in Texas - while receiving an "F" grade handed down for weaknesses like crime rate, inclusiveness and worker protections. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Air quality was listed as a strength for the state. Related: Southwest Airlines Considering Another Controversial Change After Ending Free Bags New Study Reveals State With Worst 'Quality of Life' first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 Baboons carry trauma the way humans do long after the violence ends. After two were shot and killed in South Africa, the rest of the troop showed signs of stress and anxiety that lasted for weeks, according to a Durham University study. What happened? In the town of Alldays, South Africa, a group of chacma baboons that forage in a local garbage dump became the subject of an unexpected study after two of them were fatally shot by humans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Originally focusing on their feeding and movement patterns, Dr. Mokhlesur Rahman, a Ph.D. researcher from Durham University, shifted his focus to examine how the surviving baboons responded to the attack. The results were sobering: the baboons began to travel faster and farther, ultimately abandoning their sleeping site near where the shooting occurred. Social dynamics shifted, too. Aggressive behavior dropped, the troop's grooming patterns changed, and the baboons' self-scratching spiked, a classic sign of anxiety in primates. Rahman collected fecal samples from the group, which revealed heightened levels of glucocorticoid hormones associated with stress. "These levels remained raised for several weeks," the research noted. Interestingly, the baboons did not appear to alter their interactions with local dump workers, suggesting they could differentiate between humans who posed a threat and those who did not. Why is this change in behavior concerning? The findings provide a rare glimpse into the emotional impact of human violence on wildlife. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These baboons weren't just scared; they also exhibited signs of trauma that mirror responses seen in humans, raising red flags about how animals are psychologically impacted by conflict with people. As urban development and human populations grow, many species are being pushed into closer proximity to people. Without safeguards, incidents between animals and humans could become more common and have long-term consequences on the survival and stability of entire populations and ecosystems. "Insights such as this are vital to understand the potential impacts of human persecution," the authors wrote. What's being done about it? Research like Rahman's can help shape better conservation strategies, particularly in human-wildlife conflict zones. Organizations like Wildlife ACT and the Endangered Wildlife Trust are working across South Africa to prevent conflict through public education, relocation programs, and community conservation efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On a broader scale, protecting shared habitats and discouraging retaliation killings are key. Similar to recent efforts that helped reduce wolf killings in the western U.S. through coexistence policies and non-lethal deterrents, better protections for primates may rely on understanding their emotional and behavioral responses to trauma. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet. LOS ANGELES (WJW) Law enforcement arrested a suspect in the of killing an American Idol music supervisor and her husband in their California home. Raymond Boodarian, a 22-year-old Encino man, was arrested on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Police Departments Operations-Valley Bureau Homicide unit, investigators announced in a news release. On Monday afternoon, officers with the police departments West Valley Division went to an upscale home in the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue to check on 70-year-old Robin Kaye and her husband, 70-year-old Thomas Deluca. Encino, CA July 15: Los Angeles Police Department officials secure the home where Robin Kaye an American Idol music supervisor and her husband Thomas Deluca were found killed with gunshot wounds to the head on Tuesday, July 15, 2025 in Encino, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) A 911 caller requested the wellness check after not hearing from them for several days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Los Angeles police, when they arrived, officers found Kaye and Deluca shot to death. Police detectives began interviewing friends and family and reviewing multiple surveillance videos. Through the investigation, detectives learned that a radio call went out for a possible burglary suspect at the home on July 10. While there were no signs of forced entry or trouble at the location during that investigation, it is now believed that the suspect had gained entry into the residence through an unlocked door, the police department said in the release. Investigators believe that, when the couple returned home, the suspect was already inside and a confrontation ensued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kaye and Deluca died from multiple gunshot wounds and the suspect got away on foot, the police department said. Detectives later identified the suspect as Boodarian, who was taken into custody without incident. Los Angeles police said the double-homicide remains under investigation at this time. LOS ANGELES, CA FEBRUARY 26: Robin Kaye attends the 4th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards at Mack Sennett Studios on February 26, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Guild of Music Supervisors) Kaye was best known for serving as a music supervisor on American Idol, but she also did work on television series such as The Singing Bee, Miss Universe and Lip Sync Battle, according to IMDB. In a statement sent to People, American Idol said they are devastated to hear of Robin and her dear husband, Toms, passing. The statement went on to call Kaye a cornerstone of the Idol family since 2009 and truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As previously reported by KTLA, the home was formerly owned by the late rapper Juice WRLD, who died in 2019. Records indicate that Kaye and Deluca bought the home in 2023, the outlet reported. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. TUNICA, COUNTY, Miss. A suspect in a triple shooting who was later found dead near the crime scene had a history of domestic violence charges, records show. Monday night, the Tunica County Sheriffs Office found a body in a field that they believe is the suspect in that shooting, 42-year-old Markello Braxton. Markello Braxton (Tunica Co Sheriffs Office) Deputies said Braxton shot and killed 30-year-old Nykeria Jude and wounded two others, including his 6-year-old daughter and 24-year-old son. WREG looked into Braxtons history and found seven domestic disturbance calls made to the Tunica County Sheriffs Office involving Braxton and his girlfriend, Nykeria Jude, at their Soliel Drive home address. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The first call was July 28, 2015, and the most recent call came on March 10 of this year. There was a manhunt for Braxton before the sheriffs office stumbled on a dead body in a field that had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Body of man wanted in MS triple shooting found near scene We have learned good news in this case, though Braxtons 6-year-old daughter, Marlaysia Braxton, who he shared with Nykeria Jude, left the hospital Tuesday and is in stable condition. Marquavious Young, Braxtons 24-year-old son, was released from the hospital on Sunday. The Shelby County Sheriffs Office said in a social media post that deputies from the Shelby County, DeSoto County, and Tunica County Sheriffs Offices provided a police escort, ensuring the childs safe return to her family. Photo Courtesy of SCSO xAI exec not disclosing plans for Southaven, MS site Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marquavious Youngs spokesperson and Angela and Leon, Marlaysias grandparents, said the following in a statement: On July 11, 2025, our family faced an unimaginable loss with the passing of Nykeria Jude. Both Nykeria and Markello were loving parents to Marlaysia, and Markello was also the father to Marquavious. In a heartbreaking turn of events, both children suffered injuries at the hands of their father. On July 15, 2025, the discovery of Markellos body near his home left families and friends grappling with a whirlwind of emotions, from sorrow to confusion. In this difficult time, we ask for your prayers and understanding as we begin to heal from the physical and emotional scars of this tragedy. We want to emphasize the crucial importance of mental health and the need to take domestic violence seriously. Let us come together to foster a community that prioritizes safety, understanding, and compassion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They said that after Marlaysia and Marquavious were released from the hospital after undergoing surgery, and are now recovering. While the road ahead may be long and filled with obstacles, we are hopeful and determined to overcome them together, they said. Fugitive arrested after shots fired at MPD officers on July 4th They asked the community to unite and advocate for mental health awareness and ensure the safety of families affected by violence. I miss her so much, God love everybody, amen, said Marlaysia. I felt so good, made me want to cry for all the love they showed right here around my house, said Angela Walls, grandmother. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With both parents now gone, the family says Marlaysia will be safe. She was a great person, inside and out. I mean she had a smile to light up the room in every dim space or place, said Anna Brown, family friend. The family says their focus is on Marlaysia and remembering a mother who made anyone feel at home. We all gone miss her, her family is mine. Everyone who came across her became family with her, said Brown. You know it wasnt a friend, it was blood, so long live my girl. She will truly be missed. We spoke to a local resident who was in disbelief about the shooting, saying Markello was a coward. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont honor doing that to women, especially somebody thats kind and has a sweet heart, neighbor Latorian Henley said. A GoFundMe has been set up for the family. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. The suspect accused of fatally shooting a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in a gun rampage in June has been indicted on six federal charges, the state's attorney general has announced. The charges against Vance Boelter, 57, include stalking and murder which prosecutors said could be met with a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. After a two-day manhunt, Mr Boelter was arrested on 16 June for his alleged role in the killings of Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Boelter remains in custody in Minnesota, where he is also facing state charges. He has not yet entered a plea. According to prosecutors, Mr Boelter stalked and fired at two other state lawmakers - John Hoffman, a Minnesota state senator, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman - in a separate shooting. Prosecutors said he also had plans for a larger-scale attack which police thwarted. "Vance Boelter planned and carried out a night of terror that shook Minnesota to its core," said Acting US Attorney Joseph H Thompson in a written statement. "He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prosecutors also released a letter in which they say Mr Boelter admitted to being the gunman and claimed Minnesota's Governor Tim Walz asked him to kill US Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith for political purposes. Prosecutors and Walz say that claim is completely false. According to court documents, Mr Boelter researched the victims and their families beforehand, in preparation for the attacks on 14 June. Mr Boelter approached the Hoffman's home in Champlin, Minnesota, disguised as a police officer and when they answered the door, shot Senator Hoffman nine times and his wife Yvette Hoffman eight times, prosecutors said. He then attempted to shoot their daughter, Hope Hoffman. Mr Boelter then travelled to the homes of two other Minnesota elected officials, who were both away at the time, before driving to the Hortmans' house and fatally shooting the couple, prosecutors said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He was arrested two days later near his family home in a wooded rural area west of Minneapolis. AKRON, Ohio (WJW) A man who Akron police said is suspected of shooting a woman multiple times then fleeing into a wooded area was taken into custody Wednesday. Road closed as Brunswick police respond to incident According to Akron police, officers responded to a shooting in the 800 block of Bellevue Ave. just before 4:30 a.m. where they found a 26-year-old woman whod been shot in the arm and chest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She was taken to the hospital with non life-threatening injuries, a news release from police said. Meanwhile, officers were able to identify 30-year-old Deshawn Jalen Jeffrey as the suspected shooter. Hed left the scene before officers arrived. According to the release, officers learned Jeffrey had abandoned his car and was reportedly in a wooded area in the 800 block of Biruta St. Wayne County man pleads guilty in child sex abuse case He was taken into custody after a brief negotiation with officers and is now facing charges of felonious assault and assault. Hes currently being held at the Summit County Jail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Fox 8 Cleveland WJW. LAGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) Detectives with the LaGrange Police Department have issued an arrest warrant in connection to a dog attack that killed a LaGrange woman. Police say suspect, who has been identified as Derrick Parker, has active arrest warrants for involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and dog running at large. PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Woman dead after being attacked by dogs, police say Although detectives have checked several known locations throughout LaGrange and North Georgia, Parkers whereabouts are currently unknown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 11, police responded to calls of a person being attacked by two large dogs. The victim, identified as Theresa Patterson, was transported to West Georgia Medical Center where she later died from her injuries. Police ask that anyone with information on Parkers whereabouts call the LaGrange Police Department, Troup County CrimeStoppers or submit a tip anonymously through Tip411. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL. VISTA, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) A driver suspected of being under the influence was arrested in Vista on Tuesday night after crashing into a pole and knocking out power in the surrounding area, authorities said. According to the San Diego County Sheriffs Office, law enforcement responded to reports of a crash just after 10:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of E Vista Way. The driver, later identified as 28-year-old Cruz Norberto Valentin, reportedly crashed into a pole, causing power lines to be downed. Valentin, who remained at the scene, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. He was later arrested on suspicion of DUI. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Suspicious death investigation underway in Rolando Village Meanwhile, officials with San Diego Gas & Electric confirmed that a vehicle came in contact with the utility companys electric system. Crews were sent to the scene to make repairs. As of 9 a.m., 103 customers remained without power in Vista due to the impacts of the collision. According to SDG&Es Outage Map, the estimated restoration time for service was listed as 7:30 a.m. E Vista Way from Serra Drive to Warmlands Avenue will remain closed until repairs are complete. No other vehicles were involved in this incident. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. Police in Atlanta are looking to identify two people they say stole hundreds of dollars in merchandise from a popular clothing store. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] On June 29, around 7 p.m., Atlanta officers received a call about a shoplifting incident at the Lululemon store on Howell Mill Road NW. When officers arrived, they spoke with an employee who said a woman and a man walked into the store and stole numerous items without paying. TRENDING STORIES: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The employee also told police the suspects stole $464 worth of clothes. APD released video of the suspects. Anyone with information or who can identify the suspects can call Crime Stoppers Atlanta at 404-577-8477, submit a tip online, or text CSGA. Tipsters can remain anonymous and be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) On Thursday, July 17, two events will be held in Sioux City to show support for nonprofits and public education in Siouxland. A press release sent by Siouxland Good Troublemakers and Sweetgrass Uprising stated the events will be to stand up for human rights for all, show support for the Siouxland community who may and will be hurt by the cuts by the current administration, and to show support to the many nonprofit agencies and public education. National Good Trouble Day is observed on July 17 in honor of late Congressman John Lewis. John Lewis was best known as a Civil Rights leader who was a Representative in Georgia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement United We Stand March The first event, held by Sweetgrass Uprising, will begin at 5 p.m. at 1700 Dakota Ave, South Sioux City, Nebraska, and end at approximately 6:30 p.m. The United We Stand March will begin in South Sioux City and cross the Veterans Bridge, Seoul Foods, the Mildred Anderson Pavilion, and end on the Sioux City Public Museum Green Space. Story continues below Following the March After the march, there will be an hour-long event at the Museum Green Space. This starts at 6:30 p.m. Itll feature local speakers and activists such as Monique Scarlett (Former school board member, president of Sioux City Chapter NAACP), Shawn Olorundami (Public educator), and Janet Gonzales (Sweetgrass Uprising member). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Usually, the group collects donations for local nonprofits, and this event is no different. They will be collecting donations for the Sanford Community Center, which offers programs for local youth. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. The Orange Lodge of Scotland has claimed a suspected air gun attack on its members has been met with silence from the Scottish government. Police have launched an investigation after several marchers were hit by pellets during a procession though Glasgow city centre earlier this month. Following a meeting with government officials in Edinburgh, a senior lodge leader claimed "silence" from the first minister was giving a "green light" to attacks on Protestant groups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John Swinney described acts of violence against the Orange Order as "completely and utterly unacceptable". The Orange Lodge of Scotland said eight people were hit by suspected air gun pellets during a march through Glasgow on 5 July to commemorate the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. No-one was seriously injured. The organisation has also reported that its halls have been vandalised and that female members have been abused online. Parade attack Grand Master Andrew Murray told BBC Scotland News that he had written repeatedly to the first minister but had received no response. Following the meeting in Edinburgh, he said he was "severely disappointed" that no ministers attended. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Murray claimed "the silence from the first minister itself almost gives a green light to attack our parades". He denied there was any sectarian aspect to the marches, adding: "We have a place in society, we're a law-abiding organisation and we work cross community." David Walters from the Orange Lodge of Scotland said the Scottish government had failed to act [BBC] David Walters, executive officer of the Orange Lodge of Scotland, claimed that if any other group had been attacked then the incident would have been taken more seriously. He cited an example of "abhorrent" vandalism at a Catholic school in East Renfrewshire, which Swinney subsequently visited to express solidarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Walters said: "The first minister, in days, was over at that school for graffiti, yet when eight people are shot we don't see sight or sound of him." Asked why he though that was the case, he replied: "I think it's because we're a unionist group." 'Cohesive society' Swinney told BBC Scotland News that Community Safety Minister Siobhian Brown would meet with the Orange Lodge. He said the incidents raised by the Orange Order should be "properly and fully" investigated. The first minister added: "I take all forms of hate within our society deadly seriously and all my actions as first minister are designed to address the implications of hate within our society and to make sure that we live in a cohesive society that respects the rule of law." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thousands of people marched in Glasgow on 5 July. Police Scotland said the procession was passing along Sauchiehall Street, near Kelvingrove Street, when the the suspected air gun attack happened. The force said the following day that four people had been hit and that it was investigating the "dangerous" incident. Elsewhere, four people were arrested following Orange Order processions in Lanarkshire. Several sectarian incidents have been reported at Orange walks in recent years. In 2018, a priest was spat on and verbally abused as an Orange walk marched past his church in Glasgow. Bradley Wallace, from South Lanarkshire, was jailed for 10 months over the incident. CORTLANDVILLE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) A 30-year-old Syracuse man has been arrested after drugs were found in his car during a traffic stop. According to New York State Police, on July 10, a trooper watching traffic on I-81 in the Town of Cortlandville saw a vehicle speeding, and he then initiated a traffic stop. The driver of the vehicle was identified as Eugenio Matos Pizarro. In an interview with Matos Pizarro, the trooper found inconsistencies in his answers to basic questions. During a consensual search of the vehicle, the trooper found a prescription bottle with no label containing multiple pills which were later identified as Oxycodone and a package with what appeared to be multiple puzzle magazines. Courtesy of NYSP. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement NYSP said within the magazines, the trooper located over a hundred blister packages of Xanax taped within the pages. Matos Pizarro was arrested and charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the fifth degree and the misdemeanor of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the seventh degree. He was taken to State Police Homer for processing and then to Cortland County Jail for arraignment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSYR. As the crisis grows regionally, it is likely that more countries will seek to become involved. Egypt and Jordan, two peace partners of Israel, have condemned Israels strikes on Syria. Israel intervened in Syria to prevent attacks on the Druze in Suwayda. However, this is now becoming a possible regional crisis. Egypt and Jordan are often critical of Israeli actions. Egypt is also concerned about Israeli policy in Gaza and whether this means that the tensions in Syria may be linked to wider regional tensions that could grow. According to Syrian state media on Wednesday, Egypt condemned repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian and Lebanese territories, which constitute a blatant violation against the sovereignty of the two brotherly Arab countries and a breach of international law and relevant UN resolutions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Egyptian Foreign Ministry put out a statement that slammed Israels repeated violations in Syria. Cairo believes this could increase tensions. Egypt also says this could lead to instability in Syria and Lebanon. This comes amid a critical situation in which intensive regional and international efforts are being made, with effective Egyptian participation, to de-escalate and support regional security and stability, Syrian state media noted. Meanwhile, in Amman, there was also condemnation. The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned the Israeli aggression on the Syrian Arab Republic as a blatant violation of international law and a dangerous escalation targeting Syrias stability, sovereignty, and security, another report by Syrian state media noted. A member of the Syrian security forces stands on a military vehicle after Syrian troops entered the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) Yesterday, Amman welcomed a ceasefire in Suwayda. However, the ceasefire collapsed. Jordan is worried that this could enflame its own border with Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Jordanian News Agency Petra quoted the ministrys spokesperson, Ambassador Sufyan Al-Qudah, as emphasizing the need to stop these attacks immediately, and the need to respect Syria and its sovereignty, Syrias SANA state media noted. Qudah noted that Jordan supports Syrian security, stability, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and citizens stressing that Syrias security and stability are a pillar of regional stability. In both cases, two countries that have peace with Israel are alarmed by the Jewish states actions, as well as by the crisis in Syria. Jordan has more to lose because it is a border state of Syria. Egypts policy is likely to try to raise this issue with its Gulf partners, such as Saudi Arabia. It will also likely send messages to the US. Meanwhile, the Syrian government said that after the ceasefire agreement with notables and dignitaries of Suwayda city came into effect, a number of outlaw groups have attacked once again the army and internal security forces there. The Media Department of the Syrian Defense Ministry added that Army forces continue responding to the fires, targeted at them, while adhering to the rules of engagement in order to protect residents, prevent harm, and ensure safe return of those who have left the city. The ministry also, through its media department, called on citizens in the city to stay home and report any individuals affiliated with outlaw groups. US envoy Tom Barrack says administration is navigating towards calm US Special Envoy Tom Barrack said: We are actively involved with all constituencies in Syria to navigate toward calm and continued productive integration discussions. The recent skirmishes in Suwayda are worrisome on all sides, and we are attempting to come to a peaceful, inclusive outcome for Druze, Beduin tribes, the Syrian government, and Israeli forces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He added in a post on X that misdirection, confusion, and inefficient communication is [sic] the greatest challenge in assuring a peaceful and thoughtful integration of each partys interests. We are in direct, active, and productive discussions with all sides to navigate toward calm and integration. As the crisis grows regionally, it is likely that more countries will seek to become involved. Qatar and Turkey back the new Syrian government. They dont want to see it destabilized. In addition, countries as far away as China and Russia have interests in Syria. Iran may also seek to exploit the situation. When the Assad regime fell, the Iranian militias and IRGC members had to flee Syria to Iraq. However, Iran has sought to operationalize cells near the Golan in recent months. The Islamic Republic may be exploiting the conflict in Suwayda to re-insert itself into Syria. It could do so via trade in the drug Captogon (fenethylline), or via the arms trade. It has many ways that it may seek to operate from Iraq, for instance. In Iraq, the Iranian-backed militias have increasingly targeted the Kurdistan region and may also be threatening US forces at Al-Asad Airbase. This is a concern and could raise flags about what Iran is up to in Syria. Syrian Druze fly Israeli flag in Sweida, July 16, 2025. (photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X/VIA SECTION 27A OF THE COPYRIGHT ACT) The footage was also recirculated across Israeli media, including public broadcaster, KAN News. Members of Syria's Druze community flew an Israeli flag from a roof in Sweida in southern Syria, footage shared across social media appeared to show on Wednesday afternoon. The footage was also recirculated across Israeli media, including Israel's public broadcaster, KAN News. Meanwhile, additional footage also appeared to show Druze locals in Sweida removing the Syrian government flag. Security forces affiliated with Damascus and members of Syria's Druze community in Sweida have been clashing over the past few days. Smoke rises after Israeli strikes on Damascus, July 16, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Monday, Israel began to strike security forces affiliated with Damascus. On Wednesday, Israel's involvement in the conflict escalated, as the Israel Air Force conducted airstrikes on Damascus, including on the military headquarters and the Presidential Palace. Israeli Druze attempt to cross border into Syria Meanwhile, the IDF and police officers are attempting to prevent Israeli-Druze civilians from crossing en masse into Syria to support their brethren. DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) Syrian officials and Druze leaders announce new ceasefire after days of fighting, following breakdown of previous truce. Dramatic footage has emerged of a Syrian TV presenter fleeing a news studio mid-broadcast after an Israeli airstrike on a building framed in the cityscape behind her was captured live on air. The Israeli army later confirmed it had targeted the Syrian army HQ in Damascus and a military target near the presidential palace. More from Deadline Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The strike came amid escalating sectarian violence between Syrias Druze minority, with which Israel is aligned, and Bedouin communities in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, which in turn has led to the intervention of the Syrian army. Syria TV posted footage on X of the moment the strike happened, showing presenter Dima Abodan gasping, hunching over and then making a swift exit. Later, Israels Defense Minister Israel Katz also posted the video on X, with the caption: The heavy blows have started. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Washington that the U.S, was very concerned about the escalating violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I just got off the phone with the relevant parties. Were very concerned about it, and hopefully, well have some updates later today. But were very concerned about it, Rubio said. The clashes come eight months after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, bringing an end to his familys 53-year bloody rule. The country is currently led by former rebel commander Ahmed al-Sharaa who was appointed transitional president last March, having acted as its de-facto leader following Al-Assads flight to Russia. Al-Sharaa, who has previously said he wants peace with Israel, has been endorsed by a number of western territories. President Donald Trump shook hands with the Syrian leader in a meeting in Saudi Arabia in May, while the U.S., the EU and the UK have also begun lifting sanctions on the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His major challenge is creating unity among Syrias multiple ethnic and religious communities to maintain peace at home. Best of Deadline Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Airlines are worried about the state of Syria's aviation infrastructure and management of the industry. Poor infrastructure, regional conflict, and sporadic Israeli airstrikes are holding back more airlines from returning to Syria, industry officials told Reuters, hampering efforts to rebuild a shattered economy after 14 years of civil war. This month, at least 11 foreign airlines are scheduled to fly into Syria, up from just three a year ago, as sanctions are scaled back following the overthrow of long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These include the world's largest international carrier, Dubai's Emirates, and the first two European Union-based airlines to fly into Syria since 2011: Romania's Dan Air and Greece's Air Mediterranean. But airlines such as Royal Jordanian, FlyDubai, Turkish Airlines, and Qatar Airways last month were forced to cancel many of their recently launched flights as airspace across the Middle East closed to civil air traffic due to air and missile attacks involving Israel, the US, and Iran. There are dangers closer to home, too. Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority there. Smoke rises while Syrian security forces sit in the back of a truck, as Syrian troops enter the predominantly Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday following two days of clashes, in Sweida, Syria July 15, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/KARAM AL-MASRI) At the same time, airlines are worried about the state of Syria's aviation infrastructure and management of the industry. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Progress is needed in regulatory oversight, infrastructure investment, and compliance with international safety and operational standards," industry body the International Air Transport Association said. Major carriers such as Lufthansa and Air France KLM, which used to fly to Syria pre-war, have visited Damascus airport to assess the infrastructure and former offices, officials at Damascus airport and Syria's aviation regulator told Reuters. However, both airlines told Reuters they had no current interest in resuming flights. Small Romanian airline Dan Air launched its Bucharest to Damascus route last month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "What held back operators until now were the logistical and regulatory complexities," Dan Air CEO Matt Ian David told Reuters, adding that eased sanctions would now make Syria more accessible. Emirates at the end of May resumed flying over Syria for the first time since the civil war, shaving up to an hour off a Dubai to Beirut flight. However, several countries, including the United States and Britain, still advise their airlines to avoid flying over Syria. Europe's aviation regulator EASA says, "there is a risk of both intentional targeting and misidentification of civil aircraft." Syria completely reopened its airspace on June 24, its civil air authority said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Damascus Airport's two runways were damaged during the civil war but have since been repaired. The airport was also looted during the chaos of Assad's fall. Alaa Sallal, director of public relations at Syria's Civil Aviation Authority, told Reuters a number of airlines had been to inspect security and infrastructure at the airport. "The airport's construction was dilapidated, the equipment was worn out and some missing," Sallal said. Radar equipment was lacking, leaving the country reliant on Lebanese or Turkish radar to monitor air traffic, he said. The head of Syria's General Authority for Civil Aviation earlier this month said it wanted to build new airports in Damascus, Aleppo, and in the country's central region. But that will take time and money that the war-ravaged country may struggle to find on its own. Airlines to resume flights under al-Sharaa's leadership The mostly Iranian and Iraqi carriers that served Syria through its long conflict have largely stopped flying there, reflecting a new political landscape after Iran- and Russia-backed Assad's overthrow. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The flag carriers of Qatar and Turkey, countries that backed Syria's rebels through the war, were the first big airlines to resume flights in January under President Ahmed al-Sharaa's new leadership. Turkey, a close ally of the new government, has been helping improve Syria's airports, its transport ministry has said. Emirates, which resumes its Dubai-Damascus route from Wednesday for the first time since 2012, said flights would support ties with the United Arab Emirates and help Syria attract investment. Saudi budget carrier flyadeal has said it also wants to start flying to Syria soon, joining fellow Saudi low-cost airline flynas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For others, though, there may be less incentive to return as even pre-war Syria was not a major market for non-Middle Eastern carriers. Those that did fly there - Russia's Aeroflot, Air France, Lufthansa's Austrian Airways, LOT Polish, IAG's Iberia, Italy's ITA, Czech Airlines, and China Southern - have not yet returned. Despite the recent ramp-up, the number of international flights serving Syria remains well below pre-war levels. Scheduled flights in July were 58% of what they were in July 2010, Cirium data shows. IATA said the easing of sanctions had opened pathways to improved access to aircraft parts, maintenance services and some commercial transactions. However, visa restrictions on Syrian nationals limited passenger mobility and market growth. (Reuters) -Syria's Druze have reached a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian government in Sweida that will take immediate effect, Druze religious leader Sheikh Yousef Jarbou said in a video broadcast by state media on Wednesday. An earlier ceasefire announced on Tuesday night collapsed after only a few hours. There was still fire from government forces in the predominantly Druze city of Sweida after the announcement was made, according to a Reuters witness. (Reporting by Yomna Ehab and Hatem Maher; Editing by Alex Richardson) Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing). July 1, 2025 | Photo by Kyle Davidson/ Michigan Advance Hopes for a potential budget deal were dashed this week as the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate opted not to hold session on Tuesday, with no real target deadline in sight. The Michigan Legislature failed to reach a budget deal by its self-imposed July 1 deadline, and both chambers have pointed fingers at one another as to why that couldnt happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For the state Senates part, the chamber passed a full budget funding the government, as well as its K-12 and higher education budgets, in May, teeing up the House to do the same. However, the Senate has not issued a full funding plan for fixing Michigan roads. The House, with some buy-in from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, released its roads plan and passed a K-12 budget, but has yet to pass a full budget. Members of the lower chamber have said they were waiting on the federal budget to pass and be signed by President Donald Trump in order to know the full effect on the state budget. Still, both chambers had the opportunity to meet the July 1 deadline but did not, with the Senate packing it up early on July 1 and the House going late into the evening. The House ended the night without netting enough bipartisan support to pass amendments to the Senates education budget. Since then, House Republicans blamed their Senate Democratic colleagues for not being serious about road funding, while the Democrats in the upper chamber said the same about their brethren in the House on the full budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In an interview with Michigan Advance on Friday, state Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that although the federal budget has passed, the House has still not been communicative about its plans to fund the rest of state government. They have thrown out very, very expensive tax proposals. Income tax relief, an over $100 million Public Safety Trust Fund proposal, very expensive proposals. But yet, youve got to show the whole picture, Anthony said. It has been frustrating to wait while they contemplate this federal budget. Well, you know what? Now were here. We are now at a place where the clock is ticking and its time for us to start having real conversations. As to the holes created by the federal governments tax and spending cut plan, which was signed into law by Trump on July 4, Anthony said 40% of the states budget comes from federal funding, including Michigans Medicaid program, which provides one in four Michigan residents with vital health care. Approximately 1.5 million people in Michigan rely on SNAP food assistance benefits, Anthony added, and those two components in the federal budget combined would set Michigan up for a $2 billion deficit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is critical for us to look at this years budget in a way that weve never looked at any budget before in recent history because of the impact on social services, Anthony said. Things that provide food and health care to people. Budgets are moral documents, and so, if were looking at this moment as a way to invest in children and senior citizens and our low income families, and what they need to survive, our budget would in no way be able to fill every single gap that this federal bill has created in our state. With what precious resources Michigan has, Anthony said her priority is to try and safeguard families from those cuts to the highest degree possible. One of the biggest frustrations with her House counterparts, thus far, is the fact that the Senate cant negotiate against a House budget bill that doesnt exist on paper. I cant punch at air, Anthony said. We cant dissect invisible numbers and start to look at proposals, not based on a political lens, but through a practical lens. You can tell me about big expensive concepts that your caucus wants to contemplate, but if the balance sheet doesnt add up, well, we cant even start working on those pieces. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In contrast, Anthony said the Senate passed what it considered a fiscally responsible and balanced budget, which included things like universal school meals and community college guarantees, and grant programs for small businesses and farmers so they have some relief from Trumps tariff moves. We put it all on the table, Anthony said. We take the criticism and the praise, but we built a budget contemplating what we assumed would be the impact of some of these pretty dangerous federal cuts. The most frustrating part about this year has been not having a willing and serious partner in the House Republicans. Several attempts were made by Michigan Advance to speak with state Rep. Ann Bollin (R-Brighton), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, but were unsuccessful. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing) and House Appropriations Commitee Chair Ann Bollin (R-Brighton Twp.) on Feb. 5, 2025. | Kyle Davidson The situation may seem like one of the unintended consequences of divided government, but Anthony said the state has seen divided government before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This isnt anything new, Anthony said. We need more reasonable actors at the table. As for the proposals shes found common ground with her House colleagues, Anthony said prioritizing disaster relief was one area of agreement. She said the Senate budget includes emergency reserves for local infrastructure in order to prepare for and respond to local disasters. The House made similar moves related to the dangerous ice storms that occurred earlier this year. Anthony said those areas are not partisan, and that the impact of climate change on Michigan was clear. Its only going to get worse, she said. So that seems like an area of alignment, that if we came together, we could find real relief for local governments and for residents. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although it may be expensive, Anthony said public safety was also an area of agreement. She said the two chambers proposals look a little different, with the Senate opting for a CARES fund, which would add money for community violence prevention and law enforcement, but also first-responders like emergency medical services and firefighters. School accountability was also top of mind for both chambers, Anthony said. Its one of the things that not only the House and Senate, but also the administration, are starting to look at [with] ways that we can embed smarter proposals in the way we fund schools, Anthony said. Its not just about pouring money in, its about making sure that youre getting a return on investment and prioritizing those dollars. I think theres plenty that we can actually do together. That said, a new target date for a deal is yet to be determined. Although some have said that late August could be a reasonable target, Anthony said conversations were still ongoing and that the plane remained up in the air. We havent set a specific date, but I think that, at least from my perspective, we want to get something done before school starts, Anthony said. That is a very reasonable way for us to provide the certainty for our schools that they really respect and deserve. The union representing Baltimore County teachers reached a tentative agreement with Baltimore County Public Schools on Wednesday, ending weeks of protracted negotiations over salaries. Details of the deal wont be made public until after July 23, said union president Cindy Sexton. The school board and the unions board must also still approve it, she said. The agreement follows an impasse that began in June, resulting from a funding shortfall that threatened to jeopardize their negotiated pay increases of 5%. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are pleased to announce that today Baltimore County Public Schools and the Teachers Association of Baltimore County reached a tentative agreement, which brings the impasse to an end. We appreciate the collaboration of all parties involved in the negotiations, the school district and TABCO said in a joint statement. The unions negotiation team worked for 10 hours on Tuesday, TABCO posted Wednesday morning on Facebook, before the agreement was announced. The other unions that work with the school district had already closed their renegotiated deals. Those arrangements allowed for delays in the compensation increases employees were promised in their three-year contracts. TABCO previously argued those delays, which push back the promised wage increases six months from July 1 to Jan. 1, 2026, represented a loss for its members, saying in a June Facebook post that time frame meant a 2.3% reduction to our increases, from 5% to 2.7% for both next school year and the school year after. This also means you will work from July to January without a pay increase for the next two years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While the school year was still in session, the teachers union rallied multiple times across the county in support of their compensation increases. It had also authorized work-to-rule, walk-ins and walk-outs. School board chair Jane Lichter and several members of the Baltimore County Council did not respond to requests for comment by Wednesdays publication deadline. Have a news tip? Contact Racquel Bazos at rbazos@baltsun.com, 443-813-0770 or on X as @rzbworks. The Trump administration cannot use its travel ban as the basis for denying refugees entry into the United States, according to a federal judges ruling this week in a lawsuit filed by a Tacoma nonprofit and others challenging the suspension of the nations refugee-resettlement program. Judge Jamal Whitehead issued the order Monday in federal court in Seattle to clarify protection eligibility for refugees under a prior court action that temporarily blocked President Donald Trumps move to suspend the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP). Whiteheads ruling means that the government must immediately resume processing for 80 refugees being denied entry as nationals from among a dozen countries whose residents last month were banned from traveling to the United States by a Trump proclamation. The government also must review the cases of other refugees from banned countries to determine their eligibility, the judges order said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mevlude Akay Alp, senior staff attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said in a statement Tuesday that Whiteheads order affirmed the urgent need for relief from the Trump administrations unlawful suspension of the refugee program. Alps organization is representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The court ruled that the travel ban did not excuse the government from processing and admitting refugees, rejecting the governments latest attempts to undermine the injunction, Alp said. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment Tuesday, citing the agencys general practice regarding ongoing litigation. Many refugees await travel Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 that suspended refugee admissions under USRAP, the countrys legal pathway to enter the United States for individuals fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries, citing record migration over the past four years and concerns of U.S. interests. The order allowed for case-by-case reviews and called for 90-day assessments to determine whether resuming the program was appropriate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision prompted a lawsuit in February by a dozen individual or organization plaintiffs, including Lutheran Community Services Northwest, a Tacoma-based nonprofit that helps refugees acclimate during their first three months in the country. LCSNW is an affiliate of Global Refugee, one of 10 national resettlement agencies, and employs more than 700 workers across 40-plus locations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Whitehead, whos presiding over the lawsuit, issued in February a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocked Trumps executive order. Since then, the government has appealed, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely paused the injunction but preserved protection for individuals who met certain criteria, court records show. The appellate court has said the presidents broad authority over who can enter the country meant that the Trump administration was likely to win the case, according to the Associated Press. In essence, Whiteheads ruling Monday defined whom among thousands of refugees already approved and booked for travel might be covered by the injunction, a week after a hearing in the lawsuit in which the plaintiffs and the government argued over issues of the scope. There were 12,000 vetted individuals ready for travel when Trump issued the executive order, but just 160 people with travel scheduled within two weeks of the USRAP suspension were identified as injunction-protected refugees leading into Monday, court records show. While 70 had been admitted or were pending travel to the United States as of late June, 80 others were being denied as nationals from banned countries, according to a court filing by government attorneys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During last weeks hearing, a Justice Department attorney told Whitehead that government officials were trying their best to comply with both the judges preliminary injunction and the Trump administrations travel ban. Whiteheads ruling Monday acknowledged that injunctions couldnt override a separate executive order but that, in this case, it wasnt necessary because the travel ban expressly didnt limit individuals from seeking refugee status. In other words, by its plain terms, the Proclamation excludes refugees from its scope, Whitehead said in his order. That includes, of course, Injunction-Protected Refugees. Processing must also resume for others Additional refugees, including unaccompanied minor children and Afghans at Camp As Sayliyah set up by the U.S. Army following the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan were ordered to resume being processed barring any challenge by the government within two weeks. For all other vetted refugees whose travel was canceled after Dec. 1 and never rebooked, the government must assess their cases individually for injunction-protection eligibility based on conditions set forth by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Whiteheads order. The ruling Monday also set up a framework for the two opposing sides in the lawsuit to resolve disputes over eligibility. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whitehead previously stated his intention to appoint a special master to assist with case-by-case determinations, but on Monday he appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge Michelle L. Peterson to the role, agreeing with the governments position that existing resources and not specialized expertise could handle the responsibility. The Court expects all parties to implement this framework in good faith, recognizing that real families remain in limbo while these legal processes unfold, Whitehead wrote. Delays in implementation mean continued separation from safety for some of the worlds most vulnerable people. One of the plaintiffs in the case, referred to by the pseudonym Pacito, resettled into the United States earlier this month. Pacito requested anonymity for fear that their participation could cause harm to them or their family, according to the suit. A refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, previously residing in Kenya, Pacito and his wife had sold all of their familys possessions and given up their rental home in preparation for travel to the United States in January before their trip was canceled, the suit said. Pacito has become the legal standard-bearer for other refugees who could be protected under the federal courts injunction, requiring them to meet a strong reliance interest or essentially circumstances comparable to Pacitos. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Our plaintiff Pacito safely resettled in the United States last week as a result of this lawsuit, and yesterdays order laid the framework for additional refugees to receive the same opportunity, Alp said Tuesday. In March, Whitehead issued a second preliminary injunction in the lawsuit that prevented the Trump administration from terminating agreements with national resettlement agencies. Tom and Tom are back and ready to talk! Todays episode of Talking with Tom begins with a conversation about how Americans perceptions about climate change have changed over recent years. The upcoming heat wave is also discussed, and Tom answers why heat events can be dangerous to your body. They finish the episode with a little trivia! See the video for more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOLR - OzarksFirst.com. The Brief Tampa is investing $94 million this year to tackle stormwater flooding after last years devastating impacts. Projects include upgraded pump stations, new generators, and clearing debris from hundreds of miles of pipes. A major South Tampa project is still under debate, facing pushback from local businesses. TAMPA, Fla. - City leaders in Tampa are moving quickly to reduce stormwater flooding, especially in flood-prone neighborhoods like South Tampa. What we know After heavy rain last year overwhelmed streets and homes, the city approved a $94 million investment for flood reduction efforts. READ:Tampa aiming to combat affordable housing crisis through Healthy Homes Program Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said the city is adding permanent stormwater pumps at eight stations and has crews working six days a week. So far, theyve removed 250 tons of debris from Tampas 600 miles of pipes. The city held two public meetings this week to address concerns. What they're saying Residents at the meetings voiced both concern and cautious optimism. Danny Conner shared just how severe flooding has become in his neighborhood: "We had up to like 24 inches in our backyard. So flooding has become a concern, especially with more development in our city as well, which has seemed to be causing more of a problem with flooding in the neighborhoods. But tonight, they addressed all those points." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lena Young Green added that while its encouraging to see officials working on solutions, some still feel the city has a long way to go: "I don't know that we got what we needed, but there is an effort to address flooding. And we were not unique." The Source This story is based on FOX 13 News reporting from a community meeting in Tampa, interviews with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and local residents. The Tarrant Appraisal Review Board has denied requests from Tarrant County and five cities to revoke tax exemptions for housing complexes not operated in the county. Tarrant attorneys claimed the corporations do not provide affordable housing, as the exemptions were claimed for. Known as traveling housing finance corporations and often associated with a city or county, these groups own and operate property outside of their home jurisdiction. Each of the six housing finance corporations discussed at Tuesdays Appraisal Review Board hearing is considered traveling. Each owns land in Tarrant County, some bought for $10 cash and other good and valuable considerations that arent listed, but are based outside the county. Some are nearly 400 miles away in West Texas or as far away as the southernmost tip of Texas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The corporations claim tax exemptions for affordable housing, then lease out the land to private developers who operate apartment complexes. Each of the housing finance corporations were taken off of the tax poll by the Tarrant Appraisal District (TAD). The county and cities challenging TADs decision to grant 28 tax exemptions argue that the housing finance corporations do not provide affordable housing. Mark Kratovil, primary counsel for Tarrant County, asked that the Tarrant Appraisal Review Board decide that those tax exemptions were improperly given by TAD and to claw back taxes owed to the taxing entities affected. Another attorney clarified that this means the corporations would owe taxing entities the full amount of taxes from the time the tax exemptions were granted. Tarrant County, which filed jointly with five cities, challenged six housing finance corporations tax exemptions. The six groups are: Pleasanton Housing Finance Corporation, Pecos Housing Finance Corporation, the Cameron County Housing Finance Corporation, Edcouch Community Housing Finance Corporation, Garland Housing Finance Corporation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cities who joined in the fight were Fort Worth, Mansfield, Grand Prairie, Euless and Haltom City. The Appraisal Review Board, made up of citizens who are trained by the Texas Comptroller, denied the requests 2-1. Euless additionally challenged one of the same housing finance corporations on its own. That hearing also resulted in a split-vote denial. Arlington, separate from the county, challenged two of the same corporations plus a public facility corporation. Arlingtons requests were all denied, 3-0. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed House Bill 21 into law on May 28, which went into effect immediately. The law closed a loophole in previous legislation which allowed housing finance corporations to be operated outside of their home jurisdiction. All of the tax exemptions being challenged Tuesday were approved prior to May 28. The decision not to revoke the exemptions means the Appraisal Review Board believes the exemptions are still valid because they were approved prior to House Bill 21 becoming law. The arguments surrounded House Bill 21 Tarrant Countys attorneys argued that the housing finance corporations only own the apartment complexes in name only, because the property is leased and operated by private developers who then set the rent prices. Many of the apartments, Kratovil argued, do not provide low-to-moderate income housing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kratovil said the county lost $1.8 million in taxes on these apartment complexes. The total taxable value of the 28 properties is $974 million in 2025. Where the county and city attorneys disagree with the Tarrant Appraisal District is that, though clarified by House Bill 21 this year, tax exemptions for housing finance corporations claiming tax exemptions outside of their own city or county was never legal. Jim Evans, the attorney for TAD, said the statute regarding traveling housing financial corporations, as it existed prior to House Bill 21 permitted such exemptions. Tiffany Bull, the attorney for Grand Prairie, said that while that may be the interpretation TAD holds, the Appraisal Review Board does not have to follow that interpretation since the legislature clearly outlined that traveling housing financial corporations are not legal. The Tarrant Appraisal Review Board agreed, 2-1, with Evans. The county attorneys said they could not yet say if they would appeal the decision. EAU CLAIRE A tattoo artist faces charges after three different women accused him of sexually abusing them during appointments. Christopher Ardoin, 44, Mondovi, is charged with third degree sexual assault and four counts of fourth degree sexual assault. Only the first charge is a felony Class G while the remaining charges are all Class A misdemeanors. According to the criminal complaint, a woman went in for a tattoo on her left leg, hip and pelvic area. She told police that when she pulled down her pants so Ardoin could place the stencil he forced his hand down her panties and attempted to put his fingers in her vagina. He made another attempt later in the session. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman eventually told the tattoo parlors owner, which resulted in Ardoins firing. Another woman was working as an apprentice when Ardoin entered a room she was in and began making sexual comments. When she tried to leave, Ardoin took her by the back of the neck and forced her to bend over. She told investigators he made sexual comments to her on another occasion and, in a third event, picked her up and forced her to wrap her legs around his waist. A third accuser told investigators about two separate incidents. She was getting a tattoo on her neck and said Ardoin bit her neck before sanitizing the area for the tattoo. While working on the tattoo he repeatedly groped her buttocks and pulled her tank top down, exposing her breasts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The woman wore multiple layers of clothing for the tattoos second session. Ardoin claimed his wife liked to watch him have sex with other women and again attempted to grope the customer. She had to be more aggressive to get him to stop. Ardoin was released after signing a $1,000 cash bond in the case. The court prohibited him from having any contact with his accusers, the tattoo parlor or its employees. If he tattoos anyone while the case is pending, he must have a third party present. He must also give prospective clients a copy of the complaint before tattooing them. Ardoin has not been arraigned on the charges yet, and has not entered a plea. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 9. Under Wisconsin law, a Class G felony can be punished by up to five years in prison and fines of up to $25,000. Class A misdemeanors can carry up to nine months in jail and fines of up to $10,000. South Korea has arrested a high school teacher and a student's mother who allegedly broke into a school late at night to steal exam papers. Their attempt took place at 01:20 local time on 4 July (18:20 GMT) at a school in Andong, a city southeast of Seoul, but was foiled when the school's security alarm went off. The teacher is facing charges for accepting bribes and trespassing, while the mother has been accused of trespassing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A facilities manager at the school, who allegedly conspired with the duo, has also been arrested for allowing theft and unlawful entry into the school. Authorities say the teacher had privately tutored the child of the arrested mother - which teachers actively employed by schools in South Korea are not allowed to do. The student had "consistently maintained top grades", according to public broadcaster KBS, but it is unclear if their academic record is related to previous cases of exam-paper theft. Police also suspect that money had changed hands between the mother and teacher, and that this was not their first intrusion attempt, KBS reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This incident is the latest in a series of exam-related scandals in South Korea, a country notorious for its hyper-competitive education system. In June, police announced they were investigating the leak of answers to a nationwide English exam via an online chatroom. In February, 249 people were detained - dozens of school teachers among them - for selling mock questions for the high-stakes Suneung exam to private academies. And in late 2023, dozens of students sued the government after teachers accidentally cut their test short by 90 seconds. South Korea consistently ranks among industrialised countries with the highest levels of stress for young people aged 11 to 15. Findlay Automotive Group is proud to partner with Nevada Hands and Voices for the month of July. Nevada Hands and Voices mission is to educate, empower and support families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing children so that every child can reach their full potential, whether they choose to communicate with their hands or with their voices. One of the reasons that Findlay Automotive Group chose to partner with Nevada Hands and Voices is because it is the only organization to offer this type of support to Deaf and Hard of Hearing children in Nevada. Findlay Automotive Groups Jeff Giles joins Kinnsi Sigler, President of Nevada Hands & Voices in studio to share more. Visit nvhandsandvoices.org to find out more about how you can support them. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KLAS. Kerrville, Texas With about 100 people still missing after devastating floods, the Texas National Guard and local officials leading recovery efforts received additional international support this week when a specialized detachment from the Czech Republic arrived ready to help. Sixteen civilians and four cadaver dogs from a Czech search and rescue team landed Sunday in Texas on a U.S. military flight from Ramstein Air Base in Germany. National Guard Bureau Chief General Steve Nordhaus coordinated the team's arrival and met the team leads in person on Tuesday while he was visiting Kerrville, Texas, for updates on response efforts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Thanks for being here, Texas and the Czech Republic were partners right from the beginning in 1993 and what just an amazing partnership," Nordhaus told the team leads at the Kerrville-Kerr County Airport. The Texas and Nebraska National Guard have since 1993 shared a military relationship with the Czech Republic as part of the National Guard Bureau's State Partnership Program that pairs states with countries to train together. Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Steven Nordhaus thanks members of the Czech search and recovery team. / Credit: Eleanor Watson There are over 100 partnerships with about 115 countries around the world, according to the National Guard, and the one with the Czech Republic was one of the first after the initiative began in 1991. The Czechs providing support in the wake of floods in Texas follows assistance the Texas National Guard gave last year when the Czech Republic experienced severe flooding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When a flood hit Ostrava in the Czech Republic in September 2024, a Texas Air National Guard unit training in Europe diverted an MQ-9 Reaper drone to Ostrava to provide aerial assessments for recovery efforts. In Texas, about 230 members of the Texas National Guard are currently supporting response efforts. According to the Texas National Guard, members of the guard rescued over 500 people in the initial 24 hours after the flooding began. About 360 of those were evacuated using UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. During a Black Hawk flight over the Guadalupe River Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pointed out to Nordhaus flood-impacted areas, explaining where the water rose at a terrifying speed prompting urgent evacuations and emphasizing how intensive the search will remain for the roughly 100 people still unaccounted for. Governor Greg Abbott thanks Captain Connor Garrison of the Texas National Guard. / Credit: CBS News After the flight, both Abbott and Nordhaus spoke to members of the Guard who have assisted in rescue and recovery efforts since the floods began on July 4. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the air rescues came on July 4 when two Guard helicopters evacuated 130 children from Camp Mystic, a summer camp severely impacted by floods that led to the deaths of at least 27 campers and counselors. The 130 rescued the day of the flood by the guard were evacuated from Camp Mystic and taken to higher ground, according to Captain Connor Garrison, who led one of the aircraft and recounted the mission to Nordhaus and Abbott. "I appreciate you, I couldn't be prouder," Abbott told Garrison and other members of the Guard. The Texas National Guard is receiving support from other states like Arkansas, Arizona and North Dakota, which are providing additional personnel or equipment. For instance, North Dakota has sent down one of its own MQ-9 Reaper drones to help survey debris scattered along the still swollen Guadalupe River. Son of man who was violently detained by ICE reacts after release Mike Johnson breaks from Trump, calls on DOJ to release Epstein files 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska As rescue crews and volunteers work to clean up after the tragic flooding that violently swept through central Texas over the July 4 weekend, others are looking to help survivors and victims loved ones mentally recover. Dallas-based pediatric psychiatrist and assistant professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center Dr. Sabrina Browne spoke with Fox News Digital about what survivors and those close to victims could be grappling with. "Tragedies like this, in a very literal sense, hit close to home, right? Its one thing when you see things playing out on TV, but when it happens in your community, it really affects your life on every level," Browne told Fox News Digital. "The reality for these families is that once the camera crews are gone and once the aid organizations are packing up, theyre still going to be living with the repercussions of this." There are several possible reactions people may have in the wake of a tragedy, like the recent flooding. According to Browne, one of the most common reactions is a loss of a "feeling of safety" and a "sense of stability." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "You take for granted that you're gonna wake up in the morning, go about your day, you're going to come home to your house, right? And all of those things. And so they lose that sense of stability," Browne said. Texas Flood Survivors Look For God In The Face Of Tragedy She added that along with this loss of stability, some people can experience anxiety, worry or even fear that another disaster is around the corner. The mental health professional also mentioned that flood survivors could experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even survivors guilt. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Browne has unique experience in helping Texas families through tragedy, having supported families in the wake of the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School. Like the case of the Uvalde shooting, many of the flood victims in Texas were children. Browne spoke to the differences in treating adults versus children, emphasizing that "kids arent just little adults." "When we talk about kids, that's a wide spectrum of ages and developmental levels," Browne said. "A child who is 12 is going to be having a different experience than a child whos seven, right? Because theyre more mature, they cognitively can understand things." Beyond their ability to understand what has happened, this could be a childs first time dealing with disaster and death. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Oftentimes, kids are encountering [death] in the setting of losing a grandparent or someone where it feels removed from them. But when they're seeing their peers, other kids in camp, when school starts back up, starting school and seeing maybe their friends aren't there, that brings it to a very real level so that now they're having to wrap their heads around, what does that mean? And then they're also struggling with, is this something that could happen to me? And so that can add another layer." Crews work to clear debris from the Cade Loop bridge along the Guadalupe River on Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Ingram, Texas. Faith Brings Light To Devastated Texas Town After Deadly Flooding Disaster Texas professionals like Browne arent alone in their work to help flood victims recover, Spring Health, a company focused on providing mental health solutions, recently committed $500,000 in free services for flood victims in Texas, North Carolina and New Mexico. "Recovering from a disaster isnt just about rebuilding what was lost. It is also about caring for the emotional toll that follows. We want people to know they are not alone," Spring Health CEO April Koh told Fox News Digital. "This program is here to ensure that those impacted have a way to access high-quality, confidential mental health support at no cost." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of its commitment to providing care, Spring Health is making virtual sessions with licensed clinicians available for those who cannot access physical in-person help. Libbie Horton, center, prays during a vigil at a memorial wall erected in memory of the Kerr County flood victims in Kerrville, Texas on July 11, 2025. When it comes to knowing if your child needs professional help, Browne told Fox News Digital that it comes down to noticing changes in day-to-day behavior. She said that there are reactions parents can expect to see, such as their child regressing and maybe wanting to sleep in their room to feel safe. "If we notice that, you know, they're, they are not sleeping, they don't want to eat, they dont want to play, right? Those big shifts, that is a sign of we need to get them in to see somebody for more support," Browne said. Original article source: Texas psychiatrist reveals mental health challenges facing flood disaster survivors COLEMAN, Texas (WJW) A Texas woman is facing charges after authorities say she plotted to kill her ex-husband by sending him a box of chocolates laced with fentanyl. The Parker County Sheriffs Office initiated their investigation after a source alleged that 63-year-old Pamela Jean Stanley had wanted to kill her ex-husband, who had recently become engaged. Suspect arrested after American Idol executive, her husband shot to death: Police Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said Stanley was recorded saying she wanted to buy and inject fentanyl into a box of chocolates and send it to her ex. She also planned to make the chocolates appear as if they were a congratulatory gift from a travel company, along with a honeymoon promotion, the sheriffs office said. Courtesy of Parker County Sheriffs Office Undercover agents with the offices Special Crimes Unit convinced Stanley to meet them to buy fentanyl in the parking lot of a motel in Coleman, Texas, the sheriffs office said. They took her into custody after the operation. Upon arrest, Stanley was also found to be in possession of 9.5 grams of methamphetamine. Chocolate sold at supermarkets in 8 states, DC recalled over risk of serious allergic reaction Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stanley has since been indicted for criminal solicitation with intent to commit murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, according to the sheriffs office. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A Texas woman was indicted last week after investigators say she tried to kill her ex-husband with a box of fentanyl-laced chocolates mailed as a phony honeymoon gift. Pamela Jean Stanley, 63, of Coleman, was arrested on May 30 in Parker County following a sting by the Special Crimes Unit (SCU) of the Parker County Sheriffs Office. According to Sheriff Russ Authier, Stanley allegedly cooked up a plan to send her ex-husband poisoned chocolates disguised as a congratulatory present from a travel agency celebrating his recent engagement. Authorities say Stanley was recorded telling an acquaintance she wanted to inject powdered fentanyl into high-end chocolates and mail the box with a fake honeymoon incentive offer. A tipster alerted deputies, sparking the investigation. Colorado Dentist's Alleged Internet Search History Takes Center Stage As Murder Trial Begins Pamela Jean Stanley, 63, is seen in a booking photo following her arrest by the Parker County Sheriffs Office in Weatherford, Texas, on May 30, 2025. Authorities say she was indicted for allegedly plotting to murder her ex-husband using fentanyl-laced chocolates disguised as a gift. SCU investigators posed as fentanyl dealers and arranged to meet Stanley in the parking lot of the Scottish Inn Motel in Weatherford. She drove several hours from Coleman, Texas, to complete the deal, authorities said. Small Town Dentist Facing Trial For Allegedly Poisoning Wife's Protein Shake Amid Secret Affair A box of assorted chocolates is shown in this stock image. Texas investigators say Pamela Jean Stanley planned to inject fentanyl into high-end chocolates and mail them to her ex-husband disguised as a honeymoon gift. After she accepted what she believed was fentanyl, she was immediately taken into custody, according to the arrest affidavit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A subsequent search of her vehicle uncovered 11.76 grams of methamphetamine, which tested positive in a field test and was submitted to the Parker County evidence vault, authorities said. Read On The Fox News App Fentanyl pills are shown in this file photo. Texas investigators say Pamela Jean Stanley believed she was buying fentanyl to use in a plot to poison her ex-husband. Stanley was indicted July 10 on three felony charges: criminal solicitation with intent to commit murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. "This investigation moved quickly thanks to our SCU investigators and the information provided by a concerned citizen," Sheriff Authier said. Original article source: Texas woman accused of plotting ex-husband's murder with fentanyl-laced chocolates under indictment Newly uncovered text messages between disgraced former attorney Alex Murdaugh and his alleged drug dealer could have dramatically altered the defenses trial strategy and possibly prevented a conviction, according to lead defense attorney Dick Harpootlian. Harpootlian, a veteran South Carolina defense attorney and former state senator, told Fox News Digital that the texts between Murdaugh and Curtis "Eddie" Smith, revealed recently by FITSNews, were not provided to the defense during the trial. Their absence, he said, may have contributed to a key decision not to call Smith to the stand. "One of the big decisions in any trial like this is who you call as witnesses," Harpootlian explained. "We were not aware of these texts. Had we been, it may have made a difference in our decision. These messages offer new insight into the timeline of drug distributions, some of them happening the very week of the murders." Alex Murdaugh sits in the Colleton County Courthouse with his legal team including Dick Harpootlian, middle, and Jim Griffin, right, as his attorneys discuss motions in front of Judge Clifton Newman in a December 2022 hearing. Buster Murdaugh Scores Legal Win In Defamation Fight Over Documentarys Murder Implications: Former State Ag Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Smith, alleged to have been Murdaughs primary drug supplier, has not been prosecuted, despite what Harpootlian described as evidence suggesting he may have been one of the largest OxyContin distributors in the Palmetto state. "Everybody else who was indicted pleaded guilty except Eddie Smith," he said. Read On The Fox News App The text messages show that Smith and Murdaugh conversed in the days leading up to Murdaugh's murder of his wife Maggie and his youngest son, Paul, on June 7, 2021, on their family's hunting estate in Colleton County, South Carolina. "Hey Brother i need to come get the chech (sic) you got one with you or are you going to be around later," Smith texted Murdaugh on June 3, four days before the slayings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Murdaugh replied that he would be back that afternoon and that he "had to deal with some bulls**t this morning." Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh speaks with his defense attorney, Dick Harpootlian, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Beaufort, South Carolina. Murdaugh Court Clerk Becky Hill Released On Bond After Arrest On Perjury, Misconduct Charges "Ok Brother just give me a holler," Smith texted, later adding, "Leaving the house now." The day before the murders, Murdaugh texted Smith, "Call me back." Within a span of two minutes the morning after the murder, Smith texted Murdaugh, "Tell me what I heard is not true," and, "Call me please." Those texts went unreturned, and around 6:30 p.m., and Smith cryptically texted Murdaugh, "At fishing hole." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After that message also went unreturned, he texted, "803 *** **13 it will not go through on my phone." "Those texts, the ones we don't have, indicate a little more of the timeline of those distributions, and some of them are the week of the murder," Harpootlian said. "And we were not aware of those. Had we been aware of these, it may have made a difference in our decision not to call Eddie Smith to the stand." He also expressed concern that Smith had not been prosecuted for his alleged role in selling drugs to Murdaugh. Alex Murdaugh's Defense Attorney Explains Why He Thinks The Disgraced Lawyer Is Innocent, Will Get A New Trial Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "And he has not been prosecuted. [He's] wandering the streets, I heard maybe out of the state, and we're perplexed why Eddie Smith has been given this preferential treatment when once Alex was convicted, there was no reason not to go ahead and prosecute him," said Harpootlian. "Everybody else has pleaded guilty. Everybody else that was indicted has pleaded guilty except Eddie Smith. Now these texts would have given us additional information we believe, and I've talked to [co-counsel] Jim Griffin. It might have made the difference in us calling him to the stand or not calling him to the stand. So yes, they're important." Murdaugh is already appealing his conviction, based in large part on accusations of jury tampering by Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill. She was arrested and charged with obstructing justice and misconduct in that incident. She was also charged with perjury in Richland County in relation to the case, after allegedly lying to State Supreme Court Justice Jean Toal during 2024 appellate proceedings. "We have an appeal based on errors made by the judge during the trial, and of course, the attempt by or maybe she did the efforts by the Clerk of Court, Becky Smith, to fix the jury. And that's a huge issue," said Harpootlian. "Many of the people we've had look at the appeal believe we have a substantial chance of getting a new trial, just based on the jury tampering." Clerk of Court Becky Hill has been accused of tampering with the jury in the Alex Murdaugh double murder trial. He said if they do not win a new trial, there is a possibility that they will file a habeas petition seeking to have the conviction vacated on the same grounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The state's brief on the underlying appeal is due Aug. 8," he said. "We have up to 30 days to reply. Then the Supreme Court decides whether to have argument, whether to grant it, whether deny it, and that could take months," he said, adding that if the appeal is granted Murdaugh will get a new trial. Alex Murdaugh Lawyers File Appeal Alleging Ousted South Carolina Clerk Swayed Jury Harpootlian says he expects the state's high court to have a ruling on the appeal by early next year at the latest. "And again, there are all kinds of debates about the evidence and how it was allowed in by the trial judge and whether it should have been excluded or allowed in. And those certainly are important. And we think there's several of them, individually, would give us a new trail," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But more important is a judge, former Chief Justice of Supreme Court, had an evidentiary hearing on Becky Hill's conduct in which she found: A) Becky Hill was not credible, and B) that Becky Hill did attempt to influence jurors to convict Alex Murdoch. She told several of her coworkers that she was writing a book, and it would be better for book sales if Alex was convicted. So we think that, and there is no clear state precedent on whether that's enough, but there's a clear federal precedent that we should get a new trial. So again, I think we should hear something before the end of the year or early next year." Alex Murdaugh and defense attorney Dick Harpootlian review evidence during his trial for murder at the Colleton County Courthouse on Tuesday, January 31, 2023. A retrial would likely look very different, Harpootlian said. With Murdaugh having already pleaded guilty to financial crimes, that aspect would be excluded, narrowing the scope to forensic and factual evidence. The lead attorney believes Murdaugh has a strong defense. "We had a six-week trial last time because of the financial misconduct. That won't happen again," Harpootlian said. "And when you look solely at the forensic evidence, I believe it overwhelmingly proves Alex did not kill Paul and Maggie." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, which led the investigation, and Prosecutor Creighton Waters did not return comment requests. Original article source: New text messages fuel Alex Murdaugh's push for new trial Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is set to testify in court on Wednesday, seeking to defend himself against royal defamation charges in a watershed case for his faltering political dynasty. Thaksin faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted in the closed-door trial in Bangkok, where he stands accused of breaching strict lese majeste laws shielding Thailand's royal family from abuse and criticism. For the past quarter-century, the 75-year-old telecoms magnate has been a defining figure of Thai politics, founding a political dynasty which has jousted with the traditional pro-royal, pro-military elite. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But his prosecution, combined with the suspension of his daughter, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, two weeks ago, represents a dramatic waning of their family's political fortune, analysts say. The prosecution's case revolves around remarks Thaksin made to South Korean media a decade ago, with the defendant due to give at least three days of testimony. A verdict is not expected for several weeks. Thaksin returned to Thailand in August 2023 after 15 years in exile, following a military coup which ousted him from the prime minister's office he won in two elections. He returned the day his family's Pheu Thai party took office at the head of a coalition government backed by their conservative former enemies, fuelling suspicions a backroom deal had been struck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thaksin was immediately sentenced to eight years in prison on graft and abuse of power charges -- later reduced to one year by a pardon from King Maha Vajiralongkorn in another apparent sign of reconciliation. But political analyst Yuttaporn Issarachai told AFP: "There is always someone within the establishment who sees him as a threat to Thai society." - 'Chill' Thaksin - In recent interviews, Thaksin affirmed his loyalty to the monarchy and expressed gratitude for the king's pardon. Speaking to AFP outside the court on the trial's opening day on July 1, a lawyer for Thaksin said his client appeared "chill" despite the seriousness of the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On the same day, Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn was suspended by the Constitutional Court pending an ethics probe into her conduct during a leaked diplomatic phone call discussing a deadly border clash between Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia. In the call, Paetongtarn referred to Cambodian ex-leader Hun Sen as "uncle" and described a Thai military commander as an "opponent" -- sparking backlash for seeming to kowtow to a foreign statesman and undermine her own country's military. Pheu Thai's coalition has been abandoned by key conservative backers over the call, leaving it with a razor-thin parliamentary majority steered by a caretaker prime minister. tak/jts/sco Earlier this month, as Republicans raced to get their big, beautiful billionaire tax cut package across the line, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was also making the rich richer. Russell Vought, who serves as acting director of the CFPB while simultaneously serving as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, quietly signed an order releasing Navy Federal Credit Union from its agreement to refund $80 million to U.S. service members over illegal fees. Late last year, Navy Federal settled with the CFPB over allegations that it charged its customers surprise overdraft fees. The nations largest credit union which reports $190 billion in assets and nearly 15 million members was on the hook to stop charging these illegal fees, refund tens of millions to its customers and pay the CFPB a $15 million fine. With the stroke of a pen, the Trump administration said never mind and gave Navy Federal the green light to resume charging the fees. Sadly, the unraveling of settled enforcement actions by the Trump administration is at this point nothing new. In May, Vought reversed a 2023 action against Toyota Motor Credit, inexplicably freeing the auto lender from paying out $48 million in redress over claims that it operated an illegal scheme to prevent borrowers from canceling products and services. The same month, payments company Wise received a nearly $2 million discount on the penalty it had agreed to pay for a range of misleading practices related to remittances; last week Wise settled with six states over deficiencies in its anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism compliance requirements. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats on top of the permanent dismissal of 22 other pending law enforcement actions that the agency had been litigating including cases against megabanks such as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One involving billions of dollars in consumer harm. Its no surprise that companies are reportedly lining up to get their own corporate giveaways. With limited exceptions, neither the CFPB nor any other part of the administration have explained to the public why a lawsuit gets tossed or a settlement erased. But at least five corporations that have benefited from the CFPBs largesse JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Capital One, Walmart and Toyota made hefty donations to Trumps inaugural committee. Navy Federals pardon in particular stands out among these Trump-era moves, because it undercuts the new CFPBs go-to excuse for failing to do its job. The agency has stated it will essentially refrain from enforcing rules related to payday lending, Buy Now, Pay Later loans and other similar practices, to instead focus on alleged harms to U.S. service members, veterans and their families. And yet, Navy Federals customer base is largely made up of you guessed it service members, veterans and their families. Unfortunately, thanks to the Trump administrations actions, members of our armed services are unlikely to see a penny of the millions they were owed. And as part of a move to fire nearly 90% of the CFPBs civil servants an action that has been halted by federal courts, for now the agencys leadership tried to wipe out the agencys entire Office of Servicemember Affairs, a division staffed primarily by veterans and reservists that is dedicated to supporting and protecting members of the military in the consumer financial marketplace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This begs the question: if its not protecting our service members and veterans, then what, exactly, is the Trump CFPB devoting time to? The answer: not much. Though the administrations attempts at mass firings are on hold, the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months, The Associated Press reports. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by directive from the White House. While the bureaus work is frozen, attacks on consumers have not. The American Prospect reports that 2.5 million complaints have flooded into the CFPB over the past six months, roughly a quarter of the total complaints the agency has recorded since its inception in 2011. Junk fees are back in vogue, thanks to the Trump administration and his allies on the Hill. Actions to cap gargantuan credit card late fees and bank overdraft fees, two rules that alone would have saved Americans $15 billion every year, have been thrown out in court or overturned in Congress. Republicans on Capitol Hill also overturned a CFPB rule on supervision of popular payment apps such as Venmo, PayPal and Google Pay for compliance with the law. A federal judge in Texas recently vacated a rule removing medical debt from credit reports after the Trump CFPB sided with lobbyists representing credit reporting giants such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The Trump administration suspended routine exams of banks and other financial entities exams that ensure that they are following consumer protection laws on the books earlier this year, and its unclear whether any have restarted. And Tuesday, the House Financial Services Committee, whose chairman, French Hill, has received more than $8 million in campaign donations from the finance, insurance and real estate industries during his career held a hearing not to examine the Trump administrations outrageous actions at the CFPB, but to retread tired attacks on the agency. This is despite the fact that the CFPB, during its short existence, has returned more than $21 billion to millions of Americans ripped off or scammed by companies and individuals that broke the law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fifteen years ago, in the wake of the financial crisis that decimated the U.S. economy, Congress passed the law that created the CFPB. Six months in to Trumps second term, its clear that the corporations are back in charge. And your pocketbook is vulnerable. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com BUTLER, Tenn. (WKRN) After surviving a hurricane last fall, one East Tennessee man is now paying it forward. He is helping flood victims in Texas by doing exactly what his community once did for him: show up. Have breaking news come to you: Subscribe to News 2 email alerts Darren Clark, owner of Camp Faith in Butler and a volunteer firefighter with the Elk Mills Fire Department, said Hurricane Helene left behind more than just damage it left behind perspective. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I thought since I came here, 2,100 feet above sea level, I was done with hurricanes, Clark said. It was worse than anything I experienced in Florida. This area got humbled, and the community came together. Were still rebuilding. With the help of his friend Michael Rice, they organized a trailer full of donated supplies everything from canned goods and sanitary items to shovels and cleaning products. Clark helped pack the trailer in Tennessee, and Rice drove it nearly 1,000 miles south to deliver the supplies to Notre Dame Catholic Church, a distribution site helping families impacted by floodwaters. He said if I was going to go down there, we might as well load a trailer. And we did, Rice told News 2. One man down there said it was exactly what they needed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clark said the gesture is something he plans to continue. Read todays top stories on wkrn.com Every day, it feels like another city is underwater, he said. We received so much during our own recovery. Its the right thing to do to take care of one another. Another trailer is already being prepped in Elk Mills, ready to respond to the next disaster. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKRN News 2. The News Thom Tillis isnt in rebellion mode against President Donald Trump or Republican leadership. Hes simply making clear that he wont tolerate disrespect from Trump or anyone else. The North Carolinian, who announced his retirement in the middle of last months grueling debate over Trumps massive tax and spending cuts bill, is no longer beholden to Trump or the broader world of electoral politics. Hes not planning on using his perches on three powerful committees to undercut the GOP: Hes preparing to support Trumps package of extra federal cuts and to advance controversial judicial nominee Emil Bove. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Tillis also contends that the president is getting bad advice on everything from Medicaid cuts to tariffs, and hes warning Trump against antagonizing him. It could make for a very interesting next 18 months. Thats President Trumps choice, Tillis told Semafor in an interview in his office on Tuesday, when asked whether hell be a thorn in the presidents side. Ive tried to defer to him and show him respect, but I do have a habit of mirroring the behavior that Im presented with. Tillis pointed to a recent confrontation with a bystander who confronted him about his opposition to Trump nominee Ed Martin: You can just ask the poor guy in the Washington National Airport about seven weeks ago what happens when you get up in this former trailer park residents face. Theres no human being on the face of the planet whose behavior I wouldnt mirror if its disrespectful. Since his election to the Senate, Tillis has emerged as one of the most active legislators on the floor and one of the most blunt-talking off of it. In quintessential fashion, hes already worried about his partys prospects of holding onto his seat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anticipating a challenging environment in North Carolina that could make it tough for his potential successors, Tillis had a warning for the presidents daughter-in-law, whos considering a run. If Trumps popularity becomes a drag on the party, he said, Id probably say Lara Trump should consider that. Hes also quite frustrated with the amateurs surrounding Trump in the White House, arguing that many of Trumps staffers are undermining him. The president is getting bad advice from maybe well-intentioned people who have no experience with execution, Tillis said, calling the April tariffs a dud and objectively a failure a prime example of what he says is a White House staff that has fallen short. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes got people working for him that may have convinced him that they live and breathe him, but theyre just surfing a wave for the next hill. Im not, Tillis said. He has nothing that I want. Im here purely for the purpose of producing good policy and getting more Republicans elected. Tillis last contact with Trump involved that same message: It came as they texted about the senators potential retirement amid his opposition to the steep Medicaid cuts tucked into the partys megabill. Mr. President, I hope Im able to prove to you that I have your best interest at heart anytime I disagree with you. Because I firmly believe that you have people advising you who do not have that as a priority. I do, Tillis said, paraphrasing his message to Trump weeks ago. White House spokesman Steven Cheung said: The president has built a world-class team and he is delivering results for the American people every day. Thats why America is the hottest its ever been. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Several Republican senators said in interviews they expected Tillis to be outspoken during his remaining time in office but not to sabotage Trump or his agenda. They pointed to his party-line stances during the Senates vote-a-rama on the tax cuts bill and his experience as a statehouse leader. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., predicted Tillis would vote for the people of North Carolina. But well find out pretty quick. Still, plenty of Republicans complicated the presidents life on their way into retirement. Former Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., tried to use his deciding vote on the Judiciary Committee to overturn Trumps first-term tariffs, while former Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., deemed the White House an adult day care center. The ultimate blow came from two retiring GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One GOP senator privately said many of their colleagues are hoping Tillis doesnt become a Trump foil like former Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Tillis response: If the president were to say something about me the way he did about Mitt Romney, people could only hope that I would behave like Mitt Romney. Lets just put it that way. I dont take a pass on anybody flexing with me. Know More Tillis career arc is dizzying. He flipped the North Carolina statehouse in 2010, defeated a Senate incumbent in 2014, won a challenging reelection in 2020, and emerged as an effective bipartisan dealmaker during Joe Bidens presidency. He took as much heat as he generated this year, however, starting with his deciding vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary in January amid allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tillis found those charges against Hegseth interesting but uncorroborated and said he deferred some of the vetting on the Pentagon chiefs capability to the Senate Armed Services Committee. We now know that the committee was probably a little bit generous on how well he could run a large, complex organization, Tillis said. A few months later, though, Tillis found a nominee he couldnt stomach: DC federal prosecutor nominee Ed Martin. While Tillis empathized with the idea that the idiots who had entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 had been overprosecuted, he drew a line at the pardon of violent offenders that Trump issued and Martin supported. Tillis told Semafor that any nominee with similar views that comes through his committee will get the same treatment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The only real red line that I have has to do with anyone who condoned the January 6 attack, Tillis said. If youre coming before any of my committees, and I can deny cloture, youre never going to get confirmed over the next 18 months. Thats a red line. January 6 is a big red line for me. The tax bill presented an even bigger challenge. As soon as the Senate released harsher cuts to Medicaid than the House considered in June, Tillis soured on the bill. That was a problem because Tillis is on the whip team, tasked with helping leaders scrounge up votes for legislation. He said he found Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., on the Senate floor and told him it probably makes sense for me to get off the team. Before long, Tillis was in contact with Trump, whom he told that his vote probably wasnt necessary to pass the legislation. Trump later criticized Tillis on Truth Social anyway. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If somebody wants to know why Im not running, its because some bonehead told him to post something and pretend like that was going to affect me, Tillis said. It affected me in a way that said: Im done with this bullshit. And I got 18 months to try and do good, up to and including helping the president be successful, he added. On my terms. Room for Disagreement Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., made the counterintuitive argument that Tillis could also feel more free to vote with Republicans, since he doesnt have a general election in a swing state to think about. Some might say he may be looking for a way to redeem himself among his colleagues, he said. He might feel like he does have more liberty to be more of a party guy. Burgesss view Tillis has leverage, and he knows it: He sits at the center of Trumps agenda on the Finance, Banking, and Judiciary Committees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Other than getting his states Lumbee Tribe recognized, he said has no other significant priority to insist on. For now, at least. I dont have anything in mind, but Id be silly not to know the Senate rules, the committee rules, and the other devices that I could potentially leverage. But Im not going to hold my conference hostage, Tillis said. Notable Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) (Photo: Screen grab from Senate.gov) Set to cast the key vote on one of Donald Trumps most controversial judicial nominees on Thursday, Senator Thom Tillis is leaning toward a yes. The Republican from North Carolina is likely to be the deciding factor as to whether Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump and high-ranking Justice Department official, makes it through the Senate Judiciary Committee in his bid to receive a lifetime appointment to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Emil Bove testifies before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on June 25. (Photo: Senate.gov video feed) Tillis told reporters on July 9 that he is likely to go with the staff recommendation and vote in favor of Boves nomination, according to Politico, which under a party-line vote would mean Boves nomination proceeds to the full Senate for a vote. Because Republicans only hold a 12-10 majority on the Judiciary Committee, any defection is enough to sink a nominee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this year, Tillis used this leverage to sink the nomination of Ed Martin as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, citing his legal defense of January 6 rioters as the key obstacle to his support. We have to be very, very clear that what happened on January 6 was wrong, Tillis told the Associated Press. Bove is nominated to a seat on the Third Circuit that opened in June 2023, which former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully attempted to fill with Adeel Mangi, a Muslim-American lawyer whose confirmation was stalled over what Mangi called performative McCarthyism surrounding his ties to Muslim organizations in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. His nomination was dropped as part of a deal between Senate Democrats and Republicans last year to advance a slate of stalled district court judges. Bove has come under fire for his actions as Trumps lieutenant at the Justice Department, including carrying out a purge of prosecutors involved in cases against Jan. 6 rioters from the D.C. U.S. Attorneys Office. He also garnered controversy for dropping corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a decision that led to resignations from the department and which required Bove to appear in court to assure a judge there was no quid pro quo in exchange for the dismissal. Its a striking contrast because Adeel Mangi was extremely well-qualified, and basically the Republicans crucified him, and I dont use that term lightly, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. Its deeply ironic to put somebody like that forward, somebody like Bove, for that seat after they robbed the Democrats of that position. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the wake of Tilliss announcement that he would not seek reelection to his Senate seat next year, some observers noted that he may have greater latitude to defy Trump on key issues likely giving him greater freedom to break with his colleagues on the Judiciary Committee on divisive judicial nominees. He could still change his mind, he may keep an open mind during the discussion, and I imagine the Democrats will say scathing things about Bove, Tobias said. My prediction, for what its worth, is that its likely to be a party-line vote, 12-10. A Justice Department whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, has also come forward alleging that Bove directed his subordinates to defy court orders and engage in illegal conduct in the course of Trumps mass deportation efforts. Bove and other Trump administration officials denied these allegations. Though the whistleblower offered to testify before the Judiciary Committee, Committee Chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) declined to extend him an invitation or hold a second hearing on the nomination. On Tuesday, more than 80 former federal and state judges, including two former Third Circuit judges, sent a letter to the Judiciary Committee warning that Boves confirmation would compromise the integrity of the courts and set a dangerous precedent that judicial power may be wielded in service of personal fealty rather than constitutional duty. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr. Boves egregious record of mistreating law enforcement officers, abusing power, and disregarding the law itself disqualifies him for this position, the judges wrote. Proceeding with this nomination, particularly in the face of credible and sworn allegations from a nonpartisan DOJ attorney that Mr. Bove violated court orders and instructed public servants to act unlawfully, would be a disservice to the constitution, to law enforcement, and to the rule of law. Similarly, more than 900 former Department of Justice officials wrote to the committee Wednesday expressing grave concern over the senseless attacks on the dedicated career employees who are the backbone of the Department, a charge they said has been led by Bove. It is intolerable to us that anyone who disgraces the Justice Department would be promoted to one of the highest courts in the land, as it should be intolerable to anyone committed to maintaining our ordered system of justice, the officials wrote. The Judiciary Committee is expected to vote on whether to advance Boves nomination at its meeting Thursday beginning at 9:15 a.m. South Carolina officials are still pursuing a limited expansion of Medicaid eligibility to parents who are working. The request comes amid new work-or-school requirements for Medicaid enrollees in most other states. (iStock / Getty Images Plus) COLUMBIA Thousands more people in South Carolina could get Medicaid coverage under a request from the state to expand the program to working low-income parents. While Gov. Henry McMaster wrote officials in January about the states impending request, the states Medicaid agency didnt actually submit it until late last month, after gathering public comments and holding hearings. The submission happened to come in the midst of congressional negotiations over the GOP-pushed federal law signed July 4, which requires adults in states that expanded Medicaid to prove theyre working, going to school or volunteering at least 80 hours each month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That part of the massive package, slated to begin at the end of 2026, does not apply to South Carolina, according to the states Medicaid agency. The Palmetto State is among 10 states that never expanded eligibility to all adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level, as intended under the 2010 law known as Obamacare. However, South Carolina is still seeking its own, albeit very limited, version of an expansion. If the Trump administration approves South Carolinas request, an estimated 11,400 parents with incomes between 67% and 100% of the federal poverty level could be newly covered by Medicaid. And they would have to meet those same 80-hours-per-month requirements as new federal law mandates in most other states. The difference would be that those rules would apply only to South Carolinians newly qualified for coverage. The goal is to help close a health care coverage gap for those parents, according to the states application, submitted June 23. Under existing rules, parents who make more than 67% of the federal poverty line, which is just $21,540 annually for a family of four, cant get Medicaid coverage. But federal subsidies to buy private insurance on the marketplace dont kick in until 100% of the poverty line, or $32,150 for that same family of four. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That can discourage people from searching for a higher-paying job out of fear of losing their health insurance, officials wrote in the states application. This creates a perverse financial incentive for individuals to keep their incomes artificially low for risk of losing healthcare coverage and bearing the full cost of health services, the application reads. An estimated 17,700 people would qualify for the program under the changes, according to the states application to the federal Medicaid agency. A federal funding formula would limit the actual number to 11,400. Officials expect hitting that enrollment cap to take five years, according to the application. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The changes wouldnt apply to people already enrolled in the states Medicaid program, including elderly, pregnant and disabled people. Childless adults would remain ineligible for Medicaid in South Carolinas program, according to the application. The requirements are similar to those already required for people receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), often called food stamps. People making up to 100% of the federal poverty level can continue qualifying for SNAP if they can prove theyre working up to 80 hours each month, unless they qualify for an exemption. The overlap was intentional, Medicaid spokesman Jeff Leieritz said previously. If a person is already proving theyre working to get SNAP, they should more easily be able to receive the expanded Medicaid benefits, he said. As of 2020, 521,660 South Carolinians under the age of 65 were uninsured, according to the most recent data from the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sue Berkowitz, director of Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said she was glad to see that more people would have access to health care. She worried the program still had too many barriers, since getting a job or volunteering isnt always easy for people without transportation, people in rural areas with fewer opportunities and people who cant afford child care, she said. More exemptions for those situations would allow even more people who fall in that coverage gap to access health care, said Berkowitz, who is part of a group advocating for the state to expand Medicaid. Health care shouldnt be something thats dangled in front of you or used as a stick to get people to work, Berkowitz said. The program is meant to be narrowly tailored to working families, the Medicaid agency said in the application, addressing similar concerns raised during two public hearings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By maintaining a community engagement requirement for participation, the program aims to reinforce the proven link between improved economic self-sufficiency and improved health, the application reads. South Carolina has been pursuing similar requirements that people work in order to receive Medicaid benefits for years. The federal Medicaid agency approved a similar waiver for the state in December 2019, during President Donald Trumps first term. That version, however, would have applied the work-or-school requirements to all Medicaid enrollees, not just those newly qualified. It was paused when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the Biden administration later revoked the permission. McMaster sent a letter to federal officials in January asking them to speed along the states forthcoming application. The state Medicaid agency took public comments on the proposal from April 30 to May 31 and held public hearings May 6 and May 13. The federal Medicaid agency has not yet responded to the application, according to the states agency. CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (WCMH) With less than a month to go until the Pixelle Paper Mill in Chillicothe shuts down, thousands of people are urging the plants parent company to help the hundreds of workers and the community find new opportunities. In an open letter, Ross County business and government leaders said the sudden shift from closing at the end of the year to shutting down on Aug. 10 not only disrupted the future planning of families and businesses, but also damaged the trust between H.I.G. Capital and the community. The letter goes on to say that the mills closure will deal an economic blow of $1 billion to the states economy, impacting more than 2,700 jobs across Ohio. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Business and community leaders are asking for regular updates about plans for the property, working collaboratively on future possibilities for the site, coordinating resources and helping with workforce development efforts. Theyve asked H.I.G. to respond to the letter by Thursday. The paper mills owner his hosting a job fair on Wednesday for impacted employees. The event is happening from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Shoemaker Center on Ohio Universitys Chillicothe campus. Workers can connect with regional employers and workforce development services. The event is open only to paper mill employees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. Three men in their 20s have been given long jail terms for their part in the fatal shooting of award-winning hip-hop artist C Gambino in Gothenburg last year. C Gambino, whose real name was Karar Ramadan, had been named hip-hop artist of 2023 in Sweden's Grammis music awards a month before he was murdered, in what prosecutors described as a ruthless and premeditated shooting. All three men were convicted of aiding and abetting murder, and two of them were cleared of murder, as the Gothenburg court ruled it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt who had fired the fatal shots. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The gun that killed C Gambino has never been found and a car used in the shooting was later found burned out. C Gambino's murder has been linked to a local gangland conflict, although the motive remains a mystery. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest that he was part of any criminal network. For several years Sweden's biggest cities have been beset by gang violence that have claimed dozens of lives, often involving children recruited to carry out violent attacks. The rapper, who was 26, was shot at a multistorey car park in Gothenburg in June 2024 in what the court said was a carefully planned attack and had the character of a "pure execution". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators were unable to find DNA traces of the attackers but did map their movements from mobile phones around the time of the shooting. The prosecutor also told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that police had been able to use hours of CCTV footage from the car park and elsewhere. Videos showed the killers' vehicle entering the car park more than a week before the shooting, and then waiting for hours before the attack took place as C Gambino returned home from the gym late in the evening. Although he was able to raise the alarm, emergency services who arrived at the scene were unable to use their communication system and had to shout to each other, SVT reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The artist died in hospital about an hour afterwards. In its verdict, the court gave a 22-year-old man a life sentence in jail, while two others aged 21 and 20 were handed terms of 15 and a half years and 12 and a half years respectively, A fourth man, aged 19, was convicted of setting fire to their car. Another gang-related case concluded on Wednesday with a 14-year-old boy found guilty of shooting dead a man in his home on the order of one of Sweden's most notorious gangs, Foxtrot. Two other boys were convicted: one for conspiracy and another for preparing the murder in Skurup in southern Sweden. None of the three will face punishment because they are below the age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 in Sweden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The victim of the Skurup murder was targeted because his son had refused to carry out an attack for the Foxtrot gang. Police in Iraqi Kurdistan have meanwhile arrested a key figure in the Foxtrot gang, according to Swedish radio. The suspect is described as close to gang leader Rawa Majid and has been linked to a number of killings in Sweden, including the Skurup shooting. By Nancy Lapid and Jennifer Rigby (Reuters) -Eight children in the UK have been spared from devastating genetic diseases thanks to a new three-person in vitro fertilization technique, scientists from Newcastle University reported on Wednesday. The technique, which is banned in the United States, transfers pieces from inside the mother's fertilized egg - its nucleus, plus the nucleus of the father's sperm - into a healthy egg provided by an anonymous donor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The procedure prevents the transfer of mutated genes from inside the mother's mitochondria - the cells' energy factories - that could cause incurable and potentially fatal disorders. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA can affect multiple organs, particularly those that require high energy, such as the brain, liver, heart, muscles and kidneys. One of the eight children is now 2 years old, two are between ages 1 and 2, and five are infants. All were healthy at birth, with blood tests showing no or low levels of mitochondrial gene mutations, the scientists reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. All have made normal developmental progress, they said. The results "are the culmination of decades of work," not just on the scientific/technical challenges but also in ethical inquiry, public and patient engagement, law-making, drafting and execution of regulations, and establishing a system for monitoring and caring for the mothers and infants, reproductive medicine specialist Dr. Andy Greenfield of the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the research, said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The researchers' "treasure trove of data" is likely to be the starting point of new avenues of investigation, Greenfield said. Often during IVF screening procedures, doctors can identify some low-risk eggs with very few mitochondrial gene mutations that are suitable for implantation. But sometimes all of the eggs mitochondrial DNA carries mutations. In those cases, using the new technique, the UK doctors first fertilize the mothers egg with the fathers sperm. Then they remove the fertilized eggs pronuclei that is, the nuclei of the egg and the sperm, which carry the DNA instructions from both parents for the babys development, survival and reproduction. Next, they transfer the egg and sperm nuclei into a donated fertilized egg that has had its pronuclei removed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The donor egg will now begin to divide and develop with its healthy mitochondria and the nuclear DNA from the mothers egg and the fathers sperm. This process, detailed in a second paper in the journal, essentially replaces the faulty mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) with healthy mtDNA from the donor, senior researcher Mary Herbert, professor of reproductive biology at Newcastle, said at a press briefing. Blood levels of mtDNA mutations were 95% to 100% lower in six newborns, and 77% to 88% lower in two others, compared to levels of the same variants in their mothers, the researchers reported in a second paper. "These data indicate that pronuclear transfer was effective in reducing transmission of mtDNA disease," they said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The procedure was tested in 22 women whose babies were likely to inherit such genes. In addition to the eight women who delivered the children described in this report, another one of the 22 is currently pregnant. Seven of the eight pregnancies were uneventful; in one case, a pregnant woman had blood tests showing high lipid levels. There have been no miscarriages. The authors of the current reports have also tried transplanting the nucleus of a mothers unfertilized egg into a donor egg and then fertilizing the donor egg afterward, but they believe their new approach may more reliably prevent transmission of the genetic disorders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to legalize research into mitochondrial donation treatment in humans. That same year in the United States, pronuclear transfer was effectively banned for human use by a congressional appropriations bill that prohibited the Food and Drug Administration from using funds to consider the use of "heritable genetic modification". (Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker) The mysterious figure emerged in late 2022 in a Facebook group dedicated to the discussion of the Idaho student murders case and vanished around the time of Kohberger's arrest on Dec. 30 of that year, prompting speculation that the account could have been linked to the killer. In the final weeks of 2022, the account emerged in a large Facebook group dedicated to seeking justice for the victims: University of Idaho students Madison Mogen, 21, Kaylee Goncalves, 21, Xana Kernodle, 20, and Ethan Chapin, 20. Authorities have made no public comments or court filings linking Kohberger to the account. But with the gag order preventing most extrajudicial discussion of the case expected to end soon, authorities could finally address posts from the account or the public could find out through unsealed search warrant returns, discovery disclosures, or digital forensics from Kohberger's devices. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "At the very least, we might see warrant requests for social media accounts," said Joshua Ritter, a former Los Angeles prosecutor and host of "Courtroom Confidential." "Which would indicate they had the same suspicions." Idaho Judge Urged To Remove Gag Order On Kohberger Case Following Quadruple Murder Plea Previously released court records show authorities sought information from dozens of tech companies, including Amazon, Google and Meta, Facebook's parent company. The records they received remain unclear. Read On The Fox News App Using a profile photo that appeared to show a man in an old-fashioned military uniform that some have suggested looks similar to Kohberger's actual appearance, the account was known for cryptic posts about specific evidence, including a reference to a knife sheath before police revealed they recovered one. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some observers in Moscow and beyond believe Kohberger was behind the account. Especially since no one has come forward and claimed responsibility in the three years he's been behind bars. But posts from the account have largely vanished. Bryan Kohberger Believed He Committed The Perfect Murders Until One Key Mistake Shattered His Plot: Author Madison Mogen, top left, smiles on the shoulders of her best friend, Kaylee Goncalves, as they pose with Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, and two other housemates in Goncalves' final Instagram post, shared the day before the four students were stabbed to death. Screenshots taken before the account was taken down show Pappa Rodger predicted that the killer left behind a knife sheath as early as Nov. 30, 2022. Although a Ka-Bar knife had already been identified as a potential murder weapon and other people said they had already speculated about a sheath by then, it was the phrasing that set off alarm bells for one of the administrators. "He also didn't say a sheath he said the sheath,' which is really eerie," said Kristine Cameron, one of the people behind the "University of Idaho Murders - Case Discussion" group on Facebook. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read Bryan Kohberger's Signed Killer Confession On Dec. 5, 8 and 21, the account posted diagrams of the King Road home that purported to show the locations of the bodies. However based on statements from Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson made in court at Kohberger's plea hearing the locations appear incorrect. He said Chapin had been killed in his sleep in Kernodle's room not in the living room like Pappa Rodger asserted. "As the defendant was either coming down the stairs or leaving, he encountered Xana, and he ended up killing her, also with a large knife," Thompson told the court on July 1, 2025. "Ethan Chapin, Xana's boyfriend, was asleep in their bedroom in her bedroom. And the defendant killed him as well." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Idaho Victim's Mother Finds Unexpected Peace In Killer's Controversial Plea Deal On Dec. 22, the account asserted that, "The killer is not in the victims (sic) immediate circle," and, "The killer is not a student." Kohberger was not friends with any of the victims and attended a different school nearby, Washington State University. On Jan. 5, 2023, Cameron told Fox News Digital Pappa Rodger's chats and posts had been "wiped from FB." "The night prior to Bryan getting arrested, Pappa Rodger was going back and forth with another member, calling the member names," she said at the time. "We had spoken to him numerous times about the way he was talking." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bryan Kohberger Pleads Guilty To Idaho Murders Exterior evening shot of murder scene on king road at night during a quadruple murder investigation. She recalled the poster challenging other users to "fight me" and grading comments "like a professor." "His particular post that asked how long the killer was in the house caused all kinds of speculation, but he was adamant that the killer was in the house for 15 minutes," she added. Most people doubted four slayings could've been carried out in that span, she said, but it's close to what prosecutors would later allege in court documents. Idaho Murders Timeline: Bryan Kohberger Plea Caps Yearslong Quest For Justice Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then the posts stopped around the time of Kohberger's arrest, she said, and to this day she believes the killer could have been behind the account. The victims of Nov. 13 University of Idaho massacre, from left to right: Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES AT THE FOX NEWS True Crime Hub Kohberger himself did not respond to a question about the account from Fox News Digital for this story. "Until prosecutors or law enforcement come forward, I'm gonna go ahead and speculate that Pappa Rodger is Bryan Kohberger," said Lauren Conlin, a PopCrimeTV host who has been closely following the case. In a new book by crime fiction legend James Patterson and investigative journalist Vicky Ward, the authors compared Kohberger directly to Elliott Rodger, a mass murderer who killed six students near the University of California, Santa Barbara, and injured 14 other people in May 2014. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X "No one knows that, like Rodger, Bryan is a virgin who hates women," the book reads. "No one knows that Bryan copes with loneliness by immersing himself in video games. Like Rodger, he goes for night drives. Like Rodger, he visits the gun range. And, like Rodger, he goes to a local bar and tries to pick up women." An undated photo of murder suspect Elliot Rodger is seen at a press conference by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff in Goleta, California May 24, 2014. Rodger, 22, went on a rampage in Isla Vista near the University of California at Santa Barbara campus, stabbed three people to death at his apartment before shooting to death three more in a terrorizing crime spree through the neighborhood. Elliot Rodger, 22, wrote a 137-page manifesto airing his grievances as an "involuntary celibate," or incel, and social outcast. Kohberber, to the dismay of many members of the public and some victims' families, did not explain a motive for his crimes when he pleaded guilty on July 1, weeks before his trial would have kicked off. Some of Rodger's victims were members of their school's Greek life as were all of Kohberger's. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter Rodger killed himself after the murder spree. Kohberger nearly got away with his. Authorities said they didn't even have his name until more than a month after the murders, after the FBI used investigative genetic genealogy techniques to come up with a new lead based on the single-source DNA sample taken from the Ka-Bar sheath. Bryan Kohberger arrives at Monroe County Courthouse in Pennsylvania in advance of highly anticipated extradition hearing. He's charged with the murders of four University of Idaho students. Eleven days later, they had Kohberger in handcuffs. The plea deal took the potential death penalty off the table. Kohberger is expected to receive four consecutive life prison sentences plus another 10 years at a formal sentencing hearing on July 23. As part of the deal, he waived his right to appeal or seek a sentence reduction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A hearing on whether the court should lift the gag order before sentencing is scheduled for Thursday. Fox News' Stephanie Nolasco and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Original article source: Any tie Bryan Kohberger has to 'Pappa Rodger' could become clear when gag order is lifted Brady Kiser, the husband of social media influencer Emilie Kiser, may face a felony child abuse charge in connection to the Arizona drowning death of their three-year-old son, Trigg. On Tuesday, the Chandler Police Department (CPD) announced that their investigation into the May 18 death was complete, and they have formally recommended that the Maricopa County Attorneys Office consider charging Brady, 28, with a Class 4 felony. This charge carries potential penalties of 1 to 3.75 years in prison, though probation is possible for first-time offenders. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Drowning Prevention: Keep Kids Safe In And Near The Water With These Tips At the time of the drowning, Brady was at home with Trigg and their newborn son, Theodore, while Emilie was out with friends, Brady told Chandler police, according to Fox affiliate, Ksaz-tv. "Chandler PD arrived on scene first and found an unconscious 3-year-old boy that was pulled from the backyard pool. Officers began CPR and firefighters took over patient care upon arrival," fire department officials said at the time. Read On The Fox News App Brady, according to AZ-Central, told police that he had turned around for "three to five minutes" before finding the boy floating in the family's backyard pool. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trigg died six days after he was pulled from the pool. The case has garnered significant attention due, in part, to Emilie's 4 million follower count on TikTok. The influencer, who has not posted on social media since the tragic incident, issued a formal legal request asking the court to block the release of investigative and post-mortem records in Trigg's death. Multiple People Dead, 2 Missing After Boat Capsizes At Vacation Hotspot In the verified complaint obtained by Fox News Digital, filed on May 27, Emilie argued that disclosing investigative and post-mortem records would cause her and her family significant emotional harm. Emilie said that this is a deeply personal loss with no substantial relevance to the public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement READ THE VERIFIED COMPLAINT APP USERS, Click Here Emilie said that over 100 public records requests have been filed since Trigg's death, many of which she believes are motivated by public curiosity or commercial interest rather than oversight. She said that neither she nor her attorneys have reviewed the graphic contents of the material, which may include security footage, autopsy reports, 911 audio, and bodycam videos, nor do they wish to. The complaint argues that releasing such raw and intimate documentation would weaponize Arizonas Public Records Law against grieving families, rather than serve its intended purpose of promoting government transparency. Emilie Kiser attend the Poppi Soda's Back Beach Bash at Gurney's Montauk on July 28, 2023 in Montauk, New York. Fox News Digital has reached out to the Chandler Police Department and the Maricopa County Attorneys Office for comment. Original article source: TikTok influencer's husband faces possible felony charge after son's tragic pool accident If youre looking for a story that sums up why Britain is in such a godawful mess, try this. At an Oxford college dinner in spring, 2011, the political author David Goodhart found himself seated next to Sir Gus ODonnell, at that time the most senior civil servant in the land. Mr Goodhart happened to mention that he was writing a book about immigration. And heres what he says Sir Gus now Lord ODonnell told him: When I was at the Treasury, I argued for the most open door possible to immigration, he said. Why? I think its my job to maximise global welfare not national welfare. That last sentence reported in The Road to Somewhere, Mr Goodharts acclaimed book of 2017 is critical. Because its the key to understanding the mindset of our 21st-century elites not just in Whitehall but in Parliament, broadcasting, academia, the public sector and the arts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To put it simply: these people dont think of Britain as a country, they think of it as a charity. The Canadian author and professor Gad Saad calls this mindset suicidal empathy a form of high-minded compassion so delusionally naive that it leads to serious social damage. And it helps to explain any number of the mind-boggling stories we read about our nations decline. For example: the fact that, as we learnt this week, there are now more than a million foreign-born people in this country claiming Universal Credit (most of them unemployed); the fact that almost half the taxpayer-subsidised social housing in London has a foreign-born head of household; the fact that our Government has so generously agreed to pay Mauritius up to 30bn of taxpayers money to take the vital strategic asset of the Chagos Islands off Britains hands. Indeed, Ive no doubt it also helps to explain the Afghan resettlement scandal, finally disclosed to the public this week, which saw our governing class offer asylum to tens of thousands of Afghans at a cost of billions and then use the courts to hush up the whole affair for almost two years. Some 24,000 Afghans have been offered asylum in UK at a cost of7 billion - Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images I could go on. I could cite the human rights laws that make it so hard to deport foreign criminals, or to end the small boats crisis. Or the fact that almost one million people living in England today cant speak English fluently and 130,000 cant speak it at all. Or the fact that GP surgeries have signs that read: All are welcome! Your nationality or immigration status do not affect your right to register here Ask reception for an interpreter if you find it difficult to communicate in English. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We could add to this list all day. The point is that these things are happening principally because our elites believe that they have a moral duty to maximise global welfare not national welfare. In other words, to put others first; to let them have what we have even if it means that we end up with less. Im not saying this type of mindset is new. Charles Dickens skewered it in Bleak House, through his depiction of Mrs Jellyby the virtue-signalling English philanthropist so obsessively fixated on her harebrained schemes to aid Africa that she neglects the cries of her own children. That novel was written in the early 1850s, yet never have there been so many Mrs Jellybys as there are today, 175 years later. And never has her world view been so influential, so rampant or so dangerous. Which is why its time to face the truth: Britain is being destroyed from within. Not by people who wish to destroy it, but by people who solemnly believe that theyre doing good. People who believe that theyre tackling global poverty, fighting racism, promoting inclusivity and (perhaps above all) atoning for historic injustices. But its in large part thanks to attitudes like theirs that weve ended up with grooming gangs, hate marches by Hamas apologists, rocketing immigration from wildly different and often hostile cultures, and, potentially, de facto blasphemy laws (for one religion only). The Britain as a charity not a country mindset, therefore, is not just making us poorer, its also making us less safe, more divided and at ever-growing risk of violent unrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This has to change. Otherwise Britain will soon be in desperate need of charity herself. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Donald Trump is back online attempting to squash further discussion on the files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Win McNamee / Getty Images Related: Hillary Clinton Just Hit On One Of Donald Trump's Biggest Insecurities With Three Words In case you're not up to speed, the Trump administration previously promised to release documents related to the Epstein case, with some officials even previously pedaling conspiracy theories on what would be uncovered. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February that a client list was "sitting on her desk," and she would review it at Trump's direction. However, earlier this month, the Department of Justice and the FBI released a memo stating there is no evidence of a client list or Epstein blackmailing influential figures, per an Axios report. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images Now, Trump is trying to quell supporters who continue to question the shift on Epstein. In a lengthy Truth Social post on Saturday, July 12, Trump defended Bondi amid attacks by his supporters, suggested files related to Epstein are "fake" creations of "Radical Left Lunatics," and encouraged his followers to "not waste Time and Energy" on Epstein. "One year ago our Country was DEAD, now it's the 'HOTTEST' Country anywhere in the World," he wrote. "Let's keep it that way, and not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If anything, the post only drew more attention to the matter. NBC News reported that searches for Epstein spiked after Trumps post, which also received more negative responses from his own supporters than any other post on the platform a platform dominated mainly by conservative voices. Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images Related: Donald Trump's Day Probably Got A Whole Lot Worse After These MAGA Voters Started Turning On Him Over The Epstein Files Still, Trump is doubling down again. In a post on Wednesday morning, he wrote another seemingly furious message, blaming his own supporters for falling victim to the "Radical Left Democrats" and the "Jeffrey Epstein Hoax." He wrote, "Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker. They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years." Trump expressed frustration at the media continuing to report on Epstein, while criticizing his "past" supporters who continue to talk about the "hoax." He wrote, "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Yes, he really just called his own supporters WEAKLINGS. Related: "Evidence Of Trumps Stupidity": Trump Was Ruthlessly Mocked After Suffering A Brain Fart While Trying To Insult Biden And judging by the replies, many are not taking it well. On a platform where Trump's posts typically receive nothing but praise, the backlash under this one was stark: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Why is the Epstein case so important to the MAGA movement?" user @GreeksForTrump asked. "Its WHY Trump won in 2016. He promised to rip the mask off the globalist elite and drain their filthy swamp. If the GOP betrays that mission again, at least a third of the base walks. And they will lose 2026. Guaranteed." "Why was Epstein in prison then? How about Ghislaine? For a hoax? I don't think so. This is the hill we all die on," another wrote. Related: "Trends That Can Lead To The Alt-Right Pipeline": This Woman Is Calling Out Ways The Far Right Targets Women And Girls "People you nominated for your own administration talked about Epstein for years. Now youre saying it never was, without giving us the proof? And you dont want the support of your full base simply because they dont believe what you do? " this person asked. "America wants the Truth no more no less we are tired of being lied to by all that are in office I have supported you Mr President but Your AG caused this and now she needs to fix it as I am not sure America will be able to trust anything she does in the future if this is not settled," another said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And lastly, this supporter wrote: "Listen President Trump we dont give a shit about Epstein, we want accountability and justice for the innocent that had to go through the hell Epstein and Maxwell and all the other elite PEDOPHILES have put them through! If you dont want us as your voters then alright you may get what you ask for sir! I voted for you three times and I didnt want to feel like this was a vote I would regret! Nothing has been done so far and Im wondering if you are protecting these bastards now. We dont trust Bondi either." Meanwhile, on Monday, Republicans in the House blocked a Democratic maneuver that would have forced the release of all documents related to Epstein, a move that deepened frustration on both sides. In other words, while Trump may want to move on, it's not looking like the discussion around the Epstein case, even from his most fervent allies, is going away anytime soon. Also in In the News: "He Torched His Entire Reputation For Nothing": 27 Of The Best Political Tweets From This Messy, Messy Week Also in In the News: These Tweets Prove MAGA Is Seeing Some Serious Backlash Amid The Texas Floods Also in In the News: Donald Trump Just Hung A Painting Of Himself Where Hillary Clinton's Portrait Used To Be And It's Exactly What You'd Expect Read it on BuzzFeed.com COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) One year ago, two families were holding on to hope inside the walls of Nationwide Childrens Hospital. Now, theyre celebrating a miracle: two central Ohio toddlers full of life and laughter thanks to pediatric heart transplants. Behind their joyful milestones is a story of loss and the selfless families who made the decision to donate their childrens organs. Shaun Evans and Raleigh Havens, now both 2 years old, were just babies when they met at Nationwide Childrens Hospital. Their hospital rooms were just doors apart. Both boys were critically ill, relying on Berlin Heart devices to keep them alive while they waited for transplants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We were very scared about what the future would hold for these kids, Raleighs mother Eva Havens said. They were both in very critical condition when we first met. The pair quickly became known to staff as the Berlin Boys, a nickname created because of the machines that sustained them for months. Holidays, birthdays and even first steps were celebrated within the hospitals walls. Through it all, the Evans and Havens families leaned on one another. We were a big source of support for each other, Shauns mother Michelle said. Within weeks of each other, the calls came: two pediatric hearts were available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was a crazy balance, Shauns father Rayshaun Evans said. Just knowing that someone had to experience that and were so grateful to our donor for the heroic act to give the gift of life. Now, a year later, the boys are thriving. Shaun and Raleigh spend time together outside of the hospital laughing, playing with toy trucks, and running Its like witnessing a miracle in real life, Havens said. From where they were to where they are now, you have to pinch yourself. While the boys continue to receive therapy and remain immunocompromised, their parents said theyve transitioned from patients to typical toddlers full of energy, attitude and joy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The families now celebrate not just birthdays but heart days, or the day they were given a second chance at life, and they will never forget the families who made that possible. Every year, well honor them, Havens said. Their decision gave our boys life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to NBC4 WCMH-TV. A column by Bloomberg columnist Tyler Cowen published about a year ago caught my eye, as do most things connected to education. It discussed the possibilities of technology in teaching that may lead to a chatbot becoming your childs new favorite teacher. It was an intriguing and thought-provoking idea written by the economics professor at George Mason University. He closes the discussion saying, Many parents will ... find it weird for their children to be so close to chatbots. Nevertheless, the friendship-first model is the most promising formula for AI-driven education, and the larger question may be not whether it will work, but how comfortable parents are with it. Yes, Professor, that will be a question. But I think the larger question is whether it will work, be foolproof, and ultimately effective. Advances in technology are fascinating, and without doubt, young people often adapt to them more easily than adults. There is great potential, but also some degree of risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AI can and will be a potent teaching tool, as were computers, cellphones, and other new technologies as they developed over the decades. But like social media, they can be very good, while also being very harmful. Have you noticed how many school communities are moving toward restricting or banning cellphones in the classroom? Or the research emerging on the mental health repercussions generated by the medium? This alarming study from MIT was reported by Andrew Chow June 17: Does ChatGPT harm critical thinking abilities? A new study from researchers at MITs Media Lab has returned some concerning results. The study divided 54 subjects 18- to 39-year-olds from the Boston area into three groups, and asked them to write several SAT essays using OpenAIs ChatGPT, Googles search engine, and nothing at all, respectively. Researchers used an EEG to record the writers brain activity across 32 regions, and found that of the three groups, ChatGPT users had the lowest brain engagement and consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. Over the course of several months, ChatGPT users got lazier with each subsequent essay, often resorting to copy-and-paste by the end of the study. Legal issues are springing up among writers whose works have been plagiarized used without permission to provide content for AI. Why? Well, we have to remember that AI doesnt really create itself it has to be imported from a human source. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Margaret Atwood, James Patterson and more than 9,000 authors signed an open letter to AI industry leaders calling for compensation and consent for use of their works, J. Siemons wrote in Bloomberg Law in 2023. The letter, organized by the Authors Guild, was delivered to Big Tech companies OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft. The letter said the companies AI products such as OpenAIs ChatGPT are trained on vast amounts of information available on the internet, including copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry that act as food for which there has been no bill, he continued. Once again, the law struggles to keep pace with the development of, and access to, new technology. In this case, the copyright laws and the whole arena of intellectual property will need to be revised to make adequate provision for artificial intelligence. Thats a chronic problem, as we know. Years ago, people thought if its in print, it must be true. Now, many consume information from the internet and assume its accurate its quite often not. For years it has been predicted that technology in its various forms will replace teachers. It seemed as if there would be considerable cost savings from building schools and maintaining a teaching workforce, and the notion has been embraced by social scientists, local officials, and conservative taxpayers alike. That is, until the pandemic struck and we discovered the downsides of remote learning: isolation, plummeting academic achievement and test scores, and mental health issues associated with a lack of social interaction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Not only do live teachers engage students more completely in learning, but the process of socialization is critical to human development. We discovered that younger students in particular reached high levels of boredom and frustration using a computer for hours on end, and many parents bitterly resented having to supervise their childrens stay-at-home learning. We discovered that teens particularly missed both the social interaction and the academic stimulation that comes with being in school. In short, replacing a teacher with a computer screen hasnt been very positive, academically or emotionally. That being said, its not fair to dismiss AI as something that cant contribute to our growing arsenal of professional and societal resources. Obviously, it is and can be. This from the New England Journal of Medicine: Artificial Intelligence (AI) has tremendous potential to advance clinical practice and the delivery of patient care. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tremendous potential, and promise and pitfalls. Its important to remember that AI is a vast source of revenue for some, and for others, its a theft of words and ideas, or unethical shortcuts: a net loss. It bears repeating that every great idea and every wonderful new technological innovation can have its downsides, abuses and misuses. It can make us more productive, but as a consequence, it can also make us lazier and cause us to lose valuable skills. Im writing this on a computer with software that informs me if Ive misspelled a word or used it incorrectly. I can send this column to my editor electronically. Thats convenient. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the ideas, and the process of assembling them still have to come from my brain, for better or worse. Its not responsible to leave childrens education primarily in the hands of artificial intelligence, or even making it their favorite teacher, without some capable adult, preferably a human teacher, watching over the learning. No doubt about it, overreliance on artificial intelligence will have damaging, shocking and frightening results on future generations without careful consideration of its use. NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) Wednesday, July 16, is National Hot Dog Day! Connecticut is home to many excellent local hot dog joints where you can celebrate the holiday, which is observed annually on the third Wednesday in July. Survey lists 3 Connecticut spots for best roller hot dog in U.S. Here are the hot dog restaurants featured on the Connecticut Hot Dog Tour, according to the Connecticut Tourism Office. Rawleys Drive-In, Fairfield Open since 1947, the restaurant has had visits from celebrity chefs Martha Stewart and Alex Guarnaschelli. Some menu items include The Works, which features mustard, relish, kraut, and bacon, and the Hot Chihuahua, with mustard, onions, and homemade hot relish. Glenwood Drive-In, Hamden Glenwood has been a family-owned and operated business for over 65 years. Their hot dogs were voted #1 in Connecticut by Connecticut Magazine, and their menu features hot dogs, lobster rolls, and freshly made onion rings. Frankies, West Haven Frankies is known for their famous foot-long hot dog and has six locations across Connecticut. Blackies Hot Dogs, Cheshire Open for almost 100 years, the family-owned restaurant is known for its hot dogs and their famous homemade hot pepper relish. Capitol Lunch, New Britain Also open for nearly 100 years, this New Britain spot is a staple in the area. They are known for their signature meat sauce. Super Duper Weenie, Fairfield Their hot dogs are split and grilled, laid into a fresh-baked roll and slathered with homemade relishes and high-quality toppings. Top Dog, Portland This wiener-shaped cart offers a variety of frankfurter options inspired by different regions, including Poland, Italy, and Louisiana. Check out the menu here. Jakes Diggity Dogs, New Haven Also known for foot-long hot dogs, Jakes Diggity Dogs offers 34 different toppings, including 10 mustards and four relishes. Rileys Hot Dog, New Britain Rileys calls their hot dogs and hamburgers gourmet and was established in 2010 with a hot dog cart on South Street. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. TOPEKA (KSNT) Topeka police are launching a new homicide investigation after an older local man was found dead Tuesday evening. The Topeka Police Department (TPD) delivered remarks during a live meeting at 11:15 a.m. on July 16 at the Law Enforcement Center for a recent suspicious death investigation. Law enforcement updated the community after the TPD found a dead man inside of a vehicle near the Central Park Community Center. Police said during the meeting the victim was identified as Terry Keller, 72, of Topeka. His death is under investigation as a homicide and law enforcement is asking for people to help find who is responsible for the killing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers patrolling in the 1500 block of Southwest Clay Street came across a vehicle near the community center around 6:45 p.m. on July 15. Police found one man inside, later identified as Keller, dead. If you have information to share with police regarding this investigation, call 785-368-9400 or send an email to telltpd@topeka.org. You can send in anonymous tips to law enforcement by contacting Shawnee County Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007 or by clicking here. Man sentenced for raping, killing Topeka five-year-old girl in 2023 For more crime news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. TOPEKA (KSNT) Police are launching a suspicious death investigation this week after finding a dead person in a vehicle near a Topeka community center. The Topeka Police Department (TPD) announced in a press release that officers on patrol around 6:45 p.m. on July 15 came across a suspicious vehicle in the 1500 block of Southwest Clay Street near the Central Park Community Center. Officers found a dead man inside the vehicle. The TPD said the investigation into the incident is ongoing. More information will be added to this story or a later article as it becomes available. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you have information to share with police regarding this investigation, call 785-368-9400 or send an email to telltpd@topeka.org. You can send in anonymous tips to law enforcement by contacting Shawnee County Crime Stoppers at 785-234-0007 or by clicking here. Man sentenced for raping, killing Topeka five-year-old girl in 2023 For more crime news, click here. Keep up with the latest breaking news in northeast Kansas by downloading our mobile app and by signing up for our news email alerts. Sign up for our Storm Track Weather app by clicking here. Follow Matthew Self on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MatthewLeoSelf Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSNT 27 News. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) With the massive amounts of flooding happening in San Angelo, fields that are for agriculture have been left with denitrification as a result of being underwater for days. Denitrification, as described by Geeks for Geeks, is a microbial process where bacteria convert nitrate and nitrite into nitrogen gases, such as nitrous oxide and nitrogen gas, under anaerobic conditions. The concentrated nitrogen gas has caused problems for the crops, along with them washing away or the soil being cracked from fast moving waters. Although it is a natural process, denitrification can be harmful to the soil because it will leave it without the proper amount of nitrate. This can lead to stagnation and the plant not growing properly. Although, according to farmers, it could lead to a high cotton crop yield if properly managed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement San Angelos fields are currently going through denitrification and cracking soil. Included will be a photo gallery of San Angelos affected area for viewing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. Tourists and locals have been evacuated on Icelands Reykjanes Peninsula after the twelfth volcanic eruption in the region since 2021. The eruption began around 4 am on Wednesday following an intense seismic swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, Icelands Met Office (IMO) said. Magma pushed up through the Earths crust, opening a fissure near Sundhnukur crater, thought to be between 700 and 1,000 metres long. A view of the volcanic eruption by the Sundhnukagigjaro iur volcano, in Grindavik, Iceland. - Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management via AP It belched columns of smoke into the air, and dramatic lava flows can be seen in images of the eruption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday evening, the IMO said that while the eruption at Sundhnuksgigar fissure continued, seismic activity had decreased since the morning. The biggest threat to inhabited areas is now from gas emissions and wildfires, which are contributing to local air pollution. Related It comes after an eruption in April this year breached protective barriers near the fishing town of Grindavik, causing emergency services to evacuate residents and tourists staying at the Blue Lagoon Spa. Tourists and residents evacuated Lava is flowing to the southeast, meaning the eruption doesnt threaten any infrastructure at this time, the IMO said in a statement, and there is currently no threat to populated areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Based on GPS measurements and deformation signals, it is likely that this was a relatively small eruption. Despite this, civil defence teams evacuated people from nearby sites as a precaution. Around 100 residents were cleared from the town of Grindavik. Due to ongoing volcanic activity, the town has remained mostly deserted since its nearly 4,000 residents were evacuated in 2023. Tourists were also evacuated from a campsite in Grindavik and the Blue Lagoon - a five-star hotel resort famous for its geothermal spa, according to Icelands public broadcaster RUV. Margret Kristin Palsdottir, a local police commissioner, said the evacuation went smoothly and lasted about 90 minutes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of course, people have different opinions on whether the evacuation is necessary, but it is a decision we make and take responsibility for, she said. The police commissioner also added that some tourists had been prevented from entering the area. "Of course, we understand that this is a fascinating event, especially for tourists who are not as accustomed to it as we are." Residents of Grindavik were allowed back into the town on Wednesday evening. The Blue Lagoon and Northern Light Inn have reopened, but tourists and the general public are not permitted to enter Grindavik. Have flights been impacted by the eruption? Flights at the nearby Keflavik airport in the capital of Reykjavik have not been impacted by the volcanic eruption. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With 33 active volcanic systems, Iceland is often referred to as the land of ice and fire. It has recorded a dozen volcanic eruptions since geological systems on its Reykjanes Peninsula reactivated four years ago after an 800-year dormancy. A view of the volcanic eruption by the Sundhnukagigjaro iur volcano, in Grindavik, Iceland on Wednesday 16 July. - Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management via AP Experts say these eruptions in the area could continue for decades or even centuries as part of a new volcanic cycle. Related Unlike the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which grounded planes across Northern Europe for almost a week, this recent string of eruptions on Icelands Reykjanes Peninsula has not ejected large volumes of ash into the stratosphere. This means that air traffic hasnt been disrupted. Volcanic ash is dangerous for aeroplanes because it can cause engine failure and damage to various important aircraft components. SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) Nearly two weeks after devastating floodwaters swept through parts of San Angelo, many homes remain in disrepair, and a local effort led by Toys for Tots and Little Ds Junk Removal is helping families dig outone load at a time. GypC Serna, coordinator for Marine Corps Toys for Tots, said the response started the weekend after the Fourth of July when she and Daniel Perez of Little Ds Junk Removal decided to act. I got a phone call right after the Fourth, the weekend of the Fourth, and Daniel came up with an idea of, hey, can we get some people together and kind of pull together and try to help these folks get some of their stuff out of the home? Because it was already bad, Serna said. So weve been at this now. This is week number two. With the help of volunteers and a trailer provided by Perez, the team has been removing waterlogged carpet, debris, and ruined belongings from homes across San Angelo. Each cleanup begins with documentationphotos and FEMA informationensuring residents are ready for assistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group has helped clear many homes, often spending several hours at each location. The most we hit in one day was six homes, and the least we hit was three homes because it took us more than three and a half hours per home, Serna said. What they discovered along the way was unexpected: Were dealing with a lot oftheres a lot of retirees in this community, and what weve run into and noticed the mostnot because were asking the question, but just in talking to these folksthe majority of the homes that weve been at have been veteran-owned homes. Many of the residents they assist are elderly, disabled, or alone. This morning, where youre at with us today. This is also a disabled veteran, actually, that you know, Air Force veteran, and its just he and his wife, and theyre elderly, and so they need some help, she said. The work is grueling but rewarding. Theres people that are either missing one of their significant other or theyre unable, as far as health-wise. And its just sad. Its very sad. So thats where we come in, and we take that burden off of them and we take over, and when we leave, its a smile on their face. And thats our goal. Just want to make sure, you know, we can turn something, you know, make a difference. Make a difference. Thats our goal, explained Perez. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The effort is fueled by volunteersmany of whom are veterans themselvesand community members who bring meals, supplies, and support. Its a God, collaboration, were notyou know, it doesnt have to be about religion, doesnt have to be about people or places or organizations or anything like thatthis just has to be about one human to another, Serna said. But the work hasnt been without its challenges. Toys for Tots own storage facility was damaged in the flood, and Serna said they are now searching for a new space to safely store this years donated toys. Despite everything, they remain committed to helping. Were going to continue to do this for however long we can, Serna said. This is not a one-and-done kind of thing. Anyone in need of helpor willing to volunteer for the physical laboris encouraged to call 325-277-1569. If you want to help with that and you can, please call us. We know theres a lot of students out there right now, still summer break so we could use your help, Serna added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As she put it: Were here. San Angelo strong. Were going to keep at it for as long as we can. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ConchoValleyHomepage.com. Five years after the death of civil rights icon John Lewis, protesters are set to gather at more than 400 rallies across the nation, including in Lincoln, to honor the activist's legacy of "good trouble." Lincoln's "Good Trouble Lives On" protest is set for Thursday from 5-7 p.m. Protesters will gather on the sidewalks at South 11th and O streets and expand east as necessary. John Lewis served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th Congressional District from 1987 until his death in 2020. Lewis famously called on the American people to defend their civil rights by encouraging them to engage in "good trouble." Over time, the phrase has come to represent nonviolent action that challenges injustice in an effort to create change. The 50501 Movement and Indivisible, national grassroots organizations that have galvanized protests against President Donald Trump, are organizing the rallies. Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln, the Capital City chapter's national group, is comprised of volunteers. "We are a group that has come together to reject the authoritarianism that has been happening and fight for our democracy," said Carey Nesmith, chair of Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln. "We feel like President Trump has gone way too far." Nesmith, a pediatrician and former foster parent, said she began looking for ways to take action because she feared a Trump presidency would jeopardize the federal benefits the 11-year-old girl she recently adopted relies on because she has a medical condition. She searched for a nonpartisan and peaceful activist group that also had a national standing, which led her to join Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln. "My goal was to do anything I could to fight for our democracy, and that's how I found Indivisible," Nesmith said. Nesmith has also been motivated to act by one of her previous foster children, a 17-year-old Hispanic teen. Last year, the young man left Nebraska and was sent to live with a family in Los Angeles. He recently reached out to Nesmith and shared that he has been unable to leave his home on many occasions due to recent ICE raids. The boy was born in the United States, but he still fears he will become a target because of his ethnicity. "He's supposed to be attending high school this fall, but who knows if that will happen," Nesmith said. "He is not a criminal. He's a great kid who should be going to school, doing normal activities and focusing on growing up, not getting kidnapped off the streets of his own country." Indivisible organized the No Kings protests that were held throughout the United States on June 14, just over a week after mass ICE raids were conducted in Los Angeles. The rally also coincided with a military parade to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, which fell on Trump's birthday. In organizing its own No Kings rally along O Street in downtown Lincoln, Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln notified the Lincoln Police Department and received guidance on how to keep the event peaceful and safe. They have done the same for Thursday's planned rally. Nesmith was pleased with how the No Kings rally turned out. Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln aimed to bring in about 500 people but more than 1,000 people stood on the sidewalks of O Street that morning. The "Good Trouble" protest organizers hope the upcoming rally has the same level of engagement. A week out from the event, almost 100 people have registered to attend. Protests are only a small part of Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln's efforts. On a daily basis, the organization spreads information about voter registration and advocates to protect immigrants, education, voter rights and programs such as Medicaid and food aid. "Our protests are to get people motivated and to get people involved, but our real task is day-to-day advocacy," Nesmith said. The protests are also an opportunity for Indivisible Nebraska Lincoln to gain new members. Before the No Kings rally, the organization had 150 members. After the event, the group has grown to 200 members and gained an increased following on social media. "Good Trouble Lives On" events will be held throughout the state, with demonstrations taking place in Lincoln, Omaha, Chadron, Norfolk, Hastings and Kearney. "John Lewis taught that we cannot wait for permission to fight for our rights and to fight for the things we believe are important," Nesmith said. "We are not going to be silent. We are going to continue to stand up nonviolently. We are hopeful that we will have change." New developments Tuesday reinforced the idea that President Donald Trump has significantly shifted his view of the Ukraine war. But his short time horizons and lack of specificity on what exactly he will do for Ukraine, which are hallmarks of his leadership, mean the most critical factor preventing an end to the conflict will remain unchanged. There is little reason to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin will change his own calculations on a war he sees as a historic imperative and that may be existential for him politically. Still, some things have undeniably changed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Worst-case scenarios for what the first six months of Trumps second term could mean for Ukraine didnt come to pass. This assessment excludes the Ukrainian civilians killed in Russias recent deadly escalation of drones and missile strikes, including on apartment blocks. But Trump hasnt folded to his erstwhile friend Putin. Hes not left Europe in the lurch under the shadow of an increasingly expansionist Russia amid the continents worst land war since World War II. Trump seems more warmly disposed toward NATO than he has been for years. Ukrainian flags and portraits of soldiers are seen at a memorial for fallen fighters in Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14. - Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images Ukraine faces the possibility of losing territory to a Russian summer offensive and more horror that civilians must bear. But diplomatically, its in a more favorable position with the Trump administration than anyone could have dared hope when President Volodymyr Zelensky got an Oval Office dressing-down in February. That means its hopes of surviving as an independent, sovereign state have improved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps hostility toward Kyiv and misgivings about pumping US aid into a World War I-style quagmire might mostly be motivated by his dismay that Putin snubbed his peace plans, which were slanted toward the Kremlin. But he at least has now shed some misconceptions that by force of personality alone he can bend Putin to his will. And by promising Patriot missiles to Kyiv which Trump said on Tuesday are already being shipped and being open to a new Russia sanctions push in Congress, hes added steel to American peacemaking. Trying to coerce Putin to the table may not work either. But at least Trump isnt giving Ukraine away. A recalibration of expectations Trumps shift will allow all sides to recalibrate to new realities. Although, as CNNs Matthew Chance pointed out, Trumps 50-day deadline for Moscow to talk peace offers a seven-week window for the cynics in Moscow to lock in as many gains as possible by raining fire and death on Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, Trump has given himself some time to decide where he wants to go on Ukraine. And NATO states can enhance their own utility to Trump following a successful alliance summit. Zelensky can try to build more goodwill with Trump to shape his approach to any future peace deals though his experience in the Oval Office is a warning not to try to push the president too far. And while the caveats about Putin being willing to wage indefinite war still apply, theres a small chance a few more weeks will persuade Putin to contemplate a US off-ramp to a deal likely to hand him territory hes seized in the three-year war and that he could spin as a win for Russian pride and security as well as a rebuke to the West. Trump appeared optimistic Tuesday as he defended the ultimatums timeline. A lot of opinions change very rapidly might not be 50 days, might be much sooner than 50 days, the president said. How long will Trumps new outlook last? It would be unwise to assume Trumps estrangement with Putin is permanent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His anger seems mostly born of disappointment that Putin has not delivered him a win with a peace deal that might yield a Nobel Prize rather than any deep sentimental or geopolitical concern for the implications of abandoning Ukraine. And, as usual, the president has tempered previous vehement criticism of the Russian leader. After slamming Putins bullsh*t last week, Trump on Monday told the BBC: Im not done with him. Trump is transactional, operates in short windows of time and constantly seeks to land minor wins he can highlight. So, if he turned around and said he was meeting Putin in a summit next month or got mad at a new perceived slight from Zelensky, no one would be surprised. My concern here is that Donald Trump has the ability to be swayed very quickly, said Sabrina Singh, a former Pentagon deputy press secretary who is now a CNN global affairs commentator. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I fear that its only a matter of time until theres another call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin where Putin gives some sort of concessions and says well give a temporary five-day ceasefire and then turns around and says well, Ukraine violated this ceasefire so were going to continue on with our war, Singh said on CNN News Central. Still, Trumps change of position is significant. By following through on his vow to send top of the line weapons to Ukraine quickly, he is taking a big step. Patriot anti-missile defense systems could save many civilian lives, but Trump is embracing a political risk in ditching campaign-trail skepticism toward Ukraine shared by many MAGA supporters. A US Army commander discusses Patriot battery readiness with soldiers assigned to an Air Defense Artillery Regiment on February 19. - Staff Sgt. Clara Harty/US Army Trump has also shown more openness to sanctions. Trade between the US and Russia is minuscule at this point, so bilateral punishments wont mean much. But if Trump does make good on a threat to impose secondary sanctions on nations that buy Russian products, especially energy exports, he could choke Moscows economy and war machine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, would he really target India and China two leading purchasers of Russian goods, in a move that could severely disrupt US relations with those giant powers and throw the global economy into turmoil? His erratic history of imposing and then suspending tariffs as part of his global trade war suggests not. Moscow may be banking on it. It also matters what, if any, additional weapons Trump may send to Ukraine. Its most optimistic supporters were delighted on Tuesday when the Financial Times first reported that the president had asked Zelensky in a phone call about Kyivs capacity to target both Moscow and St. Petersburg. But Trump toned down the speculation on Tuesday, although aides told CNN that he has not ruled out shipping certain categories of offensive weapons to Ukraine that hes so far been unwilling to provide. No, he shouldnt target Moscow, Trump told reporters, referring to Zelensky. Im on nobodys side. You know whose side Im on? Humanitys side. Though hed likely not admit it, the president is in a similar spot to one long occupied by his predecessor President Joe Biden. Hes considering how far he can push Putin while avoiding inflammatory steps that might cross his invisible red lines and widen the war. NATO basks in Trumps rare praise Trumps new tolerance and even appreciation for NATO follows genuine fears that his new term might trigger the political earthquake of a US withdrawal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Credit goes to quiet diplomacy by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, whove worked on Trump and counseled Zelensky on how to approach the US in recent months. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, meanwhile, choreographed an alliance summit in the Netherlands last month that delivered a political triumph for the president. An agreement that NATO states would spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035 allowed Trump to argue hed forced Europe to get serious about protecting itself and alleviating the burden on the US. Alongside Rutte in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump praised Europes spirit for the war in Ukraine, adding, Ultimately, having a strong Europe is a very good thing its a very good thing. Now, NATO has solved another political problem for the president. Its effectively being used as a front for him to send Patriot missiles to Kyiv. European nations are sending the batteries to Kyiv, after which US NATO allies will buy replacements from the US. President Donald Trump, right, shakes the hand of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Monday. - Evan Vucci/AP Rutte portrayed this diplomatic ballet as another win for Trump. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr. President, dear Donald, this is really big, this is really big, Rutte said, using characteristic praise that comes across as sycophancy to many but that Trump takes at face value. You called me on Thursday, that you had taken a decision, and a decision is that you want Ukraine (to have) what it needs to have to maintain to be able to defend itself against Russia but you do want the Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical, Rutte said. The NATO conduit offers at least symbolic distance for Trump as he sends weapons to Ukraine for use in a war against Russia. It allows some level of plausible deniability if MAGA activists disapprove. And it satisfies Trumps obsession with driving a good financial deal. Expect to hear him argue hes secured new sales and even jobs for US defense workers. The promise that other offensive weapons could also get to Ukraine using the same route is unspecific, however. Its not clear whether Ukraine will get weapons that will enable it to make battlefield advances against Russia. And its unlikely that any US assistance will mirror the vast packages of military assistance and aid that were approved by Congress in the Biden administration. New moves in Congress The atmosphere on Capitol Hill is also changing. A drive to sanction Russia more severely already had strong bipartisan support in the Senate, and Trump has shown he can muster majorities in the House for his priorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham and his Democratic co-sponsor Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Monday that their bill could be a real executive hammer to isolate Russia. But the measure could still stir dissent in the GOP base at a time when Trump is already upsetting some supporters over the Jeffrey Epstein case. Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who opposes more aid to Ukraine, said Tuesday he doesnt see an urgent need for a bill now that Trump has threatened to impose sanctions on Russia and even secondary punishments on India and China. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul blasted the initiative as one of the most dangerous bills ever to come before the Senate. He predicted a total cut-off of trade with China, India and Turkey if they were to be hit by US punishments. So the domestic politics of Trumps Ukraine shift are not yet fully settled. And neither, really, is the geopolitical situation. Trump has adopted a tougher policy toward Putin, but its not definitive or guaranteed to last. The extent of future US military support for Ukraine remains unclear, even if Kyivs government is in better standing with the president than ever before. And European NATO states can breathe a sigh of relief about Trump, but his trade war threats have caused a deep transatlantic rift. All of this means that Putins key calculation all along that he can outlast the West on the war in Ukraine seems unlikely to significantly shift. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com He wept and prayed as the guard shaved his head, calling for his mother and proclaiming his innocence. Just a few months earlier, Andry Jose Hernandez Romero had applied for asylum, citing the conditions he faced as a gay man and political dissident in Venezuela, a country that the U.S. government and its allies all deem to be an authoritarian, repressive threat to its own citizens. But now he was just a warm body to be paraded before the cameras just content to be clicked or scrolled past on someones phone. To his family, Andry was an actor, hair stylist and loving son, his dedication to mom and dad tattooed on his arms. To the Trump administration, he was an object that could be used in an ongoing, callous propaganda campaign, his brutalization serving as an advertisement for the presidents war on immigration. His very devotion to his family was used against him, his tattoos reinterpreted as evidence of loyalty to a gang, Tren de Aragua, that does not use tattoos to signify membership. The stated objective, per the Department of Homeland Security, is for the 32-year-old asylum-seeker to spend the rest of his life behind bars in a fortress-prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where inmates packed in cages are subject to beatings, severe deprivation, inadequate nutrition and psychological torture, according to the only detainee ever known to have escaped its confines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He would tell me that hes going to help us and that he would make his dream come true to have his own salon, Andrys mother, Alexis Romero, said in a recent interview. And they thwarted all of that. They stepped on him, ran him over, completely shut down his dream. Now what is my boy going to do? Melissa Shepard, legal services director at Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told Salon that her organization began representing Andry on a pro bono basis in December 2024. At the time he was being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center, a privately-run prison along the U.S.-Mexico border. He had applied for asylum the right way by scheduling an appointment and presenting himself at a port of entry and yet was languishing behind bars. In March 2025, seemingly out of nowhere, it got so much worse. We say disappeared disappeared to El Salvador, because thats essentially what it is, Shepard said in an interview. No one has spoken to Andry since March 14; not his family, not his legal team. In the four months since he was labeled a criminal and sentenced to de facto life in prison, without charge or trial or indeed anything approaching due process, the only evidence that he is in El Salvador are the images of him being abused the day that he arrived. The U.S. government has refused to release the names of the people it sent to CECOT, claiming they are now wards of El Salvador, even after it begrudgingly had Kilmar Abrego Garcia returned to the U.S. for a face-saving prosecution; in turn, El Salvador has insisted the 238 Venezuelans we know were sent to CECOT are indeed the responsibility of the Trump administration. We have not been able to speak with him or essentially just have any communication with him, and that has been troubling. And actually the only way that we definitively know that he was sent to the prison in El Salvador was because of the Time photographer who was there when the men first arrived, Shepard said. Still, to this day, the government has not provided any concrete evidence as to why he was specifically taken, she said, adding: I think, unfortunately, he probably just fit the profile of a young Venezuelan man who had some tattoos that they could use for this, essentially, mass propaganda. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If Andry has not been heard or seen in over four months, how then do we know that hes even still alive? We dont. At a congressional hearing in May, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., pressed DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for a sign of life. Would you commit to just letting his mother know, as a mother to mother, if Andry is alive? Garcia asked. Noem, who had flown to El Salvador to pose for a photo in front of caged men at CECOT, professed ignorance (I dont know the specifics of this individual case) and forswore responsibility (This individual is in El Salvador, so take it up with them). Garcia, now the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, then took the matter up with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In a June 9 letter, Garcia, joined by four dozen other Democrats, asked for U.S. diplomats to conduct a wellness check on Mr. Hernandez Romero, noting that his own mother and father do not know whether their son is even alive and healthy because of the actions of the United States government. Garcias office told Salon that it has received no updates. A spokesperson for the State Department also declined to say whether Andry is alive and well: As a general matter, we do not comment on congressional correspondence or on private diplomatic discussions, and have nothing further to share at this time. Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course. What else can you call it? On March 14, 2025, Andry Jose Hernandez Romero was disappeared by the U.S. government, which is content by its own avowals to see him die in a foreign prison, even as it refuses to confirm that he is there or not dead already. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For immigrants, especially, the worst-case scenario is not a hypothetical: In a Sisyphean effort to roll back decades of demographic change and make America whiter again, the present administration has turned the dull machinery of mass deportation against innocent men, women and children, and sought to make the very act of seeking asylum a crime punishable by torture, if not death. Imitations of CECOT are now being constructed in the U.S. itself, Republicans in Congress now allotting more money to a deportation machine, a lawless regime at its helm, than most countries spend on their entire military, with heavily armed soldiers in the streets of American cities helping masked agents whisk away thousands of people every week, some never heard from again. That the purpose is crude manufacturing B-roll of maltreated foreigners for right-wing media should not distract from the enormous evil that is here, today, threatening the rights of all. Donald Trump has exploited a deep sickness in American society, where ennui is now being treated, and white racial resentment fed, with the spectacle of mass dehumanization. It is happening here already, just six months into the second time around, and it will metastasize before it ever contracts. What were seeing now is just a cruel, cruel agenda being carried out, Shepard said, [and] I think it is much bigger than just trying to remove or deter people from coming to the United States. The post Trump admin disappeared a gay stylist for propaganda. He hasnt been heard from since appeared first on Salon.com. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is directing attorneys to no longer allow bond hearings for those in the U.S. illegally, forcing them to remain in detention while fighting their deportation. A new memo, confirmed by the agency and the Department of Homeland Security, said migrants should be detained for the duration of their removal proceedings, a process that can take months or years. Immigrants typically can move to be released on bond if they are not determined to be a public safety threat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A new memo from acting ICE Director Todd Lyons would largely end that practice, likely swelling the number of people held in detention centers as the Trump administration ramps up enforcement and targets more long-term residents. An ICE spokesperson framed the memo as clos[ing] a loophole to our nations security based on an inaccurate interpretation of the statute. The Washington Post first reported the memo. The move comes as the so-called Big, Beautiful Bill sets aside $45 billion in new funding to more than double current detention capacity, allowing the U.S. to hold more than 100,000 people in immigration detention. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Department of Homeland Security referenced the funding in the bill as aiding their efforts to detain those fighting their deportation implying without evidence that all those held without bond have criminal backgrounds. Politicians and activists can cry wolf all they want, but it wont deter this administration from keeping these criminals and lawbreakers off American streetsand now thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill, we will have plenty of bed space to do so, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A couple of years ago, Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Donald Trump, caused a kerfuffle by erroneously reporting that his boss had bought a Glock pistol while visiting a gun store in Summerville, South Carolina. That claim was striking because it implicated Trump, who was then seeking the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination, in a federal crime: Since he was under indictment in state and federal court, he was barred from buying firearms. But even if Trump had not faced felony charges, the transaction that Cheung described would have been illegal because of federal restrictions on interstate handgun purchases. As a resident of Florida, Trump would not have been allowed to directly buy a pistol from a South Carolina gun dealer. Instead, he would have had to arrange and pay for shipment of the weapon to a licensed dealer in Florida, who could have completed the transaction there, typically in exchange for an additional fee. A lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas takes aim at that rule, arguing that it is inconsistent with the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) says the ban on interstate handgun sales fails the constitutional test that the Supreme Court established in the 2022 case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. As president, Trump now controls the nation's vast military might, including its nuclear arsenal. But because the dubious New York case against him resulted in felony convictions, he is not allowed to possess firearms, let alone buy new ones. And even if his convictions are overturned on appeal, he still won't be allowed to buy a handgun in South Carolina or any other state he might visit. His administration, which is avowedly committed to protecting Second Amendment rights, nevertheless is defending that restriction against the FPC's challenge, saying it "serves legitimate objectives" and "only modestly burdens the right to keep and bear arms." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That argument sounds suspiciously like the sort of "interest balancing" that the Supreme Court emphatically rejected in Bruen. When a gun restriction affects conduct covered by "the Second Amendment's plain text," the Court said in that case, the government has the burden of demonstrating that it is "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." That test typically requires identifying historical analogs that are "relevantly similar" in motivation and scope to a challenged law. The government's lawyers concede that the ban on interstate handgun sales "unquestionably burdens the fundamental right to keep and bear arms." But they argue that it "aligns with the nation's regulatory tradition," citing several historical precedents that the FPC describes as irrelevant or inadequate. The government presents the ban at issue in this case, which stems from legislation that Congress approved in 1968, as a sensible safeguard aimed at preventing the sale of handguns to potentially dangerous individuals who are not legally allowed to possess them. On the face of it, that rationale does not make much sense. The plaintiffs in this case include Elite Precision Customs, a gun dealer in Mansfield, Texas, and two would-be customers of that business, both of whom are firearms instructors who conduct classes across the country: Tim Herron, who lives in New Mexico, and Freddie Blish, who lives in Arizona. If Herron and Blish were allowed to buy handguns directly from Elite Precision Customs, they would still have to complete the forms and background checks required by federal law, which aim to prevent firearm purchases by disqualified buyers. Making Herron and Blish go through that process in their home states after the Texas gun store ships their purchases there does not provide any obvious public safety benefit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In practice, that requirement merely imposes time and monetary costs on law-abiding gun buyers. It also impedes interstate competition in handgun sales, to the advantage of in-state firearm dealers. "The upshot of these restrictions," the FPC says, "is that a peaceable American who is not disqualified from owning firearms is nevertheless proscribed from purchasing a handgun unless he is in the state where he resides and, when traveling within the country, can only purchase a handgun from a dealer in another state if he is able to arrange and pay for the out-of-state retailer to ship the handgun to a licensed in-state retailer that can, finally, complete the sale. But this effectively gives in-state dealers a veto on the ability of residents of their state to take their business to another state and buy firearms from competitors elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, this manifests functionally as both a logistical and a monetary tax on the right to keep and bear arms, as not all retailers will agree to perform interstate transfer services, and those that do typically charge a significant fee for the privilege." In seeking dismissal of this lawsuit, the FPC notes, the government "repeatedly stresses" its view that these rules amount to "only a minor limitation" on the right to arms. But "the Supreme Court has foreclosed exactly that type of argument," the FPC says in its opposing brief. "Only history can excuse the Government's regulation of the right to acquire handguns from licensed dealers, and history does no such thing." The government says the ban on interstate handgun sales is consistent with "a historical tradition from England, the colonies, and the Founding of government regulation, including commercial regulation, to ensure only law-abiding citizens obtained and possessed firearms" and "to keep potentially dangerous individuals from obtaining them." But as the FPC notes, most of the government's historical examples are far afield from the restriction at issue here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perhaps the closest analog cited by the government is a 1776 Maryland law that it says "bann[ed] the export of all firearms unless the owner was permanently relocating outside the jurisdiction." But that law, the FPC says, was "a wartime measure that on its face evinces its concern with ensuring that there were enough firearms in Maryland to carry out the Revolutionary War." That motivation is quite different from the goal that the government says is served by prohibiting interstate handgun sales. The government also cites four examples of restrictions on intercolonial transfers of firearms. In each case, the FPC questions the law's relevance and/or the government's characterization of it. The FPC also notes that the laws span a period from 1642 to 1677. "None were enacted within 100 years of the Second Amendment's ratification," it says, "and every one of them predates even the English Bill of Rights' more limited guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms." That "timing problem," the FPC argues, would make these laws unreliable as evidence of what the Second Amendment allows even if the government's description of them were completely accurate. "Far from showing that the American people have historically accepted limitations on the right to purchase firearms across state lines as a means to advance the goal of keeping prohibited persons from acquiring firearms," the FPC concludes, "the Government's evidence demonstrates that to the extent any such laws existed at the Founding, they were much more limited wartime measures passed during the exigencies of the Revolutionary War and that even going back to the early colonial period, before there was a national union, there were few, if any, restrictions that resembled the Ban. The Government has therefore failed to carry its historical burden, and the Ban must be held unconstitutional." The post The Trump Administration Defends the Federal Ban on Interstate Handgun Sales appeared first on Reason.com. Donald Trumps administration has resumed a policy of deporting immigrant detainees to so-called third countries, starting with the tiny African nation of Eswatini. But Tuesdays removals of five detained immigrants surprised diplomats who only heard about the flight from social media, The Independent has learned. Government officials in Eswatini say they intend to send those detainees back to their countries of origin which the Trump administration says cant happen. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eswatinis government is now working with the United Nations to send the men who originally hail from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen back to their home countries, despite the Department of Homeland Security labelling them depraved monsters who are so uniquely barbaric that those countries wont accept them. The men allegedly have criminal convictions on murder, sexual assault and robbery charges, among others, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Two men received 20-year prison sentences, and another received a prison sentence of 25 years, according to the agency. The Trump administration has deported five people with criminal records to Eswatini, catching U.S. diplomats for the tiny African nation by surprise (AFP via Getty Images) The Trump administration has deported five people with criminal records to Eswatini, catching U.S. diplomats for the tiny African nation by surprise (AFP via Getty Images) But the Eswatini government says the men will be repatriated to their respective countries and that the United Nations International Organization for Migration is working with Eswatini to facilitate the transit of these inmates to their countries of origin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It remains unclear whether those men will remain incarcerated in Eswatini despite their lengthy prison sentences, or if they will walk free once they are no longer in the governments custody or the custody of their home countries. Eswatinis acting government spokesperson Thabile Mdluli said the men have been sent to correctional facilities within isolated units where similar offenders are kept. As a responsible member of the global community, the Kingdom of Eswatini adheres to international agreements and diplomatic protocols regarding the repatriation of individuals, ensuring that due process and respect for human rights is followed, Mdluli said. A representative from the Embassy of Eswatini in Washington, D.C., told The Independent that officials at the embassy had only learned about the removal flight from social media posts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State Department and Homeland Security did not contact the embassy about the removal, a representative said. We didnt even know we were on the list for third-country removals, she added. The embassy has requested information about the deportees from Eswatinis government. Homeland Securitys social media posts included mug shots of the men and what officials said are their criminal records and sentences. The men were not named. The Independent has requested additional comment from Homeland Security, the State Department and the U.S. embassy in Eswatini. King Mswati III has ruled Eswatini for nearly 40 years as human rights groups warn of antidemocratic threats from the government and allegations of torture and abuse in detention (AP) King Mswati III has ruled Eswatini for nearly 40 years as human rights groups warn of antidemocratic threats from the government and allegations of torture and abuse in detention (AP) Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a land-locked nation of roughly 1.2 million people, bordered by South Africa on virtually all sides (Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images) Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a land-locked nation of roughly 1.2 million people, bordered by South Africa on virtually all sides (Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a land-locked nation of roughly 1.2 million people, bordered by South Africa on virtually all sides and by the southern tip of Mozambique to the east. Its government is the last absolute monarchy on the continent; King Mswati III has ruled over the nation for nearly 40 years, and political parties are prohibited from running in elections for Eswatinis House of Assembly and Senate. Dozens were killed in pro-democracy uprisings in 2021, and political dissent in the country has been crushed, according to advocacy groups. The government has failed to investigate extrajudicial killings, journalists and dissidents face threats of arbitrary arrests and detentions, and detainees there were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, according to Amnesty International. The State Department tells travelers to exercise increased caution in Eswatini due to crime and civil unrest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Eswatini removal flight appears to be the first third-country deportation after Immigration and Customs Enforcement told officials that immigrants can be deported from the United States to countries other than their own with as little as six hours notice or no notice at all. The memo from ICE acting director Todd Lyons follows a recent Supreme Court decision that opens the door for officials to send deportees to countries where they do not have citizenship, family or any other connections. Immigrants sent to countries where foreign officials have not provided the United States with diplomatic assurances that they wont face torture or human rights abuses must be provided 24 hours notice, the memo says. Or, in exigent circumstances, only six hours notice. Countries that do provide those assurances could be deported without any advance notice, according to the memo. If the State Department believes those assurances are credible, then ICE may deport someone to that country without the need for further procedures. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has approved a plan to deport immigrants from the United States to third countries where they do not have citizenship or other legal status, with as little as six hours notice (REUTERS) Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has approved a plan to deport immigrants from the United States to third countries where they do not have citizenship or other legal status, with as little as six hours notice (REUTERS) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, lawyers for a group of immigrants filed a lawsuit arguing that the government violated federal law by failing to let them challenge their removal to countries where they could be harmed or killed. Massachusetts District Judge Brian Murphy ordered the government to give those men meaningful notice and opportunity to challenge their deportation orders. But on June 23, the Supreme Courts conservative majority blocked the judges decision, giving the administration the greenlight to send those men to war-torn South Sudan. South Sudans government said the men, all of whom were convicted of crimes in the United States, were under the care of the relevant authorities but did not disclose their whereabouts, condition or what will happen to them. None of their family members have heard from them since they arrived there, according to attorneys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The administration is reportedly negotiating similar deportation plans with several other countries. Since taking office, the Trump administration has held hundreds of immigrants at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and deported dozens of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a brutal maximum-security prison in El Salvador, marking the administrations first such arrangement of third-country removals. Court documents revealed El Salvadors government told the United Nations that deportees held inside that country are the responsibility of the U.S. government contradicting statements from Trump administration officials. A group hired by the U.N. has also accused the administration of state-sponsored enforced disappearances. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building pictured on Nov. 25, 2024. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom) Federal funds for adult education services were among those blocked by the Trump administration on July 1, causing immediate cuts to Alaska adult education and workforce development programs and staff layoffs. The U.S. Department of Education has withheld more than $6 billion in congressionally approved grants for education, including over $629 million for adult education basic grants, and more than $85 million in adult integrated English literacy and civics education grants. The administration has said that its withholding the federal funding to review the grant programs to ensure they align with the Republican presidents priorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Adult education can range from classes that help adults learn basic literacy to programs that assist students in gaining certificates equivalent to high school diplomas, and can teach skills that are essential to performing certain jobs. Alaska had over $1.1 million allocated as part of an adult education basic grant, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, which administers the grants. A department spokesperson said on Tuesday the grant amounts for English literacy and civics education this year were not available, but the state received more than $99,600 last year. The withheld funds means immediate cuts to services for Alaska adult learners and staff layoffs, according to grant recipients. We were definitely blindsided, said Lucie Magrath, executive director of the Literacy Council of Alaska, a Fairbanks-based nonprofit that provides adult education programs, including adult literacy, English language learning, civics and General Educational Development, or GED, preparation classes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Magrath said an estimated $180,000 in federal funding, or over half of their budget, was impounded, causing immediate cuts to services and staff layoffs. While the organization did not identify the number of layoffs in an interview last week, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner has since reported that there were five layoffs. So we are having to make some pretty drastic decisions with staffing and programming, she said in a phone interview on Thursday. We likely will not be able to serve nearly as many people this year, and were making staffing cuts right now. The organization provides in-person and virtual instruction and mentoring to adult learners in Fairbanks, as well as in villages in the Interior and Western Alaska, stretching from the Yukon Flats to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. They also have a workforce development program, the Pathways Program, serving youths and young adults ages 16 to 24, and run the used bookstore Forget-Me-Not Books in Fairbanks, which provides revenues for its programs, jobs training and employment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shelby Cooke is the assistant executive director of the Literacy Council of Alaska, and said its difficult to fill such a large funding gap, especially on such short notice, and Alaskans will be impacted. The real detriment is to our students and Alaskans who need that GED credential to go to work, or maybe theyre a super-skilled person in their native tongue, but they need enough English to be able to navigate a job interview, she said. Those are the folks that are suffering, and in turn, our economy suffers too. Magrath said some programs will be suspended immediately. Its possible that these suspensions will be temporary, as her organization figures out its next steps. Were looking at restructuring some of our programs just to be able to use the resources that we have to the maximum impact for our community and our students, she said. So we have a lot to figure out right now. Southeast Regional Resource Center, a nonprofit educational services agency that provides a variety of services statewide, including adult education, English language learning and workforce development programs. In addition, SERRC provides educational and business services to school districts, including special education programs, human resources and grant administration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We do have some state funds, and so weve had to modify our budget just off what we know we have for funding for state funds and we are looking at having to reduce our staffing, said Chris Reitan, its executive director, in a phone interview Thursday. He said the organization is looking at cutting at least two staff positions and a few part-time positions. So we are concerned about the ability to have the same level of impact. Reitan said the federal funding freeze withheld over $86,600 for adult education programs in Southeast Alaska, and over $64,000 in the Aleutians region. Adult education provides a kind of a lifeline for Alaskans seeking to improve their lives, and it also helps strengthen our state's workforce. Chris Reitan, executive director, SERRC He said SERRCs program served 112 students last year in the areas of GED support, English language learning and workforce development across the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Number one, adult education provides a kind of a lifeline for Alaskans seeking to improve their lives, and it also helps strengthen our states workforce, he said, and will have an immediate impact on adult learners, which then could immediately impact their ability in regards to getting good-paying jobs, their ability to provide for their families, their ability to contribute to their local communities. He added: I see this as being a significant impact across the state, in regards to our citizens being able to have the opportunity to better themselves. SERRC and the Literacy Council of Alaska are two of 14 adult education programs across the state with grant funding administered by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. A department spokesperson, Adam Weinert, said by email that the department has continued to award available state matching funds for the programs, totaling more than $1.9 million. Sub-grantees were informed that we were moving forward at this time with state funding only, Weinert said of the programs. Once federal funding is released, we will move forward with a budget modification to provide for the federal funding. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The full impact of how the freeze will affect some programs in the long term remains unclear. The University of Alaska system has several adult education programs, funded in part by federal funds, as well as state and local funding. Jonathan Taylor, the universitys director of communications, said by email Monday that discussions are ongoing around funding but those programs are scheduled to continue. Taylor said at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Bristol Bay Adult Education program will start up in August with funding from Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp. Within the University of Alaska Anchorage, there are adult education programs at Kodiak College, serving the Kodiak Island Borough; Kenai Peninsula College, serving the Soldotna, Homer and Seward regions; and Prince William Sound College, serving the Valdez, Cordova and Copper Basin regions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have received assurances that all three will receive some sort of funding this year, Taylor said. To our knowledge, the state will initiate these awards using either state funding or federal funding it has access to. If additional Federal Funds become available, the state will amend the agreements to make up to the original intended funding amount. Currently, this is an active endeavor and ongoing discussion with the state. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The Trump administration has offered little consolation to American businesses worried about losing undocumented workers to deportations. US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins did offer them one solution last week: to replace immigrant farmworkers with Americans who are now required to work in order to access Medicaid benefits, under the recently signed Republican spending bill. When you think about it, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program, she said Tuesday in a news conference. So, no amnesty under any circumstances, mass deportations continue, but in a strategic and intentional way, as we move our workforce towards more automation and towards a 100 percent American workforce. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Unfortunately for the industries targeted in escalating immigration raids at farms, construction sites, restaurants, hotels, and other businesses that is not a serious proposal. Agricultural and hospitality industry leaders are pushing back and raising concerns about how deportations could lead to labor shortages. Though President Donald Trump has appeared publicly sympathetic to those concerns, its become clear that business interests arent driving his policy. Rather, its immigration hardliners, led by White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who are. Republicans have handed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement an additional $75 billion, and the agency is more well-resourced than ever as the administration aims for 3,000 immigration arrests per day and 1 million deportations in a single year. I have complete faith that Secretary Noem and Stephen Miller and everyone else in the administration is 100 percent committed to this agenda, said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The conflict between those hardliners and the affected industries reveals a key fiction at the center of Trumps immigration policy: that masses of immigrant workers are taking away jobs from Americans who are willing and able to fill them. They arent. But that hasnt stopped the administration from ramping up ICE raids that dont just endanger immigrants and the businesses that rely on them. Theyre also imperiling job opportunities and the affordability of goods and services available to all Americans. Trumps mixed messages about deportations Following the ICE raids in Los Angeles that spurred mass protests in early June, some business leaders started becoming more vocal about their fears that worksite immigration raids could upend their companies. That prompted Trump, at the urging of Rollins, to publicly pledge to work with farming and hospitality businesses to protect their workers and to pause workplace raids for a few days. Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On July 4, he said he would put farmers in charge of immigration enforcement when it came to their own businesses, but warned that if they did not do a good job, well throw [undocumented workers] out of the country. In practice, however, its not clear that the Trump administration has retreated on immigration raids since then. ICE carried out a major raid at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles on July 7 and on two California cannabis farms on July 10. At one called Glass House, farmworker Jaime Alanis fell from the top of a greenhouse during the operation and died from his injuries. The New York Times also reported that no business is exempt from worksite immigration enforcement under current ICE policy. Bier said that he has not put any stock into Trumps overtures to industry leaders on deportations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I said when he first made a statement to this effect that he was not going to change anything about ICEs operations, he said. The fundamental misunderstanding behind Trumps immigration raids Immigration hardliners in the Trump administration are operating under the assumption that businesses affected by raids can just hire Americans instead of undocumented immigrants. In reality, many of those immigrants work jobs that no Americans want even during times of high unemployment and especially when it comes to low-paid, back-breaking positions in agriculture. The idea that there are millions of people waiting around who are willing and able to do this type of farm labor is misguided, said Tara Watson, director of the Center of Economic Security and Opportunity and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bier said some of the best evidence of that is a study of the North Carolina agricultural industry in 2011. Researchers found that, of the nearly half a million unemployed North Carolinians at the time, only 268 native-born Americans applied for 6,500 farm job openings despite the fact that employers were required to publicly advertise the positions. Over 90 percent of those applicants were hired, but most did not show up for their first day of work or quit within a month. Only seven completed the entire growing season. Medicaid recipients in particular are even less likely to fill agricultural job openings than Americans overall, despite Rollinss suggestion to the contrary. For one, there arent actually many Medicaid recipients who dont already have a job and are able to work at all, let alone able to work a physically demanding job in agriculture. A Brookings study found that out of the roughly 71.3 million recipients of Medicaid, only 300,000 people did not qualify for exemptions to the new work requirements and were not working because they didnt want to. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres a reason why theyre on Medicaid, and thats because theyre kids, theyre elderly, or theyre disabled, or they already have a job that just doesnt provide them with the kind of health insurance that they need, said Ben Zipperer, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. Medicaid recipients are also predominantly located in urban areas and arent likely to relocate for a low-paid job in agriculture. They are very unlikely to swoop in and save farms hard-hit by immigration raids. The fact that the administration is pushing that fantasy shows that its theory of how its immigration policies will affect businesses and the broader economy is misguided. The economic cost of immigration raids Mass deportations of farm workers alone could deal the US a significant blow. It would likely slash domestic agricultural production, driving up food prices for most Americans. Watson said that farms would find it almost impossible to hire people to do labor that cannot be automated, forcing some to move their production abroad. The US might have to start importing certain crops at a higher price depending on the outcome of Trumps tariff negotiations. He has already slapped a 17 percent tariff on Mexican tomatoes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the labor supply for farms is greatly restricted, then farms will produce less, and that will be passed on to consumers as higher prices, Bier, of the Cato Institute, said. Beyond agriculture, Trumps immigration raids could actually cause the overall job supply to shrink, rather than creating openings that Americans would readily fill. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that, if Trump meets his goal of deporting 1 million immigrants every year of his second term, it would eliminate the jobs of 3.3 million immigrants and 2.6 million US-born workers by the time he leaves office. The job supply in construction would be particularly hard-hit, falling almost 19 percent overall. Thats because immigrants typically have jobs that complement those worked by Americans, filling job openings that the latter will not, and because immigrants also create jobs as business owners and consumers of American goods and services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For that reason, deporting immigrant workers who have no criminal record as part of Trumps America First agenda is just building on a myth that immigrants in the US are taking American jobs, Watson said. Theres been a huge amount of economics literature suggesting that thats not the case, and that, in fact, immigrants end up generating more jobs for US-born people, she said. An aerial view of the tundra not far from the Pebble prospect. (Photo by Bretwood Higman, Erin McKittrick/Ground Truth Trekking via Creative Commons license) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took a rare step under former President Joe Biden to block development of the Pebble mine Alaskas largest known copper and gold deposit, which for years has fueled controversy over its potential impacts on one of the worlds largest salmon runs. Now, under President Donald Trump, the agency is giving its past Pebble decisions another look and negotiating a deal that could end a lawsuit filed by Pebbles developer an announcement thats boosted the companys stock price this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Administration officials have been actively considering the agency decisions and are open to reconsideration, according to a recent court filing submitted by U.S. Department of Justice lawyers. The three-page document does not elaborate, though it references the past decision by the EPA and a separate decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deny Pebble a key permit. The Trump administration is now negotiating a potential settlement to a lawsuit that challenged the decision a case filed last year by Pebble Limited Partnership, the projects developer the document added. Pebbles chief executive, John Shively, said that a settlement could result in the withdrawal of the EPAs preemptive veto of mining activity in the project area. The proposed mine would be built in the Bristol Bay region, in the headwaters of the worlds largest sockeye salmon run. A reversal of the veto would amount to a stunning shift in momentum for the Pebble project, which seemed all but dead after the EPA decision two years ago. The project would still face major obstacles to its construction, including the 2020 denial of the key wetlands permit by the Army Corps. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pebble appealed the wetlands permit decision, but the Army Corps last year rejected the appeal, citing the EPAs 2023 veto. Pebble sued both the EPA and the Army Corps. A reversal of the EPA decision would give the developers an opportunity to go back to the Corps, said Shively. He declined to share additional details about a possible settlement. The stock price of Northern Dynasty Minerals, Pebbles publicly traded, Vancouver-based parent company, rose by more than 50% in the past week a likely sign of investors enthusiasm about a possible settlement. Pebble would be one of the worlds largest copper, gold and molybdenum mines. Boosters, including Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and two local Indigenous-owned corporations, say it could create much-needed jobs and generate billions of dollars in revenue for the state and rural Alaskans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the Bristol Bay region is also home to a prolific sockeye salmon run, which sustains rural subsistence fishermen and an annual commercial harvest worth more than $100 million. The proposed mine faces broad local, statewide and national opposition from fishermen, tribal governments, Bristol Bays regional Alaska Native-owned corporation and environmental groups. The legal, administrative, and public record, really, over and over and over again proves that this type of mining and mine does not belong in Bristol Bay, said Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay, a regional tribal consortium that fiercely opposes Pebble. This is something weve been fighting for decades, and its just going to be devastating yet again to be put through the rigamarole of a potential settlement, said Hurley, reached by phone this week from her fish camp on the shores of Nushagak Bay, downstream of the Pebble deposit. Given its size and proximity to the Bristol Bay fishery, Pebble critics include figures typically supportive of resource development, like Alaskas two Republican U.S. senators. Conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and even Donald Trump Jr., who is known to fish recreationally in the region, have also expressed concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps first administration initially appeared more supportive of the project, undoing efforts by the Obama administration to block mine development. But in 2020, after an outpouring of public opposition including from Republicans like Trump Jr. the Army Corps denied Pebbles application for a Clean Water Act permit. In a court filing late last year, Pebbles lawyers argued that the Army Corps decision was likely due to political interference by Trump Jr. and his friends, and substantial political contributors to President Trumps reelection. Soon after the start of Trumps second term, Justice Department lawyers and Pebble agreed to pause the litigation while government officials caught up on the case. Some close observers of the project noted that Trumps new chief of staff, Susie Wiles, once worked as a lobbyist for Pebble. The EPA declined to answer questions from Northern Journal this week. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At this time, our understanding is that there may be an updated submission made to EPA for consideration, but there is nothing currently before the agency to that effect, Molly Vaseliou, the EPAs associate administrator for public affairs, said in an emailed statement. This article was originally published in Northern Journal, a newsletter from Nathaniel Herz. Subscribe at this link. (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and its allies are trying to obtain voter data from states and inspect voting equipment, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, in moves it said had caused concern among state and local election officials. The Post said "the most unusual activity" was taking place in Colorado, where it said a consultant who was working with the White House had asked county clerks whether they would let federal officials or a third party examine voting machines. "Thats a hard stop for me," it quoted Carly Koppes, a Republican clerk in Colorado's Weld County, as saying. "Nobody gets access to my voting equipment, for security reasons." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The newspaper said the Justice Department had separately asked at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, and that at least two have turned them over. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that "Trump will keep fighting for election integrity" and that the administration was "confident in securing an ultimate victory in the courtroom." Elections in the United States, including for federal offices, are administered by state and local officials. Trump has long raised doubts about the electoral system and continues to falsely assert that his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was due to electoral fraud. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump stood his ground on voter fraud claims and called for action against the "stolen election of 2020". (Reporting by Angela Christy in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Peter Graff and Cynthia Osterman) ATLANTA Immigration authorities demand that landlords turn over leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses, identification cards and other information on their tenants, a sign the Trump administration targeted them to assist in its drive for mass deportations. Eric Teusink, an Atlanta-area real estate attorney, said several clients recently received subpoenas asking for entire files on tenants. A rental application can include work history, marital status and family relationships. The two-page information enforcement subpoena, which Teusink shared exclusively with The Associated Press, also asks for information on other people who lived with the tenant. One, dated May 1, is signed by an officer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ' anti-fraud unit. However, it was not signed by a judge. It is unclear how widely the subpoenas were issued, but they could signal a new front in the administration's efforts to locate people who are in the United States illegally, many of whom were required to give authorities their U.S. addresses as a condition for initially entering the country without a visa. President Donald Trump largely ended temporary status for people allowed into the U.S. under his predecessor, Joe Biden. Experts question whether landlords need to comply Some legal experts and property managers say the demands pose serious legal questions because they are not signed by a judge and that, if landlords comply, they might risk violating the Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. Critics also say landlords are likely to feel intimidated into complying with something that a judge hasn't ordered, all while the person whose information is requested may never know that their private records are in the hands of immigration authorities. The danger here is overcompliance," said Stacy Seicshnaydre, a Tulane University law professor who studies housing law. "Just because a landlord gets a subpoena, doesnt mean its a legitimate request. ICE officers long used subpoenas signed by an agency supervisor to try to enter homes. Advocacy groups mounted Know Your Rights campaign urging people to refuse entry if the subpoenas are not signed by a judge. The subpoena reviewed by the AP is from USCIS fraud detection and national security directorate, which, like ICE, is part of The Department of Homeland Security. Though it isn't signed by a judge, it threatens that a judge may hold a landlord in contempt of court for failure to comply. Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, defended the use of subpoenas against landlords without confirming if they are issued. We are not going to comment on law enforcement's tactics surrounding ongoing investigations," McLaughlin said. However, it is false to say that subpoenas from ICE can simply be ignored. ICE is authorized to obtain records or testimony through specific administrative subpoena authorities. Failure to comply with an ICE-issued administrative subpoena may result in serious legal penalties. The media needs to stop spreading these lies. These requests are new to many landlords Teusink said many of his clients oversee multifamily properties and are used to getting subpoenas for other reasons, such as requests to hand over surveillance footage or give local police access to a property as part of an investigation. But, he said, those requests are signed by a judge. Teusink said his clients were confused by the latest subpoenas. After consulting with immigration attorneys, he concluded that compliance is optional. Unless signed by a judge, the letters are essentially just an officer making a request. It seemed like they were on a fishing expedition, Teusink said. Boston real estate attorney Jordana Roubicek Greenman said a landlord client of his received a vague voicemail from an ICE official last month requesting information about a tenant. Other attorneys told her their clients received similar messages. She told her client not to call back. Anthony Luna, CEO of Coastline Equity, a commercial and multifamily property management company that oversees about 1,000 units in the Los Angeles area, said property managers started contacting him a few weeks ago about concerns from tenants who heard rumors about the ICE subpoenas. Most do not plan to comply if they receive them. If theyre going after criminals, why arent they going through court documents? Luna said. Why do they need housing provider files? ICE subpoenas preceded Trumps first term in office, though they saw a significant uptick under him, according to Lindsay Nash, a law professor at Yeshiva Universitys Cardozo School of Law in New York who spent years tracking them. Landlords rarely got them, though. State and local police were the most common recipients. ICE can enforce the subpoenas, but it would first have to file a lawsuit in federal court and get a judge to sign off on its enforcement a step that would allow the subpoenas recipient to push back, Nash said. She said recipients often comply without telling the person whose records are divulged. "Many people see these subpoenas, think that they look official, think that some of the language in them sounds threatening, and therefore respond, even when, from what I can tell, it looks like some of these subpoenas have been overbroad, she said. The Department of Homeland Security resumed third-country deportation flights Tuesday by sending five immigrant detainees, all from different countries, to the small nation of Eswatini in southern Africa. The five men from Vietnam, Laos, Jamaica, Cuba and Yemen have criminal backgrounds ranging from murder to sexual assault, according to a social media post by DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back, McLaughlin wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not clear if the men are in law enforcement custody in Eswatini. Mclaughlin told NBC News, Thats up to Eswatini. The landlocked country is located between South Africa and Mozambique and occupies an area slightly smaller than New Jersey. In a statement, the Eswatini government said that the five detainees are being held in a local prison and that it is arranging to send them back to their countries of origin. Local media has reported that an Eswatini womens rights organization expressed shock that President Donald Trump deports and dumps four convicted murderers and rapists in the tiny Southern African Kingdom. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ICE put out new guidance last week that its employees are allowed in certain circumstances to deport migrants to countries that are not their own in as little as six hours and without assurances from the third countries that they will not be persecuted or tortured. In other cases, according to the new guidance, ICE must serve the immigrant with a notice of removal that lists what country the federal government intends to deport the person to in a language that the immigrant understands. ICE officers will not affirmatively ask whether the person is afraid of being sent to that country, according to the memo, but those who voice such a fear will be referred for screening for possible protection within 24 hours. ICE could still attempt to send the person to a different country other than the one the detainee was fearful of being sent to. The mountainous landscape in Mbabane, the capital of Eswatini. (Xavier Duvot / Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images file) The Supreme Court paved the way for DHS to resume swift deportation of migrants to countries that are not their own in late June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The decision came after a deportation flight with eight migrants left Texas reportedly intended for South Sudan in late May, sparking a legal battle that resulted in the men being held in Djibouti. In a filing at the Supreme Court, the Trump administration said it had received assurances from South Sudan that the men will not be subject to torture under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com The Trump administration said it has deported a group of immigrant men from different countries to the tiny African nation of Eswatini. The five men have long criminal records involving rape, homicide, drugs and assault according to Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. "This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back," she said in a post on the social media site X on July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The men are originally from Yemen, Vietnam, Laos, Jamaica and Cuba. McLaughlin didn't say whether the men had completed their sentences in the United States before their removal. Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is a landlocked country bordering Mozambique and South Africa. The nation is smaller than Maryland, suffers from severe poverty, high unemployment and the world's highest rate of HIV and AIDS, according to the CIA World Factbook. The United States has long sought to deport immigrants to third countries when their own home nation is recalcitrant or won't accept their own deportees. Countries including Vietnam, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and China have often refused to take their citizens back. The Trump administration is attempting to scale up third-country deportations after the Supreme Court in June suspended a lower court ruling requiring the administration give deportees due process and an opportunity to claim fear of persecution before they're sent to a country that isn't their own. President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visit a temporary migrant detention center formally called "Alligator Alcatraz" in Ochopee, Florida, on July 1, 2025. In a July 8 memo following the SCOTUS decision, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons said if the United States "has received diplomatic assurances" that deportees "will not be persecuted or tortured," they can be shipped there without further proceedings. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Secretary of State Marco Rubio has negotiated with countries around the world to accept foreign nationals, including with war-torn South Sudan and El Salvador, which has locked up hundreds of deportees in a notorious mega-prison. Early in the administration, ICE sent some 300 immigrants to Panama; many were from Asia and the Middle East and spoke no Spanish. Immigrant advocates say deporting people to a country that isn't their own where they don't speak the language is a violation of human rights. The administration has argued that immigrants who commit seious crimes should be removed without recourse. "These depraved monsters have been terrorizing American communities but thanks to @POTUS Trump (and) @Sec_Noem they are off of American soil," McLaughlin said in her post. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deported where? DHS sends convicted criminals to Eswatini in Africa The Trump administration sued to oust the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) boards three Democratic appointees on Tuesday, escalating the legal battle as Republican lawmakers look to slash the groups funding. The three members quickly sued in April after President Trump attempted to fire them, arguing the move interferes with the traditional independence of the CPB, which funds NPR and PBS. Last month, a judge declined their request for an order preventing the administration from giving any effect to the firings. But the trio has continued to participate in the boards business. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In short, Defendants are defiantly acting as if the Court granted the relief the Court deniedraising the question of why they bothered to seek preliminary relief and consume the resources of the Court and the parties if they were simply going to ignore any adverse ruling, the suit reads. The United States cannot just stand by when lawful orders both executive and judicial are so openly flouted, it continues. The new lawsuit comes ahead of the GOP-led Congresss Friday deadline to approve roughly $9 billion in cuts put forward by the Trump administration in a rescissions package. The package includes $1.1 billion in cuts to CPB. The administration wants a federal judge to declare that the three members Laura Ross, Thomas Rothman and Diane Kaplan are no longer on the board and all their actions since April are null and void. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case has not yet been assigned to a judge. The administration suggested the suit is related to the board members earlier one, so it should be considered by the same jurist, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, an appointee of former President Obama. The Hill has reached out to an attorney for the board members for comment. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. This article was originally published in Source New Mexico. One of New Mexicos representatives in Congress says the Trump administrations refusal to release education funding is harming both children and adult students, especially those who are falling behind in reading and mathematics. All three of New Mexicos representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives on July 10 joined approximately 145 other federal lawmakers in a letter asking the Trump administration to immediately lift a freeze on $7 billion meant for student learning and achievement; after-school programs; teacher training; and adult education and literacy. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter There is no legitimate reason why any review of these programs should prevent the Administration from fulfilling its responsibility to the American people on time, they wrote. No more excuses follow the law and release the funding meant for our schools, teachers and families. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vasquez told Source NM the administration is withholding $44 million from K-12 schools and adult education programs in New Mexico. That includes $21.6 million in his congressional district; $12 million for Albuquerque Public Schools; and approximately $3 million Las Cruces Public Schools, he said. I was an English learner in the public schools system in this country, and I got to where I was because these programs existed, Vasquez said in an interview. We are selling our kids short by eliminating these programs, and most importantly all of those kids who are falling behind in math and reading. He said school administrators are digging into their budget reserves in an attempt to find solutions. Withholding the money could result in dropped programs, hiring freezes and the loss of essential student supports, Stateline reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What I got from the Las Cruces superintendent was, if they want to continue these programs, which are extremely valuable to the community, to the families and students alike, that theyre going to essentially have to figure out where to make cuts elsewhere within the total budget, Vasquez said in an interview. So theyre in a rough place right now. Melanie Blea, executive director of federal and state programs at Albuquerque Public Schools, told Source that while district leaders have been planning various scenarios for funding cuts, the timing of the administrations funding freeze is a challenge given school starts in one month. The district started planning its budget in December; received approval from their school board in March and April; and received approval from the state in June, she said. Were doing everything possible to make sure that schools are safe from these cuts, that they dont necessarily feel them, Blea said. Were trying to fill holes. Were trying to cover as much as we possibly can with other funds. The funding freeze affects continuing education for teachers at all 143 APS schools, Blea said, and ancillary staff like nurses and counselors. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We probably cant do this for much longer, as far as insulating schools, she added. Martin Salazar, communications director for APS, told Source NM that the district is committed to keeping all of its 55 staff who are paid out of the frozen funds employed for the rest of the school year. If this goes on, and its the same situation next school year or the following school year, thats going to pose a problem for us, he said. A voicemail for a spokesperson at Las Cruces Public Schools was not returned as of Monday morning. The Trump administration told state governments it would hold back the funds on June 30, to ensure that public money is spent in accordance with the Presidents priorities and the Departments statutory responsibilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The lawmakers letter is addressed to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought New Mexico and 15 other states this month sued McMahons agency over its decision in April to also freeze $1 billion in grant funding, including school-based mental health programs. A spokesperson for Voughts office told the Rhode Island Current that federal school funds were withheld after officials found some districts across the country had allegedly misused the money to subsidize a radical left-wing agenda, including English language instruction for immigrant students, scholarships for undocumented students and a seminar about queer resistance in the arts. Vasquez told Source that Trump and other Republicans have been saying their goal in withholding the funding has been to end free education to undocumented children, which Vasquez called xenophobic and a blatant lie after reviewing the Las Cruces Public Schools budget with Superintendent Ignacio Ruiz. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These funding cuts are going to have impacts that will be felt by everybody, by all the students, Vasquez said. Squeezing every dollar from programs that benefit the public good to pay for these tax cuts for the rich is the real reason this administration is doing this. Source New Mexico is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Source New Mexico maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Goldberg for questions: info@sourcenm.com. Donald Trump and his administration havent hidden their desire to use the power of the executive branch to manipulate the system to favor Republicans in next years midterm elections. The president recently called for Texas to gerrymander its voting districts to net Republicans an additional five GOP-friendly districts ahead of next years elections, and a new report from The Washington Post shines a light on other actions Trump officials and allies have taken recently that could threaten free and fair political races in 2026 and beyond. As the Post reports: The Trump administration and its allies have launched a multipronged effort to gather data on voters and inspect voting equipment, sparking concern among local and state election officials about federal interference ahead of the 2026 midterms. The Post reports one of these unusual efforts has been led by a pro-Trump consultant named Jeff Small, a former chief of staff to Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who has claimed to be working with the White House as hes reached out to county election officials to ask whether they would let the feds physically examine their election equipment. Multiple Republican clerks in Colorado have expressed outrage at Smalls request and said it would be improper. (Small did not immediately respond to MSNBCs request for comment on his reported work on behalf of the Trump administration.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Colorado was the site of some of the MAGA movements most intense efforts to overturn Trumps 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, and one of the key figures behind those efforts, convicted Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, has been portrayed as a martyr by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the Post also reports that the Justice Department has asked at least nine states for copies of their voter rolls, a move that could grant the department access to nonpublic information about voters. Federal law gives the Justice Department the ability to ensure states have procedures in place to remove ineligible voters and otherwise properly maintain their rolls, the Post reported. It does not expressly give the agency the authority to review the voter rolls themselves. Given that Trump and company have repeatedly lied about faulty voting machines and unlawful voters costing him the 2020 election, its not a stretch to worry that any information his administration (or people acting to further its agenda) can acquire from the states could be used to advance election conspiracies or provide a pretext to pressure states to alter their election systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report adds to the evidence that the Trump administration and its adherents are taking unprecedented, illiberal steps to impose their will on elections steps so glaringly unethical that even some Republicans have to cringe. This article was originally published on MSNBC.com After nearly a decade of stoking conspiracy theories insisting that he was ordained to destroy a cabal of pedophiles in control of the nation, President Donald Trump would like everyone to shut up about Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and trafficker of underage girls who was known to pal around with high-profile figures including Trump. The extended MAGA universe continues to shred itself over the Trump administration backtracking on promises to release documents and evidence related to the Epstein case. As House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other prominent members of the GOP push for the transparency promised to them by the president and members of his Cabinet, Trump is all but commanding them to forget about it. Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at Its all they have They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates, Trump wrote this morning on Truth Social, continuing his effort to baselessly reframe the Epstein files as a hoax orchestrated by former President Barack Obama, former FBI Director James Comey, and others. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker. They havent learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years, Trump added. The president also complained that despite in his view having more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Countrys history, people are talking about the Epstein files instead of showering him with praise. Trump insisted that he no longer wants the support of weaklings who fall for the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Trump knew Epstein during the time the disgraced financier was a tabloid and New York social scene staple, once praising him as a terrific guy in an interview. In 2020, Trump told then Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he wasnt sure if Epstein actually killed himself. The president is now flailing through a problem of his own making. Figures like FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino made names for themselves in the MAGA universe by pushing conspiracies surrounding the death of Epstein and his alleged trove of sexual blackmail on scores of prominent figures. Patel and Bongino were elevated to their current positions while promising Trump sycophants they would expose the supposed cover-up. Attorney General Pam Bondi built credibility for herself among the Trump base by making similar promises after becoming attorney general. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When you build a movement on innuendo and conjecture, conspiracies, and alleged cover-ups, turning around and telling the true believers to suddenly forget it is bound to backfire. More from Rolling Stone Best of Rolling Stone Sign up for RollingStone's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Despite assurances that he aims to be a president of global peace, President Donald Trump has overseen more airstrikes during his first five months in office than any other president. Trump has personally authorized a total of 529 airstrikes, according to data gathered by The Telegraph. Thats nearly as many strikes as former President Joe Biden OKd over his entire term. The U.S. military is moving faster, hitting harder and doing so with fewer constraints, said Clionadh Raleigh, president and chief executive officer of Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, in an interview with the outlet. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps strikes have focused on anti-piracy actions in Yemen and uranium facilities in Iran, but also include targets in Iraq, Syria, and Somalia. According to the report, Yemen has been subjected to 470 strikes since January. In June, Trump followed Israels lead and authorized strikes on Iran. The controversial airstrikes targeted numerous nuclear facilities within the country in the hopes of hindering the countrys development of a nuclear bomb. While the official line from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called the operation a bold and brilliant success, a leaked report from the Pentagon cast doubt on the effectiveness of the strikes. Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course. The record-number of strikes are in stark contrast to Trumps previous statements about foreign conflict and intervention. In January, Trump promised a policy of peace through strength. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. Its called peace through strength, Trump said at his inaugural ball. The post Trump authorized 529 airstrikes in five months. Thats almost more than Bidens four-year total appeared first on Salon.com. President Trump on Wednesday bashed foolish Republicans who he said were aiding Democrats by focusing on documents related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Trump during an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain repeated his claim that the documents connected to Epstein were a hoax started by Democrats. Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges and died by suicide in 2019, during Trumps first term. Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net, and so they try and do the Democrats work, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I call it the Epstein hoax. Takes a lot of time and effort. Instead of talking about the great achievements weve had theyre wasting their time with a guy who obviously had some very serious problems, who died three, four years ago. Id rather talk about the success we have with the economy, Trump added. Prominent Republicans and Trump supporters, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have in recent days called for greater transparency from the administration around files related to Epsteins case. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), an ardent Trump supporter, called for a special counsel to review the administrations handling of the Epstein files. Trumps backers, including some now serving in his administration, have for years espoused conspiracy theories around Epsteins death and suggested the government was covering up information that connected prominent Democrats to the convicted sex offender. But Trump has in recent days appeared exasperated by the fixation on Epstein. He has said Attorney General Pam Bondi can release credible evidence related to Epstein, but has otherwise questioned why some of his followers are so fixated on the issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats and theyre following a Democrat playbook, Trump said. We do have bigger problems, he added. The Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo last week stating that Epstein did not have a client list and confirming his 2019 death at his New York City jail cell was a suicide. The findings incensed members of the MAGA movement, who have for years pushed conspiracy theories about Epsteins death and claims that prominent Democrats would be named on a client list. Epstein, accused in several cases of sex trafficking young girls, ran in high-powered circles with figures that included Trump, former President Clinton, Britains Prince Andrew and a number of other celebrities and ultrawealthy people. Epsteins associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been convicted of sex trafficking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that his uncle, John Trump, taught Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber terrorist who used mail bombs to kill his victims. The tangent occurred while he was speaking at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit and appeared to be prompted by a discussion on artificial intelligence. I have to brag just for a second, Trump said Tuesday. Because when I first heard about AI, you know, its not my thing, although my uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors, 51 years, whatever. Longest-serving professor in the history of MIT. Advertisement Advertisement Kaczynski was one of his students do you know who Kaczynski was? Theres very little difference between a madman and a genius, he added. Trumps comments sparked confusion on social media, as Kaczynski never attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied at Harvard and the University of Michigan before teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, as an assistant professor. Trump claimed his uncle knew the mathematics prodigy-turned-terrorist recluse, however. I said, What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr. John Trump, the president claimed Tuesday. He said, What kind of a student? Man, he said. Seriously good. Hed go around correcting everybody. But it didnt work out too well for him. Didnt work out too well. Advertisement Advertisement Kaczynski anonymously mailed and hand delivered homemade bombs to people across the country from 1978 to 1995. He killed three people and injured 23 others, and warned in his 1995 manifesto that technology would destroy humanity and lead to full-blown totalitarianism. Trump: My uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors. 51 years whatever three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math. Kaczynski was one of his students? Do you know who that is? There is very little difference between a mad man and a genius. pic.twitter.com/56fpC1sDsS Acyn (@Acyn) July 15, 2025 Kaczynski died by suicide in 2023 while serving a life sentence in Butner, North Carolina. Trumps comments Tuesday appear to be unsubstantiated, however, as his uncle died in 1985 a decade before Kaczynski was linked to the then-anonymous bombings so it seems unlikely the discussion Trump referenced would have occurred. And his uncle was not the longest-serving professor at MIT, according to an official there. John Trump, an inventor and electrical engineer, reportedly became a research associate at MIT in 1933, and taught there as an assistant professor, professor and senior lecturer from 1936 until his death. A spokesperson for the school told Newsweek that at least 10 people have taught there longer than that. Advertisement Advertisement The Unabomber, meanwhile, has been a person of fascination for decades. Related... President Trump has reportedly been calling some of the highest profile and, typically, most loyal MAGA influencers in recent days to tell them to stop talking about the infamous Epstein files and his administrations botched handling of their release. This comes as more and more Republicans in Congress try to walk a tightrope, supporting the president while also not saying anything that might upset the online hordes of Trump supporters whose votes they need. CNN reported over the weekend that Trump called MAGA influencer and right-wing agitator Charlie Kirk, founder of the far-right youth group for MAGA supporters, Turning Point USA. Trump was reportedly responding to Kirks remarks over the weekend at a Turning Point event in Florida where Kirk told a crowd of his followers that he supported FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. This was around the time that reports emerged suggesting that Bongino was supposedly getting ready to offer his resignation, so displeased was he with Attorney General Pam Bondis decision to not make public all the governments investigative files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Plenty was said this last weekend at our event about Epstein, Kirk told his podcast listeners on Monday. Honestly, Im done talking about Epstein for the time being. Im gonna trust my friends in the administration, Im gonna trust my friends in the government to do what needs to be done, solve it, balls in their hands. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bongino, Kirk and many other now-big-name online MAGA influencers eagerly stoked various conspiracy theories, including ones about Epsteins crimes and death, as they rose to fame. They were among a cohort of influencers that was especially enthusiastic about Trumps ability to make public Epsteins client list which, they posited, would expose a bunch of rich and powerful people as pedophiles. These rumors and their QAnon-adjacent themes were embraced by many in Trumps base, who assumed their candidate would clear all this up (despite his longtime friendship with Epstein). It is still unclear why Bondi chose to not release the investigative files in full, but the official reason is that an exhaustive review of the files found no new evidence for additional charges and no supposed sex trafficking client list. An FBI memo last week also suggested that releasing more documents might reveal the names of victims. Obviously, many MAGAheads are not buying it, including, apparently, Bongino, the FBI deputy director. Trump says he called him too. I spoke to him today, Trump said Sunday when asked about reports of Bonginos interest in resigning. Dan Bongino, very good guy. Ive known him a long time. Ive done his show many, many times. He sounded terrific, actually. It is unclear if Bongino is still at odds with Bondi over the Epstein saga. CNN anchor and Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins said on Monday evening that it was still an open question in the Trump White House, as of Monday morning, whether Bongino was going to stay on as deputy director, though he did show up for work on Monday after not showing up the Friday before. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No, its not clear even to White House officials, Anderson, who were texting each other and texting me this morning asking, you know, whether or not they had figured out if he had shown up to work today because it was still an open question in Washington this morning if he was going to be back at the FBI today, Collins said in response to a question from CNN host Anderson Cooper. The rift that has emerged between MAGA influencers, the deputy director of the FBI (perhaps) and the rest of the Trump administration has forced many Republican members of Congress to mealy mouth their way towards having some sort of stance on the issue one that wont alienate their online supporters, while also not breaking with Trump. Some have been latching onto a Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) talking point, that she would like to set up a private viewing of the documents at DOJ. Others have directed any ire they have at Bondi. If the attorney general has knowledge of people who committed sex crimes with the minors, she should be prosecuting them, Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) told NBC News. While Republican leadership has remained pretty solidly on Trumps side since last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did break with the president a bit in a podcast interview that published today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im for transparency, Johnson told right-wing influencer Benny Johnson. Its a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it. Republicans, however, have unanimously voted against Democratic efforts to make the files public. To What Extent Is This Only a Thing Among MAGAs Most Extremely Online Members? Friend of TPM and journalist Sarah Posner, who has written extensively on the Christian right, posted an interesting thread on Bluesky today suggesting that this MAGA rift over the Epstein files may not translate at the ballot box. While the Epstein files saga may be a brand-defining hill to die on for many online MAGA influencers, including the MAGA influencers who lead the FBI, how much do rank-and-file Republicans care? Everyday conservative Americans, including white evangelicals, are enthused about other things the Trump administration is doing, she says, even if they dont particularly like how the Epstein stuff was handled. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can read the whole thread here. But Then Again ? New polling from CNN shows that about half of Americans are dissatisfied with the amount of info the Trump administration has released on the investigations into Epstein. The poll was conducted by SSRS in the days immediately following the DOJ memo. Per CNN: Almost no one is content with the amount the government has shared: Just 3% of Americans say they are satisfied with it. A sizable chunk of the public either says it doesnt matter to them either way (29%) or that they havent heard enough about the case to say (17%). [] The poll shows Republicans at large are less likely to say they are dissatisfied with the information shared than Democrats or independents. Overall, 56% of Democrats and 52% of independents say they are dissatisfied. Among Republicans, 40% are dissatisfied. Nearly as many Republicans say it doesnt matter to them either way (38%), a larger group than the roughly one-quarter who felt that way among Democrats (27%) or independents (26%). In Case You Missed It NEW from Emine Yucel: White House Tweaks and Murky Promises Help Senate GOP Holdouts Embrace DOGE Cuts The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers Data With ICE Not Just The Big, Beautiful Bill: Trump Policies Could Take Health Insurance From 17 Million How One Appeals Court Has Miserably Failed to Defend the Rule of Law Yesterdays Most Read Story Ok, Welp Epstein/Wolff Edition What We Are Reading Senate confirms official who called Obama a terrorist leader for Pentagon personnel chief House GOP blocks second Dem attempt to release Epstein files U.S. Inflation Accelerated in June as Trumps Tariffs Pushed Up Prices President Donald Trump lobbed a signature zinger on Tuesday as he paused to speak with reporters before boarding Marine One en route to an artificial intelligence summit. "[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez], look, I think shes very nice, but shes very low IQ, and we really dont need low IQ," Trump said, smiling as cameras rolled. He added, "Between her and Crockett, were going to give them both an IQ test to see who comes out best." Trump Dares Aoc To Try To Impeach Him: 'Make My Day' President Donald Trump said AOC and Jasmine Crockett should take IQ tests. Trump went on to share his own credentials: "I took my test. I took a real test at Walter Reed Medical Center, and I aced it. I got every one of all those questions right," he told the waiting press. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has ramped up her criticism of President Trump recently, calling him a "rapist" in a post on X following a DOJ update related to Jeffrey Epstein. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She appeared to be referencing the 2023 civil trial leveled against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll. A jury found Trump liable of sexual assault, but not of rape. Critics said she defamed the president with the remark. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks at the NYCLU's May Day rally for worker's and immigrants rights at Foley Square, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in New York. Back in May, Crockett said "youre terrified of smart, bold Black women telling the truth and holding you accountable" after President Trump called her a "low IQ person" on Meet the Press. Read On The Fox News App Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report. Original article source: Trump challenges AOC and Jasmine Crockett to intelligence test after calling them 'very low IQ' US President Donald Trump has said his wife Melania is "very neutral" when asked about her influence on his decisions regarding Ukraine. Source: Clash Report, as reported by European Pravda Details: Trump was asked to comment on the first lady's influence on his recent decisions regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war. "She's very smart. She's very neutral. She's sort of like me she'd like to see people stop dying," said the US president, reiterating that 5,000-7,000 soldiers are dying on both sides each week, along with civilians in towns and cities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Melania's influence on her husband has become a topic of discussion after the press conference in the Oval Office on 14 July, when Trump shared details of his conversations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "I go home, I tell the first lady, I spoke to Vladimir [Putin] today; we had a wonderful conversation. And she says, Oh really, another city was just hit," Trump said. He has repeatedly expressed his disappointment with Russia. Background: During the press conference on 14 July, Trump announced an agreement between the United States and NATO under which the supply of US weapons to Ukraine will be financed by European allies. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that same day that Germany, the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada all want to be part of the initiative. Germany and Sweden have confirmed their readiness to join Trump's scheme. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has welcomed the initiative but said Finland has not yet decided whether to participate. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPMs Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version. Send in Your Questions! Ill be answering reader questions Friday in a special bonus edition of Morning Memo. Have a question? Submit it in the comments section of the Substack version of todays Morning Memo. (The comments section at TPM proper is too robustly active for me to easily find your questions.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is the first time weve tried this, so your patience is appreciated as we work out any kinks. Im looking forward to hearing from you! Trump Retribution: As Corrupt as It Gets The Trump administration is corruptly targeting Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) with criminal investigation using the same tactic it has used against New York Attorney General Letitia James: allegations of mortgage fraud. Fannie Mae has reportedly made a criminal referral against Schiff to the Trump Justice Department. President Trump happily touted the news about his former impeacher on social media. In any other era, this would be the defining story of the day. The President of the United States running the DOJ out of his White House and using it to launch politically motivated criminal investigations of his Democratic foes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps not targeting just any Democrats. Hes targeting precisely who he has promised to target: Democrats who came after him. James, among other things, won that massive $300+ million fraud case against the Trump Org. Schiff, then in the House, was the lead prosecutor in the first Trump impeachment and has continued to be a chief Trump antagonist. We dont have to peel back the layers of the underlying mortgage fraud allegations. Why was the the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae, looking at James and Schiff in the first place? Just out of the blue, were supposed to believe? The WaPo obtained from an anonymous administration official a confidential Fannie Mae memo address to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte: The memo said that on May 12, Fannies financial crimes investigations unit received a document demand from FHFAs inspector general concerning Schiffs home, including requests for loan files and other documents. We all know whats going on here. In Other Trump DOJ News Criminal defense lawyers have been lobbying the Trump DOJs Weaponization Working Group to try to get their clients off the hook, Bloomberg reports. In an ironic twist, the attorney for the Utah plastic surgeon accused of selling false Covid vaccination cards said the group turned her down when she asked it to intervene. It was only later, when pressure was building over the Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theory, that Attorney General Pam Bondi abruptly dismissed the case against the doctor. After the federal judges in the Northern District of New York declined to extend the interim term of U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III, the Trump administration has orchestrated things (legally, I think) so that Sarcone may continue in the role for a limited period. Legalistic Noncompliance University of Michigan law professors Daniel Deacon and Leah Litman have a new legal research paper out (I promise to only rarely inflict legal research papers on you) that tries to give some shape and form to the Trump administrations defiance of court orders. They dub the practice legalistic noncompliance and observe how it has manifested itself on the ground in the three ways: In the first, the executive deploys specious argumentsarguments that seem facially plausible but in fact lack supportin order to evade enforcement of judicial orders. The second involves employing tactics, including legal-sounding claims that certain information cannot be shared, as a way to impede investigation into whether the administration is in fact complying. The third consists of occasions where the administration has, in the face of a judicial order, used different legal means in order to effect a policy substantially similar to the one enjoined. Texas Walkout Redux? House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and DNC Chair Ken Martin held a conference call Monday night with 40 Democrats in the Texas House of Representatives, and while they stopped short of asking them to walk out of the special session later this month to block a Republican redistricting scheme, they left the impression that it should be considered, the NYT reports. Texas Democrats famously fled the state to deny Republicans a quorum during the mid-decade redistricting fiasco of 2003. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not just Texas, where Republicans hope a newly drawn map will help them pick up five additional seats. There could be some other states were going to get another three, or four or five in addition. Texas would be the biggest one, President Trump said yesterday. Anything to hold on to the House and not lose the GOPs trifecta of White House, Senate, and House control. Census Citizenship Question Is Baaack The census citizenship issue is raising its head again. House Republicans have introduced three bills this year that would exclude noncitizens for the purposes of apportioning House seats and Electoral College votes, NPRs Hansi Lo Wang reports. The census citizenship push during President Trumps first term was foiled by legal challenges. W. Virginia Abortion Pill Ban Upheld The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld West Virginias near-total ban on the abortion pill mifepristone. The decision marks the first time a federal appeals court has allowed a state to strictly limit the drug, teeing up a key test of states powers to ban medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the WaPo reports. Medicaid Cuts Already Start to Bite The Prospect: Hospitals are closing or actively considering doing so, cutting programs, and laying off staff. Planned Parenthood is warning patients it can no longer accept Medicaid insurance and in one region says it cant provide services to Medicaid recipients at all, even if the patient doesnt use Medicaid to pay. And lawmakers in at least five states are planning special sessions to revamp their already-enacted budgets and determine how to handle the cuts, including what cuts they should enact and how to administer the new Medicaid work requirement. Trump Attack on Higher Ed: Wolverines Edition University of Michigan : In its trumped up investigation of foreign donations, the Trump administration has made an extensive and invasive demand for records, including personnel files on university students and employees, records on research projects, tax records and records on other partnerships with foreign universities, governments and other entities, the NYT reports. Columbia University : The university could settle with the Trump administration as soon as next week, paying hundred of millions of dollars in fines and implement various reforms to re-start cut off federal funding, the NYT reports. George Mason University: The Trump administration has opened two anti-DEI investigations into the public university in Virginia, after it helped force the resignation of the president of the University of Virginia. A Report From the Academic Trenches Those of us not in academia and far removed from student life may not fully appreciate how grim things have become on campus. President Trumps attack on higher education is a big part of the story, but its just one of the dramatic changes that have swept universities. Political scientist Paul Musgrave wrote a thoughtful essay to try to convey to non-academics the scale and scope of the changes: I find it hard to explain to people who are unfamiliar with academia or how scholarship actually works how devastating these changes are. These disruptions, cumulatively, seemfrom my perspectiveto be more dramatic in their effects in a far shorter time than the impact of computerization and the Internet on higher education. Moreover, there does not seem to be any reason to think that U.S. policymakers are concerned with, or even sad about, any of these changes. To the contrary: they are pouring gasoline on the flames. Warnings about the risks and long-term effects fall on ears deafened by an ideology that says that those consequences are desirable or by an incapacity to imagine that actions have consequences. Meanwhile, in the Fox News Alt-Universe Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know! President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the outrage within his party over the Jeffrey Epstein files as bullt, rebuking his own supporters for buying into what he called a Jeffrey Epstein Hoax and declaring he no longer wanted the backing of weaklings. The post on his social media platform Truth Social marked Trumps most forceful attempt yet to tamp down an escalating political crisis that has fractured parts of the MAGA coalition, spotlighted internal rifts in his administration, and prompted a growing number of Republican officials to call for the release of files related to the convicted sex offenders decades-long abuse of underage girls. Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullt, hook, line, and sinker, Trump wrote. I dont want their support anymore! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The outburst followed weeks of mounting pressure on Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi over the Justice Departments reversal on long-promised disclosures related to the Epstein investigation. The Trump Administration has now insisted that no client list existsdespite years of signaling otherwise. Trumps sharp language and public frustration come at a moment of increasing scrutiny, not just over Epsteins ties to the powerful, but over Trumps own history with the financier, whom he once described as a terrific guy. For years, Trump has leaned into conspiracy-laden rhetoric, embracing far-right fantasies about a shadowy cabal of elites harming children and portraying himself as the lone figure capable of unearthing the truth. Many of these theories found a central symbol in Epstein, whose death in federal custody in 2019 under murky circumstances only amplified the sense among Trumps supporters that powerful figures were hiding something. Now, with his Administration overseeing the very documents his followers long demanded, Trump has made a sharp pivotone that has disoriented many of his most ardent fans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I dont understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody, Trump told reporters Tuesday. The credible information has been given. That message has not landed. Trumps remarks, combined with Bondis shifting explanations and her reported clash with FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, have only fueled suspicions of a cover-up. Less than an hour after Trump published his post Wednesday morning, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, announced she was "proudly" cosponsoring an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote on releasing Epstein-related files. "I will never protect pedophiles or the elites and their circles," Greene wrote on X. Trump ally Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has influenced some of Trumps past decisions, has demanded Bondis resignation and called for a special counsel to investigate the files. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, in a post of his own, pleaded with Trump: @realdonaldtrump please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At a Turning Point USA summit last weekend, right-wing commentators Steve Bannon and Jack Posobiec called for transparency, with Posobiec vowing to go full Jan. 6 committee on the Jeffrey Epstein files. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, has tried to thread the needle, telling reporters that he is for transparency and wants Bondi to release the full set of documents. Trump on Wednesday suggested he no longer wanted the support of Republicans who were continuing to question his handling of the Epstein issue. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, he wrote. dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Later in the Oval Office, Trump suggested to reporters that he was done with the story despite what his supporters think. Its all been a big hoax, he said. Its perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Hes dead, hes gone, Trump added, referring to Epstein. Certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats and the Democrat playbook. Trump also said that Bondi has been waylaid from focusing on other issues, saying that she has bigger problems to work on. If she finds any more credible information shell give that, too, Trump said. What more can she do than that? The controversy has exposed the risks inherent in the political strategy Trump and his allies have long used: stoking distrust in institutions while wielding them for their own aims. That dynamic has become especially fraught now that Trump is once again in charge of the federal government. Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 on charges related to soliciting a minor and again arrested in 2019 for sex trafficking before dying in jail, had longstanding ties to powerful figures in both political parties, including Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a 2002 interview with New York Magazine, Trump praised Epstein as someone who likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. Though the two reportedly stopped interacting after a 2004 real estate bidding war, questions about their relationship have lingered. Last month, former Trump advisor Elon Musk publicly claimed that Trump was named in the FBIs Epstein files, setting off a new wave of speculation. The Justice Department has attempted to clarify that the remaining files include no actionable evidence implicating others and that previous claims about a client list were misunderstood. Bondi has suggested the records on her desk were misunderstood to be a list. Some Democrats have moved to capitalize on the issue, highlighting GOP lawmakers who once demanded full transparency but recently voted down amendments that would have forced release of the Epstein documents. But in his post, Trump, suggested those files were made up by Democrats. These Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at - Its all they have - They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates. Also, unlike Republicans, they stick together like glue. Meanwhile, the segment of Trumps base that remains committed to exposing what they see as elite crimes may not be so easily mollified. For this to go away, youre going to lose 10% of the MAGA movement, Bannon warned during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit on Friday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As Trump seeks to recenter his second term around more familiar grievancesimmigration, crime, the economythe Epstein files continue to dog him. And his latest declaration that the issue is a hoax may only deepen the mistrust among a faction of supporters who once saw him as their ultimate truth-teller. Write to Nik Popli at nik.popli@time.com. The Trump administration has deported five immigrants described as depraved monsters to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on banishing people to third countries. The five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos were so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back, Washington said. The US has already deported eight men to South Sudan and has been looking for other countries to take deportees, after the Supreme Court said it could send people to countries where they have no ties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for homeland security, said: These depraved monsters have been terrorising American communities but thanks to president Trump and Kristi Noem [the homeland security secretary] they are off of American soil. She said the five included a Vietnamese national accused of child rape, and men from Jamaica, Laos and Cuba convicted of murder. Mr Trump has said he is looking to make more deals with African nations to take deportees as part of his plan to aggressively ramp up mass deportations. The matter was discussed last week with the leaders of five West African nations who visited him at the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The US also has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. Eswatini is the last absolute monarchy in Africa and has been ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. The country of 1.2 million was known as Swaziland until 2018. The kingdom did not immediately comment on the deportations and it was not immediately clear where the men would be living, or what would happen to them. Ingiphile Dlamini, a spokesperson for the pro-democracy group Swalimo, told the Associated Press: There has been a notable lack of official communication from the Eswatini government regarding any agreement or understanding with the US to accept these deportees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This opacity makes it difficult for civic society to understand the implications. He said the tiny landlocked country could face significant strain in accommodating and managing individuals with complex backgrounds, particularly those with serious criminal convictions. He said his organisation wanted to know the plans for the five men and any potential risks to the local population. However, analysts say some African nations may be willing to help America take third-country deportees as part of negotiations for relief from tariffs, visa restrictions and foreign aid cuts. Eswatini has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world and, until this years American aid cuts, had been heavily reliant on Washington to fund a public health campaign against the epidemic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dozens of people were allegedly killed by security forces when pro-democracy protests erupted in 2021. Earlier this month, a top Trump administration official said in a memo that immigration officers may deport migrants to third countries with as little as six hours notice. The memo stated that migrants could be sent to nations that have pledged not to persecute or torture them without the need for further procedures. In recent weeks, US immigration authorities have ramped up efforts to track down illegal migrants and stop those arriving in the country from gaining citizenship. Landlords in Atlanta have allegedly received summons from Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding they turn over copies of the leases, rental applications, forwarding addresses and identification cards of their tenants, in a bid to increase mass deportations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency has also issued new guidance to make millions of immigrants who entered the US without legal authorisation ineligible for bond hearings, according to The Washington Post. The move, which authorities said closes a loophole in immigration law, would mean migrants remain in detention as they fight deportation proceedings in court, which can sometimes take years. It came as US Customs and Border Protection said illegal crossings at US borders in June fell to the lowest-ever level. There were 25,228 total encounters across the country, the lowest monthly total in history, the agency said. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was just getting back into President Donald Trumps good graces. But a new pick for a key state job lit a fuse in MAGA World and threatens to unravel it all. The Republican governor appointed one of his loyalists to a Florida Cabinet position Wednesday rather than select a Trump-endorsed candidate, just two weeks after the president declared DeSantis would always be my friend and that the two had blood that seems to match pretty well. Now, DeSantis-backed state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia will face off against Trump-backed state Sen. Joe Gruters for the job of state chief financial officer setting up a state Republican showdown that will culminate in an August 2026 primary. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This marks the first direct public conflict between the two former presidential rivals since Trump dominated the Iowa Caucuses, forcing DeSantis to withdraw from the White House race. And it has created dread among state GOP lobbyists and operatives, who worry about how distracting and divisive another Trump-DeSantis clash on the mens home turf will become. Gruters campaign is bringing on familiar faces for the modern GOP: Trumps 2024 co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita as senior strategist along with chief Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio. LaCivita vowed Wednesday to work to defeat any poser that stands in our way. And Fabrizio warned DeSantis decision will be viewed as a direct rebuke to the MAGA agenda. DeSantis, who announced his pick of Ingoglia at an event in Tampa, wasted little time defending his decision to bypass Gruters. He contended Gruters record including his support for an immigration bill the governor vetoed this year disqualified him from serious consideration. He maintained the bill would have blocked the state from setting up the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center. Joe Gruters has taken major positions that are totally contrary from what our voter base wants to do, DeSantis said. So if George Washington rose from the dead and came back and tapped me on the shoulder and said, Will you appoint Joe Gruters CFO? My response would be no. I cant do that without betraying the voters that elected me to lead this state in a conservative direction. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Allies to the governor tried to avoid the face off, even holding 11th-hour conversations with Gruters on taking another government job and withdrawing from the CFO contest, according to half a dozen GOP operatives and lobbyists who were granted anonymity to relay the details of private conversations. Jobs that were under negotiation included making Gruters president or chancellor of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Campus, the operatives and lobbyists said. A senior White House official told POLITICO that Trump supported whatever Gruters wanted to do because Joe has always supported the president, and added that Trump did not pressure DeSantis on Gruters. DeSantis himself said he had not talked to Trump about the appointment. We have not taken a hard line against Blaise doesnt mean we wont, the White House official said, adding, If we want to beat Blaise, we will beat him. The official raised a recent survey from St. Pete Polls that had Gruters up by 50 points when voters were told Trump endorsed him. The poll question didnt mention Ingoglia had DeSantis support. Its possible negotiations will continue for Gruters to bow out and give Ingoglia a smooth shot at the GOP nomination for CFO. At least one veteran GOP operative said the White House would need to see DeSantis make some sort of concession in return, such as endorsing Trump-backed Rep. Byron Donalds to be the next governor of Florida. If he doesnt, the operative said, I dont know how this whole thing gets solved. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The governors office declined to comment, pointing to DeSantis remarks at Wednesdays press conference. The senior White House official said Trump hasnt asked DeSantis to endorse Donalds but that it would be the right thing to do if he supports the president as he says he does. The official predicted Donalds would win regardless, because of Trumps backing. But DeSantis already brushed off Donalds candidacy and has been working on backing a different candidate, potentially even his wife, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, after his term ends. Trump called on Gruters to run for CFO more than a year ago, long before the role became vacant. Former CFO Republican Jimmy Patronis stepped down in late March to successfully run for Matt Gaetzs former congressional seat. Gruters talked openly about how he wanted DeSantis to pick him for CFO. But that was always unlikely: He and DeSantis have had a strained relationship for years, as Gruters has been firmly in the Trump camp and has criticized the governor. He also supported a 2024 marijuana legalization ballot measure that DeSantis poured his political capital into successfully defeating. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DeSantis cited the marijuana fight Wednesday when asked by reporters why he didnt go with Gruters and pointed to Gruters vote against a bill that makes it easier to decertify unions. In contrast, Ingoglia has been a DeSantis loyalist who sponsored many of the governors initiatives, from voting restrictions to illegal immigration bills and death penalty changes. Ingoglia also spoke publicly about how he wanted the job, but stressed hed respect the governors decision. During a showdown inside Floridas GOP legislative supermajority in January, Ingoglia stood up to his colleagues in the state Legislature and helped argue the governors position. Gruters, meanwhile, was one of the leaders on the other side of the fight. Ingoglia also defended the states Alligator Alcatraz detention facility this past weekend as it came under fire from Democrats, who said conditions were inhumane. Gruters attended the opening of the center when Trump showed up. Every single time we have had a flashpoint in Florida, DeSantis said, Blaise is running into battle to stand up for people like you. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Florida CFO is responsible for managing the states checkbook and overseeing regulations on banking and insurance, the latter of which has posed a huge problem for Floridians in recent years due to surging costs in property and car insurance. While in the Legislature, Ingoglia forcefully supported DeSantis push to reduce property taxes as much as possible and Wednesday, he previewed the issue as a top focus for him, alongside the governor, ahead of the 2026 cycle. But Trump allies predict the presidents endorsement of Gruters will override every other factor. DeSantis was able to dominate in the 2018 gubernatorial primary once he had Trumps backing. Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) pointed out that he won 83 percent of the vote in his January special election primary after Trump endorsed him. If Ron DeSantis wants to campaign against Donald Trump again, he clearly didnt learn after what happened last time, said Fine, a former Florida legislator and close friend to Gruters. It says a lot about how much Ronald values his relationship with Trump. The governor may have had reasons to feel optimistic about where he and Trump stood regardless of his CFO appointment. Two weeks ago, Trump praised him during a visit to Florida and said prior fights were behind them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And White House chief of staff Susie Wiles who previously worked for DeSantis during his first run for governor until the two had a brutal falling out told New York Post columnist Miranda Devine that the fallout was in the rearview mirror and that she thought DeSantis was a good governor. DeSantis may feel further emboldened about his clout in Florida following not just the victory against the marijuana ballot measure but another on abortion rights. Trump had been on the other issue of the marijuana ballot measure, but didnt go beyond posting about it on Truth Social. It remains to be seen how often Trump will touch down in Florida during the primary. The White House official told POLITICO the president would campaign here if we need to. The fact is, the official said, the president can and will beat any candidate he chooses to put his weight behind. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This isnt the first time DeSantis has favored one of his allies over Trumps pick. DeSantis appointed another loyalist, former state Attorney General Ashley Moody, to the Senate after Marco Rubio joined the State Department. Even though Trump had initially pushed for his daughter-in-law Lara Trump to receive the nod, Moody has been able to bring key Trump operatives to her 2026 operation to keep her seat the same ones Gruters secured which suggests she wont face a Trump challenger. Generally speaking, [DeSantis] is very ideologically pure on his appointments, said one Florida-based GOP lobbyist and political strategist. Look at the massive pressure that was put on him by Trump World to appoint Laura [sic] Trump. He appointed Ashley Moody and she has become very well respected in MAGA world. President Donald Trump disowned his supporters who have called for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, chiding them Wednesday as "weaklings" who "bought into this bulls---." The lengthy post on Truth Social represents the clearest split from the faction of his MAGA base that has questioned the Justice Departments handling of the case. My "PAST supporters have bought into this bulls--- hook, line, and sinker," he said in the post, adding, "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore!" Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., in 1997. (Davidoff Studios Photography / Getty Images file) The Justice Department published a memo this month determining that there was no evidence of an incriminating client list, prompting renewed consternation in MAGA world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Attorney General Pam Bondi in particular has faced criticism over her handling of the case. Asked in a February Fox News interview about a potential client list, Bondi said that its sitting on my desk right now to review. During a Cabinet meeting last week, Bondi clarified that she had been referring to a file related to Epstein. Trump has strongly defended Bondi from that criticism. "Pam Bondi, I really think that shes done very good," he told reporters Wednesday. "She says 'I gave you all the credible information,' and if she finds any more credible information, shell give that, too. What more can she do than that? I mean, honestly, what more can she do? And we do have bigger problems." Pressed about his Truth Social post, Trump said, "I've lost a lot of faith in certain people ... because they got duped by the Democrats." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House did not reply to a request for comment. In recent days, several Republican members of Congress and other prominent Trump supporters have pushed for more transparency over files related to Epstein. Im for transparency, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson. Its a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said last week in an all-caps post on X that the Justice Department should "release the Epstein client list." Asked to comment on Trumps post, Johnsons office pointed NBC News to Johnsons statement Tuesday night about a Democratic effort to attach an amendment about the Epstein documents to the House cryptocurrency bill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All House Republicans are for truth and transparency, the statement said in part. And we know President Trump can be trusted to make the right decisions, to stand for justice, and to protect the innocent. Greene did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Minutes after Trumps Truth Social post Wednesday, she posted on X: My blind loyalty and faith is ONLY in God and Jesus Christ my savior. That is what will guide my decisions, actions, and votes." Trump's post was bombarded with dozens of replies criticizing his remarks and the administration's handling of Epstein. Debate over Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose death in 2019 was ruled a suicide, has emerged as a fault line in MAGA world. Trump and his allies have for years peddled theories about Epstein, only for Trump in recent days to question why the case "would be of interest to anybody." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Its pretty boring stuff. Its sordid, but its boring, and I dont understand why it keeps going," Trump told reporters Tuesday evening. Trump was acquainted with Epstein, and he told New York Magazine in 2002 that Epstein was a "terrific guy." After Epstein was arrested, Trump said he had a falling-out with him "a long time ago." Epstein's death in jail was ruled a suicide, and conspiracy theories quickly spread afterward that he was murdered as part of a plot to protect his wealthy and powerful inner circle. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Wednesday, the White House said, as Trump presses for progress on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been taking part in the latest round of ceasefire talks in Doha since July 6, discussing a U.S.-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire that envisages a phased release of hostages, Israeli troop withdrawals from parts of Gaza, and discussions on ending the conflict. Trump will host the Qatari leader for dinner at the White House on Wednesday evening, the White House said in a daily schedule for the president. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump on Sunday said he hoped talks for a ceasefire deal would be "straightened out" this week. Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had said on Sunday he was "hopeful" about the ceasefire negotiations under way in Qatar, a key mediator between the two sides. U.S., Qatari, and Egyptian mediators have been working to secure an agreement; however, Israel and Hamas are divided over the extent of an eventual Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave. The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered in October 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel. Israel says Hamas killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Gaza's Health Ministry says Israel's subsequent military assault has killed over 58,000 Palestinians. It has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population, and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. A previous two-month ceasefire ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18. Trump this year proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza, which was condemned globally by rights experts, the U.N., and Palestinians as a proposal of "ethnic cleansing." Trump and Sheikh Mohammed are also expected to discuss efforts to resume talks between the U.S. and Iran to reach a new nuclear agreement. (Reporting by Enas Alashray; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Michael Perry and Rod Nickel) A rally calling for the release of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, at "Hostage Square" in Tel Aviv, July 12, 2025. (photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/FLASH90) Israel is expected to present additional flexibility regarding the deployment of IDF troops during the ceasefire. The Israeli delegation has requested a meeting with the Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the coming hours, a source familiar with the details told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Israel is expected to present additional flexibility regarding the deployment of IDF forces during the ceasefire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement US President Donald Trump will meet with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani for an official dinner on Wednesday to discuss negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal. Qatar is a key mediator between Israel and Hamas. The two are also expected to discuss efforts to resume talks between the US and Iran to reach a new nuclear agreement, Axios reporter Barak Ravid wrote on X/Twitter. Additionally, the president will participate in a Bilateral Meeting with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain. The two are set to discuss several agreements between the private sectors of Bahrain and the US, valued at an approximate $17 billion, including the launch of direct flights between Bahrain and New York. Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani attends a press conference, in Doha, Qatar, October 24, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Nathan Howard/Pool) Gaza talks stalled in recent days Negotiations have largely stalled, with the main points of contention between Israel and Hamas being the withdrawal of Israeli forces during the ceasefire and the distribution of aid within the Gaza Strip. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the past week, Israeli and Hamas delegations have attended eight rounds of negotiations in Qatar, facilitated by Qatar's prime minister and Egyptian intelligence officials. Amichai Stein contributed to this report. President Donald Trumpsmeltdown on Wednesday over what he called the Jeffrey Epstein hoax had quite an impact on social media. The president took to his Truth Social platform and posted a lengthy diatribe in which he referred to speculation about the convicted sex offenders clients as bullshit that his own PAST supporters have bought into ... hook, line, and sinker. He also said Epstein truthers were weaklings who are doing the Democrats work and insisted, I dont want their support anymore! Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps post came a day after he claimed the so-called Epstein files were fabricated by former FBI Director James Comey and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The financier had associated with various politicians, including both Trump and Bill Clinton, and was facing sex trafficking charges before his 2019 death in a New York jail cell. But Trumps DOJ and FBI heads recently stated that no Epstein client list exists, generating even more speculation from the public. Not surprisingly, many people on social media had strong reactions to Trumps post. This might be the craziest Trump post Ive ever read. He calls the Epstein files a scam, a hoax, and bullshit. If any of his supporters believe any part of the Epstein files, he doesnt want their support anymore. He labels them weaklings doing the Democrats work. pic.twitter.com/lNp6ZPP2WT Hoodlum (@NotHoodlum) July 16, 2025 Needless to say, Trump calling it the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax is beyond insulting to the young victims of Epsteins horrible crimes. But I suppose Epstein Denial is a choice. Trumps choice. Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 16, 2025 He's the weakling. He's protecting pedophiles. I'm glad he doesn't want my support because he's not getting it anymore. Larry (@LarryECornell) July 16, 2025 From Well release the files on Day One to These files are nonsense in record time. One of the most shameless 180s in modern presidential history - bragging about transparency, then hoping no one notices/cares about the flip. Darren Labrum (@DLabrum) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This just goes to show. Supporting Trump is a one way street. You are either 100% with him, or you are against him and he will turn on you in a flash. Hal_For_NY__ (@HalforNY__) July 16, 2025 It was always weird that Epstein, who Trump hung out with, died while Trump was in office and it somehow was a conspiracy against Democrats. Now it's finally blowing up in the GOP's face and dividing Trump's coalition, as Trump admits in the below post. https://t.co/JzoOhfYIBr Alex (@JewishWonk) July 16, 2025 Trump doubled down on the hoax claim during a media event later on Wednesday with Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. I know its a hoax I call it the Epstein hoax Trump is still crashing out over Epstein pic.twitter.com/W5X81qqjBt Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 16, 2025 And people were still skeptical about Trumps claim. You ever notice how every time Epstein gets mentioned, Trump short-circuits? He doesnt say its a tragedy He doesnt say we need answers He doesnt even say its complicated He calls it a hoax. A hoax that involved over 100 witnesses, sealed documents, private flights, Lucien Wolfe (@LucienWolfe111) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps clearly not realizing the magnitude of this he campaigned on this and now is telling us to forget about it this will cost him dearly everything from here on out will be clouded by Epstein and his legacy will be that of a president who covered for rich pedophiles Dr sherri (@Reform_West) July 16, 2025 Trump called his MAGA influencers to the White House, gave them carefully prepped Epstein binders, and told them to push the narrative, on camera no less! They flooded social media parroting his talking points, bragged about inside info, and smeared anyone who questioned it. Steve Reichel (@SteveReichel) July 16, 2025 Here we have some MAGA influencers holding up binders of a "democratic hoax" provided by the trump administration. pic.twitter.com/DhMrhr1uMH Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) July 16, 2025 They're are files. Maxwell was convicted because of them. If he's saying it's a hoax, he's all over them... pic.twitter.com/uTVzFTCoEq jP (@jim_pennington) July 16, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Related... The Trump administration is releasing 2,000 National Guard troops, half the number deployed last month in response to protests, following immigration raids in the area. Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement Tuesday. As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission. The move comes after President Donald Trump ordered 4,000 troops to be deployed last month in the wake of protests breaking out in response to a string of ICE raids across Los Angeles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After disembarking Marine One Tuesday evening, the president didnt respond when asked why he was pulling troops from Los Angeles. California Governor Gavin Newsom called for the remaining 2,000 troops to be sent home in a statement shared to social media on Tuesday evening. The Trump administration ordered half the National Guard troops in Los Angeles to be sent home, one month after they were first deployed in response to demonstrations over immigration raids (AFP via Getty Images) The Trump administration ordered half the National Guard troops in Los Angeles to be sent home, one month after they were first deployed in response to demonstrations over immigration raids (AFP via Getty Images) For more than a month, @realDonaldTrump has been exploiting @TheCalGuard as his political pawns. Thousands of members are still federalized in Los Angeles for no reason and unable to carry out their critical duties across the state, the governor wrote. End this theater and send everyone home. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After deploying the initial 2,000 National Guard troops, the president ordered the mobilization of an additional 2,000 California National Guard to be called into federal service to support ICEs efforts. At the time, Newsom blasted the move as purposefully inflammatory and predicted it would only escalate tensions. The state of California then sued the Trump administration over its deployment, claiming the decision has caused real and irreparable damage to both Los Angeles and the states larger sovereignty. Trumps decision marked the first time the state National Guard had been federalized by a president since 1965. The appeals court sided with the president, saying Trump "exercised his statutory authority" when he activated the troops. Protests erupted in Los Angeles and across the country last month as Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids, disrupting communities (Getty Images) Protests erupted in Los Angeles and across the country last month as Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids, disrupting communities (Getty Images) The decision to send troops home comes days after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced federal officers arrested more than 300 people at a marijuana facility in southern California on July 10. Days later, that figure rose to 361 after DHS said agents raided another cannabis farm in the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least one worker died after he was chased by federal agents during one of the farm raids, according to United Farm Workers. The move also follows a federal judge ordering the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests across seven counties in the state. The Justice Department appealed the decision on Monday. Credit: @realDonaldTrump/KMBC/ENTCOM Donald Trump has overseen nearly as many air strikes in the first five months of his second term as Joe Biden launched in his entire presidency. The US presidents onslaughts on Houthi militants in Yemen and jihadists in Somalia have been more ferocious than Mr Bidens, and he has ordered strikes on Iraq, Syria and most recently, Iran. After campaigning on a pledge to end American involvement in military conflicts, he has sharply escalated the countrys air campaigns, according to the data from Acled (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data), which maps conflicts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Trump has overseen 529 air strikes since his inauguration, compared with 555 over the entire four years of the previous administration. Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia were already being targeted by the previous administration, but Mr Trump opened up a new front with strikes on Irans nuclear programme. The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints, said Prof Clionadh Raleigh, chief executive of Acled, highlighting the intensity of the bombing campaigns. Mr Trump insists that his intense approach ensures peace through strength, an expression often attributed to Ronald Reagan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. Its called peace through strength, Mr Trump said in a speech during his inaugural ball. He has not struck Libya or Afghanistan, and air strikes are often seen as a more clinical alternative to putting US boots on the ground as Barack Obama did. But the new data have been published amid tensions within Mr Trumps Make America Great Again (Maga) base over whether he should be pursuing foreign military interventions at all. Donald Trump announces that the US has struck nuclear sites in Iran - CARLOS BARRIA/AFP via Getty Images Prominent Maga figures, including Tucker Carlson, last month complained that striking Iran ran against Mr Trumps America First isolationist promises. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Marjorie Taylor Greene, a high-profile Maga loyalist and critic of intervention, said there was a very big divide in Mr Trumps base over the issue and that she was sick of foreign entanglements. She said last month: I got elected on the exact same campaign promises that President Trump got elected on. We promised no more foreign wars, no more regime change. Yet polling at the time of the strikes showed Mr Trumps base in fact strongly backed him, with 84 per cent of Maga supporters agreeing with the strikes, including 70 per cent who strongly supported them. That compared with 72 per cent of traditional Republicans supporting the strikes, with 49 per cent strongly supporting them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prof Raleigh said the new data showed that America was not stepping back under Mr Trump. She said: Trumps preference for engagement begs the question: does this contradict his promise to end Americas wars or are the foreign strikes how he wishes to keep that promise? The recent air strikes on Irans nuclear sites have been framed as a major turning point in US foreign policy. But if you take a step back, they dont stand out they fit. In just five months, Trump has overseen nearly as many US air strikes as were recorded across the entire four years of the previous administration. The US military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isnt about geography its about frequency. A satellite view shows holes and craters in a ridge at Fordow, after the US struck Irans nuclear mountain - Maxar Technologies via Reuters The great majority of Mr Trumps strikes have been in Yemen, where in March he dramatically escalated the US air campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants menacing Red Sea shipping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The militants have proven stubbornly resilient to US firepower and last week sank two ships, despite having been hit by 470 strikes since January, according to the Acled data. This came at a cost of more than $1 billion to the US military. Mr Trump has also ramped up strikes in Somalia, where US forces have been hitting the local Islamic State group and also al-Shabaab. In March, the White House announced that it had killed an Isis attack planner in Somalia. Mr Trump said jubilantly: Our Military has targeted this Isis attack planner for years, but Biden and his cronies wouldnt act quickly enough to get the job done. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I did! The message to Isis and all others who would attack Americans is that we will find you, and we will kill you. Prof Raleigh said: While Trump has repeatedly promised to end Americas forever wars, he has rarely elaborated on how [this will take]. These early months suggest the plan may be to use overwhelming firepower to end fights before they begin, or before they drag on. The White House insisted Mr Trump was projecting peace through strength. A post on the White House Website read: President Donald J Trump will always put the American people first and through restoring the US militarys mission of lethality and leading with peace through strength in his foreign policy, President Trump is making good on his commitment to restore safety and security around the world. A GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb of the sort used in strikes on Irans Fordow and Natanz nuclear facilities on June 22 2025 - US Air Force via AP But that strategy comes at a cost, said Prof Raleigh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For civilians, its a renewed danger with little warning. For US allies, it raises concerns about co-ordination and unpredictability. And, for lawmakers, it deepens concerns about executive power and accountability. So, is Trump aiming to end wars by escalating quickly and decisively, or is this a return to high-risk, low-accountability foreign policy? Is air power being used to avoid deeper conflict, or just manage from above? What is clear: the US isnt stepping back. Its moving faster, striking first, and saving the conversations for later. Mr Trumps strikes have mainly been focused on the Middle East and the Horn of Africa, and culminated in an extraordinary assault on Iran. Iran The June strikes on Tehrans nuclear programme marked a major shift in the United States Middle East policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After days of Israeli strikes on Iran, Mr Trump ordered raids on three nuclear facilities. The key strike was on Irans secretive nuclear mountain, the Fordow fuel enrichment plant buried deep underground where more than 2,000 centrifuges enrich uranium to 60 per cent. Credit: KMBC/Reuters A sortie of B-2 stealth bombers dropped the latest GBU-57 A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker buster bombs, specifically designed to attack deeply buried and hardened tunnels. US intelligence agencies are thought to be compiling a final audit of the damage caused by the roughly 30,000lb bombs after contradictory early assessments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mr Trump said Irans nuclear programme had been obliterated in one of the most successful military strikes in history, but an early Pentagon assessment suggested limited damage. Iraq On March 13, the US Central Command (Centcom) reported it had killed one of the Islamic State groups leaders in an air strike in Al Anbar Province. Abdallah Makki Muslih al-Rifai, also known by the alias Abu Khadijah, was described as the groups number two. As chief of global operations and emir of its most senior decision-making body, he was responsible for logistics and planning, as well as a significant portion of the groups finances. Credit: U.S. Central Command Gen Michael Kurilla, Centcom commander, said at the time: Abu Khadijah was one of the most important Isis members in the entire global Isis organisation. We will continue to kill terrorists and dismantle their organisations that threaten our homeland and US, allied and partner personnel in the region and beyond. Abu Khadijah died alongside an associate, and both men were wearing suicide vests at the time of their deaths, the US military said. His death was confirmed by a DNA match. Syria On June 10, the US military said it had killed an Islamic State group commander in an air strike in north-west Syria on June 10. The commander, who was named as Rakhim Boev, was said to have been involved in planning attacks on the US and its allies outside Syria. A photograph accompanying the announcement showed a mangled Kia vehicle with its windscreen smashed and damage similar to previous strikes using the specialist R9X Ninja bomb. The US military said it killed an Islamic State group commander in an air strike in north-west Syria on June 10 The missile is designed to reduce the chances of civilian casualties by using its weight and a ring of blades to kill rather than exploding. The missile, which was developed from the more common Hellfire armament, has in recent years been used on targets in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. Mr Trumps Syrian strikes have come as his administration has begun reducing the number of American troops in the country from more than 2,000 to around 500. The drawdown has taken place as the Trump administration has recognised Ahmed al-Sharaa as the president of Syria. Under the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, Al-Sharaa previously headed AlaQaeda in Syria, deposing long-time dictator Bashar al Assad. Somalia On Feb 1, the US military said it had conducted multiple air strikes against the Islamic State group in Somalia. The strikes against cave complexes in the Cal Miskaad area of the Golis mountains killed at least 14 militants including an Omani called Ahmed Maeleninine. American commanders described him as a recruiter, financier, and external operations leader responsible for the deployment of jihadists into the United States and across Europe. On Feb 1, the US conducted air strikes on Islamic State in Somalia Abdifitah Mohamed Abdinur, the Puntland state minister for the presidency, said at the time of the strike that Somalia and its allies had been watching Maeleninines movements in the region. He said: He was an Omani-born man in his 40s who was wanted for international crimes and his movements and activities have been followed at least for the last two years, as he was hiding in the mountainous area of Puntland. He was a thorn removed from the flesh of Somalis and the world population, and he eventually tasted what he deserved. Yemen Strikes on Yemen account for the great majority of US missions overseen by Mr Trump, after he sharply escalated the campaign against Iran-backed Houthi militants in mid-March. While the US military has given few specific details of individual strikes, Acled has recorded 470 inside the country since January. Credit: TruthSocial/@realDonaldTrump In early April, Mr Trump posted video footage of what he said were Houthi rebels gathering before they were struck. The 25-second clip showed a group starting to gather, before an explosion left only two trucks visible and a deep crater in the ground, as smoke cleared. These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack, Mr Trump wrote alongside the black-and-white aerial footage. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis. They will never sink our ships again, he wrote. Yahya Saree, a Houthi spokesman, denied the gathering was linked to the rebels. He said: Does the US take pride in such an act? This was a tribal gathering that had nothing to do with your ships. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. In his inaugural address, Donald Trump said his proudest legacy as president will be that of a peacemaker. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable, the president said in his remarks on January 20. But six months later, Trump has already launched nearly as many airstrikes on foreign nations as Joe Biden did within four years, with analysts asking whether the presidents plan to end so-called forever wars involves overwhelming firepower to stop them from happening in the first place. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since Trump returned to the White House, the United States has carried out at least 529 bombings in more than 240 locations in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), an international data collection nonprofit. His predecessors administration launched 555. Trumps preference for engagement begs the question: Does this contradict his promise to end Americas wars or are the foreign strikes how he wishes to keep that promise? ACLED president Clionadh Raleigh said in a statement. The recent airstrikes on Irans nuclear sites have been framed as a major turning point in U.S. foreign policy. But if you take a step back, they dont stand out they fit. Donald Trumps administration has carried out more than 500 bombings since taking office in January (REUTERS) Donald Trumps administration has carried out more than 500 bombings since taking office in January (REUTERS) All of President Trumps decisive actions have been overwhelmingly popular and resulted in greater peace, White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to The Independent. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Operation Midnight Hammer successfully obliterated Irans nuclear capabilities, and [the Department of Defenses] successful strikes against ISIS and other malign groups killed terrorists want to do harm to Americans, she added. Anyone who sympathizes with evil terrorists and wants them to live should look inward, she said. A majority of the U.S. militarys airstrikes thus far have targeted Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in an effort to stop their attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea launched in retaliation for Israels war in Gaza. The administration struck Yemen at least 474 times within three months, ACLED found. The Biden administration launched 294 attacks in Yemen within roughly 12 months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps airstrikes in Yemen have reportedly killed as many civilians within the eight-week bombing campaign as in the previous two decades of U.S. attacks targeting militants in the country, according to nonprofit watchdog Airwars. At least 224 civilians were killed during the campaign between March and May, compared to 258 deaths between 2002 and 2024, that report found. The administration also launched 44 airstrikes in Somalia to target Islamic State operatives, according to ACLED. Trump first ordered the airstrikes in February, marking the first attacks in the African nation in his second term. The U.S. military is moving faster, hitting harder, and doing so with fewer constraints, according to Raleigh. Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and now Iran are all familiar terrain, but this isnt about geography its about frequency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Targeted airstrikes dont appear to be a last-resort measure under the Trump administration but the first move, Raleigh added. While Trump has repeatedly promised to end Americas forever wars, he has rarely elaborated on how, Raleigh said. These early months suggest the plan may be to use overwhelming firepower to end fights before they begin, or before they drag on. Throughout his campaign, the president accused Biden and, later, his Democratic rival Kamala Harris of leading the United States into World War III. These are wars that will never end with him, Trump said of Biden during a presidential debate in June 2024. Were closer to World War III than anybody can imagine. A majority of the U.S. militarys airstrikes thus far have targeted Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen (pictured) in an effort to stop attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea launched in retaliation for Israels war in Gaza (Houthi Media Center via Getty Images) A majority of the U.S. militarys airstrikes thus far have targeted Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen (pictured) in an effort to stop attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea launched in retaliation for Israels war in Gaza (Houthi Media Center via Getty Images) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Receiving the endorsement of now-intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard last year, Trump said the pair was uniting forces to end the endless foreign wars. I am confident that his first task will be to do the work to walk us back from the brink of war, Gabbard said at the time. We cannot be prosperous unless we are at peace. Trump vocal about his desire for a Nobel Peace Prize, and nominated for the honor by at least four of his allies also promised his administration would bring an end to Russias war in Ukraine and Israels war in Gaza. On Monday, the president laid out prospective steps to pressure Russia to end its war, including sending more weapons to Ukraine and threatening economic sanctions in Moscow if there is no peace agreement within 50 days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I felt we had a deal about four times, Trump said. But it just kept going on and on. His administration has also failed to broker a ceasefire in Gaza as Palestinians face threats of famine and Israeli airstrikes continue to bombard the strip. A tentative Trump-backed plan to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians into an area controlled by Israels military close to the Gaza-Egypt border has also threatened to derail ceasefire talks. The Independent has requested comment Department of Defense. Senators narrowly saved funding for PEPFAR, the U.S. HIV/AIDS relief program that has saved millions across the globe, as Congress battles the clock to pass vast spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump. Senate Republicans voted to preserve funding for HIV/AIDS relief on Tuesday night, abandoning a controversial $400 million proposed cut to PEPFAR woven into President Donald Trumps $9 billion spending reductions package. The vote moves Trumps campaign against government spending closer to fruition, but a final vote in the Senate, and likely the House of Representatives, is expected Thursday. Sparing PEPFAR (The Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) came after several Republican senators, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.), heavily objected to gutting the historic HIV/AIDS initiative. The spending measure still includes cuts to unused funds from USAID and public broadcasting, however new language added by the Senate reportedly protects global health program funding related to maternal health, malaria, and tuberculosis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters Tuesday that Trump was on board with the PEPFAR exemption. A senior Trump administration confirmed this detail with Fortune. There is a substitute amendment that does not include the PEPFAR rescission and were fine with that, Vought said, adding the vast majority of alleged savings remained. Big chunks of this proposal are not falling out. Vought and a small constituency of Republicans previously argued for cutting PEPFAR funds citing abortion-related concerns. It is against U.S. law for foreign aid to be used to fund abortions. In June, Vought told a Senate committee that PEPFAR had spent $9.3 million to advise Russian doctors on how to perform abortions and gender analysis. Senior PEPFAR officials from previous administrations and other implicated parties refuted these allegations to the New York Times. Rachael Cauley, the communications director for the OMB, maintained Voughts claims and alleged that the Times reporting was false in a statement to Fortune and said that her office was awaiting a correction. While OMBs Russia PEPFAR abortion claims remain contested, in January, a review of service providers in Mozambique, where abortion is legal, found that four nurses performed a total of 21 abortions since January 2021. U.S. officials immediately notified Congress upon discovering this violation and said that it was the first instance in PEPFARs two-decade history that program-funded providers were found to have provided an abortion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regardless of the programs recent controversy, the move to save PEPFAR funding may prove useful in coopting GOP support from powerful lawmakers like Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee and is an outspoken critic of Trumps proposed cuts. She and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky have continued to vote against the broader spending legislation, despite a looming Friday deadline for Congress. Despite Collins objections, she told reporters she was pleased with the success of her PEPFAR advocacy. This is something Ive worked hard to protect from the beginning. The HIV/AIDS relief program was launched in 2003 by then-President George W. Bush, and is considered one of the nations foremost global healthcare initiatives, namely in Africa. The U.S. has invested more than $110 billion in response to HIV/AIDS, and PEPFAR is credited with saving 26 million lives, preventing millions of HIV infections, and helping control the HIV/AIDS epidemic in more than 50 countries. The program has long benefited from bipartisan support, having been reauthorized by Congress four times. However, the Trump administrations near-shuttering of USAID, the main government agency responsible for implementing PEPFAR programming, has stunted the health initiatives impacts. Similarly, reductions at the Centers for Disease Control, PEPFARs secondary implementing agency, stand to further reduce its efficacy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, a senior administration official maintained to Fortune that Trump and the government at large remain committed to fighting HIV/AIDS, pointing to the release of $1.3 billion in funding for the Global Fund to fight AIDS by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Were already working with countries and other partners to ensure that they shoulder a greater share of the burden where they can. We continue to make targeted investments in mother to child prevention, and other key areas of focus, they said. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that he plans to place tariffs of over 10% on smaller countries, including nations in Africa and the Caribbean. Well probably set one tariff for all of them, Trump said, adding that it could be a little over 10% tariff on goods from at least 100 nations. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that the nations with goods being taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean, places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the U.S. and would be relatively insignificant for addressing Trump's goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president had this month been posting letters to roughly two dozen countries and the European Union that simply levied a tariff rate to be charged starting Aug. 1. Those countries generally faced tax rates on the goods close to the April 2 rates announced by the U.S. president, whose rollout of historically high import taxes for the U.S. caused financial markets to panic and led to Trump setting a 90-day negotiating period that expired July 9. Trump also said he would probably announce tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs at the end of the month. The president said he would start out at a lower tariff rate and give companies a year to build domestic factories before they faced higher import tax rates. Trump said computer chips would face a similar style of tariffs. The president would apparently rather disparage his base than release the case files pertaining to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Speaking with reporters at the White House Wednesday, Trump said that he had lost a lot of faith in his supporters, calling the controversy surrounding Epstein a hoax and accusing some conservatives of being duped by Democrats. You mentioned past supporters when you were talking about the Epstein issue. Does that mean you are effectively disowning any supporters? asked one reporter, referring to a lengthy rant Trump posted on Truth Social earlier in the day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Well, I lost a lot of faith in certain people, yeah, Trump said. Because they got duped by the Democrats. The Democrats are good for nothing. They almost destroyed our country. Reporter: You mentioned past supporters when talking about Epstein. Does that mean you are disowning any supporters? Trump: I lost a lot of faith in certain people because they got duped by the Democrats. pic.twitter.com/AhEOK2U1sP Acyn (@Acyn) July 16, 2025 But that wasnt the only insult Trump threw around. It is a hoax started by Democrats, its been run by Democrats for four years. You had Christopher Wray and Comey before him. Its a bad group, Trump said, likening his administrations home-brewed fiasco to the Trump-Russia dossier. Some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try to do the Democrats work. That last comment actually also applies to several MAGA politicos in leadership positions, including Vice President JD Vance and Trump himself, who jointly campaigned on repeat promises to release the Epstein files. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Much to Trumps chagrin, the botched rollout of the Epstein files has continued to plague his administration. A Morning Consult poll conducted earlier this month found that Trumps popularity had tanked by six points since the Justice Department contradicted Attorney General Pam Bondi on the existence of Epsteins so-called client list. The fallout has been so substantial that the president directed Fox News and some commentators such as Charlie Kirk to stop discussing the topic altogether, though that hasnt played well with some of the mouthier personalities on the far-right. Yelling at me to stop talking about a subject is the number one way to make sure that I keep talking about the subject, Matt Walsh posted on X Wednesday. And last month, Elon Musk accused Trump of being mentioned by name in the Epstein files, claiming that Trumps alleged attachment to the disgraced financier was the real reason why the details of the case had not yet been made public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Republicans have unquestioningly fallen in line behind their leader: on Tuesday, the party blocked a Democrat-led effort to release the Epstein files. The final vote was 211 to 210just one dissenting Republican would have tipped the scales. QAnon believerswho turned out at the polls in November to re-elect Trumphave believed for years that the 79-year-old billionaire politician would rid the world of Satan-worshiping, liberal-minded pedophiles who run the government and media. But Trumps sudden refusal to offer up what he has promised his conspiratorial followers has cast his messiah-like status with the group into doubt. A reminder that prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trumps closest friends. The socialites were named and photographed together, and Trump reportedly slept with his now-wife Melania for the first time aboard Epsteins plane, nicknamed the Lolita Express. But Trump also has a terrible track record with how he treats women outside of Epsteins world: the current president was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing Elle columnist E. Jean Carrol last year, was convicted as a felon for crimes relating to his affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, and famously boasted on a hot mic before his ascent to Americas political vanguard that he grabs women by the pussy. President Donald Trump continues to face backlash from his MAGA supporters over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The Justice Department and FBI said in a brief memo that a review found no Epstein "client list" and confirmed the disgraced financier died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The president has tried to shift focus away from the case, urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to release "whatever she thinks is credible" before going on to claim without evidence the entire thing was what he calls a "Democratic hoax." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some Republicans have fueled the Epstein intrigue and conspiracies surrounding the case for years, with Trump himself weighing in several times. Here's what Trump has said about Epstein during his first term, on the campaign trail and now as pressure builds on him to release the Epstein files. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: President Donald Trump attends the inaugural Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, July 15, 2025. 2019: Trump distances himself from Epstein: 'Not a fan' After Epstein was arrested and charged with sex trafficking of minors in July 2019, Trump was asked about his 2002 comments in which he called Epstein "terrific" in a New York Magazine story. In response, Trump repeatedly said he wasn't a "fan" of Epstein. "Well, I knew him like everybody in Palm Beach knew him," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "I mean, people in Palm Beach knew him. He was a fixture in Palm Beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan. I was not, yeah, a long time ago, I'd say maybe 15 years. I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you. I was not a fan of his." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In August 2019, after Epstein's death, Trump retweeted a post that alleged Bill Clinton was connected to Epstein's death. When asked about his retweet in an interview, Trump said "what we're saying is we want an investigation. I want a full investigation, and that's what I absolutely am demanding. That's what our attorney general -- our great attorney general -- is doing." The attorney general at the time was Bill Barr. Pressed further on if he really believed the Clintons were involved, Trump didn't shut it down. "I have no idea," he said, but encouraged further questions. "So you have to ask: Did Bill Clinton go to the island? That's the question. If you find that out, you're going to know a lot," Trump said at the time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epsteins crimes and has denied ever visiting Epsteins private island. 2020: Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed In August 2020, during the thick of his reelection campaign, Trump suggested Epstein may have been killed while in federal custody. The comments went against the findings of then-Attorney General Barr and the New York City medical examiner who ruled the death a suicide. During an interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein who at the time of the interview had just been arrested. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Her boyfriend died in jail. And people are still trying to figure out how did it happen," Trump said. "Was it suicide? Was he killed? And I do wish her well. I'm not looking for anything bad for her." In August 2023, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, Trump was pressed further on if he believed Epstein committed suicide or not. "Do you think it's possible that Epstein was killed?" Carlson asked. "Oh, sure, it's possible. I mean, I don't really believe -- I think he probably committed suicide," Trump said. 2024: Trump asked about Epstein on the campaign trail In June 2024, Trump was asked if he would release various files -- including the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files and the Epstein files -- during an interview with Fox News. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Would you declassify the Epstein files?" Fox News' Rachel Campos-Duffy asked. Trump responded, "Yeah, yeah, I would." That clip was circulated widely online, including by the Trump War Room -- the social media account of Trump's campaign operation. The account posted it to X with the caption: "President Trump says he will DECLASSIFY the 9/11 Files, JFK Files, and Epstein Files." But Trump's full answer to the question wasn't shown until it played on Will Cain's radio show. Trump went on to say in the exchange with Campos-Duffy: "I don't know about Epstein so much as I do the others. Certainly about the way he died. It'd be interesting to find out what happened there, because that was a weird situation and the cameras didn't happen to be working, etc., etc. But yeah, I'd go a long way toward that one." Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images, FILE - PHOTO: In this Sept. 8, 2004, file photo, Jeffrey Epstein is shown in Cambridge, Mass. In September 2024, Trump made a more firm pledge to release Epstein files during a podcast with Lex Fridman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fridman, in conversation with Trump, said "it's just very strange for a lot of people that the list of clients that went to the island has not been made public." "It's very interesting, isn't it? It probably will be, by the way, probably," Trump said. "If you're able to, you'll be --" Fridman started before Trump jumped in. "Yeah, I'd certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy's interesting because it's so many years ago," Trump said. "They do that for danger too, because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing but I'd be inclined to do the Epstein. I'd have no problem with it." 2025: Trump tries to dismiss Epstein files after DOJ, FBI memo prompts GOP backlash For the first several months of his administration, talk of the Epstein files was mostly left to Trump officials, including Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. In April, Trump said he was unaware of when the files would be released. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then, after the DOJ and FBI released their memo on July 7, Trump reacted to outrage from his MAGA base. Trump tried to shut down a question about Epstein during a Cabinet meeting the next day, July 8, right after the deadly flash flooding of the Guadalupe River. "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" Trump shot back to a reporter. "This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking. We have Texas, we have this. We have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable." Trump then turned to defend Bondi in a lengthy social media post on July 12, in which he said his administration and his supporters should prioritize their focus elsewhere. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and 'selfish people' are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein," Trump wrote in the post. Evan Vucci/AP - PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks to the media after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, July 15, 2025, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. The story, though, didn't die down and Trump only appeared to grow more angered by the pushback from his supporters. On July 15, Trump appeared to put the onus on Bondi for what comes next, saying she should release "whatever she thinks is credible" on Epstein. Later that day, Trump said he didn't understand the interest in Epstein. "It's pretty boring stuff. It's sordid, but it's boring, and I don't understand why it keeps going," Trump said. He added, "I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The next day, on July 16, Trump took to social media baselessly blaming Democrats for the files and those who he called "past supporters" of his for the fixation on Epstein. "Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this "b------," hook, line, and sinker," Trump wrote on his own conservative social media platform. "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!" Trump added. Trump doubled down on that claim in the Oval Office, calling it a Democratic "hoax." When asked by ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce if the attorney general told him it was a hoax or what evidence he'd seen of that, Trump replied: "The attorney general, no. I know it's a hoax. It's started by Democrats," Trump insisted. He added "some stupid" and "foolish" Republicans had fallen for it. ABC News' Will Steakin contributed to this report. President Donald Trump believes that former New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a solid chance of defeating Democratic Party nominee Zohran Mamdani in New York City's election for mayor. "I would think that he would have a good shot at winning," the president told reporters at the White House on Tuesday, as he referred to Cuomo. Trump offered his political punditry the day after Cuomo announced that he would continue his mayoral bid as an independent candidate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The former three-term governor, who is gunning for a political comeback after resigning in 2021 amid multiple scandals, was convincingly defeated last month by Mamdani in the Democratic Party's mayoral primary. Rnc Chair Claims Mamdani Face Of The New Democratic Party Mamdani's primary victory over Cuomo and nine other candidates rocked the Democratic Party, and boosted the Ugandan-born 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens toward becoming the first Muslim and first millennial mayor of the nation's most populous city. Read On The Fox News App Trump said that Cuomo's "got to run a tough campaign." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani, who was backed by progressive champions Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, surged to a primary victory over then-frontrunner Cuomo thanks to an energetic campaign that put a major focus on affordability and New York City's high cost of living. Trump Argues Nyc Faces Dire Consequences If Communist Mamdani Becomes Mayor Mamdani made smart use of social media platforms, including TikTok, as he engaged low-propensity voters. He proposed eliminating fares to ride New York City's vast bus system, making CUNY (City University of New York) "tuition-free," freezing rents on municipal housing, offering "free childcare" for children up to age 5, and setting up government-run grocery stores. Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani at a rally, in New York City, Wednesday, on July 2, 2025. Trump, in his comments Tuesday, repeated his claim that Mamdani is a "communist." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I dont think that race is over yet. We do have a couple of people running. There are things coming out about him," Trump added, as he referred to Mamdani. Republicans have spotlighted recent news items regarding Mamdani that have gone viral. They include a 2020 photo Mamdani posted online that shows him flipping off a statue of Christopher Columbus, stories about comments Mamdani made last December when he said as mayor he would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent comments in a cable news interview that "I have many critiques of capitalism." 'In It To Win It': Cuomo Refuses To Back Down In Heated Nyc Mayoral Race Against Zohran Mamdani Cuomo, during the final days of the primary campaign, shined a spotlight on unrest last month in Los Angeles to raise warnings about Trump, and showcase his own experience. And Cuomo pledged, if elected mayor, to mount a national campaign to try and thwart Trump's agenda, vowing to protect New York City from what he suggested could be a possible future federal crackdown against immigration protests in the city. Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a speech to supporters, acknowledges that rival Zohran Mamdani 'won' the New York City Democratic Party mayoral primary, on June 24, 2025 in New York, N.Y. But Mamdani campaign spokesperson Jeffrey Lerner, highlighting Trump's comments, said on Tuesday that "we would like to congratulate Andrew Cuomo on earning Donald Trumps endorsement. Obviously, this triumph speaks for itself. The question now is whether Cuomo will embrace Trumps support publicly or continue to just accept it in private." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump's apparent vote of confidence in Cuomo comes despite Mayor Eric Adams also being on the general election ballot. The embattled mayor announced earlier this year that he would seek re-election as an independent candidate. Andrew Cuomo Opens Up On Why He Lost The Mayoral Primary To Mamdani Adams' poll numbers were sinking even before he was indicted last year on five counts, which accused the mayor of bribery and fraud as part of an alleged "long-running" scheme to personally profit from contacts with foreign officials. The mayor made repeated overtures to Trump, and the Justice Department earlier this year dismissed the corruption charges so Adams could potentially work with the Trump administration on its illegal immigration crackdown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cuomo, in a video on Monday announcing his decision to stay in the race, said, "Only 13% of New Yorkers voted in the June primary. The general election is in November, and I am in it to win it." And Cuomo charged, "My opponent, Mr. Mamdani offers slick slogans but no real solutions." While he acknowledged Mamdani's victory in the primary, Cuomo left the door open to a November run as an independent candidate, which election rules in New York state permit. And late last month, Cuomo let pass a deadline for candidates who had already qualified to run as independents to decline that independent ballot line. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But sources told Fox News at the time that Cuomo had not committed yet to running an active general election campaign through the summer and into the autumn. While polling in recent days suggests Mamdani is not running away with the race, Cuomo faces an uphill climb in the general election. In deep blue New York City, the Democratic primary winner is largely favored to win the general election. And some of the unions and elected officials that supported Cuomo in the primary are now backing Mamdani. Also on the ballot in the general election are Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor running as an independent, and Guardian Angels co-founder Curtis Sliwa, who for a second straight election is the Republican mayoral nominee. Walden has proposed that an independent survey be conducted in September to determine which candidate would have the best shot of defeating Mamdani, with the other candidates agreeing to drop out. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But having Cuomo and Adams agreeing to such a scenario seems remote, as both have urged the other to exit the race. Fox News' Courtney De George contributed to this report. Original article source: Trump says Cuomo's got a 'good shot' of beating Mamdani in NYC mayor election President Donald Trump delivered a word salad Tuesday about allegedly doing an unnamed House Republican a very big favor in exchange for his vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The comment naturally left social media users concerned about potential bribery and corruption. We only had two negative votes, he recalled while speaking at the Pennsylvania Energy & Innovation Summit. I didnt invite those two guys to anything. We had a guy named Rand Paul Jr. hes known as Rand Paul Jr. in the House he always votes no. We had somebody else, I did him a big favor ... I wont mention his name. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump said an adviser warned him during discussions at the time that, like Rand Paul Jr., this other Republican was also unlikely to support the bill. And I said, No, hes going to vote because I did him a very big, big favor, the president continued. A very personal favor, as big as you can get having to do with death and life. No, hes going to vote, dont worry about it ... And sure as hell, he voted against us. Trumps tax and spending bill was a contentious piece of legislation that is expected to balloon the national debt by $4 trillion over the next decade. Its also set to kick millions of people off Medicaid and curb eligibility for food programs. While it passed into law earlier this month, two House Republicans joined Democrats in voting against it: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.). Trumps remarks thus werent so subtle, as the two votes he decried are a matter of public record. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump has also previously referred to Massie as Rand Paul Jr. while speaking with reporters and on social media. The only other Republican to vote against the bill was Fitzpatrick. Trump: I did him at very big personal favor, had to do with death and life. He voted against us. Another great move by Trump. Anyway, so much for favors. pic.twitter.com/9kARAdCs56 Acyn (@Acyn) July 15, 2025 Massie said after casting his vote that he was mainly opposed to the bill due to its projected impact on the national debt. Fitzpatrick supported the House version of the bill in May, but changed course after the Senate version imposed even deeper cuts to Medicaid. I voted to strengthen Medicaid protections and increase Medicaid spending, to permanently extend middle class tax cuts, for enhanced small business tax relief, and for historic investments in our border security and our military, Fitzpatrick wrote at the time. However, it was the Senates amendments to Medicaid, in addition to several other Senate provisions, that fell short of our standard, he continued, adding: I believe in, and will always fight for, policies that are thoughtful, compassionate, and good for our community. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump appeared to dismiss these GOP no votes with a joke: I said, Another one down. Another great move by Trump. Anyway, so much for favors, you know? People were a little less enthusiastic about the story on social media. Trump fails to understand that congressional representatives do NOT work for him. They work for the fucking people of this country, as they have taxpayer funded salaries. Nicole (@SHassenn) July 15, 2025 So he's just openly bragging about bribery now? Catherine Schnurr (@Catheri16757657) July 15, 2025 Did he just admit to trying to bribe people for votes in the Senate? Dj Omega Mvp (@DjOmegaMVP) July 15, 2025 You mean he sticks with his principles and doesn't accept bribery? I would think a President would want all parties to think that way, wouldn't you? The Obfuscator (@jay_dale) July 15, 2025 Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump just casually admitted to trading a life and death favor for a vote then whined that it didnt work. This isnt politics. Its a mob boss sulking over unpaid loyalty. AnatolijUkraine (@AnatoliUkraine) July 15, 2025 Related... US President Donald Trump has stated that the first Patriot systems intended for Ukraine are being sent to allies. Source: Reuters Quote: "They [Patriot systems] are already being shipped." Details: When asked which countries the missiles are coming from, Trump said they were arriving from Germany. "They're coming in from Germany and then replaced by Germany. And in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full... We're always getting our money back in full," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump also noted that he had not spoken with Russian leader Vladimir Putin since 14 July, when he confirmed his intention to send various types of weapons to Ukraine, including Patriot systems. Background: On 14 July, Trump once again expressed his disappointment with Russia and promised to bring in tough sanctions if a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow is not reached within 50 days. Trump also announced the transfer of up to 17 Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine in the near future. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! By Trevor Hunnicutt WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday attacked fellow Republicans critical of his administration's handling of the case of dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. On social media and in the Oval Office, Trump lashed out at allies he said were falling for a "hoax" pushed by Democrats, who "unlike Republicans ... stick together like glue." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, was facing federal charges of sex-trafficking minors when he died by suicide in jail in 2019. He had pleaded not guilty, and the case was dismissed after his death. Some of Trump's most loyal followers were enraged when the Trump administration last week reversed course on its pledge to release documents it had suggested contained major revelations about Epstein and his alleged clientele. "It's all been a big hoax," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "It's perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans, and foolish Republicans fall into the net and so they try and do the Democrats' work." On Truth Social earlier in the day, Trump said of Republicans raising concerns about the case: "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore!" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The backlash over the Epstein case has laid bare tensions inside Trump's coalition and is testing one of Trump's most enduring political strengths: his ability to command loyalty and control the narrative across the right. A former Trump adviser, Mike Flynn, on Wednesday said on X that the matter was not a hoax. "With my strongest recommendation, please gather your team and figure out a way to move past this," he said. The Justice Department last week concluded there was "no incriminating client list" or any evidence that Epstein may have blackmailed prominent people. The review also confirmed prior findings by the FBI that Epstein killed himself in his jail cell while awaiting trial, and that his death was not the result of a criminal act such as murder. The findings contradicted earlier suggestions made before Trump's inauguration in January by current Trump administration officials Dan Bongino and Kash Patel that the government was concealing key information about the Epstein case. A February comment by Attorney General Pam Bondi, which she later clarified, further amplified the speculation. In recent weeks, the rumors have gained traction as conservative influencers and media figures have continued to promote the idea of hidden bombshell disclosures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson, have called for the Justice Department to release more Epstein documents. But Republicans have blocked efforts by Democratic lawmakers to push measures that would force the agency to make those documents public. Trump, who knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s, on Wednesday again defended Bondi's handling of the matter and said she could release any credible documents related to the case. "Whatever's credible, she can release," he told reporters. "If a document's there that's credible, she can release. I think it's good." But he was also eager to move past the issue. "I'd rather talk about the success we have with the economy," he said. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Osterman) The Trump administration is moving full-steam ahead with plans to gut the Education Department after getting a green light from the Supreme Court. Conservatives are in celebration mode after the high court said the administration can lay off half of the departments workforce, arguing the move is long overdue and echoing President Trumps calls to return education to the states. Opponents, who are holding out hope for a win in the appeals court to which the case now returns, warn the layoffs will cause the Education Department to fail in its statutory obligations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After the high court ruling, the legal battle will go back to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will make the final determination of legality for the lower courts. After its decision, either party could potentially take the case back to the Supreme Court. Litigation will proceed, but the harm is already done and its happening, and theyre going to act quickly to implement it, and that cannot be undone. So, while this is a preliminary injunction that was stayed while the litigation continues, the harm is going to continue, and it is going to have a devastating impact, said Shiwali Patel, senior director of Safe and Inclusive Schools for the National Womens Law Center. The Department of Education, which started its work in 1980, began this year with more than 4,000 employees. Trump has announced plans to fire more than 1,300 of them. The president promised on the campaign trail to completely eliminate the department, but a complete shutdown of the Education Department is not possible without an act of Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Education advocates, however, argue his actions will force a de facto shutdown, and the liberal justices in their dissent wrote the courts decision will cause the federal agency to fall short of its legal mandates. It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out, wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitutions separation of powers is grave, they added. Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon quickly cheered the majoritys decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United States Supreme Court has handed a Major Victory to Parents and Students across the Country, by declaring the Trump Administration may proceed on returning the functions of the Department of Education BACK TO THE STATES. Now, with this GREAT Supreme Court Decision, our Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, may begin this very important process, Trump posted on Truth Social. Among the departments major functions, Trump has previously floated moving the responsibility of student loan management to the Small Business Administration, and programs for students with disabilities to the Department of Health and Human Services. Others have said the Office of Civil Rights should go to the Department of Justice. McMahon said the department will carry out the reduction in force to promote efficiency and accountability but will continue to perform all statutory duties while empowering families and teachers by reducing education bureaucracy. Supporters of the move are excited, arguing if the president wanted to completely eliminate the department, his actions do not match that goal so far. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think the president has authority to make decisions about the size of the federal workforce as long as he is continuing thinks he can continue to execute the jobs that Congress gave him. I think that the opposition to his cuts were largely based on the argument that this is really just about eliminating the department, but I think the evidence is that the cuts werent about eliminating the department, said Neal McCluskey, director for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute. McCluskey pointed to the Education Department rehiring dozens of people after the mass layoffs as evidence that suggests the goal was not to destroy or eliminate the department by firing everybody. But others feel the messaging from the Trump administration has hurt the cause of wanting to reform the Education Department. Beth Akers, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has advocated for reforms such as the student loan portfolio moving to the Treasury Department. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think there is a reasonable argument to be made for both downsizing the department, maybe shifting some of the responsibilities elsewhere, but I think the messaging coming from the administration of closing the department has kind of corrupted those ideas, because It feels like the ambition of the president is more of a political rhetoric than it is about making these necessary programs work better, Akers said. I think its unfortunate that something that has real credibility as a policy solution has been kind of taken over and driven by politics, she added. While those against the Trump administrations reforms still have a shot in the appeals court, many are not confident after the Supreme Court ruling in which the conservative majority did not explain the reasoning behind their decision. I think, ultimately, their opinion on this ruling indicates how they will continue to rule until he explicitly violates the law, said Alex Lundrigan, federal policy and advocacy manager at Young Invincibles. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I think it opens a larger conversation between Congress and the executive branch about, like, checks and balances in terms of if a president can just completely wipe out a department, except for name alone, he continued. Congress might start to revisit how they are reauthorizing legislation that created some of these departments and enshrining more provisions that protect some of them from being stripped away, essentially. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. More than a century after signing a compact agreeing to share water from the South Platte River, Nebraska on Wednesday sued Colorado, accusing its western neighbor of withholding more water than the compact permits it to and preventing Nebraska from building a canal the compact allows for. In 1923, a legal dispute over the river's water supply led the two states to sign the compact, under which Colorado agreed to allow 120 cubic feet per second of water to pass into Nebraska during irrigation season. The compact also authorized the Cornhusker State to build a canal to capture at least 500 cubic feet per second of water during non-irrigation season, which runs from mid-October through February. But in a 55-page complaint filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers' office accused Colorado of violating both tenets of the compact by diverting as much as 423.6 billion gallons of water from Nebraska and blocking the state's efforts to build a $628 million canal near Perkins County. In the lawsuit, Hilgers said the alleged compact violations "threaten to drastically curtail Nebraskas access to water" from the river that runs east from the Rocky Mountains into and through Nebraska. The alleged breaches "have harmed Nebraska and pose a significant, ongoing threat to Nebraska, from its agricultural economy to the water security of its major population centers," according to the lawsuit, which Hilgers said "may be the most consequential lawsuit that this office will be a part of in my generation." Hilgers unveiled the lawsuit at a Wednesday morning news conference at Nebraska's Capitol alongside Gov. Jim Pillen, who said it was "crystal clear Colorado has been holding water back from Nebraska" for years, an issue he pledged to "fight like heck" to resolve. "We've been losing to Colorado on this issue for too long. It's time we win, and that's where we're going to do it at: the United States Supreme Court," Pillen said, later accusing Colorado of having "no interest in anything being fair and just." "They want absolutely everything," the governor said. "They're even stealing the water from their own farmers." Officials in Colorado immediately pushed back on those claims, accusing Pillen and Hilgers of putting "politics above farming and ranching communities and the regional agricultural economy." "The failure to look for reasonable solutions and to turn to litigation is both unfortunate and predictable given the misguided effort driving the proposed canal," Phil Weiser, Colorado's attorney general, said in a statement. "Nebraska has now set in motion what is likely to be decades of litigation," Weiser said. "And if, after decades of litigation, the court allows Nebraska to move forward with its wasteful project, Nebraskas actions will force Colorado water users to build additional new projects to lessen the impact of the proposed Perkins County Canal. When the dust finally settles, likely over a billion dollars will have been spent tens of millions of that on litigation alone and no one in Nebraska or Colorado will be better off." At Wednesday's news conference, Hilgers acknowledged the case may take up to five years to resolve but said the state only filed the suit after negotiations with Weiser's office reached an impasse. The canal project contemplated in the century-old contract sat dormant for decades until former Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts prioritized it late in his second term in 2022 as he and state water officials warned that flow from the South Platte dipped below the compact's 120 cubic feet per second provision every summer and the situation threatened to worsen as Colorado moved to spend billions on additional water projects along the river. Nebraska lawmakers began setting aside money for the project in 2022 and have earmarked a total of $628 million for it. The state made its first purchase of land in Colorado for the project on Dec. 29, 2023. The 1920s compact gives Nebraska the right to get land for the canal in Colorado, including by using eminent domain. The state gave some Colorado landowners a mid-April deadline this year to sell their land or face the possibility of Nebraska using that power to force the sale of land. Nebraska's lawsuit alleges that Colorado officials have in recent years prepared to fight the intrastate use of eminent domain. Weiser in January told commissioners in Sedgwick County, Colorado which borders Nebraska's Perkins County that "Colorado is prepared to defend its rights" under the compact should Nebraska follow through with its attempts to condemn the land. Meanwhile, Colorado has allowed South Platte water that should flow to Nebraska to be diverted before it reaches the state "hundreds of times" in the past decade, Hilgers alleged in the lawsuit. In 2022, those diversions forced a water irrigation district in western Nebraska to shut down surface water irrigation operations for the majority of its service area due to a lack of water supply, Hilgers alleged. "They're holding more and more water all the time," said Dennis Schilz, an Ogallala farmer who sits on the board that governs the Western Irrigation District that borders Colorado. "Going back, Western has been shorted considerably over the years." He said he'd spent "a long time waiting" for Wednesday's lawsuit. The suit asks the Supreme Court to compel Colorado and its residents to honor the century-old compact, award Nebraska water the state has been deprived of, and bar Colorado from impeding the construction of the canal, which the Pillen administration still hopes to complete by 2032. LONDON -- President Donald Trump had promised a "major statement" on Russia on Monday, and it did look like a big shift in his approach to the war in Ukraine. But significant uncertainty remains amid a lack of key details. Sitting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and apparently fed up with being slow-walked by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump threatened the Kremlin with tough tariffs if it doesn't make a deal to end the war within 50 days. But perhaps more important was Trump's shift on weapons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After months of seeming to threaten he might cut off military aid to Ukraine entirely, on Monday Trump promised "billions" in weapons would be sent, now that Europe will pay for them. Evan Vucci/AP - PHOTO: NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte speaks during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, July 14, 2025, in Washington. Trump and Rutte announced that other NATO countries have now agreed to purchase U.S. weapons on Ukraine's behalf. Much remained unclear about the deal, but Rutte claimed it meant Ukraine will now be able to get "massive" amounts of military equipment, including ammunition and missiles. European allies, he and Trump said, would also be able to now rush equipment from their own depleted stocks to Ukraine, knowing it can be backfilled. If Trump now permits a substantial amount of U.S. weapons to continue to flow to Ukraine, that would mark an important change. Since Trump took office, many in Ukraine and European capitals have thought that might well be the best-case scenario for Ukraine, given the U.S. president's clear hostility to continuing U.S. donations. Most of all, it would send a very different message to Putin. For months, Putin has believed, Ukraine's U.S. military backstop has been dissolving under Trump. That has emboldened Putin to push harder in military action against Ukraine. If this deal reverses that, it may start to change Putin's perception. Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik via Reuters - PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on social issues, in Moscow, Russia July 14, 2025. But the details will matter. The Patriot missile defense systems Trump has authorized to send are important, given Russia's hugely increased air attacks. But a real test now will be what other weapons will Ukraine receive. Trump also said the U.S. would send "various pieces of very sophisticated military equipment." For now, the Pentagon is still working out what will be sent, two U.S. officials told ABC News on Monday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Trump on Monday did appear to be much closer to U.S. allies' view of the war. In contrast to the Oval Office meeting in February where he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Monday Trump praised Ukraine as "courageous" and spoke of the "amazing" "esprit de corps" of European countries in uniting to defend it. On Putin, Trump again expressed frustration, at one point coming close to repeating former President Joe Biden, who called Putin "a killer." "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy. It's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people," Trump said, listing off recent former presidents he said Putin had duped. Trump said Putin "didn't fool me," but he expressed surprise that what he called his "nice" phone calls with Putin had turned out not to mean anything. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I always hang up say, 'Well, that was a nice phone call.' And then missiles launched into Kyiv or some other city, and it's strange. And after that happens, three or four times, you say the talk doesn't mean anything," Trump said. "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' She said, 'Oh, really? Another city was just hit.'" Nathan Howard/Reuters - PHOTO: President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, where President Trump announces a deal to send U.S. weapons to Ukraine through NATO, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 14, 2025. The key question now is how seriously will Putin take Trump's new approach? The tariff threat also currently remains vague and some experts have expressed doubts it can be effectively imposed. So-called "secondary tariffs" to punish countries that import Russian oil and gas could have a potent effect but are complicated and, for example, could require a major showdown with China. An obvious question is why did Trump choose to give Putin 50 days before imposing 100% tariffs? One possible explanation is that period is how long Russia's current summer offensive is predicted to last. Axios reported recently that Putin himself even told Trump in a recent phone call that he intended to push hard for the next 60 days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration may hope Putin will be more inclined to negotiate once Russia's offensive exhausts itself, particularly if it goes badly. Intensified sanctions -- if they come -- and greatly increased weapons might slowly push Putin towards real negotiations, if his summer offensive fails to achieve much. But Putin may not believe Trump has the patience to stick with a hard line. Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP via Getty Images - PHOTO: President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on July 14, 2025. Tatiana Stanovaya, a Russia analyst and founder of R.Politik, wrote on X that many in Russia's elite viewed Trump's new approach as just a temporary maneuver to test Putin. "Once it becomes evident that such pressure is ineffective -- expected to be soon -- Trump is likely to revert to a diplomatic course, including exerting pressure on Ukraine to reach a compromise," Stanovaya said, summarizing the group's thinking. In the short term, Putin is likely to continue to push as hard as he can. He believes he's winning. Only when he starts thinking otherwise might he negotiate. July 16 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed bipartisan legislation that attempts to curb the illegal flow of fentanyl into the United States by reclassifying the opioid as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act. Trump appeared in the White House's East Room with supporters, including members of Congress and three people who described the deaths of family members from the opioid. The Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, or HALT Fentanyl Act, enacts harsher penalties for those convicted of offenses related to the drug. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under the law, fentanyl-related substances are triggered by the same quantity thresholds as analogues -- 100 grams or more and a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence. During Trump's first term in office, fentanyl analogues were temporarily listed as under Schedule 1. Analogues are substances chemically similar to the regular drug. Family members of fentanyl victims hold photos of their fentanyl victims as President Donald Trump speaks before signing the HALT Fentanyl Act in the East Room of the White House ion Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI "This is a very special time because we've worked very hard to put ourselves in this position," Trump said. "Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers and criminal cartels that we've all been hearing so much about for so many years and little has been done. "And we take a historic step toward justice for every family member touched by the fentanyl scourge." President Donald Trump shows the HALT Fentanyl Act signed In the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI Ann Funder, who spoke to the Republican National Convention last July, lost her 15-year-old son Watson in 2022 to fentanyl poisoning. Gregory Swan's son Drew died in 2013, also from fentanyl poisoning, and he formed Fentanyl Fathers, who tell their tragic stories to high schools nationwide. Jacqueline Siegel founded Victoria Voice after the 2015 death of her 18-year-old daughter, Victoria, to a fentanyl overdose; and her sister died from cocaine laced with fentanyl this year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill overwhelmingly passed in both chambers: 321-104 in the House and 84-16 in the Senate. Jackie Siegel, whose daughter Victoria and sister Jessica died from fentanyl overdoses, speaks before President Donald Trump signs the HALT Fentanyl Act in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI President Joe Biden supported the legislation, but it stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate. "Despite tens of thousands of Americans dying from fentanyl overdose each year, Democrats refused to pass this commonsense bill when they controlled Congress and the White House," Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said after the passage on June 12. "I'm proud to see Republicans take real action to combat the fentanyl crisis, advance life-saving research and support our brave men and women in blue." Anne Funder, whose son Weston died from a fentanyl overdose, speaks before President Donald Trump signs the HALT Fentanyl Act in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI "I want to thank President Trump for his continued commitment to keeping illicit substances out of our country, and the HALT Fentanyl Act works directly in line with that mission," U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie of Kentucky said Wednesday. "As the Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, I'm proud to have been a part of creating such critical legislation that permanently places fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act to ensure law enforcement can crack down on drug traffickers that have wrought havoc on our communities for too long." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill established an alternative registration process for certain Schedule 1 research. President Donald Trump embraces Anne Funder, mother of fentanyl victim Weston, during a signing ceremony for 'The Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act' in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI Nine major medical associations, more than 40 major advocacy groups and law enforcement groups representing 1 million officers supported the bill. In 2024, there were 48,422 deaths involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl in the United States with 76,282 in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2013, it was just 3,017 overdoses. President Donald Trump departs after signing the Halt Fentanyl Act during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI Trump has tied some tariffs on imported goods to the flow of fentanyl from other countries, including China, Canada and Mexico. "Six months ago, we came into office and inherited the worst drug crisis in American history by far," Trump said. "They did nothing. For four long years, Joe Biden surrendered our borders to the most evil and vicious traffickers, and networks and everything else on the planet Earth, allowing foreign drug cartels to carve out a massive footprint on American soil. ... This open borders nightmare flooded our country with fentanyl and with people that shouldn't be here." President Donald Trump signs the Halt Fentanyl Act in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The bill permanently places fentanyl-related substances into Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI He has designated the Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And on his first day in office on Jan. 20, ordered the creation of Homeland Security task forces on illegal drugs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through June, there have been 9,200 pounds of fentanyl seized with 21,900 for the entire 2024 at the border. Guests who have lost family members to fentanyl hold photos of their loved ones as President Donald Trump signs the Halt Fentanyl Act during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington DC on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. The bill permanently places fentanyl-related substances into Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI Last month, were a record-low 8,024 U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions. In December 2023, there were 251,178 apprehensions. US President Donald Trump blasted his own supporters and "stupid" Republicans Wednesday as he went on the attack against anyone questioning his administration's handling of the case of dead sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. Trump took his most combative tone yet to try and shut down the issue, after days of struggling to brush off a conspiracy theory that his base has long embraced, but which he now claims is a Democratic hoax. Trump, 79, began on Wednesday by saying that "my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line and sinker", in a post on his Truth Social network, and calling them "weaklings." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He later took aim at his own party. "It's all been a big hoax, it's perpetrated by the Democrats. And some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net and so they try and do the Democrats' work," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump is facing the most serious split in his loyal right-wing base since he returned to power, over claims that his administration is covering up lurid details of disgraced financier Epstein's crimes to protect rich and powerful figures. Epstein died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019 -- during Trump's first term -- after being charged with sex trafficking in a scheme where he allegedly groomed young and underage women for sexual abuse by the rich and powerful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump-supporting far-right has long latched on to the scandal, claiming the existence of a still-secret list of Epstein's powerful clients and that the late financier was in fact murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up. Trump supporters expected the Republican to answer their questions on his return to office this January but now find themselves being told the conspiracy theories are false. The Justice Department and FBI said in a memo made public earlier this month there is no evidence that the disgraced financier kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures. They also dismissed the claim that Epstein was murdered in jail, confirming his death by suicide, and said they would not be releasing any more information on the probe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement - Trump's changing tune - Trump doubled down when he faced repeated questions on the issue Wednesday during a visit with Bahrain's visiting crown prince, pinning the blame for the wild conspiracy theories on his opponents. He then sought to deflect, rattling off what he said were a list of his economic and foreign policy achievements and complaining that people were instead "talking about a guy who obviously had some very serious problems who died three, four years ago." "And the sad part, it is people that are really doing the Democrats work. They're stupid people." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked if his post describing supporters who questioned the White House's line as "past" was effectively disowning them, Trump replied: "I lost a lot of faith in certain people, yes." Trump is one of the many currently famous people who were formerly friends with Epstein, but denies having gone to his notorious US Virgin Islands home. He said ahead of his election he would have "no problem" releasing files on the case. But his administration's attempts to brush the issue under the carpet instead have sparked fury among supporters. Beyond that, the issue has opened a schism within his administration, sparking a fiery blow-up between Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, who is said to be considering resigning. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump on Wednesday reiterated that Bondi could release "whatevers credible" in the files. But criticism of Trump's handling of the issue continued -- even from some of his closest allies. Republican Senator Ted Cruz told reporters: "I have long said we should release everything." Retired general Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security advisor in his first term who resigned after lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, said the "roll out of this was terrible, no way around that." "It is NOT about Epstein or the left. It is about committing crimes against CHILDREN," added Flynn, a frequent stoker of conspiracy theories whom Trump appointed to a board overseeing US military service academies back in March. dk/sms Donald Trump went on a bizarre rant Tuesday when he told a deeply weird fib boasting that his uncle John Trump taught a notorious terrorist at university. During an energy and tech summit in Pennsylvania, Trump took a detour from his remarks, telling attendees, I have to brag, just for a second. He told a story about his uncle, a noted scientist who taught for decades at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. My uncle was at MIT, one of the great professors, Trump said. 51 years, whatever. Longest-serving professor in the history of MIT. Three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math. Thats a smart man. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kaczynski was one of his students, he continued, apparently referring to the domestic terrorist and mathematician Theodore Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber. Do you know who Kaczynski was? Theres very little difference between a madman and a genius, Trump added. A photo composite of President Donald Trump and the The president then told an impossible-to-believe anecdote about a conversation he claims he had with his uncle: I said, What kind of a student was he, Uncle John? Dr. John Trump. He said, What kind of a student? Man, he said, seriously good ... Hed go around correcting everybody. But it didnt work out too well for him. John Trump died in 1985, a decade before Kaczynski was linked to the Unabomber attacks. The alleged conversation would had to have occurred years before the public even knew Kaczynski was responsible for the bombings, which killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995. Kaczynski was arrested by the FBI in April 1996. He pleaded guilty in January 1998. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Furthermore, Kaczynski didnt attend MIT. He studied at Harvard and the University of Michigan and later took on an assistant professor role at the University of California at Berkeley. He died by suicide in 2023 while serving a life sentence. John Trump, photographed for his MIT faculty portrait in 1954. / MIT Museum/Wikipedia. To add to the tangle of contradictions in Trumps story, John Trump was not the longest-serving professor in MITs history. The president has been spouting that one for years, and it has been debunked by MIT itself. The White House did not immediately return a request for clarification from the Daily Beast. Trumps rambling speech in Pittsburgh comes as he faces a tempest within his own base over his administrations reversal on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files. While Trump has tried to smooth things over, high-profile allies have demanded the release of documents linked to the late sex offender. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trumps Kaczynski remarks prompted a blistering response from the Democratic National Committee. Donald Trump is fascinated by all types of seedy characters. The Unabomber. Hannibal Lecter. Kid Rock, DNC rapid response director Kendall Witmer said in a statement to the Daily Beast. Which makes it all the more surprising that he suddenly takes little to no interest in Jeffrey Epstein and his list after campaigning on releasing the Epstein files for years. Makes you think. Donald Trump and his father, Fred Trump, attend a book release party in New York, 1987. / Sonia Moskowitz / Getty Images The president is evidently very proud of his uncle, who began working at MIT as a research associate after obtaining his doctorate from the university in 1933. Trump has repeatedly boasted about the professors tenure at MIT and claimed he was a great super genius. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement John Trump was said to be very different to his brother, Fred Trump, and the future president. John was as different from his nephew as you can imagine, and so I dont know why the DNA didnt spread over to his brother Fred, O. Robert Simha, who worked with John Trump at MIT in the 1960s, told the Daily Beast earlier this year. We havent figured that one out yet. A 1985 obituary of John Trump in Physics Today described him as remarkably even-tempered, with kindness and consideration to all, never threatening or arrogant in manner, even when under high stress. He cared very little for money and the trappings of money, it said. President Donald Trump on Wednesday trashed many MAGA members, condemning their ongoing push for files related to Jeffrey Epstein and bemoaning that they are playing into Democrats hands. The Democrats new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this bullshit, hook, line, and sinker, Trump posted on his Truth Social account. Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats' work, dont even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I dont want their support anymore! Trumps comments underscore the angst on the right over the Justice Department and FBIs decision to withhold files related to Epstein, the disgraced mega-financier who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and was facing a slew of federal sex-trafficking charges when he killed himself in jail in 2019. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Department of Justice memo last week which ruled out foul play in Epsteins death and claimed no existence of a client list enraged and divided MAGA world after many in Trumps orbit, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, teased big revelations and fanned conspiracy theories. Conservative influencers including Megyn Kelly, Steve Bannon, and Trumps daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, have called for more transparency in the case. Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday also called for the Department of Justice to release all of its information on Epstein. Later on Wednesday, when asked during a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office if his post meant he was disavowing his supporters, the president said he had lost a lot of faith in certain people. Trump continued to defend Bondi during the meeting and again downplayed the affair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She's done very good, Trump said. She says I gave you all the credible information, and if she finds any more credible information, she'll give that too. What more can she do than that? Trumps latest post attempts to link the Epstein case to the investigation into Russian collusion during his first term, a signal that the president hopes supporters will interpret as tying to partisan hoaxes together. These Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at, Trump said in his post. CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Lara Trump. President Donald Trump upped pressure on Russia to stop the killing in Ukraine within 50 days, warning Tuesday that his threatened economic penalties against Moscow and its trading partners would be devastating. Trump said yesterday he would impose secondary tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that still trade with Russia in an effort to force the Kremlin to the negotiating table with Ukraine, giving Moscow until early September to respond. A bill by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut that has 85 Senate co-sponsors would authorize the president to impose secondary tariffs of at least 500 percent on imported goods from countries such as China, Brazil and India. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They are very biting. They are very significant. And they are going to be very bad for the countries involved, Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. They will be very, very powerful and very bad for the countries involved, and I hope we don't have to pull that string and maybe we won't, we'll see, he said. Trumps efforts to convince Russia to end its grinding three-year invasion of Ukraine, including multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S.-led summits with Russian officials in Istanbul and Riyadh, have so far amounted to little, with the Kremlins missiles continuing to rain down on Ukrainian cities. Last month, Russia hit Ukraine with 537 drones and missiles in Moscows most ferocious attack of the war, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The slow pace of the negotiations has appeared to irritate Trump, who repeatedly said during the presidential campaign that he would quickly end the war in Ukraine. So far, it's all talk and no action, Trump said, referring to his conversations with Putin. Actually, Vladimir called me up. He said, Id love to help you with respect to making a deal with a couple of em like Iran. I say, Vladimir, I only want help with one deal: Russia. Because youre the only deal that were not doing too well on. Trump said he believed the Russian leader was being truthful when he claimed to want peace. I hope he does, we're gonna find out soon, and it could be before the 50 days, Trump said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With Putin rebuffing his efforts to end the war, Trump has gradually moved closer to the European position on arming Ukraine. During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday, the Republican leader announced that NATO allies will finance the purchase of U.S.-manufactured Patriot missile defense systems and other weapons for Ukraine. They're already being shipped. They're coming in from Germany and then replaced by Germany, and in all cases, the United States gets paid back in full, Trump said Tuesday. NATO is gonna pay us back for everything. In some cases, we're gonna be paid back by countries of the European Union directly, he added. But we're always getting our money back in full. Jacob Wendler contributed to this report. President Donald Trump is countering criticism of the Justice Departments failure to release much-hyped records around the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, trying to place blame on former government officials. On Tuesday, he accused former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as former FBI Director James Comey, of making up such documents. I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden ... , Trump told members of the press at the White House before departing for an event in Pennsylvania. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president on Wednesday posted on Truth Social blaming Democrats in general for a new SCAM that we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax. Epstein was arrested in 2019 and found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City about a month later. Investigators concluded that he killed himself. Trump presented no evidence in claiming that Democrats and Comey tampered with documents related to Epsteins case. Comey was fired in 2017, two years before Epsteins arrest, and has not returned to the government since. Obama was long gone from the White House by the time of Epsteins death. During Bidens presidency, the Justice Department put on trial Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and secured a conviction against her, but there is zero indication that he or anyone from the White House had anything at any point to do with that case. Comey was a Republican for most of his adult life, but said in 2016 that he was that he was no longer registered with the party. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump suggested last year that he was considering releasing information about the Epstein case if he won a second term. In February, the Justice Department released some government documents regarding the case, but there were no new revelations. Then, earlier this month, it acknowledged that a months-long review of additional evidence in the governments possession had not revealed a list of clients and said no more files related to the case other than a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself would be made public. The announcement led to outcry from Trump supporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared to intimate in a Fox News interview in February that a client list was sitting on my desk to be reviewed for release. She said last week that she was referring to the Epstein case file generally, as opposed to an actual client list. Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino then had a contentious conversation at the White House as backlash grew to the Justice Departments decision to withhold records. Trump, members of his administration and conservative influencers have spread unsubstantiated claims surrounding Epstein for years. Conspiracy theories about Epsteins death are a popular trope in right-wing spheres, playing on Trumps repeated promises to reveal and dismantle the deep state a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes. Trumps rivals have recently taken advantage of right-wing fissures over Epstein. Several Democratic lawmakers are calling for the release of all Epstein files and suggesting Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. ___ AFTER DAYS OF SPECULATION about Donald Trumps promised surprise on Russia and Ukraine following his unusually harsh remarks about Vladimir Putins bullshit last week, the actual announcement at a Monday press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte could be seen as more of a whimper than a bang. Trump dangled the possibility of tough sanctions against Russia and its trading partners, but with another delay: Putin now has fifty days to make a peace deal. On the other hand, deliveries of American weapons, defense systems, and other military supplies to Ukraine are resuming, and apparently with no delaywith NATO countries as the middlemen purchasing the materiel from the United States and delivering it to Ukraine. Is this a new hawkish Trump? Or will it prove yet another TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) episode? The fifty-day deadline to end the war (up from twenty-four hours, a week, and thirty days) suggests the latter; one exiled Russian Putin critic, Meduza news site publisher Galina Timchenko, suggested that its the sort of threat the Kremlin can only see as a weakness. But other commentators with high and personal stakes in the fortunes of the Russia-Ukraine war, such as Ukrainian journalist Vitaly Portnikov and expatriate Russian journalist Michael Nacke, believe that Trumps decision to start arming Ukraine againeven at Europes expense, especially since Europe seems prepared to shoulder that expenseis the important part and represents an actual policy shift. Another Ukrainian journalist, Roman Tsimbalyuk, even called it Bloody Monday for Putin. Share Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats wishful thinking, as of now. But Trumps verbal volleys against Putin are surprisingly sustained and strongly worded this time around. Last week, he remarked that we get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin and that hes very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless. He expanded on this theme during the meeting with Rutte: I always hang up and say, well that was a nice phone call, and then missiles are launched into Kyiv or some other city, and I say, Strange. And after that happens three or four times, you say, The talk doesnt mean anything. He even credited Melania Trump with some of this insight: I go home, I tell the first lady, You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, Oh, really? Another city was just hit. Here, one could ask if the president of the United States really needs the first lady to brief him on Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities. One could also point out that the utter meaninglessness of Putins nice words was precisely the point Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried to impress on Trump during Februarys Oval Office meetingonly to get yelled at in a disgraceful display by Trump and Vice President JD Vance for being so mean to Vladimir, the guy who went through a hell of a lot with his good buddy Donald as a fellow victim of the Russia, Russia, Russia witch-hunt. (At the time, the Trump administration insisted on a quasi-apology from Zelensky to even start talking to Ukraine again, so maybe Zelensky should be expecting an apology from Trump this time around? But lets get back to the real world.) Even so: If, as Nacke and others think, Trump is finally getting it, thats a good thing. One trope popular among Russian dissident punditry is that Putin is like the fairy-tale character who finds a wish-granting genie but blows it by pushing his luck and getting greedy. According to this view, Trump, intent on reaping glory as the man who ended what he absurdly calls Bidens war in Ukraine, was happy to offer Putin the best deal he could have had: one that allowed Russia to keep the occupied territories and even granted recognition to Russias annexation of Crimea. But Putin kept holding out for a peace settlement that would have forced Ukraine not only to give up even more land but to accept de facto military and political surrender. Whats more, he kept pummeling Ukrainian cities and killing more people every time he and his friend Donald had a wonderful conversationuntil the thin-skinned Trump at long last realized that he was being humiliated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Keep up with all our coverage of the war in Ukraineand so much more: Its certainly a possible scenarioif you set aside the more conspiratorial theories of the Trump-Putin bromance and accept the Occams razor explanation of Trumps conduct as stemming from an unholy stew of ego, ignorance, affinity for strongmen, and distrust of Ukraine due to its perceived affiliation with his Democratic foes. Maybe Vladimir really has pissed off his buddy Donald one too many times. Maybe Zelenskys canny efforts to cultivate Trump (he even wore a sort-of suit for last months NATO summit!) are paying off. Maybe Trumps respect for Putins strongman credentials has been diminished by Russias recent massive losses in Ukraine: While Putins troops continue to advance in the Donbas at a fitful crawl, they have suffered an estimated 100,000 fatalities just in 2025, a figure Rutte made a point of mentioning during Mondays meeting. Maybe Putins increasingly obvious geopolitical impotencethe loss of Syria, a display of utter irrelevance during the recent conflict involving its client state Iran, and more recently a rift with former close ally Azerbaijanis playing a role as well. It seems, moreover, that Trump has found an ego-boosting way to frame a possible anti-Putin pivot: In his new narrative, not only is he selling arms to Ukraine with NATO footing the bill, unlike that chump Joe Biden who was just giving the stuff away at the expense at the American taxpayer; he is, apparently, the only man in the White House who truly had Putins number all along. As he put it during the meeting with Rutte: He fooled a lot of people: He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didnt fool me. Of course, this is an Orwell-worthy rewriting of history (remember that time Trump said that he trusted Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies?); but if Trumps narcissistic fantasies can give us a better U.S. policy on Russia and Ukraine and give Ukraine the weapons it needs, we have to take what we can get. THAT SAID: DONT COUNT OUT Trumps hopes for a deal with Putin just yet (and certainly dont count on Lindsey Graham and other Republican chickenhawks to stand in Trumps way if he does opt for a deal). One very obvious explanation for the fifty-day deadline is that it will give Russia time to complete its summer offensive and that Trump is giving Putin his last shot at achieving his de minimis goalsthat is, seizing all or most of the Ukrainian land he formally annexed in September 2022 with an amendment to the Russian Constitution. That theory is floating around in Ukraine, and some Russian milbloggers (i.e., war propagandists) are already fantasizing about Russia hitting Ukraine with everything its got to achieve those goals. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whether Russia can do it is another question, and one to which the answer is probably no. (Emigre military analyst Yuri Fedorov believes that its unlikely to complete even the capture of the Donetsk province, despite snipping off a deserted village here and an abandoned factory there.) Pessimism is currently running pretty high in the Russian war-hawk camp. Most recently, Pavel Gubarevone of the insurgents who helped create the pro-Kremlin Donetsk Peoples Republic in 2014, and who has recently been on the frontlines in the regionhas given a two-and-a-half hour interview in which he paints a dire picture of the state of Russias war effort and warns of a coming catastrophic defeat. Join now Whats more, while the 50-day mark can be seen as a take what you can signal to Russia, Ukraine can also read it as a this is how long you have to hold the Russians off signal. And while its unclear so far what offensive weapons Ukraine is going to receive, its notable that the White House denial of plans to deliver long-range missiles that could strike Moscow or St. Petersburg has been cagey: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has even acknowledged that Trump did, in fact, raise the question with Zelensky. The Washington Posts David Ignatius reports that such missiles are off the table for now but could be sent to Ukraine in the future. Ignatius believes that Trumps Iranian adventure has sold him on the benefits of peace through firepower and that he finally wants to play hardball with Putin. To Portnikov, the Ukrainian journalistwho says he has little faith in sanctions given the many ways to circumvent themthe bottom line is that the United States, in partnership with Europe, is now prepared to arm Ukraine for as long as it takes for Russia to get tired of the war. This is certainly how many Ukrainians are perceiving the latest signals from the White House. Of course, if this pivot depends on Trumps ego and current mood, it is by definition unstable. The best-case scenario is that it gives Ukraine and its European partners some time to turn the tide against Russiaenough time to bury the narrative of Ukrainian defeat. Share The Bulwark A version of this story appeared in CNNs What Matters newsletter. To get it in your inbox, sign up for free here. The Supreme Court decision this week giving President Donald Trump the go-ahead to largely dismantle the Department of Education is just one development this summer in what has been a broad federal retreat from education. The administration is trying to impound $6.8 billion in funding passed during the Biden administration, which states were expecting to receive starting in July. States have sued to get the money, which is meant to help immigrant students attain English proficiency, fund after-school and summer programs, and support the hiring and retention of teachers in low-income areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The bill that Trump and Republicans eked through Congress makes some important changes to the federal student loan system, making it more difficult to defer payments and cutting down on repayment options. It incentivizes private K-12 education in a new way with a novel tax break beginning in 2027 for people who donate to private school scholarship programs, which effectively puts public money toward private schools, something conservatives have long sought. Trumps big changes in education are the federal retreat many conservatives have long called for, with some new attacks added in for good measure, according to Nat Malkus, deputy director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. All the actions taken together, he said, could substantially change the federal role in education. Controlling education The Trump administration is also getting involved in education with its efforts to pressure states, colleges and universities to drop diversity programs. The Trump administration has also declared war on Harvard and Columbia universities over diversity efforts and allegations of antisemitism. It is also sending a message to other schools and systems, such as the University of California, launching investigations and using federal research dollars as leverage to exert more control. What does the Education Department do? The US government has been involved in public education since the 1800s, but the Department of Education was not created until the Carter administration. It is the smallest of the Cabinet-level agencies in the US government, but it has a very big job, doling out billions in federal grants and funding that represent about 10% of spending on K-12 education in the US, about $28 billion per year. Most education funding comes from states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That money is distributed across the country and much of it is meant to focus on children in poverty. The Education Department also manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program, investigates discrimination, and provides research and data on how US students are performing. Jack Weigel, 7, holds a sign during a rally in the Hart Auditorium in support of the Department of Education and School at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on March 13, 2025. - Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images What does the Education Department not do? What it does not do is determine what US students learn. Thats a job left up to states and school districts, which might come as a surprise to anyone who has heard Trump and other critics. Were going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs, Trump said in March when he signed the executive order to hollow out the Education Department. It would still presumably take an act of Congress to officially end it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the reality is that states control curriculums. Theyve created a bogeyman and are claiming that the federal government is making all the decisions about what happens in schools, but thats not true at all, Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, told me. How the Education Department will be hollowed out Some 1,300 employees about half the Education Departments workforce will be fired as of August 1 in whats called a reduction in force. But there are questions about who is being cut and why. Theres no rhyme or reason to these layoffs. We do not know why this administration laid off veteran, high-performing employees and kept others, said Sheria Smith, the president of the union that represents Department of Education employees, said on CNN. Smith is also being laid off from her role as a lawyer in the Office of Civil Rights in Dallas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration has promised the departments functions will be assigned to other agencies. The Department of Labor could take adult education and family literacy programs. The Small Business Administration might be in charge of student loans, and the Department of Health and Human Services will handle special education services, according to a CNN report. In addition to effectively dismantling the department, Trumps 2026 budget proposal would cut federal education funding by 15%. These changes might not help students All this might be happening in the name of efficiency, but Valant wonders whether it would instead move responsibilities to portions of the government less capable of dealing with them. I dont see how any of the actions the federal government is taking in education right now are benefiting students, are promoting improved student outcomes, or are responsive at all to the problems of the day, Valant said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead of dismantling the department or trying to pressure states and colleges and universities to drop diversity programs, he rattled off a list of arguably more pressing problems, including test scores that still have not recovered from the pandemic; a chronic absenteeism problem; rising concerns around student mental health. Instead, he said the administration appears to be just leaning into culture war battles, and I think trying to use schools for political gain. President George W. Bush talks with 2nd graders while picking up letters they wrote to him during a classroom visit at General Philip Kearny School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 8, 2009. - Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Decades of trying to end the Education Department Conservatives have been trying to end the Department of Education more or less since it was officially created in 1979. President Ronald Reagan talked about it during his 1982 State of the Union address. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We must cut out more nonessential government spending and rout out more waste, he said. But he never followed through with dismantling the Education Department. In 1996, the official Republican party platform included a line on doing just that. We will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning, Republicans promised that year. Republicans have gone back and forth on federal involvement in education in the years since. President George W. Bush worked with Democrats to enact the No Child Left Behind Act, which sought to create new federal learning standards through state-administered testing. It was replaced in 2015. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump, by contrast, has repeatedly promised to abolish the Department of Education. In a blistering dissent to this weeks Supreme Court decision, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by two other liberals on the court, said the majority was essentially letting Trump break the law passed by Congress that created the Education Department. It is the Judiciarys duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it, she said. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Comedian and popular podcast host Andrew Schulz distanced himself further from President Donald Trump on Tuesday, this time over the Trump administrations failure to release files related to convicted child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe theres hope, maybe theres an opportunity that things can change, he said of why New Yorkers voted for democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. I think thats probably what a lot of us thought with the Epstein files with Trump, Schulz told guest Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on Tuesdays episode of his podcast, Flagrant. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Schulz, who voted for Trump and previously interviewed him on his podcast, blasted the president last week for doing the exact opposite of campaign promises that included ending wars, stopping spending and releasing the Epstein files. The White House responded to Schulzs criticism in a statement to Fox News last week, stating that the comedian knows life is far better in President Trumps America than it would have been under a weak and incompetent President [Kamala] Harris. Schulz replied by railing against the White House in an Instagram post, asking, are you going to cover up a global pedophile blackmail ring or not? We know Kamala would have covered it up. Joe and her had the Epstein file during his term. They choose to cover it up, Schulz wrote. We thought you guys would expose it because. you said you would expose it. On Tuesday, the podcaster made it clear in a profanity-filled rant on his podcast that he has no allegiance to Democrats or Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Im in neither one of your fucking cults, OK? If you want me to be in your cults, you can go fuck off, Schulz said. Im not in the Dem cult. Im not in the Republican cult. Im a free American, Ill make my own fucking decisions and Ill say whatever the fuck I want about whatever president is in power. The podcaster later noted that despite his disappointment with Trump, he doesnt regret voting for him. He argued Trump has pulled the Democratic Party to the center and that Democrats are starting to take up the issues that Trump was the one campaigning on, including the release of the Epstein files. Schulz praised Khanna for pushing Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files. Now you see so much of the Democratic Party thats echoing a lot of the sentiments that are usually on the right, Schulz said, calling the Epstein file controversy a right-wing thing that now the right wing is trying to sweep under the rug. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Khanna said he didnt see the Epstein files as a partisan issue, but rather an issue of trust. Its a pretty simple thing, and to me, its whose side are you on? the Democrat said. Are you going to be on the side of the rich and powerful basically getting their own justice, or are you going to be on the side of people who were participating in this being exposed? Schulz makes his comments starting at the 3:30 mark in the video below. Hear Khannas remarks at the 1:05:30 mark. Related... The Supreme Courts decision to temporarily allow mass layoffs at the Education Department marked the latest in a string of rulings from the high court green-lighting the presidents plans to scale down the size of the federal workforce. Permitting the termination of about 1,400 Education Department employees is one of several instances of the Supreme Court showing significant deference to Trump's power over the executive branch. In other cases, the high court has preliminarily approved of Trump's executive order calling for sweeping federal job cuts and shown an openness to the president diminishing the independence of some agencies. Often these decisions, issued on an emergency basis at the request of the Trump administration, have come with little explanation. The high court did not, for example, spell out why it allowed Trump to carry out mass layoffs at the Education Department. But the move advances the presidents long-term efforts to dismantle the department, for now. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement South Texas College law professor Joshua Blackman said the plaintiffs argument that Congress needs to approve such a drastic change to an agency did not appear persuasive to the high court. Supreme Court Rules On Trumps Mass Layoffs At Education Department The Supreme Court allowed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to proceed with mass layoffs, at least temporarily. "I think they're basically saying, We don't think this is trying to restructure the agency," Blackman told Fox News Digital. "Justices Jackson and Sotomayor sort of made that point in the dissent, but I don't think it's resonating with the majority." Read On The Fox News App Blackman noted that even though these shadow docket decisions are temporary while the lawsuits proceed in the lower courts, they have lasting power. Litigation can take two or three years, and employees who lose their jobs are likely not waiting around for that long to return to the government, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also said those employees are not "in theory, at least," suffering irreparable harm because "reinstatements with back pay is an option." Irreparable harm is a criterion judges consider before issuing emergency orders. Last week, the Supreme Court temporarily reversed Judge Susan Illston's order blocking the administration from acting on Trump's executive order to reduce the workforce. "The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch," Illston, a Clinton-appointed judge based in California, wrote. It Will Happen Quickly: State Dept Poised To Act After Supreme Court Green-lights Agency Layoffs Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign town hall on Oct. 14, 2024, in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Trump signed an executive order after he took office announcing a sweeping "reduction in force" initiative. To carry out Trumps order, the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management sent a directive to the heads of government agencies in February to craft plans to eliminate jobs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated while driving the highest-quality, most efficient delivery of their statutorily required functions," the memo said. A group of labor organizations and nonprofits sued, arguing a mass reorganization of government required congressional approval. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against them by pausing Illston's injunction. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan sided with the conservative majority, which found that the executive order and memo are lawful. The majority noted that the decision is not a reflection of the justices' opinions on agency-specific firings and that those should be examined as a separate matter. Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, told "Fox & Friends" the high court was sending a "clear" message about judicial overreach. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This is another shot across the bow to lower courts that they've got to knock this off," Turley said. "They've got to stop with these injunctions. This is six months of delay. It could've been much longer, and the court is signaling, Were going to be on you very quickly if you continue to do these types of orders.'" The decision empowered Secretary of State Marco Rubio to lay off more than 1,300 State Department workers. Since Trump took office, tens of thousands of federal employees have accepted buyout offers from the administration or been let go. But many other layoffs are still wrapped up in lawsuits. Some firing decisions remain pending because of district court judges' orders. In some cases, the Trump administration has argued that the Supreme Courts recent move to do away with universal injunctions is reason enough for those judges to reverse course. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In one lawsuit, Democratic-led states sued over Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.s move to terminate about 10,000 employees. Judge Melissa DuBose, a Biden appointee based in Rhode Island, sided with the states and blocked the terminations. The judge must now decide if her injunction is at odds with the Supreme Courts new ruling on universal injunctions. The government downsizing coincides with the presidents controversial decision to fire several watchdogs and members of independent agencies without cause. In May, the Supreme Court sided with Trump on two of the firings, fueling speculation that the high court is aiming to overturn a 90-year precedent set in Humphreys Executor v. United States. That decision found that President Franklin D. Roosevelt could not fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without a reason, such as neglect of job duties or malfeasance, because it conflicted with a law Congress passed that established the commission. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Supreme Court Lets Trumps Wrecking Ball Federal Job Cuts Proceed While Legal Fight Continues Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson In Trump's case, the Supreme Court temporarily approved two firings involving the heads of the National Labor Relations Board and Merit Systems Protection Board. The high courts order was unsigned but indicated that the three liberal justices dissented. "Because the Constitution vests the executive power in the President he may remove without cause executive officers who exercise that power on his behalf, subject to narrow exceptions recognized by our precedents," the order read. The Supreme Court's decision was a boon to Trump's implementation of the unitary executive theory, a legal concept that emphasizes presidential control. However, the order included a cautionary note that the Supreme Courts finding was cursory and that no final decisions had been made about independent boards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kagan tore into the majority for letting Trump move forward with the firings. "Not since the 1950s (or even before) has a President, without a legitimate reason, tried to remove an officer from a classic independent agency a multi member, bipartisan commission exercising regulatory power whose governing statute contains a for-cause provision," Kagan wrote. Other similar lawsuits, including one brought by two fired Democratic-appointed FTC commissioners, are still pending, and the Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on them. Original article source: Trump's controversial plan to fire federal workers finds favor with Supreme Court Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine, visited a memorial dedicated to the children killed in Russia's war against Ukraine during his visit to Kyiv. Source: European Pravda; Kellogg on X (Twitter) Details: Kellogg visited a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Russo-Ukrainian war on Wednesday 16 July. "One pays honour and respect of their death, not by laying of flowers, but by stuffed toy animals. The killing of innocent civilians, especially children, must end," Kellogg said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The US President's special envoy stressed that Donald Trump "has been clear: the killing must stop". Background: Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha and Kellogg discussed ways to expand mutually beneficial Ukrainian-American defence cooperation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the US President's representative also discussed the agreement between the United States and NATO on the supply of American weapons. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine, has visited a training facility of the National Guard of Ukraine (NGU). Source: press service of the National Guard of Ukraine Details: Accompanied by NGU commander Brigadier General Oleksandr Pivnenko, the US delegation observed the training of Ukrainian Guardsmen and viewed their equipment and modern battlefield technologies. The delegation was shown tank and combat vehicle crews undergoing training and using simulators, drones and robotic systems. Keith Kellogg and Ukraines national guards. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Photo: National Guard of Ukraine National guardsmen training. Photo: National Guard of Ukraine Ukraines National Guard said Kellogg had praised the courage of Ukrainian soldiers and the high quality of their training, emphasising that Ukraines experience is valuable for other nations armed forces. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! As Donald Trump continues to be dogged by questions about his administration's handling of possible files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, he is relying on a tried and true strategy. The problem for the president, however, is that his plan of attack may inadvertently pit him against some of his most loyal supporters. In a lengthy Truth Social post on Wednesday morning, Trump began in a familiar way by blaming the Epstein controversy on "radical left Democrats". This episode, he said, is just the latest in a long line of "hoaxes" fabricated by his political opponents to bring him down. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "These Scams and Hoaxes are all the Democrats are good at," he wrote. "They are no good at governing, no good at policy, and no good at picking winning candidates." In the past, Trump has used this kind of us-against-them rhetoric to rally his supporters to his side casting himself as the embattled champion of the outsiders and disaffected who faces off against the privileged and the wealthy. The potential flaw in the president's strategy this time became apparent halfway through his post, however, as he turned to blame his own party and his own supporters for falling for what he said was a leftist scheme. "My PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker," he wrote. "They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will." During remarks later in the Oval Office, Trump continued to blame his own side, saying that "some stupid Republicans, some foolish Republicans, have fallen into the net". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president is drawing battle lines on the Epstein issue that divides his own side. It also risks cutting through the foundations on which his political strength is built. Trump's success has been powered by two central messages to his supporters that he's an outsider who fights against a corrupt establishment and that he tells it like it is. At a time when many voters say they are tired of polished politicians with shifting views, Trump's base sees him as authentic unvarnished and controversial, yes, but honest. Trump, never one to shy away from wild conspiracy theories or those who embrace them, now finds himself arguing that there is no "credible" evidence implicating the rich and powerful in the Epstein case and that those believing otherwise are suckers or fools. His shifting comments that the Epstein files should be released, that there are no files, that any possible files are hoaxes also make him seem less like a straight-shooter and more like a man with something to hide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He's left with the problem of trying to prove a negative. And for the moment, some of his supporters aren't buying it. In an interview with Politico, conservative firebrand Laura Loomer warned that if Trump did not change course, the Epstein story could "consume" his presidency. Her advice to appoint an independent investigator to handle the case is one Trump would be loath to follow, given how he has railed against past special counsels. But the success of his strategy to blame political opponents may only work if Democrats take the bait. Dan Pfeiffier, who worked as a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, recently wrote they can avoid this trap by amplifying divisions in Trump's "Make America Great Again" ranks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "If the issue becomes too associated with a Democratic effort to hurt Trump, it will polarise the issue along party lines and push the dissatisfied Maga voters back into Trump's camp," he wrote in his most recent newsletter. For the moment, calls for the government to share more information about Epstein is a rare source of consensus among the American public. A YouGov poll indicated that 79% of Americans want the government to release "all documents it has". That included 75% of Republican respondents and 85% of Democrats. An internal Democratic poll obtained by Politico found 58% of respondents believed Trump "maybe was or definitely was" involved in a cover-up. If the polls are decidedly tilted against Trump, Republican officeholders the men and women who owe their professional livelihoods to staying in the president's good graces mostly continue to stick by his side. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Congressional Republicans are backing the president's legislative agenda despite their narrow majorities in key votes this week. And while some have called for more transparency, conservatives in the House of Representatives have repeatedly squelched Democratic attempts to mandate the release of all remaining Epstein files. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who oversaw those efforts, walked back earlier comments calling for more Epstein files to be disclosed, saying that he was misquoted and that he only wanted the public to see "credible" information the same language Trump has used. For the moment, the Epstein story is a frustrating distraction for a president used to bending the news cycle, and national attention, to his will. With Republicans in control of Washington, the controversy will only consume his presidency if Trump's own allies allow it to. If the grumbling and disaffection in Trump's faithful persist, however, it could exact a high toll on the Republican party in next year's midterm congressional elections, when voter enthusiasm typically determines which party prevails. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And if Democrats wrest control of one or both chambers of Congress - and gain their accompanying investigatory powers - the Epstein files, and Trump's connection to them, could go from a political sideshow to centre-ring spectacle. [BBC] Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here. Support for victims and survivors of domestic violence is available 24/7: 1-800-897-LINK (5465). If you or someone else is in immediate danger or an emergency, please call 911 immediately. SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) Two people living in South Jordan have been charged with abuse after allegedly neglecting and abusing a 77-year-old man while acting as his caretakers. The man suffered fractures, bruising, and even endured having cold water poured on him while fully clothed. Scott Albert Robison, 54, and Ashley Marie Reynolds, 37, have both been charged with one count of aggravated abuse of a vulnerable adult intentionally or knowingly, a second-degree felony. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to documents, an officer with the South Jordan Police Department opened an investigation into multiple reports that Robison was abusing his 77-year-old family member for months, starting around December 2024. READ NEXT: Two boys airlifted to Salt Lake City hospital after being tossed from pickup truck in Duchesne County The officer made contact with the 77-year-old man, who stated that Robison and his wife are his primary caretakers and live in his home. He explained that neither is employed, and Reynolds manages his finances. The man said he had been living with Robison for the past 10 years and had allegedly been abused and injured by him. The older adult explained several forms of abuse he had endured, including being pushed, shoved, verbally assaulted, and having necessities withheld. He even described one incident where Robison had grabbed him by the wrists and forced him into the bathtub fully clothed. Robison then allegedly dumped cold water on the 77-year-old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now youre getting in the spirit of things, the older adult recalled Robison saying as he dumped the cold water. The 77-year-old said that he felt freezing cold, and the skin on his wrists tore due to how Robison grabbed him. Outside of physical abuse, the 77-year-old told the officer that Robison would withhold his medication and only give him food when it was convenient. According to documents, the man was only able to eat once a day, most of the time. On May 27, the officer got in contact with the older adults physician, who allegedly stated that the man appeared to be weak, malnourished, and had multiple bruises and skin tears. Due to his injuries and poor health, the 77-year-old underwent a CT scan to see the full scope of his physical trauma. Former Washington Co. Sheriff deputy charged with manslaughter for fatal motorcycle crash Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The scan revealed that the 77-year-old had suffered multiple fractures and bruises. He had rib fractures, compression fractures, skin tears, and contusions on his head, arms, legs, and back. The scan also found that the man was malnourished and had suffered unintentional weight loss. Other health issues that had gone untreated by the caretakers were also discovered. During the investigation, police allegedly discovered that Reynolds and Robison rarely left the residence. Although Reynolds did not physically abuse the 77-year-old, she did not intervene with Robison or fulfill her role as a primary caretaker. Documents say that she was present while Robison was abusing the victim. According to a statement from a family member who did not live at the home, Robison possessed multiple firearms and could quickly switch from being really nice to aggressive. Documents say that Robison needed to be taken into custody because the victim could suffer further domestic abuse or death at the hands of Robison. According to Master Officer Shaun Becker with the South Jordan Police Department, both Robison and Reynolds were safely taken into custody on Monday, July 14. Reynolds has an initial appearance in court on July 17, and Robisons will be the following day, July 18. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Latest headlines: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. A pair of Massachusetts cities are at risk of losing federal funding that has supported safety equipment for police officers, food delivery for senior citizens and paid for detectives investigating drug crime. All of it is on the line Thursday, when attorneys representing Somerville and Chelsea will appear in U.S. District Court in Boston to argue their funding streams should be preserved while they contest the Trump administrations attempt to withhold the money over their local immigration laws. The two densely populated cities north of Boston each receive funding for school districts with high percentages of low-income students. Chelsea said funding cuts may force it to fire police officers, including those stationed in schools. Somerville said it could be forced to cut homelessness prevention services and efforts to reduce underage tobacco and alcohol use. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cities sued the administration in February, arguing the money they receive from the federal government should not be conditioned on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Laws in the two sanctuary cities prevent police from asking about a persons immigration status or directly assisting federal officers with non-criminal immigration matters. Other communities across the country have similar policies, including Boston. The laws do not bar local police from assisting immigration officers on investigations into serious public safety threats, such as drugs, weapons or human trafficking. Local police also do not interfere with federal immigration enforcement or deportation arrests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nearly half of Chelseas residents are foreign-born, and 65% are Hispanic or Latino. One-quarter of Somervilles residents are foreign-born, and just under a third are Hispanic or Latino. Losing federal funds would be a devastating blow to Chelsea, City Manager Fidel Maltez wrote last month in a court filing outlining the communitys reliance on federal dollars. In early June, the cities asked a federal judge to pause any attempted withdrawal of their funding while the lawsuit plays out. The judge will hear their arguments for issuing that order at Thursdays hearing. Chelseas federal funding: Public safety, schools and more Chelsea, a tightly packed working-class city of 38,000, received approximately $14.5 million in federal funding in fiscal year 2024. It expects to receive $8.5 million in 2025, part of a $245 million city budget. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The funding has supported a wide variety of city programs with no connection to immigration enforcement, Maltez wrote in the court filing: Grants from the Department of Justice help Chelsea purchase bulletproof vests and support community policing. Without the funding, the Chelsea Police Department would be forced to drain other resources on bulletproof vests or send officers onto the street with outdated safety equipment, according to Maltez. The department has also relied on a DOJ grant program to pay overtime for narcotics detectives and support sting operations. Chelsea has received almost $1 million in recent years from Department of Homeland Security grants to support police training, SWAT team equipment and other public safety initiatives. Chelsea has received close to $1 million in some years in grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing rehabilitation, economic development and public facilities and infrastructure. The money has also gone to social services that help keep young people in school and deliver food to elderly residents. In recent years, Chelsea Public Schools have received over $4 million in funding for districts with high percentages of low-income students. Schools also received substantial funding for professional learning for educators, for English language learner programs, and to improve academic achievement. The city was promised $280,000 in funding for roadway safety, and is the lead recipient of a $2.5 million grant to be administered by the state to improve transit and climate resiliency between Chelsea and East Boston. The city also received $2 million toward a downtown roadway project, the largest streetscape redesign in the area in decades. Chelsea is in the first year of a three-year DOJ grant funding salaries for three police officers. Cutting the funding may force the city to fire officers, including those working in schools. Without some of these funds, the most vulnerable people in our community would suffer, as those funds support programs such as those to keep people safely housed, and to ensure that elderly residents nutritional needs are met, Maltez wrote. The federal funding that our schools receive are vital to helping particularly low-income students thrive, in school, and headed towards academic success. Feds and local government clash on sanctuary city policies As part of a nationwide increase in immigration enforcement, one of President Donald Trumps campaign pledges, the government has pressured sanctuary cities to change their local laws to fall in line with federal immigration policy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His administration has accused the cities of providing safe harbor to dangerous offenders, something the cities deny. These sanctuary city politicians are endangering Americans and our law enforcement in order to protect violent criminal illegal aliens, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in May. Chelsea first labeled itself a sanctuary city in 2007. Somerville, a nearby city of 80,000 residents, did so in 1987. Chelseas sanctuary city police policy is an integral part of building trust with residents, Chelsea Police Chief Keith Houghton wrote in a federal court filing. If community members, particularly immigrants, believe local police officers are active participants in federal immigration enforcement, more people will avoid contacting or cooperating with police, he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want victims and witnesses of crime to feel comfortable reporting crime to CPD, because when criminal activity is underreported or hidden, that makes it more difficult for us to keep the City safe for everyone, he wrote. Somervilles policy is similar. It also does not ask police to interfere with federal law enforcement or shield undocumented immigrants from deportation, Somerville Police Chief Shumeane Benford wrote in a federal court filing. Our policies let federal immigration enforcement officers do what they need to do; SPD just does not actively join in those efforts, he said. As Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne put it earlier this year: Our residents know that our community is safer when police focus on preventing crime rather than raiding the local sandwich shop. Somerville could lose money for roadway safety and homelessness prevention Somerville received roughly $19.4 million in the last fiscal year from the federal government, according to its lawsuit. The money supported a city budget that reached $380 million in recent years, Ballantyne wrote in a federal court filing. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As in Chelsea, the Somerville Public Schools receive significant federal funding for districts that serve a high percentage of low-income students, Ballantyne wrote. Her city is also in danger of losing a $4 million grant for roadway safety initiatives, and money supporting homelessness prevention services and efforts to reduce youth tobacco and alcohol consumption. If we lost that funding, we would be forced to reduce vital services to our residents, including those that protect public safety, Ballantyne wrote. What makes the threat of lost federal dollars even more difficult, she wrote, was that the grant funding is reimbursement-based. The city performs its federally funded services first, and then seeks reimbursement from the government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The uncertainty around federal funding means we continue providing services, not knowing whether we will be reimbursed, or stop providing services, the mayor wrote. More stories on immigration Read the original article on MassLive. NASH COUNTY, N.C. (WNCT) Deputies with the Nash County Sheriffs Office arrested two men on drug charges after a vehicle search on Interstate 95 South Tuesday, July 15, 2025. The vehicle was a white minivan with out of state tags. Harry Rodriguez Felix, of Pennsylvania, and Marcos Josuel Rivera Garcia, of Maryland, were charged. Deputies smelled marijuana in the vehicle which prompted a search. During the search, they found 1.9 kilograms of cocaine, a scale and large amounts of cash. (Photo courtesy of Nash County Sheriffs Office) Both Felix and Garcia were charged with: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Conspiracy to commit a felony Two counts trafficking cocaine Maintaining a vehicle for the use, storage or sell of a controlled substance Both were jailed in the Nash County Detention Center under a $2.5 million bond each. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WNCT. Two New Mexico jails are holding the highest number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees since at least 2019 amid President Donald Trump's mass deportation push. (Photo Courtesy Immigration and Customs Enforcement) The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency currently holds more than 58,000 people in jails nationwide, according to the most recent data, which is the highest number in at least five years amid President Donald Trumps mass deportation push. The trend is reflected in three New Mexico detention centers that have agreements with ICE to house detainees, according to a Source New Mexico review of data from Syracuse Universitys Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse compiled from ICEs response to its records requests. The number of ICE detainees in detention centers in Torrance, Cibola and Otero counties has steadily increased since April. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The TRAC data shows increases here every two weeks or so in the average daily population of detainees at each jail. That figure is the average number of detainees held each day divided by the number of days since Oct. 1, when the federal fiscal year began. (For example, if an ICE facility held four people on Oct. 1 and 6 people on Oct. 2, the average daily population on Oct. 2 would be 5.) In two of three New Mexico jails with ICE agreements, the average number of daily detainees is the highest since at least September 2019, when TRAC first began publishing its detention numbers. Both have increased by more than 25% since this time last year. On June 23, the most recent date for which data is available, ICE held an average of 435 detainees at the Torrance County Detention Center in Estancia. A year ago, ICE held 341 ICE detainees there. On June 23 at the Cibola County Detention Center in Milan, ICE held 227 detainees in custody. A year ago, it held 180. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Otero County Processing Center in Chaparral has not seen the same type of increase. It detains, by far, the most ICE arrestees in New Mexico. Its average population June 23 was 843. While the number of ICE detainees there has steadily increased along with the rest of the state and country in recent months, its only now approaching its September 2024 levels, according to a Source review. The processing center is dedicated to immigration detention and opened in 2008. All three detention centers have been the subjects of recent lawsuits and complaints regarding inhumane conditions for inmates. In Torrance County in early May, for example, advocates told Source that raw sewage was flooding cells. In Cibola County, the United States Attorneys Office recently charged a corrections officer for colluding with a non-immigrant inmate to smuggle drugs into the jail. As for Otero County, the Innovation Law Lab calls it infamous, saying thousands of detainees have suffered within its walls, surviving inhumane conditions, woefully inadequate medical and mental health care, retaliation for speaking up, rampant due process violations, and other harms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite Trumps promise of mass deportations, the increase in daily average inmates stayed the same for several months after he took office. Sophia Genovese, a Georgetown Law School professor who recently worked for the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, recently told Source that approaching 60,000 detainees is a worrying trend, especially after President Trump signed a bill drastically increasing ICEs budget for arrests and detentions. When we hit 50,000 during his first administration, it was wild to see that, Genovese said. So now that weve got to 59 so quickly, its just kind of frightening to think about whats going to happen six months from now. According to CBS News, a little less than half of the detainees have a criminal record, and fewer than 30% have been convicted of a crime. See below for the current average daily populations at New Mexicos ICE detention facilities: Jul. 16On the afternoon of Wednesday, July 9, firefighters in Waynesville responded to a fire alarm call at Staples. As they arrived on scene, another call came in. An alarm was going off at the Haywood Pathways Center. The day highlighted a challenge that faces every fire department in the county overlapping calls, sometimes overlapping emergencies. Neither of the overlapping July 9 calls turned out to be a true emergency. Staples was servicing its sprinkler system, which led to a drop in water pressure and triggered the water flow indicator alerting the fire department that there could be a problem. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for Pathways, the fire department got a call from the alarm company while en route that it was unintentional. An oven had been opened up, smoke had escaped and set off the alarm. While neither call amounted to anything, it still put stress on the department. "That's a daily issue for us getting multiple calls at once. In the industry, they call it overlap, and ours has been at 30% for a while," Waynesville Fire Chief Chris Mehaffey said. "For every 10% of overlap you have, you should be adding an additional unit." In overlap situations, firefighters may have to decide which call is more important in the moment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The shift captain will try to figure out which one has the most likelihood (of not being a false alarm)," Mehaffey said. It also means calling in back up from surrounding departments. During structure fires, mutual aid is called automatically, but sometimes it's needed even for medical calls or motor vehicle accidents. "We just try to sort them out the best we can," Mehaffey said. "We rely on our surrounding departments to help us out. We do the same for them. If they're tied up on something, we'll try to help them. We're very fortunate we have good partners around us." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It's a challenge around the county. Right next door, the Junaluska Fire Department sits around a 25% overlap. "We're on one call as we get dispatched to another, or one ends and we get them back-to-back," Junaluska Fire Chief Charles Wood said. Each day, Junaluska has one full-time and one part-time paid employee on staff, as well as volunteers. If the two paid firefighters are on a call, the department will send the next call to a volunteer. If they can't take it, they go to mutual aid. "It's a challenge, especially as the county gets more and more busy. We do get calls that are one right after the other," Wood said. "We run around 1,200 calls a year. There will be a day that you don't get a call or get one, and there will be a day you get eight. It's the luck of the draw." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wood recalled once, during a particular storm, when they got five calls at the same time, all regarding different incidents. "We know if storms are coming through, especially like a snowstorm, I'll overstaff the station, especially with the volunteers," he said. "I might have to pay an extra part-timer. During Helene, we did that a lot. We had everyone working. We were going from call to call." But it's not always that straightforward. "If a storm comes through this evening, we might not get a call or we might get three or four calls out of it," Wood said. "We can't 100% plan for it, but mutual aid is very important. Each fire department works together to support their communities." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Predicting overlap Predicting times of overlap can be complicated, if not downright impossible. A chief can see a storm coming and increase staff but could end up unnecessarily spending extra money from a tight budget. "It really just depends. We have had 20% of calls overlap, and then one month it may be 7%. It's hard to predict what our overlap is at times," Canton Fire Chief Kevin Wheeler said. "As our call volume increases, we have more and more (overlap)." Sometimes, overlaps come because firefighters are tied up with medical calls while awaiting an ambulance that is tied up elsewhere meaning medical responders are also dealing with the challenge of overlap. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leaning on others For Canton, working with their neighbors, including Clyde, North Canton and Center Pigeon, is incredibly important to ensuring the safety of town residents. "Our mutual aid departments are very crucial. They make sure we have personnel and equipment. We rely on each other quite a bit," Wheeler said. That mutual aid brings additional equipment and water to the scene, but most importantly, it brings firefighters. "I'm not going to put out a fire with two people that are working and some volunteers. There's a lot involved," Wood said. "Every department in the county relies on mutual aid for these larger, more resource-intensive calls. We have plenty of trucks, but we need someone to drive them. The firetruck isn't going to put out the fire without anyone there." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And those relationships are strong. Whenever one department needs help, the others jump into action, knowing that when the tables are turned, they'll have the same support. "I go to support Waynesville, and then when I have something, they come and support me. We're doing everything we can to support the needs of the community," Wood said. TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WSAV) Tybee Island residents and business owners held a citizen-led meeting to criticize the Georgia Department of Transportations (GDOT) plan to eliminate double lanes on Highway 80. Dozens of people gathered in Jaycee Park to denounce the plan with a goal of sending a message to city leaders and GDOT. A big talker was more traffic on the islands main thoroughfare spilling into the residential neighborhoods. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whats going to happen with this ridiculous plan is the majority of people are going to start going down Jones Ave., Lewis Ave., and other roads like they do when we have the 4th of July, said Tybee resident Marie Beebe. Its ruined: Residents worry construction site is polluting neighborhood pond Several business owners spoke out too and are worried about their employees getting to work on time. We will not be able to get employees to come to work, said Karen Kelly, owner of Beach View Inn & Spa. I live on the north end and drive to the south end, I dont know how Im getting to work on a one lane. At 7:30 in the morning, if a car stops in lane and I have to go around him, if we have lane how is that going to work? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The plan also includes a new bike path along Highway 80 which was also unpopular among the crowd. My kids do not need to be riding on a bike path down Highway 80, and neither do anyone elses, said resident Chris Sturgess. The plan has not been finalized. GDOT continues to hold public forums on the island to engage with the public on the matter. The next one is slated for Thursday, July 24, at the Guard House. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WSAV-TV. TYLER, Texas (KETK) The Tyler Police Department released a statement on Tuesday educating citizens on how to recognize scam phone calls from fake law enforcement officers. Tyler man faces new charges after dumping 9 newborn puppies, affidavit reveals The department stated that scammers attempt to persuade their victims, often elderly individuals, into withdrawing money from their accounts to purchase gift cards and cryptocurrency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the department, they recently received a case involving a person who was contacted by a scammer claiming to be a Smith County Sergeant. The scammer even provided a badge number in an attempt to legitimize the scam. The scammer also used a phone number that was disguised as a Smith County 911 phone number. The scammer proceeded to inform the victim that a warrant was outstanding for her arrest from the U.S. District Court and that she would be arrested if she did not pay them a sum of money. Marshall residents urged to persevere water after shortage extended Scammers took the con further by calling in a supposed supervisor who would help persuade the victim into paying. The Tyler PD released the following statement outlining the signs to look for if a phone call seems suspicious. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No matter what number shows to be calling you, no law enforcement agency will have you pay money to them directly to clear your name or cover a bond for a warrant you might have. You should never purchase gift cards or deposit money into cryptocurrency ATMs at the request of someone over the phone or the computer. These cases are extremely challenging for local law enforcement due to their sophistication and the measures the scammers use to hide their identity. They are commonly perpetrated by people in foreign countries, making the identification of offenders even more difficult. Scammers are always changing their tactics and can target anyone. Tyler Police Department Linden-Kildare CISD cuts after-school program after funding loss The department urges community members to avoid withdrawing money to pay someone requesting payment over the phone. They recommend that people contact their financial institutions or local law enforcement agencies to confirm legitimacy. You can now stream KETK and FOX51 News live 24/7 on your smart TV with KETK+, our brand-new app! No antenna, cable, or satellite neededwatch for free, anytime. Just download it on your Roku, Apple TV, or Fire TV and start streaming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KETK.com | FOX51.com. By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Crispian Balmer CAIRO/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -At least 20 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday at an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in what the U.S.-backed group said was a crowd surge instigated by armed agitators. The GHF, which is supported by Israel, said 19 people were trampled and one fatally stabbed during the crush at one of its centres in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We have credible reason to believe that elements within the crowd armed and affiliated with Hamas deliberately fomented the unrest," GHF said in a statement. Hamas rejected the GHF allegation as "false and misleading", saying GHF guards and Israeli soldiers sprayed people with pepper gas and opened fire. GHF said Hamas' account was "blatantly false". "At no point was tear gas deployed, nor were shots fired into the crowd. Limited use of pepper spray was deployed, only to safeguard additional loss of life," GHF said in a written response to Reuters via e-mail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Todays incident is part of a larger pattern of Hamas trying to undermine and ultimately end GHF. It is no coincidence that this incident occurred during ceasefire negotiations, where Hamas continues to demand that GHF cease operations." Witnesses told Reuters that guards at the site sprayed pepper gas at them after they had locked the gates to the centre, trapping them between the gates and the outer wire-fence. People kept gathering and pressuring each other; when people pushed each other...those who couldnt stand fell under the people and were crushed," said eyewitness Mahmoud Fojo, 21, who was hurt in the stampede. "Some people started jumping over the netted fence and got wounded. We were injured, and God saved us. We were under the people and we said the Shahada (death prayers). We thought we were dying, finished," he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on Hamas and eyewitness accounts. Palestinian health officials told Reuters that 21 people had died of suffocation at the site. One medic said lots of people had been crammed into a small space and had been crushed. On Tuesday, the U.N. rights office in Geneva said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks in the vicinity of aid sites and food convoys in Gaza - the majority of them close to GHF distribution points. Most of those deaths were caused by gunfire that locals have blamed on the Israeli military. The military has acknowledged that Palestinian civilians were harmed near aid distribution centres, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions with "lessons learned". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a U.N.-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the accusation. The U.N. has called the GHFs model unsafe and a breach of humanitarian impartiality standards - an allegation GHF has denied. Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network, accused the GHF on Wednesday of gross mismanagement. "People who flock in their thousands (to GHF sites) are hungry and exhausted, and they get squeezed into narrow places, amid shortages of aid and the absence of organization and discipline by the GHF," he told Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The war in Gaza, triggered in October 2023 by a deadly Hamas attack on Israel, has displaced almost all of the territory's population and led to widespread hunger and privation. ISRAELI ARMY ROAD Earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had finished paving a new road in southern Gaza separating several towns east of Khan Younis from the rest of the territory in an effort to disrupt Hamas operations. Palestinians see the road, which extends Israeli control, as a way to put pressure on Hamas in ongoing ceasefire talks, which started on July 6 and are being brokered by Arab mediators Egypt and Qatar with the backing of the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Palestinian sources close to the negotiations said a breakthrough had not yet been reached on any of the main issues. Hamas said it rejected an Israeli demand to keep at least 40% of Gaza under its control as part of any deal. Hamas also demanded the dismantlement of the GHF and the reinstatement of a U.N.-led aid delivery mechanism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the war will end once Hamas is disarmed and removed from Gaza. Gaza local health authorities said Israeli military strikes have killed at least 87 people across the enclave in the past 24 hours. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, by Israeli tallies. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Ahmed Elimam and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Alex Richardson, Andrew Cawthorne and Sharon Singleton) On Tuesday, U.S. Bank joined Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity to work on two houses, one on West Fourth Street in Joplin and the other a Veterans Build site in Webb City. There were 24 volunteers across the two locations, some from as far as Branson and Arkansas, and Scott Clayton, executive director of Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity, said there were so many volunteers they had to expand the workday to two sites. Joplin Area Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit organization that collaborates with the community to provide housing and has worked with U.S. Bank for as long as Clayton can remember. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Weve been fortunate to have U.S. Bank as a partner for a long time, he said. Theyve been helpful in assistance with grants and also through volunteerism. Pretty much every year we have U.S. Bank either working on houses or helping with repairs. In Joplin, the morning crew was installing vinyl siding. Holly Stump, branch manager at the banks Northpark location, said the construction work was a new experience for her. This has been super fun, Stump said. I think one thing I thought is that you would have to have some experience. Not a single one of us has had any experience, but its really cool that we can come in and make a difference without that experience in carpentry. Anybody can volunteer. In addition to volunteers, the U.S. Bank Foundation gave a $15,000 grant to Habitat. It will be used in the organizations house construction program in which families who qualify work to build their home. In the end, the home is sold at no profit and with no interest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Stump said its important for U.S Bank to partner with community organizations, and the company allows its employees volunteer hours to help in the community. We want to be here for the people of Joplin and say were here to help, Stump said. For Clayton, support from local businesses and organizations is great because it helps complete houses for families. Its good when you can match up the goodwill of others with a homeowner who is working hard to improve their lives, he said. Stump said she admires what Habitat does in the community, guiding families every step of the way. I hope a family really thrives here and is able to build a home, she said. These are two of 11 houses the organization is building this year. Clayton said Habitat is also looking for candidates for its home repair programs. If someone is older or physically disabled and has some needs on the outside of their home, they are welcome to contact Habitat about its Brush With Kindness and Critical Home Repair programs. The Trump administration is set to vastly expand deportations to countries other than immigrants home nations, supercharging a system of international detainee transfers that human rights advocates say exposes thousands of people to human rights abuses, including potential persecution or torture in unsafe countries. Such deportations, known as third-country removals, are emerging as an important piece of President Donald Trumps mass deportation agenda. And several recent developments could fuel their dramatic expansion including billions in new funding from Congress, aggressive pressure from U.S. diplomats on dozens of countries to accept third-country agreements, and the blessing of the Supreme Court, which late last month allowed the Trump administration to dramatically limit what human rights protections it applies to third-country deportees. So far, the administration has sent hundreds of people to various nations other than their own, including El Salvador, where theyve been indefinitely detained in the notorious CECOT prison, and South Sudan. On Tuesday, it added to the list, sending five men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Cuba and Yemen to the African nation of Eswatini, which borders South Africa. Domestic and international legal efforts have sprung up to challenge the practice, with some success. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, though, the Trump administration is seeking to capitalize on its new resources and legal authority with an aggressive policy for third-country deportations, in which a detainee can be sent to a country totally foreign to them with no notice at all, nor any opportunity to object over fears of torture or persecution, The Washington Post reported Sunday. Reuters confirmed the report. The policy puts thousands of lives at risk of persecution and torture, Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, one of the groups involved in the litigation over third-country removals, told the Post. Asked about the third-country arrangements, a State Department spokesperson told HuffPost in an email Monday that foreign governments will make decisions regarding the immigration status of aliens removed from the United States in accordance with their respective domestic laws and international obligations. The United States does not remove aliens to a country where they would face persecution or torture, the spokesperson added. How Third-Country Deportations Work, And Why They Might Increase Third-country deportations rely on a portion of immigration law concerning situations where it is impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible to send a deportee to the country of removal designated by an immigration judge. This is usually the persons home country, or else where they last resided before coming to the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Presidents of both parties have used third-country deportations in the past, often for nationals of countries who dont frequently accept repatriation flights, such as Cuba and China. But the Trump administration has for months eyed a much more aggressive use of such removals. A February memo urged immigration agents to review cases in which non-detained immigrants were previously granted a reprieve from deportation to a given country due to torture concerns, in order to evaluate the viability of removal to a third country and accordingly whether the alien should be re-detained. We are working with other countries to say, We want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries, and will you do that as a favor to us? And the farther away from America the better, so they cant come back across the border, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at an April 30 Cabinet meeting. At that point, the United States had already launched its most prominent set of third-country deportations: the removal of 252 Venezuelans to the infamous Salvadoran prison known as CECOT, or Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, where all remain indefinitely detained without charge or trial today. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Judges pounced on those removals and other third-country deportations, finding in several cases that deportees must be allowed to exercise certain rights while still in the United States, such as the legal ability to challenge their detention, or to proclaim a fear of torture or persecution if sent to a given country, which would then trigger further screening. In particular, in March and April, U.S. District Judge Brian E. Murphy limited third-country deportations unless detainees were first given written notice of their eventual destination and allowed an opportunity to file an application for protection under the Convention Against Torture. But the Supreme Court dealt a severe blow to those legal safeguards late last month. In an unsigned shadow docket decision, the court suspended Murphys ruling that detainees be given ample time and opportunity to contest a pending third-country removal. That left the Trump administration status quo of quick deportations with limited potential for a challenge. That policy does not protect noncitizens due process, statutory, and regulatory rights to notice and an opportunity to seek protection from persecution or torture, litigants in the legal battle over the Trump administration policy haveargued. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The deportations could soon move even quicker, and people being removed from the U.S. may have less opportunity to avoid a third-country removal. According to the memo obtained by the Post and Reuters, detainees can be sent to a given country with no notice at all, so long as that country has offered credible assurances to the Untied States that deportees will not face persecution or torture. Even without assurances of detainees safety, migrants could be deported to a third country as quickly as six hours after first being informed of a pending deportation in exigent circumstances, or 24 hours otherwise. The detainee will not be asked if they have a fear of torture in the country, according to the memo, but rather will have to preemptively express such a fear themselves. The administration has worked for weeks to maximize the number of countries with which it has third-country agreements. It has approached at least 58 nations with requests to accept third-country deportees mostly in Africa, including many that have been targeted by Trumps travel ban and at least seven have accepted, The New York Times reported last month. The United States has used secret threats and other strong-arm tactics against smaller nations, including those rife with conflict and human rights abuses, The Intercept reported of the effort. The outlet has referred to the network of third-country removals as a global gulag; though many countries have said they only intend to be stopovers for U.S. deportees before they proceed to another country, several have detained migrants themselves. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And Congress just approved handing Trump a treasure chest to fund these efforts. By passing the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Republicans have given Trump tens of billions of dollars to arrest, detain and transport immigrants. Of that, $14.4 billion is marked for new ICE transportation funds a 20-fold increase over the agencys 2024 transportation and removal budget, which was $721 million. Youre going to see immigration enforcement on a level youve never seen it before, Trumps border czar, Tom Homan, told The New York Times over the weekend, referring to the cash infusion. Deportation flight of 32 Colombian citizens from Albrook Gelabert Airport in Panama City, Panama on June 24. Daniel Gonzalez/Anadolu via Getty Images The Blueprint As relatively small nations with poor human rights records, something to gain from the Trump administration, and a willingness to deal with the United States in the unsavory business of shuffling people around the world, El Salvador and South Sudan offer prime early examples of what some call the administrations externalization policy. If those nations are any pattern for the Trump administrations future efforts, detainees could face a race to the bottom in which countries that are least concerned about their human rights records comply with the United States, or are bullied into complying with the United States, said Isabella Mosselmans, director of the Global Strategic Litigation Council, or GSLC, which has filed legal challenges over several countries treatment of U.S. deportees. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In exchange for millions of dollars, El Salvadors self-proclaimed worlds coolest dictator, Nayib Bukele, has housed at least 288 mostly Venezulan migrants to the United States in CECOT. Detainees in the prison are not allowed outside contact, and face alleged torture and physical abuse inside the facility. Trump has threatened to jail homegrowns in the facility, as well, and has urged Bukele to build more prisons. Given the refusal of either government to acknowledge the names or locations of transferred detainees, and the ongoing deprivation of their legal rights, many legal scholars and advocates have referred to the detainees as the victims of enforced disappearances. We think of enforced disappearance as happening under dictatorships, and in countries far from here, and thats exactly what were seeing here, where you have 280 people who just disappeared in the middle of the night, with no communication or even public acknowledgement, said Blaine Bookey, legal director at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, one of several groups thats pursued an international legal case against El Salvador, alongside GSLC. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Since March, U.S. officials have argued that by nature of the detainees being in El Salvador, they are no longer in United States custody, which introduces a catch-22. If the U.S. government manages to get you to an overseas jail, they will argue you have no rights to challenge your detention in U.S. court, even if you werent given any opportunity to challenge it while on U.S. soil. The recent transfer of eight U.S. detainees to South Sudan shows yet another extreme of that logic. After weeks of detention in a shipping container in Djibouti, the men from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan were finally transferred to South Sudan last week after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their removal to the country. This despite a well-catalogued record of the administration violating court orders in the case, and despite South Sudan being so dangerous the U.S. government advises Americans to avoid all travel to the country. And just as with El Salvador, the Trump administration is now disclaiming any responsibility for the men it sent to South Sudan. Asked whether they were in U.S. or South Sudanese custody recently, Homan told Politico, Theyre free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theyre living in Sudan, he added. They can stay there a week and leave. I dont know. As of Thursday, the men were being screened by South Sudanese officials, Reuters reported. Its unclear what will happen to them next. The administration has played up the deportees criminal records and claimed that the immigrants home countries have refused to take them back. But in at least one case the Mexican man sent to South Sudan Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she wasnt made aware of the deportation. Whats more, the underlying legal authority used to transfer the men to the conflict-ridden nation could apply to anyone. Case in point: Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Years ago, a judge issued an order preventing Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador, his country of origin, because he faced gang violence there. The Trump administration improperly sent the Maryland man to CECOT anyway, earlier this year, and after months of ignoring court orders to facilitate his return to the United States, the U.S. government accused him of unlawfully transporting unauthorized migrants within the United States and, on those grounds, brought him back into the country to face the charges. But under Trump administration policy, Abrego Garcia could face deportation to essentially any other nation besides El Salvador. If he is released from pre-trial custody, an ICE lawyer said in court last week, the administration will seek his swift deportation, rather than allowing Abrego Garcias criminal case to play out. He could be deported to Mexico or South Sudan, the lawyer said. Legal Challenges Are An Uphill Battle The families of CECOT detainees have for months offered the world a model for fighting back against Trumps third-country deportations, spending the night in front of the United Nations building in Caracas, telling their stories worldwide, and working with litigators to take their fight to court. And there are some signs of progress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Facing pressure from the United Nations, for example, El Salvadors government wrote to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, which had inquired about the alleged disappearances of four men thought to be CECOT detainees. Rather than being in Salvadoran custody, the Salvadoran government wrote, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters. That Salvadoran claim, that CECOT detainees were still the United States legal responsibility a concept known as constructive custody could have significant legal implications. Plaintiffs in a case concerning some CECOT detainees habeas corpus rights flagged the filing to District Court Judge James Boasberg as soon as they were made aware of it last week. The judge had previously taken the Trump administration at its word that CECOT detainees were in Salvadoran custody, attorneys noted, but the government had not made El Salvadors statement available to the court, and the statement contradicts the governments claims, the attorneys wrote. [S]hould it become necessary for Petitioners to pursue the constructive custody issue, Petitioners reserve the right to seek additional discovery in light of this new information, they said. And in another case concerning a CECOT detainee referred to as Cristian, who the U.S. government improperly sent to the Salvadoran prison in violation of a 2024 settlement U.S. District Court Judge Stephanie Gallagher wroteto the administration demanding an explanation of diplomatic discussions between the State Department and the government of El Salvador. The administration had previously said such discussions were necessary to facilitate Cristians return, but El Salvadors statement to the United Nations seemed to indicate otherwise. Assuming the Government of El Salvador provided truthful information to the UN, no diplomatic discussions should be required here because El Salvador has no sovereign interest in Cristians continued confinement in that country, Gallagher wrote. U.S. courts arent the only battlegrounds over the CECOT detentions. In May, several human rights groups representing CECOT detainees and their families including GSLC and the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies filed a legal action against El Salvador the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, or IACHR, arguing El Salvador had violated regional and international human rights standards. The commissions seven members can issue emergency precautionary measures, or requests that states take immediate action to protect human rights. El Salvador is expected to submit a written response to the commission any day now, though the document will not be filed publicly. There are limitations to such international challenges. IACHR, for example, cant enforce its decisions with military might or threaten government leaders with prison time. But the challenges can generate public scrutiny and build political pressure a key consideration in governments deciding whether to cooperate with the Trump administration. Even when dealing with a recalcitrant state, that doesnt mean that advocates should sit by while the states are violating the rights of individuals in their jurisdiction, Bookey said. You want to do everything in your power to draw attention to that, to not take the spotlight off of it, so that eventually, when the state is pressured to respond, youve done everything you can to document whats happened and to try to vindicate your rights in the forums that you have available to you. Costa Rica and Panamas treatment of transferred U.S. migrants shows just how much change can come with international legal pressure. In recent months, both countries accepted hundreds of U.S. deportees and both have changed course in their treatment of the migrants in response to legal scrutiny. In February, the United States sent hundreds of migrants to Panama, including people from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The migrants were detained, first in a Panama City hotel, and then, for those who did not return to their home countries, in a remote jungle camp. An Iranian convert to Christianity, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, snuck a phone into the detention center and relayed information to international human rights lawyers, Mosselmans recounted. GSLC and other lawyers filed a complaint against Panama with the IACHR. The day before the government was required to respond to the commission, the country released everyone from detention, gave them temporary humanitarian permits, and dropped them off in Panama City. In Costa Rica, some 200 migrants sent by the U.S., including 80 children, were kept detained in a former pencil factory in the jungle. GSLC and a local advocate filed litigation in a Costa Rican constitutional court, as well as with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. The New York Times picked up the complaint before the U.N. and the Costa Rican government effectively went from saying, were holding these people under armed guard, to, the next day, giving the migrants back their passports, and allowing them freedom of movement, Mosselmans said. We believe that was the result of them receiving international press coverage on the issue. Late last month, the Costa Rican constitutional court ordered the release of the people from detention, and the government has granted the migrants work permits. After further legal challenges centered around the childrens rights to education, they recently attended school for the first time in Costa Rica. The aims of those legal challenges, the strategy, is to prevent those countries from receiving more unlawful expulsions from the United States, and also to protect the rights of the people who were expelled to secure their release from detention, and secure them access to rights and protection in the countries theyve ended up in, Mosselmans said. The potential expansion of the United States third-country deportation strategy, she stressed, is yet another reason to keep pushing against it. Now is not the time to retreat, Mosselmans said. Now is the most important time to fight for the rights of displaced communities everywhere. Related... RACINE COUNTY This fall, some farmers in Racine County may operate their harvest season a little differently. The Watershed Protection Committee of Racine County has received a $100,000 grant from the Sand County Foundation, a national nonprofit that provides farmers, ranchers and forest landowners incentive payments to use soil health practices. The grant is meant to encourage Racine County farmers to switch to regenerative agriculture practices by offsetting lost profits during the one- to two-year transition period. Regenerative agriculture practices include the no-tilling method, planting cover crops and reducing use of chemicals such as herbicides. Racine County Land Resource Manager Chad Sampson estimates about five to 10 farmers will receive the cost-share, and that the county will send a letter notifying farmers about the grants availability during the coming weeks. The Watershed Protection Committee of Racine County has done research and demonstrations at Case Eagle Park in Rochester showing the yield and financial differences between traditional and regenerative agriculture, according to Sampson. The committee is trying to prove that over an eight-year period, regenerative is at least equal in its return on investment, if not better. Were in the fourth year of that experiment right now, maybe fifth year, and were starting to see the comparisons getting closer, Sampson said. This year, if you look at the corn crop in the regenerative part, and you look at the corn crop in the conventional part, its looking pretty equal, so thats a good sign; (whereas) the first couple years, it wasnt looking quite as good. Brian Gunderson, a local grain farmer and a board member of the Watershed Protection Committee of Racine County, said regenerative agriculture practices reduce wind and water erosion, promote soil health and yield a better-quality grain. Gunderson has practiced regenerative agriculture on his farm near Waterford for about six years, but said his father used the no-till method for decades. While there are pros and cons to implementing this type of agriculture, Gunderson said hes seen the benefits. Last year, his farm produced some of the best soybean yields in the county after he planted rye grass as the cover crop. I can honestly say, right now, in my whole lifetime, the farm soil is the best shape its ever been in, he said. I basically have no loss of soil from wind or rain or erosion, and to me, thats really a win. Gunderson said farmers who try regenerative agriculture have to commit to the practice and be patient. My first five years of regenerative farming, I would say profit-wise, I was a net-neutral, he said. Up until this last fall, Ive seen big returns so you got to be patient. You cant just do it one year and say, you know, That didnt work, so Im done. Sampson said that during the transition period typically the first one to two years of regenerative agriculture the soil must adjust to changes such as not being tilled. Switching from traditional farming practices to regenerative agriculture can be challenging on multiple levels to farmers, according to Sampson, which is why the Watershed Protection Committee is offering the cost-share incentives. They farmed in the same way their whole life and now theyre kind of transitioning to something different, and its (an) equipment challenge, (a) mental challenge, he said. Thats why the incentives are here, for them to help overcome some of those challenges. Farmers will receive the funds over the next two years, starting with the fall 2025 harvest season, spring and fall 2026 harvest seasons and the spring 2027 harvest season. Were going to try to get them to implement these practices for the next two years, Sampson said. Thats the difficult transition period where they might lose a little yield while it transitions, but then it happens to turn the corner after that third, fourth year. Gunderson said implementing regenerative agriculture practices is a trade-off, and its hard to put a value on elements such as soil health and water retention. When you dont lose soil and you retain your water, and theres soil health, he said. Some of those principles are really almost invaluable. Its been weeks since Israel concluded its 12-day war against Iran, and still many questions remain in regards to how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were able to achieve what they did. One puzzle that stands out above all the others has to do with the Israeli Air Force (IAF) being able to sustain operations and achieve significant effects over such great distances. The borders of Israel and Iran are separated by nearly 600 miles at their closest points. With just seven nearly antique KC-707 tankers in its inventory, getting F-15s, F-35s, and F-16s from Israel to Iran and back many times over nearly two weeks became a major curiosity. The U.S. military had the unique ability to provide Israel with the tanking capacity it needed, but there has been no acknowledgement or proof that this occurred, regardless of claims by some. Still, speculation continues that the U.S. did support Israel with aerial refueling in secret. Now the Department of Defense is flat-out denying that it provided any such support for the IAF during the conflict. A USAF spokesperson stated the following in response to TWZs inquiry into the matter: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Air Force routinely conducts training operations alongside allies and partners within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The Israeli Air Force routinely participates in these exercises and operations at various levels; however, U.S. aerial refueling platforms do not conduct inflight refueling operations with the IAF. An F-15I refuels from a KC-707. (IAF) The U.S. Air Force also previously made it clear to us that during a 2022 exercise modeled on an Iranian contingency operation with the U.S. and Israel air arms working together that it didnt provide aerial refueling support for the IAF then, either. As the recent war went on, Israeli fighters pushed further east over Iranian airspace, allowing the jets to bring more powerful, deeper-penetrating, and in some cases more numerous, direct attack weapons to bear on Iranian targets. But with just seven aging KC-707 tankers in its force, getting F-15s, F-35s, and F-16s from Israel to Tehran was clearly a monumental undertaking. In the opening shots of the war, where Israel attacked targets near the Iran-Iraq border and launched many standoff weapons deeper into Iran from afar, it was clear the IAF massed everything it could. The first waves of fighters would be maximized to take advantage of the opening shock of the conflict in an attempt to degrade Irans air defenses and command and control architecture. Initial strikes on key long-range missile and nuclear sites were also part of this opening series of barrages. The IAF was helped greatly by Mossads destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD) campaign from within Iran itself, which you can read more about here. Nevertheless, everything must have been done to allow as many fighter aircraft to participate as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fitting as much external fuel on the fighters the IAFs F-15 fleets and F-16Is are all notably fitted with conformal fuel tanks and have the ability to carry drop tanks was clearly necessary. Even dropping external tanks once they are empty to maximize range appears to have been part of the plan during the initial high-volume strikes. While drop tanks are expendable, they are not cheap and are usually retained unless performance has to be regained due to enemy threats or an in-flight emergency occurs. Dropping them to maximize an aircrafts range is also an established tactic, but not a very sustainable one over the long term. Its also one that is not needed if tanker support is readily available, nor is equipping the jets with maximum external fuel in the first place, in many circumstances. Single seat Baz with 3 bags and conformals. The longest reaching config of the original Eagle. https://t.co/7G6Y6y3tfv Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 18, 2025 Fuel drop tank belonging to Israeli fighter jet found on the ground in Daraa, Syria. pic.twitter.com/pCI8INmePs SIMPLICIUS (@simpatico771) June 13, 2025 Flying very carefully planned flight profiles to squeeze every bit of efficiency out of the range of IAF tactical jets was also clearly a tactic employed, although it leaves very little margin for error or combat contingencies. In addition, we know that Israels F-35Is have been tweaked to provide extra range. We dont know exactly what this entails, and it could be a cocktail of measures, from software tweaks to internal or external fuel tanks. Regardless, it was reported that many IAF fighters landed on fumes after their initial sorties. KC-707 and F-35Is. (IAF) Regardless, maximizing Israels fighter force of close to 300 aircraft (total inventory, not what is actually available at any given time) in the opening waves of the war with just seven tankers may have been a feat that can be explained by careful planning, drop tanks, and the use of long-range standoff weaponry, at least early on. As the war continued, the magnitude of the sorties may have dropped, but the geographical depth and power of their strikes increased. These operations were sustained for nearly two weeks. IAF F-16Is heading out later in the conflict fully loaded with three external tanks, as well as their conformal fuel tanks, a load of SDBs, and AIM-120 AMRAAMs. (IAF) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the conflict, TWZ discussed how, at a certain point, Israel would have to drastically reduce its cadence of operations or wrap up the war. If the U.S. had not struck Fordow with B-2s, its possible the war would not have ended until the IDF was able to deal with that very hardened target, which would have likely required a ground operation very deep into a highly-defended area of Iran. Strikes would have eventually slowed as the IAFs sortie rates degraded, and especially those of its overworked and geriatric tankers. Some things to consider as we await the verdict on Trump's ceasefire deal: The IAF has been executing long-range sorties continuously for close to two weeks. This comes on the tail of constant war-time operations for the last 20+ months. Their fighters have racked up huge Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 23, 2025 How long could Israel keep up those long-range sortie rates? Iran obviously has been deeply degraded militarily. Both sides want and end or this would not be happening. Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 23, 2025 I am not saying months here, but days/weeks. It gets trickier if they put manned aircraft into Iranian airspace. Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 13, 2025 The fact that, according to the USAF, Israel did this without the help of clandestine USAF tanking is remarkable. The only other possibilities in terms of direct support would be using airfields in an Arab country, such as Jordan or Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia also has tankers that could refuel IAF jets. Yet there is absolutely no evidence that this occurred in any way. Using Azerbaijan for forward basing is another possibility some have raised, but there is no hard evidence to support that, and it is very unlikely on its face. So, as it sits, based on a fresh direct statement from the USAF, the IAF went it alone against Iran when it comes to aerial refueling, which prompts even more questions about an operation that remains partially cloaked in secrecy weeks after it wrapped up. Contact the author: Tyler@twz.com U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that he had "asked Israel to aggressively investigate the murder" of Saif Musallet, a Palestinian American national who was visiting family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank when "he was beaten to death." "There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act," Huckabee said in a social media post. "Saif was just 20 yrs old." The family of Musallet, whose full name was Saifullah Kamel Musallet, told CBS News on Saturday that he was beaten to death on Friday by Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, they said he was killed in a confrontation with settlers while trying to protect his family's land in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, and that the settlers had surrounded him for more than three hours, blocking an ambulance and paramedics from reaching him. Palestinian-American Saifullah Kamel Musallet is seen in an undated family photo. / Credit: Provided by the Musallet Family The family's statement said his younger brother carried him to an ambulance after the group cleared, but that Musallet died before he was able to reach the hospital. He had been due to return to his home in Tampa, Florida, this week, his relatives said. Musallet's killing comes amid an increase in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Thameen Al-Kheetan, said Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks," Al-Kheetan said. He said that "during the first half of 2025, there have been 757 settler attacks that resulted in Palestinian casualties or property damage a 13 per cent increase on the same period in 2024." "Israel must immediately stop these killings, harassment and home demolitions across the occupied Palestinian territory," Al-Kheetan said. "As the occupying power, Israel must take all feasible measures to ensure public order and safety in the West Bank. It is under the obligation to protect Palestinians from settler attacks and to end the unlawful use of force by its security forces. There must be thorough, independent and transparent investigations into all killings and all other alleged violations of international law. Those responsible must be held to account." The Israel Defense Forces told CBS News on Wednesday that immediately "following the incident, a joint investigation was launched by the Israel Police and the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Thursday, a U.S. State Department spokesperson offered condolences to the family and said it was providing consular assistance. The spokesperson said Israeli authorities had announced the arrest of six people in connection with the incident, but neither the IDF nor Israeli police replied to CBS News' questions about the investigation, and there was no confirmation from Israeli authorities of any arrests. Israeli media reported soon after the incident that six people were detained but later released. On Friday, a spokesperson for the Israeli police said the police and the IDF were "currently carrying out a joint investigation regarding the death of a Palestinian-American citizen, alleged to have occurred following a confrontation near Sinjil." The statement said at the time of the incident, "security forces restored order and made arrests on both sides." "Although no official report was filed regarding a homicide at the time the claim surfaced, and no access to the body was granted to allow for proper forensic examination or collection of critical evidence, the police and IDF have nonetheless launched a proactive investigation to clarify the circumstances surrounding the circulating allegations. If criminal actions are found to have occurred, accountability will be pursued in accordance with the law," the police spokesperson said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musallet's family said they had not been informed of any arrests related to his killing. Last week, the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on President Trump to hold Israel accountable for Musallet's death and "put America first." "This murder is only the latest killing of an American citizen by illegal Israeli settlers or soldiers," CAIR-Florida Executive Director Imam Abdullah Jaber said in a statement. "Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians. If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration." Other U.S. citizens who have been killed in the Israel-occupied West Bank include Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who died in 2022, and activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was killed last year. Both were allegedly killed by Israeli forces, and the Israeli military has said it is investigating, but nobody has been held accountable for either of their deaths to date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Wall Street Journal reports Trump sent "bawdy" birthday letter to Epstein, Trump threatens to sue 7.3 magnitude earthquake hits southern Alaska Medical expert on Trump's chronic venous insufficiency diagnosis A Pentagon budget document states that the U.S. military has been firing AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASM) in the course of recent operations in or around the Middle East. If confirmed, it would be the first time these missiles have been employed in combat. Currently, U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers are the only aircraft known to be cleared to employ AGM-158Cs operationally. Efforts are underway to integrate LRASM onto the B and C variants, at least, of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as well as Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, F-15EX Eagle IIs, and F-16C/D Vipers. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol planes are also in line to be able to employ the missiles in the future. A US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet releases a LRASM during a test. USN Funds are required for the replacement of Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) C-3 All Up Rounds (AURS) expended in support of the DOD response to the situation in Israel, according to a reprogramming document dated May 22, 2025, but that was only posted online recently. This action does not change the purpose for which the funds were originally appropriated. This is a congressional special interest item. This is an emergency budget requirement. The LRASM section from the May 2025 reprogramming document. DOD By law, the U.S. military must formally seek approval from Congress to reallocate funding from one part of its budget to another. This particular reprogramming action also asks to shift money around to purchase AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IB anti-ballistic missile interceptors, GBU-53/B StormBreaker precision-guided glide bombs (also known as Small Diameter Bomb IIs, or SDB IIs), and 5-inch naval gun rounds. It supports a number of other ancillary funding requirements, as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In total, this reprogramming action transfers $783.296 million from Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide, 24/25 appropriation, made available by division A of Public Law 118-50, the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, to the specific appropriations necessary to execute funding provided for U.S. operations conducted in response to the situation in Israel, the document explains. This reprogramming addresses the increased, unfunded costs incurred by DoD within the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) region in responding to the situation in Israel or to hostile actions in the region as a direct result of the situation in Israel. This reprogramming action specifically excludes requirements related to actions taken in defense of Israel during attacks by Iran in coordination with and at the request of Israel, in order to defend against attacks on Israeli territory, personnel, or vital assets. Based on the stipulations above, the expenditures noted in the reprogramming action would have come, at least in part, in the course of U.S. operations against Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. On-and-off since October 2023, the Houthis have been targeting foreign warships and commercial vessels in and around the Red Sea, as well as launching attacks at Israel, ostensibly in response to that countrys intervention into the Gaza Strip. The U.S. government and the Houthis agreed to a ceasefire in May. U.S. forces are known to have employed AIM-120s, AIM-9s, GBU-53/Bs, and 5-inch naval guns against incoming Houthi missiles and drones. American warships have also fired SM-3 Block IBs in the broader context of defending Israel in the past year, including against Iranian threats. In addition, Navy Super Hornets launched from carriers in the region have been particularly active in the course of the operations. The U.S. military aircraft and warships have also used a slate of other munitions in combat operations in the Middle East since October 2023. However, the May reprogramming document is the first indication that AGM-158Cs have been expended. To preserve operational security, we have intentionally limited disclosing details of the use and application of specific weapons platforms in past, present or future operations, a U.S. defense official told TWZ when asked for more information about the apparent use of LRASMs. We are very deliberate in our operational approach but will not reveal specifics about what weve done in past operations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement TWZ also reached out to the U.S. Navy, the service that manages the LRASM program, which redirected us to CENTCOM. What targets LRASMs would have even been employed against in recent U.S. operations in the Middle East is not clear. The Houthis operate only small watercraft, and Iran has not acknowledged any losses of major naval vessels. Other Iranian-backed proxy groups and terrorist organizations in the region that American forces could have targeted do not have maritime assets to speak of. In March, Saudi Arabian outlet Al Hadath did report, and later retracted, claims that U.S. forces had sunk the Iranian spy ship Zagros. U.S. and Iranian officials subsequently denied that report, and no evidence to the contrary has emerged since then. A U.S. defense official denied social media chatter about the targeting of Iran's Zagros ship. The official told the @dcexaminer, "it is pier side in Bandar Abbas, [Iran]." https://t.co/F3V13I7FYE Mike Brest (@MikeBrestDC) March 18, 2025 Update: The airstrikes in Gaza have continued overnight. At least 5 senior Hamas officials were eliminated. The IDF has sent warnings to evacuate fighting zones. Hamas is reporting hundreds of casualties. Regarding Iran, no confirmation on Zagros ship story and bizarre that even Emily Schrader (@emilykschrader) March 18, 2025 AGM-158Cs may also have been employed against targets along the shore. We know Houthi air defenses presented risks to U.S. aircraft, which appeared to prompt an increased use of standoff munitions and stealthy platforms during a surge in operations earlier this year. LRASM would have offered a particularly capable standoff weapon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, the extent of the AGM-158Cs land-attack capabilities is unclear. The missile is designed to use a GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance package to get to a target area before switching over to a passive infrared seeker. The seeker then searches for targets and autonomously categorizes them using pre-programmed parameters that are stored in its built-in maritime-centric threat database. The upgraded C-3 variant of the missile was originally set to feature an explicit land-attack capability, but those plans were said to have been axed in 2023. The new version will have roughly double the range of the current standard C-1 type (around 600 miles versus 200-300 miles based on available information) and other improvements. The specific mention of the C-3 variant in the reprogramming action is itself curious since that version has not been expected to enter operational service until next year at the earliest. There have been no other indications of an early fielding. It is possible that text of the reprogramming document is in error in one or more ways. For one, the mention of the C-3 version rather than the current standard C-1 could be incorrect. A LRASM seen in front of an F/A-18 with another one of the missiles under its wing. USN In addition, reallocated funding for the purchase of any variant of the LRASM could be intended to backfill the expenditure of other older munitions. This is something that has been seen in other reprogramming actions in the past, including ones intended to help replenish stockpiles following transfers of materiel to Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Funds are required for the procurement of Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles as one of the current Air Force replacements for High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles transferred to Ukraine in support of the international effort to counter Russian aggression, a separate reprogramming action dated August 13, 2024, says, as one example. This action does not change the purpose for which the funds were originally appropriated. This is a congressional special interest item. This is an emergency budget requirement. With this in mind, notably absent from the May reprogramming document is any talk of making up for Navy expenditures of AGM-84H Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) cruise missiles. SLAM-ERs were employed against the Houthis earlier this year, but the U.S. military does not appear to have procured any new stocks of these munitions for its own use in years. LRASMs might be one option for replacing those missiles going forward. 1/ Aside from the launch of F/A-18E/Fs armed with JSOW C/C-1s, the video also shows F/A-18Es armed with SLAM-ER ATAs parked on the fligh deck. https://t.co/3TC4kKIn17 pic.twitter.com/OqQBbRrYGY Guy Plopsky (@GuyPlopsky) March 16, 2025 The AGM-158C entry in the programming document could also just be completely inaccurate and be meant to refer to something else entirely. The LRASM is notably derived from the AGM-158 Joint Air-To-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), a land attack cruise missile that has been employed in past combat operations in the Middle East. At the same time, if there was an error, especially a major one, in the language of the reprogramming action, one would imagine that it would be possible to say so, even if more specific details could not be provided for operational security reasons. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For now, it remains an open question about whether or not U.S. forces have fired LRASMs in the course of recent operations in the Middle East. Howard Altman contributed to this story. Contact the author: joe@twz.com Egypt has long been a country popular with U.S. tourists eager to see the pyramids or explore the mysteries of Cairo or the Nile. However, now the U.S. government is urging travelers to think twice. On July 15, the U.S. Department of State changed its travel advisory for Egypt to "Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution.'" "Exercise increased caution in Egypt due to terrorism, crime, and health. Some areas have increased risk," the travel advisory says. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State Department says that travelers should not travel at all to some areas of Egypt, listing them as: "The Northern and Middle Sinai Peninsula due to terrorism ." "The Western Desert due to risk to safety and security unless traveling with a professionally licensed tour company." "Egyptian border areas due to military zones." "The U.S. Embassy has limited ability to help dual national U.S.-Egyptian citizens who are arrested or detained. Egyptian law considers dual citizens to be solely Egyptian citizens," the U.S. government warns. On the positive side, the government reports that "Egyptian authorities generally offer effective security protection. However, extremists continue to express interest in planning and carrying out attacks." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Possible targets include restaurants, shopping malls, and other areas that tourists might visit. "Most crimes against foreigners are crimes of opportunity, like purse snatching and pickpocketing. Harassment of women, including foreigners, is a problem in Egypt," the travel advisory warns. "It can include vulgar comments, gestures, indecent exposure, and unwanted physical contact. Tourists should beware of overcharging and scams in tourist areas." According to the State Department, people should make sure their polio vaccines are updated before traveling to Egypt. "Emergency and intensive care facilities are limited in Egypt and may be unavailable in remote areas. Ambulances are rare, unreliable in most areas, and dont have advanced medical equipment," the U.S. government says in the travel warning. Related: Southwest Airlines CEO Defends Major Seating Change as Not 'Crazy' U.S. Issues Travel Warning on July 15 for Country Popular With Tourists first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 The United States regularly keeps citizens abreast of any concerns regarding travel to foreign countries. This week, the Department of State issued a number of travel warnings for Americans. On Wednesday morning, the department updated its travel warning to the country of Rwanda in Africa. Rwanda is now listed as a "Level 2" risk, meaning travelers should "Exercise Increased Caution" if they choose to go over there. The reason for the classification is the danger of armed violence throughout the nation, with some areas having increased risk. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Armed groups, individuals, and military forces routinely clash in nearby countries. The ongoing violence in these areas raises the risk of spilling over into Rwanda," the update reads. Additionally, this new warning removed the "Level 4: Do Not Travel" area near Rwanda's border with Burundi and made changes to the "Level 4: Do Not Travel" areas near its border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Two and a half decades after a devastating genocide, the Rwandan capital of Kigali is Africa's most exciting city, brimming with art, fashion, nightlife, and food. V. Fournier/Jeune Afrique-Rea/Redux Travelers are asked not to travel to the Rusizi and Rubavu districts, both within 10 kilometers of the DRC border, due to risks of armed violence. "Lake Kivu borders the DRC. Borders may not be clearly marked. A permit from the Rwanda Development Board is required for entry to Nyungwe Forest National Park," the warning says of the Rusizi District "Due to the risks, U.S. government employees working in Rwanda must obtain special authorization to travel to Rusizi District." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for the Rubavu District, the area has seen "increasing armed conflict," which officials are worried could spill over the border. "Armed groups operate in the DRCs North and South Kivu provinces and Virunga Park," the Department of State said. If American citizens must travel to Rwanda, the Department of State recommends taking several steps ahead of time, including enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), reviewing the country security report and preparing for emergency situations. The Department of State's new travel warning for Rwanda comes one day after it announce a "Do Not Travel" warning for Haiti and told citizens to "reconsider" going to Nigeria and Mauritania. U.S. Issues Updated 'Increased Caution' Travel Warning July 16 first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) In June, the house voted to cut $9.4 billion from a variety of federal programs in a 214-212 vote. $1.1 billion was set to go to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, or CPB, which funds and supports public radio nationwide. Now, this cut heads to the senate. Republicans have labeled this previous spending as wasteful and unnecessary, while Democrats have said that the various cuts to programs, including funding for public broadcasting, will cause needless harm to Americans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Joe Moore the general manager for KVPR, Central Californias NPR Station this funding clawback isnt fatal to his station, but could serve as a setback. If the CBP funds were rescinded, that would result in a shortfall of roughly $175,000 a year for KVPR. Thats about 7% of our overall budget. So, what would happen? We would not be going off the air, we would not be going out of business, but we would be forced to make some cuts to programs and services and local coverage that our listeners rely on, he says. KVPR has roughly 68,000 regular listeners, according to public data. While a majority of stations like KVPR can survive these budget cuts, many of these listeners are not happy about them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Alice Sorenson, a local KVPR listener, says she feels the government is breaking its promise to support public media. Its an argument I have with myself all the time, because first I say why should the government be supporting it? But second, I say to myself we need balance. We need the government to participate in that balance. We need to be able to hear all sides. And, we need to be able to honor the contracts and commitments that weve made, which NPR has had. And whats going on right now theres a terrible imbalance, a lack of commitment. The government hasnt upheld what it agreed to, she says. If this cut passes the senate, public radio listeners can expect changes to their everyday programming. I think we would probably have to look really carefully at what we offer, and how can we best continue to serve our listeners and our core programs, but some of other programs might have to go away, and maybe other things be repeated at certain times. Or, we find solutions that people arent used to hearing, but might be more affordable, says Joe Moore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The senate is expected to vote on these funding cuts by the end of the week. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. HONOLULU (KHON2) A bill aimed at protecting local fishermen has been passed by the U.S. Senate. Apex predator orcas spotted off Hawaii Island On July 14, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Illegal Red Snapper and Tuna Enforcement Act, led by U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Ted Cruz. The bill tells the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a standard for identifying the country of origin of red snapper and certain species of tuna imported into the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Seafood thats caught illegally or intentionally mislabeled rips off consumers and makes it harder for law-abiding U.S. fishermen to compete. Our bill will help fight against anyone who tries to pass off cheap foreign tuna for high-quality ahi from local Hawaii fishermen, said Senator Schatz. Before this bill, technology existed to chemically test and find the origin of many foods, but not for tuna and red snapper. The legislations goal is to develop a field kit that can be used to identify whether fish were caught in U.S. or foreign waters. This would then allow federal and state law enforcement officers to identify the origin of fish and intercept illegally caught or falsely labeled red snapper and tuna. Get Hawaiis latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You The bill now heads to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KHON2. The future of research programs at Indiana universities that had foreign aid grants slashed by the Trump administrations Department of Government Efficiency earlier this year could depend on a federal vote this week. The U.S. Senate has a deadline of July 18 to vote on President Donald Trumps $9 billion package of federal spending cuts, which would rescind previously approved funding for public media and codify DOGEs cuts from early 2025 that shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development. About $1 billion of the spending bill is tied to funding for NPR and PBS while the other $8 billion is dedicated to cuts to global aid initiatives, including USAID. USAID dollars previously funded research at both private and public Indiana universities that explored topics such as food safety and education policy in low and middle-income countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Trump administration has criticized USAID for "near-infinite" spending on programs that did not benefit American taxpayers or aligned with America First priorities. In a July 1 post on Substack, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said future global aid programs that are in line with the president's priorities will be administered by the State Department. USAID viewed its constituency as the United Nations, multinational NGOs, and the broader global community not the U.S. taxpayers who funded its budget or the President the elected to represent their interests on the world stage, Rubio wrote. The Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame said in April it already initiated staff reductions and ended projects that had received USAID dollars after DOGE-related funding cuts earlier this year. While the policy environment may be uncertain, our responsibility to support vulnerable communities is not, the institute said in an April statement. The Pulte Institute, now operating under a new structure, continues its mission to connect Notre Dames research with those working on the front lines of poverty, climate, education and health changes. USAID funds in Indiana In April, the Pulte Institute said federal cuts to USAID ended about $20 million in funding for research projects on early education and migration and disrupted data collection and analysis efforts in nearly 30 countries." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But funding cuts hit other universities as well. The nonpartisan Center for American Progress, which has tracked DOGE cuts through May, shows at least five USAID grant cuts at Indiana universities, although some of those programs may have already ended prior to the announced cuts. Among the grants was one dedicated to Purdue University's Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Safety. The program, which was founded in 2019, led food safety research projects in multiple countries and in 2024 received $10 million in funding from USAID to extend its efforts. Its unclear the status of those dollars at this point. Innovation Lab representatives and Purdue media contacts did not respond to questions about USAID funding from IndyStar prior to the deadline for this story. A federal government spending tracking website indicates nearly $4.5 million of grant funding for the Food Safety Innovation Lab has not been spent. Earlier this year, Trump also cited a program at Purdue as an example of necessary federal spending cuts that were underway during his first month in office. While the president did not name the program, news outlets in February reported Trump's comments fit the description of LASER PULSE, a $70 million research program that partners with USAID. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement LASER PULSE, part of the global development arm of Purdues Applied Research Institute, is an initiative that researches solutions to challenges in USAID-partnering countries, according to its website. $70 million for a center at Purdue to research university-sourced, evidence-based solutions to developmental challenges," Trump said in February. "I mean, these are massive numbers on things that nobody has ever heard about." Whats next for recissions If the U.S. Senate does not sign off on the spending cuts by July 18, the Trump administration would have to allow the billions dedicated to public media and foreign aid to be spent on the programs Congress previously approved. The House narrowly passed the recissions bill in June, with Indiana's representatives supporting the bill along party lines. Both of Indiana's Republican senators plan to support the Trump administration's spending cuts. U.S. Sen. Todd Young, who before July 15 had not publicly shared his position on the legislation, said in a post on X he would support the recissions package. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Passing this bill is a small but important step toward greater fiscal responsibility," Young said in the post. Contact IndyStar state government and politics reporter Brittany Carloni at brittany.carloni@indystar.com. Sign up for our free weekly politics newsletter, Checks & Balances, curated by IndyStar politics and government reporters. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: U.S. Senate eyeing USAID cuts that funded research at Indiana schools The two leaders affirmed their countries' keenness to support all efforts and endeavors made to achieve regional peace and stability, which would benefit all peoples of the region, the report said. The United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed is travelling to Turkey on Wednesday July 16 according to reports in UAE media. This is expected to be an important visit. He will meet with Recep Tayyip Erdogan and there are many issues on the agenda. Burhanettin Duran, communications director for the Turkish presidency said the two leaders are expected to discuss steps to deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is an important visit. Al-Ain media in the UAE said that it marks a qualitative shift in relations between the two countries. Its worth recalling that five years ago relations were much colder between Ankara and Abu Dhabi. Now things have changed. Turkey has rekindled its ties with the Gulf, beyond Qatar which was always a close ally of Turkey. During the Abraham Accords era in 2020, Turkey had even threatened to cut ties with the UAE if the UAE went ahead with normalization with Israel. Now things have changed. Turkey still is hostile to Israel. The UAE has also seen that the Accords have not brought it as much as it may have wanted. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reacts during a press conference at a NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands June 25, 2025. (credit: PIROSCHKA VAN DE WOUW/REUTERS) During the visit, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will discuss with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan various aspects of cooperation and joint action to serve the development priorities of both countries, in addition to a range of regional and international issues of mutual interest, al-Ain media in the UAE noted on July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report goes on to note that the two leaders affirmed their countries' keenness to support all efforts and endeavors made to achieve regional peace and stability, which would benefit all peoples of the region. A historic milestone This is the third visit by the UAE President to Turkey in four years, following two visits on June 10, 2023, and one on November 24, 2021, which marked a historic milestone and a significant turning point in the course of relations between the two countries, Al-Ain noted. During the same period, the Turkish President made five visits to the UAE, the most recent of which was in February 2024, during which he attended the World Government Summit 2024, in which Turkey participated as the guest of honor, crowning the growing relations between the two countries. There are many important issues ahead to discuss. The countries have economic ties and a partnership agreement. There are numerous memorandums the countries have signed that are estimated to be worth some $50 billion in trade. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Erdogan also presented Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan with a Turkish-made TOGG electric car, expressing his pride in the strong relations between the two countries, Al-Ain noted. Countries in the region will be watching closely. Will the visit touch onissues in Syria and the Caucasus? What other issues may be on the agenda. Will they discuss Gaza and what comes next regarding the conflict there. Ankara backs Hamas and the UAE has generally backed the PA or other ideas for what might come next. Could Ankara and Abu Dhabi have ideas that could help solve the conflict that has dragged on for 648 days? (KRON) UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons, along with leaders from Georgetown University and the City University of New York, testified before a House committee Tuesday regarding the rise of antisemitism on college campuses. The hearing, held by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, focused on accusations from Republican members that universities are not doing enough to protect Jewish students. Democrats countered that Republicans are using the issue to suppress free speech at universities. Antisemitism is pervasive in the world. Its pervasive in this nation, in society. I think our universities are reflections of our societies, especially a large public university, said Rich Lyons, Chancellor of UC Berkeley. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the three-hour session, Chancellor Lyons faced questions from committee members, including Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), who asked why antisemitism is so pervasive at Berkeley. Republic Services strike update: Bay Area residents frustrated as strike continues Lyons acknowledged that while antisemitism is a broader societal issue, UC Berkeley has taken steps to address it on campus. We have adopted new initiatives to design. These are designed to curb antisemitism by confronting the rise in hate directly, Lyons stated. He highlighted the implementation of new antisemitism training for incoming students and increased security measures as part of the universitys efforts to ensure safety and compliance with campus rules. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lyons also emphasized the importance of upholding free speech, stating, We need to communicate what the standards are, while at the same time making sure students know that expression, your views, consistent with the First Amendment is something that Berkeley doesnt just condone it, actually encourages it. The testimony highlighted the ongoing debate over how universities should balance protecting students from hate speech while preserving free speech rights. UC Berkeleys recent initiatives aim to address these challenges amid rising tensions on campuses. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KRON4. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KRON4 staff before being published. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KRON4. (FOX40.COM) UC Davis graduate Miguel Craven has been appointed as the 2026-27 student regent by the University of California Board of Regents on Wednesday. Video above: Hundreds of UC Davis medical and nursing students moved into Anova Aggie Square Craven earned his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from UC Merced. He served as the student body president, where he worked to expand funding opportunities for student organizations and create new pathways for professional development and creative expression. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Currently, Craven is pursuing his Masters degree in Energy Systems at UC Davis. His passions include elevating and empowering others in the STEM fields. As a proud UC Merced alum, I have experienced firsthand the transformative impact a UC education has on our students, Craven said. Im honored to continue working with the Board of Regents and students to enhance and co-curricular opportunities to develop the next generation of leaders in our community. According to a UC Office of the Presidents press release, Craven will have voting privileges when his one-year term as student regent begins on July 1, 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX40 News. NEW YORK (PIX11) A man from the United Kingdom has been forced back to New York to face charges of fraud and money laundering through a wine business, according to ICE Homeland Security Investigations in New York. The 56-year-old British national is accused of using his business with Bordeaux Cellars to collect loan payments from investors for non-existent products and customers, authorities with Homeland Security Investigations say. Instead, ICE says he pocketed $99 million worth of funds. More Crime News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The defendants claimed Bordeaux Cellars boasted a high-value wine stockpile and a clientele of high-net-worth wine collectors and in turn profited handsomely all while they swindled investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, said HSI New York Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel. According to the indictment, the alleged scheme ran from at least June 2017 through February 2019, with the U.K. citizen and his co-conspirator allegedly posing as executives of Bordeaux Cellars and soliciting investors at conferences both in the United States and overseas. More Local News During that time, the pair allegedly brokered loans from investors and promised them interest payments from borrowers who were high-net-worth wine collectors. However, the wine collectors, or the wines, were not real. Instead, its alleged the defendants used the proceeds from the loans to make fake interest payments and pocketed the rest. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.K. citizen and his co-defendant face charges of wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Dominique Jack is a digital content producer from Brooklyn with more than five years of experience covering news. She joined PIX11 in 2024. More of her work can be found here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11. (Corrects figures in paragraph 11) LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's counter-radicalisation scheme Prevent needs to rapidly adapt to avoid mistakes which saw two men who had been referred to the programme go on to commit deadly knife attacks, a review concluded on Wednesday. Prevent has been a key strand of Britains security apparatus since the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, with the aim of stopping radicalisation and preventing people from going on to commit acts of violence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But since its inception it has faced criticism from some Muslims who argue it has been used to spy on their communities, while some referrals have gone on to commit acts of terrorism. The government commissioned a report into the scheme after it emerged that teenager Axel Rudakubana, who murdered three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event in Southport last year, had previously been referred by his school, but concerns about his violent tendencies were not acted upon. David Anderson, the Interim Independent Prevent Commissioner, looked at the case of Ali Harbi Ali, who was inspired by Islamic State to stab to death veteran lawmaker David Amess in 2021. Ali too had previously been referred to Prevent by his school, and Anderson said both cases involved a long string of mistakes and poor judgments. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He concluded that the scheme, while it worked sometimes, had to improve and adapt, applying to those who were simply obsessed with violence, such as Rudakubana. In the longer term, it should become part of a broader safeguarding and violence protection system, he said. "More needs to be done," Anderson said. "Prevent needs to up its game in the online world, where most radicalisation now takes place." Home Secretary (interior minister) Yvette Cooper said the government would immediately act on his findings. The most recent figures showed in the year to the end of March 2024, 6,922 people had been referred to Prevent, an increase of 1.5% on the previous 12 months. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Of those, 36% were related to vulnerable individuals with no clear ideology or counter terrorism risk, 19% over extreme right-wing concerns, and 13% regarding Islamist radicalisation. Only two years ago, another independent review concluded that Prevent should refocus its efforts more on the threat posed by militant Islamism after becoming too concerned with extreme right-wing ideologies. (Reporting by Michael Holden;Editing by Alison Williams) ISLAMABAD (AP) Britain has lifted a years-long ban on Pakistani airlines following improvements in the countrys aviation safety standards, the British diplomatic mission in Islamabad said Wednesday. The U.K.s Air Safety Committee imposed the ban after Pakistans aviation minister in June 2020 disclosed that nearly one-third of the countrys pilots had cheated on their licensing exams. The claim came after a Pakistan International Airlines crash killed 97 people on May 24, 2020, in the southern city of Karachi. Wednesdays announcement follows a broader international recognition of Pakistans efforts to improve air safety. Earlier this year, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency also lifted its five-year-long ban, allowing the national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines to resume direct flights to Europe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement British High Commissioner Jane Marriott said that after extensive engagement between the U.K.s Air Safety Committee and the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority, restrictions on Pakistani airlines have now been lifted. U.K. diplomatic missions in Commonwealth countries are known as high commissions and are equivalent to embassies. However, Marriott said individual airlines will still need to apply for operating permits from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority. Im grateful to aviation experts in both the U.K. and Pakistan for their collaborative work to meet international safety standards, she said. While it will take time for flights to resume, once the logistics are in place, I look forward to using a Pakistani carrier when visiting family and friends." The high commission emphasized that decisions on delisting countries or carriers from the U.K. Air Safety List are made through an independent safety process overseen by the Air Safety Committee. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With more than 1.6 million people of Pakistani heritage living in the U.K., and thousands of British nationals residing in Pakistan, it said the move will help families to reconnect and potentially boost bilateral trade ties. Pakistans Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif welcomed the decision. Speaking at a televised news conference on Wednesday, he attributed the ban to what he described as baseless remarks made by former aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan. He said Khans claim tarnished the countrys image and triggered significant financial losses for Pakistan International Airlines. The UK secretly brought thousands of Afghan citizens to Britain after their details were accidentally leaked. Following the Western withdrawal in 2021, London set up clandestine programs to help Afghans who assisted allied forces during the war to leave the country, fearing they or their families would be targeted by the Taliban. But in 2022, a spreadsheet of 18,700 applicants names was put on Facebook. The UK government obtained a controversial legal ban on reporting on the issue, and has spent billions relocating nearly 7,000 people. Interpreters, fixers, and other Afghans who worked with Western forces during the 20-year conflict were deemed conspirators by the Taliban, Al Jazeera reported in 2021: Many have been killed, detained, or tortured. This week marked a possible pivot by President Donald Trump regarding Russia's ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with his Monday announcement of a "really big" deal to provide Kyiv with new weapons and threats to impose further sanctions on Russia if it fails to agree a ceasefire within 50 days. Though Trump's decision was welcomed by leaders in Kyiv, Ukrainians and their supporters abroad also raised concerns that the 50-day window may offer Russian President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to intensify his long-range strikes against Ukrainian cities and ongoing summer frontline offensive. Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament representing Zelenskyy's party and the chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told ABC News he was "cautiously optimistic," hoping Trump's announcement may signal a new "maximum pressure" campaign on Putin. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "However, the 50-day deadline is of some concern, because Putin might take it as a green light to intensify offensive operations," he said. The Russian attacks over the two nights since Trump's announcement suggest Moscow remains unmoved. Ukrainian Armed Forces/via Reuters - PHOTO: A Ukrainian serviceman is pictured in Kharkiv region, Ukraine, on July 2, 2025. Monday night and Tuesday night saw a cumulative 667 attack and decoy drones of various types, plus one missile, launched into Ukraine by Russia, according to figures published by the Ukrainian air force and analyzed by ABC News. The previous 50 days before Trump's announcement saw a total of 9,618 drones and 349 missiles launched into Ukraine -- an average of around 192 drones and seven missiles each day. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pattern of Russian long-range strikes suggest the next 50 days might be even more difficult for Ukrainians. Since May, the scale of Russian attacks has been steadily increasing despite Trump's efforts to force a ceasefire and eventual peace deal. In May, Russia launched a total of 3,835 drones and 117 missiles, for an average of around 124 drones and nearly four missiles each day. June saw 5,438 drones and 239 missiles fired into Ukraine, with a daily average of 181 drones and nearly eight missiles. MORE: Russia 'didn't care' about Trump's weapons for Ukraine, tariff threats, official says Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Already in the first half of July, Ukraine has reported facing 4,003 drones and 89 missiles, for a daily average of 250 drones and more than five missiles. "Russia is not changing its strategy," Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram after Tuesday night's attacks, in which the president said at least 16 people were injured. "To effectively counter this terror, we need a systematic strengthening of defense: more air defense, more interceptors, more determination so that Russia feels our response," he added. Ukraine says many of those Russian drones have been aimed at non-military targets, including residential areas and city centers across Ukraine. Russia has maintained that it targets military and infrastructure sites. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump defended his decision to give Moscow 50 days to act, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday, "I don't think it's a long time. I think really the question should be asked, why did [former President Joe] Biden get us into that ridiculous war? Why did Biden bring us there?" Stringer/Reuters - PHOTO: A resident removes glass from a broken window of his apartment damaged during Russian strike in Lviv, Ukraine, on July 12, 2025. Asked why he believes Putin's opinion will change in 50 days, Trump said, "a lot of opinions change very rapidly." He added, "It might not be 50 days, he might be much sooner than 50 days." But Russian officials gave a cold response to Trump's announcement on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump's "statements are very serious," telling reporters at a daily briefing, "Some of them are addressed personally to President Putin. We definitely need time to analyze what was said in Washington." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, meanwhile, told the state-run Tass news agency that making any demands of Russia is "unacceptable," and that the Kremlin's position is "unshakable." Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that Trump is "under enormous, frankly indecent pressure from the EU and NATO's current leadership." MORE: Trump sending weapons to Ukraine, threatens 'severe tariffs' against Russia if ceasefire deal not reached in 50 days Responding directly to Trump's timeline, Lavrov said Moscow wants "to understand what this 50-day reference means. There were earlier mentions of 24 hours, then 100 days. We've seen this pattern before and genuinely want to comprehend the U.S. president's reasoning." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As to the threat of new tariffs or sanctions, the foreign minister said, "We're already dealing with an unprecedented number of sanctions and managing well. I have no doubt we'll handle these new measures too." Perhaps most forthright was Dmitry Medvedev -- the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country's Security Council -- who wrote on social media that the Kremlin was unmoved by Trump's "theatrical ultimatum." "The world shuddered, expecting the consequences," wrote Medvedev, who, during Moscow's full-scale war on Ukraine, has become known as a particularly hawkish voice within Putin's security establishment. "Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn't care." ABC News' Hannah Demissie contributed to this report. By Gram Slattery, Mike Stone, Jonathan Landay and Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump has finally found a way to like arming Ukraine: ask European allies to donate their weapons, and sell them American replacements. Now comes the hard part agreeing on who will actually give up their prized systems, including the Patriot missile batteries that Kyiv has been desperately seeking. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some Patriot missile defense systems should arrive in Ukraine "within days," Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday. "We're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO," he said. The costly Patriot systems - in high demand among U.S. allies - have proven effective at destroying Russian ballistic missiles aimed at Ukraine's cities. But since the announcement, it has become clear Trump presented a framework - not a fleshed-out plan. How sizeable any support ends up being for Ukraine will depend on coming negotiations about who provides which equipment, according to 10 officials in the U.S. and Europe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The central question is who would donate the Patriot batteries, and when. "As always with these things, the devil is in the details," said one northern European ambassador in Washington. The plan, which Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte hatched in recent days, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, has been received positively by Ukraine and its allies. Leaders in Kyiv and elsewhere have celebrated a major tonal shift from Trump, who had until recent weeks spoken glowingly of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Some in Europe have voiced frustration that they are the ones actually footing the bill for Trump's announcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his Oval Office meeting with Trump on Monday, Rutte mentioned six NATO countries - Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands and Canada - that were willing to participate in the weapons-purchasing scheme. High-ranking sources at two of those countries' embassies in the U.S. told Reuters they personally learned of the plan as it was announced. Even close U.S. allies appeared to learn of the proposal in real time. "It is my clear sense that nobody has been briefed about the exact details in advance," said a separate European ambassador. "I also suspect that internally in the administration they are only now beginning to sort out what it means in practice." In response to a request for comment, the Pentagon referred Reuters to Trump's Monday remarks announcing his agreement with Rutte. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the Ukrainian or Russian embassies in Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SPARE A PATRIOT? A NATO official said the defense alliance would coordinate weapons deliveries through a mechanism known as the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, a NATO mission located in Germany that is responsible for coordinating Western military aid for Kyiv. "Several European countries have already committed to support this initiative including Germany, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Canada and Finland," the official said. "Details are still under discussion." A meeting of Patriot owner nations and Ukraine donors, aiming to find additional Patriot air defense batteries for Kyiv and chaired by NATO's top military commander, could take place Wednesday next week, a source close to the talks told Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A source familiar with the matter said the U.S. has signaled willingness under the proposed arrangement with European allies to send additional offensive weapons - although Trump has said that Ukraine should refrain from attacking Moscow. Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Trump found a way to balance support for Ukraine with the political realities of the Republican Party. Some high-profile figures within Trump's own MAGA movement oppose U.S. support for Ukraine. Having the European allies underwrite U.S. arms supplies is "very consistent with what he (Trump) said during the campaign," he said. Throughout the campaign, Trump said he would push European countries to spend more on defense, to great applause from MAGA crowds. "You gotta pay," he said. "If they're not going to pay, we're not going to protect, ok?" Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Volker said Ukraine could ultimately receive 12 to 13 Patriot batteries but it could take a year for them all to be delivered. 'WE ARE READY' The rapid hardening of Trump's rhetoric toward Moscow in recent weeks has come amid an increasingly firm belief that Putin is not engaging in good-faith negotiations, according to two U.S. officials. "At a certain point, you know, ultimately talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action. It's got to be results," Trump said during his meeting with Rutte on Monday. One of the officials said Trump came to realize that Putin's ambitions extend beyond Crimea and four eastern regions of Ukraine, a point Kyiv and European allies have publicly and frequently made. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three Russian sources close to the Kremlin said Putin will not stop the war under pressure from the West and believe that Russia - which has survived the toughest sanctions imposed by the West - can endure further economic hardship, including Trump's Monday threat to impose U.S. tariffs targeting buyers of Russian oil. Now, three U.S. officials involved in weapons matters said, the real work begins. U.S. officials are now talking with NATO allies and gauging who is willing to send what to Ukraine. European officials have been broadly receptive. "We are ready to participate," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday ahead of a meeting of European Union ministers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One official cited Germany, Greece, the Netherlands and Spain as good candidates to send a Patriot battery to Kyiv, either because they had multiple batteries or the threats they face are relatively remote. Some, including Greece and Spain, have previously resisted appeals from allies to give some of their Patriot systems to Ukraine, arguing that they are essential to defend their own countries and NATO as a whole. Another official said that the Trump administration has been going through NATO inventories to see what's available. Their next effort is to attempt to persuade the allies to gift the equipment to Ukraine in exchange for a "trade" of some sort, the official said. The trade could be a variety of things, the official said, including giving up an impending acceptance of a piece of military equipment through the Foreign Military Sales program, or sending munitions to Ukraine in exchange for an earlier replenishment date. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FRICTIONS Trump's move to take credit for the additional weapons headed to Ukraine has created some mild friction in Europe. "If we pay for these weapons, it's our support," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking after the Brussels meeting, adding that she welcomed Trump's decision. "So it's European support, and we are doing as much as we can to help Ukraine ... If you promise to give the weapons, but say that somebody else is going to pay for it, it's not really given by you, is it?" Trump told reporters there was one country with 17 Patriots, some of which would go directly to Ukraine. The figure has caused widespread confusion among European allies and on Capitol Hill - many of whom have not been briefed - according to the U.S. and European officials. No NATO member except the U.S. has that number of Patriot systems, said two sources familiar with the matter, causing speculation that Trump may have been referring to particular Patriot components, like launchers or missiles. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who visited the Pentagon on Monday, said the Germans would discuss sending Patriot batteries to Ukraine with the U.S. in the coming days or weeks. But no Patriot system would arrive in Kyiv for months, he said, likely delaying any receipt until after the tactically crucial summer months. Another official said Trump was engaged directly in negotiations, though talks so far were "squishy." "So far folks have said, 'We can help,'" that official said. "Now, what that means, we don't know." (Reporting by Gram Slattery, Mike Stone and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Phil Stewart and Sabine Siebold in Washington and Andrew Gray in Brussels; Editing by Don Durfee and Michael Learmonth) Russian President Vladimir Putin has laid out an ultimatum, demanding that Ukraine dissolve military formations. Kyiv responded by saying it can add more. President Volodymyr Zelensky signaled that Ukraine might consider creating its own private military companies (PMCs). "I will be thinking about it after these ultimatums," Zelensky said during a meeting with several media outlets, including the Kyiv Independent, back in June. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president did not elaborate on what exactly he meant by "private formations," nor did he clarify their intended role or required legal framework. Andrii Osadchuk, a lawmaker from the Holos party and first deputy head of the parliament's Law Enforcement Committee, said he is "cautiously positive" about the idea but calls it "abstract" at this stage. According to the Veterans Affairs Ministry, veterans and their close family members are expected to account for a sixth of the countrys total population, or up to six million people, following the end of the ongoing war with Russia. "On the one hand, we'll have a human resource well-suited for this kind of work. And as a society, I believe we have an interest in offering these individuals meaningful employment," Osadchuk said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yet, the legal framework, the government's role and supervision, as well as the scope of tasks are yet to be defined. For the war-torn country, such a move, supporters say, could serve both domestic and foreign policy goals from offering employment opportunities to the growing number of veterans to establishing Ukraine's presence abroad. Those opposed, however, say that creating militarized formations that often operate in the grey area is a potential security threat for everyone involved. 'Unpopular decision' Ukrainian law does not provide for the establishment of private military companies and prohibits the creation of paramilitary or armed formations. Still, several organizations within the country claim to be de facto PMCs and have operated in a legal gray zone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They provide military training and security services while avoiding combat roles inside and outside Ukraine. "Today we are working in the interests of the (Ukrainian) state One can deny the fact of our company's existence, but it does exist," Tetiana Kebkalo, a deputy director of the Kyiv Oblast-based Omega Consulting Group, told the Kyiv Independent. They (the authorities) should make an unpopular decision To bring in a private military company as a supporting tool." Founded in 2011 and led by Andrii Kebkalo, a former French Foreign Legionnaire, Omega Consulting Group operates as a limited liability company under Ukrainian law and provides military training and security, and other services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to Andrii Kebkalo, from 2011 to 2022 the company primarily operated in Africa, focusing on non-combat activities. It is now active in Algeria, where it provides specialized training services, Tetiana Kebkalo said. "They (the authorities) should make an unpopular decision To bring in a private military company as a supporting tool," she told the Kyiv Independent. Omega Consulting Group exists in a regulatory vacuum. Members of the Omega Consulting Group in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Sept. 24, 2020. (Wikimedia) Over the past seven years, three draft laws have been aimed at legalizing military consulting and international defense firms in Ukraine, with the latest introduced in April 2024. Though framed as efforts to establish PMCs, they do not officially target the issue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement None of the draft laws have moved to the floor. According to lawmakers who spoke with the Kyiv Independent, there's strong support for the creation of proper legislation to legalize private or government-controlled military corporations, yet consensus on the exact wording of such drafts remains elusive. Lawmaker Fedir Venislavskyi, member of the parliament's defense and intelligence committee, told the Kyiv Independent that Ukrainian lawmakers are open to voting for a proper bill. However, some remain cautious about this move. "The mood of the lawmakers is that (a law) needs to be adopted But for now, there is no unity at the parliamentary level. We are working on it," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Osadchuk said, "both the form and the substance are important here." He added that private military companies can be officially established only after the war's "hot phase" concludes. The struggle to adopt proper legislation that would pull PMCs out of the shadows isn't unique. Countries that have established PMCs often lack laws defining their work. In the U.S., there is no single federal law that deals with private military companies. Instead, regulation is spread across multiple laws, rules, and court decisions, each covering different parts of their activities. In the U.K., the Private Security Industry Act regulates domestic security services like guarding, but doesn't apply to PMCs working abroad, especially in combat roles. Overseas, the industry largely regulates itself through voluntary codes. Empowering veterans, expanding Ukraine's reach Private military companies typically handle a wide range of services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Ukraine, they could also offer veterans a way to continue serving after demobilization. Osadchuk sees this as a practical opportunity for former soldiers to apply their combat experience in a professional capacity and be fairly compensated for it. "I am also looking at it from an (international) perspective. I've long believed that once we emerge from this nightmare, the vast military expertise Ukraine has gained shouldn't be wasted it should be leveraged, even commercially," Osadchuk said. Kebkalo suggests PMCs could take over roles such as embassy safeguarding or escorting arms shipments, tasks often managed by state forces. "Ukraine has well-trained specialists in this field, and this is an opportunity for Ukraine to expand its sphere of influence on the African, Asian continents, and so on." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to lawmaker Halyna Yanchenko, PMCs could become a vital reserve force for Ukraine in case of renewed Russian aggression. Also, they have the potential to generate funding by offering training and advisory support to other countries, leveraging their battlefield experience, she said. "There is currently a global demand for the services provided by private military companies, ranging from protecting various infrastructure facilities to physical security. And the Russian Federation has been very active in this market, before the war as well," said Venislavskyi. Civilians and veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war participate in a training game in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 10, 2025. (Viacheslav Ratynskyi / Anadolu via Getty Images) "So this is also a tool of international political influence for Ukraine. Ukraine has well-trained specialists in this field, and this is an opportunity for Ukraine to expand its sphere of influence on the African and Asian continents, and so on." Lawmakers suggest that private military companies in Ukraine could be regulated by established defense structures, such as the Defense Ministry, the National Police, intelligence agencies, or the Armed Forces, without conflicting with the country's law enforcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kyiv Independent has reached out to the Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry, and intelligence agencies for comment. The Interior Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) denied to directly answer the provided questions while the Defense Ministry and Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) didn't respond. Security concerns Speaking of private military companies, some recall the problems that emerged with security companies in Ukraine in the 1990s, many of which were controlled by oligarchs or criminal groups. Following the start of Russia's war against Ukraine, and the subsequent fight in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, which showed the poor state of the country's Armed Forces, private and volunteer military formations took on a leading role in defending the country. One of the volunteer battalions, Dnipro-1, formed under Ukraine's Interior Ministry, was backed by business groups linked to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. In 2015, armed men linked to private security firms reportedly controlled by Kolomoisky, then governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, raided the Kyiv headquarters of state-owned oil company Ukrnafta, in which he held a 40% stake. Then President Petro Poroshenko condemned the incident, saying that "no governor will have his own army." At the same time, then Interior Minister Arsen Avakov ordered private security firms to disarm and operate within the law. A more controversial example from the same year was the creation of the Tornado battalion. Its members were later accused of serious abuses, including kidnapping, torture, and rape. The unit was disbanded in 2015 following criminal investigations. Internationally, the reputation of private military corporations has been tarnished by a series of scandals. U.S.-based firms like Blackwater (now known as Academi) and DynCorp, as well as the U.K.'s G4S, were linked to murder, sexual misconduct, human trafficking, and other human rights violations. The case of Russia's infamous Wagner Group stands out. Wagner has operated in conflict zones throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, torturing and murdering people across all fronts. Members of the Wagner Group sit atop a tank in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. (Roman Romokhov / AFP via Getty Images) Wagner fighters, many recruited from Russian prisons, led the brutal nine-month push to capture Ukraine's eastern city of Bakhmut, losing an estimated 20,000 soldiers. Evidence collected by a Ukrainian NGO, Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), accuses them of torture, executions, and holding captured Ukrainian POWs in inhumane conditions. Wagner Group's downfall was fueled by escalating tensions with Russia's Defense Ministry, culminating in a failed mutiny against the state in June 2023. Wagner's then-leaders, Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, were killed in a mysterious plane crash two months after the attempted coup. "The Russian Federation cannot be any kind of example for us at all. It is a state that lives by criminal laws," Kebkalo said. "And if we look at the civilized world the U.S., the U.K., France there is not a single case where a private military company has turned its power against its own government." "The private military company itself does not aim to overthrow the existing government in any way." Note from the author: Hello there! This is Kateryna Denisova, the author of this piece. The Kyiv Independent doesn't have a wealthy owner or a paywall. Instead, we rely on readers like you to keep our journalism funded. If you liked this article, please consider joining our community today. Thank you. Read also: Trumps big Russia announcement fails to lift spirits in a fatigued Ukraine Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine's parliament approved a Hr 412.4 billion ($9.8 billion) increase in defense spending in the first reading, Ukraines Finance Ministry announced in a press release on July 16. The budget amendment, which requires additional parliamentary approval, aims to bolster Ukraines military capabilities amid the ongoing war with Russia. The additional financing would bring the total budget for security and defense in 2025 to around $50 billion, or 26% of Ukraine's GDP, and would enable Ukraine's military to procure more weapons, ammunition and military equipment, the government said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Defense Ministry, which is responsible for payments to military personnel, would receive the largest allocation at Hr 311 billion ($7.4 billion), according to the law's draft. The Interior Ministry would receive Hr 84 billion ($2 billion). Other security agencies would also receive funding increases totaling $1.5 billion, including military intelligence, the Security Service, and the State Protection Department. Beyond traditional functions, military intelligence conducts sabotage operations deep inside Russia, including a recent pipeline explosion in Siberia that supplies the Russian military-industrial complex. The Security Service handles counterintelligence and special operations, with a recent example of Operation Spiderweb, a drone attack targeting Russian heavy bombers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The State Protection Department provides security for government officials. The spending boost brings total additional expenditures in the proposed 2025 budget amendments to Hr 457 billion ($10.9 billion), according to the Finance Ministry. An additional Hr 15.5 billion ($370 million) has been allocated for other ministries not directly related to defense, including digital transformation, education and health. To finance the increased spending, Ukraine plans to boost budget revenues by Hr 155.5 billion ($3.7 billion) mainly through higher-than-expected tax collections. The government also intends to increase domestic bond placements while reducing debt payments. Now-former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced in May that Ukraine's external financing needs to cover the country's budgetary deficit are fully met for 2025. But Ukraine needs over $40 billion in foreign aid for 2026 to sustain its economy and war effort. Read also: Ukraines parliament dismisses prime minister and his cabinet Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Russia carried out a large-scale overnight air assault on Ukraine, targeting key energy infrastructure and injuring at least 15 people, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday. "Russia is not changing its strategy," Zelensky wrote on the platform X. "To counter this terror effectively, we need to systematically strengthen our defenses: more air defense systems, more interceptors, and more determination so that Russia feels our response." The Ukrainian Air Force said Moscow launched a barrage of weapons, including one Iskander-M missile and approximately 400 drones and drone decoys. Of those, 198 drones were shot down and 145 decoys were neutralized using electronic countermeasures, the military said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The main targets of the attack were the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Kharkiv and Vinnytsia. In the western city of Vinnytsia, eight people were injured in the drone attacks, Natalia Zabolotna, the deputy head of the regional military administration, said on Facebook. In Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's home town, the strikes triggered power outages. Authorities said water services had to be switched to generator power as a result. Ukraine has been defending itself against Russia's full-scale invasion for more than three years. Ukraine's use of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) has accelerated in recent months, a development experts say could help ease pressure on infantry as Kyiv struggles with ongoing recruitment problems and losses. Ukraines first confirmed UGV often referred to as ground drones combat mission took place in December 2024, when the Charter Brigade used one in Kharkiv Oblast. It was the first time a homegrown UGV had participated in a full battlefield operation. Developments have come thick and fast since and just last week Ukrainian forces for the first time captured Russian troops without the use of infantry, relying solely on drones and ground-based robotic systems. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Their biggest impact might be that Ukraine could eventually need fewer troops at the frontline," Jakub Janovsky, an analyst with Oryx, a Dutch open-source intelligence and defense research group, told the Kyiv Independent. "And fewer in support roles logistics, casualty evacuation, and everything that keeps the front running." Ukraine is facing a growing manpower gap as Russia outpaces it in monthly recruitment. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in May that Russia mobilizes about 40,000 to 45,000 men each month. Ukraine manages just 25,000 to 27,000. Despite losing more than a million troops since the full-scale invasion began, according to figures from Kyiv, Russia continues to attract new recruits with huge financial incentives. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine has expanded its draft and offered new incentives, but shortages remain. This puts extra pressure on infantry and increases the value of UGVs that can take on high-risk tasks. What is an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)? UGVs are remotely operated, ground-based robots built to perform military tasks without putting soldiers at direct risk. They come in various shapes and sizes, from small tracked carriers to heavier, armored platforms. Most are modular, meaning they can be fitted with tools, sensors, weapons, or medical gear depending on the mission. While they do not operate independently, UGVs extend what troops can do on the battlefield by acting as mobile helpers and force multipliers in high-risk zones. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "To command a UGV, you need a crew." Some models are armed with light machine guns or explosive payloads. Others carry ammunition, food, or water through exposed terrain where human troops would be at high risk. Medical UGVs extract the wounded from frontline zones, a task often too dangerous for medics or infantry. A THeMIS multi-purpose tracked unmanned ground vehicle during field tests in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sept. 8, 2022. (Mykhaylo Palinchak / SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Despite their growing presence and their proven utility, these machines are not autonomous and are not a one-for-one replacement for troops. "To command a UGV, you need a crew," Captain Oleksandr Yabchanka, a commander with the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, told the Kyiv Independent Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "So far, we havent reduced personnel, weve reduced risk." He added that UGVs are helping take over some of the most dangerous tasks, helping troops hold their positions more safely. Yabchanka said his unit uses several types of UGVs tailored to different missions. Some of the UGVs already in action with Ukraine's armed forces include: Liut The Liut system, equipped with a 7.62 mm machine gun, has passed combat testing in real battlefield conditions. It can identify and engage targets day and night, and its quiet electric motor and rugged build allow it to operate across challenging terrain and in harsh weather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) earlier this week released a video of one in action. "Having reached enemy positions, it destroys the Russian occupiers with dense machine gun fire. The armed and technological fight for Ukraine's freedom continues," HUR wrote on Telegram. 0:00 / 1 Termit Termit is a next-generation version of tracked UGV that can carry up to 300 kilograms and operate on various terrains thanks to its low profile, tracked design, and improved weight distribution. Ukraine's domestically produced unmanned ground vehicle Termit. (Ukraine's Defense Ministry) According to the Defense Ministry, Termit drones can be equipped with combat modules, used for medical evacuations, or for transporting specialized equipment as needed. D-21-12R Equipped with a large-caliber machine gun, the catchily-titled D-21-12R is capable of conducting surveillance, patrolling, providing fire support to the Ukrainian military, and targeting Russian lightly armored vehicles. The Ukrainian-made D-21-12R ground robotic system. (Courtesy/Ukraine's Defense Ministry) It has high cross-country ability in off-road terrain, mud and shallow water and can be operated remotely from a protected shelter. Murakha Murakha is another tracked robotic platform designed to support front-line units working under challenging conditions, such as under enemy artillery and in heavily mined terrain. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its larger size makes it one of Ukraine's leading UGVs in terms of load capacity. The Murakha can reportedly carry over half a ton of weight across dozens of kilometers. It can also cross difficult terrain and shallow water. Ukrainian military tracked robotic drone Murakha. (mod.gov.ua) According to Ukraine's Defense Ministry, the Murakha's multiple control channels allow it to function successfully even in areas of the battlefield where Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems are operating. Janovsky said logistics and medical evacuation are the most reliable roles for UGVs right now. "Theyre evolving fast," he told the Kyiv Independent. "But designs and use are still evolving. Logistics and casualty evacuation are the most mature roles, and theyre valuable." The future of Ukrainian UGVs To support long-term use and development of all types of drones, Ukraine created the Unmanned Systems Forces in early 2024. This new service integrates drones and robots across the military and helps standardize training and battlefield use based on frontline feedback. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As part of this push, in April the government held the Brave1 trial, where more than 70 UGVs from 50 Ukrainian manufacturers were tested under combat-like conditions. The tests focused on load capacity, mobility, resistance to jamming, and how well the machines could support troops on the ground. An unmanned ground vehicle is seen during military training organized by Ukrainian soldiers of the Third Separate Assault Brigade in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, on July 12, 2025. (Tetiana Dzhafarova / AFP via Getty Images) Over 200 Ukrainian companies are working on UGVs. To keep up with demand, the government is simplifying production rules and accelerating certification. Hlib Kanevskyi, Director of Procurement at the Defense Ministry, said in May that Ukraine plans to deliver 15,000 ground robots for combat use by the end of 2025. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With new contracts signed and local industry expanding, 2025 could be the year robots become a common sight across the Ukrainian front. Read also: Patriot missiles what they are and why everyone wants them Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Tuesday handed in his resignation after more than five years in office. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Monday that he was proposing Shmyhal's deputy, Yulia Svyrydenko, to lead a new government. "I thank our defenders, who are holding the line and protecting Ukraine," Shmyhal said in a post on Telegram announcing his resignation. He also thanked Zelensky for his "trust" and his team for their "tireless work." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Shmyhal is set to replace Rustem Umyerov as defence minister, with the latter due to take over as ambassador to Washington. The 49-year-old Shmyhal had served as prime minister since March 2020, well before the Russian full-scale invasion in February 2022. He was the longest-serving prime minister in Ukraine's post-Soviet history. The reasons for the reshuffle have not been announced. Under Ukraine's constitution, his replacement must be formally nominated by parliament. Ukraine extends martial law Also on Tuesday, Ukraine's parliament voted to extend martial law and general mobilization for another 90 days, continuing wartime measures as the country fights off Russia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, 320 members of parliament supported the extension with just one vote against. The measure will take effect on August 7 and remain in place until November 5, he wrote on Telegram. Ukrainian media noted that this marks the 16th extension of martial law since it was first introduced in February 2022, following Russia's invasion. The most recent renewal was approved in mid-April. Under martial law, both presidential and parliamentary elections remain suspended. Military-age men between 18 and 60 are also barred from leaving the country, except under exceptional circumstances. At least two killed in Kharkiv Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv killed at least two people, authorities said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least two others were injured in the attacks, the regional prosecutor's office reported on Telegram. Residential buildings were damaged in the attacks, the office said. Meanwhile, power was cut in the city of Kryvyi Rih following Russian drone and missile attacks. According to the head of the local military administration in the city, Oleksandr Vilkul, some 20 strikes were recorded in the city. Drone debris leaves 16 injured in Russia's Voronezh Earlier, Russian authorities said at least 16 people were injured by falling drone debris in the western city of Voronezh. Governor Alexander Gusev said most of the cases involved cuts and shrapnel wounds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "But there are also injuries of a different nature and serious cases," he added in a post on Telegram. "One man is in a coma, another has a lung injury." The Russian Defence Ministry reported the downing of a total of 55 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. Most were intercepted over the border region of Belgorod, while 12 drones were hit over the Voronezh region. Kiev is launching drones deep into the Russian interior in a bid to turn the tide on Moscow. But the extent of the damage and the number of victims reported are far lower than the destruction caused by Russian attacks in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suspended several lawmakers on Wednesday as he tried to reassert his authority over his ruling Labour party following a rebellion over welfare reforms. Starmer was forced to backtrack on plans to slash disability and sickness benefits earlier this month after dozens of his own MPs threatened to vote against the proposals. MPs Brian Leishman, Neil Duncan-Jordan, and Rachael Maskell said they had been suspended while the Times newspaper reported that Chris Hinchliff had suffered the same fate. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All four voted against the welfare reforms on July 1 after Starmer made his authority-sapping climbdown to avoid a humiliating defeat in parliament. Leishman's office confirmed to AFP that the Scottish MP had been temporarily suspended from the party. Duncan-Jordan, the representative for Poole in southern England, said he understood that voting against the government "could come at a cost, but I couldn't support making disabled people poorer". Starmer has endured a difficult first year in power and has made several damaging U-turns in recent weeks. Political scientist Steven Fielding said the purge was a bid by Starmer to reinforce party discipline. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "He wants to send a signal to all the others that rebelled over the welfare bill and have rebelled on other things that, 'Okay, you've got away with this one, but if you keep going, this is going to be your fate,'" Fielding told AFP. But the University of Nottingham politics professor added it was a risky strategy considering the large numbers of lawmakers who had opposed the welfare reforms. "I think he's going about it in the wrong way. He needs to talk (to) and understand why the MPs are doing this," Fielding told AFP. Labour did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Starmer's popularity has plummeted since he won a landslide general election result in July last year, ending 14 consecutive years of Conservative rule. Labour now trails Eurosceptic Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK party in many national polls, although the next election is likely four years away. In June, the government reversed a policy to scrap a winter heating benefit for millions of pensioners, following widespread criticism and another rebellion from its own MPs. The same month, Starmer -- a former chief state prosecutor in England and Wales -- announced a national inquiry focused on a UK child sex exploitation scandal after previously resisting calls. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prime minister has a massive majority of about 160 MPs, meaning he should be able to force whatever legislation he wants through parliament. But some in the party complain of a disconnect between Starmer's leadership, which is focused on combatting the rise of Reform, and Labour's traditional centre-left principles. Confirming she had been suspended, Maskell urged Starmer to engage with his backbenchers, saying she wanted to see "bridges built" and this would "make him a better prime minister". pdh/jkb/giv UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday authorized continued reporting on attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Yemens Houthi rebels, who have defied its previous demands to immediately halt all such attacks. The vote in the 15-member council was 12-0 with Russia, China and Algeria abstaining because of attacks against Yemen in violation of its sovereignty, a clear reference to U.S. airstrikes against the Houthis who control most of northern Yemen. The Trump administration has carried out the strikes because of the groups attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on close ally Israel. The resolution, cosponsored by the United States and Greece, extends the requirement that U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provide monthly reports to the Security Council about Houthi attacks in the Red Sea until Jan. 15, 2026. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Acting U.S. Ambassador Dorothy Shea said the resolution recognizes the need for continued vigilance against the Iran-backed Houthi terrorist threat. She cited the two latest attacks by Houthis against civilian cargo vessels, the MV Magic Seas and the MV Eternity C, which caused both vessels to sink and led to the loss of innocent seafarers and saw crew members taken hostage. The United States strongly condemns these unprovoked terrorist attacks, which demonstrate the threat that the Houthis pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security, Shea said, reiterating the councils demand for an immediate halt to Houthi attacks and the release of all crew members kidnapped from the Eternity C. The assaults represent the latest chapter of the rebels campaign against shipping over the war in Gaza that began with Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 surprise attack in southern Israel. They also come as Yemens nearly decadelong war drags on in the Arab worlds poorest country, without any sign of stopping. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Greeces U.N. Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris said the Houthi attacks have continued to fuel mistrust in the international maritime community, stressing that security and freedom of navigation are essential for the stability of global supply chains and economic development. If the Red Sea region a critical international maritime route becomes even more degraded, it will expose the international community to more acute security risks and economic uncertainty, he warned. Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky said Moscow abstained because language in the previous resolution demanding a halt to Houthi attacks was arbitrarily interpreted to justify the use of force affecting the territory of the sovereign state of Yemen. We stand convinced that any steps aimed at stabilizing the situation in Yemen and around Yemen should be taken in political and diplomatic ways, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Chinas deputy U.N. ambassador Geng Shuang said his country abstained because certain countries took military action against Yemen, which seriously impacted the Yemeni peace process and exacerbated tensions in the Red Sea. The Houthis have been launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the groups leadership has described as an effort to end Israels offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Shuang called tensions in the Red Sea a major manifestation of the spillover from the Gaza conflict. Russias Polyansky also stressed the link between normalizing the situation in the Red Sea and the need for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages. Algerias deputy U.N. ambassador Toufik Koudri, whose country is the Arab representative on the Security Council, expressed regret the Yemen resolution demanding an immediate halt to Houthi attacks made no mention of the Gaza war, which he called one of the catalytic factors. The Security Council cannot disregard the clear nexus between the attacks in the Red Sea and the aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the deep feelings that resulted from the brutal massacres committed against innocent civilians, he said. The UN's unflinching expert on Palestinian affairs Francesca Albanese said Tuesday that Washington's sanctions following her criticism of the White House's stance on Gaza are a "violation" of her immunity. The United Nations' Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories made the comments while visiting Bogota, nearly a week after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions, calling her work "biased and malicious." "It's a very serious measure. It's unprecedented. And I take it very seriously," Albanese told an audience in the Colombian capital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Albanese was in Bogota to attend an international summit initiated by leftist President Gustavo Petro to find solutions to the Gaza conflict. The Italian legal scholar and human rights expert has faced harsh criticism for her long-standing accusations that Israel is committing "genocide" in Gaza. "It's clear violation of the UN Convention on Privileges and Immunities that protect UN officials, including independent experts, from words and actions taken in the exercise of their functions," Albanese said. Rubio on July 9 announced that Washington was sanctioning Albanese "for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt (ICC) action against US and Israeli officials, companies, and executives." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sanctions are "a warning to anyone who dares to defend international law and human rights, justice and freedom," Albanese said. On Thursday, the UN urged the United States to reverse the sanctions against Albanese, along with sanctions against judges of the International Criminal Court, with UN chief Antonio Guterres's spokesman calling the move "a dangerous precedent." On Friday, the European Union also spoke out against the sanctions facing Albanese, adding that it "strongly supports the United Nations human rights system." Albanese, who assumed her mandate in 2022, released a damning report this month denouncing companies -- many of them American -- that she said "profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid, and now genocide" in the occupied Palestinian territories. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The report provoked a furious Israeli response, while some of the companies also raised objections. Washington last month slapped sanctions on four ICC judges, in part over the court's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, barring them from the United States. UN special rapporteurs like Albanese are independent experts who are appointed by the UN human rights council but do not speak on behalf of the United Nations. The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023 after Hamas militants killed 1,219 people in Israel and took hostages, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More than 58,479 Palestinians have been killed in ongoing retaliation operations, according to data from the Health Ministry of the Hamas government, considered reliable by the UN. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and violence has surged in the territory since October 2023. das/atm/sla/jgc UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is alarmed by the ongoing violence in southern Syria, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday. "He unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians, including reports of arbitrary killings and acts that fan the flames of sectarian tensions and rob the people of Syria of their opportunity for peace and reconciliation after fourteen years of brutal conflict," he added. The UN chief has reiterated his call for "an immediate de-escalation of violence and urgent measures to restore calm and facilitate humanitarian access," Dujarric said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Secretary-General further condemns Israel's escalatory airstrikes on Suweida, Daraa and in the center of Damascus, as well as reports of the IDF's redeployment of forces in the Golan." Guterres also calls for an immediate cessation of all violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity and for respect for the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, his spokesman said. According to human rights activists, more than 300 people have been killed in days of violence between Druze and Sunni Bedouins in the southern Sweida region since Sunday, prompting Israel to strike targets across Syria. Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian Interior Ministry said a ceasefire has been agreed, but a Druze leader denied the claim. Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said on July 15 that Russia's intensifying use of chemical weapons during its war against Ukraine shows Moscow "wants to cause as much pain and suffering as possible." Citing recent reports by the Dutch and German intelligence agencies, Kallas said that Russian forces have carried out over 9,000 chemical attacks against Ukrainian troops since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022. "Again, it shows that Russia wants to cause as much pain and suffering as possible so that Ukraine would surrender," Kallas said at a press conference during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. "It is really unbearable," she added." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Netherlands Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) reported on July 4 that Russian troops are increasingly deploying chemical weapons including chloropicrin, a highly toxic World War I-era agent in the field. The agent is reportedly dropped by drones to flush Ukrainian soldiers from trenches, leaving them exposed to further drone or artillery strikes. At least three Ukrainian soldiers have reportedly died from direct exposure. Western reports support Kyiv's own warnings about Russia's intensifying use of chemical agents on the battlefield, a method of warfare banned under the Geneva Conventions. The EU, the U.S., and the U.K. have slapped sanctions on Russia because of these banned tactics. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Last December, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) assassinated Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian Armed Forces' radiation, chemical, and biological defense troops, with a bomb in Moscow, an SBU source told the Kyiv Independent. Kirillov was on the U.K. sanctions list over the use of chemical weapons in Ukraine. Read also: Mass attack hits cities overnight as Ukrainians brace for 50 more days of Russian terror Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. FIRST ON FOX: Mahmood Mamdani, the Columbia University professor and father of New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, has a social media presence littered with anti-Israel comments and praise for radical activists, a Fox News Digital review found. Mamdani, 79, who Fox News Digital previously reported sits on the advisory council of an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts and sanctions of Israel, has posted on his X account about Israel on multiple occasions using terms like "settlers" and "colonialism." "When all ranks of the Occupation, from the armed settler to the settler state, claim 'the right of self-defense', what language is left for those who defend themselves against the Occupation but the right to resist?," Mamdani posted online on May 21, 2021 as Israel was involved in a violent conflict with Hamas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier that month, Mamdani wrote, "The resistance this time began in Jerusalem and spread to Gaza, now the West Bank and Palestinian communities beyond. This is not a conflict between Israel and Hamas. We are witnessing something far more meaningful, the birth of the Third Intifadah against settler colonialism!." Mamdani Camp Silent When Confronted With Calls To 'Radicalize' High Schoolers, 'Dismantle' Us Mira Nair, New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) Rama Duwaji and Mahmood Mamdani celebrate on stage during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025 Calls for a third intifada or a "global intifada", which Zohran Mamdani recently drew heat from Jewish groups for refusing to condemn, is widely considered by many in the Jewish community as condoning violence against Israel. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Palestinians have a right to resist," Mamdani said in another post . "This is a colonial occupation, not a conflict!" Resurfaced Mamdani Photo Sparks Social Media Firestorm, Outrage From Key Voting Bloc: 'Shameful' Zohran Mamdani, New York City mayoral candidate, during a campaign event at the NAN House of Justice in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, US, on Saturday, June 28, 2025. In October 2014, Mamdani posted a "tribute" to African political activist Ali Mazrui, who Mamdani once co-hosted a panel alongside, according to Middle East Forum. Mazrui has a long track record of controversial statements about Jews including suggesting they had "a certain kind of impurity" likening them to "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and saying theyve "landed with Mr. Hydes evil identity," Middle East Forum reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Past statements on Israel from both Zohran and Mahmood Mamdani have been a focus of the mayoral race with various Jewish groups speaking out and accusing the pair of antisemitism, a charge that Mamdani has pushed back against. Mahmood, a professor of anthropology at New Yorks Columbia University , which has been at the epicenter of the pro-Palestine protests in the U.S. Canary Mission, calls Mahmood a "Marxist" professor who is "known for his anti-Israel views and obsession with colonialism." Mahmood was also one of the Columbia faculty members who donned an orange vest and locked arms in attempts to keep Avi Weinberg, an economics student at Columbia, and a small group of Jewish classmates from entering a pro-Palestine encampment on Columbias campus during the anti-Israel protests following the October 7th Hamas massacre. New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) stands with his mother Mira Nair, and father Mahmood Mamdani as they celebrate during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025. "Zohran Mamdani has built his political brand on the same radical, hate-filled and anti-American ideology his father, Mahmood Mamdani, has spent decades promotingone that demonizes Jewish people and legitimizes anti-democratic violence," Brooke Goldstein, a human rights attorney who specializes in antisemitism, told Fox News Digital. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "The Jew-hatred the Mamdani family peddles is fundamentally anti-American and violates the core values our country was founded ontolerance, equality, and liberty. Our nations strength lies in its diversity and commitment to protecting minority rights. Antisemitic world views threaten the peace and security of our communities." Goldstein told Fox News Digital that Mahmood Mamdani's "dangerous worldview doesnt belong anywhere in American public life." "It is also a window on anti-Jewish and anti-democratic radicalization that poisons our young, corrupts their minds and steals their souls," Goldstein continued. "If Zohran Mamdani cantor wontdisavow these beliefs, we have every reason to be alarmed. We dont need anti-American racist Jew-haters in government. We need leaders who protect all of usnot divide us, or worse, decide which among us are worth protecting." Fox News Digital reached out to Mahmood Mamdani and the Mamdani campaign for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fox News Digital's Peter Pinedo contributed to this report Original article source: Unearthed social media posts expose radical anti-Israel views of Mamdani's dad: 'Colonial occupation' Unifor Local 444 says it has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with electric-vehicle battery maker NextStar Energy, In posts on X and Facebook, Unifor said the ratification vote is set for July 20 in Windsor, Ont. The union and the joint-venture EV battery company co-owned by Stellantis and LG Energy Solutions have been negotiating a deal for about six months. Details of the tentative deal have not been made public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sign up to start your week with the Automotive News Canada Weekly news roundup, delivered to your inbox first thing each Monday morning. This agreement marks a significant milestone and sets the bar in securing strong representation and protections for workers in this emerging electrified sector, Unifor Local 444 said in a Facebook post. Hiring at the $5-billion battery plant remains a work in progress. On Jan. 28, the company said it had hired 450 of the 2,500 staff it expects to employ at full capacity. Unifor Local 444 President James Stewart told Automotive News Canada on July 16 that the agreement could cover approximately 500 hourly workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That number is expected to grow over the next year, he said before declining to comment further. Once fully operational, the Windsor site will tackle the first two steps in the EV battery manufacturing process. Individual cells serve as the basic battery building blocks. They are grouped together to make modules, which are in turn, bundled together to form packs, the final product thats ready to be installed in an EV. The Windsor plant will have capacity to produce 49.5 GWh of battery cells and modules annually at full capacity, enough to power about 450,000 EVs. It will supply Stellantis assembly plants in Canada and the United States. The NextStar facility was the first battery plant Canada secured in early 2022, as automakers and battery manufacturers began spending billions to establish their North American supply chains. At the time, the $5-billion announcement was the largest auto manufacturing investment in the countrys history. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Three other battery commitments have followed, with Volkswagen battery unit PowerCo and Honda Motor Co. selecting sites in Ontario, and Sweden-based Northvolt choosing a location in the Montreal suburbs. NextStar did not comment beyond confirmation of a tentative deal. UNION COUNTY, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) A convicted sex offender is now facing charges of child solicitation, according to the Union County Sheriffs Office. The UCSO Special Victims Unit says a child exploitation investigation has ended with the arrest of 44-year-old Geronimo Hogan of Monroe. In May 2001, Hogan was convicted of first-degree sexual misconduct in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, according to the NC Sex Offender Registry. He was 20 years old at the time of the crime, and his victim was another adult. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man busted for fried chicken and beer theft at Charlotte Walmart accused of biting cop, trying to grab gun during arrest: Docs As a registered sex offender, Hogan is required to report all of his online accounts. However, authorities say they found out that he was using unreported social media accounts to talk with someone he thought was a 14-year-old Union County girl. Unbeknownst to Hogan, the teenage girl was actually a UCSO detective. In the conversations, officials say Hogan solicited the supposed child for various sexual acts and planned to meet her at a local library. When Hogan showed up at the library, detectives were waiting for him, and he was arrested. He is charged with Solicitation of a Child by a Computer and a Sex Offender Registry Violation. Hogan is being held at the Union County Detention Center on a $500,000 secured bond. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sheriff Eddie Cathey commends the outstanding work of the Criminal Investigations Bureau for their continued dedication to protecting the most vulnerable members of our community, wrote the Sheriffs Office. Their proactive efforts help ensure that predators like Hogan are removed from our streets and that the children and families of Union County remain safe. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) After a case of measles was confirmed in nearby Putnam County, a local medical group is implementing a measles screening process for all patients. Union Health announced Monday that it will now screen all patients for measles at every visit. This applies to Union Hospital Terre Haute, Union Hospital Clinton, or any Union Medical Group facility. The screening process will involve being asked a series of questions regarding symptoms and exposure. Mark Schuld, Medical Director of Union Medical Group, explained that measles is highly contagious and is spread through respiratory droplets. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Measles is very contagious. Heres how to avoid it Measles is a viral illness. Typically, seven to 14 days after your initial exposure, youll start to have a fever, maybe a runny nose, red, irritated eyes or conjunctivitis, maybe a little cough, said Schuld. Then, after those first few symptoms, two to three days after the symptoms develop, you can get the white spots in your mouth called Koplik spots, but theyre basically little white spots. Then, three to five days after your first symptoms come on, which is about three weeks after exposure, you can break out with a full measles rash. He said the best way to protect against measles is to be vaccinated. According to the Indiana Department of Healths Measles Dashboard, there have been nine cases of measles identified in Indiana this year: eight in Allen County and one in Putnam County. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com. The United States Department of State has reissued its most serious travel advisory for one Middle Eastern country on Wednesday afternoon. The State Department keeps an extensive database of travel advisories for many nations across the globe, giving overseas travelers information to keep themselves safe during their travels. These travel advisories range from Level 1, "exercise normal precautions," to Level 4, "do not travel." On Wednesday, the State Department reissued a travel warning in its most severe category. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Wednesday, July 16, the United States Department of State reissued a travel advisory for Libya, urging Americans not to travel to Libya for any reason "due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict." The advisory warned that "terrorist attacks could occur with little or no warning, targeting public spaces like tourist locations, hotels, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and government facilities." Additionally, kidnapping is rampant in the country as Americans could be targeted for capture to be used as ransom or leverage for other requests. Additionally, the advisory warned that "unexploded landmines, cluster munitions, and unexploded ammunition are a hazard throughout Libya," and that "outbreaks of violence between competing armed groups can occur with little warning and have the potential to impact U.S. citizens," with U.S. citizens targeted, even at hotels in major cities. As a result of these risks, coupled with limited U.S. diplomatic involvement in Libya, the United States has warned against travel to the country and urges all American citizens to "depart as soon as possible via commercial means if possible." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The advisory states that any American in need of assistance in the area should contact the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia for assistance. United States Reissues 'Do Not Travel' Warning For Libya first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 16, 2025 AMHERST Dozens of unionized university employees lined the hallway leading to the University of Massachusetts Amherst chancellors office Wednesday to demand fair contracts. For almost a year, the University Staff Association has been in negotiations with the universitys administration to ensure staff contracts are adjusted to meet the cost-of-living, which is only increasing. I live with four other roommates to afford being here in Amherst, said Andrea Lydick, special projects coordinator for the union. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just before the rally on Wednesday, union members were in talks with the university about their contracts, said Lydick, who is a silent bargaining member. Rather than listening to union members demands, management is doubling down, she said. They want us to backpedal, but were not giving up. The UMass administration issued a statement Wednesday afternoon that said the university is negotiating in good faith. The university will continue to bargain in good faith in accordance with state and federal law, as it has since the beginning of this process, the administrations statement said. Kyle Chambers, vice president of the union, said the university administration weaponized time and acted in bad faith during the negotiations with union members Wednesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The union filed a complaint with the state Department of Labor Relations regarding the universitys handling of the negotiations, he said. By 12:15 p.m., the hallway on the second floor of the Whitmore Administration Building leading to Chancellor Javier Reyes office was packed with more than 75 members of the University Staff Association and other unions representing university employees or school district employees from across the state. Union members and allies stood shoulder-to-shoulder, holding protest signs about how the university has handled the negotiations. Some shared stories about how they have to work multiple jobs to be able to pay their bills or to support themselves. This university is carried on the backs of union workers, said Camila Hwang-Carlos, a union member, into a bullhorn. We want dignity and respect, like any other co-workers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If the unions demands are met by the university, the administration would have to pay employees retroactively back to January to meet the cost-of-living expenses. We are the university, we are the schools, said Lydick. Coming together is power. more news from Western Massachusetts Read the original article on MassLive. One in every 10 children screened in clinics in Gaza run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, is malnourished, as child hunger surges across the territory amid the continuing Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid. Israels punishing prevention of aid entering Gaza has led to severe shortages of nutrition supplies, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday, describing the situation for starving children as engineered and man-made. Lazzarini said the UN must be allowed to do its work in Gaza, particularly bringing in humanitarian assistance at scale, including for children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Any additional delay to a ceasefire will cause more deaths, he said, noting that more than 870 starving Palestinians had been killed so far while trying to access food from the highly criticised distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the United States. UNRWAs communications director, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a videolink from Amman, Jordan, that medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out. Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March, Touma said. One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As malnutrition among children spreads across the war-torn enclave, UNRWA has over 6,000 trucks of food, hygiene supplies, medicine, medical supplies outside of Gaza. They are all waiting to go in, Touma added. The world cannot continue to look away. 1 in 10 children screened by UNRWA in #Gaza is now malnourished, UNRWA @JulietteTouma briefs the press at @UNGeneva. Before the war, such cases were almost unheard of. Now, Gazas shattered health system is overwhelmed and aid is being blocked by the Government of Israel. pic.twitter.com/3b8S2qONef UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 15, 2025 Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rare in Gaza. Andee Clark Vaughan, an emergency nurse with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) based in Gaza, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday how Israeli authorities had confiscated baby formula from medical workers entering the territory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Immune systems are so compromised here because of the malnutrition, Vaughan said, describing how Palestinian mothers are so malnourished that they are unable to produce breast milk to feed their infants and forced to make difficult decisions to keep their children alive. What weve been seeing here is moms trying to do their utmost best, mixing water which is often contaminated with beans or lentils just to make something of sustenance to get these kids fed and get them nutrients, Vaughan added. On Monday, UNICEF said that last month, more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition. It said it was an increase for the fourth month in a row. People would have probably lost their homes in Monday's grass fire in Dagenham, east London, were it not for the actions of maintenance workers, according to the council leader. The fire broke out behind Clemence Road, which backs on to Beam Parklands, at about 18:30 BST on Monday. The blaze, which covered about eight hectares (20 acres), was tackled by more than 120 firefighters. Barking and Dagenham Council leader Dominic Twomey said the fire would have spread to homes if maintenance workers - who he described as "unsung heroes" - had not cut fire breaks into the grass over recent weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement London saw four wildfires break out over a 24-hour period from Monday into Tuesday. Twomey said: "They very fact that our team our front-line maintenance team worked incredibly hard over the last months to put in the fire breaks that were acknowledged by the London Fire Brigade and others that stopped these fires spreading to residents' homes, I think it has to be acknowledged that they are often the unsung heroes. "People won't see that, people won't understand that." The council leader said the team's actions were not "by chance" but planned out months in advance and carried out regularly. The fire charred fences of some properties which backed on to the field [BBC] "They're effective. Without it a number of residents would have probably lost their homes and belongings," he told a council meeting on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement London Fire Brigade borough commander Blake Betts also said the fire breaks had prevented the blaze from spreading further. He told the BBC: "In this instance they've worked really effectively to stop the spread, or control the spread to one particular area." Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk More on this story A viral chocolate bar inspired by the Dubai chocolate trend has been urgently recalled over a health risk it poses to customers. The Noesis Schokolade Love of Dubai bar should not be bought or eaten, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said, especially by those with a peanut allergy. Although it is not marked on the list of ingredients, the chocolate bar contains peanuts, the FSA explains. This means it poses a serious risk to those with allergies to the nut. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency adds that it has been unable to contact the manufacturer of the products, Black Sea Trading Ltd, and so is calling on distributors to pull the Noesis bar from shelves. Every single 95g bar of Noesis Schokolade Love of Dubai has been included in the recall (Noesis) Every single 95g bar of Noesis Schokolade Love of Dubai has been included in the recall (Noesis) Advice from the FSA reads: Dont buy this product, and if you have bought it, don't eat it, especially if you have a peanut allergy. Dispose of the product at home and get in touch with your local Trading Standards in Great Britain or Environmental Health Officers in Northern Ireland, to let them know where you purchased it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Love of Dubai chocolate bar is inspired by a viral food trend that arose in 2024 and has continued. It centres around chocolate bars with a creamy pistachio filling, first created by a chocolatier in Dubai. Receiving millions of views on social media platform TikTok, the popularity of the bar has grown so intense that the price of pistachio kernels globally has been pushed up. Experts say that, in the year to April, prices rose from $7.65 to $10.30 a pound. Last week, the FSA issued a related warning over the proliferation of imported Dubai chocolate bars for sale in the UK. A detailed picture of the recalled bar has been provided by the food watchdog (Food Standards Agency (FSA)) A detailed picture of the recalled bar has been provided by the food watchdog (Food Standards Agency (FSA)) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The agency said that some of these products were likely to not include a full ingredients list or allergen labelling, due to not being originally intended for sale in the UK. The bars could also contain additives and colours not allowed on the UK market, it added. Experts from the watchdog are currently surveying and sampling the products to determine the scale of the issue, and working with allergy charities to raise awareness. Professor Robin May, chief scientific adviser to the FSA, said that the vast majority of food in the UK is safe, but some imported Dubai-style chocolate products dont meet our standards and could be a food safety risk, especially for consumers with allergies Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement If you are looking to buy Dubai-style chocolate, we advise sticking with trusted retailers, like the ones youd use for your weekly shop, as products are more likely to be made for UK consumers and so are safe to eat. UK law requires food labels to highlight any of 14 allergens present in the product, but some imported products may not do this. You can find more information on food.gov.uk. By Ammu Kannampilly, Jonathan Landay and Jessica Donati (Reuters) -With 1,100 metric tons of emergency food rations nearing expiry in a U.S. government warehouse in Dubai after President Donald Trump's aid freeze, it took a warning of "wasted tax dollars" for a top U.S. official to eventually agree to a deal for the supplies to be used, sources told Reuters. The deal saved 622 metric tons of the energy-dense biscuits in June, but 496 metric tons, worth $793,000 before they expired this month, will be destroyed, according to two internal U.S. Agency for International Development memos reviewed by Reuters, dated May 5 and May 19, and four sources familiar with the matter. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The wasted biscuits will be turned into landfill or incinerated in the United Arab Emirates, two sources said. That will cost the U.S. government an additional $100,000, according to the May 5 memo verified by three sources familiar with the matter. The delays and waste are further examples of how the freeze and then cutbacks, which led to the firing of thousands of USAID employees and contractors, have thrown global humanitarian operations into chaos. A spokesperson for the State Department, which is now responsible for U.S. foreign aid, confirmed in an email to Reuters that the biscuits would have to be destroyed. But they said the stocks were "purchased as a contingency beyond projections" under the administration of former President Joe Biden, resulting in their expiration. Trump has said the U.S. pays disproportionately for foreign aid, and he wants other countries to shoulder more of the burden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His administration announced plans to shut down USAID in January, leaving more than 60,000 metric tons of food aid stuck in stores around the world, Reuters reported in May. The food aid stuck in Dubai was fortified wheat biscuits, which are calorie-rich and typically deployed in crisis conditions where people lack cooking facilities, "providing immediate nutrition for a child or adult," according to the U.N. World Food Programme. The WFP says 319 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity worldwide. Of those, 1.9 million people are gripped by catastrophic hunger and on the brink of famine, primarily in Gaza and Sudan. FOOD SECURITY Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After Jeremy Lewin and Kenneth Jackson, operatives of the budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, were appointed acting deputy USAID administrators and began terminating food security programmes, USAID staff were barred from communicating with aid organisations that were asking to take the biscuits, two sources said. A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was "entirely false" that USAID staff were barred from communicating with aid groups, and that "there was no direction given ... not to engage." Reuters, however, reported that a January 25 email sent by Jackson emphasizing a "complete halt" to all foreign assistance banned USAID staff from any communications outside of the agency unless approved by their front office. "Failure to abide by this directive...will result in disciplinary action," said the memo reviewed by Reuters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on May 21 that no food aid would be wasted, as USAID staff were waiting for Lewin to sign off on a deal to transfer the 622 metric tons of biscuits to the WFP for distribution before they began expiring in September. USAID staff sent a memo to Lewin warning him that the biscuits had a limited shelf-life and that the agency would have to pay an estimated $125,000 to have them destroyed, resulting in "wasted tax dollars," unless an agreement was struck with WFP to take them, both sources said. The agreement to transfer the food aid was approved on June 2, according to the senior State Department official. Two sources told Reuters that Lewin, who now runs the State Department's Office of Foreign Assistance, did not respond to the request for weeks. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But the State Department official said Lewin met with USAID staff and senior Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs leadership two days after receiving the May 19 memo, which laid out the proposal to transfer the food aid to WFP. After revisions and edits, Lewin signed the final version on June 2, said the official. The State Department official added that Lewin cleared the transfer in a "timely manner," and that consideration had to be given to finding shipping options that were not several times more expensive than the value of the biscuits. Lewin's signature opened the way for USAID staff to save the 622 metric tons of biscuits, valued at just under $1 million, now destined for Syria, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, according to the memo. Lewin did not respond to requests for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both sources said it took until early July to begin sending the stocks because generally it requires weeks of work to rearrange shipments after supply chains are disrupted. A WFP official said it had signed an agreement to receive the biscuits. The supplies slated for destruction could have fed around 27,000 people for a month, according to a Reuters analysis using figures from WFP. Those stocks were originally intended for USAID partners in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera, the director of nutrition at Action Against Hunger UK, said: "We knew the suspension of USAID funding would have immediate consequences, and the destruction of emergency food, at a time when acute hunger is at its highest on record, underscores the unintended consequences of such funding cuts." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United States is the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, amounting to at least 38% of all contributions recorded by the United Nations. It disbursed $61 billion in foreign assistance last year, just over half of it via USAID, according to government data. The Trump administration notified Congress in March that USAID would fire almost all of its staff in two rounds on July 1 and September 2, as it prepared to shut down. In a statement on July 1 marking the transfer of USAID to the State Department, Rubio said the U.S. was abandoning what he called a charity-based model and would focus on empowering countries to grow sustainably. "We will favor those nations that have demonstrated both the ability and willingness to help themselves and will target our resources to areas where they can have a multiplier effect and catalyze durable private sector, including American companies, and global investment," he wrote. (Reporting by Ammu Kannampilly in Nairobi, Jonathan Landay in Washington and Jessica Donati in Dakar; Writing by Ammu Kannampilly; Editing by Alison Williams, Rod Nickel and Diane Craft) By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the United States that include Chinese technology or equipment. "We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China," FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. "We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The United States has for years expressed concerns about Chinas role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has broad data security concerns about the network of more than 400 subsea cables that handle 99% of international internet traffic. Since 2020, U.S. regulators have been instrumental in the cancellation of four cables whose backers had wanted to link the United States with Hong Kong. The FCC last year said it was considering new rules governing undersea internet cables in the face of growing security concerns, as part of a review of regulations on the links that handle nearly all the world's online traffic. The FCC said it was considering barring the use of equipment or services in those undersea cable facilities from companies on an FCC list of companies deemed to pose threats to U.S, national security, including Huawei, ZTE China Telecom and China Mobile. Carr said the FCC is taking action to "guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The FCC will also seek comment on additional measures to protect submarine cable security against foreign adversary equipment. The cutting of two fiber-optic undersea telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea prompted investigations of possible sabotage. In 2023 Taiwan accused two Chinese vessels of cutting the only two cables that support internet access on the Matsu Islands and Houthi attacks in the Red Sea may have been responsible for the cutting of three cables providing internet service to Europe and Asia. (Reporting by David Shepardson, Jasper Ward and Bhargav Acharya; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Leslie Adler) US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived at the courthouse in a show of support to the prime minister, for what he said was a familiar witch-hunt process that Trump experienced as well. The criminal trial hearing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday was attended by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, in a show of support for the Israeli leader, though it was cut short when clashes broke out and tensions rose in southern Syria. Huckabee said the trial was a familiar witch-hunt process that US President Donald Trump experienced. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The president understands what Netanyahu is going through, Huckabee told the press. It is something he relates to personally. Last month, Trump called for Netanyahu to be pardoned in the trial that has been ongoing since 2020, when the prime minister pleaded not guilty to all charges. After Trumps post on the matter, a political storm was set off in Israel, with some politicians calling for the trial to be halted or for a plea bargain, while others decried what they observed to be a breach of sovereignty. The prime ministers criminal trials are a matter of internal Israeli concern, and it is not appropriate for another state to comment on such matters, even Israels greatest ally, critics argued. Bibi Netanyahus trial should be CANCELED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero, who has done so much for the State [of Israel], Trump wrote in June. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the entrance of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 7, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS/FILE PHOTO) 'A political witch hunt' How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.)? It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure, he added. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huckabee tweeted on Wednesday, I stopped by the trial of [Netanyahu] in Tel Aviv today. My conclusion? [Trump] is right... again. The trial began as scheduled, at around 9:30 a.m., but was cut short, at around 12 p.m., in conjunction with clashes in southern Syria between the forces of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and the local Druze population. The IDF soon after said it struck the entrance to Syrias military headquarters complex in Damascus. Huckabee was in the courtroom for several minutes. His timing was particularly opportune due to the subject matter: requests by Hollywood billionaire Arnon Milchan from authorities, including Netanyahu, around 2013-2014, to renew his US visa. One of the calls made was to then-US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. When the questioning began to touch on sensitive security information related to Milchan, a representative from the Defense Ministry called for the hearing to move to a closed-door setting. The hearing was called to an end shortly after due to the developments in southern Syria. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The case in question is Case 1000, the focus of which is Netanyahus long-time friendship with Milchan. The prime minister is on trial for allegedly advancing legislation favorable to Milchan while receiving thousands of shekels worth of cigars and champagne from him. The prime minister was charged with fraud and breach of trust. Prosecution representative attorney Yehonatan Tadmor asked Netanyahu about the fallout from an interview Milchan gave in 2013 to the Uvda investigative team, in which he referenced some security activities he had done. At around that time, Milchan had requested an extension for his US visa, but it was allegedly denied due to the interview. The indictment alleges that Netanyahu tried to help his friend with this matter; the prime minister denies any involvement. Tadmor asked how much Netanyahu knew personally of the grief the situation caused Milchan, referencing requests the producer put in with various government offices on the matter. The visa extension request was for one year. Questioned by Tadmor, Netanyahu said he didnt know the details of the visa issue at the time, despite being such a close friend of Milchans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Six months later, Milchan received a 10-year visa. Addressing Milchans specific requests to Netanyahu on the matter, Tadmor referenced what Milchan said in his testimony to the court in 2023, that when he learned of the visa cancellation, he made two phone calls: one to Shapiro and the second to Netanyahu. The prime minister said he remembered being aware of the situation in real-time, but that he doesnt recall the specific phone call. Hadas Klein, who was Milchans personal assistant and later became a states witness, said in her testimony that Milchan called a lot of people about the issue, including Netanyahus staff, but did not imply that he spoke chiefly with the prime minister. Netanyahu added that, at a different point in time, Milchan had also approached former prime minister and president Shimon Peres with a similar issue because he [Milchan] understood that though this issue affects him personally, it is also of national importance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The prime minister insisted that what concerned him were matters of national interest and personal friendship regarding Milchan, but not his visa problems. The fight in this case centers on Netanyahus interests: He insists they were purely personal, contrary to what the prosecution has proposed that business concerns slitted their way through even the closest of friendships, and that was problematic because Netanyahu was in a position of power. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says he has asked Israeli authorities to "aggressively investigate" the killing of a Palestinian-American in the occupied West Bank. Sayfollah Musallat, known as Saif - a 20-year-old dual US citizen - was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the town of Sinjil on Friday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. After an initially muted US reaction, Huckabee - a supporter of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories - described it as a "criminal and terrorist act" on Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a news briefing on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said a meeting on the killing would be held on Thursday, adding: "They're going to be reporting that to me." On Friday, the Israeli military said it was investigating, claiming that a "violent confrontation developed" after "terrorists" threw stones at Israeli civilians. Saif Musallat lived in Tampa, Florida and was visiting relatives in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, when he was killed along with his friend, Mohammed al-Shalabi. Al-Shalabi, who lived in a town nearby, died after being shot in the chest, the Palestinian health ministry said. He was 23 years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musallat's family said their relative was "protecting his family's land from settlers who were attempting to steal it". Israeli settlers also blocked an ambulance attempting to reach Musallat, who died before he could make it to hospital, they added. The family have called for the US state department to carry out an investigation. In his reaction on Tuesday, Huckabee wrote on X: "There must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act. Saif was just 20 yrs old." The US ambassador, a former governor of Arkansas and evangelical Christian, has previously voiced strong support for Israeli settlements - which are seen as illegal under international law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huckabee has also been criticised by opposition Democrats in the US over his previous statements about the ongoing war in Gaza. He has backed the idea of a "greater Israel" - where Israel would have permanent control of the Occupied Palestinian Territories - and used the biblical term "Judea and Samaria" to refer to the West Bank. Last month, he criticised US allies, including the UK and Australia, for sanctioning two far-right Israeli ministers over "repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities" in the West Bank. In a seeming bid to counter increasingly aggressive Chinese activities in the South China Sea, the U.S. plans to finance and construct a fast boat facility on the western coast of Palawan in the Philippines. The facility will be built to launch at least five fast boats, which will be constructed by U.S.-based company ReconCraft. The manufacturer specializes in producing vessels used by law enforcement and the military for rapid interdiction. According to documents, the vessels will include both assault boats and rigid-hulled inflatable boats, USNI News has reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The facility, which will also include on-site storage and conference rooms, will provide the Armed Forces of the Philippines with an effective launch point for patrols into the South China Sea. Chinese and Philippine vessels have clashed in increasingly hostile interactions in the region, especially as China has used aggressive tactics to assert its claims over a variety of uninhabitable reefs and shoals. Although these standoffs and accusations of Chinese bullying have been occurring for years, the incidents seem to be escalating in recent times. A month ago, Chinas Coast Guard was recorded on video deploying a water cannon against a Philippine fishing boat near a sandbar. Earlier this month, China announced that it was deploying a military combat patrol near the Scarborough Shoal, a disputed area with the Philippines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pentagon chief to visit Philippines for security talks, envoy says The Pentagon is bolstering its support for allies in the Indo-Pacific region. In May, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth released a joint statement with the Defense Ministers of Japan, Australian and the Philippines, condemning Chinas destabilizing actions in the East China Sea (ECS) and the South China Sea (SCS) and any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion. The four leaders added they were opposed to dangerous conduct by China in the SCS against the Philippines, and they noted in the statement they would be collectively increasing defense, cooperation and joint interoperability of military forces. The new fast boat facility is slated to be operational in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, which begins Oct. 1. MANILA, Philippines (AP) The U.S. Navy will construct two facilities for the repair and maintenance of Philippine military boats in a province facing the South China Sea, where confrontations between the Philippine and Chinese coast guards have flared. The U.S. Embassy said Wednesday the project will take place at Oyster Bay and Quezon town in western Palawan province. It said in a statement that it underscored the treaty allies aim to maintain a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific." Palawan faces the disputed South China Sea, which Beijing claims virtually in its entirety, and is the headquarters of the Philippine militarys Western Command, which deploys navy patrol ships, surveillance vessels and aircraft to defend its territorial interests. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-simmering territorial disputes in the busy waterway, a flashpoint in the regional rivalry between the U.S. and China. Washington has no territorial claims in the waters but has repeatedly stated that its obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces, ships and aircraft come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea. The U.S. military has separately constructed warehouses, barracks and other facilities in nine Philippine military camps, where rotating batches of American forces can stay and store weapons under a 2014 defense pact. Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the U.S. Navys plan to construct the two facilities in Palawan province but they have long accused Washington of plotting with its allies to contain China's rise. The government of the tiny, landlocked African country of Eswatini has confirmed that it received five individuals deported from the United States under President Donald Trump. In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Eswatini government said the deportations were the result of months of robust high-level engagements. The five prisoners are in the country and are housed in Correctional facilities within isolated units, where similar offenders are kept, spokesperson Thabile Mdluli wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But she appeared to concede there were human rights concerns about accepting deported individuals whose countries of origin were not Eswatini. As a responsible member of the global community, the Kingdom of Eswatini adheres to international agreements and diplomatic protocols regarding the repatriation of individuals, ensuring that due process and respect for human rights is followed, Mdluli said. Her statement also indicated that Eswatini would work with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to facilitate the transit of the inmates to their countries of origin. The deportations are part of a wider trend under the Trump administration of deporting foreign nationals to countries outside of their own. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The White House has argued that these third-country deportations are necessary for individuals whose home countries will not accept them. But critics have maintained that the Trump administration is relying on countries with documented histories of human rights abuses to accept deportees, thereby subjecting them to the risk of inhumane treatment. There is also concern that deportations under Trump are happening so swiftly that those facing deportation are unable to challenge their removal in court, violating their rights to due process. On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the US Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, revealed the recent deportations to Eswatini, identifying the affected individuals as citizens of Laos, Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba and Yemen. A safe third country deportation flight to Eswatini in Southern Africa has landed, McLaughlin wrote on social media. This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement She asserted that the deportees had been convicted of crimes like murder, child rape and assault, calling them depraved monsters who had been terrorizing American communities. The Trump administration has likened immigration into the US to an invasion, and Trump himself has repeatedly tied undocumented people to criminality, though studies indicate they commit fewer crimes than US-born citizens. Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has embarked on a campaign of mass deportation. As part of that push, his government has deported alleged criminals to third-party countries like El Salvador and South Sudan. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In March, for instance, the Trump administration deported an estimated 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where their heads were shaved and they were incarcerated in the countrys Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT), a maximum-security prison where conditions have been likened to torture. The Trump administration reportedly paid nearly $6m for El Salvador to imprison the men. Then, in May, reports emerged that the Trump administration planned to deport immigrants to Libya. A federal court quickly blocked the deportation, and government officials in Libya denied the reports. But lawyers for the immigrants involved told US media that a flight nearly took off and was instead stalled on an airport tarmac as a result of the court order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Later that same month, a flight did leave the US with eight deportees destined for South Sudan, a country that the US State Department itself concedes has significant human rights issues. Those concerns include credible reports of extrajudicial killings, torture and life-threatening prison conditions. The State Department discourages travel to the country. The flight to South Sudan was ultimately diverted to Djibouti after a federal court in Massachusetts determined that the eight men on board were not given an adequate opportunity to contest their deportations. The men were from countries including Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Cuba and Vietnam. But on June 23, the US Supreme Court issued a brief, unsigned order lifting the lower courts ruling and allowing the deportation to South Sudan to proceed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Courts three left-leaning justices, however, issued a blistering, 19-page dissent, calling the majoritys decision a gross abuse of the courts power and denouncing the presidents actions as overreach. The Government has made clear in word and deed that it feels itself unconstrained by law, free to deport anyone anywhere without notice or an opportunity to be heard, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote. There is no evidence in this case that the Government ever did determine that the countries it designated (Libya, El Salvador, and South Sudan) w[ould] not torture the plaintiffs. Critics have voiced similar concerns for the immigrants sent to Eswatini, a country of 1.23 million people located northeast of South Africa. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eswatini is considered an absolute monarchy, and its leader, King Mswati III, has been accused of stamping out dissent through violence. In 2021, for instance, security forces allegedly killed dozens of protesters involved in pro-democracy demonstrations. In the aftermath, several politicians were sentenced to decades in prison for inciting violence, a charge critics say was trumped up to silence opposition voices. Still, on Wednesday, the government of Eswatini defended its commitment to human rights in its statement to the public. It also said that the decision to accept the five deportees from the US was made for the benefit of both countries. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kingdom of Eswatini and the United States of America have enjoyed fruitful bilateral relations spanning over five decades, the statement said. As such, every agreement entered into is done with meticulous care and consideration, putting the interests of both nations at the forefront. A memo obtained by The Washington Post earlier this week signalled that Trump administration officials may knowingly be deporting individuals to countries where their human rights are not guaranteed. That memo, dated July 9, acknowledged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may remove non-citizens to third-party countries even when officials have not received credible diplomatic assurances against the use of torture or persecution, so long as certain other conditions were met. Those deportations, the memo added, could take place with as little as six hours notice under exigent circumstances. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, left, and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visit Purdue University on July 16, 2025. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Indiana Gov. Mike Braun welcomed U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to Purdue University on Wednesday, with the federal leader praising Indiana for its education initiatives that put parents in the drivers seat for K-12 and higher education. In particular, leaders celebrated a decade-plus of frozen tuition rates at Purdue and other initiatives as a model for higher education during President Donald Trumps transformative second term. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive looked at all the things that are going on in Indiana and they really do match exactly what the Presidents goals are, said McMahon. He certainly believes more choice is what we ought to have, and I think Indiana has certainly proven that all those things work to the benefit of students in K-12 and higher education. McMahon declined to comment on an ongoing review of $6.8 billion in frozen federal funding earmarked for grade schools, including $107 million destined for Indiana schools. Likewise, she dismissed concerns about the loss of civil rights protections for minority or disabled students, pointing to other avenues for relief through the Department of Justice. McMahons department, one of many with ongoing mass layoffs, is set to be dismantled under Trump, who previously said he wants McMahon to put herself out of a job. Wednesdays visit comes amid a nationwide reckoning for higher education institutions, some of which are grappling with hundreds of millions of dollars in frozen funds and other Trump administration threats. But McMahon called Purdues 14-year streak of frozen tuition rates absolutely remarkable, while Gov. Mike Braun said the university was at the forefront of how higher education should be run. Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner talks at a Purdue University roundtable on July 16, 2025. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Youre kind of the model for what higher education needs to be across the country, and now other public schools in our state have followed suit, Braun said. The legislature and I weve put that out there as kind of our mantra: parents in the drivers seat for their own kids education from K-12 and then post secondary as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement McMahon and Braun sat in on a closed door roundtable discussion with over a dozen other state leaders, including bankers, philanthropists, school corporation superintendents and Republican legislative leaders. Weve worked hard to build out a recipe for success, said Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner. I think were still at the starting point, and have more work to do. Jenner highlighted the states ongoing effort to overhaul its high school diploma and support more apprenticeship programs. We frequently get everyone in the room early and often and listen, continued Jenner. (by) listening to each other, weve had a lot of conversation in education (on) how we might really listen more to business and industry leaders to really let us know what are the knowledge and skills we could really improve on. Parents driving higher education learning Both McMahon and Braun emphasized the need for parents to lead on education issues, even when those young adults leave home and attend higher education institutions. But, when asked, Braun said it wasnt coddling. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because that discussion about what youre going to do for the rest of your life is going to be mostly the parents thinking about it before their kids are ready to, Braun said. The key thing is having options, so parents know what the best ideas are. Parents are going to be in the drivers seat, because theyre generally going to pay the bills. They, along with their kids, formulate whats best for them, Braun continued. Gov. Mike Braun chats at a Purdue University roundtable on July 16, 2025 next to U.S. Secretary of State Linda McMahon. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle) Braun said that higher education and health care, another core focus for his administration didnt innovate enough, which drove up costs. He highlighted the renewed focus on apprenticeships as an alternative. And while McMahon lauded Indiana and Purdues focus on apprenticeships, she panned any mandated efforts at the federal level. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The federal government will continue to provide the kind of funding that is already appropriated by Congress, said McMahon. but what the president, what the federal government, wants to do is get out of the way and remove a lot of regulation. Lets get more money into the states thats now spent on bureaucracy. I think thats what youll see. The workforce-focused visit comes on the heels of a 15% staff reduction at the Department of Workforce Development, which Braun described as an event that would never be a criterion or a metric in the real world of running something. Its about how you get the most out of the resources youve got and, in many cases, you do it better, Braun said, describing the state and other industries as bloated with middle management. Rather, he said it was a reflection of state employment growing faster than the economy. Wait and see, he said. Its very little workforce reduction (and) only to where its going to make that agency work better. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublins relationship with Washington. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee accused Ireland of diplomatic intoxication Tuesday in a sharp rebuke of the draft legislation, invoking a derogatory stereotype of the Irish people. Did the Irish fall into a vat of Guinness & propose something so stupid that it would be attributed to act of diplomatic intoxication? It will harm Arabs as much as Israelis. Sober up Ireland!, Huckabee said in a post on X. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Huckabees comment comes after the Irish Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade held pre-legislative scrutiny meetings this week to discuss the bill, which has drawn support from pro-Palestinian lawmakers and campaigners and criticism from several Jewish organizations and some in the Jewish community. CNN has reached out to the Irish Foreign Ministry for comment on Huckabees post. In an apparent attempt to deflect criticism, Micheal Martin, the Taoiseach, or prime minister, has said enacting the bill would be largely symbolic, as it aims to apply pressure on Israel to end the war in Gaza. This is one element of the governments approach to the devastating violence and the appalling humanitarian situation in Gaza and the West Bank, Martin said in April. Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin said enacting a trade ban with the occupied Palestinian territories would be "largely symbolic." - Alain Jocard/AFP/Getty Images On Monday, the chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, Maurice Cohen, called the bill a performance of misguided effort. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It wont bring two states closer, but it might drive Jewish communities here in Ireland further into fear and isolation, Cohen said. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham also weighed in on the bill, saying Tuesday that he hopes Ireland will reconsider their efforts to economically isolate Israel. I do not believe these efforts would be well received in the United States and they certainly would not go unnoticed, Graham said on X. If the legislation Israeli Settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Prohibition of Importation of Goods) Bill 2025 passes in Irelands Oireachtas, or parliament, it will mark the first time a European Union member state has enacted such a law. The bill was first tabled in 2018 and has regained momentum since Israels highly destructive military campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023. More than 58,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has said Israels settlement policies and exploitation of natural resources in the occupied Palestinian territories breaches international law. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the ICJs ruling a decision of lies. Solidarity with the Palestinian cause is longstanding across most of Irish society and politics, with many in Ireland identifying a shared historical experience of subjugation by an occupying state. Ireland became the first EU member state to call for Palestinian statehood in 1980, actualized in its formal recognition of the State of Palestine in May 2024. Israel closed its embassy in Dublin in December 2024, with Israels Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accusing Ireland of extreme anti-Israel policies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ireland has long rejected any accusation that it is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law, then-PM Simon Harris said in response to the Israeli embassy closure. Ireland wants a two-state solution and for Israel and Palestine to live in peace and security. Ireland will always speak up for human rights and international law. Nothing will distract from that, he said. CNNs Kathleen Magramo and Eugenia Yosef contributed reporting. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com If Iran and the US cannot reach a deal by August, Germany, France, and the UK will reimpose UNSC sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the UK agreed in a phone call on Monday to set the end of August as the de facto deadline for reaching a nuclear deal with Iran, Axios reported, citing three sources. If no deal is reached by that deadline, the three European powers plan to trigger the "snapback" mechanism, which automatically reimposes all UN Security Council sanctions lifted under the 2015 Iran deal, according to the Axios report. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The four nations are reportedly considering the potential implementation of snapback measures before Russia, a critical Iranian ally, assumes the presidency of the UNSC. Europe to push Iran on steps to make a deal While the West seems to view the snapback measures as a way to bring Tehran to the negotiating table, Iran argues that they aren't legally valid and has threatened to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in response. Axios reported that the European allies now plan to convey to Iranian officials that they can avoid the sanctions if they take steps to demonstrate their commitment to achieving a deal of sorts. The report gave examples of steps Tehran could take, such as resuming operations with the International Atomic Energy Agency or removing 400 kg of enriched uranium from nuclear sites. This comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked US President Donald Trump not to block the snapback measures in their recent meeting in Washington, Axios reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Netanyahu also reportedly told Trump to press the Iranians to make a deal quickly in order to avoid imposing sanctions. "We felt that Trump and his team agreed with us," an Israeli official told Axios. The Ukrainian branch of the American right-wing extremist organization the Base has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Colonel Ivan Voronych in Kyiv. Voronych is the highest-ranking SBU officer known to have been killed in Kyiv in a targeted assassination since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion. In a statement, the local affiliate known as White Phoenix praised its "comrades" for the July 10 killing of the SBU colonel in the Holosiivskyi district of Kyiv. Sources in the counter-terrorism field consider the group's claim credible, the Guardian reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. Voronych was shot multiple times and died at the scene. The SBU later announced that it had killed the alleged Russian killers a man and a woman involved in the murder. According to investigators, the pair had been ordered by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to surveil Voronych's movements and were later directed to a weapons cache containing a firearm with a silencer. Founded in 2018 by former Pentagon contractor Rinaldo Nazzaro, the Base promotes white supremacist and neo-Nazi ideology. It has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., U.K., and Australia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nazzaro has lived in Russia since 2019 and has consistently denied allegations of collaborating with Russian intelligence, although Western officials and media still suspect connections. The Base has used encrypted messaging apps and propaganda networks to recruit globally. Its Ukrainian branch reportedly offers financial incentives for attacks on individuals and critical infrastructure. Read also: Ukraines new ground drones are helping capture Russian soldiers, a boost for Kyivs strained infantry Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. The United States has launched an investigation into unfair trading practices by Brazil, escalating President Donald Trumps spat with the worlds 10th-largest economy over issues including the criminal case against its former President Jair Bolsonaro. The investigation will focus on digital trade and electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, and anti-corruption interference, as well as intellectual property protection, to determine whether there are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict American commerce, according to a statement by the United States Trade Representative (USTR). It will also look into ethanol market access and illegal deforestation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At President Trumps direction, I am launching a Section 301 investigation into Brazils attacks on American social media companies as well as other unfair trading practices that harm American companies, workers, farmers, and technology innovators, Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer said. I have determined that Brazils tariff and non-tariff barriers merit a thorough investigation, and potentially, responsive action. Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 is designed to address unfair foreign practices affecting US commerce, and could be used to respond to unreasonable, or discriminatory foreign government practices, according to the USTR statement. This comes after Trump sent Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a tariff letter last week, accusing him of undertaking a witch hunt over charges against Bolsonaro. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The right-wing former president, who has boasted of his close ties with Trump, is currently on trial for allegedly attempting a coup to overturn Lulas 2022 election victory. In its investigation announcement, the USTR expressed concerns that Brazilian authorities could undermine the competitiveness of American digital companies by retaliating against them for failing to censor political speech or restricting their ability to operate in the country. The investigation also appears to target Pix, a Brazilian government-developed digital payment system which has experienced explosive adoption since it launched in 2020. In a document accompanying the statement, the USTR said that Brazil engages in a number of unfair practices with respect to electronic payment services, including but not limited to advantaging its government-developed electronic payment services. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The USTR also accused Brazil of disadvantaging American exports by offering lower tariffs to certain globally competitive trade partners, failing to protect American intellectual property rights, and backtracking from its earlier willingness to grant virtually duty-free access for US ethanol and imposing instead a substantially higher tariff. Most countries targeted by Trumps tariffs are those with which the US runs a trade deficit meaning the US imports more goods from the nation than it exports to it. But the US ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, and it has not had a trade deficit with the country for 18 years. A worker arrives at Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN, National Steel Company), in Volta Redonda, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, on March 25, 2025. - Lucas Landau/Reuters On top of country-specific tariffs, Brazil has also been targeted by Trumps threat of a 10% levy on imports from the BRICS economic group of 10 emerging-market nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, India and China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The US president said last week that he plans to impose the tariff to protect the US dollar from potential threats to its dominance, without providing more details on when he would do so. Trumps letter to Brazil last week threatening a crippling 50% tariff stood out for the use of the trade levy to influence the countrys domestic policies, unlike the letters to 21 other countries issued last week based on US trade deficits. He justified the tariff by citing Brazils attacks on free elections and Americans free speech, accusing Brazilian courts of issuing unlawful censorship orders to American social media companies and threatening them with hefty fines. Immediately after Trump issued the letter last week, Lula vowed to reciprocate should Trump follow through on the threat to imp ose the staggering tariff. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement On Friday, Lula said Brazil ought to be the side imposing tariffs, given the US trade surplus. The United States does not have a trade deficit with Brazil. Its Brazil that has a deficit with the US, he told a crowd of supporters. I should be one taxing them. The Brazilian president said he plans to fight US tariffs in any way he can, including by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization, and discussing them with other members of the BRICS bloc, of which Brazil is currently chair. CNNs Elizabeth Buchwald, Max Saltman, Heriberto Freitas and Luciana Lopez contributed reporting. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com By Andrea Shalal and Jasper Ward WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday he had launched an investigation into Brazil's "unfair" trading practices, a week after President Donald Trump threatened a 50% tariff on imports from Latin America's largest economy. Trump's trade war, launched since starting his second term in January, sets tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners, aiming to reorder the global economy and end decades of what he calls discrimination against the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The USTR investigation, announced last week by Trump, will decide if Brazil's treatment of digital trade and preferential tariffs, among others, is "unreasonable or discriminatory and burdens or restrict" U.S. commerce, Greer said. "At President Trumps direction, I am launching a Section 301 investigation into Brazils attacks," he added in a statement. Among victims of such attacks he cited U.S. social media and other companies, as well as workers, farmers, and technology innovators he described as harmed by Brazil's "unfair trading practices". Following extensive consultations, Greer added, "I have determined that Brazils tariff and non-tariff barriers merit a thorough investigation, and potentially, responsive action." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump justified his 50% tariff from August 1, well above the rate of 10% initially proposed, with a demand for an end to the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly plotting a coup. The high tariff for Brazil surprised many trade experts since its U.S. goods imports exceed its exports, and because Trump linked the rate so clearly to Bolsonaro's trial. Brazil offered no immediate reaction to news of the U.S. investigation. On Monday, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin said it had yet to receive a response from Washington to an offer it made in trade talks two months ago. During his first term, Trump used Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to justify a spate of tariffs against China. It was also used to investigate other countries for digital services taxes on U.S. tech firms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, USTR said Brazil disadvantaged U.S. firms by setting lower tariffs on exports of other trading partners and accused it of failing to battle corruption. It added that Brazil also charged substantially higher tariffs on U.S. ethanol exports, and "appears to be failing" to enforce laws against illegal deforestation, which it said harmed the competitiveness of U.S. timber producers. (Reporting by Jasper Ward; Editing by Sandra Maler and Clarence Fernandez) ST. LOUIS While the U.S. presidency often keeps commanders-in-chief anchored in Washington DC, history shows that several have made visits to St. Louis over the years, whether for official duties, campaign stops or post-presidency visits. At least 11 presidents have visited St. Louis either before, during, or after their terms as presidency, according to various documentation and historical records reviewed by FOX 2. Heres a quick look at those presidential visits to St. Louis: Abraham Lincoln 16th President National Union Party (Visits: 1850s-1860s) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lincoln, who made Illinois home for much of his adulthood, visited Metro East suburb Alton, Illinois for the finial Lincoln Douglas debate in 1958. Though he lost the U.S. Senate race, the debates helped him rise to national prominence and build a strong case for the presidency. Lincoln also reportedly visited friends Montgomery and Francis Blair in St. Louis on horseback, once appointing Montgomery as Postmaster General. SOURCES: National Park Service, ExploreStLouis.com Ulysses S. Grant 18th President Republican Party (First visit: 1840s, Also lived in St. Louis area) Grant was stationed at Jefferson Barracks before the Civil War and later married St. Louis native Julie Dent. In the 1850s, he worked various jobs and farmed land near the City of St. Louis, once investing in it as a horse-breeding operation. Grant was the inspiration behind St. Louis attraction Grants Farm and once said in a speech he felt most connected to St. Louis above all other US places. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SOURCES: National Park Service, National Park Service (White Haven) Theodore Roosevelt 26th President Republican Party (Visits: 1904, 1910) Roosevelt paid a visit to St. Louis at the 1904 Worlds Fair to dedicate the Louisiana Purchase Exposition buildings, which celebrated the 100th anniversary Louisiana Purchase. In 1910, Roosevelt also made aviation history and became the first president to fly by plane, which took place at Kinloch Field just outside St. Louis. SOURCES: Library of Congress, National Air And Space Museum Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd President Democratic Party (Visit: 1936) FDR visited the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum on October 14, 1936. The memorial, originally conceived as a tribute to St. Louisans lost in World War I, was dedicated to honor the sacrifices of veterans and promote peace amid rising global tensions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SOURCES: Library of Congress Harry Truman 33rd President Democratic Party (Visits include: 1944, 1948, 1950, 1955) Truman, a Missouri native, quite possibly leads all presidents in visits to St. Louis, some more documented than others. Before his presidency, in 1944, he attended a World Series game between St. Louiss then-two teams, the Cardinals and Browns, as FDRs running mate. Truman became president one year later after FDRs death. In 1948, Truman made his last presidential campaign speech at Kiel Auditorium, then passed by Union Station after his victory. In June 1950, he attended a reunion of the 35th Infantry Division, honoring his World War I service. Truman also attended a Masonic meeting in St. Louis in 1955 after his presidency. SOURCES: Truman National Archives, The Newport Daily News, Truman Library and Museum President Harry Truman gets a farewell from Secretary of State Dean Acheson (right), at National Airport in Washington Oct. 11, 1950 as he leaves by plane for St. Louis on the first leg of his trip into the Pacific for a rendezvous with Gen. Douglas MacArthur to discuss Korean and far east problems. (AP Photo) Sen. John Kennedy, Democratic presidential nominee is besieged by an unruly group of admirers at the airport upon his arrival in St. Louis, Missouri on Sept. 18, 1960. The crowd surged through sparse police lines foreign Kennedy to take refuge in his plane until the crowd could be calmed down. (AP Photo) Dem. cand. AR Gov. Bill Clinton (L) listening to incumbent Pres. Bush speak, during 1st presidential campaign debate. (Photo by Dirck Halstead/Getty Images) ST. LOUIS, MO APRIL 16: U.S. President George W. Bush speaks during a visit to the Boeing F18 Super Hornet Assembly facility April 16, 2003 in St. Louis, Missouri. The president made a stop over on his way to Texas to support Boeing employees for their contribution to the success of U.S. armed forces and briefly comment on his economic plans. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images) ST. LOUIS APRIL 5: President George W. Bush follows through after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the Opening Day MLB game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals on April 5, 2004 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The Brewers defeated the Cardinals 8-6. (Photo by Scott Rovak/MLB Photos via Getty Images) ST. LOUIS, MO JULY 14: U.S. President Barack Obama throws out the first pitch before the 2009 All-Star Game at Busch Stadium July 14, 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri. The American League beat the National League 4-3. (Photo by Rich Pilling/MLB via Getty Images) US Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama greets supporters during a rally under the Gateway Arch in St Louis, Missouri, October 18, 2008. AFP PHOTO/Emmanuel Dunand (Photo credit should read EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images) ST LOUIS, MO OCTOBER 09: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump (L) respond to questions as Democratic presidential nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on during the town hall debate at Washington University on October 9, 2016 in St Louis, Missouri. This is the second of three presidential debates scheduled prior to the November 8th election. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) John F. Kennedy 35th President Democratic Party (Visits: 1960, 1962) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Kennedy heavily campaigned in St. Louis in 1960, first visiting September that year to address union workers at Kiel Auditorium to address economic reform. Kennedy then followed that up with October visits to East St. Louis and Crestwood. Two years later, as president, Kennedy toured the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation (now known as Boeing) in north St. Louis County to connect with leaders, observe aircraft developments and promote the U.S. space program. SOURCES: JFK Library, The American Presidency Project George H.W. Bush 41st President Republican Party (Visits: 1989, 1992) Bush visited Washington University on multiple occasions as president, first on Feb. 17, 1989 to speak on student volunteerism. He returned on Oct. 11, 1992, to participate in a nationally-televised debate with Democratic opponent Bill Clinton and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot, Bush also visited the McDonnel Douglas Corporation (now Boeing) in September 1992 to observe projects and announce a defense contract with Saudi Arabia. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SOURCES: Washington University, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Bill Clinton 42nd President Democratic Party (Visits: 1992, 1999) Clinton, in addition to his pre-presidential debate with Bush, visited the St. Louis region again in 1999. Clinton toured and spoke at a newly-opened Walgreens to promote inner-city investment, touting federal grants and tax incentives aimed at economic revitalization. During his visit, Clinton also met East St. Louis-raised Olympic legend Jackie Joyner Kersee. SOURCES: Clinton White House Archives, St. Louis Post-Dispatch George W. Bush 43rd President Republican Party (Visits: 2003, 2004) Bush made three documented visits to St. Louis in his first presidential term, all within a year. In April 2003, he visited Boeing to discuss Iraq operations. In January 2004, he met students at Pierre Laclede Elementary School, highlighting and promoting the No Child Left Behind Act. In March 2004, Bush also threw out the first pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals Opening Day matchup at Busch Memorial Stadium. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement SOUCRES: George W. Bush White House Archives, MLB Barack Obama 44th President Democratic Party (Visits: 2008, 2009, 2011) Obama made a campaign visit at the Gateway Arch during in October 2008, drawing an estimated crowd of 80,000 people. He spoke in opposition of tax cuts and in support of investment of infrastructure and renewable energy. The next year, after his presidential win, Obama threw out the first pitch at the MLB All-Star Game at Busch Stadium. Then, in October, 2011, he spoke at the Renaissance Hotel in St. Louis to promote the American Jobs Act and seek support for a reelection campaign. SOURCES: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, MLB, White House- Barack Obama Archives Donald Trump 45th/47th President Republican Party (Visits: 2016, 2017, 2018) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump made a campaign visit outside the Peabody Opera House on March 11, 2016, a stop that included interruptions from protestors. After that, on Oct. 9, 2016, Trump and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton participated in a live televised debate at Washington University. Then, in November 2017, he returned to St. Louis as president and visited St. Charles to promote his administrations federal tax reform plan. The following year, he visited Boeing to tour the facility, observe investments in defense manufacturing and once again advocate for federal tax cuts. SOURCES: Nine PBS News, St. Louis Public Radio, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The American Presidency Project Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. By Helen Coster (Reuters) -The leaders of three U.S. universities testified before a House of Representatives panel on Tuesday about what they have done to combat antisemitism on campus, saying they were committed to stamping out hatred while protecting academic freedom. At Tuesday's three-hour hearing, Georgetown University interim President Robert Groves, City University of New York Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez, and University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Richard Lyons came under sharp fire from Republicans. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Many of them echoed President Donald Trump's recent attacks on universities, which he has described as "infested with radicalism," and questioned whether the presidents were doing enough to protect Jewish students and faculty. "The genesis of this antisemitism, this hatred that we're seeing across our country, is coming from our universities," said Representative Burgess Owens, a Utah Republican. It was the latest in a series of hearings about antisemitism on campus in which university leaders testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which is tasked with higher education oversight. Democrats on the panel used the session to question the Trump administration's gutting of the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, which probes incidents of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination. That has led to a backlog in investigations at a time when Republicans say universities are not doing enough to combat antisemitism. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for the administration to resume dismantling the entire department, part of Trump's bid to shrink the federal role in education and give more control to the states. Representative Mark Takano, a California Democrat, called the hearing a "kangaroo court." "This scorched earth warfare against higher education will endanger academic freedom, innovative research and international cooperation for generations to come," Takano said, referring to the administration's efforts to cut off funding to some schools, including Harvard and Columbia, and impose other sanctions. University leaders have come under fire from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian communities for their handling of protests that broke out after the 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas militants and conflict that emerged from it. On some campuses, clashes erupted between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrators, spawning antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric and assaults in some cases. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During the hearing, the university leaders were repeatedly asked about their responses to antisemitic actions by faculty or affiliated scholars. Representative Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, asked Berkeley's Lyons about a February event in which speakers "repeatedly denied that Israeli women were gang-raped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and argued that Israel was weaponizing feminism." Lyons said the online event in question was organized by a faculty member but the comments that Miller cited did not come from the Berkeley faculty member. He said the school anticipated that some of the ideas discussed at the event would prove controversial. "I did not prevent it from happening because I felt that keeping the marketplace for ideas open was really important in this instance," he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Previous hearings held by the panel have led to significant consequences for university presidents. In December 2023, Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, raised her own political profile by grilling the presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She asked them whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" would violate their schools' codes of conduct related to bullying and harassment. Each president declined to give a simple "yes" or "no" answer, noting that a wide range of hateful speech is protected under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and under university policies. Their testimony, which many viewed as insensitive and detached, triggered an outcry. More than 70 U.S. lawmakers later signed a letter demanding that the governing boards of the three universities remove the presidents. Soon afterwards, Harvard's Claudine Gay and Penn's Liz Magill resigned. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned in August, following her April testimony before the committee. (Reporting by Helen Coster in New York; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Frank McGurty and Richard Chang) A recent mass layoff in the U.S. State Department included several senior analysts of the department's intelligence arm, who were focusing on Russia and Ukraine, the New York Times (NYT) reported on July 15, citing former and current officials. The move comes amid U.S. President Donald Trump's shifting approach toward ending the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Some 1,350 State Department staff members were laid off on July 13 in what is only the most recent step in the Trump administration's efforts to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It remains unclear how many analysts of the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) were fired, and the arm retains several employees with a focus on Russia and Ukraine, the NYT reported. Ex-officials have criticized firings within the bureau, with former State Department official Ellen McCarthy calling them "shortsighted" and a hit to the U.S.'s "critical capability at exactly the wrong time." U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented the layoffs in his department as "a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused." The INR employs intelligence analysts who help inform U.S. diplomacy. According to the NYT, the firings resulted from merging two offices within the bureau. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump's civil workforce and budget cuts have already had an impact on the U.S. support for Ukraine, with several initiatives shuttered and agencies dismantled. The Trump administration has cut funding for a Yale University-based initiative tracking Russian abductions of Ukrainian children, shuttered USAID, the U.S.'s principal foreign aid agency that provided billions in multi-sector support for Ukraine, terminated support for programs investigating Russian war crimes, and more. The U.S. president had also been hesitant to approve additional military aid for Ukraine, preferring instead to pursue a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow while urging European allies to shoulder more of the burden. As Moscow continues to reject ceasefire proposals and ramps up aerial attacks on Ukraine, Trump seems to be adjusting his position, agreeing to provide U.S. weapons to Kyiv via NATO, provided they are paid for by European partners. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read also: Military releases video of Ukrainian drone unit destroying Russian long-range cannon Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. (Reuters) -Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said the U.S. had offered to manage a potential transport corridor that would link the bulk of Azerbaijan to an Azerbaijani exclave via Armenian territory, the Armenpress news agency reported on Wednesday. The potential corridor, which Baku is keen to secure, would run roughly 32 km (20 miles) through Armenia's southern Syunik province, linking the majority of Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, an Azerbaijani exclave that borders Baku's ally Turkey. Azerbaijan does not want the corridor to be controlled solely by Armenia due to concerns that Yerevan could revoke access too easily. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked at a news conference if Armenia had received a specific proposal from Washington regarding the proposed corridor, Pashinyan said: "Yes, we have received proposals from the United States," Armenpress, a state news agency, reported. The transit link is one of several stumbling blocks to a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia, neighbours in the South Caucasus region who have fought a series of wars since the late 1980s and remain arch rivals. The countries said in March they had finalised a draft peace deal, but the timeline for signing it remains uncertain. Pashinyan's comments came days after the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said that Washington has proposed taking over the planned transit corridor. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "They're arguing over 32 kilometres of road, but this is no joke. It's been going on for a decade 32 kilometres of road," Barrack told reporters in New York last Friday, according to a State Department readout. "So what happens is America comes in and says, 'Okay, we'll take it over. Give us the 32 kilometres of road on a hundred-year lease, and you can all share it." (Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn) (Reuters) -The Trump administration transferred 28,000 acres (11,331 hectares) in a remote part of Northwest Alaska to a native corporation, putting more land near a proposed mining road under local control. The move is aligned with President Donald Trump's pledge to remove barriers to energy and resource development in the state. "By putting land into Alaska Native hands, we are advancing opportunity in Alaska, while reducing federal barriers to resource development," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The acreage was conveyed to NANA Regional Corporation, which is based in Kotzebue, Alaska. The corporation is controlled by the Inupiat tribe. NANA was not immediately available for comment. NANA supports construction of a road to the Ambler mining district, an area with copper, zinc and lead deposits, but severed ties last year to a project proposed by an Alaska state agency. The Biden administration later rejected that road, citing risks to caribou and fish populations and native communities. (Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Chris Reese and Sandra Maler) GREENBELT, Md. (DC News Now) Three men, alleged members of the well-known gang La Mara Salvatrucha, also referred to as MS-13, are being charged with a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), involving murder and drug trafficking. The District of Marylands Attorneys Office (USAO) said 24-year-old Maxwell Areil Quijano-Casco, 19-year-old Daniel Isaias Villanueva-Bautista, both from El Salvador, and 21-year-old Josue Mauricio Lainez, from Hyattsville, Md., are accused of murdering a homeless man in connection with their gang affiliation. Authorities said the murder was committed to further their status in MS-13. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Driver admits to having guns, bow and arrow in car near US Capitol, police say Court documents revealed that a passerby called 911 on July 5, 2024, after finding the dead man later identified as 34-year-old Samuel Enoch Garcia-Rojas sitting in a blue 2008 Dodge Caravan that was parked in a used car lot in Hyattsville. When they got to the scene, police officers noted that the victim appeared to have been stabbed in the neck. Surveillance footage from July 4 at approximately 11:35 p.m. showed Quijano-Casco approaching Garcia-Rojas on foot, and all three men returning to the Dodge Caravan about 15 minutes later, appearing to reach in and strike someone. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Garcia-Rojas did not get out of the car after the attack. Quijano-Casco and Villanueva-Bautista were arrested on Aug. 23, 2024, with Quijano-Casco being in possession of a handgun and eight grams of cocaine. Quijano-Casco and Villanueva-Bautista admitted to being present at the time of the altercation that led to Garcia-Rojass death. Quijano-Casco admitted to stabbing the victim, claiming it was self-defense. According to court documents, Quijano-Casco, Villanueva-Bautista and a third associate of MS-13 were promoted and received Homeboy status for their participation in the murder. The two, as well as Lainez, were also given marijuana as a reward for their participation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All three men have been charged with RICO conspiracy, including murder, and face life in prison if convicted. Law enforcement urges the public to report any MS-13 activity via Homeland Security tip lines and the FBI. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. A worker fills a syringe with measles vaccine in Lubbock, Texas, in March. Measles cases have reached a 33-year high, affecting 39 states. (Photo by Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images) Health officials have reported another measles case in Utah, bringing the states total confirmed count to 10. As of Tuesday, seven people have been diagnosed with measles in Utah County, and three people are in the Southwest Utah Public Health District, according to the Utah Department of Health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of the people who have been infected are unvaccinated, state health officials said in a news release issued Wednesday. The latest case, confirmed Monday, was a person in the Southwest Utah Pubic Health District. State officials said the person reported self-isolating when they first became ill and is now out of the infectious period. Two others were confirmed July 1 in Utah County. Earlier, on June 27, two others were confirmed in that same county. On June 26, five cases were confirmed, three in Utah County and two in the southwest corner of the state. Measles early symptoms show up seven to 14 days after exposure and include fever higher than 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit and a cough, runny nose or red eyes. A rash could appear four days after the fever starts. Health officials recommend that people experiencing these symptoms stay away from others and call health care providers before making a visit to avoid spreading the virus. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement State health officials are urging everyone to ensure theyre protected against measles with the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is 97% effective against measles after two doses. For more information about measles and to stay up-to-date on Utah officials response to the outbreak, visit the Utah Department of Healths 2025 measles response dashboard. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Utah Gov. Spencer Cox doubled down Tuesday on the states ban on land sales to foreign adversaries, saying the state blocked a Chinese-owned corporation from buying Utah land near an airport in the last few months. The governor held a press conference at a small family farm in Utah County to declare that the Beehive State which he said used to walk on pins and needles when dealing with China will be having none of it. We dont care anymore, Cox said. Its saber rattling. This is what they do. And were way past that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cox announced that in the past few months, Utah acted to block an attempted land purchase near Provo Airport by Cirrus Aircraft, a company that is majority-owned by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China. The proposed investment would have meant millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs for the state of Utah, Cox said. But the national security threats posed by the nation of China are such that the state has drawn a line in the sand, he said. We are not for sale, Cox said. Utah land ownership laws Utah Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, speaks during a press conference at a farm in Palmyra on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, about efforts to safeguard Utahs land, liberty and strategic interests from foreign influence. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News Utah was one of the first states to enact legislation over China-related national security concerns. In 2021, the Legislature passed a resolution encouraging the closure of Confucius Institutes, Chinese-partnered language learning centers, at Utah universities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The state later received praise from generals, assistant secretaries of defense and the Association of Defense Communities for laws passed in 2023 and 2024 that restricted the purchase of land by certain countries. In 2023, Rep. Candice Pierucci, R-Herriman, introduced legislation prohibiting foreign military companies from owning land in the state. This was followed a year later by an all out prohibition on land buys by businesses headquartered in China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. The bill, which was passed unanimously and signed by the governor in 2024, required these restricted foreign entities to sell their interests in the state within one year or have their property confiscated and sold by the state, in which case the proceeds would go to the general fund. This upcoming legislative session Pierucci said to expect legislation addressing vulnerabilities to foreign influence over Utahs water infrastructure and the forced disclosure of critical minerals when ranchers sell products to China. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The (Chinese Communist Party) is so invested in playing the long game, Pierucci said. Taken together, these bills are far more than policy. They are a declaration that Utah will not be intimidated or infiltrated by authoritarian regimes, and they affirm that we value freedom, transparency and security over short term economic convenience. Over the past few months, around 35,000 of the roughly 37,000 acres owned by Chinese organizations were sold to Utah buyers Steve Styler and Matt Garff, according to Cox, who said the Department of Public Safety is continuing investigations to identify the remaining landowners. A farm in Palmyra is pictured after a press conference was held there on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, about efforts to safeguard Utahs land, liberty and strategic interests from foreign influence. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News The push to counter Chinese influence in the state is essential considering the states high concentration of military bases, intelligence personal and individuals with international connections, speakers explained. Its important for folks to become wide awake to the issue, Rep. Jefferson Burton, R-Salem, told the Deseret News. Were just simply trying to keep America safe, keep our citizens safe. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During his remarks, Cox spoke about Chinas decision to close congregations of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and why he believes China took that action. Over the past few months, Chinese government authorities have shut down multiple meetinghouses of the church, Cox said, including local and expatriate branches in Beijing. This fits into a broader strategy by the Peoples Republic of China to wield leverage over religious institutions, non profit groups, private industry and public office across the West to influence policy decisions, Cox said. Cox was joined by Pierucci, Burton, four other state lawmakers, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason, Spanish Fork Mayor Mike Mendenhall and Strider Executive Vice President Cooper Wimmer. Utahs anti-espionage industry Cooper Wimmer, executive vice president at Strider Technologies, right, shakes hands with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox after a press conference at a farm in Palmyra on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, about efforts to safeguard Utahs land, liberty and strategic interests from foreign influence. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News For the past two years, Utah has partnered with Strider, a nationally recognized intelligence firm based in South Jordan, to identify foreign influence operations in the state and to track down Chinese land ownership, Cox confirmed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The group specializes in using AI large language models to scour foreign databases to locate potential security threats, including spies, that adversarial nations have deployed to steal industry secrets or infiltrate U.S. government. Were involved with an asymmetric war with China where theyre using influence, theyre using the press, religion, theyre using media, Wimmer said. And with open source intelligence were able to understand what theyre doing. One of Striders expertise is breaking down the proprietary ownership of land or businesses to spot if the Chinese Communist Party has even a 1% golden share, which is enough to give the country control over company decisions. In recent years, multiple instances of Chinese operations have surfaced in Utah, including at least three Mandarin-speaking Utahns who were separately arrested and charged for attempting to deliver classified military materials and private intellectual property to Chinese counterparts. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Traditionally businesses and state governments did not have access to the kind of intelligence operations to spot espionage in international supply chains, and thats where Strider comes in, according to Strider CEO Greg Levesque. Taking action against Chinese actors at the state level will not only protect Utah semiconductor, aerospace and defense companies from being spied on, it will bolster state and national security interests, Levesque said. But there is more to be done at the government level, Levesque said. In 2023, Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney asked the U.S attorney general to address alleged Chinese intelligence center in Salt Lake City. I think the public needs to understand that nation states like China are mapping us out, Levesque told the Deseret News. Theyre trying to dissect our system, our economy, how it works, and then they deploy intelligence resources after that. The state is still working with federal partners to address these so-called shadow precincts in Salt Lake City, Cox said. While he couldnt share details the governor confirmed that we have had Chinese spies in Utah. Even as Utahs population grows and health care services expand throughout the state, experts are warning that a shortage of family or general practice doctors, including geriatricians, could spell serious trouble for the health of the states residents. The Beehive State also has a shortage of health care providers in other areas, as well, including a well-documented inadequate supply of nurses. Utah will need to grow health care capacity across the board, but especially in areas where we already fall short, said John Poelman, interim executive director of the One Utah Health Collaborative. Access to primary care, behavioral health and aging-related services are where we should prioritize expansion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Poelman and the collaborative have gathered numbers on provider-related shortages, noting that: Only 78.7% of Utah adults have a dedicated health care provider vs. 84% nationally, putting the state at No. 44 according to 2024 American Health rankings. Utah ranks 47th in primary care provider supply with 231.6 per 100,000 people, per American Health. (Meanwhile, Beckers Hospital Review put the number even lower, ranking Utah No. 49 with just 96 doctors per 100,000 people. Idaho had a half-doctor less, coming in last.) Nearly a third (32%) of Utahns seeking mental health care couldnt find the help they needed, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2022-2023. Utah ranks 38th for geriatric clinicians and 35th for home health workers both essential as our population ages, Poelman said, citing the American Health rankings 2025 senior report. Utah has 31 home health workers per 1,000 adults age 65+ years, based on that American Health report. Dr. King Udall, a family practice doctor in Salt Lake City for more than 50 years, believes Utahns are in the middle of a public health crisis fueled by an inadequate supply of certain providers, particularly those providing primary care. But like lobsters in a pot of water thats getting hotter and hotter, they dont realize whats happening or how dire the consequences will be. Others worry about that, too. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to build smarter and not just bigger, said Poelman, adding that his organization is among those pondering solutions. He said the state helped launch the One Utah Health Collaborative, bringing together hospitals, payers and providers to create a 15-year vision for an affordable, high-quality health system. He likens building a system that works for the long run to urban planning, but for health and well-being. A national dilemma The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis in November reported that better access to and use of primary care has been shown to improve treatment of chronic conditions and increase life expectancy. But the report noted shortages and maldistribution of primary care providers, low compensation compared to other health occupations, increasing burnout and job dissatisfaction and an aging workforce. It includes in its definition of a primary care workforce physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants. And the practice of primary care, the report said, includes family medicine, general pediatric medicine, general internal medicine and geriatric medicine. The health workforce analysis report said bluntly that people with better access to primary care live longer. It concluded: The importance of primary care cannot be overstated. Primary care is often the first contact a patient will have with the health care workforce and sets the trajectory for a positive or negative patient experience and outcome. A high-functioning primary care system treats illnesses and injuries before they become severe, provides ongoing care to mitigate chronic conditions, identifies when more specialized care is required and connects the patient with a clinician. When primary care does not function as intended, patient issues can compound and become increasingly more difficult to treat and resolve. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Association of American Medical Colleges projected last March that by 2036, the U.S. will have an 86,000-physician shortage. Between a quarter and half of that shortage is in general practice doctors. Population growth and aging are driving forces. But the fact that 1 in 5 physicians are 65 or older plays a substantial role, too. A similar number are ages 55 to 64. The workforce group analysis found that between 2016 and 2021, the primary care physician workforce increased less than 4%, while the specialties workforce increased almost 9%. The report called out an especially low number of geriatricians, who treat older adults even as the share of older adults quickly grows. The doctor pipeline Utah is home to a ton of excellent medical research, strong health care systems and excellent training grounds that are becoming even more robust with news that Brigham Young University will soon open a new medical school. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It will join the University of Utah Medical School, Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine and Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine. The University of Utah also has a physician assistant training program. Udall believes that Utahs medical schools old or new should increase their commitment to training physicians for primary care roles. Doctors in training are drawn, he believes, to practices that have a procedure code, where billing rates are higher, which means general practice medicine gets underemphasized. Hence a shortage, he said, of some types of medicine, including geriatricians and primary care providers, among others. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis reported the same thing. It noted, for instance, that the average family medicine doctor makes not quite half what the average orthopedics specialty doctor makes annually. The substantial gap in compensation between primary care physicians and specialist physicians may be one of the explanatory factors for medical students choosing residency in specialties other than primary care. Udall said that another reason for the emphasis on specialties rather than general practice may be that more research is done within specialties, which helps earn medical schools and their affiliated health systems accolades as top research facilities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He also believes that Utah needs more residencies for family practitioners. Those are typically funded by Medicare and the inadequate number available in Utah increases the chance that the medical residents who do choose a general practice will go elsewhere and probably stay there, he said. What lawmakers could do Udall notes that while the dearth of primary care doctors is a national one, some communities fare better than others. And some state legislatures are trying to solve the challenge of too-few general practitioners, as well. He would like to see Utah offer strong incentives to medical students to choose general practice fields and stay in Utah. KSL TV recently reported that other states do that: New York pays primary care physicians up to $120,000 over three years for sticking with primary care. Texas pays its new primary care physicians a total of $160,000 over four years. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Utah, primary care doctors can earn as much as $75,000 in student loan repayment over three years if they practice in rural or underserved communities. But Udall said that many urban communities dont fit those categories, though they dont have enough primary care doctors, either, while they do have more potential patients. Expensive ripple effects Dr. Randy Pilgrim, an emergency room doctor and chief medical officer for SCP Health, an emergency medicine provider working across 31 states, said health care shortages often lead to emergency department overload, especially for those lacking primary care. Emergency departments, he added, have become hubs for primary care, inpatient care, specialists, outpatient care, social services and mental health. Pilgrim said requirements that emergency departments take all who come in is coupled with a relative lack of primary care, insufficient to meet the patient care demands. Add in the unavailability of timely primary care if you cant get in during a family practices normal operational hours and emergency departments can be swamped, while financial resources to support them are not keeping up. Sometimes emergency departments fold. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A study by RAND found that emergency departments are under increasing strain for a lot of reasons, including reduced reimbursement from commercial and government-sponsored health plans. Pilgrim said stable funding and thoughtful health policy are important to prevent a crisis in emergency care, too. When RAND analyzed 50 million emergency department claims between 2018 and 2022, it found that in-network reimbursement had dropped more than 10%, out-of-network payments fell by almost half and uncompensated care climbed to almost $47 billion in 2020 alone. Money issues contribute to all kinds of care shortages, Deseret News was told. Nursing shortage no joke, either The Utah Governors Office of Economic Opportunity has reported that while nurses make up half the global health care workforce, over the next decade the worlds going to need 13 million new nurses to slow the growing shortage. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the U.S., that shortage has closed units, delayed surgeries and rationed care, that report said, noting that in 2022 the U.S. shortage was projected to be up to 450,000 nurses by 2025. It called Utahs existing shortage massive, with close to 3,000 job openings for registered nurses, based on a report from McKinsey, a consulting firm. To compound the problem, retirement age is nearing for 1 in 5 Utah nurses. Nursing shortages diminish patient safety and can lead to hospital and clinic closures, per the report. The Utah Health Care Association and the Utah Center for Assisted Living reported that Utah has fewer than seven nurses per 1,000 people, which is among the lowest in the nation. It, too, noted 3,000 unfilled registered nursing positions. That report also said that its hard to retain nurses in Utah: 52% of Utah nurses are considering leaving their job primarily due to insufficient staffing, work negatively affecting health and well-being, and inability to deliver quality care. UTICA, NY (WUTR/WFXV/WPNY) The Utica City School District has unveiled its plan to implement New York States upcoming bell-to-bell restriction on cell phones and other internet-enabled devices on Wednesday. The state enacted the ban at the end of the previous school year, and it will be fully implemented during the 2025-26 school year. The mandate is intended to support student learning, minimize distractions and promote a more focused school environment. In Utica, we recognize the importance of providing every student with a safe and welcoming learning space, one where they can focus on academics, engage with their peers, and develop socially and emotionally, Utica City School District Superintendent Dr. Christopher Spence said in a letter to families dated Wednesday, July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In the letter, the district laid out its procedures for the new mandate, which will be implemented beginning on the first day of school. These procedures include the following: All students in all grades will be required to turn in their internet-enabled devices upon their arrival at their respective schools. Students in grades 7-12 will turn in their devices upon entry to their respective schools. Devices for these students will be stored in designated, locked cabinets for the school day. Students in grades K-6 will turn in their devices upon arrival to their classrooms, where they will also be secured in locked storage. Devices for all students will be returned at the end of the day prior to dismissal. The procedures will apply to cell phones, smart watches, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. Dr. Spences letter also mentions revisions to the districts code of conduct for violators of the new policies. Punishments for violators are as follows: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement 1st Offense: Parents are notified, and the device is confiscated. 2nd Offense: Parents must pick up the offending device. 3rd Offense: Detention is assigned. 4th Offense and beyond: Additonal consequences as written in the Code of Conduct. Spence also mentioned that if an emergency arises, parents can reach their students through their respective schools main office. We understand that change takes time and adjustment, Spence said in the letter. Our staff will be working closely with students and families to ensure a smooth transition, and we appreciate your support and partnership as we implement this important statewide policy. The first day of school for the Utica City School District is Tuesday, September 2. You can read the full letter from Dr. Spence below: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cell-Phone-Policy-Download Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WUTR/WFXV - CNYhomepage.com. The White Houses effort to sell its signature legislation to America begins in full on Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance headed to northeastern Pennsylvania to tout the laws tax cuts and other economic benefits. Its the start of what is expected to be a sustained defense of the contentious legislation ahead of the fast-approaching midterms in which Democrats are eager to weaponize the laws least popular provisions to tarnish Republicans. The rally, the White Houses first major event highlighting the One Big, Beautiful Bill since Trump signed it on Independence Day, will be held at a manufacturing facility in West Pittston a Rust Belt city that ousted its longtime Democratic congressman and helped deliver the commonwealth for Trump last year. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its what a White House official described as the tip of the spear in the administrations efforts to highlight the politically popular pieces of the OBBB. The official, granted anonymity to describe internal strategy, said the White House is working on plans to deploy many messengers including Cabinet secretaries over the coming months in a sustained, government-wide effort to share the wins in the law. The legislation has something for everyone, and the messaging will reflect the audience, the official added. In Pennsylvania, Vance and Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler will attempt to sell the law to working-class voters whose abandonment of the Democratic party helped put Trump back in the White House with a GOP majority on the Hill. Vance plans to emphasize how the laws populist economic policy provisions will bolster the working class, including through eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and by incentivizing U.S. production, according to a person familiar with his plans granted anonymity to share them. The person added that Pennsylvania was chosen as the first rally because its a working-class state where Trump and Vances closing campaign pitch was made. Vance, ahead of the final vote, focused on the bills benefits to border enforcement, saying on social media that everything else in the bill was immaterial compared to the [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] money and immigration enforcement provisions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But as Democrats have homed in on the legislations cuts to Medicaid, which they say is a betrayal of Trumps promise to protect the working class voters who elected him, Republicans are keen to point out the laws more popular, and populist, benefits. The person familiar with Vances remarks noted that the vice president is still expected to highlight how the law is permanently fixing the Biden border crisis with the ICE funding boost and border wall funds. Trump has mostly touted the legislation as the biggest tax cut in the history of our country while slamming Democrats for not voting on it and name-dropping the handful of Republicans who spurned him. We had the most successful economy in the history of the country during my first term and we passed a bill but that bill honestly, as good as it was, was nothing compared to this one, Trump said Tuesday in Pittsburgh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He urged Republicans to talk about the legislations specifics. I say to people, Republicans, or anybody, explain the bill, because it's so big and so good, he said on Saturday on Fox News. The Democrats, they only do one thing good, and that's complain, and they say it's going to cause death, and this and that, they don't mean it, it's a sound bite. Vances rally is in one of the purplest areas in the country: Pennsylvanias eighth congressional district, where Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan narrowly unseated Democratic incumbent Matt Cartwright in November. Its also only about a dozen miles from Scranton, Joe Bidens hometown, which the former Democratic president often invoked to bolster his working-class background. Democrats in that part of the state are definitely working-class voters, and they're the quintessential type of voters that have come over to Trump over the past few cycles, said Joshua Novotney, a veteran Republican strategist in Pennsylvania. Vance is just trying to continue to message to them and make sure that they continue to vote that way and understand that the bill is not going to hurt them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But polling shows voters largely disapprove of the law and the party in the White House tends to lose vulnerable seats during the midterms, especially when the opposing party coalesces its messaging around contentious legislation. The Tea Party movement used Obamacare as a way to rally forces against Democrats who voted for it, and, in fact, against Democrats who didn't vote for it. Democrats this time will use the BBB probably in the same way, said former Rep. Chris Carney, a Democrat who represented a Pennsylvania swing district until he was voted out in 2010 following his vote for the Affordable Care Act. Novotney admitted it could be tough for Bresnahan to secure re-election next year and that Wednesdays rally could be an attempt to solidify those voters. Bresnahan said he plans to follow the presidents advice running for reelection on the accomplishments that are inside of this bill, including the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, an expanded child tax credit and benefits for manufacturing and small businesses. He noted that the White House had chosen a family-owned manufacturing facility for the rally because places like that form the backbone of America. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bresnahan said he had run in part on securing the southern border, adding, when you're talking a bill of this magnitude, national security and the border had to be a part of these conversations. And for Vance, a potential presidential candidate in 2028, these counties could prove decisive to his political fortunes. It's a great opportunity for him, and a showcase for him, and that never hurts, said Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based veteran Republican strategist. These opportunities through the years will build his brand and build his awareness, and all the things that you need to launch a presidential campaign. Officials announced Wednesday that charges have been filed against two former Ventura County Sheriffs deputies in connection with an off-duty bar fight that allegedly ended with one deputy assaulting his wife and both attacking a bouncer. According to the Ventura County District Attorneys Office, the altercation happened shortly after midnight on March 30 outside El Rey Cantina on Ventura Boulevard in Camarillo. The former deputies have been identified as Dylan Davis, 33, of Ventura, and Anthony Malagon, 27, of Camarillo. Jaiden Perkins who spoke with KTLA in May was working as a bouncer at the cantina when he noticed a woman crying hysterically at a back table with three men and another woman. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Surveillance video showed Davis allegedly pushing his wife multiple times inside the restaurant before walking away. The woman, still crying, returned to the table, where her friends appeared to comfort her. Perkins told KTLA he asked if the woman was OK, but she didnt respond and her friends assured him everything was fine. Not long after, the woman and her friends walked out of the bar and thats when Perkins said he heard shouting and commotion just outside the front door. When he stepped outside, Perkins allegedly saw Davis assaulting his wife near a sidewalk bench. Dylan Davis, 33, (white shirt) and Anthony Malagon, 27, are seen leaving the El Rey Cantina in Camarillo shortly before the violent altercation with the victim on March 30, 2025. (El Rey Cantina) Jaiden Perkins seen checking on Dylan Davis crying wife and her friends in the El Rey Cantina on March 30, 2025. (El Rey Cantina) Jaiden Perkins speaks to KTLA on May 27, 2025. (KTLA) The El Rey Cantina on Ventura Boulevard in Camarillo, California. (KTLA) Jaiden Perkins is seen in a personal photo. He shoved her down, Perkins recalled. She got back up and he just started choking her. I said, Hey man, you cannot be touching a lady like that, and he says, Ill f***ing kill you! and he swings left to the right side of my face. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Perkins said he swung back, and thats when the second deputy, Malagon, tackled him to the ground. Both men then allegedly kicked and stomped on his head. Davis and Malagon are accused of jointly assaulting a security guard who intervened after he witnessed Davis allegedly assault his wife, the District Attorneys Office said in a release. Davis is also accused of battering a female off-duty deputy who tried to restrain him during the altercation. Perkins was hospitalized after the incident and told KTLA he suffered a concussion and injuries to his head, jaw, arms, back and neck. Davis and Malagon are both charged with felony assault by means likely to cause great bodily injury. Davis also faces a separate felony charge of spousal battery and a misdemeanor battery charge. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The felony domestic violence and assault charges are particularly serious and reflect the outcome of a comprehensive investigation by the sheriff departments major crimes division, District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said in a statement. No one is above the law, and our office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring justice to all crime victims. Will Conybeare and Vivian Chow contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) A Trumbull County jury found a Warren man guilty of fourth-degree felony stalking, according to a news release from the Trumbull County Prosecutors Office. The verdict ended 48-year-old Leonel Browns one-day trial. Testimony was given by the 17-year-old victim, a worker at the Walmart in Bazetta, who testified Brown harassed her continually which culminated with a confrontation Sept. 20, 2023, in which customers had to come to the teens aid, according to the release. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Brown testified in his defense prior to the jurors making the decision after less than one hour of deliberation. Testimony was also given by two of the teens fellow Walmart employees. Judge Sean OBrien continued Browns bond, ordering a background investigation and psychological evaluation prior to sentencing. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. Vermont was named the best state for quality of life by CNBC for the fifth year in a row, according to a Monday release from the news outlet. Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, Connecticut, Hawaii, North Dakota, Massachusetts, Nebraska and Virginia also made the top 10 list for a high quality of life. But the Green Mountain state outscored them all and received an A plus rating for its living standards, which earned a score of 228 out of 265 Points. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Researchers found strong pull factors for the state include its inclusiveness, health, air quality, low crime rate and reproductive rights. Vermont state laws are inclusive and welcoming. The state offers broad protections against discrimination of all kinds, CNBC reported. No state is more protective of reproductive rights than Vermont, which in 2022 became the first state to enshrine them in its constitution, they added. The report found no real weaknesses in Vermonts rankings for quality of life issues, and complimented it for its smooth voting process with 45 days of early voting offered in person and by mail. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The CNBC findings were concluded during its annual project that lists the top states for business. While Vermont received high rankings for its quality of life, it scored low in infrastructure and access to capital. Vermonts unemployment rate sits at 2.6 percent with a population of approximately 648,493. The top corporate tax rate is 8.5 percent and top individual income tax rate is 8.75 percent. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. VERMONT (ABC22/FOX44) The Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission (VTRC) invites anyone interested to attend any of five community sessions designed to identify what the state can do to repair the damage caused by institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination. The sessions are targeted at people who are part of specific disadvantaged groups, but all are welcome to attend and listen. Native Americans, people with disabilities, Black Americans and other people of color, and people with mixed ethnic or racial heritage including French-Canadians are listed in Act 128, which established the VTRC, as groups that have experienced legal discrimination in the past. The VTRC voted to add children as an additional group to focus on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New book outlines Vermonts history of eugenics The commissioners said nobody who attends will be required to speak, but all kinds of participation are helpful. Your presence is powerful. By showing up, listening deeply, and sharing what you have learned, you help build a culture of care, truth, and repair in Vermont. The five sessions will take place on Saturdays starting in August. Each session has a different focus that will help guide the topics discussed. August 2, 2025 St. Johnsbury Academy: Community and Relationships August 16, 2025 Landmark College, Putney: Mobility and Access September 6, 2025 U32 High School, East Montpelier: Health and Wellbeing October 4, 2025 Winooski High School: Land and Resources October 25, 2025 Rutland High School: Spiritual and Cultural Identity Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of the sessions will be from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., except for the September 6 session in East Montpelier, which will end at 2:00 p.m. The VTRC says that all events will include a quiet room for rest and reflection, as well as snacks and water. Support for accessibility needs and speakers of other languages will be available if requested in advance. Registration is encouraged but not required attending as a witness is free. Governor Scott proclaims May 11-18 as inclusion week These community sessions are part of a process which will result in a final report with recommendations on how to address the harm identified, which will come out by April 2027. Anyone with questions is welcome to email vtrc@vermont.gov. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC22 & FOX44. TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) Veteran Health Indiana is hosting a Veterans Benefits and Resource Fair at the Terre Haute VA Clinic. Representatives with Veteran Health Indiana will be on site to answer questions on multiple topics, ranging from VA health care services, benefits, resources, health care eligibility, enrollment, and PACT Act benefits. Representatives with the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs and County Veteran Service Officers will also be attending the fair to assist Veterans with VA disability claims questions, claim processing, and to provide information about federal and state veteran benefits and resources. Indiana veterans gain easier access to financial aid benefits Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The fair will also have toxic exposure screenings on site for those who are already enrolled in VA health care. You will also be able to get help with MyhealtheVet, mental health services, womens health services, and more. The event is being held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on July 19. The Terre Haute VA Clinic is located at 5080 Bill Farr Drive. All Veterans and their families are invited to attend the fair, and Veterans are advised to bring a copy of their DD-214. For more information about the event or Veteran Health Indiana, you can contact their public affairs at 317-988-3497 or email indpao-media@va.gov. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to MyWabashValley.com. MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) Kyle Killinger, a veteran and founder of the Because Hes My Brother run, who served in the United States Marine Corps from 2007 to 2009, is lacing up his shoes for a 300-mile journey from the U.S.S. Yorktown in Mount Pleasant to Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. During the fourth day of his trek, Killinger passed through Warbird Park in Myrtle Beachs Market Common. The journey supports awareness for veteran suicide and PTSD. Killinger said he began running in 2014 after discovered that 22 veterans commit suicide every year and he was nearly one of them. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its just something thats near and dear to me, because being a survivor myself and losing more than I can count: Friends, brothers, people I served with, I just want to let people know that its not the right answer, he said. Killingers run captured the interest of veteran support organizations like Save 22, 22 2 None, and the Blue Star Mothers through a Facebook Video he posted in Utah during his very first outing. He said he truly felt changed after a 2021 run from San Diego to Washington D.C, after stopping in the Grand Canyon. It was a 180 in my life. Ive been for four and a half years sober now, he said. There are no words, but Im a totally different person than I was ten years ago, said Killinger. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Aileen ORourke, a member of the Blue Star Mothers, joined Killinger on a portion of his run through Myrtle Beach. With a son in the Army, she says she knows how important caring for veterans is. Veterans are not treated the way theyre supposed to be treated, and their emotional needs arent usually tended to. And one day, you know, when my son gets out of the army, hes going to be in that same boat, and having someone like him stand up for our veterans is very important to everybody, she said. So, if I can play a little part in that, it means a lot to me, said ORourke. Killinger urges any veteran who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide or PTSD, to call someone and reach out. Ive learned that my story is not over. Your story is not over. Anybody thats struggling, theyre here for a reason, he said. Its not about the miles. Its about the mission and the cause for it, Killinger said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement You can follow Killingers 300-mile journey via the Because Hes My Brother Facebook page, where he posts updates, livestreams, and more. * * * Katie Harrill joined the News13 team as a multimedia journalist in June 2025. She is a native of Cumming, Georgia, and graduated from the University of Georgia in December 2024. You can keep up with Katie on Facebook, X, (formerly Twitter), or Instagram and read more of her work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WBTW. With detailed analysis of its gathered data and insights from top achieving companies, Vibrant Pittsburgh presented a holistic view of the state of diversity, equity and inclusion among local employers and companies during a webinar on Tuesday. The webinar was Vibrant Pittsburghs annual Report to the Region, breaking down its most recent Vibrant Index, a data-based report that shows how local companies are working toward creating more inclusive workplaces. Overall, Vibrant Index 6.0 evaluated 60 participating employers and companies comprising over 93,000 employees in the region. Participating companies represented 18 different industries. The index identified eight of those employers as Vibrant Champions, who scored at or above the 95th percentile in at least seven out of the nine pillar areas of the index. The Vibrant Champions identified in this years index include: Achieva, Aires, Community College of Allegheny County, Schell Games, UPMC, Womens Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, YWCA and one employer that chose to not be publicly recognized. Click here to read more from our partners at the Pittsburgh Business Times. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW Victim did everything right: Terrifying near-kidnapping caught on video in Florida, deputies say Deputies say a woman was nearly kidnapped from her job and the frightening moments were all caught on video. It happened in broad daylight on June 29 in St. Augustine. Around 3:30 p.m., deputies responded to a 911 call about a man who was trying to force a woman into a vehicle outside of a business. St. Johns County Sheriffs Office said the man had just robbed the 206 Smoke Shop on State Road 206 East. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Investigators said he then forced a female employee from the store, dragged her outside, and tried to push her into his pickup truck. Video shows the woman struggling and screaming as the man has her in an apparent chokehold near the truck. The video below may be difficult to watch, viewer discretion is advised. Deputies said the victim fought her attacker and attracted the attention of a nearby citizen. They said the witness called 911, causing the suspect to stop his kidnapping attempt and drive off. SJSO said officers with Florida Fish and Wildlife soon spotted the suspect driving recklessly along Highway A1A near Marineland. Despite his attempts to get away, the FWC officers were able to capture the suspect, sheriffs investigators said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials have identified him as 31-year-old Theodore Michael Tundidor. Sheriff's investigators said Tundidor robbed a St. Augustine business and then tried to kidnap an employee. SJSO detectives have charged him with kidnapping, robbery, and grand theft auto. FWC has also charged Tundidor with driving under the influence and fleeing and eluding law enforcement. The victim in this situation did everything right scream/yell, fight, attract attention," SJSO shared on social media. . On Sunday, June 29, 2025, at approximately 3:30pm, deputies were dispatched to a business at 1054 SR 206 East. A 911 caller advised a male subject was attempting to force a pic.twitter.com/5IcpJRWIIw St. Johns County Sheriff's Office (@TeamSJSO) July 15, 2025 Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) The man who died after being shot on Orange Street in Springfield has been identified. Foundation for TJO Animals receives $185K grant for spay/neuter program The Hampden County District Attorneys Office states that on Friday at approximately 10:30 p.m., officers were sent to an apartment on the 200 block of Orange Street for a report of a gunshot victim. When officers arrived, they found two men with gunshot wounds inside the apartment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Both men were taken to Baystate Medical Center. The first man, 54-year-old Eric Wilson of Springfield, had serious injuries, which led to his death on Sunday. The second man had minor injuries. The Springfield Police Homicide Unit is investigating the shooting along with the Hampden County District Attorneys Offices Murder Unit. If anyone has information, call Springfield Police Detectives at 413-787-6355 or anonymously Text-A-Tip. Text CRIMES (2-7-4-6-3-7), type SOLVE, and your tip. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP. Hubbard Peanut Co. affectionately known as Hubs Peanuts has moved into its third generation of family leadership. Marshall Rabil, grandson of company founders Dorothy Dot and H.J. Hubbard, took over as president and CEO on June 1. He follows in the footsteps of his mother, Lynne Hubbard Rabil, who held the position for more than three decades. Sedley-based Hubs sells its products in hundreds of markets throughout the country and ships worldwide. Marshall Rabil said folks can debate which regions of the world have the better wines, oysters or hams, but he believes it is inarguable where the best peanuts are grown. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Growing up in Franklin and Southampton County, peanuts are a big part of our culture and a big part of our identity here, he said. So, peanuts and this business were always on my mind. As a youngster, he worked seasonally on the production line, answered customer service calls and participated in trade shows before heading off to college to become a teacher. Eager to travel and see the world, Rabil worked with Japans Ministry of Education for a couple of years and then for two more years led college students on study abroad trips to India, East Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. Those experiences helped Rabil to see that business especially Hubs Peanuts in terms of combating food insecurity and malnutrition can be a catalyst for social change in communities. That food for thought led Hubs Peanuts to develop its partnership in 2020 with the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia and the Eastern Shore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We sell a product thats very healthy; its good for you and its good for the environment, he said. The seeds for the succession plan were planted in 2016 when Rabil moved back to Franklin, eager to grow the sales and marketing aspects of the company. In 2019, the mother and son developed a strategic plan to expand operations, which led to the purchase of a former Farm Fresh supermarket on Armory Drive in Franklin. In the fall of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic that converted space opened as The Hubs Vine, a restaurant and retail marketplace. More growth followed with a new software system, a new chocolate-covered peanuts line and new key hires. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With all those elements in place, Rabil said his mother, 71, was ready to take a step back and pass the torch though she still works as an executive adviser. Hubbard Rabil was born the year before her late parents started the family-owned and operated business in the kitchen of their five-room home in Sedley in 1954. Dot and H.J. Hubbard developed a unique way to cook peanuts on equipment they designed. The peanuts grown on her fathers farm were packaged in lithograph metal cans for shipment. That home was later converted into the companys headquarters, complete with a warehouse. The same space that served as Hubbard Rabils office was once the childhood bedroom she shared with her younger twin sisters. And she said in a news release that she is excited about the next chapter. I am confident that Marshall will maintain the ethos that our parents carefully developed and that our family has worked to nurture through these years, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As for his grandparents, Rabil said he imagines they would be very happy and proud that their legacy continues. Im honored and excited, he said. Weve got a wonderful team in place of 40 full-time employees that can help us continue to grow their vision and put the best peanuts we can out across the country. Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) The Virginia Beach Fire Marshals Office is asking for the publics help in locating those responsible for an illegal fireworks display at the Oceanfront. According to officials, on July 4 around 9 p.m., Fire Marshals were dispatched to 45th Street in the North End section of the city for reports of a significant illegal fireworks display. Upon arrival to the scene, the show was still underway. Fire Marshals said several of the fireworks malfunctioned, causing large-diameter mortars to discharge by nearby spectators. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A neighbor said she was at 45th Street and Atlantic Avenue when she saw the Fire Marshals arrive. They were not too close to us, the neighbor said. We saw them drive up, investigated what was happening. There didnt appear to be anyone in charge of the fireworks, and they were covering them up with sand so there was not any fire. Marshals noted a safety perimeter was not set up during the display. We went out there a little early to see the citys fireworks, but there were already fireworks going on, said the neighbor. We went to the entrance of 45th Street and Oceanfront, and there were two sets of fireworks on the beach. One that was a neighbor, and the other one had a remote setup, so no one was out there. They just had a bunch going off. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Following the display, investigators were able to collect the following from the scene: 96 two-inch mortar tubes Eight boxes of flaming balls (36 shots each) 18 freestanding mortar tubes (two-inch diameter) A remote-controlled firing system (app-operated) Additional assorted fireworks Evidence found after illegal firework display in Virginia Beach (Courtesy: VBFD) Evidence found after illegal firework display in Virginia Beach (Courtesy: VBFD) Evidence found after illegal firework display in Virginia Beach (Courtesy: VBFD) Evidence found after illegal firework display in Virginia Beach (Courtesy: VBFD) They were quite extravagant towards the end, the neighbor said. They started coming a little sideways, and we actually got up and moved, and thats when the Fire Marshals showed up. The neighbor admitted she did think it was an illegal fireworks display. Oh yes. Usually, the city sets them off and thats why we go out there. Then, sometimes after the city is done, the neighbors will set off theirs, and we usually come back after the city is done because they arent as well controlled at the home, the neighbor said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Fire Marshals were additionally called to investigate several other illegal displays, including at 48th, 52nd, 54th and 62nd Streets, as well as at Croatan Beach. Officials said that active fires and unexploded fireworks were found at these locations, posing a potential danger for unsuspecting bystanders. Anyone with any information on any of these illegal firework displays are asked to contact the Virginia Beach Fire Prevention Bureau by phone at 757-385-4228 or by email at VBFMO@vbgov.com. Continue to check WAVY.com for updates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WAVY.com. Planning a trip to Malaga this summer? The southern Spanish city has a message for you. Or, rather, 10 of them. Dress completely and do not be conspicuous stand at the top of the list of golden rules just released by the city. They are all part of Malagas Improve Your Stay campaign. First launched last summer, the updated tourist behaviour campaign aims to curb the antics of certain unruly visitors. What are Malagas new rules? The list of 10 strongly suggested rules, now displayed on buses, billboards and social media, is designed to ease tensions between tourists and residents, many of whom feel the city has reached a breaking point. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The campaign asks visitors to keep noise down, especially at night; avoid shouting or blaring music in residential areas; and use designated bins and toilets. Scooters and bicycles are banned from pedestrian areas, while skimpy outfits and bare skin are discouraged anywhere off the beach. Related Last year, the city upped fines for infractions such as littering, excessive noise and public drunkenness to 750. But while Malaga is encouraging visitors to tidy up their behaviour, many locals believe the issues run deeper than etiquette. Tourism backlash grows across Spain Spain is facing a wider reckoning with mass tourism. From Barcelona to the Balearic Islands, residents have been staging protests against soaring rent, housing shortages, overcrowding and the environmental toll of unchecked visitor numbers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Malaga last year, demonstrators plastered the city with anti-tourism stickers bearing messages like this used to be my home, among other less polite sentiments. Similar protests erupted in San Sebastian, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife and Seville throughout 2024, and the movement has shown no signs of slowing down in 2025. In March and April, fresh demonstrations broke out across the country ahead of the busy Easter season. Locals called for caps on cruise ships, restrictions on short-term rentals and a more sustainable model of tourism that puts residents first. Related Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New regulations have begun to reflect these concerns. Earlier this year, Spains Supreme Court upheld an order in Catalonia to remove nearly 66,000 illegal tourist listings from Airbnb and other platforms. In the Balearic Islands, stricter controls on alcohol consumption and party boats have been introduced to curb excessive behaviour. Meanwhile, Barcelona has announced plans to completely phase out short-term tourist apartments by 2028, returning thousands of properties to the long-term rental market. Tourism is welcome in Spain, but pay attention to rules While tourism remains a vital part of Spains economy, the message from many Spanish cities this summer is clear: visitors are welcome, but not at any cost. Whether you're headed to Malaga, Madrid or Mallorca, expect more rules, steeper fines and less tolerance for disruptive behaviour. Travellers should keep an eye on local guidelines, respect residents space and, above all, travel consciously. Or as Malagas posters put it, dont be conspicuous. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) Many organizations supporting the Fishers Fire District are releasing statements ahead of a meeting Wednesday for the possible dissolution of the entity. The reasoning behind the push from the Board of Fire Commissioners to dissolve is rooted in tax costs for the professional firefighter service. If the plan does go through, the Town of Victor would be responsible for securing protection for the gap in the district. News 8 spoke with the Victor town supervisor last week about the plan in place should the Fishers Fire District go away. He said the town is working with partnering agencies. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Victor town supervisor shares plan for fire, EMS, asks for more time if Fishers dissolves Town Supervisor Jack Marren also sent a letter to the Board of Commissioners asking for more time. If the vote favors in dissolving the fire district, it would do so at the end of August. Town leaders are asking for an extension to the end of December. Ahead of Wednesdays meeting and expected vote, Fishers Fire District Assistant Chief Michael Koch released a statement Tuesday evening, stating for the past few weeks, he has been fearing the devastating impact that will be imposed upon [the] community. FULL STATEMENT FROM ASSISTANT CHIEF MICHAEL KOCH: For the past several weeks, I have been fearing the devastating impact that will be imposed upon our community if the fire commissioners take an action that will eliminate our current emergency response services. Despite the concerns regarding the obvious vulnerability and associated life-threatening consequences that have been expressed countless times by operational staff, as well as District citizens and businesses, the fire commissioners appear to be prepared to demonstrate a gross error in judgement. The vision, view and actions of the commissioners, sworn public officials, has been at best obscured, and more accurately completely steered, by an agenda that is not in line with public safety interests, but rather some other motivation or priority. This decision is nothing other than reckless and is not about an allocation of resources, but rather a grievance. When those privileged to serve and protect the communitys well-being abuse their authority and abdicate their responsibility, they should resign as they are no longer able to execute sensible judgment. My perspective is an informed one. As a chief officer serving our community, I know that any one of the more the 1,300 calls for service represent an important need; those needs are all treated with urgency. While I am a member of the volunteer cadre myself, the ability to respond with anything less than what we currently provide as a career combination department, carries the very real likelihood that responses will be operationally delayed, tactically flawed, or technically inadequate. While a volunteers responsibility to provide this critical community service reflects a sustained love for their neighbors there is an unvarnished truth: in the absence of full-time career fire fighters in the Fishers Fire District, we will not be safer, we will be compromised. A vote in favor of dissolution of the Fishers Fire District shows lack of transparency and abandonment of logic. If this is the planned action of the commissioners they should stand down, as they have walked away from their post. Assistant Chief Michael Koch, Fishers Fire District The Board of Commissioners for the Fishers Fire District also released a statement Tuesday, saying the district is financially stable now, but rising long-term costsespecially retiree healthcarecould make it unsustainable without major tax hikes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Board said it has explored consolidation and cost-saving options but says past efforts have been blocked, and it wants to clarify that emergency services will still be provided if the district dissolves. FULL STATEMENT FROM THE FISHERS FIRE DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: The Board of Commissioners of the Fishers Fire District would like to provide clarity regarding the rationale behind the potential dissolution of the District, as well as address related concerns. First and foremost, we wish to emphasize that the Fishers Fire District is currently in a strong financial position. Our District currently maintains robust reserves, healthy cash balances, has zero debt, and upholds a tradition of disciplined budget management. We undergo annual independent audits, and all audit reports are available to the public on our website. The rationale cited for a potential dissolution is future financial instability, and it isas stateda future concern. This concern relates to anticipated future costs and the increase in taxes that would be required to sustain this District as currently structured and operated. Note that as a taxing authority, the District does have the ability to raise taxes to meet future needs, potentially even doubling them in any given year if necessary. However, in prior public meetings residents have expressed that past and potential future tax increases are not sustainable for our small community. As a Board, we have a responsibility to respond to residents concerns. In so doing, we have considered numerous District records, including: Financial background and comparisons The Town of Victor has two fire districts, the Fishers District and Victor District. Over the last 10 years, the Fishers Fire District tax levy has more than tripled: moving from $1.6 million in 2015 to $5.3 million in 2025. This reflects staffing of 26 full-time firefighters and others. In 2025, a $400k house in the Fishers Fire District would pay $1,439 a year in fire taxes. A similar home in the Victor Fire District would pay $636 a year. The Victor Fire District budget is $1.6 million, with 3 full-time firefighters. The City of Canandaigua Fire Department budget is $3.7 Million for 2025. This includes 20 full-time firefighters who cover the entire City and a portion of the town. Although not exact comparisons, it begs the question of why Fishers costs are so high. Looking ahead at future costs Although difficult to predict future costs, if the District continues to operate as currently structured, the tax levy is projected to triple again within 15 years. The District will also be responsible for providing healthcare coverage for all future retirees and their families. For each of our 26 positions, the district could be paying healthcare costs for both current employees and multiple sets of retirees as firefighters can retire after 20 years with lifetime healthcare for themselves and their families. In the next several years, the district will begin incurring permanent obligations that will lead to annual retiree healthcare expenses that will exceed $5 million per year an amount that would double our current tax burden, even before accounting for other rising costs. A question of fairness The Town of Victor has a contract with Victor Farmington Ambulance to provide Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for the entire town. The costs for these services are already included in the town tax paid by residents of both the Fishers and Victor Districts. We have requested that an ambulance be stationed at one of our stations, or on the north side of Victor, to help ensure similar response times across the entire town. It is also worth noting that Fishers residents pay the costs to provide EMS support for the Eastview Mall and the Route 96 retail corridor, even though all of Victorand even Ontario Countybenefit from the sales tax revenue generated there. We believe there is a cost-effective and equitable solution for the Town of Victor and Victor Farmington Ambulance to address these EMS concerns in the near term. This should be funded through a Town of Victor and Ontario County cost-sharing approach as discussed with the Town Supervisor. Board actions Given the above, the current Board of Commissioners has explored numerous options, including consolidation and cost reductions, to avoid potentially dissolving the District. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although a previous Fishers Board rejected a merger with Victor in 2018, this Board has strongly supported efforts to combine our district with others in order to share our high service levels, reduce overlapping equipment needs and spread costs over a larger area. Specifically: We have approached the Victor Fire District twice over the past two years, but requests for discussions with two different Board Chairmen have been rejected. We actively participated in a regional merger attempt with Mendon and Honeoye Falls. Despite our support for consolidation, this effort was not successful. From a cost perspective, this Board has been very diligent throughout the budget cycle and thoroughly reviews all proposed expenses. One of our key challenges is the high cost structure associated with the current organization and operation of the department. We have attempted to address this issue in previous discussions, including as recently as June 11, 2025, but our efforts have been declined. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We believe it is important for all stakeholders to understand the background and rationale that has brought the Fishers Fire Board of Commissioners to this point. The District wishes to address misinformation that is being shared with residents: It is falsely being stated that 911 calls will go unanswered. The Town of Victor has a plan in development to ensure Fire and Rescue coverage is maintained district wide as is required by NY State law. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is not going away. Residents within the District will continue to receive services through the Town of Victor contract with Victor Farmington Ambulance, which the residents pay for as part of their Town taxes. The District is in strong financial condition, with reserves, cash balances and zero debt. The District is independently audited with the results publicly available. Firefighters have not been prevented from going to EMS calls when requested by Victor Farmington Ambulance or other agencies seeking mutual aid. The only change is that we no longer automatically respond to low priority EMS calls when VFA also responds. The Board did not receive any offers by the Union to address staffing levels in 2023 All Commissioners are residents and taxpayers in the Fishers Fire District. Ontario County Sheriff David Cirencione also weighed in on the conversation, expressing concern and highlighting the experience of the firefighters and officers that respond to calls. FULL STATEMENT FROM ONTARIO COUNTY SHERIFF DAVID CIRENCIONE: I am writing to express my concern regarding the proposed August 31, 2025, dissolution of the Fishers Fire District. The Fishers Fire District encompasses one of the most heavily populated and traveled areas of our county. The population of this district swells even more during business hours when retail locations, factories, corporations and other establishments are open and in operation. Approximately ten million shoppers visit Eastview Mall annually and this is just one destination point within the Fishers Fire District. The firefighters and officers of the Fishers Fire District have long proven themselves to be dedicated professionals. They respond to emergency calls with our deputies on a regular basis and I hear time and time again, how helpful and instrumental the firefighters are in rendering aid and mitigating life threatening incidents. Earlier this month, our deputies responded to a residence in the Fishers Fire District where a member of the household sustained severe lacerations to his body leading to significant blood loss. Firefighters arrived on scene four minutes before the ambulance and initiated lifesaving care by assisting in stopping the blood loss while administering oxygen. Despite going into cardiac arrest at one point, this resident is now expected to make a full recovery. I am certain the early life saving care provided by Fishers firefighters played a crucial role in this mans positive outcome. This is just one example of how the firefighters in this district enhance the safety of its residents. They respond to dozens of calls every week where their timely response results in favorable outcomes. I would ask you to consider the impact on public safety that a complete dissolution of the Fishers Fire District would have on the residents before you act on this proposal. Sheriff David Cirencione, Ontario County Sheriffs Office Fingers Lake Ambulance released a statement in support for the Fishers Fire District to continue, and are voicing serious concern regarding any proposal to dissolve this essential agency. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement FINGERS-LAKE-AMBULANCE-STATEMENTDownload The public hearing takes place Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m. at 380 High Street in Victor. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. NEOSHO, Mo. A nonpartisan organization, VOTE417, is calling on Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe to take action to fill vacant positions in the Missouri House of Representatives, including one in Southwest Missouri. In District 160, which encompasses much of Newton County, including Neosho, the seat is open after Rep. Ben Baker resigned to accept appointment to lead Missouri operations of the U.S. Department of Agricultures Rural Development. A seat in District 95 has been open since late January when Rep. Michael ODonnell, R-Oakville, resigned from the Missouri House after being sworn in to become the states commissioner of securities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Angela Thomas, Democratic chairman in Newton County, had asked after Bakers resignation that the governor appoint a successor or call a special election to fill both seats. Thomas said there are state funds allocated to hold special elections for legislative seats. Jacob Brower, spokesman for VOTE417, issued a statement in which he said that the organizations members are dismayed by the continued lack of representation for Missouri voters including those right here in Southwest Missouri. Brower called for the governor to promptly schedule a special election to fill Bakers former House seat. Our Constitution is clear. These vacancies are to be filled without delay, said Dennis Pyle, president of VOTE417, in a statement issued by the organization. Waiting until 2026 denies the people of Missouri the representation they are entitled to. Thats not the Missouri Way. Kehoes office did not respond to requests for comment. Both Baker and ODonnell are Republicans. Medical Watch Digest for July 16 Walk faster for better health outcomes Walk faster, feel better. All it takes is 14 steps per minute. By increasing walking pace, older adults experienced significant, clinical improvements in aerobic capacity and endurance. Univeristy of Chicago Medical Center doctors say walking faster can reverse frailty which renders older adults more vulnerable to falls and hospitalization. Each person begins by walking at their normal pace, then increasing the pace by 14 steps faster per minute. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Doctors say it will lead to meaningful improvements in physical function, especially in older adults considered frail. More Coverage: WGNs Medical Watch Extreme obesity more common A growing problems among children is threatening their future. The Journal of the American Medical Assocaition reports extremely severe obesity is becoming more common. A study of more than 25,000 children and adolescents showed the increase in weight associated with metabolic complications, liver disease, prediabetes, diabetes and insulin resistance and high blood pressure. Doctors say based on these results they believe urgent public health interventions are necessary to address pediatric obesity, helping young people lose weight and improve their overall health. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Up until now, data has been scarce on the prevalence of extremely severe obesity in childhood. Boosting blood flow to battle brain disease. University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers say they made a discovery to improve conditions for those with neuro degenerative diseases. Boosting blood flow improves brain disease Immune cells called microglia play a role in opening pathways for good blood flow to nourish the brain. Improving microglia function could help enhance critical blood flow to prevent or reverse Alzheimers, vascular dementia and even Parkinsons Disease. Discovering the importance of microglia for brain blood flow and blood vessel function, doctors say they have created a cellular target to change disease progression and memory function. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sign up for our Medical Watch newsletter. This daily update includes important information from WGNs Dina Bair and the Med Watch team, including, the latest updates from health organizations, in-depth reporting on advancements in medical technology and treatments, as well as personal features related to people in the medical field. Sign up here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WGN-TV. AUSTIN (KXAN) As many residents work to rebuild after devastating floods ripped through Central Texas, roughly 100 others painstakingly wait for closure, as their loved ones remain missing. Sherry McCutcheon had already learned her mother and brother are among those found dead. Another brother, Gary, is still missing. Sherry McCutcheon and her sister, Terry Traugott, at their moms home in western Travis County. Three family members were swept away in the floods from here (KXAN Photo/ Sam Stark) We want our brother back. We got to send them all to heaven together, McCutcheon said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Texas Governor Greg Abbott visited the Big Sandy Creek area in western Travis County Monday, the area where McCutcheons family was swept away. He stressed the importance of bringing closure to families like hers, but also said the identification process can take time. Sometimes it does require using DNA testing to identify who they are and identify who their family is to make sure that we identify who their family issometimes that takes a few days to complete that process, Abbott said. Travis County search continues Three people are still missing in Travis County. Specialized teams from Tuscaloosa, Alabama searched Wednesday near Jones Brothers Park in Jonestown, Texas, helping Travis Countys search for those still missing. Crews from all over the country helped Texas counties with that work. Search crews from Alabama in Travis County as three people remain missing following devastating floods (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) Near the mouth of Lake Travis, two creeks Big Sandy Creek and Cow Creek both need to be searched all the way to the lake. Thats happening by foot, boat and air. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We have to do each side of the creek several times to make sure that theyre finding everything there. And then its two of those creeks, Travis County Judge Andy Brown said. Those creeks are each about 20 miles long, so the county urged patience as those specially trained crews check, and double check, for anyone who may still be in the rubble. If youre up in the neighborhood you would not see these teams here but the fact is that because of the way the flood worked, a lot of the things that were in the neighborhood got washed all the way down here to the lake so they have to search that entire area, Brown said. Sections of Lake Travis, including upstream of Sandy Creek Park, have been closed to recreational activities as a result of that search effort. Travis County Judge Andy Brown out with TCSO near Jones Brothers Park (KXAN photo/Grace Reader) Thats really to let these search teams do what they need to do, they have found some things in this area pretty close to the lake. And also theres still a debris field that hasnt yet gone into the lake. We are hoping that we can get that debris cleared out after the search teams are done, Brown said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) If you ever have dreamed of being a tavern keeper, Fairfax County is offering people the opportunity. No, no. You wont be running one. Instead, youll be helping to preserve a piece of county history. The Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) said it is accepting applications for its Resident Curator Program, which offers long-term lease agreements to tenants without charge. In exchange, qualified candidates who are accepted into the program make a financial commitment and agree to follow approved rehabilitation measures in order to preserve FCPAs underutilized historic properties. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peppa Pig in Tysons brings immersive adventure for children, families As of July 10, people could submit applications for two taverns in the county. Dranesville Tavern in Fairfax County, Va. (Fairfax County Park Authority) Heres a brief about Dranesville Tavern, as it appears on Fairfax Countys website: The Dranesville Tavern is one of the few remaining examples of a rural Virginia inn or ordinary. Built at the intersection of two major roads (Georgetown Pike and Alexandria Leesburg Pike), it served travelers moving through the region. Built in 1823 by Stanford Cockerille, it originally consisted of two two-story log structures connected by a dogtrot. The inn changed hands over the years with various owners adding onto the original structure. The tavern remained open to the public until 1946, and to boarders until 1968. In the 1970s, the tavern was threatened by the expansion of Route 7 until the Park Authority purchased it and moved it 135 feet away from its original location. Fairfax Arms in Fairfax County, Va. (Fairfax County Park Authority) Heres a description of Fairfax Arms, as it appears on Farifax Countys website: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Fairfax Arms tavern was constructed in the 1750s and is the only surviving original building from the town of Old Colchester. Its owner Benjamin Grayson bought the lot and converted the dwelling into an operating tavern. It is believed that one of the upper rooms would have served as a living space for the innkeepers family, as well as female guests, while the men slept in a communal space. Fairfax Arms served Colchester and its residents until the early 1800s, when it became a residential dwelling. Improvements were made to the house over the years with much of the integrity of the original 18th century building preserved. In the 1980s, the current owners added a large addition to the northeast side of the building that included, among other things, a modern kitchen. The building is listed under both the National Register of Historic Places and the Fairfax Inventory of Historic sites. Ready to live in a tavern and help protect a little history? Heres the place to apply and get more information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. Jul. 15A Clermont County man is accused of causing a man to suffer a fractured skull and brain bleed in May while they were Warren County Jail inmates. Edward Allen Moore, 34, of Williamsburg, was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Warren County Common Pleas Court following his indictment by a county grand jury for felonious assault. "On May 7, 2025, at the Warren County Jail, defendant caused serious physical harm to another inmate," the grand jury report stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the time of the assault, Moore was jailed following a misdemeanor theft conviction in Mason Municipal Court. During the alleged assault on May 7, Moore reportedly punched the victim in the face. The other man fell to the ground and hit his head on the concrete pavement, according to the criminal complaint filed in Lebanon Municipal Court. The victim suffered a fractured skull, brain bleed and swelling to his brain, court records said. PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) A judge in Washington granted an emergency order on Monday to stop the deportation of a Portland family, including four children who were detained without cause, according to an Oregon congresswoman. The case stems from June 28, when Kenia Jackeline Merlos, her nine-year-old triplets and seven-year-old son were traveling from their home in Portland to Peace Arch State Park at the U.S.-Canada border to see relatives, according to Merlos lawyer and family friends. Because Merlos had pending immigration documents that were not finalized by the government, federal agents took the family into custody at a Customs and Border Patrol facility north of Bellingham, where they were unable to seek legal counsel, according to Congresswoman Maxine Dexter (OR-03) who attempted to visit the family earlier this month. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement DONT MISS: Our client is now home: Lawyers successfully petition release of man detained by ICE On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Tana Lin in Seattle granted an emergency temporary restraining order preventing U.S. Customs and Border Protection from moving the Merlos family from the courts jurisdiction, while also allowing the family access to legal counsel. The order comes after Dexter and Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and CBP, giving the agencies a July 14 deadline to grant the family access to an attorney and condemning the detention of U.S. citizen children in facilities that are not equipped or intended for the long-term custody of anyone. Our constituents, including four U.S. citizen children, were detained without due process by their own government. This case is as urgent as it is egregious. This emergency ruling is a legal lifeline to provide critical protection to the Merlos family, the lawmakers said in a joint statement Tuesday. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Pearl District residents opposed to homeless shelter We are gratified with this temporary win as a necessary step toward justice. In the coming days, we will be watching with unwavering attention to make certain due process is followed and this family is treated with the dignity every Oregon family deserves, Dexter, Wyden and Merkley continued. This fight is every single Oregonians fight. If we allow thiscitizen children detention, neighbors disappeared, due process ignoredwe surrender not just our country but our conscience. That is an outcome we refuse to accept, the lawmakers concluded. According to the order, There is no indication that there is a final removal order for Petitioner (Merlos), nor is there any indication that Petitioner has been convicted of any crime. Although Petitioner has purportedly accepted a voluntary return to her country of origin, Petitioner has expressed doubt that the voluntary return was signed and whether i[t] was in fact voluntary.' Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Eye on Northwest Politics Dexter previously noted that after learning the family was detained, her team worked to determine their whereabouts claiming her team found the family in Bellingham after CBP initially misled them. Judge Lins order also provided a timeline of the familys detention. On July 5, 2025, Petitioner retained counsel. Petitioner has been unable to communicate with Counsel, however, and Petitioners counsel has been unable to obtain concrete or reliable information about Petitioners whereabouts, the order says, noting, that on July 10, Dexter told Merlos attorney that she was located at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tukwila, Washington. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Man faces criminal charges for allegedly using stolen excavator in Clackamas County ATM heist Counsel was then advised that Petitioner was in United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody in Bellingham, Washington. Counsel was then advised that Petitioner and Petitioners children were located at a CBP facility in Ferndale, Washington. But on July 11, 2025, when Counsel visited the CBP facility in Ferndale to speak to Petitioner, Counsel was advised that Petitioner was not there and was instead en route to a facility in Seattle, Washington, the order states. Intel layoffs ripple across Oregon economy While granting the emergency order, Judge Lin noted it is unclear why Merlos was serially re-located and denied contact with Counsel. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Earlier this month, Dexter traveled to the Bellingham Border Patrol station where the family was detained, however, the congresswoman said CBP refused to allow her to speak with the family or connect them with counsel. It is absurd that she has four citizen children with her, has an attorney, and has no access to legal counsel, Dexter said, noting the family was detained without cause. Portland named among cities on the rise as Oregon falls in state business rankings They have provided as humane as a possible situation in a small cell with a cement floor and theres some mats that are probably four inches thick for the family, Dexter said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Merlos husband Carlos was also detained days after his familys detention and held at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Tacoma, according to Dexter. In a statement to KOIN 6 News, a CBP spokesperson said, Merlos was arrested by Border Patrol agents in Peace Arch Park attempting to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. on June 28. Removal proceedings have been initiated and she is now in ICE custody. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KOIN.com. The extensive death of ash trees in Western New York is creating a decline in emerald ash borer populations for the time being, and the release of wasps that prey on the invasive insect may limit the infestation in the future. Jason Denham, supervising forester for the state Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany said parasitoids tiny wasps that lay their eggs on larval emerald ash borers have been released in the state and nationally. The three wasp species of the genera Spatious, Oobius, and Tetrastichus are too small to be seen with the naked eye, he said. Only Spathius contrasticus is known to do well in colder climates. We have evidence that those species are established and have some impact, Denham said. Its unclear whether that will be sufficient for the regrowth of ash trees to reach maturity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Regarding the borers, Denham said, Theyre not going to crash to where there will not be emerald ash borer in the environment. The hope is that the parasitoids will slow the population growth. Its just an unproven hypothesis at this point. The emerald ash borer has been identified statewide, Denham said, except for Hamilton County which may receive lab confirmation this month. In 2009, the borer was first confirmed in New York state in Cattaraugus County. The insects trip from Asia was probably made in the wood of shipping crates, said John Farfaglia, horticulturist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Niagara County. The tree damage left by the emerald ash borer is pretty hard to miss in our neighborhoods and wooded spaces. Farfaglia said he sees the brown snags along Route 31 and Day Road. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Theres even been a few trees that have fallen on the shoulder of the road, Farfaglia said. You can go to just about any town and see the damage. So much of the ash population is wiped out. When it was detected in (the Town of) Randolph, analysis of tree rings indicated that it was probably there for two or three years before it was detected, Denham said. Around the country, movement of firewood was closely associated with the presence of emerald ash borer. As a result, Western New York has experienced the most severe effects of the invasive insect in the state, he said. Youre basically living in the part of the timeline (of infestation) where 80% of ash trees have died, Denham said. You have some young ash trees coming. Theres other parts of the state where were much closer to the beginning of that invasion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The population of ash in our county wood lots is pretty high, percentage-wise, Farfaglia said. We do see young trees and theres seed on the ground. The ash borer doesnt really go after the young trees. Seven percent of the overall forests in New York state were composed of ash, Denham said, with a higher percentage in the Finger Lakes. Relatively less ash is present in higher elevation counties, he said, which is probably why they have yet to experience a high level of infestation. The state DEC declared a quarantine on live ash trees and firewood in 2017, prohibiting moving the materials more than 60 miles from their origin point. Denham said converting dead ash to mulch would likely kill any emerald ash borer larvae, especially if its piled and heats up. Once the material starts to dry out, the larvae dont survive. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ash trees that are cut down can go into municipal waste, Denham said, and can be burned by the homeowner when burning bans and ordinances are not in place. For property owners, removing dead ash is often a safety measure. If anybody still has standing dead ash and theyre anywhere near a building that it could cause property damage or people damage, they want to call a professional to get it out, Farfaglia said. Ive had people call about what should I plant? Farfaglia said. Emerald ash borer only infests ash species, so other trees are not affected. The mountain ash is not actually an ash, he said, so it is safe from the insect also. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive talked to people that have had their trees treated injected with an insecticide, Farfaglia said. Theres significant cost to do it. Youre talking about a mature tree at a few hundred dollars. The Town of Amherst had a number of their street trees treated. For those standing, healthy trees, at least for the near future, re-injecting them is a good idea when the interval comes up. Emamectin benzoate is the insecticide most often used for injection in ash trees, Denham said. If they are hiring a professional to treat trees, know what it is theyre putting in. See the label, he said. Not all ash trees should be cleared out. We want a chance to see if biological controls can work. Researchers are looking for individual ash trees that linger on after 99% of ash trees are killed, Denham said. Such a tree may have some genetic resistance. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We are working with researchers to find those individuals and collect material to cross-breed, he said. Community members can report survivor ash trees to the Ecological Research Institute at https://www.monitoringash.org/who-we-are/ . Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California refused to answer repeated questions from Fox News Digital about his alleged mortgage fraud, which President Donald Trump has accused him of committing over 10 years. The long-time Trump critic, who as a congressman was instrumental in the House of Representatives first and second impeachments during Trumps first term, was accused by the president of committing fraud to obtain lower rates on a second home in Maryland. Trump alleged that Schiff listed a Maryland property as his primary residence in 2009 to obtain a lower mortgage rate, despite being a congressman and then a senator representing California. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Schiff has called the accusations "baseless." Adam Schiff Has A 'Lot Of Issues' In This Case, Former Federal Prosecutor Reveals President Donald Trump, right, highlighted 2024 allegations of mortgage fraud against Sen. Adam Schiff, claims that Schiff has denied. However, Schiff ignored a Fox News Digital reporter who asked him, "Do you have a response to Trump saying youre guilty of mortgage fraud?" Read On The Fox News App The Fox News Digital reporter later asked Schiff, "Why did you decide to make your primary residence Maryland for ten years, for a decade, not California? Any comment on Trump accusing you of committing mortgage fraud, sir? Any response?" Schiff ignored the questions, simply responding, "Have a nice day." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Trump Calls Sen. Adam Schiff A 'Serious Lowlife' Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), joined by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), speaks at a press conference introducing the Assault Weapons Ban of 2025 on April 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Trump posted his allegations on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. "I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist. And now I learn that Fannie Maes Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud," Trump wrote. "Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA. I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Adam Schiff (now a Senator) needs to be brought to justice." Trump did not provide any evidence of the alleged fraud. Schiff Responds To Trump Accusations, Calls For His Removal From Office When asked about the accusations later on Tuesday, Trump appeared to soften on the specific accusation. "I don't know about the individual charge, if that even happened, but Adam Schiff is a serious lowlife," Trump said. Schiff was not barred from listing the Maryland homes as his primary residence during his term in Congress, since the Constitution only requires that he be an "inhabitant" of California at the time of his election, not throughout his entire service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement However, Schiff cited two residences, one in California and one in Maryland, as his "principal residence" on multiple mortgage and election forms dating back to 2003, Just the News reported in October. Gavin Newsom Detransitioned California From Being The Richest To The Poorest In at least three cases in 2009, 2011 and 2013 Schiff refinanced his Maryland home and declared it his "principal residence," while also listing his Burbank, California condo as his primary residence in separate financing documents, the outlet reported. He then changed the notations on his Maryland mortgage to be a secondary residence. The pattern was first detected by Christine Bish, a Sacramento-based real estate investigator who ran for Congress as a Republican last year. She filed an ethics complaint against Schiff in Congress. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Schiff said Trump's comments were the latest attempt at political retaliation against his perceived enemies and said it would not distract from "his Epstein files problem." "Since I led his first impeachment, Trump has repeatedly called for me to be arrested for treason," Schiff wrote on X. "So in a way, I guess this is a bit of a letdown. And this baseless attempt at political retribution wont stop me from holding him accountable. Not by a long shot." Original article source: WATCH: Adam Schiff silent after Trump accused him of mortgage fraud July 16 (UPI) -- Firefighters and marine mammal specialists came to the rescue of a dolphin named Lucky who was found stranded in a shallow tidal lagoon in South Carolina. The Bluffton Township Fire District said in a news release that crews responded alongside the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network and concerned Bluffton locals when the 7-foot, 10-inch dolphin, who researchers identified by her distinctive markings, was found stranded in the lagoon in the Hampton Lake community. "It is believed that Lucky swam into the lagoon through a culvert connecting to the May River during Thursday's heavy rains and high tides," the Fire District said. "As the tide receded, she became trapped in shallow waters just 2-3 feet deep." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The release stressed the LMMN is federally authorized to respond to incidents involving marine mammals, which are illegal to handle without such authorization. The rescuers said Lucky initially fled from a tarp set up for the rescue, but the team was eventually able to guide the 400-500-pound mammal onto the tarp to be lifted out of the lagoon. The team carried Lucky about 75 yards up a steep embankment to a waiting trailer. She was then driven about 2-3 miles to a private dock in May River Plantation, where she was released back into the deeper waters of the May River. "This was a textbook example of inter-agency teamwork and calm under pressure," Lauren Rust, executive director of LMMN, said in the release. "From our trained responders to the Bluffton firefighters and helpful community members, everyone played a vital role in ensuring Lucky's safe return home." HOLLADAY, Utah (ABC4) A rockslide near the area of 3091 E Silver Hawk Drive on Tuesday evening prompted evacuations of several neighbors. Multiple agencies, including Public Works, Unified Fire Authority and Unified Police Department, responded to the scene of a rockslide in Holladay, Utah. Preliminary investigations revealed that a water main break likely caused the rockslide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Courtesy: Unified Fire Riley Pilgrim, a Battalion Chief with the Unified Fire Authority, says a water main or some water line just started eroding away the surface and grass and as the water kept flowing, it just kept moving towards the houses. Emergency crews evacuated residents from the three homes below where the rockslide occurred. One of the homes was apparently covered with rock and mud. Jennifer Ksok, who lives in the area, says We were looking at our front door [and] driveway, is covered with rock, mud. The water company is there getting ready to shut off the water line. Fortunately, it seems the mud and rocks have stabilized, according to Pilgrim. Latest headlines: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. The Waukesha County Fair canceled the truck and tractor pulls on Wednesday, July 16, the opening night of the oldest county fair in Wisconsin, because of weather concerns. The event was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. However, a tornado was spotted west of Madison at 1:12 p.m., leading the National Weather Service to issue a tornado watch for the Milwaukee area, including Waukesha, until 6 p.m. "We made the best decision for the benefit and safety for all to cancel tonight," Chrissy Gluege, the fair's executive director, said. The event will not be rescheduled, Gluege said, but another set of the truck and tractor pulls is already scheduled at the Waukesha County Fairgrounds for Sunday, July 20, at noon. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Sunday is going to be bigger, better and ready to go," Gluege said. The Waukesha County Fair runs from July 16 to July 20, offering everything from animals to live music, rides, games, food and more. Liliana Fannin is a 2025 summer intern at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covering the Milwaukee suburbs. She can be contacted at lfannin@gannett.com. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Truck and tractor pulls canceled at Waukesha County Fair July 16 Contrails left by high flying aircraft - Toby Melville/Reuters While looking into Birmingham, Alabama, chief meteorologist James Spanns new weather network, we saw that he felt compelled to get on social media recently to explain away conspiracy theories surrounding the deadly Texas floods that killed more than 100 people earlier this month. Some, including lawmakers like Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have pushed theories that chemtrails and/or cloud seeding were responsible for the floods that killed over 100 people in Texas. Chemtrails are the fictional belief that long-lasting condensation trails left in the sky by high-flying aircraft are made up of chemical or biological agents for undisclosed nefarious purposes. Greene said on social media that she was introducing a bill to ban cloud seeding and other weather modification. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Spann responded on Facebook to what he described as nasty messages and verbal threats from the disinformation about how the weather works. After receiving piles of nasty messages and verbal threats in recent days, I felt the need to share this information. Cloud seeding did not cause last week's Texas floods. *Cloud seeding can only enhance rain from existing clouds by up to ~20%-it cannot create massive deluges. *The last reported cloudseeding flight by Rainmaker Technology occurred on July 2, over 24 hours before the floods began, and the seeded clouds had already dissipated. *The flooding stemmed from a stalled weather system, bringing 1020 inches of rain last Thursday and Friday. This was fueled by moisture from Tropical Storm Barry, Gulf air, and hillcountry geography notorious for flash floods. This is nothing new for the Guadalupe River. Bottom line: The Texas floods were caused by natural weather dynamics-not human interference or weather modification efforts. It was not caused by Democrats or Republicans. Again this morning, I'm asking that you put the political rhetoric and nonsense conspiracy stuff aside for a while let these poor families grieve. Consider empathy and kindness. Thank you. WBMA Chief Meteorologist James Spann Cloud seeding has been around for 80 years and involves dropping silver iodide crystals into clouds to trigger rain or snow. About 31 million acres of Texas land is affected by cloud seeding programs, according to MYSA. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the U.S. Geological Survey has recorded the Guadalupe River flooding more than a dozen times since 1978. However, the 2025 has been one of its worst, with the river rising 26 feet in 45 minutes. A Glenns Ferry man was arrested for allegedly impersonating a Boise police officer, and law enforcement said it wasnt the first time he pretended to be a first responder. The 19-year-old was charged with a felony on July 8 for allegedly forging documents, according to court records. Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead said prosecutors might add charges as the investigation continues. The Elmore County Sheriffs Office asked Boise Police Department officers to contact the suspect at a Boise home on July 4, according to a Tuesday news release from the sheriff. When officers arrived, they noticed a vehicle parked at the residence with a Boise Police Department uniform hanging in plain view in the backseat, the Sheriffs Office said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officers also said they located two forged certifications in the mans possession that claimed he had completed a Boise Police Department training academy and been certified by Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training. The Sheriffs Office said its evidence indicated that the suspect was wearing a Boise police uniform in Glenns Ferry while claiming to be an officer to his family and the public. It also might not be the only time he has pretended to be an emergency responder, according to the Sheriffs Office. The man has been known to impersonate the staff of the Boise and Glenns Ferry Fire Departments and has falsely claimed to be an Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic, the news release said. Elmore County Sheriffs Office is working with other law enforcement agencies to uncover how (the man) obtained uniforms and official controlled law enforcement insignia and equipment, the Sheriffs Office said. Hollinshead asked anyone with information who might have encountered someone in a Boise police uniform in Glenns Ferry to call or text Elmore County Dispatch at 208-587-2100. Several rounds of showers and heavy rain are forecasted until next week for several areas of Ohio, and the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for Cincinnati, Columbus, and its surrounding counties. There's a chance you might need more than just your umbrella and rain boots in this weather. Here's what to know and how to stay safe during a flash flood. NWS issues flash flood warning for Ohio counties that include Cincinnati, Columbus A flash flood warning is active until Tuesday, July 22, according to the NWS. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Columbus in Franklin County, as well as the surrounding counties of Delaware, Madison, Licking, Pickaway and Fairfield. Cincinnati in Hamilton County, as well as the surrounding counties of Butler, Warren, Clermont, Preble, Montgomery Greene and Clinton. For Wednesday, July 16, the NWS predicts these counties will experience scattered showers and storms producing gusting winds. Thursday, July 17, through Sunday, July 20, the NWS predicts several rounds of showers and storms across Ohio. The heavy rainfall may result in flash flooding. What's the difference between floods and flash floods? According to the National Weather Service, flash floods are more sudden, happen when there is heavy rainfall in a short period of time and occur within minutes or a few hours of excessive rainfall. Flooding takes place over a longer period, which can last days or weeks. How to stay safe if a flood hits Ohio One of the best ways to stay safe in a flood event is to be prepared. Here's what Ohioans should do before, during and after a flooding event, according to previous Enquirer reporting: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Prepare early : Before a flood happens, the NWS recommends comprehensive preparation for your home, pets, and family. This can mean assembling an emergency kit with food, water and medicine in case water or power services are interrupted or in the event of a flood-related evacuation. Be sure to charge any electronics beforehand and map out the safest ways to get to higher ground. During a flood: Avoid floodwaters and walking, swimming, or diving through any water. Instead, the NWS says to get to higher ground immediately. Don't go into a basement or flooded rooms with electrical outlets. Listen to local safety alerts and evacuate if instructed. Avoid driving in floodwaters. After a flood: If flood water is still present, continue to avoid going into the water. Sewage, chemicals, gas leaks, sharp objects, and live power lines are potential hidden dangers. The NWS says not to enter disaster areas, including your home, until given the all clear by authorities that the area is safe. Cincinnati, Columbus, Northern Kentucky live radar Here is the NWS live radar for Cincinnati, Columbus, Northern Kentucky and other parts of Central and Southwest Ohio: The live radar is continually updated by NWS. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Flash flooding possible in Cincinnati, Columbus areas. How to stay safe Weight loss jabs may offer a protective effect against dementia and stroke, according to a new study. People with type 2 diabetes and obesity who are taking the drugs are also less likely to die prematurely, researchers found. Academics said the benefits of drugs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro including for managing weight and blood sugar levels are well known, but other health benefits of the popular drugs remain unclear. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The study saw experts from Taiwan examine date on 60,000 people from around the world, with an average age of 58, who had type 2 diabetes and obesity. Around half were given GLP agonist drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide which are sold under the brand names Wegovy and Mounjaro. Semaglutide is also the main ingredient for the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic. GLP agonists can reduce a persons appetite; slow down their digestion; reduce the amount of sugar the liver makes and they help the body to make more insulin when needed. The other half used other anti-diabetic medication. During a seven-year follow-up period, researchers found that people given the GLP agonist drugs appeared to have a 37% lower risk of dementia and a 19% reduced risk of stroke. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They were also 30% less likely to die during the follow-up period. And when researchers looked at the data further they found even greater benefits in people aged 60 or older, women, and those with a body mass index score of 30 to 40. They found no differences in Parkinsons disease or brain bleeds. The academics said their findings suggest potential neuroprotective and cerebrovascular benefits of the drugs but they called for more studies to confirm the findings. These findings suggest that semaglutide and tirzepatide may offer neuroprotective and cerebrovascular benefits beyond glycemic control, potentially improving long-term cognitive and survival outcomes in adults with type 2 diabetes and obesity, they wrote in the journal JAMA Network Open. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Commenting on the study, Professor Tara Spires-Jones, director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh and group leader in the UK Dementia Research Institute, said: This is a very interesting study adding to evidence that GLP1 receptor agonists are associated with a lower risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes and obesity. This type of study cannot determine whether the drugs reduced disease risk by directly protecting the brain. It is highly likely that effectively treating type 2 diabetes and obesity would reduce dementia and stroke risk as they are known risk factors for these conditions. Further work is needed including randomised clinical trials to confirm these drugs are protective in people with diabetes and obesity and other trials are needed to determine whether these drugs will be protective in people who do not have type 2 diabetes and obesity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at Alzheimers Society, said: It is well established that diabetes and obesity can increase your risk of developing dementia. This study supports existing evidence that shows these drugs may reduce dementia risk, particularly for people aged 60 and over who are living with type 2 diabetes and obesity. Although interesting, we cant draw conclusions from this study alone as it is an observational study, only a small number of people who took part went on to develop dementia and as the impact of these drugs on different types of dementia is not clear. There are clinical trials currently looking at whether drugs like these can be used to treat early-stage Alzheimers disease, so this is a really exciting area being explored in the research fight against dementia. WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) Police are looking for a suspect on Wednesday in an armed bank robbery in West Hartford. Officers responded at around 11:30 a.m. to the American Eagle Financial Credit Union at 1245 New Britain Ave. No one was injured. Connecticut native, paranormal investigator dies suddenly The bank will remain closed on Wednesday due to the investigation, according to police. We are grateful that no members or American Eagle employees were harmed, and thankful for the responsiveness, support and hard work of the West Hartford Police Department, Simeon Chapin, American Eagle Financial Credit Unions chief community officer, said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Anyone with information is asked to contact the West Hartford Police Department at (860) 523-5203, or use its anonymous tip line/email at (860) 570-8969 or whpdtips@westhartfordct.gov. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTNH.com. WEST SPRINGFIELD Students in West Springfield Public Schools are among those across Massachusetts getting a boost in civics education, thanks to a portion $1 million grant program from the Healey-Driscoll administration aimed at empowering young people to lead community-focused projects. The Civics Teaching and Learning Grants were awarded to 37 school districts and education collaboratives across the state. West Springfield, along with Amherst-Pelham, Springfield and Easthampton Public School districts, received a combined $46,880 to support student-led civics projects, teacher training, and local showcases that bring classroom learning into the community. These projects empower students as agents of change, equipping them with the skills and knowledge to address injustices and improve their communities, said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler. This grant will help provide all students with this important learning experience. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The funding supports projects in grade eight and high school. Students will have opportunities to present their work at the Massachusetts Civics Project Showcases. This grant will provide students across the commonwealth with deeper learning opportunities, leveraging students identity and creativity to engage in meaningful civic action projects in their community, said Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez. The Civics Teaching and Learning Grants are funded through the states Civics Project Trust Fund. They support a 2018 state law that requires students in grade eight and high school to complete hands-on civics projects that connect classroom learning to real-world issues. Read the original article on MassLive. AUSTIN (Nexstar) The Texas Legislature is now just five days away from convening for a special session, focused on flood relief and response, THC legislation and, much to the dismay of Democrats, congressional redistricting. And while no bills or plans have been formally filed, President Donald Trump said Tuesday the Texas GOP should push for five new Republican seats. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, said this redistricting plan is being snuck in amidst the devastating Central Texas flooding. He is now sounding the alarm for Texas voters to encourage them to pay attention. This is a five alarm fire happening in Texas right now, and whether you are a liberal or a conservative voter back home in Texas, we can all agree that we should be focused on relief and rebuilding in Texas after these floods, not be focused on redistricting, Casar said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The reporting that Trump is pushing for five additional Republican seats is a dramatic shift in the redistricting news. The GOP already holds a 25 to 12 advantage in the Texas congressional delegation. At 66% of seats, that is a higher share than Trump received in the 2024 election at 56%. Five additional seats would make that disparity even larger, bringing the share of seats to nearly 80%. Some redistricting experts have said that Republicans likely will not be able to draw five GOP seats without violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which requires Black and Latino opportunity districts in Texas. Casar said that is the point, accusing Trump of attempting to bring the entire Voting Rights Act before the Supreme Court, hoping to see it struck down. What Donald Trump probably wants is the Supreme Court to take a look at a map, and hes going to try to get that Supreme Court to approve the map and essentially do away with the voting rights act as we know it, Casar said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Supreme Court has previously reaffirmed that partisan gerrymandering does not violate the Voting Rights Act. It has, however, repeatedly struck down congressional maps found to not include Black-opportunity districts, most recently in Alabama and Louisiana. Any new Texas map would likely be sued, and could be tied up in court until the midterm elections. In order to stop the new maps from being created, House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries reportedly told Texas Democrats to quorum bust, or leave the state in order to prevent the legislature from meeting. Democrats used the tactic back in 2003 when Republicans did mid-decade redistricting to draw out several Democratic incumbents. Casar said Democrats should be using any tactic possible, including quorum busting. Every tactic should be on the table, from quorum busts to filibusters people having marches and speaking out in large numbers, because what Trump is trying to do is eliminate the Voting Rights Act and suppress millions of Texas voters, Casar said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement New maps could also end up endangering Republicans, in a map known as a dummymander. The only way to draw new Republican seats in Texas is by making existing Republicans more vulnerable. If the 2026 environment is good enough for Democrats, a poorly-drawn or overambitious Republican map could lead to Democratic gains instead of Republican ones. And if those new maps are drawn, Casar agreed with remarks made by Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Washington, and chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, that Democrats should fund challengers against any potentially vulnerable Republicans. Those Republican members of Congress need to watch their left flank and their right flank if Donald Trump gets his way, Casar said. The Democrats absolutely should run well funded campaigns against every single Republican that lets this happen, and were going to make sure of that. Casar said that he believes Texas Republicans will ultimately go along with pushing for five seats because they havent found a spine yet to resist a Trump order. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I hope that they find a spine, Casar said. But for now, it seems that they continue to just do whatever daddy Donald Trump asks of them. Special session begins Monday, though no redistricting bills have been filed yet. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin. Where to drop off your trash as Republic Services strike continues The line was long. The cargo was smelly. The heat was building. This is what people encountered while waiting to drop off their trash at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue, as a whole week has passed since the start of the Republic Services strike. This is the worst possible time for this, Brit Harris said, the daycare director at Lil Peoples World in Bellevue. With the hottest days of summer bearing down, Harris worries for the dumpster full of dirty diapers that hasnt been picked up in 11 days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mainly the feces, Im super worried about. It is very hot out and we are going to overflow very quickly. Harris said. Several communities around Western Washington are creating trash drop-off sites for people to bring their trash to the company. With the second missed trash day imminent for people whose trash day is on Wednesday, Republic Services is legally required to establish alternative drop-off sites for trash. The company says hospitals, grocery stores, public facilities, and other critical locations are getting their trash picked up. Republic Services says its employees from other areas are handling the pickups. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Teamsters Local 252, which initiated the strike, claims that replacement workers from out of state have been brought in to complete that work. I hope that we get a call from Republic that says theyre ready to talk, said Leah Randall, an organizer with Teamsters Local 252. In a statement, Republic Services said: Collection services are once again disrupted due to a Teamsters-led work stoppage at Republic Services operations in King County and Snohomish County. Local 252 has been trying to negotiate a contract for 16 months without reaching an agreement. Randall says union members are ready to meet as soon as possible. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Republic Services says the next negotiation isnt scheduled until July 30. Twelve workers at a facility in Thurston County initiated the strike, joined in solidarity by some workers in King and Snohomish County. Other workers are expressing their right not to cross the picket line, halting trash collection in cities contracted with Republic Services. The workers claim they are paid 13% less than their competitors and are also requesting health care and retirement benefits. They point to the $12.9 million paid to Republic Services CEO and $1.18 billion paid to its shareholders in 2024 as reason the company can afford what workers are requesting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement All of the sacrifice the community has made for us to be heard has been heard and that is what we need to get a contract. Randall said. The national Teamsters organization announced strikes had expanded to Republic Services facilities in California and Ohio. It comes as the first unit to strike in Boston had finally met for negotiations. Its unfortunate, Randall said, It feels good that the message is going somewhere and we hope thats impactful, but its sad Republic has taken it this far. The Washington Utility and Transportation Commission says Republic Services must offer alternative drop-offs, pickups, or refunds when a second trash day is missed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In Bellevue, a statement on the companys website said customers will receive a credit on their account for missed pickups, as will Renton citizens. WUTC says it will investigate whether fines are necessary, an action that the city of Renton will also consider. The city of Kent did not say whether it will seek fines, refunds, or account credits, but has offered a drop-off site at ShoWare. The city of Kent said in a statement, The city strongly encourages Republic Services and the Teamster union to negotiate in good faith and reach a settlement as soon as possible. Here are some of the drop-off locations in south King County: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement ShoWare Center, 625 W James St, Kent, WA, 7 a.m. 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, July 16 18. Bannerwood Park (1790 Richards Rd, Bellevue, WA 98005) parking lot from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm on Wednesday, July 16 Thomas Teasdale Park (601 S 23rd St) between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, July 16th -The WUTC also suggests locations in Snohomish County and King County Editors note: This clip is from July 14, 2025 ST. LOUIS Its been 100 years since the first-ever hamburger chain in the United States opened its doors in St. Louis. White Castle opened its first chain in the area on July 15, 1925, located at 30 South 18th Street at Olive. This location was across from Union Station. In acknowledgement of this milestone, every 100th customer who visits White Castle between July 15 and July 19 will eat free. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Known for the St. Louis Castle Mix, St. Louis has its very own classic drink. This special combination is basically half Coke and half Orange soda. It was also recently added to Coke machines, but only in St. Louis. St. Louis was one of the first cities to witness White Castles expansion when it first opened in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2. "The View" co-hosts clapped back at former President Obama and Mark Cuban's recent criticisms of the Democratic Party on Tuesday, arguing that the voters have been doing the work and elected officials were to blame. "So, let me remind everybody who is out in the front lines marching when we had the giant marches that went on, it was the people, the people went out," co-host Whoopi Goldberg said. "They were not navel-gazing, it was older people saying, why are you touching my Social Security? It was not people whining. It was about people saying, why are you taking these rights from my child when my child was born here? This has not been about Democrats laying back. This has been about yall, because their messaging was always the same." Goldberg was referring in part to Obama, who urged Democrats to "toughen up" on Friday at a political fundraiser, and said success would require a "little less navel-gazing." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "And its going to require Democrats to just toughen up," Obama said. "Dont tell me youre a Democrat, but youre kind of disappointed right now, so youre not doing anything. No, now is exactly the time that you get in there and do something." Former U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at a Democracy Forum event held by the Obama Foundation at the Javits Center on November 17, 2022 in New York City. 'The View' Host Ana Navarro Pleads For Obama To Speak Out Against Trump's 'American Nightmare' "Democrats have been angry at what this man tried to do the last time. Theyve been angry this time. So, I, with much due respect to you both, I believe you are pointing the finger at the wrong person when you say Democrats," Goldberg said. Read On The Fox News App Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Co-host Sara Haines confirmed that Goldberg was differentiating between voters and elected officials and said she agreed. "Voters are very impassioned," Haines said. Goldberg continued, "When you say Democrats, he's talking to us, saying our messaging is bad, and Im saying, no, our messaging has not been bad because people have been out." Cuban also said during a recent podcast interview that the party's "Trump sucks" message was not the way to win. 'View' Co-host Tells Others Trump Is In Power 'Because You Guys Screwed This Up' In Clash Over Biden Cover-up Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "We picked the wrong pressure points," Cuban said on " Pod Save America" on Sunday. "Its just Trump sucks.' Thats the underlying thought of everything the Democrats do. Trump sucks. Trump says the sky is blue. Trump sucks. Thats not the way to win! Its just not! Because its not about Trump its about the people of the United States of America and whats good for them!" Co-host Ana Navarro addressed Cuban's remarks directly and said, "Yeah, OK, so some of us say Donald Trump sucks. He does suck, and it feels good to say it!" Navarro also said people weren't waiting for a savior for the Democrats, as Obama suggested during his Friday remarks. "Stop looking for the quick fix," Obama said. "Stop looking for the messiah. You have great candidates running races right now. Support those candidates." Co-host Whoopi Goldberg was critical of recent remarks by former President Obama. Click Here For More Coverage Of Media And Culture Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Haines said that she interpreted Obama and Cuban as referring to elected Democrats and added that she agreed, before calling out the party for not offering a plan for immigration. "It would be a ripe time for some elected Democrat to come forward with a secondary plan that isnt just march against ICE agents in sanctuary cities. People want commonsense solutions and no Democrat is coming out and saying, This a decades-old problem. It crosses all administrations, but heres what Im proposing. Ive heard none of that," Haines said. Original article source: Whoopi Goldberg, 'View' hosts lash out at Obama, Cuban for scolding Democrats A Grok chat window on a laptop on June 9, 2025. Credit - Andrey RudakovBloomberg/Getty Images Last week, we conducted a test that found five leading AI modelsincluding Elon Musks Grokcorrectly debunked 20 of President Donald Trumps false claims. A few days later, Musk retrained Grok with an apparent right-wing update, promising that users should notice a difference. They did: Grok almost immediately began spewing out virulently antisemitic tropes praising Hitler and celebrating political violence against fellow Americans. Musks Grok fiasco is a wakeup call. Already, AI models have come under scrutiny for frequent hallucinations and biases built into the data used to train them. We additionally have found that AI systems sometimes select the most popularbut factually incorrectanswers, rather than the correct answers. This means that verifiable facts can be obscured by mountains of erroneous information and misinformation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Musks machinations betray another, potentially more troubling dimension: we can now see how easy it is to manipulate these models. Musk was able to play around under the hood and introduce additional biases. Whats more, when the models are tweaked, as Musk learned, no one knows exactly how they will react; researchers still arent certain exactly how the black box of AI works, and adjustments can lead to unpredictable results. The chatbots vulnerability to manipulation, along with their susceptibility to groupthink and their inability to recognize basic facts, should alarm all of us about the growing reliance on these research tools in industry, education, and the media. AI has made tremendous progress over the last few years. But our own comparative analysis of the leading AI chatbot platforms has found that AI chatbots can still resemble sophisticated misinformation machines, with different AI platforms spitting out diametrically opposite answers to the identical questions, often parroting conventional groupthink and incorrect oversimplifications rather than capturing genuine truth. Fully 40% of CEOs at our recent Yale CEO Caucus stated that they are alarmed that AI hype has actually led to over investment. Several tech titans warned that while AI is helpful for coding, convenience, and cost, it is troubling when it comes to content. Read More: Are We Witnessing the Implosion of the Worlds Richest Man? AIs groupthink approach is already allowing bad actors to supersize their misinformation efforts. Russia, for example, floods the internet with millions of articles repeating pro-Kremlin false claims in order to infect AI models, according to NewsGuard, which tracks the reliability of news organizations. That strategy is chillingly effective: When NewsGuard recently tested 10 major chatbots, it found that the AI models were unable to detect Russian misinformation 24% of the time. Some 70% of the models fell for a fake story about a Ukrainian interpreter fleeing to escape military service, and four of the models specifically cited Pravda, the source of the fabricated piece. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It isnt just Russia playing these games. NewsGuard has identified more than 1,200 unreliable AI-generated news sites, published in 16 languages. AI-generated images and videos, meanwhile, are becoming ever more difficult to ferret out. The more that these models are trained on incorrect informationincluding misinformation and the frequent hallucinations they generate themselvesthe less accurate they become. Essentially, the wisdom of crowds is turned on its head, with false information feeding on itself and metastasizing. There are indications this is already happening. Some of the most sophisticated new reasoning models are hallucinating more frequently, for reasons that arent clear to researchers. As the CEO of one AI startup told the New York Times, Despite our best efforts, they will always hallucinate. That will never go away. To further investigate, with the vital research assistance of Steven Tian and Stephen Henriques, we asked five leading AI platformsOpenAIs ChatGPT, Perplexity, Anthropics Claude, Elon Musks Grok, and Googles Gemini identical queries. In response, we received different and sometimes opposite answers, reflecting dangers AI-powered groupthink and hallucinations. 1. Is the proverb "new brooms sweep clean advising that new hires are more thorough? Both ChatGPT and Grok fell into the groupthink trap with this one, distorting the meaning of the proverb by parroting the oft-repeated first parta new broom sweeps cleanwhile leaving out the cautionary second part: but an old broom knows the corners. ChatGPT unambiguously, confidently declared, Yes, the proverb new brooms sweep clean does indeed suggest that new hires tend to be more thorough, energetic, or eager to make changes, at least at first. Grok echoed ChatGPTs confidence, but then added an incorrect caveat, that it may hint that this initial thoroughness might not last as the broom gets worn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Only Google Gemini and Perplexity provided the full, correct proverb. Meanwhile, Claude unhelpfully dodged the question entirely. 2. Was the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Joe Bidens fault? ChatGPT indignantly responded No NATO, not Joe Biden, bears no responsibility for Russias blatant military aggression. Its Vladimir Putin who ordered the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, in what was a premeditated act of imperial expansion. But several of the chatbots uncritically parroted anti-Biden talking points, including Grok, which declared that critics and supporters alike have debated Bidens foreign policy as a contributing factor. Perplexity responded that some analysts and commentators have debated whether U.S. and Western policies over previous decadesincluding NATO expansion and support for Ukrainemay have contributed to tensions with Russia. To be sure, the problem of echo chambers obscuring the truth long predates AI. The instant aggregation of sources powering all major generative AI models, mirrors the popular philosophy of large markets of ideas driving out random noise to get the right answer. James Surowieckis 1974 best seller, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations, celebrates the clustering of information in groups which result in decisions superior than could have been made by any single member of the group. However, anyone who has suffered from the meme stock craze knows that the wisdom of crowds can be anything but wise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mob psychology has a long history of non-rational pathologies that bury the truth in frenzies documented as far back as 1841 in Charles Mackays seminal, cautionary book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. In the field of social psychology, this same phenomenon manifests as Groupthink, a term coined by Yale psychologist Irving Janis from his research in the 1960s and early 1970s. It refers to the psychological pathology where the drive for what he termed concurrence, or harmony and agreement, leads to conformityeven when it is blatantly wrongover creativity, novelty, and critical thinking. Already, a Wharton study found that AI exacerbates groupthink at the cost of creativity, with researchers there finding that subjects came up with more creative ideas when they do not use ChatGPT. Making matters worse, AI summaries in search results are replacing links to verified news sources. Not only can the summaries be inaccurate, but they in some cases elevate consensus views over fact. Even when prompted, AI tools often cant nail down verifiable facts. Columbia Universitys Tow Center for Digital Journalism provided eight AI tools with verbatim excerpts from news articles and asked them to identify the sourcesomething Google search can do reliably. Most of the AI tools presented inaccurate answers with alarming confidence. All this has made AI a disastrous substitute for human judgment. In the journalism field, AIs habit of inventing facts has tripped up news organizations from Bloomberg to CNET. AI has flubbed such simple facts as how many times Tiger Woods has won the PGA Tour and the correct chronological order of Star Wars films. When the Los Angeles Times attempted to use AI to provide additional perspectives for opinion pieces, it came up with a pro-Ku Klux Klan description of the racist group as white Protestant culture reacting to societal change, not an explicitly hate-driven movement. Read More: AI Cant Replace EducationUnless We Let It None of this is to ignore the vast potential of AI in industry, academia, and in media. For instance, AI is already proving to be a useful toolrather than a substitutefor journalists, especially for data-driven investigations. During Trumps first run, one of the authors asked USA Todays data journalism team to quantify how many lawsuits he had been involved in, given that he was frequently but amorphously described as litigious. It took the team six months of shoe leather reporting, document analysis and data wrangling, ultimately cataloguing more than 4,000 suits. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Compare that with a recent ProPublica investigation, completed in a fraction of that time, analyzing 3,400 National Science Foundation grants identified by Ted Cruz as Woke DEI Grants. Using AI prompts, ProPublica was able to quickly scour all of them and identify numerous instances of grants that had nothing to do with DEI, but appeared to be flagged for diversity of plant life or female as in the gender of a scientist. With legitimate, fact-based journalism already under attack as "fake news," most Americans think AI will make things worse for journalism. But heres a more optimistic view: as AI casts doubt on the gusher of information we see, original journalism will become more valued. After all, reporting is essentially about finding new information. Original reporting, by definition, doesnt already exist in AI. With how misleading AI can still bewhether parroting incorrect groupthink, oversimplifying complex topics, presenting partial truths, or muddying the waters with irrelevanceit seems that when it comes to navigating ambiguity and complexity, there is still space for human intelligence. Contact us at letters@time.com. India is booming. The countrys economy is among the fastest-growing in the world, and its top business schools are steadily rising in global rankings. Yet international students remain a rarity across Indias higher education system and especially in its business schools. A new report from education consultancy CarringtonCrisp explores why. The International India study, based on responses from 4,160 prospective business students across 22 countries, found that while 79% of respondents are open to studying abroad, only 8% consider India a likely study destination. That low interest persists despite strong perceptions of Indias economy, visa accessibility, and welcoming environment. Despite the rapid growth of the Indian economy and the increasing prominence of its business schools, international students are rare, especially compared to the traditional education powerhouses of Europe, Australia, and North America, says Andrew Crisp, the studys author and co-founder of CarringtonCrisp. The major issue is a lack of brand awareness, as well as an understanding of the advantages and benefits of studying in India. INTERNATIONAL ENROLLMENT LAGS The study underscores just how far India trails its global peers in attracting international talent. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), only 46,000 international students were enrolled across nearly 2,400 Indian institutions in the 2021-22 academic year and more than a quarter of them came from neighboring Nepal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By contrast, the United Kingdom hosted more than 750,000 international students in 2022-23, Australia reported over 450,000 in 2023, and the United States reached a record high of more than 1.1 million in 2024. Recognizing the opportunity gap, the Indian government has taken steps to increase international enrollments. Institutions have been encouraged to admit up to 25% more students above their allotted domestic capacity, with those extra seats reserved specifically for international students. But converting that potential into growth requires understanding how India is perceived by prospective students around the world and that insight formed the foundation of CarringtonCrisps first International India report. AWARENESS GAP PERSISTSBUT SO DOES INTEREST The report found that one of the biggest barriers remains awareness: a full third of respondents said they couldnt name a single good Indian business school. Others cited concerns such as a preference for other countries (21%), lack of scholarships (19%), or discomfort with the idea of living in India while studying (17%). Still, the survey also revealed strengths Indian schools can build on. India was viewed as second only to the U.S. in terms of having a strong and dynamic economy (50% vs. 52%). It was also rated the most welcoming destination for international students (57%) and the easiest country in which to obtain a student visa (56%). Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cost and geography also work in Indias favor. Nearly half (45%) of respondents said India offers excellent value for a business degree, while 41% said travel to India would be affordable and convenient due to its proximity. Interest was highest among students in Nigeria (18%), the UAE (15%), and South Africa (15%). SHORT-TERM & JOINT PROGRAMS COULD OPEN THE DOOR While long-term full-degree enrollment may be limited for now, international students expressed strong enthusiasm for shorter-term or hybrid engagements with Indian institutions. More than eight in ten respondents said they would be very or extremely interested in a joint degree between an Indian business school and one in their home country. Nearly as many said they would be drawn to studying a single module up to three months in India. Other attractive options included taking multiple short, intensive courses in India or pursuing a joint degree involving an Indian school and a partner institution in a third country. Building partnerships with institutions in other countries is a big opportunity for Indian business schools, Crisp says. These programs can help schools build brand awareness, communicate the benefits of studying in India, and showcase the quality of their academic offerings. A GROWING PUSH TO GLOBALIZE Indias top business schools have taken steps to increase their global reach. IIM Ahmedabad recently opened its first international campus in Dubai. The Indian School of Business (ISB) has expanded its collaborations with leading U.S. and European universities. And more Indian schools are pursuing international accreditations and climbing into global rankings, including those published by The Financial Times and Poets&Quants. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But those efforts are still nascent when compared with more established global destinations. As the International India report makes clear, building international appeal will take time, consistency and creative partnerships. Still, the data suggests there is growing interest, especially in models that allow students to sample Indian education before committing to a full degree. The challenge for Indian schools will be converting that curiosity into enrollment. India has a strong story to tell, Crisp says. Now it needs to be heard. Read the full CarringtonCrisp report here. The post Why Arent More International Students Choosing Indias Booming B-Schools? appeared first on Poets&Quants. This years Fourth of July was the first time that the town of Comfort, Texas, used the sirens intended to warn its roughly 2,000 residents of imminent flooding. Founded by German abolitionists in 1854, Comfort sits along the Guadalupe River in an area known as Flash Flood Alley. It installed its siren-based warning system last year, a move that neighboring Kerr County, where well over 100 people died in this months floods, opted against. One Comfort resident told Grist that when she heard the sirens, she had no way of knowing just how much urgency was called for. In my mind, Im going, Okay weve got a couple hours before it gets up to the house, because its a 50-foot drop from our house to the creek, she said. Her husband started walking down to check on the water level, but quickly ran back inside. Youve got five minutes, he told her. Grab everything you need. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, she and her husband were lucky they were able to shelter with a neighbor whose house is on higher ground but their close call captures a dilemma thats taking on new urgency as flash floods claim lives from Texas to North Carolina: Even the most comprehensive disaster warnings are only as helpful as the responses of those who receive them. If youve never seen water rise in front of you in minutes, its hard to conceive of how quickly that can happen and how quickly your life and property can be at risk, said Rachel Hogan Carr, executive director of The Nurture Nature Center, a nonprofit focused on flood risk communication. Theres barriers to warning delivery from things like internet connectivity, people not having cell phones, or being asleep when a warning comes in, added Hogan Carr, who is also a co-chair of Integrated Prediction of Precipitation and Hydrology for Early Actions, or InPRA, a working group within NOAA that researches early warning systems. Communities need to anticipate these barriers and set up local systems in order to amplify the distribution of warnings when they come in. In the aftermath of the July 4 deluge, questions about the efficacy of local warning systems have swirled, particularly in Kerr County, which saw the most devastating flooding. Although the county had the ability to use FEMAs Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS, to push out aggressive, vibrating alarms to residents mobile phones similar to those that sound when an AMBER alert is issued to inform residents of a given area about a missing child that system wasnt used until days after the flood, as more rain headed toward the area. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That said, cell phone customers in the at-risk service area were sent a variety of warnings including a flash flood warning from the National Weather Service but their effects appear to have been limited. Many received no alert, or only received an alert after the flood had overtaken them. Even if the county had sent additional warnings, many residents likely would have missed them if their phones were off or out of reach for the night. Plus, a warning from local officials may have carried more weight than the alerts from the National Weather Service, Abdul-Akeem Sadiq, a professor at the University of Central Florida who studies emergency management, told the Washington Post. People tend to be more receptive to warnings that are tailored specifically to them, added Hogan Carr. We saw this in Superstorm Sandy, she explained. Even though the entire New Jersey shoreline there was at risk, if it didnt say somebodys specific small town name, they often decided it [didnt apply] to them. On the night of the flooding, Kerr County resident Martha Murayama said she was woken up by an audible alert on her phone. But she turned it off without reading the warning, assuming that it was an AMBER Alert. Murayama lives in the gated subdivision of Bumble Bee Hills, which sit directly across from the Guadalupe between Kerrville and Ingram, Texas. By then, the flood was already well underway. Not long after she got back to bed, Murayama received a panicked call from her neighbor, saying that someone was banging on the door. It was a family who lived directly across from the river, trying to warn people as they moved to higher ground. Murayama was worried her neighbor, Joe, suffers from Parkinsons and was not in good health. When Murayamas husband went outside to investigate, he was quickly swept away by flood waters, although he was ultimately able to make his way back to the house. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Just up the hill, Ramiro Rodriguez was awoken by the same family seeking shelter. Like Murayama, he too thought immediately of Joe, and made his way down to the house through floodwaters to help Joe and his wife up the hill. As they managed to pop the garage door open, Rodriguez spotted a tow strap, which he used to haul the couple to his house. I tied up Joe to my hips, he said. And right about that time, you can hear the flash flood warning. But just as quickly as the water arrived, it receded. Since July 4, Murayama said, shes gotten new flood alerts constantly. Flash floods are among the deadliest natural disasters and the most difficult to accurately predict. Less than 1 percent of waterways across the United States have stream gauges that monitor rising water in real time; the National Weather Service often relies on computer modeling to assess flood risk in smaller creeks and streams. (Kerr County only has six river gauges, which makes predicting floods more difficult). But nearby development can quickly render these models outdated. For example, a stream bordered by concrete will flood much faster and cause much more damage in the surrounding community than one that runs alongside a park, which has natural features that can absorb water. Even when floods can be anticipated, communicating their severity to the public is a tall order. Because flash floods are very localized, even neighborhood-level warnings may seem like false alarms to some residents, leading to what the journalist Zoe Schlanger has dubbed alert fatigue. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats why early community education is such an integral part of a functioning warning system, according to Hogan Carr. If you get a flash flood warning and you never see it, you got lucky, she said. Many people do not understand the speed with which floods move, which can lead to them driving through areas that are about to be submerged, for example. Warnings such as the ones sent in Texas, encouraging residents to move to higher ground, dont necessarily convey urgency, according to Ashley Coles, an associate professor of environmental geography at Texas Christian University who studies flash flooding. I spoke to somebody regarding the flooding in Texas. They said, You know, if I had gotten that message, I wouldve gotten together a go bag and then gone to bed. So they would have been ready to evacuate if needed, but it came so fast that they would have been swept away, said Coles. It makes it very difficult even for people who are trying to be cautious. The National Weather Service has defended its response to the floods, pointing out that it issued warnings at 1:14 am, two hours before the floodwaters reached inhabited riverside areas like Camp Mystic. But the warnings, though they cautioned that life-threatening flooding was possible, did not order evacuations. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement As climate change makes flash floods and other extreme weather events more common and deadly, researchers across the country are struggling with how to effectively communicate risk to the public, without losing their trust through over-warning. It has to be really a comprehensive strategy of community support, wrapped around the issuance of a formal flood warning, said Hogan Carr, explaining that ideally, the local weather service would have a forecaster whose job was dedicated to doing community outreach explaining local risks, where forecasts come from, and where residents can get reliable information in an emergency. Its an investment of time and resources proactively, that could pay off tremendously during these large-scale events, she added. In the meantime, Kerr County residents are hoping for a siren system, like the one used in neighboring Comfort. I slept through [the phone alert], said Rodriguez. If it wasnt for those people knocking on the door, I would have slept right through it. Grist has a comprehensive guide to help you stay ready and informed before, during, and after a disaster. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Why flash flood warnings will continue to go unheeded on Jul 16, 2025. Update: Since this was filed, Charlie Kirk has abandoned his pledge to stop talking about Epstein and has returned to the topic. It is further proof that MAGA influencers are torn between their love of conspiracy theories and their desire to cover for Trump. One usually thinks of cover-ups as secret affairs conducted behind closed doors, but Donald Trump is running the conspiracy to kill the Jeffrey Epstein files right out in the open. Despite Trump and his allies promising for years that they would release all the Justice Department documents on the infamous sex trafficker, now that hes in the White House, Trump has very much changed his mind. Its not surprising. He was close friends with Epstein, who raped and abused hundreds of underage girls and young women. While its unlikely Trump has specific knowledge of what the Justice Department has in its unreleased case files, he seems worried about what is in them, considering how often he partied with Epstein throughout their years of friendship. This makes it all the more remarkable that Trump is orchestrating the cover-up in public. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its not just that he went on Truth Social on Saturday and ordered his minions to not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein. The president been working the phones, reaching out individually to right-wing pundits and influencers, telling them to give up on trying to get Attorney General Pam Bondi to release more information. After receiving such a phone call on Sunday night, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk grumpily told his podcast audience on Monday, Im done talking about Epstein for the time being. (Hes since backtracked.) Prominent MAGA influencers who spent the weekend harping on Epstein conspiracy theories suddenly all switched, in unison, to pretending to care about some weird conspiracy theory involving former President Joe Biden using an autopen. Fox News hosts also enforced the Epstein blackout, only bringing it up once on Monday when Laura Ingraham who previously had been demanding a release of the files suddenly instructed her audience to forget about it. And in the crowning achievement of a very public cover-up, on Monday night House Republicans blocked a measure introduced by Democrats to release the Epstein case files. On Tuesday, all but one Republican in the House voted again to block the Epstein files. The abruptness of the about-face is almost shocking, despite the long history of all these people shaming themselves with their groveling obedience to the former reality TV host turned politician. For the past week, it started to feel like there could be a real rebellion brewing in MAGA over the unwillingness of Trump and Bondi to release more of the evidentiary documents being held by the Justice Department. As I wrote on Monday, more than any other MAGA obsession, the Epstein case gave Trump voters a way to lie to themselves, to believe they are good people, despite being complicit in all of his evil deeds. They didnt want to give that up without a fight. Its a testament to this deep emotional need that House Republicans are still pretending they want to release the Epstein files, even as they do everything in their power to help Trump suppress them. On Tuesday, the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post released a story with a wildly misleading headline: Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republicans break with Trump on Epstein. This is false. As the story acknowledges four paragraphs in, Johnson opposed a procedural motion advanced on Tuesday by Democrats that would have set up a House vote to release them. He also voted against releasing the Epstein files. But he is claiming he wants transparency, even as he fights for censorship. Trump is playing similar word games. On Tuesday, he told reporters he would like to see more documents released, but then immediately made excuses for why that wont be happening. He insisted Bondi is only withholding evidence that lacks credibility, nonsense that is even more ridiculous in light of new reporting from Wired showing the supposed prison surveillance video from the night of Epsteins death had been stitched together in Adobe Premiere Pro from two video files, and that nearly three minutes is missing. Besides that, the administration lies about everything, all the time. But Trump knows that pretending he is open to releasing the files will muddy the waters, even as his every action is geared towards suppressing the documentation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats typical of the right. Theyve always claimed to abhor sexual violence with their words. But with their actions, they consistently fight to silence victims and exonerate offenders. Its not just that theyve spent the past decade shrugging off the staggering list of accusations against Trump, including the civil jury finding that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll. Or the way they ignore how Trump surrounds himself with other men who have faced similar credible allegations. Refusing to believe victims or worse, saying they deserved it has been standard practice in conservative circles for basically forever. The long, sad march of stories of institutions like the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention covering up child sex abuse scandals is a testament to how ingrained the culture of tolerance for sexual abuse is in conservative circles. Trumps openness about his wish to bury the Epstein files, perversely, is likely what helped so many MAGA leaders make the switch from demands for transparency to the shut-it-down response. Most of them, it seems, had truly convinced themselves that Trump wasnt featured in the unreleased documents, despite his lengthy friendship with Epstein, which included at least one coy reference in 2002 to a reporter about Epsteins preference for younger sex partners. Many seemed to feel that the Biden administration would have released damning information about Trump if it existed. But this assumption required ignoring that Bidens attorney general, Merrick Garland, was a stickler for protocol; he would likely have refused to release any names of people not formally charged with related crimes to the public. Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Sign up for her free newsletter, Standing Room Only, now also on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. As long as the Epstein files existed more in the realm of fantasy, right-wingers could enjoy role-playing the avenging heroes without the worry that it could come back to haunt them. Trumps freakout, however, took this out of the world of QAnon-style fever dreams and instead pointed to his court-adjudicated history of sexual violence. Its fun for MAGA to pretend to go after imaginary or, in Epsteins case, dead rapists. But when it comes to real-life sexual predators, especially if theyre privileged white men, MAGA knows what to do: Deny, defend, minimize and protect. Theyve been doing this on Trumps behalf for a decade now, and his defensive behavior around Epstein was a signal that they should go into shield-the-dirtbag mode. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One telling incident this week showcased the forces that led to this MAGA about-face. Last year, Fox News released an edited interview with Trump where he committed to releasing the Epstein files. This week, the unedited version was circulated, which sees the president teeing up his excuse not to release the documents. You dont want to affect peoples lives, if its phony stuff in there, because its a lot of phony stuff with that whole world, he said. He then narrowed the promise to release only information about Epsteins death, notably omitting such a pledge about potential co-conspirators. This video is being promoted by groups like the Lincoln Project to embarrass Fox News for covering for Trump. But it likely had a sobering effect on his conspiracist base. Its all fun and games, playing the pedophile hunters right up until they start to worry about ensnaring the leader theyve spent a decade defending. Trump himself stated the true MAGA belief on this subject during his deposition in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit, when he angrily asserted that sexual abuse has been a privilege enjoyed by stars for the last million years, adding unfortunately or fortunately. Later on CNN, he clarified that he meant fortunately for men, but unfortunately for her. Not all hope is lost. As journalist Lindsay Beyerstein wrote this week, there is a small but noteworthy group of Trump supporters who really believe all that QAnon claptrap that Trump is on a divine mission to fight the pedophile cabal of the deep state. Openly suppressing government documents that could reveal the identities of real-life elites committing degenerate acts is the exact opposite of what they believe he promised them. Some will almost certainly find their way back to Trump, perhaps by believing his lie that the Epstein files are a forgery created by former President Barack Obama. But Trumps coalition isnt robust. It was barely enough to win him the 2024 election in a squeaker, and it is already being eroded by his unpopular economic and immigration policies. Losing even 10 percent of his conspiracist base could hurt him a lot politically. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The pathetic rally-round-the-leader response to Trumps cover-up is a reminder that MAGA never cared about sex abuse. They cared about their fantasies of heroism. They cared about rationalizing their indefensible support of Trump. They cared about looking like good people, but not about being good people. When the chips are down, the MAGA base will always choose power over justice. Trump forced that choice. Most of them didnt even hesitate to do the wrong thing. The post Why House Republicans voted for the Epstein cover-up appeared first on Salon.com. SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) A member of the LEC authority spoke out about why the authority and Woodbury County Board of Supervisors released a joint demand letter on Monday, recently sent to parties involved in the new LEC project. The letter details more than $6.6 million in damages to the two groups. At an authority meeting Tuesday, an authority attorney did not give further comment on the letter and press release, but member Mark Nelson said the two entities have been heavily damaged by this project, which is near completion. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Story continues below But we had to get to a point where we had enough stuff done with the project that we could circle the wagons with all the parties involved and say, Look, this is what were looking at for damages, and we got to talk about whos going to make us right on this. And so, we want to get in a room as soon as possible, and we want to get this resolved, because its a substantial amount of money, said Nelson. On Tuesday, supervisors awarded a bid for a new rescue vehicle to Barry Motor Ford for $60,980. The funds will come out of gaming proceeds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement To find previous coverage of the LEC project, click here or search LEC Project on our website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to SiouxlandProud | Sioux City, IA | News, Weather, and Sports. OTTAWA The fate of nearly 400 Canadian ostriches, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to save, now rests with federal justices in Ottawa. As the controversial case makes its way through court, members of U.S. President Donald Trumps administration, right-wing influencers and a Republican megadonor are urging the Liberal government to spare the ostriches that were exposed to bird flu. The Secretary has urged Canada not to kill the ostriches but to do further testing to try to better understand the virus, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services told POLITICO. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement MAGA supporters and Canadas "Freedom Convoy" which blockaded Ottawa for weeks over Covid-19 measures have coalesced around the cause, which they say is an example of government overreach, an erosion of institutional trust and outdated policies. In May, Kennedy advised Canadian officials that significant scientific knowledge may be garnered from following the ostriches in a controlled environment. Mehmet Oz, Trumps administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, even offered to house the birds at his Florida ranch. Billionaire John Catsimatidis, an active member of the save the ostriches campaign, has argued they have life-saving antibodies. On Tuesday, the three men sent new letters to Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government urging them to change their policy, said Universal Ostrich Farms, which owns the ostriches. POLITICO has not seen the letters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I know Trump is very aware of it, Katie Pasitney, whose parents own the British Columbia farm, said Tuesday afternoon in Ottawa. I guess we'll just see where that goes from here. In December, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency ordered a cull at the farm after tests confirmed two ostriches were infected with bird flu. Court documents show 69 birds died in December and January after the agency declared an outbreak. Pasitney maintains the big, beautiful ostrich eggs contain antibodies that have the ability to help animal and human welfare. If the flock is killed, the farm would close, she said. At the Federal Court of Appeal in Ottawa on Tuesday, Universal Ostrich Farms argued that the birds should be spared because theyre not sick. The ostrich owners are appealing the dismissal of their applications for judicial review, with a decision expected in the coming days. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Umar Sheikh, the lawyer representing the owners, is arguing for exemption from Canadas stamping out policy, which aligns with World Health Organization standards. The policy orders the culling of birds exposed to the avian flu to stop the spread of the contagious virus. [About] 400 birds remain alive without symptoms, Sheikh said in court. This case demonstrates how rigid policy application can produce unreasonable results, and why judicial review remains essential to the rule of law. In court, the CFIA argued its policy mitigates risks to animal and human health, while enabling international trade. Since 2022, more than 14 million commercial and backyard birds have been culled in Canada, including more than 8.7 million in British Columbia. Activists have set up a commune on the British Columbia farm to protect the ostriches. Theyve sold bumper stickers to raise money for legal funds, and created memes featuring ostriches holding guns and drones. These are decades of personalities and animals that have been touched by the hands of our family, and they've been raised by my mom's hands, by us as kids, Pasitney said. They have personalities, they're loved beyond belief. There's no replacing that. Since last Monday, when the Justice Department announced it would not be releasing documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein and his 2019 death in a New York prison, the MAGA movement has been up in arms. Prominent voices like Megyn Kelly are calling on President Donald Trump to fire Attorney General Pam Bondi. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino reportedly skipped work on Friday after a vicious fight with Bondi over the non-release. And a Truth Social post from Trump calling on his allies to stop talking about Epstein has not yet put out the fires. No issue has exposed the underlying fault lines in the MAGA tent quite like the so-called Epstein files, wrote Ian Ward, Politicos reporter covering the right. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So why the rage? Part of it is anger at hypocrisy. The MAGA base is deeply invested in the idea that Epstein ran a sex trafficking ring that he did not merely abuse young girls on his own, but rather gave other rich and powerful people the chance to do so, as well. Pretty much everyone in the administration, from Trump down, promised to get to the bottom of this story and now, theyre doing nothing. The conspiracy theorists go into the government, and they come back out and they say, Nothing to see here. There could not be a bigger betrayal, and that is why the heads are exploding all over the right right now, Nicole Hemmer, a historian who studies right-wing media, told the New Republics Greg Sargent. But theres something even deeper at work here. In telling his supporters to move on from Epstein, Trump is betraying a fundamental structure of his political movement: its populism. He is showing, in short, that MAGA is not truly a movement of the people against the elites, but rather, a politics that revolves around Trump himself. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The personal nature of Trumps political appeal is why he has managed to weather so many previous political storms, from the Access Hollywood tape to his several criminal indictments. While theres a lot of heat right now surrounding Epstein, I expect the outcome to be similar. But the current controversy is important nonetheless. It is powerful evidence that the notion of Trump as an authentic populist, rather than an opportunistic one, should be buried in Jeffrey Epsteins grave. Jeffrey Epstein as MAGAs defining populist issue Populism is one of those terms that people throw around very loosely. The most precise definition, to my mind, comes from a prescient 2004 article by the political scientist Cas Mudde called The Populist Zeitgeist. Mudde saw, long before Trump, that the future of Western politics would be shaped by populist politics. By populism, he did not just mean generic anti-establishment politics, but something more specific: an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, the pure people versus the corrupt elite, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonte generale (general will) of the people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The key word here is ideology. Populism is not merely a rhetorical style pitting elites against the people, but a genuine belief that this is the true axis of political conflict. In the populist worldview, the people have a unified set of common-sense beliefs (the general will) that would fix politics if implemented. The only reason it is not happening, for the populist, is that malign elites are preventing the people and their champions from holding power. In a populist movement like MAGA, the people are defined narrowly as only those good or true Americans meaning typically, though not exclusively, white rural Christian Republicans. Trump presents himself as their champion against the malign forces of globalist liberalism, personified by the Washington political establishment and coastal cultural elite (a construction that easily and regularly shades into antisemitism). This kind of populism is, as Mudde notes, morally binary; they are telling a story not of normal political contestation in a democracy but of epic conflict between the forces of good and evil. And on the right, Jeffrey Epstein became a stand-in for evil. His sexual viciousness and habit of hobnobbing with the rich and powerful everyone from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates cultivated a deep belief that everyone in the American elite class was secretly abusing children. These were not reasonable people that you might lose to in a fair election, but crooks who had corrupted the whole system in order to serve their own dark desires. For many MAGA believers, then, Epstein was not just one story among many. It was the master story of American politics: the skeleton key unlocking everything that they believed Trump was supposed to be fighting against. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement What about the Epstein story is so uniquely infuriating?Its the frustration of normal people watching a certain class of people get away with everything every single time, Tucker Carlson said in a Friday speech at the Turning Point USA conference. Trumps anti-populism Though Trump had embraced conspiracy theories about Epstein since the moment he died, it was always clear that he was playing with fire. Trump and Epstein were friends who partied together in New York and Florida a connection well documented in the public record. So is Trumps own history of sexual impropriety, ranging from credible rape and assault allegations to barging in on a changing room full of teen beauty pageant participants. Ive known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy, Trump said in a 2002 interview with New York magazine. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it Jeffrey enjoys his social life. Given these facts, Trumps decision to turn on Epstein theorists during his second term is unsurprising maybe even suspicious. Does Trumps name appear in some of the files, as his former ally Elon Musk has alleged? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Trumps dismissal is also ideologically revealing. In his Saturday post on Truth Social trying to defuse the controversy, he completely abandoned populist anti-elite rhetoric. Instead of pandering to the bases conspiracy theorists in some fashion, he ordered his followers to stop asking questions and trust the people in power. Whats going on with my boys and, in some cases, gals? Theyre all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! Were on one Team, MAGA, and I dont like whats happening. We have a PERFECT Administration, THE TALK OF THE WORLD, and selfish people are trying to hurt it, all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein, Trump wrote. For Trump, the Epstein story is not about a corrupt elite that he has vowed to fight but rather yet another chapter in the story of the liberal establishment persecuting Donald J. Trump in particular. They created the Epstein Files, just like they created the FAKE Hillary Clinton/Christopher Steele Dossier that they used on me, and now my so-called friends are playing right into their hands, he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Instead of telling a populist story about the people versus the elite, hes now telling a story of conflict between two groups of elites: the evil liberals forced out of power and the good Trumpists who now control it. Now that his movement controls Washington, he wants his followers to abandon their skepticism of power and simply trust that the government has their best interests at heart. LET PAM BONDI DO HER JOB SHES GREAT! Trump wrote in characteristic all-caps. This is not the logic of populism, but rather of personalism: a version of authoritarian politics that invests all power and authority in a single individual. This has always been central to Trumps appeal but has reached new heights after the failed assassination attempt last year. God miraculously spared the presidents life I think its undeniable and he did it for an obvious purpose. And his presidency and his life are the fruits of divine providence. And he points that out, obviously, now all the time and hes right to do so, House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a Tuesday morning press conference. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ideologically, personalist movements revolve around the celebration of the great leaders singular abilities and talents. Their unique brilliance gives them the ability to know whats right for the people and give it to them, even if the people themselves do not yet understand the workings of the leaders mind. They are essentially infallible; if they make mistakes, its because they were misled by incompetent advisers (what Russians call the good tsar, bad boyars maneuver). The Trump movement has deftly blended populism and personalism. When Trump was under four separate criminal indictments during his time out of office, he portrayed it as an attack on the MAGA movement in general by corrupt elites. Theyre not coming after me. Theyre coming after you and Im just standing in their way, Trump said in a 2023 speech, a line that would become a popular slogan among the MAGA faithful. But in the Epstein case, populist and personalist logics are coming apart at the seams. The populists are furious that Trump is abandoning the peoples crusade against the pedophile elites. Meanwhile, Trump supports Bondis decision to withhold the Epstein documents and is furious that his personal judgment is being questioned by his supporters. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now, I dont think this means were on the verge of a true grassroots MAGA uprising against Trump. Trump supporters are clearly angry now, but I doubt this rage will lead to a durable approval ratings collapse among Republicans. Every time someone has predicted such a rebellion in the past, theyve been proven wrong a testament to just how successfully Trump has convinced his base that faith in Trump the person is the ultimate expression of populist politics. He will either ride this out or give a concession, like Bondis head, that fits the good tsar/bad boyar personalist script. Trumps own leadership position will remain unchallenged. The Epstein story is defined by shadows. But now, its shedding a peculiar kind of light one that helps us see that populism is not the most fundamental logic of Donald Trumps movement. It is his personalism his ability to sell himself as the avatar of revenge against everything his base hates about contemporary America that makes MAGA such a cohesive and durable force in American politics. The cities are rotting and they are indeed cesspools of blood, President Donald Trump said while running for office. Why all the hate? Illustration: HuffPost; Photos: Getty President Donald Trump appears to have it out for American cities. In every one of his presidential runs, he described life in them as if it were something out of an 1980s horror movie: The cities are rotting and they are indeed cesspools of blood, he said in 2022, while announcing his most recent campaign. (Though he added, We are going to go and help them, even if they dont want the help. How magnanimous!) This wasnt just loose campaign talk. Last week, while making misleading claims about rampant crime in Washington, D.C. (despite what he said, its actually down), Trump suggested he could use the authority of the presidency to perform a federal takeover of major cities like the nations capital and New York City. (He may be from there, but he is not a fan.) HuffPost Life delivers practical, reliable advice to navigate lifes challenges and make informed decisions. Support journalism that empowers you join our membership program today. Other American cities, which tend to lean left and are often home to large immigrant populations, have gotten failing grades from the president, too: Chicago is worse than Afghanistan. Atlanta is a veritable killing field. A number of California cities are war zones and ganglands. D.C. itself hes previously called a rat-infested, graffiti-infested shithole. (Dramatic, but to be honest, he sounds kind of similar to Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who once called cities pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man.) The statements are worlds apart from how Trump describes the beautiful towns in red states, where voters more reliably vote for him. In a stump speech last October, he bunched up Indiana and Iowa and Idaho as a collective and called them states that you dont hear too much of because theyre so good and so well run. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement His administrations mass-deportation initiative has largely targeted Democratic-run cities; ICE has yet to reach more Trump-friendly industries in Trump-friendly parts of the country. Deeply blue Los Angeles is a particular fixation for the White House, with some wondering if its because deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller is from the region. Last month, when National Guard troops were deployed to L.A. during ICE raids, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Feds were coming to liberate Los Angeles from the socialists and the burdensome leadership. (The Trump administration has also signaled that it could send the military to even more American cities.) Had you never visited a city and bought into Trumps anti-city screeds, you might figure that criminals roam the streets and that protests (or riots, depending on what light theyre cast in) are a threat to you, no matter how many miles away you live. However, 80% of Americans live in or around a city. Urbanites are just as American as anyone who lives in the countryside, and whats more, cities drive economic growth for everyone. We all benefit when cities prosper. So whats the deal with conservatives maligning cities so hard? Is that really politically smart? For answers, we asked political science professors who specialize in the politics of polarization. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins the ICE operation as she accompanies numerous federal agents raiding a home in Huntington Park in Los Angeles, California, on June 13, 2025. In a presser, Noem said the Feds were coming to liberate L.A. from the socialists and the burdensome leadership. Anadolu via Getty Images Disparaging cities is big-time fodder for a cultural war that energizes voters. The tendency to divide the world into us and them is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Republicans have mined that for all that its worth, and such rhetoric reached apogee under Trump, said Jonathan Weiler, a professor of global studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In this case, the us are good, hardworking, real Americans, as Sarah Palin put it, who believe in an America that was rooted in traditional family structures, respect for authority and safe, wholesome communities, Weiler said. The them, he said, are the forces of cultural chaos, moral decay, engaged in a nefarious plot to undermine the wholesome America conservatives have long purported to advocate for. Of course, such tropes and anti-urban bias are nothing new. In the 1970s and 80s, Jerry Falwells Moral Majority engaged in a similar city-bashing politics because it played so effectively with the televangelists audience, Weiler noted. Trumps anti-city fixation has parallels to earlier Republicans, like Richard Nixon and George Bush, who in 1988 used inner city crime to attract voters who otherwise might have voted Democratic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Yphtach Lelkes, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said that framing cities as dangerous does more than raise concerns about crime; it signals that these places are morally and culturally different, even alien from small-town America. It tells rural and suburban voters that cities arent just far away, theyre run by people who dont share their values, said Lelkes, who co-directs the Polarization Research Lab, which looks at affective polarization, social trust, and political violence That perception fuels anger, disgust, and fear emotions that are powerful political motivators, he said. These feelings can mobilize voters, boost support for tough-on-crime or authoritarian policies, and create a strong sense of political urgency. A subway train moves on July 10, 2025, in Queens, New York City a city often maligned by Trump. Anadolu via Getty Images Its a message largely directed at suburbanites. When Trump lambasts Los Angeles or Detroit, hes not speaking to the people in those cities who loathe him or even directly to his rural base (though all the better if the base is revved up). Its actually suburbanites hes hoping to hook, said Kal Munis, an assistant professor of political science at Auburn University in Alabama. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The suburbs are composed of people, both who moved to them in order to be closer to the city former rural and small town folks and those who moved to them in order to distance themselves from urban cores, he told HuffPost. Its this latter category who his message resonates with, since again, many of these people already consciously chose to move out of the city, for various reasons, with the literature suggesting crime is often a leading consideration for such moves. A lot of anti-city talk is directed to suburbanites, said political scientist Kal Munis, since many of these people already consciously chose to move out of the city. Michael Warren via Getty Images Race is definitely a part of it, but theres more to it. Some have suggested that because cities are ethnically diverse, inner cities is a covert way to talk about race: Theres a long history in American politics of using terms like inner city as coded language to evoke racial anxieties without explicitly mentioning race, Lelkes said. Todays city symbolism goes beyond that. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement While race plays a role, whats often going unsaid is a broader rejection of the values cities represent in the modern U.S.: diversity, progressivism, intellectualism, and dissent. Its a culture war packaged in geography, Lelkes said. By no means is everyone who responds to city v. country rhetoric racist. Many are just drawn to candidates who promise to restore order and predictability to what feels like a chaotic and changing world. Still, that doesnt mean they cant be persuaded by demagogues who traffic in racism and think that a heavy hand is necessary to make them feel safe again. Lelkes said. Just like the states cities, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is a frequent target of Trump. Here, they meet at Los Angeles International Airport in January during Trumps visit to the Los Angeles region, which had been devastated by the Palisades and Eaton fires. MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images There are parallels to how authoritarian and fascist movements denigrated city life. Lelkes said theres also a deeper narrative at work one with echoes of authoritarian and fascist movements that have historically elevated rural life as pure, traditional, and virtuous, while casting cities as corrupt, elite and morally decaying. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That storyline simplifies the political landscape: cities become not just different, but dangerous; not just liberal, but illegitimate, he said. It helps transform political opponents into cultural enemies. A society can harbor and nurture some of the elements of fascism without becoming fascist, Weiler noted. The rightwing populism of Trump (or of Marine Le Pen in France, Viktor Orban in Hungary, or the AfD in Germany) is similarly characterized by the kinds of us versus them politics, including a demonization of certain kinds of elites, especially in academia, the media and the law and ethnocentrism that is especially focused on immigration, he said. A pro-Palestinian protester holds a Palestinian flag in a demonstration at the University of California Los Angeles on May 23, 2024 in Los Angeles -- a city President Trump has spoken ill of a number of times. VCG via Getty Images Republicans will keep doing it because they dont necessarily need voters in Americas cities. As economist Richard McGahey notes in his book, Unequal Cities: Overcoming Anti-Urban Bias to Reduce Inequality in the United States, when the U.S. was founded, it was a rural country, and as such, many founding documents are openly hostile to cities. (With guys like aforementioned city hater Jefferson partly running the show, no surprise.) Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The hostility towards cities gets built into the electoral college, McGahey said in 2023. Opponents of the Electoral College argue that rural states hold vastly disproportionate electoral power: Even though urban and suburban areas comprise the majority of the population, their political influence is diluted by malapportionment in the Senate and gerrymandering in the House and state legislatures, Lelkes explained. A rural vote can carry more weight than an urban one, he said. That allows conservative politicians to win majorities while explicitly running against cities and the values, demographics, and policies they represent. In this context, disparaging cities isnt just symbolic its strategic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It energizes the rural and exurban base without much political cost, because those urban voters are already packed into districts that wont change the electoral math, Lelkes said. Whether conservatives will eventually need to start courting city dwellers depends on how the political geography shifts, he said. Suburbs are already becoming more diverse and more contested, especially in swing states. If those areas continue trending Democratic, Republicans may need to moderate their anti-urban messaging to stay competitive, he said. But as long as the current system rewards geographic dispersion, theres still a strong incentive to keep running against the city even if the city represents the majority. Related... A Washington dad was treated like an animal by ICE agents who detained him Friday as he drove to pick up his four-year-old daughter, his wife told the Daily Beast. Guilherme Gui Lemes Cardoso E Silva, 35, was allegedly ambushed by agents who were waiting for him in an unmarked car when he drove onto a private road near his home on San Juan Island, near the U.S. border with Canada. Silvas wife, Rachel Leidig, told the Beast that her spouse has no criminal record and was working as an artist, having recently flown across the U.S. to paint murals. He had recent gigs in Austin, Texas, and in New York, which he traveled to using his valid drivers license. Rachel Leidig, left, said that her stepdaughter, center, is best friends with Silva. / Courtesy of family Leidig said her husband, a native of Brazil who entered the U.S. legally during the first Trump administration, also has a Social Security number and was in the final stages of obtaining a green card. She said he received a work permit and a Social Security number thanks to his first marriage, and was in the process of obtaining a green card for the second time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Silva and Leidig first met at a Flaming Lips concert in San Francisco in 2023, having been set up by a mutual friend. Leidig says they got married in April and that Silva planned to move in with her in Sausalito, California, soon. She said she is due to give birth to their first child in October. Rachel Leidig and Silva got married in April. They are expecting their first child, a baby boy, in October. / Courtesy of family Were having a little boy, she told the Beast. Were very excited, and [his daughter] Zahara is so excited... She continued, getting emotional, I just want him out so that [Zahara] doesnt have to grow up without her dad, because hes known for four years, whos her best friend, and I dont want our little boy to go without knowing his dad. Loved ones fear that Silvas whereabouts were phoned in to an ICE tip line. She said such a call may have been made to harm his chances in an ongoing custody battle. Silva was a lawyer in his native Brazil, his wife said. He became an artist in the U.S. and had recently traveled to Texas and New York to paint murals. / Courtesy of family Leidig said she is not aware of any other reason why Silva, who is trilingual and was a lawyer in Brazil, would be targeted by immigration authorities. ICE did not respond to a list of questions emailed by the Daily Beast on Wednesday morning about the case. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leidig is holding out hope that Silva, who is currently held at a facility in Tacoma, will be granted bond at a hearing this month. In the meantime, she said she is continuing to submit the final documents required to potentially obtain a green card for him. Everyone needs to be made aware that theyre being lied to [by the Trump administration], she said. Theyre not just getting criminals, theyre getting people just to get their numbers up. And its not just that theyre ruining peoples livestheyre ruining families. ICE has significantly increased its arrest numbers in recent months, widening its targets from convicted criminals to seemingly anyone undocumented that it can arrest. The spike came after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller mandated that ICE make at least 3,000 migrant arrests a day during a heated May meeting at its D.C. headquarters. He suggested agents start with raids on Home Depot stores, where undocumented day workers go to find jobs. Leidig said she and Silva had been on edge during the Trump administration, but never expected him to be arrested the way he was. She noted Silva is a father to an American daughter, a husband to an American wife, and has not missed deadlines during his green card and work permit process. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That good behavior has not lent him preferred treatment behind bars. Leidig said the food served to the health-conscious Silva during his first two days in custody caused him to throw up. He spent those nightsat an ICE facility in Ferndale, Washingtonsleeping on the ground in a crowded cell, she said. Reports show that the Ferndale facility is an unmarked warehouse located in a business park. Rachel Leidig and Silva met at a rock concert in San Francisco in 2023. Now, they are married with a child on the way. / Courtesy of family Leidig alleged that the officers who arrested Silva were unprofessional. Her husband claimed that they were laughing as they took him into custody and refused to show him an arrest warrant, despite assuring him that they had one. She described a disorganized process after his arrest, which included an ICE agent allegedly speaking to him in Spanisha language he is fluent in, but is not his native Portuguese. The agents were being rough with Gui until they realized hes educated, trilingual, and requested respect the whole ride, Leidig said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Leidig added that agents strip-searched her husband and inspected his tattoos, asking him if he had any gang affiliation, which she says he does not. Next came two nights in a cramped facility. He said there were like 35 people in a room, just sleeping on the floor and going to the bathroom and throwing up, Leidig recalled. Leidig said she has hired an attorney to assist with Silvas green card application and to hopefully secure his release on bail at a hearing this month. Her family has raised over $66,000 on GoFundMe to help cover legal fees. It is the time of year for wildfires and Utah has them popping up endlessly, it seems. The smoke from those fires can lead to higher levels of fine particulate pollution, or PM2.5. That pollutant is so named because these inhalable particles are 2.5 micrometers or smaller. How small is that? The size of a single strand of human hair is about 30 micrometers, so much, much smaller. These particles settle deep in the lungs and are unhealthy, with people advised to stay indoors and at the very least minimize outdoor activity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement PM2.5 pollution is spiking in many counties in Utah and is accompanied by the typical summer pollutant of ozone. It makes for a nasty mix of pollution that, unfortunately, has become more commonplace with the Wests ever-active wildfire seasons and extreme heat marked by stagnant weather patterns. Bryce Bird, director of the Utah Division of Air Quality, said the higher levels of PM2.5 are dogging areas like Washington and Grand counties. Those areas are in double digits, but have not exceeded the federal standard. It was a different story on July Fourth, when fireworks caused PM2.5 to exceed that federal threshold of 35 micrograms per cubic meter. Taking precautions Traffic flows along Utah state Route 111 in West Valley City on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News So our advice to people is to keep a close eye on our website, monitor conditions, and then take the necessary precautions, Bird said. Trust your senses. You know, if youre smelling smoke or especially the irritation in your throat, in your lungs, that again is a good indication to move activities indoors when you can and avoid that kind of exposure. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Bird said people can also go to fire.airnnow.gov which maps the entire country and hot spots for unhealthy pollution due to fire activity. Redding, California, for example, showed air quality at unhealthy levels. In the Chicago area, the air was deemed unhealthy for sensitive people. The map showed Utah generally in the clear. So with the large fires you can get some information about those. You can see what the large network of inexpensive air monitors across the country is showing. And of course, right now, its the upper Midwest thats giving the base impact from wildfires in Canada. Bird said it is useful for the overall picture of how wildfire smoke is impacting different areas. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Thats a good tool to see if theres a question about maybe whats causing the smoke. Thats a really good resource to see where those active fires are, he added. People can also check out airnow.gov to check general conditions regarding air quality around the country, Bird said. WASHINGTON (DC News Now) D.C. police are investigating after the windows of a Georgetown business were found shattered Wednesday morning. The Metropolitan Police Department told DC News Now that officers were called to Georgetown Carpet in the 1800 block of Wisconsin Ave, NW, at approximately 9:20 a.m. on July 16. Crews extinguish SUV engulfed in flames in Gaithersburg There, police found broken glass shattered along the sidewalk and a brick lying nearby. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The owner of the business Ben Tabar said he does not know why anyone would do this. A suspect has not been identified, and a full incident report has not been released. (Katherine Misuraca/DC News Now) Check DCNewsNow.com for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to DC News Now | DC, Virginia, Maryland News, Weather, Traffic, Sports Live. SPARTA, Wis. (WFRV) A 69-year-old Wisconsin woman was seriously injured after crashing into a light pole and the local City Hall building following a medical emergency. According to the Sparta Police Department, officers responded to a crash with injuries on July 12 at the intersection of South Court and West Oak Streets. 10-year-old Wisconsin boy taken into custody after fire at Walmart, estimated merchandise losses in the millions Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The investigation revealed that 69-year-old Pamela Leis of Sparta suffered from a medical event, causing her vehicle to leave the road and hit a light post and City Hall. She was seriously injured and taken to a nearby hospital before being airlifted to a different one. Two other occupants, identified as minors, were injured; however, they did not require medical transport as the injuries were deemed to be minor. No additional details are available. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton. Jul. 15SUPERIOR Hope Haven Peer Respite celebrated its grand opening Monday, July 14. "I am deliriously happy today and that's the word I'm going to choose, delirious, because it's a dream and a passion all coming together," said Chrissy Barnard, executive director of both Hope Haven and the National Alliance on Mental Illness Lake Superior South Shore. Peer respite centers are free, voluntary, short-term programs that offer support to individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. They focus on hope and recovery in a home-like environment. Building one in Superior has been Barnard's vision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I have struggled with my own mental health in the past, and I want to give people the knowledge that recovery is possible and give hope to people because hope is what saves lives, and I feel that's really important for individuals who are struggling with their mental health," she said. The center, located at 19 N. 21st St., is currently open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays. Barnard said they expect to be staffed 24/7 for overnight stays starting July 25. "Four people can stay at a time. And right now we're only accepting overnight guests from 10 p.m. Friday to 10 p.m. Monday, only just a little short duration, until we get more funding," Barnard said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement No diagnosis or referral is needed to access the free one-on-one peer support. Anyone can receive services by calling 715-665-HOPE. "So they can call us to drop in and get assistance, and just have a cup of coffee and talk with someone to get support. Or they can call and then get help filling out applications for housing or whatever they need to do," Barnard said. Peer support specialist Gen Martin called Hope Haven an option for people who are having struggles but don't want to end up in a hospital setting. "And I think more than anything, you get a sense of belonging as well, because the staff here, we all know what it's like to live with mental health struggles ourselves or addiction issues as well. And I think that can sometimes be the missing piece in areas of mental health," Martin said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Building Hope Haven has been a three-year process, fueled by grants from the city of Superior, Douglas County and the Miller-Dwan Foundation. "It's just a testament to the grit and perseverance of Chrissy. It's a great resource and I know that they've been getting calls from all over the state," said Eleni Pinnow, a member of NAMI-Lake Superior South Shore. "And I think, like, this has been a good model for the state of Wisconsin for other places as well. This should be the model going forward for a lot of community-based care." The city allocated $200,000 to NAMI-Lake Superior South Shore Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement to purchase the building and another $120,000 to fix and renovate the home. The one-time funding came from American Rescue Plan Act dollars. "The building is the city's contribution, but it's come a long way from when they first got it. It's really exciting to have this resource in Superior," said Mayor Jim Paine. "Access to mental health is one of the most important resources in any given city, especially for young people. It's the difference between a successful or a rocky start in life. So having resources for people who are in crisis, it's just a major hole that we have right now and this is going to help plug it." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Douglas County Department of Health and Human Services Director Anna Carlson on Monday presented Barnard with a check for $150,000 from opioid settlement funds the county received. The one-time grant will be used for staffing and operation for Hope Haven, which currently employs 10. "We will spread it out over the course of the year with our other funding," Barnard said. Now that it's open, the respite house is eligible to apply for a state grant that would kick in next July and operate the facility for five years, she said. Barnard is actively seeking additional grant funding as well. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There have been individual donations as well, such as the bookcase in the living room and the bed frames and nightstands in the bedrooms, all built by Bryce Pinnow of Wright, Minnesota. His wife, Bonnie, donated quilts for the beds. Donations continue to be accepted. Hope Haven is the seventh peer respite center in the state. The next nearest center is in Menomonie. "We know the development of these centers can aid in harm reduction, stabilization without hospitalization and overdose prevention," Carlson said in a prepared statement. "Douglas County is healthier when everyone has access to a safe, supportive and nonjudgmental space to reflect." A steady flow of people toured the facility Monday. "It's been a long time coming," said Terry Devlaeminck, a peer support specialist at the house. "I think it will help the police department and the ER out a little bit. This will be another place for people to come that are in crisis, but not in full-blown where they need medicine." School officials in southwest Ohio are "deeply concerned" after their districts didn't receive at least hundreds of thousands of anticipated federal dollars. On June 30, the U.S. Department of Education informed states that it wouldn't release about $6.2 billion across five federal programs, including money for English language learners, pending a review. The department did not provide a timeline. The decision trickled down to districts in Greater Cincinnati, which are encouraging lawmakers to release the funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Like many school districts across the nation, Princeton City Schools is deeply concerned about the delay in the release of critical federal education funds," district superintendent G. Elgin Card said in a statement. "Funding cuts will directly impact our gifted students, as well as additional support for our most vulnerable students." The Department of Education said in a statement the review is due to the change in administrations and that the department "remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with (President Donald Trump's) priorities." More: 15 Ohio school districts don't sign Trump office's anti-DEI letter before deadline Congress previously approved these funds, district officials said. Typically, districts learn the amount of funds they will receive in June, and the state gives them permission to start spending by July 1. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Southwest Ohio districts said the delay makes it difficult for schools to plan for the upcoming school year. "We were taken by surprise," said Adam Cooper, English Language Acquisition & Access Manager at Cincinnati Public Schools. Especially, he said, because the funds were already approved by Congress. "We have existing contracts, we have partial salaries, we have resources that we've already worked with," Cooper said, "and now, all of a sudden, with very little notice left, we're without all that we had planned on." Cincinnati Public Schools board member Ben Lindy described the freezing as "completely lawless" during a public meeting July 9. Frozen funds important for improving absenteeism, graduation rates among English learners One of the grant programs, Title III-Part A, provides money to support English learners. In Greater Cincinnati, 16 schools have student populations with one-third or more non-native English speakers. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most of these schools are within two districts: Princeton City Schools and Cincinnati Public Schools. Districts that receive these funds are also in charge of distributing money to private and parochial schools with English learners within the district boundaries. The funds can be used for instructional materials that supplement the general education for English learners. They can also be used to train general teachers who don't have experience teaching English learners in their classroom, Cooper said. Title funds can also be used to pay family engagement coordinators who work with families of English learners to help them understand expectations of school in the United States. Their work, Cooper said, is critical for improving graduation rates and decreasing absenteeism rates in the district. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Although the English learner funds are politically controversial, the actual amount Cincinnati Public Schools receives is relatively small. Cincinnati Public Schools receives less than $1 million dollars in Title III-A funds. This is a "tiny sliver" of what the district spends on its English learners, assistant treasurer Michael Gustin said. The funds are still helpful, he said. However, he is especially concerned about some of the other grants. The other funds in review include money for improving teacher quality and well-rounded instruction for students, Gustin said. One of the grants under review is for adult education. "They're going back to get their high school diploma, which, in this environment is a huge thing," Gustin said, "as we're trying to get people to grow the workforce." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement More: PreK, staff and curriculum: Cincinnati Public Schools' makes over 200 cuts Although Gustin said Title III is probably the smallest of the grants under review for his district, this is not the case for Princeton City Schools. In 2024-2025, Princeton City School District received roughly $240,000 in funding for professional development, $210,000 in funding for English learner services and $140,000 in funding for STEM Summer School, field trips and curriculum experiences for students, the district said in a statement. District officials said English language learner funds could be eliminated entirely Gustin is also concerned about the possible elimination of Title III-A funds from the federal government in the next fiscal year. He said that based on the early budget process for fiscal year 2027, there are signs Congress could eliminate these English learner funds. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cincinnati Public School officials fear the impact this would have on graduation and absenteeism rates. "It has an impact on the type of student that is sitting in front of us, whether they're ready to learn, or they're dealing with a host of other stressors," Cooper said. He added the loss of funds would also impact people's salaries. If these funds aren't available in the future, Cincinnati Public Schools will have to reassess its services and make more budget cuts. Gustin said the district will not get rid of English language services. "We have a legal and moral obligation," he said, "to provide services to these kids." Jessie Balmert contributed to this report This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: School leaders: Federal funds on hold affect most vulnerable students NEED TO KNOW A woman opened up about developing a rare skin condition that has left her feeling like she is "burning alive" Rachel Bradford, 30, was 24 weeks pregnant in March 2024 when she first discovered symptoms of a rash on her body; she was diagnosed with erythromelalgia nearly a year later in February The disease has been referred to as "burning man syndrome" and "the suicidal disease" due to the severity of its symptoms A woman is opening up about a rare skin condition that has left her feeling like her skin is on fire. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Rachel Bradford, 30, of Devon, England was 24 weeks pregnant in March 2024 when she discovered a red, "extraordinarily itchy" rash on her body, according to reporting by Independent and Devon Online. She said that she sought medical advice but was told by doctors that the symptoms were nothing to worry about and were likely related to her pregnancy. Her condition continued to worsen, with her skin experiencing burning sensations and blistering. She also said she suffered from numbness and uncontrollable spasms. Getty Stock image of a pregnant woman Stock image of a pregnant woman Bradford wouldn't receive a diagnosis until February 2025. In a video shared on TikTok, she said that she had been diagnosed with the United Kingdom's "worst case" of erythromelalgia, which she described as "one of the rarest and worst diseases you can get." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Over the months leading to her diagnosis, Rachel and her husband Jack Bradford, 31, watched as her condition developed. The former social worker was directed to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital after calling the UKs National Health Service number for non-life-threatening health situations. They told us it was nothing to worry about, and we were sent away, Jack said, per Independent. We were still being told it could go after pregnancy, it was just sort of brushed off. Rachel added, I felt no one was listening to me, no one was taking me seriously. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In May 2024, Rachel had to give birth via an emergency C-section. At the time, she said that her limbs were so swollen that she wasn't able to open her legs to give birth. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After giving birth, Rachel still felt like she was constantly on fire." She finally learned why upon receiving her diagnosis. According to the Mayo Clinic, erythromelalgia is a rare condition that causes extreme heat, changes in color of the skin on the bottom of the feet, such as redness or darkening of the skin. On a GoFundMe managed by Jack, he noted that the illness has been called "burning man syndrome" or "the suicidal disease" due to the severity of the symptoms. "Her skin goes black, blue, red and blotchy. Her skin is boiling hot to touch, she feels like she is burning alive all day every day. She has spasms, loses feeling in her feet, toes, hands and legs, which means she loses use of those limbs for a certain amount of time every day, she has no control over this," he wrote. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Her life has not been the same since the symptoms first started. It feels like Im burning alive, Rachel said, per Independent. This condition has taken everything away from me, pregnancy and motherhood, my job, my mobility, my independence I cant even play with my son. Jack added, Theres always a part of Rachels body which is constantly on fire and it doesnt go away. He said that if their son Michael sits on Rachel's lap for even just five minutes, it causes her thighs to flare up. Richard Sowersby/Shutterstock The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Torbay Hospital, where Rachel gave birth, apologized for her experience in the maternity ward after she and her husband submitted a complaint. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Last year we received correspondence on behalf of Rachel Bradford via our Patient Advice and Liaison Service in relation to the care she received from the Maternity Service at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust," Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust said in a statement issued to PEOPLE. "In our response we apologised that Rachels experience of her care was not a positive one; we are committed to learning from feedback and improving the experience of women and their families who attend our departments for their care," they added. The couple were also reportedly left disappointed when staff at Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where they were sent for treatment. Rachel said that she was told to "put some socks on" and that there was nothing else they could do to help with her pain management. "We are dedicated to providing safe, high-quality care to our patients with compassion and were very sorry to hear that Mrs Bradfords experience of care did not meet these standards," a Royal Devon spokesperson said in a statement to PEOPLE. "We would encourage Mrs Bradford to raise her concerns through our complaints process so we can fully investigate and respond to her concerns. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Due to the way she has been treated she has PTSD, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety," Jack wrote on the couple's GoFundMe. Per Independent and Devon Online, the funds raised will help the couple pursue alternative treatment methods, including a non-invasive therapy offered in Italy. Read the original article on People BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) An investigation by the Baton Rouge Police Department into threats made against people who were praying and officers led to the arrest of a homeless woman. Shenetta Funchess, 38, of Jackson, Miss., was charged with one count of hate crimes, two counts of threatening a public official, two counts of aggravated battery, one count of aggravated assault, one count of misrepresentation during booking, and one count of disturbing the peace. Officers responded to the St. Vincent De Paul shelter on Convention Street around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 12, and looked into a report that an emotionally disturbed person was threatening people with a knife, according to the affidavit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two officers arrived and found someone who fit the description they were given. BRPD said Funchess was seen yelling threats to a group of people praying while using derogatory language toward them due to them being Christian. Police said she made threats to hurt those who were praying. Funchess was told she was under arrest, and a knife was found during a search of a bag that she was carrying at the time. A witness told police that she was threatening to kill those who were praying while holding a knife. Police identify man killed in Baton Rouge shooting Wednesday morning While on the way to a BRPD station, the woman said she wanted to wrap and kill the two officers in the vehicle and would stab them the next time she saw them, according to the affidavit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement One of the officers was spit on more than once by Funchess during transport, BRPD said. They said in order to stop the battery, ASR was deployed into the back seat. Police said she refused printing upon arrival at the station. She was later booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on the same day as her arrest. Latest News Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Louisiana First News. Woman attacked by bear outside Wisconsin home in stable condition originally appeared on Bring Me The News. A woman is recovering after being attacked by a black bear outside her western Wisconsin home on Saturday, according to authorities. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says 69-year-old Karen Frye is now in stable condition at Regions Hospital. Meanwhile, the black bear involved in the unusual attack continues to evade authorities, despite several bear traps set at the site of the incident near Comstock. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The DNR has been working to capture and euthanize the bear since Saturday afternoon. But euthanasia is not always the standard practice following a conflict with a bear, according to Randy Johnson, the agency's large carnivore specialist. "Our actions in these types of situations are very carefully determined based upon the totality of the known evidence of each event," Johnson said in a statement. "Although we're still working to piece together every element of what transpired in this incident, we know enough to warrant attempting to livetrap at the location of the incident and humanely euthanize this bear if captured," he continued. Details of the attack According to the DNR, Frye called 911 after she was attacked while outside her rural residence. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Although the investigation is ongoing, preliminary findings, including information coming from the family, suggest the bear exhibited a sustained series of aggressive behaviors towards the victim," the agency shared. A cub was found in a tree near the scene of the attack, leading authorities to conclude that a female bear was responsible for Frye's injuries. The DNR caught and released a male bear during its trapping efforts but continues to search for the female bear. "If captured, the sow involved will be assessed once euthanized, including conducting a rabies test to determine whether injury or illness may have contributed to the bears behavior and to help assess rabies exposure and risk to the victim per standard human health protocols," the DNR said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The cub is old enough to survive on its own, according to wildlife officials, who said it will be relocated and released if captured. Black bear behavior Though black bears generally aren't aggressive towards humans, they can attack under certain circumstances, including in defense of their cubs. "Black bears can behave defensively when feeling surprised, cornered or to protect their food or cubs," the DNR said. "True aggressive behavior is both rare and distinctive from defensive behavior." Unfortunately, black bears that display aggressive behavior are an elevated risk for repeating the behavior. This story was originally reported by Bring Me The News on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared. STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) An Ohio woman was jailed in Centre County for cashing fraudulent checks in central and western Pennsylvania as part of a larger group of fraudsters from New York. Jennifer Carol Folzenlogen, 62, has been charged by local police in Blair, Centre, and Westmoreland counties for charges including theft, identity theft, forgery and writing bad checks, according to court dockets from all three counties. According to a criminal complaint filed by the State College Police Department, Folzenlogen allegedly took a fraudulent check for $180 at First National Bank on 25th Avenue in Altoona to deposit into the account of a State College woman. The woman received a letter from her bank, and she called the police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Through investigating, it was alleged by Altoona police that the victim had called them due to the check being deposited in their jurisdiction. According to Altoona police, they spoke with the banks security office, who informed them that the unknown female, later identified as Folzenlogen, went into the Altoona location on 25th Ave July 23 and deposited the check. According to charging documents, the office then alleged Folzenlogen was involved in 10 other fraudulent check schemes, saying she appeared to deposit checks to make sure the accounts were open and active, then withdraw money from another bank location. On July 9, State College police were informed by Murrysville police in Westmoreland County that Folzenlogen was taken into custody while allegedly attempting to commit a similar crime at a bank in their area, the complaint shows. Investigators alleged that Folzenlogen eventually admitted she was part of a larger group from New York that was committing fraudulent acts throughout the area. Stay up to date with the latest news in the palm of your hand. Click here to download the WTAJ app for Apple and Android devices. Folzenlogen was charged in Westmoreland County before being brought back to State College to face charges. She was placed in Centre County Prison with bail being denied. She has yet to be arraigned for her charges in Blair County. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com. MEMPHIS, Tenn. U.S. Marshals arrested a woman in Minnesota on Tuesday in connection to the murder of the son of Memphis rapper Project Pat. Talia Jones, 19, was arrested in Minneapolis and charged with facilitation of first-degree murder in connection to the death of Patrick Houston Jr. Talia Jones Houston Jr. was shot to death Jan. 10 near the intersection of Ketchum Road and Long Street in Memphis. Marshals said he was the son of Patrick Houston Sr., known as Project Pat. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A Memphis Police Department investigation linked Jones to the killing, and a warrant for her arrest was issued June 27. Woman charged with first-degree murder in February shooting Jones allegedly resisted arrest but was captured and is awaiting extradition back to Tennessee. WREG contacted Project Pat about the arrest; however, he says he does not want to comment at this time. Shelby County court records show that on October 24, 2024, Jones was arrested in Memphis for theft of property for allegedly shoplifting, and a week later, she was charged with aggravated assault during a domestic disturbance at her Ketchum Road apartment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to police, Jones and her girlfriend got into a fight that turned physical. Jones claimed her girlfriend grabbed a hammer, and she grabbed a knife to defend herself. During the fight, Jones said she cut her hand on the knife. Both women were taken into custody but the charge against Jones was dismissed due to lake of prosecution. A bench warrant was issued for Jones on June 2 after she failed to appear in court in the shoplifting case. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WREG.com. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) A woman was convicted of a lesser charge in a case related to a crash in January. Jaclyn Magurira was initially charged with OVI and reckless operation, but Youngstown Municipal Court records show she was convicted Wednesday of a reduced charge of physical control while under the influence. The crash happened at Salt Springs Road and Elberen Street around 5:50 p.m. January 15. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Reports said Magurira told police she was driving when a light went on in her car and forced it to jump the curb. The car went through a yard, hit a car in a driveway and pushed that car against a house. A witness told police the car Magurira was driving was traveling fast when it turned left from Belle Vista Avenue to Salt Springs Road and lost control. Reports said Magurira smelled heavily of alcohol, but she refused a breath test. Joe Gorman contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) A Bristolville woman accused of crashing a vehicle into a house after a police chase received her sentence last week. Zoey Hallam, 25, was sentenced to three years of probation on Wednesday in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas after pleading guilty in April to failure to comply with the order of a police officer, a third-degree felony. Along with Hallams sentence, she will have to pay fines, according to court records. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Police arrested Hallam on August 11 after she crashed a Chevrolet Suburban into a house on Pangborn Road in Leavittsburg. She was found hiding in the brush and taken into custody, according to a police report. Police said earlier, they tried to pull over a vehicle that Hallam was driving. A police report states that officers first spotted Hallam sitting in a vehicle at a gas station on Parkman Road and Summit Street. Officers were called there to investigate a report of a woman who was sleeping in a vehicle at one of the pumps. An officer tried to speak with Hallam but said she drove away at a high rate of speed. Officers caught up with her as the vehicle turned into the Avon Oaks apartment complex on Southern Boulevard, the report stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement According to the report, an officer got out of the cruiser and attempted to stop Hallam, who had pulled into a parking spot, but the report stated that Hallam drove toward the officer, causing the officer to jump back into the cruiser to avoid being hit. Hallam then drove away before later crashing into the house in Leavittsburg, according to the report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) Three women who went to the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital reported they had been hit by a vehicle. Read next: Traffic backed up due to crash involving semi-truck on I-80 in Trumbull County On Monday night, an officer spoke with two of the women. The third left before the officer arrived, according to a police report. The women showed the officers video of the incident and said it happened while they were at the Pit Stop gas station. They reported that they saw some girls fighting, so they went to watch when they were hit by a vehicle that drove through the crowd, the report stated. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The women said that after they were hit, they got into a vehicle and followed the vehicle that hit them as it took off on Youngstown Road. They reported calling police and said a dispatcher told them to stop following the car and wait for police to arrive, but they said no one showed up, so they went home, the report stated. The women said they later had pain from the incident, so they went to the hospital to get checked out. Police spoke with the dispatcher who took the call. The dispatcher reported instructing the women to stop following the vehicle, but said they refused, and the phone disconnected while they were somewhere in Niles. Niles officers could not locate either vehicle that was involved, the report stated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. The City of Woodstock has announced that after 27 years in law enforcement, Chief Robert Jones of the Woodstock Police Department is retiring. His last day with the department is Tuesday, September 2. Jones joined the Woodstock Police Department in March 2022. He also served 12 years in the United States military. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] The city will conduct a national executive search to recruit a new chief of police. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Serving this city and working alongside the dedicated men and women of this agency has been one of the greatest honors of my life, according to Jones. Together, we have built something remarkable, an agency rooted in integrity, professionalism, and service to our community. I will always be proud to have been a part of this organization. TRENDING STORIES: [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] The Brief Woodstock Police Chief Robert Jones will retire on Sept. 2 after over two years leading the department and nearly 30 years in law enforcement. The City of Woodstock will conduct a national executive search to find Jones' successor, with job postings available at woodstockga.gov/jobs. The Woodstock Police Department is nationally accredited and serves 35,000 residents and over 2,000 businesses, placing it in the top 5% of law enforcement agencies in Georgia. WOODSTOCK, Ga. - Woodstock Police Chief Robert Jones will retire this fall after more than two years leading the department and nearly three decades in law enforcement, city officials announced Tuesday. What we know Jones, whose final day on the job will be Sept. 2, joined the Woodstock Police Department in March 2022 following a 27-year career in law enforcement and 12 years of military service. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Serving this city and working alongside the dedicated men and women of this agency has been one of the greatest honors of my life," Jones said in a statement. "Together, we have built something remarkable, an agency rooted in integrity, professionalism, and service to our community. I will always be proud to have been a part of this organization." What you can do The City of Woodstock will launch a national executive search to identify Jones successor. The job posting will be made available at woodstockga.gov/jobs once the application period begins. Why you should care The Woodstock Police Department serves the citys 35,000 residents and more than 2,000 businesses. The agency is nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) and certified by the State of Georgiaplacing it in the top 5% of law enforcement agencies in the state. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Located 30 miles north of Atlanta, Woodstock is recognized as a Georgia PlanFirst Community and has received the Georgia Municipal Associations Live Work Play City Award. The Source The city of Woodstock provided the details and image. A meteorite that is the largest known piece of Mars on Earth has sold for a hammer price of $4.3 million to an anonymous bidder at a Sothebys New York auction Wednesday. Known as NWA 16788, the meteorite weighs 54 pounds (24.5 kilograms), massive compared with most Martian meteorites, which tend to be small fragments, auction house Sothebys said in a July 8 statement. Meteorites are whats left when a comet, asteroid or a meteoroid survives its passage through the earths atmosphere. A close-up view of the meteorites surface - Sotheby's Discovered in November 2023 in the remote Agadez region of Niger, NWA 16788 is a monumental specimen that is around 70% larger than the next biggest piece of Mars ever found on Earth, according to Sothebys. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is also incredibly rare: only around 400 Martian meteorites have ever been found on Earth. NWA 16788 is a discovery of extraordinary significance the largest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth, and the most valuable of its kind ever offered at auction, Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of science and natural history at Sothebys, said in the statement. Weathered by its journey through space and time, its immense size and unmistakable red color sets it apart as a once-in-a-generation find. This remarkable meteorite provides a tangible connection to the red planet our celestial neighbor that has long captured the human imagination, she added. Analysis of the meteorites internal composition has revealed that it was probably removed from the Martian surface and blasted into space by an asteroid impact that was so powerful it turned parts of the meteorite into glass. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement A glassy crust can also be seen on its surface, formed as it hurtled through Earths atmosphere, according to Sothebys. For some, the fact that the meteorite was auctioned off rather than donated to science is cause for concern. It would be a shame if it disappeared into the vault of an oligarch. It belongs in a museum, where it can be studied, and where it can be enjoyed by children and families and the public at large, Steve Brusatte, a professor of paleontology and evolution at Scotlands University of Edinburgh, told CNN before the sale. But for Julia Cartwright, a planetary scientist and Independent Research Fellow in the Institute for Space/School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Leicester, England, there is a balance to be struck. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ultimately, if there was no market for searching, collecting and selling meteorites, we would not have anywhere near as many in our collections and this drives the science! she told CNN on July 9, describing a symbiotic relationship between researchers and collectors. If samples werent being found, we would not have anywhere near as much to study, and so wouldnt know as much as we do, added Cartwright. While she believes it would be great if this really fabulous rock were to be studied or displayed for the public to see, Cartwright underlined that a reference sample from the meteorite has been saved at the Purple Mountain Observatory in China. While we dont know where the meteorite will end up, Cartwright believes that the scientific interest will remain, and the new owner may be very interested in learning from it, so we may still gather lots of science from this, she said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In February 2021, a Martian meteorite with the planets atmosphere entrapped in it went under the hammer at Christies auction house. It sold for $200,000, far above its pre-auction estimate of $30,000-50,000. For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com Eight healthy babies have been born in the UK using a new IVF technique that successfully reduced their risk of inheriting genetic diseases from their mothers, the results of a world-first trial said Wednesday. The findings were hailed as a breakthrough which raises hopes that women with mutations in their mitochondrial DNA could one day have children without passing debilitating or deadly diseases on to the children. One out of every 5,000 births is affected by mitochondrial diseases, which cannot be treated, and include symptoms such as impaired vision, diabetes and muscle wasting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In 2015, Britain became the first country to approve an in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) technique that uses a small amount of healthy mitochondrial DNA from the egg of a donor -- along with the mother's egg and father's sperm. Some have called the result of this process "three-parent babies", though researchers have pushed back at this term because only roughly 0.1 percent of the newborn's DNA comes from the donor. The results of the much-awaited UK trial were published in several papers in the New England Journal of Medicine. - 'Important reproductive option' - Out of 22 women to undergo the treatment at the Newcastle Fertility Centre in northeast England, eight babies were born. The four boys and four girls now range from under six months to over two years old. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The amount of mutated mitochondrial DNA -- which causes disease -- was reduced by 95-100 percent in six of the babies, according to the research. For the other two newborns, the amount fell by 77-88 percent, which is below the range that causes disease. This indicates the technique was "effective in reducing transmission" of diseases between mother and child, one of the studies said. The eight children are currently healthy, though one had a disturbance of their heart's rhythm which was successfully treated, the researchers said. Their health will be followed up over the coming years to see if problems arise. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Nils-Goran Larsson, a Swedish reproductive expert not involved in the research, hailed the "breakthrough". The new technique offers a "very important reproductive option" for families affected by "devastating" mitochondrial diseases, he added. - Ethical review - Mitochondrial donation remains controversial and has not been approved in many countries, including the United States and France. Religious leaders have opposed the procedure because it involves the destruction of human embryos. Other opponents have expressed fears it could pave the way for genetically engineered "designer babies". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement An ethical review carried out by the UK's independent Nuffield Council on Bioethics was "instrumental" in conducting the new research, the council's director Danielle Hamm said Wednesday. Peter Thompson, head of the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority which approved the procedure, said only people with a "very high risk" of passing on a mitochondrial disease would be eligible for the treatment. Ethical concerns have also been raised over the use of mitochondrial donation for infertility in Greece and Ukraine. French mitochondrial disease specialist Julie Stefann told AFP that "it is a question of the risk-benefit ratio: for a mitochondrial disease, the benefit is obvious". Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "In the context of infertility, it has not been proven," she added. Oxford University reproductive genetics expert Dagan Wells observed that "some scientists will be a little disappointed that so much time and effort has, so far, only led to the birth of eight children". Among the children being closely monitored are three that showed some signs of what is known as "reversal", which is still little understood. It is "a phenomenon where the therapy initially succeeds in producing an embryo with very few defective mitochondria, but by the time the child is born the proportion of abnormal mitochondria in its cells has significantly increased," he explained. dl/gv Israel has launched several air strikes in the heart of the Syrian capital, Damascus, as clashes continued in the southwestern city of Suwayda after a truce between government forces and Druze armed groups collapsed. Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israeli forces struck near the entrance to the Syrian Ministry of Defence on Wednesday, hours after he had demanded Syrian government forces withdraw from Suwayda. Another strike hit near the presidential palace, on the outskirts of the city. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At least three people were killed and 34 others were wounded in the attacks, Syrian state media reported, citing the Ministry of Health. The attacks on Syrias capital come amid continuing unrest in the city of Suwayda, where local Sunni Bedouin tribes have been engaged in fierce clashes in recent days with fighters from Syrias Druze minority, whom Israel views as a potential ally in Syria and claims to be intervening to protect. Damascus deployed its forces to the city on Tuesday and declared a ceasefire, but the fighting quickly resumed. Here is how the world is reacting to Israels attacks on Damascus: Russia The Foreign Ministry on Thursday strongly condemned the Israeli strikes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The new wave of violence in Syria is deeply concerning, the ministry said in a statement. The Russian side has repeatedly condemned Israels arbitrary use of force in Syria. These attacks, which constitute a gross violation of the countrys sovereignty and international law, deserve strong condemnation. We are convinced that the path to solving this problem lies through dialogue and strengthening national unity, it added. United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US was very concerned about the escalation in violence. Were going to be working on that issue I just got off the phone with the relevant parties. Were very concerned about it, and hopefully, well have some updates later today. But were very concerned about it, Rubio said United Nations United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Israels air strikes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Secretary-General further condemns Israels escalatory airstrikes on Suweida, Daraa and in the centre of Damascus, as well as reports of the IDFs redeployment of forces in the Golan, Guterress spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. Turkiye Turkiyes Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attacks and said they were an attempt to sabotage Syrias efforts to achieve peace, stability and security. The Syrian people have a historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world, the ministry said. All stakeholders who support this opportunity should contribute to the Syrian governments efforts to restore peace. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Omer Celik, spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogans governing AK Party, also condemned the attacks. Israels attacks pose a security threat to the entire region and the world, Celik wrote on X. The parliament approved a motion to strongly condemn Israels vile attacks against Syria. Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that the attack had been all too predictable, adding that Iran supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria. Which capital is next? he asked on X. The rabid Israeli regime knows no bounds and only grasps one language. The world, including the region, must unite to end its unhinged aggression. United Arab Emirates The Foreign Ministry said it condemned Israels attacks, saying that it fully rejected any violation of Syrias sovereignty. GCC The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates condemned the attacks in the strongest terms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In a statement, GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi said the Israeli attacks were a flagrant violation of Syrias sovereignty, a breach of international laws and norms, and a serious threat to regional security and stability. Albudaiwi reiterated the GCCs support for Syrias territorial integrity, adding that the continuation of Israeli attacks constituted an irresponsible escalation and disregarded international efforts to achieve stability in Syria and the region. European Union Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, said on X that he was very concerned about the Israeli strikes on Damascus, adding that Syrias sovereignty and territorial integrity need to be respected. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I call on all parties to refrain from violence and to de-escalate, he said. Norway The Norwegian foreign minister said that Israels recent strikes could undermine efforts towards a peaceful transition of power in Syria. Deeply concerned about recent Israeli airstrikes and rising domestic tensions. The escalation risks undermining efforts towards a peaceful, Syrian-owned transition, Espen Barth Eide wrote on X. He said he was alarmed by the escalating violence in Syria and urged all actors to exercise maximum restraint. Kuwait The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement condemning the attacks, calling them a heinous aggression that caused severe damage to infrastructure and public facilities. The statement warned that the violence risked plunging the region into further chaos, instability, and bloodshed, and urged the international community to step in. The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantics David Frum opens with a warning about President Donald Trumps decision to shut down the conversation around the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Frum explains why Trumps move has triggered backlash from parts of his own base and why it reveals a deeper political fracture inside the MAGA movement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then Frum is joined by the former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who shares his insights on whats happening at the bureau during Trumps second term. Strzok, who is still engaged in a lawsuit with the government over his 2018 firing, explains how Trump loyalists such as the FBIs director, Kash Patel, and its deputy director, Dan Bongino, are dismantling the agencys national-security functions: purging experts, sidelining investigations, and leaving the United States dangerously vulnerable to terrorism, foreign espionage, and cyberattacks. The following is a transcript of the episode: David Frum: Hello, and welcome to another episode of The David Frum Show. Im David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest this week will be Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who has become a victim of President [Donald] Trumps campaign of retribution against those who tried to apply law against him. Our topic was the hollowing out of the FBI in the second Trump term, and my original plan was to have a monologue that would address that very specific subject. But there have been some dramatic events this past weekend at the FBI, including threats of resignation or reported threats of resignation by both the director and the deputy director to protest the attorney generals directive to shut down the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Because of that, I am changing plans and recording this monologue late on Sunday evening, before the release of the show, which will explain to those of you viewing on YouTube a certain stepping-away from the usual high aesthetic standards we try to maintain for the visuals of The David Frum Show.These dramatic events caught me between planes, and Im speaking to you from an airport hotel and not one of our usual venues. I want to offer some thoughts about the Trump-Epstein matter. Lets look at this for a moment from the point of view of a MAGA supporter, a MAGA believer. Now, if you are such a person, you have refused to take seriously and accepted President Trumps excuses for a long array of shocking eventsincluding confirmed findings by a civil court of sexual abuse, massive self-enrichment, the attempted overthrow of an American election in 2021and you have agreed to accept the presidents word on every one of these matters until now. Suddenly, with the Epstein case, theres been a mutiny in MAGA world where theyre abruptly no longer accepting, or many of them are no longer accepting President Trumps orders to step away from an investigation that is embarrassing to him. Theyre no longer believing the things that Donald Trump tells them. And the question that those of us who are not in MAGA world must ask is: Why now? Why this? Now, obviously, the Epstein matter is intensely serious: many, many cases of sexual abuse of underage women and girls, with overlays of financial corruption and many other allegations, including a highly suspicious account of the death of the figure at the center of the case, whether by suicideeven if the official story is suicide, and even if you accept that, there does seem to be something very wrong with the logs. And there are just a lot of questions. So it is a grade-A scandal. Im not in any way denigrating that scandal to say other scandals that were also important have been shrugged off by MAGA world. What is it about this one? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement After all, supposing you were someone who really wanted to get to the bottom of the Jeffrey Epstein matter, wouldnt it be that Donald Trump would be about the last politician in America you would trust to lead the investigation? He and Epstein were friends for a long time. But President Trump, in interviews and other statements, made light of Jeffrey Epsteins connections to underage women. They spent a lot of time together. They were good friends, and theres more and more evidence, some of it in a new book by Michael Wolff, of an even closer relationship than that. And after all, if it is the death that is concerning you aboutthe suspicious circumstances of Jeffrey Epsteins deaththat happened not during the Bill Clinton presidency, not during the Barack Obama presidency, not during the Joe Biden presidency. The death happened in the Donald Trump presidency in a prison supervised by Trump administration officials. So if you are wanting to get to the truth of this, why, ever, would you have trusted Donald Trump to do it? And yet so many people in Trump world looked to Donald Trump as the man who would bring this story to truth, and now profess to be shocked and surprised when a person who was so close to Jeffrey Epstein at the last minute says, You know what? Were closing the book on this matter. No more investigation. Why are they surprised? I think the answer to that is that MAGA world, or the people in MAGA world who are really excited about the Epstein matter, thought they had a deal with Donald Trump. And the deal was they would look away from the highly specific Trump-Epstein relationship, the connections betweenthey would make excuses or pretend to believe them or say Donald Trump and Epstein broke off relations at some point in the past, over business matters. Some people will even tell you that Donald Trump discovered late that Epstein was an abuser of women and was so shocked and offended that he broke off his relationship with Epstein. Let those believe that who will. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But they thought they had a deal. Bracket Trump, leave Trump out of the story, and Trump in turn would license them to go on a hunting expedition against all the people they really hated. A long list of liberal icons, people likepeople whom they dislike for other reasons who were in the Epstein network. If Trump would justthey would stand back from Trump and he would then deliver to them justice against their ideological and other kinds of opponents. Theyre mad, these people, because Trump reneged on that deal. In order to protect himself, he ended up protecting a lot of other people, too, or so people in MAGA world who are excited about this issue believe that this has been taken away from them. And for some of the people who are the loudest influencers, losing the Epstein file, having Donald Trump say, There are no records, theres nothing to see here, everybody stand down, thats not just a threat to their belief system. For many of them, its a threat to their livelihoods. For a lot of influencers, Epstein was central to their engagement strategies, very lucrative engagement strategies, and they now have the choice: If they accept the Donald Trump edictif they say, Okay, well stand down, as President Trump saysthen what do they do for engagement? And the Epstein engagement came with an extra-special spicy sauce because for those who really got into this, it was not just an unfortunate coincidence or a happenstance that Jeffrey Epsteins name happened to be Jeffrey Epstein. For some of the people most excited about Epstein, the fact that Epstein had a Jewish name and a Jewish background opens the door to a whole world of conspiracy that they deeply believe in: a kind of anti-Semitic version of QAnon. Remember: The accusation that Jews are child molesters is one of the foundational myths of conspiratorial anti-Semitism. From Hugh of Lincoln and the belief that Jews were murdering English children to get blood for matzo to Fagin in the Oliver Twist novels, this has been a long line of conspiratorial suspicion and accusation, and Epstein seemed perfectly to fit the bill, especially since Epstein had some relationships with some people in the Israeli government. And so for the people who want to blow apart the U.S.-Israel relationship, or who wanna believe that Israel is somehow masterminding the United States, Epstein was perfect. And when they see Donald Trump closing down the investigation, that ignites a lot of their fears that Donald Trump may be suspiciously close to Israel too. I wont say the names. You will know the names. You can easily find the names of the MAGA influencers who have made a very specific point that Epstein is being protected by Trump in order to protect Israel. So this is an essential threat to all of them: an economic threat, an ideological threat. Donald Trump broke the deal. They protect Trump; he gives them Epstein. Hes not giving them Epstein. Now, all this is to say, Epstein was a genuine, serious sexual and probably financial criminal, and many people do seem to have been involved in this network, and theres a lot of stuff here to find out. And Donald Trumps actions over the past days have made it all the more urgent to findto get to the bottom of this. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But this break between Donald Trump and conspiratorial and the conspiratorial version of the Epstein story may turn out to be of great political significance as well as moral legal significance. The Trump world is composed of many, many different factions, and theyre not all conspiratorial and theyre not all anti-Semitic, but the conspiratorial, anti-Semitic group is important. Theyre not negligible. Until now, theyve had nowhere to go. But you know whos been a big hunter-down of the Epstein story? That is Elon Musk. Now, when Elon Musk announced the formation of his so-called America Party, I have to admit, I was at the beginning very skeptical that this party would go anywhere. Now, third parties have been important in the American past. The Free Soilers in the 19th century; free-silver and Greenback parties in the 19th century; Prohibitionist parties, socialist parties in the 20th centurythose have been important parties. But third parties become important in the following way. There is an issueslavery, alcohol, the coinagethat the two big parties, for some reason, dont want to touch. So it remains, it remains outside the party system, but its important and a lot of people care about it, and a lot of people care about it more than they care about anything else. And so people with many important political differences can sink those differencestheyll say, Were uniting around the cause of free soil. Were uniting on the cause of greenback money. Were uniting on the cause of socialism or temperance and sinking previous disagreements. So thats how third parties work. Where third parties fail is when they are just a grab bag of people who are unhappy with the existing two parties. Thats Ross Perots Reform Party in the 20th century, or Andrew Yangs Progress Party, or Forward Party, I think it was called, in the 21st century. They were dissatisfied, but dissatisfied for lots and lots of different reasons. So they found it very difficult to agree and to work together, unlike the people who united around the single issue: third parties that have been successful. So Elon Musks America Party looked to me at first a lot like the Ross Perot or Andrew Yang version of a party. Hes got a lot of grievances, highly idiosyncratic to him. Hes looking for other people with other grievances. They may or may not agree with him. It was going to be a mess, and it was going to sink. But suddenly, theres an opportunity for him to create the kind of single-issue, outside-the-party-system party that has been successful in the pastlike Free Soil, like Greenback, like the others. If he turns the America Party into the get to the bottom of the Jeffrey Epstein case, no matter how much it hurts Donald Trump party, thats something that can unite a lot of people who might otherwise disagree. And its a real issueand as Donald Trump signifies every day, much realer than anybody thought before this weekend. It is a real issue. There is a secret there now; exactly what the secret is, we dont know, but it seems very worth getting to the bottom of. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I quoted on X, Twitter, an old Scooby-Doo cartoon, with its message, If the best friend of the deceased villain tells you, Dont look in that locked closet, that locked closet is the place you need to look. And if Elon Musk wants to lead the search expedition, hes going to find a lot of people willing to follow him, and he may be able to make an effectual, damaging third party, after all, something that looks a lot more like the successful third parties of the past. If he simply subtracts from the Trump coalition, its most conspiratorial elementsagain, thats not a majority of American society, thats not tens of millions of people, but its an important part of the Trump coalition. Important enough that Trump gave away Health and Human Services and medical safety in order to appease the conspiratorial anti-vax faction. Now hes alienated the conspiratorial Epstein faction, and that may be costly to him if they suddenly discover they have a place to go. And now my conversation with Peter Strzok. [Music] Frum: Im very grateful to welcome today Peter Strzok to The David Frum Show. I imagine that Peter will need very little introduction to most of the viewers and listeners to this program, but just in case: Peter Strzok had national fame thrust upon him against his will. A career FBI officer who specialized in counterintelligence, he was a senior member of the team that investigated both Hillary Clintons use of a private email server and Donald Trumps tangled connections to the Russian government. When private messages of his were revealed, he became a target of intense personal attack by then-President Trump and by the pro-Trump media. Peter is now fighting a lawsuit for reinstatement and back pay. He teaches at Georgetown University and is the author of the best-selling book Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald [J.] Trump. Peter, welcome to The David Frum Show. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Peter Strzok: David, its great to be here with you. Thank you. Frum: If I mayand dont go into any more detail than your lawyers will allowbut could you give us a sense of the state of play of the litigation you brought against the United States government and the Trump administration? Strzok: Sure. So there were two broad aspects of it. The first was that the government had illegally released text messages that I had sent, and that case settled with [the Department of Justice] last year for $1.2 million. There is an ongoing aspectwhich, as you indicated, I want to be careful to respect the court because it is an ongoing processbut essentially, sued under two broad, sort of, aspects. One: that the FBI violated the First Amendment by engaging in viewpoint discrimination, notably that because the things I said about Trump led to my termination rather than anything that was outside of protective First Amendment activity. And then some procedural aspects to employment law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But that case is still ongoing. Its still, you know, after we filed in 2018, so were seven years later, but I have hopes that that will be resolved later this year, and favorably. Frum: Let me ask you today about your former agency. Donald Trump and the people around him malign the FBI as part of a deep state. And I often think if you remember that when they say the deep state, they mean the rule of law, thats very clarifying. But theres some comfort because you think deep state, I guess its really solid. It must go deep. It must be hard to damage or remove. But youve often explained that thats not true, that the FBI is a much more fragile institution than outsiders may understand, more damageable than outsiders understand. What is it? Could you explain the vulnerability of the FBI to malign leadership at the top? Strzok: Absolutely. And its interesting; I take your point that there is some, you know, this idea of the deep state actually in my mind is very much, as you said, the rule of law is and stands for a professional bureaucracy with a capital B that is a professional civil service that weve built up over hundreds of years that is not immune from corruption, but is notably different from a lot of places youll see in the developing world or even in places like Russia and former Soviet states. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But I think what peopleyou know, when it comes to the FBI, and we can talk about it maybe a little bit later as well, that, you know, the FBI certainly has a troubled history, a checkered history. If you go back and you look at some of the abuses of the Hoover era, particularly with regard to the civil-rights movement, particularly with regard to offshoots of the fight against communism, and you know, theres, to be clear, there was a Soviet effort to infiltrate the U.S. government. There was a Soviet effort to steal the secrets of the atomic and later hydrogen bombs, so the threat from the Soviet Union was real. However, there were certainly under the McCarthy era and sort of the intersection between the Soviet Union and civil society in the U.S.there were abuses and I think most notably, certainly with some of the bureaus activities related to Martin Luther King. But if you look at the reforms that were put in place following the 70sand some of that was part of the civil-rights movement, part of that was the establishment of FISA [the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] and the creation of laws to kind of rein in and govern what the FBI was doingthose led to, again, starting in the early, mid-70s, decades upon decades of sort of guardrails being put up around what the FBI could or could not do, and separating the FBI fromand the Department of Justicefrom the political winds coming out of the White House. Having said thatand I think a lot of people say, Yes, were all aware of that. Were veryyou know, theres this tradition in the FBI and tradition in the DOJ that were separated. Theres this wall between DOJ and the White House, and I dont think people understand that while that is true, a lot of that is not because of law. A lot of that is because of agreement. And if you look at the time of the Church and the Pike Committees, Congress is very much engaged not only in doing investigations, but creating legislation of how are we going to regulate what the IRS does or doesnt do when it comes to things that the direction of the president are, you know, targeting certain taxpayers or protecting that information? How are we going to regulate what the CIA and other members of the intelligence community, what theyre able to do domestically and not do domestically? And laws were writtennot executive orders, but laws out of Congresslimiting and putting sort of an infrastructure around what those organizations could do. When it came to the FBI and DOJthen I think it was Attorney General [John] Mitchell, if I recall correctly; I might be wrong about thatsaid, You know what? We dont need Congress to pass any laws. We can police our own house. Were going to create these. I think it was Attorney General [Edward] Levi, actually Frum: Attorney General Mitchell, John Mitchell went to jail, went to prison, lets not forget. Strzok: Yes, he did. He is far from the person who created reform within the bureau, so yeah, sort of the Levi guidelines, right? Frum: These are the beginning of the modern era of the FBI, which is, okay, theres the Hoover era with many abuses. Theres a period of rapid chaos under President [Richard] Nixon, but then after, in the Ford administration and afterwards, there was an attempt to put the FBI for the first time on the basis of a sound legal footing with clear delineation of what they could do and what they couldnt do. And although for me, maybe for you, the 1970s seem like yesterday, in fact, its now half a century that these laws were in place, and those are the laws that are now in question. And my question to you is, I think a lot of people think, well, theres a limit to what a Kash Patel can do. But as youve explained to me in the past, actually either a lot of informal levers that hes got, and when we hear, for example, that hes saying, Well, were gonna redeploy agents to other cities from Washingtonthats not just a management decision. Thats a tool of power. Strzok: Yeah, absolutely. And so a couple of points to that. One, there is a tremendous amount of discretion when it comes to the FBI director because these guidelines were not ever sort of enshrined in law. They were things that were internally adhered to by the FBI and by DOJ. But the downside is, they could be easily changed and you see themPam Bondi, one of the things she very quickly did is say, Were going to change, sort of, the rules and regulations about what we do with members of the press. And some of the restrictions when it comes to issuing subpoenas or the process, were going to look at those in a different light. But when it comes to, particularlyany director, but Kash Patel, in particular, some of the things weve talked aboutthe bureau is very small. I mean, sum total is probably roughly 35,000 people. The number of special agents is roughly 13,000. Your listeners might say, Well, thats actually really large. If there was a company, that would be a huge company. But if you compare and contrast that to the Department of Defense, the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, certainly its a very, very small organization. And if you look at the amount of power that the FBI has, and then you sort of create a ratio of number of people compared to the amount of power, its an extraordinarily powerful organization. And so for somebody like Kash Patel to be able to come in and say, We are going to shift all of these resources, he has a huge amount of leeway to do that. Now, some of thatand last point Ill make on thissome of thats reasonable, right? Donald Trump ran on immigration. People knew that he separated children from their parents at the border in the first administration, and a plurality of the voters went out and voted for more of that. And so I think we need to be cautious in this debate to be able to say some of the prioritization of the use of the Department of Justice, the use of the FBI, there is a presidential prerogative that elections have consequences. But I think what were seeing is not just a shift of HeyI want you to focus on immigration, but a massive, massive reorganization at the expense of other needs. Frum: You made the point in one of our conversations that when you hear the FBI director say, Were going to move 500 agents from Washington, D.C., to Birmingham, Alabamawell, I dont know if thats the number, but a certain numberwe think of that as, Oh, okay. Well, maybe you should be closer to the different parts of the country. What people dont understand at the point you made is, FBI agents have spouses with careers, they have children in schools. They have homes and mortgages. When you give the FBI director the power to move a certain number of people from one place to another, you getand he has discretion over which to pickyoure giving him an ability to force people out of the bureau because some of the people are told, You have to move. The spouse will say, Well, honey, I cant move. So I think in the best interest of this family, you will need to find new work. Or, We have a child with a learning disability. There is no school in Birmingham that can help our child. So our family cant move. And if the director knows that and he says, Aha, theres an agent I dont like and that agent has a spouse with an important job or a special-needs child and they cant move. If I give that agent the order to move to Birmingham, its as good as firing that agent. Strzok: Yeah, thats absolutely right. And I mean, theres a soft-power, sub-rosa element to if you understand that those things can be done, that you can use that ostensibly under the idea of, Were just shifting resources investigatively. But if you understand full well that, whatever percentage of people arent going to do that, or very specifically to your point, if you know somebody that youre trying to get rid of, or a group of people that youre trying to get rid of, you can use the prospect of reassignment to increase the cost of staying. And I think weve seen that. I mean, I dont know that it, its not specific to, Were going to move you to a field office to help out ICE with rounding up immigrants. But we have seenor at least its been reported, and Ive heard through the sort of chain of current and retired agentsa large number of agents who in some way, shape, or form were linked to causes that Kash Patel doesnt like, and Donald Trump doesnt like, and Pam Bondi doesnt like, and so whether they were engaged in investigations surrounding January 6, whether they were engaged in Trumps alleged maintenance, illegal maintenance of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, whether they were engaged way backand you still see John Ratcliffe at the CIA releasing things about 2016, the Crossfire Hurricane investigation and Russias influence on and attacks against the 2016 electionsall of those people you see having these different sorts of formal and informal pressure placed upon them to move them out of the way, either by resignation, retirement, whatever the case may be. Frum: And the special benefit of a Kash Pateland again, I only know this because I learned it from youso, the restraint on perversion of the FBI is that most FBI directors really have cared deeply about the FBI as an institution. And theyve made, sometimeseven the ones who were not very Trumpy made compromises to protect the FBI from Trump. So if you had an institutionally minded but pro-Trump director, when they got the order, Move people to places, not because theres a real need to have them go, but because thats the way you can get rid of the people investigating the president, there are a lot of people who would be pro-Trump but would have proper credentials [and] would say, But I have to protectthose are some of my best people. Like, The person you want me to fire is my leading expert on currency fraud, my leading expert on counterterrorism. Im not prepared to lose that person, even though I dont agree with that persons politics. The special genius of Kash Patel is he just doesnt care. He has no regard for the FBI as an institution. No, I mean, if we say theres a special Nobel Prize for Bobby Kennedy Jr. as maybe the worst Cabinet secretary, not just of this administration but of all time, the most inappropriate, the most who shouldnt have the job, Kash Patel may not quite match a pro-polio secretary of Health and Human Services, but hes an honorable mention, right? Strzok: Absolutely. And its not only malevolence and lack of care; its also lack of competence. Like, I mean, he could notone, he doesnt care and he is just going to go and do whatever the presidentand I think they, what the interesting question is all the people, like, clearly Donald Trump is the motive force and at the FBI, its Kash Patel and to a certain extent Dan Bongino who are motive force, but there are people around them who are taking care of the particulars or informing them of the particulars to be acted on. But for Kash, its not just a lack of caring; its an utter lack of knowledge. And to my point earlier, like, the FBI is tiny. There are not enough, things we faced every day or that there are notand the FBIs not alone in thisthe FBI does not have enough personnel and investigators to cover the threats on his plate. There are not enough FBI agents and analysts and investigators to counter all the threats of terrorism, counterintelligence, white-collar crime, public corruption, gangall of it. You name it, theres not enough. So it is very much, one, youre having to prioritize which threats you do work, and it is essentially very much a zero-sum game. If you take people off of one topic, youre putting them on another, but youre losing somewhere else. But for Kash Patel, because he never worked in the bureau, because he had no experience in DOJ to speak of other than some line headquarters prosecutor, he would not be able to tell Pam Bondi or any of the people at the White House, Lookif we move these people to work immigration, youve got to understand were going to not be working on this or not be working on that, and your exposure and your threat in those areas, your call at the end of the day, but if you do this, this is the cost that youre gonna have to pay in the way that trickles out down the line. And my hope was he would be so incompetent and so uncaring, hed be happy to just enjoy the posing and photos and let the professional careers run the place. But I think hes proven to be a little bit more malicious than that. Frum: Yeah. Well, also theyre taking the precaution of making sure that he has a similar deputy, that he doesnt have some by-the-book person. But with the lack of background, the normal response would be, Okay, lets have a steely, competent, schooled deputy. But instead, they have someone who may be even more committed to Trump. And who does haveI mean, Ive seen Dan Bongino throw a water bottle at somebodys head. He does have some impulse-control issues. I want to ask you about one of the areas where things are not being secured while other priorities go to the fore, and that is specifically the problem of counterterrorism. The United States under President Trump has now struck Iranian nuclear sites. We hope that that is a decisive result and we hope its the end of the U.S.-Iran conflict, but it would be unwise to assume that. So Trump keeps insisting its all over, but the Iranians get a vote. One obvious move that they would havetheyve used it beforeis to strike targets by terrorism inside the United States and targets of interest to the United States around the world. What is the state of our counterintelligence facilities? There are a lot of reports that suggest there have been important resignations, that there are less qualified people running counterterrorism. How does that look to you? Strzok: Well, I think there is very much a greater vulnerability than there was prior to Kash Patel showing up. I mean, I think the problem with Trumpand this is a microcosmtheres a lack of understanding that all these external actors have agency, right? Were going to treat our Western European allies like crap, not understanding in Canada, thered be a 51st state, not understanding that, you know, that these are people and entities and states that are going to respond in a certain way. Well, the same thing goes for a terrorist organization. The same thing goes for Iran, which, as you know isin terms of the size and national capacityis an economic force from the Middle East to South Asia, is a significant, huge, huge country, particularly when you line it up against many other Gulf states. So when you take the double sort of factor of one, a direct physical violent action against Iran and their nuclear capacity. When you take what has gone onat least reportedly in the press and what Ive heardthat a large number of people who were being forced out, whether because they were perceived to be loyal to [Christopher Wray or God forbid, Joe Biden. The sort of winnowing process as you move up the chain in the FBI takes a long time. I mean, you goagain, like many organizations, but at the FBI as an agentthe people who arrive, traditionally, at the senior level of the organizations have gone through a variety of assignments, both in the field as an investigator, as well as at headquarters doing a variety of things to gain expertise, to run larger programs, to interact with the interagency community and to understand, say, youre a counterterrorism agent. Youve worked as an investigator, perhaps against the IRGC. Maybe youve worked against a QAP; youve come back to headquarters Frum: What are IRGC and QAP? Strzok: So the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. So Iran, in an intelligence and counterterrorism aspect, largely exercises external power through client terrorist organizations through either the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Quds force, in particular the IRGC, but also some activity through their foreign-intelligence service, which is the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, or MOIS. Frum: And what is a QAP? Strzok: Al-Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula. So thats a, you know, not necessarily, that isnt, I wouldnt call them certainly at all, an Iranian client organization. But in the terrorism context, as an agent, youre going to work a variety of these different targets, both as an investigator and then back at headquarters. And maybe youre supervising all these different cases across the FBI. Maybe youre embedded at the CIA. Maybe youre interacting from time to time with Congress helping to draft legislation. And you move up the chain gathering greater and greater experience. And so by the time it gets to the point where youre on that senior staff advising the director and deputy director what to do, youve had probably 20 years of various experience learning this and doing this. Well, when you come in with purges, and youre Patel and Bongino and trying to get rid of everybody so you can bring in peopleand again, director of the FBI largely, it depends, but typically is an external-facing figure. They interact with the Hill; they interact with the public; they interact with the White House. The deputy director of the FBI traditionally has always been an agentDan Bongino first in memory who isntwho has a deep understanding of how the bureau works and an accomplished track record within that organization. So then theyre gonna rely on the next level down, which all go by the title of executive assistant directors, EAD. Well, theyve forced all those people out. And in some cases, the level below that theyve forced outthe assistant directors, the people in charge of the counterterrorism division, the person in charge of the counterintelligence division, the person in charge of the criminal division. Well, if you force those next two levels out, youve essentially got two people at the top who have no idea what theyre doing relying now on the fifth level downnot to say theyre not good agents there, but they just havent had the time to sort of gain that experience to be able to advise at the level that theyre suddenly being asked to do. So thats a very long-winded way to your question. When it then comes toweve bombed Iran, we are supporting in many ways Israeli efforts against Iranthat when it comes to a potential Iranian response, whether thats through proxies, whether they have sleeper personnel here, whether they have visitors capable of coming into the United States, whether they have established capabilities out of the Iranian intersection or the mission to the UN. The people who know that, the people who are on the street who have that knowledge, one, at a senior level may be gone; two, at a street level, may have gotten pulled to go work, to your point, immigration in Birmingham. So theres a realthere arent sort of idle agents, the Maytag repairman just sort of sitting around waiting for a call. If you are moving somebody to work on a task, you are necessarily removing them from whatever they were doing before. And in some cases thats going to be terrorism. And if you say, Okay, well, its truewere gonna continue our focus on Iran, well, then youre gonna have to find your pound of flesh somewhere else. And so maybe youre not looking at other, you know Frum: I want to get to the other thing; I want to say something more about counterterrorism. This is actually one of the anecdotes I did not learn from you about the FBI, but at the senior level of the FBI, it is a deluge of information about things, terrible things that could happen. And most of the information is wrong. Its either false from the beginning or its exaggerated, or its tainted, and a lot of the bureaucracy of the FBI is a sorting mechanism to be able to rapidly to work through false positivesand by the way, this is not just tips from a concerned citizen. These are foreign governments thatsometimes the foreign government has information. Sometimes its imperfect. Sometimes they have an agenda. They want you to look at somebody for whom theyre mad at for some other reason. But theres this deluge and so a lot of what the FBI has set up to do is to siftI guess you dont sift a delugebut to strain the deluge of information and with always the fear that you might miss a true positive, which would be, as happened, thats 9/11, that all the information to stop 9/11 was present somewhere inside the United States government. It just was never connected in ways that allowed the government to act effectively and save all the lives that could have been saved. So youre haunted by that memory, and so when you start breaking things, its not just that youre not in the field sniffing for clues, its that you have no way of managing this onslaught of vast quantities of warnings, of terrible things that might happen. Strzok: Right. I think thats an excellent point. I entirely agree with that. Part of what you do is, theres a continuum of that sort of lesson as a baby investigator, as a probationary agent learning to understand what things are worth doing and what things are kind of spinning your wheels. And thats whether youre working an individual case or whether you expand out and youre running an entire program, whether thats the entire terrorism program, the entire counterintelligence program, to have that sort of expertise that builds up over time to understand that if Im faced with allegation one or element of information one, if its bona fide, one, I would expect to see all of these other things. And here are the people I can ask to inform me whether those things are present or not. Or ordinarily, if they were present, they would be telling me. And because Im not hearing it from them, Im going to question that and know, Heywhy arent we seeing this from this internal element? Or, Why arent we hearing this from the NSA? Whatever. And its very hard to sit there and to explain to anybody in two minutes on a podcast or a four-minute answer at a congressional hearing, how complex those systems are. And it kills meand I dont want to turn this into a gripe session about the senior management of the FBIDan Bongino goes on Fox News and he acts astonished that everything we face is a 10 out 10, like the nines out 10, we dont even hear it. And I barely get home to see my wife and its like were divorced. Its like, Dude, what the hell do you think has been going on for the past 20, 30, 40 years by all the people at the FBI and youve been on the job for five minutes and youre complaining? Its like, yes. And the problem is: If you dont have that expertise, you are going to tend to flail. And if youve gotten rid of all the other people who can act as sort of wise consiglieres to tell you, Look, bossit sounds bad, but this really is probably not what we should be focusing on. Let whoever run this out. Here are the things that you really need to focus on. Those people, those voices dont exist anymore, and theres only so much you can do to reach down and pluck somebody upagain, there are a lot of really great agents and analysts, but they just, they dont have that benefit. You cant suddenly bestow on somebody an extra five years of senior experience. You cant do that. And thats what theyre missing, if they care to begin with. And Im not certain they do. Part of me thinks, there are things they do care aboutchild predators, I think they actually care about, violent crime I think they care about. Frum: Why do you think they care? What makes you think that? Because they falsely accuse innocent people being child predators all the time. Strzok: I think some of it, it plays into, they have this imageand you see it, whether its Kash Patel or Kristi Noemall these people, and theyre playing dress-up, right? Theyve got their tactical gear on. Kash Patel wears this little badge around. I think they have an image in their minds eye informed by what theyve seen coming out of Hollywood about what a sexy FBI or whatever it is theyre cosplaying. And so those things that they think are easy to articulate, theyre going to lean into that and say, We took this many child predators out of play. Good thing. But I would argue a lot of different things the FBI should be focused on in addition to that. Frum: Yeah. Im not going to concede thatI think if youre attracted to crazy conspiracy theories about child predators, youre not that interested in child predators. Someone who cared about child predators would say, You know what? Im going to invest the time to learn about this issue and see where the threats are because, obviously, child abuse is a huge problem. Youd learn about it. And if you cant be bothered to learn about something, and if you instead get all your information from insane QAnon groups, that tells me, you know what? You dont actually care what you, you care about pursuing tribal enemies and you want to accuse them of the worst thing you can believe that they might be guilty of, but you dont care enough about the underlying issue to learn, how does it work? Where are the guilty? Where are the non-guilty? How do you apportion resources? How do you really chase this thing down in a way that actually will save children? If you cant be bothered to learn, I dont believe you really care. Strzok: Yeah, and I think theyre fundamentally lazy, and Im talking about Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. I think Kash Patel has spent the, you know, entirety of his life cozying up to political figures that he could hitch his wagon to, whether its Devin Nunes and then Donald Trump and otherwise selling God knows what on various podcasts, whether its, you know, I dont know, but things that are not of substantive value. And same with Bongino. You know, manufacturing and selling outrage for a podcast does not create a value add to society. Frum: Hey! (Laughs.) Strzok: It is selling outrage, not informing. (Laughs.) Theres informing with informed reasonable expertise. And then theres just selling outrage thatI dont think they care. And some of itI mean, again, you know, one of the built-in good things I think about the FBI is its too big for them to have a role in field officers out there investigating crime. And so sometimes when you get successful investigations leading to arrest, Im willing to grant the argument that theyre not truly interested in whatever it is. But when theyre presented with the fact that the Miami Field Office just arrested these 12 people for topic X, if that makes for a sexy tweetand by the way, we can open for debate, I have never seen any FBI director, let alone deputy director on social mediaBut one thing that Patel and Bongino were doing, prolifically, are posting to Twitter/X, going on Fox News, going on Joe Rogan. They are playing like everybody in the Trump ecosphere; theyre playing social media in a fundamentally different way than has ever been done by the FBI. And we can debate whether its good or bad, but it has a different impact. And the question is gonna be: When we, God willing, return to normal times, should we maintain that? Or is that something we should try and put back in the box? But thats an interesting phenomenon. Frum: Let me ask you about a slightly different area of vulnerability from the counterterrorism file, and that is counterintelligence. Now, it didnt have to be that the countrys chief federal-police force was also the countrys counterintelligence service. Other countries do not necessarily organize things that way. Ive had a chance to put this to senior people at the FBI, and they have defended the duality of these missions and say its a source of strength to the United States that the FBI does both. Im not well informed enough to have an opinion, but it doesnt have to be that way, and other countries do it differently. But it is that way here, and so lets talk about the risk. First, tell us what counterintelligence is. Define that in case anyones unfamiliar. Strzok: So I would say counterintelligence isin the case of the U.S., the U.S. response to foreign nations who are engaging in clandestine intelligence activity in the United States. So whether that is trying to steal trade secrets, whether that is trying to steal our secrets of the CIA or the FBI, the Department of State, whether thats trying to clandestinely influence public opinion, all of those things that, you know, China, Russia, Iran, Cubas version of the CIA would be doing, the FBI is the primary organization within the United States to combat that, to prevent it, to roll it back, to prosecute it where they can. But because it tends to be very classified, it doesnt get talked about a lot traditionally, but it isI think, again, a lot of your listeners would be very surprised to hear about the level of effort and resources that are put into protecting the United States against those foreign efforts. Frum: Now, this is where you invested a lot of your career. Can you give us any sense of specifics about what the condition of that work is in the second Trump presidency? Strzok: Well, I think its strained. I think you have what we talked about earlier, a huge loss of expertise, certainly on the counterintelligence side. You have a lot of emerging threats. And when I say emerging, these are things that because of changes inchanges in the world, in one case, you know, changes in the information space, and changes in social media, weve seen a proliferation of perception management, foreign influencetype activities, whether thats, you know, people think about the Russian attacks on the 2016, 2020 elections, but also think about things that our team might be doing to influence public opinion about the war in Ukraine. Think about things that the PRC might be doing to influence U.S. perceptions about Taiwan, or about the Uyghurs or about the Dalai Lama. These sort of both traditional things like a Russian Soviet spy trying to recruit somebody in the CIA along with these influence-type operations along with, you know, Chinas efforts to surpass the United States and the global economic sphere. Whether its like stealing the secret sauce of why American jet engines are so vastly superior to anything that the Chinese can make, whether it is looking at emerging AI models or supercomputing models or quantum technology and trying to steal that to then take it and incorporate it in the Chinese manufactured goods or technology. All of those things are going on. And so when you say were going to take 30 percent of our workforce and move it over to rounding up immigrants, not even violent immigrantswere just going to round up immigrants so we can get our numbers upthose people come, not entirely, but one of the places they come from are all those folks who are doing it. So not only do you have, its a sort of a double whammy. Youve got a brain drain, particularly at a senior level of people who are getting forced out because a lot of them, by the way, senior counterintelligence people happen to be involved with the investigation of Donald Trump allegedly maintaining illegally classified documents at his place at Mar-a-Lago. You have any number of people who were in some way, shape, or form looking at combatting foreign influence in our elections. And so whether it was 2016, whether it was things like the Biden laptop, whether it was whether or not the Chinese were or werent trying to influence our election, the people who had the expertise and knowledge to do that are getting forced out. Units are getting disbanded. In the case of foreign influence, theres an entire task force that was disbanded with a corresponding set of folks at DOJ reportedly that were all reassigned somewhere else. And so youve got both expertise loss and on the ground youve got investigative-manpower loss. And so those things, theres no question in my mind that we are more vulnerable than we were. And this is a microcosm of Trump. Trump is very much, hes, like, a day trader. At the end of the day, he just wants to be ahead, right? How do I look? How am I doing with the trade deal? There is nostrategic thought for him is four hours from now. It is not five, 10 years from now. And when you have an adversary like China whos got five-, 10-year plans where theyre saying, Where do we wanna grow our economy? Where are we behind in the West? What are the technologies that we lack? Okay, were gonna recruit scientists. Were gonna steal it if we need to, and were gonna go about it methodically for years and years and years and years. Youve gotta respond to that threat in a similar long-term way. And when youve got somebody in charge trickling down that just wants that big I just wanna close up my books ahead at the end of the day. I want a snappy tweet at 1 a.m. that I can say Im the best, the biggest, the most awesome. Frum: I wouldmy analogy is a little darker than the day trader. I have always thought that Donald Trump, before he became president, most of his business career since he took over the business from his father was as someone who was bankrupt a lot of the time. And so his job every day was keeping the creditors at bay for the next 24 hours. And any lie would do to keep the creditors at bay for the next 24 hours. And then you worry about Tuesdays creditors on Tuesday, because thatll be a whole different problem. Strzok: Its the con; its the con. That is the confidence-man MO, is exactly the same thing, right? Its like, at some point, Ive got to persuade you to give me the money. And when the shell isnt there, Ive got to distract your attention over here. Frum: But theres a bureaucratic problem. If you get the order from the top at an agency, like the FBI, we want to see you arrest or detain 1,000 suspected illegal migrants a day, everyone can see whether you got 998 or 1,002; thats very visible. And tomorrow, if you got 996 versus 1,003, thats very visible, and the agency can keep feeding resources to the challenge until it meets the numerical target. But theres noin the counterintelligence world, theres no numerical target. How do I know whether weve had a successful day, week, month, year of thwarting schemes? Especially since many of the operations are classified; many of the biggest successes are thwarting things before they really can get organized to happen. Like, the Chinese are trying to steal something. Theres a person at a company who has the knowledge theyre trying to steal. That person is under some kind of stress. You quietly alert the company. Youve got an insecure person in this job. Maybe they need to be doing something else. Maybe you need to move them to accounting or move them to HR, put somebody more trustworthy in that place. Youve done enormous work, but how does anybody measure that day? Yes, we got north of a thousand detainees. Oh, today we fell, you know, below. You cant. And so bureaucracies do tend to, even with the best will in the world, overinvest in things that are measurable at the expense of things that are important. And with the worst world will in the world, then it becomes even more of a risk and threat. Strzok: Absolutely. I have a formative memory in the FBI; I was an analyst. I started out my career as an analyst working in domestic terrorism, and I had the extraordinary fortune of sitting next to Elliot Richardson at a dinner, and he asked, he was like, Oh, the FBI. He started talking about what I was doing and Frum: Past attorney general of the United States. Strzok: Yes. One of the primary moral fiber during the mass firings, and resignations, during Nixon. But he said, upon hearing I was working terrorism, he said, You know, Ive always been fascinated about how you measure something when success is not visible or measurable. And I think thatsagain, you articulated it well. I think that is the challenge of every organization when you work in something where, when the bomb doesnt go off, when the secret isnt stolen, when somebody doesnt do something, that is a result, in many cases, of resource expenditure and effort. But trying to articulate that is necessarily vague, is necessarily fraught with, Well, can you assure me that it was your efforts and your seven agents doing that, that caused this? And you cant. And so when it comes to somebody who is sitting there on the one hand getting pressure from Stephen MillerYou must arrest 3,000 whatever it is a day. You have to, you have to, you have to. And you get on a call with all the other field officers that the FBI, the special agents in charge, and Dan Bongino and Kash Patel say, What are you doing in your field offices? And one special agent in charge says, Well, we arrested and deportedwe got 3,100 people over to ICE this month. And somebody else says, We got 2,700 over to ICE this month. And when it comes time at the end of the year to determine ratings and bonuses, your SEC bonuses based on performance, the easiest way to do that? Yeah. Well, okay. Yeah, so you did a bunch of, you threw a bunch of people at the Chinese intelligence threat, but I dont reallyyeah, China bad, but I dont really know what it means. Yeah. But you add, you know, over the course of the year you add 25,000 folks arrested and given to ICE. Yeah, thats great. And so Im gonnaheres your bonus. Heres your performance appraisal, and youre the kind of person we need back at headquarters for a promotion. So if you are craven, if you are interested in career advancement, even if youre not craven, but nevertheless want to advance, its clear that the metric that is going to be heavily weighted is that. And the same problem was out there with [J. Edgar] Hoover. One of the biggest problems was he loved, again, same issue, like, oh, bank robbers, like literally interstate transported, stolen property, ITSP, those things that the FBI first started doing, tangible, measurable, they look sexy. You went out and you arrested a bank robber. You compare that to like, Well, we stopped, you know, the government of X from doing Y. Its hard to compete. Frum: Or worsewe dissuaded the government of X from investing the resources to try Y. Strzok: Yes. Frum: Because they knew it wouldnt work because were there. This is a chronicI think, going back to the 9/11 analogy, one of the things that happened after 9/11 was the decision was made to harden cockpit doors. What if somebody, a year and a half or two years before 9/11 said, You know, why dont we harden the cockpit doors? Why dont we do that? See how that maybe that would be an improvement. And they did it. We would probably now be studying that hardening of cockpit doors as an example of government waste. Right? Strzok: Yes. Frum: We hardened all the cockpit doors. It cost all this money. No one ever tried it. Nothing ever happened. Why did we ever do that in the first place? What a waste of time and money. Government overregulation hardening cockpit doors. This is the great injustice of government. No one ever knows whats behind door number two, the thing that didnt happen, the thing that you prevented. Strzok: Right. And, you know, thats one of the critiques of DOGE, right? Like, why does this function, why does this entity exist? Its like, well, its, you know, they never get used or its not necessary. Its like, well, in many cases its because five, 10, a hundred, whatever years ago, something horrible happened and we decided, you know what? The cost of this to protect against this happening once every 20, however infrequent it is, is important enough that were going to spend money to put resources into doing it. And even the people doing it sometimes dont understand why theyre there. And again, look at all the people who took the fork, right, and resigned from the National Weather Service, and whether or not, you know, the impact that, you know, I dont want to get into debate about whether or not that impacted the response in Texas. But coming into hurricane season, the government is not a private company. The government efficiency and ruthless cost-cutting and return on shareholder investment is not the analogy of what, necessarily, government should do. And particularly in the counterterrorism counterintelligence context, you know? Its one thing if youve got somebody out there whos building a bomb, but to your point, somebody who might consider, Well, you know, I do want to build a bomb and theres this synagogue over there, and I think Im going to try and get a couple of people to attack it. But if you know that, Well, God, but the FBI just arrested a couple of people for trying to do the same thing. Its really hard for me to try and get explosive material because the FBIs all over it. Im not going to do it. That. Right. You cant Frum: Yeah. Strzok: Youll never know that. Frum: A friend of mine had an example that made this very vivid. He worked in the Air Force, and one of his assignments was he worked as the, whatever you call the particular officer who works the controls of an intercontinental ballistic missile. And every day, his job was to drive across the prairie, go down a silo, sit at the bottomand there are various things you had to do to keep things, you know, training exercises and maintenance, but mostly your job was reading paperback novels because you werent allowed to take any electronics down there, reading paperbacks and coming up. And youd come home and your wife would say, Well, honey, what did you do at work today? And the answer was nothing. (Laughs.) It was a really good day because were going to pay you, Mr. Ballistic Missile Officer, we want to pay you for what we really hope is at the end of your 30 years, your productivity was zero. You fired not one of those suckers. Thank you very much for your non-service. Were really grateful for it. Strzok: To your first question, where do we standbetter or worse? In my opinion, unequivocally worse. Yeah. Because there are people who dont understand it. They dont care to understand it. In many cases, they couldnt if they tried because theyre just notthis isnt even the B team, right? These are the people. Its like nobody in the first term wants to work for them again. So this is like the last of theyou know, theyre there because of loyalty, not because of competence, and thats part of what ensures their loyalty. Frum: One more point about systems in that, I think one of the things that, when you think about the United States government over my lifetime, which began in 1960, heres the most obvious example. Think of how many human beings did it require in 1960 to produce, process, send, and deliver a Social Security check. A few, right? You had to, you know, keep the records. How many does it require now? Like, fractions of one because its all done electronically. An organization like the FBI, think how much effort went into records management in 1960 versus how little has to go into records management today. So the agency is that the federal government has been upskilling. This is, I think the thing that the DOGE people really didnt understand is they constantly compare it, the federal government, to the DMVwhich, by the way, is a slur on the DMV. But leave that aside. I dont think people understand that the federal government is the largest purchaser of information technology on Earth. And the federal civil service has been upskilling at a blistering pace with just all kinds of clerical functions ceasing to be done by human beings. And given that agency numbers have been, I think in most places, pretty static since the Kennedy administration, what that means is that people who used to be doing jobs of records management or mailing Social Security checks are now doing other things. We have more, and so their work becomes more and more demanding, more abstract. Also a little, sometimes a little harder to explain because everyone knew what a file clerk did. Everyone knew what it meant. Okay? Im the person who, you know, feeds the Social Security checks into the postage-stamp-issuing machine. But its a little hard to explain that youre the person in charge of, you know, investigating how disabled somebody must be in order to qualify for a disability pension. Strzok: A couple of thoughts on that. One, it is so much easier to break it than it is to fix it, both in terms of the resources to break it versus the resources to fix it. And the other thing is, its like climate change. Theres a delayed response. Its like when the coyote runs off the cliff and hes still kind of running, but hes suspended in the air and he hasnt fallen into the scribbling little puff of smoke. We have run off the cliff in many directions at this point, and you cant get back to the cliff. At some point, that bottom is gonna fall out, and hopefully its only a four-foot drop and not a 200-foot ravine. But againand it isnt intuitivethese systems have become so complex. Its not, you know, the Jenga 20 stack of blocks where you pull one out and you know its gonna fall. Its this elaborate, complex system where youre willy-nilly pulling. Well, its still running. Yeah. But you just, right, you stuck yourself off the cliff six years from now, the next pandemic from now, the next hurricane from now, the next terrorist attack from now. And youre not gonna know it until you go to turn on the radio or go to do something and it doesnt work. And then youre shit outta luck. SorryI shouldnt swear on your show. Then youre outta luck. Frum: Lets leave it there. Strzok: Yeah. Frum: Lets just hopeI say, lets just hope we are lucky, because luck may be the best friend the United States has these days because its surrounded by enemies abroad and insufficient guardians at home. Peter, thank you so much for making the time. Always such ait was an informative experience to talk to you. Thank you. Bye-bye. [Music] Frum: Thanks so much to Peter Strzok. Thanks, all of you, who bear with me from the strange backdrop. It does look strange; we are going to try to return to our usual high aesthetic standardsthe flowers and so on. But thank you for watching. I hope youll like and subscribe future episodes with the higher aesthetic values. And remember: The best way to support this podcast and the work of all of my Atlantic colleagues is by subscribing to The Atlantic, and I hope youll please consider doing that. See you next week here on The David Frum Show. Thanks for watching. [Music] Frum: This episode of The David Frum Show was produced by Nathaniel Frum and edited by Andrea Valdez. It was engineered by Dave Grein. Our theme is by Andrew M. Edwards. Claudine Ebeid is the executive producer of Atlantic audio, and Andrea Valdez is our managing editor. Im David Frum. Thank you for listening. Article originally published at The Atlantic German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was instrumental in persuading US President Donald Trump to provide Ukraine with more Patriot air defence systems, as Trump was increasingly frustrated with his failed attempts to convince Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to halt the war. Source: The Wall Street Journal, as reported by European Pravda Details: Unnamed aides close to Merz contend that he has a better relationship with Trump than Olaf Scholz, his predecessor. One crucial aspect was Merz's readiness to finance US weaponry for Ukraine. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement These sources credit Merz personally, describing Berlins "biggest success" as Trumps recent reversal on Russia and Ukraine, in which he agreed to provide some form of assistance. Merz initiated a call to Trump on 3 July, prompted by reports that the Pentagon had frozen even Biden-era approved aid to Ukraine. Sources familiar with the conversation say Merz congratulated Trump on US Independence Day and offered a deal: Germany would purchase two Patriot systems from the US for Ukraine. Trump did not commit but expressed frustration, saying Putin was "stringing him along". On 11 July, after a major Russian attack on Ukraine, Trump called Merz directly, expressing disappointment with Putins actions. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sources report that Merz was surprised by Trumps tone and recognised that the US leader had lost patience with Putin. In that call, Trump accepted Merzs proposal and offered five Patriot systems instead of two. Merz agreed but noted he would need to discuss the details of the funding with other European leaders. Germany is likely to supply Ukraine with two Patriot systems from its own arsenal and order replacements from the US worth approximately US$2 billion. Norway will fund another system, while NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte indicated that Denmark, Finland and Canada may also contribute to the procurement. Background: On 14 July, Trump announced an agreement between the United States and NATO under which the supply of US weapons to Ukraine will be financed by European allies. Trump also announced the transfer of up to 17 Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine in the near future. There have also been media reports that Trump is said to be considering sending Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! (Adds dropped word 'show' in first paragraph) By Olivia Le Poidevin and Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) -World Trade Organization members are seeking to break years of paralysis in international trade negotiations, which have been sidelined by the Trump administration and risk becoming irrelevant, internal WTO documents seen by Reuters show. Trump's sweeping tariffs have forced countries to line up to negotiate bilateral trade deals with Washington, bypassing the multilateral framework. WTO members had already struggled to reach deals due to a consensus requirement among all 166 members. Preventing members from blocking decisions is now the top priority in reform talks, diplomats told Reuters. "The sense of urgency is palpable, and there is widespread recognition that there is no viable alternative to reform," Norway's WTO Ambassador Peter Olberg, who was appointed to facilitate the organization's reform talks, said in an internal communication to members seen by Reuters. The WTO's foundational Most Favored Nation (MFN) rule requires equal treatment among members but developing countries have privileges to help them compete. These include China and India, which Trump argues are now major economies with no need for extra support. One document showed WTO members are aiming to streamline decision-making processes, promote fairer industrial policies including subsidies, and review the privileges of developing countries. The proposals feed into reform consultations running through the latter part of this year that are intended to inform the next WTO ministerial conference in Cameroon in March. The latest round of consultations is taking place this week. Among the proposals is the so-called Pareto improvement, which a senior Chinese WTO delegate in Geneva said China had put forward. This measure would require members to provide clear, evidence-based proof of harm when blocking proposals. Other proposals include permitting members to opt out of decisions and allowing subsets of countries to advance negotiations without full consensus. "The post-war multilateral system as we know it is dead," Roberto Azevedo, WTO Director-General from 2013 to 2020, told Reuters, calling reform discussions a "do or die" situation for the WTO in particular. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala conveyed the U.S. position to members in a restricted document viewed by Reuters, that a "reform by doing" approach - of practical, incremental improvements in the organization's functioning - is "vacuous" and would fail to tackle the deeper structural issues. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Fighters allied to Yemen's exiled government claimed Wednesday they had seized 750 tons of Iranian-supplied missiles and weaponry bound for the country's Houthi rebels, the latest interdiction of arms in the country's decadelong war allegedly tied to Tehran. For years, the U.S. Navy and other Western naval forces have seized Iranian arms being sent to the Houthis, who have held Yemen's capital since 2014 and have been attacking ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war. The seizure announced Wednesday, however, marked the first major interdiction conducted by the National Resistance Force, a group of fighters allied to Tariq Saleh, a nephew of Yemen's late strongman leader Ali Abdullah Saleh. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Houthis and Iran did not acknowledge the seizure, which the National Resistance Force said happened in late June. A short video package released by the force appeared to show anti-ship missiles, the same kinds used in the Houthis' recent attacks that sank two ships in the Red Sea, killing at least four people as others remain missing. The footage also appeared to show Iranian-made Type 358 anti-aircraft missiles. The Houthis claim they downed 26 U.S. MQ-9 drones over the past decade of the Yemen war, likely with those kinds of missiles. The majority of those losses having been acknowledged by the U.S. military. The footage also appeared to show drone components, warheads and other weapons. The force said it later would release a detailed statement, though it had not appeared hours after the announcement. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The U.S. military's Central Command praised the seizure in a post on the social platform X, saying that the Yemeni force told it there were manuals in Farsi and many of the systems were manufactured by a company affiliated with the Iranian Ministry of Defense that is sanctioned by the United States. The interdiction of this massive Iranian shipment shows that Iran remains the most destabilizing actor in the region," Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM's commander, was quoted as saying. Limiting the free flow of Iranian support to the Houthis is critic to regional security, stability and freedom of navigation. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo. The Houthis seized Yemens capital, Sanaa, in September 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition armed with U.S. weaponry and intelligence entered the war on the side of Yemens exiled government in March 2015. Years of inconclusive fighting has pushed the Arab worlds poorest nation to the brink of famine. The war has killed more than 150,000 people, including fighters and civilians, and created one of the worlds worst humanitarian disasters, killing tens of thousands more. YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) The Youngstown Fire Department is showing its support for an upcoming Veterans Appreciation event in Youngstown. The Hope for Renewal Ministry is planning a luncheon in September to show local veterans how valued they are. Hope for Renewal board member Jon Howell came up with the idea to incorporate the fire department. Thats our number one priority is to go to the nursing homes where the veterans have been forgotten about. Theyve been concealed behind walls. They served this country, and we want to bring them out and let them know theyre very, very appreciated, Howell said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Honoring Our Heroes Veterans Appreciation Lunch takes place Saturday, September 13 at the Glenwood Grounds Cafe. The Youngstown Fire Department will have two fire trucks on display. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WKBN.com. YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) Flooding in central Pennsylvania left York County communities picking up the pieces Tuesday. Floodwaters destroyed several roads, ripping up pavement, knocking over trees and leaving debris. Damage especially hit the borough of East Prospect hard. The East Prospect Fire Company said it responded to several calls into the morning, including road conditions and sinking vehicles. Courtesy East Prospect Fire Company Courtesy East Prospect Fire Company Courtesy East Prospect Fire Company Courtesy East Prospect Fire Company Courtesy East Prospect Fire Company The fire company asked residents to avoid the following areas until road conditions are safe: Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Willow Creek Road Prayer Mission Road at Willow Creek Road Meisenhelder Road Manor Road Abels Road Forge Hill Road The fire company said there may be additional road closures, and it encouraged residents to approach traveling with caution and to not ignore road signs. In Lower Windsor Township, officials were distributing Red Cross basement clean up kits at the township office. The kits include a squeegee, gloves and cleansers. Video captured the scene as a creek swell rushed through a neighborhood in the township. As crews assess the storms impact on the community, York County Office of Emergency Management asked residents with flood damage to fill out its damage report. Pennsylvania and the Federal Emergency Management Agency use the forms to see if the county qualifies for financial help. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Eligible damages include structure damage, foundation collapse, water in basements and living areas, private lane and bridge washouts, loss of personal belongings and water logged appliances and utilities. The form does not substitute any insurance claims. York County fire department missing critical water rescue equipment The office is coordinating damage assessment efforts with local emergency management coordinators over the next few days. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27. [Source] The New York Department of Education has reportedly eliminated race-based admissions criteria for a major STEM enrichment program following a federal lawsuit by Asian parents who alleged discrimination against their children. Catch up The controversy centers on the Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP), which enrolls 11,000 middle and high school students each year across 56 colleges and medical schools throughout the state. Established in 1985 to increase STEM participation among underrepresented groups, the program had different admission standards based on race: Black, Hispanic and Native American applicants faced no income restrictions, while Asian and white students needed to demonstrate economic hardship. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Legal advocates first filed the suit in January 2024, contending the system created an unfair racial bias where economically struggling students who barely top the poverty line remained categorically ineligible solely due to their ethnicity. The case was brought by multiple organizations including the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York alongside parent groups and individual plaintiff Yiatin Chu, whose seventh-grade daughter was reportedly denied access to NYUs summer 2024 program for being Asian. The latest Now, State Assistant Commissioner Anael Alston has instructed administrators to determine student eligibility without regard to historically underrepresented minority status, race or ethnicity and rely on economic-based eligibility criteria only, according to a July 8 memo seen by the New York Post. The move follows a federal judges November 2024 ruling allowing the discrimination suit to advance after rejecting the states dismissal motion. Trending on NextShark: Philippines VP Sara Duterte used snack-brand names to get millions in government funds The plaintiffs attorneys, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the new language. The state of New York has raised the white flag of surrender in our lawsuit, but not high enough, William Jacobson of EqualProtect.org told the Post, arguing that terms like may and encouraged still permit discriminatory practices. Broader implications The policy reversal reflects the broader impact of the Supreme Courts 2023 decision striking down college affirmative action programs. In their suit, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Erin Wilcox argued that race-based decision-making violates the Constitutions equal protection guarantee and has been repeatedly rejected by the Supreme Court. The case demonstrates growing legal challenges to racial preferences in education, with Asian American advocacy groups increasingly leading such efforts nationwide. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Despite their move, Alston reportedly vowed to continue to vigorously defend the programs mission in court. Trending on NextShark: Americans views on immigration have dramatically shifted, poll shows This story is part of The Rebel Yellow Newsletter a bold weekly newsletter from the creators of NextShark, reclaiming our stories and celebrating Asian American voices. Subscribe free to join the movement. If you love what were building, consider becoming a paid member your support helps us grow our team, investigate impactful stories, and uplift our community. Trending on NextShark: New York ends STEM race-based policy amid anti-Asian claims Subscribe here now! Download the NextShark App: Want to keep up to date on Asian American News? Download the NextShark App today! A New York county clerk rejected the state of Texass second attempt to punish a doctor for prescribing and sending abortion medication to a Texas woman. The Lone Star State last week tried to force New York, again, to recognize its ruling against Dr. Margaret Carpenter for allegedly prescribing and mailing abortion pills to a woman in Texas, the Times Union first reported. Texas officials sent a letter to the clerks office last week trying to compel acting Ulster County Clerk Taylor Bruck to reconsider his decision and gave him a deadline of July 16 to do so, according to the Ulster County clerks office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The rejection stands. Resubmitting the same materials does not alter the outcome, Bruck said in a statement. While Im not entirely sure how things work in Texas, here in New York, a rejection means the matter is closed. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Carpenter in December, alleging that she violated the states abortion ban after she prescribed and mailed abortion medication to a 20-year-old Texan woman. Neither Carpenter nor her lawyer showed up to a court hearing regarding the charge or responded to the lawsuit, according to The New York Times. A Texas judge ordered Carpenter to pay more than $100,000 in penalties for prescribing the medication. Paxtons office followed up with the Ulster County clerks office and requested that it enforce the default civil judgment back in March, which the clerk refused to do, citing the states shield law. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement In accordance with the New York State Shield Law, I have refused this filing and will refuse any similar filings that may come to our office, Bruck said in a statement in March. A spokesperson for Paxton did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill. New York is one of eight states that have a telemedicine abortion-related shield law in place to protect health care providers from fines, criminal charges, and extradition requests from other states where abortion care is restricted. New York officials, including Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), have pledged to protect Carpenter and other abortion providers and their patients. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) The Commissioner of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services was in Rochester Wednesday to talk about funding for services included in the state budget. Dr. Damia Harris-Madden met with local leaders at Child Advocacy Center of Greater Rochester. They spoke about new state funding for services including universal school meals, childcare, and youth development programming. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We want our families to thrive and we want them secure, Dr. Harris-Madden said. Ultimately we need our families to have economic security, but also all of the other scaffolding to make for good citizens. According to the OCFS, the state has invested more than $7 billion over the last four years to make childcare and education more accessible. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to RochesterFirst. Arizonas 7th Congressional District is nearly 2,400 miles from New York City. Still, the New York Times found a way to take shots at NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over a recent primary election in the border-hugging district. Like Mamdani, Adelita Grijalva won the Democratic nomination for an upcoming election in the district. The seat in the House was previously held by her late father, Raul Grijalva. Tuesdays primary pitted the younger Grijalva against progressive activist Deja Foxx. Grijalva won the endorsement of left-of-center stars like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Foxx garnered the support of former DNC Vice Chair David Hogg. Foxx raked in just 21% of the vote, compared to Grijalvas 62%. The Grey Lady painted Grijalvas victory as an establishment victory. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Mamdani momentum withered in the deserts of southern Arizona on Tuesday night, Jack Healy, the Times national correspondent, wrote. Throughout his campaign, the Times was especially critical of Mamdani. Prior to the June primary, the Times editorial board went as far as to print an anti-endorsement of the assemblyman. Much like Mamdanis NYC mayoral campaign (and subsequent win) Foxxs campaign has been rooted in social media campaign efforts and appeals to Gen Z voters. Still, paralleling the two races is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. For one, Grijalva is established in the district. She served as a member of the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board for 20 years, then as a member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors for District 5 from 2021 to 2025. Start your day with essential news from Salon. Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course. As Intelligencer columnist Ed Kilgore points out, voters in both NYC and Tucson are worried about the issues in their own districts, not those in a city on the opposite side of the country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Voters there had their own preoccupations, and should not be burdened with responsibility for shaping the future of New York City any more than Mamdani should be expected to campaign on solving long-term water supply problems for Arizonans, Kilgore wrote. The post New York Times says Grijalvas Arizona primary win is a loss for Mamdani appeared first on Salon.com. A 20-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of a 5-year-old boy whose severely injured body was found in a Panorama City dumpster on Saturday, according to booking records and a law enforcement source. Brycson Gaddis was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday morning in connection with the boy's killing, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's jail log and a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. Gaddis was described as the ex-boyfriend of the child's mother and is not his father, according to Troy Hearn Sr., the boy's grandfather. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The child suffered "massive injuries" including a fractured jaw, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver, the law enforcement official said. An LAPD spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Authorities have not disclosed a specific cause of death in the case, and the boy's name was not released. Hearn also accused Gaddis of kidnapping the boy and his mother, Kemia Hearn, 24, near a store and forcing them into an apartment complex close to where the body was found. Troy Hearn said his daughter was also detained for questioning but released Wednesday. Kemia Hearn and Gaddis had dated on and off for a few years, and Gaddis was allegedly stalking her, according to Troy Hearn. "Its very heartbreaking for him to do that to my 5-year-old grandson," he said. "I'm identifying the body this afternoon. Im overwhelmed and so angry that I cant even explain it. This guy is a bad guy and its lucky that the police has him." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The boy's body was found after police responded to the 8200 block of Van Nuys Boulevard around 7 a.m. Saturday, authorities said. Over the past 12 months, Gaddis has been charged with carjacking, assault and domestic violence, and there was an active bench warrant for his arrest at the time of the boy's death, according to court records. In July 2024, he was one of three defendants charged with carjacking and assault stemming from an incident in Baldwin Park. But charges against all three were dropped in December, after a prosecutor announced he was not ready to proceed on the day of Gaddis' preliminary hearing, according to court records. As a result, Gaddis was released from jail on Dec. 16. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Two months after being released from jail, Gaddis was arrested by Los Angeles police in February and charged with multiple counts of domestic violence and false imprisonment after he repeatedly punched his girlfriend and then locked her in their apartment against her will on two different occasions, according to a criminal complaint. A trial date was set for April, but Gaddis did not appear in court, leading a judge to issue a bench warrant, records show. Gaddis was subject to electronic monitoring after charges were filed, but several alerts were sent to the L.A. County Probation Department in May that the device's battery was dead and Gaddis was ignoring calls from the monitoring company. A probation department spokeswoman said Wednesday she had no records related to Gaddis. On Saturday, officers followed a tip to an apartment complex on Lanark Street, less than a mile from where the body was found, police said. Officials executed a search warrant at around 9:30 p.m. at one of the apartments and detained a man and a woman. Two children were in the apartment as well. In total, five people were detained for questioning Monday. Women pray together during a vigil for the child in Panorama City. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times) The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services took custody of the two children. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Read more: 12-year-old was fatally shot in Compton park; teenager arrested in slaying Local residents held a vigil for the boy the same night that the adults were detained, KTLA news reported. Vigil attendees filmed the adults being led away in handcuffs, and someone was heard screaming "justice." A growing collection of toys, flowers and notes have been left in the parking lot where the boy was found. A rainbow-colored Snoopy rested near a star-shaped yellow helium balloon in the pile on Monday. Fly with the angels little guy, one message said. Eduardo Martinez, 28, a Panorama City resident, wept and shook his head. Nearby, a half-dozen people held hands and prayed. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Whatever happened here is despicable, said Martinez, who attends nursing school next door. I hope they catch whoever did this. This pocket of Panorama City is largely commercial, with dentist offices, nursing schools, and restaurants lining the streets. A nearby apartment tower looms over the parking lot. They still havent found who did it, no? Brandon Moreno, a teenager who lives nearby, asked a friend as they peered through a chain-link fence at the memorial. The neighborhood, which is heavily Latino, is also on edge because of the recent immigration raids throughout the region, residents said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its a lot going on right now, said Moreno. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The Brief Young Chances Foundation pools community groups and volunteers to discuss services available to the community. Police say additional manpower is in place following the deadly July 7th mass shooting in Grays Ferry while the investigation continues. GRAYS FERRY - The Young Chances Foundation pools, community groups and volunteers gathered Tuesday to discuss resources in light of the deadly mass shooting that occurred in Grays Ferry. What we know A mass shooting on Etting Street in Grays Ferry left three people dead and injured several others. Police have released new photos of two of the three suspects. The shooting happened in the early morning hours of July 7th. Police have not announced any arrests. What they're saying "We need to get our blocks back. We gotta stop sitting in the house," said a man with PAAN, the Philadelphia Anti-Violence Anti-Drug Network to a room of concerned residents and organizations. Theyre working as a lifeline for the Grays Ferry community traumatized by the deadly mass shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Before we can sit down and talk to our youth, we have to come up with a game plan," said another man during a regular monthly community meeting put on by the Young Chances Foundation and held at its community engagement center at 27th and Tasker streets. "Today is really about reinforcing the positivity that goes on every day," said Executive Director Tyrique Glasgow. He says the focus is a little different after what happened. "It is frustrating. It is not normal and it is something that the community is still trying to find answers. Like why," said Glasgow who brings agencies and quality of life resources to the community regularly. "Like the meals, the clothing and additional agencies that will be here," he said. Ahead of the meeting he put donations free for residents to take. He does not want it to be overshadowed by the mass shooting. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Sometimes it feels like it always happens on that block or in this community. But it is not the image and the representation that we are trying to show," he said. Big picture view Back inside police said safety precautions are in place while the investigation into the mass shooting continues. "We do have a stationary car out there. We do have more resources allocated to the area and youll see a lot more police presence in the area," said 17th Police District Lt. Joseph Musumeci. He says shootings and homicides have been down in this district. Residents agree things have gotten better. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "I still dont sit really. Like sitting outside on my step but its not like how it was before," said Meeka Outlaw. "The kids want a better future and it's for us to provide those solutions on a consistent basis," said Glasgow. What you can do For more information on the Young Chances Foundation, visit their website here, or visit their Instagram page, here. Vanessa Morales was just 14 months old in 2019 when her mother was murdered by her father in a town about 10 miles west of New Haven, Connecticut, according to police. There has been no sign of her since. In April of this year, Jose Morales, 48, was sentenced to 65 years in prison for beating Christine Holloway to death and for tampering with evidence, though he has maintained his innocence. At his trial, the 48-year-old claimed that on the night of the murder, he and his daughter were with Holloway in her apartment when two intruders broke in, beat Holloway with a crowbar, assaulted him and kidnapped Vanessa, CBS News reported. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Morales, who said he was high on PCP at the time of Holloways murder and his daughters alleged kidnapping, admitted to the jury that he tried to clean the apartment after the killing, dumping some of Holloways blood-stained evidence in nearby donation bins. While he is considered a suspect in his daughters disappearance, he has never been charged. During his sentencing hearing earlier this month, Anna Rodonski, Holloways aunt, called him an unforgiveable and disgusting monster for what he was convicted of doing to her niece, the outlet reported. Where is Vanessa? she added. How can someone be so cruel? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Officials at the Ansonia Police Department who worked the homicide applauded the verdict but said Holloways murder was just one aspect of the tragic case because Vanessa remains missing. The Detective Bureau continually reviews the case and will now begin to review the court transcripts for any new information, APD officials said in a post to social media. Anyone with information on Vanessas disappearance or who may recognize the age-progressed photo above is urged to contact the police department at 203-7351885. Anonymous tips can be left online by following this link. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. SHELBY COUNTY, TN. (KTAL/KMSS) The Shelby County Sheriffs Office and other local law enforcement agencies in Texas joined together to support a 6-year-old girl who was critically injured in a tragic incident, showing their support and compassion for her family. The Shelby County Sheriffs Office posted via social media detailing a tragic event that occurred on July 11, 2025, in Tunica County, Mississippi, where a mother named Nykeria Jude lost her life and her 6-year-old daughter suffered critical injuries. The 6-year-old survivor was airlifted to Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital for further medical treatment, according to reports. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Project Celebrations work with domestic violence victims highlighted by local leaders On Tuesday, July 15th, it was reported that after receiving treatment at the Le Bonheur Childrens Hospital in Memphis, the young survivor was escorted home by her grandparents. (Courtesy of Shelby County Sheriffs Office) (Courtesy of Shelby County Sheriffs Office) (Courtesy of Shelby County Sheriffs Office) (Courtesy of Shelby County Sheriffs Office) After undergoing surgery, they have been released from the hospital and are now on the path to recovery. While the road ahead may be long and filled with obstacles, we are hopeful and determined to overcome them together. The family is deeply grateful for the unwavering support from our community during this challenging time. Your kindness and compassion provide us with the strength we need to navigate this journey. We ask that you continue to stand by us as we seek healing and peace. As we move forward, let us unite as a community, advocating for mental health awareness and ensuring the safety of families affected by violence. GoFundMe Organizer, Will Smith, family member of survivor This act of kindness serves as a reminder of the strength and compassion that can emerge even in the darkest moments. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family as they navigate this painful journey, posted the Shelby County Sheriffs Office. In a touching show of solidarity, deputies from the Shelby County, DeSoto County, Coahoma County, and Tunica County Sheriffs Offices joined forces to provide a police escort, ensuring the childs safe return to her family. Their presence offered a sense of security and community support during an unimaginably difficult time. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTALnews.com. A workplace mishap over the weekend left a 19-year-old man dead after he fell into a meat grinder at a food processing facility in California. The Vernon Police Department told Fox News Digital that the young victim, whose identity has not been disclosed, was part of the sanitation team at Tinas Burritos, located in the 2600 block of Vernon Avenue. Officials said that the Los Angeles County Fire Department was dispatched to assist with what was described as a "fatal industrial accident" in regard to a male subject that was found in the meat grinder, which was called an industrial-grade kettle. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Authorities said the fatal accident happened around 9:30 p.m. and is being treated as an "industrial mishap," as the victim was cleaning an industrial food processor when the machine unexpectedly activated. Construction Workers Reach Safety After Los Angeles Industrial Tunnel Partially Collapses: Everyone Is Safe 19-year-old sanitation worker dies in meat grinder at California food facility Other workers inside the factory told KABC they could hear his cries for help and attempted to shut down the machine, but were unsuccessful. By the time officers arrived at the factory, the man had already passed away. Read On The Fox News App The company confirmed the tragic incident to Fox News Digital and called it a "devastating loss." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Missouri Factory Worker Found Dead Inside Industrial Oven, Police Say "We are heartbroken to confirm that a Sanitation worker lost his life on Sunday night, July 13, 2025, while performing sanitation duties at our Vernon facility. He was cleaning an empty kettle that was being sanitized and prepped for the next days production run," the company shared in a statement. "Despite the immediate response of coworkers and emergency personnel, he tragically passed away at the scene." Freak Accident At The Beach Sends Teen To Icu As Mom Warns Of Waterfront Danger Full frame of factory working process where employee organizing work of an industrial meat grinder machine The company added that their "hearts are with his family, friends, and all who knew and worked alongside him." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "This is a devastating loss for everyone at Tinas. We are cooperating fully with local authorities and Cal/OSHA in the ongoing investigation, and our focus remains on honoring his life, supporting those who are grieving, and maintaining the highest safety standards in our facility," the statement concluded. Detectives with the bureau are also investigating the incident and said no foul play is suspected. Officials from the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration are also assisting in the investigation. Vernon is located approximately five miles south of downtown Los Angeles in Los Angeles County. Original article source: Young worker killed after falling into meat grinder at factory of popular frozen burrito company A retro gaming YouTuber in Italy claims he might end up in court and could even face possible jail time for reviewing Android-powered handheld gaming devices that sometimes come pre-loaded with old games. As reported by Android Authority, Italian YouTuber Francesco Salicini, aka Once Were Nerd, claims in a video uploaded on July 14 that the Guardia di Finanzaan Italian militarized police force that focuses on economic and financial crimesraided his home and took around 30 consoles, including retro emulator handhelds. The raid happened on April 15, and police allegedly even took the YouTubers personal phone and didnt return it until June. According to Salicinis video explaining the entire situation, law enforcement in Italy is apparently not required to disclose what he is being charged with or who specifically brought the charges against him until the initial investigation is finished. At that point, a judge would decide to dismiss the case or take it to trial. Kotaku has reached out to Salicini about his legal issues. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The complaint Salicini received from Guardia di Finanza cites him violating Article 171ter of Italian Copyright Law. That same complaint also lists Sony and Nintendo, but its possible that Italys Ministry of Economy and Finance was responsible for bringing forward the charges against the YouTuber. Salicini believes this is because he has reviewed retro handhelds from companies like Anbernic, which sometimes come pre-loaded with classic game ROMs. While emulation is legal, ROMs exist in a weird, murky grey area. The law that Salicini might have violated was written in 1941 and comes with a maximum punishment of 15,000 and up to three years of jail time. Salicini has started a GoFundMe to help cover his legal fees. On the fundraiser page, he explained that the Guardia di Finanza is now taking precautionary measures to block all my social media channels. He also says he has already contacted a defense attorney and expects that he will have to go to trial. . For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. YUKON, Okla. (KFOR) The mayor of Yukon says a controversial project to build a multi-million indoor-outdoor amphitheater in city limits, wont move forward. The project, initially set for consideration near I-40 and Frisco Road in Yukon under the name Sunset Amphitheater. The Venu Group-managed project would have seen a 12,500-capacity amphitheater, the group said would have generated billions of dollars in economic impact in the area in the first 10 years. In addition to creating jobs, bolstering tourism and supporting local government needs. Tuesday, Yukon mayor Brian Pillmore shared with the public during a city council meeting the city had decided not to move forward with the amphitheater. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Were not supporting moving forward with this project, said Pillmore in a separate interview with News 4. The decision followed conversations with local stakeholders, Pillmore said, in addition to results from an economic feasibility study the city paid a Chicago-based consulting firm $60,000 to conduct. The results of the study can be found below. Yukon-Amphitheater-StudyDownload I think that our our community should be very satisfied that we have a council that listens to them, hears their concerns and evaluates what is best for the city, not best for any one citizen, but best for the city in the long term, said Pillmore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement This is day one: Yukon economic feasibility study for amphitheater plans underway The study points out a projection, over 30 years, of Yukon losing more than $91 million of expected sales tax revenue to Oklahoma City and Venu due to a tax-sharing agreement. Yukon would have only pocketed a little over $30 million. Venu would have bough 25-acres of land for less than $500,000 and split ticket fees in half with the city. That doesnt account for an additional 4,000 parking spots the study says the City of Yukon would need to construct and large percentage of a $98 million construction bill the city would also be on the hook for. It did show some return for the city of Yukon, but I dont think it was a significant enough return on investment for us to move forward, said Pillmore. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement News 4 asked Pillmore if this decision meant the project wouldnt be revisited in the future. He said residents can consider it closed at this point. Pillmore said he doesnt want the rejection to the amphitheater to be seen as the city not welcoming development, adding that the city is open to revisiting what the land is used for as long as its the right fit. Yukon is open for business, but we have to find the things that are the right return on investment and the right fit for our community, said Pillmore. News 4 reached out to representatives with Venu for comment Tuesday, but did not hear back; and asked Pillmore for clarification on what communication with Venu has been like regarding this decision. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Its been collaborative, said Pillmore. Weve talked to them throughout this whole process, week by week, month by month. So, I dont think theres any surprises with any business that considers entering the City of Yukon. We want that to be a collaborative discussion. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Zaporizhzhia Oblast will start large-scale production of components for anti-personnel mines. Source: Ivan Fedorov, Head of Zaporizhzhia Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram Details: Fedorov noted that the launch of the production became possible after President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law on the termination of the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Quote from Fedorov: "Zaporizhzhia Oblast immediately responds to the initiative the production of components for anti-personnel mines will be launched in the near future." Details: He noted that the oblast plans to produce tens of thousands of components every month. Quote from Fedorov: "Thanks to the use of modern technologies, we plan to produce anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 components daily. Thus, the monthly production volume will exceed 50,000 components." "All the components will be used to strengthen the Zaporizhzhia front and become part of a powerful mechanism to destroy the occupier." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Background: Ukraine has deregulated the explosives market and is preparing to issue grants for powder factories. Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC is gradually moving to the production of 60-mm mortar shells. Ukraine covers 40% of the defence forces needs thanks to the domestic defence industry and has increased weapons production many times over. Ekonomichna Pravda also wrote that thousands of Ukrainians print spare parts and finished products for the needs of the defence forces on personal 3D printers. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Editor's note: This item has been updated to include additional details. President Volodymyr Zelensky has unveiled a new slate of cabinet nominees as part of a sweeping government shake-up that replaced the prime minister and dissolved the entire cabinet. The president submitted a proposal to parliament nominating former Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as Ukraine's new defense minister, he said in an evening address on July 16. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement "Today, I have already signed documents to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding Denys Shmyhal as the new defense minister," Zelensky said. The nomination follows the formal acceptance of Shmyhal's resignation by parliament earlier in the day, which dismissed his government and launched a cabinet reshuffle. The vote to accept his resignation passed with 261 lawmakers in support and none opposed. Shmyhal served as prime minister for over five years. He announced his resignation on July 15, thanking Zelensky for his trust and his ministers for their "tireless work" on behalf of Ukraine. Zelensky has tapped First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko to replace Shmyhal. The 39-year-old economist has served in the cabinet since 2021 and was previously deputy head of the Presidential Office. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Parliamentary leader David Arakhamia confirmed that Zelensky's Servant of the People party, which holds a majority in parliament, backs her candidacy. "We know Yuliia Svyrydenko well from work as a competent and professional person who is capable of leading the government in such a difficult period," Arakhamia wrote. Strategic Industries Minister Herman Smetanin will take over as head of Ukroboronprom, Ukraine's largest state-owned defense manufacturer, Zelensky added. Smetanin had previously led the agency responsible for defense-industrial development. "Right now, Ukrainian-made weapons account for about 40% of what's used on the front lines and in all our operations," Zelensky said. "The volumes are indeed large. But we need more." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Zelensky presented additional cabinet nominees during a faction meeting earlier in the day, according to Arakhamia, who shared the list on Telegram. According to him, in the incoming government, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov will become the first deputy prime minister. The Economy, Ecology, and Agriculture ministries will be merged into a single agency led by Oleksii Sobolev, currently Svyrydenko's deputy at the Economy Ministry. Taras Kachka, another of Svyrydenko's deputies, will replace Olha Stefanishyna as deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak earlier said that Stefanishyna will not be given a position in the new cabinet and may be appointed an ambassador to the EU. The Social Policy Ministry will be renamed the Ministry for Social Policy, Family, and Unity, to be led by Denys Uliutin, the first deputy finance minister. Svitlana Hrynchuk, the ecology minister, will become energy minister, replacing Herman Halushchenko, who will move to the Justice Ministry. Halushchenko had faced criticism in parliament earlier this year, with lawmakers citing alleged corruption and mismanagement in the energy sector. Zelensky previously said on July 10 that he is considering appointing current Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as Ukraine's next ambassador to the United States. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Under Ukraine's semi-presidential system, the president nominates the prime minister, who must be approved by parliament. The prime minister then proposes ministerial candidates, who also require confirmation. Read also: Azov is where you can learn to defend your homeland from Russia Weve been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considered at least three candidates for the position of the defence minister: Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs; Mykhailo Fedorov, Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation and Minister of Digital Transformation; and Oleksandr Kamyshin, his advisor on strategic issues and former head of the Ministry of Strategic Industries. Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Quote from the article: "The defence minister should be someone who lives and breathes war 24/7, who understands the real state of affairs, who is physically capable of handling a budget of this scale, who knows how to streamline management processes and, most importantly, who can keep the defence secrets of various influential groups in power confidential and has good relations with both Zelenskyy and Yermak." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Ukrainska Pravda has found that Zelenskyy considered at least three candidates for the post of defence minister: Klymenko, Fedorov and Kamyshin. Interior Minister Klymenko has declined the president's offer. The ideas of offering this post to Fedorov and Kamyshin have been abandoned due to their lack of good relations with Andrii Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. Quote from the article: "Without effective working communication with the head of the Office of the President, it is difficult for ministers to work. This is evidenced by the example of Oleksandr Kubrakov, former deputy prime minister for restoration, who went from being the president's favourite to an outcast (not without Yermak's involvement)." Details: Only one person met all the requirements Denys Shmyhal. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement With Shmyhal's appointment as head of the Ministry of Defence, the government plans to merge the Defence Ministry with the Ministry of Strategic Industries. Background: During a press conference in Rome on 10 July 2025, President Zelenskyy announced that he is considering the current Minister of Defence, Rustem Umierov, for the position of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States of America. On 14 July, Zelenskyy proposed that First Deputy Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko become the head of the Ukrainian government, with current Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal taking the position of minister of defence. Shmyhal submitted his letter of resignation to the parliament on 15 July. The dismissal of the prime minister means the resignation of the entire government. Ukraines parliament is to consider the prime minister's resignation at a meeting on 16 July. The vote on the appointment of the new head of government and ministers is scheduled for 17 July. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is afraid of the US, as heavy attacks have stopped since Keith Kellogg, US President Donald Trump's Special Envoy for Ukraine, arrived in Ukraine. Source: Zelenskyy in an interview with Newsmax Quote from Zelenskyy: "General Kellogg arrived in Ukraine, and there were no massive bombings for two nights in a row. This is a very interesting example. There were no heavy attacks this night and the previous night. Even people are already joking about it, saying that we should give General Kellogg a Ukrainian passport and leave him here. And Americans should come to us more often What does this mean? That Putin deliberately bombs civilians, but when the Americans are here, he doesn't do it." Details: Zelenskyy also added that this means Putin is afraid of the US. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has submitted a nomination to the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) proposing former prime minister Denys Shmyhal as the new minister of defence. Source: Zelenskyy in his evening address on 16 July Quote: "Today I have signed the documents for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine regarding Denys Shmyhal as the new minister of defence. Strategic sectors of industry will be managed through the Ministry of Defence. Herman Smetanin will head [the state-owned company] Ukrainian Defence Industry." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Zelenskyy outlined the main objectives for the defence institutions to achieve a level of 50% Ukrainian-made weapons during the first six months of the new government by increasing domestic production. Quote: "The task is very specific and clear. At present, Ukrainian-made weapons account for around 40% of what is used on the front and in all our operations. This is already significantly more domestically produced weaponry than at any time in the history of our states independence. The volumes are indeed substantial. But more is needed. And we need more of our own capabilities in order to push the war back onto Russian territory to the place from where it was brought to us so that they feel what they have done and [feel] the cost of Putins refusal to cease fire and reach a real peace. We must reach a level of 50% Ukrainian-made weapons during the first six months of the new governments work by increasing our domestic production. I am confident that this can be achieved." Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) is set to dismiss Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and his entire Cabinet on 16 July. The next day, MPs plan to appoint Yuliia Svyrydenko as the new prime minister and vote in a number of new ministers. Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Quote: "The new prime minister enters the Cabinet with a much stronger position than Denys Shmyhal ever had. Like her predecessors, Svyrydenko will have her own cabinet minister. It is likely to be Kostiantyn Marievych, current Deputy State Secretary of the Cabinet. But while that was the only close ally Denys Shmyhal had in government, for Yuliia Svyrydenko, it is just the beginning." Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Details: Ukrainska Pravda has found out that under Svyrydenko, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Ecology and the Ministry of Agrarian Policy will be merged into a single resource ministry, to be headed by Oleksii Soboliev, currently Svyrydenkos First Deputy. Svyrydenko may also strengthen her influence by appointing her current deputy Taras Kachka as deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, replacing Olha Stefanishyna. Stefanishyna will lose her position due to criminal cases and scandals. Zelenskyy reportedly plans to appoint Stefanishyna as Ukraine's ambassador to the European Union. Mykhailo Fedorov, current Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation and Minister of Digital Transformation, is expected to be appointed the new government's first deputy prime minister. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Current Prime Minister Shmyhal is set to become the new minister of defence. The current Defence Minister, Rustem Umierov, is expected to be appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. Several members of Zelenskyy's team told Ukrainska Pravda, "if Umierov has any real strength, its in negotiations". Oksana Zholnovych, Minister of Social Policy, is to be dismissed over cuts to pensions and social benefits. A replacement has yet to be determined. Oksen Lisovyi, Minister of Education and Science, is expected to resign due to his decision to close small rural schools and consolidate universities. His likely replacement is his deputy, Andrii Vitrenko. Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko, who is close to Tymur Mindich, Zelenskyy's associate and co-founder of Studio Kvartal 95, is also expected to step down. He may be replaced by current Environment Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk, whom Ukrainska Pravda sources in the government and parliament describe as an affiliate of Halushchenko. Her only relevant experience is one year serving as his deputy for international affairs. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement National Unity Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, who is under investigation for allegedly receiving over UAH 14.5 million (approx. US$344,000) in illicit benefits, will not only lose his job, but his entire ministry will be liquidated. Mykola Tochytskyi, Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, will return to the diplomatic service. Zelenskyy plans to appoint him as Ukraines permanent representative to the Council of Europe. Strategic communications and information policy will be separated from the Culture Ministry and handed over to a subordinate agency. The shortlist for Culture Minister includes two cultural figures: Veronika Seleha, former head of the Directorate for Humanitarian Policy in the Presidential Office and CEO of creative agency Bickerstaff.345, and Olha Viieru, Director of the Ukrainian House National Centre. Among those remaining in government are Oleksii Kuleba, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration and Minister for Communities and Territories; Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha; Nataliia Kalmykova, Minister for Veterans Affairs; and Matvii Bidnyi, Minister for Youth and Sports. All were appointed in September 2024. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Cabinet "veterans" will also stay: Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko, Health Minister Viktor Liashko, and Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. Background: On 14 July 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had proposed Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, to head the new government. That same day, Zelenskyy stated that current Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal would become the defence minister in the reshuffled Cabinet. Shmyhal submitted his letter of resignation to the Verkhovna Rada on 15 July. Under Ukrainian law, the prime minister's resignation means the resignation of the entire Cabinet. Ukraines parliament is set to vote on the resignation on 16 July, with votes on the new prime minister and ministers scheduled for 17 July. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon! ZION, Utah (ABC4) Zion National Park Service (NPS) reminds visitors that monsoon season is underway and that visitors should remain prepared for flash floods. Zion NPS says that monsoon season is brought on by seasonal wind direction shifts, which increases the amount of precipitation in the area. Typically, monsoon season lasts between July and mid-September and brings more afternoon storms. Southern Utah emergency managers prepare for flash flooding Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement During monsoon season, Zion Canyon visitors can expect to see waterfalls in the canyon walls, but are also more likely to experience flash floods, which can be incredibly dangerous. Zion NPS notes that flash floods are powerful, hard to predict, and can be damaging very quickly Anyone who is planning to visit Zion National Park should become familiar with flooding potential and the flash flood rating system. Flooding potential There are several warning signs that indicate that a flash flood may be on the way. The Visitor Center at Zion NPS will have up to date information on the weather and flash flood risk. Additionally, visitors should stay up to date on weather warnings and be wary of areas that are likely to flood, such as slot canyons. However, a flash flood can occur, even in clear skies. Visitors should always make sure somebody else knows where they are going and how long they plan to be there. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They should also be aware of impending flash floods, by keeping an eye on water conditions. The Zion National Park Service notes that changes in water conditions may show by: Surge in water Change in water color Roaring water sound Increased debris in the water Flash Flood Rating System The National Weather Service also has a flash flood potential rating system that informs visitors on how likely a flash flood is: Not Expected: Flash flooding is not expected. Your safety is your responsibility. Possible: Some slot canyons, dry washes, and small streams may experience flash flooding. Probable: Some slot canyons, dry washes, and small streams are expected to experience flash flooding. Expected: Many slot canyons, dry washes, and small streams are expected to experience flash flooding. Courtesy: Zion National Park via Facebook Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Most National parks in Utah currently have not expected and possible flash flood ratings, according to the National Weather Service. During a Flash Flood During a flash flood, as little as six inches of water can knock an adult or child off of their feet, making it important to act quickly at the first sign of a flash flood. If caught in a flash flood and unable to exit the park safely, visitors should stay out of the water at all times. They should also head for higher ground immediately, without trying to pack up gear. Flash flood waters can take hours to recede, according to Zion NPS. Visitors should be patient and remain on high ground, while they wait. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement At the end of the day, Zion National Park says, safety is your responsibility. Recreate safely! Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah. Hes staying red. Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani stuck to his socialist guns during a highly anticipated powwow with Big Apple business leaders Tuesday doubling down on his plan to raise their taxes, if elected. Mamdani who just last month said billionaires shouldnt exist schmoozed with roughly 100 CEOs convened at his request by the powerful Partnership for New York City, for the first of two days of scheduled meetings with business bigs. Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani is standing his ground on raising taxes if elected during a highly anticipated meeting with NYC business leaders on Tuesday. Paul Martinka The 90-minute meetings temperature remained low, even as Mamdani was grilled about his Communist-tinged and anti-Israel comments, including his refusal to condemn the Globalize the intifada rallying cry, one attendee told The Post. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Asked about his intent to lean on the ultra-wealthy and corporations, Mamdani told the executives that taxes had been raised on those groups in the past without it resulting in an exodus of high earners from the Big Apple, the source said. He didnt back away from any policy position, though he did so in a non-confrontational manner, the attendee dished. It shows hes a good politician. He was very confident. The slick Mamdani also distanced himself from his past use of the phrase seizing the means of production, a Marxist concept, but in a roundabout way, chalking it up to a rookie mistake, another business bigwig in attendance said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It was very frustrating, the source said. He talks so much and says so little. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, along with other business leaders, snubbed the sitdown with the Democratic mayoral candidate. Bloomberg via Getty Images The sit-down which was requested by Mamdani and will be followed by a Wednesday confab with tech industry leaders was pointedly snubbed by JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who sits on the Partnerships board, and other Wall Street titans, many of whom sent non-executive underlings, sources said. Everyone is just in listening mode, joked one banking bigwig. Dimon who branded Mamdani a Marxist at an event in Ireland last week begged off with a vague scheduling conflict, according to bank reps. Even with the brush-off, Mamdanis move to engage business leaders shows the Tax the rich firebrand shifting toward broader outreach ahead of Novembers general election, where hell face incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, a stubborn ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent Jim Walden. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Those in attendance included Loews Corporation chair James Tisch, an ardent backer of Israel and the father of NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch whom Mamdani did not commit to keeping as top cop during the meeting. Mamdani has also been in contact with Kathy Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for NYC, who was shocked to see him beat Cuomo in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City. Bloomberg via Getty Images A top rep from Louis Vuitton was also in the room for the confab, held at real estate company Tishman Speyers Rockefeller Plaza offices, sources said. Mamdani, when pressed about the anti-Israel Globalize the intifada cry by the business leaders, said he discouraged its use, according to attendees. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who is Jewish, pressed Mamdani for throwing around the word genocide about the plight of Palestinians in Gaza under Israel, the second source said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement But Mamdani evidently forged ahead smoothly. It was very frustrating. He speaks well, the source said, recounting Mamdanis response to a question about retail theft. A source closely connected to Mamdani said he has been conducting more one-on-one meetings with business leaders across the city to gain their trust, as the individual said Mamdani is a savvy campaigner. Paul Martinka He went into a lengthy discussion about people with mental illness. You scratch your head and say, He didnt answer the question. Unless you believe everyone who commits retail theft is mentally ill.' The source added: (Mamdani) speaks very well, in paragraphs. Hes well organized. Its easy to fall into the trap of not getting an answer to your question. Another source said Mamdani came out of the high-stakes meeting without stepping on any political landmines and left some tycoons wondering if they could work with the avowed socialist. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement He faced some tough questions. I dont think he gained any support, but didnt do any harm and was prepared, a business source at the meeting told The Post. The thing he did is [he] showed up with confidence, like he is going to be mayor, the source stated, adding, He doesnt act like he has it in the bag but does say If I am mayor in a way that got people thinking, Oh, he really could be mayor. So do we fight him or do we work with him? I think a lot thought they could work with him, the source added. Kathryn Wylde, CEO of Partnership for New York City, told The Post that Mamdani allayed some fears of business bigwigs in attendance Tuesday, citing his good communication and listening skills. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement There was a frank discussion of issues that matter to the business community. Clearly there is a lot of agreement on making New York a safe and affordable city, although different views on how to achieve those goals, Wylde said. The summit came as the Queens state assemblyman shifts his campaign to the general election after his shocking win in last months Democratic primary. Mamdani recently picked Jeffrey Lerner, a seasoned Democratic political veteran who once worked for top rival Cuomo, to lead his campaign. He has been engaging with Wylde as he tried to make nice with business leaders whove greeted his surprise primary win over Cuomo with serious concern verging on full-blown panic. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani has also extended lower-profile olive branches, including meeting with many individual business leaders in one-on-ones, a source tied to the candidate said. He met Monday with a dozen executives with the Black Economic Alliance, including chairman and techie investment honcho Charles Phillips, sources said. Hes proven himself to be a savvy campaigner, a Democratic political operative said. The way you do it without angering your base is to quietly reach out to these people. And Mamdani has given tense tycoons plenty of ammunition to justify their fears. He has pushed for a 2% tax hike on millionaires, a 4.5% increase on corporations and unhesitatingly said billionaires shouldnt exist all of which sparked fears that a Mamdani mayoralty would cause an exodus of high earners from the Big Apple. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some bigs have gone on the offense against the leftist, such as billionaire hedge fund titan Bill Ackman, who publicly searched for an anti-Mamdani candidate before casting his lot with Adams. Fellow billionaire John Catsimatidis likewise threatened to close or sell his Manhattan-based grocery chain Gristedes if Mamdani who has proposed launching government-owned grocery shops wins. Asked about the looming sit-down earlier Tuesday, Mamdani said he was looking for common ground. I go into that room knowing that there will be disagreements, and also knowing that the foundation of it is a belief in the possibility of the city, and it will take a new kind of politics to unlock that possibility, he said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And what I will say to them, when I will say to every New Yorker, is that not only is my door open, but no matter of the question of the primary, the general, but that I am looking to work with everyone. My interest is a partnership, not in the politics. Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick and James Franey Any tips should be sent directly to Alexander Banks through email at abanks@yakimaherald.com, or by phone at 509-577-7654. Alexander Banks reporting for the Yakima Herald-Republic is possible with support from Report for America and Yakima community members. For information on republishing, email news@yakimaherald.com. To support local journalism, click here. An agent with ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations team steps onto a GlobalX plane at King County International Airport in Seattle in February. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle Times, File) Looking for a break? Test your knowledge of this week's news from the Yakima Valley. The ministry of construction and transport has filed with police a criminal complaint over a painting by Gustav Klimt which is believed to have been taken out of the country illegally, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. According to the ministry's findings, Klimt's "lesser known and documented" African Prince was taken abroad after a private individual applied for an export permit in 2023, using "false data and a manipulated photo", with the intention of misleading the authorities. In the application, the painting was referred to as an unsigned work with an estimated value of 50,000 forints (EUR 125). Based on the data and the photo provided by the applicant the authorities decided that the painting could be taken out of the country without permit under the law on the cultural heritage, while it turned out later that the picture was one of Klimt's works that had disappeared from sight over 100 years ago. In its investigation, the ministry established that the applicant had failed to mention a stamp on the back of the canvas, indicating that it had been a part of Klimt's oeuvre. The applicant also misled the authorities, claiming that moving household to Austria was the reason why the painting was being taken out of the country. In fact, the painting later surfaced in art and antiques fairs in Maastricht and New York. The ministry noted that African Prince had been officially identified in 2022 as a portrait painted by Klimt in 1897. Zsofia Vegvari, the expert who examined the painting also identified the Gustav Klimt Nachlass stamp, clearly visible in photos taken at that time. The ministry said it would propose legal changes to ensure that in future export permits of artwork could not be issued without physically viewing the objects. Source: MTI Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent. Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media. XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Showcase Your Business to Expats in the Loop: As an independent portal were grateful to all commercial supporters who help keep you in the loop with fresh insights and inspiration. Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? If so please contact us here. Migrants cannot be allowed in and they should not be privileged by a legal status, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Monday. He said "we are doomed" if they entered and "there is no way back". Before the migrant crisis, Germany "was the strongest state in Europe, but migration destroyed them", he said in the Pikk Extra programme streamed on daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet's YouTube channel. Some may argue that migration did not drain Europe of its competitiveness, "but that things are interconnected", he said, adding that German identity "was shaken when they took in so many migrants ... and said that Islam is part of German culture." "We must learn from this mistake," he said. "The Germany that existed before they were allowed in is over, because this is now their Germany too," he added. Orban said he was "upset" about the issue since "I'm usually a gentle person; even pious, and I try to agree with everyone". Nevertheless, he added, migrants "cannot be allowed here and can never be accepted; they must not be given any legal status because ... there [would be] no way back." MTI Stock Photo - for illustrative purposes only Source: MTI Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent. Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media. XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Showcase Your Business to Expats in the Loop: As an independent portal were grateful to all commercial supporters who help keep you in the loop with fresh insights and inspiration. Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? If so please contact us here. The Budapest police (BRFK) has closed its investigation into a blockade of central Budapest's Liberty Bridge on April 22 and proposed the indictment of protesters on charges of "attempted disruption of a public facility committed in a group". According to the police website, officers questioned five people as suspects in the blockade. In the investigation, they established that the participants of a legal demonstration in nearby Ferenciek Square had "illegitimately set off for Liberty Bridge", and on arriving at the bridge, "sat down in the road, thereby blocking traffic". After disobeying the police's call to leave the bridge, the police applied coercion to remove the protesters, the website said. Source: MTI Hungarys national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent. Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media. XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com ********************************* You're very welcome to comment, discuss and enjoy more stories via our Facebook page: Facebook.com/XpatLoopNews + via XpatLoops groups: Budapest Expats / Expats Hungary You can subscribe to our newsletter here: XpatLoop.com/Newsletters Showcase Your Business to Expats in the Loop: As an independent portal were grateful to all commercial supporters who help keep you in the loop with fresh insights and inspiration. Do you want your business to reach tens of thousands of potential high-value expat customers? If so please contact us here. New Delhi: During an in-flight conversation with BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his work ethic, saying hes possibly the only person who works 100 hours a week. During a nearly two-hour Mumbai to Bengaluru flight, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya had an inspiring conversation with one of the IT industrys leading icons. Calling it a masterclass, Mr. Surya shared that they discussed a wide range of topics from technology and manufacturing to urban governance, youth upskilling, ethics, and leadership. Posting on X, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya shared his experience of meeting Infosys founder Narayana Murthy during a flight from Mumbai to Bengaluru. Had an inspiring conversation with the legendary NRN today on the way back to Bengaluru from Mumbai. NRN pioneered the Indian IT services sector, turning it into a global powerhouse. He created wealth for literally lakhs of middle-class families through Infosys, Surya wrote. Had an inspiring conversation with the legendary NRN today on the way back to Bengaluru from Mumbai. NRN pioneered the Indian IT services sector, turning it into a global powerhouse. He created wealth for literally lakhs of middle class families through Infosys. From AI to pic.twitter.com/ZpcnRWmbQR Tejasvi Surya (@Tejasvi_Surya) July 15, 2025 He further added that their conversation touched on a wide range of topics From AI to manufacturing, state of our cities to upskilling our youth to ethics and leadership it was a 2 hour masterclass learning from him. Mr. Surya said he ended the chat with a light remark: "I humorously quipped at the end of our conversation that I'll strive to meet his 70-hour-a-week target," referencing Mr. Murthy's earlier call for young Indians to embrace a stronger work ethic. "To which he laughed and said, 'The only person I know who probably works 100 hours a week is Prime Minister Modi!'" Murthys comment was a callback to his much-talked-about statement last year, where he urged young Indians to work at least 70 hours a week to boost the nations productivity. The remark had sparked a nationwide debate while some praised his dedication and work ethic, others raised concerns about burnout, stress, and setting unrealistic expectations. The new NCERT Social Science textbook for Class 8 describes parts of the Mughal period as harsh and intolerant. It calls Babur a brutal and ruthless conqueror who killed entire city populations, while Akbars rule is described as a mix of brutality and tolerance. The book also mentions that Aurangzeb destroyed temples and gurdwaras, pointing to several examples of religious intolerance during that time. However, the book also includes a special note explaining why these events are being discussed. It says that history should be understood in context and that no one today should be blamed for what happened in the past. This is the first time the new NCERT Class 8 textbook titled Exploring Society: India and Beyond introduces students to the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire. The book was released this week and will be used in the current academic year. In the revised NCERT curriculum, the history of the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughals, and the Marathas will now be taught in Class 8, instead of Class 7 as in previous years. According to NCERT, this shift is part of the updated syllabus structure. The new Class 8 textbook includes a chapter titled Reshaping Indias Political Map, which covers key developments in Indian history from the 13th to 17th centuries. It discusses the rise and decline of the Delhi Sultanate, resistance against it, the emergence of the Vijayanagara Empire, the Mughals and their opposition, and the rise of the Sikh community. The chapter describes the Sultanate era as a time of political unrest and military campaigns, during which villages and cities were plundered, and temples and centres of learning were destroyed. The sections on both the Sultanate and the Mughals highlight multiple instances of temple destruction and describe the rule of some monarchs as brutal. These references were not included in the older Class 7 textbook that previously introduced this period. Instances from the book: 1. Attacks by Malik Kafur: Alauddin Khiljis general, Malik Kafur, carried out raids on several important Hindu religious centres, including Srirangam, Madurai, Chidambaram, and possibly Rameswaram. 2. Destruction During Sultanate Rule: During the time of the Delhi Sultanate, many religious images in Buddhist, Jain, and Hindu temples were destroyed. This destruction was driven not only by the desire for wealth but also by religious motivations, specifically iconoclasm. 3. On the Jiziya Tax: The new textbook explains that the jiziya a tax levied on non-Muslims by some sultans was not only a financial burden but also publicly humiliating. It acted as a social and monetary pressure that encouraged people to convert to Islam. In contrast, the earlier Class 7 book described jiziya simply as a tax that non-Muslims paid, initially with land tax and later as a separate levy. NCERT is publishing new school textbooks in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023. So far, updated books have been released for Classes 1 to 4, as well as for Classes 6 and 7. Now, new textbooks for Classes 5 and 8 are also being introduced. Previously, Class 8 students used three separate Social Science textbooksone each for history, social and political life, and geography. The newly released Part 1 of the updated Class 8 textbook combines all three subjects, while Part 2 is expected to be released later this year. Mumbai/New Delhi: What started off as a routine Wednesday evening flight from Delhi to Goa turned into a tense airborne ordeal for passengers on IndiGo flight 6E-6271. The Airbus A320neo, which left Delhi around 8 pm, did not reach its destination. Instead, it was forced to divert and land in Mumbai after one of its engines developed a fault mid-air. There was no warning at first. The take-off, although slightly delayed by about half an hour, was uneventful. But somewhere between the capital and the coast, something went wrong. The crew alerted the control tower and called for a full emergency. The plane, carrying an undisclosed number of passengers, began changing course and was guided toward Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai. Flight tracking data shows the aircraft circled for close to 17 minutes before touching down. Those minutes stretched painfully for everyone on board. Silence, tension and whispered prayers a kind of stillness that only people in the air during an emergency can truly understand. At exactly 9:52 pm, the aircraft touched down safely. Sources told PTI, Full emergency declared for IndiGo flight 6E-6271, operating on the Delhi-Goa route after it was diverted to Mumbai due to one engine failure. Later, IndiGo issued a brief statement confirming the incident. A technical snag was detected on flight 6E 6271 while it was on its way from Delhi to Manohar International Airport in Goa. Following procedures, the aircraft was diverted and landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, a spokesperson told news agency ANI. There were no injuries, no panic just an eerie quiet as the plane rolled to a halt. Many passengers appeared visibly shaken, but grateful to be back on the ground. Second IndiGo Incident in 48 Hours Strangely, this was not the only unsettling incident involving IndiGo this week. On Tuesday (July 15), flight 6E-2482, operating from Delhi to Patna, raised eyebrows after it attempted to land at Patna airport and then suddenly took off again. The aircraft, after briefly touching the runway, climbed back into the air and circled the city three to four times before finally landing safely about five minutes later. That flight had over 170 people on board. No one could explain the abrupt maneuver, and no official clarification was provided at the time of reporting. Passengers were left bewildered, many later describing the experience as unnerving and confusing. Growing Anxiety Post-Air India Crash These two mid-air scares have reignited worry within the Indian aviation space. Just weeks ago, an Air India flight crashed in Ahmedabad, killing nearly 261 people, including 19 on the ground. It was the worst aviation disaster India has witnessed in over a decade. Though the two recent IndiGo incidents ended without loss of life, the psychological impact is real. Social media is filled with posts by anxious flyers, many demanding more transparency and accountability from airlines and aviation regulators. No Official Word Yet from DGCA The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has not so far issued a formal comment on either of the recent IndiGo events. Sources suggest an internal inquiry is likely, especially given the proximity of the two incidents. As for the passengers on flight 6E-6271, IndiGo is expected to arrange alternate flights to Goa. There has been no announcement regarding refunds or compensation at the time of filing this report. Bengaluru residents are advised to keep their umbrellas ready as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a Yellow Alert for thunderstorms throughout this week, signaling a continuation of the city's monsoon season. The latest forecast indicates a wet and comfortably cool stretch, offering a welcome respite from the typical July humidity. Today's Weather (July 16): Cool Mornings, Cloudy Skies On Tuesday, July 15, Bengaluru recorded a maximum temperature of 28.4 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 20.4 degrees Celsius. Humidity levels remained high, at 85% in the morning and 73% by evening. While only 0.1 mm of rainfall was recorded in the last 24 hours, cloudy skies are expected to persist. For the next few days, daytime temperatures will hover between 28C and 29C, dropping to a pleasant 20C at night. The atmosphere will remain humid, with mornings potentially feeling muggier than evenings. Rainfall Forecast For The Week (July 15 - 21): From July 15 to 19, Bengaluru is expected to experience generally cloudy skies with light rain each day. These showers, which could intensify at times, may impact outdoor plans and commutes, particularly during peak hours. Residents are advised to plan accordingly and be prepared for sudden drizzles. The weekend, specifically July 20 and 21, is likely to see an increase in rainfall intensity. With temperatures holding steady at 29C and a slight dip in humidity on Sunday, the heavier rain could provide further relief from clammy conditions. Traffic Alert: Waterlogging Hotspots With continued showers, commuters should brace for potential traffic congestion due to waterlogging in known flood-prone areas. Key routes frequently affected include: Outer Ring Road (near Bellandur and KR Puram) Silk Board Junction Hosur Road Koramangala 80 Feet Road Shantinagar Parts of Mahadevapura Hennur Motorists are strongly advised to avoid low-lying underpasses and allocate extra travel time, especially during evening rush hours. The city's infrastructure has historically struggled with even moderate rainfall, leading to significant disruptions. Residents are encouraged to stay updated with the latest weather advisories and plan their movements to mitigate the impact of the ongoing monsoon. Two people died and two were injured after a huge fire broke out in a residential building in Delhi's Old Govindpura locality, which is under Shahdara district, on Tuesday night. The reason behind the massive blaze, which according to reports initiated in a room where battery cells were stored and assembled, is yet to be ascertained. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Prashant Gautam affirmed that the fire was reported at around 8:46 PM from Band Gali, Old Govindpura. A team of Jagatpuri police station and fire brigade officials promptly reached the spot, where at least 10 individuals were discovered trapped within the consuming residential building, having a ground floor and three floors on top. "Six individuals were rescued with assistance from police and fire brigade officials," said DCP Gautam. "Four individuals were then taken to Dr. Hedgewar Hospital, where two, Tanveer (28) and Nusrat, both residents of Govindpura, were sadly declared brought dead." Two injured, Faizal from Khureji Khas and Aasif (18), are undergoing treatment and are stated to be stable. Nine fire tenders were rushed to fight the huge blaze, as per Delhi Fire Services (DFS) officers. Fire Officer Deepak Hooda, who participated in the firefighting effort, said that the emergency call was received at about 8:45 PM, and rescue operations began immediately. He previously reported, "We have rescued people, and four were admitted to hospital. The doctors will announce if there is any casualty." The blaze, which was said to involve highly combustible battery cells and inadequate ventilation, complicated rescue operations. The majority of the rescued were purportedly workers who toiled in the informal small-scale operation within the residential complex. The crisis was contained within about an hour. Ambulance services and nearby police units also offered significant support in the evacuation process. Though preliminary estimates indicate an electrical fault could have caused the fire, no option can be discounted by authorities at this point. Forensic and fire service officials are evaluating the damage as a thorough probe is conducted to determine the actual cause and whether the place was used solely as a storage unit or as an illegal factory. A user from Delhi, claiming to be a ex-Microsoft employee, has fascinated the internet by describing how he earns a consistent income of around Rs 1.6 lakh every month after losing his job surprisingly. The 36-year-old, residing in North Delhi with his wife, daughter, and mother, posted his money plan on Reddit, providing a possible template for others who want financial freedom. The Reddit thread, which instantly went viral, starts with a honest confession: "Guys, today I was fired from work, but I am not totally broke, I don't want to work another job any more and here's my financial situation." A Breakdown Of Income And Expenses The user specified his family's monthly expenditure, usually between Rs 85,000 and Rs 90,000, towards groceries, bills, and other essentials. Interestingly, Rs 20,000 is spent on travel, indicating the family's two to three outings per year. He pondered, "May be I will have to cut the travelling budget for a few years. I don't know." His handsome passive income sources mostly derive from: Rental Properties : Seven properties together give Rs 1,20,000 per month, with a rise of 4-5% every year. : Seven properties together give Rs 1,20,000 per month, with a rise of 4-5% every year. Dividends : A Rs 2.5 crore portfolio gives an average of Rs 40,000-Rs 45,000 per month. : A Rs 2.5 crore portfolio gives an average of Rs 40,000-Rs 45,000 per month. Bank Investments: An investment of Rs 12 lakh gives Rs 6,000 per month. Together, these sources give him a monthly income of Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.6 lakh, which he can easily meet his expenses without the need for employment. Strategic Assets And Future Planning Apart from his income-generating assets, the Reddit user also broke down his non-performing assets, such as two other properties, gold and silver of Rs 28-30 lakh, mutual funds of Rs 12 lakh, and cash reserves of Rs 65-70 lakh. Nevertheless, much of his cash is set aside for upcoming investments: he has pledged Rs 80 lakh in the next 2-3 years on three under-construction buildings, amounting to Rs 1.5 crore. He will use his current cash balances for the payments, citing his not wanting to assume new investment risks yet. The family is also expecting the birth of a new baby in the near future. He categorically mentioned that Rs 15-20 lakh of his liquid cash is kept as an emergency corpus to meet health expenses, such as the upcoming hospital expense for the delivery. Emotional Journey And Public Reaction Even with his apparently robust financial situation, the user had residual self-doubt. "I don't want to return to my job anymore, it was too stressful certain days that I literally had nightmares," he explained, pointing out the strain his former corporate job had on his mental well-being. His wife, who saw him going through the ordeal, is still very supportive, while his mom has been giving him words of encouragement, telling him, "Jo hua acche k liye hua, we will be just fine." The post rapidly attracted widespread attention and varied responses on Reddit. Most users praised his financial insight. "First of all, your financial status at age 36 is amazing," one wrote, guessing at a "foreign IT job, WFH from India." Another user bluntly inquired, "Btw were you a Microsoft employee?" to which the user replied with a "Yes. LOL. How did you guess?" Others told him to spend any kind of severance package on a well-deserved mental break. Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Wednesday cautioned against relying on imported niche technologies for critical offensive and defensive missions and emphasised the need for self-reliance in safeguarding national security. "Operation Sindoor has shown us why indigenously developed counter-UAS systems built for our terrain are crucial. We cannot rely on imported niche technology that is crucial for our offensive and defensive missions. We must invent and build safeguards ourselves. Dependence on foreign technology weakens our preparedness," CDS Chauhan said. He was speaking at a workshop on UAV and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS) indigenisation in New Delhi. General Chauhan explained that dependence on foreign technology limits India's preparedness because the capabilities of foreign weapons and sensors are widely known, enabling adversaries to predict Indian tactics based on the characteristics of these imported systems. "Dependence on foreign technology weakens our preparedness, limits our ability to scale up production, results in a shortfall of critical spares for sustenance and round-the-clock availability. Another aspect is... the capability of foreign weapons and sensors are known to all and adversaries can predict our tactics... based on the capabilities of the particular system," he said. CDS Chauhan also stressed the need for indigenously developed systems to maintain an edge over adversaries, saying the unknown capabilities of home-grown systems could add an element of surprise in initial encounters. "(Capabilities of) modern aircraft, air-to-air missile ranges are known to us and our adversaries also. The moment they are imported, the adversary can keep out of those ranges and develop tactics accordingly. So it becomes a severe limitation. But if you use our own system, its capabilities are not known to the adversary and that may add an element of surprise in initial encounters," he added. Referencing Indias Operation Sindoor in May, General Chauhan noted that none of the unarmed drones and loitering munitions deployed by Pakistan inflicted any damage on Indian military or civilian infrastructure "During Operation Sindoor, on 10th May, Pakistan used unarmed drones and loitering munitions. None of them inflicted any damage to the Indian military or civil infrastructure. Most were neutralised through a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic means, and some were even recovered in almost intact condition," he said. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 10 in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist attack, in which 26 innocent civilians were killed by Pakistan-backed terrorists. Under Operation Sindoor, India targeted nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), killing over 100 designated terrorists. Amid the turmoil over electoral roll revision in Bihar ahead of assembly polls, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that demographic changes in the state can't be addressed solely through legal measures like voter list revisions or the NRC. According to the Indian Express report, Sarma has requested that the NRC, currently pending since 2019, be considered an admissible document for the SIR of electoral rolls once finalised, potentially delaying the SIR process. Sarma has consistently expressed his doubts regarding the credibility of the NRC exercise. On Tuesday, he reiterated his lack of confidence, stating that neither the NRC nor the revision of the voter list offers an adequate response to demographic invasion. He alleged that regions like Middle and Lower Assam, where there is a higher concentration of Bengali-origin Muslims, have already experienced such demographic shifts. Later, he warned that Upper Assam now faces a similar threat of demographic change. We have had NRC here. We dont know what will happen here (regarding voter list revision), but there is no mechanism (to identify foreigners) in South Salmara-Mankachar, Hailakandi (districts bordering Bangladesh)," Sarma said. "Our problems need an Assamese kind of solution, an indigenous solution. Some anganwadi worker inside a village, some gaon panchayat secretary had the responsibility of making the NRC for their particular village. How can they call their own relatives in the village foreigners? Assams problem cannot be compared to that in any other state; it has to be improved as we keep battling them, he added. India has reaffirmed its strong commitment to holding perpetrators accountable for crimes against United Nations peacekeepers, describing accountability as a "strategic necessity" for the success of global peacekeeping efforts. Speaking at a high-level meeting of the Group of Friends (GoF) for promoting accountability for crimes against peacekeepers at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P. Harish, emphasized that the lack of accountability for such crimes severely undermines international peace efforts by emboldening assailants. "United Nations peacekeepers face tremendous obstacles while working in increasingly dangerous areas. But for the most part, these crimes continue to go unpunished. This lack of accountability severely undermines international peace efforts by giving assailants more confidence," he said. Emphasising the need for accountability, he affirmed, "Therefore, accountability is a strategic necessity. In addition to being required by law, ensuring responsibility for crimes against UN personnel is essential to the integrity and efficacy of international peacekeeping efforts." "Peacekeepers' safety is directly improved by justice, allowing them to carry out their vital missions. It is our common duty to fulfil this obligation," he added The High Level Meeting of the Group of Friends for Accountability of Crimes against Peacekeepers, co-chaired by India and other leading nations, reaffirmed the steadfast dedication of the GoF to ensuring justice for those who bravely serve under the UN flag. "It also underscored the critical imperative to combat impunity for attacks against peacekeepers, emphasising that accountability is not merely a matter of justice for individuals but a basis for the effectiveness, credibility, and future of UN Peace Operations worldwide," Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York said in a statement. "In a powerful demonstration of concerted international will, senior representatives from around 40 Member States, senior UN officials and experts, including from field missions, deliberated on enhanced strategies, operational frameworks, and fostering greater international cooperation to bring perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers to justice," it added. The discussions highlighted the escalating threats faced by peacekeepers in increasingly volatile environments and the undeniable link between impunity and the continued targeting of these front-line protectors. Further, the statement noted that the Group's deliberations "centred on understanding these intricate linkages, recognising that a holistic approach is required, involving not only punitive measures but also preventative strategies, alongside unwavering political will from all stakeholders." The GoF for Accountability of Crimes against Peacekeepers was formally launched in December 2022 during India's Presidency of the UN Security Council, building upon the landmark Security Council Resolution 2589 (2021), a resolution that specifically called for facilitating accountability for crimes committed against peacekeepers and requested updates from the Secretary-General on progress. The GoF is dedicated to advancing legal frameworks, promoting investigations, and supporting measures to ensure accountability for crimes committed against United Nations peacekeepers. Its mission is to deter future attacks and provide justice to peacekeepers and their families. As a Co-Chair of the GoF, India continues to demonstrate leadership and commitment to the cause of peacekeeping and accountability. With a history spanning over seven decades, India is the largest cumulative troop-contributing country to the United Nations, having deployed more than 300,000 peacekeepers to date. The Permanent Mission of India to the UN highlighted that "Indian peacekeepers have served with distinction and courage in virtually every major UN mission, enduring significant sacrifices, with 182 Indian peacekeepers having made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty." (With ANI Inputs) India is set to receive its first consignment of long-awaited Apache attack helicopters from the US on July 21, NDTV reported. Also known as the 'tanks in the air', these advanced attack helicopters will boost the Army's offensive capabilities and reconnaissance operations. The AH-64Es advanced attack helicopters will land at the Indian Air Force's (IAF) Hindon Air Force Station. These helicopters will be deployed along the Pakistan border, NDTV reported, citing defence sources. This comes more than a year after the Indian Army raised its first Apache attack helicopter squadron in the desert sector in Jodhpur near the Pakistan front. The squadron was raised on March 15, 2024, in Jodhpur in the presence of Director General Indian Army Aviation Lt Gen Ajay Suri. The Army Aviation Corps, which currently operates utility helicopters such as the Dhruv and Chetak, earlier inducted the indigenously developed Light Combat Helicopters (LCH) Prachand at Missamari, Assam, last year. Notably, the IAF already operates a fleet of 22 Apache helicopters which have been deployed on the eastern and western fronts. According to the Ministry of Defense, Apache helicopters can carry out precision strikes even in enemy airspace with threats from the ground. The ability of these helicopters to transmit and receive battlefield images to and from weapon systems through data networking makes them a lethal weapon. The helicopter is capable of carrying a variety of weapons, including air-to-ground Hellfire missiles, 70 mm Hydra rockets, and air-to-air Stinger missiles. The Apache also has a 30 mm chain gun with 1200 rounds under the Area Weapon Subsystem. To enhance the helicopter's firepower, it also has a fire control radar with 360 coverage and a nose-mounted sensor suite for target acquisition and night vision systems. These tandem-seating helicopters are capable of day/night, all-weather flying and offer extreme agility and survivability despite battle damage. They are also easy to maintain in field conditions and are capable of long-duration operations in tropical and desert regions, as per the Ministry of Defence. (With ANI Inputs) The Jammu and Kashmir Police has seized three immovable properties worth crores of rupees belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist handlers in Budgam district. The properties were attached in the areas of Khag, Chewa Beerwah, and Harwani Khansahab in Budgam district. This action was executed under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to disrupt terror networks by targeting assets linked to terrorist activities. Budgam police in a handout said, In a major crackdown on terror operatives and their support structures, Budgam Police have attached three properties belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist handlers located in Khag, Chewa Beerwah, and Harwani Khansahib in presence of concerned Executive Magistrates. The action was carried out in connection with case FIR No. 58/2024 U/S 7/25 Indian Arms Act, 18, 20, 23 Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of Police Station Khag, and under proceedings-initiated U/S 25 of UAPA for attachment of properties used in terrorist activities. The properties attached belong to the following accused persons presently operating from across the border: 1. Manzoor Ahmad Chopan @ Rayees S/O Gh. Mohi-ud-din Chopan, R/O Harwani Khansahib (Double-storied residential house with premises at village Harwani Khansahib, Budgam under Khasra No. 763). 2. Mohammad Yousuf Malik @ Molvi S/O Ab. Rahim Malik, R/O Chewa Budgam (Double-storied residential house along with 05 Kanals, 13 Marlas of land at village Chewa Budgam under Khasra No. 151). 3.Bilal Ahmad Wani @ Umer S/O Gh. Ahmad Wani, R/O Nagbal Khag (Land measuring 19.5 Marlas situated at Khag under Khasra Nos. 1093 and 1094). Police added, These terrorist handlers, operating from Pakistan, have been actively orchestrating and facilitating terrorist activities in the region for several years. The attachment of their properties is a part of the ongoing efforts to dismantle the logistical, financial, and operational networks of terror outfits and their cross-border sponsors. This operation aligns with ongoing efforts by Jammu and Kashmir Police to dismantle terror support structures, which include seizing assets acquired through proceeds of terrorism or used to harbor terrorists. These efforts reflect a zero-tolerance policy toward terrorism and its support networks. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis made a significant remark on alliance with Uddhav Thakary. On Tuesday, the legislative assembly sparked speculation about potential shifts in the state's political landscape. Fadnavis asserted that Uddhav can think about the scope of joining as his party won't be in opposition until at least 2029. In the Maharashtra Assembly, while making the offer, Devendra Fadnavis was smiling and said, "At least till 2029, there is no scope for us to come there (opposition). Uddhav Ji can think about the scope of coming to this side (ruling party) and that can be thought about in a different way, but there is absolutely no scope left for us to come there (opposition)." Meanwhile, another speculation is also emerging from Maharashtra that there are strong indications of a rift, and Jayant Patil, a very close confidante of Sharad Pawar and the state president of the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) faction, is likely to join the BJP. According to media reports, citing BJP sources, the backdoor discussions between the BJP and Jayant Patil are almost complete. Only an agreement regarding a ministerial position remains to be finalised. If this deal goes through, it would be a significant blow to Sharad Pawar, as Jayant Patil is currently considered Sharad Pawar's right-hand. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, and other party leaders and workers on Wednesday took out a protest march in Kolkata against the detention of migrant workers from West Bengal, allegedly labelled as undocumented Bangladeshis for their deportation. This came after the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday claimed that eight migrant workers from Nadia district were forcibly picked up by Chhattisgarh Police this week. "Eight construction workers from Nadia, employed in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, were forcibly picked up by @vishnudsai's @CG_Police. No information was shared with their families, the GoWB, or even @WBPolice. Their phones were seized. They were thrown behind bars. This is STATE-SPONSORED ABDUCTION. Let BJP be warned: Respect existence or expect resistance. We will not let our people be criminalised, dehumanised, or silenced," TMC posted on X. As per media reports, all eight people were detained for not being able to produce identity cards even after a month of entering Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon area. They were reportedly released on Monday evening. Earlier, TMC, through its official X handle, has released a video featuring TMC leader Kunal Ghosh, alleging a "witch hunt" against Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states. The party claims that Bengali workers are being harassed, detained, and deported across borders, while legitimate Indian citizens are receiving NRC notices solely for speaking Bangla. TMC accused BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari of labelling these individuals as "Rohingyas" to communalise the issue and deflect from what they describe as a systematic targeting of Bengalis. The party further stated that Adhikari and his associates are "enemies of Bengal and Bengalis" and predicted their rejection in the 2026 elections. No official response has been received from the BJP or Suvendu Adhikari at the time of reporting. Meanwhile, opposition voices have also raised concerns. Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury recently wrote to the President of India, expressing grave concern over the ongoing harassment, illegal detention, and physical abuse of Bengali-speaking migrant workers in states like Odisha and Maharashtra. (With ANI Inputs) Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday said that if the Congress party forms a government in Assam, it would send current Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to jail for rampant corruption. Addressing Congress workers' meeting in Chaygaon of Assam, Gandhi said that Sarma is busy providing people's money and land to Adani and Ambani. "Your Chief Minister considers himself King of Assam. The 'king of Assam' is busy giving your land and money to Adani and Ambani around the clock. However, if you look at him closely, if you listen to him closely, you will realise that he is afraid. He talks big but is afraid because he knows that one day, the Congress party's lion will put him behind bars. He knows that he will have to give an account of the corruption done by him and his family," said Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi further said that the media houses will show Himanta Biswa Sarma going to jail and 'neither Modi nor Shah' can save him. The Congress leader further said alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission are hands in gloves. "The Maharashtra election was stolen by the BJP and the Election Commission. The same tactic is now being attempted in Bihar. These people are working on preparing a new voter list in Bihar. From that voter list, millions of people are being removed. This includes the poor, laborers, farmers, and voters of Congress-RJD. We are launching a movement against this in Bihar and putting pressure on them. Therefore, I want to tell the leaders of the Congress party and the voters here what they did in Maharashtra, what they are doing in Bihar they will try the same in Assam, but we will not let it happen," said Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi said that in the four months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, one crore new voters were added. "We asked the Election Commissionwhere did these people come from, who are they? Show us the voter list and provide the videography. But... the Election Commission has not given us the voter list to this day; instead, it changed the law related to videography," he said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also slammed the BJP during the event. "The BJP government is trying to intimidate our leaders and workers with the fear of ED-IT. These people are making every effort to scare us, but we will not be afraid. The BJP people are working to destroy the Constitution, but we must unite to protect it. They want to change the Constitution, but we must not give them the chance. If we give them the chance, they will ruin everything. We all need to come together and teach them a lesson with the power of our votes," he said. However, on Rahul Gandhi's jail threat, Himanta Biswa Sarma reminded the Congress leader about National Herald case bail. "I have heard that you are out on bail facing allegations of massive corruption involving over Rs 5,000 crore in the National Herald scam. You will be remembered as one of the most corrupt Congress presidents in India. To be honest, your words make no difference to mebecause I know, and the country knows, that you are one of the most corrupt leaders in India today." Assam will go to the assembly polls next year. Kerala-based nurse Nimisha Priya, who was facing execution in Yemen on charges of murder, has received a temporary reprieve after last-minute efforts by prominent religious leaders in India and Yemen. Nimisha Priya, a 37-year-old Indian national, was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. However, the execution was postponed following the intervention of Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad Kanthapuram, the Grand Mufti of India, who reached out to Yemeni scholars and religious leaders to appeal on humanitarian grounds. Speaking to ANI, the Grand Mufti said he urged Yemeni scholars to consider accepting diyaat (compensation), a form of clemency permissible under Islamic law. "In Islam, instead of killing, there is also a practice of giving Diya (compensation). I requested them to accept Diyaat as the party is ready here for it. There are talks going on about whether my request has to be accepted. The date of execution was tomorrow, but it has now been postponed for some days," the Grand Mufti told ANI. Earlier on Monday, while giving the Union Government's submission on the case in the Supreme Court, the Attorney General of India (AGI) stated that the Indian government is making every possible effort to help Priya. He further informed the Court that talks are ongoing with Yemeni authorities, including the public prosecutor handling Priya's case, to secure a suspension of the execution order until negotiations can be pursued. The court will continue to hear the case on July 18. Priya is currently lodged in a jail in Yemen, facing the death penalty for the alleged murder of her former business partner, Talal Abdo Mehdi, in 2017. Nimisha Priya moved to Yemen in 2008 to support her family and initially worked as a nurse before opening her own clinic. In 2017, following a dispute with Mehdi -- her business partner -- she allegedly administered sedatives to him in a bid to retrieve her confiscated passport. The sedatives proved fatal. She was arrested while attempting to flee the country and was convicted of murder in 2018. A death sentence was handed down in 2020 and upheld by Yemens Supreme Judicial Council in November 2023. However, under Yemens Sharia law, the court had allowed a provision for clemency through a blood money arrangement (diyaat). It was earlier reported that Priya's family had expressed willingness to pay around 8.6 crore to the victim's family as compensation in exchange for forgiveness. (With IANS Inputs) BJD workers staged a protest in Odisha's Balasore district on Wednesday after a 20-year-old college student died by self-immolation. The student died by suicide, allegedly due to prolonged sexual harassment by her teacher. As part of the protest, BJD workers burned tyres on roads in Balasore, expressing anger over the government's alleged inaction, which they claimed had driven the student to take the extreme step. Following the demonstration, police used water cannons to disperse the protestors and detained several BJD workers involved in the agitation. #WATCH | Bhubaneswar, Odisha | Police use water cannon to disperse BJD workers protesting over Balasore student's death by self-immolation. Biju Janata Dal is also observing a Balasore bandh in protest over a Balasore student's death by self-immolation. pic.twitter.com/jDKQZzCbbq ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 The 20-year-old student set herself on fire after allegedly facing prolonged sexual harassment by her college's Head of Department. Despite lodging a formal complaint and seeking help from the principal, her pleas were ignored, leading to the tragic incident. The incident occurred at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. Earlier, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik criticised the Odisha government, calling their administration a "failed system" and blamed their inaction for the death of a Balasore college student. Patnaik said that her death "was not an accident" but a result of a system that "remained silent instead of helping". "It is even more disturbing to think how a failed system can take someone's life. The most painful part is that this was not an accident but rather the result of a system that remained silent instead of helping. Struggling for justice, the girl ultimately closed her eyes," Naveen Patnaik said in a post on X. Emphasising the alleged inaction by the administration, Patnaik said that the student was ignored by the authority before despite repeated attempts to seek help. "With great courage, she had written to the college principal, informing them about the sexual harassment she had faced. Even after being ignored by the college authorities, she did not give up. To seek justice, she reached out to the Higher Education Minister, the Chief Minister's office, and even a Union Minister. She also personally met the Balasore MP to share her plight," Patnaik said. On Monday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar confirmed the death of the 20-year-old student from Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Odisha's Balasore, who had attempted self-immolation. The Department of Burn Centre, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, said in a statement that the patient was brought to the casualty on July 12 and was referred from Balasore District Headquarters Hospital to AIIMS Bhubaneswar. (With ANI Inputs) New Delhi: She once dreamt of wearing a white coat and treating patients. That dream did not pan out. Today, she is headed to the United States to work on jet engines for Rolls-Royce, with a pay package worth Rs 72.3 lakh per year. Rithuparna K.S., a student of robotics and automation engineering at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management in Adyar, Karnataka, has done what few have. At just 21, she cracked one of the toughest corporate tests the industry offers following eight months of non-stop challenges, rigorous interviews and sleepless nights. What started as a quiet attempt to prove herself has now landed her a coveted placement at Rolls-Royces Texas unit. She comes from Koduru in Thirthahalli taluk. Her father, Saresh K.N., and mother, Geetha Saresh, run a modest household. She has a younger sister, Rithvika K.S. She did her schooling at Sr Agnes, and after PUC, she aimed for medicine. My dream was to become a doctor. But my NEET results did not get me a government seat, she said. It hit hard. But instead of giving up, she took the seat she got in CET 2022. She joined Sahyadri College, a government seat, a fresh direction and a heavy heart. The first few weeks were difficult. She had no roadmap. But curiosity did not take long to spark something inside her. From her very first year, she was building and brainstorming. Her first project addressed the challenges faced by arecanut farmers. She and her team built a robotic harvester and sprayer that they took to Goa INEX. There, she walked away with both a gold and a silver medal. Her mind did not slow down after that. She joined a research team at NITK Surathkal. She also began diving into robotic surgery. She met with doctors to learn more, and even approached the then deputy commissioner, Mullai Muhilan M.P., to pitch an idea. Soon, she was part of a team building a solid waste management app. But something about Rolls-Royce called to her. She reached out, hoping for an internship. The reply was not encouraging. Do you even qualify to be part of our firm? they reportedly asked her. They told her she likely could not complete even one assigned task in a month. Instead of feeling humiliated, she asked them for a chance. Give me one task. I will try, she said. They sent it. She did not understand most of it. She stayed up nights. She read everything she could. She finished the month-long task in seven days. They sent another one. Then another. And another. What followed was eight long months. It was not a selection process. It was a trial by fire. New problems came almost every week. Interview rounds pushed her to her limits. Some days blurred into nights. Others just did not end. In December 2024, without any warning, Rolls-Royce sent her a pre-placement offer. She was told to start working from January 2. Work-from-home, midnight to 6 am, while was still balancing her college classes during the day. She managed both. She is now in her 7th semester and once it is over, she will fly to the United States to join the companys Texas unit. There was one last surprise in April. The original offer was Rs 39.6 lakh per annum. It was bumped up to Rs 72.3 lakh. Her department is celebrating the moment. We are extremely proud, said Lawrence Joseph Fernandes, head of the mechanical engineering and robotics and automation department. No one remembers NEET anymore. But everyone now knows Rithuparna, the girl from Koduru who refused to give up, rewrote her story and now builds engines that fly. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Wednesday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) not to rush the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in poll-bound Bihar. "The ECI should provide us the contacts of the contact numbers of the Booth Level Officers and the members of our party will ask those BLOs about where they found people from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar... 60-70 per cent of the youth from Seemanchal are working in other states... They should not conduct the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in a hurry," the AIMIM chief told media persons. Earlier on Tuesday, AIMIM president questioned the authority of the Election Commission of India to determine the citizenship of Indian nationals, accusing them of doing "NRC through the back door" over the poll body's decision to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the Bihar Assembly election. Speaking to ANI, Owaisi said. "Who gave the ECI the power to determine whether someone is a citizen or not? Our party was the first to say that SIR is NRC through the back door." Owaisi also questioned the result of the last SIR conducted in Bihar in 2003. "We demand the number of those BLOs. We will ask our party members to meet those BLOs and ask them where the people from Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh are that they are talking about... The SIR was conducted in 2003. How many foreign nationals were revealed at that time?" Owaisi continued his verbal tirade not just on the ruling alliance and ECI but also on the INDIA bloc by ruling out the possibility of joining the alliance and accusing it of suppressing the new leaders. "One-sided love is not going to happen. The people of Bihar should understand that the accusations that were made against us were based on lies and were made because they do not want a leader of the poor and oppressed people to become their political leadership," Owaisi said while speaking to ANI. Bihar Assembly elections are expected to be held later this year in October or November; however, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not announced an official date. While the NDA, consisting of the BJP, JD(U), and LJP, will once again be looking to continue their stint in Bihar, the INDIA bloc, consisting of the RJD, Congress, and left parties, will be looking to unseat Nitish Kumar. In the current Bihar Assembly of 243 members, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) consists of 131 with the BJP having 80 MLAs, JD(U) 45, and HAM(S) 4, with the support of 2 Independent Candidates. The Opposition's INDIA Bloc has a strength of 111 members, with RJD leading with 77 MLAs, Congress-19, CPI(ML)-11, CPI(M)-2 and CPI-2. New Delhi: The official launch of Tesla in India has created a buzz in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, with experts on Wednesday calling it a major turning point for the countrys clean mobility future. Industry leaders believe Teslas arrival will not only benefit consumers but also reshape the overall EV ecosystem in India. Nikhil Dhaka, an auto expert from Primus Partners, said Teslas entry marks a significant moment in India's journey towards sustainable transportation. Tesla isnt just another carmaker entering the Indian market -- it brings global ambition, advanced technology and a promise to push innovation across the sector, he told IANS. While Tesla's cars will likely be priced in the entry-level luxury segment, experts believe that many Indian buyers will still be drawn to the brand. Tesla has a strong brand appeal and tech advantage. Many buyers may stretch their budgets by 20 to 25 per cent just to own a Tesla, Dhaka stated. The US EV giant has announced that it is now preparing to open a new showroom in Delhi. Along with this, the EV company announced that it will soon set up four new charging stations in New Delhi. These will include 16 Superchargers and 15 Destination Chargers for EV users, according to its official statement. Tesla on Tuesday launched its first Experience Centre in Mumbai, where it also introduced its popular electric SUV, the Model Y, to Indian customers. In an official statement, the company said it plans to build a full EV ecosystem in India. This will include showrooms, service centres, delivery hubs, charging points, logistics facilities, and office spaces across the country. In Mumbai, Tesla has already announced four major charging stations in important locations like Lower Parel, Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), Navi Mumbai, and Thane. Five schools in Delhi reportedly received bomb threats via email on Wednesday, an official said. The investigation is ongoing, but the fire department has confirmed that no suspicious object has been found so far. The schools that received the bomb threats include St Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, Mother's International School in Hauz Khas, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Lodhi Estate, Hindustan Times reported, quoting news agency ANI. According to police, around ten schools and one college have received bomb threats in the last three days, ANI reported. The latest incident follows similar threats earlier in the week. On Tuesday, Thomas School in Delhi's Dwarka and St. Stephen's College of the University of Delhi received bomb threats. The threat was sent to the Delhi Police via email at 7:15 AM. In the case of St. Stephen's College, the mail stated that a bomb had been planted in the library. Soon after the alerts were raised, teams from the Delhi Police Bomb Disposal Squad, Dog Squad, Fire Brigade, and Special Staff were dispatched to both locations. However, no suspicious items were recovered from either institution. On Monday, three schools in the national capital -- CRPF School in Prashant Vihar, CRPF School in Dwarka Sector 16, and another school in Chanakyapuri, were targeted with similar bomb threats. Police noted that the email received by the Chanakyapuri school contained anti-Tamil Nadu government content. In all instances, bomb squads were deployed and extensive searches were carried out, but each threat was ultimately determined to be a hoax. Meanwhile, on the same day, Punjab's Golden Temple in Amritsar also received a threatening email. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex religious body of Sikhs, reported the incident to the authorities. The email reportedly threatened to blow up the langar hall (community kitchen) of the revered Darbar Sahib. (With IANS Inputs) A tragic road accident occurred in the Muwani area of Uttarakhands Pithoragarh district on Tuesday, when a Max vehicle carrying 13 passengers fell into a 150-metre-deep gorge. The incident claimed the lives of eight people on the spot, while three others sustained serious injuries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed grief over the loss of lives and announced financial assistance for the victims families. Sharing his condolences through the official handle of the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) on X, he said: Saddened by the loss of lives due to a road accident in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the mishap. May the injured recover soon. An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs. 50,000. Saddened by the loss of lives due to a road accident in Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the mishap. May the injured recover soon. An ex-gratia of Rs. 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. The PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 15, 2025 Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed deep sorrow over the incident and conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families. In a message posted on Facebook, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami wrote: "Received the tragic news of a vehicle accident in the Muwani area of Pithoragarh district. I pray to the Almighty to grant peace to the souls of those who lost their lives and give strength to the bereaved families to bear this immense grief. The district administration has been directed to ensure proper treatment for the injured. I pray for the speedy recovery of all those hurt in the accident." According to initial reports, the ill-fated vehicle was en route from Muwani to Bokta when the accident took place. Following the mishap, senior administrative officials rushed to the spot and coordinated with disaster management teams to carry out a rescue operation. The injured were retrieved from the gorge and transported by ambulance to the nearest hospital for urgent medical care. The impact of the accident was so severe that the vehicle was completely mangled. The identities of the deceased have not yet been confirmed. However, local officials have said that the victims were all residents of the region and were returning to their village when the tragedy struck. Preliminary assessments suggest that poor road conditions and high speed may have contributed to the accident, though the exact cause is still under investigation. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday issued a strong warning amid rising political tensions, stating that no one can stop her from taking her message across the country if trouble continues in Bengal. "I work in Bengal. The people of Bengal have elected me. Let me work in Bengal. If I have a problem in Bengal, I will go all over India," Mamata said. While attacking the BJP, Mamata added, "You can't stop me. I will see how many detention camps you can take me to. I will speak in Bengali. If the people of Bengal are kept in detention camps, the people of Bengal will also keep the BJP in detention camps politically through the elections." Mamata also raised a question with the centre over the Matua and Rajbongshi issue and said, "Matua-speaking people have been tortured in Maharashtra. Many Rajbongshis have been pushed back to Bangladesh and put in jail." Reacting to Bihar's SIR, she said. "I have heard in Bihar that 30.5 lakh votes have been deleted. The BJP won in Maharashtra. Otherwise, you can't win. This has happened in Delhi too. That is also being planned. They are also our brothers and sisters. There is also planning to launch in Bengal. We will fight inch by inch. We will not give up an inch of land without a fight. " Meanwhile, reacting to CM's statement, Adhikari said that Mamata Banerjee is backing and providing security to Rohingya Muslims. He alleged that there is no fencing in the area of 540 kilometres and CM Mamata has not given land to the Home Department. "Mamata Banerjee has come out on the streets to provide security to Rohingya Muslims. BJP MLAs have only one demand that the name of any Rohingya Muslim will not be there in the voter list of Bengal. There is no fencing in the area of 540 kilometers. Mamata Banerjee has not given land to the Home Department," he said. He further claimed that CM Mamata is getting fake Aadhar cards, fake EPIC cards, and there are at least one crore Rohingya Muslims in the entire voter list. "Mamata Banerjee is getting fake Aadhar cards, fake EPIC cards made. And there are at least one crore Rohingya Muslims in the entire voter list. Thirty lakh names were deleted in Bihar. There must be at least ninety lakh here...All Indian names will remain, but Rohingya Muslim names will not remain in the voters' list," he added. New Delhi: The skyline of Indias economic rise has a silhouette. Skyscrapers, unicorn startups and billion-dollar IPOs. But if you look closer, there is a silent migration unfolding behind the shine. India is now home to more millionaires than ever before, but thousands are quietly packing up and moving out. In 2025 alone, an estimated 3,500 Indian millionaires are expected to leave the country, according to the latest Henley Private Wealth Migration Report. In 2023, the figure was 5,100. In 2024, it dipped to 4,300. But India still tops the global list when it comes to the number of high-net-worth individuals relocating. Apart from being people, they are portable fortunes. About $26.2 billion worth of personal wealth is expected to be moved out of the country along with them. A New Home in the Sands Top destination? The United Arab Emirates (UAE). Nearly 9,800 millionaires from across the world are expected to move to the UAE this year alone. With zero income tax, luxurious lifestyle offerings and long-term visa perks, it has become the gold standard for wealth havens. The rich from India, the United Kingdom, Russia, Southeast Asia and Africa are all finding a new address in the Emirates. The United States, too, remains a popular magnet, expecting to draw 7,500 millionaires this year. Portugal, Singapore and Saudi Arabia are rising stars in this elite migration map. Why Are Indias Rich Fleeing? The exodus of wealth is for merely for lifestyle upgrades. It is a complex blend of tax anxiety, regulatory heat and the lure of global mobility. Several factors are driving the trend: 1. The Tax Squeeze: Indias tax net has tightened significantly. In just the first quarter of this year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) collected Rs 20,000 crore (nearly double last years figure) in arrears. That includes Rs 17,244 crore in corporate tax and Rs 2,714 crore in personal income tax. The target for the year? Rs 1.96 lakh crore. Back in 2019-20, the total outstanding demand was Rs 10 lakh crore. It now stands at Rs 42 lakh crore. 2. A Cleaner, Stricter Economy: Indias informal economy is shrinking. Transactions once done in cash and outside scrutiny are now being dragged into the formal net. UPI has revolutionised payments. In 2024-25, UPI clocked 185.8 billion transactions worth Rs 261 lakh crore up 41% from last year. 3. Crackdown on Crypto: Crypto once offered a shadow zone for wealth. That is changing fast. India now treats cryptocurrencies as Virtual Digital Assets under strict financial laws. They are taxed, tracked and monitored under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). For Indias ultra-rich, this means fewer loopholes and more reasons to shift their portfolios abroad. 4. Lifestyle, Education, Healthcare and Passport Power: Wealthy families, apart from low taxes, want better life, world-class education, top-tier healthcare and visa-free travel. These are on every millionaires checklist. Indian passports, though improving, still fall short of European or Caribbean ones. Many seek investment-based residency or citizenship programmes abroad. Programmes such as the UAEs Golden Visa, Portugals residency-to-citizenship plan and the US EB-5 route offer appealing pathways. The Trump Card Adding intrigue to this years millionaire migration story is the controversial Trump Card. Priced at $5 million, it promises U.S. permanent residency as a premium alternative to the Green Card. Though not officially approved, over 70,000 people have signed up at TrumpCard.gov. Promoters claim it could inject $1 trillion into the U.S. economy if it takes off. The card features President Donald Trumps image and signature. It is backed by conservative businessman John Lottnick and aims to appeal to global investors looking for elite American access. Portugals Golden Path Portugal remains a steady favourite. Its Golden Visa programme offers access to the Schengen zone and a path to citizenship in just five years. Though direct real estate investment is now off the table, new routes remain open. Indian millionaires with global plans find the programme flexible and appealing. The Bigger Picture Despite the outward flow, Indias pool of millionaires is expanding. Between 2014 and 2024, their numbers grew by 72%, thanks to stock market gains, startup windfalls and generational wealth growth. But their outbound shift still signals a deeper concern. A survey by Kotak Private and EY found that 22% of ultra-rich Indians are actively planning to relocate. Their reasons span wealth preservation, family safety, education and long-term planning. Estate structuring is easier abroad. So is tax optimisation. UAE, Singapore and Portugal, they all have become quiet magnets. And India, while on the rise, continues to lose some of its richest minds and wallets to foreign shores. New Delhi: An Air India Express-operated Boeing 737 Max 8 (registration VT-BXZ) was grounded just minutes before takeoff after pilots reported a technical issue during the engine start sequence. The incident occurred on Wednesday morning at Lucknows Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport. The Flight IX 193, carrying 166 passengers and crew, was scheduled to depart for Dubai at 8:45 AM. However, the aircraft was unable to take off due to the last-minute issue flagged by the cockpit crew. Interestingly, the same flight had arrived from Dubai earlier that morning as flight IX 194, landing in Lucknow at 8:15 AM. An official source at the airport revealed that passengers were informed about the cancellation after they had boarded the aircraft. According to the source, "Passengers were informed of the cancellation shortly after boarding." Meanwhile, Air India Express, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India, gave passengers the option to either seek a refund or reschedule their journey, with hotel accommodation provided at the airline's expense. Earlier, an Air India Express flight (IX 2816) from Lucknow to Hyderabad was canceled Sunday morning, just minutes before boarding. Sources at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport stated the pilot declared the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft unfit for flight, leading to intervention from the ground support crew. Approximately 150 passengers were scheduled to depart on the 8:40 AM flight. Seoul: North Korea and Russia are set to launch a direct flight route between their capitals, Pyongyang and Moscow, later this month, a Russian news agency has reported. Nordwind Airlines, a Russian budget passenger carrier, will begin direct flights linking the two cities on July 27, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting Tass, citing Russia's transport ministry. It will mark the first time that the North Korean and Russian capitals are linked by direct air service, the news agency said. The new air route follows Russian aviation authorities' recent approval of Nordwind's request last month to operate direct flights between Pyongyang and Moscow twice a week. Tass said the flight time is about eight hours. Currently, North Korea and Russia have direct flights only between Pyongyang and Vladivostok. As the two countries emerged as key partners for bilateral exchanges and cooperation following the signing of a mutual defence treaty in June last year, they have stepped up collaboration in various fields, including transportation. Last month, the countries resumed direct rail service between Pyongyang and Moscow, as well as between Pyongyang and Khabarovsk, following COVID-19 suspensions. In April, they also began constructing a road bridge linking them across the Tumen River. While visiting North Korea's eastern coastal city of Wonsan last week, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia plans to restore maritime transport routes between the countries. New Delhi: Famous television actress Dipika Kakar Ibrahim in one of her recent vlogs shared a health update with fans. Post her stage 2 liver cancer surgery, the actress did a mammography test done as before her cancer diagnosis, she suffered excruciating pain in her upper arm and shoulder (reason why she had to quite Celebrity Master Chef midway). Back then her first mammogram showed enlarged lymph nodes, which can arise from various reasons, including infection. In her vlog she shared how her doctor had advised her to do a repeat scan after three months although nothing looked suspicious. But because of her surgery, time to get the second mammography done had exceeded three months. But her latest mammography test has shown that her lymph nodes had shrunk. What Is Mammography? Mammography is the process of using low-energy X-rays (usually around 30 kVp) to examine the human breast for diagnosis and screening. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through detection of characteristic masses, microcalcifications, asymmetries, and distortions. As with all X-rays, mammograms use doses of ionizing radiation to create images. Dipika Kakar's Targeted Therapy In his latest vlog, Shoaib Ibrahim shared that wife Dipika Kakar's targeted therapy treatment for stage 2 liver cancer poster her surgery has started. "Her targeted therapy has begun. It's the first day. How are you feeling?" he asks his wife in the video. "I'm fine right now. It'll get better slowly," says Dipika Kakar, who also appears in the vlog. "Today is the second day of targeted therapy. Are there any ulcers?" Shoaib Ibrahim asks Dipika Kakar int he vlog, to which, she says, "I have developed a few ulcers on my tongue. But it'll be alright. Doctor had already cautioned us about ulcers, and he had asked us to increase the water intake. I'll do that. I'm sure it'll be alright." Dipika Kakar's 14-Hour Long Surgery On June 3, Dipika Kakar underwent a long 14-hour surgery for stage 2 liver cancer. Taking to his Instagram stories, Shoaib Ibrahim had shared a note that read, Hi everyone, Sorry I couldnt update you last night, it was a long surgery. She was in OT for 14 hrs. But Alhamdulillah, everything went well. Dipi is currently in the ICU. Shes in some pain, but shes stable and doing okay. Thank you all dil se for your love, prayers, and support, it truly means a lot. I will update you all once shes out of the ICU. Thank you once again Keep praying for her. Dipika got married to Shoaib Ibrahim, her co-star from Sasural Simar Ka on February 22, 2018 in Bhopal. The couple was blessed with a son named Ruhaan, who was born in 2023. 2012 marked the entrance of newcomers Alia, Varun, and Sidharth, thanks to Karan Johars Student of the Year. The rom-com introduced Bollywood to these three talented actors. With each critically acclaimed performance, they also balanced their personal lives with their respective partners. But do you know whats common between all of them? It's a coincidence the SOTY trio has been blessed with baby girls, making for a beautifully nostalgic, full-circle moment and a wonderful connection as they become parents to their daughters. Let's take a look at SOTY trio's beautiful journey from Reel to Real-Life: Sidharth Malhotra - B-town's NEW Dad SOTYs Abhimanyu Singh (played by Sidharth Malhotra) is now a proud dad to a baby girl! In a heartfelt post, Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani officially announced the good news to their fans and industry friends. Draped in pink, the post reads, 'Our hearts are full and our world forever changed. We are blessed with a baby girl.' The star couple welcomed their first child on July 15, 2025, at Reliance Hospital in Mumbai. Sidharth Malhotra's Movies And Love Life Sidharth Malhotra, who made a mark with roles in Ek Villain, Kapoor & Sons, the critically acclaimed Shershaah, and Mission Majnu, has an interesting filmography and a love life that is nothing less than a rom-com. For the unversed, Sid and Kiara didnt meet for the first time on the sets of Shershaah, but rather at the wrap-up party of her Netflix project Lust Stories. Later, after Shershaah, the duo were often spotted together from their South Africa trip to Kiara's heartfelt birthday post for her then co-star, Sidharth, which fueled the rumours of their dating. Setting the record straight, the couple tied the knot in February 2023 at Suryagarh Palace, Jaisalmer. SOTY Star To Raha's Mom Who don't know Alia Bhatt's most talk about role 'Shanaya', thanks to Karan Johar's Student of the year with this role Alia made her stylish debut and give Bollyood some critically acclaimed film. After her breakout roles her film choice truly defined her global stardom. with films like Kapoor & Sons, Udta Punjab, Raazi, Gully Boy, Gangubai Kathiawadi and Darlings she not only ruled hearts but also made her mark in Indian cinema. Alia Bhatt's Dreamy Wedding And Raha's Popularity Coming to Alia's personal life, the SOTY star is happily married to her childhood crush, Ranbir Kapoor, in an intimate ceremony in 2022. The two fell in love during the shoot of Brahmastra and welcomed their daughter, Raha Kapoor on November 6, 2022. Talking about Raha, She is one of the most talked-about celebrity kids, her images and videos often set social media abuzz with her cute and interactive style. Aiming to shield Raha from public scrutiny, Alia Bhatt earlier made a bold move by deleting all photos showing Rahas face from her Instagram. Varun Dhawan And SOTY's Full-Circle Moment Bollywood heartthrob Varun Dhawan, known for films like Badlapur and Badrinath Ki Dulhania, is loved for his jolly nature and versatility. Coming to his personal life, his love story with fashion designer Natasha Dalal is nothing short of a dreamy one. He married his childhood friend, fashion designer Natasha Dalal, in January 2021. The couple welcomed their daughter, Lara, on June 3, 2024, marking a full-circle moment for the original SOTY trio as they all embraced parenthood with the birth of their daughters. On the work front, Sidharth will next appear in 'Param Sundari', Alia is gearing up for YRFs Spy Universe film 'Alpha', and Varun will be seen in Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari and Border 2. New Delhi: Ajay Devgn's 'Son Of Sardaar 2' is making noise ahead of its release and what best that his daughter Nysa joining in the viral dance trend from one of its songs. So, netizens had a field day after Orry aka Orhan Awatramani and Nysa Devgan recreated the hook step (finger dance step) from 'Pehla Tu, Duja Tu' song which has become the talk of the town. Nysa Devgan And Orry's Video Orry shared the video on his Instagram with a funny caption reading:She dint even have to learn the dance !! Many commented on the video post. One person wrote: How do you come up with this ?? Like do you share the viral reels to her. Another one said: for the first time it looks orry has been held hostage!! When Kajol Reacted To The Song In her recent interview with Miss Malini, Kajol burst into laughter as she took a playful dig at her husbands dancing skills. Like I said, Ajay Devgn is one of the best dancers that we have the industry because he is the only person now who is able to dance with his fingers now, she joked. Kajol added, Pehle hua karta tha ki chalke aate hai, music uske hisab se banta tha abhi unglyo se karte hai. He is one of the smartest dancers that we have in the film industry. About Son Of Sardaar 2 The Pehla Tu Duja Tu dance move has got internet in splits already, with many comparing it with Ajay Devgn's earlier track 'Dhoom Dhaam' from Yami Gautam-starrer Action Jackson. Directed by Ashwni Dhir, Son of Sardaar 2 is the sequel to the 2012 action-comedy and is slated for a theatrical release on July 25, 2025. The film stars Ajay Devgn and Mrunal Thakur in lead roles, New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to lift the stay on the film Udaipur Files, which has encountered legal hurdles ahead of its scheduled release on July 11. According to a report by Bar and Bench, the Supreme Court refused to immediately set aside the Delhi High Courts interim order staying the release of Udaipur Files, a film based on the 2022 murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli in Udaipur. The hearing has been deferred to July 21, with the Court asking the Centre to make a decision through the appropriate statutory authority by then. Udaipur Files row: On a plea filed by one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal Murder case against the release of the film Udaipur Files, the Supreme Court stated that the matter will be decided by the Central government, as a revision plea against the films release is pending ANI (@ANI) July 16, 2025 A Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymala Bagchi stated that the Central government may proceed with reviewing the film, as directed by the High Court. We will keep the matter pending. We can benefit from the Union of Indias view before the High Court. Suppose the Union says theres nothing wrongthen we will consider that. If they recommend cuts, we can peruse those as well. If the Centre wasnt addressing the matter, it would have been different. We are told a committee has been formed and the Union is examining it we can wait for a day or two, the Court observed. The Court further directed that the committee reviewing objections to the film must take an immediate decision. We expect that the committee will decide the revision plea immediately, without any loss of time. Post the matter for further consideration on July 21, the Court ordered. The apex court also directed the Centre to consider the version of the accused in the 2022 Udaipur murder case. The Competent Authority of the Central government has taken cognisance of the revision petition regarding the films release and is scheduled to hear the matter at 2:30 pm today, a bench led by Justice Surya Kant stated, deferring the hearing on merits to July 21 (Monday). About Udaipur Files The film is based on the 2022 murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur, Rajasthan, who was killed in broad daylight by Mohammad Riyaz Attari and Ghaus Mohammad. A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi is currently hearing two separate matters: A plea by the films producer, Amit Johnny, challenging the Delhi High Courts interim order halting the movies release. A petition by Javed, one of the accused in the murder case, arguing that the films release could compromise the fairness of the ongoing trial. New Delhi: Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme 20th Instalment: Lakhs of farmers waiting for the 20th Instalment of PM-Kisan scheme are expected to get Rs 2,000 in their bank account on Friday (18 July 2025), media reports have said. Although there has been no official confirmation regarding the same yet. In the wake of the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a tour of Bihar this week. As per media reports, the Prime Minister may address a big public meeting in Motihari (East Champaran) on July 18. Speculations are rife in the media that PM Modi may release the 20th installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana to more than 9.8 crore farmers across the country during this program on July 18. The PM is expected to press the button for direct transfer of Rs 2,000 to the bank accounts of millions of eligible farmers. To avail the benefits of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, farmers should keep these things in mind 5 major things 1. Keep your bank account linked with Aadhar card 2. Check your Aadhar seeding with bank account status 3.Keep your DBT option active in your Aadhaar seeded bank account 4. Complete your e-KYC 5. Check your Aadhaar seeding status under 'Know Your Status' module in PM Kisan Portal. PM Kisan Samman Nidhi 20th Instalment: How To Check Your Name In Beneficiary List? -Visit official PM KISAN website https://pmkisan.gov.in/ Portal - You will see the map of India under Payment Success tab. - On the right hand side, there will be a yellow coloured tab called "Dashboard" - Click on Dashboard - After clicking, you will be taken to a new page - On the Village Dashboard tab, you will have to fill your complete details - Select the state, district, Sub-District and Panchayat - Then click on show button - After this you can choose your details - Click 'Get Report' button - Now you can see your name in the Beneficiaries list PM Kisan 19th Instalment Also Released In A Bihar Event In February The 19th instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) was released in February this year at an event in Bhihar by PM Modi. During the event over 9.8 crore farmers including 2.41 crore female farmers across the country were transferred the 19th instalment Installment of the PM-KISAN Scheme, receiving direct financial assistance exceeding Rs 22,000 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Eight helicopters have been inducted into the air force in the first batch out of the 22 procured from the US. In September 2015, IAF had signed a contract with US Government and Boeing for these Apache helicopters. Watch this video to know more. Google AI Pro Plan For Students: Google is offering free access to its premium Google AI Pro plan to Indian college students aged 18 and above for 1 year. The company's new move gives students access to Googles advanced AI tools, including Gemini 2.5 Pro, Deep Research, and enhanced NotebookLM features. The Google AI Pro plan is priced at Rs 19,500 per year, making it one of the most expensive AI plans among competitors. The offer is valid until September 15, 2025. Google AI Pro Plan: Benefits The Gemini app now offers users access to the powerful Gemini 2.5 Pro model and Deep Research capabilities. Subscribers can also explore limited access to Google's advanced video generation model,Veo 3 Fast. Adding further, users can leverage Google's AI filmmaking tools and creative video solutions like Flow with Veo 3 and Whisk with the Veo 2 mode. The upgraded plan enhances the functionality of NotebookLM, a smart research and writing assistant, with increased usage limits. Gemini is also seamlessly integrated into key Google apps including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Chrome, and more, providing AI-powered assistance across the ecosystem. As part of the Google AI Pro plan, users will receive 2TB of cloud storage shared across Google Photos, Drive, and Gmail. Google AI Pro Plan: How Students Can Claim For Free Step 1: Ensure you are 18 years or older, a resident of India, and currently enrolled in a college or university. Step 2: You must have a valid college email ID, a personal Google Account, and an active Google Payments account. Step 3: Make sure you do not have an active Google One subscription, as existing subscribers are not eligible for this offer. Step 4: Go to the official Google AI Pro Plan student offer page and follow the on-screen instructions to begin registration. Step 5: Submit all required details before the offer ends on September 15, 2025. New Delhi: The warning was not wrapped in diplomatic niceties. It was plain, direct and loud enough to echo through capitals across three continents. Standing before US lawmakers on Capitol Hill, newly-appointed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a statement that did not leave much room for interpretation. India, China and Brazil, he said, must reconsider their economic engagement with Russia or prepare for what he called massive consequences. The words came just 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump, who is back in the global spotlight, announced a sweeping new weapons package for Ukraine. He paired that with a dramatic threat a 100% tariff on buyers of Russian goods unless a peace deal is on the table within 50 days. Ruttes remarks did not come as an aside. They were front and center of his meeting with U.S. senators, including Trumps closest Republican allies. If you live now in Beijing or in Delhi or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look into this, because this might hit you very hard, he said. Then he added a line that sparked a frenzy of speculation in diplomatic circles. So please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way, he declared. The message was unmistakable. The era of silent neutrality is being pushed aside. NATO wants major powers in the Global South to make a move and fast. Rutte, who recently transitioned from the Dutch prime minister to NATOs top job, has kept his messaging in tight alignment with Washington, especially under Trumps revived influence. His visit to Capitol Hill highlighted this strategic shift. The United States, he said, would now massively scale up arms deliveries to Ukraine both offensive and defensive. Air defense systems, long-range missiles and ammunition all paid for by Europe. It is both defensive and offensive. So there is all kinds of weapons. This is really being worked through now by the Pentagon, by the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, together with the Ukrainians, Rutte said when pressed for details. The pressure campaign is aimed at isolating Putin completely. And Rutte made clear that the so-called neutral buyers of Russian oil, coal and minerals would not be left untouched. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, stood beside Trumps decision but flagged a concern. The 50-day window, he said, could give Putin just enough time to seize more territory before striking a deal on his terms. Putin would try to use the 50 days to win the war or to be better positioned to negotiate a peace agreement after having murdered and potentially collected more ground as a basis for negotiation, Tillis warned. He did not mince words either. So we should look at the current state of Ukraine today and say, no matter what you do over the next 50 days, any of your gains are off the table, he said. Trumps new deal with NATO leaders like Rutte places Europe in a decisive funding role. Ukraines path to the negotiating table, they argue, must be paved with firepower, not just diplomacy. But the real pivot in this weeks developments lies outside Europe. With Rutte now urging India, China and Brazil to act, and to do so by calling Putin directly, the geopolitical temperature has risen. In Delhi, the signal will not be ignored. In Beijing, it may prompt recalibration. In Brasilia, it lands just as Brazils President Lula tries to walk a tightrope between BRICS and the West. One message stands above the rest. The time to stay silent is running out. And the phone to Moscow is ringing. New Delhi: On what was to be the darkest day for a nurse from Kerala, an unexpected ray of hope came from thousands of miles away. Nimisha Priya, who had been sentenced to death in Yemen for the murder of loca business partner, had her execution halted just hours before it was to take place. At the centre of this dramatic turn was a quiet but powerful intervention by Indias Grand Mufti, Sheikh Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar. A native of Kollengode in Keralas Palakkad district, Nimisha left for Yemen in 2011. She worked as a nurse in the capital, Sanaa. Like many others from Indias nursing diaspora, she hoped for a better life for her family. But her journey soon spiralled into something far more tragic. In 2014, her husband and daughter returned to India due to the worsening civil war and financial struggles. She stayed behind, hoping to continue sending money back home. She partnered with a Yemeni national, Talal Abdo Mahdi, to open a clinic required by local law for foreign medical professionals. But that partnership soon became a prison. Mahdi allegedly forged documents to falsely claim he was married to her. He then seized her passport and reportedly subjected her to violence and drugging. In desperation, Nimisha tried to retrieve her documents by sedating Mahdi in 2017. But the dosage turned fatal. In panic, she and a female colleague dismembered his body and hid the remains in a water tank. She was arrested soon after. In 2020, a Yemeni court sentenced her to death. The countrys Supreme Judicial Council upheld the verdict in November 2023. And the execution was scheduled for July 16, 2025. Enter the Grand Mufti As Nimishas family scrambled for legal help, diplomatic intervention hit a wall. India has no official diplomatic ties with the Houthi-controlled region of Yemen, where she is imprisoned. The Indian government admitted as much to the Supreme Court, stating that there was nothing much it could do. But far from the legal corridors, an elder statesman of Islamic jurisprudence quietly stepped in. Sheikh Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar, also known as the Grand Mufti of India, began reaching out to Yemen. Faith and Compassion Over Borders Sheikh Kanthapuram contacted Islamic scholars in Yemen directly. He pleaded for humanity. He urged them to explore a path rooted in Islamic principles Diya (blood money) instead of capital punishment. In Islam, instead of killing, there is also a practice of giving Diya (compensation). I requested them to accept Diyaat as the party is ready here for it. There are talks going on about whether my request has to be accepted, the Grand Mufti told ANI. He did not know the victims family personally. Still, he extended himself across oceans. Islam has another law. If the murderer is sentenced to death, the family of the victim has the right to pardon. I do not know who this family is, but from a long distance, I contacted the responsible scholars in Yemen. I made them understand the issues. Islam is a religion that places a lot of importance on humanity, he told reporters. Scholars Respond, Execution Deferred The scholars whom Sheikh Kanthapuram reached out to responded with urgency. They met. They deliberated. And they acted. After I requested that they intervene and take action, the scholars met, discussed and stated that they would do what they could. They have officially informed us and sent a document stating that the date of execution has been postponed, which will help facilitate the ongoing discussions, he said. He did not stop there. I have also informed the Central government about the discussions and the process. I have also sent a letter to the Prime Ministers Office, he added. The document, in Arabic, was shared by him on Instagram. It stated that the death sentence scheduled for July 16 had been postponed until further notification following a directive from the Attorney General of Yemen. What Lies Ahead The halt in execution is not an end. It is a moment of breathing room. Nimishas family is now hoping to reach a settlement through the concept of Diya, recognised under Yemens Sharia law. Reports suggest the family is prepared to offer Rs 8.6 crore as blood money to the victims relatives. Officials in India have been in touch with the prosecutors office and prison authorities in Yemen throughout the ordeal. But it was the voice of a religious leader that broke through the diplomatic impasse. Who Is Sheikh Kanthapuram? Sheikh Kanthapuram A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar is a towering figure in South Indian Islamic scholarship. Born in Kerala, he is the president of the All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama. His moral authority extends well beyond the subcontinent. He is known for balancing theological purity with a deep empathy for real-world human suffering. His role in the Nimishas case is an example. He wielded no political power. He made no loud demands. Yet his appeal, grounded in faith and compassion, created a pause in what had seemed inevitable. A Life Saved For Now For Nimishas mother and daughter in Kerala, this moment is nothing short of a miracle. They know that the fight is not over. But for now, the gallows have been pushed back. And it was a scholar from their own state who gave them that chance. New Delhi: A small group of Indian trade negotiators has landed in Washington this week. Their task is urgent. They must try, once again, to untangle the long-pending India-U.S. trade deal that has seen too many rounds, too many delays and now stares down a hard deadline, August 1. The clock is ticking. U.S. President Donald Trump, now in his second term at the White House, has already fired off tariff letters to a long list of countries. Japan, Brazil, South Korea, Thailand and Cambodia, each has received a note explaining in clear terms why new tariffs are coming. India has not received one. That is only because New Delhi and Washington are still talking. But if there is no deal before the deadline, the letter could arrive. Where Are The Talks Stuck? Washington wants India to lower its tariffs on American agricultural and dairy goods. Milk, wheat, poultry and genetically modified soy, all are on the table. New Delhi, however, is not moving. Indias position has been clear. Its farm sector, dairy cooperatives, food security architecture, they cannot take a hit. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has said any agreement must benefit both sides. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has echoed that line. No pressure. No compromise on farmers. No backdoor trade-offs. So far, India has kept these sectors out of most trade deals, including with the United Kingdom and Australia. The same applies here. Indian Team Lands in Washington Led by Special Secretary Rajesh Agarwal, the Indian delegation is back in the U.S. capital, hoping to break the deadlock. The goal is to find a formula, something that can be signed off before Trumps August 1 deadline kicks in and the United States begins slapping tariffs across the board. Goyal says talks are moving at speed. Speaking to reporters, he confirmed that the Indian side is focused on crafting an agreement that works for both countries. There is still time. Barely two weeks. But the message is that the window will not stay open for long. Trumps Tariff Playbook Trump is playing hardball again. Twenty-five countries have already been hit with his new tariff regime. Canada was slapped with 35 percent. Others have seen higher. But in Indias case, the U.S. president has dropped a telling hint. While speaking about his global tariff strategy, he said that key trading partners may see lower tariffs, around 15 to 20 percent. And not every country will get a formal letter. It is a signal that if India clinches the deal, it may escape the harshest penalties. Why India Wont Budge On Dairy & Agriculture Behind Indias tough stance lies a deeper concern. According to a recent report from the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), any wide-scale entry of subsidised U.S. dairy or poultry goods could damage Indias rural economy. Not only small farmers but food security itself could be hit. The report warns against opening the gates to American grain or genetically modified soybeans. Once these products enter Indian markets, they could displace local produce and crush pricing structures. This is not only about trade margins, this is about the long-term sustainability of Indian agriculture. Can A Deal Still Happen? If all goes well in Washington, negotiators may stitch together a limited package. It will not be a full-blown foreign trade agreement (FTA). But it could be enough to avoid Trumps tariff stick. Enough to show progress. Enough to keep the trade lanes open. A senior official said that a breakthrough is still possible before August 1. But it depends on what each side is willing to give, and what each insists on keeping off the table. Until then, all eyes remain on the U.S. capital. In a warning to Damascus, the Israeli Air Force carried out bombings at the entrance of the Syrian regime's military headquarters, said the Israel Defence Forces. The Israeli army is already making advances into the Sweida area in southern Syria amid the ongoing conflict. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katzz has already warned Syria of further strikes if Suweida is not vacated by the Syrian forces. "The IDF continues to monitor developments and the regime's actions against Druze civilians in southern Syria. In accordance with directives from the political echelon, the IDF is striking in the area and remains prepared for various scenarios," the military said. Over the last 24 hours, Israeli Air Force aircraft have also attacked tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pick-up trucks armed with heavy machine guns, which were making their way to the Sweida. Previously, numerous Druze citizens from Israel crossed over from the Golan Heights into southern Syria, according to Israeli sources, as clashes erupted between Druze fighters and forces of the Syrian interim government. On Tuesday, Syria's defense minister announced a ceasefire in Suweida, stating that an agreement had been reached with local leaders to allow security forces to be deployed in the area, as reported by the Xinhua news agency. However, one Druze spiritual leader called for local fighters to continue their resistance. Following the Syrian forces' deployment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported allegations against government forces and their allies for executing at least 19 Druze civilians, including 12 individuals at a family guest house. Root Of Conflict The root of the conflict lies in an earlier incident in which a young Druze man was assaulted and robbed by armed Bedouins at a temporary checkpoint near al-Masriyah. In retaliation, local Druze fighters detained several Bedouin members, escalating the situation. Last Saturday, heavy gunfire and the sound of shelling echoed through the city, forcing many residents indoors and prompting urgent calls from community leaders for intervention to de-escalate the situation. Recurring incidents of kidnapping and armed assault have plagued the vital road linking Sweida to Damascus in recent months. Locals blame the deteriorating security situation and the absence of state control over armed factions for the violence. Why Did Israel Attack Syria? Israle has attacked Syria over three key issues - Protection of the Druze Population: The Sweida areas is predominantly inhabited by the Druze minority, a religious group with strong ties to Israel. Clashes have erupted between Syrian government forces and Druze armed groups. Israel and Druze people allege atrocities by the Syrian regime and thus, to protect them, Israel carries out strikes on Syria. Maintaining a Demilitarized Zone at Borders: Israel seeks to prevent the establishment of a military threat along Syrian border. Following the ousting of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, there's been a power vacuum and shifting control in Syria. Israel has expressed concern about the presence of Islamist militants and other hostile groups near its border with the Golan Heights (which Israel occupies and annexed). They aim to establish a 'sterile defense zone' and ensure that Syrian forces, particularly those with heavy weaponry, are not positioned in areas that could pose a threat to Israel. Disrupting Iranian and Hezbollah Influence: Israel has conducted numerous airstrikes in Syria over decades to target Iranian and Hezbollah military infrastructure located in the area. These actions are part of a broader strategy to prevent Iran from entrenching itself militarily in Syria and to curb Hezbollah's capabilities, which Israel views as a direct threat to its security. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Inside a heavily guarded defense complex in Islamabad, two delegations met behind closed doors. Flags of Pakistan and Turkey stood side by side. No ceremony. No speeches. But the message was loud. A major defense agreement has taken shape between the two nations. One that involves cutting-edge drones, classified surveillance data and a quiet alignment of military strategies. The deal runs deep. Turkey will send Pakistan its combat-tested Bayraktar TB2 drones. Alongside them, the more powerful Akinci drones. Both built for precision, speed and destruction. The deal is worth $900 million. Over 700 explosive drones and advanced spy UAVs will move from Turkish stockpiles to Pakistani airfields. These drones carry heat-sensing payloads and silent strike technology. Turkey has also promised steady intelligence support such as real-time feeds, tracking grids and satellite links. Pakistan will return the favour. Its army will supply modern tank shells, mortar rounds and battlefield ammunition to Turkey. The paperwork remains locked away. Top officials from both sides have called the agreement strategic, confidential and ongoing. In recent weeks, Turkeys foreign and defense ministers visited Pakistan. Their meetings included Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Field Marshal General Asim Munir and heads of Pakistans drone programmes. Discussions revolved around strengthening ties, increasing weapons exports and syncing military planning. Indias name came up more than once. Operation Sindoor, Indias covert counter-terror campaign, continues to cast a long shadow across the region. Officials believe the drone deal is one of several moves aimed at countering Indian operations near the western front. Pakistans leadership thanked Turkey directly. Both Sharif and Munir appreciated what they called timely support from Ankara. Behind the formalities, the tone was clear. This partnership goes beyond trade. It moves into shared surveillance, border readiness and regional control. Turkish companies have been invited to invest in Pakistans defense industry. Talks are already underway for drone assembly units inside Pakistani territory. Eager to cement its image as a global drone power, Turkey sees South Asia as the next frontier. It has already sold weapons to Bangladesh, Myanmar and other Indian neighbours. The supply of TB2s and Akinci drones marks a shift. These are the same UAVs that earned global attention during Russia-Ukraine battlefield operations. They have flown in Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan. Now, Pakistan will host them. The two countries have also agreed to increase intelligence sharing. No details have been made public. But sources say the exchange includes geolocation data and thermal surveillance from disputed zones. The growing alliance between Ankara and Islamabad also touches other regional hotspots, Iran, Gaza and Afghanistan. Meetings held in Islamabad reportedly included discussion of future coordination across these zones. With the ink barely dry on the deal, both governments are now working to fast-track delivery schedules. Pakistan has already allocated airbases for drone testing. Turkish teams are expected to arrive soon for on-ground integration. There were no military parades. No press briefings. But inside South Asias defense circles, the news is loud. A new axis is taking shape and its eyes are pointed east. Torrential monsoon rains and flash floods have killed at least 116 people and injured 253 others across Pakistan since June 26, the country's National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said. According to the NDMA's latest report, five more deaths and 41 injuries were recorded in the past 24 hours due to rain-related incidents. The eastern Punjab province recorded the highest number of fatalities with 44, followed by the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with 37, the southern Sindh province with 18, and the southwestern Balochistan province with 16. One death and five injuries were reported in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, while no casualties were recorded in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Islamabad Capital Territory, said the NDMA, Xinhua news agency reported. The agency has issued a weather alert, warning of potential flash floods in parts of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan provinces, as heavy rainfall is forecast to continue through Thursday. Last week, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) warned district administrations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) about the risk of flooding due to a new spell of torrential rainfall forecasted from July 11 to 17. Heavy rain and flash floods, which have already caused significant destruction in June, are expected to persist. Pakistans monsoon season runs from June to September and frequently brings widespread disruption. Each year, heavy downpours trigger deadly floods, landslides, and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, densely populated, and poorly drained areas. In Sindh, rain accompanied by windstorms and thunderstorms is expected in Tharparkar, Mirpur Khas, Sanghar, Sukkur, Larkana, Dadu, Jacobabad, Khairpur, and Shaheed Benazirabad from July 14 to 16, with intermittent breaks. According to the leading Pakistani newspaper 'Dawn', the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has also warned of possible urban flooding in low-lying areas of the twin cities, as well as Gujranwala, Lahore, Sialkot, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Khanewal, Multan, Sahiwal, Okara, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Vehari, Nowshera, and Peshawar. Between June 26 and July 14, electrocution emerged as the leading cause of rain-related fatalities, followed by flash floods. In one tragic incident in late June, at least 13 tourists died after being swept away while seeking shelter on a raised riverbank during sudden flooding. Authorities have issued further warnings and urged residents -- especially those in low-lying or at-risk areas -- to take precautionary measures. Rescue and relief efforts remain ongoing in the most severely impacted regions. Despite repeated monsoon forecasts and warnings, the Sindh provincial government has failed to take adequate action to clean stormwater drains, sewer lines, or gutters. As a result, many areas remain waterlogged, even as fresh rainfall is expected starting July 15. In Hyderabad, residents are increasingly concerned about the state of the main drains, which are choked with garbage and lack protective walls -- many of which are either broken or missing. The Express Tribune, a leading Pakistani daily, reported that no repairs have been carried out. Although the Meteorological Department had formally notified the Sindh government about the incoming weather system, resulting in high-level meetings with commissioners, deputy commissioners, and municipal agencies, no meaningful preparations have materialised on the ground. On July 10, the Sindh Local Government Department issued directives to various municipal bodies -- including the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and town municipal administrations -- urging them to take preventive action. However, more than 48 hours later, no visible steps had been taken. Despite receiving Rs 1.2 million in monthly government grants, local Union Committees have failed to allocate funds for essential services like drain maintenance, with most of the budget consumed by salaries and utility bills. Each year, the Sindh government and local authorities hold emergency meetings and announce rain preparedness plans, allocating millions of rupees. Yet, in practice, drains remain uncleared, and fraudulent bills are allegedly submitted for nonexistent cleaning work -- leading to widespread misappropriation of public funds. Additionally, no institution or bureaucrat has ever been held responsible for the repeated negligence, media reports suggest. Moscow/New Delhi: A startling discovery beneath the frozen edges of the planet has set off waves of concern, awe and speculation. Russian scientists claim to have found one of the worlds largest reserves of crude oil (an estimated 511 billion barrels) buried deep under Antarcticas icy crust. This massive figure not only dwarfs known reserves but also raises pressing questions about future global power struggles, environmental risks and the fate of long-standing international agreements. Conducted in the Weddell Sea region by Russias state-backed geological agency Rosgeo, the survey revealed oil reserves that exceed the total volume of crude ever extracted by humans. This discovery, experts warn, could shift the worlds energy balance and turn Antarctica from a scientific sanctuary into the next geopolitical battlefield. Although Russia insists the mission was purely scientific, the timing and scale of the discovery are prompting alarm. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, all military or commercial exploitation of natural resources on the continent remains strictly prohibited. Several observers suspect that Moscows intentions extend beyond peaceful research. A Brewing Global Flashpoint? The area where this oil lies is part of the British Antarctic Territory, a region that also sees claims from Chile and Argentina. These overlapping claims now carry added weight as interest grows among nations sensing a resource opportunity buried under ice. What was once a cold and silent expanse of cooperation might soon witness contesting flags and strategic maneuvers. During the Cold War, 12 countries signed the Antarctic Treaty to keep the continent shielded from military and commercial rivalry. Today, over 50 countries are part of that pact. None have so far challenged the treatys core rule of non-extraction until now. Experts such as Professor Klaus Dodds from Royal Holloway University argue that Russias survey is a smokescreen for deeper ambitions. He called the oil mission a thinly veiled attempt to open the door to future drilling warning that tapping into a 500-billion-barrel reserve could tilt the global energy market on its head. Melting Ice, Uncovering Riches As Antarcticas glaciers slowly retreat due to rising global temperatures, the continents hidden layers are coming into view. With over 70% of the worlds freshwater frozen beneath its surface, Antarcticas thaw poses both a climate risk and a resource temptation. Environmentalists fear that exploiting such massive fossil fuel reserves could have devastating consequences. Extracting oil on this scale would not only breach the treaty but could also accelerate climate change beyond control. Some scientists have already begun calling the discovery a potential death sentence for the planet if countries attempt to access and burn that much carbon fuel. Despite this, voices within the geopolitical arena suggest that a scramble could be imminent. Global powers, hungry for new energy sources and strategic leverage, may begin circling the icy continent with more than just research in mind. A New Era for Antarctica? As nations weigh the discovery's implications, the future of Antarctica hangs in a fragile balance. What was once a land of scientific cooperation now faces the looming shadow of resource-driven conflict. The Russian oil discovery may have just opened a new and colder front in the global race for energy and the world is watching. New York: Two people lost their lives in New Jersey after floodwaters swept away their vehicle during a powerful overnight storm that hit the U.S. Northeast, officials said on Tuesday. Emergency crews reached there quickly. It did not matter. By the time they pulled the bodies out, the flood had already finished its story. The city confirmed their deaths. Their names are being held for now. Governor Phil Murphy stood amid the wreckage in Berkeley Heights. He did not dress it up. Everybody needs to stay alert, he said. The air hung heavy with humidity and the ground still soft with runoff. This was not the first storm death this month. On July 3, two others were killed in Plainfield. A third person died in nearby North Plainfield. This time, the storm did not stop at New Jersey. It battered down on south-central Pennsylvania, flooded the streets of Lancaster County and punched into the heart of New York. There, underground, the chaos became visible. In Manhattan, the water surged through the veins of the city. A subway station turned into a drainpipe. Viral clips showed water gushing down stairwells, spilling over the platform and creeping onto train floors. Some passengers stood on seats to stay dry. Janno Lieber, the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), said the sewer system is lost. The rain came faster than it could carry away. In some areas, it overwhelmed the tunnels. It popped a manhole, he said. The geyser exploded into the station. What New York saw was not new. It has become a pattern. In 2012, Superstorm Sandy drowned parts of the subway system. Millions were spent waterproofing the infrastructure. Floodgates were built. Vents were raised. Curbs were added. But every year, the rain keeps testing what is left. In 2021, Hurricane Idas remnants filled the city again. Basement apartments turned into death traps. Water poured into the subways. More people died. Another lesson was learned. But not for long. This storm pushed the limits again. In Central Park, the rain came down at one of the highest hourly rates ever recorded. New Yorks Environmental Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala tried to put it into words people could picture, Imagine pouring two liters of water into a one-liter bottle. That is what happened to the citys sewers. They backed up. They had nowhere to go. The subway is technically outside City Halls control. It is run by the MTA. But both sides have been working on clearing sewers near 45 high-risk stations. That is not enough. To fix everything, it would take about $30 billion. Right now, New York spends $1 billion a year on stormwater upgrades. In Pennsylvania, 7 inches of rain fell in a matter of hours. Some roads broke open. Basements flooded. Rescue boats were deployed. In New Jersey, a highway was shut down for emergency repair. Murphy said the damage was still being counted. Some pavement had buckled. The White House had reached out. In North Plainfield, the water did not just drown the streets. It sparked fire. A home caught flames and collapsed after what Murphy described as an explosion. Nobody was inside. The cause is still being investigated. At Newark Airport, passengers were grounded. A total of 173 flights were canceled. Others were stuck on tarmacs or in terminals. By Tuesday, the skies calmed. The flood warnings faded. But in many homes, streets and subway cars, the aftermath lingered. Waterlogged. Heavy. Waiting to be cleared. New Delhi: The U.S. Embassy in India has warned visa holders and applicants that receiving a visa is no shield from deportation. In a message shared on social media, the embassy said that American authorities continue to monitor individuals even after a visa has been granted and that anyone found violating U.S. laws or immigration rules could face immediate visa revocation and deportation. U.S. visa screening does not stop after a visa is issued. We continuously check visa holders to ensure they follow all U.S. laws and immigration rules and we will revoke their visas and deport them if they dont, the embassy posted on X (formerly Twitter). U.S. visa screening does not stop after a visa is issued. We continuously check visa holders to ensure they follow all U.S. laws and immigration rules and we will revoke their visas and deport them if they dont. pic.twitter.com/jV1o6ETRg4 U.S. Embassy India (@USAndIndia) July 12, 2025 The embassy made it clear that visa holders are under routine surveillance. Students on F-1 visas. Techies on H-1Bs. Visitors. Tourists. Everyone. The warning comes amid a wave of tightening visa controls and intensified monitoring mechanisms under new screening protocols. And officials did not need to cite examples. Past cases have shown that people caught working off-campus without permission, misrepresenting social media activity or violating the terms of academic enrollment have faced detention, revoked visas and removal orders. Social Media Too Is Being Watched The embassy is deep-diving into the internet. In an earlier post, it warned, Omitting social media information could lead to visa denial and ineligibility for future visas. Applicants now must list every social media handle used in the last five years on the DS-160 form from LinkedIn and Facebook to X and Instagram. And that is not only for transparency, but for continuous tracking. In fact, as per updated guidance issued just weeks ago, applicants for student and cultural exchange visas (F, M, J) are now required to make their social media profiles public. The aim? Easier vetting. Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to public, the embassy declared. Effective immediately, all individuals applying for an F, M, or J nonimmigrant visa are requested to adjust the privacy settings on all of their social media accounts to public to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States pic.twitter.com/ud0qeI8tvV State_SCA (@State_SCA) July 15, 2025 Why This Matters for Indian Visa Holders The message could not be clearer every move counts. The days of lax oversight are gone. From attending your college classes to switching employers and from tweeting political views to maintaining a clean immigration record, every action could make or break your stay. A technical violation, an unreported course change or a simple omission in paperwork can now lead to irreversible consequences. This crackdown comes against a wider backdrop. U.S. immigration agencies are ramping up vetting not only at the application stage, but long after entry. With growing concerns around visa fraud, overstays and unreported employment, especially in countries like India, which sends one of the highest numbers of visa applicants, Washington is turning up the heat. What You Need to Know Now Visa approval is not the finish line. It is the beginning of long-term monitoring. Any violation of terms, including unauthorised work, dropping out of school or overstaying, can result in visa revocation and deportation. Social media presence is under strict review. Every handle over the past five years must be disclosed. Privacy settings must be public for some visa categories. All status changes must be legally reported and updated through the appropriate immigration channels. For the past 24 hours, Israeli airstrikes have been pounding various locations in Syria. In the first wave of attacks, the Israeli Air Force targeted areas predominantly inhabited by the Druze community. In the second wave, it struck the Syrian armys headquarters in Damascus. If you follow global affairs closely, you might be wondering: Why attack Syria now especially when Irans influence in Syria has waned, and Hezbollahs presence has also diminished? The answer lies in Israels long-standing relationship with the Druze community, which resides in Syria. We bring you an in-depth analysis of a major international development, with Israel once again at the center of a growing conflict. After confronting Hamas in Gaza, battling Houthi rebels in Yemen, and challenging Irans regional influence, Israel has now opened a new front this time in Syria. In the first part of this analysis, well walk you through whats happening on the ground with Israels latest military operation in Syria. It's crucial to understand this situation carefully. Israel launched its military campaign in Syria to protect the Druze a minority group facing extremist violence. But why is this community so important to Israel? To understand that, lets first look at whats been happening on the ground in Syria. A large portion of Syrias Druze population lives in the border province of Sweida. For the past two weeks, a local militia has been attacking Druze villages. In response, armed Druze factions began fighting back. As tensions escalated, radical groups began receiving direct support from the Syrian government. The government-aligned militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham then opened heavy fire on Druze-populated areas prompting Israel to intervene militarily. The Druze community for whom Israel has opened this new battlefront has deep historical ties to Israel. Druze people, who are of Arab origin and follow a branch of Islam, live across Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. They reject Islamic extremism and are widely respected within Israeli society. Their bond with Israel is not only social but also strategic a relationship that deserves close attention. Back in 1948, when a coalition of Arab nations attacked the newly established State of Israel, the Druze living in northern Israel sided with Israeli forces. By 1956, Israel began formally recruiting Druze Muslims into its military. Since then, many Druze soldiers have gone on to lead major brigades, and during the recent Gaza war, 12 Druze soldiers lost their lives fighting for Israel. Because of their significant contributions to Israeli society and defence, Israel did not hesitate to open a new military front in Syria to protect the Druze. This enduring partnership stands as a lesson for those who prioritize religious extremism and terrorism over national unity and peace. Sanaa/New Delhi: In the capital of Yemen, a woman waits in a prison cell. Her name is Nimisha Priya. She is a nurse from Kerala in India. For years now, she has carried the weight of a death sentence. But on Monday, a flicker of hope arrived. Her execution, originally scheduled for June 16, has been halted, at least for now. She remains behind bars in Sanaa, a city under the control of the Houthi administration. She has been convicted for allegedly murdering her business partner, Talal Abdo Mahdi. The victims family has broken silence. His brother, Abdel Fateh Mahdi, is speaking publicly for the first time in details about what they believe truly happened between Nimisha and Talal. In an interview with BBC Arabic, he denied every accusation made against his late brother. No abuse. No passport confiscation. No torture. He says these stories are false. Stories that, he believes, were crafted to portray Nimisha as a victim. During a hearing in the Supreme Court of India, Nimishas legal team painted a different picture. They claimed she had been exploited. They said Talal took all her money. That he beat her. That he held her passport so she could not leave. That he stripped her of dignity and control. But Abdel dismissed it all as fabrication. They knew each other. They were business partners. They started a clinic together. Later, they got married. They lived like any other couple for three or four years, Abdel said. He did not deny that a tragedy occurred. But he rejected the idea that the person convicted for it should be seen as anything but responsible. The truth is being twisted. The one who committed the act is being portrayed as the one who suffered, he said. As for forgiveness? Abdel had no hesitation. He asked for divine justice. Gods law (blood for blood) must be upheld. Nothing less, nothing more, he said. Back in India, there is movement behind the scenes. Nimishas case has drawn attention from powerful figures. According to Indian officials, diplomatic lines have stayed open. There have been repeated talks with Yemens prosecutors and prison authorities. The execution is on hold, but the sword still hangs. In Kerala, a respected Islamic scholar has stepped in. Grand Mufti A.P. Aboobacker Musliyar is trying to help. He reached out to elders in Yemen. He contacted tribal leaders and clerics. A series of meetings is being held. Members of Talals family are attending. So are influential people from the community. The goal is to reach an understanding. Maybe, even reconciliation. But the path ahead is uncertain. Nimisha remains in prison. Talal is gone. Two families. Two countries. Two truths. And between them, the long shadow of justice. On 15 July 17 people were reportedly injured in protests against a visit by Perus Presidentto Iquitos, the capital of the Amazonian region of Loreto. End of preview - This article contains approximately 401 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options On 15 July Brazils government met with business groups to discuss the potential tariffs announced by US Presidentlast week, while the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) launched an investigation yesterday into Brazils supposedly unfair trading practices. End of preview - This article contains approximately 395 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options The Electoral Affairs Commission for the Legislative Assembly Election (CAEAL) announced yesterday the disqualification of 12 directly elected candidates for failing to uphold the Macau Basic Law and pledge allegiance to Macau. When pressed for details, the president, Seng Io Man, responded that the specifics were confidential and primarily related to the National Security Committees involvement. According to a press conference held yesterday, all 12 disqualified candidates were affiliated with two specific groups: the Macau Create Peoples Livelihood Force and the Synergy of Macau Association. Alberto Wong and incumbent lawmaker Ron Lam were identified as the leading candidates from these groups, respectively. During the press conference concerning the decisions announced by the CAEAL, reporters posed several critical questions. They sought clarification on the legal basis for the decisions made by the National Security Committee and the CAEAL. There was also interest in whether candidates have the right to appeal these decisions, as well as the specific facts that led the National Security Committee to deem 12 candidates ineligible to run. Furthermore, inquiries were raised regarding whether CAEAL formally acknowledges the outcomes of the National Security Committees eligibility review. In response, Seng addressed the questions multiple times, emphasizing that the National Security Committee made authoritative determinations based on established legal standards and procedures. He clarified that the National Security Committee made authoritative decisions based on established legal standards and factual evidence regarding candidates support for the Basic Law and their loyalty to the Macau Special Administrative Region, stating: These determinations were communicated to the CAEAL and followed legal procedures. The CAEAL chief continued: Evaluating candidates adherence to the Basic Law and their loyalty to Macau is essential for implementing the principle of patriots administering Macau, fundamentally aimed at safeguarding national security. Despite requests for disclosure regarding the factual basis for the National Security Committees decision, the CAEAL cited relevant laws, stating that the agenda, content, opinions, and supporting documents from the committees meetings are confidential. As such, Seng emphasized that the content of the relevant work should not and must not be disclosed. Furthermore, it was noted that, in order to maintain the confidentiality of the committees operations, several candidates identified as not supporting the Basic Law and lacking allegiance to Macau were explicitly prohibited from filing objections or judicial appeals. The CAEAL president asserted, This is legal and reasonable, and reaffirmed that the National Security Committee is the specialized agency responsible for national security matters in Macau, with its authority and professionalism being unquestionable. He indicated that certain information and intelligence related to its work must remain strictly confidential to avoid risks to national security. Concerns were raised about how the CAEALs decision might affect voter participation in the upcoming election scheduled for September 14. The CAEAL emphasized that voting is both a right and a civic responsibility, urging residents to participate actively in the election to help establish a new Legislative Assembly. In response to worries about monitoring and reducing incitement for voters to cast blank or invalid ballots, Seng noted that the government amended the Legislative Assembly election regulations last year. These amendments aim to enhance the electoral process and strengthen measures against violations. Notably, the new regulations classify openly inciting others to cast blank ballots, abstain from voting, or submit invalid ballots as criminal offenses. The Legislative Assembly Election Law, amended in 2024, implements the principle of patriots administering Macau. Seng noted that during the Legislative Assemblys discussion of the bill last year, it was clearly established that assessing candidates support for the Basic Law and their loyalty to Macau is part of safeguarding national security. During the detailed review of the bill, all attending legislators voted in favor of it. According to relevant media records, Ron Lam, the current lawmaker, was among the attending legislators and delivered a speech during the discussion. Remarks from Ron Lam and Alberto Wong In response to the CAEALs announcement, Lam shared a statement on his Facebook page, expressing surprise at the news, which he had learned about through live broadcasts without any prior notification. It was sudden, but I remain calm and have nothing to hide. My commitment to Macau remains unwavering, and I truly believe that sunshine follows the storm! Lam said. The lawmaker also apologized to his supporters for being unable to continue his service and thanked his partners who have worked with him, saying, Im sorry for not being able to serve you further, and I sincerely appreciate all those who have accompanied me in serving Macau. The related post garnered over 700 likes and 169 comments within just one hour. Some commenters expressed dissatisfaction with the CAEALs decision, while others offered their gratitude for Lams efforts over the past four years. Additionally, Alberto, a first-time candidate in the AL election, issued a statement after learning of the results through the news. He reaffirmed his unwavering stance: I am patriotic, love Macau, and remain loyal to the Macau Special Administrative Region. Wong expressed his commitment to serving the people with the same dedication as always. He apologized to his supporters and thanked his team members for their collective efforts. Regarding the CAEALs decision, he chose not to comment but emphasized his optimism and intention to continue serving Macau through legal means. Local govt, Liaison Office back electoral commissions candidate decisions The spokesperson of the Liaison Office of the Central Peoples Government in Macau has expressed support for the Electoral Affairs Commissions law-based decisions on candidate eligibility for the upcoming eighth Legislative Assembly Election. The commissions decisions followed review opinions from the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, which assesses whether candidates uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to Macau. The Liaison Office emphasized that patriots administering Macau is a core principle of the One country, two systems framework, requiring AL members to be patriots. The spokesperson stressed that the committees binding reviews are legal, indisputable, and final under Macaus Law on Safeguarding National Security and the Electoral Law. We believe that all sectors of the society and the people in Macau would definitely uphold the rule of law and pass on the core value of love the country and Macau, the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the Macao SAR Government said it fully supports the Electoral Affairs Commission in carrying out its duties according to the law, ensuring the smooth conduct of the eighth Legislative Assembly Election under the principle of patriots administering Macau while safeguarding residents legal rights and freedoms. Through collaboration and solidarity across all sectors, Macau will continue to advance the successful implementation of One country, two systems with local characteristics, it added. Britains internal security service, MI5, has held the first photocall in its 84-year history. Stella Rimington, 56, became the first Director General of the MI5 to pose openly for cameras at the launch of a brochure outlining the organisations activities She was made the first female head of MI5 last year following another unprecedented public announcement after 22 years in the service. Journalists were invited to their first official briefing by a senior MI5 official where they were warned that this was not the beginning of a great avalanche of openness. The new booklet reveals nearly half of MI5s work concerns domestic terrorism, particularly the IRA. Only 5% of its activities involve subversion and the remaining workload is shared between threats generated abroad and counter espionage. Being in public life is not sufficient justification for investigation. Very few operational details appear in the 36-page brochure, although the methodologies are listed as eavesdropping, surveillance, telephone-tapping and agents. There is also an address for public correspondence about matters of national security. The security service was only given legal recognition four years ago in the 1989 Security Service Act. Home Secretary Michael Howard, who was at todays launch, said: I think its right that the public should be consulted about this agency, this service which does so much to help protect us. Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair has called for an independent parliamentary committee to oversee the work MI5 does in the public interest. The Secret Service Bureau was founded in 1909 by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith in response to the expansion of the German Navy. By 1939 it had 30 officers and today numbers about 2,000, with an equal number of men and women, 50% of whom are aged below 40, often recruited straight from university. Courtesy BBC News In context The Security Services booklet was revised in 1996, 1998 and 2002. MI5 first openly advertised job vacancies in 1997 and received 12,000 applications on the first day. The historical archives of the Services work in the First and Second World Wars were released by the Public Record Office in 1997 and 1999. In 1998/9 the Security Service had a budget of nearly 140m and employed 1,900. It is currently based in Thames House, Millbank. A second female head of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller, took office in October 2002. Stella Rimington delivered the Dimbleby Lecture in 1994 and remained director general of MI5 until 1996. She published her controversial memoirs and made her first television appearance in 2001. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he complained to President Xi Jinping during a meeting yesterday about a Chinese naval live-fire exercise off the Australian coast that forced commercial aircraft to change course. The exercise, held in February, saw a Chinese flotilla partially circumnavigate Australia in international waters beneath a busy commercial flight path in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. The mission was widely regarded as a display a Chinese military strength and was among several issues raised in what Albanese described as a very constructive meeting. President Xi said that China engaged in exercises, just as Australia engages in exercises, Albanese told reporters, referring to freedom of navigation missions conducted by Australian military in the disputed South China Sea. I said what I said at the time, Albanese added. There was no breach of international law by China, but that we were concerned about the notice and the way that it happened, including the live-fire exercises, Chinese leader doesnt raise Taiwan issue Albanese said Xi did not mention U.S. pressure on allies to declare positions on a potential war over Taiwan. I reaffirmed on Taiwan Australias position of support for the status quo, Albanese said. Australia has a one-China policy that recognizes the Peoples Republic of China as the sole legal government of China and considers Taiwan a part of China. With the 10th anniversary of Australias free trade deal with China falling this year, both governments have agreed to review the pact with an aim to improve economic relations. Following the meeting with Xi, Albanese met Premier Li Qiang and Chairman Zhao Leji of the National Peoples Congress. At the outset of the leaders meeting, Xi told Albanese that seeking common ground while setting aside differences is in line with the fundamental interests of our two countries and our two peoples. Albanese concurred with Xis remark, saying That approach has indeed produced very positive benefits for both Australia and for China. Xi doesnt raise foreign investment rules There had been speculation that Xi would use the meeting to raise Albaneses plan to end a Chinese companys 99-year-lease on the strategically important Port of Darwin, which the United States is concerned could be used to spy on its military forces. Landbridge Industry Australia, a subsidiary of Rizhao-based Shandong Landbridge Group, signed the lease with the Northern Territory government in 2015, three years after U.S. Marines began annual rotations through Darwin as part of a U.S. pivot to Asia. But Albanese said Xi did not mention the lease, nor did he discuss the broader issue of Australias foreign investment rules that prevent Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure. Reporters questioned Albanese about Chinese security officials treatment of Australian journalists who traveled to China with him. Reporter Stephen Dziedzic said he recording a piece to camera for Australian TV news in front of a Beijing landmark with a camera crew yesterday when he was interrupted by security guards. The guard told the group that police would be called. The Australians were not permitted to leave. Another reporter, Anna Henderson, said guards told journalists to delete their footage. Australian diplomats intervened and TV crews were permitted to leave. China has a different system, obviously, with the media, Albanese said. Albaneses makes his second visit to China The state visit is Albaneses second visit to China since he was elected prime minister in 2022. Australia, like many countries in the Asia-Pacific region, is caught between China and the United States. Its economy is heavily dependent on exports to China, including iron ore for the steel industry. But it also shares Americas concerns about Chinas human rights record and its growing military activity in the Pacific, including in waters near Australia. Albanese is in Beijing at the midpoint of a weeklong trip to China that started in Shanghai Chinas commercial capital where government and business leaders from the two countries discussed deepening cooperation in tourism and reducing carbon emissions in iron ore mining and steel production. From Beijing, he will travel to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, where he said he would focus on growing ties in medical technology and sports. KEN MORITSUGU & ROD McGUIRK, BEIJING, MDT/AP Police fear Bradley John Murdoch, known as the Outback Killer, has taken to his grave the secret of how he disposed of the body of British backpacker Peter Falconio who was murdered in arid central Australia 24 years ago. Murdoch died Tuesday night, aged 67, in the palliative care unit of the Alice Springs Hospital, officials said Wednesday. He was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer in 2019 and was recently transferred to the hospital from the Alice Springs prison. His death leaves the mystery of the whereabouts of Falconios body unsolved. The Northern Territory Police Force said investigators remain committed to resolving this final piece of the investigation. It is deeply regrettable that Murdoch has died without, as far as we are aware, ever disclosing the location of Peter Falconios remains, a police statement said. His silence has denied the Falconio family the closure they have so long deserved. The victims 83-year-old father, Luciano Falconio, was visibly shocked and lost for words after learning of Murdochs death a day after the anniversary of his sons disappearance, News Corp Australia reported. I tell you what I think, I wish he (Murdoch) left something for me to find him, the father told the news company from his home in the U.K. The 2005 conviction In 2005, Murdoch was convicted of the 2001 murder of 28-year-old Falconio, from Huddersfield in Englands Yorkshire region, and the attempted kidnapping of Falconios girlfriend Joanne Lees. The crime captured global attention and was one of the inspirations for the 2005 Australian horror movie Wolf Creek, about a serial killer who preyed on backpackers and left a single witness who became a suspect. Lees, who wrote about her ordeal in her 2006 memoir No Turning Back, complained that police treated her as a suspect in the years before Murdoch was charged. A court order prevented the movies release in the Northern Territory during Murdochs trial, fearing it could influence jurors. Murdoch was not accused of any other killings. Maintaining his innocence Murdoch consistently maintained his innocence and did not help authorities search for Falconios remains. At the time of the killing, Murdoch was an interstate drug runner, using amphetamines to stay awake for dayslong drives and cannabis to sleep. On the night of July 14, 2001, he tricked Falconio and Lees into stopping their campervan on a dark and remote highway north of Alice Springs. Lees watched her boyfriend leave the van to inspect a supposedly sparking exhaust pipe. She testified that she heard a gunshot and never saw her boyfriend again. Murdoch, an imposing 193 centimeters (6 foot, 4 inches) in height, bound her wrists with cable ties before she managed to escape and hid in the desert scrub for hours. She testified she watched Murdoch searching for her with a flashlight and his dog. Lees later waved down a truck and raised the alarm. Police doubled the reward for information Last month, police doubled the reward for information leading to the location of Falconios remains to 500,000 Australian dollars ($330,000), following news that Murdoch was in palliative care. Police still hold out hope that someone may be able to provide some vital information to assist in this search, Police Commander Mark Grieve said. Colleen Gwynne, a former police officer who led the investigation at the time of Falconios disappearance, said Murdoch might have panicked after Lees escaped and in his confusion forgot what he did with the body. A sentence to life in prison Once that panic set in he may have disposed of a body somewhere hes not entirely certain where that is, Gwynne said earlier this month. Murdoch was sentenced to life in prison for Falconios murder and was ordered to serve at least 28 years before he could be considered for parole. He was also sentenced to six years for assaulting Lees. The earliest he could have applied for parole would have been 2032, but without providing information as to what he had done with Falconios body, Murdoch was not likely to have been released. The territory passed laws in 2016 preventing prisoners convicted of murder from qualifying for parole unless they provide police with the location of their victims bodies. Murdoch was born in the west coast town of Geraldton, the third child of an automobile mechanic and his wife, a hairdresser. As a teen, he became involved in biker gang crime and was first sentenced to prison in 1995 for shooting at a group of Indigenous people at Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia. He served 15 months of a 21-month sentence. In sentencing Murdoch for Falconios killing, Chief Justice Brian Martin said he doubted any words could express the trauma and terror Lees had suffered. It must have been close to the worst nightmare imaginable, the judge said. MDT/AP ROD McGUIRK, MELBOURNE The Hong Kong government yesterday unveiled proposals to regulate online ride-hailing services provided by tech companies like Uber, requiring platforms, cars and drivers to be licensed before hitting the road. In a document sent to the legislature, transport officials said those companies applying for a license would need to have business registration and an office in the city. They also said the platforms would have to fulfill certain conditions on operating experience, proof of financial capability and capital investment, in addition to ensuring the cars and drivers working for them already purchased the required insurance. Under the licensing plans, eligible drivers must have held a private car driving license for at least one year and have no serious traffic convictions within five years. The drivers also need to pass a test and complete training. Officials plan to set a quota on the number of vehicles allowed to be run under the policy, adding that the cars cannot be over seven years old and have to pass an annual inspection. Currently, it is illegal for drivers of private vehicles to provide paid services to customers without a permit. Police have arrested some Uber drivers suspected of driving without a permit in the past and in 2018, more than two dozen drivers were fined. Uber, which started operating in Hong Kong in 2014, has faced multiple legal and regulatory challenges in its overseas expansion but remains popular in the semi-autonomous Chinese city, where many residents are frustrated with poor taxi services. Some taxi companies have long resisted online platforms like Uber, seeing them as a threat to their business. Hong Kong leader John Lee said the legislative framework would need to ensure the co-existence of online ride-hailing services and traditional taxi services. Transport officials could first handle issues with consensus and set up the framework before focusing on other controversial technical problems, Lee said. I agree the problem is complicated but it should not be further delayed, he said. In the document, the government said it would consider charging the platforms fees to provide resources for supporting the taxi industry in improving its service quality. It also suggested the companies allow taxi drivers to offer services through their platforms. Officials aimed to propose the changes in the third quarter of the year to set out matters in principle first. They planned to suggest further legal amendments for other issues in the first half of 2026. Uber Hong Kong welcomed the regulatory framework in a statement, saying it was encouraged to see safety and service standards placed at the center of the proposals. While we commend this progress, we remain concerned about the proposed cap on the number of ridesharing vehicles. Artificial limits risk increasing wait times, raising prices for riders and restricting earning opportunities for drivers, it said. It said it looked forward to continuing dialogue with the government and other stakeholders. MDT/AP Macau is celebrating two decades of its historic centers listing as part of UNESCOs World Heritage with a series of activities from July to December this year. The celebrations opening ceremony and the unveiling of the activities took place yesterday at the Dom Pedro V Theatre. The series includes over 50 activities grouped into around 20 different items or topics. Among them are the launch of a commemorative postmark cancellation service, the World Heritage Walk, workshops, and others. To celebrate the milestone, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) also launched a promotional video conveying the commitment to safeguarding cultural heritage and passing it on. In her speech, the president of the IC, Deland Leong, said, The Historic Center of Macau, as a strategic and crucial hub of the Maritime Silk Road, opened the door to East-West cultural dialogue. For more than four centuries, Chinese and Western cultures have shone with mutual prominence and harmonious coexistence, where Lingnan temples stand side by side with Baroque churches, and Portuguese sidewalks wind between Chinese courtyards. Like a three-dimensional epic carved into the land, this heritage materializes a unique paradigm of peaceful coexistence and mutual enrichment between civilizations. She remarked that 20 years ago, this cultural jewel, born of a unique history, was inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List and became the first cultural business card at a global level, allowing the world to recognize the territorys unique position and exceptional contribution as a point of confluence of Eastern and Western cultures. She added that over the last 20 years, the government has been following the concept of developing and protecting world heritage by ensuring its preservation and inheritance and innovative use. Leong claimed that the governments efforts focus on revitalizing and enhancing heritage, educating young people, promoting social cohesion, and creating a cultural protection system that engages the entire population. Atlas of architectural mapping Also, as part of the celebrations, the IC officially launched the Atlas of Architectural Mapping of the Historic Centre of Macau. The book uses mapping data, images, and textual descriptions to present the spatial texture, structural features, and decorative details of the 22 buildings and eight plazas of the World Heritage Site of Macau. It also summarizes recent developments in the Macau Historic Centre and its architectural characteristics and decorations, as well as the blend of Chinese and Western elements. International forum and documentary film In December, the IC will hold an international forum on Cultural Heritage Preservation, inviting several leading experts from global cultural and related fields to Macau for a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. Concurrently, a documentary on the World Heritage site will be co-produced with China Central Television (CCTV) to highlight Macaus role as a bridge between East and West and to create a platform for the exchange of civilizations and mutual understanding. The ICs dedicated webpage (www.icm.gov.mo/mhd20) provides more information on the range of activities planned to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Milestone celebrations marred by UNESCOs probe The recent probe by the international organization has somewhat marred the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Macaus UNESCO listing. UNESCO has recently requested that local authorities provide a detailed report on the overpass construction linking Zones A and B of the new landfills. The organization is concerned that the construction may not comply with the guidelines for protecting world heritage. This request was raised during the 47th session of the World Heritage Committee, which is being held through today at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France. Last week, government representatives received the request in person while attending the meeting. It is not the first time that UNESCO has intervened in matters related to heritage protection, especially when concerns have arisen about ongoing developments. Other recent cases involved projects at the Nam Van Lake area, which were said to potentially damage the view of Penha Hill Chapel, and construction at Guia Hill, which reportedly did not comply with the protection requirements for the Guia Lighthouse and Chapel. On the sidelines of yesterdays Dom Pedro V Theatre event, Leong acknowledged that UNESCO has called for a Heritage Impact Assessment that includes both the overpass between Zones A and B and the Light Rapid Transit (LRT) East Line project. She explained that such requests are routine and standard procedures for major constructions in cities with listed heritage sites, and do not imply any wrongdoing by the government. Regarding the Calcada do Gaio building, which has been criticized for potentially affecting the preservation of the Guia Hill heritage complex, Leong reaffirmed that amended design plans for the project have already been submitted to UNESCO and were approved according to the redesign. Rm Lawmaker Ron Lam has urged the government to enforce cuts to the number of non-resident workers (TNRs) employed by the six gaming concessionaires. In a spoken inquiry delivered at the Legislative Assembly (AL) on Monday before the agenda, Lam noted that, contrary to claims of limited job availability to explain difficulties in providing jobs for unemployed residents, official March statistics reveal nearly 33,000 TNRs are employed by the six gaming concessionaires. A comparison between the end of 2024 and the end of 2022 shows a 73% increase in this worker category. In the same period, local hiring rose by only 3%. Lam pointed out these figures show that despite organizing many job fairs and matching sessions, efforts have failed to help locals find jobs. The lawmaker remarked that between September 2024 and March 2025, TNRs in gaming grew by 1,812, while Macaus overall TNR population rose by only 997 suggesting cuts in other sectors, notably SMEs, as gaming absorbed more workers. Public voices have criticized some gaming operators and major corporations for abusing TNR quotas, alleging these companies avoid hiring full-time locals by outsourcing to intermediary firms that employ locals part-time. Using official data, Lam noted one human resources company employed 3,030 local part-timers until the end of last year. This demonstrates it is irrefutable that local workers are hired part-time to compensate for TNR shortages in several sectors, Lam said, noting this clashes with rules stating TNR hiring is allowed only to meet needs in positions Macau lacks local workers for. For these reasons, Lam wants the government to enforce quota reductions and restrict TNR hiring in multiple sectors. He cited the recent case of the lottery and betting operator, Macau SLOT, where the government agreed to cut TNR quotas by 15%, starting with a 35% reduction in unskilled TNRs by the end of Q1 next year (about 26 positions), with gradual expansion of these cuts. TNRs currently comprise roughly 30% of gaming employees, with one operator nearing 34%. Lam proposes applying similar quota reductions across all six gaming concessionaires to halve the 33,000 TNRs, creating more local employment opportunities. He also calls for restrictions on TNR imports in banking, healthcare, IT, and other major sectors where locals are available and qualified. Last week, lawmaker Ella Lei similarly urged the AL to reduce TNRs in banking and finance. More than 900 TNRs work in finance alone, so authorities should further reduce quotas there, she said, emphasizing that 200 recent job vacancies in the sector should be fully filled by locals. Closure of satellite casinos adds to employment concerns Lam also warned that the 11 satellite casinos set to close by year-end will worsen unemployment and job insecurity. The government instructed the three main gaming concessionaires to absorb and retain 4,800 staff assigned by satellite operators, he said. However, about 800 local workers hired directly by satellite casino owners must be handled by those owners, with job-matching sessions arranged. Theres a noticeable lack of concrete support for nearby businesses and workers affected by these closures. The government has only committed to holding intellectual property-themed events in the ZAPE area for a few months. This limited action raises concerns about rising unemployment and economic downturn later this year, he added. Job matching sessions show poor results Lam criticized government job matching sessions and hiring + training initiatives in partnership with gaming operators, saying applicants report poor outcomes. Employers allegedly do not intend to hire and use procedural obstacles to avoid interviews. Some use job fairs to justify requests for foreign workers. Residents were told they were unfit before interviews, recorded as interview failed, raising suspicion that fairs are misused, Lam said. He also cited unfair dismissals of local gaming employees and youth trainees fired before probation ended. These issues cast doubt on gaming operators ability to absorb over 5,000 displaced satellite casino workers or alleviate an expected unemployment wave. Syria S defence minister announced a ceasefire shortly after government forces entered a key city in Sweida province yesterday. The announcement came a day after sectarian clashes that killed dozens, and after Israel launched strikes in the area. Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said in a statement that after an agreement with the citys notables and dignitaries, we will respond only to the sources of fire and deal with any targeting by outlaw groups. The clashes began with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between members of local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze armed factions in the southern province, a center of the Druze community. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a joint statement that Israel had struck to prevent the Syrian regime from harming the Druze and to ensure disarmament in the area adjacent to our borders with Syria. Syrian government security forces sent to restore order on Monday also clashed with Druze armed groups. During the day, Israel struck Syrian government military tank and said it was acting to protect the Druze religious minority. The Israeli army said in a statement that it had struck military vehicles belonging to the Syrian regime. In Israel, the Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. State-run news agency SANA did not give any details about yesterdays strike. However, the Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel struck a tank belonging to the Syrian military as forces began to move in deeper into Sweida city. Total war of annihilation Israel has taken an aggressive stance toward Syrias new leaders since the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive led by Sunni Islamist insurgent groups in December, saying it does not want militants near its borders. Israeli forces have seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory along the border with the Golan Heights and have launched hundreds of airstrikes on military sites in Syria. Earlier, religious leaders of the Druze community in Syria called for armed factions that have been clashing with government forces to surrender their weapons and cooperate with authorities as they entered the provincial capital of Sweida. One of the main religious authorities later released a video statement retracting the call. The initial statement called for armed factions in Sweida to cooperate with the forces of the Ministry of Interior, not to resist their entry, and to hand over their weapons to the Ministry of Interior. The statement also called for opening a dialogue with the Syrian government to address the repercussions of the events. The commander of Internal Security in Sweida Governorate, Brig. Gen. Ahmad al-Dalati, welcomed the statement and called for all religious authorities and social activists to adopt a unified national stance that supports the Ministry of Interiors measures to extend state authority and achieve security throughout the province. Sheikh Hikmat Al-Hijri, a Druze spiritual leader who has been opposed to the government in Damascus, said in a video message that the previous statement by Druze leaders had been issued after an agreement with the authorities in Damascus but they broke the promise and continued the indiscriminate shelling of unarmed civilians. We are being subjected to a total war of annihilation, he said. Some videos on social media had showed armed fighters with Druze captives, inciting sectarian slogans and beating them. Sectarian and revenge attacks The Druze religious sect is a minority group that began as a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. More than half the roughly 1 million Druze worldwide live in Syria. Most of the other Druze live in Lebanon and Israel, including in the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast War and annexed in 1981. Clashes have on several occasions broken out between forces loyal to the government and Druze fighters since the fall of Assad. The latest round of fighting has raised fears of another spiral of sectarian violence. In March, an ambush on government security forces by fighters loyal to Assad triggered days of sectarian and revenge attacks. Hundreds of civilians were killed, most of them members of the minority Alawite sect that Assad belongs to. A commission was formed to investigate the attacks but has not made its findings public. The conflict has also raised concerns about escalating Israeli intervention. While many Druze in Syria have said they do not want Israel to intervene on their behalf, factions from the Druze minority have also been suspicious of the new authorities in Damascus, particularly after the attacks on Alawites and other minority groups. GHAITH ALSAYED & ABBY SEWELL, BUSRA AL-HARIR, MDT/AP At least 46 civilians, including five women, were killed and 37 others wounded in a brutal attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Hillat Hamid village in North Kordofan State, Sudan. The Sudanese Doctors Network confirmed on Monday, July 14 the assault, which occurred on Sunday, and reported that victims had to be buried in mass graves by local residents. The organization condemned the incident as a heinous massacre and called for urgent international intervention, including sanctions against RSF leaders, to protect Sudanese civilians. The Emergency Lawyers Group corroborated the casualty figures and denounced the RSFs actions as part of a systematic campaign to instill terror and forcibly displace local populations. According to their statement, the village was overrun with intense gunfire, followed by the destruction and looting of homes and farms. The group asserted that the attack constitutes genocide and crimes against humanity under international law, holding the RSF leadership fully responsible for the atrocity. This latest violence comes amid intensified clashes between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in the North Kordofan region, particularly around the strategic state capital, El-Obeid. The broader conflict, which erupted in April 2023, has devastated Sudanclaiming tens of thousands of lives and displacing millions. The humanitarian toll continues to escalate, with civil society groups and rights organizations calling on the international community to intervene decisively. British Airways has announced year-round direct flights between London and Moroccos capital Rabat, marking the airlines third Moroccan destination as the North African nation experiences unprecedented tourism growth. BA Euroflyer, a subsidiary of British Airways, will operate the new route starting November 5, offering twice-weekly services on Wednesdays and Sundays using Airbus A320 aircraft. The expansion forms part of the carriers broader short-haul network development, which also includes new services to Graz, Austria. Promotional fares start at 70 each way including taxes and carrier fees, positioning the route competitively for both leisure and business travelers. The airline highlighted Rabats appeal as a year-round destination offering warm weather, rich cultural heritage, and a distinctive blend of traditional and modern architecture. The timing aligns with Moroccos booming tourism sector, which recorded a remarkable 19 percent growth in the first half of 2025. Minister of Tourism Fatim-Zahra Ammor confirmed that Morocco welcomed 8.9 million international visitors during this period, representing an additional 1.4 million tourists compared to the same timeframe last year. These results confirm Moroccos attractiveness and our ability to draw an increasing number of tourists, Ammor stated, underlining the countrys successful positioning in global tourism markets. British Airways now serves three Moroccan cities, with established routes to Marrakech and Casablanca complementing the new Rabat service. The expansion reflects growing British interest in Morocco as a destination combining accessibility, cultural richness, and favorable weather conditions. The route launch demonstrates airlines confidence in Moroccos tourism infrastructure and market potential, particularly as travelers seek diverse destinations within convenient flying distances from major European capitals. The Trump administration is preparing to impose tariffs exceeding 10 percent on imports from smaller nations across Africa and the Caribbean, marking a significant escalation in U.S. trade protectionism that could severely impact developing economies. President Donald Trump confirmed plans to apply blanket tariffs to approximately 200 countries, describing the measure as establishing reciprocal trade treatment. The policy shift particularly threatens African nations, with Lesotho potentially facing tariffs as high as 50 percent on exports to the United States. Well probably set one tariff for all of them, Trump stated when questioned about affected nations, signaling a one-size-fits-all approach to smaller trading partners. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick supported the initiative, confirming the administrations intent to handle Caribbean and African countries through unified tariff structures. The World Trade Organization has responded with urgent calls for reconsideration. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala specifically requested exemptions for African countries, warning that such measures could devastate developing economies and reverse years of economic progress built through preferential trade agreements. Currently, implementation remains on hold during a three-month consultation period, providing affected nations and international bodies a narrow window to negotiate alternatives. Trade experts warn that these tariffs could disproportionately harm vulnerable economies heavily dependent on U.S. market access for their exports. The move represents a fundamental shift away from decades of U.S. trade policy that provided preferential treatment to developing nations. As consultations proceed, both affected countries and international organizations are intensifying diplomatic efforts to prevent what many view as potentially catastrophic economic consequences for the worlds smallest economies. Nigerias former President Muhammadu Buhari, aged 82, was buried on Tuesday, 15 July 2025, in his hometown of Daura in Katsina State, two days after passing away at a clinic in London. His body was flown into the country that morning and received at the airport by President Bola Tinubu, alongside other State dignitaries. Islamic funeral rites were held at the central mosque in Daura, attended by hundreds, before Buhari was interred on the grounds of his private residence. The military performed full ceremonial honours, including a gun salute and the ceremonial folding of the national flag which was presented to his family. Among the mourners were Guinea-Bissaus President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, and several traditional rulers. The Nigerian Government declared Tuesday a public holiday and announced a seven-day period of national mourning in honour of the late statesman, who served two consecutive terms as a democratically elected president after taking office in 2015. Vice-President Kashim Shettima confirmed that Buhari died following a brief illness, though specific details were not disclosed. Tributes have since poured in, including from former President Goodluck Jonathan, whom Buhari defeated in 2015, and former military leader General Ibrahim Babangida, who ousted him in a 1985 coup. President Tinubu, in an official condolence message, praised Buharis enduring patriotism and austere leadership, pledging that the country would honour him with the dignity befitting a former head of state. Botswanas President Duma Boko on Tuesday, 15 July 2025, launched the Botswana Economic Transformation Program in the capital, Gaborone, calling for bold, innovative strategies to drive national development and reinvigorate the countrys slowing economy. The initiative, central to the governments economic agenda, is designed to foster inclusive and sustainable development, positioning Botswana as a diversified and globally integrated economy. Boko emphasised the programmes goal of establishing the nation as a regional hub for cross-border financial activity, leveraging its political stability, legal transparency, and international credibility. The president outlined a strategic framework focused on attracting both local and international investors with precision and purpose, underpinned by a world-class execution model. He noted that the programme is in line with the governments manifesto and aims to enhance macroeconomic stability while building resilience against global economic shocks. A key feature of the rollout includes a national Call for Ideas campaign, supported by a newly launched website, which will collect innovative, high-impact proposals and public sector reform suggestions over a four-week period to support the programmes objectives. Botswanas economy, heavily reliant on diamond exportswhich account for over 90% of its total exportshas shown signs of stagnation. According to the World Bank, the country experienced a modest growth rate of 3.2% in 2023, but a contraction of 3.1% is projected for 2024 due to weakening global demand and reduced diamond output. The transformation programme thus arrives at a critical juncture, as the government seeks to pivot the economy away from resource dependency towards a more resilient, diversified, and innovation-led growth trajectory. On Tuesday, July 15, 2025, Equatorial Guinea has accused France of engaging in neo-colonial conduct, urging the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to halt the sale of a luxurious mansion seized during a high-profile corruption investigation. The property, located on Pariss prestigious Avenue Foch, was confiscated following the 2017 conviction of Teodoro Nguema Obiang MangueVice-President and son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogofor embezzling public funds. Despite a previous ICJ ruling in 2020 that the mansion lacked diplomatic protection, the central African nation returned to The Hague in 2022, citing violations of international law and demanding the return of seized assets under a UN anti-corruption convention. Equatorial Guineas legal representatives described Frances posture as paternalistic and even neo-colonial, insisting it undermines their national sovereignty. In response, French lawyers firmly rejected Equatorial Guineas request for urgent intervention, arguing that the sale of the property was not imminent and that diplomatic negotiation was the appropriate path. Frances agent, Diego Colas, labelled the application an abusive manoeuvre, underscoring the legality of Frances anti-corruption proceedings. The opulent mansion, equipped with a cinema, nightclub, and hammam, is among several assets seized across multiple countries where Obiang has faced similar scrutiny. The United Kingdom, Brazil, and Switzerland have all taken action against him for misappropriating public funds, including the controversial purchase of Michael Jacksons jewelled glove. The legal battle highlights the stark inequality within Equatorial Guinea, where oil wealth enriches the ruling elite while the broader population remains in poverty. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Toxicological Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfaf086 A study led by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB) shows that bee venom apitoxin alters the functioning of blood vessels, even at low concentrations. Researchers also identified an important molecular pathway of oxidative stress involved in this effect, which in turn opens the door to exploring its therapeutic potential. The work was carried out by a research team led by Francesc Jimenez Altayo, researcher at the Department of Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Toxicology at UAB, and has been published in Toxicological Sciences. Researchers from the University of Barcelona, the University of Havana and the Centro de Investigacion Biomedica en Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV) and Centro de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED) of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III were also involved. Apitoxin is a mixture of bioactive molecules with melittin as its main component. Its therapeutic potential is increasingly recognized for some conditions, but its application is limited due to safety concerns. Beyond anaphylactic shock and renal failure, bee (Apis mellifera L.) stings are also associated with cardiovascular damage, especially in cases of poisoning resulting from a large number of stings. However, their effect on the vascular system (comprising the cardiovascular and lymphatic systems) and the mechanisms involved have not been sufficiently explored. In the published study, the research team analyzed the impact of apitoxin and melittin on human endothelial cells, which line the inner wall of blood and lymphatic vessels, and smooth muscle cells, and on the aortic artery in mice. The findings reveal that both compounds impact cell viability and endothelial relaxation capacity, leading to reduced vessel dilation. "Vascular alterations occurred with doses of apitoxin that can be reached after multiple bee stings, but could occur even after a few stings in vulnerable individuals," says Jimenez Altayo, UAB researcher and coordinator of the study. The effects on the aorta were more severe in male mice, "possibly due to the protective effect of estrogens on females, which reduces cardiovascular risk, although more studies are needed to confirm this idea," explains Angel Bistue, associate professor at UAB and first author of the article. The study shows that melittin represents almost half of bee venom (43.8%). However, despite being the component most associated with toxic effects, it does not act in exactly the same way as the whole venom, indicating that other substances in apitoxin also contribute. Potential benefits to study The research team also found that the negative effects of bee venom are due to an increase in oxidative stress and changes in nitric oxide, a molecule that regulates the dilation of blood vessels. This underlines the dual role of apitoxin for the vascular system, both as a toxic substance and as a potential therapeutic agent. "The discovery shows that bee venom can be toxic to blood vessels, especially because it generates oxidative stress, but it also opens the door to possible therapeutic uses in some vascular disorders and other diseases, such as cancer. "In this case, it could help regulate nitric oxide, which controls how blood vessels open and close inside some tumors, a factor that can influence both tumor growth and response to treatment," says Jimenez Altayo. "However, further studies are needed to confirm whether it can really have these medical applications," he concludes. More information: Angel Bistue-Rovira et al, Bee venom disrupts vascular homeostasis: apitoxin and melittin trigger vascular cell toxicity and aortic dysfunction in mice, Toxicological Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfaf086 Journal information: Toxicological Sciences This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain At the University of Missouri, researchers are studying how a common medication can be repurposed to help improve gut health in people with autism. A new pilot study from Mizzou suggests that propranolol, a common blood pressure drug, may also help ease stomach issues for some people with autism. Autistic individuals experience digestive challengessuch as bloating, constipation and diarrheaat significantly higher rates than others. Since previous research has shown these gastrointestinal issues are linked with stress, anxiety and depression, Mizzou scientists are searching for new ways to address the underlying causes of discomfort to ultimately improve the quality of life for autistic individuals. In 2023, Brad Ferguson, an assistant research professor with the School of Medicine, co-authored a study that found propranolol can be repurposed to reduce anxiety for people with autism. Recently, he led a new study to explore if the blood pressure drug might ease gastrointestinal distress among autistic individuals as well. Ferguson's latest study included 46 participants, all of whom receive care at Mizzou's Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment. His pilot study found that autistic teens and young adults with higher heart rate variabilitya sign of a calmer nervous systemshowed more improvement in gastrointestinal symptoms after 12 weeks of taking propranolol compared to those with a more stressed nervous system. "Our ultimate goal is to support precision medicine by finding out who can benefit from certain treatment options the most," Ferguson said. "We found that propranolol seemed to work best for those whose nervous system was more relaxed." Going forward, Ferguson is partnering with Fang Wang from the College of Engineering to use a smartwatch app capable of monitoring stress levels and social activity in autistic people with and without gastrointestinal symptoms. "The wealth of interdisciplinary experts we have here at Mizzou, combined with world-class facilities such as the Thompson Center, the School of Medicine and the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building, makes Mizzou the perfect place for this research," Ferguson said. "Pilot trial on the effects of propranolol on gastrointestinal symptoms in autism spectrum disorder and heart rate variability as a treatment response biomarker," was published in Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. More information: Bradley J. Ferguson et al, Pilot Trial on the Effects of Propranolol on Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Heart Rate Variability as a Treatment Response Biomarker, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (2025). DOI: 10.1089/cap.2024.0002 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new study published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship sheds light on the value of a novel peer psychosocial support for breast cancer patients in Adama, Ethiopia. In collaboration with Assistant Professor Breanne Lott of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the team supported the work of Assistant Professor Biniyam Tefera Deressa at Adama Hospital Medical College (AHMC), where Dr. Tefera Deressa has launched Ethiopia's first breast cancer psychosocial support group. The paper was co-authored by CUNY SPH doctoral candidate Amanda Pierz and MPH alumni Dr. Hyowoun Jyung, Bonnibel Rosario, and Nichole Andoh-B-Baidoo. As part of their MPH Community Health and Social Sciences fieldwork, Jyung, Rosario, and Andoh-B-Baidoo conducted a qualitative analysis of six focus group discussions with 44 breast cancer patients and survivors in Adama. The research aimed to better understand patients' experiences with the pilot program and its potential for broader application. "While psychosocial support programs for breast cancer patients are relatively common in high-income countries, cancer centers in many Sub-Saharan African settings often lack psycho-oncology specialists and clinical resources and infrastructure to provide these vital mental health services," said Pierz. "Dr. Biniyam's initiative offers a promising, cost-effective model that could be adapted across similar resource-limited contexts." The AHMC peer support group is uniquely structured around a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Each monthly session is co-led by a breast cancer survivor, a female facilitator, and a local oncologist, creating a culturally resonant and community-based model of care. The study contributes to a growing body of research on cancer survivorship and mental health in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings highlight how locally adapted, peer-led interventions can fill critical gaps in psycho-oncological care. More information: Biniyam Tefera Deressa et al, A qualitative study on the psycho-oncological experiences of women navigating breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship in Ethiopia, Journal of Cancer Survivorship (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s11764-024-01742-9 Journal information: Journal of Cancer Survivorship This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A federal appeals court has ruled that West Virginia can limit access to mifepristone, a medication used to end early pregnancies. The decision is the first of its kind and could affect how other states handle access to drugs that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen used in medication abortions. It has been FDA-approved since 2000 and is considered a safe and effective alternative to surgical abortion, The Washington Post said. The drug has become a focus of legal fights over abortion access, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Since that decision, medication abortion has accounted for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a public policy think tank focused on reproductive rights. After the court's 2022 decision, West Virginia passed a law banning nearly all abortions, including medication abortions, with very few exceptions, such as to save the mother's life or in cases of rape or incest. The ruling this week came after GenBioPro, one of the few makers of generic mifepristone, sued West Virginia. The company argued that FDA approval should overrule state law, The Post reported. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. In a 2-1 ruling, the court said federal law does not clearly prevent states from making their own decisions about restrictions on drugs. The federal law "falls well short of expressing a clear intention to displace the states' historic and sovereign right to protect the health and safety of their citizens," the court said, according to The Post. GenBioPro CEO Evan Masingill warned the ruling could cause "a dangerous ripple effect on the availability of essential medications in this country." Seventeen states ban or heavily restrict medication abortion. Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said the ruling could change how states regulate other FDA-approved medication, including vaccines, contraceptives and care used in gender transitions. "In some ways, this case is green-lighting the state to be political in how it regulates medications," she told The Post. The dissenting judge wrote that West Virginia's law "invades the very space occupied by the federal government and reserved for federal oversightthe regulation of medication." Writing for the majority, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III said regulating how drugs are used in medical practice falls under state control, not the FDA. West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey celebrated the ruling. "West Virginia can continue to enforce our pro-life laws and lead the nation in our efforts to protect life," he said. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously said he has asked the FDA to conduct a full review of mifepristone's safety. An HHS spokesperson declined to comment on the West Virginia ruling. More information: The Mayo Clinic has more on mifepristone. 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: P2RY12+/CD206-/CX3CR1-eGFPhigh ramified microglia are the myeloid cell localized to capillaries. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60753-x New University of Virginia School of Medicine research suggests an unexpected way doctors may be able to improve blood flow to the brain to battle Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Scientists led by Ukpong B. Eyo, Ph.D., of UVA's Department of Neuroscience, found that immune cells called microglia play an essential role in determining how well tiny capillaries deliver blood and essential nourishment to our brains. Published in Nature Communications, the scientists believe problems with these microglia could be contributing to failing brain health, and targeting them could help us prevent or reverse memory-stealing diseases caused or worsened by lack of adequate blood flow. This could include Alzheimer's, vascular dementia and even some cases of Parkinson's. "For some time now, microglia have been suggested to play important roles in regulating vessel function. With this study, we have provided the most definitive evidence that they do regulate blood flow to the brain, specified the location of this function to the brain's small vessels or capillaries and identified an enzyme that they use to do this," said Eyo, of UVA's Center for Brain Immunology and Glia (BIG Center) and the UVA Brain Institute. "Although microglia are dysfunctional in neurodegenerative diseases, our work now raises the possibility of improving blood flow deficits by targeting microglia." The brain's big demands Our brains require a tremendous amount of sustenance. Even though they make up only 2% of our body weight, they use 20% of our total energy. To provide this, the brain is surrounded by a 400-mile-long network of blood vessels that branch most extensively into tiny capillaries. Proper function of these vessels and capillaries is essential to good brain health. Scientists have known that problems with myeloid cells can contribute to excess carbon dioxide in the blood, robbing our brains of life-giving oxygen. But Eyo and his team wanted to understand more specifically which cells were responsible and to see what would happen if those cells weren't working properly. University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers Ukpong Eyo, Ph.D. (from left); William Mills III, Ph.D.; and graduate student Aida Lopez have made a discovery that could let us boost blood flow to the brain to battle Alzheimer's. Credit: UVA Health The researchers determined that microglia are responsible for ensuring proper capillary "tone," which determines how well the tiny vessels can feed blood to the brain. Eliminating microglia significantly reduced the capillaries' diameter and reduced their ability to transport blood, the scientists found. Restoring the microglia fixed this problem. "The microglial enzyme identified in this study has been targeted heretofore in patients with Alzheimer's disease, albeit with mixed results. Our study suggests that these therapeutics would have maximal benefit if prescribed according to the therapeutic window of microglia in Alzheimer'sa focus in our ongoing research," said UVA researcher William A. Mills III, Ph.D., the first author of a new scientific paper outlining the findings. "We have determined that all microglia are capable of regulating basal capillary tone as opposed to a subset of them, thus revealing their importance to meeting energy demands in the brain." The researchers say additional research will be needed to better understand the complex cellular communication network responsible for maintaining proper capillary function. But by better understanding how the immune system maintains capillary health, scientists may be able to boost blood flow to ensure the brain is properly nourished. "Now that we have identified a novel role for microglia in blood vessel structure and function as well as a specific enzyme involved, we are poised to examine how this enzyme and microglial functions change, and to subsequently develop therapies to reduce these changes during neurodegenerative diseases broadly and in Alzheimer's disease especially," Eyo said. "However, questions abound that our group will pursuee.g. do the microglia regulate the small capillaries independently or in concert with other brain cells? When during development do microglia begin to play this role, and is this role also important in neurodevelopmental disorders where vascular function is also compromised? Can microglial replacement facilitate blood flow rejuvenation in neurodegenerative diseases? These are exciting questions we hope to answer in the near future." The research team consisted of Mills III, Niesha A. Savory, Aida Oryza Lopez-Ortiz, Dennis H. Lentferink, Fernando Gonzalez Ibanez, Praise Agochi, Elina Rastegar, Arnav Gupta, Deetya Gupta, Arya Suram, Brant E. Isakson, Marie-EveTremblay and Eyo. More information: William A. Mills et al, Microglial cyclooxygenase-1 modulates cerebral capillary basal tone in vivo in mice, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60753-x Journal information: Nature Communications This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain As a postpartum doula, Dawn Oliver does her best work in the middle of the night. During a typical shift, she shows up at her clients' home at 10 p.m. She answers questions they may have about basic infant care and keeps an eye out for signs of postpartum depression. After bedtime, she may feed the baby a bottle or wake the mother to breastfeed. She soothes the infant back to sleep. Sometimes, she prepares meals for the family in a Crock-Pot or empties the dishwasher. She leaves the following morning and returns, often nightly, for two or three weeks in a row. "I'm certified to do all of it," said Oliver, of Hardeeville, South Carolina, who runs Compassionate Care Doula Services. It takes a village to raise a child, as the adage goes, but "the village is not what it used to be," Oliver said. Doulas are trained to offer critical support for familiesbefore delivery, during childbirth, and in those daunting early days when parents are desperate for sleep and infants still wake up around the clock. While doulas typically don't hold a medical or nursing degree, research shows they can improve health outcomes and reduce racial health disparities. Yet their services remain out of reach for many families. Oliver charges $45 an hour overnight, and health insurance plans often don't cover her fees. That's partly why business "ebbs and flows," Oliver said. Sometimes, she's fully booked for months. Other times, she goes several weeks without a client. That may soon change. Two bipartisan bills, introduced in separate chambers of the South Carolina General Assembly, would require both Medicaid, which pays for more than half of all births in the state, and private insurers to cover the cost of doula services for patients who choose to use one. South Carolina isn't an outlier. Even as states brace for significant reductions in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade, legislatures across the country continue to pass laws that grant doula access to Medicaid beneficiaries. Some state laws already require private health insurers to do the same. Since the start of 2025, Vermont lawmakers, alongside Republican-controlled legislatures in Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana and Montana, have passed laws to facilitate Medicaid coverage of doula services. All told, more than 30 states are reimbursing doulas through Medicaid or are implementing laws to do so. Notably, these coverage requirements align with one of the goals of Project 2025, whose "Mandate for Leadership" report, published in 2023 by the conservative Heritage Foundation, offered a blueprint for President Donald Trump's second term. The document calls for increasing access to doulas "for all women whether they are giving birth in a traditional hospital, through midwifery, or at home," citing concerns about maternal mortality and postpartum depression, which may be "worsened by poor birth experiences." The report also recommends that federal money not be used to train doctors, nurses, or doulas to perform abortions. The Heritage Foundation did not respond to an interview request. Meanwhile, the idea that doulas can benefit babies, parents, and state Medicaid budgets by reducing costly cesarean sections and preterm birth complications is supported by a growing body of research and is gaining traction among conservatives. A study published last year in the American Journal of Public Health found that women enrolled in Medicaid who used a doula faced a 47% lower risk of delivering by C-section and a 29% lower risk of preterm birth. They were also 46% more likely to attend a postpartum checkup. "Why wouldn't you want somebody to avail themselves of that type of care?" said Republican state Rep. Tommy Pope, who co-sponsored the doula reimbursement bill in the South Carolina House of Representatives. "I don't see any reason we shouldn't be doing that." Pope said his daughter-in-law gave birth with the assistance of a doula. "It opened my eyes to the positive aspects," he said. Amy Chen, a senior attorney with the National Health Law Program, which tracks doula reimbursement legislation around the country as part of its Doula Medicaid Project, said lawmakers tend to support these efforts when they have a personal connection to the issue. "It's something that a lot of people resonate with," Chen said, "even if they, themselves, have never been pregnant." Conservative lawmakers who endorse state-level abortion bans, she said, often vote in favor of measures that support pregnancy, motherhood, and infant health, all of which these doula reimbursement bills are intended to do. Some Republicans feel as if "they have to come out in favor of that," Chen said. Health care research also suggests that Black patients, who suffer significantly higher maternal and infant mortality rates than white patients, may particularly benefit from doula care. In 2022, Black infants in South Carolina were more than twice as likely to die from all causes before their 1st birthday as white infants. That holds true for women in rural parts of the country where labor and delivery services have either closed or never existed. That's why Montana lawmakers passed a doula reimbursement bill this yearto narrow health care gaps for rural and Indigenous communities. To that end, in 2023, the state enacted a bill that requires Medicaid to reimburse midwives for home births. Montana state Sen. Mike Yakawich, a Republican who backed the Democratic-sponsored doula reimbursement bill, said pregnant women should have someone to call outside of a hospital, where health care services can be costly and intimidating. "What help can we provide for moms who are expecting? My feeling is, it's never enough," Yakawich said. Britney WolfVoice lives on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana, about two hours from the closest birthing hospital. In early July, she was seven months pregnant with her fourth child, a son, and said she planned to have a doula by her side for the second time in the delivery room. During WolfVoice's previous pregnancy, an Indigenous doula named Misty Pipe brought cedar oil and spray into the delivery room, rubbed WolfVoice's back through contractions, and helped ensure WolfVoice's husband was the first person their daughter saw. "Being in a hospital, I felt heard for the very first time," WolfVoice said. "I just can't explain it any better than I felt at home. She was my safe place." Pipe said hospitals are still associated with the government forcibly removing children from Native American homes as a consequence of colonization. Her goal is to help give people a voice during their pregnancy and delivery. Most of her clients can't afford to pay for doula services out-of-pocket, Pipe said, so she doesn't charge anything for her birth services, balancing her role as a doula with her day job at a post office. "If a mom is vulnerable, she could miss a prenatal appointment or go alone, or I can take time off of work and take her myself," Pipe said. "No mom should have to birth in fear." The new state law will allow her to get paid for her work as a doula for the first time. In some states that have enacted such laws, initial participation by doulas was low because Medicaid reimbursement rates weren't high enough. Nationally, doula reimbursement rates are improving, Chen said. For example, in Minnesota, where in 2013 lawmakers passed one of the first doula reimbursement bills, Medicaid initially paid only $411 per client for their services. Ten years later, the state had raised the reimbursement rate to a maximum of $3,200 a client. But Chen said it is unclear how federal Medicaid cuts might affect the fate of these state laws. Some states that haven't passed doula reimbursement bills, including South Carolina, might be hesitant to do so in this environment, she said. "It's just a really uncertain time." 2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: TOP: Lateral 3D rendering of stereotypical skulls of in utero ENDS carrier exposures. MIDDLE: Superior View 3D rendering of stereotypical skulls of in utero ENDS carrier exposures. BOTTOM: Coronal (left) and sagittal overlays of stereotypical skulls of in utero ENDS carrier exposures. White/Gray = Control; Yellow = 30/70 PG/VG; Green = 50/50 PG/VG. Coronal overlay utilized sella turcica for anatomical registration. Sagittal overlay utilized C1 for anatomical registration. Credit: PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0327190 In utero exposure to two liquid ingredients in e-cigarettesminus the nicotine that drives addictioncan alter skull shape during fetal development, a new study in mice has found. In a series of experiments, pregnant mice were exposed to a combination of two liquids used to create vaping's throat hit and smoke plume. Compared to two other experimental conditions, the offspring of mothers exposed to a specific ratio of these compounds weighed less and were born with narrowed facial features and shortened skulls. The finding was surprising to researchers not only because no nicotine was present, but because the ratio of chemicals that produced the skull defect was designed by the e-cigarette industry to be a safer available option than the proportions in earlier products. "This had no nicotine, and it's still having effects on the development of the skull in our model, which was not anything we expected," said lead study author James Cray, professor of anatomy at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. The research was published recently in the journal PLOS One. Cray's developmental biology lab has studied the effects of in utero exposure to nicotine on head and face development for years, reporting in 2020 that exposure to nicotine through breastmilk caused skull defects in mice. About 3% of babies are born annually with a birth defect, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and alterations to the head and neck are among the most commonparticularly cleft lip and/or cleft palate. In this study, the team was developing a model to serve as an experimental control for comparison to animals exposed in utero to nicotine through vaping. Pregnant mice were exposed to either filtered free air or two humectantshydrating substances that function as carriers of other e-cigarette contentsat differing concentrations: 50% each of propylene glycol and glycerol (also called vegetable glycerin), or 30% propylene glycol and 70% glycerol (30/70 PG/VG). Because propylene glycol in e-cigarettes has been linked to increasing uptake of nicotine, Cray said, "a lot of companies have moved toward getting away from a high percentage of propylene glycol and toward more glycerol, trying to position this as a safer alternative." Female mice were exposed to these three different conditions at a rate of one puff per minute, four hours per day on five days each week during the roughly 20-day pregnancy. The cranial width and height of mouse pup skulls were scanned two weeks after birth. The analysis showed statistically significant reduced measures in the offspring of pregnant mice exposed to the presumed safer 30/70 PG/VG mixture compared to mice exposed to free air and the 50/50 formula. "What we see is a consistent narrowing of all of the facial features, and the same thing as we move back into the cranium as well. So globally, they're narrower and a little bit shorter-headed, which does mimic some observable changes that we see in children," Cray said. "We also saw a bit of a reduction in weight. These animals were within the normal range of an animal that age, but they still weighed less." The findings were consistent across several litters of mice and in both biological sexes. "The 50/50 mixture had no dramatic statistical changesand that's where we were looking for the difference. We thought heavier propylene glycol should be causing more effects, and it was the exact opposite," Cray said. The Food and Drug Administration began regulating electronic nicotine delivery systems in 2016, but has faced legal pushback from e-cigarette companieswhich prevailed in a June 20 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that makes it easier to sue the FDA over efforts to block products from the market. In April, the court sided with the FDA's crackdown on sweet-flavored products after a major increase in teen vaping. Though researchers continue to study the health effects of multiple ingredients detected in e-cigarettes, many unknowns remain as the products grow in popularity. "The majority of users are young adults and teenagers, so we are talking about people who are in peak reproductive years. And with development of the head happening very early in fetal development, people could be using these products and not even realize that they are pregnant, which is of great concern," Cray said. "This is a small study that speaks to the possibility that nicotine-free vaping is not safe. And it's a sign that we probably should study nicotine-free products as much as we study the nicotine-laden products." Co-authors include Logan Shope, Ethan Leonard, Leslie Sewell, Tyler Maykovich, Roy Miller, Matthew Gorr and Loren Wold of Ohio State; Ethan Richlak of Nationwide Children's Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh; and Amr Mohi of UT Health San Antonio. More information: Ethan Richlak et al, In utero exposure to electronic cigarette carriers alters craniofacial morphology, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0327190 Journal information: PLoS ONE This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government enabled schools to provide all children, regardless of need, with free meals to address nutrition and food insecurity. While program participation increased, many students declined the free meals, missing out on potential health and academic benefits. A new study by nutrition researchers identifies several barriers cited by foodservice directorsthe leaders who run school food programsto student participation, including student preferences for home-cooked meals or fast food, and concerns about how healthy the meals are. Their findings are published in Journal of School Health. "Even when school meals are free, students don't always take and eat them. This tells us that cost isn't the only barrier," says Deborah Olarte, the study's lead author and assistant professor of nutrition at NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. "From the perspective of school foodservice directors, who are key stakeholders in providing school meals to children, it's important to understand what other barriers exist, so school meals can be more accessible, appealing, and supportive of student well-being." The researchers used previously collected 20212022 survey data from 599 foodservice directors in California and Maine by the California Department of Education and the Maine nonprofit, Full Plates, Full Potential, respectively. They then conducted follow-up interviews with a subset of 49 survey participants. Using data from both the surveys and interviews, the researchers found three statistically significant barriers to students eating school meals: students or parents don't think the food is healthy they prefer to eat at home or elsewhere (e.g., fast-food restaurants) students and parents think that only lower-income students eat school breakfast and don't want the associated stigma "As states consider universal free school meal policies, the next step is making the already healthy meals more appealing and accessible to students. This could be investing in scratch cooking, incorporating student feedback, and extending lunch periods to ensure meals are available without logistical barriers or stigma," says Olarte. More information: Deborah A. Olarte et al, Foodservice Directors' Perceived Barriers to Student Participation in School Meals When Meals Were Served Free of Charge During the 20212022 School Year, Journal of School Health (2025). DOI: 10.1111/josh.70019 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain After 30 years of health improvements around the world, funding cuts to global health could put lifesaving health care at risk between now and 2030, according to the latest annual report, Financing Global Health (FGH), released by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. The report incorporates an additional shortfall that's expected due to another proposal under consideration by the US that would immediately cancel previously allocated funds that were approved for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), created 22 years ago by former President George W. Bush. The estimates also factored in US cuts to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance that were announced in June 2025. The new figures track current and future donor contributions toward health improvement and maintenance in low- and middle-income countries, known as development assistance for health (DAH). In 2021, total DAH reached a record $80 billion due to the COVID-19 pandemic, when the world was unified in pouring resources into health systems to protect all populations. Since then, DAH has steadily declined: it plummeted by 51% to $39 billion by 2025, marking the lowest in 15 years. If current policies remain unchanged, total DAH is forecasted to decline by another 8% to $36 billion by 2030. "These funding cuts are detrimental to global health, particularly for the most vulnerable populations where DAH has saved countless lives," said lead author Dr. Angela Apeagyei, research assistant professor at IHME. "The drastic and abrupt reduction to DAH could compromise the progress in health that has been achieved globally." Global financial assistance is critical in regions where resources are limited, and disease burden is high. Enacting cuts to global health initiatives could reduce the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, as well as curtail access to maternal, neonatal, and child health services. The budgetary consequences could also impact water safety, sanitation, and food security, which are interconnected and possibly lead to high mortality rates, especially among children. Since United Nations agencies have been tracking DAH since 1990, the US has been the largest source of funding overall. This year, the US led the way in making the largest reduction of 67%, followed by the UK, France, and Germany. In contrast, Japan increased its DAH by 2%, while Canada made no changes. The impact of the cuts in low-income countries is substantial, with the greatest reductions to those that heavily rely on DAH funds, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, which is estimated to face the largest drop of 25% since last year. Forecasts expect another 7% drop in that region over the next five years. Global health is an issue for all countries, including high-income regions, due to the potential threat of economic, political, and security crises that could arise from an outbreak of infectious diseases. As the world has seen with the COVID pandemic, international boundaries are permeable, and migration and travel can facilitate the rapid spread of disease. The FGH report is being published concurrently with the peer-reviewed research article "Tracking development assistance for health, 19902030: historical trends, recent cuts, and outlook" published in The Lancet. More information: Angela Apeagyei et al, Financing Global Health 2025: Cuts in aid and future outlook. www.healthdata.org/research-an d-and-future-outlook Angela E Apeagyei et al, Tracking development assistance for health, 19902030: historical trends, recent cuts, and outlook, The Lancet (2025). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01240-1 Journal information: The Lancet This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A sign is seen outside a clinic with the South Plains Public Health District, Feb. 23, 2025, in Brownfield, Texas. Credit: AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File Health officials in Illinois and North Dakota say their states' measles outbreaks are over, pointing to a continuing slowdown of measles spread in the U.S. during vaccine-preventable disease's worst year since 1991. Wednesday's national case count stood at 1,30921 new cases in a week, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, the U.S. passed the total count for 2019, when the country almost lost its status of having eliminated measles. A vast majority of this year's cases are from Texas, where a major outbreak raged through the late winter and spring. Other states with active outbreakswhich the CDC defines as three or more related casesinclude Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Utah. There have been three deaths in the U.S. this year, and all were unvaccinated: two elementary school-aged children in West Texas and an adult in New Mexico. North America has three other large outbreaks. The longest, in Ontario, Canada, has resulted in 2,244 cases from mid-October through July 8. The province logged its first death June 5 in a baby who got congenital measles but also had other preexisting conditions. Another outbreak in Alberta, Canada, has sickened 1,323 as of Tuesday. And the Mexican state of Chihuahua had 3,129 measles cases and eight deaths as of Tuesday, according to data from the state health ministry. Measles is caused by a highly contagious virus that's airborne and spreads easily when an infected person breathes, sneezes or coughs. It is preventable through vaccines and has been considered eliminated from the U.S. since 2000. How many measles cases are there in Texas? Texas reported 762 measles cases on Tuesdaynine new cases in a weekacross 36 counties, most of them in West Texas. Throughout the outbreak, 99 people have been hospitalized. State health officials estimated less than 1% of casesfewer than 10were actively infectious as of Tuesday. Statewide, only Lamar County has ongoing measles transmission, officials said. In total, though, more than half of Texas' cases (414) have been in Gaines County, where the virus started spreading in a close-knit, undervaccinated Mennonite community. The April 3 death in Texas was an 8-year-old child, according to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Local health officials said the child did not have underlying health conditions and died of "what the child's doctor described as measles pulmonary failure." A unvaccinated child with no underlying conditions died of measles in Texas in late February; Kennedy said the child was 6. How many measles cases are there in New Mexico? New Mexico stayed steady at 95 measles cases on Tuesday. While most of the state's cases are in Lea County, 14 cases are tied to an outbreak in a jail in Luna County. An unvaccinated adult died of measles-related illness March 6. The person did not seek medical care. Seven people have been hospitalized since the state's outbreak started. San Juan, Eddy, Chaves, Curry, Dona Ana and Sandoval counties also had measles cases this year. How many cases are there in Oklahoma? Oklahoma held steady a second week at 17 confirmed and three probable cases. The state health department is not releasing which counties have cases. How many cases are there in Arizona? Arizona has four cases in Navajo County. They are linked to a single source, the county health department said June 9. All four were unvaccinated and had a history of recent international travel. How many cases are there in Colorado? Colorado has been at a steady 16 measles cases for a few weeks, including one outbreak of 10 related cases. The outbreak is linked to a Turkish Airlines flight that landed at Denver International Airport in mid-May. Four of the people were on the flight with the first person diagnosedan out-of-state traveler not included in the state countwhile five got measles from exposure in the airport and one elsewhere. Other counties that have seen measles this year include Archuleta, Boulder and Pueblo. How many cases are there in Georgia? Georgia has an outbreak of three cases in metro Atlanta, with the most recent infection confirmed June 18. The state has confirmed six total cases in 2025. The remaining three are part of an unrelated outbreak from January. How many cases are there in Illinois? The outbreak in far southern Illinois is over, health officials said last week. All told, there were eight cases in that outbreak. The state's other two cases were unrelated, and in Cook County. How many cases are there in Iowa? Iowa announced another measles case on Monday, bringing the state's total to seven in 2025. The state health department said the new case isn't linked to others in the state, and occurred in a person who was fully vaccinated. The outbreak in eastern Johnson County involves four cases in members of the same household. How many cases are there in Kansas? Kansas added three more cases this week for a total of 90 across 11 counties in the southwestern part of the state, with eight hospitalizations. All but three of the cases are connected, and most are in Gray County. How many measles cases are there in Kentucky? Kentucky has 13 cases this year. Central Kentucky's outbreak rose to nine cases as of Tuesday. The cases are in Fayette County, which includes Lexington, and neighboring Woodford County. Kentucky health officials announced a new case in Jefferson County on Monday. The mayor's office said Tuesday that it's an adolescent who traveled internationally to an area with an outbreak. Their vaccination status isn't known. How many cases are there in Michigan? The state has had 18 cases total in 2025; eight are linked to outbreaks. In northern Michigan, Grand Traverse County has an outbreak of four cases as of Wednesday. An earlier outbreak of four cases in Montcalm County was declared over on June 2. How many cases are there in Missouri? Missouri stayed steady with seven cases as of Wednesday. Five cases are in southwestern Cedar County, and four of those are members of the same family. The fifth case is still under investigation, according to county health director Victoria Barker. How many cases are there in Montana? Montana was steady on Wednesday with 25 measles. Seventeen were in Gallatin County, which is where the first cases showed upMontana's first in 35 years. Flathead and Yellowstone counties had two cases each, and Hill County had four cases. There are outbreaks in neighboring North Dakota and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. How many cases are there in North Dakota? The state's health department confirmed that outbreaks in Williams, Grand Forks and Cass counties are over. But the state's count grew to 36 for the year, adding one case in Williams County that was infectious in May, but not confirmed until this week. The other case is new and also in Williams County. When it was announced late last week, state vaccine official Jenny Galbraith said it was believed to have been from out-of-state travel, wasn't connected to the county's past outbreak and that there was "no evidence of community spread." Counties that have seen cases this year include Williams with 18, Grand Forks with 10, Cass with seven and Burke with one. How many cases are there in Utah? Utah's measles case count rose by one to 10 as of Tuesday. At least three of the cases are linked, the state health department said last week. State epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen has said there are at least three different measles clusters in the state. Where else is measles showing up in the U.S.? Measles cases also have been reported this year in Alaska, Arkansas, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wyoming. Earlier outbreaks in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee are over. Cases and outbreaks in the U.S. are frequently traced to someone who caught the disease abroad. The CDC said in May that more than twice as many measles have come from outside of the U.S. compared to May of last year. Most of those are in unvaccinated Americans returning home. What do you need to know about the MMR vaccine? The best way to avoid measles is to get the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old and the second between 4 and 6 years old. Getting another MMR shot as an adult is harmless if there are concerns about waning immunity, the CDC says. People who have documentation of receiving a live measles vaccine in the 1960s don't need to be revaccinated, but people who were immunized before 1968 with an ineffective vaccine made from "killed" virus should be revaccinated with at least one dose, the agency said. People who have documentation that they had measles are immune and those born before 1957 generally don't need the shots because so many children got measles back then that they have "presumptive immunity." Measles has a harder time spreading through communities with high vaccination ratesabove 95%due to "herd immunity." But childhood vaccination rates have declined nationwide since the pandemic and more parents are claiming religious or personal conscience waivers to exempt their kids from required shots. What are the symptoms of measles? Measles first infects the respiratory tract, then spreads throughout the body, causing a high fever, runny nose, cough, red, watery eyes and a rash. The rash generally appears three to five days after the first symptoms, beginning as flat red spots on the face and then spreading downward to the neck, trunk, arms, legs and feet. When the rash appears, the fever may spike over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the CDC. Most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and death. How can you treat measles? There's no specific treatment for measles, so doctors generally try to alleviate symptoms, prevent complications and keep patients comfortable. 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Gender-diverse individuals not only fear losing their access to gender-affirming care but may resort to self-harm or questionable alternatives if it disappears, according to new research from the University of Vermont (UVM) published in JAMA Network Open. Teresa Graziano, a professor of nursing at UVM and lead author of the study, surveyed 489 gender-diverse Americans 18 and over about their expectations of medical care after President Donald Trump campaigned on rolling back protections for the nearly two million trans, nonbinary, and intersex individuals in the United States. Gender-affirming care (GAC) includes surgical procedures, hormonal treatments, or mental health services for individuals with gender dysphoria. The findings of Graziano's study were stark: Every respondent thought they would lose access to care, nearly a third reported they would consider some form of do-it-yourself hormone therapy, and over 21% expressed either active or passive suicidal ideation. "This is a population that already feels that their access to care is constantly under threat, and so when you have somebody going into power that is campaigning on removing their access to care, they believe it," says Graziano, a registered nurse who uses they/them pronouns. "It was startling." The study closed on Inauguration Day, January 20. Since then, a series of Executive Orders have been issued preventing the U.S. government from recognizing more than two sexesmale and femaleand directing federal agencies and programs to work toward banning gender-affirming care for trans youth. Additional orders include proposals to prohibit gender-affirming care as an essential benefit for patients on health insurance plans offered under the Affordable Care Act. However, those orders are currently tied up in the courts. In June, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, opening the door for other states to do the same. "I want to be clear that there is no federal ban on care right now," Graziano says, adding that most providers are still caring for patients. Graziano's research aims to improve outcomes and patient care for gender-diverse populationsgroups that historically have higher rates of suicide, anxiety, and depression than the general population. As they combed the data, Graziano became concerned at the terms people were using when asked what, if anything, they would do if gender-affirming care was banned. While some participants talked about suicide, others spoke more passively about it. "They are saying that there is not a life worth living without being their authentic self," Graziano says. They point to the real dangers that persist if access to gender-affirming care is denied. People may turn to extreme measures such as using do-it-yourself hormone therapy that can jeopardize their health. "This can quite literally be people synthesizing hormones at home using kits that you can purchase online," Graziano says. "It may also [increase] the use of the gray or black market, especially for things like testosterone, which are FDA-regulated and are controlled substances." Patients on hormones require careful blood monitoring to ensure they are taking the proper dosage. Osteoporosis can develop when hormone levels are outside normal levels, Graziano explains. A ban on gender-affirming care could damage the trust between patients and their health care providers. If patients acquire hormones through questionable means, they may not trust their doctors enough to admit it. "The hope is that yes, they [will] because medicine and the legal system have been very good about keeping it fairly separate when things like that happen," Graziano says. Should a ban on gender-affirming care come into effect, Graziano advocates that clinicians treat gender-diverse individuals using a harm-reduction approacha practice generally used for individuals with substance abuse disorders. "We should not be judging this community for making do with what they have," Graziano says. "We just need to partner with them to make sure they are as healthy as possible as they get through what they need to get through. And I think that as we continue having these conversations about whether or not this care should be banned, we also need to think about how this is going to affect the lives of very real human beings whose mental health is reliant upon their access to being their true self." More information: Access to Gender Affirming Care and Alternatives to that Care Among Transgender Adults, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.20808 Journal information: JAMA Network Open This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: CC0 Public Domain Living near Coldwater Creeka Missouri River tributary north of St. Louis that was polluted by nuclear waste from the development of the first atomic bombin childhood in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s was associated with an elevated risk of cancer, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers say the findings corroborate health concerns long held by community members. The study, "Cancer Incidence and Childhood Residence Near the Coldwater Creek Radioactive Waste Site," was published in JAMA Network Open. It coincides with Congress having passed an expanded version of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) as part of the Trump tax bill, through which Americans, including Coldwater Creek residents, can receive compensation for medical bills associated with radiation exposure. Most studies of radiation exposure have focused on bomb survivors who have had very high levels of exposure; far less is known about the health impacts of lower levels of radiation exposure. For this study, the researchers used a subsample of 4,209 participants from the St. Louis Baby ToothLater Life Health Study (SLBT), a cohort composed of many individuals who lived near Coldwater Creek as children and who donated their baby teeth beginning in 1958 to measure exposure to radiation from atmospheric nuclear testing. The participants, who lived in the Greater St. Louis area between 1958 and 1972, self-reported incidences of cancer, allowing the researchers to calculate cancer risk in accordance with childhood residence proximity to Coldwater Creek. The findings showed a dose-response effectthose living nearest to the creek had a higher risk for most cancers than those living farther away. There were 1,009 individuals (24% of the study population) who reported having cancer. Of those, the proportion was higher for those living near the creek30% lived less than one kilometer away, 28% between one and five kilometers away, 25% between five and 20 kilometers away, and 24% 20 kilometers or more away). The researchers estimated that those living more than 20 kilometers away from the creek had a 24% risk of any type of cancer. Compared to this group, among those who lived less than one kilometer away from the creek, the risk of developing any type of cancer was 44% higher; solid cancers (cancers that form a mass, as opposed to blood cancers), 52% higher; radiosensitive cancers (thyroid, breast, leukemia, and basal cell), 85% higher; and non-radiosensitive cancers (all except thyroid, breast, leukemia, and basal cell), 41% higher. The risk went down among those who lived between one and 5 kilometers away from the creek, and then down a little more among those who lived 520 kilometers away, but was still slightly higher than those living more than 20 kilometers away. "Our research indicates that the communities around North St. Louis appear to have had excess cancer from exposure to the contaminated Coldwater Creek," said corresponding author Marc Weisskopf, Cecil K. and Philip Drinker Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Physiology. "These findings may have broader implicationsas countries think about increasing nuclear power and developing more nuclear weapons, the waste from these entities could have huge impacts on people's health, even at these lower levels of exposure." Other Harvard Chan School authors include Michael Leung, Ian Tang, Joyce Lin, Lorelei Mucci, Justin Farmer, and Kaleigh McAlaine. More information: Cancer Incidence and Childhood Residence Near the Coldwater Creek Radioactive Waste Site, JAMA Network Open (2025). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.21926 Journal information: JAMA Network Open This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Thousands of health workers lost their jobs this week after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for the Trump administration to move forward with major staffing cuts. On Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finalized 10,000 layoffs across federal health agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The New York Times reported. The layoffs followed a March announcement by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called for a major department overhaul. The affected workers included staff responsible for travel logistics, communication, medical research contracts and other related tasks. "Thank you for your service to the American people," said an email sent to workers as they were removed from the payroll. Some employees who received layoff notices April 1 first learned they were let go when their building access badges stopped working. But many folks still remained officially on the payroll until 5 p.m. Monday, when the high court allowed the administration to move forward, even as legal challenges continue, The Times said. While the administration called many of the jobs "redundant," critics liken the cuts to having doctors but no support staff in a hospital. "What I have seen is some of the very best people, people who have alternatives, who have choices, have decided they just don't want to stay in this limbo land," said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's School of Public Health who was former President Joe Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator. Jha warned that the ongoing staffing cuts could cause more employees to leave. "They don't want to be in an organization that's under such upheaval," he said. In total, HHS plans to cut about 20,000 jobs this year. That includes earlier layoffs, early retirements and buyouts. The department is also shrinking its number of divisions from 28 to 15, The Times said. While officials pointed to the department's $1.8 trillion budget as a reason for the cuts, experts said payroll represented less than 1% of that amount. Most of the money funds programs like Medicare and Medicaid. A federal lawsuit filed in Rhode Island by 19 states and Washington, D.C., claims the layoffs hurt essential health services. Some states lost access to help lines for quitting smoking, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and more. A judge recently said that the changes appear to be unlawful, according to The Times, but the case is still ongoing. HHS says workers involved in that lawsuit were not among those laid off this week. Some of those let go handled public records, raising questions about government transparency, an NIH official told reporters. Other affected workers had supported contracts related to medical research. Despite being placed on leave earlier this year, some of these employees were still asked to work, showing how hard it was for agencies to make do without them, The Times reported. At the FDA, staff who coordinated international inspections were among those let go Monday. Others were let go in April but have since been rehired to fill gaps in services. Responding to lawmakers last month, Kennedy said hundreds of laid-off workers were brought back, including experts in food safety, drug approvals and lead poisoning response. More information: Learn more about the role of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In musical evaluations, the "sight-over-sound" effectwhere visual information overrides auditory inputis frequently observed, calling into question the assumption that sound is the dominant factor in these judgments. Yet, it was unclear whether this was the case across various musical genres and settings. Now, a recent study focusing on Japanese brass band competitions reveals that individuals lacking specific experience in the genre are more influenced by visual cues than those with relevant expertise. These results highlight the need to balance visual and auditory elements in music education and training to help them process and prioritize sensory information. Credit: Dr. Shinya Fujii from Keio University, Japan When we listen to a symphony, a jazz performance, or a pop song, we naturally tend to assume that our ears are the primary judges of quality. For many people, music is primarily an auditory experience, and they instinctively believe that the true essence of a musical performance lies in factors such as its acoustic fidelity, proper intonation, or rhythmic precision. Research has, however, revealed an intriguing phenomenon that challenges this assumption. Dubbed as the "sight-over-sound effect," this phenomenon suggests that visual aspects of a performerfrom their stage presence to subtle body language cuescan unconsciously sway our judgment, sometimes even more powerfully than the music itself. Despite its fascinating implications, the replicability of the sight-over-sound effect has remained debatable across musical styles and performance settings. Previous research has struggled with accurately assessing visual influences, experiencing challenges with inconsistent filming angles, musical pieces, and definitions of musical experience among evaluators. Consequently, the understanding of the sight-over-sound effect and its extent remains unclear. Against this backdrop, a research team led by Associate Professor Shinya Fujii, Director of the Neurosciences and Music Laboratory at Keio University and the Research Center for Music Science at Keio University Global Research Institute, Japan, conducted a comprehensive study to investigate the replicability of this effect. The study was co-authored by Tomohiro Samma from the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University and published online in the PLOS One journal on April 29, 2025. The team meticulously investigated the replicability of the sight-over-sound effect, with a special focus on the role of the evaluators' specific musical background. To address the limitations of prior research, the researchers designed an experiment using recordings from Japanese high school brass band competitions. This allowed for significant control over the experimental stimuli. All selected bands had received gold awards, minimizing differences in skill level. Most importantly, all performances within a comparison set featured the same musical piece filmed with consistent camera angles. 301 adults were included in the study, who were categorized into three groups: brass band musicians (BMs) with direct experience in the genre, non-brass band musicians (NBMs) with general musical experience but no brass band background, and non-musicians (NMs) with no formal musical training. These groups evaluated brass band performances under audio-only, visual-only, or audio-visual conditions, selecting the band they believed would achieve the best competition results. The study's results revealed a markedly nuanced picture of the sight-over-sound effect. When analyzing the overall participant sample, the researchers found no significant evidence of the effect, suggesting that a careful control over visual elements and musical pieces could indeed reduce visual dominance. However, detailed subgroup analyses suggested a dependency on the evaluator's musical experience. Specifically, the sight-over-sound effect was observed in NBMs, who showed significantly higher accuracy in identifying winners from visual-only information. In contrast, the effect was absent in BMs, who demonstrated superior accuracy in the audio-only condition, indicating their ability to make precise judgments based solely on sound. The NM group did not exhibit the sight-over-sound effect either. These findings carry significant implications for our understanding of multisensory integration and the practical aspects of music and music competitions. Firstly, the absence of the sight-over-sound effect in the overall sample highlights the importance of methodological rigor in future studies. More importantly, varying results across the three groups underscore that specialized musical training can profoundly shape how individuals process and prioritize sensory information. "Our study found that the sight-over-sound effect was observed only in NBMs, indicating its dependence on the evaluator's specific musical experience, while BMs' auditory training potentially mitigating visual influence," explains Samma. Additionally, the results are also relevant in social psychology and cognitive science in general, since they suggest that expertise in a given domain can alter one's weighting of sensory inputs. For instance, visual dominance observed in the NBM group suggests that while they possess musical skills, they may still rely on visual cues for evaluation if they lack experience in a given genre. "By shedding light on the underexplored aspect of how evaluators' musical experience influences the evaluation process in multisensory integration, this work has significant implications for various real-world aspects, such as music education, performance, and competition judging," concludes Dr. Fujii. Further work on this intriguing topic will hopefully help us improve music education and make competitions fairer. More information: Tomohiro Samma et al, Sight-over-sound effect depends on interaction between evaluators' musical experience and auditory-visual integration: An examination using Japanese brass band competition recordings, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321442 Journal information: PLoS ONE Some of the people behind the social media groups opposing an expansion project at Holland Lake Lodge say they worked very hard to not allow threatening language and they dispute any allegation of "death threats" directed at the lodge's owner. They also dispute the notion that they profited off merchandise sales. Last week, the Missoulian reported that Holland Lake Lodge owner Christian Wohlfeil is withdrawing his applications to the U.S. Forest Service to upgrade the buildings and will be offering Holland Lake Lodge for sale for $3.5 million. Wohlfeil is ending his partnership with POWDR, a Utah-based ski resort company. "For the last 24 years, we've been honored to host breathtaking summers of s'mores by the fire, weddings on the lake and lifetimes of memories that can only be made in Montana," Wohlfeil said in a statement. "This summer was different. While we were sold out each night, sadly, my family, our staff and our guests were subject to a deliberate campaign of misinformation. The irresponsibility manifested in anonymous threats, destruction of (lodge property) and even death threats." Jacole Johnson of Missoula is the person who started and administers the two main social media accounts that opposed the expansion project, Save Holland Lake and Hands Off Holland Lake. Both accounts have thousands of followers and were very active for the past year. Johnson said that Wohlfeil's statements to the Missoulian painted the groups in a negative light and they didn't deserve that. "I feel it did not accurately reflect our grassroots group of civil, educated and peaceful folks," she told the Missoulian. Johnson and David Roberts, another person who is part of the "core group" of organizers behind the opposition, said they worked very hard to keep the conversation civil. "We've been very active about trying to tamp down and not allow and discourage any kind of momentum behind anything like (threats of violence)," Roberts said. "It's something we've been pretty vigilant about. We've not been perfect, but about as perfect as we can be on social media." Johnson and Roberts said there were only between 6-12 comments posted to the two social media accounts over the past year that crossed the line and had to be deleted. The Save Holland Lake Facebook account is public, and anyone can join and see the posts. The Hands Off Holland Lake page is private, and users must request to join. In the public forum this past September, Johnson said someone made a comment that was similar to "I can see the lodge through the scope of my rifle." Johnson said she deleted the comment after it was brought to her attention. "In terms of that threatening comment, in the very beginning there were all these comments and all this stuff coming through, and this isn't my job, I don't know how to do social media very well," she explained. "In the beginning I just kind of left everything out there. I didn't delete it right away. It was then when we heard that Christian was saying that there were threats that I sat down and went through every comment and every post." She said she spent hours combing through all the comments. "And I found that one and I thought, I'm sure it was just an offhand comment from an upset local or something, but I thought 'oh this doesn't look good' so I deleted it," she said. "So it wasn't immediately, it was as soon as we realized that people were taking it as a threat seeing it on the public page." As far as other comments that Roberts and Johnson decided to delete, they said they were able to get to them within an hour or two or even 10 minutes. Wohlfeil had also been upset that someone took a photo of his mom's car when she was parked there to clean up as the lodge closed for the winter. Johnson and Roberts said that the woman who took the photo was in her 60s and was under the impression that the lodge was still operating because she saw a car there. "It was nothing like intimidating or stalking," Roberts said. "That's not something any of us want to be associated with. A group of us, the core group of Save Holland, had breakfast with Christian and (POWDR executive) Stacey Hutchinson in June. We told them we don't condone (intimidation or threats) and gave them several contacts. We told them if they saw anything they could immediately reach out." Someone inadvertently posted the phone numbers of Hutchinson and Wohlfeil in a picture at one point, and Johnson said they deleted the photo after Hutchinson called. Johnson said she was told by law enforcement, including the FBI, that they were not aware of any threats against Wohlfeil or POWDR. Johnson said it's also untrue that anyone made any money off merchandise sales, as Wohlfeil said he believes is true. "Absolutely no money has been made off of the merchandise I've worked with local businesses to create and sell," she said. Johnson and Roberts both said they don't own any of the cabins on Holland Lake, but one person in the core group of nine who operate the Save Holland accounts owns a cabin on leased land on the lake. Another person in the group has access to a cabin their partner owns. "The other seven of us are simply public land enthusiasts who did not feel this expansion was what's best for the public land at/around Holland Lake," Johnson said. Roberts said that Holland Lake is one of the last relatively undeveloped alpine lakes in western Montana that can be easily accessed by people with disabilities or who don't move very well. "Every one of us has a slightly different opinion of what we'd like to see there, other than we want to see the resources protected," Roberts explained. "None of us are against the buildings getting fixed up," Johnson said. "That doesn't mean knocking down 10 historic buildings and building 28 new cabins right along the shoreline. We're not against things changing there, but it was what they proposed and the way they went about it that we were against." DEQ sampling Separately, on Oct. 18, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality announced it is "requiring sampling, installation of groundwater monitoring wells and plans for new liners at the wastewater treatment lagoon operated by a contractor on behalf of the United States Forest Service, that serves the Holland Lake campground and Holland Lake Lodge. The sewage system at Holland Lake Lodge came under scrutiny this summer after it was revealed that the Forest Service failed to report to DEQ a tear and subsequent 2022 repair in the lagoons liner. The lagoon is about 1,000 feet away from the lake. The liner failure was uncovered in a public records request by Save Holland Lake. This August, DEQ ordered the Forest Service to study possible wastewater leakage from the lagoon; the Forest Service was granted an extension for completing the study, from September to November. The Missoula City-County Health Department also ordered the Forest Service to retroactively apply for a new permit for the system covering because of the latters failure to report repairs. Critics of now-abandoned plans to expand Holland Lake Lodge had questioned whether the existing wastewater system could handle increased usage. As of Wednesday, no more wastewater was being sent into the lagoon. Missoulian reporter Joshua Murdock contributed. Two entrepreneurs have submitted a letter of intent to purchase Holland Lake Lodge, and that letter has been accepted, they told a crowd of people at a community meeting in Condon on Tuesday afternoon. Eric Jacobsen and Thomas Knowles organized the meeting at the Condon Community Center to give an update on their vision for the lodge, although they said they have not yet taken ownership of the property and they dont have many details on how they would change the lodge if they were to purchase it. They both said they dont want to repeat the controversies created by the most recent ownership group. Eric Jacobsen did most of the talking in the early part of the presentation. He said he grew up in Great Falls and now lives in Whitefish, and said he and his family often camped in the Swan Valley. Jacobsen founded several companies that were later sold to larger companies. He founded a company called Home Financial Network, which was sold to Sybase in 2000. He graduated from Stanford University and also graduated from Harvard Universitys Advanced Leadership Institute, according to his bio on a company website. Thomas Knowles is married to Jacobsens niece, and Knowles said he has visited the lodge many times. In 2022, Holland Lake Lodge owner Christian Wohlfeil entered into a business partnership with a Utah-based company called POWDR. They announced plans to add 32 new buildings, including a new 28-room lodge, a new restaurant and 26 new cabins near the lake. The lodge is located on public, federally owned Flathead National Forest land and operates under a Special Use Permit, which means any expansions have to be authorized by the Forest Service. The expansion plans resulted in a fairly significant community backlash, as many people were opposed to the project. In October of 2022, the Flathead National Forest rejected the proposal. Wohlfeil and POWDR dropped the plans entirely, and announced their intention to sell the lodge, in October of 2023. The current lodge was built in 1946 and Jacobsen said he and Knowles have submitted a letter of intent to purchase the lodge to POWDR, and they said POWDR has accepted their offer. Jacobsen said they had originally sent the letter of intent to Wohlfeil, but said they were ghosted. Then, out of the blue, they got a call from POWDR asking if they were still interested. I suspect that, but I dont know, that in the weirdness of the POWDR/Christian relationship, POWDR took over responsibility for selling the lodge, Jacobsen said. We submitted a letter of intent to POWDR, which was accepted. Thats where we reside today. In a phone call to the Missoulian, Wohlfeil said he's received many letters of intent to purchase the lodge and he's "responded to all of them." The lodge is currently for sale for an asking price of $3.5 million. The first question Jacobsen was asked was what he and Knowles want to do with the lodge. We dont know, were not to that phase yet, Jacobsen said. I can give some higher level stuff at this point. I believe that in order for the lodge to survive in perpetuity, it has to cover its costs. Not just cover its operating costs, but the costs of investing and improving there. And the current level does not do that. Jacobson said some sort of upgrade would be necessary, but he was careful to say that he would never propose anything on the scale of what POWDR had proposed. In my opinion there has to be some level of expansion, he said. It could be more beds, it could be higher prices, it could be more festival-ish things, bringing more people to the lodge to buy more beer, buy more hot dogs and food, or an expanded season. It could be some combination of all those things. He said he doesnt yet know what level of expansion is needed, and thats why he has met with many people in the area and why he and Knowles held the meeting Tuesday. I have heard beds are a problem and more beds are a problem, he said. It impacts grizzly bears. All of those are valid concerns. I have heard it needs to be accessible to locals, and that means locals (cant be priced out). Thats super valid. I have heard we need to keep people off the trailheads, that its already too crowded. And thats valid. But if its gonna work something has to be done. Jacobsen said when he first heard about POWDR becoming involved, his first thought was that he hoped they didnt screw it up. And of course, you all went through it, he said. So when POWDR decided to pull the plug, Thomas got a call from Christian and I got a call asking if I wanted to buy the lodge and I said, yes, I was interested. Jacobsen said he thinks the area is the most beautiful 90 miles in the continental United States and he doesnt want to change the character of the landscape or the community. He said he lay awake at night after agreeing to make the purchase. I decided the first thing I needed to understand, for lack of a better term, was the community and what is the anger, the frustration and the desires of the community, he said. In a press release announcing the meeting, the two men also made statements. The lodge is an incredibly important fixture, not only for me but for many Montanans, especially those in the valley, Jacobsen said. Its beauty and place in our great state need to be preserved. Thomas and I want to discuss how best to ensure the lodge has the brightest future possible for all of us and for future generations. Knowles said he first visited in 2012 and has returned many times. My wife and I love the lodge and the valley, he said. We have three young children and want them to be part of the lodge and this community for as long as possible. Meanwhile, a nonprofit based in Condon has announced it intends to make an offer to purchase the lodge. Stewards of the Swan Valley, which has a website at preserveswanvalley.org, says it is "dedicated to protecting the natural and cultural resources and rural lifestyle of the western Montana valley." The organization's president is Grace Siloti, the owner of Grace's Greenhouse and a vocal opponent of expansion plans for Holland Lake Lodge. Siloti told the Missoulian that the nonprofit is hoping to make an offer to buy Holland Lake Lodge by Oct. 1. "We have been working for quite a long time now," she said. "I met with Christian. I walked through the lodge and we spent a couple hours together. We're getting our business plan in order so it's perfect. We do not want to be a deer in the headlights. We're getting a market analysis done, we're doing a business plan, we're getting architectural information. And we want the public to have all the information." Siloti said the nonprofit is getting donations and is not spending much money on "overhead" expenses. "Through all this, I've learned one thing and that is that nonprofits end up selling their soul because they need to have money for overhead like infrastructure and bills," Siloti said. "We started Stewards of the Swan Valley where it's just local people volunteering their time to be a part of the nonprofit. We meet at each other's homes, and if we need assistance we hire it once and then we're done, so we don't keep them on the payroll. So if you donate $1,000, $999 of it goes to the cause, not the infrastructure." Siloti declined to say how much money the organization has raised in donations so far, but she did say they've had a "really awesome response" since the meeting in Condon. A Form 990 filed with the Internal Revenue Service by Community of Condon for the Preservation of the Swan Valley shows that for the fiscal year ending in December of 2023, the nonprofit had about $224,000 in contributions and about $8,000 in expenses. Siloti said the nonprofit's goal is to keep Holland Lake Lodge much as it is right now if they are able to purchase the property. When asked what they would change, she said "nothing." "We want to keep it Montana," she said. "We've had a great start. There are incredible passions. The people of Montana are standing up." Siloti and the nonprofit's vice president, Fred Clark, issued a joint statement on Tuesday after the meeting in Condon: Stewards of the Swan Valley is dedicated to using a home-grown approach to protect the historic Holland Lake Lodge and ensure that all Americans can enjoy this piece of public land in the shadow of the Swan and Mission mountains," the statement read. "Were doing due diligence to determine how the lodge could be purchased and managed in a manner that ensures future generations of Montanans and Americans always have access to this historic landmark on public land." Open collaborative ecosystem needed to drive robotics, AI: Unitree CEO Xinhua) 08:36, July 16, 2025 BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- An open collaborative ecosystem is needed to spur the development of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, told a press conference on Tuesday. "The global vision for humanoid robotics technology and product development remains largely aligned, while countries may differ in cultural and industrial backgrounds," he said, citing that China boasts strong capabilities in hardware and manufacturing, while the United States leads in AI software ecosystems. "These complementary strengths make international collaboration both necessary and beneficial," he said. Unitree Robotics has made strides in open-sourcing its software, enabling many clients to develop a wide range of applications and innovations on the robotic platforms, Wang said, stressing that both robotics and AI still face significant challenges. The leading humanoid robotics firm, based in east China's Hangzhou, last year released the humanoid robot G1, which has seen outstanding performance worldwide. Looking ahead, Wang said that general-purpose robots powered by artificial general intelligence will become a dominant trajectory in future technological development. The firm aims to integrate robots into a wide range of real-world scenarios, including industry, service and consumer markets, Wang added. (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) The national consumer disputes redressal commission (NCDRC) has directed Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company to pay Rs51.87 lakh along with 7% simple interest per annum to a Mumbai-based policyholder, Madhukant K Vira, for the collapse of his residential building Vira Sadan following torrential rains in June 2016. In a judgement running over 40 pages and pronounced on 7 July 2025, the NCDRC bench of justice Sudip Ahluwalia (presiding member) and air vice-marshal (AVM) J Rajendra (retd) (member) found Bajaj Allianz guilty of deficient service and adopting unfair trade practices. It held that the insurer had wrongfully repudiated the claim, despite clear evidence that the loss was caused by an insured perilwater inundationcovered under the policy. "While the surveyor recommended the claim was not within the scope of the policy, we are of the considered view that the building collapse was due to inundation of the rainwater and thus the loss sustained by Mr Vira is within the scope of the policy in question. At the same time, however, we consider that the surveyor appropriately determined the net total loss suffered by Mr Vira on a reinstatement value basis as Rs51.87 lakh and the same deserves to be accepted," the bench says. The case dates back to July 2015 when Mr Vira, a director of KP Packaging Ltd, insured his three-storey residential building located on Maulana Azad Road in Mumbai under a standard fire and special perils policy for a sum insured of Rs9.86 crore. The building, which had been offered as collateral security to the Bank of Maharashtra against a credit facility, had earlier been certified as structurally sound with an expected life of 15 years by the Banks valuer. On 25 June 2016, heavy rainfall caused water to accumulate in the narrow lane beside the building which, eventually, seeped into the foundation. A portion of the structure collapsed the same day and the rest of it crumbled on 26 June 2016. Tenants were safely evacuated in time. The insurance company was immediately notified of the incident, and an insurance claim was filed. Bajaj Allianz appointed a surveyor to assess the loss. However, the insurer later repudiated the claim, stating that the collapse was not triggered by any peril listed under the policy. The repudiation was first communicated on 20 August 2016, and again on 28 September 2016 and 13 April 2017, despite further documentation from competent authorities confirming that the building collapse was caused by inundation due to heavy rain. The Mumbai building repairs and reconstruction board (a wing of MHADA), in its official collapse report dated 28 June 2016, concluded that the structure fell due to waterlogging caused by incessant rainfall. The report stated that water percolated into the building's foundation, leading to a sudden collapse without any visible structural distress. The NCDRC bench found this explanation to be credible and within the scope of the policy. In its ruling, the commission observed that the insurers rejection of the claim lacked justification, and that the collapse fell clearly within the ambit of the 'flood and inundation' clause of the standard fire and special perils policy. It also faulted Bajaj Allianz for failing to share the surveyors report with the complainant, violating guidelines issued by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). NCDRC relied on several landmark decisions, including Oriental Insurance Co Ltd vs JK Cement Works, where it was held that inundation resulting from heavy rainfall qualifies as a covered peril. The bench also invoked the contra proferentem principle, which mandates that any ambiguity in insurance contracts should be interpreted against the drafter, i.e., the insurer. Bajaj Allianz had argued that the complaint was time-barred and that the claim amount exceeded the scope of the policy, as the estimated loss included the entire building value rather than just structural damages. The insurer also contended that its surveyors report placed the reinstatement loss at only Rs51.87 lakh. The commission clarified that while the policyholder initially claimed over Rs10 crore, such an amount was exaggerated and included land value, which is not covered under a structural insurance policy. "Since the policy was for reinstatement and not for market value, the actual amount admissible is the cost of reconstructing a similar structure. It therefore ordered the insurer to pay the reinstatement value determined by the surveyorRs51,87,000along with simple interest at 7% per annum from the date of filing the complaint until full payment is made." This ruling is expected to have wide implications across the insurance sector, particularly as extreme weather events become more frequent due to climate change. It reinforces the duty of insurers to interpret policy terms fairly, handle claims with transparency and respect the findings of competent statutory authorities. (Consumer Complaint No1849 of 2018 Date: 7 July 2025) Global terror financing watchdog, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has underlined the potential threats where money can be misused in a rapidly digitalising world. FATF says money can be misused to support terrorism, hide illegal earnings, or fund activities that can harm global peace. It highlighted that to protect the worlds financial systems, FATF works with countries around the globe FATF underlined its two reports published this year which extensively cover advanced methods including the manipulation of beneficial ownership information to mask the identities of sanctioned individuals and entities, the misuse of virtual assets and cryptocurrencies and leveraging maritime sectors and shipping industries to bypass international regulations. A report titled Comprehensive Update on Terrorist Financing Risks, provides in-depth insights into terrorist financing methods and emerging risks, including the increasing involvement of state-sponsored terrorism. A case study contributed by India highlights the proliferation concerns for the South Asian region arising from the State-owned National Development Complex in Pakistan, which is sanctioned in multiple jurisdictions for proliferation financing concerns. It says Pakistan remains a high-risk jurisdiction in the region for proliferation financing. India, in its National Risk Assessment for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Report 2022, has identified Pakistans State sponsorship of terrorism as a high-risk terror financing source. With 40 member nations and over 200 jurisdictions committed to its framework, FATF regularly identifies countries with weak controls, placing them either on the 'Grey List' for strategic deficiencies under monitoring or the 'Blacklist' for serious lapses that require immediate countermeasures. As of June 2025, 26 countries, including South Africa and Nepal, are under increased monitoring, while North Korea, Iran and Myanmar remain blacklisted. India, which became the 34th FATF member in 2010, continues to enhance its financial safeguards. Two key FATF reports released in June and July 2025 highlight emerging threats such as the use of virtual assets, e-commerce platforms, and even gaming applications to finance terrorism and evade sanctions. One report details how entities manipulate beneficial ownership and exploit cryptocurrency to hide proliferation financing networks, with India contributing a case study highlighting Pakistans involvement in regional proliferation risks. The second report on terrorist financing reveals the growing complexity of terror funding, blending traditional methods like hawala with modern tools like crowdfunding and mobile money. It also flags the rising role of state sponsors including Pakistan, and the microfinancing of lone-wolf actors using VPNs and online payment services, with India again contributing field data. FATF acknowledges India as among the few nations demonstrating substantial effectiveness in combating proliferation financing and urges stronger international cooperation and regulation of digital finance and social media to stay ahead of these evolving threats. The filing of a first information report (FIR) against journalist Ajit Anjum in Bihars Begusarai district has triggered sharp criticism from leading media bodies who have labelled the move as an alarming attempt to intimidate the press and stifle reporting on issues of public importance. The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) and the Press Club of India (PCI), along with the Indian Womens Press Corps (IWPC), have come out strongly in support of Mr Anjum, condemning the criminal case registered against him under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Representation of People Act, 1951. The FIR, filed on 13 July 2025, accuses Mr Anjum of obstructing government work, trespassing, spreading misinformation, and allegedly stirring communal discordall linked to his on-ground reporting of the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar. Mr Anjum, known for his independent YouTube journalism, had released a detailed video from Balia block in Begusarai on 12 July 2025. In the footage, he raised concerns about the procedural lapses in the voter enumeration exercisespecifically, forms being accepted without required documents or photographs. His reporting suggested that many citizens, particularly in marginalised areas, lacked access to the documents demanded by officials, potentially disenfranchising thousands during the voter list revision. Soon after the video went live, Mr Anjum was allegedly summoned by local administrative officers and asked to remove the footage. When he refused, an FIR followed. A booth-level officer (BLO) named Mohammed Ansarul Haque, on whose statement the complaint is based, alleged that Mr Anjum and his team entered the election premises without permission, disrupted the work for over an hour and persistently questioned him on the treatment of Muslim voters in the area. The FIR claims the journalist attempted to coerce admissions of discrimination and filmed sensitive government documents without authorisation. In a statement, the Begusarai district administration accused Mr Anjum of spreading misleading information and suggested that his coverage could incite unrest. The administrations unusually strong wording warned that 'any untoward incident' resulting from the broadcast would be the journalists responsibility. Mr Anjum, responding on social media, called the charges an act of vendetta for his refusal to comply with the administrations demand to delete the video. Instead of fixing the flaws in the system, they chose to criminalise the messenger, he posted. The PCI expressed deep concern, noting that holding a journalist criminally liable for documenting lapses in a public exercise such as electoral roll revision sets a dangerous precedent. Reporting facts is the primary duty of a journalist and does not constitute misinformation, PCI president Gautam Lahiri said in a joint statement with IWPC. The FIR raises serious concerns about the deteriorating environment for press freedom in India. The Delhi Union of Journalists echoed this sentiment, calling the FIR a crude attempt to deter scrutiny of the election commissions controversial revision drive. DUJ pointed out that Bihars populationplagued by poor access to official documents like birth and caste certificateswas being unfairly burdened with stringent documentation requirements. The group commended Mr Anjum for his courage in reporting from the ground despite increasing pressures and demanded immediate withdrawal of the charges. Civil liberties groups and fellow journalists have also rallied around Mr Anjum, pointing to a growing pattern of criminalising press activity under the guise of administrative offence. Many believe this case reflects broader anxieties within officialdom over independent scrutiny of electoral processes, particularly in areas with deep-rooted socio-economic vulnerabilities. The incident comes amid rising tension between the state and media over coverage of governance failures, especially in the run-up to key elections. As the FIR against Mr Anjum continues to draw national attention, journalists bodies have urged both state and Central authorities to ensure that the rights of the press are protected and that due process is followed without bias or overreach. They have also called on the election commission of India to clarify the rules and expectations around journalistic coverage of voter list revisions and electoral procedures. With public trust in institutions already under scrutiny, the episode has raised urgent questions about the balance between state authority and the fundamental right to free and fearless journalism in the worlds largest democracy. On Wednesday, 2338 stocks advanced, 1718 declined and 163 remained unchanged on Bombay Stock Exchange with advance decline ratio of 1.36 indicating a positive closing in the broader market, as foreign portfolio investors continues to remain positive. The trend of the major indices on Wednesdays trading is given in the table below. On NSE, 61 securities advanced and closed at a new 52-week high whereas 30 securities sank to close at their new 52-week lows. In sectoral indices, Nifty PSU bank, Nifty Media and Nifty IT were among the biggest gainers. Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma were among the biggest losers. Smaller, growth-stocks were big gainers such as, Tilaknagar Industries (11.61%), MAS Financial (9.71%) and Hariom Pipes (7.39%). Among the other big gainers were cement stocks like Deccan Cement (20%) and Shree Digvijay Cement (10.6%). Zydus Lifesciences (+0.13%) received final USFDA approval on July 15, 2025, to market Celecoxib Capsules (50 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, and 400 mg) as generics of Celebrex. The capsules will be manufactured at its SEZ facility in Ahmedabad, targeting arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, menstrual pain, and juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. This brings Zydus total ANDA approvals to 428, reinforcing its U.S. generics portfolio amid $122.6 million annual U.S. sales for Celecoxib. The Cabinet approved enhanced powers for NTPC to invest up to Rs20,000 crore in renewable energy ventures, up from the earlier Rs7,500 crore cap. The move supports NTPCs 60 GW green energy target by 2032 and aligns with Indias broader goal of 500 GW non-fossil capacity by 2030. NTPC Green Energy Ltd. will channel equity into NTPC Renewable Energy Ltd. and other subsidiaries, accelerating project execution and infrastructure development. Indian Hotels (+0.96%) acquired 3,30,043 equity shares of ELEL Hotels on for Rs165 crore via a rights issue, maintaining full ownership. ELEL holds leasehold rights for the Bandstand land parcel, earmarked for the Taj Bandstand development, part of IHCLs Rs2,500 crore investment plan. The transaction supports IHCLs strategic expansion in Mumbais luxury hospitality market and does not involve related party approvals. SBIs (+1.87%) Central Board approved a Rs20,000 crore fundraising plan on, via Basel III-compliant AT1 and Tier 2 bonds targeted at domestic investors. The issuance, subject to government approvals, aims to bolster SBIs capital base and support regulatory compliance and growth initiatives in FY25-26. LT Foods (+2.24%) expanded its organic arm, Nature Bio Foods, into Europes B2C segment with a new Rs20 crore facility in Maasvlakte, Rotterdam. The 20,000 square meter plant features CO chambers, multi-line processing, and smart warehousing, with capacity to handle 15,000 MT annually. It will supply organic staples sourced from 20+ countries, targeting major European retailers and reinforcing LT Foodss farm-to-fork strategy. SMS Lifesciences (+13.30%) received a USFDA Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) with Voluntary Action Indicated (VAI) status for its API facility at Kazipally, Telangana. The classification confirms compliance with global quality norms, enabling continued exports to regulated markets. Shares surged post-announcement. Dixon Technologies (+1.74%) signed a binding term sheet to form a joint venture with Chongqing Yuhai Precision Manufacturing for producing precision components in India. Dixon will hold a 74% stake, with Chongqing retaining 26%, subject to statutory approvals and definitive agreements. It also signed a binding term sheet to acquire a 51% stake in Q Tech India via primary and secondary investments. The deal targets manufacturing and distribution of camera and fingerprint modules for mobile, IoT, and automotive applications, enhancing Dixons backward integration strategy. Completion is subject to definitive agreements and regulatory approvals, with Dixon gaining access to advanced technology and precision manufacturing capabilities. Cupid (-1.53%) announced a strategic investment in GII Healthcare Investment Ltd marking its entry into the Middle East healthcare market. GII, managed by Gulf Islamic Investments, holds a minority stake in a leading Saudi healthcare provider and manages over US$3.5 billion in assets across multiple regions. Cupid aims to leverage this partnership to expand its global footprint in preventive healthcare and wellness, aligning with its long-term diversification strategy. Premier Explosives (+1.42%) secured a Rs105 crore export order for defence explosives, to be delivered over 12 months. The order is from an undisclosed international client and involves no related-party interests. Tech Mahindra (+1.83%) reported Q1FY26 revenue of Rs13,351.2 crore, up 2.7% y-o-y and flat q-o-q, while net profit rose 34% y-o-y to Rs 1,140.6 crore but dipped 2.2% q-o-q. PBT grew 37% y-o-y to Rs1,618.1 crore, supported by stable expenses at Rs11,951.9 crore and improved EBIT margin of 11.1%. The company highlighted disciplined execution and broad-based deal momentum, with LTM deal wins up 44%. ITC Hotels (+4.47%) reported Q1FY25-26 revenue of Rs815 crore, up 15% y-o-y, and net profit of Rs133 crore, rising 54% y-o-y. EBITDA grew 19% to Rs246 crore, with margins expanding to 29.9% from 29.03% y-o-y, driven by improved occupancy and room rates. The top gainers and top losers of the major indices are given in the table below: The closing values of the major Asian indices are given in the table below: Ever since Vedanta listed in London, Anil Agarwal has carefully crafted an image of a self-made, resilient and socially-conscious leader who clawed his way up from scrap metal trading to helm a global mining empire. It is a seductive story of humble origins, daring bets, resilience, philanthropy and commitment to nation-building. For decades, this narrative has helped counter the many financial, environmental and governance controversies that have surrounded the group. It helped bankers and regulators avoid a deeper scrutiny of the sprawling metals and mining conglomerate, which includes multiple global subsidiaries and intermediate holding companies under Vedanta Resources Ltd (VRL). On 9 July 2025, that beautifully crafted narrative was hit by a bombshell with the publication of an 87-page broadside ( Vedanta Limited Resources ) by Viceroy Research, a US-based short-seller and forensic research firm with an increasingly influential track record. Viceroys Allegations: Anatomy of a Ponzi Viceroy alleges that Vedanta has a Ponzi-like structure propped up by a continuous cycle of new debt to remain solvent. It calls the group parent company, Vedanta Resources a parasite draining its publicly traded Vedanta Limited (VEDL) and its subsidiaries keep the parent afloat. Viceroys central contention is that VRL survives solely by forcing VEDL to issue massive dividends, which are funded, not by profits, but by more borrowings. Yet, because VRL holds only 56% of VEDL and smaller stakes in other subsidiaries, each rupee it extracts leaks to minority investors, requiring ever-larger payouts to meet the parents obligations. The Viceroy report puts VRLs gross debt at US$4.9bn (billion) as of FY24-25 and that of VEDL (including Hindustan Zinc Ltd) at around US$6.7bn. It also says that the real total group debt could be even higher due to undisclosed or off-balance sheet items. Aside from a staggering number of legal and regulatory challenges, it says, Vedantas key operating subsidiaries reveal a portfolio riddled with financially unviable assets, undisclosed liabilities, systematic fraud, and profound governance failures. Vedanta Empire on the Brink? Viceroy Research Alleges Ponzi-like Structure, US$5.6Bn Cash Shortfall, Hidden Loans) In fact, Viceroy calls the book values reported by VEDL pure fiction. Vedantas response has been to dismiss the report as false propaganda and to question its motives and timing, without refuting any of the very specific allegations in the report (Read: A Familiar Pattern Veteran watchers of Vedanta will feel a dismal sense of deja vu. This is not the first time the group has been accused of treating public shareholders as a funding mechanism for private control. In 2012, when it announced merger of two subsidiariesSterlite Industries and Sesa Goato form Sesa Sterlite. At that time, proxy advisor InGovern said this was essentially a strategy to dump a US$5.9bn debt and a collection of struggling aluminium assets onto more transparent Indian balance sheets; InGovern is, however, singing a different tune today. It has attacked the Viceroy report as a typical playbook of short-sellers - establishing short positions, publishing critical reports, amplifying findings via media to trigger panic and profiting from price declines . Sterlite Mergers: Another self-serving move?) The London-listed parent company (delisted in 2018) had then transferred its stakes in Cairn India, Vedanta Aluminium and Madras Aluminium Company to the merged Sesa Sterlite. Despite the objections of minority investors, Mr Agarwal, with a stake of 58% in Sterlite and 55% in Sesa Goa, was able to ram through the transaction. This conveniently moved large chunks of VRLs liability to the profitable merged Indian company. (Read: The technique became a template. Each time, the commodity cycle turned down or debt began to pinch Vedanta, a new restructuring plan would emerge, draped in the language of consolidation, synergy and simplification. Each time, control remained firmly in Mr Agarwals hand, while risks migrated to lenders and public shareholders. Even earlier, in 1998, Mr Agarwals Sterlite was one of the three notorious stocks (BPL, Sterlite and Videocon) ramped up by scam-accused Harshad Mehta attempting to return as a market wizard. It ended in a disaster with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) uncovering how Sterlite had routed money through intermediaries to corner its own shares. Even earlier, in 1998, Mr Agarwals Sterlite was one of the three notorious stocks (BPL, Sterlite and Videocon) ramped up by scam-accused Harshad Mehta attempting to return as a market wizard. It ended in a disaster with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) uncovering how Sterlite had routed money through intermediaries to corner its own shares. It also played a role in a controversial bailout of colluding brokers, culminating in the extraordinary and clandestine midnight opening of the Bombay Stock Exchanges computer system to insert trades and forestall a massive default. Sterlite and Videocon: The Harshad link). These controversies did nothing to halt Vedantas growth and expansions, since regulators and lenders were happy to look the other way. It is a telling commentary on our regulatory environment that SEBIs findings had no impact on Mr Agarwals global expansion or borrowing. (Read:). These controversies did nothing to halt Vedantas growth and expansions, since regulators and lenders were happy to look the other way. Debt Spiral The demerger proposal announced last year is no different in spirit. Viceroy contends that Vedantas plan to spin off multiple businessesaluminium, power, oil & gaswill not unlock value but simply shift liabilities from the holding company to newly-listed entities. Those entities will be debt-laden from birth. In Viceroys telling, the groups combined debt is not the officially acknowledged US$11bn but likely to be far higher due to undisclosed liabilities, intercompany guarantees and questionable asset valuations. Its report accuses the management of systematic looting of Hindustan Zinc, including related-party transactions and inflated brand fees. The scrutiny does not stop at finances. Viceroy says that Vedantas auditors in India and abroad are a patchwork of smaller firms, many of which have been fined or sanctioned for professional misconduct. The groups main auditor in London, MHA MacIntyre Hudson, was censured for poor controls and failing to flag regulatory breaches. Interestingly, Vedanta is its largest client. Several overseas subsidiaries are audited by a two-partner firm operating out of a Bhiwandi apartment, using a Hotmail address. The implications are clear: If these allegations are substantiated, Indias largest nationalised banks, whose balance sheets have been cleaned up through massive write-offs, are staring at a slow-motion train wreck. These include: State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank, IDBI Bank and Bank of Maharashtra, followed by a clutch of top private banks which, together, have an exposure of Rs30,000 crore-Rs40,000 crore. Regulators Missing in Action Will the Viceroy investigation lead to a deeper scrutiny at all? In the past, its exposure of Germanys Wirecard, as a multi-billion-euro fraud, led to serious regulatory action. Also, Vedanta has yet come up with a detailed rebuttal of Viceroys charges backed by details. But the most remarkable aspect of this unfolding saga is how thoroughly Indias regulatory and supervisory ecosystem has been neutralised. Despite decades of controversyfrom share price ramping in the Harshad Mehta era to attempts to delist Vedanta Limited on the cheapMr Agarwals group has encountered little regulatory resistance. Even after Viceroys explosive expose, our regulators have remained silent. SEBI has not announced an inquiry into the report, nor has the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), or the national financial reporting authority (NFRA), which regulates auditors. No investor group or analyst has questioned major lenders, who are all listed entities. Banks are forever eager to lend to politically-connected tycoons and credit rating agencies, whose revenues depend on repeat business, rarely rock the boat. Meanwhile, proxy adviser InGovern has rushed to Vedantas defence. Remember, Vedanta holds some of Indias largest zinc and aluminium operations, substantial oil reserves and has announced ambitious plans to expand its mineral footprint globally. But the pattern of financial engineering is unmistakable. Each restructuring is framed as a rational exercise of consolidation and simplification, but it results in more liabilities accruing to investors. Also, serious governance issues and opaque structures are hidden by lavish advertising campaigns portraying the group as a socially conscious organisation. The Mirage of Philanthropy Against this backdrop, Mr Agarwals frequent pronouncements about giving away most of his wealth acquire a surreal tone. He is a signatory to The Giving Pledge, alongside Bill Gates, promising to donate 75% of his fortune to charity. But, if the bulk of that fortune consists of shares that are themselves collateral for mountains of debt, what exactly is being pledged? If a company finances dividends with borrowings, channels cash to a debt-ridden parent, who ultimately shoulders the burden? The answer: Minority investors, public sector lenders and, eventually, taxpayers. The group stocks initially plummeted in response to Viceroys allegations, but investors and traders also take their cues from regulators. With the bulk of promoter shares being pledged, which is another indicator of trouble, stock prices will not collapse unless lenders decide to sell. Also, a day after the Viceroy revelations, chairman Anil Agarwal was confidently announcing plans to double oil & gas production and invest in a new smelting complex. The lesson, as in so many Indian business sagas, is that lavish image campaigns tend to silence critics and buy media clout. Although retail investors may not get carried away, the cost of credulous lenders, who fail to fulfil their fiduciary responsibility, is ultimately paid by the entire system in the form of write-offs and government-funded recapitalisation of banks. When the sirens went off Friday night, Aslin Gonzalez was nervous. She'd grown up in Puerto Rico and lived in New Jersey until 2024, when she moved to the Quad-Cities. She'd lived through hurricanes, including Hurricane Sandy in the northeast. But to her, the prospect of a tornado lifting the walls away was much scarier. Gonzalez packed up two of her suitcases with her most precious belongings and headed downstairs toward the laundry room of her apartment building on 35th Street in Davenport as the National Weather Service put out a tornado warning. Rain started to fall. Hard. Her neighbor, who lives on the lower level near where they were sheltering from the tornado, told them that every time it rained hard, he would get water in his apartment, she said. He told them he was trying to get the maintenance crew to do something about it. The neighbor bought sandbags and stacked them to keep the water out. But Gonzalez started to see trickles of water. Her roommate suggested they go back upstairs with her suitcases. "We think nothing of it. I take my stuff upstairs. Literally not even five minutes later, the water blows the doors off its hinges," Gonzalez said. "If we had stayed there maybe two, three, four minutes, I don't know what would've happened." Gonzalez looked out a front window and saw 35th Street flooded like a lake. The National Weather Service put out a rare warning for life-threatening flash flooding. Although Friday's storms did not cause any reported injuries, it became some of the worst flash flooding in recent memory. "I've seen floods, but I've never seen one like that," Gonzalez said. "It was scary." At the Davenport Municipal Airport, where the National Weather Service office is located, 2.95 inches of rain fell Friday. Adding Thursday's rainfall of 1.30 inches brought the two-day total there to 4.25 inches. The Moline airport recorded a record rainfall for July 11 at 2.02 inches. In central and northwest Davenport, local reports were even higher. Overall, the Quad-Cities received between 3 and 6 inches over 36 hours, said meteorologist Matt Friedlein. The rain fell hard in a short time span, which in cities with impervious surfaces is very difficult for drainage systems to keep up with. In recent memory, the main comparison the National Weather Service has heard is the 1990 Duck Creek floods, where the Quad-Cities received 9.95 inches of rain over the course of a month. Friedlein said the Quad-Cities hasn't gotten that much rain, yet. Gonzalez and her roommate came down the stairs to the semi-basement and saw their neighbor wading through water up to his chest holding a gaming PC out of the water. Gonzalez's roommate, who is much taller than her, sprang into action to help. He helped the neighbor carry out rifles, too, that were important to him, Gonzalez said. They decided against going back in again as the water was rising and the roommate was afraid they may drown or be electrocuted. They gave the neighbor some water and let him use their phone. But it was clear all his belongings would be ruined. "Being the front row witness to my neighbor losing everything and only being able to offer a glass of water, you can use my phone, I felt really useless that day," Gonzalez said. Gonzalez and her roommate weren't sure whether they needed to evacuate, too, being on the second floor. They watched all night as the water continued to rise and people tried to drive through the floodwaters on 35th Street and got stuck. A bystander with a truck braved the waters and towed out a few cars. "People were being very nice to each other that day," Gonzalez said. "So, that was nice to see." By the next morning, the floodwaters had receded but a new yellow note was stuck to their door from the city warning that the building was unsafe to occupy. The city vacated three apartment buildings on 35th Street because of damage from the floods, impacting about 25-30 people. Those apartment buildings experienced the worst damage of the floods, according to the city. Since Saturday, Gonzalez has been staying at her roommate's parents' home. But she hasn't been sleeping well, she said. On Monday, Gonzalez returned to the apartment building to pick up a package she ordered before the floods came. She paced behind the building with one earbud in, waiting. She's hoping they can return to the building soon. She wants to sleep in her own bed, among her own things. "It opened my eyes a little bit because I just assumed that I only have to worry about a tornado lifting the walls away from me," Gonzalez said. "I'm a collector, like of games and books and stuff, so my nerd heart would probably break into little pieces if I had to start from zero. But it never occurred to me that a flood could do that as well." Across the street, Natalia Veladez, watched Friday as waters rose in the apartment buildings on 35th Street. Veladez took photos and videos that circulated on Facebook of motorists attempting to drive through the floodwaters and stalling and a Good Samaritan towing them out. Although she didn't receive a notice to evacuate, water started pooling in the back. She took a couple bags and walked to the Filling Station, a nearby restaurant, to wait for her dad to pick her up. By that time, first responders had shut down Harrison and Brady streets near Duck Creek because water couldn't drain away fast enough. The Brady Mart a few blocks south was as far as first responders allowed anyone to travel. She walked through water to get there. The next day, Veladez returned to find her basement flooded. "I lost all my work clothes. I'm a nurse, so all my scrubs are damaged," Veladez said. "All my daughter's clothes are damaged. I'm in school for my RN, so my lab setup was down there. All my school supplies were damaged. My washer and dryer is damaged. My dryer is literally flooded with sewer water." Veladez has lived in the townhome since February. She graduates from nursing school in a month, and is hoping her school will help her with supplies to wrap up her studies. She and her two children have stayed with relatives until air conditioning returns and they can figure out a path forward with insurance and replacing items lost. "It was shocking, just how quick it was," Veladez said. "Because I was outside when it started raining. It happened so fast. But I was really more worried about the people across the street." Treasures lost Tiffany Hunt owns Tiffany's Treasures, a vintage and collectibles resale store at 4211 Ripley St. in Davenport. "Furniture, home decor, anything from kitchenware to Pyrex, Corningware, diecast cars, vintage antique books, vinyl records," Hunt said. She also sells clothing, hats, and other trinkets. In the four years she's been there, the building hasn't flooded before. But the storm drain behind her business couldn't keep up with the heavy rains Friday night. A river of water traveled from a nearby church to Northwest Boulevard and started to fall like a waterfall into a low-lying grassy drainage area behind Hunt's business, which filled like a lake. Water seeped through her door and walls into the business's lower level. Much of what she stored on the floor in the lower level got soaked with a few inches of water cardboard boxes full of antique diecast cars, picture frames, old pictures, posters, electronics, books, clothing and display cases. Most items she threw away or took out of the cardboard boxes. Some people clamored for damaged items and furniture to restore. Hunt also stored toiletries that she donates to people in need on the floor. Boxes of diapers soaked up floodwater and toothpaste, tooth brushes, soaps, and other hygienic products had to be thrown away too. By Monday, much of Hunt's inventory had been moved upstairs, to the dumpster or to a storage unit with herculean efforts from family members, friends and customers who came together to help out. "We've had so many people come through with fans, dehumidifiers, brooms, water pumps," Hunt said. "The community just really stepped up between friends, family, customers. ... We had people here helping with running out and getting sump pumps going with 5-gallon buckets." In October, she'll have been in business for 10 years. She was hoping to have a month-long anniversary celebration with giveaways, scavenger hunts and sales. Hunt's goal is to be fully open again by that time. "I'm still going to work my butt off to do it," Hunt said. "Now, I just have to work harder. This is taking a damper into that." Hunt retired from the Iowa National Guard, where she helped out on flood duty. "It's so different when it's happening personally," Hunt said. In her business, replacing something is harder than placing an order on Amazon. Some shelving is from her grandparents or other family members. "If this one piece is gone, it's gone forever. You can't replace it," Hunt said. "I can't call the mall or call up Walmart or Amazon and say I need to reorder it. It's gone. That's the hard part." In Bettendorf, first responders braced for the worst Bettendorf police officers and fire responders knocked on more than 240 doors in neighborhoods near Duck Creek warning residents of the potential for major flooding. Seven people stayed overnight at the Bettendorf Community Center, Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher said. For long-time City Administrator Decker Ploehn, the flood looked eerily similar to the 1990 floods, which caused an estimated $25 million in damages at the time. Ploehn had just been appointed city administrator at the time. On Friday, Ploehn said the gauge indicated the creek could rise by as much as an additional 8-10 feet. Additional rainfall, however, didn't materialize, Ploehn said. But experience guided the decision to warn people to evacuate. "The street sign at Crestview Court and Crestview Drive was underwater," Ploehn said. "If you go there today and see the street sign, that's eight more feet of water. That's why that scared me because I knew that's what it looked like in 1990." Since 1990, cities have bought up properties in the Duck Creek flood plain in an effort to reduce damage from flash flooding. Ploehn believes detention areas north of Spruce Hills Drive and north of Crow Creek Drive had an effect as well. Melissa Lenox and her family evacuated their Parkway Drive home after the first responders came and knocked on their door. But, she said they didn't end up getting water in their basement. The power stayed on the whole time. The Red Cross set up a shelter on Sunday for victims of storms, but so far no one has used it, a spokesperson said. If residents still need assistance, they should call 800-RED CROSS (800-733-2767). The Quad-Cities isn't quite out of the woods yet. Scattered storms are forecast for Wednesday, Friedlein said, but it's not likely to have the same duration as Friday's storms. "Overall the threat is not as high as going into Friday," Friedlein said. Friedlein urged residents to remain flexible in cases of forecast severe weather during the summer, the most popular time of year to plan events and spend time outside. "In the summer time, weather is not convenient," Friedlein said. "We have outdoor plans and commitments, festivals, fairs, events. Just be aware for decision-makers or planners that there are sometimes where you are going to have to take proactive actions and postpone plans because of severe weather and flooding risk. Be flexible." Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku is cracking the whip on abseenteism and lateness in public service, warning civil servants that the government will no longer tolerate such behaviour in public offices. In a surprise tour of the Central Regional Headquarters in Nyeri on Tuesday morning, CS Ruku announced that chronic absentees who report late to work will now be treated as ghost workers. He reiterated that such actions weaken the integrity and efficiency of government service delivery. All absentees and latecomers in the public service will be treated as ghost workers, Ruku said, The CS, who has increased surprise visits to government offices nationwide, listed concern about declining work ethic among civil servants. He reemphasized the seriousness of the government in upholding discipline, accountability, and good public service culture. There is a need to bring back the public service working culture under the prevailing conditions to enhance service delivery to Kenyans, he noted. Many Kenyans seeking government services arrive early, only to find offices closed or staff missing. During his Nyeri visit, Ruku pointed out a stark contrast in punctuality across departments. While the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Huduma Centre staff recorded an impressive 98100% punctuality rate, attendance in other government offices was below 50% as of 8:00 a.m.the official reporting time. As stated in the 2016 Public Service Human Resource Policies and Procedures Manual, public servants work 40 hours a week on weekdays. The regular working day is between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., with Mombasa and northern Kenya offices beginning somewhat earlier at 7:30 a.m. to cater to regional demands. In response to the poor attendance rates, Ruku announced that his ministry will now strictly enforce official working hours. Human resource officers stationed across public institutions will be tasked with monitoring compliance and taking corrective action where necessary. He emphasized that every public servant must take their role seriously, noting that consistent delays not only reflect poorly on individual departments but also erode public trust in government services. The Ministry of Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes will take necessary measures to enforce compliance, guided by the outcomes of these field inspections, he stated. Ruku warned that such officers risk being disciplined, with possible legal sanctions in case of gross misconduct. He assured that the government is still committed to reducing bureaucracy, eliminating the ghost workers, and regaining public trust in state institutions. Rigathi Gachagua woke up in the United States on Tuesday to the crushing news that Zachariah Kariuki, better known online as Mr KK Mwenyewe, had died the previous evening while receiving treatment at Kiambu Level 5 Hospital. Its the sad demise of Mr Zachariah Kariuki alias Mr KK Mwenyewe, a content creator per excellence and inspiration to many, the former deputy president said in a statement released from his North America tour. Gachagua, the main target of KKs spot-on impersonations, added that the 26-year-old comic used comedy to communicate simple and creative messages to all Kenyans and spoke to our hearts. The familys spokesman, fellow comedian Kafengo, broke the news early Tuesday but did not disclose the cause of death. By mid-morning, tributes had flooded X, Facebook, and TikTok, with fans posting snippets of KKs low-budget skits that once turned an ill-fitting suit and a stuffed belly into viral gold. Busia senator Okiya Omtatah joined the mourners, calling KK a cultural commentator and a brave young patriot whose satire held a mirror to society. Gachagua, now leading the Democracy for Citizens Party, urged Kenyas creative sector to honour the comedians legacy. I send my deepest sympathies to his family and his friends May his soul rest in eternal peace, and God grant his family peace, he said. Mr KK shot to fame in 2022, lampooning Gachaguas accent and cadence on TikTok at a time when political humour felt risky yet refreshing. Heres Gachaguas statement. The Court has ordered former nominated Senator Gloria Orwoba to pay Ksh10.5 million in damages for defaming Jeremiah Nyegenye, the Senate Clerk and Secretary to the Parliamentary Service Commission. In a ruling delivered by Magistrate Ruguru Ngotho at the Milimani Commercial Court, the court found that Orwobas social media posts accusing Nyegenye of sexual harassment were malicious, defamatory, and lacked any factual basis. The court rejected Orwobas defense that her claims were protected by parliamentary privilege. The words complained of were not uttered within the precincts of Parliament and cannot benefit from qualified privilege, the magistrate stated. According to the judgment, Orwoba deliberately and maliciously published the allegations on her WhatsApp status, Facebook page, and X (formerly Twitter), with the intention of harming Nyegenyes personal and professional standing. It is clear that even before making her statements, the Defendant was aware that she could not substantiate the allegations. Her main aim was to put her allegations in the public domain and have the plaintiff persecuted in the public court, Magistrate Ngotho concluded. Nyegenye, represented by lawyer Peter Wanyama, testified that the defamatory claims had damaged his reputation, disrupted his career, and caused strain in his family life. The court agreed and awarded him Ksh8 million in general damages and Ksh2.5 million in exemplary and aggravated damages. Magistrate Ngotho further observed that the viral nature of Orwobas posts had drawn international media attention, intensifying the damage to Nyegenyes image. She stressed that the intent behind the posts was not to pursue justice but to publicly discredit the Senate Clerk. To prevent further harm, the court issued a permanent injunction barring Orwoba and her associates from publishing or republishing any defamatory content about Nyegenye. Orwoba to Apologize Publicly In addition, Orwoba must issue a public apology within 30 days on the same platforms where she made the original claims WhatsApp, Facebook, and X as well as in a nationally circulated newspaper. Failure to do so will attract an additional Ksh1 million penalty, which will also accrue interest if not paid on time. The magistrate condemned Orwobas demeanor during the trial, describing her conduct as casual and non-compliant. An award of aggravated damages is necessary to serve as a reminder that freedom of speech should not be used as a weapon to destroy reputations, she ruled. The court ruled that Nyegenyes position as a senior person demanded integrity and moral uprightness, which the defamatory comment unjustly undermined, leading to public embarrassment and mental distress. The defendants intention of publishing the statements on social media was not to seek justice for any sexual harassment but to spite and disparage the plaintiff and trample on his reputation, which she managed to ensure went viral, court documents revealed. Interest shall accrue on all the damages awarded until the amount in full is paid. Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua has announced the creation of a multi-agency taskforce to deal with illegal recruitment agencies that are taking advantage of Kenyans seeking employment overseas. Speaking on Tuesday, July 15, Mutua said this followed a secret high-level meeting with key government agencies to address what he termed was a worsening and deeply concerning crisis. He sounded the alarm over the increasing number of fraud cases in which impostors posing as licensed employment agents have lured job seekers with false promises of overseas jobs. In the majority of cases, the victims are left with monetary losses and psychological trauma once the cheaters vanish with their money. CS Mutua promised that the taskforce would be adequately empowered to investigate such errant agencies and bring their culprits to book. He further said that the government is eager to protect Kenyans from exploitation and restore sanity in the foreign employment sector. The taskforce will comprise members from various agencies, including law enforcement, immigration, and labor offices, to work together to enhance control and regulation of recruitment firms operating in the country. It will bring together several key government bodies, including the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, the Office of the Attorney General, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). Also onboard are the Asset Recovery Agency, the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), the Directorate of Immigration, and the State Department for Diaspora Affairs. These agencies will collaborate to investigate, prosecute, and dismantle networks exploiting Kenyan job seekers in the name of foreign employment opportunities. We are also engaging the Judiciary to explore the possibility of fast-tracking labour fraud cases, so that offenders are dealt with swiftly and justice is served. Those who have deliberately defrauded Kenyans must face the full force of the law. We are serious about dismantling these criminal networks, Mutua declared. One-Stop Centre Set Up at NSSF Building For effective and coordinated intervention, CS Mutua announced that the taskforce will be anchored at a One-Stop Centre. The team will operate from the NSSF Building, Block C, 7th Floor, from today, July 15, 2025. The centre will be open every day from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. The goal is to harmonize investigations, fast-track prosecutions, and eliminate bureaucratic delays that often allow perpetrators to walk free. Files will no longer be hidden in scattered police stations or slow-moving offices. The DCI will work closely with the DPP to ensure cases are handled efficiently whether a file is ready for prosecution, needs more evidence, or should proceed to court immediately, Mutua noted. Mutua also issued a public appeal to victims of fraudulent recruitment schemes, asking them to come forward with evidence that can aid investigations. I now issue this call to the public: If you have been conned if an individual or agency took your money in exchange for a promised job opportunity abroad that has not materialized for six to eight months or more, and you have not received a refund please come forward, he said. He encouraged affected Kenyans to appear with all the documents they have, including proof of payment and contacts they might have had with the alleged agencies. All these details, he said, would be essential in building strong cases and having those found guilty prosecuted. The victims have been directed to report to the One-Stop Centre at the NSSF Building, 7th Floor, from Thursday, July 17, between 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Disability-rights activist and flamboyant Meru businessman Michael Makarina once closed every press briefing with the rallying cry System iko sawa! For months he defended President William Rutos administration, urging the Head of State to stand with IG Kanja and his deputies and dismissing critics as opportunists. But a midnight dash to Nairobis Aga Khan Hospital has turned the staunch government loyalist into one of its harshest detractors. Makarina says he arrived in pain, overwhelmed and weak, only to discover that the Social Health Authority (SHA) and its flagship Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF) could not foot his basic admission costs. My wife was running up and down, trying to push things through SHA and SHIF. She tried. But nothing was moving. The system failed us in our hour of need, he wrote from his hospital bed. When the digital portal stalled, former DCI boss George Kinoti wired the full deposit proof, Makarina quipped, that brotherhood still works faster than bureaucracy. Just five weeks earlier, Makarina was on television urging Kenyans to ignore propaganda about state brutality after blogger Albert Ojwangs death. There are things I know about this government that many people do not, he insisted while defending Deputy Inspector-General Eliud Lagat. That televised loyalty capped years of viral clips in which the wheelchair-bound politician trumpeted the Bottom-Up agenda and chided anyone who disrespects our President. His sudden U-turn, therefore, has turbo-charged an already loud chorus of public complaints: Patients Left Stranded: On SHAs launch day last October, cancer and dialysis patients in Kisii, Garissa and Nairobi were turned away as hospitals demanded cash up-front, saying NHIF cards were instantly obsolete while SHA log-ins kept crashing. On SHAs launch day last October, cancer and dialysis patients in Kisii, Garissa and Nairobi were turned away as hospitals demanded cash up-front, saying NHIF cards were instantly obsolete while SHA log-ins kept crashing. Hospitals Starved of Cash: A July 15 survey by the Rural & Urban Private Hospitals Association found that only 20 % of clinics had received full SHA reimbursements. 36% resorted to bank loans; 13 % risked auction by creditors. A July 15 survey by the Rural & Urban Private Hospitals Association found that only 20 % of clinics had received full SHA reimbursements. 36% resorted to bank loans; 13 % risked auction by creditors. Benefit Caps Called Laughable: Analysts note that SHAs annual dental limit (KSh 2,000) barely covers a single filling, while maternity caps are a fraction of real delivery costs, leaving families to top up from their pockets. Analysts note that SHAs annual dental limit (KSh 2,000) barely covers a single filling, while maternity caps are a fraction of real delivery costs, leaving families to top up from their pockets. Auditor-General Red Flags: A March report accused SHA of opaque procurement and systemic weaknesses that amount to murder by bureaucracy, triggering a civil-society petition. Meanwhile, Health CS Aden Duale insists over 9,000 public and private facilities are now contracted and July payouts will ease the cash crunch. But agitation is rising: mission hospitals have issued ultimatums, doctors unions threaten strikes, and the Employment Court has faulted SHAs hiring of former NHIF staff. For State House, Makarinas about-face is costly optics. He was one one of the most vocal supporters of a medical scheme under intense fire, and he being so publicly humiliated by the same scheme cannot be the news anyone tasked to sell SHIF to the public would want. His Facebook post, calling SHA a sweet story in press conferences but a nightmare on the ground, has clocked thousands of likes and comments. Kenya is among the first nine African countries selected to launch a groundbreaking injectable HIV prevention medication, Lenacapavir, by January 2026. This was announced by Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale, affirming that Kenya will be among the countries to launch the twice-yearly injection alongside Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The introduction of Lenacapavir is a big leap in the fight against HIV, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, which still bears the highest burden of new infections. Lenacapavir is the first and only injectable PrEP to be awarded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval that offers six months protection in a single dose. The World Health Organization (WHO) added the drug to its new HIV prevention guidelines issued in July 2025, paving the way for global uptake. This milestone underscores our collective determination to expand access to effective, discreet, and sustainable prevention options across the region, said CS Duale. There is an urgency for impactful and tailored solutions. Lenacapavir presents a game-changing alternative to daily oral PrEP by tackling two major hurdles that have limited its uptake adherence and stigma, especially among vulnerable groups. The Ministry of Health says an implementation plan is already underway. Developed through a broad consultative process with key stakeholders, the plan outlines how Lenacapavir will be integrated into Kenyas existing HIV prevention framework. The national guidelines that will guide the scale-up of the drug are being finalized. CS Duale reiterated the governments commitment to HIV prevention choices that are accessible and inclusive. He noted that the addition of Lenacapavir to Kenyas HIV response strategy is proof of the broader national interest in equity, innovation, and community-led health solutions. Its roll-out will be led by the Ministry of Health through the National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP), alongside a network of health organizations with active roles in HIV treatment and prevention. World Bank Kenya country director Qimiao Fan says the country needs to do better and act quickly to transform how it spends money from the government and be more financially disciplined if it is to raise resources for key development projects. While appearing for an interview with NTV on Tuesday, Qimiao Fan acknowledged that the countrys achievement in trimming its debt-to-GDP ratio from over 70% to about 67% towards the end of last year is praiseworthy. However, he cautioned that this will not in itself guarantee continued financial stability or accelerated economic growth. Kenya has been able to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio that is a good direction. However, we believe the current reduction needs to be more for it to be sustainable, said Fan. According to the World Banks country director, Kenya is grappling with a structural problem where most of its public funds go toward recurring expenses instead of development. Over 86 percent of Kenyas public expenditure is on wages, pensions, and interest payments, he said. That means there is very little left to build roads, invest in schools, and create more healthcare facilities. He added that debt itself isnt bad, its how a country uses it that matters. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with debt; the question is how you use it: if it is productive use that can help you increase your growth and create jobs, giving you more capacity to borrow, he remarked. In its public finance review for Kenya released in May, the World Bank called for bold reforms to cut spending and rein in the countrys rising wage bill. Key recommendations include a two-year freeze on hiring in the public sector, deep cuts to government travel budgets, and exempting low-income earners from the housing levy. According to the report, the levy increases the cost of labour, which in turn discourages formal employment. There is significant room for improving efficiency and equity of public expenditure, Fan said. He urged the government to institute long-term structural changes, correct governance, and create a more favorable business environment. These steps create a fast-growing economy with more jobs, he added. Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen reported the arrest of about 1,500 suspects linked to the violent protests across different parts of Kenya on June 25 and July 7, 2025. The chaos left in its aftermath a trail of destruction of burnings, vandalism, and looting with neither public nor private institutions spared. In a press briefing on Tuesday, July 15, Murkomen provided an update on ongoing police investigations, reiterating the governments pledge to prosecute all perpetrators. The arrests come in the wake of widespread looting, destruction of property, and attacks on both private businesses and public institutions during the protests. He revealed that those arrested are accused of committing a vast array of serious crimes ranging from terrorism, murder, robbery with violence, sexual assault, arson, malicious destruction of property, to targeted attacks on key infrastructure. Of those arrested, 50 individuals are currently under investigation by the Serious Crimes Investigations Unit, while 71 cases are being handled by the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit for offences related to acts of terrorism, the Interior CS reported. Murkomen also commended the timely and coordinated efforts of the security agencies of Kenya, crediting their success to timely intelligence that helped thwart plans to attack critical infrastructure, including transport networks. He issued a stern warning to the perps behind the chaos, including financiers, sponsors, and coordinators of the anarchy. The financiers and political sponsors of this mayhem are being investigated and will soon answer for their crimes, he said. The CS also addressed police conduct in the protests. He reassured citizens that the government is committed to accountability, even with its own personnel. As I speak, one police officer has already been arraigned and is facing murder charges, Murkomen noted. Responding to growing fears of a covert killer squad allegedly operating within the state, Murkomen firmly dismissed the claims, saying no such group exists under the Kenya Kwanza administration. There is no non-police squad that is involved in killing people, at least not in this administration and not to the knowledge of the Cabinet Secretary, he stated. It would be unconstitutional and illegal to establish a squad anywhere in Kenya to kill people. Public dissatisfaction is rising sharply in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) just months into Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur''s tenure, as a recent Gallup Pakistan survey reveals deep frustrations over governance, services, and economic prospects, Geo News reported. According to Geo News, the province-wide survey, conducted between February and March 2025 with responses from 3,000 individuals, highlights critical gaps in basic public services. A staggering 74 per cent of respondents reported no access to clean drinking water or education, while 63 per cent lacked healthcare access. Conditions in southern and rural KP were even worse, with 66 per cent deprived of gas and 49 per cent facing unreliable electricity. The survey found limited progress in infrastructure. While PTI''s past term saw improvements in roads, only a minority of respondents have observed any new projects since the 2024 elections. Notably, 49 per cent of PTI voters said no development had occurred in their area, Geo News reported. Corruption remains a major concern. Over half of those surveyed alleged misuse of development funds, and 71 per cent supported investigations into corruption, a sentiment echoed even by PTI supporters. Nearly half also believed corruption in government departments had worsened. Unemployment (59 per cent) and lack of opportunity (67 per cent) topped economic anxieties. Most citizens were unaware of government-led economic programmes, and 73 per cent believed hiring is based on favouritism over merit. Although 58 per cent expressed satisfaction with security, 57 per cent, especially in southern KP, continued to fear terrorism. The formal justice system was described as slow and corrupt, with 84 per cent of those aware of jirgas preferring traditional dispute resolution methods. One bright spot was the Sehat Card health programme, which earned 83 per cent approval. However, only 38 per cent believed CM Gandapur was outperforming his predecessors, and 47 per cent said they would prefer Imran Khan in his place, Geo News stated. Reacting to the report, KP CM''s Adviser on Information, Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif, rejected the findings, claiming they were baseless and politically motivated. He accused Gallup of bias and questioned why similar issues in Punjab and Sindh were not surveyed, Geo News reported. (ANI) At least five people have reportedly become victims of enforced disappearance following a raid by Pakistani security forces in the Mirabad area of Tump, Kech district, The Balochistan Post reported. The incident occurred during a series of military operations carried out in the Mirabad and Neckwah regions. While several people were initially detained, five individuals remain missing and are believed to be in the custody of the security forces. The missing persons have been identified as Ayub, Fazal, Saeed, Zia-ul-Haq, and Abid Ali. Their whereabouts remain unknown, and their families have reportedly received no official information about their condition or location, The Balochistan Post stated. Enforced disappearances continue to be a grave concern in Balochistan, where Pakistani forces have been repeatedly accused of abducting civilians without legal justification. In many such cases, families allege that the missing are either held incommunicado or later found dead under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, Zafarullah Bangulzai, a student of the Engineering University Khuzdar, has been missing for 15 years. Zafarullah was allegedly detained by security forces on July 13, 2010, during a military operation in Kabu village, Isplinji, Mastung district, along with his maternal uncle, Sarwar. He was a final-year civil engineering student at the time. Speaking to The Balochistan Post, his mother described the past 15 years as "unbearable psychological torture," adding, "Our home has become a graveyard. All joy has vanished." She said the family has approached state institutions, courts, and commissions in search of justice but received no response. In an emotional appeal, she called on international human rights organisations to intervene. "I appeal to the world''s conscience to raise their voice for my son, Zafarullah Bangulzai," she said. (ANI) At least six people were killed and dozens injured in rain-related incidents across Punjab as widespread monsoon rains lashed most parts of the province on Monday, submerging low-lying areas and causing power outages, Dawn reported. According to Dawn, Lahore recorded 20.9mm of rainfall in the past 24 hours, while Okara received 72mm, Sahiwal 66mm, Dera Ghazi Khan 51mm, Mianwali 38mm, Bahawalpur 36mm, Kot Addu 33mm, Gujranwala 30mm, Layyah 23mm, and Murree 22mm. Rain was also recorded in Rawalpindi, Attock, Sialkot, Faisalabad, Toba Tek Singh, Rahim Yar Khan, Multan, and Lodhran. In Okara, two farm workers were killed by lightning near the Haveli Lakkha area. Rescue 1122 told Dawn that 19 people were injured in separate incidents across the district. In Bahawalnagar, two students were killed and 12 others injured when the roof of a seminary-cum-mosque collapsed due to rain in Minchinabad on Sunday night, Dawn reported. In Sahiwal, a man died and two others were injured in separate roof collapse incidents in villages 147/EB and 14/SP in Arifwala tehsil. In another rain-related tragedy, a woman died while her husband and son were injured when the roof of their room collapsed in Nathowala village in Kasur, Dawn reported. A similar incident in Toba Tek Singh left four people critically injured, according to the report. Rain is likely to continue in most districts of Punjab over the next 24 hours. The third spell of monsoon is predicted to last till July 17, according to a weather advisory issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), Dawn noted. Rain with thunder and scattered heavy to extremely heavy falls is expected in multiple areas including Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Murree, Galiyat, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Hafizabad, Wazirabad, Lahore, Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Narowal, Sahiwal, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Nankana Sahib, Chiniot, Faisalabad, Okara, Kasur, Khushab, Sargodha, Bhakkar, Mianwali, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Khanewal, Lodhran, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Kot Addu, and Layyah between July 14 and 17, Dawn reported. Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Director General Irfan Ali Kathia said the water flow in most rivers of Punjab was normal, adding that a moderate flood was reported at Taunsa in the Indus River. "The flow of water in Chenab, Ravi, Jhelum, and Sutlej is at normal level," he said, according to Dawn. "The flow of water in Rajanpur hill torrents is also normal. A high level of flood is passing through Dera Ghazi Khan''s Vidor and Rudkohi torrents." "In view of the emergency situation, the district administration and related institutions must remain alert," Kathia said, warning of the possibility of further increases in river and stream water levels due to continued rainfall. The PDMA has issued a monsoon alert for the entire province. Thunderstorms and lightning are expected in most districts of Punjab from July 15 to 17, Dawn reported. Kathia also issued instructions to commissioners and deputy commissioners across Punjab to remain on high alert in light of rising water levels in rivers and adjacent streams. (ANI) The business community across Pakistan has thrown its weight behind a nationwide shutdown strike set for July 19, protesting the "massive" new tax measures introduced in the Finance Act 2025-26, Dawn reported. In a joint press conference held at the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), President Fazal Moqeem Khan, Senior Vice President Abdul Jalil Jan, and members of the SCCI executive committee voiced strong opposition to the Finance Act, which took effect on July 1. They warned the protest could escalate into a prolonged agitation if the government failed to address their concerns, Dawn reported. "We have been left with no option but to take even more drastic steps, including suspending the filing of sales tax and income tax returns," Fazal Moqeem Khan said, according to Dawn. He noted that sentiments across the SCCI echoed a growing frustration and loss of faith in the economic environment under current government policies. He expressed solidarity with the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which had earlier flagged 30 "harsh tax and customs measures" as threatening to business survival. "The SCCI stands shoulder to shoulder with all business organisations demanding the immediate reversal of these unjust laws," he added, as reported by Dawn. Fazal specifically highlighted Sections 37A and 37B of the Income Tax Ordinance, calling them "draconian and unprecedented." He also criticised a new amendment under Section 21(s) that disallows any cash transaction of Rs200,000 or more for tax deduction purposes. "If a customer pays a supplier in cash, even by depositing directly into the supplier''s account, the supplier could be penalised by losing 50 per cent of the expense in tax calculations," he said. The SCCI president strongly objected to mandatory digital invoicing and e-bility systems. "Why are taxpayers being forced to perform the FBR''s duties at their own expense? This will only widen the gap between the business community and tax authorities," he said, according to Dawn. He further accused the Federal Board of Revenue of ignoring the traditional consultative process followed before the passage of the Finance Bill. "These discussions are held with the participation of Member Inland Revenue, Member Customs, and eventually the Finance Minister and Chairman FBR," Fazal said. "This year, the process was unilaterally bypassed for the first time, leaving no room for dialogue or consensus." Fazal said multiple committee members had resigned in protest after the Finance Bill was rushed through Parliament. "Despite vocal objections from the business community and the parliamentary standing committees, the Finance Bill was rushed through the house," he said, urging the prime minister to withdraw several controversial sections, including 37A, 37B, 21(s), 40(c), and 8B of the Sales Tax Act. Meanwhile, the Swat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) announced plans to launch an anti-tax movement uniting political parties, trade federations, business associations, lawyers, journalists, and citizens on a single platform, as reported by Dawn. During a meeting chaired by SCCI President Noor Mohammad Khan, members condemned the imposition of a 10% sales tax and called for the reinstatement of the special status of Malakand Division. "If the government can''t provide employment to youth, it must not impose taxes," participants said, citing widespread unemployment and past disasters, according to Dawn. They also criticised recent anti-encroachment operations, alleging misuse of power by local authorities. Participants demanded relief for affected individuals and formed a committee to evaluate the sale of land previously acquired for the chamber and to purchase more suitable property. (ANI) The June 2025 trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday shows that merchandise exports stood at USD 35.14 billion, a negligible increase of 0.05 per cent compared to June 2024. However, key sectors like electronics exports surged 47.1 per cent to USD 2.8 billion, reflecting rising iPhone and smartphone shipments to major markets, such as the U.S., in anticipation of higher U.S. tariffs. However, exports of traditional items, such as gems and jewellery, fell by 20.4 per cent to USD 1.78 billion, and petroleum product exports dropped 15.9 per cent to USD 4.6 billion, due to softening global demand and lower crude prices. On the import side, total goods imports stood at USD 53.9 billion, down 3.7 per cent from the previous year. This decline is mainly led by a sharp 25.7 per cent fall in gold imports, which dropped to USD 7.5 billion, and about an 8.4 per cent decrease in crude and petroleum imports, totalling USD 13.8 billion. Coal and coke imports also declined by 19.1 per cent to USD 7.75 billion, reflecting improved domestic supply. Electronics imports rose by 9.5 per cent to USD 8.4 billion, and machinery and computer imports grew 8.5 per cent to USD 4.4 billion. This suggests that domestic investment in assembly and manufacturing remains healthy. Exports to the U.S. climbed 23.5 per cent to USD 8.3 billion, reinforcing America's status as India's top export market. In contrast, exports to China were modest at USD 1.4 billion, though they grew by 17.2 per cent year-on-year. On the import side, India imported USD 9.5 billion worth of goods from China in June, a 2.5 per cent increase from June 2024. The trade data for June 2025 show signs of a continued structural transformation in India's export profile. High-import-intensity sectors, such as electronics, are gaining ground, while traditional labour-intensive sectors remain flat or show a declining trend. (ANI) NewsVoir New Delhi [India], July 16: Axis Max Life Insurance Limited. ("Axis Max Life" / "Company"), formerly known as Max Life Insurance Company Limited, has unveiled the rural India findings of the seventh edition of its flagship survey - India Protection Quotient (IPQ), conducted in partnership with KANTAR, one of the leading marketing data and analytics company across the world. Capturing insights from over 155 villages across India, the survey delves into the aspirations, anxieties, and evolving protection needs of India's rural population in their journey toward financial security. As per IPQ 7.0, rural India's Protection Quotient rose to 16, from 12 in IPQ 5.0. The Knowledge Index recorded a 7-point gain, yet this improvement has not translated to ownership, which remains one-third of urban India's levels. Prashant Tripathy, CEO and Managing Director, Axis Max Life said, "The IPQ 7.0 Rural Edition signals a defining shift -- a rise in awareness and aspiration among rural Indians to secure their financial futures. However, the persistent protection gap is a clear call to action. As we collectively strive toward IRDAI's vision of 'Insurance for All by 2047,' the onus is on the industry to reimagine how we serve Bharat -- through simplified products, inclusive advisory networks, and technology-led delivery models. The future of life insurance in India will not only be shaped by innovation, but by our ability to respond to the evolving needs and ambitions of rural India with empathy and intent." The following findings reveal insights that highlight rural India's shift in attitude and approach towards financial preparedness studied by India Protection Quotient 7.0: Financial preparedness in rural India Rural India's Protection Quotient improved to 16 (from 12 in IPQ 5.0), driven by a 7-point rise in awareness. However, life insurance ownership remains far below urban levels. Despite increased familiarity with products especially term insurance (awareness up from 32% to 40%) adoption lags due to affordability concerns, poor service experience (41%), and the perception that life insurance only benefits the family (43%). 40% of rural respondents cited lack of funds as a barrier to purchasing insurance -- notably higher than 31% in urban India. Gender gap: women behind on all protection indices Women from rural India report a Protection Quotient of 14, compared to 17 among men. They also lag in awareness, ownership, and financial confidence. Many still depend on male family members for financial decision-making, and few independently navigate insurance products. However, female-led households and Self-Help Groups (SHG)-affiliated women show higher engagement, and younger women (aged 25-35), especially in the South and West, are more digitally curious and financially aspirational. This opens a pathway for inclusive, gender-sensitive communication and community-based outreach. Zonal insights: West India leads, East India lags West India leads the rural Protection Quotient, closely followed by the South. These zones report higher awareness and ownership of life insurance. The East zone, however, remains the least financially protected with term plan awareness at just around 32% and term ownership as low as 3%. The urban-rural divide is most severe in this region, with a 52% gap in life insurance ownership highlighting the critical need for regional intervention and targeted education. Financial anxiety high despite growing awareness of life insurance One in four rural Indians now believe that their savings may not last even a year, although optimism is rising among the financially aware. In IPQ 7.0, 39% of rural respondents expect their savings to last more than five years up from 20% in IPQ 5.0. Still, basic expenses and debt repayments leave little room for long-term financial planning, especially in households with irregular incomes. Key drivers of Life Insurance adoption in Rural India Rural Indians buy insurance primarily to secure family goals - 41% cite old age security, 35% children's education, and 34% children's marriage. Insurance is seen as a safe and dual-benefit investment by 41% of respondents. However, many still view it emotionally, with 43% believing it only helps their family, not themselves. Public schemes remain cornerstone of rural investment More than 60% of rural Indians rely on government-backed financial products or loans through SHGs/cooperatives which are considered as accessible and trustworthy. Market-linked instruments like mutual funds have seen marginal awareness growth but still remain under-utilised. Health insurance ownership has also grown, indicating improved awareness around medical preparedness. Digital adoption surges across rural markets Digital behaviour has transformed since the last rural survey. Around 88% of rural respondents use mobile phones to use social media; around 78% of them to enjoy video/music. Online financial transactions like mobile banking, money transfer, online payments through UPI have more than doubled from 17% to 40%. Nearly half of rural India population now use digital platforms for service requests and complaint resolutions, indicating rising digital readiness for financial inclusion. Read more at - https://www.axismaxlife.com/maxlife-ipq The study is conducted in over 155 different villages spread over around 25 cities in India. A total sample size of around 1,620 respondents within the age group of 22 to 55 years were interviewed for the survey. The interviewees were picked from Rural Social Economic Classification (SEC) R1 and R2 households with an annual household income of INR 50,000 and above. The information collected through this survey and the results published are intended for general guidance and informational purposes only. Axis Max Life disclaims any liability for any loss, damage, or decisions arising from the use of this survey or the results provided. About Axis Max Life Insurance Limited (https://www.axismaxlife.com) Axis Max Life Insurance Limited, formerly known as Max Life Insurance Company Limited, is a Joint Venture between Max Financial Services Limited ("MFSL") and Axis Bank Limited. Axis Max Life offers comprehensive protection and long-term savings life insurance solutions through its multi-channel distribution, including agency and third-party distribution partners. It has built its operations over two decades through a need-based sales process, a customer-centric approach to engagement and service delivery and trained human capital. As per annual audited financials for FY2024-25, Axis Max Life has achieved a gross written premium of INR 33,223 Cr. Kantar is the world's leading marketing data and analytics business and an indispensable brand partner to the world's top companies. We combine the most meaningful attitudinal and behavioural data with deep expertise and advanced analytics to uncover how people think and act. We help clients understand what has happened and why and how to shape the marketing strategies that shape their future. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) NewsVoir Pune (Maharashtra) [India], July 16: Buying digital gold on the Wizely App allows savvy users to invest in 24K, 99.99% pure gold with a minimum investment of just Rs. 100 with access to live gold rates 24X7. Apart from eliminating safety and purity concerns, Wizely ensures that investing in gold is accessible to all, irrespective of savings, income, or market knowledge. Read on to know how Wizely is innovating gold investment in 2025. What Makes Wizely a Smart Option Here's how Wizely is making investing in gold easier. Simplified Registration The entire investment process, from KYC (Know Your Customer) formalities to buying and selling, takes place online through the app. There is no physical paperwork, and users don't need a Demat account. This significantly simplifies the entire experience. Access to the Latest Gold Rate The Wizely App provides real-time updates of gold prices. This enables customers to make informed decisions about when to buy or sell, helping maximise their returns. The dashboard provides a complete breakdown of the amount of gold purchased and the applicable GST, ensuring the customer has complete clarity. Flexible and Fractional Purchase With Wizely, anyone can buy gold in small fractions. Customers don't need to save up for an entire gram or more. This allows for flexible investment, where one can invest small amounts regularly and gradually build one's gold portfolio. Users can start investing in gold with as little as Rs. 100. Secure and Transparent Gold is stored in insured, bank-grade vaults, removing the risks and inconveniences associated with physical gold storage. Wizely partners with reputable digital gold providers, such as SafeGold, and trusted storage partners, adding a layer of security. Swift Withdrawal and Conversion Users can buy or sell their digital gold directly from the app at any time, and the funds are typically credited to their bank account instantly. This high liquidity makes digital gold a flexible investment, providing quick access to funds when needed. Benefits of Digital Gold Over Physical Gold Customers may consider investing in digital gold instead of physical gold for the following reasons. Convenience Digital gold can be purchased and sold online with just a few clicks through various platforms, including digital gold apps. This eliminates the need to visit a jeweller or find a buyer. Unlike physical gold, which is limited by business hours, a digital gold app operates 24X7, allowing users to buy or sell at any time. Fractional Ownership One can buy digital gold in very small denominations, such as 0.01 grams. This makes gold investment accessible to a wider range of investors, even those with limited capital, allowing for systematic investments. Eliminates Storage Hassles One of the biggest concerns with physical gold is its storage. Customers need to put in time and effort to either store in it a bank locker or at home by investing in a safe. Digital gold does away with these hassles. The provider ensures that physical gold that is equivalent to a user's digital purchase is stored in highly secure insured vaults. This eliminates the customer's personal responsibility and the risks of theft, loss, or damage. Guaranteed Purity When a user buys digital gold, they are typically assured of 24k, 99.99% pure gold. This eliminates concerns about the purity and authenticity that can arise with physical gold. No Making Charges Digital gold on the Wizely App does not involve any making charges. This is a significant cost associated with gold jewellery and reduces one's investment value. Since these additional costs are not applicable, the full value of a user's investment goes toward owning gold. Steps to Buy Digital Gold on the Wizley App When one is ready to invest in digital gold on the Wizley App, the process is simple. - Step 1: Download the Wizley App from the App Store or Play Store - Step 2: Register with a mobile number and email address - Step 3: Set up a PIN for security - Step 4: Click on 'Gold' on the bottom tab - Step 5: Check the current gold rate on the dashboard - Step 6: Tap on 'Buy Gold' - Step 7: Enter the amount or the weight of gold to invest in - Step 8: Click on 'Complete KYC' and add PAN card details - Step 9: Invest using UPI - Step 10: Wait for confirmation Once the payment is successful, customers can track and manage their investments directly on the app. By combining the traditional value and stability of gold with the convenience and efficiency of modern technology, Wizely is a smart choice for both new and experienced investors. By simply downloading the app on their smartphone, users can invest in digital gold on the Wizely App at any time and from anywhere. (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by NewsVoir. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) PRNewswire Singapore, July 16: Klook, a leading platform for experiences and travel services in Asia Pacific, has teamed up with Japan's renowned hospitality brand Hoshino Resorts to make regional Japan more accessible than ever. The collaboration aims to connect travelers with authentic local experiences beyond the usual tourist hotspots--think beyond Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka--helping to ease overcrowding while driving fresh demand to Japan's up-and-coming destinations. * Klook and Hoshino Resorts are reshaping how the world explores Japan--making it easier than ever for travelers to tap into regional travel. * With new Stay+ bundles that combine Hoshino Resorts' KAI ryokans and Klook's transport strength, the partnership tackles overtourism while unlocking seamless access to Japan's lesser-known destinations. "Overtourism is a global issue, and Japan feels it strongly," said Wilfred Fan, Chief Commercial Officer of Klook. "Alongside Hoshino Resorts, we're committed to promoting sustainable tourism through regional travel, and take this step toward securing the long-term future of Japan's tourism ecosystem." Rising Demand for Off-the-Beaten-Path Destinations According to Klook's latest Travel Pulse survey, 63% of Asia Pacific travelers want to avoid crowded destinations and seek out less-traveled places. And in Japan, Klook data reveals surging interest in emerging cities such as Kunigami, Nagakute, and Usu that are witnessing a rapid rise in demand. What's fueling this shift? * Opening of JUNGLIA, a new theme park that is putting Northern Okinawa's Kunigami on the map * Nagakute continues to shine, from the continued demand around Ghibli Park. * Usu, tucked away in Hokkaido, is drawing nature lovers with its volcano treks, scenic trails, and open-air onsen escapes. Stay+ Bundles: Seamless Travel Made Simple Interest in exploring Japan's emerging cities is on the rise, yet many international visitors still face practical barriers: limited transport coverage, language gaps, and a lack of reliable booking information. At the heart of the partnership are co-designed Stay+ bundles that pair stays at Hoshino Resorts' signature KAI ryokans with transportation passes like the JR Pass. Think tranquil onsens, authentic kaiseki cuisine, and hyper-local touches, paired with effortless rail travel, all easily bookable on Klook with instant confirmation and multilingual support. Mapped to 21 KAI properties located in places like Poroto in Hokkaido, Tsugaru in Tohoku, or Okuhida in the Japanese Alps, these bundles give travelers an easy step into Japan's lesser-known culture, flavours, and traditions. "We're honored to partner with Hoshino Resorts. Their unique accommodation and brand appeal, combined with Klook's strength in transportation, platform access, and regional marketing capabilities, will help raise awareness of Japan's lesser-known destinations," said Wataru Masuda, General Manager of Klook Japan. "This will encourage more travelers to explore regional areas and experience Japan's diverse natural and cultural offerings. Looking ahead, we plan to expand with more hotel brands from Hoshino Resorts and leverage AI tools to help travelers plan and book local travel experiences directly on the platform." Expanding and Encouraging Deeper Travel The rollout kicks off in Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and Korea, with more markets to come. It's the first step in a bigger vision: reimagining how the world discovers Japan, one local gem at a time. Yoshiharu Hoshino, CEO of Hoshino Resorts added, "With growing pressure on urban tourism, guiding travelers deeper into regional areas and achieving tourism dispersion has become a long-standing priority. By partnering with Klook to integrate accommodation and transportation, we believe we can effectively address the challenge of limited local transportation and attract more travelers to explore various regions of Japan, improving both the visibility and accessibility of local tourism." About Klook Klook is Asia's leading platform for experiences and travel services. We curate quality experiences ranging from attractions and tours to local transport and experiential stays, in over 3,400 destinations globally. Founded in 2014, we are here to inspire and enable more moments of joy for travelers anytime, anywhere. For media enquiries, please contact: press@klook.com (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PRNewswire. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) Electronics manufacturer Khushtech Korea, in collaboration with India's Tejas Network, has developed a direct-to-mobile (D2M) feature phone, where consumers can access live TV channels, OTT videos, audio broadcasts, and text-based information all without any internet or WiFi connection. The D2M phones will use India's terrestrial TV broadcast airwaves to provide an internet connection to consumers. The Khushtech D2M Feature Phone includes a Saankhya Labs SL-3000 D2M demodulator chip embedded in the device and is intended for use in the 470-608 MHz broadcast bands. Eric Shin, the founder and CEO of KhushTech, told ANI that they expect BIS certification for the phone by the end of July. Besides, approval from the Indian government for D2M technology is also awaited. Shin recently had a meeting with Andhra Pradesh IT and Electronics Minister Nara Lokesh, where he indicated setting up a D2M mobile phone factory, with an initial investment of USD 20 million. Further, it plans to invest another USD 80 million in the next 5 years' time, taking the total investment to USD 100 million here in India. "We are planning to build up the factory in AP(Andhra Pradesh) State to realise Made in India," Shin told ANI. Minister Lokesh sees D2M services, enabled by Khush Tech's feature phone, as groundbreaking in eliminating the digital divide in rural and remote areas in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's clarion call for Viksit Bharat. KhushTech CEO Eric Shin also indicated that they have a dream to create a cluster of Korean high-tech SMEs in Andhra Pradesh. "Our D2M phones are 4G-enabled, ensuring reliable voice and data services. They do not support 5G at this time," Shin told ANI. "Since the content is freely broadcasted over the air, users don't need mobile data or WiFi to access. D2M-enabled phones are equipped with specialised chipsets (like the SL3000 from Tejas Networks) and antennas that can receive these signals directly. Users can watch live TV, educational content and receive emergency alerts without buffering and network congestion." The primary target market is rural populations and lower-income segments in villages, where feature phone usage is high and internet penetration is low. These users are accustomed to broadcast media and prioritize affordability. There are 300 million feature phone in India, and KhushTech is expecting D2M feature phones to replace more than 50 per cent of feature phone volume. As part of their marketing plans, they are exploring online e-commerce platforms, in addition to a strong offline presence in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, and rural areas through partnerships with retailers and distributors. On top of that, collaboration with telecom operators for bundled offers are also under consideration. "We've initiated conversations with retailers and e-commerce platforms to ensure wide availability across urban and rural markets," he said. The D2M phones will also support UPI payments, enabling secure and convenient digital transactions similar to smart phones. "Khushtech will continue to invest in D2M technology for further development of various products and services such as D2M smartphones, D2M Tablet PCs, and D2M Laptops," Shin said. Khushtech Korea is the world's first D2M feature phone company in the world, jointly developed with SaankhyaLab/Tejas Network. Asked why he had decided to set up an Indian sounding company name, he responded, "I like India. I like Indian food. I like Indian people. So, I put "Khush" in my company name. I will keep trying to bring happiness to people in India." (ANI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired Union Cabinet, in a meeting on Wednesday, approved the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana, which was initially announced in the Budget for 2025-26. The scheme aims to enhance agricultural productivity, increase crop diversification and sustainable agricultural practices, augment post-harvest storage, improve irrigation facilities and facilitate availability of credit. This programme will help 1.7 crore farmers, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters today after the weekly Cabinet meeting. A financial outlay of Rs 24,000 crore will be earmarked per year, at least for 6 years starting 2025-26. Motivated by the success of the Aspirational Districts Programme, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had on February 1 proposed that the government will undertake a 'Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana' in partnership with states. It is in pursuance of Budget announcement for 2025-26 to develop 100 districts under "Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana". The Scheme will be implemented through convergence of 36 existing schemes across 11 Departments, other State schemes and local partnerships with the private sector. 100 districts will be identified based on three key indicators of low productivity, low cropping intensity, and less credit disbursement. The number of districts in each state/UT will be based on the share of Net Cropped Area and operational holdings. However, a minimum of 1 district will be selected from each state. Committees will be formed at District, State and National level for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the Scheme. A District Agriculture and Allied Activities Plan will be finalized by the District Dhan Dhaanya Samiti, which will also have progressive farmers as members. The District Plans will be aligned to the national goals of crop diversification, conservation of water and soil health, self-sufficiency in agriculture and allied sectors as well as expansion of natural and organic farming. Progress of the Scheme in each Dhan-Dhaanya district will be monitored on 117 key Performance Indicators through a dashboard on monthly basis. NITI will also review and guide the district plans. Besides Central Nodal Officers appointed for each district will also review the scheme on a regular basis. As the targeted outcomes in these 100 districts will improve, the overall average against key performance indicators will rise for the country. The scheme will result in higher productivity, value addition in agriculture and allied sector, local livelihood creation and hence increase domestic production and achieving self-reliance (Atmanirbhar Bharat). As the indicators of these 100 districts improve, the national indicators will automatically show an upward trajectory (ANI) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 16: In a time when wellness is no longer a luxury but a necessity, Hydrolife by ZeroB unveils its latest campaign, 'Alkaline Ka Kamaal', a powerful movement that places the spotlight on the life-changing benefits of alkaline and hydrogen-rich water. Backed by science and driven by innovation, the campaign aims to reintroduce water as a conscious choice for better living. https://youtu.be/xKp1mlkfnls 'Alkaline Ka Kamaal' is not just a campaign--it's a call to rethink the way we hydrate. At the heart of this initiative is the Hydrolife by ZeroB alkaline water ionizer, a state-of-the-art purifier designed to provide up to five types of water for different health and home needs. From antioxidant-rich hydrogen water to water optimized for cooking and cleansing, Hydrolife brings customization and wellness into every sip. Equipped with 11 platinum-coated titanium plates, an auto-cleaning electrolyzer, and a powerful in-built High Recovery RO system, Hydrolife by ZeroB stands out as a category-defining solution. It retains essential minerals, balances pH levels, and produces water that not only hydrates--but heals, protects, and rejuvenates. Yogesh Bajpai, Executive Vice President & Business Head - ZeroB, shared:"With 'Alkaline Ka Kamaal', we celebrate the true potential of water. It's not just about quenching thirst, it's about empowering people to lead healthier, more energized lives. Through this campaign, we aim to bring the science of alkaline and hydrogen water into every Indian home and lifestyle." The campaign will unfold through: * Educational content around pH-balanced water and its health impact* Real user stories showcasing benefits like improved digestion, skin clarity, and energy levels* Short digital films that demystify alkaline water in everyday scenarios* On-ground demos and activations through ZeroB's experience centers and retail partners Hydrolife offers more than purification, it delivers: * Custom hydration with adjustable pH levels* Hydrogen-rich antioxidant water to neutralize free radicals* Improved gut health, metabolism, and immunity* Water options for cooking, sanitizing, and daily use, all in one system 'Alkaline Ka Kamaal' is ZeroB's invitation to consumers to experience water that does more, water that works for their body, lifestyle, and long-term health. www.zerobonline.com (ADVERTORIAL DISCLAIMER: The above press release has been provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of the same) On Wednesday, Sunny took to Instagram and shared pictures from Baralacha La Pass. Through the images, he flaunted his clean-shaven look as he posed amid the mountains. "Life's a winding road through mountain peaks -- fresh look, new direction," he captioned the post. In one of the images, Sunny could be seen leaning against his car, with a signboard behind him displaying "Baralachala 16,040 FT." Coming back to 'Border 2', it is one of the most anticipated films of 2026. It will be released in theatres on January 23 next year. Backed by a stellar production team, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, JP Dutta, and Nidhi Dutta, the film is presented by Gulshan Kumar & T-Series in association with JP Dutta's J.P. Films. The sequel promises to carry forward the iconic legacy of Border, celebrating the heroism, sacrifice, and unshakable spirit of India's soldiers. In the film, Sunny will be seen sharing screen space with Diljit Dosanjh, Varun Dhawan and Ahan Shetty. (ANI) In a significant move to enhance the income of pineapple cultivators in Tripura, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Ratan Lal Nath announced that the state government plans to establish a new fruit processing centre at Nalkata under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Addressing the Pineapple Festival at Geetanjali Auditorium in Kumarghat, Minister Nath emphasised the government's commitment to promoting pineapple cultivation and exports. He revealed that from 2018 to 2025, the state successfully exported 73.15 metric tonnes (MT) of pineapple to countries including Dubai, Oman, and Qatar. "Our government declared the Queen pineapple as the state fruit. It already has a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, which prevents duplication. Our goal is to expand production and build a robust market for this organic product," said Nath. He added that events like the Pineapple Festival are instrumental in connecting farmers with national and international buyers. Highlighting the state's progress, he noted that the price of pineapples has risen from Rs 8-Rs 9 in 2018 to around Rs 40 or more at present, marking a substantial improvement in farmers' earnings. The Minister shared that currently, 3.65 lakh kani (a local unit of area) of land in Tripura is under fruit cultivation, with 74,000 kani dedicated to pineapple. Among these, the new variety is cultivated on 53,700 kanis in Dhalai, Unakoti, and North Tripura districts, while the Queen pineapple covers 22,000 kanis. He also announced that efforts are underway to secure GI tags for other local products, such as Sidol Shutki (fermented fish) and Sabri banana, further enhancing the region's agricultural profile. Minister Nath added that in addition to pineapples, Tripura has exported 4.40 MT of jackfruit to the USA, 30 MT of ginger, and 17 MT of betel leaves to Bangladesh. The government, in collaboration with the Union Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (DONER), is also working on a Rs 132 crore scheme to brand Queen pineapple globally. "We've held meetings with Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, and efforts are on to make Tripura a key player in the global pineapple market," he said. Minister Sudhangshu Das, who was also present at the festival, praised the central and state governments for their sustained efforts in promoting farmers' welfare. He highlighted the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Manik Saha in spearheading agricultural development in the state. "The Pineapple Festival reflects our government's deep commitment to the farming community. Under strong leadership, various schemes have been launched to improve market access and increase farmer income," Das said. The day also saw a visit to a local pineapple processing centre in Kumarghat by the ministers and other dignitaries, including MLA Bhagaban Das. With such initiatives, Tripura is poised to strengthen its position in the fruit export market and enhance the economic well-being of its farmers. (ANI) Press Release July 16, 2025 Senator Bong Go files bill proposing additional support and allowance for all public teaching and non-teaching personnel in basic education Senator Christopher "Bong" Go has filed a bill at the start of the 20th Congress aiming to strengthen support for public education workers by providing an across-the-board monthly allowance for all teaching and non-teaching personnel engaged in basic education. In filing the SBN 410 on July 9, titled "Across-the-board Monthly Allowance for All Basic Education Teachers Act of 2025," Go underscored the state's obligation to prioritize education and improve teachers' welfare as key drivers of national development. "Malaki ang aking pasasalamat sa mga teachers. Hindi ako magiging senador kung hindi ako natuto noon. Dumaan ako sa mga guro na mga mababait, nagmamalasakit sa kabataan at patuloy na nagseserbisyo sa bayan kung kaya't may natutunan ako... Maraming salamat sa inyong pagserbisyo," he acknowledged. In the bill, Go stressed that teachers play a crucial role in shaping the country's future: "The impact of a teacher extends far beyond the classroom, making them indispensable to the holistic development of each learner and, by extension, to the progress of the nation. Legislating salary increases affirms the state's commitment to investing in its teachers, the backbone of the education system and key drivers of the country's development." "Hindi po madali ang trabaho ng isang guro... kaya sa abot ng aking makakaya, patuloy ko rin pong isusulong ang pagbibigay ng mas mataas na sweldo, benepisyo, at incentives sa mga guro," Go added. Go also invoked Article XIV, Section 5(5) of the 1987 Constitution, which mandates the State to assign the highest budgetary priority to education. He noted that despite substantial budgetary allocations for the Department of Education (DepEd), most teachers struggle financially and professionally. "Although the Department of Education receives substantial budgetary support from the national government, adequate teacher assistance remains lacking. Therefore, it is imperative to address the growing call for an increase in teacher salaries to ensure their welfare and professional dignity," Go emphasized. The senator further acknowledged the burdens borne by public school teachers: "Teachers experience hardships, to which they often use their personal funds for buying classroom supplies and staying beyond work hours to assist the students." "The situation is further worsened by the excessive student-to-teacher ratio in public schools, with some classrooms accommodating as many as 40 to 60 students under the supervision of a single teacher, far exceeding the ideal 1:25 ratio necessary to ensure effective instruction and learning," his bill added. In acknowledgment of their dedication and invaluable contributions to the teaching profession, Go pointed out that the proposed allowance is intended as supplementary compensation, on top of existing salaries and benefits, to provide additional support and recognition for their essential roles in the education sector. Coverage under the proposed measure includes all teaching and non-teaching personnel in public schools in the basic education level, whether nationally or locally funded, including those teaching in alternative learning systems and distance learning systems. If enacted, the bill mandates that the Department of Education shall determine and provide an additional monthly allowance to those covered, which will serve as additional compensation on top of their existing salaries and benefits. The proposed allowance shall also be considered as part of the basic salary for purposes of computing retirement pays and bonuses, and its provision will not preclude future increases in the basic pay of the beneficiaries. Through this proposed measure, Go aims to tangibly address the longstanding call to uplift the economic condition of teachers and ensure that their role as nation-builders is duly recognized and supported by the State. As Chairperson of the Senate Youth Committee and member of both the Senate Committees on Basic Education and on Higher Education, the senator reaffirmed his advocacy for accessible, inclusive, and quality education, underscoring that it remains one of the strongest pillars for national development. "Ang kabataan ang future leaders at pag-asa ng bayan at edukasyon ang susi sa mas magandang kinabukasan. Edukasyon po ang puhunan natin sa mundong ito kung kaya't napakahalaga ng papel ng mga guro sa paghubog sa susunod na henerasyon," he explained. Aside from the said bill, Go has filed a bill in the 20th Congress that seeks to amend Republic Act No. 10931 which was enacted during the Duterte Administration with Go's support as Special Assistant to the President then. The proposed amendment will further expand the coverage of the Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES), so students--especially those from low-income families--can pursue more options for higher education without financial burden. "Gusto ko lang i-share sa inyo na noong panahon po ni former President Duterte ipinaglaban po natin yung Free Tertiary Education Act. Batas na po ito na muntik na po itong ma-veto. Alam po yan ni Chairperson Popoy De Vera. Pero hindi po pumayag si Mayor, President Duterte noon," Go shared. "Para sa akin, importante ang edukasyon dahil dala-dala po natin ito hanggang sa pagtanda natin," he added. The passage of Republic Act No. 12077, also known as the Student Loan Payment Moratorium During Disasters and Emergencies Act, underscores Senator Go's dedication to upholding the dignity of Filipinos in times of crisis. As a co-sponsor and co-author of the law, he has helped ensure that students with existing loans receive temporary financial relief during emergencies and calamities. Senator Go earlier co-authored and co-sponsored RA 11510, which institutionalizes the Alternative Learning System (ALS) to improve basic education delivery to underserved and disadvantaged students; RA 11984, or the "No Permit, No Exam Prohibition Act", which prohibits educational institutions from denying students the right to take exams due to unpaid fees; RA 12006 or the "Free College Entrance Examinations Act", waiving entrance exam fees at private higher educational institutions for qualified top students; as well as RA 11997, or the "Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act," which increases the teaching supply allowances for public school teachers. Following Supreme Court's notice to the Uttar Pradesh government seeking their response on pleas challenging the government's directive to shopkeepers to put up QR codes at their eateries along the route of Kanwar Yatra, Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra expressed hope that the SC would again act in favour of those who set up shops during the yatra. Speaking to ANI, Mehrotra emphasised that the people of all religions and castes welcome the devotees during the Yatra and also organise 'Bhandaras' for them. "People of all religions and castes welcome the devotees who undertake the Kanwar Yatra at various places and organise bhandaras for them, but the BJP government was forcing the shops that are set up during the Kanwar Yatra to write their nameplates and the names of the employees. Those shopkeepers were being oppressed on the basis of that name. So those people went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had earlier also imposed a ban that the state government cannot force anyone to write their name, religion and caste. But still, the state government again imposed this rule. Today, the Supreme Court heard the case against it, and it is hoped that the Supreme Court will again act in favour of those who set up shops during the pilgrimage," the SP leader said. The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand seeking their responses to a plea challenging the mandate that requires shopkeepers along the Kanwar Yatra route to display QR codes, which could be scanned to reveal the names of the owners. The UP government had issued an order earlier this year, mandating eateries to display QR codes containing information on the shop owners. Subsequently, the Uttarakhand government also followed with a similar order. The mandate, now being challenged in the Supreme Court, is alleged to be violative of the fundamental rights of citizens. The plea further states that the direction requiring vendors to display their names and identities will lead to discriminatory profiling. It also notes that a similar mandate issued by the UP government last year was stayed by the Supreme Court. Thus, the plea seeks the respondent government to explain how the said mandate does not violate the constitutional rights of citizens and the interim stay order issued by the Supreme Court last year. The plea also suggests that such a mandate should be limited to standard licensing requirements, and vague directives requiring the display of names should be eliminated. After hearing submissions, the Court posted the matter to be heard next week. (ANI) The Yatri Niwas of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board at Chanderkote in Jammu and Kashmir's Ramban has been illuminated with tricolour lights, adding to the festive atmosphere of the ongoing Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra. Speaking to ANI, a pilgrim from Madhya Pradesh welcomed the arrangements made by the Government. "The arrangements here are very good. I am grateful for the arrangements of the Indian government. The Yatri Niwas, illuminated with tricolour lights, is grand and full of facilities. The pilgrims are not facing any difficulty," he said. Another pilgrim from Gujarat said, "We are staying here. The arrangements here are excellent. All the facilities are here. We are feeling safe here. We feel like Diwali is being celebrated here. I request everyone to come here. We are feeling proud. People should visit here and join Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra." The Ramban district administration has made elaborate and round-the-clock arrangements to ensure cleanliness and sanitation during the ongoing Amarnath Yatra, aiming to provide a safe and hygienic environment for pilgrims. According to Assistant Commissioner Panchayat Mohammed Ashfaq Khanji, who is also the Nodal Officer for sanitation during the Amarnath Yatra, strong measures have been put in place to maintain hygiene at lodging centres and langar sites, with over 1,200 washrooms and around 200 sanitation workers deployed. Khanji added that supervisory staff are working around the clock, with full support from the Jal Shakti department to ensure there is no shortage of water or lapses in sanitation. He also said that sufficient water is available for maintaining sanitation at these Langar sites and lodgement centres. Speaking to ANI, Mohammed Ashfaq Khanji said, "We have 8 lodgment centres in rural areas and 4 in urban areas. Around 1200 washrooms are present in lodgment centres and langar sites for which we have hired around 200 sanitation workers... We have also deployed supervisory staff over them, working round the clock... We have a high focus on ensuring there are no lapses in sanitation. We have huge support from the Jal Shakti department, and there is sufficient quantity of water for our work." The 12th batch of devotees departed from Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam for their pilgrimage to the Holy cave of Shri Amarnath Ji on Monday morning. A devotee from Mumbai said, "We are seven members. We are coming for the first time. Proper arrangements have been provided for food and sleep, but due to the rains, we are facing trouble. People are good. We will pray for the welfare of the people of Maharashtra." The 38-day annual Amarnath pilgrimage to the 3,880-metre-high holy cave shrine in south Kashmir began on July 3 and will conclude on August 9. The pilgrimage is taking place simultaneously via both the Pahalgam route (Anantnag district) and the Baltal route (Ganderbal district). Amarnath Yatra is an annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave, where devotees pay homage to an ice stalagmite believed to be the lingam of Lord Shiva. The ice stalagmite forms every year during the summer months and reaches its maximum size in July and August, when thousands of Hindu devotees make an annual pilgrimage to the cave. (ANI) Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said that a central team would soon visit the state to study the cloudburst and the damage caused by the flash floods in the state. CM Sukhu met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Tuesday and apprised him that the state had suffered damages amounting to around Rs 1000 crore, even as the monsoon had just begun. Speaking to the media, the CM said, "A discussion was held with the Home Minister regarding the disaster that struck Himachal Pradesh. The disaster has caused significant damage. The Home Minister stated that he will personally visit Himachal Pradesh in the coming days. He has instructed the concerned official that there is a need to study the cloudburst incidents. A central team will soon visit Himachal Pradesh to study the cloudburst and the damage caused by the disaster. I have also raised the issue of a special relief package, and the Home Minister said that it would be considered after the central team visit." During the meeting, CM Sukhu informed Home Minister Shah that precious lives had been lost and key infrastructure, including roads, bridges, buildings, irrigation schemes, water supply schemes and electricity supply systems, had been severely affected during this disaster. The Chief Minister requested support from the Central Government for relief and restoration works. He further said that natural disasters had become a recurring phenomenon since 2023 and the state had incurred cumulative losses of approximately Rs 21,000 crore over the last three years, as per the release. He added that the state government was making every effort to provide relief to the affected people through the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). However, due to the repeated occurrence of such disasters, it had become increasingly difficult for the state to undertake restoration works and rebuild infrastructure with its limited resources. CM Sukhu also held a discussion with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari regarding the NH road projects. CM Sukhu said, "We had a discussion with Union Minister Nitin Gadkari regarding the National Highway and NHAI. We have asked the minister that, as a disaster has hit the state, we should get funds under the Central Road Fund (CRF). The minister has said that he will consider all the issues." (ANI) In a striking display of devotion, Kanwad Yatris from Gurugram have undertaken a remarkable journey, carrying a massive 800-1,000 kg golden Shiva Kanwad on wheels during the ongoing Kanwar Yatra. The intricately designed Kanwad, crafted in Sonipat, is carrying approximately 40 litres of sacred Gangajal, drawing admiration from onlookers along the route. Sonu Rana, one of the Kanwariyas, shared, "This is a unique Kanwad, made in Sonipat, weighing around 800-1,000 kgs and holding about 40 litres of Gangajal. People are appreciating its grandeur. We will cover nearly 250 kilometres with it, showcasing our devotion to Lord Shiva." The Kanwar Yatra began on July 10. During the annual pilgrimage, Kanwariyas collect holy water from rivers and carry it over hundreds of kilometres to offer it at Lord Shiva temples. Devotees across the country observe fasts, perform rituals, and undertake the Yatra as a mark of devotion. The Uttarakhand State government has launched "Operation Kalanemi" against individuals impersonating Sanatanis and harming its reputation. Earlier, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami stated that the state government will take strict action against those deceiving people, hiding their identities, and harming Sanatan under Operation Kalanemi. "Those who are deceiving people here, hiding their identity, hurting faith and belief, harming Sanatan, such people will be identified, a campaign will be run against such people, and those who are hurting religion and faith by hiding their reality will be caught, action will be taken against them.." Dhami told the reporters here. Earlier, CM Dhami gave strict instructions to the officials to launch Operation Kalanemi against impersonators who cheat people and hurt their sentiments in the name of Sanatan Dharma in Devbhoomi Uttarakhand. The Chief Minister said that many such cases have come to light in the state where anti-social elements are cheating people, especially women, by disguising themselves as saints. This is not only hurting the religious sentiments of the people, but also harming the image of social harmony and Sanatan tradition. He also said that just as the demon Kalanemi had tried to mislead by disguising himself as a saint, similarly, many "Kalanemi" are active in society today who are committing crimes in religious guise. (ANI) Air India has announced a phased resumption of its international operations following a "Safety Pause" implemented after the tragic crash of flight AI171 on June 12. The airline had suspended or reduced multiple routes to conduct precautionary inspections on its Boeing 787 aircraft and to adapt to longer flight paths necessitated by regional airspace closures. The airline on Tuesday said that partial services would be restored starting August 1, with full normal operations expected to resume by October 1. A total of 5 routes will see reinstated services or increased frequencies. Key changes include Delhi-London (Heathrow) - Full 24 weekly flights restored starting July 16, Delhi-Zurich - Increased from 4 to 5 flights per week from August 1, Delhi-Tokyo (Haneda) and Delhi-Seoul (Incheon) - Full weekly frequencies to be reinstated by August and September, respectively and Delhi-Amsterdam - To return to 7 flights per week from August 1. A new route between Ahmedabad and London (Heathrow) will operate three times weekly, replacing the current five-times-weekly Gatwick service. Additionally, Delhi-Nairobi services will operate three times a week until August 31, to be suspended from 1-30 September. Despite the partial restoration, over 15 routes will continue to operate at reduced frequencies until at least the end of September. These include: The flights between Bengaluru-London (Heathrow) remains reduced from 7x weekly to 6x weekly; will further reduce to 4x weekly, effective August 1. The Delhi-Paris flight will cut to 7x weekly from 12x, starting August 1. The Delhi-Milan flight will be reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly, effective 16 July while the Delhi-Copenhagen remains reduced from 5x weekly to 3x weekly. The Delhi-Vienna flight remains reduced from 4x weekly to 3x weekly and Amritsar-Birmingham remains reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly until 31 August; to operate 3x weekly, effective September 1. The flight between Delhi-Birmingham remains reduced from 3x weekly to 2x weekly. North American destinations such as Washington, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, New York (JFK and Newark) remain reduced, with frequencies ranging from 3 to 7 flights per week. The flights between Delhi-Melbourne and Delhi-Sydney continue at 5x weekly. The four international routes remain suspended until September 30, which includes flights between Amritsar-London (Gatwick), Goa (Mopa)-London (Gatwick), Bengaluru-Singapore and Pune-Singapore. Air India stated that it is proactively contacting affected passengers to offer rebooking options or full refunds. 'As the schedule reductions taken as part of the Safety Pause had been implemented until 31 July 2025 and the restoration to full operation is being phased, some services initially planned to operate between 1 August and 30 September 2025 will be removed from the schedule. Air India is proactively contacting affected passengers to offer re-booking on alternative flights or a full refund, as per their preference. Air India apologizes for the inconvenience', the airline said in a statement. Despite the temporary cuts, Air India will operate more than 525 international flights per week across 63 destinations during the phased restoration period. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, lambasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "destroying" Hindu Bengalis. Adhikari on Tuesday claimed that while the BJP is protesting against the presence of Rohingyas, the West Bengal Chief Minister is "protecting" them. "Mamata Banerjee is holding a protest tomorrow in support of Rohingyas. We will be protesting against the Rohingyas. Whatever Mamata Banerjee is doing is to protect the Rohingya Muslims. Mamata Banerjee is destroying the Hindu Bengalis," West Bengal LoP said. This statement came against the backdrop of the BJP's ongoing accusations that the TMC is supportive of the Rohingyas in the state. Earlier on Sunday, Union Minister and BJP leader Sukanta Majumdar slammed West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee over her claims of exploitation of the Bengali community under the BJP-ruled states, stating that the "Hindus" of West Bengal are uniting to remove the "pro-Pakistan" government in the state. Speaking to ANI, Sukanta Majumdar mentioned that whenever Mamata Banerjee faces a dilemma, she "resorts" to chanting the "Bengali" mantra. "Whenever Mamata Banerjee faces a dilemma, she resorts to chanting the Bengali mantra... The Hindus of Bengal are uniting to vote against Mamata Banerjee and remove the pro-Pakistani government to bring a pro-Hindu government," Sukanta Majumdar told ANI. The BJP leader asked if Mamata Banerjee truly cared about the Bengali people, then she would have sent so many "non-Bengali" people to become MPs in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. "If Mamata Banerjee truly cared about the interests of Bengal's people, she would not have sent so many non-Bengali people from West Bengal to become MPs in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Mamata Banerjee has kicked Bengalis in the stomach by making these non-Bengali people MPs and reducing the number of Bengali MPs in Delhi," Majumdar told ANI. Majumdar alleged that Mamata Banerjee and her party want to "forcibly" grant citizenship to Bangladeshi people so that TMC remains in power in the state. "Mamata Banerjee and her party's effort is to forcibly grant citizenship to Bangladeshi people, thereby altering Bengal's demographics to keep the TMC government in power in Bengal... Mamata Banerjee and her party are trying to ensure that a Muslim becomes Bengal CM in the coming years," Majumdar said. Meanwhile, on July 12, the Trinamool Congress took out a protest march against the National Register of Citizens (NRC). It condemned the alleged harassment of migrant Bengali-speaking individuals from several BJP-ruled states and branded them as "Bangladeshis". (ANI) The Bangladeshi migrants, identified as Shahadatt and Mohammad Anwar, were detained after police conducted a raid in the area upon receiving input regarding the roaming of illegal migrants in the area. During the interrogation, both of them disclosed that they had illegally migrated from Bangladesh. According to the police, the Bangladeshi nationals were then produced at the office of FRRO, R.K. Puram and after necessary documentation, they were detained at the Centre at Vijay Vihar, Rohini, Delhi They have been deported as per the procedure, police added. Delhi Police have been conducting random verification drives in certain areas like slums, labour camps, and unauthorised colonies where illegal migrants are likely to be present. These drives involve checking the documents of people, especially in high-density areas where migrant labourers live. Last month, the South District Police of Delhi deported a total of 134 Bangladeshi nationals, including 38 women and 43 children, following 14 intensive enforcement drives conducted between December 27, 2024 and June 10, 2025. (ANI) The Congress on Wednesday is scheduled to hold a series of meetings in Assam's Guwahati, including its Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting, which wil be attended by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi. Along with this, Kharge and Gandhi will also attend the meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office bearers, MPs, and MLAs, as well as the Congress Workers' meeting. Rahul Gandhi has already left his Delhi residence for the same. Earlier on Tuesday, Kharge called on Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and held a "fruitful" conversation regarding the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament. In a post on X, Kharge reiterated that the Opposition wants a "productive" Rajya Sabha session and emphasised that several issues of great public concern need to be debated and discussed. "The Opposition wants a productive Rajya Sabha session from July 21st. For that to happen a number of strategic, political, foreign policy and socio-economic issues that are of great public concern need to be debated and discussed. Today, I called on the Hon'ble Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and had a fruitful conversation," Kharge said. The Monsoon Session of Parliament is set to be held from July 21 to August 21. There will be no Parliament sittings on August 13 and 14 due to Independence Day celebrations. Earlier, the top leadership of the BJP held a meeting at the party president JP Nadda's residence in the national capital. Many other BJP Union Ministers, including Amit Shah, were also present at the meeting. The Central government will convene an all-party meeting on July 19, ahead of the Monsoon Session 2025, said Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju earlier. Rijiju said, "The central government called an all-party meeting on July 19 regarding the monsoon session of Parliament. The monsoon session of Parliament is starting from July 21 and will run till August 21."There will be no Parliament sittings on August 13 and 14 due to Independence Day celebrations. Announcing the Monsoon Session, Rijiju wrote on X, "The Hon'ble President of India has approved the proposal of the Government to convene the Monsoon Session of Parliament from 21st July to 21st August, 2025. In view of the Independence Day celebrations, there will be no sittings on the 13th and 14th of August." The upcoming Monsoon session will be the first Parliament session following Operation Sindoor, which was launched by India on May 7 in response to a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam, which claimed 26 lives. (ANI) According to officials, fire tenders and police teams were dispatched to the premises of St. Thomas School and Vasant Valley School after they received bomb threats via email. The Fire Department stated that nothing suspicious has been found so far, and the investigation is ongoing. Earlier, St. Stephen's College at Delhi University also received a bomb threat. The email claimed that a bomb had been planted in the library, officials said. Both locations were evacuated, and the Delhi Police Bomb Squad, Dog Squad, Delhi Fire Brigade team, and Special Staff team are on the spot. It was cordoned off, and a thorough AS check is being conducted. So far, nothing suspicious has been found, according to the Delhi Police. The Delhi Police further stated that no other college has provided them with any such information to date. On Monday, two schools in Chanakyapuri and the Dwarka area of Delhi also received bomb threats via the Delhi Police's mail. No explosives were found in the combing operation. The police stated that there were anti-Tamil Nadu government messages in the email sent to Chanakyapuri School. The police added that they are investigating the threats. (ANI) Bengaluru City Police have arrested three individuals, including two lecturers, after they were accused of allegedly raping a student and blackmailing the victim with videos. The accused have been identified as Narendra, Sandeep, and their friend Anup. The victim's parents reported the matter to the Karnataka State Women's Commission, following which a case was registered at the Marathahalli Police Station. An investigation is currently underway as per the directive of the Commission, officials said. In a separate case, on July 2, police arrested an employee of a private company in Bengaluru for allegedly recording a video of a female colleague while she was in the toilet. The Electronic City Police arrested the accused after discovering that he had been secretly filming the female employee. The accused has been identified as Swapnil Nagesh Mali, a 28-year-old technical analyst from Andhra Pradesh. According to police, he was caught while trying to record the woman by standing on the commode of an adjacent toilet. The act was noticed when his phone's reflection appeared on the opposite door. Speaking to ANI, South East Division DCP Sarah Fathima said, "We registered the case yesterday and already arrested the accused, who was working as a technical analyst. We have recovered the mobile phone and are sending it for forensic examination." Sources said that HR staff from the company intervened after discovering the video. Over 30 such videos of women were found on the accused's phone. However, instead of taking strict action, the company allegedly asked the employee to apologise. After the female employee's husband became aware of the incident, he expressed his anger towards Infosys and filed a complaint at the Electronic City Police Station. Based on the complaint, police arrested the accused on Wednesday. The accused is employed as a Senior Associate Consultant in a specific department of the private firm. (ANI) Press Release July 16, 2025 PANGILINAN SEEKS SENATE PROBE ON COMMERCIAL FISHING ENCROACHMENT IN MUNICIPAL WATERS A Senate inquiry has been proposed to investigate the impact of commercial fishing within the country's 15-kilometer municipal waters, amid mounting concerns over its effect on small-scale fishers, marine biodiversity, and national food security. The proposed probe, formalized through a resolution filed on July 8, seeks to determine whether the recent Supreme Court ruling that allowed commercial vessels to operate in shallow coastal waters has compromised the livelihood of millions of Filipinos who depend on these areas for their daily catch. The resolution also questions the scientific basis--if any--behind the 15-kilometer boundary and the 12.8-meter depth restriction, urging the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform to explore possible legislative interventions to protect municipal waters and uphold the rights of small fishers. Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, who filed the resolution, warned that continued encroachment by commercial vessels into municipal fishing grounds could "starve small fishers of their livelihood" and accelerate the collapse of critical fish populations such as sardines and anchovies. "This is about more than boundaries," Pangilinan said. "It's about protecting the very communities who have long been the stewards of our seas--and ensuring that our oceans remain a source of life and livelihood, not a battleground for survival." The controversy stems from a petition filed by Mercidar Fishing Corp. on October 25, 2023, challenging restrictions on commercial fishing in municipal waters. On December 11, the Malabon Regional Trial Court ruled in favor of the petitioner, saying the 15-kilometer boundary was a political designation without scientific merit. The Supreme Court's First Division upheld the RTC ruling on August 19, 2024, citing procedural lapses by the Office of the Solicitor General, which represented the Department of Agriculture in appealing the case. While legal efforts to overturn the ruling continue, small fisherfolk are already bearing the brunt. Pangilinan's resolution cited studies indicating that if the decision stands, municipal fishers could lose access to 98% of their traditional fishing grounds, leaving them with only 2%. Recent data supports fears of a looming crisis: municipal fisheries production dropped by 8.8%, from 879,960 metric tons in 2023 to 802,770 in 2024. In contrast, commercial fishing output rose by 4.2%, reaching 857,330 metric tons. "Experts and advocates warn that unregulated access by commercial fleets will lead to overfishing, bycatch, and habitat destruction," the resolution said. "The risk to food security, coastal livelihoods, and biodiversity is too great to ignore." The inquiry aims to explore legislative and policy solutions that balance the sustainable use of marine resources with the protection of the country's most vulnerable fishing communities. Nearly ten schools and one college in the national capital have received bomb threats via email over the last three days, prompting police action and temporary closures. On Wednesday morning, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya announced it would remain closed for the day as advised by the police. According to officials, the schools that received threats include St. Thomas School in Dwarka, Vasant Valley School in Vasant Kunj, The Mother's International School in Hauz Khas, Richmond Global School in Paschim Vihar, and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya in Lodhi Estate. Following the alerts, personnel from the Delhi Police and bomb disposal squad were deployed to the school premises. Fire tenders were also sent to the affected locations. "Due to a potential bomb threat received this morning, and as advised by the police, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya will remain closed today, 16th July, 2025. A Bomb Disposal Squad is conducting a full sanitisation of the premises. We will keep you updated," the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya said in an email addressed to parents of students enrolled in the school. After prominent schools in the national capital received bomb threats, personnel from the Delhi Police and Fire Department were immediately deployed to the spots. According to officials, fire tenders and police teams were dispatched to the premises of St. Thomas School and Vasant Valley School after they received bomb threats via email. The Fire Department stated that nothing suspicious has been found so far, and the investigation is ongoing. Earlier, St. Stephen's College at the University of Delhi also received a bomb threat. The email claimed that a bomb had been planted in the library, officials said. Both locations were evacuated, and the Delhi Police Bomb Squad, Dog Squad, Delhi Fire Brigade team, and Special Staff team are on the spot. It was cordoned off, and a thorough AS check is being conducted. So far, nothing suspicious has been found, according to the Delhi Police. The Delhi Police further stated that no other college has provided them with any such information to date. On Monday, two schools in Chanakyapuri and the Dwarka area of Delhi also received bomb threats via the Delhi Police's mail. No explosives were found in the combing operation. The police stated that there were anti-Tamil Nadu government messages in the email sent to Chanakyapuri School. The police added that they are investigating the threats. (ANI) Uttarakhand Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat on Wednesday said that the state government has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to include the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana in the syllabus of 17,000 government schools. "In a meeting of the Education department with the Chief Minister, we have tasked NCERT to include Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana in the syllabus to be taught in 17,000 government schools of Uttarakhand," Rawat told ANI. He added that until the new syllabus is introduced, students will recite verses from these texts during daily prayer sessions. "Until this is implemented, verses from the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana will be included in the daily prayer meetings in schools," he further added. Earlier on July 15, NCERT released a new textbook titled Veena, which has been developed in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The book aims to connect students with India's scientific achievements as well as its civilisational heritage. One of the chapters, Ganga ki Kahani, follows the journey of the Ganga from Gomukh to Gangasagar, covering cities such as Haridwar, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Patna, Kanpur, and Kolkata. It blends geography with cultural, spiritual, and economic insights, featuring stories of ashrams, sadhus, and the Kumbh Mela. Another chapter, AI, introduces students to Artificial Intelligence, explaining how machines learn and solve problems like humans. It is designed to encourage scientific thinking in middle school students. The Gaganyaan chapter highlights India's human spaceflight mission, describing ISRO's ambitions and the role of the humanoid robot Vyommitra. Moral and civic values are also featured. The chapter Nyay Ki Kursi explores the ideas of justice and fairness using historical figures like Raja Bhoj and Vikramaditya, while Haathi aur Cheenti teaches road safety through an animal story. Other topics in the book include Kaziranga National Park, Ajanta and Ellora caves, natural colour making, and Paralympic champion Murlikant Petkar. NCERT has started rolling out the updated textbooks for several classes. While some books have already been released, others are expected by the end of the year. (ANI) According to the police, the incident happened when Shivaprakash was standing outside his house. A group of men arrived in a car and attacked him with sharp weapons, killing him on the spot. Ramesh Banoth, Joint Commissioner of Police, East Division, Bengaluru, said, "Shiv Prakash was 40 years old, and there was a history of crimes against him. He was also a history sheeter. As per preliminary information, we came to know that a few people in the car came and totally murdered him." The case has been registered at Bharathi Nagar Police Station, and an investigation is underway, the official added. In a separate incident, Bengaluru City Police have arrested three individuals, including two lecturers, after they were accused of allegedly raping a student and blackmailing the victim with videos. The accused have been identified as Narendra, Sandeep, and their friend Anup. The victim's parents reported the matter to the Karnataka State Women's Commission, following which a case was registered at the Marathahalli Police Station. An investigation is currently underway as per the directive of the Commission, officials said. (ANI) Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru on Wednesday flagged off buses from the new bus terminus of Kalaignar Dr M. Karunanidhi Integrated Bus Terminal in Trichy. The fully air-conditioned bus terminus became operational in Trichy recently. Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration Minister KN Nehru asserted that all essential amenities have been provided at the bus terminal, assuring that no extra fare will be charged for the new facilities. "All essential amenities have been provided at the bus terminal. No extra fare will be charged for travel to and from the new facility. The existing Central and Chathiram bus stands will continue to operate, with city buses connecting them to Panjappur. City and suburban buses will operate between Central and Panjappur terminals without fare revision. Space has also been allocated for omnibuses at the new terminal, which is now operational along with the other two,' Nehru told mediapersons. Earlier on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Deputy CM Udhayanidhi Stalin visited his Chepauk-Triplicane constituency and stressed that the government's services must reach people's homes as announced in the Ungaludan Stalin (Stalin with you) scheme. Under this scheme, 10,000 special camps are set to begin across Tamil Nadu. "In our #ChepaukTriplicane constituency, in the Triplicane area, at Pillaiyar Koil Street, we launched the camp and received petitions from the public. We reviewed the functioning of the camp and engaged in discussions with the public," he said in a post on X. Starting with new applications under the Kalaignar Women's Rights Scheme, several essential services are being provided through these camps, he said. "We were delighted to see the public attending these camps in large numbers, showing confidence in our government. May these camps, launched with the goal of resolving issues within 45 days, succeed! May the people's hearts be filled with joy!" He said that as long as the DMK-led alliance stands united, no "Delhi force" can succeed in the State. He was speaking after launching the Ungaludan Stalin (Stalin with you) programme in Chidambaram in Cuddalore district. "I firmly believe that as long as we (the DMK alliance) stand united, no Delhi force can succeed here (in Tamil Nadu)," Stalin said, in an apparent reference to the BJP's effort to become a potent political force in the State. (ANI) Andhra Pradesh Education Minister Nara Lokesh looked to seize the opportunity after the Karnataka government withdrew the plan to acquire land for an aerospace park in Bengaluru. Pitching to Aerospace industry, Lokesh said that Andhra Pradesh has an attractive aerospace policy with "best-in-class incentives" and over "8000 acres of ready-to-use land" "Dear Aerospace industry, sorry to hear about this. I have a better idea for you. Why don't you look at Andhra Pradesh instead? We have an attractive aerospace policy for you, with best-in-class incentives and over 8000 acres of ready-to-use land (just outside Bengaluru)! Hope to see you soon to talk across the table," Nara Lokesh said in a post on X. https://x.com/naralokesh/status/1945124867550105985 This comes as the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the land acquisition of 1,777 acres of farmland in Devanahalli taluk, near the Kempegowda International Airport, for a proposed aerospace park. This marks a major victory for farmers who had been protesting against the land acquisition. In a post on X, Siddaramaiah announced, "In keeping with our commitment to protect farmers' interests and safeguard fertile agricultural land, the Government of Karnataka has decided to completely withdraw the land acquisition process in Channarayapatna and other villages of Devanahalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural District." Siddaramaiah said that the government had decided to acquire the land for aerospace hub but decided to go against that decision after farmers expressed their concerns. "The land identified for acquisition is highly fertile and central to the livelihoods of the local farming community. The Government, after extensive consultation with stakeholders, recognised the depth of their concerns and the significance of agricultural sustainability in the area," Siddaramaiah said. Siddaramaiah said that the government will only acquire land of those willing farmers and provide them enhanced compensation. "While a few farmers had voluntarily expressed willingness to part with their land, the Government has decided to acquire land only from those who willingly offer it. Such individuals will receive enhanced compensation, including larger developed plots and rates above the official guideline value. Farmers who wish to continue agricultural activity may do so without any restriction," Karnataka CM said. "While industrial growth remains vital, the Government prioritises inclusive development. In this spirit, and with full regard for the welfare of farmers and landowners, we have formally withdrawn the land acquisition process in the region," he added. (ANI) Delhi Minister Kapil Mishra on Wednesday inspected entry gates at 17 places in the city for the welcome of Kanwariyas Speaking to ANI, Mishra stated that the Chief Minister Rekha Gupta would welcome the Kanwariyas arrive at the border of Delhi on July 20, further stating that the gates were named after the 12 Jyotirlingas and Lord Shiva. "The Delhi government is ready to welcome the Kanwariyas... These gates have been built at 17 places and are named after the 12 Jyotirlingas and Lord Shiva... The Chief Minister will welcome the Kanwariyas in Delhi on July 20... Last time, 170 camps were set up in Delhi, while this time there are 374 camps, which demonstrates that the Chief Minister's plans have been widely accepted," Mishra told ANI He further stated that proper arrangements had been made by the traffic police, Public Works Department (PWD) and other volunteers. "The government is already welcoming the Kanwariyas. Proper provisions have been made for traffic and by the municipal corporation, PWD, civil defence, volunteers, medical staff, water and sanitation workers. This year, 374 camps have been organised in the city, which also shows that the people have welcomed the plans of the Chief Minister..." he further added. Earlier in the day, Kanwad Yatris from Gurgaon in a remarkable journey, carried a massive 800-1,000 kg golden Shiva Kanwad on wheels during the ongoing Kanwar Yatra. The intricately designed Kanwad, crafted in Sonipat, is carrying approximately 40 litres of sacred Gangajal, drawing admiration from onlookers along the route. Sonu Rana, one of the Kanwariyas, shared, "This is a unique Kanwad, made in Sonipat, weighing around 800-1,000 kgs and holding about 40 litres of Gangajal. People are appreciating its grandeur. We will cover nearly 250 kilometres with it, showcasing our devotion to Lord Shiva." The Kanwar Yatra began on July 10. During the annual pilgrimage, Kanwariyas collect holy water from rivers and carry it over hundreds of kilometres to offer it at Lord Shiva temples. Devotees across the country observe fasts, perform rituals, and undertake the Yatra as a mark of devotion. (ANI) The Union Jal Shakti Minister, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu will be attending a meeting on water issues being facilitated by the Centre on Wednesday. The meeting is initiated by the Union Jal Shakti Minister, C R Patil. The meeting, scheduled for 2.30 pm, holds significance against the backdrop of renewed tensions between the two states over water sharing, particularly following Andhra Pradesh's announcement of the Polavaram-Banakacherla project.. Both the Chief Ministers have previously expressed their willingness to resolve the issue through dialogue. Earlier on Wednesday, Telangana Irrigation, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Capt. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy said the Congress government in Telangana would persist with its legal, technical, and administrative battle to reclaim the state's rightful share of Krishna river waters. He accused the previous BRS regime of betraying Telangana's long-term interests by compromising with Andhra Pradesh, allowing large-scale water diversion, engineering failures, and financial mismanagement. According to a statement, the Minister delivered two detailed PowerPoint presentations at Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan - one on the illegal diversion of Krishna River waters to Andhra Pradesh and the other on the disastrous consequences of relocating the originally sanctioned Dr B.R. Ambedkar Pranahita-Chevella Sujala Sravanthi (PCSS) project to Medigadda under the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme. The first presentation highlighted how the BRS regime, during its 10-year rule from 2014 to 2023, failed to protect Telangana's entitlement to Krishna waters and even facilitated illegal infrastructure development by Andhra Pradesh to divert water from the Srisailam reservoir. Uttam Kumar Reddy said Andhra Pradesh's diversion of Krishna water to outside-basin areas surged from 245.3 TMC between 2004-05 and 2014 to 1,192.44 TMC between 2014-15 and 2023-24, due to the expansion of the Muchumarri Lift Irrigation Scheme and the creation of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme (RLIS). "These projects enhanced AP's drawal capacity from the Srisailam reservoir to 11 TMC per day." He pointed out that these works were undertaken without Central Water Commission (CWC) clearance or Apex Council approval, in clear violation of the AP Reorganisation Act. Despite being fully aware, the BRS government failed to raise objections with the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) or the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, thus compromising Telangana's rightful share. He stated that the previous Telangana government accepted unjust water-sharing ratios, initially agreeing to a 299:512 TMC formula in 2015 and later to a 34:66 ratio in 2017-18, which remained in effect until 2020. He alleged that the BRS government even wrote to KRMB stating that the 34:66 formula should continue "since no other basis exists". He referred to a letter written by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy to the Union Jal Shakti Minister on March 3, 2025, demanding a reversal of the unfair ratio and reinforcing Telangana's demand for a 71% share - 575 TMC out of the 811 TMC originally allotted to undivided Andhra Pradesh, based on basin parameters like catchment area, population, drought-prone area, and cultivable land. Final arguments under Section 3 of the ISRWD Act, 1956, are underway before the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal-II (KWDT-II), and the Congress government has decided to back its claims with strong technical and legal evidence. (ANI) Karnataka Minister Santosh Lad on Wednesday assured that the state government will "find a solution" to the land acquisition issue near Bengaluru airport for an aerospace park after Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh made a pitch to Aerospace industries to shift the project to his state. When asked about Nara Lokesh's tweet, Santosh Lad said, "You should ask why he ( Nara Lokesh) tweeted now." Santosh Lad said that the government has asked famers to voluntarily give their land and clarified that the project isn't scrapped. "For the last 5 decades, we have been in the number one position in GDP. We will find a solution. The farmers had a strong opinion that this land should not be given to anyone else. We have asked farmers to voluntarily give us their land. It doesn't mean the project is scrapped," he said. Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara, when asked about Nara Lokesh's post said, "Andhra Pradesh is providing opportunities for the aerospace industry." Meanwhile, Nara Lokesh seized the opportunity after the Karnataka government withdrew the plan to acquire land for an aerospace park in Bengaluru. Pitching to Aerospace industry, Lokesh said that Andhra Pradesh has an attractive aerospace policy with "best-in-class incentives" and over "8000 acres of ready-to-use land" "Dear Aerospace industry, sorry to hear about this. I have a better idea for you. Why don't you look at Andhra Pradesh instead? We have an attractive aerospace policy for you, with best-in-class incentives and over 8000 acres of ready-to-use land (just outside Bengaluru)! Hope to see you soon to talk across the table," Nara Lokesh said in a post on X. This comes as the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the land acquisition of 1,777 acres of farmland in Devanahalli taluk, near the Kempegowda International Airport, for a proposed aerospace park. This marks a major victory for farmers who had been protesting against the land acquisition. In a post on X, Siddaramaiah announced, "In keeping with our commitment to protect farmers' interests and safeguard fertile agricultural land, the Government of Karnataka has decided to completely withdraw the land acquisition process in Channarayapatna and other villages of Devanahalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural District." (ANI) Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday morning arrived in Guwahati ahead of the party's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) meeting. They were received by Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi at the Guwahati airport. Both leaders will also attend the meeting of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) office bearers, MPs, and MLAs, as well as the Congress Workers' meeting. Speaking to ANI, Gogoi asserted that Congress in Assam will fight for justice for all people who were living under "a regime of fear and terror" and were facing persecution by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government here. "The message is very clear that the Congress party in Assam will fight for the justice of all the people of Assam who are living under a regime of fear and terror. We will fight for the dignity of all people who are currently facing persecution by this corrupt and cruel BJP government. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will send a message that there is no need to fear," Gogoi said. Accusing the Himanta Biswa Sarma government of "grabbing land of the poor", the Assam Congress president claimed that the Chief Minister has donated close to 17,000 acres of land to industrialists from outside without consulting the locals. "The CM and his colleagues are grabbing the land of the poor people. The CM of Assam is acting like a real estate broker and has donated close to 17,000 acres of land to outside industrialists without taking the local people into confidence. They are displacing the tribals, minorities, and the Congress party will fight for the self-respect, dignity and land rights of people of Assam," Gogoi added. Earlier on Tuesday, Sarma informed that a total of 1,19,548 bighas of land have been freed from encroachers in the ongoing eviction drive in the state. The Assam CM said, "After we formed the government, so far 84,743 bighas of land in forest and national park areas have been freed from encroachers. A total of 1,19,548 bighas of land have been freed from encroachers." He also accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) of portraying his government's firm stance against illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims as anti-Bengali. He said the alleged attempt is nothing but a desperate ploy to shield Muslim infiltrators from the neighbouring country. (ANI) "Fire broke out in a G+4 upper floor building at Flat No. 201, Aijaz Residency, Moghalpura. Fortunately, the prompt response of the fire Station Moghalpura Crew led by Leading Fireman SM Hasan, saved five people trapped on the upper floors," officials said. As per officials, the fire occurred due to a short circuit in the switchboard, bed and TV. The rescued individuals' names include Syed Abdul Kareem Sajid (55, physically handicapped) and Atiya Begum (47), Farheen Begum (27), Syed Imam Jafar (19) and Mohammed Rizwan Uddin (38). According to the fire officials, the fire control team arrived at the scene with a robot and two fire tenders, and no casualties were reported. The fire has been doused. Almost a week back, a fire broke out at Tirupati Tyre Works on early Thursday morning at 4:30 AM, a Hyderabad fire official stated. No casualties were reported in the fire incident. Three fire tenders were deployed to the spot after the blaze and successfully controlled the fire, the official stated. (ANI) New Wave of Violence Against Syria's Christians Children praying in Eastern Ghouta, Syria. A series of Christian communities in Syria have come under violent attack, according to fresh reports received by a leading Catholic charity. Several local sources told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that yesterday (15th July) the faithful were targeted in the village of Al-Soura Al-Kabira, in the Suwayda Governorate of southern Syria. According to the reports, 38 homes belonging to Christian families were destroyed by fire, leaving them homeless. Around 70 people took refuge in the church hall in Shahba. One source told ACN: "This community has lost everything. They had very little to begin with -- they were already among the poorest in the region -- and now they have nothing left." St Michael's Melkite Greek-Catholic Church was also attacked and torched by unknown assailants. The full extent of the damage has not yet been confirmed, as access to the area is currently impossible. But images on social media seem to confirm the attack. There are also reports that the neighboring village of Al-Mazraa came under fire, although details remain unclear. The attackers have not been identified, but the violence is believed to be linked to sectarian tensions and extremist activity. In a separate incident in Al-Kharibat village, Tartous Governorate, western Syria, security forces worked with locals to thwart the attempted bombing of Mar Elias Maronite Church. At midnight on Sunday, 13th July, an old Lada loaded with explosives and weapons, was discovered near the church. The terrorists were captured in an ambush. These incidents come less than a month after the suicide bombing of St Elias Orthodox Church in Damascus' Dweil'a, neighbourhood on 22nd June, which left at least 30 people dead and 54 injured. ACN is supporting Christian communities in Syria through emergency and pastoral aid programmes. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took a jibe at the Maharashtra government on the launch of the Tesla showroom in Mumbai. In a post on X, the Sena UBT faction leader questioned the presence of the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the launch event of the showroom. "And for Maharashtra CM to inaugurate a car showroom/dealer store makes it more cringe. What are we celebrating? Entry of a glorified, highly taxed EV vehicle that is made in China? How is it contributing to India's innovation industry? The white man complex is real," Sena MP wrote on X. In an earlier post, Chaturvedi said that customers will pay more for a made-in-China car, and the government is claiming it as some "great breakthrough". "India was aiming to bring the manufacturing of Tesla cars to the country for the domestic market; however, we have been made to believe we should be happy with a first showroom with made-in-China imported cars. Whatever duty is levied, truth is customer pays more for a made in China car and leaders in power make it sound like some great breakthrough," the post read. Earlier on July 15, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray claimed that if the Centre had not debated on customs duties, the Tesla showroom in Mumbai would have opened in 2021. Speaking to reporters, Thackeray said, "It's a good thing that an electric car showroom is being opened. If the central government had not debated the customs duty, then the showroom would have opened in 2021 only."He added that it is due to the policy for electric vehicles (EVs) made by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in 2021 that the EV companies are coming to Maharashtra."The EV policy that we made gives EVs major support in Maharashtra, and due to this, many companies are coming here," Aaditya Thackeray said. Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the 'Tesla Experience Centre in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), Mumbai and welcomed Tesla's arrival to India. The Chief Minister said, "I welcome Tesla here in Mumbai. Tesla has opened an experience centre here, and it is a statement that Tesla has arrived, and it's a statement they Tesla has arrived in the right city and right state." "It is a matter of great joy for us that Tesla has launched its first experience in India in Mumbai. Tesla is establishing a logistics and servicing system here. Four big charging stations are also being established by them. I am happy that Tesla chose Maharashtra as the state has become a leader in electric mobility. Tesla is launching its Model Y in India. Maharashtra has the most dynamic electric mobility policy. I believe Maharashtra will be a preferred destination when they decide to do manufacturing in India," he added. (ANI) Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday criticised the decision of the Election Commission to determine citizenship of Indian nationals, accusing them of doing "NRC through back door" over the poll-body's decision to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the Bihar Assembly election and stated that the constitutional rights of voters were being snatched. He further questioned why the exercise was being conducted four to five months before the Bihar assembly polls, further stating that there was an atmosphere of fear in Bihar. "The constitutional rights of the voters are being snatched...The matter is pending before the Supreme Court...It is not the responsibility of the Election Commission to prove citizenship. Why is this exercise being conducted four to five months before the assembly polls?... There is an atmosphere of fear in Bihar..." Ramesh told ANI. Earlier on July 15, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi has questioned the authority of the Election Commission of India to determine citizenship of Indian nationals, accusing them of doing "NRC through back door" over the poll-body's decision to Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls ahead of the Bihar Assembly election. Speaking with ANI, Owaisi said. "Who gave the ECI the power to determine whether someone is a citizen or not? Our party was the first to say that SIR is NRC through the back door. "Owaisi also questioned the result of the last SIR conducted in Bihar in 2003"We demand the number of those BLOs. We will ask our party members to meet those BLOs and ask them where the people from Nepal, Myanmar and Bangladesh are that they are talking about... The SIR was conducted in 2003. How many foreign nationals were revealed at that time?" Owaisi continued his verbal tirade not just on the ruling alliance and ECI but also on the INDIA bloc by ruling out the possibility of joining the alliance and accusing it of suppressing the new leaders. "One-sided love is not going to happen. The people of Bihar should understand that the accusations that were made against us were based on lies and were made because they do not want a leader of the poor and oppressed people to become their political leadership," Owaisi said while speaking to ANI. "They just want you to remain their slaves, to walk behind them with your head bowed," Owaisi added. (ANI) Delhi Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president Saurabh Bharadwaj on Wednesday lashed out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the delay in providing monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 for women in the national capital, while calling out the revised ceilings for purchasing mobile phones. "The BJP, which used to make big promises, has passed an order in the cabinet to give one lakh rupees per month to MLAs for hiring four data entry operators as soon as their government was formed. Two days ago, an order was also issued for a phone worth 1.5/1.25 lakh and an unlimited bill for the CM and ministers," Bharadwaj posted on X. Intensifying his attack against the Rekha Gupta government in Delhi, the AAP leader accused the state government of delaying the promises made to women for financial assistance during the assembly elections. "A committee was formed to give Rs 2,500 to women. March 8 has passed, they're playing the committee-committee game - not a single woman has been given Rs 2,500," Bharadwaj said. Taking a jibe, he added that the BJP government should have formed a committee for their phones as well. His remarks follow the Delhi government's revision of ceilings for the cost of mobile handsets, at Rs 1.5 lakh for the Chief Minister and Rs 1.25 lakh for ministers. It also revised ceilings for the monthly mobile call charges. "The mobile handset will not ordinarily be replaced within a period of two years from the date of its purchase. However, if at any point in time, the probable cost of repairs exceeds 50 per cent of the total initial cost of the mobile instrument, such replacement may be allowed on a case-by-case basis," the office memorandum issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) read. (ANI) State BJP President Samik Bhattacharya on Wednesday criticised the TMC-led West Bengal government, accusing it of compromising internal security. Bhattacharya further pointed out that a silent demographic invasion is on in the state, asserting that the common people of the state do not want Rohingya to cast their votes in the polls. "The internal security of West Bengal is being compromised. We are living in a state, having more than 2200 porous borders with Bangladesh, and the situation in Bangladesh is vulnerable right now. A silent demographic invasion is on... The public of West Bengal wants that there should be no name of any Rohingya or Bangladeshi Muslim in the voter list. We will welcome whatever step is taken by the Election Commission. We have also identified 13 lakh voters and submitted it to the Election Commission," he said. He further vowed to protest against the West Bengal government over illegal sand mining. "The TMC government has cut all the trees in North Bengal, as Illegal sand mining is happening there. We will stage a protest against it," the West Bengal Chief said. He called the death of a student of Balasore Fakir Mohan Autonomous College, who self-immolated herself in protest over sexual harassment by her teacher, an unfortunate incident. "It is a very unfortunate incident... The police have taken action and arrested the accused. The state government should answer the West Bengal SSC teachers' protest," the BJP leader said. Earlier on Tuesday, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, lambasted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "destroying" Hindu Bengalis. Adhikari on Tuesday claimed that while the BJP is protesting against the presence of Rohingyas, the West Bengal Chief Minister is "protecting" them. "Mamata Banerjee is holding a protest tomorrow in support of Rohingyas. We will be protesting against the Rohingyas. Whatever Mamata Banerjee is doing is to protect the Rohingya Muslims. Mamata Banerjee is destroying the Hindu Bengalis," West Bengal LoP said. (ANI) The Bihar police has suspended a station house officer (SHO) from Gandhi Maidan in connection with the Gopal Khemka murder case, an official said on Wednesday. According to Inspector General of Police (IG) Jitendra Rana, Gandhi Maidan SHO Rajesh Kumar was suspended for negligence of duty in the Khemkha murder case. Pointing out the murder of a BJP leader in Patna, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday launched a scathing attack against the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar. He asked whether "anyone in the NDA government is willing to listen to the truth or admit their mistakes." "And now, a BJP leader shot dead in Patna! What to say, and to whom? Is there anyone in the NDA government willing to listen to the truth or admit their mistakes?" Tejashwi Yadav posted on X. "Everyone knows about the CM's health, but what are the two useless BJP deputy chief ministers doing? No statement from the corrupt Bhunja-DK party?" he added. Gopal Khemka, a businessman, was shot dead outside his home in Patna earlier this month. He had previously requested police protection for his family. Days after Khemka was shot dead, another man was killed in Patna's Ram Krishna Nagar area after being shot by an unidentified assailant. The victim, Vikram Jha, succumbed to his injuries while being taken to the hospital. According to police, Jha was shot by a person who arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire. A murder case has been registered, and an investigation is underway. Jha, originally from Darbhanga district, had been living in Patna for a year and ran a grocery store. He lived with his family on the first floor of the same building. Speaking to the media, SP Patna East Parichay Kumar said, "Vikram Jha, a resident under PS Ram Krishna Nagar limits, was shot at some time ago. When he was being taken to the hospital, he died. As soon as we received the information, the DSP and I arrived at the crime scene. On analysing the CCTV footage, we found that the deceased owned a grocery store, and a person came on a motorbike and shot him. There seems to be no evidence of robbery in the store." The official said that the motive behind the murder is still unclear. "We are trying to find out the cause of the murder. The local police station said there were no previous complaints made by the deceased, so we are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder... The victim is basically from Darbhanga, and he rented a shop here one year ago and lived with his family on the first floor. FSL team is investigating the case..." he added. (ANI) CPI General Secretary D Raja on Wednesday condemned the death incident of a student of Balasore Fakir Mohan Autonomous College, who self-immolated herself in protest over alleged sexual harassment by her teacher. Raja called the incident "institutional torture" and "murder". "Our party condemns what happened in Balasore and also is a part of the Odisha Bandh... All those who are involved should be held accountable, including the state government... What happened was an institutional torture and murder," D. Raja said. Police on Wednesday used water cannon to disperse BJD workers protesting against the Odisha government after a 20-year-old girl self-immolated because of alleged sexual harassment by her teacher. Police also detained the BJD workers who are protesting over the Balasore student's death. Odisha's main opposition party, Biju Janata Dal, took to the streets today, calling for 'Balasore Bandh' in protest against the Odisha government after a 20-year-old girl self-immolated because of alleged sexual harassment by her teacher. A BJD worker demanded the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, and Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj. The 20-year-old student set herself on fire after allegedly facing prolonged sexual harassment by her college's Head of Department. Despite lodging a formal complaint and seeking help from the principal, her pleas were ignored, leading to the tragic incident. The incident occurred at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. On Monday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar confirmed the death of the 20-year-old student from Fakir Mohan Autonomous College in Odisha's Balasore, who had attempted self-immolation. The Department of Burn Centre, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, said in a statement that the patient was brought to the casualty on July 12 and was referred from Balasore District Headquarters Hospital to AIIMS Bhubaneswar. On Uttarakhand Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat's statement, D Raja said, "NCERT is an independent organisation and it should work out the syllabus and decide on textbooks on the basis of scientific temperament, which we agree to as per the secular democracy of the country. It should not come under any pressure from the state government or any other... It should stay neutral and work out on the basis of secularism and scientific temperament to be inculcated in the minds of young students. Uttarakhand Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat on Wednesday said that the state government has asked the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to include the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana in the syllabus of 17,000 government schools. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that the issue over the release and certification of the film 'Udaipur Files' will be decided by a committee constituted by the Central government today in the afternoon. The top court said that the issue over the release and certification of the film will be decided by the committee at 2:30 pm today. The Court directed the said Central committee to decide the issue immediately and deferred the matter to be heard again on Monday before itself. "The Competent Authority (of the Central government) has taken cognisance of the revision petition over the release of the film pending before it and will be heard at 2:30 pm today, a bench led by Justice Surya Kant stated, deferring to hear the matter on merits on a later date - July 21, Monday. "Having regard to the nature of the proceedings, we expect that the committee constituted by the CG will decide the revision petition immediately without delay. Post the matter for further consideration on Monday", the Court stated in its order. The Court also permitted the accused in the matter, Mohammad Jawed, to appear before the Central committee and directed the committee to accord him a fair hearing over his inhibitions on being able to receive a fair trial in the murder case. "In this regard, we also permit Mohammad Javed, the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal Murder case, to enter an appearance before the Central government. We direct the committee to accord a hearing to the accused as well," the Court stated in its order. The counsel appearing for the producers of the film also informed the Court that the producers of the film and the son of the deceased Kanhaiya Lal are receiving death threats from certain people. Following this submission, the Court granted liberty to the said producer and the son to approach the Superintendent of Police (SP) in their respective jurisdiction seeking protection. Following this submission, the Court granted liberty to the said producer and the son to approach the Superintendent of Police (SP) in their respective jurisdiction seeking protection. The Court also directed the SP to assess the alleged threat perception and directed necessary steps to be taken to ensure no harm is done in case any merit is found on the issue. The Court was hearing a plea filed against the release of the film "Udaipur Files" by one Mohammad Javed, one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal Murder case. During the hearing today, the counsel appearing for the makers of 'Udaipur Files', Senior Advocate Gaurab Bhatia, vehemently argued that the matter be decided by the Supreme Court, as the stay on its release is causing major losses to the producers and is in violation of their fundamental right of freedom of speech and expression. The Senior counsels, Kapil Sibal and Maneka Guruswamy, appearing for the petitioners (Maulana Arshad Madni of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and an accused in the case, one Jawed, respectively challenging the release and certification of the movie, argued that the release would cause irreversible prejudice to the accused and influence his right to a fair trial. It was also argued by the petitioners that the said film has completely vilified the Muslim community and is a complete desecration of the case. "Once I saw the movie, I was shaken. If any judge were to see that, it is a complete thematic desecration of the case. It's the vilification of an entire community. Violence, homosexuality, denigration of women, and child abuse have been attributed to the community. It is unthinkable that a democratic nation will allow this movie to be certified. Senior counsel Gaurav Bhatia, on the other hand, countered by stating that there was a beheading of a person in the matter. Videos were released both before the said offence and afterwards, and were also uploaded on Facebook. He stated that none of these persons-- the Senior counsels challenging the film -- came then (in defence of the deceased victim), Bhatia asserted, questioning their presence at the Court today challenging the film's release. Bhatia stated further that radical elements have been removed from the movie, and how families (of the victim) have suffered is shown in the movie. Earlier, during the hearing,Bhatia had submitted that the filmmakers have incorporated all the 55 cuts that were directed by the CBFC. Only after those cuts, the film was certified for release, Bhatia added. After hearing the arguments from both parties, the Court postponed the hearing to Monday and directed that in the meanwhile, the matter be decided by the Central government committee immediately. (ANI) West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose called a meeting with all Vice Chancellors of colleges in the state to address the rising crime on campuses and take the needful steps to ensure the safety of women. This comes after a woman was allegedly raped on the campus of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta by a student. Speaking with ANI, Governor CV Ananda Bose said, "Elimination of violence from university campuses is of primary importance, and as Chancellor, I am aware of this. I am calling a meeting of all Vice Chancellors to ensure that campuses remain free from violence and discipline is maintained. Steps will be taken to ensure that campuses are safe for women." Meanwhile, Kolkata Police have formed a nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged rape of a woman. The SIT has been constituted under the Deputy Commissioner of the South West Division to ensure a thorough investigation into the case. On Saturday, the Alipore court remanded Mahaveer Toppannavar, also known as Parmanand Jain, to police custody till July 19 in connection with the alleged rape case. Speaking to ANI, Kolkata Police Chief Prosecutor Sourin Ghosal informed reporters that the defence had moved a bail plea, claiming the act was consensual. "We asked for police custody, and the accused asked for bail. They argued that it was consensual. We argued that no, the prima facie investigation shows that a crime was committed, and the medical evidence supports the victim. The court granted police custody till July 19," Ghosal told ANI. Meanwhile, the mother of the accused student, Mahaveer Toppannavar alias Parmanand Jain, said the family was stunned by the development and had no knowledge of the reason behind his detention. She asserted that her son, a final-year student at the prestigious institute, was innocent and incapable of committing such an act. (ANI) Residents from several affected villages, along with members of farmers' and civil rights organisations, staged a strong protest outside the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) office in Shimla on Wednesday. The protest targeted private construction companies, accusing them of failing to employ locals, denying fair compensation to affected families, carrying out illegal mining and dumping, and causing environmental and structural damage during the ongoing national highway projects in Himachal Pradesh. The protest was jointly organised by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Himachal Pradesh and the Himachal Kisan Sabha. The demonstration was led by CITU state president Vijendra Mehra, who levelled serious allegations against NHAI and the executing companies. CITU President Vijendra Mehra stated, "Around nine panchayats have been directly affected due to the widening work under the Shimla-Parwanoo four-lane highway project. Despite the industrial policy of Himachal Pradesh mandating 80 per cent employment for locals, even five per cent of the jobs have not been given to local youth." He further alleged, "As the principal employer, the NHAI cannot wash its hands off this mess. Unscientific hill-cutting, reckless dumping, illegal mining, violation of labour laws, and failure to pay due compensation--all of this is happening under its watch." He added that widespread hill collapses, house damages, and unregulated debris disposal have no formal records or accountability. "There is a deep nexus of political leaders, bureaucracy, and construction companies. Projects worth thousands of crores are being exploited. If even 1 per cent of a Rs 20,000 crore project is misused, it means Rs 200 crore has been lost to corruption," he said. Mehra further warned that if action is not taken within the next three weeks, a larger protest will be held on August 7. Chetan Garg, a farmer and protester from Pujarli village, said "We've been running to NHAI and its contractors for over two years, but have only received empty promises. Where 45-degree hill-cutting was advised, they recklessly did 90-degree cuts. There is no designated dumping site our private lands are being buried under debris." He alleged that access paths and roads have been destroyed, including an ambulance route used by a settlement of over 50 tribal and Dalit families. "Now neither can we go out, nor can emergency services reach us. When we raise these issues, we are ignored," Garg said. He also accused the companies of diverting natural water drains onto agricultural land and attempting land acquisition without consent. "Dumping is happening inside riverbeds and near our fertile land. It is damaging not only the environment but also putting our homes at risk," he added. The protestors submitted a memorandum to NHAI officials, demanding immediate action, scientific and safe construction practices, due compensation for affected families, employment for local youth, and strict environmental and labour law enforcement. (ANI) Delhi Police has detained five Bangladeshi nationals, including three men and two women, who had been staying illegally in Delhi and had recently come to Palam area of the national capital after working in brick kiln in Haryana. The team of Operations Cell, South West District apprehended the five Bangladeshi nationals. They have been identified as Akash (26), Chamili Khatun (26), and Mohd. Nahim (27), Halima Begum (40) and Mohd. Usman (13). Police said they received information on July 13 that some illegal Bangladeshi migrants are roaming in Palam Village area. Acting swiftly on the secret information, the police staff approached the suspected persons, asked their identification documents, and conducted an enquiry thoroughly. The individuals failed to produce valid documents and admitted to being illegal Bangladeshi migrants who had entered India in 2017 by illegal means, police said. They were working at brick kilns in Kosli, Rewari, Haryana. Recently, they were asked to discontinue working at their workplace and came to Delhi in search of labour work, police said. The Police have completed the verification and necessary legal formalities, and their deportation process through the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) has been initiated. Earlier in the day, Delhi police deported two Bangladeshi nationals illegally staying in the area of Dwarka District of the national capital. The Bangladeshi migrants, identified as Shahadatt and Mohammad Anwar, were detained after police conducted a raid in the area upon receiving input that illegal immigrants were roaming in the area. During the interrogation, both of them disclosed that they had illegally come from Bangladesh, the police said. According to the police, the Bangladeshi nationals were then produced at office of FRRO, R.K. Puram and after necessary documentation, they were detained at the Centre at Vijay Vihar, Rohini, Delhi They have been deported as per the procedure, police added. (ANI) The Union Cabinet on Wednesday adopted a resolution welcoming return of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla from International Space Station and said it heralds a new chapter in India's space programme and gives a golden glimpse of the country's future space programme. The resolution, which was read by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during a cabinet briefing, said that this successful mission significantly elevates India's global standing in space exploration. "It is a vital stepping stone towards India's own human spaceflight ambition, including the Gaganyaan and the Bharatiya Antariksha Station. It reaffirms India's resolve to be at the forefront of human space exploration," the resolution said. The Union Cabinet commended the Indian Space Research Organisation and the entire community of country's scientists and engineers and said their relentless efforts have made this achievement possible. The Cabinet lauded the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said his strategic foresight and guidance have enabled the country to chart new frontiers. "Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla's mission is not just a personal triumph - it is a beacon of inspiration for a new generation of young Indians. It will ignite the scientific temper, fuel curiosity, and inspire countless youth to pursue careers in science and embrace innovation," the resolution said. The Cabinet reaffirmed its firm conviction that this mission will energise the national resolve to build Viksit Bharat--a Developed India--by 2047, as envisioned by the Prime Minister. "On July 15, 2025, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla has landed back safely on earth from his space journey, representing infinite aspirations of India. This is a moment of pride, glory and joy for the entire nation. The Cabinet joins the nation in celebrating the return of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla to Earth, following the successful completion of his historic 18-day mission aboard the International Space Station," the resolution said. "Launched on June 25, 2025, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as Mission Pilot, this mission marked a watershed moment - the first time an Indian astronaut travelled to the International Space Station. It heralds a new chapter in India's space programme and gives a golden glimpse of our future space programme," it added. During his time aboard the International Space Station, Group Captain Shukla worked seamlessly with fellow members of the Axiom-4 Crew and Expedition 73, embodying India's growing leadership in international space cooperation. He conducted pioneering experiments in microgravity on subjects such as muscle regeneration, algal and microbial growth, crop viability, microbial survivability, cognitive performance in space, and the behaviour of cyanobacteria. These studies will deepen global understanding of human spaceflight and microgravity science, and provide critical inputs for India's future missions, the resolution said. "The Cabinet applauds the visionary and decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose strategic foresight, unwavering belief in India's space potential, and consistent guidance have enabled the country to chart new frontiers and emerge as a leader among spacefaring nations," the resolution said. The Cabinet also recalled with pride India's recent landmark achievements, including the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the South Pole of the Moon on August 23, 2023, a day etched in history as India's National Space Day. "Likewise, India's Aditya-L1 Mission launched in 2023 has significantly enhanced humanity's understanding of solar activity. These feats reflect the spirit of scientific excellence and national self-reliance," the resolution said. It said that through sustained reforms in the space sector, the Government has unlocked unprecedented growth in India's space economy. The emergence of around 300 new start-ups in this sector has not only led to job creation at a large scale, but also nurtured a vibrant ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology-driven development, the resolution said. (ANI) BJP National General Secretary Tarun Chugh on Wednesday slammed Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his remarks on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. Tarun Chugh, said, "Foreign Minister Jaishankar discussed the terrorist attack in Pahalgam from the SCO platform, he discussed the complete eradication of terrorism. Rahul Gandhi, himself, secretly meets the Chinese ambassador. He signs secret MoUs with China, takes money from China, and you are giving us lectures on foreign policy. If this is not shamelessness, then what is it? Rahul Gandhi's entire policy is focused on tarnishing the country's image, demoralising the army, and undermining India's foreign policy. The country has realized that Rahul Gandhi's love for China is an old affair... Under the leadership of PM Modi, the foreign policy of the country is being lauded on global stage... Today, the nation speaks with confidence in front of the world... At least Rahul Gandhi should respect facts..." Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday lambasted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for "apprising" China President Xi Jinping about India-China ties and said that he "is running a full blown circus" aimed to "destroy" country's foreign policy. The Leader of Opposition's remark came after Jaishankar called on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday and apprised him of the recent development of bilateral ties. In a post on X, Jaishankar had stated, "Called on President Xi Jinping this morning in Beijing along with my fellow SCO Foreign Ministers. Conveyed the greetings of President Droupadi Murmu & Prime Minister @narendramodi. Apprised President Xi of the recent development of our bilateral ties. Value the guidance of our leaders in that regard." EAM Jaishankar was on an official visit to China to attend the SCO Foreign Ministers Meeting. On Monday, Jaishankar held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and spoke about the need for a far-seeing approach to bilateral ties and building a stable and constructive relationship. (ANI) Under the new water policy of DJB, each operator will be responsible for water supply, sewerage network management, billing, repairs, and reducing Non-Revenue Water (NRW), an official stated. While private operators will manage zonal-level operations, the DJB will continue to oversee water sourcing, purification, and bulk distribution, in addition to monitoring the performance of the private players. The model aims to reduce water wastage, currently estimated at 50 to 52 per cent, and ensure a round-the-clock supply, a source stated. The "One Zone, One Operator" model is designed on the lines of power distribution companies, to centralise responsibilities and ensure accountability in services. The rollout will begin with the Wazirabad zone, expected to benefit around 3.16 million residents with improved water supply and sewerage services. Delhi currently has a 15,600-km-long water distribution network, of which approximately 2,800 km of pipelines are over 30 years old. At present, the DJB has only 2.9 million water connections, while the city's population exceeds 21.5 million, highlighting significant gaps in the billing system. On June 29, the Delhi Jal Board, under the leadership of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, rolled out a 45-point action plan aimed at enhancing the capital's water infrastructure, upgrading sewerage networks, increasing transparency in tanker services, and rejuvenating the heavily polluted Yamuna River. The comprehensive plan, backed by a budget of Rs 9,000 crore, is targeted for completion by next year, a senior official confirmed. The campaign is aimed at providing clean drinking water and achieving a pollution-free Yamuna. The Chief Minister is personally overseeing the efforts, with additional monitoring by Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and PWD Minister Parvesh Verma. (ANI) In a major crackdown on terror operatives and their support structures, Budgam Police on Wednesday attached three properties belonging to Pakistan-based terrorist handlers (JKNOP) located in Khag, Chewa Beerwah, and Harwani Khansahib areas of Jammu and Kashmir's (J-K) Budgam district, officials said. According to the Kashmir Police, the action was taken in the presence of concerned executive magistrates. The list of properties attached includes a double-storied residential house with premises at Village Harwani Khansahib, Budgam, under Khasra No. 763, belonging to Manzoor Ahmad Chopan, also known as Rayees, son of Gh. Mohi-ud-din Chopan, R/O Harwani Khansahib; a double-storied residential house along with 05 Kanals, 13 Marlas of land at village Chewa Budgam under Khasra No. 151 of Mohammad Yousuf Malik, also known as Molvi, S/O Ab. Rahim Malik, R/O Chewa Budgam; and a land measuring 19.5 Marlas situated at Khag under Khasra Nos. 1093 and 1094, belonging to Bilal Ahmad Wani, alias Umer, S/O Gh. Ahmad Wani, R/O Nagbal Khag. The action was carried out in connection with case FIR No. 58/2024 under Sections 7/25 of the Indian Arms Act, 18, 20, 23 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), of Police Station Khag, and under proceedings initiated under Section 25 of the UAPA for the attachment of properties used in terrorist activities. These terrorist handlers, operating from Pakistan, have been actively orchestrating and facilitating terrorist activities in the region for several years, the Kashmir police said in a release. "The attachment of their properties is a part of the ongoing efforts to dismantle the logistical, financial, and operational networks of terror outfits and their cross-border sponsors. This decisive move sends a strong message to those involved in anti-national activities that such actions will invite strict legal consequences," they said. (ANI) Amid Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh's pitch to shift the aerospace park from Karnataka, Senior Congress MLA TB Jayachandra on Wednesday said that there is 20,000 acres of land for the aerospace project in Vasantnarasapura Industrial Area of Tumkuru. MLA Jayachandra told ANI, "The government dropped the proposal after the farmers' agitation. The alternative now is Tumkuru. In Vasantnarasapura, more than 20,000 acres of land is available. I request and propose the investors to come to Tumkuru." On Nara Lokesh's pitch to invite aerospace investors to Andhra Pradesh, he said, "When the question of investment comes, Andhra, Tamil Nadu always invite (investors). Since Tumkuru has the infrastructure, an airbase and HAL, so many advantages are there if they come to Tumkuru." Earlier today, Karnataka Home Minister G Parmeshwara assured that the state will not let investors go to other states. Parmeshwara said that if the Karnataka government is unable to provide land in Devanahalli, then they will find an alternative location. "If we are not able to give land in Devanahalli, we will give it at some other place. We will definitely not let the other investors go to other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu. We will definitely convince them to invest in Karnataka," Parameshwara said. This comes after Nara Lokesh made a pitch to the Aerospace industry to shift the project to Andhra Pradesh, following the Karnataka government's withdrawal of the plan to acquire land for an aerospace park in Bengaluru. Pitching to the Aerospace industry, Lokesh said that Andhra Pradesh has an attractive aerospace policy with "best-in-class incentives" and over "8000 acres of ready-to-use land" "Dear Aerospace industry, sorry to hear about this. I have a better idea for you. Why don't you look at Andhra Pradesh instead? We have an attractive aerospace policy for you, with best-in-class incentives and over 8000 acres of ready-to-use land (just outside Bengaluru)! Hope to see you soon to talk across the table," Nara Lokesh said in a post on X. Earlier, the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the land acquisition of 1,777 acres of farmland in Devanahalli taluk, near the Kempegowda International Airport, for a proposed aerospace park. In a post on X, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced, "In keeping with our commitment to protect farmers' interests and safeguard fertile agricultural land, the Government of Karnataka has decided to completely withdraw the land acquisition process in Channarayapatna and other villages of Devanahalli taluk in Bengaluru Rural District." (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) workers staged a protest in front of the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation office on Wednesday, alleging corruption in the appointment of sanitation workers by the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The protestors demanded the resignation of Thiruvananthapuram Mayor Arya Rajendran over the alleged irregularities. Furthermore, the police deployed at the site dispersed the protestors using water cannons after they attempted to march towards the office. This demonstration comes in the wake of mounting criticism against the LDF government on multiple fronts. Earlier, on July 4, BJP workers held a protest march against Kerala Health Minister Veena George following the building collapse at the Kottayam Medical College, which resulted in the death of one person and left several others injured. The protest began in response to an incident where a building block at the Government Medical College Hospital in Kottayam district collapsed. The protest in Kottayam escalated when BJP workers reportedly breached police barricades. Police responded by deploying water cannons to control the crowd and prevent further escalation near the minister's residence. In a parallel development, workers from the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) also staged a protest outside Kottayam Medical College, demanding the resignation of Health Minister Veena George over the incident, similarly to the demands made by the other groups. Meanwhile, Minister for Ports, Cooperation, and Devaswoms, VN Vasavan, described the Kottayam Medical College building collapse as an 'unfortunate' incident and announced that the Kerala government will provide immediate financial assistance of Rs 50,000 to the affected family. He said, "CM visited the spot yesterday itself. Rs 50,000 will be given as immediate help to the family. The State Cabinet will discuss and decide on financial help to the family. Kottayam Medical College is one of the best-performing hospitals in India. The incident is unfortunate. "He further clarified that there was no lapse from the government side and added, "Did not ask to stop rescue operation, it was for making way to let the Hitachi excavator enter. Rescue was only possible with the help of a machine." "The health minister said yesterday that nobody was stuck there because the hospital superintendent told the minister that the building was not in use," he further said. Shifting the blame on the previous government of the United Democratic Front (UDF), he said, "In 2013, the PWD (Public Works Department) submitted a report about the condition of the building. Then the UDF government did not act on it." (ANI) The event was part of Indian Railways' broader initiative to honour all railway stations in the country that are over 100 years old. Through these Station Mahotsavs, the Railways aims to reconnect the public, especially the younger generation, with the deep-rooted history, architecture, and legacy of Indian rail transport. A unique "Station Festival" was organised on Wednesday at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) by the Mumbai Division of Central Railway, highlighting the rich heritage and legacy of Indian Railways. The one-day exhibition showcased rare archival documents, vintage railway models, historical models, and displays that portrayed the evolution of rail transport in India. Held within the historic CSMT premises. Swapnil Nila, Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), Central Railway, stated that the event was a significant step towards reconnecting people with the historic identity of Indian Railways. "The railways have been an integral part of India's social and economic fabric for over a century. Through this Station Festival, we wanted to remind citizens, especially the younger generation, of the legacy, innovation, and cultural significance that Indian Railways represents. Exhibiting rare documents and heritage visuals allows people to appreciate the journey we've undertaken and the future we're building upon." Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Victorian Gothic building continues to serve millions of passengers while retaining its architectural grandeur and cultural significance. The exhibition was open to the public from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM with free entry. The event is part of Central Railway's broader initiative to foster public engagement and awareness around railway heritage and culture. (ANI) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a fierce attack on the BJP and governments led by the party, accusing it of discrimination against Bengali-speaking citizens in the state. In a fiery speech, she alleged that people were being harassed based on language, identity, and political bias. She recalled the recent incidents and alleged that people from Bengal were being harassed in states like Maharashtra and Assam. "The Assam government has sent notices to Bengalis living in Bengal. What is happening?" she said, urging people to resist such divisive moves. Speaking at the rally, she expressing outrage over arrests of Bengali-speaking individuals in other states, saying, "If someone works, suddenly you arrest them and take them away. Show that document. You're taking his elderly mother, his wife, his children to jail. Did they deter him? They spoke in Bengali." She claimed that Bengalis were being punished simply for using their mother tongue. Furthermore, she accused the Election Commission and BJP of selectively removing names of Bengali voters while allowing outsiders to vote in Bengal. "With a Bangla man, three Gujarat names, two Delhi names, and four Rajasthan names are appearing. What's going on?" she questioned, claiming the BJP was trying to shift the electoral balance ahead of 2025. "They are dreaming with the numbers on the voter list," she later added. The Chief Minister, along with Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Abhishek Banerjee and several party leaders, led a massive protest march in Kolkata today, raising strong allegations of harassment against Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states. Senior ministers, MLAs, and grassroots workers participated in the demonstration, which was billed as a show of solidarity with Bengalis living outside West Bengal. In its post on X, the Trinamool Congress said, " BJP's assault on Bengali identity is no longer covert, it's brutal, deliberate, and fuelled by hate. Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee hit the streets today in fierce defiance. Every injustice will be met with resistance." Over the past few days the party has highlighted various instances claiming that Bengali speaking people were being targeted in BJP rulesd states. The party claimed that innocent Bengali migrant workers were being targeted in Double-Engine states.The part alleged that six members of the Matua community from North 24-Parganas, including minors, were illegally detained and harassed by Maharashtra Police despite possessing valid ID documents. The party also claimed that despite having valid documents and verified IDs, Bengali-speaking residents of Delhi's Jai Hind Colony were harassed, humiliated, and branded as 'illegal'. (ANI) Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut has put serious allegations of corruption amounting to 350 crore in the Ahilyanagar Municipal Corporation, naming local MLA Sangram Jagtap and accusing the state government of turning a blind eye to massive irregularities in various municipal bodies across Maharashtra. Raut claimed that in areas where the government has not conducted elections or has no intention of doing so, administrative officers have been appointed, and large-scale corruption of public funds is underway. He alleged that cities like Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Nagpur, and Mira-Bhayander are witnessing multi-crore scams, citing an instance in Mira-Bhayander where a garbage bin was purchased for 70,000 and asked if the bin has gold studded on it. He also said that city chief Kiran Kale has submitted multiple complaints to the Chief Minister and the Anti-Corruption Department regarding the corruption in Ahilyanagar. Raut added that Rs. 350 crores were spent on the construction of 776 roads in Ahilyanagar, which are nowhere to be found. He alleged that elected representatives, the administration, and contractors are collectively misusing the funds of the municipal corporation. Raut criticised Sangram Jagtap, accusing him of pretending to be a Hindutva leader by wearing a tilak and saffron attire, calling it a mere show. Raut said he has handed over a file containing proof of these scams to the Chief Minister and warned that if no action is taken, the party will not remain silent. He emphasised that the issue is related to public safety and described it as a form of "urban Naxalism" . Raut also pointed out that such corruption is not isolated to one city and is spread across 27 municipal corporations in the state. He accused the state government, led by Devendra Fadnavis, of remaining silent on such acts of corruption. Raut said that Rs. 350 crore is spent on road development, and the roads are nowhere to be found. He alleged that in collaboration with contractors, scams involving the Samruddhi Expressway, Adarsh University Highway, and materials like sand and tar have taken place. Responding to a government advertisement published in the Saamana newspaper, Raut clarified that it was a government-issued ad, not attributed to any individual minister, and stated that Narayan Rane has no personal authority over it. He reiterated that Shiv Sena (UBT)'s fight is against corrupt rulers and groups, and that the party knows how to take on the government. On being questioned about Raj Thackeray, Raut said there is no reason why one brother should not stand with another and said that Raj Thackeray is currently with them and that Uddhav Thackeray has clarified the party's position in a recent interview. He urged the media to wait for the municipal election results instead of repeatedly asking questions, and referred to Raj Thackeray's recent post on X. Raut also criticised Shambhuraj Desai for allegedly using public funds to construct a memorial for his father. He acknowledged the contribution of Balasaheb Desai as a respected Marathi leader but questioned the use of government money for the memorial. He said that if someone wants to build a memorial, it should be funded personally and not with public resources. Raut also spoke about Anandraj Ambedkar, stating that before the Lok Sabha elections, Ambedkar had expressed his desire to join the Maha Vikas Aghadi and had clearly said he wanted no association with the BJP. However, Raut admitted that he is not aware of Ambedkar's current position, although he is now seen with the Shinde faction. (ANI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday directed the Education Department to promptly assess vacancies for teachers in government schools and initiate the process for conducting the Teacher Recruitment Examination (TRE) 4. The Chief Minister said that the government is committed to filling teaching positions without delay, and has asked officials to expedite the recruitment process. He also reiterated the government's policy on women's reservation in the recruitment process, stating that the 35 per cent quota for women will apply only to those who are residents of Bihar. In a social media post on X, Kumar said, "We have instructed the Education Department to immediately calculate the vacancies for teachers in government schools and take action to conduct the TRE 4 examination for appointments as soon as possible. The state government has already clarified that the benefit of 35 per cent reservation for women in appointments will be given only to women residents of Bihar." https://x.com/NitishKumar/status/1945361731158728892 Earlier on July 9, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reaffirmed his government's commitment to women's empowerment, announcing that 35 per cent reservation will be provided exclusively for women who are permanent residents of Bihar in all direct recruitments across government posts and cadres, including contractual and outsourced appointments. The Cabinet had approved a 35 per cent reservation for original residents of Bihar in state government services on July 8. In a post shared on the social media platform X, CM Kumar wrote, "Everyone knows that it has been decided to grant 35 per cent horizontal reservation exclusively to female candidates who are native residents of Bihar for direct appointments to all levels and types of posts in all government services/cadres of Bihar state." He informed that the recruitment process for 1,51,579 vacancies is currently underway and that the reservation benefit would apply throughout the recruitment cycle. "Currently, the appointment process is underway for 1,51,579 vacancies. In these appointments, which will take place in various phases, only female candidates who are native residents of Bihar will be eligible for the 35 per cent horizontal reservation benefit," the CM wrote. The Chief Minister also announced that women domiciled in Bihar would receive the same 35% reservation benefit in appointments for contractual or outsourced jobs. CM said, "Additionally, this benefit will also apply to female candidates who are native residents of Bihar for appointments made on a contract or outsourced basis. All departments have been instructed to take prompt action to fill all available vacancies so that the youth can benefit from this." He reiterated the government's broader vision in his post and wrote, "We are committed to ensuring women's empowerment and active and positive participation of women in society." (ANI) Uttarakhand Chief Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday welcomed the Union Cabinet's approval of the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana and the Green Energy Mission, worth Rs 24000 crore and Rs 27000 crore respectively. In a post shared on his official handle on X, CM Dhami lauded the Centre's move, describing it as a "proof of the government's commitment" to the welfare of villages, farmers, and the poor under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Dear Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under your able leadership, heartfelt gratitude and congratulations to the Union Cabinet for approving Rs 24 thousand crore for the Prime Minister Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana and Rs 27 thousand crore for the Green Energy Mission", Dhami's 'X' post read. He noted that the decision will strengthen the country's farmers' economy and set a strong example in a step towards India's sustainable development. "This decision is proof of the government's commitment to the welfare of villages, the poor, and farmers. This decision will not only strengthen the economy of the country's food providers but also set a strong example for India in the direction of sustainable development with the balanced use of natural resources", the 'X' post added. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-chaired CCEA, in a meeting on Wednesday, granted enhanced autonomy to Maharatna company NTPC to make investments of up to Rs 20,000 crore for renewable energy capacity addition, against the current limit of Rs 7,500 crore, to achieve a 60 GW capacity by 2032. The enhanced delegation given to NTPC and its subsidiary NGEL will facilitate the accelerated development of renewable projects in the country. This move will also play a vital role in strengthening power infrastructure and ensuring investment in providing reliable, round-the-clock electricity access across the nation. Renewable energy projects will also generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for the local people at the construction stage, as well as during the operations and maintenance stage. "This shall provide boost to local suppliers, local enterprises/ MSMEs and shall encourage the entrepreneurship opportunities within the country besides promoting employment and socio-economic development of the country," said an official release after meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). (ANI) Odisha Congress President Bhakta Charan Das on Wednesday strongly condemned the handling of the Balasore student self-immolation case, saying that if action is not taken by early tomorrow, then this movement will take another shape. "We are waiting till tomorrow's closure. After that, we will increase the movement very hard...This is not going to calm down here. Action should be taken by early tomorrow; otherwise, the day after tomorrow, this movement will take another shape," Das told ANI. Das later said that the girl had been fighting for justice for six months, and her attempts were but no one listened. He further said, "All the associates of the Odisha Congress Committee and the seven opposition parties... have called for this bandh. Today, Rahul Gandhi has talked with the father of the victim and showed concern...It is a very heart-wrenching incident...The girl went to the MLA, MP, and the education minister... but no one listened to her. FIR was not lodged. Rahul Gandhi is saying that this is a systematic murder and not a suicide. She was asking for justice for the past six months, but no one listened..." Hitting out at the BJP, Congress President said, "On one hand, they talk about Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, and on the other hand, they remain silent when a daughter of their own party takes such an extreme step. This hypocrisy is unacceptable." The 20-year-old student set herself on fire after allegedly facing prolonged sexual harassment by her college's Head of Department. Despite lodging a formal complaint and seeking help from the principal, her pleas were ignored, leading to the tragic incident. The incident occurred at Fakir Mohan (Autonomous) College. On Monday, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar confirmed the death of the student in Odisha's Balasore. (ANI) Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a strong protest outside the Shimla Deputy Commissioner's office on Wednesday, demanding justice for a female student who was allegedly assaulted and later died in Odisha's Balasore district. The protest, led by ABVP members, condemned what they called the "negligent and apathetic attitude" of the Odisha college administration in handling a sexual harassment complaint. Aditi Aman, National Executive Member of ABVP, said the organisation is fighting for justice. "A few days ago, a woman activist of ABVP studying at FM College in Odisha reported a case of sexual harassment against the Head of Department. She submitted a formal complaint and demanded strict action. However, the college administration failed to act appropriately," she said. According to Aman, the victim protested for seven days, demanding action from the college's Internal Complaints Committee. "When the report from the committee was due, the principal allegedly pressured her to compromise. Instead of supporting her, the administration threatened disciplinary action against her through the report," she added. Aman stressed that had the administration and authorities taken timely action, the student might still be alive. "Those who were arrested later could have been arrested earlier. If that had happened, our sister would be alive today. We are demanding strict action against all culprits and those on the committee who tried to cover it up," she said. The ABVP also pointed fingers at the rival student organisation, NSUI. "A photo has surfaced showing the main accused dining with senior NSUI leaders. While NSUI members are now protesting here, their leaders failed to support the girl when it mattered most in Odisha," Aman said. She called for an impartial investigation and accountability. "Strict action should be taken against such accused persons, and no one should be shielded politically or institutionally. Committees responsible for such mishandling must be held accountable." She said. Highlighting that similar cases have been reported in Himachal Pradesh as well, including in Rajgarh, Bilaspur, Mandi, and Solan. "Even in Himachal, Devbhoomi, such shameful incidents are rising. Teachers themselves are accused of harassing students. This reflects poorly on the state's law and order and education system. Strong action must be taken, not protection." She said. Aman emphasised the growing fear among female students. "Incidents like these make women feel unsafe. We begin to question can we walk alone? Can we go somewhere in groups for months? Fear is growing, and we demand stronger protection for women," she added. The protesting students demanded immediate action from the Odisha government. "We demand that all those responsible from the accused to committee members who tried to suppress the truth -- be punished. Let this not happen again, either in Odisha or Himachal," she added. (ANI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday welcomed the Opposition's strong pitch for the restoration of full statehood to the Union Territory, reiterating that the demand is neither new nor unjustified. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister was referring to the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which the latter urged the government to bring forward legislation to grant full statehood to Jammu and Kashmir in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. Addressing the reporters, Abdullah said, "It's a good thing; we've been waiting for this day, the day when our voice will be raised strongly in Parliament and in Delhi from the opposition's side. I am grateful to Kharge ji and Rahul Gandhi ji for raising the issue of the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood along with other markers." The restoration of statehood has been a key demand from the regional political parties in Jammu and Kashmir since the abrogation of Article 370 and the reorganisation of the erstwhile state into two Union Territories in August 2019. Abdullah pointed out that the statehood assurance had been reiterated in various forums, including parliamentary debates, judicial proceedings, and public statements. He said, "We are not demanding anything that was not already promised to us -- whether inside Parliament, outside of it, in the Supreme Court, or at public events. Time and again, we've been told that Jammu and Kashmir will be granted statehood at an appropriate time." Referring to the Supreme Court's judgment upholding the abrogation of Article 370, Abdullah stated that the bench had directed the Centre to restore statehood "as soon as possible." "If it were truly 'as soon as possible,' it would have already happened by now." Earlier in the day, in a letter to the PM, Rahul Gandhi wrote, "We urge upon the Government to bring forward legislation in the upcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament to grant full statehood to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir." Rahul Gandhi also noted that PM Modi had already reiterated the government's commitment to restoring statehood on multiple occasions. "Your good self has, on multiple occasions, personally reiterated the government's commitment to restoring statehood. In your interview in Bhubaneswar on 19 May 2024, you stated: "The restoration of statehood is a solemn promise we have made and we stand by it." Again, while addressing a rally in Srinagar on 19 September 2024, you reaffirmed: "We have said in Parliament that we will restore the region's statehood," Congress MP said. Emphasising the demand for statehood by Jammu and Kashmir people, LoP said that this is the first time a state has been downgraded to a Union Territory. "For the past five years, the people of Jammu and Kashmir have consistently called for the restoration of full statehood. This demand is both legitimate and firmly grounded in their constitutional and democratic rights," he said. "This is the first time a full-fledged state has been downgraded to a Union Territory following its bifurcation," he added. In August 2019, the Central Government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, repealed Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, effectively ending the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Additionally, Rahul Gandhi also requested the government to bring forward legislation to include Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. He added that this step will address the cultural, developmental, and political aspirations of the people of Ladakh. "We request that the Government bring forward legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution. This would be a significant step towards addressing the cultural, developmental, and political aspirations of the people of Ladakh, while safeguarding their rights, land, and identity," he wrote to PM Modi. The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution contains provisions related to the Administration of Tribal Areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram. The Sixth Schedule provides for the administration of certain tribal areas as autonomous entities. (ANI) AIADMK leader Kovai Sathyan on Wednesday hit out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin over the newly launched 'Ungaludan Stalin' (Stalin With You) outreach programme. claiming the ruling DMK was rattled by the success of AIADMK's ongoing rallies. "Our leader started the campaign 10 days ago, while Stalin with his 'Ungaludan Stalin' just started yesterday. Seeing the overwhelming response received by our leader and party General secretary EPS, DMK and their allies are rattled and are scrambling to build a narrative to water down the entire rally," Sathyan told ANI. "MK Stalin doesn't have any narrative. He has no achievements to boast," the AIADMK leader added. He further called Stalin's campaign an attempt to defame AIADMK leaders. "Rallies are a huge success with thousands of people and carders welcoming our leader in the nook and corner of Tamil Nadu. This is a disappointment for the ruling camp. This is yet another desperate attempt by MK Stalin to get a narrative to defame our leader," he said. Taking a jibe at Stalin, the AIADMK leader said that the Chief Minister has only worked for his family and is now forced to run a door-to-door campaign. "These are cinema dialogues as he has run the government by acting for 4.5 years. He has zero clue about government and governance. For 4.5 years, he has only worked for his family to elevate his son and sister. That's why he is being forced to knock on each door and put up a face as if he is there for the people," he said. Earlier on Tuesday, CM MK Stalin launched the Ungaludan Stalin initiative at Chidambaram in Cuddalore district. During the launch, he said that as long as the DMK-led alliance stands united, no "Delhi force" can succeed in the State. "I firmly believe that as long as we (the DMK alliance) stand united, no Delhi force can succeed here (in Tamil Nadu)," Stalin said, in an apparent reference to the BJP's effort to become a potent political force in the State. Officials said that under the 'Ungaludan Stalin' programme, 43 services from 13 departments would be offered in urban areas and 46 from 15 departments would be offered in rural areas under the programme. (ANI) Following the Cabinet meeting, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw said, "Today the Union Cabinet has passed a resolution on the return of Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla from ISS. This is an occasion of pride, glory and joy for the entire country. Today, the Cabinet, along with the country, congratulates Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on his successful return to Earth." On July 15, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla landed back safely on earth from his space journey. Launched on June 25, with Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla as Mission Pilot, this mission marked a watershed moment for India as this was the first time an Indian astronaut travelled to ISS. The Cabinet commended the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the entire community of Indian scientists and engineers for their relentless efforts that made this achievement possible said official statement. During his time aboard ISS, Group Captain Shukla worked with fellow members of the Axiom-4 Crew and Expedition 73, embodying India's growing leadership in international space cooperation. He conducted pioneering experiments in microgravity on subjects such as muscle regeneration, algal and microbial growth, crop viability, microbial survivability, cognitive performance in space, and the behaviour of cyanobacteria. These studies will deepen global understanding of human spaceflight and microgravity science, and provide critical inputs for India's future missions. This mission significantly elevates India's global standing in space exploration. It is a vital stepping stone towards India's own human spaceflight ambition, including the Gaganyaan and the Bharatiya Antariksha Station. India's recent landmark achievements include the historic landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the South Pole of the Moon on 23rd August 2023, a day etched in history as India's National Space Day. Likewise, India's Aditya-L1 Mission launched in 2023 has significantly enhanced humanity's understanding of solar activity. (ANI) BRS Working President, KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Wednesday issued a direct challenge to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, urging him to participate in a public debate at the Medigadda Barrage. This location has been at the center of controversy as the Chief Minister has consistently claimed that the structure has "collapsed." Speaking at a meeting with the Dalit Bandhu Sadhana Samithi at Telangana Bhavan today, KTR launched a scathing attack on Revanth Reddy's credibility and knowledge. "If he really believes the Medigadda Barrage has collapsed, let him come there and debate in front of the people", said KTR. He reminded the public that BRS had earlier invited the Chief Minister for a public debate, offering him three full days of preparation. "We went to the Press Club, ready to debate. But Revanth ran away. He is a coward who talks big and disappears when confronted," he said. "Now again, I'm challenging him - let's have the debate, not at Nagarjunasagar as he challenged, but at Medigadda Barrage itself," KTR added. KTR mentioned that senior BRS leader and former Minister Jagadish Reddy had already visited the Medigadda site and renewed the challenge. "If he has the courage, the Chief Minister must come and face us," KTR demanded. He also stated that despite Revanth Reddy knowing full well that it was former CM K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) who ensured water supply to tail-end farmers in regions like Tungaturthi and Suryapet, Revanth continues to spread blatant lies for political mileage, as stated in the release. Continuing his criticism, KTR condemned the repeated use of vulgar and undignified language by the CM. "Revanth Reddy keeps calling me a thief. When asked to implement his poll promises, he shamelessly says things like 'Do what you want. Will you cut and bite me?' This is not the language of a responsible public representative," said KTR. "Let the people of Telangana respond to this in the upcoming local body elections," he warned. Quoting the Constitution, KTR said, "Dr. B.R. Ambedkar would never have imagined that individuals like Revanth Reddy - frauds and conmen - would come to power. That's why the Constitution gave a five-year term; otherwise, there would've been a recall mechanism to throw such people out of office." "Personally, I don't believe in using abusive language in politics," KTR clarified. "But with Revanth, there is no choice. He only understands gutter language. Just like a dog bite needs a stick, we are also forced to respond in his own tone." Targeting the Congress party, KTR lambasted its unfulfilled poll promises. "Their manifesto is the biggest political fraud in modern India. They gave 420 promises, deceiving every section of Telangana society. They said they'd implement everything in 100 days. Now, when questioned, they're filing undemocratic cases against social media users, journalists, and ordinary citizens." "No matter how many cases they file, no matter how much they suppress voices - we at BRS will continue to expose their lies and anti-people policies," KTR asserted. (ANI) Amid Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh's pitch to shift the aerospace park from Karnataka, M B Patil, Karnataka's Minister for Large and Medium Industries, asserted on Wednesday that the state government would not allow any industry to exit due to a lack of land. Addressing media queries at the KPCC office, Patil said that the proposed land acquisition at Devanahalli for the proposed Aerospace and Defence Park has been dropped, taking into account the interests of farmers. "Karnataka is a major contributor to the country's aerospace and defence sector, accounting for 65% of the national share. This is recognised as the third-best ecosystem globally. Land availability alone is not the determining factor for industries; a robust ecosystem plays a far more crucial role," he pointed out Referring to Nara Lokesh's post on 'X' inviting aerospace industries to Andhra Pradesh, Patil said he had responded with a befitting reply. "Karnataka has immense potential and I am an able minister. We have sufficient land not only for aerospace and defence, but also for AI, deep tech, IT and other industries. We will not let even a single industrialist leave the state due to the non-availability of land," he emphasised. "To facilitate industries, we go beyond land allocation. We also ensure water, power, and other essential infrastructure. We have already prepared an integrated plan worth Rs 3,600 crore to guarantee water supply to industrial areas across the state," Patil said. Commenting on state BJP president Vijayendra's remarks regarding the dropping of land acquisition at Devanahalli, Patil said, "Now Vijayendra is supporting industrialists. Had the government decided to go ahead with land acquisition, he would have sided with the farmers. Whatever interpretation the opposition gives, the state's interest remains my top priority." He added that he had briefed AICC General Secretary Surjewala on the progress made by the Industries Department and the decision related to Devanahalli land acquisition. "He is satisfied with the progress achieved so far," Patil noted. This comes after Nara Lokesh made a pitch to the Aerospace industry to shift the project to Andhra Pradesh, following the Karnataka government's withdrawal of the plan to acquire land for an aerospace park in Bengaluru. Pitching to the Aerospace industry, Lokesh said that Andhra Pradesh has an attractive aerospace policy with "best-in-class incentives" and over "8000 acres of ready-to-use land." (ANI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the Haryana Police Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to investigate the two FIRs lodged against Ali Khan Mahmudabad, associate professor and head of the Political Science department at Ashoka University in Haryana, over his social media posts on Operation Sindoor, and asked why it was 'misdirecting itself'. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi stated that the SIT was formed specifically to investigate the two social media posts and inquired why it was expanding its scope. "We just want to know from SIT... for what purpose they have seized devices? We are asking why SIT is, on the face of it, misdirecting itself. They were supposed to examine the contents of the posts," Justice Kant told Additional Solicitor General SV Raju, who was representing the state. The remarks of the bench followed those of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing Mahmudabad, and who told the bench that the SIT had seized his devices and was inquiring about his foreign trips over the last ten years. He was summoned four times by the SIT, Sibal said. Sibal said that by its May 28 order, the top court had directed the SIT to confine its probe to the contents of the social media posts. The bench noted that Mahmudabad has cooperated with the investigation and surrendered his devices and directed that he should not be summoned again. " "You don't require him (Mahmudabad), you require a dictionary," Justice Kant said. It reminded the SIT about its May 28 order and ordered it to conclude the investigation within four weeks. The bench further stated that the conditions imposed while granting interim bail to him only restricted the petitioner from commenting on sub-judice issues, and he was free to write or express opinions on other topics. Earlier, the top court had granted interim bail to Mahmudabad while refusing to stay the two FIRs registered by the Haryana Police against him in the matter, saying he had not made out a case for a stay on the investigation. However, the bench had released him on an interim basis. The apex court had also restrained the associate professor from making any further online posts or speeches on the issue. No article or online posts to be made, nor deliver any speech on the issues which are subject matter of the case, it had said. Mahmudabad had approached the top court against his arrest over the social media post. Mahmudabad was arrested by the Haryana police at his residence in Delhi, following the registration of two separate cases. He was charged with, among other things, endangering India's sovereignty, unity and integrity for his comments on Operation Sindoor. The State Women's Commission had earlier termed Mahmudabad's social media comments as disparaging toward women officers in the Indian Armed Forces and said it also promoted communal disharmony. On May 13, Bhatia had dispatched the summons to the associate professor. He clarified that his comments had been completely misunderstood. (ANI) The Vadodara Municipal Corporation commenced repair work on damaged roads in the city on Wednesday, following directives from Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. On July 15, the Gujarat CM chaired a review meeting regarding the restoration work aimed at repairing roads damaged by heavy monsoon rains across National Highways, State Highways, and roads in villages, towns, and cities. Vadodara Municipal Commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu visited the western zone of Vadodara city on Wednesday and confirmed that repair work on potholes in the region is progressing at full speed. He mentioned that the repair work is being carried out under the supervision of the City Engineer's team, the Regional Engineer's team, and the Deputy Commissioner's team. "Today, we are visiting the western zone of Vadodara city. The pothole filling work is going on in full swing in Vadodara city... All the potholes being filled in Vadodara city are being done under the supervision of the City Engineer team, the Regional Engineer team and the Deputy Commissioner team. We hope that whatever little work is left will also be completed within two to three days," Arun Mahesh Babu told ANI. In addition to Vadodara, repair work is also underway in Jamnagar. Jamnagar Municipal Corporation Commissioner Dinesh Modi reported on Wednesday that repair work on roads damaged by rains is in progress. He informed that the entire repair work will be completed within the next two weeks. "Wherever there has been minor or major damage due to the rains in Jamnagar in the last one month, their patchwork is going on. I have inspected it with the entire team, and whatever necessary instructions need to be given have been given. This entire work will be completed in the next two to three days," the Jamnagar Municipal Corporation Commissioner told ANI. Apart from the repair work on roads in Vadodara and Jamnagar, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) team, along with Sabarkantha District Collector Lalit Narayan Singh, inspected the construction work on the Udaipur National Highway. According to NHAI Manager Pranjal Brindal, the NHAI is focused on alleviating traffic congestion in the Himatnagar area, and in the first phase, two flyovers have been opened. Brindal added that a rainwater harvesting system has been installed for effective drainage. "Today we are conducting an inspection with the district collector. NHAI is actively working on the issue of traffic in Himatnagar. In the first phase, we opened the two flyovers, and for the second phase, NHAI is promptly working on the service roads... We have also set up a rainwater harvesting system for the drainage... The District Collector has told us to speed up the work and complete it by the 15th of August", he said. (ANI) Sowing seeds of intelligence: rural women fuel China's AI revolution Xinhua) 08:46, July 16, 2025 Wang Meimei works on artificial intelligence (AI) training at Aidou Technology Co., Ltd., in Yijun County, Tongchuan City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 12, 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Zhenghao) XI'AN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Sitting in front of a computer, Wang Meimei tagged a paragraph, converted a voice message into text and marked the speaker's emotions. From the basic data processing of Deepseek to the facial recognition systems used in everyday payments, her work quietly supports the technology that powers many people's lives. But she is not, in fact, an office worker. At least not in the traditional sense. Wang, 46, from northwest China's Shaanxi Province, typically spends her days tending to fields of corn. Mondays, however, are different. At the start of every week, Wang heads to an office in Yijun County to her job as an artificial intelligence (AI) trainer. "My job is to work as the AI's teacher, feeding it with information so that its replies are more accurate," she said proudly. Wang's hometown, Tongchuan City, is on the Loess Plateau. In the past, her family eked out a living on the meager income generated from their 30 mu (about 2 hectares) plot of land. "I was in a boarding school between grade 7 and 9. I would take a bag of steamed buns from home to school with me every Sunday," she said, adding that they were her food for the entire week. "My biggest dream then was that one day, I do not have to eat dry, moldy buns." Like many of her fellow villagers, she left education after middle school; instead, choosing to start earning money through farming and casual work. In the following years, constant improvements to agricultural mechanization meant she spent less and less time in the field. With her newfound free time, Wang looked for other opportunities. On February 21, 2021, she made her way to Aidou Technology Co., Ltd., in the county seat of Yijun, for an interview she had secured thanks to a friend's recommendation. "I had never heard of AI before," Wang admitted. "During the interview, I dared not even look up." A lack of confidence was the impression most interviewees left on Zhang Rui, the head of the company. "When the company was in its early stage of recruitment, many of the applicants were local farmers," she recalled. "Some even called us to ask how to operate the elevator to reach the floor for the interview. They were nervous and many even cried when they struggled to answer our questions." Zhang was not put off by the lack of confidence she saw in those interviewees. In fact, she saw vast untapped potential in the candidates, and felt, with a little training, they could far exceed their own expectations. Data annotation is a fast-growing industry in China, which is home to seven data annotation bases with 58,000 workers, according to the National Data Administration. Headquartered in Hangzhou in China's AI heartland of Zhejiang Province, Aidou is the first AI data annotation enterprise in Tongchuan. Zhang shared that the local government invited technology enterprises to increase employment quality, revitalize the countryside and boost the local economy. Therefore, the company kept its recruitment standards relatively flexible, considering candidates of all ages. "What we value most is patience and the ability to learn, because this is an industry that is constantly evolving," she said. With a small population of only 72,000 people, Yijun was an underdeveloped county with much of its workforce choosing to leave for work opportunities. To find suitable employees, staff from the county's employment service center visited all the townships to talk to local women, and encouraged local university students to look for opportunities in their hometown. "Finally we found 20 plus workers," said Bai Yanqi with the center. They also provided a venue and supporting facilities for the company free-of-charge. Today, the company has grown significantly, employing more than 240 staff members, over 70 percent of whom are women from nearby villages. They began by learning basic computer skills and have now become certified AI trainers. The company's revenue has exceeded 35 million yuan (about 4.9 million U.S. dollars). "Here for a woman like me, in her 40s, most of the job opportunities are for waitstaff or supermarket cashiers, which are shift work. In that case, it would be hard for me to juggle work and family," she told Xinhua. Now earning 4,000 yuan a month with Aidou, she enjoys flexible working hours, allowing her to care for her family while also discovering a sense of value in her job. "Before I took this job, at home I used to care for my husband, who was the main breadwinner in our family, and my children," Wang recalled. "Now that I have helped graduate AI from a 'primary school student' to a 'middle high school student,' my husband and children are all very supportive, and even volunteered to help out with the housework so I can focus more on my work." She also now uses AI to help with some of her real-world problems. "For instance, I have used Deepseek to search for corn diseases and find the right treatment," she said. Like Wang, other rural women who used to play mahjong or square dance in their spare have seen their lives change. The job with AI opened up a whole new world. Ma Shuaishuai, who was a nursery teacher, is now versed in AI application scenarios such as driverless technology, higher education, ecological environment, and finance and insurance. Wang Haili, once a textile worker and courier, recently bought a 100,000 yuan sedan to use for local travel. "Their horizons have been broadened," said Zhang Rui. "From what I have seen, the most noticeable change for those women is that they are becoming more confident and have higher self-worth." Some women wore slippers to the office at the beginning. Now they wear business suits. In recent years, the Chinese government has introduced a wide range of measures to accelerate AI innovation and promote its application, intending to support new industrialization and the development of the industrial sector. China's pool of AI researchers surged from fewer than 10,000 in 2015 to over 52,000 in 2024. The country has made holistic advancements in AI development, fostering a thriving AI industrial ecosystem. It now hosts over 400 "little giant" firms -- specialized small and medium-sized enterprises that excel in niche AI markets, including AI innovator DeepSeek. For Yijun County, the development of AI has created jobs for more than 1,000 people. Its potential has attracted talent to carve out a career in their hometown, like 31-year-old Zhao Yangjuan who quit her job in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi. "I can see more young people like me coming back, and Yijun is becoming more prosperous," she said. "AI is not only changing individuals like me, but also where I come from." Wang Meimei told Xinhua that she has to work hard. "AI is developing so fast in our country, so I have to continue learning to keep pace with the latest technology," she said. Wang Meimei works at a corn field in Guozhai Village of Yijun County, Tongchuan City of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, June 12, 2025. (Xinhua/Sun Zhenghao) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Vijayawada MP Kesineni Sivanadh on Wednesday underscored the importance of the proposed Godavari Floodwater Project for Andhra Pradesh's Rayalaseema region. Speaking to the media, Sivanadh highlighted that nearly 300 TMC of Godavari floodwater flows into the sea, unused every year. "This is a major project for the Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh. Every year, nearly 300 TMC of Godavari floodwater flows into the sea and goes to waste. We aim to construct a project that will bring water to every acre of Rayalaseema. In this regard, we have proposed the Godavari Floodwater Project, which will divert 300 TMC of Godavari floodwater to Rayalaseema. This region is one of the major horticultural hubs in India, and providing it with a reliable water supply is crucial," he said. The proposed Godavari Floodwater Project, according to Sivanadh, seeks to divert surplus water without infringing on the rights of neighbouring states. "Importantly, we are only utilising the floodwaters that naturally belong to Andhra Pradesh. We do not want any conflict with neighbouring states. Our Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, believes in unity among Telugu people. That's why he has even offered Telangana the opportunity to construct their own projects to control floodwaters, while we use only the surplus water. Our demand is justified and rightful," he said. Sivanadh expressed hope that Wednesday's discussions with Union Minister Patil would yield a constructive outcome. "Both Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are progressive leaders. They are meeting today with the Union Jal Shakti Minister, and we are confident that a positive conclusion will be reached," he said. Sivanadh also reiterated that the intention behind the project was mutual development. "Telangana CM Revanth Reddy has also been part of our party in the past, and he understands the developmental vision of our CM. We want both states -- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- to grow and develop equally. We are hopeful that a clear resolution on the Godavari project will emerge soon," he added. Earlier in the day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart Revanth Reddy attended a high-level meeting convened by CR Patil, Union Minister for Jal Shakti, to discuss inter-state river water issues between the two states. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday called for a similar action in West Bengal as is happening in Bihar to delete all Rohingya Muslims' names from the voter list. While speaking to ANI, Adhikari said, "We marched here along with the BJP MLAs and BJP leaders. The exercise that is happening in Bihar should happen here as well. The names of lakhs of Rohingya Muslims are in the voter list here, they should be removed... This is not a question of Bengalis or the Bengali language. This is a question of national interest. Bengal has to be saved..." Highlighting the 540 km border shared with Bangladesh, which he said is completely unmanned, Adhikari alleged, "She has turned Bengal into Bangladesh already... Women should avoid working at night, as no one is safe, not even males." "The Election Commission will remove fake voters and put the goons in jail and will neutralise West Bengal Police, which is called Mamata Police, then TMC will come third in Bengal... Mamata Banerjee will not get an open field this time," he further added. Earlier, Adhikari slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, accusing her of "destroying" Hindu Bengalis. On Tuesday, he claimed that while the BJP protests against the presence of Rohingyas, Mamata Banerjee is "protecting" them. "Mamata Banerjee is holding a protest tomorrow in support of Rohingyas. We will be protesting against the Rohingyas. Whatever Mamata Banerjee is doing is to protect the Rohingya Muslims. Mamata Banerjee is destroying the Hindu Bengalis," West Bengal LoP said. This statement came against the backdrop of the BJP's ongoing accusations that the TMC is supportive of the Rohingyas in the state. (ANI) Lt Gen Vikas Lakhera, AVSM, SM, Director General of Assam Rifles, visited Headquarters Inspector General Assam Rifles (East) at Laitumkhrah, Shillong, on the occasion of its 14th Raising Day on Wednesday, Assam Rifles said in a statement. The Assam Rifles formation was raised at Laitumkhrah, Shillong and in a short duration of 13 years has earned enviable accolades through professionalism displayed in Internal security challenges, disaster relief endeavours, anti-narcotics operations and securing India's international borders. During the Sanik Sammelan, the General officer complimented all ranks on their achievements and high state of operational readiness. The General Officer also felicitated individuals with DG Assam Rifles Commendation cards in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the organisation. Earlier, in a spirited initiative to inspire the youth and build awareness about the Indian Armed Forces, 115 students (51 boys and 64 girls) from Holy Cross School, Kumarghat, spent an enriching and memorable day at the Assam Rifles Shoorveer Battalion in Radhanagar under the outreach program "A Day with Company Commander". The visit began with an introduction at the Officers' Mess, where the students were briefed on service etiquette, customs, and values upheld by the Armed Forces. The excitement peaked with a live small arms firing demonstration, followed by a hands-on weapon orientation session, which allowed students to closely observe various weapons held by the battalion. A dog show thrilled the students, demonstrating the high level of training and discipline of the tracker dog used in field operations. The young visitors were then shown a short documentary on Assam Rifles, offering insights into its legacy, operational duties and vital role in the Northeast. The tour continued with a visit to the Drone Lab, showcasing modern surveillance technology, and the Quarter Guard, where students observed the ceremonial aspects of military life. The day concluded with a hearty lunch shared with the troops in the mess, fostering a sense of camaraderie and respect for the men in uniform. The students returned inspired and motivated, with many expressing a strong desire to serve the nation by joining the Defence Forces. (ANI) During a routine check, a truck was intercepted and a thorough search, 3 lakh Yaba tablets were recovered from the vehicle, as per the release. The seized contraband is assessed to be worth approximately Rs 30 Crore in the international market. The recovered narcotics have been handed over to DRI for further investigation and necessary legal action, the release said. This recovery highlights the relentless efforts of Assam Rifles in its ongoing commitment towards a Drug Free Tripura and a Drug Free North East. Earlier on Monday, Assam's South Salmara Mankachar district seized 50,000 Yaba tablets worth Rs 10 crore and arrested a suspected drug trafficker. According to officials, the special Anti-NDPS operation was launched following a tip-off about a large consignment of narcotics being transported by bus. Acting on specific intelligence, police set up a naka checkpoint at Sonapur along HM Road under the supervision of Additional Superintendent of Police (HQ). The police team, led by Inspector Dipak Bargayari, Officer-in-Charge of Mankachar Police Station, intercepted a passenger bus travelling from ISBT Guwahati to Mankachar. Tokbi said preliminary investigation indicates the consignment originated from Manipur, passed through Guwahati, and was handed over to the accused at ISBT Guwahati. (ANI) Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's visit to China and said as Leader of the Opposition, "he should not say anything against the country". Rijiju also called for constructive discussions during the monsoon session of Parliament which begins on July 21, saying that nothing will be achieved if opposition creates ruckus. "Parliament is about to begin. Whatever issue comes up in Parliament, we will listen to it. Yesterday I had a very good meeting with Kharge ji and Rahul ji. I keep having regular meetings with leaders of other opposition parties. Being a parliamentary minister, it is my responsibility to maintain coordination with everyone. But whatever the issue is, we can resolve it only by discussing. Nothing will be achieved by creating a ruckus," Rijiju told reporters. He said there should be bipartisan view on the country's foreign policy. He accused Rahul Gandhi of speaking language of Pakistan. "The way Rahul Gandhi tries to mislead people on foreign policy by speaking the language of Pakistan, it harms the country. We will suggest to him that as the leader of the opposition, he should not say anything against the country," Rijiju said. "Now you blame the Prime Minister for foreign policy, instead of uniting the country, you speak against the Prime Minister of the country. What does the country gain from this? Opposition does not mean abusing the country. The opposition also has a role in doing good work for the country... When it comes to foreign policy, we should not be divided. During the Congress government, we did not attack the Prime Minister separately on foreign policy. The way Rahul Gandhi tries to mislead people on foreign policy by speaking the language of Pakistan, it harms the country. We will suggest to him that as the leader of the opposition, he should not say anything anti-national," he added. Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, had slammed Jaishankar over his remarks during visit to China to attend meeting of SCO Foreign Ministers. "I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full blown circus aimed at destroying India's foreign policy," Rahul Gandhi had said in a post on X, attaching a news about Jaishankar meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping. Congress also held a press conference, alleging that Jaishankar has expressed "bonhomie" with China during his visit to the country to take part in the SCO Foreign Ministers meeting. The party said that Beijing had fully supported Pakistan during Operation Sindoor and instead of "a stern response", the Union Minister has "praised China". Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that there is a consensus between the government and the opposition on the agenda of Parliament. "Parliament will function properly only when there is a consensus between the government and the opposition and it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that there is a consensus between the two..." Ramesh said. (ANI) Amritsar Police registered an FIR and launched an investigation after receiving a series of bomb threat emails, officials said on Wednesday. Speaking to ANI, Amritsar Commissioner GPS Bhullar said, "Since the day the authorities received these emails, we have been working very closely with them. We lodged the FIR on the same day only, and we are also investigating the subsequent emails." According to the police, a total of five threatening emails were received. The authorities then launched security drills to ensure public safety. "We have also received replies from the concerned companies and obtained some IP addresses. In the coming days, it will be clear who the sender of these emails is. After looking at the content, it is indicating towards South India," Bhullar told ANI. To ensure no threat materialised, the police sought assistance from Border Security Force. High-level security checks were carried out at sensitive locations across Amritsar city, and bomb squads were kept on standby. However, officials said that they are ensuring full security for the people, and there is no need to worry. A day earlier, the Golden Temple received another bomb threat. A dog squad has been deployed at the Golden Temple premises as part of a security check. The holy site for Sikhs received a bomb threat via email for the second consecutive day. Pratap Singh, Secretary of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), demanded strict action against the miscreants. Pratap Singh told reporters, "Golden Temple is the centre of faith of the world, and we received an email threatening a blast in the Golden Temple. It is the responsibility of the police officials to take strict action against those involved in it." "We received an email threatening a blast in the Golden Temple yesterday. Also, we have written a letter to the Punjab CM and DGP also," Singh said. "Devotees are coming in the same number as before, and are not frightened. I would request all the devotees in India or outside, there is no need to panic," Pratap Singh said. (ANI) Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha distributed 184 appointment letters on Wednesday from the Public Works Department (PWD) and highlighted his vision to provide skill development in the state and create an environment to build a 'better Tripura'. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, while talking to ANI, said, "Today we have distributed 184 appointment letters from the PWD office...Everyone here is happy...In the last 7 years, we have provided more than 19,000 jobs" He shared his vision of making Tripura 'better' in cooperation with the Prime Minister and added, "We want skill development to take place...An environment has been created to build One Tripura, a Better Tripura. We are working together with the Prime Minister to achieve his goal of a developed India and a developed Tripura by 2047..." Earlier on Tuesday, a high-level meeting was held at the State Secretariat in Agartala under the leadership of Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha, where key decisions were taken regarding recruitment across several departments. The Chief Minister's cabinet meeting concluded successfully with major announcements aimed at strengthening the state's education and healthcare sectors. As per the cabinet decision, a total of 1,615 teaching positions will soon be filled across Tripura. The Teachers' Recruitment Board, Tripura (TRBT) will oversee the recruitment process. The breakdown is as follows: 915 Postgraduate Teachers (PGTs) will be recruited to teach classes 11 and 12, and 700 Graduate Teachers will be appointed to teach classes 9 and 10. This large-scale hiring initiative is expected to significantly improve the quality of education and address the teacher shortage in secondary and higher secondary schools across the state. In addition to the teaching sector, the Department of Health and Family Welfare will appoint six new Medical Officers, a move that will help boost medical services in rural and urban health centres. Furthermore, 37 faculties and teaching administrative positions will be filled at the National Law University, including posts such as Associate Professors and Assistant Professors. This recruitment drive reflects the government's commitment to strengthening key public service sectors and creating employment opportunities for qualified candidates in the state of Tripura. (ANI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah described the first meeting of the AICC All India OBC Advisory Committee as "highly successful" and praised party MP Rahul Gandhi, a champion of justice, for his courage and commitment to social justice. Speaking to the media after the meeting, CM Siddaramaiah read out the Bengaluru Declaration from the first meeting, "The AICC OBC Advisory Committee expresses gratitude to Rahul Gandhi, a warrior for justice, for his courage in ensuring social justice for neglected sections of society and his special concern for backward classes. Due to Rahul Gandhi's resolute determination, the Manuvadi Modi government was compelled to conduct a caste census in India, a just and constitutional demand. The committee wholeheartedly commends Rahul Gandhi for this historic achievement on behalf of all backward classes in India." "While this is a milestone, it is a small step toward ensuring social justice as envisioned by the Constitution. Under the steadfast leadership of Rahul Gandhi, India will realise the highest constitutional goal of social transformation, paving the way for building an equitable society in our great nation," he added. The Chief Minister said, "Under the bold and fearless leadership of Rahul Gandhi, we pledge to uphold the Congress party's flag and fight to secure social justice for all." The resolutions adopted in the declaration state, "A nationwide caste census should be conducted by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (ORGI). The census must include social, economic, educational, employment, and political aspects of every caste and individual, using Telangana's SEEEP Caste Survey as a model." "The 50% cap on reservations should be relaxed to provide adequate reservations for backward classes in education, economy, politics, and other fields. Reservations should be implemented in private educational institutions as per Article 15(5) of the Constitution," it added. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah further revealed that in 2015, during his tenure as Chief Minister, he had ordered the Backward Classes Commission to conduct a socio-economic and educational survey covering all communities, not just backward classes. The commission conducted the survey, but in 2018, under the coalition government, the then-commission chairman Kantharaju requested more time to submit the report. Former CM HD Kumaraswamy rejected the request. Despite Minister Puttaranga Shetty granting an extension, Kumaraswamy instructed the minister not to accept the report, Siddaramaiah disclosed. CM Siddaramaiah noted that Karnataka was the first state to conduct a caste census since 1931, earning it the title of the "Karnataka Model." He added that during the subsequent three years and ten months of the BJP government, no action was taken to accept or implement the commission's report. Later, under Backward Classes Commission Chairman Jayaprakash Hegde, a report with recommendations was prepared and submitted. However, as it was based on a decade-old survey, the state cabinet decided to conduct a fresh survey. The Backward Classes Commission has been directed to complete the re-survey and submit a report within three months, which will then be implemented, he added. The Chief Minister emphasised that the Congress party is always committed to the Constitution. The AHINDA (Minorities, Backward Classes, and Dalits) philosophy is rooted in equal opportunity and justice for all. He highlighted the lack of social, economic, and educational equality today, stressing the need to empower backward communities. He praised Rahul Gandhi's advocacy for a caste census, clarifying that it is not just a count of castes but a comprehensive socio-economic and educational survey aimed at providing equal opportunities to backward communities. (ANI) Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday said that the next meeting of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) OBC Advisory Council will be held on July 25 in New Delhi. Speaking to ANI following the Council's first meeting in Bengaluru, Baghel said, "This meeting will be very beneficial for the OBC community. On 25th July, another meeting will be held in Delhi. Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge will also attend the meeting..." The AICC OBC Advisory Council, chaired by Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, held its inaugural meeting in Bengaluru on Wednesday and passed the 'Bengaluru Declaration.' The declaration called for a national-level caste census and breaking the 50 per cent reservation cap to ensure fair representation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in education, employment, politics, and other sectors. The council also demanded reservations in private educational institutions in line with Article 15(5) of the Constitution. Reading out the declaration, CM Siddaramaiah said, "A national level caste census must be conducted by the Census Commission of India, officially known as the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India (ORGI). The Census must include Social, Economic, Educational, Employment, Political aspects of each individual and castes keeping at the forefront, the Telangana State (SEEEP CASTE SURVEY) as a role model." The declaration further stated, "Breaking the 50 per cent cap barrier in providing reservation, thereby ensuring suitable reservation for the OBCs, in education, service, political and other areas. Reservation in Private Educational Institutes as per article 15(5) of the Constitution." Addressing the press after the council meeting, CM Siddaramaiah thanked Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and appreciated him for his contribution. "We unanimously thank Nyay Yodha Rahul Gandhi for courageously taking the crucial initiative for the marginalised sections of the society in our country and standing up for the cause of the backwards classes in particular... The council conveys its appreciation and credits Rahul Gandhi's contribution to this historic achievement," Siddaramaiah said. (ANI) The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with Government of Odisha is organizing a two-day National Conference on the theme "Good Governance Practices" on July 17-18, 2025 at Bhubaneswar, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions said in a release on Wednesday. According to the release, Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, along with Shri Mohan Charan Majhi, Chief Minister of Odisha, will jointly inaugurate the National Conference at Bhubaneswar and deliver the inaugural address. This two-day National Conference, based on the theme "Good Governance Practices" will highlight and celebrate the initiatives that have been recognized with the PM Excellence Awards. V Srinivas, Secretary, DARPG and Manoj Ahuja, Chief Secretary, Government of Odisha, will also address the inaugural session. The National Conference in Bhubaneswar will feature five plenary sessions on various topics. The first session of the National Conference on "Prime Minister's Awarded Initiatives 2024 - (Holistic Development of Districts)" will be chaired by Shri Puneet Yadav, Additional Secretary, DARPG. Sarita Chauhan, Joint Secretary (DARPG), will chair a session on the topic, "Prime Minister's Awarded Initiatives 2024- (Aspirational Block Program)". The other sessions will hold deliberations on Prime Minister's Awarded Initiatives 2023 & 2024 (Holistic Development & Aspirational Block Programme and Innovation). During the event, over 20 Speakers, including district collectors and senior officials from the state and central governments, who have been awarded for best practices, will provide a brief picture of their initiatives and a brief account of the transformational changes brought about under select government schemes. More than 400 delegates will attend the Conference from across the country. The Conference aims to bring national and state-level public administration organisations together on the same platform to share experiences on innovations in public administration, transforming future public solutions to improve the quality of life, promote good governance, and enhance digital governance. The Conference is a two-day event in which representatives/ DM/DC of States are invited to make a presentation on good governance practices of the States for wider dissemination & possible replication. (ANI) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a protest on Wednesday against Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Assam's Kamrup district. The protest took place in the Bongaon area, close to where the Congress meeting was held. Protesters waved placards and shouted slogans targeting Rahul Gandhi, expressing strong opposition to his political presence in the state. "We never take Rahul Gandhi seriously. Therefore, that era of Congress is over, that family nepotism is over and the Indian political background is of no use to Rahul Gandhi in Indian politics," said the BJP Kamrup District Secretary during the protest. He further added, "What we only want to say about Rahul Gandhi is that the son of a foreign mother can never be a country lover." Another protestor, Nitin Kalita said, "We are protesting here, so today is the meeting of Congress. Rahul Gandhi is coming, we do not take it seriously. Today we are protesting in support of those people who have come, the citizens who have entered our area by force to do so, we are protesting it." Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi said that Congress will sweep next year's Assembly polls in Assam and launched a sharp attack on Himanta Biswa Sarma, saying he does not think himself as Chief Minister but a "king". Addressing a rally in Chhaygaon, Rahul Gandhi said that the party has a new team in the state under leadership of party MP Gaurav Gogoi and it will deliver results. "The people of Assam know the truth. There will be elections soon, and the Congress will sweep those elections. We have created a new team here. We have started the work, and the people of Assam will soon see the results we will see it," he said. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also addressed the gathering. Gaurav Gogoi earlier told ANI that that Congress in Assam will fight for justice for all people who were living "under fear" and were facing persecution by the BJP government here. (ANI) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as part of its ongoing efforts under Operation Chakra-V to combat cybercrime and digital arrest scams, conducted searches across multiple locations in seven states on July 16. These states include the NCT of Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Rajasthan, the agency said in a release. During the operation, the CBI seized a large volume of incriminating evidence, including mobile phones, bank account opening documents, transaction records, and KYC papers. The operation has also led to the arrest of 03 individuals for their active role in facilitating and operating mule bank accounts used to channel and conceal proceeds of various cyber frauds, it said. The CBI had earlier registered a case on June 25 against 37 accused persons under IPC/BNS and the Prevention of Corruption Act. These individuals operating as mule account holders and middlemen/ agents and bank employees knowingly colluded with cybercriminals to open and operate mule accounts used for receiving, transferring and withdrawing proceeds of cyber frauds, it said. Earlier, the CBI had conducted searches on June 26 and June 27 at 40 locations across various States and arrested 10 accused persons for similar offences. After initial searches in June 2025, the CBI is now conducting further searches in 7 states based on fresh inputs received. The searches aim to dismantle the infrastructure of cybercrime syndicates by identifying and neutralising mule accounts that channel and conceal the proceeds of crimes. The arrested individuals facilitated the operation of these mule bank accounts, which were used to transfer the proceeds of crimes generated through digital arrest scams, impersonation, fraudulent advertisements, investment frauds and other related cyber offences. The CBI has adopted a strategic approach in the fight against cybercrime, focusing on targeting the key pillars of the cybercrime infrastructure. The first pillar is the financial infrastructure, which involves mule accounts, unauthorised payment gateways, and the wider fintech ecosystem misused by cybercriminals. The second pillar is the telecom/communication infrastructure, involving mule SIM cards, point-of-sale (PoS) agents facilitating illegal SIM activations, and networks supplying such SIM cards. The third pillar is the human resource network, which consists of organised syndicates engaged in the recruitment and exploitation of people for executing cybercrimes, also known as 'cyber slavery'. The third pillar most of the time operates outside the boundaries of India. This action is part of the Government of India's continued commitment to dealing firmly with cybercrime and its perpetrators, with special emphasis on dismantling the infrastructure that enables such offences. The arrested accused will be produced before the jurisdictional court. Further investigation is ongoing. (ANI) Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on Monday addressed the media on the Cabinet's key decision to approve the 'Pradhan Mantri Dhan-Dhanya Krishi Yojana'. According to a release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the foodgrain production has increased by more than 40%, and the production of fruits, milk, and vegetables has also seen historic growth. However, significant disparities in productivity continue to persist between states, as well as within districts within the same state. He stated that "districts with low agricultural productivity or limited utilisation of Agri Credit Cards (ACC) by farmers will be identified. In these areas, the government will work to ensure the comprehensive implementation of schemes from 11 different departments through convergence." He added, "This will include not only central schemes but also those from state governments, along with contributions from any other willing partners. Approximately 100 such districts will be selected, with at least one district from every state. Preparatory work is already underway. A nodal officer will be appointed for each district, and both the districts and their nodal officers will be finalised by the end of July. Training sessions will commence in August, accompanied by efforts to raise public awareness." Chouhan mentioned that NITI Aayog will be tasked with "tracking district-level progress based on certain indicators. It will also create a dashboard to monitor the progress. The campaign will begin with the Rabi season in October. A district-level committee, led by the Gram Panchayat or District Collector, will be formed, which will include departmental officers, progressive farmers, and others who will collectively make decisions. Similar teams will be formed at the state level, with the responsibility of ensuring effective convergence of schemes in districts. At the central level, two teams will be formed--one under Union ministers and another under Secretaries, with officers from various departments. The scheme will operate across multiple sectors." Chouhan emphasised that the overall goal is to improve productivity in low-yield districts, not just to reach the national average, but also to achieve top productivity levels. In addition to crops, focus will also be given to fruit cultivation, fisheries, beekeeping, animal husbandry, and agroforestry. (ANI) According to officials, the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC) under the Department of Revenue-DM Cell, Government of Himachal Pradesh, has been actively monitoring the situation. The total death toll during this monsoon season (June 20, 2025, to July 15, 2025) stands at 106 across various districts, they said. Rain-related incidents, including landslides, flash floods, cloudbursts, drowning, lightning, snake bites, electrocution, and falls from trees/steep rocks, have accounted for 62 deaths, they added. The district-wise breakdown of these rain-related deaths is as follows: Bilaspur (5), Chamba (3), Hamirpur (8), Kangra (14), Kinnaur (1), Kullu (4), Lahaul & Spiti (1), Mandi (17), Shimla (3), Sirmaur (1), and Una (5). In addition to rain-related fatalities, road accidents have claimed 44 lives across the state during the same period. Bilaspur reported 3 deaths, Chamba 6, Hamirpur 1, Kangra 3, Kinnaur 5, Kullu 7, Lahaul & Spiti 1, Mandi 4, Shimla 4, Sirmaur 1, Solan 6, and Una 3. The monsoon has also caused widespread damage to property and infrastructure. Key incidents reported include: A flash flood in Khaniyara Khad, Kangra district, on June 25, resulted in 7 deaths and 1-2 persons still missing, with rescue operations ongoing. In Kullu, a flash flood near the First Snow Gallery, Solang to Atal Tunnel Road, on June 25, 2025, led to 1 death and 2 missing persons. A cloudburst near Bagehi, Chamba district, on July 6, washed away one gharat and one bridge. In Kullu, a cloudburst near Majhan Nallah in Sainj Valley on June 25 caused significant damage to roads, vehicles, and houses, with 1 confirmed death and an ongoing search and rescue for missing individuals. Mandi district experienced multiple cloudbursts, resulting in the damage of 60 houses, 51 cowsheds, 33 cattle, 10 shops, and 5 small bridges in Karsog, with 2 deaths and 1 missing person reported. In the Thunag area of Mandi, a total of 599 houses, 277 cowsheds, 146 shops, 482 cattle, 31 vehicles, and 6 bridges were damaged due to cloudbursts. A landslide in Village Kaliyun, Chamba district, on July 3, resulted in one fatality after a person was buried under debris. In Lahaul & Spiti, a landslide near Lari on June 25, 2025, injured one person and damaged two vehicles. Landslides have also blocked major roads, including NH-505 in Lahaul & Spiti and the NH-21 Mandi-Kullu route. The Kalka-Shimla railway track was blocked at two locations in Solan due to landslides. Relief and rescue operations are underway across the affected districts, with teams from NDRF, SDRF, and Home Guard deployed to assist stranded individuals and provide aid. Numerous relief camps have been established to shelter displaced families. (ANI) Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Ayush and Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India Prataprao Jadhav inaugurated a '400 seated UG Boys' Hostel for undergraduate students at National Institute of Homoeopathy (NIH), Kolkata on Wednesday, Ministry of AYUSH said in a release. According to the release, Sukanta Majumdar, Minister of State for Education, Ministry of Education and DoNER, Government of India, and Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, Member of Parliament from Purulia, West Bengal, along with other officials of the Ministry, were also present on the occasion. Addressing the gathering, Prataprao Jadhav, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ministry of Ayush and Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that " It gives great pleasure to note that NIH is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year. Completing 50 years is not just a milestone; it is a celebration of service, dedication, and continuous excellence". He impressed upon the NIH that it has made successful efforts to attain the status of a Centre of Excellence. Prataprao Jadhav emphasised the time-bound completion of the expansion of the infrastructure projects. He added these projects are not merely infrastructure expansions, they reflect efforts to meet the growing academic and patient-care needs to foster a rich environment for postgraduate training and research--empowering NIH in its mission, as per the release. He urged the Director to arrange a dedicated room for the alumni on the campus so that their rich experience and expertise will further enrich and strengthen the system of Homoeopathy. As NIH steps into its 51st year, the Union Ayush Minister also urged the students, faculty, alumni, and staff to dream big, work hard, and build an institution that not only provides healing but also leads in knowledge, innovation, and compassion. According to the official statement, Minister of State for Education and DoNER, Sukanta Majumdar, in his address, stated that this institute is not only the pride of West Bengal but also a symbol of India's rich tradition of knowledge and excellence in healthcare. He expressed that different parts of the country are being represented by the students of NIH. It is demonstrating the concept of the Prime Minister's vision of "Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat". He added that NIH will play a pivotal role in making India Viksit Bharat. He emphasised the significant patient turnout, which reflects a major achievement for NIH. He continued that this institute is playing a significant role in providing affordable, accessible, and holistic healthcare. He highlighted the role of NIH's peripheral OPDs and mentioned that even cancer has been treated by NIH doctors--underscoring the effectiveness of homeopathy. He emphasised the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and rigorous research. It is his aspiration that NIH achieves global recognition for its excellence, as per the release. According to the release, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) from Purulia, Jyotirmay Singh Mahato, mentioned that he receives homoeopathic treatment from an alumnus of the NIH under the Ministry. He added that he is deeply impressed to find that the hospital is catering to the needs of the patients from various neighbouring states. In an official statement, the Director of the NIH, in his welcome address, highlighted that the National Institute of Homoeopathy has reached a milestone in catering to around 3,000 patients daily. The director expressed that "this is not simply an inauguration but also a long-cherished dream come true". He aspired for NIH to become a Centre of Excellence, which would provide an opportunity to further develop our research and medical services. He also added that NIH is not just an institute - it is a sentiment, a family, a movement, a resolve to serve. (ANI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah visited IIT Jammu on Wednesday to attend the valedictory session of Summer School 2025, where he lauded the institution for its growing national reputation and local impact. He also encouraged visiting students to explore the beauty and culture of the Union Territory. Speaking at the event, Abdullah said, "Finding myself in IIT Jammu makes me feel intimidated -- it's because of the talent here. This is the first time I've visited any IIT, and I'm happy it's in Jammu and Kashmir." Accompanied by Advisor to the Chief Minister, Nasir Aslam Wani, Abdullah appreciated the scenic campus and compared it to the picturesque landscapes of Kashmir. He said, "I was so eager to come here and I feel it's such a beautiful campus that it is as beautiful as Kashmir." He addressed a common local concern that IITs may not directly benefit local youth due to the all-India competitive entrance system. "I was in the Ministry of Commerce in the Government of India in the Vajpayee sahab government. I know Saraf sahab from that time. People here believe that IIT will not benefit local students, as it is an Indian competitive exam. However, what is important is that IIT is located in Jammu, which encourages students in Jammu and Kashmir. One third of this summer school are from J-K, I have come to know. We had a meeting where IIT Jammu and J-K Government can do tougher like Environment, incubation, Tourism, like behavioural sciences, " Abdullah said. Encouraging visiting students from across the country to stay longer and experience the region, he said, "May I request those who have come from all over India to spend a few more days in J&K? You can visit Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, go for the Amarnath Ji Yatra, enjoy a shikara ride in Dal Lake, or a trip to Gulmarg. It's good you all are here." (ANI) Union Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, inaugurated the India campus of the University of Southampton in Gurugram, Haryana, on Wednesday, along with Nayab Singh Saini, Chief Minister of Haryana, the Ministry of Education said in a release. Industries and Commerce Minister of Haryana Rao Narbir Singh; Lord Patel OBE, Chancellor and Member of the UK House of Lords; Lindy Cameron, British High Commissioner to India; Mark E. Smith, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of Southampton; Eloise Phillips, Academic Provost, University of Southampton, New Delhi; and senior officials of the Ministry of Education were also present on the occasion. As per the release, the inauguration marks a significant milestone in India's higher education landscape, commemorating five years of the National Education Policy 2020. The University of Southampton, a QS Top 100 global institution and founding member of the UK's Russell Group, becomes the first foreign university to operationalise a campus in India under the University Grants Commission's (Setting up and Operation of Campuses of Foreign Higher Educational Institutions in India) Regulations. Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said that this marks a momentous milestone towards the internationalisation of education in India under the NEP 2020, as well as towards strengthening the education pillar of India-UK cooperation, as envisioned in the India-UK Roadmap 2030. Pradhan commended and congratulated the University of Southampton for setting up this state-of-the-art campus within a year of receiving the Loan. He expressed confidence that the campus, with its array of forward-looking courses and Southampton's legacy of academic excellence, will emerge as a distinguished institution that shapes leaders of tomorrow. The Minister stated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emphasised that education is a living bridge between India and the UK, and today's gala opening of the University of Southampton's Delhi campus is an opportunity to further strengthen that bridge. Southampton University's campus in Gurugram will create new synergies, foster a new culture of curiosity and excellence, and offer students an additional choice to access world-class education at a more affordable cost, closer to home and family. He urged the University of Southampton leadership to start STEM courses at the Gurugram campus and added that this campus should aim to become a hub of solutions for global challenges. Pradhan said that education has been placed at the heart of India's development. Through the internationalisation of education at home, India is being envisioned as a global knowledge destination, reviving its civilizational legacy and reigniting its intellectual heritage from Pushpagiri and Nalanda to Gurugram. He invited other leading universities from around the world to come to India to co-create ecosystems of innovation, research, and education, and stated that together, efforts should be made to build a bright future and drive innovation and progress. The new Gurugram campus will offer globally recognised undergraduate and postgraduate programmes aligned with UK academic standards. Students may spend up to one year at the University's campuses in the UK or Malaysia. Programmes commencing in 2025 include undergraduate (BSc) courses in Computer Science, Economics, Accounting & Finance, Business Management, and postgraduate (MSc) courses in Finance and International Management. Nayab Singh Saini, Chief Minister of Haryana, welcomed the University of Southampton to the state and reaffirmed the Government of Haryana's commitment to positioning the region as a global education and innovation hub. Patel OBE, Chancellor of the University of Southampton and Member of the UK House of Lords, and Lindy Cameron, British High Commissioner to India, also addressed the gathering and expressed their strong support for expanding UK-India educational partnerships. Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Higher Education and Chairman UGC, Vineet Joshi, warmly congratulated the University of Southampton and the UK Government on the opening of their pioneering campus in India, calling it a proud milestone in the India-UK education partnership. He highlighted that this is the first campus set up under the UGC's new regulations, which enable top foreign universities to establish branch campuses in India --a key reform envisioned under the National Education Policy 2020, as proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dr. Joshi noted that NEP 2020 positions India as a global hub for education, research, and innovation, and emphasised that the UGC has created a streamlined, transparent process to facilitate such initiatives. Acknowledging the proactive support of the Haryana Government, he expressed confidence that the University of Southampton, with its legacy of academic excellence, will provide quality education in critical areas such as Computer Science, Economics, International Business, and Management, thereby contributing to India's priorities in digital innovation and global leadership. He concluded by expressing hope that the new campus would foster collaboration between Indian and international academia, becoming a beacon of excellence and a bridge between nations. The first cohort at the India campus comprises academically accomplished students from across India and international locations, including the United Arab Emirates and Nepal. The University is set to hire over 75 full-time faculty members who meet UK academic standards and will be expected to undertake the University's Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. These faculty members bring experience from global academic centres in the UK, UAE, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The University of Southampton boasts a global alumni network of over 290,000 graduates, including more than 1,700 from India. Many of these alumni are expected to support the India campus by serving as mentors and industry ambassadors. The University received its official Letter of Intent on August 29, 2024, followed by a public announcement and formal launch on September 13, 2024. (ANI) An insightful industry interactive session titled "Fostering Growth: SME Schemes and Opportunities for the Ayush Industry" was organised by Ayush Export Promotion Council (AYUSHEXCIL) with the support of Rastriya Ayurved Vidyapeeth and the Ministry of AYUSH on Wednesday, the ministry said in a release. According to the release, the session witnessed the presence of several distinguished dignitaries, including Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Government of India; S.C.L. DAS, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, Government of India; Dr. Kousthubha Upadhyaya, Adviser, Ministry of Ayush. Dr. Kousthubha Upadhyaya, Adviser to the Ministry of Ayush, set the tone by highlighting the significance of MSMEs in the Ayush sector. This was followed by an informative presentation by Anuja Bapat, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of MSME, who outlined various schemes tailored to support Ayush-focused enterprises. Prof. (Dr.) Mahesh Kumar Dadhich, CEO of the National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB), presented the potential and prospects of Sea Buckthorn in the Ayush sector. Ms. Ritu Sain, Investment Commissioner of Chhattisgarh, showcased state-level investment opportunities relevant to the Ayush industry. Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, and SCL Das, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, both stressed the importance of enhancing quality standards and scalability within the Ayush sector. The event reaffirmed the collective vision to harness MSME opportunities for sustainable growth and innovation in the Ayush sector. Dr Jitendra Singh, as the Chief Guest, was speaking at the Doctors' Day celebration organised by the national body of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) here. The event was attended by IMA National President Dr Bhanushali, President-Elect Dr Naik, Immediate Past President Dr Asoken, and other national office bearers of the IMA. Addressing a packed audience of medical professionals, Jitendra Singh invoked the legacy of Dr. B.C. Roy, reflecting on his immense contribution to both medicine and nation-building. "One of the greatest traits of Dr. Roy was the unwavering trust he and his contemporaries commanded in society, without compromising his consultation fee or ethics," he said. "Dr. Roy charged a consultation fee of over Rs 66 in the 1940s, and nobody questioned it. Today, we must ask ourselves -- why has the same trust eroded?" he asked, calling for a revival of the doctor-patient trust, which, he emphasised, was the hallmark of Dr. Roy's era. (ANI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah expressed optimism on Wednesday about a record turnout for the ongoing Amarnath Yatra and emphasised the importance of Urdu proficiency among recruits in the revenue department, following a recent judicial directive. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the valedictory session of Summer School 2025 in IIT Jammu, Abdullah noted that this year's Amarnath pilgrimage, which continues till August 9, has already recorded over 2.5 lakh devotees. "The Amarnath Yatra will continue till 9th August, and I hope that this number will increase. There was a time when after the Pahalgam attack, it seemed that hardly anyone would come for the Amarnath Yatra. But we have touched 2.5 lakh, and if it stays like this, then we should easily cross 3 lakh and 3.5 lakh," he said. Abdullah also responded to the recent order by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jammu bench, which directed the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) to accept applications for the post of Naib Tehsildar from candidates possessing knowledge of all five official languages--Hindi, English, Dogri, Kashmiri, and Urdu. Defending the importance of Urdu in administrative roles, Abdullah said, "You have to remember that even before independence, all our revenue records were in Urdu. Now, if you appoint revenue staff who do not know how to read the records, what work will they do." He proposed a balanced approach to language requirements, suggesting that those not proficient in Urdu should be given time-bound training. "So it will be better if we make such a policy in which these people are given time to learn Urdu. If people are appointed without knowing Urdu, then they will not be able to read the revenue records, "said CM Abdullah. Earlier, while speaking at the event, Abdullah said, "Finding myself in IIT Jammu makes me feel intimidated -- it's because of the talent here. This is the first time I've visited any IIT, and I'm happy it's in Jammu and Kashmir." Accompanied by Advisor to the CM, Nasir Aslam Wani, Abdullah appreciated the scenic campus and compared it to the picturesque landscapes of Kashmir. He said, "I was so eager to come here and I feel it's such a beautiful campus that it is as beautiful as Kashmir." He addressed a common local concern that IITs may not directly benefit local youth due to the all-India competitive entrance system. "I was in the Ministry of Commerce in the Government of India in the Vajpayee sahab government. I know Saraf sahab from that time. People here believe that IIT will not benefit local students, as it is an Indian competitive exam. However, what is important is that IIT is located in Jammu, which encourages students in Jammu and Kashmir. One third of this summer school are from J-K, I have come to know. We had a meeting where IIT Jammu and J-K Government can do tougher like Environment, incubation, Tourism, like behavioural sciences, " Abdullah said. Encouraging visiting students from across the country to stay longer and experience the region, he said, "May I request those who have come from all over India to spend a few more days in J&K? You can visit Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, go for the Amarnath Ji Yatra, enjoy a shikara ride in Dal Lake, or a trip to Gulmarg. It's good you all are here." (ANI) The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) stated during a state review meeting in Jaipur, Rajasthan on Wednesday that regular collection of samples from commonly consumed foods like ghee, milk, paneer, and spices is necessary, and related cases should be resolved quickly. "Samples of commonly consumed food items such as ghee, milk, paneer, and spices should be collected regularly, and the related cases must be disposed of promptly," he said. The CEO of FSSAI stressed the need for speeding up the process of establishing a Food Safety Laboratory at Bikaner and assured FSSAI's support. Further, the CEO appreciated the proactive efforts of the Rajasthan government in promoting food safety and combating food adulteration. He also directed officials to ensure continuous monitoring to strengthen enforcement while emphasising the need for prompt disposal of pending food adulteration cases. During the review, Shri G Kamala Vardhana Rao, CEO, FSSAI, assessed efforts being undertaken under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, to prevent adulteration, including pending legal cases, manpower deployment, and other critical aspects. The importance of concluding adjudication within 90 days of the first hearing of the case, as mandated by the FSS Act 2006, was also discussed in the meeting. The meeting was attended by Additional District Magistrates from various districts, who are responsible for and appointed as adjudication officers to handle food adulteration-related cases. The CEO took stock of the vacant Food Safety Officer (FSO) positions in the state and advised that these be filled as soon as possible. The Food Safety Commissioner of Rajasthan, Shri H. Guite, presented a detailed overview of food safety operations and upcoming food safety campaigns, particularly during the festive season and shared progress updates. The Executive Director of the Regulatory Compliance Division, Satyen Kumar Panda and the Director, Shri Rakesh Kumar, also addressed the meeting and shared strategic guidance for effective enforcement of the FSS Act 2006. The meeting was attended by the Chief Medical and Health Officers, as well as all Food Safety Officers, both online and offline, from various districts, along with other senior officials. The meeting concluded with a unified resolve by both central and state authorities to strengthen collaboration, enhance regulatory enforcement and food safety compliance throughout the state. (ANI) On the occasion of the 'National Action for Mechanized Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) Day', Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, BL Verma, inaugurated the helpline (14473) for waste pickers and distributed PPE kits and Ayushman cards to Sewer and Septic Tank Workers (SSWs) and Waste Pickers, in Lucknow on Wednesday, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in a release. According to the release, addressing the programme, Verma said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has honoured and respected those who were not cared about. He said that in 2014, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, the Prime Minister had started the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the country. Since that campaign, the picture of the country has changed drastically. The Minister said that cleanliness is not just the responsibility of the government; it is the collective responsibility of society. He said that the Government is continuously working towards stopping the practice of manual scavenging through the Namaste Scheme, cleaning work using modern technology without human contact, and ensuring safety and respect for sanitation workers. As per the release, Verma further said that NAMASTE Yojana is not just a scheme but a resolution under which concrete steps have been taken towards making the lives of workers working in sewers and septic tanks across the country safe and dignified. He informed that under the scheme, profiling of 85,067 sewer septic tank workers has been done so far, and PPE kits have been provided to 45,871 sewer SSWs, while Ayushman cards have been provided to 40,166 workers. The Minister said that Prime Minister Modi himself had given this message in the Cabinet that we all have the responsibility of keeping not only our homes but also our offices clean. He said that as a result of this, when the Ministries of the Government of India cleaned their old junk and auctioned it for the first time, a sum of over Rs 61 crore was received. In this programme, an AR/VR training module was launched for occupational safety training of SSWs and a fashion show was also organised to explain the importance and utility of PPE Kits under NAMASTE scheme. On this occasion, a total of 933 and 1563 waste pickers have been validated in profiling in Lucknow, out of which 20 SSWs and 20 Waste Pickers were symbolically given PPE kits and Ayushman cards were given to 24 sanitation workers. Safety equipment was also distributed for Emergency Response Sanitation Units (ERSU). The event witnessed the reaffirmation of the Government's commitment to 'Dignity for the Marginalised', ensuring that those who have been historically underserved or overlooked are provided with the appropriate assistance they deserve. This dedication to prioritise the marginalised reflects the Government's broader vision of Viksit Bharat, where every individual has an opportunity to contribute and benefit from India's development journey, the press release said. Dignitaries present on the occasion included Minister of Social Welfare, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Arun Asim; State Minister of Backward Caste Development and Empowerment of PwDs, Narendra Kashyap; Senior Financial Advisor, Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ms. Yogita Swaroop; India Representative of UNDP, Ms. Angela Lusigi, along with other senior officers from Centre and State Governments. According to the release, the National Action for Mechanised Sanitation Ecosystem (NAMASTE) scheme is a human-centric approach of the government, where no Safai Karamchari has to do the hazardous work of cleaning sewers and septic tanks with their hands. The scheme was jointly launched by the Union Ministries of Social Justice and Empowerment and Housing and Urban Affairs. It is being implemented by the National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC), for a period of three years from FY 2023-24 to 2025-26, with a budget allocation of Rs 349.73 crore. The scheme provides a number of entitlements for Sewer and Septic Tank Workers (SSWs). SSWs are being profiled through a digital application and provided PPE kits, access to safety equipment, occupational safety training, health insurance coverage and livelihood opportunities in the sanitation sector through subsidised vehicles/machines related to sanitation. They are being encouraged to start their own sanitation ventures (Sani-preneurship) through appropriate capacity building. (ANI) Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today addressed a seminar on "J&K's March Towards Peace" as part of a lecture series organised by Gandhi Smriti, at New Delhi. According to a release, on the occasion, the Lieutenant Governor also inaugurated a newly developed 'Gandhi Smriti Art Gallery'. The event was also graced by former Union Minister and Vice-Chairman of Gandhi Smriti, Vijay Goel. In his keynote address, the Lieutenant Governor highlighted the profound and deep bond between Mahatma Gandhi and the state of Jammu and Kashmir. "Pujya Bapu's philosophy is a source of inspiration for UT and our education system is inculcating the values of truth, non-violence and compassion among youth. Gandhiji saw a ray of hope in Jammu and Kashmir. Gandhiji wanted to see peace and progress in Jammu and Kashmir. The Hon'ble Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is fulfilling the dream of Mahatma Gandhi. Since 2019, he has been building a fear-free, terror-free J&K, which would make its place among the developed states and UTs as a symbol of peace," the Lieutenant Governor said. The Lieutenant Governor reiterated the resolve of the Government of India, Police and the security forces to completely wipe out the entire terror ecosystem and establish a lasting peace in Jammu and Kashmir. "Our policy is peace, driven by the spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. We believe in establishing Peace and not buying Peace. India has always followed the path of peace. Indian State authority has been completely established in J&K. Today, the common citizens of Kashmir have understood that their future lies with India. Our youth are being guided towards building a more prosperous future for Jammu and Kashmir, and their growing involvement is instrumental in this transformative journey. The local terrorist recruitment is at an all-time low. The decisive action against terrorism and its facilitators and thorough investigations against those trying to radicalise the youth have ensured that peace prevails. A month-long peace march is organised in the Kashmir valley every year to commemorate Pujya Bapu's birth anniversary. Gandhi Jayanti, Teachers Day, Har Ghar Tiranga, Independence Day celebrations and numerous other national integration programmes across the UT reflect that J&K is reclaiming its legacy as a land of peace. Youth are now aware that Jammu and Kashmir, as envisioned by Bapu, is a state of unity and peace. This wind of change has rattled the terrorist nation of Pakistan, and it constantly tries to hurt the soul of India and its cultural-spiritual fabric. The aim of the Pahalgam terrorist attack was to stall the economic progress of the UT as well, but we are marching ahead with renewed strength. Terrorism is in the DNA of Pakistan and they continue to spread it. The entire global society must unite against the terrorist country, Pakistan. We are determined to completely wipe out terrorism and the remnants of the terror ecosystem. We will not spare anyone who speaks the language of terror outfits. Strict action will be taken against such elements. Those behind the Pahalgam terror attack have been identified. NIA is investigating, and soon the perpetrators will meet the same fate as other top terror commanders," the Lieutenant Governor said. The Lieutenant Governor, in his address, also highlighted the transformation across various sectors in Jammu and Kashmir under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said the era of the post-abrogation of Article 370 represents a defining moment in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. "The Union Territory has marked significant milestones over the past few years, creating new paradigms for inclusive development. Our economy has doubled in the last 5 years," the Lieutenant Governor further said. (ANI) Common Service Centre e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC SPV), under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), celebrated 10 Years of Digital India at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday. The grand celebration marked a decade of transformative digital empowerment across the nation, said an official release from the Ministry of Electronics and IT. The event was graced by the presence of Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, and Jitin Prasada, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology. Ashwini Vaishnaw inaugurated the program as the Chief Guest. In his address, the Minister said, "VLE brothers and sisters across the country have set a remarkable example by delivering the benefits of Digital India to every citizen. When the world questioned how a tea seller or a vegetable vendor could use digital payments, today that dream has come true--UPI payments have surpassed Visa transactions. This is the strength of 1.4 billion Indians." He highlighted that CSC has reached nearly 90% of the country's villages and said, "If there is any medium capable of reaching every village, it is CSC." Vaishnaw cited inspiring stories of VLE Manjulata from Mayurbhanj district and VLE Rose Angelina from Meghalaya. Despite challenging circumstances, both women acquired digital skills and empowered their communities. "Amidst the scenic hills and remote villages of East West Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, woman VLE Rose Angelina M. Kharsyntiew has scripted a digital revolution. Through her centre in the Mairang area, she is not only delivering services but also setting an example of transformation, empowerment, and community service," he added. The Minister also made the following key announcements, including free AI training for 10 lakh individuals, with priority for all VLEs, urged all VLEs to start offering IRCTC services and committed to speaking with Chief Ministers to integrate state IT agencies with CSC-SPV. Union MoS Jitin Prasada underscored the role of CSCs in bridging the digital divide, "The resolve to extend the benefits of Digital India to the last mile of society is being carried forward with the help of our VLE brothers and sisters. Ten years ago, when we began the Digital India initiative, the Prime Minister had the vision to lay the foundation for a developed India." He shared that in 2014, there were only 83,000 CSC centres, whereas today, their number has grown to nearly 5.50 lakh. He emphasised the integration of Primary Agriculture Credit Societies(PACS) with CSCs and acknowledged over 74,000 women VLEs who are setting new benchmarks in empowerment. "We are now in the era of Artificial Intelligence, and it is advancing rapidly. With time, we must use new technologies to bring positive change in people's lives and empower them," he said. He also highlighted the need to strengthen awareness, cybersecurity, and capacity building, especially in the agriculture, health, and education sectors. He recommended allowing VLEs to deliver Update Client Lite and state government services to enhance their income. Welcoming the dignitaries, Sanjay Rakesh, Managing Director & CEO, CSC SPV, stated, "With CSC, there is no need to visit cities to avail government services. CSC centres are providing G2C and B2B services at doorsteps in remote areas of the country, enabling digital empowerment." He also said, "In the past 10 years, CSC has emerged as a model of Digital India that represents a new paradigm of inclusion and empowerment. I am fully confident that by moving forward with the Prime Minister's mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas, we will take the country to new heights." CSC Day was celebrated with great enthusiasm across the nation. In Delhi, a two-day celebration was held on July 15-16, 2025. On July 15, IT Secretaries from all states convened at Bharat Mandapam to deliberate on rural empowerment, the future of e-governance, and the role of CSCs. Between July 1 and 15, CSCs across the country celebrated the occasion with active public participation. Top-performing VLEs were felicitated for their outstanding contributions to advancing digital inclusion. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, the Digital India program aimed to make technology accessible to every Indian. Over the decade (2015-2025), the initiative has bridged the digital divide and transformed governance, financial inclusion, and internet accessibility, making India the world's third-largest digital economy. CSC SPV, established in 2009 under MeitY, has emerged as one of the world's largest digital service delivery ecosystems, with over 5.5 lakh operational centres. Each CSC is operated by a Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE), a local changemaker who provides citizen-centric services including Aadhaar enrollment and updates, PAN card and passport services, Banking and insurance, Telemedicine and education services, Skill development and legal aid through Tele-Law and Agriculture services, Grameen eStore (B2B), utility bill payments, and more. (ANI) UIDAI has empowered Aadhaar number holders of India with the unique identity and a digital platform to authenticate anytime, anywhere. Aadhaar number is a unique 12-digit digital identity for the residents of India and NRIs. The 12-digit Aadhaar number is a random number generated without the use of any intelligence and, hence, not all 12-digit numbers are Aadhaar numbers and no Aadhaar number is ever re-assigned to another individual, said an official release from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. However, in case of the death of a person, it is essential that his/her Aadhaar number is deactivated to prevent identity fraud and unauthorised usage of such Aadhaar number. It is also important to validate the status of the deceased Aadhaar number holders prior to deactivation of their Aadhaar numbers, as it may have widespread ramifications for them. Therefore, in order to maintain the continued accuracy of the Aadhaar database, UIDAI has proactively taken the following measures to obtain death records from various sources and deactivate Aadhaar numbers after due validation. Recently, UIDAI requested the Registrar General of India (RGI) to share death records linked with Aadhaar numbers. RGI has, till date, provided approximately 1.55 crore death records from 24 States/UTs using the Civil Registration System (CRS). After due validation, around 1.17 crore Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. A similar exercise is continuing with non-CRS States/UTs. About 6.7 lakh death records have been received so far, and deactivation is in progress. UIDAI has launched a new service - "Reporting of Death of a Family Member" - on the myAadhaar Portal on 9th June 2025 for deaths registered in 24 States/UTs presently using Civil Registration System. This portal allows individuals to report the death of their family members. The family member, after authenticating himself/herself, is required to provide Aadhaar number and Death Registration Number along with other demographic details of the deceased person on the portal. After due process of validation of the information submitted by the family member, further action is taken for the deactivation, or otherwise, of the Aadhaar number of the deceased person. The process of integration of remaining States/UTs with the portal is currently underway. Besides above, UIDAI is also exploring the possibility of sourcing death records from banks and other Aadhaar ecosystem entities maintaining such information. UIDAI is also taking support of State Governments in identifying the deceased Aadhaar number holders. As a pilot, demographic details of Aadhaar number holders aged more than 100 years are being shared with State Governments to verify whether the Aadhaar number holder is alive. Upon receipt of such verification report, necessary validation will be carried out before deactivating such Aadhaar number. In order to prevent unauthorised usage of Aadhaar number of any family member after their death, it is recommended that Aadhaar number holders report death of their family members on myAadhaar Portal after obtaining their death certificate from the death registering authorities. (ANI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday hit back over Rahul Gandhi's "corruption" allegations and said Congress leader criticizing him is clear sign that he must be doing something right for the people of Assam. Rahul Gandhi, who addressed a rally at Chhaygaon, said that Congress will sweep next year's assembly polls in Assam and launched a sharp attack on Himanta Biswa Sarma, saying he does not think himself as Chief Minister but a "king". Rahul Gandhi said that the party has a new team in the state under leadership of party MP Gaurav Gogoi and it will deliver results. "The people of Assam know the truth... There will be elections soon, and the Congress will sweep those elections. We have created a new team here. We have started the work, and the people of Assam will soon see the results we will see it," he said. Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, termed Biswa as India's "most corrupt Chief Minister" and said some day he will have to "account for it". He said that Chief Minister has "fear in his mind as he knows one day 'babber shers' of Congress will take him jail". The Congress leader accused BJP of resorting to cheating in Maharashtra assembly polls. "Some time ago, elections were held in Maharashtra, and the BJP engaged in blatant cheating. In the four months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, one crore new voters were added. We asked the Election Commission--where did these people come from, who are they? Show us the voter list and provide the videography. But... the Election Commission has not given us the voter list to this day; instead, it changed the law related to videography," he said. Rahul Gandhi urged people to be cautious."BJP and the Election Commission are working together. The Election Commission is not fulfilling its responsibilities; it is only listening to BJP leaders. We have repeatedly asked the Election Commission for the voter list. I wrote a letter requesting the voter list and videos, but received nothing. They only make excuses and do not do their job," he alleged. Hitting back, Sarma said Rahul Gandhi mentioned his name repeatedly in his meetings and elevated his political stature. "Shri Rahul Gandhi visited Assam today solely to criticise me. He mentioned my name repeatedly in all his meetings. I must say, I am grateful--because today, he has elevated my political stature to a level I might never have reached had I remained in the Congress party. It is indeed a day of great satisfaction. After all, if Rahul Gandhi has chosen to criticise me, it is a clear sign that I must be doing something right for the people of Assam," Sarma said in a post on X. Sarma also made allegations against Rahul Gandhi about the National Herald case. "I have heard that you are out on bail facing allegations of massive corruption involving over Rs 5,000 crore in the National Herald scam. You will be remembered as one of the most corrupt Congress presidents in India. To be honest, your words make no difference to me--because I know, and the country knows, that you are one of the most corrupt leaders in India today," Sarma said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers staged a protest against Rahul Gandhi during his visit to Assam's Kamrup district Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi earlier told ANI that that Congress in Assam will fight for justice for all people who were living "under fear" and were facing persecution by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government here. "The message is very clear that the Congress party in Assam will fight for the justice of all the people of Assam who are living under a regime of fear and terror. We will fight for the dignity of all people who are currently facing persecution by this corrupt and cruel BJP government. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi will send a message that there is no need to fear," Gogoi said. He accused Himanta Biswa Sarma government of "grabbing land of the poor". (ANI) Speaking to ANI, Mishra said, "Under the leadership of PM Modi, we have cleared our stance on 'Zero tolerance'... This has been cleared by the External Affairs Minister as well. Along with China, all the SCO members must agree to it. Pakistan also understands India won't spare this time..." His remarks came after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday stressed the importance of taking an uncompromising stance against terrorism, citing the recent Pahalgam terrorist attack in India, which was condemned by the UN Security Council. The Minister was speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Tianjin. BJP's Mishra also targeted Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his recent remarks, terming them "disappointing". "Rahul Gandhi's statements are disappointing... He holds a responsible post and should think a hundred times before making such statements and analyse whether his words are in favour or against the nation..." Rahul Gandhi, who is the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, had slammed Jaishankar over his remarks during a visit to China to attend a meeting of the SCO Foreign Ministers. "I guess the Chinese foreign minister will come and apprise Modi about recent developments in China-India ties. The EAM is now running a full blown circus aimed at destroying India's foreign policy," Rahul Gandhi had said in a post on X, attaching a news about Jaishankar meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping. (ANI) Launching a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar said that the latter is engaging in petty politics and that the entire state of West Bengal is upset with her, especially the Bengali Hindus. Speaking to ANI, Majumdar said, "Mamata Banerjee is doing petty politics. The elections are approaching and the entire West Bengal is upset with her, especially the Bengali Hindus. After the Murshidabad incident, everyone has come together and wants to remove Mamata Banerjee." "To bring a dent in Hindu votes, Mamata Banerjee has come up with the Bengali language point..." he added. Union Minister Majumdar also challenged Trinamool Congress MPs to speak in Bengali during the upcoming Parliament session, which begins on July 21. "We challenge Mamata Banerjee that the Parliament session will begin on July 21. All the MPs from Bengal, BJP or the TMC, all should give one speech in Bengali in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha," he said. Furthermore, questioning the linguistic identity of some TMC leaders, Majumdar remarked, "All the TMC MPs must be Bengalis since TMC is only in Bengal. We want to see Yusuf Pathan, Kirti Azad and Saket Gokhale giving a Bengali speech in the Parliament. This will show how much Mamata Banerjee loves the Bengali language." Earlier in the day, Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a fierce attack on the BJP and governments led by the party, accusing it of discrimination against Bengali-speaking citizens in the state. In a fiery speech, she alleged that people were being harassed based on language, identity, and political bias. She recalled the recent incidents and alleged that people from Bengal were being harassed in states like Maharashtra and Assam. "The Assam government has sent notices to Bengalis living in Bengal. What is happening?" she said, urging people to resist such divisive moves. She claimed that Bengalis were being punished simply for using their mother tongue. (ANI) According to NCS, the earthquake struck at a depth of 10 km. In a post on X, the NCS said, "EQ of M: 3.3, On: 17/07/2025 00:46:20 IST, Lat: 28.88 N, Long: 76.76 E, Depth: 10 Km, Location: Rohtak, Haryana." https://x.com/NCS_Earthquake/status/1945566106842026295 Earlier on July 11, residents across Delhi-NCR experienced mild tremors following an earthquake of magnitude 3.7 that struck Haryana's Jhajjar district, just a day after a stronger 4.4 magnitude quake hit the same region. According to the National Centre for Seismology (NCS), the quake occurred at 7:49 pm on Friday at a depth of 10 kilometres, with tremors felt across Delhi and its neighbouring regions. Residents displayed mixed emotions, ranging from worry to calm, in their reactions. Some said, "We will pray to God to bless us," while others said, "I don't fear death," as people dealt with the repeated tremors. In Jhajjar, one resident said the repeated tremors have unsettled people in the area. "The people seem to be scared. The epicentre was also said to be Jhajjar... Today, too, we felt the tremors. We will pray to God to bless us," he told ANI. (ANI) Amid Andhra Pradesh Minister Nara Lokesh's pitch to shift the aerospace park project to his state, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge said that Andhra Pradesh is a new state, and they will do everything they can to ensure that they get the new investments whereas Kanataka is a mature eco system. Speaking to the media, Priyank Kharge said, "Andhra Pradesh is a new state, and they will do everything they can to ensure that they get the new investments. They will give land for 99 paisa/acre... They need to attract investments, so they will do a song and dance about it... While we also offer subsidies and incentives, we don't need to do what they have to do. Whether it is Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, or Maharashtra, our competition is different. There are numbers to speak about it. Last year, our IT exports were close to Rs 4.5 lakh crores." "We are number one in unicorns, aerospace defence manufacturing... While we love competition, they can give free land, water, and as many subsidies as they want... People are still going to come to us. It has nothing to do with a few acres of land being given back to the farmers," he added. Karnataka Minister MB Patil stated that the state government is committed to providing land for every genuine industry. "He has the right to establish the aerospace and defence industries in Andhra Pradesh. But just because of one incident of a land issue, where we had to drop some land acquisition because of farmers' issues, that doesn't mean it is the end. We have ample space and land. Karnataka also has an ecosystem that is more important. We are also contributing almost more than 65 per cent to the country in aerospace defence. In our state, not one industry will go out because of a want of land," Patil said. TDP MP Lavu Sri Krishna Devarayalu stated that if any company wishes to expand, it is welcome to Andhra Pradesh. "There are no farmers' issues in Andhra Pradesh. In Amaravati, farmers gave 33,000 acres voluntarily for the development of a new capital city. Andhra Pradesh's leadership and the people are positive about the development and welcoming new projects. We welcome any industry that wants to move to Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikota is a hub for space programmes. All the space companies can flourish there. If Karnataka cannot deliver, we will deliver," Sri Krishna said. This comes after Nara Lokesh made a pitch to the Aerospace industry to shift the project to Andhra Pradesh, following the Karnataka government's withdrawal of the plan to acquire land for an aerospace park in Bengaluru. Pitching to the Aerospace industry, Lokesh said that Andhra Pradesh has an attractive aerospace policy with "best-in-class incentives" and over "8000 acres of ready-to-use land." This comes as the Karnataka government decided to withdraw the land acquisition of 1,777 acres of farmland in Devanahalli taluk, near the Kempegowda International Airport, for a proposed aerospace park. This marked a major victory for farmers who had been protesting against the land acquisition. (ANI) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan is being given facilities in Adiala Jail that go beyond what is normally allowed for B-Class prisoners, ARY News reported, citing the Superintendent of Adiala Jail. The Adiala jail administration stated that Khan is being held in a secure seven-cell area and has access to an open courtyard where he can walk and exercise daily. He also has access to an exercise cycle, an LED television, newspapers, and a selection of books. A designated prisoner prepares all his meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as per Khan's preferences, as per ARY News. Jail medical staff examine him three times daily. The most recent medical reports show that his health is good and all key health indicators are within the normal range. Standard B-Class privileges also allow for two hours of daily physical activity, which Khan regularly uses. According to ARY News, the jail authorities added that over the past three months, 66 individuals, including family members, lawyers, and PTI leaders, have visited him. During his time in custody, Khan has been linked to 413 social media posts (tweets) shared on his behalf and has been mentioned in the media 45 times. The jail administration highlighted that these facilities for Imran Khan are provided under legal standards and dismissed rumours of mistreatment or solitary confinement as baseless and politically motivated. Authorities repeated that Imran Khan's Adiala Jail B-Class privileges surpass those of any other B-Class inmate, and his security, health, and legal rights are being fully upheld under prison regulations. Meanwhile, Aleema Khan, the sister of PTI founder Imran Khan, said that the former prime minister has been facing 'harsh conditions' at Adiala Jail. Speaking to newsmen meeting Imran Khan, Aleema Khan shared what she termed 'two key messages' from the PTI founder. She said that Imran Khan told her that he, along with his wife Bushra Bibi, is enduring strict measures in jail. (ANI) Lottie Tomlinson is starting to talk to her son about her late mother, to ensure she can be a part of his life. Lottie Tomlinson is starting to talk to her son about her late mother, to ensure she can be a part of his life The 26-year-old social media star - who is the sister of One Direction's Louis Tomlinson - lost her mum Johannah Deakin in 2016, aged 43, following a battle with leukaemia, but she wants her son Lucky, who turns three next month, and seven-month-old daughter Flossie to "know how important" her mother was. Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, she said: "My little boy is just turning three, so we are just starting to introduce the idea to him now. "Just because she's not physically here, it doesn't mean she can't be a part of their life. "I would always want them to know about her and know how important she was to me, so I'll definitely make sure they know who she is." Lottie admitted it was "really hard" giving birth to her two kids without her mum there, especially as Johannah was a midwife. She said: "It's been really hard. "My mum was a midwife, so we would always speak about the fact she would help me through the birth and everything. "So, not having her there for that was really tough. "Then when you have a newborn there are questions you want to ask." Lottie has found it "hard to come to terms" with the fact her mother won't ever meet her children. She said: "It's just the fact she's not going to know my kids, which is such a hard thing to come to terms with. "But you just have to keep trying to remind yourself that they're watching. "All the lessons she taught me, I take on, and I'm so grateful for that. Last year, Lottie admitted she didn't expect things to get any worse when her mother died - but family tragedy struck again in 2019 when her sister Felicite suffered a fatal overdose at the age of 18. She said previously on Lorriane: "I think it was really hard that we knew we were going to have to go back to square one [when my sister died]. "When something as big as losing a parent happens, you never expect it to get any worse than that. "And then it did. "So it was a really tough time for the whole family but we've really stuck together and we've managed to come out the other side." Pakistan Railways has decided to hand over the commercial management of 11 passenger trains to the private sector, ARY News reported, citing sources. "The decision has been taken in the interest of improved travel facilities and increased revenue generation," railway sources said. According to sources as reported by the ARY News. Hazara Express, Bahauddin Zakaria Express, Millat Express, Subak Kharam Express, Rawal Express, Badar Express, Ghori Express, Ravi Express, Thall Express, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Moenjo Daro Passenger trains will be given to the private sector under the decision. Further, the railway sources said that authorities have invited bids from private firms, which must be submitted by August 12. The bids will be opened on the same day. "Intending firms have been asked to submit their bids by August 12," according to sources. The bids will be opened on the same date, according to railway sources. In February this year, Pakistan Railways decided to outsource seven passenger trains to the private sector. The railways decided to hand over seven trains, Hazara Express, Karachi Express, Farid Express, Bahauddin Zakaria Express, Sukkur Express, Rawalpindi Express and Mohenjo Daro Express to the private sector, ARY News reported. The railway authorities had clarified that these trains will not be privatised but outsourced to the private sector. Earlier this month, Pakistan Railways announced a fare hike for passenger, express, and mail trains, marking the second increase within 15 days, ARY News reported. The decision comes after the rise in prices of petroleum products, including diesel. In a notification, Pakistan Railways stated that a 2 per cent fare increase will take effect from July 4 for express and passenger trains. The 2% fare increase will also apply to advance bookings, as per the notification. According to an official, the Pakistan railways has been facing a monthly loss of approximately Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 109 million due to the increasing price of diesel. The railway department has issued instructions to the Director of IT and the DS to ensure compliance with the increased fares. Notably, passenger train fares were increased by three per cent while freight train fares witnessed a rise of four per cent on June 18. The Pakistan government has hiked prices of petroleum products for the ongoing fortnight ending on July 15, raising the price of petrol by PKR 8.36 per litre. (ANI) India has reiterated its firm commitment to ensuring accountability for crimes committed against United Nations peacekeepers, calling it a "strategic necessity" for global peacekeeping operations. Speaking at a high-level meeting of the Group of Friends (GoF) for promoting accountability for crimes against peacekeepers held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador P Harish, highlighted the "tremendous obstacle " faced by UN peacekeepers while working. "United Nations peacekeepers face tremendous obstacles while working in increasingly dangerous areas. But for the most part, these crimes continue to go unpunished. This lack of accountability severely undermines international peace efforts by giving assailants more confidence," he said. Emphasising the need for accountability, he affirmed, "Therefore, accountability is a strategic necessity. In addition to being required by law, ensuring responsibility for crimes against UN personnel is essential to the integrity and efficacy of international peacekeeping efforts." "Peacekeepers' safety is directly improved by justice, allowing them to carry out their vital missions. It is our common duty to fulfil this obligation," he added The High Level Meeting of the Group of Friends for Accountability of Crimes against Peacekeepers, co-chaired by India and other leading nations, reaffirmed the steadfast dedication of the GoF to ensuring justice for those who bravely serve under the UN flag. "It also underscored the critical imperative to combat impunity for attacks against peacekeepers, emphasising that accountability is not merely a matter of justice for individuals but a basis for the effectiveness, credibility, and future of UN Peace Operations worldwide," Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York said in a statement. "In a powerful demonstration of concerted international will, senior representatives from around 40 Member States, senior UN officials and experts, including from field missions, deliberated on enhanced strategies, operational frameworks, and fostering greater international cooperation to bring perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers to justice," it added. The discussions highlighted the escalating threats faced by peacekeepers in increasingly volatile environments and the undeniable link between impunity and the continued targeting of these front-line protectors. Further, the statement noted that the Group's deliberations "centred on understanding these intricate linkages, recognising that a holistic approach is required, involving not only punitive measures but also preventative strategies, alongside unwavering political will from all stakeholders." The GoF for Accountability of Crimes against Peacekeepers was formally launched in December 2022 during India's Presidency of the UN Security Council, building upon the landmark Security Council Resolution 2589 (2021), a resolution that specifically called for facilitating accountability for crimes committed against peacekeepers and requested updates from the Secretary-General on progress. The GoF is dedicated to advancing legal frameworks, promoting investigations, and supporting measures to ensure accountability for crimes committed against United Nations peacekeepers. Its mission is to deter future attacks and provide justice to peacekeepers and their families. As a Co-Chair of the GoF, India continues to demonstrate leadership and commitment to the cause of peacekeeping and accountability. With a history spanning over seven decades, India is the largest cumulative troop-contributing country to the United Nations, having deployed more than 300,000 peacekeepers to date. The Permanent Mission of India to the UN highlighted that "Indian peacekeepers have served with distinction and courage in virtually every major UN mission, enduring significant sacrifices, with 182 Indian peacekeepers having made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty." (ANI) The police identified a scooter with two riders from which shots were fired, attempted to make contact and arrested the two suspects. The arrests came as part of an initiative by the Northern District police and Border Police in the city of Nazareth, and preparations to prevent shooting incidents and violence in Arab society. (ANI/TPS) According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the visit is part of India's ongoing efforts to build stronger political partnerships with Sri Lanka. "A 24-member delegation of young political leaders from 14 political parties of Sri Lanka called on Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri as they began their two-week-long programme in India. Foreign Secretary emphasised their valuable role in deepening the #IndiaSriLanka partnership as stakeholders in its future roadmap," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X. https://x.com/MEAIndia/status/1945307529871024202 This visit follows a series of recent high-level exchanges between India and Sri Lanka. Last year, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was the first foreign dignitary to visit Sri Lanka after Anura Kumara Dissanayake took charge as President. During that visit, India announced the conversion of completed Line of Credit projects worth USD 20 million into grants and also gifted 22 diesel locomotives to Sri Lankan Railways. Later in the same year, President Dissanayake visited India on his first overseas State visit. He was accompanied by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and Labour Minister Anil Jayantha. During the visit, he held talks with President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, and other senior leaders. A joint statement titled "Fostering Partnerships for a Shared Future" was released during the visit. The two sides also signed a protocol to amend the Double Taxation Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for training Sri Lankan civil servants. India also announced financial support of USD 14.9 million for a railway signalling project in the Maho-Anuradhapura section and offered 100 scholarships each year to students from the University of Jaffna and Eastern University. President Dissanayake also visited Bodh Gaya and took part in a business interaction in New Delhi, reflecting the growing depth in India-Sri Lanka relations. (ANI) The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the largest political parties in the South Asian country, will work with India with friendship in the post-Hasina era, a senior leader of the party said. "BNP is a party which believes in friendship to all, enemy to none. This is our ideology, which was introduced by former President Shaheed Ziaur Rahman: Friendship to all, enemy to none. India is our big neighbour. So, BNP loves to work with everyone ... with integrity and dignity and with friendship," Kayser Kamal, legal affairs secretary of BNP, told ANI in an interview. Despite the mutual distrust among political parties in Bangladesh, BNP still believes that the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus will be able to hold free, fair and inclusive elections, a senior BNP leader said on Tuesday. "Dr Muhammad Yunus is running the government in support of all political parties. After August 5, when Hasina fled the country, all political parties reached a consensus and requested him to join the government as head of the executive. Therefore, we can presume that the political parties, including BNP, have confidence in him that he will conduct an election which will be credible, participatory, and inclusive," he said. "At the same time, Dr Yunus categorically stated many times that this upcoming election will be an example for the country. Therefore, we firmly believe he can conduct an election which will be free, fair and credible," Kamal added. BNP's legal affairs secretary also said that his party believes in a multi-party system despite the ban on Awami League activities by the executive decision of the interim government. "Actually, Awami League activity is currently postponed. Awami League is not banned as far as I know. Their activity is currently postponed. It is the executive decision. As a political party, BNP always believes in democracy and believes in multiparty in the country," Kamal, a Barrister, said. Explaining BNP's policy, he said, "As you know, the founder of BNP, Shahid President Ziaur Rahman, established and introduced the multi-party democracy, multi-party government. The father of Sheikh Hasina, while he was in power, made a one-party system. But Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman came into power and introduced multi-party democracy. Therefore, BNP always believes in multi-party democracy". "However, considering the prevailing situation, the executive took the decision that activities of the Awami League are postponed," he said, without further elaboration. Regarding Khaleda Zia's health and legal status, Kayser Kamal said, "BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia always is in the heart of BNP. Under her leadership, BNP has grown in such a way that it is not only in the country but also around the subcontinent; BNP is one of the biggest political parties. Her health so far, considering her age and previous diseases and everything - a doctor is in a better position to say about her health." "Her legal position is quite good. She was unfortunately illegally convicted due to the personal grudge of Sheikh Hasina. After the 5th of August, through the court of law, she is now free. There is no case pending," he added. BNP leader alleged that Sheikh Hasina ordered the killing of the civilians and urged her to face the trial. "This is not only BNP; all the people of Bangladesh want Sheikh Hasina to return to Bangladesh and face the charges that were brought against her. Of course, under her leadership, under her direction, I mention Hasina; 2,000 innocent civilians were killed brutally, which was a targeted killing under the direction of Sheikh Hasina. Therefore, she must face the justice in the judicial system and face the allegations brought against her," he said. "In that view, BNP always wants to prevail in the justice system and believes in the rule of law. Therefore, we want Sheikh Hasina to return back and face the music," he said. Kayser Kamal believes that Hindus were more vulnerable during the Awami League regime. "The level of minority atrocities, whatever it is stated, is not the case. When the Awami regime was in power, minorities were rather more vulnerable than now. So, some of the Hindu leaders not only belong to the Awami League; they are leaders of the Awami League. They have done many wrong things, so people are angry and frustrated with them, just like other Awami League leaders. They are not regarded as Hindus. They were regarded as Awami League leaders," he said. "For example, in my constituency, there are mostly five per cent Hindus. You can not give a simple example where none of the minorities were being harassed. Across the country, there were some, I believe, but those incidents were political matters, not a Hindu-Muslim issue," Kamal said. Earlier in June, Yunus hinted that national elections would be held in early February the following year. In June, Muhammad Yunus held talks with Acting BNP Chairman Tarique Rahman in London. Rahman proposed to the Chief Adviser that the elections be held before the fasting month of Ramadan next year in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student-led uprising in August last year. After Sheikh Hasina's fall, an interim government was formed under the leadership of Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Laureate. (ANI) Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet to formally label the Lawrence Bishnoi gang as a "terrorist entity", citing its involvement in transnational crime and violence in Canada and abroad. In a statement posted on X on Tuesday, Smith, Alberta's 19th Premier and Leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP), described the Bishnoi gang as a global criminal organisation involved in offences such as violence, extortion, drug trafficking, and targeted killings, including incidents in Canada. Highlighting the growing threat posed by the organised crime groups operating across international borders, the Premier said that gang activity "knows no boundaries and respects no borders." "The Lawrence Bishnoi Gang is a transnational criminal network responsible for violence, extortion, drug trafficking and targeted killings, including here in Canada. Its reach is global, and its intent is criminal and violent," she said in her post on X. "Alberta wants to send a clear message: you are not welcome here," Smith added. The Premier emphasised that officially labelling the gang as a "terrorist entity" would empower law enforcement agencies across provincial and municipal levels to more effectively combat its operations, while calling on the Canadian Government to act with urgency. "Formally designating the Bishnoi Gang as a terrorist entity will unlock critical powers, allowing provincial and municipal-level law enforcement agencies to access the necessary tools and resources needed to effectively disrupt operations and protect our people," the post read. "The time for action is now. Alberta's government is asking the federal government and Prime Minister Mark Carney to join them in taking a stand and act to protect Albertans and all Canadians," it added. Lawrence Bishnoi is currently under the custody of the Indian Government under many charges, including the links to the killing of Punjabi rapper Sidhu Moose Wala back in 2022, in a reported gang rivalry. This incident drew widespread national attention, which catapulted Bishnoi and his gang into the mainstream. His gang also took credit for the assassination of Nationalist Congress Party leader Baba Siddique last year. (ANI) Echoing US President Donald Trump's stance on imposing economic sanctions against countries maintaining trade ties with Russia if Moscow doesn't put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Tuesday (local time) urged India, China, and Brazil to reconsider their economic relations with Russia, warning of potential secondary sanctions, reported Reuters. In a press conference, Rutte, speaking alongside US Senators Thom Tillis and Jeanne Shaheen, co-chairs of the Senate NATO Observer Group, emphasised the urgency of the situation, noting Trump's announcement on increasing military support for Ukraine, including air defence systems, missiles, and ammunition. "What happened yesterday was important. First of all, the US will now supply Ukraine with weapons, not just air defence but also missiles and ammunition, paid for by the Europeans. And secondly, President Trump said basically if Russia is not serious about peace talks within 50 days, he will impose secondary sanctions on countries like India, China and Brazil," Rutte stated. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is that if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the president of Brazil, you might want to take a look at this because this might hit you very hard," he added. He further urged these countries to "make the phone call" to Russian President Putin to make him "get serious" about the peace talks, reflecting the potential economic repercussions. "Please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way. So I think it was a very smartly, wisely designed announcement yesterday by President Trump," the NATO Chief stated. Earlier on Monday (local time), Trump threatened to impose 100 per cent "secondary tariffs" on Russia if a deal on Ukraine is not reached within 50 days, during his meeting with Rutte in the White House Trump also expressed disappointment with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin and threatened to impose severe tariffs if there is no deal within 50 days. Meanwhile, moments after Trump's call for imposing 100 per cent "secondary tariffs" on Moscow, Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal warned countries, including India, of economic sanctions if they continue business with Russia. As per a joint statement by Graham and Blumenthal, China, India, Brazil and other nations "prop up Putin's war machine" by purchasing "cheap Russian oil and gas", which they claim is fuelling Putin's effort in the conflict with Russia. It also called for the imposition of tariffs as high as 500 per cent on any country that helps Russia. Republican Senator Graham and Democratic Senator Blumenthal are leading 85 cosponsors on a bipartisan bill, "Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025", which they introduced in Congress earlier this year, calling for implementing sanctions on Moscow. Blumenthal called for pushing the bill, introduced by him and Senator Graham on April 1, noting that the bill will impose "tougher penalties to deter India, China, Brazil" and other countries that are still in business with Moscow. (ANI) Chinese Foreign Minister and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Wang Yi, during the meeting of the member states of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tianjin, proposed five key suggestions for the future development of the SCO, emphasising the need to strengthen its role amidst global turbulence. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also attended the meeting along with other Foreign ministers of the member states. In a statement issued by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang highlighted the vision for the SCO, aimed at guiding the organisation through a period of accelerating century-old changes, where multipolarity and economic globalisation are deepening, yet challenges like hegemony, protectionism, and regional conflicts persist. "At present, the century-old changes are accelerating, and turbulence and change are intertwined and resonating. The world is becoming more multipolar, and economic globalisation is deepening, and the global South is growing significantly. At the same time, hegemony and power are going against the trend, protectionism is surging, and regional conflicts are emerging one after another. Under the new situation, member states should form a further consensus on strengthening the construction of the SCO in a responsible attitude towards history and the future," Wang said as quoted in the statement. Wang outlined five suggestions for the future development of the organisation, noting 'not to forget the original aspirations and carrying forward the "Shanghai Spirit"', 'sharing the responsibility of safety and security', 'having mutual benefit and win-win results driving the development engine', 'being friendly and good neighbours', and 'sticking to the right path and defending fairness and justice.' On the Shanghai Spirit, Wang characterised it as mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilisations, and the pursuit of common development, which he says is the "root" and "soul" of the SCO. He urged member states to further carry forward this spirit to enhance the organisation's cohesion, effectiveness, and appeal, building it into a model of mutual respect, fairness, justice, and win-win cooperation. On sharing the responsibility of safety and security aspects, the Chinese Foreign Minister addressed the persistent threats from the "three forces"--terrorism, separatism, and extremism--and emerging security challenges while stressing the need for the SCO to respond effectively. He also expressed deep concern over the situation in the Middle East, particularly the 'infringement' on Iran's sovereignty. On the mutual benefit and win-win results driving the development engine, Wang underscored development as the "hard truth" and the key to solving all problems and proposed that the SCO should tap its potential in economic and trade investment, interconnection, scientific and technological innovation, green industry, and the digital economy to achieve sustainable development with "no one left behind". On being friendly and good neighbours, Wang called for member states to build a "beautiful home" together, emphasising good neighbourliness as a foundation for development and prosperity. Lastly, on sticking to the right path and defending fairness and justice, the Chinese Foreign Minister urged the SCO to safeguard the authority and role of the United Nations, and advocate for an equal and orderly world multipolarisation, and promote inclusive economic globalisation. He further called for upholding the common values of all mankind and constructing a more just and reasonable global governance system, particularly in light of some countries prioritising selfish interests. Wang Yi concluded by thanking all member states for their support during China's rotating presidency and expressed confidence that the Tianjin Summit, from August 31 to September 1, will be a complete success, propelling the SCO into a new stage of high-quality development. Along with the EAM, Belarusian Foreign Minister Rezhenkov, Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nurtlev, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kurubaev, Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Dar, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, Tajik Foreign Minister Muhriddin, Uzbek Foreign Minister Saidov, SCO Secretary-General Yermekbayev, and Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure Sharsheyev attended the meeting. The meeting made comprehensive preparations for the Tianjin Summit and signed several resolutions, including the draft Tianjin Declaration of the Council of Heads of State and the draft development strategy of the SCO for the next ten years. (ANI) Former Indian diplomat KB Fabian on Wednesday slammed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte over his warning of possible secondary sanctions on India, China, and Brazil for maintaining trade ties with Russia, saying Rutte was "speaking out of turn" and "talking through his hat," as he has no authority to impose such sanctions. "No, neither personally nor his office can do that," Fabian said, referring to Rutte's comments. "The NATO Secretary-General has been talking through his hat. He said he will impose sanctions. No, neither personally nor his office can do that," he added. Fabian said only US President Donald Trump could announce such measures, and even then, his decision-making is questionable. "Trump has taken the line that he doesn't need any permission or authorisation from the Senate. He can do that within his power. He said he will think about it after 50 days. In other words, he is giving Putin 50 days to capture more territory?" Fabian said. He also criticised the logic behind Trump's approach. "What is so illogical is that Trump has been waxing eloquently about 7,000 people being killed every week. So, 50 days, 7 weeks, 7 times 7 is 49,000 people will be killed. He doesn't seem to be bothered about it," Fabian said. The former diplomat added," Trump only wants his Nobel Peace Prize, which he should not get. This should instead go to the brave journalists covering the Gaza crisis - some of whom have died - and to the humanitarian NGOs distributing aid under fire." Fabian's comments come after NATO chief Rutte, during a press conference in Washington alongside US Senators Thom Tillis and Jeanne Shaheen, urged India, China, and Brazil to reconsider their economic ties with Moscow or face "100 per cent secondary sanctions" if Russia does not commit to peace talks on Ukraine. Rutte echoed the position taken by Trump, who earlier this week threatened severe tariffs on countries maintaining trade with Russia. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is that if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the President of Brazil, you might want to take a look at this because this might hit you very hard," Rutte said. He further appealed to these nations to pressure Russia into talks. "Please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," he warned. The statement follows Trump's announcement on supplying Ukraine with additional military aid, including air defence systems, missiles, and ammunition, largely funded by European allies. Trump also gave Russia a 50-day deadline to enter serious peace negotiations or face full secondary sanctions. Adding to the pressure, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal issued a warning that nations purchasing Russian oil and gas, including India, are 'propping' up 'Putin's war machine'. The two lawmakers are pushing for the swift passage of the "Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025", which calls for imposing penalties and tariffs as high as 500 per cent on any country aiding Russia economically. (ANI) Baloch activists Dr. Naseem Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), while speaking at a capacity-building session, emphasised that steadfastness on principles is the true strength of a national struggle. The event, hosted by the Germany Chapter of BNM under the theme "The Changing Global Situation and Balochistan", focused on political education and strategic preparedness for BNM workers across Europe. Dr. Naseem Baloch asserted that national movements cannot rely solely on emotional slogans or short-term outrage. "A conscious and effective movement must remain rooted in politics, evolve with time, and gain relevance through consistent political and diplomatic engagement," he said. He warned that without seriousness, discipline, and maturity, a national movement would not earn regional or global recognition. Using examples from global conflicts, such as the Israel-Iran tensions, the India-Pakistan rivalry, and the Russia-Ukraine war, Dr Baloch argued that Balochistan is not isolated from these shifts. "We live in a world governed by interests, not values," he stated, referencing how Pakistan has repeatedly acted as a proxy, aligning with external powers to suppress internal dissent. Dr Baloch explained that even in Europe, the fear of expanding war is a real concern. "Some European countries have already started building bunkers for civilians. That should tell us how urgent and interconnected the world's conflicts have become." He urged BNM activists to expand their political literacy, analyse international developments, and build diplomatic strength. While commending the growing efforts of Baloch diaspora activists, he also warned against complacency. "Meeting EU representatives or speaking at forums isn't enough. Success is when international institutions recognise the Baloch cause as a struggle against genocide and offer real support," he said. Citing the betrayals faced by Kurds and Afghans in recent decades, Dr Baloch stressed the need for Baloch leadership to define its national interests and build a sustainable path toward self-determination. "In the eyes of the world, no movement matters unless it proves it deserves to," he concluded. "For Balochistan to be heard, we must act with clarity, conviction, and unwavering commitment." (ANI) Netflix boss Bela Bajaria doesn't regret cancelling The Residence despite its Emmy nominations. Bela Bajaria has reflected on The Residence's Emmy nominations The streaming giant's chief content officer has reflected on her decision to scrap the murder mystery comedy - which starred Uzo Abuda as police consultant Cordelia Cupp - after the show received a number of nominations for this year's Primetime Emmy Awards. Asked if she has second guessed the decision to pull the plug, Bela told The Hollywood Reporter: "No, because I always knew she'd be recognised." Uzo was shortlisted in the Best Actress in a Comedy Series category, while the show's first episode The Fall of the House of Usher has been nominated for Outstanding Special Visual Effects In A Single Episode. The episode is also in the running for Outstanding Production Design For A Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour Or More). Bela insisted she "loves" the series, and has no regrets about the news of its cancellation dropping two weeks before the Emmy nominations. She said: "No, I dont really look at when the news or not the news I think was is great is we love The Residence. We championed it, we made it. "Uzo [Aduba] has been part of the Netflix family for a long time and has been recognized before for awards. So, she gave an incredible performance. "Not surprised at all by her nom. We thought that she would and should absolutely get it. So, to me, thats great, that work. That work was completed and people loved it, and she was amazing and then gets recognised for it." She claimed the focus is more on how "great" the programme and Uzo both were. Bela also claimed Netflix will back cancelled shows in award season just as much as those on air. She added: "Were gonna support yeah! I mean for her and the show, like, we did of course. "Heres the thing: I think what people forget is, like I said before, we developed it, we championed it, we really marketed we did all of the things. "And theyre all people involved who we work with and continue to work with and will continue to so were always going to support that, for sure." At least nine people have died and 92 others sustained injuries in various rain-related incidents across the Punjab province of Pakistan over the past 24 hours, Dawn reported, citing Rescue 1122, on Tuesday. According to Dawn, in Bahawalnagar, three children lost their lives and 17 individuals were injured; meanwhile, in Okara, the deaths of two teenagers, including a girl, were reported, with 12 others hurt in similar incidents. Lahore also saw three fatalities and eight injuries due to the downpour. Elsewhere, one person died and three were injured in Bhakkar, the Dawn reported. Additional injuries were reported in several districts, including three in Pakpattan, four in Sahiwal, two each in Faisalabad and Muzaffargarh, four in Toba Tek Singh, three in Kasur, two in Dera Ghazi Khan, and one each in Rajanpur, Sialkot, and Mianwali, as reported by the Dawn. Despite the damage, Lahore experienced a welcome drop in temperature as the rain brought pleasant weather. As per Dawn, the rainfall measurements included 31mm at Lakshmi Chowk, 19mm at Qartaba Chowk, and between 10mm and 18.5mm in other areas such as Samanabad, Farrukhabad, and Iqbal Town. The Water and Sanitation Authority (WASA) teams of Pakistan worked throughout the day to drain accumulated water from roads and underpasses. Meanwhile, power outages occurred as several feeders of the Lahore Electric Supply Company tripped, Dawn reported. Lahore's district administration, under Deputy Commissioner Syed Musa Raza, responded with a coordinated strategy to address monsoon challenges. Teams equipped with machinery were deployed to clear water from low-lying areas and main roads. Public advisories were issued, asking residents to avoid unnecessary travel and stay away from electric poles and wires. The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) forecast continued cloudy weather and the possibility of heavy rainfall in several cities, including Lahore. PDMA also warned of potential flooding in rivers and canals, especially in low-lying areas, and landslides in hilly regions like Murree, according to Dawn. Tourists have been advised to exercise caution, and residents of vulnerable areas are urged to take preventive measures. PDMA Director General Irfan Ali Kathia instructed local administrations to remain alert, with all necessary personnel and equipment on standby. He stressed that WASA and municipal agencies must prevent waterlogging in affected areas. (ANI) Baloch activist Kareem Jan was allegedly extrajudicially killed in custody after being summoned by personnel of the Frontier Corps (FC) in Mashkay, Awaran district of Balochistan earlier this year, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) said in a statement on Friday. According to the BYC, Kareem Jan, son of Azeem, was summoned to the local FC camp on February 22, 2025. He was subsequently forcibly disappeared, and his whereabouts remained unknown to his family for nearly five months. On July 12, 2025, military officials informed the family that Kareem had died in custody and ordered them to collect his body from the camp in Mashkay. The Baloch Yakjehti Committee has alleged that Kareem's body bore visible signs of extreme torture, raising serious concerns of prolonged abuse during detention. "His death is not an isolated incident but a part of the ongoing campaign of repression in Balochistan," the BYC stated. This is the second time Kareem Jan had been targeted by Pakistani security forces. According to BYC, he had previously been forcibly disappeared in 2023 and held incommunicado for eight months before being released with signs of severe torture. The BYC has called on international human rights organisations and the United Nations to take immediate notice and launch an independent investigation into Kareem's custodial death. The group described it as a "cold-blooded extrajudicial killing" and urged accountability for the systematic use of enforced disappearances and torture in Balochistan. Enforced disappearances, militarisation, and economic deprivation have long plagued Balochistan. Civil society groups, including the BYC, have repeatedly accused the Pakistani state of silencing dissent through violent means. "Kareem Jan's story is one of hundreds," the BYC said on X. "We will continue to raise our voices for justice and the right to live with dignity in our own land." (ANI) France's newly released 2025 National Strategic Review has raised alarm over China's military posture in East Asia, emphasising growing instability in the Taiwan Strait due to Beijing's intensified pressure on Taipei, Focus Taiwan reported. According to the report, published Monday, repeated and large-scale Chinese military manoeuvres around Taiwan in 2024 and 2025 represent a significant escalation in Beijing's coercive tactics. These actions are part of China's broader goal of enforcing a fait accompli in the region, particularly in the South China Sea, Focus Taiwan reported. "The regional situation is particularly dangerous and volatile," the report stated, citing both the rising military activity and the "uncertainty over the security guarantees provided by the United States to its Asian allies and partners", especially in light of shifts under former President Donald Trump. France also warned that China is employing hybrid actions beyond conventional military tools to secure its strategic ambitions. These include cyber operations, technological predation, and targeted infiltration of advanced defence technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and space systems, Focus Taiwan reported. Moreover, the review said that China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal. Unlike other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Beijing has refused to declare a moratorium on the production of fissile material--substances capable of sustaining nuclear fission. The report estimated that China could amass 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030 and 1,500 by 2035, Focus Taiwan reported. France also noted China's ballistic capabilities, highlighting the 310 ballistic missile launches conducted by Beijing in 2024 alone and the recent firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a claimed range of 12,000 kilometres aimed at sending a strategic signal to Taiwan and the US. In addition to Taiwan, the review mentioned growing concerns over Chinese interest in French overseas territories, particularly New Caledonia, due to its strategic location and nickel reserves. The report also emphasised Taiwan's economic importance, especially its role in the global semiconductor supply chain, which France sees as a potential flashpoint for global economic disruption in the event of a conflict, Focus Taiwan reported. French President Emmanuel Macron recently confirmed an additional EUR 6.5 billion in military spending, accelerating the defence budget increase to EUR 64 billion by 2027, two years ahead of schedule. (ANI) The US Administration under President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) announced that the 2,000 National Guard members, who were deployed in response to widespread month-long immigration protests, were being withdrawn from the Los Angeles area, CNN reported. According to CNN, citing Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, the security situation in Los Angeles was improved, prompting the US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth to order the release of members of the California National Guard's 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team from this federal mission. "Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding... As such, the Secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection mission," Parnell said in a statement. The National Guard was activated amid rising tensions over increased immigration enforcement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security across Southern California. As per CNN, the protests erupted in various parts of Los Angeles County, particularly around downtown, where federal law enforcement activity was highly visible. A federal district judge had earlier ruled that Trump unlawfully federalised California's National Guard troops. However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifted that decision while legal proceedings continue, CNN reported. California Governor Gavin Newsom responded by calling for a full withdrawal, criticising the continued deployment as a political move. "For more than a month, the National Guard have been pulled away from their families, communities and civilian work to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles. While nearly 2,000 of them are starting to demobilise, the remaining guardsmembers continue without a mission, without direction and without any hopes of returning to help their communities," Newsom said in a statement, as quoted by CNN. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass welcomed the reduction, referring to it as a "retreat" driven by local resistance. Bass added that she hopes this signals the beginning of a full withdrawal. "I hope the administration heard that... Our soldiers are trained to fight to kill foreign enemies in foreign lands. There was never a need for them here before. And there isn't a need for them now," she said during a press conference, as quoted by CNN. Although the protests have largely subsided, immigration raids in the region continue. Last week, ICE agents carried out two raids on legal cannabis farms in Southern California, arresting over 300 individuals. One person died and several others were injured in the process, CNN reported. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Homeland Security was conducting stops and arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause, ordering agents to cease detaining individuals based solely on race, language, or job. This decision followed a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which accused the administration of unconstitutional arrests and denying detainees legal access, CNN reported. In response, Mayor Bass issued directives to city employees, instructing them to grant access only to federal agents with valid arrest warrants and to ensure that departments are prepared with response plans for future raids. (ANI) United States President Donald Trump has announced a new trade deal with Indonesia that will reduce tariffs on Indonesian imports to 19 per cent, down from the previously proposed 32 per cent. In return, Jakarta has agreed to major purchase commitments, including Boeing aircraft, US energy, and agricultural products, according to Al Jazeera. The agreement follows talks between Trump and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto. "As part of the agreement, Indonesia will buy 50 Boeing jets, many of them 777s, along with $15 billion worth of US energy and $4.5 billion in American farm products," Trump said on his social media platform, Truth Social. Trump earlier described the deal as a "great deal for everybody." Last week, Trump had warned that if Indonesia failed to reach a deal, the higher 32 per cent tariff would take effect from August 1. While the new rate of 19 per cent has been announced, it is not yet clear when it will come into force. The revised agreement will also target transshipped goods--items rerouted through third countries to avoid tariffs. Trump said such practices would now attract stricter penalties. He added that other countries could soon face revised tariffs, hinting that smaller economies might be hit with rates "a little over 10 per cent." Trump also said a trade deal with Vietnam was "pretty well set," though no official details have been released. Under pressure to deliver on his "90 deals in 90 days" promise, Trump has so far confirmed only agreements with Vietnam, the UK, and a temporary easing of tariffs with China, Al Jazeera reported. He told reporters at Joint Base Andrews that discussions were still ongoing with India and the European Union as part of his wider trade strategy. Reacting to the new deal, Indonesia's former Deputy Foreign Minister Dino Patti Djalal said the government was satisfied with the outcome. He made the remarks during a panel hosted by Foreign Policy magazine, according to Al Jazeera. (ANI) Senior journalist and foreign affairs expert Waiel Awwad on Wednesday slammed NATO's recent warning of sanctions against India, China, and Brazil over their trade ties with Russia, calling it part of the United States' pressure rhetoric against Moscow. He said the US has failed to isolate Russia despite trying for over three years and is now resorting to such tactics. "There's a lot of rhetoric coming from the US and NATO forces because they know the war with Russia will continue. They will send more advanced weapons to hit Moscow. It seems the US President has given up," Awwad said, reacting to NATO's latest comments. "They wanted to isolate Russia, but they have failed. This is all rhetoric to put pressure on Russia," he added. Awwad's comments come after NATO chief Mark Rutte, during a press conference in Washington alongside US Senators Thom Tillis and Jeanne Shaheen, urged India, China, and Brazil to reconsider their economic ties with Moscow or face "100 per cent secondary sanctions" if Russia does not commit to peace talks on Ukraine. Rutte echoed the position taken by Trump, who earlier this week threatened severe tariffs on countries maintaining trade with Russia. "My encouragement to these three countries, particularly, is that if you live now in Beijing or in Delhi, or you are the President of Brazil, you might want to take a look at this because this might hit you very hard," Rutte said. He further appealed to these nations to pressure Russia into talks. "Please make the phone call to Vladimir Putin and tell him that he has to get serious about peace talks, because otherwise this will slam back on Brazil, on India and on China in a massive way," he warned. The statement follows Trump's announcement on supplying Ukraine with additional military aid, including air defence systems, missiles, and ammunition, largely funded by European allies. Trump also gave Russia a 50-day deadline to enter serious peace negotiations or face full secondary sanctions. Adding to the pressure, US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal issued a warning that nations purchasing Russian oil and gas, including India, are 'propping' up 'Putin's war machine'. The two lawmakers are pushing for the swift passage of the "Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025", which calls for imposing penalties and tariffs as high as 500 per cent on any country aiding Russia economically. (ANI) Stretching approximately 15 km, the corridor runs between eastern and western Khan Yunis and is intended to increase pressure on Hamas' Khan Yunis Brigade. In recent weeks, troops in the Khan Yunis area have eliminated terrorists and dismantled terror infrastructure, including weapons stockpiles and underground tunnel routes. At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 50 remaining hostages, around 30 are believed to be dead. (ANI/TPS) Paank highlighted that Muneer Ahmad was forcibly disappeared by the Pakistan Army during a midnight raid. Paank also highlighted that he was previously forcibly disappeared in 2017 by the Pakistan Army and held for 19 months. In a post on X, it said, "Muneer Ahmad, son of Deen Mohammad, was forcibly disappeared by Pakistan Army during a midnight raid from his home in Gichk. He was previously forcibly disappeared in 2017 by Pakistan Army and held for 19 months. Paank strongly condemns this repeated act of enforced disappearance and holds state forces accountable for the ongoing human rights violations in #Balochistan." https://x.com/paank_bnm/status/1945407911032737896 Balochistan has been the focus of persistent human rights concerns for decades. The region has faced cycles of violence involving separatist movements, heavy military presence, enforced disappearances, and economic marginalisation. These issues have drawn attention from human rights organisations, journalists, and international observers. On July 8, Amnesty International had condemned the vicious cycle of violence in Balochistan- from extrajudicial killings to abductions. In a post on X, earlier in July, it said, "Pakistani authorities must stop weaponizing laws to unlawfully detain peaceful Baloch activists and immediately release all activists including Gulzar and Mahrang Baloch - who has been detained for more than three months. Authorities should also urgently carry out independent, transparent and thorough investigations into the allegations of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial executions to bring to justice those suspected of responsibility through fair trials." Human rights groups have long accused Pakistani authorities of abducting civilians in Balochistan without due process, using enforced disappearances to suppress dissent and intimidate communities in restive areas. Pakistani authorities routinely deny these allegations, but civil society continues to condemn the security forces' role in systematic abductions targeting students, political workers, and residents. (ANI) India recently hosted the 2nd BIMSTEC Ports Conclave in Visakhapatnam from July 14-15 on the theme, "Navigating the Future: Blue Economy, Innovation and Sustainable Partnerships", the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) noted in an official statement. The Conclave was inaugurated by Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal and saw the participation of delegations from the BIMSTEC member States, comprising officials, maritime experts, port authorities, private sector leaders, and regional development partners, the MEA noted in its statement. Notably, the Conclave discussed diverse issues such as harmonising customs procedures and enhancing logistical links to boost intra-regional trade, port-linked industrial zones, cruise tourism, digital integration, upskilling the maritime workforce, industry-academia ties, and green shipping, amongst other areas. In his opening remarks, Union Minister Sonowal highlighted how the sea does not separate but rather connects the BIMSTEC countries. He said, "Since its inception in 1997, the BIMSTEC has prioritised connectivity as a fundamental area of cooperation. Sea doesn't separate, but rather connects us closely. It is seamless. It is eco-friendly, and it is cost-effective. In many ways, it is always beneficial for all of us". "The BIMSTEC Ports Conclave stands as a springboard to unlock the immense potential of Blue Economy from the Bay of Bengal region. Under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, India has a"Neighbourhood First" Policy and sees BIMSTEC nations as key partners in regional prosperity. We want this platform to enhance collaboration among all member nations for strengthening port-led industrialisation, digital integration and skill development, which in turn boost cruise tourism, and foster coastal economic zones," Sonowal emphasised. Sarbananda Sonowal announced that a BIMSTEC Sustainable Maritime Transport Centre is going to be established under the Indian Ocean Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Maritime Transport (IOCE-SMarT) at the Maritime Training Institute in Powai, Mumbai. The MEA underscored that this initiative by India, in line with its Neighbourhood First policy, will further strengthen maritime cooperation in the Bay of Bengal region. (ANI) Minister of State for External Affairs Pabitra Margherita will pay an official visit to Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa from July 18-25, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the MEA, MoS Margherita will visit Eswatini and Lesotho from July 18-22, 2025, and South Africa from July 23-25. During his visit to Eswatini, MoS Margherita is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on King Mswati III and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Eswatini. He is expected to hold a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Eswatini to discuss matters of mutual interest and to review the progress of bilateral relations. The visit will focus on strengthening cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, capacity building, development partnership and people-to-people exchanges. As per the MEA, he will also engage with the Indian diaspora and participate in events highlighting India's development partnership initiatives in Eswatini. The visit is expected to further enhance the longstanding and friendly relations between India and the Kingdom of Eswatini. In Lesotho, MoS Margherita is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on King Letsie III, and the Samuel Matekane, Prime Minister of Kingdom of Lesotho. MoS will also have a bilateral meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations. According to the MEA, he is expected to meet with the Minister of Information, Communications, Science, Technology, and Innovation; the Minister of Education and Training; and the Minister of Labour and Employment in Maseru. Significantly, this Ministerial visit to Lesotho comes after a gap of 10 years following the first-ever Ministerial visit from India to Lesotho by the then Minister of State (IC) Culture, Tourism & MoS for Civil Aviation, Dr Mahesh Sharma, on July 9, 2015 as Special Envoy of Prime Minister to deliver invitations for the 3rd India-Africa Forum Summit to the leadership of the Government of Lesotho. Notably, in South Africa, MoS Margherita will lead a delegation to participate in the upcoming G-20 Development Ministerial Meetings (DMM) on July 24-25 in Skukuza, South Africa and is scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with the South African Minister in the Presidency for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Maropene Lydia Ramokgopa and other Ministers responsible for Development and Heads of Delegations of other G20 Members, invited countries and International Organizations participating in the DMM. MoS Margherita is also expected to have bilateral engagements and interactions with prominent leaders of businesses and members of the Indian community in Eswatini, Lesotho and South Africa. (ANI) Aaron Taylor-Johnson is set to star in Werwulf. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is set to star in Werwulf The 35-year-old actor will reunite with director Robert Eggers on the motion picture, after sources confirmed to Deadline that Taylor-Johnson has signed up for the movie. And the insider also revealed Lily Rose-Depp is in talks to appear alongside him. Both Taylor-Johnson and Rose-Depp previously teamed up with Eggers for 2024 gothic horror film Nosferatu. Eggers will helm Werwulf, which is slated to be released on Christmas Day 2026 in the US. While plot details are yet to be revealed, the motion picture is expected to be a 13th century werewolf horror movie. But it is known that Eggers has reunited with his The Northman collaborator Sjon for the script. In January, insiders told the Hollywood Reporter that the story will be set in 13th century England, with dialogue "true to the time period". Translations and annotations will be provided for those who don't understand Old English, but Eggers has now decided against shooting the film in black and white. Nosferatu - which also stars Bill Skarsgard, Willem Dafoe, Nicholas Hoult and Emma Corrin - tells the terrifying tale of a young woman who finds herself the target of the ancient Transylvanian vampire Count Orlok after the creature becomes infatuated by her. The 41-year-old director recently revealed the inspirations behind his remake of Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, F. W. Murnau's 1922 silent German Expressionist vampire film. It was influenced by Jack Claytons 1961 picture The Innocents, which is based on 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by the American novelist Henry James. The novella focuses on a governess who watches over two children and comes to fear that their large estate is haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed. During an appearance on Alamo Drafthouses YouTube series Guest Selects, the filmmaker said: I think it is one of the best - perhaps the best - gothic ghost movie ever made. I watch it a couple times a year probably for inspiration. Freddy Francis was the cinematographer, who directed many Hammer horror films, but his finest collaborations are with Jack Clayton. "And what he does with the camera was very inspiring to what my cinematographer and I were up to with Nosferatu." Israeli aircraft have struck Syrian military targets in southern Syria as ethnic violence escalates between the Syrian Druze and Bedouins, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said, as reported by the Press Service of Israel (TPS). According to TPS, in the last 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force has hit tanks, rocket launchers, weapons, and pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, making their way to the Syrian city of Suweida, as well as access routes. At least 248 people have been reported killed in several days of ethnic violence between the Druze and Bedouins. Government forces loyal to interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa are viewed as siding with the Sunni Bedouins, as reported by TPS. Earlier, Israeli Druze breached the border near the Syrian village of Khader to help their brethren. As per a report by TPS, dozens of Israeli Druze breached the Syrian border in the Golan Heights on Wednesday in an urgent bid to defend their kin amid what community leaders describe as a "brutal massacre" of Druze civilians in southern Syria. The spiritual leader of Israel's Druze community, Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, accused the Israeli government and military of failing to uphold their commitments to protect Druze civilians across the border, according to TPS. It quoted Tarif, who said, "Innocent civilians - women, children and the elderly - are being murdered in cold blood... This is not a clash between Druze and Bedouins -- it's between the Druze and ISIS." In response, the IDF has rushed reinforcements to the border and is bracing for additional breaches and protests, and has requested more police support. Notably, the Israeli Druze leaders declared days of mourning and a general strike in their municipalities, and called on Druze citizens to prepare to cross the border again if the Syrian attacks persist. "This is a deep and regrettable breaking point in the historical and ethical alliance," the Druze statement read, as noted by TPS. It highlighted the community's prominent role in Israel's defence over the past two years. "We expect the Israeli government to enter the battle in a way that does not imply any double standards, for the sake of our brothers who are being slaughtered in Syria, just as we are standing at the forefront in defence of the state." Tarif said community representatives have appealed directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, and senior defence officials, demanding immediate Israeli airstrikes to halt the Syrian offensive. "Silence and standing by are no longer possible," he said. "If decisive action is not taken, the crisis between us and the State of Israel will deepen in a dangerous and unprecedented manner." He urged demonstrators to avoid blocking roads, but said protests would continue as long as the bloodshed does. Earlier in the day, the IDF had noted that it struck the entrance to the Syrian military's headquarters in Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial in Tel Aviv adjourned early so he could meet with security officials about the situation. On Tuesday, dozens of Israeli Druze crossed the border into Syria, while others blocked roads. The demonstrations came hours after the Israel Defence Forces said it had struck Syrian military vehicles approaching Suweida. According to the IDF, the airstrikes targeted armoured personnel carriers, tanks, and roads used by Syrian government forces. With no signs of the Syrian army withdrawing from Suweida, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned of escalations, as reported by TPS. It quoted Katz, who said, "The signals in Damascus are over - now painful blows will come... The IDF will continue to operate vigorously in Sweida to destroy the forces that attacked the Druze until their full withdrawal." The Druze community of Israel comprises around 1,52,000 people, as noted by TPS. It has been calling on the government to take stronger measures to protect their co-religionists in southern Syria. Around 40,000 Druze live in the southern Syrian provinces of Quneitra, Da'ara and Sweida under Israeli protection. PM Benjamin Netanyahu has also called for the demilitarisation of southern Syria. Earlier in May, the Israeli army had set up a field hospital to treat civilians near the Syrian village of Hader. Israel had sent forces into the 235 sq km buffer zone to prevent Syrian rebels from approaching the border when the regime of Bashar Assad collapsed in December. It had also launched waves of airstrikes on Syrian army assets and Iranian stockpiles to prevent them from falling into the hands of radical Islamists. TPS said in a report that while Israeli forces have briefly entered the buffer zone in the past, December's takeover marked the first time since its establishment that the IDF set up positions there. The demilitarised zone was established with a ceasefire in 1974 that ended the Yom Kippur War, and Israel considers the 1974 ceasefire agreement void until order is restored in Syria. The Druze trace their ancestry back to the Biblical figure Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. In Israel, the Druze serve in senior positions in public and military life, and the bond between Jewish and Druze soldiers is referred to as the "covenant of blood." The Druze speak Arabic but are not Muslim, as reported by TPS. The Druze living in the Galilee and Mount Carmel areas sided with the Jews in 1948 during Israel's War of Independence, and opted to be part of Israeli society and established themselves in all areas of public life. When Israel captured the Golan Heights during the Six-Day War of 1967, the Golan Druze refused Israeli offers of citizenship, believing Syria would recapture the plateau. But attitudes have changed since the Syrian Civil War broke out in 2011, TPS reported. (ANI) As part of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile's official visitation program, a two-member delegation comprising Parliamentarians Geshe Ngawa Gangri and Tsering Yangchen began their official tour of Dalhousie on July 12, 2025, according to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Upon arriving at the Phuntsoling Tibetan Settlement, the delegation received a warm welcome from local leaders, including Tibetan Settlement Officer Kelsang Tenzin, Chair of the Local Tibetan Assembly Phurbu Damdul, and representatives from the Regional Tibetan Freedom Movement. Also in attendance were the head of the Sambhota Tibetan School, a doctor from the Men-Tse-Khang clinic branch, as well as heads of Tibetan NGOs and community figures, CTA reported. The Parliamentarians were honoured at a welcome lunch hosted by three regional organisations. Following this, they paid a visit to Loseling Dolma Lhakhang to offer prayers and proceeded to inspect Tibetan-run shops near the GPO. There, they held informal interactions with local shopkeepers to learn about their economic and livelihood challenges, CTA noted. At 3 PM, the MPs met with Dr GS Dhillon, Principal of Dalhousie Public School and President of the Indo-Tibetan Friendship Association. During the meeting, they gifted Dr Dhillon a copy of Voice for the Voiceless, a newly released book by the 14th Dalai Lama, and conveyed their gratitude for his continued advocacy for the Tibetan cause, CTA stated. Later in the day, the delegation visited Tibetan residential areas, including Tsering Khang and Kelsang Khang, where they engaged in conversations with local residents to understand their concerns and everyday experiences. This community outreach forms a core component of the Parliament-in-Exile's goal to remain closely connected with Tibetan settlements in India, CTA emphasised. The day concluded with a dinner reception at the Tibetan Refugee Handicraft Centre, hosted in honour of the visiting Parliamentarians, celebrating the shared spirit of resilience and community within the Tibetan diaspora. (ANI) The Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government has lost its majority in the National Assembly, the upper house of parliament, as the Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal withdrew its support. The JSP-N, led by Upendra Yadav, walked out of the government with immediate effect, throwing the ruling alliance into a minority in the National Assembly. Although the ruling alliance still holds a majority in the House of Representatives, the lower house, bills endorsed by it also require approval from the upper house. "We have submitted the letter informing the government of the withdrawal of support to the House Speaker Debraj Ghimire. Though we had supported the government, we were not on board with the cabinet," chief whip of the party, Rekha Yadav, told ANI over the phone. Issuing a statement, the party has given 11 reasons to end support to the government led by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli. The party has stated that the government has failed to ensure good governance to the people, control corruption, irregularities, impunity, improve the country's economy, unbalanced and biased budget, as reasons to withdraw the support. JSP-N's decision follows the parliamentary party meeting held earlier today. Although the withdrawal of support will not affect the government's standing in the House of Representatives, where JSP-N has five members, it significantly alters the balance in the 59-member National Assembly. Previously, the ruling alliance had the backing of 31 lawmakers in the upper House. Following JSP-N's exit, it now commands just 28 seats. The largest party in the lower house, the Nepali Congress, has 16, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli led CPN-UML has 10, Loktantrik Samajwadi Party has one and one nominated member. The oppositions now hold a majority in the upper house with 30 votes in their favour. The Maoist Center has 17, CPN-Unified Socialist has 8, JSP-N has 3, one nominated and one from Janamorcha. The Chair of the National Assembly is not counted in the total. The shift means the Oli government will now struggle to pass bills in the upper house. Despite the withdrawal of support, Prime Minister Oli is not constitutionally required to seek a vote of confidence in the House of Representatives. Article 100(2) of the Constitution mandates such a vote only if a party participating in government withdraws its support. JSP-N, although supporting the government, was not a coalition partner. (ANI) Atleast four people were killed during a clash between the workers of Awami League and the police and the army, in Gopalgonj district in Dhaka division of Bangladesh on Wednesday, local media reported quoting hospital sources. In Bangladesh, the newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), led by the youth who led the mass uprising last year, has faced strong opposition in Gopalganj, the hometown of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Atleast four people were killed during the clashes in Gopalgonj, local media reported quoting hospital sources. When the central leaders of the NCP went to hold a rally in the southern Gopalgonj district, they were attacked by Awami League leaders and workers. The was a massive clash between the Awami League and the police and the army. The police and army fired bullets and tear gas to control the situation. A curfew has been imposed in Gopalgonj from 8 pm tonight until 6pm the next day. The clashes, which started at noon Bangladesh time, continued till 6 pm at the time of writing this report. Awami League leaders and workers vandalized the rally venue and set fire to the stage and audience chairs. Gopalgonj practically became a battled in the clashes. Local TV channels are broadcasting live videos of the clashes, showing tear gas plumes at the scene. The sound of Gunfire and cockatiels can be heard. NCP leaders were trapped. They are now in police line in safe custody. NCP leaders had earlier announced that they would win Gopalgonj. But far from winning, they have gone under police safety. Rumours spread the night before that the NCP would demolish the mausoleum of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of Bangladesh's independence, in Gopalgonj. The interim government condemns the violence. "The use of violence today in Gopalganj is utterly indefensible. Preventing young citizens from peacefully holding a rally to commemorate the one-year anniversary of their revolutionary movement is a shameful violation of their fundamental rights", interim government said in a statement. "Members of the National Citizen Party (NCP), police and media were subjected to brutal attacks, with their cars vandalised and individuals violently assaulted", it added. "This heinous act--allegedly carried out by members of the banned Awami League's Chhatra League and AL activists --will not go unpunished. The perpetrators must be swiftly identified and held fully accountable. There is no place for such violence against any citizen of Bangladesh", the statement said. "We commend the Army and police for their prompt intervention, and we applaud the resilience and courage of the students and people who carried on with their rally despite these malicious threats", the statement said. "Those responsible for this brutality will face justice. Let it be made absolutely clear: violence has no place in our nation. Justice must and will prevail", the statement said. Atleast three people were killed during the clashes in Gopalgonj, local media reported quoting hospital sources. (ANI) On the second day of the official visit to Japan, Union Minister of Textiles, Giriraj Singh, held a series of high-level meetings with major Japanese companies and inaugurated the 16th India Trend Fair 2025 in Tokyo on Tuesday. The fair is one of the largest platforms for Indian textile exporters to connect directly with Japanese buyers and is expected to further deepen bilateral textile trade, the Ministry of Textiles said in a statement. As per the ministry, Union Minister Giriraj Singh met with the leadership of YKK Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of zippers and fastening products. YKK, already operating in Haryana, expressed intent to expand to other states. The Minister invited them to invest in PM MITRA Parks, which was well received. In a key meeting with the President of Workman Co., a leading company in workwear and functional apparel, the Minister highlighted India's growing manufacturing ecosystem. Workman expressed strong interest in setting up manufacturing facilities in India under the PM MITRA framework, according to the statement. The Minister also held discussions with Konica Minolta, a global player in digital and industrial printing. He invited them to expand operations in India and contribute to ESG and sustainability goals. The company welcomed the opportunity to grow its business in India. Further, Minister Giriraj Singh met with the leadership of Asahi Kasei Corporation, a USD 20 billion conglomerate in fibres, industrial materials, and specialty textiles. The company expressed keen interest in investing under the 'Make in India for the World' initiative, the Ministry said in an official statement. The day concluded with a roadshow and industry interaction at the Indian Embassy in Tokyo, celebrating the India-Japan partnership with a focus on the textile sector. Over 100 industry leaders participated in the event, which was also attended by Ambassador Sibi George and senior officials from the Ministry of Textiles. Giriraj Singh highlighted India's strengths as a global textile hub and invited Japanese companies to partner in India's textile growth story. (ANI) Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav held a meeting with members of the Populous Group in Spain on Wednesday (local time). Populous is a global design firm with its global headquarters in Kansas City and regional headquarters in London and Brisbane. Their team comprises specialists across a range of disciplines, including architecture and interior design, branded environments, urban planning, event design, and landscape architecture. Meanwhile, Nature Bio Foods CEO Rohan Grover, after meeting CM Yadav, said that he was very comfortably accepting all the ideas. "We produce and source in India, and we distribute here in the entire Europe. The Honourable Chief Minister was very receptive to all the ideas and was willing to provide what was required to increase organic agriculture in the state of Madhya Pradesh. His coming here to Spain and spending time with us was really great. Many delegates up there at this stage also mentioned that you got to invest in Madhya Pradesh or at least get invested inside and come and experience," he said. Grover, speaking to ANI, stated that they have already invested in the state, with over 1,000 workers in India. However, they are looking to expand their operations. "We are already invested in Madhya Pradesh in a big capacity. We have more than 1,000 employees working in Madhya Pradesh. We are now looking to consolidate many of our other operations and establish a significant presence in Madhya Pradesh, investing in large-scale capacity and infrastructure. So we are very much looking forward. He has given his consent and acceptance, indicating that he is willing to support industries like ours in setting up there. So we look forward," he said. He added that if the government agrees to support them, Madhya Pradesh can be set up as an organic state. "Madhya Pradesh is a very big organic state in India, and if we are able to set up and get good support from the government, we are expected to grow not just the organic movement from India but from Madhya Pradesh and give a lot of benefits to the farmers of India," he said. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav began the first day of his Spain visit by touring the world-renowned headquarters of LaLiga in Madrid on Wednesday. He held discussions with senior officials focusing on sports, youth empowerment, and investment collaboration. (ANI) Members of Lynchburg City Council have proposed several changes to its Rules of Procedure in response to incidents at council meetings in 2025. Vice Mayor and Ward III Councilman Curt Diemer and At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns jointly proposed a change that would give the presiding officer the leeway to allow residents of Lynchburg to address the council during the public comment period before non-residents. At a council meeting in late May, two local business leaders who do not live in Lynchburg John Fees and Daryl Calfee criticized members of city council in their remarks during the public comment period. When introducing themselves, the two businessmen, who own many properties in Lynchburg, did not say the jurisdiction in which they live. At the conclusion of the public comment period, Misjuns noted they both live in Bedford County. Diemer then called for a point of order to explain that city council rules require that each speaker during public comment must state their name and locality of residence. In another proposed change, Diemer wants to prohibit councilmembers from leaving the councils dais during a public comment period or any public hearing for the purpose of interacting with speakers or members of the public. A councilmember would need to get permission from a majority of councilmembers present to be able to interact with a member of the audience under Diemers proposed change. At a council meeting in February, Greg Berry, a Lynchburg resident and regular speaker during public comment, accused Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi of intimidating him. A few minutes after Berry described Lynchburgs LGBTQ community as an abomination before God during the public comment period, Faraldi left his seat on the dais and walked into the audience where he gave a person who had protested Berrys comments a supportive hug. On his way back to the dais, Faraldi walked by Berry and told him, That was uncalled for. Berry then stood up in the audience and said, I do not appreciate a councilmember trying to intimidate me after I had my say. In one of his proposed rule updates, Mayor Larry Taylor wants the rules to state: Speakers are not permitted to approach the Councils dais during the Public Comment period or during any public hearing. If speakers wish to provide councilmembers with materials, they can ask the presiding officer for permission and, if granted, the materials can be passed along to the city manager or the Clerk of the Council, according to Taylors proposed change. At an April council meeting, Jamie Maxwell, the head of the local firefighters association, approached At-large Councilwoman Stephanie Reed at the dais without her permission and placed a fire station floor tile on the dais in front of her. Reed pushed her chair back away from the dais to separate herself from Maxwell, who also angrily told the councilwoman to keep the name of a firefighter who died of cancer in 2024 out of her mouth. He has threatened me tonight, and I do not feel safe, Reed said in response. From the other side of the dais, Misjuns chimed in, saying, That was not a threat, in response to Reeds statement. At its July 8 work session meeting, city council was scheduled to discuss these and other proposed updates to its Rules of Procedure. Ward I Councilwoman Jacqueline Timmer also was scheduled to make a presentation highlighting her proposed changes to the rules. Council ran out of time before it could discuss the proposed changes. In her presentation, which was included in the July 8 work session meeting packet, Timmer stated she supports establishing the correct balance between the need for robust debate while respecting free speech, while having civil dialogue and rejecting cancel culture. She highlighted the use of the point of order parliamentary mechanism that is routinely employed by members of Lynchburg City Council when a councilmember believes a rule is not being followed. According to Timmers proposed change, city councils parliamentarian, which is typically the city attorney, would be required to notify the presiding officer at a meeting that he or she must recognize a member who makes a point of order. Timmer also proposed removing vague terms from the rules that allow for a presiding member to limit free speech of citizens and limits expulsion to physical threats or conduct that persistently violates rules after notice of potential expulsion is made. At its first meeting in July, city council will often include amendments to its Rules of Procedure for consideration. In 2024, city council voted at its July 9 meeting against revising its Rules of Procedure that would have prohibited the use of poles to hold flags and signs attached to pickets inside Council Chambers. The decision went against a recommendation by Police Chief Ryan Zuidema, who suggested such a measure would further protect people who attend council meetings. Both Virginia Code and city councils Rules of Procedure state city council must set its meeting calendar for the following year at its first meeting in July. City council has historically done this by reaffirming its Rules of Procedure, which contain its regular meeting schedule. But at its July 8 meeting, council only set its meeting calendar for the new fiscal year and did not address the proposed changes to its Rules of Procedure. City council can make changes to its rules at any time. Councils next work session and regular council meeting are scheduled for Aug. 26. The Nelson County Sheriffs Office held its July town hall at the Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire Department on July 10, informing the public of the departments noteworthy activities since April and its plans for the coming months. Sheriff Mark Embrey flipped through a presentation of most all the departments activities since April, providing opportunities for those in attendance to ask questions and provide feedback. Patrol officers and school resource officers were also present at the meeting. April: initiating training During Nelson County Public Schools spring break, Embrey said the Nelson County Sheriffs Office recently held an active shooter class at Nelson Middle School. According to the departments Facebook page, personnel from Wintergreen Police Department, Appomattox County Sheriffs Office, Wintergreen Fire & Rescue, among others, joined the sheriffs office in the training while school was not in session. Embrey said the department had the opportunity to connect with Nelson County Farm Bureau and Nelson County Public Schools by providing traffic control services during the Drive Your Tractor to School event April 24. Embrey said the department is continuing to work on the cold case of Jeffrey Lee Quick, who went missing in May 1998. The department reopened the missing person case in on Feb. 20 according to a news release. Successes, changes, activities in May Embrey said Rockfish Presbyterian Church asked him if officers had anything in their patrol vehicles that may provide comfort to children who are present at violent or frightening incidents, to which he said they did not. So, the church put together more than 50 care bags to store in the officers vehicles for when they respond to incidents where a small child is present. The sheriff said on May 26, the office began its first traffic enforcement unit. He said Deputy Keith Brown was assigned to the unit and is doing a phenomenal job. Embrey expressed why there was a need for a traffic-specific unit in the department. Based on the volume of the complaints we got, I said weve got to have an individual that is solely directed for the enforcement and direction of traffic, he said. Some of the complaints had to do with the traffic on Route 29 and Rockfish Valley Highway. Additionally, one of the complaints he said included cars passing stopped school busses while children are boarding or getting off. Sheriff offices June efforts Embrey said on June 5, the sheriffs office worked alongside the 3A Regional Drug and Gang Task Force to execute a narcotics-related search warrant off James River Road in Shipman. According to the news release, a male subject was taken into custody for possession of methamphetamine, and three firearms were seized. Embrey said the sheriffs office held two cop camps in June, one for children in grades third through fifth and the other for children in grades sixth through eighth. He said . Those who participated in the cop camp had the opportunity to join the department in the Fourth of July parade. Embrey said the Nelson County Sheriffs Office was one of the many Virginia law enforcement agencies that swore in D.J. Daniel, a 10-year-old boy battling cancer, // where is the kid from? // as an honorary deputy of the department. Hes a very fine young man and it was an honor to be there and be part of that, he said. Embrey also notified the public that the sheriffs office is considering entering Enterprise Fleet Managements rental program to alleviate financial issues that have developed due to patrol vehicle damages. Statistical information collected From April through June statistics Embrey shared were: 5,597 calls for service 164 criminal warrants served Seven DUI arrests 1116 traffic stops 1,117 traffic summons issued 102 traffic crashes 73 protective orders served 17 emergency custody orders and temporary detention orders During the same time period in 2024, there were: 5,290 calls for service 212 criminal warrants served Six DUI arrests 914 traffic stops 811 traffic summons issued 103 traffic crashes 83 protective orders served 15 emergency custody orders and temporary detention orders Looking ahead Embrey said because many of the calls the deputies respond to involve individuals experiencing cardiac arrest, the sheriffs office submitted a grant application to purchase 12 automated external defibrillators (AED) devices that use an electrical shock to restore a persons heart rhythm to normal. He said the intention is for every deputy to have an AED on hand so that they may provide preliminary lifesaving care as they wait for emergency medical services to arrive. He said the grant was approved and the office should receive the AEDs soon. Responding to the public Embrey fielded questions related to the departments accreditation status, overtime pay for deputies for transporting subjects for mental health evaluations and if all deputies are CPR trained. Embrey said the office is about two to three months into the process of accreditation, which he said could take 3 years. He said the department is currently in a mock assessment phase where they send their policies to various law enforcement agencies, which will then give feedback and advice. The sheriff said deputies are paid overtime through funds that are made available to the department through the state. Embrey also said that all deputies are CPR certified, and the AEDs are being purchased will provide more advanced care. Miyazaki, Jul 16 (News On Japan) - Japan continues to lag behind other countries in digital transformation (DX), including in the use of generative AI. However, one local government has emerged as a leader in implementing effective DX initiatives, offering valuable lessons for overcoming the nations status as an AI laggard. On a recent program, Heiwako Okudaira of Tech Note spoke with Heiwako Okuda, an editorial board member at Tech Keizai Shimbun, to explore why Japan has fallen behind and what can be learned from local successes. According to a survey published in June by PwC Japan Group, Japan ranked last among major countries when it came to formally integrating generative AI into workplace operations. While some Japanese companies, such as LINE Yahoo, have recently mandated AI use among employees, the nation as a whole remains behind. Underlying the AI delay is Japan's broader lag in digitalization. To understand this issue, the program looked at the town of Konojo in Miyazaki Prefectureone of the few municipalities recognized for outstanding digital reform. Konojo has received multiple awards for its achievements, including top rankings in hometown tax donations and My Number Card issuance. One notable initiative is the towns paperless one-stop service desk. Traditionally, residents are required to fill out numerous forms at city hall. Konojo eliminated this by having staff retrieve necessary information from the residents My Number Card, drastically reducing wait times. Tasks that previously took around three hours are now completed in just 45 minutes. Residents have praised the improvements. This efficiency does not come at the expense of city staff. Behind the scenes, Konojo has implemented systems such as robotic process automation (RPA) to automate data entry and reduce staff workload. These changes have lightened the administrative burden, enabling smoother service delivery. So why can Konojo achieve what other cities cannot? Okuda identified one key: understanding that analog reform is essential for successful digitalization. For example, many government forms originate from central ministries and include outdated or unnecessary fields. Konojo first reviewed and eliminated such redundancies before proceeding with digital implementation. An analogy shared during the segment involved a robotic vacuum cleaner. Just as a cluttered room must be tidied before using a robot vacuum, so too must bureaucratic processes be cleaned up before digitization. Mayor Takahisa Ikeda of Konojo emphasized the importance of human leadership in digital reform. "Technology is just a tool. Whether it's used for good or bad depends on the people behind it," he said. To drive change, Konojo created a new digital coordination division and appointed younger staff to key roles, including in My Number Card promotion. By putting people at the center of DX and carefully rethinking outdated systems, Konojo has become a model for municipalities across Japanand possibly a key to helping the country break free from its reputation as a digital laggard. Source: BIZ British holidaymakers are heading to Brazil in droves, with official figures showing a 20% rise in arrivals during the first half of 2025. Brazil boom for holidaymakers A total of 97,413 UK tourists entered Brazil between January and June, up from 81,200 over the same period last year. More than 5.3 million foreign tourists visited the country in the first semester of 2025 - a record-breaking 48.2% increase year-on-year. The UK is now Brazils ninth-largest source of overseas visitors, just behind Germany and Portugal but ahead of Spain, Italy and Canada. Topping the chart was neighbouring Argentina, with 2.3 million tourists, followed by Chile (442,993), the US (410,189), Uruguay (308,956) and Paraguay (306,523). France sent 132,939 tourists, Portugal 128,114 and Germany 103,483. Marcelo Freixo, president of Brazils Tourist Board Embratur, hailed the figures as proof the country was hitting its stride. He said: Tourism in Brazil has gone from being a potential to a reality. We are reaching the levels of foreign tourist arrivals that our country deserves, at a growth rate that is the highest in the world today. This has generated new investments, thousands of jobs and income throughout the country. Tourism has become this clean industry that develops our country sustainably, providing opportunities in all regions in large, medium and small cities. The main air entry point was Sao Paulo (1.36 million), followed by Rio de Janeiro (1.1 million), with Santa Catarina (305,901), Bahia (97,760) and Brasilia (51,597) also receiving large numbers. by Natalie key for www.femalefirst.co.uk SAITAMA, Jul 17 (News On Japan) - Saitama Prefectural Police have discovered several million yen in cash during a search of the home shared by the wife and second son of Chizuo Matsumoto, the former Aum Shinrikyo cult leader who was executed in 2018, according to interviews with people involved in the investigation. In March, the Public Security Intelligence Agency attempted to conduct an inspection of the apartment in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, where Matsumotos wife and second son live. However, the inspection was refused. Following this refusal, Saitama police conducted a search of the premises in April on suspicion of violating the Act on the Control of Organizations, based on a report from the Public Security Intelligence Agency. During the search, police uncovered several million yen in cash inside the apartment. Inspections targeting the residences of family members of Matsumoto are said to be highly unusual. Authorities are also investigating reports that Aleph, a successor group to Aum Shinrikyo, is positioning Matsumotos second son as its next leader. The origin of the discovered cash is now under close scrutiny by the Public Security Intelligence Agency. Source: TBS Kayla Gafford is interested in emergency medicine. The Glenwood Community High School student wanted to explore becoming an EMT this summer until a chance came along through Avenue Scholars Southwest Iowa to earn her Certified Nursing Assistant credential. Gafford spent four weeks working alongside other area students on a health service boot camp last month in partnership with Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital in Council Bluffs, including spending time on the hospital floor working with patients while receiving mentorship from health care professionals. The camp was the second year of a program with Avenue Scholars to help students earn their CNA credentials and explore health care careers, while also creating a talent pipeline to support the hospital's workforce needs. Ten students earned their CNAs at a ceremony June 26 at Iowa Western Community College, while nine earned their certificates last year, according to Methodist Health System. The students also earned industry-recognized credentials in first aid, basic life support and CPR over the course of four weeks, including three weeks of instruction at the hospital and a final assessment that allows them to apply for CNA positions within the Methodist Health System. For Gafford, though, the opportunity also brought clarity to her plans as she enters her senior year. "I've always been very interested in health care," she told The Nonpareil in an interview, but she's also thought about pursuing a career in music. But the boot camp helped her realized "I felt very passionate about this," allowing her to see "this is just where I want to be." "I feel a lot more closure on that (decision) now," Gafford said. "It was really, really cool. We got to do so many things." Gafford shadowed health care workers at Jennie Ed in the geriatrics department, progressive care unit and operating room. She said the doctors would teach her as they performed their jobs, including during surgery, and encouraged her to consider her options in the health care industry. "I'm leaning toward being an ED nurse or trauma," Gafford said. Emma Stephens, an incoming junior at Glenwood, said she's always enjoyed working with people, and the clinic experience working with patients, on different floors of the hospital helped show her what life might be like after earning a degree in nursing. Avenue Scholars is allowing Stephens and the others in the boot camp to earn a credential that lets them work now, but the program will also pay for them to continue their studies after high school to increase their future earning potential. "I would still be interested in nursing, but I don't think I would do as well in getting into it if it hadn't been for Avenue Scholars," Stephens said. "They pay for literally everything. They pay for your schooling. They'll pay for my scrubs, my stethoscope. They help you get jobs. They help you in your personal life, your professional life they just overall help you on every level." Stephens said she worked alongside health care practitioners in oncology, neurology and recovering during the boot camp, and she was surprised at the demeanor of so many of Jennie Ed's patients. "I wasn't expecting so many people to be happy in the hospital," Stephens said "Working with the nurses, they do so well at coping and handling everything, and it's something that was really cool to me." Allison Britten, a recent graduate of Underwood High School, said the boot camp focused on teaching practical skills as part of the CNA curriculum, including how to turn a patient in bed or give a bed bath. Britten said she plans to seek employment at Jennie Ed after the experience, saying she is "familiar with the environment and there's a lot of great people there." She plans to pursue a nursing program at Iowa Western this fall as well, aiming to become a registered nurse. "Avenue Scholars is great," Britten said. "They just push people to be the best version of themselves." For Britten, the decision to go into health care was easy: "I've known that I wanted to do this since I was 10," she said, adding that she couldn't imagine a career outside of health care. "My mom has been a nurse for 35 years, so she's kind of my biggest inspiration," Britten said. "It's just something that I see myself loving for the rest of my life." But last month's boot camp and the promise of tuition payments and an income tethered to work that'll help her achieve her goals both starting fall means she doesn't have to worry how to make that life happen. "It just takes, like, the ginormous weight of worrying about paying for college off of your shoulders," Britten said. "I just feel like everyone should go through an experience like this, because I've met some of my best friends in the past four weeks. So it's been great." The initial public offering (IPO) of Vicenne, a leading Moroccan medical equipment company, broke a new record on the Casablanca Stock Exchange with an IPO that was oversubscribed 64 times. The offering attracted over 32 billion dirhams in demand by investors for shares worth just 500 million dirhams, resulting in an unprecedented oversubscription. Vicenne offered 2.1 million new shares at a fixed price of MAD 236, valuing the company at MAD 2.4 billion. The IPO drew 37,674 investors, including over 36,000 individual investors from 49 different nationalities. Notably, 40% of these retail investors were first-time participants in the stock market, signaling a significant shift toward broader public engagement in equity investment. Dermot Murnaghan fell through the gaps before getting his prostate cancer diagnosis. Dermot Murnaghan 'fell through the gaps' with his prostate cancer diagnosis The ex-Sky News presenter, 67, announced last month he had been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, and Murnaghan has now admitted it never occurred to him that the medical tests he had for work did not include one for PSA (prostate-specific antigen). Speaking at an event hosted by Prostate Cancer UK, he said: For years, I thought, Thatll do me - Im getting tested basically once a year or every couple of years. It never occurred to me that they werent testing for PSA. I never went to my GP because I was getting other tests through the production company. So, thats how I fell through the gaps and thats how I had a massive wake-up call and want to share the message. Murnaghan urged men to be regularly tested for prostate cancer, and noted: You can still get to the stage I have with no symptoms. He continued: You can insist on the test if you are in a high-risk group and under 50. If youre not, Id still get the test at 50. Go to your GP and they say you dont need it, but say, I want it. It is your right to have it. Just keep doing that every year or couple of years. Once youve got that marker, where your PSA is, keep monitoring it. The earlier you find it, the easier it is to treat, so check your risk in just 30 seconds with Prostate Cancer UKs online risk and what you can do about it. Reflecting on his cancer journey, Murnaghan said he was responding positively to treatment and has a lot of hope for new trials and medical options. He said: Whats astonishing is just how fast things are developing, even at last stage advanced prostate cancer, the programme that Ive been getting only really was approved within the last couple of years. Murnaghan will be taking part in Sir Chris Hoys Tour de 4 fundraising bike ride for cancer charities, after the Olympic athlete, 49, announced he had a terminal diagnosis for prostate cancer last October. Murnaghan said he will be riding in Glasgow in September alongside some incredible participants. Greece has passed a new law allowing authorities to reject asylum applications from migrants arriving via Libya, designating the North African country as a safe third country. The move has drawn sharp criticism from human rights organizations, who argue that Libya remains unsafe for migrants and asylum seekers. The legislation, approved by the Greek parliament on July 11, enables the government to fast-track deportations of individuals who transited through Libya, even if they face persecution in their home countries. Greek officials argue that the measure is necessary to curb irregular migration and reduce pressure on the countrys asylum system. According to the Greek Ministry of Migration and Asylum, the number of arrivals by sea has increased significantly in 2025, with many migrants departing from Libyas western coast. The new law is part of a broader strategy to deter crossings and shift responsibility for asylum processing to countries of transit. However, rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Greek Council for Refugees, have condemned the law, citing widespread reports of abuse, arbitrary detention, and human trafficking in Libya. They argue that designating Libya as a safe country violates international and EU asylum law, which requires that third countries offer effective protection and uphold human rights standards. The European Commission has not yet commented on the Greek legislation, but the move could reignite tensions within the EU over migration policy and burden-sharing. Libya, still grappling with political instability and the presence of armed militias, remains a key departure point for migrants attempting to reach Europe. The United Nations and humanitarian organizations have repeatedly warned that conditions in Libyan detention centers are inhumane and that migrants face serious risks of violence and exploitation. Greeces new policy reflects a growing trend among EU member states to externalize asylum responsibilities to third countries, a strategy that continues to face legal and ethical scrutiny. Ukraine has pledged to support Ghanas border security efforts with advanced drone technology and combat-tested expertise, following a recent high-level conversation between President John Dramani Mahama and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. With extremist violence spreading southward from the Sahel, Ghanas northern border with Burkina Faso has become increasingly vulnerable. Over 250 unapproved border routes have been identified, used for smuggling and potentially by armed groups. To counter these threats, President Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine is ready to provide its advanced drone capabilities, developed during its ongoing war with Russia, to assist Ghana in securing its borders. Ghana is interested in our technologies, the production of various types of drones, and the experience Ukraine has gained during this war, Zelenskyy said, adding that Ghana is ready to finance our production, and we are ready to help our partners secure their borders. The two leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation in agriculture, including the creation of a food logistics hub in Ghana. This initiative aligns with Mahamas Feed Ghana Programme and aims to reduce food imports and improve post-harvest storage. A Ukrainian ministerial delegation will soon visit Accra to finalize agreements on defense, agriculture, and digital cooperation. Zelenskyy also extended an invitation for President Mahama to visit Ukraine, underscoring the growing strategic partnership between the two nations. Accra has maintained a consistent and principled stance condemning Russias aggression against Ukraine since 2022. In a major step toward ending over a decade of conflict, two of the Central African Republics (CAR) most powerful rebel groups, the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC) and 3R (Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation), have officially disbanded their political and military wings under a new peace accord with the government. At a symbolic ceremony held in Bangui last week, UPC leader General Sembe Bobo and 3R commander Ali Darassa placed their weapons on a table before President Faustin-Archange Touadera and Chadian mediators, signaling an end to hostilities. This latest agreement is not a sign of weakness, said Touadera, adding that it is a testament to the countrys commitment to dialogue (that) will contribute to the development of the Central African Republic. The peace deal, signed on 19 April in NDjamena and brokered by Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, outlines a phased process for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR). Registered fighters from both groups have already been relocated to cantonment sites. Those deemed fit will join the national armed forces (FACA), while others will enter community reintegration programs. Darassa reaffirmed his groups dedication to peace: Our commitment is sincere and total, with no turning back. Both leaders called for the government to uphold its promises, including security guarantees and political inclusion. Despite lingering instability, the disarmament of UPC and 3R marks CARs most significant move toward reconciliation in years. The international community is now closely monitoring whether this delicate peace can be sustained in one of Africas most unstable countries. Equatorial Guinea has filed an urgent appeal at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), demanding France halt the sale of a luxury mansion in Paris seized from Vice President Teodorin Obiang, son of the African nations longserving president. The property was confiscated following Teodorins conviction for embezzlement in a French court. Representing Equatorial Guinea, Minister Carmelo NvonoNca accused France of breaching obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption by refusing to return assets believed to belong to the state. He described French measures as paternalistic and neocolonial, and asserted that the property is public rather than personal. It has become clear that France is determined to sell the building, he told ICJ judges. Paris, however, dismissed the claim, calling the emergency motion baseless. Diego Colas, legal adviser to Frances Foreign Affairs Ministry, stated there are no immediate plans to sell the Avenue Foch property, and criticized the procedural move as improper. He affirmed that Frances actions remain fully consistent with international law. The dispute traces back to a 2012 French raid on Teodorins residence, which held a vast array of assets. A previous ICJ decision in 2020 backed Frances right to confiscate but did not directly address Equatorial Guineas nowrevived arguments that the mansion serves diplomatic purposes. The ICJ is expected to rule on the emergency appeal within weeks. The decision will be pivotal for both nations: setting a precedent on the enforcement of international anticorruption treaties, and determining whether seized assets must be returned or may be disposed of by the seizing state. The United Nations has issued a stark warning about an unfolding child malnutrition crisis in Sudans Darfur region, as conflict-driven hunger and collapsing aid access push the region closer to famine. UNICEF reports a 46% surge in severe acute malnutrition (SAM) cases among children across Darfurs five states in the first five months of 2025. In North Darfur alone, over 40,000 children have been admitted for treatment double the number from last year. These children are hungry because of conflict and are being denied the assistance that could save their lives, said UNICEF Sudan representative Sheldon Yett. This is a moment of truth childrens lives depend on whether the world chooses to act or look away. The crisis is worsening elsewhere in Sudan, with malnutrition admissions skyrocketing by 70% in North Kordofan, 174% in Khartoum, and an alarming 683% in Al Jazirah. While some spikes may reflect improved access, overall the numbers signal a national emergency. Conditions are especially dire in El Fasher and Zamzam camp, where ongoing fighting has displaced over 400,000 people and halted aid deliveries. Hospitals have been bombed, roads blocked, and food supplies looted. Therapeutic nutrition stocks in Al Fasher are now depleted. UNICEF is calling for an immediate $200 million funding boost and demanding unrestricted humanitarian access. Without urgent global action, the agency warns, thousands more children could die not from natural disaster, but from deliberate inaction amid war. Four individuals who were abducted and forcibly conscripted by the Burkinabe military junta to fight jihadists have been released, according to their families and a security source speaking to AFP. Their abductions occurred after they publicly criticised the junta, led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, which seized power in a coup in September 2022. Authorities have been accused of misusing a general mobilisation decree to silence dissent by conscripting critics into frontline combat roles. Among those freed is columnist Kalifara Sere, who had been missing since June 2024 after he questioned official narratives about a presidential appearance following a nearby shelling incident. A close associate of Sere confirmed his release last weekend, stating he is in good health and spending time with his family. Other released detainees include Benoit Bassole, nephew of ex-foreign minister Djibril Bassole, who was abducted in September 2024 amid allegations of a conspiracy involving his exiled uncle. Also freed were Marcel Imane, a German teacher kidnapped in March for criticising the countrys worsening security situation, and civil society leader James Yazid Dembele, whose alleged death following torture had sparked outrage. Dembele had been seized in January in Bobo-Dioulasso after reportedly leaking an audio recording involving state intelligence. A security source confirmed all four releases, attributing them to the official end of their requisition. Their cases underscore mounting concerns over the juntas repressive tactics against critics under the guise of national security operations. G20 member States, under the leadership of South Africas 2025 presidency, are convening in Durban with the hope of reaching a consensus on urgent global financial reforms. The finance and Central bank deputies gathered on Monday and Tuesday to address pressing issues such as debt relief, development financing, and the restructuring of multilateral financial institutions. South Africas Director-General of the National Treasury, Duncan Pieterse, underscored the countrys commitment to strengthening the G20s role in building a resilient and inclusive international financial architecture. Central to the discussions are proposals aimed at enhancing debt sustainability, mitigating liquidity crises, and boosting support for developing nations through reformed multilateral development banks. The calls for change are particularly strong from African countries, which argue that the current global financial system perpetuates inequality and underdevelopment. With soaring borrowing costs hampering investments in health, education, and infrastructure, leaders from the Global South are urging the G20 to address the root causes of debt. Rashas Cassim of the South African Reserve Bank and Redge Nkosi of Firstsource Money both stressed that the international financial order has exacerbated poverty and debt in the developing world. While the upcoming G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting, scheduled for Thursday and Friday, aims to push these reforms forward, progress may be hindered by geopolitical tensionsespecially with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent set to skip the talks amid ongoing friction between Washington and BRICS nations. We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website. You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings . Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Tuesday, July 15, appointed five new ministers as part of the Government of Hope, with three appointees drawn from armed movements aligned with the military. According to the Sudan News Agency (SUNA), the appointments were formalised under Decision No. 84 of 2025. Professor Ahmed El-Tijani Abdel Rahim El-Mansouri was named Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, while Khalid Ismail Ahmed Ali El-Aisir retained his portfolio as Minister of Culture and Information with added responsibility for Tourism. Nureldayem Taha, an aide to Minni Arko Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Movement, was appointed Minister of Minerals. Moatasem Ahmed Saleh Adam, affiliated with the Justice and Equality Movement led by Gibril Ibrahim, will serve as Minister of Human Resources and Social Welfare. Saif Al-Nasr El-Tijani Haroun Jaber, representing the Sudan Liberation Forces Gathering, was named Minister of Infrastructure and Transport. Prime Minister Idris stated that the appointments were based on national competence and expertise; however, they have sparked criticism over the continued influence of armed groups to the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement. The controversy stems from the Prime Ministers earlier commitment to forming a cabinet of independent technocrats, which appears to have been compromised by the retention of figures tied to the peace pact. Just days prior, on 10 July, Gibril Ibrahim and Mohamed Karti Kila were reappointed as Minister of Finance and Minister of Federal Governance, respectivelypositions they secured under the peace agreement. The latest appointments highlight the delicate balance between political inclusivity and technocratic governance in Sudans transitional period. Photo: Ethan Noah Roy Last Thursday, federal agents conducted one of the Trump administrations largest mass-deportation raids so far in Camarillo, California. Over several hours at the marijuana farm known as the Glass House, agents detained more than 200 immigrants. As Border Patrol combed the farm, workers who picked its crops went into hiding in lockers and bushes. Jaime Alanis Garcia, of Mexico, fell from a rooftop and subsequently died of his injuries. Meanwhile, family and friends of those trapped inside rushed to the perimeter, which was manned by California National Guard troops under federal control. The soldiers were armed with batons, tear gas, stinger bombs, and riot guns. A few in the front had assault rifles, their fingers near the triggers. Protestors waved Mexican and American flags as families pleaded to go inside, and they clashed with a pro-raid protester before chasing him away. One woman was in contact with her niece, who photographed agents walking toward the door where she and her co-workers were hiding. Im scared they are going to get me, she told her aunt. The scene grew tense as helicopters and ambulances kicked up dust clouds. A rumor ran through the crowd that agents were sneaking detainees out by using emergency vehicles as a disguise, but protesters moved one another out of the way so the vehicles could make it through. As the sun began to set, a line of pedestrian cars formed behind the agents headed out of the farm. There was a burst of applause when Border Patrol started to let people leave one by one. Each passing car was met with reporters rushing to their windows for an interview and protestors, who were handing off water and food to the drivers. One driver reached through a shattered window to grab a taco. ICE did that, he told me. ICE smashed my window. A man screamed at the guards, How can you do this to hardworking people?! To families! When your children look you in your eyes, they will know what you have done! You should be out looking for those missing kids in Texas, but instead youre here! After the National Guard and Border Patrol left at 11:30 p.m., an hour and a half after their warrant expired, families ran to the gates of the Glass House, where a line began to form. I asked a teenager there, whose cousin worked inside, if he had heard from him. No, I think they got him, he replied. When I told him I was sorry, he let out a sigh and said matter-of-factly, This is how it goes for us out here. It is what it is. Security began letting people out in waves: Three to five men or women would run out the gate, sometimes turning around to find family waiting to hold them. This went on for hours. Around 2 a.m., I saw two tiny beams in the field, bobbing up and down, followed by a cars high beams. Two men appeared, running as fast as they could as the car illuminated their path. Turning a corner, they slowed down, each wrapping one arm around the others shoulder. They walked off and caught their breath for what looked like the first time in a long time. The National Guard set a perimeter as protestors gather in opposition to an immigration raid at the Glass House farm in Camarillo, California. Two men stand in the fields, recording the protest and trying to call loved ones inside the farm. A man in support of the raids is chased out of the group by protestors. Border Patrol clears a path for ambulances to leave. A spent tear-gas canister fired by federal agents. Border Patrol lets farmworkers with legal status leave the farm after seven hours. The shattered car window of a man who was allowed to leave the farm. National Guard and Border Patrol agents. The Glass House farm silhouetted in the distance. Protestors flash bright lights onto agents. Protestors link arms and walk back as Border Patrol disperses. Families share photos of loved ones on their phones with those inside the farm to see if they were among the people who were arrested. Farmworkers who successfully hid during the raid emerge after the raid ends. Jeremy Clarkson claims an advert for his beer brand has been banned. Jeremy Clarkson's advert has been banned The Clarksons Farm star, 55, launched his Hawkstone drinks company back in 2021 and recently filmed a new advertising campaign featuring the Farmers Choir - a 34-strong group of real UK farmers - but he fears the clip may never be broadcast because it breaks regulations set by the Advertising Standards Authority. Speaking at a Hawkstone event held at his Farmers Dog pub in the Cotswolds on Monday (14.07.25), Clarkson said: Were going from strength to strength at the moment. So much so, we decided a few months ago that we should make a television commercial. A Hawkstone TV commercial, which we can show in the middle of something like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? so even in the ad breaks, you wont be deprived of me. Sadly we made it at great expense, great difficulty and its been banned. No one will show it, were told by the Advertising Standards Authority that it doesnt meet their high standards. The advert features a number of expletives including the line:Hawkstone f*** me its good. However, Clarkson insisted he hopes the clip will go viral on social media if it cannot be screened via traditional TV broadcasting channels. During the event, Clarkson also gave an update on work at his Diddly Squat farm, which features in his hit Amazon Prime show, but the TV presenter revealed harvest got off to a bumpy start for his farm manager Kaleb Cooper. Clarkson said: Harvest started at Diddly Squat this very morning. Set off at 8.30. Kalebs first time ever with his new combine doing the combining. [At] 8.45 his combine broke down. Got the combine mended and then - this is true - for the first time in four months, it rained. So that soaked all the oats we were supposed to be harvesting Hes sitting waiting for the moisture levels to drop so we can get cracking. Because we know were on for a shocking harvest this year "Last year was the second worst recorded ever and we think this year is going to be even worse because it just hasnt rained. UPDATE: Cesar Campos-Reyes is in federal custody after surrendering to authorities early Tuesday evening, said Doug Howard, a law enforcement coordinator and public affairs officer with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Middle District Alabama. At Tuesday's press conference, Steven Schrank, a special agent in charge with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, said Campos-Reyes was "believed to be unlawfully present in the United States." The next day, Howard told the Opelika-Auburn News that authorities confirmation that Campos-Reyes is a naturalized U.S. citizen and was not in the U.S. unlawfully. When asked about the change, Howard said nothing changed about Campos-Reye status changed between Tuesday and Wednesday. "There may have been some uncertainty in the way the question was answered or phrased," at the press conference, Howard said. Campos-Reyes has his initial court appearance scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. ORIGINAL STORY: Federal and state authorities executed search warrants Tuesday at 14 locations across six Alabama counties. Officials said the raids were in-part connected to a federal indictment against an Auburn man who allegedly defrauded a COVID-19 relief program for over $200,000. Federal law enforcement agents are searching for Cesar Campos-Reyes, a 52-year-old fugitive who was indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. The indictments stem from loans received through the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act knows as the CARES Act, said Acting U.S. Attorney Kevin Davidson. "The charges stem from Paycheck Protection Program loans that Campos-Reyes received on behalf of some of his restaurants. Those restaurants were included in the locations, which were searched today," Davidson said. "Campos-Reyes is alleged to have falsely certified that the money he received as part of the loans would be used for legitimate expenses and instead used the funds for non-legitimate purposes." According to the indictment unsealed on Tuesday, Campos-Reyes allegedly took out four loans totaling approximately $225,000, Davidson said. On Tuesday morning, federal agents executed federal search warrants at 14 locations in Lee, Macon, Elmore, Autauga, Crenshaw and Baldwin counties. Davidson said the issuing of the search warrants were related to a long term investigation which has, accompanied with the search warrants, a federal indictment against Campos-Reyes. The raids included El Patron Mexican Grill and Cantina in Opelika, according to a post from FBI Mobile. Schrank said that the warrants were a part of an ongoing criminal investigation into a network of suspected drug trafficking, human smuggling, document fraud and other financial crimes. "This is allegedly a transnational organized entity that has committed this activity, and this operation was not about any one offense. It was about dismantling a criminal ecosystem one that profits from the exploitation of people and the circumvention of our nation's laws," Schrank said. Davidson said the searches recovered various drugs, $100,000 in cash, 20 guns, and three people were taken into federal custody with charges expected. Davidson also said that agents encountered and detained over 40 undocumented immigrants who now face deportation proceedings. Authorities told the Opelika-Auburn News that 48 people in total were detained in the raids on Tuesday. Howard told the Opelika-Auburn News that of the 14 locations raided, eight were restaurants: two in Opelika, one in Auburn, one in Prattville, one in Wetumpka, one in Deatsville, one in Luverne, and one in Robertsdale. The other locations were residences or other properties in Lee and Macon counties affiliated with the case, Howard said. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing. What is PPP fraud? According to the news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama, two sources of relief provided by the CARES Act are PPP, and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. These programs were intended to help eligible small businesses by giving them working capital to make regular payments for operating expenses like payroll, rent or mortgage expenses, utilities, or business debt, according to the news release. The indictment alleges that Campos-Reyes made false representations when applying for multiple loans for various restaurants owned and operated by him and for using the proceeds for unauthorized purposes. Davidson said he expects more charges as the investigation continues. Davidson said the indictment alleges that Campos-Reyes was the registered agent of El Patron of Pensacola, Florida, El Patron of Pace, Florida, the registered agent and organizer of El Patron Mexican Grill of Prattville, the registered agent and officer of Mariachi's Mexican Grill, Inc. and the registered agent of El Rey De Todos, Mexican Grill and Cantina. The charges are the result of a wide-ranging investigation by the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Officials during the press conference also credited the Gulf of America Homeland Security Task Force, which is a collaborative law enforcement unit including the FBI and HSI. Additional assistance in the investigation was provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Alabama Department of Corrections, Auburn Police Department, Opelika Police Department, Prattville Police Department, Wetumpka Police Department, Elmore County Sheriffs Office, Lee County Sheriffs Office and United States Marshals Service, the news release said. If convicted on all charges, Campos-Reyes faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison along with significant fines, and there is no parole in the federal system, the news release said. According to the news release, this case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that "marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime." Anyone who has information regarding Campos-Reyes's whereabouts has been asked to call the FBI Mobile field office at 251-438-3674. Authorities said that if you encounter Campos-Reyes do not approach and instead contact the FBI or local law enforcement. CPR: A Lifesaving Workplace Priority Making CPR training a workplace priority saves lives, empowers employees and strengthens workplace safety culture. Before transitioning to safety, working on the front lines as a firefighter and emergency medical technician provided first-hand insight into the critical importance of lifesaving training. From high-stakes emergencies to routine calls, proper preparation often proved to be the difference between life and death. February is American Heart Month, a time to emphasize the importance of heart health and preparedness. For workplaces across industries, this is the perfect opportunity to focus on a critical lifesaving skill: cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). CPR training is more than a compliance checkbox. Its a commitment to creating safer workplaces and empowering employees to save lives. Why Every Workplace Needs CPR Training Cardiac arrest does not discriminate by location or occupation. According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of hospitals each year in the United States, often in workplaces, public spaces or homes. The odds of survival can double or even triple with prompt CPR. Workplaces may lack trained responders, missing a crucial opportunity to make a life-or-death difference. CPR training equips employees with the knowledge and confidence to act decisively in emergencies. When paired with proper workplace policies, it can not only save lives during critical moments before emergency responders arrive but also reduce liability by meeting or exceeding occupational safety standards. The Importance of CPR Training Requirements Training requirements exist not only to ensure preparedness for real-world emergencies but also because past incidents revealed critical gaps where lives were lost or outcomes could have been improved. These standards are supported by data and evidence. Improved survival rates. Studies show that workplaces with trained responders experience better outcomes during cardiac emergencies. Workforce empowerment. Employees who receive CPR training are more likely to step in and help, reducing hesitation in high-stakes situations. Increased AED accessibility. Many training programs also teach the use of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), which are often the only way to restore a normal heart rhythm. This article originally appeared in the July/August 2025 issue of Occupational Health & Safety. Longtime ASSP member earns Prevention through Design Award Bruce Lyon has been honored with the 2025 Prevention through Design Award for his leadership in risk management and advancing safety standards that eliminate workplace hazards through proactive design. Bruce Lyon, a longtime member of the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), is the recipient of the 2025 Prevention through Design (PtD) Award. The honor is presented by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in partnership with ASSP, the National Safety Council (NSC) and the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA). The annual award recognizes an elite workplace safety and health professional, team or organization that demonstrates outstanding leadership in eliminating or reducing workplace hazards through design or redesign efforts and contributes to the body of knowledge that enables PtD solutions. Assessing workplace environments and proactively designing out hazards is an innovative and long-term approach to business sustainability and preventing worker injuries, illnesses and fatalities, said ASSP President Linda Tapp, CSP, ALCM, CPTD. Bruce specializes in risk assessment and risk management and has greatly elevated the use of safety standards and prevention through design principles around the world. Lyon, P.E., CSP, ARM, SMP, CHMM, is an ASSP Fellow and vice president and director of Risk Management Services for Brown & Brown Inc., a commercial insurance brokerage firm. He is a leading expert in occupational safety and health who has more than 45 years of experience working with national and global organizations across various industries. Lyons skills also involve safety management systems, ergonomics and regulatory compliance. He chairs and vice chairs key ANSI/ASSP risk management and prevention through design committees and previously advised on ISO 31000 standards. An adjunct professor and advisory board chair at the University of Central Missouri, Lyon has authored numerous influential articles and books, including Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide to Assessing Operational Risks. He has been an ASSP member since 1982 and continues to educate professionals on risk management and safety standards through webinars, podcasts, training courses and speaking engagements at national conferences. Bruce has been instrumental in keeping prevention through design principles in the forefront of safety efforts, Tapp said. His dedication to risk mitigation and worker safety has certainly saved countless lives. Lyon will be honored at ASSPs Leaders and Honorees Celebration on July 21 in Orlando as part of the Safety 2025 Professional Development Conference and Exposition. For years, Mexico has been exploiting its vast oil reserves to meet its energy needs and boost its export revenues. During this time, several governments largely overlooked the countrys renewable energy potential. Many regions of Mexico experience abundant sunlight throughout the year, while the north of the country has high levels of wind. However, to date, its renewable energy sector is somewhat underdeveloped. Despite having expanded its renewable energy capacity in recent years, Mexico still relies heavily on fossil fuels. However, greater investment in renewable energy, as well as tax breaks and other financial incentives for consumers looking to make the switch, could help accelerate the rollout of Mexicos green energy. In 2022, Mexico had a total of 31.3 GW of installed clean energy capacity, which mainly consisted of hydropower, wind, and solar power. In 2024, Mexico had the second-largest solar PV capacity in Latin America, ranking only behind Brazil, with 4.42 GW of installed distributed solar capacity by the end of the year. Mexicos state-owned electric utility, Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), added 1.09 GW of distributed solar power last year, through 106,934 new interconnection contracts, marking a 35.3 percent increase from 2023. When the climate scientist Claudia Sheinbaum was elected as Mexicos new president in October, there were high hopes for a green transformation, following repeated delays during the former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obradors six-year term. President Sheinbaums inaugural address outlined plans for renewables to contribute a 45 percent share of electricity generation by 2030, marking a shift towards a more diversified energy mix. During her first month in office, Sheinbaum signed a constitutional reform altering the legal status of the CFE and the state-owned oil company Pemex to make them public companies rather than productive state companies, as they came to be known after the 2014 energy reform. In November, Mexicos Senate disbanded the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) and National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) and merged them within the government Energy Ministry (Sener). These early moves marked a clear intention to overhaul the countrys energy policy. During her presidential campaign last year, Sheinbaum pledged to invest over $13 billion in a renewables-focused energy plan if she became president. In April, the government published its 2025-2030 National Development Plan (NDP), which focuses heavily on establishing greater energy security and sovereignty. It includes 51 strategic projects with a total additional power-generating capacity of 22.6 GW by 2030, aimed at reducing Mexicos reliance on imports, growing the countrys renewable energy sector, and combating climate change. The NDP also states that the ratio of electricity generation must remain at no less than 54 percent publicly owned and a maximum of 46 percent privately owned. In February, CFE announced plans to build nine solar power plants with a total capacity of 4.7 GW by 2030, increasing its solar portfolio by more than tenfold, from 433 MW at present. In 2023, CFE commenced operations at its Puerto Penasco solar farm in the northern state of Sonora and began work on the 300MW second phase of the project in September 2024. A May Ember analysis suggests that if the Mexican government follows through with its plan for clean energy generation to cover 45 percent of national electricity demand over the next five years, it could significantly boost Mexicos energy security. Mexico produced 22 percent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2024, which is below the global average of 32 percent, as well as the Latin American average of 62 percent. In 2024, around 54 percent of the electricity generated in Mexico came from U.S. gas imports. Ember states that moving away from a reliance on U.S. gas to develop its renewable energy capacity could save Mexico up to $1.6 billion on imports by 2030, as well as support the creation of 434,000 or more direct jobs. In addition, the recent introduction of tariffs by U.S. President Trump and the threat of an ongoing trade war will likely make Mexico rethink its dependence on American gas. To achieve 45 percent clean electricity by 2030, Mexico would need to install 46 GW of solar and wind power, which would mean a 33.2 percent share of solar and wind energy in electricity generation in 2030, according to Ember. This would reduce gas-fired electricity generation in Mexico by 20 percent from 203.8 TWh in 2024 to 163.4 TWh in 2030, even as electricity demand rises by 15 percent. To accomplish this, Mexico will need to attract high levels of foreign investment in its renewable energy sector, streamline its permitting and licensing processes for new energy projects, and provide training for workers. Mexico has significant potential to rapidly expand its renewable energy capacity, backed by the support of its climate scientist president. However, its strict public-private electricity generation ratio currently restricts private participation in the sector, which could limit investment in green energy. In addition, Sheinbaum has also stated her support for Mexicos oil industry, which could further hinder the development of the countrys renewable energy sector. By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Angola has made a major natural gas discovery, marking a breakthrough in the countrys efforts to diversify its fossil fuel production. Azule Energy, a joint venture between BP Plc (NYSE:BP), Eni S.p.A. (NYSE:E) and a group of Angolan companies successfully drilled the country's first dedicated gas exploration well in the Lower Congo Basin, with preliminary estimates suggesting the reserve holds more than 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and up to 100 million barrels of condensates. This is the first natural gas exploration by the former OPEC member, and is expected to enhance the countrys long-term energy security and export potential. This is a historic moment for gas exploration in Angola, Adriano Mongini, CEO of Azule Energy, said in a joint statement. The success of the Gajajeira-01 well strengthens our confidence in the untapped potential of the Lower Congo Basin, he added. The gas discovery is a major lifeline for Angola. The country has set a goal to diversify its revenue streams and lower its reliance on volatile oil markets ever since the country exited OPEC in 2023. Earlier in the year, Angola unveiled its National Gas Master Plan (NGMP), a 30-year strategy aimed at maximizing the country's natural gas resources. The plan has set a target for the country to attract over $30 billion in investments and generate $150 billion in economic benefits over the next three decades. Angola has already secured over $60 billion in financial commitments from international financiers over the next five years, an encouraging sign of growing confidence in the countrys energy sector. The Gas Master Plan is the result of the implementation of Law 10/14, which prohibits gas flaring across all the countrys hydrocarbon operations. The NGMP offers a clear blueprint of how to invest in Angolas gas industry. The central African country harbors ambitions to become a regional gas hub, leveraging its proximity to Asian and European LNG buyers.. Its estimated that Angola could earn $2$3 billion in annual LNG revenues by the late 2030s. Angola has also formed the New Gas Consortium (NGC)--its first non-associated gas project that will support domestic energy security. Angola's crude oil export revenue in the first quarter of 2025 clocked in at $6.4 billion, an 18% decrease compared to the same period last year, partly due to lower export volumes and partly due to lower oil prices. Angola exported 85.14 million barrels of crude oil during this period, good for a 9.8% year-on-year decline. China remained the top destination for Angolan crude oil exports, followed by India, Indonesia, Spain, and Malaysia. Nigeria and Angola are Africas leading oil producers. Angola has also set a goal to become a leading critical mineral producer, with an objective to produce 17.5 million carats of diamonds annually by 2027 while leveraging the synergies between the hydrocarbon, mining, and agriculture sectors to boost fertilizer production. As such, the Angolan government is implementing policies aimed at supporting multi-sector development. Meanwhile, last month, the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) tapped Nigeria and Angola as the leaders in the continents ongoing energy transformation. According to the AFC report, Africa could meet up to 90% of its fuel demand if the existing and upcoming refineries operate at full capacity, up from 45% just a year ago. Last year, Nigerias beleaguered energy sector witnessed a very significant event: the Dangote Oil Refinery began producing gasoline and selling it domestically to Nigeria's state oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), marking the first time in decades that Africas largest oil producer is refining its own crude. The state-of-the-art $20.5 billion refinery was launched in January 2024, but only began producing gasoline in September. The giant refinery has a capacity to process 650,000 barrels of crude per day, more than enough for the countrys needs. To sweeten the deal further, the facility has been buying crude and selling refined fuels in Nigeria in the local currency, saving the countrys much-needed foreign exchange, especially the U.S. dollar. Nigerias downstream sector has largely been a cesspit of shady deals with little accountability by the NNPC ever since oil was discovered in the West African nation in 1956. For decades, Nigeria has been producing and exporting its crude which is then refined abroad. NNPC swaps Nigerias crude oil for refined products, including petrol, which are shipped back home. Incredibly, it only started publishing its accounts five years ago, despite the fact that oil revenue accounts for nearly 90% of Nigerias export earnings. In other words, until recently, only the NNPC knew exactly how much money changed hands and who was involved in these "oil swaps". Hopefully, the Dangote refinery will now change this. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Amid heated debates about how quickly and at what cost the world could reach net-zero emissions during constant geopolitical shifts and market turbulence, several oil-producing nations are doubling down on oil and their role in global crude supply. From the Middle East to Africa, South America, and even Europe, these are seven large or aspiring producers who are looking to boost their production in the coming years, with some also working on raising their oil production capacities. The UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), one of OPECs top producers, is currently raising its oil production capacity. ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi national oil company, aims to increase its production capacity to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027, up from 4 million bpd a few years ago. Currently, capacity is about 4.8 million bpd. Just last week, the UAEs Energy Minister, Suhail Al Mazrouei, hinted that capacity could rise beyond 5 million bpd after 2027, if needed. We can go to 6 million if the market requires, Al Mazrouei told Reuters on the sidelines of the OPEC annual seminar in Vienna. The minister noted, however, that such an additional increase is not an official target, unlike the goal of 5 million bpd by 2027. The increase in production capacity allows the UAE to seek a higher output quota in the OPEC and OPEC+ agreements. For example, the UAE last year argued for and received a higher quota for 2025 and 2026 due to the ramp-up of its production capacity. Iraq Another major producer, Iraq, is also planning on increasing its production capacity. OPECs second-largest producer seeks to boost capacity to more than 6 million bpd by 2029, and potentially produce 7 million bpd within the next five years. Iraqs current production is about 4 million bpd, as it is trying to compensate for previous overproduction in the OPEC+ agreements. Iraq is arguably the Gulf oil producer most dependent on oil revenues. Despite efforts to diversify its economy, it is doubling down on its most precious resourceenormous crude oil reserves estimated to be the worlds fourth largest. Saudi Arabia Speaking of large, OPECs biggest producer and the worlds top crude oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, is also betting big on oil. Crude oil is the pillar of the Kingdoms revenues for the plan to diversify the economy and the key income for the budget. Last year, Saudi Aramco said it was ordered by the Kingdoms leadership to stop work on expanding its maximum sustainable capacity to 13 million bpd, instead keeping it at 12 million bpd. Still, the Saudis remain the most influential force in OPEC and OPEC+. Related: Kazakhstan Not Leaving OPEC+ Despite Constantly Busting Quotas Even as Saudi Arabia is tendering a massive 44 gigawatts (GW) capacity of renewable energy projects, it will maintain its oil-producing potential to ensure global energy security, officials from the Kingdom said in October. While the world is moving towards an energy transition, all forms of energy will be absolutely needed to ensure global energy security, said Saudi Arabias Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman. We are committed to maintaining 12.3 million of crude capacity and we are proud of that, the minister said. Saudi Aramcos President and CEO, Amin Nasser, last month said that Reality has revealed a transition plan thats been oversold and under-delivered for large parts of the world, especially Asia. The world needs to accept that transition will not be smooth sailing or pain-free, especially in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world, Nasser said. Brazil On the other side of the world, and out of any OPEC+ deals, South Americas biggest oil producer and one of the worlds top ten, Brazil, is raising its output and exploring for more oil, even in sensitive areas offshore the Amazon. Brazil is auctioning off, quite successfully, offshore areas in the pre-salt layer and the Foz do Amazonas basin, which is part of the Equatorial Basin. Big Oil flocked to a recent tender held in June. Meanwhile, state-held energy giant Petrobras is spending billions of U.S. dollars to boost oil and gas exploration and production. Petrobrass investment plan for the five years to 2029 stands at $111 billion. Of this, $77 billion is earmarked for oil and gas exploration and production activities. Guyana Brazils neighbor to the northeast, Guyana, is the worlds newest petrostate. Oil production and exports, which began in 2019, have led to a booming economy, which has been showing double-digit growth over the past few years. Guyana already produces more than 660,000 bpd of crude from the Exxon-operated Stabroek block. Production capacity in Guyana is expected to top 1.7 million barrels per day, with gross production growing to 1.3 million barrels per day by 2030, Exxon says. Guyana is now the third-largest per-capita oil producer in the world, according to the U.S. supermajor. Surging oil production and exports helped Guyanas economy grow by 43.6% last year, marking the fifth straight year of double-digit GDP growth, which began just as Guyana became an oil producer. Namibia In West Africa, theres a wannabe oil producer which has been dubbed the new Guyana amid expectations that Namibias oil resources could be similar to the huge volumes found offshore Guyana. Despite the net-zero goals of many countries that would be potential buyers of Namibias oil, the country wants to become an oil producer and possibly replicate Guyanas success. As one of the latest exploration hotspots in the world, Namibia is weighing further incentives and financing options to offer to international majors preparing plans for oil production offshore the African country. Oil and gas supermajors, including Shell, TotalEnergies, and Portugal-based energy firm Galp, have already made significant discoveries offshore Namibia. However, without infrastructure in place, costs are higher for production development plans. Thats why Namibia wants to help the supermajors with further incentives to have them reach final investment decisions on oil production projects. In May, a senior official said that Namibia expects TotalEnergies and Norways BW Energy to take final investment decisions on oil projects in late 2026. Norway Last but not least, an honorable mention goes to Norway, Western Europes biggest oil and gas producer, where electric vehicle (EV) sales have a market share of a whopping 97%. Despite a predominantly EV car fleet and a 97% renewable electricity production dominated by hydropower, Norway wants to sustain high oil and gas output at least until 2035, to help meet European demand. Unlike most governments in Europe, Norways successive governments have for decades strongly supported the oil and gas industry, which yields huge income for the budget and for the sovereign wealth fund, the worlds largest such fund with assets worth about $1.92 trillion as of this week. Norwegian energy major Equinor, partly owned by the state, continues to approve major capacity expansions and drills for new discoveries to maintain a high level of oil and gas production on the shelf towards 2035. Further exploration efforts and new discoveries would be crucial to slowing the expected decline in Norways oil and gas production in the 2030s, the Norwegian authorities have said in recent years. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Beyond technical relief, the FSRU project represents a strategic opportunity for Iraq to diversify its energy sources, reduce its exposure to Iranian influence, and potentially gain leverage in regional energy diplomacy. The urgent need for an FSRU is driven by surging electricity demand, insufficient domestic gas production, and declining gas imports from Iran, which have significantly impacted Iraqs power supply. Iraq has relaunched its FSRU tender to secure regasification capacity by summer 2026, after an earlier LNG import plan failed, with U.S.-based Excelerate Energy emerging as the most probable supplier. Iraqs plan to begin LNG imports this summer has unraveled, forcing a compressed reset of its floating terminal ambitions. With electricity demand surging and Iranian supply increasingly constrained, the Oil Ministry has relaunched its FSRU tender in a bid to secure regasification capacity in time for summer 2026. U.S.-based Excelerate Energy is now positioned as the most likely supplier, after an earlier agreement with UAE-based Breeze Investment failed to advance. The timing is critical. Baghdad is confronting another peak season without sufficient gas to stabilize the grid, while Washingtons sanctions posture and Tehrans intermittent flows have narrowed Iraqs fuel options. The FSRU would not only provide technical relief but could also serve as a turning point in the countrys external energy alignment, reducing exposure to Iran while opening a channel for commercial LNG imports from U.S. sources. Missed Target, Narrowing Timeline Iraqs LNG import plans were first formalized in early 2024, when the Ministry of Oil launched a limited tender to lease an FSRU. The vessel would be moored at a southern port (Khor al-Zubair or Umm Qasr) and feed imported gas into a planned 1.2 GW power plant under construction near Basra. Officials hoped to have the unit operational before peak summer 2025. That target has now slipped. According to a July 11 report from MEES, the initial leasing talks with Breeze Investment stalled in June after the companys fleet was reassigned. Deputy Oil Minister Izzat Sabir told reporters that the government has reissued the tender on an expedited basis and expects to sign a contract within 10 days. But any new lease agreement will almost certainly miss the current summer window. Given lead times for vessel positioning, permitting, marine infrastructure readiness, and commissioning, even a fast-track deal signed in July is unlikely to yield first gas before Q2 2026. Excelerate Energy, which had bid alongside Breeze earlier this year, is understood to be in active talks with Baghdad and may now be the only viable short-term supplier. Excelerate operates a global fleet of regasification vessels and has established track records in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil, and the UAE. Its FSRU Exemplar is reportedly finishing a short-term assignment in the Mediterranean and could be repositioned to Iraq in early 2026 if contracted soon. Power Shortfall Pressures The LNG import plan is Iraqs most tangible response to the deepening gas supply crisis that has plagued its power sector for more than a decade. Domestic production of associated gas remains insufficient and is often flared, while non-associated fields are underdeveloped. The shortfall is acute during the summer, when power demand regularly exceeds 30 GW. This year, the system is forecast to fall short by more than 6 GW during peak days. To bridge its chronic power deficit, Iraq has long relied on imports from Iran, both piped natural gas and cross-border electricity. That lifeline is now under strain. In March 2025, the Trump administration allowed its sanctions waiver for Iraqi electricity imports from Iran to expire, halting those imports and triggering urgent contingency measures. While the waiver allowing Iranian gas imports remains in place, flows have dropped sharply. In early 2025, Iraq received around 50?MMcmd of Iranian pipeline gas; by June, that had fallen to roughly 25?MMcmd, according to Iraqi officials and state data. Related: Puerto Rico's Energy Crisis Deepens with LNG Contract Dispute The reduction has already impacted power supply. According to Bloomberg in early July, Iraqs electricity system lost an estimated 15?% of its generation capacity after Iranian gas imports were halved. The resulting fuel shortage has forced Iraqs generation companies to cycle diesel and heavy fuel oil through gas turbines, with major losses in efficiency and output. State-owned South Gas Company has diverted ethane and LPG feedstocks away from export markets just to keep the domestic grid afloat. And the federal budget has felt some additional pain from fuel switching and emergency purchases. Realignment Opportunity The coveted FSRU is more than a stopgap measure. If deployed, it would give Iraq access to international LNG markets for the first time, opening a new procurement channel that circumvents both Iranian supply and regional pipeline politics. For the U.S., Excelerates potential role as supplier and operator offers a rare opportunity to deepen strategic energy ties with Baghdad at a moment when Iranian influence is under strain. State Department officials have privately encouraged Iraq to move forward with the FSRU, framing it as a necessary step toward long-term diversification. In parallel, the U.S. has renewed diplomatic support for Gulf-to-Iraq grid interconnections and has backed Saudi and Emirati investment in Iraqi gas capture and infrastructure. Iran, meanwhile, has reduced gas exports sharply. In early July, Iraq reported a 3.8?GW hit to power-generation capacity after Iran halved supplies to around 25?MMcmd, according to Bloomberg. Iran has not publicly detailed the reasons, and past explanations (such as technical constraints) date back to 2023. However, Baghdad sees the cuts as part of a longer-term strategy of using gas flows to exert leverage. With the FSRU tender now back in motion, officials in Baghdad view the project as a strategic move to insulate Iraq from coercive supply disruptions. Internal Political Fault Lines Domestically, the abrupt revival of the FSRU tender has heightened scrutiny within Baghdad. Energy stakeholders and policy analysts note growing institutional urgency around the project, though there is no public record of parliamentary factions or Southern leaders dividing explicitly along pro-Excelerate or pro-Iranian lines. What is clear: the governments accelerated timeline and open acknowledgement of supply risk means the pressure is enormous to deliver. The federal governments decision to take over direct management of the FSRU procurement underscores that, but it also reveals how vulnerable the leadership is right now. Any further delays could spark public protests, particularly in Basra and Nasiriyah, where blackouts last summer contributed to violent demonstrations and police crackdowns. Some protest groups have already begun referencing the FSRU project in their messaging, framing it as a litmus test for the government. If Iraq can secure LNG regasification capacity and stabilize its summer power profile, it could also gain leverage in regional energy diplomacy. Iraqs participation in the GCC Interconnection Authority has expanded, and Baghdad recently signed power exchange agreements with both Jordan and Kuwait. A reliable LNG import terminal would enable flexible gas management, possibly freeing up domestic gas for internal reinjection, petrochemical use, or swap deals with neighboring states. By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The United States could abandon the International Energy Agency (IEA) if the organization, created in the aftermath of the 1970s Arab oil embargo, doesnt return to forecasting energy demand without strongly promoting green energy. We will do one of two things: we will reform the way the IEA operates or we will withdraw, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright has told Bloomberg in an interview. My strong preference is to reform it, Secretary Wright added. The official echoes voices in the U.S. Republican party that the agency has become an advocate of the energy transition and is not objective in forecasting energy demand trends. From ensuring security of supply after the 1970s embargo, the agency has shifted from this purpose in recent years to endorsing the net-zero by 2050 goal and is advocating for a major change in the global energy system to include more electric vehicles (EVs), renewable power supply, hydrogen, and all other low-carbon energy sources. The IEAs forecast that oil demand will peak this decade is just total nonsense, the U.S. official said, adding he has been talking to the IEAs executive director Fatih Birol. Reports emerged earlier this year that the Trump Administration is pushing the IEA to ditch its focus on the energy transition and promotion of renewable energy sources. Last month, the IEA doubled down on its narrative that a peak in global oil demand is still on the horizon. Annual global growth will slow from about 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 2025 and 2026 to just a trickle over the next several years, with a small decline expected in 2030, based on todays policy settings and market trends, the IEA said in its annual Oil 2025 report for the medium term. In contrast to this, OPEC sees oil demand rising through 2050, with consumption expected at 123 million barrels per day (bpd) then, up from about 105 million bpd this year. Last week, OPEC reiterated its view that there is no peak oil demand in sight. The cartel has slammed the IEA in recent years for dangerous forecasts of imminent peak oil demand that would hurt consumers and only lead to energy volatility on a potentially unprecedented scale. By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: After being cut out of Europe, Russia is looking to form a sort of natural gas cartel, and Turkmenistan appears to be on board. Gas-rich Turkmenistan is one of the few countries that has the potential to send gas to the European Union but is instead being pulled back into Moscows energy orbit. Turkmenistan has doubled down on its energy ties with Russia. At a time when gas-rich Turkmenistan could be pushing to diversify its export paths, it is instead allowing itself to be pulled back into Moscows energy orbit, experts say. Russia is no longer the top buyer of natural gas from Turkmenistan, a country that is believed to depend on the fuel for three-quarters of its state revenues. The main purchaser is China, which displaced Russia more than a decade ago and currently imports around four times as much gas from Turkmenistan as Russia does. But if Beijing has traditionally been businesslike in its energy-trade relationship with Ashgabat, Moscows relations are more likely to involve poltical calculations. This is especially the case as the Kremlin looks to forge new gas alliances after Europe made dramatic cuts in its imports of Russian gas amid the fallout of Moscows yearlong invasion of Ukraine. Looking at the bigger picture, Turkmenistan is perhaps the only non-Russian source of natural gas that has the potential to make the European Unions energy transition more efficient and less expensive, Annette Bohr, an international affairs expert at Chatham House, told RFE/RL. But Ashgabat is clearly coming down on the side of Russia and spurning opportunities to move its gas in a Western direction. It has chosen to move towards its authoritarian brothers-in-arms, Russia and Iran -- a policy that serves to safeguard its need for isolation, said Bohr. Miller Time Gazprom chief Aleksei Millers February 15 visit to Ashgabat, where he met with both President Serdar Berdymukhammedov and Turkmenistans newly crowned Leader of the Nation, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, was his second in the last six months. Russia has upped imports of natural gas from Turkmenistan from a low of zero in 2016 to around 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year in 2021, even if they are still a fraction of their peak of over 40 bcm in the mid-2000s, when Moscow used them to free up lucrative exports to Europe. There were no indications from the official releases on the meeting that further increases were on the agenda, however, with Russias energy giant only vaguely referring to talks on the course and prospects of cooperation in the gas sector. But Millers visit increased speculation that Russia is looking to ensure Turkmenistan is an asset rather than an obstacle as Gazprom seeks to reassert its clout in international gas markets after Miller conceded that 2022 was a difficult year. One Russian Telegram channel cited by RFE/RLs Turkmen Service as being close to the Kremlin said Millers headline message to Turkmenistan was that Russia would block any attempt to build a Trans-Caspian Pipeline (TCP) connecting Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan, a development that would free up Azerbaijani gas for exports to Europe. In return, [Turkmenistan] was offered participation in gas supplies directly to Turkey through Iran, the channel, whose name translates as A Look At The East, said. By cooperating with the scheme, Turkmenistan will become a full member of the gas analogue of OPEC, which is being created by Russia and Iran and to which Qatar intends to join, it continued. Gazprom did not respond to a request from RFE/RL for comment. Piping large quantities of gas across the Caspian Sea has been a stated ambition of Turkmenistan for at least 25 years, although it was never without hitches, even when there was clear investor interest. A political agreement on the status of the Caspian Sea involving all five littoral states and a bilateral deal between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan settling contradictory claims in the Caspian Sea were only reached in the last few years. Even then, Iran and Russia were never keen on the idea and have insisted on the right to block the project on environmental grounds. Moreover, while a functioning TCP might have been useful to Europe this winter, trends in the European energy market do not favor it, argued Laurent Ruseckas, executive director for the Finance & Capital Markets team at S&P Global Commodity Insights. Among these are the expansion of European infrastructure related to liquefied natural gas (LNG), which the EU has been importing much more of amid its abandonment of Russian gas, and the EUs long-term commitment to transitioning to renewable energy, Ruseckas argued. Theres real reluctance to commit to or finance big pipeline projects. In the medium-term, Europe will not need the gas. And then there is the question of who is going to want to build and pay for pipelines to serve a market that will be net zero by 2050, he added. Heading South With Russian Help? In December, Serdar Berdymukhammedov met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the western Turkmen city of Awaza, with Erdogan offering Ankaras backing for a pipeline connecting the two countries. But Turkmenistan has told Western diplomats that it is not interested in downsized alternatives to the pipeline that would carry considerably less gas but might be less costly and quicker to build, said Bohr. [Turkmenistan] prefers Europe to come along with money and a long-term contract for 30 bcm. This is something that is not going to happen, she said, noting that Ankara is growing weary of Ashgabats position on the topic. Absent an outlet to ramp up exports to the West and looking to balance its sales north to Russia and east to China, Turkmenistan is heading a consortium for a pipeline that would send gas to India via Pakistan and Afghanistan called TAPI, a multibillion-dollar blueprint that has no known investor. Russia has also expressed an interest in this project, though it has given no firm commitment. Zamir Kabulov, the Russian envoy to Kabul, said in January that security concerns previously expressed over the project had lost some of their severity -- a likely reference to the Talibans assertion of full territorial control of Afghanistan. Any involvement in the project on Moscows side would depend on the commercial approach, Kabulov said. Ruseckas of S&P Global Commodity Insights told RFE/RL that his estimation of the projects chances of coming to fruition had gone from zero to a very low number, but not for the reasons mentioned by Kabulov. I think for India and Pakistan, last year was a shock in terms of how expensive LNG spot prices became, he said. They would have loved to have had TAPI in place when LNG prices started to skyrocket. But fundamental problems with the project, including transiting Afghanistan and reservations about the technical capacities of Turkmenistans state gas company Turkmengaz, have not changed, Ruseckas said. As for investments from Moscow, Russia isnt exactly a country that has billions and billions of dollars to spend on a pipeline right now, he noted. But the one enticement that Russia has reportedly offered Turkmenistan -- exports to third countries via Iran and its existing gas infrastructure -- would not significantly change Ashgabats regional energy profile. John Roberts, an energy security specialist from the British-based research organization Methinks, told RFE/RLs Turkmen Service that the ceiling of what Turkmenistan could send to Turkey this way would be 5 bcm per year. Even then, it is not clear whether Turkey would approve of the idea, with Ankara likely to balance opposition to the project from the European Union, Roberts said of the transit offer that Iranian energy officials have publicly endorsed. But Russia does have leverage over Ashgabat, in that the last time it slashed gas imports from the country -- albeit during a nadir in global energy prices -- it caused Turkmenistan serious economic pain. In a rare essay published by Turkmengaz in February 2015, right after Turkmenistan was forced into a sudden devaluation of its currency on the back of falling gas revenues, the company singled Russia out as an unreliable partner. The text of that eyebrow-raising missive is no longer online. But Bohr told RFE/RL that Turkmenistan would be wise not to put too much faith in Russias vision. Russia is attempting a major reconfiguration of the gas market, and its isolation from the West has made it more dependent on Iran -- and this has repercussions for Turkmenistan, she said. Moscow is looking to gain access in the future through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to Iran, and from there to Pakistan and India. However, existing routes to Pakistan provide only small volumes, and there are huge infrastructural constraints and logistical and technical problems associated with these still very hazy ideas. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A GOP legislator mocked MAGA supporters over backlash to the Department of Justice and FBI's report on the Jeffrey Epstein files, all while a pro-Trump super PAC spends millions in efforts to unseat him. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie came under fire from President Donald Trump earlier this year following his refusal to vote for Republicans' "big, beautiful bill" over spending concerns. Massie ended up being the sole Republican lawmaker to vote against the bill when it came to a House vote. Since Massie's pushback, a MAGA super PAC has since spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads targeting the lawmaker, encouraging Kentucky voters to unseat him in the primary. On Tuesday, Massie took at jab at the PAC, noting how they were spending so much money on him despite their constituents being very concerned with another hot topic. "MAGA: "We want you to name and prosecute Epstein's clients," Massie wrote. "MAGA Inc: "Best we can do is $1.8 million of ads against the most fiscally conservative member of Congress." MAGA: We want you to name and prosecute Epsteins clients. MAGA Inc: Best we can do is $1.8 million of ads against the most fiscally conservative member of Congress. pic.twitter.com/Dj6ZbL9Bxs Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) July 15, 2025 The Kentucky lawmaker included an Axios article detailing how pro-Trump PAC MAGA Inc. was spending nearly $2 million in TV ads against Massie. A source told the outlet that the super PAC was planning to spend $800,000 on a new TV ad, after already spending $1 million on a previous ad. As Massie noted, MAGA supporters have been vocally upset over the last week following the DOJ and FBI's memo determining that Epstein had killed himself, had "no client list" and that no evidence of blackmail was found, all points that defeat popular conspiracy theories that Epstein's death involved foul play. The report came after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had seemingly said that a client list was "sitting on my desk" for review during a previous Fox News interview. However, following the DOJ and FBI's memo, the White House clarified that Bondi had been referring to the files as a whole, not just a possible client list. The conclusion has not only led to backlash from MAGA supporters and influencers, but also from Democrats, who have alleged that the GOP may be "covering up" details, and even some Republican lawmakers. Originally published on Latin Times Publicly, Beijing has presented itself as a neutral party in the war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, claiming it respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine while also highlighting the need to address Russia's security concerns. But behind the scenes, that may be changing. According to EU officials speaking to RFE/RL on condition of anonymity, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas last week that Beijing couldn't accept Russia's defeat in the war as it would free up Washington to focus on China. The remarkable admission, first reported by the South China Morning Post, came during a four-hour-long discussion with Kallas in Brussels that covered an array of topics from trade practices such as state subsidies for electric vehicles, Taiwan, the situation in the Middle East, and, of course, the war in Ukraine. It was during those talks that Brussels accused China of siding with Moscow and noted that the invasion of a sovereign country was against international law. Beijing allegedly voiced objections to the EUs allegations that Russia is using Chinese products and other components in its war effort before adding its fear of both potential Western sanctions against Chinese financial institutions and an eventual Ukrainian victory in the conflict. Signs of Brussels' displeasure with China over the war have been piling up. In May, a classified EU report said China, including Hong Kong, is responsible for "approximately" 80 percent of the circumventions of sanctions against Russia. The 27-member bloc has also begun targeting Chinese companies it believes are responsible for the undermining of Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty. In its latest sanctions package, the bloc is looking to slap asset freezes and visa bans on one Chinese businessman for repeatedly transferring goods made in the EU to Russia while those goods were subject to EU export restrictions. Two Chinese companies are also targeted for selling all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), infrared detectors, and other optical components to the Russian armed forces for use in Ukraine. Another sign of the growing concern in Brussels came from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who recently said China and Russia present growing threats to the transatlantic alliance. Rutte told reporters during a trip to Berlin that he believes Russia and China would coordinate attacks on Taiwan and Europe to keep the West bogged down in various parts of the world at the same time. Xi Jinping, the president of China, before he would attack Taiwan, he will first make a call into Moscow to ask [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to keep us busy in this part of Europe, Rutte said. China and Russia struck a so-called no limits strategic partnership shortly before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The partnership does not include a formal military alliance or a specific commitment to mutual defense, but it does involve extensive military cooperation and strategic alignment that enhances both countries' security interests. Still, Beijing has publicly been keen to distance itself from Russias actions. Speaking after Wangs European trip, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated that Chinas position on the Ukraine crisis is objective and consistent, that is, negotiation, ceasefire, and peace. A prolonged Ukraine crisis serves no ones interests. Analysts, though, are focused on other recently spoken words by officials from Beijing. Speaking to Current Time, Russian political scientist Natalia Shevshkova noted comments from Wang after his recent European tour were a sign that Beijing has grown bolder in its rhetoric to where "its no longer Eastern diplomacy, but rather outright, almost rude behavior." "China understands that if Putin is now allowed to recognize - if he's allowed to keep Crimea, if the Western community is ready to negotiate and leave some territories with Putin, then Chinas hands are untied too, Shevshkova said. By RFE/RL More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: To sustain reform momentum, the IMF suggests Uzbekistan prioritize private-sector development, align banking regulations with international standards, and implement labor-market and pension system reforms. Despite strong growth and declining poverty, the IMF cautions that challenges remain, including a large state footprint in the economy, directed lending, and a need for improved governance and transparency. The IMF praises Uzbekistan's significant progress in transitioning to a market economy, noting robust economic performance, higher investment, and poverty reduction since 2017. The International Monetary Fund is upbeat on Uzbekistans economic liberalization drive but cautions that much remains to be reformed before Tashkent can realize its goal of qualifying for World Trade Organization membership. Since Shavkat Mirziyoyev assumed the presidency in 2016, Uzbekistan has averaged 5.7 percent GDP growth annually, while achieving year-on-year employment growth of about 3.6 percent, the IMF states in its latest country report for Uzbekistan. The growth rate is projected to hover around 6 percent over the next few years. Uzbekistan has made significant progress in transitioning to a market economy. The implementation of economic reforms has set in motion a virtuous cycle of higher investment, growth, and poverty reduction, the report states. Robust economic performance has continued on the back of sustained reform implementation, it adds. Since 2017, significant reformscommencing with exchange rate unification, the elimination of exchange restrictions, and liberalization of trade and most prices for goods and serviceshave transformed the economy and attracted sizable capital inflows. The country has experienced a steady decline in poverty rates in recent years, dipping down to 8.9 percent in 2024. Unemployment has concurrently declined to 5.5 percent in 2024, but the IMF noted that youth unemployment, defined as those under the age of 24, remained persistently elevated at 11 percent. Uzbekistan is also running up debt to fuel the economys retooling. According to the government-aligned news outlet UzDaily, Uzbekistans overall debt stood at $68.4 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2025, almost half of which was sovereign debt. The overall debt level increased by $14.9 billion over the past four fiscal quarters; $6.2 billion of that increase was in sovereign debt, the rest consisted of corporate borrowing. While praising the governments reform approach, IMF officials cautioned that Uzbekistan, like other countries in Central Asia, was vulnerable to potential economic developments outside of its control, including deeper trade policy shocks, more volatile commodity prices [and] tighter external financing. Consolidating economic gains will require Mirziyoyevs administration to relinquish a significant degree of control, the IMF report suggests. Important challenges remain and need to be addressed to sustain this performance, it states. These include a relatively large states footprint in the economy, through numerous state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and commercial banks (SOCBs), lingering directed and preferential lending, and remaining administered prices, all of which hinder competition and the development of a vibrant and diversified private sector. There is also room to improve governance and transparency, the report adds. Encouraging private-sector development should be a top government priority over the near-term, including improvements in corporate governance, the IMF report shows. It adds that banking regulations need to be better aligned with international standards. The country can also benefit from labor-market and pension system reforms aimed at improving state expenditure efficiency. Looking ahead, the key challenge is to sustain the reform momentum and promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, which the authorities are determined to do by completing price and trade liberalization, reducing the role of the state in the economy, and enabling a business environment that fosters market competition and empowers the private sector to thrive, the report says. By Eurasianet.org More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: PJM Interconnection, the operator of the largest U.S. electric grid covering 13 mid-Atlantic and Midwest states, has issued a maximum generation alert and load management alert for July 16 due to expected high peak load demand. The alert does not require any action from customers, but it is mostly to notify neighboring systems that electricity exports from PJM may be curtailed on Wednesday. PJM expects a peak load of approximately 145,000 MW on July 16, the grid operator said. PJM coordinates the movement of electricity through all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The alert is not the first warning of U.S. grid operators this summer, as heat waves are boosting electricity demand for air conditioning. The U.S. grids are in urgent need of modernization and upgrade to sustain rising power demand thats coming mostly from data centers. The North American Reliability Corporation has been warning of blackouts for two years now, citing extreme temperatures but also increased reliance on weather-dependent sources of electricity, notably wind and solar installations. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Energy warned that blackouts could increase substantially in the coming years unless more baseload capacity is added to the grid. The department issued its warning in a report that said the premature retirement of generation capacity and the delay in replacing that capacity with new baseload facilities had created a mismatch between demand and supply. This mismatch has increased the risk of a potential twofold increase in blackouts by 2030. This report affirms what we already know: The United States cannot afford to continue down the unstable and dangerous path of energy subtraction previous leaders pursued, forcing the closure of baseload power sources like coal and natural gas, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said. In the coming years, Americas reindustrialization and the AI race will require a significantly larger supply of around-the-clock, reliable, and uninterrupted power, Wright added, saying the Trump administration would ensure that supply by focusing on all forms of energy that are affordable, reliable, and secure. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Expanding petrochemicals production and uncertainty about imports of U.S. ethane and propane amid the trade row are expected to boost Chinese purchases of another petrochemical feedstock, naphtha, to a record high this year, traders and analysts tell Reuters. Amid disrupted supply of cheap U.S. ethane and propane in the trade war, Chinese petrochemicals producers have boosted the use of naphtha in recent months, while uncertainties about the trade going forward are set to drive increased naphtha demand. With issues in imports of ethane and propane, there is a trust factor that has come into play when it comes to U.S. cargoes, Pankaj Srivastava, senior vice president, commodity markets at Rystad Energy, told Reuters. Earlier this month, the Trump Administration rescinded licensing requirements for U.S. exporters of ethane to China, paving the way to restoring the trade that was upended by the tariff row with Beijing. For weeks before July 2, U.S. ethane exporters were required to submit an application for a validated license prior to the export, re-export, or transfer (in-country) of any ethane or butane products when a party to the transaction is located in China, or is a Chinese military end user, wherever located, except for certain eligible license exceptions. China is a major market for U.S. ethane, a natural gas liquid extracted from wet natural gas during processing and is primarily used to produce ethylene. The trade war with China in the past months has seen ethane and propane trade between the United States and China suffer significant disruption. The disruption to ethane trade has prompted Chinese petrochemicals producers to buy more naphtha supplies from varied sources. As a result, naphtha imports in the worlds top petrochemicals maker are expected to hit a record high of between 15 million tons and 17 million tons this year, up from 12 million tons in 2024, consultancies Rystad Energy, FGE, and JLC have estimated. New petrochemicals capacities coming online in China this year and next will also support higher imports of naphtha, according to analysts. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Indias romance with cheap Russian oil is coolingjust a touch. Russian crude imports into India crept up 1% in the first half of 2025, totaling about 1.75 million barrels per day. Thats hardly a surge, considering the price allure that first pulled India deeper into Moscows oil orbit after the 2022 Ukraine invasion. And while Russia still holds the top supplier spotaccounting for 35% of Indias crude inflowsthe real story isnt the volumes. Its the shrinking advantage. The discount on Urals crude has narrowed to just $1.70$2 per barrel below Brent, the slimmest since the war began. A year ago, Indian refiners were gorging on Russian barrels at far steeper markdowns. But a cocktail of reduced spot availability, refinery maintenance in Russia, and locked-in term deals (like Rosnefts supply to Reliance) has tightened access and squeezed the spread. Shipping costs, once a wild card, have momentarily dipped. Freight from Baltic ports to India fell to $5.0$5.3 million per Aframax in July, as more Western-insured tankers came online. But that window could slam shutagain. The EU is prepping its 18th sanctions package, which could lower the price cap to $45. And President Trump, back in the White House, just threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian oil unless a peace deal materializes within 50 days. Indian refiners arent panickingyetbut they are preparing. Some are already shifting interest to Murban or WTI. And behind the scenes, India is quietly building three new strategic reserves. Indias overall oil imports rose 4.3% in the first half to 5.2 million bpd. But the easy ride on Russian discounts may be ending. As one trader put it, the freight volatility is asleep, not dead. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Several oilfields operated by foreign companies in Iraqs semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan have halted production in the past few hours following attacks with explosive-laden drones on infrastructure at the fields. On Tuesday, a drone attack forced the suspension of production at the Sarsang oilfield, operated by a U.S. privately held firm, HKN Energy. The attack took place hours before HKN Energy signed a preliminary agreement with the Iraqi oil ministry to develop another oilfield. HKN Energy confirmed production at Sarsang has been suspended, but noted that all personnel have been safely accounted for. The attacks continued on Wednesday morning local time, with explosive-laden drones hitting oilfields operated by Norwegian firm DNO and U.S.-based Hunt Oil Company, Kurdistans counter-terrorism services said. DNO announced on Wednesday that operations at its Tawke field in Kurdistan have been temporarily suspended following three explosions early this morning, one involving a small storage tank at Tawke and another involving surface processing equipment at Peshkabir. There have been no injuries. The damage assessment is underway, and the company expects to restart production once said assessment is completed. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, Kurdistan security sources told Reuters that initial investigations suggested the drone came from areas controlled by Iran-backed militias. The oil production halt comes as the federal government in Baghdad and the regional Kurdish government in Erbil continue to quarrel over who should be responsible for the oil exports and the subsequent revenue distribution. The federal authorities say Baghdad should have sole discretion in handling oil exports and oil revenues. Oil exports from Kurdistan have now been halted nearly two and a half years after they were shut in in March 2023 due to a dispute over who should authorize the Kurdish exports. Despite some breakthroughs in negotiations in recent months, the disagreements apparently continue, and Kurdistans oil exports continue to be shut in. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Slovakia would drop its veto on the EUs new sanctions against Russia if it receives an exemption to continue importing Russian pipeline gas for nearly another decade, Slovakias Prime Minister Robert Fico says, as the European Union is struggling to reach a unanimous vote on the 18th sanctions package against Russia. Earlier this week, the EU failed to approve the package, which is set to include a floating oil price cap for Russias crude and a ban on the use of Nord Stream infrastructure, due to Slovakias veto. The ball is now in Slovakias court, Kaja Kallas, the EUs High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said. Slovakias Fico said that the EU guarantees on its energy security after January 1, 2028, when the EU plans to have dropped all Russian gas supply, have been insufficient. Slovakia has tied dropping its veto on the sanctions package with sufficient energy security guarantees. According to Slovakia, the most plausible guarantee would be the EU allowing it to honor its contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom until it expires in 2034seven years after the EU is set to have halted all gas imports from Russia. The best solution to the situation would be to grant Slovakia an exemption allowing it to fulfill its contract with Russian Gazprom until it expires in 2034something the European Commission currently rejects on principle, arguing that approving such a proposal would undermine the essence of the anti-Russian sanctions, Fico wrote on X. Slovakia and Hungary have often stalled talks on sanctions packages and EU plans to ditch Russian gas, arguing their energy security would be at stake. Unlike most other EU member states, Hungary and Slovakia continue to receive Russian gas via a pipeline through Balkans. The European Unions executive arm, the European Commission, in May unveiled a roadmap to fully end EU dependency on Russian energy. For gas, the Commission proposes to cease all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027 by improving the transparency, monitoring, and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts (for immediate payment) will be stopped by the end of 2025, according to the roadmap. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Urban area renewal improves people's livelihood in SE China's Fuzhou Xinhua) 08:48, July 16, 2025 A visitor views a photo exhibition themed on the renovation project of shanty town in Fuzhou in the Cangxia New Town of Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 13, 2025. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) An aerial drone photo taken on July 13, 2025 shows the Cangxia New Town in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) A woman looks at books at a reading corner in the Cangxia New Town of Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 13, 2025. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) Residents relax at a residential compound in the Cangxia New Town of Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 13, 2025. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) Teachers interact with children under a summer vacation care program at a service center in the Cangxia New Town of Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 14, 2025. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) Residents have lunch at a community canteen for senior citizens in the Cangxia New Town of Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 14, 2025. In recent years, Fuzhou has actively implemented renewal and upgrading programs for urban residential areas. Cangxia New Town, the formerly dilapidated area characterized by unpleasant living conditions in Fuzhou, has been transformed into a livable habitat after renovation and upgrading that started from July 2000 and lasted over a year. In September 2021, a new round of transforming and upgrading program was carried out here, with focus on the integration of historical culture and life convenience into the new town. Infrastructures for customized services have been built such as canteens for the elderly and daycare centers for the children. Through the urban area renewal, people's livelihood has been improved a lot. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan) (Web editor: Zhang Kaiwei, Liang Jun) Journalist and conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly was fact-checked on live TV after falsely claiming that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, was "convicted" by the Biden administration. The former Fox News host's mix up came while he was rallying against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies during a Monday appearance on NewsNation's "On Balance." Jeffries had questioned if the Trump administration was "hiding" something following the latest report on the Epstein files. "Jeffries knew the Biden administration had exactly the same thing the Trump administration has on Epstein. Exactly, because Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration," O'Reilly declared. Moments after O'Reilly's assertion, NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert jumped in and interrupted the journalist. "Wait, hold on, hold on, hold on Bill," the anchor started. "Bill, hold on, you said Epstein was convicted during the Biden administration. Epstein committed suicide during the Trump administration." "Yeah, so? Am I wrong on that?" O'Reilly questioned, leading Vittert to eagerly nod. "He was arrested in 2019, and committed suicide in 2019. He died August 10, 2019. So, the Biden administration was not involved in a conviction or a trial of him. They were [with] Ghislaine Maxwell," Vittert clarified. O'Reilly went on to insist that Epstein was arrested and indicted under Merrick Garland, who served as U.S. attorney general during the Biden administration, which Vittert quickly declared was false. "Epstein was arrested, indicted and committed suicide under Trump. In 2019, Trump was president. Merrick Garland was not the attorney general," the anchor reiterated. The Department of Justice and FBI have come under intense scrutiny over the last week after a memo released July 6 concluded that Epstein killed himself, had "no client list" and that there was no evidence of blackmail. Critics on both sides of the aisle have called for continued review and increased clarity into how officials came to the conclusion. In addition to Jeffries, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin and California Rep. Ro Khanna have also called for the full release of the files, questioning if the administration was "covering up" for anyone. Originally published on Latin Times WASHINGTON President Donald Trump threatened Russia on Monday with steep tariffs and announced a rejuvenated pipeline for American weapons to reach Ukraine, hardening his stance toward Moscow after months of frustration about unsuccessful negotiations for ending the war. The latest steps reflect an evolving approach from the Republican president, who promised to swiftly resolve the war started by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he invaded Ukraine three years ago. Trump once focused his criticism on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he described as unwilling to compromise, but more recently has expressed growing irritation toward Putin. "My conversations with him are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night," Trump said. He complained that "it just keeps going on and on and on." Trump said he would implement "severe tariffs" unless a peace deal is reached within 50 days. He provided few details on how they would be implemented, but he described them as secondary tariffs, meaning they would target Russia's trading partners to isolate Moscow in the global economy. In addition, Trump said European allies would buy "billions and billions" of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be transferred to Ukraine, replenishing the besieged country's supplies of weapons. He made the announcement in the Oval Office alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. US pledges more support for Ukraine; Sinner wins Wimbledon Included in the plan are Patriot air defense systems, a top priority for Ukraine as it fends off Russian drones and missiles. Doubts were recently raised about Trump's commitment to supply Ukraine when the Pentagon paused shipments over concerns that U.S. stockpiles were running low. Rutte said Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark would be among the buyers to supply Ukraine. He said "speed is of the essence here," and he suggested that some weapons would be rushed to Ukraine and later replaced with purchases from the U.S. Later Monday, Zelenskyy posted about having spoken with Trump by phone and said he discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions. Zelenskyy added that Trump had agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future. Trump exasperated with Putin Trump has long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin, and he repeatedly asserted that Russia was more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal. He also accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the war and called him a "dictator without elections." But Russia's relentless onslaught against civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump's patience. In April, Trump urged Putin to "STOP!" launching deadly barrages on Kyiv, and the following month said in a social media post that the Russian leader "has gone absolutely CRAZY!". While Rutte was in Washington, Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, met with Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Zelenskyy said he had "a productive conversation" with Kellogg about strengthening Ukrainian air defenses, joint arms production and purchasing U.S. weapons in conjunction with European countries, as well as the possibility of tighter international sanctions on the Kremlin. "We hope for the leadership of the United States, because it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its ambitions are stopped by force," Zelenskyy said on Telegram. Patriot missiles Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with hundreds of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine's air defenses struggle to counter. June brought the highest monthly civilian casualties of the past three years, with 232 people killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said. At the same time, Russia's bigger army is making a new effort to drive back Ukrainian defenders on parts of the 620-mile front line. Trump confirmed the U.S. is sending Ukraine more badly needed Patriot air defense missiles and that the European Union will pay the U.S. for the "various pieces of very sophisticated" weaponry. A senior Russian lawmaker, Konstantin Kosachev, said Trump's plan had "only one beneficiary the US military-industrial complex." Germany has offered to finance two Patriot systems, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said Monday in Berlin. The country has already given three of its own Patriot systems to Ukraine. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was traveling to Washington on Monday to meet with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. 'Record level' A top ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said Sunday the conflict is nearing an inflection point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion. Though Trump previously dismissed the effort as a waste of U.S. taxpayer money, Graham told CBS' "Face the Nation" that "you'll see weapons flowing at a record level." "One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump," he said. "And you just watch, in the coming days and weeks, there's going to be a massive effort to get Putin to the table." Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's envoy for international investment who took part in talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia in February, dismissed what he said were efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington. "Constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States is more effective than doomed-to-fail attempts at pressure," Dmitriev said in a post on Telegram. "This dialogue will continue, despite titanic efforts to disrupt it by all possible means." NEW YORK President Donald Trump is lashing out at his own supporters, accusing them of being duped by Democrats, as he tries to clamp down on criticism over his administration's handling of much-hyped records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation, which Trump now calls a "Hoax." "Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bull,' hook, line, and sinker," Trump wrote Wednesday on his social media site, using an expletive. "They haven't learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years." "Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore! Thank you for your attention to this matter," he went on. On Tuesday, he accused former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as former FBI Director James Comey, of making up such documents. I would say that, you know, these files were made up by Comey, they were made up by Obama, they were made up by the Biden , Trump told members of the media at the White House before departing for an event in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the Justice Department fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of the former FBI director and a prosecutor in the federal cases against Epstein and Sean Diddy Combs, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Wednesday. There was no specific reason given for her firing from the U.S. attorneys office in the Southern District of New York, according to one of the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Trump presented no evidence in claiming that Democrats and James Comey tampered with documents related to Epsteins case. The schism centers on his administration's handling of documents surrounding Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. National Guard deployment in L.A. to end; NL wins All-Star Game Last week, the Justice Department and the FBI acknowledged that Epstein did not maintain a "client list" to whom underage girls were trafficked, and they said no more files related to the investigation would be made public, despite past promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. Bondi suggested in February such a document was sitting on her desk waiting for review. Last week, however, she claimed she was referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list. "It's a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public," she said at one point. The reversal sparked fury among Trump's most loyal defenders, who turned on Bondi in particular. But Trump has repeatedly said he maintains confidence in his attorney general and had instead chided those who continue to press the issue. I dont understand what the interest or what the fascination is, he said Tuesday, after unsuccessfully urging his 'boys' and, in some cases, gals to stop wasting "Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." In an Oval Office appearance Wednesday, Trump made clear that he was done with the story, regardless of what his supporters think. "It's all been a big hoax," he told reporters. "It's perpetrated by the Democrats, and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net." He complained that Bondi was "waylaid" over her handling of the case and gave out all "credible information" about the wealthy financier. Bondi has "bigger problems" to work on, the president said, citing the administration's work to remove criminals who are living in the United States illegally. The blowup comes after Trump and many figures in his administration, including FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, spent years stoking dark and disproved conspiracy theories, including embracing QAnon-tinged propaganda that casts Trump as a savior sent to demolish the "deep state" a supposed secret network of powerful people manipulating government decisions behind the scenes. Trumps rivals recently took advantage of right-wing fissures over Epstein. Several Democratic lawmakers called for the release of all Epstein files and suggested Trump could be resisting because he or someone close to him is featured in them. Trump's comments so far have not been enough to quell those who are still demanding answers. Some of the podcasters and pro-Trump influencers who helped rally support for Trump in the 2024 campaign said Wednesday they were disappointed or puzzled by his comments on the issue. Benny Johnson, a conservative podcaster who has called for the Epstein records to be released, said on his show that he is a fan of Trump's movement but is trying to "give tough love and speak on behalf of the base." "Maybe it hasn't been framed correctly for the president," Johnson said. "I don't know." House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., in an interview on Benny Johnson's show Tuesday, called for the Justice Department to "put everything out there and let the people decide." Far-right conspiracy theorist and podcaster Alex Jones called Trump's handling of the Epstein situation "the biggest train wreck I've ever seen." "It's not in character for you to be acting like this," he said in a video reacting to Trump on Tuesday evening calling the case boring. "I support you, but we built the movement you rode in on. You're not the movement. You just surfed in on it." Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on his podcast on Wednesday attempted some damage control on Trump's behalf. "Don't take too seriously this whole Truth Social here," Kirk told his audience. "I know some people are getting fired up about this. I don't believe he was trying to insult anybody personally." Other Trump allies stuck by his side, suggesting he does not need the influencers who have capitalized on Epstein conspiracy theories to make money and earn viewers. "He lent you his clout and voters," Brenden Dilley, the head of a group of meme makers who have lent their support to Trump, wrote on social media Wednesday. "They don't belong to you." LINCOLN Nebraska is suing Colorado in the U.S. Supreme Court over water access in the western part of the state. Gov. Jim Pillen and State Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced the lawsuit at a press conference Wednesday morning, alleging that Colorado has not provided Nebraska its fair share of water from the South Platte River and that the state is obstructing Nebraskas efforts to build the Perkins County Canal. The states signed the South Platte River Compact more than a century ago, allotting Nebraska 120 cubic feet per second of water flow. Its crystal clear. Colorado has been holding water back from Nebraska for almost 100 years and getting more and more egregious every single day, Pillen said. He said out in the panhandle, pictures show farmers fields short on water burned up, dry and cant produce anything. Colorados counterparts to Pillen and Hilgers called the suit meritless and a waste of time and money for both states. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said in a press release that Colorado has complied with the compact and negotiated in good faith while Nebraska has attempted to intimidate Colorado landowners and damage our agricultural communities. He said the state will aggressively defend landowners, water users and the rural economy. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a written statement, Its unfortunate that Nebraska leaders decided to put politics above farming and ranching communities and the regional agricultural economy. The failure to look for reasonable solutions and to turn to litigation is both unfortunate and predictable given the misguided effort driving the proposed canal. Weiser previously called the project unwise and unlikely to happen, and Colorado officials have said the water that Nebraska expects from the river may not be there. Hilgers said anecdotally, farmers have relayed not receiving the appropriate amount of water most days in the irrigation season. Managers from irrigation and natural resources districts also said flows are not meeting the compact rules and that Nebraska waters are close to or beyond their limits for agriculture and development needs in central and western Nebraska. Dennis Schilz grows corn and soybeans on about 9,000 acres near Brule and the northeast corner of Colorado. Water has been an issue on his family farm going back to when he was a kid. More water means better crops and less uncertainty if a year will be dry or wet, Schilz said. A lot of us in the western half have groundwater wells. Thats more expensive than surface water, so itll cut costs, Schilz said. The Perkins County Canal will be the largest infrastructure project in Nebraska history and is expected to cost more than $600 million. The project will build a canal-and-reservoir system to draw water from the South Platte River into southwest Nebraska. Pillen said Colorados ongoing development will make shortfalls worse for Nebraska, harming agriculture and wildlife. He also said the project is needed to sustain existing agriculture and is essential to Nebraskas future. The Legislature approved the project in 2022 when Sen. Pete Ricketts was governor. On a call with reporters Wednesday, Ricketts said it isnt surprising that the states will end up in court. Were talking about the water (Colorado owes) us, and frankly theyve shown no inclination they actually would provide the water they owe us. Hilgers was speaker of the Legislature when the project received approval and when lawmakers appropriated funds a year later. The canal requires Nebraska to obtain private land in Colorado. Hilgers said owners were initially interested in selling, but there has been organized resistance to Nebraska recently, including expressing public desire to fight eminent domain. He said Nebraska and Colorado are at an impasse and cant agree on basics like the canals location, size, or how much water can flow through it. Pillen said the state has been playing Nebraska nice with Colorado and has been losing. He said that he and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis do not agree one iota, and theres no sense in further conversations. Weiser didnt shut the door on negotiations, but he said the ball is in Nebraskas court to come back to the table. Nebraska will ideally realize that through cooperation and collaboration, rather than litigation, our states could achieve a durable and thoughtful solution that addresses any concerns they might have, Weiser said, adding that he expects litigation will be costly, take decades and leave both states worse off. Hilgers estimated the suit may need three to five years for a ruling and cost about $2 million for Nebraska. He said the Supreme Court handles disputes between states and that conflicts over water are not uncommon. But one states eminent domain rights in another under a compact may be new territory. While the suit is in court, he said the canal project will proceed. The project is in its design phase, and Pillen estimated completion in 2032. By Taxpayers Association of Oregon OregonWatchdog.com Various anarchist and Antifa groups have been posting on street poles the names, addresses and photos of ICE officials. Homeland Security reports, Multiple organizations appear to be responsible for doxing these federal officers, including an anarchist and Antifa-affiliated group based in Portland called Rose City Counter-Info and another called The Crustian Daily. Both of these groups have published the names, pictures, and personal address of ICE officers on their websites.Criminals have posted fliers in officers neighborhoods, that includes their name, address, pictures of them and their families. These fliers threaten officers with text that says, NO PEACE FOR ICE and CHINGA LA MIGRA (translation: F**K immigration services). Around the ICE building have been signs calling for the death of ICE officers as reported by Honeybadgermom. BLOOMINGTON A woman from Normal accused of sex crimes involving both an animal and a child has been sentenced to 95 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to three offenses. Sarah B. Troutwine, also known as Sarah B. Howard, 35, pleaded guilty on May 16 to two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault with a victim younger than 13 and one count of dissemination of imagery depicting the sexual abuse of a child. All are Class X felonies. Troutwine was eligible for a sentence between six and 60 years for each of the predatory criminal sexual assault charges, with those to be served consecutively. The distribution of imagery charge was also eligible for a sentence of six to 30 years, but the judge had discretion to decide whether that sentence could be served at the same time as the others. Following hearing arguments, Judge William Workman said all three counts will be served consecutively to one another, finding that each act was committed during a separate course of conduct. The judge ultimately sentenced the defendant to 40 years on each predatory criminal sexual assault offense, to be served at 85%, and 15 years for the dissemination of imagery depicting child sex abuse, to be served at 50%. The sentences will be followed by a term of mandatory supervised released ranging from three years to life. Background These charges stem from an incident on Aug. 1, 2024, according to a probable cause statement read by a prosecutor during Troutwine's initial court appearance. While babysitting a child younger than 5, Troutwine recorded herself committing sexual acts on the child and later shared the footage online. Police obtained search warrants to extract additional evidence from her phone, where they found images of the child as well as five videos containing sexual conduct or contact with a dog, the prosecutor said. Troutwine denied committing these offenses until she was shown the videos by police. Once being shown the videos, she said she wished they would "just shoot" her, the prosecutor said during her detention hearing. Initially, she was charged with: one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim under 13, a Class X felony; five counts of sexual conduct or contact with an animal, Class 4 felonies; three counts of production of pornography with an animal, Class X felonies; five counts of possession of child pornography with a victim under 13, Class 2 felonies; five counts of reproduction of child pornography with a victim under 13, Class X felonies. She was detained for these offenses on Aug. 30, 2024, and has remained jailed since. Additional charges were later added, bringing Troutwine's total accused offenses to 26 charges. Following her May plea to three counts, her remaining charges were dismissed. 'Destroyed something precious' During Tuesday's sentencing hearing, Assistant State's Attorney Daniel Guido called the child's mother and grandparents to the stand to give victim impact statements. "These are burdens no child should ever have," the grandfather said. He continued explaining how the family has dealt with the repercussions since the abuse. "She has inflicted a wound so deep into our entire family," he said, noting that Troutwine had taken not just the victim's innocence but also the child's "sense of safety in this world." "You destroyed something precious," he said to Troutwine. The victim's mother then took the stand. "Never in a million years would I think (Troutwine would) be capable of doing something so vile," she said. The victim's mother said because of Troutwine's actions, she, as a mother, has been affected and feels responsibility for the abuse. She said she felt like she had failed her child. "We thought we could obviously trust her caring for our (child)," the mother said, noting she had known the defendant for six years. Sentencing recommendations In asking for a sentence, Guido noted that he found several factors in aggravation in this case, but specifically noted the victim impact statements, and the emotional toll the child and family endured as a result of the abuse. "One can only imagine the fear and confusion (the victim) felt in this matter," the prosecutor said. "Even worse, she recorded these offenses and later sent them out online." He also mentioned the defendant's criminal history, which comprised only misdemeanors, but all of a violent nature for battery. Since being jailed, she has been cited three times for rule violations, including battery to another inmate, Guido said. The prosecutor spoke of the defendant's sex offender evaluation, which he said showed Troutwine minimized and has been dismissive of her conduct, blaming individuals she met online, and at first, denying partaking in these offenses. The prosecutor asked for 50 years on each of the sexual abuse counts, and 25 years for the dissemination charge. In arguing for a lesser sentence, Public Defender Ron Lewis described Troutwine's ongoing mental health struggles, including periods of dissociation that he said were the reason the defendant didn't remember committing the offenses. His assertion was backed up by letters from a psychologist, who described Troutwine as having "complex PTSD" as a result of her own sexual abuse. Additionally, Lewis said the defendant is capable of rehabilitation, citing that she has graduated from specialty court programs in the past and has been taking classes while jailed. He noted that Troutwine was asked to commit these acts by men she had been messaging online, and that she doesn't have an attraction to children, but rather an issue with seeking attention and validation from men. "We all wonder how does one get to a place or state of mind where they commit the awful acts talked about here," Lewis said. The public defender additionally spoke of Troutwine's "tragic mental health," and the trauma she's suffered throughout the course of her life. "(It's) not an excuse, but historical perspective and explanation," Lewis said. He asked the defendant be given a sentence on the lesser end of the spectrum. In giving a statement to the court, Troutwine apologized to the victim and the family, and asked the judge to give a sentence that gives the family "healing and closure." "I should have taken the time to have sought out more treatment. That was on my part, and now I'm ready to take 100% responsibility for my actions," the defendant said. Ultimately, Workman said he found aggravating factors to outweigh mitigating factors in this case, noting continued crimes of violence, even while jailed, and the fact Troutwine was in a position of trust over this child. Additionally, the judge noted that Troutwine's explanation as to how or why this occurred, encouraged by other individuals, was "hard to believe." "Instead of protecting this child, she abused this child," Workman said. In a statement provided to The Pantagraph, Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington said, "The conduct this criminal investigation unveiled was substantial. The judge's sentencing sends an impactful message to our community that this type of dangerous behavior will not be tolerated. "From the initial investigation through the prosecutorial process, I commend the diligent efforts of all who made our city safer. Although the work of our officers is hard, laborious, and stressful, we seek to bring justice to victims and protect those who are not able to protect themselves from harm." Lewis declined to comment concerning this case. OnePlus is stuffing more AI into your phone and another cable into your desk drawer. The company announced Monday that its personal intelligence tool, Plus Mind, will arrive on the OnePlus 13 and 13R "in the coming weeks" via software update. Also launching tonight: a $30 2-in-1 SUPERVOOC charging cable that powers both phones and wearables from a single USB-C plug. "OnePlus AI is all about helping you work smart and play harder, and a big part of our work and play is trying to cope with the information overload we face every single day," said Arthur Lam, Director of OxygenOS and AI Strategy at OnePlus in an email."Plus Mind has been specifically developed to act as a personal intelligence for our users, helping them remember everything in a secure and private way." Plus Mind wants to turn a three-finger swipe into an AI-fueled filing system. Snap a screenshot of an event poster? It'll ask if you want to add it to your calendar. Grab a fashion blog? It'll auto-summarize the page and store the details in a dedicated "Mind Space" app that the company claims makes it easy to find everything later with a natural-language search. The feature first debuted on the OnePlus 13s in India, where users can access it via a physical Plus Key. But on North American OnePlus 13 and 13R models, it's all done through gestures. Plus Mind uses AI to recognize and tag whatever you captureimages, messages, social posts, websitesand pulls in extra context like summaries, translations, and scheduling prompts. How Plus Mind Compares to Other Phone AI Tools OnePlus isn't the only phone maker rushing to slap "AI" on every feature. Samsung has leaned hard into on-device Galaxy AI tools like live translation and photo editing, while Google's Pixel phones now use Gemini Nano for real-time summarizing, transcribing, and Magic Editor tweaks. Even Apple is jumping inslowlywith Apple Intelligence, though it won't hit iPhones until later this year. The arms race is on, and OnePlus is trying to prove it can hang with the big players by bundling more intelligence into your daily swipes. OnePlus says this is part of a broader push into personalized intelligence, following tools like AI Reframe for photo cropping, AI Search for natural-language queries, and AI Translation for real-time interpretation across text, voice, and camera input. The company claims it built this direction based on "hundreds of conversations" with users about their AI hopes and concerns. Meanwhile, the new SUPERVOOC cableavailable tonight on OnePlus.com for $29.99 USDcharges phones at up to 80W and smartwatches at 10W. It's designed for people juggling multiple devices but still somehow losing every charger they own. It's a small accessory, but a sharp move for OnePlus, which has been steadily pushing convenience-forward tools and features to win over multitaskers. Originally published on Tech Times "Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?" President Trump shot back at a reporter during a Cabinet meeting. "This guy's been talked about for years. ... I mean, I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration." It's hard not to chuckle at the mess the Trump administration has made for itself with the Epstein files fiasco. Don't worry, I am not going to wade too far into the "merits" of the controversy. Still, a brief recap might be helpful. Epstein, the famous financial consultant and sex-trafficking sleazeball to the rich and famous killed himself in jail during the first Trump term. And ever since, the extended MAGA universe -- often egged on by Trump -- has convinced itself Epstein was at the center of a vast web of underage sex, blackmail and intrigue. He had to have been murdered to keep his "client list" secret, insisted many. When Trump returned to the White House, and put MAGA all-stars Kash Patel and Dan Bongino at the top of the FBI -- both big boosters of various Epstein-related theories -- the understandable expectation was that all would finally be revealed. Early on, Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi said she had the Epstein client list on her desk and would reveal all soon. Then last week administration officials announced they could find no evidence to support the conspiracy theories. Bondi said she misspoke about the client list. The MAGA world went bonkers. Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly smelled blood in the water. Shouts of cover-ups and insinuations or accusations that Trump must be on the list proliferated. Bongino may be thinking of resigning. Patel is begging friendly journalists to take him at his word. And Trump is trying to shame everyone out of even talking about the guy. Now, don't get me wrong. Legitimate -- and interesting! -- questions should be asked about Epstein's clients, about how he made money (billionaire Leon Black said he paid Epstein $170 million for "tax advice" -- that's a lot of advice) and, yes, about Trump's relationship with Epstein (and Bill Clinton's). And given how Trump launched and sustained his political career relentlessly pushing unfounded conspiracy theories -- including birtherism, the 2020 "rigged" election and so many others -- it's difficult to muster sympathy for the Mar-a-Lago Macbeth, as Epstein's ghost plagues him like a sleazier Banquo. What is delicious about the whole spectacle is that no one -- other than Epstein's underage victims -- is worth rooting for. Patel, Bongino, Bondi and the denizens of MAGA media are all caught in a no-win situation: Support Trump and his "coverup" of their favorite conspiracy theory or alienate Trump by refusing to drop it. That so many people are refusing to drop the issue may be the most significant thing about this whole episode. Trump has a long history of trying to dictate what counts as a legitimate question or topic. Lately he's gotten more strident. When a local reporter asked about the lack of advance warning for the recent Texas floods, he snapped, "Only a very evil person would ask a question like that." He's told reporters to never ask him whether he "chickens out" on his tariff schemes. The primary intention, as always, is to intimidate the reporters. But what often lends weight to the intimidation is that Trump's own people-- from social media influencers to Fox News hosts -- will follow his cues and annoy, harass, mock or criticize mainstream reporters who ask unwanted questions of the president. The Epstein fiasco dividing those very people could be a sign of Trump's waning influence in his own coalition. The divide is larger and louder on the Epstein files than on any another issue, including Israel, Ukraine, tariffs, Medicaid cuts, debt and deficits, or Trump's myriad shady business deals. If he is covering up his own involvement with Epstein, that would turn the dial to 11. But assuming we know about as much as we ever will, it doesn't really matter politically who is right about Epstein or why Trump wants people to stop talking about him. The relevant fact is that he's made it clear what he wants, and many of his own minions and enablers think it's in their interest not to give it to him. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Snow provides glaciers with protection from the sun. June's heat wave has caused French Alps snow and glaciers to melt faster, causing water shortages at mountain shelters just before the summer tourist hiking season gets into full swing. "Everything has dried up," said Noemie Dagan, who looks after the Selle refuge, located at an altitude of 2,673 meters (8,769 feet) in the Ecrins, a mountain range overtowered by two majestic peaks. The snowfield that usually supplies water to her 60-bed chalet already "looks a bit like what we would expect at the end of July or early August," she said. "We are nearly a month early in terms of the snow's melting." The mountain refuge, lacking a water tank, relies on water streaming down from the mountain. If it runs out, the shelter will have to close. This happened in mid-August 2023, and could happen again. Dagan's backup solutions to avoid such a scenario include plastic pipes a kilometer long (0.6 mile)installed with difficultyto collect water from a nearby glacier close to the Pic de la Grave. But the slopes along which the pipe was laid are steep, unstable and vulnerable to increasingly violent storms ravaging the range. In the 15 years that she has worked in the sector, Dagan has witnessed "a metamorphosis" of the mountains and glaciers that are "our watertowers," she said. "We are basically the sentinels who have seen what is coming." The heat wave has made the provision of water at mountain chalets more difficult. 'Never even crossed our minds' Thomas Boillot, a local mountain guide, said the possibility one day of seeing water supply issues affecting the mountain shelters had "never even crossed our minds." But such cases have increased "and there will likely be more," he added. Some snowfields once considered eternal now melt in the summer, precipitation has become scarcer, and glaciers change shape as they meltfactors that combine to disrupt the water supply for chalets. Water used to arrive "through gravity" from snow and ice reserves higher up, but it is going to have to be pumped from below in the future, he said. Scientists say that the impact of climate change is nearly twice as severe in the Alps as it is globally, warning that only remnants of today's glaciers are likely to exist by 2100if they haven't disappeared altogether by then. Scientists warn that glaciers could all but disappear by 2100. This year's weather is also dangerous for the 1,400 glaciers in neighboring Switzerland, where the authorities report that accumulated snow and ice have melted five to six weeks before the usual time. "Brutal" is the term Xavier Cailhol, an environmental science Ph.D. student and mountain guide, used to describe the impact of the heat wave that he saw on a recent trip to the massif of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain. "I started ski-touring on Mont Blanc in June with 40 centimeters (16 inches) of powder snow. I ended up on glaciers that were completely bare, even as high up as the Midi Peak, at 3,700 meters altitude," he said. A cover of snow helps to protect the ice underneath by reflecting sunlight, he noted. "Above 3,200 meters, it's drier than anything we've seen before," he said. "It's quite concerning for the rest of the summer." A case in point is the accelerated melting of the Bossons Glacier, a massive ice tongue overlooking the valley before Chamonix. Snow and ice have been melting unusually early this year. It began with a "patch of gravel" which became larger, and "in fact is speeding up the melting at that location" because its dark color absorbs more heat. The melting of the Bossons Glacier is clearly visible from Chamonix, making it a constant reminder of what is happening to glaciers everywhere. "It's a symbol," said Cailhol. 2025 AFP This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Satellite image of rapidly deepening blizzard off the northeastern United States on January 4, 2018. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Nor'easters are powerful and often destructive cyclonic storms that primarily impact the East Coast of North America. Some of these weather events have been so fierce that they earned the names "Perfect Storm," "Storm of the Century," and "Snowmaggedon." Historical records and climate models agree that these destructive storms are becoming less common as a consequence of a warming climate. Less frequent, however, does not mean less intense. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that though less frequent, the strongest nor'easters are becoming more intense, packing powerful winds and dropping greater amounts of precipitation. This is a worrying trend for storms that have caused billions of dollars of damage as well as injury and death. This intensification trend was overlooked in previous studies, which focused more on averages rather than extremes. Also, other studies that suggested little or no changes in nor'easter intensity often failed to directly assess key factors such as wind speeds and precipitation trends. To identify and track the evolution of nor'easters, the researchers applied a cyclone tracking technique to a dataset covering the years 1940 to 2025 to create a comprehensive storm record. From this, they defined what they categorized as "impactful nor'easters," those with a specific minimum sea level pressure lasting at least 24 hours and traveling more than 1,000 km. Nor'easter tracks for the period 19402025. Color scale represents intensities of tracks. The large dotted box corresponds to the domain where the tracking algorithm is applied (20N to 50N, 90W to 40W), while the smaller dotted box corresponds to the U.S. East Coast region (33N to 45N, 80W to 70W). Credit: Kevin Chen et al, PNAS Their analysis revealed that the maximum wind speeds of the most intense and impactful nor'easters, those above the 66th percentile, have significantly increased over this 85-year period. The storm's hourly precipitation rates also increased. The researchers posit that these increases in intensity were likely fueled by the combined influence of higher ocean temperatures and the increased moisture capacity of a warming atmosphere. The name "nor'easter" comes from the direction of their cyclonic wind patterns as experienced from coastal areas. These storms form when a cold, dry polar airmass descends from the north and encounters warm, moist air moving northward along the North American coast. The sharp temperature and moisture differences of these clashing airmasses is how they get their strength. As a system of low pressure builds off the coast, it draws strength from the jet stream in the upper atmosphere. The system then builds and churns counterclockwise as it moves over warm waters in the Atlantic. As it moves toward land, the storm brings with it a powerful storm surge and gale-force winds. Eventually, the storm either moves out to sea or continues on to the Canadian Maritime provinces, eventually weakening as the supply of warm, moist air is cut off. According to the authors, "Our analysis of nor'easter characteristics reveals that the strongest nor'easters are becoming stronger, with both the maximum wind speeds of the most intense (>66th percentile) nor'easters and hourly precipitation rates increasing since 1940, suggesting an additional contribution to coastal risk in a warming world." Written for you by our author Charles Blue, edited by Sadie Harley, and fact-checked and reviewed by Andrew Zininthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you. 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The NEAHG cline and its legacy through admixture in ancient northern Eurasia. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09189-3 Where did Europe's distinct Uralic family of languageswhich includes Hungarian, Finnish, and Estoniancome from? New research puts their origins a lot farther east than many thought. The analysis, led by a pair of doctoral candidates working with ancient DNA expert David Reich, integrated genetic data on 180 newly sequenced Siberians with more than 1,000 existing samples covering many continents and about 11,000 years of human history. The results, published in the journal Nature, identify the prehistoric progenitors of two important language families, including Uralic, spoken today by more than 25 million people. The study finds the ancestors of present-day Uralic speakers living about 4,500 years ago in northeastern Siberia, within an area now known as Yakutia. "Geographically, it's closer to Alaska or Japan than to Finland," said co-lead author Alexander Mee-Woong Kim '13, M.A. '22. Linguists and archaeologists have been split on the origins of Uralic languages. The mainstream school of thought put their homeland in the vicinity of the Ural Mountains, a range running north to south about 860 miles due east of Moscow. A minority view, noting convergences with Turkic and Mongolic languages, theorized a more easterly emergence. "Our paper helps show that the latter scenario is more likely," said co-lead author Tian Chen (T.C.) Zeng, who earned his Ph.D. this spring from the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. "We can see this genetic pulse coming from the east just as Uralic languages were expanding." The discovery was made possible by Kim's long-term effort to gather ancient DNA data from some of Siberia's under-sampled regions. As he helped establish, many modern-day Uralic-speaking populations carry the same genetic signature that first appeared, in unmixed form, in the 4,500-year-old samples from Yakutia. People from all other ethnolinguistic groups were found, by and large, to lack this distinct ancestry. Genetic ties to Yakutia also show up in sets of hyper-mobile forager hunter-gatherers believed to have spread Uralic languages to northern Scandinavia's indigenous Sami people and as far south as Hungary, now a linguistic island surrounded by German, Slovak, and other Indo-European languages. Proto-Uralic speakers overlapped in time with the Yamnaya, the culture of horseback herders credited with transmitting Indo-European across Eurasia's grasslands. A pair of recent papers, led by Reich and others in his Harvard-based lab, zeroed in on the Yamnaya homeland, showing it was mostly likely within the current borders of Ukraine just over 5,000 years ago. Seima-Turbino artifacts. Credit: "Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples," Nature "We can see these waves going back and forthand interactingas these two major language families expanded," offered Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and human evolutionary biology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "Just as we see Yakutia ancestry moving east to west, our genetic data show Indo-Europeans spreading west to east." Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. But Uralic's influence was largely anchored in the north. "We're talking about the taigathe large expanse of boreal forest that goes from Scandinavia almost to the Bering Strait," said Kim, who concentrated in organismic and evolutionary biology at the College and studied archaeology at the Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. "This isn't territory you can simply ride a horse through." Archaeologists have long connected Uralic's spread with what is called the Seima-Turbino phenomenon, or the sudden appearance around 4,000 years ago of technologically advanced bronze-casting methods across northern Eurasia. The resulting artifacts, primarily weapons and other displays of power, have also been tied to an era of global climate changes that could have advantaged the small-scale cultures that spoke Uralic languages during and after the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. "Bronze often had a transformative effect on the cultures that used it," explained Zeng, noting the need to source raw materialslargely copper and tinfrom select locations. "Bronze really catalyzed long-distance trade. To start using it, societies really needed to develop new social connections and institutions." A picture of the genetically diverse communities who practiced Seima-Turbino techniques became clear with the advent of ancient DNA science. "Some of them had genetic ancestry from Yakutia, some of them were Iranic, some of them were Baltic hunter-gatherers from Europe," Reich said. "They're all buried together at the same sites." The newest genetic samples, assembled by Kim with the help of other archaeologists, including third co-lead author Leonid Vyazov at Czechia's University of Ostrava, revealed strong currents of Yakutia ancestry at a succession of ancient burial sites stretching gradually to the west, with each bearing rich reserves of Seima-Turbino objects. Map of all the sites that are sources of samples used in the study. Credit: "Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples," Nature "This is a story about the will, the agency of populations who were not numerically dominant in any way but were able to have continental-scale effects on language and culture," said Kim, an archaeologist with longstanding interest in Siberia and Central Asia. Previous studies established that Finns, Estonians, and other Uralic-speaking populations today share an Eastern Eurasian genetic signature. Ancient DNA researchers ruled out the region's best-known archaeological cultures from contributing to the Uralic expansion "That just meant we needed more data on obscure cultures, or obscure time periods where it was unclear what was happening," said Zeng, who led the study's analyses of DNA data. Today, he found, Uralic-speaking cultures vary in how much Yakutia ancestry they carry. Estonians retain about 2%, Finns about 10. At the eastern end of the distribution, the Nganasan peopleclustered at the northernmost tip of Russiahave close to 100% Yakutia ancestry. At the other extreme, modern-day Hungarians have lost nearly all of theirs. "But we know, based on ancient DNA work from the medieval conquerors of Hungary, that the people who brought the language there did carry this ancestry," Zeng emphasized. A separate finding concerns another group of Siberian-spawned languages, once widely spoken across the region. The Yeniseian language family may be contracting today, with the last survivor being central Siberia's critically endangered Ket, now spoken by just a handful of the culture's elders. But Yeniseian's influence was long evident to linguists and archaeologists alike. "Just like 'Mississippi' and 'Missouri' are from Algonquian, there are Yeniseian toponyms in regions that today speak Mongolic or Turkic languages," said Kim, a scholar on these languages since his undergraduate years (when he also learned to speak Uyghur). "When you consider this trace on the landscape, its influence extends far beyond where Yeniseian languages are spoken." The study locates the first speakers of the Yeniseian family some 5,400 years ago near the deep waters of Lake Baikal, its southern shores just a few hours by car from the current border with Mongolia. The genetic findings also provide the first genetic signalalbeit a tentative onefor Western Washington University linguist Edward Vajda's Dene-Yeniseian hypothesis, which proposed genealogical connections between Yeniseian and the Na-Dene family of North American Indigenous languages. More information: Tian Chen Zeng et al, Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09189-3 Journal information: Nature This story is published courtesy of the Harvard Gazette, Harvard University's official newspaper. For additional university news, visit Harvard.edu. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In this photo provided by the Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project, a bottlenose dolphin wearing a marine sponge on its nose to forage swims in Shark Bay, Australia, 2023. This photo was taken under DBCA fauna license F025000102-8. Credit: Meredith MacQueeney/Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project via AP Some dolphins in Australia have a special technique to flush fish from the seafloor. They hunt with a sponge on their beak, like a clown nose. Using the sponge to protect from sharp rocks, the dolphins swim with their beaks covered, shoveling through rubble at the bottom of sandy channels and stirring up barred sandperch for a meal. But this behaviorpassed down through generationsis trickier than it looks, according to new research published Tuesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Hunting with a sponge on their face interferes with bottlenose dolphins' finely tuned sense of echolocation, of emitting sounds and listening for echoes to navigate. "It has a muffling effect in the way that a mask might," said co-author Ellen Rose Jacobs, a marine biologist at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. "Everything looks a little bit weird, but you can still learn how to compensate." Jacobs used an underwater microphone to confirm that the "sponging" dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, were still using echolocation clicks to guide them. Then she modeled the extent of the sound wave distortion from the sponges. For those wild dolphins that have mastered foraging with nose sponges, scientists say it's a very efficient way to catch fish. The wild marine sponges vary from the size of a softball to a cantaloupe. In this photo provided by the Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project, a bottlenose dolphin wearing a marine sponge on its nose to forage swims in Shark Bay, Australia, 2024. This photo was taken under DBCA fauna license F025000102-8. Credit: Meredith MacQueeney/Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project via AP Sponge hunting is "like hunting when you're blindfoldedyou've got to be very good, very well-trained to pull it off," said Mauricio Cantor, a marine biologist at Oregon State University, who was not involved in the study. That difficulty may explain why it's rarewith only about 5% of the dolphin population studied by the researchers in Shark Bay doing it. That's about 30 dolphins total, said Jacobs. "It takes them many years to learn this special hunting skillnot everybody sticks with it," said marine ecologist Boris Worm at Dalhousie University in Canada, who was not involved in the study. In this photo provided by the Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project, a bottlenose dolphin wearing a marine sponge on its nose to forage swims in Shark Bay, Australia, 2023. This photo was taken under DBCA fauna license F025000102-8. Credit: Meredith MacQueeney/Shark Bay Dolphin Research Project via AP Dolphin calves usually spend around three or four years with their mothers, observing and learning crucial life skills. The delicate art of sponge hunting is "only ever passed down from mother to offspring," said co-author and Georgetown marine biologist Janet Mann. 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain After Brexit, London slowed down investments in Europe. While Europe continues to focus on the United Kingdom. A recent study in Research Policy, co-authored by Vincenzo Buttice, Annalisa Croce and Andrea Odille Bosio from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, and Simone Signore and Andrea Crisanti of the European Investment Fund (EIF) shows these findings. The research examined more than a decade of venture capital (VC) investments in the UK and EU, distinguishing between pre-announcement, the uncertainty period (2016 referendum to formal exit), and post-Brexit stages. The result was an asymmetric response from investors on the two sides. Politecnico di Milano's Business Data Analytics Professor Vincenzo Buttice said, "UK investors reacted immediately, cutting back investments in Europe after the Brexit announcement. European investors, instead, waited for greater clarity before changing their behavior. This supports the idea that Brexit raised uncertainty in the market for financing innovative entrepreneurship." According to the analysis, after the 2016 referendum, UK funds drastically reduced their operations in continental Europe, maintaining a cautious approach and focusing on the domestic market. EU investors waited until after Brexit's official implementation in 2020 before significantly boosting investments in British startups. A possible explanation is that EU investment growth in the UK may stem from weaker fundraising by British funds, coupled with new partnership strategies between UK and EU investors to navigate post-Brexit barriers, as indicated by the analysis of syndicated investment data from funds in both regions. The study provides a novel perspective on the reshaping of innovation-driven capital flows across Europe and their lasting implications for the startup ecosystem. Italy, with its modest VC share, can use Brexit as an opportunity to strengthen its foothold in Europe's investment market. More information: Andrea Odille Bosio et al, How Brexit reshaped venture capitals market: An analysis of UK and EU investments, Research Policy (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2025.105289 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Meta-atoms at varying orientations on a chiral metasurface. Credit: 2025 EPFL Bionanophotonic Systems Lab, CC BY SA 4.0 By leveraging the concept of chirality, or the difference of a shape from its mirror image, EPFL scientists have engineered an optical metasurface that controls light to yield a simple and versatile technique for secure encryption, sensing, and computing. Imagine trying to wear a left-handed glove on your right hand: It doesn't fit because left and right hands are mirror images that can't be superimposed on each other. This "handedness" is what scientists call chirality, and it plays a fundamental role in biology, chemistry, and materials science. Most DNA molecules and sugars are right-handed, while most amino acids are left-handed. Reversing a molecule's handedness can render a nutrient useless or a drug inactive and even harmful. Light can also be left or right "handed." When a light beam is circularly polarized, its electric field corkscrews through space in either a left-handed or right-handed spiral. Because chiral structures interact differently with these two types of twisted light beams, shining a circularly polarized light on a sampleand comparing how much of each twist is absorbed, reflected, or delayedlets scientists read out the sample's own handedness. However, this effect is extremely weak, which makes precise control of chirality an essential but challenging task. Now, scientists from the Bionanophotonic Systems Laboratory in EPFL's School of Engineering have collaborated with those in Australia to create artificial optical structures called metasurfaces: 2D lattices composed of tiny elements (meta-atoms) that can easily tune their chiral properties. By varying the orientation of meta-atoms within a lattice, scientists can control the resulting metasurface's interaction with polarized light. Concept of chiral encoding using the interplay between lattice and meta-atoms symmetries. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61221-2 "Our 'chiral design toolkit' is elegantly simple, and yet more powerful than previous approaches, which tried to control light through very complex meta-atom geometries. Instead, we leverage the interplay between the shape of the meta-atom and the symmetry of the metasurface lattice," explains Bionanophotonics Lab head Hatice Altug. The innovation, which has potential applications in data encryption, biosensing, and quantum technologies, has been published in Nature Communications. An invisible, dual layer watermark The team's metasurface, made of germanium and calcium difluoride, presents a gradient of meta-atoms with orientations that vary continuously along a chip. The shape and angles of these meta-atoms, as well as the lattice symmetry, all work together to tune the response of the metasurface to polarized light. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61221-2 In a proof-of-concept experiment, the scientists encoded two different images simultaneously on a metasurface optimized for the invisible mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. For the first image of an Australian cockatoo, the image data were encoded in the size of the meta-atomswhich represented pixelsand decoded with unpolarized light. The second image was encoded using the orientation of the meta-atoms so that, when exposed to circularly polarized light, the metasurface revealed a picture of the iconic Swiss Matterhorn. "This experiment showcased our technique's ability to produce a dual layer 'watermark' invisible to the human eye, paving the way for advanced anticounterfeiting, camouflage and security applications," says Bionanophotonics Systems Lab researcher Ivan Sinev. Beyond encryption, the team's approach has potential applications for quantum technologies, many of which rely on polarized light to perform computations. The ability to map chiral responses across large surfaces could also streamline biosensing. "We can use chiral metastructures like ours to sense, for example, drug composition or purity from small-volume samples. Nature is chiral, and the ability to distinguish between left- and right-handed molecules is essential, as it could make the difference between a medicine and a toxin," says Bionanophotonic Systems Lab researcher Felix Richter. More information: Ivan Sinev et al, Chirality encoding in resonant metasurfaces governed by lattice symmetries, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-61221-2 Journal information: Nature Communications This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: An RGB image of A2744-z7p9OD using the F090W, F277W and F444W filters, with overlaid points indicating the positions of spectroscopically confirmed galaxies (squares, solid line) and photometric candidates (circles). The dashed, large squares indicate the most clustered core regions. Credit: arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.06284 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has performed deep and high spectral resolution imaging of a distant protocluster of galaxies, designated A2744-z7p9OD. Results of the new observations, published July 8 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the properties of this protocluster, revealing that it hosts a remarkably evolved core. Galaxy clusters are collections of hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. Such clusters are the most immense gravitationally bound structures in the universe, and therefore they could serve as excellent laboratories for studying galaxy evolution and cosmology. Of special interest for astronomers are studies of protoclusters of galaxiesthe progenitors of clusters. These objects, found at high redshifts (over 2.0), could provide essential information about the early phases of the universe. A2744-z7p9OD (A2744-PC for short) is a galaxy protocluster at a redshift of 7.88. Previous observations of this protocluster have suggested that its core hosts at least one relatively evolved galaxy. Recently, a group of astronomers led by Callum Witten of the University of Geneva in Switzerland decided to further investigate this matter using JWST's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). "Utilizing recent deep and relatively high spectral resolution NIRCam imaging of the Abell 2744 lensing field, we study the A2744-z7p9OD protocluster," the researchers wrote in the paper. First of all, the observations resulted in the detection of seven new members of A2744-PC, which expanded the list of known galaxies in this protocluster to 23. Afterward, the astronomers obtained the intrinsic spectral properties of all the protocluster-resident galaxies (PRGs), such as the Balmer break and ultraviolet slopes. The study found that the investigated PRGs showcase stronger Balmer breaks and shallower ultraviolet slopes relative to field galaxies at this redshift, which corresponds to about 650 million years after the Big Bang. This suggests that most of the protocluster residents are already at a more advanced stage of their evolution than is typical. Furthermore, the observations of A2744-PC show that its core is composed of massive, dusty galaxies with declining star-formation histories, while the outskirts of the protocluster consists of younger galaxies experiencing ongoing bursts of star formation. According to the authors of the paper, these results indicate that A2744-PC has a highly evolved core and is in general at a more advanced stage of its evolution than would typically be expected from simulations. "By z < 5 [redshift lower than 5], the cores of protoclusters are expected to be the first regions to show evidence of quenching and dense intracluster gas, with more spatially extended star formation. Such properties are already in place in A2744-PC at z 8," the scientists concluded. Written for you by our author Tomasz Nowakowski, edited by Stephanie Baum, and fact-checked and reviewed by Andrew Zininthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you. More information: Callum Witten et al, Before its time: a remarkably evolved protocluster core at z=7.88, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2507.06284 Journal information: arXiv 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Percentage of blacklisted jurisdiction use. Credit: Percentage of blacklisted jurisdiction use. Map by Herbert Chang. Billionaires, oligarchs, and other members of the uber-rich, known as "elites," are notorious for the use of offshore financial systems to conceal their assets and mask their identities. Understanding the transnational offshore finance networks that they utilize has long been a challenge given the secrecy involved. But a new Dartmouth study reveals there are distinct patterns associated with the offshore system, which are specific to where a wealthy person comes from. Specifically, the quality of the governance in the home country of an elite is tightly associated with the patterns. The findings are published in PLOS One. The researchers examined elites' offshore secrecy behavior in 65 countries using public data from the Offshore Leaks Database maintained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journaliststhe most comprehensive database on offshore finance, which includes nearly 3,000 billionaires, heads of states, celebrities, and othersand the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, which rates countries on their "rule of law" and is used by the World Bank and financial ratings agencies to benchmark data. "By combining the two datasets using machine learning and social network analysis, we were able to identify the different types of offshore strategies that are used," says lead author Herbert Chang, an assistant professor of quantitative social science at Dartmouth. The team calculated metrics such as to what extent elites from a country conceal their identity, the percentage of their assets that they place in offshore centers such as the British Virgin Islands, and how much they diversify their assets, including across "blacklisted jurisdictions." Blacklisted offshore centers operate outside the confines of the normal financial system and are known for not disclosing information about assets to foreign governments. "One of the goals of the study was to conduct a quantitative analysis that was purely based on the network behavior of elites and their offshore behaviorno expert opinion, just raw records of human behavior," says Chang. The results revealed three distinct patterns. Elites who come from authoritarian countries, where political retribution is a risk, are likely to scatter their assets across multiple offshore centers, demonstrating a "confetti strategy." Yet, elites who come from countries where their assets are likely to be seized due either to a lack of civil rights or a government with effective regulations tend to use a "concealment strategy" to remain anonymous. Propensity of identity concealment. Credit: Herbert Chang. They will put their money in blacklisted jurisdictions. And to conduct such transactions, elites may rely on bearer shares, which do not list the owner's name, and a nominee to represent their financial interests and protect their anonymity. Lastly, elites who are concerned about confiscation and corruption are likely to use a "hybrid strategy," diversifying and concealing their assets offshore. "So, normally, you would expect that someone who wasn't a drug dealer or a flat-out criminal would avoid blacklisted jurisdictions like the plague, but that's not what we find," says co-author Brooke Harrington, a professor of sociology at Dartmouth and trained private wealth manager who is the author of "Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism". Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "We found these systematic patterns, where it's not just wealthy people running from corrupt or authoritarian governments such as Thailand or Russia, respectively, but also people who come from super-transparent, highly functional democracies such as Denmark and Austria, who will go to extreme lengths to hide their money in the offshore system, including by using methods that are costly and risky to themselves," says Harrington. Chang says, "There are also cases like Singapore where the government is free of corruption but low on civic participation, where blacklisted offshore financial centers may still be highly utilized by elites." According to the data, 70% to 90% of offshore assets owned by elites of Peru, Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia are in blacklisted jurisdictions. In comparison, 30% of the offshore assets owned by the elites of Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, and China are tied up in blacklisted jurisdictions. "Our overarching goal in this work is to better understand the patterns of 'secrecy' implicit in offshore investment," says co-author Daniel Rockmore, professor of math and computer science. "We see this as just one dimension of an evolving shadow financial system that serves the elites, often at the expense of average taxpayers." Rockmore says, "We hope that our results will be useful to policymakers concerned about this kind of financial drainage." "Our findings demonstrate that the use of offshore financial centers are driven by not only bad governance but also good governance," says Chang. The research builds on the team's earlier work reporting that sanctioning offshore wealth managers who protect the assets of oligarchs from Russia, China, the United States, and Hong Kong would be more effective than sanctioning individual oligarchs. More information: Chang H-CH, et al. Secrecy strategies: Global patterns in elites' quest for confidentiality in offshore finance, PLOS One (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0326228 Journal information: PLoS ONE This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A collection of emerald ash borers from across Texas. The presence of the invasive emerald ash borer has been confirmed in 31 counties statewide. Credit: Texas A&M Forest Service The presence of the invasive emerald ash borer, EAB, has been confirmed in Jack, Navarro, Somervell, Bell and Rockwall counties. Bell County's confirmation makes it the southernmost confirmed location of the pest in the nation, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The emerald ash borer is a destructive, nonnative, woodboring pest that targets all ash tree species. Native to Asia, forest health experts have monitored its movement across the U.S. since 2002. It has spread to more than half of the states and killed millions of ash trees. The beetle was first detected in Texas in 2016 in Harrison County. The emerald ash borer has since spread to 31 counties statewide, with five new Texas counties confirmed in 2024 and an additional five this year. "EAB is one of the worst invasive insects to impact North American forests," said Allen Smith, Texas A&M Forest Service regional forest health coordinator. "EAB does not typically fly far distances naturally. Their expansion across the state and the U.S. has been expedited due to human activity, like moving infected firewood and ash tree products across state and county lines." Detecting movement across the state Texas A&M Forest Service deploys traps annually, beginning in February, to proactively monitor emerald ash borers. The agency currently has 554 traps throughout Texas. "Our timing in trapping EAB is important because its emergence is dependent on weather and temperature conditions," Smith said. Once the presence of EAB is confirmed in a county, the Texas Department of Agriculture assumes regulatory responsibility, which includes establishing quarantines. The state's mandatory quarantine by the Texas Department of Agriculture restricts the movement of any woody ash material exiting the county or quarantined area. The Texas Department of Agriculture also regulates sawmills, kiln dry facilities, mulch products, wood packing material, ash nursery stock and all hardwood firewood. "Because EAB is transported unintentionally on wood products, the quarantine helps slow the beetle's spread by restricting the movement of wood in and out of affected areas," said Demian Gomez, Texas A&M Forest Service regional forest health coordinator. "Texans can proactively prevent the spread of EAB and other pests and diseases by burning firewood where it is bought." Signs of infestation All species of ash are susceptible to EAB. Infested ash trees may show few to no symptoms in the early stages. Emerald ash borer larvae feed in the phloem of branches and trunks, preventing nutrients from being transported from the leaves to the rest of the tree. Tree mortality can occur five to six years after the beetle is introduced. Symptoms of infestation may include dead branches near the top of a tree, leafy shoots sprouting from the trunk, bark splits exposing S-shaped larval galleries, extensive woodpecker activity, and D-shaped exit holes. Adult emerald ash borers are dark emerald green, approximately half an inch long, and one-eighth inch wide. They can be seen near ash trees, especially between May and June in Texas, when they are more likely to be active. Texans can help minimize the spread of EAB by diversifying tree and plant species on their property, following the 102030 ruleplanting no more than 10% of any one species, 20% of any one genus or 30% of any one family. More information: Texas A&M Forest Service offers more information on the emerald ash borer in Texas, and the Texas Department of Agriculture offers more information on the EAB quarantine. To report emerald ash borer, call the EAB Hotline at 1-866-322-4512. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain E. coli outbreaks in romaine lettuce have long been a public health concern. Between 2000 and 2020, at least 42 foodborne illness outbreaks associated with romaine lettuce were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Outbreak Reporting System. And yet, our affection for romaine remains: Of all leafy greens, Americans spend the most on romaine (with iceberg behind by a head). A new paper in Scientific Reports suggests that a combination of efforts in the field, and even postharvest techniques, can minimize risk to human health. Co-authored by Renata Ivanek, a professor in the department of population medicine and diagnostic sciences, and Martin Wiedmann, professor in food safety, the paper outlines interventions likely to make a concrete difference in the safety of the nation's romaine. "This study supports the fact that interventions should focus on reducing produce contamination via contaminated irrigation water, on assuring that produce washes applied during processing consistently deliver reasonably high reductions in bacterial numbers, and on improving temperature control during distribution," Wiedmann said. Ivanek said the study aimed to help industry find ways to do better and to provide consumers a better guarantee of product safety. They began with an advisory council of industry leaders, she said. "We tried to describe the system as holistically as possible to account for different risk factors and how they could cause interactions," she said. "There's not just one intervention that will save us all. We spent a lot of time trying to understand the pre-harvest component, especially the irrigation water piece, and how much risk can be explained by that." Study results suggest that much contamination originates from irrigation with untreated surface water applied through overhead spray irrigation systems. They found that risk from irrigation was reduced either through water treatments or by switching to furrow or drip irrigation. "While not the most common system, spray irrigation is used in a number of fields for its benefits during germination, its cooling effect on plants and other reasons. But drip or furrow irrigation reduces the probability that water directly touches the leaves," Ivanek said, acknowledging that switching to these other irrigation systems introduces significant potential additional costs to growers. Moving into the postharvest area, the researcherswho included Ece Bulut, formerly a research associate in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences and now a senior analyst for Walmart Sourcingfocused on what happens in the processing facilities. "Lettuce is harvested in batches and all lettuces are washed," Bulut said. "There is a lot of research in how to make that wash better, but there are still knowledge gaps in the effective amount of chemicals to use and other details of the postharvest wash process to reduce variability of contact time with the wash chemicals." Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. And finally, Ivanek and her co-authors explored the importance of maintaining proper cold storage temperatures along the entire supply chain to romaine's final destination. "Time and temperature play a role in food safety, and also in food quality and shelf life," she said, describing a "perfect storm" if contamination happens at the farm or processing level and then improper transportation temperatures allow bacteria to grow. With Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s current focus on the "Make America Healthy Again" initiative, there is a significant push for Americans to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Many of them, as in the case of romaine, are eaten in their raw state, without a cooking "kill step" for bacteria. The comprehensive practices and interventions explored in this study intend to aid decision-makers in establishing and enhancing food safety best management practices, Ivanek said. "The big message is the American food supply chain is extremely safe compared to other countries," she said. "We're exploring how we can make it even safer and where we should put additional effort." More information: Ece Bulut et al, Risk assessment of Escherichia coli O157:H7 along the farm-to-fork fresh-cut romaine lettuce supply chain, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-01585-z Journal information: Scientific Reports This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Fozzie, a labrador/golden retriever mix, and his owner, Scott Hurst of Salem, Virginia, search a park bench for evidence of the invasive spotted lanternfly. Credit: Clark DeHart for Virginia Tech. A new study led by Virginia Tech found that volunteer dog-handler teamsmade up of everyday people and their petscan effectively detect the elusive egg masses of the spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect that's damaging farms and forests across the eastern and central United States. Appearing in the journal PeerJ, it's the first study to show that citizen dog-handler teams can achieve detection success rates comparable to professional conservation detection dogs. "These teams demonstrated that citizen scientists and their dogs can play a meaningful role in protecting agriculture and the environment from invasive species," said Sally Dickinson, the study's lead author, who recently earned her Ph.D. from Virginia Tech's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "With proper training, dog owners can turn their pets into powerful partners for conservation." An invasive pest, a hidden target The spotted lanternfly, native to Asia, was first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014. Since then, it's spread rapidly to 18 states, laying its eggs on trees, stone, lumber, and even cars and trailers, where it can hitch a ride to a new home. Catching the bug early is keybut finding its egg masses is no easy task. "They often resemble mud smears or lichens and are tucked into bark crevices, cracks, or hidden undersides," said Mizuho Nita, a plant pathologist at Virginia Tech's Alson H. Smith Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center, who co-authored the study. "Finding them is like searching for a needle in a haystack." That's where the dogs come in. With a sense of smell that's tens of thousands of times more acute than humans, dogs can be trained to sniff out spotted lanternfly egg masses without disturbing the environment. Previous research has shown that professional conservation detection dogs can do this with high accuracy. But professional dogs are expensive, and there aren't nearly enough of them to cover the growing threat. So the researchers asked: "What if we tapped into the tens of thousands of dog owners already doing scent detection as a hobby around the country?" Known as recreational scent work, this sport allows dogs to find hidden scents for fun in homes, parks, and training classes. (At left) A spotted lanternfly egg mass hides in plain sight. Photo courtesy of Sally Dickinson. (At right) A mature spotted lanternfly. Credit: Theresa Dellinger for Virginia Tech. Dogs of all shapes, sizes, and snouts Over 1,000 dog owners expressed interest in the study. More than 40% had prior experience in sport scent detection or related activities. Ultimately, 182 teams from across the U.S. were selected and given devitalizedor non-hatchingegg masses as training aids. Participants trained their dogs at home or in small groups, with oversight from a designated local trainer. After several months of training, the dogs were put to the test in two environmentsone indoor and one outdoor. In the controlled indoor environment, dogs had to complete an odor recognition test, identifying the box with the spotted lanternfly egg mass from among multiple boxes with other items and scents. Those that passed the odor recognition test advanced to a field test, where they had to find the scent in an outdoor environment with competing smells. The results? Dogs correctly identified the egg masses 82% of the time in the controlled tests. In real-world field trials, accuracy dropped to 61%still better than many human searches. Of the dogs that passed both tests, 92% were successful in finding live egg masses with minimal extra training. Study participant Bill Wellborn of Roanoke said his 7-year-old Tibetan terrier, Pepe, enjoyed the challenge. Over the course of six months, they trained with devitalized spotted lanternfly egg masses two or three times a week for 15 to 30 minutes. "Anytime you can stimulate your dog, it's good for them," Wellborn said. "Pepe obviously enjoys it. And it's a way we can take dog skills and training to help our community." Katie Thomas of Radford and her pit bull mix, Finch, also volunteered for the study, hoping to put their seven years of recreational scent work to real-world use. "Being able to do the same thing for the greater goodfor citizen scienceadds another layer we didn't have before," she said. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Agriculture's new best friend? Erica Feuerbacher, an animal behaviorist and Dickinson's graduate advisor and co-author, said the findings show the untapped power of community science. "There are thousands of people out there doing scent work with their dogs just for fun," said Feuerbacher, associate professor in the School of Animal Sciences. "What Sally's study shows is that this can be more than a hobbythese citizen-scientists and their dogs can be a valuable resource for fighting the spread of an invasive pest." Dog-handler teams from the study included (from left) Scott Hurst and Fozzie, Katie Thomas and Finch, and Bill Wellborn and Pepe. Credit: Clark DeHart for Virginia Tech. Sniffing out the spotted lanternfly may be just the beginning. A separate study co-authored by Nita, Dickinson, and Feuerbacher with researchers from Texas Tech University found that trained pet dogs could also detect powdery mildew, a major fungal disease of grapes and vineyards, with over 90% accuracy. Together, these studies point to a growing role for dogsand their ownersin safeguarding agriculture. For Dickinson, a longtime firefighter and career search-and-rescue canine handler, the project reflects a personal mission: giving more dogs and their humans a chance to do meaningful work. "This research is about more than detection," she said. "It's about empowering people to work alongside their dogs to protect the places and communities they care about." The research team included Dickinson, Feuerbacher, and Nita from Virginia Tech and Edgar Aviles-Rosa and Nathan Hall from Texas Tech University. More information: Evaluating the effectiveness of participatory science dog teams to detect devitalized Spotted Lanterfly (Lycorma delicatula) egg masses., PeerJ (2025). DOI: 10.7717/peerj.19656 Edgar O. Aviles-Rosa et al, Dogs can detect powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) in grapevine (Vitis vinifera) leaves, Journal of Veterinary Behavior (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jveb.2024.12.001 Journal information: PeerJ This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Interstellar objects are visitors from solar systems beyond our own, and the third ever such object, known as 3I/ATLAS, has just been discovered. Using the Gemini North telescope, astronomers have captured 3I/ATLAS as it makes its temporary passage through our cosmic neighborhood. These observations will help scientists study the characteristics of this rare objects origin, orbit, and composition. Credit: NSF NOIRLab Interstellar objects are visitors from solar systems beyond our own, and the third ever such object, known as 3I/ATLAS, has just been discovered. Using the Gemini North telescope, astronomers have captured 3I/ATLAS as it makes its temporary passage through our cosmic neighborhood. These observations will help scientists study the characteristics of this rare object's origin, orbit, and composition. Using the Gemini North telescope in Hawai'i, a team of astronomers led by Karen Meech (Institute for Astronomy/University of Hawai'i) has captured an image of comet 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object that was first detected on 1 July 2025 by ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System). Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by NSF NOIRLab. The incredible sensitivity of Gemini North's Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) reveals the comet's compact comaa cloud of gas and dust surrounding its icy nucleus. Interstellar objects are objects that originate outside of, and are observed passing through, our solar system. Ranging from tens of meters to a few kilometers in size, these objects are pieces of cosmic debris left over from the formation of their host star's planetary systems. As these remnants orbit their star, the gravity of nearby larger planets and passing nearby stars can launch them out of their home systems and into interstellar space, where they can cross paths with other solar systems. Comet 3I/ATLAS is captured in this image by the Gemini North telescope. The incredible sensitivity of Gemini North's Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) reveals the comets compact coma a cloud of gas and dust surrounding its icy nucleus. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii) Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) "The sensitivity and scheduling agility of the International Gemini Observatory has provided critical early characterization of this interstellar wanderer," says Martin Still, NSF program director for the International Gemini Observatory. "We look forward to a bounty of new data and insights as this object warms itself on sunlight before continuing its cold, dark journey between the stars." These visitors from faraway regions of the cosmos are valuable objects to study since they offer a tangible connection to other star systems. They carry information about the chemical elements that were present when and where they formed, which gives scientists insight into how planetary systems form at distant stars throughout our galaxy's historyincluding stars that have since died out. 3I/ATLAS, formally designated Comet C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), is only the third interstellar object ever discovered after 1I/Oumuamua in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019. While astronomers think many interstellar objects exist, and likely pass through our solar system on a regular basis, they are exceptionally difficult to capture since they are only visible when they're close enough to see and when our telescopes are pointing in the right place at the right time. Multiple teams of astronomers around the globe are using a wide variety of telescopes to observe 3I/ATLAS during its temporary visit to our solar system, allowing them to collectively determine some of the comet's key characteristics. Although much remains unknown, it is already clear that 3I/ATLAS is unique compared to the two other known interstellar objects. Comet 3I/ATLAS streaks across a dense star field in this image captured by the Gemini North telescope's Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N). The left panel captures the comets colorful trail as it moves through the Solar System. The image was composed of exposures taken through three filters, shown here as red, green, and blue. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii). Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab) Observations so far suggest that 3I/ATLAS has an approximate diameter of at most 20 kilometers (12 miles), compared to 'Oumuamua's diameter of 200 meters and Borisov's of less than one kilometer. 3I/ATLAS's larger size makes it a better target for scientists to study. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. The comet also has an exceptionally eccentric orbit, where eccentricity describes how much an object's orbital pathway is "stretched out." An eccentricity of 0 is a perfectly circular orbit, while an eccentricity of 0.999 is a very stretched-out ellipse. An object with an eccentricity above 1 is on a path that does not loop back around the sun, implying it comes fromand will return tointerstellar space. 3I/ATLAS has an eccentricity of 6.2, which is highly hyperbolic and ensures its classification as an interstellar object. In comparison, 'Oumuamua had an eccentricity of about 1.2, and Borisov about 3.6. Right now, 3I/ATLAS is within Jupiter's orbit at a distance of about 465 million kilometers (290 million miles) from Earth and 600 million kilometers (370 million miles) from the sun. The closest 3I/ATLAS will come to Earth is approximately 270 million kilometers (170 million miles) on 19 December, though it will pose no threat to the planet. It will reach its closest approach to the sun around 30 October at a distance of 210 million kilometers (130 million miles)just inside the orbit of Mars. During this close approach, it will be traveling almost 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles) per hour. Although 3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever discovered, the astronomical community expects many more to soon come into focus once NSFDOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). By repeatedly scanning the entire southern hemisphere sky every few nights, NSFDOE Rubin will capture millions of objects moving throughout our solar system, including an unpredictable number of never-before-seen interstellar objects. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Luciogobius ryukyuensis in a freshwater stream on Okinawa Island. Credit: Ken Maeda Amphidromous fishwhich migrate between freshwater streams and the seacan move between habitats thanks to ocean currents. Since island streams are generally small and vulnerable to human impact, understanding how exactly fish populations are connected between streams and between islands is important for the conservation of geographically isolated species. In a study now published in Scientific Reports, a team of researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and collaborators sought to understand these dynamics by investigating the genetic connectivity among populations of the amphidromous goby Luciogobius ryukyuensis at four islands in the Ryukyu Archipelago in Japan: Okinawa, Kume, Ishigaki, and Iriomote. The researchers found that the populations are all genetically distinguishable, suggesting that larvae very rarely travel between the islands, despite relative physical proximity: Iriomote and Ishigaki share the same lagoon, and the populations are just 23km apart. Habitat of Luciogobius ryukyuensis in Urachi River on Kume Island (28 April 2018). The area of the streambed in the photograph showed the entire adult habitat of this species in this stream. The house (police station) in the upper left is blurred for privacy. Credit: Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-09050-7 Mitochondrial genome analysis suggested that the two cladesOkinawa and Kume, and Ishigaki and Iriomotediverged approximately 900,000 years ago, and that there may have been a larval exchange between the two neighboring islands until more recently. Their findings highlight the challenges faced by amphidromous fish species in island ecosystems. In particular, the study shows the urgent need for increased conservation efforts targeting the highly vulnerable habitats of the goby, which are especially exposed on the smaller Kume, Ishigaki and Iriomote islands. For example, adult gobies have only been found in a 10m portion of the Urachi River on Kume Island. This habitat is surrounded by urban structures, and the upper watershed is developed for agriculture. Protecting and maintaining all existing habitats is critical for the conservation of the whole genetic diversity of this species. More information: Ken Maeda et al, Genetic isolation of an amphidromous goby species, Luciogobius ryukyuensis, highlights limited gene flow in small island populations, Scientific Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-09050-7 Journal information: Scientific Reports This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Chatama, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Golden oyster mushrooms, with their sunny yellow caps and nutty flavor, have become wildly popular for being healthy, delicious and easy to grow at home from mushroom kits. But this food craze has also unleashed an invasive species into the wild, and new research shows it's pushing out native fungi. In a study we believe is the first of its kind, fellow mycologists and I demonstrate that an invasive fungus can cause environmental harm, just as invasive plants and animals can when they take over ecosystems. Native mushrooms and other fungi are important for the health of many ecosystems. They break down dead wood and other plant material, helping it decay. They cycle nutrients such as carbon and nitrogen from the dead tissues of plants and animals, turning it into usable forms that enter the soil, atmosphere or their own bodies. Fungi also play a role in managing climate change by sequestering carbon in soil and mediating carbon emissions from soil and wood. Their symbiotic relationships with other organisms also help other organisms thrive. Mycorrhizal fungi on roots, for example, help plants absorb water and nutrients. And wood decay fungi help create wooded habitats for birds, mammals and plant seedlings. However, we found that invasive golden oyster mushrooms, a wood decay fungus, can threaten forests' fungal biodiversity and harm the health of ecosystems that are already vulnerable to climate change and habitat destruction. The dark side of the mushroom trade Golden oyster mushrooms, native to Asia, were brought to North America around the early 2000s. They're part of an international mushroom culinary craze that has been feeding into one of the world's leading drivers of biodiversity loss: invasive species. As fungi are moved around the world in global trade, either intentionally as products, such as kits people buy for growing mushrooms at home, or unintentionally as microbial stowaways along with soil, plants, timber and even shipping pallets, they can establish themselves in new environments. Many mushroom species have been cultivated in North America for decades without becoming invasive species threats. However, golden oyster mushrooms have been different. No one knows exactly how golden oyster mushrooms escaped into the wild, whether from a grow kit, a commercial mushroom farm or outdoor logs inoculated with golden oystersa home-cultivation technique where mushroom mycelium is placed into logs to colonize the wood and produce mushrooms. As grow kits increased in popularity, many people began buying golden oyster kits and watching them blossom into beautiful yellow mushrooms in their backyards. Their spores or composted kits could have spread into nearby forests. Evidence from a pioneering study by Andrea Reisdorf (nee Bruce) suggests golden oyster mushrooms were introduced into the wild in multiple U.S. states around the early 2010s. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Species the golden oysters pushed out In our study, designed by Michelle Jusino and Mark Banik, research scientists with the U.S. Forest Service, our team went into forests around Madison, Wisconsin, and drilled into dead trees to collect wood shavings containing the natural fungal community within each tree. Some of the trees had golden oyster mushrooms on them, and some did not. We then extracted DNA to identify and compare which fungi, and how many fungi, were in trees that had been invaded by golden oyster mushrooms compared with those that had not been. We were startled to find that trees with golden oyster mushrooms housed only half as many fungal species as trees without golden oyster mushrooms, sometimes even less. We also found that the composition of fungi in trees with golden oyster mushrooms was different from trees without golden oyster mushrooms. For example, the gentle green "mossy maze polypore" and the "elm oyster" mushroom were pushed out of trees invaded by golden oyster mushrooms. Another ousted fungus, Nemania serpens, is known for producing diverse arrays of chemicals that differ even between individuals of the same species. Fungi are sources of revolutionary medicines, including antibiotics like penicillin, cholesterol medication and organ transplant stabilizers. The value of undiscovered, potentially useful chemicals can be lost when invasive species push others out. The invasive species problem includes fungi Given what my colleagues and I discovered, we believe it is time to include invasive fungi in the global conversation about invasive species and examine their role as a cause of biodiversity loss. That conversation includes the idea of fungal "endemism"that each place has a native fungal community that can be thrown out of balance. Native fungal communities tend to be diverse, having evolved together over thousands of years to coexist. Our research shows how invasive species can change the makeup of fungal communities by outcompeting native species, thus changing the fungal processes that have shaped native ecosystems. There are many other invasive fungi. For example, the deadly poisonous "death cap" Amanita phalloides and the "orange ping-pong bat" Favolaschia calocera are invasive in North America. The classic red and white "fly agaric" Amanita muscaria is native to North America but invasive elsewhere. The golden oyster mushrooms' invasion of North America should serve as a bright yellow warning that nonnative fungi are capable of rapid invasion and should be cultivated with caution, if at all. Golden oyster mushrooms are now recognized as invasive in Switzerland and can be found in forests in Italy, Hungary, Serbia and Germany. I have been hearing about people attempting to cultivate them around the world, including in Turkey, India, Ecuador, Kenya, Italy and Portugal. It's possible that golden oyster mushrooms may not be able to establish invasive populations in some regions. Continued research will help us understand the full scope of impacts invasive fungi can have. What you can do to help Mushroom growers, businesses and foragers around the world may be asking themselves, "What can we do about it?" For the time being, I recommend that people consider refraining from using golden oyster mushroom grow kits to prevent any new introductions. For people who make a living selling these mushrooms, consider adding a note that this species is invasive and should be cultivated indoors and not composted. If you enjoy growing mushrooms at home, try cultivating safe, native species that you have collected in your region. There is no single right answer. In some places, golden oyster mushrooms are being cultivated as a food source for impoverished communities, for income, or to process agricultural waste and produce food at the same time. Positives like these will have to be considered alongside the mushrooms' negative impacts when developing management plans or legislation. In the future, some ideas for solutions could involve sporeless strains of golden oysters for home kits that can't spread, or a targeted mycovirus that could control the population. Increased awareness about responsible cultivation practices is important, because when invasive species move in and disrupt the native biodiversity, we all stand to lose the beautiful, colorful, weird fungi we see on walks in the forest. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Director of the Security Planning Department at the Libyan Ministry of the Interior of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity, Brigadier General Ali al-Hadi al-Sayed, has discussed with the Security Attache of the Spanish Embassy in Libya the creation of a National Drugs Observatory and an early warning system in the North African country This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The NOAA G-IV prepares for takeoff in Honolulu, Hawaii, during the El Nino Rapid Response field campaign. Credit: Janet Intrieri, NOAA When a hurricane is in the forecast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) deploys its famed Hurricane Hunter team to gather data directly from the storm. The team uses specialized aircraft to fly into the hurricane and collect information about its intensity, structure, and movement, which is used to improve forecasts and warnings. These missions significantly increase the accuracy of hurricane forecasts, according to a new study published in Weather and Forecasting by researchers at the University at Albany. The researchers focused on Hurricane Hunter missions conducted with NOAA's Gulfstream IV (often called G-IV) jet during recent Atlantic hurricane seasons. They compared the accuracy of forecasts that included the G-IV data with forecasts during the same time period that relied on only satellite imagery and ground observations. The forecasts that utilized G-IV data were as much as 24% more accurate than forecasts without the data. "Our study shows the positive benefits of adding G-IV and other aircraft observational data into weather models and suggests that future forecasting strategies should prioritize these missions," said Melissa Piper, a graduate student research assistant in UAlbany's Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and the study's lead author. Comparing tropical cyclone forecasts To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed forecasts for all tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin from 2018 to 2022. They compared two groups of forecasts, those that were generated immediately following a NOAA G-IV synoptic surveillance mission, and those that did not have a NOAA G-IV mission in the hours prior to forecast initialization. For each group of forecasts, the researchers computed the track forecast error and track forecast skill. Forecast track error measures how far a storm's predicted position was from its actual location, while forecast track skill shows how much better the forecast was compared to a simple statistical model. Their results showed notable improvements in forecasts containing G-IV data, with forecasts for weaker storms benefiting the most. "Previous studies have shown that weaker storms tend to have larger forecast errors," said Ryan Torn, chair and professor in UAlbany's Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and co-author of the study. "Therefore, the addition of more observations like G-IV data has greater potential to improve the track forecast of these storms." Additionally, Hurricanes Marco and Zeta, which both made landfall in 2020, were selected as case studies due to their large forecast improvements following the addition of G-IV data into the weather models. The case studies revealed at least two possible sources of improvement in hurricane track forecasts from G-IV datachanging the initial position of the storm in the model and changing the environmental steering winds guiding the motion of the storm. "After looking at the impacts of G-IV data on a large sample of storms across multiple hurricane seasons, we were curious to understand the specifics on how the addition of the NOAA G-IV data might have led to improvements in individual forecasts," said Piper. "Previous research has shown that despite having a net-positive benefit across multiple seasons of forecasts, the addition of G-IV data does not always lead to improvements on individual forecasts. It is important that we fully understand its impact." Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Supporting hurricane flights By demonstrating the positive benefits of data from Hurricane Hunter missions, the researchers hope future forecasting strategies will support the flights at either the same or increased frequency. A new plane, NOAA's G-550, is expected to join the Hurricane Hunter fleet in 2026. It will be equipped with a variety of advanced sensors for collecting atmospheric data, including a tail-mounted Doppler radar. "Much of the gains in hurricane intensity forecasting over the last 10 to 15 years have come about thanks to the observations taken by Hurricane Hunters," Torn said. "With more observations in the model, you are more likely to obtain accurate forecasts of the hurricane. As shown in our study, these flights are essential for preparation and post-storm recovery." This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Peterhouse MS 255 open at the sermon's mention of Wade. Credit: Master and Fellows of Peterhouse / University of Cambridge A medieval literary puzzle which has stumped scholars, including M.R. James for 130 years has finally been solved. Cambridge scholars now believe the Song of Wade, a long-lost treasure of English culture, was a chivalric romance not a monster-filled epic. The discovery solves the most famous mystery in Chaucer's writings and provides rare evidence of a medieval preacher referencing pop culture in a sermon. The breakthrough, detailed in The Review of English Studies, involved working out that the manuscript refers to "wolves" not "elves," as scholars previously assumed. Dr. James Wade and Dr. Seb Falk, colleagues at Girton College, Cambridge, argue that the only surviving fragment of the "Song of Wade," first discovered by M.R. James in Cambridge in 1896, has been "radically misunderstood" for the last 130 years. "Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference," Seb Falk said. "It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals." James Wade said, "It wasn't clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue. Our discovery makes much more sense of this." "Here we have a late-12th-century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day," Seb Falk said. "This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked." "Many church leaders worried about the themes of chivalric romancesadultery, bloodshed, and other scandalous topicsso it's surprising to see a preacher dropping such 'adult content' into a sermon," said James Wade. For the first time, the researchers have identified the great late-medieval writer Alexander Neckam (11571217) as the most likely author of the "Humiliamini" sermon. The 800-year-old document is part of MS 255, a Peterhouse Cambridge collection of medieval sermons. Discoveries made 130 years apart In 1896, M. R. James was looking through Latin sermons from Peterhouse's library in Cambridge when he was surprised to find passages written in English. He consulted another Cambridge scholar, Israel Gollancz, and together they announced that these were verses from a lost 12th-century romantic poem which they called the "Song of Wade." M. R. James promised further comment but this never came. Nearly 130 years passed with no new evidence coming to light. Several scholars have attempted to work out the meaning of the sermon's Wade quotation and speculated on what the full legend might have been like. "Lots of very smart people have torn their hair out over the spelling, punctuation, literal translation, meaning, and context of a few lines of text," said James Wade. James Wade and Seb Falk argue that three words have been misread by scholars, because of misleading errors made by a scribe who transcribed the sermon. Most problematically, the letters "y" and "w" became muddled. Correcting these and other errors transforms the translated text from: "Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only" to: "Thus they can say, with Wade: "Some are wolves and some are adders; Some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand." Part of the sermon mentioning Wade in Peterhouse MS 255. The word 'Wade' appears four lines up, third word from right. 'Lupi' (wolf) appears in the bottom line, five words from the left. Credit: Master and Fellows of Peterhouse / University of Cambridge Hildebrand was Wade's supposed father. While some folk-legends and epics refer to Hildebrand as a giant, if the Wade legend was a chivalric romance, as this study argues, Hildebrand was probably understood to be a normal man. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Chaucer and Wade The Song of Wade was hugely popular throughout the Middle Ages. For several centuries, its central character remained a major romance hero, among other famous knights such as Lancelot and Gawain. Chaucer twice evoked Wade in the middle of this period, in the late 1300s, but these references have baffled generations of Chaucer scholars. At a crucial moment in "Troilus and Criseyde," Pandarus tells the "tale of Wade" to Criseyde after supper. Today's study argues that the Wade legend served Pandarus because he not only needed to keep Criseyde around late, but also to stir her passions. By showing that Wade was a chivalric romance, Chaucer's reference makes much more sense. In "The Merchant's Tale," Chaucer's main character, January, a 60-year-old knight, refers to Wade's boat when arguing that it is better to marry young women than old. The fact that his audience would have understood the reference in the context of chivalric romance, rather than folk tales or epics, is significant, the researchers argue. "This reveals a characteristically Chaucerian irony at the heart of his allusion to Wade's boat," said James Wade. The sermon To make sense of the fragment, the researchers gave more attention to the Humiliamini sermon in its entirety than scholars have previously. "The sermon itself is really interesting," said Seb Falk. "It's a creative experiment at a critical moment when preachers were trying to make their sermons more accessible and captivating." "I once went to a wedding where the vicar, hoping to appeal to an audience who he figured didn't often go to church, quoted the Black Eyed Peas' song 'Where is the Love?' in an obvious attempt to seem cool. Our medieval preacher was trying something similar to grab attention and sound relevant." The sermon offers a lesson in humility, a central concern of medieval theologians, but does so in unusual ways. It focuses on a debased Adam and compares human behaviors to animal traits. It presents powerful men who become like wolves because they plunder what doesn't belong to them. And it compares the actions of cunning, deceitful and rapacious people to those of adders or water-snakes. "This sermon still resonates today," James Wade says. "It warns that it's us, humans, who pose the biggest threat, not monsters." Peterhouse MS 255 open at the sermon's mention of Wade. Credit: Master and Fellows of Peterhouse / University of Cambridge The preacher brings in a second topical reference to underline this point, telling the story of a real-life knight and crusader named Hugh of Gournay, who switched sides four times between England and France. The story doesn't appear in any other surviving source, but the way the preacher tells it, he must have known his listeners would recognize it. "It's a bold image," said Seb Falk. "The repentant Hugh wrapping a noose around his neck and throwing himself on the mercy of the French king is a powerful and really fresh symbol of chivalric humility." The researchers noticed multiple similarities in the arguments and writing style of Alexander Neckam, leading them to believe that he probably wrote the sermon. But whether Neckam himself or an acolyte, the author must have been familiar with Wade and confident that his intended audience would get the reference. Seb Falk said, "This sermon demonstrates new scholarship, rhetorical sophistication, and inventiveness, and it has strategic aims. It's the ideal vehicle for the Wade quotation which served an important purpose." Seb Falk is a scholar of medieval history and history of science. James Wade is a scholar of English literature from the Middle Ages forward. Both are Fellows at Girton College, Cambridge. More information: James Wade et al, The Lost Song of Wade: Peterhouse 255 Revisited, The Review of English Studies (2025). DOI: 10.1093/res/hgaf038 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: MethaneSAT, LLC Satellites circling Earth have many different functions, including navigation, communications and Earth observation. About 8%10% of all active satellites are military or "dual use" serving intelligence or reconnaissance functions as spy satellites. But it was a climate satellite serving as both spy and "name and shame" police officer in the sky that recently caught the world's attention when it went quiet. MethaneSat was developed to spot emission hot spots or plumes of invisible methane pollution from space. Built by the US non-profit, the Environmental Defense Fund with NASA's support, it tracked methane leaks from oil and gas sites, farms and landfills across the globe. These are among the biggest human-caused emission sources. But methane emissions are traditionally hard to spot because they come from so many relatively small point sources or plumes. This specialist observation satellite was developed and deployed because methane acts differently to other greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that, over 20 years, is more than 80 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Since 1750, additional human-caused methane emissions have contributed directly and indirectly, to around 60% of the global warming of carbon dioxide over that time. Methane also has a short lifetime. Where carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for in excess of 100 years, relying on plant uptake for its removal from the atmosphere and conversion into other carbon forms, methane is broken down in the atmosphere by molecules known as hydroxyl radicals. These are nicknamed "the atmosphere's detergent," because they effectively remove methane from the atmosphere in less than ten years. This combination of short lifetime and high global warming potential (a measure of the climate strength of the gas relative to carbon dioxide) makes methane both a problem and an ideal target for reduction. In fact, growth in atmospheric methane is occurring at such a rate that it is placing us dangerously off track from meeting our Paris agreement obligations to stay within 1.5C of climate warming by 2050 and 2C by 2100. Eyes in the sky But how can we achieve these reductions and what was the role of MethaneSat in seeking to meet this objective? There are two ways atmospheric methane concentrations can be reduced. A recent and more challenging proposition is that methane is actively removed from the atmosphere. This is difficult because it relies on technological advances that are at their earliest stages (although growing more trees can go some way to achieving this). Another more realistic approach is to reduce emissions and then to let atmospheric chemistry do the work of removing excess methane in the atmosphere. The global methane pledge was announced in 2021 at the UN climate summit, Cop26, in Glasgow. This aimed to reduce human-caused methane emissions by 30% on 2020 levels by 2030. More than 150 countries have now signed up to this pledge. If successful, it could reduce warming by up to 0.2C by 2050. That's why MethaneSat was so useful. MethaneSat is fitted with a hyperspectral sensorwhich can record sunlight reflected off Earth in hundreds of narrow color bands across the spectrum, far beyond what our eyes can see. It's capable of picking up concentrations of methane in air at minute quantities. This sensor allowed the satellite to spot individual plumes of methane, so it had a crucial role in identifying those problem areas. Given that these are dispersed but also individual point sources, it was invaluable in intervening in the leaks, permitting identification of those responsible so they could be held to account and so address the problem. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. No one instrument can cover what MethaneSat could do with freely available data. It had high precision, high spatial resolution and, critically, global coverage and it was particularly useful at identifying plumes in nations that don't have the resources for the sort of regional surveys using aircraft mounted systems that can fill the gap in developed regions. Now that MethaneSat is no longer operational, there are some other tools to identify small anthropogenic emissions sources, but they tend to be regionally focused like the aircraft measurements mentioned. Other satellites gather similar data but that data sits behind commercial paywalls, whereas MethaneSat data was freely available. Collectively, these drawbacks mean that it's just going to be that much harder to spot the emissions MethaneSat was so good at tracking. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Global biological nitrogen fixationInfographic. Credit: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies / Leslie Tumblety Forests, grasslands, and other natural areas around the world have access to about a quarter less nitrogen than previously estimated, according to a new study published in Nature. Coauthored by Sarah Batterman, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the findings have implications for natural climate solutions, as nitrogen is essential to plant growth and thus the removal of carbon from the atmosphere. "Outside of some tropical forests and drylands, we found that the amount of nitrogen available to plants in many natural areas has been overestimated," said Batterman. "Our results suggest there are nitrogen constraints on the terrestrial carbon sink in a range of biomes, including prairies and temperate forests." The study focused on nitrogen made available to plants through biological nitrogen fixation. In this process, microbesoften living symbiotically with plantstransform nitrogen gas from the air into a form that plants can use to fuel growth and development. For instance, nitrogen is a crucial component of chlorophyll, the green pigment that allows plants to convert carbon dioxide into plant growth via photosynthesis. This carbon is then stored in wood, leaves, roots, and soils. Led by Carla Reis Ely of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, an international team of scientists quantified the global distribution and magnitude of land-based biological nitrogen fixation in both natural and agricultural biomes. They found that previous estimates of nitrogen fixation had been skewed by sampling bias. Field measurements of nitrogen fixation were often taken in natural areas where nitrogen-fixing organisms were on average 17 times more prevalent than they are worldwide, leading to an overestimation of nitrogen availability. Nitrogen-fixing lupines (with purple flowers) were introduced in Iceland to restore soils, but have taken over the vegetation in some areas. Credit: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies / Sarah Batterman Whereas much of the data was historically based in tropical forests, the new study includes biological nitrogen fixation estimates from previously underrepresented nichesincluding shrubs, herbs, mosses, dead wood, and morehelping to identify nitrogen hotspots and deserts. "By building the most extensive dataset of biological nitrogen fixation rates on land, and developing a new and biologically realistic algorithm for scaling up from field measurements," Batterman explained, "we calculated that the amount of nitrogen fixation by microbes in natural terrestrial ecosystems is approximately 25 million tons lower each year than previously estimated." The missing nitrogen is equivalent to about 113 fully loaded cargo container ships. Having more accurate biological nitrogen fixation rates allows for vast improvements in the models that are used to predict how much carbon dioxide the land system takes up, and how it will be affected by climate change, Batterman added. Rates of biological nitrogen fixation in natural (top) and agricultural ecosystems. Warmer colors indicate higher production rate of nitrogen that plants can use to grow and absorb carbon dioxide. Credit: Reis Ely et al./Nature 2025 The analysis also revealed a rise in biological nitrogen fixation in agricultural systems that may be contributing to the degradation of land, air, and water quality. Nitrogen-fixing crops such as soybeans and alfalfa support soil health and help produce food for a growing global population, but in excess, nitrogen can be harmful. The team estimated that agricultural crops alone (not including chemical fertilizers) have increased terrestrial biological nitrogen fixation by 64% relative to pre-industrial rates. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "Excess nitrogen can leach into groundwater or runoff into lakes and streams, causing algae blooms and harming aquatic life," said Reis Ely, who led the study while she was a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University. In addition, surplus nitrogen can become nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and high nitrogen levels can favor fast-growing invasive plants that squeeze out native species and reduce biodiversity. Nitrogen-fixing nodules contain microorganisms that change nitrogen gas (N2) into forms that plants can use to grow, reproduce, and absorb carbon dioxide. Credit: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies / Sarah Batterman The study "helps us understand the degree to which we have modified the nitrogen cycle, exceeding the safe operating space for humanity when it comes to nitrogen," said Batterman. Reis Ely called for more consistent measuring and monitoring of biological nitrogen fixation, "to help us ensure we have all the nitrogen in the ground that we need without it becoming too much of a good thing." For her leadership on the paper, Reis Ely has earned the Gene E. Likens Junior Scientist Outstanding Publication Award from the Ecological Society of America's Biogeosciences Section. Named after Cary founder Gene Likens, who co-discovered acid rain, the award promotes early-career scientists and highlights exceptional work in the field. More information: Carla Reis Ely, Global terrestrial nitrogen fixation and its modification by agriculture, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09201-w. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09201-w Journal information: Nature This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The landslide that occurred in Blatten in the canton of Valais at the end of May 2025 and the one in the village of Brienz in Graubunden in June 2023 remind us of the potential for landslide hazards in the Alps. Debris flows are one such hazard. These flows of water, sediment and rock fragments typically occur after heavy rainfall in steep terrain, and rapidly travel down a channel, potentially destroying everything in their path. In the past year, major debris flows have attracted attention, particularly in Sorte (canton of Graubunden), Fontana (canton of Ticino) and the Saas Valley (canton of Valais). There was also a major landslide in Bondo (Graubunden) in August 2017 which sent a 100-meter-wide flow of mud and debris hurtling through the Bondasca Valley. Eight people lost their lives. Such debris flows occur repeatedly at exposed locations, at intervals of months or years. Scientists take advantage of this fact for the live monitoring of natural phenomena in areas with frequent debris flows. Researchers from ETH Zurich and WSL were therefore prepared when, on 5 June 2022, a debris flow came loose in Illgraben above the village of Leuk in the Valais, transporting 25,000 cubic meters of debris four kilometers through the bed of the Illbach river, before flowing into the Rhone at Susten. The team of scientists monitored the natural phenomena at several measuring stations. The study has been published in the journal "Communications Earth & Environment." Up in the valley, the team monitored a two-meter-high and rapidly-advancing front composed of large boulders of up to a cubic meter in size at the leading edge of the debris flows. Further down the valley, the debris flow was slower, but with frequent, fast-moving and powerful waves on the surface. During the half-hour event, the researchers recorded 70 such surge waves. Surges occur spontaneously "We've known for a long time that these surges play a key role in the destructive force of debris flows," says Jordan Aaron, professor of engineering geology at ETH Zurich's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. "This is because surges make the flow particularly thick and fast." According to Aaron, up to now little was known about the physical processes that give rise to these surges. Thanks to the measurements of the debris flow in June 2022 and modeling based on that, the researchers now know more. "We were able to demonstrate that surges arise spontaneously on the surface of the flow. They stem from small irregularities, which grow over time, increasing in size and speed until they reach their maximum destructive force." This finding is at the center of a study carried out by Aaron's team together with researchers from the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and the University of Manchester. "Our analysis provides new insights into the dynamics of debris flows and will enable better hazard management in the medium term," says Aaron. The destructive force of the surges is mainly what determines how dangerous a debris flow is. On the basis of this study, in future scientists will be able to estimate whether a debris flow is expected to contain surge waves and how destructive they may be. From this they can work out the forces that exterior house walls and bridge pillars need to withstand in a hazardous area. This information could also be used to design dams and safety nets in the right dimensions. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. High-resolution measurements Illgraben above Leuk is known for the fact that several debris flows occur there every year. Since 2000, the valley has been equipped with measuring instruments that record debris-flow properties in their natural environment. However, the insights from the new study were only possible after the event in the summer of 2022 was measured with greater precision than ever before. This was done using highly-accurate 3D laser scanners, known as LiDARs. These devices measure distance and speed and were originally developed for self-driving cars. In June 2022, five LiDAR scanners and six high-speed video cameras were used to record the debris flow in Illgraben. At three measuring locations, the surface of the debris flow was detected with a spatial resolution of 2 cm and a temporal resolution of 0.1 seconds. This was then used to calculate the power and speed of the debris flows. Thanks to the measurement data, the researchers were able to work up a hypothesis about the underlying physical processes and develop a numeric model. This mathematical model is used to realistically simulate the progression of the debris flow. The measurement data further enabled the researchers to infer that large rock fragments have a significant influence on local flow dynamics. "This phenomenon is not included in most previous predictions of debris flows," says Aaron. "Being able to observe and measure these effects in the field has allowed us to more accurately describe and better understand these natural processes." More information: Detailed observations reveal the genesis and dynamics of destructive debris-flow surges, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02488-7 Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Education is the ultimate level playing field, where anyone who applies their individual talent and works hard can achieve the highest outcomes. Such is the ideal of meritocracy, the foundation of education and societies around the world. In a new article, a University of Kansas education expert argues meritocracy fosters competition and ignores unique human differences, leading to unequal educational results and furthering stratification in society. Yong Zhao, University Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at KU, writes that meritocracy not only fosters unhealthy competition, it allocates resources to some while excluding others, fails to account for unequal starting points among students and ultimately hinders individual fulfillment and societal progress. He proposes education shift its focus to the human interdependence paradigm to foster the unique talents of every student to help solve real-world problems. "I've been examining how obsessed parents, students and societies are in almost every country in beating other students," Zhao said. "Whether it's GPA, SAT scores or whatever, it's accepted. If you do well in school, you get into college, then you get a better job. It's accepted as normal, but it's not." While high-achieving students do receive more scholarships and college graduates do generally earn more than others, Zhao points out that how students get to those points is the problem. In exploring the history of meritocracy, he and co-author Ruojon Zhong of YEE Education write how the term was popularized in the 1958 satirical work "The Rise of Meritocracy" by British sociologist Michael Dunlop Young. The book depicted a dystopian future where IQ plus effort dictates social stratification. Despite decades of research showing IQ and standardized test scores are poor predictors of intelligence and ability, the models are globally accepted. "That system has worked for the elite for a long time, but not for everyone else," Zhao said. "How do you help others who do not start life with social advantages like wealth or attending top schools grow and achieve? I think by allowing educational systems to change. That can help develop human interdependence instead of grabbing for resources like we do now." In the article, published in the journal ECNU Review of Education, Zhao and Zhong propose education focus on the human interdependence paradigm to counter the shortcomings of meritocracy. The approach would begin by identifying students' strengths and interests as soon as they enter school. This would help build a "jagged profile" that fosters each student's unique strengths and abilities as they evolve during the progression through education. The new paradigm would personalize education for each student by fostering and developing their talents and interests to ultimately benefit both the student and society, according to the researchers. "First of all, the paradigm is a mindset change. If you're good at something, try to be better," Zhao said. "Time is a constant. If you spend time trying to get better at something, time for other things will fall off. But you can use that skill to solve problems for others, and they will do the same. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "It's not a new idea, it's the division of labor which society has depended on for thousands of years. Yet we don't do that in schools. We continue to select certain students to achieve and be supported." Beyond pointing out the fallacies of meritocracy like assuming an equal playing field, the authors point out how it has also excluded certain students by placing an emphasis on certain subjects. Emphasis on math and science, for example, comes at the expense of humanities, arts and vocational disciplines, disadvantaging students whose talents lie in those areas. Educational reform calls often advocate for "21st century skills," but Zhao and Zhong argue the human interdependence paradigm could help avoid the lingering single definition of merit. "Teachers can start right away by looking at students not as failures, or saying 'you're not good at math," for example, but you are good at other things and we can build on that," Zhao said. Schools interested in an approach based on the human interdependence paradigm can look to others, including schools in Australia and New Zealand that have implemented a "school within a school" approach to move away from traditional structures and guide students in learning based on their strengths and abilities. Zhao, who has published studies on the school within a school approach, said ultimately a mindset change is needed to one in which the goal is not simply good grades, high test scores or college placement, but one that fosters the development of everyone. "The idea is that you want every human to have a happy and productive, meaningful life. I think a good, just society shouldn't sacrifice anyone," he said. "When people are happy and feel meaningful, you have a more democratic society that works for all. Traditional meritocracy in education does not provide that." More information: Yong Zhao et al, From Meritocracy to Human Interdependence: Redefining the Purpose of Education, ECNU Review of Education (2025). DOI: 10.1177/20965311251351988 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Three-dimensional (3D) thermal imaging in vivo. Credit: Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59681-7 A team of researchers from Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid has developed a groundbreaking technique that maps temperature in three dimensions within biological tissue, using invisible light and artificial intelligence. The approach, just published in Nature Communications, could transform how we monitor temperature inside the human body, potentially improving early disease detection and treatment monitoring, without the need for costly or invasive imaging technologies. "We're turning optical distortions, usually considered a problem, into a source of information," says Riccardo Marin, associate professor at Ca' Foscari and one of the lead authors of the study. "With this method, we can detect both how hot a tissue is and how deep it lies beneath the surface." The method relies on luminescent nanothermometers, ultra-small particles made of silver sulfide (AgS) that glow in the near-infrared when stimulated by light. The color and intensity of that glow depend on both the temperature of the particle and the amount of biological tissue the light has to pass through. To decode these subtle spectral shifts, the team trained a dual-layer neural network on hundreds of hyperspectral images collected under different conditions. The result is a model that can reconstruct accurate, three-dimensional thermal maps of tissue, even under biologically complex scenarios. Proof-of-concept experiments demonstrated the system's ability to detect temperature gradients in both artificial tissue phantoms and real biological samples. The researchers also succeeded in mapping blood vessels in a living animal, marking the first time that remote, high-resolution 3D thermal imaging has been achieved using light alone. While conventional techniques like fMRI or PET scans require costly equipment and specialized training, this new optical method is portable, safer, and significantly less expensive, potentially enabling diagnostics even outside the hospital setting. Beyond temperature sensing, the same principles could be adapted to measure other vital parameters such as oxygen concentration and pH, by tailoring the optical properties of the nanoparticles. "We believe this is just the beginning," Erving Ximendes, assistant professor and Ramon y Cajal Fellow at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, adds. "Machine learning offers a powerful tool for navigating the complexity of real biological systemsfar beyond what traditional models can achieve." The research also highlights the value of international collaboration and talent circulation. The project was initiated during Marin's time at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and involved Anna Romelli, a Ca' Foscari student on Erasmus mobility. The study now coincides with Marin's return to Ca' Foscari, his alma mater, as part of the university's broader efforts to attract outstanding researchers and strengthen its global research networks. Looking ahead: Research into the cell's inner life This publication lays the foundation for a new five-year project led by Marin, who recently secured a 1.5 million grant to advance luminescence nanosensing technologies. His project, MAtCHLESS, will develop next-generation sensors and imaging systems to monitor key intracellular parameters, such as temperature, pH, and oxygen, with unprecedented speed and resolution. The project, carried out at Ca' Foscari in close collaboration with Madrid-based colleagues, will explore the function of both mammalian cells and extremophile microbes, microorganisms that can withstand extreme conditions. It aims to deliver breakthroughs for medical diagnostics, biotechnology, and even astrobiology, deepening our understanding of life under extreme conditions, on Earth and possibly beyond. More information: Liyan Ming et al, Luminescence-enabled three-dimensional temperature bioimaging, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-59681-7 Journal information: Nature Communications This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A thermoelectric generator that can convert heat into electrical energy via the Seebeck effect. Credit: Gerardtv/Wikimedia Commons. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Thermoelectric_Seebeck_power_module.jpg In a new Nature Physics paper, researchers report the first experimental observation of the transverse Thomson effect, a key thermoelectric phenomenon that has eluded scientists since it was predicted over a century ago. For over a century, thermoelectric effects have formed the foundation of how physicists understand the link between heat and electricity. Our knowledge of how heat and electricity interact within materials is rooted in the Seebeck, Peltier, and Thomson effects, all identified during the 1800s. The Thomson effect causes volumetric heating or cooling when an electric current and a temperature gradient flow in the same direction through a conductor. Scientists have long theorized that a transverse version of this effect should exist when an electric current, temperature gradient, and magnetic field are applied in orthogonal directions in a conductor. Now, a research team led by Atsushi Takahagi from Nagoya University and Ken-ichi Uchida from the University of Tokyo has demonstrated that the transverse effect, one of the higher-order thermoelectric effects, exists. "I have been deeply motivated by the thermoelectric effect, which has attracted attention as energy harvesting and thermal management technologies," Takahagi told Phys.org. The transverse Thomson effect has proven remarkably difficult to observe experimentally due to interference from competing thermal effects, like the Peltier and Ettingshausen effects. Isolating the signal To overcome the challenge of signal isolation, the research team proposed using advanced thermoelectric imaging techniques to observe and characterize the phenomenon. Their method is based on lock-in thermography. "In our experiment, we used an infrared camera to observe the thermal response of the sample when a periodic electric current was applied," explained Uchida. "By extracting the temperature modulation component that oscillates at the same frequency as the applied current from the taken thermal images, we were able to isolate the thermoelectric signals from the Joule heating." The turning point came from recognizing that the spatial distribution of the transverse Thomson effect differs from other competing effects. The team performed measurements under two conditions, with and without a temperature gradient. Then they subtracted the results to isolate the pure transverse Thomson signal. The first measurement with the temperature gradient captures the transverse Thomson effect and the Ettingshausen effects. The second measurement without the temperature gradient captures just the latter, yielding the isolated transverse Thomson effect when subtracted. Choosing the right material The researchers selected a bismuth antimony alloy (Bi 88 Sb 12 ) for their experiments, a material known for its strong Nernst effect around room temperature. When a temperature gradient and magnetic field are applied orthogonally to a material, it leads to the creation of an electric field perpendicular to both. This is known as the Nernst effect. The Ettingshausen effect, mentioned earlier, is the reverse. When an electric current and magnetic field are applied orthogonally, a temperature gradient is created perpendicular to both. "Our research revealed that the magnitude of the heat source responsible for the transverse Thomson effect is determined by both the temperature derivative of the Nernst coefficient and the Nernst coefficient itself," explained Takahagi. "The Bi 88 Sb 12 alloy has long been known as a material with a large Nernst coefficient, making it a particularly promising candidate for exhibiting the transverse Thomson effect." This represents a fundamental difference from the conventional Thomson effect, which depends solely on the temperature derivative of the Seebeck coefficient. Thermoelectric effects. Credit: Nature Physics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-02936-3 Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Switching between hot and cold One of the most surprising discoveries was the ability to switch between heating and cooling by simply changing the magnetic field direction. The effect showed complex field-dependent behavior, including a complete sign reversal at certain magnetic field strengths. The researchers discovered that the transverse Thomson coefficient comprises two competing components: one related to the temperature derivative of the Nernst coefficient (generally causing heating) and another related to the Nernst coefficient magnitude (generally causing cooling). The competition between these components creates the field-dependent sign reversal observed in their experiments. Their numerical simulations accurately reproduced the experimental observations, confirming the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon and validating their measurement technique. Potential applications The discovery opens new possibilities for thermal management technologies, particularly in applications requiring precise, localized heat control. "In recent years, it has been reported that the conventional Thomson effect can enhance the performance of Peltier cooling," noted Takahagi. "Similarly, the transverse Thomson effect is expected to serve as a principle for improving the performance of transverse thermoelectric cooling devices." The current work also points toward strategies for developing more efficient materials. In the Bi 88 Sb 12 alloy studied, the two components of the transverse Thomson coefficient partially cancel each other out, limiting the overall magnitude of the effect. "Identifying new materials in which these two components reinforce each other could lead to the discovery of high-performance materials for the transverse Thomson effect, representing an important avenue for future research," explained Uchida. Written for you by our author Tejasri Gururaj, edited by Lisa Lock, and fact-checked and reviewed by Andrew Zininthis article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you. More information: Atsushi Takahagi et al, Observation of the transverse Thomson effect, Nature Physics (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41567-025-02936-3 Journal information: Nature Physics 2025 Science X Network This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The 1999 expedition team collecting the ice core from Dome du Gouter on the shoulder of Mont Blanc. Credit: LGGE/OSUG, Bruno Jourdain. Glaciers hold layers of history preserved in ice, offering unique insights into Earth's past that can also help us interpret the future. Trapped amidst the frozen water are microscopic deposits of dust, pollen, and even pollutants that scientists can use to examine environmental changes through time. DRI's Ice Core Lab has used this technique to highlight atmospheric lead pollution and economic turbulence in Ancient Rome. Now, their latest study found that a glacier in the French Alps dates back to the last Ice Agethe oldest known glacier ice in the region. Serving as a record that spans through the development of agriculture in Western Europe and the advent of industrialization, the glacier holds insights into an era of rapid change. The new study, published in PNAS Nexus, examines a 40-meter-long ice core from Mont Blanc's Dome du Gouter. Using radiocarbon dating techniques, the research team found that the glacier provides an intact record of aerosols and climate dating back at least 12,000 years. Aerosols are small droplets and particles in the air such as desert dust, sea salts, sulfur from volcanic eruptions, soot from forest fires, as well as pollutants and other emissions from human activities. Glacier ice offers the most detailed record of past atmospheric aerosols, and this is the first ice core record from the European region that extends back to the last climatic transition. Aerosols play an important role in regional climate through their interactions with clouds and solar radiation, and the insights offered by the ice record can help inform accurate climate modeling for both the past and future. "For the first time, we have a fairly complete Alpine record of atmospheric and precipitation chemistry going all the way back to the Mesolithic Period," said Joe McConnell, Director of DRI's Ice Core lab who co-authored the study. "And that's a big deal, because you have two major climate statesglacial and interglacialand to get a record of atmospheric precipitation chemistry across that huge climate change tells you the most extreme natural aerosol concentrations that you'd expect. "On top of that, you have humans going from hunter-gatherers with a very low population through the development of agriculture, domestication of animals, mining, etc, and then a vast population increase and the clearing of land. "All of that is happening around this ice core site. It spans the full range of natural and anthropogenic change, and it's right in the center of Europewhere much of Western civilization evolved." The glacier's location in the Alps is important because it serves as a more intact record of Europe's local climate than those found in distant Arctic ice. Many aerosols play important roles in driving Earth's climate, so scientists would like to know how sources and concentrations in the air have varied in the past. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. "Ice cores collected from glaciers and ice sheets can provide such information, but since these droplets and particles stay in the air only for a few days to maybe a week, records developed from glaciers close to the sources are often the most informative," said lead author, Michel Legrand. Study co-author Nathan Chellman carefully preparing longitudinal ice core samples for high-resolution measurements in DRI's Ice Core Lab. Credit: DRI/Jessi LeMay The ice core analyzed in this study was first collected in 1999 by some of the study's French authors. It was stored in a freezer in France for more than 20 years before McConnell and his team brought it to DRI's Ice Core Lab in Reno, Nevada, where specialized equipment and methods known as continuous flow analysis allowed it to be melted down and the chemistry measured, layer by icy layer. "Determining what year or period of time a layer in the ice represents can be challenging, so here we used a unique combination of radiometric methods to establish the chronology in the ice," said co-author Werner Aeschbach. "We were relieved to find that even under the unusually warm climate of the 20th century, the cold temperatures at over 14,000 feet near Mont Blanc's peak had preserved the glacier so that the ice record hadn't yet been impacted by melting," said co-author Nathan Chellman. The historic age of the ice at the base of the core, around 40 meters deep into the glacier, surprised the researchers. Another core collected from a glacier located less than 100 meters away at Col du Dome was found to contain ice only about a century old, despite being much deeper. The scientists attribute this to the strong wind patterns found on Mont Blanc. "It's exciting to find the first ice core from the European Alps containing an intact record of climate that extends back through the current ten-thousand-year warm period and into the very different climate of the last ice age," said co-author Susanne Preunkert, who was a member of the field team that collected the ice core in 1999. An ice sample on the melter during continuous ice core chemical analyses in the lab. Credit: Sylvain Masclin Insights into Europe's past climate The uniquely detailed ice record revealed a temperature difference of about 3 degrees Celsius between the last Ice Age and the current Holocene Epoch. Using pollen records embedded in the ice, reconstructions of summer temperatures during the last Ice Age were about 2 degrees Celsius cooler throughout western Europe, and about 3.5 degrees Celsius cooler in the Alps. The phosphorous record also told researchers the story of vegetation changes in the region over the last 12,000 years. Phosphorous concentrations in the ice were low during the last Ice Age, increased dramatically during the early to mid-Holocene, and then decreased steadily into the late Holocene. This is consistent with the spread of forests under the warmer climate, and their decline following the proliferation of modern society and the land-clearing that resulted from agriculture and the spread of industry. Records of sea salt also helped the researchers examine changes in historical wind patterns. The ice core revealed higher rates of sea salt deposition during the last Ice Age that may have resulted from stronger westerly winds offshore of western Europe, Sea salt aerosols can scatter solar radiation back to space and affect climate via their impacts on cloud droplet, size, and albedo, making them important drivers of the regional climate. The ice record tells a more dramatic story for the changes in dust aerosols during the climatic shift. Dust serves as an important driver of climate by both absorbing and scattering incoming solar radiation and outgoing planetary radiation, and impacts cloud formation and precipitation by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. During the last Ice Age, dust was found to be about 8-fold higher compared to the Holocene. This contradicts the mere doubling of dust aerosols between warm and cold climate stages in Europe simulated by prior climate models. The difference may be explained by increased plumes of Saharan dust depositing in Europe, which remains the main source of dust in the region. The ice core record is consistent with other paleoclimate records that suggest more arid conditions over the Mediterranean during colder climates. Uncovering more stories entombed in the ice This study is only the beginning of the Mont Blanc ice record's story, as the researchers plan to continue analyzing it for indicators of human history. The first step in uncovering every ice core's record is to use isotopes and radiocarbon dating to establish how old each layer of ice is. Now, with that information, the scientists can take an even deeper look at what it can tell us about past human civilizations and their impact on the environment. "Now we can start to interpret all these other records that we have of lead and arsenic and other things like that, in terms of human history," said McConnell. The information can also be used to help interpret how changes in aerosols impact the climate and improve modeling to help us understand current and future climatic shifts. "If you're really going to go back and examine all possible climate states, past and future, you need a model that captures true climate variability," McConnell said. "It's a laudable goal, but to evaluate how good the models are, you've got to be able to compare them to observations, right? And that's where the ice cores come in." More information: Michel Legrand et al, Alpine ice core record of large changes in dust, sea-salt, and biogenic aerosol over Europe during deglaciation, PNAS Nexus (2025). DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf186 Journal information: PNAS Nexus This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain With four areas of the U.K. now facing drought conditions, new research from the University of Surrey shows that helping households use less water means first understanding their everyday habitsand getting the public onboard attempts to change those habits. A collaboration between Surrey academics and more than 100 professionals across the water sector has revealed a major knowledge gap: despite government targets to cut household demand, the sector still has many unanswered questions about how to change behavior. England is projected to face a daily shortfall of 5 billion liters of freshwater by 2055. The Environment Agency plans to meet 60% of that gap through demand reductionbut there's growing recognition that achieving this will require more than just installing smart meters and fixing leaks. Led by researchers at the University of Surrey's Institute for Sustainability, the project brought together stakeholders from 60 organizationsincluding nine U.K. water companies, policy bodies, manufacturers and innovators. Through workshops, surveys and webinars, they identified 24 pressing questions the sector must answer before it can roll out effective strategies for reducing domestic water use. Professor Benjamin Gardner, lead author of the white paper and Professor of Psychology at the University of Surrey, said, "Most people don't know how much water they use. The sector has focused on smart meters, which will raise awareness of water usebut smart meters alone won't cut it. "The real challenge is in helping people to better recognize and understand how they use water and supporting them to continue doing their everyday activities, but in a more water-wise way. To do that, the sector needs to make better use of behavioral science." The study highlights three priority areas for action: Partnering with behavioral scientists to understand how people make water-use decisions and what influences them. Improving knowledge sharing across the sector to accelerate learning and collaboration. Using smart sensors to better understand water usage behind-closed-doorsto unobtrusively gain accurate insight into domestic habitssuch as toilet flushing and showeringwhich are difficult to measure via self-reporting. Dr. Pablo Pereira-Doel, co-author of the white paper and Human Insight Lab co-lead at the University of Surrey, said, "Technology and behavior change should work hand in hand. We need to design solutions that fit into real people's livesthat means understanding the barriers they face, the routines they follow, and what actually motivates change. The sector has the tools, but to use them effectively, it must put people at the heart of the strategy." The behaviors ranked most important to address were fixing in-home leaks, reducing shower length, and improving toilet flush habits. But the researchers stress that simply encouraging people to use less water won't work without a solid understanding of the psychological and social factors that shape behavior. This white paper presents a shared research agenda to help the sector make informed, evidence-based choicesintegrating behavior change with technological solutions to secure the U.K.'s water future. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Nicci Russell, CEO of Waterwise, the U.K.'s leading independent voice on water efficiency, said, "Understanding how people use water in their daily lives is absolutely essential if we're going to close the growing gap between supply and demand. Consumer culture has shifted dramatically over the past few decades, and our water systems simply haven't kept pace. "Research into behavior helps us design smarter policies, technologies and communications that support people to use water more wisely. We can't afford to ignore the human factor. Water efficiency isn't just about infrastructureit's about people, choices, habits, and values. We must meet people where they are, and that starts with understanding what drives how we use water at home and at work." More information: Pablo Pereira-Doel et al, Saving water in the home: A co-created agenda for research and action (2025). DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/6wn7y Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - Libya's interim Minister of Education in the government of national unity, Ali al-Abed al-Rida, held talks with the Deputy Special Representative, Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Aeneas Chuma, on areas of cooperation to support and develop the education sector and strengthen partnerships between the ministry and United Nations agencies, in particular the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Just like any living organism, the soil has its own metabolism. Plants, worms, insects, and most importantly, microorganisms in the soil break down organic matter, consume and generate nutrients, and process other materials to give the soil a life of its own. Soil microbiomes, which drive much of the metabolism in these ecosystems, are immensely complexcomprised of thousands of species with untold interactions and dynamics. Given the complexity of the soil, however, it can be nearly impossible to understand how the communities of microbes living there respond to changes in the environment, such as temperature, moisture, acidity, and nutrient availability. Solving this problem is critical if we want to understand how soil microbiomes adapt to ever-changing environmental conditions and climate change. New research from the University of Chicago shows that a deceptively simple mathematical model can describe how the soil responds to environmental change. Using just two variables, the model shows that changes in pH levels consistently result in three distinct metabolic states of the community. The study, published in Nature, highlights how describing the collective behavior of complex systems mathematically can cut through the complexity, enabling predictions of how the soil and its metabolism will respond to change. Ultimately, this will help scientists design interventions for improving agriculture or restoring ecosystems. "When people think about these ecosystems, they assume you have to write down a mathematical description of the entire system, which involves thousands of variables, interacting species, and the resources they're consuming," said Seppe Kuehn, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, and the senior author of the paper. "So, the fact that we were able to describe this in a simple way was extremely intellectually satisfying." A Herculean effort to analyze the soil The study is the result of a Herculean effort by Kiseok Lee, a graduate student in Kuehn's lab. He sampled 20 natural soils across the pH gradient from Cook Agronomy Farm in Pullman, Washington, that have large natural variations in pH but few differences in other environmental factors. Then, he manipulated each native soil's pH by small increments in the lab, resulting in 1,500 microcosm experiments. The pH level is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in a solution. Lower pH means more acidic (more hydrogen ions), and higher pH means more basic or alkaline (fewer hydrogen ions). Levels of pH in the soil are important because they affect the types of microorganisms living there, their metabolic activity, and the soil's chemistry. The researchers wanted to test the effects of changing pH on anaerobic nitrate respiration, which is the process by which anaerobic microbes (i.e. ones that don't require oxygen) use nitrate to generate energy. Nitrate respiration is a key metabolic process in agriculture and soil health. Lee painstakingly placed samples onto plates, each with 48 wells for holding the soil, along with some water, nitrates, and acid or base solution to change the pH. Preparing and incubating the samples took months. After that, Lee took time-series measurements of nitrate in each microcosma total of 15,000 measurements, all by hand. "I was the machine," Lee said, when asked if he was able to automate any of the sampling and testing. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over 100,000 subscribers who rely on Phys.org for daily insights. Sign up for our free newsletter and get updates on breakthroughs, innovations, and research that matterdaily or weekly. Deceptively simple modeling Lee and Kuehn worked with Siqi Liu, Ph.D., co-first author and a former graduate student in the lab of study co-corresponding author Madhav Mani, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics at Northwestern University, along with co-corresponding author Mikhail Tikhonov, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physics at Washington University in St. Louis. The team created a model to describe the dynamics in each of the 1,500 samples as they metabolized the nitrate. They found that a simple model predicted the activity with just two parameters: indigenous biomass activity and the amount of growth-limiting nutrient available. Depending on how the pH was changed, they saw three consistent results: Regime I, or the "acidic death regime": Large changes toward acidity caused the death of functional biomass Regime II, "nutrient-limiting regime": During moderate changes, acidic or basic, the nitrate metabolism was limited by the availability of a limiting nutrient (carbon), resulting in linear nitrate dynamics Regime III, "resurgent growth regime": Large changes toward basic conditions caused dominant groups of microbes to become less active, while rare groups rapidly grew and metabolized nitrate exponentially "No matter how you perturb the pH, there's just these three dynamic classes of behavior that the whole ecosystem can exhibit. Outside of that, it doesn't look like anything else is allowed," Kuehn said. "That's really quite striking, because you have all this complexity at the lower level giving rise to this relative simplicity at the higher level." "This connects to an important theoretical question: when is it OK to summarize dozens of diverse species with a single coarse model?" Tikhonov said. "Here, Kiseok and Siqi managed to show that a coarsened description is not only an excellent approximation of the data but captures something general about community response to perturbations." Putting the new model to use Understanding how the soil microbiome responds to these changes is useful for designing interventions. For example, if nitrogen fertilizer runoff from farms contaminates nearby waterways, officials could take measures to increase pH and remove excess nitrate to prevent algae blooms. "If you want to understand how these systems are going to respond to future perturbations, then delimiting the set of possible responses is obviously very useful," Kuehn said. The researchers also think the same modeling approach can be applied to other environmental factors. "Focusing on the resilience of the community, which is expressed by biomass activity and the limiting nutrient, shows us that different amounts of perturbations will elicit different effects," Lee said. "I think this means that we can apply it to elucidating functional responses in other microbial systems against different environmental changes, whether it be from temperature, pH, salinity, or something else." More information: Seppe Kuehn, Functional regimes define soil microbiome response to environmental change, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09264-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09264-9 Journal information: Nature This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Farmers who exchanged text messages with peers were significantly more likely to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, highlighting the power of peer learning in digital formats, a new study co-authored by McGill University Professor Aurelie Harou found. The study, published in the Journal of Development Economics, evaluated whether SMS group chats could help maize farmers in Tanzania embrace soil-friendly practices like intercropping legumes and making compost from farm waste. "Farmers who could communicate with peers via text were 15% to 18% more likely to adopt practices they texted about," said Harou, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. "This shows that the benefits of peer-learning extend to a digital framework." Working with partners at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania and mobile tech company Telerivet, the researchers developed a low-cost platform called ShambaChat, which runs on basic mobile phones. The team conducted a randomized controlled trial involving 257 maize farmers. All participants received SMS messages about sustainable farming methods, but only some were placed in five-person chat groups to discuss the content with each other. The study found that the farmers in group chats were substantially more likely than the ones who only received messages to implement the practices they had been advised of, especially intercropping maize with legumes, which can improve soil fertility and reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers. Those who participated were also more likely to produce compost using on-farm materials. However, participation in the chat groups declined over time. "Our study also points to the necessity of designing platforms that consider farmers' needs, habits and capacities in order to maintain farmer interest," Harou said. The findings provide important insights for organizations aiming to improve agricultural outcomes in low-resource settings, the researchers said. With mobile phones increasingly widespread in rural areas, the researchers add that digital peer networks could be a cost-effective tool for sharing agricultural knowledge, if designed with user engagement in mind. The researchers note that future work should explore ways to sustain participation and scale up such programs. For now, the study suggests that simple peer-to-peer texting tools can play a meaningful role in helping farmers adopt regenerative practices that support long-term food security and soil health. More information: Violet Lasdun et al, Peer learning and technology adoption in a digital farmer-to-farmer network, Journal of Development Economics (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2025.103496 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Recent studies on the genetic differences between bird sex chromosomes reveal a tiny gene crucial for male survival. Credit: Nils Trost, Sara Yousefi Taemeh Birds have developed a unique evolutionary solution to ensure the survival of malesa powerful microRNA. This tiny gene allows male embryos to survive despite a genetic imbalance between the sexes by balancing the activity of the sex chromosomes. An international research team led by biologists from Heidelberg University and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) has discovered this previously unknown mechanism, which differs significantly from the system that mammals have developed in the course of evolution to address the same biological challenge. The research is published in the journal Nature. Sex chromosomes, which determine whether an individual is male or female, originated from an ordinary pair of chromosomes. In mammals, females carry two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome. In contrast, male birds have two Z chromosomes, and female birds have one Z and one W chromosome. Over time, the Y chromosome in mammals and the W in birds lost most of their genes due to their highly specialized sex-specific roles, meaning one sex retains two copies of most genes while the other has only one. Mammals compensate for this genetic imbalance by boosting the activity of the X chromosome in both sexes and "silencing" one of the two X chromosomes in females. Using chickens as an example, the international research team has now demonstrated how birds resolve this issue. The loss of genetic material on the female-specific W chromosome is offset by increased activity of key genes on the Z chromosome. While this is vital for the survival of female birds, it leads to genetic overactivity in males with two Z chromosomes, resulting in growth defects if left unbalanced. The researchers, led by Prof. Dr. Henrik Kaessmann (Heidelberg University) and Dr. Mike McGrew (University of Edinburgh), suspected that a previously discovered microRNAa short regulatory ribonucleic acidplays a crucial role in this process. Role of miR-2954 in male chicken development. Credit: Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09256-9 "This microRNA is predominantly active in male birds, which led us to assume that it helps balance the activity of the Z chromosome," explains Prof. Kaessmann, who conducts research at the Center for Molecular Biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH). To test their hypothesis, the researchers used gene editing to remove the microRNA and studied the effects during early chicken development. While male embryos could not survive without the microRNA, females developed normally. According to the researchers, the same tiny gene is found in all bird species examined thus far, but not in other animals. "It is the only known microRNA that is essential for the survival of one sex, but not the other," says Dr. Amir Fallahshahroudi, former postdoc in Prof. Kaessmann's team at the ZMBH and current group leader at Uppsala University in Sweden. According to Dr. McGrew, the mechanism of the male-specific microRNA works like a dimmer switch, dialing down the overactive genes on the two male Z chromosomes. "Our findings show that birds have developed a distinct evolutionary solution to offset the genetic imbalance between sex chromosomes and ensure the survival of male animals," he emphasizes. They also highlight that evolution can arrive at different solutions for the same biological problemand that tiny genes can have a dramatic impact on survival. "We now have to ask whether other animal species also use microRNAs to regulate their sex chromosomes, or whether they rely on different systems entirely," adds Prof. Kaessmann. Alongside the researchers from Heidelberg, Edinburgh and Uppsala, scientists from Abu Dhabi and China were also involved in the study. More information: Amir Fallahshahroudi et al, A male-essential miRNA is key for avian sex chromosome dosage compensation, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09256-9 Journal information: Nature Port Sudan, Sudan (PANA) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that hundreds of civilians including dozens of children and pregnant women have been killed in an attack in central Western Sudan ATLANTIC CITY A multibillion-dollar proposal to develop Bader Field took a step forward Tuesday with a vote from the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority. City Council was expected to vote on the redevelopment plan Wednesday during its meeting at City Hall. DEEM Enterprises has proposed extensive development at the former airport, to include waterfront housing, a luxury hotel, retail space and a 2.4-mile vehicle track. CRDA officials said Tuesday it would not be used for car races. The airport closed in 2006. Sharon Dickerson, general counsel for the CRDA, described the plan as a motor-centric community. The question before the CRDA was not whether they liked the plan, but merely whether it conformed to the master plan for the district. The planning review is that it is consistent with the Tourism District master plan, Dickerson told the CRDA board members. They are not asking for approval of the plan. We are not opining on whether the plan is good, bad or neutral as far as the city is concerned. If the proposal continues to move forward, she said, the board will eventually get a chance to review a site plan for the proposal. Any future developer would have to go through a full site plan approval process, planning consultant Christine Cofone of the planning consulting company Cofone Consulting Group told the board. DEP approves Brownfield Development Area application for Atlantic City's Bader Field The state Department of Environmental Protection has approved three Brownfield Development Area applications in Atlantic City, one of which is Bader Field, Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette said Tuesday. Her review advised the board that the proposal is consistent, saying the Tourism District master plan seeks to diversify the city economy rather than have a monoculture of casinos. So we found it to be consistent with our goal here of simply getting more people to the city for tourism, Cafone said. The city stands to benefit significantly from the proposal. Mayor Marty Small Sr. announced during his State of the City address in January that the city would sell the vacant airport to DEEM for $100 million, and receive a $15 million donation for the construction of a new community recreation center. It also would mean a significant increase in the ratable base in Atlantic City, Small said. As mayor, Small is a member of the CRDA board. He abstained from the vote Tuesday, but did try to convince the board to vote yes. This is a project that weve been working on for almost a decade, Small said, adding this is the furthest the city has come to seeing a project move forward. Im not in love with the racetrack, or whatever, but Im in love with what it does for our taxpayers. As envisioned, the proposal would include townhomes, duplexes, a high-rise residential tower and active recreation areas, Dickerson told the board. Also planned are a promenade and boardwalk, an auto-themed museum, a new amphitheater and a public terrace. A persistent concern is whether the developer has deep enough pockets to undertake so sweeping a project. Small said DEEM has sunk millions of dollars into the deal, and board member William Sproule said the company is clearly convinced of the potential of their proposal. DEEM reaffirms commitment to Atlantic City's now $3.4 billion Bader Field project DEEM Enterprises, the company working to develop Bader Field as a waterfront home and retail community, complete with a 2.4-mile high-performance car racecourse for residents, reaffirmed its commitment to the project Tuesday. They really feel confident that this thing is going to work, he said. I know a lot of folks have some trepidation about it. Hey, you get to go over there and test drive a Maserati or a McLaren. Another board member, Brett Matik, pointed out how much of the proposal so far is shown as private. I guess Im curious how its going to bring people to our city when its mostly private area for people who just want to house their cars and drive around, especially if theyre not going to have events, she said. She said race events are loud and can be frustrating for residents, but would draw crowds. I dont see as much tourism as I see private places to live and for people to drive their fancy cars, she said. Much of the proposed development will be open to the public, others said, and the proposal would mean significant investment. Small added construction could take a decade and mean a lot of jobs. Chris Brown, an Atlantic City native and former state senator who attends CRDA meetings on behalf of the state Department of Community Affairs, said the detailed discussion was premature. Whether or not the mayor wants to win the hearts and minds of everybody as to whether or not this is good or bad, thats not whats before the board, he said. The question is whether the proposal is consistent with the master plan. Atlantic City mayor reports Bader Field progress in State of the City address The city has "a financial commitment letter that's real" to develop Bader Field, Mayor Marty Small Sr. said during his State of the City address at Golden Nugget Atlantic City. The state will still have a say on the final agreement, and any agreement with the city will include clauses under which the land would revert to the city if certain benchmarks are not met. Youre taking nothing away by voting yes today, he said. The new Pennington County Administration Building at 900 Concourse Drive will be open Monday through Friday. The Pennington County Commission voted unanimously to bring back a five-day week after almost three years of a four-day week. Since November 2022, the administration building on Kansas City Street has been open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday. While the move to a Monday through Friday schedule has been approved, the specific hours of operation will be determined following a final review of the data gathered by the Hours of Operation Study Team and presented to the commission in August. The transition to a five-day schedule will not take effect until the Administration Building relocates to its new facility at 900 Concourse Drive, ensuring a seamless change for both staff and the public, according to a press release from the county. The eight departments set to move into the new building are Human Resources, Information Technology, Planning & Zoning, Register of Deeds, Treasurer, Commission Office, Auditor and Equalization. The treasurers office is the most public-facing department in the county administration building. The staff processes motor vehicle transactions such as title transfers and registration renewals; property transactions such as special assessments and title closings; and other miscellaneous things, such as bankruptcies and tax deeds. "We sincerely appreciate everyone who took the time to share their insights and experiences," said Carol Bancroft, human resources director. "Your feedback is invaluable in helping us assess how we can better align our services with the community's needs." The vote came after the Hours of Operation Study Team collected input through an online comment webform, questionnaire cards, public and internal listening sessions, and social media platforms. Bancroft told the commission the data from the study leaned heavily towards Monday through Friday. The team conducted a total of eight different public listening sessions across the county with a total of 28 attendees. Two meetings drew no attendance, and the most well-attended meeting had seven people at it, according to information Bancroft presented to the commission on Tuesday. A total of 11 internal listening sessions spanned across eight county departments. The county also created a specific web page on its website for the study. Drawing data from May 8 to July 7, there were 3,323 page views. A web form asking people to provide their experience with the countys workweek garnered 99 responses. Of those, 91 were unique and eight were from the same people. A social media campaign reached over 34,000 people, and 90 people commented on Facebook. The county also placed survey cards at every administration counter on the second floor of the administration building and received 264 responses. Davis Purcell, building and grounds director for the county, spearheaded the survey cards. He spoke to the commission on Tuesday morning alongside Bancroft and highlighted two of the questions. The first question was whether people would prefer the county keep its current schedule of Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; or open Monday through Friday with extended hours. The majority of respondents 57% selected one of the five-day options and 43% said they want the hours to remain the same. The second question regarded what hours are most convenient for the public to visit the administration building. Early morning and late afternoon were the most preferred time. The largest percentage of people 34% indicated they preferred early morning, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. The next most common response was a preference for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. with 26% of respondents selecting that time frame as the most convenient. We dont have recommendations now, but I would strongly urge the commission to think about that, that those early morning hours are used heavily by the public, Purcell said. Gary Drewes (District 5) said he preferred to wait for the rest of the information to come in on Aug. 19 before making a decision. Im ready to make a change, said Commissioner Ron Weifenbach (District 2). He said hes received input on his Facebook and through phone calls and text messages that says to switch it back. Weifenbach initiated the study when he took office in January. He said the commission is not telling department heads how to manage their employees, referencing the commissions message throughout the process that department heads could still give employees four-day work weeks. Jerry Derr (District 4) said the correspondence hes received since he took office in January has been 99 to one in favor of going back to being open Monday through Friday. I think its important to telegraph that to them, that were listening, Derr said. He reiterated department heads can determine how many days a week employees work. Bancroft said she appreciates the motion and letting the employees and public know about the change. Im glad were moving back to it, said Deb Hadcock (District 3), saying the main thing for her is Monday through Friday and opening at 7 a.m. She was less concerned with the end time. For ongoing updates, residents are encouraged to visit the Pennington County website and follow the countys official social media channels. ARK Edge Computers and CapForce Edge HMI Technology Together Enable Smarter, Solid-State Interfaces TAIPEI, Taiwan and SAN JOSE, Calif., July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Advantech's ARK Edge Computers, dedicated to empowering edge computing performance in motion controller applications, are taking a bold step forward through a strategic collaboration with UltraSense Systems. This partnership combines Advantech's rugged ARK platforms with UltraSense's cutting-edge CapForce Edge HMI technology, opening the door to more resilient and intelligent future solutions. Advantech and UltraSense Systems: Fueling Innovation at the Edge Solid-State Innovation Meets Industrial Strength The integration of CapForce Edgea fully integrated controller that combines capacitive and force sensinginto Advantech's ARK Edge computers brings enhanced durability and innovation to edge computing applications. Almost any mechanical button can be replaced with UltraSense Solid-State Interface modules, which come pre-calibrated for plug-and-play integration. UltraSense SmartSurfaces deliver high accuracyeven when used with glovesacross all material types. Smart Interfaces for Smarter Machines "We're excited to incorporate UltraSense's breakthrough HMI controller into our ARK platforms," said Joey Hsu, Director, Advantech Embedded Group. "This collaboration allows us to deliver more secure and robust human-machine interfaces for applications requiring high reliability and low operating malfunction, such as motion control, robotics, and outdoor industrial automation." Precision Touch, Anywhere, Paving the Way for Rugged HMI Applications CapForce Edge offers unmatched performance in detecting both touch and force across surfaces like metal, plastic, or glass. Its compact form factor, low power consumption, and programmability make it ideal for use in rugged edge devices where longevity and responsiveness are critical. "Partnering with Advantechespecially on their ARK Edge Computersis a significant milestone for UltraSense," said Hao-Yen Tang, PhDCTO and Co-Founder of UltraSense Systems. "Together, we're enabling modern industrial interfaces that combine reliability, functionality, and sleek design." Target Applications with Real-World Impact This integration is expected to significantly benefit a wide range of embedded applications. In industrial systems, it enables compact and sealed HMIs capable of withstanding harsh factory environments. For motion controllers, it supports intuitive and secure user interfaces that simplify complex automation workflows and help reduce human error. In outdoor and vehicle-mounted terminals, it provides interfaces that remain reliable under challenging conditions such as moisture, dust, and vibration. Keep pace with the latest ARK product releases by visiting ARK: Unleashing Potential at the Edge - Advantech. About Advantech Advantech's corporate vision is to enable an intelligent planet. The company is a global leader in the fields of IoT intelligent systems and embedded platforms. To embrace the trends of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, Advantech promotes IoT hardware and software solutions with the Edge Intelligence WISE-PaaS core to assist business partners and clients in connecting their industrial chains. Advantech is also working with business partners to co-create business ecosystems that accelerate the goal of industrial intelligence. (www.advantech.com) About Embedded-IoT Group As a leader in the embedded market, Advantech Embedded-IoT group delivers a wide range of embedded design-in services and develops a series of integrated IoT solutions and services to minimize uncertainty and risk for customers approaching the IoT market. Advantech Integrated IoT Solutions include everything from sensor nodes, to gateways, to WISE-PaaS IoT software and much more. (Embedded-IoT.advantech.com) About UltraSense Systems UltraSense Systems are transforming the human-machine interface with industry-first HMI controllers that combine touch, force, and feedback into a single silicon chip. The CapForce product family enables sleek, solid-state interfaces on virtually any surface, eliminating mechanical buttons and enabling design innovation in automotive, consumer, and industrial markets. Learn more at www.ultrasensesys.com. Media Contact: Nicole Conley, [email protected] SOURCE UltraSense Is Fairfax County long the economic engine of the Northern Virginia and the state economy facing an unemployment crisis? Fairfax Board Chairman Jeff McKay and Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, think so. They are pointing the finger at President Donald Trump for the countys rising unemployment rate. They are faulting Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a close Republican ally of the president, for not doing more to protect the state and region from mounting losses of federal government jobs and contracts since Trump took office in January. The number of unemployed residents in Fairfax, Virginias most populated county with more than 1.1 million people, has risen by 34.7% in the past year and the countys unemployment rate has increased to 3.3% in May from 2.5% a year earlier. The local trend mirrors the gradual increase of the state unemployment rate by 0.6% in the past year to 3.4% this month. With over 21,700 residents now unemployed a shocking 35% increase from last year it is clear that the reckless policies of Donald Trump and the complicity of statewide Republican leadership are directly responsible for this crisis, McKay and Surovell said in a joint statement on Wednesday. They aimed the statement at Youngkin and the Republican statewide ticket in an election year that will determine which party will control Virginia government for at least the next two years. (The House of Delegates will be up for election again in 2027, along with the state Senate.) This threatens the decades of leadership that has made Fairfax County the economic engine of Virginia, they said. They are armed with a new report by the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia that uses the estimated loss of federal civilian jobs and the Trump administrations plans to lay off tens of thousands more to extrapolate an employment hit of 11,100 federal jobs already in Virginia and an additional 10,500 jobs potentially at risk in the coming months. The center predicts the largest job losses ahead for civilian employees of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, parts of the federal bureaucracy vital to Virginias economy that the Republican-controlled Congress wants to protect. Weldon Cooper estimates that Virginias share of announced layoffs would total about 1,000 jobs in defense and 2,100 in veterans affairs, with the U.S. Supreme Court voting this month to allow federal agencies to proceed with plans to reduce their workforce. I think we are finally getting some clarity on the carnage that Trump and Congress are inflicting on our state, Surovell said on Monday after the release of the Weldon Cooper report. Scale is unclear But even Weldon Cooper acknowledges that it doesnt have clear answers on the scale of federal government and contractor job losses under Trumps six-month-old administration. Nor does it know the impact on the state economy, or the potential effects of tariffs that the president has imposed on U.S. trading partners or the mass deportation of immigrants living in the country illegally who have buoyed the states labor market. We dont really know for sure. ... By fall, well have a better sense of some real numbers, Executive Director Eric Scorsone said in an interview on Tuesday. Nor does the UVa research center see evidence of a significant disruption of state income tax revenues. This is not the first time that McKay and Surovell have clashed with Youngkin over his support of Trump policies they say threaten the state and especially Northern Virginia. McKay challenged the governor directly in a letter in early March. At the time Youngkin Chief of Staff John Littel shot back a sharply worded response suggesting that the board chairman focus on economic challenges that Fairfax had created for itself. Youngkin spokesman Rob Damschen had the same reaction Wednesday to the joint statement. He noted that Fairfax had faced higher unemployment rates during the terms of four previous Democratic governors. As Fairfax County politicians focus on partisan theatrics and political stunts, Governor Youngkin continues to work with everyone, including the federal government, to grow public and private sector jobs and opportunities in Virginia, evidenced by the successful relocation of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development from Washington, D.C., to Northern Virginia, Damschen said. In contrast, localities like Fairfax have chosen to raise taxes and make business growth more difficult, he said. Theyre just guessing Virginia Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater, who worked for previous Republican administrations at the U.S. Department of Labor and Department of Housing and Urban Development, said the numbers available now show a limited effect of federal policy changes on the state and regional labor markets, and on state budget revenues. Slater said the state is tracking about 6,000 unemployment claims 1,246 filed by laid-off federal employees and 4,024 by former workers at the 500 largest federal contractors operating in Virginia. He said the Weldon Cooper estimates also dont reflect new jobs that he said the Youngkin administration is helping to create in Northern Virginia and other parts of the state that are most vulnerable to cuts in federal jobs and spending. I think their assumptions and extrapolations dont take into account the actual intricacies of what is happening, the labor secretary said in an interview on Wednesday. For lack of a better word, theyre just guessing. The uncertainty stems partly from the lack of specific numbers from the Trump administration and affected federal agencies, which routinely dont confirm or deny cuts in federal jobs. The Office of Personnel Management said recently that the federal civilian workforce had shrunk by 23,000 jobs from Sept. 30 to March 31. The Youngkin administration acknowledges that the number of laid-off federal workers will grow this fall, as thousands of people who accepted buyouts and deferred resignation come off the federal payroll to become eligible for unemployment benefits, find other jobs or retire and drop out of the state labor force entirely. The unemployment rate has ticked up, Slater said. There is softening of the job market and there have been layoffs. And there will be more layoffs. Similarly, federal contractors continue to announce layoffs. The largest came last month at MITRE Corp., based in Fairfax, which laid off 442 employees after Trumps Department of Government Efficiency canceled contracts with the company at nearly a dozen federal agencies, according to published reports. Weldon Cooper also noted 217 layoffs on May 1 at Goldschmitt & Associates, based in eastern Loudoun County, a vendor for the U.S. Small Business Administration. On Monday, Omniplex World Services Corp., a security firm based in western Fairfax at Chantilly, filed a notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN, that it would lay off 199 workers by the end of July. Earlier this month, another Chantilly-based company, Amentum Operations and Maintenance Services, filed notice with the state that it would lay off 56 employees at its office in Henrico County. Neither company returned a request for comment on Wednesday. (Amentum provides operations and maintenance services at Altrias corporate headquarters in Henrico. Altria has awarded the building services contract to Chicago-based real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle, a spokesperson for the cigarette maker said.) Youngkin has touted a new state jobs website, a series of virtual online job fairs and, on Tuesday, free or low-cost courses for up to 10,000 Virginia residents initially to become certified in artificial intelligence technology. McKay and Surovell, in their joint statement on Wednesday, said the governor should be doing more to retrain laid-off workers, expedite professional licensing and certification, expand unemployment and coordinate directly with private sector employees. A job-posting website alone will not solve this crisis we need robust, funded programs that provide real pathways to employment, they said. Slater said the Youngkin administration has done those things, and remains confident that highly skilled former federal employees will be fine. They are smart, educated, high technically skilled people, who I think are going to find other jobs, he said. Long known and respected for his scholarship on liberalism, regime types, and the nation, Pierre Manent has also contributed to discussions on natural law, prudence, and agency in the face of contemporary confusions about meaning and the human good. On his account, Europeans have attempted a religion of Humanity devoid of human nature or a substantive good; in fact, any definition or limiting principle risks exclusion, and thick meaning must be prohibited so that Humanity can be celebrated. Nonetheless, it remains the case, as Manent has carefully articulated, that living well requires virtuous action, and classical reflections on courage, wisdom, moderation, and justice retain their force and relevance. Still, Manent has always recognized the importance of Christianity for the taxonomy of political formand also for living well. Cardinal virtues, while needed, cannot replace theological virtues, and the human, however naturally virtuous, remains all too human and thus in need of grace. In his new book, deftly translated by Paul Seaton, Challenging Modern Atheism and Indifference: Pascals Defense of the Christian Proposition, Manent takes up the need for grace with a thorough account of the thought and work of Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century thinker best known for his famous Wager about Gods existence and his strident criticisms of the Jesuits moral laxness. One will learn quite a bit about Pascal from the book, of course, but Manent is not here narrowly interested in a scholarly tome but draws on Pascal to explore the meaning and challenge of Europe at the present moment. Europe, he suggests, no longer knows what to do with Christianity and has, in fact, chosen to ignore its own history for a new birth and a new baptism of erasure. Just as Humanity is imagined without form or shape, so, too, Europe wants to be nothing but the possibility of all possibilities, but it does not want to be Christian. Christianity emerged as the proclamation of an authoritative Word, but Europe has granted sovereignty of the state over the Church, not only in matters of law but even of morality and doctrine. This decision, Manent suggests, was taken in the 17th century at just the moment when the Christian proposition was powerfully reconsidered and articulated by Pascal, who can assist us as we attempt our own phrasing of the proposition in its doctrines and teachings as well as in the practical and active meaning of making a proposal, inviting all to God and his Church. According to Pascal, the Jesuits and casuists significantly altered the Augustinian account of grace. In repentance, humans discover both their own powerlessness in the face of sin as well as the efficaciousness of Gods work. The Jesuits and Molinists, however, taught the sufficiency of grace such that human free will seemed capable of independent liberation. Moreover, Pascal charged the Jesuits with an immoderate concern to keep on good terms with all the world by acting as if sinners were rare and sin quite difficult to accomplish, primarily by divorcing intention from act. An act might be bad in itself, but unless the intention to choose badness for its own sake was presentand it rarely is since we choose what we take to be good, i.e., what we desireno sin is committed. As confessors, Jesuits claimed the prerogative to direct the intention of those in their care, and in so doing could turn a bad act into a good one, or at least an indifferent one. The goodness or badness of an act belongs not to the act but to the subjective conscience that accompanies the action. Meaning inheres in the idea. Manent takes this transformation to be quite decisive, for not only does it diminish sin and place perfectibility in our own power rather than the act of Godthe basis of modern progressivismbut it evacuates the meaning and purpose of the commands of God. Commands are either irrelevant or intolerable, and genuine progress occurs without commands in the domain of right ideals. This isnt going to work out well, however. For what we find in ourselves is concupiscence. We are governed by inclinations to hate others and to aggrandize our own selves. Concupiscence cannot be escaped by our own power, and it pertains to every aspect of economic, social, and political life. Erasing this fact is why, at least in part, Europeans today refuse to consider soberly and impartially the reality of force in political life. All men hate each other; each moi is the enemy of the others. These are stable and nonreformable dispositions, and the custom of each polity exists to control and order these passions. Custom, of course, can be unjust, and it is a perennial question if the laws of a regime are merely customary or naturally just. For Pascal, says Manent, we are not actually free in a manner allowing us access to universal and stable criteria of justice but are prisoners of custom. There are natural laws but our reason is too corrupted by sin and concupiscence to know them well, let alone to follow and obey them. We do, however, have the commands of God and the commands of custom, and while concupiscence moves our voluntary actions, force moves us in quite another way. Yet society must begin with force, which is the condition of the existence of order and of justice. Not all force is just, to be sure, but goodness will not be brought about in this fallen world in the absence of command and force. As Daniel J. Mahoney writes in the foreword, the party of reason quickly jettisons custom and tradition and so unnecessarily trouble[s] the world with [its] schemes and abstractions. Idealism, utopianism, and contemporary humanitarianism are not realistic enough, not intelligent enough, falsely assuming that justice can create and sustain its existence. Here I am relating themes familiar in Manents other writings, now with the support of Pascalnamely, the nonideological and anti-utopian sobriety of his political thought. We are capable of acting, and yet we act under limitations, and it is the naive refusal to acknowledge limits that so bedevils Europe and its feckless leadership today. Manet has broader interests as well, and the text helpfully explores Pascals various proofs for Christianity, including a wonderful chapter correcting the usual presentation of the Wager that makes the argument seem intellectually cheap and self-serving, along with discussions of the work of Christ, the meaning of the Gospels, and the experience of revelation and Pascals own sense of the profound love of God. In Challenging Modern Atheism and Indifference, Manent has provided an introduction to Pascals thought as well as a serious exploration of the political, personal, and religious needs of our moment. He is one of a very few political theorists rising to the challenge of his time, and it is a privilege to read him. BANGALORE, India, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- AI Agent Software Market is Segmented by Type (L3, L4, L5), by Application (Commercial, Individual). The AI Agent Software Market was valued at USD 554 Million in the year 2024 and is projected to reach a revised size of USD 15120 Million by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 60.3% during the forecast period. Claim Your Free Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-1Z18997/Global_AI_Agent_Software_Market Major Factors Driving the Growth of AI Agent Software Market: The AI Agents Software market is evolving rapidly, driven by the need for automation, real-time decision support, and seamless human-machine interaction. Businesses across industries are deploying AI agents to handle complex workflows, customer engagement, and operational insights. The emergence of L4 and L5 intelligent systems, coupled with advancements in natural language processing and machine learning, is enhancing their effectiveness. Growing availability of cloud platforms and customizable AI models is also enabling broader access to these tools. As the demand for intelligent autonomy continues to grow, the AI Agents Software market is expected to witness robust expansion, with innovation and enterprise adoption at the core of its momentum. Unlock Insights: View Full Report Now! https://reports.valuates.com/market-reports/QYRE-Auto-1Z18997/global-ai-agent-software TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE AI AGENT SOFTWARE MARKET: Level 5 (L5) autonomy in AI agents refers to systems that exhibit full autonomy without human intervention, enabling them to perceive, learn, decide, and act independently. This level is increasingly being integrated into enterprise operations, particularly in sectors like customer support, predictive maintenance, cybersecurity, and autonomous decision-making. L5 agents enhance organizational efficiency by reducing human error, accelerating task completion, and handling complex workflows end-to-end. Their ability to continuously self-improve through reinforcement learning and feedback loops makes them invaluable for dynamic environments. Additionally, businesses deploying L5 agents are achieving significant cost reductions and customer satisfaction improvements. The push for hyper-automation and real-time decisioning in various industries is further accelerating the demand for L5 AI agent capabilities, driving substantial market growth. L4 AI agents, which operate with high autonomy but still require occasional human oversight, are significantly driving the growth of the AI Agents Software market by bridging the gap between fully automated systems and human-in-the-loop models. These agents are widely adopted in industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where decision accuracy is critical yet context-specific human intervention is sometimes necessary. L4 agents can independently handle complex tasks such as predictive analytics, fraud detection, and workflow optimization while escalating edge cases to human operators. Their ability to learn from repeated supervision improves over time, enhancing both speed and accuracy. Organizations value this balance of control and efficiency, making L4 agents a preferred choice for scalable and trustworthy AI integration, thus fueling market growth. Individual users, including freelancers, developers, and small business owners, are increasingly adopting AI agents to manage repetitive tasks, enhance productivity, and access personalized digital assistance. With the democratization of AI tools and the emergence of user-friendly platforms, individuals are now leveraging AI agents for content creation, task scheduling, customer communication, and personal finance management. The rise of solopreneurs and the gig economy further fuels this trend, as AI agents provide affordable and scalable solutions that match enterprise-level functionalities. The ability to train these agents on personal datasets ensures relevance and adaptability, encouraging deeper engagement. As individuals seek efficiency and automation in their daily workflows, their growing adoption of AI agents significantly contributes to the market's sustained growth trajectory. The global business landscape is experiencing a surge in demand for hyper-automation, which combines AI agents with RPA, analytics, and other intelligent tools to automate end-to-end processes. Organizations are prioritizing digital transformation initiatives that involve minimizing human involvement in routine tasks while enhancing operational efficiency. AI agents play a central role in this by learning from unstructured data, making decisions, and interacting with other systems. This need for seamless integration and autonomous workflow execution is a key factor propelling the growth of AI Agents Software. Industries ranging from healthcare to supply chain are adopting hyper-automation solutions to scale productivity, reduce errors, and gain competitive advantage, thereby reinforcing the importance of advanced AI agents. AI agents are revolutionizing customer service operations by enabling real-time, intelligent interactions that are not only faster but also more personalized. Businesses are increasingly using conversational agents and virtual assistants to handle queries, complaints, and information requests. These agents learn from historical interactions to provide accurate responses and can handle multilingual support, sentiment analysis, and escalation protocols. The ability to provide 24/7 support at a fraction of the cost of human agents is a compelling factor for adoption. Furthermore, customer satisfaction and retention rates are improving due to the seamless and responsive nature of AI-powered support systems. This rising integration into customer service functions is a major contributor to the growing demand for AI Agents Software. The integration of AI agents with business intelligence (BI) platforms is unlocking new dimensions in data-driven decision-making. AI agents are being deployed to analyze real-time business data, generate insights, and offer actionable recommendations to stakeholders. By automating report generation, anomaly detection, and trend analysis, these agents reduce the manual burden on analysts and speed up strategic planning. Such integration enhances the precision of forecasts and helps companies respond proactively to market changes. Enterprises across retail, finance, and logistics are adopting these intelligent agents to bridge the gap between raw data and business action, reinforcing the software's value and driving its widespread market penetration. Claim Yours Now! https://reports.valuates.com/api/directpaytoken?rcode=QYRE-Auto-1Z18997&lic=single-user AI AGENT MARKET SHARE North America leads the AI Agents Software market owing to its early adoption of advanced technologies and strong presence of key AI vendors. The U.S., in particular, has witnessed widespread integration of AI agents across sectors like healthcare, banking, and retail. Europe follows closely, driven by supportive digitalization policies and growing demand in countries like Germany, France, and the UK. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific is emerging as a significant growth region, propelled by rapid digital transformation in India, China, and Southeast Asia. The region's increasing internet penetration and government support for AI initiatives are major contributors. Latin America and the Middle East are showing gradual adoption trends, mostly in sectors like telecom and logistics. Key Companies: Open AI AWS Google Cloud Salesforce Bright Data SendBird IBM Microsoft Beam AI Sierra AI Purchase Regional Report: https://reports.valuates.com/request/regional/QYRE-Auto-1Z18997/Global_AI_Agent_Software_Market SUBSCRIPTION We have introduced a tailor-made subscription for our customers. Please leave a note in the Comment Section to know about our subscription plans. DISCOVER MORE INSIGHTS: EXPLORE SIMILAR REPORTS! DISCOVER OUR VISION: VISIT ABOUT US! Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs. Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. 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GET A FREE QUOTE Valuates Reports [email protected] For U.S. Toll-Free Call 1-(315)-215-3225 WhatsApp: +91-9945648335 Website: https://reports.valuates.com Blog: https://valuatestrends.blogspot.com/ Pinterest: https://in.pinterest.com/valuatesreports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/valuatesreports Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valuatesreports/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valuatesreports6753 https://www.facebook.com/valuateskorean https://www.facebook.com/valuatesspanish https://www.facebook.com/valuatesjapanese https://valuatesreportspanish.blogspot.com/ https://valuateskorean.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesgerman.blogspot.com/ https://valuatesreportjapanese.blogspot.com/ Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1082232/5415940/Valuates_Reports_Logo.jpg SOURCE Valuates Reports President Donald Trump pledged to deport the worst of the worst. He frequently speaks at public appearances about the countless dangerous criminals among them murderers, rapists and child predators from around the world he says entered the U.S. illegally under the Biden administration. He promises to expel millions of migrants in the largest deportation program in American history to protect law-abiding citizens from the violent threats he says they pose. But government data tells a different story. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement increased arrests since Trump began his second term, with reports of raids across the country. Yet the majority of people detained by ICE have no criminal convictions. Of those who do, relatively few were convicted of high-level crimes. There's a deep disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality, said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-faculty director of the UCLA Law School's Center for Immigration Law and Policy. This administration, and also in the prior Trump administration, they consistently claim to be going after the worst of the worst and just talk about immigration enforcement as though it is all about going after violent, dangerous people with extensive criminal histories. And yet overwhelmingly, it's people they're targeting for arrest who have no criminal history of any kind. By the numbers The latest ICE statistics show that as of June 29, ICE detained 57,861 people, 41,495 or 71.7% of whom had no criminal convictions. That includes 14,318 people with pending criminal charges, and 27,177 who are subject to immigration enforcement but have no known criminal convictions or pending criminal charges. Each detainee is assigned a threat level by ICE on a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 being the highest. Those without a criminal record are classified as having no ICE threat level. As of June 23, the latest data available, 84% of people detained at 201 facilities nationwide were not given a threat level, 7% were graded as a level 1 threat, 4% were level 2 and 5% were level 3. President Trump has justified this immigration agenda in part by making false claims that migrants are driving violent crime in the United States, and that's just simply not true, said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice. There's no research and evidence that supports his claims. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security, called the assessment that ICE isn't targeting immigrants with a criminal record false" and said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem directed ICE to target the worst of the worst including gang members, murderers, and rapists. She counted detainees with convictions, as well as those with pending charges, as criminal illegal aliens. As of June 14, nonpublic data obtained by the Cato Institute shows 65% of the more than 204,000 people ICE processed since the start of fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, 2024, had no criminal convictions. Of those with convictions, only 6.9% committed a violent crime, while 53% committed nonviolent crimes that fell into three main categories: immigration, traffic or vice crimes. Total ICE arrests shot up at the end of May after White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller gave the agency a quota of 3,000 arrests a day, up from 650 a day in the first five months of Trumps second term. ICE arrested nearly 30% more people in May than in April, according to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse. That number rose again in June, by another 28%. The Cato Institute found that between Feb. 8 and May 17, the daily average of noncriminals processed into the system ranged from 421 to 454. In the following two weeks at the end of May, that number rose to 678 and then to 927 in the period from June 1 through 14. What you're seeing is this huge increase in funding to detain people, remove people, enforce immigration laws," Eisen said. "And what we're seeing is that a lot of these people back to sort of the original question you asked, these are not people who are dangerous. Administration doubles down Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said the administration is intensely focused on rooting out unvetted criminals who are in the country illegally. Referring to raids Thursday, she wrote in an email, "the Administration conducted a successful operation rescuing children from labor exploitation at a marijuana facility in California, and continued arresting the worst of the worst including murderers, pedophiles, gang members, and rapists. "Any suggestion that the Administration is not laser focused on these dangerous criminals is flat out wrong, she added. While most ICE detainees are not convicted criminals, there are detainees who committed serious crimes. The administration recently released information on five high-level offenders who were arrested. During his campaign, Trump highlighted several cases where immigrants in the country illegally were arrested for horrific crimes. Among them: The killing of 22-year-old Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was slain last year by a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally. Jose Ibarra was found guilty of murder and other crimes in Rileys February 2024 killing and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Ibarra seeks a new trial. Trump in January signed the Laken Riley Act, which requires the detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes. What studies find Research consistently found, however, that immigrants are not driving violent crime in the U.S. and that they actually commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. A 2023 working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, for example, reported that immigrants for 150 years had lower incarceration rates than people born in the U.S. In fact, the rates declined since 1960 according to the paper, immigrants were 60% less likely to be incarcerated. Experts say the false rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration creates real harm. It makes people in immigrant communities feel targeted and marginalized, Arulanantham said. It creates more political and social space for hate in all its forms, including hate crime against immigrant communities. Eisen noted the impact extends to other communities as well. All Americans should want safe and thriving communities," she said, "and this idea that the president of the United States is making misleading statements about the truth and distorting reality is not the way to deliver public safety." Given that my social media feeds admittedly overindex film aficionados and left-leaning New Yorkers, perhaps its not surprising that all anybody seemed to be talking about yesterday afternoon was the video in which Andrew Cuomo announced that, despite his Democratic primary loss to Zohran Mamdani, he was staying in the race for mayor as an independent candidate. But while Im used to seeing regular waves of anti-Cuomo sentiment, the tone this time was different, pitched somewhere between incredulity and mild pity. In his bid to challenge Mamdani, the 67-year-old Cuomo decided to take to his 33-year-old opponents home turfthe internet. And in doing so, he created one of the most awkward artifacts in recent political history, a true landmark in the annals of cringe. As Mamdanis supporters have pointed out, reducing the Democratic nominee to his fluency in the language of online video both underestimates and mischaracterizes his appeal, which has as much to do with his policies as his on-camera poise; a poll taken last week shows, in fact, that Mamdani proposals like raising taxes on the wealthy and providing free child care for children under 5 have widespread popular support (higher, in fact, than support for the candidate himself). But the political establishment isnt about to take that lesson to heart, so it has focused instead on the Mamdani campaigns remarkable digital fluency. Mamdanis camp can generate meme bait when it needs to, like a video that intercuts a Hindi-language campaign pitch with campy Bollywood clips, but the videos that seem to have traveled furthest are the ones when hes simply walking the streets of New York City, interacting with and checking in on everyone he meets. If, as a recent clip showcases, his increasing popularity can make it difficult to stick to the script, so frequently is he stopped by enthusiastic New Yorkers calling out words of support or asking for a selfie, that only burnishes his image as a candidate of the people, mingling with ordinary voters while his opponents retreat to their homes in New Jersey and Westchester. Cuomo, who approached last months Democratic primary as if he expected the nomination to be hand-delivered to his doorstep, was evidently humbled enough by his decisive loss to study his opponents tactics, though not enough to drop out of the race altogether. But the video announcing Cuomos independent candidacy only underlines how difficult it is to fake the common touch. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Lets start with the opening, which finds Cuomo standing amid a smattering of greenery at the edge of a park. In a short-sleeved dress shirt and no tieCuomo was spotted shooting footage in the same outfit yesterday morning, when temperatures were already in the 80shes trying to radiate casual relaxation. But what comes across is precisely the opposite. The issue begins with the cinematography: The camera leaves an excessive amount of empty space above Cuomos head and cuts him off just above the waist, while the three-quarters framing of a classic medium shot would have extended somewhere below the beltline, allowing him to express himself with his entire body and not just his torso. But Cuomos bearing is also stiff, shockingly so for a born politician whose career extends back to the 1990s, and his hands, the only organ with which he seems able to express himself, regularly dip below the frame line, merely enhancing that woodenness. His speech is monotonous, verging on robotic, and its unnatural qualities are thrown into even starker relief by the colloquialisms thrown into the script. Theres no hint of a self-deprecating smile when Cuomo notes that anyone whos not aware of his primary loss to Mamdani must have been living under a rock, and the use of a long a in a rock makes him sound like a space alien whos still getting the hang of human language. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mamdani works with a camera crew, but his videos studiously avoid the sheen of professionalism; the transitions and effects look like the kind anyone could master in an afternoon on TikTok. Cuomos announcement deploys a second camera that pivots around a tight close-up of his face, used to emphasize key phrases like I am in it to win it. But if the shallow depth of field lends the shot a cinematic quality, it also destroys the sense of off-the-cuff intimacy the rest of the video strains to create. This is meticulously planned messaging from a lifelong political insider, not a chance meeting on the street. After Cuomos opening statement, the rest of the video is built around shots of him engaging with the public, shaking hands and patting backs. This is Retail Politics 101, the kind of thing that ought to be second nature to any politician, let alone one vying to run the densest and most media-savvy city in the country. Yet rather than savor the chance to press the flesh with the people he is campaigning to represent, Cuomo looks as if he cant wait to be done. In the very first such shot, he clasps a Black mans hand and pulls him for a quick bro-pat on the back, but as soon as Cuomos face has moved past the other mans eyeline, he turns his head back toward the sidewalk, as if hes already trying to locate his next target. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Some of the later on-the-street shots feel less stilted, but even at their most effective, they convey that Andrew Cuomo is a man who is willing to talk to his constituents, while Mamdani comes off as someone who cant wait to. It doesnt help that while Mamdani filmed himself walking the entire length of Manhattan, more than 200 city blocks, Cuomo may have, based on our study of the videos identifiable locations, traversed as little as two, starting on Second Avenue below 95th Street and winding up at the Key Foods above 92nd. If we grant that he may have traveled on foot from his opening announcement, which seems to have been filmed in Ruppert Park at 90th and 2nd, we might generously stretch it to five, still all within a cozy slice of the citys wealthy Upper East Side. Advertisement Advertisement Its not that everything in Cuomos announcement video is wrong so much as nothing feels right. Although we see Cuomo conversing with New Yorkers, we never hear what any of them has to say, despite the boom microphone poking prominently into frame during what is only the videos second shot. He may say hes in it to win it, but Cuomo radiates the sluggish reluctance of someone who has already lostor at the very least cant wait to get back to the comfort of his air-conditioned car. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Another thing Cuomo apparently cant get right is his opponents name. In the scripted portion of the video, he opts for a take in which he pronounces Zohrans last name as Mandani, an ugly slight that comes after Mamdani himself spelled out his name for Cuomo onstage. (It wasnt that long ago that some Americans claimed to find Italian surnames too difficult to pronounce.) But Mamdani took it in stride. The morning after Cuomos announcement, Mamdani released a new video, touting his endorsement from Brooklyn Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. Most of the video is classic Mamdani stuff, taking him on a tour of Brooklyns Little Haiti, where he listens to residents concerns and even tries out a few words of Haitian Creole. But the spot opens with an outtake in which Hermelyn stumbles over Mamdanis name and asks to make sure shes pronouncing it correctly. You can just say Im endorsing Zohran, he offers, then pauses for a beat before adding: You know what happened to the last guy who got it wrong. This is part of Revenge Week, a series about how vengeance runs America, from the White House to cheating spouses to that bad boss who totally deserved it. In 1729, writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift published A Modest Proposal, an essay offering a solution to Irelands economic troubles. It was simple: To stave off famine and poverty, the poor should simply sell their children as food to Irelands rich. A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or broiled, Swift wrote. I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children. In 2007, the Yes Men visited Calgary, Alberta, otherwise known as the Texas of Canada, with a modest proposal of their own. The Yes Men, a collective of culture-busting activists, showed up that summer to the Gas and Oil Exposition, the countrys largest oil conference, to get revenge on the industrys most crooked players. Pretending to be ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council representatives, the Yes Men rolled out Exxons latest product: Vivoleum, an oil product made from the melted flesh of people who have died due to climate disasters. Candles were handed out to the audience before they played a tribute video for a terminally ill Exxon janitor (played by Reggie Watts) whose body had been melted down into the candles being lit around the room. As a nice touch, the candles smelled like burning hair. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement By the time the Yes Men came to Calgary, they had already established themselves as longtime hoaxsters, experts at getting back at massive conglomerates and government bodies by making them look stupid. They started organizing in the late 90s, but gained national prominence in 2000 when they spoofed the World Trade Organizations website. It was accurate in look and feel, but with statements denouncing human rights and celebrating corporate profit. It looked so real that they started receiving speech requests. At one conference in Finland, their fake WTO representative urged a return to slavery. They remain active today, though less productive than they once weretheir most recent stunt was earlier this year, when their fake DOGE fan site accidentally sent thousands of emails asking for memes. The Yes Men introduced Vivoleum the same year my English teacher taught us about A Modest Proposal in a suburban Calgary high school. I remember the coverage around these fake Exxon executives wellit was a rare case of the local nightly news talking about climate change as something worth protesting, namely in a city so consumed by the oil and gas industry. Now, 25 years after their pranks started taking hold, Ive been thinking about them again. A Modest Proposal was effective during its time because it so expertly mocked Irelands anti-poor sentiment, and used coy language and the printing press to disseminate an absurdist idea to the masses. The Yes Men were effective in the early aughts because they used visual trickery and the internet to fool the establishment into exposing their own hypocrisies and bad deeds. At the time, their mischief felt like well-earned vengeance. Advertisement Advertisement But these days, everything feels too absurd to satirizeand satire no longer feels like revenge. Our current political momentfilled with frauds, with statements of fact so ludicrous that its impossible to debate, with harebrained schemes so absurd they seem like parodyfeels primed for the Yes Men. In 2021, the Yes Men pretended to be Starbucks executives and announced they would get rid of their upcharge on plant-based milks because people of color are more likely to drink nondairy milk. (This one kind of worked: Starbucks dropped their surcharge on plant-based milk after the hoax, at least in the U.K.) In 2023, a fake Adidas executive announced at a tech conference that the company would offer underpaid garment employees in their factories access to a virtual world to enjoy things theyd otherwise never have access to. The stunt included a DJ Marshmello showing up to play his newest song, All Day I Dream (About Back Pay), while wearing a big marshmallow head. Still, nothing has quite connected with their audience the way it once did when our biggest concerns were whether Bush was stupid for asking Is our children learning? Advertisement Advertisement The Yes Men are engaged in the long-held American tradition of trickery, established and perfected by satirists like Swift or scammers like P.T. Barnum. But what role does irony or parody have in politics anymore? The purpose of public protest is, so often, to wring a little humiliation out of a much bigger opponent. It was the best revenge the little guy could get. What made the Yes Men successful was their ability to point out that which was hidden and ridiculous; these days, everything is farcical, and there are no medals given out for noticing just how sick it all feels. Besides, no one and nothing is funnier than Donald Trump, intentionally or otherwise. Parody has so often fallen flat during this second Trump term, even while people seem determined to find a way to laugh. Its hard to make fun of Trump, said Igor Vamos, one of the co-founders of the Yes Men. Everything is meaningless in his world. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Yes Men feel almost too innocent to bring into the dark ages of the 2020s. For a little while, they were the David we needed to get in a righteous laugh at the expense of Goliath. Through absurdity, they cohered a community of activists and optimists. But the face of the American establishment has changed: more nakedly hostile, more brazenly cruel, far less invested in obfuscating their crimes. The purpose of the jester is to point out whatever the king wants to hide; if he doesnt give a shit who can see him, whats the punch line? The Yes Men is a broad network of activists around the world, but it was all started by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Or, at least, thats a couple of their names: Servin and Vamos also go by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, respectively, as they did in the three documentaries theyve directed about their work. Theyre also the co-creators of RTMark, an anti-consumerist collective that also performed pranks and internet stunts. In 1999, RTMark made a fake website for George W. Bushs presidential run that looked real enough to get them a cease and desist. At the beginning of the internet, there was a lot of possibility for mischief, and a lot of optimism for what it could do, Vamos (or Bonanno) told me over the phone from upstate New York, where he works as a media arts professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We were combining that with good old-fashioned media manipulation. That approach was super powerful because you didnt need to be an entity with a lot of power or money. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Yes Mens best work is often around climate change, like the Calgary Exxon hoax. One of their most famous stunts was around the 1984 Bhopal disaster, wherein thousands of people who lived near a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, were exposed to toxic gas. It was one of the worlds worst industrial disasters, and Union Carbide initially took little concrete responsibility. In 2004, on the 20th anniversary of the disaster, Servin faked his way onto the BBC as a representative of Dow Chemical (Union Carbides parent company), took full responsibility, and announced theyd be fully compensating their victims. It tanked the European stock and brought broader media attention to the tens upon tens of thousands of people who died from the disaster. These are, admittedly, Web 1.0 stunts. Theyre the kinds of hoaxes that worked in the early aughts, when it was tough to spoof a website but a lot easier to get a bunch of eyeballs to pay attention to your link or your story. When we first started doing it, we were engaging in communication media in ways that hadnt been fully played out yet, Vamos said. Advertisement But that virality has changed drastically: The internet is far less wieldy, and everyone is much more on edge about whats real and what isnt online. Now, the gamification of clicks and the content farming on even establishment media websites have killed some of what made the hoaxes so famous. The Adidas stunt was clever, but there are a million tech conferences around the world these days, and so a hoax happening at one of them doesnt mean youll garner attention for it. Now its like that tree that fell in the woods, alone. Does it make a sound? Youre hoping theres somebody there listening, Vamos said. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Yes Mens stunts tend to fit within two themes: either absurdist cruelty pushed to its limit, or utopian improbability. Pranks like the one in Calgary were part of their larger theme of showing just how evil a company could be. But the Union Carbide hoax was about showing that a company could do the right thing, that theres always the possibility of taking ownership over harm done to the working class. They did something similar in 2006 when they arrived in New Orleans as fake Housing and Urban Development representatives to announce that they would not destroy thousands of units of affordable housing. Going through the steps of that [hoax] is more like opening a portal into another world thats possible, Vamos said. It changes peoples minds and announces that something you thought was impossible is possible. Sometimes it has a magical effect. Advertisement In 2020, the Yes Men made DoctorsForOpeningAmerica.com, pretending to be a collective of doctors effectively advocating for more people to die during the pandemic. They even tried spreading a country song called Dont Plug Me In, encouraging everyone to go World War III on this virus, America. But even in real time, it was clear to the organizers that it wasnt taking hold. We did get some emails about the website from Trump supporters, mainly critiquing the execution, they wrote about the stunt after it was revealed. But that was about it: Neither the website [nor] the song really seemed to surprise anyone. The vengeance used to come in the form of much-needed shame. That was back when shame mattered. Theres so much shit flooding the zone, Servin told me over the phone from the West Coast. Hes still working with the Yes Men, but hes also writing a memoir about caring for his mother through her Alzheimers. Were living in a rank miasma of bullshit. Advertisement Advertisement Its just harder to be a jester these days. The proliferation of A.I. makes it harder and harder to know whats real and whats notespecially when governments and brands alike are using it online alongside your average shitposter. Conspiracy theories spread more wildly and faster than they did 25 years ago, and while climate change remains a pressing threat (and the Yes Mens main focus), there are about a million new pressing threats for the average American to consider. Meanwhile, the ruling class in government and in business are less anxious about appearing craven or cruel or capitalistic: Immigration and Customs Enforcement is, after all, kidnapping people off the street in broad daylight. To shame them through public theater is to assume they experience shame in the first place. We used to exist in a fairly simple ethical environment where some things were true, some were false. There were rules that might have been unspoken, but there were rules, Servin said. There is a way to be nice, and a correct way to run a society. Democracy was obvious. Back then, the Yes Mens modus operandi was to find little-known information about behemoth organizations and expose that information to sunlight. But these days, almost anything can be known; whether its believed is another matter entirely. A finger-scratch of digging will show you their bigger feelings about the world, Servin said about the GOP. Its a lot harder to shock people because everything is fake. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement For Vamos, the pleasure that once came with setting off and accomplishing an act of absurdist protest has started to wear off now that pretty much everything is absurd. We cant ridicule him because its already ridiculous, he said of Trump. Its very hard to find humor in things now. Its strange because there are some things that have flipped politically. The right wing in particular see themselves as the funny ones. And, hey, maybe they are: Is there anything funnier than an unintentional Trump malapropism? In the last 15 years, the right has co-opted trolling, hoaxes, conspiracies, and internet trickery. Our whole thing is you have to punch up. If youre punching down, youre not funny, Vamos said. But MAGA had this idea they were punching up because they were out of power for four years. Advertisement Its a different game, and the rules have changed. Even our ideas of who has a sense of humor has shiftedtodays activists and progressives are viewed as shrill and unrelentingly serious. Thats a very fucking weird reversal of perceptions, that groups of activists are so self-serious, Vamos said. In the 90s activists movements, there was a lot of joy that was in there. People really lived and breathed when they were acting in opposition. There was a seriousness, but it was paired with joy. That, maybe, is whats missing from our collective resistance. People now are feeling so broken, its harder to access that humor. Advertisement If Im honest with myselfwhich Im loath to be, namely on the topic of grandiose hoaxesaccessing that humor has felt nearly impossible this year. The last time I thought about the Yes Men this much, I was graduating high school into what was supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime recession. There was a war in the Middle East. The president was talked about as being very stupid. Everyone was afraid and all events felt unprecedented and no one knew what to do. Watching the Yes Men through the news and their documentaries was a looking-glass into a uniquely powerful form of resistance at a time when I felt like I had no real power. Now, Im looking for them to again give me the answers for my political malaise: How do I get my lick back if even the Yes Men have to restrategize? Advertisement Im not worried about what we do becoming totally irrelevant, but I am wondering what happens next, Vamos said. My father is a Holocaust survivor. Its not like humor stopped existing. People in the concentration camps talked about how they got through it with humor. Trickery is a means of survival and humiliating the powerful. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Maybe being a clown is still valuable, theneven in a political climate that seems lousy with them. Whats needed is not Yes Men exposure of things that arent known, Servin said. Whats needed is humor and clowning. Get in some fun. Vamos and Servin couldnt tell me about any forthcoming actions they have planned, other than that theyre about overarching political issues like colonialism and neocolonialism and capitalismdivulging any more would ruin the fun. Their focus is less on specific political candidates these days, and more on institutions and organizations. Advertisement What I wanted to hear from them, though, is what I wanted 20 years ago as a teenager, hopeful and petrified. I want certainty that the future will be calmer than the present, and I want proof that activism works. I want the Yes Men to tell me they have an answer. But certainty is impossible, and the point of their trickery was never to change policy. Changing people is less important than mobilizing and engaging people who are like-minded about a dream, Vamos said. Get people excited about a possible future instead of depressed about the end of the world. The clowns havent saved the world just yet, but then again, neither have the Democrats. What does it hurt to laugh? https://sputnikglobe.com/20250716/france-not-planning-to-partake-in-initiative-to-purchase-us-weapons-for-ukraine-1122446633.html France Not Planning to Partake in Initiative to Purchase US Weapons for Ukraine France Not Planning to Partake in Initiative to Purchase US Weapons for Ukraine Sputnik International France has no intention of participating in an initiative to purchase US weapons for Ukraine amid its desire to develop its own weapons production, US media reported. 2025-07-16T05:39+0000 2025-07-16T05:39+0000 2025-07-16T05:39+0000 military donald trump us mark rutte emmanuel macron ukraine germany france nato patriot https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/06/19/1119118010_0:0:3072:1728_1920x0_80_0_0_126599c04dde65f0db2a519edffa0df6.jpg France was not mentioned when NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte listed countries ready to take part in the initiative to purchase US weapons for Ukraine at a meeting with US President Donald Trump, Politico reported, adding that French President Emmanuel Macron has long been calling on Europeans to develop their own defense industry by purchasing weapons from local manufacturers.Earlier US President Donald Trump said that Patriot missiles are already being shipped to Ukraine, they will be supplied from Germany, which will then replace them itself.Russia has repeatedly stressed that the long-range weapons supplied by the West are being used by Ukrainian forces to target civilians on Russian territory and disrupt peace efforts. Allowing Ukraine to use these weapons would fundamentally change the nature of the conflict, as Russian President Putin has previously stated. "We will make the necessary decisions based on the threats we face," he said. "The key question is whether to consider NATO countries as directly involved in the military conflict," the president added. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250528/merzs-statements-on-long-range-missiles-attempt-to-force-ukrainians-to-continue-fighting---kremlin-1122146456.html ukraine germany france Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International france has no intention of participating in an initiative to purchase us weapons for ukraine amid its desire to develop its own weapons production, us media reported. Fun, Easy Pairings Featuring Josh Cellars and Charcuterie Ideas for Effortless Summer Entertaining CHICAGO, July 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cracker Barrel Cheese, the rich and bold cheese brand, has partnered with Samantha Capaldi, your go-to "No Snob Somm," and Josh Cellars to celebrate National Wine and Cheese Day on July 25th. The brand's award-winning cheeses take center stage in crave-worthy, approachable pairings designed to elevate any summer occasion all within a crowd-pleasing, totally attainable charcuterie spread. Capaldi brings her signature fresh, fun, and accessible spin to wine pairings, proving that everyday ingredients can deliver bold flavor and feel special no sommelier certification required. She crafted three unique summer boards, each anchored by Cracker Barrel Cheese and thoughtfully paired with Josh Cellars wine and seasonal ingredients you can find at any local store. 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"Partnering with Sam and Josh Cellars allowed us to create pairings that are not only delicious and approachable but grounded in everyday ingredients people already know and love," said Amanda Vaal, Brand Director at Cracker Barrel Cheese. "Whether it's a casual summer hangout or a more thoughtful celebration, these combinations bring bold flavor, simple elegance, and a touch of everyday indulgence that anyone can enjoy no special occasion required." Viewers can purchase these ingredients and wine on Amazon Fresh and visit Samantha on Instagram at @samanthasommelier. For more inspiration on your summer charcuterie board and pairings, visit @crackerbarrelcheese. For more information on Cracker Barrel Cheese, visit www.CrackerBarrelCheese.com and for Josh Cellars, visit www.JoshCellars.com. Connect with Samantha on Instagram at @samanthasommelier, Cracker Barrel at @crackerbarrelcheese and Josh Cellars at @joshcellars. Must be 21+ to enjoy. Please drink responsibly. About Cracker Barrel Cheese Founded in 1954, Cracker Barrel Cheese was born from a love of quality cheese and a passion for cheddar-making. Using the same proprietary heirloom starter cultures for more than half a century gives this award-winning cheese its rich and bold flavor. Available across the United States, Cracker Barrel cheese features over 17 delicious flavors in a wide variety of cooking and snacking formats to meet the standards of the most sophisticated of palates. Cracker Barrel Cheese is perfect for everyday snacking and those special occasions where impressions matter most! Backed by Lactalis Heritage Dairy with a history and expertise rooted in creating world-class award-winning dairy and leading quality standards. Visit www.crackerbarrelcheese.com About Lactalis USA Lactalis USA is committed to enriching lives by producing nutritious and great-tasting dairy products. The company offers an unrivaled house of beloved dairy brands in the United States including Galbani Italian cheeses, President specialty cheeses and gourmet butters, Kraft brands in natural and grated cheeses, Breakstones cottage cheese, ricotta and sour cream, Cracker Barrel cheese, Black Diamond cheddar cheese, Parmalat milk, , yogurt brands such as siggi's, Stonyfield Organic, Brown Cow, Green Mountain Creamery, Mountain High, Yoplait, Go-Gurt, :ratio, Oui and Karoun, Gopi, Arz and other brands in the ethnic channel. In the United States the company has approximately 5,000 employees, with 13 manufacturing facilities located in 9 states, and corporate offices in New York City, San Fernando, Calif., Chicago, Ill., Minneapolis, Minn., Buffalo, N.Y. and Bedford, N.H. Lactalis USA is part of Lactalis Group, the world's leading dairy company, a French family business founded in 1933 in Laval, France. For more information about Lactalis USA's divisions, visit www.lactalisamericangroup.com, www.lactalisheritagedairy.com, www.lactalisyogurtusa.com, www.midwestyogurt.com and www.karouncheese.com. Follow Lactalis USA on Instagram and like us on Facebook. SOURCE Cracker Barrel Cheese https://sputnikglobe.com/20250716/increased-military-spending-can-lead-to-eu-using-russias-frozen-assets---shoigu-1122448887.html Increased Military Spending Can Lead to EU Using Russia's Frozen Assets - Shoigu Increased Military Spending Can Lead to EU Using Russia's Frozen Assets - Shoigu Sputnik International The European Union can turn to using the illegally frozen Russian assets in order to pacify the citizens concerned over increased military spending, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has said. 2025-07-16T17:24+0000 2025-07-16T17:24+0000 2025-07-16T17:24+0000 world russia-nato showdown sergei shoigu donald trump european union (eu) nato russian security council sergey lavrov https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/01/0f/1116169362_0:161:3071:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_1010c67005b2eb886e37f98da1e448ee.jpg The Europeans discuss the possibility of transferring almost 200 billion euros stored in Euroclear, Brussels-based clearing house, into more risky assets with high returns, Shoigu said. At the same time, the West has already got used to stealing and exploiting other people's funds, as it has happened with Libya, Syria and Afghanistan, the secretary of the Russian Security Council added. After the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the EU and G7 countries froze almost half of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, totaling nearly 300 billion euros. More than 200 billion euros are in the EU, mainly in the accounts of Euroclear. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly condemned the freezing of Russia's central bank money in Europe as theft. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow could respond by withholding assets held in Russia by Western countries. Since his return to office in January, US President Donald Trump has been pushing the idea of greater military spending by US partners, including the members of NATO. The June 24-25 NATO summit in The Hague raised the target threshold for defense spending by alliance members to 5% of GDP, which countries are expected to reach by 2035. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250715/war-with-russia-macron-wants-cash-and-clout-1122445831.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20250711/ukraines-new-arms-plan-eu-pays-us-cashes-in-nato-watches-1122428664.html Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International russia-nato showdown, ukraine crisis, ukraine conflict, nato defense spending https://sputnikglobe.com/20250716/iran-us-negotiations-should-not-be-held-without-preconditions---parliament-1122448281.html Iran-US Negotiations Should Not Be Held Without Preconditions - Parliament Iran-US Negotiations Should Not Be Held Without Preconditions - Parliament Sputnik International New negotiations between Iran and the US should not be held until the American side fully implements the preliminary conditions set by Tehran, the Iranian Majlis (parliament) stated on Wednesday. 2025-07-16T13:47+0000 2025-07-16T13:47+0000 2025-07-16T13:47+0000 world iran middle east middle east conflict abbas araghchi donald trump us us-iran relations https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e9/06/1c/1122356301_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_0e50cfe0fee08321e7bdf919082164ae.jpg On July 10, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the media that Washington needs to acknowledge responsibility for its mistakes and demonstrate a change in behavior before Iran agrees to resume negotiations. He added that it was the US that broke off negotiations and turned to military action. When asked if negotiations with Washington are planned in the coming days, the minister said that diplomatic exchanges were conducted through intermediaries, but the format of discussions might change. Araghchi highlighted that Tehran has the right to demand compensation for damage caused by US attacks. On the night of June 13, Israel launched an operation against Iran, accusing it of implementing a secret military nuclear program. Iran rejected the accusations, responding with its own attacks. For 12 days the parties exchanged strikes. On June 22, the US joined Israel's bombing campaign and struck Iranian nuclear facilities. Tehran retaliated by attacking US air base Al Udeid in Qatar, stating that the Iranian side had no intention of further escalation. US President Donald Trump then expressed hope that Iran had "let off steam" with the strike on the US military base in Qatar, and that a path to peace and harmony in the Middle East was now possible. He also said that Israel and Iran had agreed to a ceasefire. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250715/lavrov-emphasizes-the-need-for-a-peaceful-resolution-to-irans-nuclear-program-crisis-1122442781.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20250711/iran-says-over-90-of-missiles-hit-targets-in-retaliatory-strikes-on-israel-1122427745.html iran Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International iranian politics, us iran relations, us mideast politics, us mideast policy https://sputnikglobe.com/20250716/transnistria-adopts-law-banning-propaganda-of-non-traditional-values---lawmaker-1122448510.html Transnistria Adopts Law Banning Propaganda of Non-Traditional Values - Lawmaker Transnistria Adopts Law Banning Propaganda of Non-Traditional Values - Lawmaker Sputnik International A law banning the propaganda of non-traditional values has been adopted in Transnistria, Andrei Safonov, a member of the region's parliament, said on Wednesday. 2025-07-16T15:12+0000 2025-07-16T15:12+0000 2025-07-16T15:12+0000 world transnistria moldova chisinau traditional values https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e8/03/12/1117405936_0:160:3072:1888_1920x0_80_0_0_bc2511c68d5ebd083310b2a909f850c8.jpg The lawmaker added that the legislation adopted in Transnistria is aimed at supporting those who promote "normal values in society." An LGBT* parade in Chisinau was held on June 15. Simultaneously, representatives of the opposition political bloc Victory, as well as religious groups and activists, held protests in the Moldovan capital against the LGBT march. Since 2022, the Moldovan Orthodox Church has been urging authorities to ban LGBT* festivals and marches. According to surveys conducted in the republic, the majority (85%) of Moldovan citizens oppose the legalization of same-sex marriages and support the preservation of traditional moral values. Transnistria, 60% of whose population are Russians and Ukrainians, sought to secede from Moldova even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing that Moldova would join Romania on a wave of nationalism. In 1992, after an unsuccessful attempt by the Moldovan authorities to resolve the problem by force, Transnistria became a territory virtually outside of Chisinau's control.* LGBT is considered an extremist ideology in Russia https://sputnikglobe.com/20250711/armenia-caught-in-wests-war-on-traditional-values-1122426845.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20250615/police-crackdown-on-christianity-western-woke-agenda-forces-moldovans-to-reject-traditional-values-1122257272.html transnistria moldova Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International transnistria for traditional values, anti-lgbt transnistria, anti-lgbt laws, lgbt banned https://sputnikglobe.com/20250716/trumps-new-aid-to-ukraine-amounts-to-very-little-militarily-us-stocks-drawn-down--expert-1122446330.html Trump's New Aid to Ukraine Amounts to 'Very Little' Militarily, US Stocks Drawn Down Expert Trump's New Aid to Ukraine Amounts to 'Very Little' Militarily, US Stocks Drawn Down Expert Sputnik International US President Donald Trump's latest announcement regarding new military aid to Ukraine is expected to have limited military impact due to constrained US stockpiles, Jennifer Kavanagh, a US military expert who advocates the "America First" foreign policy Trump campaigned for, told Sputnik. 2025-07-16T05:32+0000 2025-07-16T05:32+0000 2025-07-16T05:32+0000 world donald trump mark rutte ukraine kiev nato us department of defense (dod) patriot https://cdn1.img.sputnikglobe.com/img/07e9/06/16/1122314717_0:0:2810:1582_1920x0_80_0_0_1e6f307c3c5b58c24212e2ca2562c8a9.jpg Trump, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, announced a plan on Monday to provide Ukraine with additional military aid, including Patriot air defense missiles. This initiative involves European allies purchasing billions of dollars worth of US military equipment, including Patriots, for transfer to Kiev. Trump stressed that the US would manufacture these weapons, with European nations covering 100% of the cost, aligning with his "America First" policy by avoiding direct US taxpayer funding. She further elaborated on specific limitations, noting, "Overall, global stockpiles of Patriot interceptors are low. Only about 600 are produced per year. It is hard to say how many more the United States will be willing to provide Ukraine, but the number will be rather small in the near term." The expert noted Trump avoided further escalation by not sending offensive systems to Ukraine, observing, "so far the focus appears to be on defensive systems only." She added that the new announcement is largely "political theater" for Trump to calm nerves regarding the air defense pressure Ukraine is facing. The United States had committed more than $66.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including approximately $65.9 billion since the conflict began on February 24, 2022, according to the latest fact sheet from the US Department of Defense. https://sputnikglobe.com/20250715/trump-is-under-pressure-of-eu-nato---lavrov-on-trumps-statement-on-50-days-to-end-ukraine-conflict-1122444980.html ukraine kiev Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 2025 Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 News en_EN Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 1920 1080 true 1920 1440 true 1920 1920 true Sputnik International feedback@sputniknews.com +74956456601 MIA Rossiya Segodnya 252 60 Sputnik International us president donald trump's latest announcement regarding new military aid to ukraine is expected to have limited military impact due to constrained us stockpiles, jennifer kavanagh, a us military expert who advocates the "america first" foreign policy trump campaigned for, told sputnik. Harrington Raceways richest program is set for Thursday, July 17 to kickoff the Delaware State Fair. A total of $635,000 USD in purses is up for grabs over the 11-race card, which features four $110,000 USD Delaware Standardbred Breeders Fund (DSBF) finals for three-year-olds as well as a pair of consolation events. First post time is 5 p.m. Long standing events for older horses like the $50,000 USD Governors Cup, $35,000 USD Legislators Cup, $35,000 USD Charles Murphy Jr. Memorial Trot and $35,000 USD Legislators Cup comprise a big part of the program, which normally has various state and local dignitaries in attendance. Harness racing has been a part of the Delaware State Fair since 1920. This program showcases many of the states top owned and/or bred horses. There will be a Q&A at 4 p.m. at Hertrich Plaza in front of the grandstand, hosted by harness racing ambassador and local racing television host of Post Time, Heather Vitale with a panel of racing participants, including trainers Jim King Jr. and Linda MacDonald, as well as driver Montrell Teague. Standouts competing in the DSBF finals include trotting filly Kats Fancy (7-5, Cody Poliseno), who has won three straight for owner Jane Dunavant and trainer Carlo Poliseno and is the favourite in the filly trotting final. Forrest Bartletts Primo Maschio (7-5, Trae Porter) bids for his 16th win in 19 career starts at the heavy favourite in the male pacing final for trainer Walter Callahan. Donna Messicks Little Miss Peyton (2-1, Corey Callahan) aims for her third straight triumph in the filly pacing final, one of two horses in the race for trainer Les Givens. Stacy Johnson-Staffords Yale (7-5, Art Stafford Jr.) is the favourite in the male trotting final, fresh off an open length elimination win. TLB Racings Downers Delight (7-5, Pat Berry) seeks his 11th win of the year for trainer Traci Berry and is the favourite in the Governors Cup. The Legislators Cup features the states top pacing mares and Bobby Glassmeyers Southwind Mina (7-5, Berry) will look for her 12th win of the year. The card will kickoff with the Charles Murphy Jr. Memorial Trot as Breakaway Racing and Yorwollohan Racings Speed Away (7-5, Corey Callahan, pictured above) looks for his 13th win in the last two years over the Harrington track. All of the Nick Callahan trainee's wins over that period have come over the Harrington half-mile. On the wagering front, there will be a Pick 4 starting in Races 2 and 8, as well as superfectas in most races. There will be a backpack giveaway with school supplies to the first 100 children courtesy of the Delaware Standardbred Owners Association and Delaware State Fair. Widely considered one of the greatest Standardbreds of all time, U.S. Hall of Fame horse Wiggle It Jiggleit will be on hand in the parking lot west of the grandstand for a brief period (weather permitting) starting at 5:30 p.m. He was the 2015 Dan Patch Horse Of The Year and recently was inducted into U.S. harness racings Hall of Fame. A fireworks display, sponsored by Harrington Raceway, will follow the conclusion of live harness racing, starting approximately 30 minutes after the last race (9 p.m. estimated). (with files from Harrington) Little Expensive shipped west from his home-base on the East Coast and fired down the road to a 1:53 win in the $54,795 Open Trot on Tuesday, July 15, the closing day of a record-breaking meet at Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel. Leaving from post five, driver Andy Miller hustled Little Expensive forward in a four-wide charge to the first turn. He cleared to the lead from the three-wide path after a :26.1 first quarter to pocket Dp Freedoms Chrome (Tony Hall) moving past the grandstand for the first time. Railee Something (Joey Putnam), the 4-5 favourite, had to pull back from her four-wide bid to race fourth, but she soon angled outside to attack first-up passing a :55.3 half. Railee Something marched towards Little Expensive up the backstretch, though her bid stalled before even reaching the tempo-setter's wheel. Little Expensive clocked three-quarters in 1:23.3 and held his ground through the turn and down the stretch as closers swooped in from both flanks. Amigo Volo (David Miller) slid through an inside seam for second, beaten three-quarters of a length, while Oh Look Magic (Devon Tharps) rallied down the wide side of the track for third and Dp Freedoms Chrome finished fourth. Julie Miller trains Little Expensive, a five-year-old gelding by Muscle Hill-Seviyorum, for owners Andy Miller Stable Inc., Jean Goehlen, and VIP Internet Stable LLC. He won his sixth race from 15 starts this season and his 13th in 48 starts in his career, good for $328,693 in earnings. He paid $7.42 to win. Pioneer As (Hall) sat a perfect pocket trip off fast early fractions before making a three-wide pounce on the last turn and staving off a late rally from Empire Builder (Geremy Bobbitt) to win the $32,877 Chad Stubbs Memorial Open 2 Trot by a neck in 1:54.2. Southwind Mai Tai (Andy Shetler) finished second with Finish Strong (Sharps) well back in third. The winning six-year-old daughter of Devious Man-Provide As collected her 17th victory from 70 starts and added to an account now worth $620,916 for owner-breeder ACL Stuteri AB. Her win came in the middle of a training hat trick on the 13-race card for Anette Lorentzon, who won in the first race of the day with Dwood (Hall, 1:56.4, $8.56) and late in the day with Justasiam As (Hall, 1:54.4, $2.40). The Paris, Ky.-based conditioner boasts an 18.8 per cent win rate this year as she heads towards a ninth straight year with more than 100 victories. Lil Joe III (Matt Krueger) upset in the final race of the meet, the $23,288 Freddie Patton Sr. Memorial, at odds of 21-1 when collaring 2-5 favourite Fox Valley Langley (Bobbitt) from a first-over grind in the closing strides of a 1:53.1 mile. Donricus Blackmon trains the stallion for Turrondus Smith. Oak Grove honoured the lives of Stubbs and Patton Sr., two pivotal members of the Kentucky racing community who passed away this year, with a moment of silence during the racing card. Erv Miller handily secured another training title at Oak Grove. His two victories on the day increased his total to 35 victories to end the meet while Tony Dinges finished second with 24 wins. Ron Burke was third with 21 wins while Wayne Oke and Carter Pinske tied for fourth with 20 wins each. Marvin Luna secured the driving title, which he nearly clinched in 2024 with a furious closing gambit before finishing second to Atlee Bender. This time around, Luna clung to the title with 43 victories as Atlee Bender worked to cut a six-win deficit on the closing-day card, but Bender hit a driving grand slam to cement his spot in second with 41 wins. Joey Putnam finished third in the drivers' standings with 36 wins while Todd McCarthy and Marcus Miller tied for fourth with 27 wins. Oak Grove set record handle numbers in its 2025 season. The southern Kentucky track continues to post year-over-year gains in betting with the 2025 meeting handling $11.3 million from 37 race days, an increase from the $9.8 million handled from 35 race days in 2024 a roughly 15 per cent increase year over year. Handle in 2025 has increased just over 60 per cent from 2023, which saw $7 million come through the windows all a continued increase from when Oak Grove held its first meet in 2020 and handled $1.2 million with just 14 race days. Racing will return to Oak Grove in 2026. (With files from Oak Grove) Always hard at work, Yonkers Raceways European talent scout Klaus Koch wasted no time in extending a second invitation to the $1,000,000 USD MGM Yonkers International Trot (G1) following a sparkling performance by Gio Cash in Sweden. The six-year-old, who is coming off the fastest mile of his career, will be representing Germany for the Sept. 13 event at MGM Yonkers Raceway. When you have a horse that is able to compete in big races and you have an opportunity to race, you take it, said Gio Cashs driver/trainer Daniel Wajersten. To be able to race in big races and drive good horses is what I dreamed about when I was 10 years old. It feels really good to have the opportunity. Not only was Gio Cashs latest victory in the Arjangs Stora Sprinter on July 12 the fastest of his career, but the 1:08.5 time (1:50.1 mile rate) crushed the previous track record by more than a second. He faced intense pressure throughout the 1,640-metre race and ultimately bested the classy 2021 Elitlopp winner Don Fanucci Zet by a narrow margin. The victory by Gio Cash was also his second straight over his rival as he defeated him at 2,140 metres on June 14. This is a horse that has been racing at the top level as a two-, three- and four-year-old, then he had some problems as a five-year-old. Now he is back in good shape. He has always been a talented horse, said Wajersten on Gio Cashs recent form spree. Gio Cash, a career winner of 15 races in 28 starts and $617,767 USD, came to the Wajersten barn for his 2025 campaign and is already closing in on the best season ever. The trainer admitted that he really didnt change anything on the son of Victor Gio to revive him. Hes a super horse. We just made him the same level as he was when he was young, said Wajersten. A question with any International horse arriving at Yonkers Raceway is how they will handle the tighter turns of the half-mile track (800 metres). Wajersten revealed that both of his horses recent wins came over a 1,000-metre surface with tight turns that can be a bit difficult for some horses. He also added that Gio Cash has a very smooth gait that makes it easy for him to trot over any track. For the 35-year-old Wajersten, the trip will be his first to New York, though he has been to the now defunct Pompano Park and The Red Mile on previous occasions. It will be a special experience for him as well as the ownership group of Carpe Diem Stable. Im looking forward to the race and the experience for all the owners and the groom, said Wajersten. Gio Cash will have one more start in Sweden prior to shipping to the United States about a week ahead of the MGM Yonkers International Trot. He joins the previously announced Hohneck as the first two starters for the million-dollar event. Additional invitees will be announced in the coming weeks. (Yonkers) Allamerican Native, a Dan Patch Award winner as a two-year-old in 2002 and earner of nearly $1.5 million in his career, passed away on Monday, July 14 at the age of 25. Bernie Cave, the head of the pacing stallions syndicate, indicated that Allamerican Native was euthanized on Monday, July 14 after suffering complications from colic. Outside of stints from 2014 through 2017 for the breeding season at Hagemeyer Farms in Ohio, Allamerican Native spent the past 12 years at Caves farm in Campbellsville, Ky. Bred by Lew Arno and Fred Hertrich III, Allamerican Native (Presidential Ball-Armbro Nashville) won 13 of 29 lifetime races. His victories in 2002 included the Woodrow Wilson and Governors Cup for trainer Mark Capone, and he finished second in the Breeders Crown. The following season, he finished a dead-heat second in the North America Cup and established his career mark of 1:49.4 in winning the consolation division of the Meadowlands Pace. As a stallion, Allamerican Native sired the winners of $39.1 million, most notably 2007 Dan Patch Award winning filly A And Gsconfusion, who earned $1.48 million in her career. He also sired Sprig Hanover, the dam of 2017 U.S. Pacer of the Year Downbytheseaside, and Sayo Hanover, the dam of millionaire filly Sassa Hanover. He was my buddy, Cave said. When I walked out of the house with his bucket of feed, he nickered every time I started toward him. Im going to miss that. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Allamerican Native. (with files from USTA) NEW YORK, July 15, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Dakota, the crypto-integrated business banking platform, today announced it has raised $12.5 million in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from 6th Man Ventures (6MV) and Triton Ventures. The new capital will accelerate Dakota's mission to build the world's first globally accessible business bank account, combining the speed and transparency of stablecoins with the safety of U.S. Treasuries to enable modern, borderless finance. Founded by veterans from Coinbase, Square, and Airbnb, Dakota is reimagining how businesses move and store money across borders. Its platform enables companies to hold and transfer funds across USD or stablecoins while accessing familiar payment rails, such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT, and SEPA. Behind the scenes, Dakota leverages blockchain technology to enable near-instant, verifiable transfers, keeping customer funds fully reserved and under the client's control. Since launching in 2023, Dakota has already attracted over 500 business customers from tech startups to international nonprofits processing billions of dollars in annualized transaction volume. By using stablecoins as settlement rails and backing deposits 1:1 with U.S. Treasuries, Dakota eliminates the counterparty and liquidity risks that have plagued traditional banks, especially in the wake of recent crises like the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. "Companies are increasingly default global and they're being hamstrung by slow wire transfers, limited banking access, and the reality that once money goes into a bank, customers lose control," said Ryan Bozarth, CEO and co-founder of Dakota. "Our goal with Dakota is to bring banking into the internet age giving businesses the ability to move money as instantly and freely as information travels, without sacrificing security or compliance." The timing couldn't be better. In the U.S., Congress is making meaningful progress on stablecoin legislation, with bipartisan support coalescing around frameworks like the GENIUS Act, signaling long-awaited regulatory clarity for dollar-backed digital assets. Globally, jurisdictions from the EU to Hong Kong are following suit, accelerating the shift toward compliant, mainstream adoption. Major incumbents are taking notice. Payments giant Stripe recently acquired stablecoin startup Privy and Bridge, while PayPal has launched its own stablecoin to keep pace with evolving market demands. These moves underscore how stablecoins are becoming an integral part of modern payments, offering businesses 24/7, borderless money movement at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. "We believe stablecoins can revolutionize business banking," said Alex Felix, CIO of CoinFund. "Dakota is unlocking that potential by combining the familiarity of a bank account with the power of crypto rails. They're not asking mainstream businesses to change how they operate they're upgrading the engine under the hood." With the Series A money in hand, Dakota is expanding its product suite and geographic reach. The startup recently rolled out corporate cards, allowing clients to spend their funds via virtual cards while setting custom spend controls for their teams. It also added support for the international SWIFT and SEPA payment networks, on top of its existing U.S. ACH and wire capabilities, aiming to make sending money abroad as simple as a domestic transfer. Dakota is broadening its onboarding to customers across 100+ jurisdictions, including in the UK, EU (under MiCA regulations), Singapore, and Latin America. "Business today is borderless, and dollars are a universal language," notes Bozarth. "We want to give entrepreneurs from Bogota to Bangalore the same access to U.S. dollar banking that a startup in San Francisco would have." From a user perspective, Dakota feels like a typical fintech app; the blockchain complexity stays under the hood. Clients can send or receive payments via regular bank accounts without handling crypto directly, as Dakota seamlessly converts funds to and from stablecoins behind the scenes. Dakota is betting on a comprehensive approach, blending global payment rails, multi-currency treasury management, and globally available corporate cards, will set it apart. The founding team's pedigree lends it credibility in both camps: Bozarth and his colleagues built security systems that safeguarded over $100 billion in digital assets, and also helped scale consumer platforms to millions of users. That mix of experience may prove valuable as they navigate the complex intersection of banking and blockchain. Dakota's leadership is focusing on execution: growing its customer base, securing more banking partnerships, and continuing to invest in compliance and regulatory efforts. The company is betting that in a few years, startups will routinely hold dollars on-chain and send payments worldwide in seconds, as easily as sending an email. If that vision pans out, Dakota could emerge as one of the pioneers of stablecoin-powered banking. And thanks to its new funding, it has a running start in that race. Businesses can get started today at dakota.xyz and experience modern banking built for the internet age. SOURCE CoinFund Tucked away in Little Tokyo was a curious gallery, the Yabai Gallery, presented by JAST and J18. Free to enter, the only cost was somehow making your way to the LA Artcore building during the very busy Anime Expo weekend, a task easier said than done. The gallery ran for all four days of Anime Expo but I only managed to get there on Sunday. Present at the gallery was famed artist Shiwasu no Okina, who also came to Anime Expo in 2023, and San Diego Comic Con in 2024. The contents of this article are intended for adults over the age of 18. Images have been censored as necessary. Shiwasu no Okina was both signing and drawing sketches, and at roughly five minutes per sketch, had a line going out the door. An ominous "40 mnutes from here" sign was placed just around the corner from his table so fans could be there for multiple hours if a sketch was their goal. For me, while I would love a sketch, I was sadly short on time. Perhaps going earlier in the weekend would have been wiser but due to the nature of Anime Expo, impossible for me. As you might expect from its organizer, the Yabai Gallery had a lot of things of an adult nature in it. Instead of its usual booth inside Anime Expo, J18 had elected to have its wares on sale alongside the imagery displayed on the walls. "Yabai," for those of you who don't speak Japanese, can mean a multitude of things, but in this case, refers to the standard definition of "dangerous" or "risky." You do have to be careful of who you talk to about these things, even if it's safe to assume that almost everyone you talk to knows of it and probably looks at it as well. You can also assume that everyone coming to this particular building during the weekend was here for a similar reason. Featured were some one-of-a-kind shikishi drawings by Shiwasu no Okina with some eye-watering prices. Yes, that's a four-digit number. Something he learned at Anime Expo is that certain degenerates have a lot of money and would be more than happy to throw down thousands of dollars on art. I am not among those people, but I can understand the sentiment. The Yabai Gallery featured a number of artists alongside Shiwasu no Okina including Oyari Ashito, Atahuta, Okito Endo, Mignon, Kotomi Youji, Karasu Chan, Ohagisan, Ceesalt, and Shoonia. This is a multinational effort with artists from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and beyond, and each artist has their own specialty. Some pieces were printed on paper and framed, with others on canvas or aluminum. I think it would have been cool to see some pieces that started from paper but given how so many artists are digital only (myself included), that might be a reach. Shiwasu no Okina, having started in the classical manga production style, did supply a few but they were tucked away on his side of the gallery, which was not the most accessible for viewers. They were also some of the most explicit in the gallery and I've decided to exclude them from photos. If you must know, they are from his book "They'll Make a Man out of You." One artist I would like to point out is Senukin, a Vietnamese artist whose work has quickly grown on me. I'd be lying if I said that Senukin being part of the gallery wasn't a factor in my decision to visit. Senukin draws a variety of shorts and one-shot images, and has also branched out into longer form content with "My Coworker is an Eldritch X." A lot of his works involve subculture and memes including "Brainrot Girlfriend," which I'm a little ashamed to say I can somewhat understand. I can say I enjoyed visiting the Yabai Gallery. While the bulk of its contents are not new to me, perhaps they are to others, and getting things in front of people is one of the hardest parts of any creator's lifetime. The Yabai Gallery gave artists the opportunity to do just that and I hope that each gained new fans as a result of being featured. Time will tell whether or not this will be a one-time thing or if in the future we will see more iterations of the Yabai Gallery. I do regret not being able to get a sketch from Shiwasu no Okina but, alas. Thinking about it, I might have been one of the few people actually interested in just looking at the art. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Graphical Abstract Credit: Applied Energy (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126122 What if neighborhoods could lower their electricity bills without investing in expensive battery systems? An international study led by researchers at CWI (the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands) suggests exactly that: by leasing capacity from large, commercially operated batteries, communities can access the benefits of energy storage without the high upfront costs or additional technical challenges. In collaboration with GIGA Storage, a leading operator of grid-connected batteries in the Netherlands, the University of Glasgow (UK) and Princeton University (US), the researchers developed a method to determine how much battery capacity energy communities should rent, and at what price, so that both the community and the battery operator gain financially. Published in the journal Applied Energy, their approach was tested using real-world data from a community of 200 homes equipped with a wind turbine. They showed that considerable savings are possible, even after subtracting the battery rental costs. Storing excess power The research comes at a time when rooftop solar panels and small wind turbines are increasingly common in residential areas, but many households struggle to store excess power for later use. Meanwhile, commercial battery operators are looking for stable revenue streams in volatile energy markets. This study proposes a solution that benefits both sides. The core idea is simple: a battery operator rents out a portion of its large grid-connected battery to an energy community. That battery stores energy when prices are low and releases it when demand (and prices) rise. The researchers developed a mathematical model to find the "sweet spot": how much capacity to rent out and when to charge or discharge, depending on market prices, tariffs, and community energy demand. Reducing battery degradation Importantly, the team also tackled a practical challenge: how to control a grid-connected battery without wearing it out. Professor Valentin Robu, leading investigator of the project, explains, "Our work explores a number of techniques for modifying linear optimization algorithms. The goal is to increase long-term financial gains from using the battery capacity, while reducing the number of charge/discharge cycles, which can lead to a reduction of the battery's remaining useful lifetime." The method was tested using both battery data from GIGA Storage and energy demand and wind generation data from the UK and the Netherlands. The approach is designed to be applicable in different countries, market settings and community models. It is a step forward in allowing energy communities to use more of their own locally generated renewable energy, increasing the financial viability of community energy projects, and reducing dependence on big utility companies. More information: Tudor Octavian Pocola et al, Optimal sizing and control of a grid-connected battery in a stacked revenue model including an energy community, Applied Energy (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2025.126122 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A new study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst establishes a link between what U.S. households pay for electricity and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from power generation. Analyzing data from the 48 contiguous states between 1990 and 2017, the study, published in Resource and Energy Economics, found that a 1% increase in residential electricity rates led to only a 0.6% reduction in emissions in the short term through measures like adjusting thermostats, turning off lights and running appliances less. However, the same rate hike produced a considerable 5.2% reduction in emissions over the long term through the adoption of more energy-efficient appliances, heating and cooling system upgrades, and better insulation. Maryam Feyzollahi and Nima Rafizadeh, doctoral students in the Department of Resource Economics at UMass Amherst, determined that, on average, it takes about nine years for households to fully adjust to higher power rates. This suggests that energy policy decisions made today may not show their full effects until around 2034. Residential electricity demand constitutes about 40% of total electricity consumption in the U.S. The electricity sector accounts for about 25% of GHG emissions nationally. Feyzollahi and Rafizadeh created a new metric called the Residential Electricity Price Elasticity of GHG emissions (REPE-GHG). This measure captures the full chain reaction from a price change to an emissions outcome, overcoming long-standing challenges in measuring how prices affect both consumption and emissions. "Our approach integrates both sides of the equationdemand responses and supply-side emissions intensitygiving a complete picture of the environmental consequences of pricing policies," Feyzollahi explains. The study also uncovers strong regional disparities. States in the Midwest and South exhibited much higher price sensitivity than those in the Northeast, primarily due to differences in electricity generation sources. Regions relying heavily on fossil fuels saw greater emissions reductions when consumption fell in response to price hikes. However, the research shows that the relationship between electricity prices and GHG emissions has weakened, especially after 2005. This trend coincides with major shifts in the energy sector, including the rise of renewables, falling natural gas prices due to fracking and the widespread adoption of energy-efficient technologies. "I would emphasize that while our study shows declining price effectiveness, this does not mean price signals are irrelevant," Rafizadeh cautions. "Rather, it suggests we need smarter pricing mechanisms that work in concert with other policies to guide the clean energy transition effectively." Those mechanisms could range from time-of-use pricing to demand charges and could be paired with policies such as appliance rebate programs or financing for efficiency upgrades. Feyzollahi and Rafizadeh argue that regional customization of electricity pricing and climate policy could yield more effective outcomes than a one-size-fits-all national approach. "What works in Texas might not work in Massachusetts," Feyzollahi notes, "because of different generation and mixes and market structures." More information: Maryam Feyzollahi et al, The price-emissions nexus in U.S. residential electricity markets, Resource and Energy Economics (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.reseneeco.2025.101513 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Law enforcement agencies from Europe and North America targeted a cybercrime network launching online attacks against Ukraine and its allies. Credit: AP Graphic A coordinated international operation has hit the infrastructure of a pro-Russian cybercrime network linked to a string of denial of service attacks targeting Ukraine and its allies, the European Union's police agency Europol announced Wednesday. Codenamed Eastwood, the operation targeted the so-called NoName057(16) group, which was identified last month by Dutch authorities as being behind a series of denial-of-service attacks on several municipalities and organizations linked to a NATO summit in the Netherlands. Europol said that the cybercrime network was also involved in attacks in Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. The police agency said the international operation "led to the disruption of an attack-infrastructure consisting of over one hundred computer systems worldwide, while a major part of the group's central server infrastructure was taken offline." Law enforcement and judicial authorities from France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and the United States took simultaneous actions against offenders and infrastructure belonging to the pro-Russian cybercrime network, it said. Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks, sabotage attempts and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine, including cyberattacks. The Associated Press is tracking them in a detailed map that shows the breadth of efforts to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine. As part of the latest operation, judicial authorities in Germany issued six arrest warrants for suspects in Russia, two of them accused of being the main leaders of the group, Europol said. Five of them were identified on Europol's Europe's Most Wanted website. The Europol headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018. Credit: AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File One suspect was placed under preliminary arrest in France and another detained in Spain, Europol said. The Paris prosecutor's office said one person is in custody in France and communications equipment has been seized. No charges have yet been filed. In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was involved in the operation. The attorney general's office in Switzerland, which is not an EU member country, said in a statement Wednesday that joint investigations between Europol and Swiss federal police helped identify three leading members of the group, which is alleged to have targeted more than 200 Swiss websites. Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case over the incidents in June 2023, and since then identified several other denial-of-service attacks attributed to the activist group. The attacks included a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Swiss parliament and the popular Eurovision Song Contest, held in in Basel earlier this year. Europol said members of the cybercrime group initially targeted Ukrainian institutions, "but have shifted their focus to attacking countries that support Ukraine in the ongoing defense against the Russian war of aggression, many of which are members of NATO." Law enforcement authorities in countries involved in the operation contacted hundreds of people believed to support the group to inform them of the crackdown and their alleged liability for its actions. "Individuals acting for NoName057(16) are mainly Russian-speaking sympathizers who use automated tools to carry out distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Operating without formal leadership or sophisticated technical skills, they are motivated by ideology and rewards," Europol said. It added that people recruited by the group were paid in cryptocurrency and motivated using online-gaming dynamics like leader boards and badges. "This gamified manipulation, often targeted at younger offenders, was emotionally reinforced by a narrative of defending Russia or avenging political events," Europol said. 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin speaks during an event in Richmond, Va., May 11, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Steve Helber, File Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Tuesday that Google will partner with his administration to provide free and low-cost artificial intelligence certification courses to Virginians as part of his office's ongoing effort to connect citizens to new jobs amid changes to the state's economy. The partnership, which he has described as an AI career launchpad, will provide Google-sponsored AI training courses for up to 10,000 Virginians at any given time, officials said at Google's office in the northern part of the state. The training opportunities will be listed on a job website that Youngkin launched earlier this year, in response to significant layoffs among federal workers by the Trump administration, including many workers from Virginia. "All fields, all career movements somewhere along the way, are going to incorporate this next generation of technology," Youngkin said at the news conference. The initiative comes with unemployment rising in Virginia, which has roughly 20,400 continued unemployment claims, state Secretary of Labor George' Bryan' Slater said after the news conference. Roughly 2,800 people initially filed unemployment claims during the first week of July, which is about 6.1 percent higher than the previous week. The AI webpage will feature the free courses as well as some low-cost learning opportunities, ranging "from beginner friendly courses on AI fundamentals and practical workplace applications of artificial intelligence to bootcamps and degree programs offered by Virginia's leading-edge community colleges and universities," according to the governor's office. Nicole Overley, commissioner of Virginia Works, said businesses have told her office that AI proficiency has become increasingly necessary in their industries. She said the training would help Virginians become competitive in the job markets where these very businesses are hiring. Overly confirmed that the training courses won't cost taxpayers anything and are being donated by Google. Bronagh Friel, head of partnerships at Google, said she was proud of the collaboration with the state. "Google is committed to championing economic growth and opportunity in Virginia," she said. 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.